AUGUSTA — First lady Jill Biden toured an East Georgia technical college on Tuesday to highlight the White House’s economic policies on workforce development.
The visit by Biden and other top officials to Augusta Technical College is part of a national blitz to tout President Joe Biden’s economic agenda — or “Bidenomics” — and how billions in federal investment will grow jobs and train the next generation of workers. In May, Augusta was named as one of five “Workforce Hubs” across the country, which the White House has said will train workers for jobs in advanced manufacturing and clean energy.
During the first lady’s stop at Augusta Tech, middle schoolers soldered light-up badges of the school’s mascot, a cougar, as part of a three-day manufacturing summer camp. When she tried her hand at soldering, Biden joked: “I’m not going to get a job at this rate,” after putting down her soldering iron, surrounded by wisps of smoke.
But many Americans will get high-paying jobs, officials say, as the U.S. is seeing a manufacturing boom in electric vehicles, green energy and semiconductors. That’s something President Biden is counting on to help propel his 2024 re-election campaign.
“He understands the middle class, because he’s from the middle class,” Jill Biden said of the president. “And that’s why he’s strengthening communities like Augusta.”
The first lady on Tuesday also stopped at a workforce hub in Pittsburgh, following a similar visit in recent days in Columbus, Ohio.
The Biden administration’s Republican critics, meanwhile, have blasted federal incentives, including those in the Democrats’ signature health and climate bill, as Washington picking economic winners and losers.
The Augusta Workforce Hub is led by a partnership between the city’s mayor, Garnett Johnson, and a trio of regional education institutions: Augusta Technical College, Aiken Technical College in South Carolina and Richmond County Public Schools. The initiative focuses on multiple manufacturing sectors, including battery and EVs, which are becoming big business across the Peach State.
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
“Soon they’ll be manufacturing our electric vehicles, building out semiconductors and developing the next big things to solve the next big challenges facing our country,” said Miguel Cordona, U.S. Secretary of Education.
Georgia has emerged as one of the largest beneficiaries of the domestic investment in the EV supply chain, landing multibillion factories from Hyundai Motor Group and EV startup Rivian. Both projects are expected to employ several thousand workers and spur thousands of ancillary and supplier jobs.
“We’re introducing students to careers they might not have known existed,” Cordona said.
The Biden Administration has pumped billions of dollars into manufacturing and infrastructure initiatives, and the White House touts that companies have committed $33 billion in investments across Georgia since the beginning of the Biden-Harris Administration. That list includes Solvay Specialty Polymers, which announced in November it will build an EV battery parts plant in Augusta with 100 workers after receiving an $178 million federal grant.
The incentives and grants have come under fire from prominent Republicans, including Gov. Brian Kemp. Kemp argues the EV wave started before Biden took office. Kemp credits his own administration’s work with Georgia’s EV success, pointing to the state’s workforce and billions of dollars in tax abatements and various incentives. Since 2020, EV makers and their suppliers have announced more than 40 projects in Georgia totaling more than 28,400 announced jobs and $22.7 billion in anticipated investment, according to Kemp’s office.
Kemp also accused Democrats of putting “their thumb on the scale” by picking which companies to support.
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