NYEC Federal Policy Roundup (1/28/22)
It’s like a soap opera. As of yesterday, Politico reported that Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) is calling for Congress to pass the most popular portions of the $1.7 trillion Build Back Better (BBB) social spending package quickly, so that President Biden’s can tout their benefits during his State of the Union address on March 1st. Jayapal said Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) called her to say he supports the following portions of the House-passed legislation: $550 billion on climate change, universal pre-K, eldercare, child care, lowering prescription drug costs and housing provisions. She indicated a willingness to get parts of the package enacted sooner and then return to other components, such as the Child Tax Credit.
Reports from Congress and the White House indicate that the Civilian Climate Corps provisions are considered an intrinsic part of the climate portion of the bill. We have not heard anything specific about other workforce-development and jobs provisions since. Sen. Kaine (D-Va.) called them part of the “core” of the bill that could pass.
Other laudable items are competing for lawmakers’ attention, such as funding the government for the remainder of the current fiscal year (FY22), developing a budget for the next fiscal year (FY23), and voting-rights and elections-reform legislation.
Resources to use and share (please share your own as well):
- NEW Slides and recording from the OY Stakeholder Briefing this past Monday. If you attended, please complete our feedback form so we can better meet your needs. Register here for the next one. The Reconnecting Youth Campaign site will also shortly feature a blog summarizing the briefing.
- NEW America’s Young People Face a Grim Picture: A Civilian Conservation Corps Can Help. Lots of disturbing statistics in Martha Ross’s preview of her latest research: Please share (and tag Martha on LinkedIn or @BrookingsMetro on Twitter)! Some tidbits:
- People who faced even one kind of disadvantage in their teens face long odds of moving up: One third of them only earned $19,000 per year at age 30. Another 20% are only able to find work sporadically; at age 30, 54% of this group are in poverty.
- Consider what it is like to live on $19,000 per year. That translates into about $1,600 per month before taxes. That is not much to live on, much less invest in the future, save for a rainy day, or pay for unexpected expenses such as car repairs or medical bills.
- Share our West Virginia op-ed and tag @Sen_JoeManchin: investments in climate and clean energy and jobs that include subsidized employment can create a triple win for West Virginia’s economy, people, and environment
- Resources from House Education and Labor Committee: slides from their briefing plus estimates for how much each state would receive under different formula-funded items in BBB
- Subsidized Employment: A Strategy to Support Equity and Inclusion in SNAP E&T Programs
- Graphic explaining how different BBB provisions work together for young people – please use in your outreach
- Please share the beautiful graphic recording of CLASP’s webinar highlighting the voices of subsidized employment and transitional jobs participants. The twitter handles for the organizations that participated: @CLASP_DC @RecycleForce @ceoworks @TheNYCE @CoalfieldWV @forumfyi. Along with the graphic, please share:
- Subsidized employment website
- CWLA write-up of the webinar
- Recording:
- What are the costs of delay?
- Without more help, lower-income people will run out of savings/stop spending
- Gen Z is saying they are getting crushed
More content is below for NYEC Members: