Most of these Boosting Biden posts deal with ways that Joe Biden has helped all Americans. But Biden has also done a lot of targeted things that only local folks know about. Honestly, too often even local folks don’t know!
So we are going to celebrate some of those things here. Feel free to Kosmail me if you have ideas from your area.
Now, of course, Wisconsin is an amazing state that didn’t need “saving.” But as we are rolling with the superhero theme, please allow me some poetic license.
What has Joe Biden done for Wisconsin? Well, some amazing things are happening there due to Biden’s Infrastructure bill. Here are a few of them:
Thanks to President Biden’s economic plan, about $2.9 billion in federal funding has already been announced for infrastructure projects across Wisconsin. That includes over $2.1 billion for better transportation — roads, bridges, and roadway safety — as well as about $150 million in investments for better access to clean water. And already, infrastructure funding has provided over 300,000 Wisconsin households with more affordable high-speed internet service.
Some project spotlights include:
- The City of Racine received Federal Transit Authority funding to replace diesel buses with battery electric buses, improving air quality and growing the clean energy economy.
- The Port of Green Bay received a Federal Maritime Administration grant to redevelop a former power plant site into a new port terminal, including clearing the existing coal pile site.
- EPA announced $1 billion to clean up and restore the Great Lakes’ most environmentally degraded sites across Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. This funding will secure clean water and a better environment for Americans in the Great Lakes region.
Biden’s policies have led to increases in private investment in Wisconsin.
Thanks to the President’s economic plan, private companies have committed to invest over $4 billion in Wisconsin since 2021. The state’s economy is now a more attractive place for companies around the world to invest and expand, creating good-paying jobs in the critical industries and supply chains of the 21st century.
Just in Wisconsin: Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals has invested in its first fully dedicated drug manufacturing facility, outside of Madison, which will employ 250 new workers. Georgia-Pacific has committed to a major expansion of its Green Bay paper-related production facility, bringing on 100 new employees and hiring over 500 construction workers. And Alliant Energy announced it will build utility-scale battery storage facilities at solar farms across south-central Wisconsin using union workers.
And Biden’s policies have made sure workers are trained for new jobs:
For example, his investments have equipped Wisconsin’s Workforce Innovation Grant program with $128 million, funding nearly 30 organizations across every Wisconsin county to address regional workforce challenges, including through career and skills training, childcare, entrepreneurship, health services, housing, and transportation.
On a more local level, Biden announced several grants under the Reconnecting Communities program in March 2024 that will fund ways to connect neighborhoods in Milwaukee. These investments will help to right long-standing racial wrongs in the city.
Milwaukee will receive $36.6 million for its project to rebuild 2.6 miles of the city’s 6th Street corridor from National Avenue to North Avenue, running through Milwaukee’s historic Bronzeville Neighborhood.
The White House announced two other Wisconsin grants. One is for $2 million to study design alternatives to reconfigure freeway ramps at a Downtown Milwaukee interstate highway interchange, with the goal of reconnecting areas of the neighborhood. The other is for $1 million to study an overpass that would connect Perry Street on Madison’s South Side to businesses south of the Beltline Highway.
The Reconnecting Communities grant program, funded through the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, was conceived to undo some of the historic damage brought on by city freeways starting in the 1950s and urban renewal programs in the 1960s.
“The story of Bronzeville here in Milwaukee is one that we see all across the country,” Biden said early in his 17-minute speech. He recounted how interstate highways that were begun in the 1950s were to provide “a groundbreaking connection” that would remake life, work and travel.
“But instead of connecting communities it divided them — these highways actually tore them apart,” Biden said. It was a story, he observed, repeated in cities across the country, including his home town of Wilmington, Delaware.
Here’s a quick summary of things that have been done for Wisconsin:
Is there still more work to be done? 100%! Lots more work. But Biden has done so much more than many people guessed could be done. He deserves a lot of credit. AND he deserves to be re-elected.
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This is an entry in my ongoing series Boosting Biden.
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These posts are written by Goodnewsroundup (Goodie),
edited by Matilda Briggs, supported by 2thanks and WolverineForTJatAW,
and reinforced by several other notable Kossacks!
As with all good things, it takes a village.