ICYMI: The American Jobs and Families Plans Receive Praise in the States

President Biden's economic relief efforts and the American Jobs and Families Plans continue to receive praise from state and local elected officials and editorial boards across the country.

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper today penned an op-ed in the Richmond County Daily Journal on how the American Jobs Plan "delivers" for North Carolina, writing: "The path to rebuilding from this pandemic and getting our country on-track runs through North Carolina. And this jobs plan delivers. The American Jobs Plan will keep us rolling and create opportunities for North Carolinians in all 100 counties. Let's get it done."

In an op-ed for the Puget Sound Business Journal, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan wrote: "The President's American Jobs Plan and American Family Plan is an effort to make once in a lifetime investment into the promise of America. Talk to any mayor and any city about our infrastructure priorities. It's not just about the urgent needs of today, but also about the future. Transit. Affordable housing. New child care facilities. Repairing roads and bridges. Digital equity…. President Biden's jobs plan will put people to work in every community from rural South Carolina to South Seattle and provide a pathway to jobs for many children and workers who aren't part of the new economy of tech companies. Building back better and more equitably can only happen with a one-in-a-generation investment in our ingenuity, workers, and families."

And last week, the Colorado Springs Business Journal Editorial Board wrote: "Biden's solid focus on jobs, families, infrastructure and education is not only popular with Americans, it's good for business. His proposals to expand child care and elder care while building better educational opportunities and access to affordable health care will help decrease turnover and make recruitment easier across the board, yes — but they'd be game-changing for small businesses, whose employees have not normally had access to these benefits…. After four years of endless upheaval, it's exactly what we need. These plans deserve our support."

Read the full op-eds below:

Richmond County Daily Journal: Gov. Roy Cooper | The road to a brighter future runs through NC
[Gov. Roy Cooper, 5/11/21]

North Carolina is emerging from a worldwide pandemic strong and growing, with new jobs and new neighbors arriving daily. We welcome this growth, but in order for our communities to thrive, our infrastructure must catch up and keep up. In recent weeks, Vice President Kamala Harris, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff visited North Carolina with a plan to help transform our state and nation's infrastructure.

That means resilient roads and bridges. Rail and commuter transportation. Job training and trade skills through community colleges. Affordable housing opportunities, particularly in our historically underserved areas. Access to high-speed internet. These are all building blocks for strong communities where businesses can flourish and families can thrive.

I know North Carolina will come out on the other side of this pandemic stronger than ever. But it's critical that everybody has the opportunity to share in our state's successes — not just those at the top — and the American Jobs Plan will help us get that done.

This historic plan includes transformational investments for infrastructure in our communities that are right on time.

The American Jobs Plan will do exactly what it says — support good-paying jobs for people with all types of skill sets and education backgrounds. By employing their talent to strengthen our roads, rebuild our bridges and improve the structures that deliver drinking water, these investments will return dividends for decades to come.

This plan invests in North Carolina's talented and growing workforce by investing in education from cradle to career. When I talk to CEOs, they tell me that education, including early childhood education and access to skills training for high-demand jobs, is key to creating a top-notch workforce. The American Jobs Plan will help us build the foundation for our next generation of leaders by funding hundreds of millions of dollars for our state's community colleges, providing people the training and skills needed to be ready for the jobs of today and tomorrow.
If there's one word to describe North Carolinians, it's resilient. Our strength during this pandemic and past natural disasters like hurricanes shows that. But true resiliency doesn't start and end when the rain and wind from big storms is over. The $50 billion resiliency funding included in President Biden's infrastructure plan will support recovery efforts and help us rebuild houses and businesses so we are truly prepared for future natural disasters.

North Carolina is becoming a leader in the fight against climate change, and we are working to slow greenhouse gas emissions that have made storms more frequent and more intense. I recently joined Vice President Harris to tour Thomas Built Buses, an electric school bus manufacturer in High Point. Investing in more jobs to build things like electric vehicles has a double payoff by supporting workers here in our state while combatting climate change.

One of the many lessons of this pandemic is that access to high-speed internet is a necessity, not a luxury. In North Carolina, we already have a plan and funding from the American Jobs Plan will help us get fast internet service to every household in North Carolina, linking people to new skills, global markets, education and health care.

The path to rebuilding from this pandemic and getting our country on-track runs through North Carolina. And this jobs plan delivers.

The American Jobs Plan will keep us rolling and create opportunities for North Carolinians in all 100 counties. Let's get it done.

Roy Cooper is the Democratic Governor of North Carolina.

Puget Sound Business Journal: Opinion: Cities need bold federal action to support recovery
[Mayor Jenny Durkan, 5/10/21]

In moments of national crisis like the pandemic, history demands the federal government act boldly — not only to overcome the crisis but to build long-term opportunity and economic investment in our community.

Out of the Great Depression, President Roosevelt created Social Security, Fair Labor Standards, the Works Progress Administration and the Federal Housing Administration. World War II gave birth to the GI bill. In the 1960s, President Johnson authored the Civil Rights Act, Medicare and Medicaid, and Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and in the 2000s, President Obama created the Affordable Care Act.

Now, President Biden wants to create long-term and lasting programs for infrastructure, child care, small businesses, and college following the pandemic.

Covid-19 showed the deep inequities and disparities that have existed in our country. The new economy has left behind many, education opportunities aren't equitable especially to communities of color, and our infrastructure like the West Seattle Bridge continues to crumble before our eyes.

The American Rescue Plan started us on that path: help for residents and families in need — rental assistance, a $1,400 direct payment, small business loans and grants, support for child care, and addressing the public health crisis through vaccines and testing. It has allowed more than 70% of eligible Seattle residents to have at least their first vaccination shot and begin our road to normalcy and recovery.

In Seattle, I can see and feel the relief when I talk to businesses and residents throughout the city. There is finally a concrete reason for hope and an urgent need to build back a better, more equitable future for our community.

However, our next step can't just be about rescuing families from the brink. Coming out of this dark year, it is our obligation to reimagine cities, housing, jobs, infrastructure and small businesses with the partnership of the federal government. A once in a lifetime global pandemic that devastated our country deserves America's boldest plan imaginable to boost economic growth and investment in cities like Seattle.

The President's American Jobs Plan and American Family Plan is an effort to make once in a lifetime investment into the promise of America.

Talk to any mayor and any city about our infrastructure priorities. It's not just about the urgent needs of today, but also about the future. Transit. Affordable housing. New child care facilities. Repairing roads and bridges. Digital equity.

We know these infrastructure programs work, yet every city has been forced to cobble together basic resources after decades of federal government disinvestment or static funding. Sound Transit, the Port of Seattle, WSDOT and cities across the entire region equally understand that we could multiple our projects and jobs with more federal support.

Talk to any mayor and any city about investments to close the opportunity gap. Quality preschool. Free College. Internships, apprenticeships, and pathways to the good family wage and union jobs in tech, home health care, clean energy and manufacturing right here in Puget Sound.

Building the ladders of opportunity through education is key to the American Family Plan, which guarantees two years of preschool and two years of college. It will prepare young people and workers for the new economy that has driven Seattle's growth and success.

Seattle and cities across the nation have already launched such programs and are ready to surge these investments with hundreds of shovel-ready projects and programs in infrastructure, clean energy jobs, and education. Our residents and businesses have stepped up in recent years to make sure we're ready for the national investments we need.

We're are on track to bring online 4,500 more homes by the end of 2023, SDOT is creating a more livable and transit-oriented city of the future, and Seattle City Light is the greenest utility in the nation electrifying more of our buildings and transportation system.

The Families Education Preschool and Promise program has pioneered one of the nation's best preschool programs and two years of free college for all Seattle Public School graduates.

But no city alone can scale to the level of investment our cities and country needs, and we have been waiting for federal help too long.

President Biden's jobs plan will put people to work in every community from rural South Carolina to South Seattle and provide a pathway to jobs for many children and workers who aren't part of the new economy of tech companies. Building back better and more equitably can only happen with a one-in-a-generation investment in our ingenuity, workers, and families.

Colorado Springs Business Journal: Opinion: Biden steadies the ship for business
[Colorado Springs Business Journal Editorial Board, 5/7/21]

It's been four months since the violent pro-Trump insurrection at our nation's Capital. Four months. It seems astonishing that this country can look so steady when it was teetering on the brink of autocracy just 120 days ago.

In his first address to Congress, 100 days into his presidency, Joe Biden showed a determination to steer the nation decisively away from chaos, focusing instead on stable, principled leadership and goals that would benefit every American.

After four years of presidential tirades heavy on self-aggrandizing delusions, fearmongering and vindictiveness, it was heartening to hear facts, coherent plans and solid data. Biden's speech, for most of the country, was an hour-long sigh of relief.

An Ipsos snap poll found nearly 73 percent of Americans approved of his remarks, and a majority of respondents — 60 percent or more — supported the proposals he outlined.

The poll found:

• 69 percent of Americans support requiring employers to give 12 weeks paid family and medical leave;
• 66 percent support passing the American Jobs Plan, boosting investments in infrastructure;
• 65 percent support making up to two years of community college free;
• 65 percent support tax increases for the wealthiest Americans (Biden specifically excluded anyone earning under $400,000 a year);
• 64 percent support increasing IRS audits and enforcement against wealthy tax dodgers;
• 63 percent support lifting the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour; and
• 51 percent agree "trickle down economics have never worked in America" — with even 4 in 10 Republicans saying it was a failed theory.

Biden's solid focus on jobs, families, infrastructure and education is not only popular with Americans, it's good for business. His proposals to expand child care and elder care while building better educational opportunities and access to affordable health care will help decrease turnover and make recruitment easier across the board, yes — but they'd be game-changing for small businesses, whose employees have not normally had access to these benefits.

Strong investment in infrastructure is long overdue — Industry Week noted last year that "crumbling infrastructure is hurting America's competitive edge," adding the country is in "dire need" of improvements to roads, bridges, waterways, ports, runways and drinking water systems.

The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates failing to close the infrastructure gap will cost the U.S. economy $7 trillion by 2025. With fewer resources to pour into workarounds, small businesses are hardest hit when public infrastructure falls into disrepair. What's more, the work of building and improving infrastructure across the nation will create jobs for small businesses.

Donald Tobin, dean of the University of Maryland's Francis King Carey School of Law and a tax law professor, called Biden's American Jobs Plan "...a business plan," saying "these are the kinds of investments that provide support for economic growth." He told Forbes that business leaders "should be pleased with President Biden's speech. Business leaders know you cannot lead without confidence, hope, and investment in infrastructure and people. Businesses succeed when people succeed."

The post-address Ipsos poll looked at the president's proposals, not at his administration's remarkably successful COVID vaccine strategy, but that's another example of the active government Biden favors — policy-focused, pragmatic and intent on steadying the ship. The faster COVID is under control, the sooner restrictions will be lifted so that life — and business — can hit full speed again.

In Biden's first address, we saw a steady hand, a lack of appetite for manufactured drama and a readiness to use government not only to rebuild and transform the economy, but to level the legal and economic playing field for all Americans. After four years of endless upheaval, it's exactly what we need. These plans deserve our support.