"I applaud the legislators who voted to pass the American Rescue Plan today, and look forward to President Biden quickly signing this bill that will provide urgent relief to a nation grieving and grievously wounded by the pandemic. While it is disappointing that some key provisions were removed, this remains one of the most consequential progressive pieces of legislation in recent history, and the fight for other progressive goals remains ahead of us.
"In addition to allocating critical funding for testing and vaccinations, expanding unemployment benefits and issuing direct payments to Americans, funding schools and small businesses, giving tenants support, drastically reducing poverty, and many more progressive federal initiatives, this legislation will allocate about $100 billion in state and local aid to New York at a time when it is desperately needed. I want to thank our Congressional representatives who helped secure this funding. Disturbingly and unsurprisingly, every Republican voted against this bill, but it is especially frustrating that even some intraparty negotiations weakened the benefits that some New Yorkers could have received.
"I want to be clear that the passage of the American Rescue Plan represents the beginning of New York's recovery efforts, not the end. To facilitate and sustain growth rooted in equity, state and local governments need to enact revenue raising measures on the wealthiest New Yorkers and drive a just economy. For a just recovery, we need our city and state budgets to reflect the scope of the crisis faced by New Yorkers and the scale of the solutions needed in a Renewed Deal. The federal investments in the bill passed today recall Roosevelt's New Deal, and it is those principles of investment, not austerity, that we must model in New York."
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