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Statement issued by Jennifer Epps-Addison,co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy:
"Today's decision to extend the CDC's eviction moratorium will provide a moment of relief for the nearly 7 million people who fell behind on rent due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While we commend President Biden for issuing this extension, one month of relief is not nearly enough to protect the children and families that have been devastated by this economic and health crisis. Next month these families will once again be on the brink of homelessness or forced into unsafe housing when the extension expires.
COVID-19 has laid bare the inequalities in our housing system and families are shouldering the financial burdens of a broken system. While the eviction moratorium has been a critical safety net for millions of people throughout the pandemic, landlords and property owners have found loopholes to pursue evictions and exploit renters and their families. People need stronger eviction protections that will shield them from the predatory behavior that allows landlords and property owners to sidestep policies and build their bottom line.
We cannot continue this piecemeal strategy, we need bold housing policy to protect our fundamental right to stable and affordable housing. The Biden administration and Congress must take immediate action to expand the eviction moratorium and provide long-term protections for tenants for the duration of this crisis."
The Center for Popular Democracy works to create equity, opportunity and a dynamic democracy in partnership with high-impact base-building organizations, organizing alliances, and progressive unions. CPD strengthens our collective capacity to envision and win an innovative pro-worker, pro-immigrant, racial and economic justice agenda.
(347) 985-2220"This would make a major difference for the affordability crisis so many face," said Rep. Ro Khanna.
Congressman Ro Khanna expressed hope on Tuesday that Vice President Kamala Harris' pledge to "fight to raise the minimum wage" on her newly released list of policy proposals would not be her last word on the matter, and urged her to speak out more specifically by backing a $17 minimum wage at the first presidential debate between her and Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Khanna (D-Calif.) said the Democratic nominee must send a clear message to many "voters who are living paycheck to paycheck in swing states," by showing that she is committed to improving their day-to-day lives with concrete economic policies.
Attaching a dollar amount to her promise to raise the minimum wage would show voters that she aims to "make a major difference for the affordability crisis so many face," said Khanna.
Several battleground states, including Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and North Carolina, have minimum wages that match the federal minimum pay—$7.25 per hour—which hasn't been updated in 15 years.
Harris backed a $15 federal minimum wage when she ran for president in 2020, eight years after fast food workers launched the Fight for $15 national campaign.
But last year, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) proposed raising the federal floor for wages to $17 per hour within five years, with Sanders saying, "A job should lift you out of poverty, not keep you in it."
According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Living Wage Calculator, even people in states with relatively low costs of living would need to earn significantly more than $15 per hour to enjoy a decent standard of living.
In both Mississippi and Alabama, for example, one adult with no children would need to earn more than $19 per hour to make a living wage. Two working adults raising one child would need to make $17.89 each, but they would need to make more than $21 each per hour if they had a second child.
"Raising our federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $17 is not radical," said Liz Shuler, president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), last year.
At HuffPost on Tuesday, Dave Jamieson noted that providing specifics about her plans to raise the wage floor would further clarify for swing state voters how Harris differs from her GOP opponent on this issue, as Trump has "never had a coherent vision for the minimum wage" and "has contradicted himself so often on the issue that The Washington Post's fact-checking operation once created a 'guide to all of Donald Trump's flip-flops on the minimum wage.'"
While campaigning for president in 2016, Trump said at various points that he did not support any federal minimum wage, that raising it would be a "big, big problem," and that that he was "looking at" raising it.
One Fair Wage (OFW), which has campaigned on ending the subminimum wage of just $2.13 for tipped workers, applauded Harris for her support for that policy, saying it offers a clear contrast to Trump and could appeal to 14 million service workers, including millions in swing states, who could sway the election.
"While both campaigns have called for the elimination of taxes on tips, this policy alone would only benefit about one-third of tipped workers," said the group. "Most workers wouldn't see any real relief, as their earnings are too low for them to benefit from a tax cut. That's why the Harris-Walz campaign's commitment to ending the subminimum wage stands out—it acknowledges that eliminating taxes on tips is not enough, and that workers need a true wage increase by ending the $2.13/hr subminimum wage for tipped workers, allowing them to earn a full minimum wage with tips on top."
"By taking this bold stance, the Harris-Walz campaign is aligning itself with a growing movement of workers and advocates fighting to create an economy where everyone can thrive," said OFW.
Saru Jayaraman, president of the organization, added that the policy would "lift millions of people out of poverty, close racial and gender pay gaps, and provide a foundation for economic security that all working people deserve."
"Raising wages resonates with millions of Americans who have been left behind by the current system, and the Harris-Walz campaign's commitment to this issue will not only energize voters but set the stage for a fairer, more equitable economy," she added.
Last week, Sanders toldRolling Stone that in the last eight weeks of the campaign, he hopes Harris will "expose Trump for the fraud that he is" and "develop an agenda for working-class people and trade unionists that will be very much in contrast with Trump."
"Raising the minimum wage to a living wage," said Sanders, "will improve wages for many millions of lower-income Americans."
"This bill is an admission that a House Republican majority cannot govern," said Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro. "They would rather gamble on an intervening election than attempt to complete their work on time."
House Republicans plowed ahead Tuesday with a short-term government funding package that one leading Democratic lawmaker denounced as "a ploy to force the extreme Project 2025 manifesto agenda on the American people."
The GOP's stopgap continuing resolution, to which House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) attached a widely condemned voter suppression bill, would mostly fund the federal government at current levels for six months beyond the looming shutdown date of September 30, putting off the spending fight until after the 2024 elections.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said Monday that instead of negotiating a bipartisan solution to the impasse over government funding, House Republicans "squandered an entire year by taking us down a partisan path and forcing us to waste time considering extreme funding bills based on [Republican presidential nominee Donald] Trump's Project 2025 they could not pass and that have no chance of becoming law."
DeLauro warned that instead of approving bipartisan government funding legislation ahead of the November elections, much of the House Republican caucus wants to delay negotiations until early next year, believing such a strategy "provides them with more leverage to force their unpopular cuts to services that American families depend on to make ends meet."
"They want to slash domestic investments in healthcare, education, job training, and every other discretionary program, which will hurt the middle class and the economy," said DeLauro. "This bill is an admission that a House Republican majority cannot govern. They would rather gamble on an intervening election than attempt to complete their work on time."
"Extreme MAGA Republicans have decided to abandon their commitment to the American people in order to enact Trump's Project 2025 agenda."
The GOP's legislative package narrowly cleared a procedural hurdle on Tuesday and is set for a final vote on Wednesday, but the legislation is likely doomed to fail amid united opposition from congressional Democrats and the White House and fractures in the Republican caucus.
As The New York Timesreported Tuesday, "Democrats and many Republicans prefer a shorter-term spending bill that would last into early December, allowing time to resolve their fiscal differences but leaving it to Mr. Biden and the current Congress—rather than the next president and Congress—to set funding levels for 2025 and beyond."
A detailed analysis released last week by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that budget proposals released by House Republicans combined with the far-right policy changes outlined under the Project 2025 agenda—including steep cuts to critical social programs—would "create a harsher country with higher poverty and less opportunity."
In a letter to his caucus on Monday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) wrote that "despite the existence of a previously agreed upon spending framework, extreme MAGA Republicans have decided to abandon their commitment to the American people in order to enact Trump's Project 2025 agenda."
"The partisan and extreme continuing resolution put forth by House Republicans is unserious and unacceptable," Jeffries continued. "In order to avert a GOP-driven government shutdown that will hurt everyday Americans, Congress must pass a short-term continuing resolution that will permit us to complete the appropriations process during this calendar year and is free of partisan policy changes inspired by Trump's Project 2025."
"The behavior of Donald Trump and the oil and gas industry has added to evidence of possible misconduct," said three U.S. lawmakers.
A trio of senior congressional Democrats on Tuesday admonished fossil fuel executives to comply with a request for "information regarding quid pro quo solicitations" from former U.S. President Donald Trump, who earlier this year promised to gut climate regulations if they donated $1 billion to his Republican presidential campaign.
In May, Trump reportedly told Big Oil executives at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida that he would sign executive orders and take other action to boost the fossil fuel industry if they raised nine figures for his campaign. Executives from ExxonMobil, Chevron, Occidental Petroleum, and other corporations reportedly attended the dinner.
A May analysis by the green group Friends of the Earth Action found that the fossil fuel industry would reap an estimated $110 billion windfall from tax breaks alone under Trump's proposed policies—an 11,000% return on Big Oil's billion-dollar investment.
Following the revelation of Trump's quid pro quo offer, House Oversight and Accountability Chair Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Senate Budget Committee Chair Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) wrote to the head of the American Petroleum Institute—the leading Big Oil lobby—and the CEOs of eight companies seeking answers about whether they accepted what Raskin called "Trump's explicit corrupt bargain."
Nearly four months later, the lawmakers are still awaiting satisfactory answers.
"Not only was your response to our inquiries insufficient; tellingly, none of the responses we have received to date refute the accuracy of the reporting, renewing our concern that Donald Trump is actively seeking to sell out American energy policy to the highest bidder," the trio wrote on Tuesday.
"In the weeks since our initial letters, the behavior of Donald Trump and the oil and gas industry has added to evidence of possible misconduct," the lawmakers continued. "Campaign finance records show that following Trump's quid pro quo solicitation at least one company made a significant contribution in support of Trump's presidential run."
"Specifically, on April 29, 2024, Continental Resources Inc. contributed $1 million to Make America Great Again, Inc.—a super PAC dedicated to Trump's reelection," they added. "Continental's CEO, Harold Hamm, who is also an informal adviser to Trump, has reportedly given $1.6 million to aid Trump's reelection so far this year, and he has raised millions more from independent oil producers operating in Texas and Alaska."
According to a Washington Postarticle published last month, Hamm's top priorities are "opening up more federal lands to drilling, easing the Endangered Species Act, and curbing numerous regulations at the Environmental Protection Agency."
During his first White House term, Trump rolled back regulations protecting the climate, environment, and biodiversity, resulting in increased pollution and premature deaths and fueling catastrophic planetary heating.
In addition to sounding the alarm over Trump's climate-wrecking policies, campaigners have expressed concerns about the GOP nominee's selection of Sen. JD Vance of Ohio as his running mate. Like Trump, Vance is a climate denier. He also has strong ties to the fossil fuel industry, his top donor.