AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler issued the following statement on the negotiations over budget reconciliation legislation in the House of Representatives this week:
“House Republicans’ bill is a budget for the billionaires, plain and simple. While this leadership has tried to claim they’re the party of workers, they are pushing forward a bill that will cause historic levels of harm to working families. It will throw millions of children, seniors and families off their health care, gut funding for nursing homes and rural hospitals with devastating effects for care jobs, cut investments in jobs of the future and push food assistance out of reach—all to give the rich and big corporations another tax cut. Provisions buried in this bill will take yet another swing at federal workers: cutting their retirement benefits, imposing a monetary penalty if they choose to retain any rights and then charging them a fee when they try to enforce those rights. The bill also overrides state artificial intelligence rules that protect workers’ jobs, privacy, and civil rights, and grinds health and safety rulemaking to a halt. Any member of Congress who votes for this bill is voting to betray the working people of this country—and we won’t forget it.”
Contact: Mia Jacobs, 202-637-5018