Letters: Best way to influence Congress is to tell them what you want

"My representative in the House of Representatives is Mark DeSaulnier. On Friday, I was able to attend his last virtual town hall for the year. During the meeting, I thanked him for his past support of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and asked whether he would again support full funding for the Global Fund ($4.6 billion over three years) and support language to prevent the administration from rescinding past or future money Congress appropriates for the fund."

"Typically, enthusiasm, hope, denial and amnesia combine with the rationale that building and running something like this terminal will boost employment. The project gets built however the owners want to build it. The "best case" never or only briefly materializes. Oakland gets what it didn't want. There is an alternative if, as a community, we are united against having this terminal and refuse to build it or to staff it. Don't apply for the contracts to build it. Don't apply to work there."

Mark DeSaulnier affirmed support for full Global Fund funding ($4.6 billion over three years) and for language preventing the administration from rescinding appropriated funds. Constituents can influence congressional behavior by meeting with, calling, and writing representatives to clearly state which programs and policies they want supported, because politicians are not mind readers. If administrative and legal efforts fail to stop an unwanted project like a coal terminal, a community can withhold labor and contracts by refusing to build or staff it, requiring discipline and collective resolve. One perspective criticizes prioritizing clinic-level "fraud and waste" as a narrow viewpoint.

Read at The Mercury News