Impact Docket – 11/12/26

This week demands action. Here are eight ways you can push back right now:

⚡ Quick Actions

📩 Short-Term Engagement — Public Comments & Events

🛠️ Long-Term Engagement

🤝 Partner Actions

  • Volunteer with Habeas Dockets to make immigration court filings public (remote, attorneys, paralegals, and law students — national) → Sign up to volunteer

Whether you have two minutes or two days, join the fight. Keep reading for more context.

🔴 The Moment We're In: Five Weeks to Protect Federal Grants

Congress is back with about five weeks left, and its temporary freeze on the White House’s overhaul of federal grant rules ends Dec. 11. Agencies aren’t waiting. NASA has already rewritten its grant terms so awards can be ended “at the convenience of the government.” Last week, more than 100 universities, nonprofits, and local governments warned lawmakers that agencies are doing exactly what Congress blocked.

Federal grants pay for transit, health care, and research nationwide. The rule would let any administration cut them off without notice or cause. Lawyers are already winning some back. In the last six months, L4GG’s Pro Bono Litigation Corps and its volunteers forced the government to reinstate billions of dollars in federal funding to nonprofits.

Three ways to help this week:

And on Tuesday, we celebrate 10 years of L4GG.

Ten years ago, one Facebook post brought more than 125,000 lawyers together. Since then, this community has built something remarkable, from Project Corazón’s first deployments to border detention centers to the launch of the Pro Bono Litigation Corps. And this is just the beginning.

We have a huge announcement about our next decade, and you’ll be the first to know. You don’t want to miss this. Join us on Tuesday, Nov. 17, at 7 p.m. ET.

Eight actions in this docket. Pick one. Start there.


⚡ QUICK ACTIONS

💵 Tell Congress: Block OMB’s Grant Rule for Good

📍 L4GG.org/BlockOMBRule

Congress is back in session, and its block on the White House Office of Management and Budget’s overhaul of federal grant rules expires Dec. 11. If it lapses, any administration could withhold, suspend, or terminate grants without notice or cause and award funding based on partisan ideology rather than merit, community need, and congressional intent. The rule would also force states, local governments, schools, and universities to implement unlawful executive orders. Prefer to call? Use our call script.

Tell Congress to block OMB’s grant rule for good.

⚖️ Tell the Senate: Reject Dr. Heidi Overton for FDA Commissioner

📍 L4GG.org/RejectOverton

The Senate is back in session, and Dr. Heidi Overton’s nomination for FDA commissioner is still pending. At her Sept. 24 hearing, senators pressed her on vaccines and on her push to restrict mifepristone, the FDA-approved medication used safely for decades in abortion and miscarriage care. Senators need to hear from lawyers before they vote.

Tell the Senate to reject this nomination.

 

📩 SHORT-TERM ENGAGEMENT - PUBLIC COMMENTS & EVENTS

🎂 L4GG at 10: Join Our Virtual Anniversary Celebration — TUESDAY

📍 L4GG.org/10YearsCelebration | Tuesday, Nov 17 | 7:00 p.m. ET | Zoom

On Tuesday, join L4GG’s founder and executive director, Traci Feit Love, to celebrate what this community has built over 10 years, from Project Corazón’s first deployments to border detention centers to the launch of the Pro Bono Litigation Corps. Hear from the clients, volunteers, and champions who lived it. We’ll also be sharing a big announcement about L4GG’s next 10 years and how you can be a part of it. This session will be recorded and shared with all registrants.

Register for the Nov 17 celebration.

 

🚌 Submit a Comment: Stop the Department of Transportation from Linking Transit Funding to Marriage and Birth Rates — Due MONDAY

📍 Follow the steps below | Comment deadline: MONDAY, November 16

The Department of Transportation has proposed new guidance that would fundamentally change how federal funding is distributed for transit improvements and expansions. Instead of funding transit where people actually use it, this proposal would prioritize funding for places using reasons that are completely irrelevant to transit: high marriage and birth rates. The Trump administration has already stalled many transit capital improvement projects, and this new guidance would reduce transit funding in the areas that need it the most. The Congressional Research Service found that areas with high birth and marriage rates are generally farther from urban areas, have lower population density, and have higher rates of single-occupancy driving. Make your voice heard to stop this absurd policy change.

  1. Read the summary by Transportation for America and draft your comment

  2. Submit your comment by November 16, 2026

  3. Let us know you submitted at L4GG.org/TrackComment

 

🎙️ Leveraging Federal Funds: Hear L4GG’s Khadijah M. Silver on a Grantee Webinar — MONDAY

📍 Register for the webinar | Monday, Nov 16 | 2:00 p.m. ET | Zoom

Democracy 2025 and the National Council of Nonprofits are kicking off their Grantee Roundtable Series with a webinar on existing, emerging, and accelerating threats to federal funding, and L4GG’s Khadijah M. Silver is presenting. Learn how to identify potentially unlawful actions and the steps grantees and their partners can take to respond. Know a nonprofit that depends on federal funding? Pass this along.

Register for the Nov 16 webinar.

 

🛢️ Submit a Comment: Don’t Let EPA Give Methane Super-Emitters a Free Pass

📍 Follow the steps below | Comment deadline: December 16

EPA has proposed to dramatically weaken requirements on methane emissions from the oil and gas industry. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that is the second-largest contributor to climate change and contributes to smog that hurts communities. In addition to removing requirements on “super-emitters” (i.e., the handful of sites that release 60-90% of methane emissions) to fix their leaks, EPA is also weakening requirements on many other sources of methane emissions in the industry, including low-producing wells. EPA touts the compliance cost savings to the oil and gas industry, which is already enjoying record profits, but the agency refused to consider the harm to people and the environment. Make your voice heard to oppose this handout to the oil and gas industry and tell EPA to keep strong methane rules in place.

  1. Read the summary by Earthjustice and draft your comment

  2. Submit your comment by December 16, 2026

  3. Let us know you submitted at L4GG.org/TrackComment

 

🛠️ LONG-TERM ENGAGEMENT

🏛️ Pro Bono Litigation Corps Action Update: See What’s Next and Get Involved

📍 L4GG.org/PBLCUpdate | Tuesday, Dec 1 | 3:00 p.m. ET | Zoom

In the last six months alone, L4GG’s Pro Bono Litigation Corps and its volunteers have forced the government to reinstate billions of dollars in federal funding to nonprofits, obtained habeas relief and release for immigrants detained by ICE, and challenged attacks on the First Amendment rights of university researchers and journalists. Meet the team, hear about current cases, and learn how volunteer attorneys can get involved in upcoming matters. This session will be recorded and shared with all registrants.

Register for the Dec 1 briefing.

 

🤝 PARTNER ACTIONS

📂 Volunteer with Habeas Dockets: Help Make Immigration Court Filings Public

📍 Sign up to volunteer | Remote and in-person | Nationwide

Our partners at Habeas Dockets are recruiting volunteers to help make immigration habeas corpus cases public. Under a federal court rule, these filings can only be viewed in person at courthouse terminals, so Habeas Dockets coordinates volunteers to retrieve, review, and publish them online. Two remote roles are open: document review, redacting sensitive information before filings are published (for paralegals, lawyers, and JDs); and case review, identifying the most significant documents to retrieve (for law students, paralegals, attorneys, and academics). Volunteers near federal courthouses can also pull records in person. Printing costs are reimbursed.

Sign up to volunteer with Habeas Dockets.


We’ll be back next week with more ways to take action—but the work doesn’t stop here. 

  • Know someone else who would be interested in this newsletter? Share this link so they can sign up too.

  • Join our rapid-response SMS group by texting “community” to 771-203-4895.

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Impact Docket – 11/04/26