Within the first days of the new administration, President Biden signed a new “Made in America” executive order, which aims to generate manufacturing jobs through government demand for $400 billion in American products, materials, and services. As a candidate, Biden also committed to infrastructure investments as a keystone to job creation. As the $1.9 trillion stimulus plan was enacted March 11, an infrastructure proposal to spend $1 trillion or more is expected imminently within the next two weeks.
That’s a great step forward. Job creation is essential to our recovery from the entwined pandemic and economic traumas.
But at this crisis point, we must apply all tools to strengthen the anemic recovery, especially for lower-wage, women, and BIPOC workers. The country cannot again accept, as in the aftermath of the Great Recession, that