American Jobs Plan Fact Sheet: The American Jobs Plan Advances Racial Equity

by Joseph Robinette Biden

 

The American Jobs Plan Advances Racial Equity

For generations, entrenched disparities in our economy and our society have made it harder for communities of color to get a fair shot at the American dream. The consequences of decades of disinvestment in Americans physical and care infrastructure have fallen most heavily on communities of color, while the impacts of pollution and the climate crisis disproportionately threaten the lives and livelihoods of Americans of color. It is time for long overdue investments that tackle systemic racism and rebuild our economy and our social safety net so that every person in America can reach their full potential.

President Biden’s American Jobs Plan will make a generational investment in racial justice. His plan will build our economy back better through transformational investments in programs to combat racial disparities in health, safety, and access to opportunity. President Biden’s plan takes a comprehensive approach to advancing equity for communities of color in sectors of our economy and society where racial injustice has been allowed to fester for too long. The American Jobs Plan will bring our nation closer to the promise of equity and justice for all. Specifically, President Biden’s American Jobs Plan will:

EXPAND JOB OPPORTUNITIES FOR COMMUNITIES OF COLOR

• Invest in equitable workforce development and job training programs. One in ten Black workers, and one in eleven Latino workers have faced unemployment during the COVID-19 crisis. And as more Americans rejoin the workforce or seek out new opportunities in a changing economy, there is a greater need for skills development opportunities for all workers. President Biden’s plan invests $100 billion in workforce development programs targeted at underserved communities to get our students on paths to trades and careers before they graduate from high school. His plan will help trainees compete for in-demand jobs through wraparound services, income supports, counseling, and case management, paired with high-quality training and effective partnerships between educational institutions, unions, and employers.
• Target workforce development opportunities in underserved communities. Structural racism and persistent economic inequities have undermined opportunity for millions of workers. All of the investments in workforce training in President Biden’s plan will prioritize underserved communities and communities who have struggled in a transforming economy. Specifically, the American Jobs Plan will ensure that new jobs created in clean energy, manufacturing, and infrastructure are readily accessible to women and people of color. This includes training programs like registered apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeships, which will strengthen the pipeline for more women and people of color to access these opportunities using successful pre-apprenticeship programs.
• Bridge the digital divide by achieving 100 percent coverage of high-speed broadband. There is a stark digital divide in America. Black and Latino families are less likely to be able to access home broadband internet than white families, compounding systemic barriers to opportunity and economic equality. The President’s plan will prioritize building “future proof” broadband infrastructure in unserved and underserved areas so that we finally reach 100% high-speed broadband coverage. He is committed to lower internet prices for all Americans, and for promoting adoption of affordable broadband internet in both rural and urban communities to help close the digital divide. His plan will also invest in long-overdue expansion of broadband on Tribal lands, in consultation with Tribal Nations, and in U.S. Territories.
• Protect the health, safety, and rights workers of color. President Biden is calling on Congress to provide the federal government with the tools it needs to ensure employers are providing workers with good jobs – including jobs with fair and equal pay, safe and healthy workplaces, and workplaces free from racial, gender, and other forms of discrimination and harassment. In addition to a $10 billion investment in enforcement as part of the plan’s workforce proposals, the President is calling for increased penalties when employers violate workplace safety and health rules.
• Support returning citizens in accessing employment. President Biden’s plan will also invest in job training for formerly incarcerated individuals and justice-involved youth, who, because of entrenched disparities in the criminal justice system, are disproportionately Black and brown. President Biden’s plan will facilitate effective reentry and support evidence-based violence prevention programs while promoting public safety.
• Ensure communities of color can excel in jobs in the technologies of the future. Barriers to careers in high-innovation sectors remain high for students and workers of color. As part of President Biden’s plan to advance U.S. leadership in critical technologies and upgrade America’s research infrastructure, he will invest $20 billion in upgrading research infrastructure and laboratories at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other Minority Serving Institutions, including the creation of a new national lab focused on climate that will be affiliated with an HBCU.
• Empower workers of color. Workers of color have endured discrimination and exclusion from economic opportunities for generations. President Biden’s American Jobs Plan will empower workers of color by ensuring all workers have a free and fair choice to join a union by passing the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, and guaranteeing union and bargaining rights for public service workers.
• Eliminate racial and gender inequities in research and development and science, technology, engineering, and math. Persistent inequities in access to research and development dollars and to careers in innovation industries prevent the U.S. economy from reaching its full potential. President Biden’s plan makes a $10 billion R&D investment at HBCUs and other MSIs. He is also calling on Congress to invest $15 billion in creating up to 200 centers of excellence that serve as research incubators.
• Ensure that minority-owned manufacturers thrive. President Biden’s plan will quadruple support for the Manufacturing Extensions Partnership —increasing the involvement of minority-owned and rurally-located small- and-medium-sized enterprises in technological advancement.
• Invest in evidence-based community violence interventions that reduce violence and promote employment and economic development. Violence disrupts employment and prevents a community’s economic development. Gun violence alone kills almost 40,000 people annually and injures more than twice as many. It disproportionately impacts Black and brown communities. Black men are 6% of the population but over 50% of gun homicide victims. One analysis has found that such violence causes $280 billion in economic loss annually. President Biden’s plan will invest $5 billion over 8 years in evidence-based community violence intervention programs that train at-risk individuals for jobs and provide other wraparound services to prevent violence and assist victims. These strategies have been proven to reduce violence and will help rebuild economies in the hardest hit areas.
• Create a new Community Revitalization Fund to support innovative, community-led redevelopment projects. Communities of color and rural communities have long suffered from years of disinvestment. President Biden’s plan creates a Community Reinvestment Fund to support innovative, community-led redevelopment projects that can spark new economic activity, provide services and amenities, build community wealth, and close the current gaps in access to the innovation economy for communities of color and rural communities. He is also calling on Congress to invest $20 billion in regional innovation hubs and a Community Revitalization Fund. At least ten regional innovation hubs will leverage private investment to fuel technology development, link urban and rural economies, and create new businesses in regions beyond the current handful of high-growth centers.
• Help Black and Brown-owned small businesses access capital and scale through over $30 billion in investments. President Biden is calling on Congress to invest in federal programs that empower small firms to participate in federal research and research and development that has the potential for commercialization. The American Jobs Plan will also create a new grant program through the Minority Business Development Agency that will help small, Brown- and Black-owned manufacturers access private capital. It will enable small businesses to drive the economic recovery by investing $15 billion the Small Business Administration’s 7(a) loan program.

MAKE GENERATIONAL INVESTMENTS IN CLIMATE JUSTICE

• Deliver 40 percent of the benefits of climate and infrastructure investments in underserved communities. President Biden’s American Jobs Plan targets 40 percent of the benefits of climate and clean infrastructure investments to disadvantaged communities, including communities of color. Through this Justice40 initiative, President Biden will make a once in a generation investment in climate justice.
• Eliminate all lead pipes across the nation to safeguard the health and safety of families of color. President Biden’s plan will eliminate all lead pipes and service lines in our drinking water systems, improving the health of our country’s children, especially in communities of color. This investment will also reduce lead exposure in 400,000 schools and childcare facilities.
• Safeguard communities of color from climate crises and extreme weather risks. People of color are more likely to live in areas most vulnerable to flooding and other climate change-related weather events. President Biden’s plan makes critical, targeted investments in climate disaster resilience in communities of color and Tribal communities.
• Invest in clean energy to advance climate justice and mitigate the disparate impacts of pollution on communities of color. Black, Latino, and Native communities are more likely to be burdened by pollution. Black people are almost three times more likely to die from asthma related causes than their white counterparts. And more than one in three -- or over 23 million -- Latinos in the U.S. live in counties where the air doesn’t meet EPA public health standards for smog. The President’s plan makes ambitious investments in clean power and clean energy, and will mobilize historic levels of private investment into modernizing our power sector.

ADVANCE RACIAL JUSTICE THROUGH AMERICA’S TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM

• Build a more equitable transportation infrastructure and public systems. Americans of color are more than twice as likely as white Americans to rely on public transportation. In fact, Asian American and African American workers commute by public transit at nearly 4 times the rate of white workers. President Biden’s plan will double the federal government’s investment in public transportation, and will help local public transit systems expand their systems so that communities of color have increased access to public transportation and the economic opportunity that equitable transit systems unlock.
• Make historic investments in addressing residential segregation caused by decades of failed federal infrastructure investments. Historic investments in transportation infrastructure, especially highway construction, cut too many Americans off from opportunity, dividing and demolishing communities, and perpetuating economic and racial injustices. President Biden’s American Jobs Plan includes $15 billion for a new “Highways to Neighborhoods” program that will reconnect neighborhoods cut off by historic infrastructure projects and ensure new projects increase opportunity, advance racial equity and environmental justice, and promote affordable access.

DELIVER RACIAL EQUITY THROUGH CRITICAL HOUSING INVESTMENTS

• Deliver affordable housing to communities of color who are most burdened by the affordable housing crisis. Following decades of racially discriminatory federal housing policies, Americans of color are more likely to be rent burdened, or to live in sub-standard housing. President Biden’s plan invests $213 billion to produce, preserve, and retrofit more than two million affordable and sustainable places to live, extending affordable housing opportunities to underserved communities nationwide.
• Address the racial gap in homeownership. Families of color have on average a fraction of the wealth that white families have, in large part because of barriers to homeownership. President Biden’s plan creates new opportunities for families of color to buy a first home and build wealth by spurring the construction and rehabilitation of homes for underserved communities.
• Mitigate exclusionary zoning policies that entrench residential segregation. For decades, exclusionary zoning laws have inflated housing and construction costs and locked families of color out of areas with more opportunities. President Biden’s plan creates an innovative new approach to incentivize local communities to take steps to eliminate these exclusionary zoning policies.

INVEST IN EDUCATIONAL EQUITY

• Eliminate inequitable school infrastructure conditions. Black and brown children are more likely than their white peers to attend schools with run down and unsafe facilities. President Biden’s plan supports $100 billion in investments to upgrade and build new public schools, ensuring that children of color in the United States have equal access to healthy learning environments with the labs and technology they need to prepare them for the jobs of the future.
• Upgrade and build new child care facilities to support equity in early childhood experiences. Families of color are more likely than white families to live in childcare deserts. And, the child care sector is a key engine of opportunity for women of color in the workforce. President Biden’s plan includes $25 billion to help upgrade child care facilities and increase the supply of child care in areas that need it most.
• Invest in community college infrastructure to support students of color and rural students. Community colleges are vital institutions that enroll nearly half of all students of color. President Biden’s plan invests $12 billion in community college facilities and technology to help protect the health and safety of students and faculty, grow local economies, improve energy efficiency and resilience, and narrow funding inequities in the short-term, as we rebuild our higher education finance system for the long-run.

BUILD A CARE ECONOMY THAT ADVANCES RACIAL JUSTICE

• Invest in caregivers, who are disproportionately women of color. Caregivers – who are disproportionally women of color – have been underpaid and undervalued for far too long. President Biden’s plan ensures domestic workers – who are disproportionately women of color – receive the benefits and protections they deserve and tackles pay inequities based on gender.
• Address racial disparities in access to home- and community-based care. Native Americans and Black adults are overrepresented in the population of people with disabilities and older adults for whom home and community-based care is needed. President Biden’s plan will put $400 billion towards expanding access to quality, affordable home- or community-based care for aging relatives and loved ones with disabilities. These investments will help hundreds of thousands of Americans finally obtain the long-term services and supports they need, while creating new jobs and offering caregiving workers a long-overdue raise, stronger benefits, and an opportunity to organize or join a union and collectively bargain.