Action Alerts « LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS® OF WEST VIRGINIA

Fight back against Citizens United!

Today you have an important opportunity to take an essential first step to fight back against Citizens United and the deregulation of the campaign finance system. Click here to urge President Obama to clean house at the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

Already in this important election year, new Super PACs are flooding elections with huge expenditures from million-dollar donors. Because they are supposedly “independent” from the candidates, and with new loopholes from the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, Super PACs can raise and spend unlimited amounts from corporations and individuals, and they can do so with limited disclosure.

While there are different avenues that can be taken to fight back against Citizens United and cut the influence of special interests, you can join us by taking the first step today by urging President Obama to appoint new commissioners to the FEC. Among other duties, the FEC can define what election efforts are “independent” from the candidates.

The FEC is supposed to be the agency that enforces campaign finance laws, but it is dysfunctional. Of the six commissioners at the agency, three of them staunchly refuse to enforce the law, and five of the six are serving despite expired terms. It is time to clean house.

We need real campaign finance reform, and getting President Obama to nominate new commissioners to do their duty and enforce campaign finance laws is a good place to start. In the next 30 days we need to gather 25,000 signatures of support.

Don’t just sign it yourself; post the petition on Facebook, Tweet about it and forward this note to all of your friends. Together we can make sure that the citizen’s voice is heard.

For extra reading, click here for an interesting discussion of the new Super PACs presented by PBS.

Watch Are Super PACs Living Up to Supreme Court’s Intentions? on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

Take Action: Air pollution legislation

Clean air and public health are under attack in Congress. Very soon the House is expected to vote on two bills which could weaken our environmental public health standards. The first (H.R. 2681) would reduce regulation of cement plants, which are one of the largest sources of industrial mercury toxics in the country. The second (H.R. 2250) would reduce regulations on incinerators and industrial boilers which dump large amounts of toxic pollution into our air.

Take action now to tell your Representative to vote against H.R. 2681 and H.R.2250 which would harm public health.

Supporters of this kind of legislation claim that passage will stimulate the economy. Sacrificing tens of thousands of American lives will not create more jobs. Burdening the American people with billions of dollars in health and welfare costs will not lead to sustained economic growth.

Don’t Let the Senate Repeal the Affordable Care Act

The Affordable Care Act was a major step forward in health care for all and has already made a difference by improving health care access and coverage for millions of Americans. The House of Representatives took a step in the wrong direction by repealing the law that has already brought positive changes. The Senate could follow their lead very soon.

Take action now to tell your Senators to oppose repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

Urge Lawmakers to Pass Marcellus Shale Drilling Bill Out of Subcommittee

Last month the Joint Legislative Interim Judiciary Subcommittee A introduced a draft bill establishing a new regulatory program for gas wells utilizing horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. While the bill is aimed at regulating the Marcellus Shale gas well drilling occurring now in West Virginia, it would apply to all drilling using these new drilling techniques.

The subcommittee will begin discussing this important bill as early as next Monday, December 13, at their monthly interim committee meetings. Our preliminary reading of this draft legislation shows that it contains some good things and some not-so-good things, and omits some things we want.

But it is important that the subcommittee pass a bill out before Interim sessions end in January, so that the full legislature will have a comprehensive draft bill to consider when they convene on January 12.

Some background:
Conventional natural gas drilling and production is a major industrial activity with a host of environmental and other consequences. Effects can range from water contamination related to drilling and disposal of drilling fluids, air quality degradation from internal combustion engines on drill rigs and trucks, excess dust from equipment transportation, impacts to solitude and night skies from noise and lighting, and safety concerns associated with the large number of trucks needed to support drilling operations. However, “unconventional” shale-gas drilling, such as in the Marcellus Shale play, represents a huge leap in technology, and causes an exponential increase in surface disturbance, water use and waste disposal. And all this new activity is largely unregulated in West Virginia.

Please contact NOW the members of Interim Judiciary Subcommittee A and urge them to pass this comprehensive draft legislation out of subcommittee and on to the full legislature for its further consideration. Committee members need to know their constituents are concerned about the greater impacts of Marcellus and other deep shale drilling and this bill is a crucial start. Including comments about problems you’ve experienced or know about in other areas of the state is helpful, but not necessary.

The industry has already made its opposition to this bill known — now it’s time for legislators to hear from YOU.

Below is a list of Judiciary A Subcommittee members and their contact information. You can also try to contact (and leave messages for) members using the Toll Free phone number: 1-877-565-3447.

You may use this action alert page provided by the Sierra Club to email all members!

Thanks for your help.

Continue reading Urge Lawmakers to Pass Marcellus Shale Drilling Bill Out of Subcommittee

Special Interests

In this year’s elections, secret money ran rampant. Corporations and unions were able to spend unlimited amounts, without having to disclose their expenditures, to support or oppose candidates. If we’re going to scrub our democracy clean with a strong dose of transparency that eliminates this kind of spending in our elections then we need action before Congress calls it quits for 2010.

Take action to send a critically important message to your Senators.

There is a small window of time for Congress to pass the DISCLOSE Act in its “lame-duck” session that ends in just a few weeks. We, as concerned citizens, must take action to protect future elections. The DISCLOSE Act would empower voters by forcing groups bankrolled by anonymous donors to disclose the sources of their funding and their political spending.

Secret money has no place in our democracy.

TAKE ACTION

1. Contact your Senators now and tell them to support the DISCLOSE Act.

2. Send this alert to other concerned citizens – your grassroots network, your friends, neighbors and coworkers. Encourage them to contact their Senators today!

BACKGROUND

Learn more about what the League is doing to support campaign finance reform.

Sign up to receive Action Alerts directly by email. Don’t miss an opportunity to take action! It’s easy to sign up and the League will never share your email with others.

DISCLOSE Act

Earlier this year the DISCLOSE Act failed to pass through the Senate. The legislation, which would restore transparency to U.S. elections by requiring disclosure of corporate and union spending in candidate elections, is expected to come up for a vote again this week.

Your Senators could cast the deciding votes. Urge your Senators to protect elections from being controlled by special interest dollars. Tell them that voters deserve to know who is paying for election advertising.

Support Public Financing

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Support Strong Health Care Reform Legislation

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LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS® OF WEST VIRGINIA

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Fight back against Citizens United!

Take Action: Air pollution legislation

Don’t Let the Senate Repeal the Affordable Care Act

Urge Lawmakers to Pass Marcellus Shale Drilling Bill Out of Subcommittee

Special Interests

DISCLOSE Act

Support Public Financing

Support Strong Health Care Reform Legislation

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