93 Organizations Urge Congress to Stand Up to Pressure from Corporate Lobbyists and Pass President Biden's Build Back Better Plan

On September 9, 93 organizations led by the Economic Policy Institute and the Institute for Policy Studies delivered a letter urging Congress to stand up to pressure from lobby groups representing the wealthy and big corporations and pass President Joe Biden's $3.5 trillion Build Back Better plan.

Those lobby groups -- including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable, ExxonMobil, and Pfizer -- are spending tens of millions of dollars to attack "the most transformative and equitable budget proposal in a generation," the letter notes.

"We, the undersigned labor, environmental, faith, justice and community-focused organizations urge Congress to stand up to this pressure and pass President Biden's bold $3.5 trillion Build Back Better plan by the end of September," the letter reads. "This down payment on the needs of our communities begins to meet the full scale of our country's climate, poverty, and inequality emergencies and reform a tax system rigged in favor of the wealthy and large corporations."

This letter comes as Congress continues to negotiate over the infrastructure package. In August, the House passed a $3.5 trillion budget resolution and advanced a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill. That vote put the Senate-passed infrastructure plan on a path to final passage in the House and included a nonbinding commitment to vote on the infrastructure bill by September 27.

Read the full letter.

John Cavanagh, Senior Advisor at the Institute for Policy Studies: "After a year of record billionaire wealth and corporate profits, it is outrageous that hundreds of giant U.S. corporations are trying to slash taxes on themselves to undermine the most important piece of legislation for children, working people, and climate in our lifetimes."

Heidi Shierholz, President at the Economic Policy Institute: "One of the biggest indications that President Biden's Build Back Better plan would provide transformative change to working families is that corporations are spending millions to try to defeat it. Congress must stand up to the pressure and pass these vital investments in child care, home health care, climate, and more."