Today’s Action: Tell House Democrats to reject Republican legislation manipulation

Freshly ousted from power in the House, Republicans have quickly resorted to cheap and damaging tricks to both injure progressive legislation AND Democratic reelection campaigns.

A motion to recommit (MTR) is a last-minute amendment to a bill (sometimes literally minutes before a vote), that can be used by a minority party to stop legislation from moving forward. Republicans aren’t just using MTR’s to block good legislation — they’ve adopted a divide-and-conquer strategy that House Democrats must recognize and unite against.

If you have a Democratic Representative, call or email and tell them to stand united in rejecting all GOP motions to recommit because they are offered in bad faith, designed to hurt progressive bills, and trap Democrats into positions that open them up to future attacks.

The GOP has been strategic in their MTRs since January, choosing right-wing topics that sway centrist Democrats. For example:

• In a bill strengthening background checks, 26 Democrats joined sides with Republicans and approved an MTR that requires reporting gun purchases by undocumented immigrants to ICE — a clear and unnecessary attack on immigrants.

• While voting for the resolution to end US involvement in the war in Yemen, Republicans added an unrelated MTR concerning anti-Semitic language, and (fearing unfair retribution) Democrats approved it. The result? Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell used the MTR to block the legislation in the Senate…Republicans won that battle and the death toll in Yemen continues to rise.

Insincerely propping up a genocide to continue a mass killing? We cannot condone this – but Democrats have allowed it, thanks to the bad-faith Republican MTRs. Unless Democrats work as a caucus to publicly reject these efforts, we’ll continue to see bad results from successful GOP tactics.

If your Representative is a Democrat, email or call (202.224.3121) them and demand they stand united against all bad-faith Republican motions to recommit. Tell them we cannot afford our progressive legislation to be marred by their divisive tricks.