100 Days Newsletter: Day 2 – January 21, 2021
The first 100 days of a new administration — a term coined by President Roosevelt — is generally considered the qualification for measuring a president’s success. Typically a lot happens during this phase. President Biden and Vice President Harris, both longtime friends of NCJW, paired with a Congressional majority allow for many possibilities to safeguard human rights. We expect to see a great deal of action in the coming weeks and months toward our goals of protecting women, children, and families.
This weekly newsletter will temporarily take the place of NCJW’s Weekly Wrap up, and Capitol Hill updates and is being sent to our full listserv of advocates so you can all stay informed on the actions taking place and ways to push if actions from this administration are still needed. From executive orders and actions to policy to nominations, we will bring you information about how the new administration and 117th Congress is impacting NCJW’s mission to improve the lives of women, children, and families. We are excited to bring you NCJW’s focus on the first 100 days of the Biden-Harris administration.
Here are our top 10 list of what we’d like to see in the first 100 days:
American Rescue Plan
What is it?
The Biden-Harris administration announced a new COVID-relief package on January 14 with additional health and economic assistance for those most impacted by the virus.
With emergency paid sick and family leave, additional nutritional assistance benefits, funding for state and local benefits, extended and expanded unemployment benefits, an extended eviction moratorium, funding for childcare (although still not NCJW’s ask of $50 Billion), increased minimum wage, $1,400 per person checks to working families, advancement for racial justice and relief for Native American communities and tribes, this is a great path forward to undoing so much suffering and damage we have seen over the last year.
How does it relate to our past work?
This package includes NCJW’s priorities to ensure women, children, and families can get the critical assistance they need.
What can I do now?
Contact your lawmakers to urge their support for additional COVID-relief.
#ByeBan
What is it?
On his first day in office, President Biden rescinded the Muslim and African Ban, which banned visitors and immigrants from several countries, most of which were majority-Muslim. By overturning the ban, millions of families will be reunited. People leaving their homes due to violence against women, conflict, terror, and human rights violations – as well as those seeking to study or visit family – are once again welcome in the United States, regardless of where they are from or how they worship.
How does it relate to our past work?
NCJW has spoken out and advocated against the ban since the moment it was announced. As Jews, we are commanded va’ahavtem et ha-ger — to love the stranger. With this in mind, NCJW advocates protested at airports, attended rallies, educated themselves and their communities on the issue, and deepened their relationships with Muslim partners and leaders. We lobbied to pass the NO BAN Act, overturning the ban and preventing similar blanket bans in the future. In July 2020, it became the first Muslim civil rights bill ever to pass a body of Congress.
What can I do now?
We must ensure similar bans cannot happen again in the future. Congress must pass the NO BAN Act or similar legislation to prohibit future administrations from banning entire communities from the United States.
Bold Executive Action on Immigration
What is it?
On Day 1, the Biden administration issued a series of executive orders and policies supporting immigrants. The reforms include:
- Directing the government to “preserve and fortify” protections for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival, or DACA;
- Rescinding President Trump’s executive order directing harsh and extreme immigration enforcement and directing the government to set new policies; in the meantime, instituting a 100-day moratorium on deportations with minimal exceptions;
- Immediately ending border wall construction
- Suspending new enrollment in the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP, also known as ‘Remain in Mexico’), effectively ending the program but not yet remedying those already enrolled; and
- Ensuring that the census includes all people, regardless of immigration or citizenship status.
How does it relate to our past work?
National Council of Jewish Women publicly condemned and fought the Trump administration’s persistent attempts to demonize and criminalize immigrants, cancel DACA, build a wall on the border, increase immigrant detention and deportation, and dismantle the nation’s asylum program writ large. Not long after becoming CEO of NCJW, Sheila Katz went to the border. She met with women and children caught up in the administration’s inhumane border policies, centering these issues for NCJW.
What can I do now?
The work to dismantle the unjust immigration system and build a more equitable one will take years, if not decades. The first step is valuing the life and experience of every immigrant, asylum seeker, and refugee in or looking to come to the US, and we will hold the administration accountable to this principle. We also expect the Biden administration to create a task force to reunite families separated at the border, rescind the public health order closing our nation’s borders, address the 70,000 people already in the Remain in Mexico program, and reduce funding for the detention and deportation machine. Stay tuned as we advocate for these changes and beyond.
Gender Policy Council
What is it?
The Biden-Harris administration announced the formation of a White House Gender Policy Council on Tuesday, January 19. The Council will guide and coordinate government policy that impacts women and girls across various issues such as economic security, health care, racial justice, gender-based violence, and foreign policy, working in cooperation with the other White House policy councils. This global and domestic council will engage in intersectional work across the federal government to ensure gender equity and equality, centering equitable policy for Black, Indigenous and women and girls of color, immigrant women & girls, LGBTQ women and girls, and women and girls with disabilities.
How does it relate to our past work?
Through meetings and sign-on letters, NCJW worked with the Biden-Harris transition team to make the Gender Policy Council a reality.
What can I do now?
Call the White House comment line (202-456-1111) to urge the President and Vice President to establish an Office of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Wellbeing to align federal policies and programs to promote sexual and reproductive health and wellbeing through human rights, reproductive justice, and racial equity lens. A comprehensive scope of reproductive health care must be an essential and early part of this administration’s priorities.
Read NCJW’s official statement here.
Coming Soon: Administration Must Do More to Protect Reproductive Freedom
What is it?
On January 28, the Biden-Harris administration is expected to take several important steps to protect reproductive freedom both at home and abroad. A Presidential Memorandum will rescind the Global Gag Rule – a harmful policy that blocks US funds from foreign organizations that provide abortion services, referrals, or information or that advocate for abortion access in their own countries – and disavow the Geneva Declaration, a multilateral declaration organized by the Trump administration that asserts there is no “international human right to abortion.” The memorandum will also order a review of the Trump administration’s devastating changes to the Title X program, which forced participating family planning providers to stop providing or referring patients for abortions to receive funding.
How does it relate to our past work?
The Trump administration expanded the Global Gag Rule by including more global health assistance programs (like those addressing HIV, maternal and child health, and malaria), preventing foreign groups that financially support other organizations that provide or promote abortions from receiving funds and extending the policy to contractors. NCJW supports the Global Health, Empowerment, and Rights (HER) Act, reintroduced in the 116th Congress by Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), to permanently end the Global Gag Rule.
NCJW is also committed to restoring Title X. Title X is the only federal grant program dedicated solely to providing individuals, particularly those struggling to make ends meet and the uninsured, with comprehensive family planning and related preventive health services. Most recently, we joined the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association and other partners to urge the Biden-Harris administration to take these immediate and simple steps to restore Title X.
What can I do now?
There is still so much work to be done to protect and expand reproductive freedom. The Biden-Harris administration must take action to eliminate stigma, ensure providers and services are available and accessible and tackle the disparities that exist for Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities; those struggling to make ends meet; young people; people living with disabilities; rural communities; immigrants; and LGBTQ individuals. As we approach the 48th anniversary of Roe v. Wade – the Supreme Court case that cemented the constitutional right to abortion – we are reminded that theoretical legal rights mean nothing without access to essential health care in reality.
As such, we will be disappointed if the Presidential Memorandum will NOT address the Hyde or Helms Amendments or federal policy requiring pregnant people to pick up abortion medication in-person. These essential items are included in NCJW’s First 100 Days Priorities in addition to All* Above All’s First 100 Days Agenda for Abortion Justice and the Blueprint Coalition’s First Priorities (both endorsed by NCJW). While President Biden does not have the ability to decide on Hyde or Helms, he can make his feelings known about them and present a budget to Congress without the Hyde amendment. As our first pro-choice Catholic president, we hope he will set the tone that people of faith support abortion access.
Take action today: urge your members of Congress to pass federal legislation to stop the relentless tide of these discriminatory policies and secure the constitutional right to abortion should the Court continue to chip away at or even overturn Roe v. Wade: the Women’s Health Protection Act and the EACH Woman Act.