Special Alerts-Federal

Congress is crafting year-end legislation now.

Send messages to members of Congress, fighting for end-of-year legislation that:

  • Provides permanent protections for DACA recipients and their families;

  • Ensures continuous and expanded Medicaid and CHIP health care coverage so that millions of people don’t lose their health coverage when the COVID-19 health emergency ends;

  • Invests $40 billion in public education, as proposed by President Biden;

  • Addresses the housing crisis by expanding housing vouchers to hundreds of thousands of additional households, allocates $10 billion to fund, preserve, and operate public housing, and provides $100 million for legal assistance to help prevent evictions;

  • Renews the monthly Child Tax Credit payments that in 2021 lifted millions of children out of poverty.


Vote!

Vote to keep America moving forward!

 

Make your voice heard. Consider this-- just some accomplishments in Congress:

  • Inflation Reduction Act,
  • Lower drug prices for seniors,
  • First gun safety law in over 20 years,
  • Historic job growth and record low unemployment,
  • Expanded healthcare for veterans,
  • Meaningful action on climate change,
  • Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
  • ...and much more!


Thanks to the General Assembly, voting is as easy a 1 - 2 - 3.

1. Confirm your registration

The deadline to register to vote or change your existing registration is October 17th. Use the Department of Elections Citizens' Portal to confirm your registration and polling location.

Several polling locations have changed since the last election. Confirm your registration so you know your polling location in case you choose to vote on Election Day, November 8th.


2. Know your voting options

Thanks to Democrats in the General Assembly, there are more options than ever to vote! See below for information on each of the ways you can cast your ballot in the 2022 General Election:

VOTE BY MAIL

Voting by mail is still the safest and most convenient way to vote early! Ballots have started going out to those who requested them. You have until 5pm on Friday, October 28th to request your vote by mail ballot. All postage is prepaid for vote by mail ballots - you do not need to pay to return your ballot by mail.

Request your Vote by Mail Ballot

All need to vote to make our voices heard for our economic recovery, and to avoid laws to limit our freedoms. Vote to keep America moving forward.


An Informed Voter is a Powerful Voter

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We need your eyes on this ASAP.

From spreading lies about the 2020 election to ruthless gerrymandering, the level of voter suppression across the country is astounding.

That’s why Congress just introduced a critical bill to:

- Make voter registration automatic
- Ensure every American can vote by mail
- Restore the Voting Rights Act

iVote is dedicated to making sure these critical protections become law.

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An Informed Voter is a Powerful Voter

Madeline Doane, Campus Vote Project, Virginia State Coordinator


As we gear up towards this year’s VA Gubernatorial Election, there are numerous opportunities to promote nonpartisan voter engagement.
One of which is the annual National Voter Education Week (NVEW), October 4-8, an innovative and celebratory period wherein community members are able to engage in activities to advocate and learn about all things voter engagement. While this is a national initiative, the resources and activities shared are especially beneficial for Virginia voters this fall. This year’s NVEW encourages folks to prepare for upcoming elections by registering to vote or check their registration status, making a plan to vote, and learning what’s on their ballot.

The purpose of NVEW, and other civic holidays like National Voter Registration Day and Vote Early Day, is to create a positive culture around civic engagement by celebrating our right to vote and informing people on political processes. Organizations like Campus Vote Project (CVP) have embraced these civic holidays as a part of the year-round work we do to promote civic engagement on college campuses. CVP works with students who serve in many roles, including Democracy Fellows and Student Advisory Board Members. These students host events for civic holidays to ensure college students are active, engaged, and informed voters. Peer-to-peer registration and advocacy are integral parts of the CVP mission, so we support students in becoming civic engagement leaders on their campuses, where they encourage fellow classmates to find their voice and political power.


Join Us In Our Work!

Our democracy works best when every vote is counted and every voice is heard.

Here’s just the tip of the iceberg of what we could lose if we don’t abolish the filibuster:

  • Restoring and expanding voting rights through the John Lewis Voting Rights Act,
  • Fighting voter suppression, gerrymandering, corruption, and money in politics with the For the People Act,
  • Securing representation for D.C.’s 700,000+ residents with the D.C. statehood bill,
  • Addressing the climate crisis and its consequences for the economy and racial justice through the THRIVE resolution,
  • Raising the minimum wage to $15/hour,
  • And Now that a universal background checks bill has passed the House with bipartisan support, all eyes are on the Senate.
  • much, much more.

Senate Democrats face a choice: either accept congressional gridlock where nothing gets done or do away with the filibuster in order to pass their priorities with a Democratic majority.

our democracy works best when every vote is counted and every voice is heard.

In order to ensure a free and fair democratic system of politics we must, hold elected officials accountable for corruption, and expand and protect voting rights.

The U.S. House just passed the For the People Act―a once in a generation democracy reform bill that would protect and expand our right to vote, end partisan and racial gerrymandering, get dark money out of politics, and restore transparency and accountability in our government. Now it’s the Senate’s turn to act!

Write to your U.S. Senators today and call on them to immediately take up and pass the For the People Act to protect our democracy and our right to vote.

Coming off of a presidential election that saw record voter turnout, we must not allow laws to be enacted that restrict our constitutional right to vote. Instead, let’s strengthen our access to the ballot box!

Right now, big money, political gerrymandering, and rampant voter suppression are eroding our democracy and boosting the voices of the wealthy and the powerful. S1 must pass to give the voice back to the people!

Join us in making our voices heard: democracy is for the people, not corporations! The Senate must pass S1.

Sign and send the petition: The Senate must pass S1, the For the People Act, in order to ensure OUR voices are heard.


MOST SNAP PARTICIPANTS AND HOUSEHOLDS WORK

SNAP serves as an important support for many working-age individuals and their families. Most participants are working while they are participating in SNAP, have recently worked, or soon will be working. Others participate who have health conditions, caretaking responsibilities, or other conditions that make working difficult, though many have other family members who do work.

Millions of low-wage workersMillions of low-wage workers are in jobs that provide low pay, can have unreliable schedules, and often lack key benefits such as paid sick leave. These workers, including many who use SNAP, are more likely than others to experience periods when they are out of work or when their monthly earnings drop. SNAP is a support to help through these difficult times.

Some policymakers suggest that further limiting SNAP participation among non-disabled adults to those who are working while participating would increase employment rates. Such proposals, however, hold little potential to increase work among this population and carry a high risk of increasing hardship among workers.

Read the Report

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FROM THE SALT NETWORK…..

Re; “anti-poverty” agenda—here are 10 things that could actually work to mend the gaps in our public social policies, but it’s a darn good start.

  1. Raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour — .
  2. Guarantee paid sick leave —  49% of workers in America still lack paid sick leave and are forced to choose between losing the salary they desperately need and jeopardizing their health and the health of those around them.
  3. Guarantee paid family leave —  In addition to ensuring that everyone has the ability to take a sick day to care for themselves or their family, we must also guarantee paid leave for new parents and those who have to take extended time to care for a sick family member. Only 5% of workers in the lowest 25% wage category have access to paid family leave, compared to 22% of workers in the highest 10% wage category.
  4. Expand and protect the Earned Income Tax Credit —  The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is one of our most effective anti-poverty programs. It provides tax relief to low-income workers to ensure that no one who labors to earn a basic wage is taxed back into poverty. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the EITC helped lift 6.2 million people out of poverty. But the current law overlooks too many workers in need, including those low income workers without children and workers under 25 or over 65.
  5. Expand childcare subsidies —  In every state, quality childcare cost more than 30% of a minimum-wage worker’s earnings. Access to high quality childcare allows parents to support their families and better prepares children to learn and grow into healthy adults. We shouldn’t ask people to choose between their kids and their paychecks —
  6. Ban the box —  Admitting a ciminal record is the kiss of death for job applicants. Conviction records are likely to reduce the prospect of a job offer or interview by almost 50%. There are currently 70 million people in America with arrest or conviction records, discriminating against the people who are reentering society and the workforce. Passing Ban the Box legislation would allow an opportunity to apply based on merit, without facing discrimination.
  7. Pass immigration reform with a path to citizenship —  For those in the U.S. without documentation or with only temporary permission to work, finding stable employment can be nearly impossible. They are barred from accessing the social programs they need because of decades of anti-immigrant legislation. By allowing immigrants to come out of the shadows and fully participate in society, immigration reform would benefit individual families and our community; and immigration reform would reduce our federal budget deficit by $200 billion over ten years.
  8. Expand eligibility and opportunity for low-income housing units —  There is a significant shortage of affordable housing units across the country. We need to move forward with commitments to end poverty by developing a housing plan that focuses on ensuring that everyone has a home.
  9. Continue to make healthcare more affordable —  The Affordable Care Act was a critical step toward making sure that all Americans can access the healthcare they need, but it stopped short of realizing the goal of universal healthcare. We need to move forward today to ensure that no one lives in the healthcare gap and take a powerful step toward alleviating the economic uncertainty and financial burden of families still left without health insurance.
  10. Improve the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act —  Republicans in Congress want to replace the entire program with ‘block grants’ that will seriously jeopardize our ability to feed children in need. Congress has an opportunity to improve child nutrition programs to feed more children who are hungry


To work to eliminate poverty, Congress must have the political will to raise reasonable revenue for these responsible programs. We can pay for these programs by closing tax loopholes and having the courage to fix our broken tax system. Right now, a loophole in tax law allows hedge fund managers to call a portion of their earnings a ‘capital gain’ instead of ‘income’ and that small difference costs the nation billions in tax revenue every year.

Creative solutions to solving poverty are necessary, but we don’t need to look far to find the answers. For instance NETWORK asks: What if — instead of giving the billionaires another break — we took that money and used it to expand Section 8, the federal program that helps low-income families find affordable housing? Let join with NETWORK Lobby “…in judging all legislation by how it would affect people experiencing poverty.”