[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 159 (Tuesday, September 15, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5612-S5613]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 SENATE RESOLUTION 693--RECOGNIZING THE DUTY OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 
TO IMPLEMENT AN AGENDA TO TRANSFORM, HEAL, AND RENEW BY INVESTING IN A 
                      VIBRANT ECONOMY (``THRIVE'')

  Mr. MARKEY (for himself, Mr. Booker, Mr. Schumer, Ms. Warren, Mrs. 
Gillibrand, Mr. Udall, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Wyden, Mr. 
Merkley, and Mr. Heinrich) submitted the following resolution; which 
was referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and 
Pensions:

                              S. Res. 693

       Whereas families and communities throughout the United 
     States share similar hopes and dreams of a good life that is 
     free from worry about meeting basic needs, with reliable and 
     fulfilling work, a dignified and healthy standard of living, 
     and the ability to enjoy time with loved ones;
       Whereas the United States faces the stress of multiple, 
     overlapping crises--old and new--that prevent the achievement 
     of these fundamental human rights and needs, in which the 
     COVID-19 pandemic has killed over 180,000 United States 
     residents; tens of millions of United States workers remain 
     unemployed; rising economic inequality has made working 
     families vulnerable; tens of millions of individuals do not 
     get the health care they need; and intensifying climate 
     change increases the threats to our health, economy, and 
     livelihoods;
       Whereas these health, economic, and climate crises have 
     magnified centuries-old injustices, causing high rates of 
     death and hardship among Black, Brown, and Indigenous 
     communities due to long-standing systemic racism--a fact 
     spotlighted by an emerging, multiracial movement to end 
     violence against Black people;
       Whereas these crises are causing the inequitable workloads 
     of women--particularly women of color--to grow, especially as 
     women of color overwhelmingly make up the essential 
     workforce, bearing the weight of the increased care needs of 
     children, the elderly, and the sick;
       Whereas, even before the COVID-19 crisis, many rural 
     communities and independent family farmers suffered from 
     poverty, declining economic opportunity, and alarming rates 
     of farm bankruptcy, including loss of land from Black farmers 
     and the exploitation of Black, Brown, and Indigenous farmers 
     caused by predatory and racist public, private, and 
     governmental institutions and policies;
       Whereas the root of our interlocking economic and 
     environmental crises is society's historical willingness to 
     treat some communities and workers as disposable;
       Whereas it is necessary to counteract systemic injustice 
     and value the dignity of all individuals in order to address 
     unemployment, pandemics, or climate change and ensure the 
     survival of the Nation and the planet;
       Whereas the choices made in response to these crises will 
     shape the United States' direction for the 21st century and 
     beyond, offering an opportunity to reshape our society to 
     provide a good life for each of us and for our children and 
     grandchildren; and
       Whereas the United States has the means to support 
     fulfilling livelihoods for millions of people--Black, 
     Indigenous, Brown, Latinx, Asian/Pacific Islander, White, 
     immigrant, urban and rural, old and young, of many faiths, 
     genders, abilities, and talents--while working to heal harms, 
     protect communities, and invest in a future that fosters 
     justice, not crisis: Now therefore, be it
       Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
       (1) it is the duty of the Federal Government to respond to 
     the crises of racial injustice, mass unemployment, a 
     pandemic, and climate change with a bold and holistic 
     national mobilization, an Agenda to Transform, Heal, and 
     Renew by Investing in a Vibrant Economy (``THRIVE'') 
     (referred to in this resolving clause as the ``Agenda''), to 
     build a society that enables--
       (A) greater racial, economic, and gender justice;
       (B) dignified work;
       (C) healthy communities; and
       (D) a stable climate; and
       (2) such Agenda shall be assessed upon its ability to 
     uphold its foundational pillars, including--
       (A) creating millions of good, safe jobs with access to 
     unions by--
       (i) investing in projects including--

       (I) upgrading our broken infrastructure to expand access to 
     clean and affordable energy, transportation, high-speed 
     broadband, and water, particularly for public systems;
       (II) modernizing and retrofitting millions of homes, 
     schools, offices, and industrial buildings to cut pollution 
     and costs;
       (III) investing in public health and care work, including 
     by increasing jobs, protections, wages, and benefits for the 
     historically unpaid and undervalued work of caring for 
     children, the elderly, and the sick;
       (IV) protecting and restoring wetlands, forests, and public 
     lands, and cleaning up pollution in our communities;
       (V) creating opportunities for family farmers and rural 
     communities, including by untangling the hyper-consolidated 
     food supply chain, bolstering regenerative agriculture, and 
     investing in local and regional food systems that support 
     farmers, agricultural workers, healthy soil, and climate 
     resilience; and
       (VI) developing and transforming the industrial base of the 
     United States, while creating high-skill, high-wage 
     manufacturing jobs across the country, including by expanding 
     manufacturing of clean technologies, reducing industrial 
     pollution, and prioritizing clean, domestic manufacturing for 
     the aforementioned investments;

       (ii) prioritizing the mobilization of direct public 
     investments, while excluding false solutions that--

       (I) increase inequality;
       (II) privatize public lands, water, or nature;
       (III) violate human rights;
       (IV) expedite the destruction of ecosystems; or
       (V) decrease union density or membership;

       (iii) driving investment toward real full employment, where 
     every individual who

[[Page S5613]]

     wishes to work has a viable pathway to a meaningful and 
     dignified job with the right to form a union, including by 
     establishing new public employment programs, as necessary; 
     and
       (iv) subjecting each job created under this Agenda to high-
     road labor standards that--

       (I) require family-sustaining wages and benefits, including 
     child care support;
       (II) ensure safe workplaces;
       (III) protect the rights of workers to organize; and
       (IV) prioritize the hiring of local workers to ensure wages 
     stay within communities to stimulate economic activity;

       (B) building the power of workers to fight inequality by--
       (i) reversing the corporate erosion of workers' organizing 
     rights and bargaining power so that millions of new clean 
     energy jobs, as well as millions of existing low-wage jobs 
     across the economy, become the family-supporting union jobs 
     that everyone deserves, including by--

       (I) passing the bipartisan Protecting the Right to Organize 
     Act;
       (II) repealing the ban on secondary boycotts;
       (III) requiring employer neutrality with regard to union 
     organizing;
       (IV) ensuring that ``franchising'' and other corporate 
     structures may not be used to hinder collective bargaining on 
     a company-wide, regional, or national basis;
       (V) advancing sectoral bargaining in certain economic 
     sectors; and
       (VI) ensuring that no workers are misclassified as 
     ``independent contractors;''

       (ii) expanding union representation for all workers; and
       (iii) creating ladders of opportunity, particularly for 
     women and people of color, to access registered 
     apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs in communities 
     of all sizes across the country;
       (C) investing in Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities 
     to build power and counteract racial and gender injustice 
     by--
       (i) directing at least 40 percent of investments to 
     communities that have been excluded, oppressed, and harmed by 
     racist and unjust practices, including--

       (I) communities of color;
       (II) low-income communities;
       (III) deindustrialized communities; and
       (IV) communities facing environmental injustice;

       (ii) ensuring that investments in these communities 
     enable--

       (I) the creation of good jobs with family-sustaining wages;
       (II) economic ownership opportunities that close the racial 
     wealth gap;
       (III) pollution reduction;
       (IV) climate resilience;
       (V) small business support;
       (VI) economic opportunities for independent family farmers 
     and ranchers; and
       (VII) the expansion of public services;

       (iii) ensuring that affected communities have the power to 
     democratically plan, implement, and administer these 
     projects;
       (iv) prioritizing local and equitable hiring and 
     contracting that creates opportunities for--

       (I) people of color;
       (II) immigrants, regardless of immigration status;
       (III) formerly incarcerated individuals;
       (IV) women;
       (V) LGBTQIAP+ individuals;
       (VI) disabled and chronically ill individuals; and
       (VII) marginalized communities; and

       (v) providing access to quality workforce training, 
     including through registered apprenticeships and pre-
     apprenticeships to ensure real pathways to good careers, 
     including those that have historically been inaccessible;
       (D) strengthening and healing the nation-to-nation 
     relationship with sovereign Native Nations, including by--
       (i) making systemic changes in Federal policies to honor 
     the environmental and social trust responsibilities to Native 
     Nations and their Peoples, which are essential to tackling 
     society's economic, environmental, and health crises;
       (ii) strengthening Tribal sovereignty and enforcing Indian 
     treaty rights by moving towards greater recognition and 
     support of the inherent self-governance and sovereignty of 
     these nations and their members; and
       (iii) promulgating specific initiatives that reflect the 
     nuanced relationships between the Native Nations, including--

       (I) the confirmation by Congress that Tribal nations can 
     exercise their full and inherent civil regulatory and 
     adjudicatory authority over their own citizens, lands, and 
     resources, and over activities within their Tribal lands;
       (II) the codification of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent 
     as it relates to Tribal consultation; and
       (III) the implementation of the United Nations Declaration 
     on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, without qualification;

       (E) combating environmental injustice and ensuring healthy 
     lives for all, including by--
       (i) curtailing air, water, and land pollution from all 
     sources;
       (ii) removing health hazards from communities;
       (iii) replacing lead pipes to ensure clean water is 
     available to all;
       (iv) remediating the cumulative health and environmental 
     impacts of toxic pollution and climate change;
       (v) ensuring that affected communities have equitable 
     access to public health resources that have been systemically 
     denied, which includes--

       (I) upgrading unhealthy and overcrowded homes, public 
     schools, and public hospitals;
       (II) ensuring access to healthy food, mental health 
     support, and restorative justice; and
       (III) investing in universal childcare, care for 
     individuals with disabilities, senior care, and a robust care 
     workforce; and

       (vi) focusing these initiatives in Black, Brown, and 
     Indigenous communities that have endured disproportionately 
     high death rates from COVID-19 due to higher exposure to air 
     pollution and other cumulative health hazards as a result of 
     decades of environmental racism;
       (F) averting climate and environmental catastrophe, 
     including by--
       (i) contributing to a livable climate and environment for 
     today and for future generations, including by--

       (I) staying below 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming;
       (II) building climate resilience to keep communities safe; 
     and
       (III) ensuring sustainable resource use;

       (ii) deploying investments and standards in the 
     electricity, transportation, buildings, manufacturing, lands, 
     and agricultural sectors to spur the largest expansion in 
     history of clean, renewable energy, emissions reductions, 
     climate resilience, and sustainable resource use;
       (iii) transforming the power sector in order to move the 
     country, by not later than 2035, to carbon pollution-free 
     electricity that passes an environmental justice screen to 
     prevent concentrating pollution in Black, Brown, and 
     Indigenous communities;
       (iv) prioritizing materials and parts that meet high labor, 
     environmental, and human rights standards throughout the 
     supply chain;
       (v) supporting sustainable, domestic production of healthy, 
     nutritious food that pays independent farmers and ranchers a 
     fair price for their land stewardship; and
       (vi) ensuring that funding under this Agenda goes to 
     workers and communities affected by the economic and 
     environmental crises, not to corporate fossil fuel polluters;
       (G) ensuring fairness for workers and communities affected 
     by economic transitions by--
       (i) guaranteeing that workers and communities in industries 
     and regions in economic transition due to COVID-19, climate 
     change, and other economic shocks receive--

       (I) stable wages and benefits, including full pension and 
     healthcare;
       (II) early retirement offerings;
       (III) crisis and trauma support; and
       (IV) equitable job placement; and

       (ii) investing in transitioning areas to support--

       (I) economic diversification;
       (II) high quality job creation;
       (III) community reinvestment;
       (IV) retooling and conversion;
       (V) reclamation and remediation of closed and abandoned 
     facilities and sites;
       (VI) child and adult care infrastructure; and
       (VII) funding to shore up budget shortfalls in local and 
     State governments; and

       (H) reinvesting in public sector institutions that enable 
     workers and communities to thrive by--
       (i) rebuilding vital public services and strengthening 
     social infrastructure in cities and counties, healthcare 
     systems, schools, the postal service, and other services;
       (ii) investing in equitable public education opportunities, 
     including career and technical education pathways that 
     prepare youth--especially girls; Black, Brown, and Indigenous 
     students; students with disabilities; students from low-
     income families; and other students from marginalized 
     groups--for high-quality jobs of the future, and state of the 
     art technology and schools, so that from the beginning 
     students are prepared to transform society and preserve 
     democracy;
       (iii) investing in the workers who provide care to 
     children, the elderly, and communities burdened by neglect;
       (iv) creating new public institutions, inspired by and 
     improving upon New Deal-era institutions, to ensure universal 
     access to critical resources and to strategically and 
     coherently mobilize and channel investments, in line with the 
     above priorities, at the scale and pace that these times 
     require; and
       (v) coupling this institutional renewal with democratic 
     governance and accountability to correct the systemic 
     misallocation of resources and representation that prevents 
     families and communities from meeting fundamental human needs 
     and pursuing fulfilling lives.

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