The Biden administration is quickly shaping up to be the most pro-labor in recent American history. In addition to promising to sign the PRO Act, President Joe Biden proposed his American Jobs Plan on March 31. President Biden’s proposal includes $621 billion to fund the modernization of existing transit systems and 20,000 miles of highways, roads, and main streets, $300 billion to build and retrofit affordable housing along with constructing and upgrading schools and $100 billion to bring high-speed broadband to every American.
IBEW International President Lonnie Stephenson said, “The men and women of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers are ready to get to work building America and its economy back better, and we call on Congress to move quickly on President Biden’s infrastructure plan.”
Two days earlier, on March 29, the Biden administration announced a set of bold actions to expand U.S. offshore wind energy capacity to 30 gigawatts (GW), which will bring $12 billion into the industry and create 44,000 jobs in development and construction and 33,000 jobs in supporting sectors over the same period. At the same time, the U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) designated a new priority Wind Energy Area in the New York Bight, shallow waters off the coast of Long Island and New Jersey, and $230 million will go to funding port infrastructure projects involved in manufacturing wind turbines.
