IMMIGRATION CRESCENDO — Progressive groups intensified their calls for broad immigration reform in the wake of competing House and Senate legislation likely to surface next week.  Last Friday, the Senate’s bipartisan Gang of Eight, AFL-CIO, and the Chamber of Commerce struck a rare deal to implement a new temporary foreign worker visa program which is modeled after a proposal from the Economic Policy Institute, as Slate’s Matt Yglesias has pointed out. On Tuesday, EPI endorsed the visa program deal and elucidated some of its key components, including U.S.worker protection. Top Wonk Robert Reich also supported the visa program deal, citing disagreement over foreign workers as one of the reasons immigration reform came to a halt in 2007.

More on Immigration: Center for American Progress launched a new website focused on the country’s 267,000+ LGBT undocumented immigrants (read CAP’s related report: Living in Dual Shadows). Color of Change issued an email demanding reform that protects all immigrants, including the 3+ million black immigrants who comprise 9% of the US foreign-born population and are often absent from immigration debates.  Sojourners President Jim Wallis appeared on ABC’s ‘This Week’ with George Stephanopoulos to advocate for a path to citizenship. PICO Network published a five point platform for immigration reform including a seven-year path to citizenship with no permanent underclass. Message Matters sent out a one-pager with language on how to respond to conservative attacks on immigration (see conservative attack: “Illegal immigrants are taking our jobs”).

PROGRESS –  Associated Press announced it was dropping the term ‘illegal immigrant’ and the use of ‘illegal’ to describe a person. The New York Times is considering whether to follow suit. Sign Presente.org’s petition to get NYT to stop using the epithet ‘illegal.’ Credit the Applied Research Center for their Drop the I-Word campaign, which began advocating for the removal of ‘illegals’ from public discourse on immigration three years ago.

APRIL 10TH: Ten thousand progressive activists plan to swarm the West Lawn of the Capitol Building to Rally for Citizenship. On Twitter, use the hashtags #A10 and #TimeIsNow. Sign up here.

AD FEVER – 2013 is a non-election year, but political ads continue to hit major airwaves. Sunlight Foundation reported that at least 55 outside groups have bought airtime in 32 media markets for ads on 27 topics ranging from gun control to taxation. These outside groups spent $200,000 alone on TV ads derailing former Sen. Hagel’s Defense Secretary nomination. Click on this Google Map to see where the ads are running. In the last election cycle, outside groups spent more than $300 million on political campaigns. Twitter Purge: On Monday, Congressional candidate Elizabeth Colbert Busch deleted more than 500 tweets from her official campaign Twitter account but Sunlight Foundation archived them. Read more of Sunlight’s deleted tweets from politicians.

HOT OFF THE PRESS – Americans for Financial Reform criticized a new measure which will exempt JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs from Dodd-Frank Act swap market rules when trading between their own affiliates (Bloomberg Businessweek).Center for Economic Policy and Research plans to launch a new website called Director Watch in partnership with The Huffington Post. From CEPR: “Director Watch will highlight directors who get large paychecks even as the companies they ostensibly oversee are going down the tubes.” Help CEPR raise $17,000 to build their website. Sequestration could strip 140,000 low-income families of housing assistance, according to an estimate from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

ON OUR AGENDA…Top Wonk Robert Reich explains why raising the minimum wage to $9 is a no brainer.  Who Just Pulled a Bobby Rubin Through Wall Street’s Revolving Door? Nobody Knows More About Minorities Than This Guy.

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MARRIAGE EQUALITY EARTHQUAKE – Progressive groups, activists, and same-sex couples flocked to DC this week as the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on California’s Prop 8 and DOMA:

PROGRESS ON PROP 8 – Alliance for Justice released expert audio analyses for each of the Supreme Court’s Prop 8 oral arguments. American Constitution Society’s Jeremy Learning argued that the Supreme Court might dismiss Prop 8 on a technicality. Responding to Justice Scalia’s thoughtless question on when it became unconstitutional to exclude gay couples from marriage, Constitutional Accountability Center (CAC) clarified it was the 14^th Amendment ratified in 1868. Read CAC’s report on why Scalia is wrong and Olson is right to apply the 14^thAmendment’s equal protection clause. 

PROGRESS ON DOMA – ACLU client Edie Windsor appeared before the Supreme Court to challenge the constitutionality of DOMA, which has led her to owing more than $363,000 in federal estate taxes after the death of her spouse in 2009 (please watch this video about Edie’s story). Section 3 of DOMA strips same-sex couples legally married under state law of 1,138 federal rights, benefits, and protections (HRC factsheet). Lawyers from the Brennan Center published a primer pointing out that adopting a deferential rational basis standard for Prop 8 and DOMA “seems highly inappropriate” for cases involving insular minorities. Top Wonk Geoffrey Stone laid out clear constitutional predictions for both cases. ThinkProgress slammed Justice Roberts for his incendiary comment that “politicians are “falling over themselves” to support gay marriage. Equality on Trial’s Jacob Combs published an in-depth look at the constitutional merits of DOMA predicting at least 5 votes on the Court to invalidate it (see also Combs’ HuffPo post on Prop 8).

Human Rights Campaign coordinated a momentous United for Marriage Rally on Tuesday and Wednesday. SEE THE 5 BEST PROTEST SIGNS here, here, here,here, and here.  Human Rights Campaign also launched a red equality symbol which has created 10 million + media impressions on social media in all 50 states. 

It’s catching on like two sticks of butter, ya’ll.

HOT OFF THE PRESS – Naked Capitalism published a passage from a letter written by Americans for Financial Reform opposing a bill that would almost completely eliminate Section 715 of the Dodd-Frank act.The Atlantic highlighted The New Leaders Council and Truman National Security Project as effective leadership development groups to which progressives need to direct more money. The Washington Post reported AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka’s new plan to reinvent the U.S. labor movement by expanding union membership to civil rights organizations and women’s rights groups.

FACT —  Income for Bottom 90% of Americans has grown by only $59 in the last 40 years (Tax Analysts).

ON OUR AGENDA…Trouble on the Horizon…JPMorgan Under Investigation for Shady Bernie Madoff dealings…

BE LIKE ICE-CUBE – Read LAST WEEK’S Practical Progress Newsletter and the Newsletter BEFORE THAT.

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WHO HAS GRANNY ISSUES? Progressive groups attacked Paul Ryan’s budget  on Tuesday for slashing $4.5 trillion from projected spending, stripping the country’s vital and enduring social programs, and giving larger tax breaks to the wealthy at the expense of the sick, old, and poor. Center for American Progress criticized Ryan’s budget for cutting close to $1.2 trillion from public investments vital to supporting the economy (see CAP’s instant reports on Ryan’s budget here, including this one on the $7 trillion tax hole). The Agenda Project Action Fund released a new Granny off the Cliff video  which highlights that Ryan’s budget would eliminate Medicare (Stuart Varney banned their video and Ryan reacted to their video on Sean Hannity). Economic Policy Institute found that the Ryan budget would destroy two million jobs by 2014. Citizens for Tax Justice reported that the budget would give millionaires a tax cut of $200,000 or more.The Nation accosted the Ryan budget for its catastrophic impact on women. 

FREUDIAN SLIP OF THE WEEK —  “We are not going to give up on destroying the healthcare system for the American people” – Paul Ryan (watch here).

A LITTLE BIT OF SUNSHINE – In honor of Sunshine Week, Sunlight Foundation built a Report Card assessing the availability of open data on all 50 state legislative websites (HIGHLIGHT: 6 states including MA received ‘Fs’). CREW hosted two panels challenging the DOJ’s right to write up secret laws, including a now publicly notorious memo justifying the killing of US citizens abroad. Tonight, Brennan Center will host a discussion addressing security and secrecy in Obama’s latest move towards classification reform.

The Center for Effective Government (formerly OMB Watch) published a new investigative analysis on whether or not federal agencies effectively processed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests last year. WHAT THEY FOUND: the Department of Homeland Security increased its FOIA processing rates by 30%, however FOIA requests in which some information was withheld increased by 54% for all processed requests (due to redacted lines). See CEG’s March report for more. On government transparency, CEG’s Director of Open Government Policy Sean Moulton says: “While the Obama administration deserves praise for the important work it has done to build a platform for open government in its first term, the job is unfinished.” 

HOT READ – How the Iraq War Hurt Republicans, by Phillip Carter, Iraq Veteran and Principal of Truman National Security Project.

ON MILLION CALLING CONGRESS – Alliance for Citizenship (A4C) is hosting a week-long national call-in to Congress this week to quickly move on a bill that offers a direct path to citizenship for 11 million American immigrants (Call Congress: 866- 563-5608). Their goal is to hit 1 million calls, so pick up your phone. Alliance for Citizenship (A4C) is a newly-formed national campaign focused on expediting immigration reform. Partners include: ACLU, AFL-CIO, SEIU, Center for Community Change, Center for American Progress, Southern Poverty Law Center, and USAction.

PROGRESS – Last week, CREW celebrated 10 years of making politicians very nervous. Took a look at the top scandals and scoundrels they’ve uncovered here. 

ON OUR AGENDA…Mrs. Governor Christie to Hurricane Sandy Victims: ‘No Money For You But At Least We Got a Re-Tweet...’

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SCALIA SLAMMED – Progressive groups slammed Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia for referring to the Voting Rights Act as a “perpetuation of racial entitlement” last week, sounding the drumbeat for the Supreme Court to preserve Section 5 of the law. For recent reactions and analyses to Scalia and the Supreme Court’s oral arguments, read these pieces from: Alliance for Justice, American Constitution Society, Brennan Center for Justice, Constitutional Accountability Center, Demos, and NAACP. 

Last week, members from the Alliance for Justice, Advancement Project, Asian American Legal and Education Defense Fund, Common Cause, Planned Parenthood, Lawyers’ Committee, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and NAACP defended the Voting Rights Act on the steps of the Supreme Court.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights published a report on Monday showing that the majority of newspaper ed-boards in states explicitly covered by Section 5, including Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi agree that the Supreme Court should uphold the law.

THE MORE WE LEARN, THE WORSE IT LOOKS – Progressive environmental groups criticized a new report from the State Department Friday, alleging that the Keystone XL Project would have no significant impact on the environment. The National Resources Defense Council blasted the report for minimizing the climate impact of 830,000 barrels per day of tar sands, warning that “building this pipeline would be the same as putting 6 million new cars on the road” (read NRDC’s analysis of Tar Sands here). The Sierra Club expressed outrage over the State Department’s report, calling it a “deeply-flawed analysis” and “nothing short of malpractice.” Rebuild the Dream’s Van Jones warned that approving the Keystone XL Project could lead to “the worst oil disaster in American farmland history.”

CBO CRUNCHES REVENUE NUMBERS, FOX MANGLES THEM – According to a new Media Matters analysis, Fox & Friends misrepresented CBO numbers on air to push against calls for tax increases. Fox & Friends falsely claimed that federal revenue this year will be “historically high,” when in fact it will be lower than it has been since World War II.

IF YOU HATE FOX, BUT LOVE AMERICA — WATCH Patriotic Millionaire Eric Schoenberg tell Fox pundit Melissa Francis to tax him MORE.

FACT OF THE WEEK – Since 1968, more Americans have been killed by gunfire than have died in all of the wars in American history (h/t Center for American Progress).

PEOPLE PROGRESS –Carmel Martin, former Secretary for the Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development at the Department of Education joined the Center for American Progress as Executive Vice President for Policy. Legal journalist Andrew Cohen joined the Brennan Center as a new Fellow. Cohen is the first-ever legal analyst for 60 minutes, chief analyst and legal editor for CBS Radio News, and a contributing editor at The Atlantic. Read his first column on Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act here. WHO’S THAT GIRL? Progressive organizer and Sikh-American filmmaker Valarie Kaur was profiled in Vogue India this month for her advocacy work following the massacre at a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin last August. Kaur is the Founding Director of Groundswell, an Auburn Seminary initiative, and is one of the Center for American Progress’s 13 Progressive Faith Leaders to Watch.

HOT OFF THE PRESS – ACLU launched an online platform called ACLU Action on Wednesday aimed at helping progressives engage directly with their elected representatives. ACLU Action’s first campaign calls on President Obama to issue a veto threat on the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), which would give companies the power to share people’s private online information with the government without a warrant (find out more here). DISCREDITED: Demos released a study showing how credit checks keep unemployed, capable workers from getting a job. INSIDE THE NUMBERS: 1/7 qualified job applicants with ‘blemished credit histories’ have been told they were not hired by a prospective employer due to their credit.

SEQUESTER GOT YOU CONFUSED? Our graphic has got you covered.

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