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WASHINGTON — Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, issued the following statement regarding the conclusion of Honduras’ recent presidential election:  

“I congratulate Xiomara Castro de Zelaya for being elected the next president of Honduras, the first woman ever to hold the nation’s highest office. I also commend the Honduran people for their historic level of participation in these elections. These elections promise a return to democracy and a revitalization of Honduran institutions, which have deteriorated since the 2009 military coup that resulted in the democratically elected president at the time — Manuel Zelaya, Mrs. Castro de Zelaya’s husband — being forced out of the country at gunpoint.

“Immediately following Zelaya’s unconstitutional ouster, members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus mobilized to denounce the overthrow as a military coup and call for the reinstatement of the elected president. Over the 12 years since, Progressive Caucus leaders have organized and protested against the brutal repression, autocratic governance, violations of human rights, and murders of labor organizers, human rights activists, environmental defenders, journalists, and Afro-Indigenous leaders under Honduras’ post-coup regimes. The Progressive Caucus has also been at the forefront of demanding a change in U.S. policy, including an end to U.S. weapons and training for Honduras’ repressive security forces until real efforts have been made to end impunity and restore the rule of law. 

“Today, we encourage the Biden administration to use this opportunity to make a clean break with previous presidential administrations, which worked to ensure that the 2009 coup d’état succeeded, legitimized the deeply flawed elections in 2009, 2013, and 2017, and pushed policies that have resulted in surges in Honduran insecurity, poverty, mass migration, and organized crime. In light of our shared interest in greater regional stability and prosperity, the election of Xiomara Castro presents an opportunity for a new chapter in U.S.-Honduras relations, one based on mutual respect, support for democracy, and equitable development.”

WASHINGTON — The chairs of the Congressional Progressive, Black, Hispanic, and Asian Pacific American Caucuses jointly urged the Treasury Department today to support House Democrats’ recent approval of a new issuance of urgently needed financial assistance through the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) would help hundreds of millions of people in developing countries still suffering from the ongoing effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

SDRs, which are reserve assets issued by the IMF to all member states, cost nothing to U.S. taxpayers and allow developing countries to stabilize their economies and invest in social and public health needs. SDRs can be converted into hard currency by low-income countries to purchase essential goods such as food, vaccines, energy supplies, medical equipment, and lifesaving drugs. They can also help reduce low- and middle-income countries’ borrowing costs, minimize capital flight, and avoid balance-of-payments and debt crises. With the Biden Administration’s support, the IMF issued 456 billion SDRs earlier this year, with many of the most vulnerable countries in the world being among the first to take advantage of them. The House of Representatives approved an additional issuance of 1.5 trillion SDRs in the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations bill in July.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus; Rep. Joyce Beatty (OH-03), chair of the Congressional Black Caucus; Rep. Raul Ruiz (CA-36), chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus; and Rep. Judy Chu (CA-27), chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, were joined by Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García (IL-04), author of the Robust International Response to Pandemic Act, which served as the basis of legislation adopted by the House.

In a letter sent to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen today, the lawmakers wrote, “As President Biden observed, ‘one thing we learned’ from the 2009 economic recovery is that ‘we can’t do too much here. We can do too little. We can do too little and sputter.’ A one-time allocation of SDRs may be too little given the continuing upsurges in COVID19 infections worldwide. By further boosting global demand for U.S. exports, assisting in a worldwide economic recovery, easing major spikes in hunger, poverty and disease, and providing financial resources for mass vaccinations abroad at no cost to the United States, a new issuance of 1.5 trillion SDRs remains a vital tool for this administration’s efforts to crush the coronavirus and build back better, both at home and abroad.”

The members of Congress praised the Biden Administration for “ending the previous administration’s virtually solitary opposition” to the IMF’s issuance of SDRs, as well as the Biden administration’s moves to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord and the World Health Organization, as examples that “the United States is once again playing a leadership role in multilateral efforts to solve global crises.”

The lawmakers expressed concern that “highly unequal vaccine access has led to just 20 percent of people in low- and lower-middle-income countries receiving a first vaccine dose compared to 80 percent in higher-income countries.” In addition, the lawmakers point to the fact that “as many as 161 million more people faced hunger in 2020 than in 2019.” Major global setbacks in the fight against tuberculosis, HIV, and malaria, they add, “pose a risk to the economic strength, national security, and public health of the United States.” The members of Congress conclude by asking for Secretary Yellen’s support in enacting House legislation to issue additional SDRs “to resolve the global pandemic, accelerate America’s economic recovery, and save millions of lives worldwide.”

The letter to Secretary Yellen builds on a previous joint effort in 2020 that succeeded in securing House passage of legislation authorizing a major SDR issuance in the 116th Congress. The chairs of the Congressional Progressive, Black, Hispanic, and Asian Pacific American Caucuses have also been joined by prominent Democratic Senators and former Republican Senator Sam Brownback (KS) this year in advocating for the issuance of additional SDRs to alleviate global poverty.

WASHINGTON — Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, issued the following statement upon passage of the Build Back Better Act through the House of Representatives:

“The Progressive Caucus entered the negotiations around President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda with a clear vision: this transformational legislation should deliver immediate, tangible change in the lives of working people. We articulated at the beginning of the process the need for significant investments in five critically important priority areas: climate action, affordable housing, improving health care while lowering drug prices, lifting up our immigrant workers through humane reforms, and the care economy including universal child care, pre-K, home-based care and paid leave.

“Throughout the process, we worked with House and Senate leadership, committee chairs, and the White House to ensure these priorities made it into the Build Back Better Act. When others cut the size of the package, we insisted that all of these critical priorities be funded robustly, even if for a shorter time. Most importantly, we insisted that the Build Back Better Act had to move forward with the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, so that no one was left behind.

“Just six weeks ago, by refusing to leave anyone behind and insisting the two bills pass the House together, we were able to allow space for President Biden to get negotiations started between the two Senators and the CPC. We were able to get a framework announced that had our progressive priorities in it, and get progressives coalesced around that framework. We were able to get full legislative text for a bill that is largely pre-conferenced with the Senate. We were able to get a vote on the rule to move Build Back Better forward. And most importantly, we were able to get a public commitment from the five Democrats who needed more information that we would pass the Build Back Better Act this week. That is exactly what has happened today.  

“At every step of the way, the Progressive Caucus kept our eyes on the prize of successfully delivering on President Biden’s entire agenda. This is truly one of the most transformative and progressive packages in recent history, and it comes at a time when Americans are waiting for us to deliver on our promises to provide relief to working and poor people across the country. We salute the tremendous leadership of President Biden, both in articulating the vision to start with, and in leading negotiations, as well as the work of our colleagues who kept their word today. We also thank the Speaker for her leadership all along the way.

“While this version of the bill isn’t everything we want or that our communities deserve, we recognize that this transformative piece of legislation was developed with the slimmest of margins in the House and Senate, and under the strict rules of budget reconciliation. Despite those margins, we continued to push for the most we could get for the American people, and we are proud of what we achieved. This legislation will deliver real, long overdue and urgently needed results to working people, and it begins to level the playing field so that corporations and the wealthiest Americans finally pay their fair share in taxes.

“Our work will not stop until the Build Back Better Act passes the Senate without any weakening of these popular provisions. We call on the Senate to quickly pass this bill and send it to the President’s desk as soon as possible. It’s time to deliver.”

The Build Back Better Act includes: 

• $150 billion federal investment in housing, the largest in our history, for one million new and improved affordable housing units as well as housing vouchers;

• Universal preschool for 3 and 4 year-olds in the largest expansion of public education since the K-12 system was originally created;

• High-quality child care, where no family pays more than 7 percent of their income; 

• A half-trillion dollar investment in taking on climate change, with meaningful reductions in carbon emissions and Justice 40 measures that get us on the path to a clean energy future; 

• A Civilian Climate Corps to create green jobs in communities most impacted by climate change;

• Improved health care through Medicare expansion of hearing aids, as well as subsidies for low-income families in states that have not expanded Medicaid;

• Provisions to cap insulin costs, allow Medicare to negotiate down the prices of some of the most expensive drugs, limit out-of-pocket drug costs for seniors, and penalties for pharma companies that increase prices faster than inflation;

• Funding for home-based care for seniors and people with disabilities, and to raise the wages of in-home care workers;

• Four weeks paid family and medical leave, the first national investment in paid leave in American history;

• Provisions to provide Dreamers, TPS holders, essential workers, and farmworkers protection from deportation, work permits, access to benefits, and freedom to travel.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, issued the following statement on the status of Build Back Better negotiations:

“The Congressional Progressive Caucus just overwhelmingly voted to endorse, in principle, the entire Build Back Better Act framework announced by President Biden today. We appreciate the President’s leadership and his commitment to getting this process over the finish line. He reaffirmed, as our Caucus has month after month, that both the infrastructure bill and the popular Build Back Better Act must move together because they are part of the same agenda. Today, we are reiterating our enthusiastic commitment to delivering that entire agenda to people across America.

“The reality is that while talks around the infrastructure bill lasted months in the Senate, there has only been serious discussion around the specifics of the larger Build Back Better Act in recent weeks, thanks to the Progressive Caucus holding the line and putting both parts of the agenda back on the table. Now, Congress needs to finish the job and bring both bills to a vote together. This cannot be accomplished without legislative text that can be fully assessed and agreed upon by all parties, including 218 Representatives and all 50 senators in the Democratic Caucus. There is too much at stake for working families and our communities to settle for something that can be later misunderstood, amended, or abandoned altogether. That is why dozens of our members insist on keeping both bills linked and cannot vote only for one until they can be voted on together.

“Members of our Caucus will not vote for the infrastructure bill without the Build Back Better Act. We will work immediately to finalize and pass both pieces of legislation through the House together.”