The Justice Department is improving language access to its programs to help people with limited English proficiency better report crimes. The Department of the Interior is providing technical assistance to Native American tribes to help them apply for grants. The Department of Energy is helping low-income households access programs to heat their homes and save energy.
These efforts are among the hundreds of strategies and commitments announced by the Biden administration on Thursday. They are the product of an executive order that President Joe Biden signed hours after taking office with the goal of advancing racial equity and supporting neglected communities across the federal government.
The order was the first of its kind for a president, said Chiraag Bains, the president’s deputy assistant for racial justice and equity.
“We set the mission and mandate for every agency, the entire federal government, to focus equity on everything we do,” Bains told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
After more than a year of review, more than 90 federal agencies, including all major cabinet departments, released their “equity action plans” on Thursday.
The plans outline more than 300 strategies and commitments that aim to make federal policies fairer for all, including the poorest communities and communities of color; tribal, rural, and LGBTQ communities; and people with disabilities and women and girls.
They were to be discussed at a White House event on Thursday by domestic policy adviser Susan Rice, budget director Shalanda Young and cabinet members. Biden, a Democrat, has one more diverse cabinetswith black and Hispanic people at the helm of important departments such as Defense, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Some of the equity plans have been announced, such as the work of the Department of Housing and Urban Development to close the racial gap in home ownership, address disproportionate homelessness rates among neglected communities and reduce bias in housing valuations.
Other strategies are being made public for the first time, such as the Department of Defense’s efforts to promote the use of artificial intelligence technology to reduce algorithmic bias by investing in the development of a more diverse AI workforce. . This work includes collaborations with historically black colleges and universities.
Each agency’s equity action teams led the reviews. Bains said the strategies as a whole “will promote equity and justice so that everyone can thrive in America.”
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