From his first days in office, the President has pursued an agenda to ensure all Americans can lead lives of dignity and extend the reach of America’s promise. Consistent with the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to a whole-of-government effort to advance equity and racial justice, the President’s Budget for fiscal year 2023 makes historic investments to support underserved communities and combat racial disparities across the Nation, including in health, education, and economic opportunity. Importantly, the Budget will make these critical investments while cutting the deficit by more than $1 trillion over the next decade and ensuring that no one earning less than $400,000 a year will pay an additional penny in new taxes.

The Budget also reflects the commitment the President made in his State of the Union Address to working with Congress to advance legislation that cuts costs for families, cuts the deficit, and expands the productive capacity of the economy. The Budget reiterates the policies the President hopes to advance in that legislation including, among other priorities, cutting costs for prescription drugs, reducing health care premiums, and continuing the enhanced Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit. Because discussions with Congress are ongoing, the Budget includes a deficit neutral reserve fund to account for a future agreement on these issues.

In addition, the President’s Budget will:

Confront Longstanding Inequities in the Health Care System

  • Advances Maternal Health and Health Equity. The United States has an unacceptably high mortality rate for Black and American Indian and Alaska Native women. The Budget includes $470 million to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity rates, expand maternal health initiatives in rural communities, implement implicit bias training for healthcare providers, create pregnancy medical home demonstration projects, and address the highest rates of perinatal health disparities, including by supporting the perinatal health workforce. The Budget also extends and increases funding for the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program, which serves approximately 71,000 families at risk for poor maternal and child health outcomes each year, and is proven to reduce disparities in infant mortality. The Budget also strengthens collection and evaluation of health equity data. Recognizing that maternal mental health conditions are the most common complications of pregnancy and childbirth, the Budget continues to support the maternal mental health hotline and screening and treatment for maternal depression and related behavioral health disorders.
  • Supports the Health and Economic Security of People with Disabilities, Seniors, and Individuals Facing Barriers. The Budget provides $14.8 billion, an increase of $1.8 billion above the 2021 enacted level, to support the Social Security Administration’s efforts to improve service delivery at field offices, State disability determination services, teleservice centers, and online. At the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Budget supports 2,000 units of new permanently affordable housing specifically for seniors and people with disabilities, supporting the Administration’s priority to maximize independent living for people with disabilities. In addition, the President supports extending telehealth coverage under Medicare beyond the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency to study its impact on utilization of services and access to care for seniors, people with disabilities, and others who may be at-risk or living in underserved communities.
  • Promotes Health Equity for American Indians and Alaska Natives. To begin redressing long-standing, stark health inequities experienced by American Indians and Alaska Natives, the Budget significantly increases the Indian Health Service’s (IHS) funding over time, and shifts it from discretionary to mandatory funding. For the first year of the proposal, the Budget includes $9.1 billion in mandatory funding, an increase of $2.9 billion above 2021. After that, IHS funding would automatically grow to keep pace with healthcare costs and population growth and gradually close longstanding service and facility shortfalls. Providing IHS stable and predictable funding will improve access to high quality healthcare, rectify historical underfunding of the Indian Health system, eliminate existing facilities backlogs, address health inequities.
  • Combats the Gun Violence Public Health Epidemic. The Budget provides $3.2 billion in discretionary resources at the Department of Justice for state and local grants and $30 billion in man­datory resources to support law enforcement and crime prevention, including $500 million for Community Violence Intervention programs, divided equally between the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). These funds will help reduce homicides and shootings, which disproportionately affect Black and brown Americans, and will address root causes of violence.
  • Expands Mental Healthcare Access.To address the mental health crisis that disproportionately impacts communities of color, the Budget proposes reforms to health coverage. For people with private health insurance, the Budget requires all health plans to cover mental health and substance use disorder benefits and ensures that plans have an adequate network of behavioral health providers. For Medicare, TRICARE, the VA healthcare system, health insurance issuers, group health plans, and the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program, the Budget lowers costs for mental health services for patients. The Budget also expands mental health coverage and advances parity between mental health and substance use disorder benefits and medical and surgical benefits within Medicare, and requires Medicaid behavioral health services be consistent with current and clinically appropriate treatment guidelines. 
  • Expands Access to HIV/AIDS Prevention. The Budget includes $850 million across HHS to aggressively reduce new HIV cases by increasing access to HIV prevention and care programs, and ensuring equitable access to support services. This includes increasing access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (also known as PrEP) among Medicaid beneficiaries, which is expected to improve health and lower Medicaid costs for HIV treatment. The Budget also proposes a new mandatory program to guarantee PrEP at no cost for all uninsured and underinsured individuals, provide essential wrap-around services through States and localities, and establish a network of community providers to reach underserved areas and populations.
  • Supports Survivors of Domestic Violence and Other Forms of Gender Based-Violence. The Budget proposes significant increases to support and protect survivors of gender-based violence, including $519 million for the Family Violence Prevention and Services program to support domestic violence survivors. This amount funds resource centers, including those that support the LGBTQI+ community. The Budget also provides resources for new programs to support transgender survivors, build community-based organizational capacity, combat online harassment and abuse, and address emerging issues in gender-based violence. The Budget would provide additional funding for domestic violence hotlines and cash assistance for survivors of domestic violence, as well as funding to support a demonstration project evaluating services for survivors at the intersection of housing instability, substance use coercion, and child welfare.
  • Expands Access to Healthcare Services to Low-Income Women. The Budget proposes $400 million for the Title X Family Planning program, which provides family planning and other health care to low-income individuals. This increase in Title X funding would improve overall access to vital reproductive and preventive health services and advance gender and health equity.
  • Improves Health Care and Economic Support for Puerto Rico and Other Territories. The President supports eliminating Medicaid funding caps for Puerto Rico and other U.S. Territories while aligning their matching rate with States; granting Territories the option to transition from current block grants to SNAP; and providing parity to Territories in the Supplemental Security Income Program. The Administration will continue to work with Congress to advance these policies.

Redress Systemic Inequities in Housing

  • Increases Affordable Housing Supply. To address the critical shortage of affordable housing in communities throughout the Nation, the Budget proposes $50 billion in mandatory funding and additional Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) to increase housing supply and help to stabilize housing prices over the long term. Specifically, the Budget provides $35 billion in mandatory funding at HUD for state and local housing finance agencies and their partners to provide grants, and other streamlined financing tools, to boost housing supply, as well as grants to advance and reward state and local jurisdictions’ efforts to remove barriers to affordable housing development. It also modifies LIHTC to better incentivize new unit production, and provides $5 billion for the Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund to support financing of new construction and substantial rehabilitation that creates net new units of affordable rental and for sale housing. The Budget also provides $1.9 billion for USDA rural housing loan and grant programs, including additional funding for rural multifamily housing programs that will help address housing insecurity, rent burdens, and the impacts of climate change in rural America.
  • Expands the Housing Choice Voucher Program. The Housing Choice Voucher program currently provides 2.3 million low-income families with rental assistance to obtain housing in the private market. The Budget provides $32.1 billion, to maintain services for all currently assisted families and to expand assistance to an additional 200,000 households, particularly those who are experiencing homelessness or fleeing, or attempting to flee, domestic violence or other forms of gender-based violence.
  • Supports Access to Homeownership for First-Generation Homebuyers. Families of color have on average a fraction of the wealth of white families, driven in part by persistent disparities in homeownership.  The Budget supports access to homeownership for underserved borrowers, including many first-time and minority homebuyers, through Federal Housing Administration and Ginnie Mae credit guarantees. The Budget also provides $115 million for complementary loan and down payment assistance pilot proposals to expand homeownership opportunities for first-generation and/or low-wealth first-time homebuyers.
  • Prevents and Redresses Housing Discrimination. The Budget provides $86 million in grants to support State and local fair housing enforcement organizations and bolster education, outreach, and training on rights and responsibilities under Federal fair housing laws.
  • Invests in Affordable Housing in Tribal Communities. Native Americans are seven times more likely to live in overcrowded conditions and five times more likely to have inadequate plumbing, kitchen, or heating systems than all U.S. households. The Budget helps address housing conditions in Tribal areas by providing $1 billion to fund Tribal efforts to expand affordable housing, improve housing conditions and infrastructure, and increase economic opportunities for low-income families.
  • Advances Efforts to End Homelessness. To prevent and reduce homelessness, the Budget provides $3.6 billion, an increase of $580 million over the 2021 enacted level, for Homeless Assistance Grants to meet renewal needs and expand assistance to nearly 25,000 additional households, including survivors of domestic violence and homeless youth.

Address Entrenched Disparities in Education

  • Doubles the Maximum Pell Grant Award. Nearly 60 percent of Black, almost half of Latino, half of American Indian or Alaska Native, and more than one-third of Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students depend on Pell Grants to help pay for college. To help low- and middle-income students overcome financial barriers to postsecondary education, the Budget proposes to double the maximum Pell Grant by 2029. This begins with a historic $2,175 increase for the 2023-2024 school year, compared to the 2021-2022 school year, thereby expanding access and reaching nearly 6.7 million students.
  • Makes Investments in High-Poverty Schools. To advance the goal of providing a high-quality education to every student, the Budget provides $36.5 billion for Title I, including $20.5 billion in discretionary funding and $16 billion in mandatory funding. Title I helps K-12 schools provide students in low-income communities the learning opportunities and supports they need to succeed. This new support for the program, which serves 25 million students in nearly 90 percent of school districts across the Nation, would be a step toward fulfilling the President’s commitment to addressing long-standing funding disparities between under-resourced schools—which disproportionately serve students of color—and their wealthier counterparts. This Title I increase includes funding for states to voluntarily establish commissions to identify and  create plans to address inequities in their education funding systems and gaps in access to educational opportunity.
  • Makes Historic Investments in College Completion. Just 40 percent of first-time Black students and 54 percent of first-time Latino students at four-year colleges and universities go on to earn their degree, compared to 64 percent of white students. And overall, just 40 percent of community college students, who are disproportionately low-income and people of color, graduate within six years. The Budget would support strategies to improve the retention, transfer, and completion of students by investing in the Federal TRIO Programs, GEAR UP, and new Retention and Completion grants.
  • Prioritizes the Health and Well-Being of Students. Disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic continue to take a toll on the physical and mental health of students, teachers, and school staff. Recognizing the profound effect of physical and mental health on academic achievement, the Budget includes a $1 billion investment to increase the number of school counselors, psychologists, social workers, nurses, and other health professionals in schools; and $468 million for Full-Service Community Schools, which provide a range of wraparound supports to students and their families, including health care, to address the needs of the whole child.  
  • Increases Support for Children with Disabilities. The President is committed to ensuring that children with disabilities receive the services and support they need to thrive in school and graduate ready for college or a career. The Budget provides an additional $3.3 billion over 2021 enacted levels—the largest two-year increase ever—for Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Grants to States, with a total of $16.3 billion to support special education and related services for students in grades Pre-K through 12. The Budget also doubles funding to $932 million for IDEA Part C grants, which support early intervention services for infants and families with disabilities that have a proven record of improving academic and developmental outcomes. The increased funding would support States in implementing critical reforms to expand their enrollment of underserved children, including children of color, children from low-income families, and children living in rural areas. The increase also includes $200 million to expand and streamline enrollment of children at risk of developing disabilities, such as children born with very low-birth weight or who have been exposed to environmental toxins, which would help mitigate the need for more extensive services later in childhood and further expand access to the program for underserved children. The Budget also more than doubles funding to $250 million for IDEA Personnel Preparation grants to support a pipeline of special educators at a time when the majority of States are experiencing a shortage of special educators.
  • Promotes Innovation and Science at HBCUs, TCUs, and MSIs. The Budget invests in institutional capacity at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs), such as Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), and low-resourced institutions, such as community colleges, by providing an increase of $752 million over the 2021 enacted level. This funding includes $450 million in four-year HBCUs, TCUs, and MSIs to expand research and development infrastructure at these institutions. The Budget also provides $260 million for Department of Energy initiatives to build science and technology capacity at these institutions, and $315 million for these colleges through the Department of Agriculture for agriculture research, education, and extension grants.
  • Provides Robust Support for Tribal Community School Infrastructure. The Budget includes a $156 million increase to support reconstruction work at seven Bureau of Indian Education schools. This funding complements Bipartisan Infrastructure Law investments to address climate resilience needs in Tribal communities. The Budget proposes to reclassify Contract Support Costs and Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act Section 105(l) leases as mandatory spending, providing certainty for tribes in meeting ongoing school infrastructure needs through dedicated funding sources.

Expand Job Opportunities and Other Economic Opportunities for Disadvantaged Communities and Rural America

  • Equips Workers with Skills They Need to Obtain High-Quality Jobs. The Budget invests $100 million to help community colleges work with the public workforce development system and employers to design and deliver high-quality workforce programs, which will help those from underrepresented backgrounds find high quality jobs. The Budget also provides $100 million for a new Sectoral Employment through Career Training for Occupational Readiness program, which will support training programs focused on growing industries through strong and diverse partnerships between employers, labor organizations, K-12 and higher education institutions and workforce intermediaries, enabling disadvantaged workers to enter on-ramps to middle class jobs, and creating the skilled workforce the economy needs to thrive. In addition, the Budget provides $100 million for a new DOL energy community revitalization initiative and $35 million for Workforce Opportunity for Rural Communities grants to help Appalachian and Delta communities connected to the energy industry develop local and regional workforce development strategies that promote long-term economic stability.
  • Connects All Americans to High-Speed, Affordable, and Reliable Internet. The President is committed to ensuring that every American has access to broadband. Black, Latino, Native and rural families are less likely to be able to access home broadband internet than white families and those living in urban areas, compounding systemic barriers to opportunity and economic equality. Building on key investments in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Budget provides $600 million for the USDA ReConnect program, which provides grants and loans to deploy broadband to unserved rural areas—especially Tribal areas—and $25 million to help rural telecommunications cooperatives refinance their Rural Utilities Service debt and upgrade their broadband facilities.
  • Empowers and Protects Workers. To ensure workers are treated with dignity and respect in the workplace, the Budget invests $2.2 billion in the Department of Labor (DOL) worker protection agencies. Between 2016 and 2020, these agencies lost approximately 14 percent of their staff, limiting their ability to perform inspections and conduct investigations. The Budget will enable DOL to conduct the enforcement and regulatory work needed to ensure workers’ wages and benefits are protected, address the misclassification of workers as independent contractors, and improve workplace health and safety. The Budget also restores resources to oversee and enforce the equal employment obligations of Federal contractors, including protections against discrimination based on race, gender, disability, gender identity, and sexual orientation.
  • Helps Underrepresented Groups Access Registered Apprenticeships. Registered apprenticeship (RA) is a proven earn-and-learn model that raises participants’ wages and puts them on a reliable path to the middle class. The Budget invests $303 million, a $118 million increase above the 2021 enacted level, to expand RA opportunities in high growth fields, such as information technology, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, and transportation, while increasing access for historically underrepresented groups, including people of color and women. To improve access to RAs for women, the Budget doubles the DOL’s investment in its Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations grants, which provide pre-apprenticeship opportunities to boost women’s participation in RA.
  • Provides Underserved Youth with Training and Employment Pathways. The Budget invests in programs that provide young people with equitable access to high-quality training and career opportunities, including $75 million for a new National Youth Employment Program to create high-quality summer and year-round job opportunities for underserved youth. The Budget also provides $145 million for YouthBuild, $48 million above the 2021 enacted level, to enable more at-risk youth to gain the education and occupational skills they need to obtain good jobs. To further advance equity and inclusion, the Budget also provides $15 million to test new ways to enable low-income youth with disabilities—including youth who are in foster care, involved in the justice system, or are experiencing homelessness—to successfully transition to employment.
  • Expands Opportunities for Minority- and Women-Owned Businesses. The Budget provides a $31 million increase over the 2021 enacted level to support women, people of color, veterans, and other underserved entrepreneurs through the Small Business Administration’s Entrepreneurial Development Programs. This bold commitment ensures entrepreneurs have access to counseling, training, and mentoring services. The Budget also provides $331 million for the Treasury Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund. CDFIs provide historically underserved and often low-income communities access to credit, capital, and financial support to grow businesses, increase affordable housing, and reinforce healthy neighborhood development. The Budget also elevates the stature and increases the capacity of the Minority Business Development Agency by providing the full $110 million authorized in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. This funding will bolster services provided to minority-owned enterprises by expanding the Business Center program, funding Rural Business Centers, opening new regional offices, and supporting innovative initiatives to foster economic resiliency.
  • Supports Economic Development and Invests in Underserved Communities. The Budget provides $3.8 billion for the Community Development Block Grant program to help communities modernize infrastructure, invest in economic development, create parks and other public amenities, and provide social services. The Budget includes a targeted increase of $195 million to spur equitable development and the removal of barriers to revitalization in 100 of the most underserved neighborhoods in the United States.
  • Advances Locally-led Economic Development in Rural Communities. The Budget invests $39 million in the new Rural Partners Network, providing rural communities with dedicated technical assistance to access federal resources and execute on their economic development vision. The Budget also invests in the five regional commissions to continue providing grants to address economic distress in targeted regions of the country through economic development, infrastructure modernization, and workforce training.
  • Supporting Economically Distressed Farmers: USDA is committed to examining barriers faced by all underserved borrowers, especially those in economic distress, beginning farmers, and veterans. The Administration remains committed to working with Congress on legislative changes that will ease the debt burden for economically distressed farm loan borrowers to achieve a robust and competitive agriculture sector.

Make Generational Investments in Climate and Environmental Justice

  • Advances Equity and Environmental Justice. The Budget provides historic support for underserved communities, and advances the President’s Justice40 commitment to ensure 40 percent of the benefits of Federal investments in climate and clean energy reach disadvantaged communities. The Budget bolsters the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) environmental justice efforts by investing over $1.45 billion across dozens of programs to create good-paying jobs, clean up pollution, implement Justice40, advance racial equity, and secure environmental justice for communities that are overburdened and underserved, including rural and Tribal communities. To align with this vision, the Budget creates the position of Environmental Justice National Program Manager at the EPA to help administer the agency’s equity work. The Budget also provides over $670 million for EPA’s enforcement and compliance efforts, including funding to implement an enforcement plan for climate and environmental justice inspections and community outreach. In addition, the Budget provides the Department of Energy (DOE) with $47 million to strengthen the agency’s environmental justice mission, $100 million to launch a new LIHEAP Advantage pilot to retrofit low-income homes with efficient electric appliances and systems, and $31 million for a new Equitable Clean Energy Transition initiative to help disadvantaged communities navigate and benefit from the transition to a clean energy economy. The Budget also provides $1.4 million for DOJ to establish an Office for Environmental Justice to further this important work.
  • Upgrades Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Nationwide. To upgrade the drinking water and wastewater infrastructure of underserved communities have historically been overlooked, the Budget provides roughly $4 billion for EPA water infrastructure programs, an increase of $1 billion over the 2021 enacted level. This includes full funding of grant programs authorized by the Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act of 2021, and an increase of $160 million over 2021 enacted for EPA’s Reducing Lead in Drinking Water Grant. The Budget also includes $717 million in direct appropriation and $1.45 billion in loans for USDA’s Water and Wastewater Grant and Loan Program, including a new $100 million set aside for lead pipe replacement in rural households.
  • Protects Communities from Hazardous Waste and Environmental Damage. Preventing and cleaning up environmental damage that harms communities and poses a risk to their health and safety is a top priority for the Administration. The Budget includes $7.6 billion for the DOE’s Environmental Management program to support the cleanup of community sites used during the Manhattan Project and Cold War for nuclear weapons production, including $40 million for a new initiative to support historically underserved communities. The Budget also provides $1.15 billion for the Superfund program for EPA to continue cleaning up some of the Nation’s most contaminated land and respond to environmental emergencies and natural disasters, and begins to adjust for revenue from the Superfund Tax. The Budget also provides $215 million for EPA’s Brownfields program to enable EPA to provide technical assistance and grants to communities, including disadvantaged communities, so they can safely clean up and reuse contaminated properties. These funds will complement Brownfields funding provided in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. These programs also support presidential priorities such as the Cancer Moonshot Initiative, by addressing contaminants that lead to greater cancer risk.
  • Reduces Lead and Other Home Health Hazards for Vulnerable Families. Hazards such as lead-based paint, mold, and radon are disproportionately found in low-income housing and communities of color. The Budget provides $400 million, an increase of $40 million above the 2021 enacted level, for States, local governments and nonprofits to reduce lead-based paint and other health hazards in the homes of low-income families with young children. The Budget also includes $25 million to address lead-based paint and $60 million to prevent and mitigate other housing-related hazards, such as fire risk and mold, in Public Housing.
  • Tackles Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Pollution. PFAS are a set of man-made chemicals that threaten the health and safety of communities across the Nation, disproportionately impacting historically disadvantaged communities. As part of the President’s commitment to tackling PFAS pollution, the Budget provides approximately $126 million, $57 million over the 2021 enacted level, for EPA to increase the understanding of PFAS and human health and ecological effects, restrict use to prevent PFAS from entering the air, land, and water, and remediate the PFAS that has been released into the environment.  
  • Strengthens Climate Resilience in Communities of Color. People of color are more likely to live in areas most vulnerable to flooding and other climate change-related weather events. The Budget provides more than $18 billion for climate resilience and adaptation programs across the Federal Government, including $3.5 billion for the Department of Homeland Security, $5.9 billion at the Department of the Interior, $900 million for HUD, and $376 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. These critical investments will reduce the risk of damages from floods and storms, restore the Nation’s aquatic ecosystems, and make HUD-assisted multifamily homes more energy and water efficient and climate resilient. Resources include $507 million, $93 million above the 2021 enacted level, for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) flood hazard mapping program to incorporate climate science and future risks, and robust investments in FEMA programs that help disadvantaged communities build resilience against natural disasters. The Budget invests $502 million to weatherize and retrofit low-income homes, including $100 million for a new LIHEAP Advantage pilot to electrify and decarbonize low-income homes. 
  • Expands Access to Climate Data and Forecasting. The Budget significantly improves the Nation’s ability to predict extreme weather and climate events so that communities can have accurate and accessible information to allow them to better prepare for such events. The Budget also provides an additional $13 million over 2021 enacted levels to bolster EPA’s abilities to forecast where smoke from wildfires will harm people and communicate where smoke events are occurring to vulnerable communities.
  • Helps Tribal Nations Address the Climate Crisis. The Budget complements Bipartisan Infrastructure Law investments to address climate resilience needs in Tribal communities with $670 million in Tribal climate funding at Interior. The Budget also proposes $150 million to electrify Tribal homes and transition Tribal colleges and universities to renewable energy. In addition, the Budget includes $150 million in HUD funding for Tribes to rehabilitate and construct new housing units, with a focus on improving energy efficiency and climate resilience. To ensure Tribal communities have access and control over their water resources in the face of the climate crisis, the Budget further proposes to provide mandatory funding to the Bureau of Reclamation for operation and maintenance of previously enacted Indian Water Rights Settlements.
  • Creates Clean Energy Jobs in Rural America. The Budget invests $6.5 billion in USDA loan authority for rural electric loans, an increase of $1 billion over the 2021 enacted level, to support additional clean energy, energy storage, and transmission projects. In addition, it provides $300 million in new funding for USDA grants, loans, and debt forgiveness for rural electric providers as they transition to clean energy, and $20 million in new funding for the creation of the Rural Clean Energy Initiative to provide technical assistance to rural electric coops to support investments in clean energy projects. The Budget also provides over $9 billion in discretionary funding for programs that support economic revitalization and job creation in hard-hit coal, oil and gas, and power plant communities. This includes $321 million for DOI and $62 million for USDA initiatives to remediate and reclaim thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells and reclaim abandoned mines, and $84 million for the Economic Development Administration’s Assistance to Coal Communities program to support locally-driven economic diversification and job creations efforts in communities and regions severely impacted by declining use of coal.

Build a Care Economy that Advances Racial Justice

  • Expands Access to Affordable, High-Quality Early Child Care and Learning. Families of color are more likely than White families to live in childcare deserts. And, the child care sector is a key engine of opportunity for women of color in the workforce The Budget provides $20.2 billion for HHS’s early care and education programs, an increase of $3.3 billion over the 2021 enacted level. This includes $7.6 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant, an increase of $1.7 billion over the 2021 enacted level, to expand access to quality, affordable child care for families. In addition, the Budget helps young children enter kindergarten ready to learn by providing $12.2 billion for Head Start, an increase of $1.5 billion over the 2021 enacted level. The Budget also helps States identify and fill gaps in early education programs by funding the Preschool Development Grants program at $450 million, an increase of $175 million over the 2021 enacted level. 
  • Advances Equity and Child and Family Well-Being in the Child Welfare System. While one in 17 children in the United States will experience foster care at some point by the time they turn 18, the proportion jumps to one in nine for Black children and one in seven for Native American children. Improving the child welfare system will benefit all Americans, but especially the Black and Native American families who are overrepresented in, and too often failed by, the current system. The Budget proposes reforms to advance child and family well-being throughout the continuum of child welfare services, including by expanding and incentivizing the use of evidence-based foster care prevention services to keep families safely together and to reduce the number of children entering foster care. When a child does need to be removed from their home, the Budget supports States in placing fewer children in group homes and prioritizing placements with kin, such as family members or close family friends, whenever possible. This is especially important for Black, Latino and Native American communities where there is a long tradition of kin caregiving. The Budget nearly doubles flexible funding for States through the Promoting Safe and Stable Families program and proposes new provisions to expand access to legal representation for children and families in the child welfare system. The Budget increases mandatory funding through the Chafee Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood by 70% to better support youth who age out of foster care without a parent or other permanent living arrangement. The Budget also invests in two new sets of child welfare competitive grants for states and localities, including grants to address longstanding racial inequities in the child welfare system and grants to improve the educational outcomes of youth in foster care.  Finally, the Budget makes the adoption tax credit fully refundable so low and moderate-income families can receive the full value of the credit and expands the credit to certain legal guardianships, providing support for more families, including kin caregivers.

Commit to Criminal Justice Reform and Invest in Civil Rights

  • Reforms the Federal Criminal Justice System. The Budget leverages the capacity of the Federal justice system to advance innovative criminal justice reform initiatives and serve as a model for reform that is not only comprehensive in scope, but evidence-informed and high-impact. The Budget supports key investments in First Step Act implementation, including through $100 million for a historic collaboration between DOJ and DOL for a national initiative to provide comprehensive workforce development services to people in the Federal prison system, both during their time in the BOP facilities and after they are transferred to community placement. In support of Federal law enforcement reform and oversight, the Budget also proposes $106 million for the deployment of body-worn cameras to DOJ’s law enforcement officers, as well as an impact evaluation to assess the role of these cameras in advancing criminal justice reform.
  • Protects Our Elections and the Right to Vote. As our democracy faces threats across the Nation, the State, county, and municipal governments that run our Federal elections have struggled to obtain resources commensurate with the improved access and security that voters expect and deserve. Federal funding for the equipment, systems, and personnel that comprise our Nation’s critical election infrastructure has been episodic or crisis-driven. To provide State and local election officials with a predictable funding stream for critical capital investments and increased staffing and services, the Budget proposes $10 billion in new elections assistance funding to be allocated over ten years. The Budget also proposes $5 billion over ten years to fund an expansion of U.S. Postal Service delivery capacity in underserved areas and support for vote-by-mail, including making ballots postage-free and reducing the cost of other election-related mail for jurisdictions and voters.
  • Reinvigorates Federal Civil Rights Enforcement. In order to address longstanding inequities and strengthen civil rights protections, the Budget invests $367 million, an increase of $101 million over the 2021 enacted level, in civil rights enforcement and other programming across the Department of Justice. These resources will support police reform, the prosecution of hate crimes, enforcement of voting rights, and efforts to provide equitable access to justice. Investments also provide mediation and conciliation services through the Community Relations Service.


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