Demand Progress

Campaigns

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  Ban Congress from buying and selling stocks!

  Over 50 members of Congress were caught failing to disclose stock trades. Their likely penalty? A slap on the wrist, if that. Federal laws require lawmakers to publicly disclose stock trades within 45 days, but lawmakers routinely violate these rules (even after eviscerating the disclosure rules). A handful of members have recently faced federal investigation over allegations they engaged in insider training, using confidential information to trade stocks to make money. Yet Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently "scoffed" at a proposal to ban lawmakers from trading stocks while in office. Senator Jon Ossoff is introducing a bill to ban lawmakers from owning and trading individual stocks. Now we need your help to convince Congress to act and help clean up our political system.

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  Tax the billionaires!

  In 2018, Elon Musk paid $0 in federal income taxes. In 2021 he has seen his net worth soar to nearly $300 billion, nearly ten times what he was worth prior to the pandemic. Yet he spend his time on Twitter attacking Bernie Sanders and other progressives for wanting to tax billionaires. And now he's been name Time's Person of the Year for 2021. Huge majorities of the American people strongly support higher taxes on billionaires. As negotiations on the Build Back Better package continue, now is an urgent time to tell Congress to tax Elon Musk and the billionaires. Sign the petition: Demand Congress pass a wealth tax!

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  Facebook hasn’t owned up to its role in Jan. 6th. It’s time to break it up.

  Facebook’s algorithm incubates extremist content. Extreme content gets more clicks, and more clicks make Facebook more money on ad revenue. In other words, Facebook has every incentive to continue spreading false content. Unless federal regulators take action, the company will continue to grow bigger and more powerful. Sign the petition: Federal regulators must break up Facebook! Our democracy depends on it.

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  Justice Kavanaugh: Recuse yourself from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau case

  The Supreme Court will soon hear a case that threatens the existence of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an independent consumer watchdog championed by Elizabeth Warren and established as part of the Dodd-Frank Act. We are calling on Justice Kavanaugh to recuse himself from the case because he previously ruled on the underlying legal question, making it clear he is not impartial. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau protects us from scams and predatory lenders. A payday lender has brought a case that threatens the existence of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau -- and Justice Kavanaugh is poised to help the payday lender win. We can’t let its existence be threatened by a man who faced 83 ethics complaints.

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  Reform the Electoral Count Act!

  Donald Trump's January 2021 coup attempt sought to exploit the outdated Electoral Count Act, the law that governs our elections. The Congressional committee responsible for investigating the events of January 6th is reportedly working on recommendations for legislation reforming the Electoral Count Act right now. It’s essential that the committee introduce strong and clear legislation, and that Congress pass it as soon as possible. We can’t risk another attack on our democracy.  The Select Committee on January 6th should introduce legislation reforming the Electoral Count Act as soon as possible!

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  No new fossil fuel infrastructure!

  A major oil spill recently oozed crude oil into the Pacific Ocean and damaged wildlife on beaches in Southern California. It's another terrible reminder of the damage done by fossil fuel extraction. From oil spills to drought, fires, hurricanes, and more, it's clear that fossil fuel infrastructure is too big a risk. If we want to avoid the worst of climate catastrophe, we need to stop building new fossil fuel infrastructure as soon as possible. Scientists have made it incredibly clear: the worst impacts of climate catastrophe are just on the horizon. Pollution and wildfire smoke are causing asthma attacks in children. Across the globe, over 200 million people could be displaced by climate crises in the next thirty years. When the dangers of fossil fuel dependence are so obvious, there is no reason why President Biden should be allowing new fossil fuel projects to move forward.

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  Remove press restrictions for President Trump’s impeachment trial

  Mitch McConnell and Senate Rules Committee Chair Roy Blunt have instituted unprecedented press restrictions in order to prevent the public from having full access to Trump's Senate impeachment trial -- including limits on what the public can see and on reporters' ability to talk to Senators. Without the free press, we can’t fight against abusive governmental policies or defend our basic freedoms. The Trump administration has been attacking the free press for years. Now that Trump has a chance of getting held accountable for his abuses of power, the Senate is allowing him to hide details from the public.

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• Save the internet: Overturn the FCC's repeal of Net Neutrality!

  July 2018 update: The FCC's repeal of net neutrality went into effect on June 11th. Now it's even more important to get lawmakers to act. Senators passed a resolution to save net neutrality via the Congressional Review Act. It's up to our congressional representatives to do the same. ------- On December 14, the Federal Communications Commission repealed net neutrality, handing control of the internet to Big Telecom. The repeal of net neutrality gives monopolistic internet providers like Verizon, Comcast, and AT&T the power to block, censor, and slow down your favorite sites on the web. 83% of Americans support net neutrality protections. Congress, as the oversight body for the FCC, can overturn this massive giveaway to the telecom industry. Since the FCC voted to end net neutrality, 20 senators have already pledged to reverse the FCC's vote, and we can convince others to join us. We need to build on this momentum -- tell your member of Congress to support the resolution to restore net neutrality now!

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  Pass the Open Courts Act!

  Over a decade ago, Demand Progress’ co-founder Aaron Swartz started working to make federal court documents available to the public at no cost. The public entrusts federal courts with our rights and disputes; in turn, the public has a right to inspect court records and ensure federal courts administer justice fairly. But the current filing system stashes these essential documents behind a paywall, costing the public more than a hundred million dollars each year.[1] In 2008, Aaron paid a small fortune to bring several million federal court documents out from behind the paywall, exposing misdeeds within the federal judiciary in the process. For sharing information and revealing wrongdoing, Aaron was pursued by the FBI.[2] It’s time for court documents to be made public. Sign the petition if you agree. Thanks to Aaron’s and others’ activism, we’ve come a long way from the days when open sourcing federal court documents was regarded by the federal government as radical — even potentially criminal. When the Senate returns from holiday break, legislation to make federal court records available at no cost to the public will be brought before the full Senate for a floor vote. This movement is gaining traction. We need to make sure the legislation passes. Sign the petition: Tell Congress we demand the passage of the Open Courts Act! Information freedom activists and civil rights groups have been calling for transparency around court records for over a decade. But the federal court administrators still refuses to make these records publicly accessible, even after a district court ruled last year that the courts are dramatically overcharging the public for access the paywall as it currently exists is illegal.[3] Court administrators, who have diverted the revenues for unauthorized purposes, fear giving up this revenue stream. Some federal judges do not want to empower systematic studies of how justice is administered, and have fought the public access movement tooth and nail.[4] The courts have built a rickety, poor-designed, costly alternative to the promise of access for all that (barely) serves their narrow needs, not that of the public. Thankfully, many federal court records have entered the public record another way: through grassroots information-sharing. In the process of empowering the public to access its own laws, activists have also exposed rampant privacy violations within the federal judiciary — demonstrating once again that public oversight is essential to protecting democracy.[2] It’s time for Congress to require the courts provide free and open access to federal court records. Sign the petition: Tell Congress to pass the Open the Courts Act to grant the American people access to their own records! Sources: 1. Fix the Court, “How Could We Pay for Free PACER? Let's Look at the Options,” August 29, 2019. 2. CNN, “How Aaron Swartz helped build the Internet,” January 15, 2013. 3. ABA Journal, “Federal judiciary wrongly used PACER fees for unrelated projects, Federal Circuit rules,” August 6, 2020. 4. GovExec, “The Paywall That Continues to Stand in the Way of Government Transparency,” November 30, 2021.

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  Free Covid Testing Now!

  Yes, we should send free at-home covid tests to everyone in America. It’s a pretty simple ask, especially almost two years into a pandemic and at the start of a fourth wave of covid cases due to the Omicron variant. But when NPR reporter Mara Liasson asked if the government would send free covid tests to American families, Jen Psaki, Biden’s press secretary, scoffed.1 Many countries around the world already send tests to households. It’s time the United States did as well. Sign the petition: Send free covid tests to all Americans! More than 800,000 Americans have already died from the coronavirus pandemic, and the omicron variant threatens another wave of infection and death.2, Our government needs to take every possible step to ensure the safety of American workers and families. In the UK, anyone can have free rapid testing kits sent to their home.3 In Germany, rapid testing kits are available for about $1 each–compared to the $12 they cost in the US.4 The state of New Jersey has just begun offering free home testing kits to anyone who requests one, so clearly this can be done in the US as well.5 It is urgent and essential that the federal government send free testing kits to everyone in America in the midst of a new wave of infections during a pandemic. Tell Biden: Send free covid tests for all now! Sources: 1. The Intercept, “Jen Psaki Accidentally Tells the Truth About How Expensive Covid Rapid Tests Are in U.S.,” December 7, 2021. 2. Worldometer, “US Covid Data,” December 15, 2021. 3, 4. The Intercept, “Jen Psaki Accidentally Tells the Truth About How Expensive Covid Rapid Tests Are in U.S.,” December 7, 2021. 5. NJ.com, “NJ residents can now get free covid tests delivered to their homes,” December 13, 2021.

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