December 15 update – We won, again! For an unprecedented third time, Manchin’s zombie dirty deal has been defeated. It failed on the Senate floor, 47-47, with 60 votes needed for passage.
This is yet another huge victory for frontline communities — especially those fighting the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) — and climate justice warriors like you who’ve called, written, and posted this past week to put pressure on the Senate to reject Manchin’s dirty deal. Thank you to everyone who took action, truly. Here’s a few press statements from friends and coalitions that we’re a part of:
Of course, this still may not be the end of Manchin’s dirty zombie deal. Congress still has to pass a government funding bill next week, similar to the Continuing Resolution Manchin first tried to attach his deal to last September. We’ll be on guard in case he tries these tricks again before the end of the year.
And it’s extremely concerning that almost every single Democrats, as well as a few “climate conscious” Republicans like Susan Collins of Maine, voted for Manchin’s dirty deal. Not to mention that the Biden White House came out and endorsed the deal yesterday morning in what was either a disgraceful act of political double-dealing (they knew the bill wouldn’t pass, but wanted to make Manchin happy); Or just a politically inept and policy illiterate blunder (they actually wanted to spit in the eye of black voters, young voters, and climate action voters so they could try and work with Republicans to serve the fossil fuel fascist masters).
But today, we’re just grateful to you and all our allies. Thanks and congratulations are due to our brave Senate Democrat friends who voted nay in spite of all that pressure from their President and party – they are Senators Raphael Warnock of Georgia, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, Bob Menendez and Cory Booker of New Jersey, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Bernie Sanders (But not Pat Leahy) of Vermont, and Tim Kaine (but not Mark Warner) of Virginia. Please also send thanks and praise to all our friends and family in Republican states (we see you!) who called their Senators even though they weren’t likely to oppose a bill that’s good for fossil fuels. It took both progressive democrats and recalcitrant Republicans (and more than a few of absences due to weather) to defeat this zombie deal.
Finally, we have to remind you that stopping this dirty deal wasn’t cheap, and that like all zombie horrors it may be back sooner than we want. If you can, chip in to support our work – we paid for thousands of dollars of phone calls, emails, social media advertisements, and more in the last few weeks. And even if you can’t support financially, you can help by taking actions like calling for Manchin to be removed as Senate Energy chair, and demanding a vote on the EJ for All Act as an antidote to Manchin’s dirty deal.
Our previous posts and updates are below, in case you want to read back over what a wild, crazy saga it has been this December.
December 8 – It’s back AGAIN. After we defeated Manchin’s dirty deal on Tuesday, December 6 in the US House of Representatives, Manchin’s dirty deal is back, like a zombie, to threaten our climate and communities.
This time Manchin has re-introduced an even-dirtier version of his dirty deal in the Senate —Here’s Manchin’s fact sheet on the bill, and here’s a good twitter thread summarizing why it’s even worse. As our friends at POWHR said:
The Dirty Deal still includes forced completion and operation of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, amongst other deregulations and harms to frontline and environmental justice communities.
Read the full statement here
Manchin says he want’s to attach it to the Defense Authorization bill in the Senate, this time as an amendment. And what’s worse, President Biden and Senate Leader Schumer are threatening to let Manchin get away with this blatant miscarriage of Senate procedure (remember when Manchin wouldn’t eliminate the filibuster because it was soooo important to him that bills go through regular legislative order and get bipartisan amendments and support? 🙄 ) and betrayal of the climate goals they say they share.
So, just like last week, we need to call our Senators and tell them to kill this bill, or amendment, or whatever Manchin is calling his dirty deal now, again. We need calls to both Republican and Democratic Senators, because that’s how we beat Manchin’s dirty deal last time: Committed progressive Democrats should vote no because the bill is bad for the climate. And committed Republicans should vote no because Manchin is trying to ram his bill through without amendments or bipartisan cooperation.
We’ve been here before.
December 5 –Like a zombie menace, Manchin’s dirty deal — we thought we’d killed it back in September — is back from the dead to wreak havoc on our communities and climate. This time, he’s trying to attach the deal to the National Defense Authorization Act, which Congress will vote on any day now.
A vote in the House rules committee could come as soon as 9am ET Tuesday December 6. Can you call (833) 971-2490 and tell your Representative and both Senators to vote no on Manchin’s dirty deal.
Here’s what’s been going on, in case you need a refresher or forward this message to a friend:
Last September, 75 Democrats pledged to stop Manchin’s Dirty Deal in the House of Representatives. And in the Senate, our calls and emails helped convince Senators Booker, Duckworth, Kaine, Markey, Merkley, Sanders, Warren and Warner, to come out in opposition. All those Democrats, combined with unanimous opposition from Republicans eventually convinced Manchin to withdraw his deal as an amendment to a must-pass spending bill called a Continuing Resolution.
We won in September thanks to the actions you and lots of 198 methods members took. But we also warned you that Manchin would try and bring his dirty deal back at the end of the year.
Rep. Grijalva is reviving opposition in the House, but our Senate allies appear to have been caught off guard by this latest attempt to attach Manchin’s dirty energy bill to an unrelated piece of must-pass spending legislation.
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MANCHIN must be voted out of congress!
Manchin – you have accumulated plenty for the rest of your life! Think about other people you are supposed to represent instead of yourself !! Drop the DIRTY DEAL !!!
Stop Manchin