WH Website Highlights Infrastructure 06/06 06:12

WH Website Highlights Infrastructure   06/06 06:12

   

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House on Tuesday is launching a website to map 
and track tens of thousands of infrastructure projects and private 
manufacturing investments, an effort by the administration to show the positive 
impact of its policies on the U.S. economy to a skeptical public.

   The site, Invest.gov, documents roughly 32,000 infrastructure projects and 
more than $470 billion worth of investments in the production of electric 
vehicles, batteries, computer chips, biotech, clean energy and other sectors. 
President Joe Biden is seeking reelection in 2024 by trying to show how his 
policies are reshaping the U.S. economy to address climate change and compete 
with rivals such as China.

   Natalie Quillian, deputy White House chief of staff, said the site shows 
that Biden's agenda is "underway and working."

   "We want people to be able to see what's happening in their communities," 
Quillian said.

   U.S. adults have generally given Biden poor reviews on his economic 
leadership. Just 33% approve of how the president has handled the economy, 
according to a May survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public 
Affairs Research. High inflation coming out of the pandemic has eroded 
confidence in Biden's economic stewardship, overshadowing the 3.7% unemployment 
rate and more than 13 million jobs added so far during his presidency.

   The rollout of the site comes shortly before the administration will engage 
in additional public outreach with a second round of its "Investing in America" 
tour. It plans to send out Cabinet secretaries and other officials around the 
country as part of the two-week July 4 congressional recess. Biden and other 
top administration officials previously visited parts of the U.S. in March and 
April in hopes of putting more focus on their policies.

   The president plans to bring up the site during Tuesday's Cabinet meeting. 
It's a key piece of a larger effort to keep public attention on a string of 
legislative wins during Biden's first two years, when Democrats controlled both 
the House and Senate. Following $1.9 trillion in pandemic relief, Biden signed 
a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill into law. He also secured more 
than $250 billion to invest in computer chip production and scientific research 
and created new tax incentives for renewable energy sources that are worth 
hundreds of billions of dollars.

   Users on the site can look at a national map or scroll through projects by 
state. The site documents private investments of more than $100 million that 
the administration said its policies helped to spur. It also provides 
additional economic data and details at the state level, including on how 
administration policies have increased access to health care coverage and 
lowered prescription drug prices.