Story at a glance
- Keeping in line with his campaign promises, Biden will reveal his ambitious American Jobs Act.
- The plan aims to allocate $2 trillion to environmentally sustainable infrastructure projects across the country.
President Biden is slated to unveil his national infrastructure plan, which itself is expected to total $2 trillion in federal funding that will go toward overhauling the U.S.’s public transportation, access to high-speed internet, as well as job opportunities.
Dubbed the American Jobs Act, it hinges on creating a new American economic plan that is focused on environmental sustainability and racial justice — the latter addressing the lingering socioeconomic systems that suppress Americans of color.
Some of the pillars included in the preliminary summary state Biden’s intention to repair transit systems like highways, bridges, shipping ports and airports. Approximately $115 billion will be spent on transportation infrastructure to not only modernize them, but make more than 20,000 miles of highways and roads more sustainable by improving air quality and limiting greenhouse gas emissions. Electric vehicle incentives, including tax credits and ample charging stations, are also a major feature.
An additional $17 billion is designated to inland waterways, coastal ports, and ferry systems.
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Biden’s plan also ensures that historically marginalized ethnic and racial communities will have access to these improved ports, allocating $20 billion for programs aimed at reconnecting neighborhoods excluded from reliable public transit.
Another $100 billion in funding would go towards schools, focusing on ensuring that they are resilient to weather and climate-related disasters.
Ensuring safe, potable drinking water to all communities is also part of Biden’s plan, with up to $111 billion going towards replacing the nation’s existing lead pipes and upgrading wastewater and stormwater systems.
Critically, expanding all Americans’ access to high-speed broadband internet connectivity is also in the American Jobs Plan agenda. The summary notes that more than 30 million Americans live in regions with no broadband access — a digital divide that was exposed as the COVID-19 pandemic relegated adults and students to remote working and learning.
Within each initiative, Biden promises the creation of high-paying jobs with solid union protections to revitalize the American workforce that has been battered by the economic recession accompanying the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Like great projects of the past, the President’s plan will unify and mobilize the country to meet the great challenges of our time: the climate crisis and the ambitions of an autocratic China,” the plan overview reads. “It will invest in Americans and deliver the jobs and opportunities they deserve. But unlike past major investments, the plan prioritizes addressing long-standing and persistent racial injustice.”
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