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Washington, D.C. – Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) released the following statement on the passage of H. Con. Res. 11, the FY 2021 Budget Resolution to expedite pandemic relief for millions of Americans:

“This is a moment for urgency and action. This week, House Democrats took the first critical step towards passing an ambitious and aggressive COVID-19 relief bill that will rescue our economy, prevent mass suffering, and help families and communities weather this crisis.

“We know the enormity of the challenges we face, which is why the Progressive Caucus has consistently — from the beginning of the pandemic — called for bold and expansive legislation that meets the scale of this crisis. The budget resolution passed last night is a strong framework and we look forward to passing a robust relief bill that ends this pandemic and keeps families afloat. We cannot afford a repeat of the jobless recovery from the Great Recession which cost millions of people – disproportionately low-income families and people of color – their homes, livelihoods and savings.

“As we move forward, the Progressive Caucus has identified five priorities to strengthen the proposed pandemic relief package. First, it is essential that this package increases the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Our current minimum wage is an abhorrent, immoral poverty wage – and it’s particularly shameful that frontline workers are being asked to risk their lives in a pandemic while being denied a decent, livable wage. Second, we support expanding access to health care by automatically enrolling the unemployed, uninsured, and their dependents in public plans like Medicare and Medicaid. Third, given the enormous toll this pandemic has taken on our states, municipalities, tribes, and territories, which are on the frontlines in combating this pandemic and vaccinating the public, we also support increasing aid to those governments. Fourth, we want to ensure that our relief is inclusive of and open to all communities, regardless of immigration status. Lastly, we strongly support robust payments to families to keep them afloat for the duration of the pandemic, both in the form of survival checks as well as through the child tax credit proposal which would cut child poverty in half.

“We look forward to working with House leadership and our allies in the Senate and the White House to pass this urgently-needed relief bill, rescue our economy, and fulfill our promise to the American people.”

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Washington, D.C. – Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) released the following statement applauding President Joe Biden’s executive actions to provide economic relief for families, including expanding food access for hungry children and families, ensuring survival checks reach the American people, restoring and expanding labor protections for workers, and beginning the process to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour for federal contractors:

“The pandemic has unleashed a level of financial distress across the country unseen since the Great Depression. An estimated one in four children are food insecure and nearly a million Americans are still losing their jobs each week. The executive actions signed by President Biden are a critical and long-overdue step to help families weather this financial crisis, keep food on the table, and survive the pandemic.

“The expansion of SNAP and other nutrition programs will help millions of people feed their families. We also applaud President Biden’s efforts to ensure low-income families can access their survival checks and expand labor protections so workers aren’t forced into taking unsafe jobs and putting themselves at risk of contracting COVID-19.

“Since 2014, the Progressive Caucus has led the charge to make the federal government a model employer by raising the poverty minimum wage for federal contractors and expanding paid family and sick leave. We have also been champions in pushing for a $15 federal minimum wage — taking the movement started by fast-food workers who helped make Seattle became the first major city in the country to pass a $15 minimum wage all the way to Congress with the Raise the Wage Act. In the coming weeks, building on President Biden’s critically important executive order to raise the wage for federal employees and contractors, I will join my colleagues in the House and Senate to re-introduce the Raise the Wage Act to lift the wages of millions of workers across the country.

“As we work to pass an ambitious and transformative pandemic relief package, these executive actions will help workers and families get by in the midst of this crisis. But ultimately, we must do more to help families thrive – not just survive this pandemic.”

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Washington, D.C. – Ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) Co-Chairs for the 116th Congress, Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) and Representative Mark Pocan (WI-02), released a report detailing the CPC’s accomplishments from the past two years.

The Progressive Caucus 116th Congress in Review report identifies the major legislative, communications, and procedural victories for the Progressive Caucus over the past two years and opens with a letter from the CPC Co-Chairs.

“The Progressive Caucus has spent the last two years fighting for policies that restore power to the hands of the people. We became the first Caucus to endorse impeaching this lawless President, advocated for low-wage workers during and in the wake of the longest-ever government shutdown, fought for sweeping policies to protect families and workers in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, and demanded transformative and structural reforms to our criminal justice system and federal institutions as part of the long-overdue reckoning on racial justice,” write Representatives Jayapal and Pocan. “We have also looked inward to improve our functioning as a caucus and ensure we are a nimble and member-driven organization prepared to leverage power as we welcome President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to the White House.”

Read the full report here.

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Washington, D.C. – Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) released the following statement on the $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package proposed by President-elect Joe Biden:

“The COVID-19 package proposed by President-elect Biden is a promising start to help crush the virus, provide relief to the American people, and rescue our economy. At a moment when cases continue to rise, it provides critical funding to build out our public health infrastructure and workforce, includes critical family and medical leave, and targets aid to communities of color who have been hardest hit by the pandemic. At a time when nearly one million additional people are losing their jobs each week, it delivers direct aid to families, invests in state and local governments, expands the child tax credit, and extends relief for the unemployed and those on the brink of eviction. Importantly, this package would also cut child poverty in half across the United States.

“The Progressive Caucus has long cautioned against going too small in a moment of crisis that demands urgent and sweeping action. We know that the challenges facing the American people are enormous and structural – and the policies we pass as a Congress must reflect that. In our People’s Agenda, we identified pandemic relief as a key pillar of our agenda, and we remain committed to addressing this crisis through ambitious and transformative policies that help families thrive, not just survive.

“We look forward to working with the Biden Administration to strengthen this proposal and deliver comprehensive and swift relief to families suffering across the nation.”

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