Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders are leading a pack of progressive lawmakers to Capitol Hill today as they announce the relaunch of their "Green New Deal for Publick Housing."
They are focusing their attention on housing, which they believe is an under-addressed issue with the potential of producing political benefits.
The move follows President Joe Biden's State of the Union address, where he outlined a new plan to lower housing costs that he's now highlighting on the campaign trail.
Ocasio-Cortez, as revealed by Politico, said that the legislation aims to "reimagine and reinvigorate public housing in the United States" while addressing "many of the environmental injustices that public housing residents have faced."
According to AOC, the old ways of thinking are "unsustainable" and out of touch with the realities of life today.
"For a long time, we could pass a tax incentive here or there and say, 'Hey, we've got a great housing policy,'" Ocasio-Cortez told Playbook.
"And everyday people ... were supportive because there was still that dream and that idea that 'I'm going to be buying a home soon ... that's within the horizon for me.' Right now, we have an entire generation - that is ascending into becoming the most powerful electorate, the largest electorate - for which that is decades away."
The bill's policy changes center around the Faircloth amendment that Democrats hope to repeal.
The proposed legislation would include considerable changes from its previous version, including directing more money to address the public housing backlog that affects millions of Americans and funding clean-energy improvements to public housing - including language to ensure that any jobs created are unionized.
"No housing conversation is complete without a conversation around public housing," said Ocasio-Cortez.
"We in the United States have lived under the scourge of the Faircloth amendment for decades, and that has helped precipitate - and contributed to - the housing crisis that we are living in today. A major part of our housing problem is a supply problem."
Ocasio-Cortez told the news outlet she remains hopeful regarding what she's seen from Biden lately.
"We are starting to see them wade into these waters," she said. "We saw the president mention housing during his State of the Union. They're starting to do more events explicitly centered on this issue and [talking] about this issue more. I think that we are going to see the White House do more. And we're going to have to do more."
Since its ratification in 1999, the amendment has successfully blocked the Department of Housing and Urban Development from funding new public housing.
