Washington, D.C. – Tonight, the Congressional Progressive Caucus held a virtual event unveiling a bold Congressional agenda for the first six months of 2021 to deliver relief to the American people and govern with the urgency and vision that this moment requires.
Tonight’s event unveiling “The People’s Agenda: A Progressive Roadmap for Congress in 2021” featured remarks from Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Reverend Dr. William J Barber II, and Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis, along with testimony from members of Congress, movement leaders, and members of the public demanding progress. Click here for the full video of the event.
The People’s Agenda has been endorsed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus and 37 outside organizations: The Poor People’s Campaign; SEIU; Community Change Action; Common Defense; MoveOn; Action Center on Race & the Economy (ACRE); American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC); Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO; Association of Flight Attendants-CWA; Association of Professional Flight Attendants; Business Leaders for Health Care Transformation; Center for Economic and Policy Research; Center for Popular Democracy Action; Communications Workers of America; DC Vote; Demand Progress; Indivisible; NARAL Pro-Choice America; National Domestic Workers Alliance; National Education Association; National Employment Law Project; National Immigration Law Center; National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC); NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice; Our Revolution; People's Action; PL+US: Paid Leave for the United States; Progressive Democrats of America; Public Citizen; Social Security Works; Transgender Law Center; UltraViolet; United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW); United for Respect; Win Without War; Working Families Party; Young Invincibles.
The seven planks outlined in The People’s Agenda are:
• Provide COVID Relief that Meets the Scale of the Crisis and Addresses the Disproportionate Harm to Black, Indigenous, People of Color and Other Vulnerable Communities
• Put People Back to Work, Give Workers More Power, and Transform to a Clean Renewable Energy Economy.
• Ensure Health Care for Everyone
• Defend and Expand Voting Rights, Strengthen Democracy and End Corruption
• Dismantle Racism, White Supremacy and Inequality in All Institutions
• End Endless Wars and Invest in Diplomacy and Peace
• End Corporate Greed and Corporate Monopolies
“The People’s Agenda is the culmination of months of works to identify our shared progressive priorities for the start of the new Congress. As we heard tonight, people across this nation are organizing and working for change – and at the Progressive Caucus, we stand ready to be their voice and their champion in the halls of Congress,” said CPC Chair, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal. “Congress must govern with the urgency that this moment requires and restore power to the hands of the people. The People’s Agenda unveiled tonight is a promise to the American people that we will fight for them and deliver transformative and bold policy change in the new year.”
“We see this launch of the People’s Agenda as a huge first step towards healing the nation. The Poor People’s Campaign is proud to have helped shape these priorities extensively, including the policy recommendations of poor and impacted leaders, economists, public health experts, researchers and faith leaders put forward in our Moral Agenda, Moral Budget, Jubilee Platform and 14 Policy Priorities for the First 100 Days,” said Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival and President of Repairers of the Breach. “We are encouraged by the commitment of the Congressional Progressive Caucus to moral policy that lifts from the bottom. The price of inequality is too high and the deaths from unjust policies are too many to not address. The only way to heal the nation and have domestic tranquility is to first establish justice. This agenda sets us on the path towards doing just that.”
“The People’s Agenda centers many of the needs and demands of the 140 million people who were already poor or one storm, fire, health care crisis, job loss or other emergency from economic ruin, the 700 people who were dying each day from poverty and inequality before the pandemic, and those who have been most impacted by the public health crisis and economic recession as well as the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, militarism and the war economy,” said Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival and Director of the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice at Union Theological Seminary. “This is why the Poor People’s Campaign is endorsing these progressive and nonpartisan priorities, which we have helped to shape and inform. And we will push lawmakers in the House and the Senate from both sides of the aisle to enact these legislative priorities now, because lives depend on it.”
“The People’s Agenda: A Progressive Roadmap for Congress in 2021” is posted here.
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