Thanks, Elizabeth, for that introduction. And thanks, Austin, and Tony, in addition to the groups at New America and the Washington Heart for Equitable Progress, in your partnership all through this effort. Your thought management on new financial paradigms that advance particular person and household well-being is essential to our shared targets.
I additionally wish to thanks for the analysis and advocacy you do to help broad-based financial development. It aligns with our work on the Commerce Division, the place we’re laser-focused on bettering America’s competitiveness so that every one our staff and corporations can succeed within the world economic system.
The pandemic and ensuing challenges have exacerbated inequality and elevated the price of dwelling. This rising inequality informs the choices we’re making every day on the Commerce Division, and analysis supplied by organizations like New America and the Washington Heart for Equitable Progress is essential for our decision-making.
In accordance with the Federal Reserve’s 2019 Survey of Shopper Funds, the everyday White household has eight instances the wealth of the everyday Black household.
The hole in enterprise possession between Black and Latino households, relative to White households, accounted for 25 % of the general racial wealth hole between these teams.
Closing the chance hole between minority-owned and non-minority-owned companies may add almost $6 trillion to the economic system. That’s cash and human capital that might enhance our competitiveness for many years to return.
Since day one, the Biden-Harris Administration has acknowledged that the rules of range, inclusion, and accessibility are important to fulfilling our targets of making a extra equitable economic system.
Because of President Biden’s management, Congress has handed momentous new payments which might be making once-in-a-generation investments to rebuild our infrastructure, help our workforce, supercharge innovation, fight the local weather disaster, and shore up our provide chains.
Utilizing almost $50 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Legislation, the Commerce Division is working to deliver inexpensive, high-speed web to each American. That features almost $3 billion in funding to advertise digital inclusion and fairness for communities which have been traditionally unserved or underserved.
The identical legislation completely licensed the Commerce Division’s Minority Enterprise Growth Company, or MBDA—the one federal company created particularly to foster the institution and development of minority-owned companies in America.
We’re additionally making new investments in American innovation. Because of the CHIPS and Science Act, the Commerce Division will make investments $50 billion from the legislation to supercharge our home semiconductor trade.
By means of our investments in broadband and chips, we’re going to create lots of of 1000’s of good-paying jobs and spend money on our workforce to unlock the total potential of our nation and people–including ladies, communities of coloration, in addition to our rural and tribal communities. It’s not only a matter of equity – it’s important to the success of our packages.
However we’re not making these investments in a vacuum. We’re counting on proof, analysis, and information to make sure that we’re bringing the absolute best return on our investments.
Earlier this yr, the Division of Commerce launched its first-ever Studying Agenda as a companion to our division’s five-year Strategic Plan. Required by legislation, the Studying Agenda is supposed to deliver the absolute best data and evaluation to our decision-making.
Our bureaus are additionally utilizing analysis and proof to tell their work.
For instance, the Financial Growth Administration and the Census have established a partnership to gather information on EDA’s Good Jobs Problem – one in every of our American Rescue Plan packages. This collaboration will leverage Census’s information and experience to assist measure and consider the success of every Good Jobs Problem grantee, with a give attention to outcomes for contributors and staff going by means of coaching packages.
Likewise, MBDA collects, analyzes, and makes use of information regarding the wants of minority enterprise enterprises to tell its program design and implementation and to share its findings with the general public. For instance, MBDA not too long ago revealed a report associated to the percentages of small minority companies profitable federal contracts.
On the U.S. Patent and Trademark Workplace, the Council for Inclusive Innovation helps to develop a complete nationwide technique to extend participation in our innovation ecosystem, significantly for ladies and different underrepresented teams in innovation.
The Bureau of Financial Evaluation offers a whole suite of family earnings inequality metrics, together with distributions of disposable private earnings, which assist us measure family financial well-being. BEA’s subsequent launch – coming in December – will embody improved methodology and a brand new set of metrics for an internationally-comparable measure, Adjusted Disposable Revenue, as specified by the OECD.
This work additionally wouldn’t be attainable with out the assistance and help of researchers such as you.
We labored with New America and the Washington Heart to undertake the Properly-Being Indicators Dash. By means of this initiative, we’re figuring out new indicators of well-being, creating digital instruments to trace well-being indicators, and elevating well-being as a cross-cutting coverage precedence.
As a part of this effort, the Census Bureau’s Alternative Challenge labored with the Washington Heart, New America, and neighborhood companions throughout the nation to develop community-informed national-level indicators of well-being. These indicators transcend conventional financial indicators and higher seize households’ and communities’ general sense of financial stability, alternative, well being, dignity, and security.
Our hope is that these new indicators will higher seize dimensions of well-being past conventional financial indicators, informing a extra equitable and holistic method to federal and native policymaking.
Our objective is to assist construct a set of digital instruments that incorporate new well-being indicators, which could be accessed and utilized by policymakers and practitioners. Lastly, we’re going to elevate the idea of well-being as a cross-cutting coverage precedence, each throughout the present Administration and for future administrations.
I’m desirous to study from the work that so lots of you’re finishing up to advance information for fairness, and the way these efforts can relate and collaborate. Thanks to the specialists who’ve joined us at the moment to share your insights and suggestions on how the Administration can deliver information instruments inspecting well-being and fairness to scale.
I’m additionally proud to announce that there’s a new Group of Observe on the Commerce Division to help the usage of federal information for the advance of outcomes for underserved communities – the Fairness Measures Sub-Group of the DOC Fairness Motion Council.
This Group of Observe helps equitable information champions throughout our 12 bureaus who’re engaged on points like closing the digital divide, fostering the expansion of excellent jobs, and strengthening neighborhood resilience to local weather change.
It is a year-long endeavor that may culminate within the creation of a shared data base for scaling the usage of information that informs decision-making for the higher well-being of our communities.
If we’re going to make significant progress in addressing inequality in our financial system, we’d like your assist. Have interaction with our division, take part in our occasions, reply to requests for data, and attain out if in case you have the experience to share.
Collectively, we are able to create an equitable economic system for all People.
So, thanks once more to New America for bringing us collectively at the moment.