The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Progressives seek to triple plan’s housing commitment
Top liberal lawmakers unveiled legislation Monday that would pour more than $100 billion over a decade into modernizing the public housing system and starting a transition to renewable energy, as progressives seek to prod President Joe Biden to expand his far-reaching infrastructure plan.
The legislation, led by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-vermont, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-cortez, D-new York, is the first of multiple proposals from progressives who are trying to shape the president’s $2.3 trillion package, which Biden has said aims both to overhaul infrastructure and to address climate change and economic inequities.
Its proponents estimate that it would invest at least triple the amount that Biden has proposed to tackle a large backlog of improvements to the nation’s aging public housing system.
The proposal, called the Green New Deal for Public Housing Act, is a prong of the broader climate platform that Ocasio-cortez and others have long pushed to help the United States wean itself from fossil fuels. It would repeal limitations on the construction of public housing and create grant programs to ensure improvements that not only address unsafe and aging housing, but reduce carbon emissions.
To qualify for the grants, recipients would have to adhere to strong labor standards, such as protection of collective bargaining rights and the use of American manufacturing and products. The legislation would also fund tenant protection vouchers for displaced residents and create apprenticeship programs for residents.