President Joe Biden will deliver his State of the Union Address this evening and is expected to note several policy wins from his first year in office, including the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The bipartisan deal is a start, not the end, of what we need to build back better. Congress must act boldly and invest in America to build a clean, prosperous, and equitable economy.

The Biden administration today announced a number of new investments in the domestic production of critical minerals and materials necessary to build the nation’s clean energy supply chain. The funding includes efforts to access important elements such as lithium and cobalt, which are used in batteries, electric vehicles, wind turbines, and solar panels. A June 2021 report from the administration found an over-reliance on foreign sources for these and other materials.

Fenceline communities and workers at chemical facilities live in a state of constant danger as the threat of explosions, fires, and chemical releases looms. The burden of threat lies disproportionately on the shoulders of workers and poor communities of color. 

The Biden administration today announced the formation of a Buy Clean Task Force, as part of a larger strategy to reinvigorate American manufacturing and reduce emissions from the industrial sector. Buy Clean promotes spending taxpayer dollars on materials that are manufactured in a cleaner, more efficient, environmentally-friendly manner.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) released its implementation guidance for the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program (NEVI), a $5 billion investment and new program in President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). The guidance will help states build out an electric vehicle (EV) charging network along the interstate highway system, a critical contribution to the Biden administration’s goal of installing 500,000 public EV chargers nationwide by 2030.

Leaders from the BlueGreen Alliance, a national partnership of labor unions and environmental organizations, sent a letter to President Biden and leaders in Congress urging them to use their leadership to find a path forward and pass the Build Back Better Act as soon as feasible.

At an event today, President Joe Biden outlined a new executive order (EO) designed to ensure Project Labor Agreements (PLAs)—collective bargaining agreements covering all of the craft workers on a construction project that provide comprehensive guidance and set mutual expectations for large projects—are required for federally funded projects over $35 million dollars. PLAs are considered the gold standard of labor provisions by most building trades unions.  

The U.S. House of Representatives today passed the America COMPETES Act. The bill makes various investments aimed at onshoring American manufacturing, creating jobs, and lowering industrial emissions.

BlueGreen Alliance Vice President of Legislation and Federal Affairs Jessica Eckdish testified at a virtual hearing of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis entitled “Manufacturing a Clean Energy Future: Climate Solutions Made in America.”

The Build Back Better Act (BBBA) will invest over $15 billion in economic development, growing renewable energy and energy efficiency in impacted communities, revitalizing American manufacturing, and targeting new jobs to workers dislocated by America’s energy shift.

The BlueGreen Alliance submitted comments in response to the U.S. Federal Highway Administration request for guidance on electric vehicle charging infrastructure deployment. The comments urge the Administration to ensure the programs incentivize and support the development of a robust domestic supply chain and skilled workforce for electric vehicle supply equipment; and facilitate community engagement strategies…