[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 438 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 438

 Third Reconstruction: Fully addressing poverty and low wages from the 
                               bottom up.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 25, 2021

 Ms. Lee of California (for herself, Ms. Norton, Ms. Bush, Ms. Sewell, 
  Ms. Moore of Wisconsin, Ms. Jacobs of California, Mr. Raskin, Mrs. 
 Watson Coleman, Mr. Kahele, Mr. DeSaulnier, Mr. Cicilline, Ms. Meng, 
Mr. Garcia of Illinois, Ms. Schakowsky, Mr. Danny K. Davis of Illinois, 
 Mr. Lieu, Mr. San Nicolas, Mr. Vargas, Ms. Jackson Lee, Mr. Rush, Ms. 
 Tlaib, Mr. Lowenthal, Mr. Jones, Mr. Green of Texas, Mr. Thompson of 
  Mississippi, Mr. Carson, Mr. Khanna, Ms. Adams, Ms. Newman, and Mr. 
McGovern) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
                   Committee on Oversight and Reform

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Third Reconstruction: Fully addressing poverty and low wages from the 
                               bottom up.

Whereas there are over 140 million people who are poor, low-wealth, or just one 
        emergency away from economic ruin in the United States;
Whereas the injustice of poverty and low wealth is deeply entwined with the 
        injustices of systemic racism, the denial of health care and ecological 
        devastation, militarism, and the distorted moral narrative of religious 
        nationalism that seeks to blame the poor instead of addressing systems 
        that cause poverty;
Whereas there are devastating consequences to these injustices, including that 
        250,000 die every year due to poverty and inequality alone;
Whereas our entire society suffers when over 40 percent of the country cannot 
        fulfill their potential or fully participate in society;
Whereas these widespread conditions cannot be explained by blaming individual 
        behaviors, nor are they inherent to our economy or society, but rather 
        they are created and sustained by unjust and immoral laws, policies, 
        systems, and structures;
Whereas we need the resolve to pass moral and just laws and policies that fully 
        address these interlocking injustices, which have only deepened during 
        the COVID-19 pandemic;
Whereas before the pandemic, 140 million people were poor, low-wealth, or one 
        emergency away from economic ruin, including 52 percent of children (39 
        million), 45 percent of women (74 million), 60 percent of Black people 
        (24 million), 64 percent of Latina/o people (38 million), 40 percent of 
        Asian and Pacific Islander people (8 million), 59 percent of Native and 
        Indigenous people (2 million), and 33 percent of White people (66 
        million);
Whereas the 140 million live in every region of the Nation, including 50 million 
        in the South (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, 
        Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, 
        Virginia), over 40 million in Appalachia (Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, 
        Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, 
        South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia), with 8.6 million in 
        New York alone, over 40 million in the Southwest/Border (Arizona, 
        California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Texas, Utah), with 20 million 
        in California alone, 20 million in the Midwest deindustrialized States 
        (Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin), 11 million 
        in the Northeast (Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, 
        New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont), over 7 million in the 
        Northwest (Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming), nearly 7 million 
        in the Great Plains (Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, 
        Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota), nearly 700,000 in 
        Hawaii, and 300,000 in Washington, DC;
Whereas systemic racism takes the form of laws and policies that target people 
        of color, especially poor people of color, to create and deepen 
        inequities in democracy, health, economic security, education, housing, 
        jobs, policing, incarceration, criminalization, and immigration, which 
        has contributed to the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on poor 
        communities of color;
Whereas, since 2010, at least 25 States had passed new voter restrictions, 
        imposing racist gerrymandering and redistricting, restricting early 
        voting and voting hours, purging voter rolls, closing polling stations, 
        and instituting onerous voter ID laws, and since the 2020 elections, 43 
        States have introduced over 250 new bills that further these 
        restrictions and limit mail-in voting;
Whereas voter suppression laws disproportionately target poor, Black, brown, and 
        Native people, they also pave the way for immoral policies that deny 
        health care, living wages, immigrant rights, women's rights, LGBTQ+ 
        rights, and more;
Whereas nearly 50 million people are working for low wages, including at least 
        40 percent of Black and Latina/o workers and approximately 30 percent of 
        White workers, and a majority (59 percent) of low-wage workers are 
        women;
Whereas approximately 6 million essential workers are immigrants, including 5 
        million undocumented immigrants, and Native Hawaiians and Pacific 
        Islanders are the highest represented subgroup among essential workers;
Whereas more than 25 million workers have been directly hurt by the economic 
        impacts of the pandemic, and more than half of the low-wage jobs that 
        were lost have not returned;
Whereas women carry a disproportionate share of unpaid care work, which would 
        total $1.5 trillion at the current minimum wage ($7.25);
Whereas the average hourly wage that a full-time worker requires to afford a 
        modest two-bedroom apartment is over $23 per hour;
Whereas there are 30 to 40 million people at risk of homelessness, and an 
        estimated 25 to 50 million people are facing food insecurity, including 
        a disproportionate share of Black, Latina/o, American Indian, Alaska 
        Native, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, and multiracial households;
Whereas of the approximately 60 million adults with disabilities in the country, 
        26 percent are living below the poverty line, 10 percent are uninsured, 
        and 7 million students with disabilities are enrolled in our public 
        schools;
Whereas the official poverty measure (OPM) is an inadequate measure that does 
        not account for today's cost of living, including child care, health 
        insurance, and transportation, and even the supplemental poverty measure 
        (SPM) does not account for all modern necessities or debt burdens that 
        siphon household resources away from meeting basic needs;
Whereas the average cost of living in the Nation amounts to more than twice the 
        OPM and SPM, close to $60,000 for a household of four;
Whereas due to these limitations in the measure of poverty, social welfare and 
        antipoverty programs have been underfunded, to the extent that only one-
        quarter of eligible families received TANF or Federal housing 
        assistance, SNAP (food stamps) were reduced in 2017 to approximately 
        $1.40 per meal, and Head Start reaches only 54 percent of eligible 3- to 
        4-year-olds;
Whereas household debt burdens have grown to over $14 trillion, and half of our 
        families are having difficulty meeting usual household expenses, 
        including approximately three-quarters of low-income households and 
        Black and Latina/o families;
Whereas alongside mounting poverty, low wealth, debt, and economic desperation, 
        poor communities and poor communities of color are hit first and worst 
        by climate change, pollution, extreme weather, climate disaster, 
        ecological devastation, and related health disparities, including during 
        the COVID-19 pandemic;
Whereas an expansion of oil and fossil fuel infrastructure led to over 5,000 
        significant oil and gas leaks or ruptures on United States pipelines, 
        more than 2,400 oil spills in United States waters, and 1,100 coal ash 
        ponds, all of which are disproportionately proximate to poor 
        communities;
Whereas decades of residential segregation continue to expose, especially, Black 
        communities to greater air pollution, as well as Latina/o, Asian and 
        Pacific Islander, and poor and low-wealth communities;
Whereas Native and Indigenous reservations cover just 2 percent of the United 
        States, and ancestral and sacred lands are at risk of being devastated 
        by mining, extraction, and pollution, because of their vast mineral and 
        natural wealth;
Whereas tens of millions of Americans cannot afford access to clean water, 44 
        million people are living with water systems that violated the Safe 
        Drinking Water Act, and approximately 540,000 households lack access to 
        complete plumbing, with Native American households more likely to face 
        water access issues than other households;
Whereas despite these threats to health, 119 rural hospitals have been closed in 
        41 States since 2010, and 87 million people were uninsured or 
        underinsured leading into the COVID-19 pandemic;
Whereas the United States has the worst-ranking public health outcomes among our 
        peer countries, including the lowest life expectancy and highest infant 
        and maternal mortality rates, even though we spend more than twice the 
        amount per capita on health expenditures compared to other 
        industrialized nations;
Whereas rather than addressing these pressing conditions impacting our health, 
        well-being, and general welfare, 53 cents of every Federal discretionary 
        dollar go to the Pentagon, while only 15 cents go toward antipoverty 
        programs;
Whereas experts have identified up to $350 billion in defense spending cuts that 
        would both save resources and keep the country safe and secure;
Whereas the United States wars since 2001 have killed more than 800,000 people 
        and displaced 37 million more;
Whereas local and State law enforcement agencies have received over $7.4 billion 
        worth of equipment from the Department of Defense since 1990;
Whereas of the 19 million veterans in the Nation, 5.4 million are on disability, 
        nearly 38,000 are homeless, and 7 to 18 percent of military families and 
        veterans are on food assistance;
Whereas the United States is home to less than 5 percent of the world's 
        population, but accounts for 20 percent of the world's incarcerated 
        people, most of whom are poor and the poorest of whom are women and 
        people of color, and 74 percent of those held in jail have not been 
        convicted of any crime, but are too poor to be free before trial;
Whereas there have been over 1,000 police killings every year since 2013, with 
        Black, Native, and Indigenous people more likely to be killed by police, 
        yet 98 percent of police killings since 2013 have not resulted in a 
        criminal charge;
Whereas nearly every American will know a gun violence victim in their 
        lifetimes;
Whereas our strength as a Nation is greater when we welcome newcomers and 
        immigrants, and immigrant families are vital members of our communities, 
        yet our broken immigration system is harmful to immigrants and our 
        society as a whole, it is plagued by backlogs, processing delays, and 
        overly complex policies, it criminalizes migration and prioritizes 
        detention, deportation, and the economic and political exclusion of 
        immigrants, and it relies on a largely for-profit detention system that 
        detains tens of thousands of people and separates families;
Whereas although immigrants, regardless of status, pay more than $490 billion in 
        taxes, they are virtually excluded from all safety net programs;
Whereas White supremacist and far-right extremist groups have been recognized by 
        the Federal Government as a predominant domestic security threat, 
        however, every year we spend over $1 trillion in endless wars, mass 
        incarceration, policing, immigration, and border enforcement, none of 
        which make us safer;
Whereas billionaires have added more than $1.3 trillion to their collective 
        wealth from March 2020 to February 2021;
Whereas these interlocking injustices are precipitating the deconstruction of 
        our democracy and imposing unbearable costs to our economy, including 
        that $1 trillion is lost every year to the costs of child poverty, $1.9 
        trillion of government revenue was lost by lowering the corporate tax 
        rate in 2017, $6.4 trillion has been lost in endless wars over the past 
        two decades, the costs of the pandemic are estimated to be at least $16 
        trillion, and inaction on climate change threatens the loss of life 
        itself;
Whereas there was record turnout among the 64 million poor and low-income 
        eligible voters in the 2020 elections, who did not vote for a return to 
        ``normal'';
Whereas moral policy that prioritizes the 140 million can lift this Nation from 
        the bottom up, rather than waiting for wealth to trickle down; and
Whereas drawing on the transformational history of the first Reconstruction 
        after the Civil War and the second Reconstruction of the civil rights 
        struggles in the 20th century, this moment demands a third 
        Reconstruction to revive our political commitment to implement moral 
        laws and policies that can heal and transform the Nation: Now, 
        therefore, be it
    Resolved, That--
            (1) it is the sense of Congress to--
                    (A) recognize that--
                            (i) this country is founded on the moral 
                        commitment to establish justice, ensure 
                        domestic tranquility, provide for the common 
                        defense, promote the general welfare and secure 
                        the blessings of liberty;
                            (ii) equal protection under the law is 
                        nonnegotiable; and
                            (iii) it is a moral abomination that there 
                        are more than 140 million people in this 
                        country who are poor, low-wealth, or one 
                        emergency away from economic ruin;
                    (B) recognize that the United States Federal budget 
                is a moral document that exposes the priorities and 
                values of our Nation, however, addressing poverty has 
                not been a top legislative or budget priority; and
                    (C) recognize that these times require moral 
                policies aimed at fully addressing the interlocking 
                injustices of systemic racism, poverty, the denial of 
                health care and ecological devastation, militarism, and 
                the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism, 
                as a third Reconstruction to build an equitable, 
                thriving, and resilient economy from the bottom up; and
            (2) Congress commits to heal the Nation, beginning over the 
        next two years, by--
                    (A) prioritizing and centering the needs of the 140 
                million in laws and legislation, including in 
                infrastructure development, by--
                            (i) updating the poverty measure to reflect 
                        what it takes to have a decent standard of 
                        living in the United States today and to 
                        establish a new standard for social welfare 
                        programs that permanently expand welfare 
                        benefits, provide cash assistance programs, and 
                        guarantee adequate incomes;
                            (ii) raising the minimum wage to a living 
                        wage and guaranteeing the right to form and 
                        join unions for all workers;
                            (iii) expanding unemployment insurance and 
                        ensuring paid family and medical leave for all 
                        workers;
                            (iv) implementing a Federal jobs guarantee 
                        to increase public investments and 
                        infrastructure in poor and low-income 
                        communities that prioritize green and socially 
                        beneficial industries, public health, public 
                        education, care work, public transit and roads, 
                        public utilities, broadband, sanitation and 
                        water services, climate resilience, sustainable 
                        food production and distribution, libraries, 
                        fire stations, and cultural work;
                            (v) guaranteeing safe and quality housing 
                        for all by ending all evictions, cancelling 
                        past due rent and mortgage payments and 
                        expanding the stock of affordable and public 
                        housing, as well as public housing and rental 
                        assistance, rather than expanding the shelter 
                        system;
                            (vi) guaranteeing the right to water by 
                        ending water and utility shut offs and making 
                        clean water and sanitation services accessible 
                        to all;
                            (vii) guaranteeing accessible, diverse, 
                        safe, high-quality, equitable public education 
                        and accessible education infrastructure from 
                        pre-K-12 for all children, ensuring that higher 
                        education is free to everyone who wants to 
                        attend, and protecting and expanding public 
                        resources for students with disabilities;
                            (viii) guaranteeing quality health care for 
                        all, enacting a universal single payer national 
                        health care program that puts people ahead of 
                        profits, expanding our public health 
                        infrastructure to better address social 
                        determinants of health, investing in Native 
                        American health through fully funding the 
                        Indian Health Service and social support for 
                        Native Americans, and investing critical 
                        resources for health care services and 
                        infrastructure in urban and rural underserved 
                        communities;
                            (ix) enacting relief from student debt, 
                        housing debt, utilities debt, medical debt, and 
                        other household and personal debt that cannot 
                        be paid; and
                            (x) ensuring that State, local, and Tribal 
                        governments are adequately funded so as to 
                        avoid bankruptcy or fiscal crisis;
                    (B) expanding and protecting the right to vote, 
                including by--
                            (i) restoring the full power of the Voting 
                        Rights Act by updating the preclearance formula 
                        to cover all States and political subdivisions 
                        with deep-rooted histories of voter suppression 
                        and any and all jurisdictions that recently 
                        passed voter suppression laws or utilized voter 
                        suppression policies or tactics;
                            (ii) making election day a national 
                        holiday;
                            (iii) establishing a fair redistricting 
                        process that eliminates all forms of racist and 
                        political gerrymandering, allows public input, 
                        and guarantees that every vote counts the same;
                            (iv) increasing polling locations so all 
                        eligible voters have equitable access to the 
                        polls;
                            (v) implementing no-excuse mail-in voting 
                        in every State and requiring all States to 
                        offer early voting to extend equitable 
                        timeframes and polling locations;
                            (vi) modernizing voter registration by 
                        instituting online, same day, and automatic 
                        voter registration; and
                            (vii) ensuring the right to vote for 
                        formerly and currently incarcerated people;
                    (C) complementing existing efforts and legislation 
                to eliminate persistent racial inequities in education, 
                health care, housing, jobs, wages, Social Security and 
                veteran benefits, land ownership, financial assistance, 
                food security, voting rights, and the justice system 
                that are rooted in our Nation's history of violence and 
                dispossession of Native and Indigenous peoples, 250 
                years of chattel slavery, systemic racism, and unjust 
                immigration policies at the expense of Black, Latina/o, 
                Asian American and Pacifier Islander, and Native 
                Hawaiian peoples, including through--
                            (i) a national commission to study and 
                        develop proposals on reparations for African 
                        Americans; and
                            (ii) a national truth, racial healing and 
                        transformation commission, which can include 
                        recommendations for restorative processes and 
                        reparations for Indigenous and other 
                        dispossessed people;
                    (D) protecting the constitutional rights of 
                assembly and free speech, including from critical 
                infrastructure legislation and other antiprotest 
                legislation, including by--
                            (i) removing criminal penalties, fines, or 
                        other costs for protest activities;
                            (ii) protecting all constitutional activity 
                        that occurs in the course of a protest; and
                            (iii) retaining liability for public or 
                        private actors for causing harm to protesters;
                    (E) enacting comprehensive and just immigration 
                reform, including by--
                            (i) demilitarizing the southern border and 
                        immigration enforcement, closing Immigration 
                        and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and 
                        Removal Operations, and limiting staff and 
                        authority of the Border Patrol;
                            (ii) repealing and redressing mandatory 
                        detentions, deportations, child detentions and 
                        family separations and reuniting families;
                            (iii) ensuring regular and timely access to 
                        legal documentation and residency; and
                            (iv) making public welfare programs 
                        available and accessible to all immigrants, 
                        regardless of legal status;
                    (F) ensuring all the rights of Native and 
                Indigenous peoples and Tribal nations, including by 
                honoring treaties, guaranteeing the right to the free 
                expression of their religion, the right to Native and 
                sacred lands, and otherwise protecting against 
                legislation or land transfers that violate these sacred 
                rights;
                    (G) embracing a bold agenda to transform the 
                economy away from climate chaos to a green renewable 
                energy economy that prioritizes poor and low-wealth 
                frontline communities and builds up publicly owned and 
                controlled green energy infrastructure, including by--
                            (i) investing in a green infrastructure 
                        package that provides for equitable public 
                        transit, fixes roads and bridges, ensures 
                        equitable and affordable housing, education, 
                        and care work and access to broadband, 
                        electricity, water, sanitation, and other 
                        public utilities, expands public health 
                        infrastructure, sustainable food production and 
                        distribution, and community-based institutions 
                        like libraries, fire stations, and recreation 
                        facilities;
                            (ii) dramatically curtailing air, water, 
                        land, and climate pollution; and
                            (iii) creating resilient jobs to help 
                        communities prepare for and respond to climate-
                        related disasters and promoting a just worker 
                        transition;
                    (H) demilitarizing United States foreign policy, 
                borders, and policing, including by--
                            (i) cutting the military budget by at least 
                        10 percent and providing for a just transition 
                        for workers in militarized industries;
                            (ii) ending the forever wars, repealing 
                        existing Authorizations for the Use of Military 
                        Force, and restoring Congress's war powers, 
                        including over limited uses of force such as 
                        airstrikes and drone attacks;
                            (iii) recognizing the three pillars of 
                        foreign policy (diplomacy, development, and 
                        defense) and pursuing diplomacy over war, 
                        including reconsidering forward military 
                        deployments, instituting a nuclear no-first-use 
                        commitment, and moving toward nuclear 
                        disarmament and curtailing the use of broad 
                        economic sanctions that create mass suffering;
                            (iv) repealing programs like the 1033 
                        program that provides military equipment and 
                        training to domestic law enforcement agencies; 
                        and
                            (v) ending mass incarceration and violent 
                        policing, based on the demands of grassroots 
                        organizations and communities who are most 
                        egregiously impacted by these injustices;
                    (I) enacting fair taxes on corporations, Wall 
                Street, and the wealthy, including by--
                            (i) repealing the 2017 tax cuts that 
                        reduced the corporate tax rate and the top 
                        marginal tax rate;
                            (ii) repealing tax breaks on fossil fuels;
                            (iii) repealing tax breaks for pass-through 
                        income;
                            (iv) instituting a financial transaction 
                        tax on Wall Street;
                            (v) instituting a wealth tax;
                            (vi) taxing investment income the same as 
                        income from work; and
                            (vii) otherwise making the tax code less 
                        punitive for poor and low-income people;
                    (J) alongside cuts to the Pentagon budget and fair 
                taxation, using deficit spending to meet these pressing 
                needs so as to end systemic racism, poverty, ecological 
                devastation, and militarism and address the distorted 
                moral narrative of religious nationalism; and
                    (K) encouraging States and cities to enact policies 
                that follow the direction provided by this resolution.
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