Liberal Democrats Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York formally revived their push for the Green New Deal, introducing separate bills for public housing, a civilian climate corps and funding for cities, reported Fox News.
“For so long, our movement toward a sustainable future has been divided with really just this false notion that we have to choose between our planet and our economy,” Ocasio-Cortez said at a press conference in Washington.
“And we decided to come together in sweeping legislation that not only rejects that notion but creates a plan for 20 million union jobs in the United States of America to rebuild our infrastructure, to restore public housing, to make sure that we expand our access not only to EV [electric vehicles] and EV infrastructure, but mass transit.”
The legislative push essentially coincides with the Biden administration’s proposed $2.3 trillion infrastructure package.
Ocasio-Cortez’s public housing legislation is co-sponsored by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and would reportedly triple the amount proposed by Biden’s American Jobs Plan, reports The New York Times.
Markey on Tuesday stated that that while the president’s package included the “DNA of the Green New Deal,” he would push Biden to expand the package.
“The Biden administration is including climate action, environmental justice and the care economy in its recovery plan,” he said, reported Fox News.
”For the past two years, it has been proven that the Green New Deal isn’t just a resolution — it is a revolution,” Markey said. ”Do we want to go beyond even what Joe Biden has proposed? The answer is ‘yes.’ We believe that this is the moment that requires us to act big, think big, have a program that matches the magnitude of the problem that we’re confronted with. And to do so with justice.”
”The Green New Deal is a socialist super-package which will only saddle hard-working taxpayers with debt and displace millions of Americans from their jobs,” said Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, in a statement. ”Democrats will stop at nothing to push their progressive pet projects on the American people.”
Ocasio-Cortez and Cori Bush, D-Mo., are co-sponsoring legislation that also would authorize $1 trillion for the Green New Deal for Cities Act.
Source: Newmax
