The plans have been in place for more than a year, sparked by an executive order promoting racial justice and equality signed by President Biden on the first day of his term last year. More than 90 companies publish equity plans that were the product of internal ratings by each department, a senior executive told reporters.
The official said the plans include a total of 300 strategies and commitments. Among them, the Department of Labor plans to launch a new initiative to help colored workers overcome barriers to accessing unemployment insurance benefits.
The Environmental Protection Agency will focus from responding to civil rights complaints to initiating preventive civil rights reviews. The Pentagon plans to partner with historic black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to diversify its artificial intelligence workforce.
The Department of Homeland Security also plans to focus on ensuring that trans Americans are treated fairly at airports. And the Department of Justice will improve language access to its programs so that non-English-speaking Americans can more easily report crimes and access the department’s resources. “We are talking about a different approach to government, an approach that puts service to the entire American people at the heart of it,” said the senior government official. The officials stressed that the implementation of the plans will take time. “We really see this as a marathon as well as a sprint,” said a second senior administration official. “This will take a long, steady effort across the board, across the wider stock community to fill these critical gaps.” White House Home Affairs Advisor Susan Rice and Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young are hosting a virtual White House event with Cabinet officials to discuss the plans Thursday morning.
Biden, who is traveling to North Carolina and is scheduled to speak to HBCU, filmed a video message referring to the designs played at the start of Thursday’s virtual event. “Promoting stocks is not a one-year task,” he says in the short video. “It’s a commitment of generations. “These plans are an important step forward, reflecting the work of the Biden-Harris administration to make America’s promise a reality for every American, and I mean every American.” The plans come as the administration faces pressure from supporters to cancel student loan debt and take executive action to reform police to address racial equality.
Biden recently announced plans to extend federal student loan deferrals until the end of August, but the government was reluctant to say whether the president would try to cancel the borrowers’ debt. Some have questioned whether Biden has the legal authority to do so.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson stepped up pressure on Biden to sign a long-awaited executive order following the release of a video of a deadly police shooting at a traffic stop in Grand Rapids, Mich., On Wednesday.
“While we fully understand that an executive order is not a substitute for substantive legislation, we must do everything in our power to protect our community,” Johnson said in a statement Wednesday. Administration officials insist the president intends to sign the executive order, a draft of which was leaked late last year, but say it is still being drafted.
“The president definitely wants to do just that,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters during a briefing Wednesday. “It just takes a while for him to go through a process, but his intention is absolutely to sign an executive order of policing.”
Washington Post columnist ‘scared’ of Elon Musk buying Twitter President of Poland: Russian invasion of Ukraine is ‘terrorism’ Democrats in Congress also failed to pass electoral reform bills – a top priority for civil rights activists – which were unanimously opposed by Republicans.
Biden has made equality a priority, including by creating diverse staff in the White House and across the administration. Earlier this year, she also nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first black woman to serve on the Supreme Court and celebrated her confirmation last week. Updated at 10:34 a.m.