Action Items: Week of January 3

I've noticed a certain cooling off of the passionate fury I saw in the first few weeks after the election. I understand why; it's hard to keep that kind of red hot rage going for long, and everybody has a lot going on in their everyday lives. Plus, it gets easy to convince yourself that maybe separation of powers makes it all not so bad, that other people are handling it, etc. I think yesterday's news about the House Ethics debacle should serve as a wake up call - the very first thing Republicans in Congress did, the FIRST THING, was to gut independent ethics oversight. And they did it in secret. We need to act, and act now, in force.

1. Wait, they did what? CALL TODAY, TUESDAY.
With no advance warning and no public debate, the House Republicans voted to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics, which was an independent oversight office instated after 2008 scandal that revealed the House Ethics Committee to be less rigorous than necessary. While some Republicans claim that the new rules will work in much the same way to curtail ethics violations, the Office of Congressional Complaint Review will not take anonymous complaints, will be overseen by the Ethics Committee, and will not be required to make the results of all investigations public. This is obviously a huge blow to public information, if not to the public confidence in the ethics of our elected officials. Especially since they felt the need to do it secretly!

CALL YOUR HOUSE REPRESENTATIVE TODAY. The wider House vote is today on this issue.

Representative James Clyburn (6th District)
DC Office: (202)225-3315
Midlands Office: (803)799-1100

Representative Joe Wilson (2nd District)
DC Office (202) 225-2452
Midlands Office: (803) 939-0041

“Hi, I’m Representative ____’s constituent from _____, and I want to voice in the strongest terms that I am extremely concerned about the House Republican action to silence the Office of Congressional Ethics. I believe that independent oversight is required to keep the House from sweeping ethical problems under the rug, and I believe that without these investigations made available to the public the voters lose a vital information tool. I’m urging the representative to vote against restructuring the House ethics tools.”

LINK:
http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/02/us/politics/with-no-warning-house-republicans-vote-to-hobble-independent-ethics-office.html?_r=0

2. Show up in person to Lindsey Graham’s office
Of all the things we can do, showing up in person is one of the most powerful. 530, a global climate group, is organizing a Day of Denial on January 9 to show senators their constituents care about the appointment of climate change denying cabinet members. It’s 12-3 at his Hampton Street office, more details here: https://actionnetwork.org/events/south-carolina-against-denial?zipcode=29205&country=US (there’s also a Facebook event.) I’m going.

3. Read up!
Consider following informative groups on Facebook or joining their e-mail lists to get well-sourced information flowing through your feed. Try the Southern Poverty Law Center, the ACLU (national and state), and Amnesty International. I thought this e-mail from the SPLC was particularly good as a look back at their work in 2016.

LINK:
https://donate.splcenter.org/weekend-readings/weekend-readings-looking-back-on-2016?erid=81159901&trid=64d232ef-2da2-4754-bc0f-ec4567c3c7c0&efndnum=12689228950