Ranked-choice Voting and Multi-member House Districts

The Fair Representation Act (FRA) (H.R. 7740) would require ranked-choice voting for the House of Representatives, establishing multi-member House districts in more populous states, and ending gerrymandering. Watch a short video by Fair Vote on why we need FRA.

In supporting FRA, it is our pleasure to join Fair Vote and other advocates working to improve the fairness of our democratic systems. See the democracy section for more details.

Take action and Tell your House Member to cosponsor FRA!

The Crisis of Our Neglected Public Housing Stock

Housing insecurity is deepening in the United States. Our public housing system, marred by decades of neglect and racial injustice, is crumbling under a staggering $70 billion maintenance backlog. Residents face severe health risks from mold, lead, poor air quality, and dangerous temperatures. The financial strain on families in public housing is profound. Today, 11.3 million households spend over half their income on housing. 

This is also a climate crisis matter. Low-income families spend an average of 8.6% of their income on energy costs—nearly triple the percentage that other households pay. This disparity forces hard choices between essential needs: heating or eating, medication or electricity. The housing affordability crisis compounds these issues. 

The Green New Deal for Public Housing Act (S.1218, H.R.2664)(Bill Summary) proposes $234 billion to renovate public housing into zero-carbon, energy-efficient homes over the next decade.

Take action Tell Congress to confront the public housing stock crisis

Farm Bill May Cut SNAP Benefits

Since beginning negotiations on this most recent Farm Bill proposal, UUSJ has supported the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP), the basis for SNAP benefits.

In an alarming opinion post for Agri Pulse, Chairman Thompson (R-PA) signaled a willingness to cut the program: “The 2024 Farm Bill will reassert Congressional intent by prescribing a cost-neutral process.” In response to his opinion, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities counters Chair Thompson’s Plan to Cut SNAP Benefits and Ignore Scientific Evidence in Thrifty Food Plan Updates.

Take action Tell Your Legislators to Safeguard SNAP

Ask Your House Member to Support and Cosponsor H.R. 598
Take Action and use our poster for tabling after services.
View a short video about the Earth Bill

The Earth Act to Stop Climate Pollution by 2030 (H.R.598), popularly known as the “Earth Bill,” focuses on electricity, cars, and food as industries in which Americans support change–most Americans agree that our electricity should be renewable, our cars electric, and our food should be produced using healthy practices.

Let’s make noteworthy progress toward sustainability by 2030. As the Center for Biological Diversity finds in its report Out Polluting Progress, if we continue with the status quo approach, it won’t happen.

A Far-Right Push to Re-write the Constitution

The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) highlights a little-noticed, far-right effort that could have sweeping and damaging results. The organizations and individuals want to force a Constitutional Convention to rewrite the U.S. Constitution. If successful, it could completely change the way our country functions.  

CMD has published a short video and launched a project page on the potentially huge impact of the changes.   

All Americans would be affected, but especially marginalized individuals, including women, workers, people of color, those with disabilities, LGBTQ+ individuals, Indigenous people, and low-income individuals. These groups would face dire consequences if this effort – bankrolled by Big Oil, Koch Industries, and right-wing mega-donors – succeeds. 

CMD also notes the role of two influential groups: ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council), which is pushing a strategy to force Congress to call a convention, and the Tea Party-aligned Convention of States, which is spending millions to advance these sweeping changes to the Constitution.

The Fair Representation Act

We celebrated reintroduction of the Fair Representation Act (FRA) (H.R. 7740) in 2024 by Representatives Don Beyer (VA-8) and Jamie Raskin (MD-8). FRA would require ranked-choice voting for the House of Representatives, with multi-member House districts in more populous states, and end gerrymandering. Tell your House Member to cosponsor FRA!

Passage would:

• Transform our political system, creating a more inclusive and deliberative government that respects and empowers all voices.
• Facilitate fair partisan and racial representation in Congress – regardless of how lines are drawn in districts.
• Stop gerrymandering, making more congressional districts competitive, and encouraging candidates to reach beyond their base.
• Achieve accountability and competition in general elections instead of just primaries. 85% of U.S. House districts are safe for one party (USA Today).

Learn more about FRA from Fair Vote:

• See an overview of FRA 
• Watch a short video about why we need FRA 
• Review a sample of FRA maps for every state 
• Learn more about proportional ranked-choice voting with this video
• Understand the issues of "Monopoly Politics" for 2024
• Discover how this approach benefits BIPOC communities.

Building a Pro-Democracy Movement 

The UUSJ Democracy Action Team (DAT) has embraced the goal of helping to build a collaborative, inclusive, and powerful Democracy Movement. This is the time for UUs to extend our reach and mobilize to save our democracy. 

We have been holding monthly meetings with UU Democracy Leaders from around the country. At our April UU Democracy Leaders Meeting, we reviewed our work thus far, available on the UUSJ.org Democracy in 2024 page. There, you will find helpful materials about helping to build the Democracy Movement, an excellent list of 50 things you can do to help save our democracy, resources you can use to build a democracy team in your congregation, and a list of activities your UU the Vote / Democracy teams can do. 

We also discussed the process we are using to identify pro-democracy organizations that will assist us in building a Democracy Movement. There are five criteria we are using to evaluate them: 

1. Mission—Has a mission that clearly ties to building a democracy movement.
2. Grassroots Chapters—The organization has chapters or relationships with grassroots organizations in communities across the U.S. working to build a democracy movement.
3. Partnering—Builds partnerships/coalitions as part of the work they do.
4. Organizing Track Record—Has a track record that shows how effective they are as organizers.
5. Financially Sound—Appears to have sufficient funds to be sustainable.

• If you know of a group we might work with, please let us know: democracy@uusj.org
• If you haven’t seen it yet, you can find inspiration in a short, powerful interview with journalist Anand Giridharadas on MSNBC's Morning Joe about the critical need to build a pro-democracy movement. (share link: tinyurl.com/2cmcfepu)
• Let us know if your congregation would like to join the Leadership Team and form a DAT of your own: democracy@uusj.org

Noncitizen Voters, Vanishingly Rare

In response to statements by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA-4) earlier this month that he will push new legislation to prevent undocumented immigrants from voting in U.S. elections, the Brennan Center for Justice clarifies that noncitizens are not voting and explains why.

Sean Morales-Doyle reports on a new Brennan Center analysis that numerous deterrents against noncitizen voting already exist, and it is illegal under federal law and every state’s laws. He says that instead of cracking down on a vanishingly rare phenomenon, Congress should focus on guaranteeing the freedom to vote for eligible voters.

Tell Citi: Stop Investing in Environmental Racism

Join Rise St. James and Friends of the Earth, our allies in the People vs.Fossil Fuels coalition, asking Citi to divest from Formosa Plastics’ toxic Sunshine Project in St. James, LA.

Citi is the world’s second-largest financier of fossil fuel projects, providing $333 billion to the fossil fuel industry since the Paris Agreement was signed in late 2015. Fossil fuels — coal, oil, and gas — lie at the heart of so much racial injustice, as BIPOC and other marginalized groups bear the brunt of the harmful effects associated with extraction and downstream production.

Citi is also one of the most prominent U.S. financiers of Formosa Plastics Corporation and its subsidiaries. Formosa has a poor track record regarding the rights and safety of local communities and workers, the environment, and public health. Formosa plans to build one of the world’s largest petrochemical complexes in St. James Parish, LA, a community already overburdened with pollution from a dozen oil, gas, and petrochemical facilities.

Take action with this petition and ask Citi to stop financing Formosa Plastics.

A New Equilibrium on the Cost of Climate Change

In a recent paper in Nature, The economic commitment of climate change, Maximilian Kotz, Anders Levermann, and Leonie Wenz find a shocking result: the current impacts of climate change on economic growth will result in a 19% reduction in income for the world economy within the next 26 years. 

The authors find that the outcome is independent of our choices regarding future emissions. With such a “cost” due to climate change, the existing damages outweigh the projected mitigation expenditures to limit global warming to 2 °C. 

This analysis would imply that the funding needed to fix our emission problem is now lower than needed to continue the same emissions pattern. It seems we have reached a new equilibrium point. This is another solid data point showing it is time to act.

Climate Justice Revival: Reimagine Together
From an Extractive Age to a New Era

Co-sponsored by UUSJ, among others

September 28-29 
Learn more: uuclimatejustice.org

The Revival Planning Team will provide everything you need to engage, including facilitation toolkits, training, music, projects, coordinated justice action, and more—all designed to equip UU congregations to enter a new era of climate action. An era that intentionally and faithfully breaks down silos and cultivates relationships that lead to flourishing collaborations transforming our congregations through climate justice. Designed for every UU congregation of every size and budget, all you need to do is to appoint two volunteer facilitators, whom we will train to participate. See Frequently Asked Questions.

In short, no matter your congregation’s size or resources, you can join the effort to revive, reimagine, and reinspire climate justice! Together, we can move from a deadly extraction era to a flourishing era of connection. Ready to sign your congregation up? You can do so here.

Exclusive: Orgs Call On Leaders to Watch Immigration Rhetoric

Politico picked up an exclusive report regarding a letter UUSJ joined. The letter urged Congressional leadership to speak against the use of “profoundly vile and dangerous words” when speaking of immigrants. 

Daniella Diaz reports, “With border politics almost certain to play a major role in the November election, more than 150 organizations are calling on all four top congressional leaders to denounce rhetoric that dehumanizes immigrants.”

Ballooning Immigrant Detention Enrages Advocates

The Hill covered another letter UUSJ joined regarding our concern about the Biden administration’s dramatic change in approach to immigration detention. The letter outlines the administration’s early promises to de-privatize detention and close facilities with human rights abuses to today’s reality of historically high funding and persistent human rights abuses that continue to go unaddressed.

Rafael Bernal reports, “[A]dvocates and administration officials are operating under different paradigms of immigration policy: On one side mainly as an administrative field with broad humanitarian consequences, and on the other as a hybrid administrative and law enforcement matter subject to compulsory physical consequences and dependent on tactical deterrence.”

Progress on Work Permits

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is publishing a temporary final rule in the Federal Register to automatically extend the validity of Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) from 180 to 540 days. 

That is a significant first step! This means that 800,000 asylum seekers and other immigrants at risk of losing their work permits would remain eligible to work for at least another 360 days. While this is good news for many recent immigrants, long-term undocumented immigrants are upset and feel left out. 

UUSJ will continue to work with others, such as the #LetThemWork campaign and the American Business Immigration Coalition, to support work permits for additional groups of immigrants. You can also take action to #LetAsylumSeekersWork, and watch a powerful video, from our allies in the Let Asylum Seekers Work coalition.

Pressure for Work Permits

The effort to encourage President Biden to use executive action to extend work permits for long-term immigrants continues to build momentum. Over 100 state and local Latino elected officials nationwide have added their names to various letters. For example, Padilla, Durbin Urge President Biden to Take Executive Action to Provide Relief for Undocumented Immigrants (Sen. Padilla D-CA). 

Here is some media coverage:

• Biden Weighs Giving Legal Status to Immigrant Spouses of U.S. Citizens, WSJ
• State treasurer, auditor among Latino officials asking Biden for work visas for immigrants, Santa Fe New Mexican
• House’s ‘Three Amigos’ urge Biden, Mayorkas to move on work permits, The Hill
• Illinois Playbook; Migrant Moves, Politico
• New Migrants Get Work Permits. Other Undocumented Immigrants Want Them, Too, NYT

Of Appropriations and Immigration

First some good news in the FY2024 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill:

• Up to an additional $2.2 billion is available to ensure that asylum seekers are processed quickly and ports and other border facilities are not overcrowded—even though to get this funding, negotiators framed it as providing the Border Patrol with the tools it needs to improve border security. 
• Additionally, the bill provides nearly $30 million for family reunification efforts for the thousands of children separated from their families—even though we shouldn’t have allowed families to be separated in the first place.

Second some bad news in the FY2024 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill:

• While the bill continues funding for the Customs and Border Protection (CPB) Shelter and Services Program, with funds going to state and local governments and non-governmental organizations that partner with federal personnel at the border and elsewhere to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance, the funding level is not nearly adequate.  It cuts U.S. contributions by 20 percent to these organizations during growing needs. In addition, we would prefer that different federal departments and agencies rendered such welcoming services.
• The bill provides $91.3 million for refugee resettlement to continue America’s long tradition of welcoming people from across the globe seeking safety from persecution.  That represents a dramatic slash in funding for vital refugee accounts from prior years. Without further action from Congress, this lack of investment could result in historic cuts in programming and support for displaced populations. Also, that comes right as the administration seems to be considering a new border lockdown (Axios)
• Congress continues to well endow both Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and CBP despite their consistent militarization of the border and border communities.
• The package included nothing for Afghan Adjustment, so Congress has yet again failed Afghan arrivals, veterans, and the volunteers who have been helping them.

Buzzworthy article
Rethinking My Economics
by Nobel laureate Angus Deaton

Angus Deaton's recent blog post for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has people talking. He released it shortly before the G20 finance ministers convened at the Spring Meetings of the IMF and World Bank to discuss the state of the global economy and debate its future.

"Questioning one’s views as circumstances evolve can be a good thing”

Economics has achieved much; large bodies of often nonobvious theoretical understandings and careful and sometimes compelling empirical evidence exist. The profession knows and understands many things. Yet today, we are in some disarray. We did not collectively predict the financial crisis; worse still, we may have contributed to it through an overenthusiastic belief in the efficacy of markets, especially financial markets whose structure and implications we understood less well than we thought."  Review the full post.

G20 Sidebar
Since Brazil assumed the presidency of the G20 in December 2023, there have been some exciting developments in the world of tax justice. Most critically, in February 2024, finance ministers from G20 countries met in São Paulo, Brazil, and discussed instituting a global minimum tax on the world’s 2,781 billionaires.

Corporations Should Pay a Fair Share

A new survey by MomsRising and the National Women’s Law Center found that most voters support a childcare guarantee that ensures families have the quality care they deserve. Care workers have better pay and job quality. See the memo of findings.

Respondents strongly favor increasing taxes on wealthy corporations so they pay their fair share (82% favor) and also strongly favor increasing taxes on the wealthiest individuals. Hence, they pay their fair share (79% favor).

Reparations Could Secure the Black Vote

A new poll by Earn the Black Vote projected that an Executive Order to create a Reparations Commission would potentially mobilize an additional 150,000 Black voters for President Biden in Michigan in the 2024 general election. See the results and analysis here.

“[T] his poll will be a powerful confirmation of the need for a commission and will help drive the absolute necessity of such a vehicle to be implemented,” commented Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX-18), sponsor of H.R. 40, the “Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act.” 

UUSJ supports H.R. 40; you can take action to support the legislation.

Help Stop Major Expansion of Government Surveillance

The Brennan Center warns Congress is poised to enact the most significant expansion of government surveillance power since the Patriot Act. They are racing against the clock to convince the Senate to vote against a law that would force American businesses to work as spies for the National Security Agency (NSA) — and they want your help.

The NSA already has far too much power to spy on American citizens. But instead of reining in warrantless surveillance, lawmakers in the House voted to expand it. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) rightly said this provision “represents one of the most dramatic and terrifying expansions of government surveillance authority in history.”

Take action and send a quick message to your Senators with the Brennan Center.

Direct File Pilot Is A Success

The year one pilot of Direct File is complete. It was a resounding success. UUSJ is proud to be an advocate for free filing and to have participated in the outreach effort. Every American should be able to submit a free and direct file. 

As outreach for the pilot ramped up, taxpayers started telling other taxpayers about Direct File, and usage went exponential in the last few days, with Direct File blowing past 100,000 filers over the weekend before tax day.

The reviews of Direct File were glowing — here is some of that coverage:
(X-twitter)(The New Republic)(WaPo)(X-twitter)(Sen. Warren).

Commissioner Werfel’s hearing at the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday, April 16th, was very positive — a bit of a Direct File lovefest. Full highlights are here.

Tax Policy Articles:

• Nobody “Earns” a Billion Dollars. We Need a Wealth Tax, TruthOut
• The Middle Class Will Pay the Price for Trump’s Tax Cuts for the Wealthy, Including Repealing the Affordable Care Act, CAP
• The $6 Trillion Decision, TAP
• Combating market power through a graduated U.S. corporate income tax, WCEG
• One Expert's Tax Day Message: Fight Profiteering by Hiking the Corporate Tax Rate, Common Dream
• ‘The 401(k) industry owns Congress’: How lawmakers quietly passed a $300 billion windfall to the wealthy, Politico