President Biden plans to swap out old federal government vehicles with newer, cleaner models as part of his administration’s push to boost manufacturers and workers in the United States.
“The federal government also owns an enormous fleet of vehicles, which we’re going to replace with clean electric vehicles made right here in America by American workers,” he said Monday at the White House.
He went on to say that they would be “net-zero emissions” models, predicting that the program would create “a million autoworker jobs in clean energy.”
The new president, however, did not put a price tag on his proposal.
Biden on Monday fulfilled part of an economic campaign promise to direct his administration to spend more of the roughly $600 billion doled out each year for federal goods and services contracts on U.S. products and employees. This will be achieved, he argues, by tightening the definition of a U.S. good or service and providing more oversight of the process. He made this request on Monday via executive order.
“If an agency wants to issue a waiver to say, ‘We’re not going to buy an American product as part of this project, we’re going to buy a foreign product,’ they have to come to the White House and explain it to us,” he said.
Some of Biden’s proposals, such as the vehicle change-over, will require cooperation from lawmakers on Capitol Hill. His “Build Back Better Plan” is due to be rolled out during his February address to a joint session to Congress.
But first, however, Biden hopes to pass his $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan.” Negotiations over the third coronavirus stimulus package face Republican opposition over its price tag.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki earlier in the day said that all sides need to strike a deal and pass the legislation before a March deadline for the expiration of enhanced unemployment benefits.
