Global Courant
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is launching a website Tuesday 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 .
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The site, Invest.gov, documents about 32,000 infrastructure projects and more than $470 billion in investments in the production of electric vehicles, batteries, computer chips, biotechnology, clean energy and other sectors. President Joe Biden is seeking re-election in 2024 by showing how his policies are reshaping the US economy to address climate change and compete with rivals like China.
White House deputy chief of staff Natalie Quillian said the site shows Biden’s agenda is “on and working.”
“We want people to be able to see what’s happening in their communities,” Quillian said.
American adults have generally given Biden bad reviews of his economic leadership. Only 33% approve of the president’s handling of the economy, according to a May survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The high inflation caused by the pandemic has eroded confidence in Biden’s economic stewardship, eclipsing the 3.7% unemployment rate and more than 13 million jobs added so far during his presidency.
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The site rollout comes shortly before the administration will provide additional audience reach with a second round of its “Investing in America” tour. It plans to send cabinet secretaries and other officials around the country as part of the two-week July 4 congressional recess. Biden and other top officials previously visited parts of the US in March and April in the hopes of drawing more attention to their policies.
The president plans to bring up the site at Tuesday’s cabinet meeting. It is an important part of a larger effort to keep the public’s attention on a string of legislative victories during Biden’s first two years, when Democrats controlled both the House and Senate. After $1.9 trillion in pandemic relief, Biden signed a bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure bill. He also raised more than $250 billion to invest in computer chip manufacturing and scientific research, and created new tax breaks for renewables worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
Users on the site can view a national map or browse projects by state. The site documents private investment of more than $100 million that the government says was incentivized by its policies. It also provides additional state-level economic data and details, including how government policies have increased access to health care coverage and reduced prescription drug prices.
