President Biden on Thursday tapped five Cabinet officials to lead the administration’s effort to educate the public on his $2.25 trillion infrastructure proposal.
Biden announced during his first official Cabinet meeting that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Marcia Fudge, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh will be at the forefront of the public relations push.
The five Cabinet officials will be tasked with outlining the details of Biden’s American Jobs Proposal, which he formally unveiled a day earlier during a speech in Pittsburgh.
The proposal calls for spending $2.25 trillion over the next eight years to repair 20,000 miles of roads and 10,000 bridges, expand broadband access to rural and underserved communities, replace all of the nation’s lead pipes and service lines to ensure clean water, invest in research and development and manufacturing, and expand access to home and community-based care.
The package would also aim to weatherize buildings and retrofit them to become more climate friendly, while also investing in research to boost climate-friendly industries.
Biden is proposing paying for the legislation by hiking the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent, which the White House says will pay for the investments over a 15-year period.
Republicans have balked at the plan, taking issue specifically with the proposed tax increase on corporations and with the inclusion of priorities outside of traditional infrastructure projects like roads and bridges.
The organized effort from the Cabinet officials to essentially sell the proposal to the public mirrors what the White House did for the American Rescue Plan, Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill signed into law last month.
Biden and Vice President Harris traveled to states across the country after the bill was passed to highlight specific provisions that benefit the public, while officials like Buttigieg made media appearances to tout the law.