U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Queens, Bronx) reaffirmed her commitment to her controversial hallmark climate change platform by reintroducing the Green New Deal resolution to Congress on Tuesday.
Ocasio-Cortez, alongside U.S. Rep. Ed Marky (D-MA), announced the reintroduction of the resolution, which promotes a 10-year national mobilization plan to fight climate change inspired by President Franklin Delano Roosevelts’ New Deal, during a press conference on the National Mall.
Those who support it say that if the goals of the resolution were implemented, the plan would create millions of union jobs to repair infrastructure, reduce air and water pollution, and fight the country’s economic, social, racial and climate crises.
“The Green New Deal has three core components: jobs, justice and climate,” said Ocasio-Cortez in a statement.
The resolution sparked controversy when it was first introduced in 2019. Critics on the right and the left attacked the plan. President Barack Obama’s former science advisor John P. Holdren said the ten year timeline was too ambitious while U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA), who went viral after a confrontation with school children the plan and who voted “present” on the resolution rather than a decisive “yes” or “no,” said it was too broad with its attempt to solve other issues like education, jobs and healthcare. Others said it was too expensive, or not politically viable, it’s predecessor from 2009 since fresh in their minds. Meanwhile others went a step further to say it was an attempt to increase the power of the central government and would lead to a hamburger ban.
The original resolution did not pass but since then lawmakers in Washington D.C. have introduced more than a dozen pieces of legislation in the spirit of the resolution including the recently introduced Green New Deal for Cities, Counties, States, Tribes, and Territories which would provide funding for local governments to respond to the climate crisis.
Thirteen new co-sponsors joined onto the Green New Deal this year, including two newly elected congressmen from New York City –– U.S. Reps. Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx) and Jamaal Bowman (D-Bronx, Westchester County).
“A Green New Deal is about rewriting the social contract and taking the revolutionary steps we need toward the bright future that all of our kids deserve,” said Bowman.
U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Queens, Long Island) backed the Green New Deal the first time around and said he is supporting it again. Climate change has been an issue since the nineties when he first ran for mayor of his hometown, he said.
“Today, it’s even worse with once-in-a-hundred-year storms every year, rising tides, and yearly forest fires,” Suozzi said. “Being bold and ambitious is the only way we will address this crisis. America needs a Green New Deal.”
