CALL TO ACTION – THE HRI HEALTHCARE SUBGROUP NEEDS YOUR HELP!!

Senate Trying to Jam Healthcare Legislation to a Vote by End of June

Here are the facts as we know them:

  • Senate committee of 13 working in a vacuum behind closed doors on a Senate version of the AHCA (House bill)
  • Bill expected to go to Congressional Budget Office as early as today (6/16)
  • No one knows what is in the bill
  • McConnell wants a vote before end of June

HERE’S WHERE WE NEED HELP:

There are three groups to call with different messages. Call a few every day over the next 2 weeks – Let’s jam the phone lines. Here’s a link for the Stop Trumpcare Toolkit from the Indivisible Guide if you want ideas for further messaging and actions for June: https://www.indivisibleguide.com/resource/stop-trumpcare-june-action-plan/

1. Call our Senators (Tim Kaine – 202-224-4024 and Mark Warner – 202-224-2023) to ask what they are doing to stop the forward motion of the bill and to commit to delaying tactics

Urge them to “Withhold Consent” – Your Democratic Senator can slow down Senate business, in part by “withholding consent.” The rules of the Senate are so complicated that Senators have to regularly consent to waiving some of them so that they can actually get work done. Your Senator can slow the Senate down to a crawl and focus attention to TrumpCare by withholding his or her consent on legislative business.

Urge them to “Filibuster by Amendment” – Republicans are using a special process called “reconciliation” to jam through TrumpCare. This means they only need 51 votes, instead of the usual 60, to pass it. But the trade-off is that they have to allow an unlimited number of amendments. Any Senator can file as many amendments as they want and then call them up for a vote on the Senate floor during a period called “vote-a-rama.” Democratic Senators can and should plan thousands of amendments and keep them going until Republicans agree to have public hearings on the bill.

2. Call the swing-vote Senators about the dreadful impact on their constituents receiving Medicaid (Stop Trumpcare Toolkit has statistics by state):
Susan Collins (ME) – 202-224-2523
Lisa Murkowski (AK) – 202-224-6665
Dean Heller (NV) – 202-224-6244
Shelley Moore Capito (WV) – 202-224-6472
Bill Cassidy (LA) – 202-224-5824
Rob Portman (OH) – 202-224-3353
Tom Cotton (AR) – 202-224-2353
Cory Gardner (CO) – 202-224-5941
Jeff Flake (AZ) – 202-224-4521
Pat Toomey (PA) – 202-224-4254
Dan Sullivan (AK) – 202-224-3004

3. Call the Senate Leadership and object to the secretive process and jamming the legislation through without review or debate:
Mitch McConnell (KY) – 202-224-2541
John Cornyn (TX) – 202-224-2934
Orrin Hatch (UT) – 202-224-5251
Michael Enzi (WY) – 202-224-3424
Chuck Grassley (IA) – 202-224-3744
Richard Burr (NC) – 202-224-3154
John Thune (SD) – 202-224-2321
Lindsey Graham (SC) – 202-224-5972
Lamar Alexander (TN) – 202-224-4944