33 weeks to Midterm Elections
The AoC Checklist features clear, well-researched actions for Americans who value democracy, equality, voting, and decency. We are a big tent for all people who want a kinder, flourishing nation.
If you only have 10 minutes, take our top three suggested actions:
- Contact your senators: Support LGBTQ people’s constitutional rights.
- Action 4: Stop construction of a toxic petrochemical plant.
- Action 5: Protect agricultural workers from slave labor.
In this edition of the AoC Checklist:
- Senate actions: What we’re contacting our senators about.
- House actions: What we’re contacting our House reps about.
- Action 1: Stop election subversion in your state.
- Action 2: Disarm violent intimate partners.
- Action 3: Advocate for pay transparency.
- Action 4: Stop construction of a toxic petrochemical plant.
- Action 5: Protect agricultural workers from slave labor.
- Say Thanks: Acts of Gratitude
- Check out Good News from around the nation
- How you can support and share the AoC Checklist
Contact your senators
Check the box if you made contact–whether for one issue or all–so we can count your action. Contacting your senators’ staffers with multiple concerns is more efficient for both of you. They don’t mind, but be sure to contact both progressives and conservatives. They need to hear from you.
Join the 0 Americans of Conscience who have completed this action by checking the tally box!
Your script: Hi, I’m from [ZIP] calling/writing about several issues. I’d like Sen. [NAME] to:
- Pass the Equality Act (S. 393) to give LGBTQ people equal rights and protection under our nation’s labor and civil rights laws. [Sources: Human Rights Campaign, GLAD]
- Pass additional COVID funding to improve access to testing, treatment, and medications like Evusheld and Paxlovid. [Source: Little Lobbyists]
- Pass the SHINE for Autumn Act (H.R. 5487) to invest in preventing stillbirth in the U.S. [Source: MomsRising]
- Co-sponsor and pass S. 1840, the Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act, to stop the flood of election mis- and disinformation on social media. [Source: Brennan Center]
Contact your House representative
Check the box if you made contact–whether for one issue or all–so we can count your action. Contacting your representative’s staffers with multiple concerns is more efficient for both of you. They don’t mind, but be sure to contact both progressives and conservatives. They need to hear from you.
Look up your House representative here.
Join the 0 Americans of Conscience who have completed this action by checking the tally box!
Your script: Hi, I’m from [ZIP] calling/writing to ask Rep. [NAME] to pass additional COVID funding to improve access to testing, treatment, and medications like Evusheld and Paxlovid. [Source: Little Lobbyists]
I value democracy
With respect and collaboration, we work to create a nation that welcomes all people, expands freedoms, and upholds the Constitution. Each citizen must be able to freely and fairly elect those who represent their values.
Action 1: Stop election subversion in your state.
Source: Voting Rights Lab
Join the 0 Americans of Conscience who have completed this action by checking the tally box!
If you live in AK, AL, AZ, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, NE, NH, NJ, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, WA, WI, or WV: Contact your state legislators (look up).
- Find the pending bill(s) in your state in this legislation tracker.
- Urge your state legislators to vote NO on the bill(s).
Script: Hi, I’m a resident of [ZIP], concerned that [STATE] has pending legislation that will interfere with election administration. [BILL NUMBER(S) FROM TRACKER] subvert(s) election administration to overrule the voters of [STATE]. Can I count on [NAME] to keep our elections free of partisan interference and vote NO on this legislation? Thank you.
If you live elsewhere: Sign up to phonebank for Common Cause to help get out the vote, recruit poll workers, and more. Spanish speakers are also needed.
I value equality
Support the dignity of your rainbow of neighbors from every religion, race, ethnicity, culture, gender, sexual orientation, economic status, age, and ability.
Action 2: Disarm violent intimate partners.
Source: Moms Demand Action
Join the 0 Americans of Conscience who have completed this action by checking the tally box!
Contact: President Biden via the White House contact form or at
President Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20500
Script: Hello, I’m reaching out from [STATE] because, in the U.S., around 70 women each month are shot and killed by an intimate partner. While convicted domestic violence offenders who are spouses, co-habitants, and/or fellow parents are prohibited from owning or purchasing a firearm, “dating partners” face no such restrictions. I am asking the Biden Administration to close the “dating partner loophole” in our federal laws, and protect women from gun violence by intimate partners.
Alternative: Sign the Everytown for Gun Safety petition.
Action 3: Advocate for pay transparency.
Source: AoCC
Join the 0 Americans of Conscience who have completed this action by checking the tally box!
Contact: Your two state legislators (look up).
Script: Hi, I’m contacting you from [ZIP] to express my support for pay transparency laws which have been shown to reduce the gender and racial pay gap. In 2021, women in the U.S. worked 3-12 months more to earn the same pay for the same work as white non-Hispanic men. Black, Latina, and Native American women worked 21-24 months longer. I’m asking [NAME] to pass and enforce pay transparency laws in our state to close this unjust pay gap. Thank you.
Bonus: If you live in CA, CO, CT, MD, NV, RI, or WA, your state already has pay transparency laws. Send your governor a thank-you. (look up)
Action 4: Stop construction of a toxic petrochemical plant.
Source: Sharon Lavigne
Join the 0 Americans of Conscience who have completed this action by checking the tally box!
Contact: President Biden via the White House contact form or at
President Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 2050
Script: Hi, I’m contacting you from [STATE] to express my opposition to the Formosa Plastics plant construction in St. James Parish, LA. Pollution from petrochemical plants is proven to have devastating effects on people who live nearby, and this facility would pollute a predominantly Black community, disturb unmarked burial sites of formerly enslaved people, degrade wetlands, and deepen the plastic pollution crisis. I’m asking President Biden to honor his commitment to environmental justice and revoke Formosa Plastics’ permits today.
Donate: To Stop Formosa Plastics.
Sign Up: To participate in other ways.
Action 5: Protect agricultural workers from slave labor.
Source: United Farm Workers
Join the 0 Americans of Conscience who have completed this action by checking the tally box!
Since 2015, a network of agricultural organizations has trafficked more than 100 Mexican and Central American people into the U.S., forcing them into exploitative labor and deplorable living conditions while threatening them with violence and deportation. The conspirators carried out this modern-day slave trade through fraudulent use of the federal H-2A program. The Biden Administration must conduct a thorough audit and investigation of the H-2A program and implement policies to stop these abuses immediately.
Sign: The UFW petition (adjust your email preferences before submitting).
Acts of Gratitude
Signatures to the forms below will be printed with a letter of thanks from Americans of Conscience, and mailed to the recipient 2 weeks after the Checklist publication date. Your information will not be stored after that date.
Join the 0 Americans of Conscience who have completed this action by checking the tally box!
Thank your USPS mail carrier. Leave a note on top of your outgoing mail (or thank them in person) for their work distributing free COVID-19 test kits, handling all the mail ballots during the 2020 elections, and their daily efforts to distribute mail despite policy decisions that made their jobs harder.
Bonus Gratitude Action: Thank your local postmaster.
Call: your post office (look up number here) to find out your postmaster’s/station manager’s name and an appropriate mailing address.
Thank Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D–NY) for holding a vote on the Women’s Health Protection Act, which intended to enshrine abortion and reproductive rights into federal law.
If you’d like to mail your own personal expression of gratitude, use this address: 322 Hart SOB, Washington, DC 20510
Good News
As Americans of Conscience, we celebrate!
Progress on issues previously included in the Checklist
- Federal appeal court rules that the Biden administration can’t use Title 42 to justify expelling aspiring American families when doing so would subject them to persecution or torture.
- The Biden administration terminates Title 42 expulsions of unaccompanied minors.
- The Violence Against Women Act is reauthorized as part of the omnibus spending bill.
- Denver expands a successful pilot program that dispatches mental health teams, instead of police officers, to certain 911 emergency calls.
Tribal
- U.S. court acknowledges that New York illegally claimed 2,000 acres of Mohawk land in the 1800s.
- The reauthorized Violence Against Women Act includes strong tribal provisions advocated for by Indigenous rights organizations, including the restoration of tribal jurisdiction over non-Indians for certain crimes.
- Kody Grant, enrolled Pueblo of Isleta and Eastern band of Cherokee and member of American Indian Initiative, will portray historical figure Oconostota at The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
National
- Congress passes and the president signs an omnibus spending package featuring $730B in non-defense funding for government operations, a 6.7% increase compared to 2021.
- Ukraine will receive $13.6B of humanitarian and military assistance under the omnibus spending bill.
- Ukrainians in the U.S. can apply for temporary protected status (TPS), shielding them from deportation and allowing them to obtain work permits.
- An expanded number of Sudanese and South Sudanese individuals living in the U.S. are eligible for TPS.
- Dr. Patricia Nez Henderson (Navajo Nation) is elected to serve as president of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, becoming the first Navajo American president of the public health research society.
- Dept. of the Interior expands wind energy projects.
- The EPA reinstates the Clean Air Act waiver that allows states to enforce vehicle tailpipe standards that are stronger than federal standards.
- A participant in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol pleads guilty to seditious conspiracy.
- Roselyn Tso (Navajo) is nominated by President Biden to direct the Indian Health Service.
State
- AZ state senators block several election reform bills that would have weakened election integrity.
- IN State Senate will not vote on an education bill that would prevent historically and culturally accurate curricula from being taught in public schools.
- OR grants $150M toward summer enrichment programs for students.
- TX: Court blocks state agencies from conducting unnecessary and invasive investigations of trans youths’ parents.
- WY’s legislature rejects a bill that would ban accurate and inclusive history lessons in public schools.
Local
- The Philadelphia School Board approves a resolution ensuring that all students have access to civic engagement and voter registration education.
- Lincoln County, GA will keep all seven of their polling places open following protests by voting rights organizations.
Corporate/business
- Disney pauses political contributions in FL after the state passes a discriminatory anti-LGBTQ+ education bill.
- American International Group stops providing underwriting services and investments for the construction of any new fossil fuel or coal extraction projects.
- Target raises workers’ minimum wage to as much as $24 per hour.
- @PayGapApp shares the gender pay gap percentages of organizations and companies tweeting in support of International Women’s Day.
Groups and organizations
- ACLU and Lambda Legal sue TN over a state law prohibiting transgender high school athletes from playing on the team that best matches their gender identity.
- Attorneys Bob Bauer and Ben Ginsberg create the Election Official Legal Defense Network, which provides pro bono legal advice to election officials facing threats.
- Over 450 healthcare providers denounce a FL ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
- Black Lives Matter Global Network and cultural architecture firm Trap Heals hold their UPLIFT art and concert series in celebration of Black Futures Month.
- Providence, RI students walk out of class in protest of state and national legislation that harms and discriminates against trans people.
News with heart
- Immigration rights advocate Ravi Ragbir is granted three years of deferred action, allowing him to stay in the U.S. to pursue permanent residency.
- Poland rebuilds abandoned rail tracks to Ukraine to help people fleeing the Russian president’s invasion.
- To commemorate Women’s History Month,Yes! Magazine features the stories of 10 Black women innovators and inventors.
- Harvard students Marco Burstein and Avi Schiffmann launch Ukraine Take Shelter, a site in 12 languages where people fleeing Ukraine can find hosts offering safe places to stay.
- In honor of Black History Month, Leroy Moore Jr. and Gabriel Wilson release a video for the poemsong “Honoring” to celebrate and educate about Black disabled history.
- Transgender people share their abortion experiences in a three-part video series called Trans Bodies, Trans Choices.
- In honor of International Women’s Day, NewsOne shares the achievements of contemporary and historical Black women.
- Anna Murray Douglass and Annie Douglass will be honored for their work against racism with individual memorials at Mount Hope Cemetery.
- In celebration of Women’s History Month, StoryCorps features the voices and memories of diverse women telling their own stories.
- Penguin dads Elmer and Lima successfully raise their foster chick.
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Housekeeping
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