WASHINGTON: Former President Joe Biden has decided to build his presidential library in Delaware and has tapped a group of former aides, friends and political allies to begin the heavy lift of fundraising and finding a site for the museum and archive.
The Joe and Jill Biden Foundation this past week approved a 13-person governance board that is charged with steering the project. The board includes former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, longtime adviser Steve Ricchetti, prolific Democratic fundraiser Rufus Gifford and others with deep ties to the one-term president and his wife.
Biden’s library team has the daunting task of raising money for the 46th president’s legacy project at a moment when his party has become fragmented about the way ahead and many big Democratic donors have stopped writing checks.
It also remains to be seen whether corporations and institutional donors that have historically donated to presidential library projects — regardless of the party of the former president — will be more hesitant to contribute, with President Donald Trumpmaligning Biden on a daily basis and savaging groups he deems left-leaning.
The political climate has changed
“There’s certainly folks — folks who may have been not thinking about those kinds of issues who are starting to think about them,” Gifford, who was named chairman of the library board, told The Associated Press. “That being said ... we’re not going to create a budget, we’re not going to set a goal for ourselves that we don’t believe we can hit.”
The cost of presidential libraries has soared over the decades.
The George H.W. Bush library’s construction cost came in at about $43 million when it opened in 1997. Bill Clinton’s cost about $165 million. George W. Bush’s team met its $500 million fundraising goal before the library was dedicated.
The Obama Foundation has set a whopping $1.6 billion fundraising goal for construction, sustaining global programming and seeding an endowment for the Chicago presidential center that is slated to open next year.
Biden’s library team is still in the early stages of planning, but Gifford predicted that the cost of the project would probably “end up somewhere in the middle” of the Obama Presidential Center and the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.
Biden advisers have met with officials operating 12 of the 13 presidential libraries with a bricks and mortar presence that the National Archives and Records Administration manages. (They skipped the Herbert Hoover library in Iowa, which is closed for renovations). They’ve also met Obama library officials to discuss programming and location considerations and have begun talks with Delaware leaders to assess potential partnerships.
Private money builds them
Construction and support for programming for the libraries are paid for with private funds donated to the nonprofit organizations established by the former president.
The initial vision is for the Biden library to include an immersive museum detailing Biden’s four years in office.
The Bidens also want it to be a hub for leadership, service and civic engagement that will include educational and event space to host policy gatherings.
Biden, who ended his bid for a second White House term 107 days before last year’s election, has been relatively slow to move on presidential library planning compared with most of his recent predecessors.
Clinton announced Little Rock, Arkansas, would host his library weeks into his second term. Barack Obama selected Jackson Park on Chicago’s South Side as the site for his presidential center before he left office, and George W. Bush selected Southern Methodist University in Dallas before finishing his second term.
One-termer George H.W. Bush announced in 1991, more than a year before he would lose his reelection bid, that he would establish his presidential library at Texas A&M University after he left office.
Trump taps legal settlements for his
Trump was mostly quiet about plans for a presidential library after losing to Biden in 2020 and has remained so since his return to the White House this year. But the Republican has won millions of dollars in lawsuits against Paramount Global, ABC News, Meta and X in which parts of those settlements are directed for a future Trump library.
Trump has also accepted a free Air Force One replacement from the Qatar government. He says the $400 million plane would be donated to his future presidential library, similar to how the Boeing 707 used by President Ronald Reagan was decommissioned and put on display as a museum piece, once he leaves office.
Others named to Biden’s library board are former senior White House aides Elizabeth Alexander, Julissa Reynoso Pantaleón and Cedric Richmond; David Cohen, a former ambassador to Canada and telecom executive; Tatiana Brandt Copeland, a Delaware philanthropist; Jeff Peck, Biden Foundation treasurer and former Senate aide; Fred C. Sears II, Biden’s longtime friend; former Labor Secretary Marty Walsh; former Office of Management and Budget director Shalanda Young; and former Delaware Gov. Jack Markell.
Biden has deep ties to Pennsylvania but ultimately settled on Delaware, the state that was the launching pad for his political career. He was first elected to the New Castle County Council in 1970 and spent 36 years representing Delaware in the Senate before serving as Obama’s vice president.
The president was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he lived until age 10. He left when his father, struggling to make ends meet, moved the family to Delaware after landing a job there selling cars.
Working-class Scranton became a touchstone in Biden’s political narrative during his long political career. He also served as a professor at the University of Pennsylvania after his vice presidency, leading a center on diplomacy and global engagement at the school named after him.
Gifford said ultimately the Bidens felt that Delaware was where the library should be because the state has “propelled his entire political career.”
Elected officials in Delaware are cheering Biden’s move.
“To Delaware, he will always be our favorite son,” Gov. Matt Meyer said. “The new presidential library here in Delaware will give future generations the chance to see his story of resilience, family, and never forgetting your roots.”
Biden launches a fundraising push to build his presidential library in Delaware
https://arab.news/b94n5
Biden launches a fundraising push to build his presidential library in Delaware
- The Joe and Jill Biden Foundation this past week approved a 13-person governance board that is charged with steering the project
- The cost of presidential libraries has soared over the decades
94 million need cataract surgery, but access lacking: WHO
- Of the 94 million affected, fewer than 20 percent are blind, while the rest suffer from impaired vision
GENEVA: More than 94 million people suffer from cataracts, but half of them do not have access to the surgery needed to fix it, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.
Cataracts — the clouding of the eye’s lens that causes blurred vision and can lead to blindness — are on the rise as populations get older, with age being the main risk factor.
“Cataract surgery — a simple, 15-minute procedure — is one of the most cost-effective medical procedures, providing immediate and lasting restoration of sight,” the WHO said.
It is one of the most frequently performed surgeries undertaken in high-income countries.
However, “half of the world’s population in need of cataract surgery don’t have access to it,” said Stuart Keel, the UN health agency’s technical lead for eye care.
The situation is worst in the WHO’s Africa region, where three in four people needing cataract surgery remain untreated.
In Kenya, at the current rate, 77 percent of people needing cataract surgery are likely to die with their cataract blindness or vision impairment, said Keel.
Across all regions, women consistently experience lower access to care than men.
Of the 94 million affected, fewer than 20 percent are blind, while the rest suffer from impaired vision.
- 2030 vision -
The WHO said that over the past two decades, global cataract surgery coverage had increased by 15 percent.
In 2021, WHO member states set a target of a 30-percent increase by 2030.
However, current modelling predicts that cataract surgery coverage will rise by only about 8.4 percent this decade.
To close the gap, the WHO urged countries to integrate eye examinations into primary health care and invest in the required surgical equipment.
States should also expand the eye-care workforce, training surgeons in a standardised manner and then distributing them throughout the country, notably outside major cities.
The WHO was on Wednesday launching new guidance for countries on how to provide quality cataract surgery services.
It will also issue guidance to help support workforce development.
Keel said the main issue was capacity and financing.
“We do need money invested to get rid of this backlog, which is nearly 100 million people,” he told a press conference.
While age is the primary risk factor for cataracts, others include prolonged UV-B light exposure, tobacco use, prolonged corticosteroid use and diabetes.
Keel urged people to keep up regular eye checks as they get older, with most problems able to be either prevented or diagnosed and treated.
The cost of the new lens that goes inside the eye can be under $100.
However, out-of-pocket costs can be higher when not covered by health insurance.
“Cataract surgery is one of the most powerful tools we have to restore vision and transform lives,” said Devora Kestel, head of the WHO’s noncommunicable diseases and mental health department.
“When people regain their sight, they regain independence, dignity, and opportunity.”
