By Logan Langlois
NASHVILLE, TN — President Joe Biden has released his economic plan for Tennessee, as well as a summary of his administration’s accomplishments since taking office in 2020. Those achievements include a falling unemployment rate, 206,000 new jobs and 179,004 new business filings in Tennessee since December 2020, with bigger plans for the state planned further this year.
When President Biden was inaugurated two years ago, the unemployment rate was 6.3 percent, 9 million people were out of work and hundreds of thousands of small businesses were closing their doors. Today, the Biden administration says the country is on a path of stable long-term growth, with the unemployment rate hitting a 50-year low of 3.5 percent. The government credits these improvements to the passage of legislation like the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, which it says strengthen supply chains and revitalize manufacturing nationwide.
The current administration also aims to make Tennessee a more attractive location for foreign companies to invest in and expand. A testament to these efforts are out-of-state companies that have invested $15 billion in Tennessee since 2021. These investments were made to expand industries such as electric vehicle and battery manufacturing, made possible by Biden’s launch of the American Battery Material Initiative in October 2022 to ensure a reliable supply of minerals and materials.
It also announced $5.5 billion in funding for state projects across Tennessee. These projects include $2.8 billion for improved transportation such as roads, bridges, public transit and airports, as well as $1.5 billion for water infrastructure and additional infrastructure financing that will bring more affordable internet service to nearly 300,000 homes.
Nashville funding from the bipartisan infrastructure bill will be used to rebuild a central taxiway for aircraft landing strips at Nashville International Airport. One hundred million dollars in investments from the American Rescue Plan went toward affordable housing and homelessness reduction in Nashville. In addition, $10 million has been invested in Fisk University’s new Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center, named after the recently deceased local black hero, Darrell S. Freeman Sr. The River to Ridge Mobility Project in Chattanooga is being funded to use the Wilcox Bridge through one, and the Memphis Area Transit Authority has received funding through Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill to build a new operations and maintenance facility that will improve the safety and quality of the bus fleet of Memphis to improve.
Investment plans of private institutions include:
• LG Chem invests $3.2 billion to develop materials facility in Clarksville, creating 850 jobs.
• A $5.6 billion joint venture between Ford and SK Innovation to build a “mega-campus” in Stanton that will bring 6,000 jobs to Tennessee.
• Ultium Cells will invest $2.6 billion to build a manufacturing facility in Spring Hill by the end of 2023 and create 1,300 jobs.
• Piedmont Lithium is investing nearly $600 million in a McMinn County separation and processing facility.
• Tritium’s opening of its first US manufacturing facility in Lebanon is expected to create more than 500 jobs over five years.
• Novonix’s $1 billion battery materials separation and processing facility in Chattanooga, which will create over 1,000 jobs and hopes to help break America’s reliance on Chinese supply chains.
The state’s health care system has also received support, as approximately 120,000 Tennesseans enrolled in the 2022 Affordable Care Act in December 2022, many of whom also elected to a 2023 plan during the Open Enrollment Period. Laws and subsidies have also resulted in lower drug costs for seniors on Medicare.
Comments are closed.