Internet for All Announcement Topline Points

• High-speed internet service is no longer a luxury—it’s a necessity. It is necessary for Americans to do their jobs, to participate equally in school learning, health care, and to stay connected. Yet, we know that more than 8.3 million households and businesses are in places where there is no high-speed internet infrastructure. And many more American families go without high-speed internet because of the cost.
• Through investments in the president’s Investing in America agenda, the Biden-Harris administration is working to bring affordable, reliable high-speed internet to ALL Americans.
• Today, President Biden and Vice President Harris are kicking off the administration-wide Investing in America tour by announcing over $40 billion in funding allocations that will go to every U.S. state, territory, and D.C. for high-speed internet infrastructure.
• The funding comes from the Department of Commerce’s $42.45 billion BEAD (Broadband Equity Access and Deployment) Program, which represents the largest single investment in high-speed internet in history.
• With these allocations, all states and territories received a minimum of $107 million and $27 million respectively, and 19 states received allocations over $1 billion.
• In addition to helping connect everyone in America to high-speed internet, this new funding will support good paying jobs. In total, a third-party analysis estimated the overall investment would create upwards of 150,000 good-paying jobs laying fiber optic cable and building out networks.
• As a result of once-in-a-generation funding in the president’s Investing in America agenda, the Biden-Harris administration has embarked on a whole-of-country effort to bring affordable, reliable, high-speed internet to every American.  The BEAD allocations that the president will announce on Monday, together with the other investments from the oresident’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the American Rescue Plan, the administration is confident that the US will meet the president’s goal of Internet for all. 

One-Year Anniversary of Bipartisan Safer Communities Act Signing

One year ago, President Biden signed into law the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), the most significant bipartisan gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years.

• After tragic mass shootings in Buffalo, NY and Uvalde, TX, which took dozens of lives and forever changed many more, President Biden worked with Congress and broke the logjam and beat the gun lobby to deliver meaningful legislation to save lives.

As a result of the BSCA, the Biden-Harris administration is taking action to keep guns out of dangerous hands, run enhanced background checks, increase mental health funding, make schools safer, and expand community violence interventions. Already, the law has:

• Enabled the Justice Department to prosecute more than 100 defendants for firearms trafficking, seizing hundreds of guns as part of those cases;
• Stopped the sale of more than 200 firearms sales to individuals under age 21 who are prohibited from possessing firearms
• Provided more than $230 million for states to expand the use of tools like red flag laws;
• Delivered more than $1.5 billion to states and communities to improve school safety and access to mental health services, including for young people dealing with the grief and trauma resulting from gun violence;
• Awarded funding to hire and train additional 14,000 mental health professionals to work at our schools.
• The BSCA is an important first step, but our work is far from done. President Biden has said it is a drop in the bucket compared to what is needed
• We cannot end this gun violence epidemic until Congress passes commonsense gun safety laws that keep weapons of war off our streets and firearms out of dangerous hands, and states do the same.
• The vast majority of Americans, including gun owners, believe we need to take commonsense actions to keep our communities safe.

Investing in America Tour Launch Talking Points

• Today, the White House announced that President Biden will kick off a second round of the Biden-Harris administration’s Investing in America tour with a major infrastructure funding announcement at the White House on Monday, June 26.
• Over the course of three weeks, President Biden, Vice President Harris, First Lady Jill Biden, Cabinet members, and senior administration officials will barnstorm across the country to highlight how President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is driving a manufacturing and clean energy boom, rebuilding America’s infrastructure, lowering costs, and creating good-paying jobs.
• Because of historic legislation passed by President Biden and congressional Democrats – such as,  the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act – communities are seeing new manufacturing and clean energy investments, roads and bridges being rebuilt, and lower health care, energy, and internet costs.
  
• While congressional Republicans try to repeal key provisions of the Investing in America agenda that are lowering costs for millions of Americans and revitalizing American manufacturing, President Biden and leaders across the administration will go directly to those communities benefiting from these investments.
• Over the course of three weeks, the Investing in America tour will visit over twenty states, including Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Hawai’i, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Louisiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Vermont, and more.
  
• Americans can visit invest.gov to see projects and investments happening in their communities.