Happy Tuesday, Activists! You probably saw that on Sunday Senator Joe Manchin surprised everyone with his announcement that he is a “no” on the Build Back Better bill. So this has many people wondering, “Is Build Back Better dead?” In a word – NO. Senator Manchin is known for this sort of posturing, and this isn’t our first time dealing with pushback from him during bill negotiation processes. Still not sure? Yesterday afternoon, Politico reported that Manchin and President Biden met this week and agreed that negotiations will continue. So it might be messy, but the deal is not dead. Activists in West Virginia sure aren’t giving up. Yesterday they held a rally outside Manchin’s office. They’ve created radio ads with real people telling their stories about how much they need lower costs for insulin. And we will be focused on making sure this critical legislation passes in the new year. But right now it’s time for a well-deserved break. We all have done such an amazing job this year putting pressure on our elected officials. They know we insist that this legislation move forward, and it would not have happened without our activism. As a result, you can see Senator Schumer and President Biden’s pledges to move forward with BBB in the new year because we are telling them we refuse to accept defeat. That said, congressional staff have gone home for the holidays, so making calls won’t necessarily be that effective over the next 10 days. That's why for the rest of the year, we want you to get some rest and enjoy a well-deserved holiday break. We’ll have more details in the first week of January for our next steps. We hope you get that much needed R&R over the holiday break. We’ll need renewed energy in 2022, when we push for BBB and democracy reform to be passed as quickly as possible. We love working with you and being in this together every step of the way. This will be our last newsletter of the year, unless something requires us to write to you. Finally, in case you wanted to check them out now, below are two projects we're working on. OUR MEETING WITH A.G. JOSH SHAPIRO We’ll have a one-hour virtual meeting with Attorney General Josh Shapiro on January 24 at 7:30 pm. You can sign up here. As you know, AG Shapiro is running for PA Governor next year. We’ll have a lot to ask him about why he’s running and his vision for the state. Bring your questions too! When: Monday, January 24, 7:30 pm Where: Zoom Sign up here.
HERE IS MESSAGING IN CASE YOU NEED IT See our full Messaging explainer from a recent newsletter here. See last week’s message in the recent newsletters here and here.
Happy Holidays to you all!