Tell your House Representatives: Housing is a Human Right!
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Call Script
Hi, my name is _____ and I live in ZIP code _____ and I’m a member of Indivisible SF.
I believe that decent housing is a human right.
The resurgence of Covid-Delta infections is a health emergency that is now being made worse as evictions force thousands of families out of their homes and into highly infectious shelters and tent encampments. When you reconvene on August 23rd, I ask that you add Representative Waters’ Protecting Renters from Evictions Act to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill or pass it as a stand-alone bill and then send it to the Senate with a request that they immediately reconvene to vote on it.
I also want you to know that I strongly support the housing provisions contained in President Biden’s American Jobs and Family Plans that are now included in the Budget Resolution. I urge you to preserve them and oppose any effort to water them down.
I also strongly support your commitment to delay a final House vote on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill until after the Senate passes and sends to the House a Reconciliation Bill that fully implements the Democratic Party’s housing, climate initiatives, paid leave, child care, education, health care, and tax-justice agenda.
Background
Three different economically related bills are in play:
Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill (BIB) is also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework (BIF), the INVEST in America Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, “HR.3684.” Sometimes it is also termed the $1 trillion infrastructure bill (referencing total cost) or the $500 billion Infrastructure Bill (referencing “new” funding), or simply the Infrastructure Bill. This is Manchin’s corporate-friendly construction-and-repair, concrete-and-steel bill that omits investment in human infrastructure. The Senate passed it, and it now awaits action in the House.
Budget Resolution (BR or Budget Bill). This resolution sets the terms and parameters for the Reconciliation Bill, which will implement the people, families, and children investment portions of Biden’s proposals. The Senate passed it and the House will reconvene to consider it on Monday, August 23. If they pass it without any changes, it goes into effect. If they change it or add to it, it must go back to the Senate for a vote.
The Reconciliation Bill may also be referred to as American Jobs and Family Plans (AFJP)” Biden’s proposals, or the $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill. This is the bill that we hope will fully implement all the provisions of Biden’s AJFP proposal. Its language is now being drafted in both chambers. It will have to be passed by Democratic votes alone through the reconciliation process. It will come before both the Senate and the House in September.
The Democratic strategy of first passing the bipartisan, corporate-friendly BIB and then the Democrats-only Reconciliation Bill puzzles progressives. Since the meat and bones of the Democratic agenda have to be passed by Democrats alone in the Reconciliation Bill, what’s the point of this awkward two-step when everything could have been included in one reconciliation bill? We fear that once BIB is passed, the moderate (corporate) Democrats will not support the Reconciliation Bill with its higher taxes on big business and the rich 1%. To reassure the progressive wing of the party, Pelosi promised that she will not allow the House to take up the Senate-passed BIB until the Senate also passes and sends to the House the Reconciliation Bill.
But now that the BIB has passed the Senate, nine “moderate” corporate Democrats threaten to block passage of the Budget Resolution (BR) that is needed to begin work on the Reconciliation Bill unless the House first passes the BIB. In other words, the opposite of the Progressive Caucus' determination to block the BIB until the Senate passes the Reconciliation Bill. If seven or more Democrats refuse to vote for the BR there will be gridlock and nothing will move forward (to the great delight of Republicans), so Pelosi is under pressure from both sides. We in Indivisible stand with Pelosi and her original promise to hold the BIB until the Senate passes the Reconciliation Bill, and we urge her not to give in to the gang of nine’s threats.
President Biden’s American Jobs and Family Plans call for investing more than $300 billion to produce more than two million affordable and sustainable places to live, including these measures:
Producing, preserving, and retrofitting more than a million affordable, resilient, accessible, energy-efficient housing units
Extending affordable housing rental opportunities to under served communities nationwide, including rural and tribal areas
Building and rehabilitating more than 500,000 homes for low- and middle-income home buyers
Eliminating exclusionary zoning and harmful land use policies that have locked families out of areas with more opportunities
Addressing long-standing public housing capital and repair needs
Putting union building-trade workers to work upgrading homes and businesses to save families money
Retrofitting residential, commercial, and municipal buildings
References
FACT SHEET: The American Jobs Plan, White House, 3/31/21: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/31/fact-sheet-the-american-jobs-plan/
Here's What's Included In The Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill (BIB), NPR, 8/10/21: https://www.npr.org/2021/06/24/1009923468/heres-whats-included-in-the-infrastructure-deal-that-biden-struck-with-senators
Waters Introduces Legislation to Extend Federal Eviction Moratorium to Keep Families Housed, 7/29/21: https://financialservices.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=408261
Moderates revolt on infrastructure in new challenge for Pelosi, The Hill, 8/13/21: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/567831-moderates-revolt-on-infrastructure-in-new-challenge-for-pelosi