Repeal the ACA? Not so fast!

This week, we saw that constituent action really does have the power to peel Republican Members of Congress away from the Trump agenda—even ones you really might not expect.

During February recess, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), a vocal opponent of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), was confronted by constituents from Indivisible Ozark with powerful personal stories of how the ACA has made a difference in their lives. ¹ We didn’t know if Sen. Cotton would listen, but on Thursday, he came out with a surprising statement to House Republicans about their repeal bill: start over. ²

This is big news—and Cotton is not the only Republican distancing himself from the repeal bill. ³ Congress has a hunch that taking away health care from millions of people is going to be staggeringly unpopular with the American public. We need to make sure they keep getting that message! To make sure you’ve got all the tools ready at your fingertips to stand indivisible and save health care, we’ve collected all of our ACA-related resources (scripts, talking points, district-level data, and more) into one spot on our website: Save the ACA.

Senate mini-recess next week March 16–19. If you’re planning to attend a local event or town hall during the brief Senate recess next week, be sure to register your Indivisible Action on our website so other folks in your area can get involved. And if this is your first time attending a town hall event, check out our Town Hall Tips. for more information about how your group can best leverage the town hall. Your senator not holding a town hall? Check out the Missing Members Action Plan.

NEW! Weekly Resource Feature

Each week in this group leaders email, we’ll share a new resource document to help support the amazing work you are doing to stand indivisible every day. Each document will offer bite-sized, practical tips on the topics and skills you said were a priority in the Group Leaders Survey, from organizational management to recruitment and engagement to media and digital skills and more. This week, our team has created a document about knowing your rights during an interaction with law enforcement, as well as some explainers to help demystify Congress. Check them out below, and happy reading and sharing!

Your Constitutional Rights During Police Encounters

What are your rights if you have an encounter with law enforcement at a protest or march? Here’s a summary of what you should know—as well as a few additional tips about your group’s participation in protests: A Note on Police Encounters.

Demystifying Congress

Watching a major piece of legislation like the ACA repeal bill begin to move through the process may bring up a lot of questions for your group. Sometimes, how a bill becomes a law is a bit more complicated than what we all learned in Schoolhouse Rock! As former congressional staffers, we want to help out. Here are our the latest explainers on elements of congressional procedure, which we hope shed some light on what exactly Congress has been up to over the last few weeks.

• Legislative Process 101 – House of Representatives Committee Action
• What is the Congressional Budget Office?
• Regular Order in Congress

We’ll also be sharing resources from outside groups. This month, our friends at OFA are holding weekly webinars on organizing skills. Learn more here.

Please send us feedback on these resources, and let us know what else you’d like to see us produce—you can email field@indivisibleguide.com. This movement is only possible because of the work you and your local group are doing in your community every week to stand indivisible. We’re proud to stand with you, and we’ll keep doing everything we can to make sure you’ve got the support you need to keep doing this work for the long haul. This week, keep up the fight. If we stand indivisible, we will win.

In solidarity,

The Indivisible Guide team

P.S. We want to amplify your group’s voice! Keep sharing your pictures, videos, and stories with us at stories@indivisibleguide.com, use #indivisible and tag @IndivisibleTeam on Twitter, or post them to Facebook.com/IndivisibleGuide

¹ Angry Constituents Hammer Tom Cotton At Town Hall: ‘Do Your Job’
² Trump’s ‘wingman’ just put up a big stop sign on Obamacare replacement
³ The Republicans who could tell Trump to take a hike on health care

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