News

WASHINGTON — Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, issued the following statement in response to President Biden’s Fiscal Year 2024 Budget:

“The President’s budget shows he remains focused on delivering for the American people to meet the challenges they face. We are thrilled to see him continue to emphasize investments in working families that will raise wages, tackle poverty, and lower the cost of living, paid for by taxing the wealthy and the largest corporations. This is an agenda that the American people can be proud to have voted for — and that progressive movements can feel proud to have fought for.

“This budget would advance priorities progressives have been pushing for years, and continue the unfinished work from the President’s 2022 agenda: lowering prescription drug costs; expanding Medicaid, affordable housing, and accessible maternal care and health care; providing two years of free community college; and taking on the out-of-control costs of child care, pre-K, home care, and housing. It would reinstate the Child Tax Credit, decrease hunger, protect Medicare and Social Security, and finally provide national, comprehensive paid family and medical leave. It would also continue the important progress the President and Democrats began last Congress: continuing to lower the cost of deploying clean energy and speed our transition away from fossil fuels, rebuild American manufacturing, and take climate action with a focus on environmental justice. Essentially, these investments would be paid for with incredibly popular and common sense policies: a 25 percent minimum Billionaire Tax, increasing taxes on the largest corporations, quadrupling the tax on stock buybacks, and repealing the Trump Tax Scam.

“There are also a few places where we need to do better, and ensure record levels of funding come alongside real accountability, particularly for immigration and defense. On immigration, we must ensure that we focus resources on the implementation of humane immigration policy that matches our values, and does not penalize immigrants who are central to our economy’s functioning. 

“On Pentagon spending, the President’s budget requests $842 billion for the Pentagon, $26 billion more than Congress allocated in the previous budget — which itself was $63 billion more than the $773 billion the President requested for FY2023. This is a never-ending cycle of increased funds without accountability. It would be a new record high for the defense budget, following a year when the Pentagon failed its fifth consecutive audit, without ever having successfully accounted for all its assets. There is simply no reason for taxpayers to continue to pay for outrageously high budgets rife with waste, fraud, and abuse. A recent CBO study confirmed that the Pentagon could cut $100 billion per year without compromising on national defense. This is long overdue. Progressives in Congress have been at the frontline of this fight for decades, and we will continue to push for sensible, targeted defense policy that prioritizes our national security over profit-hungry military contractors.” 

WASHINGTON — Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, issued the following statement in response to the President’s announcement that he would sign a bill overturning a D.C. Council-passed law:

“I’m deeply disappointed to see the President announce he will allow Congress to overturn a D.C. law for the first time in decades. This is simple: The District of Columbia must be allowed to govern itself. Democrats’ commitment to home rule should apply regardless of the substance of the local legislation. This is why the Congressional Progressive Caucus and its members have endorsed D.C. statehood, with every CPC member cosponsoring D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton’s bill in the 117th Congress. Statehood is the only way to protect the 700,000 residents of the District from this kind of interference, we will continue to champion this cause.”

WASHINGTON — Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, issued the following statement in response to the Commerce Department’s “Notice of Funding Opportunity” for companies that will receive investments allocated by the CHIPS and Science Act:

“This past summer, the Progressive Caucus worked with the Commerce Department to ensure the CHIPS and Science Act would expand domestic manufacturing capacity and not be utilized as a subsidy for companies to engage in stock buybacks and dividend payouts to enrich wealthy shareholders and executives. Today, we are very heartened to see the beginning of that commitment put into practice with the Department’s Notice of Funding Opportunity.

“The CHIPS and Science Act was passed with a vision: that smart policy could play a role in rebuilding American domestic manufacturing in a sustainable and just way. We could bring working parents, and especially women, back into the manufacturing workforce. We could deliver a major investment of taxpayer dollars without allowing corporations to artificially inflate their value through stock buybacks. We could build technology our people need in America to bring down costs for consumers and create good-paying union jobs. But the details are always in the implementation and that is why today’s announcement is so important. Secretary Raimondo and the Biden administration are turning that vision into reality, and I am incredibly proud of the key role progressives in Congress played in making it possible.”

“The agency has included a number of taxpayer protections that progressives negotiated directly with the Secretary, including: prohibitions on CHIPS funding being directly used for stock buybacks or dividends; creating a formal preferencing for companies that commit to refrain from making stock buybacks; disbursing the funding to companies on an incremental basis, rather than a lump sum, to allow the funding to be clawed back if it is misused; and a requirement that companies receiving over a certain amount of direct funding repay the U.S. government — and American taxpayers — for the upside. In addition, the Department has made clear they’re committing to building and supporting the workforce needed to make CHIPS, not only companies themselves: creating sector-based partnerships in consultation with labor unions; preferencing for companies with strong apprenticeship programs, including in construction; and child care on-site to support working parents in manufacturing for companies.”

In addition to negotiating these critical taxpayer protections with the Secretary, Rep. Jayapal also hosted a town hall with Secretary Raimondo in the fall with workers on the need for affordable care, including ensuring that there is equity for working parents with the jobs created through CHIPS funding. Rep. Jayapal also led her colleagues in two letters to the Secretary, on the need to protect the CHIPS investments from being used for corporate self-enrichment and stock buybacks, and on the need for companies receiving the funds to provide accessible child care.

WASHINGTON — Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and Representative Barbara Lee (CA-13), CPC Chair Emeritus and Chair of the Caucus Peace and Security Task Force, issued the following statement on the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine:

“One year ago today, President Putin initiated an illegal invasion and brutal, unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine. In the twelve months since, thousands of people have been killed, with millions more displaced and forced to seek refuge outside their home country. Russia has committed blatant war crimes, exacerbated a global hunger crisis, and has even undermined  the critical New START treaty. We join our colleagues in Congress and people across the world in solemn mourning of the harm and loss of life this war has inflicted.

“At the same time, we are proud of the role the United States has played in responding to the conflict. President Biden has shown exceptional leadership, including in bringing and keeping the international coalition together to provide economic, military, humanitarian, and moral support for Ukraine, while wisely seeking to avoid direct conflict. The aid Congress has allocated has been crucial in helping the Ukrainian people defend themselves and keep their government functioning.

“As we enter the second year of this war, the United States has distinct obligations to our Ukrainian allies and international partners. We must continue our commitment to being a place for those displaced by war to seek asylum, and accept as many refugees as possible from Ukraine, Afghanistan, and other war-torn countries. We should continue to look for opportunities for common-sense multilateral diplomacy, like the Black Sea grain agreement brokered by Turkey and the United Nations’ effort to protect vulnerable Ukrainian nuclear energy infrastructure. 

“As both Presidents Biden and Zelensky have made clear, all wars end at the negotiating table. The United States and our allies must continue to bolster and support Ukraine, while remaining open to opportunities for constructive and de-escalatory diplomacy.”