FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Announces Key Actions to Strengthen Electric Grid, Boost Clean Energy Deployment and Cut Dangerous Pollution from Power Sector

This fact sheet on what the Biden-Harris Administration is doing to strengthen the electric grid, boost clean energy deployment and create jobs, and cut dangerous pollution from the power sector was provided by the White House:

A solar array on a New York State farm. This month the EPA announced $20 billion in grant awards under two competitions from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to create a national network to fund tens of thousands of climate and clean energy projects across America, especially in communities historically left behind and overburdened by pollution. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Since Day One, President Biden has led and delivered on the most ambitious climate and environmental justice agenda in history, including securing the largest-ever climate investment. The power sector, which is responsible for a quarter of annual U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, now has more tools than ever – including unprecedented financial support, efficient permitting, and long-term regulatory certainty – to reduce pollution and upgrade the grid to support more factories, electric vehicles, and other growing sources of electricity demand.

Today, the Biden-Harris Administration is announcing key actions to build on this momentum and deliver clean electricity to more homes and businesses, helping lower energy costs for American families and power the U.S. manufacturing renaissance driven by President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, while providing cleaner air and water to communities long overburdened by pollution from fossil fuel power plants.
 
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing a suite of standards to cut greenhouse gas emissions as well as toxic air pollution, water pollution, and land contamination from fossil fuel power plants. EPA’s greenhouse gas emission standards will avoid 1.38 billion metric tons of carbon pollution through 2047, equivalent to the annual emissions of 328 million gas cars, and together with the other standards will provide hundreds of billions of dollars in climate, environmental justice, and public health benefits, including fewer premature deaths, asthma cases, and lost work and school days. The standards announced today will ensure that power companies use modern, cost-effective technologies to reduce pollution and protect the health and wellbeing of communities, including communities historically overburdened by pollution.
 
The Department of Energy (DOE) is announcing up to $331 million through President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for a new transmission line that will be built with union labor – the latest awards from the Administration’s $30 billion investment in strengthening America’s electric grid infrastructure. A capacity contract from the Transmission Facilitation Program (TFP) will support a new 285-mile transmission line from Idaho to Nevada, bringing more than 2,000 Megawatts of needed transmission capacity to the region. The Southwest Intertie Project-North is expected to provide hundreds of jobs to workers with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
 
Alongside this critical investment, DOE is releasing a final rule to make federal permitting of new transmission lines more efficient, ensuring meaningful engagement with Tribes, local communities, and other stakeholders. The rule establishes the Coordinated Interagency Transmission Authorization and Permits (CITAP) program, which aims to improve coordination across agencies, create efficiencies, and establish a standard two-year timeline for federal transmission authorizations and permits. The CITAP program gives transmission developers a new option for a more efficient review process, a major step to provide increased confidence for the sector to invest in new transmission lines.
 
DOE is also issuing a final rule to create an even faster track for completing environmental reviews of upgrades to existing transmission lines, which will increase reliability and lower energy costs. The rule creates a categorical exclusion, the simplest form of review under the National Environmental Policy Act, for projects that use existing transmission rights of way, such as reconductoring projects, as well as for solar and energy storage projects on already disturbed lands.
 
Additionally, today, the Administration is launching an effort to mobilize public and private sector leaders to expand the capacity of the existing U.S. transmission network, setting an ambition to upgrade 100,000 miles of transmission lines over the next five years. The Administration has made funding available through the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnership (GRIP) program to support upgrades to existing transmission lines, and DOE’s categorical exclusion issued today will speed up the process to upgrade existing lines. The power sector can achieve this ambition primarily by deploying modern grid technologies like high-performance conductors and dynamic line ratings that enable existing transmission lines to carry more power. As a complement to building new lines, deploying solutions like these offer fast and cost-effective ways to unlock hundreds of gigawatts of additional clean energy, increase system reliability and resilience, reduce grid congestion, and cut energy costs.
 
These efforts all work in tandem – historic investments from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda that are making America a magnet for clean energy investment; continued permitting progress to get projects up and running; and smart standards to provide rules of the road for power companies, enabling them to seize the unprecedented opportunities to deliver clean electricity across the country. These steps – which are part of a broader slate of Earth Week announcements – build on President Biden’s actions since Day One to tackle the climate crisis and advance environmental justice.
 
Upgrading the Electric Grid for Reliability and Resilience
President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is delivering the largest investment in grid infrastructure in history—more than $30 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. These investments will help deliver reliable, affordable electricity to families and businesses, prepare for worsening natural disasters that strain the grid, and unlock the economic and environmental benefits of clean energy. To help expand the transmission system at the pace necessary to confront the climate crisis, today’s actions and additional recent steps will help streamline permitting and overcome financial hurdles:
 

  • Completing a New Transmission Line: Today the Department of the Interior (DOI) is celebrating the completion of the Ten West Link transmission line from Arizona to California. The line began transmitting electricity today and will increase reliability and unlock more than 3,200 megawatts of capacity from solar projects. DOI approved the construction of this project in 2022.
     
  • Continuing to Invest in Grid Upgrades: Last week applications closed for up to $2.7 billion in DOE grant funding under the second round of the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) program for projects to upgrade and modernize the transmission and distribution system to increase reliability and resilience. This builds upon $3.46 billion in projects selected for grid upgrades in October 2023, which are funded by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
     
  • Charting the Future of the Grid to Meet Emerging Challenges: Last week DOE released the 2024 Future of Resource Adequacy Report to lay out solutions to meet increasing electricity demand while cutting emissions and maintaining affordability. DOE also released the Innovative Grid Deployment Liftoff Report to chart pathways to deployment of modern, commercially available transmission and distribution technologies that could support 20 to 100 gigawatts of peak demand.

Revitalizing U.S. Manufacturing and Securing Clean Energy Supply Chains
Thanks to incentives from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the clean energy future will be made in America. Under the Biden-Harris Administration, private companies have invested almost $80 billion in clean energy manufacturing. Strengthening U.S. clean energy supply chains not only benefits American workers but also makes it easier to deploy clean energy even faster to cut emissions. Recent actions continue the progress to build and secure domestic supply chains and ensure that the U.S. will lead the world in clean energy manufacturing:
 

  • Expanding U.S. Clean Energy Manufacturing and Creating Good-Paying Jobs: The Treasury Department and DOE recently announced $4 billion in Inflation Reduction Act tax credit allocations for over 100 manufacturing projects across 35 states under the Qualifying Advanced Energy Project Tax Credit (48C). This includes projects to manufacture transformers and grid components, electric vehicle components and chargers, and transmission cables, produce clean steel, and process critical minerals and materials. These allocations include $1.5 billion for projects in historic energy communities that have experienced closure of coal mines and power plants.
     
  • Securing the U.S. Nuclear Fuel Supply Chain: Last week, DOE announced several milestones on the path to establish a domestic fuel supply chain for nuclear energy and reduce our reliance on imports. DOE recently closed the requests for proposal to purchase high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) needed for advanced nuclear reactors, which is part of a $700 million program secured through the Inflation Reduction Act. Moreover, an enrichment plant (located in Piketon, Ohio) produced the first 100 kilograms of civilian HALEU ever in the United States with future plans to expand to 900 kilograms. U.S. capabilities will increase further thanks to an additional $2.7 billion made available from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in the Fiscal Year 2024 Energy and Water Development, which, when paired with $2.2 billion from France and the United Kingdom meets and exceeds a commitment made last fall at COP28 to pool funds to develop a safe and secure global supply chain.

 
Deploying Clean Energy to Meet America’s Power Needs
The President’s Investing in America agenda has unleashed unprecedented investment in deployment of clean energy technologies, attracting hundreds of billions of dollars in private sector investment and creating over 270,000 new clean energy jobs. The Administration is taking additional steps to accelerate buildout of clean energy and remove roadblocks to deployment to ensure that new clean energy resources can come online fast to meet growing demand. Recent actions include:
 

  • Accelerating Offshore Wind Deployment: Yesterday DOI announced plans for the next five years of offshore wind leasing, as well as a final rule to modernize offshore wind regulations. Over the next 20 years, the final rule is expected to result in cost savings of roughly $1.9 billion to the offshore renewable energy industry, savings that can be passed onto consumers or used to invest in additional job-creating clean energy projects.  Additionally, DOE released the Offshore Wind Liftoff Report, charting a path to success for the next wave of projects through continued innovation and cost reductions, along with DOE’s latest steps to support offshore wind manufacturing and transmission development.  Through these actions, the Biden-Harris Administration continues to support state leadership and use every tool available to responsibly grow an American offshore wind industry that will create thousands of good-paying jobs, including federal investments and approvals under President Biden’s leadership of 10 gigawatts of commercial-scale offshore wind projects, with the first two already providing power to the grid, as well as over 1 million acres newly leased to provide offshore wind opportunities for years ahead.
     
  • Promoting Development of Renewable Energy on Public Lands: This month DOI issued a final rule to reduce fees for solar and wind projects on public lands by 80 percent and announced that DOI has now permitted more than 25 gigawatts of clean energy projects on public lands, surpassing a major milestone ahead of 2025.
     
  • Speeding Up Process to Connect New Power Plants to the Grid: Last week DOE released the Transmission Interconnection Roadmap, a first-of-its-kind report laying out solutions to accelerate the process to connect clean energy projects to the grid and reduce wait times for new solar, wind, and battery projects. The Roadmap complements $10 million that DOE recently made available for analytical tools and other approaches to accelerate the interconnection process. Additionally, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is moving forward to implement a series of major transmission reforms, including a final rule to streamline the interconnection process.
     
  • Taking Advantage of Extensive Geothermal Energy Resources:  Last week DOI adopted categorical exclusions to expedite the review and approval of geothermal energy exploration on public lands. In addition, DOE recently released a new Pathways to Commercial Liftoff report on geothermal power, which showed how U.S. geothermal energy production could grow by a factor of 20 to 90 Gigawatts by 2050.
     
  • Improving the State and Local Renewable Energy Siting Process: Last week DOE opened a funding opportunity for state-based collaboratives to build capacity to improve renewable energy planning and siting processes. This funding, supported by the Inflation Reduction Act, will accelerate the siting process to bring renewable energy online faster while improving outcomes for host communities, local governments, and disadvantaged communities.

 
Ensuring All Communities Benefit from Clean Energy
From Day One, President Biden has prioritized ensuring that all communities benefit from clean energy deployment, including the energy communities and workers that have powered our nation for generations and the low-income households that are burdened with high energy bills. The Administration has followed through on these commitments—not just talking about coal and power plant communities but investing in them. The President’s Investing in America agenda is creating good-paying and union jobs in energy communities, bringing solar energy to low-income households to reduce energy bills, supporting community engagement and improved outcomes for state and local permitting, and increasing grid reliability and resilience through distributed energy solutions. The President’s Justice40 Initiative sets a goal that 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal in climate, clean energy, and other investments flow to disadvantaged communities that have been marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution. Recent actions continue this progress:
 

  • Reducing Energy Bills for Low-Income Households: This week the EPA announced $7 billion to deploy solar energy for low-income communities through the Solar for All program, funded by the Inflation Reduction Act. The 60 selections will provide funding to support 60 states, territories, Tribal governments, municipalities, and nonprofits to enable low-income and disadvantaged communities to benefit from solar, cutting annual electricity bills by more than $350 million for low-income households, creating an estimated 200,000 jobs, and increasing grid reliability.
     
  • Deploying Clean Energy in Energy Communities: DOE recently announced up to $475 million for five projects in Arizona, Kentucky, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia to accelerate clean energy deployment on current and former mine lands. The projects, supported by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, will deploy geothermal, pumped-storage hydropower, solar, and battery storage and will spur new economic opportunities in communities that have helped power the nation for generations.
     
  • Building Opportunities for Coal and Power Plant Communities to Continue Powering America: DOE recently released an information guide and technical study for communities and stakeholders who are considering replacing their coal plants with nuclear. Coal-to-nuclear transition can significantly reduce the cost of nuclear plant construction, while creating new high-paying jobs, increasing community income and revenue, and improving public health. DOE’s study found that, with adequate planning and training support, most workers at an existing coal plant should be able to transition to work at a replacement nuclear plant.
     
  • Building a National Network to Finance Local Clean Energy Projects: This month the EPA announced $20 billion in grant awards under two competitions from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to create a national network to fund tens of thousands of climate and clean energy projects across America, especially in communities historically left behind and overburdened by pollution. One selectee, the Green Bank for Rural America, will help bring clean energy to rural America and energy communities, with a particular focus on Appalachia, helping ensure that the communities that have powered the nation for a century do not get left behind in the energy transition.
     
  • Funding Microgrids for Tribal Communities:  DOE recently announced a $72.8 million conditional commitment to fund a solar-plus-storage microgrid on the Tribal lands of the Viejas Band of the Kumeyaay Indians. This will reduce the cost of energy, power local commercial business, create 250 construction jobs prioritizing Tribal, minority and veteran-owned contractors, and enhance the Tribal energy sovereignty.
     

Advancing Environmental Justice: Through the Justice40 Initiative, 518 programs across 19 federal agencies are being reimagined and transformed to ensure the benefits reach the communities that need them most. Federal agencies are making this happen with the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool, which is used to identify communities that benefit from the Justice40 Initiative.

Biden-Harris Administration Announces Rules to Deliver Automatic Refunds and Protect Consumers from Surprise Junk Fees in Air Travel

Newly finalized rules will mandate automatic, cash refunds for cancelled or significantly delayed flights and save consumers over half a billion dollars every year in airline fees 

Biden-Harris Administration announced final rules that require airlines to provide automatic cash refunds to passengers when owed and protect consumers from costly surprise airline fees. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

WASHINGTON – Building on a historic record of expanding consumer protections and standing up for airline passengers, the Biden-Harris Administration announced final rules that require airlines to provide automatic cash refunds to passengers when owed and protect consumers from costly surprise airline fees. These rules will significantly expand consumer protections in air travel, provide passengers an easier pathway to refunds when owed, and save consumers over half a billion dollars every year in hidden and surprise junk fees.
 
The rules are part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s work to lower costs for consumers and take on corporate rip-offs. President Biden signed an Executive Order on Promoting Competition in 2021 that encouraged DOT to take steps to promote fairer, more transparent, and competitive markets.

Today, the Biden-Harris Administration announced rules that require airlines to provide automatic cash refunds to passengers when owed and protect consumers from costly surprise airline fees. The President released the below statement and video.


“Our department just issued rules to protect people from hidden airline fees and to require airlines to give passengers automatic cash refunds when owed,” said Transportaiton Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “No more having to fend for yourself and jump through hoops to get your money back—airlines will have to automatically do this. This is about airlines treating passengers better, and it will save people more than half a billion dollars. Avoiding unwanted, expensive, unnecessary surprise airline fees.”

“Too often, airlines drag their feet on refunds or rip folks off with junk fees,” President Biden stated. “It’s time Americans got a better deal. Today, my Administration is requiring that airlines provide automatic refunds to passengers when they’re owed, and protect them from surprise fees.

“We all know what it’s like when airlines drag their feet on refunds or surprise us with junk fees. That’s why today my Administration is holding airlines accountable and bringing costs down for American families. This is just one part of my Administration’s plan to prevent companies from playing the American people for suckers. It matters,” Biden stated.


 Requiring Automatic Cash Airline Refunds
The first rule requires airlines to promptly provide passengers with automatic cash refunds when owed because their flights are cancelled or significantly changed, their checked bags are significantly delayed, or the ancillary services, like Wi-Fi, they purchased are not provided.
 
Without this rule, consumers have to navigate a patchwork of cumbersome processes to request and receive a refund — searching through airline websites to figure out how to make the request, filling out extra “digital paperwork,” or at times waiting for hours on the phone. Passengers would also receive a travel credit or voucher by default from many airlines instead of getting their money back, so they could not use their refund to rebook on another airline when their flight was changed or cancelled without navigating a cumbersome request process.
 
DOT’s rule makes it simple and straightforward for passengers to receive the money they are owed. The final rule requires refunds to be:
 

  • Automatic: Airlines must automatically issue refunds without passengers having to explicitly request them or jump through hoops.
  • Prompt: Airlines and ticket agents must promptly issue refunds within seven business days of refunds becoming due for credit card purchases and 20 calendar days for other payment methods.
  • Cash or original form of payment: Airlines and ticket agents must provide refunds in cash or whatever original payment method the individual used to make the purchase, such as credit card or airline miles. Airlines may not substitute vouchers, travel credits, or other forms of compensation unless the passenger affirmatively chooses to accept alternative compensation.
  • Full amount: Airlines and ticket agents must provide full refunds of the ticket purchase price, minus the value of any portion of transportation already used. The refunds must include all government-imposed taxes and fees and airline-imposed fees.
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  • Protecting Against Surprise Airline Junk Fees
  • Secondly, DOT is requiring airlines and ticket agents to tell consumers upfront what fees they charge for checked bags, a carry-on bag, for changing a reservation, or cancelling a reservation. This ensures that consumers can avoid surprise fees when they purchase tickets from airlines or ticket agents, including both brick-and-mortar travel agencies or online travel agencies.
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  • The rule will help consumers avoid unneeded or unexpected charges that can increase quickly and add significant cost to what may, at first, look like a cheap ticket. Extra fees, like checked baggage and change fees, have been a growing source of revenue for airlines, while also becoming more complex and confusing for passengers over time. In total, thanks to the final rule, consumers are expected to save over half a billion dollars every year that they are currently overpaying in airline fees.
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  • DOT’s rule ensures that consumers have the information they need to better understand the true costs of air travel. Under the final rule, airlines are required to:
  • Disclose baggage, change, and cancellation fees upfront: Each fee must be disclosed the first time that fare and schedule information is provided on the airline’s online platform — and cannot be displayed through a hyperlink.
  • Explain fee policies before ticket purchase: For each type of baggage, airlines and ticket agents must spell out the weight and dimension limitations that they impose. They must also describe any prohibitions or restrictions on changing or cancelling a flight, along with policies related to differences in fare when switching to a more or less expensive flight.  
  • Share fee information with third parties: An airline must provide useable, current, and accurate information regarding its baggage, change, and cancellation fees and policies to any company that is required to disclose them to consumers and receives fare, schedule, and availability information from that airline.
  • Inform consumers that seats are guaranteed: When offering an advance seat assignment for a fee, airlines and ticket agents must let consumers know that purchasing a seat is not necessary to travel, so consumers can avoid paying unwanted seat selection fees.
  • Provide both standard and passenger-specific fee information:  Consumers can choose to view passenger-specific fee information based on their participation in the airline’s rewards program, their military status, or the credit card that they use — or they can decide to stay anonymous and get the standard fee information.
  • End discount bait-and-switch tactics: The final rule puts an end to the bait-and-switch tactics some airlines use to disguise the true cost of discounted flights. It prohibits airlines from advertising a promotional discount off a low base fare that does not include all mandatory carrier-imposed fees.

 
DOT’s Historic Record of Consumer Protection Under the Biden-Harris Administration
Both of these actions were suggested for consideration by the DOT in the Executive Order on Promoting Competition and build on historic steps the Biden-Harris Administration has already taken to expand consumer protections, promote competition, and protect air travelers. Under the Biden-Harris Administration, DOT has advanced the largest expansion of airline passenger rights, issued the biggest fines against airlines for failing consumers, and returned more money to passengers in refunds and reimbursements than ever before in the Department’s history. 

  • DOT launched the flightrights.gov dashboard, and now all 10 major U.S. airlines guarantee free rebooking and meals, and nine guarantee hotel accommodations when an airline issue causes a significant delay or cancellation. These are new commitments the airlines added to their customer service plans that DOT can legally ensure they adhere to and are displayed on flightrights.gov.
     
  • Since President Biden took office, DOT has helped return more than $3 billion in refunds and reimbursements owed to airline passengers – including over $600 million to passengers affected by the Southwest Airlines holiday meltdown in 2022.
     
  • DOT has issued over $164 million in penalties against airlines for consumer protection violations. Between 1996 and 2020, DOT collectively issued less than $71 million in penalties against airlines for consumer protection violations.
     
  • DOT recently launched a new partnership with a bipartisan group of state attorneys general to fast-track the review of consumer complaints, hold airlines accountable, and protect the rights of the traveling public.
     
  • In 2023, the flight cancellation rate in the U.S. was a record low at under 1.2% — the lowest rate of flight cancellations in over 10 years despite a record amount of air travel
     
  • DOT is undertaking its first ever industry-wide review of airline privacy practices and its first review of airline loyalty programs

 
In addition to finalizing the rules to require automatic refunds and protect consumers from surprise fees, DOT is also pursuing rulemakings that would: 

  • Propose to ban family seating junk fees and guarantee that parents can sit with their children for no extra charge when they fly. Before President Biden and Secretary Buttigieg pressed airlines last year, no airline committed to guaranteeing fee-free family seating. Now, four airlines guarantee fee-free family seating, as the Department is working on its family seating junk fee ban proposal.
     
  • Propose to make passenger compensation and amenities mandatory so that travelers are taken care of when airlines cause flight delays or cancellations.
     
  • Expand the rights for passengers who use wheelchairs and ensure that they can travel safely and with dignity. The comment period on this proposed rule closes on May 13, 2024.

Travelers can learn more about their protections when they fly at FlightRights.gov. Consumers may file an airline complaint with the Department here.

FACT SHEET: President Biden Marks Earth Day 2024 with Historic Climate Action

On Earth Day, President Biden is  traveling to Prince William Forest Park in Triangle, VA, a national park system site developed by FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps, to announce $7 billion in awards through EPA’s Solar for All program and unveil major steps to advance the American Climate Corps. This Fact Sheet outlining President Biden’s historic climate actions was provided by the White House :

Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and Northeast Canyons are among the 41 million acres of public lands which President Joe Biden has protected, including lands sacred to Tribal peoples, and has set a target of protecting 30 percent of land by 2030. On Earth Day, the Biden Administration announced a rule requires the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees 245 million acres of public land, that conservation and recreation —of natural habitat, cultural resources, recreation areas—be on equal footing with resource extraction in granting licenses © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

When President Biden took office, he pledged to restore America’s climate leadership at home and abroad. On his first day in office, the President signed the United States back into the Paris Agreement. And each day since, the Biden-Harris Administration has continued to lead and deliver on the most ambitious climate agenda in history, including securing the largest ever climate investment and unleashing a clean energy manufacturing boom that has attracted hundreds of billions in private sector investment and created over 270,000 new clean energy jobs. The President’s agenda is also advancing environmental justice and ensuring that the benefits of climate investments reach overburdened communities, mobilizing the next generation of clean energy workers through the American Climate Corps, and delivering historic investments in our nation’s climate resilience. At the same time, the Administration is protecting America’s natural wonders, conserving more than 41 million acres of lands and waters.  

Building on his climate, clean energy, and environmental justice agenda, President Biden will travel today to Prince William Forest Park in Triangle, Virginia, to celebrate Earth Day 2024, and highlight his Administration’s unprecedented progress in tackling the climate crisis, cutting costs for everyday Americans, and creating good-paying jobs.

Expanding Access to Affordable Solar Energy

The President will announce $7 billion in grants through the Environmental Protection Agency’s Solar for All grant competition, a key component of the Inflation Reduction Act’s $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. Selectees under the Solar for All program will serve every state and territory in the nation and deliver residential solar power to over 900,000 households in low-income and disadvantaged communities, saving overburdened households more than $350 million in electricity costs annually – approximately $400 per household – and avoiding more than 30 million metric tons of carbon pollution over the next 25 years.

The selectees will provide funds to states, territories, Tribes, municipalities, and nonprofits across the country to develop long-lasting solar programs that enable low-income and disadvantaged communities to deploy and benefit from distributed residential solar. In total, solar projects funded by this program will create nearly 200,000 jobs. The program also advances the President’s Justice40 Initiative, which set a goal that 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal climate, clean energy, affordable and sustainable housing, and other investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.   

Mobilizing the Next Generation of Climate Leaders through the American Climate Corps

Joined by future members of President Biden’s American Climate Corps, including current AmeriCorps members, President Biden will also announce several new actions to stand up the American Climate Corps – a groundbreaking initiative modeled after FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps that will put more than 20,000 young Americans to work fighting the impacts of climate change today while gaining the skills they need to join the growing clean energy and climate-resilience workforce of tomorrow. The President will announce these actions at Prince William Forest Park, a national park system site developed by FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps and stewarded by the Department of the Interior’s National Park Service.

Nearly a century after FDR established the Civilian Conservation Corps, President Biden will announce today that Americans can now apply to join the American Climate Corps through a newly launched website, ClimateCorps.gov. The website will feature nearly 2,000 positions located across 36 states, DC, and Puerto Rico. These positions are hosted by hundreds of organizations advancing clean energy, conservation, and climate resilience. The website, which is launching in its beta form, will be regularly updated with new American Climate Corps positions. Its goal is to make it easy for any American to find work tackling the climate crisis while gaining the skills necessary for the clean energy and climate resilience workforce of the future. The first class of the American Climate Corps will be deployed to communities across the country in June 2024.

The Biden-Harris Administration is also announcing a new partnership with the North America’s Building Trades Unions’ nonprofit partner TradesFutures. Beginning this summer, every American Climate Corps member will have access to TradesFutures’ industry leading apprenticeship readiness curriculum during their term of service in the American Climate Corps, providing members with the opportunity to be trained in the foundational skills necessary for careers in the clean energy and climate resilience economy and putting them on a pathway to good paying, union jobs.

Many American Climate Corps members will also have access to a streamlined pathway into federal service after a recent update to modernize the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s Pathways Programs. The update will expand applicant eligibility for the Recent Graduates program to include individuals who have completed qualifying career or technical education service within designated American Climate Corps programs.

Today, three states – Vermont, New Mexico, and Illinois – are launching new state-based climate corps programs, building on 10 states that have already launched successful climate corps programs, demonstrating the power of skills-based training as a tool to expand pathways into good-paying jobs. These states will work with the American Climate Corps as implementing partners to ensure young people across the country are serving their communities, while participating in paid opportunities and working on projects to tackle climate change.

Additionally, beginning as a collaboration between the Department of the Interior, the Energy Communities Interagency Working Group, and AmeriCorps VISTA, a new interagency public private partnership – Energy Communities AmeriCorps – will place American Climate Corps members in priority energy communities across the country. The program will help support community-led projects, including environmental remediation, in the places that have powered our nation for generations.

Conserving America’s Lands, Waters, and Wildlife

These announcements come on the heels of a series of major conservation actions by the Biden-Harris Administration. Just last week, the Department of the Interior published a final rule to maximize protections of significant surface resources such as irreplaceable wildlife habitat for caribou and migratory birds on more than 13 million acres in the western Arctic while supporting subsistence uses and needs of Alaska Native communities. This action brings the number of acres of America’s lands and waters conserved under President Biden to 41 million. Additionally, the Interior Department released a final environmental analysis last week recommending denial of a right of way for the Ambler Road project; the proposed road, which would cross more than 200 miles of pristine lands, would have significant impacts on caribou and other subsistence resources upon which more than 60 Alaska Native communities rely.

In addition to these landmark conservation announcements in Alaska, the Interior Department released a rule to help guide the balanced management of all 245 million acres of America’s public lands that are overseen by the Bureau of Land Management. The rule will help to ensure the BLM continues to protect land health while managing other uses of public lands, such as clean energy development and outdoor recreation.

Throughout Earth Week, the Biden-Harris Administration will announce additional actions to build a stronger, healthier future for all: Tuesday will focus on helping ensure clean water for all communities; Wednesday will focus on accelerating America’s clean transportation future; Thursday will focus on steps to cut pollution from the power sector while strengthening America’s electricity grid; and Friday will focus on providing cleaner air and healthier schools for all children.

Biden-Harris Administration’s Top Climate Accomplishments

Deploying Clean, Affordable Electricity and Strengthening America’s Power Grid – 
President Biden has secured unprecedented investments in a clean power sector, unleashing a boom in American solar, wind, battery storage, and other clean energy technologies that are creating good-paying jobs and saving families money on utility bills. Through the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, U.S. solar generation is projected to increase up to eight-fold and wind generation is projected to triple by 2030. President Biden has jumpstarted the U.S. offshore wind industry, with 10 gigawatts of commercial-scale projects now approved, enough to power nearly four million homes, including two projects that are already delivering power to the grid and others with construction underway. The President’s Investing in America agenda is also supporting transmission buildout and other power grid upgrades, deployment of distributed energy resources in disadvantaged communities, investments in clean electricity across rural America, and American manufacturing of clean energy technologies – all in pursuit of the President’s goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035. Through the President’s Federal Sustainability Plan, the U.S. Government is leading by example and has already signed agreements to provide federal facilities in 18 states with 100% carbon pollution-free electricity by 2030.

And thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, clean energy project developers get access to expanded tax incentives if they pay workers prevailing wages and employ registered apprentices, helping make more clean energy jobs good-paying and union jobs.

Bolstering Climate Resilience and Adaptation – President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is building communities that are not only resilient to the impacts of the climate crisis, but also safer, more equitable, and economically stronger. To support this vision, the President secured more than $50 billion for climate resilience and adaptation through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act and released the first ever National Climate Resilience Framework. The President’s investments are upgrading aging roads and bridges, including critical evacuation routes, providing tax credits for families to weatherize their homes, restoring critical waterways, forests, and urban greenspaces, supporting resilient and climate-smart agriculture, bolstering water infrastructure and drought resilience across the American West, protecting federal assets from future flood riskmodernizing our electric grid, and funding research to develop the latest energy-storage technologies here in America.

Accelerating a Clean Transportation Future – President Biden is taking a whole-of-government approach to position the U.S. as a global leader in innovative and sustainable transportation.  The Administration’s National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization is a landmark strategy for cutting all greenhouse gas emissions from the U.S. transportation sector by 2050. The President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act invest tens of billions to decarbonize shippingtruckingtransitrail, and aviation, all while making communities more walkablebikeable, and connected. And through the President’s Federal Sustainability Plan, the federal government has ordered over 58,000 zero-emission vehicles and has begun installing more than 25,000 charging ports, adding to the 8,000 already in use across the government.

In addition, the President rallied automakers and autoworkers around a historic goal of having electric vehicles (EVs) account for at least 50% of new passenger vehicles sold by 2030. To support this goal while driving down consumer costs, the Administration secured tax credits that reduce the cost of new or used clean vehicles by thousands of dollars directly at the dealership and is investing $7.5 billion into building out a national EV charging network. Since President Biden took office, EV sales have quadrupled, prices have come down by more than 20%, the number of charging stations has grown by over 80% – putting us on track to deploy 500,000 chargers by 2026 – and the U.S. auto industry has added more than 100,000 jobs. Driven by Biden-Harris Administration policies, the sector is experiencing a manufacturing renaissance with more than $160 billion of investments in EVs, batteries, and their supply chains. And just last month, the Environmental Protection Agency finalized the strongest-ever vehicle emission standards for light, medium, and heavy-duty vehicles.

Cutting Energy Costs and Pollution at Homes, Schools, and in Communities – Reducing building emissions through efficiency improvements and electrification lowers energy bills for families, improves resiliency, and creates good-paying jobs. The President has created new programs to save American families on their energy bills through the Department of Energy’s Home Energy Rebates, the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Green and Resilient Retrofit Program, and Treasury’s Home Energy Tax Credits. The Biden-Harris Administration is also strengthening energy efficiency standards to save households and businesses money, with standards updated by DOE for dozens of appliances expected to provide nearly $1 trillion in consumer savings over 30 years, while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2.5 billion metric tons – equivalent to the emissions of 18 million gas-powered cars over 30 years. By invoking emergency authority, the President is expanding domestic heat pump manufacturing, which will cut the costs of heat pumps. To ensure that the 10 million new homes that will be built by 2030 are efficient and resilient, President Biden’s National Initiative to Advance Building Codes is accelerating adoption of modern building codes that protect people from extreme-weather events and help contribute to avoiding an estimated $1.6 billion a year in damages.

Revitalizing American Manufacturing for the Clean Economy – President Biden’s Investing in America agenda has helped catalyze historic manufacturing growth, with factories opening across the nation. To date, the private sector has announced nearly $700 billion in investments in manufacturing and clean energy. The President’s agenda is helping to make U.S. manufacturing the cleanest and most competitive in the world. The Inflation Reduction Act is investing more than $6 billion to slash climate pollution and support worker and community health at U.S. factories producing the steel, aluminum, cement, and other materials that form the backbone of our economy. To further support U.S. industrial competitiveness, the Biden Administration’s landmark Buy Clean initiative is leveraging the government’s sway as the largest purchaser on Earth to spur demand for low-emissions manufacturing and construction products.

Repowering EnergyCommunities – The Biden-Harris Administration is deploying programs to build capacity and spur economic development in the communities that powered our nation for generations, such as the clean manufacturing investments in the Qualifying Advanced Energy Project Credit (48C) Program and DOE’s Advanced Energy Manufacturing and Recycling Grants Program, in addition to ARC’s Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization (POWER) Initiative and EDA’s Assistance to Energy Transition Communities. In addition, new bonus tax credits in President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act are incentivizing clean energy companies to expand access to good-paying jobs in energy communities across the nation.

Advancing Environmental Justice –  Since Day One, the Biden-Harris Administration has prioritized a whole-of-government approach to environmental justice. The President signed a historic Executive Order that calls on the federal government to bring clean energy and healthy environments to all and mitigate harm to those who have suffered from pollution and environmental burdens like climate change. Through the Justice40 Initiative, over 500 programs across 19 federal agencies are being reimagined and transformed to maximize the benefits of President Biden’s unprecedented investments – from clean energy projects to floodwater protections to wastewater infrastructure – to communities that need them most. At the same time, the Administration is taking unprecedented action to protect communities from PFAS pollutionaccelerate Superfund and brownfield cleanupstighten standards for hazardous air pollutants, and enhance air quality enforcement.

Delivering Clean Water and Replacing Lead Pipes – President Biden and Vice President Harris are fighting to ensure a future where every American has access to clean, safe water. The President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law invests over $50 billion in upgrading the nation’s water infrastructure – the largest investment in clean water in American history. This funding is going towards expanding access to clean drinking water, replacing lead pipes, improving wastewater and sanitation infrastructure, and removing PFAS pollution in waterPresident Biden has also made a historic commitment to replace every toxic lead pipe in the country within a decade, protecting families from lead poisoning that can irreversibly harm brain development in children. Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency issued proposed improvements to the Lead and Copper Rule that would require water systems to rapidly replace lead service lines.

Conserving our Lands and Waters –The Biden-Harris Administration has taken historic action to conserve and restore America’s lands and waters, including signing an Executive Order to set the first-ever national conservation goal to conserve at least 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030 through the America the Beautiful Initiative. Last week the Administration launched Conservation.gov and the American Conservation and Stewardship Atlas, a new website and data portal that will help connect people with information, tools, resources, and opportunities to support land and water conservation projects in communities across the country. The Administration has already protected more than 41 million acres of lands and waters, and President Biden is on track to conserve more lands and waters than any President in history. This includes establishing five new national monuments and restoring protections for three more; creating four new national wildlife refuges and expanding five more; protecting the Boundary Waters of Minnesota, the nation’s most visited wilderness area; safeguarding Bristol Bay in southwest Alaska; and withdrawing Chaco Canyon in New Mexico and Thompson Divide in Colorado from further oil and gas leasing to protect thousands of sacred sites and pristine lands.

To conserve and steward old growth forests, USDA announced a proposal to amend 128 forest land management plans to conserve and steward old-growth forest conditions on national forests and grasslands nationwide. This builds upon the Biden-Harris Administration’s protection of Tongass National Forest, the largest intact temperate rainforest in the world. The Administration is also taking continued action to protect and conserve our nation’s rivers and watersheds for the people and communities that depend on them, protecting the stability and sustainability of the Colorado River Basin in the face of an ongoing megadrought, and beyond. This includes taking historic action to restore healthy and abundant wild salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River Basin, part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s unprecedented commitment to honor the United States’ obligations to Tribal Nations.

Investing in Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry – President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is supporting America’s farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners, who play a critical role in addressing the climate crisis through the deployment of climate-smart practices and systems. Under the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA has supported 80,000 farms in implementing climate-smart practices on over 75 million acres. In Fiscal Year 2023, USDA made record investments in private lands conservation, totaling nearly $3 billion in financial assistance to producers.  Leveraging both climate impact and economic opportunities, the Administration is creating new market opportunities through the groundbreaking Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities and efforts that are part of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Grand Challenge.

Rallying Leaders of the World’s Largest Economies to Raise Global Climate Ambition –President Biden has restored America’s climate leadership at home and abroad. Under his leadership, the Administration is securing commitments from more than 155 countries to reduce methane emissions by at least 30 percent by 2030; successfully galvanizing other countries at COP28 to commit, for the first time, to transition away from unabated fossil fuels, stop building new unabated coal capacity globally, and triple renewable energy globally by 2030 and nuclear energy by 2050; launching a new Clean Energy Supply Chain Collaborative to work with international partners to diversify supply chains that are critical to a clean and secure energy transition; mobilizing other governments to follow the U.S. lead and commit to achieve net-zero government emissions by 2050 through a new Net-Zero Government Initiative; and becoming a world leader in innovative debt-for-nature swaps that have helped countries restructure over $2 billion in debt and unlock hundreds of millions of new financing for nature and climate.

FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Announces New Action to Implement Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, Expanding Firearm Background Checks to Fight Gun Crime

New Department of Justice final rule sets strong standard for gun sellers who have to get a license and conduct background checks. But President Biden called on Congress to enact universal background checks and finish the job. This fact sheet is provided by the White House: 

New York City protests for sensible gun regulation. New Department of Justice final rule sets strong standard for gun sellers who have to get a license and conduct background checks. But President Biden called on Congress to enact universal background checks and finish the job. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

The Biden-Harris Administration announced a new rule that will save lives by reducing the number of firearms sold without background checks. This final rule implements the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act’s expansion of firearm background checks—the only significant expansion of the background check requirement since then-Senator Biden helped shepherd the Brady Bill over the finish line in 1993. This action is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s strategy to stem the flow of illegally acquired firearms into our communities and hold accountable those who supply the firearms used in crime. 

“I’ve spent hours with families who’ve lost loved ones to gun violence,” President Joe Biden stated. “They all have the same message: ‘Do something.’ Today, my Administration is taking action to make sure fewer guns are sold without background checks. This is going to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and felons. And my Administration is going to continue to do everything we possibly can to save lives. Congress needs to finish the job and pass universal background checks legislation now.”
 
“Every year, thousands of unlicensed gun dealers sell tens of thousands of guns without a background check, including to buyers who would have failed one – domestic abusers, violent felons, and even children,” stated Vice President Kamala Harris. “This single gap in our federal background check system has caused unimaginable pain and suffering. Today, as the head of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, I am proud to say that all gun dealers must conduct background checks no matter where or how they sell.”
 
The federal gun background check system is one of the best tools we have to keep guns out of the hands of individuals prohibited from purchasing or possessing firearms, including domestic abusers and other violent criminals. But the loopholes in America’s background check laws have enabled domestic abusers, school shooters, violent criminals, and gun traffickers to illegally acquire firearms. Over the past 20 years, there have been numerous failed efforts to close these loopholes and expand background checks, including a bipartisan attempt in 1999 that followed the shooting at Columbine High School, and another bipartisan attempt in 2013 that followed the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
 
In 2022, President Biden accomplished what many had tried for the past 20 years—he succeeded in expanding background checks by signing into law the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. This law broadened the category of gun sellers required to become licensed dealers and run background checks. In 2023, President Biden signed an Executive Order to accelerate implementation of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, including by directing the Attorney General to move the U.S. as close to universal background checks as possible without additional legislation by clarifying the new Act. The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) final rule clarifies the type of conduct that requires a person to get a license to sell guns and to conduct background checks. By setting clear standards for when someone is dealing firearms, the rule provides the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) with proactive tools to enforce the law and keep our communities safe.
 
Background Check Loopholes Have Deadly Consequences
 
Since 1994, federal law has required federally licensed firearms dealers to run background checks prior to selling or transferring a weapon. These background checks have helped keep guns out of the hands of more than three million individuals who are prohibited from purchasing or possessing firearms. Despite the law, a growing number of unlicensed sellers continue to sell firearms for profit to complete strangers they meet at gun shows and online marketplaces, which has been a critical gap in the background check laws.
 
For the past 30 years, individuals who could not pass a background check sought out unlicensed sellers in order to evade the background check system. One investigation found that 1 in 9 people who respond to online ads from unlicensed sellers would fail a background check. Tragic consequences of this unlawful conduct include: 

  • In 1999, the school shooters from the Columbine High School shooting were both under 18 and too young to purchase firearms legally. The shooters had their acquaintance purchase firearms for them at a gun show through an unlicensed seller to avoid a background check.
  • In 2012, a domestic abuser was barred from possessing firearms following a restraining order taken out by his estranged wife. The day before the abuser killed his wife and two others, and injuring four at the Azana Salon in Wisconsin, he purchased a gun from an unlicensed seller he met online without a background check.
  • In 2019, a man shot and killed seven people and wounded dozens more after a multiple-location shooting in Midland and Odessa, Texas. The shooter had previously tried to purchase a gun from a sporting goods store but was stopped by a background check because of his mental health history. He was ultimately able to purchase an AR-15 assault-style rifle without a background check from an unlicensed seller he met online.

Unlicensed dealers who do not conduct background checks are also the largest source of firearms that are illegally trafficked into our communities. In an assessment of its gun trafficking investigations from 2017 to 2021, ATF identified sales by unlicensed dealers as the most frequently used gun trafficking channel. Moreover, unlicensed dealers were the source of more than half of the firearms identified as having been trafficked during the five-year study period—a total of more than 68,000 illegally trafficked firearms.


Final Rule Implements New Law, Expanding Background Check Requirement to Tens of Thousands of Gun Sales


The Department of Justice’s final rule implements the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act—the largest expansion of background checks since the Brady Bill became law.
The final rule makes clear when a person needs to become a licensed dealer and run background checks, and gives the Department of Justice additional tools to crack down on individuals illegally selling guns without background checks. Specifically, the final rule:

  • Lists the types of commercial activity indicating that a person must become a licensed dealer and run background checks, absent evidence showing they are in fact not engaged in the business of firearms dealing. For example, if a person is repetitively selling guns of the same or similar make and model within one year of their purchase, they are supposed to become a licensed dealer. If a person repetitively sells firearms within thirty days of purchasing those firearms, or selling firearms and tells potential buyers that they can acquire additional firearms for that buyer to purchase, the seller is supposed to become a licensed dealer.
  • States that the gun show or online sale loopholes do not exist. If you are conducting business that in a brick-and-mortar store would require you to become a licensed dealer, you have to become a licensed dealer and run background checks. It does not matter whether you are dealing firearms at a gun show, online, in your home, in the trunk of a car, at a flea market, or anywhere else—you must obtain a license and run background checks results. Evidence that a person placed ads online or reserved a table at a gun show shows that the person is intending to profit from the sale.
  • Prevents people from evading the licensing and background check requirements by claiming that they are just selling a few guns. The final rule clarifies that even a single firearm transaction may be sufficient to require a license, if there is other behavior to suggest commercial activity. For example, a person selling just one gun and then saying to others they are willing and able to purchase more firearms for resale may be required to obtain a license and run background checks.
  • Prevents people from falsely claiming that guns are part of a personal collection in an attempt to evade the law. The statute explicitly states that making occasional sales of a firearm from a personal collection or liquidating collection does not require a federal firearms license or background checks. However, people have evaded the background check requirement by falsely claiming they are selling their personal collection. The final rule makes clear that a personal collection of firearms is limited to collections acquired for specific reasons like study; comparison; exhibition; or for a hobby, like hunting or sport shooting. A bona fide personal collection is not the same as business inventory.
  • Closes the so-called firesale loophole. Gun dealers who have had their licenses revoked have sometimes then sold their former business inventory without running background checks. The final rule makes clear that a business inventory may not be transferred to a person’s personal collection after a license is revoked. Instead, a business could dispose of this inventory through another licensed seller who runs background checks.


There are over 80,000 licensed gun dealers in America. The Department of Justice estimates that there are over 20,000 unlicensed sellers who are selling firearms through online advertisements, gun shows, and other means. These unlicensed sellers should be licensed under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and the new rule, and therefore conducting background checks. An alternative estimate based on survey data estimates that the new rule could affect gun sales being made by over 80,000 individuals. Legal limitations on tracking firearms make such estimates difficult to quantify.
 
Final Rule Builds on the Biden-Harris Administration’s Commitment to Stopping the Illegal Flow of Guns
 
The Biden-Harris Administration has deployed a historic effort to partner with state and local law enforcement and keep communities safe by addressing the illegal sources of guns. The strategy is focused not just on the person who pulled the trigger of a firearm, but also on all of the links in the chain that led to the firearm being in the wrong hands, including the gun trafficker, the source of the gun trafficker’s firearms, rogue gun dealers who are willfully violating the law, and ghost gun manufacturers. Key Administration actions to stop the illegal flow of guns into our communities include:

  • Gun Trafficking Law Enforcement:  In 2021, the Justice Department launched five new law enforcement strike forces focused on addressing significant firearms trafficking corridors that have diverted guns to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, the Bay Area, and Washington, D.C. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act also enacted the first ever federal gun trafficking law and federal straw purchasing law. The new gun trafficking law has been used to charge more than 300 people and led to the seizure of over 1,500 firearms.
  • Cracking Down on Rogue Gun Dealers:  The Justice Department enacted a new policy to maximize the efficacy of ATF resources to crack down on rogue gun dealers violating our laws and underscored zero tolerance for willful violations of the law by federally licensed firearms dealers that put public safety at risk. The new ATF inspection policies have led to 245 license revocations over the past two years, which is the highest two-year total in nearly twenty years.
  • Stopping Gun Manufacturers Illegally Selling Ghost Guns:  The Justice Department issued a final rule to rein in the proliferation of ghost guns, which are unserialized, privately made firearms that are increasingly being recovered at crime scenes. According to ATF, the recovery of ghost guns by law enforcement increased 1,083 percent between 2017 and 2021. The Biden-Harris Administration cracked down on ghost guns by making clear that businesses manufacturing the most accessible ghost guns, including “buy-build-shoot” kits and certain polymer handgun frames (including certain Polymer80 handgun frames) must comply with federal firearm laws requiring background checks, a federal license, and markings, such as serial numbers.
  • Senate Confirmed ATF Director: President Biden secured the confirmation of ATF Director Steve Dettelbach, the first permanent ATF Director in over seven years to lead the agency tasked with enforcing our nation’s gun laws.
  • Crime Gun Intelligence Centers: ATF works with state and local law enforcement to establish crime gun intelligence centers, which uses the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network (NIBIN) and crime gun tracing to provide investigative leads to solve shootings and identify gun trafficking channels.
  • New Analysis on Gun Trafficking: In 2021, President Biden announced that the ATF would publish the first gun trafficking analysis in twenty years. ATF has published three volumes, with the most recent volume showing that the most frequent type of trafficking channel identified in ATF gun trafficking investigations was unlicensed firearms dealing by private persons at 40.7 percent. These investigations accounted for over half of the firearms identified as trafficked in ATF investigations. The second most frequent trafficking channel was straw purchasers.

Call for Congress to Act
 
While the Biden-Harris Administration is moving as close as possible to universal background checks without additional legislation, President Biden and Vice President Harris continue to call on Congress to enact universal background checks and finish the job.
 
The President and Vice President also continue to call on Congress to increase funding for the ATF so the agency can continue its life-saving work to stop the flow of illegal firearms into our communities. The President requested $2 billion for ATF as part of his FY 25 budget request.

FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Takes Critical Action to Protect Communities from PFAS Pollution in Drinking Water

The EPA announced  first-ever national standard to address PFAS in drinking water, delivers an additional $1 billion through President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda to combat PFAS pollution. This fact sheet is provided by the White House:
 

The 8,315 acre Ashokan Reservoir in the Catskills is a major component of the New York City Water supply. The EPA announced first-ever national standard to address PFAS in drinking water, delivers an additional $1 billion through President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda to combat PFAS pollution. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

President Biden believes every community has the right to clean, safe drinking water, free of pollutants that harm people’s health and wellbeing. That is why the President launched a comprehensive action plan and provided billions in funding to protect communities from toxic “forever chemicals” that are linked to a range of severe health problems, including cancers, liver and heart damage, and developmental impacts in children. Found in drinking water, soil, air, and our food supply, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) persist in the environment for long periods of time, posing a serious health threat across rural, suburban, and urban areas.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the first-ever national legally enforceable drinking water standard for PFASwhich will protect 100 million people from PFAS exposureprevent tens of thousands of serious illnesses, and save lives. This action complements the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to combatting PFAS pollution and delivering clean water.

President Biden has secured historic levels of funding to meet this new standard. The Biden-Harris Administration also announced an additional $1 billion through President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to help every state and territory fund PFAS detection and treatment systems to meet the new standard. This funding is part of the $9 billion in dedicated funding through the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to address PFAS and other emerging contaminants in drinking water – the largest-ever investment in tackling PFAS pollution. An additional $12 billion in funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law supports general drinking water investments, including PFAS treatment. The investments are part of the Justice40 Initiative, which aims to ensure that 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities.

These actions will help tackle PFAS pollution that has devastated communities like Oakdale, outside of St. Paul, Minnesota, where decades of PFAS-containing waste dumped by a chemical plant has contaminated the community’s drinking water. In this area, cancer was found to be a far more likely cause of death in children than in neighboring areas. The funding announced today will build on funding from the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that is already helping communities address PFAS contamination, including a $33 million award for Tucson, Arizona to treat its PFAS-contaminated drinking water wells.

This funding also builds on President Biden’s action plan to address PFAS pollution, safeguard public health, and advance environmental justice – all while advancing the Biden Cancer Moonshot goal of cutting the cancer death rate by at least half by 2047 and preventing cancer before it starts by protecting communities from known risks associated with PFAS exposure.

As the first-ever Safe Drinking Water Act standard for PFAS – and the first for any new contaminants since 1996 – this rule sets health safeguards and will require public water systems to monitor and reduce the levels of PFAS in our nation’s drinking water, and notify the public of any exceedances of those levels. The rule sets drinking water limits for five individual PFAS, including the most frequently found PFOA and PFOS. Because PFAS can often be found together in mixtures, EPA is also setting a limit for any combination of four PFAS, including GenX Chemicals. This standard will reduce PFAS exposure in our drinking water to the lowest levels that are feasible for effective nationwide implementation.

These announcements advance President Biden’s broader commitment to deliver clean water for every American. The President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law invests over $50 billion to upgrade water infrastructure – the largest investment in clean water in American history. This includes a historic $15 billion to replace toxic lead pipes and protect children from brain damage, as part of President Biden’s goal of replacing every lead pipe in the country within a decade.

Recent Federal Actions to Protect Communities from PFAS

Under President Biden’s leadership, nearly two dozen federal agencies and offices have made systematic and substantive progress to safeguard public health and protect the environment from PFAS in drinking water and beyond. This work is coordinated by the White House Council on Environmental Quality, which leads the Interagency Policy Committee on PFAS. Other new actions the Biden-Harris Administration has advanced to combat PFAS pollution over the past year include:

Protecting Firefighters from PFAS: The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to protecting firefighters from the harmful effects of PFAS contained in fire suppressing agents and firefighter gear. The Department of Defense is offering PFAS blood tests to military firefighters. The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s U.S. Fire Administration is working to reduce PFAS exposure and promoting access to early cancer screenings and participation in the National Firefighter Registry for Cancer led by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health as part of President Biden’s mission to end cancer as we know it.

Reducing PFAS in Fire Suppressants: The Department of Defense (DoD) qualified three fluorine-free foams to replace fluorinated Aqueous Film Forming Foam for shore-based firefighting activities at military installations, which the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has authorized for civilian airports. The FAA is assisting airports to transition to these new foams, and funding foam testing systems for airports that prevent environmental discharge. These changes will reduce the release of PFAS in the environment and protect the health of firefighters and local communities.

Supporting Healthcare Providers: The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released the PFAS: Information for Clinicians resource guide. This information gives clinicians up-to-date resources and information they need to help patients with questions and concerns about PFAS exposure and health effects.

Phasing Out PFAS in Food Packaging: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced the completion of the voluntary market phase-out of PFAS used on paper and paperboard food packaging, eliminating the primary source of dietary exposure to PFAS. FDA can now also test for 30 PFAS in a variety of foods to further protect people from dietary PFAS exposure.

Testing for and Cleaning Up PFAS Pollution: EPA continues to take key actions to address PFAS. For example, EPA is gathering data on 29 PFAS in the nation’s drinking water systems has collaborated with DoD to develop a method to test for 40 PFAS in various media including biosolids, groundwater, and fish tissue. EPA also updated its interim PFAS disposal and destruction guidance and has released a new method to test for 30 volatile fluorine-containing compounds in air including potential products of incomplete combustion of PFAS. DoD recently identified 40 installations where interim cleanup actions to prevent further PFAS migration are underway or will start in FY2024. These actions will address PFAS in groundwater to protect public health and the environment.  

Reducing PFAS in Federal Procurement: EPA and the U.S. General Services Administration announced this week that custodial contracts for federal buildings will now only use cleaning products certified to ecolabels such as EPA’s Safer Choice and certain Green Seal standards, thereby avoiding products that contain intentionally added PFAS. This shift will protect the environment, federal custodial workers, other federal employees, and those visiting government buildings.

Biden-Harris Administration Announces Historic $20 Billion in Awards to Expand Access to Clean Energy and Climate Solutions and Lower Energy Costs

First-of-its-kind national network to fund tens of thousands of climate and clean energy projects across America, especially in communities historically left behind and overburdened by pollution

Climate United Fund’s program will focus on investing in harder-to-reach market segments like consumers, small businesses, small farms, community facilities, and schools—with at least 60% of its investments in low-income and disadvantaged communities, 20% in rural communities, and 10% in Tribal communities. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com


Vice President Kamala Harris and EPA Administrator Michael Regan announced s $20 billion in awards to stand up a national financing network that will fund tens of thousands of climate and clean energy projects across the country, especially in low-income and disadvantaged communities, as part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda.

This investment is part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a first-of-its-kind and national-scale $27 billion program funded through President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act to combat the climate crisis by catalyzing public and private capital for projects that slash harmful climate pollution, improve air quality, lower energy costs, and create good-paying jobs. This program will ensure communities across the country have access to the capital they need to participate in and benefit from a cleaner, more sustainable economy.
 
Vice President Kamala Harris and EPA Administrator Michael Regan were joined by Governor Roy Cooper, Mayor Vi Lyles, and Congresswoman Alma Adams in Charlotte, North Carolina to announce the selections under these two grant competitions.
 
This historic investment will support a wide range of climate and clean energy projects, including distributed clean power generation and storage, net-zero retrofits of homes and small businesses, and zero-emission transportation, all of which can lower energy costs for families and improve housing affordability while tackling the climate crisis. Collectively, the selected applicants have committed to reducing or avoiding up to 40 million metric tons of carbon pollution annually over the next seven years, contributing toward the Biden-Harris Administration’s historic climate goals. In addition, selectees plan to mobilize almost $7 of private capital for every $1 of federal fundsapproximately $150 billion total—ensuring that today’s awards will have a catalytic, ongoing effect on the deployment of climate and clean energy technologies at scale, particularly in underserved communities.
 
The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Program advances the Biden-Harris Administration’s Justice40 Initiative, which sets the goal that 40% of the overall benefits from certain federal climate, clean energy, and other investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution. At least 70% of the funds announced today—over $14 billion of capital—will be invested in low-income and disadvantaged communities, including historic energy communities that have powered our nation for over a century, communities with environmental justice concerns, communities of color, low-income communities, rural communities, Tribal communities, and more. This makes the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund the single largest non-tax investment within the Inflation Reduction Act to build a clean energy economy while benefiting communities historically left behind.
 
Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress are already attempting to roll back these historic investments. Last month, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1023, which would repeal the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. On March 19, President Biden issued a Statement of Administration Policy with his intent to veto that bill if it were to pass the Senate and come to his desk.
 
Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund Selectees
 
The $20 billion in awards announced today will be deployed through eight selected applicants across two separate and complementary programs under EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund—the $14 billion National Clean Investment Fund (NCIF) and the $6 billion Clean Communities Investment Accelerator (CCIA). Together, the two programs will create a first-of-its-kind national network of mission-driven, community-led financial institutions that will finance climate and clean energy projects across the country, especially in low-income and disadvantaged communities.
 
Under the $14 billion National Clean Investment Fund (NCIF), selected applicants will partner with the private sector, community organizations, and others to provide accessible, affordable financing for new clean technology projects nationwide. While EPA required that at least 40 percent of NCIF funds flow to low-income and disadvantaged communities, each selected applicant significantly surpassed that requirement. Therefore, almost 60 percent of NCIF funds will flow to the communities that need it most. The three NCIF selectees are:
 

  • Climate United Fund ($6.97 billion award), a nonprofit formed by Calvert Impact to partner with two U.S. Treasury-certified Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), Self-Help Ventures Fund and Community Preservation Corporation. Together, these three nonprofit financial institutions bring a decades-long track record of successfully raising and deploying $30 billion in capital with a focus on low-income and disadvantaged communities. Climate United Fund’s program will focus on investing in harder-to-reach market segments like consumers, small businesses, small farms, community facilities, and schools—with at least 60% of its investments in low-income and disadvantaged communities, 20% in rural communities, and 10% in Tribal communities.
     
  • Coalition for Green Capital ($5 billion award), a nonprofit with almost 15 years of experience helping establish and work with dozens of state, local, and nonprofit green banks that have already catalyzed $20 billion into qualified projects—and that have a pipeline of $30 billion of demand for green bank capital that could be coupled with more than twice that in private investment. The Coalition for Green Capital’s program will have particular emphasis on public-private investing and will leverage the existing and growing national network of green banks as a key distribution channel for investment—with at least 50% of investments in low-income and disadvantaged communities.
     
  • Power Forward Communities ($2 billion award), a nonprofit coalition formed by five of the country’s most trusted housing, climate, and community investment groups that is dedicated to decarbonizing and transforming American housing to save homeowners and renters money, reinvest in communities, and tackle the climate crisis. The coalition members—Enterprise Community Partners, LISC (Local Initiatives Support Corporation), Rewiring America, Habitat for Humanity, and United Way—will draw on their decades of experience, which includes deploying over $100 billion in community-based initiatives and investments, to build and lead a national financing program providing customized and affordable solutions for single-family and multi-family housing owners and developers—with at least 75% of investments in low-income and disadvantaged communities.

 
Through the $6 billion Clean Communities Investment Accelerator (CCIA), selected applicants will establish hubs that provide funding and technical assistance to community lenders working to finance clean technology projects in low-income and disadvantaged communities—leading to near-term deployment of climate and clean energy projects while building the capacity of community lenders to finance projects at scale for years to come. 100 percent of CCIA funds will flow to low-income and disadvantaged communities. The five selectees of the CCIA are:

  • Opportunity Finance Network ($2.29 billion award), a ~40-year-old nonprofit CDFI Intermediary that provides capital and capacity building for a national network of 400+ community lenders—predominantly U.S. Treasury-certified CDFI Loan Funds—which collectively hold $42 billion in assets and serve all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and several U.S. territories.
     
  • Inclusiv ($1.87 billion award), a ~50-year-old nonprofit CDFI Intermediary that provides capital and capacity building for a national network of 900+ mission-driven, regulated credit unions—which include CDFIs and financial cooperativas in Puerto Rico—that collectively manage $330 billion in assets and serve 23 million individuals across the country.
     
  • Native CDFI Network ($400 million award), a nonprofit that serves as national voice and advocate for the 60+ U.S. Treasury-certified Native CDFIs, which have a presence in 27 states across rural reservation communities as well as urban communities and have a mission to address capital access challenges in Native communities.
     
  • Justice Climate Fund ($940 million award), a purpose-built nonprofit supported by an existing ecosystem of coalition members, a national network of more than 1,200 community lenders, and ImpactAssets—an experienced nonprofit with $3 billion under management—to provide responsible, clean energy-focused capital and capacity building to community lenders across the country.
     
  • Appalachian Community Capital ($500 million award), a nonprofit CDFI with a decade of experience working with community lenders in Appalachian communities, which is launching the Green Bank for Rural America to deliver clean capital and capacity building assistance to hundreds of community lenders working in coal, energy, underserved rural, and Tribal communities across the United States.

 
Expanding Access to Clean Energy
 
Today’s historic Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund announcement builds on a range of innovative tools and programs in President Biden’s Investing in America agenda that aim to empower the communities that can benefit most from new investments to take an active role in building the clean energy economy. These programs leverage a range of approaches to make it easier and more affordable for states, cities, Tribes, schools, nonprofit organizations, and businesses of all sizes to build, own, and benefit from cost-saving clean energy projects, invest in energy efficiency improvements, expand access to clean transportation, and participate fully in decisions that affect underserved communities and populations.
 
For example:

  • In March, the Treasury Department finalized rules for direct pay—a provision in the Inflation Reduction Act that enables, for the first time, tax-exempt entities like states, cities, Tribes, counties, territories, nonprofit organizations, public schools, hospitals, rural electric co-operatives, and more to access clean energy tax credits and fully participate in building and owning new clean energy projects. For example:
     
  • To meet its goal of 100% carbon free operations by 2030, the City of Madison, Wisconsin is planning to access $13 million via direct pay to support transitioning their municipal fleet to low and no-carbon vehicles, as well as for solar and geothermal energy projects.
     
  • The City of San Antonio, Texas is taking advantage of direct pay to build and own the largest municipal onsite solar project in Texas. This $30 million project will install roof top, parking, and park canopy solar photovoltaic systems at 42 city facilities to lower their energy costs and energy consumption and make progress toward their goal of achieving net-zero energy for all municipal buildings by 2040.
     
  • The Inflation Reduction Act’s transferability provision allows businesses to transfer all or a portion of certain clean energy tax credits to a third-party in exchange for cash, so that small businesses, start-ups, and other entities without sufficient tax liability may still take advantage of the credits. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has already registered more than 45,000 new projects seeking to benefit from this new tool, which is lowering financing costs for clean energy projects and helping accelerate the buildout of the clean energy economy.
     
  • The Low-Income Communities Bonus Credit program created by the Inflation Reduction Act promotes cost-saving clean energy investments in low-income communities, on Tribal lands, as part of affordable housing developments, and that benefit low-income households by providing a 10 to 20 percentage point bonus credit for up to 1.8 GW of small clean energy projects per year. In the first year of the program, the administration received more than 46,000 applications for allocations, signaling robust market demand to build projects serving low-income communities. The second year of the program will open for applications later this spring.
     
  • In March, the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office (LPO) offered its first conditional commitment through the Tribal Energy Financing Program, which was expanded and provided new loan authority by the Inflation Reduction Act to support tribal entities in building out energy infrastructure. LPO announced up to $72.8 million for a partial loan guarantee to finance the development of a solar-plus long-duration energy storage microgrid on the Tribal lands of the Viejas Band of the Kumeyaay Indians near Alpine, California. 
     
  • Last week, LPO offered its first conditional commitment through the Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment Program under Title 17 Clean Energy Financing Section 1706, first authorized and appropriated by the Inflation Reduction Act, to finance projects that retool, repower, repurpose, or replace energy infrastructure that has ceased operations or enable operating energy infrastructure to reduce pollution. These projects direct new investment in historical energy communities that have powered our nation for over a century. Last week’s offer of a conditional commitment of up to $1.52 billion for a loan guarantee to Holtec Palisades will finance the restoration and resumption of service of an 800-MW electric nuclear generating station in Covert Township, Michigan that closed in May 2022 and upgrade it to produce baseload clean power for decades to come. 
     
  • Last week, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Acting Secretary Todman traveled to Chicago to announce that the Department has now awarded more than half of the nearly $1 billion provided through the Inflation Reduction Act to make homes more energy-efficient, comfortable, and climate resilient for low-income Americans. The Green and Resilient Retrofit Program makes grants and loans to finance energy and climate renovations in HUD-assisted multifamily housing for low-income individuals, families, and seniors.
     
  • Since the start of the Biden-Harris Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has invested more than $1.8 billion through their Rural Energy for America Program, which provides guaranteed loan financing and grant funding for rural small businesses and agricultural producers to adopt clean energy and save money. President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act invests more than $2 billion to expand this program, and USDA just announced the latest tranche of over $120 million in awards for projects in 44 states last week.
     
  • In December 2023, EPA announced 11 grant makers to receive $600 million from the Inflation Reduction Act through the Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking Program to offer subgrants for environmental justice projects to local community-based organizations around the country. This new program is designed to make it easier for small community-based organizations to access federal environmental justice funding and responds to feedback about the need to reduce barriers to federal funds and improve the efficiency of the awards process to benefit underserved communities. 
     

In November 2023, EPA announced approximately $2 billion in funding available to support community-driven projects that deploy clean energy, strengthen climate resilience, and build capacity for communities to tackle environmental and climate justice challenges. The Community Change Grants Program is the single largest investment in environmental justice going directly to communities in history, and will advance collaborative efforts to achieve a healthier, safer, and more prosperous future for all. 

Biden Announces $7.4 Billion in Student Debt Cancellation for 277,000 More Americans, Pursuing Every Path Available to Cancel Student Debt

New debt cancellation for borrowers enrolled in SAVE, other Income-Driven Repayment plans, and Public Service Loan Forgiveness comes on the heels of President Biden announcing new plans that could benefit tens of millions of Americans. This latest round of debt cancellation means that $153 billion in student debt relief has been provided for 4.3 million Americans. New plans announced by Biden would cancel student debt for over 30 million when implemented. These state-by-state fact sheets have been provided by the White House:

New debt cancellation for borrowers enrolled in SAVE, other Income-Driven Repayment plans, and Public Service Loan Forgiveness comes on the heels of President Biden announcing new plans that could benefit tens of millions of Americans. This latest round of debt cancellation means that $153 billion in student debt relief has been provided for 4.3 million Americans. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

President Biden announced that 277,000 more Americans will get their student debt canceled, bringing the total debt relief approved by the Biden-Harris Administration to $153 billion for 4.3 million Americans through various actions. This latest round of debt cancellation comes on the heels of President Biden announcing new plans that, if implemented, would cancel student debt for over 30 million Americans when combined with actions the Administration has taken over the last three years. These announcements reinforce the President’s commitment to using every path available to deliver student debt relief to as many borrowers as possible through various actions.

The 277,000 Americans receiving this latest round of debt relief are borrowers enrolled in the SAVE Plan, other borrowers enrolled in Income-Driven Repayment plans, and borrowers receiving Public Service Loan Forgiveness. The Biden-Harris Administration fixed Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) and launched the SAVE Plan last year – the most affordable repayment plan ever. Already 8 million borrowers are enrolled in SAVE, 4.5 million of those borrowers have a monthly payment of $0, and over 1 million additional borrowers have a monthly payment of less than $100. And if borrowers took out low balances of loans, the SAVE Plan puts them on a faster path to debt relief after at least ten years of payments.

Since President Biden took office, his Administration has approved over $54 billion in debt cancellation for 1.3 million borrowers enrolled in income-driven repayment plans, including the new SAVE Plan. This builds on additional actions the Biden-Harris Administration has taken to cancel debt for nearly 900,000 public service workers, 1.3 million borrowers cheated by their schools or borrowers covered by related court settlements, and nearly 550,000 borrowers with a total and permanent disability, including many veterans.

While the Administration continues to cancel Americans’ student debt through improving existing forgiveness programs and through the SAVE Plan, the Biden-Harris Administration is also pursuing new plans that, if implemented, would cancel student debt for tens of millions more. Earlier this week, the President announced his Administration’s alternative path to debt cancellation in the wake of last year’s Supreme Court decision. Learn more about these plans at StudentAid.gov/DebtRelief.

State Fact Sheets:

FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Highlights Substantial Progress on the President’s Care Agenda During Month of Action on Care

President Biden was laid out how he is building a Care Economy on transformational investments in child care, home care, paid family and medical leave, tax cuts for workers and families, and other priorities, which are fully paid for by making the wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share in taxes. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

This fact sheet on the progress the Biden-Harris Administration has made on the President’s Care Agenda during this proclaimed Month of Action on Care and the comparison to the Republican agenda is from the White House:

During Care Workers Recognition Month, the Biden-Harris Administration is marking the progress we have made to make care more affordable for American families, support family caregivers, boost compensation and job quality for care workers, and expand care options. President Biden was joined by care workers and unions as he laid out how he is building on that progress with transformational investments in child care, home care, paid family and medical leave, tax cuts for workers and families, and other priorities, which are fully paid for by making the wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share in taxes. That is in sharp contrast with congressional Republicans, who would make devastating cuts to funding for care, healthcare, Social Security, and Medicare to pay for massive tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations.
 
The Need to Improve Care
 
Too many families and individuals struggle to access the affordable, high-quality care they need. The cost of child care is up 26% in the last decade and more than 200% over the past 30 years. For older adults and people with disabilities, long-term care costs are up 40% over the past decade. As a result, the cost of care is out of reach for many Americans. At the same time, care workers—who are disproportionately women of color—struggle to make ends meet, even as they care for others. Due to the low pay and the demanding nature of care work, turnover rates are high. In addition, at least 53 million Americans serve as family caregivers—including over 5 million caring for service members or veterans—and many face challenges due to the lack of support, training, and respite.
 
The President’s Plan to Lower Costs for Families for Care
 
The President has made child care, long-term care, family caregiving, and paid leave a core part of his domestic and economic agendas. He has referenced these issues in each of his State of the Union Addresses, and proposed transformative investments in each budget. The President’s most recent budget proposes the following:
 
Affordable, High-Quality Child Care and Universal Preschool
 
High-quality early childhood education improves the lives of both children and their parents. The President’s child care plan provides a lifeline to the parents of more than 16 million children by guaranteeing affordable, high-quality child care from birth until kindergarten for low- and middle-income working families. Right now, the average price of child care is nearly $11,000 a year, with low-income families paying as much as a third of their income for child care. Under the President’s plan, most families would pay $10 per day, saving the average family over $600 per child, per month. The budget also invests in free, voluntary, universal preschool for all of the nation’s 4-year-olds and charts a path to expand preschool to 3-year-olds. Together, these investments will make early care and education programs affordable and available where families live and work in communities across the country, increase wages for early childhood education workers, and strengthen the economy.
 
Child Tax 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.
 
Long-term Care and Family Caregiving
 
The President is committed to protecting older adults’ and people with disabilities’ health and dignity. His plan would invest in expanding Medicaid home and community-based services to help a larger number of older adults and people with disabilities receive care in their home or community, and promote better opportunities for home care workers and family caregivers. There has been substantial growth amongst the younger population under 65 with disabilities living in nursing homes. The percentage of individuals younger than 65 living in residential nursing facilities grew from 10.6 in 2000 to 16.2 in 2017. The President’s investments will help ensure that they can receive care in their own homes and communities. The President has also proposed substantial investments for family caregivers serving our nation’s heroes, including stipends and support services for family caregivers of eligible veterans.
 
A National Paid Family and Medical Leave Program
 
Many workers with caregiving responsibilities are forced to leave the workforce intermittently or permanently to take care of their loved ones. As of March 2022, only 24% of private sector workers in the United States had access to paid family leave through their employer and only 43% had access to short-term disability insurance through their employer. The President proposes a national, comprehensive paid family and medical leave program, administered by the Social Security Administration (SSA) to ensure that all workers can 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; or grieve the death of a loved one.  The vast majority of America’s workers do not have access to employer-provided paid family leave, including 73 percent of private sector workers. Among the lowest-paid workers, who are disproportionately women and workers of color, 94 percent lack access to paid family leave through their employers. Some people’s caregiving responsibilities are so demanding that under the current system they have to give up paid work entirely or retire early to take care of their loved ones.
 
The Biden-Harris Administration’s Historic Actions on Care
 
Since day one of the Administration, President Biden and Vice President Harris have been committed to improving the quality of and access to care while supporting care workers and family caregivers. The President’s American Rescue Plan (ARP) provided an historic $39 billion in child care relief funds to provide relief for child care providers and support for families to afford care. The ARP delivered $37 billion across all 50 states for activities and investments that enhance, expand, and strengthen home and community-based services and $145 million to help the National Family Caregiver Support Program deliver counseling, training, and short-term relief to family and other informal care providers. Moreover, over the past three years, the President has secured close to a 50% increase in federal child care assistance and a $1.5 billion increase in funding for Head Start. And in April 2023, President Biden signed an Executive Order on Increasing Access to High-Quality Care and Supporting Caregivers (Care EO) surrounded by people with disabilities, family caregivers, long-term care workers, early educators, veterans, and aging advocates. The EO was celebrated by leaders from across the country. Over the past year, agencies have made substantial progress implementing the Care EO. For example:  
 

  • The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Administration for Children & Families (ACF), finalized a rule that will reduce the cost of child care for more than 100,000 low-income working families and make sure that more than 140,000 child care providers are paid more fairly and on-time. It also proposed a rule that would boost Head Start teacher wages by $10,000, on average.
    • For child care providers serving families benefiting from federal child care assistance, HHS, through ACF, adopted a pay floor that will increase child care payments for nearly 47,000 center- and home-based child care providers.
    • HHS, through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, proposed rules to ensure that home care workers get a bigger share of Medicaid payments; and establish minimum staffing standards in nursing homes receiving Medicare and Medicaid funding.
    • The Department of Defense reduced the amounts that lower-earning Service members pay out of pocket for child care, lowering child care costs for the families of more than 32,000 children aged 0-12 enrolled in installation Child Development Programs. Military Families earning $45,000 would see a 34% decrease in the amount they pay for child care. This also builds on the President’s Executive Order to advance the economic security of military spouses, veterans, caregivers and survivors.
    • The Department of Veterans Affairs launched a pilot program, known as the Virtual Psychotherapy Program for Caregivers, to provide mental health counseling services to family caregivers caring for our nation’s heroes. The program successfully completed its pilot phase and is now a permanent program. Since October 2023, the program has provided over 4,937 psychotherapy sessions to family caregivers.

 
In addition to these actions, federal agencies have taken dozens of others over the past year to improve family caregiving, long-term care, and child care. A full list can be found here.
 
Republican Officials Want to Provide Massive Taxes to the Rich while Making Devastating Cuts to Programs Working Families Count On
 
President Biden is building our economy from the middle out and bottom up—an economy where we invest in all Americans to make sure the middle class has a fair shot and no one gets left behind.
 
House Republicans have a very different economic vision. Under the RSC budget, care would be on the cutting block. Their budget proposal translates to 264,600 fewer child care slots and 253,500 fewer high-quality Head Start slots. These investments are critical to giving children a strong start and making sure that families have the help they need to thrive.
 
Along with damaging cuts to care funding, House Republicans would slash Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and other supports that working families count on. House Republicans would make these devastating cuts to pay for another $5.5 trillion in tax cuts skewed to the wealthy and big corporations. Their budget would deliver windfall tax cuts to billionaires and their heirs, eliminate the minimum tax on billion-dollar corporations President Biden signed into law, make it easier for the wealthy and corporations to cheat on their taxes, and preserve policies that encourage corporations to move jobs and profits offshore—all while making it more difficult for families to afford child care and education.
 

Photo Highlights: Total Solar Eclipse Above Long Lake, in New York’s Adirondacks is Stellar

In the path of totality of the Solar Eclipse, April 8, 2024, at Long Lake, in New York State’s Adirondacks © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com.

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

With a huge swath of New York State in the path of totality for the April 8, 2024 Solar Eclipse, we headed to the Adirondacks, cleverly basing ourselves at The Lorca on Indian Lake, which was scheduled to have totality for two minutes, with a plan to drive 30 minutes further to Long Lake, which was scheduled for totality to last a full minute longer, 3 minutes, 1 second, beginning at 3:24 pm, where we based out of the historic (140 years!) Adirondack Hotel, right on the lake.

That proved fortuitous, because though totality spanned a 124-mile wide path stretching from Chautauqua-Allegheny to the majestic Niagara Falls in Greater Niagara, over the pristine Finger Lakes, mighty Adirondacks, and magical Thousand Islands-Seaway, and while Niagara Falls and Buffalo were scheduled to have totality for as much as four minutes, the weather clouded up for most of it. New York State won’t be in the path of totality again for 400 years.

Meanwhile, we had a magical three minutes of totality on Long Lake, starting exactly at 3:24 pm, experiencing the thrill of night-in-the-daytime where you could see stars, then the Diamond Ring, and hearing a dog howl along with everyone’s collective gasps. Then, only a few minutes after, the sun’s crescent started to reappear, but was hazy behind a thin cloud cover, making us appreciate the experience we had all the more.

Here are highlights of the stellar show:

In the path of totality of the Solar Eclipse, April 8, 2024, at Long Lake, in New York State’s Adirondacks © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com.
In the path of totality of the Solar Eclipse, April 8, 2024, at Long Lake, in New York State’s Adirondacks © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com.
In the path of totality of the Solar Eclipse, April 8, 2024, at Long Lake, in New York State’s Adirondacks © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com.
In the path of totality of the Solar Eclipse, April 8, 2024, at Long Lake, in New York State’s Adirondacks © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com.
In the path of totality of the Solar Eclipse, April 8, 2024, at Long Lake, in New York State’s Adirondacks © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com.
Day turns to night, stars can be seen, and the moon is a tiny dot in the crown of the sun’s corona, during totality of the Solar Eclipse, April 8, 2024, at Long Lake, in New York State’s Adirondacks © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com.
Day turns to night, stars can be seen, and the moon is a tiny dot in the crown of the sun’s corona, during totality of the Solar Eclipse, April 8, 2024, at Long Lake, in New York State’s Adirondacks © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com.
The Diamond Ring formation lasts mere seconds during totality of the Solar Eclipse, April 8, 2024, at Long Lake, in New York State’s Adirondacks © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com.
The moon is a tiny dot in the crown of the sun’s corona, during totality of the Solar Eclipse, April 8, 2024, at Long Lake, in New York State’s Adirondacks © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com.
The sun begins to reemerge as a crescent after totality, but soon, clouds make it hazy © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com.
Our family enjoys this once-in-a-lifetime experience of a Total Solar Eclipse in New York’s Adirondacks, on April 8, 2024
The Long Lake community gets set for the Total Solar Eclipse © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
 
Long Lake was a setting for Hudson River School painter Thomas Cole © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com.
The Adirondack Hotel was a fabulous base for watching the Total Eclipse © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com.
Staying over before and after the Total Solar Eclipse at The Lorca on Indian Lake avoided the traffic coming and going to the Adirondacks  © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com.

The next time you go:

It may be 400 years before a total solar eclipse returns to New York State, and this may have been a once-in-a-lifetime experience for millions, but there will be total solar eclipses coming up around the world. If you are now hooked on pursuing totality or if you regret missing out:

Prepare well in advance – even a year in advance. Research ideal locations based on path of totality and duration of totality (in North America, ranged from two to four minutes, so significant difference). Scout out locations and book hotel accommodations, travel to the extent possible even a year in advance for the best locations. (See: Fjords, Pharaohs or Koalas? Time to Plan for Your Next Eclipse).

Make sure you have solar glasses and necessary camera gear (solar filters, long-focus lens, ie 300 mm. Have TAPE to attach a paper solar filter to camera, as I used, if you don’t have the glass filter, check www.bhphotovideo.com). Practice in advance (the hardest part is switching from partial to total eclipse – you have to remove the solar filter and reset the manual settings). Review videos of techniques and get a list of suggested camera settings.

Go to the location at least the day before. Scout where you will be standing. Take sample photo of where sun will be at the time of the eclipse (usually one hour before and one hour after totality). Fill up gas tank, get supplies (food, water for next day).

Day of: download maps/directions (cell service may not be available). Get to the site EARLY to get parking and a position (set up your chair, so you can roam around, use restroom). Plan for extra traffic/time to get to site. Bring chair, camera, lenses, extra memory cards, SOLAR GLASSES, SOLAR FILTER, tripod, hat, sunglasses, jacket, book, charged cell phone, food, water.

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

FACT SHEET: 80% of House Republicans Propose Defunding COPS as President Biden Insists on Funding the Police

President Biden’s investment in community policing and violence prevention has resulted in significant drop in violent crime from the surging rates during the Trump Administration but Republicans, who constantly falsely hype crime rates and pretend to support “The Blue” (certainly not during the January 6 insurrection) are seeking to withdraw funding in the 2025 budget they are proposing. This fact sheet was provided by the White House: –Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Republicans including Nassau County’s Executive Bruce Blakeman love to rail against crime rates and pretend to “back the Blue”, but ignore the reality that President Biden’s investments in community policing and violence prevention have paid off with lower crime rates. Now Republicans, who make sure to surround themselves with police protection, are proposing to cut funding for law enforcement in the 2025 budget, while Biden is standing firm © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

President Biden has stood with law enforcement his entire career, and worked to ensure law enforcement serves all communities his entire career. And he has the results to show for it.
 
The President inherited a violent crime rate that surged under the prior administration. After taking office, President Biden immediately took action and signed the American Rescue Plan – which led to the largest federal investment in public safety in history, giving state and local governments resources to reduce crime and prevent violence. Even though leaders on the ground sided with the President, the Plan passed without a single Republican vote. 
 
The President also signed one of the most significant gun violence prevention reforms in 30 years, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which has helped keep guns out of the hands of individuals with felony convictions, and those who have a serious mental illness and are a danger to themselves or others.
 
These swift actions paid off. FBI 2023 data shows that the prior administration’s crime wave has turned around under President Biden, resulting in a record drop in crime.
 
In his State of the Union, President Biden described how cities across the country have used the American Rescue Plan to make historic investments in public safety and urged Congress to build on that progress, including by hiring over 100,000 new police officers accountable to the public, investing in mental health workers and community violence intervention programs across the country, and cracking down on gun crime.
 
But the Republican Study Committee – which speaks for 100% of House Republican leadership and 80% of its members – just released a dangerous plan that would defund law enforcement:
  

  • The Republican Study Committee is proposing defunding the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program on top of other efforts to undermine law enforcement. President Biden voted to create COPS while a Senator, and the COPS Hiring Program is one of the primary ways the federal government supports local law enforcement. Each year, communities seek funding they need to hire officers to engage in community policing and crime prevention, and during this Administration, nearly 500 communities have received awards that put more than 3,700 officers on the beat.
     
  • The Republican Study Committee budget would also gut the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and take steps that prioritize gun industry profits over the lives of the American people.
     
  • Numerous House Republicans also support abolishing the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). Although the Border Patrol Union endorses President Biden’s tough bipartisan border security deal, congressional Republicans are blocking it, to the detriment of law enforcement and the benefit of fentanyl traffickers.

 
By contrast, President Biden backs law enforcement and supports programs that reduce crime:
 

  • Through President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, more than 1,000 communities across the country have invested over $15 billion to keep their communities safe and prevent crime. These include investments to avoid cuts to police budgets, hire more police officers for safe, effective, and accountable community policing, ensure first responders have the equipment they need to do their jobs, and expand community violence intervention and prevention programs.
     
  • President Biden’s budget includes $1.2 billion over five years to launch a new Violent Crime Reduction and Prevention Fund.
     
  • The President’s budget also funds his Safer American Plan, including providing for hiring 100,000 additional police officers for effective, accountable community policing.
     

President Biden wants to deploy $17.7 billion for DOJ law enforcement, including $2.0 billion, an increase of over 30 percent since 2021, for the ATF.