Sunrise Movement Responds to Passage of Budget Resolution: Democrats, Hold the Line and Pass the Boldest Budget Reconciliation Package Possible

Washington, DC – Today, following the passage of the budget resolution in the House of Representatives, Lauren Maunus, Advocacy Director of Sunrise Movement, released the following statement: 

“Biden and Democratic Congressional leaders can’t be distracted by the antics of conservatives threatening to derail our shot of passing popular and historic investments towards stopping the climate crisis and creating millions of good jobs. Democrats: hold the line and pass the boldest budget reconciliation package possible before voting on the watered-down Exxon plan. While today’s news is another step in the fight to stop the climate crisis, our movement won’t stop until we pass a bold reconciliation package that jumpstarts the decade of the Green New Deal. 

“Let’s be clear: this $3.5 trillion budget resolution is the compromise. If Democrats don’t pass a bold progressive agenda that fully funds the Civilian Climate Corps and investments in renewable energy, public housing, transit, and schools, we risk disillusioning the Democratic base in 2022 and 2024 and further condemning our generation to an unstable future. We are watching and won’t forget this moment.” 
 

Sunrise Movement’s top reconciliation priorities are as follows:

A fully-funded Civilian Climate Corps

• $132 billion to create 1.5 million service corps jobs in 5 years and train a new workforce in long-term careers to tackle the climate crisis and improve community resilience, in line with Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Markey’s Civilian Climate Corps for Jobs and Justice Act. 

Bold investments towards public housing, schools, transit, and renewable energy 

• $172 billion towards retrofitting existing public housing and building new units to expand safe, affordable housing, in line with Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Sanders’ Green New Deal for Public Housing. Total electrification of homes, with no subsidies towards gas or other fossil fuels as eligible energy sources, according to Sen. Heinrich’s Zero Emissions Home Act. 

• $580 billion towards electrifying and expanding public transit, in line with Rep. Hank Johnson’s Stronger Communities Through Better Transit Act, and Reps. Andy Levin and Ocasio-Cortez and Sens. Warren and Markey’s BUILD GREEN Infrastructure and Jobs Act.

• Congress must prioritize the transition to renewable energy through a Clean Electricity Standard  that prioritizes renewable energy and excludes fossil fuels including natural gas, and should invest $250 billion towards a Clean Energy Payment Program to support it. Renewable energy deployment must be prioritized with at least 70% of the 80% clean energy by 2030 coming from strictly renewable energy sources, as outlined in the Welch-Clarke American Renewable Energy Act. In addition, we support the full scale of renewable energy investment and production tax credits proposed by President Biden and the effort being championed by Senator Ron Wyden.

• $446 billion towards retrofitting America’s public schools, in line with Rep. Bowman’s Green New Deal for Public Schools.

Worker and immigrant protections 

• Every project of the Green New Deal must be driven by union labor. Congress must enact the largest labor law reform since the New Deal to protect and expand union organizing, in line with the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. 

• Immigrants are the backbone of this country, but too many of them don’t have the equality or protections they deserve. We strongly support the push for full citizenship to be included in the reconciliation package, especially for Temporary Protected Status designees (many of whom could be considered climate refugees), farmworkers (who labor to put food on our tables in increasingly dire heat), essential workers (who kept this country moving during the lows of the pandemic), and Dreamers (who are our future).

At least 40% of investments to frontline communities 

• All climate investments must work towards reversing systemic racial and economic injustice and actively advance environmental justice. In order to ensure this is the case, Congress must utilize a robust mapping tool, such as what is outlined in Rep. Bush and Sens. Markey and Duckworth’s Environmental Justice Mapping and Data Collection Act, to help identify frontline, environmental justice communities who have borne the brunt of fossil fuel and other toxic industry pollution, impacts of the climate crisis, and decades of disinvestment and environmental racism, and direct at least 40% of all investments towards those communities. Every committee of jurisdiction must ensure at least 40% of funds are being granted to environmental justice communities, and Congress and the public must have oversight to hold the federal government accountable and ensure the funds reach communities justly and directly. 

An end to fossil fuel subsidies  

• Congress must stop spending public money as a lifeline for the fossil fuel industry. Congress must repeal fossil fuel subsidies, in line with Rep. Omar and Sen. Sanders’ End Polluter Welfare Act, and invest in all of the above priorities to tackle the climate crisis rather than continue to fund the industry that created it. 

In addition to our key priorities listed above, it’s paramount that reconciliation meet and go beyond President Biden’s stated commitments and plus-up key climate and environmental justice components that are inadequately funded in the Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act. Many members of Congress, including relevant committee chairs, have been echoing this message as well. These include: 

Replacing lead pipes: 

• The deal is slated to only include enough funding to replace 25% of lead pipes. Congress needs to deliver more funding in the reconciliation package to achieve Biden's goal of 100% lead pipe replacement. It would be unconscionable for Congress to pass a major infrastructure overhaul that leaves three out of four lead pipes intact. The health impacts of such an omission would harm children first and worst, particularly children in communities of color. The bill includes about $15 billion for lead pipe replacement, while the water industry estimates that $60 billion is needed for full lead pipe replacement. This shortcoming also falls short of what the general public demands; a March 2021 poll found that 80% of voters support funding replacement of lead pipes, including majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and independents. 

Transit: 

• Electric school buses

  • The deal includes just $2.5 billion for electric school buses — only 4% of what is needed to replace all diesel school buses with clean electric vehicles. Congress needs to deliver more funding in the reconciliation package to electrify hundreds of thousands of school buses instead of leaving up to 96% of diesel school buses on the road to spew more toxic air and climate pollution. 

• Public transit

  • The deal includes just $39 billion in funding for public transit — less than 10% of what’s needed to expand and electrify public transit. A recent national poll shows that 66 percent of U.S. voters would be disappointed if upgrades and expansions to energy-efficient public transportation were omitted from the infrastructure packages.

• Electric vehicle charging

  • The deal invests $7.5 billion, half of what Biden’s American Jobs Plan calls for to build 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations across the country. That includes funding for a new National Electric Vehicle Formula Program for states to invest in the buildout of EV charging infrastructure. Twice as much is needed to achieve the President’s goal for boosting access to EV charging. 

• Rail

  • The deal invests $66 billion in passenger rail, about one-third of what is needed to upgrade passenger rail for speed, accessibility, efficiency, and resilience. 

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The Sunrise Movement is a youth movement to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs in the process. We unite to make climate change an urgent priority across America, end the corrupting influence of fossil fuel executives on our politics, and elect leaders who stand up for the health and wellbeing of all people. Most recently, the Sunrise Movement contributed to the election of Senator-elects Ossoff and Warnock by mobilizing thousands of young people in Georgia.