The media coverage of the infrastructure bill and the ‘reconciliation bill’ before Congress can be a bit confusing and mystifying. (What does reconciliation even mean?!). We’re going to catch you up in this email below.
It’s a longer read, but it’s important to understand this transformative moment we’re in.
It all began in May when President Biden put forth an ambitious set of proposals known as the Build Back Better Agenda, designed to help our country come back stronger from the pandemic. It included approximately $6 trillion worth of investments in pre-k, childcare, climate change, affordable housing and more.
Republicans immediately pushed back on this historic spending — suggesting that we should only focus on ‘traditional infrastructure’ spending — and a small bipartisan group of Senators stripped major priorities from the President’s plan. Working with the White House, they eventually agreed on a framework for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill.
But Alexandria and her colleagues spoke out on our need to deliver on the priorities that voters elected us to fight for, and stipulated that they would only vote to pass this small-scale infrastructure bill if another bill that meets the needs of working families and addresses the climate crisis was passed at the same time. Congressional leaders agreed and decided to pass these priorities through Congress in a process known as ‘budget reconciliation,’ which only requires a simple majority in the Senate to pass, rather than the 60 votes normally required.
After much additional back and forth between the Senate and the House, they agreed to pass a $3.5 trillion reconciliation package along with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. This would be used to expand Medicare to cover vision, dental and hearing; make pre-k universal; provide paid family and medical leave; create a Civilian Climate Corps and fight climate change, and much more.
This reconciliation package is no more, and no less, than President Biden's Build Back Better Agenda. It's the promises that we campaigned on and what the American people voted for — and sent Democrats to the House, Senate, and White House to deliver.
And, by the way, we're going to pay for it by taxing the very wealthy and corporations.
Despite the fact that this reconciliation package has incredibly popular and widely-supported policies, conservative Democrats are still working to strip down and altogether stop the Build Back Better Agenda in favor of only passing the smaller Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill that was largely designed to keep corporate lobbyists happy.
The entire House Progressive Caucus is focused on passing Biden’s full agenda — that means keeping our promise to hold the line and refusing to vote on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill until reconciliation passes first.
We’re essentially saying they get the bill they want, and we get ours — per the original agreement. Fair, right? But if we vote for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill first — alone — we do not have the assurances necessary to believe that the Build Back Better Agenda will pass afterwards, and lower-income, working-class families, and communities of color will be left behind.
Alexandria is not going to let that happen.
Many of the arguments that are holding things up are concerns about the price tag. But let’s be clear: This is about so much more than $1.5 trillion vs. $3.5 trillion — it’s about the impact that working people will feel in their daily lives.
When we talk about topline numbers, there’s a lot hidden in that discussion. It’s easy for Senators like Joe Manchin to hide behind a number and simply say “this is too expensive.” It’s harder to vocally reject popular ideas like universal pre-K, expanding medicare, or the child tax credit — but the effect is same. It’s like saying, "You can either feed your child, recover from your c-section, or have childcare so you can go to work — but I don’t think you should be able to do all three."
The people deserve to know what substantive programs they’re willing to gut.
It’s unfortunate that we — as Democrats — have to compromise with ourselves for an ambitious agenda for working people. Free community college should be a standard. Climate action in line with science should be a given. Cutting child poverty in half is a good thing.
These are the things we believe are worth standing up for. It’s time to think big, do what we were elected to do, and reject the "something is better than nothing" argument.
We believe there is a path to get this done. And Alexandria will continue to hold the line.
This is a moment when we need all hands on deck. If you agree with Alexandria that it's time for our government to prioritize the needs of working people over keeping billionaires and rich corporations comfortable, add your name to say you support the policies in the Build Back Better agenda.
In addition, we encourage you to reach out to your representatives to make sure they support the Build Back Better Agenda.
Thank you for fighting alongside Alexandria for real change, and we’ll continue to keep you informed as things progress.
– Team AOC
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