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The top three Democrats in the House announced late Thursday night that they will vote against the annual defense bill, signaling that a large chunk of the Democratic Caucus will oppose the must-pass legislation when it comes to the floor for a final vote Friday.

The announcement from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) came shortly after the chamber approved a number of conservative amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), including ones pertaining to hot-button issues such as abortion, transgender rights and diversity and inclusion initiatives.

The inclusion of those measures — which were adopted in largely party-line votes — is setting the scene for the NDAA, typically a bipartisan undertaking, to see widespread opposition from Democrats.

“Extreme MAGA Republicans have chosen to hijack the historically bipartisan National Defense Authorization Act to continue attacking reproductive freedom and jamming their right-wing ideology down the throats of the American people,” the Democratic trio wrote in a joint statement.

They continued, writing that Republicans “have turned what should be a meaningful investment in our men and women in uniform into an extreme and reckless legislative joyride.”

“The bill undermines a woman’s freedom to seek abortion care, targets the rights of LGBTQ+ servicemembers and bans books that should otherwise be available to military families,” they added.

The NDAA is set to hit the floor for a final vote Friday morning.

The statement from leadership follows similar announcements from top Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee, which advanced the initial legislation 58-1, and the New Democrat Coalition, which represents about 100 centrist Democrats.

“We worked with our colleagues in committee to pass a bill in an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote that invested in the greatest sources of America’s national strength: service members and their families, innovation and technology, allies and partners, and our defense industrial base and military readiness,” the Armed Services Democrats wrote.

But, they continued, “That bill no longer exists.”

The most controversial amendment added to the NDAA on Thursday was a measure that would reverse the Pentagon’s policy to reimburse travel expenses for service members who get abortions. That policy is what has led Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) to block hundreds of military promotions in the upper chamber in protest.

The House adopted the amendment to reverse the policy in a 221-213 vote. Two Republicans — Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.) and John Duarte (Calif.) — opposed the measure, while Rep. Henry Cuellar (Texas) was the only Democrat to support it.

The chamber also approved amendments that pertain to transgender rights, diversity initiatives and the promotion of what many conservatives refer to as “woke” ideas.

Democratic leadership’s opposition to the defense bill signals that Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) will have to rely heavily on his Republican colleagues to get the NDAA over the finish line. That, however, could prove to be a heavy lift with a narrow majority, as at least one GOP lawmaker was already planning to vote no and others remain undecided.

If all Democrats vote “no,” McCarthy can only afford to lose a handful of Republicans.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) announced Thursday that she will vote against the bill after her amendment striking $300 million of Ukraine funding authorization from the bill failed. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) told The Hill late Thursday night that he was “leaning no,” while Reps. Bob Good (R-Va.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said they have not yet decided how they will vote.

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Original story HERE.

With negotiations between UPS and the Teamsters halted, the union is poised to begin the largest single-employer strike in American history Aug. 1.

Both UPS and the Teamsters say the other group walked away from negotiations around 4 a.m. on July 5.

The current contract runs until midnight July 31. Even if a contract agreement is reached before the deadline, it will still take time for the national union to vote on and ratify a contract and the union has said it will not work past July 31 without a fully-ratified contract.

A strike could disrupt supply chains nationwide. According to UPS, the company transports more than 3% of the global Gross Domestic Product (GPD) and roughly 6% of the United States GDP every day.

But the Teamsters aren't only an economic force in the U.S. — they are important politically. The union regularly endorses candidates for elections at state and federal levels. The Teamsters' political action committee, Democratic, Republican, Independent Voter Education (DRIVE), spent $14.39 million during the 2022 election cycle, according to public records.

As a potential strike looms, dozens of politicians have voiced support for the Teamsters on social media, with some visiting practice picket lines across the country.

Here's a look at what politicians are saying about the situation:

Gov. Andy Beshear

"In Kentucky, we have 14,619 @Teamsters members that work hard every day at UPS to provide for their families. Good wages and healthcare are not only what these hard working Kentuckians have earned and deserve, but it also will help grow and drive our economy for years to come," Beshear, a Democrat, tweeted.

Rep. Morgan McGarvey

"I stand in solidarity with 340,000 hardworking #UPSTeamsters who are taking an important stand for workers rights & working families. They deserve a fair contract with good wages, safe working conditions & better healthcare & retirement benefits. When our workers win, we all win," McGarvey, a Democrat, tweeted.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

"This city has your back, this country has your back, everyday people have your back, because you're not just fighting for yourselves. You are fighting to raise the standard for all working people in this country," Ocasio-Cortez said in a speech to UPS workers.

Sen. Bernie Sanders

"If UPS can spend over $8.4 billion on stock buybacks and dividends this year, it can afford to provide better wages, benefits, and working conditions to its employees," Sanders, an Independent, tweeted.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi

"Unions are the backbone of our middle class and America's working families. I proudly stand with the 340,000 @Teamsters at UPS who are exercising their right to organize. Their tireless work keeps our economy moving — and they deserve dignity, respect and a fair contract," Pelosi, a Democrat, tweeted.

Rep. Max Miller

"Both @UPS & @Teamsters are invaluable to America’s Economic Security. #UPSTeamsters deserve a fair contract. Both sides should continue to negotiate in good faith. This is not a time for government interference," Miller, a Republican, tweeted.

Rep. Katherine Clark

"@UPS @Teamsters work tirelessly to deliver for families and keep our economy moving forward. They deserve safe conditions, affordable benefits, and a fair contract. Let’s come together and secure a deal that supports workers and the services families rely on," Clark, a Democrat, tweeted.

Rep. Greg Landsman

"Standing with the hundreds of thousands of UPS @Teamsters who are fighting for what we want for all workers: better wages and a better life," Landsman, a Democrat, tweeted.

Rep. Marc Molinaro

"I’m grateful to the UPS @teamsters for their hard work and dedication. They deserve a fair contract and thanks for being there to deliver for us," Molinaro, a Republican, tweeted.

Brad Lander

"This morning I joined @804_local’s practice strike in Maspeth. Workers generated $13 billion in profits for @UPS last year. It's in the best interest of the company to #PayUp the wages and benefits that UPS @Teamsters are rightly demanding," Lander, New York City's comptroller and a Democrat, tweeted.

Rep. Jamaal Bowman

"Proud to join UPS @teamsters in Mount Vernon to demand a fair contract, and otherwise they're ready to shut it down. Let's go!!" Bowman, a Democrat, tweeted.

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Original story HERE.

Many Democrats quickly criticized Thursday's affirmative action decision, including President Biden and Vice President Harris. Massachusetts Democratic Congresswoman and House Minority Whip Katherine Clark joins "America Decides" to discuss the Supreme Court ruling and how her party is planning to respond.

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Original story HERE.

A year after the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization stripped women of nearly 50 years of constitutional protection to make their own health-care decisions, women have faced trauma and near-death experiences and been deprived of medical care. That includes women who never contemplated having an abortion. The Dobbs-aggravated shortage of doctors practicing obstetrics-gynecology, especially in rural areas, leaves millions of women without access to health care.

A recent KFF survey of 569 OB/GYNs underscores the health-care crisis Dobbs has wrought. Twenty percent of respondents “report they have personally felt constraints on their ability to provide care for miscarriages and other pregnancy-related medical emergencies since the Dobbs decision.” Forty-four percent of doctors “and six in ten practicing in states where abortion is banned or where there are gestational limits, say their decision-making autonomy has become worse since the Dobbs ruling.” And 36 percent nationally “say their ability to practice within the standard of care has become worse.”

And here’s the worst of it: “Most OBGYNs (68%) say the ruling has worsened their ability to manage pregnancy-related emergencies. Large shares also believe that the Dobbs decision has worsened pregnancy-related mortality (64%), racial and ethnic inequities in maternal health (70%) and the ability to attract new OBGYNs to the field (55%).”

And if advocates of forced birth thought they were creating a baby boom, they may have miscalculated. More than half of OB/GYNs nationally report that women are seeking contraception in greater numbers, especially through sterilization (43 percent) and IUDs and implants (47 percent). In short, women are making decisions that may preclude them from ever getting pregnant because they fear being trapped by forced-birth laws.

Given those findings and the trail of horror stories about women denied proper care, it’s no surprise that support for Roe v. Wade has never been higher. A recent NBC News poll found that 6 in 10 voters oppose the court’s action, including “nearly 80% of female voters ages 18-49, two-thirds of suburban women, 60% of independents and even a third of Republican voters.” Young voters are especially shaken by the decision. Nearly 75 percent of college students say their decision to stay at their college is at least somewhat affected by abortion laws, according to a Lumina Foundation-Gallup poll.

The New York Times reported on the shift in public opinion:

For the first time, a majority of Americans say abortion is ‘morally acceptable.’ Most now believe abortion laws are too strict. They are significantly more likely to identify, in the language of polls, as ‘pro-choice’ over ‘pro-life,’ for the first time in two decades. … While Republicans and those identifying as ‘pro-life’ have historically been most likely to see abortion as a litmus test, now they are less motivated by it, while Democrats and those identifying as “pro-choice” are far more so. …

[And] there were sudden and significant jumps in support for legalized abortion post-Dobbs among some groups, including Republican men and Black Protestants.

It’s not just polls that reveal the shift. In the 2022 midterms, numerous Democrats in swing seats leaned into the abortion issue and won. And a pro-choice judge notched a double-digit win in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court race in April. Ballot propositions protecting abortion rights have won in all contests since Dobbs. At a time when Republicans are struggling to hold on to women and suburban voters, the abortion issue may substantially affect voting patterns for years to come.

House Democrats’ Pro-Choice Caucus and every House Democratic leader, including former speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), held a news conference Friday highlighting their effort to force an up-or-down vote on the Women’s Health Protection Act that would enshrine Roe in federal law. Democrats, who have 210 votes from their side for the discharge petition, challenged Republicans to come up with the eight additional votes needed to force a vote. Calling Dobbs part of the “Supreme Court hall of shame,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) excoriated the court, saying it had “restricted and limited and undermined freedom for women all across America.” A number of Democrats spoke passionately about the suffering inflicted on women by what they called a “corrupt” Supreme Court filled with “right-wing co-conspirators.”

Friday’s speakers decried the assault on personal “freedom,” a value Democrats appear more than ready to embrace as Republicans ban abortions, ban books and target the LGBTQ+ community. Women’s suffering and humiliation are motivating Democrats to accuse Republicans of turning women into second-class citizens. For years, many Democrats avoided even using the word “abortion”; now, they’re putting abortion in the larger context of freedom, dignity and self-determination.

In North Carolina on Saturday, Vice President Harris delivered a stirring speech, stressing that “extremist Republicans in Congress have proposed to ban abortion nationwide. Nationwide. But I have news for them: We’re not having that.” She added: “The majority of Americans, I do believe, agree that one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government should not be telling her what to do with her body.”

Moreover, Democrats leave little doubt they will put abortion front and center in 2024. On Friday, Pelosi vowed, “It played a big role in the last election. It will be even bigger in the next election.” Democrats clearly recognize that abortion access unites Democrats, independents and many Republicans. Harris, pointing out that 23 million women live in states with “extreme” abortion bans, declared on Saturday, “All of us are now called upon to advance the promise of freedom.”

I spoke to House Democratic Whip Katherine M. Clark (Mass.) in her Capitol Hill office on Friday. She said Dobbs “shocked but did not surprise” her because she had held out some small hope that the court would reconsider in the wake of the national outcry last year after Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.’s draft opinion leaked. The sort of GOP “extremism we are seeing,” she said, “is so out of step with their constituents.” Citing Republicans’ votes against birth control access (only eight House Republicans voted last year to support a bill to protect contraception) and against maternal care and parental leave, as well as GOP efforts to ban an FDA-approved drug used for not only abortion but also treatment after miscarriage, she sees a unified effort to “bludgeon” women and deny them health care.

Clark is incensed by the intrusion of courts and politicians into women’s “fundamental right to make their own decisions” about the most personal matters imaginable. “This is just a move to make women second-class citizens,” she declared. Do Democrats have the wherewithal to sustain the fight over years if need be? With a look of defiance, she insisted, “This is part of my mission. We are not shying away from this issue.”

Millions of women, and men, pray she is right.

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Original story HERE.

There’s another push in Congress to give federal protection for the right to access birth control after similar efforts failed last year.

Congressional Democrats have reintroduced the Right to Contraception Act, which codifies the right for individuals to access and use birth control and for healthcare providers to provide it, according to the bill’s sponsors.

“It protects the full range of FDA approved contraceptive methods including birth control pills, IUDs and emergency contraceptives like Plan B,” said Rep. Kathy Manning (D-NC), a sponsor of the House bill.

“Your healthcare is your business,” said Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA). “This is fundamentally about freedom.”

Supporters say it’s necessary after last year’s U.S. Supreme Court reversal of Roe v. Wade, which overturned the federal right to abortion.

It’s also in direct response to conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas signaling he wants the high court to reconsider birth control access, too.

“We have a good reason to be gravely concerned about access to contraception,” said Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), a sponsor of the Senate bill. “The Right to Contraception Act would set the bare minimum standard that the right to contraception should be protected even if the Supreme Court overturns settled precedent.”

Nearly all U.S. women who have been sexually active have used some form of birth control at some point in their lives, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

The proposal in Congress comes as at least ten states have passed some kind of restriction on access to emergency contraception.

Those states include Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Dakota and Texas, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

This is the second time Congressional Democrats have introduced the bill.

It passed in the House last year, but it was blocked by Senate Republicans.

In last year’s House vote, 195 Republicans voted against the measure.

“H.R. 8373 is a trojan horse for more abortions,” said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers in July 2022. “It should be called the payouts for Planned Parenthood Act.”

Anti-abortion rights groups say the measure would override state and federal freedom of conscience laws and would exclude the application of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

“Far from being a bill that simply allows for access to contraception, this bill seeks to bail out the abortion industry, trample conscience rights, and require uninhibited access to dangerous chemical abortion drugs,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, President of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.

The bill is likely to fail again this year since there is a divided Congress, which includes a GOP-led House.

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Original story HERE.