Topics for Writing to Senators Cruz and Cornyn
- For telephone numbers and links to sites for writing e-mails, go to this other page on our precinct website.
- Each topic is accompanied by a brief explanation and usually a link to an article. Use your own words in a communication.
- Be aware that because each Senator receives a lot of letters, these are read by staff in the Senators’ offices, and in fact most likely by interns. They likely read letters quickly, keep track of the numbers of pros and cons on a topic, and click on some prepared response that is generally related to the topic.
- In a communication, make your main point efficiently and up-front, and keep e-mail messages relatively short.
- Don’t be shy — sent a couple of e-mails each week. We want Cornyn and Cruz to know that people are VERY upset.
- There are of course many other possible topics in addition to the ones below, but your precinct chair only has so much time!
Ukraine
(Topic posted on 3/3/25)
Over a period of a couple of weeks, President Trump did the following:
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- Directed his staff to negotiate with Russian President Putin’s staff regarding a “peace” settlement, without involving Ukraine or our other European allies.
- Stated that Ukraine had started the war.
- Said Ukraine President Zelensky was a “dictator,” but did not apply that term with Putin.
- Directed the U.S. representative to the United Nations to vote “No” on a resolution condemning Russia on the latter’s invasion of Ukraine, thus joining Russia, North Korea, Iran, Israel, and others in implied support of Russia
- In an Oval Office meeting on Friday (Feb. 28), he and Vice President Vance berated Zelensky in front of the live cameras
- On Monday, March 3, he paused all delivery of weapons previously pledged by President Biden but still in the pipeline
Numerous foreign policy experts stated that the meeting in the Oval Office constituted the most embarrassing event in U.S. diplomatic history. Russian President Putin’s press secretary commented, “The new administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations. This largely aligns with our vision.”
Do Senators Cornyn and Cruz believe that our abandonment of Ukraine and alignment with Putin, without any formal discussion in the U.S. Senate, is okay?
Layoffs at Federal Agencies
(Topic posted on 3/3/25)
Below is a list of some of the agencies that DOGE is downsizing. Almost all of these extreme cutbacks are likely illegal, for a variety of reasons, but that legal aspect is only slowly playing out in the courts.
These layoffs are likely to affect (a) service to U.S. citizens, (b) important scientific research and subsequent education of citizens, and/or (c) enforcement of laws to benefit citizens.
If you write to Cornyn and Cruz, it would be best to focus on only one or two of the agencies below that are most important to you (or write more than one message).
Social Security Administration
The Trump Administration has announced was cutting 7,500 jobs. Many observers had already considered the agency staff-short. The agency has already proceeded with the closure of offices in a number of cities.
Read more here in the Austin American-Statesman or in this NPR report.
NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
Beginning last Thursday, NOAA began an initial layoff of at least 880 employees. Former agency executives have said that second and potentially larger wave of layoffs is expected soon.
“NOAA’s staff oversees monitoring the world’s atmosphere and the nation’s weather and climate, including its most violent storms. The staff forecasts and tracks tornadoes, hurricanes, extreme rainfall events, and is also responsible for predicting solar storms as well as protecting the fish, crabs, and other species that help feed the nation.” [From the following article.]
In the past few days, NOAA has been closing down what Axios calls “critical weather facilities.”
Two articles published March 4: An Axios article here that talks about the closure of critical weather facilities; and an article published by KUT News here (scroll down to find the article) that discusses the possible affect on severe weather warnings in Texas.
Internal Revenue Service
According to USA TODAY, this week up to 15,000 recently hired IRS employees, primarily in lower-level positions such as taxpayer response, phone centers, and junior audit roles, could face layoffs. These employees are on probationary status and lack civil service employment protections.
With approximately 90,000 full-time employees, the IRS stands to lose about 17 percent of its workforce with these projected layoffs.
It’s not clear how the layoffs would impact the processing time for tax returns this season yet.
Here is an article on this in the Austin American-Statesman (from USA TODAY). Scroll down to the section about IRS layoffs.
Federal Aviation Administration
On Feb. 18 the FAA began layoffs, initially letting 400 people go. The union claimed that some of these were persons who supported personnel directly involved in safety.
Article from the Associated Press.
Department of Veterans Affairs
Veterans Affairs is planning to lay off as many as 83,000 employees this year. VHA has been staffing up to accommodate the flood of veterans newly eligible for care and benefits under the PACT Act,
Here is an article in the business news daily Executive News.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
This story has developed in two stages. First, about a month ago the new Trump-appointed head of the CFPB closed headquarters and told everyone to go home.
Since its inception following the 2008 financial crisis, the agency has helped consumers to the tune of $21 billion through monetary compensation, loan principal reductions, canceled debt and more. Big business hates this agency.
Here’s a story on that first stage of the story, from NPR.
In the second stage, a judge very recently put a freeze on any mass firings, saying he wanted to learn whether XXX.
Here’s a story from NBC on that recent development.]
We need to write Cornyn and Cruz and ask them to save an agency that is saving so much money for consumers and that is trying to monitor bad actors among big business.
Eliminating programs that identify and track illegal foreign influence
(Topic posted on 3/4/25)
This one requires some explanation of the context of multiple actions.
On her first day in office, new Attorney General Pam Bondi disbanded the Department of Justice’s Foreign Influence Task Force and sharply cut back on criminal enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
Article from Executive Functions, an online publication produced by two former senior government lawyers with different political parties and from different administrations.
Employees at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (part of the Department of Homeland Security) were told not to worry any more about Russia.
Just yesterday (March 3). it was reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had ordered U.S. Cyber Command to stop offensive cyber operations against Russia. Op ed in the Washington Post.
These news items are a portion of the larger story about Trump’s fascination with, and deference to, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, of course. Trump repeated numerous Russian talking points during his first term, even claiming that he trusted Putin more than U.S. intelligence agencies, and has continued to do similar things in his second term. Most recently was yesterday’s gangster-like attack on Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy. Many foreign policy experts consider yesterday’s meeting to be one of the most, if not the most, shameful episodes in the history of U.S. diplomacy.
Rachel Maddow has raised this topic periodically since 2017 (or earlier) and repeatedly has asked why it happens – why does Trump consistently take Russia’s side on issues? I think she’s very sharp and makes excellent presentations. On her show last Friday night, she made an extraordinary 11-minute presentation about what Trump and his administration do that can only be considered beneficial to Russia. You can watch that here (you need to be patient through an initial 25-second ad). That summary will tell you more the context.
Hold-ups on grants for medical research
This has been a bit of a mess. First, Trump administration halted the reviews of all 16,000 pending applications for grants for medical research. This threatened many universities’ research programs, including UT Austin. A bit of chaos.
Then the administration reacted to the backlash by partially unfreezing the process. But only partially. Meanwhile, some universities have reduced or halted their hiring of graduate students who do much of the research.
Here is a relatively recent report (Feb. 26) from NPR.
EPA recommends that Trump reverse “Endangerment finding” that undergirds much of EPA action on climate change
In 2009, and with the approval of the U.S. Supreme Court in a case that had been brought against EPA, the EPA Administrator signed two distinct findings regarding greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. Essentially, the findings confirmed that climate change, caused by the release of greenhouse gases (including carbon dioxide and methane)to the atmosphere, constitutes a threat to public health (among other phenomena, deaths from excessive heat or cold, insects migrating to introduce disease, etc.). This is the basis for most or all subsequent EPA regulation of carbon dioxide and methane.
Article in E&E News on the recent action by Trump’s EPA Administrator.
Blog analysis by a top staff expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The Environmental Defense fund has filed a lawsuit alleging that EPA has provided no analysis (which is required) justifying this move.
Send messages to the White House and to Senators Cornyn and Cruz, opposing this recommendation.