Throughout our nation’s history, often in times of war or economic crisis, critical investments have driven much-needed job creation — leaving both our nation’s infrastructure and our nation’s workforce stronger.

When President Abraham Lincoln started construction on the transcontinental railroad during the Civil War, to connect the East Coast to the West, jobs opened up for blacksmiths and carpenters. When President Herbert Hoover started construction on the Hoover Dam during the Great Depression, to generate power for multiple states, unemployed workers flocked to Nevada to join the team.

As we emerge from the pandemic, at least 10 million Americans are still unemployed — many worked in lower-wage jobs and more than 4 million have been out of work for more than 27 weeks.

Recently, President Joe Biden announced the American Jobs Plan. Through a historic investment in our nation’s infrastructure — one that will rebuild our nation and strengthen our economic foundation — this plan will create millions of jobs. In fact, this plan represents the biggest American jobs investment since World War II.

American Jobs Plan will create good jobs

There is, however, one big difference between the jobs this plan creates and past infrastructure efforts. The laborers who risked their lives to build the railroad earned next to nothing. The Hoover Dam workforce lived in a camp known as “Ragtown” and was prevented from unionizing. And some workers — particularly women and workers of color — were locked out of these projects altogether.

The American Jobs Plan won’t just create jobs. It will create good jobs. It will create good jobs that do meaningful work. And it will do so for every worker.

The jobs this plan creates are, by and large, blue-collar jobs. They require skills in trades that many already have. For those who need skills training, the American Jobs Plan will provide it — expanding apprenticeships and workforce development. And we’re going to use these programs to make sure that these jobs are available to women as well as men. After all, hard hats are unisex.

Additionally, each and every one of these jobs will have the free and fair choice to organize or join a union. Unions built the middle class, and the president and I believe strongly that unions can help expand the middle-class today — helping working families who have been shut out, ladder up.

This brings me to my final point, these jobs are for everybody. In rural communities and communities of color, disinvestment will be replaced with investment. Work will be underway everywhere. And workers everywhere will benefit — with a good job, yes, and also by making an important contribution in their own backyard.

A pipefitter in Illinois could get a job replacing lead service lines in their own city, as we plan to replace every lead service line in the nation. An electrician in Montana could find work laying broadband lines in their own neighborhood, as we plan to make broadband available to every American. An aspiring welder in Florida could get an apprenticeship that leads to work fixing up the Seven Mile Bridge, as we plan to repair roads and bridges across the country. A home health care worker in South Carolina could see their pay go up, as we solidify our nation’s care infrastructure.

Every American deserves a good job

Here’s the bottom line: Through this generational investment in infrastructure, there will be millions of more good jobs to fill. There will be more training and apprenticeships for workers to get the skills they need. Workers will have the choice to organize, join a union, and collectively bargain — meaning better pay, better benefits, better protections. And they will do meaningful work, as they repair what has been, build what can be, and keep our country competitive for generations to come.

Last week, I toured the Upper San Leandro Water Treatment Plant in my hometown of Oakland, California. I met two workers there — a carpenter and a construction inspector. They came up through apprenticeship programs. They are proud union members. They’re paid fairly. And they’re making sure households throughout Oakland get clean water, which is important work.

Every American who wants a job like that deserves a job like that. And that’s why President Biden and I are calling on Congress to pass the American Jobs Plan.

Source: www.usatoday.com

President Joe Biden opened talks with lawmakers Monday afternoon on his $2.25 trillion jobs and infrastructure plan, saying he’s “prepared to negotiate” the size of the package and how to pay for it.

“I think everyone acknowledges we need a significant increase in infrastructure,” Biden said from the Oval Office before meeting with a bipartisan group of four senators and four House members. “It’s going to get down to what we call infrastructure.”

Biden has framed his American Jobs Plan as a “once-in-a-generation investment” that would be the country’s largest jobs program since World War II, repair aging infrastructure, and position the U.S. to compete economically with China.

But Republicans have pushed back at $400 billion in spending for home caregiving, clean energy programs, and other proposals in the package that extend beyond traditional transportation infrastructures such as roads, bridges, rail, and ports. Republicans argue Biden and Democrats are using the popularity of infrastructure investment to fund unrelated liberal priorities.

Biden said some people don’t believe replacing lead pipes to ensure safe drinking water or expanding broadband internet – like his plan addresses – is infrastructure work.

“It’s not just roads, bridges, highways, etcetera,” Biden said. “That’s what we’re going to talk about,” he said, adding with a smile: “I’m confident everything is going to work out perfectly.”

He shot down a question from a reporter about whether the bipartisan meeting was just for show.

“I’m not big on window-dressing, as you’ve observed,” he said

Lawmakers who met with Biden included Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, Deb Fischer, R-Nebraska, Alex Padilla, D-California, and Roger Wicker, R-Mississippi, and Reps. Garret Graves, R-Louisiana, Donald Payne Jr., D-New Jersey, David Price, D-North Carolina and Don Young, R-Alaska. Vice President Kamala Harris also attended.

Republicans have stayed united in opposition to Biden’s jobs plan since its release nearly two weeks ago. That includes slamming how Biden wants to pay for it  – increasing the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% – which would eliminate the 2017 tax cuts former President Donald Trump and Republicans worked to approve just four years ago.

Wicker told reporters the meeting was “a very lively discussion” and the president was “very engaged” but said pieces of Biden’s proposal are “non-starters for Republicans.” He singled out undoing the 2017 tax cuts, calling it one of his “signature achievements of my entire career.”

“It would be an almost impossible sell from the president to come to a bipartisan agreement that included undoing (the tax cuts),” Wicker said. “And I did tell him that.”

Wicker added that the package should stick to “traditional infrastructure,” singling out home caregiving and the reconstruction of Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics as items that should be dealt with separately.

“It was a good meeting,” he said. “Whether we’ll be able to come to a bipartisan agreement that gets as expansive and as massive as he would like to, I don’t know.”

Centrist Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a key swing vote in the evenly divided Senate, also opposes the corporate tax increase, suggesting a smaller bump to 25%. Biden last week said he’s “willing to listen” to a proposal that goes below a 28% tax rate for corporations but said inaction is unacceptable.

“Compromise is inevitable. Changes are certain,” Biden said in a White House speech last week. “But here’s what we won’t be open to We will not be open to doing nothing.”

In remarks from the Senate floor Monday, Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, accused the White House of engaging in “Trojan-horse tactics” and embarking on a “campaign to convince everybody that any government policy whatsoever” is infrastructure.

McConnell called Biden’s plan “a motley assortment of the left’s priciest priorities” that would impose “one of the biggest tax hikes in a generation when workers need an economic recovery.”

“It’s not remotely targeted toward what Americans think they are getting when politicians campaign on infrastructure. But instead of coming up with a better bill, Democrats have decided it’s the English language that has to change.”

After a ruling last week by the Senate parliamentarian, Biden and Democrats could pass the American Jobs Plan with a simple majority in the Senate, blocking any attempt at a filibuster waged by Republicans. It would mean no Republican votes would be needed as long as Democrats are all on board, mirroring how Biden won the approval of his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 rescue plan last month.

In negotiations on this bill, Biden’s American Rescue Plan, 10 Republicans met with Biden in the White House after proposing a trimmed-down $618 billion package. But those talks quickly stalled after Biden wouldn’t budge on reducing its size.

Source: www.usatoday.com