From the Coalition on Human Needs (http://www.chn.org):
This week, we inaugurate Joe Biden as the next President of the United States. The shift of power in the White House and Congress provides a critical opportunity for progress.
With hundreds of thousands dying from COVID-19 and millions struggling to make ends meet in this pandemic-caused recession, we need to move quickly.
Last week, Biden released details of his administration’s first legislative proposal, a $1.9 trillion comprehensive COVID relief proposal, titled the “American Rescue Plan,” which includes critical improvements to the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit, a $15 minimum wage, $1,400 cash payments to individuals, state and local aid, and so much more.
We need critical COVID relief now. Join CHN and coalition partners across the country at https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-pass-the-american-rescue-plan/ and send a letter to your members of Congress to pass President-elect Joe Biden’s “American Rescue Plan.”
More than 23 million Americans have contracted COVID-19 and roughly 400,000 have already died. And we need bold action to address the historic challenges facing our nation.
The scale of Biden’s plan is more than twice the size of the Obama-era Recovery Act and is modeled on an FDR-style strategy to put our country in a better position than it was before the pandemic hit.
The package, according to the New York Times, “includes more than $400 billion to combat the pandemic directly, including money to accelerate vaccine deployment and to safely reopen most schools within 100 days. An additional $350 billion would help state and local governments bridge budget shortfalls, while the plan would also include a dramatic increase in tax credits to help lift children, families, and workers out of poverty, $1,400 direct payments to individuals, more generous unemployment benefits, federally mandated paid leave for workers, food and housing aid, and large subsidies for child care costs.”1
The essential legislation also provides critical aid to renters, people threatened with or experiencing homelessness, households unable to pay heat or water bills, and offers an extension of the eviction and foreclosure moratoria. Click on the link below to learn more about the plan and then write to your representative and senators.
Thank you for all you do to demand accountability from our political leaders and to fight for the needs of the vulnerable, the sick and the poor.
1 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/14/us/biden-american-rescue-plan.html
Leave a Reply