On Monday, February 8, nearly three dozen organizations from across Pennsylvania sent a letter to the state’s congressional delegation, urging swift action to pass President Biden’s American Rescue Plan. Coordinated by Protect Our Care Pennsylvania and PBPC’s federal advocacy campaign, The 99% Pennsylvania, the letter comes as the coronavirus continues to spread in every county and across the United States, with new variants threatening to prolong the pandemic.
The president’s $1.9 trillion package will deliver much-needed assistance to Pennsylvanians who have been devastated by the COVID economic crisis, expedite vaccinations with a coordinated and expedited distribution plan, and provide long-overdue fiscal aid to our state and local governments.
Citing a “national economic disaster of historic proportions,” the letter notes that “[t]he unfettered spread of the virus puts millions of Americans, including more than 415,000 Pennsylvanians, out of work. Economic recovery has sputtered amid worsening caseloads and has deepened stark racial disparities, with communities of color suffering the worst of the ongoing emergency.”
The correspondence concludes by noting the scale of the crisis, calling on Senators Bob Casey and Pat Toomey and Pennsylvania’s 18 representatives in the U.S. House to support the robust and comprehensive COVID relief plan proposed by the Biden administration: “A crisis of this magnitude requires a robust, comprehensive response that will both alleviate the short-term suffering of people across the United States and work towards long-term investments in America’s health and economy. Please stand with Pennsylvania’s families, frontline health care workers, and communities, and pass the American Rescue Plan without delay.”
You can read the entire letter here. And please lend your support to the effort by sending a message to your member of Congress and Senators Casey and Toomey!
Signatories to the letter include:
- The 99% Pennsylvania campaign
- AccessMatters
- Allies for Children
- Americans for Democratic Action, Southeastern PA Chapter
- Asian Americans United
- Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute
- Bucks County Women’s Advocacy Coalition
- Capital Region Stands Up – Cumberland County
- Caring For You Home Care
- Casa San Jose
- CLEAR for PA
- Coalition for Low-Income Pennsylvanians
- Commonwealth Communications
- Community Advocates of Montgomery County
- Crawford County United
- First Up: Champions for Early Education
- Hershey Indivisible Team
- Hunger-Free PA – PA Food Banks
- Indivisible–Upper Darby
- Just Harvest
- Keystone Progress Education Fund
- National Council of Jewish Women – PA
- Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center
- Pennsylvania Council of Churches
- Pennsylvania Health Access Network (PHAN)
- Pennsylvania United
- Philly Neighborhood Networks
- Pittsburgh Food Policy Council
- Pittsburgh United
- Pittsburgh-Mon Valley Black Women Roundtable
- Protect Our Care Pennsylvania
- The Restaurant Opportunities Center of Pennsylvania (ROC PA)
- Returning Citizens Voter Movement LLC
- Social Justice Indivisible
- Women’s Law Project