Newly finalized rules will mandate automatic, cash refunds for cancelled or significantly delayed flights and save consumers over half a billion dollars every year in airline fees
WASHINGTON – Building on a historic record of expanding consumer protections and standing up for airline passengers, the Biden-Harris Administration announced final rules that require airlines to provide automatic cash refunds to passengers when owed and protect consumers from costly surprise airline fees. These rules will significantly expand consumer protections in air travel, provide passengers an easier pathway to refunds when owed, and save consumers over half a billion dollars every year in hidden and surprise junk fees.
The rules are part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s work to lower costs for consumers and take on corporate rip-offs. President Biden signed an Executive Order on Promoting Competition in 2021 that encouraged DOT to take steps to promote fairer, more transparent, and competitive markets.
Today, the Biden-Harris Administration announced rules that require airlines to provide automatic cash refunds to passengers when owed and protect consumers from costly surprise airline fees. The President released the below statement and video.
“Our department just issued rules to protect people from hidden airline fees and to require airlines to give passengers automatic cash refunds when owed,” said Transportaiton Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “No more having to fend for yourself and jump through hoops to get your money back—airlines will have to automatically do this. This is about airlines treating passengers better, and it will save people more than half a billion dollars. Avoiding unwanted, expensive, unnecessary surprise airline fees.”
“Too often, airlines drag their feet on refunds or rip folks off with junk fees,” President Biden stated. “It’s time Americans got a better deal. Today, my Administration is requiring that airlines provide automatic refunds to passengers when they’re owed, and protect them from surprise fees.
“We all know what it’s like when airlines drag their feet on refunds or surprise us with junk fees. That’s why today my Administration is holding airlines accountable and bringing costs down for American families. This is just one part of my Administration’s plan to prevent companies from playing the American people for suckers. It matters,” Biden stated.
Requiring Automatic Cash Airline Refunds The first rule requires airlines to promptly provide passengers with automatic cash refunds when owed because their flights are cancelled or significantly changed, their checked bags are significantly delayed, or the ancillary services, like Wi-Fi, they purchased are not provided.
Without this rule, consumers have to navigate a patchwork of cumbersome processes to request and receive a refund — searching through airline websites to figure out how to make the request, filling out extra “digital paperwork,” or at times waiting for hours on the phone. Passengers would also receive a travel credit or voucher by default from many airlines instead of getting their money back, so they could not use their refund to rebook on another airline when their flight was changed or cancelled without navigating a cumbersome request process.
DOT’s rule makes it simple and straightforward for passengers to receive the money they are owed. The final rule requires refunds to be:
Automatic: Airlines must automatically issue refunds without passengers having to explicitly request them or jump through hoops.
Prompt: Airlines and ticket agents must promptly issue refunds within seven business days of refunds becoming due for credit card purchases and 20 calendar days for other payment methods.
Cash or original form of payment: Airlines and ticket agents must provide refunds in cash or whatever original payment method the individual used to make the purchase, such as credit card or airline miles. Airlines may not substitute vouchers, travel credits, or other forms of compensation unless the passenger affirmatively chooses to accept alternative compensation.
Full amount: Airlines and ticket agents must provide full refunds of the ticket purchase price, minus the value of any portion of transportation already used. The refunds must include all government-imposed taxes and fees and airline-imposed fees.
Protecting Against Surprise Airline Junk Fees
Secondly, DOT is requiring airlines and ticket agents to tell consumers upfront what fees they charge for checked bags, a carry-on bag, for changing a reservation, or cancelling a reservation. This ensures that consumers can avoid surprise fees when they purchase tickets from airlines or ticket agents, including both brick-and-mortar travel agencies or online travel agencies.
The rule will help consumers avoid unneeded or unexpected charges that can increase quickly and add significant cost to what may, at first, look like a cheap ticket. Extra fees, like checked baggage and change fees, have been a growing source of revenue for airlines, while also becoming more complex and confusing for passengers over time. In total, thanks to the final rule, consumers are expected to save over half a billion dollars every year that they are currently overpaying in airline fees.
DOT’s rule ensures that consumers have the information they need to better understand the true costs of air travel. Under the final rule, airlines are required to:
Disclose baggage, change, and cancellationfees upfront: Each fee must be disclosed the first time that fare and schedule information is provided on the airline’s online platform — and cannot be displayed through a hyperlink.
Explain fee policies before ticket purchase: For each type of baggage, airlines and ticket agents must spell out the weight and dimension limitations that they impose. They must also describe any prohibitions or restrictions on changing or cancelling a flight, along with policies related to differences in fare when switching to a more or less expensive flight.
Share fee information with third parties: An airline must provide useable, current, and accurate information regarding its baggage, change, and cancellation fees and policies to any company that is required to disclose them to consumers and receives fare, schedule, and availability information from that airline.
Inform consumers that seats are guaranteed: When offering an advance seat assignment for a fee, airlines and ticket agents must let consumers know that purchasing a seat is not necessary to travel, so consumers can avoid paying unwanted seat selection fees.
Provide both standard and passenger-specific fee information: Consumers can choose to view passenger-specific fee information based on their participation in the airline’s rewards program, their military status, or the credit card that they use — or they can decide to stay anonymous and get the standard fee information.
End discount bait-and-switch tactics: The final rule puts an end to the bait-and-switch tactics some airlines use to disguise the true cost of discounted flights. It prohibits airlines from advertising a promotional discount off a low base fare that does not include all mandatory carrier-imposed fees.
DOT’s Historic Record of Consumer Protection Under the Biden-Harris Administration Both of these actions were suggested for consideration by the DOT in the Executive Order on Promoting Competition and build on historic steps the Biden-Harris Administration has already taken to expand consumer protections, promote competition, and protect air travelers. Under the Biden-Harris Administration, DOT has advanced the largest expansion of airline passenger rights, issued the biggest fines against airlines for failing consumers, and returned more money to passengers in refunds and reimbursements than ever before in the Department’s history.
DOT launched the flightrights.gov dashboard, and now all 10 major U.S. airlines guarantee free rebooking and meals, and nine guarantee hotel accommodations when an airline issue causes a significant delay or cancellation. These are new commitments the airlines added to their customer service plans that DOT can legally ensure they adhere to and are displayed on flightrights.gov.
Since President Biden took office, DOT has helped return more than $3 billion in refunds and reimbursements owed to airline passengers – including over $600 million to passengers affected by the Southwest Airlines holiday meltdown in 2022.
DOT has issued over $164 million in penalties against airlines for consumer protection violations. Between 1996 and 2020, DOT collectively issued less than $71 million in penalties against airlines for consumer protection violations.
DOT recently launched a new partnership with a bipartisan group of state attorneys general to fast-track the review of consumer complaints, hold airlines accountable, and protect the rights of the traveling public.
In 2023, the flight cancellation rate in the U.S. was a record low at under 1.2% — the lowest rate of flight cancellations in over 10 years despite a record amount of air travel
DOT is undertaking its first ever industry-wide review of airline privacy practices and its first review of airline loyalty programs
In addition to finalizing the rules to require automatic refunds and protect consumers from surprise fees, DOT is also pursuing rulemakings that would:
Propose to ban family seating junk fees and guarantee that parents can sit with their children for no extra charge when they fly. Before President Biden and Secretary Buttigieg pressed airlines last year, no airline committed to guaranteeing fee-free family seating. Now, four airlines guarantee fee-free family seating, as the Department is working on its family seating junk fee ban proposal.
Propose to make passenger compensation and amenities mandatory so that travelers are taken care of when airlines cause flight delays or cancellations.
Expand the rights for passengers who use wheelchairs and ensure that they can travel safely and with dignity. The comment period on this proposed rule closes on May 13, 2024.
Travelers can learn more about their protections when they fly at FlightRights.gov. Consumers may file an airline complaint with the Department here.
On Earth Day, President Biden is traveling to Prince William Forest Park in Triangle, VA, a national park system site developed by FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps, to announce $7 billion in awards through EPA’s Solar for All program and unveil major steps to advance the American Climate Corps. This Fact Sheet outlining President Biden’s historic climate actions was provided by the White House :
When President Biden took office, he pledged to restore America’s climate leadership at home and abroad. On his first day in office, the President signed the United States back into the Paris Agreement. And each day since, the Biden-Harris Administration has continued to lead and deliver on the most ambitious climate agenda in history, including securing the largest ever climate investment and unleashing a clean energy manufacturing boom that has attracted hundreds of billions in private sector investment and created over 270,000 new clean energy jobs. The President’s agenda is also advancing environmental justice and ensuring that the benefits of climate investments reach overburdened communities, mobilizing the next generation of clean energy workers through the American Climate Corps, and delivering historic investments in our nation’s climate resilience. At the same time, the Administration is protecting America’s natural wonders, conserving more than 41 million acres of lands and waters.
Building on his climate, clean energy, and environmental justice agenda, President Biden will travel today to Prince William Forest Park in Triangle, Virginia, to celebrate Earth Day 2024, and highlight his Administration’s unprecedented progress in tackling the climate crisis, cutting costs for everyday Americans, and creating good-paying jobs.
Expanding Access to Affordable Solar Energy
The President will announce $7 billion in grants through the Environmental Protection Agency’s Solar for All grant competition, a key component of the Inflation Reduction Act’s $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. Selectees under the Solar for All program will serve every state and territory in the nation and deliver residential solar power to over 900,000 households in low-income and disadvantaged communities, saving overburdened households more than $350 million in electricity costs annually – approximately $400 per household – and avoiding more than 30 million metric tons of carbon pollution over the next 25 years.
The selectees will provide funds to states, territories, Tribes, municipalities, and nonprofits across the country to develop long-lasting solar programs that enable low-income and disadvantaged communities to deploy and benefit from distributed residential solar. In total, solar projects funded by this program will create nearly 200,000 jobs. The program also advances the President’s Justice40 Initiative, which set a goal that 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal climate, clean energy, affordable and sustainable housing, and other investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.
Mobilizing the Next Generation of Climate Leaders through the American Climate Corps
Joined by future members of President Biden’s American Climate Corps, including current AmeriCorps members, President Biden will also announce several new actions to stand up the American Climate Corps – a groundbreaking initiative modeled after FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps that will put more than 20,000 young Americans to work fighting the impacts of climate change today while gaining the skills they need to join the growing clean energy and climate-resilience workforce of tomorrow. The President will announce these actions at Prince William Forest Park, a national park system site developed by FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps and stewarded by the Department of the Interior’s National Park Service.
Nearly a century after FDR established the Civilian Conservation Corps, President Biden will announce today that Americans can now apply to join the American Climate Corps through a newly launched website, ClimateCorps.gov. The website will feature nearly 2,000 positions located across 36 states, DC, and Puerto Rico. These positions are hosted by hundreds of organizations advancing clean energy, conservation, and climate resilience. The website, which is launching in its beta form, will be regularly updated with new American Climate Corps positions. Its goal is to make it easy for any American to find work tackling the climate crisis while gaining the skills necessary for the clean energy and climate resilience workforce of the future. The first class of the American Climate Corps will be deployed to communities across the country in June 2024.
The Biden-Harris Administration is also announcing a new partnership with the North America’s Building Trades Unions’ nonprofit partner TradesFutures. Beginning this summer, every American Climate Corps member will have access to TradesFutures’ industry leading apprenticeship readiness curriculum during their term of service in the American Climate Corps, providing members with the opportunity to be trained in the foundational skills necessary for careers in the clean energy and climate resilience economy and putting them on a pathway to good paying, union jobs.
Many American Climate Corps members will also have access to a streamlined pathway into federal service after a recent update to modernize the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s Pathways Programs. The update will expand applicant eligibility for the Recent Graduates program to include individuals who have completed qualifying career or technical education service within designated American Climate Corps programs.
Today, three states – Vermont, New Mexico, and Illinois – are launching new state-based climate corps programs, building on 10 states that have already launched successful climate corps programs, demonstrating the power of skills-based training as a tool to expand pathways into good-paying jobs. These states will work with the American Climate Corps as implementing partners to ensure young people across the country are serving their communities, while participating in paid opportunities and working on projects to tackle climate change.
Additionally, beginning as a collaboration between the Department of the Interior, the Energy Communities Interagency Working Group, and AmeriCorps VISTA, a new interagency public private partnership – Energy Communities AmeriCorps – will place American Climate Corps members in priority energy communities across the country. The program will help support community-led projects, including environmental remediation, in the places that have powered our nation for generations.
Conserving America’s Lands, Waters, and Wildlife
These announcements come on the heels of a series of major conservation actions by the Biden-Harris Administration. Just last week, the Department of the Interior published a final rule to maximize protections of significant surface resources such as irreplaceable wildlife habitat for caribou and migratory birds on more than 13 million acres in the western Arctic while supporting subsistence uses and needs of Alaska Native communities. This action brings the number of acres of America’s lands and waters conserved under President Biden to 41 million. Additionally, the Interior Department released a final environmental analysis last week recommending denial of a right of way for the Ambler Road project; the proposed road, which would cross more than 200 miles of pristine lands, would have significant impacts on caribou and other subsistence resources upon which more than 60 Alaska Native communities rely.
In addition to these landmark conservation announcements in Alaska, the Interior Department released a rule to help guide the balanced management of all 245 million acres of America’s public lands that are overseen by the Bureau of Land Management. The rule will help to ensure the BLM continues to protect land health while managing other uses of public lands, such as clean energy development and outdoor recreation.
Throughout Earth Week, the Biden-Harris Administration will announce additional actions to build a stronger, healthier future for all: Tuesday will focus on helping ensure clean water for all communities; Wednesday will focus on accelerating America’s clean transportation future; Thursday will focus on steps to cut pollution from the power sector while strengthening America’s electricity grid; and Friday will focus on providing cleaner air and healthier schools for all children.
Biden-Harris Administration’s Top Climate Accomplishments
Deploying Clean, Affordable Electricity and Strengthening America’s Power Grid – President Biden has secured unprecedented investments in a clean power sector, unleashing a boom in American solar, wind, battery storage, and other clean energy technologies that are creating good-paying jobs and saving families money on utility bills. Through the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, U.S. solar generation is projected to increase up to eight-fold and wind generation is projected to triple by 2030. President Biden has jumpstarted the U.S. offshore wind industry, with 10 gigawatts of commercial-scale projects now approved, enough to power nearly four million homes, including two projects that are already delivering power to the grid and others with construction underway. The President’s Investing in America agenda is also supporting transmission buildout and other power grid upgrades, deployment of distributed energy resources in disadvantaged communities, investments in clean electricity across rural America, and American manufacturing of clean energy technologies – all in pursuit of the President’s goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035. Through the President’s Federal Sustainability Plan, the U.S. Government is leading by example and has already signed agreements to provide federal facilities in 18 states with 100% carbon pollution-free electricity by 2030.
And thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, clean energy project developers get access to expanded tax incentives if they pay workers prevailing wages and employ registered apprentices, helping make more clean energy jobs good-paying and union jobs.
Accelerating a Clean Transportation Future – President Biden is taking a whole-of-government approach to position the U.S. as a global leader in innovative and sustainable transportation. The Administration’s National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization is a landmark strategy for cutting all greenhouse gas emissions from the U.S. transportation sector by 2050. The President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act invest tens of billions to decarbonize shipping, trucking, transit, rail, and aviation, all while making communities more walkable, bikeable, and connected. And through the President’s Federal Sustainability Plan, the federal government has ordered over 58,000 zero-emission vehicles and has begun installing more than 25,000 charging ports, adding to the 8,000 already in use across the government.
In addition, the President rallied automakers and autoworkers around a historic goal of having electric vehicles (EVs) account for at least 50% of new passenger vehicles sold by 2030. To support this goal while driving down consumer costs, the Administration secured tax credits that reduce the cost of new or used clean vehicles by thousands of dollars directly at the dealership and is investing $7.5 billion into building out a national EV charging network. Since President Biden took office, EV sales have quadrupled, prices have come down by more than 20%, the number of charging stations has grown by over 80% – putting us on track to deploy 500,000 chargers by 2026 – and the U.S. auto industry has added more than 100,000 jobs. Driven by Biden-Harris Administration policies, the sector is experiencing a manufacturing renaissance with more than $160 billion of investments in EVs, batteries, and their supply chains. And just last month, the Environmental Protection Agency finalized the strongest-ever vehicle emission standards for light, medium, and heavy-duty vehicles.
Cutting Energy Costs and Pollution at Homes, Schools, and in Communities – Reducing building emissions through efficiency improvements and electrification lowers energy bills for families, improves resiliency, and creates good-paying jobs. The President has created new programs to save American families on their energy bills through the Department of Energy’s Home Energy Rebates, the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Green and Resilient Retrofit Program, and Treasury’s Home Energy Tax Credits. The Biden-Harris Administration is also strengthening energy efficiency standards to save households and businesses money, with standards updated by DOE for dozens of appliances expected to provide nearly $1 trillion in consumer savings over 30 years, while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2.5 billion metric tons – equivalent to the emissions of 18 million gas-powered cars over 30 years. By invoking emergency authority, the President is expanding domestic heat pump manufacturing, which will cut the costs of heat pumps. To ensure that the 10 million new homes that will be built by 2030 are efficient and resilient, President Biden’s National Initiative to Advance Building Codes is accelerating adoption of modern building codes that protect people from extreme-weather events and help contribute to avoiding an estimated $1.6 billion a year in damages.
Revitalizing American Manufacturing for the Clean Economy – President Biden’s Investing in America agenda has helped catalyze historic manufacturing growth, with factories opening across the nation. To date, the private sector has announced nearly $700 billion in investments in manufacturing and clean energy. The President’s agenda is helping to make U.S. manufacturing the cleanest and most competitive in the world. The Inflation Reduction Act is investing more than $6 billion to slash climate pollution and support worker and community health at U.S. factories producing the steel, aluminum, cement, and other materials that form the backbone of our economy. To further support U.S. industrial competitiveness, the Biden Administration’s landmark Buy Clean initiative is leveraging the government’s sway as the largest purchaser on Earth to spur demand for low-emissions manufacturing and construction products.
Advancing Environmental Justice – Since Day One, the Biden-Harris Administration has prioritized a whole-of-government approach to environmental justice. The President signed a historic Executive Order that calls on the federal government to bring clean energy and healthy environments to all and mitigate harm to those who have suffered from pollution and environmental burdens like climate change. Through the Justice40 Initiative, over 500 programs across 19 federal agencies are being reimagined and transformed to maximize the benefits of President Biden’s unprecedented investments – from clean energy projects to floodwater protections to wastewater infrastructure – to communities that need them most. At the same time, the Administration is taking unprecedented action to protect communities from PFAS pollution, accelerate Superfund and brownfield cleanups, tighten standards for hazardous air pollutants, and enhance air quality enforcement.
Delivering Clean Water and Replacing Lead Pipes – President Biden and Vice President Harris are fighting to ensure a future where every American has access to clean, safe water. The President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law invests over $50 billion in upgrading the nation’s water infrastructure – the largest investment in clean water in American history. This funding is going towards expanding access to clean drinking water, replacing lead pipes, improving wastewater and sanitation infrastructure, and removing PFAS pollution in water. President Biden has also made a historic commitment to replace every toxic lead pipe in the country within a decade, protecting families from lead poisoning that can irreversibly harm brain development in children. Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency issued proposed improvements to the Lead and Copper Rule that would require water systems to rapidly replace lead service lines.
Conserving our Lands and Waters –The Biden-Harris Administration has taken historic action to conserve and restore America’s lands and waters, including signing an Executive Order to set the first-ever national conservation goal to conserve at least 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030 through the America the Beautiful Initiative. Last week the Administration launched Conservation.gov and the American Conservation and Stewardship Atlas, a new website and data portal that will help connect people with information, tools, resources, and opportunities to support land and water conservation projects in communities across the country. The Administration has already protected more than 41 million acres of lands and waters, and President Biden is on track to conserve more lands and waters than any President in history. This includes establishing five new national monuments and restoring protections for three more; creating four new national wildlife refuges and expanding five more; protecting the Boundary Waters of Minnesota, the nation’s most visited wilderness area; safeguarding Bristol Bay in southwest Alaska; and withdrawing Chaco Canyon in New Mexico and Thompson Divide in Colorado from further oil and gas leasing to protect thousands of sacred sites and pristine lands.
To conserve and steward old growth forests, USDA announced a proposal to amend 128 forest land management plans to conserve and steward old-growth forest conditions on national forests and grasslands nationwide. This builds upon the Biden-Harris Administration’s protection of Tongass National Forest, the largest intact temperate rainforest in the world. The Administration is also taking continued action to protect and conserve our nation’s rivers and watersheds for the people and communities that depend on them, protecting the stability and sustainability of the Colorado River Basin in the face of an ongoing megadrought, and beyond. This includes taking historic action to restore healthy and abundant wild salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River Basin, part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s unprecedented commitment to honor the United States’ obligations to Tribal Nations.
Investing in Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry – President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is supporting America’s farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners, who play a critical role in addressing the climate crisis through the deployment of climate-smart practices and systems. Under the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA has supported 80,000 farms in implementing climate-smart practices on over 75 million acres. In Fiscal Year 2023, USDA made record investments in private lands conservation, totaling nearly $3 billion in financial assistance to producers. Leveraging both climate impact and economic opportunities, the Administration is creating new market opportunities through the groundbreaking Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities and efforts that are part of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Grand Challenge.
Rallying Leaders of the World’s Largest Economies to Raise Global Climate Ambition –President Biden has restored America’s climate leadership at home and abroad. Under his leadership, the Administration is securing commitments from more than 155 countries to reduce methane emissions by at least 30 percent by 2030; successfully galvanizing other countries at COP28 to commit, for the first time, to transition away from unabated fossil fuels, stop building new unabated coal capacity globally, and triple renewable energy globally by 2030 and nuclear energy by 2050; launching a new Clean Energy Supply Chain Collaborative to work with international partners to diversify supply chains that are critical to a clean and secure energy transition; mobilizing other governments to follow the U.S. lead and commit to achieve net-zero government emissions by 2050 through a new Net-Zero Government Initiative; and becoming a world leader in innovative debt-for-nature swaps that have helped countries restructure over $2 billion in debt and unlock hundreds of millions of new financing for nature and climate.
New Department of Justice final rule sets strong standard for gun sellers who have to get a license and conduct background checks. But President Biden called on Congress to enact universal background checks and finish the job. This fact sheet is provided by the White House:
The Biden-Harris Administration announced a new rule that will save lives by reducing the number of firearms sold without background checks. This final rule implements the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act’s expansion of firearm background checks—the only significant expansion of the background check requirement since then-Senator Biden helped shepherd the Brady Bill over the finish line in 1993. This action is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s strategy to stem the flow of illegally acquired firearms into our communities and hold accountable those who supply the firearms used in crime.
“I’ve spent hours with families who’ve lost loved ones to gun violence,” President Joe Biden stated. “They all have the same message: ‘Do something.’ Today, my Administration is taking action to make sure fewer guns are sold without background checks. This is going to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and felons. And my Administration is going to continue to do everything we possibly can to save lives. Congress needs to finish the job and pass universal background checks legislation now.”
“Every year, thousands of unlicensed gun dealers sell tens of thousands of guns without a background check, including to buyers who would have failed one – domestic abusers, violent felons, and even children,” stated Vice President Kamala Harris. “This single gap in our federal background check system has caused unimaginable pain and suffering. Today, as the head of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, I am proud to say that all gun dealers must conduct background checks no matter where or how they sell.”
The federal gun background check system is one of the best tools we have to keep guns out of the hands of individuals prohibited from purchasing or possessing firearms, including domestic abusers and other violent criminals. But the loopholes in America’s background check laws have enabled domestic abusers, school shooters, violent criminals, and gun traffickers to illegally acquire firearms. Over the past 20 years, there have been numerous failed efforts to close these loopholes and expand background checks, including a bipartisan attempt in 1999 that followed the shooting at Columbine High School, and another bipartisan attempt in 2013 that followed the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
In 2022, President Biden accomplished what many had tried for the past 20 years—he succeeded in expanding background checks by signing into law the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. This law broadened the category of gun sellers required to become licensed dealers and run background checks. In 2023, President Biden signed an Executive Order to accelerate implementation of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, including by directing the Attorney General to move the U.S. as close to universal background checks as possible without additional legislation by clarifying the new Act. The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) final rule clarifies the type of conduct that requires a person to get a license to sell guns and to conduct background checks. By setting clear standards for when someone is dealing firearms, the rule provides the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) with proactive tools to enforce the law and keep our communities safe.
Background Check Loopholes Have Deadly Consequences
Since 1994, federal law has required federally licensed firearms dealers to run background checks prior to selling or transferring a weapon. These background checks have helped keep guns out of the hands of more than three million individuals who are prohibited from purchasing or possessing firearms. Despite the law, a growing number of unlicensed sellers continue to sell firearms for profit to complete strangers they meet at gun shows and online marketplaces, which has been a critical gap in the background check laws.
For the past 30 years, individuals who could not pass a background check sought out unlicensed sellers in order to evade the background check system. One investigation found that 1 in 9 people who respond to online ads from unlicensed sellers would fail a background check. Tragic consequences of this unlawful conduct include:
In 1999, the school shooters from the Columbine High School shooting were both under 18 and too young to purchase firearms legally. The shooters had their acquaintance purchase firearms for them at a gun show through an unlicensed seller to avoid a background check.
In 2012, a domestic abuser was barred from possessing firearms following a restraining order taken out by his estranged wife. The day before the abuser killed his wife and two others, and injuring four at the Azana Salon in Wisconsin, he purchased a gun from an unlicensed seller he met online without a background check.
In 2019, a man shot and killed seven people and wounded dozens more after a multiple-location shooting in Midland and Odessa, Texas. The shooter had previously tried to purchase a gun from a sporting goods store but was stopped by a background check because of his mental health history. He was ultimately able to purchase an AR-15 assault-style rifle without a background check from an unlicensed seller he met online.
Unlicensed dealers who do not conduct background checks are also the largest source of firearms that are illegally trafficked into our communities. In an assessment of its gun trafficking investigations from 2017 to 2021, ATF identified sales by unlicensed dealers as the most frequently used gun trafficking channel. Moreover, unlicensed dealers were the source of more than half of the firearms identified as having been trafficked during the five-year study period—a total of more than 68,000 illegally trafficked firearms.
Final Rule Implements New Law, Expanding Background Check Requirement to Tens of Thousands of Gun Sales
The Department of Justice’s final rule implements the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act—the largest expansion of background checks since the Brady Bill became law. The final rule makes clear when a person needs to become a licensed dealer and run background checks, and gives the Department of Justice additional tools to crack down on individuals illegally selling guns without background checks. Specifically, the final rule:
Lists the types of commercial activity indicating that a person must become a licensed dealer and run background checks, absent evidence showing they are in fact not engaged in the business of firearms dealing. For example, if a person is repetitively selling guns of the same or similar make and model within one year of their purchase, they are supposed to become a licensed dealer. If a person repetitively sells firearms within thirty days of purchasing those firearms, or selling firearms and tells potential buyers that they can acquire additional firearms for that buyer to purchase, the seller is supposed to become a licensed dealer.
States that the gun show or online sale loopholes do not exist. If you are conducting business that in a brick-and-mortar store would require you to become a licensed dealer, you have to become a licensed dealer and run background checks. It does not matter whether you are dealing firearms at a gun show, online, in your home, in the trunk of a car, at a flea market, or anywhere else—you must obtain a license and run background checks results. Evidence that a person placed ads online or reserved a table at a gun show shows that the person is intending to profit from the sale.
Prevents people from evading the licensing and background check requirements by claiming that they are just selling a few guns. The final rule clarifies that even a single firearm transaction may be sufficient to require a license, if there is other behavior to suggest commercial activity. For example, a person selling just one gun and then saying to others they are willing and able to purchase more firearms for resale may be required to obtain a license and run background checks.
Prevents people from falsely claiming that guns are part of a personal collection in an attempt to evade the law. The statute explicitly states that making occasional sales of a firearm from a personal collection or liquidating collection does not require a federal firearms license or background checks. However, people have evaded the background check requirement by falsely claiming they are selling their personal collection. The final rule makes clear that a personal collection of firearms is limited to collections acquired for specific reasons like study; comparison; exhibition; or for a hobby, like hunting or sport shooting. A bona fide personal collection is not the same as business inventory.
Closes the so-called firesale loophole. Gun dealers who have had their licenses revoked have sometimes then sold their former business inventory without running background checks. The final rule makes clear that a business inventory may not be transferred to a person’s personal collection after a license is revoked. Instead, a business could dispose of this inventory through another licensed seller who runs background checks.
There are over 80,000 licensed gun dealers in America. The Department of Justice estimates that there are over 20,000 unlicensed sellers who are selling firearms through online advertisements, gun shows, and other means. These unlicensed sellers should be licensed under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and the new rule, and therefore conducting background checks. An alternative estimate based on survey data estimates that the new rule could affect gun sales being made by over 80,000 individuals. Legal limitations on tracking firearms make such estimates difficult to quantify.
Final Rule Builds on the Biden-Harris Administration’s Commitment to Stopping the Illegal Flow of Guns
The Biden-Harris Administration has deployed a historic effort to partner with state and local law enforcement and keep communities safe by addressing the illegal sources of guns. The strategy is focused not just on the person who pulled the trigger of a firearm, but also on all of the links in the chain that led to the firearm being in the wrong hands, including the gun trafficker, the source of the gun trafficker’s firearms, rogue gun dealers who are willfully violating the law, and ghost gun manufacturers. Key Administration actions to stop the illegal flow of guns into our communities include:
Gun Trafficking Law Enforcement: In 2021, the Justice Department launched five new law enforcement strike forces focused on addressing significant firearms trafficking corridors that have diverted guns to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, the Bay Area, and Washington, D.C. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act also enacted the first ever federal gun trafficking law and federal straw purchasing law. The new gun trafficking law has been used to charge more than 300 people and led to the seizure of over 1,500 firearms.
Cracking Down on Rogue Gun Dealers: The Justice Department enacted a new policy to maximize the efficacy of ATF resources to crack down on rogue gun dealers violating our laws and underscored zero tolerance for willful violations of the law by federally licensed firearms dealers that put public safety at risk. The new ATF inspection policies have led to 245 license revocations over the past two years, which is the highest two-year total in nearly twenty years.
Stopping Gun Manufacturers Illegally Selling Ghost Guns: The Justice Department issued a final rule to rein in the proliferation of ghost guns, which are unserialized, privately made firearms that are increasingly being recovered at crime scenes. According to ATF, the recovery of ghost guns by law enforcement increased 1,083 percent between 2017 and 2021. The Biden-Harris Administration cracked down on ghost guns by making clear that businesses manufacturing the most accessible ghost guns, including “buy-build-shoot” kits and certain polymer handgun frames (including certain Polymer80 handgun frames) must comply with federal firearm laws requiring background checks, a federal license, and markings, such as serial numbers.
Senate Confirmed ATF Director: President Biden secured the confirmation of ATF Director Steve Dettelbach, the first permanent ATF Director in over seven years to lead the agency tasked with enforcing our nation’s gun laws.
Crime Gun Intelligence Centers: ATF works with state and local law enforcement to establish crime gun intelligence centers, which uses the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network (NIBIN) and crime gun tracing to provide investigative leads to solve shootings and identify gun trafficking channels.
New Analysis on Gun Trafficking: In 2021, President Biden announced that the ATF would publish the first gun trafficking analysis in twenty years. ATF has published three volumes, with the most recent volume showing that the most frequent type of trafficking channel identified in ATF gun trafficking investigations was unlicensed firearms dealing by private persons at 40.7 percent. These investigations accounted for over half of the firearms identified as trafficked in ATF investigations. The second most frequent trafficking channel was straw purchasers.
Call for Congress to Act
While the Biden-Harris Administration is moving as close as possible to universal background checks without additional legislation, President Biden and Vice President Harris continue to call on Congress to enact universal background checks and finish the job.
The President and Vice President also continue to call on Congress to increase funding for the ATF so the agency can continue its life-saving work to stop the flow of illegal firearms into our communities. The President requested $2 billion for ATF as part of his FY 25 budget request.
With a huge swath of New York State in the path of totality for the April 8, 2024 Solar Eclipse, we headed to the Adirondacks, cleverly basing ourselves at The Lorca on Indian Lake, which was scheduled to have totality for two minutes, with a plan to drive 30 minutes further to Long Lake, which was scheduled for totality to last a full minute longer, 3 minutes, 1 second, beginning at 3:24 pm, where we based out of the historic (140 years!) Adirondack Hotel, right on the lake.
That proved fortuitous, because though totality spanned a 124-mile wide path stretching from Chautauqua-Allegheny to the majestic Niagara Falls in Greater Niagara, over the pristine Finger Lakes, mighty Adirondacks, and magical Thousand Islands-Seaway, and while Niagara Falls and Buffalo were scheduled to have totality for as much as four minutes, the weather clouded up for most of it. New York State won’t be in the path of totality again for 400 years.
Meanwhile, we had a magical three minutes of totality on Long Lake, starting exactly at 3:24 pm, experiencing the thrill of night-in-the-daytime where you could see stars, then the Diamond Ring, and hearing a dog howl along with everyone’s collective gasps. Then, only a few minutes after, the sun’s crescent started to reappear, but was hazy behind a thin cloud cover, making us appreciate the experience we had all the more.
It may be 400 years before a total solar eclipse returns to New York State, and this may have been a once-in-a-lifetime experience for millions, but there will be total solar eclipses coming up around the world. If you are now hooked on pursuing totality or if you regret missing out:
Prepare well in advance – even a year in advance. Research ideal locations based on path of totality and duration of totality (in North America, ranged from two to four minutes, so significant difference). Scout out locations and book hotel accommodations, travel to the extent possible even a year in advance for the best locations. (See: Fjords, Pharaohs or Koalas? Time to Plan for Your Next Eclipse).
Make sure you have solar glasses and necessary camera gear (solar filters, long-focus lens, ie 300 mm. Have TAPE to attach a paper solar filter to camera, as I used, if you don’t have the glass filter, check www.bhphotovideo.com). Practice in advance (the hardest part is switching from partial to total eclipse – you have to remove the solar filter and reset the manual settings). Review videos of techniques and get a list of suggested camera settings.
Go to the location at least the day before. Scout where you will be standing. Take sample photo of where sun will be at the time of the eclipse (usually one hour before and one hour after totality). Fill up gas tank, get supplies (food, water for next day).
Day of: download maps/directions (cell service may not be available). Get to the site EARLY to get parking and a position (set up your chair, so you can roam around, use restroom). Plan for extra traffic/time to get to site. Bring chair, camera, lenses, extra memory cards, SOLAR GLASSES, SOLAR FILTER, tripod, hat, sunglasses, jacket, book, charged cell phone, food, water.
The Council of Economic Advisers under the leadership of Chair Jared Bernstein released the 2024 Economic Report of the President, the 78th report since the establishment of CEA in 1946. The 2024 Report brings economic evidence and data to bear on many of today’s most significant issues and questions in domestic and international economic policy:
Chapter 1, The Benefits of Full Employment, which is dedicated to the late Dr. William Spriggs, examines the labor market, distributional, and macroeconomic impacts of full employment, with a particular focus on the benefits for economically vulnerable groups of workers who are much more likely to be left behind in periods of weak labor markets.
Chapter 2, The Year in Review and the Years Ahead, describes macroeconomic and financial market trends in 2023 and presents the Federal government’s FY 2024 macroeconomic forecast.
Chapter 3, Population, Aging, and the Economy, explains how long-run trends in fertility and mortality are shaping the U.S. population and labor force.
Chapter 4, Increasing the Supply of Affordable Housing, explores the causes and consequences of the nation’s longstanding housing shortage and how the Biden-Harris administration’s policy agenda can significantly increase the production of more affordable housing.
Chapter 5, International Trade and Investment Flows, presents key facts about long-term trends in U.S. international trade and investment flows, including the role of global supply chains, and highlights the benefits and costs of global integration for American workers.
Chapter 6, Accelerating the Clean Energy Transition, applies a structural change framework to explain the factors that can accelerate the transition towards a clean energy economy.
Chapter 7, An Economic Framework for Understanding Artificial Intelligence, uses an economic framework to explore when, how, and why AI may be adopted, adapting standard economic models to explore AI’s potential effects on labor markets, while examining policy decisions that will affect social and macroeconomic outcomes.
President Biden has correctly assessed the 2024 election as a battle to save democracy against an emergent autocracy. He launched the historic Summit for Democracy in 2021 to strengthen democratic institutions, protect human rights, and accelerate the fight against corruption, both at home and abroad and recently convened the Third Summit.
Can you imagine Trump or any Republican advocating for democracy, strengthening democratic institutions, protecting human rights and accelerating the fight against corruption domestically and abroad? This fact sheet from the White House lists the ways the Biden-Harris Administration is delivering on its commitment to democratic renewal, at its Third Summit for Democracy—Karen Rubin, [email protected]
At the first Summit, approximately 100 participating governments made over 750 commitments on a wide array of deliverables, including in the areas of advancing technology for democracy, media freedom, countering the misuse of technology, and improving financial transparency, gender equity and equality, and rule of law. The second Summit built on these efforts, convening government stakeholders, youth voices, civil society, and the private sector to demonstrate the power of cross-sectoral collaboration and amplify the importance of including diverse voices in these spaces. This year, the Republic of Korea hosted the third Summit for Democracy in Seoul under the theme “Democracy for Future Generations.”
The U.S. delegation in the ROK, led by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, highlighted U.S. efforts to strengthen democratic resilience, respect for human rights, and good governance globally. The Biden-Harris Administration has requested $11.8 billion in Democracy, Human Rights and Governance (DRG) foreign assistance, of which $5.8 billion has already been appropriated for Fiscal Years 2022 and 2023. The Administration intends to provide the remaining $6 billion over the next two years, subject to the availability of appropriations. During the Summit, the United States held a high-level, multi-stakeholder event on combatting the proliferation and misuse of commercial spyware, which not only threatens democratic institutions but also poses risks to global security.
Under President Biden’s leadership, the United States has taken concrete steps to advance previous commitments and initiatives launched over the past three years, which include:
In February 2024, the State Department announced a new visa restriction policy for individuals involved in or financially benefiting from the misuse of commercial spyware.
In February 2024, the Department of Commerce imposed export controls on a company that has enabled foreign governments to conduct mass web-monitoring, censorship, and surveillance of perceived political opponents and human rights defenders.
In February 2024, the United States joined the United Kingdom and France-led Pall-Mall Declaration, which brought together international partners and stakeholders to address the proliferation and irresponsible use of commercial cyber intrusion tools and services.
In March 2024, the Treasury Department imposed unprecedented financial sanctions targeting five commercial spyware entities and their leadership that have enabled the misuse of commercial spyware. This was the first time that the U.S. Government sanctioned actors involved in the misuse of commercial spyware.
In March 2024, the U.S. Government convened members of the investor community – during which the investors revealed voluntary principles and commitments – to discuss the role of trusted capital in advancing technology while promoting the values of free and open societies, including guarding against the misuse of commercial spyware and encouraging safe AI development.
Since its launch at the first Summit for Democracy, the U.S. Government has contributed more than $46 million to the Surge and Sustain Fund for Anti-Censorship Technology, including $31 million in 2023 alone, to support 30 million users of circumvention tools such as virtual private networks (VPNs) each month.
Supporting Free and Independent Media
USAID’s International Fund for Public Interest Media – announced at the second Summit for Democracy – has committed nearly $9 million in 32 grants across 16 countries to independent media outlets in urgent need of support and to strengthen their long-term sustainability. The U.S. Government’s initial seed funding of $20 million has leveraged an additional $32 million from 15 governments, philanthropies, and corporate entities.
The State Department launched two programs under its Journalism Protection Platform to combat impunity for violence against journalists and strengthen holistic security for journalists and independent media outlets, including those operating in exile.
Fighting Corruption
In December 2023, the United States assumed the presidency of the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) Conference of the States Parties (COSP). At COSP, the United States secured consensus to adopt the U.S.-led Atlanta Declaration, which holds governments accountable to their UNCAC obligations and announced a new Presidential Proclamation restricting entry into the United States for those who enable corruption.
In 2023, the Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions on more than 130 individuals and entities engaged in corruption, spanning 17 countries, while the State Department issued public visa restrictions on more than 90 individuals from around the world for their involvement in significant corruption.
USAID kickstarted implementation of the Countering Transnational Corruption Grand Challenge for Development, with an initial focus on reducing corruption in the supply of green minerals. USAID also initiated new activities to seed a new investigative journalism network in Southeast Asia, strengthen public accountability in Zambia, and address Kremlin-backed strategic corruption in Eastern and Central Europe.
In September 2023, the State Department expanded its Transnational Anticorruption Partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigations’ International Corruption Unit, which places regional anticorruption advisors in the field to build partners’ capacities to investigate and prosecute transnational corruption cases. This program, part of the U.S. Democracies against Safe Havens initiative to tackle kleptocracy, has upskilled law enforcement agencies in over 30 countries, resulting in dozens of new actionable leads, cases initiated, and instances of cross-border cooperation to hold kleptocrats and money launderers accountable.
In the past year, the United States has made historic strides in preventing corrupt and other illicit actors from laundering funds through anonymous companies and advancing rulemaking processes to guard against dirty money in the residential real estate sector and investment advising industry.
Bolstering Human Rights and Democratic Reformers
Since the first Summit, USAID’s Partnership’s for Democratic Development (PDD) has allocated $53 million to deepen relationships with democratic reformers and accelerate democratic development in nine countries. PDD will provide up to $52 million in additional funding in the coming year, subject to availability of funds, to expand democratic reform and ensure PDD partner countries are given the support they need to make their democratic transformation a reality.
Since announcing the Advancing Women’s and Girls’ Civic and Political Leadership Initiative at the first Summit, USAID has allocated over $15 million in nine focus countries to build and sustain women’s participation in political and civic engagement. USAID will provide up to $10 million in additional funding this year, subject to availability of funds.
The Community of Democracies (CoD) is working towards the 2024 launch of the global Youth Democracy Network, announced by the United States at the second Summit for Democracy. Ahead of the launch, the CoD YouthLeads, who will serve as the inaugural advisory board for the Network, are driving discussion on youth engagement in elections, including a new series of articles, “A Blueprint for Youth Electoral Engagement,” to showcase effective strategies and policies from around the globe that enhance youth participation in electoral processes.
Defending Free and Fair Elections
Following a commitment made at the first Summit for Democracy, USAID has worked with more than 30 leading international organizations and elections networks to launch the Global Network for Securing Election Integrity (GNSEI) to promote electoral integrity in the face of critical threats to democracy. In 2024, GNSEI intends to develop and promote two electoral integrity priorities: one on principles to support democratic electoral reform processes and the other on safeguarding election management bodies’ independence in their interactions with other domestic agencies.
In 2023, USAID launched the Defending Democratic Elections Fund, which is helping to pilot and scale up approaches to addressing critical long-standing and emerging electoral integrity issues — including on strengthening information integrity and resilience – particularly during the period in between elections, when resources have often been scarce. This past year, USAID provided nearly $16 million in additional support across 17 countries to tackle issues like campaign finance reform, and barriers to women’s political participation.
The State Department contributed $25 million in new funding under the Political Accountability, Inclusivity, and Resiliency Support mechanism to promote political competition by building stronger connections between political parties and citizens.
At the third Summit for Democracy, the United States reiterated and expanded upon its commitment to bolstering democratic resilience and advancing human rights at home and abroad. Specifically, the U.S. delegation announced several new commitments and initiatives to further progress in the years ahead:
On March 18, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Poland signed the Joint Statement on Efforts to Counter the Proliferation and Misuse of Commercial Spyware, which was launched by an initial group of 11 like-minded countries at the second Summit for Democracy, expanding the coalition of countries committed to implementing robust guardrails against misuse of commercial spyware. The Joint Statement affirms the threat posed by the misuse of commercial spyware and countries commit to working within their domestic systems to establish robust guardrails to counter the proliferation and misuse of this sophisticated surveillance technology.
The Biden-Harris Administration aims to provide financial support, working with Congress and subject to appropriated funds, to committed partners like the Platform for the Engagement of Civil Society, to coordinate the ongoing work of the Summit, including future convenings, and to build networks among the existing democratic renewal architecture.
The United States, led by USAID, will convene a meeting to galvanize momentum for the next Summit gathering and to show our continued commitment to democratic renewal around the world on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly session in September 2024.
On March 17, USAID launched the Advancing Digital Democracy (ADD) Academy, building upon the ADD initiative announced at the second Summit for Democracy. In partnership with multinational technology firms, the ADD Academy will offer essential skills training in cybersecurity, data privacy, cloud computing, and responsible AI, among other topics. In the initial phase, ADD Academy intends to work with technology partners Cloudflare, Google, and Microsoft.
On March 18, the State Department released U.S. Guidance for Online Platforms on Protecting Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) Online, which highlights best practices online platforms can take to prevent, mitigate, and provide remedy for actions targeting HRDs online, building on joint guidance recently released by the U.S. and the EU through the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council.
Through the Global Partnership for Action on Gender-Based Online Harassment and Abuse, which was announced during the first Summit, the United States and UK are developing a response framework for coordinated, evidence-informed action to prevent, disrupt, and reduce the spread of targeted online campaigns against women political and public figures and human rights defenders, which will be informed through a first-of-its-kind global conference on countering gendered disinformation held in Kenya on March 25-27, 2024. Complementing the goals of this framework, in January 2024 the State Department announced a new Global Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV) Rapid Response Fund for women politicians, political candidates, and civil society leaders who have experienced extreme forms and/or threats of TFGBV and need urgent access to flexible resources to meet their immediate needs.
On March 20, the United States released its second National Action Plan on Responsible Business Conduct, which outlines efforts to expand U.S. government guidance to and coordination with external stakeholders on responsible business conduct, strengthen federal procurement processes related to human rights, and promote access to remedy for those harmed by irresponsible business conduct.
In his State of the Union address, President Biden laid out his vision for transforming women’s health research and improving women’s lives all across America. The President called on Congress to make a bold, transformative investment of $12 billion in new funding for women’s health research. This investment would be used to create a Fund for Women’s Health Research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to advance a cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research agenda and to establish a new nationwide network of research centers of excellence and innovation in women’s health—which would serve as a national gold standard for women’s health research across the lifespan.
It is long past time to ensure women get the answers they need when it comes to their health—from cardiovascular disease to autoimmune diseases to menopause-related conditions. To pioneer the next generation of discoveries, the President and the First Lady launched the first-ever White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, which aims to fundamentally change how we approach and fund women’s health research in the United States.
President Biden signed a new Executive Order that will direct the most comprehensive set of executive actions ever taken to expand and improve research on women’s health. These directives will ensure women’s health is integrated and prioritized across the federal research portfolio and budget, and will galvanize new research on a wide range of topics, including women’s midlife health.
The President and First Lady are also announcing more than twenty new actions and commitments by federal agencies, including through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and the National Science Foundation (NSF). This includes the launch of a new NIH-wide effort that will direct key investments of $200 million in Fiscal Year 2025 to fund new, interdisciplinary women’s health research—a first step towards the transformative central Fund on Women’s Health that the President has called on Congress to invest in. These actions also build on the First Lady’s announcement last month of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) Sprint for Women’s Health, which committed $100 million towards transformative research and development in women’s health.
The President is issuing an Executive Order that will:
Integrate Women’s Health Across the Federal Research Portfolio. The Executive Order directs the Initiative’s constituent agencies to develop and strengthen research and data standards on women’s health across all relevant research and funding opportunities, with the goal of helping ensure that the Administration is better leveraging every dollar of federal funding for health research to improve women’s health. These actions will build on the NIH’s current policy to ensure that research it funds considers women’s health in the development of study design and in data collection and analysis. Agencies will take action to ensure women’s health is being considered at every step in the research process—from the applications that prospective grantees submit to the way that they report on grant implementation.
Prioritize Investments in Women’s Health Research. The Executive Order directs the Initiative’s constituent agencies to prioritize funding for women’s health research and encourage innovation in women’s health, including through ARPA-H and multi-agency initiatives such as the Small Business Innovation Research Program and the Small Business Technology Transfer Program. These entities are dedicated to high-impact research and innovation, including through the support of early-stage small businesses and entrepreneurs engaged in research and innovation. The Executive Order further directs HHS and NSF to study ways to leverage artificial intelligence to advance women’s health research. These additional investments—across a wide range of agencies—will support innovation and open new doors to breakthroughs in women’s health.
Galvanize New Research on Women’s Midlife Health. To narrow research gaps on diseases and conditions associated with women’s midlife health or that are more likely to occur after menopause, such as rheumatoid arthritis, heart attack, and osteoporosis, the President is directing HHS to: expand data collection efforts related to women’s midlife health; launch a comprehensive research agenda that will guide future investments in menopause-related research; identify ways to improve management of menopause-related issues and the clinical care that women receive; and develop new resources to help women better understand their options for menopause-related symptoms prevention and treatment. The Executive Order also directs the DoD and VA to study and take steps to improve the treatment of, and research related to, menopause for Service women and women veterans.
Assess Unmet Needs to Support Women’s Health Research. The Executive Order directs the Office of Management and Budget and the Gender Policy Council to lead a robust effort to assess gaps in federal funding for women’s health research and identify changes—whether statutory, regulatory, or budgetary—that are needed to maximally support the broad scope of women’s health research across the federal government. Agencies will also be required to report annually on their investments in women’s health research, as well as progress towards their efforts to improve women’s health.
Today, agencies are also announcing new actions they are taking to promote women’s health research, as part of their ongoing efforts through the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research. Agencies are announcing actions to:
Prioritize and Increase Investments in Women’s Health Research
Launch an NIH-Cross Cutting Effort to Transform Women’s Health Throughout the Lifespan. NIH is launching an NIH-wide effort to close gaps in women’s health research across the lifespan. This effort—which will initially be supported by $200 million from NIH beginning in FY 2025—will allow NIH to catalyze interdisciplinary research, particularly on issues that cut across the traditional mandates of the institutes and centers at NIH. It will also allow NIH to launch ambitious, multi-faceted research projects such as research on the impact of perimenopause and menopause on heart health, brain health and bone health. In addition, the President’s FY25 Budget Request would double current funding for the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health to support new and existing initiatives that emphasize women’s health research.
This coordinated, NIH-wide effort will be co-chaired by the NIH Office of the Director, the Office of Research on Women’s Health, and the institute directors from the National Institute on Aging; the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; the National Institute on Drug Abuse; the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; the National Institute on Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases.
Invest in Research on a Wide Range of Women’s Health Issues. The bipartisan Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP), led out of DoD, funds research on women’s health encompassing a range of diseases and conditions that affect women uniquely, disproportionately, or differently from men. While the programs and topic areas directed by Congress differ each year, CDMRP has consistently funded research to advance women’s health since its creation in 1993. In Fiscal Year 2022, DoD implemented nearly $490 million in CDMRP investments towards women’s health research projects ranging from breast and ovarian cancer to lupus to orthotics and prosthetics in women. In Fiscal Year 2023, DoD anticipates implementing approximately $500 million in CDMRP funding for women’s health research, including in endometriosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and chronic fatigue.
Call for New Proposals on Emerging Women’s Health Issues. Today, NSF is calling for new research and education proposals to advance discoveries and innovations related to women’s health. To promote multidisciplinary solutions to women’s health disparities, NSF invites applications that would improve women’s health through a wide range of disciplines—from computational research to engineering biomechanics. This is the first time that NSF has broadly called for novel and transformative research that is focused entirely on women’s health topics, and proposals will be considered on an ongoing basis.
Increase Research on How Environmental Factors Affect Women’s Health. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is updating its grant solicitations and contracts to ensure that applicants prioritize, as appropriate, the consideration of women’s exposures and health outcomes. These changes will help ensure that women’s health is better accounted for across EPA’s research portfolio and increase our knowledge of women’s environmental health—from endocrine disruption to toxic exposure.
Create a Dedicated, One-Stop Shop for NIH Funding Opportunities on Women’s Health. Researchers are often unaware of existing opportunities to apply for federal funding. To help close this gap, NIH is issuing a new Notice of Special Interest that identifies current, open funding opportunities related to women’s health research across a wide range of health conditions and all Institutes, Centers, and Offices. The NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health will build on this new Notice by creating a dedicated one-stop shop on open funding opportunities related to women’s health research. This will make it easier for researchers and institutions to find and apply for funding—instead of having to search across each of NIH’s 27 institutes for funding opportunities.
Foster Innovation and Discovery in Women’s Health
Accelerate Transformative Research and Development in Women’s Health. ARPA-H’s Sprint for Women’s Health launched in February 2024 commits $100 million to transformative research and development in women’s health. ARPA-H is soliciting ideas for novel groundbreaking research and development to address women’s health, as well as opportunities to accelerate and scale tools, products, and platforms with the potential for commercialization to improve women’s health outcomes.
Support Private Sector Innovation Through Additional Federal Investments in Women’s Health Research. The NIH’s competitive Small Business Innovation Research Program and the Small Business Technology Transfer Program is committing to further increasing—by 50 percent—its investments in supporting innovators and early-stage small businesses engaged in research and development on women’s health. These programs will solicit new proposals on promising women’s health innovation and make evidence-based investments that bridge the gap between performance of basic science and commercialization of resulting innovations. This commitment for additional funds builds on the investments the Administration has already made to increase innovation in women’s health through small businesses, including by increasing investments by sevenfold between Fiscal Year 2021 and Fiscal Year 2023.
Advance Initiatives to Protect and Promote the Health of Women. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seeks to advance efforts to help address gaps in research and availability of products for diseases and conditions that primarily impact women, or for which scientific considerations may be different for women, and is committed to research and regulatory initiatives that facilitate the development of safe and effective medical products for women. FDA also plans to issue guidance for industry that relates to the inclusion of women in clinical trials and conduct outreach to stakeholders to discuss opportunities to advance women’s health across the lifespan. And FDA’s Office of Women’s Health will update FDA’s framework for women’s health research and seek to fund research with an emphasis on bridging gaps in knowledge on important women’s health topics, including sex differences and conditions that uniquely or disproportionately impact women.
Use Biomarkers to Improve the Health of Women Through Early Detection and Treatment of Conditions, such as Endometriosis. NIH will launch a new initiative dedicated to research on biomarker discovery and validation to help improve our ability to prevent, diagnose, and treat conditions that affect women uniquely, including endometriosis. This NIH initiative will accelerate our ability to identify new pathways for diagnosis and treatment by encouraging multi-sector collaboration and synergistic research that will speed the transfer of knowledge from bench to bedside.
Leverage Engineering Research to Improve Women’s Health. The NSF Engineering Research Visioning Alliance (ERVA) is convening national experts to identify high-impact research opportunities in engineering that can improve women’s health. ERVA’s Transforming Women’s Health Outcomes Through Engineering visioning event will be held in June 2024, and will bring together experts from across engineering—including those in microfluidics, computational modeling, artificial intelligence/imaging, and diagnostic technologies and devices—to evaluate the landscape for new applications in women’s health. Following this event, ERVA will issue a report and roadmap on critical areas where engineering research can impact women’s health across the lifespan.
Drive Engineering Innovations in Women’s Health Discovery. NSF awardees at Texas A&M University will hold a conference in summer 2024 to collectively identify challenges and opportunities in improving women’s health through engineering. Biomedical engineers and scientists will explore and identify how various types of engineering tools, including biomechanics and immuno-engineering, can be applied to women’s health and spark promising new research directions.
Expand and Leverage Data Collection and Analysis Related to Women’s Health
Help Standardize Data to Support Research on Women’s Health. NIH is launching an effort to identify and develop new common data elements related to women’s health that will help researchers share and combine datasets, promote interoperability, and improve the accuracy of datasets when it comes to women’s health. NIH will initiate this process by convening data and scientific experts across the federal government to solicit feedback on the need to develop new NIH-endorsed common data elements—which are widely used in both research and clinical settings. By advancing new tools to capture more data about women’s health, NIH will give researchers and clinicians the tools they need to enable more meaningful data collection, analysis, and reporting and comprehensively improve our knowledge of women’s health.
Reflect Women’s Health Needs in National Coverage Determinations. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will strengthen its review process, including through Coverage with Evidence Development guidance, to ensure that new medical services and technologies work well in women, as applicable, before being covered nationally through the Medicare program. This will help ensure that Medicare funds are used for treatments with a sufficient evidence base to show that they actually work in women, who make up more than half of the Medicare population.
Leverage Data and Quality Measures to Advance Women’s Health Research. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) are building on existing datasets to improve the collection, analysis, and reporting of information on women’s health. The CDC is expanding the collection of key quality measures across a woman’s lifespan, including to understand the link between pregnancy and post-partum hypertension and heart disease, and plans to release the Million Hearts Hypertension in Pregnancy Change Package. This resource will feature a menu of evidence-informed strategies by which clinicians can change care processes. Each strategy includes tested tools and resources to support related clinical quality improvement. HRSA is modernizing its Uniform Data System in ways that will improve the ability to assess how women are being served through HRSA-funded health centers. By improving the ability to analyze data on key clinical quality measures, CDC and HRSA can help close gaps in women’s health care access and identify new opportunities for high-impact research.
Strengthen Coordination, Infrastructure, and Training to Support Women’s Health Research
Launch New Joint Collaborative to Improve Women’s Health Research for Service Members and Veterans. DoD and VA are launching a new Women’s Health Research collaborative to explore opportunities that further promote joint efforts to advance women’s health research and improve evidence-based care for Service members and veterans. The collaborative will increase coordination with the goal of helping improve care across the lifespan for women in the military and women veterans. The Departments will further advance research on key women’s health issues and develop a roadmap to close pressing research gaps, including those specifically affecting Service women and women veterans.
Coordinate Research to Advance the Health of Women in the Military. DoD will invest $10 million, contingent on available funds, in the Military Women’s Health Research Partnership. This Partnership is led by the Uniformed Services University and advances and coordinates women’s health research across the Department. The Partnership is supporting research in a wide range of health issues affecting women in the military, including cancers, mental and behavioral health, and the unique health care needs of Active Duty Service Women. In addition, the Uniformed Services University established a dedicated Director of Military Women’s Health Research Program, a role that is responsible for identifying research gaps, fostering collaboration, and coordinating and aligning a unified approach to address the evolving needs of Active Duty Service Women.
Support EPA-Wide Research and Dissemination of Data on Women’s Health. EPA is establishing a Women’s Health Community of Practice to coordinate research and data dissemination. EPA also plans to direct the Board of Scientific Counselors to identify ways to advance EPA’s research with specific consideration of the intersection of environmental factors and women’s health, including maternal health.
Expand Fellowship Training in Women’s Health Research. CDC, in collaboration with the CDC Foundation and American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, is expanding training in women’s health research and public health surveillance to OBGYNs, nurses and advanced practice nurses. Through fellowships and public health experiences with CDC, these clinicians will gain public health research skills to improve the health of women and children exposed to or affected by infectious diseases, mental health and substance use disorders. CDC will invite early career clinicians to train in public health and policy to become future leaders in women’s health research.
Improve Women’s Health Across the Lifespan
Create a Comprehensive Research Agenda on Menopause. To help women get the answers they need about menopause, NIH will launch its first-ever Pathways to Prevention series on menopause and the treatment of menopausal symptoms. Pathways to Prevention is an independent, evidence-based process to synthesize the current state of the evidence, identify gaps in existing research, and develop a roadmap that can be used to help guide the field forward. The report, once completed, will help guide innovation and investments in menopause-related research and care across the federal government and research community.
Improve Primary Care and Preventive Services for Women. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) will issue a Notice of Intent to publish a funding opportunity announcement for research to advance the science of primary care, which will include a focus on women’s health. Through this funding opportunity, AHRQ will build evidence about key elements of primary care that influence patient outcomes and advance health equity—focusing on women of color—such as care coordination, continuity of care, comprehensiveness of care, person-centered care, and trust. The results from the funding opportunity will shed light on vital targets for improvements in the delivery of primary healthcare across a woman’s lifespan, including women’s health preventive services, prevention and management of multiple chronic diseases, perinatal care, transition from pediatric to adult care, sexual and reproductive health, and care of older adults.
Promote the Health of American Indian and Alaska Native Women. The Indian Health Service is launching a series of engagements, including focus groups, to better understand tribal beliefs related to menopause in American Indian and Alaska Native Women. This series will inform new opportunities to expand culturally informed patient care and research as well as the development of new resources and educational materials.
Connect Research to Real-World Outcomes to Improve Women’s Mental and Behavioral Health. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is supporting a range of health care providers to address the unique needs of women with or at risk for mental health and substance use disorders. Building on its current efforts to provide technical assistance through various initiatives, SAMHSA intends, contingent on available funds, to launch a new comprehensive Women’s Behavioral Health Technical Assistance Center. This center will identify and improve the implementation of best practices in women’s behavioral health across the life span; identify and fill critical gaps in knowledge of and resources for women’s behavioral health; and provide learning opportunities, training, and technical assistance for healthcare providers.
Support Research on Maternal Health Outcomes. USDA will fund research to help recognize early warning signs of maternal morbidity and mortality in recipients of Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and anticipates awarding up to $5 million in Fiscal Year 2023 to support maternal health research through WIC. In addition, research being conducted through the Agricultural Research Service’s Human Nutrition Research Centers is focusing on women’s health across the lifespan, including the nutritional needs of pregnant and breastfeeding women and older adults.
On Equal Pay Day, March 12, the Biden Administration marked celebrate how far we have come—and how far we have yet to go—in closing the gender pay gap. Under the Biden-Harris Administration, America has seen an unprecedented—and equitable—economic recovery, building back an economy that is the strongest in the world. Women’s labor force participation is the highest it has been in decades, and the gender pay gap is the narrowest it has ever been on record.
At the same time, President Biden recognizes we still have work left to do. Women workers are still paid on average only 84 cents for every dollar paid to men. And the disparities are even greater for many women of color. These inequities cost women more than $1 trillion every year, and add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars lost over the course of a career for individual workers.
President Biden and Vice President Harris remain committed to closing gender and racial wage gaps and ensuring all people have a fair and equal opportunity to participate in the labor force and support their families. Closing wage gaps is critical to strengthening and growing the economy. This Equal Pay Day, the Biden-Harris Administration reaffirms its commitment to tackling pay gaps and announces new efforts to continue to build our understanding of pay disparities, address inequities, and support women’s economic security.
These actions will:
Promote equitable access to good-paying jobs. Last week, the President signed the Executive Order on Scaling and Expanding the Use of Registered Apprenticeships, which will expand and diversify Registered Apprenticeship programs, benefitting women and other underrepresented workers by increasing access to high-quality pathways to good-paying, family-sustaining jobs.
Support equal pay and further understanding of pay inequities. Today, for the first time, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is making available aggregate pay data from 2017 and 2018—collected from private employers and Federal contractors with 100 or more employees—via a user-friendly interactive tool, allowing researchers, stakeholders, and the public to better understand pay disparities based on sex, race/ethnicity, geography, industry, job category, and more.
Address occupational segregation. Today, the Department of Labor (DOL) is issuing an update to the Bearing the Cost report, analyzing the impact of “occupational segregation” on women’s economic security, particularly for Black and Hispanic women. Occupational segregation—the overrepresentation of women and people of color in occupations and industries that pay less, and their underrepresentation in occupations and industries that pay more—is a key contributor to pay inequity. DOL found that, over the course of a year, Black women lost $42.7 billion and Hispanic women lost $53.3 billion in wages compared to white men due to the impacts of occupational segregation.
Today’s announcements follow recent actions the Biden-Harris Administration has taken to further pay equity and transparency. On Equal Pay Day 2022, the President issued an Executive Order that committed to eliminate discriminatory pay practices in the Federal government and Federal contracting workforces. In January 2024, the Administration made good on that promise by committing to:
Advance pay equity for Federal workers. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) published a final rule ensuring that more than 80 Federal agencies will no longer consider an individual’s non-Federal current or past pay when determining the salaries of Federal employees. Ending the consideration of salary history in pay-setting decisions is a proven way to curb pay discrimination that often follows workers from job to job.
Promote economy, efficiency, and effectiveness in Federal contracting by advancing pay equity and pay transparency laws. The Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council issued a proposal to prohibit Federal contractors and subcontractors from seeking and considering information about job applicants’ compensation history for employment decisions for personnel working on or in connection with a government contract. In addition, the proposal would require Federal contractors and subcontractors to disclose expected salary ranges in job postings, a policy shown to reduce pay inequities. These proposals will also help Federal contractors recruit, diversify, and retain talent; improve job satisfaction and performance; and reduce turnover—all factors associated with promoting the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of the Federal contractor workforce.
Affirm equal pay obligations for Federal contractors. DOL’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) issued new guidance clarifying existing protections against discrimination in hiring or pay decisions. The guidance will help Federal contractors and employees understand when reliance on an individual’s compensation history for hiring or pay decisions may result in unlawful discrimination.
These efforts build upon actions the Biden-Harris Administration has taken to close gender and racial wage gaps and strengthen women’s economic security, which has led to the lowest unemployment rate among women since 1953. These include:
Ensuring women have access to good-paying jobs being created by the President’s Investing in America agenda. The Biden-Harris Administration’s investments through the American Rescue Plan (ARP), Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), CHIPS and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) have created thousands of good-paying jobs in industries of the future. The Administration has taken steps to ensure increased access to these jobs, including for women, people of color, and members of other communities currently underrepresented in these growing sectors have equitable access to these careers. These steps include:
Launching the Good Jobs Initiative. DOL’s Good Jobs Initiative provides critical information to workers, employers, and government agencies to improve job quality, empower workers, and ensure workers, especially those from underserved communities, can access good union jobs free from discrimination and harassment. The Initiative is dedicated to advancing the Departments of Labor and Commerce’s Good Jobs Principles, which address recruitment and hiring; diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility; and pay. Key implementing agencies have signed memoranda of understanding with DOL to support the Good Jobs Initiative, promote equitable workforce development, and ensure workers have what they need to deliver on the President’s once-in-a-generation Investing in America agenda.
Expanding access to good-paying construction jobs. To ensure women can access the almost 200,000 new construction jobs expected from the Biden-Harris Administration’s historic investments, the Department of Commerce launched the Million Women in Construction initiative, which calls on chip manufacturers, construction companies and unions to bring one million women into the construction industry over the next decade, roughly doubling women’s representation in the industry. DOL also launched the Mega Construction Project (Megaproject) Program, which fosters equal employment opportunity on designated BIL- and CHIPS-funded construction projects through intensive on-the-ground assistance to remove hiring barriers and promote consideration of a diverse pool of qualified workers, including women, people of color, veterans, and people with disabilities.
Improving access to child care for the semiconductor workforce through CHIPS and Science Act implementation requirements. The Department of Commerce’s implementation of the CHIPS and Science Act included a historic requirement that applicants requesting over $150 million in direct funding submit plans to provide accessible, affordable, high-quality child care.
Increasing access to affordable care and supporting caregivers. Access to affordable, high-quality care is essential to ensuring parents, especially moms, can participate fully in the workforce. From day one, the Biden-Harris Administration has focused on ways to lower child care costs for hardworking families and improve wages for child care workers. The ARP Child Care Stabilization program delivered historic support to over 225,000 child care programs serving as many as 10 million children across the country. Over 90% of the child care programs that have received assistance are women-owned. The Council of Economic Advisors found that this stabilization funding supported savings for families with young children, raised the real wages of child care workers, and helped hundreds of thousands of women with young children enter or re-enter the workforce.
In addition, in April 2023, President Biden signed an Executive Order with more than 50 directives to nearly every cabinet-level agency to increase access to affordable, high-quality care and boost job quality for early educators and long-term care workers, who are disproportionately women of color. Among the many actions agencies have taken, the Department of Health and Human Services finalized a rule strengthening the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) program and lowering child care costs for more than 100,000 families.
Increasing the minimum wage. The President issued Executive Orders directing the Administration to work toward ensuring that employees working on Federal contracts and Federal employees earned at least a $15 per hour minimum wage. Those directives went into effect in January 2022, raising the wages of about 370,000 Federal employees and employees of Federal contractors. In addition to helping the government do its work more efficiently, these directives take a step towards narrowing racial and gender disparities in income, as many low paid workers are women and people of color. The order also eliminates the subminimum wage for workers with disabilities on Federal contracts. The President has called on Congress to raise the Federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, so that American workers can have a job that delivers dignity and to make greater strides towards pay equity.
Supporting women-owned businesses and entrepreneurs. Under the Biden-Harris Administration, Small Business Administration-backed loans to women-owned small businesses are up more than 60 percent, totaling $5.1 billion in lending to women-owned businesses in FY23. And a new report found that from 2019 to 2023, women’s small business formation surged, substantially outpacing overall formation. This Administration has invested $70 million in the Women Business Centers (WBC) network, expanding it for the first time into all 50 states and tripling the number of WBCs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-Serving Institutions, and other minority-serving institutions. President Biden is also investing $10 billion through the ARP State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) to help States, territories, and Tribal governments leverage tens of billions more in matching public and private dollars to support small businesses across the United States, with a particular focus on historically underserved entrepreneurs, including women business owners. The ARP Restaurant Revitalization Fund helped over 40,000 women-owned restaurants and bars—thanks in part to steps taken by the Administration to ensure that women-owned and socially and economically disadvantaged businesses were able to access assistance.
Led to the Strongest Jobs Recovery on Record and the Strongest Recovery in the World: When President Biden came into office, there was tremendous economic uncertainty. Unemployment was at 6.4% when President Biden took office. Unemployment was not projected to drop below 4% until the end of 2025 in CBO’s February 2021 (Pre-ARP) Forecast. Instead, unemployment was below 4% for the past 25 months in a row – the strongest record in more than five decades.
ARP drove historic 3-year job growth with 15 million jobs added since President Biden took office.
Not only recovered all the lost jobs but added an additional 5.5 million more jobs versus pre-Covid.
Powered the strongest recovery in the world: After the American Rescue Plan passed, the U.S. saw by far the fastest recovery in the G7, with significantly higher real wage growth. US has lower apples to apples core inflation than all major European allies.
Powered the Most Equitable Recovery in Memory: In past recessions, persistent high long-term and youth unemployment as well as high numbers foreclosures and evictions led to long-term harms – “scarring” for millions of Americans and hard, long roads back for Black and Latino Americans. President Biden’s Rescue Plan ensured that didn’t happen this time:
Historic drops in unemployment for Black and Latino workers: With the strong recovery powered by ARP, Black unemployment saw its largest 1-year drop since the early 1980s and reached its lowest-ever annual rate in 2023; Hispanic unemployment saw its fastest 1-year drop and reached its lowest 2-year rate ever in 2022 & 2023.
Least scarring in any recovery in memory: The American Rescue Plan led to the fastest drop in long-term and youth unemployment ever. It kept foreclosures historically low and evictions 20% below historic avgs.
Led to dramatic reduction in inequality: Economists have found that the strong post-ARP labor market’s wage increases for middle-income and lower-income workers erased nearly 40% of the rise in wage inequality increases from the previous four decades.
Lowest women’s annual unemployment rate since 1953: This recovery has seen a dramatic decline in women’s unemployment to an average of 3.5% in 2023, the lowest annual average since 1953.
Strong recovery for Asian American, Pacific Islander, and Native Hawaiian communities: Asian American unemployment averaged 2.9% over the last two years and AA NHPI small business formation surged. Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander unemployment also fell by half from a 9% avg. in 2020 to 4% in 2022-2023.
Led to the Largest Federal Investments in Preventing Crime, Reducing Violence, and Investing in Public Safety in History. Since the passage of the American Rescue Plan, we’ve had the largest federal investment in advancing public safety and preventing violence in our history through ARP funding and other federal funding.
Over $15 billion in ARP funds committed to preventing crime and reducing violence, with investments by over 1,000 state and local governments to avoid cuts to police budgets, hire more police officers for safe, effective, and accountable community policing, ensure first responders have the equipment they need to do their jobs, and expand evidence-based community violence intervention and prevention programs.
That includes $1.2 billion for Medicaid Mobile Crisis Intervention Services – the American Rescue Plan included $1.2 billion to fund mobile crisis intervention units staffed with mental health professionals & trained peers.
It also includes $1 billion in Family Violence Prevention and Services Program to reduce domestic violence with immediate crisis intervention, health supports, and safety.
American Rescue Plan’s Expansion of the Affordable Care Act Led to Record-Breaking Health Care Enrollment and Savings: ARP substantially increased consumer subsidies, eligibility to middle-income families and provided strong incentives for states to expand Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act. Result:
ARP/IRA-extended ACA extension led to over 21 million Americans enrolling in coverage, an increase of 9 million from when POTUS took office.
Thanks to the American Rescue Plan and Inflation Reduction Act, millions of Americans are saving an average of $800 a year on premiums. The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to keeping health insurance premiums low, giving families more breathing room and the peace of mind that health insurance brings. To do that, the President is calling on Congress to make the expanded premium tax credits that the Inflation Reduction Act extended permanent.
Provided health coverage to 3 million Americans who would have otherwise had no health insurance.
Provided affordable health coverage to millions of middle-class Americans who were previously excluded from receiving consumer subsidies.
Provided more than $3 billion in Medicaid funding to North Carolina, Missouri, Oklahoma, and South Dakota for Medicaid expansion, covering over one million people.
Gave states an easier pathway to extend Medicaid postpartum coverage for a full 12 months – ensuring access to critical care for nearly 700,000 women in 45 states and the District of Columbia.
Largest Small Business Boom in History Due to ARP-Driven Strong Recovery and Small Business Investments: The Biden-Harris Administration:
Increased COVID EIDL to $2 million while increasing anti-fraud controls.
Reformed PPP to more equitably distribute funds to the smallest businesses.
Restaurant Revitalization Fund helped over 100,000 restaurants, bars, and food trucks stay open.
Shuttered Venues Program provided relief to 13,000 venues.
Invested a historic $10 Billion in the State Small Business Credit Initiativeleveraging up to $100 billion in capital for small businesses.
Invested in innovative Community Navigators program that delivered training to over 350,000 entrepreneurs and 1:1 counseling services to over 33,000 small business owners
Invested $125 million through the Capital Readiness Program to 43 non-profit community-based organizations to help underserved entrepreneurs launch and scale their small businesses – winners ranged from Asian/Pacific Islander Chamber of Commerce to Urban League of Greater Atlanta. This, and the strong recovery that ARP powered, led to:
A record 16 million new business applications over the past 3 years; 55% higher than year before pandemic.
Share of Black households owning a business has more than doubled, and Latino and Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander small business formation surged as well.
Women-owned businesses formation substantially outpaced overall business formation.
Led to Lowest Child Poverty Rate in American History: The American Rescue Plan expanded the Child Tax Credit, made it fully refundable, and delivered it monthly in 2021. This historic expansion drove:
Child poverty cut nearly in half to lowest rate ever.
Black child poverty cut by over 50%, Hispanic child poverty cut by 43%, and dramatic drops in Native American, white and Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander child poverty—all record lows.
Over 9 million children in rural areas benefited from the expanded credit.
5 million children in Veteran and active-duty families benefited from the expanded credit.
Child Tax Credit payments were delivered reliably with the first ever monthly payment – on the 15th of each month with 90% using direct deposit.
Over 60 million children in 40 million working families received largest Child Tax Credit in history.
Historic expansion to ~240,000 Puerto Rican families: For the first time, ARP permanently made Puerto Rican families eligible for the same Child Tax Credit as other American families. ARP also quadrupled funding available for Puerto Rico’s Earned Income Tax Credit.
Funded a Historic Vaccination Campaign: ARP provided $160 billion to support vaccination, therapeutics, testing and mitigation, PPE, and the broader COVID Response effort. This led to:
Over 230 million Americans are fully vaccinated, up from 3.5 million when President Biden took office, while closing the racial gap in vaccine access.
First-Ever National Eviction Policy Called “The most important eviction prevention policy in American history.”
Emergency Rental Assistance and other American Rescue Plan assistance helped over 8 million hard-pressed renters stay in their homes without sacrificing other basic needs.
Emergency Rental Assistance and Other ARP housing policies cut eviction filings to 20% below historic averages since start of Biden-Harris Administration.
Called the “the most important eviction prevention policy in American history” by Matthew Desmond, Pulitzer Prize Winner author of “Evicted” – and the “deepest investment the federal government has made in low-income renters since the nation launched its public housing system.”
HUD Emergency Housing Vouchers have already helped 47,500 households at risk of homelessness lease their own rental housing – supporting those at risk of or experiencing homelessness or housing instability, and those fleeing domestic violence.
Helped Keep Over 225,000 Child Care Programs Open and Provided Historic Nationwide Support for Medicaid Home-Based Care
American Rescue Plan Stabilization Assistance has reached over 225,000 Child Care Providers – that employ 1 million child care workers – and have the capacity to serve as many as 10 million children.
Led to lower child care costs by $1,250 per child, helped bring hundreds of thousands of women with young children into the workforce, and increased wages for child care workers by 10%, according to Council of Economic Advisors Report.
More than 8-in-10 licensed child care centers nationwide received ARP assistance.
Benefited 30,000 rural child care programs – in most states, 97% of rural counties or more received aid.
Invested $37 billion to expand access to home-based care and support direct care workers: Thanks to the American Rescue Plan, President Biden delivered $37 billion that all 50 states and the District of Columbia chose to invest to expand access to home care and improve the quality of caregiving jobs.
Investing in ALL of America:
For First Time in History, Direct Relief to Every Town, City, County, Tribe and State – No Matter How Big or Small, Urban or Rural – So they Could Design their Own Recovery:
Before ARP, 70% of cities forecasted layoffs or major cuts in services and half of states were freezing or cutting jobs. Today, cities and states have funds to invest in major challenges – like public safety, housing, workforce, and rehiring, instead of making dramatic cuts.
ARP provided direct fiscal relief to every state & territory and 30,000 cities and towns – while previous plans reached only 154 local governments or fewer. This has led to:
Immediately reversed planned layoffs in cities and states across the country – and helped drive a recovery of 1.3 million state and local jobs, recovering all of the state and local jobs lost in roughly one-third the time it took to recover state and local jobs after the Great Recession.
Major investments in critical areas:
$25 billion to jumpstart universal broadband access – including Broadband Connections for 18 million students through the Emergency Connectivity Fund so that schools and libraries could close the homework gap.
$12.8 billion in State & Local Funds invested in over 4,300 workforce investments by state and local governments.
Over $20 billion in State & Local Funds invested in water infrastructure.
$18.5 billion in State & Local Funds invested in housing – expanding supply, investing in homeless services, and providing 3.7 million additional households rent, mortgage, and utility relief.
Largest Ever Investment in Tribal Communities
ARP provided largest one-time investment in Tribal communities in history – providing more than $32 billion specifically allocated for Tribal communities and Native people, including $20 billion in Fiscal Recovery Funds that were quickly and directly distributed to Tribal governments in 2021 to stabilize Tribal economies devastated by the pandemic.
Invested in first-ever Tribal Small Business Credit Initiative Awards.
Focus on Tribal Communities in Place-Based grants including $45 million Build Back Better Regional Challenge (BBB-RC) grant to the Mountain Plains Regional Native CDFI Coalition to grow the Native finance sector and expand economic opportunity.
Investing in Rural America: Innovative rural-focused investments include:
ARP provided direct fiscal recovery funding to every single rural government so that they could avoid painful layoffs and design their own recovery. Past recovery bills only sent direct fiscal relief to largest cities.
ARP Child Care Stabilization Reached 30,000 rural child care programs – in most states, 97% of rural counties or more received aid.
USDA invested $1 billion to expand independent meat and poultry processing capacity to give farmers more market options and fairer prices, and reduce reliance on a handful of meat and poultry corporations.
Rural unemployment rates in 2023 were at their lowest point (3.6 percent) since before 1990.
Full rural jobs recovery: Rural employment has returned fully to pre-COVID levels.
Major Investment in Workforce Training and Connecting Americans to Good Jobs:
Tens of billions from the American Rescue Plan have gone to workforce training efforts, including $12.8 billion in State and Local Funds invested in over 4,300 workforce investments across the country, including pre-apprenticeships and other programs to prepare for new infrastructure, health care & care jobs.
$500 million in competitive Good Jobs Challenge Awards for 32 Workforce High-Quality Training Partnerships across the country.
$1 billion Competitive Build Back Better Regional Challenge – 21 Winners won between $25 million and $65 million to execute transformational projects and revitalize local industries. Projects include developing workforce training programs, connecting workers to jobs, and other transformational investments.
Historic investment in expanding and supporting our health care workforce, including:
$1.1 billion investment in the community health workforce, including in mental health workforce.
Rapid deployment of 14,000+ community outreach workers (in 150+ national & local organizations). For example, the Association of Asian/Pacific Community Health Organizations used American Rescue Plan funds to establish the CHW Workforce Collaborative (the Collaborative). The Collaborative has since hired, trained, and deployed more than 250 CHWs who speak over 36 Asian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander languages in 12 continental U.S. states and Hawaii.
Establishment of the first-of-its-kind public health AmeriCorps to build and train the next generation of public health leaders, already serving 82 organizations across the country and supporting more than 3,000 AmeriCorps members.
Supporting the largest field in history (over 22,700 providers) for the National Health Service Corps, Nurse Corps, and Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery programs, treating more than 23.6 million patients in underserved communities.
Provided recovery funding for more than 15,000 School Districts to Safely Reopen K-12 Schools, Support Academic Recovery, and Invest in Student Mental Health:
ARP provided critical relief to more than 15,000 school districts to reopen safely, support academic recovery, and invest in student mental health.
Data from school district plans show that schools are using these funds well, focusing on efforts to support academic recovery:
Nearly 60% of funds are committed to investments like staffing, tutoring, afterschool and summer learning programs, new instructional resources and materials, and mental and physical health supports.
Another 23% is going to keep schools operating safely, including providing PPE and updating school facilities. This includes investments in lead abatement and nearly $10 billion for HVAC.
Nearly half of school districts invested in summer learning programs which proven to boost math scores.
This has led to:
Going from 46% of schools that had safely opened to full-time in-person teaching to 100%: In January 2021, CDC data showed that just 46% of schools were open full-time in-person. Today, all schools are open.
Led to a major increase in staffing and investments to address student mental health: Schools now employ 31% more school social workers and 31% more school nurses than pre-pandemic. School districts have added more than 600,000 local education jobs since January 2021 and recovered to pre-pandemic levels.
Eighteen Million College Students Have Received Direct Financial Assistance from the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fundthat was expanded by ARP:
Colleges reached an estimated 18 million students with direct financial assistance from the Higher Education Emergency Relief (HEERF) fund since the beginning of 2021.
Direct financial assistance for an estimated 6 million community college students.
80% of Pell Grant recipients received direct financial relief in 2021.
An estimated 450,000 students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) received direct financial assistance. In 2021, 77% of HBCUs used HEERF funds to discharge unpaid student balances.
Historic Investment in Pension Security for up to 3 million Union workers & retirees: ARP’s Special Financial Assistance is the most significant investment in pension security for union workers and retirees in the past 50 years.
Over 200 multiemployer plans that were on pace to become insolvent in the nearterm will now have solvency and able to pay full benefits until at least 2051.
Preventing a wave of multi-employer insolvencies for 2-3 million workers who would have seen major cuts to their earned retirement benefits.
Pension cuts reversed for over 80,000 workers and retirees in 18 “MPRA” multiemployer plans
Most significant effort to protect the solvency of the multiemployer pension system in almost 50 years.
First-Ever Summer Nutrition Benefit for Students w/ Nationwide Reach – Extended Permanently:
ARP created the first-ever summer nutrition benefit with nationwide reach, helping children who rely on free and reduced-price school meals afford food over the summer.
30 million young people: Reached the families of 30 million students.
Permanent: Congress extended this innovative program permanently in 2022’s Omnibus bill, the first major new permanent food assistance program in nearly five decades
Here is edited and highlighted transcript of President Biden’s fiery State of the Union Address, as delivered, ad libs and all, in which he trolled and baited Republicans, laid out the stakes of the 2024 election, and contrasted his record and his vision of the future with “my predecessor.” –Karen Rubin, [email protected]
THE PRESIDENT: (The President presents his prepared remarks to Speaker Johnson.) Your bedtime reading.
Tony! (Applause.) Thank you. (Applause.) Looking for Jill. (Applause.)
Good evening. (Applause.) Good evening. If I were smart, I’d go home now. (Laughter and applause.)
Mr. Speaker, Madam Vice President, members of Congress, my fellow Americans.
In January 1941, Franklin Roosevelt came to this chamber to speak to the nation. And he said, “I address you at a moment unprecedented in the history of the Union”. Hitler was on the march. War was raging in Europe.
President Roosevelt’s purpose was to wake up Congress and alert the American people that this was no ordinary time. Freedom and democracy were under assault in the world.
Tonight, I come to the same chamber to address the nation. Now it’s we who face an unprecedented moment in the history of the Union.
And, yes, my purpose tonight is to wake up the Congress and alert the American people that this is no ordinary moment either. Not since President Lincoln and the Civil War have freedom and democracy been under assault at home as they are today.
What makes our moment rare is that freedom and democracy are under attack at — both at home and overseas at the very same time.
Overseas, Putin of Russia is on the march, invading Ukraine and sowing chaos throughout Europe and beyond.
If anybody in this room thinks Putin will stop at Ukraine, I assure you: He will not. (Applause.)
But Ukraine — Ukraine can stop Putin. (Applause.) Ukraine can stop Putin if we stand with Ukraine and provide the weapons that it needs to defend itself. (Applause.)
That is all — that is all Ukraine is asking. They’re not asking for American soldiers. In fact, there are no American soldiers at war in Ukraine, and I’m determined to keep it that way. (Applause.)
But now assistance to Ukraine is being blocked by those who want to walk away from our world leadership.
It wasn’t long ago when a Republican president named Ronald Reagan thundered, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” (Applause.)
Now — now my predecessor, a former Republican president, tells Putin, quote, “Do whatever the hell you want.”
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE PRESIDENT: That’s a quote.
A former president actually said that — bowing down to a Russian leader. I think it’s outrageous, it’s dangerous, and it’s unacceptable. (Applause.)
America is a founding member of NATO, the military alliance of democratic nations created after World War Two prevent — to prevent war and keep the peace.
And today, we’ve made NATO stronger than ever. We welcomed Finland to the Alliance last year. (Applause.) And just this morning, Sweden officially joined, and their minister is here tonight. Stand up. (Applause.) Welcome. Welcome, welcome, welcome. (Applause.) And they know how to fight.
Mr. Prime Minister, welcome to NATO, the strongest military alliance the world has ever seen.
I say this to Congress: We have to stand up to Putin. (Applause.) Send me a bipartisan national security bill. History is literally watching. History is watching.
If the United States walks away, it will put Ukraine at risk. Europe is at risk. The free world will be at risk, emboldening others to do what they wish to do us harm.
My message to President Putin, who I’ve known for a long time, is simple: We will not walk away. (Applause.) We will not bow down. (Applause.) I will not bow down. (Applause.)
In a literal sense, history is watching. History is watching — just like history watched three years ago on January 6th — (applause) — when insurrectionists stormed this very Capitol and placed a dagger to the throat of American democracy.
Many of you were here on that darkest of days. We all saw with our own eyes the insurrectionists were not patriots. They had come to stop the peaceful transfer of power, to overturn the will of the people.
January 6th lies about the 2020 election and the plots to steal the election posed a great — gravest threat to U.S. democracy since the Civil War.
But they failed. (Applause.) America stood — (applause) — America stood strong and democracy prevailed. We must be honest: The threat to democracy must be defended [defeated].
My predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth about January 6th. I will not do that.
This is a moment to speak the truth and to bury the lies. Here’s the simple truth: You can’t love your country only when you win. (Applause.)
As I’ve done ever since being elected to office, I ask all of you, without regard to party, to join together and defend democracy. Remember your oath of office to defend against all threats foreign and domestic. (Applause.)
Respect — respect free and fair elections, restore trust in our institutions, and make clear political violence has absolutely no place — no place in America. Zero place. (Applause.)
Again, it’s not — it’s not hyperbole to suggest history is watching. They’re watching. Your children and grandchildren will read about this day and what we do.
History is watching another assault on freedom. Joining us tolight [tonight] is Latorya Beasley, a social worker from Birmingham, Alabama.
Fourteen months ago — fourteen months ago, she and her husband welcomed a baby girl thanks to the miracle of IVF. (Applause.) She scheduled treatments to have that second child, but the Alabama Supreme Court shut down IVF treatments across the state, unleashed by a Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. She was told her dream would have to wait.
What her family had gone through should never have happened. Unless Congress acts, it could happen again.
So, tonight, let’s stand up for families like hers. To my friends across the aisle — (applause) — don’t keep this waiting any longer. Guarantee the right to IVF. (Applause.) Guarantee it nationwide.
Like most Americans, I believe Roe v. Wade got it right.
I thank Vice President Harris for being an incredible leader defending reproductive freedom and so much more. (Applause.) Thank you.
My predecessor came to office determined to see Roe v. Wade overturned. He’s the reason it was overturned, and he brags about it. Look at the chaos that has resulted.
Joining us tonight is Kate Cox, a wife and mother from Dallas. She’d become pregnant again and had a fetus with a fatal condition. Her doctor told Kate that her own life and her ability to have future in the fil- — children in the future were at risk if she didn’t act. Because Texas law banned her ability to act, Kate and her husband had to leave the state to get what she needed.
What her family had gone through should have never happened as well. But it’s happening to too many others.
There are state laws banning the freedom to choose, criminalizing doctors, forcing survivors of rape and incest to leave their states to get the treatment they need.
Many of you in this chamber and my predecessor are promising to pass a national ban on reproductive freedom.
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE PRESIDENT: My God, what freedom else would you take away?
Look, its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court majority wrote the following — and with all due respect, Justices — “Women are not without electoral — electoral power” — excuse me — “electoral or political power.”
You’re about to realize just how much you were right about that. (Applause.)
Clearly — (applause) — clearly, those bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade have no clue about the power of women.
But they found out. When reproductive freedom was on the ballot, we won in 2022 and 2023. And we’ll win again in 2024. (Applause.)
If you — if you, the American people, send me a Congress that supports the right to choose, I promise you I will restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land again. (Applause.)
Folks, America cannot go back.
I am here to- — tonight to show what I believe is the way forward, because I know how far we’ve come.
Four years ago next week, before I came to office, the country was hit by the worst pandemic and the worst economic crisis in a century.
Remember the fear, record losses?
Remember the spikes in crime and the murder rate? A raging virus that took more than 1 million American lives of loved ones, millions left behind.
A mental health crisis of isolation and loneliness.
A president, my predecessor, failed in the most basic presidential duty that he owes to American people: the duty to care.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Lies!
THE PRESIDENT: I think that’s unforgivable.
I came to office determined to get us through one of the toughest periods in the nation’s history. We have.
It doesn’t make new, but in a — news — in a thousand cities and towns, the American people are writing the greatest comeback story never told. (Applause.)
So, let’s tell the story here — tell it here and now.
America’s comeback is building a future of American possibilities; building an economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down; investing in all of America, in all Americans to make every- — sure everyone has a fair shot and we leave no one — no one behind.
The pandemic no longer controls our lives. The vaccine that saved us from COVID is — are now being used to beat cancer.
Turning setback into comeback. That’s what America does. That’s what America does. (Applause.)
Folks, I inherited an economy that was on the brink. Now, our economy is literally the envy of the world.
Fifteen million new jobs in just three years. A record. A record. (Applause.)
Unemployment at 50-year lows. (Applause.)
A record 16 million Americans are starting small businesses, and each one is a literal act of hope, with historic job growth and small-business growth for Black and Hispanics and Asian Americans.Eight hundred thousand new manufacturing jobs in America and counting. (Applause.)
Where is it written we can’t be the manufacturing capital of the world? We are and we will. (Applause.)
More people have health insurance today — more people have health insurance today than ever before.
The racial wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years.
Wages keep going up. Inflation keeps coming down. Inflation has dropped from 9 percent to 3 percent — the lowest in the world and tending [trending] lower. (Applause.)
The landing is and will be soft. And now, instead of aporting — importing foreign products and exporting American jobs, we’re exporting American products and creating American jobs — (applause) — right here in America, where they belong.
And it takes time, but the American people are beginning to feel it. Consumer studies show consumer confidence is soaring.
“Buy America” has been the law of the land since the 1930s. Past administrations, including my predecessor — including some Democrats, as well, in the past — failed to buy American. Not anymore.
On my watch, federal projects that you fund — like helping build American roads, bridges, and highways — will be made with American products and built by American workers — (applause) — creating good-paying American jobs. (Applause.)
And thanks to our CHIPS and Science Act — (applause) — the United States is investing more inresearch and development than ever before. During the pandemic, a shortage of semiconductors, chips that drove up the price of everything from cell phones to automobiles — and, by the way, we invented those chips right here in America.
Well, instead of having to import them, instead of — private companies are now investing billions of dollars to build new chip factories here in America — (applause) — creating tens of thousands of jobs, many of those jobs paying $100,000 a year and don’t require a college degree. (Applause.)
In fact, my policies have attracted$650 billion in private-sector investment in clean energy, advanced manufacturing, creating tens of thousands of jobs here in America. (Applause.)
And thanks — and thanks to our Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, 46,000 new projects have been announced all across your communities.
And, by the way, I noticed some of you who’ve strongly voted against it are there cheering on that money coming in. (Laughter and applause.) And I like it. I’m with you. I’m with you.
And if any of you don’t want that money in your district, just let me know. (Laughter.)
Modernizing our roads and bridges, ports and airports, public transit systems. Removing poi- — poisonous lead pipes so every child can drink clean water without risk of brain damage. (Applause.)
Providing affordable — affordable high-speed Internet for every American, no matter where you live — urban, suburban, or rural communities in red states and blue states.
Record investments in Tribal communities.
Because of my investment in family farms — (applause) — because I invested in family farms — led by my Secretary of Agriculture, who knows more about this anybody I know — we’re better able to stay in the family for the — those farms so their — and their children and grandchildren won’t have to leave — leave home to make a living. It’s transformative.
The great comeback story is Belvidere, Illinois. Home to an auto plant for nearly 60 years. Before I came to office, the plant was on its way to shutting down. Thousands of workers feared for their livelihoods. Hope was fading.
Then, I was elected to office, and we raised Belvidere repeatedly with auto companies, knowing unions would make all the difference. The UAW worked like hell to keep the plant open and get these jobs back. And together, we succeeded.
Instead of auto factories shutting down, auto factories are reopening and a new state-of-the-art battery factory is being built to power those cars there at the same. (Applause.)
To the folks — to the folks of Belvidere, I’d say: Instead of your town being left behind, your community is moving forward again. Because instead of watching auto ja- — jobs of the future go overseas, 4,000 union jobs with higher wages are building a future in Belvidere right here in America. (Applause.)
Here tonight is UAW President Shawn Fain, a great friend and a great labor leader. Shawn, where are you? (Applause.) Stand up.
And — and Dawn — and Dawn Simms, a third-generation worker — UAW worker at Belvidere.
Shawn, I was proud to be the first President to stand in the picket line. And today, Dawn has a good job in her hometown, providing stability for her family and pride and dignity as well.
Showing once again Wall Street didn’t build America. They’re not bad guys. They didn’t build it, though. The middle class built the country, and unions built the middle class. (Applause.)
I say to the American people: When America gets knocked down, we get back up. (Applause.) We keep going. That’s America. (Applause.) That’s you, the American people.
It’s because of you America is coming back. It’s because of you our future is brighter. It’s because of you that tonight we can proudly say the state of our Union is strong and getting stronger. (Applause.)
AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
THE PRESIDENT: Tonight — tonight, I want to talk about the future of possibilities that we can build together — a future where the days of trickle-down economics are over and the wealthy and the biggest corporations no longer get the — all the tax breaks.
And, by the way, I understand corporations. I come from a state that has more corporations invested than every one of your states in the state — the United States combined. And I represented it for 36 years. I’m not anti-corporation.
But I grew up in a home where trickle-down economics didn’t put much on my dad’s kitchen table. That’s why I’m determined to turn things around so the middle class does well. When they do well, the poor have a way up and the wealthy still do very well. We all do well.
And there’s more to do to make sure you’re feeling the benefits of all we’re doing.
Americans pay more for prescription drugs than anywhere in the world. It’s wrong, and I’m ending it. (Applause.)
With a law that I proposed and signed — and not one of your Republican buddies work- — voted for it — we finally beat Big Pharma.
Instead of paying $400 a month or thereabouts for insulin with diabetes — and it only costs 10 bucks to make — they only get paid $35 a month now and still make a healthy profit. (Applause.)
And I want to — and what to do next, I want to cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month for every American who needs it — everyone. (Applause.)
For years, people have talked about it. But finally, we got it done and gave Medicare the power to negotiate lower prices on prescription drugs, just like the VA is able to do for veterans. (Applause.)
That’s not just saving seniors money. It’s saving taxpayers money. We cut the federal deficit by $160 billion — (applause) — because Medicare will no longer have to pay those exorbitant prices to Big Pharma.
This year, Medicare is negotiating lower prices for some of the costliest drugs on the market that treat everything from heart disease to arthritis. It’s now time to go further and give Medicare the power to negotiate lower prices for 500 different drugs over the next decade. (Applause.)
They’re making a lot of money, guys. And they’ll still be extremely profitable. It will not only save lives; it will save taxpayers another $200 billion. (Applause.)
Starting next year, the same law caps total prescription drug costs for seniors on Medicare at $200 — at $2,000 a year, even for expensive cancer drugs that cost $10-, $12-, $15,000. Now I want to cap prescription drug costs at $2,000 a year for everyone. (Applause.)
Folks, I’m going to get in trouble for saying that, but any of you want to get in Air Force One with me and fly to Toronto, Berlin, Moscow — I mean, excuse me. (Laughter.) Well, even Moscow, probably. (Laughter.) And bring your prescription with you, and I promise you, I’ll get it for you for 40 percent the cost you’re paying now. Same company, same drug, same place.
Folks, the Affordable Care Act — the old “Obamacare” — (applause) — is still a very big deal. (Laughter and applause.)
Over 100 million of you can no longer be denied health insurance because of a preexisting condition. But my predecessor and many in this chamber want to take the — that prescription drug away by repealing Affordable Care Act.
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE PRESIDENT: I’m not going to let that happen. (Applause.) We stopped you 50 times before, and we’ll stop you again. (Applause.)
In fact, I’m not only protecting it, I’m expanding it. The — we enacted tax credits of $800 per person per year [to] reduce healthcare costs for millions of working families. That tax credit expires next year. I want to make that savings permanent. (Applause.)
To state the obvious: Women are more than half of our population, but research on women’s health has always been underfunded.
That’s why we’re launching the first-ever White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, led by Jill — (applause) — doing an incredible job as First Lady — (applause) — to pa- — to pass my plan for $12 billion to transform women’s health research and benefit millions of lives all across America.
I know the cost of housing is so important to you. Inflation keeps coming down. Mortgage rates will come down as well, and the Fed acknowledges that.
But I’m not waiting. I want to provide an annual tax credit that will give Americans $400 a month for the next two years as mortgage rates come down to put toward their mortgages when they buy their first home or trade up for a little more space. (Applause.) That’s for two years.
And my administration is also eliminating title insurance [fees] on federally backed mortgages. (Applause.) When you refinance your home, you can save $1,000 or more as a consequence. (Applause.)
For millions of renters, we’re cracking down on big landlords who use antitrust law — using antitrust — who break antitrust laws — (applause) — by price-fixing and driving up rents. (Applause.)
We’ve cut red tape so builders can get federally financing, which is already helping build a record 1.7 million new house u- — housing units nationwide.
Now pass — now pass [my plan] and build and renovate 2 million affordable homes and bring those rents down. (Applause.)
To remain the strongest economy in the world, we need to have the best education system in the world. (Applause.) And I, like I suspect all of you, want to give a child — every child a good start by providing access to preschool for three- and four-years-old. (Applause.)
You know, I think I pointed out last year — (applause) — I think I pointed out last year that children coming from broken homes where there’s no books, they’re not read to, they’re not spoken to very often start school — kindergarten or first grade hearing — having heard a million fewer words spoken.
Well, studies show that children who go to preschool are nearly 50 percent more likely to finish high school and go on to earn a two- and four-year degree no matter what their background is. (Applause.)
I met a year and a half ago with the leaders of the Business Roundtable. They were mad that I was ever — angry — I — well, they were discussing — (laughter) — why I wanted to spend money on education.
I pointed out to them: As Vice President, I met with over 8- — I think it was 182 of those folks — don’t hold me to the exact number — and I asked them what they need most — the CEOs. And you’ve had the same experience on both sides of the aisle. They say, “A better-educated workforce,” right?
So, I looked at them. And I say, “I come from Delaware. DuPont used to be the eighth-largest corporation in the world. And every new enter- — enterprise they bought, they educated the workforce to that enterprise. But none of you do that anymore. Why are you angry with me providing you the opportunity for the best-educated workforce in the world?”
And they all looked at me and said, “I think you’re right.” (Applause.)
I want to expand high-quality tutoring and summer learning to see that every child learns to read by third grade. (Applause.)
I’m also connecting local businesses and high schools so students get hands-on experience and a path to a good-paying job whether or not they go to college. (Applause.)
And I want to make sure that college is more affordable. Let’s continue increasing the Pell Grants to working- and middle-class families and increase record investments in HBCUs and minority-serving institutions, including Hispanic institutions. (Applause.)
When I was told I couldn’t universally just change the way in which we did — dealt with student loans, I fixed two student loan programs that already existed to reduce the burden of student debt for nearly 4 million Americans, including nurses, firefighters — (applause) — and others in public service.
Like Keenan Jones, a public educator in Minnesota, who’s here with us tonight. Keenan, where are you? (Applause.) Keenan, thank you.
He’s educated hundreds of students so they can go to college. Now he’s able to help, after debt forgiveness, get his own daughter to college. (Applause.)
And, folks, look, such relief is good for the economy because folks are now able to buy a home, start a business, start a family.
And while we’re at it, I want to give public school teachers a raise. (Applause.)
And, by the way, the first couple of years, we cut the deficit.
Now let me speak to the question of fundamental fairness for all Americans. I’ve been delivering real results in fiscally responsible ways. We’ve already cut the federal deficit — we’ve already cut the federal deficit by over $1 trillion. (Applause.)
I signed a bipartisan deal to cut another trillion dollars in the next decade. (Applause.)
It’s my goal to cut the federal deficit another $3 trillion by making big corporations and the very wealthy finally beginning to pay their fair share. (Applause.)
Look, I’m a capitalist. If you want to make or can make a million or millions of bucks, that’s great. Just pay your fair share in taxes. (Applause.)
A fair tax code is how we invest in things that make this country great: healthcare, education, defense, and so much more.
But here’s the deal. The last administration enacted a $2 trillion tax cut overwhelmingly benefit the top 1 percent — the very wealthy —
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE PRESIDENT: — and the biggest corporations — and exploded the federal deficit. (Applause.)
They added more to the national debt than any presidential term in American history. Check the numbers.
Folks at home, does anybody really think the tax code is fair?
AUDIENCE: No!
THE PRESIDENT: Do you really think the wealthy and big corporations need another $2 trillion tax break?
AUDIENCE: No!
THE PRESIDENT: I sure don’t. I’m going to keep fighting like hell to make it fair. Under my plan, nobody earning less than $400,000 a year will pay an additional penny in federal taxes — (applause) — nobody — not one penny. And they haven’t yet.
In fact, the Child Tax Credit I passed during the pandemic cut taxes for millions of working families and cut child poverty in half. (Applause.)
Restore that Child Tax Credit. No child should go hungry in this country. (Applause.)
The way to make the tax code fair is to make big corporations and the very wealthy begin to pay their share. Remember in 2020, 55 of the biggest companies in America made $40 billion and paid zero in federal income tax. Zero.
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE PRESIDENT: Not anymore.
Thanks to the law I wrote and we signed, big companies now have to pay a minimum of 15 percent. But that’s still less than working people pay in federal taxes.
It’s time to raise the corporate minimum tax to at least 21 percent — (applause) — so every big corporation finally begins to pay their fair share.
I also want to end tax breaks for Big Pharma, Big Oil, private jets, massive executive pay when it was only supposed to be a million bal- — a million dollars that could be deducted. They can pay them $20 million if they want, but deduct a million.
End it now.
You know, there are 1,000 billionaires in America. You know what the average federal tax is for those billionaires?
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Zero!
THE PRESIDENT: No. (Laughter.)
They’re making great sacrifices — 8.2 percent.
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE PRESIDENT: That’s far less than the vast majority of Americans pay.
No billionaire should pay a lower federal tax rate than a teacher, a sanitation worker, or a nurse. (Applause.)
I proposed a minimum tax for billionaires of 25 percent — just 25 percent. You know what that would raise? That would raise $500 billion over the next 10 years. (Applause.)
And imagine what that could do for America. Imagine a future with affordable childcare, millions of families can get what they need to go to work to help grow the economy. (Applause.)
Imagine a future with paid leave, because no one should have to choose between working and taking care of their sick family member. (Applause.)
Imagine — imagine a future with home care and eldercare, and people living with disabilities so they can stay in their homes and family caregivers can finally get the pay they deserve.
Tonight, let’s all agree once again to stand up for seniors. (Applause.)
Many of my friends on the other side of the aisle want to put Social Security on the chopping block.
If anyone here tries to cut Social Security or Medicare or raise the retirement age, I will stop you. (Applause.)
The working people — the working people who built this country pay more into Social Security than millionaires and billionaires do. It’s not fair.
We have two ways to go. Republicans can cut Social Security and give more tax breaks to the wealthy. I will —
AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: That’s the proposal. Oh, no? You guys don’t want another $2 trillion tax cut?
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Liar!
THE PRESIDENT: I kind of thought that’s what your plan was. (Laughter.) Well, that’s good to hear. You’re not going to cut another $2 trillion for the super-wealthy? That’s good to hear.
I’ll protect and strengthen Social Security and make the wealthy pay their fair share. (Applause.)
Look, too many corporations raise prices to pad their profits, charging more and more for less and less.
That’s why we’re cracking down on corporations that engage in price gouging and deceptive pricing, from food to healthcare to housing.
In fact, the snack companies think you won’t notice if they change the size of the bag and put a hell of a lot fewer — (laughter) — same — same size bag — put fewer chips in it. No, I’m not joking. It’s called “shrink-flation.”
Pass Bobby Casey’s bill and stop this. (Applause.) I really mean it.
You probably all saw that commercial on Snickers bars. (Laughter.) And you get — you get charged the same amount, and you got about, I don’t know, 10 percent fewer Snickers in it. (Laughter.)
Look, I’m also getting rid of junk fees — those hidden fees — (applause) — at the end of your bill that are there without your knowledge. My administration announced we’re cutting credit card late fees from $32 to $8. (Applause.)
Banks and credit card companies are allowed to charge what it costs them to in- — to instigate the collection. And that’s more — a hell of a lot like $8 than 30-some dollars.
But they don’t like it. The credit card companies don’t like it, but I’m saving American families $20 billion a year with all of the junk fees I’m eliminating. (Applause.)
Folks at home, that’s why the banks are so mad. It’s $20 billion in profit.
I’m not stopping there.
My administration has proposed rules to make cable, travel,utilities, and online ticket sellers tell you the total price up front so there are no surprises. (Applause.)
It matters. It matters.
And so does this. In November, my team began serious negotiations with a bipartisan group of senators. The result was a bipartisan bill with the toughest set of border security reforms we’ve ever seen.
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, you don’t think so?
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, you don’t like that bill — huh? — that conservatives got together and said was a good bill? I’ll be darned. That’s amazing.
That bipartisan bill would hire 1,500 more security agents and officers, 100 more immigration judges to help tackle the backload of 2 million cases, 4,300 more asylum officers, and new policies so they can resolve cases in six months instead of six years now. (Applause.) What are you against?
One hundred more high-tech drug detection machines to significantly increase the ability to screen and stop vehicles smuggling fentanyl into America that’s killing thousands of children. (Applause.)
This bill would save lives and bring order to the border. (Applause.)
It would also give me and any new president new emergency authority to temporarily shut down the border when the number of migrants at the border is overwhelming.
The Border Patrol union has endorsed this bill.
(Cross-talk.)
The federal Chamber of Commerce has — yeah, yeah. You’re saying “no.” Look at the facts. (Laughter and applause.) I know — I know you know how to read.
I believe that given the opportunity — for — a majority in the House and Senate would endorse the bill as well — a majority right now.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes!
THE PRESIDENT: But unfortunately, politics have derailed this bill so far.
I’m told my predecessor called members of Congress in the Senate to demand they block the bill. He feels political win — he viewed it as a — it would be a political win for me and a political loser for him. It’s not about him. It’s not about me. I’d be a winner — not really. I —
REPRESENTATIVE GREENE: What about Laken Riley?
(Cross-talk.)
AUDIENCE: Booo —
REPRESENTATIVE GREENE: Say her name!
THE PRESIDENT: (The President holds up a pin reading “Say Her Name, Laken Riley.”) Lanken — Lanken [Laken] Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed.
REPRESENTATIVE GREENE: By an illegal!
THE PRESIDENT: By an illegal. That’s right. But how many of thousands of people are being killed by legals?
(Cross-talk.)
To her parents, I say: My heart goes out to you. Having lost children myself, I understand.
But, look, if we change the dynamic at the border — people pay people — people pay these smugglers 8,000 bucks to get across the border because they know if they get by — if they get by and let into the country, it’s six to eight years before they have a hearing. And it’s worth the — taking the chance of the $8,000.
(Cross-talk.)
But — but if it’s only six mon- — six weeks, the idea is it’s highly unlikely that people will pay that money and come all that way knowing that they’ll be — able to be kicked out quickly. (Applause.)
Folks, I would respectfully su- — suggest to my friend in — my Republican friends owe it to the American people. Get this bill done. We need to act now. (Applause.)
AUDIENCE: Get it done! Get it done! Get it done!
THE PRESIDENT: And if my predecessor is watching: Instead of paying [playing] politics and pressuring members of Congress to block the bill, join me in telling the Congress to pass it.
We can do it together.
But that’s what he apparently — here’s what he will not do.
I will not demonize immigrants, saying they are “poison in the blood of our country.” (Applause.)
I will not separate families. (Applause.)
I will not ban people because of their faith.
Unlike my predecessor, on my first day in office, I introduced a comprehensive bill to fix our immigration system. Take a look at it. It has all these and more: secure the border, provide a pathway to citizenship for DREAMers, and so much more. (Applause.)
But unlike my predecessor, I know who we are as Americans. We’re the only nation in the world with a heart and soul that draws from old and new.
Home to Native Americans whose ancestors have been here for thousands of years. Home to people of every pla- — from every place on Earth.
They came freely. Some came in chains. Some came when famine struck, like my ancestral family in Ireland. Some to flee persecution, to chase dreams that are impossible anywhere but here in America.
That’s America. (Applause.) And we all come from somewhere, but we’re all Americans.
Look, folks, we have a simple choice: We can fight about fixing the border or we can fix it. (Applause.) I’m ready to fix it. Send me the border bill now.
AUDIENCE: Fix it! Fix it! Fix it!
THE PRESIDENT: A transformational his- — moment in history happened 58 — 59 years ago today in Selma, Alabama. Hundreds of foot soldiers for justice marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, named after the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, to claim their fundamental right to vote.
They were beaten. They were bloodied and left for dead. Our late friend and former colleague John Lewis was on that march. We miss him. (Applause.)
But joining us tonight are other marchers, both in the gallery and on the floor, including Bettie Mae Fikes, known as the “Voice of Selma.”
The daughter of gospel singers and preachers, she sang songs of prayer and protest on that Bloody Sunday to help shake the nation’s conscience.
Five months later, the Voting Rights Act passed and was signed into law. (Applause.)
But 59 years later, there are forces taking us back in time: voter suppression, election subversion, unlimited dark money, extreme gerrymandering.
John Lewis was a great friend to many of us here. But if you truly want to honor him and all the heroes who marched with him, then it’s time to do more than talk. (Applause.)
Pass the Freedom to Vote Act, the John Lewis Voting Right[s] Act. (Applause.)
And stop — stop denying another core value of America: our diversity across American life. Banning books is wrong. Instead of erasing history, let’s make history. (Applause.)
I want to protect fundamental rights.
Pass the Equality Act. (Applause.)
And my message to transgender Americans: I have your back. (Applause.)
Pass the PRO Act for workers’ rights. (Applause.)
Raise the federal minimum wage, because every worker has the right to a decent living more than eig- — seven bucks an hour. (Applause.)
We’re also making history by confronting the climate crisis, not denying it. I don’t think any of you think there’s no longer a climate crisis. At least, I hope you don’t. (Laughter.)
I’m taking the most significant action ever on climate in the history of the world. (Applause.)
I’m cutting our carbon emissions in half by 2030; creating tens of thousands of clean energy jobs, like the IBEW workers building and installing 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations — (applause); conserving 30 percent of America’s lands and waters by 2030; and taking action on environmental justice — fence-line communities smothered by the legacy of pollution.
And patterned after the Peace Corps and AmericaCorps [AmeriCorps], I launched the Climate Corps — (applause) — to put 20,000 young people to work in the forefront of our clean energy future. I’ll triple that number in a decade. (Applause.)
To state the obvious, all Americans deserve the freedom to be safe. And America is safer today than when I took office.
The year before I took office, murder rates went up 30 percent.
MR. NIKOUI: Remember Abbey Gate!
THE PRESIDENT: Thirty percent, they went up —
MR. NIKOUI: United States Marines! Kareem Mae’Lee Nikoui!
THE PRESIDENT: — the biggest increase in history.
MR. NIKOUI: (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: It was then, through no — through my American Rescue Plan — which every American [Republican] voted against, I might add — we made the largest investment in public safety ever.
Last year, the murder rate saw the sharpest decrease in history. Violent crime fell to one of its lowest levels in more than 50 years.
But we have more to do. We have to help cities invest in more community police officers, more mental health workers, more community violence intervention. (Applause.)
Give communities the tools to crack down on gun crime, retail crime, and carjacking.Keep building trust, as I’ve been doing, by taking executive action on police reform and calling for it to be the law of the land.
Directing my Cabinet to review the federal classification of marijuana and expunging thousands of convictions for the mere possession, because no one should be jailed for simply using or have it on their record. (Applause.)
Take on crimes of domestic violence. I’m ramping up the federal enforcement of the Violence Against Women Act that I proudly wrote when I was a senator so we can finally — finally end the scourge against women in America. (Applause.)
There are other kinds of violence I want to stop.
With us tonight is Jasmine, whose nine-year-old sister Jackie was murdered with 21 classmates and teachers in her elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
Very soon after that happened, Jill and I went to Uvalde for a couple days. We spent hours and hours with each of the families. We heard their message so everyone in this room, in this chamber could hear the same message.
The constant refrain — and I was there for hours, meeting with every family. They said, “Do something.” “Do something.”
Well, I did do something by establishing the first-ever Office of Gun Violence Prevention in the White House, that the Vice President is leading the charge. Thank you for doing it. (Applause.)
Meanwhile — (applause) — meanwhile, my predecessor told the NRA he’s proud he did nothing on guns when he was President.
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE PRESIDENT: After another shooting in Iowa recently, he said — when asked what to do about it, he said, just “get over it.” That was his quote. Just “get over it.”
I say stop it. Stop it, stop it, stop it. (Applause.)
I’m proud we beat the NRA when I signed the most significant gun safety law in nearly 30 years because of this Congress. We now must beat the NRA again.
I’m demanding a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. (Applause.) Pass universal background checks. (Applause.)
None of this — none of this — I taught the Second Amendment for 12 years. None of this violates the Second Amendment or vilifies responsible gun owners.
(Cross-talk.)
You know, as we manage challenges at home, we’re also managing crises abroad, including in the Middle East.
I know the last five months have been gut-wrenching for so many people — for the Israeli people, for the Palestinian people, and so many here in America.
This crisis began on October 7th with a massacre by a terrorist group called Hamas, as you all know. One thousand two hundred innocent people — women and girls, men and boys — slaughtered after enduring sexual violence. The deadliest day of the — for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. And 250 hostages taken.
Here in this chamber tonight are families whose loved ones are still being held by Hamas. I pledge to all the families that we will not rest until we bring every one of your loved ones home.
We also — (applause) — we will also work around the clock to bring home Evan and Paul — Americans being unjustly detained by the Russians — and others around the world.
Israel has a right to go after Hamas. Hamas ended this conflict by releasing the hostages, laying down arms — could end it by — by releasing the hostages, laying down arms, and s- — surrendering those responsible for October 7th.
But Israel has a h- — excuse me. Israel has a added burden because Hamas hides and operates among the civilian population like cowards — under hospitals, daycare centers, and all the like.
Israel also has a fundamental responsibility, though, to protect innocent civilians in Gaza. (Applause.)
This war has taken a greater toll on innocent civilians than all previous wars in Gaza combined. More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed —
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Says who?
THE PRESIDENT: — most of whom are not Hamas. Thousands and thousands of innocents — women and children. Girls and boys also orphaned.
Nearly 2 million more Palestinians under bombardment or displacement. Homes destroyed, neighborhoods in rubble, cities in ruin. Families without food, water, medicine.
It’s heartbreaking.
I’ve been working non-stop to establish an immediate ceasefire that would last for six weeks to get all the prisoners released — all the hostages released and to get the hostages home and to ease the intolerable an- — humanitarian crisis and build toward an enduring — a more — something more enduring.
The United States has been leading international efforts to get more humanitarian assistance into Gaza. Tonight, I’m directing the U.S. military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the coast of Gaza that can receive large shipments carrying food, water, medicine, and temporary shelters.
No U.S. boots will be on the ground.
A temporary pier will enable a massive increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance getting into Gaza every day. (Applause.)
And Israel must also do its part. Israel must allow more aid into Gaza and ensure humanitarian workers aren’t caught in the crossfire. (Applause.)
And they’re announcing they’re going to — they’re going to ca- — have a crossing in Northern Gaza.
To the leadership of Israel, I say this: Humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip. Protecting and saving innocent lives has to be a priority.
As we look to the future, the only real solution to the situation is a two-state solution over time. (Applause.)
And I say this as a lifelong supporter of Israel, my entire career. No one has a stronger record with Israel than I do. I challenge any of you here. I’m the only American president to visit Israel in wartime.
But there is no other path that guarantees Israel’s security and democracy. There is no other path that guarantees Pa- — that Palestinians can live in peace with po- — with peace and dignity.
And there is no other path that guarantees peace between Israel and all of its neighbors — including Saudi Arabia, with whom I’m talking.
Creating stability in the Middle East also means containing the threat posed by Iran. That’s why I built a coalition of more than a dozen countries to defend international shipping and freedom of navigation in the Red Sea.
I’ve ordered strikes to degrade the Houthi capability and defend U.S. forces in the region.
As Commander-in-Chief, I will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and our military personnel. (Applause.)
For years, I’ve heard many of my Republican and Democratic friends say that China is on the rise and America is falling behind. They’ve got it backwards. I’ve been saying it for over four years, even when I wasn’t president.
America is rising. We have the best economy in the world. And since I’ve come to office, our GTB [GDP] is up, our trade deficit with China is down to the lowest point in over a decade. (Applause.)
And we’re standing up against China’s unfair economic practices.
We’re standing up for peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits.
I’ve revitalized our partnership and alliance in the Pacific: India, Australia, Japan, South Korea, the Pacific Islands. I’ve made sure that the most advanced American technologies can’t be used in China — not allowing to trade them there.
Frankly, for all his tough talk on China, it never occurred to my predecessor to do any of that. (Applause.)
I want competition with China, not conflict. And we’re in a stronger position to win the conflict [competition] of the 21st century against China than anyone else for that matter — than at any time as well.
Here at home, I’ve signed over 400 bipartisan bills. But there’s more to pass my Unity Agenda.
Strengthen penalties on fentanyl trafficking. You don’t want to do that, huh?
Pass bipartisan privacy legislation to protect our children online. (Applause.)
Harness — harness the promise of AI to protect us from peril. Ban AI voice impersonations and more.
And keep our truly sacred obligation to train and equip those we send into harm’s way and care for them and their families when they come home and when they don’t. (Applause.)
That’s why, with the strong support and help of Denis and the VA, I signed the PACT Act — (applause) — one of the most significant laws ever, helping millions of veterans exposed to toxins who now are battling more than 100 different cancers. Many of them don’t come home, but we owe them and their families support.
And we owe it to ourselves to keep supporting our new health research agency called ARPA-H — (applause) — and remind us — to remind us that we can do big things, like end cancer as we know it. And we will. (Applause.)
Let me close with this. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Yay! (Applause and laughter.)
I know you don’t want to hear anymore, Lindsey, but I got to say a few more things. (Laughter.)
I know I may not look like it, but I’ve been around a while. (Laughter and applause.) When you get to be my age, certain things become clearer than ever.
I know the American story. Again and again, I’ve seen the contest between competing forces in the battle for the soul of our nation, between those who want to pull America back to the past and those who want to move America into the future.
My lifetime has taught me to embrace freedom and democracy, a future based on core values that have defined America — honesty, decency, dignity, and equality — (applause); to respect everyone; to give everyone a fair shot; to give hate no safe harbor. (Applause.)
Now, other people my age see it differently. (Laughter.) The American story of resentment, revenge, and retribution.
That’s not me. I was born amid World War Two, when America stood for the freedom of the world. I grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Claymont, Delaware, among working-class people who built this country.
I watched in horror as two of my heroes — like many of you did — Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy, were assassinated. And their legacies inspired me to pur- — pursue a car- — a career in service.
I left a law firm and became a public defender because my city of Wilmington was the only city in America occupied by the National Guard after Dr. King was assassinated because of the riots. And I became a county councilman almost by accident.
I got elected to the United States Senate when I had no intention of running, at age 29.
Then vice president to our first Black president. Now a president to the first woman vice president. (Applause.)
In my career, I’ve been told I was too young. (Laughter.) By the way, they didn’t let me on the Senate elevators for votes sometimes. They — not a joke. (Laughter.)
And I’ve been told I am too old. (Laughter.)
Whether young or old, I’ve always been known — I’ve always known what endures. I’ve known our North Star. The very idea of America is that we’re all created equal, deserves to be treated equally throughout our lives.
We’ve never fully lived up to that idea, but we’ve never walked away from it either. And I won’t walk away from it now. (Applause.)
I’m optimistic. I really am. I’m optimistic, Nancy. (Applause.)
AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
THE PRESIDENT: My fellow Americans, the issue facing our nation isn’t how old we are; it’s how old are our ideas. (Applause.)
Hate, anger, revenge, retribution are the oldest of ideas. But you can’t lead America with ancient ideas that only take us back. To lead America, the land of possibilities, you need a vision for the future and what can and should be done. (Applause.)
Tonight, you’ve heard mine.
I see a future where [we’re] defending democracy, you don’t diminish it.
I see a future where we restore the right to choose and protect our freedoms, not take them away. (Applause.)
I see a future where the middle class has — finally has a fair shot and the wealthy have to pay their fair share in taxes. (Applause.)
I see a future where we save the planet from the climate crisis and our country from gun violence. (Applause.)
Above all, I see a future for all Americans. I see a country for all Americans. And I will always be President for all Americans because I believe in America. I believe in you, the American people. (Applause.) You’re the reason we’ve never been more optimistic about our future than I am now.
So, let’s build the future together. Let’s remember who we are.
We are the United States of America. (Applause.) And there is nothing — nothing beyond our capacity when we act together. (Applause.)
God bless you all. And may God protect our troops. Thank you, thank you, thank you. (Applause.)
