Climate, Justice Groups Demand Schumer Act Against Filibuster
Washington, D.C. — Over 70 groups sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Schumer this morning, urging him to protect communities and the climate by abolishing the filibuster. The letter argues that the transformational change needed to deliver climate justice is incompatible with the principle of minority rule embodied in the filibuster.
“Although we are optimistic about opportunities to pass some limited climate legislation using budget reconciliation, the needs of this crisis go beyond the narrow scope of tax and spending,” the letter reads. “The deeper reforms needed to phase-out fossil fuel production and protect the most vulnerable communities from pollution and extraction all require systemic changes that reconciliation cannot deliver.”
Organizations who sent the letter issued the following statements in response:
“The filibuster is a white supremacist tool used to ensure the continuance of the status quo. We can have the filibuster or we can have climate and racial justice. We cannot have both,” said Lukas Ross, Program Manager at Friends of the Earth. “The transformational change we need is incompatible with minority rule.”
“The filibuster is a vestige of white supremacy and minority rule that we must end immediately. We cannot continue to hold back full representative democracy any longer. It is time to repeal the filibuster and have a federal government that is finally representative of the will of the people,” said Natalie Mebane, U.S. Policy Director 350.org.
“There’s no time for anachronistic parliamentary obstruction tactics that are antithetical to the entire notion of democratic processes that reflect the will of the majority of the people. The filibuster, a relic and mechanism of white supremacy utilized to enjoin racial progress, is now being utilized to enjoin progress for all forms of social justice including climate justice. The choice is clear, we either abolish the filibuster or succumb to climate chaos and increased environmental racism.” – Anthony Rogers-Wright, Director of Environmental Justice, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest
View the full letter here: https://foe.org/filibuster-letter
Expert contact: Lukas Ross, (202) 222-0724, [email protected]
Communications contact: Aisha Dukule, (202) 893-3502, [email protected]