The Congressional Black Caucus [CBC] said last week its priorities for Black Americans would be included in President Joe Biden’s $1.75 trillion social safety net bill.   

CBC Chair Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH) said she and other members of the Caucus spoke to Biden at the White House to negotiate parts of Build Back Better, according to NBC News.   

“We’re not there yet,” she said at a news conference on Wednesday. “But shortly, we will be there, and we will see many of our priorities there. We will see many of the investments that we have been fighting for and working for and leading at the top of that list.”   

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Beatty is pushing for $150 billion in funding for housing and vouchers, billions of dollars to HBCUs, child care, extended child tax credit and medical coverage for seniors and Medicaid recipients in the bill.   

“We’re going to get more money into HBCUs than we’ve had in the history of this Congress,” Beatty said. “Whether it is $1.7 or $2 trillion, that is a significant amount of investments in our community.”   

House Majority Whip James Clyburn, whose endorsement of Biden during last year’s primary helped turn his campaign around and handed him the Black vote, has been working with the president to get key points in the bill.   

“The President was very clear that … he needed to demonstrate to us, and he said this publicly, that because of the work of Jim Clyburn, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, the number of Black people who came out and voted in our districts because of the issues that we bring forth, whether we’re agreeing with one another and not, it’s all how progress happens,” Beatty said.  

Democrats have faced an uphill battle to pass the Build Back Better plan as they have had to scale back or remove popular policies, such as Medicare expansion and paid family leave, as a way to get it passed in Congress.