ProsperUS Sends Letter to Congressional Leadership Ahead of Likely Government Shutdown

In a letter to House and Senate leadership, the 87-member ProsperUS coalition urged Congressional leadership to quickly pass appropriations bills and reject further cuts in any final spending deal. The letter, as covered in HuffPost, included results from a new poll released today, which finds Americans overwhelmingly oppose Republicans’ proposed cuts to social security, nutrition assistance, education, clean drinking water, and more.

Key excerpts from the letter and quotes from the coalition are below. You can read the full contents of the letter submitted to House and Senate leadership here. You can view the topline poll results from Navigator Research here.

To speak to a member of the coalition, contact press@prosperus.org.

EXCERPTS FROM LETTER

“...the budget deal President Biden reached with Senate and House leadership already includes significant and painful compromises that directly impact the communities we represent. Therefore, moving forward, lawmakers should emphatically reject further cuts in any final spending deal.”

“The House majority’s proposals would hurt workers, families, and communities, particularly low-income people of color, by slashing investments in K-12 education, health care, lead poisoning prevention, safe drinking water, cancer research, and more. They would also empower the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations by slashing the resources that the Internal Revenue Service needs to go after wealthy tax cheats and recoup billions of dollars in unpaid taxes.”

“We urge the House to abandon the dangerous, partisan path it has chosen so far and instead follow the example set by the Senate and pass appropriations bills that, at minimum, adhere to the contours of the recent bipartisan budget deal, invest appropriately in critical national priorities, and can earn bipartisan support.”

“These cuts fly in the face of what the vast majority of people across the country want. New polling from Navigator Research shows that voters not only oppose additional cuts, they overwhelmingly support more public investments to strengthen the economy and improve the lives of workers and families.”

QUOTES FROM PROSPERUS COALITION

“House Republicans are fighting tooth and nail to cut programs that women, children, and their families rely on, while blatantly ignoring their constituents, who overwhelmingly oppose these drastic cuts,” said Melissa Boteach, Vice President of Income Security and Child Care/Early Education at the National Women’s Law Center.

“We saw just recently how public policy can make or break our communities following the release of the Census Bureau data, which revealed a record increase in poverty following the expiration of crucial federal programs, particularly the expanded child tax credit. We saw how the child care dollars in the American Rescue Plan – which are due to expire at the end of September - saved the child care sector from collapse. That’s why we are urging House Republicans to work with Democrats to fund the government to at least the level agreed to in the recent bipartisan debt ceiling deal, pass the Child Care Stabilization Act, and drop this partisan grandstanding that will upend our economy and harm families across the country.”

“Budgets are a reflection of values. The destructive and draconian budget the House Republicans are pushing shows us that they value protecting wealthy, white men while punishing the rest of us,” said Jhumpa Bhattacharya, co-president of the Maven Collaborative.

“Taking away food from mothers and children, reducing resources to our already strapped public school system and early childcare programs are meant to hurt women and Black and brown families. It's time policymakers called these cuts what they are – racist and sexist – and stood for the American people with moral fortitude by saying ‘absolutely not’ to this ludicrous proposal.”

“The choice by House Republicans to deprive the American public of food aid, clean water funding, or lifesaving cancer research is not about red ink or ‘funding levels.’ It's a moral verdict that the majority of communities and vulnerable Americans do not deserve public support,” said Bilal Baydoun, Director of Policy and Research at Groundwork Collaborative. “We cannot allow a handful of extremists in the House to force a government shutdown over cruel and unnecessary cuts to essential programs that workers and families rely on.”