Biden signs ‘common sense’ order prioritizing federal grants for projects with higher worker wages

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday signed an executive order for federal grants that will prioritize projects with labor agreements, wage standards, and benefits such as access to child care and apprenticeship programs.

Biden said the ideas in his order “are common sense.”

“Economists have long believed that these good job standards produce more opportunities, better outcomes for workers and more predictable outcomes for businesses as well,” he said from an Ann Arbor, Michigan union training center where he made the announcement. “A good union job is building a future worthy of your dreams.”

The Biden administration is trying to make the case that economic growth should flow out of better conditions for workers. His administration has stressed the vital role that organized labor will likely play for Democrats in November’s election. In her matchup against Republican Donald Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris is depending on backing from the AFL-CIO and other unions to help turn out voters in key states.

Biden has prided himself on his support of labor unions, joining striking Michigan union workers on the picket line last year. On Friday, he came on stage to chants of “Thank you, Joe!”

Trump has tried to make inroads with organized labor as well by having Teamsters President Sean O’Brien speak at the Republican National Convention. The Teamsters have yet to formally endorse any candidate, though Harris is expected to meet with them.

Biden said that under his administration “we buy American. And we’re making sure federal projects are made in America projects.”

Some in the construction industry criticized the order for possibly increasing construction costs and excluding non-unionized workers from projects.

“These policies steer taxpayer-funded infrastructure contracts to unionized businesses and create jobs exclusively for union members at the expense of everyone else and the rule of law,” said Ben Brubeck, an executive with Associated Builders and Contractors, a construction industry trade group.

The order will establish a task force to coordinate policy development with the goal of ensuring more benefits for workers. The administration’s funding for infrastructure, computer chip manufacturing and the development of renewable energy sources has led to a wave of projects.

By the administration’s count, its incentives have prompted $900 billion worth of private-sector investments in renewable energy and manufacturing. Those commitments have yet to resonate much with voters who are more focused on the lingering damage caused by inflation spiking in 2022, but many projects will take several years to come to fruition.

Though he wasn’t in Michigan for a campaign event, Biden spoke on his predecessor, saying that Trump would much rather “cross a picket line than walk one.”

“My predecessor believed America is a failing nation,” Biden said, mentioning an oft-repeated complaint by the president about a 2020 report that Trump had referred to American war dead at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France in 2018 as “losers” and “suckers.”

Trump has denied the report.

“I’m glad I wasn’t there,” Biden said. “I think I would have done something. I think you would have, too.”

Biden added: “He’s the sucker. He’s the loser.”

Biden’s late son Beau died from cancer in 2015. The president has blamed burn pits for the brain cancer. Burn pits are where chemicals, tires, plastics, medical equipment and human waste were disposed of on military bases and were used in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I’m sorry to get emotional like that. But I miss him,” Biden said before turning his focus back to to union workers, calling them heroes.

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Boak reported from Pittsburgh.