30 Grassroots Organizations Call on NJ Congressional Delegation to Pass the Full $3.5T Budget Reconciliation Bill

 Groups Say The Budget Bill Must Be Passed Before Voting on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill

Glen Rock, NJ  – Today, thirty of the leading grassroots organizations in New Jersey released a letter calling on the Garden State’s Congressional Delegation to pass the full, $3.5 trillion budget bill currently before the House of Representatives.  The advocates insist that this bill must be passed before the House takes up a vote on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill.

 “Infrastructure means investment in human beings. People are hungry to see what government can do – after the Trump era, after COVID, working families across New Jersey are looking for leadership from our electeds. Supporting BOTH BILLS- and nothing less- is our only option,” said Sue Altman, State Director of the NJ Working Families.

So far  Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Trenton) is the only member of the New Jersey Congressional Delegation to commit to blocking the Bipartisan Infrastructure bill if the $3.5 trillion budget bill is not passed first.

The Budget bill contains many crucial elements and progressive priorities: Medicare Expansion, repealing fossil fuel subsidies, elements of the PRO Act, universal child care and Pre-K, paid family and medical leave, a path to citizenship for up to 10 million immigrants, and more. All these provisions will help provide real relief to working-class people all across America and it’s already a compromise. President Joe Biden and Democratic Leadership in both the House and the Senate are behind it.

“Party leadership has finally listened to progressives and produced a true compromise that will substantially improve the lives of working people,” said Joe Marchica, Chair of Our Revolution Trenton Mercer.  “ So if a few selfish obstructionists like Josh Gottheimer want to stand in the way of the Democratic Party FINALLY getting good things done for working-class people, we need our representatives and party leadership to call their bluff.”

“Infrastructure isn’t just roads and bridges – building out our infrastructure means investing in an America that’s productive & healthy,” added Madeline Trimble, Steering Committee Member of Indivisible NJ-5.  “Congressman Gottheimer, we urge you to support the full Build Back Better plan and TRULY support full infrastructure investment in America.”

“While the climate crisis intensifies across the planet, it is simply unconscionable that our government continues to subsidize climate-wrecking corporate polluters to the tune of at least $15 billion per year,” said Matthew Smith, NJ state Director for Food and Water Watch.  “The bold proposals that we desperately need to rebuild our infrastructure and provide real relief to working people must include an end to the massive giveaways to the oil and gas giants that have created our climate emergency. A key part of the Build Back Better agenda must be a halt to billion-dollar subsidies to fossil fuel polluters.”

You can read a copy of the letter here.

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Our Revolution is dedicated to organizing a political revolution strong enough to challenge the structural forces that threaten our survival as a society. Together, we are building a national grassroots network of powerful local groups who are fighting to win progressive issue fights, elect progressive champions, transform the Democratic party and get big money out of politics.