https://northshoreindivisible.com/whose-house-our-house-day-of-action/
Indivisible: The Action Network (https://actionnetwork.org/groups/indivisible) is the progressives’ grassroots response to The Tea Party movement. It’s “a mission-driven nonprofit organization dedicated to building online power for the progressive movement.” Indivisible groups are gaining traction throughout the country (https://actionnetwork.org/) and recently organized a Whose House? Our House! Day of Action on January 3rd, 2019 (https://indivisible.org/resource/january-3-day-action-organizing-toolkit).
The North Shore Indivisible 10th District (https://northshoreindivisible.com/) outlines agenda priorities for the First 100 Days of Congress as follows:
The “First 100 Days of Congress” is a period of time during which the new Congress will indicate their agenda priorities for the next two years.
The first major legislative effort in a Democratically-controlled House is expected to be a democracy reform effort (H.R. 1). This legislation is meant to:
• Strengthen everyone’s right to vote and to have their vote count
• Stem the tide of big money in politics
• Root out corruption at all levels of government
Specifically, this package is expected to include:
• Voter empowerment and access.
− Automatic voter registration
− Same-day registration
− Restore the Voting Rights Act
− Protect against improper purging of voter rolls
− Require states to upgrade and secure their election systems
− Restore voting rights to those with past criminal convictions
− Provide adequate early voting opportunities
• Money in politics.
A constitutional amendment is needed to overturn the chaos that Citizens United and related decisions unleashed into our campaign finance system. Congressional Democrats are expected to start that amendment process immediately.
− Amplify small-dollar donations through public financing
− Encourage small-dollar donations through tax incentives
− Eliminate “dark money” by requiring disclosure of all political spending (including online ads)
− Empower the Federal Election Commission to truly enforce campaign finance law
− Cut off cooperation between candidates and super PACs
• Ethics and corruption.
− Ensure that ethics rules apply to all government officials – demand disclosure of and divestment from the President’s financial interests that pose conflicts of interest.
− Prohibit bribery and demand full disclosure of information revealing potential and actual conflicts of interest for executive branch and government officials.
− Write the Office of Congressional Ethics into law and stop Members of Congress from serving on boards.
− A new code of ethics is needed for the Supreme Court.
Other key issues include Net Neutrality and the Dodd-Frank Act (a United States federal law that places regulation of the financial industry in the hands of the government). Additional asks of their congressman, Representative Brad Schneider, include:
• Net Neutrality.
− Public Commitment
− Co-Sponsor Legislation
− Provide a Timetable for Action
• Consumer Financial Protection.
− Legislation Strengthening Dodd-Frank
− Strengthen Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
− Join/Support Antitrust Caucus
Take Action
For the issues identified above, North Shore Indivisible and its individual members call on Congressman Brad Schneider (https://schneider.house.gov/) for the following:
• Make a public commitment to EACH of the issues identified above
• Sponsor or Co-Sponsor Legislation
• Provide a Timetable for Action
• Communicate to North Shore Indivisible and the public the progress and status of each issue at 90-day intervals or sooner throughout his term
* This post has been prepared in conjunction with Sonny Cohen, coordinator of North Shore Indivisible’s delegation in a meeting in the office of Illinois 10th District Congressman Brad Schneider on January 3, 2019.
