okay. calling your reps can be scary. let me walk you thru the details + some actionable steps
first of all - some facts. the bill passed basically because there are more republicans in the house than democrats - and it was basically a 50/50 vote, with one vote yes tipping them over a tie. [check out the stats here]
keyly: a few republicans voted no. so, we need only four senate republicans to also vote no, and here's a list of the most vulnerable ones to target. [source, thank you robert reich, who i copy+pasted from]
Collins (ME) - blue state, voted against April Senate budget resolution over Medicaid cuts.
Tillis (NC) - faces competitive reelection bid and has spurned Trump on U.S. attorney nomination.
Sullivan (AK) - race could become competitive because of Alaska’s ranked-choice system and the impact of Medicaid/SNAP cuts, and if former Rep. Mary Peltola runs.
Husted (OH) - replaced Vance, has to win a special election to finish term in 2026. Race could become highly competitive if Sherrod Brown runs.
Moody (FL) - replaced Rubio, has to win a special election to finish term in 2026. Same factors as Husted (though FL is a longer shot than OH).
Cornyn (TX) - facing a tough right-wing primary challenge from Ken Paxton, who could put the seat in play if he wins.
Ernst (IA) - race has the potential to be competitive in an anti-GOP cycle without Trump at the top of the ballot.
If they are up for re-election soon, it's simple. you tell them "if you vote for this bill, I am not voting for you".
"but what if I'm not republican??" i don't know if they know that/can check that. irregardless, they're your senator. your vote matters to them. tell them you won't vote for them if they pass this bill.
"what if my rep isn't on that list?"
Call them anyway. Make noise. They might not be convinced, but you might as well make your displeasure known.
"what if my rep is a democrat?"
Call them anyway. They will probably vote no anyway, but probably better to send a message that it's unacceptable, just in case they were thinking they might vote yes.
5calls is great. They have an app, if you want. You have to set your location with them - a zip code will do. This is how they know which senator is yours.
From there, pick an issue (on desktop, there is a list on the left side of the screen) (on mobile, the list is the main feature) - after clicking on your issue, it will give you a phone number and a script at the bottom. Call the phone number, read the script. The script is even tailored based on whether your senator is red or blue!
Obviously, you don't have to read the script, but it takes the thought out of it. If one of your reps is a rep who's due for re-election, tell them you won't vote for them if they vote yes on this bill.
Be polite, be courteous. Also: you will need to leave your street address if you're leaving a voicemail. That's how they confirm you're actually one of their constituents and not some rando from another state making a call - That's how they confirm your opinion is worth listening to. "I don't want to give them that information?" They already have it. This is just you confirming it.
>Nervous about phonecalls? Call after hours or on the weekend. It sure is a long weekend right now, with memorial day, and all. That way you get sent straight to the answering machine and can leave a voicemail.
>I usually open my voicemail messages with Hi I'm [NAME] and I'm a constituent of [SENATOR], my phone number is [NUMBER] and my street address is [BLAH], zip code [BLAH], just to get that out of the way. And then I read the script that 5calls has given to me.
>Calling during office hours? Just say "Hi, my name is [NAME], I'm a constituent of [SENATOR], and I have a comment about a legislative issue." When they give you the go-ahead, read the 5calls script.
>Do they have multiple numbers? A DC office, and a local office? Calling multiple times a day might make them wary of taking you seriously, but calling your local office as well as their main DC office....
"Okay, which issue do I pick?"
5calls.org sure has like five billion different links regarding the "Big Beautiful Bill" aka H.R.1 - but [here's] the one with a general overview.
Of course, your republican senator might not care much about slashes to [Medicaid] or increased budget for [ICE] - they CERTAINLY won't care about cuts to planned parenthood and transgender care.
Those cuts to Federal Employee Retirement sounds pretty bad, though. Play-act, if you can. A concerned "we're planning to put America in HOW much debt?" might do more than you think. "I'm just really worried about how my Grandma is going to afford her healthcare if Medicare gets cut..."
Put in a little research. Does your senator care about [education]? Do they [hate Elon Musk]? Maybe they're not too fond of Trump, and would love to be remindeed that this bill is trying to give him the ability to [ignore contempt of court.]
Usually they have a website, usually that website tells you what issues they ran on. If any one of those issues is threatened by this bill, remind them.
Or maybe just call your senator and tell them to invoke [Byrd Rule], which allows them to call certain parts of the bill extraneous (the contempt of court thing, anyone!??) and irrelevant to the overall goal of the budget reconciliation.
What are my options other than phonecalls?
You can send emails, you can send faxes.
[ faxzero.com ] - lets you send a handful of free faxes a day. Just copy+paste the 5calls script, and maybe some relevant supporting evidence from the 5calls page, and send it off.
Same goes for emails. Your sentators almost always have a contact form on their website. Do the same there.
You can find all the ways to contact your senators - including their websites - at [ this source ], just enter your state.
Or you can try [ Resist Bot ], which you can use in Messenger and Telegram, and it looks like even normal SMS. Signing up with this takes the hard part out of it - it can handle all the email logistics for you; slap in your message, let it do the rest.
Whew, this list is getting long, but here's two more things I thought of.
1) [ Here's more info about attending town halls. ]
2) Contact your House reps. See how they voted on HR1 [ here ]. Either thank them for voting no (it's important for them to know!) or say you're disappointed in them for voting yes. Your opinion still matters. That vote is done, but it matters that they held the line. Or, it matters that they didn't represent your opinions - which is what their job is to do.
And if they're one of the two republicans who abstained from voting, call them out on it. "If you didn't feel strongly enough to vote yes on this bill, maybe you should have just voted no, especially due to [cause you care about/think they care about]."
Thanks for your time. Hope this tutorial/info sheet helps anyone. Steal and repost it to other sites as much as you want.
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