AFSCME Members Hold Arizona Lawmakers Accountable for Budget Votes at AFL-CIO Bus Tour Stop
The “It’s Better In a Union” tour bus made a stop in Phoenix on Wednesday for a press conference where labor leaders, AFSCME members, retirees and Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes called for Reps. David Schweikert and Abe Hamadeh to be held accountable for their votes in favor of President Trump’s disastrous budget bill.
The public sector workers who keep Arizona running spoke out about the local impact of funding cuts to hospitals, nursing homes, schools and other services. Approximately 360,000 people in Arizona could potentially lose their health care coverage because Reps. Schweikert and Hamadeh voted to cut Medicaid. Additionally, some 450,000 Arizonans are at risk of losing the vital food assistance they depend on to keep their families fed.
“As an equipment operator for the City of Peoria’s Sanitation Department [Solid Waste Division], I know trash when I see it,” AFSCME Local 3282 President Joshua Capilla said. “And this so-called ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ is straight garbage. And the cuts to public services will put Arizonans in danger. Reps. Schweikert and Hamadeh voted to pass this dangerous legislation knowing full well that these cuts will have deep ripple effects on our local budgets and will put our communities in a fiscal hole that could take years to crawl out of.”
Arizona AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer and Executive Director Fred Yamashita added: “David Schweikert and Abe Hamadeh, who claim to represent us in Congress, voted for a bill that defunds our communities to fund tax breaks for billionaires. It's a disastrous piece of legislation that will leave 360,000 Arizonans at-risk of losing health coverage, force our hospitals and nursing homes to cut services or close entirely, and push working families into deeper financial strain with higher grocery bills, energy costs, and more expensive care. Schweikert and Hamadeh's priorities are clear, and they are not the priorities of the working families in their districts. If they won't fight for us, we'll fight back.”