The THRIVE Act

With the climate crisis continuing to worsen, the economy continuing to falter, and the need for racial justice and healing being felt as acutely as ever, the case for Green New Deal-style policymaking is stronger than ever before. The House has begun to work on a recovery package, and we must demand they address the many and systemic crises that millions of Americans face.

The THRIVE Act demands that the recovery fight be grounded in climate, jobs, and justice. THRIVE accomplishes these priorities by making THRIVE sized investments in the economy, going big on the scope of recovery, and including strong cross cutting climate, equity, and labor standards.

Size, Scope, Speed

The policies in THRIVE are very exciting but equally important is the strategy behind this bill. The strategy of THRIVE revolves around pushing the size, scope, and speed of recovery.

First, the size of the investment matters because as this moves through the reconciliation process, the Budget Committee will put out a budget resolution. A budget resolution puts a limit on the overall size of the package Congress can create. It’s really important that the budget resolution allows for the massive investments we need. The resolution will also include instructions to committees about what programs to include. We want the scope of recovery to be broad enough to cover the policy priorities in THRIVE. Finally, speed is critical, since Congress can’t begin work on a reconciliation bill until the budget resolution is out, so MOCs will need to work quickly to put together a recovery package. There is no natural deadline tied to recovery like we had with unemployment insurance expiring in the relief fight, so we need to keep the pressure on to make sure this gets done. THRIVE goes big on size by investing $1 trillion per year for the next 10 years, which economists tell us that this investment would produce more than 15 million good jobs--what we need to end the unemployment crisis!

The scope of THRIVE is ambitious, with the bill touching on many sectors of the economy, including transportation, energy, water, broadband, public lands, care economy, manufacturing, and many more! If we are to address the climate crisis, create good jobs for everyone, and make historic investments in frontline communities to counteract decades of racist policies we must be broad in scope.

The introduction of THRIVE allows for a strong negotiating stance before the budget resolution is finalized, so we need to be pushing MOCs to support THRIVE now if we are going to inject THRIVE into the recovery.

Climate

THRIVE works to create a recovery focused on addressing the climate crisis. THRIVE includes strong climate standards that ensure investments and jobs created repair, rather than add to, historic harms, and contribute to meeting ambitious climate targets to keep us below 1.5 degrees of global warming.

The jobs in THRIVE work to decarbonize our economy. THRIVE jobs help achieve a 100% clean energy standard by 2035 that prioritizes renewable energy deployment, the protection, and restoration of our ecosystems, retrofitting businesses and homes, updating our water infrastructure, investing in electric vehicles and public transportation, expanding broadband, and investing in regenerative agriculture. For a more in depth look at the sector by sector investments THRIVE makes check out this report.

Jobs

Any recovery bill is going to be a jobs bill, investing lots of money to create new jobs. THRIVE works to create 15 million family sustaining jobs over the next 10 years- enough to end the unemployment crisis! You can read more about the jobs created by these investments here.

Not only does THRIVE create jobs, but it also creates good jobs. THRIVE includes strong wage and benefit guarantees, access to unions, and ushers in some of the strongest pro-labor protections since the 1930s! This bill also centers workers and communities impacted by economic transition by including 5 years of wage and benefit replacement, housing assistance, fully funded pensions, crisis and trauma and early retirement support, skills training, education, and equitable job placement. This includes workers experiencing a transition due to COVID-19, climate change, and other economic shocks and shifts.

Not only are these jobs good for workers, but they are also good for the environment. These jobs will help us decarbonize our economy by updating our clean water infrastructure, investing in sustainable agriculture, transportation, upgrading our energy infrastructure, and building clean and safe buildings.

Justice

THRIVE works to prioritize investments, jobs, and benefits in frontline communities. To that end, THRIVE calls for 50% of funds to be invested in or directly benefit frontline communities that have experienced systemic racism, environmental injustice, and economic exclusion, including Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Arab, Asian, and Pacific Islander communities.

Importantly, THRIVE creates a board of representatives from impacted communities, unions, and Indigenous Nations to guide the $1 trillion per year in new investments to frontline communities. THRIVE has important standards that any project must adhere to, and puts the decision about investments and jobs in the hands of members from communities who are on the front lines of fighting systemic racism, historic pollution, the climate crisis, and economic insecurity.

In addition to directing 50% of investments to frontline communities, THRIVE works to address historic harms and create new relationships to ensure the recovery works for every community.

One of the ways THRIVE does this is by strengthening and healing the nation-to-nation relationship with sovereign American Indian and Alaska Native tribes. Any Recovery must expand investments specifically set aside for Tribes and indigenous communities; strengthen Tribal sovereignty, uphold American Indian and Native tribal treaty rights; and codify Free, Prior, and Informed Consent so that Indigenous peoples can determine the outcome of all decision-making that affects them.

If we are to create a lasting recovery, it is critical as we work to invest in communities that have borne the brunt of an extractive economy for decades, have consistently been left out of recovery opportunities, and have faced deadly consequences in the wake of COVID.

What You Can Do

Call Your Member Of Congress

Call your Members of Congress and tell them to support our recovery priorities and cosponsor the THRIVE Act. You can call your Representatives here and your Senators here.

Check Out These Other Resources To Learn More About Recovery

Build Back Better, Explained

Recovery Priorities

Legislative Process 101—budget Reconciliation