Administration of Joseph R. Biden, Jr., 2021

July 28, 2021

The President. Well, I'm not going to say anything; I just came to drive a truck. [Laughter] And I'm not sure which one I want to drive. That one? There's one back in the corner you can't see. It's the biggest damn pickup truck you ever saw in your life. [Laughter] I tell you what.

Please, everybody, have a seat. Everybody, have a seat.

Carlo, thank you. And, Carlo, I'm sorry about your mom. I really am. So manyâso manyâ people. Well over 630,000 Americans have lost their lives because of COVID. And the only thing I'm going toâand the press keeps wanting me to talk about COVID, but I'm going to mention this one thing.

We still have a lot of people not vaccinated. The pandemic we have now is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. So, please. Please, please, please, if you're not vaccinated, protect yourself and the children out there. It's important.

And, Carlo, having been a significant consumer of health care myself and my family, I've often said this, and I mean it from the bottom of my heart: Thank your daughter for me. If there are any angels in heaven, they're male and female nurses. Notâthat's the God's truth. Doctors let you live; they make you want to live. Spent a lot of time in ICU, with my son on a table. Tell her, "Thank you, thank you, thank you." I really mean it.

And I want to thank Congresswoman Wild for the passport into her district. Where are you? As they say up in Scranton, she's bragging on y'all. They don't say "y'all" up there; they say that in Delaware, butâ[*laughter*]. You do because you've got family from Alabama.

And you've been a tireless champion for the working men and women of the Lehigh Valley, helping us pass a tax cut for families with children that people are seeing now in their bank accounts, showing up in their bank accounts every month, and working with our administration to expand home care for seniors. We've got a generation that's a "sandwich generation" between the child and a mom or dad needing help. And they need help. Provide better pay for caregivers. And I want to particularly thank Bobby Caseyâhe's a great friend of mineâwho champions this cause in the Senate for eldercare.

You know, John Mack started this iconic American company in 1890. But things didn't really didn't get off the ground until 4 years later when he brought his Williamâhis brother William down from Scranton. [*Laughter*] So it goes to show you: If you want to get things moving, bring a guy from Scranton to get it going. [*Laughter*]

Do you mind if I take my coat off? I'm going to take my coat off.

You knowâand, folks, we're getting things moving. We really are. You are.

When I started my campaign for Presidentâand the Gov is stillâGov, I didn't introduce you. I apologize. No, you're the Governor of this State, and you're one of the best Governors in the country. Thank you. And you're a good friend.

When I said I was running when I announced my campaignâand not many people took it seriouslyâI said I was running for three reasons: one, to restore the soul of this countryâa sense of decency and honor; but secondly, to rebuild the backbone of the country: hard-working, middle

class folks who built this country. And I want to point out: Unions built the middle class. That's not a joke. Unions built the middle class.

And by the way, in case you regret anything, I just want you guys and women in union know that if it weren't for the UAW in 1972, I never would have won. You think I'm kidding. We had the largest percentage of union workers of any State in the Nation in Delaware back then, including Michigan, because we're a small State and we had big plans. But soâso, before you get upset, remember, you're to blame why I got here. [*Laughter*]

Look, folks, I think a lot of us come from similar backgrounds: moms, dads, brothers, sisters, family. People who get up every day, work hard, raise their families, pay their taxes, serve their communities, and serve their country. And that's why I moved so quickly to pass the American Rescue Plan shortly after I got inâelected, because we needed to act quickly and boldly to save jobs, save businesses, and save lives. And we did.

We added more than 600,000 jobs per month since I've taken office. That's over 3 million jobs all told. It's the fastest job growth at this point in any administration on record because of you all.

We brought this economy back from the brink: checks in people's pockets, shots in people's arms, tax cuts for working families with children. And we designed our strategy not only to provide a temporary boost, but to lay the foundation for a long-term boom that brings everyone along.

Because when I arrived in office, we had a long timeâit's been a long time since the Federal Government had worked hard for working people. Things had been great for big corporations, great for the very wealthy, folks at the top. Those 55 major corporations for the past 3 years paid zero in Federal taxes, making over $40 billion. They had no complaints.

But when I put my hand on that Bible on January 20 and took the oath of office, I made a commitment to the American people: We're going to change the paradigm so working people could have a fighting chance again to get a good education, to get a good job and a raise, to take care of that elderly parent and afford to take care of their children, and stop losing hours of their lives stuck in traffic because the streets are crumbling or waiting for slow, spotty internet to connect them to the world.

That's what the economy we're building is all about. Because given half a chanceâand think about this; I mean this from the bottom ofâgiven half a chance, ordinary Americansâthe people have never, ever, ever, ever let their country down, just given a half a chance. I mean it.

You may have heard that, in Washingtonâand I was just on the phoneâit looks like we reached a bipartisan agreement on infrastructure, a fancy word for bridges, roads, transit systems, high-speed internet, clean drinking water, cleaning up and capping the orphan wellsâover thousands of them abandonedâand abandoned mines, and a modern, resilient electric grid to build.

And guess what? A lot of those abandoned wells are leaking methane. And guess what? The same union guys that dug those wells, they can make the same union wage capping those wells. And I'm working with Democrats and Republicans to get this done, because while there's a lot we don't agree on, I believe that we should be able to work together on the few things we do agree on. I think it's important.

In addition to the physical infrastructure, I also put forward a thing called Build Back Better plan, with investments that are going to reallyâif I said to you, "You could have the following: We're going to beâbuild you a lot of new roads and bridges, or I can make sure we're going to educate your kids so we're the best educated population in the world," what do you think would

most impact on the growth of America? You'd be the most educated nation in the world. So I'm insisting that we have universal prekindergarten, 2 years of free community college.

All the studies show: No matter what background a kid comes fromâwhether they're a single mom, a single dad who is on what we used to call "welfare," are in trouble, or come from a middle class household; the kid who comes from the background that's deprived is going to hear, by the time they get to first grade, a million fewer words spoken. A million fewer spoken. What that means is they're behind the eight ball from the start. And a lot more.

But we found out if you put kids in not daycare, but in school at age 3, 4, and 5, it increases by 58 percent the chance, no matter what their background, they'll make it through high school and qualify to go on to community college.

Folks, we need more affordable childcare. There are a lot of women not working today because they can't getâgo back to their jobs because they have no one to take care of their children; they can't afford it.

I was a single dad for 5 years when my wife and daughter were killed in an automobile accident, my two little boys were badly banged up. I commuted back and forth to Washington because I couldn't dare leave and move to Washington, because I didn't have my family to help me take care of my kids. I was making a good salary, $42,000 a year then. And guess what? I couldn't afford careâdaycare for my children.

Eldercare: How many of you know somebody, has a mom or dad that needs help just because they're getting older and maybe still has their home, but would rather stay in their home, increase their mental state, put them in a position where it's better for their health, but you can't figure out how to keep mom home alone, how to do itâor dad? Well, eldercare is a big piece of this.

Paid leave: We're one of the only industrial countries in the world that you don't get paid leave if you have a sick son, daughter, mother, father, wife, husband, to have some time to take care of that.

Bring more people into the workforce, enhance our productivity, raise wages, and bring down the cost for working families.

You know, I was born up in Scranton, and my dad worked up in Scranton. He was actually from Baltimore, but he worked in Scranton and met my momâit was his dad moved there. And when coal died, everything died in the Valley, so he had to leave and look for a new job. My dad used to have an expression when we got down to Wilmington. First thing he did, he got a job scrubbing the inside of boilers for a thing calledâan outfit called Kyle, the Kyle Corporation.

We finally got to the place whereâwe get to the place after 5 years we could afford to buy a small houseâactually, 6 years. My dad used to say: "Remember, Joey, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. It's about your dignity. It's about respect. It's about your place in the community." I give my word to what he'd say. And it's about being able to look your kid in the eye and say, "Honey, it's going to be okay," and mean it.

Because we know that trickle-down economics has never worked. But when working families do well, everybody does well, including the wealthy. Everybody.

Today I'm here to talk about a commitment that's sacred to me and central to our efforts to keep things moving. It's a straightforward solution: support and grow more American-based companies; put more Americans to work in union jobs; strengthen American manufacturing and secure critical supply chains; and confront the climate crisis, which is all about jobs. I can sum it up in two words: Buy American. [*Applause*] Buy American.

You know, what most people don't knowâno matter how informed they areâmost people don't know that for literally almost a century, there's been a law on the books in America called the Buy America Act. It's supposed to make sure that when your Government spends your tax dollars in buying goods that they have to be goods that were built, purchased in America.

But the previous administration didn't take it so seriouslyâin previous ones, not just the last one. They were quick to say: "You know, we have a lot of money to spend. We've got to buyâ the Government is going to buy everything from buildings to aircraft carriers to trucks to whatever it is. But we can't find an American company that can do it all, so we're going to have to issue a waiver. We'll hire the American company, but that American company is going to have a subsidiary overseas where non-AmericanâAmericans don't work, where it's much cheaper, they can make more money, and they're going to say, "We have to have that as part of the chain of building the product."

The result has been tens of billions of dollars didn't go to jobs and businesses in communities like this one. In recent years, "Buy American" has become a hollow promise. But my administration is going to make "Buy American" a reality. And I'm putting the weight of the Federal Government behind that commitment with Made inâin the White House itself, we put in a Made in America Office to overseeânot in an agency, in the White House itselfâto oversee these efforts.

In my first Cabinet meeting, I told all of the Cabinet members if their agency wants to issue a waiverâthey're buying forestâthe Forest Department is buying trucks or hoses or whatever they need, okay? They've got to buy something that'sâall of it has been made in America.

And you can't give exceptions. Because if you say, "We can't find one that doesâhas"â they get their nozzles overseas because they don't have anybody here who can make them, et cetera. I said, "If you're going to give an exception, you've got to tell the White House specifically why the exception."

If they still want a waiver, they have to post the request onâpublicly so American manufacturers all over the United States and businessesâhave a chance to look up now in a new facility and say: "Hey, they're for companies that make nozzles. They're looking for companies that make the following whatever. We make that. We make that." And contact us. Then, they can't take the job overseas.

And today we're going to go further: We're going to make the biggest enforcement changes to the Buy American Act in 70 years. Right now, if you manufacture a vehicleâI expect you guys know about thatâthat gets purchased by the Federal Government, the law says thatâand there's about 600,000 vehicles the Federal Government owns, by the way, and replaces and buysâthat "substantially all" of that vehicleâ"substantially all"âshould be made in America.

But because of loopholes, over time, you know what "substantially all" means today? If 55 percent of it was made in America, you can go ahead and get all of the rest of it purchased other places. To me, 55 percent is not "substantially all"âit's barely half.

And this is actually a double whammy. First, 55 percent is not high enough. And second, contractors don't have to tell us the total domestic content of their products, they just have to tell us that they hit the threshold. Nobody checking. Well, they've got a new sheriff in town. We're going to be checking. No, I'm serious. I am deadly earnest.

Today I'm directing the Budget Office to issue a rule to raise the amount of domestic content required to be considered made in America from 55 percent to 75 percent. "Substantially all" is going to mean substantially all.

And starting with critical products, instead of taking contractors at their word that they hit the threshold, we're going to start making them give us the details so that we can do more to support American manufacturing. We want to be the ones making the innovative parts of every product, the ones that will support more jobs and more small businesses.

For example, I had a tour today. A lovely lady showing me in the parts whereâthe second stop we madeâshe said, "Well, we're having a little problem. We're finding we don't have the computer chips that we need to go into the engines, et cetera." We basically don't make them anymore in America.

So I got together with a group of 20 Republicans and Democrats. We passed a new piece of legislation providing that South Korea and Taiwan open up plants here in the United States hiring American employees to make those computer chips so we're not held hostage. And, in case you haven't noticed, not only you, but Ford Motor Company said they're going to have to stop producing certain vehicles. They couldn't get the chips. Couldn't get the wafers.

And so I'm also directing my Budget Office to create new rules for critical products where we know we need stronger, more resilient domestic supply chains. We're talking about components like semiconductors, pharmaceutical ingredients, advanced batteries, among other things.

We saw during the early days of the pandemic that the supply chain disruptions can put Americans' lives and livelihoods at risk. When we needed them most, we were short of protective equipment; we were short on ventilators and other essential health equipment. We couldn't get the job done. We couldn't take care of people. We were short on basic equipment. I know a lot of you in this factory stepped up to make PPE at the time. That was a noble service, but it's not a long- term solution.

Yes, we'll keep trading with our allies, but we need to have a resilient supply chain of our own so that we're never again at the mercy of other countries for critical goods ever again. Ever.

You know exactly what I'm talking about. Right here, you've seen production slowdowns.

As I've said, you've had your hours cut because of the shortage of computer chips and semiconductors. These chips are in more than just vehicles; they enable so much of our modern lives: our smartphones, our televisions, our medical equipment.

That's why we're investing $50 billion to have the best chip manufacturing in the world come and build factories in the United States of America. And it passed the Senate, and it's called the CHIPS Act, and it's part of my Build Back Better plan. And it is bipartisan, as many Republicans are concerned about it as Democrats.

It's not just semiconductors. With this rule, we'll be able to buy medical products from companies like OraSure that are upâthat are down the road in Bethlehemâor up the road in Bethlehem, I should say. I'm used to thinking from Scranton. [*Laughter*]

Their COVIDâ19 tests are being made right here, bringing good jobs along with itâ meaning that we're developing a homegrown capacity to respond to this pandemic and help prepare for the next one.

And by the way, when I say "Buy in America," I mean from all America. You know, we're going to include communities that have historically been left out of Government procurement, when more contracts are going to go Black and Brown communities, Native Americans, small businesses, every State and Territory, every industry that services and manufactures, and also agriculture.

Part of the problem is that a lot of companies don't even know these opportunities exist to be part of this. And we've got toâand we've got to knowâI used to have a great friendâa friend

who's a great friend. He used to play for Providence College back in the days when they had great teams. His name was Pete McLaughlin, and he used to have an expression. And he wasn't theâ God love him. He passed away, needed a heart transplant.

But anyway, the point is that what Pete used to sayâand academics weren't his thingâhe used to say something very streetwise. He said, "Joe, you've got to know how to know." You've got to know how to know. You can walk into the Library of Congress, one of the greatest libraries in the world, and if you don't know how to use the card catalog, figuratively speaking, it's just all happenstance. You've got to know how to know.

So we started a new manufacturing contracting office in the Small Business Administration to help small and medium-sized businesses bid on these contracts. And my Department of Commerce is working to help Government agencies connect with new domestic suppliers in every State. That's how we're going to build a future that's made in America.

One more reason this is going to make a big difference: Each year, the Federal Government purchases more than $600 billion in goods and services. The Congress passes laws for purchasing things, and as President, I get to decide where we spend them and what we purchase, whatâI mean, I have to purchase what was called for, but I get toâand I'm the one who makes the decisionâthe administration makes a decision on how to spend that $600 billion.

If American companies know that we're going to be buying from them, they're going to be more inclined to hire and make key investments in the future in their companies, like you're doing here.

I just saw the work you're doing on the heavy-duty electric vehicles here, like electric garbage trucks. You know, there are more than 600,000 vehicles in the Federal fleet, including the majority of whichâthe largest portion of which are at the post office.

As we work to electrify themâas they run out, electrify themâwe're going to be making a market for vehicles with electric, supporting both the good jobs being created, as well as innovation we need to electrify our transportation sector and clean up our environment at the same time.

And we'll be expanding my "Made in America" initiative to help cities, towns, and Tribes get a better deal when they buy a "Made in America" product. It helps the towns, the taxpayers, as well as all of you on the floor of this significant place. It really does.

There are a lot of folks out there who look at how fast and how dramatically the world is changing and world economies are changing. I mean, who would have thought that 20 years ago you'd be making electric garbage trucks here? Seriously, think about it. But they accept it as gospel that working folks aren't going toâaren'tâare going to get left behind; they're not going to be able to keep up.

Just the opposite. It's the opposite. Hard-working Americans are the ones who are going to make it happen. We've got to invest in you. We have the most productive workforce in the world here. Given half a chance, there's not a singleâsingle thing you can't do.

So I reject out of handâI've been criticized for this for some timeâbut I reject out of hand this defeatist view that the forces of automation and globalization mean we can't have good- paying union jobs in America.

And right here, on this factory floor, you're making a product that are fighting climate change. That's why when I hear "climate change," I think jobs. Our manufacturing future, our economic future, our solutions to the climate crisis are all going to be made in America, creating good jobs. This's what it means to build back better.

We came out of this economic crisisâthe worst since the Depressionâstronger than when we went in. America is one of the few countries of the worldâwhen we get smacked and knocked down, we get up, we come back, and we come back better than we were before we got knocked down. Now, I'm not joking. Think about theâyou know, the course of history in America.

And that's why, in the American Rescue Plan we passed shortly after I took office, we're investing considerable sums that will go to cities and towns looking to build back stronger. For example, towns in the southwestern part of this State can now apply for funds to cap those wells that are leaking methane, clean up abandoned coal mines, invest in bringing new employers into abandoned factories, and get help attracting them.

Let me close with this: Back in 2009, during the so-called "Great Recession," the President asked me to be in charge of managing that pieceâthen-President Trumpâexcuse me, Freudian slip; that was the last President. He causedâanywayâ[*laughter*]. That was President Obama, when I was Vice President.

And the American auto industry, you remember, was on the rocks. And a lot of people, including a lot of Democrats, thought it wasn't worth investing trainingâinvesting in them because the American worker wasn't that good, and they were blah, blah, blah.

I remember the heat that I tookâsome of you may remember as wellâwhen I stood up and stepped into the rescue of the American automobile industry. My name was often taken in vain on television shows a lot, because "Why is Biden so committed to the automobile industry?" Well, because the fundamental mistakes that were made weren't made by the workers; they were made by management.

Today, a lot of the folks who said we shouldn't rescue the American auto industry are the same folks who are saying, "We don't need to buy American." What those people never realized is, if you give an American worker just a chanceâa fighting chanceâthere's nothing they won't do. And if you give American companies and communities the chance, there's nothing they can't build. Just look around.

From the steel that raised our cities to these trucks behind me that are going to carry the economy forward, to the workers who are the heart and soul and spine of this NationâAmerican strength is here. It's in this region. It's you. It's not hyperbole. It's you.

And that's why I've told every foreign leaderâand I just got back from Europe meeting with heads of state. One said to meâI said, "America is back." And he said, "For how long?" A head of state. And I said: "You know, I want to tell you something. It's never, ever, ever been a good bet to bet against America. We never fail when we decide we're going to do something."

I've spent an awful lot of time with Xi Jinping, President of China, more than, I'm told, than any other world leader has. And he's made it really clear he doesn't think democracies can compete in the 21st century. And I spent over 25 hours alone with him over the period of the last 5 yearsâ7 years.

And guess what? Just come back from a conference with Putin. He thinks the same thing.

Well, I've got news for them: Autocracies will not succeed if we do what we can do as a democracy. Democracies. And if you noticed, not a joke, a lot of the rest of the world is hedging their bets whether to move toward autocracy or stay with democracies.

We have it all, folks. We have everything that we need in this country toânot only today, but for my grandchildrenâto be in a situation where we're still the most powerful physically and most powerful economic nation in the world that treats other nations decently and maintains the peace. That's who we are. That's America.

We're the most unique nation in the history of the world. Not a joke. By that I mean: Every other nation was put together based on ethnicity or religion, geography. But not America.

America is the most unique nation in the world, and literally, we're based on the ideaâan idea. An idea is what formed America. And the idea wasâand it sounds corny, but it is absolutely trueâno other nation has this as their organizing principle: We hold these truths to be self- evident that all men and women are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rightsâlife, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

We believe it. We've never accomplished it, but every generation that moved us closer and closer and closer to inclusion. And that's why America's real power is not in the exercise of a military power, but people follow us because of our example. That's why the rest of the world follows us.

It was about time we get back up and reassert who we are. This is the United States of America.

Thank you, and God bless you all. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 1:59 p.m. In his remarks, he referred to Carlo Bet, repair technician, who introduced the President, and Tammy Flower, team manager, Mack Lehigh Valley Operations manufacturing facility; Kayla Bet, daughter of Mr. Bet; Gov. Thomas W. Wolf of Pennsylvania; and President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of Russia. He also referred to S.

1260.

Categories: Addresses and Remarks : Mack Lehigh Valley Operations manufacturing facility in Lower Macungie Township, PA.

Locations: Lower Macungie Township, PA.

Names: Bet, Carlo; Bet, Kayla; Biden, R. Hunter; Casey, Robert P., Jr.; Flower, Tammy; Obama, Barack; Putin, Vladimir Vladimirovich; Trump, Donald J.; Wild, Susan E.; Wolf, Thomas W.; Xi Jinping.

Subjects: Budget, Federal : Procurement policies, reform; Business and industry : Domestic investment, promotion efforts; Business and industry : Manufacturing industry :: Advanced manufacturing, promotion efforts; Business and industry : Manufacturing industry :: Strengthening efforts; Business and industry : Small businesses, promotion efforts; China : President; Civil rights : Racial equality; Communications : Broadband and wireless technologies; Congress : Bipartisanship; Diseases : Coronavirus, domestic prevention efforts; Economy, national : Household income and wages; Economy, national : Improvement; Economy, national : Strengthening efforts; Education : Early childhood education programs; Education : Global

competitiveness; Education : Postsecondary education :: Community colleges; Employment and unemployment : Job creation and growth; Employment and unemployment : Job training and assistance programs; Energy : Alternative and renewable sources and technologies :: Federal Government use; Energy : Hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles :: Promotion efforts; Environment

: Climate change; Government organization and employees : Federal Government contracting policies, reform; Health and medical care : Health care workers, service and dedication; Health and medical care : Medical equipment and supplies; Infrastructure, national improvement efforts; Labor issues : Paid family and sick leave; Labor issues : Unions :: Labor movement and organized labor; Legislation, proposed : United States Innovation and Competition Act of 2021; Pennsylvania : Governor; Pennsylvania : Mack Lehigh Valley Operations manufacturing facility in Lower Macungie Township; Pennsylvania : President's visits; Russia : President; Small Business Administration; Taxation : Corporate tax rates; Taxation : Tax relief; Transportation : Infrastructure, national, improvement efforts.

DCPD Number: DCPD202100619.