Senate Can and Must Pass Bold Climate and Social Investments Without Delay

WASHINGTON, DC -- As the Senate returns from recess, the Sierra Club is making it clear this is a make-or-break moment for taking on the climate, economic, and health threats that working families and communities of color face. The organization is calling for Congress to swiftly pass a bold suite of investments, building on the broad array of historic climate and social investments in the Build Back Better Act that already have agreed-upon support from Senate Democrats. 

Previously, the Sierra Club has detailed the high costs of inaction, including:

• increasing economic devastation, illness, and death from climate-fueled disasters such as hurricanes, floods, heat waves, wildfires, and droughts;

• families struggling to pay for childcare, eldercare, electricity, preschool, housing, and prescription drugs;

• unabated air and water pollution that causes asthma, cancer, lead poisoning, and other critical health threats; and

• disproportionately negative health, economic, and environmental impacts in low-income communities and communities of color, fueling racial and economic injustice.

Sierra Club Living Economy Program Director Ben Beachy Released the Following Statement:

“The Sierra Club urges President Biden and Senate Democrats to swiftly deliver on legislation that includes a broad suite of bold climate and social investments before the State of the Union address. The final deal must build upon the bill’s nearly $600 billion in climate and environmental justice investments and deliver broadly backed measures to lower costs and strengthen the social safety net to meet President Biden’s commitments to support working families, counter racial and economic injustice, and cut U.S. climate pollution in half by 2030. 

“The wide support for these bold investments offers a realistic path forward. Families and communities across the country need the Senate to swiftly take that path to address rising costs, reduce threats to our health, and create a livable future powered by the burgeoning clean energy economy. 

“Simply put, there is no excuse for further delay. Each day that passes without these investments is a day of needless stress and suffering for millions of people struggling with overstretched budgets, unabated air and water pollution, unaffordable healthcare, and an onslaught of climate-fueled storms, wildfires, and droughts. The Senate has a generational responsibility to heed the call from communities that have long endured illness, insecurity, and injustice –— a call to urgently invest in clean air, good jobs, and a livable climate. 

“Given the enormity of the stakes for our communities, failure is not an option. Let's get this deal done.”

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