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Left Continues to Go It Alone on HR 1

A broad array of advocacy groups rallied at the Capitol this afternoon in a bid to boost momentum and public awareness for HR 1, the designation for the wide-ranging political system overhaul being advanced by the new House Democratic majority.

The dozen organizations are part of a coalition of 125 groups dubbed the Declaration for American Democracy, formed last year to promote the legislation. Virtually all the organizations, however, are affiliated with progressive and liberal causes – underscoring how the bill is being positioned more as a behemoth political messaging vehicle than as a measure that might make it through a divided Congress.


The groups asserted a shared commitment for mobilizing their networks to build support for the measure. But, while the bill seems foreordained to move through the House on a party line vote this winter, the grassroots on the left show no signs they're going to build a groundswell of support in the Republican Senate.


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Michelle Martinez, University of Michigan (U-M)

Michelle Martinez, the inaugural director of the Tishman Center for Social Justice and the Environment at the University of Michigan (U-M)

At the University of Michigan, Environmental Justice Starts With Who Gets to Decide

When Michelle Martinez talks about climate change, she does not begin with temperatures, emissions, or models and projections.

She begins with people. For Martinez, the inaugural director of the Tishman Center for Social Justice and the Environment at the University of Michigan (U-M), climate change is already being experienced through the housing, economic, and political crises confronting communities today. And that makes climate justice inseparable from a more basic civic question: Who has the power to decide what happens to a community?

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Hand of Man Pointing to an I Voted Sticker

Close Up Hand of Man Pointing to an I Voted Sticker Place on His Shirt

Getty Images

Voters Want Results. The Midterms Made That Clear.

The 2026 midterm elections were never going to be a referendum on one person. They were always a test of whether Americans believed their leaders were addressing the issues affecting their daily lives.

Voters delivered a clear message in the midterm elections. The results were historic. Democrats not only reclaimed control of the House of Representatives, but also captured a majority in the U.S. Senate.

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A woman protesting holds a sign that readds, "Our Raise! Labor Safety Costs, surrounded by other people.

Uber drivers participate in a rally outside of the Uber Headquarters on January 05, 2023 in New York City. Uber drivers in NYC participated in a 24-hour strike outside of the company's NYC headquarters

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

21st-Century Gig Workers Need Portable Benefits

In recent years, the US labor force has been undergoing a fundamental transformation. In today’s "Uber economy," gig workers, freelancers, contractors, temps, permatemps, remote workers after COVID, and so-called “independent workers” have been championed by Silicon Valley and Wall Street as the “new way to work”—the wave of the future, especially with AI changing the nature of work itself.

Many US consumers have driven in an Uber taxi, but don’t realize that most drivers earn below minimum wage after accounting for vehicle expenses, gas, maintenance, and unpaid time waiting for passengers. Those drivers are so-called “independent contractors,” so the billion-dollar Uber is not responsible for providing healthcare, Social Security contributions, workers' compensation, or unemployment compensation, not to mention sick leave or vacation pay.

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