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Back to Citizen Congress Watch Citizen Congress Watch What is it? Non Partisan and Independent Citizen Congress Watch in Districts and States is the Communication Conduit for Activist Citizens, to plan direct grassroots actions to bring to the attention when their representatives are not acting in the Citizens best interest. Citizens need to know how their Congresspersons stand on issues and vote on bills before them. Citizens need to know, from whom do our legislators receive corporate campaign contributions and how do those contributions effect their voting. Citizens need to know what bills truly mean and how those bills will affect them. An example, “The misnamed "Clear Skies" initiative expands the pollution trading system so some communities will get cleaner, but many communities will lose out on cleaner air. Even if the plan caused some net reductions in pollution, many communities would still be threatened by more pollution.” The double speak that a citizen is confronted with is how can an amendment named clear skies be bad? Yet, reports showed that instead of benefiting the environment, the legislation would have weakened existing regulations. Another, law that was passed was called the “Help America Vote Act”. By the title of the Law many citizens might think what a great thing it is to help our fellow citizens to vote. Reality is this law does not require a paper record of voter’s ballots. It promoted Electronic machines many of which have no paper audit trail. Many of these Electronic Machines have been shown to be open to tampering.What Direct Actions? First and one of the most important actions is to communicate to other citizens what our representatives are up to. We all have different comfort levels and skill sets. We can challenge ourselves on these. However, you may want to start with one of the following activities, researcher, letter to the editor writer, phone banker, issue campaign chair, information speaker, neighborhood coordinator, congressperson/senator office protester. Different levels and commitments all of them important. As you become more well versed keep in mind that talking directly to you friends, neighbors and any one you come in contact with can cause grassroots change. |