As the final days of his administration draw to a close, President Joe Biden looks back on his achievements, especially those in his adopted home state of Pennsylvania.
Others notice it too.
“With the unemployment rate less than half since President Biden took office and nearly $30 billion invested in public infrastructure, clean energy and manufacturing, the Biden-Harris administration has delivered benefits for Pennsylvanians,” he said Jaime Harrisonchairman of the Democratic National Committee.
“As President Biden leaves office, Pennsylvania is stronger than ever with hundreds of thousands of new jobs – including high-wage union jobs, caps on prescription drug costs, and the forgiveness of billions of dollars in student loans for Pennsylvanians. The investments and commitment the Biden administration has made in Pennsylvania will benefit the commonwealth for decades to come.”
Biden will deliver his farewell address to the nation in the Oval Office tonight at 8 p.m. ET.
The president says he has always believed that in public service, one should ask: “Did we leave the country in better shape than we found it?”
The answer “is a resounding ‘yes,'” he said at the DNC holiday event in December. “Thanks to all of you gathered here, we can be proud that we are leaving America today in a better place than when we arrived here four years ago,” Biden said.
Examples include:
Employment
Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate has dropped to approximately 3.5% (November 2024). When President Biden took office, Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate was 7.4%.
Pennsylvania added 565,300 jobs, including over 30,000 jobs in the energy industrysince President Biden took office (as of November 2024), after the loss of 275.3 thousand jobs during Trump’s first term.
Investment
Under the Biden administration, private companies in Pennsylvania have made the announcement $7 billion in neat energy and manufacturing investments.
This was announced by the Biden administration $22.2 billion in public infrastructure investments in Pennsylvania.
President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act created two recent regional neat hydrogen energy centers in Pennsylvania. A neat hydrogen hub is expected to be built in the Philadelphia region 20,000 jobs in trade unionsand an Appalachian junction covering southwestern Pennsylvania is expected to be established 21,000 jobs.
Healthcare
Pennsylvania’s Affordable Care Act marketplace enrollment has increased to 472,000up from 332,000 in 2020
Over 2.4 million Pennsylvania seniors will benefit from insulin capped at $35 per month, a $2,000 cap on annual prescription costs and Medicare negotiations on universal medicines thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act. 830,000 Pennsylvania Medicare beneficiaries will save on average $467 per year on prescription drug costs.
Thanks to President Biden’s American Rescue Plan in Pennsylvania expanded Medicaid postpartum coverage from two months to 12 months to improve the mother’s health.
Education
162,000 Pennsylvanians have had enough $6.4 billion student debt forgiven under the Biden-Harris administration.
