Dear friends,
It’s hard to call on Congress to do anything, when they were barely able to adjourn last night’s session in the House. We are still without a Speaker of the House, and none of this augurs well for the term ahead.
While I would certainly not bet on it, I would love to see an Ohio move in Congress. This week, Democrats in Ohio, where Republicans control a majority in the House, helped to vote in a relatively moderate Republican, Jason Stephens. The move prevented the Speakership from going to a far-right candidate who had appeared to have mustered the votes.
Ideally, the compromise candidate in Congress would be a Democrat to the right of Hakeem Jeffries, because the Republicans are angling to destroy our Social Security. Right now, of course, they are mainly angling to destroy one another.
I’m not enjoying this as much as Stephen Colbert.
MoveOn has initiated a campaign to get George Santos to resign his seat. Of course, he still hasn’t been sworn in. Their campaign involves posting billboards in his district that say
Santos, resign!
Contribute to MoveOn’s campaign to get George Santos to resign.
I wanted to take a low-budget approach and just ask you to call his district office to demand his resignation. The only problem is that as of yesterday evening, there was no indication that Santos has an office, or staff, in his district.
Nonetheless, we are undeterred.
Call George Santos in DC and tell him to resign. I have provided a script. We are a little deterred: his mailbox was full this morning; try again later.
What happens if Santos resigns? Law professor Quinn Yeargain — what a wonderful name! — has written a series of tweets to explain the current laws in place for filling a vacant House seat in New York.
Gone are the days when a governor could kick the can down the road, postponing a special election.
The 2021 change ditched the Governor's "discretion" and instead required that they issue a proclamation for a special election "within ten days of the occurrence of a vacancy.”
The amended law specifies that the Governor must schedule the election within 40-50 days of the proclamation. The parties would choose their own candidates because there are no primaries. Hopefully, Governor Hochul will have occasion to proclaim a special election for NY-3.
Councilmember Shaun Abreu has promised to introduce legislation this month to require the city to conduct exit interviews when staff resign. Abreu explained the rationale:
“We’re facing a historic personnel crisis, and we need to know why. It’s time for New York to adopt this common practice that has been employed by most businesses, non-profits and governments for decades. These exit interviews would capture vital information and data needed to address some of the challenges we’ve been facing in maintaining our municipal workforce. We can’t find solutions without asking some basic questions.”
In addition to being interviewed within two weeks of their last day of service, departing municipal workers would complete a survey, to be designed by Citywide Administrative Services in consultation with the Human Rights Commission.
Abreu is correct that the understaffing of city agencies and the resulting lack of effective administration — see HRA’s inability to process SNAP applications — must be addressed. The city needs accurate information about why workers are leaving.
Tell your councilmember to support Abreu’s legislation to require exit interviews for municipal employees.
SNAP is a federal benefit to prevent hunger, administered through both NYS and NYC governments. Please write again!
Contact the Governor and let her know that the state must take action to get SNAP benefits to New Yorkers. This action has been updated.
Tomorrow is the anniversary of the January 6 insurrection. We know a great deal more about what went wrong in the weeks leading up to January 6 and remain hopeful that the prosecutions will include the person ultimately responsible for the attack on democracy.
Attend a virtual or in-person event to rally for January 6 Justice. These are organized by a variety of pro-democracy groups.
I’ll be in transit tomorrow, so I am taking the day off. Back in action on Monday!
with love,
L