Biden Administration, Health Care, News & Photo Features, Obamacare

Biden-Harris Administration Proposes Rule to Expand Coverage of Affordable Contraception Under the Affordable Care Act

Women’s March outside Trump International, NYC, 2019. Under President Biden and Vice President Harris’s leadership, the Administration is taking bold action to expand coverage of contraception for the 52 million women of reproductive age with private health insurance, marking the most significant expansion of contraception benefits under the Affordable Care Act in more than a decade. This action builds on the Biden-Harris Administration’s strong record of defending access to reproductive health care and commitment to ensuring that women have the freedom to make deeply personal health care decisions, including if and when to start or grow their family. In contrast, Trump and  Republican elected officials continue to threaten women’s health, lives, and freedom through extreme abortion bans, some with no exceptions for rape or incest, are moving to ban contraception and Morning After medication. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Today, October 21, 2024, the Biden-Harris Administration proposed a rule to expand coverage of affordable contraception under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Here is a memo from Jennifer Klein, Director of the White House Gender Policy Council which Biden established, and a fact sheet from the White House on the proposal:


Interested Parties Memo: Biden-⁠Harris Administration Expands Coverage of Contraception Under the Affordable Care Act as Republican Elected Officials Continue Attacks on Reproductive Freedom
From: Jennifer Klein, Director, White House Gender Policy Council
 

Under President Biden and Vice President Harris’s leadership, the Administration is taking bold action to expand coverage of contraception for the 52 million women of reproductive age with private health insurance, marking the most significant expansion of contraception benefits under the Affordable Care Act in more than a decade.

Today’s announcement builds on the Biden-Harris Administration’s strong record of defending access to reproductive health care and commitment to ensuring that women have the freedom to make deeply personal health care decisions, including if and when to start or grow their family.

Meanwhile, Republican elected officials continue to threaten women’s health, lives, and freedom through extreme abortion bans, some with no exceptions for rape or incest. Women are being denied essential medical care while doctors and nurses are threatened with jail time. Abortion, contraception, and IVF are under attack, while Republicans in Congress refuse to protect nationwide access to this vital reproductive health care. This extreme agenda is out-of-touch with the American people—which is why voters have overwhelmingly chosen to protect reproductive freedom in every state where abortion has been on the ballot.

President Biden and Vice President Harris stand with the vast majority of Americans in supporting a woman’s right to choose, and they will continue the fight against a national abortion ban and call on Congress to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade in federal law once and for all.

Read the Rest of the Interested Parties Memo Here
Read President Biden’s Statement Here
Read Vice President Harris’ Statement Here
Read the Fact Sheet Here (and below)

FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Proposes Rule to Expand Coverage of Affordable Contraception Under the Affordable Care Act

Biden-Harris Administration Announces Proposal for Most Significant Expansion of Contraception Coverage Under the Affordable Care Act in More Than a Decade

President Biden and Vice President Harris have protected and built on the Affordable Care Act. Nearly 50 million people over the past decade have had coverage through the Affordable Care Act’s Marketplaces, and the law has protected more than 100 million people with preexisting medical conditions. Thanks to the Biden-Harris Administration, Affordable Care Act coverage is more affordable than ever with millions of families saving an average of $800 per year on Marketplace coverage.
 
The Affordable Care Act has also helped millions of women save billions of dollars on contraception—an essential component of reproductive health care that has only become more important since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. As part of President Biden and Vice President Harris’ steadfast commitment to reproductive rights, the Biden-Harris Administration has further strengthened contraception access and affordability under the Affordable Care Act, through Medicare and Medicaid, through the Title X Family Planning Program, through federally qualified health centers, and for federal employees, Service members, veterans, and college students.
 
Today, the Biden-Harris Administration is proposing a rule that would significantly increase coverage of contraception without cost sharing for 52 million women of reproductive age with private health insurance. Building on the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that most private health plans must cover contraception without cost sharing, today’s proposed rule from the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor, and the Treasury would:

  • Expand coverage of over-the-counter contraception without cost sharing. Under the proposed rule, for the first time, women would be able to obtain over-the-counter (OTC) contraception without a prescription at no additional cost. As a result, more women would be able to access and afford critical OTC medications such as emergency contraception and the first-ever daily oral contraceptive approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use without a prescription that is now widely available across the country.
     
  • Make it easier to learn about coverage for OTC contraception. To help ensure that women understand this new benefit, most private health plans would be required to disclose that OTC contraception is covered without cost sharing and without a prescription—and take steps to help women learn more about their contraception coverage.
     
  • Strengthen coverage of prescribed contraception without cost sharing. The proposed rule would make it easier for most women with private health insurance to obtain contraception without cost sharing that is prescribed by their health care provider. Health plans would be required to cover every FDA-approved contraceptive drug or drug-led combination product without cost sharing unless the plan also covers a therapeutic equivalent without cost sharing, eliminating barriers that some women continue to face in accessing contraception prescribed by their provider.

This proposed rule, if finalized, would be the most significant expansion of contraception coverage under the Affordable Care Act since 2012, when contraception was first required to be covered. Also today, the Biden-Harris Administration is issuing new guidance to help ensure that patients can access other preventive services, such as cancer screenings, that must be covered without cost sharing under the Affordable Care Act.
 
The Biden-Harris Administration is issuing this proposed rule at a time when reproductive rights are under attack, and Republican elected officials remain committed to repealing the Affordable Care Act. Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, dangerous and extreme abortion bans are putting women’s health and lives at risk and disrupting access to critical health care services, including contraception, as health care providers are forced to close in states across the country. At the same time, Republican elected officials in some states have made clear they want to ban or restrict birth control in addition to abortion, and Republicans in Congress have attacked contraception access nationwide by proposing to defund the Title X Family Planning Program. In contrast, President Biden and Vice President Harris believe that women in every state must have the freedom to make deeply personal health care decisions, including the right to decide if and when to start or grow their family.
 
Today’s announcements build on actions that the Biden-Harris Administration has already taken to expand access to affordable contraception, including to implement the President’s Executive Order on Strengthening Access to Affordable, High-Quality Contraception and Family Planning Services from June 2023. The Administration has taken action to:

  • Expand contraception coverage and affordability under the Affordable Care Act. The Departments of HHS, Labor, and the Treasury proposed a rule to provide a new pathway under the Affordable Care Act for women to access coverage of contraceptives when their private health coverage is exempt from covering this benefit due to a religious objection. These agencies also issued new guidance to support expanded coverage of a broader range of FDA-approved, cleared, or granted contraceptives at no additional cost under the Affordable Care Act, building on guidance issued after Roe v. Wade was overturned to clarify protections for contraceptive coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Further, HHS strengthened the standard for inclusion of family planning providers in Marketplace plan provider networks and provided nearly $9 million in grant funding to support state efforts to enhance and expand coverage of, and access to, reproductive and maternal health services, including contraception. And the Internal Revenue Service issued new guidance affirming that high-deductible health plans can cover OTC contraception as preventive care.
     
  • Bolster family planning services through Title X clinics. HHS continues to rebuild and grow the Title X Family Planning Program, which has played a critical role in ensuring access to a broad range of high-quality family planning and preventive health services for more than 50 years. During the prior administration, more than 1,000 service sites left the Title X Family Planning Program, leading to a significant decline in people served. The Biden-Harris Administration reversed the policy changes that led to those departures, strengthening the Title X Family Planning Program and helping ensure that the Program remains a critical part of the nation’s health safety net. In 2023, HHS provided about $287 million to nearly 4,000 Title X clinics across the country to provide free or low-cost voluntary, client-centered family planning and related preventive services for 2.8 million women and families—an 80 percent increase since 2020.
     
  • Support family planning coverage through the Medicaid and Medicare programs. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued new guidance to state Medicaid programs and Children’s Health Insurance Programs (CHIP) to help ensure that enrollees can access family planning services. The new guidance outlined existing state obligations under federal law, highlighted strategies to enhance access to contraception, affirmed confidentiality requirements for those seeking family planning services, and shared recommendations on ways to measure quality in delivering family planning services. To help ensure that women with Medicare coverage have access to more covered types of contraception without unnecessary barriers, CMS updated its Medicare Part D formulary clinical review process for plan year 2024 and 2025 to include additional contraceptive types, such as long-acting contraceptives, and is increasing public awareness of contraceptive coverage options under Medicare Part B. The Secretary of HHS also issued a letter to state Medicaid and CHIP programs as well as private health insurers and Medicare plans about their existing obligations to cover contraception for those they serve.
     
  • Increase contraception access through federal health centers. Federal health centers continue to be an important source of family planning services: in 2023, health centers provided nearly 3 million contraceptive services visits to patients, a 14 percent increase since 2020. To support health centers in providing high-quality family planning services, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) provided updated guidance on existing federal requirements for family planning and related services, which is a required primary health care service under federal law, as well as evidence-based recommendations and resources. HRSA also adopted new data measures for health centers that will help assess whether patients have been screened for contraception needs. Screening and data measures will help enhance the overall delivery of voluntary family planning and related services.
     
  • Support contraception access for federal employees and their families. The Office of Personnel Management strengthened access to contraception for federal workers, retirees, and family members by issuing guidance to insurers participating in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program to clarify standards and support expanded coverage of a broader range of FDA-approved, cleared, or granted contraceptives at no additional cost. The Office of Personnel Management also required insurers that participate in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program to take additional steps to educate enrollees about their contraception benefits and launched a public education campaign to highlight contraception benefits available to federal employees and their families.
     
  • Promote contraception access and affordability for Service members and their families and certain dependents of veterans. To improve access to contraception at military hospitals and clinics, the Department of Defense expanded walk-in contraceptive care services for active-duty Service members and other Military Health System beneficiaries and eliminated TRICARE copays for certain contraceptive services. And the Department of Veterans Affairs eliminated out-of-pocket costs for certain types of contraception through the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
     
  • Support access to affordable contraception for college students. To help increase access to contraception for college students, President Biden directed the Secretary of Education to convene institutions of higher education to share best practices and ways to help students understand their options for accessing contraception. In 2023, Vice President Harris joined a Department of Education convening of representatives from 68 colleges and universities across 32 states to discuss promising strategies for protecting and expanding access to contraception for their students. This convening followed Vice President Harris’s multiple conversations about reproductive health access with students on college campuses across the country.
     
  • Enhance contraception access through technical assistance and public-private partnership. In June 2023, HHS announced a new five-year public-private partnership to expand access to contraception with Upstream, a national nonprofit organization that provides health centers with free patient-centered, evidence-based training and technical assistance to eliminate provider-level barriers to offering the full range of contraceptive options. To date, HHS has connected Upstream to more than 130 health care clinics, resulting in partnerships that will help Upstream accelerate their national expansion to reach 5 million women of reproductive age every year.
     
  • Promote research and data analysis on contraception access. To document the gaps and disparities in contraception access as well as the benefits of comprehensive coverage, HHS convened leading experts to discuss the state of research, data collection, and data analysis on contraception access and family planning services. These convenings helped identify research gaps, opportunities for collaboration, and ways to bolster research efforts for both Federal agencies and external partners.

In addition to strengthening access to affordable contraception, the Biden-Harris Administration continues to implement President Biden’s threeExecutiveOrders and a Presidential Memorandum directing federal agencies to protect access to reproductive health care issued since the Court overturned Roe v. Wade. To date, the Biden-Harris Administration has taken action to protect access to abortion, including FDA-approved medication abortion; defend access to emergency medical care; support the ability to travel for reproductive health care; safeguard the privacy of patients and health care providers; and ensure access to accurate information and legal resources.

The Vice President has led the White House’s efforts to partner with leaders on the frontlines of protecting access to abortion, highlighting the harm of abortion bans to women’s health at more than 100 events in more than 20 states since Roe v. Wade was overturned, and meeting with hundreds of  state legislators, health care providers, and advocates. On what would have been the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Vice President launched a nationwide Fight for Reproductive Freedoms tour to continue fighting back against extreme attacks throughout America.

President Biden and Vice President Harris will continue to call on Congress to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade in federal law to ensure that women in every state are able to make their own decisions about reproductive health care.

See also:
To Protect Women’s Freedom, Liberty, Life, Vote for Harris, Democrats and the ERA

Economic Development, Economy, Election 2024

Harris-Walz Issue Plan for Rural Communities: Strengthen Health Care, Support Next Gen Farmers, Ranchers and Invest in Housing, Child Care and Senior Care

The Harris-Walz campaign outlined an extensive plan to revitalize rural communities © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Vice President Harris and Governor Walz believe in rural communities and understand that supporting locally led solutions is key to rural prosperity. Their administration will make it a priority to equip the nearly 50 million rural Americans with the tools and resources they need not just to get by, but get ahead.

Today, Vice President Harris and Governor Walz are announcing a plan for rural America. The key elements will:

  • Increase access to affordable and high-quality health care in rural communities—by adding 10,000 health care professionals, expanding telemedicine, cutting the number of ambulance deserts in half.
  • Support the sandwich generation to care for elders at home, lowering the cost of childcare and increasing the number of providers, and expanding the Child Tax Credit to provide tax cuts up to $6,000 for families with newborns.
  • Lower the costs of buying a home, starting and expanding a business, and raising a family—by sparking the construction of 3 million new housing units, providing up to $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers, increasing the small business tax deduction for startup expenses 10-fold to $50,000.
  • Invest in the future of American agriculture by boosting access to credit, land, and markets, building new markets and streams of income for small- and mid-sized farmers and producers, and supporting the rise of the next generation of American farmers and ranchers.

Donald Trump will turn back the hard-earned progress that rural communities are making. As President, he tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act and vows to terminate it if reelected, stripping protections from people with pre-existing conditions and devastating rural hospitals and care services. He will ban abortion nationwide, threaten access to contraception and IVF, and force states to monitor women’s pregnancies and report women’s miscarriages and abortions to the federal government.

He already took overtime pay away from millions of Americans while giving tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations – at the same time that he tried to cut funding that supports rural housing and creates rural jobs. If Trump returns to office, he promises to give more tax cuts to the super-rich and big corporations while hiking taxes on rural families by $4,000 a year – as estimated by the conservative leaning American Action Forum, and putting Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block.

Independent analysis from Goldman Sachs, Moody’s Analytics, and other top economists – including those surveyed by the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal – and more also agree that Vice President Harris’ plans are better for the U.S. economy than Donald Trump’s. For example, an analysis by Moody’s Analytics shows that, under a Harris presidency, more than a million new jobs would be added to the economy than under a second Trump Administration. Meanwhile, Moody’s finds that Trump’s plan would cause a recession by mid-2025, cost 3.2 million jobs, and add over 1 percent to inflation. And, a survey of nearly 40 top economists by the Financial Times and University of Chicago found that 70 percent agree that Vice President Harris would be better on the deficit than Trump, while only 11 percent believe that Trump would be better on the deficit than Harris.

Trump’s Project 2025 agenda will slash the federal crop insurance program, gut protections for clean water and air, and repeal the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, which will roll back historic investments in small businesses and rural infrastructure including broadband, and clean energy. Under a Harris-Walz administration, rural America is not going back.

EXPANDING RURAL HEALTH CARE

Vice President Harris and Governor Walz believe quality health care is a right, not a privilege. That’s why they are announcing new initiatives to improve and expand affordable health care in rural areas. Their plan will recruit 10,000 additional rural health care professionals and protect and expand access to care from telemedicine to local independent pharmacies.

  • Recruiting 10,000 Rural Health Care Professionals, including doctors, nurses, community health workers, and EMS professionals to provide health services to Americans in rural and tribal areas—while working to protect our health workforce from burnout. This initiative will include:
    • Expanding Scholarships, Loan Forgiveness, and Other Pipeline Programs for Doctors and Nurses Who Will Provide Health Care in Rural and Tribal Areas: They will expand funding to recruit and retain doctors, nurses, pharmacists, public health professionals, and other health care providers through scholarships, loan repayment programs including the National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program, the Indian Health Service Loan Repayment Program, and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Programs. Their plan to build 3 million new homes nationwide, including in rural and tribal areas, and to provide $25,000 in downpayment assistance will further lower costs of buying a home in rural America, creating incentives for health professionals to buy homes and stay in rural America. They will invest in programs that introduce rural youth to careers in medicine, and provide the necessary support for them to pursue that career path. This plan builds on Vice President Harris’s leadership in investing in programs to train more nurses and doctors who will live and work in rural and underserved communities, including funding an additional 1,000 residency slots in hospitals. When a provider trains in a rural area, they’re more likely to remain, living and working there.
    • Providing a Major Grant Program To Train and Fund Rural Community Health Workers: They will launch a new permanent grant program to train and fund Rural Community Health Workers; make it easier for Medicaid to cover Community Health Workers; and expand grants to Community Health Centers and Rural Health Centers.
  • Expanding Rural Telehealth Services: Americans living in rural areas are around 17 times more likely to use telehealth than those in cities, but half of all people living in rural areas lack access to the broadband speeds needed to support telehealth.
    • Permanently extend Medicare coverage of telemedicine benefits, currently set to expire, by working with Congress to pass the Preserving Telehealth, Hospital, and Ambulance Act.
    • Double federal funding for telehealth equipment and technologies. They will double the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grant Program for Rural Communities to $120 million. This will give rural and tribal communities more resources for telehealth equipment—including at rural health clinics, hospitals, and schools–and support innovative new technologies like tele-medically equipped ambulances.
  • Slashing the Number of Ambulance Deserts in Half: At least 2.3 million rural Americans live in ambulance deserts—meaning they live at least 25 minutes away from an ambulance—and in 14 states more than 10% of the population lives in such an area. Volunteer squads—which provide the majority of rural EMS staff—struggle to survive due to a lack of sustainable funding sources and difficulty recruiting new volunteers. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz will take action to cut the number of rural Americans in ambulance deserts in half by the end of the decade:
    • Expanding EMTs and Paramedics in Rural Areas: They will dramatically increase financial and technical support to rural and tribal communities to train, equip, and employ first responders, and provide resources for ambulances, lifesaving equipment, and the construction and maintenance of first responder stations.
    • Increasing Funding and Support for Volunteer EMS Programs: They will provide grants to small volunteer ambulance and EMS programs to help them survive and thrive. These extra resources will support innovative uses of technology like telehealth and explore solutions to low reimbursement levels for both public and private insurers.
  • Keep Independent Pharmacies Open and Increase the Number by 3,000. Independent pharmacies make up more than three-quarters of pharmacies in rural areas, and their pharmacists are a critical and trusted health care resource. But nationally the number of independent pharmacies has decreased—by nearly 50% since 1980, leveling off at about 20,000 locations, with 1 in 10 independent retail pharmacies in rural America closing over the last decade.
    • A Harris-Walz Administration will set a goal of enabling 23,000 independent pharmacies to either launch or stay open by working to enact legislation that would prevent pharmaceutical middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers from shortchanging rural independent pharmacies and steering orders of the most profitable drugs away from independent rural pharmacies and to chains. This would be a 15% increase in the number of independent pharmacies – restoring the rural independent pharmacies that have closed over the last decade and increasing their number by 5%.
  • Keeping Rural Hospital Doors Open To Ensure Access to Emergency Services. Since 2010, nearly 150 rural hospitals have either shuttered or ceased providing inpatient hospital services. A Harris-Walz Administration will work to strengthen Medicare’s Rural Emergency Hospital Designation – which helps facilities offer medical services in areas that may not be able to sustain a full-service hospital, while protecting the Affordable Care Act and supporting Medicaid expansion, which has helped to reduce uncompensated care in expansion states and improves the financial health of rural hospitals. This will also help support improvement in maternal health, which Vice President Harris has long advocated for, by increasing access to options for obstetric care.
  • Lowering Health Care Costs. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz will also lower health care and prescription drug costs for Americans. They will work to cap the cost of insulin at $35 and out-of-pocket expenses for prescription drugs at $2,000 for everyone. They will also fight to keep helping millions of Americans save $800 a year on their health insurance and accelerate Medicare negotiations over prescription drugs to help bring drug prices down more quickly and cover more drugs.
  • Restoring and Protecting Reproductive Freedoms. They will also keep fighting for womens’ rights to make decisions about their own bodies. The Vice President will, if elected, never allow a national abortion ban to become law. And when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom nationwide, she will sign it.
  • Supporting Veterinary Care in Rural Areas and address the increasing shortage of veterinarians by encouraging providers to work in areas with too few veterinarians by strengthening USDA’s Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program, which reduces debt for physicians working in high-need areas for the food supply, and increasing grants for starting and expanding veterinary practices in critical areas.

Trump meanwhile tried to end the Affordable Care Act and has promised to terminate it if reelected — over 500 rural hospitals at risk of closure could close. He sought to make significant cuts to both Medicare and Medicaid in every single one of his budgets. His Project 2025 agenda will reverse the caps on insulin and other prescription drugs, raising the prices on life-saving Medications.

A HISTORIC PLAN TO EXPAND ACCESS TO CARE AND SUPPORT THE SANDWICH GENERATION

Vice President Harris cared for her aging mother and knows that when families cannot find affordable care for their elderly parents or children, it is not just a big financial strain, but also a source of severe emotional stress that takes a big toll on families. Nearly a quarter of American adults are part of the sandwich generation providing intergenerational care to both their children and a parent or a loved one with disabilities.

  • Protect and Strengthen Medicare, Help Rural Seniors Live Independently, and Support Family Caregivers. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz will protect Medicare and strengthen it with a historic Medicare at Home plan, which will cover robust home care for seniors under Medicare for the first time ever. This will help both seniors and their caregivers, who often shoulder the financial and emotional burden of caring for aging loved ones. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz will also expand Medicare to cover hearing and vision benefits to support the millions of seniors who rely on glasses and hearing aids.

These plans are common sense. They can help family caregivers work and save both families and the federal government money by allowing seniors to stay in their homes instead of being sent to nursing homes, which are often more expensive. Medicare at Home will also reduce hospitalizations. These new benefits will be fully paid for and extend the life of the Medicare Trust Fund by expanding Medicare drug price negotiations and more.

  • Make Quality, Affordable Child Care Accessible and Expand the Child Tax Credit. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz know that millions of Americans are balancing both care for their children and care for aging loved ones. Too many rural families struggle to access affordable child care near them. One survey found that only 38 percent of rural parents could easily find childcare within their budget, compared to over half of urban parents. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz will bring down child care costs for American families to help save thousands of dollars on child care and expand access to good child care options by building a robust child care supply. Vice President Harris is also proposing to expand and make permanent the Child Tax Credit, including giving families with newborns a tax cut of $6,000 per child. This will help families cover expenses early on in life. After Vice President Harris cast the tie-breaking vote on the legislation that temporarily expanded the Child Tax Credit in 2021, it helped the families of over 9 million children in rural areas.

As president, Trump tried to cut Medicare and Medicaid in every single one of his budgets, has called for raising the retirement age to 70, and said privatizing Medicare will create a “stronger system.” He denied millions of families the full child tax credit and tried to cut federal child care funding by nearly $100 million. His Project 2025 agenda will actually raise costs on families by $4,000 a year.

The Harris-Walz campaign outlined an extensive plan to revitalize rural communities © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

STRENGTHENING THE BACKBONE OF THE RURAL ECONOMY

Vice President Harris and Governor Walz are committed to helping rural communities grow and thrive economically. They are fighting to lower prices for Americans including through tax cuts for 100 million working and middle-class families and policies to lower the price of housing, groceries, and health care. They are also supporting small businesses by cutting red tape and proposing a ten-fold increase in the tax deduction for new businesses starting up.

Vice President Harris has fought for landmark investments in rural communities: high-speed internet access to every corner of rural and tribal America, as well as projects to build and fix roads and bridges in rural and tribal communities across America, and to support transit vehicles and infrastructure for thousands of rural and tribal transit systems. Rural communities stand to benefit from up to 45% of the total funding—or more than $450 billion—provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the CHIPS and Science Act is, and almost 30% of the IRA funding announced so far will flow to rural communities. Governor Walz has long championed rural communities. He spent 12 years representing a rural district in Congress, and as Governor, he spearheaded the largest single investment in broadband infrastructure in state history to help thousands of Minnesotans—including those in rural areas—connect to jobs, education, health care, and their communities.

But they know it is not enough—too many rural communities still do not have the tools they need to get ahead.

  • Supporting Small Businesses by Increasing Capital and Access to Resources. Vice President Harris has set an ambitious goal of 25 million new business applications by the end of her first term. She plans to encourage businesses to start and grow by increasing the small business deduction 10-fold to $50,000, providing low- to zero-interest loans to small businesses that grow and create jobs, allocating one-third of federal contract dollars to small businesses, and providing other financing for rural and tribal entrepreneurs through the Treasury Department’s State Small Business Credit Initiative—which lifts up entrepreneurs and founders in rural America, middle America, and underserved communities.
  • Create New Jobs and Opportunities Through:
    • New America Forward Tax Credits to promote investment in the industries of the future, including greater credits for companies investing in agricultural, manufacturing, and energy communities. This includes modernizing steel and iron production, developing biotechnology, building new data centers for AI and supporting AI innovation, further developing clean energy manufacturing, revitalizing America’s semiconductor industry, and investing in aerospace, autos, and other forms of transportation. These tax credits will provide significant additional benefits to investments made in longstanding manufacturing, energy, and agricultural communities and reward companies that work with unions and communities to support workers and protect jobs.
  • New Opportunities for Those Without Four-Year College Degrees including promoting meaningful pathways for those without college degrees to federal jobs and working with businesses to do the same in the private sector. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz have also set a goal of doubling the number of registered apprenticeships during their first term. This will include partnerships with community colleges on high-quality, evidence-based training programs.
  • Cutting Red Tape so that America Can Build More Housing, Manufacturing, and Energy Projects Faster while also ensuring community engagement and adequate protections for the environment and public health. This will build Vice President Harris’s work through the Inflation Reduction Act to speed permitting review, and her work to finalize a rule to modernize environmental reviews.
  • Keeping Rural Schools Open and Thriving. Vice President Harris knows that a great teacher can have a life-long impact on children. But teacher shortages disproportionately impact rural communities throughout the country. That’s why she will double down on programs that prepare and train teachers in rural and tribal areas in an effort to support new teachers and increase retention rates in rural communities—all of which will improve student outcomes like academic achievement and high school graduation rates, resulting in higher long-term earnings, job creation, and a boost to the economy. She will also build on federal transportation programs that help get children to school where bus routes or vehicle maintenance costs put additional strain on already limited budgets.
  • Protect and Strengthen Social Security while Making the Super Wealthy Pay their Fair Share. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz will protect and strengthen Social Security and Medicare by making the super-wealthy pay their fair share. Trump, by contrast, once called for raising the retirement age to 70, and he tried to cut Social Security and Medicare every year of his presidency. Now, on the campaign trail, Trump is continuing to talk up cuts to Social Security and Medicare, saying “there is a lot you can do…in terms of cutting.”
  • Lowering Costs:
    • Lower Costs of Buying and Renting a Home Across Rural America by sparking the construction of 3 million new affordable rental and owner-occupied homes, providing up to $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers, and cracking down on predatory investors. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz will also work to strengthen USDA’s programs for rural and tribal communities, especially in housing, and as part of their proposal to strengthen the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program to create more homes that are affordable for renters, they will work to ensure that rural states receive a fair allocation of these credits to address the unique challenges that rural communities face when dealing with housing challenges, including higher construction costs and lower housing density.
  • Providing Rural and Tribal Families with Reliable, Low-Cost Internet Access, by reenacting the Affordable Connectivity Program. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s Affordable Connectivity Program provided 23 million households with up to $30 off of their monthly internet bills and a one-time discount of up to $100 to buy a laptop, desktop computer, or tablet. Over 3 million people who benefited from ACP live in rural and tribal areas. Vice President Harris will reenact this popular program, which ended in June of this year, to ensure that rural and tribal families can connect to the internet and obtain the financial, educational, and health opportunities that come from reliable internet access. She will also take common-sense steps to speed up the construction of new internet for rural and tribal communities.
  • Provide Funding and Support to Local Communities, Tailored to Address Local Needs.
    • Vice President Harris and Governor Walz will work with Congress to pass the bipartisan Rural Partnership and Prosperity Act, led by Senators Casey and Fischer. This will provide new grants to every state that will support locally led solutions to address rural and tribal communities’ needs—including for child care, housing, job training, and economic development.
    • Vice President Harris and Governor Walz will expand the Rural Partners Network nationwide by partnering with rural communities to help them navigate and access existing federal funding opportunities.

Trump neglected rural communities. He failed to address the housing supply crisis during this presidency, and now his Project 2025 agenda will increase mortgage premiums on federally backed loans, and drive up mortgage rates by around $1,200 by privatizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He also tried to eliminate the Economic Development Administration, and wants to repeal investments in infrastructure, clean energy, and more that have been strengthening the economies of rural communities. He will also raise costs by nearly $4,000 per family with a “Trump Sales Tax” on imported items that families rely on.

He also has no plan to support families and seniors. He has called for raising the retirement age to 70 years old. His Project 2025 agenda would slash funding for child care, abolish Head Start, and cut more than $20 billion in federal support for the nation’s most vulnerable students.

The Harris-Walz campaign outlined an extensive plan to revitalize rural communities © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

HARVESTING THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN AGRICULTURE

Vice President Harris and Governor Walz know that America’s farmers, farmworkers, and ranchers feed our nation, drive our economic growth, and enhance our security and resilience. That’s why Vice President Harris helped secure nearly $20 billion in investments to help hundreds of thousands of farmers and ranchers adopt voluntary innovative conservation practices, promote sustainable agriculture, and increase resilience against extreme weather. She also directed $1 billion to increase meat and poultry processing capacity, up to $900 million to boost domestic fertilizer production, and funding to strengthen food supply chains and give farmers more choices. Governor Walz—who grew up spending time on the family farm—has stood by farmers and ranchers throughout his time in public service. In Congress, Governor Walz worked across the aisle to pass three Farm Bills to expand veterans’ access to crop insurance, farm education, and job training and enacted legislation to improve veterans’ health care. And as Governor, he championed efforts to support new farmers and to build new markets and revenue streams.

But Vice President Harris and Governor Walz know that today too many small farmers and ranchers still face barriers to success or are getting ripped off by big corporations. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz have a plan to invest in the future of America’s agricultural industry. They will combat consolidation and other barriers that make it more difficult for small farmers to get ahead, and support the next generation of American farming by:

  • Making it Easier for Beginning Farmers and Ranchers to Get Started by improving access to credit for beginning farmers—including by reducing barriers to receive USDA’s farm ownership and operating loans—and supporting training and technical assistance including for military veterans and young farmers. This builds on Vice President Harris and Governor Walz’s proposals to provide one million forgivable loans to entrepreneurs who have historically faced barriers to accessing credit as well as low- to zero-interest loans to small businesses that create jobs.
  • Expanding Farmland Protection Programs including supporting working farm easements that ensure farmland remains farmland and isn’t lost to non-agricultural buyers.
  • Doubling Down on Partnerships with Farmers and Producers to Build New Markets and Streams of Incomes. That’s why Vice President Harris fought tirelessly for the Inflation Reduction Act, which included a $20 billion investment to help the agricultural community voluntarily adopt and expand conservation and climate smart agricultural strategies—all while saving money, creating new income streams, ensuring the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes, and increasing productivity. If elected, Vice President Harris and Governor Walz will double down on this work.
  • Ensuring America’s Farmers Have the Right to Repair Their Equipment. Currently, equipment manufacturers put in place restrictions, such as software blocks on tractors and other farm equipment, that make it difficult if not impossible for farmers to repair their own equipment. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz will require manufacturers of electronics-enabled agricultural equipment to share documents, parts, software, and tools with owners and independent repair shops by working with Congress to enact the Agricultural Right to Repair Act.
  • Boost Competition to Create Opportunities for Small Farmers and Ranchers. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz will support small businesses in the agricultural industry, including continuing successful efforts to block excessive consolidation by working with Congress to pass bipartisan legislation to increase antitrust enforcement in agriculture and help ensure poultry growers and ranchers get a fair price. They will also focus on expanding production among new suppliers and small farms, growers, and processors to create broad-based, resilient local and regional food supply chains and spur competition with large conglomerates.
  • Ensuring Crop Insurance Works for All Farmers and Ranchers. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz will strengthen the Federal Crop Insurance Program by directing the USDA to study whether the program should cover additional crops and working with Congress to ensure the program protects against more threats like natural disasters and extreme climate events – risks that raise costs and disrupt supply chains.
  • Growing Opportunities and Small and Mid-Size Farms and Small Businesses in Rural and Tribal Communities to Sell to Customers Around the Globe. Research shows that agricultural export losses due to retaliatory tariffs from Trump’s trade wars totaled more than $27 billion in 2018 and 2019. The impact on small farmers and rural communities was devastating: agricultural jobs fell, U.S. farm bankruptcies surged, and net farm income plummeted. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz will provide technical assistance to small and mid-sized farmers and businesses so that they have more opportunity to sell their products.

Donald Trump will make the challenges that American farmers face worse. As President, he bailed out the largest 10% of farmers, while sacrificing smaller family farms in his trade wars. Between September 2018 and September 2019, farm bankruptcy filings rose 24% nationally. He also enabled big meatpackers and agribusinesses to run family farms out of business. As his own Secretary of Agriculture said, “In America, the big get bigger and the small go out.” Now, if Trump is elected again, his Project 2025 agenda will hurt rural America, including making crop insurance for family farmers even more expensive and risking another slew of retaliatory tariffs. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz believe in rural America and pledge to support rural Americans to create a New Way Forward.

Israel, Israel-Palestine, Jewish issues, News & Photo Features

UJA Federation October 7 Commemoration Draws High-Profile Leaders, Survivors, Hostage Families, and Performers and 5,000 Supporters

By Karen Rubin, News-Photos-Features.com, [email protected]

One year after the October 7 massacre of 1200 Israelis and the kidnapping of 250 hostages,  a community-wide memorial and commemoration was held in Central Park, New York City to honor the heroes, remember those brutally killed and kidnapped on that horrific day, and demand the release of the remaining 101 hostages.

Organized by the UJA Federation of New York, the 5,000 gathered heard from survivors of the Nova massacre, bereaved parents, and hostage family members who shared their stories. More than 50 rabbis of every denomination led a deeply moving communal Kaddish; an interfaith delegation offered their prayers for unity and peace. Spirits were lifted by the voices of teens from local high school choirs, along with renowned singers David Broza, Eden Golan, and Regina Spektor,

Here are highlights:

New York elected officials, including Governor Kathy Hochul, US Senator Charles Schumer, US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, NYS Attorney General Letitia James, NYS Comptroller Tom DiNapoli and NYC Mayor Eric Adams light memorial candles © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
New York elected officials, including Governor Kathy Hochul, US Senator Charles Schumer, US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, NYS Attorney General Letitia James, NYS Comptroller Tom DiNapoli and NYC Mayor Eric Adams light memorial candles © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
50 New York area rabbis lead the Kaddish, the mourner’s prayer © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
Ron Segev, a survivor of the Nova Music Festival massacre on October 7, recounts four hours of terror as he, his brother and friends ran for their lives, dodging bullets. They finally found a car, drove back to pick up people, got 12 people out. His friend was pregnant and has since delivered a baby. He founded Tribe of Nova foundation.”We have to keep fighting anti-Semitism.” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
Choirs from Heschel High School, Ramaz Upper School and Sar High School © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
Ronen and Orna Neutra, parents of Omar Neutra, who grew up on Long Island and one of seven Americans among the 101 hostages still held captive, plead for the release of hostages.  “We feel grief, layer upon layer, we felt buried alive. Omar was born one month after Sept. 11th terror attack in NYC, he marked his 22nd birthday in captivity and will spend his 23rd birthday in captivity. He is a descendent of Holocaust survivors on both sides of the family. “We are caught up in a geopolitical nightmare – we feel the hostages are not the priority… This is not a political issue. Omar and 100 others are running out of time… Every moment is risk to their lives. Israel in direct conflict with Iran for the second time…any attempt to de-escalate conflict must begin with the release of hostages. Bring them home. A ceasefire would relieve suffering on all sides. But also clear ongoing military pressure in Gaza that is risking lives of hostages. A deal for the release is the only viable path. But it requires political will that is lacking. Push Hamas’ patrons, bring Israel back to the negotiation table… There is no victory in Israel without hostages coming home so we as Jews can move forward…Bring them home.” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
Choirs from Heschel High School, Ramaz Upper School and Sar High School © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
An Interfaith Leaders of New York delegation – Pastors William Devlin, Reggie Stutzman, Reverenc Charles Galbreath, Patrick Molloy, Father Ryan Muldoon, Iman Muhammad Shahidullah, and Bishop Nancy Rosario, led by Bishop Mitchell Taylor. “The spirit of unity transcends our differences,” mourning those who have been lost “while committing us to a world where love prevails over hate.” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
Israel’s Consul to the United Nations, Ofir Akunis joins with family members of abducted, Rabbi Doron Perez, father of Captain Daniel Perez; Na’ama and Nabav Miran, siblings of Omri Miran; Ronen and Orna Neutra, parents of Omer Neutra; Sigal Steiner Manzuri, mother of murdered victims Norel and Roya. “One year ago, the Devil himself invaded our country. For one year, Hamas holding 101 innocent Israelies, Americans and citizens of 20 countries as hostages,” Ambassador Akunis said. Since then, Israel has been fighting for its life, eliminating terror threats on our doorstep. Bringing home the people and restoring peace to borders is our duty. Hamas uses Israeli hostages and Gazans as human shields – hospitals, mosques, schools, kindergartens. Our brave solders risk everything to save a human life, these modern day Maccabeans.”  © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
Dan Och, UJA Federation © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
Israel’s Eurovision superstar, Eden Golan, performs “October Rain” at the UJA Federation October 7 Commemoration. Eurovision, pressured to ban Israel from the competition, required Golan to remove reference to October 7 in her song “Hurricane,” and she endured death threats and vicious anti-Semitic attacks. In May, she performed at a rally in Tel Aviv to demand the release of the hostages and marched on UJA’s float on Israel Day in New York City along with a huge contingent representing the hostages. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
David Broza, joined by the Tzofim  performs at the UJA Federation October 7 Commemoration. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
Cantor Chaim Dovid Berson of Congregation Kehilath Jesurun, leads the prayer for Israel’s defense forces. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
Cantor Azi Schwartz of Park Avenue Synagogue leads the prayer for Israel. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
Regina Spektor sings the “Avinu” prayer, and the moving melody, “Eli, Eli,” a song written in 1942 by Hungarian Jewish WWII resistance fighter Hannah Szenes just before being killed and set to music by Israeli composer David Zehavi in 1945,  at the UJA Federation October 7 Commemoration © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
Three cantors lead the national anthems of the United States and Israel  © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
Bring them home, now. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

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© 2024 News & Photo Features Syndicate, a division of Workstyles, Inc. All rights reserved. For editorial feature and photo information, go to www.news-photos-features.com, email [email protected]. Blogging at www.dailykos.com/blogs/NewsPhotosFeatures. ‘Like’ us at facebook.com/NewsPhotoFeatures, Tweet @KarenBRubin Threads: @news_and_photo_features

Climate Change, Election 2024, News & Photo Features

Reminder: Trump Gutted FEMA and Blocked Disaster Relief Funding as President. His Project 2025 Agenda Would Be a Disaster

While lying about the Biden administration’s swift and efficient relief efforts after Hurricane Helene, Trump has gone out of his way to undermine the relief effort, even deflecting resources by his showboat appearance in a stricken community, and sowing anxiety and distress among traumatized, desperate people.

Claiming to have had a sterling record on hurricane relief when he was president? Recall the disgusting scene of him tossing paper towels in Puerto Rico to victims of Hurricane Maria, and saying Puerto Rico was too far out into the ocean to get relief, then hiring a crony from Montana to fix the electric grid (it didn’t).

Trump, who in yet another instance of projection, accuses Biden of steering aid away from Republican communities (not true), but was the one who withheld disaster aid to California enduring historic wildfires, actually blamed the state for not trimming trees enough, and withheld coronavirus tests and masks to Democratic areas, telling Governors to fend for themselves.

Here’s a reminder from the Harris-Walz campaign: – Karen Rubin, news-photo-features.com, [email protected]

Damning News Report Revives Questions About Trump and Flood Protections

Trump to Victims of Hurricane Helene: “You’ll be ok”

As Donald Trump campaigns in states impacted by Hurricane Helene, headlines are calling attention to a “damning” news report that raises questions about Trump’s record of rolling back flood protections and storm standards intended to prevent the kind of devastation we are seeing today.

The news comes on the heels of shocking reporting that Trump refused to provide disaster relief as President until he was briefed with political maps of how many people there voted for him.

This week’s news reflects Trump’s consistent record as President: gutting FEMA, blocking critical disaster relief, and making crisis after crisis about himself while leaving hard working Americans on their own.

Trump rolled back flooding standards intended to prevent the very kind of devastation we’re currently seeing in Western North Carolina and other parts of the South in order to benefit his wealthy donors

Trump diverted over $150 million in FEMA disaster funds ahead of Hurricane Dorian hitting the Southeast

He threatened to veto legislation providing nearly $5 billion in disaster relief funding after extreme earthquakes

He dangled federal aid for Michigan over his opposition t0 the state’s mail-in ballot program

Trump called for cuts to numerous programs that help prepare, manage, and mitigate wildfiresHe proposed budget cuts to NOAA that would have left the US unprepared for extreme weather

He refused to give California wildfire aid until told how many people there voted for him

Trump’s “Sharpiegate” (Hurricane Dorian)

Trump tossing paper towels (Hurricane Florence)
Trump’s running mate is no better: JD Vance voted against $16 billion in disaster relief and lifting restrictions for FEMA funding.

Trump and Vance’s Project 2025 agenda would go even further.

Project 2025 proposes eliminating disaster loans for families and small businesses rebuilding after storms and to cut assistance for hurricane victims

Project 2025 calls to increase FEMA’s threshold for state and local government disaster assistance

Project 2025 recommends privatizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) National Flood Insurance Program and rolling back FEMA emergency response spending, saddling states and localities with the majority of preparedness and response costs at a time when climate change is raising the likelihood and cost of natural disasters

And it would officially dismantle NOAA and eliminate the National Weather Service’s federal weather forecasting

DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd  added,  “JD Vance took time in Georgia today to shout out his ‘great friend’ right after she finished spreading fresh conspiracy theories about how ‘they’ can control the weather while Georgia is still recovering from Hurricane Helene. Let’s be clear: Marjorie Taylor Greene is a wildly out-of-touch conspiracy theorist and election-denying extremist who is as toxic to voters as the Trump-Vance Project 2025 agenda itself — and that’s just another reason why we’re sure that Vance will have plenty more free time to spend with his ‘great friend’ after this November.”

Harris-Walz 2024 Spokesperson Sarafina Chitika stated, “As president, Donald Trump gutted FEMA, blocked disaster relief, rolled back flooding standards to benefit his wealthy donors, and made crisis after crisis about himself instead of keeping Americans safe,.

” A Trump victory this November is a disaster waiting to happen: His Project 2025 agenda would slash FEMA funding, privatize weather forecasting, and leave us unprepared for the coming storms.

“Americans deserve a president who works to prevent these extreme weather crises, not an unserious man who tosses paper towels at a photo op when people are suffering. Vice President Harris will always fight to ensure families and communities have the resources they need to make it through extreme weather events like we’re seeing now.”

Biden Administration, News & Photo Features

Biden-Harris Administration Updates on Hurricane Helene Response in Florida, Georgia, Oct. 2

This update on Biden-Harris Administration’s Hurricane Helene Response is provided by the White House:

President Biden and Vice President Harris continue to mobilize an intensive Federal response to the impacts of Hurricane Helene. The Administration is prioritizing life-saving and life-sustaining response efforts in impacted communities, as well as ensuring people displaced from the storm have prompt access to Federal resources that will enable them to both purchase essential items and begin their road to recovery and rebuilding.
 
President Biden has “received praise from Republican governors” as a result of his leadership throughout the response – including speaking to several Republican leaders across the country.

Biden-Harris Administration Updates on Hurricane Helene Response in Florida

Latest updates as of October 2:

  • The White House has reached out to more than 200 officials across Florida over the last few days to offer support and gauge additional assistance needs.
  • President Biden made additional disaster assistance available to the State of Florida by authorizing an increase in the level of Federal funding for emergency work. Under the President’s order today, Federal funds for debris removal and emergency protective measures, including direct Federal assistance, has been increased to 100 percent of the total eligible costs for 90 days from the start of the incident period.
  • President Biden approved a major disaster declaration for the state of Florida, allowing survivors to immediately access funds and resources to jumpstart their recovery. People in 17 counties in Florida can now apply for assistance with FEMA. People can apply in three ways: online by visiting disasterassistance.gov, calling 1-800-621-3362 or on the FEMA App.
    • FEMA assistance in Florida may include upfront funds to help with essential items like food, water, baby formula and other emergency supplies. Funds may also be available to repair storm-related damage to homes and personal property, as well as assistance to find a temporary place to stay.
  • Five counties were added for individual assistance in response to Hurricane Helene. Florida homeowners and renters in 22 counties who had uninsured damage or losses caused by Hurricane Helene may be eligible for FEMA disaster assistance.
    • FEMA may be able to help with serious needs, displacement, temporary lodging, basic home repair costs, personal property loss or other disaster-caused needs. Homeowners and renters in Charlotte, Citrus, Columbia, Dixie, Franklin, Gilchrist, Hamilton, Hernando, Hillsborough, Jefferson, Lafayette, Lee, Leon, Levy, Madison, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Sarasota, Suwannee, Taylor and Wakulla counties can apply.
  • FEMA has already approved more than $3 million to help survivors recover.
  • FEMA Disaster Survivor Assistance crews are in Florida neighborhoods helping people apply for FEMA assistance after Hurricane Helene.
  • Disaster Recovery Centers are operating in Pinellas, Taylor, Manatee, Sarasota and Hillsborough counties to provide one-on-one help to Floridians affected by Hurricane Helene.
  • The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is conducting debris assessments in four counties and water/wastewater assessments in three counties.
  • The Salvation Army has 29 active mobile feeding units serving meals & distributing supplies in nine counties.
  • The American Red Cross is conducting direct emergency feeding and working with feeding partners to provide distribution in support of partner production
  • Team Rubicon Greyshirts will arrive soon to begin several weeks of muckouts/removal of mud and debris from homes.
  • FEMA awarded an expedited grant of nearly $18.7 million to the State of Florida for emergency protective measures for Hurricane Helene, including search and rescue, search and recovery, patient movement, critical infrastructure and hazardous materials response, emergency operations support and mass care coordination.
  • FEMA Voluntary Agency Liaisons are working are working with the state to help coordinate voluntary support efforts.
  • EPA is providing a mobile testing lab to assist the state with water sample testing.

Biden-Harris Administration Updates on Hurricane Helene Response in Georgia

Latest updates as of October 2:

  • Vice President Harris visited Georgia today to receive operational briefings, meet with residents impacted by the storm, and provide updates to local officials on actions that are being taken to support emergency response and recovery efforts in Georgia.
  • The President has approved Governor Kemp’s request for a 100 percent Federal cost share for debris removal and emergency protective measures for three months. This will support the urgent work to address the impacts from debris removal and flooding, and will cover costs of first responders, search and rescue, shelters, mass feeding, and other emergency response activities in this critical time.
  • President Biden approved a Major Disaster declaration for Georgia, allowing individuals in 41 counties to apply for FEMA assistance. People in these Georgia counties can now apply for assistance with FEMA.
    • People can apply in three ways: online by visiting disasterassistance.gov, calling 1-800-621-3362 or on the FEMA App.
  • FEMA Disaster Survivor Assistance teams are in the field, focusing on shelters where they will assist survivors in applying for assistance.
  • FEMA has already approved more than $663,000 in individual assistance to survivors.
  • Power restoration crews continue working 24 hours a day throughout parts of Georgia. Generators, mutual aid crews and additional power restoration assets are being moved into the hardest hit areas as debris removal allows.
  • The U.S. Department of Energy has responders deployed to Georgia to assist restoration efforts.
  • A FEMA Incident Management Assistance Team is onsite at the state Emergency Operations Center to coordinate with the state and facilitate any requests for assistance.
  • In Georgia, 520 survivors are staying in eight shelters.
  • The American Red Cross is conducting direct emergency feeding and working with feeding partners to provide distribution in support of partner production.
  • The Salvation Army has 26 active mobile feeding in 10 Georgia counties.
  • Team Rubicon is conducting route clearing operations in Ray City.
  • Residents can find resources like shelters and feeding sites at gema.georgia.gov/hurricane-helene. 
  • In Georgia 75% of power outages have been restored.
  • Five FEMA Division Supervisors are establishing contact with Georgia Emergency Management Agency Regional Coordinators.
  • FEMA is supporting commodity requests across the state, including water, ice, shelf-stable meals, fuel (gasoline, diesel, propane) and tarps.
  • FEMA Disaster Survivor Assistance teams are conducting Assess, Inform Report missions. These mission focus on disaster impacts to the community and reflect emerging or critical issues impacting the community such as infrastructure and public services. These data points are issues that could affect most if not all survivors in the community.
  • Ten American Red Cross shelters are open with a population of 513. Shelters are in Brooks, Clinch, Coffee, Cook, Lanier, Lowndes, McDuffie, Pierce, Richmond, and Treutlan counties
  • Two animal shelters are open including one American Red Cross shelter in Cook County.
Biden Administration, Climate Change, News & Photo Features

FACT SHEET: UPDATE: Biden-Harris Continues Life-Saving Response Efforts in Response to Hurricane Helene

Today, President Biden is announcing 1,000 active-duty troops will be immediately deployed to assist with response and recovery efforts

As part of a coordinated response to the devastation of Hurricane Helene, President Biden  announced he has directed the Department of Defense to deploy up to 1,000 active-duty soldiers to support the delivery of food, water, and other critical commodities to communities impacted by Hurricane Helene © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com via MSNBC

This fact sheet of the Biden-Harris administration’s continued life-saving response to the devastation of Hurricane Helene is provided by the White House:

President Biden and Vice President Harris continue to mobilize an intensive Federal response to the impacts of Hurricane Helene. The Administration is prioritizing life-saving and life-sustaining response efforts in impacted communities, as well as ensuring people displaced from the storm have prompt access to Federal resources that will enable them to both purchase essential items and begin their road to recovery and rebuilding.
 
As part of this coordinated response, today, President Biden is announcing he has directed the Department of Defense to deploy up to 1,000 active-duty soldiers to support the delivery of food, water, and other critical commodities to communities impacted by Hurricane Helene. The announcement is effective immediately, and these forces will be available for deployment starting today. This action will provide additional manpower and logistics capabilities, enabling FEMA and other interagency partners to reach the hardest hit areas as quickly as possible.
 
This comes as the President is traveling today to North Carolina and South Carolina. In Western North Carolina, he will survey areas impacted by Hurricane Helene by air, receive operational briefings, and meet with first responders and local officials. He will also meet with first responders and officials in South Carolina. The President will also visit Florida and Georgia in the coming days. The Vice President will travel to Georgia today and North Carolina in the coming days.
 
Yesterday, President Biden received a briefing from his Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall and leaders across his Administration, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan, Department of Defense Deputy Secretary Kathleen Hicks, Department of Commerce Deputy Secretary Don Graves, Department of Energy Deputy Secretary David Turk, U.S. Army Corps of Engineer LTG William H. (Butch) Graham Jr., Small Business Administration Deputy Administrator Dilawar Syed, Department of Agriculture Under Secretary Robert Bonnie, and Department of Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary Dawn O’Connell.
 
Additional updates on the Administration’s response efforts include:
 
Mobilizing Defense Department Resources to Support Prompt and Effective Hurricane Response
 
Today, the President is announcing he has directed the Department of Defense to deploy up to 1,000 active-duty soldiers to support response efforts. These soldiers are part of an Infantry Battalion Task Force, based out of Fort Liberty, North Carolina, which includes a Forward Support Company with the necessary support structure (fuel, water, mechanics, etc.) to conduct operations.
 
These soldiers are in addition to the support the Department of Defense is already providing to FEMA for the response to Hurricane Helene including:

  • US Army and US Navy helicopters, soldiers, and sailors to provide critical capability to move personnel and supplies in areas where access via roads is not available or viable.
    • US Air Force aircraft, helicopters, and airmen to provide search-and-rescue capabilities.
    • US Army soldiers and high wheeled vehicles to move personnel and supplies over roads and terrain damaged or impassable to normal vehicles.
    • The Army Corps of Engineers is supporting with response efforts with Temporary Power Teams and subject matter experts to support for debris removal, water and wastewater management, and bridge inspections. 

At the President’s direction, the Department of Defense has activated 22 helicopters to aid in search and rescue operations and provided dozens of high-water vehicles. The National Guard, in its state capacity, is also aiding these efforts. 700 National Guard from North Carolina are supporting debris removal, air lifts, and search and rescue. They are accompanied by National Guard from eight additional states under Emergency Mutual Assistance Compacts, with helicopters and rescue vehicles to further assist with road clearance, commodities, transport, and search and rescue.

Although not operating under Department of Defense authority, over 6,000 National Guard personnel from 12 states are spearheading the response effort across the impacted region in support of their Governors, providing critical life-saving and life-sustaining support to the victims of this unprecedented natural disaster.

Supporting On-The-Ground Response and Emergency Efforts

More than 4,800 personnel from across the Federal workforce are deployed and supporting state-led response efforts across the region. FEMA and other agencies have more than 1,200 personnel in North Carolina, with more resources and staff arriving daily.

Search and rescue efforts by state, local, and Federal partners are ongoing, and nearly 600 additional personnel are arriving in the region in the coming days, increasing the total number of Urban Search and Rescue personnel to over 1,250.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra declared Public Health Emergencies for South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina. These declarations give the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ health care providers and suppliers greater flexibility in meeting emergency health needs of Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. HHS has established a National Disaster Medical System medical treatment site at the Mission Hospital campus in Asheville and Blue Ridge Regional Hospital in Spruce Pines, North Carolina. HHS Health and Medical Task Force Teams are supporting state medical needs shelters in Hickory and Mills Springs, North Carolina. An HHS Incident Management Team is working closely with state officials to identify health care needs including in rural communities and areas which may be cut off from transportation systems. HHS has also deployed two Disaster Mortuary Assistance Team (DMAT) to assist state mortuary services in mortuary care of victim identification. HHS has made 9 DMAT teams available nationwide. Additionally, 200 Federal ambulances have been provided to North Carolina.

In total, FEMA has shipped over 8.5 million meals, more than 7 million liters of water, 150 generators and over 220,000 tarps to aid response efforts for this historic storm.

Restoring Power and Communications to Impacted Communities

Power outage numbers are improving as restoration teams from across the nation gain access to communities and debris is removed, although much more work remains to bring power back to badly impacted areas across the region. As of this morning, approximately 1.6 million customers are still without power, which is a reduction of more than 65% from the region-wide peak of 4.6 million on September 27.

In addition to intensive efforts to restore power, crews are working around the clock to restore cell service and communications to impacted communities. FEMA, the FCC, and private telecommunications providers are working together to help restore temporary communications as quickly as possible by establishing temporary cell sites and allowing for roaming where possible, where a resident can connect to any network available, even if they aren’t subscribed to that network.

FEMA has provided 50 Starlink satellite systems to help with responder communications and 65 satellite phones have been shipped to assist with communications.

Restoring Road Access

The Department of Transportation activated its 24-hour toll-free Routing Assistance Hotline to provide routing assistance for first responders conducting relief missions. The Hotline supports the movement of Federal, state, local, Tribal, and Territorial response personnel and contractors, equipment, and goods by providing recommended safe routes using a variety of data sources. To reach the Hotline, responders can call 511 from their mobile phones or 833–99-ROADS (833-997-6237).  The Department of Transportation also announced that with the President’s approval of Emergency Disaster Declarations it has initiated a 14-day period of emergency regulatory relief from Federal Motor Carrier Safety regulations, including maximum driving time for property- and passenger-carrying vehicles from the date of declaration. This allows truck drivers to get essential supplies to affected areas. 

Extending Housing Aid to Impacted Families

Following President Biden’s approval of a Major Disaster declaration in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) began implementing supplemental assistance, which includes a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures of FHA-insured mortgages and mortgages guaranteed under the Section 184 Indian Home Loan Guarantee program, as well as an automatic 90-day extension for Home Equity Conversion Mortgages.

Anyone whose home has been destroyed or severely damaged is also eligible to apply for HUD mortgage insurance. HUD is also enabling homeowners to finance rehabilitation and repairs for damaged homes.

To support households and communities through disaster recovery, HUD will provide Housing Counseling assistance and offer waivers and additional flexibilities to Public Housing Agencies, Tribes, and recipients of designated federal funding to allow communities to use existing resources to aid in response and recovery efforts. Additionally, HUD offered a suite of waivers and alternative requirements to allow impacted communities to use existing community development and homelessness assistance funds to aid in response and recovery efforts.  

Approving Additional Emergency Assistance

President Biden has now also approved Major Disaster Declarations for Georgia and Virginia, allowing individuals in 41 counties in Georgia and 6 in Virginia to apply for FEMA assistance. Administration officials are in touch with Georgia emergency management officials, and based on their ongoing assessments of impacts on the ground, FEMA is in the process of approving federal assistance for additional counties. This is in addition to approving Major Disaster declarations for Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina earlier in the weekend.

To date, more than $10 million in Individual Assistance has been provided to survivors who have been affected by Hurricane Helene, and we expect that number to increase over the coming days. In North Carolina, through the expedited Serious Needs Assistance program, FEMA has paid out more than $1 million to over 1,400 households in less than 24 hours.

FEMA assistance in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia can include a one-time $750 payment to help with essential items like food, water, baby formula and other emergency supplies. After registering for disaster assistance, individuals may also qualify to receive disaster-related financial assistance to repair storm-related damage to homes and replace personal property, as well as assistance to find a temporary place to stay. Homeowners and renters with damage to their home or personal property from previous disasters, whether they received FEMA funds or not, are still eligible to apply for and receive assistance for Hurricane Helene.

FEMA Disaster Survivor Assistance teams are deployed to Florida and North Carolina to help survivors register for disaster assistance, visiting shelters and going door to door to help people get Federal assistance where they need it as quickly as feasible.

Biden Administration, Climate Change, News & Photo Features

FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration’s Continued Response to Hurricane Helene, State by State Update

President Joe Biden gives an update on the federal response to the devastating havoc caused by Hurricane Helene © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com via MSNBC

This update Biden-Harris Administration’s continued response efforts after the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Helene across multiple states for days, one of the deadliest storms ever to hit is provided by an administration official.

The National Weather Service reported Helene made landfall in the Big Bend area of the Florida Gulf Coast as a Category 4 storm late in the evening of September 26, 2024.  Although slowly weakening as it moved north across the Deep South and then northwestward across the southern Appalachians, Helene caused significant impacts across a large portion of the Southeast U.S., especially around the southern Appalachians. It brought record wind and rain, lines of tornadoes.

While FEMA has attributed Helene’s severity to the ongoing climate crisis, Donald Trump dismisses climate change as a “scam” and didn’t mind disrupting rescue and recovery efforts underway in order to showboat a photo opp in a devastated Georgia community, actually lying about the Biden-Harris administration’s response and outreach to Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and others and charging that the Biden administration discriminates against sending disaster aid to red states (which is what Trump did throughout his presidency. And be reminded that Trump pressured Speaker Johnson to shutdown government unless he got a law requiring voters to prove their citizenship attached to the budget authorization, which would have left these communities without any assistance whatsoever. Trump is the last one to criticize federal response when his “help” to Puerto Rico after devastating Hurricane Maria was to toss paper towels and give the contract to rebuilt the power infrastructure to a Montana crony.

Trump advocates shutting down NOAA, the Weather Service and Hurricane Preparedness (because they provide evidence of human-caused climate change). Trump, who pulled the US out of the Paris Climate Accord in his first term and reversed Obama’s climate initiatives) also promised Big Oil donors that if they ponied up $1 billion, he would reverse Biden’s historic climate actions, and his answer to everything from inflation to housing affordability is “drill baby, drill.”

In contrast, “Vice President Kamala Harris canceled her West Coast campaigning and headed straight to FEMA headquarters in DC to do what she’s always done — confront the existential threat of climate change head-on. Through her unwavering support for the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act and the 2021 infrastructure law, Harris has championed investments in environmentally friendly programs and resources, showcasing a dedication to safeguarding our planet for future generations,” the progressive organization Indivisible writes.

“Trump’s legacy of environmental deregulation and his current ambitions to dismantle vital agencies like the National Weather Service pose a direct threat to our nation’s ability to respond to climate-related disasters — such actions would leave us blindsided in the face of future crises, rendering the unconscionable notion of being unprepared a reality.”

The Biden-Harris Administration continues to lead a robust Federal response to help impacted communities in the wake of Hurricane Helene. The Administration is working around the clock and mobilizing every resource available to support life-saving response efforts in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida.
 
The President and Vice President continue to receive regular briefings from their teams, including today, and Administration officials remain in constant communication with state and local officials to ensure they have the support and resources they need. President Biden has spoken with North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, and Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer, along with other state and local officials in the impacted areas to offer further assistance as needed. This afternoon, the President was briefed by Governor Cooper and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell from the field following surveys of Helene’s impacts across the State. Vice President Harris also received an in-person briefing at FEMA today and has been in touch with Governor Cooper, Governor Kemp, Greenville Mayor Knox White, and Savannah Mayor Van Johnson.
 
President Biden directed Administrator Criswell to determine what more can be done to accelerate delivering support to those who are having the most difficult time accessing assistance in isolated communities. At the President’s direction, Administrator Criswell has been on the ground to survey damage and determine any unmet needs, and at the President’s direction she will remain on the ground in Asheville, North Carolina, until the situation has stabilized.

An administration official provided this update as of October 1:

Biden-Harris Administration Updates on Hurricane Helene Response in North Carolina

Latest updates as of October 1:

  • At the Direction of President Biden, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell is in North Carolina and will remain there until the situation has stabilized. FEMA and other agencies have more than 1,200 personnel in North Carolina, with more resources and staff arriving daily.
    • President Biden plans to visit North Carolina on Wednesday to survey the damage, receive a briefing at the State Emergency Operations Center and participate in an aerial tour of Asheville.Yesterday, the White House reached out to over 130 officials in North Carolina and Georgia.
    • After President Biden approved a Major Disaster declaration for North Carolina over the weekend, people in 25 counties in North Carolina can now apply for assistance with FEMA. More counties may be declared in these states as damage assessments continue.
  • People can apply in three ways: online by visiting disasterassistance.gov, calling 1-800-621-3362 or on the FEMA App.
    • FEMA Disaster Survivor Assistance teams are deployed to North Carolina to help survivors register for disaster assistance, answer questions and help people jumpstart their recovery. Team members will be visiting shelter locations to help survivors without cell service or power be able to begin their application.
    • FEMA assistance in may include funds to help with essential items like food, water, baby formula and emergency supplies. Funds may also be available to repair storm-related damage to homes and personal property, as well as assistance for a temporary place to stay.
    • Homeowners and renters with damage to their home or personal property from previous disasters, whether they received FEMA funds or not, are still eligible to apply for and receive assistance for Hurricane Helene.
  • Power restoration crews continue working 24 hours a day throughout parts of North Carolina. Generators, mutual aid crews and additional power restoration assets are being moved into the hardest hit areas as debris removal allows.
    • The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services teams are working in North Carolina, one team started emergency department decompression at Mission Hospital in Asheville and is treating patients. Another team is moving to Blue Ridge Regional Hospital in Spruce Pine to support emergency department decompression mission. Additionally, 200 federal ambulances have been provided to the state.
    • With 10 search and rescue teams on the ground, another nine teams are arriving today for more than 900 personnel to assist with these efforts. 
    • Together with local and state responders, teams have rescued or supported more than 1,130 in North Carolina.
    • The U.S. Coast Guard crews have saved 21 lives and five pets in the response so far, with rescues continuing in North Carolina.
    • The U.S. Department of Energy has responders deployed to North Carolina to assist restoration efforts.
    • Two FEMA Incident Management Assessment Teams are in North Carolina. The team will coordinate directly with the state to facilitate requests for assistance.
    • So far, 25 trailer-loads of meals and 60 trailers-loads of water have been delivered to the state to support response efforts. More trailer loads of meals and water will be delivered in the coming days.
    • A C-17 cargo plane full of food, water and other commodities has arrived at the forward operating base in Asheville, with a daily flow of commodities established via air bridge.
    • There are 29 shelters open with over 1,000 occupants. 
    • 40 Starlink satellite systems are available to help with responder communications and an additional 140 satellites are being shipped to assist with communications infrastructure restoration.
    • One Starlink will be deployed per county EOC to assist with communications and continuity of government.
    • Generators are moving from Charlotte-Mecklenberg to Asheville, with another 30 generators enroute to the staging base in Mecklenburg.
    • Disaster Medical Assistance Teams are in Asheville providing emergency room medical support at hospitals.
    • FEMA Disaster Survivor Assistance teams are going to the field, focusing on shelters, where they will assist survivors in applying for assistance.
    • The Salvation Army is coordinating with county emergency management agencies and partner organizations. North Carolina’s Incident Management Team is activated, with two canteens in Boone and Buncombe County.

Biden-Harris Administration Updates on Hurricane Helene Response in Georgia

Latest updates as of October 1:

  • President Biden approved a Major Disaster declaration for Georgia, allowing individuals in 41 counties to apply for FEMA assistance. More counties may be declared as damage assessments continue.
  • People can apply in three ways: online by visiting disasterassistance.gov, calling 1-800-621-3362 or on the FEMA App.
  • Yesterday, the White House reached out to over 130 officials in North Carolina and Georgia.
    • Power restoration crews continue working 24 hours a day throughout parts of Georgia. Generators, mutual aid crews and additional power restoration assets are being moved into the hardest hit areas as debris removal allows.
    • FEMA supplied over 500,000 meals primarily to Macon-Bibb County. 
    • FEMA is trucking in 2,500 gallons of gasoline a day to help alleviate potential fuel issues in hard hit communities. 
    • The U.S. Department of Energy has responders deployed to Georgia to assist restoration efforts.
    • A FEMA Incident Management Assistance Team is onsite at the state Emergency Operations Center to coordinate with the state and facilitate any requests for assistance.
    • FEMA Disaster Survivor Assistance teams are going to the field, focusing on shelters, where they will assist survivors in applying for assistance.
    • The American Red Cross, in coordination with FEMA and the Department of Health and Human Services are supporting shelter operations.  Eight shelters are open, supporting 519 survivors.
    • FEMA and the Federal Communications Commission are working with commercial carriers to augment or have telecommunication systems restored.
    • USDA’s Farm Service Agency personnel are traveling to impacted areas to extend emergency credit to farmers and agriculture producers who lost crops and livestock. 
    • The Salvation Army is coordinating with county emergency management agencies and partner organizations. In Georgia, meal services are underway in Valdosta, Alma, Vidalia, with six units serving Chatham County and Augusta.

Biden-Harris Administration Updates on Hurricane Helene Response in Florida

Latest updates as of October 1:

  • The White House has reached out to more than 200 federal, state, and local officials across Florida over the last few days to offer support and gauge additional assistance needs.
    • FEMA Disaster Survivor Assistance teams are in Florida neighborhoods and shelters helping people apply for FEMA assistance after Hurricane Helene.
    • Two FEMA Incident Management Assistance Teams are onsite at the state Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee to coordinate with the state and facilitate any requests for assistance.
    • 30 FEMA Division Supervisors are embedded in 21 Florida county Emergency Operations Centers.
    • All federal Urban Search and Rescue teams have been released from the state to assist other affected states, specifically the Asheville area in North Carolina.
    • Disaster Recovery Centers are operating in Hillsborough, Manatee and Sarasota counties to provide one-on-one help to Floridians affected by Hurricane Helene.
    • On September 28, President Biden approved a major disaster declaration for the state of Florida, allowing survivors to immediately access funds and resources to jumpstart their recovery. People in 17 counties in Florida can now apply for assistance with FEMA. People can apply in three ways: online by visiting disasterassistance.gov, calling 1-800-621-3362 or on the FEMA App.
  • FEMA assistance in Florida may include upfront funds to help with essential items like food, water, baby formula and other emergency supplies. Funds may also be available to repair storm-related damage to homes and personal property, as well as assistance to find a temporary place to stay.
    • Florida homeowners and renters in 17 counties who had uninsured damage or losses caused by Hurricane Helene may be eligible for FEMA disaster assistance.
    • FEMA may be able to help with serious needs, displacement, temporary lodging, basic home repair costs, personal property loss or other disaster-caused needs. Homeowners and renters in Charlotte, Citrus, Dixie, Franklin, Hernando, Hillsborough, Jefferson, Lafayette, Lee, Levy, Madison, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Sarasota, Taylor and Wakulla counties can apply.

Biden-Harris Administration Updates on Hurricane Helene Response in South Carolina

Latest updates as of October 1:

  • President Biden has spoken with South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster.
    • President Biden approved a Major Disaster declaration for South Carolina this weekend, allowing survivors to immediately access funds and resources to jumpstart their recovery. 
  • FEMA assistance in South Carolina may include a one-time $750 payment to help with essential items like food, water, baby formula and other emergency supplies. After registering for disaster assistance, individuals may also qualify to receive disaster-related financial assistance to repair storm-related damage to homes and replace personal property, as well as assistance to find a temporary place to stay.
    • Homeowners and renters with damage to their home or personal property from previous disasters, whether they received FEMA funds or not, are still eligible to apply for and receive assistance for Hurricane Helene.
    • People in 13 counties in South Carolina can now apply for assistance with FEMA. People can apply in four ways: online by visiting disasterassistance.gov, calling 1-800-621-3362, on the FEMA App, or via disaster recovery centers.
  • Emergency declarations were also approved for South Carolina. Under an emergency declaration, FEMA provides direct Federal support to states for life saving activities and other emergency protective measures, such as evacuation, sheltering, and search and rescue.
    • A FEMA Incident Management Assistance Team is onsite at the state Emergency Operations Center in Columbia to coordinate with the state and facilitate any requests for assistance.
    • HHS declared a public health emergency for South Carolina to address the health impacts of Hurricane Helene.
    • Two Urban Search and Rescue teams are working near Greenville and Pickens.
    • 10 shelters are open with a total of 63 survivors seeking shelter there. Additionally, there are 10 medical shelters active in the state.

On Wednesday, President Biden will travel to North Carolina. He will also travel to Georgia and Florida as soon as possible.

Additionally, the Federal government is closely monitoring an additional weather disturbance in the Caribbean Sea that has the potential to form into another storm in the coming week. Residents throughout the Gulf Coast should remain alert, listen to local officials, and make additional preparations as needed.

Economic Development, Economic Policies, Election 2024, Jobs, Manufacturing, News & Photo Features

Harris-Walz Campaign: A New Way Forward To Build American Industrial Strength, Powered by American Workers

Vice President Kamala Harris, campaigning for president, released details of additional plans as part of the Harris-Walz pragmatic agenda to invest in and rebuild America’s industrial capacity. This strategy builds on their core priorities of lowering costs for families, restoring families’ basic economic security and ensuring the middle class continues to be a source of growth for our economy, while investing in American innovation and entrepreneurship. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Critics suggest that Vice President Kamala Harris has not detailed her plans as president (while not seeking the same detail from Donald Trump). Here, Harris documents “A New Way Forward” to build American industrial strength, powered by American workers. She intends to use new America Forward Tax Credits to incentivize investment in strategic industries critical to U.S. leadership in the global economy, removing barriers, while creating well-paying union jobs. This fact sheet was provided by the Harris-Walz campaign: – Karen Rubin/[email protected]

Vice President Harris and Governor Walz are committed to building a stronger economy where everyone has an opportunity to chase their dreams and aspirations, and where the United States continues to out-innovate and out-compete the world in the 21st century. Today, they are releasing additional plans as part of their pragmatic agenda to invest in and continue to rebuild America’s industrial capacity. This strategy builds on their core priorities of lowering costs for families, restoring families’ basic economic security and ensuring the middle class continues to be a source of growth for our economy, while investing in American innovation and entrepreneurship.

Vice President Harris and Governor Walz know that building our capabilities requires investments in our workforce, foundational research, incentives to deploy new technologies, and reforms to build factories and facilities across America at scale and speed. Their plan will do that. They will empower American workers—including union workers and those without a college degree—to surge America’s lead in the industries of the future, revitalize manufacturing communities so that they are at the cutting-edge of manufacturing growth, and cut red tape so America can build more and faster. These efforts will enable the United States to maintain its competitive edge in the industries that are strategic to our economic and national security.

In Vice President Harris and Governor Walz’s vision of an Opportunity Economy, America vigorously invests in and competes for the future, through a strategy that insists on creating opportunity for all and leaving no areas or set of workers behind. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz are calling for a New Way Forward for the middle class—where America invests in the most strategic industries of the future, with a plan to ensure workers and communities share in the benefits of those investments.

The American people face a choice in this election between two fundamentally different paths for our economy. Donald Trump and J.D. Vance’s Project 2025 agenda would weaken the economy and hurt the middle class. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz’s plan will build up the middle class and make sure our economy works for everyone. They know the American economy is the most powerful force for innovation and wealth creation in human history. Their pragmatic approach to strengthening the middle class, supporting workers and unions, and driving our economy forward is grounded in the fundamental values of fairness, dignity, and opportunity.

Launching “America Forward”—To Build America’s Industrial Base and Lead in the Industries of the Future. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz will create an America Forward strategy to drive a new era in American industry and help deploy technologies and manufacture them at scale. Across America Forward investments, a Harris-Walz Administration will focus on making products in America and supporting workers, manufacturing communities, and energy communities. Their strategy will build an economy where all Americans have the chance to compete and succeed.

Vice President Harris and Governor Walz’s America Forward strategy will accelerate our progress, building on the historic investments in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act. Those landmark laws have already spurred billions of dollars of new private investment in emerging technologies and public funding for clean energy technologies, basic research, semiconductor manufacturing, and more.

Creating America Forward Tax Credits. To build America’s industrial base and continue to lead the world, Vice President Harris and Governor Walz are proposing America Forward tax credits targeting investment and job creation in key strategic industries essential to our economic growth and national security. The America Forward tax credits will be linked to the treatment of workers, ensuring the right to organize, and supporting investments in longstanding manufacturing, energy, and agricultural communities.

Investments that would benefit from the America Forward tax credits include, for example:

  • Investments That Make Sure America—Not China—Leads in the Critical Industries of the Future. ​​Vice President Harris and Governor Walz’s strategy is designed to maintain and extend America’s edge in industries of the future. This includes modernizing and reducing emissions in steel and iron production, developing biotechnology that can help produce critical medicines and new sustainable materials, investing in Artificial Intelligence (AI) innovation and building new data centers for AI, expanding clean energy manufacturing and innovation, revitalizing America’s semiconductor industry, investing in aerospace, autos, and other forms of transportation, and producing industrial tools and machines critical to our national and economic security. America cannot sit on the sidelines and cede leadership to nations like China, jeopardizing our national security. From her work on the development and implementation of the White House executive order on AI to her global leadership on AI safety and the convenings she has hosted with labor and civil rights leaders, Vice President Harris has always prioritized innovation that not only keeps America in the lead but that strengthens America’s workforce, protects consumers, and keeps Americans safe.
    • Rewarding Investment That Brings All Areas and Workers Along. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz believe that no one who grows up in one of America’s great industrial or agricultural centers should be abandoned. The America Forward tax credits will provide significant additional benefits to investments made in longstanding manufacturing, energy, and agricultural communities, or longstanding steel and iron communities such as Pennsylvania’s Mon Valley. These new tax credits will also reward companies that work with unions and communities to support workers and to protect jobs.

Creating Opportunity for All Workers, Including Those Without a College Degree. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz believe that anyone with the skills to do a job should be able to get the job, whether or not they have a formal degree. There are tens of millions of good-paying jobs that do not require a college degree—and their plan to invest in America’s industrial capacity will create even more. They will address barriers holding workers without a degree back from working in jobs that they can succeed in and earning a good salary where they live.

Vice President Harris and Governor Walz pledge to eliminate unnecessary degree requirements and promote meaningful pathways for those without college degrees for 500,000 federal jobs—and challenge the business community to do the same. They will also support partnerships with businesses, unions, school districts, community colleges, and faith-based groups to expand access to high-quality, evidence-based programs and create millions of new training opportunities such as registered apprenticeships, pre-apprenticeships, joint-labor management partnerships, and other training opportunities that lead to a good job. In particular, they will set a goal to double the number of registered apprenticeships in America by the end of their first term—in industries ranging from advanced manufacturing to the trades to teaching to health care to cybersecurity and more, as well as a focus on opportunities for youth. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz will also continue to invest in America’s public schools and strengthen STEM education as we prepare the next generation of workers and researchers to compete globally. And they remain committed to cutting red tape by reducing barriers to occupational licensing across state lines, as well as ensuring that workers continue to have good-paying jobs and opportunities amid technological advances.

In addition, Vice President Harris and Governor Walz will reform our tax laws to make it easier for businesses to let workers share in their company’s success, including through broad-based employee stock ownership, profit-sharing plans, and comparable arrangements, with appropriate guardrails to ensure these plans benefit and protect workers.

Invest To Develop and Secure America’s Research Base. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz know that America’s edge in the development of new technologies arises from our ability to lead in basic research while also commercializing at scale. They are proposing a significant investment to shore up our national and economic security by making sure the United States—not China—leads in AI, quantum computing, blockchain, clean technology, biomanufacturing, semiconductors, and other key technology research areas. They will do this by scaling up and making permanent the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource, a shared public research infrastructure to give startups, researchers, and students access to the most advanced computing power, data, and analytical tools, to surge responsible discovery and innovation in AI and allow them to compete with large, privately funded AI companies. They will also ramp up investments in the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy’s national labs, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and other public research and development agencies to keep America at the forefront of technological development.

Safeguarding Access to Critical Minerals for American Manufacturing. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz’s strategy will build a U.S. stockpile and create incentives to build out domestic processing capacity of critical minerals necessary for our economic and national security, including by launching a national reserve for these resources and leveraging the Defense Production Act, Department of Energy resources, and other tools. Increased domestic production will be paired with innovative and sustainable steps to build stronger critical mineral supply chains alongside our allies and partners, including by incentivizing investments that expand U.S. and allied production of these resources. These efforts will reduce our dependence on China, which leads production on many critical minerals.

Building More—and Faster—by Cutting Red Tape. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz know that it takes too long and costs too much to build in America. They support reforms to build projects in the industries of the future more quickly and efficiently and that these projects reflect community input and protect our environment and public health.

Thanks to Vice President Harris’s leadership, we have already made tremendous progress in accelerating new manufacturing projects with strong community buy-in, including through Project Labor Agreements and Community Benefit Agreements. Vice President Harris cast the tie-breaking vote to secure $1 billion under the Inflation Reduction Act to speed permitting review, and she helped finalize a rule to modernize environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act that creates new ways for projects to qualify for the simplest form of environmental review, promotes early public engagement, and accelerates project reviews while setting clear deadlines.

Vice President Haris and Governor Walz will be laser-focused on accelerating projects and unleashing the full potential of American industry by cutting red tape that slows projects down, including through permitting reform that ensures projects are built quickly and efficiently, reflect public input and public priorities, and protect our environment and public health.

Leveling the Playing Field. Vice President Harris won’t let other countries such as China undermine these investments in our workers and U.S. manufacturing. The Biden-Harris Administration has stood up to China when it breaks the rules—including when China threatens American workers and businesses by engaging in unfair trade practices such as flooding the global marketplace with artificially low-priced goods, undermining American shipbuilding, or engaging in forced technology transfer or intellectual property theft. As President, she will never hesitate to take swift and strong measures when China undermines the rules of the road at the expense of our workers, our communities, and our companies. She will also crack down on counterfeit and unsafe goods from China to protect American entrepreneurs, innovators, small businesses, and consumers. She believes in upholding and strengthening international economic rules and norms that protect fair trade and create predictability and stability.

Supporting American-Made Products. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz will enforce Buy America requirements and strengthen the work of the Made in America Office that launched three years ago. They will also focus on contracting with firms that produce in America. In contrast, under Donald Trump’s presidency, he awarded $425 billion—one in four dollars of all federal contracts—to companies engaged in offshoring.

Ensuring These Investments in American Innovation Are Paid For. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz are committed to fiscal responsibility—making investments that will support our economy, while paying for them and reducing the deficit at the same time. This plan will cost approximately $100 billion and will be paid for by a portion of the proceeds of international tax reform, which seeks to prevent a global race to the bottom and to discourage inversions, outsourcing, or international tax strategies designed by corporations to avoid paying their fair share to the United States.

* * *

Vice President Harris and Governor Walz are charting a New Way Forward—to a future where everyone has the opportunity not just to get by, but to get ahead. They will invest in the competitive advantages that make America the strongest nation on Earth—our workers, innovation, and industry—so that America remains a leader in the industries of the future.

Donald Trump, by contrast, failed to deliver for American manufacturing. His presidency was a tale of broken promises. His signature legislative achievement was a $2 trillion tax law that overwhelmingly favored the wealthiest Americans and the largest corporations, making the rich richer.

As a result of Trump’s trade war and his disastrous mismanagement of the pandemic response, by the end of his presidency he wiped out more than half of the manufacturing jobs gained from nearly a decade before. He let China seize the advantage in the production of key technologies, stood by while factories closed and jobs were lost, and tried to cut funding for the loan and research programs that have been advancing American technology. He failed to pass serious legislation that could have boosted our infrastructure or advanced American manufacturing—but the Biden-Harris Administration got it done.

A second Trump presidency would be even worse. His Project 2025 agenda would repeal the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, threatening hundreds of thousands of new manufacturing jobs. And he would establish what is effectively a national sales tax on everything from groceries to prescription drugs, costing middle-class families nearly $4,000 a year.

Biden Administration, Civil Rights, Criminal Justice, Economic Development, Justice Agenda

FACT SHEET: President Biden and Vice President Harris Are Delivering for Black Americans

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris implement the SAFE Communities Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), the most significant gun violence reduction legislation enacted in nearly 30 years, which has had a measureable effect in the administration achieving record declines in gun violence including murder rates. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com via MSNBC).

The fact sheet detailing the actions the Biden-Harris administration has taken to better the lives of Black communities, delivering historic results, was provided by the White House:

Over the past four years, President Biden and Vice President Harris have taken action to ensure the promise of America reaches every community—including Black communities. These actions have delivered historic results, enabling more Black Americans to access a quality education, obtain a good-paying job, start a business, and buy a home—driving significant gains in wealth. From growing economic and educational opportunities to improving health outcomes, from enhancing public trust and public safety to advancing equity, civil rights, and racial justice, the Biden-Harris Administration has demonstrated its deep commitment to ensuring equal opportunity for all and investing in the future of Black Americans.
 
Securing Economic Mobility, Educational Opportunity, and the American Dream for Black Communities
 
President Biden and Vice President Harris believe that the promise of America—the American Dream—is that everyone should have a fair shot at getting ahead. Under the Biden-Harris Administration, we have made progress: 

  • Achieved the lowest Black unemployment rate on record and created 2.4 million jobs for Black workers as of August 2024
    • Lifted 400,000 Black children out of poverty by increased SNAP benefits through updating the Thrifty Food Plan, and continuing to call on Congress to restore the full expanded Child Tax Credit—which, during the COVID-19 pandemic, cut Black child poverty in half benefitting 600,000 and brought racial poverty disparities to a record low Grew Black American business ownership at the fastest rate in over three decades Tripled the number of SBA-backed loans to Black-owned businesses Awarded a record $10 billion in federal contracts to Black-owned small businesses in Fiscal Year 2023 Invested a record of more than $16 billion in Historically Black Colleges and Universities Secured a $900 increase to the maximum Pell Grant award—the largest increase in the past 10 years—and $23 million in first-ever funding to the Augustus F. Hawkins Centers of Excellence Program to increase the number of teachers of color and multilingual educators across the country Approved the cancellation of almost $170 billion in student loan debt for nearly 5 million borrowers, including a significant number of Black borrowers who are disproportionately burdened by student debt  Took on racial bias in home appraisals and closed the Black-white home misevaluation gap by 40% Reduced mortgage insurance premiums for FHA loans, saving 76,000 Black households an average of $900/year Cut costs for high-speed internet to 5.5 million Black households with the Affordable Connectivity Program Distributed $2.2 billion in financial assistance to over 43,000 farmers who experienced discrimination 
    • Led a historically equitable economic recovery—Black wealth, even after adjusting for inflation, is up 60% relative to pre-pandemic levels—the largest increase on record

 
Ending Health Disparities
 
President Biden and Vice President Harris are committed to keeping health care costs down for individuals and families and improving access to health care to address disparities in Black communities. To improve health outcomes for the Black community, the Biden-Harris Administration has:
 

  • Ensured more Black Americans have health care than ever before by lowering premium costs by an average of $800 for millions of Americans, increasing Black enrollment in Affordable Care Act coverage by 95%, or over 1.7 million people since 2020
    • Lowered monthly premiums for health insurance, capped the cost of insulin at $35 and all out-of-pocket drug costs at $2,000 for people on Medicare, and announced new negotiated prices for the first ten prescription drugs for Medicare price negotiation—expected to save $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs in the first year of the program alone Made sickle cell disease the first focus of the new Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services models, aimed to lower the high cost of drugs, promote accessibility to drug therapies, and improve patient care Expanded Medicaid postpartum coverage from 60 days to 12 months in 46 states and Washington, D.C., covering 700,000 more women in the year after childbirth Secured an additional $1.5 billion for Head Start 
    • Delivered $1 billion to help meet the mental health needs of young people by preparing and hiring a projected 14,000 additional mental health professionals to serve America’s schools

 
Making Communities Safer and Strengthening America’s Commitment to Justice
 
The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to using every available federal lever to advance effective, accountable policing, build trust, and improve public safety so that the promise of equal justice under the law is a reality for all. To enhance equal justice and public safety for all communities, including the Black community, the President has:
 

  • Signed an Executive Order on police reform when Congressional Republicans would not pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act; restricted the use of force, banned chokeholds, restricted the use of no-knock warrants and created the first-ever national database of federal law enforcement misconduct
    • Created the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention U.S. Surgeon General named gun violence a public health crisis and issued a public health advisory on how to reduce violence. Signed into the law the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), the most significant gun violence reduction legislation enacted in nearly 30 years, and taken more meaningful executive action than any other president to make our schools, churches, grocery stores, and communities safer Secured $400 million in funding dedicated specifically for community violence interventions that invests in evidence-informed strategies to prevent violence Cracked down on the source of illegal firearms by making it illegal to manufacture “ghost gun” kits, enacting the first-ever federal gun trafficking law, taking a “zero tolerance” approach to rogue gun dealers, and regulating the number one source of guns involved in gun trafficking investigations – unlicensed sellers. Pardoned thousands of Americans under federal and D.C. law for simple possession of marijuana 
    • Helped bring violent crime to its lowest level in 50 years—lower than during any year of the previous administration

 
Restoring the Soul of Our Nation
 
President Biden believes that advancing equity, civil rights, racial justice, and equal opportunity is the responsibility of the whole of our government and requires sustained leadership and partnership with all communities. To make the promise of America real for Black communities, the President has:
 

  • Signed two Executive Orders directing the federal government to address inequality
    • Protected Black history as American history Signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, the first new federal holiday since MLK DayDesignated Springfield 1908 Race Riot and Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monuments Signed the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act to classify lynching for the first time as a federal hate crime 
    • Worked to protect the sacred right to vote through executive actions and continued calls for legislation 

Appointed the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, more Black women to federal circuit courts than all previous presidents combined, and more Black judges in a single term than any other president

Biden Administration, Economic Development, Economic Policies, Economy, Employment & Labor Issues, Jobs, Joe Biden, News & Photo Features

FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Issues Executive Order to Promote Good Jobs Through Investing in America Agenda

“Wall Street did not build America; the middle class built America, and unions built the middle class.” – President Biden on Labor Day, 2024

This fact sheet on President Biden’s Executive Order on Investing in America and Investing in American Workers was provided by the White House:

Just days after Labor Day 2024, President Biden traveled to Michigan to sign a landmark Executive Order on Investing in America and Investing in American Workers(“Good Jobs EO”), which will help ensure that the Biden-Harris Investing in America agenda continues to promote good, high-quality jobs with paths to the middle class. The Good Jobs EO promotes strong labor standards such as family-sustaining wages, workplace safety, and the free and fair opportunity to join a union, and encourages agencies to implement these standards through their Investing in America programs.

President Biden signed the Good Jobs EO during a visit to UA Local 190’s Job Training Center, where he met with union workers and apprentices who have benefitted from the President’s agenda. The event was part of a broader tour to profile the workers and communities across America who are reaping the rewards of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda.

The Biden-Harris Administration is the most pro-union administration in American history. The President and Vice President’s Investing in America agenda—including the American Rescue Plan, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, CHIPS and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act—have already created hundreds of thousands of jobs, and the President and Vice President have been clear that their Administration will use every tool at their disposal to ensure these jobs are good-paying jobs with the free and fair chance to join a union.

The President’s Good Jobs EOcalls on agencies to adopt a series of high-road labor standards that have long been recognized to lead to both better jobs and on-time, high-quality delivery of federally funded projects. With this Executive Order, the Biden-Harris Administration is the first in history to specify a clear list of labor standards that all Federal agencies should look to prioritize.

By mobilizing once-in-a-generation public- and private-sector investments, the Biden-Harris Investing in America agenda is transforming our economy—onshoring manufacturing, modernizing our nation’s infrastructure, and building a clean energy economy. The United States has created nearly 16 million jobs since President Biden and Vice President Harris took office, with the lowest average unemployment rate of any administration in 50 years. Already, their Investing in America agenda has catalyzed over $900 billion in private-sector investment in clean energy and manufacturing. Last year, clean energy jobs grew at double the rate of job growth in the rest of the economy and clean energy unionization rates reached the highest level in history. The Good Jobs EO builds on that momentum and will ensure that these investments continue to improve opportunities for millions of Americans.

The Good Jobs EO calls upon agencies to adopt the following labor standards:

  • Promoting worker voice, through Project Labor Agreements (PLAs), Community Benefits Agreements, voluntary union recognition, and neutrality with respect to union organizing. These instruments, which agencies are encouraged to prioritize where appropriate and consistent with law, mark the strongest package of priorities that any Administration has taken to help promote the free and fair choice to join a union through federally funded and federally supported projects.
    • Providing tools to promote high-wage jobs,through prevailing wage standards and other equitable compensation practices, such as prioritizing equal pay and pay transparency. This Administration is taking ground-breaking steps to raise wages by directing agencies to consider incentivizing specific high-wage standards for manufacturing grants—going beyond long-standing Davis-Bacon requirements that only apply to construction jobs.
    • Promoting worker economic security, by directing agencies to consider prioritizing projects that supply the benefits that workers need—including child and dependent care to health insurance, paid leave, and retirement benefits.
    • Supporting workforce development through registered apprenticeships, pre-apprenticeships, labor-management partnerships, and partnerships with training organizations including community colleges, public workforce boards, and the American Climate Corps.
    • Leveling the playing field, by encouraging grantees to develop equitable workforce plans and offering project supports that promote fair hiring and management practices as the projects develop.
    • Supporting workplace safety by encouraging agencies to prioritize reporting structures that help ensure compliance with all workplace health and safety laws.

To oversee agencies in their implementation of these labor standards, the Good Jobs EO creates a new Investing in Good Jobs Task Force (Task Force) in the Executive Office of the President. The Task Force will coordinate policy development that drives the creation of high-quality jobs and ensures project delivery. The Task Force will be co-chaired by the Secretary of Labor and the Director of the National Economic Council and include Seniors Advisors to the President and members of the President’s Cabinet.

In addition, the Good Jobs EO outlines strategies for agencies to enact these standards across their grant programs, consistent with applicable law:

  • Incentivize these strong labor standards to the greatest extent possible by including application evaluation criteria related to strong labor standards. This includes, consistent with relevant statutes, prioritizing applicants who employ Project Labor Agreements and Community Benefit Agreements in funding opportunities.
    • Issue guidance or best practices to promote and implement these priorities.
    • Collect data on job quality to further encourage best practices and increase accountability. This includes embedding checkboxes on high-road labor standards into grant applications—a proven strategy that has yielded 22 PLA commitments and 34 new registered apprenticeship programs during a pilot study at the Department of Transportation.
    • Conduct pre-award negotiations for key programs and projects as appropriate, and include ensuing commitments in grant agreements.
    • Develop staff expertise to ensure every agency has in-house knowledge of strong labor standards and how their investments can promote and support good jobs.

These actions build on many previous Biden-Harris Administration actions to support good jobs, including union jobs, such as:

  • Launched the first-ever White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment, chaired by Vice President Harris, which resulted in over 70 actions to promote worker organizing and collective bargaining for federal employees and workers employed by public- and private-sector employers.
    • Created the Made in America office, to ensure that American-made construction materials are used on infrastructure projects.
    • Published a final rule from the Department of Treasury implementing prevailing wage and apprenticeship bonus credits for clean energy projects funded by the President’s Inflation Reduction Act to ensure clean energy workers are paid good wages and that these projects create equitable pipelines to these good jobs.
    • Implemented a new rule to require Project Labor Agreements on nearly all major federal construction projects of over $35 million, so federal construction projects will be delivered on time and on budget with good wages and well-trained workers.
    • Signed the Butch Lewis Act as part of the American Rescue Plan to save the pensions of more than one million hard-working union workers and retirees.
    • Designated nine Workforce Hubs across the country to ensure we have the skilled, diverse workforce needed to carry out this Administration’s historic investments.
    • Published a new rule restoring and extending overtime pay protections to millions of workers.
    • Published the first update to Davis-Bacon prevailing wages in nearly 40 years, which will increase pay for one million construction workers over time.
    • Proposed a new rule from the Department of Labor that would protect 36 million indoor and outdoor workers from extreme heat on the job.
    • Signed a Registered Apprenticeship Executive Order to bolster apprenticeships in the federal workforce. Since then, federal agencies including the Departments Agriculture, Defense, Education Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, Transportation, and Treasury, and the Architect of the Capitol and U.S. Agency for Global Media have identified potential opportunities for developing new and scaling existing registered apprenticeships to create pathways to good jobs, including in mission-critical occupations.
    • Through the CHIPS Act, provided $200 million in dedicated CHIPS funding for training and workforce development to ensure local communities have access to the jobs of the future in upcoming projects and introduced a requirement that companies receiving grants under the CHIPS Act over $150 million create a plan to ensure access to quality, affordable child care for their employees.
    • Invested nearly $730 million in Registered Apprenticeships, leading to more than 1 million registered apprentices receiving earn-as-you-learn training for in-demand jobs.
    • Vocally supported unions, including becoming the first sitting President to walk a picket line.
    • The NLRB expanded remedies available to workers when their employers engage in unionbusting, to now include all direct and foreseeable pecuniary harm, such as financial loss from credit card debt, medical bills, or missed rent payments.

The NLRB overhauled the process for union representation elections by requiring an employer to bargain if it commits an unfair labor practice during the election process, and by reducing unnecessary delays before workers can vote.