[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 532 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>






118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 532

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


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 21, 2023

   Ms. Lee of California (for herself and Ms. Jayapal) submitted the 
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight 
                           and Accountability

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


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

Whereas, before the pandemic, there were over 140,000,000 people who were poor, 
        low wealth, or just one emergency away from economic ruin in the United 
        States;
Whereas pandemic relief programs that were long overdue temporarily relieved the 
        load of poverty, reducing these numbers to 112,000,000, but were ended 
        abruptly, precipitating a rise in these numbers once again;
Whereas, during this same time period, billionaire wealth increased by 
        $1,500,000,000,000, or over $2,000,000,000 per day;
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 
        poverty is the fourth-leading cause of death in the Nation, higher than 
        homicides, firearms, suicide, and diabetes, taking 290,000 lives every 
        year, or 800 people a day, meaning we can no longer ignore policy 
        violence nor deaths caused by policy;
Whereas our entire society suffers when nearly 40 percent of the country who are 
        poor and one emergency from economic ruin 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 were deepened during the 
        COVID-19 pandemic;
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 among the 140,000,000 people who were poor, low wealth, or one emergency 
        away from economic ruin, were 52 percent of children (39,000,000), 45 
        percent of women (74,000,000), 60 percent of Black people (24,000,000), 
        64 percent of Latina/o people (38,000,000), 40 percent of Asian and 
        Pacific Islander people (8,000,000), 59 percent of Native and Indigenous 
        people (2,000,000), and 33 percent of White people (66,000,000);
Whereas these tens of millions of poor and low-income people live in every 
        region, State, and county of the Nation, including approximately: 
        50,000,000 in the South (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, 
        Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, 
        Tennessee, Texas, Virginia), 40,000,000 in Appalachia (Alabama, Georgia, 
        Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania, 
        Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia), and over 
        8,000,000 in New York alone, over 40,000,000 in the Southwest/Border 
        (Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Texas, Utah), 
        20,000,000 in California alone, 20,000,000 in the Midwest 
        deindustrialized States (Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Michigan, 
        Illinois, Wisconsin), 11,000,000 in the Northeast (Connecticut, 
        Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, 
        Rhode Island, Vermont), 7,000,000 in the Northwest (Alaska, Idaho, 
        Oregon, Washington, Wyoming), 7,000,000 in the Great Plains (Iowa, 
        Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, 
        South Dakota), 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;
Whereas 10 years after the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in Shelby 
        v. Holder, voting rights remain unprotected, unleashing an assault on 
        voting rights and access to democracy, including that, since the 2020 
        elections, over 1,000 voter restriction laws have been introduced in all 
        50 States;
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 52,000,000 people are working for low wages, including at least 
        47 percent of Black workers, 46 percent of Latina/o workers and 
        approximately 30 percent of White workers, and a significant number (40 
        percent) of low-wage workers are women;
Whereas approximately 12,000,000 essential workers are immigrants, including 
        5,000,000 undocumented immigrants, and Native Hawaiians and Pacific 
        Islanders are the highest represented subgroup among essential workers;
Whereas women carry a disproportionate share of unpaid care work, which would 
        total $1,500,000,000,000 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 $25 per hour;
Whereas there are 8,000,000 to 11,000,000 people at risk of homelessness, and an 
        estimated 34,000,000 people are facing food insecurity, including a 
        disproportionate share of Black, Latina/o, American Indian, Alaska 
        Native, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, and multiracial households, 
        yet protections against evictions and hunger are being rolled back;
Whereas of the approximately 60,000,000 adults with disabilities in the country, 
        26 percent are living below the poverty line, 10 percent are uninsured, 
        and 7,000,000 students with disabilities are enrolled in our public 
        schools;
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 1 in 
        5 eligible families received TANF or Federal housing assistance, 
        expanded SNAP (food stamps) were reduced to just $6 per day and Head 
        Start reaches only 54 percent of eligible 3- to 4-year-olds;
Whereas household debt burdens have grown to over $17,000,000,000,000, and more 
        than two-thirds of our families are having difficulty meeting usual 
        household expenses, including more than three-quarters of low-income 
        households and Black and Latina/o families;
Whereas student debt amounts to $1,600,000,000,000, impacting 44,000,000 
        households, and 100,000,000 Americans struggle with medical debt;
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 two 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, 
        44,000,000 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, more than 450 rural hospitals are at risk of 
        closure and 104,000,000 people were uninsured or underinsured leading 
        into the COVID-19 pandemic;
Whereas the United States has the worst-ranking public health outcomes including 
        that average life expectancy is at its lowest point since 1996, with 
        higher infant and maternal mortality rates than our peer countries, even 
        though we spend twice the amount per capita on health expenditures 
        compared to other industrialized nations;
Whereas, during the deadliest phases of the pandemic, poor and low-income 
        counties experienced death rates that were up to five times higher than 
        wealthier counties;
Whereas rather than addressing these pressing conditions impacting our health, 
        well-being, and general welfare, 62 cents of every Federal discretionary 
        dollar goes to the Pentagon and militarization;
Whereas experts have identified up to $350,000,000,000 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 937,000 people 
        directly, and another 3,600,000 to 3,700,000 indirectly, and displaced 
        3,000,000 more;
Whereas local and State law enforcement agencies have received over 
        $7,600,000,000 worth of equipment from the Department of Defense since 
        1990;
Whereas of the 16,500,000 veterans in the Nation, 4,500,000 have a service-
        connected disability, more than 33,000 are homeless, and 1,200,000 
        receive 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 unable to make bail and therefore unable 
        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 
        $490,000,000,000 in taxes, they are virtually excluded from nearly 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;
Whereas every year we spend over $1,000,000,000,000 in endless wars, mass 
        incarceration, policing, immigration, and border enforcement, none of 
        which make us safer;
Whereas billionaires have added more than 1,500,000,000,000 to their collective 
        wealth over the past two years;
Whereas these interlocking injustices are precipitating the deconstruction of 
        our democracy and imposing unbearable costs to our economy, including 
        that $1,000,000,000,000 is lost every year to the costs of child 
        poverty, $1,900,000,000,000 of government revenue was lost by lowering 
        the corporate tax rate in 2017, $8,000,000,000,000 has been lost in 
        endless wars over the past two decades, the costs of the pandemic are 
        estimated to be at least $16,000,000,000,000, and inaction on climate 
        change threatens the loss of life itself;
Whereas there was record turnout among the 85,000,000 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 140,000,000 poor and low-income people 
        can lift this Nation from the bottom up, rather than waiting for wealth 
        to trickle down;
Whereas social movements committed to the needs and demands of poor and low-
        income people, including the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for 
        Moral Revival, Repairers of the Breach and the Kairos Center for 
        Religions, Rights and Social Justice, have been calling for 
        transformational change and putting forward a Third Reconstruction 
        Agenda; and
Whereas drawing on the 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;
                            (iii) it is a moral abomination that there 
                        are 140,000,000 people in this country who are 
                        poor, low wealth, or one emergency away from 
                        economic ruin; and
                            (iv) economic security should be guaranteed 
                        to all, and to that end, every individual is 
                        guaranteed access to fundamental economic 
                        rights, including the unqualified right to--
                                    (I) the opportunity to work in a 
                                fulfilling occupation for a thriving 
                                wage;
                                    (II) an adequate income, sufficient 
                                to meet basic needs and enjoy a life 
                                with dignity, including for care work 
                                inside of our own homes;
                                    (III) safe, well-maintained, and 
                                healthy housing for themselves and 
                                their families within affordable reach 
                                and without becoming cost-burdened;
                                    (IV) accessible, quality education, 
                                from child care to postsecondary 
                                education;
                                    (V) comprehensive health care 
                                coverage with free choice of hospital 
                                and provider;
                                    (VI) access to free, secure, and 
                                accessible banking services, including 
                                fair credit and lending opportunities 
                                to build generational wealth; and
                                    (VII) a healthy environment and 
                                sustainable climate that embraces 
                                renewable energy, clean air and water 
                                quality, and eliminates environmental 
                                health risks;
                    (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 
                140,000,000 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 regular adequate incomes to all;
                            (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 enacting rent control policies, 
                        ending all evictions, canceling past due rent 
                        and mortgage payments and rehabilitating and 
                        expanding the stock of affordable and public 
                        housing, as well as public housing and rental 
                        assistance, and housing people experiencing 
                        homelessness through ``Housing-First'' 
                        principles, 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 options for 
                        universally affordable child care and 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;
                            (x) ensuring every individual can access 
                        financial and credit services free of deceptive 
                        or unnecessary fees and lending discrimination, 
                        but with meaningful community reinvestment; and
                            (xi) 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 Pentagon budget by phasing 
                        out outdated weapons systems and eliminating 
                        waste, fraud, and abuse;
                            (ii) reviewing the moral, economic, and 
                        social consequences of spending 62 cents of 
                        every Federal discretionary dollar on 
                        militarization;
                            (iii) ending the forever wars, repealing 
                        existing Authorizations for the Use of Military 
                        Force, and restoring Congress' war powers, 
                        including over limited uses of force such as 
                        airstrikes and drone attacks;
                            (iv) 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;
                            (v) repealing programs like the 1033 
                        program that provides military equipment and 
                        training to domestic law enforcement agencies; 
                        and
                            (vi) 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, the denial 
                of health care and 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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