FOLLOWING EAST SIDE’S TRAGIC MASS SHOOTING, SCHUMER MAKES DIRECT APPEAL TO PRESIDENT BIDEN FOR WESTERN NEW YORK TO BE SELECTED FOR TENS OF MILLIONS IN FED INVESTMENT IN EDA REGIONAL CHALLENGE AWARD; SCHUMER SAYS FEDERAL $$$ WOULD REVITALIZE BUFFALO’S EAST SIDE BY TRAINING OVER 1,600 WORKERS FOR GOOD-PAYING MANUFACTURING JOBS, CLEANING UP INDUSTRIAL SITES, ATTRACTING NEW EMPLOYERS, & MAKING WNY AMERICA’S NEXT MAJOR MANUFACTURING & TECH HUB

Schumer Directly Lobbied President Biden For Feds To Select WNY For Up To A $100 Million Grant To Transform The East Side And WNY Landscape By Bringing Major Tech Investment And Workforce Training To Underserved Communities

WNY Advanced Manufacturing Cluster Would Scale Up Innovation, Advance Inclusive Workforce Development, And Develop Infrastructure To Rapidly Expand The Growing Advanced Manufacturing Sector

Schumer To Biden: EDA Regional Challenge Award Can Transform Buffalo’s East Side, Boosting Community, Creating Thousands Of Good-Paying Jobs, And Revitalizing WNY As A Regional Tech Hub

After standing alongside President Biden in solidarity with Buffalo following the horrific mass shooting at the Tops Market on Jefferson Avenue, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer launched a major push to deliver tens of millions of dollars in federal investment to strengthen Buffalo’s East Side through the Western New York Advanced Manufacturing Cluster project, which is a finalist in the Economic Development Administration’s (EDA) Regional Challenge. Building on months of advocacy, Schumer revealed that he personally lobbied President Biden to push the feds to select WNY’s project, which prioritizes uplifting the East Side community by rectifying years of disinvestment, training over 1,600 workers for good-paying manufacturing jobs, cleaning up industrial sites on the East Side to attract new investment, and bringing manufacturing back from overseas to Western New York.

“I spoke directly to the President on the transformational impact this major federal investment from the EDA’s Regional Challenge would have on improving the lives of the people of the East Side. One of the best ways to uplift the community is to rectify decades of underinvestment in these neighborhoods by bringing good-paying jobs, new businesses, and workforce training to create new economic opportunity for the East Side’s families and residents,” said Senator Schumer. “Buffalo’s East Side needs robust investment to heal and build for the future. This funding would make sure that the East Side community and Western New York workers are the ones who secure training and good-paying jobs and bring manufacturing back to America to build our nation’s future.”

Schumer explained that the Western New York Advanced Manufacturing Cluster proposal, submitted by the Western New York Regional Economic Development Council (WNYREDC), would help train over 1,600 individuals for careers in manufacturing and tech over a three-year period through developing a more diverse, highly skilled workforce to expand opportunity for more workers to access good-paying and union jobs, with a focus on providing opportunities to East Side residents. Schumer also explained how the project would reverse environmental degradation left by the region’s industrial past by cleaning up and revitalizing properties on the East Side to attract new investment and employers to the area. In his pitch to President Biden, Schumer explained how the project would work to fill gaps in the Western NY innovation ecosystem that will enable the region to become a national hub in key industries like vaccine production, utility infrastructure components, industrial gases, and precision motion control, all with a focus of bringing manufacturing back to America and connecting more workers, including from the East Side, to new, good-paying jobs.

Schumer has been a relentless advocate for promoting this major federal investment for Western New York and Buffalo’s East Side communities. Last year, he personally called Commerce Secretary Raimondo to secure WNY’s spot on the shortlist as a finalist for the award and this past April, he personally visited the Northland Workforce Training Center on the East Side to double down on his efforts to secure this funding for Buffalo. The project is supported by a vast coalition of regional stakeholders, including the University at Buffalo, Invest Buffalo Niagara, Launch NY, Buffalo Manufacturing Works, Northland Workforce Training Center, Goodwill of Western New York, SUNY Alfred, the Buffalo Urban Development Corporation, and many more.

In addition to his push for the EDA Regional Challenge award, Schumer has also highlighted bold new federal investment slated for research and development (R&D), entrepreneurship, tech training and education, and domestic manufacturing as a part of his U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) that can also benefit Buffalo’s East Side and Western New York and work in unison with their ongoing pursuits to expand the advanced manufacturing sector, boost training for underserved workers, and make the region into a national tech hub. His USICA bill includes the creation of a new regional technology hub program, which Western New York is primed to compete for by building off of the efforts of the Western New York Advanced Manufacturing Cluster proposal. Schumer is actively working to pass the innovation and competition bill into law this summer.

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