Day 71: ‘Looks Like America’
President Biden held his first Cabinet meeting today, remarking on the historic diversity and appointing five members to support him in “selling” his American Jobs Plan to Congress and their constituents.
“[T]hank you all for coming together to form this historic Cabinet,” Biden said, speaking from the East Room. “This is the first in American history that the Cabinet looks like America. That’s what we promised we were going to do, and we’ve done it.”
Secretaries Pete Buttigieg (Transportation), Jennifer Granholm (Energy), Marcia Fudge (Housing and Urban Development), Marty Walsh (Labor), and Gina Raimondo (Commerce), he announced, are tasked with leading the conversations about program initiatives that include “a commitment to Buy American, the plan we’re putting forward to make sure that when the government is spending taxpayers’ money, that they’re spending it on American-made goods of American corporations and American employees.”
The Jobs Plan is a “once-in-a-generation” $2 trillion investment in infrastructure, directing funds for a range of items from bridges and drinking water to veteran’s hospitals, he said.
America also looks like safe space for citizens with autism, Biden elsewhere noted, via proclamation in recognition of World Autism Awareness Day, Friday, April 2nd. Recognizing the “unique disruptions” Covid-19 has had on Americans with disabilities, he said the Biden-Harris Administration is committed to focusing government resources on research to detect early autism and improve the nation’s knowledge of what it’s like living with the condition.
Advancing services is a priority, too, including an apprenticeship initiative with the Department of Labor to develop career pathways in health care and information technology. “[W]e celebrate the countless ways that people with autism contribute to our families, our communities, our Nation, and the world,” Biden said, “and we shine a light on the systemic barriers people with autism face in their daily lives.
“More than 2 percent of American adults and 1 in every 54 of our children have autism — a community of millions who deserve to live full lives of dignity and respect.”
As for America’s great debate on voting rights, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) closed Women’s History Month with an announcement of forward movement on the statehood legislation she introduced — a scheduled committee markup and vote to be held this month, just before D.C. Emancipation Day.
“This historic markup of the D.C. statehood bill, which will be only the second in Congress since 1993, will prepare the bill for the floor and will serve to help educate the American public on why statehood for the residents of our nation’s capital is so important,” Norton said. “As we held a hearing on the bill just last week, we learned that support for D.C. statehood in the latest poll had increased to 54% nationally.”