This fact sheet on President Biden’s latest actions to keep immigrant families together was provided by the White House:
Since his first day in office, President Biden has called on Congress to secure our border and address our broken immigration system. As Congressional Republicans have continued to put partisan politics ahead of national security – twice voting against the toughest and fairest set of reforms in decades – the President and his Administration have taken actions to secure the border, including:
Implementing executive actions to bar migrants who cross our Southern border unlawfully from receiving asylum when encounters are high;
Deploying record numbers of law enforcement personnel, infrastructure, and technology to the Southern border;
Seizing record amounts of fentanyl at our ports of entry;
Revoking the visas of CEOs and government officials outside the U.S. who profit from migrants coming to the U.S. unlawfully; and
Expanding efforts to dismantle human smuggling networks and prosecuting individuals who violate immigration laws.
President Biden believes that securing the border is essential. He also believes in expanding lawful pathways and keeping families together, and that immigrants who have been in the United States for decades, paying taxes and contributing to their communities, are part of the social fabric of our country. The Day One immigration reform plan that the President sent to Congress reflects both the need for a secure border and protections for the long-term undocumented. While Congress has failed to act on these reforms, the Biden-Harris Administration has worked to strengthen our lawful immigration system. In addition to vigorously defending the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood arrivals) policy, the Administration has extended Affordable Care Act coverage to DACA recipients and streamlined, expanded, and instituted new reunification programs so that families can stay together while they complete the immigration process.
Still, there is more that we can do to bring peace of mind and stability to Americans living in mixed-status families as well as young people educated in this country, including Dreamers. That is why today, President Biden announced new actions for people who have been here many years to keep American families together and allow more young people to contribute to our economy.
Keeping American Families Together
Today, President Biden is announcing that the Department of Homeland Security will take action to ensure that U.S. citizens with noncitizen spouses and children can keep their families together.
This new process will help certain noncitizen spouses and children apply for lawful permanent residence – status that they are already eligible for – without leaving the country.
These actions will promote family unity and strengthen our economy, providing a significant benefit to the country and helping U.S. citizens and their noncitizen family members stay together.
In order to be eligible, noncitizens must – as of June 17, 2024 – have resided in the United States for 10 or more years and be legally married to a U.S. citizen, while satisfying all applicable legal requirements. On average, those who are eligible for this process have resided in the U.S. for 23 years.
Those who are approved after DHS’s case-by-case assessment of their application will be afforded a three-year period to apply for permanent residency. They will be allowed to remain with their families in the United States and be eligible for work authorization for up to three years. This will apply to all married couples who are eligible.
This action will protect approximately half a million spouses of U.S. citizens, and approximately 50,000 noncitizen children under the age of 21 whose parent is married to a U.S. citizen.
Easing the Visa Process for U.S. College Graduates, Including Dreamers
President Obama and then-Vice President Biden established the DACA policy to allow young people who were brought here as children to come out of the shadows and contribute to our country in significant ways. Twelve years later, DACA recipients who started as high school and college students are now building successful careers and establishing families of their own.
Today’s announcement will allow individuals, including DACA recipients and other Dreamers, who have earned a degree at an accredited U.S. institution of higher education in the United States, and who have received an offer of employment from a U.S. employer in a field related to their degree, to more quickly receive work visas.
Recognizing that it is in our national interest to ensure that individuals who are educated in the U.S. are able to use their skills and education to benefit our country, the Administration is taking action to facilitate the employment visa process for those who have graduated from college and have a high-skilled job offer, including DACA recipients and other Dreamers.
Less than two hours after hearing his only surviving son, Hunter, was found guilty of 3 gun possession offenses, President Joe Biden stood steadfast to uphold policies and laws to reduce America’s gun violence epidemic and change America’s cultural idolatry with guns. In that moment, he did two critical things befitting a president and a man of character and commitment: he upheld the rule of Law and the judicial process, saying he would respect the jury’s verdict and would not pardon his son, and vowed to continue the yeoman’s job of reversing America’s uniquely horrendous level of gun violence.
There are those who are pushing for the Supreme Court, which has a record now of putting the sanctity of the 2nd Amendment over the sanctity of life, to overturn the very gun regulations that ensnared Hunter, basically arguing for drug addicts, domestic abusers, those suffering mental illness, should be allowed to purchase all the guns they want and Hunter should appeal based on how rarely the charges against him have ever been prosecuted. But that would be wrong. With two-thirds of gun deaths due to suicide and the majority of murders of women and children by domestic abusers, no drug addict, as Hunter was at the time and as the jury found, should be allowed to purchase a gun. It is very possible that this law saved Hunter’s life and his family. This Supreme Court is also itching to overturn Red Flag laws that keep guns out of the hands of anyone who is a danger to themselves or someone else, hearing the plea of a domestic abuser who was refused a gun. Biden’s Solicitor General is trying to keep the law intact.
The irony of the timing of this important event with his son’s jury verdict is worthy of fiction. But Biden made no mention of it in his speech. Instead, he pointed to success of historic, landmark legislation and historic policies and actions that are already yielding result, including record DECREASES in violent crime.
In a statement issued by the White House, President Biden declared, ”Violent crime is dropping at record levels in America. It’s good news for our families and our communities. Today, the FBI released preliminary data collected from over 11,000 law enforcement agencies around the country showing that, in the first quarter of this year, murders decreased by 26%, robberies by almost 18%, and violent crime overall by 15%. These large decreases follow major reductions in crime in nearly every category in 2023 – including one of the lowest rates for all violent crime in 50 years and significant declines in murder.
“This progress we’re seeing is no accident. My Administration is putting more cops on the beat, holding violent criminals accountable, and getting illegal guns off the street – and we are doing it in partnership with communities. As a result, Americans are safer today than when I took office.
“After we saw the largest increase in murders ever recorded during the previous Administration, my Administration got to work protecting the American people. My America Rescue Plan – which every Republican voted against – delivered $15 billion to cities to hire and retain more cops and keep communities safe. I took on the gun lobby and signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act into law, the most significant gun violence legislation in nearly 30 years. But there is more to do. I will continue fighting for funding for 100,000 additional police officers, and crime prevention and community violence intervention programs. Every American deserves to feel safe in their community – which is why I will continue to invest in public safety.”
Over chants of “Four More Years” Biden thanked Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action gunsense activists for all their work actually changing the culture, getting politicians to their side, that has made brought his efforts, his ideas to fruition, while pledging that there is so much more to do.
Biden turned the cheers into appreciation for the activists. “You’ve helped power a movement,” Biden said.
The contrast – in character, commitment, mission, purpose – between Biden, upholding the Rule of Law in face of significant personal pain and pushing forward with policies to address America’s scourge of gun violence, and Trump who said of school shooting victims, “Get over it” and boasted to the NRA convention that he did nothing during his term to rein in gun violence, could not be more dramatic.
“Heroic. What it means to live a principle,” said former prosecutor Andrew Weissmann on MSNBC, of President Biden.
Just a couple of hours after his son, Hunter Biden, was found guilty of three gun possession violations, the President delivered remarks at Everytown for Gun Safety Gun Sense University in Washington, D.C., where he highlighted the progress his Administration has made to reduce crime and keep guns out of dangerous hands thanks to the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), ahead of the two year anniversary since the signing of the law. During his remarks, he announced that the Department of Justice has charged more than 500 defendants for violating the new gun trafficking and straw purchasing provisions created by BSCA.
In his remarks, the President underscored how — as a result of critical investments made through BSCA and his American Rescue Plan –the Biden-Harris Administration has made our communities safer by helping get illegal guns off our streets and putting more cops on the beat, while promoting accountable policing and community violence intervention programs.
The President’s remarks at Gun Sense University build upon outreach and engagement his Administration and the White House’s first-ever Office of Gun Violence Prevention have undertaken to connect with victims, survivors, groups and organizations that are on the frontlines of the fight against gun violence. Last year, the President spoke at the National Safer Communities Summit and the Vice President recently announced two commonsense gun safety solutions while meeting with survivors in Parkland—the launch of the first-ever National Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) Resource Center, which will support the effective implementation of state red flag laws, and calling on states to pass red flag laws and to use BSCA funding to help implement laws already enacted.
A White House fact sheet details the BidenAdministration actions to end the epidemic of gun violence:
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. These new provisions created by BSCA have been used to charge more than 500 defendants.
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.
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.
Most recently, 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 most 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.
“The President’s Administration will continue taking action, but Congress must do their part. The President and Vice President continue to call on Congress to pass universal background checks, a national red flag law, and ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. As the President has said, ‘we need Congress to do something—do something—so that communities won’t continue to suffer due to the epidemic of gun violence’.”
The Giffords PAC stated: “The FBI just released new data indicating that rates of violent crime dropped 15 percent overall in the first few months of 2024 in comparison to the first few months of 2023. Murders have dropped by about 26 percent. This is a BIG deal, and it’s a testament to the work we’ve done together in our movement to end gun violence.
“Of course, this drop in violence crime could have never been possible without President Biden, the strongest gun safety president we’ve had in office in decades. He had the courage to stand up to the gun lobby and signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act into law in 2022. It is the most significant federal gun safety legislation passed in nearly 30 years.
“President Biden has made it clear that as long as he’s in office, he will be a champion for gun safety.”
The same cannot be said if Trump or in fact any Republican takes the office.
With Republicans actively obstructing bipartisan legislation to secure the border, President Biden has taken new actions to bar migrants who cross our Southern border unlawfully from receiving asylum, but continues to appeal for Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform – as he has proposed since Day 1 of his administration.
Here are President Biden’s remarks about his Executive Order, and a fact sheet describing the new actions to secure the border, provided by the White House:
I’ve come here today to do what the Republicans in Congress refuse to do: take the necessary steps to secure our border.
Four months ago, after weeks of intense negotiation between my staff and Democrats and Republicans, we came to a clear — clear bipartisan deal that was the strongest border security agreement in decades. But then Republicans in Congress — not all, but — walked away from it.
Why? Because Donald Trump told them to. He told the Republicans — it has been published widely by many of you — that he didn’t want to fix the issue; he wanted to use it to attack me. That’s what he wanted to do. It was a cynical and a – extremely cynical political move and a complete disservice to the American people, who are looking for us to — not to weaponize the border but to fix it.
Today, I am joined by a bipartisan group of governors, members of Congress, mayors, law enforcement officials — most of whom live and work along the southern border. They know the border is not a political issue to be weaponized — the responsibility we have to share to do something about it. They don’t have time for the games played in Washington, and neither do the American people.
So, today, I’m moving past Republican obstruction and using the executive authorities available to me as president to do what I can on my own to address the border.
Frankly, I would have preferred to address this issue through bipartisan legislation, because that’s the only way to actually get the kind of system we have now — that’s broken — fixed, to hire more Border Patrol agents, more asylum officers, more judges. But Republicans have left me with no choice.
Today, I’m announcing actions to bar migrants who cross our southern border unlawfully from receiving asylum. Migrants will be restricted from receiving asylum at our southern border unless they seek it after entering through an established lawful process.
And those who seek — come to the United States legally — for example, by making an appointment and coming to a port of entry — asylum will still be available to them — still available. But if an individual chooses not to use our legal pathways, if they choose to come without permission and against the law, they’ll be restricted from receiving asylum and staying in the United States.
This action will help us to gain control of our border, restore order to the process.
This ban will remain in place until the number of people trying to enter illegally is reduced to a level that our system can effectively manage.
We’ll carry out this order consistent with all our responsibilities under international law — every one of them.
In addition to this action, we recently made important reforms in our asylum system: more efficient and more secure reforms. The goal is to deliver decisions on asylum as quickly as possible.
The quicker decision means that a migrant is less likely to pay a criminal smuggler thousands of dollars to take them on a dangerous journey, knowing that if, in fact, they move in the wrong direction, they’d be turned around quickly.
And two weeks ago, the Department of Justice started a new docket in the immigration courts to address cases where people who’ve recently crossed the border and make — they’ll make a decision within six months rather than six years, because that’s what happens now.
Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security has proposed new rules to allow federal law enforcement to more quickly remove asylum seekers that have criminal convictions and remove them from the United States.
My administration also recently launched new efforts to go after criminal networks that profit from smuggling migrants to our border and incentivize people to give tipsto law enforcement to provide information that brings smugglers to justice.
We’re also sending additional federal prosecutors to hot spots along the border and prosecute individuals who break our immigration laws.
One other critical step that we’ll be taking, and that made a huge difference: We continue to work closely with our Mexican neighbors instead of attacking Mexico, and it’s worked.
We built a strong partnership of trust between the Mexican President, López Obrador, and I’m going to do the same with the Mexican-elect President, who I spoke with yesterday.
We’ve chosen to work together with Mexico as an equal partner, and the facts are clear. Due to the arrangements that I’ve reached with President Obrador, the number of migrants coming and shared — to our shared border unlawfully in recent months has dropped dramatically.
But while these steps are important, they’re not enough.
To truly secure the border, we have to change our laws, and Congress needs to provide the necessary funding to hire 1,500 more border security agents; 100 more immigration judges to help tackle the backlog of cases — more than 2 million of them; 4,300 more asylum officers to make decisions in less than six months instead of six years, which is what it takes now; and around 100 more high-tech detection machines to significantly increase the ability to screen and stop fentanyl being smuggled into the United States.
These investments were one of the primary reasons that the Border Patrol union endorsed the bipartisan deal in the first place. And these investments are essential and remain essential.
As far as I’m concerned, if you’re not willing to spend the money to hire more Border Patrol agents, more asylum officers, more judges, more high-tech machinery, you’re just not serious about protecting our border. It’s as simple as that.
I believe that immigration has always been a lifeblood of America. We’re constantly renewed by an infusion of people and new talent.
The Statue of Liberty is not some relic of American history. It stands for who we are as the United States.
So, I will never demonize immigrants. I will never refer to immigrants as “poisoning the blood” of a country. And further, I’ll never separate children from their families at the border.
I will not ban people from this country because of their religious beliefs. I will not use the U.S. military to go into neighborhoods all across the country to pull millions of people out of their homes and away from their families to put detention camps while awaiting deportation, as my predecessor says he will do if he occupies this office again.
On my very first day as president, I introduced a comprehensive immigration reform planto fix our broken system, secure our border, provide a pathway for citizenship for DREAMers, and a lot more. And I’m still fighting to get that done.
But we must face a simple truth: To protect America as a land that welcomes immigrants, we must first secure the border and secure it now.
The simple truth is there is a worldwide migrant crisis, and if the United States doesn’t secure our border, there is no limit to the number of people who may try to come here, because there is no better place on the planet than the United States of America.
For those who say the steps I’ve taken are too strict, I say to you that — be patient, and good will of the American people are wearing thin right now. Doing nothing is not an option. We have to act. We must act consistent with both our law and our values — our value as Americans.
I take these steps today not to walk away from who we are as Americans but to make sure we preserve who we are for future generations to come.
Today, I have spoken about what we need to do to secure the border. In the weeks ahead — and I mean the weeks ahead — I will speak to how we can make our immigration system more fair and more just.
Let’s fix the problem and stop fighting about it. I’m doing my part. We’re doing our part. Congressional Republicans should do their part.
Fact Sheet: New Actions to Secure the Border
Since his first day in office, President Biden has called on Congress to secure our border and address our broken immigration system. Over the past three years, while Congress has failed to act, the President has acted to secure our border. His Administration has deployed the most agents and officers ever to address the situation at the Southern border, seized record levels of illicit fentanyl at our ports of entry, and brought together world leaders on a framework to deal with changing migration patterns that are impacting the entire Western Hemisphere.
Earlier this year, the President and his team reached a historic bipartisan agreement with Senate Democrats and Republicans to deliver the most consequential reforms of America’s immigration laws in decades. This agreement would have added critical border and immigration personnel, invested in technology to catch illegal fentanyl, delivered sweeping reforms to the asylum system, and provided emergency authority for the President to shut down the border when the system is overwhelmed. But Republicans in Congress chose to put partisan politics ahead of our national security, twice voting against the toughest and fairest set of reforms in decades.
President Biden believes we must secure our border. That is why today, he announced executive actions to bar migrants who cross our Southern border unlawfully from receiving asylum. These actions will be in effect when high levels of encounters at the Southern Border exceed our ability to deliver timely consequences, as is the case today. They will make it easier for immigration officers to remove those without a lawful basis to remain and reduce the burden on our Border Patrol agents.
But we must be clear: this cannot achieve the same results as Congressional action, and it does not provide the critical personnel and funding needed to further secure our Southern border. Congress still must act.
The Biden-Harris Administration’s executive actions will:
Bar Migrants Who Cross the Southern Border Unlawfully From Receiving Asylum
President Biden issued a proclamation under Immigration and Nationality Act sections 212(f) and 215(a) suspending entry of noncitizens who cross the Southern border into the United States unlawfully. This proclamation is accompanied by an interim final rule from the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security that restricts asylum for those noncitizens.
These actions will be in effect when the Southern border is overwhelmed, and they will make it easier for immigration officers to quickly remove individuals who do not have a legal basis to remain in the United States.
These actions are not permanent. They will be discontinued when the number of migrants who cross the border between ports of entry is low enough for America’s system to safely and effectively manage border operations. These actions also include similar humanitarian exceptions to those included in the bipartisan border agreement announced in the Senate, including those for unaccompanied children and victims of trafficking.
Recent Actions to secure our border and address our broken immigration system:
Strengthening the Asylum Screening Process
The Department of Homeland Security published a proposed rule to ensure that migrants who pose a public safety or national security risk are removed as quickly in the process as possible rather than remaining in prolonged, costly detention prior to removal. This proposed rule will enhance security and deliver more timely consequences for those who do not have a legal basis to remain in the United States.
Announced new actions to more quickly resolve immigration cases
The Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security launched a Recent Arrivals docket to more quickly resolve a portion of immigration cases for migrants who attempt to cross between ports of entry at the Southern border in violation of our immigration laws.
Through this process, the Department of Justice will be able to hear these cases more quickly and the Department of Homeland Security will be able to more quickly remove individuals who do not have a legal basis to remain in the United States and grant protection to those with valid claims.
The bipartisan border agreement would have created and supported an even more efficient framework for issuing final decisions to all asylum seekers. This new process to reform our overwhelmed immigration system can only be created and funded by Congress.
Revoked visas of CEOs and government officials who profit from migrants coming to the U.S. unlawfully
The Department of State imposed visa restrictions on executives of several Colombian transportation companies who profit from smuggling migrants by sea. This action cracks down on companies that help facilitate unlawful entry into the United States, and sends a clear message that no one should profit from the exploitation of vulnerable migrants.
The State Department also imposed visa restrictions on over 250 members of the Nicaraguan government, non-governmental actors, and their immediate family members for their roles in supporting the Ortega-Murillo regime, which is selling transit visas to migrants from within and beyond the Western Hemisphere who ultimately make their way to the Southern border.
Previously, the State Department revoked visas of executives of charter airlines for similar actions.
Expanded Efforts to Dismantle Human Smuggling and Support Immigration Prosecutions
The Departments of State and Justice launched an “Anti-Smuggling Rewards” initiative designed to dismantle the leadership of human smuggling organizations that bring migrants through Central America and across the Southern U.S. border. The initiative will offer financial rewards for information leading to the identification, location, arrest, or conviction of those most responsible for significant human smuggling activities in the region.
The Department of Justice will seek new and increased penalties against human smugglers to properly account for the severity of their criminal conduct and the human misery that it causes.
The Department of Justice is also partnering with the Department of Homeland Security to direct additional prosecutors and support staff to increase immigration-related prosecutions in crucial border U.S. Attorney’s Offices. Efforts include deploying additional DHS Special Assistant United States Attorneys to different U.S. Attorneys’ offices, assigning support staff to critical U.S. Attorneys’ offices, including DOJ Attorneys to serve details in U.S. Attorneys’ Offices in several border districts, and partnering with federal agencies to identify additional resources to target these crimes.
Enhancing Immigration Enforcement
The Department of Homeland Security has surged agents to the Southern border and is referring a record number of people into expedited removal.
The Department of Homeland Security is operating more repatriation flights per week than ever before. Over the past year, DHS has removed or returned more than 750,000 people, more than in every fiscal year since 2010.
Working closely with partners throughout the region, the Biden-Harris Administration is identifying and collaborating on enforcement efforts designed to stop irregular migration before migrants reach our Southern border, expand investment and integration opportunities in the region to support those who may otherwise seek to migrate, and increase lawful pathways for migrants as an alternative to irregular migration.
Seizing Fentanyl at our Border
Border officials have seized more fentanyl at ports of entry in the last two years than the past five years combined, and the President has added 40 drug detection machines across points of entry to disrupt the fentanyl smuggling into the Homeland. The bipartisan border agreement would fund the installation of 100 additional cutting-edge inspection machines to help detect fentanyl at our Southern border ports of entry.
In close partnership with the Government of Mexico, the Department of Justice has extradited Nestor Isidro Perez Salaz, known as “El Nini,” from Mexico to the United States to face prosecution for his role in illicit fentanyl trafficking and human rights abuses. This is one of many examples of joint efforts with Mexico to tackle the fentanyl and synthetic drug epidemic that is killing so many people in our countries and globally, and to hold the drug trafficking organizations to account
I can’t fathom the absurdity of polls that suggest young Black men are pulling their support for Biden in favor of Trump because Biden hasn’t personally visited every impoverished neighborhood! And yet, there is discussion that Biden wasn’t going to be welcomed as the commencement speaker at Morehouse College, despite appropriating record amounts of aid to HBCUs, cancelling student debt for millions, who has the most racially and gender diverse administration and confirmed more diverse judges, including the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, and all he has done to make economic, social, criminal, environmental, political justice and equity the basis for every policy and program he has implemented! Not to mention naming the first woman of color his Vice President. They want to support Trump, who has been overtly racist for his entire life (called for the Central Park 5, later exonerated, to be executed, was cited for discriminating against Blacks in housing), who called out the National Guard and wanted to shoot George Floyd protesters, who could care less about black maternal mortality rates and wants to repeal the cost cap on insulin and Obamacare? Biden celebrated the 70th anniversary of the hallmark Brown v. Board of Education decision and is promoting universal pre-K, parental leave and affordable childcare, while Trump judges seek to reverse and render Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs and affirmative action “unconstitutional.” And if Blacks either vote for Trump or do not vote, Biden will lose reelection and Trump will reverse every policy that has benefited minority communities, from gun violence prevention, promoting access to affordable housing and ridding communities of toxic pollution, to promoting free and fair access to the ballot box.
Here are Biden’s remarks during interviews on two Black radio shows, and a memo from Trey Baker, Senior Advisor, Biden-Harris 2024, outlining actual achievements instead of actual pandering (“What have Democrats done for you lately?” – Answer, A LOT) – Karen Rubin, news-photos-features.com
President Biden Underscores Stakes of 2024 Election to Black Voters
Interviews with President Biden aired on two Black radio shows, V-103’s The Big Tigger Show with Darian “Big Tigger” Morgan in Atlanta, Georgia and 101.7 The Truth with Sherwin Hughes in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he underscored the stakes of this election. On the airwaves, President Biden highlighted the progress his administration has made for Black Americans from creating millions of jobs for Black workers to forgiving billions in student loan debt directly working to close the racial wealth gap – in contrast with Donald Trump, who tried to rip away health care from millions of Black Americans by repealing the Affordable Care Act, raised health care costs, and cut taxes for the wealthy at the expense of the middle class.
Read Excerpts from President Biden’s Interviews Below
On The Biden-Harris Administration’s Accomplishments for Black Americans: “The first most important thing we can do is make sure the Affordable Health Care Act is not cut by [Donald Trump]. He says he’s gonna do it. […] We pay the most expensive drug costs in the world and, you know, we brought down, as I said, capped insulin costs at 35 bucks instead of 400. More Black families have coverage under the ACA. Black enrollment has nearly doubled, saving families $800 a month on premiums. We took on Big Pharma so Medicare can now negotiate prices. Under Trump uninsurance rates went up, not down. He tried to repeal Obamacare and the ACA 50 times and if he succeeds, it would raise premiums $12,000 for Georgia middle-class families. He wants to cut Social Security and he wants to make sure that Medicare is cut as well, increasing costs, giving tax breaks to the super wealthy. The bottom line here is that this is a guy who is all about wanting to make all the cuts we can make for multi-billionaires and millionaires tax breaks, significant tax breaks, I have a completely different view of it. […]”
On How Donald Trump Hurt the Black Community: “Look, Trump hurt Black people every chance he got as President. Black unemployment, uninsurance rates went up under Trump. Trump’s tax scam reinforced discrimination. Typical white household got double, double cuts of the typical Black household. The botched COVID-19 response was leaving Black people dead, Black-owned businesses shuttered, he pushed to bring back stop and frisk law. Remember who Trump is. He falsely accused the Central Park Five. He’s the the founder of birtherism. He tried to repeal Obamacare the first time. Now he’s promised to do even more damage to Black people.”
On the Importance of Voting: “And so you know, your vote is your voice. Lots of close elections these last couple and every vote counts. I ran in 2020 because democracy was at stake and I think it still is. Because folks like you turned out to vote in 2020, we have made remarkable progress. Trump has decided he’s going to take it all down. For example, one of the things I did in the legislation [was] innovating the infrastructure, replacing every lead pipe in Georgia, every single one, so that now the kids, you’re not gonna worry about your kid in school or at home, drinking water that has lead in it that causes brain damage. You know, making sure that everybody has access to affordable internet, affordable and available, and that’s costing billions of dollars. We’re paying for it to get it done so everybody has access. Trump’s presidency could mean a return to chaos, division and violence, MAGA extremism.”
On The Biden-Harris Administration’s Accomplishments for Black Americans:“We sent $1,400 checks to people who were having trouble. Black child poverty was cut in half in 2021. We build black wealth, 15 million jobs nationwide, more than 2.5 million for Black Americans. Black wealth is up 60% since the pandemic. Homeownership is up and I’m fighting back against the [racial] bias in home appraisal. If the same home [is] built on one side of a highway in the Black community, as built in the white community, they devalue the home in the Black community. You know, 200,000 new business applications in Wisconsin after investing hundreds of millions of dollars in small businesses. We have 76,000 Black homeowners, more than $800 annually on their FHA insurance mortgage, we saved them. And look and we also relieved student debt, $160 billion in student loan debt for 4.6 million borrowers, many of them Black borrowers, and a plan to relieve student loan debt for 30 million overall. And as I said, you know, we lower prescription drug prices. We’re also in a position where we invest in communities too long left out, left behind. […] Trump has a very different view of the community. […] Trump, you know, he’s still accusing the Central Park Five, he’s the founder of birtherism, he’s tried to repeal Obamacare. He hasn’t, he’s done virtually nothing and he wants to cut access to voting. The whole range of things make a fundamental difference.”
On What’s at Stake this November: “A great deal is at stake, everything that all the progress we’ve made is at stake. For example, right now we’ve lowered health care costs, we’ve been able to walk in and make sure we forgive student debt…. We provided billions of dollars to HBCUs to give them a fighting chance. We’ve changed prescription drug costs, by allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices so that people on insulin are paying 35 bucks a month instead of 400 bucks a month. And all prescription drugs can be limited to $2,000 a year, you know, cancer drugs ten, 12, $14,000. We are strengthening Medicare. Look, you know, we stand up for our principles. Our democracy is at stake, in fact. Look what he’s doing with Putin and with Kim Jong Un of North Korea. Look at him saying ‘if we don’t think a country is paying enough for their own defense, then they get invaded by the Russians or anyone else, so that’s up to them. We are not gonna help.’ He has a fundamentally different view than the vast majority of Republicans, I might add in the past, as well as me and the Democratic Party..”
Memo: Biden-Harris 2024 Black Outreach
From: Trey Baker, Biden-Harris 2024 Sr. Advisor
Since day one, the Biden-Harris campaign has been authentic and consistent in our efforts to reach Black voters and ensure they are aware that no other administration in modern history has delivered for Black America in the way Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have. From historic investments and engagement with Black media, to extensive travel by President Biden and Vice President Harris as well as innovative organizing programs that highlight the administration’s commitment to generating Black wealth – we are meeting Black voters where they are.
This weekend is a continuation of that work. The President will attend an event on Saturday in Georgia focused on engaging Black voters, which will provide our Georgia state team additional support in their efforts to reach and organize the community. Serving in his official capacity, the President will then deliver the commencement address at Morehouse College Sunday morning. As Biden-Harris Co-Chair and Morehouse Alum Cedric Richmond perfectly stated, Morehouse College remains one of the most valued, celebrated and distinguished institutions of higher learning in the United States and is responsible for educating some of the most significant Black men in our country’s history. Given the way the Biden-Harris Administration has delivered for Black America, and HBCUs, there is no better speaker for this year’s commencement ceremony than President Biden.
During the weekend, President Biden will also engage with local Black-owned small businesses as he frequently does on his trips. The President will visit a Black-owned small business in Detroit on Sunday ahead of his NAACP speech, and will have a valuable discussion with the business owners focused on this administration’s continued effort to build Black wealth and close the racial wealth gap. Black-owned small businesses have been critical to the Biden-Harris organizing strategy. An organizing model we developed with Detroit small businesses in March is now being rolled out across our battleground states, this month. The President will close out his weekend swing by delivering the keynote address at the NAACP Freedom Fund dinner, where he will once again talk directly to Black America about the issues we care about most.
No administration has delivered for Black America like Joe & Kamala
After Donald Trump failed us, no administration has delivered for Black America like President Biden and Vice-President Harris. While the Black unemployment rate skyrocketed under Trump, the Biden-Harris administration helped to create over 2.5 million jobs for Black workers, resulting in record low Black unemployment – Black business ownership is also growing at the fastest pace in 30 years. After Donald Trump’s failed PPP launch helped his rich friends at the expense of minority businesses, President Biden worked closely with small businesses to recover. The share of Black households owning a business has now doubled since the pandemic. The President’s student loan forgiveness program has also disproportionately benefited Black Americans, who received nearly $160 billion in student loan debt forgiven. That’s right – BILLION. This measure is directly working to increase Black wealth and close the racial wealth gap. Even after Donald Trump’s Supreme Court Justices tried to stop us. These efforts are directly working to close the racial wealth gap as Black students take on 85% more educational debt than their white counterparts, and 86% of Black students graduate with debt.
Black child poverty was cut in half during the pandemic through the President’s Child Tax Credit, which we are fighting to bring back, despite resistance from MAGA Republicans in the House and Senate. More Black Americans have healthcare coverage than ever before, while Trump remains obsessed with ripping away our healthcare coverage by repealing Obamacare, the signature accomplishment of the first Black President. The President and Vice-President have also tackled the Black Maternal Health Crisis by allowing states to expand Medicaid postpartum coverage from just 60 days to 12 months—impacting approximately 65% of births for Black mothers. And, let’s not forget that Joe Biden has confirmed more Black women to the federal bench than all other Presidents combined.
No campaign has invested in Black outreach like we have
In September of last year, this campaign announced the earliest and largest investment in outreach to Black voters of any reelection campaign in history. Then, earlier this year, on the heels of the President’s electric State of the Union address, our March Month of Action. During the month of March the President and Vice President traveled to every single battleground, putting a focus on key black communities, such as Atlanta, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and others, talking directly to Black voters. President Biden had dinner with Eric Fitts, a North Carolina teacher who benefited from President Biden’s student loan relief program, and his two sons. The TikTok taken by one son during the visit has been viewed over 5 million times. In Saginaw, Michigan, the President also met with a father and son golfing team. Their meeting was first shared on Instagram by The Black Man Can, who has over 1 million followers.
Throughout the month of May, we are continuing these efforts with a seven-figure investment in Black media to communicate directly with voters where they are. The President has done more Black radio interviews than any other medium thus far on the campaign – eleven interviews this year alone. This week, he spoke with Big Tigger, a major figure of our culture, ahead of his visit to Morehouse.
We’ve also had a dedicated campaign presence at festivals like J.Cole’s Dreamville Fest in North Carolina and engagement with the voters who traveled to Las Vegas for the Lovers & Friends Festival, increasing our reach with young black voters in particular. The Vice President and Second Gentleman have also engaged with cultural influencers like Sheryl Lee Ralph and Khadeen Ellis to talk about what’s at stake for reproductive rights for Black Americans.
We’ve partnered with black-owned small businesses to expand our organizing presence in key battleground states. In Michigan, Team Biden-Harris spent March and April engaging with thousands of small business owners — centered in communities of color — to leverage their networks for visibility and outreach. Beginning this month, Team Biden-Harris is scaling its small business outreach program to all of our battlegrounds. Meanwhile, Donald Trump and the RNC are shutting down their much vaunted diversity centers.
The Vice President is also in the middle of an Economic Opportunity Tour in her official capacity, which focuses heavily on how the administration is putting Black wealth front and center.
Bottom Line: From the very beginning the President and Vice President have been clear that this campaign will not take a single voter for granted. We are not, and will not, parachute into these communities at the last minute, expecting their vote. Every day, from now until election day, we will continue working diligently to ensure that come November, Black voters send Joe Biden and Kamala Harris back to the White House to continue delivering for Black America in unprecedented ways.
In his keynote address at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Annual Days of Remembrance Ceremony, President Biden spoke out against antisemitism, saying that the hate that culminated in the Holocaust in which 6 million Jews – one third of the population of Jews in the world – were extinguished by Nazi Germany, did not begin with Hitler and did not end with World War II. Here is a transcript of his remarks.
In his keynote address at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Annual Days of Remembrance Ceremony, President Biden spoke out against antisemitism, saying that the hate that culminated in the Holocaust in which 6 million Jews – one third of the population of Jews in the world – were extinguished by Nazi Germany, did not begin with Hitler and did not end with World War II. Here is a transcript of his remarks.(c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.comvia MSNBC
During these sacred Days of Remembrance, we grieve. We give voice to the 6 million Jews who were systematically targeted and murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War Two. We honor the memory of victims, the pain of survivors, the bravery of heroes who stood up to Hitler’s unspeakable evil. And we recommit to heading and heeding the lessons that [of] one of the darkest chapters in human history, to revitalize and realize the responsibility of “never again.”
Never again, simply translated for me, means “never forget.” Never forget. Never forgetting means we must keep telling the story. We must keep teaching the truth. We must keep teaching our children and our grandchildren.
And the truth is we are at risk of people not knowing the truth.
That’s why, growing up, my dad taught me and my siblings about the horrors of the Shoah at our family dinner table. That’s why I visited Yad Vashem with my family as a senator, as vice president, and as president. And that’s why I took my grandchildren to Dachau, so they could see and bear witness to the perils of indifference, the complicity of silence in the face of evil that they knew was happening.
Germany, 1933. Hitler and his Nazi party rise to power by rekindling one of the world’s oldest forms of prejudice and hate: antisemitism. His rule didn’t begin with mass murder. It started slowly across economic, political, social, and cultural life: propaganda demonizing Jews; boycotts of Jewish businesses; synagogues defaced with swastikas; harassment of Jews in the street and in the schools; antisemitic demonstrations, pogroms, organized riots.
With the indifference of the world, Hitler knew he could expand his reign of terror by eliminating Jews from Germany, to annihilate Jews across Europe through genocide the Nazi’s called the “Final Solution” — concentration camps, gas chambers, mass shootings.
By the time the war ended, 6 million Jews — one out of every three Jews in the entire world — were murdered.
This ancient hatred of Jews didn’t begin with the Holocaust; it didn’t end with the Holocaust, either, or after — or even after our victory in World War Two. This hatred continues to lie deep in the hearts of too many people in the world, and it requires our continued vigilance and outspokenness.
That hatred was brought to life on October 7th in 2023. On a sacred Jewish holiday, the terrorist group Hamas unleashed the deadliest day of the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
Driven by ancient desire to wipeout the Jewish people off the face of the Earth, over 1,200 innocent people — babies, parents, grandparents — slaughtered in their kibbutz, massacred at a musical festival, brutally raped, mutilated, and sexually assaulted. Thousands more carrying wounds, bullets, and shrapnel from the memory of that terrible day they endured. Hundreds taken hostage, including survivors of the Shoah.
Now, here we are, not 75 years later but just seven and a half months later, and people are already forgetting. They’re already forgetting that Hamas unleased this terror, that it was Hamas that brutalized Israelis, that it was Hamas who took and continues to hold hostages. I have not forgotten, nor have you, and we will not forget. (Applause.)
And as Jews around the world still cope with the atrocities and trauma of that day and its aftermath, we’ve seen a ferocious surge of antisemitism in America and around the world: vicious propaganda on social media, Jews forced to keep their — hide their kippahs under baseball hats, tuck their Jewish stars into their shirts.
On college campuses, Jewish students blocked, harassed, attacked while walking to class.
Antisemitism — antisemitic posters, slogans calling for the annihilation of Israel, the world’s only Jewish State.
Too many people denying, downplaying, rationalizing, ignoring the horrors of the Holocaust and October 7th, including Hamas’s appalling use of sexual violence to torture and terrorize Jews.
It’s absolutely despicable, and it must stop.
Silence — (applause) — silence and denial can hide much, but it can erase nothing. Some injustices are so heinous, so horrific, so grievous, they cannot be muri- — buried, no matter how hard people try.
In my view, a major lesson of the Holocaust is, as mentioned earlier, it’s not — was not inevitable. We know hate never goes away; it only hides. And given a little oxygen, it comes out from under the rocks.
But we also know what stops hate. One thing: all of us.
The late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks described antisemitism as a virus that has survived and mutated over time. Together, we cannot continue to let that happen.
We have to remember our basic principles as a nation. We have an obligation — we have an obligation to learn the lessons of history so we don’t surrender our future to the horrors of the past. We must give hate no safe harbor against anyone — anyone.
From the very founding — our very founding, Jewish Americans, who represent only about 2 percent of the U.S. population, have helped lead the cause of freedom for everyone in our nation. From that experience, we know scapegoating and demonizing any minority is a threat to every minority and the very foundation of our democracy.
So, in moments like this, we have to put these principles that we’re talking about into action.
I understand people have strong beliefs and deep convictions about the world. In America, we respect and protect the fundamental right to free speech, to debate and disagree, to protest peacefully and make our voices heard.
I understand. That’s America.
But there is no place on any campus in America — any place in America — for antisemitism or hate speech or threats of violence of any kind — (applause) — whether against Jews or anyone else.
Violent attacks, destroying property is not peaceful protest. It’s against the law. And we are not a lawless country. We’re a civil society. We uphold the rule of law.
And no one should have to hide or be brave just to be themselves. (Applause.)
To the Jewish community, I want you to know I see your fear, your hurt, and your pain.
Let me reassure you, as your President, you are not alone. You belong. You always have, and you always will.
And my commitment to the safety of the Jewish people, the security of Israel, and its right to exist as an independent Jewish state is ironclad, even when we disagree. (Applause.)
My administration is working around the clock to free remaining hostages, just as we have freed hostages already, and we will not rest until we bring them all home. (Applause.)
My administration, with our Second Gentleman’s leadership, has launched our nation’s first National Sec- — Strategy to Counter Antisemitism that’s mobilizing the full force of the federal government to protect Jewish communities.
But — but we know this is not the work of government alone or Jews alone. That’s why I’m calling on all Americans to stand united against antisemitism and hate in all its forms.
My dear friend, and he became a friend, the late Elie Wiesel, said, quote, “One person of integrity can make a difference.” We have to remember that now more than ever.
Here in Emancipation Hall in the U.S. Capitol, among the towering statues of history, is a bronze bust of Raoul Wallenberg. Born in Sweden as a Lutheran, he was a businessman and a diplomat. While stationed in Hungary during World War Two, he used diplomatic cover to hide and rescue about 100,000 Jews over a six-month period.
Among them was a 16-year-old Jewish boy who escaped a Nazi labor camp. After the war ended, that boy received a scholarship from the Hillel Foundation to study in America. He came to New York City penniless but determined to turn his pain into purpose, along with his wife, also a Holocaust survivor. He became a renowned economist and foreign policy thinker, eventually making his way to this very Capitol on the staff of a first-term senator.
That Jewish refugee was Tom Lantos, and that senator was me.
Tom and his wife, Annette, and their family became dear friends to me and my family. Tom would go on to become the only Holocaust survivor ever elected to Congress, where he became a leading voice on civil rights and human rights around the world.
Tom never met Raoul, who was taken prisoner by the Soviets, never to be heard from again. But through Tom’s efforts, Raoul’s bust is here in the Capitol.
He was also given honorary U.S. citizenship — only the second person ever, after Winston Churchill.
And the Holocaust Museum here in Washington is located on a roal- — a road in Raoul’s name.
The story of the power of a single person to put aside our differences, to see our common humanity, to stand up to hate. And it’s an ancient story of resilience from immense pain, persecution to find hope, purpose, and meaning in life we try to live and share with one another. That story endures.
Let me close with this. I know these Days of Remembrance fall on difficult times. But we all do well to remember these days also fall during the month we celebrate Jewish American heritage — a heritage that stretches from our earliest days to enrich every single part of American life today.
Great American — great Jewish American named Tom Lantos used the phrase, “The veneer of civilization is paper thin. We are its guardians, and we can never rest.”
My fellow Americans, we must — we must be those guardians. We must never rest. We must rise against hate, meet across the divide, see our common humanity.
And God bless the victims and survivors of the Shoah.
May the resilient hearts, the courageous spirit, and the eternal flame of faith of the Jewish people forever shine their light on America and around the world, pray God.
In his keynote address at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Annual Day of Remembrance Celebration, President Biden honors the memory of the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust – and makes clear that we must recommit to heeding the lessons of this dark chapter: ‘Never Again.’ The President raises:
The importance of recounting the crimes of the Holocaust and the events that led to it as the world watched with indifference.
The atrocities of October 7th – the deadliest attack committed against the Jewish people since the Holocaust – and how too many people are downplaying both events.
The unacceptable acts of Antisemitism we’re seeing on campuses and across the country.
How all Americans must stand united against Antisemitism and hate in all its forms.
During Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Biden-Harris Administration announced several new actions to counter the abhorrent rise of Antisemitism in the United States. President Biden will speak at the Days of Remembrance commemoration hosted by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, reaffirming our Nation’s sacred commitment to the Jewish people following the Holocaust: Never Again.
This year’s remembrance is particularly sobering, as it comes seven months after the terrorist group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th, the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Since that time, there has been an alarming rise of Antisemitic incidents across the country and throughout the world—most recently, in instances of violence and hate during some protests at college campuses across the Nation.
Today’s new actions build on the work of the President’s National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, the first-ever such strategy, which was released one year ago this month. The strategy represents the most comprehensive and ambitious U.S. government effort to counter Antisemitism in American history. It includes over 100 actions the Biden-Harris Administration has taken, and continues to take, to address the rise of Antisemitism in the United States, as well as over 100 calls to action for Congress, state and local governments, companies, technology platforms, students, educators, civil society, faith leaders, and others. It has involved actions by the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to provide greater security to Jewish institutions, as well as actions by the Department of Education to address antisemitism and by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to further support education around Jewish history.
The Biden-Harris Administration has taken aggressive action to implement the strategy and to speak out forcefully against hate of all kinds, especially in the wake of the October 7th attacks. Through the National Security Supplemental, President Biden secured an additional $400 million for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which funds security improvements and training to nonprofits and houses of worship, including campus organizations and community centers. This funding has been critical to the security of Jewish institutions. Last week, for example, the Biden-Harris Administration sent a guide to the leadership of more than 5,000 colleges and universities with information on resources to promote campus safety from the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Education.
Today, the Biden-Harris Administration announced additional actions to counter Antisemitism in Year Two of the Strategy, building on its work over the past year:
Today, the Department of Education’s (ED) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued new guidance through a Dear Colleague Letter to every school district and college in the country, providing examples of Antisemitic discrimination, as well as other forms of hate, that could lead to investigations for violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI). This guidance is meant to ensure that colleges and universities do a better job of protecting both Jewish students and all of their students.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will work with interagency partners to build an online campus safety resources guide and landing page to provide the range of financial, educational, and technical assistance to campuses in one, easy-to-use website.
DHS will develop and share best practices for community-based targeted violence and terrorism prevention to reduce these assaults and attacks. Federal agencies will elevate ongoing efforts to address the fear felt in targeted communities and ensure that resources are widely known among communities that need them.
The Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism at the Department of State will convene technology firms to identify best practices to address Antisemitic content online. Departments and agencies will continue to provide technology companies with relevant information about symbols and themes associated with violent extremism online to help them enforce their terms of service.
These new actions build on actions taken to date:
Title VI Enforcement
ED-OCR has opened more than 100 investigations over the past seven months into complaints alleging discrimination based on shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics, including Antisemitism. The previous administration opened 27 such investigations in all four years.
On Friday, Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona sent a letter to more than 5,000 leaders at institutions of higher education across the country to reiterate that federal law protects against Antisemitic discrimination that violates Title VI. He also shared a Campus Safety Resource Guide to serve as a one-stop-shop of federal resources. ED OCR has issued several DearColleague Letters to every school district and college in the country and conducted training and outreach reminding them of their obligation to provide educational environments free from discrimination, as well as the tools available to report discriminatory incidents. OCR maintains a website with more resources on shared ancestry discrimination.
ED OCR updated its complaint form specifying that Title VI’s protection from discrimination, including harassment, based on race, color, or national origin includes discrimination against students based on shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics, including those who are or are perceived to be Jewish, Muslim, Arab, Hindu, or Sikh.
Eight Cabinet-level agencies clarified for the first time in writing that Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits certain forms of antisemitic, Islamophobic, and related forms of discrimination in federally funded programs and activities. In addition, these agencies—the Departments of Agriculture (USDA), Health and Human Services (HHS), DHS , Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Interior, Labor (DOL), Treasury, and Transportation (DOT)—have taken a number of steps to raise awareness of Title VI protections and other relevant statutes among Jewish and other communities, including by translating Title VI fact sheets into languages such as Yiddish and Hebrew and creating new Title VI landing pages to serve as a one-stop-shop of resources.
Campus and School Safety
Since October 7th, FBI and DHS have taken steps to expand and deepen engagements with campus law enforcement and others to improve school safety. DHS has engaged with schools to identify security enhancements and raise awareness of SchoolSafety.gov, which offers school safety information and resources. DHS also has shared information via threat briefings and partner calls with the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators. The Federal Emergency Management Agency offers a training course called Crisis Management Affecting Institutions of Higher Education: A Collaborative Community Approach, through which campus members can learn how to effectively manage a crisis using a whole community approach, effective crisis communication, and more.
In the wake of October 7th, DHS’s Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) tasked its field force to proactively engage with schools to understand and address their needs. CISA has further expanded security capacity-building services to synagogues, community centers, and Jewish day schools. These services include risk assessments, planning assistance, and active shooter and bomb prevention-related training. CISA has held sessions on active shooter preparedness; an introduction to bomb threat management; tabletop exercise packages for synagogues; and a training on responding to suspicious behaviors and items. Since June 2023, CISA personnel have conducted over 400 in-person visits with Jewish houses of worship and other institutions. Additional security trainings, information and resources are found here.
USDA has held sessions with university leaders from 80 land-grant universities and rural colleges to share promising practices to address Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of hate.
Under the National Strategy, the Department of Justice (DOJ) launched a pilot curriculum for middle and high school-age youth designed to prevent youth hate crimes and identity-based bullying. In year two of the National Strategy, the curriculum will be rolled out this August, before the school year begins.
Community Safety Resources
DHS broadened access to the Nonprofit Security Grant Program by holding several webinars, expanding its Protecting Places of Worship Week of Action, and leveraging partnerships with DOJ. During the Biden-Harris Administration, this program has made 2,960 grants to Jewish institutions for a total of $397 million in funding to Jewish institutions.
To assist campus public safety and law enforcement identify available federal financial assistance opportunities, DHS published guidance clarifying the eligibility of law enforcement agencies at institutions of higher education to receive both State Homeland Security Program (SHSP) and Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) grant funding.
DHS hosts the Prevention Resource Finder to provide stakeholders the full range of federal resources available to help prepare for and prevent targeted violence and terrorism across our country. Resources on the website include community support resources, grant funding opportunities, information-sharing platforms, evidence-based research, and training opportunities for campuses and communities to reduce the risk of hate-based and targeted violence. Since its launch in March 2023, it has been viewed over 58,000 times.
Through the DHS Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (CP3), DHS is strengthening the country’s ability to prevent targeted violence and terrorism nationwide through funding, training, increased public awareness, and partnerships across government, the private sector, and local communities.
The U.S. Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) conducts training on threat assessments and the prevention of targeted violence. These resources examine attacks against colleges and universities, among other locations.
Hate Crimes Prevention and Response
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) widely disseminated its updated hate crimes threat response guide to inform Americans about steps they can take if they receive a threat. The guide, published on the FBI’s hate crimes resource page, has been shared with organizations and state and local law enforcement entities across the nation. The FBI reviews every tip it receives to ascertain the credibility of the information and, if it learns of a credible threat, quickly takes action. FBI’s campus liaisons enhance information-sharing with campuses.
DOJ has expanded its engagement with Jewish community groups in support of the National Strategy. The FBI has held over 650 engagements with faith-based and community organizations since October 7th. DOJ and the FBI have used robust and diverse outreach to local law enforcement agencies to improve the reporting of hate crime data. DOJ’s United Against Hate community outreach and engagement initiative has held over 300 engagements involving over 10,000 participants to educate community members about hate crimes, build trust between community and law enforcement, and strengthen local networks to combat unlawful acts of hate. DOJ’s Community Relations Service provides mediation, training and consultation services to assist communities come together, develop solutions to conflict and prevent future conflict. DOJ has also developed and released twodocuments that explain civil rights law prohibiting national origin discrimination and religious discrimination and provide information to the public on identifying and reporting national origin and religious discrimination in the civil and criminal context.
Throughout the spring, USDA is providing hate crime trainings, including Antisemitic hate crimes, for law enforcement agents of the U.S. Forest Service. The Department of the Interior (DOI) has distributed new resources on Jewish American heritage through the National Park Service.
Addressing Discrimination and Religious Accommodations
USDA is making kosher food more accessible by working to ensure equal access to all USDA feeding programs for customers with religious dietary needs.
The Department of Defense (DOD) leveraged existing survey data to estimate the prevalence of Antisemitic and Islamophobic behavior in the military workplace and to evaluate its policies to counter discrimination, discriminatory harassment, and extremist activity. This analysis was the first to specifically estimate Antisemitic and Islamophobic activity in the military workplace.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has disseminated materials on nondiscrimination and religious accommodation in the workplace and has held more than 50 outreach and training events on Antisemitism at its field offices around the country.
The HHS Office for Civil Rights issued a Dear Colleague letter and guidance to U.S. hospital and long-term care facility administrators, reminding organizations of their legal obligations under relevant regulations and federal civil rights laws to ensure that facility visitation policies do not unlawfully discriminate against patients or other individuals receiving care, including on the basis of religion. HHS’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Child Traumatic Stress Network has released a toolkit of behavioral health resources pertaining to the Israel-Hamas war, as well as additional resources on how to talk with children and youth about hate crimes and identity-based violence, including Antisemitism.
DOL published a “Know Your Rights” resource for union members regarding their right to be free from discrimination based on religion, national origin, or race in the workplace.
On Thursday, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) will convene state education officials to discuss best practices in Holocaust education, including the incorporation of the history of Antisemitism, and opportunities to expand such education.
The USHMM concluded its first tour of the Americans and the Holocaust traveling exhibitions. Launched in fall 2021, the exhibition visited 41 states, reaching more than 330,000 visitors. Thirty-four college courses have incorporated content from this exhibition. The USHMM and American Library Association will launch a second tour of the exhibition in September 2024 at an additional 50 libraries.
Several federal agencies have incorporated information about Antisemitism, workplace religious accommodations, and related topics into employee training programs as they carry out their obligations under Executive Order 14035 (Executive Order on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in the Federal Workforce). To support this work, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) surveyed federal agencies about their existing trainings. OPM, EEOC, and the White House Office of Management and Budget have provided learning sessions for agency diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility officers on Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and related forms of discrimination, as well as workplace religious accommodations.
The glaring contrast between President Joe Biden and the Democrats’ plan to increase equity and opportunity for all Americans and the Republicans, who are doing their best to reverse the progress made, is clear in how Congressional Republicans are refusing to re-authorize the Affordable Connectivity Program. This fact sheet that shows the impact, state-by-state, is provided by the White House:
As part of the President’s Investing in America agenda, a key component of Bidenomics, the Biden-Harris Administration has made historic progress towards lowering costs – including internet costs – for American families across the country. The Affordable Connectivity Program, enacted under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law as the largest internet affordability program in our nation’s history, has helped 23 million households save on their monthly internet bills.
Today, May 1st, begins the final month that Affordable Connectivity Program households will receive any benefit on their internet bills. Without Congressional action to extend funding for the program, millions of Americans will see their internet bills go up or lose internet access at the end of this month. President Biden is once again calling on Republicans in Congress to join their Democratic colleagues in support of extending funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program, so tens of millions of Americans can continue to access this essential benefit.
Losing the monthly Affordable Connectivity Program benefit will have drastic, meaningful impacts on American households, according to survey data collected by the Federal Communications Commission. More than three-quarters of surveyed ACP households say losing their ACP benefit would disrupt their service by making them change their plan or drop internet service entirely. More than two thirds of households had inconsistent internet service or no internet service at all prior to ACP, and this number is even higher for surveyed households residing in rural areas. These respondents also reported that ACP has enabled them to schedule or attend healthcare appoints, apply for jobs, complete work, and do schoolwork.
During the month of May, as funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program runs out, millions of households will receive only a partial subsidy on their internet bills and some will receive no discount at all if their provider opts out of the partial benefit.
At this crucial time, the White House is encouraging providers to take steps to keep their consumers connected by offering low-cost or no-cost plans or providing discounts.
On October 25, 2023, President Biden sent Congress a supplemental request for $6 billion to extend funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program. Despite that request, Republicans in Congress have failed to act. Without action from Republicans in Congress, this program will sunset at the end of May and tens of millions of Americans may no longer be able to afford high-speed internet service. It is time for Republicans in Congress to step up for families across the country.
Here is a state-by-state breakdown of the number of households that will see a $30 or $75 per month increase on their internet bill if Congressional Republicans fail to extend funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program. This breakdown includes estimates of percentages of households enrolled in ACP in every Congressional District.
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.
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.
Budget Details Vision to Protect Progress, Lower Costs, Protect and Strengthen Social Security and Medicare, Invest in America and the American People, and Reduce the Deficit
From Day One of this Administration, President Biden has tackled challenges head-on while delivering long-lasting results. Over the past three years, he has overseen a strong economic recovery, amassed one of the most successful legislative records in generations, grown the economy from the middle out and bottom up, and delivered important progress for the American people.
Since the President and Vice President took office, the economy has added about 15 million jobs, the unemployment rate has remained below 4 percent for two years in a row—a more than 50-year record—while inflation has fallen by two-thirds. Our strong labor market has meant higher paychecks for working Americans, with inflation-adjusted wages and wealth higher now than before the pandemic. The President’s top economic priority remains lowering costs for hardworking Americans. Under his leadership, the Administration is working to bring down prescription drug costs, health insurance premiums, utility bills, and costs for everyday goods and services—all while taking on junk fees that some banks, airlines, and other big corporations use to rip off Americans. At the same time, he has also restored U.S. leadership on the world stage while keeping Americans safe and promoting democracy at home and abroad.
The President has delivered this progress while fulfilling his commitment to fiscal responsibility. The deficit is over $1 trillion lower than when President Biden took office, thanks in large part to the strength of our economic recovery. In addition, the President has also enacted another roughly $1 trillion in savings over the next decade through the Fiscal Responsibility Act, and through Inflation Reduction Act provisions that empower Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices, cap insulin at $35 per month for seniors, and make our tax system fairer by making billion-dollar corporations pay a minimum tax and enabling the IRS to crack down on wealthy and corporate tax cheats.
The Budget details the President’s vision to protect and build on his Administration’s progress by continuing to lower costs for working families, protect and strengthen Social Security and Medicare, invest in America and the American people to make sure the middle class has a fair shot and we leave no one behind, and reduce the deficit by cracking down on fraud, cutting wasteful spending, and making the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share. Building on the President’s record of fiscal responsibility, his Budget reduces the deficit by $3 trillion over the next 10 years—on top of paying for new investments.
The President’s vision of progress, possibilities, and resilience is in stark contrast to Congressional Republicans, who have repeatedly fought to slash critical programs the American people count on and increase the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars, including by attempting to repeal the parts of the Inflation Reduction Act that take on special interests like Big Pharma, big corporations, and wealthy tax cheats. The President’s Budget:
Lowers Costs for the American People
The President has made lowering costs for hardworking families his top domestic priority. Under his leadership we have seen significant progress bringing down inflation. Inflation is down by more than two-thirds, and costs have fallen for key household purchases from a gallon of gas to a gallon of milk. While Congressional Republicans have consistently taken actions that would raise costs for working families, the President’s Budget would continue lowering costs for families.
Lowers Drug Prices and Expands Access to Prescription Drugs. Thanks to action taken by the Administration, millions of seniors and people with disabilities are saving money on their drug costs, and the Administration announced the first ten drugs for which prices will be negotiated as it continues implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act. The Budget builds on this success by significantly increasing the pace of negotiation, bringing more drugs into negotiation sooner after they launch, expanding the Inflation Reduction Act’s inflation rebates and $2,000 out-of-pocket prescription drug cost cap beyond Medicare and into the commercial market, and other steps to build on the Inflation Reduction Act drug provisions. In addition, the Budget extends the $35 cost-sharing cap for a month’s supply of insulin to the commercial market. The Budget also includes proposals to ensure Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) are prudent purchasers of prescription drugs and limits Medicare Part D cost-sharing for high-value generic drugs, such as those used to treat hypertension and hyperlipidemia, to no more than $2 per month for Medicare beneficiaries. These reforms will not only cut costs for the Federal government by $200 billion; they will also save billions of dollars for seniors.
Cuts Taxes for Families with Children and American Workers. President Biden’s tax cuts cut child poverty in half in 2021 and are saving millions of people an average of about $800 per year in health insurance premiums today. Going forward, in addition to honoring his pledge not to raise taxes on anyone earning less than $400,000 annually, President Biden’s tax plan would cut taxes for middle- and low-income Americans by $765 billion over 10 years. The Budget restores the full Child Tax Credit enacted in the American Rescue Plan, which helped cut child poverty nearly in half in 2021 to its lowest level in history and narrowed racial disparities in access to the credit. The President’s Budget would restore the expanded Child Tax Credit, lifting 3 million children out of poverty and cutting taxes by an average of $2,600 for 39 million low- and middle-income families that include 66 million children. This includes 18 million children in low-income families who would be newly eligible for the full credit, and 2 million children living with a caregiver who is at least 60 years old. It would also provide breathing room for day-to-day expenses by allowing families to receive their tax credit through monthly payments. And by strengthening the Earned Income Tax Credit for low-paid workers who aren’t raising a child in their home, the President’s Budget would cut taxes by an average of $800 for 19 million working individuals or couples. That includes 2 million older workers age 65 and older and 5 million young adults age 18 to 24 who would be newly eligible for the credit.
Lowers Child Care Costs for Hard-Working Families. The President is committed to providing relief to hard-working families. His Budget creates a historic new program under which working families with incomes up to $200,000 per year would be guaranteed affordable, high-quality child care from birth until kindergarten, with most families paying no more than $10 a day, and the lowest income families paying nothing—providing a lifeline to the parents of more than 16 million children. The Budget also includes $8.5 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) which will help states expand child care assistance to serve over 2 million low-income children.
Increases Affordable Housing Supply to Reduce Housing Costs. The President believes that all Americans should be able to afford a quality home, which is why the Budget includes a historic investment of more than $258 billion that would build or preserve over 2 million units. The Budget builds on previous investments and actions by this Administration to boost housing supply and lower housing costs, particularly for lower- and middle-income households. The Budget expands the existing Low-Income Housing Tax Credit and proposes a new Neighborhood Homes Tax Credit. To further address the critical shortage of affordable housing in communities throughout the Nation, the Budget provides $20 billion in mandatory funding for a new Innovation Fund for Housing Expansion. The Budget invests $1.3 billion in the HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) to construct and rehabilitate affordable rental housing and provide homeownership opportunities. The Budget also provides $7.5 billion in mandatory funding for new Project-Based Rental Assistance contracts to incentivize the development of new climate-resilient affordable housing. Together these proposals would expand the supply of safe and affordable housing, bring new units to market, and ultimately help curb cost growth across the broader rental market.
Expands Access to Homeownership and Affordable Rent and Reduces Down Payments for First-Time and First-Generation Homebuyers. The Budget proposes a new Mortgage Relief Credit to help increase access to affordable housing. The proposal includes a new tax credit for middle-class first-time homebuyers of up to $10,000 over two years to ease affordability challenges. In addition, to unlock starter home inventory and allow middle-class families to move up the housing ladder and empty nesters to right size, the President is calling on Congress to provide a one-year tax credit of up to $10,000 to middle-class families who sell their starter home. The Budget also provides $10 billion in mandatory funding for a new First-Generation Down Payment Assistance program to address homeownership and wealth gaps. For renters, the Budget proposes $32.8 billion in discretionary funding for the Housing Choice Voucher Program to maintain and protect critical services for all currently assisted families and support an additional 20,000 households. The Budget also provides $9 billion to establish a housing voucher program for all 20,000 youth aging out of foster care annually, and provides $13 billion to incrementally expand rental assistance for 400,000 extremely low-income veteran families, paving a path to guaranteed assistance for all who have served the Nation and are in need.
Reduces the Cost of College and Lifts the Burden of Student Debt. From Day One of his Administration, President Biden vowed to fix the student loan system and make sure higher education is a pathway to the middle class—not a barrier to opportunity. Already, the President has cancelled more student debt than any President in history, approving debt cancellation for nearly 4 million borrowers through more than two dozen executive actions. The Budget includes a $12 billion mandatory Reducing the Costs of College Fund that will fund strategies to lower college costs for students, including a new Classroom to Career Fund that will enable students to more affordably obtain postsecondary degrees by increasing access to career-connected dual enrollment opportunities. The Budget also builds on the President’s historic actions to reduce student debt and the cost of college by eliminating the origination fees charged to borrowers on every new federal student loan, which costs families billions. In addition, to help low- and middle-income students overcome financial barriers to postsecondary education, the Budget proposes to increase the discretionary maximum Pell Grant by $100 and thereby expand the reach of the program to help over 7.2 million students attend a public or non-profit college. The Budget builds on successful bipartisan efforts to increase the maximum Pell Grant award by $900 over the past two years—the largest increase in more than 10 years. The Budget also expands free community college through a Federal-State partnership and provides two years of subsidized tuition for students from families earning less than $125,000 enrolled in a four-year Historically Black College and University (HBCU), Tribally Controlled College and University (TCCU), or Minority-Serving Institution (MSI).
Lowers Health Care Costs. The President believes that healthcare is a right, not a privilege. With enrollment in Marketplace coverage at an all-time high, the Budget builds on the incredible success of the Affordable Care Act by making permanent the expanded premium tax credits that the Inflation Reduction Act extended, and providing Medicaid-like coverage to individuals in States that have not adopted Medicaid expansion, paired with financial incentives to ensure States maintain their existing expansions. For Medicaid and CHIP, the Budget allows States to extend the existing 12-month continuous eligibility for all children to 36 months, and allows States to provide continuous eligibility for children from birth until they turn age 6. Further, the Budget prohibits enrollment fees and premiums in CHIP.
Reduces Home Energy and Water Costs. The Budget provides $4.1 billion for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), helping families access home energy and weatherization assistance—vital tools for protecting families from extreme weather and climate change. In addition, the Budget proposes to allow States the option to use a portion of their LIHEAP funds to provide water bill assistance to low-income households.
Protects and Strengthens Social Security and Medicare
Social Security and Medicare are more than government programs, they’re a promise—a rock-solid guarantee that generations of Americans have counted on—that after a life of hard work, you will be able to retire with dignity and security. As the President has made clear, he will reject any efforts to cut or undermine the Medicare or Social Security benefits that seniors and people with disabilities have earned and paid into their entire working lives. The Budget honors that ironclad commitment by firmly opposing benefit cuts to either program and by embracing reforms that would protect and strengthen these programs. The President remains committed to working with the Congress to protect and strengthen Medicare and Social Security for this and future generations and strongly rejects Congressional Republicans’ attempts to cut benefits for hardworking Americans.
Protects and Strengthens Medicare. The Budget strengthens Medicare by extending the solvency of the Medicare Hospital Insurance (HI) trust fund indefinitely by modestly increasing the Medicare tax rate on incomes above $400,000, closing loopholes in existing Medicare taxes, and directing revenue from the Net Investment Income Tax into the HI trust fund as was originally intended. The Budget closes the loophole that allows certain business owners to avoid paying Medicare taxes on these profits and raises Medicare tax rates on earned and unearned income from 3.8 percent to 5 percent for those with incomes over $400,000. In addition, the Budget directs an amount equivalent to the savings from the proposed Medicare drug reforms into the HI trust fund.
Protects the Social Security Benefits that Americans Have Earned. The Administration is committed to protecting and strengthening Social Security. In particular, the Administration looks forward to working with Congress to responsibly strengthen Social Security in a way that ensures no benefit cuts; extends solvency by asking the highest-income Americans to pay their fair share; and improves financial security for seniors and people with disabilities, especially those who face the greatest challenges making ends meet.
Ensures That Americans Can Access the Benefits They’ve Earned. The Budget also invests in staff, information technology, and other improvements at the Social Security Administration (SSA), which will improve customer service at SSA’s field offices, State disability determination services, and teleservice centers for retirees, individuals with disabilities, and their families.
Cuts the Deficit by Promoting Tax Fairness
The President has demonstrated that we can invest in America while achieving meaningful deficit reduction. The deficit is over $1 trillion lower than when President Biden took office, and the President has enacted roughly $1 trillion in additional deficit reduction, including through provisions that empower Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices, cap insulin at $35 per month for seniors and people with disabilities, and establish a minimum tax for large corporations. The Administration looks forward to building on this progress with responsible investments that continue to grow America’s economy from the middle out and bottom up while improving the long-term budget outlook. The Budget proposes another roughly $3 trillion in savings over the next 10 years by making the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share and closing tax loopholes and cutting wasteful spending on Big Pharma, Big Oil, corporate jets and other special interests, and cracking down on wealthy tax cheats. The President’s proposals to reduce the deficit are in sharp contrast to Congressional Republicans plans for tax giveaways skewed to wealthy and big corporations.
Requires Billionaires to Pay at Least 25 Percent of Income in Taxes. Billionaires make their money in ways that are often taxed at lower rates than ordinary wage income, or sometimes not taxed at all, thanks to giant loopholes and tax preferences that disproportionately benefit the wealthiest taxpayers. As a result, many of these wealthy Americans are able to pay an average income tax rate of just 8 percent on their full incomes—a lower rate than many firefighters or teachers. To finally address this glaring inequity, the President’s Budget includes a 25 percent minimum tax on the wealthiest 0.01 percent, those with wealth of more than $100 million.
Raises Tax Rates for Large Corporations. Corporations received an enormous tax break in 2017. While their profits soared, their investment in their workers and the economy did not. Their shareholders and top executives reaped the benefits, without the promised trickle down to workers, consumers, or communities. The President’s Budget would set the corporate tax rate at 28 percent, still well below the 35 percent rate that prevailed prior to the 2017 tax law. In addition, the Budget would raise the Inflation Reduction Act’s corporate minimum tax rate on billion-dollar corporations that the President signed into law from 15 percent to 21 percent, ensuring the biggest corporations pay more of their fair share. These policies are complemented by other proposals to incentivize job creation and investment in the United States to help ensure broadly shared prosperity.
Cracks Down on Tax Avoidance by Large Multinationals and Big Pharma. For decades, countries have competed for multinational business by slashing tax rates, at the expense of having adequate revenues to finance core services. Thanks in part to the Administration’s leadership, more than 130 nations signed on to a global tax framework to finally address this race to the bottom in 2021. Many of our international partners, including many of the world’s largest economies, have implemented or will soon implement this transformational agreement. The President’s Budget proposes to do the same by reforming the international tax system to reduce the incentives to book profits in low-tax jurisdictions, stopping corporate inversions to tax havens, and raising the tax rate on U.S. multinationals’ foreign earnings from 10.5 percent to 21 percent. These reforms would ensure that profitable multinational corporations, including Big Pharma pay their fair share.
Denies Corporations Deductions for All Compensation Over $1 Million Per Employee. Executive pay has skyrocketed in recent decades, with CEO pay averaging more than 300 times that of a typical worker in 2022. The 2017 tax law’s corporate tax cuts only made this problem worse, producing massive boosts to executive compensation while doing nothing for low- and middle-income workers. While corporations can choose to give huge pay packages to their executives, President Biden believes that they don’t deserve a tax break when they do. His Budget proposes new policy to deny deductions for all compensation over $1 million paid to any employee of a C corporation, which would discourage companies from giving their executives massive pay packages and help level the playing field across C corporations.
Ends Capital Income Tax Breaks and Other Loopholes for the Very Wealthy. The President’s Budget will end one of the most unfair aspects of our tax system—the fact that the tax rate the wealthy pay on capital gains and dividends is less than the tax rate that many middle-class families pay on their wages. Households making over $1 million—the top 0.3 percent of all households—will pay the same 39.6 percent marginal rate on their income just like a high-paid worker pays on their wages. Moreover, the Budget eliminates the loophole that allows the wealthiest Americans to entirely escape paying taxes on their wealth by passing it down to heirs.
Ensures That the IRS Can Continue to Collect Taxes Owed by Wealthy Tax Cheats. The Inflation Reduction Act addressed long-standing IRS funding deficiencies by providing stable, multi-year funding to improve tax compliance by finally cracking down on high-income individuals and corporations who too often avoided paying their lawfully owed taxes, and to improve service for the millions of Americans that do pay their taxes. Already, the IRS is using these resources to crack down on tax evasion by the wealthy and big businesses. It has collected more than $500 million in unpaid taxes from fewer than 2,000 delinquent millionaires, is recouping taxes from thousands of millionaires who did not fulfill their basic civic duty by filing a tax return, and is cracking down on high-end tax evasion like deducting personal use of corporate jets as a business expense. At the same time, the IRS is improving customer service and modernizing IT infrastructure. The President’s Budget would restore the full Inflation Reduction Act investment and provide new funding over the long-term to continue cutting the deficit by making sure that wealthy Americans and big corporations pay the taxes they owe through tax compliance initiatives and to continue improving service for taxpayers who are just trying to pay what they owe.
Invests in America and the American People
Expands and Protects Access to Health Care
Supports Family Planning Services, Maternal Health, and Health Equity. Americans deserve access to the healthcare they need, including maternal healthcare, contraception, and family planning services, which are essential to ensuring control over personal decisions about their own health, lives, and families. The Budget includes $390 million for the Title X Family Planning program to increase the number of patients served to 3.6 million. The Budget also builds on a nearly 200 percent funding increase for key programs that address maternal mortality over the course of the Administration, including $376 million to support the ongoing implementation of the White House Blueprint for Addressing the Maternal Health Crisis to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity rates, and address the highest rates of perinatal health disparities.
Saves Lives by Advancing Behavioral Healthcare. In 2022, almost a quarter of adults had a mental illness, 13 percent of adolescents had serious thoughts of suicide, and overdose deaths continued near record highs. As a core pillar of his Unity Agenda, the President released a national strategy to transform how we understand and address mental health in America—and the Budget makes progress on this agenda by improving access to care for individuals and communities. The Budget requires all health plans to cover mental health and substance use disorder benefits, ensures that plans have an adequate network of behavioral health providers, and improves the Department of Labor’s (DOL) ability to enforce the law. The Budget builds on historic investments to improve access to mental health services, and makes significant investments in expanding the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline that is projected to respond to 7.5 million contacts from individuals in distress in 2025 alone and expands mental health care and support services in schools. Additionally, the Administration has made historic advances in expanding access to treatment for opioid use disorder, including signing into law a bipartisan provision to expand the number of medical providers who can initiate treatment for opioid use disorder from 129,000 to nearly 2 million. The Budget increases funding for the State Opioid Response grant program, which has provided treatment services to over 1.2 million people and enabled States to reverse more than 500,000 overdoses with over 9 million purchased overdose reversal medication kits.
Drives Healthcare Innovation to Discover New Treatments and Improve Health Outcomes. Investing in health care innovation and new treatments is a direct investment in the American people. The President’s Budget advances progress toward Biden Cancer Moonshot Goals and the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, enhances biodefense and public health infrastructure, and directly invests in treatment and prevention of infectious diseases. The Budget makes significant investments to work toward the President and First Lady’s signature Cancer Moonshot goals of reducing the cancer death rate by at least 50 percent over 25 years and improving the experience of people and families who are living with or who have survived cancer. The President and the First Lady launched the first-ever White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, recognizing that women have been understudied and underrepresented in health research for far too long. The Administration proposes to transform the way the government funds women’s health research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), including by increasing interdisciplinary research at NIH and creating a new nationwide network of centers of excellence and innovation in women’s health—and the Budget would double existing funding for the Office of Research on Women’s Health at NIH, to improve women’s health outcomes. Additionally, over the past three years, substantial progress has been made toward developing and implementing transformational capabilities to increase the Nation’s ability to respond to and prepare for emerging health threats. Building upon this progress, the Budget invests $9.8 billion to bolster public health capacity that will enable the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to better serve and protect the American public. The Budget also invests in the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases, including Hepatitis C, HIV, and vaccine-preventable diseases.
Expands Healthcare, Benefits, and Services for Environmental Exposures. The Honoring our PACT Act of 2022 (PACT Act) represents the most significant expansion of veterans’ healthcare and disability compensation benefits for veterans exposed to toxins and other environmental exposures, including burn pits and Agent Orange, in 30 years. As part of the PACT Act, Congress authorized the Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund (TEF) to fund increased costs above 2021 funding levels for healthcare and benefits delivery for veterans exposed to certain environmental hazards—and ensure there is sufficient funding available to cover these costs without shortchanging other elements of veteran medical care and benefits delivery. The Budget continues this commitment and includes $24.5 billion for the TEF in 2025, through funds appropriated by the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which is $19.5 billion above the 2023 enacted level.
Prioritizes Veterans’ Mental Health Services and Suicide Prevention for Veterans and Military Servicemembers. The Budget invests $135 million within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) research programs, together with $17 billion within the VA Medical Care program, to increase access to quality mental healthcare, with the goal of helping veterans take charge of their treatment and live full, meaningful lives. In addition, the Budget provides funding to further advance the Administration’s veteran suicide prevention initiatives and to support the Department of Defense’s efforts on Suicide Prevention and Response.
Supports America’s Workforce and Prepares America’s Economy for 21st Century Challenges
Continues Implementation of the President’s Investing in America Agenda. The Budget provides a total of $78.4 billion for highway, highway safety, and transit formula programs, supporting the amounts authorized for year four of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The Budget also reflects an additional $9.5 billion in advance appropriations provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for bridge replacement and rehabilitation, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and other programs to improve the safety, sustainability, and resilience of America’s transportation network.
Provides National, Comprehensive Paid Family and Medical Leave and Calls for Paid Sick Days. The Budget proposes a national, comprehensive paid family and medical leave program, providing up to 12 weeks of leave to allow eligible workers to take time off to care for and bond with a new child; care for a seriously ill loved one; heal from their own serious illness; address circumstances arising from a loved one’s military deployment; or find safety from domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. The President also calls on Congress to require employers to provide seven job-protected paid sick days each year to all workers.
Empowers, Protects, and Invests in Workers. Workers power America’s economic prosperity, building the economy from the middle out and bottom up. To ensure workers are treated with dignity and respect in the workplace and are paid the wages they’re owed, the Budget invests $2 billion in the Department of Labor’s worker protection agencies. The Budget also proposes funding for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to support implementation and enforcement of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and advancement of pay equity through the collection and analysis of employer pay data. Additionally, the Budget includes funding to strengthen the National Labor Relations Board’s capacity to enforce workers’ rights to organize and collectively bargain for better wages and working conditions.
Confronts the Climate Crisis While Spurring Clean Energy Innovation, Increasing Resilience, and Protecting Natural Resources
Lowers Energy Costs and Catalyzes Clean Energy and Economic Growth in Rural Communities. The Budget builds on the President’s historic Inflation Reduction Act to reduce energy bills for families, expand clean energy, transform rural power production, and create thousands of good-paying jobs for people across rural America. The Budget provides funding for loan guarantees for renewable energy systems and energy efficiency improvements for farmers and rural small businesses, and authority for rural electric loans to support additional clean energy, energy storage, and transmission projects that would create good-paying jobs.
Invests in Clean Air and Reduces Health and Environmental Hazards for At-Risk Communities. The Budget provides a total of $1.5 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Air and Radiation to continue the development of national programs, policies, and regulations that control air pollution and radiation exposure. The Budget provides $8.2 billion for the Department of Energy (DOE) to address legacy waste and contamination in communities, as well as funding for EPA’s Toxic Substances Control Act enforcement. The Administration will ensure the investments for the management of toxic chemicals, including per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, cleanup of legacy pollution, and long-term stewardship of these sites align with the Justice40 Initiative to benefit disadvantaged communities.
Creates Jobs by Building Clean Energy Infrastructure. The Budget invests $1.6 billion through the DOE to support clean energy workforce and infrastructure projects across the Nation, including funding to weatherize and retrofit homes of low-income Americans, create good jobs and ensure reliable supply chains by manufacturing clean energy components here at home, electrify Tribal homes and transition Tribal colleges and universities to renewable energy, and support utilities and State and local governments in building a grid that is more secure, reliable, resilient, and able to integrate electricity from clean energy sources. These investments, which complement and bolster the historic funding in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, will create good-paying jobs and revitalize American manufacturing while driving progress toward the Administration’s climate goals, including 100% carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035.
Strengthens Climate Resilience in Communities and Ecosystems. Building on the National Climate Resilience Framework, the Budget invests $23 billion in climate adaptation and resilience across the federal government to address the increasing severity of flood, wildfire, drought, and other extreme weather events fueled by climate change, including funding to support the wildland firefighting workforce through permanent and comprehensive pay reform. The Budget also provides funding to help farmers, ranchers, and forestland owners meet production goals in the face of a changing climate while conserving, maintaining, and restoring natural resources on their lands. The Budget complements the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, which dedicate more than $50 billion across the Federal government to advance climate resilience strategies in every community in America.
Supports and Expands the American Climate Corps. Last year, the Administration announced the launch of the American Climate Corps (ACC) to mobilize a new, diverse generation of more than 20,000 clean energy, conservation, and climate resilience workers, and this year, the first cohort of ACC members will begin their service. The Budget would provide mandatory funding to expand the ACC over the next decade by supporting an additional 50,000 ACC members annually by 2031. The ACC will provide job training and service opportunities on a wide range of projects that tackle climate change in communities around the country.
Doubles Down on America’s Global Climate Leadership. Beyond leading by example through domestic investments, the Budget provides a path to achieving the President’s $11 billion commitment for international climate finance. The Budget also supports $3 billion contribution through mandatory funding to finance the Green Climate Fund. The Budget builds on historic international climate finance progress made over the course of this Administration, in which estimated 2023 levels of $9.5 billion represent a near-sixfold increase from 2021.
Invests in America’s Families
Supports a Strong Nutrition Safety Net. The Budget provides $8.5 billion for critical nutrition programs, including $7.7 billion to fully fund the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) to serve all eligible participants, which is critical to the health of pregnant women, new mothers, infants, and young children. By investing in outreach and modernization, WIC would reach 800,000 more women, infants, and children each month, providing vital nutrition assistance to nearly 7 million individuals, up from 6.2 million in 2021. In addition, the Budget includes an emergency contingency fund that would provide additional resources when there are unanticipated cost pressures.
Builds a Strong Foundation for Families with Universal Pre-K and Head Start. The Budget funds voluntary, universal, free preschool for all four million of America’s four-year-olds and charts a path to expand preschool to three-year-olds. High-quality preschool would be offered in the setting of the parent’s choice—from public schools to child care providers to Head Start. The Budget also increases Head Start funding by $544 million to support the Administration’s goal to reach pay parity between Head Start staff and public elementary school teachers with similar qualifications over time. Together these proposals would support healthy child development, help children enter kindergarten ready to learn, and support families by reducing their costs prior to school entry and allowing parents to work.
Expands Opportunity and Advances Equity
Advances Efforts to End Homelessness. The Budget provides $4.1 billion for Homeless Assistance Grants to continue supporting approximately 1.2 million people experiencing homelessness each year and to expand assistance to approximately 25,000 additional households, specifically survivors of domestic violence and homeless youth. These new resources build on Administration efforts that have expanded assistance to roughly 140,000 additional households experiencing homelessness since the President took office. The Budget further reflects the Administration’s commitment to make progress toward ending homelessness by providing $8 billion in mandatory funding for the acquisition, construction, or operation of housing to expand housing options for people experiencing or at-risk of homelessness, as well as $3 billion in mandatory funding for grants to provide counseling and emergency rental assistance to older adult renters at-risk of homelessness.
Honors Commitments to Support Tribal Communities. Incorporating feedback from Tribal consultations, the Budget continues to provide robust support for Tribal Nations and Native communities in keeping with our federal trust and treaty responsibilities. For example, the Budget invests $4.6 billion for the Department of Interior’s (DOI) Tribal programs. This investment in DOI’s Tribal programs build on historic investments in Indian Country under the American Rescue Plan, Inflation Reduction Act, and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and promote long-term success by addressing critical infrastructure and climate adaptation needs in Native communities.
Expands Access to Capital for Small Businesses. Building on the historic growth in small business applications under the President and Vice President’s leadership, the Budget supports historic lending levels across the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) business lending programs. The over $58 billion in lending provided in the Budget would address the need for greater access to affordable capital, particularly in underserved communities. The Budget proposes a new direct 7(a) lending program, which would further enable SBA to address gaps in access to small dollar lending.
Promotes Equity in Education and Builds a Diverse, Capable STEM Workforce. The Budget increases institutional capacity at HBCUs, TCCUs, MSIs, and under-resourced institutions, including community colleges, and doubles funding by providing $100 million for four-year HBCUs, TCCUs, and MSIs to expand research and development infrastructure. In support of the CHIPS and Science Act’s priority of building a diverse, STEM-capable workforce, the Budget provides $1.4 billion for STEM education and workforce development programs at the National Science Foundation that have an emphasis on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. The Budget also includes funding for programs focused on increasing the participation of groups historically underrepresented in science and engineering fields, including women and girls and people of color.
Protects Americans at Home and Abroad
From taking action to combat hate in America’s communities, tackle gun violence, and strengthen trust in the Nation’s democratic institutions, to defending freedom around the globe, and rebuilding key alliances, the Administration has taken decisive action to strengthen America at home and abroad, all with the goal of keeping Americans safe. The Budget builds on this progress with proposals to continue investing in State, local, Tribal, and Federal law enforcement, reducing gun violence and crime, securing the border and strengthening the immigration system, and revitalizing U.S. alliances and partnerships while confronting global threats and strengthening America’s military.
Secures the Border and Strengthens the Immigration System. In October 2023, the Administration transmitted an emergency supplemental request for managing the southwest border and migration totaling $13.6 billion. The Budget includes, and therefore reiterates the need for, the unmet needs from the October supplemental request. The Budget includes investments to build longer-term capacity in the areas of border security, immigration enforcement, and countering illicit fentanyl. This amount includes funding to hire 1,300 additional Border Patrol Agents to secure the border, 1,000 additional Customs and Border Protection Officers to stop illicit fentanyl and other contraband from entering the U.S., an additional 1,600 Asylum Officers and support staff to facilitate timely immigration dispositions, as well as $849 million for cutting-edge detection technology at ports of entry. The Budget also reiterates the ask for funding to hire 375 new immigration judge teams to help reduce the immigration case backlog. Taken together, these long-term capacity building investments equip the Nation’s border security and immigration system to more effectively respond to challenges present along the border.
Tackles Crime, Reduces Gun Violence, and Makes America’s Communities Safer. The Budget makes significant investments to bolster Federal law enforcement capacity to strengthen public safety and it also pursues new mandatory investments to combat violent crime and support victims. The Budget includes $17.7 billion for Department of Justice law enforcement, including $2 billion, an increase of over 30 percent since 2021, for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to effectively investigate and prosecute gun crimes. To support state, local, and Tribal law enforcement efforts, the Budget proposes $31.8 billion in mandatory funding to support President Biden’s Safer America Plan, and complements this plan with proposed discretionary investments of $270 million for the COPS Hiring Program and $100 million for community violence intervention and prevention. The Budget also builds upon the Safer America Plan by investing an additional $1.2 billion over five years to launch a new Violent Crime Reduction and Prevention Fund to give law enforcement the support they need to focus on violent crime, including support to hire 4,700 detectives to help drive down the high rate of unsolved violent crimes. In support of victims of crime, the Budget also requests $7.3 billion to replenish and reform the Crime Victims Fund to ensure a stable and predictable source of funding is available to support critical victim service and compensation programs over the next decade.
Prioritizes Efforts to End Gender-Based Violence. The Administration has prioritized funding for programs under the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA). These programs have seen funding increased by over 35 percent since 2021 and the Budget proposes further expansion to $800 million for programs under VAWA, including key investments in sexual assault services, transitional housing, and legal assistance for survivors. The Budget also makes clear the Administration’s priority to strongly support underserved and Tribal communities by providing $15 million for culturally-specific services, $5 million for underserved populations, $25 million to assist enforcement of Tribal special domestic violence jurisdiction under VAWA 2022’s expansions, $3 million to support Tribal Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys, and $10 million for a new special initiative to address Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP).
Combats Narcotics Trafficking. The Budget provides $3.3 billion to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to combat drug trafficking, including $1.2 billion to combat opioid trafficking, save lives, and make our communities safer. The Budget invests an additional $18 million in Domestic Counter-Fentanyl Threat Targeting Teams at the Drug Enforcement Administration to enhance America’s fight against the transnational criminal networks pushing deadly illicit fentanyl in America’s communities. The Budget also provides $494 million in grants supporting efforts to address substance use. The Budget includes funding to disrupt the international synthetic drug trade which would counter the worldwide flow of fentanyl and other synthetics that endanger public safety and health, and contribute to tens of thousands of drug-overdose deaths in the United States annually.
Reiterates the Administration’s Request for Immediate Funding for Urgent National Security Priorities Related to Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific. In October 2023, the Administration transmitted an emergency supplemental request totaling $92 billion to Congress for urgent national security needs. This request included funding to support Ukraine as it continues to defend itself against Russian aggression, Israel’s defense against terrorism, the Indo-Pacific’s regional security, life-saving humanitarian assistance, including for the Palestinian people, and other national security priorities. The request would also make significant and much needed investments in the American defense industrial base, benefitting U.S. military readiness and helping to create and sustain jobs in dozens of states across America. Absent congressional action on this emergency request, the United States will not be able to continue to provide support to Ukraine to meet their battlefield needs as they defend against Russian attacks every day, provide urgently needed military support to allies and partners, make critical DIB investments, or sustain life-saving assistance and development in some of the world’s most vulnerable areas. The Administration appreciates the bipartisan supplemental legislation that passed the Senate, which would address these urgent needs and advance our own national security.
Supports Ukraine, European Allies, and Partners. The Budget continues critical support for Ukraine, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies, and other European partner states by prioritizing funding to enhance the capabilities and readiness of U.S., allied, and partner forces in the face of continued Russian aggression. However, this Budget cannot address the critical support to Ukraine that requires congressional action on the Administration’s October 2023 National Security Supplemental request.
Promotes Integrated Deterrence in the Indo-Pacific and Globally. To sustain and strengthen deterrence, the Budget prioritizes China as America’s pacing challenge in line with the 2022 National Defense Strategy. The Department of Defense’s 2025 Pacific Deterrence Initiative highlights some of the key investments the Federal government is making, focuses on strengthening deterrence in the region, and demonstrates the Administration’s long-term commitment to the Indo-Pacific. DOD is building the concepts, capabilities, and posture necessary to meet these challenges, working to integrate deterrence efforts across the U.S. Government and with U.S. allies and partners.
Ensures Readiness Across America’s Armed Forces. The Budget continues to ensure that U.S. Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsmen, and Guardians remain the best trained and equipped fighting forces in the world. The Budget places additional emphasis on foundational investments to sustain current weapon systems and support increased training across DOD.
Invests in the Submarine Industrial Base. DOD conducted the 2025 Submarine Industrial Base (SIB) study to determine how to complete the once-in-a-generation recapitalization of the Submarine Force needed to increase the United States’ ability to build and sustain attack submarines to meet U.S. military requirements. These investments will also support the Administration’s commitments under AUKUS, the first major deliverable of which was the historic decision to support Australia acquiring conventionally-armed, nuclear-powered submarines. In line with the results on this study, the Budget includes $3.4 billion for the SIB in 2025.
Provides Life-Saving Humanitarian Assistance and Combats Global Food Insecurity. The Budget provides $10.3 billion in life-saving humanitarian and refugee assistance to support more than 330 million people in need in more than 70 countries in addition to the emergency supplemental request of $10 billion to address unprecedented global humanitarian needs, including the dire humanitarian situation facing Palestinians in Gaza. The Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development will have to reduce life-saving assistance around the globe without the additional $10 billion in humanitarian assistance requested in the Administration’s October 2023 National Security Supplemental Request.
