USA FACTS: The Numbers For President Joe Biden's Initiatives

Numbers behind Biden's initiatives  The Biden administration has laid out many priorities for its first 100 days, including a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan. The administration is also prioritizing environmental protections, immigration reform, and more. See the metrics behind these issues in this new report.   Introduced six days before he took office, Biden’s coronavirus plan includes proposals to address the pandemic on many fronts. Here are just some: Food security Extend a 15% increase in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits through September. Contract restaurants to feed food-insecure families and grant nutrition assistance funding in US territories.   In December, nearly 14% of adults reported that they sometimes or often did not have enough to eat — the highest food insecurity rate since May.  Employment Allow self-employed workers and long-term unemployed Americans to remain eligible for benefits by expanding unemployment coverage through September. Increase the federal unemployment supplement to $400 a week, up from the $300 weekly unemployment supplement approved in the December stimulus bill (but down from the $600 weekly supplement once provided by the CARES Act).   The US reported a net decline of 140,000 jobs in December — the first drop in employment since April — and a total of 10.7 million people unemployed. Education Reopen most K-8 schools by the end of his first 100 days. The package would provide $170 billion for K-12 schools and various colleges through the pandemic. In October, 65% of households with children were learning online, and 11% of children had not had a live teacher interaction in the past week.   Even more plans — and data Biden plans to ban oil and gas leasing on public lands and waters and enact a plan for net-zero emissions by 2050. The US produced 6.7 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions in 2018, with 28% from transportation.    The $1.9 trillion bill also includes raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. USAFacts analyzed the demographics of workers making the current federal minimum of $7.25. It’s been one of the most popular reports on USAFacts.org for more than a year and was just updated with new data. For even more charts and metrics on the issues in the new administration’s plans, including housing and new COVID-19 cases, click here.   Who has sick leave in the US?  USAFacts has a new report that breaks down the different facets of paid sick leave as workers and their families grapple with medical leave during the pandemic. Read it here and see visualizations on which industries are most likely to offer paid sick leave. Fourteen states and Washington, DC offer paid sick leave, which is for short-term health needs. Each state has a different set of requirements: in Oregon, paid sick time is guaranteed if the employer has more than 10 employees. In Maryland, it’s 15 employees or more.   The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), passed in March 2020, created temporary leave benefits. Under the FFCRA, eligible full-time employees could take 80 hours of paid sick leave while quarantining, experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, or upon receiving a positive diagnosis. These provisions expired on December 31, 2020.    By March of last year, before the FFCRA, 78% of civilian employees got paid sick leave. White-collar workers generally had greater access to paid sick leave than service, construction, or agriculture workers.   At that time, 99% of unionized workers had access to paid sick leave compared to 75% of non-union workers.  Discover more about sick leave policies in the US.  Collaboration spotlight   USAFacts is excited to share the work of X4Impact with you. X4Impact combines USAFacts government data with social sector data to explore UN Sustainable Development goals like eliminating poverty. Their novel social sector insights help nonprofits and social entrepreneurs find the data they need to inform their discussions and solutions. Explore their data to understand poverty in the US.