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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, Families and communities throughout the United
3States share similar hopes and dreams of a good life that is
4free from worry about meeting basic needs, with reliable and
5fulfilling work, a dignified and healthy standard of living,
6and the ability to enjoy time with loved ones; and
 
7    WHEREAS, The United States faces the stress of multiple,
8overlapping crises, old and new, that prevent the achievement
9of these fundamental human rights and needs, in which the
10COVID–19 pandemic has killed over 500,000 United States
11residents including over 20,000 Illinoisans; more than
1210,000,000 United States workers remain unemployed and nearly
137,000,000 more are not in the labor force but want a job;
14rising economic inequality has made working families
15vulnerable; tens of millions of individuals do not get the
16health care they need, and intensifying climate change
17increases the threats to our health, economy, and livelihoods;
18and
 
19    WHEREAS, These health, economic, and climate crises have
20magnified centuries-old injustices, causing high rates of
21death and hardship among Black, Brown, and Indigenous
22communities due to long-standing systemic racism, a fact
23spotlighted by an emerging, multiracial movement to end

 

 

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1violence against Black people; and
 
2    WHEREAS, These crises are causing the inequitable
3workloads of women, particularly women of color, to grow,
4especially as women of color overwhelmingly make up the
5essential workforce, bearing the weight of the increased care
6needs of children, the elderly, and the sick; and
 
7    WHEREAS, Even before the COVID–19 crisis, many rural
8communities and independent family farmers suffered from
9poverty, declining economic opportunity, and alarming rates of
10farm bankruptcy, including loss of land from Black farmers and
11the exploitation of Black, Brown, and Indigenous farmers
12caused by predatory and racist public, private, and
13governmental institutions and policies; and
 
14    WHEREAS, The root of our interlocking economic and
15environmental crises is society's historical willingness to
16treat some communities and workers as disposable; and
 
17    WHEREAS, It is necessary to counteract systemic injustice
18and value the dignity of all individuals in order to address
19unemployment, pandemics, or climate change and ensure the
20survival of the nation and the planet; and
 
21    WHEREAS, The choices made in response to these crises will

 

 

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1shape the United States direction for the 21st century and
2beyond, offering an opportunity to reshape our society to
3provide a good life for each of us and for our children and
4grandchildren; and
 
5    WHEREAS, The United States and the State of Illinois have
6the means to support fulfilling livelihoods for millions of
7people, Black, Indigenous, Brown, Latinx, Asian/Pacific
8Islander, White, immigrant, urban and rural, old and young, of
9many faiths, genders, abilities, and talents, while working to
10heal harms, protect communities, and invest in a future that
11fosters justice, not crisis; therefore, be it
 
12    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
13HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS,
14that:
15    (1) it is the duty of the Federal Government and the State
16government to respond to the crises of racial injustice, mass
17unemployment, a pandemic, and climate change with a bold and
18holistic national mobilization, an Agenda to Transform, Heal,
19and Renew by Investing in a Vibrant Economy (THRIVE) (referred
20to in this resolving clause as the Agenda), to build a society
21that enables:
22        (A) greater racial, economic, and gender justice;
23        (B) dignified work;
24        (C) healthy communities; and

 

 

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1        (D) a stable climate; and
2    (2) such Agenda shall be assessed upon its ability to
3uphold its foundational pillars, including:
4        (A) creating millions of good, safe jobs with access
5    to unions by:
6            (i) investing in projects including:
7                (I) upgrading our broken infrastructure to
8            expand access to clean and affordable energy,
9            transportation, high-speed broadband, and water,
10            particularly for public systems;
11                (II) modernizing and retrofitting millions of
12            homes, schools, offices, and industrial buildings
13            to cut pollution and costs;
14                (III) investing in public health and care
15            work, including by increasing jobs, protections,
16            wages, and benefits for the historically unpaid
17            and undervalued work of caring for children, the
18            elderly, and the sick;
19                (IV) protecting and restoring wetlands,
20            forests, and public lands, and cleaning up
21            pollution in our communities;
22                (V) creating opportunities for family farmers
23            and rural communities, including by untangling the
24            hyper-consolidated food supply chain, bolstering
25            regenerative agriculture, and investing in local
26            and regional food systems that support farmers,

 

 

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1            agricultural workers, healthy soil, and climate
2            resilience; and
3                (VI) developing and transforming the
4            industrial base of the United States, while
5            creating high-skill, high-wage manufacturing jobs
6            across the country, including by expanding
7            manufacturing of clean technologies, reducing
8            industrial pollution, and prioritizing clean,
9            domestic manufacturing for the aforementioned
10            investments;
11            (ii) prioritizing the mobilization of direct
12        public investments, while excluding false solutions
13        that:
14                (I) increase inequality;
15                (II) privatize public lands, water, or nature;
16                (III) violate human rights;
17                (IV) expedite the destruction of ecosystems;
18            or
19                (V) decrease union density or membership;
20            (iii) driving investment toward real full
21        employment, where every individual who wishes to work
22        has a viable pathway to a meaningful and dignified job
23        with the right to form a union, including by
24        establishing new public employment programs, as
25        necessary; and
26            (iv) subjecting each job created under this Agenda

 

 

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1        to high-road labor standards that:
2                (I) require family-sustaining wages and
3            benefits, including child care support;
4                (II) ensure safe workplaces;
5                (III) protect the rights of workers to
6            organize; and
7                (IV) prioritize the hiring of local workers to
8            ensure wages stay within communities to stimulate
9            economic activity;
10        (B) building the power of workers to fight inequality
11    by:
12            (i) reversing the corporate erosion of workers'
13        organizing rights and bargaining power so that
14        millions of new clean energy jobs, as well as millions
15        of existing low-wage jobs across the economy, become
16        the family-supporting union jobs that everyone
17        deserves, including by:
18                (I) Congress passing the bipartisan Protecting
19            the Right to Organize Act;
20                (II) repealing the ban on secondary boycotts;
21                (III) requiring employer neutrality with
22            regard to union organizing;
23                (IV) ensuring that "franchising" and other
24            corporate structures may not be used to hinder
25            collective bargaining on a company-wide, regional,
26            or national basis;

 

 

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1                (V) advancing sectoral bargaining in certain
2            economic sectors; and
3                (VI) ensuring that no workers are
4            misclassified as "independent contractors";
5            (ii) expanding union representation for all
6        workers; and
7            (iii) creating ladders of opportunity,
8        particularly for women and people of color, to access
9        registered apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship
10        programs in communities of all sizes across the
11        country;
12        (C) investing in Black, Brown, and Indigenous
13    communities to build power and counteract racial and
14    gender injustice by:
15            (i) directing at least 40 percent of investments
16        to communities that have been excluded, oppressed, and
17        harmed by racist and unjust practices, including:
18                (I) communities of color;
19                (II) low-income communities;
20                (III) deindustrialized communities; and
21                (IV) communities facing environmental
22            injustice;
23            (ii) ensuring that investments in these
24        communities enable:
25                (I) the creation of good jobs with
26            family-sustaining wages;

 

 

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1                (II) economic ownership opportunities that
2            close the racial wealth gap;
3                (III) pollution reduction;
4                (IV) climate resilience;
5                (V) small business support;
6                (VI) economic opportunities for independent
7            family farmers and ranchers; and
8                (VII) the expansion of public services;
9            (iii) ensuring that affected communities have the
10        power to democratically plan, implement, and
11        administer these projects;
12            (iv) prioritizing local and equitable hiring and
13        contracting that creates opportunities for:
14                (I) people of color;
15                (II) immigrants, regardless of immigration
16            status;
17                (III) formerly incarcerated individuals;
18                (IV) women;
19                (V) LGBTQIAP+ individuals;
20                (VI) disabled and chronically ill individuals;
21            and
22                (VII) marginalized communities; and
23            (v) providing access to quality workforce
24        training, including through registered apprenticeships
25        and pre-apprenticeships to ensure real pathways to
26        good careers, including those that have historically

 

 

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1        been inaccessible;
2        (D) strengthening and healing the nation-to-nation
3    relationship with sovereign Native Nations, including by:
4            (i) making systemic changes in Federal policies to
5        honor the environmental and social trust
6        responsibilities to Native Nations and their Peoples,
7        which are essential to tackling society's economic,
8        environmental, and health crises;
9            (ii) strengthening Tribal sovereignty and
10        enforcing Indian treaty rights by moving towards
11        greater recognition and support of the inherent
12        self-governance and sovereignty of these nations and
13        their members; and
14            (iii) promulgating specific initiatives that
15        reflect the nuanced relationships between the Native
16        Nations, including:
17                (I) the confirmation by Congress that Tribal
18            nations can exercise their full and inherent civil
19            regulatory and adjudicatory authority over their
20            own citizens, lands, and resources, and over
21            activities within their Tribal lands;
22                (II) the codification of Free, Prior, and
23            Informed Consent as it relates to Tribal
24            consultation; and
25                (III) the implementation of the United Nations
26            Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,

 

 

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1            without qualification;
2        (E) combating environmental injustice and ensuring
3    healthy lives for all, including by:
4            (i) curtailing air, water, and land pollution from
5        all sources;
6            (ii) removing health hazards from communities;
7            (iii) replacing lead pipes to ensure clean water
8        is available to all;
9            (iv) remediating the cumulative health and
10        environmental impacts of toxic pollution and climate
11        change;
12            (v) ensuring that affected communities have
13        equitable access to public health resources that have
14        been systemically denied, which includes:
15                (I) upgrading unhealthy and overcrowded homes,
16            public schools, and public hospitals;
17                (II) ensuring access to healthy food, mental
18            health support, and restorative justice; and
19                (III) investing in universal childcare, care
20            for individuals with disabilities, senior care,
21            and a robust care workforce; and
22            (vi) focusing these initiatives in Black, Brown,
23        and Indigenous communities that have endured
24        disproportionately high death rates from COVID-19 due
25        to higher exposure to air pollution and other
26        cumulative health hazards as a result of decades of

 

 

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1        environmental racism;
2        (F) averting climate and environmental catastrophe,
3    including by:
4            (i) contributing to a livable climate and
5        environment for today and for future generations,
6        including by:
7                (I) staying below 1.5 degrees Celsius of
8            global warming;
9                (II) building climate resilience to keep
10            communities safe; and
11                (III) ensuring sustainable resource use;
12            (ii) deploying investments and standards in the
13        electricity, transportation, buildings,
14        manufacturing, lands, and agricultural sectors to spur
15        the largest expansion in history of clean, renewable
16        energy, emissions reductions, climate resilience, and
17        sustainable resource use;
18            (iii) transforming the power sector in order to
19        move the country, by not later than 2035, to carbon
20        pollution-free electricity that passes an
21        environmental justice screen to prevent concentrating
22        pollution in Black, Brown, Indigenous, and poor
23        communities;
24            (iv) prioritizing materials and parts that meet
25        high labor, environmental, and human rights standards
26        throughout the supply chain;

 

 

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1            (v) supporting sustainable, domestic production of
2        healthy, nutritious food that pays independent farmers
3        and ranchers a fair price for their land stewardship;
4        and
5            (vi) ensuring that funding under this Agenda goes
6        to workers and communities affected by the economic
7        and environmental crises, not to corporate fossil fuel
8        polluters;
9        (G) ensuring fairness for workers and communities
10    affected by economic transitions by:
11            (i) guaranteeing that workers and communities in
12        industries and regions in economic transition due to
13        COVID-19, climate change, and other economic shocks
14        receive:
15                (I) stable wages and benefits, including full
16            pension and health care;
17                (II) early retirement offerings;
18                (III) crisis and trauma support; and
19                (IV) equitable job placement; and
20            (ii) investing in transitioning areas to support:
21                (I) economic diversification;
22                (II) high quality job creation;
23                (III) community reinvestment;
24                (IV) retooling and conversion;
25                (V) reclamation and remediation of closed and
26            abandoned facilities and sites;

 

 

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1                (VI) child and adult care infrastructure; and
2                (VII) funding to shore up budget shortfalls in
3            local and State governments; and
4        (H) reinvesting in public sector institutions that
5    enable workers and communities to thrive by:
6            (i) rebuilding vital public services and
7        strengthening social infrastructure in cities and
8        counties, health care systems, schools, the postal
9        service, and other services;
10            (ii) investing in equitable public education
11        opportunities, including career and technical
12        education pathways that prepare youth, especially
13        girls; Black, Brown, and Indigenous students; students
14        with disabilities; students from low-income families;
15        and other students from marginalized groups, for
16        high-quality jobs of the future, and state of the art
17        technology and schools, so that from the beginning
18        students are prepared to transform society and
19        preserve democracy;
20            (iii) investing in the workers who provide care to
21        children, the elderly, and communities burdened by
22        neglect;
23            (iv) creating new public institutions, inspired by
24        and improving upon New Deal-era institutions, to
25        ensure universal access to critical resources and to
26        strategically and coherently mobilize and channel

 

 

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1        investments, in line with the above priorities, at the
2        scale and pace that these times require; and
3            (v) coupling this institutional renewal with
4        democratic governance and accountability to correct
5        the systemic misallocation of resources and
6        representation that prevents families and communities
7        from meeting fundamental human needs and pursuing
8        fulfilling lives.