Build Back Better Act: Why is Rep. Case obstructing this historic legislation?
By Marti Townsend, with Anna Chua & National Staff| Reading Time: 3 minutes
We’re facing a make-or-break moment to pass a historic piece of climate legislation.
Image courtesy of National Staff
Over 15 million people are out of work in the U.S. Even with tourist numbers snapping back, Hawaiʻi’s unemployment rate is stuck at 7%. This economic crisis has reinforced long-standing injustices, as women, Indigenous workers, and low-income households endure particularly severe job losses in the context of unreliable child and elder care, and stubbornly low wages. Toxic pollution and escalating climate disasters only magnify the inequity by exacerbating threats to public health and economic security. People do not have the “extra money” they used to board up for a hurricane. Our local caretakers are maxed out, our infrastructure is long-neglected. We need real investment right away.
The Build Back Better Act would invest $13.2 billion federal dollars in the Hawaiian Islands over the next decade to rebuild our local economy, support our local caregivers, and strengthen our local resiliency. This bill would do more for government spending in Hawaiʻi than a year of taxes collected on tourism. This bill would create more jobs in Hawaiʻi than any program since the Great Depression. This bill would do a lot to improve care for our kids and grandparents and prepare our island home for the extreme weather events triggered by climate change. This Build Back Better bill is the next best chance our planet has to maintain a habitable environment.
That is why it is so disappointing to see our representative to Congress, Ed Case, a self-proclaimed climate hawk, not supporting President Biden’s plan for the BBB Act.
Rep. Case seems to be using Republican-style rhetoric to distract us from his opposition to the budget reconciliation bill that could save Hawaiʻi and the world from the worst of the climate crisis.
Rep. Case is attempting to justify his opposition to the Build Back Better bill by saying he supports a different, far smaller, but still needed infrastructure spending bill. This excuse distracts us from the real issue at-hand: is Rep. Case willing to take real action to help Hawaiʻi prepare and mitigate the worst of parts of climate change? Is Rep. Case willing to fairly tax the very ultra-rich and very large corporations who have long side-stepped their fair share of the tax burden and really benefited the most from delayed action on climate? Is Rep. Case willing to stand with us to invest in a more stable future for our islands? Or is Rep. Case going to abandon us when we need him most?
We cannot afford to return to the “normal” we had before where unhealthy, unstable, unfair systems dominated our lives. To "build back better," we need an economic renewal plan that is as big and interconnected as the crises we face. This robust bill would start us down the path of tackling climate and socio-economic instability and helping the working peoples of Hawaiʻi to thrive.
This is our opportunity to set a new normal that invests in what makes us stronger and more resilient -- solid care economies, clean renewable energy, and sustaining employment.
Sadly, it is an open question what Rep. Case will do at this point. It will likely be several weeks of back-and-forth as conservatives, like Rep. Case, try to nickel and dime us on the essential investments in our collective well-being.