In response to today’s passage of the Build Back Better Act by House Democrats this morning, Robert Kraig, Executive Director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin, released the following statement:
HouseSpeaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats, including Representatives Gwen Moore, Mark Pocan, and Ron Kind, deserve our thanks and recognition for the tremendous effort it took to create and pass President Biden’s historic Build Back Better Act.
Hard compromises had to be made, as always happens in major legislation, but the reforms that survived the process represent generational reform. For the first time in a half a century we have a President and a Congress seriously acting on the nation’s economic,
social, racial, and ecological challenges up to the necessary scale.
While Build Back Better will not solve all our nation’s problems, no bill in American history ever has, nor include every policy that Americans need in our challenging times. The bill is a huge step forward in addressing climate change, dramatically expanding economic
opportunity and racial equity, closing the BadgerCare expansion gap, lowering drug prices, requiring the super rich and big corporations to pay their fair share, making healthcare and education more affordable, cutting child poverty nearly in half, guaranteeing a universal preschool education, finally making child care affordable for every family, holding big corporations accountable for violating their workers right to form unions, and many other advances that we have waited decades to achieve.
These lifesaving policies in Build Back Better are widely popular, will improve millions of lives, reshape the economy, and finally enable many more people to have a fair shot at prosperity, security, and mobility.
This legislative success also again proves that the government can work for the people at a time when democracy is under threat. In the early 1930s many leading commentators predicted that the failure of the government to meaningfully address the economic misery of the Great Depression would lead to an authoritarian government capable of acting boldly. FDR’s success in enacting bold New Deal legislation likely saved American democracy. President Biden’s Build Back Better Act, when combined with the infrastructure bill
and the American Rescue Plan will, again prove that our form of government is up to the task of meeting the challenges of our time.
Now, the Senate must pass the Build Back Better Act so that President Biden can sign the bill into law and Democrats can deliver on their promises for millions of people in America. It will require a strong public voice in the next couple weeks to get Build Back
Better over the last hurdle in a long and difficult process.”