Vice President Kamala Harris plans to announce Friday what her campaign is describing as a four-year plan to lower housing costs, including $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time homeowners and actions aimed at spurring the construction of new housing, including tax incentives for building starter homes.
Harris intends to announce this plan as a part of a broader economic policy speech in North Carolina. As CNN has previously reported, the vice president is also announcing a proposal for a federal ban on price gouging aimed at lowering grocery costs.
Campaign officials had also said that she plans to address on Friday prescription drug prices in her policy rollout. That had been the focus of a Thursday event in Maryland, where Harris and President Joe Biden appeared together on stage for the first time since the president dropped out of the 2024 race.
High costs of housing and food have been some of the most stubborn economic challenges for the Biden-Harris administration, as Biden has received low marks on his handling of the economy more broadly. White House officials in recent days have touted falling inflation but also acknowledged that prices for many goods remain too high, creating a disconnect between bright spots in the economy and public sentiment.
“We hear you. The president hears you. The vice president hears you,” Council of Economic Advisers chairman Jared Bernstein said Wednesday in a White House news briefing when asked about Americans who do not believe the economy is in better shape now than when Biden first took office.
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