As Congress debates efforts to boost economic recovery and build back better, U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) today joined labor, environmental, and faith leaders, and suburban elected officials at an event advocating for federal investments in Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). At the event, Rep. Phillips and advocates urged investments in future BRT lines to expand transit and economic opportunity.

The House Ways and Means Committee released the details of its budget reconciliation package late Friday and is expected to meet to finalize them later this week.

The BlueGreen Alliance appreciates the opportunity to submit these comments to inform the preparation by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (“BOEM”) of an Environmental Assessment (EA) under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for future commercial wind lease issuance on the Pacific Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) off the coast of Humboldt County, California.

The House Committee on Education and Labor today marked up a $779.5 billion budget reconciliation bill funding the U.S. Departments of Education and Labor and other programs essential to supporting the nation’s students and workforce. In response to today’s markup, the BlueGreen Alliance released the following statement from Executive Director Jason Walsh:

Resilience Before Disaster: The Need to Build Equitable, Community-Driven Social Infrastructure, jointly released by APEN, SEIU California, and BlueGreen Alliance, makes the case for California to make long-term and deep investments in the resilience of its most vulnerable communities.

The Biden administration has announced the nomination of Brad Crabtree to serve as Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy and Carbon Management within the U.S. Department of Energy. Crabtree currently serves as the Vice President, Carbon Management for the Great Plains Institute where he works to spearhead efforts around carbon capture and industrial innovation.In response to the announcement, BlueGreen Alliance released a statement from Executive Director, Jason Walsh.

Governor Jared Polis, Senator John Hickenlooper, and Representative Joe Neguse joined Colorado labor and climate leaders at Union Station today to urge U.S. Congress to fund Colorado rail projects, transit projects, and electric vehicle infrastructure in the budget reconciliation and bipartisan infrastructure bills.

Serious action to address climate change and strengthen our economy requires substantial investment in modernizing our industrial sector in ways that will deeply reduce its growing emissions while creating and protecting jobs in our domestic manufacturing base.

From the communities where they are made, to the communities where they are driven. Strong clean vehicle standards—accompanied by policies to rebuild manufacturing, protect and create good family supporting jobs, and revitalize communities—are critical to achieving these aims. 

The time to act is now. The bipartisan infrastructure bill—called the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA)—is the start, not the end, of what we need to build back better. Congress must act boldly and invest the full $3.5 trillion in the Senate Build Back Better budget resolution to build a clean, thriving, and equitable economy. 

A letter from the BlueGreen Alliance to President Biden and Congressional leaders calls for a recovery that addresses our nation’s persistent and unacceptably high levels of income inequality by creating millions of high-quality jobs in clean manufacturing, clean energy, restoration and resilience, the care economy, and upgrading our infrastructure and buildings.

The House of Representatives today passed a $3.5 billion budget framework, mirroring action by the Senate in recent weeks.