Written testimony of Demos President K. Sabeel Rahman before the US House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law
The policy platform outlines actions that address environmental justice, just recovery from disasters, equity accounting in climate policy, and energy democracy.
The CARES Act passed fails to meet a simple moral test - that we protect the most vulnerable among us because it largely excludes immigrant and mixed-status families, including their U.S. citizen children, from stimulus payments.
The Disparate Impact standard is critical to continued and enhanced opportunity to access fair credit, housing, and homeownership. Demos strongly opposes efforts to undermine this longstanding enforcement tool.
While Demos celebrates the legislation’s strong mandate on emissions reductions, the governor’s exclusion of community investment mandates and labor standards prolongs the fight for climate justice in New York and nationwide.
Demos strongly supports the Climate and Community Protection Act (CCPA) that will protect and strengthen climate-impacted Latinx communities by reducing climate pollution and targeting clean energy investment based on principles of equity and racial justice.
The marquee bill, which features improvements to voting, campaign finance, and ethics laws, addresses the deep political, racial, and economic inequalities that plague our democracy.
On Friday, February 15, Lew Daly, Senior Policy Analyst at Demos, testified in support of New York State’s Climate and Community Protection Act. Following is Daly’s statement on the bill:
New York State’s Climate and Community Protection Act (CCPA) is a bold and necessary climate action policy for the people of New York. It will establish the strongest mandate for economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions reductions in the country, requiring a 50 percent reduction by 2030 and set a timeline for achieving a 100 percent renewable energy economy by 2050.
Climate change poses an existential challenge to the planet. But the effects of climate change have fallen disproportionately on communities of color and working families. And the reality is that climate change has been accelerated by a coalition of corporations, donors, and policymakers who have adopted a willful blindness toward these dangers to our communities and our planet.
Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on a package of rules that include a “pay-as-you-go” or “PAYGO” provision, which mandates that new spending be offset by matching cuts or increases in revenue. Demos supports efforts to eliminate PAYGO requirements in federal law.
Demos strongly urges the Department of Homeland Security to withdraw the proposed rule to radically enlarge the list of criteria that will be used to decide whether an immigrant is likely to become a “public charge.”