BURIEN — U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Seattle, touted new legislation Thursday in Burien to establish and fund a federal office in the White House that would promote climate resilience by creating and supporting green jobs in vulnerable communities nationwide.
The Climate Resilience Workforce Act, which is co-sponsored by dozens of House Democrats and supported by several local and national organizations and community groups, would invest in jobs in front-line communities suffering the worst impacts of climate change.
“We are already living through the devastating impacts of climate change and seeing our low-income communities and communities of color really bearing the biggest share of the burden,” Jayapal said during a news conference in Burien.
If passed, President Joe Biden would establish the Office of Climate Resilience within six months and appoint a director to serve a term of five years. The office would coordinate with front-line communities, scientists and labor organizations to spearhead efforts at the federal level to increase the country’s adaptability to increasing temperatures fueled by the burning of fossil fuels.
“My bill creates an equitable and skilled workforce with millions of good-paying union jobs centered in our most impacted communities necessary to prepare for and respond to the effects of climate crisis, and build a stronger, greener and more resilient society,” Jayapal said.
Jayapal said job development programs will include past and currently incarcerated people as well as undocumented immigrants, who she said will “play a critical role in supporting climate resilience.”
The price tag and political prospects of Jayapal’s plan remain unclear.
The congresswoman’s proposal was introduced to Congress in January, mere weeks after Biden’s Build Back Better Act — a $2.2 trillion package to reform the county’s climate change and social policy — was derailed by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Virginia, who withdrew his support at the last minute due to budget concerns, among other factors.
The Climate Resilience Workforce Act — or House Resolution 6492 — was referred to the House Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry in early February.
“We know that the climate crisis is disproportionally impacting low-income communities, communities of color, tribal and Indigenous communities — those who have contributed least to the problem,” said Evlyn Andrade, executive director of Earthcorps, a nonprofit based in Seattle, who spoke Thursday in Burien.
Like many parts of the country and the world, the residents of Burien have in recent years experienced an uptick in flooding and air pollution. In November, Burien became one of the state’s first to enact a Climate Action Plan to achieve carbon neutrality in the next three decades by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and strengthening its ability to respond to climate change.
Elsewhere in the state, warming temperatures fueled by greenhouse gas emissions have exacerbated sea level rise, wildfires, droughts and heat waves.
“There’s a dire need to center the communities most impacted by the crisis,” Andrade said. “And this bill does just that by supporting and creating millions of jobs that prioritize front-line community members.”
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Dang, what a delusional, radical, “Green New deal” fool this U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Seattle is.
““We are already living through the devastating impacts of climate change and seeing our low-income communities and communities of color really bearing the biggest share of the burden,” Jayapal said HUH?? The weather in Seattle is relatively mild.
“Jayapal said job development programs will include past and currently incarcerated people as well as undocumented immigrants, who she said will “play a critical role in supporting climate resilience.”… Humm… Now the federal Democrat Party ruled government wants to hire and provide protection and benefits to the currently incarcerated criminals as well as criminal undocumented immigrants??
This treasonous, dishonest, destructive, corrupt, immoral, socialist Democrat Party has become our country’s most destructive and deadliest ENEMY!
SO why not use her OWN DAMN MONEY.. Oh that’s right, these tyrants in charge, can only spend OUR MONEY..
Good grief! And of course, the only “front-line communities suffering the worst impacts of climate change” would be BLUE communities… in other words, the only thing “green” about this law would be HOW MUCH GREEN TAXPAYER DOLLARS it would waste!
AFTER taxing the hell out of RED states to pay for it of course.
these devil worshipers who think they can make a difference in climate control are nothing but fraud communist hiding under the green movement.
Well she has definitely gone around the bend on common sense, Running her BIG FAT MOUTH, to stay relevant, To which she will ultimate fail. And her failure will be a good thing.
Rep. Jayapal has had head in a place where the S** doesn’t Shine to often. The Earth Climate Change s every second of the DAY , MOUTH and YEAR ! And it has done so long before U were Ever thought of or Even Born. Oop’s I might what to change that to Before they found U under a ROCK or Under a Pile of DONKEY DUNE !
Sure, lots of good “union“ jobs so that the unions can skim off part of the employees pay and then donate that part of their pay to wacko leftists like Jayapal
It will be good when the adults are back in charge of the US house
She doesn’t give a damn about the environment, she just wants that union campaign money flowing in.
My bill creates an equitable and skilled workforce with millions of good-paying union jobs
And the unions will return the favor with Democratic campaign donations. As usual, follow the money.
Are these “equitable and skilled” workers going to shovel the pollution from Seattle’s sidewalks, as they dodge bullets?
THAT IS ALL this is.. Scratching the UNIONS BACKS that help elect her sorry butt.
The country doesn’t need another bloated breaucracy creating programs best left to the free market, customer demand and financial viability. Enough agencies are meddling in business with varying degrees of mediocrity, another is not needed. Green jobs will be created when they are viable and not a drain on the economy where the money could be put to better use.
WHAT devastating impact? WHAT climate crisis?