Amy’s Plan for Economic Justice and Opportunity for Communities of Color
Economic Justice and Opportunity for Communities of Color
Senator Klobuchar knows that racism persists in this country. We hear it echoed in schoolyards and on neighborhood sidewalks. We hear it shouted from white-nationalist riots and presidential podiums. And we see it reflected in our laws, our institutions and our economy.
In the Senate, she has worked to expand economic justice and shared prosperity. She has pushed to close the wage and wealth gaps, championed efforts to expand tech and entrepreneurship opportunities as the co-chair of the Senate Diversifying Technology Caucus and the Entrepreneurship Caucus, and successfully passed legislation to improve the representation of underrepresented groups on the National Science Foundation’s Advisory Panel and improve retention of minority STEM teachers.
As President, she will fight for economic justice and economic opportunity. She will:
- Work to end child poverty. As President, within her first 100 days, Senator Klobuchar will put forward a plan to cut childhood poverty in half in ten years and end child poverty in a generation. The plan will be based on a National Academies of Science report and include expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Care Tax Credit, SNAP benefits and overhauling our country’s housing policy. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s plans for economic justice and shared prosperity here. (Released 12/5/19)
- Eliminate the wage gap. Today, women working full-time earn 80 cents for every dollar paid to a man, and the gaps are even larger for women of color. As President, Senator Klobuchar will work to pass Senator Patty Murray’s Paycheck Fairness Act to ensure that employers pay employees equally for equal work — including by prohibiting employers from asking about the salary history of prospective employees. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s plans for economic justice and shared prosperity here. (Released 12/5/19)
- Eliminate the wealth gap. Today, Black and Latino households have only about a tenth of the median net worth of white households. Senator Klobuchar’s proposal to establish portable, employer-funded UP-Savings Accounts for retirement savings will help address this disparity. She is also co-chair of the Diversifying Technology Caucus and the Entrepreneurship Caucus with Senator Tim Scott. As President she will work to get more women and people of color in STEM jobs and she will fully empower agencies to aggressively fight modern-day redlining that prevents businesses owned by people of color from getting loans and take on predatory lending that results in higher interest rates in low-income communities of color. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s plans for economic justice and shared prosperity here. (Released 12/5/19)
- Make education the great equalizer. Senator Klobuchar believes a good education is one of the very best investments we can make in our country’s future. As President, Senator Klobuchar will help make education the great equalizer by increasing teacher salaries, investing in math and science to prepare our students for the jobs of tomorrow, and rebuilding our school infrastructure. She has proposed “Progress Partnerships” to help states take bold action to fund our public schools — including making sure infrastructure funding goes to high need areas and reviewing state funding formulas to improve equity. She will also put back in place guidance from President Obama directing schools to reduce racial disparities in how they discipline students. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s K-12 Education policies here. (Released 7/5/19)
- Raise the Minimum Wage to $15 an Hour and Enforce It. As President, Senator Klobuchar will push for legislation to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour and eliminate the tipped minimum wage. To make immediate progress toward this goal, she will increase the minimum wage for federal contractors to that threshold. She will also immediately strengthen enforcement and expand investigations to make sure that our wage laws are properly enforced and that workers are able to recover back pay when the government rules in their favor. Read more about the Senator’s plan on the dignity of work here. (Released 12/5/19)
- Create a National Paid Family and Medical Leave Program. The United States is the only industrialized nation without a national paid leave program, and only 19 percent of American workers have access to paid family leave through their employer. As President, Senator Klobuchar will create a national paid family leave program to provide workers with 12 weeks of paid leave per year to care for a new child, a family member with a serious health condition, or their own serious health condition. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s plan for paid family and medical leave here. (Released 11/26/19)
- Invest in Quality, Affordable Child Care. Senator Klobuchar believes that early, quality child care and education is one of the most important public investments we can make as a country. As President, Senator Klobuchar will work to create a new federal-state partnership to make child care more affordable by capping spending on child care at seven percent of income for families making up to 150 percent of their state’s median income and invest in expanding the availability of child care and raising wages for caregivers and early childhood teachers. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s plan for child care here. (Released 11/26/19)
- Make It Easier to Retire. As President, Senator Klobuchar will work to create innovative, portable personal retirement accounts called UP-Savings Accounts. Under her plan, employers will set aside at least 50 cents per hour worked, helping a worker build more than $600,000 in wealth over the course of a career. She will continue to push for legislation to protect retiree pensions. Senator Klobuchar will also work to strengthen Social Security, and she believes that this program must remain solvent for generations to come and she will fight against risky schemes to privatize it. As President, Senator Klobuchar will work to lift the Social Security payroll cap. Currently the payroll tax only applies to wages up to $133,000. Senator Klobuchar supports subjecting income above $250,000 to the payroll tax and extending the long-term solvency of Social Security. And Senator Klobuchar will make sure people are treated fairly by the current Social Security system. As President, she will work to strengthen and improve Social Security benefits for widows and people who took significant time out of the paid workforce to care for their children, aging parents, or sick family members. Senator Klobuchar also opposes cuts and risky schemes to privatize Medicare and will take action to strengthen Medicare and find solutions so it remains solvent. She will improve Medicare for current beneficiaries by reforming payment policies through measures like site neutral payments and providing incentives for getting the best quality health care at the best price, including bundled payments and telehealth. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s policies for seniors here. (Released 7/12/19)
- Reform the criminal justice system. Senator Klobuchar believes we have to completely reform our criminal justice system. She has three bold goals: First, she will enact historic sentencing reforms and allow current non-violent and low-level offenders to petition for alternatives to incarceration with the goals of reducing the prison population by 20 percent over the next decade and eventually achieving further reductions in the prison population. Second, she will invest in reentry services for returning citizens and reform probation and parole with the goal of reducing recidivism rates by 20 percent in 10 years. Third, as President, Senator Klobuchar will make a historic investment in our public defenders. She will increase resources for public defenders with the goal of achieving resource parity with our federal prosecutors. In addition, the Senator’s criminal justice reform will prioritize juvenile justice, law enforcement reforms and violence prevention. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s criminal justice reform plan here.
- Stand up for our unions. As the granddaughter of an iron ore miner and the daughter of a union teacher and a union newspaperman, Senator Klobuchar knows firsthand how unions give Americans and their families the opportunities they need to succeed. As President, she will support real labor law reform, ensure free and fair union elections, protect collective bargaining rights, roll back Right to Work laws, and make it easier — and not harder — for workers to join unions. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s labor policies here. (Release 9/29/19)
- Invest in education and job training, including for workers at risk of losing their jobs to automation. Senator Klobuchar is committed to creating new opportunities and ensuring a just transition for workers who have been displaced by the changing economy. She believes the federal government has an important role to play during economic transitions. As President she will take action to ensure that workers can pursue additional education and can do so without a financial burden at any age. She will also create a new tax credit for employers that invest in training for workers at risk of being laid off through on-site training programs or provide paid time off for off-site retraining. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s post-secondary education policies here. (Released 10/25/19)
- Give workers access to a non-profit public option for health insurance. As President, Senator Klobuchar will work to pass legislation to create a non-profit public option that expands Medicare or Medicaid. She will also build on the Affordable Care Act to help bring down costs to consumers, including expanding premium subsidies, providing cost-sharing reductions, making it easier for states to put reinsurance in place, and continuing to implement delivery system reform. And she will take on the other health care challenges we face including the price of prescription drugs, mental health care, addiction and long-term care. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s health care policies here. (Released 8/12/19)
- Expand access to capital for small businesses. Lack of access to capital is one of the biggest obstacles to starting a small business. As President, Senator Klobuchar will expand Small Business Administration (SBA) lending programs and make it easier for small businesses to get the loans and technical assistance they need to grow. She will also work to increase small dollar lending by the SBA, which can be particularly important for women and people of color seeking to start a small business. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s small business policies here. (Released 12/5/19)
- Promote entrepreneurship and reverse the “startup slump.” New businesses drive economic growth, but fewer startups are launched every year. Startup rates have fallen to near 30-year lows. Senator Klobuchar recently launched the bipartisan Senate Entrepreneurship Caucus with Senator Tim Scott to address the most pressing issues facing entrepreneurs. As President, she will build on her work through the America COMPETES Act to close the gap between innovation and commercialization, help colleges and universities partner with entrepreneurs, accelerate the commercialization of federally funded research and update regional innovation programs at the Economic Development Administration. To reverse the startup slump she will also tackle unprecedented corporate consolidation, make it easier to export, simplify small business rules, expand access to capital, as well as promote incubators, mentoring and training. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s small business policies here. (Released 12/5/19)
- Build a 21st century workforce. Senator Klobuchar believes we should align our education system with the needs of our economy. As President, she will champion tuition-free one- and two-year community college degrees and technical certifications, expand apprenticeships, and make it easier for Americans who need help to afford four-year degrees. She will work to reduce the burden of student loans, support our Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and expand Pell Grants. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s post-secondary education policies here. (Released 10/25/19)
- Pass comprehensive immigration reform. Senator Klobuchar believes that comprehensive immigration reform is crucial to moving our economy and our country forward. As President, she will push for a comprehensive immigration reform bill that includes the DREAM Act, targeted border security and an accountable pathway to earned citizenship. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s immigration policies here.
- Expand loans for and investments in local communities in need. For the past 40 years, the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) has encouraged financial institutions to make loans and investment in local communities, especially low-income and minority communities. Senator Klobuchar will protect the CRA and instruct financial regulators to conduct greater outreach to assess the true credit needs of their communities. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s plans for economic justice and shared prosperity here. (Released 12/5/19)
- Support and strengthen the Economic Development Administration. The Economic Development Administration (EDA) works directly with communities and regions to promote competitiveness and innovation. It has a proven track record of success and on average every $1 of EDA infrastructure funding generates $15 in private investment. Still, the Trump Administration has repeatedly proposed eliminating the agency. Senator Klobuchar will ensure the agency has the resources to carry out its mission. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s plans for economic justice and shared prosperity here. (Released on 12/5/19)
- Revitalize Neglected Neighborhoods and Invest in Energy Efficiency. In some neighborhoods, neglected properties make investments to improve living conditions or build property value economically infeasible. Neighboring blighted and abandoned properties further reduce the possibility of investment, leading to a downward spiral. Senator Klobuchar will advocate for a new federal tax credit, similar to the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, to encourage investment in family-owned homes in distressed neighborhoods. In addition, Senator Klobuchar will launch a major initiative to retrofit existing homes to reduce their emissions and address environmental hazards through grants and tax credits that support insulation, weatherization improvements, upgrades to heating and cooling systems, and replacement of lead pipes and other health hazards. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s housing policy here. (Released 12/19/19)
- Provide Section 8 Rental Assistance to All Qualifying Americans. Today too many Americans have trouble accessing rental assistance and about 4.4 million families are currently on waiting lists for Section 8 housing vouchers. As President, Senator Klobuchar will completely eliminate the Section 8 backlog and make sure that every American who qualifies for Section 8 rental assistance receives a voucher or unit. She will limit average wait times for Section 8 assistance to no more than three months, create a new grant program for states to provide temporary support for those at risk of homelessness while on the Section 8 waitlist, and work with the Department of Housing and Urban Development to make sure it accurately collects market data about the cost of rental housing and provides flexibility to local housing agencies to adjust voucher amounts in higher-cost areas. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s policies to guarantee access to affordable housing here. (Released 12/19/19)
- Invest in Affordable Housing Infrastructure. To eliminate the unmet need for rental assistance, we must increase affordable housing supply. Senator Klobuchar will push to expand current Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) allocations to support the construction of additional units and work with states to strengthen rules to encourage a significant portion of LIHTC construction in high opportunity neighborhoods. Her infrastructure package will also address the estimated $50 billion in capital repairs needed to public housing. She will expand funding to build, rehabilitate, and operate homes for low-income families, including in rural areas and in Indian country by funding the Housing Trust Fund at a minimum of $40 billion per year, and she will increase funding for the Capital Magnet Fund, which enables awardees to create financing tools such as loan loss reserves, revolving loan funds, risk-sharing loans, and loan guarantees. In addition, she will lift the bond volume cap specifically for housing projects to help provide additional funding to tackle the shortage of affordable housing in our country and prioritize areas that have updated their zoning rules when awarding federal housing and infrastructure grants. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s plans to invest in affordable housing here. (Released 12/19/19)
- Connect People to Available Housing Opportunities. Senator Klobuchar will work to create a new federal grant program that helps states increase outreach to low-income renters to make them aware of the resources available to them. The funding will be available for caseworkers, community development centers, and partnerships with nonprofits. She will push to increase operating funding for public housing authorities and in return will require them to lower fees charged to applicants and tenants, and she will work to streamline the application process including background checks and credit checks to reduce red tape. Senator Klobuchar will also expand resources for student renters, increase student access to existing affordable housing programs and promote the development of affordable housing around college campuses. She will work with states and across federal agencies to increase auto enrollment across all eligible support programs, like Medicaid, CHIP, SNAP, LIHEAP, and housing assistance, when a person enrolls in any one program. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s housing policies here. (Released 12/19/19)
- Combat Segregation and Discrimination. As President, Senator Klobuchar will ban all landlords from discriminating against people based on the source of their income, including housing vouchers or disability benefits. She will also protect renters by preventing the blacklisting of people who have been to court over eviction and prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or veteran status. She will suspend the Trump Administration’s proposals to weaken fair housing rules including the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule and restore enforcement and oversight powers to the Office of Fair Lending and Opportunity to monitor fair lending practices and coordinate with the Department of Justice to prevent lending discrimination before it happens. Senator Klobuchar will prohibit landlords from asking rental applicants about past criminal convictions. Background checks will only be permitted after making a conditional offer of housing. She will also create an incentive program for states and localities that encourage the adoption of just cause eviction protections and a tenant bill of rights, including prior notification before evictions. States and localities that put these protections in place — including limits on security deposits to one month’s rent — can receive additional federal funds for affordable housing supply. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s policies to combat segregation and discrimination in housing here. (Released 12/19/19)
- Tackle new forms of discrimination. As President, Senator Klobuchar will update our laws to counter new forms of discrimination, like digital redlining and racial bias built into algorithms that are playing a larger role in everything from hiring decisions to medical care. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s plans to address digital disruption here. (Released 12/5/19)
- Help Seniors and People with Disabilities Who Want to Stay in Their Homes. Senator Klobuchar will update regulations for reverse mortgages to make sure seniors have access to safe products that make it easier to stay in their homes, as well as expand support for affordable senior housing programs that assist people with disabilities. As part of her seniors plan, Senator Klobuchar is proposing a tax credit of up to $6,000 a year to provide financial relief to those caring for an aging relative or a relative with a disability to help offset expenses, including necessary home modifications to allow people to stay in their homes. And in the first 100 days of her Administration, Senator Klobuchar will reverse the Trump Administration’s proposed changes to federal housing subsidies that could triple rent for some households and would be particularly harmful for seniors. Senator Klobuchar is also committed to expanding transportation programs and services for older adults and people with disabilities, particularly in rural and underserved populations. She also supports expanding resources for Meals on Wheels, transit options for seniors and programs like LIHEAP and the Weatherization Assistance Program that helps households in need reduce energy spending. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s housing policies here. (Released 12/19/19)
- Increase Access to Homeownership. As President, Senator Klobuchar will build on programs that allow certain types of rental housing assistance to be used for home ownership expenses and work to pass legislation that expands access to capital for down payments and makes it easier to build a credit history by allowing credit bureaus to use on-time payment data from cell phone bills, utilities, and rent in calculating credit scores. She will strengthen Community Reinvestment Act protections, develop policies to encourage financial institutions to make loans and investment in local communities, especially communities in need, and conduct greater outreach to assess the true credit needs of certain areas. She will also strengthen federal homebuyer education programs including targeted programs for communities with low levels of homeownership. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s plans to increase access to homeownership here. (Released 7/25/19)
- Strengthen the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). The EITC has a strong record of success in encouraging work and alleviating poverty. About 26 million Americans currently benefit from EITC, and it prevents close to 6 million people, including 3 million children, from living in poverty. As President, Senator Klobuchar will work to strengthen the EITC for workers in families with children by increasing the phase-in rate so the lowest-income workers reach the maximum benefit more quickly, increasing the maximum credit by about 30 percent and expanding eligibility for the credit so more workers will receive assistance. These improvements will more than satisfy the recommendation of the National Academy of Sciences report to strengthen the EITC, as part of putting our country on track to cut child poverty in half in the next decade and end it within a generation. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s policies to increase support for workers here. (Released 12/19/19)
- Expand EITC Eligibility. Today, the EITC is not available to childless workers under age 25 and over age 64, leaving out a significant portion of younger and older workers struggling to make ends meet. As President, Senator Klobuchar will work to expand eligibility by lowering the minimum age to 18, with an exception for full time students and dependents, and increasing the maximum age in line with already scheduled increases in the eligibility age for Social Security. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s policies to increase support for workers here. (Released 12/19/19)
- Provide EITC Beneficiaries With the Option of Advanced Periodic Payments. Receiving a single payment when EITC beneficiaries file their taxes at the end of the year can make it difficult for EITC beneficiaries to cover expenses that come up over the course of the year. As President, Senator Klobuchar will give beneficiaries the option to receive periodic payments of the EITC in advance to give them more regular income throughout the year. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s policies to increase support for workers here. (Released 12/19/19)
- Improve the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC). Senator Klobuchar will convert the CDCTC to a fully-refundable tax credit and concentrate its benefits on families with the lowest incomes and with children under the age of five. These improvements will meet the recommendation of the National Academy of Sciences report to strengthen the CDCTC, as part of putting our country on track to cut child poverty in half in the next decade and end it within a generation. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s policies to increase support for workers here. (Released 12/19/19)
- Maintain the Increased Child Tax Credit. The 2017 tax bill doubled the Child Tax Credit from $1,000 per child to $2,000. Although Senator Klobuchar will repeal the regressive portions of this tax bill, she will maintain the increased Child Tax Credit. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s policies to increase support for workers here. (Released 12/19/19)
- Increase SNAP Benefits and improve school programs. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a vital resource for meaningful relief for Americans when it is most needed. While the Trump Administration tries to impose draconian cuts on the program, Senator Klobuchar believes we must strengthen it for families in need. Senator Klobuchar will increase the maximum SNAP allocation by 30 percent and provide an additional $30 a month to families for each child between 12 and 17 years old. These improvements will meet the recommendation of the National Academy of Sciences report to strengthen SNAP, as part of putting our country on track to cut child poverty in half in the next decade and end it within a generation. Senator Klobuchar will also streamline the certification process for elderly and disabled recipients who are living on fixed incomes and make it easier for low-income college students to enroll in the program. As a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Senator Klobuchar has been a champion for protecting and strengthening the safety net for Americans in need. She has supported programs like SNAP, the Emergency Food Assistance Program, and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program and pushed for the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, which helps introduce children to a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. She also introduced and passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act to support healthy meals for children, and the HELP Schools Act to strengthen nutrition in school lunches. As President, Senator Klobuchar will expand free breakfast programs, summer meal programs, and the availability of meals and snacks to students outside of normal school hours. She will also make it easier for schools to partner with local agricultural producers to give students access to healthy, local food. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s policies to strengthen affordable nutrition programs here. (Released 12/19/19)
- Strengthen the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Extensive research over four decades has found that participating in WIC improves low-income families’ nutrition and health. As President, Senator Klobuchar supports efforts to promote outreach, especially harder to reach populations like students with children, grandparents caring for children, and foster parents, simplify and streamline WIC enrollment, including through auto enrollment when possible, and expand benefits and eligibility. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s policies to strengthen affordable nutrition programs here. (Released 12/19/19)
- Provide Access to Counsel. Senator Klobuchar will create a new federal grant program with the goal of eliminating the unmet need when it comes to providing access to counsel in civil cases involving basic human needs, which means providing counsel for people who are dealing with evictions, being denied access to health care, and having wages unfairly taken. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s policies to secure equal access to justice here. (Released 12/19/19)
- Ensure Federal Investments Are Reaching the Communities Suffering the Most From Decades of Neglect. Unequal patterns of federal investment, often the result of systemic racism and discrimination, have led to decades of neglect in some communities. Senator Klobuchar is committed to adopting Congressman Jim Clyburn’s 10-20-30 plan, in which 10 percent of federal resources are committed to communities where at least 20 percent of the population has been living below the poverty line for 30 years or more. She supported the original 10-20-30 formula in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, and as President, she will work to ensure that at least 10 percent of every agency’s funding for discretionary programs goes to areas dealing with persistent poverty under the 10-20-30 formula. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s policies to secure equal access to justice here. (Released 12/19/19)
In addition, Senator Klobuchar has laid out a plan for her first 100 days as President that includes executive action she can take immediately to provide economic justice for communities of color. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s 100 day plan here. (Released 6/18/19)
Raise the minimum wage for federal contractors to $15. In line with her goal of increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, Senator Klobuchar will increase the minimum wage for federal contractors to that threshold.
Restore and strengthen overtime rules. Too many American workers have been working overtime without getting paid for the extra hours. Senator Klobuchar will restore and strengthen the Obama Administration’s overtime rules to expand overtime pay to millions of workers, increasing the maximum salary for a worker to qualify for the overtime pay they’ve earned.
Develop best models of care to address disparities in maternal and infant mortality and address the shortage of maternity care health professional in underserved rural and urban areas. Senator Klobuchar will immediately implement a new law that tackles the shortage of maternity care health professionals — including nurses, midwives, and obstetricians — in underserved areas, and she will develop best models of care to address racial disparities in maternal and infant mortality.
Provide incentives for employers to adopt paid family leave and child care benefits. Senator Klobuchar will reward federal contractors by providing additional points during the contract bidding process if contractors offer paid family leave to their employees or child care benefits.
Protect student borrowers. Senator Klobuchar will restore and strengthen rules that allow students who believe they were defrauded by their colleges to apply for loan forgiveness, providing relief to thousands of additional students.
Strengthen the Minority Business Development Agency. The Minority Business Development Agency provides technical and managerial expertise to help minority business overcome social and economic disadvantages. President Trump has proposed eliminating the agency, but as President, Senator Klobuchar will ensure it has the resources it needs.
Restore staffing levels at the Office of Civil Rights and the Office of Federal Student Aid. The Trump Administration has dramatically cut staffing levels at the Department of Education. Senator Klobuchar will restore staffing levels at the Department of Education, including at the Office of Civil Rights and the Office of Federal Student Aid, which has created obstacles for processing more than 87,000 borrower defense claims as well as impeded investigations into Title IX violations.
Improve free tax filing. Senator Klobuchar will direct the IRS to prevent tax preparation vendors from steering low-income taxpayers toward paid products, which has reduced the use of free filing products. She will also direct the IRS to devote greater resources to the enforcement of vendors’ obligations under the Free File program.
End attempts to reduce federal housing subsidies. Senator Klobuchar will reverse the Trump Administration’s proposed changes to federal housing subsidies that could triple rent for some households and be particularly harmful for seniors, families with children and people with disabilities.
Put rules in place to prevent pay discrimination. The Trump Administration has tried to block rules that require large companies to disclose what they pay employees by sex, race, and ethnicity in an effort to prevent pay discrimination. Senator Klobuchar will end the Trump Administration’s legal efforts to prevent the rule from taking effect.
Expand apprenticeships. Senator Klobuchar will direct her Secretary of Labor to analyze the use of apprenticeships for in-demand occupations, launch a nationwide campaign, and expand apprenticeship opportunities and benefits with the goal of doubling the number of apprenticeships to over a million by the end of her first term.
Support and strengthen the Economic Development Administration. The Economic Development Administration works directly with communities and regions to promote competitiveness and innovation. It has a proven track record of success and on average every $1 of EDA infrastructure funding generates $15 in private investment. Still, the Trump Administration repeatedly proposed eliminating the agency. Senator Klobuchar will ensure the agency has the resources to carry out its mission.