Our Recovery is in the Senate's Hands Now

The House (with no thanks to Claudia Tenney who voted not to help Americans and our communities) passed the American Rescue Plan, a package of relief legislation based on President Biden’s proposal to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis. This bill represents a strong start towards finally taking these twin crises seriously. Even better, progressives in the House were able to protect some key provisions, including:

Sending robust survival checks without additional restrictions,
Emergency aid to state and local governments, and
Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Now, it’s up to the Senate to quickly pass this bill and send it to the President’s desk, WITHOUT watering down these needed provisions. Call Senator Schumer and Senator Gillibrand now to demand they support a bold rescue package, including survival checks, state and local aid, and a $15 an hour minimum wage - even if it takes eliminating the filibuster to get it done.

Here is the tool that makes your call easy. Just fill in your address, zip, and phone number, and you don't even have to dial their offices--the tool does it for you.

While you are calling Sen. Schumer and Gillibrand, please ask them to support two other critical legislative items:

1)S1 and S51 for democracy. That's the For the People Act and DC Statehood.
2)The THRIVE agenda, which is focused on investing in jobs, families, and an equitable future.

Invest in Our New York: Time is Running Out

Have you seen our new IONY video?  Please check it out and share it with friends by email and on social media!

Still have questions about IONY, especially how it impacts our upstate rural communities?  Please join a special IONY Rural Community Teach-in on Sunday, March 7, 4-5 pm.  

What else can you do to help push legislators and the Governor to get behind the Invest in Our New York Act?  

1)Make your weekly call to your state senator, assembly member, and the Governor, using this easy tool.
2)Sign up to phonebank your fellow progressive New Yorkers to help them make their calls too.
3)Amplify your Invest in Our New York actions by posting and tweeting on social media.

Thanks to those who donated stamps and contributed money, and those who wrote letters. We sent 1500 letters. Great job, IMV! It's not too late to learn about the package of six revenue bills, and get involved. Check out the investinourny.org web site. Our goal is a bill that will produce $50B more in annual revenue for our New York passed and signed by the Governor by April 1.

Let's Work on Health Care Again

Organizing for the NY Health Act has never stopped, and now Indivisible National is creating a health care Issue initiative as well.  If the pandemic and mass unemployment has taught us anything it's that access to health care should not be tied to employment, and needs to be accessible to all without bureaucratic red tape, high costs, and anxious pleas for help.  Health care is a human right, and it matters to all of us because in a pandemic, the health of one person impacts everyone's health.

Are you ready to work on health care advocacy?  We're restarting our Health Care Work Group.  Please join us for our first meeting, Thursday, March 11, 7-8 pm on Zoom. 
 

It's Petition Season: Put Our Candidates on the Ballot

Please make sure you are carrying petitions (even if just to get signatures of a few people in your neighborhood network) or signing petitions.  If you're a registered Democrat and need to find a petition to carry or sign, please email us at IndivisibleMV@gmail.org and we will connect you.  Petitions must be signed and submitted by March 18. We have goals to elect candidates for the County Board of Legislators as well as Utica Common Council.  Think now about what your commitment to volunteer will look like this summer and fall.  

We look forward to seeing everyone at our March IMV Meeting on Sunday, March 14th, 3-5 pm. we are planning to have more time for conversations and connections than we have the past few months, but also have a very popular speaker on the schedule, Professor Luke Perry, our local expert on electoral politics. 

Before then, make sure you take action by calling our US Senators and our NY state legislators and let them know that you want action and progress of Covid rescue, democracy, and budget justice in this time when we have the majority in Washington and Albany.   Democracy is Not a Spectator Sport.