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Elyssa Schmier's picture

Republicans in the U.S. Congress decided they would rather shut down our government than make a deal that would provide stable funding for health insurance for children and protect DREAMers, immigrant young adults who have grown up in the U.S.! This heartless move puts at risk the health care of children, the lives of DREAMers, and the jobs of millions of government employees and thousands of government funded programs that our families rely on each day.

This is no way to run a government!

***Sign our letter to the U.S. Congress now telling them to pass long-term funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and the DREAM Act, and keep our government funded!

The Republican Leadership is really on a roll with their continued efforts to destroy the health and economic security of working families! At the end of last year they passed on a partisan basis the largest tax scam we’ve seen in decades in order to give trillions of dollars in tax cuts to wealthy corporations—but then left town before finalizing the FY2018 budget! They failed to pass a long-term reauthorization of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) or take action to protect DREAMers from losing the legal status that allows them to continue studying and working in the communities they have grown up in. 

After weeks of congressional negotiations, endless useless tweets from President Trump, and a “he said-he said” about racist comments in the Oval Office, Republican leadership still couldn’t do their most basic job of keeping the government running and passing policies that protect the health and well-being of their constituents.

Enough is enough! Join us in telling our elected leaders, especially the Republican leadership, to do their job!

***Sign our letter NOW calling on Congress to protect our families, immigrants, and our health care!

Many of you are marching today to mark the one year anniversary of the Women’s March. Thank you! You’ve been speaking out, telling your stories, and resisting all year. We need you to keep up the effort because vulnerable children and immigrants need you now more than ever!

The GOP needs to stop gambling with our children’s health and futures, re-open the government, and pass these important policy pieces ASAP!

  • Pass a long-term reauthorization of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)—This vital bi-partisan-supported health insurance program expired on September 30th and since then, the health care of nearly 9 million children who rely on the program has been at risk. Some states have already begun notifying families that their coverage could end and if Congress allows funding to run out, they’ll have no choice but to cancel coverage
  • Pass the DREAM Act now —DREAMers are young people in our communities who were brought to this country as children and have grown up in the U.S. Under the Obama administration, nearly 800,000 DREAMers applied for and received legal status that has enabled them to work and pursue their educations under the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. On September 5, 2017, President Trump rescinded DACA, putting at risk the legal status of nearly a million young people in our workplaces, colleges, and military services. Inaction on DREAM legislation has resulted in families being torn apart as an estimated 7,900 DREAMers have lost their legal status, with 122 more DREAMers losing their status with each day that passes
  • Pass funding to re-open the government and pass a full year budget protecting families—Since Congress once again has failed to pass a full funding bill, our government ran out of money at 11:59pm on Friday. They must pass a budget so the government can re-open and continue to function. No gimmicks. Just pass the funding we need to continue to keep our country safe, the programs our families rely on functioning, and employ the millions of people that work for the federal government. We have been passing short-term stop gaps that undermine the programs that lift up vulnerable families and lead to these budgetary crisis. Congress must return to passing yearly budgets, that treat domestic funding equal to defense funding and protect vulnerable families, children, and people.

None of these pieces are political “bargaining chips” to the families of America. We expect our elected leaders to do their job, pass legislation that improves the lives of their constituents, protects our health, education, nutrition, and safety, and do right by young DREAMers who have already contributed so much to our nation.

If last year has taught us anything, it’s to expect the unexpected. We’ve also learned again and again about the power of our voices. Right now we need to use that power to let our Members of Congress know we are still paying attention and that they must pass these three priorities now!

Remember to sign our letter to Congress

*And after you take action please share this post with your friends and family and post the action link to Facebook so we can get as many people to sign our letter before we deliver it. The more people who raise their voices together, the bigger the impact we’ll have.

Thank you for taking action in this breaking news moment! We are strong and powerful together!


The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of MomsRising.org.

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