Day of Action Today to Fix the Senate Now!

Thousands of progressive activists are rallying for Senate rules reform today, spreading the word about an important package of common sense reforms that will reduce opportunities for obstruction and end the silent filibuster.

Activists are contacting their senators, asking them to co-sponsor Senate Resolution 4, a package of real reforms that will enable the Senate to actually debate and discuss critical issues for all of us. Here's a fact sheet with details on exactly what Senate Resolution 4 will do.

Organization leaders of the Fix the Senate Now coalition are signing on to a letter to Senators encouraging them to support these common sense reforms. "Whereas Senators once resorted to filibustering only in rare and exceptional instances of intense opposition, rampant obstruction has now transformed standard operating procedure. Today, majority rule in the Senate is the exception, not the rule. We believe that the common sense reforms included in S. Res. 4 will go a long way towards ending routine and reflexive obstruction and will ensure that the Senate will once again be able to address the critical issues facing our country," the letter says.

The Senate will take up rules reform when it returns to work just after President Obama's Inauguration on Jan. 21.

Call your senators now at 1-888-966-9836, and urge them to co-sponsor Senate Resolution 4.

What else can you do to help?

• Send an email to your senators asking them to co-sponsor Senate Resolution 4, the reform package introduced by Sens. Jeff Merkley and Tom Udall. Go to www.fixthesenatenow.org/actnow. CWAers and coalition members will be delivering petition signatures to senators on Jan. 17.


• Make sure your members know how important it is to send a message to their senators and to Majority Leader Harry Reid. Encourage them to call and email.


• Mark your calendars for Jan. 17 and Jan. 22, our next big Days of Action.

What's at stake? The Nation explains how lobbyists, at the direction of big corporations, have profited off securing Republican filibusters and "used Senate obstruction to push policies that punish ordinary Americans and the environment."

Read the full story here.

Text RULESREFORM to 49484 for more info, and stay tuned at www.fixthesenatenow.org, on Facebook and Twitter.