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Biden will outline details of his Safer America Plan in a visit
to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The $37 billion will be included
in his budget request to Congress for fiscal 2023, which begins
Oct. 1.
His plans include $13 billion over the next five years to hire
and train an additional 100,000 police officers, a White House
fact sheet said.
Biden has long rejected some progressive Democrats' drive to
"defund the police." Polls show Americans consider crime one of
the top challenges facing the country, and Biden is attempting
to bolster Democrats in what are expected to be closely fought
midterm elections in November that will determine whether they
remain in control of Congress.
Biden would spend $3 billion to help communities clear court
backlogs and set up task forces to share intelligence, with an
eye toward reducing gun violence. His plan would also impose
tougher penalties for fentanyl trafficking amid an epidemic of
drug overdoses.
To tackle organized retail theft, the plan calls on Congress to
pass legislation to require online marketplaces like Amazon to
verify third-party sellers’ information, and to impose liability
on online marketplaces for the sale of stolen goods on their
platforms.
Biden's plan establishes a $15 billion grant program called
Accelerating Justice System Reform that cities and states could
use over the next 10 years to pursue strategies to prevent
violent crime and to ease the burden on police by identifying
non-violent situations that may merit a public-health response,
the White House said.
(Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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