How Build Back Better would help the Lehigh Valley
Over the next few weeks, Congress has a historic opportunity to deliver on President Biden’s promise to strengthen the middle class and rebuild a fairer and stronger economy from the COVID-19 pandemic.
His $3.5 trillion Build Back Better plan would make transformative investments, creating jobs, fighting poverty and bringing other investments to communities across the Lehigh Valley.
The president’s plan includes the biggest investment ever in building a 21st century green economy. It would put millions of people to work upgrading our electric grid and installing new solar panels and wind turbines, helping us reduce carbon pollution and putting the United States on track to finally address the climate crisis.
We’re already seeing the jobs and economic development a clean energy economy can bring to the Lehigh
Valley. In Lower Macungie Township, Mack Trucks is beginning to manufacture all-electric garbage trucks that will lower emissions while bringing jobs to our communities.
At the same time, the plan would invest billions of dollars, putting people to work addressing other environmental hazards — from replacing lead water pipes in aging cities such as Bethlehem to remediating contaminated Superfund sites left over from our industrial past that have blighted neighborhoods and held back economic growth for decades.
Build Back Better makes other investments in leveling the playing field for working families.
It would strengthen the rights of workers to form unions, and engage in
collective bargaining to advocate for better wages and working conditions. It would ensure paid family and medical leave so working people don’t face poverty while caring for a loved one with a serious medical condition.
And it would ensure universal pre-K and free community college to prepare our children to compete in the global economy.
Build Back Better would also make the largest investment ever in cutting child poverty by extending the Biden Child Tax Credit, which, since the beginning of the year, has channeled more than half a billion dollars to support families with children. This money has given families critical resources to pay for school supplies and cover basic needs like food, rent and other bills.
All of these key priorities are now under threat, as powerful special interests gear up to shrink — or even sink — the Build Back Better agenda. They oppose rolling back portions of Donald Trump’s ruinous tax giveaways to the wealthiest Americans and large, multinational corporations to pay for these needed investments.
Democrats, who have only the narrowest majorities in Congress, must forge a near-unanimous consensus to get this once-in-a-generation piece of legislation onto President Biden’s desk — particularly because Republicans are united in their opposition to these critical investments.
Yet as negotiations heat up over what a final legislative package looks like, it’s essential to remember the real, positive impacts that the Build Back Better Act would have on the people of the Lehigh Valley.
President Biden ran on a promise to change the direction our country was heading in.
After generations of trickle-down economics and corporate tax cuts, he promised to make critical investments in building a strong middle class, addressing generations of systemic racism and creating a fair, level playing field that prioritized Main Street small businesses over Wall Street special interests.
This agenda isn’t only wildly popular — every aspect of the president’s plan is supported by large, bipartisan majorities of voters — it’s also necessary to build a stronger economy in the long run.
Now, Democrats in Congress need to deliver on these promises.
At a time when every vote matters, we’re encouraged that Rep. Susan
Wild, our local congresswoman, has publicly stated her support for the president’s agenda.
We’re calling on her to resist any effort by special interests to weaken the Build Back Better plan and to push for a swift vote to get these programs delivering for the people of the Lehigh Valley as quickly as possible.
The people of this region stand with Congresswoman Wild as she works on behalf of the president’s agenda.