Remarks by National Economic Advisor Lael Brainard on Bolstering Placed-Based Economic Development
The Roosevelt Institute
As Prepared for Delivery
Thank you to the Roosevelt Institute and particularly Felicia Wong for hosting this important discussion on how we can work together to lift up communities across the country.
The Biden-Harris Administration’s placed-based investment strategy, alongside our efforts to invest in workforce development, are catalyzing economic opportunity in communities across the country that had been left behind.
Our placed-based approach is intentional, and it marks a sharp break from the trickle-down policies that cut taxes for those at the top and pulled back on public investment. Towns lost anchor employers while businesses chased low taxes, low wages, and non-union labor, pushing out good manufacturing jobs and lowering tax revenue that was needed for local investment. These trends were exacerbated by artificially cheap imports from China that wiped out thousands of manufacturing jobs in manufacturing communities. Too many of these communities saw a downward spiral of disinvestment. And the previous Administration doubled down on the same failed approach by cutting taxes and public investment and promising a resurgence of manufacturing and infrastructure that never materialized. Instead, these factory towns and other communities around the country fell further behind.
Investing in Communities
The Biden-Harris Administration took a different approach by prioritizing place-based economic development to bring back investments in communities that had been left behind and give them the tools and support to move from setback to comeback.
This approach starts with correcting for decades of disinvestment in infrastructure. By investing in high-speed internet and transportation networks, the Administration is reconnecting neighborhoods to opportunity, revitalizing small businesses, and rebuilding communities’ foundations to unlock new private investment.
This place based strategy is also focused on increasing the capacity of distressed communities. For example, the Administration has launched the Rural Partners Network sending federal staff across the country to help rural communities access a variety of federal resources, and special tax incentives are supporting the Energy Communities that have powered our nation for centuries.
Placed-based economic development means investing in innovation engines that will sustain economic development for years to come in every region of the country. In previous decades, the majority of innovation investment was concentrated in just a few major metros. The Department of Commerce’s Tech Hubs and the National Science Foundation’s Regional Innovation Engines are seeding innovation across the country in a range of sectors where economic opportunity is immense – from clean energy to semiconductors and biotechnology.
Because of this Administration’s approach, communities are shaping development strategies from the bottom-up; effectively putting communities back in the driver seat after being left out for too long.
And when faced with unfair practices from abroad, this Administration is taking necessary actions on behalf of American workers, businesses, and factory towns. China is flooding the market with artificially underpriced exports in areas like vehicles and solar cells, and they’re breaking the rules when it comes to technology transfer, intellectual property, and innovation. That’s why the President has increased tariffs on imports from China in a targeted set of strategic sectors. A 100% tariff on Chinese electrified vehicles, for instance, is enabling auto communities to continue powering our car industry.
Investments in the Workforce
Investing in communities also means investing in people and strong workforce programs. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is putting hundreds of thousands of Americans to work rebuilding our highways and bridges. And more jobs are on the way with nearly $900 billion in announced private sector investments in clean energy and advanced manufacturing across. Factory construction is at its highest level on record– more than double the previous Administration. We’ve heard from unions that they have never seen so much demand for their training programs.
We are working to ensure that communities are prepared for the manufacturing renaissance that is underway. And that these new investments create high-quality, good-paying jobs and pathways to careers in these communities.
That’s why the Administration has established nine Workforce Hubs in areas where clean energy, infrastructure, and semiconductor investments are creating new job opportunities. These Workforce Hubs are bringing state, local, and regional partners together to coordinate and amplify workforce training efforts.
For example, in Michigan, a coalition of government, unions, automakers, nonprofits, and community colleges are preparing workers and businesses who have led the iconic auto industry to lead the way on electric vehicles. This includes aligning on skill needs across the EV supply chain and expanding access to a new curriculum for battery manufacturing.
In the state of New York, companies have announced billions of investments in chip manufacturing catalyzed by the CHIPS and Science Act. The Administration’s Workforce Hub in Syracuse is now focused on meeting the training needs of this emerging industry, starting with an innovative partnership between Micron, AFT, and local high schools.
Supporting Communities
When we meet with the Americans that are opening small businesses in record numbers on Main Streets around the country, we often hear that it is not only the large investments that are helping unlock opportunity but also the child supports and the health insurance tax credits that enable parents to rejoin the workforce and entrepreneurs to take the leap of faith to start businesses.
These place-based investments are more effective when the tax system rewards work and promotes economic opportunity. That means enabling many more Americans to participate in the workforce by restoring the expanded Earned Income Tax Credit and the expanded Child Tax Credit and supporting access to childcare. It also means extending the Affordable Care Act Premium Tax Credit expansions that are lifting health insurance coverage rates to record highs and narrowing geographic disparities.
Republicans in Congress and the previous administration instead prioritize tax cuts at the top and deep cuts to crucial programs that advance opportunity in communities that had been left behind.
Place-Based Growth is Working
According to a recent report by the Economic Innovation Group which looked at 1,000 counties that were hit hard by economic shocks over the past two decades, “left-behind counties…experienced their strongest three-year period of job creation and business growth since the turn of the 21st century.” Since President Biden took office, jobs in those previously “left-behind” counties grew more than four times faster per year than under the previous Administration.
This Administration is proud to be working with communities all over the country who are turning setbacks into comebacks. I am dialing in today from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – home to a once-booming steel industry that began to decline in the 1980s, exacerbated by Chinese dumping of steel into the global market. Plants shuttered and job opportunities declined.
But the President and Vice President see opportunity in a city like Pittsburgh investing millions of dollars to support businesses and jobs in grid and electric vehicle manufacturing and advanced robotics. This spring, Pittsburgh’s unemployment rate hit a record low of 3.2%, and Pittsburgh has added more than 80,000 local jobs under the Biden-Harris Administration, recovering all those lost during the prior administration.
This comeback story is not just happening here in Pittsburgh – it is happening in cities and towns across the country from Milwaukee to Scranton to Dayton.
Conclusion
Last fall, I spent time in western Kentucky, part of the Illinois Basin—a region where Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky meet. Across state borders, what unites this region is a shared history of powering the industrial revolution and economic growth, a shared reality of declining demand for coal, and a shared opportunity to create a stronger and more resilient future.
At the start of this Administration, President Biden launched an all-of-government effort dedicated to energy communities like this one—an effort that put federal staff on the ground to understand the communities’ needs and strengths first, and then to identify the resources across the federal government and private sector to make the region’s vision—from infrastructure to entrepreneurship—become a reality.
During my trip to the Illinois Basin, I spoke to local leaders and workers who were coming together to re-envision the region’s economic future. The community is in the driver’s seat, and this Administration is proud to be helping the community get to where they want to go.
Since my visit, Webster and Union counties received $800,000 in federal support to develop a Regional Training Center. In collaboration with Madisonville Community College, the center will train students as utility linemen and diesel mechanics and help them obtain a Commercial Driver’s License. The administrative offices at the former Dotiki Mine will house the training center. And former mine land will be used to train new skills for new jobs.
It’s a small investment with outsized outcomes across a region. It’s a community turning setback into comeback—one of many now underway across the country.
