September 07th, 2023

Bentz, DeRemer Accountability Teams (BAT/DRAT)
outline actions to prevent government shutdown

​

The Consolidated Online Indivisible Network's Cliff Bentz and Lori Chavez DeRemer Accountability Teams (BAT/DRAT) sent the following message on Sept. 5:
This Week’s Issue Is: 
Republicans want to hold America hostage - again - by threatening another government shutdown if their demands on abortion, transgender care, “witch hunts”, and funding to Ukraine are not met.


What We Want Cliff and Lori to Do: 


Reject House Republicans’ threats to shut down the government and - instead - support our economy and their constituents’ economic livelihood.


Optional Talking Points, and What You Need To Know:

• A government shutdown would have devastating consequences for low-income Americans because all but “essential” federal agencies would close their doors.
• House conservatives known as the Freedom Caucus has issued a list of demands that it wants included in a short-term funding bill this September, including initiatives to stop the Justice Department and FBI from conducting what the group calls political “witch hunts” and opposition to “blank check” funding to Ukraine.
• They want to prevent the federal government from providing abortion and gender affirming care by aiming to eliminate or curtail these programs from the spending bills before Congress.

 

• Childcare:
  • A shutdown would stop child care funding provided under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), a $1.9 trillion COVID relief package passed in 2021.
  • Up to 30,000 child care programs across the US could be lost – affecting up to 3 million families that may have to leave the workforce because they can't afford child care. 
  • The loss of those jobs would reverberate throughout the economy.
  • In Oregon, public funding plays a major role in creating Oregon’s child care supply, especially for preschoolers.
  • 27% of Clackamas County’s licensed childcare providers have children who utilize publicly funded services.
  • In Linn County, lack of affordable childcare prevents parents from working.
  • The Oregon child care crisis means that Deschutes County is particularly dependent on ARPA funding.

 

• Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP): Though funding for the SNAP program is mandatory, the ability to send out “food stamp” benefits could be affected by a shutdown. During any shutdown, stores are not able to renew their Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card licenses, so those whose licenses expire would not be able to accept SNAP benefits during a shutdown.

 

• Health and Human Services: Of particular concern are formula grant programs such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF, sometimes described as “cash welfare”). The National Institutes of Health (NIH) would also be prevented from admitting new patients or processing other grant applications.

 

• Good news - Internal Revenue Service (IRS): Unlike previous shutdowns, normal IRS operations would continue because of President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). All 83,000 employees would be exempt from furlough! Well done Mr. President! 

 

• Shutdowns cost money:
  • Putting contingency plans in place has a real cost.
  • Many user fees and other charges are not collected during a shutdown.
  • Federal contractors sometimes include premiums in their bids to account for uncertainty in being paid. 
  • While many federal employees are forced to be idle during a shutdown, they have historically received and are now guaranteed back pay, negating much of those potential savings. 
  • Official estimates of the 2013 government shutdown found that $2.5 billion of pay and benefits were paid to furloughed employees for hours not worked during the shutdown, as well as roughly $10 million of penalty interest payments and lost fee collections.

 

• Shutdowns carry a cost to the economy:
  • The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the 2018-2019 shutdown reduced Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by a total of $11 billion, including $3 billion that will never be recovered. 
  • On top of that, longer shutdowns negatively affect private-sector investment and hiring decisions as businesses cannot obtain federal permits and certifications, or access federal loans.

 

• Shutdowns wastes taxpayer money:
  • Short-term funding (Continuing Resolutions, or CR’s) usually continue funding at the past year’s level without any regard for changing policy needs or the value of each program within an agency. 
  • Using a CR wastes hundreds of hours of careful consideration and program evaluation incorporated into each agency’s budget submission. (For instance, the President’s annual budget proposes a list of eliminations and reductions of programs that are duplicative or ineffective; a CR will continue to fund these unwanted programs). 
  • CRs disrupts activities within agencies, makes it difficult to plan or start future projects, and costs staff time to revise work plans every time the budget changes.

This would not be the first time Republicans held America hostage:

• During the 2013 shutdown, a backlog of 1.2 million income and Social Security number verification requests delayed mortgage and other loan approvals, and billions of dollars of tax refunds were also delayed. At least 26,000 furloughed IRS employees were recalled to work during the 2018-2019 shutdown in preparation for tax season, but 14,000 did not show up to work without pay.
• A 2019 Senate report found that the three government shutdowns in 2013, 2018, and 2019 cost taxpayers nearly $4 billion.
• As noted above, the 2018-2019 shutdown reduced Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by a total of $11 billion, including $3 billion that will never be recovered.

Tell Cliff/Lori why this matters to YOU personally. Here’s a sample postcard or call script:


Dear Rep Bentz or Rep Chavez DeRemer, 


Please do not play Russian Roulette with your constituents’ economic well being. Reject any possible government shutdown this fall. Prove that you are fiscally responsible by opposing another blow to our economy and families’ ability to thrive. 


(For those writing to Bentz, who often touts his Catholic beliefs, perhaps it would be in order to mention the fact that the Catholic Social Justice Network advocates for the same thing that we are asking him to do this week.)


Please call or write by this Friday, September 8.




For a deeper dive into today’s topic
  

• Childcare:
  • How Another Shutdown Will Affect Families
  • Oregon's Childcare Deserts
  • American Rescue Plan explained 

 

• Abortion: How Republicans plan to shut down federal funding for it
• Gender Affirming Care: How Republicans plan to shut down federal funding for it

 

• What Is A Government Shutdown?
• Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Ways of Funding Government

………………………………………………………………………………………………………


BAT / DRAT Contact Info for Cliff and Lori and Other Reminders
 
Postcard reminders

• If you write a postcard:
  • Sign your postcard with your first and last name, and the city or county you live in.
  • Stick a 51-cent stamp on it and please put it in the mail by this Friday, September 8.
  • Take a picture of your postcard and post it on your Twitter account, tagging @cliff_truth or @truth_lori. 
• If you have suggestions for topics for our weekly message, or if you’d like to help us write one, please email us at or.bat.drat@gmail.com.  
• Follow the BAT/DRAT Teams on social media at
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TellTheTruthCliff and https://www.facebook.com/TellTheTruthLori.
  • Twitter: @cliff_truth or  https://twitter.com/cliff_truth and @truth_lori or  https://twitter.com/truth_lori.

Contact information to send postcards and emails or to call Cliff/Lori:


Cliff:

• Mail - 409 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, D.C.  20515; 2430 SW 4th Ave. #2, Ontario, OR 97914; 14 N. Central Avenue, Ste. 112, Medford, OR  97501
• Email - https://bentz.house.gov/contact 

• Phone - Washington, DC (202) 225-6730; Ontario (541) 709-2040; Medford (541) 776-4646

Lori:

• Mail - 1722 Longworth House Office Bldg. Washington, D.C.  20515; 621 High Street, Oregon City, OR  97045; 2757 NW. 7th St., suite D, Redmond, OR 97756
• Email - Not available
• Phone - Washington, DC (202) 225-5711; Oregon City 503-387-8651; Redmond 971-403-8940

If you write an LTE:

• For links to newspapers in CD2 and LTE-writing tips, click here. For links to CD5 newspapers, click here.
• Share it with others on the BAT/DRAT team by emailing it to us at or.bat.drat@gmail.com or post it on your FaceBook page, tagging https://www.facebook.com/TellTheTruthLori or https://www.facebook.com/TellTheTruthCliff.  
• If your LTE gets published, please send us a link if there’s an online version or send us a photo of the print version, again, to or.bat.drat@gmail.com. 

If this week’s topic doesn’t move you to write an LTE, check out our past LTE Messages folder or previous Postcard Message Topics that can be adapted to LTEs.