For more than 30 years, cities have been barred from leveraging our buying power to put local people to work on public projects. The regressive Reagan-era ban on local hire has hurt workers and stymied our economies. But last month, after unveiling a major infrastructure spending plan in March, the Department of Transportation announced the revival of a local hiring pilot program.
Across the country, cities and states are working hard to rebuild communities and recover from the devastating impacts of the pandemic on working families.
But something is blocking our road to a just recovery: the local hire ban, an arcane rule that prevents cities and states’ from creating local jobs with public infrastructure dollars.
On March 2, our coalition of over 160 public officials, community groups, unions, advocates, and academics launched a campaign to overturn this ban.
Watch our press conference, featuring mayors, advocates, and public officials from across the country:
Earlier this month, Congress made a historic investment in our nation’s physical infrastructure by passing the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). This legislation will help communities across the country rebuild their roads and bridges, railways, public transit systems, airports, water systems, and broadband networks, among many other projects, and promises to add an average of 2 million jobs per year over the next decade. The legislation also contains some important investments in climate infrastructure—including a provision from Jobs to Move America around local hire.
Some of the highlights of the IIJA include: $110 billion to repair highways, bridges, and roads; $65 billion to improve broadband networks for rural and low-income communities; $39 billion to modernize our public transit systems, which will help them address accessibility and procure trains and buses, including zero-emission buses; and $7.5 billion to invest in electric vehicle charging infrastructure.