Former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign on Monday rolled out its plan to empower black Americans, focusing on six major policy areas.
Biden plans to advance the “economic mobility” of the African American community, as well as put an end to the racial wealth and income gaps in the U.S. The plan calls for expanding African Americans’ access to credit and capital, as well as improving and expanding a number of Small Business Administration programs.
The plan will also aim to increase access to high-quality education by ending the funding gap between majority white and majority nonwhite school districts by tripling Title I funding.
Under the plan, the Obama administration’s policies to diversify schools would also be reinstated.
Additionally, the former vice president’s campaign announced that the presumptive 2020 nominee would invest over $70 billion in historically black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions.
Biden’s plan will also aim to eliminate disparities in health due to race. The campaign pointed specifically to the coronavirus pandemic, saying it has exposed serious racial inequalities in the U.S. health care system. The plan would establish a public health insurance option, increase subsidies for the Affordable Care Act and expand federal investments in Medicaid.
Under the same plan, no American will have to pay for coronavirus-related testing or treatment or any eventual vaccine.
Criminal justice reform is also addressed in the plan, which includes calling for sentence reform, a reduction in prison populations and expanding the Justice Department’s power to address misconduct by police and in prosecutors’ offices. The plan also touts the establishment of a $20 billion grant program to support criminal justice reform at the state and local levels.
The plan also addressed climate issues through reinstating Obama-era policies aimed at coming up with solutions for environmental injustices, as well as aiming to decrease pollution, ensure safe drinking water and work to aid communities that have been negatively impacted by climate change.
Biden pledged to appoint diverse Cabinet members, as well as Supreme Court and federal judges, and vowed as president to combat escalating violence against transgender women of color.
African American voters are a reliable bloc for Democrats, and Biden has polled well with black voters throughout the 2020 Democratic primary. The voting group’s support bolstered him to victory in a number of key states, including South Carolina, his first win in the nominating contest.
Seventy-three percent of black voters said they had a favorable view of Biden, according to a poll released last month by the left-leaning progressive group Black PAC.