Statements and Releases

Today, President Biden’s 235th life-tenured federal judicial nominee was confirmed. This marks the largest number of confirmations in a single term since the Carter administration. These highly qualified men and women—all committed to the rule of law and the Constitution—will serve the federal Judiciary for decades to come.
 
Dating back to his time leading the Senate Judiciary Committee, President Biden has made the confirmation of federal judges a top priority. During his four years in office, President Biden has transformed the federal bench and appointed over a quarter of all active judges, and helped to ensure that the Judiciary looks like the communities it serves.
 
The 235 confirmations include:

• One to the United States Supreme Court
• 45 to the nation’s courts of appeals
• 187 to the nation’s district courts
• Two to the United States Court of International Trade

President Biden has worked closely with Senators from both sides of the aisle to fill vacancies at the circuit and district level. He has achieved this milestone despite significant structural disadvantages, including the longest 50-50 Senate in history.

Importantly, President Biden has followed through on one of his earliest campaign promises—to put forward highly-qualified judges from underrepresented professional backgrounds and to instill confidence in the Judiciary by ensuring that federal judges reflect the nation as a whole. 

Professional Diversity

No President has done more to bring professional and experiential diversity to the federal bench than President Biden.

Not only did President Biden appoint the first former public defender to the United States Supreme Court, but he broke records across the board on professional diversity—appointing more than 45 public defenders, more than 25 civil rights lawyers, and at least 10 individuals who have represented workers.

President Biden is also proud to have put forward nominees who come from private legal practice, prosecutors’ offices, and a host of other legal backgrounds, including immigration law, municipal law, and plaintiff-side law. As a lifelong advocate for our men and women in uniform, veterans, and their families, President Biden is proud to have put forward judicial nominees who have served on active duty or in the reserves, in both legal and non-legal roles.

Demographic Diversity
President Biden has set records when it comes to the demographic diversity of his appointees. In doing so, he has helped to ensure that the Judiciary looks like the communities it serves—vital to instilling confidence in both judicial decision-making and outcomes—while refusing to sacrifice on ability or qualifications.

The 235 confirmations include:

• The first Black woman ever to serve on the United States Supreme Court.
• A record number of women, Black, Latino, AANHPI, Native American, Muslim-American, and LGBTQ judges.
• More Black women appointed to the circuit courts than every other presidential administration combined.

 
Impact  
 
Judges have an enormous impact on the everyday lives of Americans.
 
These men and women have the power to uphold basic rights or to roll them back. They hear cases that decide whether women have the freedom to make their own reproductive healthcare decisions; whether Americans have the freedom to cast their ballots; whether workers have the freedom to unionize and make a living wage for their families; and whether children have the freedom to breathe clean air and drink clean water.
 
Judges are also crucial to protecting against overreach and unconstitutional action by the Executive and Legislative Branches.
 
President Biden is proud of his record of appointments and grateful to the Senate for its partnership in reaching this historic achievement.

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Today, we reached a major milestone in our efforts to protect our Nation’s freedoms: the United States Senate confirmed the 235th federal judge during my presidency – marking the largest number of confirmations in a single term since the 1980s. This includes one Supreme Court Justice, 45 Circuit Court Judges, 187 District Court Judges, and two judges on the Court of International Trade.

These men and women represent the best of America. They are all highly qualified. And they have had distinguished legal, judicial, and academic careers.

When I ran for President, I promised to build a bench that looks like America and reflects the promise of our nation. And I’m proud I kept my commitment to bolstering confidence in judicial decision-making and outcomes.

The 235 confirmed judges include a record number of judges with backgrounds and experiences that have long been overlooked: advocates for civil rights, workers’ rights, immigrants’ rights, and more. I appointed the first former public defenders to sit on the Seventh and First Circuits. I have also put forth men and women who have been prosecutors and plaintiffs’ attorneys.

In addition, I appointed the most demographically diverse slate of judicial nominees ever. This includes: the first Black woman and public defender on the United States Supreme Court, and appointing more Black women to the Courts of Appeals than all previous administrations combined. I also appointed the first Hispanic-American judge to serve on the D.C. Circuit, and the first openly LGBTQ woman on any federal court of appeals; the first AANHPI judge on the Third and Seventh Circuits; the first Muslim-American judge to ever serve as a life-tenured judge; and the first Native Hawaiian woman to ever serve as a life-tenured judge.

And no matter who they are or where they come from, all of these appointees are supremely qualified to serve in the role of Judge, and remain committed to the rule of law and the Constitution.

We reached this milestone thanks to bipartisan support in the Senate, and as a result of the leadership of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin.

Judges matter. They shape the everyday lives of Americans, preserving our freedoms and defending our liberties. They hear cases and issue rulings on whether Americans can cast their ballots, whether workers can unionize and make a living wage for their families, and whether children can breathe clean air and drink clean water.

I am proud of the legacy I will leave with our Nation’s judges. And I am proud of those who have stepped forward and heeded the call to serve.

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A government shutdown heading into the holidays would mean service members and air traffic controllers go to work without pay, essential government services for hardworking Americans would be paused, and economic disruption would occur. 

Following an order by President-elect Trump, yesterday Republicans walked away from a bipartisan deal and threatened to shut down the government at the 11th hour in order to pave the way to provide tax breaks for billionaires. This revised legislation does not do that. 

While it does not include everything we sought, it includes disaster relief that the President requested for the communities recovering from the storm, eliminates the accelerated pathway to a tax cut for billionaires, and would ensure that the government can continue to operate at full capacity. President Biden supports moving this legislation forward and ensuring that the vital services the government provides for hardworking Americans – from issuing Social Security checks to processing benefits for veterans — can continue as well as to grant assistance for communities that were impacted by devastating hurricanes.

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Today’s report shows that PCE inflation has remained below 2.5% for four months in a row, while yesterday’s report showed GDP grew by 3.1% in the third quarter. Growth has been 3% per year on average since the beginning of 2021, higher than any other presidential term in the 21st century. Prices remain too high for working families, and we will keep fighting to lower costs for families on key items like housing, groceries, and health care.

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Today, my Administration is announcing student debt cancellation for another 55,000 public service workers, bringing the total number of individuals who have been approved for student debt relief under my Administration to nearly 5 million people through various actions. The public servants approved for debt cancellation today include teachers, nurses, service members, law enforcement officials, and other public service workers who have dedicated their lives to giving back to their communities and who are finally earning the relief they are entitled to under the law.

Over the last four years, we have made significant progress for students and borrowers – including securing the largest increase to the maximum Pell Grant award in over a decade; holding institutions accountable for taking advantage of students; and fixing broken student loan programs such as Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Income Driven Repayment.

From Day One of my Administration, I promised to make sure that higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity. Because of our actions, millions of people across the country now have the breathing room to start businesses, save for retirement, and pursue life plans they had to put on hold because of the burden of student loan debt.

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Republicans are doing the bidding of their billionaire benefactors at the expense of hardworking Americans. Republicans are breaking their word to support a bipartisan agreement that would lower prescription drug costs and make it harder to offshore jobs to China—and instead putting forward a bill that paves the way for tax breaks for billionaires while cutting critical programs working families count on, from Social Security to Head Start. President Biden supports the bipartisan agreement to keep the government open, help communities recovering from disasters, and lower costs—not this giveaway for billionaires that Republicans are proposing at the 11th hour.

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For decades, the United States has been a leader in combatting infectious diseases. During the 2022 global outbreak of clade II mpox, the Biden-Harris Administration mounted a robust response by making vaccines, tests, and treatment available to those at risk in the United States and abroad. Now, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is experiencing its largest mpox outbreak ever recorded, with more than 50,000 suspect cases in 2024. Multiple neighboring countries have confirmed their first ever mpox cases, and some are also experiencing widespread outbreaks. A handful of travel-related cases have also been recorded in countries outside the Africa region. As we face this outbreak in Central and Eastern Africa, the United States is again acting quickly to respond. At the UN General Assembly in September, President Biden announced that the United States is prepared to commit at least $500 million and to donate up to one million doses of mpox vaccines to support African countries in preventing and responding to this outbreak. We are delivering on that commitment, with two-thirds of our global mpox funding pledge fulfilled, and all of our pledged vaccine doses available now for countries that are ready to receive the doses.
 
The United States is also prepared to respond to clade I and clade II mpox cases domestically, with early detection and a robust testing landscape across the country, increased clinician education and community outreach, and widely available mpox vaccines in retail pharmacies and clinics. Travel-associated cases have been detected in Canada, Germany, India, Sweden, Thailand, and the United Kingdom. In November 2024, the United States also identified one case of clade Ib mpox in a California resident who had recently traveled to an affected country. No further domestic detections have occurred as of December 5, 2024, and the risk to the general public remains low.

Update on the United States’ Support for the Global Mpox Response
 
The Biden-Harris Administration is working closely with countries, as well as regional and global partners, to address the mpox outbreak in Central and Eastern Africa.
 
President Biden’s announcement of United States’ support to the global mpox response aligned with the United States’ longstanding partnership with countries around the world to prepare for health emergencies and to rapidly respond when they occur. To facilitate more effective global and regional collaboration on the mpox response, the United States has worked with partners, including the World Bank, the World Health Organization, and Brazil as G20 President, to transparently compile and share all pledges to support the mpox response, identifying resources that are currently available and remaining financing gaps. This information, captured in the WHO/World Bank Mpox Financial Tracking Mechanism (FTM), will help donors and response countries to more easily identify remaining gaps and sources of financing to fill those gaps. More than 90% of the financing needs for the response have been met.
 
Key Updates on U.S. Support to the Global Mpox Response: 

1. Delivering on Our Commitment to Vaccine Donations: The U.S. government is delivering on our commitment to ensure mpox vaccines get to those most at risk, including by making more than one million vaccine doses available for distribution in countries that are ready to receive them. Vaccine administration is underway using U.S.-donated vaccines. On November 6, WHO and Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) allocated the first 305,000 mpox vaccine doses from President Biden’s one million dose commitment to recipient countries via the Access and Allocation Mechanism (AAM). With support from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and its partners, these doses are being shipped as soon as recipient countries have accepted the offer of vaccines and confirmed their ability to receive, store, and use the vaccine to protect those at risk. The remaining 695,000 vaccine doses are also available for allocation through the AAM, and will be distributed by the United States as soon as impacted countries are ready to receive them. The U.S. Government has already delivered 50,000 mpox vaccines to Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and 10,000 mpox vaccines to Nigeria. Beyond donating vaccine doses, the United States is working with partner governments to get those vaccines to the people who need them most. For example, in DRC, the U.S. government is supporting risk communication and community engagement to raise awareness about mpox vaccination and help reach priority populations, and coordinating with PEPFAR and other programs to leverage existing service delivery channels to reach high-risk populations. 
   
2. Increasing Testing and Treatment Capacity: In addition to financial resources and vaccines, the United States has provided in-kind donations of more than 65,000 individual mpox tests to countries in the region, along with donations of other laboratory supplies and personal protective equipment. For example, in DRC the U.S. Government has trained 80 field epidemiologists working to detect cases, trace and monitor contacts, and increase community awareness of mpox. These epidemiologists are collecting and sending samples to labs for testing, and at the same time, training additional healthcare workers how to do this work. In Burundi, the U.S. government is working with partners to expand mpox treatment capacity at hospitals in the hardest-hit districts, enabling patients to receive the highest-quality clinical care, nutrition, and psychosocial support closer to home.
   
3. Delivering on Our Commitment of Financial Support to Mpox Preparedness and Response: The United States Government, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), are providing more than $57 million to directly support mpox-specific response activities, including disease surveillance, laboratory diagnostic supplies and testing, clinical case management, risk communication and community engagement, infection prevention and control, access to vaccines, and research. This funding is in addition to the more than $487 million in bilateral global health security (GHS) preparedness and response support provided by the United States to mpox-affected countries through USAID and CDC. Ongoing global health security investments protect the health and livelihoods of people living in other countries and prevent health emergencies from threatening the United States. The country-by-country breakdown of U.S. support to mpox preparedness and response is included in the WHO/World Bank Mpox Financial Tracking Mechanism.
   
4. Strengthening Global Health Security: The United States is working with more than 50 countries around the world – including most mpox-affected countries and those at-risk of an mpox outbreak – to build stronger global health security capacities, ensuring countries are better prepared to prevent, detect, and respond to health emergencies while protecting U.S. national and homeland security. These ongoing partnerships in mpox-affected countries were in place before the current outbreak, and have played a critical role in supporting the response, especially in the early days before mpox-specific response funding became available. Examples of how this U.S. global health security support has been used to prevent, detect, and respond to the mpox outbreak include:

1. In DRC, building on multi-year investments to strengthen laboratory capacity, the United States supported mpox laboratory capacity building and biosafety and biosurveillance training in provincial labs, enabling these labs to safely test for mpox. In addition, the U.S. Government supported the Ministry of Health to develop a national Mpox Risk Communication and Community Engagement Strategy, which was rapidly adapted for the clade I mpox outbreak.

1. When mpox cases were detected in Rwanda, U.S. Government-supported partners deployed epidemiologists to 10 high-risk districts to provide technical guidance to Public Health Emergency Management Committees and to train 17 Rapid Response Teams. The U.S. Government also supported procurement of test kits and provided training for over 12,600 frontline health workers across 20 districts in infection prevention and control, mpox screening, and case management.

1. When the mpox outbreak spread to Burundi, U.S. Government-supported partners immediately deployed a mobile laboratory to provide faster mpox testing. U.S. Government support for building mpox laboratory capacity continues in Burundi with the recent delivery of additional supplies and training and support to decentralize laboratory testing for mpox and improve the speed of laboratory confirmation.

1. The U.S. Government has partnered with countries in the region to help prepare for potential mpox cases before they occur, including training in surveillance, lab capacity, and risk communication activities. Last month, the Ministry of Health in Angola was facing a severe shortage of mpox testing kits. Without these essential supplies, the country would have had limited, if any, visibility into the size of the outbreak. U.S. Government representatives delivered diagnostic kits to assist in testing nearly 500 suspect mpox cases, helping to confirm the first mpox cases in the country. The U.S. Government is supporting Liberia’s mpox preparedness, including technical assistance for surveillance and laboratories as part of broader activities responding to zoonoses in Liberia. The U.S. Government is supporting Mozambique to develop an Mpox Contingency Preparedness and Response Plan, and supporting the Ministry of Health to conduct mpox outbreak simulation exercises for 11 provinces to help prepare for Mozambique’s potential first case.

1. Investing in Research to Advance Mpox Preparedness: U.S. Government research investments to advance mpox preparedness have been ongoing for decades. International researchers, including some from the U.S. Government, have identified three critical areas of research needed to support the mpox response: 1) reduce mpox transmission, 2) optimize mpox treatment to save lives, and 3) accelerate the development of mpox vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics. Recent U.S. Government investments in each of these areas include:

1. Reducing Mpox Transmission: Research partnerships between the United States Government and the Government of DRC led to the identification of the newly-emerged clade Ib mpox, which is driving the current regional and global spread of mpox. During the current outbreak, the U.S. Government is investing in research to: improve case detection, understand clade-specific transmission dynamics, identify at-risk populations, characterize mpox disease including length of viral shedding to inform vaccination strategies, as well as determine the most effective public health interventions to stop transmission. Before the current outbreak, U.S. Government investments and technical expertise led to the development of existing investigational antivirals and the JYNNEOS mpox vaccine which, when used broadly in the United States during the height of 2022 mpox outbreak, significantly reduced the spread of mpox and contributed to the drop in new cases reported from hundreds per day in 2022 to single digit figures over the last two years.

1. Optimizing Mpox Treatment to Save Lives: The U.S. Government is conducting research, in partnership with the Government of DRC, to understand how this disease affects adults, children, infants, and pregnant women, as well as the risk factors for severe disease. This knowledge is critical to improving standards of care and developing safe and effective post exposure prophylaxis. A U.S. Government and Government of DRC-supported randomized controlled trial (PALM 007) of TPOXX (an antiviral drug developed and approved to treat smallpox) in adults and children with clade I mpox found no evidence of faster clinical improvement in the TPOXX arm compared to the placebo arm. However, PALM 007 did find that optimized standard of care resulted in reduced mortality for adults and children with clade I mpox. These learnings are being applied to the current outbreak.

1. Accelerating the Development of Mpox Vaccines, Diagnostics, and Therapeutics: Currently, there are no licensed mpox vaccines for children and adolescents, who are disproportionately impacted by the current mpox outbreak in Africa. The U.S. Government study of the JYNNEOS mpox vaccine showed that adolescents in the U.S, ages 11-17 years, have similar immune responses to the vaccine as adults. This led to the accelerated emergency approval of JYNNEOS for adolescents by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and approval through WHO’s pre-qualification process. JYNNEOS has been available in the United States for individuals under 18 years through an Emergency Use Authorization issued by the FDA in August 2022. The U.S. Government is also investing in new mpox diagnostics and mpox therapeutics. For example, CDC is working on a new test to better differentiate mpox clade I from clade II that can be used by both public and commercial laboratories. To improve our current investigational therapeutic options, NIH and ASPR are supporting the development of new orthopoxvirus monoclonal antibody therapeutic products.

Key Updates on Domestic Preparedness for Mpox: The Biden-Harris Administration has led numerous efforts to prevent and prepare for clade I mpox in the United States:

1. Providing ongoing communication and education: In December 2023, the U.S. CDC issued a Health Alert Network (HAN) advisory to U.S. clinicians, public health departments, and partners. CDC has since issued multiple HAN Health Updates to further increase awareness of clade Ib mpox, its distinction from clade II mpox and the less common clade Ia, and to provide updated recommendations to prevent, detect, and treat both clades of mpox. Following the first case of clade I mpox diagnosed in the United States, CDC released an updated HAN advisory on November 18, 2024 and a Dear Clinicians letter on December 5, 2024 to promote the importance of mpox vaccination and increase mpox detection nationwide.

1. Assessing risk through modeling: Throughout the outbreak in Central and Eastern Africa, CDC has conducted modeling to assess the level of risk to the U.S. public. The risk to the general U.S. public remains low, and the risk to men who have sex with men (MSM) and people who have sex with MSM is low to moderate (updated November 18, 2024). CDC further modeled the risk of transmission of clade I mpox if introduced into MSM networks in the United States. Simulations of 50 U.S. counties identified that counties with lower population-level immunity had a greater chance of large or prolonged outbreak. CDC is applying these findings to target outreach for vaccination promotion efforts to counties at higher risk.

1. Strengthening surveillance: The United States monitors for the virus that causes mpox in wastewater samples, which can provide an early warning of mpox activity and community spread. In addition, aircraft wastewater samples are collected at select U.S. airports for early detection of mpox in the U.S. State and commercial laboratories have put in place a robust mpox diagnostic testing capacity for both clades, and the United States continues to work with public health partners to further increase domestic surveillance and diagnostic testing capacity.

1. Minimizing risk to travelers: CDC issued an updated Level 2 Travel Health Notice (THN) for travelers to Central and Eastern Africa recommending that travelers practice enhanced precautions and be aware of mpox exposure risks and symptoms. The THN also includes vaccination recommendations for travelers to affected countries who are eligible for vaccination.
   
2. Vaccination and treatment: During the 2022 mpox outbreak, the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), distributed more than one million vials of JYNNEOS mpox vaccine across the United States. Now, the JYNNEOS mpox vaccine is commercially available. Individuals interested in vaccination can consult CDC’s guidance and should contact their physician, local retail pharmacy, health department or community health center for mpox vaccine availability in their community. Clinicians should refer to CDC’s clinical considerations for use of vaccine to prevent mpox in both adults and children. The high standard of care in U.S. health care can greatly improve mpox outcomes relative to other parts of the world. Symptomatic individuals are highly encouraged to seek care for further evaluation and treatment if needed.

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Today, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. spoke with His Holiness Pope Francis to discuss efforts to advance peace around the world during the holiday season. The President thanked the Pope for his continued advocacy to alleviate global suffering, including his work to advance human rights and protect religious freedoms. President Biden also graciously accepted His Holiness Pope Francis’s invitation to visit the Vatican next month.

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President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. will travel to Rome, Italy from January 9 to 12 to meet separately with His Holiness Pope Francis, President of Italy Sergio Mattarella, and Prime Minister of Italy Giorgia Meloni. On January 10, President Biden will have an audience with the Pope and discuss efforts to advance peace around the world. He will also meet with Italy’s leaders to highlight the strength of the U.S.-Italy relationship, thank Prime Minister Meloni for her strong leadership of the G7 over the past year, and discuss important challenges facing the world. 

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Over the past four years, President Biden and Vice President Harris have taken action to ensure rural Americans do not have to leave their hometowns to find opportunity. One year ago, President Biden visited a family farm in Northfield, Minnesota to kick off the “Investing in Rural America” event series, spurring over 30 visits by Cabinet members and White House Senior Officials to rural communities across the country. The Biden-Harris Administration is investing in rural America to create opportunity for farmers, small business owners, families, and communities.

Investing in Rural American Infrastructure

The President’s Investing in America agenda is investing billions of dollars to revitalize and rebuild rural communities across the country – a generational investment in rural America. This funding also represents the single largest investment in Tribal infrastructure ever.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides $65 billion to ensure every American has access to affordable, reliable high-speed internet through a historic investment in infrastructure deployment. That includes a $2 billion program at the Department of Commerce to invest in high-speed internet on Tribal lands. The Department of Agriculture (USDA) has invested more than $4 billion in projects that will expand access to high-speed broadband and bring new economic opportunities and a better quality of life for more than 650,000 people across 46 states through its ReConnect Program.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law also provides a historic $8.25 billion investment to reduce wildfire risks for communities, better detect wildfires, and institute workforce reforms and landmark pay increases for federal wildland firefighters. Through the Community Wildfire Defense Grant program, USDA has awarded $467 million to 259 project proposals across 36 states and 18 tribes, which will assist with planning for and mitigating wildfire risks, and has recently made another $200 million available. USDA is also investing $150 million from the Inflation Reduction Act to help underserved and small acreage forest landowners connect to emerging voluntary climate markets, which can provide economic opportunities for landowners and incentivize improved forest health and management. And through the Inflation Reduction Act and other appropriations, the Forest Service invested nearly $544 million in 63 projects in 2024 to conserve more than half a million acres of private forestlands across the U.S., ensuring that these places will remain working forests while protecting water sources and reducing wildfire risk.

Additionally, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law invests billions of dollars to make sure rural families can get where they need to go, including through a $4.1 billion investment in Rural Area Formula Grants at the Department of Transportation (DOT). This program will support 1,300 rural transit systems by enabling them to purchase transit vehicles and infrastructure, plan transit more effectively, and fund operations. DOT is also providing $2 billion over 5 years in dedicated funding to projects in rural areas that improve and expand the surface transportation infrastructure.

Delivering Clean, Reliable Water to Rural America

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s transformative investment of over $50 billion in our water and wastewater infrastructure is fundamentally changing the quality of life for millions of people in rural America by replacing lead pipes, providing critical access to sanitation, ensuring access to affordable clean drinking water, and tackling drought. That includes a $3.5 billion investment through the Indian Health Service which has launched over 700 projects to build out a safe supply of drinking water, reliable sewage systems, and waste disposal facilities across Indian Country. And the Inflation Reduction Act’s Tribal Clean Drinking Water program made $320 million available to bring safe, clean drinking water to Tribal communities in the West, with an initial $82 million announced to fund 23 projects.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and USDA, in collaboration with states and Tribal Nations, are working together on the Closing America’s Wastewater Access Gap initiative. This partnership leverages technical assistance resources to help historically underserved communities identify and pursue federal funding opportunities to address their rural wastewater needs. To date, EPA has announced that 38 more communities across 22 states have joined the initiative.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is also cleaning up pollution in rural areas by investing $4.7 billion to plug, remediate, and restore dangerous orphaned oil and gas wells across the country; nearly $11.3 billion to create good-paying jobs, including union jobs, and catalyze economic opportunity by reclaiming abandoned mine lands; and $3.5 billion to 95 previously unfunded Superfund site projects, including the longstanding backlog of projects, to clean up contaminated sites and advance environmental justice.

In addition, the Biden-Harris Administration is leading a whole-of-government effort to make Western communities more resilient to climate change and the ongoing megadrought by harnessing the full resources of the President’s Investing in America agenda. The Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law together include $15.4 billion to enhance the West’s resilience to drought through water-saving projects and other conservation efforts. In March 2024, the Administration took historic action to protect the stability of the Colorado River Basin including through investments from the Inflation Reduction Act’s $4 billion Colorado River drought mitigation funds, conserving at least 3 million-acre-feet of water by 2026.

Lowering Energy Costs and Strengthening the Grid

Supported by Inflation Reduction Act, the Empowering Rural America (New ERA) program is the largest investment in rural America’s electric system since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Rural Electrification Act in 1936. It invests $9.7 billion to help member-owned rural electric cooperatives provide their communities with clean, reliable, and affordable energy. USDA has announced over $8.3 billion in New ERA funding across 24 states so far, with the rural electric cooperatives building or purchasing nearly 12 gigawatts of clean energy. The Powering Affordable Clean Energy (PACE) program will fund new clean energy and energy storage projects to make it more affordable for rural Americans to use clean, reliable energy. In 2024, USDA awarded the 34 projects totaling $917 million. Since the start of the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA has invested more than $2.7 billion through the Rural Energy for America (REAP) program in 9,901 renewable energy and energy efficiency improvements helping farms and small businesses lower their energy costs, generate new income, and strengthen the resilience of their operations. Almost 7,000 of these projects were funded by over $1 billion provided by the Inflation Reduction Act

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law invests billions of dollars to improve resilience, reliability, safety, and availability of energy in rural America. So far, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced over $457 million for 93 projects to accelerate clean energy deployment in rural and remote areas across the country through the Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas (ERA) Program. DOE announced up to $475 million in March 2024 for 5 projects to accelerate clean energy deployment on current and former mine land. The selected projects cover a range of clean energy technologies, from solar, microgrids, and pumped storage hydropower to geothermal and battery energy storage systems.

DOE announced nearly $7.6 billion through the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) Program to strengthen grid reliability and resilience across all 50 states, including several major rural grid resilience projects. This funding is spurring private investment, bringing public-private investment to over $22 billion to deliver affordable, clean electricity to all Americans and ensure that communities across the nation have a reliable grid that is prepared for extreme weather worsened by the climate crisis. In addition, EPA awarded $27 billion through the Inflation Reduction Act’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) to create a national financing network for clean energy and climate solutions across the country, including rural communities. Together, the GGRF’s $14 billion National Clean Investment Fund, $6 billion Clean Communities Investment Accelerator, and $7 billion Solar for All program dedicate approximately two-thirds of the funding to low-income and disadvantaged communities, advancing the President’s Justice40 Initiative.

This year, the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Tribal Electrification Program funded by the Inflation Reduction Act provided $143 million in financial and technical assistance to 34 Tribes to connect homes to transmission and distribution that is powered by clean energy, provide electricity to unelectrified Tribal homes through zero-emissions energy systems, transition electrified Tribal homes to zero-emissions energy systems, and support associated home repairs and retrofitting. The program will also support clean energy workforce development opportunities in Indian Country.

And, by expanding the availability of homegrown biofuels, the Biden-Harris Administration is strengthening our energy independence while bringing good-paying jobs and other economic benefits to rural communities. For example, up to $500 million from the Inflation Reduction Act is being made available through the Higher Blends Infrastructure Incentive Program to increase the availability of domestic biofuels and give Americans additional, cleaner fuel options at the pump. Through this program, USDA has provided $251 million in grants so far.

Many of the programs aimed at delivering clean, reliable water to rural America, lowering energy costs, and strengthening the grid are covered under the President’s Justice40 Initiative, which sets the 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 as part of the most ambitious climate, conservation, and environmental justice agenda in history.

Improving Access to Health Care and Lowering Health Care Costs for Rural Communities

The Biden-Harris Administration is lowering health care costs for rural Americans and supporting access to high quality care in rural America.  Rural seniors are seeing lower drug costs thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act. About 281,000 rural Part D Medicare enrollees would have benefitted from the $35 insulin cap if it had been in effect in 2020, and about 481,000 rural enrollees would have benefitted from $0 recommended adult vaccines if it had been in effect in 2021. About 289,000 rural enrollees are projected to save $1,000 or more when the $2,000 out-of-pocket cap goes into effect in 2025. Nearly 3 million rural Americans signed up for 2024 coverage at the Affordable Care Act’s HealthCare.gov Marketplace. Eighty percent of consumers could find health plans for $10 or less a month, with many qualifying for plans with $0 premiums. And thanks to the President’s ARP and IRA, rural HealthCare.gov enrollees are saving an $890 per year on their health insurance premiums, about 28% more than their urban counterparts. In addition, four states have expanded Medicaid since President Biden took office, providing coverage to over one million Americans while reducing the risk of rural hospital closure by half. 

The Biden-Harris Administration has launched the new Rural Emergency Hospital designation to provide a new option to some struggling hospitals, and it is investing in training the next generation of health care providers to serve rural communities. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has also extended several grant opportunities to support rural communities, including $28 million to provide direct health services and expand infrastructure and $16 million to provide technical assistance to rural hospitals facing financial distress. Recognizing the critical role nurses play in providing primary care, mental health and maternal health care services, particularly in rural areas, HHS announced more than $100 million in awards to address the increasing demand for registered nurses, nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives and nurse faculty. Through the Rural Residency Planning and Development Program, HHS has invested over $28 million in awards across 25 states to create new rural residency programs to train more physicians in rural communities, which increases the likelihood of practicing in a rural community. And through a $47 million investment, HHS funded 32 Rural Public Health Workforce Training Networks across 22 states, bolstering health care capacity in rural areas and training more than 2,000 health professionals, including community health workers, EMTs, health IT specialists, certified nurse assistants, and dental assistants, among others.

In addition, CMS has updated policies to support access to important services for Medicare beneficiaries at rural health clinics, including for integration behavioral health care, providing opioid use disorder treatment and chronic pain management services, allowing greater flexibility with telehealth services for mental health, supporting rural providers participating in value-based care models, and enabling enhanced care management services. Further, CMS is announcing this December a new request for applications for the ongoing Rural Community Hospital Demonstration. The goal of the program is to test the feasibility and advisability of cost-based reimbursement for small rural hospitals that are too large to be Critical Access Hospitals. This program was first created by Congress in 2004 but has not opened applications up since 2017.

HHS’ Rural Communities Opioid Response Program is a multi-year initiative that has invested $298 million in 386 awards to reduce the morbidity and mortality of substance use disorder (SUD), including opioid use disorder, in rural communities at the highest risk for SUD. Through the Rural Emergency Medical Services Training Program, HHS has invested $20.5 million since the start of the Biden-Harris Administration to support the recruitment and training of EMS personnel in rural areas with a focus on addressing SUD and co-occurring substance use and mental disorders. 
Supporting Veterans in Rural Communities

One quarter of all veterans in the U.S. (4.4 million) reside in rural communities. Around 48 percent of all rural veterans (2.7 million) are enrolled in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system, which is higher than the 41 percent enrollment rate of urban veterans. The Biden-Harris Administration has implemented several initiatives to support veterans living in rural communities, ensuring they have access to affordable, low-cost, high-quality healthcare. The landmark Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act enacted the most significant expansion of benefits and services for toxic exposed veterans in more than 30 years. Since the enactment of the PACT Act in August 2022, VA has completed over 1.8 million PACT Act-related claims with an approval rate of 74.5% and enrolled nearly 740,000 veterans in VA healthcare. VA has been able to expand the types of conditions that are considered service connected making it easier for toxic exposed veterans to get the disability benefits they deserve —a critical step to ensuring all veterans get access to the care they need. PACT Act also expanded who is eligible to enroll in VA health care and required new toxic exposure screenings for all veterans enrolled; to date, VA has completed more than 5.9 million free toxic exposure screenings. VA is delivering these benefits to veterans at the fastest rate in the nation’s history. The Act includes the largest VA outreach campaign in history, ensuring that the rural veterans and their survivors are aware of and can access the benefits can healthcare they are entitled to.

Provider shortage continues to challenge accessibility and affordability of health care, especially in rural communities across the United States. VA Office of Rural Health has continued to support and further developed different initiatives and programs to help reserve this trend. For example, VA continues to fund the Rural Interprofessional Faculty Development Initiative (RIFDI) which adds physician residents in rural VA facilities through the 18-month faculty development program and has demonstrated benefits to both the clinician partaking in the program and the receiving rural VA hospital. VA also expanded its Connected Care program, enabling more telehealth delivery for rural veterans than ever before. In 2023, VA launched the Pilot Program on Graduate Medical Education and Residency (PPGMER) to support more graduate medical education positions to serve in rural and other underserved areas.

Creating New and Better Agricultural Markets to Increase Competition

As part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Action Plan for a Fairer, More Competitive, and More Resilient Meat and Poultry Supply Chain, USDA has invested over $1.4 billion to support new or expanded small-sized and medium sized processing facilities and to create a more resilient, diverse and secure U.S. food supply chain. These investments are giving farmers more market options and fairer prices by spurring competition. These investments are also providing consumers with more choices and affordable prices at the grocery store.

Through the Fertilizer Production Expansion Program, USDA has invested $320 million in 67 fertilizer production facilities to expand access to domestic fertilizer options for American farmers in 32 states and Puerto Rico. These investments will increase U.S. fertilizer production by 9.1 million tons annually and create more than 800 jobs in rural communities.  

The USDA spearheaded several new rules to improve fairness and competition. This included final rules to promote transparency in poultry farming contracts, to prohibit discrimination and ban retaliation against farmers and ranchers in meat markets, and strengthen the product of USA standards. It also proposed a new rule to protect poultry growers from unfair deductions and variations in pay.

The Administration committed to better enforce the laws on the books. USDA stood up an enforcement partnership with 32 state attorneys general. USDA and Department of Justice (DOJ) strengthened their collaboration, and created an anonymous reporting tool for unfair and anticompetitive practices at farmerfairness.gov in early 2022. Since then, DOJ brought suit against Agristats for using algorithms to fix prices and outputs in meat markets; secured a consent decree with major poultry processors Cargill, Sanderson, and Wayne Farms to limit unfair variations in pay for poultry farmers; and blocked a merger of Dole and Fresh Express which would have consolidated vegetable markets. Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) successfully challenged the largest grocery merger in US history and brought a case to prevent price discrimination by big brands against independent retailers. The DOJ and FTC also worked to preserve and promote the right of farmers to repair their own tractors, including parts and batteries.

Investing in Climate-Smart Agriculture

Through the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities initiative, USDA is investing $3.03 billion in 135 projects that seek to build and expand market opportunities for American commodities produced using climate-smart practices. The Inflation Reduction Act provided a record $19.5 billion for USDA conservation programs to support hundreds of thousands of farmers and ranchers apply practices such as cover cropping, conservation tillage, wetland restoration, prescribed grazing, nutrient management, tree planting, and more to millions of acres of land. This has direct climate mitigation benefits and advances a host of other environmental co-benefits, in addition to offering farmers, ranchers and foresters new revenue streams. The climate-smart agriculture investments that USDA has made and continues to make are estimated to support over 180,000 farms and over 225 million acres in the next 5 years.

Strengthening Local and Regional Food Systems

The Biden-Harris Administration is investing in local and regional food systems, which adds value for both agricultural producers and consumers, and spurs economic activity locally — helping communities that have been left behind by the current agricultural models and supporting good-paying jobs throughout the supply chain. USDA created twelve Regional Food Business Centers across the country that are providing coordination, technical assistance and capacity building to help farmers, ranchers and food businesses reach local customers and navigate federal state and local resources. USDA is also investing $300 million through the Organic Transition Initiative to support farmers in transitioning to organic and build and strengthen organic markets so more farmers can participate.

To support Tribal Nations’ food and agriculture supply chain resiliency, USDA invested $48.1 million in meat and poultry processing infrastructure for indigenous animals such as bison, reindeer or salmon. In October 2023, USDA also launched a new, interagency pilot to purchase bison meat from Tribal and local bison operations for Tribal communities through the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR).

In June, USDA made more than 140 awards to agricultural employers, totaling $50 million, through its new Farm Labor Stabilization and Protection Pilot Program. The program, which is supported by President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, aims to stabilize the nation’s food supply and improve working conditions for farmworkers.

Improving Nutrition and Food Access for Rural Communities

President Biden set a bold goal of ending hunger and reducing diet-related diseases in the U.S. by 2030—all while reducing disparities. Through the Healthy Meals Incentives Initiative, USDA has awarded nearly $30 million in grants to small and rural communities to improve the nutritional quality of school meals and help modernize their operations. Each small and/or rural school district will receive up to $150,000 to support them in improving the nutritional quality of their meals and modernizing their operations through innovative staff training programs, kitchen updates and renovations, redesigning food preparation and service spaces, or other school-district led efforts to support school meals and school nutrition professionals.

This year, USDA’s summer nutrition programs reached more kids than ever before. In addition to in-person summer meal sites, summer meal operators in rural communities had the option to provide children with meals via grab-and-go or delivery through the Non-Congregate Summer Meal Service. And, through SUN Bucks (also referred to as Summer EBT), children in low-income families in participating states, territories, and Tribes received $120 per eligible child for the summer in the form of pre-loaded cards that families can use to purchase groceries.

USDA has also expanded online purchasing with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to be available in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. This expansion provides greater convenience and access to healthy food options for tens of millions of Americans, including in remote and rural areas.

Cutting Housing Costs, Boosting Supply, and Expanding Access to Affordable Housing in Rural America

The Biden-Harris Administration has taken aggressive action to boost housing supply and lower housing costs. Housing units under construction hit a 50-year high during this Administration, and housing starts are up 16% compared to the previous Administration. When aligned with other policies to reduce housing costs and expand affordability, such as rental assistance and down payment assistance, closing the supply gap will mean more affordable rents and more attainable homeownership for Americans in every community, including rural communities.

The Biden-Harris Administration oversaw large housing investments in rural America. State and local governments allocated nearly $20 billion in American Rescue Plan State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, making it the largest one-time housing block grant in U.S. history. These dollars were often combined with programs like USDA’s Single-Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program and Off-Farm Labor Housing program to make these dollars go further and help more households. Under the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA helped 33,436 families by building or renovating 1,065 multifamily housing apartment complexes in rural areas through nearly $1.4 billion in direct loans, guaranteed loans, and grants. Additionally, USDA provided $5.996 billion in rental assistance to help 388,588 very-low- and low-income rural families pay their rent. Since 2021, USDA has invested $7.6 billion to offer rental housing opportunities to rural families, senior citizens, people with disabilities, and farm workers and their families. In single-family housing programs, USDA invested over $48 billion to help more than 278,000 families with modest incomes buy, refinance, or repair their homes through our direct and guaranteed single-family housing loan programs, including 98,000 low- and very low-income borrowers.

In addition, HUD issued a first-of-its-kind Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) competition called Pathways to Removing Obstacles (PRO) Housing to enable communities to identify and remove barriers to housing production and preservation. In its first round, PRO awarded $85 million, including to rural areas that used funding to address matters such as zoning, predevelopment costs, and permitting.

The Biden-Harris Administration also took actions to encourage the construction and preservation of manufactured housing, a critical source of affordable housing, especially for low-income, rural, and Native American households and offers a potentially lower-cost pathway to homeownership. Earlier this year, HUD made available Preservation and Reinvestment Initiative for Community Enhancement (PRICE) grants, competitive funding that can be used for the replacement of dilapidated homes, assistance for homeowners such as repairs and accessibility modifications, mitigation and resilience upgrades, improvement of infrastructure such as stormwater systems or utilities, housing services including eviction prevention, and planning activities. It marked the first time the federal government has made grant funding available specifically for investments in manufactured housing communities, including resident-owned communities. In addition, USDA made more than $18 million in grants and loans under the Off-Farm Labor Housing program to support home improvements for farmworkers and their families.

While boosting supply is critical to bring prices down over the long-term, the lack of affordable housing is one of the main drivers of homelessness in most jurisdictions. In 2023, HUD announced the award of $486 million in grants and $43 million for stability vouchers to address unsheltered and rural homelessness. These awards allow grantees to fund rural homelessness assistance programs in local communities such as rent or utility assistance, emergency lodging, housing repairs, food and clothing assistance, and costs associated with converting federal properties to house homeless individuals and families. 

Strengthening Access to Higher Education, Career Pathways, and Rural Workforce Development

The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to expanding rural students’ access to career pathways and higher education opportunities that lead to good-paying jobs right in their own communities. In December 2023, the Department of Education announced $44.5 million in grants to 22 institutions of higher education to improve rates of postsecondary education enrollment, persistence, and completion among students in rural communities through the Rural Postsecondary & Economic Development Grant Program.

The Department of Education also awarded $31 million through the Career Connected High Schools grant program to help secondary education, postsecondary education, and workforce development systems expand access to career-connected high school programs for more students while unlocking career success. Of the 19 awards, 11 went to rural-focused programs.

In September 2024, the Institute for Education Sciences announced the National Education Research and Development Center for Improving Rural Postsecondary Education. This Center, hosted by MDRC, will receive $10 million over five years to focus on improving access to postsecondary education and completion of postsecondary degrees and credentials for students from rural K12 districts and locales.

In September 2024, the Department of Labor (DOL) awarded $49 million to support 35 projects through the Workforce Opportunities for Rural Communities (WORC) Initiative. WORC, which is a partnership between DOL, the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Delta Regional Authority, and the Northern Border Regional Commission, provides grant funds to enable rural communities to develop local and regional workforce development solutions aligned with existing economic development strategies and community partnerships to promote new, sustainable job opportunities and long-term economic vitality. New for this round, the funding opportunity specifically encouraged applicants who are part of the Rural Partners Network.
 

Supporting Schools in Rural Communities

The Biden-Harris Administration has continued to demonstrate its commitment to rural K12 districts by increasing investments in the Rural Education Achievement Program, the Department of Education’s only formula grant program specifically designated for rural K12 districts. Since Fiscal Year (FY) 2020, the program has seen an increase of nearly $35 million, culminating in $220 million allocated to rural small and/or low-income schools in FY 24.

During the Biden-Harris Administration, the Department of Education has expanded Full-Service Community Schools (FSCS) five-fold, from $25 million in 2020 to $150 million in 2023. In FY 2022 and 2023, 20 awards totaling $67,668,574 per award year went to projects specifically serving rural areas. Community schools collaborate with local non-profits, health providers, private partners, and other agencies to coordinate and deliver services like health care, mental health and nutrition services, afterschool and summer programming, and high-quality early learning programs.

In November of 2023, the Department of Education awarded $182 million in new grant awards under the Education, Innovation, and Research Program (EIR), with $46 million supporting grants in rural areas. These grants support local efforts to develop, implement, and take to scale entrepreneurial and evidence-based projects that have the potential to improve academic achievement for underserved students. EIR has seen an increase of $94 million in new awards between FY 2021 and FY 2023, demonstrating the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to promoting equity in student access to high-quality educational opportunities for rural learners.

Lowering Child Care Costs and Supporting Child Care Providers in Rural America
 
President Biden secured the largest one-time investment this country has ever made in child care through his American Rescue Plan. Those funds helped 225,000 child care providers stay open so that the parents of more than 10 million children could go to work with peace of mind. A third of providers reported they would have closed permanently without these relief funds. More than 8-in-10 licensed child care centers nationwide received ARP assistance and it benefited 30,000 rural child care programs – in most states, 97% of rural counties or more received aid.
 
President Biden has also worked to build the supply of child care in underserved areas, including rural areas. HHS issued a landmark final rule to improve the Child Care & Development Block Grant program, which helps the families of more than 1.3 million children afford child care. As a result of this rule, HHS has required for the first time that all states provide resources to build the supply of care in underserved geographic areas. This fall, the Biden-Harris Administration hosted a first-of-its-kind rural childcare convening, bringing together childcare providers and advocates to discuss opportunities to expand access to early care in rural and Tribal communities.

Partnering with Rural Communities to Create Jobs and Support Rural-led Economic Development

Launched in April 2022, the Rural Partners Network (RPN) is an all-of-government program that partners with rural people to access resources and funding to create local jobs, build infrastructure, and support long-term economic stability on their own terms. RPN staff on the ground are now supporting 36 community networks in 10 states and Puerto Rico. Since its inception, the federal government has invested nearly $8.5 billion in RPN communities to support critical infrastructure, economic development, housing, and other priorities.

In February 2021, President Biden established the Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization (Energy Communities IWG) to identify and deliver resources to the coal, oil and gas, and power plant communities that have powered our country for generations. Since then, member agencies have helped drive over $20 billion in federal investment to these communities. The Energy Communities IWG has launched Rapid Response Teams across the country to establish a network of assistance that is focused and sustainable in a community or region.

In addition, the Department of Transportation’s Thriving Communities Program is providing planning, technical assistance, and capacity building support to underserved and under-resourced communities, including rural communities.

With funding from the American Rescue Plan, the Department of Commerce launched several place-based programs to connect people to good paying jobs and help underserved communities leverage regional assets, including rural communities. The Build Back Better Regional Challenge awarded 21 regional coalitions a total of $1 billion to transform their regional economies through growing a local industry sector. These awardees span 236 rural counties. The Good Jobs Challenge awarded $500 million to 32 regional workforce training systems across the country. At least 19 of these 32 awardees serve rural areas. The Department of Commerce also awarded $100 million from the Indigenous Communities Program, all of which primarily serve rural communities, and $500 million from the Economic Adjustment Assistance Program, two-thirds of which primarily serve rural communities, to support economic development needs such as enabling infrastructure and workforce development.  

Additionally, authorized by President Biden’s CHIPS and Science Act, the Department of Commerce’s Regional Innovation and Technology Hubs program has designated 31 communities across the country as “Tech Hubs” that will bring together private industry, state and local government, higher education, labor unions, nonprofit institutions, and other critical stakeholders to develop and grow innovative industries that stimulate economic growth, create jobs, and strengthen national security. Nearly three-quarters of Tech Hubs designees encompass small and rural areas.

Also authorized by the CHIPS and Science Act, the Department of Commerce’s $200 million Distressed Area Recompete Pilot Program (“Recompete”) aims to address persistent economic distress in communities across the country through a series of highly targeted, transformational investments. Seven of the 22 program finalists focus exclusively on rural communities, and their proposed investments include workforce skill training, addressing childcare deserts in rural America, supporting small businesses, and building local capacity.

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Upon taking office in 2021, President Biden and his Administration immediately got to work addressing the shocks that were roiling global supply chains and moved swiftly to secure key industries for America’s economy and national security. Everything in our lives—the food we eat, the medicines in our hospitals, the energy that powers our homes, the computer chips in our devices—relies on supply chains, and the disruptions sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war on Ukraine showed what happens when they are neglected for decades.

Four years later, America’s supply chains are stronger and more resilient. Working hand in hand with industry and all stakeholders, this Administration has cleared bottlenecks, increased investments in critical sectors, and shored up the transportation sector that move the goods that Americans rely on. Ocean shipping prices have fallen more than 70 percent from their peak, and today fewer than 20 containerships are waiting to dock at U.S. ports, compared to over 150 backed up during the peak of congestion. That progress has made supply chains more reliable for businesses and lowered inflation for the goods that families buy every day.

Today, the Biden-Harris Administration is releasing the first-ever Quadrennial Supply Chain Review, a formal assessment of four years of strengthening America’s critical supply chains, and announcing additional actions to support American businesses and consumers.

Progress to Date

The Quadrennial Supply Chain Review assesses the progress made over the past four years to bolster the resilience of our most critical supply chains. This strategic approach has included:

• Responding to disruption. The Administration quickly set to work to develop new government tools and capacity to respond to disruptions, both active ones when it took office, and new ones that have occurred since. The President’s Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force (SCDTF) has effectively coordinated federal authorities and resources and also established a process to work with state and local authorities and the private sector in real time. This work has helped improved the flow of goods into and around the United States during disruptions—getting products critical to American families moving again through ports and to shelves.

• Investing in infrastructure and manufacturing and lowering costs. Over the past four years, the Biden-Harris Administration has taken a made historic investments to strengthen our industrial bases and lower costs. U.S. Government investment has helped catalyze over $1 trillion in private-sector announced investments since January 2021. These investments are supporting the construction of new factories and creating manufacturing jobs across the country.
• Responding to non-market policies and practices. On a level playing field, American businesses and workers can compete and win. However, our strategic competitors are continuing to engage in non-market policies and practices (NMPP) that undercut our collective resilience—directing their systems to target key industries for dominance by using excessive state subsidies and other forms of state support to dominate critical industries. As part of the Quadrennial Supply Chain Review process, the Biden-Harris Administration has developed a strategy to address NMPP, recognizing the need for early, comprehensive action to prevent harm to U.S. workers and industry, as well as modernized trade authorities that account for NMPP’s continued effects on global supply chains. This work has included raising tariffs on a select number of key sectors to safeguard U.S. supply chains in the face of unfair competition. These tariff modifications will protect historic domestic investments under BIL, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, while also shielding American businesses and workers from unfair trade practices.

The Review builds on comprehensive efforts undertaken by the Administration over the last four years, including President Biden’s 2021 Executive Order on America’s Supply Chains (E.O. 14017), which directed rapid supply chain assessments for four critical products in the first 100 days of the Administration, a one-year review of six key supply chains in 2022, and the establishment of the White House Council on Supply Chain Resilience to support the enduring resilience of America’s critical supply chains in 2023.

Additional Actions to Strengthen Supply Chains

Continuing to strengthen supply chains over the next four years—and beyond—will require the United States to deliver on historic domestic investments, maintain and strengthen international partnerships, harness innovation to tackle 21st-century challenges, and mobilize and facilitate ongoing private investment and public-private partnerships. The work of the last four years has laid a strong foundation for the United States to continue safeguarding the enduring resilience of our supply chains for years to come, including for emerging industries of the future.

Below are additional steps the Biden-Harris Administration is taking to strengthen supply chains, including for energy, critical minerals, agricultural commodities and food products, medical products, information and communications technology, transportation, and defense.

Energy

• Announcing up to $6 billion in incentives to strengthen U.S. energy supply chains. Over the coming weeks, the IRS, supported by the Department of Energy’s Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC), is set to announce up to $6 billion in additional tax credits to strengthen U.S. energy supply chains through the Qualifying Advanced Energy Project Credit (48C) Program. This builds on the first round of $4 billion in announced tax credits for over 100 projects in 35 states to accelerate domestic clean energy manufacturing and reduce greenhouse gas emissions at industrial facilities. This also builds on over $12 billion of investment from the DOE MESC Office in domestic manufacturing capacity to strengthen the U.S. energy supply chains.
• Improving risk mitigation across the energy supply chain. To improve visibility across multiple technologies in the energy industrial base, DOE and a consortium of the National Laboratories have developed a new analytic framework—the Supply Chain Readiness Level—to quantify risks, gaps, and vulnerabilities, and to identify investment opportunities across the energy sector.

Critical Minerals

• Mapping America’s critical minerals deposits. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is announcing new airborne geophysical mapping in the Ozarks Plateau (Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas) and Alaska over areas known to host minerals such as antimony, tin, tungsten, and lead and zinc ores, as well as byproduct critical minerals such as gallium and germanium. USGS’s mapping work, funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), is revolutionizing the U.S. Government’s understanding of the nation’s mineral and geologic resources. USGS and NASA are partnering to complete the largest high-quality hyperspectral survey in the world, surveying more than 180,000 square miles of the Southwest with sensors that make it possible to “see” nuanced differences between materials.
• Updating the U.S.’s critical minerals market data. Next month, USGS will publish its 2025 Mineral Commodity Summaries.These annual reports help forecast supply chain disruptions resulting from a variety of risks including pandemics, natural disasters, and trade wars, and are the U.S.’s authoritative source of data on the supply, demand, and consumption of 100 mineral commodities. Additionally, last month, researchers at the USGS National Minerals Information Center developed a new model to assess how disruptions of critical mineral supplies may affect the U.S. economy. This model reflects the latest whole-of-government risk and resilience methodology.

Food and Agriculture

• Making $116 million in new investments to expand domestic fertilizer production. Today, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) is announcing eight new awards through its Fertilizer Production Expansion Program, part of a broader effort to increase American-made fertilizer production to spur competition and combat price hikes on U.S. farmers. Since President Biden announced the program in 2022, USDA has invested $517 million in 76 fertilizer production facilities to expand access to domestic fertilizer options for American farmers in 34 states and Puerto Rico. These investments will increase U.S. fertilizer production by 11.8 million tons annually and create more than 1,300 jobs in rural communities.This funding builds on the more than $1.4 billion USDA has invested to build or expand small and medium sized processing facilities and to create a more resilient U.S. food supply chain which gives farmers more market options while providing consumers with more choices and affordable grocery prices.

Medical Products

• Investing an additional $26 million in domestic sterilization capacity. Building on recent investments in industrial base capability and capacity expansion through DPA Title III authorities and Public-Private Partnerships, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) expects additional investments of $26 millionin alternative sterilization capacity before the end of 2024.

• Releasing an action plan for the next four years. HHS will publish its Draft 2025-2028 Action Plan for Addressing Shortages of Medical Products and Strengthening the Resilience of Medical Product Supply Chains, outlining supply chain resilience goals and a strategic plan to achieve them. The HHS Action Plan will also include an HHS Research Plan to collate HHS and academic research priorities that would promote Action Plan goals.
• Issuing stronger supply chain standards for hospitals to combat drug shortages. In notice and comment rulemaking, CMS intends to propose new Conditions of Participation requiring hospitals to have certain processes to address and prevent medication shortages.

Semiconductors and Other Technologies

• Investing in domestic production. CHIPS for America has awarded over $26 billion in incentives to advance domestic production in semiconductors and the supply chain. Now, America is home to all five of the world’s leading-edge logic and memory providers, while no other economy has more than two. Since the beginning of the Biden-Harris Administration, semiconductor and electronics companies have announced nearly $450 billion in private investments, catalyzed in large part by public investment.
• Reducing national security risks in federal supply chains. The Department of Defense, General Services Administration (GSA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are finalizing a rule implementing Section 5949 of the James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, which prohibits agencies from procuring or obtaining certain products and services that include semiconductors from entities of concern.
• Promoting the U.S. government’s use of domestically manufactured semiconductors. The Made in America Office and Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) has released a Request for Information (RFI) to gauge the best ways for government contractors to scale up their use of domestically manufactured chips, particularly for critical infrastructure. Responses solicit commercial ideas from industry that may inform future policymaking in support of the government-wide effort to leverage existing manufacturing capacity.
• Incentivizing supply chain diversity, competition, and transparency. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is issuing guidance to help the Federal Government—the world’s largest buyer—organize its demand for domestic semiconductors so that agencies can mitigate the risk posed by undue dependence on foreign manufacturing, limited competition, and possible higher manufacturing costs. The effort encourages agencies to develop strategies to dual or multiple source semiconductors, increase transparency for critical infrastructure supply chains, and provide the government’s forecasted demand for the products and services that use these chips.
• Protecting American businesses from unfair trade practices. In May, the President announced increased Section 301 tariffs on semiconductor imports from China, which were finalized by the USTR in September, as part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to further protect American semiconductor manufacturing and the sustainability of domestic investments.

Transportation

• Helping states improve their supply chain operations. The Department of Transportation (DOT) continues to advance this work by working closely with other levels of government and industry stakeholders. DOT’s Freight Office is establishing the National Multimodal Freight Network to assist States in strategically directing resources toward improved system performance for the efficient movement of freight on the Network, to inform freight transportation planning, and to assist in the prioritization of Federal investment.
• Expanding visibility into ocean freight supply chains. Today, DOT is announcing that it has added more members to the Freight Logistics Optimization Works (FLOW) program, a public-private partnership to build an integrated view of U.S. supply chain conditions, and which supported the response to the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse. Today, FLOW now includes eight of the largest ten container ports representing over 80% of all U.S. imports; nine of the largest ten ocean carriers representing over 70% of all U.S. imports; and six of the largest ten importers.
• Building the transportation of tomorrow. USTDA, DFC, and EXIM are all making investments to improve transportation across air, land, and sea. EXIM’s investments will expand U.S. exports of all electric-powered aircraft, while USTDA is improving the efficiency and safety of freight rail and digital customs processes. In areas around the world with high vessel traffic, DFC is also developing new ports to move goods in critical supply chains from place to place. Since its creation, DFC investments in critical infrastructure have transported over 64 million passengers alone.

Defense

• Releasing a National Defense Industrial Strategy and Implementation Plan. This fall, the Department of Defense (DoD) released the Implementation Plan to accompany its first-ever National Defense Industrial Strategy (NDIS). The NDIS is guiding investments to strengthen supply chain resilience, including by purchasing key elements that we need for sustainable defense production. For example, the United States has invested $215 million to boost production of solid rocket motors, which are one of the most critical components used in our advanced missile systems.
• Establishing domestic manufacturing capability for strategic and critical materials. From mid-2023 through September 2024, DoD invested $250 million in defense-critical materials such as graphite, lithium, niobium oxide, and manganese. These investments will ensure secure access to sources and to domestic separation and processing in support of a range of defense applications, from large-capacity batteries to advanced aircraft to microelectronics.
• Investing in the defense industrial base workforce. The defense supply chain depends in large part on a strong and vibrant workforce. The Administration has pursued numerous initiatives to ensure Americans can access jobs in the defense industrial sector that pay competitive wages and get the training they need to turn these jobs into meaningful careers. Earlier this year, the Navy partnered with the Departments of Education and Labor and with the State of Michigan to launch the Michigan Maritime Manufacturing Initiative, which expands regional training pipelines for the submarine industry into the Great Lakes region.

Strengthening U.S. Government Data, Analytics, and Response Capacity

• Preparing for a second Supply Chain Summit. In September 2024, the Department of Commerce held its first Supply Chain Summit. Commerce convened officials from government, industry, academia, and civil society to discuss how to effectively prepare for and respond to supply chain disruptions, as well as proactively improve supply chain resilience. Commerce will host another Supply Chain Summit in 2025. The Summit will bring together government, industry, and other stakeholders to examine continual progress made in increasing American supply chain resiliency. The date of the Summit will be announced in the months ahead.
• Upgrading the new SCALE diagnostic tool. The Department of Commerce’s Industry and Analysis unit developed a first-of-its-kind supply chain diagnostic tool to assess supply chain risk across the whole of the U.S. economy. The tool proactively helps identify risks and strengthen the resilience of supply chains key to U.S. national and economic security. The Department of Commerce plans to launch a competition aimed at developing new data or analysis that can be used to expand the indicators of risk incorporated into the SCALE tool.
• Conducting supply chain tabletop exercises with industry. In 2025, Commerce will conduct two tabletop exercises with industry to better understand opportunities to address structural supply chain risks faced by the United States. One exercise will focus on supply chain risks in the chemicals industry; the second will focus on an emerging technology where it is critical the United States maintain a strategic advantage.
• Addressing supply chain risks for “critical chemicals.” Working with the interagency, Commerce is developing a list of chemicals that are essential to critical supply chains, and where supply is insecure. Alongside this effort, Commerce is finalizing short-, medium- and long-term policy proposals to strengthen the supply chain. Elements of this work will form the basis of the Chemical Tabletop Exercise in 2025.

Emerging Technologies

• Convening industry on AI data centers. Commerce continues to drive efforts to get ahead of supply chain risks in critical and emerging technologies by developing playbooks and conducting deep dive assessments into emerging technologies such as quantum computing and clean hydrogen. In the second half of 2024, Commerce carried out a sprint to assess under-the-radar risks in AI data center supply chains, engaging more than 35 companies and leveraging in-house industry expertise and the SCALE tool to assess the highest-risk components and identify steps that government and industry can take to address them. In December, Commerce convened companies to share the results of its analysis and identify next steps.

Building Resilience with Allies and Partners

• Presidential Summit on Global Supply Chain Resilience. In October 2021, President Biden convened over a dozen world leaders to improve international collaboration on supply chain resilience. Following the President’s convening, the Secretaries of State and Commerce hosted a Supply Chain Ministerial to further advance this work. The original Joint Statement from the ministerial now has 31 signatories who have agreed to make global supply chains more transparent, diverse, secure, and sustainable.
• Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) Supply Chain Agreement. The IPEF Supply Chain Agreement entered into force in February 2024 and will improve the preparedness, resilience, and competitiveness of regional supply chains. The United States and 13 Indo-Pacific partners have established a Supply Chain Council. In 2025, the Council will develop and implement action plans to strengthen supply chains across several critical industries. A Crisis Response Network will serve as a warning system for potential supply chain disruptions, and a Labor Rights Advisory Board will convene IPEF government officials, employers, and labor officials to improve labor rights and workforce development across regional supply chains.
• Eradicating forced labor from supply chains. As part of the Partnership for Workers’ Rights launched in 2023, the U.S. and Brazil worked with businesses and unions to address worker vulnerability to forced labor in supply chains for cattle, coffee, gold, charcoal, and other goods.
• Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGI). PGI is a bipartisan initiative in partnership with the G7 to provide strategic, values-driven, and high-standard infrastructure and investment in low- and middle-income countries. Through initiatives like the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor, highlighted on the President’s recent visit to Angola, the United States is working with partners to strengthen and diversify supply chains.
• G7 Surge Financing Initiative. The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), G7 development finance institutions (DFIs), European Investment Bank (EIB), International Finance Corporation (IFC), and MedAccess announced the Surge Financing Initiative for Medical Countermeasures (MCMs). Together, partners are working closely with global and regional health organizations to establish frameworks and innovative financing mechanisms to support more rapid and equitable pandemic response.
• Boosting critical mineral capacity with partners. DFC invested over $220m in rare earth, graphite, and nickel projects in the last four years, reducing dependence on strategic adversaries and improving resilience in the critical mineral supply chain. The Department of Labor, USAID, United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), and the State Department through the Minerals Security Partnership have also provided technical support to bring new capacity online to process critical minerals in line with international best practices.
• Strengthening resilient telecommunications. In Costa Rica, EXIM approved a preliminary commitment to support Costa Rica’s use of trusted vendors to deploy its 5G network. With Japan and Australia, DFC is supporting the delivery of high-quality telecommunication services for over 2.5 million subscribers across Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu, Samoa, Tonga, and Nauru.

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The U.S. Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) is an economy-wide, all greenhouse gas target of reducing net emissions by 61-66 percent below 2005 levels in 2035

The emissions reduction strategy includes leveraging landmark investments from the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, complemented by federal standards; coordinating with local, state, Tribal, and territorial governments; and mobilizing private capital

In 2015, the world came together to finalize the Paris Agreement, an historic agreement joined by nearly every country in the world to address the climate crisis and protect the planet for future generations. On Day One of his Administration, President Biden fulfilled his promise to rejoin the Paris Agreement and set a course for the United States to tackle the climate crisis at home and abroad. In 2021, pursuant to the terms of the Paris Agreement, President Biden submitted a nationally determined contribution (NDC) with a target of reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions 50-52 percent from the 2005 baseline in 2030.

Today, as the United States continues to accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy, President Biden is announcing a new climate target for the United States: a 61-66 percent reduction in 2035 from 2005 levels in economy-wide net greenhouse gas emissions. It keeps the United States on a straight line or steeper path to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, economy-wide, by no later than 2050. In connection with this announcement, the United States is making a formal submission of this new target to the United Nations Climate Change secretariat as its next NDC under the Paris Agreement.

To develop the U.S. 2035 NDC, the Biden-Harris Administration analyzed how every economic sector – power generation, buildings, transportation, industry, agriculture and forestry– can spur innovation, unleash new opportunities, drive competitiveness, and cut pollution. Additionally, the United States anticipates, as part of achieving its 2035 NDC emissions target, methane reductions of at least 35 percent from 2005 levels in 2035. Cutting methane emissions is among the fastest ways to reduce near-term warming and is an essential complement to CO2 mitigation.

This 2035 NDC aligns with President Biden’s target of a net zero greenhouse gas economy no later than 2050 and marks an ambitious capstone to President Biden’s climate legacy, focused on investment, innovation, creating millions of good-paying and union jobs, building the clean energy economy of the future, reducing costs for all Americans, advancing environmental justice, and improving the health and security of communities across America. There are multiple paths to reach these targets, and U.S. Federal, state, local, territorial, and Tribal governments have numerous tools available to work with civil society and the private sector to mobilize investment in the years ahead while supporting a stronger, fairer economy.

Momentum from President Biden’s Climate and Economic Agenda

Since President Biden announced the 2030 NDC in April 2021 to reduce emissions 50-52% by 2030, the United States has designed and implemented a historic climate strategy that leverages emissions reduction and economic growth in every region of the country. Advanced through thousands of policies and actions undertaken by federal, state, territorial, Tribal, and local governments, the strategy includes passage of the landmarks Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), paired with strategic implementation of a regulatory agenda to ensure emissions reductions across every sector of the economy. This approach has equipped federal, state, territorial, Tribal, and local governments with additional resources and regulatory certainty to partner with the private sector to grow a new clean energy economy that benefits American workers and consumers. Implementation of this broad and comprehensive strategy has already led to more than $450 billion of private sector investment in domestic clean energy and manufacturing projects. This progress will accelerate as the Biden-Harris climate agenda continues to drive a wide range of investments in clean energy deployment and manufacturing in the years ahead. Examples include:

• Arizona has added over 370,000 new jobs, and unleashed more than $120 billion in private sector investment. Investments include $5.5 billion to build a battery facility outside Phoenix that will produce batteries for 350,000 electric vehicles per year.
• California has added over two million new jobs and more than $45 billion in private sector manufacturing and clean energy investment, including a $4 billion Gigafactory to produce lithium-ion batteries in Imperial Valley.
• Georgia has added nearly half a million new jobs and mobilized more than $40 billion in private sector investment. Qcells is investing $2.5 billion to expand its solar panel and component manufacturing capacity in Dalton and Cartersville.
• Maryland has added over 160,000 new jobs, and attracted more than $2.7 billion in private sector investment, including a $350 million investment from Constellation Energy to increase the output and lifespan of its renewable energy portfolio.
• Pennsylvania has added more than 560,000 new jobs and unleashed nearly $4.3 billion in private sector investment, including a $500 million investment by Eos Energy Enterprises to expand battery manufacturing operations in Turtle Creek, supported by a loan guarantee from DOE’s Loan Programs Office.
• Wisconsin has added more than 188,000 new jobs and $5.4 billion in private sector manufacturing and clean energy investments, including $426 million for the state’s first large-scale solar and battery storage project outside Milwaukee.

These investments and many more tell a clear story: the clean energy revolution is being built in America, and that will not be reversed.

Fundamental Economic and Technological Trends

Over the past four years the prices of clean energy generation and infrastructure have fallen dramatically. President Biden’s economic agenda, supported by complementary subnational government actions and private sector innovation, has reshaped the energy landscape now and for future generations so that American consumers and workers will benefit, especially in energy communities that have historically powered our nation. Along with the boom in domestic investments, technological advances across the energy sector are also making the U.S. clean energy revolution irreversible, including:

• Clean Energy Generation. The levelized cost of utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) and onshore wind are dropping rapidly. In 2024, estimates for utility-scale solar PV and onshore wind are as low as $29 per megawatt hour and $27 per megawatt hour, respectively. On a levelized-cost basis, utility-scale solar is now broadly on par with fossil fuel sources, even before accounting for the environmental and public health benefits. A recent analysis indicates that 99 percent of all U.S. coal plants are more expensive to continue running than to replace with solar, wind, and energy storage resources. Geothermal power generation capacity is also accelerating, with 203 megawatts commissioned globally in 2023, up 12 percent from 2022. Recent technological advances, particularly in drilling, indicate the industry is on track to an average cost of $60-70/MWh by 2030 and $45/MWh by 2035. New enhanced geothermal capacity is already slated to meet the clean electricity demands of new industries. And the recent completion of the Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia, the nation’s first new nuclear reactors in over 30 years, as well as planned revitalizations of existing reactors, progress on advanced reactor technologies, and new private sector demand, are all signs of further progress expanding nuclear power capacity ahead.
  
  
• New and Better Transmission. Expanding and enhancing the U.S. transmission system is critical to the nation’s resilience and national security. Significant expansions of new and upgraded transmission lines by public and private sector entities, including SunZia Transmission in New Mexico, will facilitate the transmission of clean energy across the United States. Meanwhile, a new generation of modern grid technologies provides a significant opportunity to achieve power system capacity expansion, including through high-performance conductors that can carry two times (or more) the amount of power of conventional transmission wires, as well as grid enhancing technologies that maximize electricity transmission across the existing system through a family of technologies that includes sensors, power flow control devices, and analytical tools.
  
  
• Battery Storage. Utility-scale battery storage has the potential to provide much-needed flexibility that supports renewable energy sources, and helps address grid infrastructure challenges. Between 2010 and 2023, the cost of utility-scale battery storage projects declined by 89%, to $273 per kilowatt hour, driven by improvements in manufacturing, materials efficiency, and manufacturing processes. Storage capacity additions also increased significantly, with additions of 22 gigawatt hours (GWh) in 2023. As the private sector continues to invest in new battery technologies and manufacturing processes, battery storage costs will continue to decline, supporting the clean energy economy of the future.
  
  

• Energy Efficiency. Improvements in energy efficiency can cut pollution and save Americans on their energy and water bills. The Biden-Harris Administration has strengthened 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, saving the average household more than $100 a year while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 2 billion metric tons. Efficient equipment such as heat pumps powered by clean electricity are already making heating, cooling, and hot water more affordable for a growing number of American homes. 2022 marked the first year that heat pump sales outpaced fossil fuel furnaces in the US; in 2023, heat pumps outsold gas furnaces by 27 percent, demonstrating the technology’s growing popularity with consumers. When paired with energy efficiency improvements, like insulation, heat pumps lower the cost of heating and cooling, while improving indoor and outdoor air quality.

• Clean Steel and Clean Concrete. Producing steel and concrete, fundamental building blocks of the modern economy, accounts for more than 15 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Clean steel and concrete are already being produced in the United States. Major steelmakers are now using Inflation Reduction Act investments to build and retrofit American steel facilities to produce cleaner steel. Innovative low carbon methods for concrete production can reduce emissions by eliminating the need for high temperatures or through the use of alternative low carbon feedstocks. These innovative concretes are more durable and stronger than conventional concrete, improving the performance of infrastructure investments and resulting in long term savings. As clean hydrogen and clean electricity prices continue to fall, producers will be able to further slash emissions using these cleaner inputs.
  
  
• Clean Hydrogen. Hydrogen has the potential to reduce emissions across a host of sectors, including transportation and heavy industry. Key cost drivers of green hydrogen production, including the capital expenditure for electrolyzers and the price of renewable energy, are expected to decline in years ahead due to economies of scale, delivering green hydrogen at a lower price point. Combined, these two cost declines could translate to a significant reduction in green hydrogen production costs, from $3-6 per kilogram today to $1.50 – 2 by 2035.

• Clean Cars and Trucks. Electric vehicles (EVs) are already selling at a record pace in the United States, supported by falling component prices as well as fuel and maintenance cost savings for consumers. From 2018 to 2022, the sales-weighted average price of electric cars decreased, and the price gap between internal combustion vehicles and EVs has begun to close. Through 2035, falling EV component prices will drive down the purchase price for EVs and bring new customers to the EV market. For instance, battery prices are set to fall by as much as 50 percent through 2026 thanks to improved technology and expanded production of key inputs. Federal standards support these market developments: the strongest-ever national pollution standards for passenger cars and heavy-duty vehicles are providing certainty for the automobile industry, catalyzing private investment, creating good-paying union jobs, improving public health, and expanding consumer choice in clean vehicles.

• Federal Sustainability. With broad support from America’s manufacturers, clean energy developers, labor organizations, business leaders, states, and communities, the Federal Government’s 300,000 buildings, 600,000 vehicles, and $750 billion in annual procurement power will continue to be more sustainable and resilient while supporting good jobs, cutting costs, and saving taxpayers money.

Action and Leadership from state, local, Tribal, and territorial governments

State, local, Tribal, and territorial governments in the United States have a long history of climate leadership that has laid the groundwork for subsequent federal action, including the Inflation Reduction Act. Many critical climate levers, especially in the transportation, electricity, and building sectors, lie largely within the domain of these governments. In the years ahead, leveraging and expanding the new clean energy economy enabled by the Biden-Harris Administration’s policies and bolstered by strong economic tailwinds supporting clean energy, these governments will ensure that the United States remains all-in on climate action. States, territories, cities, counties, and Tribal governments together have the capacity to step in and deliver on climate ambition. In the years ahead, we expect that subnational and Tribal governments will adopt new and strengthen existing climate-forward policies such as:

• Climate Action Plan Implementation: Through support from the Inflation Reduction Act, more than 45 states and more than 200 Tribes, territories, and metro areas have now developed their own Climate Action Plans, representing a historic set of opportunities for subnational climate progress across sectors. More than $4 billion of Climate Pollution Reduction Grants awarded by the Biden-Harris Administration will also advance 59 implementation projects across 30 states, 33 Tribal Nations, and 1 territory to reduce climate pollution from every sector of the economy. Many of these projects can be expanded and provide examples that other states, local governments, Tribes, and even businesses can replicate in their work to tackle the climate crisis.
  
  
• Innovative Solutions to Cut Pollution from the Existing Transportation Systems. California, Washington, and Oregon have developed and implemented, or started to implement, programs that reduce emissions from the transportation sector through a predictable, market-based approach, generating climate and local-air quality benefits for residents and communities. New York City and State adopted and implemented the country’s first-ever congestion pricing program, which will reduce climate pollution and provide a stable funding source for mass transit. Other states have the opportunity to build on these successful policy initiatives in their own jurisdictions.
  
  
• Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPSs) and Clean Energy Standards (CESs). Today, twenty-five states and the District of Columbia have set RPSs and eight others have adopted CESs, which will increase the generation of low- and zero-carbon electricity. Adoption of these standards by additional states, as well as the strengthening of existing standards, provides significant upside for reducing climate pollution.
  
  
• Building Energy Codes. Many subnational governments have already adopted or are in the process of adopting the most up-to-date energy codes to ensure new building construction is energy efficient and lowering emissions for years to come. Subnational governments are also reducing energy costs and emissions in existing buildings, with almost 25 percent of commercial buildings subject to a building performance standard or located in a community with plans to adopt building performance standards.
  
  
• State Procurement of Low-Carbon Materials. The Biden-Harris Administration’s landmark Federal Buy Clean Initiative leverages the sway of the U.S. government, as the largest purchaser on Earth, to spur demand for clean American manufacturing of materials that form the bedrock of our economy. Thirteen states have joined the Federal-State Buy Clean Partnership and committed to prioritizing efforts that support procurement of lower-carbon infrastructure materials in state-funded projects. These states can continue to work together to send a clear, harmonized demand signal to the marketplace for the long-term decarbonization of essential industries.
  
  
• Financing Climate Solutions. With support from the Inflation Reduction Act’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF), the national network for financing clean energy and climate solutions across sectors is larger than ever before. The National Clean Investment Fund awardees are establishing national clean financing institutions that deliver accessible and affordable financing for clean technology projects nationwide, and the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator awardees are establishing hubs that provide funding and technical assistance to community lenders working in low-income and disadvantaged communities.

• State and Regional Efforts to Cap Emissions. 15 states and Puerto Rico have binding economy-wide emissions targets in law, covering more than 115 million Americans across the country. Voters in Washington State recently upheld a groundbreaking law requiring companies to cut carbon emissions while investing in programs that benefit the public, such as habitat restoration and climate adaptation. This recent success builds on initiatives such as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a regional program that requires certain power plants to acquire allowances for every ton of CO2 emitted.

In the years to come, leadership will come from all across American society – cities and states, Tribes and territories, small and big businesses, working communities, individual Americans and the private sector working together to seize the economic opportunity, create jobs, and build the clean energy economy. This new clean energy economy, enabled by the forward-looking policies of this Administration, will continue to grow – and the United States will continue to create good jobs and cut carbon pollution right here at home.

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On December 17, the Biden-Harris Administration hosted the first-ever White House Sustainable Freight Workshop, bringing together nearly 100 public and private stakeholders from across the freight sector to discuss a path forward to reducing emissions from the freight system while protecting the economic vitality created by President Biden’s Investing in America agenda. Recognizing the critical importance of the freight sector and the associated challenge of reducing emissions to improve global and local environmental and public health impacts, the workshop convened Federal agency and White House staff alongside leaders representing the freight industry, civil society, and environmental justice organizations to realize the Administration’s commitment to developing a national zero-emissions freight strategy.

The freight sector, including maritime, rail, and trucking, is a critical part of the Nation’s transportation system, transporting more than 20 billion tons of freight worth more than $18 trillion dollars annually. The economic impact of freight helps make it the largest source of climate pollution in the U.S. In the United States, the transportation sector (including the freight sector) is a leading contributor to local pollution, responsible for more than 50% of total NOx emissions, over 30% of volatile organic compound emissions, and over 20% of particulate matter emissions, pollution that particularly impacts communities of color and low-income families. Worldwide, the freight sector contributes approximately eight percent of greenhouse gas emissions. Historically, challenges to decarbonize the freight sector have been in part due to slow fleet turnover and associated acquisition costs.

The transformative economic agenda of the Biden-Harris Administration has helped accelerate the freight sector toward a cleaner future. Recent historic investments include $3 billion from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Clean Ports Program and $735 million from EPA’s Clean Heavy-Duty Vehicle Program to help applicants purchase 2,400 zero-emission commercial vehicles; $2.4 billion from the Department of Transportation’s Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) grants program administered by the Federal Rail Administration for low- and zero-emission locomotives; and $150 million in grants from the Federal Highways Administration to reduce truck emissions at port facilities. The Biden-Harris Administration has also upheld its commitment to protecting communities that have historically suffered disproportionate public impacts of the freight sector.

Taking a holistic approach to freight sustainability, the Workshop presented opportunities to align as an integrated freight ecosystem across the maritime, rail, and trucking industries and builds on the Administration’s 2023 National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization, the March 2024 release of a National Zero-Emission Freight Corridor Strategy, and the April 2024 announcement of the first-ever national goal to transition to a zero-emissions freight sector. The workshop also served as an opportunity to launch the Action Plans for freight sector all stemming from the National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization.

The following actions were announced at Tuesday’s workshop:

• The Electrification Coalition, an industry consortium and nonpartisan organization, announced the launch and call to action of the Sustainable Freight Partners Group to align interests and coordination on the deployment low to zero-emission freight solutions across the maritime, rail and trucking industries. The Group will serve as a critical platform to regularly convene on freight sustainability priorities, communicate the value of emission reduction solutions, and facilitate strategic vision on competitive and economic approaches across the freight ecosystem.
  • The Department of Energy, along with its Blueprint agency partners, brought to life the recently announced modal action plans through results-driven discussions on measures for implementation on the top modal actions including;  
    • Maritime: Scaling the production of low and zero-emission fuels for marine vessels through the “Sustainable Grand Maritime Challenge.”
    • Rail: Designing the future rail network for low to zero-emission short and line haul freight locomotives through a public-private partnership framework.
    • Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicles: Developing the Play Book for Phase I and 2 of the National Zero-Emission Freight Corridor Strategy to deploy charging and refueling infrastructure in freight hubs and along corridors for battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell trucks.
  • A Zero Emissions Freight Map developed by the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation and Atlas Public Policy presented over 700+ projects worth $12.8 billion across the freight ecosystem for maritime, rail and trucks showcasing strong alignment with the prioritization of public and private investments through the ‘all of government’ National Zero-Emission Freight Corridor Strategy.
    • Sixty-five percent of the investments in zero-emission freight were funded through industry, utilities, cities and states where only 35% of the share is funded through the Federal government, demonstrating a strong commitment across the private and public sectors for freight sustainability. These projects will take fold over the next three to five years proving strong momentum and advancement in zero- emission technologies and infrastructure.
  • Environmental groups and industry consortia participated in an externally led social media campaign #RouteZeroWeek to celebrate clean transportation from “Sustainable Freight to Clean Cars” presenting supporting messages for the billions of dollars in public and private investment, advanced technologies and partnerships for clean transportation solutions throughout the U.S.

Participating organizations include:

• Alstom
• American Association of Port Authorities
• American Bureau of Shipping
• American Short Line and Railroad Association
• American Truck Association
• A Public Power Association
• Association of American Railroads
• Atlas Public Policy
• BlueSky Maritime
• California Department of Transportation
• CALSTART
• Carnival
• Chamber of Shipping of America
• CharIN
• CN
• Commercial ZEV
• CPKC
• Cruise Line Industry Association
• CSX
• Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority
• East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice
• Edison Electric Institute (EEI)
• Electrification Coalition
• EPRI
• Exelon
• FHWA
• Forum Mobility
• Fuel Cell & Hydrogen Energy Association (Cummins)
• IKEA Supply Chain Operations
• Innovative Rail Technologies
• International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
• International Bunker Industry Association
• International Council on Clean Transportation
• Joint Office of Energy & Transportation
• Little Village Environmental Justice Organization
• Methanol Institute
• Microsoft
• Moving Forward Network
• MSC
• NADA
• National Association of Truck Stop Operators
• National Grid
• Navistar/ International
• NESCAUM
• New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance
• Nikola
• New Jersey Environmental Protection Agency
• NREL
• Ocean Conservancy
• Pacific Environment
• Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
• Port of Seattle
• Partnership Project
• Penske
• People’s Collective for Environmental Justice
• PG&E
• Sierra Club
• Smart Freight Centre
• South Ward Environmental Justice Alliance
• Southern Company
• Sustainable Maritime Coalition
• Tesla
• TruCurrent
• U.S. Department of Energy
• U.S. Department of Transportation
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America
• Voltera
• Volvo Trucks
• Powering America’s Commercial Transportation
• Wabtec
• Watco
• Zeem Solutions

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Republicans need to stop playing politics with this bipartisan agreement or they will hurt hardworking Americans and create instability across the country. President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect Vance ordered Republicans to shut down the government and they are threatening to do just that—while undermining communities recovering from disasters, farmers and ranchers, and community health centers. Triggering a damaging government shutdown would hurt families who are gathering to meet with their loved ones and endanger the basic services Americans from veterans to Social Security recipients rely on. A deal is a deal. Republicans should keep their word.

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Today, the Biden-Harris Administration will honor 14 Rural Innovators from across America who making a positive impact in their rural communities.

Earlier this year, the Biden-Harris Administration invited the public to nominate individuals who are taking action and ensuring their communities thrive for generations to come. White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden, White House Office of Public Engagement Director Stephen Benjamin, and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack headlined an event at the White House today to celebrate the extraordinary accomplishments of Rural Innovators and highlight the Biden-Harris Administration’s investments in rural communities. To learn more about the Rural Innovators, please visit Rural.gov.

The individuals being recognized as Rural Innovators include:

• Sylandi Brown, Board Member, Pulaski County Board of Education (Georgia)
• Kristina Cannon, President & CEO, Main Street Skowhegan (Maine)
• Jeremiah Clever, President, CWA Broadband Apprenticeship Lead-Idaho (FITECH) (Idaho)
• Jill Dunham, Broadband Project Manager, Allegan County Government (Michigan)
• Rick Erickson, Retired Teacher, Bayfield High School (Wisconsin)
• Luis Omar Garcia, Community Leader, Unidos por Arenas (Puerto Rico)
• Jennifer Gauthier, Director, College of Menominee Nation Sustainable Development Institute (Menominee Nation)
• Nick Hernandez, CEO & Founder, Makoce Agriculture Development (Pine Ridge Indian Reservation)
• Michael Jefferson, President & Founder, Cut One School One Youth Crime Intervention, Inc. (Mississippi)
• Erin Martin, Farmer & Owner, Footprints in the Garden (North Carolina)
• Ted Matthews, Administrator & CEO, Anson General Hospital (Texas)
• Sarah Meitner, Executive Director, Heartland Community Foundation (Kansas)
• Alexis Racelis, Houston Endowed Chair for Science and Technology and Professor in the School for Earth, Environmental and Marine Sciences, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (Texas)
• Nancy X. Valentine, Artist and Executive Director of Kaddatz Galleries (Minnesota)

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TO THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES:
 
 
    With a view to receiving the advice and consent of the Senate to ratification, I transmit herewith the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (the “Agreement”).  I also transmit, for the information of the Senate, the report of the Department of State with respect to the Agreement.

    The purpose of the Agreement is to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ), often referred to as the high seas, which are under threat from a multitude of stressors.  The high seas includes ocean areas beyond countries’ 200-mile exclusive economic zones and covers about two-thirds of the global ocean.

     The Agreement will create a mechanism to establish marine protected areas in ABNJ, a vital step in the global effort to conserve or protect at least 30 percent of the global ocean by 2030.  It will create a system for the fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of marine genetic resources from ABNJ.  The Agreement also includes provisions ensuring that Parties conduct rigorous environmental impact assessments for their activities in ABNJ and provisions on capacity-building and the transfer of marine technology related to the Agreement.  The Agreement is key to supporting the sustainable use of marine resources, maintaining the integrity of ocean ecosystems, and conserving marine biological diversity.  Implementation of the Agreement will respect the competences of and not undermine other international bodies and will require consultations with those organizations to enhance cooperation and coordination on the conservation and sustainable use of the marine resources of the high seas.

     I believe joining the Agreement to be fully in the interest of the United States.  I recommend that the Senate give early and favorable consideration to the Agreement and give its advice and consent to ratification.
 

                              JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.
 
 

THE WHITE HOUSE,
    December 18, 2024.

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On December 17, U.S. Principal Deputy National Security Advisor (PDNSA) Jon Finer, Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, and Indian Ambassador to the United States Vinay Kwatra traveled to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, to mark the significant progress the United States and India have made to strengthen space cooperation, including under the U.S.-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET).  Following President Biden and Prime Minister Modi’s June 2023 commitment to work together to “reach new frontiers across all sectors of space cooperation” and India’s signing of the Artemis Accords, our two nations reached an inflection point on collaboration across civil, security, and commercial space sectors.  This includes human spaceflight, joint space exploration, and a commitment to facilitating commercial partnerships between U.S. and Indian space companies to advance our shared interests in the growing space economy.

As part of their visit to Houston, PDNSA Finer and Deputy Secretary Campbell met with representatives from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), and space industry leaders to identify new opportunities to further strengthen our burgeoning space partnership.  They also reflected on the accomplishments of the past few months and charted next steps to take our partnership to the next level, including:  

• Selecting two ISRO astronauts to train at NASA’s Johnson Space Center for the first-ever joint effort between American and Indian astronauts at the International Space Station, with Axiom Space serving as the provider of the mission; the launch of the Axiom-4 mission as soon as spring 2025 will mark a significant milestone in the U.S.-India space partnership and space exploration;

• Celebrating the completion of a Strategic Framework for Human Spaceflight Cooperation to deepen interoperability in space and working toward the conclusion of a new arrangement on advanced astronaut training;

• Noting continued progress toward the launch of the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) in early 2025 from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on India’s southeastern coast; the NISAR satellite integrates two radars – one from NASA and one from ISRO – which will together map the motion of the Earth’s surface twice every 12 days, as the United States and India work together to predict and respond to hazards, measure and quantify changes to infrastructure and resources, and address other global challenges;

• Exploring the creation of a new space innovation bridge to promote partnerships between U.S. and Indian startups focused on advancing space situational awareness, satellite technology, and space launch and exploration;

• Promoting defense space cooperation through the U.S.-India Advanced Domains Defense Dialogue, India’s participation in U.S. Space Command’s annual Global Sentinel exercise, and a recently launched space situational awareness joint challenge under the India-U.S. Defense Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X);

• Advancing reviews of Missile Technology exports to generate new opportunities for bilateral industry partnerships on space launch technology, including for commercial satellite launches.

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I’ve always put families and hardworking Americans first. That’s why I called on my Administration to do everything we can to lower costs. Today, the Federal Trade Commission is doing just that by banning hidden junk fees when you book a hotel or purchase event tickets. We all know the experience of encountering a hidden fee at the very last stage of check out—these junk fees sneak onto your bill and companies end up making you pay more because they can. Those fees add up, taking real money out of the pockets of Americans.

Today’s announcement builds on work across my Administration to ban junk fees and lower costs—saving many families hundreds of dollars each year. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau lowered overdraft and credit card late fees, the Department of Transportation proposed a ban on family seating fees and required upfront disclosure of baggage and change fees, and the Federal Communications Commission ensured consumers see upfront the full price and terms for their internet service. Wherever big corporations try to sneak fees onto bills, my Administration has been fighting on behalf of American families to ban them.

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Over the weekend, our nation paused to remember the innocent children and brave educators who were taken from us 12 years ago when someone armed with a weapon of war walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. Today, senseless gun violence has once again visited our classrooms as students and teachers in Madison, WI had their last week of school before Christmas break tragically interrupted by a deadly shooting.
 
Doug and I are mourning the student and teacher who were killed and we are praying for all those who were injured, including those who remain hospitalized. We are also thinking of the young people and families who have had their lives forever changed by this act of gun violence. And we are sending our gratitude to the educators, members of law enforcement, first responders, and medical professionals who quickly and selflessly jumped into action to ensure that even more lives were not lost in this community. 
 
As we hold our loved ones closer this holiday season, we must resolve to do everything in our power to end this epidemic that has become the leading cause of death for kids throughout America. While we have made necessary progress together over the last four years, including through the most significant gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years and our first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, there is more work to be done to ensure that every person has the freedom to live safe from the horror of gun violence. Congress and state legislatures must make background checks universal, pass red flag and safe storage laws, and ban assault weapons. These commonsense solutions will save lives and make our children and communities safer.

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Today, families in Madison, Wisconsin, are grieving the loss of those who were killed and wounded at Abundant Life Christian School. It’s shocking and unconscionable.

We need Congress to act. Now.

From Newtown to Uvalde, Parkland to Madison, to so many other shootings that don’t receive attention – it is unacceptable that we are unable to protect our children from this scourge of gun violence. We cannot continue to accept it as normal. Every child deserves to feel safe in their class room. Students across our country should be learning how to read and write – not having to learn how to duck and cover.

Jill and I are praying for all the victims today, including the teacher and teenage student who were killed and those who sustained injuries. We are grateful for the first responders who quickly arrived on the scene, and the FBI is supporting local law enforcement efforts. At my direction, my team has reached out to local officials to offer further support as needed.

My administration has taken aggressive action to combat the gun violence epidemic. We passed the most significant gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years, I have taken more executive action to reduce gun violence than any other President in history, and I created the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention. But more is needed. Congress must pass commonsense gun safety laws: Universal background checks. A national red flag law. A ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

We can never accept senseless violence that traumatizes children, their families, and tears entire communities apart.

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