I am hoping our US Senator Ben Ray Lujan will join with Senator Heinrich and Congresswoman Leger Fernandez and Congresswoman-Elect Stansbury to co-sponsor a transformational economic recovery and infrastructure package that puts 15 million people to work in good, union, family sustaining jobs, cuts climate pollution in half by 2030, and advances racial, Indigenous, gender, environmental, and economic justice. It is called the THRIVE Act. The THRIVE Act invests in clean energy, energy efficiency, clean infrastructure, sustainable agriculture, and more, to bring pollution down fast as the climate crisis becomes increasingly severe and more communities feel its impacts. It will help New Mexico transition our economy away from the wildly destructive swings of the Oil and Gas industries.
The THRIVE Act ensures at least 50% of funds go to those most affected. Those on the frontlines of systemic racism, the climate crisis, and economic insecurity must also be on the frontlines determining what a new economy looks like. Also, projects funded by the act ensure strong wage and benefit guarantees and access to unions and equitable hiring, and the act advances labor standards included in the PRO Act and the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act. The THRIVE Act directs resources to public health infrastructure, childcare, public education, and more.