News Digest

Biden-Harris Administration Announces $277 Million In Education Innovation and Research Grants to Help Address Academic Recovery | U.S. Department of Education     As part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s ongoing work to address academic recovery, including supporting student success in math and reading, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) today announced $277 million in new grant awards to advance educational equity and innovation through the Education Innovation and Research (EIR) grant program. State-administered test scores from the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school years show some early signs of rebounding from the major disruptions of the pandemic, but not enough are back to pre-pandemic levels—and the recovery has been uneven—with the students most impacted still furthest behind. We have a long way to go, especially for communities and students who have been exposed to longstanding inequality. These new grant awards can help us get there with $90.3 million fo...

  Biden-Harris Administration Announces $93 Million in Grants to Support Research and Development at HBCUs, TCCUs and MSIs, and Postsecondary Completion for Underserved Students | U.S. Department of Education   The U.S. Department of Education (Department) announced today $93 million in grant awards to 20 colleges and universities to support research and development at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), and Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs), and to improve completion rates for underserved students.     The grants are being provided under the Research and Development Infrastructure (RDI) program and the Postsecondary Student Success Grant (PSSG) program. The RDI program provides funds to HBCUs, TCCUs, and MSIs to transform their research infrastructure, including strengthening research productivity, faculty expertise, physical infrastructure, and partnerships leading to increases in external ...

FACT SHEET: Biden- ⁠ Harris Administration Leverages Historic U.S. Climate Leadership at Home and Abroad to Urge Countries to Accelerate Global Climate Action at U.N. Climate Conference   (COP28)   President Biden’s ambitious domestic climate action offers countries gathering at COP28 a proven model for how bold action to tackle the climate crisis and end dependence on fossil fuels can unlock a new era of clean and inclusive economic growth, investment, good-paying jobs, energy security, and savings for families and business. Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) – the largest investment in clean energy and climate action ever – the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), and other executive actions, the United States is in a strong position to achieve our 1.5°C-aligned emissions target under the Paris Agreement. Implementation of these two laws alone is expected to cut U.S. emissions as much as 41% below 2005 levels in 2030 – roughly 80% of the way towards achieving the 50...

  Biden-Harris Administration Announces Actions to Strengthen Clean Energy Supply Chains and Accelerate Manufacturing in Energy and Industrial Communities | Department of Energy   As part of the inaugural meeting of the White House Council on Supply Chain Resilience, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced $275 million for seven projects to strengthen clean energy supply chains and accelerate domestic clean energy manufacturing in seven states across the nation. Each project positions the U.S. to enhance its global competitiveness and national security by building domestic supply chains for existing and emerging technologies, built with American labor and materials. Thanks to the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, these projects will leverage over $600 million in private sector investments into small- and medium-sized manufacturers and create nearly 1,500 high-quality, good-paying jobs in cutting edge technologies. The portfolio of projects will address cri...

  DOE Announces Over $13 Million to Connect More Puerto Rico Communities with Residential Solar and Battery Storage The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced a slate of community groups and nonprofits selected to receive up to $13.85 million to help vulnerable households in Puerto Rico obtain residential solar and battery storage installations and provide residents with education and consumer protection services. Funded through the Puerto Rico Energy Resilience Fund (PR-ERF), today’s announcement will support DOE’s efforts to deploy solar and battery storage systems on up to 40,000 single-family households in Puerto Rico. The PR-ERF will ultimately improve vulnerable households’ energy resilience, achieve President Biden’s goal of lowering energy costs for all Americans, as well as help Puerto Rico achieve its goal of 100% renewable energy by 2050.    

U.S. Life Expectancy Creeps Up as Covid Deaths Fall - The New York Times (nytimes.com)     Life expectancy has climbed considerably over the past century, from 47 years in 1900 to nearly 79 years just before the pandemic. (The long-term improvement has been driven in part by significant declines in infant mortality.)     But gains in life expectancy in the United States had slowed in recent decades compared with that of other wealthy nations, and life expectancy effectively flattened in the 2010s, a trend that experts have attributed in part to gaps in health care access, areas of deep poverty, risky behaviors like gun ownership and unhealthy physical and social conditions in the United States.  

U.S. Rate of Suicide by Firearm Reaches Record Level - The New York Times (nytimes.com)     The rate of suicides involving guns in the United States has reached the highest level since officials began tracking it more than 50 years ago, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.     The rate increased by more than 10 percent in 2022 compared with 2019, and in some racial and ethnic groups, the rise was significantly steeper, especially among Native Americans. Overall, about 27,000 of 50,000 suicides were carried out by gun in 2022.  

  Biden-Harris Administration Announces New Freight Office and Major Progress Strengthening Supply Chains | US Department of Transportation   FLOW provides greater transparency across supply chain networks, helping make our supply chain more resilient and adaptable in the face of major anomalies and changing circumstances. Through FLOW, DOT is serving as an independent steward of secure supply chain data across a largely privately-operated enterprise that spans shipping lines, ports, terminal operators, truckers, railroads, warehouses, and beneficial cargo owners. By providing a secure, shared view of the national logistics system without compromising sensitive proprietary information, including both supply and demand assets, participants can make more informed decisions regarding their capacity and supply chain planning. This is coupled with a record investment in our ports and waterways— nearly $17 billion— from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.   

  Biden Administration Announces More Than $300 Million Available to Make Transit Stations Accessible for All | US Department of Transportation   T he U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA) today announced the availability of $343 million in Fiscal Year 2024 federal funding to make it easier for people with disabilities and mobility needs to access some of the nation's oldest and busiest rail transit systems through essential upgrades, such as elevators. Hundreds of transit stations built before 1990, known as legacy stations, are not accessible to people with disabilities.  

U.S. Small Business Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture Strengthen Partnership to Create Jobs and Economic Growth in Rural America   Today, Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman, head of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and the voice in President Biden’s Cabinet for America’s 33 million small businesses, announced today that the SBA is strengthening its longstanding partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to create jobs and expand access to new and better market opportunities for people in rural America.     “Rural small businesses strengthen local economies – creating jobs and serving communities,” said Administrator Guzman. “The SBA’s partnership with USDA will build upon the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to investing in underserved rural Americans and providing the needed resources to help them start and grow their businesses to advance our economy and global competitiveness.     Through a memorandum of u...