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On Saturday, December 21, 2024, the President signed into law:

H.R. 10545, the “American Relief Act, 2025”, which provides fiscal year 2025 appropriations to Federal agencies through March 14, 2025, for continuing projects and activities of the Federal Government; provides disaster relief appropriations and economic assistance to farmers; extends the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018; and extends several expiring authorities. 

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The post Press Release: Bill Signed: H.R. 10545 appeared first on The White House.

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE

SUBJECT:       Delegation of Authority Under Section 506(a)(3)

               of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 621 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (FAA), I hereby delegate to the Secretary of State the authority under section 506(a)(3) of the FAA to direct the drawdown of up to $571.3 million in defense articles and services of the Department of Defense, and military education and training, to provide assistance to Taiwan. 

You are authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.

                              JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.

The post Memorandum on the Delegation of Authority Under Section 506(a)(3) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 appeared first on The White House.

Today, President Biden’s 235th life-tenured federal judicial nominee was confirmed. This marks the largest number of confirmations in a single term since the Carter administration. These highly qualified men and women—all committed to the rule of law and the Constitution—will serve the federal Judiciary for decades to come.
 
Dating back to his time leading the Senate Judiciary Committee, President Biden has made the confirmation of federal judges a top priority. During his four years in office, President Biden has transformed the federal bench and appointed over a quarter of all active judges, and helped to ensure that the Judiciary looks like the communities it serves.
 
The 235 confirmations include:

• One to the United States Supreme Court
• 45 to the nation’s courts of appeals
• 187 to the nation’s district courts
• Two to the United States Court of International Trade

President Biden has worked closely with Senators from both sides of the aisle to fill vacancies at the circuit and district level. He has achieved this milestone despite significant structural disadvantages, including the longest 50-50 Senate in history.

Importantly, President Biden has followed through on one of his earliest campaign promises—to put forward highly-qualified judges from underrepresented professional backgrounds and to instill confidence in the Judiciary by ensuring that federal judges reflect the nation as a whole. 

Professional Diversity

No President has done more to bring professional and experiential diversity to the federal bench than President Biden.

Not only did President Biden appoint the first former public defender to the United States Supreme Court, but he broke records across the board on professional diversity—appointing more than 45 public defenders, more than 25 civil rights lawyers, and at least 10 individuals who have represented workers.

President Biden is also proud to have put forward nominees who come from private legal practice, prosecutors’ offices, and a host of other legal backgrounds, including immigration law, municipal law, and plaintiff-side law. As a lifelong advocate for our men and women in uniform, veterans, and their families, President Biden is proud to have put forward judicial nominees who have served on active duty or in the reserves, in both legal and non-legal roles.

Demographic Diversity
President Biden has set records when it comes to the demographic diversity of his appointees. In doing so, he has helped to ensure that the Judiciary looks like the communities it serves—vital to instilling confidence in both judicial decision-making and outcomes—while refusing to sacrifice on ability or qualifications.

The 235 confirmations include:

• The first Black woman ever to serve on the United States Supreme Court.
• A record number of women, Black, Latino, AANHPI, Native American, Muslim-American, and LGBTQ judges.
• More Black women appointed to the circuit courts than every other presidential administration combined.

 
Impact  
 
Judges have an enormous impact on the everyday lives of Americans.
 
These men and women have the power to uphold basic rights or to roll them back. They hear cases that decide whether women have the freedom to make their own reproductive healthcare decisions; whether Americans have the freedom to cast their ballots; whether workers have the freedom to unionize and make a living wage for their families; and whether children have the freedom to breathe clean air and drink clean water.
 
Judges are also crucial to protecting against overreach and unconstitutional action by the Executive and Legislative Branches.
 
President Biden is proud of his record of appointments and grateful to the Senate for its partnership in reaching this historic achievement.

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The post FACT SHEET: President Biden Secures Confirmation of 235th Federal Judge appeared first on The White House.

Today, we reached a major milestone in our efforts to protect our Nation’s freedoms: the United States Senate confirmed the 235th federal judge during my presidency – marking the largest number of confirmations in a single term since the 1980s. This includes one Supreme Court Justice, 45 Circuit Court Judges, 187 District Court Judges, and two judges on the Court of International Trade.

These men and women represent the best of America. They are all highly qualified. And they have had distinguished legal, judicial, and academic careers.

When I ran for President, I promised to build a bench that looks like America and reflects the promise of our nation. And I’m proud I kept my commitment to bolstering confidence in judicial decision-making and outcomes.

The 235 confirmed judges include a record number of judges with backgrounds and experiences that have long been overlooked: advocates for civil rights, workers’ rights, immigrants’ rights, and more. I appointed the first former public defenders to sit on the Seventh and First Circuits. I have also put forth men and women who have been prosecutors and plaintiffs’ attorneys.

In addition, I appointed the most demographically diverse slate of judicial nominees ever. This includes: the first Black woman and public defender on the United States Supreme Court, and appointing more Black women to the Courts of Appeals than all previous administrations combined. I also appointed the first Hispanic-American judge to serve on the D.C. Circuit, and the first openly LGBTQ woman on any federal court of appeals; the first AANHPI judge on the Third and Seventh Circuits; the first Muslim-American judge to ever serve as a life-tenured judge; and the first Native Hawaiian woman to ever serve as a life-tenured judge.

And no matter who they are or where they come from, all of these appointees are supremely qualified to serve in the role of Judge, and remain committed to the rule of law and the Constitution.

We reached this milestone thanks to bipartisan support in the Senate, and as a result of the leadership of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin.

Judges matter. They shape the everyday lives of Americans, preserving our freedoms and defending our liberties. They hear cases and issue rulings on whether Americans can cast their ballots, whether workers can unionize and make a living wage for their families, and whether children can breathe clean air and drink clean water.

I am proud of the legacy I will leave with our Nation’s judges. And I am proud of those who have stepped forward and heeded the call to serve.

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The post Statement from President Joe Biden on Securing 235 Judicial Confirmations appeared first on The White House.

A government shutdown heading into the holidays would mean service members and air traffic controllers go to work without pay, essential government services for hardworking Americans would be paused, and economic disruption would occur. 

Following an order by President-elect Trump, yesterday Republicans walked away from a bipartisan deal and threatened to shut down the government at the 11th hour in order to pave the way to provide tax breaks for billionaires. This revised legislation does not do that. 

While it does not include everything we sought, it includes disaster relief that the President requested for the communities recovering from the storm, eliminates the accelerated pathway to a tax cut for billionaires, and would ensure that the government can continue to operate at full capacity. President Biden supports moving this legislation forward and ensuring that the vital services the government provides for hardworking Americans – from issuing Social Security checks to processing benefits for veterans — can continue as well as to grant assistance for communities that were impacted by devastating hurricanes.

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The post Statement from Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on the Proposed Legislation to Fund the Government appeared first on The White House.

     By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including chapter 47 of title 10, United States Code (Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 U.S.C. 801-946a), and in order to prescribe additions and amendments to the Manual for Courts-Martial, United States, prescribed by Executive Order 12473 of April 13, 1984, as amended, it is hereby ordered as follows:

     Section 1.  Part II, Part III, Part IV, and Part V of the Manual for Courts-Martial, United States, are amended as described in the Annex attached to and made a part of this order.

     Sec. 2.  With this order, I hereby prescribe regulations for the randomized selection of qualified personnel as members of a court-martial to the maximum extent practicable, pursuant to section 543 of the James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, Public Law 117-263 (10 U.S.C. 825(e)(4)).

     Sec. 3.  Except as provided in sections 4 and 5 of this order, these amendments shall take effect on the date of this order, subject to the following:

     (a)  Nothing in these amendments shall be construed to make punishable any act committed or omitted prior to the date of this order that was not punishable when committed or omitted.

     (b)  Nothing in these amendments shall be construed to invalidate any nonjudicial punishment proceeding, restraint, preliminary hearing, referral of charges, trial in which arraignment occurred, or other action begun prior to the date of this order, and any such nonjudicial punishment proceeding, restraint, preliminary hearing, referral of charges, trial in which arraignment occurred, or other action may proceed in the same manner and with the same effect as if these amendments had not been prescribed.

     Sec. 4.  The amendments to Rule for Courts-Martial (R.C.M.) 908(c)(3), R.C.M. 1205(a), and R.C.M. 1209(a)(1) shall take effect on December 22, 2024, subject to the following:

     (a)  Nothing in these amendments shall be construed to make punishable any act committed or omitted prior to the effective date that was not punishable when committed or omitted.

     (b)  Nothing in these amendments shall be construed to invalidate any nonjudicial punishment proceeding, restraint, preliminary hearing, referral of charges, trial in which arraignment occurred, or other action begun prior to the  effective date, and any such nonjudicial punishment proceeding, restraint, preliminary hearing, referral of charges, trial in which arraignment occurred, or other action may proceed in the same manner and with the same effect as if these amendments had not been prescribed.

     Sec. 5.  The amendment to R.C.M. 503(a)(1) shall take effect on December 23, 2024, subject to the following:

     (a)  Nothing in this amendment shall be construed to make punishable any act committed or omitted prior to the effective date that was not punishable when committed or omitted.

     (b)  Nothing in this amendment shall be construed to invalidate any nonjudicial punishment proceeding, restraint, preliminary hearing, referral of charges, trial in which arraignment occurred, or other action begun prior to the  effective date, and any such nonjudicial punishment proceeding, restraint, preliminary hearing, referral of charges, trial in which arraignment occurred, or other action may proceed in the same manner and with the same effect as if this amendment had not been prescribed.

                             JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.

THE WHITE HOUSE,

    December 20, 2024.

The post 2024 Amendments to the Manual for Courts-Martial, United States appeared first on The White House.

     By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States, it is hereby ordered as follows:

     Section 1.  Amendments to Executive Order 12793, as Amended.  Executive Order 12793 of March 20, 1992 (Continuing the Presidential Service Certificate and the Presidential Service Badge), as amended by Executive Order 13286 of February 28, 2003 (Amendment of Executive Orders, and Other Actions, in Connection With the Transfer of Certain Functions to the Secretary of Homeland Security), is further amended by:

     (a)  Amending section 1 to read as follows:

     “Section 1.  Presidential Service Certificate.  The Presidential Service Certificate (Certificate) is hereby continued, the design of which accompanies and is hereby made a part of this order.  The Certificate shall be awarded in the name of the President of the United States to members of the United States Uniformed Services who have been assigned to the White House Office; to military units and support facilities under the administration of the White House Military Office; or to other direct support positions within the Executive Office of the President (EOP).  The Certificate shall be awarded by the Secretary of the military department concerned, or, when the Coast Guard is not operating as a service in the Navy, by the Secretary of Homeland Security, and, in the case of members of the Commissioned Corps of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or the Commissioned Corps of the Public Health Service, by the Secretary of Commerce or the Secretary of Health and Human Services, respectively.  The Certificate shall not be issued to any member who is issued a Vice Presidential Certificate, or similar EOP Certificate, for the same period of service.  Such assignment must be for a period of at least 1 year, subsequent to January 21, 1989.”; and

     (b)  Amending section 2 to read as follows:

     “Sec. 2.  Presidential Service Badge.  The Presidential Service Badge (Badge) is hereby continued, the design of which accompanies and is hereby made a part of this order.  The Badge shall be awarded to those members of the United States Uniformed Services who have been granted the Certificate and shall be awarded in the same manner in which the Certificate has been given.  The Badge shall be worn as a part of the uniform of those individuals under such regulations as their respective Secretaries may severally prescribe.”.

     Sec. 2.  Amendments to Executive Order 11926, as Amended.  Executive Order 11926 of July 19, 1976 (The Vice Presidential Service Badge), as amended by Executive Order 13286 and by Executive Order 13373 of March 10, 2005 (Amendments to Executive Order 11926 Relating to the Vice Presidential Service Badge), is further amended by:

     (a)  Amending section 1 to read as follows:

     “Section 1.  There is established a Vice Presidential Service Badge to be awarded in the name of the Vice President of the United States of America to members of the United States Uniformed Services who have been assigned to duty in the Office of the Vice President for a period of at least 1 year subsequent to December 19, 1974, or who have been assigned to perform duties predominantly for the Vice President for a period of at least 1 year subsequent to January 20, 2001, in the implementation of Public Law 93-346, as amended, or in military units and support facilities to which section 1 of Executive Order 12793 of March 20, 1992, as amended, refers.”;

     (b)  Amending section 2 to read as follows:

     “Sec. 2.  The Vice Presidential Service Badge may be awarded, upon recommendation of the Vice President’s designee (with the concurrence of the Director of the White House Military Office in the case of personnel in military units or support facilities to which section 1 of Executive Order 12793, as amended, refers), by the Secretary of the military department concerned, or, when the Coast Guard is not operating as a service in the Navy, by the Secretary of Homeland Security, to military personnel of their respective services who have been assigned to duty in the Office of the Vice President and, in the case of members of the Commissioned Corps of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or the Commissioned Corps of the Public Health Service so assigned, by the Secretary of Commerce or the Secretary of Health and Human Services, respectively.”;

     (c)  Amending section 4 to read as follows:

     “Sec. 4.  Upon award, the Vice Presidential Service Badge may be worn as a part of the uniform of an individual both during and after their assignment to duty in the Office of the Vice President.”; and

     (d)  Amending section 6 to read as follows:

     “Sec. 6.  Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 1 and 2 of this order, any member of the United States Uniformed Services, who has been assigned to duty in the Office of the Vice President, or who has been assigned to perform duties predominantly for the Vice President, in the implementation of Public Law 93-346, as amended, or in military units and support facilities to which section 1 of Executive Order 12793, as amended, refers, is authorized, unless otherwise directed by the Director of the White House Military Office in the case of personnel in military units and support facilities to which section 1 of Executive Order 12793, as amended, refers, to wear the Vice Presidential Service Badge on their uniform commencing on the first day of such duty and thereafter while assigned to such duty.”.

     Sec. 3.  General Provisions.  (a)  Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i)   the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii)  the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

     (b)  This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

     (c)  This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

                             JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.

THE WHITE HOUSE,

    December 20, 2024.

The post Amendments to Executive Orders Relating to Certain Certificates and Badges appeared first on The White House.

     1.  On April 22, 1985, the United States and Israel entered into the Agreement on the Establishment of a Free Trade Area between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of Israel (USIFTA), which the Congress approved in section 3 of the United States–Israel Free Trade Area Implementation Act of 1985 (the “USIFTA Implementation Act”) (Public Law 99-47, 99 Stat. 82 (19 U.S.C. 2112 note)).  Section 4(b) of the USIFTA Implementation Act provides that, whenever the President determines that it is necessary to maintain the general level of reciprocal and mutually advantageous concessions with respect to Israel provided for by the USIFTA, the President may proclaim such withdrawal, suspension, modification, or continuance of any duty, or such continuance of existing duty-free or excise treatment, or such additional duties, as the President determines to be required or appropriate to carry out the USIFTA.  In order to maintain the general level of reciprocal and mutually advantageous concessions with respect to agricultural trade with Israel, on July 27, 2004, the United States entered into an agreement with Israel concerning certain aspects of trade in agricultural products during the period January 1, 2004, through December 31, 2008 (United States-Israel Agreement Concerning Certain Aspects of Trade in Agricultural Products (the “2004 Agreement”)). 
    2.  In Proclamation 7826 of October 4, 2004, the President determined, pursuant to section 4(b) of the USIFTA Implementation Act and consistent with the 2004 Agreement, that, in order to maintain the general level of reciprocal and mutually advantageous concessions with respect to Israel provided for by the USIFTA, it was necessary to provide duty-free access into the United States through December 31, 2008, for specified quantities of certain agricultural products of Israel.  Each year from 2008 through 2023, the United States and Israel entered into agreements to extend the period that the 2004 Agreement was in force for 1-year periods to allow additional time for the two governments to conclude an agreement to replace the 2004 Agreement.  To carry out the extension agreements, the President in Proclamations 8334 of December 31, 2008; 8467 of December 23, 2009; 8618 of December 21, 2010; 8770 of December 29, 2011; 8921 of December 20, 2012; 9072 of December 23, 2013; 9223 of December 23, 2014; 9383 of December 21, 2015; 9555 of December 15, 2016; 9687 of December 22, 2017; 9834 of December 21, 2018; 9974 of December 26, 2019; 10128 of December 22, 2020; 10326 of December 23, 2021; 10509 of December 23, 2022; and 10692 of December 29, 2023, modified the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTS) to provide duty-free access into the United States for specified quantities of certain agricultural products of Israel, each time for an additional 1-year period.  On October 31, 2024, the United States entered into an agreement with Israel to extend the period that the 2004 Agreement is in force through December 31, 2025, and to allow for further negotiations on an agreement to replace the 2004 Agreement.  Pursuant to section 4(b) of the USIFTA Implementation Act, I have determined that it is necessary, in order to maintain the general level of reciprocal and mutually advantageous concessions with respect to Israel provided for by the USIFTA, to provide duty-free access into the United States through the close of December 31, 2025, for specified quantities of certain agricultural products of Israel, as provided in Annex I of this proclamation.
    3.  Proclamation 10053 of June 29, 2020, implemented the Agreement between the United States of America, the United Mexican States, and Canada (USMCA) with respect to the United States and, pursuant to section 103 of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement Implementation Act (the “USMCA Implementation Act”) (Public Law 116-113, 134 Stat. 11, 15-17 (19 U.S.C. 4513)), incorporated in the HTS the tariff modifications and rules of origin necessary or appropriate to carry out the USMCA.
    4.  In order to provide generally for the preferential tariff treatment being accorded under the USMCA, to set forth rules for determining whether goods imported into the customs territory of the United States are eligible for preferential tariff treatment under the USMCA, to provide tariff-rate quotas with respect to certain originating goods of Canada, and to provide certain other treatment to originating goods for purposes of the USMCA, Proclamation 10053 modified the HTS as set forth in Annex I of Publication 5060 of the United States International Trade Commission (the “Commission”), entitled “Modifications to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States to Implement the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement” (Publication 5060), including by adding general note 11.  Proclamation 10053 further modified the HTS to reflect the termination of tariff treatment under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), as set forth in Annex III of Publication 5060, including by deleting general note 12. 
    5.  In order to implement the initial stage of duty reduction provided for in the USMCA, to provide for future staged reductions in duties for originating goods provided for in the USMCA, and to provide tariff-rate quotas with respect to certain goods provided for in the USMCA, Proclamation 10053 modified the HTS as set forth in Annex II of Publication 5060.  
    6.  A technical error was made in the modifications to U.S. note 3(d) to subchapter II of chapter 98 of the HTS, and certain references to general note 12 were inadvertently not modified.  I have determined that additional modifications to the HTS are necessary or appropriate to provide for the intended tariff treatment under the USMCA, including certain technical or conforming changes within the tariff schedule.  
    7.  Proclamation 7987 of February 28, 2006, implemented the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) with respect to the United States and, pursuant to section 201 of the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act (the “DR-CAFTA Act”) (Public Law 109-53, 119 Stat. 462, 467 (19 U.S.C. 4001 note)), incorporated in the HTS the tariff modifications and rules of origin necessary or appropriate to carry out certain provisions of the DR-CAFTA.  
    8.  A rule of origin under the DR-CAFTA, found in general note 29 to the HTS, contains a reference to general note 12.  Proclamation 10053 deleted general note 12 but omitted a conforming change to the reference in general note 29.  I have determined that an additional modification to the HTS is necessary or appropriate to reflect this conforming change. 
    9.  Section 602 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (Public Law 116-260, 134 Stat. 1182, 2152-54), made technical corrections to other laws, including replacing certain references to the NAFTA with references to the USMCA in sections 112 and 113(b) of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (the “AGOA”) (title I of Public Law 106-200, 114 Stat. 251, 258-265 (19 U.S.C. 3721, 3722(b))), as amended by the Africa Investment Incentive Act of 2006 (title VI of Public Law 109-432, 120 Stat. 2922, 3190-94), and in sections 212(a), 213(b), and 213A(b) of the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (the “CBERA”) (title II of Public Law 98-67, 97 Stat. 369, 384-85, 388 (19 U.S.C. 2702(a)(1), 2703(b), 2703a(b))), as amended by the United States-Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act (title II of Public Law 106-200, 114 Stat. 251, 275-288), the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement Act of 2006 (title V of Public Law 109-432, 109 Stat. 2922, 3181-87), and the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement Act of 2008 (subtitle D of Public Law 110-234, 122 Stat. 923, 1527-47).
    10.  I have determined that additional modifications to the HTS are necessary or appropriate to provide for the intended tariff treatment under the AGOA and the CBERA, including certain technical or conforming changes within the tariff schedule.
    11.  Section 104(c) of the Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015 (the “TPEA”) (Public Law 114–27, 129 Stat. 362, 365 (19 U.S.C. 2466a note)) authorizes the President to proclaim modifications that may be necessary to add the special tariff treatment symbol “D” in the “Special” subcolumn of the HTS for each article classified under a heading or subheading with the special tariff treatment symbol “A” or “A” in the “Special” subcolumn of the HTS.  Pursuant to section 104(c) of the TPEA, Proclamation 9466 of June 30, 2016, modified the HTS to add the special tariff treatment symbol “D” in the HTS as set forth in Annex III of that proclamation.     12.  The modifications to the HTS authorized in Proclamation 9466 included certain technical errors.  I have determined that additional modifications to the HTS are necessary or appropriate to provide for the intended tariff treatment under the AGOA, as authorized by section 104(c) of the TPEA, including certain technical or conforming changes within the tariff schedule.     13.  Proclamation 6763 of December 23, 1994, implemented, with respect to the United States, the trade agreements resulting from the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations, including Schedule XX-United States of America, annexed to the Marrakesh Protocol to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (Schedule XX), that were entered into pursuant to sections 1102(a) and (e) of the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 (the “1988 Act”) (Public Law 100-418, 102 Stat. 1107, 1126 (19 U.S.C. 2902(a) and (e))), as amended by Public Law 103-49, 107 Stat. 239, and approved in section 101(a) of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (the “URAA”) (Public Law 103-465, 108 Stat. 4809, 4814–15 (19 U.S.C. 3511(a))).      14.  Pursuant to the authority provided in section 111 of the URAA (19 U.S.C. 3521) and sections 1102(a) and (e) of the 1988 Act (19 U.S.C. 2902(a) and (e)), Proclamation 6763 included the staged reductions in rates of duty that the President determined to be necessary or appropriate to carry out the terms of Schedule XX.     15.  Section 1205(a) of the 1988 Act (102 Stat. 1150 (19 U.S.C. 3005(a))) directs the Commission to keep the HTS under continuous review and to periodically recommend to the President such modifications to the HTS as the Commission considers necessary or appropriate to accomplish the purposes set forth in that subsection.     16.  Pursuant to sections 1205(c) and (d) of the 1988 Act (102 Stat. 1150-51 (19 U.S.C. 3005(c) and (d))), in 2010, 2015, and 2021, the Commission recommended modifications to the HTS to conform the HTS to amendments made to the International Convention on the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System and the Protocol thereto (the “Convention”).     17.  Section 1206(a) of the 1988 Act (102 Stat. 1151 (19 U.S.C. 3006(a))) authorizes the President to proclaim modifications to the HTS based on the recommendations of the Commission under section 1205 of the 1988 Act if the President determines that the modifications are in conformity with United States obligations under the Convention and do not run counter to the national economic interest of the United States.     18.  Proclamation 8771 of December 29, 2011, Proclamation 9549 of December 1, 2016, and Proclamation 10326 of December 23, 2021, modified the HTS pursuant to section 1206 of the 1988 Act to conform the HTS to the amendments to the Convention.  However, the HTS modifications authorized in Proclamation 8771, Proclamation 9549, and Proclamation 10326 each included certain technical errors.     19.  Proclamation 8771 incorrectly modified the column 2 rate of duty for subheadings 0401.40.25 and 0401.50.25, and the “General” subcolumn rate of duty for column 1 and the column 2 rate of duty for subheading 6505.00.01.  I have determined that additional modifications to the HTS are necessary or appropriate to provide for the intended tariff treatment.     20.  Proclamation 9549 and Proclamation 10326 each created certain new subheadings with the special tariff treatment symbol “A” or “A” in the “Special” subcolumn of the HTS, but omitted the special tariff treatment symbol “D”.  I have determined that additional modifications to the HTS are necessary or appropriate to provide for the intended tariff treatment under the AGOA, including certain technical or conforming changes within the tariff schedule.
    21.  Proclamation 10326 also included technical errors with respect to other subheadings.  I have determined that additional modifications to the HTS are necessary or appropriate to provide for the intended tariff treatment, including the tariff treatment previously proclaimed in Proclamation 6763.
    22.  In Proclamation 9705 of March 8, 2018, pursuant to section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, as amended (the “Trade Expansion Act”) (Public Law 87-794, 76 Stat. 872, 877 (19 U.S.C. 1862)), the President concurred with the finding of the Secretary of Commerce that steel articles, as defined in clause 1 of Proclamation 9705 (as amended by clause 8 of Proclamation 9711 of March 22, 2018), are being imported into the United States in such quantities and under such circumstances as to threaten to impair the national security of the United States, and decided to adjust the imports of steel articles by imposing a 25 percent ad valorem tariff on such articles imported from all countries except Canada and Mexico.  Proclamation 9740 of April 30, 2018, and Proclamation 9759 of May 31, 2018, modified the HTS to provide quotas with respect to steel articles imported from certain countries.  Proclamation 10328 of December 27, 2021, Proclamation 10356 of March 31, 2022, Proclamation 10406 of May 31, 2022, and Proclamation 10691 of December 28, 2023, modified the HTS to provide tariff-rate quotas with respect to steel articles imported from certain countries. 
    23.  On July 1, 2024, the Commission, in cooperation with the interagency Committee for Statistical Annotation of Tariff Schedules, implemented certain changes in 10-digit statistical reporting categories of the HTS under section 484(f) of the Tariff Act of 1930 (ch. 497, 46 Stat. 590, 723 (19 U.S.C. 1484(f))), as amended by section 637 of the North American Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act (Public Law 103-182, 107 Stat. 2057, 2202).  I have determined that certain conforming amendments to the HTS are necessary in order to ensure the maintenance of duty rates, quotas, and tariff-rate quotas for steel articles under tariff categories that were modified.
    24.  Section 604 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (the “Trade Act”) (Public Law 93-618, 88 Stat. 1978, 2073 (19 U.S.C. 2483)), authorizes the President to embody in the HTS the substance of the relevant provisions of that Act, and of other acts affecting import treatment, and actions taken thereunder, including the removal, modification, continuance, or imposition of any rate of duty or other import restriction.  
    NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including but not limited to section 4(b) of the USIFTA Implementation Act, section 104(c) of the TPEA, section 1206(a) of the 1988 Act, section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, and section 604 of the Trade Act, do proclaim that:  
    (1)  In order to implement tariff commitments under the 2004 Agreement through December 31, 2025, the HTS is modified as set forth in Annex I of this proclamation.
    (2)  The modifications and technical rectifications to the HTS made by Annex I of this proclamation shall enter into effect on the applicable dates set forth in Annex I of this proclamation.
    (3)  In order to make the modifications and technical rectifications to the HTS described in paragraphs 3 through 24 of this proclamation, the HTS is modified as set forth in Annex II of this proclamation.  These modifications and technical rectifications shall enter into effect on the applicable dates set forth in Annex II of this proclamation.
    (4)  Any provisions of previous proclamations and Executive Orders that are inconsistent with the actions taken in this proclamation are superseded to the extent of such inconsistency.
    IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twentieth day of December, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-ninth.

                        JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.

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Today’s report shows that PCE inflation has remained below 2.5% for four months in a row, while yesterday’s report showed GDP grew by 3.1% in the third quarter. Growth has been 3% per year on average since the beginning of 2021, higher than any other presidential term in the 21st century. Prices remain too high for working families, and we will keep fighting to lower costs for families on key items like housing, groceries, and health care.

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Today, my Administration is announcing student debt cancellation for another 55,000 public service workers, bringing the total number of individuals who have been approved for student debt relief under my Administration to nearly 5 million people through various actions. The public servants approved for debt cancellation today include teachers, nurses, service members, law enforcement officials, and other public service workers who have dedicated their lives to giving back to their communities and who are finally earning the relief they are entitled to under the law.

Over the last four years, we have made significant progress for students and borrowers – including securing the largest increase to the maximum Pell Grant award in over a decade; holding institutions accountable for taking advantage of students; and fixing broken student loan programs such as Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Income Driven Repayment.

From Day One of my Administration, I promised to make sure that higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity. Because of our actions, millions of people across the country now have the breathing room to start businesses, save for retirement, and pursue life plans they had to put on hold because of the burden of student loan debt.

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Republicans are doing the bidding of their billionaire benefactors at the expense of hardworking Americans. Republicans are breaking their word to support a bipartisan agreement that would lower prescription drug costs and make it harder to offshore jobs to China—and instead putting forward a bill that paves the way for tax breaks for billionaires while cutting critical programs working families count on, from Social Security to Head Start. President Biden supports the bipartisan agreement to keep the government open, help communities recovering from disasters, and lower costs—not this giveaway for billionaires that Republicans are proposing at the 11th hour.

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For decades, the United States has been a leader in combatting infectious diseases. During the 2022 global outbreak of clade II mpox, the Biden-Harris Administration mounted a robust response by making vaccines, tests, and treatment available to those at risk in the United States and abroad. Now, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is experiencing its largest mpox outbreak ever recorded, with more than 50,000 suspect cases in 2024. Multiple neighboring countries have confirmed their first ever mpox cases, and some are also experiencing widespread outbreaks. A handful of travel-related cases have also been recorded in countries outside the Africa region. As we face this outbreak in Central and Eastern Africa, the United States is again acting quickly to respond. At the UN General Assembly in September, President Biden announced that the United States is prepared to commit at least $500 million and to donate up to one million doses of mpox vaccines to support African countries in preventing and responding to this outbreak. We are delivering on that commitment, with two-thirds of our global mpox funding pledge fulfilled, and all of our pledged vaccine doses available now for countries that are ready to receive the doses.
 
The United States is also prepared to respond to clade I and clade II mpox cases domestically, with early detection and a robust testing landscape across the country, increased clinician education and community outreach, and widely available mpox vaccines in retail pharmacies and clinics. Travel-associated cases have been detected in Canada, Germany, India, Sweden, Thailand, and the United Kingdom. In November 2024, the United States also identified one case of clade Ib mpox in a California resident who had recently traveled to an affected country. No further domestic detections have occurred as of December 5, 2024, and the risk to the general public remains low.

Update on the United States’ Support for the Global Mpox Response
 
The Biden-Harris Administration is working closely with countries, as well as regional and global partners, to address the mpox outbreak in Central and Eastern Africa.
 
President Biden’s announcement of United States’ support to the global mpox response aligned with the United States’ longstanding partnership with countries around the world to prepare for health emergencies and to rapidly respond when they occur. To facilitate more effective global and regional collaboration on the mpox response, the United States has worked with partners, including the World Bank, the World Health Organization, and Brazil as G20 President, to transparently compile and share all pledges to support the mpox response, identifying resources that are currently available and remaining financing gaps. This information, captured in the WHO/World Bank Mpox Financial Tracking Mechanism (FTM), will help donors and response countries to more easily identify remaining gaps and sources of financing to fill those gaps. More than 90% of the financing needs for the response have been met.
 
Key Updates on U.S. Support to the Global Mpox Response: 

1. Delivering on Our Commitment to Vaccine Donations: The U.S. government is delivering on our commitment to ensure mpox vaccines get to those most at risk, including by making more than one million vaccine doses available for distribution in countries that are ready to receive them. Vaccine administration is underway using U.S.-donated vaccines. On November 6, WHO and Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) allocated the first 305,000 mpox vaccine doses from President Biden’s one million dose commitment to recipient countries via the Access and Allocation Mechanism (AAM). With support from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and its partners, these doses are being shipped as soon as recipient countries have accepted the offer of vaccines and confirmed their ability to receive, store, and use the vaccine to protect those at risk. The remaining 695,000 vaccine doses are also available for allocation through the AAM, and will be distributed by the United States as soon as impacted countries are ready to receive them. The U.S. Government has already delivered 50,000 mpox vaccines to Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and 10,000 mpox vaccines to Nigeria. Beyond donating vaccine doses, the United States is working with partner governments to get those vaccines to the people who need them most. For example, in DRC, the U.S. government is supporting risk communication and community engagement to raise awareness about mpox vaccination and help reach priority populations, and coordinating with PEPFAR and other programs to leverage existing service delivery channels to reach high-risk populations. 
   
2. Increasing Testing and Treatment Capacity: In addition to financial resources and vaccines, the United States has provided in-kind donations of more than 65,000 individual mpox tests to countries in the region, along with donations of other laboratory supplies and personal protective equipment. For example, in DRC the U.S. Government has trained 80 field epidemiologists working to detect cases, trace and monitor contacts, and increase community awareness of mpox. These epidemiologists are collecting and sending samples to labs for testing, and at the same time, training additional healthcare workers how to do this work. In Burundi, the U.S. government is working with partners to expand mpox treatment capacity at hospitals in the hardest-hit districts, enabling patients to receive the highest-quality clinical care, nutrition, and psychosocial support closer to home.
   
3. Delivering on Our Commitment of Financial Support to Mpox Preparedness and Response: The United States Government, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), are providing more than $57 million to directly support mpox-specific response activities, including disease surveillance, laboratory diagnostic supplies and testing, clinical case management, risk communication and community engagement, infection prevention and control, access to vaccines, and research. This funding is in addition to the more than $487 million in bilateral global health security (GHS) preparedness and response support provided by the United States to mpox-affected countries through USAID and CDC. Ongoing global health security investments protect the health and livelihoods of people living in other countries and prevent health emergencies from threatening the United States. The country-by-country breakdown of U.S. support to mpox preparedness and response is included in the WHO/World Bank Mpox Financial Tracking Mechanism.
   
4. Strengthening Global Health Security: The United States is working with more than 50 countries around the world – including most mpox-affected countries and those at-risk of an mpox outbreak – to build stronger global health security capacities, ensuring countries are better prepared to prevent, detect, and respond to health emergencies while protecting U.S. national and homeland security. These ongoing partnerships in mpox-affected countries were in place before the current outbreak, and have played a critical role in supporting the response, especially in the early days before mpox-specific response funding became available. Examples of how this U.S. global health security support has been used to prevent, detect, and respond to the mpox outbreak include:

1. In DRC, building on multi-year investments to strengthen laboratory capacity, the United States supported mpox laboratory capacity building and biosafety and biosurveillance training in provincial labs, enabling these labs to safely test for mpox. In addition, the U.S. Government supported the Ministry of Health to develop a national Mpox Risk Communication and Community Engagement Strategy, which was rapidly adapted for the clade I mpox outbreak.

1. When mpox cases were detected in Rwanda, U.S. Government-supported partners deployed epidemiologists to 10 high-risk districts to provide technical guidance to Public Health Emergency Management Committees and to train 17 Rapid Response Teams. The U.S. Government also supported procurement of test kits and provided training for over 12,600 frontline health workers across 20 districts in infection prevention and control, mpox screening, and case management.

1. When the mpox outbreak spread to Burundi, U.S. Government-supported partners immediately deployed a mobile laboratory to provide faster mpox testing. U.S. Government support for building mpox laboratory capacity continues in Burundi with the recent delivery of additional supplies and training and support to decentralize laboratory testing for mpox and improve the speed of laboratory confirmation.

1. The U.S. Government has partnered with countries in the region to help prepare for potential mpox cases before they occur, including training in surveillance, lab capacity, and risk communication activities. Last month, the Ministry of Health in Angola was facing a severe shortage of mpox testing kits. Without these essential supplies, the country would have had limited, if any, visibility into the size of the outbreak. U.S. Government representatives delivered diagnostic kits to assist in testing nearly 500 suspect mpox cases, helping to confirm the first mpox cases in the country. The U.S. Government is supporting Liberia’s mpox preparedness, including technical assistance for surveillance and laboratories as part of broader activities responding to zoonoses in Liberia. The U.S. Government is supporting Mozambique to develop an Mpox Contingency Preparedness and Response Plan, and supporting the Ministry of Health to conduct mpox outbreak simulation exercises for 11 provinces to help prepare for Mozambique’s potential first case.

1. Investing in Research to Advance Mpox Preparedness: U.S. Government research investments to advance mpox preparedness have been ongoing for decades. International researchers, including some from the U.S. Government, have identified three critical areas of research needed to support the mpox response: 1) reduce mpox transmission, 2) optimize mpox treatment to save lives, and 3) accelerate the development of mpox vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics. Recent U.S. Government investments in each of these areas include:

1. Reducing Mpox Transmission: Research partnerships between the United States Government and the Government of DRC led to the identification of the newly-emerged clade Ib mpox, which is driving the current regional and global spread of mpox. During the current outbreak, the U.S. Government is investing in research to: improve case detection, understand clade-specific transmission dynamics, identify at-risk populations, characterize mpox disease including length of viral shedding to inform vaccination strategies, as well as determine the most effective public health interventions to stop transmission. Before the current outbreak, U.S. Government investments and technical expertise led to the development of existing investigational antivirals and the JYNNEOS mpox vaccine which, when used broadly in the United States during the height of 2022 mpox outbreak, significantly reduced the spread of mpox and contributed to the drop in new cases reported from hundreds per day in 2022 to single digit figures over the last two years.

1. Optimizing Mpox Treatment to Save Lives: The U.S. Government is conducting research, in partnership with the Government of DRC, to understand how this disease affects adults, children, infants, and pregnant women, as well as the risk factors for severe disease. This knowledge is critical to improving standards of care and developing safe and effective post exposure prophylaxis. A U.S. Government and Government of DRC-supported randomized controlled trial (PALM 007) of TPOXX (an antiviral drug developed and approved to treat smallpox) in adults and children with clade I mpox found no evidence of faster clinical improvement in the TPOXX arm compared to the placebo arm. However, PALM 007 did find that optimized standard of care resulted in reduced mortality for adults and children with clade I mpox. These learnings are being applied to the current outbreak.

1. Accelerating the Development of Mpox Vaccines, Diagnostics, and Therapeutics: Currently, there are no licensed mpox vaccines for children and adolescents, who are disproportionately impacted by the current mpox outbreak in Africa. The U.S. Government study of the JYNNEOS mpox vaccine showed that adolescents in the U.S, ages 11-17 years, have similar immune responses to the vaccine as adults. This led to the accelerated emergency approval of JYNNEOS for adolescents by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and approval through WHO’s pre-qualification process. JYNNEOS has been available in the United States for individuals under 18 years through an Emergency Use Authorization issued by the FDA in August 2022. The U.S. Government is also investing in new mpox diagnostics and mpox therapeutics. For example, CDC is working on a new test to better differentiate mpox clade I from clade II that can be used by both public and commercial laboratories. To improve our current investigational therapeutic options, NIH and ASPR are supporting the development of new orthopoxvirus monoclonal antibody therapeutic products.

Key Updates on Domestic Preparedness for Mpox: The Biden-Harris Administration has led numerous efforts to prevent and prepare for clade I mpox in the United States:

1. Providing ongoing communication and education: In December 2023, the U.S. CDC issued a Health Alert Network (HAN) advisory to U.S. clinicians, public health departments, and partners. CDC has since issued multiple HAN Health Updates to further increase awareness of clade Ib mpox, its distinction from clade II mpox and the less common clade Ia, and to provide updated recommendations to prevent, detect, and treat both clades of mpox. Following the first case of clade I mpox diagnosed in the United States, CDC released an updated HAN advisory on November 18, 2024 and a Dear Clinicians letter on December 5, 2024 to promote the importance of mpox vaccination and increase mpox detection nationwide.

1. Assessing risk through modeling: Throughout the outbreak in Central and Eastern Africa, CDC has conducted modeling to assess the level of risk to the U.S. public. The risk to the general U.S. public remains low, and the risk to men who have sex with men (MSM) and people who have sex with MSM is low to moderate (updated November 18, 2024). CDC further modeled the risk of transmission of clade I mpox if introduced into MSM networks in the United States. Simulations of 50 U.S. counties identified that counties with lower population-level immunity had a greater chance of large or prolonged outbreak. CDC is applying these findings to target outreach for vaccination promotion efforts to counties at higher risk.

1. Strengthening surveillance: The United States monitors for the virus that causes mpox in wastewater samples, which can provide an early warning of mpox activity and community spread. In addition, aircraft wastewater samples are collected at select U.S. airports for early detection of mpox in the U.S. State and commercial laboratories have put in place a robust mpox diagnostic testing capacity for both clades, and the United States continues to work with public health partners to further increase domestic surveillance and diagnostic testing capacity.

1. Minimizing risk to travelers: CDC issued an updated Level 2 Travel Health Notice (THN) for travelers to Central and Eastern Africa recommending that travelers practice enhanced precautions and be aware of mpox exposure risks and symptoms. The THN also includes vaccination recommendations for travelers to affected countries who are eligible for vaccination.
   
2. Vaccination and treatment: During the 2022 mpox outbreak, the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), distributed more than one million vials of JYNNEOS mpox vaccine across the United States. Now, the JYNNEOS mpox vaccine is commercially available. Individuals interested in vaccination can consult CDC’s guidance and should contact their physician, local retail pharmacy, health department or community health center for mpox vaccine availability in their community. Clinicians should refer to CDC’s clinical considerations for use of vaccine to prevent mpox in both adults and children. The high standard of care in U.S. health care can greatly improve mpox outcomes relative to other parts of the world. Symptomatic individuals are highly encouraged to seek care for further evaluation and treatment if needed.

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Today, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. spoke with His Holiness Pope Francis to discuss efforts to advance peace around the world during the holiday season. The President thanked the Pope for his continued advocacy to alleviate global suffering, including his work to advance human rights and protect religious freedoms. President Biden also graciously accepted His Holiness Pope Francis’s invitation to visit the Vatican next month.

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President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. will travel to Rome, Italy from January 9 to 12 to meet separately with His Holiness Pope Francis, President of Italy Sergio Mattarella, and Prime Minister of Italy Giorgia Meloni. On January 10, President Biden will have an audience with the Pope and discuss efforts to advance peace around the world. He will also meet with Italy’s leaders to highlight the strength of the U.S.-Italy relationship, thank Prime Minister Meloni for her strong leadership of the G7 over the past year, and discuss important challenges facing the world. 

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Over the past four years, President Biden and Vice President Harris have taken action to ensure rural Americans do not have to leave their hometowns to find opportunity. One year ago, President Biden visited a family farm in Northfield, Minnesota to kick off the “Investing in Rural America” event series, spurring over 30 visits by Cabinet members and White House Senior Officials to rural communities across the country. The Biden-Harris Administration is investing in rural America to create opportunity for farmers, small business owners, families, and communities.

Investing in Rural American Infrastructure

The President’s Investing in America agenda is investing billions of dollars to revitalize and rebuild rural communities across the country – a generational investment in rural America. This funding also represents the single largest investment in Tribal infrastructure ever.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides $65 billion to ensure every American has access to affordable, reliable high-speed internet through a historic investment in infrastructure deployment. That includes a $2 billion program at the Department of Commerce to invest in high-speed internet on Tribal lands. The Department of Agriculture (USDA) has invested more than $4 billion in projects that will expand access to high-speed broadband and bring new economic opportunities and a better quality of life for more than 650,000 people across 46 states through its ReConnect Program.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law also provides a historic $8.25 billion investment to reduce wildfire risks for communities, better detect wildfires, and institute workforce reforms and landmark pay increases for federal wildland firefighters. Through the Community Wildfire Defense Grant program, USDA has awarded $467 million to 259 project proposals across 36 states and 18 tribes, which will assist with planning for and mitigating wildfire risks, and has recently made another $200 million available. USDA is also investing $150 million from the Inflation Reduction Act to help underserved and small acreage forest landowners connect to emerging voluntary climate markets, which can provide economic opportunities for landowners and incentivize improved forest health and management. And through the Inflation Reduction Act and other appropriations, the Forest Service invested nearly $544 million in 63 projects in 2024 to conserve more than half a million acres of private forestlands across the U.S., ensuring that these places will remain working forests while protecting water sources and reducing wildfire risk.

Additionally, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law invests billions of dollars to make sure rural families can get where they need to go, including through a $4.1 billion investment in Rural Area Formula Grants at the Department of Transportation (DOT). This program will support 1,300 rural transit systems by enabling them to purchase transit vehicles and infrastructure, plan transit more effectively, and fund operations. DOT is also providing $2 billion over 5 years in dedicated funding to projects in rural areas that improve and expand the surface transportation infrastructure.

Delivering Clean, Reliable Water to Rural America

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s transformative investment of over $50 billion in our water and wastewater infrastructure is fundamentally changing the quality of life for millions of people in rural America by replacing lead pipes, providing critical access to sanitation, ensuring access to affordable clean drinking water, and tackling drought. That includes a $3.5 billion investment through the Indian Health Service which has launched over 700 projects to build out a safe supply of drinking water, reliable sewage systems, and waste disposal facilities across Indian Country. And the Inflation Reduction Act’s Tribal Clean Drinking Water program made $320 million available to bring safe, clean drinking water to Tribal communities in the West, with an initial $82 million announced to fund 23 projects.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and USDA, in collaboration with states and Tribal Nations, are working together on the Closing America’s Wastewater Access Gap initiative. This partnership leverages technical assistance resources to help historically underserved communities identify and pursue federal funding opportunities to address their rural wastewater needs. To date, EPA has announced that 38 more communities across 22 states have joined the initiative.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is also cleaning up pollution in rural areas by investing $4.7 billion to plug, remediate, and restore dangerous orphaned oil and gas wells across the country; nearly $11.3 billion to create good-paying jobs, including union jobs, and catalyze economic opportunity by reclaiming abandoned mine lands; and $3.5 billion to 95 previously unfunded Superfund site projects, including the longstanding backlog of projects, to clean up contaminated sites and advance environmental justice.

In addition, the Biden-Harris Administration is leading a whole-of-government effort to make Western communities more resilient to climate change and the ongoing megadrought by harnessing the full resources of the President’s Investing in America agenda. The Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law together include $15.4 billion to enhance the West’s resilience to drought through water-saving projects and other conservation efforts. In March 2024, the Administration took historic action to protect the stability of the Colorado River Basin including through investments from the Inflation Reduction Act’s $4 billion Colorado River drought mitigation funds, conserving at least 3 million-acre-feet of water by 2026.

Lowering Energy Costs and Strengthening the Grid

Supported by Inflation Reduction Act, the Empowering Rural America (New ERA) program is the largest investment in rural America’s electric system since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Rural Electrification Act in 1936. It invests $9.7 billion to help member-owned rural electric cooperatives provide their communities with clean, reliable, and affordable energy. USDA has announced over $8.3 billion in New ERA funding across 24 states so far, with the rural electric cooperatives building or purchasing nearly 12 gigawatts of clean energy. The Powering Affordable Clean Energy (PACE) program will fund new clean energy and energy storage projects to make it more affordable for rural Americans to use clean, reliable energy. In 2024, USDA awarded the 34 projects totaling $917 million. Since the start of the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA has invested more than $2.7 billion through the Rural Energy for America (REAP) program in 9,901 renewable energy and energy efficiency improvements helping farms and small businesses lower their energy costs, generate new income, and strengthen the resilience of their operations. Almost 7,000 of these projects were funded by over $1 billion provided by the Inflation Reduction Act

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law invests billions of dollars to improve resilience, reliability, safety, and availability of energy in rural America. So far, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced over $457 million for 93 projects to accelerate clean energy deployment in rural and remote areas across the country through the Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas (ERA) Program. DOE announced up to $475 million in March 2024 for 5 projects to accelerate clean energy deployment on current and former mine land. The selected projects cover a range of clean energy technologies, from solar, microgrids, and pumped storage hydropower to geothermal and battery energy storage systems.

DOE announced nearly $7.6 billion through the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) Program to strengthen grid reliability and resilience across all 50 states, including several major rural grid resilience projects. This funding is spurring private investment, bringing public-private investment to over $22 billion to deliver affordable, clean electricity to all Americans and ensure that communities across the nation have a reliable grid that is prepared for extreme weather worsened by the climate crisis. In addition, EPA awarded $27 billion through the Inflation Reduction Act’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) to create a national financing network for clean energy and climate solutions across the country, including rural communities. Together, the GGRF’s $14 billion National Clean Investment Fund, $6 billion Clean Communities Investment Accelerator, and $7 billion Solar for All program dedicate approximately two-thirds of the funding to low-income and disadvantaged communities, advancing the President’s Justice40 Initiative.

This year, the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Tribal Electrification Program funded by the Inflation Reduction Act provided $143 million in financial and technical assistance to 34 Tribes to connect homes to transmission and distribution that is powered by clean energy, provide electricity to unelectrified Tribal homes through zero-emissions energy systems, transition electrified Tribal homes to zero-emissions energy systems, and support associated home repairs and retrofitting. The program will also support clean energy workforce development opportunities in Indian Country.

And, by expanding the availability of homegrown biofuels, the Biden-Harris Administration is strengthening our energy independence while bringing good-paying jobs and other economic benefits to rural communities. For example, up to $500 million from the Inflation Reduction Act is being made available through the Higher Blends Infrastructure Incentive Program to increase the availability of domestic biofuels and give Americans additional, cleaner fuel options at the pump. Through this program, USDA has provided $251 million in grants so far.

Many of the programs aimed at delivering clean, reliable water to rural America, lowering energy costs, and strengthening the grid are covered under the President’s Justice40 Initiative, which sets the goal that 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal climate, clean energy, affordable and sustainable housing, and other investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution as part of the most ambitious climate, conservation, and environmental justice agenda in history.

Improving Access to Health Care and Lowering Health Care Costs for Rural Communities

The Biden-Harris Administration is lowering health care costs for rural Americans and supporting access to high quality care in rural America.  Rural seniors are seeing lower drug costs thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act. About 281,000 rural Part D Medicare enrollees would have benefitted from the $35 insulin cap if it had been in effect in 2020, and about 481,000 rural enrollees would have benefitted from $0 recommended adult vaccines if it had been in effect in 2021. About 289,000 rural enrollees are projected to save $1,000 or more when the $2,000 out-of-pocket cap goes into effect in 2025. Nearly 3 million rural Americans signed up for 2024 coverage at the Affordable Care Act’s HealthCare.gov Marketplace. Eighty percent of consumers could find health plans for $10 or less a month, with many qualifying for plans with $0 premiums. And thanks to the President’s ARP and IRA, rural HealthCare.gov enrollees are saving an $890 per year on their health insurance premiums, about 28% more than their urban counterparts. In addition, four states have expanded Medicaid since President Biden took office, providing coverage to over one million Americans while reducing the risk of rural hospital closure by half. 

The Biden-Harris Administration has launched the new Rural Emergency Hospital designation to provide a new option to some struggling hospitals, and it is investing in training the next generation of health care providers to serve rural communities. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has also extended several grant opportunities to support rural communities, including $28 million to provide direct health services and expand infrastructure and $16 million to provide technical assistance to rural hospitals facing financial distress. Recognizing the critical role nurses play in providing primary care, mental health and maternal health care services, particularly in rural areas, HHS announced more than $100 million in awards to address the increasing demand for registered nurses, nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives and nurse faculty. Through the Rural Residency Planning and Development Program, HHS has invested over $28 million in awards across 25 states to create new rural residency programs to train more physicians in rural communities, which increases the likelihood of practicing in a rural community. And through a $47 million investment, HHS funded 32 Rural Public Health Workforce Training Networks across 22 states, bolstering health care capacity in rural areas and training more than 2,000 health professionals, including community health workers, EMTs, health IT specialists, certified nurse assistants, and dental assistants, among others.

In addition, CMS has updated policies to support access to important services for Medicare beneficiaries at rural health clinics, including for integration behavioral health care, providing opioid use disorder treatment and chronic pain management services, allowing greater flexibility with telehealth services for mental health, supporting rural providers participating in value-based care models, and enabling enhanced care management services. Further, CMS is announcing this December a new request for applications for the ongoing Rural Community Hospital Demonstration. The goal of the program is to test the feasibility and advisability of cost-based reimbursement for small rural hospitals that are too large to be Critical Access Hospitals. This program was first created by Congress in 2004 but has not opened applications up since 2017.

HHS’ Rural Communities Opioid Response Program is a multi-year initiative that has invested $298 million in 386 awards to reduce the morbidity and mortality of substance use disorder (SUD), including opioid use disorder, in rural communities at the highest risk for SUD. Through the Rural Emergency Medical Services Training Program, HHS has invested $20.5 million since the start of the Biden-Harris Administration to support the recruitment and training of EMS personnel in rural areas with a focus on addressing SUD and co-occurring substance use and mental disorders. 
Supporting Veterans in Rural Communities

One quarter of all veterans in the U.S. (4.4 million) reside in rural communities. Around 48 percent of all rural veterans (2.7 million) are enrolled in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system, which is higher than the 41 percent enrollment rate of urban veterans. The Biden-Harris Administration has implemented several initiatives to support veterans living in rural communities, ensuring they have access to affordable, low-cost, high-quality healthcare. The landmark Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act enacted the most significant expansion of benefits and services for toxic exposed veterans in more than 30 years. Since the enactment of the PACT Act in August 2022, VA has completed over 1.8 million PACT Act-related claims with an approval rate of 74.5% and enrolled nearly 740,000 veterans in VA healthcare. VA has been able to expand the types of conditions that are considered service connected making it easier for toxic exposed veterans to get the disability benefits they deserve —a critical step to ensuring all veterans get access to the care they need. PACT Act also expanded who is eligible to enroll in VA health care and required new toxic exposure screenings for all veterans enrolled; to date, VA has completed more than 5.9 million free toxic exposure screenings. VA is delivering these benefits to veterans at the fastest rate in the nation’s history. The Act includes the largest VA outreach campaign in history, ensuring that the rural veterans and their survivors are aware of and can access the benefits can healthcare they are entitled to.

Provider shortage continues to challenge accessibility and affordability of health care, especially in rural communities across the United States. VA Office of Rural Health has continued to support and further developed different initiatives and programs to help reserve this trend. For example, VA continues to fund the Rural Interprofessional Faculty Development Initiative (RIFDI) which adds physician residents in rural VA facilities through the 18-month faculty development program and has demonstrated benefits to both the clinician partaking in the program and the receiving rural VA hospital. VA also expanded its Connected Care program, enabling more telehealth delivery for rural veterans than ever before. In 2023, VA launched the Pilot Program on Graduate Medical Education and Residency (PPGMER) to support more graduate medical education positions to serve in rural and other underserved areas.

Creating New and Better Agricultural Markets to Increase Competition

As part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Action Plan for a Fairer, More Competitive, and More Resilient Meat and Poultry Supply Chain, USDA has invested over $1.4 billion to support new or expanded small-sized and medium sized processing facilities and to create a more resilient, diverse and secure U.S. food supply chain. These investments are giving farmers more market options and fairer prices by spurring competition. These investments are also providing consumers with more choices and affordable prices at the grocery store.

Through the Fertilizer Production Expansion Program, USDA has invested $320 million in 67 fertilizer production facilities to expand access to domestic fertilizer options for American farmers in 32 states and Puerto Rico. These investments will increase U.S. fertilizer production by 9.1 million tons annually and create more than 800 jobs in rural communities.  

The USDA spearheaded several new rules to improve fairness and competition. This included final rules to promote transparency in poultry farming contracts, to prohibit discrimination and ban retaliation against farmers and ranchers in meat markets, and strengthen the product of USA standards. It also proposed a new rule to protect poultry growers from unfair deductions and variations in pay.

The Administration committed to better enforce the laws on the books. USDA stood up an enforcement partnership with 32 state attorneys general. USDA and Department of Justice (DOJ) strengthened their collaboration, and created an anonymous reporting tool for unfair and anticompetitive practices at farmerfairness.gov in early 2022. Since then, DOJ brought suit against Agristats for using algorithms to fix prices and outputs in meat markets; secured a consent decree with major poultry processors Cargill, Sanderson, and Wayne Farms to limit unfair variations in pay for poultry farmers; and blocked a merger of Dole and Fresh Express which would have consolidated vegetable markets. Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) successfully challenged the largest grocery merger in US history and brought a case to prevent price discrimination by big brands against independent retailers. The DOJ and FTC also worked to preserve and promote the right of farmers to repair their own tractors, including parts and batteries.

Investing in Climate-Smart Agriculture

Through the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities initiative, USDA is investing $3.03 billion in 135 projects that seek to build and expand market opportunities for American commodities produced using climate-smart practices. The Inflation Reduction Act provided a record $19.5 billion for USDA conservation programs to support hundreds of thousands of farmers and ranchers apply practices such as cover cropping, conservation tillage, wetland restoration, prescribed grazing, nutrient management, tree planting, and more to millions of acres of land. This has direct climate mitigation benefits and advances a host of other environmental co-benefits, in addition to offering farmers, ranchers and foresters new revenue streams. The climate-smart agriculture investments that USDA has made and continues to make are estimated to support over 180,000 farms and over 225 million acres in the next 5 years.

Strengthening Local and Regional Food Systems

The Biden-Harris Administration is investing in local and regional food systems, which adds value for both agricultural producers and consumers, and spurs economic activity locally — helping communities that have been left behind by the current agricultural models and supporting good-paying jobs throughout the supply chain. USDA created twelve Regional Food Business Centers across the country that are providing coordination, technical assistance and capacity building to help farmers, ranchers and food businesses reach local customers and navigate federal state and local resources. USDA is also investing $300 million through the Organic Transition Initiative to support farmers in transitioning to organic and build and strengthen organic markets so more farmers can participate.

To support Tribal Nations’ food and agriculture supply chain resiliency, USDA invested $48.1 million in meat and poultry processing infrastructure for indigenous animals such as bison, reindeer or salmon. In October 2023, USDA also launched a new, interagency pilot to purchase bison meat from Tribal and local bison operations for Tribal communities through the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR).

In June, USDA made more than 140 awards to agricultural employers, totaling $50 million, through its new Farm Labor Stabilization and Protection Pilot Program. The program, which is supported by President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, aims to stabilize the nation’s food supply and improve working conditions for farmworkers.

Improving Nutrition and Food Access for Rural Communities

President Biden set a bold goal of ending hunger and reducing diet-related diseases in the U.S. by 2030—all while reducing disparities. Through the Healthy Meals Incentives Initiative, USDA has awarded nearly $30 million in grants to small and rural communities to improve the nutritional quality of school meals and help modernize their operations. Each small and/or rural school district will receive up to $150,000 to support them in improving the nutritional quality of their meals and modernizing their operations through innovative staff training programs, kitchen updates and renovations, redesigning food preparation and service spaces, or other school-district led efforts to support school meals and school nutrition professionals.

This year, USDA’s summer nutrition programs reached more kids than ever before. In addition to in-person summer meal sites, summer meal operators in rural communities had the option to provide children with meals via grab-and-go or delivery through the Non-Congregate Summer Meal Service. And, through SUN Bucks (also referred to as Summer EBT), children in low-income families in participating states, territories, and Tribes received $120 per eligible child for the summer in the form of pre-loaded cards that families can use to purchase groceries.

USDA has also expanded online purchasing with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to be available in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. This expansion provides greater convenience and access to healthy food options for tens of millions of Americans, including in remote and rural areas.

Cutting Housing Costs, Boosting Supply, and Expanding Access to Affordable Housing in Rural America

The Biden-Harris Administration has taken aggressive action to boost housing supply and lower housing costs. Housing units under construction hit a 50-year high during this Administration, and housing starts are up 16% compared to the previous Administration. When aligned with other policies to reduce housing costs and expand affordability, such as rental assistance and down payment assistance, closing the supply gap will mean more affordable rents and more attainable homeownership for Americans in every community, including rural communities.

The Biden-Harris Administration oversaw large housing investments in rural America. State and local governments allocated nearly $20 billion in American Rescue Plan State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, making it the largest one-time housing block grant in U.S. history. These dollars were often combined with programs like USDA’s Single-Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program and Off-Farm Labor Housing program to make these dollars go further and help more households. Under the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA helped 33,436 families by building or renovating 1,065 multifamily housing apartment complexes in rural areas through nearly $1.4 billion in direct loans, guaranteed loans, and grants. Additionally, USDA provided $5.996 billion in rental assistance to help 388,588 very-low- and low-income rural families pay their rent. Since 2021, USDA has invested $7.6 billion to offer rental housing opportunities to rural families, senior citizens, people with disabilities, and farm workers and their families. In single-family housing programs, USDA invested over $48 billion to help more than 278,000 families with modest incomes buy, refinance, or repair their homes through our direct and guaranteed single-family housing loan programs, including 98,000 low- and very low-income borrowers.

In addition, HUD issued a first-of-its-kind Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) competition called Pathways to Removing Obstacles (PRO) Housing to enable communities to identify and remove barriers to housing production and preservation. In its first round, PRO awarded $85 million, including to rural areas that used funding to address matters such as zoning, predevelopment costs, and permitting.

The Biden-Harris Administration also took actions to encourage the construction and preservation of manufactured housing, a critical source of affordable housing, especially for low-income, rural, and Native American households and offers a potentially lower-cost pathway to homeownership. Earlier this year, HUD made available Preservation and Reinvestment Initiative for Community Enhancement (PRICE) grants, competitive funding that can be used for the replacement of dilapidated homes, assistance for homeowners such as repairs and accessibility modifications, mitigation and resilience upgrades, improvement of infrastructure such as stormwater systems or utilities, housing services including eviction prevention, and planning activities. It marked the first time the federal government has made grant funding available specifically for investments in manufactured housing communities, including resident-owned communities. In addition, USDA made more than $18 million in grants and loans under the Off-Farm Labor Housing program to support home improvements for farmworkers and their families.

While boosting supply is critical to bring prices down over the long-term, the lack of affordable housing is one of the main drivers of homelessness in most jurisdictions. In 2023, HUD announced the award of $486 million in grants and $43 million for stability vouchers to address unsheltered and rural homelessness. These awards allow grantees to fund rural homelessness assistance programs in local communities such as rent or utility assistance, emergency lodging, housing repairs, food and clothing assistance, and costs associated with converting federal properties to house homeless individuals and families. 

Strengthening Access to Higher Education, Career Pathways, and Rural Workforce Development

The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to expanding rural students’ access to career pathways and higher education opportunities that lead to good-paying jobs right in their own communities. In December 2023, the Department of Education announced $44.5 million in grants to 22 institutions of higher education to improve rates of postsecondary education enrollment, persistence, and completion among students in rural communities through the Rural Postsecondary & Economic Development Grant Program.

The Department of Education also awarded $31 million through the Career Connected High Schools grant program to help secondary education, postsecondary education, and workforce development systems expand access to career-connected high school programs for more students while unlocking career success. Of the 19 awards, 11 went to rural-focused programs.

In September 2024, the Institute for Education Sciences announced the National Education Research and Development Center for Improving Rural Postsecondary Education. This Center, hosted by MDRC, will receive $10 million over five years to focus on improving access to postsecondary education and completion of postsecondary degrees and credentials for students from rural K12 districts and locales.

In September 2024, the Department of Labor (DOL) awarded $49 million to support 35 projects through the Workforce Opportunities for Rural Communities (WORC) Initiative. WORC, which is a partnership between DOL, the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Delta Regional Authority, and the Northern Border Regional Commission, provides grant funds to enable rural communities to develop local and regional workforce development solutions aligned with existing economic development strategies and community partnerships to promote new, sustainable job opportunities and long-term economic vitality. New for this round, the funding opportunity specifically encouraged applicants who are part of the Rural Partners Network.
 

Supporting Schools in Rural Communities

The Biden-Harris Administration has continued to demonstrate its commitment to rural K12 districts by increasing investments in the Rural Education Achievement Program, the Department of Education’s only formula grant program specifically designated for rural K12 districts. Since Fiscal Year (FY) 2020, the program has seen an increase of nearly $35 million, culminating in $220 million allocated to rural small and/or low-income schools in FY 24.

During the Biden-Harris Administration, the Department of Education has expanded Full-Service Community Schools (FSCS) five-fold, from $25 million in 2020 to $150 million in 2023. In FY 2022 and 2023, 20 awards totaling $67,668,574 per award year went to projects specifically serving rural areas. Community schools collaborate with local non-profits, health providers, private partners, and other agencies to coordinate and deliver services like health care, mental health and nutrition services, afterschool and summer programming, and high-quality early learning programs.

In November of 2023, the Department of Education awarded $182 million in new grant awards under the Education, Innovation, and Research Program (EIR), with $46 million supporting grants in rural areas. These grants support local efforts to develop, implement, and take to scale entrepreneurial and evidence-based projects that have the potential to improve academic achievement for underserved students. EIR has seen an increase of $94 million in new awards between FY 2021 and FY 2023, demonstrating the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to promoting equity in student access to high-quality educational opportunities for rural learners.

Lowering Child Care Costs and Supporting Child Care Providers in Rural America
 
President Biden secured the largest one-time investment this country has ever made in child care through his American Rescue Plan. Those funds helped 225,000 child care providers stay open so that the parents of more than 10 million children could go to work with peace of mind. A third of providers reported they would have closed permanently without these relief funds. More than 8-in-10 licensed child care centers nationwide received ARP assistance and it benefited 30,000 rural child care programs – in most states, 97% of rural counties or more received aid.
 
President Biden has also worked to build the supply of child care in underserved areas, including rural areas. HHS issued a landmark final rule to improve the Child Care & Development Block Grant program, which helps the families of more than 1.3 million children afford child care. As a result of this rule, HHS has required for the first time that all states provide resources to build the supply of care in underserved geographic areas. This fall, the Biden-Harris Administration hosted a first-of-its-kind rural childcare convening, bringing together childcare providers and advocates to discuss opportunities to expand access to early care in rural and Tribal communities.

Partnering with Rural Communities to Create Jobs and Support Rural-led Economic Development

Launched in April 2022, the Rural Partners Network (RPN) is an all-of-government program that partners with rural people to access resources and funding to create local jobs, build infrastructure, and support long-term economic stability on their own terms. RPN staff on the ground are now supporting 36 community networks in 10 states and Puerto Rico. Since its inception, the federal government has invested nearly $8.5 billion in RPN communities to support critical infrastructure, economic development, housing, and other priorities.

In February 2021, President Biden established the Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization (Energy Communities IWG) to identify and deliver resources to the coal, oil and gas, and power plant communities that have powered our country for generations. Since then, member agencies have helped drive over $20 billion in federal investment to these communities. The Energy Communities IWG has launched Rapid Response Teams across the country to establish a network of assistance that is focused and sustainable in a community or region.

In addition, the Department of Transportation’s Thriving Communities Program is providing planning, technical assistance, and capacity building support to underserved and under-resourced communities, including rural communities.

With funding from the American Rescue Plan, the Department of Commerce launched several place-based programs to connect people to good paying jobs and help underserved communities leverage regional assets, including rural communities. The Build Back Better Regional Challenge awarded 21 regional coalitions a total of $1 billion to transform their regional economies through growing a local industry sector. These awardees span 236 rural counties. The Good Jobs Challenge awarded $500 million to 32 regional workforce training systems across the country. At least 19 of these 32 awardees serve rural areas. The Department of Commerce also awarded $100 million from the Indigenous Communities Program, all of which primarily serve rural communities, and $500 million from the Economic Adjustment Assistance Program, two-thirds of which primarily serve rural communities, to support economic development needs such as enabling infrastructure and workforce development.  

Additionally, authorized by President Biden’s CHIPS and Science Act, the Department of Commerce’s Regional Innovation and Technology Hubs program has designated 31 communities across the country as “Tech Hubs” that will bring together private industry, state and local government, higher education, labor unions, nonprofit institutions, and other critical stakeholders to develop and grow innovative industries that stimulate economic growth, create jobs, and strengthen national security. Nearly three-quarters of Tech Hubs designees encompass small and rural areas.

Also authorized by the CHIPS and Science Act, the Department of Commerce’s $200 million Distressed Area Recompete Pilot Program (“Recompete”) aims to address persistent economic distress in communities across the country through a series of highly targeted, transformational investments. Seven of the 22 program finalists focus exclusively on rural communities, and their proposed investments include workforce skill training, addressing childcare deserts in rural America, supporting small businesses, and building local capacity.

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By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:

     Section 1.  All executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government shall be closed and their employees excused from duty on Tuesday, December 24, 2024, the day before Christmas Day.

     Sec. 2.  The heads of executive departments and agencies may determine that certain offices and installations of their organizations, or parts thereof, must remain open and that certain employees must report for duty on December 24, 2024, for reasons of national security, defense, or other public need.

     Sec. 3.  December 24, 2024, shall be considered as falling within the scope of Executive Order 11582 of February 11, 1971, and of 5 U.S.C. 5546 and 6103(b) and other similar statutes insofar as they relate to the pay and leave of employees of the United States.

     Sec. 4.  The Director of the Office of Personnel Management shall take such actions as may be necessary to implement this order.

     Sec. 5.  General Provisions.  (a)  Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i)   the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii)  the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

     (b)  This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

     (c)  This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

                              JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.


THE WHITE HOUSE,
    December 18, 2024.

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At The Brookings Institution
As Prepared for Delivery

Supply Shocks and Supply Chain Fragility

I am delighted to join you for this discussion on strengthening America’s supply chains as we release the first ever Quadrennial Supply Chain Review.

When President Biden came into office, the economy was experiencing the most disruptive supply shocks in a generation. Shipping costs skyrocketed as over a hundred ships queued up at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and thousands of containers piled up on our docks. And when Russia invaded Ukraine, we saw further shocks, disrupting global grain and energy markets.

Following several decades of relative calm, the Global Supply Chain Pressure Index spiked to unprecedented levels. As disruptions led to shortages and price increases, goods inflation surged, after falling for much of the pandemic shutdown in 2020, tracking supply chain disruptions closely with a short lag.

Not since the oil price shocks of the 1970s had the U.S. economy experienced aggregate supply shocks of this magnitude. Both businesses and government were woefully unprepared.

Market pressures led businesses to adopt just-in-time, lean inventory practices and to seek out the lowest- cost production location for many components in their far-flung value chains. We now know that this came at a cost. When the pandemic shuttered semiconductor factories overseas, unfinished auto assemblies began piling up in America. Car and washing machine prices spiked, and wait lists lengthened.

The government had neglected to make critical investments in the resilience of our supply chains. Rails, ports, roads, bridges, and airports had fallen behind as successive administrations failed to secure the necessary infrastructure funding from Congress and did not take action as some foreign governments provided significant non-market incentives for investments in key strategic industries.

A New Playbook for Supply Chain Resilience

In short, we needed a new strategy to make our supply chains more resilient—and new partnerships with businesses and labor to make it work, as well as with foreign friends and allies. In his first month in office, the President signed the Executive Order on Supply Chains laying out a strategy to strengthen our supply chains. The new playbook rests on recovery, risk management, investment, and diversification.

Recovery

The first order of business was to restart the flow of goods.  The Administration immediately stood up a Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force to work with state and local officials, businesses, labor groups, and farmers to resolve bottlenecks.

An acute shortage of truck drivers was creating a major bottleneck for the 72% of shipments that move around the country by truck. In response, the Departments of Labor and Transportation implemented the Trucking Action Plan, which increased trucking employment by the most in two decades and doubled the issuance of commercial drivers’ licenses.

Similarly, with cargo piling up at our West Coast ports, the President appointed a Port Envoy, who worked with businesses and labor to clear the docks and get shipments moving again. As a result, the shelves were restocked in time for the Christmas shopping season.

Risk Identification and Management

Our goal was not only to restore the nation’s supply chains but also to build capacity to spot emerging risks and to resolve emerging problems sooner. We worked to build durable capabilities in key agencies to enable data analytics and information sharing with the private sector and states and localities.  

These new supply disruptions capabilities strengthened our ability to respond in 2022 to a significant baby formula supply shortfall due to a production quality lapse. To restore supply, the Administration used the Defense Production Act to get ingredients to manufacturers, coordinated air freight shipments of formula from overseas, and provided expedited pathways for new manufacturers to enter the market.

The Department of Transportation built out a new Multimodal Freight Office and a Transportation Supply Chain Indicators Tracker that gathers and publishes metrics in real time on container dwell times, sectoral employment trends, and rail intermodal volumes. Now when we start seeing a back-up in any of our ports, we can take action right away.

The Department of Commerce created a new Supply Chain Center with a first-of-its-kind diagnostic risk assessment tool known as SCALE. SCALE utilizes a comprehensive set of over 40 indicators of risk such as supplier concentration, reliance on a single point of entry, and inventory-to-sales ratios to evaluate supply chain conditions across more than 400 industries. With this new data, we can spot looming challenges early and take action before they become a crisis.

These data tools are critical for the private sector no less than for the government. When crisis strikes, the hundreds of independent operators that rely on or support our logistics networks must make decisions based on the information that is available to them, which may be only part of the bigger picture. It was vital to institutionalize greater data sharing and coordination to enable the hundreds of independent operators to manage risks more effectively.

The Department of Transportation created the Freight Logistics Optimization Works (“FLOW”) program, a public-private partnership that has built a shared data resource picture of live supply chain networks. Today, more than 85 FLOW participants use these data to inform their logistics decision making, helping to avoid bottlenecks, and shorten lead times for American businesses and consumers.

The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore last spring was a crucial test of whether the new capacity we had built around supply chains would work in a crisis. Hours after a ship crashed into the bridge at 1:30 A.M., the federal government had already convened the Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force to minimize disruptions to the critical goods moving in and out of the port. We were immediately in communication with state and local officials, and we initiated calls with shipping companies, labor unions, ocean carriers, and other ports along the East Coast. We coordinated with rail and trucking companies to help reroute the flow of critical goods in real-time. This all-hands-on-deck approach kept goods flowing throughout the region, workers at their jobs, and the local economy operating at full capacity until the Port of Baltimore was able to fully reopen in less than three months.

Investing in Infrastructure and Manufacturing

The pandemic supply chain crisis also highlighted the costs of decades of underinvestment in the supply side of our economy. Our nation’s infrastructure had fallen further and further behind. Companies spread their supply chains to far flung parts of the globe as they focused on the costs of inputs, and not on the risks associated with where they were made.

In response, the President secured landmark legislation to revive the federal government’s role in supporting private sector investment in the critical value chains that underpin our economic and national security.

Thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the federal government has so far invested more than $568 billion in American infrastructure across 66,000 different projects. We are investing $8.7 billion in 18 of the nation’s most economically significant bridges that are vital to our supply chains, and we have announced $13 billion to improve our ports. These are investments that will pay dividends for decades to come.

When the President took office, almost 90% of semiconductors—vital for everything from advanced AI to gaming—were manufactured abroad. In the energy sector, we rely on China for more than 80% of the solar manufacturing supply chain, and there are at least 30 foundational mineral commodities for which the U.S. is more than 75% net import reliant—in many cases on sources that are Chinese or owned by Chinese producers. These aren’t just economic vulnerabilities—they are national security risks, and we cannot afford to wait until there is a disruption to take action. 

Together, the landmark CHIPS and Science Act and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) have catalyzed nearly $1 trillion in announced private-sector investments in critical industries. Because of the CHIPS and Science Act, the U.S. is now projected to host nearly 30% of global leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing—up from zero—and we are already seeing the leading global manufacturer achieve production yields in the U.S. that are comparable to those in Taiwan.

Similarly, when the President entered office, U.S. producers were only able to supply 5 percent of global lithium demand. Because of the clean energy provisions of the IRA, the U.S. is now on track to supply more than one-fifth of global lithium demand outside of China by 2030, enabling us to power grid storage batteries and electric vehicles.

Diversification of Supply Chains

We are also working with likeminded partners to diversify our supply chains and manage risks. China has used a wide range of non-market practices to gain significant global share in key supply chains, including legacy semiconductors and electric vehicles. China’s growing overcapacity has caused a proliferation of unfairly low-priced exports that now make it difficult for competitors to meet market hurdles for investment and production. To level the playing field, we have coupled our investment incentives with tough trade enforcement measures like tariffs that are carefully targeted against those unfair trade practices in strategic sectors. Today’s Quadrennial Review lays out a comprehensive set of additional actions related to procurement, supply chain transparency, and market standards to counter non-market practices.

Importantly, we are partnering with allies to diversify global supply chains and ensure they are not excessively dependent on Chinese companies. By aligning our approaches, we are helping to ensure that the most vital global supply chains are diversified and China cannot undercut American industries, businesses, workers.

Building Future Resilience

We have come a long way. The Global Supply Chain Pressures Index, which in 2021 peaked at 4.4 standard deviations above its historical average, is now negative—a sharp decrease. The number of container ship stuck off our shores waiting to unload has fallen from almost 150 three years ago to around a dozen today. The days of sales covered by retailers’ inventories has increased by nearly 10% since June 2021 and is now close to the pre-pandemic average. Shipping rates to the West Coast have fallen from over $20,000 per container at the peak of the disruption back down to around $4,400.

The work on strengthening America’s supply chains should continue since we are likely to encounter additional supply shocks in the years ahead. In the past 4 years alone, we have confronted supply chain disruptions not only from the pandemic but also from hurricanes, foreign wars, and cyberattacks targeting critical infrastructure and digital supply chains. We saw 28 climate disasters last year that each cost at least a billion dollars—the highest number in U.S. history. Geostrategic instability, including Russia’s war in Ukraine and conflict in the Middle East, continues to disrupt global energy markets. Cyber actors regularly target supply chain operators as a way to take down major companies, including hospitals. And we have seen a variety of disruptions in shipping, including the Houthi attacks on cargo ships in the Red Sea and reduced water levels in the Panama Canal.

New dependencies are constantly emerging, and some supply chain chokepoints create national security risks, such as the ability of a foreign adversary to cut off supplies of a key mineral used in defense applications. It will be important to utilize the full scope of our national security tools to protect supply chains when necessary, as with the Department of Commerce’s ICTS rulemaking on data security for connected vehicles, ensuring that foreign adversaries cannot exploit consumer products that Americans use every day for harmful purposes.

Certain critical product areas—including minerals, information technology components, and medical supply chains—will require additional investment to achieve an acceptable level of resilience.

We can’t repeat the mistakes of the past by allowing future core technologies to completely leave our shores. America’s global position in the strategic industries of tomorrow require ongoing active attention. We need to work in partnership with the private sector when they identify a critical bottleneck. For instance, it is important support the rapid development of the requisite compute power through clean energy in the U.S. for the most advanced AI models.

Closing

When they are working smoothly, most people don’t pay any attention to supply chains. But when supply chains break down, it can impose tremendous hardship on our households, workers, businesses, and farmers. 

Supply chain resilience has always been vital to our economic and national security. President Biden once invoked a proverb attributed to Benjamin Franklin: “For want of a nail, the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe, the horse was lost…” and on and on and until, finally, “the whole kingdom was lost, all for the want of a horseshoe nail.” Our nation’s founders recognized that the breakdown of even minor inputs or processes can cascade into monumental national costs.

Building resilience in our supply chains is not a partisan effort. It’s a national priority borne out of hard-fought experience. It is also a shared responsibility—government enabled and private sector led. American workers are also vital to these efforts.

Today, not only have we recovered, we’ve come out stronger, and have laid the foundation for America’s supply chains to be more resilient in the years ahead.  Now it is important to build on this new playbook for resilient supply chains in partnership with business and government and in alignment with friends and partners around the world.

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Upon taking office in 2021, President Biden and his Administration immediately got to work addressing the shocks that were roiling global supply chains and moved swiftly to secure key industries for America’s economy and national security. Everything in our lives—the food we eat, the medicines in our hospitals, the energy that powers our homes, the computer chips in our devices—relies on supply chains, and the disruptions sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war on Ukraine showed what happens when they are neglected for decades.

Four years later, America’s supply chains are stronger and more resilient. Working hand in hand with industry and all stakeholders, this Administration has cleared bottlenecks, increased investments in critical sectors, and shored up the transportation sector that move the goods that Americans rely on. Ocean shipping prices have fallen more than 70 percent from their peak, and today fewer than 20 containerships are waiting to dock at U.S. ports, compared to over 150 backed up during the peak of congestion. That progress has made supply chains more reliable for businesses and lowered inflation for the goods that families buy every day.

Today, the Biden-Harris Administration is releasing the first-ever Quadrennial Supply Chain Review, a formal assessment of four years of strengthening America’s critical supply chains, and announcing additional actions to support American businesses and consumers.

Progress to Date

The Quadrennial Supply Chain Review assesses the progress made over the past four years to bolster the resilience of our most critical supply chains. This strategic approach has included:

• Responding to disruption. The Administration quickly set to work to develop new government tools and capacity to respond to disruptions, both active ones when it took office, and new ones that have occurred since. The President’s Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force (SCDTF) has effectively coordinated federal authorities and resources and also established a process to work with state and local authorities and the private sector in real time. This work has helped improved the flow of goods into and around the United States during disruptions—getting products critical to American families moving again through ports and to shelves.

• Investing in infrastructure and manufacturing and lowering costs. Over the past four years, the Biden-Harris Administration has taken a made historic investments to strengthen our industrial bases and lower costs. U.S. Government investment has helped catalyze over $1 trillion in private-sector announced investments since January 2021. These investments are supporting the construction of new factories and creating manufacturing jobs across the country.
• Responding to non-market policies and practices. On a level playing field, American businesses and workers can compete and win. However, our strategic competitors are continuing to engage in non-market policies and practices (NMPP) that undercut our collective resilience—directing their systems to target key industries for dominance by using excessive state subsidies and other forms of state support to dominate critical industries. As part of the Quadrennial Supply Chain Review process, the Biden-Harris Administration has developed a strategy to address NMPP, recognizing the need for early, comprehensive action to prevent harm to U.S. workers and industry, as well as modernized trade authorities that account for NMPP’s continued effects on global supply chains. This work has included raising tariffs on a select number of key sectors to safeguard U.S. supply chains in the face of unfair competition. These tariff modifications will protect historic domestic investments under BIL, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, while also shielding American businesses and workers from unfair trade practices.

The Review builds on comprehensive efforts undertaken by the Administration over the last four years, including President Biden’s 2021 Executive Order on America’s Supply Chains (E.O. 14017), which directed rapid supply chain assessments for four critical products in the first 100 days of the Administration, a one-year review of six key supply chains in 2022, and the establishment of the White House Council on Supply Chain Resilience to support the enduring resilience of America’s critical supply chains in 2023.

Additional Actions to Strengthen Supply Chains

Continuing to strengthen supply chains over the next four years—and beyond—will require the United States to deliver on historic domestic investments, maintain and strengthen international partnerships, harness innovation to tackle 21st-century challenges, and mobilize and facilitate ongoing private investment and public-private partnerships. The work of the last four years has laid a strong foundation for the United States to continue safeguarding the enduring resilience of our supply chains for years to come, including for emerging industries of the future.

Below are additional steps the Biden-Harris Administration is taking to strengthen supply chains, including for energy, critical minerals, agricultural commodities and food products, medical products, information and communications technology, transportation, and defense.

Energy

• Announcing up to $6 billion in incentives to strengthen U.S. energy supply chains. Over the coming weeks, the IRS, supported by the Department of Energy’s Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC), is set to announce up to $6 billion in additional tax credits to strengthen U.S. energy supply chains through the Qualifying Advanced Energy Project Credit (48C) Program. This builds on the first round of $4 billion in announced tax credits for over 100 projects in 35 states to accelerate domestic clean energy manufacturing and reduce greenhouse gas emissions at industrial facilities. This also builds on over $12 billion of investment from the DOE MESC Office in domestic manufacturing capacity to strengthen the U.S. energy supply chains.
• Improving risk mitigation across the energy supply chain. To improve visibility across multiple technologies in the energy industrial base, DOE and a consortium of the National Laboratories have developed a new analytic framework—the Supply Chain Readiness Level—to quantify risks, gaps, and vulnerabilities, and to identify investment opportunities across the energy sector.

Critical Minerals

• Mapping America’s critical minerals deposits. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is announcing new airborne geophysical mapping in the Ozarks Plateau (Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas) and Alaska over areas known to host minerals such as antimony, tin, tungsten, and lead and zinc ores, as well as byproduct critical minerals such as gallium and germanium. USGS’s mapping work, funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), is revolutionizing the U.S. Government’s understanding of the nation’s mineral and geologic resources. USGS and NASA are partnering to complete the largest high-quality hyperspectral survey in the world, surveying more than 180,000 square miles of the Southwest with sensors that make it possible to “see” nuanced differences between materials.
• Updating the U.S.’s critical minerals market data. Next month, USGS will publish its 2025 Mineral Commodity Summaries.These annual reports help forecast supply chain disruptions resulting from a variety of risks including pandemics, natural disasters, and trade wars, and are the U.S.’s authoritative source of data on the supply, demand, and consumption of 100 mineral commodities. Additionally, last month, researchers at the USGS National Minerals Information Center developed a new model to assess how disruptions of critical mineral supplies may affect the U.S. economy. This model reflects the latest whole-of-government risk and resilience methodology.

Food and Agriculture

• Making $116 million in new investments to expand domestic fertilizer production. Today, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) is announcing eight new awards through its Fertilizer Production Expansion Program, part of a broader effort to increase American-made fertilizer production to spur competition and combat price hikes on U.S. farmers. Since President Biden announced the program in 2022, USDA has invested $517 million in 76 fertilizer production facilities to expand access to domestic fertilizer options for American farmers in 34 states and Puerto Rico. These investments will increase U.S. fertilizer production by 11.8 million tons annually and create more than 1,300 jobs in rural communities.This funding builds on the more than $1.4 billion USDA has invested to build or expand small and medium sized processing facilities and to create a more resilient U.S. food supply chain which gives farmers more market options while providing consumers with more choices and affordable grocery prices.

Medical Products

• Investing an additional $26 million in domestic sterilization capacity. Building on recent investments in industrial base capability and capacity expansion through DPA Title III authorities and Public-Private Partnerships, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) expects additional investments of $26 millionin alternative sterilization capacity before the end of 2024.

• Releasing an action plan for the next four years. HHS will publish its Draft 2025-2028 Action Plan for Addressing Shortages of Medical Products and Strengthening the Resilience of Medical Product Supply Chains, outlining supply chain resilience goals and a strategic plan to achieve them. The HHS Action Plan will also include an HHS Research Plan to collate HHS and academic research priorities that would promote Action Plan goals.
• Issuing stronger supply chain standards for hospitals to combat drug shortages. In notice and comment rulemaking, CMS intends to propose new Conditions of Participation requiring hospitals to have certain processes to address and prevent medication shortages.

Semiconductors and Other Technologies

• Investing in domestic production. CHIPS for America has awarded over $26 billion in incentives to advance domestic production in semiconductors and the supply chain. Now, America is home to all five of the world’s leading-edge logic and memory providers, while no other economy has more than two. Since the beginning of the Biden-Harris Administration, semiconductor and electronics companies have announced nearly $450 billion in private investments, catalyzed in large part by public investment.
• Reducing national security risks in federal supply chains. The Department of Defense, General Services Administration (GSA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are finalizing a rule implementing Section 5949 of the James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, which prohibits agencies from procuring or obtaining certain products and services that include semiconductors from entities of concern.
• Promoting the U.S. government’s use of domestically manufactured semiconductors. The Made in America Office and Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) has released a Request for Information (RFI) to gauge the best ways for government contractors to scale up their use of domestically manufactured chips, particularly for critical infrastructure. Responses solicit commercial ideas from industry that may inform future policymaking in support of the government-wide effort to leverage existing manufacturing capacity.
• Incentivizing supply chain diversity, competition, and transparency. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is issuing guidance to help the Federal Government—the world’s largest buyer—organize its demand for domestic semiconductors so that agencies can mitigate the risk posed by undue dependence on foreign manufacturing, limited competition, and possible higher manufacturing costs. The effort encourages agencies to develop strategies to dual or multiple source semiconductors, increase transparency for critical infrastructure supply chains, and provide the government’s forecasted demand for the products and services that use these chips.
• Protecting American businesses from unfair trade practices. In May, the President announced increased Section 301 tariffs on semiconductor imports from China, which were finalized by the USTR in September, as part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to further protect American semiconductor manufacturing and the sustainability of domestic investments.

Transportation

• Helping states improve their supply chain operations. The Department of Transportation (DOT) continues to advance this work by working closely with other levels of government and industry stakeholders. DOT’s Freight Office is establishing the National Multimodal Freight Network to assist States in strategically directing resources toward improved system performance for the efficient movement of freight on the Network, to inform freight transportation planning, and to assist in the prioritization of Federal investment.
• Expanding visibility into ocean freight supply chains. Today, DOT is announcing that it has added more members to the Freight Logistics Optimization Works (FLOW) program, a public-private partnership to build an integrated view of U.S. supply chain conditions, and which supported the response to the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse. Today, FLOW now includes eight of the largest ten container ports representing over 80% of all U.S. imports; nine of the largest ten ocean carriers representing over 70% of all U.S. imports; and six of the largest ten importers.
• Building the transportation of tomorrow. USTDA, DFC, and EXIM are all making investments to improve transportation across air, land, and sea. EXIM’s investments will expand U.S. exports of all electric-powered aircraft, while USTDA is improving the efficiency and safety of freight rail and digital customs processes. In areas around the world with high vessel traffic, DFC is also developing new ports to move goods in critical supply chains from place to place. Since its creation, DFC investments in critical infrastructure have transported over 64 million passengers alone.

Defense

• Releasing a National Defense Industrial Strategy and Implementation Plan. This fall, the Department of Defense (DoD) released the Implementation Plan to accompany its first-ever National Defense Industrial Strategy (NDIS). The NDIS is guiding investments to strengthen supply chain resilience, including by purchasing key elements that we need for sustainable defense production. For example, the United States has invested $215 million to boost production of solid rocket motors, which are one of the most critical components used in our advanced missile systems.
• Establishing domestic manufacturing capability for strategic and critical materials. From mid-2023 through September 2024, DoD invested $250 million in defense-critical materials such as graphite, lithium, niobium oxide, and manganese. These investments will ensure secure access to sources and to domestic separation and processing in support of a range of defense applications, from large-capacity batteries to advanced aircraft to microelectronics.
• Investing in the defense industrial base workforce. The defense supply chain depends in large part on a strong and vibrant workforce. The Administration has pursued numerous initiatives to ensure Americans can access jobs in the defense industrial sector that pay competitive wages and get the training they need to turn these jobs into meaningful careers. Earlier this year, the Navy partnered with the Departments of Education and Labor and with the State of Michigan to launch the Michigan Maritime Manufacturing Initiative, which expands regional training pipelines for the submarine industry into the Great Lakes region.

Strengthening U.S. Government Data, Analytics, and Response Capacity

• Preparing for a second Supply Chain Summit. In September 2024, the Department of Commerce held its first Supply Chain Summit. Commerce convened officials from government, industry, academia, and civil society to discuss how to effectively prepare for and respond to supply chain disruptions, as well as proactively improve supply chain resilience. Commerce will host another Supply Chain Summit in 2025. The Summit will bring together government, industry, and other stakeholders to examine continual progress made in increasing American supply chain resiliency. The date of the Summit will be announced in the months ahead.
• Upgrading the new SCALE diagnostic tool. The Department of Commerce’s Industry and Analysis unit developed a first-of-its-kind supply chain diagnostic tool to assess supply chain risk across the whole of the U.S. economy. The tool proactively helps identify risks and strengthen the resilience of supply chains key to U.S. national and economic security. The Department of Commerce plans to launch a competition aimed at developing new data or analysis that can be used to expand the indicators of risk incorporated into the SCALE tool.
• Conducting supply chain tabletop exercises with industry. In 2025, Commerce will conduct two tabletop exercises with industry to better understand opportunities to address structural supply chain risks faced by the United States. One exercise will focus on supply chain risks in the chemicals industry; the second will focus on an emerging technology where it is critical the United States maintain a strategic advantage.
• Addressing supply chain risks for “critical chemicals.” Working with the interagency, Commerce is developing a list of chemicals that are essential to critical supply chains, and where supply is insecure. Alongside this effort, Commerce is finalizing short-, medium- and long-term policy proposals to strengthen the supply chain. Elements of this work will form the basis of the Chemical Tabletop Exercise in 2025.

Emerging Technologies

• Convening industry on AI data centers. Commerce continues to drive efforts to get ahead of supply chain risks in critical and emerging technologies by developing playbooks and conducting deep dive assessments into emerging technologies such as quantum computing and clean hydrogen. In the second half of 2024, Commerce carried out a sprint to assess under-the-radar risks in AI data center supply chains, engaging more than 35 companies and leveraging in-house industry expertise and the SCALE tool to assess the highest-risk components and identify steps that government and industry can take to address them. In December, Commerce convened companies to share the results of its analysis and identify next steps.

Building Resilience with Allies and Partners

• Presidential Summit on Global Supply Chain Resilience. In October 2021, President Biden convened over a dozen world leaders to improve international collaboration on supply chain resilience. Following the President’s convening, the Secretaries of State and Commerce hosted a Supply Chain Ministerial to further advance this work. The original Joint Statement from the ministerial now has 31 signatories who have agreed to make global supply chains more transparent, diverse, secure, and sustainable.
• Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) Supply Chain Agreement. The IPEF Supply Chain Agreement entered into force in February 2024 and will improve the preparedness, resilience, and competitiveness of regional supply chains. The United States and 13 Indo-Pacific partners have established a Supply Chain Council. In 2025, the Council will develop and implement action plans to strengthen supply chains across several critical industries. A Crisis Response Network will serve as a warning system for potential supply chain disruptions, and a Labor Rights Advisory Board will convene IPEF government officials, employers, and labor officials to improve labor rights and workforce development across regional supply chains.
• Eradicating forced labor from supply chains. As part of the Partnership for Workers’ Rights launched in 2023, the U.S. and Brazil worked with businesses and unions to address worker vulnerability to forced labor in supply chains for cattle, coffee, gold, charcoal, and other goods.
• Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGI). PGI is a bipartisan initiative in partnership with the G7 to provide strategic, values-driven, and high-standard infrastructure and investment in low- and middle-income countries. Through initiatives like the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor, highlighted on the President’s recent visit to Angola, the United States is working with partners to strengthen and diversify supply chains.
• G7 Surge Financing Initiative. The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), G7 development finance institutions (DFIs), European Investment Bank (EIB), International Finance Corporation (IFC), and MedAccess announced the Surge Financing Initiative for Medical Countermeasures (MCMs). Together, partners are working closely with global and regional health organizations to establish frameworks and innovative financing mechanisms to support more rapid and equitable pandemic response.
• Boosting critical mineral capacity with partners. DFC invested over $220m in rare earth, graphite, and nickel projects in the last four years, reducing dependence on strategic adversaries and improving resilience in the critical mineral supply chain. The Department of Labor, USAID, United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), and the State Department through the Minerals Security Partnership have also provided technical support to bring new capacity online to process critical minerals in line with international best practices.
• Strengthening resilient telecommunications. In Costa Rica, EXIM approved a preliminary commitment to support Costa Rica’s use of trusted vendors to deploy its 5G network. With Japan and Australia, DFC is supporting the delivery of high-quality telecommunication services for over 2.5 million subscribers across Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu, Samoa, Tonga, and Nauru.

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The U.S. Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) is an economy-wide, all greenhouse gas target of reducing net emissions by 61-66 percent below 2005 levels in 2035

The emissions reduction strategy includes leveraging landmark investments from the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, complemented by federal standards; coordinating with local, state, Tribal, and territorial governments; and mobilizing private capital

In 2015, the world came together to finalize the Paris Agreement, an historic agreement joined by nearly every country in the world to address the climate crisis and protect the planet for future generations. On Day One of his Administration, President Biden fulfilled his promise to rejoin the Paris Agreement and set a course for the United States to tackle the climate crisis at home and abroad. In 2021, pursuant to the terms of the Paris Agreement, President Biden submitted a nationally determined contribution (NDC) with a target of reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions 50-52 percent from the 2005 baseline in 2030.

Today, as the United States continues to accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy, President Biden is announcing a new climate target for the United States: a 61-66 percent reduction in 2035 from 2005 levels in economy-wide net greenhouse gas emissions. It keeps the United States on a straight line or steeper path to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, economy-wide, by no later than 2050. In connection with this announcement, the United States is making a formal submission of this new target to the United Nations Climate Change secretariat as its next NDC under the Paris Agreement.

To develop the U.S. 2035 NDC, the Biden-Harris Administration analyzed how every economic sector – power generation, buildings, transportation, industry, agriculture and forestry– can spur innovation, unleash new opportunities, drive competitiveness, and cut pollution. Additionally, the United States anticipates, as part of achieving its 2035 NDC emissions target, methane reductions of at least 35 percent from 2005 levels in 2035. Cutting methane emissions is among the fastest ways to reduce near-term warming and is an essential complement to CO2 mitigation.

This 2035 NDC aligns with President Biden’s target of a net zero greenhouse gas economy no later than 2050 and marks an ambitious capstone to President Biden’s climate legacy, focused on investment, innovation, creating millions of good-paying and union jobs, building the clean energy economy of the future, reducing costs for all Americans, advancing environmental justice, and improving the health and security of communities across America. There are multiple paths to reach these targets, and U.S. Federal, state, local, territorial, and Tribal governments have numerous tools available to work with civil society and the private sector to mobilize investment in the years ahead while supporting a stronger, fairer economy.

Momentum from President Biden’s Climate and Economic Agenda

Since President Biden announced the 2030 NDC in April 2021 to reduce emissions 50-52% by 2030, the United States has designed and implemented a historic climate strategy that leverages emissions reduction and economic growth in every region of the country. Advanced through thousands of policies and actions undertaken by federal, state, territorial, Tribal, and local governments, the strategy includes passage of the landmarks Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), paired with strategic implementation of a regulatory agenda to ensure emissions reductions across every sector of the economy. This approach has equipped federal, state, territorial, Tribal, and local governments with additional resources and regulatory certainty to partner with the private sector to grow a new clean energy economy that benefits American workers and consumers. Implementation of this broad and comprehensive strategy has already led to more than $450 billion of private sector investment in domestic clean energy and manufacturing projects. This progress will accelerate as the Biden-Harris climate agenda continues to drive a wide range of investments in clean energy deployment and manufacturing in the years ahead. Examples include:

• Arizona has added over 370,000 new jobs, and unleashed more than $120 billion in private sector investment. Investments include $5.5 billion to build a battery facility outside Phoenix that will produce batteries for 350,000 electric vehicles per year.
• California has added over two million new jobs and more than $45 billion in private sector manufacturing and clean energy investment, including a $4 billion Gigafactory to produce lithium-ion batteries in Imperial Valley.
• Georgia has added nearly half a million new jobs and mobilized more than $40 billion in private sector investment. Qcells is investing $2.5 billion to expand its solar panel and component manufacturing capacity in Dalton and Cartersville.
• Maryland has added over 160,000 new jobs, and attracted more than $2.7 billion in private sector investment, including a $350 million investment from Constellation Energy to increase the output and lifespan of its renewable energy portfolio.
• Pennsylvania has added more than 560,000 new jobs and unleashed nearly $4.3 billion in private sector investment, including a $500 million investment by Eos Energy Enterprises to expand battery manufacturing operations in Turtle Creek, supported by a loan guarantee from DOE’s Loan Programs Office.
• Wisconsin has added more than 188,000 new jobs and $5.4 billion in private sector manufacturing and clean energy investments, including $426 million for the state’s first large-scale solar and battery storage project outside Milwaukee.

These investments and many more tell a clear story: the clean energy revolution is being built in America, and that will not be reversed.

Fundamental Economic and Technological Trends

Over the past four years the prices of clean energy generation and infrastructure have fallen dramatically. President Biden’s economic agenda, supported by complementary subnational government actions and private sector innovation, has reshaped the energy landscape now and for future generations so that American consumers and workers will benefit, especially in energy communities that have historically powered our nation. Along with the boom in domestic investments, technological advances across the energy sector are also making the U.S. clean energy revolution irreversible, including:

• Clean Energy Generation. The levelized cost of utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) and onshore wind are dropping rapidly. In 2024, estimates for utility-scale solar PV and onshore wind are as low as $29 per megawatt hour and $27 per megawatt hour, respectively. On a levelized-cost basis, utility-scale solar is now broadly on par with fossil fuel sources, even before accounting for the environmental and public health benefits. A recent analysis indicates that 99 percent of all U.S. coal plants are more expensive to continue running than to replace with solar, wind, and energy storage resources. Geothermal power generation capacity is also accelerating, with 203 megawatts commissioned globally in 2023, up 12 percent from 2022. Recent technological advances, particularly in drilling, indicate the industry is on track to an average cost of $60-70/MWh by 2030 and $45/MWh by 2035. New enhanced geothermal capacity is already slated to meet the clean electricity demands of new industries. And the recent completion of the Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia, the nation’s first new nuclear reactors in over 30 years, as well as planned revitalizations of existing reactors, progress on advanced reactor technologies, and new private sector demand, are all signs of further progress expanding nuclear power capacity ahead.
  
  
• New and Better Transmission. Expanding and enhancing the U.S. transmission system is critical to the nation’s resilience and national security. Significant expansions of new and upgraded transmission lines by public and private sector entities, including SunZia Transmission in New Mexico, will facilitate the transmission of clean energy across the United States. Meanwhile, a new generation of modern grid technologies provides a significant opportunity to achieve power system capacity expansion, including through high-performance conductors that can carry two times (or more) the amount of power of conventional transmission wires, as well as grid enhancing technologies that maximize electricity transmission across the existing system through a family of technologies that includes sensors, power flow control devices, and analytical tools.
  
  
• Battery Storage. Utility-scale battery storage has the potential to provide much-needed flexibility that supports renewable energy sources, and helps address grid infrastructure challenges. Between 2010 and 2023, the cost of utility-scale battery storage projects declined by 89%, to $273 per kilowatt hour, driven by improvements in manufacturing, materials efficiency, and manufacturing processes. Storage capacity additions also increased significantly, with additions of 22 gigawatt hours (GWh) in 2023. As the private sector continues to invest in new battery technologies and manufacturing processes, battery storage costs will continue to decline, supporting the clean energy economy of the future.
  
  

• Energy Efficiency. Improvements in energy efficiency can cut pollution and save Americans on their energy and water bills. The Biden-Harris Administration has strengthened energy efficiency standards to save households and businesses money, with standards updated by DOE for dozens of appliances expected to provide nearly $1 trillion in consumer savings over 30 years, saving the average household more than $100 a year while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 2 billion metric tons. Efficient equipment such as heat pumps powered by clean electricity are already making heating, cooling, and hot water more affordable for a growing number of American homes. 2022 marked the first year that heat pump sales outpaced fossil fuel furnaces in the US; in 2023, heat pumps outsold gas furnaces by 27 percent, demonstrating the technology’s growing popularity with consumers. When paired with energy efficiency improvements, like insulation, heat pumps lower the cost of heating and cooling, while improving indoor and outdoor air quality.

• Clean Steel and Clean Concrete. Producing steel and concrete, fundamental building blocks of the modern economy, accounts for more than 15 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Clean steel and concrete are already being produced in the United States. Major steelmakers are now using Inflation Reduction Act investments to build and retrofit American steel facilities to produce cleaner steel. Innovative low carbon methods for concrete production can reduce emissions by eliminating the need for high temperatures or through the use of alternative low carbon feedstocks. These innovative concretes are more durable and stronger than conventional concrete, improving the performance of infrastructure investments and resulting in long term savings. As clean hydrogen and clean electricity prices continue to fall, producers will be able to further slash emissions using these cleaner inputs.
  
  
• Clean Hydrogen. Hydrogen has the potential to reduce emissions across a host of sectors, including transportation and heavy industry. Key cost drivers of green hydrogen production, including the capital expenditure for electrolyzers and the price of renewable energy, are expected to decline in years ahead due to economies of scale, delivering green hydrogen at a lower price point. Combined, these two cost declines could translate to a significant reduction in green hydrogen production costs, from $3-6 per kilogram today to $1.50 – 2 by 2035.

• Clean Cars and Trucks. Electric vehicles (EVs) are already selling at a record pace in the United States, supported by falling component prices as well as fuel and maintenance cost savings for consumers. From 2018 to 2022, the sales-weighted average price of electric cars decreased, and the price gap between internal combustion vehicles and EVs has begun to close. Through 2035, falling EV component prices will drive down the purchase price for EVs and bring new customers to the EV market. For instance, battery prices are set to fall by as much as 50 percent through 2026 thanks to improved technology and expanded production of key inputs. Federal standards support these market developments: the strongest-ever national pollution standards for passenger cars and heavy-duty vehicles are providing certainty for the automobile industry, catalyzing private investment, creating good-paying union jobs, improving public health, and expanding consumer choice in clean vehicles.

• Federal Sustainability. With broad support from America’s manufacturers, clean energy developers, labor organizations, business leaders, states, and communities, the Federal Government’s 300,000 buildings, 600,000 vehicles, and $750 billion in annual procurement power will continue to be more sustainable and resilient while supporting good jobs, cutting costs, and saving taxpayers money.

Action and Leadership from state, local, Tribal, and territorial governments

State, local, Tribal, and territorial governments in the United States have a long history of climate leadership that has laid the groundwork for subsequent federal action, including the Inflation Reduction Act. Many critical climate levers, especially in the transportation, electricity, and building sectors, lie largely within the domain of these governments. In the years ahead, leveraging and expanding the new clean energy economy enabled by the Biden-Harris Administration’s policies and bolstered by strong economic tailwinds supporting clean energy, these governments will ensure that the United States remains all-in on climate action. States, territories, cities, counties, and Tribal governments together have the capacity to step in and deliver on climate ambition. In the years ahead, we expect that subnational and Tribal governments will adopt new and strengthen existing climate-forward policies such as:

• Climate Action Plan Implementation: Through support from the Inflation Reduction Act, more than 45 states and more than 200 Tribes, territories, and metro areas have now developed their own Climate Action Plans, representing a historic set of opportunities for subnational climate progress across sectors. More than $4 billion of Climate Pollution Reduction Grants awarded by the Biden-Harris Administration will also advance 59 implementation projects across 30 states, 33 Tribal Nations, and 1 territory to reduce climate pollution from every sector of the economy. Many of these projects can be expanded and provide examples that other states, local governments, Tribes, and even businesses can replicate in their work to tackle the climate crisis.
  
  
• Innovative Solutions to Cut Pollution from the Existing Transportation Systems. California, Washington, and Oregon have developed and implemented, or started to implement, programs that reduce emissions from the transportation sector through a predictable, market-based approach, generating climate and local-air quality benefits for residents and communities. New York City and State adopted and implemented the country’s first-ever congestion pricing program, which will reduce climate pollution and provide a stable funding source for mass transit. Other states have the opportunity to build on these successful policy initiatives in their own jurisdictions.
  
  
• Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPSs) and Clean Energy Standards (CESs). Today, twenty-five states and the District of Columbia have set RPSs and eight others have adopted CESs, which will increase the generation of low- and zero-carbon electricity. Adoption of these standards by additional states, as well as the strengthening of existing standards, provides significant upside for reducing climate pollution.
  
  
• Building Energy Codes. Many subnational governments have already adopted or are in the process of adopting the most up-to-date energy codes to ensure new building construction is energy efficient and lowering emissions for years to come. Subnational governments are also reducing energy costs and emissions in existing buildings, with almost 25 percent of commercial buildings subject to a building performance standard or located in a community with plans to adopt building performance standards.
  
  
• State Procurement of Low-Carbon Materials. The Biden-Harris Administration’s landmark Federal Buy Clean Initiative leverages the sway of the U.S. government, as the largest purchaser on Earth, to spur demand for clean American manufacturing of materials that form the bedrock of our economy. Thirteen states have joined the Federal-State Buy Clean Partnership and committed to prioritizing efforts that support procurement of lower-carbon infrastructure materials in state-funded projects. These states can continue to work together to send a clear, harmonized demand signal to the marketplace for the long-term decarbonization of essential industries.
  
  
• Financing Climate Solutions. With support from the Inflation Reduction Act’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF), the national network for financing clean energy and climate solutions across sectors is larger than ever before. The National Clean Investment Fund awardees are establishing national clean financing institutions that deliver accessible and affordable financing for clean technology projects nationwide, and the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator awardees are establishing hubs that provide funding and technical assistance to community lenders working in low-income and disadvantaged communities.

• State and Regional Efforts to Cap Emissions. 15 states and Puerto Rico have binding economy-wide emissions targets in law, covering more than 115 million Americans across the country. Voters in Washington State recently upheld a groundbreaking law requiring companies to cut carbon emissions while investing in programs that benefit the public, such as habitat restoration and climate adaptation. This recent success builds on initiatives such as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a regional program that requires certain power plants to acquire allowances for every ton of CO2 emitted.

In the years to come, leadership will come from all across American society – cities and states, Tribes and territories, small and big businesses, working communities, individual Americans and the private sector working together to seize the economic opportunity, create jobs, and build the clean energy economy. This new clean energy economy, enabled by the forward-looking policies of this Administration, will continue to grow – and the United States will continue to create good jobs and cut carbon pollution right here at home.

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The post FACT SHEET: President Biden Sets 2035 Climate Target Aimed at Creating Good-Paying Union Jobs, Reducing Costs for All Americans, and Securing U.S. Leadership in the Clean Energy Economy of the Future appeared first on The White House.

Via Teleconference

2:03 P.M. EST

MR. FERNÁNDEZ HERNÁNDEZ:  Hi.  Good afternoon, everyone.  Thank you for joining today’s embargoed press call.  This press call will begin with on-the-record remarks from White House National Climate Adviser Ali Zaidi and Senior Adviser to the President for International Climate Policy John Podesta. 

After the remarks, there will be a question-and-answer period, which will be on background and attributable to “senior administration officials.” 

The contents of this call and the related materials you all should have already received over email are embargoed until tomorrow, Thursday, December 19th, at 5:00 a.m. Eastern. 

With that, I will turn it over to Ali.

MR. ZAIDI:  Thanks so much.  And thanks, everybody, for joining us.

Under the Paris Agreement, countries are called on to develop nationally determined contributions — NDCs — that collectively advance global progress on climate change.

In April 2021, the United States communicate — communicated its most recent nationally determined contribution.

When we did, we were cognizant of the baseline, a business-as-usual trajectory that projected 15 to 20 percent emissions reductions 2030 relative to 2005 levels.

Under President Biden’s leadership, against that backdrop, we set an ambitious path — a new target for the United States that sought to reduce emissions by 50 to 52 percent in 2030.

In the time since, the United States has deployed a paradigm-shifting strategy that has both accelerated decarbonization and also expanded economic opportunity and economic growth.

We found a way to take on a global problem that was decades in the making, with an approach that makes a visible difference in communities right now — a chance to deliver cleaner air, lower costs, better jobs, and a real sense of pride and purpose.

The U.S. strategy is manifest in the investments from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act and in a complementary architecture of federal standards that spur demand and generate the regulatory certainty needed to accelerate capital formation and encourage entrepreneurial risk-taking.

It is an important combination that has changed the equation: Climate action is no longer about gloom and doom but about hope and possibilities.

Catalyzed by these incentives, fiscal and regulatory, our partners have come together to swing for the fences in every sector of the economy.  Looking for wins everywhere — power and transportation, buildings and industry, lands and agriculture — gives us a better shot at sticking the landing and at delivering for everyone.

The coming together is key.  The robustness of the U.S. strategy comes from an approach that has mobilized public and private, at every level of government and every layer of the capital stack, in a tech-agnostic race to net zero as our North Star.

You can see this, as I have, not just in communities across America but as business leaders, mayors, governors, Tribal leaders, have joined every single United Nations Conference of the Parties since the president took office.  In Glasgow, in Sharm, in Dubai, and in Baku, these leaders showcased the efforts of the United States of America, of all our capacities and capabilities working together. 

Today, together, we set a new ambitious target for America — the United States communicating a new nationally determined contribution under the leadership of President Joe Biden.

The United States — all of us working together — will reduce our emissions by 61 to 66 percent by 2035, relative to 2005 levels — all greenhouse gases covered, every sector of the economy reached.

This entire range is on a linear or steeper-than-linear trajectory to net zero by 2050, meaning that America will do its part to keep 1.5 degrees alive.

Today, the U.S. is adding more capacity to its grid than it has in decades.  Ninety-six percent of that electricity will be clean.  Helped by clearer rules and faster permitting, pioneering offshore wind farms are delivering clean power, retired nuclear plants are coming back online, America is racing forward on solar and batteries — not just the deployment but also the means to stamp those products “made in America.”

Today, the U.S. is mining everything from nickel to the lithium, upgrading it, making the anodes and cathodes and the separators for batteries manufactured by union workers in factories that had once shut down. 

From laggard to leader, the U.S. is in the race again on electric transportation — a way to get from point A to point B without putting pollution in the sky or putting our kids and their health at risk.

Today, the U.S. has over 80,000 farmers and ranchers, over 75 million acres, advancing climate-smart agriculture practices; millions of families benefitting from energy efficiency upgrades; and countless new factories on the fore of clean materials, like clean steel and cement, in areas once seen as too hard to decarbonize.

In fact, across the country, we see decarbonization efforts to reduce our emissions in many ways achieving escape l- — velocity — an inexorable path, a place from which we will not turn back.

These proof points show what is possible when we set an ambitious target — informed through rigorous engagement with the techno-economic data — with federal agencies and scientific experts from across civil society, when we take stock of all that is possible when all of us work together. 

These proof points also show the massive prize — more good jobs, better public health, increased energy security, bolstered economic competitiveness — if and when we meet this new 2035 climate target.

We are excited about the ambition laid down by the president in this new NDC, and we are confident that, working together, the United States can achieve this goal.  And this progress that we continue to see here across the country is positioning America to lead and continue to push the ambition all around the world.

And with that, appropriately, let me hand it over to my partner and to the senior adviser for international climate policy here at the White House, John Podesta.

MR. PODESTA:  Thanks, Ali, and thanks to everyone for joining today’s call.

President Biden’s new 2035 climate goal is both a reflection of what we’ve already accomplished, as you’ve heard from my colleague, and what we believe the United States can and should achieve in the future.

Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we’re on a path to achieve the goal President Biden set in 2021: to cut our emissions in half by 2030.

We’re working to slash pollution from every sector — power, buildings, transportation, industry, agriculture, and forestry — and we’ve ignited a clean energy boom across the country: north, south, east, and west.

Since President Biden and Vice President Harris took office, the private sector has announced over $450 billion in new clean energy investments.  Those projects are getting built as we speak.  They’ll keep creating good-paying jobs, and they’ll continue to reduce emissions.

Because we’ve implemented a government-enabled but private sector-led strategy, our investments under this administration are durable and will continue to pay dividends for our economy and our climate for years to come, allowing us to set an ambitious and achievable 2035 target.

And in this NDC, we’re being explicit about a methane reduction of at least 35 percent in 2035, showing that the U.S. is maximizing our ability to tackle the climate crisis by targeting all greenhouse gases, including the super pollutants.

The Biden-Harris administration may be about to leave office, but we’re confident in America’s ability to rally around this new climate goal, because while the United States federal government under President Trump may put climate action on the back burner, the work to contain climate change is going to continue in the United States with commitment and passion and belief.  That’s not wishful thinking; it’s happened before.

In the wake of COP22 in Marrakesh and President Trump’s decision in 2017 to pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement, the “We Are Still In” movement was born in the United States.  It’s now grown into the most expansive coalition ever assembled in support of U.S. climate action, with more than 5,000 businesses, local governments, Tribal nations, universities, and more, covering all 50 states.

That coalition, now called “America Is All In,” represents nearly two thirds of Americans, three quarters of U.S. GDP, and half of U.S. emissions.  Governor Inslee of Washington and other subnational leaders came to COP29 in Baku last month to share the same message with the world.

We’re looking to governors, mayors, business leaders, and more to carry this important work forward, because the rest of the world will now be looking to them to show how many Americans still care about the future of our planet and our communities.

The truth is, U.S. climate leadership has motivated the world to move faster.

After President Biden set an ambitious 2030 climate target in 2021, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Canada, Mexico, and others delivered stronger, more ambitious targets.

Once we passed the IRA, other countries — like Japan, Australia, the EU, and the UK — adopted our government-enabled, private sector-led strategy to investment in clean energy. 

I’ve spent a significant amount of time this year engaging in productive dialogue with my Chinese counterpart, Liu Zhenmin, and other leaders of the PRC government to encourage the — and I would note, the Pe- — the People’s Republic of China is now by far the world’s largest emitter — but I’ve encouraged them to submit a 2035 NDC target that is aligned with a 1.5-degree world that is economy wide and covering all greenhouse gans- — gasses in the range of a 30 percent cut off their peak emissions.

And at COP29 last month, we saw the UK, the UAE, and Brazil announce new, ambitious climate targets early and a coalition of leading — of leaders — including the European Union, Mexico, Chile, and others — committed to setting NDC targets that reflect a linear, steeper pathway to net zero, which is critical for 1.5 degrees.

Our new commitment meet — meets that standard. 

Some national leaders in the United States can continue to show the world that American climate leadership is determined by so much more than whoever sits in the Oval Office.

It happens on the ground, in our cities and states, from Phoenix to Pittsburgh, from Boise to Baltimore.  And I believe that with this new 2035 target as their North Star, leaders across Amer- — America can show the world that we are still in this fight for a better future.

Thank you, and let me turn it back to Angelo for your questions.

MR. FERNÁNDEZ HERNÁNDEZ:  Thank you, John.  And thank you, Ali.

As a reminder, we will be moving to the question-and-answer portion of the call.  Please use the “raise hand” function, as so many of you are already doing.  We love to see some excitement. 

As a reminder, this will be on background and attributable to “senior administration officials.”

With that, I will start with Jennifer.  You should be unmuted now.

Q    Thanks for doing this and taking my question. 

Just a quick clarification, because we haven’t seen the actual NDC submission yet.  I’m curious what kind of language it will include on fossil fuel transition.

And then, you know, there was some discussion, obviously, of the incoming president and his plans.  How much downward revision did you all do from the final target based on your assessments and expectations just prior to the election, which I understand were around 65 percent?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Thanks for the question.

On the first, our nationally determined contribution will reflect the U.S.’s unwavering commitment to the Dubai consensus and to carrying that forward, and you’ll see that reflected in our submission to the United Nations.

On the second, this is a dynamic exercise.  And what we’ve really focused on is what are the multiple pathways to accelerate decarbonization across the economy while continuing to grow jobs and attract private capital.  The fundamentals of that exercise, where that economic opportunity lies, largely remain the same: are formed by the techno-economic trends that we see prevailing, notwithstanding outcomes in elections. 

The next four years will neither pause the impacts of climate change, nor will the next four years pause the continued acceleration in technology improvement and availability across every sector of our economy to decarbonize.

MR. FERNÁNDEZ HERNÁNDEZ:  Thanks, [senior administration official].

We will go to Lisa next.  You should be unmuted now.

Q    Thanks so much for doing this.  I appreciate it.

To what extent does this target consider that, you know, a future Democratic administration could reimpose regulations o- — you know, on power plants or automobiles and the like?  And, you know, similarly, I mean, if a Republican is elected again in 2028 — which would give us eight years without federal regulations, at minimum, and other things — can states meet this on their own?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Great question.  We have, you know, in the United States, a track record of continuing to reduce our emissions when administrations that don’t prioritize climate or clean energy at the federal level are in charge.

In fact, the AIM Act, which helped drive down over a hundred million metric tons of emissions from hydrofluorocarbons, was passed in 2020, signed into law by the previous administration.

We have seen the tax code help accelerate private investment into clean energy deployment during Republican administrations and Democratic ones.

And it’s worth noting that — setting aside some of the more recent rhetoric around climate — that historically this has been an area of bipartisan focus.  And even in this last few years, after a party-line vote to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, Democrats and Republicans came together to ratify Kigali.  Democrats and Republicans came together to help accelerate the deployment of nuclear technologies in the United States. 

Those are bipartisan bills from the last two years, and I think they give us proof points that there is possibility even at the federal level.

To go to your analytical question of “what happens if,” this NDC is based on an analytical underpinning that actually allows us to carry forward this level of emissions reduction, largely propelled by state, local, Tribal action, as well as what we are seeing from the private sector and in terms of technology cost reductions.

America is going to claim the biggest share of the economic prize that comes from the clean-energy economy if we have a federal government that leans in and does what’s best for our economy, our people, and the environment we will hand to future generations. 

But the lower end of what we have laid out can largely be carried out without significant additional effort at the federal level.  That’s not where we should aim as a country, but analytically, we’ve grounded in multiple pathways, many of which do not rely on significant additional federal action.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  (Inaudible) let me — let me add a word on this. 

I think what we’re both saying is the direction of travel is firm.  Of course it matters who’s elected president of the United States and the level of ambition.  I think that’s particularly true in the international sphere where — the president’s leadership by rejoining Paris; by convening the MEF; by putting forward an ambitious NDC in 2021, by both pledging to come forward and raise the level of bilateral assistance in the international sphere to $11 billion, which we met this year — those things matter. 

The direction of travel is firm.  We’re moving in a direction that is going to invest in clean power, in clean transportation, and reduced emissions from the industrial sector. 

The pace is, of course, at issue.  And I think what [senior administration official] was just noting is that, given the weight in those states that, as I noted, have such a strong history of innovation and strong contribution to the overall GDP of this country, we’re going to see emissions reductions.  We can achieve the goal that the president is putting forward with that action.  But, of course, with strong leadership in the Oval Office, we can — we can do that and more. 

And it goes a little bit to Jen’s earlier question.  We did take account and consulted closely with those economists and modelers who work extensively with our subnational partners in trying to put forward an ambitious NDC, but one that’s also realistic.

MR. FERNÁNDEZ HERNÁNDEZ:  Thank you, [senior administration official].  We have time for a few more questions. 

We will go to Sara next.  You should be unmuted now.

Q    Thanks.  Thanks for doing this. 

So, I guess just a question on the Trump administration.  The president-elect has been quite clear that he intends to roll back and make great efforts to not continue forward momentum on all the — a lot of these climate policies.  So, why release this NDC?

And just to clarify, I believe there’s been quite a bit of modeling that shows the U.S. is still short of reaching the 50 to 52 percent target.  So, how does it pencil out to increase it by this much?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Thanks for that, Sara. 

So, a lot to unpack there.  First, on the emissions trajectory for 2030, the U.S. will also be submitting a report to the U.N. — the BTR.  This is our sort of biennial review of our progress relative to our goals. 

There is progress that we anticipate will continue to sort of make as a result of technology improvements, states continuing to promulgate new policies.  So, there’s, I think, both the means and the need to fill the gap. 

But what we have found in our latest analysis is that we are very much positioned to close that gap.  The trajectory right now reaches up to 45 percent — 45, 46 percent, which leaves, as you know, some additional work to do over the next, essentially, five years to close the gap.  And that work — I think, part of what you heard from both me and from [senior administration official] is that work is not just propelled by the climate imperative but by a strong set of economic interest to race to close the gap. 

The second is, you know, underlying the first part of your question is this notion that one administration can somehow pause the progress we’re making or reverse the direction in which we’re traveling or close off the ability of the collective of state, local, Tribal actors and the United States private sector from moving to where it really wants to head over the next decade. 

And I think that just doesn’t — we haven’t seen that play out as federal policy has zigged and zagged in the past.  Instead, what we’ve seen is laying out a clear, analytical, and informed target has been animating of all of these actors running in the direction of further decarbonization and economic growth.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I think — look, Sara, I think it — it’s important we’re — we are members of the Paris Accord and of — and it’s important to signal to subnational actors, as [senior administration official] just noted, what we think ambition looks like and what people need to work and strive for and to set off that virtuous cycle of investment and enhanced ambition.  And it’s important to do that across the globe to show that the United States has the means and the will, at least at the subnational level, to continue to be constructive players in the system and to move the world forward, because I think in every conversation, you know, I’ve had, people understand the stakes that we currently face: the effects of extreme weather, the burden on human security, the ability to deal with the consequences of — that we’re already seeing and that are only going to get worse on climate change. 

So, laying out this marker, I think, is, as has been noted, important to the private sector, to subnational actors to give people a guide star.  That — that occurred, as I — as I said, during the last Trump administration, and I think it will occur now.  But it’s also an important signal to the world about what the United States can do, even in these circumstances, and will do because of the drive, commitment, and resources available at the subnational level. 

MR. FERNÁNDEZ HERNÁNDEZ:  Thank you, [senior administration official]. 

We will go to CNN next.  Ella, you should be unmuted now. 

Q    Hi, everyone.  Thanks for doing this call and for taking my question. 

I wanted to ask about the differences between this NDC and some of the independent analysis that’s been done.  I know that there’s a lot of different analysis out there, but I’m looking at the University of Maryland. 

You know, basically, their high-ambition pathway kind of lines up with what you all have here, but when federal action is taken out of the equation, you know, it falls — it falls lower to 54 to 62 percent emissions reductions by 2035.  And so, I just wanted to ask about, you know, the difference between some of this independent analysis and the NDC here. 

And secondly, just wanted to ask about how important the IRA — I know that we don’t know exactly the future of it, how much it will get clawed back — but just how — how important that is in all of this.  Thanks.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  So, two — two things I want to maybe point out, Ella, in the first part of your question. 

The first is the expectations around what state and local actors can help drive in the economy.  The University of Maryland analysis is really, I think, unique in helping compute that, bring together those capacities and capabilities and put them into the model. 

As you noted, in their own analysis, when you take out additional federal action and you really make state and local governments be the load-bearing beams, in that — in that set of scenarios, they themselves forecast an ability of the United States, working together, to reach in the — up to 62 percent. 

So, I think that, in some ways, is reinforcing of the theory we’ve laid out here, which is that the state and local governments can actually carry a great deal of ambition.

One of the, I think, big factors that distinguishes, I think, our analytical work from — from some of what is out there is a real engagement with the technology — the sort of techno-economic cost curves and projections empowered by what our national labs know and have been able to collect — in some cases on a proprietary basis — with technology providers and firms in the field. 

That, to — to us and to our process, has actually provided an even more robust sense of what is achievable if the federal government is largely stagnant or even putting some downward pressure. 

This all sort of avoids the possibility and, I think, the — frankly, the real demand over the next several years for the federal government to actually do things that will be climate enhancing. 

There is a Farm Bill debate that must get engaged over the next year or maybe two that will pose the question: Will the United States government continue to stand with those 80,000 farmers and ranchers, or will we pull a critical revenue line out of those family businesses; where lawmakers will have to answer the question, as the Europeans and others race towards a trade system that prioritizes cleaner products, will the United States invest in our economic competitiveness to make sure our firms are well positioned for that global race — a hard-to-decarbonize sector that’s actually moving ahead around the world?

So, I — you know, I think the combination of what I think UMD very uniquely and smartly has done to understand and catalog the capacities at the state and local level paired with our sense of what is happening and potentially could happen from a techno-economic perspective actually gives us a sense of real robustness in the range that we have put forward. 

Of course, the higher ends of this range require the federal government to do what a responsible federal government would do in the face of an existential risk and the biggest economic opportunity the world has ever seen to invest in America.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  [Senior administration official], anything you want to add?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Thanks.  I think [senior administration official] did a great job of laying all that out. 

I will say that even in that UMD analysis, there is another scenario, which was kind of along the lines [senior administration official] was just talking about, showing a 65 to 67 outcome as well.  So, there is some documentation there, if people are interested. 

Thanks.

MR. FERNÁNDEZ HERNÁNDEZ:  Great.  Thank you.  And thank you, everyone, for joining us.  That’s all the time that we have today.

As a reminder, the contents of this call and the materials you received over email are embargoed until 5:00 a.m. Eastern tomorrow. 

Thanks again for joining us. 

2:35 P.M. EST

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