A proposal to reform the U.S. Senate rules was introduced Jan. 5, the first day of the new Congress. CWA and more than 50 other organizations, including the League of Women Voters, have been working for months to improve the way the Senate works.

CWA and coalition members gathered nearly 200,000 petition signatures and made more than 25,000 phone calls to congressional offices, calling for changes to end partisan obstruction and bring about transparency and accountability in the Senate.

Democratic Senators Tom Harkin (IA), Tom Udall (NM) and Jeff Merkley (OR) introduced a package of rules reform that goes a long way to improving the way the Senate works, and Senator Mark Udall (CO) introduced a similar resolution. The package would:

• Eliminate the Filibuster on Motions to Proceed, so there is a clear path to debate.
• Eliminate Secret Holds, so that a single senator can’t abuse the rules to block the people’s business.
• Require a Real, Talking Filibuster. That means senators opposed to proceeding to a final “yes or no” vote on a measure must stay on the Senate floor and defend their position.
• Expedite Nominations by reducing the time allowed for debate to two hours after the Senate already has voted to move forward. Right now, debate can continue for 30 hours.
• Allow consideration of germane amendments for both the majority and minority.

In his floor remarks, Majority Leader Harry Reid said, “no one can credibly claim problems don’t exist. No one who has watched this body operate since the current minority took office can say it functions just fine. That wouldn’t be true.”

On a news teleconference with Common Cause, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and Alliance for Justice, CWA President Larry Cohen outlined why reform is critical: “The U.S. Senate operates in a way not like any other body in any democracy in the world. This change will make a huge difference in the democratic process and in the lives of working families.”

Support the Caucus Position to Renogotiate on Bush Tax Cuts for the Rich

We’ve Been Cutting Taxes on the Rich for Decades:

91% – Top Marginal Federal Income Tax Rate Under Pres. Eisenhower

72% – Top Marginal Federal Income Tax Rate Under Pres. Nixon

69% – Top Marginal Federal Income Tax Rate Under Pres. Reagan

35% – Current Top Marginal Federal Income Tax Rate

The Result: A New Gilded Age with Record Levels of Inequality

 23.9% – Share of National Income Going to the Top 1% in 1928

 8.9% – Share of National Income Going to the Top 1% in 1976

 23.5% – Share of National Income Going to the Top 1% in 2007

 35% – Share of State Income Going to Top 1% in New York State in 2007

 44% – Share of City Income to Top 1% in New York City in 2007

Trickle Down Tax Cuts for the Rich Don’t Create Jobs:

According to the Economic Policy Institute, one dollar in tax cuts for the wealthy leads to 32 cents of economic activity.  The same dollar spent on public services produces an average of $1.75 in economic activity.  That’s because rich people save nearly 70% of their tax cuts; teachers and construction workers and others who get jobs from public services spend every dollar, creating still more jobs.  If trickle down tax cut economic policies worked, we’d have full employment right now.

We Need Good Jobs, Not $113 Billion in Tax Cuts for the Rich:

When the Estate Tax expired in 2009, it affected only the richest ¼ of 1% of estates, those worth $3.5 million or more.  The Obama-Republican deal will reduce that to covering just .14 of 1%, or $5 million estates.  It amounts to $23 billion in lost revenue over the estate tax scheduled in 2011.  The Bush-era income tax cuts for the 2 – 3% of Americans making over $250,000 cost approximately $33.5 billion per year.  The two year total of these 2 major tax cuts is $110 billion.  If Congress re-directed the $67 billion in income tax cuts for the wealthy into public investment instead, it would create 493,000 jobs over two years, according to the Economic Policy Institute. 

Do Not Embrace Failed Bush-era Policies:

The Bush Administration’s trickle down policies destroyed jobs and the economy.  Returning to such policies is a fundamental economic mistake.  It is also obscene: under the tax deal, those in the top 1% will enjoy an average yearly tax cut of $76,949, while the average American will receive $1,521.  CWA District 1 urges you to support the House Caucus’ position to renegotiate the tax deal.

Call Your Representative at 202-224-3121 (it’s the switchboard, so ask for your representative’s office) Tell your Rep. to Stand Strong and Fight for a Tax Package that Benefits Working People, Not Just the Super-Rich

District One VP Chris Shelton and a Verizon technician who worked at Ground Zero.

Months ago, the House of Representatives voted to cover medical treatment and monitoring for workers exposed to toxins at Ground Zero, where workers, including hundreds of CWAers, were on the job following the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

And 57 Senators voted to move the bill forward for a full debate in the Senate. But that majority vote wasn’t enough, because 41 Senate Republicans refused to allow the bill to go forward and killed progress on the health monitoring and coverage for 9-11 responders and workers.

The Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, named for a New York City police officer who died of cancer believed to be linked to his exposure at Ground Zero, needed 60 votes to pass under the current and increasingly out-of-whack Senate rules. Republicans were able to block the measure by refusing to allow any debate.

CWA has been a big part of the fight to monitor the health of Ground Zero workers and gain state and federal laws to support their medical care.

All 42 Senate Republicans have signed a letter this week to Majority Leader Harry Reid, announcing that they will continue to delay and filibuster every piece of Senate legislative business until….they get their way on tax cuts and the federal budget.

The Obama administration and Democratic leaders support tax cuts for 98 percent of American families – those making less than $250,000 a year. But Republicans especially want a big tax cut for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans that will add $700 billion to the budget. The Republican Senators also have specific demands on the appropriations bills that fund government operations; they’re basically saying “our way or the highway.”

Just more of the same tactics that Senate Republicans have pursued throughout the 111^th Congress, making debate and discussion impossible on issues important to working and middle class families. That’s why Employee Free Choice, a bill to end the tax break for companies that offshore jobs, Paycheck Fairness and other important bills went nowhere.

This strategy of “obstruct, then delay, then obstruct again” is all too obvious.

That’s why CWA and a broad coalition of organizations are pressing for crucial reform to these rules when Senators are sworn in for the 112^th Congress. Specific principles call for an end to destructive secret holds, a reasonable opportunity for all Senators to express their views and a timely “yes or no” vote on every nomination and measure.

Read more at www.fixthesenatenow.org.

A little before 1:00 a.m. last night, by a vote of 94-44, the New York State Assembly passed the moratorium on hydraulic fracture drilling.

Go ahead: get up from your chair. Do a little dance, pump your fist, or do whatever you do to celebrate a victory of grassroots action over corporate power.

You deserve it. At the time the bill passed last night, more than 52,000 New Yorkers had signed the petition urging the Assembly to act. We joined an incredible alliance of Frack Action, Environmental Advocates, MoveOn.org, Mark Ruffalo, Pete Seeger, Assemblymembers Robert Sweeney and Steve Englebright, Borough President Scott Stringer, and so many others to pass a bill that everyone thought was dead – first through the New York State Senate, then the Assembly.

The bill now goes to the governor’s desk for his signature. We still have to make sure he signs it, and then see to it that even stronger legislation is put in place next year.

But let’s take a moment to celebrate, because this is a major step forward. As far as we know, this is the first time that any state legislature has said “no” to these drillers. And it didn’t come from the top-down.

While we at the Working Families Party are proud to have played a small role in last night’s victory, the real credit is due to the thousands of New Yorkers who spoke out, organized, put the dangers of “fracking” on the public agenda, and pushed us again and again to join the fight.   

• New York Observer: WFP Teams Up With Mark Ruffalo For Last-Minute Fracking Ban Push
  “The Working Families Party is out with a last-minute push to pressure the Assembly to ban hydro-fracking during the special session, slated to get underway shortly in Albany. …the WFP, Move-On and others have gathered 50,000 signatures calling on the lower house to follow suit.”
   
• Albany Times-Union: Hydrofracking Moratorium Supporters Hopeful on Assembly Prospects
  “MoveOn and the Working Families Party are touting a 50,000-signature petition supporting the moratorium… If it comes to the floor, advocates are confident it will pass.”
   
• Ithaca Journal: Assembly Approves Gas Drilling Moratorium
  “Actor Mark Ruffalo, a Sullivan County resident and an anti-drilling advocate, also released a statement through the Working Families Party, pushing for the Assembly to pass the bill and urging New Yorkers to sign a petition in favor of the moratorium.”

The National Fiscal Commission is proposing that Social Security be carved up like a Thanksgiving turkey. We can’t let that happen.

Over 250 CWA Verizon Members remain laid off with unemployment benefits being the difference between losing their homes and feeding their families.

Ironically, the Republican members of Congress have decideded to play hardball with the Emergency Unemployment Benefits of over 5 million jobless Americans. They’re looking to force through a tax cut for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans in exchange for not letting the benefits run out.

If the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Act isn’t renewed by Nov. 30, 800,000 people will immediately stop receiving those benefits, which average just $290 a week. Another 1.2 million will lose them by Christmas and 3 million more will lose them in early 2011.

But some members of Congress think it’s more important to give the wealthy a big tax cut. Extending those tax cuts will add another $700 billion to the deficit, but no Republicans are talking about offsetting those funds. Instead, some want to tie the tax cut for the wealthy to the extension of jobless benefits.

Long-term unemployment is a crisis in our country, with 6.2 million workers jobless for six months or more.

Now isn’t the time to play games with unemployed workers. Call your Senators and Representatives at 202-224-3121 and tell them to Extend Unemployment Benefits.

Senate Republicans used the filibuster to kill the Paycheck Fairness Act that would have made sure that laws requiring equal pay for women are enforced and would have helped women in their claims for pay fairness.

GOPers unanimously refused to let the bill be debated and proceed to a “yes or no” vote on the Senate floor. That included Republican Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe (Maine) and Kay Bailey Hutchinson (Tex.), plus one Democrat, Ben Nelson (Neb.) (Alaska GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski did not vote.)

Today, 45 years after passage of the Equal Pay Act, women still earn, on average, 77 cents for every dollar earned by men, the National Women’s Law Center said. “In this difficult economy, in which nearly 40 percent of mothers are primary breadwinners, women cannot afford to have employers discounting their salaries,” the center said.

The Paycheck Fairness Act would have given women the right to know what their male colleagues earn so that they’ll also know whether they’re experiencing discrimination. Without the Paycheck Fairness Act, an employer still can retaliate against or even fire an employee who just wants to know what her co-workers are earning.

Shades of Lilly Ledbetter. Ledbetter for two decades earned far less than men at Goodyear doing the same job, but was blocked from getting back pay by a Supreme Court decision that said she had no right to sue 20 years later, even though the discrimination was ongoing. In other words, she should have sued immediately, even though she didn’t know she was being paid less than her male colleagues. The Lilly Ledbetter Act, which fixed this backward thinking, was the first legislation signed by President Obama.

CWA members across the country are spreading the word about how important it is to elect candidates in the Nov. 2 elections who will fight for working families.

Here’s just some of what’s happening:

• CWAers have leafleted workers twice so far at 455 worksites.
• CWA District 4 issues a regular “reality check” e-alert that counters the spin about tax cuts, the economy and other big issues in the Nov. 2 election.
• Locals have held more than 1,000 events to date, including mailings to members, phone banking, voter registration drives and neighborhood walks.
• Locals have ordered and distributed more than 300,000 flyers from the Working Families toolkit.
• CWA has mailed out thousands of flyers highlighting the critical issues for workers in Ohio, California, Texas and Pennsylvania.

So join your co-workers, sign up for a phone bank, a neighborhood walk or to help get out the vote on Nov. 2. Call the local for more information (212) 633-2666.

In 1963, more than 200,000 Americans rallied at the Lincoln Memorial for civil rights, led by Rev. Martin Luther King and other leaders. On Oct. 2, our coalition will again make history.

With just five weeks until more than a quarter of a million One Nation marchers gather at the Lincoln Memorial, now’s the time to sign up for a CWA bus ride to make your voice heard.

In a new video, CWA President Larry Cohen is asking CWAers, their families and friends to take part in the historic Oct. 2 march and rally at the Lincoln Memorial. “We believe that across this country working families want change, that working families have had enough with ‘Go Slow,'” he said. Watch the video here. 

Call the Local (212-633-2666) to reserve a seat on the bus.

More than 200 organizations have signed on to the event, united around quality jobs, bargaining rights, retirement security and a government that works for all of us.

In its official call for participants, the One Nation coalition says, “We are determined to build a more united America – with jobs, justice and education for all…We are students and newly-returned veterans persevering in the face of mounting debt, determined not to be the first generation to end up worse off than our parents. We are baby boomers and seniors…We are conservatives and moderates, progressives and liberals, non-believers and people of deep faith, united by escalating assaults on our reason, our environment and our rights. We are workers of every age, faith, race, sex, nationality, gender identity, ethnicity, sexual orientation and ability who have suffered discrimination but never stopped loving our neighbors, or our nation.”