Congresswomen Bush, Ocasio-Cortez Implore Leadership To Include Unemployment Insurance in Build Back Better Act
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Congresswoman Cori Bush (MO-01), Deputy Whip of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and Member of the House Committee on the Judiciary, and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), led their colleagues in urging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to include unemployment insurance reforms in the final text of the Build Back Better Act before the bill comes up for a vote in the House and Senate.
“We are proud of the many provisions in the Build Back Better Act designed to promote economic opportunity, security and fairness for all. For this reason, we believe that unemployment insurance reform is an essential component to this objective and must not be left out,” the Members wrote. “The current state of the unemployment system is a threat to all communities, especially Black and brown communities, in many of the states we represent. As of now, there are no provisions to reform the unemployment system. We strongly urge Congress to include such improvements before the Build Back Better Act comes for a vote in the House and Senate.”
A failure to include such benefits will inevitably be felt most harshly by workers of color, who disproportionately live in the states with the lowest UI coverage rates and work in the jobs with the least access to unemployment benefits. For example, even as Black workers have been nearly twice as likely to be unemployed compared to white workers, a lower percentage of Black applicants receive UI benefits.
A full text of the letter can be found here.
The bill is co-signed by: Reps. Jerrold Nadler (NY-10), Sylvia R. Garcia (TX-29), Sara Jacobs (CA-53), Frederica S. Wilson (FL-24), Jamie Raskin (MD-08), Ilhan Omar (MN-05), Barbara Lee (CA-13), Yvette Clarke (NY-09), Mondaire Jones (NY-17), Andrè Carson (IN-07), & Nikema Williams (GA-05).
###
Congresswoman Cori Bush sits on the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees, serves as the Progressive Caucus Deputy Whip, and proudly represents St. Louis as a politivist in the halls of the United States Congress.