Statements and Releases

SBA backed over 100,000 small business financings this year—the most in over 15 years

Today, Vice President Harris announced that the Small Business Administration (SBA) provided a record $56 billion through more than 100,000 small business financings in Fiscal Year (FY) 2024—the most in more than 15 years. The Vice President also announced new actions by the Biden-Harris Administration to cut red tape and expand access to Federal contracting opportunities.

“Small businesses are the backbone of our economy. And we know that small business owners need access to capital to hire more employees, grow their businesses, and advance innovation,” said Vice President Harris. “Today I am proud to announce that the U.S. Small Business Administration has made record lending to over 100,000 small businesses in the last year, the most by the agency in over 15 years. When small businesses thrive, our local economies thrive.”

The Biden-Harris Administration has powered a small business boom across the country. Since President Biden and Vice President Harris took office, American entrepreneurs have filed nearly 20 million applications to start new businesses. Business ownership has doubled among Black families and hit a 30-year high for Hispanic families.

While the Biden-Harris Administration doubles down on supporting this small business boom, Congressional Republicans have repeatedly tried to cut SBA’s funding by nearly a third and want to raise taxes and costs for small businesses by repealing Inflation Reduction Act investments.

Building on these efforts to support small businesses, Vice President Harris is announcing:

New Records for Lending to Small Businesses

The SBA released its 2024 Capital Impact Report, showing that the agency increased its lending to small businesses to a record high $56 billion in FY 2024—a 50% increase over FY 2020. Further, SBA provided over 100,000 small business financings last year—the most in over 15 years. Since FY 2020, SBA has increased lending to underserved businesses including a:

• 3x increase in loans to Black-owned businesses
• 2.5x increase in loans to Latino-owned businesses
• 2x increase in loans to women-owned businesses
• 2x increase in small dollar loans (loans of less than $150,000)

Increasing Access to Federal Contracting Opportunities

The SBA is proposing new regulations to increase small business participation on multiple award contracts, a popular buying tool used for over 20 percent of all contracting by the Federal Government. The proposed rule will require agencies to set aside orders made under these contracts when two or more small business contract holders are expected to submit competitive offers. Multiple award contracts allow agencies to meet mission needs in a timely, cost-effective manner by awarding task and delivery orders to contract holders using streamlined competitions.

The SBA proposed rule will require agencies to take steps that make it easier for small businesses to become contract holders on multiple-award contracts where they will then be eligible to compete for task and delivery orders through streamlined competitions. SBA projects that the new rule, if finalized as proposed, will result in up to $6 billion in additional awards to small businesses each year. This new proposed rule will further implement OMB’s January 2024 memo on “Increasing Small Business Participation on Multiple-Award Contracts.” The members of the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council will also be proposing regulatory changes in the near future to implement OMB’s guidance and align with SBA’s rulemaking.

Direct Support to Meet Businesses’ Individual Needs

This summer marked the first year of the Capital Readiness Program (CRP), funded by the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA)’s State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) and announced by Vice President Harris in August 2023. The CRP is a $125 million investment to help minority and underserved entrepreneurs grow and scale their businesses, the largest-ever direct Federal investment in small business incubators and accelerators of its kind. Today’s data shows the incredible impacts the 43 program awardees have already made in their communities in the first year of the program. Through September 30, 2024, following their efforts to quickly stand-up programs, the 43 awardees have already:

• Enrolled over 6,300 small businesses
• Hosted nearly 2,500 networking events
• Supported the formation of over 2,600 new businesses
• Raised over $260 million in capital for small businesses

Cutting Red Tape for Small Businesses Seeking Federal Contracts

The SBA just launched MySBA Certifications to simplify and streamline certifications for small business Federal contractors. The Biden-Harris Administration committed to using every tool at its disposal to reduce administrative burden for small businesses seeking to compete for Federal contracts. Building on this goal, MySBA Certifications is a one-stop-shop that allows small business owners to apply for multiple certifications with a single application, rather than submitting separate applications for the HUBZone, 8(a), Women Owned, and Veteran Owned Small Business Certification programs. SBA also simplified and modernized its application—using plain language, eliminating redundant questions, and reducing documentation requirements—reducing the time to apply by 40% for a single certification and over 70% for multiple certifications. SBA’s new operational efficiencies will reduce processing times across the programs—meaning firms will receive their decisions more quickly and can begin competing for sole-source and set-aside contracts. In FY 2024, SBA certified more than 17,000 small businesses—a single year record and a nearly 40 percent increase over FY 2023. The agency expects to build on this success with MySBA Certifications and significantly grow the base of certified small business government contractors—helping the Federal Government meet the President’s 15 percent small disadvantaged business goal in FY 2025.

Leveraging Public and Private Capital Through the State Small Business Credit Initiative

The Department of the Treasury plans to release the 2022-2023 SSBCI Annual Report next week, providing additional background on data first previewed in July 2024. SSBCI is a nearly $10 billion program that is providing investment and support to small businesses across the country. Through 2023, SSBCI had already enabled access to $3.1 billion in public and private financing for thousands of small businesses. The report will show that 75% of transactions supported underserved businesses and 78% supported very small business with fewer than 10 employees through the end of 2023.

In 2024, local jurisdictions have continued to leverage partnerships to catalyze SSBCI dollars. Efforts include:

• The Access Small Business program by Calvert Impact: This program leverages funds from SSBCI to bring access to capital and technical assistance to underserved small businesses in New York, New Jersey, Nevada, and Washington State, as well as access to capital markets for community lenders. Partners include the Community Reinvestment Fund, Grow America, and the Urban Investment Group at Goldman Sachs Alternatives.

• The Initiative for Inclusive Entrepreneurship (IIE): IIE is a public-private collaboration to ensure the equitable implementation of SSBCI. IIE’s initial 18-month pilot was incubated by Hyphen, a leading national public-private partnership accelerator. The initiative’s implementation partners include Aspen Institute’s Business Ownership Initiative, Founders First Capital Partners, JumpStart, Mission Driven Finance, Next Street, Nowak Metro Finance Lab, and Scale Link. Across IIE programs, the Initiative deployed over $10 million in direct funding and secured over $177 million in loans, loan matches, grants, and private capital. Additionally, Mission Driven Finance announced the Indigenous Futures Fund, combining a target of $25 million in credit and $2 million in grants to support Tribal SSBCI recipients. Starting in July 2024, the Milken Institute began serving as IIE’s new home.
• Tribal Consortia: In August 2024, SSBCI announced a consortium of 125 Alaska Tribes, the nation’s largest Tribal SSBCI consortium and part of the most expansive investment in small business financing for Tribal governments in history. In total, four Tribal consortium representing 170 Tribes have been awarded $124 million in SSBCI Capital Program funds to support investments in Tribal enterprises and small businesses. Partnerships among Tribal Nations are important to expanding the reach of SSBCI.
• Supportive Business Services: In September and October 2024, Treasury announced 14 awards to 12 states and two Tribal governments through the $75 million Investing in America Small Business Opportunity Program (SBOP). SBOP grantees will provide legal, accounting, and financial advisory services to small businesses in a wide range of industries and will engage at least 34 partners for program deployment.

Developing New Tools to Help Small Businesses Access Capital, Customers, and Technical Assistance

The Interagency Community Investment Committee (ICIC) developed fifteen state-specific small business resource guides, covering over 55 programs offered by nine federal agencies. The guides are intended to help small businesses identify federally-supported sources of capital and technical assistance available in their communities, and help direct businesses to federal contracting and tax resources. ICIC leadership has been conducting a series of virtual events in October with small business owners to talk about the Biden-Harris Administration’s small business programs and these new resource guides.

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Today, the President is issuing the first-ever National Security Memorandum (NSM) on Artificial Intelligence (AI). The fundamental premise is that AI will have significant implications for national security. The AI NSM sets out goals to enable the US Government to harness cutting-edge AI technologies, and to advance international consensus and governance around AI.

In addition, there are implications for economic policy. The AI National Security Memorandum establishes that retaining US leadership in the most advanced AI models will be vital for our national security in coming years. The US lead today on the most advanced AI models reflects several important US economic strengths: our innovative private sector, the ability to develop and source world class talent, strengths in advanced semiconductor design, dynamic capital allocation, and abundant compute power.

We should not take those strengths for granted in the future. Indeed, we are all familiar with past instances when we saw critical technologies and supply chains that were developed and commercialized here in the US migrate offshore for lack of critical public sector support. That is why we are laser focused on maintaining the strongest AI ecosystem in the world here in the United States. The NSM directs the National Economic Council to coordinate an economic assessment of the relative competitive advantage of the US private sector AI ecosystem.

Sustaining US preeminence in frontier AI into the future will require strong domestic foundations in semiconductors, infrastructure, and clean energy—including the large datacenters that provide computing resources. The private sector is already making significant investments in AI innovation, and now we’re making sure the government is moving quickly on policy changes and the support necessary to enable rapid AI infrastructure growth over the next several years. The historic Biden-Harris investment laws will be critical enablers.

Developing AI systems will require a large volume of the most advanced semiconductors. The CHIPS and Science Act is enabling major investments here in the US for the fabrication of the leading-edge semiconductors that are critical to AI frontier models, in close proximity to world-class chips designers and downstream customers.

One of the most pressing needs is the rapid growth in computational power for the training and operation of frontier AI models. AI datacenters will need to run on clean energy and in order to meet their needs we will need to accelerate the deployment of transmission and clean energy projects. We will meet these needs while keeping residential electricity costs low and meeting our climate goals. Fortunately, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the clean energy provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act have given us a good foundation to build on. We are committed to helping navigate permitting processes across the federal government, and working with states and localities. We took a step towards supporting these goals with the Task Force on AI Datacenter Infrastructure that we launched last month. And we have seen a number of recent announcements of companies investing in projects that will bring new clean energy online to power AI data centers.

Having the right workforce and talent will also play a key role in developing large-scale AI datacenters. This will range from AI experts to pipefitters and electrical workers. We are taking action to ensure AI infrastructure creates good jobs, while investing in our workforce to enable American workers to drive innovation.

Of course, all of these efforts must be governed by the critical guardrails established last year by the Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence and commitments we secured last year from leading AI companies to manage the risks posed by AI. Today’s NSM is just the latest step in a series of actions thanks to the leadership and diplomatic engagement of the President and Vice President, and there will be additional steps taken in the coming months to further support US leadership in AI.

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Today, President Biden is issuing the first-ever National Security Memorandum (NSM) on Artificial Intelligence (AI). The NSM’s fundamental premise is that advances at the frontier of AI will have significant implications for national security and foreign policy in the near future. The NSM builds on key steps the President and Vice President have taken to drive the safe, secure, and trustworthy development of AI, including President Biden’s landmark Executive Order to ensure that America leads the way in seizing the promise and managing the risks of AI.

The NSM directs the U.S. Government to implement concrete and impactful steps to (1) ensure that the United States leads the world’s development of safe, secure, and trustworthy AI; (2) harness cutting-edge AI technologies to advance the U.S. Government’s national security mission; and (3) advance international consensus and governance around AI.

The NSM is designed to galvanize federal government adoption of AI to advance the national security mission, including by ensuring that such adoption reflects democratic values and protects human rights, civil rights, civil liberties and privacy. In addition, the NSM seeks to shape international norms around AI use to reflect those same democratic values, and directs actions to track and counter adversary development and use of AI for national security purposes.

In particular, the NSM directs critical actions to:

Ensure that the United States leads the world’s development of safe, secure, and trustworthy AI:

• Developing advanced AI systems requires large volumes of advanced chips. President Biden led the way when he signed the CHIPS Act, which made major investments in our capacity to manufacture leading-edge semiconductors. The NSM directs actions to improve the security and diversity of chip supply chains, and to ensure that, as the United States supports the development of the next generation of government supercomputers and other emerging technology, we do so with AI in mind.

• Our competitors want to upend U.S. AI leadership and have employed economic and technological espionage in efforts to steal U.S. technology. This NSM makes collection on our competitors’ operations against our AI sector a top-tier intelligence priority, and directs relevant U.S. Government entities to provide AI developers with the timely cybersecurity and counterintelligence information necessary to keep their inventions secure. 

• In order for the United States to benefit maximally from AI, Americans must know when they can trust systems to perform safely and reliably. For this reason, the NSM formally designates the AI Safety Institute asU.S. industry’s primary port of contact in the U.S. Government, one staffed by technical experts who understand this quickly evolving technology. It also lays out strengthened and streamlined mechanisms for the AI Safety Institute to partner with national security agencies, including the intelligence community, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Energy.

• The NSM doubles down on the National AI Research Resource, the pilot for which is already underway, to ensure that researchers at universities, from civil society, and in small businesses can conduct technically meaningful AI research. AI is moving too fast, and is too complex, for us to rely exclusively on a small cohort of large firms; we need to empower and learn from a full range of talented individuals and institutions who care about making AI safe, secure, and trustworthy.

• The NSM directs the National Economic Council to coordinate an economic assessment of the relative competitive advantage of the United States private sector AI ecosystem.

Enable the U.S. Government to harness cutting-edge AI, while protecting human rights and democratic values, to achieve national security objectives:

• The NSM does not simply demand that we use AI systems in service of the national security mission effectively; it also unequivocally states we must do so only in ways that align with democratic values. It provides the first-ever guidance for AI governance and risk management for use in national security missions, complementing previous guidance issued by the Office of Management and Budget for non-national security missions.

• The NSM directs the creation of a Framework to Advance AI Governance and Risk Management in National Security, which is being published today alongside this NSM. This Framework provides further detail and guidance to implement the NSM, including requiring mechanisms for risk management, evaluations, accountability, and transparency. These requirements require agencies to monitor, assess, and mitigate AI risks related to invasions of privacy, bias and discrimination, the safety of individuals and groups, and other human rights abuses. This Framework can be updated regularly in order to keep pace with technical advances and ensure future AI applications are responsible and rights-respecting.

• The NSM directs changes across the board to make sure we are using AI systems effectively while adhering to our values. Among other actions, it directs agencies to propose streamlined procurement practices and ways to ease collaboration with non-traditional vendors.

Advance international consensus and governance around AI:

• The NSM builds on substantial international progress on AI governance over the last twelve months, thanks to the leadership and diplomatic engagement of President Biden and Vice President Harris. Alongside G7 allies, we developed the first-ever International Code of Conduct on AI in 2023. At the Bletchley and Seoul AI Safety Summits, the United States joined more than two dozen nations in outlining clear principles. 56 nations have signed up to our Political Declaration on the Military Use of AI and Autonomy, which establishes principles for military AI capabilities. And at the United Nations, the United States sponsored the first-ever UN General Assembly Resolution on AI, which passed unanimously and included the People’s Republic of China as a co-sponsor.

• The NSM directs the U.S. Government to collaborate with allies and partners to establish a stable, responsible, and rights-respecting governance framework to ensure the technology is developed and used in ways that adhere to international law while protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms. 

The release of today’s NSM is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s comprehensive strategy for responsible innovation, and builds on previous actions that President Biden and Vice President Harris have taken.

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Today’s announcement is expected to reduce the lead exposure of up to 1.2 million people every year and represents one of over 100 actions taken by the Administration in 2024 to reduce lead poisoning

President Biden and Vice President Harris have been clear that all Americans deserve to live free from fear of toxic lead exposure. Since Day One, the Biden-Harris Administration has marshalled a whole of government effort to reduce all sources of lead exposure, issuing a comprehensive Lead Pipe and Paint Action Plan that guides federal action to achieve a lead-free future.

Today, as we continue to mark National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week, the Biden-Harris Administration is taking action to further reduce lead exposure by issuing a final Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule to strengthen requirements for the removal of lead paint dust in pre-1978 housing and child care facilities.

Lead is a neurotoxin that can irreversibly harm brain development in children, lower IQ, cause behavioral problems, and lead to life-long health effects. There is no safe level of lead exposure. Yet, due to decades of inequitable infrastructure development and underinvestment, lead poisoning disproportionately affects low-income communities and communities of color.

Today’s final rule sets new standards for lead abatement activities that will better protect children and communities from the harmful effects of exposure to dust generated from lead paint. The rule will help protect people in communities across the country from these harms, and is expected to reduce the lead exposures of up to nearly 1.2 million people every year, providing public health and economic benefits up to 30 times greater than the costs. Although the United States banned lead-based paint in residences in 1978, an estimated 31 million houses built before 1978 still contain lead-based paint, and 3.8 million are home to one or more child under the age of six, putting them at risk of lead exposure.

Since the announcement of the Biden-Harris Lead Pipe and Paint Action Plan, the Administration has taken hundreds of actions across more than 10 agencies to reduce the risk of lead poisoning in drinking water, paint, soil, food and household products, the workplace, and to combat lead exposure internationally – including more than 100 actions in the past year alone. Some of the actions since the latest Action Plan progress update in November 2023 include:

Reducing Exposure to Lead from Paint and Dust in the Home – Lead in household dust originates from indoor sources such as deteriorated, lead-based paint on surfaces. In the last year, the Administration has worked diligently to identify, help tackle, and eliminate these exposures in several ways:

• Earlier this month, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced more than $420 million in awards to remove lead hazards from homes, including HUD-assisted homes, ensuring the safety of children, residents, and families. This includes $2 million to remove other housing-related hazards from homes in conjunction with weatherization efforts, and nearly $10 million to facilitate research on better identifying and controlling lead and other housing-related hazards. These awards are part of President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative, which seeks to ensure that 40 percent 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. 
• In August 2024, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a new final rule updating the Head Start Program Performance Standards. This rule requires Head Start programs to protect children from exposure to lead in water and paint through regular testing and inspection and remediate lead in Head Start facilities where lead exists.
• In 2024, EPA conducted approximately 1,400 compliance monitoring activities for lead-based paint in over 190 communities, more than a third of which were communities with environmental justice concerns. Additionally, EPA’s Federal Facilities Enforcement Office conducted compliance monitoring activities at 18 military installations in 2024. This work protects our service members and their families from exposure to lead-based paint in their homes at military bases.

Reducing Exposure to Lead from Drinking Water – Millions of buildings still receive their water through a lead pipe. The Biden-Harris Administration has taken historic steps to meet President Biden’s commitment to replace every lead pipe in the country within a decade:

• Earlier this month President Biden traveled to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to announce a final rule that requires drinking water systems nationwide to replace lead service lines within 10 years. This rule will protect children from brain damage, prevent up to 900,000 infants being born with low birth weight, and protect 1,100 adults from premature death from heart disease every year.
• President Biden secured a historic $15 billion in funding through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law specifically dedicated for replacing lead service lines, and provided an additional $2.6 billion from his Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for drinking water upgrades and lead pipe replacements, along with an additional $11.7 billion in general-purpose funding through the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund which can also be used for lead pipe replacement. To date, EPA has announced over $18 billion of this funding across every state. Nearly half of this funding is required to flow to disadvantaged communities, in the form of grants and zero-interest loans.
• Thanks to the Biden-Harris Administration’s actions, cities across the country are already making progress in replacing lead pipes. Cities with some of the highest numbers of lead pipes, like Milwaukee, Detroit, Pittsburgh, St. Paul, and Denver, have received funding from the Administration and are now on track to replace all lead pipes within 10 years or less. Under this Administration, over 367,000 lead pipes have been replaced nationwide, benefitting nearly 1 million people.
• Funding from the American Rescue Plan’s $350 billion State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund can be used by states and communities to replace lead service lines and remediate lead paint. To date, well over $20 billion nationwide has been invested in water infrastructure projects.
• During this Administration, the EPA has also used its Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) program to provide well over $350 million in financing to communities for lead pipe replacement.
• Since launching in November 2023, EPA’s Get the Lead Out Initiative has provided technical assistance to public water systems nationwide to identify lead pipes and accelerate their replacement. Prioritizing disadvantaged and underserved communities, the initiative is providing assistance to a growing list of public water systems, including in Michigan, Ohio, and Illinois, and facilitates access to funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. This initiative builds on the partnership between EPA, the Department of Labor (DOL), and 40 underserved communities to support lead pipe replacement.
• In January 2023, the White House Summit on Accelerating Lead Pipe Replacement hosted by Vice President Harris, announced new actions and progress to deliver clean drinking water, replace lead pipes, and remediate lead paint to protect children and communities across America, including the Biden-Harris Get the Lead Out Partnership comprised of state and local officials, water utilities, labor unions, and other nongovernmental organizations who committed to advance and accelerate lead pipe replacement. This White House Partnership spurred the creation of a the Great Lakes Lead Pipes Partnership, a first-of-its kind, mayor-led effort to accelerate lead pipe replacement in cities with the heaviest lead burdens.
• In August 2024, EPA announced $26 million in grant funding to protect children from lead in drinking water at schools and childcare facilities across the country. These grants will be used by 55 States and territories to reduce lead exposure where children learn and play.
• The Department of the Interior conducted more than 330 water system assessments at all Indian Affairs-owned sites, including schools, offices and detention centers, among others. Beyond service lines, assessments collected lead/copper samples to identify lead sources in water distribution systems and where lead levels affected drinking points DOI coordinated immediate remediation strategies and implemented actions including alternative water sourcing and confirmatory sampling.

Reducing Exposure to Lead from Air – Major sources of lead in the air include emissions from manufacturing, waste and metals processing, and aircraft operating on leaded aviation fuel. To tackle these emissions, the Biden-Harris Administration has taken the following actions:

• In January 2024, EPA released the Integrated Science Assessment for Lead as part of its review of the lead National Ambient Air Quality Standards. This technical document, along with additional technical and policy assessments, will provide the scientific foundation for EPA’s decisions as it regulates air lead exposure.
• In October 2023, EPA issued a final determination that emissions of lead from aircraft engines that operate on leaded fuel cause or contribute to air pollution which may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health and welfare. With this final determination, EPA and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have begun work to consider regulatory options to address lead emissions from aircrafts.

Reducing Exposure to Lead from Soil – Lead contamination at legacy pollution sites from past industrial operations, like lead mining and smelting, can accumulate in soil and poses a threat to human health and the environment. Reducing lead levels in soils can reduce exposure risks.

• The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law invests $5 billion to clean up legacy pollution, including lead contamination, at Superfund and Brownfields sites. In Fiscal Year 2024, EPA completed 63 Superfund cleanup projects that addressed lead contamination in soil to protect families and children from the harmful impacts of lead. In addition, lead is the environmental contaminant most commonly reported by EPA Brownfields cleanup grant recipients. In fiscal year 2024, Brownfields grant recipients completed 63 brownfields cleanups that addressed lead contamination.
• In January 2024, after years of research and advanced understanding of the latest science on lead, EPA issued new guidance to improve screenings for lead in residential soils at Superfund and other contaminated sites. This new guidance cuts in half the recommended screening levels issued 30 years ago and takes into account the potential for cumulative impacts by recommending even more stringent levels in areas where there may be additional sources of lead exposure, such as lead in drinking water or lead paint in homes.

Reducing Exposure to Lead from Food and Household Products – Lead may be present in food when it is in the environment where foods are grown, raised, or processed. To reduce the risk to children of ingesting lead in food, the Administration is working to addressed lead hazards in processed foods.

• In September 2024, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a new study on dietary exposure from lead in infants and young children. This action is part of the agency’s Closer to Zero effort, which sets forth the FDA’s science-based approach to continually reduce exposure to lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury and other contaminants to the lowest levels possible in foods eaten by babies and young children.

Protecting People from Lead Exposure in the Workplace – Workers can be exposed to lead as a result of the production, use, maintenance, recycling, and disposal of lead material and products. In 2024, the Administration sought to protect workers through a number of actions.

• In April 2024, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) released Trends in Workplace Lead Exposure, monitoring workplace lead exposure trends through the Adult Blood Lead Epidemiology and Surveillance program.
• In March 2024, at the direction of President Biden, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced that all veterans exposed to toxins and other hazards during military service—including lead—are now eligible for VA health care.

Accelerating Innovations to Improve Blood Lead Testing – Testing blood is the best way to determine if a person has had lead exposure, as there are often no immediate symptoms when someone is exposed to lead. Based on blood lead test results, healthcare providers can recommend follow-up actions and care.

• In March 2024, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced Phase 2 of the Lead Detect Prize on challenge.gov, inviting selected Phase 1 participants to develop their winning concepts into detailed designs. This challenge provides a $1 million prize pool to accelerate the development of next-generation point-of-care blood lead testing technology. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the FDA support the challenge, and it spotlights the urgent need to identify and foster new or existing breakthrough solutions and products for optimal lead testing in children.

Establishing Domestic Partnerships to Reduce All Lead Exposure – The Administration is engaging stakeholders in a number of ways to reduce community exposure to lead in the United States.

• In July 2024, the President’s Task Force on Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks to Children published the Progress Report on the Federal Lead Action Plan, a comprehensive update on the government’s progress since 2018 toward reducing childhood lead exposures. HUD, EPA, and HHS, as co-leading members of the Task Force’s Lead Subcommittee, are leading aggressive actions to combat lead exposure. The Federal Lead Action Plan promotes a vision that the United States will become a place where children, especially those in communities with environmental justice concerns, can live, learn and play and remain safe from lead exposure and its harmful effects.
• In June 2024, the CDC published the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention National Classroom program. This program features multiple training methods and outreach strategies, including slide presentations, training videos, webinars, podcasts, and materials posted online to engage a broad range of audiences, including public health professionals, other physicians, general audiences, and high school students, through social media platforms and many other outlets.
• In February 2024, the EPA in collaboration with HUD and CDC/ASTDR published A U.S. Lead Exposures Hotspot Analysis, which identifies states and counties with the highest potential lead exposure risk from old housing sources of lead. This analysis applied science-based methods based on available data, continuing the agencies’ commitment to advancing whole of government efforts to focus lead actions in disproportionately impacted locations.
• EPA continues to establish and lead U.S. whole-of-government partnerships to develop and apply a science-based blueprint to identify communities with high lead exposures and improve their health outcomes in support of EPA’s Lead Strategy and priority activities of the President’s Task Force on Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks to Children.

Spearheading an International Effort to Reduce Global Lead Exposure – Amidst historic actions taken domestically to combat lead exposure in the United States, the Administration has built an unprecedented global coalition to tackle lead exposure in low- and middle-income countries, where one in two children has elevated levels of lead in their blood.

• In September 2024, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) joined UNICEF and over 60 partners and 26 countries to launch the Partnership for a Lead-Free Future, the first-ever public-private partnership dedicated to tackling lead exposure in low- and middle-income countries. The Partnership committed $150 million toward this effort—at least 10 times the average estimated annual investment to combat lead exposure internationally over the past five years.
• Earlier this year, USAID, through its Enterprises for Development, Growth, and Empowerment (EDGE) Fund, provided $5 million to the Lead Exposure Elimination Project (LEEP) to accelerate the global transition to lead-free paint. Spanning over 30 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Central Asia, and Europe, the LEEP partnership will support governments in introducing lead paint regulations and demonstrate how the private sector can reduce lead exposure, saving lives and protecting communities.

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Fernando Valenzuela was a baseball legend.
 
For 17 seasons in the MLB, with his signature screwball, Fernando Valenzuela confounded batters and delighted fans. He remains the first and only player to win both the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young award in a single season.
 
More than anything, Fernando Valenzuela brought people together. “Fernandomania” was a feeling meant to be shared. Fernando Valenzuela united an entire generation of Dodgers fans in collective joy, excitement, and awe. And he inspired countless young baseball players—in America, Mexico, and across the world—to pursue their own greatness.  
 
Both Doug and I have fond memories of watching Fernando Valenzuela play. To see him pitch was to watch a master at work. As a player, broadcaster, and Angelino, Fernando Valenzuela left an indelible mark on our nation.
 
Today, Doug and I send our prayers to Fernando’s wife, Linda, as well as their children and grandchildren.

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The President is announcing his intent to nominate two individuals to federal district courts—both of whom are extraordinarily qualified, experienced, and devoted to the rule of law and our Constitution.

These choices also continue to fulfill the President’s promise to ensure that the nation’s courts reflect the diversity that is one of our greatest assets as a country—both in terms of personal and professional backgrounds.

This will be President Biden’s fifty-fifth round of nominees for federal judicial positions, bringing the number of announced federal judicial nominees to 259.

United States District Court Announcements

1. Judge Benjamin J. Cheeks: Nominee for the United States District Court for the Southern District of California

Judge Benjamin J. Cheeks has been a United States Magistrate Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California since July 2024. Prior to joining the bench, Judge Cheeks was a criminal defense lawyer in private practice at the Law Offices of Benjamin J. Cheeks, A.P.C. in San Diego from 2013 to 2024. From 2010 to 2013, Judge Cheeks served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California. Earlier in his career, he served as an Assistant District Attorney in the New York County District Attorney’s Office from 2003 to 2010. Judge Cheeks received his J.D. from the American University, Washington College of Law in 2003 and his B.A. from the University of Miami, Florida in 2000.

2. Judge Serena Murillo: Nominee for the United States District Court for the Central District of California

Judge Serena Murillo has been a judge on the Los Angeles Superior Court since 2015. She also served by appointment of the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court as an Associate Justice pro tem on the California Court of Appeal from 2018 to 2019. Prior to joining the bench, Judge Murillo served as a Deputy District Attorney in the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office from 1997 to 2014. Earlier in her career, she worked as an associate attorney at McNicholas & McNicholas in Los Angeles in 1997 and as a law clerk at Shernoff, Bidart, and Echeverria in Claremont, California in 1996. Judge Murillo received her J.D. from Loyola Law School in 1996 and her B.A. from the University of California, San Diego in 1993.

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This summer, I led an effort to bring the G7 together to commit $50 billion in Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration loans to Ukraine backed by the profits of immobilized Russian sovereign assets.  After Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, the G7 took bold action to immobilize Russia’s sovereign assets in our jurisdictions, and committed that these assets will remain immobilized until Russia ends its aggression and pays for the damage it has caused to Ukraine—paving the way for Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration loans.

As part of the G7 package, the United States is announcing today that we will provide $20 billion in loans to Ukraine that will be paid back by the interest earned from immobilized Russian sovereign assets. In other words, Ukraine can receive the assistance it needs now, without burdening taxpayers. These loans will support the people of Ukraine as they defend and rebuild their country. And our efforts make it clear: tyrants will be responsible for the damages they cause.

Make no mistake: Russia will not prevail in this conflict. The people of Ukraine will prevail. This is another reminder to Vladimir Putin that the world has rallied behind Ukraine—and the United States and our G7 partners will continue to stand with them every step of the way. 

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President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden created the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research to fundamentally change how our nation approaches and funds women’s health research. Despite making up more than half the population, women have historically been understudied and underrepresented in health research. Since its launch in November 2023, the Initiative has made significant investments to close gaps in research on women’s health—from menopause-related conditions to endometriosis to auto-immune conditions to cardiovascular disease—so that we can improve prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases and conditions that affect women uniquely, disproportionately, and differently.

Today in Las Vegas, Nevada, the First Lady will announce $110 million in awards from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to accelerate transformative research and development in women’s health. President Biden established ARPA-H, a new research and development funding agency, with bipartisan Congressional support to generate high-impact biomedical and health breakthroughs. In February 2024, the First Lady launched ARPA-H’s Sprint for Women’s Health, the first major deliverable of the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research. Over the last 10 months, ARPA-H received an unprecedented response to this call for solutions for women’s health, with over 1,700 submissions across 45 states and D.C. as well as 34 countries.

In less than a year, the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research has galvanized nearly a billion dollars in funding for women’s health research, including the First Lady’s recent announcement of $500 million from the U.S. Department of Defense and $200 million from the National Institutes of Health. Additionally, in his State of the Union address, President Biden called on Congress to make a bold, transformative investment of $12 billion in new funding for women’s health research. President Biden also signed a first-of-its-kind Executive Order on Advancing Women’s Health Research and Innovation, directing the most comprehensive set of executive actions ever taken to expand and improve research on women’s health. Through the Initiative, federal agencies have committed to taking over 100 actions to prioritize investments in women’s health research and integrate women’s health across the federal research portfolio.

Accelerating Progress in Women’s Health Research

Today’s ARPA-H awardees will spur innovation and advance high-impact, novel approaches to diseases and conditions that affect women uniquely, disproportionately, and differently. Today’s awardees are working across a range of women’s health issues—from pursuing new ways to prevent, detect, and treat cardiovascular conditions, ovarian cancer, endometriosis, neurological diseases, and pain in women to developing next-generation approaches to menopause, migraines, obstetrics, and gynecological care.

One-quarter of today’s awardees are pursuing “launchpad” projects, meaning those projects have the potential for commercialization within two years. The remaining awardees are pursuing “spark” projects that are in the early stage of research. ARPA-H’s support for these projects will help ensure that women and their health care providers can soon benefit from the research investments being made today.

The $110 million in ARPA-H awards announced today across 23 teams fund bold and transformative women’s health solutions, including:

• Aspira Women’s Health Inc. of Shelton, Connecticut will receive $10 million to create a first-of-its-kind definitive, non-invasive blood test to diagnose endometriosis. Endometriosis is a debilitating condition that affects about 1 in 10 women and often takes years and surgery to be diagnosed. Aspira Women’s Health Inc. aims to reduce the time it takes to diagnose endometriosis from years to days while helping health care providers identify the most appropriate treatment option for each woman’s needs.

• Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Inc. of Boston, Massachusetts will receive $9.1 million to improve our ability to assess brain disorders in women through a novel non-invasive MRI imaging biomarker. Even though conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and multiple sclerosis disproportionately affect women, there are significant gaps in our knowledge about how to prevent, detect, and treat these conditions in women. By developing a novel and non-invasive MRI technology to measure a specific brain protein, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Inc. will advance our understanding of, and improve treatments for, brain disorders in women.

• Children’s Research Institute of Washington, DC—through its research arm on families—will receive $8.1 million to develop a novel way to assess chronic pain in women. Women experience pain differently than men which can lead health care providers to underestimate and undertreat this pain, resulting in prolonged suffering, delayed diagnosis and treatment, and a reluctance to seek medical care. Despite this need, there is currently no objective, quantitative indicator of chronic pain in women. Children’s Research Institute aims to fill this gap by studying how a woman’s eyes react to external stimulation, which is directly related to how she perceives pain.

• Gravidas Diagnostics, Inc. of Los Angeles, California will receive $3 million to create a first-of-its-kind at-home test to revolutionize our ability to detect early preeclampsia, a leading cause of maternal mortality and morbidity. By making it easier to identify preeclampsia quickly, Gravidas Diagnostics Inc.’s new low-cost fingerstick test would help women and their doctors get the information they need sooner to reduce pregnancy-related complications and improve maternal and child health.

• The University of Iowa will receive $10 million to revolutionize the treatment for late-stage and metastatic ovarian cancer by using personalized nanoparticles to boost a woman’s immune system. More than half of women with ovarian cancer are diagnosed only after the cancer has metastasized, making it harder to treat and reducing survival rates. Leveraging nanotechnology, the University of Iowa will engineer personalized nanoparticles to use a woman’s own immune system to attack multiple cancers and help more women get the treatment they need to live longer.

• The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill) will receive $3 million to improve our ability to treat migraines in women. Women are more likely than men to suffer from migraines, which can be extremely debilitating. UNC-Chapel Hill will study the lymphatic system to better understand why women are more susceptible to migraines than men—with the goal of treating migraines with new drugs specifically targeting the brain lymphatics and developing personalized treatments to reduce women’s debilitating migraines.

Additional information and a full list of awardees is available here.

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President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. met today with Prime Minister Robert Golob of the Republic of Slovenia at the White House.  The leaders had an in-depth discussion on a range of foreign policy issues of mutual interest.  President Biden expressed his gratitude for Slovenia’s role in the historic deal that secured the release of three Americans unjustly detained by Russia, as well as an American green card holder who won a Pulitzer Prize while in Russian detention, and 12 other human rights defenders and political dissidents.  They discussed U.S.-Slovenian cooperation on clean energy and advanced technologies, and a joint approach to Western Balkans – an area of strategic interest for both  the United States and the Republic of Slovenia.  They reaffirmed their unwavering support for Ukraine as it continues to defend against Russia’s aggression.  They discussed the latest developments in the Middle East, the need to reach a diplomatic resolution to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that allows civilians on both sides of the Blue Line to safely return to their homes, to ensure civilians – including humanitarians and journalists – are protected, and to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and to achieve a ceasefire deal that secures the release of the hostages.  President Biden underscored the need for increased defense investments to ensure NATO is properly resourced to face tomorrow’s challenges.

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All Americans should be able to access the health care they need – no matter their income. That is why our Administration fought to lower health care costs with the Inflation Reduction Act, legislation that I was proud to cast the tie-breaking vote on in the Senate. During the first half of this year alone, we now know that nearly 1.5 million people with Medicare have already saved nearly $1 billion because of our law’s cap on out-of-pocket prescription drug costs. 
 
Additionally, we have been able to cut prescription drug costs, cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month for seniors, and lower premiums for those on Medicare. Our Administration has also reached unprecedented agreements with pharmaceutical companies to lower prices for the first 10 drugs selected for the Medicare price negotiation program – ten of the most widely used and expensive drugs that treat conditions ranging from cancer to diabetes. And there is still much more to come.
 
I have seen the impact of fighting to protect patients up close. As Attorney General, I held Big Pharma accountable for their deceptive and illegal practices – winning settlements that amounted to more than $7 billion against pharmaceutical companies for their unsafe and unfair tactics. I will never stop fighting for the health, wellbeing, and financial stability of the American people.

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Jill and I mourn the tragic loss of two naval aviators, Lieutenant Commander Lyndsay Evans and Lieutenant Serena Wileman, who were killed when their EA-18G Growler aircraft crashed last Tuesday near Mount Rainier, Washington during a routine training mission.  They were among our nation’s finest and had just recently returned to the United States after an extended deployment to the Middle East defending against Houthi missile and drone attacks in the Red Sea.  We thank the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army, and Yakima County Tribal and local authorities for their efforts to locate and recover these two brave and talented young aviators.  We pray for their families, loved ones and squadron-mates, and we will always honor their service and sacrifice.  

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New Educational and Engaging Elements Added to the White House Public Tour Route; Aimed at Enhancing Civics Education for Students of All Ages; First Significant Improvement to Tour in Decades

New Expanded Public Tour Will Now Include the Diplomatic Reception Room, where President Franklin D. Roosevelt held his famous fireside chats, and Further Entry Access to Rooms

For photos of the enhanced tour elements, please visit the White House FLICKR page.

Washington, DC – First Lady Jill Biden is unveiling today a new enhanced, educational White House public tour for visitors. A classroom teacher for 40 years, Dr. Biden knows that learning has to be engaging and interactive. The public tour, which accommodates approximately 10,000 visitors per week, is a significant opportunity to educate students of all ages about the living history of the White House. The public tour of the White House has not seen significant improvements in decades, until now.

“I’ve been a classroom teacher for 40 years, and I know learning has to be interactive and engaging. It has to evoke the senses, and you have to meet students where they are, giving them what they need to spark their curiosity and imagination,” said First Lady Jill Biden. “We hope the tour inspires everyone who visits the White House to learn more about our shared history.”

The enhanced White House public tour will now:

• include more educational and engaging elements along the tour route;
• incorporate more story-telling in the tour using technology and digital components;
• provide visitors with more historic context to their tour;
• entreat the senses with compelling and tactile content; and
• present more opportunities for learning about our nation’s history, civics, and the lives of Presidents and first families, past and present.

The enhanced tour elements are supported by The History Channel, in partnership with ESI Design, which is known for its educational improvements to the Liberty Island and Ellis Island museums, which like the White House are also cared for by the National Park Service. The History Channel has previously produced short films for historic sites across the country including the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, the Statue of Liberty, the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitor Center, and more.

“Preserving our country’s history, investing in education, and engaging the next generation is at the heart of the new expanded White House tour,” said Paul Buccieri, President & Chairman, A+E Networks Group, which includes The History Channel. “We are honored to join First Lady Jill Biden on this special initiative to enhance the White House tour experience for the American public and visitors from around the globe.”

“More than 10,000 visitors come through these doors each week on the public tour and it’s such an opportunity for students of all ages to learn about our country’s history, civics, and the lives of Presidents and their families,” said First Lady Jill Biden. “When Joe became President, I took a look at the public tour, which I’m told hasn’t seen any significant improvements in decades, and thought there
has to be a way to reimagine this tour experience, add more educational content and story-telling, while also preserving and protecting its history. So, we did.”

The First Lady added: “Throughout the past two years, we’ve been working with the National Park Service, White House Curator’s Office, White House Historical Association, presidential libraries, and The History Channel to enhance and expand the public tour of the White House. We’ve added flexible, versatile, and dynamic tools of learning to the tour; created more pathways in the house to bring people further into the rooms; expanded the tour to now include the Diplomatic Reception Room where President Roosevelt hosted his famous fireside chats; and we’ve included more educational content that visitors can touch, hear, and see up close.”

“The White House, like all national parks, are living classrooms that provide the public with inspirational and educational opportunities to connect with our nation’s shared heritage,” National Park Service Director Chuck Sams said. “The National Park Service is honored to support these tour and exhibit enhancements that will elevate the thrill level of walking the halls of the White House and experiencing firsthand the rooms where history has been, and continues to be, made.”

Stewart D. McLaurin, President of the White House Historical Association said: “Dr. Biden’s passion for
education inspired this deeper engagement every visitor will now have with the White House. It has been a privilege to work with her and her team to deploy innovative and creative tools to better share the lessons and stories of White House history.”

The following enhancements have been made to the new expanded White House public tour route:

More Educational Story-telling and Civics Education Incorporated Throughout the Public Tour: The enhanced public tour now contains more historic, educational content, and story-telling elements throughout the visitor experience. For example, the Diplomatic Reception Room, used to welcome foreign dignitaries and home to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s famous fireside chats, will be open to the general public for the first time. One reader rail highlights the room’s panoramic wallpaper, Views of North America, and hosts a recreation of a 1939 Philco radio that plays snippets of various fireside chats given by FDR during his presidency.

Educational, Experiential Signage, and Video Greetings: New signage along the tour route will augment visitors’ educational experience, helping to set expectations for the tour and guiding visitors to more points of interest. The new educational content updates the 18 existing room introduction signs, with an additional six signs to mark new tour elements and critical views. As guests enter the public tour through the East Wing, they will be welcomed by a video message from the First Lady. A video from the President will greet visitors in the East Room, giving further historic context and depth to the tour.

“A Living Timeline” of White House History: Previously, the East Colonnade contained static photo collages, which were arduous to update and lacked key historic context or information. Visitors will now approach the East Colonnade and see a long corridor punctuated by permanent digital displays nestled below archways, embracing the design and feel of the previous collages. The graphic and media displays at each archway will showcase various “eras” of American history, segmented to capture historic moments of the White House and the presidency.

The Living Timeline accommodates various experience modes ranging from Tour Mode, to Residential Mode, and Special Events Mode. These modes ensure the Living Timeline is a versatile tool that can evolve with the White House and moments across history.

Three-Dimensional Architectural Model of the White House: After passing through the East Colonnade, visitors enter into the East Garden Room, where they will be greeted by a new 3D architectural model of White House’s 18-acre complex. Four supporting models depict the White House at key stages in its evolution. The dynamic model takes guests through the architectural history of the White House, beginning in 1792 and encompassing significant architectural milestones. The model is internally illuminated. Lighting cues are choreographed with a supplemental media screen that highlights important milestones pertaining to the architectural history of the White House. Over the course of the experience, visitors gain an appreciation of how the White House has evolved over time.

More Access to White House Rooms: Previously, several rooms on the public tour of the White House were roped off and visitors could only look inside. Now, visitors will be able to go further inside each room and learn more about the room and its history.

Expanded Tour Route to Now Include the Diplomatic Reception Room: Previously, the public tour route on the ground floor of the White House only included the Library, Vermeil Room, and China Room. Now, visitors will get to see the Diplomatic Reception Room, the location of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s (FDR) historic “fireside chats” during the Great Depression and World War II. Audio of some of FDR’s fireside chats will play for visitors as they come through the room.

Multi-sensory Reader Rails: Once visitors go further into each room, they will be treated to multi-sensory “reader rails,” full of educational information and tactile, engaging content. These reader rails detail the historic uses of each room and highlight pertinent artifacts. Additionally, these rails offer opportunities for visitors to touch replicas of the materials in various room. This not only provides a new sensory experience for visitors, it also improves the accessibility of the experience for those who are blind or have low vision. The White House Historical Association currently provides an audio guide to the White House tour through their app, the WHExperience, which is available on whitehousehistory.org.

Dynamic Digital Partition Panel: As guests exit the Diplomatic Reception Room, they will see a dynamic digital partition panel on the left, before ascending the stairs to the State Floor. This panel is a versatile large photo frame, presenting educational content and imagery of the White House beyond the areas visible to the public tour.

East Room Welcome Pillar and Reader Rails: Speaking to visitors from the same room where Presidents have so often addressed the nation, a video from the President provides an introduction to the State Floor via a dedicated Welcome Pillar. Supporting reader rails provide educational information about the purpose and history of the East Room, the special items on display, such as the George and Martha Washington portraits featured in the center of the room, and the many momentous events that have happened there.

Additional Educational Content in the State Dining Room: As visitors enter the State Dining Room, they will be surrounded with educational content, with three reader rails. One rail exhibit highlights the history of the room itself, including the numerous State Dinners. Another rail features a quote inscribed on the mantel taken from a letter John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, on his first night at the White House. A tactile replica of the mantel’s inscription is positioned at the center of the rail, inviting visitors to feel the carving and reflect on Adams’ hope for the future. A final rail highlights art and artifacts in the room, such as the famous Lincoln Portrait, which rarely moves from its revered position over the room’s mantel.

Grand Staircase Frame: Positioned near the landing of the Grand Staircase, the Grand Frame serves as a window into special events at the White House, featuring rotating imagery of First Families at the staircase during State Dinners, holidays, or other special occasions.

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Every woman in every state must have reproductive freedom and access to the health care they need. That is why I have fought to lower health care costs and protect the ability of every woman to make her own decisions about her own body.
 
Today, our Administration is proposing the largest expansion of contraception coverage in more than a decade. This new proposed rule will build on our Administration’s work to protect reproductive freedom by providing millions of women with more options for the affordable contraception they need and deserve. That includes coverage for no-cost over-the-counter contraception without a prescription for the first time in our nation’s history. These lower contraception costs would be in addition to the billions of dollars that women have already saved on contraception under the Affordable Care Act which President Biden and I have strengthened since taking office.
 
While we fight to protect and expand health care, extremist so-called leaders are attacking reproductive freedom at every turn. Republicans in Congress have repeatedly blocked legislation to protect the right to contraception across the country. They have also consistently refused to protect access to IVF, and continue to propose national abortion bans.
 
President Biden and I stand with the majority of Americans – Republicans and Democrats alike – who support access to contraception. And we continue to call on Congress to pass federal legislation that restores reproductive freedom nationwide.

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Since Roe v. Wade was overturned more than two years ago, Republican elected officials have made clear they want to ban or restrict birth control, defund federal programs that help women access contraception, and repeal the Affordable Care Act. And Congressional Republicans have repeatedly blocked federal legislation to safeguard the fundamental right to birth control for women in every state. It’s unacceptable.

Today, my Administration is taking a major step to expand contraception coverage under the Affordable Care Act. This new action would help ensure that millions of women with private health insurance can access the no-cost contraception they need. Vice President Harris and I have worked tirelessly to protect and build on the Affordable Care Act. We lowered costs for Marketplace coverage by an average of $800 per year for millions of Americans, and more Americans than ever before have signed up for health insurance through the law.  

At a time when contraception access is under attack, Vice President Harris and I are resolute in our commitment to expanding access to quality, affordable contraception. We believe that women in every state must have the freedom to make deeply personal health care decisions, including the right to decide if and when to start or grow their family. We will continue to fight to protect access to reproductive health care and call on Congress to restore reproductive freedom and safeguard the right to contraception once and for all.

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Biden-Harris Administration Announces Proposal for Most Significant Expansion of Contraception Coverage Under the Affordable Care Act in More Than a Decade

President Biden and Vice President Harris have protected and built on the Affordable Care Act. Nearly 50 million people over the past decade have had coverage through the Affordable Care Act’s Marketplaces, and the law has protected more than 100 million people with preexisting medical conditions. Thanks to the Biden-Harris Administration, Affordable Care Act coverage is more affordable than ever with millions of families saving an average of $800 per year on Marketplace coverage.

The Affordable Care Act has also helped millions of women save billions of dollars on contraception—an essential component of reproductive health care that has only become more important since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. As part of President Biden and Vice President Harris’ steadfast commitment to reproductive rights, the Biden-Harris Administration has further strengthened contraception access and affordability under the Affordable Care Act, through Medicare and Medicaid, through the Title X Family Planning Program, through federally qualified health centers, and for federal employees, Service members, veterans, and college students.

Today, the Biden-Harris Administration is proposing a rule that would significantly increase coverage of contraception without cost sharing for 52 million women of reproductive age with private health insurance. Building on the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that most private health plans must cover contraception without cost sharing, today’s proposed rule from the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor, and the Treasury would:

• Expand coverage of over-the-counter contraception without cost sharing. Under the proposed rule, for the first time, women would be able to obtain over-the-counter (OTC) contraception without a prescription at no additional cost. As a result, more women would be able to access and afford critical OTC medications such as emergency contraception and the first-ever daily oral contraceptive approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use without a prescription that is now widely available across the country.
  
• Make it easier to learn about coverage for OTC contraception. To help ensure that women understand this new benefit, most private health plans would be required to disclose that OTC contraception is covered without cost sharing and without a prescription—and take steps to help women learn more about their contraception coverage.
  
• Strengthen coverage of prescribed contraception without cost sharing. The proposed rule would make it easier for most women with private health insurance to obtain contraception without cost sharing that is prescribed by their health care provider. Health plans would be required to cover every FDA-approved contraceptive drug or drug-led combination product without cost sharing unless the plan also covers a therapeutic equivalent without cost sharing, eliminating barriers that some women continue to face in accessing contraception prescribed by their provider.

This proposed rule, if finalized, would be the most significant expansion of contraception coverage under the Affordable Care Act since 2012, when contraception was first required to be covered. Also today, the Biden-Harris Administration is issuing new guidance to help ensure that patients can access other preventive services, such as cancer screenings, that must be covered without cost sharing under the Affordable Care Act.

The Biden-Harris Administration is issuing this proposed rule at a time when reproductive rights are under attack, and Republican elected officials remain committed to repealing the Affordable Care Act. Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, dangerous and extreme abortion bans are putting women’s health and lives at risk and disrupting access to critical health care services, including contraception, as health care providers are forced to close in states across the country. At the same time, Republican elected officials in some states have made clear they want to ban or restrict birth control in addition to abortion, and Republicans in Congress have attacked contraception access nationwide by proposing to defund the Title X Family Planning Program. In contrast, President Biden and Vice President Harris believe that women in every state must have the freedom to make deeply personal health care decisions, including the right to decide if and when to start or grow their family.

Today’s announcements build on actions that the Biden-Harris Administration has already taken to expand access to affordable contraception, including to implement the President’s Executive Order on Strengthening Access to Affordable, High-Quality Contraception and Family Planning Services from June 2023. The Administration has taken action to:

• Expand contraception coverage and affordability under the Affordable Care Act. The Departments of HHS, Labor, and the Treasury proposed a rule to provide a new pathway under the Affordable Care Act for women to access coverage of contraceptives when their private health coverage is exempt from covering this benefit due to a religious objection. These agencies also issued new guidance to support expanded coverage of a broader range of FDA-approved, cleared, or granted contraceptives at no additional cost under the Affordable Care Act, building on guidance issued after Roe v. Wade was overturned to clarify protections for contraceptive coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Further, HHS strengthened the standard for inclusion of family planning providers in Marketplace plan provider networks and provided nearly $9 million in grant funding to support state efforts to enhance and expand coverage of, and access to, reproductive and maternal health services, including contraception. And the Internal Revenue Service issued new guidance affirming that high-deductible health plans can cover OTC contraception as preventive care.
  
• Bolster family planning services through Title X clinics. HHS continues to rebuild and grow the Title X Family Planning Program, which has played a critical role in ensuring access to a broad range of high-quality family planning and preventive health services for more than 50 years. During the prior administration, more than 1,000 service sites left the Title X Family Planning Program, leading to a significant decline in people served. The Biden-Harris Administration reversed the policy changes that led to those departures, strengthening the Title X Family Planning Program and helping ensure that the Program remains a critical part of the nation’s health safety net. In 2023, HHS provided about $287 million to nearly 4,000 Title X clinics across the country to provide free or low-cost voluntary, client-centered family planning and related preventive services for 2.8 million women and families—an 80 percent increase since 2020.
  
• Support family planning coverage through the Medicaid and Medicare programs. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued new guidance to state Medicaid programs and Children’s Health Insurance Programs (CHIP) to help ensure that enrollees can access family planning services. The new guidance outlined existing state obligations under federal law, highlighted strategies to enhance access to contraception, affirmed confidentiality requirements for those seeking family planning services, and shared recommendations on ways to measure quality in delivering family planning services. To help ensure that women with Medicare coverage have access to more covered types of contraception without unnecessary barriers, CMS updated its Medicare Part D formulary clinical review process for plan year 2024 and 2025 to include additional contraceptive types, such as long-acting contraceptives, and is increasing public awareness of contraceptive coverage options under Medicare Part B. The Secretary of HHS also issued a letter to state Medicaid and CHIP programs as well as private health insurers and Medicare plans about their existing obligations to cover contraception for those they serve.
  
• Increase contraception access through federal health centers. Federal health centers continue to be an important source of family planning services: in 2023, health centers provided nearly 3 million contraceptive services visits to patients, a 14 percent increase since 2020. To support health centers in providing high-quality family planning services, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) provided updated guidance on existing federal requirements for family planning and related services, which is a required primary health care service under federal law, as well as evidence-based recommendations and resources. HRSA also adopted new data measures for health centers that will help assess whether patients have been screened for contraception needs. Screening and data measures will help enhance the overall delivery of voluntary family planning and related services.
  
• Support contraception access for federal employees and their families. The Office of Personnel Management strengthened access to contraception for federal workers, retirees, and family members by issuing guidance to insurers participating in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program to clarify standards and support expanded coverage of a broader range of FDA-approved, cleared, or granted contraceptives at no additional cost. The Office of Personnel Management also required insurers that participate in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program to take additional steps to educate enrollees about their contraception benefits and launched a public education campaign to highlight contraception benefits available to federal employees and their families.
  
• Promote contraception access and affordability for Service members and their families and certain dependents of veterans. To improve access to contraception at military hospitals and clinics, the Department of Defense expanded walk-in contraceptive care services for active-duty Service members and other Military Health System beneficiaries and eliminated TRICARE copays for certain contraceptive services. And the Department of Veterans Affairs eliminated out-of-pocket costs for certain types of contraception through the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
  
• Support access to affordable contraception for college students. To help increase access to contraception for college students, President Biden directed the Secretary of Education to convene institutions of higher education to share best practices and ways to help students understand their options for accessing contraception. In 2023, Vice President Harris joined a Department of Education convening of representatives from 68 colleges and universities across 32 states to discuss promising strategies for protecting and expanding access to contraception for their students. This convening followed Vice President Harris’s multiple conversations about reproductive health access with students on college campuses across the country.
  
• Enhance contraception access through technical assistance and public-private partnership. In June 2023, HHS announced a new five-year public-private partnership to expand access to contraception with Upstream, a national nonprofit organization that provides health centers with free patient-centered, evidence-based training and technical assistance to eliminate provider-level barriers to offering the full range of contraceptive options. To date, HHS has connected Upstream to more than 130 health care clinics, resulting in partnerships that will help Upstream accelerate their national expansion to reach 5 million women of reproductive age every year.
  
• Promote research and data analysis on contraception access. To document the gaps and disparities in contraception access as well as the benefits of comprehensive coverage, HHS convened leading experts to discuss the state of research, data collection, and data analysis on contraception access and family planning services. These convenings helped identify research gaps, opportunities for collaboration, and ways to bolster research efforts for both Federal agencies and external partners.

In addition to strengthening access to affordable contraception, the Biden-Harris Administration continues to implement President Biden’s threeExecutiveOrders and a Presidential Memorandum directing federal agencies to protect access to reproductive health care issued since the Court overturned Roe v. Wade. To date, the Biden-Harris Administration has taken action to protect access to abortion, including FDA-approved medication abortion; defend access to emergency medical care; support the ability to travel for reproductive health care; safeguard the privacy of patients and health care providers; and ensure access to accurate information and legal resources.

The Vice President has led the White House’s efforts to partner with leaders on the frontlines of protecting access to abortion, highlighting the harm of abortion bans to women’s health at more than 100 events in more than 20 states since Roe v. Wade was overturned, and meeting with hundreds of  state legislators, health care providers, and advocates. On what would have been the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Vice President launched a nationwide Fight for Reproductive Freedoms tour to continue fighting back against extreme attacks throughout America.

President Biden and Vice President Harris will continue to call on Congress to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade in federal law to ensure that women in every state are able to make their own decisions about reproductive health care.

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Jennifer Klein, Director, White House Gender Policy Council

Under President Biden and Vice President Harris’s leadership, the Administration is taking bold action to expand coverage of contraception for the 52 million women of reproductive age with private health insurance, marking the most significant expansion of contraception benefits under the Affordable Care Act in more than a decade. Today’s announcement builds on the Biden-Harris Administration’s strong record of defending access to reproductive health care and commitment to ensuring that women have the freedom to make deeply personal health care decisions, including if and when to start or grow their family.

Meanwhile, Republican elected officials continue to threaten women’s health, lives, and freedom through extreme abortion bans, some with no exceptions for rape or incest. Women are being denied essential medical care while doctors and nurses are threatened with jail time. Abortion, contraception, and IVF are under attack, while Republicans in Congress refuse to protect nationwide access to this vital reproductive health care. This extreme agenda is out-of-touch with the American people—which is why voters have overwhelmingly chosen to protect reproductive freedom in every state where abortion has been on the ballot.
President Biden and Vice President Harris stand with the vast majority of Americans in supporting a woman’s right to choose, and they will continue the fight against a national abortion ban and call on Congress to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade in federal law once and for all.

Women’s Health and Lives at Risk
From day one, President Biden and Vice President Harris knew that state abortion bans would have devastating consequences for women’s health and lives. Since Roe was overturned, more than 1 in 3 women of reproductive age live in the more than 20 states with dangerous and extreme abortion bans in effect.

• Abortion bans are leaving women without emergency care. Courageous women and their families have shared harrowing stories about being denied urgently needed care because of state abortion bans. Women have died because they did not get the care they needed—or women only received care after developing sepsis or losing more than half of their blood. Some women are suing their states so other women with severe and dangerous pregnancy complications will not be similarly forced to the brink of death before they can receive an abortion.
  
• Abortion bans are worsening maternal mortality. States with abortion bans have higher rates of maternal mortality than states where abortion remains legal. For instance, after a dangerous Texas abortion ban went into effect in 2021, maternal mortality increased by 56% (compared to 11% nationwide). One year after Dobbs, two-thirds of OBGYNs reported that the Court’s decision worsened pregnancy-related mortality and their ability to manage pregnancy-related emergencies. And criminal and civil penalties under state abortion bans are causing doctors to flee abortion ban states, exacerbating the maternal health crisis and creating maternity care deserts that impact entire communities. 
  
• Abortion bans are making it even harder to access contraception and other essential care. Since Roe was overturned, abortion bans have caused dozens of reproductive health care clinics to shutter, jeopardizing access to abortion, contraception, and preventive care that women rely on. In states with abortion bans, there were over 4% fewer filled prescriptions for oral contraception in the first year after Roe was overturned. Some states had far greater declines: Texas, for instance, had a 28% decline in filled prescriptions for oral contraception.
  
• Abortion bans are forcing women to travel hundreds of miles for care. State abortion bans are forcing many women to travel to another state to obtain care that would have been available in their state if Roe were still the law of the land. Women in nearly a quarter of counties in America—especially in the South—have been forced to travel more than 200 miles to get the essential care they need.
  
• Abortion bans are jeopardizing our ability to train the next generation of medical providers. States with abortion bans continue to see a decrease in medical and residency student applications, especially among prospective OBGYNs. Nearly 60% of third- and fourth-year medical students said they were unlikely or very unlikely to apply to a single residency program in a state with abortion restrictions, while nearly 80% said that access to abortion care would influence where they would pursue their residency. And about 1 in 5 OBGYN residents said that the overturning of Roe changed where they had planned to practice medicine, and those who had planned to practice in a state with abortion bans were eight times more likely to change their intended practice location.

Republican Officials’ Extreme Agenda

Despite the devastating impact of state abortion bans, Republican officials continue to push for a nationwide abortion ban to restrict the rights of women in every state, deny access to emergency medical care, and eliminate access to safe and effective, FDA-approved medication abortion.

• Republicans in Congress have proposed four national abortion bans that would deny every woman in America the right to choose, regardless of where she lives. This includes a nationwide abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest that puts IVF treatment squarely at risk. House Republicans have also attacked contraception access nationwide by repeatedly proposing to defund the Title X Family Planning Program. And Senate Republicans continue to block federal legislation that would safeguard nationwide access to abortion, contraception, and IVF.
  
• Republican elected officials have enacted or enforced abortion bans in more than 20 states. Republican attorneys general have made clear they seek to access women’s medical records—even for out-of-state care—and have tried to discourage women from traveling out-of-state to receive lawful abortion care by threatening those who help them with criminal charges.
  
• Republican elected officials filed more than 350 bills restricting abortion during the 2024 legislative session. In Louisiana, Republican officials classified medications used in abortion and miscarriage management as controlled substances, making it even harder to access these critical medications during an emergency. In Florida, state officials are attempting to undermine support for a reproductive freedom ballot measure, including by threatening TV stations that run ads with criminal charges. And Republican state legislators are proposing legislation that would jeopardize access to IVF.
  
• Republican elected officials want to ban medication abortion nationwide, including in states where abortion remains lawful. They are also fighting to prevent women from receiving the emergency medical care they are entitled to under federal law— including abortion care when necessary to save a woman’s health or life.

No attempt to “rebrand” can change the fact that Republican elected officials have spent decades undermining reproductive freedom. Republican elected officials will not stop pursuing extreme policies until there is a national abortion ban in place.

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FEMA to hire Community Liaisons across the state to aid in recovery

More than $300 million approved for North Carolina survivors and state recovery efforts

Following Hurricane Helene’s devastating impacts across the Southeast and Appalachia, the Biden-Harris Administration continues its robust Federal efforts to help communities recover and rebuild, including in heavily impacted communities in North Carolina. Across the state, the Administration is working alongside state and local officials to continue surging resources and assisting families, business owners, farmers, and other impacted communities receive the support and assistance they need and deserve.

To continue supporting recovery efforts, today the Administration is announcing that the Federal government will create a brand-new program and hire Community Liaisons to assist impacted communities with their recovery and rebuilding efforts. These dedicated Community Liaisons will interface between the people of North Carolina and FEMA to ensure their needs are met and serve as trusted messengers for survivors.

Thus far, the Administration has approved more than $300 million in assistance across the state, including $118 million in individual assistance to more than 87,600 households, and more than $189 million for debris removal and other emergency efforts. In total, across all impacted states in the Southeast and Appalachia, the Administration has approved nearly $2 billion in hurricane recovery assistance.

These new efforts to support North Carolina’s recovery supplement additional resources and funding, including:

• More than 1,500 Federal personnel remain deployed supporting the response and recovery operations. This includes more than 400 Disaster Survivor Assistance Team members, who are visiting neighborhoods to connect with survivors, assess damage, and offer access to Federal resources that support recovery and rebuilding.
• Fourteen Disaster Recovery Centers are operating in impacted areas and have served more than 5,700 visitors. More centers will be opening in the coming days. Survivors can visit Disaster Recovery Centers in the following cities/towns: Asheville, Bakersville, Boone, Brevard, Hendersonville, Jefferson, Lenoir, Marion, Morgantown, Newland, Old Fort, Sparta, Sylva, and Waynesville.
• FEMA is providing temporary hotel stays to more than 2,500 households through Transitional Sheltering Assistance.
• FEMA inspectors have performed more than 21,000 home inspections to help survivors assess damage and apply for financial assistance.
• Active-duty troops and National Guard members remain on the ground in their state capacity to support search-and-rescue operations, route clearance, and commodities distribution across western North Carolina. The Department of Defense is also employing additional capabilities to assist with increasing situational awareness across the remote terrain of Western North Carolina. The Army Corps of Engineers continues missions supporting debris removal, temporary emergency power installation, water and wastewater assessments with the Environmental Protection Agency.
• Power has been restored to 99 percent of impacted North Carolina customers due to thousands of utility personnel working around the clock.
• Commodity distribution, mass feeding, and hydration operations continue in areas of western North Carolina. FEMA continues to send commodity shipments and voluntary organizations are supporting feeding operations with bulk food and water deliveries coming in via truck and aircraft. Mobile feeding operations are reaching survivors in heavily impacted areas, including three mass feeding sites in Buncombe, McDowell and Watauga counties.

Additional actions the Administration is taking to protect public health, provide flexibilities to homeowners and taxpayers, support infrastructure recovery, and support workers, farmers, and students in North Carolina can be found here. Additional actions President Biden directed before Helene’s landfall can be found here.

Biden-Harris Administration’s Continuous Commitment to Being on the Ground

Following Hurricane Helene’s devastating impacts across North Carolina, President Biden committed to helping impacted communities recover and rebuild, no matter how long it takes. On October 2, less than one week after landfall, President Biden visited North Carolina to survey the damage, meet with first responders and impacted communities, and receive an operational briefing. As part of that visit, he also directed up to 1,000 active-duty troops to partner with the North Carolina National Guard on the ground at the request of the Governor. Days later, to surge additional resources and capacity at the request of the Governor, President Biden ordered another 500 active-duty troops to move into western North Carolina. On October 5, Vice President Harris also visited North Carolina to survey the damage, receive briefings, and meet with first responders.

The President and Vice President and senior leaders across the Administration have spoken with and coordinated closely with Governor Cooper throughout the response. President Biden talked with Governor Cooper at least twice immediately following Helene’s landfall, and Governor Cooper joined him to survey damage and receive briefings during his visit. They have stayed in close contact in the ensuing weeks.

At the President’s direction, FEMA Administrator Criswell has been on the ground in North Carolina for multiple days and nights to lead the Federal response since Helene’s landfall. She has traveled across the state to meet with survivors and communities, identify resource needs, and continue ensuring a swift and coordinated recovery effort.  She will return again this evening and remain in place to direct additional measures to speed response and recovery.  Many other Administration leaders, including Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Secretary Michael Regan, and Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, have also visited North Carolina to support recovery efforts and others will do so in the coming days and weeks, including Secretary Tom Vilsack on October 25.

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I congratulate President Prabowo Subianto on his inauguration as President of the Republic of Indonesia, and the Indonesian people for exercising their right to vote and making their voices heard.

This year, Indonesia and the United States are celebrating 75 years of diplomatic relations. Vice President Harris and I look forward to working with President Prabowo to honor this milestone by continuing to strengthen our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and show that democracies can deliver on the challenges that matter most to our peoples’ lives.

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Tonight, Doug and I are praying for all those who were killed or injured in the collapse of the ferry dock walkway on Georgia’s Sapelo Island, as well as their family members and loved ones. Our Administration is in close touch with state and local officials, and we have offered any federal support the community might need. As always, we are deeply grateful for the heroism of our first responders. Even in the face of this heartbreak, we will continue to celebrate and honor the history, culture, and resilience of the Gullah-Geechee community.

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We are heartbroken to learn about the ferry dock walkway collapse on Georgia’s Sapelo Island. What should have been a joyous celebration of Gullah-Geechee culture and history instead turned into tragedy and devastation. Jill and I mourn those who lost their lives, and we pray for the injured and anyone still missing. We are also grateful to the first responders at the scene. My team is in touch with state and local officials, and we stand ready to provide any and all assistance that would be helpful to the community.

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