As a lobbying group working at the local, state, and federal levels on issues affecting aging Americans, retired Americans need AARP’s political influence to assist in repealing the GPO and WEP.

George Santos deceived his constituents to win a seat in Congress – and we can't let him remain in public office. Santos lied his way into office, inventing stories about his family background, work experience, education, values, and identity – even going so far as to capitalize off of tragedies like the Holocaust, the PULSE nightclub shooting, and 9/11. But national Republicans are rewarding his deceit – seating him on two committees. Kevin McCarthy even justified his actions by saying that “a lot of people” have lied about their resumes while running for office. This defense is simply ridiculous. George Santos lied about nearly every aspect of who he was – and deceived every single one of his constituents to gain power. If we don’t set a clear precedent now that this kind of dishonesty and corruption do not deserve to hold elected office, we’ll be giving a free pass to candidates to lie their way into public office – regardless of who they hurt in the process.

I am Ember–a National Delegate from Northern California. I am also a queer person. I am concerned about the National Convention taking place in Florida, due to the recent rise in homophobic, transphobic, and racist legislation occurring Florida. Girl Scouts has been working to be a more inclusive organization, and this is very contrary to that ideal–bringing Girl Scouts of all identities to a place that doesn't embody that value and is an unsafe environment. When a state passes bigoted policies, it empowers people with those beliefs to act on their beliefs, which endangers Girl Scouts going to Florida. Bringing people–especially en masse– supports the Floridian economy and tells them that their policies and actions are acceptable and that there are not consequences. Girl Scouts' event going to Florida shows immediate disregard for queer and trans members' safety, needs, rights, and humanity. In order to amend this, I believe Girl Scouts must move the 2023 National Convention and Phenom out of Florida. Girl Scouts must take action (not just in words) to protect queer and trans attendees through, but not limited to: transportation from airports to the sites for safety, LGBTQ+ safe break rooms, and gender inclusive bathrooms at hotels and other centers. Girl Scouts can do better; Girl Scouts must do better. Girl Scouts prides itself on being a youth oriented and led inclusive organization, and listening to and acting for the needs of their membership on this issue is crucial to demonstrate this.

We need to show Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk that there will be a price to pay for reinstating Trump. We who believe in and support democracy need to show that we are in the majority, and that we will boycott these platforms and their advertisers should Donald Trump once again reign as an agent of destruction through his domination of their platforms.

Donald Trump is planning his big return to Facebook and Twitter – and I can’t emphasize enough how dangerous this is for our democracy. The last time Trump was on these platforms, he abused his massive online megaphone to incite the violent January 6th insurrection. Bipartisan investigators in Congress even called his social media vitriol “rocket fuel for extremists”. And now, he plans to bring the hateful rhetoric that he’d been forced to reserve for fringe, far-right pages like Truth Social back to mainstream platforms like Twitter and Facebook. No one – especially Trump – should be allowed to use Twitter or Facebook to lie and incite violence. At a minimum Facebook and Twitter must fact-check Trump and hold him to the same standards as everyone else. More importantly, Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms must enforce and strengthen their policies to combat disinformation, hate, and other harmful content. Our democracy cannot afford more lies and hate-fueled violence that go unchecked on social media.

In 2020 the homeless population in America was almost 581,000 people. It is estimated to be much worse in 2023. These people are ALL US citizens which means this is really a bad problem. Some areas are worse than others and the quantity of people who are able bodied and willing to work is diminishing because of systemic issues like malnutrition and psychological damage equivalent to PTSD. These concentrations actually work out well for creating programs that are focused in the areas that need it the most. We have the technology and resources today to build self-sufficient systems that operate just like other small businesses and quite literally solve the homelessness problem for our country. What seems like an impossible problem is within our grasp if we just choose to address it and have an intention to make our world better with this action.

~19,000 people in Wyoming would receive basic healthcare access from Medicaid expansion. Two-thirds of these folks work low-income jobs that don’t provide health benefits. These are ranchers, farmers and small business employees—many struggling in jobs without health benefits. Our rural hospitals are also struggling to serve their communities, because they lose millions providing services to people with no insurance. By expanding Medicaid, thousands of Wyomingites get access to affordable healthcare, rural hospitals get the funds they need to stay open, and millions of federal tax dollars come back to Wyoming, where they belong. All of our neighboring states have expanded Medicaid successfully. In Montana, it has greatly helped their economy, healthcare industry, and state budget. We need to do this too! Wyoming residents all pay federal income taxes. Those taxes go on to pay for expanded Medicaid services in 38 other states, but not Wyoming. It’s time to bring our tax money back to Wyoming to support our people and economy here.

Following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, right-wing Republican laws have taken effect in state after state to ban abortion and criminalize those who seek and provide it. These harsh laws take away a fundamental right that had been guaranteed by the Constitution for nearly 50 years and fulfill an extremist vision of exerting control over our health, our bodies, and our autonomy. As a result, pregnant people—many of whom already faced challenges accessing the abortion care that should have been their right—are forced to travel long distances to seek care, or to carry to term pregnancies that could be harmful or fatal. And we see these same Republicans seeking to jail and punish people in cruel and outrageous ways. The Republican Party is now bringing these attacks to Congress, where their majority in the House of Representatives wasted no time in passing two anti-abortion bills. We know they won't stop there: They'll go after the right to contraception, limit access to self-managed abortion, and seek a full national abortion ban. We need to stop them at all costs. Democrats in the Senate and President Biden need to take every measure to defeat these bills. More than that, they need to continue the fight to codify the protections of Roe into law—and do away with the regressive filibuster, if necessary, to pass such a bill in the Senate. And as the House continues to vote on these bills, we need every member of Congress to hear from their constituents, to know that a vast, bipartisan majority of Americans support abortion rights, and that they will be held accountable for voting for any measure that seeks to limit those rights, including a national abortion ban.

Integrity and honesty of candidates for office and holders of office are of vital importance for a democracy. Mr. Santos' case for office was based almost entirely on fabrication. That cannot be acceptable for continuing in any elected office.

Anti-democracy extremists filed more lawsuits in 2022 than in 2020 – the year that Donald Trump dragged out his election lies in court for months. And worst of all, almost a quarter of these lawsuits were spearheaded by elected officials – hyper-partisan Republicans trying to push an anti-democracy agenda through the courts, rather than fight legislative battles they know they can’t win. The increasing litigation from far-right extremists means we have to expect an all-out attack on our right to vote from partisan legislators this year at every level. They’re eager to make it harder for voters to cast a ballot, especially in Black and Brown communities. Unfortunately, some far-right extremists and failed political candidates would rather throw out legal votes to falsely cling to power than respect our democracy – and it’s up to us to stop them. Abusing our court system to push conspiracy theories and lies about election results or vote-by-mail is no way to legislate. Sign our petition to condemn attempted voter suppression and demand our politicians protect our freedom to vote.

Donald Trump wants to TERMINATE the Constitution – because he’s finally realized that it’s standing in the way of his desperate attempts to overturn the 2020 election over two years after the fact. And while it might sound ridiculous, far-right mega donors and Trump cronies like Steve Bannon are working behind the scenes to do exactly that. Under Article V of the U.S. Constitution, Congress is required to hold a constitutional convention if two-thirds of state legislatures call for one. And right now, we’re just a handful of states away. Exploiting never-before used provisions of Article V of our Constitution, 28 states have signed on to allow unelected, unaccountable delegates to rewrite the Constitution with zero checks and balances. No convention has ever been called under Article V for a reason: there is just too much at stake. Far-right groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) are trying to get this done behind closed doors and out of the public eye. But Common Cause is shining a spotlight on their sinister efforts in state after state – and so far, we have successfully rolled back calls for an Article V Convention in Colorado, New Hampshire, Delaware, and others. We need your help now to protect our Constitution once and for all. Add your name to oppose a dangerous, unregulated convention of states. To learn more about the dangers of an Article V Convention, visit defendourconstitution.org.

The Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) is an independent House ethics watchdog that Common Cause and others worked to create in 2008. It helped clean up corruption and make sure members of Congress were playing by the rules. But right now, there’s no law permanently establishing this office. It only exists in the House rules package – and has to be reauthorized every two years as new House members are elected. It also doesn’t have subpoena power – limiting its ability to enforce any ethical standards. The rules package passed by House Republicans last night weakens this office. The House has made it harder to hire staff at the OCE, and implemented arbitrary term limits that would immediately remove three long-serving Democratic ethics board members – risking decades of institutional knowledge, and majorly weakening oversight in the new Congress. The CLEAN Act would codify this office into law – strengthening the OCE and giving it real power to investigate and enforce consequences for misconduct.