Indianz.Com > News > White House Fact Sheet: The American Jobs Plan Supports Tribal Communities
The White House: President Biden Explains The Need For The American Jobs Plan
White House Fact Sheet: The American Jobs Plan Supports Tribal Communities
Friday, April 16, 2021
Indianz.Com

The following fact sheet about the American Jobs Plan was released by the White House on April 16, 2021. Additional information about President Joe Biden’s American Jobs Plan can be found at whitehouse.gov.

The American Jobs Plan Supports Tribal Communities
President Biden’s American Jobs Plan invests tens of billions of dollars directly in Tribal communities across the country, in addition to hundreds of billions of dollars in other investments to which tribal communities are eligible. The plan supports investments for Tribal Governments, advancing key regional development and capacity-building efforts that will help Tribal communities unlock the full potential of this historic funding.

Specifically, President Biden’s American Jobs Plan will:

EXPAND JOB OPPORTUNITIES
• Invest in equitable workforce development and job training programs. As more Americans rejoin the workforce or seek out new opportunities in a changing economy, there is a greater need for skills development opportunities for all workers. President Biden’s plan invests $100 billion in workforce development programs targeted at underserved communities to get our students on paths to trades and careers before they graduate from high school. His plan will help trainees compete for in-demand jobs through wraparound services, income supports, counseling, and case management, paired with high- quality training and effective partnerships between educational institutions, unions, and employers.

• Bridge the digital divide by achieving 100 percent coverage of high-speed broadband. The President’s plan will prioritize building “future proof” broadband infrastructure in unserved and underserved areas so that we finally reach 100% high-speed broadband coverage. He is committed to lower internet prices for all Americans, and for promoting adoption of affordable broadband internet in both rural and urban communities to help close the digital divide. His plan will also invest in long- overdue expansion of broadband on Tribal lands, in consultation with Tribal Nations, and in U.S. Territories.

• Invest in caregivers, who are disproportionately women of color. Caregivers – who are disproportionally women of color – have been underpaid and undervalued for far too long. President Biden’s plan ensures domestic workers, including Native women, receive the benefits and protections they deserve and tackles pay inequities based on gender.

SUPPORT CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE FOR TRIBAL COMMUNITIES
• Support clean and safe drinking water. As part of a $111 billion investment in water infrastructure to support clean, safe drinking water as a right in all communities, the American Jobs Plan will invest several billion dollars to support water infrastructure in Tribal communities, including the Indian Health Service Sanitation Facilities Construction program. It also includes targeted funding for the Department of the Interior’s Rural Water Program and Technical Assistance for Tribes Program. This funding is in addition to large increases in Clean Water State Revolving Fund and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund funding to which a portion will be set-aside for tribal communities.

• Double the Tribal Transportation Program. The President’s plan provides a historic investment to more than double the Tribal Transportation Program, currently authorized for $2.4 billion over five years. This funding would provide urgently needed resources for often underdeveloped, unsafe, and poorly maintained road networks, and hundreds of bridges in need of repair.

• Expand and rehabilitate Indian Housing. Native Americans are seven times more likely to live in overcrowded conditions and five times more likely to have plumbing, kitchen, or heating problems than all U.S. households. To close this gap, the President’s Plan will invest significant funding in HUD’s Indian Housing Block Grant to fund a range of affordable housing activities in tribal areas, including housing development, rehabilitation and housing services.

• Fix rural bridges. As part of an historic investment to repair America’s crumbling infrastructure, the President’s plan focuses $20 billion over five years exclusively on the smaller, off-system bridges, many in rural areas, that would address 12,000 of the 30,000 off-system bridges currently in poor condition.

ADVANCE CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
• Strengthen community resilience. The President’s plan supports those communities who are most vulnerable, physically and financially, to climate-driven disasters to effectively protect themselves and rebuild. This includes substantial investments in programs for which tribes and tribal members are eligible, such as FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities pre-disaster mitigation program and for USDA’s Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Program. Additionally, it includes targeted funding for tribes for resource management and irrigation improvements, and for Tribal climate resiliency grants to support every federally recognized Tribe that wishes to have a location-specific climate adaptation plan to be able to do so.

• Provide Tribal communities transition and relocation assistance. The President’s plan invests in a new Tribal transition and relocation assistance program to support planning and voluntary, community- led transitions for those Tribal communities who are most vulnerable to accelerating climate-driven disasters.

• Protect Tribal land and water. The President’s plan invests in landscape-level resilience and conservation investments on federal, tribal, and partner lands including coastal resilience programs and major landscape restoration initiatives. Tribal communities will be key partners in many of these initiatives.

• Plug orphan wells and clean up abandoned mines. Hundreds of thousands of former orphan oil and gas wells and abandoned mines pose serious safety hazards while also causing ongoing air and water contamination and other environmental damage. Many of these old wells and mines are located on tribal lands and in rural communities that have suffered from years of disinvestment. President Biden’s plan includes an immediate up-front investment that will put hundreds of thousands to work in union jobs plugging oil and gas wells and restoring and reclaiming abandoned coal, hardrock, and uranium mines.

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