[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 131 (Tuesday, July 27, 2021)]
[House]
[Page H3915]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             RACIAL EQUITY IN AMERICA JOBS AND FAMILY PLAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
the Virgin Islands (Ms. Plaskett) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. PLASKETT. Mr. Speaker, while the American Rescue Plan is changing 
the course of the pandemic and delivering relief for working families, 
this is no time to build back the way things were. We, in the Virgin 
Islands, can tell you that after suffering not one, but two Category 5 
hurricanes in 2017. This is our moment to reimagine and rebuild a new 
economy.
  Let it be known, the American Jobs Plan is an investment in America, 
that it will create millions of good jobs, rebuild our country's 
infrastructure, and position the United States to outcompete China and 
others.
  Public domestic investment, as a share of the economy, has fallen by 
more than 40 percent since the 1960s. The American Jobs Plan will 
invest in America in a way we have not invested since we built the 
interstate highways or won the Space Race.
  The United States of America is the wealthiest country in the world, 
yet we rank 13th when it comes to overall quality of our 
infrastructure. After decades of disinvestment, our roads, bridges, 
water systems are crumbling. Our electric grid is vulnerable to 
catastrophic outages. Too many lack affordable, high speed internet, 
and quality housing.
  The past year has led to job losses and threaten economic security, 
eroding more than 30 years of progress in women's labor force 
participation. It has unmasked the fragility of our caregiving 
infrastructure. And our Nation has fallen behind its biggest 
competitors on research and development, manufacturing, and training.
  It has never been more important for us to invest in strengthening 
our infrastructure and competitiveness, and in creating the good-paying 
union jobs of the future.
  Like great projects of the past, the President's plan will unify and 
mobilize our country to meet the great challenges of our time: the 
climate crisis and ambitions of an autocratic China. It will invest in 
Americans and deliver jobs and opportunities we all deserve.
  But unlike past major investments, the plan also prioritizes 
addressing longstanding and persistent racial injustice. The plan 
targets 40 percent of the benefits of climate and clean infrastructure 
investment to disadvantaged communities. The American Jobs and Family 
Plan assists in creating equity and wealth creation in communities of 
color, which helps all Americans.
  The American Jobs and Family Plan will transform transportation 
infrastructure, addressing historic inequities, and increasing 
resilience. It will bring broadband coverage to 100 percent while 
reducing costs, create jobs in renewable energy, revitalize our 
schools, veterans' hospitals, and support our essential home care 
workers.
  The bill will strengthen financial security of working families 
through an increase in funding for key nutrition initiatives: SNAP, 
WIC, child nutrition, rural development, including broadband, rental, 
and other housing initiatives, and access to healthcare.
  This will ensure a clean, affordable, and secure energy future by 
investing over $14 billion in clean energy and science, which will 
create tens of thousands of good paying jobs. We will also make sure K-
12 educational institutions have the resources they need, with robust 
investment in Title I and special education, Pell Grants, and other 
financial assistance so students' success is not limited by their 
income or their ZIP Code.
  We will provide strong funding for minority-serving institutions, 
like HBCUs, like in my own district, the University of the Virgin 
Islands, along with Hispanic-serving institutions, and Tribally-
controlled colleges and universities.

  The American Jobs and Family Plan will honor our responsibility to 
our veterans by supporting them with investments in veterans' 
healthcare, including women's healthcare and mental health, combating 
veterans' homelessness, creating economic opportunities, and rebuilding 
military infrastructure.
  House Democrats are supporting the Jobs and Family Plan, which will 
advance justice and opportunity, secure opportunities for underserved 
businesses, low-income communities, communities of color, rural 
communities, and others too often left behind.
  Democrats believe that we should invest in what we value as a Nation. 
We are investing in the American people, American economy, and our 
American values of opportunity, prosperity, and justice for all.

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