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The Progressive Caucus' People's Budget adopts many of the Obama budget's best ideas for fighting climate change, and more -- and it could get a vote next week! Will you join me and a coalition of progressive powerhouses in supporting the People's Budget?

Friend,

I've been telling you about President Obama's climate-action budget for the last few weeks.1 That plan is still being blocked by climate deniers and defeatists in Congress, but they can't block a vote on many of those same ideas if they're offered as an amendment by a coalition of Congressmembers. That's just what could happen next week when the House is expected to vote on a federal budget for 2017.2

The People's Budget is a big, bold budget plan introduced by the Progressive Caucus, a coalition of 70 members of Congress (and Bernie Sanders in the Senate).3 It's a strong budget plan that adopts a lot of President Obama's best ideas to fight climate change and keep fossil fuels in the ground, which is probably why it's already being called "a detailed vision of what the federal government could do to actually address the big challenges we face."4

Among a few of the good ideas in this budget:5

  • It invests $765 million to fix the broken water system in Flint, Michigan and billions in water improvements nation-wide;
  • It invests millions in clean energy research and development to help us transition to 100% clean energy by 2050;
  • Just like the President's budget it ends tax breaks and subsidies for Big Oil, fracking and coal companies;
  • And it includes a tax on global warming pollution, not just a tax on oil as the President proposed.

Majority Leader Paul Ryan is expected to bring call a budget vote soon, maybe next week. When that happens, the progressive caucus can introduce their budget as an amendment -- effectively forcing the entire House on record about these big ideas to protect our climate. Before they do - click here to stand with us and a coalition of dozens of progressive groups by signing on as a citizen co-sponsor of the People's Budget.

The people's budget levies a $25 / ton tax on global warming pollution and includes what has been called “the gold standard” for ending fossil fuel subsidies. It's a good plan, and a logical progressive successor to the act on climate budget the President Proposed earlier this year (and which nearly 30,000 of us have already supported).2

It's also a big break with the House budget proposed by Congressional leaders like Paul Ryan. The current Republican budget proposal barely mentions water infrastructure at all and does nothing to help Flint and other cities struggling with lead contamination. And it slashes investment in clean energy and even basic public health protection at the EPA.2 All this while refusing to hold a hearing or a vote on President Obama's #ActOnClimate budget ideas, which House leaders already called "dead on arrival" in a demonstration of wanton obstructionism.6

But the Progressive Caucus can be a powerful ally if we back them up. This is the 6th time they've introduced a progressive budget alternative, and last year when asked to pick between an austerity budget written by Paul Ryan and the House Republicans, just over half the sitting Democrats backed the progressive version. The same thing could happen as soon as next week when Congress votes on a budget for the next year. Sign here to stand with the Progressive Caucus and our powerful coalition including Friends of the Earth, Daily Kos and more as a citizen co-sponsor of the People's Budget!

Thanks,

Drew and the number-crunching crew at Environmental Action

1 - Drew Hudson, Congressional dysfunction that's worse than doing nothing, Environmental Action, March 08, 2016
2 - Samantha Page, House Progressives Just Offered A Very Different Kind Of Budget Plan, Think Progress, March 16, 2016
3 - Progressive Caucus, members list
4 - Richard Kirsch, The People’s Budget Quenches Thirst for Big Ideas That Work, Huffington Post, March 08, 2016
5 - The Congressional Progressive Caucus, The People's Budget: Prosperity not Austerity; Invest in America.
6 - Ian Hanchett, GOP Rep Scalise: Obama’s Oil Tax ‘Dead on Arrival,’ He’ll Do Anything To Keep US Energy In the Ground, Breitbart news, February 13, 2016

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