John,

I want to make sure you saw this email from AFT President Randi Weingarten last week about President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan, which is getting a vote in the House of Representatives this week. Congressional Republicans are talking a big game about the need for national unity, but they’re ignoring how popular the American Rescue Plan is among voters—more than 7 in 10 Americans support its passage.

We need to make sure the bill gets over the finish line this week: Click here to write your lawmakers and tell them to vote for it.

In solidarity,
Fedrick Ingram
AFT secretary-treasurer

Fedrick,

Last week, President Joe Biden focused on unity in a national town hall, making it clear that Americans need to put partisan politics aside and come together to solve the monumental challenges before us. His American Rescue Plan to control the coronavirus and deal with the pandemic’s impact on our nation does just that. And the American people agree.

According to major polls, the American Rescue Plan has more bipartisan support than virtually anything else in the last few years. This plan is more than just popular: Biden’s American Rescue Plan meets the moment—as COVID-19 continues to ravage our families, states and schools.

Even West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, a Republican, said, “We need to go big, and if we waste some money now, well, we waste some money. But absolutely, we’ve got too many people hurting, and the economy is going to sputter, and we’ve got to get ourselves out of this mess.”

Unity is more than just about lawmakers agreeing on a piece of legislation—it’s about getting vaccines in arms, safely reopening schools for in-person instruction, giving every American a chance to survive the crises facing our nation, and preserving critical jobs and services in our states, cities and town.

Unity isn’t about politicians, it’s about the American people and what they need. And they need Biden’s $1.9 trillion plan to pass, to beat the coronavirus and get America back to work. Click here to write your lawmakers and tell them to vote for the American Rescue Plan.

We need our leaders in Washington, D.C., to take bold, decisive action, which includes:

• Putting an additional $1,400 in people’s pockets to help stimulate the economy AND help working families through the public health and economic crises we face.
• Providing hundreds of billions of dollars for COVID-19 testing, tracing and vaccine distribution.
• Saving the essential jobs of firefighters, teachers and EMTs, and critical services like water testing, sanitation and public health, with $350 billion in long-delayed but urgently needed aid to our cash-strapped cities, states, towns and tribes.
• Helping public schools reopen safely with $130 billion to help put in place the necessary guardrails, infrastructure improvements, and services to address the academic, social, and emotional and mental health needs of the nation’s students.
• Providing and extending $400 supplements to people receiving unemployment, and providing critical assistance for child care and child care providers.
• Boosting the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and expanding paid leave so that more people can stay home when they are sick or need to take care of sick loved ones.

Unity means coming together to pass a stimulus that’s big enough to help—not kowtowing to politicians who want to stand in the way of our nation’s recovery. Show your lawmakers that you believe real unity is possible through a big, bold stimulus package. Write your lawmakers today.

In unity,
Randi Weingarten
AFT president