Originally published in Teen Vogue on January 5, 2021
For months, we watched the proposed federal COVID-19 relief bill get smaller and smaller as politicians complained about costs. At the same time, an overwhelming majority of lawmakers recently passed the largest military budget in U.S. history. Our communities are hurting, our anger is righteous, and the hypocrisy of Congress is loud AF.
For too long, corporate lobbyists and the politicians who do their bidding have rigged the rules against the rest of us, making it harder to pass the bills we need. That’s starting to change.
So many voters believe that “Medicare for all,” a Green New Deal, and pathway to citizenship for all immigrants are vital, now more than ever. But corporate-backed legislators on both sides of the aisle have spent decades rigging the rules against women, workers, and Black, brown, and Indigenous people, preventing the majority of us from accessing the halls of power. Our movement in the streets over the past few years has upped the pressure — Congress has heard our call to unrig the rules so we can bring the power of the people to the People’s House.
COVID-19 didn’t create a deeply unequal, unjust economy, but it definitely made our existing problems much worse. The new Congress and administration are going to need to pass visionary and transformative policies that meet the scale of the crises our communities are facing.
One barrier in the way of these bold policies is called “pay as you go” (PAYGO). This rule stops any bill that raises direct spending or cuts federal revenue from being adopted unless that funding change is offset somewhere else. But the federal government’s finances don’t work the same way that our personal and family budgets do. Sometimes the government needs to pay more upfront for things like infrastructure or COVID-19 relief. Those investments ultimately pay off if those programs can save lives during a pandemic, stave off disasters during the climate crisis, or boost economic activity during a recession.
So even though a Green New Deal and immigration relief would save billions of dollars in the long run and improve countless lives, the PAYGO rule gives politicians a convenient excuse to prevent those critical and popular policies from even getting a vote. But this rule also only applies to some bills some of the time. When sky-high Pentagon spending and corporate tax cuts are on the floor, congressional leaders simply work around the rule. Then, when we talk about funding the things our people need, corporate-backed politicians cry wolf. Congressional rules should be designed to allow us to best solve the crises we’re facing — and when they’re not, they gotta go!
You think that’s it? Nah. So many rules were designed to advance elite interests and power while leaving us all behind. Another rigged rule is called the “motion to recommit” (MTR). Some politicians and greedy lobbyists have used and abused this obscure congressional floor procedure to put lawmakers in “gotcha” situations that threaten to derail bills like raising the minimum wage or the Dream and Promise Act, which would open a path to citizenship for Dreamers. Put simply, MTR allows the minority party to force votes on changes to a piece of legislation right before a final vote on the bill. Republican members of Congress have used MTRs to politicize antisemitism and fuel xenophobia for their benefit, driving division and fear in our communities. Repeatedly, MTRs have targeted immigrants and legislation that would otherwise build up our communities. It’s past time to overhaul or eliminate this destructive procedural maneuver.
Congress writes its own internal rules, and it often writes those rules to protect the status quo, which we know is killing us. The time for platitudes is over: If members are ready to show us that they are serious about passing policies to stop the climate crisis, create millions of good union jobs, ensure “Medicare for All”, and enact sweeping immigration reform to keep families together and strengthen this country, it will act swiftly to remove blocks like PAYGO and the MTR.
The House of Representatives took two important steps in the right direction on Monday. Lawmakers passed a rules package that would effectively exempt legislation addressing the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change from the PAYGO rule. And the House's new rules also reform the MTR so it can no longer be used by the minority party to force cynical partisan votes.
As our movements continue creating the conditions for these policies to become law, we are in turn bringing these undemocratic and unjust mechanisms to light and forcing change. Progressives fought for the proposed changes to both of these rules, proving the power of our movements when we take the fight to Congress. To win the suite of bold policies our communities need, we have to keep pushing for structural changes so the rules work for working people, not the wealthy elite.
Sunrise Movement Education Fund works to make climate change an urgent policy priority across America and expose the corrupting influence of fossil fuel executives on our politics.
United We Dream is the largest immigrant youth-led organization in the nation, a powerful network made up of over 800,000 members across 26 states.
Congressional Progressive Caucus Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that identifies and develops solutions to build a more just, equitable, and resilient nation.