Medicare for All is making more sense to more and more people (it has always made sense to us). Resolutions backing the national campaign passed in Annapolis’ council last week and looks to pass in Montgomery’s council this week. The New Era project is under way and the critical needs of our communities are on the line -- including health care and the welfare of kids, in the classroom and out. 

 And we lost Rep. John Lewis, champion of civil rights and voting rights, a year ago this week. The bill named for him, which would help ward off anti-voter craziness such as the Texas GOP is up to, is struggling in Congress. Join that struggle. Check it all out in this week’s memo.

Thank you for being part of this movement. 

Health and welfare. Any questions? PM Weekly Memo for Monday, July 19 2021

Medicare for All is making more sense to more and more people (it has always made sense to us). Resolutions backing the national campaign passed in Annapolis’ council last week and looks to pass in Montgomery’s council this week. The New Era project is under way and the critical needs of our communities are on the line -- including health care and the welfare of kids, in the classroom and out. 

 And we lost Rep. John Lewis, champion of civil rights and voting rights, a year ago this week. The bill named for him, which would help ward off anti-voter craziness such as the Texas GOP is up to, is struggling in Congress. Join that struggle. Check it all out in this week’s memo.

Thank you for being part of this movement. 

In Solidarity,

The PM Team

Quick Actions:

• Contribute to support progressive candidates in next year’s election, the primary is less than a year away!
• Volunteer to support progressive candidates in next year’s election!
• Call Gov. Hogan (410 974-3901) - tell him to restore unemployment insurance benefits without work search requirements.
• Support our campaigns and our statewide organizing by becoming a full member
• Join us on Slack to continue the conversation

Statewide Updates:

The New Era Project

Join Ian Miller and the New Era Project next Monday July 26th for our Baltimore County party over zoom! RSVP for the event here!

The time for status quo politics is over and a new generation of political activists and representatives will make that happen. However, we need the resources and people power to get the job done. The New Era Project needs your help to get more progressive leaders elected to office.

We want to hear from you! We’re meeting progressive activists where they are, in the communities they serve, to hear what is important to them as we gear up for the 2022 election. Join us and meet the voices that will help make Maryland the most progressive state in the country!

Our following event is next Thursday July 29  at the Olde Towne Inn, 14745 Main St, Upper Marlboro, MD 20772 in Upper MarlboroRSVPSupport

We’re planning more of these events to help us meet progressive activists where they are and to hear what is important to them and the communities they serve as we get ready for next year’s critical election. .please contact Yves. 

Healthcare Justice Campaign 

Medicare For All: 

Breaking News! The Montgomery County Council introduced a Medicare For All Resolution on July 13. The Resolution language  was drafted by leaders from the Maryland Progressive Healthcare Coalition and Progressive Maryland.  (WATCH HERE) A vote on the Resolution by the Council  is expected tomorrow, July 20. We appreciate the strong support for the measure in particular from Council Members Albornoz, Jawando, Hucker, Navarro and Glass who  met with our local leaders to discuss how Medicare For All can help address and solve  all the shortcomings and problems with the U.S. healthcare system. 

We’re poised to  build  on the momentum! Please contact Josh or Malcolm   to learn about opportunities with our Medicare For All campaign:  text banking, deep canvassing helping with our Teach In program and our meetings with elected officials.  WIth your help we can push to get more of our  Congressional Delegation to sponsorMedicare For All Act of 2021, HB 1976.

The Annapolis City Council unanimously  passed a Medicare For All Resolution on Monday July 12. Congratulations to those elected officials and to the great local leaders  and volunteers from Our Revolution AACO who have been organizing, rallying and doing education on M4A with voters and elected officials over the past few years.

Global Vaccine Equity 

We took to the streets of New York City last week to demand that Pfizer, the WTO, and leaders from high income countries like Germany do everything in their power to free the vaccine and vaccine patents and know how for the rest of the world. Protecting and saving lives has to be put ahead of the  profiteering and stalling tactics of Big Pharma.  People’s Action, Justice is Global,  and state partners like Progressive Maryland joined with  activists from several other organizations to elevate our collective message about the urgent need to get shots into the arms of hundreds of millions of people across the globe. Here is some of the coverage of the events:  In These Times   AMNewYork

Want to get more involved?  Please sign up to help with outreach on this issue in the next few months; we’re getting postcards to the Biden Administration and doing letters to the editor. Contact Patty for details.

Local Chapter Updates:

Progressive Montgomery

Want to get involved with our local economic, health and environmental justice campaigns? 

Please contact Josh this week!

Progressive Harford County 

Thank you to everyone who attended the happy hour for Progressive Harford County and the Young Democrats of Harford County at TB3 Bar & Grill -- now it's time to get the four committees (field, outreach, communications and research) active and doing grassroots work for Progressive Harford County. Anyone interested in getting involved with the organization needs to complete the Progressive Harford County Interest Form by Monday, July 26, which will line up issues and interests. Then we will start forming the four committees. Save the date: The New Era Project is coming to Harford County on August 12 at 6:30 p.m. Join us to learn how the New Era Project can help elect progressives in Harford County and across the state. RSVP today to reserve your spot and a location will be provided upon registration.

Progressive Prince George’s 

Marlin Payne Cordially Invites You to Support  Progressive Maryland’s New Era Project 

Thursday, July 29th  6:30-8pm at the Olde Towne Inn, 14745 Main St, Upper Marlboro, MD 20772 RSVP

The style of “play-it-safe” politics that has been the status quo for Democrats in Maryland and across the  country is obsolete for the new age we are entering – we need bold progressive leadership for this new era!  The New Era Project and the New Era PAC will train and fund the campaigns of bold progressive candidates  and campaign leaders to build a political revolution in our state.  

Read more about the project in the Baltimore Sun and Maryland Matters.  

Individual $50 • Supporter $100 • Friend $250 Co-Host $500 • Host $1,000  

Please contribute online at:  

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/newerajuly29th  Questions? Please contact Aaron Jarboe at [email protected] 

Progressive Baltimore County

Join Ian Miller and the New Era Project next Monday July 26th for our Baltimore County party over zoom! The time for status quo politics is over and a new generation of political activists and representatives will make that happen. However, we need the resources and people power to get the job done. The New Era Project needs your help to get more progressive leaders elected to office.

We want to hear from you! We’re meeting progressive activists where they are, in the communities they serve, to hear what is important to them as we gear up for the 2022 election. Join us and meet the voices that will help make Maryland the most progressive state in the country!

RSVP for the event here!

State and National News:  

Economic Justice For Unemployed Marylanders

Larry Hogan has failed -- utterly -- to prematurely end $300 supplementary federal unemployment insurance payments for more than 170,000 Marylanders. The state’s judiciary gave him more “hell, no” than Trump’s lawyers got in their pilgrimage with the Big Lie. So the supplemental payment will continue. Meanwhile the state lost over 7,000 jobs last month, so where are these business types who say workers are just lazy and they are desperate for workers? They haven’t noticed that the lights have changed, apparently. Hogan’s Zeroes in the state labor bureaucracy will go all Mean Larry and resume demanding evidence of job seeking this week anyway.

National Priorities from People’s Action (our national affiliate)

The two-track Senate action this week kinda involves big money: from Matt Hayward of the Congressional Progressive Caucus Center...the Senate has two goals before it leaves for August recess: 1) pass the bipartisan infrastructure framework (BIF) and 2) pass a budget resolution teeing up the rest of the Build Back Better priorities for a reconciliation bill. And the timing for those goals is taking shape. Here is the latest estimated timing (with the obligatory caveat that everything is speculative and subject to change):

• Right now: Senate Democratic leadership is whipping both BIF and a $3.5 trillion budget resolution. The details of both are still getting worked out.
• Today: Monday (July 19): Majority Leader Schumer will set up a procedural vote (motion to proceed) to begin consideration of BIF.
• Wednesday (July 21): The Senate will take a cloture vote (60-vote threshold) on the motion to proceed to BIF. This is the first real test of whether 60 votes are actually there.

Speaking of big money, checks for the Child Tax Credit are arriving in bank accounts of those households that have filed tax returns -- but up to ten percent of eligible households won’t get it routinely because they don’t file and don’t have to file. So they may not know about this important form of support.  Get the word out! Use this Non-filer Sign-up Tool Help Guide (PDF - English and Spanish). This guide tells people what to gather ahead of time and walks people step-by-step through filling out the Tool. 

Sign on in support of drug decriminalization: Reps. Bonnie Watson-Coleman & Cori Bush recently introduced the Drug Policy Reform Act of 2021 - the first federal drug decriminalization bill. Check this summary of the contents of the bill here.  

“No Climate, No Deal”: Green New Deal Network is starting to build towards a National Day of Action on Thursday, August 19th when Congress is on recess and legislators are back in the district. This will be a critical time to keep the pressure on and demonstrate that the people want the infrastructure deal to be passed. Here is a sample Digi Calendar that the GNDN has put together to build towards the date. 

To fill out the two-track strategic array in the reconciliation package, Rep. Jamaal Bowman has just dropped a bill linking the GND to schools recovery and resiliency with a strong through-line of union empowerment. It already has 22 co-sponsors. Organizations including national Democratic Socialists of America are building a rapid-response strategic approach to get this in the package.

Housing: This week, House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters (D-CA) introduced two major housing bills – the “Housing is Infrastructure Act” to boost availability of affordable rentals and the Ending Homelessness Act to create a universal housing voucher entitlement program, phased in over 10 years, to ensure that every eligible household can receive rental assistance.

Events from Our Allies:

TONIGHT (July 19) 7pm | Racially Charged: America’s Misdemeanor Problem

Reel and Meal virtually presents Racially Charged: America’s Misdemeanor Problem, a film by Robert Greenwald. George Floyd was murdered for the misdemeanor crime of using a counterfeit $20 bill. A sad history how misdemeanors became a backdoor form of slavery. Free, but advance registration is required. Sponsored by Utopia Film Festival. Visit Facebook page for more info.

Progressive Maryland BlogSpace:

We value creating space for our members to express their thoughts on any issues related to our campaigns. Have an idea for a blog post? You can submit writing, film, graphic design etc. to be published on our website to the blog moderator, Woody, at [email protected].  

July 16, 2021 The War on Drugs is a war on people like me

"The War on Drugs has been with us for more than fifty years, and hasn’t been a war on drugs at all. It’s been a war on people: people like me, and my family. Black people.”

July 13, 2021  Hogan admin stymied in attempt at early Unemployment Insurance cutoff

Enhanced unemployment benefits provided by the Biden administration will last at least well into August despite attempts by Larry Hogan to burnish his credentials as a standard GOP scourge of working families by unilaterally discontinuing their payment. Justice (and judges) prevail.

Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Monday, July 12, 2021

What’s on this week? The wearying but exciting awareness that the 2022 primary is less than a year away and progressive candidates are converging on that opportunity. We will support them. 

June 25, 2021 Unfinished business in the Assembly: where is the progressive impulse?

A former progressive member of the Maryland General Assembly asks: Why doesn’t more progressive legislation get passed in the General Assembly? 

June 23, 2021 How the War on Drugs has warped priorities and ruined lives for 50 years

We're passing the post on the 50th Anniversary of the start of the War on Drugs. After enduring 50 years of the War on Drugs and witnessing its devastating effects on our communities, we feel it is important to change this policy now and pursue a public health and harm reduction approach. Join us to make change in this crucial area.

June 21, 2021 Solidifying the past, looking to the future

New research finds the general well-being of children here in Maryland has fallen from 21st among the states to 24th, with 157,000 children living in households with income below the poverty line. And that was before the pandemic. Access to the full report is included in the article from Maryland Matters.

June 18, 2021 JTF Statement on Juneteenth 2021

More than 150 years after abolishing chattel slavery in the Confederate States, we join the United States of America as it celebrates what has always been an important tradition for Black Americans. As we celebrate, we understand that being 150 years removed from a 400 year institution of depravity means that the fight for the real liberation of Black Americans is not over.