February 3rd, 2022

Senate Majority Leader Schumer
Senator Joe Manchin
The United States Senate
Washington D.C. 20510

Dear Senators Schumer and Manchin,

We write on behalf of the people of West Virginia, especially its 710,000 poor and low-income residents, as well as the 140 million poor and low-income people across this nation, to request that you meet with a delegation of impacted people from West Virginia and New York, faith leaders, economists, and voting rights lawyers from the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.

We are writing on the 152nd anniversary of the passage of the 15th Amendment that guarantees that “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude” and that “the Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”

For more than a decade there has been a coordinated effort across the country to abridge the voting rights of Black, Latino, Native, and low-income white Americans. Despite 19 states enacting laws that do this in 2021, the Senate has failed to meet the moral urgency of the moment and pass federal voting rights protections. Today it seems the focus of some senators is to do the least rather than the most for justice. In this political atmosphere, the rights of millions are being denied and abridged.

Congress must move past outdated Senate traditions and act now to save the country.

We write concerned that people are suffering needlessly. Our voting rights are under attack because we exercised them to vote for change in 2020. Too many have put the interest of wealthy corporations over the needs and demands of the people and blocked the Build Back Better Agenda, including a full Child Tax Credit without work requirements or restrictive means testing.

Across the nation, the failure to extend the Child Tax Credit will be devastating to tens of millions of poor and low-income households. In West Virginia, the failure to pass the Build Back Better Agenda means that 23,000 children will be pushed below the poverty line, 110,000 workers will not be able to make ends meet, and 10,000 jobs will be denied in the state. In addition, 441,852 Medicare beneficiaries will not be able to access expanded insurance in West Virginia alone. Among these are retired miners who desperately need this health insurance.

Senator Manchin, you campaigned with promises to expand voting rights, to bring jobs to West Virginia, and to help our people who are crushed by this poverty. But your actions are hurting us and millions across the country.

Senator Schumer, the obstruction by Senator Manchin is hurting New Yorkers, including the over 819,000 children in poverty who desperately need the Child Tax Credit. BBB would bring vital jobs to the parents of 1.2 million children who do not have job security. It would provide necessary upgrades to Veterans Affairs that the 213,000 veterans in your state need. Full voting rights are necessary in New York where residents continue to face barriers to same day registration, access to absentee ballots and other abridgements of voting rights, including requiring party registration for party voting.

We want to say to both of you:

It is time to call the question. It is time to publicly answer: which side are you on? It is time to go back and pass the full voting rights protection and expansion bills (the John Lewis Voting Rights Restoration Act and the For the People Act) before the ones amended by Senator Manchin failed. It is time to go back, overcome the regressive filibuster, and pass the full $3 trillion Build Back Better Agenda (not reduced down to $1.7 trillion or what is being compromised now).

Some say this is not how Washington works, but maybe that’s the problem. As religious leaders and impacted people, we cannot compromise the lives of our parents, grandparents, children and neighbors. We hold the entire Senate responsible for this sinful refusal to act that is producing suffering. The party in power and the Senators who could have used their power to do the right thing are especially guilty.

That's why we're coming to Washington, D.C. in mass on June 18, 2022 for a Mass Poor People's & Low-Wage Workers' Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to Polls, not for a day but for a declaration of an ongoing, committed moral movement to 1) build power; 2) shift the political narrative; and 3) make real policies to fully address poverty and low wealth from the bottom up.

There is a way out. Impacted people from the hills of West Virginia and the neighborhoods of New York have the moral authority to help the Senate regain its honor and human decency.

Senator Manchin: You are willing to meet with corporate executives and political lobbyists. Meet with us, some of the 340,000 low-wage workers in West Virginia and their families. We are suffering because the Senate could find trillions in less than two years for corporations, but can’t protect voting rights and invest a few trillion over ten years in the people.

Senator Schumer: Listen to the people of West Virginia and New York coming together. Remember poor and low wealth people represent over 30 percent of the electorate. The Fortune 500 companies produce $13.7 trillion GDP. But without the 140 million poor and low wealth people–43% of adults and 52% of children–there is no country nor any corporate wealth.

We desire to meet with you before it is too late.

Rev. Dr. William Barber, II
Co-Chair, The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival and
President, Repairers of the Breach

Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis,
Co-Chair, The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival and
Director, Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice

Jean Evansmore, Tri Chair, WV PPC
Pam Garrison, Tri Chair, WV PPC
Stewart Acuff, WV PPC Coordinating Committee Member
Kristen Olsen, WV PPC Coordinating Committee Member
Sally Roberts, WV PPC Coordinating Committee Member
Matt Kerner, WV PPC Coordinating Committee Member
Sharon Helman, WV PPC Coordinating Committee Member

Pastor Paul A. Dunn, First Baptist Church of Charleston, WV
The Right Rev. Lark J. Muncy, Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Kermit, WV

Kelly Smith, Tri-Chair, NYS PPC
Rev. West McNeil, Tri-Chair, NYS PPC
Peter Kinoy, NYS PPC Coordinating Committee Member
Susan Karbiner, NYS PPC Coordinating Committee Member
Rev. Beth DuBois, NYS PPC Coordinating Committee Member
Joanna Green, NYS PPC Coordinating Committee Member
Janie Lynch, NYS PPC Coordinating Committee Member
Tim Shenk, NYS PPC Coordinating Committee Member
Gretchen Craig, NYS PPC Coordinating Committee Member
Geoff Munroe, NYS PPC Coordinating Committee Member
Rev. Joe Paparone, NYS PPC Coordinating Committee Member
Pauline Pisano, NYS PPC Coordinating Committee Member
Christopher Nizza, NYS PPC Coordinating Committee Member
Raamitha Pillay, NYS PPC Coordinating Committee Member
YuLing Koh Hsu, NYS PPC Coordinating Committee Member
John Tenbusch, NYS PPC Coordinating Committee Member
Dr. Charon Hribar, NYS PPC Coordinating Committee Member
Adam Thiesen, NYS PPC and Unite Here! Local 100

Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, Senior Minister at Middle Collegiate Church