Since coming to power, Trump’s used the presidency to line his pockets. His claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act that DOJ owes him $230 million for violating his rights while investigating his 2016 campaign’s ties to Russia and prosecuting him for his theft of classified documents, is just his latest attempt to enrich himself—this time with taxpayer funds.

 Our MoCs must not let Trump get away with raiding the US Treasury for his own benefit—especially when his policies are causing millions of Americans to lose their health insurance and many more to struggle to make ends meet. Instead, they must demand immediate, ongoing House and Senate investigations and commit to relentlessly shame him and his MAGA allies for trying to extort money from US taxpayers with bogus reimbursement claims.

Last Tuesday Senator Merkley, took to the Senate floor, and, for nearly 23 hours, protested Trump’s grave threats to democracy—highlighting Trump’s “authoritarian takeover” of the government, attacks on free speech and the press, DOJ weaponization, National Guard deployments in our cities. Let’s call and thank him for using this procedure to draw national attention to this “authoritarian moment” in which America finds itself, where Trump believes he is the king and can control everything, regardless of what the Constitution and our laws require—and ask all our MoCs to regularly do likewise.

On July 16, 2025, America First Legal, a right-wing extremist group founded by Stephen Miller, petitioned the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), tasked with ensuring free and fair elections, to amend the federal voter registration form to require Americans, when registering to vote, to provide a passport or similar documentary proof of citizenship.—which could disenfranchise many millions of voters.

Citizens have until October 20 to get their comments to the EAC. If we promptly send our comments and convince our friends and neighbors to do likewise, there’s still time to convince the EAC that carrying out its duty to ensure free and fair elections requires it to reject this anti-democratic petition and protect everyone’s right to vote.

As constituents, it is our responsibility to push our elected officials to better protect our interests. And, when they work hard on our behalf, we should show our appreciation. Here, in Oregon, our MoCs are holding strong on two fronts—in standing up for our  healthcare needs, even if that means a government shutdown tonight, and in pushing back against Trump’s  illegal nationalization of the Oregon National Guard and its deployment to Portland with authorization to use “full force, if necessary.”

 We must thank them for what they’re doing, tell them to continue fighting, and urge them to both daily paint pictures of Trump’s cruelty and authoritarianism and remind us who’s to blame for our ongoing suffering.

Instead of a bell, gunfire is the mark of another school year in America. In Minneapolis, Catholic school students were shot while praying, several were injured, and the 23-year-old shooter then killed himself. Weeks later, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated at Utah Valley University while speaking at a political event. The same day, a student opened fire at a Colorado High School, injuring 2 students before turning the gun on himself.
Gun violence’s frightening heights is a reflection of our dark culture. Our leaders, willing only to offer “thoughts and prayers,” refuse to act. Implementing common-sense gun legislation is a simple first-step towards addressing this cancer. Rather than using these recent tragedies to attack Democrats and progressive organizations, let’s memorialize Charlie Kirk’s murder in legislation strengthening our national gun laws—creating a safer country for our kids.

At last Friday’s meeting in Alaska, Trump revealed himself as Putin’s fawning supplicant, rolling out the red carpet for this war criminal. On Monday, Zelensky, accompanied by the leaders of the EU, NATO, Germany, France, Britain, and Italy, tried, largely unsuccessfully, to get Trump to change his perspective.

Toward this end, our MoCs must immediately begin pressuring the Trump administration to: (1) support Ukraine with a ceasefire agreement that maintains Ukraine’s control over its territory, (2) continue to provide the necessary military and diplomatic assistance required to ensure Ukraine’s independence, and (3) respect Ukraine’s input and not bow to Putin’s agenda in any peace deal it brokers. 

August 6 is the Voting Rights Act (VRA)’s 60^th anniversary.  Despite its popularity, the Roberts Court has whittled away its protections. The result: a torrent of voter suppression schemes, systematically disenfranchising tens of thousands of American voters. And Trump’s baseless voter fraud claims, attempts to tighten voting restrictions, and requests for GOP-controlled states to engage in mid-decade gerrymandering have made things even worse.

 On July 29, just 8 days before the VRA’s anniversary, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act was officially reintroduced in both chambers. Let’s thank our MoCs for their strong support for voting rights and our Senators for their press conference. But they cannot stop here. Instead, they must use this anniversary to get as much publicity as possible, while simultaneously exposing Trump and his MAGA allies for the authoritarians they are—working to destroy rather than strengthen our democracy.

With little resistance, Trump’s forcing America down a cruel, corrupt, and authoritarian path—assisted by SCOTUS’ MAGA majority anointing him king and MAGA Congresspeople refusing to constrain him.

Senate Democrats have only recently awoken from their apathy and started fighting back. Let’s thank our Senators for their efforts, while reminding them to remain strong, united, and committed to using all available weapons to (1) slow down Trump’s cruel and inhumane authoritarian agenda and (2) make clear to the American public how serious and destructive it really is.

Trump corrupted SCOTUS, filled his administration with sycophants, and neutered Congress. Now he’s trying to appoint judges like Emil Bove—loyal not to the Constitution and the rule of law but only to him—who should be disbarred, not elevated to a lifetime Court of Appeals appointment as early as July 29.

As your constituent, I need you to do everything possible to keep Emil Bove off the bench. After thanking your Democratic colleagues and GOP Senators Collins and Murkowski for standing firm for the rule of law, demand the proceedings be paused to hear from the whistleblowers and delay the vote until angry constituents convince at least two additional GOP Senators to honor their oath by voting “no.” 

Why is Trump refusing to release the Epstein Files he promised the MAGA base he’d do if elected? Because they contain unflattering references about him or worse which he’s desperate to keep secret.

Don’t be fooled by Trump’s desperate attempt to lay the blame elsewhere---having A-G Bondi seek confidential grand jury testimony, which, even if released, wouldn’t contain information about the powerful people enabling Epstein’s crimes. What does contain this information is the FBI’s 100,000-document file the DOJ ordered 1,000 FBI employees to comb through and flag every mention of Trump.

By signing the circulation discharge petition our MoCs would be demanding accountability for everyone who helped Epstein, covered for him, or looked the other way. The file’s release will also help Sen. Wyden better track Epstein’s vast sex-trafficking network.

The $170 billion for border and immigration enforcement in the MAGA Murder Bill funds the two major components of Trump’s fascist government—an American Gestapo filled with loyal goons, and the concentration camps spread across the country to which his enemies will be sent to be mistreated and tortured.

 Members of Congress, state officials, civic groups, and media outlets must expose and amplify what’s going on in these camps and push back against this Nazi-like behavior. Congress must also investigate and expose the “play-to-pay” corruption of private prison companies American taxpayers are financing and get these concentration camps closed.

On July 4th, catastrophic flooding caused central Texas’ Guadalupe River to rise 26+ feet in just 45 minutes, sweeping away people, including children at summer camps, homes and businesses. At least 120 died, and nearly 200 are still missing. Because of DOGE firings, there was no local meteorologist to pass on NWS flood warnings, and Kristi Noem’s micromanagement delayed FEMA’s response by three days.

Our Members of Congress must do much more than investigate how Trump’s, Musk’s, and Noem’s attacks on the NWS and FEMA hampered preparedness and response efforts. They must connect the dots repeatedly between GOP policy and its lethal consequences—the deaths and destruction across America caused by climate change—and hold Trump and Republicans accountable.

The extremely unpopular, Medicaid-slashing, billionaire-enriching version of the MAGA Murder Bill Senate Republicans hope to send back to the House is even worse than the House-passed version, willingly consigning many of their constituents to misery, hunger, and death to partially pay for the largest transfer of wealth in American history and blow up the national debt.

Both versions further transform the US into a police state. Cutting access to healthcare and food frees up $50 billion to finish Trump’s useless southern border wall, $8 billion to hire 10,000 masked ICE gestapo agents to daily round up 3000 immigrants and Americans, and $59 billion to build the concentration camps to hold and then deport them—further destroying our civil rights. 

Voting may have already started in the Senate, but there’s still time to contact your Senators, thank them for all opposing the gutting of vital programs our families and communities rely on, and urge them to keep proposing amendments that highlight Republicans’ cruelty and trying to stop its passage however they can. Then call your Representative, who may shortly be voting on the Senate version, and pass along a similar message.

I am horrified and infuriated that Donald Trump is dragging us into another Middle Eastern quagmire. The Constitution does not allow just one man to make this decision, and the Trump Administration cannot be trusted to make it.  

Congress needs to do its job and check their power. As your constituent, I demand that you vote to stop these strikes and block further escalation of attacks on Iran. Do not rubber stamp this unnecessary, unpopular, half-baked war. Please publicly announce you will back the pending War Powers resolutions and support a diplomatic solution. I will be calling you every day to express my abhorrence at Trump’s behavior and remind you of the need for swift congressional action.

Trump and his ICE Gestapo are trampling on our Constitution and building a fascist police state in America. ICE also intimidates by detaining and charging “interfering” public figures, and it illegally continues denying Congresspeople access to ICE facilities to check on detained migrants, part of their oversight function.

Our MoCs must stop fascism in its tracks by exposing ICE’s atrocities and cutting off ICE funding. The billions for militarized enforcement in the MAGA Murder Budget Bill now before the Senate, and later returning to the House, must be removed and the administration notified that accountability’s coming when Democrats retake the House.