Produced by the Legislative Committee of the Coconino County Democratic Party and Democrats of the Red Rocks
FEDERAL ACTION ALERT –October 2, 2023
A. Demand Senator Tommy Tuberville stop his tantrum over DOD (Department of Defense) policy covering travel expenses for service members seeking abortions!
Senator Tuberville, Alabama, has blocked over 300 military promotions so far. Our military will continue to operate but this single Senator’s tantrum is costing servicemembers and their families. People are taking on work they are not compensated for, it will impact their retirement benefits, and its created financial and logistical burdens for troops’ families. Senator Tuberville has stalled all high-level military promotions since February to protest the Pentagon’s new reproductive health policies. Five members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are required by law to leave their posts over the next three months. Tuberville is playing games with our national security and the well-being of our troops. He’s threatening national security! Tell him to knock it off!!!!
B. Urge both Congress and our Senate Representatives to increase TEFAP funding in the 2023 Farm Bill to help food banks meet rising demand!! TEFAP stands for the Emergency Food Assistance Program. The federal government moves nutritious food from farms to food banks across the Feeding America network. As family food budgets are slashed due to inflation or job insecurity, more funding to food banks is desperately needed. Last year 30% of the food distributed to Feeding America came via TEFAP. The numbers don’t lie. We need TEFAP funding!! In 2023, Black communities were three times more likely to face hunger, with 22% of Black children living in food-insecure households. Latino families were 2 ½ times more likely to face hunger and Native Americans were 3 times more likely – with 20% of Native American individuals experiencing food insecurity! We need to double the funding for TEFAP in the 2023 Farm Bill and we need to expand assistance for TEFAP storage and distribution to get food from point A to point B safely. Insist our Representatives do the right thing and expand TEFAP in the 2023 Farm Bill!!
C. We Must demand our Representatives, both House and Senate, refuse to support the “Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression Act”!! This Republican bill would end ALL state and local animal welfare and food safety laws!! A whole host of laws would be nullified, and farmed animals would have NO protection against being forced into cramped and horrific conditions. This would dramatically increase the likelihood of communicable diseases running rampant among these animals – with humans getting sick as well. It is a recipe for disaster, and it’s a terrible idea. DEMAND our Representatives oppose this terrible act!!
D. Demand our Representatives reinstate the firefighter pay!! The 2021 the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act included temporary pay raises for firefighters. Those pay increases ended on September 30!! The loss of those pay raises represents an across the board pay reduction of $20,000 or 50% of firefighter pay!! US Forest Service personnel estimate between a third to half of wildland firefighters could resign as a result. This pay reduction affects some 19,000 federal wildland firefighters. We are in the midst of growing fire danger – for example, in Arizona in August there were some 1400 fires, 200 more than we had in August of 2022! Let our Reps know they must re- instate firefighter pay ASAP!!
Rep. Eli Crane: Call (202) 225-3361 (DC) or email via website at
https://crane.house.gov/contact. Tag the Congressman @RepEliCrane
Sen. Mark Kelly: Call (202) 224-2235 (DC); Email via his website at
https://www.kelly.senate.gov/contact/. Tag the Senator at @senmarkkelly
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema: Call (202) 224-4521 (DC) or (602) 598-7327. Email via her website at
https://www.sinema.senate.gov/contact-kyrsten. Tag the Senator at @senatorsinema
President Biden: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
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