Invest in vulnerable and historically underserved communities
A nation is only as strong as the communities within it. Yet for too long, rural and inner city America have been abandoned. Factories have been shuttered, hospitals have been closed, schools have gone chronically underfunded, housing projects have been left in disrepair, and young people have been forced to leave their homes in search of opportunity elsewhere. Too often, prosperity has only been confined to affluent communities.
For centuries, Black Americans have been denied wealth, privilege, opportunity, and freedom—first through slavery, then through segregation, redlining, mass incarceration, and police brutality.
Rural and working-class Americans have also been abandoned by the powers that be. The mass exodus of industry decimated the Rust Belt, while rural communities continue to suffer from inadequate infrastructure and strained resources.
Together, these communities have shaped the nation’s backbone and its culture—driving our economy, fueling our food and energy systems, advancing social and political change, and influencing the music, language, style, and traditions that define American life.
The time has come for the abandoned working-class communities of America to stand together in solidarity, regardless of race, color, or creed. We owe it to the hardworking men and women of these communities to do everything in our power to help them reach a place of prosperity, safety, and stability. Investing in these communities strengthens the economy, creates jobs, and restores pride in places too often forgotten by those in Washington.
Project 2029 is committed to ensuring Americans from every walk of life have a seat at the table of building the future of this nation. The future must include investing in our vulnerable and historically underserved communities by:
Restoring the implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act by re-issuing Executive Order 14052. This will help to ensure that public funds are used efficiently to avoid waste, enhance U.S. economic competitiveness through Made-in-America provisions, create good-paying union jobs, mandate that 40% of the benefits from federal climate and clean energy investments reach disadvantaged communities, and foster collaboration with state, local, tribal, and territorial governments.
Reconnecting communities that were racially segregated and damaged due to highway construction by expanding and accelerating the Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program. This will ensure that transportation investments repair the damage caused by discriminatory infrastructure decisions. The Department of Transportation shall prioritize reconnection projects in historically marginalized neighborhoods, embed equity criteria across all major grant programs, and coordinate with the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Environmental Protection Agency to align housing and environmental cleanup resources. Actions must include fast-tracking qualifying projects, creating rapid microgrants for community-led improvements, and launching a national mapping tool to track progress—making community reconnection a cornerstone of restoring opportunity and economic stability in long-neglected places.
Invoking the Defense Production Act to ramp up broadband deployment. This will allow federal agencies to use emergency funds to treat high-speed internet as essential infrastructure critical to national security, which will expedite permitting and spectrum access, and mobilize federal agencies to deliver reliable internet service to underserved communities.
Investing in rural healthcare by directing federal agencies to leverage existing authorities and funding streams. This includes expanding and reallocating resources to federally qualified health centers serving rural and underserved communities under Section 330 of the Public Service Health Act, and instructing HRSA to prioritize grants, technical assistance, and staffing support for rural clinics, including support for rural residency training programs in primary care, mobile units, and telehealth initiatives using appropriated funds. Similarly, under 42 U.S.C. § 254d, the National Health Service Corps must deploy existing scholarship and loan repayment programs to incentivize physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants to serve in rural areas immediately, effectively increasing the rural clinician-to-patient ratio without awaiting new legislation.
Advancing racial equity and support for underserved communities through the federal government by restoring Executive Orders 13985 and 14019. These orders direct all federal agencies to conduct a 200-day review of their programs and policies to identify barriers to access and systemic inequities; they also require agencies to develop concrete action plans to address the identified barriers and to actively engage underserved communities in policymaking and program design.
