There are 59 days left until Halloween…
There are 3 days until Labor Day…
There are 4 days until President Biden holds the celebration to celebrate the Inflation Reduction Act Law…
There are 20 days until the first day of fall…
President Biden’s Public Schedule for Friday, September 2nd 2022:
| 9:00 AM | The President receives the President’s Daily Briefing Closed Press |
| 10:20 AM | In-Town Pool Call Time In-Town Pool |
| 11:00 AM | The President discusses American Rescue Plan investments to help boost regional economic strategies that lifts all communities; the Secretary of Commerce attends by 6:00 am] South Court AuditoriumOpen to Pre-Credentialed Media [RSVP here by 6:00 AM] |
| 11:45 AM | Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre James S. Brady Press Briefing Room |
| 12:00 PM | The President has lunch with The Vice President Private Dining RoomClosed Press |
| 3:00 PM | The President and The First Lady depart the White House en route Camp David South LawnOpen Press |
The White House posted; President Biden to Announce 21 Winners of $1 Billion American Rescue Plan Regional Challenge
Today, President Biden will announce the 21 winners of the $1 billion Build Back Better Regional Challenge, the most impactful regional economic development competition in decades. Funded by President Biden’s American Rescue Plan and administered by the U.S. Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration (EDA), the Regional Challenge provides each award winner funding to rebuild regional economies, promote inclusive and equitable recovery, and create thousands of good-paying jobs in industries of the future such as clean energy, next-generation manufacturing, and biotechnology.
Awardees span 24 states and will receive between $25 million and $65 millionto execute transformational projects and revitalize local industries. Projects include developing workforce training programs and connecting workers to jobs; providing support to family-owned manufacturers to transition from traditional automotives to electric vehicles; establishing a digital finance sector to support small businesses in Tribal communities; providing digital resources to small farms; renovating and repurposing industrial buildings for new businesses; rebuilding pharmaceutical supply chains in the U.S. to lower drug costs; building advanced manufacturing centers for testing and training; deploying solar energy on former coal land; and more. Additionally, private sector companies and local organizations are investing an additional $300 million in these local projects.
“Since day one, President Biden has been laser-focused on ensuring that economic opportunity is delivered to all Americans, especially communities that have grappled with decades of disinvestment or suffered economic distress exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “As we invest and grow critical industries in the U.S., we want to create industry hubs in diverse communities across the country. These grants will provide critical and historic funding directly to community coalitions to invest in new infrastructure, research and development, and workforce development programs while creating good-paying jobs, supporting workers, and prioritizing equity.”
Equity was a key consideration for project finalists, with a focus on rural, Tribal, and coal communities, as well as communities facing high and persistent poverty. Funding awards include $87 million to two primarily Tribal coalitions and, as part of EDA’s $300 million Coal Community Commitment, over $150 million for projects serving energy communities impacted by the declining use of fossil fuels. These grants will support 236 rural counties, 136 persistent poverty counties, and 121 counties that include Tribal areas.
Project winners brought together employers, labor unions and worker organizations, state and local governments, institutions of higher education, and community-based organizations for their applications and will work together on implementing projects. With this funding, projects will create jobs directly in their community that offer supporting wages and career stability. Over $270 million of the funding will be allocated to develop workforce training and development programs and place workers in jobs.
“EDA is proud to ignite the bold visions of these 21 regional coalitions to craft ambitious and regionally driven plans to rebuild their communities,” said Alejandra Y. Castillo, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development. “EDA asked communities directly what they needed to attract industry and workers to their region, and these grants are a direct response to their needs. Not only will the projects offer clear pathways to good jobs and competitive wages, but they will ensure that economic-based prosperity reaches all pockets of this country.”
The Build Back Better Regional Challenge winners:
White House.gov. 09/02/2022.
Central Valley Community Foundation (California)
$65.1 million for the F3 – Fresno-Merced Future of Food
City of Manchester (New Hampshire)
$44 million for The BioFabrication Cluster
Coalfield Development (West Virginia)
$62.8 million for the Appalachian Climate Technologies (ACT Now) Initiative
Detroit Regional Partnership Foundation (Michigan)
$52.2 million for the Global Epicenter of Mobility
Empire State Development (New York)
$25 million for the Western New York’s Advanced Manufacturing Cluster
Four Bands Community Fund (South Dakota)
$45 million for the Mountain | Plains Regional Native CDFI Coalition
Georgia Tech Research Corporations (Georgia)
$65 million for GA-AIM
Greater New Orleans Development Foundation (Louisiana)
$50 million for H2theFuture
Greater St. Louis, Inc. (Missouri)
$25 million for the St. Louis Tech Triangle
Indian Nations Council of Governments (Oklahoma)
$39 million for the Tulsa Regional Advanced Mobility Cluster
Invest Nebraska Corporation (Nebraska)
$25 million for the Heartland Robotics Cluster
North Carolina Biotechnology Center (North Carolina)
$25 million for Accelerate NC – Life Sciences Manufacturing
Oklahoma City Economic Development Foundation (Oklahoma)
$35 million for the Oklahoma Biotech Innovation Cluster Initiative
Osceola County Board of County Commissioners (Florida)
$50.8 million for the Building Central Florida’s Semiconductor Cluster for Broad-Based Prosperity
Port of Portland (Oregon)
$41.4 million for the Oregon Mass Timber Coalition
Southeast Conference (Alaska)
$49 million for the Alaska Mariculture Cluster
Southwestern Pennsylvania New Economy Collaborative (Pennsylvania)
$62.7 million for the Southwestern Pennsylvania New Economy Collaborative
The State University of New York (SUNY) at Binghamton (New York)
$63.7 million for New Energy New York
The University of Texas at El Paso (Texas)
$40 million for the West Texas A&D Cluster
Virginia Biotechnology Research Partnership Authority (Virginia)
$52.9 million for the VA BIO Advanced Pharma Manufacturing (APM) and R&D
Wichita State University (Kansas)
$51.4 million for the South Kansas Coalition
The 21 BBBRC winners were chosen from 60 EDA-designated finalists that each received approximately $500,000 in funding and technical assistance to continue developing their cluster strategies. The funding for each coalition listed above is approximate, with awards to be signed later in September. Those 60 finalists were chosen from a Phase 1 applicant pool of 529 applications, which exemplifies the tremendous demand for transformational regional economic development approaches. EDA will continue to support all 60 finalists with the creation of a Community of Practice that will provide technical support, foster connectedness with peer regions, and build capacity.
The Build Back Better Regional Challenge is one of EDA’s many programs aimed at building strong regional economies and supporting community-led economic development. EDA was allocated $3 billion in supplemental funding under the American Rescue Plan to assist communities nationwide in their efforts to build back better by accelerating economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and building local economies that will be resilient to future economic shocks. As a part of this funding, EDA allocated $300 million through a Coal Communities Commitment to support coal communities in pandemic recovery and help them create new jobs and opportunities, including through the creation or expansion of a new industry sector. Specifically, EDA has dedicated $100 million of its Build Back Better Regional Challenge funds and $200 million of its Economic Adjustment Assistance funds to directly support coal communities. Grantees for EDA’s full suite of American Rescue Plan programs will be awarded on a rolling basis through September 30, 2022. For more information, visit https://www.eda.gov/ARPA/.
White House.gov. 09/02/2022.
President Biden’s remarks:
Press Briefing.
You may or may not of heard that last night President Biden delivered a startling blow to the MAGA peeps–by daring to utter truthful words and sentences. Before his prime-time address, President Biden issued two tweets before the post was posted. He added 14 tweets giving him a Thursday Tweeting Total of 16 tweets and 0 retweets…
The above clip is 1 minute and 30 seconds. I will not be transcribing said video as there is a lot to cover in today’s Biden Bits of far too many tweets…
On Tuesday, President Biden offered remarks on his Safer America Plan (released on August 1st).
President Biden: (29:44) But in 2004, Republicans let that ban expire. And what happened? Mass shootings in America tripled. Tripled. It’s time to ban these. It’s time to ban these weapons. We did it before, and we can do it again.
President Biden: I’m about to get on the plane and go to Philadelphia to make a major speech tonight. What I call “The Soul of the Nation.” America is an incredible country. We’re an idea, an idea that we’re all created equal. There’s not a single thing in the world America can’t do when we stand together. And that’s what we’ve got to do. I have absolute confidence in the ability of us to lead the world and lead the nation so that we have open opportunities for all Americans. That’s what this is about. That’s who we are. “We the people,” the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence. We’re about optimism, hope. And we’re going to deliver both of those things.
The YouTube is 31 minutes and 2 seconds long. He begins his remarks at the 6 minute and 37 second mark. His full remarks can be found here.
President Biden: (12:55) But while the threat to American democracy is real, I want to say as clearly as we can: We are not powerless in the face of these threats. We are not bystanders in this ongoing attack on democracy. There are far more Americans — far more Americans from every — from every background and belief who reject the extreme MAGA ideology than those that accept it. (Applause.)
President Biden: (18:27): Ladies and gentlemen, we can’t be pro-ex- — pro-ex- — pro-insurrectionist and pro-American. They’re incompatible. (Applause.)
President Biden: (23:12): The cynics and the critics tell us nothing can get done, but they are wrong. There is not a single thing America cannot do — not a single thing beyond our capacity if we do it together.
President Biden: (15:50): For a long time, we’ve told ourselves that American democracy is guaranteed, but it’s not. We have to defend it, protect it, stand up for it — each and every one of us. That’s why tonight I’m asking our nation to come together, unite behind the single purpose of defending our democracy regardless of your ideology. (Applause.)
President Biden: (13:48): And now America must choose: to move forward or to move backwards? To build the future or obsess about the past? To be a nation of hope and unity and optimism, or a nation of fear, division, and of darkness?
President Biden: (29:21): And if we all do our duty — if we do our duty in 2022 and beyond, then ages still to come will say we — all of us here — we kept the faith. We preserved democracy. (Applause.) We heeded our wor- — we — we heeded not our worst instincts but our better angels. And we proved that, for all its imperfections, America is still the beacon to the world, an ideal to be realized, a promise to be kept.
President Biden: (23:12): The cynics and the critics tell us nothing can get done, but they are wrong. There is not a single thing America cannot do — not a single thing beyond our capacity if we do it together. It’s never easy. But we’re proving that in America, no matter how long the road, progress does come. (Applause.)
President Biden: (19:44): They don’t understand what every patriotic American knows: You can’t love your country only when you win. (Applause.) It’s fundamental.
Yeah, I figured they’d delete this they didn’t. *shrug*
President Biden: (21:09): Throughout our history, America has often made the greatest progress coming out of some of our darkest moments, like you’re hearing in that bullhorn.
My Two Cents:
It’s gonna be more of 1 cent thought; I haven’t listened to the full speech, I read it this morning and here’s the thing: If hearing a President say:
Now, I want to be very clear — (applause) — very clear up front: Not every Republican, not even the majority of Republicans, are MAGA Republicans. Not every Republican embraces their extreme ideology.
White House.gov. 09/01/2022.
I know because I’ve been able to work with these mainstream Republicans.
Or:
So I want to say this plain and simple: There is no place for political violence in America. Period. None. Ever. (Applause.)
White House.gov. 09/01/2022.
Or maybe it’s this:
We can’t allow violence to be normalized in this country. It’s wrong. We each have to reject political violence with — with all the moral clarity and conviction this nation can muster. Now.
White House.gov. 09/01/2022.
Makes you uncomfortable or outraged might want to look in the mirror, pal, cause as Lady Snark points out in her Owl; you are part of the problem, not the solution.
Okay, you might have gotten the whole 2 cents worth…
It’s Friday aka Jobs Report Day!
President Biden has given us 3 tweets so far for Jobs Report Friday…
From the report: Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 315,000 in August, and the unemployment rate rose to 3.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Notable job gains occurred in professional and business services, health care, and retail trade.
The revisions: The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for June was revised down by 105,000, from +398,000 to +293,000, and the change for July was revised down by 2,000, from +528,000 to +526,000. With these revisions, employment in June and July combined is 107,000 lower than previously reported. (Monthly revisions result from additional reports received from businesses and government agencies since the last published estimates and from the recalculation of seasonal factors.)
He tossed up the live feed tweet for his remarks.
This is an Open Thread.
I didn’t make posting before his remarks. See you Monday!
