Biden to Chair New 'White House Task Force on Working Families'

Posted by Faiz Shakir, Think Progress at 11:03 AM on December 21, 2008.

President Barack Obama will form a "White House Task Force on Working Families," to be chaired by Vice President Joe Biden. According to a transition team press release, "The Task Force will be a major initiative targeted at raising the living standards of middle-class, working families in America." On ABC's This Week, Biden explained:

My focus is going to be, I'm going to chair this group and it is designed to do the one thing we use as a yardstick of economic success of our administration, is the middle class growing? Is the middle class getting better? Is the middle class no longer being left behind? And we'll look at everything from college affordability to after-school programs. The things that affect people's daily lives. I will be the guy honchoing that policy.

The task force will be comprised of the Secretaries of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Commerce, as well as the Directors of the National Economic Council, the Office of Management and Budget, the Domestic Policy Council, and the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors. It will conduct outreach sessions with representatives of labor, business, and the advocacy communities.

Tagged as: economy, obama, white house, biden, middle class, task force

Faiz Shakir is the Research Director at the Center for American Progress and serves as Editor of ThinkProgress.org and The Progress Report.