Biden-Harris Administration announces $5 billion for new infrastructure projects and releases new tools for Americans to see how the President's actions are lowering costs and benefiting their daily lives
This week, the Biden-Harris Administration will launch its fifth Investing in America tour: Investing in America, Made in America. President Biden's Cabinet and White House officials will make over 70 stops to over 30 states across the country to highlight how President Biden's policies are lowering costs, creating good jobs, rebuilding America's infrastructure, and spurring investments in manufacturing so that goods are once again made in America by American workers. After four years of trickle-down policies that set rural communities back, with President Biden's help, today rural communities are making a comeback. The fifth Investing in America tour comes as Republican Members of Congress continue to push an extreme agenda that would raise costs on American families, cut Medicare and Social Security, and undermine policies that are driving investments in manufacturing and job creation here in America.
To kick off the tour, the White House released new tools on Invest.gov that highlight how the President's agenda is benefitting Americans' daily lives, including a Savings Explorer to show users how the Biden-Harris Administration is helping them save money on everyday costs and basic needs, and a new website page that highlights stories of Americans benefitting from Biden-Harris Administration investments in rural communities. The Biden-Harris Administration also announced $5 billion in awards for infrastructure projects to repair, reconstruct, and restore large bridges across the country. And, today the Department of Commerce announced a $400 million CHIPS and Science Act preliminary agreement with Globalwafers to manufacture semiconductor components, strengthening the domestic supply chain and creating jobs in Texas and Missouri.
White House launches new Savings Explorer on Invest.gov
This week the White House launched a new tool on Invest.gov, allowing Americans to explore how much they can save on average per year from the Biden-Harris Administration actions to lower costs – ranging from health care and home energy to education and groceries. President Biden has taken historic action to lower costs for families, including capping insulin costs at $35 for seniors, giving Medicare the power to negotiate lower prescription drug prices, lowering home energy bills for low-income Americans, canceling student loan debt for 4.75 million people, and cracking down on junk fees in banking and hospitality.
While President Biden continues to take action to lower costs for working families, Congressional Republicans continue to side with special interests to push an extreme agenda that would raise costs on working families, give tax breaks to corporations and billionaires, and cut benefits to Medicare and Social Security. President Biden vowed not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 per year and has taken steps to protect Social Security and Medicare, not weaken it.
Visit invest.gov/savings to use the Savings Explorer.
Invest.gov/Rural spotlights impact stories in rural communities
President Biden promised to be a President for all Americans, in every state and community. This week, the White House also launched a new website called Invest.gov/rural, highlighting stories of individuals, businesses, and local governments benefitting from Biden-Harris Administration investments in Rural America. It includes impact stories of specific communities – from a town in rural Georgia that is receiving funding to construct a new wastewater treatment plant to a hospital in rural Michigan that is expanding critical, life-saving emergency services thanks to funding from the American Rescue Plan.
Visit Invest.gov/Rural to see the impact stories.
Biden-Harris Administration announces $5 billion in awards for bridge infrastructure projects
Today, the Department of Transportation is announcing $5 billion in awards from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to reconstruct, repair, and restore 13 large bridges across the country. These bridges play a critical role in connecting communities to jobs and resources, economic development, and serve as essential corridors for freight travel. These projects will also address important safety issues and make the bridges more resilient to extreme weather, all while creating good-paying construction jobs. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg will travel to Pennsylvania to make the announcement of the awards. To date, the Biden-Harris Administration has announced over 60,000 infrastructure and clean energy projects across the country, funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, including nearly 10,000 bridge projects already underway.
Fifth Investing in America tour highlights Made in America policies and investments
The fifth Investing in America tour: Investing in America, Made in America will highlight how President Biden has unleashed unprecedented investments in the United States, creating good jobs across America, lowering costs, and spurring economic comebacks in communities too often left out or left behind. To date, over 63,000 clean energy and infrastructure projects are underway across the country, and companies have announced $877 billion in private sector manufacturing and clean energy investments. Biden-Harris Administration has taken historic steps to bolster domestic manufacturing of semiconductors, electric vehicles and component materials, clean technology, fiber optic cable, and infrastructure across the United States. Those historic investments have helped double the construction of factories in the United States under President Biden, and construction employment has reached a record high.
The Investing in America, Made in America tour coincides with Made in America week. Throughout the tour, White House officials and the President's Cabinet will highlight these Made in America investments, including:
- Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff will travel to Phoenix, Arizona to highlight new funding for the Valley Metro Rio East-Dobson Streetcar Extension, as part of the Administration's efforts to reduce transportation-related air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
- Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg will travel to Pennsylvania to highlight $5 billion going to more than a dozen states to repair and replace some of the nation's most significant bridges. Funded by President Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, these investments are helping drive record increases in construction jobs under the Biden-Harris Administration. He will later travel to Southern California to celebrate a groundbreaking on a major port project also funded by the infrastructure law that will improve efficiency, lower costs for consumers, and reduce air pollution.
- Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra is traveling to Nevada to highlight the Biden-Harris Administration's historic actions to lower health care and prescription drug costs, including giving Medicare the power to negotiate lower prescription drug prices.
- Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona will travel to South Carolina to highlight the Biden-Harris Administration's work to provide student debt relief, and to visit Historically Black Colleges and Universities and highlight the Biden-Harris Administration's investments in rural and technical HBCUs.
- Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm is traveling to the U.S. Virgin Islands to emphasize the Administration's commitment to delivering clean and reliable energy for all Americans, as well as to Puerto Rico to highlight how the Biden-Harris Administration is making historic investments to secure clean energy access during extreme weather events, ensuring battery storage and upgrades to the electric grid to make sure no community is left behind.
- Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan traveled to Nevada for the NAACP Convention and to tour a cooling center to highlight how President Biden's Investing in America agenda is protecting communities from extreme heat and delivering cleaner air, safer water, and environmental justice, while lowering costs and creating economic opportunity in the process. He will also travel to Pennsylvania to announce new investments from the Biden-Harris Administration to tackle the climate crisis and create clean energy jobs in the United States.
- Administrator of the Small Business Administration Isabel Guzman will travel to Arkansas to highlight how the Biden-Harris Administration has overseen record small business growth, with 18 million new business applications filed under the President's leadership.
- Secretary Haaland will travel to Alaska to meet with Tribes and highlight the transformational investments provided through President Biden's Investing in America agenda to strengthen Indian country. Then, she will travel to Washington to highlight how President Biden's Investing in America agenda is protecting communities from wildland fire, restoring ecosystems in partnership with Tribes and safeguarding local water supplies.
- Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack will travel to Pennsylvania to highlight how President Biden is making critical investments to support urban and rural agriculture and advance equity in farming and rural communities. He will also discuss how the President's Investing in America agenda is making historic investments in on-farm conservation and helps producers build resilience to climate change.
- Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su will travel to Las Vegas, Nevada to address the UNIDOS Conference and the NAACP Annual Conference, highlighting the good jobs created by the Biden-Harris Administration. Also while in Nevada, she will highlight IIA investments during a stop for the Department of Labor's Good Jobs Summer Tour, and will engage members of the AANHPI community at an event with Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden. Later this week, Acting Secretary Su will travel to Georgia to highlight the Administration's recently awarded Domestic Conversion Manufacturing Grants, which are helping auto manufacturing companies like clean school bus manufacturer Blue Bird invest in American manufacturing and create clean energy jobs.
- Director of the National Economic Council Lael Brainard will travel to Chicago to discuss building innovation clusters throughout the country. She will also participate in an Energy Communities Summit and a Roosevelt Institute convening on placed based investment policy.
- White House Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs Tom Perez will travel to Pennsylvania to highlight the Biden-Harris Administration's recent domestic manufacturing grant to Volvo to help them invest in America and create clean energy jobs.
- White House Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy Arati Prabhakar and Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology Laurie E. Locascio will travel to Colorado to highlight a CHIPS and Science Act preliminary agreement with Entegris, which is creating 1,100 new jobs in construction and manufacturing and helping build out the American semiconductor supply chain.
- Chief Economist of the White House Investing in America Cabinet Heather Boushey is traveling to Kentucky for a site-visit to a cattle farm that transitioned to solar energy in Hardinsburg. Then, she will travel to Louisville for an event highlighting public and private sector investments in the state highlighting good paying jobs with the Louisville Mayor.
While White House and Cabinet officials are highlighting the President's Made in America policies in communities across the country, Republican elected officials continue to try to raise costs on working families and roll back investments that are bringing jobs and opportunity to their communities. Their plan would:
- Increase costs for health care, prescription drugs, and insulin by repealing the Inflation Reduction Act and Affordable Care Act and slashing Medicare.
- Increase utility bills and energy costs by repealing the Inflation Reduction Act.
- Raise taxes for middle-class families by repealing the Inflation Reduction Act and the Affordable Care Act.
- Raise housing costs by cutting rental assistance and programs to build new homes.
- Undermine $877 billion in private sector manufacturing and clean energy investments spurred by the President's Investing in America agenda and ship hundreds of thousands of jobs in clean energy and manufacturing overseas by repealing the Inflation Reduction Act.
