Action Alert #109-14, ANWR, Budget Reconciliation, Congress, GLC, 10/26/05

ACTION ALERT: Budget Process Threatens the Arctic Refuge!

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is being threatened through a tactic that uses the congressional budget process to open the Refuge to oil drilling. House and Senate committees have recently adopted language in their budget reconciliation bills that would pave the way to oil drilling in ANWR.
Both the House and the Senate are expected to consider their respective budget reconciliation bills on the floor soon. If Congress passes a budget reconciliation bill that opens the Refuge to drilling, the battle to protect these pristine lands will be lost.
The federal budget is not the appropriate process to use to decide such an important issue. Tell your Representative and Senators that the budget reconciliation bills must not pass with oil drilling revenues from ANWR!
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a 19.3 million-acre refuge situated between the Arctic Ocean and the Brooks Range in the northeastern corner of Alaska. The Refuge covers an amazing diversity of habitat, from rugged peaks and glaciers to tundra and the coastal plain. Estimates suggest there is a limited amount of oil under the Refuge, perhaps a six-month supply for the U.S. Modest fuel efficiency improvements for motor vehicles alone would save approximately five times the amount of oil estimated to be under the Arctic Refuge.
This fight is far from over – the budget reconciliation has not passed and the drilling has not begun. Make your voice heard now!
Take action now!

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Action Alert #109-13, Democracy Agenda, Voter Registration Attack, House, GLC, 10/24/05

ACTION ALERT: Oppose Restrictions on Voter Registration!

This week, the House of Representatives is expected to consider an amendment to the Federal Housing Reform Act, H.R. 1461, that would limit the ability of American citizens to engage in our democratic process. This amendment must be removed from H.R. 1461 when it comes to the House floor the week of October 24.

Take action now!

Alarmingly, this amendment would restrict non-profit organizations from participating in non-partisan political activities. It would block non-profits from engaging in non-partisan voter registration and get-out-the-vote activities in the 12 months prior to applying for grants through the Affordable Housing Fund. The amendment further prohibits non-profits that receive grant funds from subsequently engaging in these very important activities.

The amendment is very broad, prohibiting non-partisan voter registration at any time, not just prior to an election, and barring non-profit organizations from receiving a housing grant if it is merely "affiliated" with a group that engages in any prohibited political activity.

The League of Women Voters believes that democratic government depends on the informed and active participation of its citizens at all levels of government. It is unacceptable that this amendment would try to restrict participation in non-partisan political activities.

The United States Congress should be promoting the values and processes of democratic government, not attempting to limit them.

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Action Alert #109-12, Clean Air, Energy, House, GLC, 10/05/05

ACTION ALERT: SAY NO TO SHAM ENERGY BILL

Urgent action is needed to block a controversial energy bill that is expected to come to a vote in the House this Friday, October 7. Under the guise of post-hurricane energy relief, H.R. 3893 would do little to solve our country’s energy problems. Instead, this legislation undermines existing environmental protections, makes smog worse and fails to provide for much needed energy conservation measures.
. . . .
This energy bill is wrongfully using the devastation of our recent hurricanes as a pretext for relaxing important environmental protections. The proposal’s many provisions harmful to public health and the environment make it unsupportable. Chief among these are provisions that gut key Clean Air Act protections.

Now is not the time to roll back clean air protections, reduce ozone attainment requirements around the country or preempt state authorities. A good energy policy would not repeal important pollution controls like the New Source Review program.

Other onerous provisions have been proposed, and amendments could include opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling and suspending judicial and federal reviews of the leasing of public lands for oil and gas drilling. Having lost so much in our Gulf States, we should be more vigilant than ever in preserving our national treasures for future generations. This energy bill is not the way to resolve the difficult circumstances resulting from the devastation of the hurricanes.

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Action Alert #109-10, Campaign Finance Reform, Senate, 9/14/05

ACTION ALERT: Stop a New Campaign Finance Loophole!

Senate leaders have slipped a new fundraising loophole into the Transportation, Treasury, HUD and General Government Appropriations bill that is expected on the floor of the Senate this week, the week of September 14.

Please contact your Senators immediately and urge them to vote for an amendment by Senators John McCain (R AZ) and Russ Feingold (D WI) to remove the Leadership PAC rider from the bill.

The rider would allow Leadership Political Action Committees (PACs) controlled by Members of Congress to transfer an unlimited amount of their funds (instead of the current $15,000 annual limit) to national party committees, which could then spend the funds on the Members’ campaigns. In so doing, the rider would open a new loophole, evading the limits that were enacted by Congress to protect citizens against corruption and the appearance of corruption in government.

The loophole-opening rider is explicitly written so that it is available to congressional incumbents only, thereby providing an enormous and discriminatory financial advantage for congressional incumbents over their challengers.

The rider would not only greatly increase the influence of big-money contributors with Senators and Representatives and provide a huge unfair advantage for incumbents; it also has absolutely no place as part of an appropriations bill and would set an extremely dangerous precedent for all kinds of additional back-door riders to be added to other appropriations bills to unravel campaign finance laws.

At a time when the suffering of millions of Americans needs to be alleviated, the Senate should not be focusing its attention on increasing by eight-fold the amount that congressional incumbents - and not their challengers - can raise to support their campaigns.

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Letter to President Bush from Kay Maxwell, President of the LWV of the United States, September 12, 2005:

The Honorable George W. Bush
President of the United States
The White House
Washington, DC 20050
September 12, 2005

Dear Mr. President:

The League of Women Voters is deeply concerned that the UN Summit Outcome Document has been diluted by the United States and some other countries in recent weeks. This is jeopardizing a historic effort to end global poverty, promote peace and strengthen the United Nations, and undermines efforts to address global problems. The United States is missing out on a unique opportunity to show the world what our values stand for in concrete terms. The U.S. should be a leader in support of freedom and democracy and in the fight to eliminate poverty, end war, promote gender equality, protect human rights, and support the United Nations.

At this crucial time in the world’s need for security, peace and development, we urge that you embrace the larger vision of the UN to benefit all the people of the world. We ask you and all the UN member states to abandon narrow interests and to work with each other for real change, expressed in concrete terms in the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document. Please do not squander this important opportunity. We live at a time when the world faces many critical challenges that can only be resolved if all nations work together. We expect the United States government to play a constructive role in achieving this.

Respectfully,

Kay J. Maxwell

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Action Alert #109-8, Campaign Finance Reform, House, GLC, 6/15/05

ACTION ALERT: Oppose Roll Back of Campaign Finance Reform!

A bill recently reported by the House Administration Committee under the leadership of Chairman Bob Ney is a dangerous retreat to the days of huge special interest contributions to office holders, candidates and the political parties. The House of Representatives may take up this legislation before July 4. Please ask your Member of Congress to oppose H.R. 1316 today!

Under the guise of reform, the so-called “527 Fairness Act of 2005” instead would roll back important safeguards. H.R. 1316 lifts the ceiling on individual contributions -- allowing upwards of $3 million to be given by a single individual -- and invites the corrupting influence of enormous campaign contributions back into elections. Members of Congress, the President and federal candidates could solicit these huge contributions and direct where they are spent. The bill also increases fundraising from corporate sources and allows PACs (political action committees) to increase their giving by 50 percent.

H.R. 1316 repeals fundamental protections to our election process put into place by the Federal Election Campaign Act in 1974 and the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. These landmark reforms were hard-won responses to the Watergate scandals and fundraising abuses of the 1990s. They were accomplished through years of citizen action. Americans do not want to give wealth and special interests more access to power. American citizens want more reform, not a retreat from anti-corruption safeguards. The House is expected to consider H.R. 1316 on the floor before the July 4 recess. Take action now! 

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LWVUS Action Alert #109-6, Election Reform, EAC, 5/11/05

ACTION ALERT: Protect Voters!

The Election Assistance Commission needs to hear from you!

Under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), each state is required to implement a “single, uniform, official, centralized, interactive, computerized statewide voter registration list” by January 1, 2006. The federal Election Assistance Commission (EAC) has offered its draft proposal for federal guidance for the design of statewide voter registration databases—but it is woefully inadequate.  The EAC proposal does not do enough to protect eligible voters from government mistakes. We need the EAC to provide guidance that ensures that new election processes will protect the right to vote.  Unfortunately, this current proposal fails to meet that standard. The EAC needs to hear from you!

THE MESSAGE

Urge the EAC to develop new guidance that will:

1. Ensure that voter registration intake agencies, including Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), public assistance and disability agencies, are fully and electronically integrated in the computerized system;
2. Establish clear procedures for using information provided by other databases, such as DMV data, to supplement the information provided by voters, thereby helping to correct an application so it can be processed and accepted, if the applicant is eligible, instead of rejected;
3. Require states to establish clear lines of responsibility for adding, deleting and updating voter records;
4. Provide security measures that prevent unauthorized access to the database and require tracking and documentation of all transactions, including by whom and when; and,
5. Establish strong safeguards against erroneous purging that are clearly stated and uniformly applied.