https://truthout.org/articles/sanders-announces-hes-voting-no-on-778-bil...

The US Senate is set to vote for the National Defense Authorization Act of 2022 on Thursday. This is likely the most important action we each can take today:
Call Sen. Merkley and Wyden and tell them to join Bernie Sanders in voting No to the National Defense Authorization bill due for a vote in the Senate on Thursday.
They have both voted No before and they need to do it again. The budget proposed by Pres. Biden was an INCREASE over 1.4% billion over the last Trump war budget. And then the House and Senate Armed Services committee approved an additional $25B to the Biden war budget.
Sen Wyden is a 503-326-7525;
Sen Merkley is at 503.326.3386.

Tell them to vote no, but to approve any amendments which would decrease the budget. Sen. Bernie Sanders has proposed such an amendment. And he as said that he will vote no.

Please call every day.

David

Votes on HR4350 – National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) For Fiscal 2022 and certain amendments.

Link to Govtrack.us for this bill: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/117/hr4350

HR4350 is the first of two bills to enact the national war budget. The second bill will be the National Defense Appropriations Bill, later this year.

HR4350 was overwhelmingly enacted in the US House - 316 yes/113 no. The no vote was 38 Democrats and 75 Republicans. The yes vote was 181 Democrats; 135 Republicans. So this is a bipartisan win for war which would not have been enacted except for the strong Yes vote by the Democrats. In addition to the vote on the bill, there were lots of amendments offered, some of which got votes as well. This bill now moves to the US Senate for a vote. If they approve the bill with changes, a Joint Committee will be formed to work out the differences, with another vote required in both Senate and House to approve the compromise bill. Otherwise, it will go to the President for his signature. Below is the voting summary on certain amendments and the major bill by Oregon US Representatives.

Vote on HR 4350

If a voter as been classified as inactive by election authorities, should that person lose their ability to sign an initiative petition? That is the heart of a OR Supreme Court case now being argued.

The OR Secretary of State has said, “Yes, you should.” But her decision has been challenged in a case now before the OR Supreme Court.

Dan Meek, legal council for the OR Progressive Party, will argue on the Party’s behalf that the right of an inactive voter to sign petitions is retained by the voter and the signature should be counted, noting that prior decisions in Maryland and New York, both with similar constitutional language to Oregon’s, have found that inactive voters do not lose their right to sign just because they have been labeled inactive. As long as they meet the qualifications to be a registered voter, their signatures should be counted.

This is of interest to us at OPP because we have been active users of the initiative process. Mr Meek has pointed out that there are about 500,000 Inactive voters in Oregon and that in every signature drive, 3-5$ of all signatures are disqualified because the signers are labeled Inactive.
 

Support Rep. Lee legislation to cut Pentagon budget $350 billion.

Code Pink action is call for US Representatives to support Rep. Barbara Lee's legislation to cut US Defense Dept budget by $350 billion. https://www.codepink.org/leepentagon21 Note that at this point no OR Rep is co-sponsoring this legislation. We need to ask Sen. Merkley and Wyden to introduce this into the Senate as well.

Rep. Lee's bill here.https://www.codepink.org/leepentagon21 Note that at this point no OR Rep is co-sponsoring this legislation. We need to ask Sen. Merkley and Wyden to introduce this into the Senate as well. Rep. Lee's bill here. https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-resolution/476/text?q... "> The bill number is HR 476.

Find contact info for members of Congress here:  https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member