At 100-Day Mark, Biden-Harris Administration Meets or Exceeds Almost All National Urban League Expectations
AT 100-DAY MARK, BIDEN-HARRIS ADMINISTRATION IS MEETING OR EXCEEDING ALMOST ALL NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE’S POLICY EXPECTATIONS
NEW YORK (April 29, 2021) – One hundred days into their administration, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have made surprisingly bold inroads in confronting racial injustice and the COVID-19 pandemic, but significant challenges remain, National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial said today.
“President Biden and Vice President Harris entered the White House at a moment of unprecedented multiple crises, and they have risen to confront those crises with remarkable speed and effectiveness,” Morial said. “With the help of Senator Schumer and Speaker Pelosi, they have illuminated the systemic racial inequality that hinders our nation’s progress and set a course for healing. Whether the nation can stay that course remains to be seen.”
Shortly after the election, Morial charged Biden and Harris to produce an immediate and extensive COVID relief package. The American Rescue Plan, Morial noted, is one of the largest anti-poverty measures in a generation and has helped slash daily coronavirus infections by more than 70 percent while quadrupling the daily number of vaccinations.
“President Biden has made it possible for Americans whose lives were upended by the pandemic at last to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Morial said.
The letter established a set of fundamental principles on racial justice and equity to guide Biden and Harris in the first 100 days and beyond. Morial listed some of the administration’s accomplishments that align with those principles
- Assembling an Administration that reflects the diversity of America.
- Nominated and fought for confirmation of the most racially-diverse Cabinet in history.
- Fundamentally transforming the criminal justice system.
- Restored the meaningful use of federal pattern or practice investigations and lifted restrictions on the use of consent decrees to hold police departments accountable for abuse.
- Took steps to decrease mass incarceration by declining to renew federal contracts with private prisons.
- Protecting and defending voting rights.
- Put the entire federal government to work in promoting and expanding access to voter registration and participation.
- Achieving economic parity for African Americans.
- Affirmatively advancing equity, civil rights, racial justice, and equal opportunity in agency decision-making, policies, and programs.
- Combatting our nation’s long history of housing and lending discrimination against communities of color.
- Setting a national standard by raising the minimum wage for employees of federal contractors to $15 per hour.
- Investing in programs that support the survival of minority small businesses through the pandemic and extending the employee retention credit so they can rehire and retain workers.
- Keeping American remain in their homes through homeowner counseling, rental assistance for those impacted by COVID-19, assistance with utility bills and extension of the eviction moratorium and mortgage forbearance program.
- Providing $1400 in stimulus payments to Americans earning under $75K.
- Advancing equity in educational opportunities for all American children.
- Unprecedented investment in Title I schools and higher education so students can recover from the learning loss experienced during the pandemic.
- Setting clear standards for equipping schools to open their doors safely to returning students.
- Investing in free broadband and devices to expand students’ access to digital learning in their homes.
- Promoting a healthier nation by prioritizing access to health care, COVID-19 testing, treatments, and cures for COVID-19 in communities of color
- Vaccinated more than 200 million Americans, more than doubling the initial goal, including in underserved communities.
- Increased access to health insurance under the Affordable Care Act to 800,000 during a special sign up period.
- Lowered health premiums for 9 million Americans who purchase health care on ACA exchanges.
“As productive as the first 100 days have been, a tremendous amount of work remains to be done,” Morial said. “President Biden and Vice President Harris must make good on their promise to invest in America, to build a middle-class, and to restore faith in our democracy. The American people need tangible results.”
Among the most pressing items remaining on the administration’s to-do list are:
- Passage of robust infrastructure proposals, the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan, which includes long overdue investments in physical and human infrastructure, creating family-sustaining, middle-class jobs and securing the nation’s recovery from the pandemic.
- Police reform, beginning with enactment of a meaningful George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.
- Protection of voting rights, beginning with enactment of the For the People Act and restoration of the full Voting Rights Act.
- Closing the gender pay gap beginning with enactment of the Paycheck Fairness Act.
- A $15 per hour minimum wage for all workers and elimination of the discriminatory tipped minimum wage.
The National Urban League’s full progress report on the Biden-Harris administration’s first 100 days can be found here: https://bit.ly/3aJQ8Wr
The National Urban League is a historic civil rights organization dedicated to economic empowerment in order to elevate the standard of living in historically underserved urban communities. The National Urban League spearheads the efforts of its 90 local affiliates through the development of programs, public policy research and advocacy, providing direct services that impact and improve the lives of more than 2 million people annually nationwide. Visit www.nul.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram: @NatUrbanLeague.