After Senate Republicans failed to provide a new counteroffer to President Biden’s American Jobs Plan (AJP), Evergreen Action Executive Director Jamal Raad released the following statement on the state of congressional negotiations:

“The GOP infrastructure plan isn’t just insufficient, it's dangerous. Senator Capito’s original proposal would increase the burden of pollution on communities across the country, stall our economic recovery, and drag us backwards in the urgent fight against the climate crisis. The Biden administration cannot meet its new international climate commitments or its environmental justice commitments without an ambitious infrastructure package that invests in climate, jobs, and justice—together. That’s why we need the American Jobs Plan.

“We can’t afford to squander our best opportunity to build a just and thriving clean energy economy. The American Jobs Plan was designed to tackle the interlocking crises of climate change, environmental racism, and the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic with bold investments to create millions of good jobs in the clean energy economy. Abandoning it for a counter-offer that addresses none of these challenges would be a disastrous mistake.”