Updates-Rallies-Events 05/06/2026

STATEWIDE DAY OF ACTION SATURDAY, MAY 16TH, 12-1, Highway of Flags Veterans Memorial, SE corner of Ridge & 41 in Highland

  • Over 70% of ICE detainees have never been convicted of a crime1 
  • ICE Detainees at Miami Correctional report medical neglect2 
  • Two ICE Detainees have died at Miami Correctional in 2026 
  • Due to Illegal Detention, ICE Detainees forced to file Habeas petitions in federal court — overwhelming federal courts3 4 5 

1https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ice-arrests-violent-criminal-records-trump-first-year/
2 Verbal reports made to community volunteers
3Indianapolis Star
4The Providence Journal
5NBC Bay Area
Click here for more information & to let us know you’re coming

Join us to protest every Saturday, 12-1, at the Highway of Flags Veterans Memorial, SE corner of Ridge & 41 as we make our voices heard in defense of democracy.
Click here for more information & to let us know you’re coming.

Give back to the community, too. If you can, please bring items to donate to City Life Center in Gary, an organization that works with families and children and needs help. Items include: Printer paper-wht/colors; pens/pencils; markers-all kinds; glue/bottle & sticks; notebooks-lined/unlined; scissors; sketch paper/books; water colors; pocket dictionary; art supplies all kinds; crayons/colored pencils; sm zipper bags/stringbags

Please register here–& bring a friend!

On Tuesday, June 9 at 6pm, join us at the Valparaiso Library, 103 Jefferson St at 6pm. 
Register here–& bring a friend!

Save the Date: June Public Meeting–Thursday, June 25, 6pm, Merrillville Library

For a limited time order Indivisible NWI sweatshirts & shirts! Your orders won’t be delivered until after June 10. We will bring them to the June Meeting for distribution. That meeting will be Thursday, June 25, 6pm at the Merrillville Library.
Many of you asked. Now’s the time to order! Link to order here.

Indiana Primary Elections

Yesterday, voters in the Republican primaries made the choice to support several Trump-backed challengers over Republican incumbents who opposed redistricting.
Their decision sets voters up for an important choice in November: allowing dark-money outside interests to call the shots in Indiana, or changing course and flipping seats. (MadVoters)

The president’s allies spent at least $8.3 million on races that rarely get much attention from Washington. It’s been a costly and unprecedented intraparty battle that has exacerbated tensions among Republicans ahead of the November midterm elections that will determine control of Congress. (WISH TV)
Although Trump supported candidates won 5 of 7 Indiana Senate republican races, there is good reason to hope that more dems will win statehouse elections in Nov.:

  • In Marion County Dem ballots cast was 80,148 vs 19,497 for republicans; voter turnout was 15.76%. (Indy.gov)
  • In Lake County the voter turnout was 16.27%. 
  • In Porter County voter turnout was 14%.
  • In LaPorte County voter turnout was 16.04%.
  • In Congressional District 1, 28,377 republicans voted for district 1 primary congressional candidates; 52,936 democrats voted.

If Democratic turnout continues to be substantially higher than Republican and if we work hard to get out the vote, Democrats can make significant gains against their Republican opponents.
Not sure how to persuade voters? Check out our post about having productive conversations around politics: https://indivisiblenwi.org/2026/04/talking-about-activism-politics-real-conversations/
And join us as we work to register and educate voters. 
Indiana primary election results: https://indianacitizen.org/2026-indiana-primary-results/

Congress

Signed into law

S. 4465 To amend the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 to extend the authorities of title VII of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, and for other purposesThis act extends the authorities of Title VII of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) until June 12, 2026.
Title VII of FISA generally addresses electronic surveillance and other methods of acquiring foreign intelligence information that are directed at targets outside the United States. Title VII includes surveillance under Section 702, which concerns acquiring communications of non-U.S. persons believed to be outside the United States to obtain foreign intelligence information. Information about U.S. persons may incidentally be acquired by this type of surveillance and subsequently queried (searched) under certain circumstances. (Congress.gov)
The only Indiana rep who voted no was Rep Carson. View the vote. (Politico)

H.R.7147 – Homeland Security and Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Act, 2026
The House approved a Senate-passed bill that would fund much of the Department of Homeland Security, ending the record 75-day shutdown of the sprawling federal agency. funding DHS agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration and the Secret Service through the end of September. The bill does not provide new funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the Border Patrol, however, as Democrats demand changes to immigration enforcement. (NBC)

H.J.Res. 140: Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Bureau of Land Management relating to Public Land Order No. 7917 for Withdrawal of Federal Lands; Cook, Lake, and Saint Louis Counties, MN.Allows mining upstream from Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, one of the largest and most visited expanses of federally protected lakes and forests in the United States.
By a vote of 50 to 49, senators passed a resolution that would repeal a moratorium on new mining across more than 225,000 acres of the Superior National Forest, which includes the Boundary Waters.
The vote was a victory for Twin Metals Minnesota, a subsidiary of the Chilean mining giant Antofagasta. Environmentalists have fought for years to block the proposed mine, saying it could contaminate the region’s interconnected lakes and streams with heavy metals, sulfuric acid and other toxic substances…The U.S. Forest Service in 2016 and again in 2022 concluded that the proposed mine posed significant risks, including potential water and soil contamination. A study by Harvard researchers also found that such contamination could harm the region’s economy by discouraging tourism and outdoor recreation.


Passed the House, Senate next

H.R. 7567: Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 passed 224-200. There were several amendments to the bill which also passed (fairly unusual lately) and included changing SNAP rules to allow purchases of rotisserie chickens and removing  proposed changes on pesticide labeling. Congress.gov has the full list of amendments, their subjects and whether they passed or failed. All Indiana reps voted yea except Reps Mrvan and Carson who voted nay. 

H.R. 5587: HEATS Act, which would amend the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970 to waive the requirement for a Federal drilling permit for certain activities and exempt certain activities from the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, passed 231-186. (GovTrack)   All Indiana representatives voted yea except Reps Mrvan and Carson who voted nay.

H.R. 6387: FIRE Act passed 220-198. Per the site Legis1, “The FIRE Act addresses a long-standing tension between federal air quality enforcement and state-level wildfire prevention. Under the current law, states risk falling out of compliance with national air quality standards when they conduct prescribed burns, even though those controlled burns are designed to reduce the far more damaging emissions from uncontrolled wildfires. The bill amends Section 319(b) of the Clean Air Act to give states a clearer path to exclude wildfire mitigation activities from air quality compliance calculations.” As you can see from the vote totals, this bill has strong partisan divergence. Why? As Legis1 went on to say, it’s an open question “…whether the bill is a practical fix for wildfire-prone states or a backdoor weakening of air quality standards…”. Which way a member of Congress sees it is almost entirely determined by which party the legislator belongs to. (GovTrack) All Indiana representatives voted yea except Reps Mrvan and Carson who voted nay.

H.R. 4690: Reliable Federal Infrastructure Act, which would amend the Energy Conservation and Production Act to repeal certain Federal building energy efficiency performance standards, passed 215-202. (GovTrack)   All Indiana representatives voted yea except Reps Mrvan and Carson who voted nay.

H.R. 6409: FENCES Act
To amend the Clean Air Act to clarify standards for emissions emanating from outside of the United States, and for other purposes.
Passed 220 – 208. All Indiana representatives voted yea except Reps Mrvan and Carson who voted nay. View the vote.

H.R. 6398: RED Tape Act
This bill removes the requirement under the Clean Air Act that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) review and comment on newly authorized federal construction projects and other major federal agency actions that already require review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and proposed federal regulations.
Passed 222 – 205. All Indiana representatives voted yea except Reps Mrvan and Carson who voted nay. View the vote.

H.R. 1689: To require the Secretary of Homeland Security to designate Haiti for temporary protected status.This bill directs the Department of Homeland Security to designate Haiti for temporary protected status (TPS) for 18 months beginning August 3, 2025. (Eligible nationals of a TPS-designated country may obtain employment authorization, may not be detained on the basis of their immigration status, and are not subject to removal while they retain TPS.) Passed 224 – 204. All Indiana representatives voted nay except Reps Mrvan and Carson who voted yea. View the vote. Notable is that Speaker Johnson refused to bring this bill to a vote. Rep. Pressley (D-MA7) put together a discharge petition on a bill introduced by Rep. Gillen (D-NY4) to force the administration to keep TPS for Haitians active and this week the House, including some Republicans, voted to pass it 224-204. The bill has to now go to the Senate and, like any other bill, would need the President’s signature before becoming law. This last step is unlikely; the President would be more likely to veto it. (GovTrack)

H.R. 1681: Expediting Federal Broadband Deployment Reviews Act, which would establish an interagency group to ensure that certain Federal land management agencies prioritize the review of requests for communications use authorizations, passed 384-9.

H.R. 2493: Improving Care in Rural America Reauthorization Act of 2025 passed 406-4.

H.R. 5201: Kari’s Law Reporting Act passed 405-5. According to the FCC, “Kari’s Law requires direct 911 dialing and notification capabilities in multi-line telephone systems (MLTS), which are typically found in enterprises such as office buildings, campuses, and hotels.” This bill would require a report on how the implementation of Kari’s Law is going.

H.R. 5200: Emergency Reporting Act, which would result in reports after activation of the Disaster Information Reporting System and to make improvements to network outage reporting, passed 386-7.

Senate

Trump’s new pick to lead the CDC is a public health veteran who has led vaccination programs, a new sign of the administration’s shifting views on vaccines. Dr. Erica Schwartz’s nomination came just hours after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. struck a more supportive tone on vaccines during a congressional hearing, calling the measles shot safe and effective “for most people.” Yet at other points, he forcefully rejected claims that his vaccine skepticism had driven a decline in vaccination rates. The tense back-and-forth sets the stage for questions Schwartz will likely face during her Senate confirmation hearing about how strongly she’s willing to break with Kennedy on controversial issues, such as vaccine policy. (CNN)

Failed in the Senate
Senate Republicans voted to defeat a resolution sponsored by Senate Democrats to stop President Trump from launching military operations against Cuba without authorization from Congress. (The Hill)

And more
The Pentagon has asked Congress to codify its “Department of War” renaming, saying it will cost nearly $52 million to complete and will not have a “significant impact” on President Trump’s fiscal 2027 defense budget request. 
The Defense Department said the “actual costs are being collected during implementation and will be available after” the current fiscal year’s execution of the name change is done. (The Hill)

To find and contact your Members of Congress:  https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials 

In other news

A new study by the CATO Institute found that immigrants contribute more in taxes per capita than US-born Americans. From 1994 to 2023, the average immigrant contributed about $100,000 more in taxes. Accounting for benefits received — immigrants use far fewer than US-born Americans — immigrants contributed $14.5 trillion. Over that timeframe illegal immigrants paid about $3 trillion in taxes. It’s a study that’s particularly hard to attack; CATO is a right-leaning institute originally founded by the Koch Foundation. (News Not Noise)

 FCC rules prohibit foreign investors from owning more than 25 percent of a company that holds U.S. broadcast licenses. That would normally pose hurdles for Paramount, as foreign investors (mostly Gulf State sovereign wealth funds) are expected to indirectly own nearly 50 percent of the company’s equity after the Warner Brothers merger closes. Paramount is now asking the FCC for an exemption—in fact, they want the FCC to approve “up to 100 percent” foreign ownership. If the FCC turns them down, that means the Ellison family (and partner RedBird Capital) would have to plug a $47 billion financing hole themselves. (The Bulwark)

The courts
For updates on court decisions–including recent SCOTUS rulings that strike down most of the Voting Rights Act and rulings about the abortion drug mifepristone, see our Courts Decisions post on our webpage.
 
Economy
Personal consumption expenditures, the Federal Reserve’s favorite inflation gauge, rose to 3.5% annually. That’s the highest rate in nearly three years, courtesy spiking gas prices. Core inflation, excluding food and energy, was 3.2%. (Marketplace)

Per calculations from GasBuddy’s Patrick De Haan, Americans have spent an additional $21.7 billion filling their tanks with gasoline since March 1 thanks to higher prices driven by the Iran war. For a sense of scale: we’re quickly approaching the amount it would have cost to do a full, one-year extension of the enhanced Obamacare subsidies that recently expired. (The Bulwark)

The national debt has surpassed 100 percent of GDP for the first time since 1946—that is, the year when we’d just exited a world war—and may soon set a new record. We can quibble over what exact mix of spending cuts versus tax hikes would be most desirable to get debt levels down, but the reality is both will likely be necessary. (The Bulwark)