Day 82: American Infrastructure
Building back better requires foundational strength, according to the latest priorities of the Biden-Harris Administration. The President is steadfastly promoting the logistics of the American Jobs Plan, including a semiconductor manufacturing competition with China, and pausing only to recognize Daunte Wright and the unrest in Minnesota.
Wright, 20, unarmed, Black and on the phone with his mother, was killed during a traffic stop from an “accidental discharge” of an officer’s gun. She was intending to deploy her taser, the local police chief said.
“Today I’m thinking about Daunte Wright and his family — and the pain, anger, and trauma that Black America experiences every day,” Biden tweeted. “While we await a full investigation, we know what we need to do to move forward: rebuild trust and ensure accountability so no one is above the law.”
It’s not pomp and circumstance for Biden to call for peace and racial harmony amid yet another community and law enforcement face-off following a police-involved homicide, however. He’s perhaps spurring real change with the announcement of his intent to nominate key national security and law enforcement leadership, including a Director for Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. His nominee for the Secretary of the Army, Christine Wormuth, would become the first woman to hold the title.
Biden said he’s spoken with officials in Minnesota, too, a state already under scrutiny for the death of George Floyd. Police reform legislation written in his name remains “the best path forward,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said at the daily briefing.
The Jobs Plan, the Administration insists, widens the scope of America’s response to the “two pandemics” — racism and Covid. The additional $2 trillion worth of legislation is designed to secure the nation’s overall infrastructure, including education, employment and economic recovery — areas that were also disproportionately affected among Black and Brown people.
“The American Jobs Plan that I’ve put forward is … about revitalizing American manufacturing and securing our supply chains, investing in research and development, as we used to, in a very healthy manner,” Biden said at a virtual CEO Summit on Semiconductor and Supply Chain Resilience.
“But it’s also about much more than that. It’s about investing in infrastructure — and infrastructure not for the 20th century, but the 21st century. It’s not just roads and bridges; we’re investing in water systems so Americans can have clean water infrastructure. We’re investing in high-speed rail infrastructure. We’re building charging stations to support America’s electric future … And we’re investing in a more resilient grid,” he added, noting support, too, for American families that includes “[i]nvesting as well in asbestos-free schools for our kids,” “care of our elderly parents” and “our kids with disabilities.”
Innovation and “21st century” infrastructure is the foundation of D.C.’s economic answer to opponents of statehood who cite the District’s lack of agricultural land.