Indivisibles,

Organizing works. 

Say it again. 

Organizing works.

Because folks — after months of hard work, negotiations, and progressives flexing their power — the House just passed the Build Back Better Act (BBB) and we’re one step closer to seeing President Biden sign it into law. 

Last night, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy spent over eight hours talking about we're-not-really-sure-what on the House floor in an attempt to block this bill. Apparently nobody told him that the Jim Crow Filibuster only works in the Senate. But House Democrats persevered, and a few minutes ago, they passed the bill. 

So to make clear what Rep. McCarthy tried to obscure, today, we want to tell you what’s in the Build Back Better package, what’s not, and what’s next (yes, a very long email, but not as long as the speech!). If you’ve been following every twist and turn in this wonky saga, you can skip right to our ask and call your senators to demand they pass the Build Back Better Act immediately. But, if you need a refresher, keep reading.

How We Got Here

Two bills moving at the same time. About six months ago, Democrats across the party spectrum made a deal that they’d try to move their agenda through two bills: a bipartisan infrastructure package (the BIF, or roads and bridges) and the Build Back Better Act. The idea was that Democrats would work with Republicans on the (very, very, very small) areas of infrastructure where compromise was possible, and then we’d roll all the really big and important parts of our agenda (climate action, paid family leave, lower prescription drug prices, action on immigration, and more) into one megabill: the Build Back Better Act, which could pass without ever needing one single Republican vote thanks to the reconciliation process.

Conservative Dems wanted to stop Build Back Better. But then, a few conservative Dems -- spooked by their corporate donors -- went back on the deal and tried to force a vote on BIF in an attempt to kill the more important (and more popular) BBB. What they didn’t plan for was the Congressional Progressive Caucus, led by the unflappable Pramila Jayapal, to be absolutely ready for them.

Progressives flexed. And won. The progressives knew that if they let BIF pass without the Build Back Better Act, everything we cared about — including the agenda that nearly all Democrats ran on and voters elected them for — would be doomed. And so they did exactly what members of Congress who are willing to fight for their constituents should do: organized as a bloc to temporarily withhold their votes for the BIF until they could be sure that the Build Back Better Act would actually move too. Then, when they had a solid commitment from conservative democrats that Build Back Better would move forward, progressives kept our word and passed BIF a few weeks ago.

This organizing by Rep. Jayapal and more than 60 other Democratic members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (we thanked many of them in a Twitter thread, here), along with organizing from activists on the ground, are the reason why President Biden’s agenda is alive today. And they’ll be the reason we have things like climate action, lower prescription drug prices, and more to talk about next year. Period.

This bill doesn’t have everything we wanted, but we know that without progressives holding the line and insisting that the BIF was not enough, we wouldn’t have gotten anything in the list below. If something you fought for isn’t on the list, blame Manchin, Sinema or the conservative Dems who revolted in the House. But send progressives your appreciation for everything we’ve gotten this far.  

This fight isn’t over. We’ve still got to get Build Back Better through the Senate with all 50 Democratic votes. We haven’t won yet — but we’re a hell of a lot closer today than we ever have been.

Now, let’s talk about what’s in it.

What’s In the Bill?

TLDR: the Build Back Better Act is a package of badly needed public investments across the economy, designed to support children and families, make historic investments in climate action, make healthcare more affordable, and provide deportation protection and work permits for many immigrants, all the while taking steps to make the ultra-rich pay their fair share.

We want to be clear: it is not perfect. A number of our urgent priorities that you’ve been calling your representatives and senators about were left out of the final package thanks to Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema, and conservative Democrats in the House, who insisted on cutting even incredibly popular provisions out of this bill (you can read more about those in our explainer, here). 

But, there are a lot of provisions in the package that we should celebrate. And there's a lot we need to fight for as we take our pressure to the Senate to make ensure it stays in the final version of the bill. Here are some of the highlights (we’ve got lots more detail in our explainer, here):

• Extends the improved Child Tax Credit to help meet the needs of parents and children.
• $550 billion in climate action, clean energy jobs, and environmental justice.
• Historic investments in affordable housing. 
• Truly universal Pre-K and dramatically improved access to affordable child care. 
• Guarantees 4 weeks of paid family and medical leave for all workers. 
• Strengthened labor rights for workers through meaningful penalties for abusive employers. 
• Expanded access to home and community based care services for older Americans and people with disabilities and strengthening the caregiving workforce. 
• Extends deportation protection and work permits to an estimated seven million undocumented immigrants for five years, with the chance of renewing for an additional five years. 
• Takes positive steps towards lowering certain prescription drug prices for some Americans. 
• Expands Medicare benefits to include coverage of hearing services, like hearing aids, starting in 2024.
• Extends enhanced ACA healthcare marketplace subsidies through the end of 2025.
• Closes Medicaid coverage gap in non-expansion states through the end of 2025. 
• Expands eligibility and coverage under Medicaid and CHIP.

You did that. Thanks to all those calls, emails, letters to the editor, and events outside of district offices, you made this list of things that will make so many people’s lives better, possible.

Now, we need you to take a deep breath and get ready for what’s next. Because we’re not done yet. We’ve got to pass this bill through the Senate as quickly as possible — there are some procedural hurdles (CBO score and review by the parliamentarian) that the Senate will have to jump through as part of the budget reconciliation process (and possibly another history-making vote-a-rama), but there’s no reason for them to delay this bill any longer. 

What’s Next?

Senator Schumer has told us that he expects the Senate to vote on the Build Back Better Act right after Thanksgiving. President Biden has told us he has 51 votes in the Senate. Let’s hold them both to those commitments.

Here’s what you can do right now:

1. If your representative voted yes on the bill (every Dem except Jared Golden), thank them. If they voted no (every Republican plus Golden), tell them you were paying attention and not to try to take a shred of credit for all that was good in this bill. We know that it can be tempting to move onto the next thing — but trust us: it’s critical to finish the process by making sure to thank MoCs who did the right thing and express outrage to the MoCs who failed to vote for the relief people so desperately need. This virtuous cycle means they’re more likely to push for progressive amendments, or avoid defecting if they’re more moderate, in the future. 
2. Call both your senators. Tell them to support the Build Back Better Act and to pass it as quickly as possible.
3. Donate to fund our advocacy. This organizing, these call scripts, the ads we’re running and all our work are only possible because of donors like you. If you’re able, please chip in to help.

We know this has been a long fight (particularly last night), and it’s felt like just one of many long fights over a long year. We know how ready you are for a victory (us too). Thank you for staying with us, and pushing on against every obstacle we’ve faced so far. What we can accomplish together in the coming days will help get us one step closer to the finish line. 

In solidarity,
Indivisible Team