Biden touts efforts to make government fairer, but major bills on social justice remain stalled
WASHINGTON – More than 90 federal agencies on Thursday outlined steps being taken to improve equity and racial justice, a part of President Joe Biden’s equity agenda that has progressed faster than legislation to reform police tactics, advance voting rights or forgive student loans.
The “equity action plans” were released on the same day Biden is visiting North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, the largest historically Black college and university in the nation. It’s his third visit to an HBCU as president. Other members of his cabinet, including the vice president, have made a combined dozen visits to HBCUs.
“Equity goes to the heart of our success as a nation when the typical Black family has just 1/8 the wealth of the typical white family,” said Susan Rice, Biden’s domestic policy adviser. “When at least 35% of Americans in rural and tribal communities lack adequate high speed internet, that restricts growth and competitiveness well beyond rural America.”
The administration’s investment in HBCUs is one the more than 300 concrete actions officials said are being taken to get in the “guts of government” to improve service to underserved communities.
Others include:
- The Justice Department is is making it easier for people with limited English to report crimes.
- The Environmental Protection Agency is shifting from responding to complaints of civil rights violations to initiating reviews.
- The Defense Department will work to mitigate bias in artificial intelligence technology and will partner with HBCUs to develop a more diverse artificial intelligence workforce.
- The Treasury Department is reviewing the government’s debt-collecting practices.
- The Interior and Transportation departments want to increase bus routes and other public transportation options for national parks.
- The Commerce Department is increasing access to the patent and trademark systems for inventors and entrepreneurs from historically underserved communities.
The actions are an outgrowth of an executive order Biden signed his first day in office directing every federal agency to come up with ways to address any disparities in policies and programs.
“Delivering the promise of America is not the work of one department,” Biden said in a video message Thursday. “It has to be the business of the whole of the federal government.”
recently extended the moratorium on federal student loan payments through Aug. 31. He backed, during the 2020 campaign, forgiving up to $10,000 in debt per borrower.
While some Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have pressed Biden to use his executive authority to cancel up to $50,000 in debt, Biden has said he believes such action must come from Congress.
“If Congress were to send him a bill to cancel $10,000 in student debt,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said this month, “he’d be happy to sign it.”
The administration has stressed that its equity agenda is not aimed solely at communities of color but is designed to help all marginalized communities, including people with disabilities, religious minorities, members of the LGBTQ community and anyone living in persistent poverty – whether in urban, rural or suburban areas.
Cabinet secretaries and other administration officials are traveling to dozens of communities this month to tout what Biden is doing for rural areas, including on expanding high-speed internet access.
“We are not going to send a penny out the door unless we are convinced that that plan is going to deliver broadband to everybody,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said Thursday.
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