During The Congressional Recess It’s Time to Let Your Elected Officials Know Playtime Is Over
We know your day-to-day is packed. Work, family, bills, the pesky need to feed, clothe, and bathe yourself or your children or your children’s children. For some of us, sleep might even make a rare appearance on our to-do lists. That’s why we’re doing everything we can to help you resist, even when it feels like resistance is becoming its own full-time job.
We know that when families have access to paid family leave, paid sick days, affordable child care, livable wages, and equal pay it helps families do more than just survive — it helps them thrive. We actually believe that. That’s what we fight for here at Make It Work, and that’s what brings us to the urgency of the moment we’re in right now.
What happens when the families we work so hard to provide for are torn apart? What happens if the very skin we live in, faith we ascribe to, gender we identify with become grounds for violence, for travel bans, for hate, or worse? What happens when we can no longer access even the most basic resources that help us all make it work? Not only is the economic security of working families at stake, but quite literally our entire right to even exist.
That’s why we’re encouraging you to dig in and do what you can to fight back — even when you still need to make ends meet or make child care pick-up on time. Here are a few tools we’ve handpicked to help you navigate the resources and topics you need to to brush up on before you do your civic duty. Starting with how to hold your elected officials accountable during this — and every — recess.
February 18 through February 26, Congress is on recess! Must be nice, right?
But let’s be very clear: playtime is over.
During this period, many elected officials will be in-state, where they should be meeting and convening with their constituents, holding town halls, or other meet-and-greet opportunities to hear from the people they represent. Already, a few legislators are ducking out of face-to-face contact with the people they were elected to serve, but that’s cool. We know you’re not that easily duped. Resistance Recess, The Indivisible Team, Project Town Hall, and others have created resources to help you hold your leaders accountable no matter what kind of obstructions they throw your way.
Here’s what you should know before you go.
#1: Find out where your representative is going to be, and be a constituent. Literally. Be a constituent.
Don’t attend a meeting for an elected official if that elected official doesn’t belong to you. It’s only fair to your neighbors who do deserve answers from their elected representatives in Washington D.C.. The Town Hall Project has been aggregating public events being held all over the country during the first Congressional recess of 2017. Find an event near you here. Can’t find any in-state events for your elected official? It’s all good. The good people at Indivisible have a guide for that, too.
#2: Read up on the latest major developments, so you can ask well-informed questions.
Here are just a few of the biggest issues you can get a quick read on before you engage in some civic sparring with your Congresspeople.
- Ask about economic security. (For the record, that includes paid leave. That includes equal pay. That includes affordable child care.)
- Ask your elected to rep to ask the right questions of the new Labor Secretary nominee.
- Ask about #Russia.
- Ask about #PresidentBannon.
- Ask your rep what they’re doing for your health and your health care. That includes but is not limited to: your reproductive health, your pre-existing health, your behavioral health, your environmental health, the health of your water, your Affordable Care Act, your Medicare, your Medicaid. All of it.
- Ask about #sanctuary.
- Ask about fake crime.
- Ask about Judge Neil Gorsuch.
- Do you want to ask about more? The Resistance Manual is a great place to get up to speed on even more of the issues that directly impact real people right now all across the country.
#3: Reacquaint yourself with where your elected official stands on the issues most important to you.
Are you meeting with your Senators? See how they voted on Trump’s Cabinet picks so far. Definitely check out your rep’s stance on would-be winning legislation that supports women in the workplace and all people who work. Here are a few places to start: the Paycheck Fairness Act; the FAMILY Act; the Violence Against Women Act; the EACH Woman Act; the Healthy Families Act; and the Pay Workers A Living Wage Act.
#4: Tell us how it went!
Send us a line! Tweet us or send us a Facebook message to let us know how you spent recess!
