John,

This week in Congress could see the most significant legislative action in decades to create real, material gains for the living standards of working people, and finally asking the rich to pay more in taxes.

I wanted to take a moment to go into the weeds and update you on the state of this important fight. But before I get into that: if you haven’t yet, please click here to make an end-of-quarter contribution to the Working Families Party — our continued organizing depends on supporters like you stepping up at big moments like this one.

Here’s a quick recap of the status of the two major pieces of legislation Congress is considering as of this morning:

The first bill — the so-called Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill — has been long coveted by corporate-friendly Democrats like Kyrsten Sinema and Josh Gottheimer. It covers physical infrastructure like roads and bridges, and was written with the help of oil and gas lobbyists. It got a handful of Republican votes in the Senate, and corporate Democrats want to be able to brag that they reached across the aisle. But after progressives in the House held the line in demanding that both bills be considered together, over the weekend Speaker Pelosi delayed a vote on this bill until Thursday.

The other bill — called the Build Back Better Act — is a robust and necessary investment in human infrastructure. If we can pass it, we will have transformed millions of lives. It includes:

• Lowering prescription drug prices.
• Universal pre-k and free tuition for two-year public community college.
• Paid family and medical leave for all.
• Investments in home and community-based care for elderly and disabled folks.
• A Civilian Conservation Corps program to put young people to work in ways that will combat climate change and increase resilience to extreme weather.
• Major investments in clean energy, grid resiliency, electric vehicles (including buses), and electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
• Huge investments in affordable housing.

This bill would change millions of lives for the better and touch every single facet of our economy and our society. Yet a group of corporate Democrats in the House and Senate have been using hostage-taking tactics to try and weaken or kill this bill.

Usually, it’s purple-district Democrats who are given all the power. Their seats are at greater risk of flipping in the midterms, so Democratic leadership often give them a “pass,” even when they buck the party on its commitments and priorities.

But that logic doesn’t hold here. Family leave, the child tax credit, tackling climate change, and universal pre-K and childcare — these are popular with the left, right, and center. They are popular in big cities and in suburbs and rural America.

What is motivating these corporate Democrats is not a sense of vulnerability at the polls.

Allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices with Big Pharma polls at 90%. And yet, when it came time to vote on it last week, this same group of corporate Dems blocked it in the House.

When corporate Democrats vote like this, it pulls back the curtain on who those members are really representing — their big donors and lobbyists, not the working people who elected them.

We’re seeing this dynamic play out again and again as different industries flex their muscles to weaken this provision or strip that one. They want to kill our progressive agenda with a thousand cuts.

On Capitol Hill, lobbyists by default hold all the cards — until and unless a grassroots groundswell pushes back. And we are pushing.

No matter what happens this week, our theory of change is being proven right.

By intervening in Democratic primaries and electing real Working Families Party champions to Congress, progressives are the closest we’ve ever come to building actual, national governing power for the people.

Even in the best-case scenario with these bills, there will still be much more to do to deliver a true people’s agenda at the end of this day. We are a long way off from the country we deserve. That’s why it’s so important that we keep fighting, keep organizing, and keep electing people to office who are accountable to working people, not corporate donors.

So John, will you help sustain our efforts by making an end-of-quarter contribution to the Working Families Party today? Your donation — no matter the amount — couldn’t come at a more important moment.

Contribute $3

In solidarity,

Maurice

Maurice Mitchell
National Director
Working Families Party

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