Lobbying at the General Assembly on legislation that impacts our key issue areas is one way RI NOW advocates for women’s rights across a broad spectrum of issues.
To view this year’s legislative agenda, please visit: http://www.rinow2008.blogspot.com
Comments of NOW President Kim Gandy on legislation introduced today by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) to reject Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations that would expand the ability of media conglomerates to increase their cross-ownership of multiple media outlets in a single community, reducing the diversity of local voices.
At the National Organization for Women, which is the nation’s largest grassroots women’s rights organization, we are extremely concerned about the state of media today, particularly media ownership.
Not a day goes by that women don’t call and write to us to express their frustration at what they see, hear and read in the media. They are outraged by sexist, racist, homophobic comments. They are disturbed by the high level of sexual exploitation and violence. They ask why more women experts aren’t featured on news and political talk shows. They are dismayed at the lack of substantive coverage of women’s issues. And they long for better role models for their daughters and sons.
I believe this condition is a direct result of the lack of diversity in ownership Women own just five percent of commercial broadcast TV stations and six percent of all full-power radio stations. Whenever the FCC allows big media companies to gobble up more stations, it leaves fewer and fewer outlets for women and people of color to purchase. And often the big companies are buying stations from women and people of color.
It is critical that we not let the FCC further relax its ownership rules. If the media giants grow even larger, women and people of color will suffer as their voices and viewpoints become even further marginalized. I applaud Sen. Dorgan for standing up for the people’s interests–not for making big business even bigger.
NOW is calling on its members and all women’s rights supporters to write to their Senators today, urging them to vote ‘yes’ on the Senate resolution to reject the FCC’s disastrous new rules.
Are you trying to think of the perfect gift for a progressive family member or friend? Give a RI NOW Holiday Gift Membership Package! For $55 your loved one will receive a one year membership to RI NOW, a 100% organic cotton RI NOW canvas tote bag 
and a pair of sterling silver and Swarovski crystal earrings bearing the woman symbol.
Contact Laura Costa at membership@rinow.
Thursday afternoon, by a vote of 273 to 156, the House of Representatives failed to gather the 290 votes needed to override the president’s veto of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program bill (SCHIP). Both the Senate and House have previously cast bipartisan votes to reauthorize this ten-year-old program and to extend coverage to an additional ten million children who live in low income families with no health insurance, even though the average annual cost of the expansion was less than three weeks of Iraq war spending.
Bush’s veto required that two-thirds of the 435 House members vote to override the veto before the bill can become law. Despite overwhelming public support and the backing of many in the medical and health insurance industries, the president and his House allies have carried on a campaign of mistruths and unfounded allegations, leading to the bill’s demise this afternoon.
NOW decries the cruelty of denying the most basic health care to children whose parents cannot afford health insurance. The 156 House members — 154 Republicans and two Democrats - who voted against the override have let down not only the vulnerable children of this nation, but also put an undue burden on single parents and low-income families who can only pray their children do not get sick or hurt.
“It’s purely political,” says NOW President Kim Gandy. “George Bush has no trouble funding a government sponsored, ’socialized’ war, yet bristles at the thought of helping poor children who need health care, branding the expanded SCHIP as a program leading us down the slippery slope to ’socialized’ medicine.” In his book it’s fine to provide subsidies, tax breaks and federal grants to industries, businesses and colleges to ensure their economic health and well-being, but kids just don’t count.
The vetoed bill would have extended health insurance coverage to an additional four million low income children and would have cost $35 billion over five years, an average of $7 billion per year, compared to the $12 billion every month that George Bush is spending in Iraq. The President says he might sign a proposal to reauthorize the program and increase the spending by $5 billion — but with inflation, that amount would represent a reduction in real dollars, which means that 1 million children who are currently covered by the states with SCHIP funding will be kicked out of the health insurance plan. The failed SCHIP legislation was already a shell of its former self because the final proposal did not include the House-passed language allowing legal immigrant children to participate in the program.
“It’s hard to imagine that Bush, his Cabinet, and all 154 of those Republicans in Congress are enjoying ‘government funded’ healthcare, subsidized by the same taxpayers who overwhelmingly supported continuing and enhancing the SCHIP program,” said Gandy. “It may be time for those 154 members of Congress to go without health care for awhile…or get lost. They have let down the children and the parents in their Congressional districts who are wondering where they will ever get the money or the job that will enable them to provide health care for their families,” said Gandy.
October 12, 2007
On Sept. 28, the Judicial Council of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals formally reprimanded U.S. District Court Judge Samuel B. Kent of Galveston, Texas, suspended him for four months, and reassigned many of his pending cases to other judges. This nearly unprecedented action came after a lengthy secret investigation of allegations that the judge had sexually harassed and inappropriately touched a female employee. During their investigation, the committee expanded the inquiry to include additional complaints against Judge Kent.
Based on the seriousness of the allegations and the actions of the Judicial Council, the National Organization for Women (NOW) has requested, through Hon. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), a member of the committee, that the House Judiciary Committee open an investigation into the accusations against Judge Kent. If they find that Judge Kent violated federal law, including federal civil rights law, we will urge the committee to begin impeachment proceeding.
“There is an Alice in Wonderland feel to this process. The Fifth Circuit’s investigation of its own judge was completely secret, none of the findings were revealed to the public, not even after the investigation was complete, the public ‘reprimand’ contained no details, and all documents uncovered in the investigation are sealed,” said NOW President Kim Gandy, an attorney admitted to practice in the Fifth Circuit. “To make matters worse, the Fifth Circuit says that even if a judicial panel finds that a judge did commit a crime, it is not obligated to refer it to law enforcement. Federal judges are protected by law from the law.”
“This judicial panel seems to be protecting its own. The reported punishment — a four-month paid vacation and a slap on the wrist — seems extraordinarily light, and doesn’t seem to ‘fit the crime’ as it has been reported in the press. His punishment, for all practical purposes, has been a taxpayer-paid four month vacation and a reduced workload at full pay. When he returns to the bench in a few months, he will resume his normal duties, including ruling on cases involving sex discrimination and sexual harassment. If that happens, and he is indeed a sexual harasser, it would be an injustice to every woman whose case could come before his court,” said Gandy.
In This Issue:
~Why I Take the Issue of Abstinence-only Education Personally by Carolyn Mark, President
~Language Concerns over Stillborn Legislation
~Calendar of Events
~Legislative Update
~Supreme Court Decision Impacts States
~Volunteer Opportunities
Statement of NOW President Kim Gandy
Eighty-seven years ago, on August 26, 1920, women finally won the right to vote in the United States. Each year we commemorate this pivotal date for women, hailing it as Women’s Equality Day.
Thanks to the leadership of great women who have organized, demanded change, and fought for their rights, today’s women have more opportunities than ever in education and employment, more economic freedom and reproductive options, and a better future for themselves and their families. But many of those gains are threatened.
So in celebrating Women’s Equality Day 2007, we should pause and ask, “Is this what equality looks like?”
On average, women still only make $.77 for every dollar a man makes; for women of color the percentage is even less. The boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies are still overwhelmingly male. Working women have no guaranteed medical leave for childbirth, and are often discriminated against in promotions and salary.
A woman’s right to safe, accessible, legal abortion is threatened as never before — as is the availability of birth control and family planning services. One in six U.S. women is a victim of sexual assault, and for many women violence is a part of their daily lives.
Although the proportion of women in elected office is growing, we’re still a far cry from parity in policymaking roles. Women make up just 16 percent of our representatives in Congress, 18 percent of governors, and only 23.5% of state legislators across the country.
The suffragists endured ridicule, ostracism, abuse and imprisonment, and their steely determination sets an example for all of us who continue to work toward equality for ourselves and our daughters. Until women earn the same wages as men; until we are in charge of our own reproductive lives; until racism and sexism and violence are eradicated; until we have overcome discrimination and bigotry; until women are included in the U.S. Constitution … we will keep working for equality and justice.
Please join us for an evening of spoken word to raise money to end violence against women at the Biltmore Hotel grand ballroom Thursday, October 4th at 7:00 p.m. This fundraiser is sponsored by The Silent Witnesses of Rhode Island. Rhode Island political leaders, journalists, our own RI NOW president, Carolyn Mark, and other notable folks will be speaking. Stay tuned for more information.
June 20, 2007
After a bipartisan effort that led to the passage of the stem cell research bill in both the House and Senate, George W. Bush vetoed this legislation that would have eased restraints on federally funded embryonic stem cell research, utilizing donated human embryos that would otherwise be destroyed. This is the second time George Bush has used his veto power to override a measure that could have led to treatment of debilitating illnesses and life-threatening diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, heart disease, spinal cord injury, and diabetes.
“With this veto, George Bush has proved once again that his allegiance is to his extremist base and not to the millions of caregivers and families who need this research,” says NOW President Kim Gandy. “Women are the majority of caregivers in our society, and this veto is an outright slap in the face for women who take on the every day burden of caring for family members who are ill or dying,” said Gandy.
There is enormous public support for stem cell research, and that is why Congress passed the measure. George Bush’s veto demonstrates that he has become even more out of touch with the country. Even the National Institutes of Health acknowledge that human embryos are the most promising of all the stem cells to offer renewable source of replacement cells and tissues to treat diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.
We were on the cusp of extending medical research, and with a stroke of the pen, George Bush took it away,” says Gandy. “This is even more reason to change the face of politics. We need a government and a leader who considers the health and safety of women, girls and families.”
June 07, 2007
In a 247-176 bipartisan vote, the House today passed a bill that would allow federal funding of stem cell research utilizing donated human embryos. If signed into law, this bill would offer people with serious illnesses and life-threatening conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and spinal cord injuries the chance for a better life. The Senate passed a similar bill in April, reflecting the fact that an overwhelming majority of the public supports this research.
According to a recent poll, 62 percent of people in the U.S. approve of medical research using embryonic stem cells, and nearly 60 percent want more taxpayer money to be used for this promising line of research. President Bush’s 2005 veto of similar legislation and his current threat to veto this bi-partisan measure exposes his willingness to pander to his ultra-conservative supporters, regardless of the price the public will pay.
“Women are the majority of family caregivers, and the heartbreak of having a loved one with a debilitating illness and the related burden of their care could both be lifted with this bill,” said NOW President Kim Gandy. “Although George W. Bush seems stubbornly bent on pleasing his right-wing base, we urge him not to choose religious and political extremism over medical progress.”
NOW thanks members of the House and Senate for their bipartisan support. “We must continue to change the face of politics so that our leaders will put our health, our families and our well-being at the top of the nation’s priorities,” said Gandy.
You are currently browsing the archives for the News category.
