Since his 2020 campaign, President Joe Biden highlighted the Build Back Better strategy, which considered various social and economic perspectives, including social justice with a focus on groups considered disadvantaged, such as Latinos.
President Biden’s strategy includes several economic plans that this newspaper has reported, under the Justice40 program, which seeks to ensure that at least 40% of budgets are allocated to disadvantaged social groups, such as some Latino populations.
In an exclusive interview, Treasury Undersecretary Wally Adeyemo explains that the Biden-Harris Administration, as well as Secretary Janet Yellen, have focused efforts on an economy that works for all Americans.
“To achieve this we have to focus specifically on Americans who have traditionally been excluded and left behind in the economy,” he said. “And the way the secretary – who is one of the world’s leading economists – puts it is that the biggest potential benefit for the American economy is to unlock the potential opportunity for people who want to participate, but haven’t had the chance. to do so because of discrimination.”
He added that the Latino community fits precisely into this principle of systemic disadvantage, including immigrants, who come to the US “very interested in participating, in building the economy.”
“[Es un beneficio] both for their families and for themselves, but also for the country,” he highlighted. “For this reason, the president and vice president [Kamala] Harris have been so focused on making sure we implement policies that help unlock the potential of this community.”
Adeyemo was sworn in as undersecretary on March 26, 2021 and is the second official and chief operating officer of the Treasury Department and, among other challenges, was responsible for the American Rescue Plan due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Currently, among other assignments, he oversees the implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). During the Barack Obama Administration, the deputy secretary was the first chief of staff of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Of all these programs that the Biden Administration has implemented, which one do you consider to have been the most successful?
I think one that people don’t pay enough attention to, but I think is having real success is the emergency capital investment program, which is a program that has allocated billions of dollars and invested them in community development , minority-owned financial institutions and depository institutions.
The Biden-Harris Administration has invested $1.6 billion in Latino-owned and Latino-majority-owned financial institutions in this country to enable them to lend to small businesses and the communities in which they are located. This $1.6 billion investment should unlock over the next decade $58 billion in investments these banks and financial institutions can make in their communities.
The reason this is important is because one of the things that Latinos have done in this country is open small businesses. And throughout the Biden-Harris Administration, we have seen a 40% increase in the number of Latinos in small businesses in this country, due to policies like this.
When I talk to these business owners, what they also often say is that the hardest thing for them is to go to a bank and get access to capital. ‘I can’t get a loan, because there is a language barrier or they don’t understand my business or they tell me I don’t have a track record.’ [Bueno, ahora] Those who have received this capital injection from the Biden-Harris Administration will be more likely to lend money to those companies, allowing them to grow over time. And what we have to remember is that the growth of these Latino-owned businesses is not only good for the Latino community, but it’s good for the entire economy, because not only do they employ those entrepreneurs, but they all employ Americans from all over the world. colors, races, ethnicities and creeds.
There’s another show I was reading about. I have to confess that I didn’t know much about this topic. The Economic Opportunity Coalition is very interesting, because it is a combination of work that is done with the Department in which it collaborates with Vice President Harris’ office, as I understand it. Can you tell us a little more about this program?
One of the first issues the vice president raised was the idea of how do we make sure that not only does the government make investments in, for example, Latino-owned banks and financial institutions, but also how do we get some of the largest companies in the country do the same thing, because ultimately, for these companies, their customers are members of the Latino community, members of the African-American community. They live in rural areas, they live in urban areas. So how do we get these institutions to work with the government to make investments in these communities? From this, the vice president created the Economic Opportunities Coalition, made up of some of the largest companies. The country’s largest companies, from JP Morgan to Google […] who are coming together to work with the federal government to make investments in financial institutions, like the Latino banks that I mentioned, but also to help small businesses in these communities be part of their supply chains.
[…] That is helping to build an economy that works not only for the Latino community, but for all Americans. And I think we’ve seen that success reflected in the number of small businesses that have been created. […]. I think one of the things we’re most proud of is that over the course of the last three years, we’ve seen 19 million small business applications […] and the number of small businesses that have been started by Latinos.
I know that the strategy faces various problems, but what has been the most challenging program to develop at this time for Latino communities and why?
I think one of the things that the president and vice president focused a lot on during the pandemic was making sure that we provided assistance to families so they could support their children, to support their families. One of the things we did was implement the Advanced Child Tax Credit. [Las familias] They received a check every month on the same day to ensure they could help pay for everything from food to school books to the materials they needed to get through the pandemic. Implementing it was difficult for several reasons. One was because of language barriers, but also because several people in the communities simply did not know about the program. Ultimately, what we did with the advanced Child Tax Credit was work closely with the community, with groups like UnidosUS and Catholic Church to United Way […].
Unfortunately, Republicans in Congress blocked our attempts to continue this program and I know that it is something that the president and vice president continue to push, because it has a dramatic impact, not only in reducing Latino child poverty, but in reducing child poverty throughout the country.
So, do you think that the Child Tax Credit should return in a certain way? Because, given the results it has had, it would be important for the administration to recover it at a certain time.
I completely agree and I think the president and vice president have made it clear that this is something that they are going to continue to propose and our hope is that we can get Congress to approve it.
You have mentioned the limitations in the language to serve the Hispanic or Latino population. There are people who find it difficult to apply for programs. How do you face this challenge?
We did two things, one was to work with trusted advocates in the community, […] but the other thing that we’ve done in government, particularly here at the Treasury Department, is invest in making sure that everything is not only in English, not only in Spanish, but, frankly, we’ve done things in several different languages to to be able to make sure that people who live in the United States or grow up have the ability to interact with the government.
This includes a new initiative we have launched called [Treasury] Direct. It is a free avenue for people to file their taxes, especially people who have simple taxes, and is available in 24 states, including California, Nevada and Arizona. It is not only available in English, but also in Spanish. It is not only available on your computer but also on your mobile phone. […] It’s free and easy to use, and we’ve launched it not only in English, but in Spanish because we want to make sure that Spanish speakers have the ability to use this product to save money and time. And in addition to filing your taxes and paying the amount you owe, it also allows you to access things like the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit as soon as possible.
Has it been problematic to implement all of these programs in red states?
I think one of the things that the president and vice president have focused on is doing everything we can in the most bipartisan way possible. And we’ve been successful in doing this by working not only with Democrats, but also with Republicans in state offices who are trying to get resources to the people who live in their states.
In addition to working with governors, we’re also working with mayors and with community groups, because ultimately, while government plays an important role, one of the things we know is that, across the country, community organizations at Local level also play an important role.
So while there have been some states that haven’t been as interested in participating in things like [Treasury Direct]what we find now is that there are 24 states across the country that represent the majority of Americans. That is allowing us to launch a direct application program. That includes, as I mentioned, states like Arizona and Nevada, but in California, Pennsylvania and Texas it has happened in a way that is going to mean that people in those states will have access to free services that will save them time.
Our goal is to make sure that every American, or anyone living in the United States, whether middle class or working class, has access to things like File Direct [para el pago de impuestos] in the future and not only in English, but also in Spanish.
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