Across 2021 and 2022, President Joe Biden signed into law three landmark industrial policy packages—the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), CHIPS and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)—to undo decades of disinvestment in American communities; rebuild the nation’s physical, digital, and utility infrastructure; retake the global lead in advanced semiconductor manufacturing; speed the nation’s transition to electric vehicles (EVs) and green energy; and create high-quality jobs. These three policies combine direct public spending with grants, loans, tax incentives, and other financial assistance for private companies to promote key sectors, especially manufacturing, using public investment as a way to “crowd in” private investment.
Now, new analysis from the Center for American Progress finds that private-company investments fostered by the IIJA, CHIPS and Science Act, and IRA are being announced in counties with less access to manufacturing jobs. Most counties receiving new private investments lost manufacturing jobs over the past two decades. In fact, 83.2 percent of counties receiving new private investments spurred by the Biden administration have manufacturing sectors that shrunk since 2001—a greater share than among all U.S. counties (73.0 percent).
The above excerpt was originally published in the Center for American Progress.
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