MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Biden administration turned its attention to Memphis and the city’s iconic role in the country’s labor movement.
Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, and Labor Secretary Martin Walsh paid the city a visit Thursday. Emhoff visited the Dr. Benjamin L. Hooks Job Corps Center to discuss getting women good jobs and the role infrastructure plays in America’s future.
Emhoff and Walsh spoke to the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic and the difficulties training and finding jobs for the American workforce.
President Biden’s job plan would invest around $2.3 trillion. That kind of development could benefit Memphis, where local income homes continue to struggle.
“With the American jobs plan, it’s an investment in our future, in our workforce,” Emhoff said. “We can’t just sit on our hands and expect everything to be okay. We need to invest in ourselves.”
Tennessee Rep. Steve Cohen and Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland were among those attending the event.
“We’re really looking forward to hearing how the Biden-Harris administration plans to build on this work even more,” Strickland said.
Walsh was also scheduled to stop by the Martin Luther King Junior Labor Center downtown. The building is home to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the union behind the famous sanitation strike of 1968.
Emhoff and Walsh have been traveling the country promoting vaccination efforts and the American Jobs and American Families plans. The trip to Memphis marked Emhoff’s 13th stop in the first 100 days of the Biden-Harris presidency.
President Joe Biden says his proposals will help put people back to work. Critics argue that the administration is spending too much money.
