Congresswoman Jacobs on Build Back Better: We Must Have a Recovery for Women, Children, Workers, and Families
Jacobs joined Poor People’s Campaign at press conference calling for advancing entirety of the Build Back Better Agenda
Washington, D.C. - Congresswoman Sara Jacobs (D-CA-53) spoke this morning on the importance of advancing the entirety of President Biden’s Build Back Better Agenda at a press conference organized by the Poor People’s Campaign.
Throughout negotiations on the Build Back Better Act, Congresswoman Jacobs has been a strong advocate for the expanded Child Tax Credit, child care and early education, and support for care workers in the bill.
Congresswoman Jacobs was joined by Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA-13), Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD-08), Reverend William J. Barber II, and others.
For video of Congresswoman Jacobs’ remarks, click here. For video of the full press conference, click here.
Congresswoman Jacobs’ Remarks as Delivered :
I first want to thank all of the religious leaders who are here, who have felt called to this moment. I am Jewish and I know in my faith tradition that we are called to moments, we are called to repair the world, and I am grateful for everything you are doing to continue to push us to be our better selves.
But I also want to talk to all of the advocates and the activists who are here, and I want to say I’m sorry. Because you should not have to bear your pain over and over and over again, for us to listen. You should not have to sit here and tell us what you are going through, for us to know that it's our job to fix it. So thank you for what you are doing, but I am sorry. And I hope that soon you will get to take a rest.
I’m excited to be here with you all, because at the heart of the Build Back Better Agenda is the recognition that we can’t go back to the way things were.
We can’t go back to normal, because normal was not working for so many Americans -- including in my home district in San Diego, where normal meant 40 percent of kids living in families experiencing poverty.
And normal was 60 percent of families in San Diego who couldn’t find child care that met their needs.
And normal was the very people who kept our economy going, getting paid poverty wages.
And normal was too many people so worried about their next paycheck, that they couldn’t even imagine a better future.
That’s why we are fighting so hard to make sure that when we advance the Build Back Better Agenda, we advance the whole agenda.
We have to make sure that this isn’t just a recovery for white men. We have to make sure that it’s a recovery for women and children and workers and families. Where we’re investing in hard infrastructure, but we’re also investing in the Child Tax Credit, and the care economy and our care workers, and center equity into all of our policies.
Because all of us here, we know that we can’t go back, and we can’t settle for the way things have always been done.
And lest anyone tells you otherwise, because I know this is one of my colleagues’ favorite talking points: making these investments is fiscally responsible.
I’m a foreign policy person -- I can tell you, these investments, for a fact, are the single most important things we can do to ensure American global competitiveness with the world moving forward.
So do not believe that we can’t afford to make these investments. The truth is, we can’t afford to not make these investments.
So thank you all again for being here today.
I am so honored to be doing this work alongside you. And I really do believe that working together, we are going to build the country that future generations deserve.
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