PDA Weekly Field Report - 5/31-6/7
Conor Boylan
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Greetings from California!
Dear friend,
Members
of PDA national, Advisory Board members and PDA California
and Arizona are in Los Angeles for a series of events. Check
out photos from the events here
and here.
A big thank you to all of you who organized and attended
these events. It was a great weekend for PDA!
Take Action!
No Cuts to Food Stamps!
The current House Farm Bill would cut $20.5 billion from
Food Stamps (aka SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program). Rep. Jim McGovern sponsored an amendment to
restore the funds, but it failed in committee on a
party-line vote. Now, the Farm Bill is headed to the House
and Senate for final votes. Tell
your Representative and your Senators to vote against
any Farm Bill which would cut funds from Food Stamps (SNAP).
Educate Congress:
After 196 letter drops around the country in May we will
return again on June 19the for another round of drops. We
will work on what Rep. Jim McGovern
(MA-02) calls "a defining moment," as he steps up
to lead the fight to restore $20.5 billion in cuts made by
the Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee in the
food stamp program (aka SNAP, the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program). These are $20.5 billion in
cuts, in a nation with 50 million hungry people, 17
million of them kids. Want to get active on
this program? Email Co...@pdamerica.org
Issue Teams:
The Clean, Fair and Transparent Elections Team is
seeing big changes, the first of which is a name change to Election
Integrity. On their call Tuesday they reviewed
endorsed legislation,such as HR 12, the Voter
Empower Act of 2013, while going on to explore
approval of new legislation for PDA, such as HR 280
and 281, which call for same day voter registration
and an end to requirements for photo identification at the
polls. You can listen to the call here and
visit the team's page here.
This team is also looking for PDAers willing to report on
issues and efforts in their own state. If you are
interested, please contact Randall Holmes here.
Lots of excitement, energy, and people this week on the call
for our new ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) 3-State
Strategy Team. The call included special guest, Lucy
Paul, Executive Director of the Alice Paul Institute,
an important legislative update, state reports, and building
educational events. In addition, plans are being discussed
on the NOW
(National Organization of Women) conference in
Chicago this July. Everyone was on this call - even some
Republicans who want to help get this done! You can listen
to the call here and
visit the team's page here.
To find out more about how you can help with passage of the
Equal Rights Amendment, contact Andrea Miller by clicking here.
Calls this week:
On Wednesday we will have our Economic and Social
Justice call. RSVP here.
Note: All national PDA calls changed numbers from May 1st
onward. This is an effort to improve user experiences on our
call lines and allow our coordinators more control over the
calls. Please download and save this call
matrix.
BlogTalk Radio
Busy week on the BlogTalk radio front for us:
1) Topic: Status of the ERA and women using their
power
Guest: Medea Benjamin
co-founder of CodePink and Global Exchange
Listen here
2) Topic: Updates on the labor movement, the Robin
Hood Tax and more
Guest: Michael Lighty, Director of Administration
and Public Policy for the California Nurses Association
(CNA).
Listen here
3) Topic: Medicare for All and now
Healthcare as a Human Right
Guest: Donna Smith,
Healthcare NOT Warfare co-chair
Listen here
Read:
Read the newsletter from our good friends at CCDS titled, Imposing
Austerity, Thwarting Democracy here.
North Carolina Could Save $18.7B by Adopting Single-Payer
model for health care here.
Video:
Rep. Keith Ellison joined PDA's monthly issue Progressive
Round Table last week to discuss his leadership and
the CPC's work on behalf of health care for all, expanding
retirement security, choosing prosperity over austerity, his
push for the Robin Hood tax, his new Constitutional
Amendment for the right to vote, and the prospects for
creating more jobs through military conversion.
These three video clips will give you an idea of the scope
of the CPC (Congressional Progressive Caucus) Co-Chair's
work, and his desire to begin "playing offense" on
progressive public policy, by advocating real solutions that
might actually solve some of America's biggest problems.
1 Health
Care for All
2 Inclusive
Prosperity & the Robin Hood tax
3 Creating
Jobs/Military Conversion (featuring IPS Scholar Miriam
Pemberton)
Take a look at these video clips. This is the sort of serious
public policy work that PDA engages in as part of its
"inside/outside" Educate Congress strategy for
change and reform.
Spot the Movie Star!
Actress and comedian Lily
Tomlin joined us at our Los Angeles event.
Here she is with Tim Carpenter!
In solidarity,
Conor Boylan, PDA Deputy
Director
Andrea Miller, PDA Deputy Field Director
Tim Carpenter, PDA National Director
Judy Hess, PDA National Field Coordinator
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