Recess Week Call-to-Action 2.0! Support Chemical Safety and Oppose Bigotry in the Army

It’s still Recess Week for Congress.  Make sure your members of Congress hear from you! Urge your Senators and House Representative to:

• Oppose HJ Res 59, which eliminates an important safety rule for facilities using hazardous chemicals (for your House Rep only)     
• Oppose the nomination of Mark Green for Secretary of the Army due to his history of anti-LGBTQ, anti-Latino and Islamophobic positions (for your Senators)

Not sure who represents you in the House? Find out here.

 

 

Why should you care about HJ Res 59?

• The bill will eliminate safety requirements and training for facilities using or producing hazardous chemicals and training for the first responders stationed nearby.
• These precautions were created after 2 recent chemical accidents: the 2012 Richmond, CA explosion, which sent 15,000 people to the hospital, and the 2013 explosion in Texas, which killed 15 people, including 12 emergency first responders.
• 134 million Americans live in the “disaster zone” of the 12,500 facilities in the US that use or produce hazardous chemicals. Many people don’t even realize they live near facilities with hazardous chemicals. And a disproportionate number of people living in chemical disaster zones are people of color and the poor.  In central New Jersey, facilities with hazardous chemicals are located in North Branch, Branchburg, Freehold, Belle Mead, Flemington, Hillsborough, Somerville, Somerset, Bridgewater, Edison, South Plainfield, Colts Neck, Neptune, Trenton, and in Morrisville, PA right across the Delaware River. 134 million residents around the country need the protections that are threatened by HJ Res 59!
• Tens of thousands of American workers are employed at these potentially dangerous facilities and need protection and training too! Tens of thousands of American police, firefighters and paramedics are stationed near facilities with hazardous chemicals–and their lives could be saved by the safety training that HJ Res 59 seeks to eliminate. HJ Res 59 puts the lives of American workers, police, firefighters and paramedics at risk!

Call your House Representative today — especially if they are Republican — and tell them to vote NO on HJ Res 59!

Why should you care about the nomination of Mark Green?

• As a Tennessee state senator, Green opposed protections against discrimination in the workplace for LGBTQ people.
• There are an estimated 70,000 gay, lesbian or bisexual Americans and approximately 15,500 transgender Americans serving in the armed forces, according to UCLA’s Williams Institute.
• Green’s history of anti-LGBTQ politics is worrisome to the American Military Partners Association, which represents LGBTQ service men and women and their spouses. The AMPA opposes Green’s nomination.  Nathanial Frank of Columbia Law School writes that Green’s views on the LGBTQ community, Latinos and Muslims “disqualify him from a senior post in a military that must mold millions of Americans of countless backgrounds into a cohesive fighting force.”

Green’s nomination now goes on to the Senate, which must confirm his appointment.

Call Senators Booker and Menendez today and tell them to vote NO on the nomination of Mark Green for Secretary of the Army!

And while you’re on the phone, if you haven’t done our first Recess Week Call-to-Action yet, it’s not too late!