IEB meeting with Rep. DeSaulnier 8/5/19

August 5, 2019 meeting with Representative Mark DeSaulnier and Indivisible East Bay’s CA-11 Team. 

Present: Rep. Mark DeSaulnier and Shanelle Scales Preston, District Director for Rep. DeSaulnier 

Read our memorandum to Rep. DeSaulnier here.

• Immigration (CBP/HHS/Flores Settlement) 
  • $4.6 billion in border aid without any accountability
  • DeSaulnier: there were long caucuses on this – Problem Solvers Caucus wouldn’t support the above aid
  • 45 plays to race – he is good at it
  • This is about accountability 
  • Russians trying to disrupt politics – get people to be divisive
  • Only accountability at this point is if judge finds e.g. Secretary of DHS in contempt
• Election Security 
  • Republicans are used to suppressing votes – it is part of their culture – “this is what we do in the South/Midwest.”
  • Need an audit trail
  • Social media is most alarming – they prime traditional media through social media
  • What can Oversight Committee do:
    • We have to stay in it
    • Need to hold hearings and let the public know
    • They are trying to build staff up on all committees – particularly with Oversight. Noted that budget for Congressional staff has been slashed since Gingrich was Speaker.
    • Keep having hearings – asked us to let him know what ideas we have. Work with Indivisible National to share ideas with others
  • Can members of congress model the right policies:
    • Blue states can pilot – take pieces of HR1 and try it at the local level 
    • Rep. DeSaulnier: We can try it. Apply pressure strategically and make them know who is on their side – Groups like Indivisible should work in swing states to help message this
    • We have to worry about CA too – he is worried about registrars here too – ex: Fresno 
  • How can Rep. DeSaulnier use his committee assignments to be impactful:
    • Can do lots of little things to have great impact
    • He wants help with the language with regards to all of our smaller recommendations that can lead to greater impact
    • “There will be vehicles on Election Security because it is important.” (presumably referring to future legislation)
• Impeachment Inquiry
  • Wanted his name on it, but feels that this is a choice of conscience
  • Understands why Speaker Pelosi is concerned about it
  • Democrats who are not behind it are worried it will be like Clinton
  • Need to bring people along – Pelosi: “With public sentiment anything is possible”
  • Should focus on 2020
  • House Judiciary Committee Chair Nadler is pushing to get leverage from judges, Pelosi proceeding through action on multiple committees.
• White Supremacist Terrorism
  • (Affected the tone of what we discussed but we didn’t explicitly get to it)
• FY20 Budget Negotiations
  • Supplemental has gone in
    • Will be assertive about how they spend the money
    • Supplemental appropriations are bills enacted after the regular annual appropriations act to pay for situations too urgent to wait until the next year. 
  • Is there going to be a lawsuit? 
    • Multiple ones – mostly from ACLU but they lack infrastructure to deal with this corruption
    • His staff will get more for us
  • Progressive and Hispanic caucuses unified on various prohibitions asked for in Memo. 

If you want more info about the CA-11 Team, contact co-leads Ted and Kristen at indivisibleca11@gmail.com. Or if you’re on Slack, contact @Ted Lam or @KristenL and join the moc_team_ca11 team. Want an invite to join Slack? Please drop us a line at info@indivisibleeb.org

Meeting notes by IEB and CA-11 Team members Kristen, Toni and Ion

Photograph of Rep. DeSaulnier with Toni, Kristen, Janis, and Ion