Bills, Bills, Bills

Every bill is not the end of the world

We need to talk about bills.

I think people are under this impression that if a bill is introduced, that automatically means it’s viable, and that’s just not the case. That doesn’t mean you should ignore it, but it does mean your goal might not be for it to pass or fail, it might be more nuance than that.

Let’s start with a positive bill. The Gluten in Medicine Identification Act was first introduced in 2012. It has been introduced pretty much every year since and it dies before it even gets out of committee. It’s not that it’s not an important bill, it’s just that the Celiac Disease foundation has not done a great job lobbying. The bill also had problems. It was about gluten only, not any other disclosure.

In 2023, the bill changed. Instead of just being about Gluten in Medicine, a girl named Adina Togal and her parents worked with former Rep Dean Phillips to introduce The ADINA (The Allergen Disclosure in Non-Food Articles) Act. Even though Adina has Celiac Disease, this time the bill was about ALL possible allergens. It was reintroduced in 2025, and I think it might really have a shot this time, as the cosponsors are as bipartisan as you can get.

That’s 13 years, and it still might not pass this time.

Most bills are not introduced to pass, they are introduced to get stronger, to be rewritten and rewritten and become something that could pass in the future.

KOSA (Kids Online Safety Act) is another example. The first time it was introduced it was a disaster. But dozens of organizations fought with lawmakers and the next time it was introduced, it was a little better. When I was a TikTok creator, back in 2023, I covered KOSA a lot, and it got the attention of the people involved and I got to be part of a meeting with Richard Blumenthal’s staff where we got to ask questions and voice our concerns about the bill.

At that point, the biggest thing the authors wanted to do was make it required for each social media platform to have a chronological feed that was not controlled by an algorithm, and make it illegal to data mine children and teens. And still, it didn’t get to the floor. And I believe it’s gotten even more narrow since that meeting, 3 years ago.

I think KOSA will become law one day. I also think, that if we push hard enough, when it does, we’ll be pretty happy with it, but we DO have to push.

And then there are some bills that are just not worth our time and energy. We don’t even need to know about an anti-trans bill in California. It’s not going anywhere, it’s not even getting read in a subcommittee, it’s going to quietly die.

And that’s true in red states too. There are some bills that are so outlandish and introduced by some random extreme Republican that isn’t even respected by her Republican colleagues that also, isn’t going anywhere, and it doesn’t help us to focus on.

Understanding which bills are worth our focus, how to channel that focus and which aren’t worth our focus at all is an art. It’s not just about focusing on every bill that’s bad.

The SAVE America Act is another example. We knew it was gonna pass the House. That was pretty much a given. But it needs 60 votes in the Senate and it doesn’t have that. And before you say “but they’ll just nuke the filibuster,” no, they won’t.

First off, Majority Leader John Thune is STILL not Trump’s lapdog. If you need proof of this, just look at the Epstein files. He KNEW Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was going to ask for unanimous consent to pass the bill. He made the decision to not have someone be in the room to object.

Thune has never wanted to nuke the filibuster. Partially cause he knows that if Dems get the majority Republicans will be shit out of luck, and partially because there aren’t enough votes to do it. As Thune said last week:

There aren’t anywhere close to the votes, not even close, to nuking the filibuster. So that idea is something, although it continues to be put out there. … That doesn’t have a future.

It’s just not happening. It really is that simple.

Am I telling you not to call your Senators about it? Not at all, but I am telling you not to put much attention on it. It’s good to keep our Dems in line, but it’s not gonna happen.

Know what the goal is before you panic and before you fearmonger. And if you don’t know, talk to experts, ask them what the goal is. And don’t take every disgusting bill so literally.

Horrific bills are always getting introduced in every single state, the mere introduction is not an argument that we’re doomed or things are getting worse. It takes one single person to introduce a bill. Do not forget that.

We need to be fighting on so many different fronts right now and it’s exhausting, so don’t make yourself spiral based on something that really doesn’t need your attention, or does, but in a far more controlled way.

You are responsible for your own well being and what you chose to focus on, so make it count.