Keep Those Calls to Your Senators Coming

CWAers from Local 9416 in Bakersfield, California, call their senators.

Below: An activist passes out copies of CWA's latest Fix the Senate Now publication.

Thousands of activists from 50 progressive organizations, all part of the "Fix the Senate Now" coalition, participated in a "Week of Action" and a National Call-In Day on Dec. 19, contacting their senators about the urgent need for Senate rules reform.

Led by CWA's Legislative Political Action Teams, CWA activists started early in the week, leafleting worksites, cell phones in hand, to make it easy for CWA members to call. Mobilization grew to include social media, an expanded petition drive and the distribution of flyers to Senate offices.

So far this week, the Fix the Senate Coalition contacted more than 2 million members and generated texts, emails and phone calls that shut down the U.S. Capitol switchboard for a time. Coalition members distributed flyers to Senate offices, helped generate nearly half a million Facebook "likes," and are continuing the petition drive enabling ordinary Americans to stand up for real Senate rules and filibuster reform.

Coalition organizations participating include: Sierra Club, CWA, MoveOn, UAW, Working Families Party, Common Cause, AFL-CIO, IBEW, Alliance for Justice, NAACP, Demos and many more.

The action coincides with Senate leaders working to finalize a final package of reforms, and it's critical that the final reform package includes all our identified priorities. They are:

• End the filibuster on the motion to proceed. Right now, an individual Senator can block all discussion of any issue.


• Require a "talking filibuster," so Senators actually have to hold the floor and speak to the measure.


• Require that 41 Senators show they support the filibuster. Right now, the burden is on the majority to get 60 votes to stop a filibuster.


• Streamline the process for approving judicial nominations and executive branch appointments.

We want to keep those calls coming, push senators to do the right thing in January and make the changes needed to reform the broken Senate. Pick up the phone now and call 1-888-966-9836 or text RULESREFORM to 49484. You'll be patched through to your Senators' offices.

Our window of opportunity opens on Jan. 3, when the new Senate convenes for business on its first legislative day, and changes can be made using the "constitutional option," which requires 51 votes to change the rules for the new session of the Senate.