Washington, D.C. — On September 9, 94 organizations led by the Economic Policy Institute and the Institute for Policy Studies delivered a statement urging Congress to stand up to pressure from lobby groups representing the wealthy and big corporations and pass President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion Build Back Better plan.
Those lobby groups — including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable, ExxonMobil, and Pfizer — are spending tens of millions of dollars to attack “the most transformative and equitable budget proposal in a generation,” the letter notes.
“We, the undersigned labor, environmental, faith, justice and community-focused organizations urge Congress to stand up to this pressure and pass President Biden’s bold $3.5 trillion Build Back Better plan by the end of September,” the statement reads. “This down payment on the needs of our communities begins to meet the full scale of our country’s climate, poverty, and inequality emergencies and reform a tax system rigged in favor of the wealthy and large corporations.”
This letter comes as Congress continues to negotiate over the infrastructure package. In August, the House passed a $3.5 trillion budget resolution and advanced a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill. That vote put the Senate-passed infrastructure plan on a path to final passage in the House and included a nonbinding commitment to vote on the infrastructure bill by September 27.
John Cavanagh, Senior Advisor at the Institute for Policy Studies: “After a year of record billionaire wealth and corporate profits, it is outrageous that hundreds of giant U.S. corporations are trying to slash taxes on themselves to undermine the most important piece of legislation for children, working people, and climate in our lifetimes.”
Heidi Shierholz, President at the Economic Policy Institute: “One of the biggest indications that President Biden’s Build Back Better plan would provide transformative change to working families is that corporations are spending millions to try to defeat it. Congress must stand up to the pressure and pass these vital investments in child care, home health care, climate, and more.”
Press contact:
Olivia Alperstein, Institute for Policy Studies, (202) 704-9011, olivia@ips-dc.org
Nick Kauzlarich, Economic Policy Institute, nkauzlarich@epi.org
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About the Institute for Policy Studies
For nearly six decades, the Institute for Policy Studies has provided critical research support for major social movements and progressive leaders inside and outside government and on the ground around the United States and the world. As the nation’s oldest progressive multi-issue think tank, IPS turns bold ideas into action through public scholarship and mentorship of the next generation of progressive scholars and activists.
About the Economic Policy Institute
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank created in 1986 to include the needs of low- and middle-income workers in economic policy discussions. EPI believes every working person deserves a good job with fair pay, affordable health care, and retirement security. To achieve this goal, EPI conducts research and analysis on the economic status of working America. EPI proposes public policies that protect and improve the economic conditions of low- and middle-income workers and assesses policies with respect to how they affect those workers.