Decision Maker

Chuck Grassley

  • IA
  • Senator

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Petitioning Senate Judiciary Committee

Investigate Sexual Assault Allegations Now! Delay the Kavanaugh Vote!

Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, Supreme Court nominee, stands accused of a crime, and it will take a public outcry to ensure these allegations are investigated before the Senate votes on his confirmation. Dr. Christine Blasey Ford accuses Kavanaugh of pinning her to a bed and drunkenly assaulting her while another boy, Mark Judge, watched. The event took place when they were in high school. She spoke publicly about the encounter to The Washington Post. We, the undersigned, demand that the U.S. Senate delay the vote to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh until its members have conducted a proper investigation into these allegations. Blasey described Judge Kavanaugh attempting to remove her clothes and covering her mouth when she tried to scream. “I thought he might inadvertently kill me,” Blasey said in the interview. Early in the summer, when it became clear that Kavanaugh would be included on Trump's short list of candidates that might be nominated for the Supreme Court, Blasey sent a letter to her congresswoman, Anna G. Eshoo, and reached out to The Washington Post tip line. Later in July, she sent a letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein. For several weeks, Blasey chose not to speak publicly in order to protect her family and her own privacy. Knowing she would be attacked, she completed and passed a lie detector test, administered by an ex-FBI agent, and gave the results to The Washington Post. Supreme Court Justices are appointed for life. If the vote to confirm Kavanaugh goes ahead without an investigation, these allegations could hang over the court for more than 40 years. Now that the Senate Judiciary Committee has voted to move Kavanaugh’s nomination to the floor, we need to pressure our senators to call for an FBI investigation.  Sign now to call for a formal investigation into Christine Blasey Ford’s accusations against Kavanaugh.  

230,199 supporters
Petitioning United States Access Board

Require Bed Regulations in Wheelchair Accessible Lodging Facilities

The Americans with Disabilities Act fails to address an imperative part of access in hotels and other lodging facilities; bed design. Two Major Issues in lodging facilities: Bed Height Clearance Under the Bed Call for Action: Address bed height standards in ADA Standards to have minimum and maximum bed heights Address clearance under bed in ADA Standards to require minimum clearance to ensure access for lifts Require lodging facilities to provide bed height and under bed clearance in room description Currently there are no regulations that apply to beds in wheelchair accessible rooms. For wheelchair users, the importance of bed height and clearance under the bed is undeniable. Many wheelchair users traveling alone are unable to achieve transfers into beds that are too high or too low. Regulating the bed height is a simple but majorly impactful way of ensuring people with disabilities have access to travel, one of our fundamental Constitutional rights. Furthermore, people traveling with lifts are unable to utilize lifts if there is no clearance under the bed. Requiring a certain amount of clearance under the bed will ensure that individuals needing lifts will have the ability to use them. I ask that the access board regulate beds in lodging facilities to ensure that people with disabilities can travel independently and seamlessly. At a very minimum require lodging facilities to provide bed height and clearance in their room descriptions or require they have the information available on request. Too many people with disabilities have been negatively impacted by extreme bed designs, and it poses a risk of injury to so many. It is imperative we address the issue.

Gina Schuh
46,057 supporters
Petitioning Elizabeth Warren, Doug Jones, Lisa Murkowski, Dan Sullivan, Kyrsten Sinema, Martha McSally, John Boozman, Tom Cotton, Dianne Feinstein, Kamala D. Harris, Michael F. Bennet, Cory Gardner, Richard Bl...

Pay Our Trusted Pharmacists Fairly & Provide Access Through Coverage

Per a recent consumer reports study, most patients prefer independent pharmacy (Gill,2018). Unfortunately, many are not allowed to have a choice in accessing their trusted pharmacy for coverage of their life-saving medications as pharmacy benefit managers such as CVS Caremark, Optum RX, and Express Scripts have removed this option from our coverage as they forcefully steer patients to their owned pharmacies; although, across our nation news reports are highlighting the price gouging that is occurring behind the scenes as we are being forced to their pharmacies.  For example, recently medications that were filled by a hospital pharmacy were suddenly forced away from the hospital pharmacy to the insurance company's pharmacy benefit manager's owned mail-order pharmacy. It wasn't because our pharmacy was unqualified; they fill medications for children's transplant, cancer, and many other specialty medications every single day. The reply received from the insurance company's pharmacy benefit manager for the reason for denial stated that the pharmacy was not an appropriate location to fill these medications. Many would argue they were the most qualified and appropriate. The unethical forcing and steering to a pharmacy outside of our trusted pharmacy is an issue with pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) who control access and reimbursements. There is about an 80 percent chance your PBM is Express Scripts Optum RX or CVS Caremark. Sadly, these same pharmacy benefit managers force many to their own mail-order and retail pharmacies. For my family, our only in-network pharmacy is CVS and CVS mail-order pharmacy. The PBM, of course, is CVS Caremark. Life-saving medications, like my son's transplant medications, are mandated to only be received through the mail for coverage. This issue is not unique. It's happening across America. Recently, a news article stated that CVS paid their own pharmacy much more. "For example, CVS would have to pay Walmart and Sam’s Club almost half again as much — 46 percent more — for generic drugs if CVS were to equal the rates it was paying its own pharmacies" (2019, Candisky &amp; Schladen)" When looking at the reimbursements of our independent pharmacies, unfair and unequal reimbursements are found. "For a Fentanyl Patch 100, CVS pharmacies were reimbursed $400.65 while mom-and-pop pharmacies were reimbursed $75.74. For Amoxicillin, CVS pharmacies were reimbursed $35.92 while mom-and-pop pharmacies were reimbursed $12.21 (Lopez,2018)" Upon speaking to many pharmacists, these reimbursements are barely enough or not enough to cover their overhead cost along with the cost of the medications. After these unfair reimbursements Business Insider notes, "They also didn't know that, as their local pharmacists were getting squeezed, CVS was waiting in the wings, sending out letters offering to buy the very mom-and-pop shops it was forcing out of business (Lopez,2018)." In Ohio alone, over 160 independent pharmacies have closed. Many were bought out by CVS and many did not reopen. These closures are leaving entire communities at loss of a critical healthcare provider to help them demonstrate how to use complex medications, to inform patients that it may be cheaper to pay cash instead of using their insurance card, to prevent patients from being forced to take the many risks of mail-order pharmacy such as delays, lost packages, thefts, loss of potency of medications due to lack of temperature monitoring, the risk of children and pets ingesting medications, and no one to communicate face to face with our elderly and people with chronic conditions. The over-performance and hard work of our trusted pharmacist should be greatly rewarded not overlooked and disregarded. For example, CVS often states that they are paying per performance. For example, CVS states they pay the pharmacy based on factors such as patient adherence and use of generics. They often measure adherence by medications refilled by the customer. However, for some customers who are discarding medications by the table full due to auto refills and the price gouging of taxpayers dollars when generics are filled, many patients argue that the performance reward should go to our independent, community, and hospital. Often, when a medication is refilled and the mail-order pharmacy has delayed the medication for days and weeks or one of many incidents that can go wrong with mail -order happens during shipment, our trusted pharmacies will fill an emergency prescription. What will happen as our trusted pharmacies close their businesses due to unfair reimbursements? Where will we go? The insurance company's pharmacy benefit managers are hoping that we are all sleeping at the wheel. That we are not caring about the future of our pharmaceutical care. Let's unite and the PBMs and our regulators otherwise!   YOUR SUPPORT WILL SAVE LIVES  Thank you! Loretta Boesing   The greatest way that you can help is by sharing this petition &amp; gathering 2-3 people in your community who are having issues and speak to your legislatures.    You may also make a tax-deductible donation to our advocacy and join with our trusted pharmacies who are working hard to fight against this unethical business practice.    References,  Candisky, Cathy, and Schladen, Marty, and . “CVS Paid Itself Far More than Some Major Competitors, Report Says.” Gatehouse Media, Gatehouse Media, 2019, Gill, Lisa L. “Consumers Still Prefer Independent Pharmacies, CR's Ratings Show.” Product Reviews and Ratings - Consumer Reports, 7 Dec. 2018, Lopez, Linette. “What CVS Is Doing to Mom-and-Pop Pharmacies in the US Will Make Your Blood Boil.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 30 Mar. 2018,        

Loretta Boesing
7,528 supporters
Petitioning Chuck Grassley, Dianne Feinstein

The People Stand With Judge Kavanaugh

We the People absolutely and unequivocally reject the growing trend to cast males as automatically guilty of sexual crimes via kangaroo courts of public opinion.  The justice system in our United States of America is predicated on the presumption of innocence and equality before the law.     "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime...nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." United States Constitution, Fifth Amendment. "The principle that there is a presumption of innocence in favor of the accused is the undoubted law, axiomatic and elementary, and its enforcement lies at the foundation of the administration of our criminal law." - Coffin v. United States, 156 U.S. 432 (1895) "Nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law" - United States Constitution, Fourteenth Amendment. "The full scope of the liberty guaranteed by the Due Process Clause cannot be found in or limited by the precise terms of the specific guarantees elsewhere provided in the Constitution... It is a rational continuum which, broadly speaking, includes a freedom from all substantial arbitrary impositions and purposeless restraints." - Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992)  It cannot be that a male shall be presumed guilty solely on the merit of his accuser's gender. This presumption of guilt not only represents a grave assault on male rights but also undermines our entire legal system most egregiously.  We the undersigned urge Congress to uphold the principles of our Constitution and legal precedent, as passed down by our honorable court system.

Yosef Rabin
2,419 supporters
Petitioning Close legal loop hole that allows adults petition for visa for spouses/fiances, Donald J. Trump, Chuck Grassley, Mitch McConnell, John Thune, chuck schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Jim Clyburn, Kevin McCarthy

Change US law to not recognize marriages between adults and children.

That’s right, the US In the last decade have allowed Adult men to marry young girls in foreign countries, and they have allowed them to bring these child brides to the US LEGALLY. They have also allowed children to be married to foreign adults and allowed the children to legally petition for them to be brought to states. In one case, a 49-year-old man applied for admission for a 15-year-old girl. There were more than 5,000 cases of adults petitioning on behalf of minors and nearly 3,000 examples of minors seeking to bring in older spouses or finances, according to the data requested by the Senate Homeland Security Committee in 2017 and compiled into a report. It is disgusting that our nation is allowing this to happen. First, because we are condoning the sexual abuse of children, but also because it is often against their will. Many of the countries that are taking part in these child marriages are countries where women and girls are treated like property and are married off by their family without their permission. It has lead to legal residents importing child brides, forced by their parents. Not only that, groups in the US that come from the same culture that have forced their young children to marry adults overseas. Some victims of forced marriage say the lure of a US passport combined with lax US marriage laws are partly fueling the petitions. An example of one such victim in Naila Amin who was taken to Pakistan by her parents and forcibly married at age 13. She was then forced petition for her 26-year-old husband to come to the country. “People die to come to America,” (and) “I was a passport to him. They all wanted him here and that was the way to do it.” Basically, OUR LAWS, as they stand now allowed this 13-year-old girl and thousands like her to be victimized. Not only are we legally recognizing marriages that would not be recognized by state laws in any other way, but we have actually created an incentive to force MORE children into the marriage with adults as a way to circumvent our immigration process. Naila Amin put it well when she said this: “I was a child. I want to know: Why weren’t any red flags raised? Whoever was processing this application, they don’t look at it? They don’t think?” I think the US Congress owes her an explanation. I think they owe justice. Amin is 29 years old, but she was originally betrothed to her first cousin Tariq when she was just 8 and he was 21. She lucky was able to escape the marriage, not because the state protected her, but because she ran away from her family. She said the ordeal cost her a childhood. She was in and out of foster care and group homes and it took a while to get her life on track. All of this was a miscarriage of justice that if we do nothing, we allow to happen again, and again. These laws need to change. Currently, The Immigration and Nationality Act does not set minimum age requirements. And in weighing petitions for spouses or fiancees, US Citizenship and Immigration Services goes by whether the marriage is legal in the home country and then whether the marriage would be legal in the state where the petitioner lives. The need to change NOW. I would like all of you sign this petition, tell our member of Congress to change these laws. Also contact your congressman and let them know that you care about this issue. I encourage you to call them and tell them that the US government should not be allowing or facilitating child marriages, forced or otherwise. Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, told the AP. “It indicates a problem. It indicates a loophole that we need to close,” Additionally, In nearly all the over 8000 cases, the girls were the younger person in the relationship. In 149 instances, the adult was older than 40 and in 28 cases the adult was over 50, the committee found. Also, Among the examples: In 2011, immigration officials approved a 14-year-old’s petition for a 48-year-old spouse in Jamaica, And A petition from a 71-year-old man was approved in 2013 for his 17-year-old wife in Guatemala. Cut and dry, this is state-sanctioned child abuse and a mockery of our immigration law. One final note is that we also have a problem of child marriage among Americans. State laws generally set 18 as the minimum age for marriage, yet every state allows exceptions. Most states let 16- and 17-year-olds marry if they have parental consent and several states — including New York, Virginia and Maryland — allow children under 16 to marry with court permission. Fraidy Reiss, who campaigns against coerced marriage as head of a group called Unchained at Last, researched data from her home state of New Jersey. She determined that nearly 4,000 minors, mostly girls, were married in the state from 1995 to 2012, including 178 who were under 15. “This is a problem both domestically and in terms of immigration,” she said. It is unethical for our laws to allow this. I encourage you all to speak out and take action to stop this from happening.  

Dire Wolf Media
2,366 supporters
Petitioning Chuck Grassley, Tammy Duckworth, Nancy Pelosi, Bruce Rauner, Bill Crusinberry, Jim DeWitt, Richard Queen, Richard J. Durbin

Body Camera Law

Body cameras for all police officers!!!! Some ideas that would help protect and bring safety. 1. Require all officers to wear body cameras not capable of being shut off by the officer, altered or destroyed. 2. Footage should be stored up to 90 days in its original form giving anyone time to request the footage of there encounter showing no lapse of time.  3. Jailers, prison guards and any other type of position of authority of that nature required to wear body cameras, Danville Illinois has a history of jailers taking an individual to an area cameras are not available and that person is now severally injured or died. With a body camera, solves that problem of cameras not in the area. 4. All footage of interaction with civilians should be reviewed for professionalism, training and transparency purposes. 5. Tampering with the footage is a felony, instant removal and suspension pending investigation that has to be available to the public after a decision has been made. 6. Officer cannot act in that capacity unless thier body camera is functioning to allow breaks, personal time, bathroom or whatever. 7. Footage must be stored and screened for possible tampering at the end of each shit. 8. Footage is available upon request within 72hrs 9. Footage can be deleted if thier is no known request or foreseeable court actions.  10. Prisons and jails would be required to maintain the same standards of transparency    This isn’t a law and nothing but a local decision made by people who never had to worry about police brutality or wasnt an officer who has ever been accused and was innocent.   Body cameras would of held every police officer who violated my rights, over and over again virtually making my juvenile years the most feared time of my life accountable. Been dropped off miles outside of town only to be forced to walk back, left handcuffed for hours in a squad car at 16, forced searches and held for hours at traffic stops all while under the age and my list continues and so does so many other people. I’m now 35 and still get scared when I have interactions with a officer not wearing a camera, instantly wondering what the officer is about to do or say they don’t want recorded?   Body cameras also protect good officers highlighting them while exposing officers that need to find another job, allowing trainers to review officers actions to make sure transparency, accountability and honesty.   I lost my scholarship, become homeless, juvenile charged as adult and If body cameras was available then my adult life would be different today, don’t be apart of that and hold officers accountable when they do, reward the ones that are actually serving and protecting.   Corrupt officers are in small towns and not just cities, sometimes worse in the smaller communities because the lack of supervision, we all deserve the best police and no more police brutality, please sign and let help make this law.

2,059 supporters
Petitioning Tammy Baldwin, Lamar Alexander, John Barrasso, Michael F. Bennet, Marsha Blackburn, Richard Blumenthal, Roy Blunt, Cory A. Booker, John Boozman, Mike Braun, Richard Burr, Maria Cantwell, Shelley Mo...

Ban Animal Furs in the US

Animal furs are inhumane and bad for the environment. Over 100 million animals are killed on fur farms every year. They are kept in small cages that hurt their mental and physical health and then “killed by gassing, violent neck breaking or poisoning; all slow grueling deaths” according to Fur Trade Facts. Outside of hurting these animals, it also hurts the environment. It brings these species to the brink of extinction, or pushes them over that brink, which interferes with the entire food web. This can have major detrimental impacts on the ecosystem, and other organisms within it. Along with the loss of these species, the fur industry was also found by PETA to be “one of the world’s five worst industries for toxic-metal pollution” and it pollutes nearby rivers with phosphorus. This damages the chemical makeup of the water, which can make it fatal to the organisms within it and unsafe for drinking. Please sign this petition to tell Congress to nationally ban furs. The reasons listed above show all of the consequences of this industry, and there is not really a benefit. Some may argue that a beautiful coat is worth it, but many would say that the lives of animals are more important. Especially since faux fur is such a good alternative given it replicates the style but does not require the deaths of animals. 

Talbot de St. Aubin
1,761 supporters