Vice President Joe Biden ceremonially swears in Todd Jones as Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, in the Roosevelt Room in the White House, Aug. 29, 2013. Also pictured are Jones' wife Margaret and son Anthony. (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)

Even as Congress fails to act on common-sense proposals to reduce gun violence, like expanding criminal background checks and making gun trafficking a federal crime, President Obama and Vice President Biden remain committed to using all the tools in their power to make our communities safer.

Today, as part of that commitment, Vice President Biden swore in B. Todd Jones as the first permanent Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in seven years.  As the Vice President said, “ATF is the key agency enforcing our gun laws, and they need a permanent director in order to do that and to do the job to the best of their ability.” The Vice President was joined by Attorney General Eric Holder and Deputy Attorney General Jim Cole. 

The Vice President also announced two new executive actions, building on the comprehensive gun violence reduction plan he and the President laid out on January 16, 2013.

First, ATF is closing a loophole that has allowed machine guns and other particularly dangerous weapons to get into the wrong hands. This loophole allows prospective buyers to license these weapons to shell corporations, which lets them bypass a required background check.  ATF is proposing a rule to change that, requiring anyone associated with those corporations to go through the very same kind of background check process.  Closing this loophole will make a difference—last year alone, there were more than 39,000 requests for transfers of these restricted firearms to trusts or corporations.

Second, the Administration is taking action to keep military-grade guns off the streets. Since 2005, the U.S. government has authorized foreign governments to import more than 250,000 military-surplus firearms back into the United States.  Today, the Vice President announced a new policy of denying these requests to bring surplus military firearms back into the United States, with only a few exceptions such as for museums. 

Today’s executive actions are simple, sensible ways to make our communities safer. But they are no replacement for common-sense legislation to reduce gun violence, which we need Congress to pass.  And as Vice President Biden said today, “If Congress won't act, we'll fight for a new Congress.”

Learn more:

• Fact Sheet: New Executive Actions to Reduce Gun Violence

Vice President Joe Biden holds a roundtable with law enforcement officials and members of congress on gun safety, at Girard College in Philadelphia, PA, Feb., 11, 2013. (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)

Today, Vice President Biden traveled to Philadelphia to meet with law enforcement officials and hold a roundtable discussion to talk about the Administration’s plan to reduce gun violence.

In addition to Vice President Biden, the roundtable included Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, Senator Robert Casey, Congressman Robert Brady, Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz, Congressman Chaka Fattah, New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, and police chiefs and prosecutors from other cities and communities.

In the meeting, the participants discussed the challenges for law enforcement as they work to reduce gun crime. The Vice President pledged to continue the Administration’s fight to put 15,000 police officers on the street – and also argued that there is a consensus growing behind sensible gun safety legislation. He called for getting assault weapons and high capacity magazines off the streets, requiring background checks for all gun purchases, and a federal gun trafficking statute, among other proposals.

Vice President Joe Biden listens as Chief Thomas Hyers of the Springettsbury police department talks about a .223 round, during a roundtable with law enforcement officials and members of congress on gun safety, at Girard College in Philadelphia, PA, Feb., 11, 2013. To Chief Hyers' right is Chief Scott Thomson of Camden, New Jersey. (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)

“We can debate some of the things that the President has proposed,” he said. “But there is no common-sense rationale to suggest why we don’t act.” The Vice President reiterated that the message of improving gun safety in America will be “embraced by rural communities as well as urban communities.”

As the meeting came to a close, Commissioner Ramsey called for action, saying, “You see a variety of police chiefs assembled around this table.  They are here because they either are dealing on a daily basis or have dealt on a daily basis with the kind of carnage that we see all the time… And it has to stop, and we have to move forward on this.

Vice President Joe Biden, Dr. Jill Biden, and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis make remarks at Davidson County Community College, in Thomasville, North Carolina, February 24, 2012. The Vice President Joined Dr. Biden and Secretary Solis for the last stop of their community college tour to announce the availability of $500 million to fund partnerships between community colleges and businesses to train workers with skills employers need. (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)

Last Friday, Vice President Biden joined Dr. Jill Biden and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis at Davidson County Community College in Thomasville, North Carolina to discuss the importance of training workers with the skills employers need right now. This visit was the final leg of a five-state, three-day Community College to Career Bus Tour that Dr. Biden and Secretary Solis took to highlight the $8 billion Community College to Career Fund recently proposed as part of the President’s FY 2013 Budget.

Speaking to over 300 faculty, students, and other members of the Davidson community, the Vice President argued that America’s skilled workforce is one of our greatest economic assets.  But now that many American manufacturers and other businesses are growing again, too many are having trouble finding workers with the exact skills they need.  That’s why it’s so important to forge partnerships between community colleges and businesses to train workers with the skills that employers need for jobs that are open right now.  On Friday, the Vice President announced that the Administration is taking further steps to do exactly that by making available another $500 million to create and expand these partnerships as part of the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) Community College and Career Training grant program. 

The Administration’s efforts to create and expand these training partnerships are already showing results at places like Davidson County Community College (DCCC).  Thanks to a grant they received in the first round of this program, DCCC has been able to expand their partnerships with local companies to train workers with the skills they need—companies like Ingersoll Rand, which is working with DCCC to train workers with computer numerically controlled manufacturing skills, or Unilin Flooring, which is training workers in electronics engineering.  And these programs are working—in fact, every single graduate of the electronics engineering program at Davidson County Community College has been able to secure a job, many of them at companies like Unilin.  

“You’re part of the reason why I’m so absolutely convinced that we can accommodate the good, middle-class jobs that are coming back to the United States,” Vice President Biden said, discussing the ways that job training partnerships like this one are contributing to the Administration’s efforts to bring manufacturing jobs back from overseas. “This is a direct channel.  We’re not wasting money or time here.  We’re training individuals for jobs that are needed and are in short supply…This is about nuts and bolts, basic dollars and cents.”
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Learn more about the CC2C Tour here:

• Kicking off the Community College to Career Bus Tour
• Report from the Road: An Ambitious Plan to Train Ohio Workers for New Jobs
• A New Generation of Nurses

Vice President Joe Biden speaks at Albany Engineered Composites during event on manufacturing in Rochester, NH, Jan 26, 2012. (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)

Yesterday, Vice President Biden visited Rochester, New Hampshire to highlight the Administration’s plan to help businesses bring manufacturing jobs back to America. He made one central message clear: “America is coming back.”

As the Vice President emphasized, the policies the Obama Administration has put in place in its first three years are beginning to pay off—especially in manufacturing. The economy added 334,000 manufacturing jobs in the last two years, making it the strongest period of manufacturing job growth since the late 1990s. And now, instead of hearing about outsourcing, we’re finally starting to hear about insourcing as more and more companies realize that it makes real business sense to bring jobs back to America. 

Manufacturers are coming back because, while costs in China are rising rapidly, “American workers are the most productive workers in the world,” the Vice President said. And to reinforce that advantage, we need more partnerships between businesses and community colleges to train workers with the specialized skills employers need. 

Vice President Biden had the opportunity to see such a partnership in action in New Hampshire yesterday—a partnership that is reviving advanced manufacturing and bringing jobs back to the state. 

At the end of last year, Safran USA and Albany Engineered Composites announced a plan to build a new facility in Rochester to manufacture next-generation aircraft engine blades. They were planning to hire hundreds of skilled manufacturing workers, but job seekers in the area didn’t have the advanced manufacturing skills the companies needed. So they did something more and more businesses around the country are doing—they partnered with their local community college. Great Bay Community College worked with these companies to design a training program that would provide workers with the skills the companies explicitly need, so the companies can hire students directly out of the program.

Vice President Joe Biden tours Albany Engineered Composites with New Hampshire Gov John Lynch in Rochester, NH, Jan 26, 2012. (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)

While speaking to Safran and Albany employees and Great Bay students, the Vice President stressed that partnerships between businesses and communities like theirs are a big part of our plan to bring skilled manufacturing back to America. These partnerships are helping to bridge the gap between the skills people have and the skills employers need. 

That’s a message the President also sent in his State of the Union, when he called for a new national commitment to train workers with the skills they will need in the growing sectors of our economy. 

The Vice President concluded by reiterating his absolute certainty that America is coming back. “No one has ever won betting against America,” he said, because “when we’ve given the American people a clear shot, never, ever have they let the country down.

Imagine the last time you took a trip between two American cities.  Maybe you had to wait in line at a crowded airport; maybe you spent hours in traffic in a car or a bus.  Or maybe you made the trip on a train that had to slow down over and over because it was running on outdated tracks.

Now think about the fact that over the next 40 years, the population of the US is projected to grow by 100 million, and consider how much that’ll increase the use of our roads, airports, and rail.  Now imagine what that same trip you took will be like if we don’t build the transportation infrastructure we need to accommodate those extra travelers.

The fact is, those folks are going to travel one way or another.  But it’s up to us whether they travel on the infrastructure of the past, or whether they travel on new 21^st century transportation infrastructure that’s fast, modern, efficient, and environmentally friendly.

That’s why Vice President Biden traveled to Philadelphia today to announce a comprehensive plan to help the nation reach President Obama’s goal of giving 80 percent of Americans access to high-speed rail within 25 years.  The President is proposing to invest $53 billion over the next six years to continue construction of a national high-speed and intercity passenger rail network, which will create tens of thousands of private-sector jobs while helping to lay a new foundation for our economy.

Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood board an Amtrak Acela train in Washington, D.C., February 7, 2011. (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)

Building a national high-speed rail network is a key part of this Administration’s plan to out-build, out-innovate, and out-compete the rest of the world.  As Vice President Biden said in Philadelphia today, public infrastructure investment increases private-sector productivity, promotes growth, and creates jobs.  Transportation infrastructure is the lifeblood of the global economy; if we can’t move goods and people faster and more efficiently than our competition, there’s no way we’re going to remain the most prosperous and productive country in the world.

But why high-speed rail?  Why not build more highways and airports?

Look at it this way: in dense, highly populated regions like the Northeast Corridor, building just one mile of one lane of highway costs $40 to $50 million.  And it doesn’t get any easier when you look at airports; adding a single extra runway at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport recently cost $1.3 billion.  Worse yet, many of the airports in our most congested areas are surrounded by development and can’t be expanded, which makes it almost impossible to add more flights in and out of cities like New York.

And beyond the dollar costs of highways and airports, you have to consider their environmental cost in terms of increased carbon emissions: an Amtrak train between Philadelphia and New York can carry up to 500 passengers, and if those folks drove instead, they would use more than 1,900 gallons of gas.  Not only is that roughly double the energy used by that train, but most of it comes from foreign oil.

Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood talk about high speed rail expansion while traveling from Washington, D.C. to Philadelphia, PA on an Amtrak Acela train, February 7, 2011. (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)

But most important of all are the human costs of our aging transportation system.  As the Vice President said today, “Think about the difference rail travel makes in people’s lives. I know, because when I was in the senate, it made an incredible difference in mine. Every minute you’re not stuck in traffic, or working your way through airport security, is a minute more that you can spend with your families.”

Billions of hours were wasted last year in congestion on American highways.  And in our airports, the percentage of flights landing at least two hours late has more than doubled since 1990.  Even on the Acela Express – the fastest train in the Northeast Corridor, which the Vice President rode today – it takes 2 hours and 45 minutes to get to New York City.  That’s only about 45 minutes faster than in the 1940s.

Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood deliver remarks on building a 21st century infrastructure at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, February 7, 2011. (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)

We want to change that.  Through our investments in high-speed rail, we’re hoping to cut the time for that trip to just 96 minutes.  Over the next 25 years, our goal is to build high-speed and intercity passenger rail capacity equivalent to 1,900 miles of new highway, but with trains zipping along at up to 220 miles per hour in our most densely populated corridors.  And we’re proposing to expand faster rail service to emerging and regional corridors as well, so that we can ultimately give 80 percent of Americans access to these core high-speed rail lines.

This is already happening in countries around the world, and as the Vice President said in Philadelphia today, there’s no reason we can’t do it here.  Building a cutting-edge transportation system is the only way we’re going to keep leading the world.  So let’s start building.

Tobin Marcus is the Deputy Economic Policy Advisor in the Office of the Vice President

But it’s not just talk. We’re taking action to re-establish that leadership, and what’s happening today, down in Louisville, Kentucky, is a perfect example of how we’re going to do it.

Vice President Biden was in Louisville today to visit a General Electric facility called Appliance Park, where GE is investing $600 million to expand their manufacturing of energy-efficient appliances. But they’re not doing it alone – their investment is being supported by $24.8 million in Recovery Act funds through a program called the Section 48C Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit, or “48C” for short.

We’ve written about this program before, because it’s one of our favorite programs here at the Middle Class Task Force – it uses Recovery Act dollars to spur private-sector investments in the clean energy and energy efficiency technologies we need to tackle our energy challenges. And those investments create good jobs now, while planting the seeds for vibrant new industries in the future.

Down in Louisville, they’re having another great effect – they’re bringing green manufacturing back to America. Right now, GE makes energy-efficient water heaters in China, but thanks in part to this Recovery Act program, they’re moving production back to the states.

That’s a big turnaround. In fact, these energy-efficient water heaters are the first new product line at Appliance Park in the last 50 years, and the return of all this green manufacturing to the US is going to mean hundreds of new, high-quality jobs down in Louisville.

This is just one of the many success stories we’ve heard from the 48C program, which is leveraging private-sector investment to create good, middle-class jobs and build a domestic clean energy manufacturing sector. Our administration has proposed to build on that success by expanding the 48C program, and the Middle Class Task Force has made that expansion a priority.

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again – it’s time for Congress to enact our proposed expansion of 48C, because programs like this are the only way we’re going to keep getting changes like what’s happening down in Louisville. And that’s how we’re going to lead the world in green manufacturing.

Tobin Marcus is the Deputy Economic Policy Advisor in the Office of the Vice President

We heard today about just how effective these subsidies have been.  We had small business owners from Florida and New York telling us about how they have grown their businesses by bringing on new workers and training them.  And we heard from some of those workers, who told us about the difference these programs have made in their lives by ending tough spells of unemployment and putting their careers back on track.

We’ve heard stories like these from all over the country.  As the economy has started turning around, small business owners are starting to think about expanding, but often they’re not sure they can afford the cost of training new workers.  By helping cover the cost of new employees in those crucial first months, these subsidized jobs programs are allowing businesses to finally start putting unemployed workers back on the job.

Unfortunately, the funding for these jobs programs will expire at the end of September unless Congress passes an extension, which is under debate right now.  This Administration is continuing to push Congress to extend these programs, but stories like the ones the Vice President heard today really demonstrate the importance of that extension.  These programs are creating jobs that are making a real difference in the lives of workers – both unemployed workers who are struggling not to fall out of the middle class, and those who aspire to work their way into the middle class for the first time. 

To learn more about these subsidized jobs programs, including all the jobs they’re creating right now and why it’s so important that Congress continues them for another year, take a look at this Middle Class Task Force white paper (pdf).

Tobin Marcus is the Deputy Economic Policy Advisor in the Office of the Vice President

You don’t need us to tell you how important it is to strengthen the retirement system, but in the wake of the financial crisis and the market collapse, it’s become clearer than ever that we need to do more to help  American workers save for a secure retirement.  Many workers have seen their 401(k)s and IRAs decline by thirty or forty percent, and many more have seen the value of their home - the single most important asset for many middle-class families - fall just as far.  So families across the country are acutely feeling the need for us to do more to help provide a secure retirement for hardworking Americans.

But there are also some longer-term problems with the retirement system, and we think it’s important to address those as well.  Far too many workers don’t have access to a retirement plan through their employer, and even among Americans who have been saving since they got their first job, too many are seeing the returns on their savings eaten away by high fees, leaving them with less than they’d hoped for when they retire.

That’s why we’ve proposed this package of retirement initiatives – we want to make sure that Americans have access to good options to save for retirement.

That means making sure more workers have workplace retirement plans by requiring employers who don’t offer a retirement plan at the workplace to automatically enroll their workers in a direct-deposit IRA, to give workers an easy and effective way to save.  Workers will be able to opt out if they choose, and the smallest employers will be exempt, but this proposal will provide an important new way to save for many of the seventy eight million Americans – about half the workforce – who currently do not have a retirement plan at work.

It also means matching the savings of many families to help them save more.  We’re proposing to simplify and expand the Saver’s Credit to provide a fifty percent match on the first $1,000 of retirement savings for families making up to $65,000, and to provide a partial credit for families making up to $85,000.  So if you save $1,000, you get a tax credit for an additional $500 to help you build up your retirement savings.  And we’re proposing to make the credit fully refundable, helping families who are just starting to save a nest egg and helping lower-income families to rise into the middle class.

Finally, it means updating and strengthening regulations to make sure there are good savings options available to American workers.  Too many workers are seeing high fees erode the returns on their retirement savings year after year, so we’re proposing new regulations that would make sure American workers have all the information they need to make the best choices with their retirement savings.

We’re already getting good reactions on these proposals from retirement experts across the ideological spectrum.  For example, Nancy LeaMond, Executive Vice President of AARP, said in a statement,

“Millions of hard-working Americans don’t have access to a traditional pension or a 401(k), making it difficult for them to save for retirement. Studies have shown that when workers have the ability to enroll in an automatic workplace retirement savings plan, they are more likely to save.  AARP firmly believes that the an automatic workplace savings account or “Auto IRA” is a low-cost, high-impact way to help millions of Americans save for their retirement – experts estimate such a proposal could help 50 million Americans. The Auto IRA proposal has earned bipartisan support among leaders in Congress as well as among employers. More importantly, according to a recent AARP survey, eighty percent of Americans support for the proposal as a way to improve individuals’ retirement security.”

Robert Greenstein, Executive Director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said of our package of retirement initiatives,

“Taken together, these proposals should induce significant increases in retirement saving.  Such an increase in saving would both help families in old age and strengthen U.S. long-term economic growth by increasing the pool of national savings that can be tapped for private investment in new plant and equipment.”

The Corporation for Enterprise Development also praised our efforts to help American workers save more, writing in a statement,

“We commend the Obama Administration for prioritizing asset building as part of their solution to financial distress for America’s middle class families.  The President and his team are right to seek solutions to rising levels of asset poverty.”

Meanwhile, David John at the Heritage Foundation describes our Automatic IRA proposal as a “common-sense idea that could help to increase Americans’ retirement security.”  He writes:

“This simple, easy-to-understand way for workers to save some of their own money each payday is important, because almost 78 million American workers--about half of all workers--are employed by companies that do not offer any sort of pension plan or 401(k)-type retirement saving plan. … The Automatic IRA has wide bipartisan support from the left and right and was endorsed in 2008 by both the McCain and Obama campaigns. It is a simple, cross-ideological, and practical solution to a serious problem.”

Of course, we don’t think these proposals will solve the problem of retirement insecurity overnight; especially in the aftermath of the market crash, it will take time and hard work for Americans to build up their retirement savings.  But we believe these initiatives are an important step toward making sure that American workers have good choices to save for the secure retirement they deserve.

Tobin Marcus is the Assistant to the Chief Economist for the Vice President