New Measures to Promote Equitable Community Development Announced by the Biden-Harris Administration: A Fact Sheet

Biden Administration Announces New Steps to Advance Urban Equitable Development

The Biden-Harris Administration continues to push forward its Investing in America agenda, aimed at growing the economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down. The administration has been making historic investments in cities and towns across the country through initiatives like the American Rescue Plan, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), CHIPS and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

Today, the administration is announcing new steps to ensure underserved communities can build wealth and advance community-driven priorities. The Interagency Community Investment Committee (ICIC)—a coalition of federal agencies that support economic growth in historically underserved communities—is announcing a slate of new actions that will strengthen how federal community investment programs serve communities across the country that have historically lacked access to resources and capital including communities of color, low-income communities, rural areas, and Tribal communities.

New Policy Memorandum to Federal Agencies

The Biden-Harris administration is publicly releasing a new policy memorandum to all federal agencies that outlines actions federal agencies can take to advance equitable development in American cities and urban communities. The policy memorandum is pursuant to a key provision in President Biden’s Executive Order on Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through The Federal Government (Executive Order 14091). The memorandum outlines principles to guide agencies on actions agencies can take to advance urban equitable development.

The memorandum can also be used by the private sector, non-profits and philanthropy, and state and local governments to guide their investments and policies. The principles include expanding access to resources for underserved communities, building community wealth, investing in a community’s strengths, empowering community voice and vision, responding to multiple areas of community need, and measuring and expanding upon what works.

ICIC Agencies Take New Actions

The ICIC agencies are taking the following actions to strengthen how federal community investment programs serve historically underserved communities:

1. Adopt a ‘no wrong door’ policy to ensure that small businesses and entrepreneurs get the assistance and information most relevant to them.

2. Support community finance market development through access to secondary markets.

3. Better connect rural communities to capital for growing small businesses, developing affordable housing, and workforce training.

4. Identify opportunities to improve the alignment of federal investments to maximize community impact, including through expanding access to capital and affordable housing.

5. Launch a pilot to analyze how federal community and economic development investments flow into, and interact in, urban neighborhoods and rural communities.

The ICIC members include the Department of Agriculture (USDA), Department of Commerce (Commerce), Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Department of the Treasury (Treasury), Department of Transportation (DOT), and the Small Business Administration (SBA).

Vice President Harris said, “Today’s announcement builds on these efforts and will help make sure that our Administration’s historic investments in infrastructure, clean energy, and manufacturing reach all communities as we build a future where all Americans — no matter zip code— can thrive.”

The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to creating economic opportunity and advancing equity across the Federal Government. The new steps announced today are a testament to that commitment.

Original Story at www.whitehouse.gov – 2023-06-27 21:17:30