There is 1 legislative day until the government funding deadline.  

>>If you say one thing today — Brett Kavanaugh has no credibility and he must immediately withdraw. All along, this sham process with its incomplete record, rushed schedule, and artificial deadlines has been about concealing and covering up Brett Kavanaugh’s record, real views, and true background. It’s well past time to start over again with a new process and a new nominee. (Talking points here from The Leadership Conference)

>>If you do one thing today —

• To support Dr. Blasey Ford, turn out to the Supreme Court rally today at noon (FB event here)
• Drive calls to Manchin, Murkowski, Collins, and Flake
  • English: (866) 426-2631
  • Spanish: (877) 736-7831

On the Horizon…

September 29- November 12: House on recess

September 30 Sunday: Government funding deadline

September 30 Sunday: LWCF and Farm Bill expire

October 1 Monday: Dirty Power Scam hearing in Chicago, IL

October 3 Wednesday: Public hearing on Roadless Rule Rollback in Washington, DC

Letters

• Sign onto this letter from EA that offers support for their favorite clean water measures in the WRDA bill, including increased SRF funding, grants to get the lead out of drinking water in schools, and changes to UCMR that will result in more systems being tested for unregulated contaminants such as PFAS.
  • Deadline: COB TODAY 9/28
• Sign onto this letter seeking a 60-day extension on the comment deadline for the Forest Service’s proposed rulemakings to streamline and expand mining, oil and gas exploration and development on national forests and grasslands
  • Deadline: COB Friday 10/5
• Sign onto this comment letter outlining the value of Roadless areas nationwide and opposing rollbacks of Roadless protections in Alaska or elsewhere
  • Deadline: Thursday 10/11
• Sign onto this letter opposing any exemption or reduction of Roadless Rule protections and outlining the arguments in favor of maintaining the Roadless Rule nationally, in Alaska, and specifically in the Tongass National Forest
  • Deadline: Thursday 10/11

Help Needed

• >>Turn out to the Supreme Court rally today at noon to call for Kavanaugh’s nomination to be withdrawn (FB event here)
• Use this CDP toolkit while the House is on recess (includes messaging, social guidance, and event ideas)
• Respond to the House passage of the continuing resolution that includes the Interior Environment bill using this toolkit. 
• Dirty Power Scam Hearing
  • Sarah Mason at CAC will be taking the lead on coordinating efforts (smason@cacampaign.com)
    • Location details and rules here
    • Sierra Club rally at noon (FB event here)
  • Latest CAC resources 
    • Email and sample comment language here
    • Sample testimony in English, Spanish
    • Toolkit here (including talking points, sample press release, LTE, and social)
• Join UCS's National Climate Assessment call on Wednesday 10/10 from 3-4pm ET
  • Register for the call here
• LWCF
  • House Natural Resources Committee is doing a social media post once an hour from now till it expires Sunday night, highlighting all the great things the fund has done 
    • Please amplify that great work for the next few days and over the weekend
• Methane
  • BLM Methane Rule Finalization
    • Use this toolkit (including sample statement, talking points, social guidance, graphics, and an op-ed template) and expanded talking points here to push back and release a statement opposing this important rule rollback
  • EPA Methane Rule Rollback
    • Use this toolkit (including sample statement, message guidance, a sample comment, sample social guidance, sample graphics, and LTE templates) to activate your base and push for comments!
    • Email templates, as well as a sample call tool script and landing page template from CAC digital, are here.
    • Use this social to promote a call tool from CAC

Intel

• Sunday 9/30 at midnight, LWCF and Farm Bill are set to expire
• EPA science advisor is being relocated to the research office
• House is out beginning next week on recess

SCOTUS

• SCOTUS
  • DC rally at the Supreme Court
  • Here is link to multiple events outside DC
  • Update
    • It's go time. Today, at 9:30am, Senate Judiciary is meeting to vote on Kavanaugh. Following yesterday's hearing, the American Bar Association, which had given Kavanaugh a "well qualified" rating is calling for the vote to delay and a full FBI investigation. A leading Catholic magazine has rescinded it's endorsement of Kavanaugh.
  • Top targets:
    • D: Manchin, Donnelly, Heitkamp
    • R: Collins, Murkowski
    • Jones, Nelson came out as NO
    • Corker, Flake came out as YES
  • Recap of yesterday’s hearing
    • Yesterday was a really rough day. Watching Dr. Blasey Ford bravely came forward and told her story was emotional and honestly really difficult. She was so brave and she said She was terrified. But that she came forward because it was her civic duty. The Republican response was truly horrific. For the first time ever, instead of asking questions of themselves, Republicans farmed their questions to a prosecutor setting it up like she was on trial. Then kavanaugh spoke - he yelled, he was not composed, belligerent and attacked female senator, Senator Amy Klobuchar. He acted like Donald Trump. Here is Sierra Club statement following Dr. Blasey Ford's testimony.
  • Looking forward
    • McConnell will have to file cloture, then 30 hours later there should be a vote on cloture, then if that vote passes, the earliest a full vote of the Senate could happen is Tuesday at 7:30am, so likely later in the day Tuesday. 
  • Support
    • This has been a really difficult and emotional experience for me. I have seen and talked with many of you sharing your stories and experiences and the emotions this is bringing up.  I am sending love to you all. If you need additional support please use some of these incredible resources that are available:
      • RAINN
      • National Sexual Assault Hotline is available: 800.656.HOPE or http://online.rainn.org
      • The National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence offers links to a variety of hotlines for victims of domestic violence, child abuse and neglect, members of the LGBTQ community and more.
      • The National Child Traumatic Stress Network also has a list of hotlines for victims of child sexual abuse, dating abuse, domestic violence and other kinds of crime victims.

Offshore Drilling

• NYT is out with a new report on the Trump administration continuing to rollback safety protections on oil rigs
  • Removes third party verification of safety equipment
  • Removes a margin of safety in design requirements
  • Eliminates a professional engineer signing off on some design documents
• This is final action, so 90 days and this rule will be enacted
• Respond
  • Amplify this op ed in the Houston Chronicle
  • Key messages, sample tweet, and Oceana statement here (more guidance to come)

Roadless Rule

• Turn out for the public hearing in DC next Wed 10/3 on roadless rule
  • 1-4pm at the Holiday Inn Capitol by L’Enfant
  • Facebook event here
• This is the only opportunity in lower 48 to show strong opposition to this exemption that Alaska has requested to the roadless rule
• >>Respond
  • Public hearing
    • Use this social media toolkit to push back on this proposal and drive turnout to the public hearing
    • Please fill out this form if someone from your org plans to attend or speak at the hearing
    • Reach out to Chris at TWS if you want to get involved (chris_rackens@tws.org)
  • Drive comments
    • Push folks to get comments in until Oct 15
    • Unbranded comment portal to use in social media here
    • Use this toolkit to drive comments (including a sample e-alert, sample social media, talking points, etc)

Dirty Budget Fight 

• The House passed the minibus yesterday along with a clean CR (including Interior enviro)
  • Punts the interior enviro fight to December 7
  • Trump has signaled that he is going to sign the bill
  • If for some reason he doesn’t and the government shuts down, CDP will mobilize and keep everyone posted on how to respond
  • Response
    • >>Use this social media guidance to thank champs and leadership and pivot to having their backs as the fight continues down the road

Topic	Agency	Status	Deadline	Comment Guidance	Hearing
Roadless Rule Rollback	USDA-FS	Open	10/15	here	10/3 DC
Mining Regulations Revision	USDA-FS	Open	10/15
Oil and Gas Regulations Revision	USDA-FS	Open	10/15
Clean Cars Rollback	EPA and DOT	Open	10/23
FPISC Fast-41 Initiation Fee		Open	11/5
Rio Grande Valley Border Wall	Customs and Border Patrol	Open	11/6
Grand Staircase-Escalante Reductions	BLM	Open	11/15	here
Bears Ears Reductions	BLM	Open	11/15	here