In a letter to President Biden today covered exclusively in HuffPost, the 87-member ProsperUS coalition representing movement groups, labor organizations, think tanks, experts, and advocates across the country urged the White House to reject any spending bills that cut funding for critical programs, including Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Head Start, housing assistance, and more.
The push comes ahead of another possible government shutdown, fueled in part by an extreme minority in the House continuing to push for cuts to critical domestic programs. House Republicans have signaled they are willing to make even more draconian cuts in a potential stopgap bill, which would have devastating, long-term consequences for workers, families and our economy. These cuts are also wildly out of step with the American public. Recent polling shows that voters overwhelmingly oppose proposed cuts to social security, nutrition assistance, education, clean drinking water, and more.
Key excerpts from the letter and quotes from coalition members are below. You can read the full contents of the letter submitted to President Biden here.
To speak to a member of the coalition, contact press@prosperus.org.
Excerpts from letter
“Our coalition, which represents communities across the country fighting for a just and inclusive economy, expects you to reject any funding vehicle that cuts a penny more from the critical programs that enable our economy to thrive.
For decades, Congress has failed to adequately fund non-defense discretionary (NDD) programs, such as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Head Start, housing assistance, and the administration of Social Security, as well as K-12 and higher education, scientific research, and infrastructure. This chronic underfunding undermines the impact of these life-saving, economy-building programs.
Polls consistently show that Americans oppose cuts to essential programs and support reinvesting our tax dollars back into our communities, whether it’s for teacher’s salaries, clean drinking water, or ensuring that every child has enough healthy food to succeed. These public investments make our economy more stable, families more secure, and our nation safer.
The Fiscal Responsibility Act will already force painful cuts to many of the programs that Americans rely on for their economic stability.
With another threat of a government shutdown looming, we urge you and members of Congress to brush aside the threats of a small group of extremists and prioritize delivering appropriations bills that invest in workers, families, and communities, and keep this strong, inclusive economy humming.”
Quotes from ProsperUS coalition members
- “Cutting critical programs and failing to invest more in our communities undermines our economic progress,” said Bilal Baydoun, Director of Policy and Research at Groundwork Collaborative. “The president must reject any proposal that cuts the public investments that pushed unemployment to record lows and restarted our economic engine. There is no room to negotiate when it comes to our communities.”
- “It’s way past time for our policymakers to give programs that help feed, educate and care for American families the value they deserve,” said Jhumpa Bhattacharya, Co-President and Co-Founder of the Maven Collaborative. “If we can find money to fund war and destruction internationally, we should be able to also fund programs that save lives domestically. All Americans deserve to have a roof over their heads, food on the table and their children educated and cared for. We should never let extremist, racist ideology take that away from us.”
- “Moms and families have a lot at stake in the funding vehicle Congress is about to pass. It’s essential to avert a painful and unnecessary government shutdown, and we need to ensure that we can continue to feed our kids, that the child care programs we rely on will be able to keep their doors open, and that the domestic programs we rely on can continue to support the nation’s families,” said Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, Executive Director and CEO of MomsRising. “Moms are counting on our leaders to reject efforts by an extreme minority in the U.S. House of Representatives to cut critical programs.”
- "I work with impacted mothers across the country whose families' lives were positively transformed by the investments from the American Rescue Plan," said Karen Dolan, Director of the Criminalization of Poverty Project at the Institute for Policy Studies. "Heartbreakingly, they and their children have been immensely harmed by the end of these critical investments. We are failing our children. Nothing short of a restoration and expansion of investments in the lives of our nation's children is acceptable, as poverty and hardship are on the rise."
This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.