Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo
President Biden’s Investing in America agenda includes the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act. Each of these laws makes historic investments in major sectors of the U.S. economy that will benefit communities across the country through funding projects and providing unique tax credits to businesses and individuals. While the agenda is being carried out by numerous federal agencies, the U.S. Department of Treasury is tasked with a large part of making the financing work in a way that delivers for all Americans.
As Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, Wally Adeyemo serves as its number two official and chief operating officer. He has taken the lead on implementing many of these efforts while supporting the department’s fundamental mission of promoting economic growth and ensuring the financial security of the United States.
I recently had the opportunity to speak with Deputy Secretary Adeyemo about his priorities and efforts to support businesses including those in underserved communities. Below is our conversation, edited for clarity.
Rhett Buttle: In your role the past three years, what have been some of yours and the department’s key priorities that are important to the private sector?
Deputy Secretary Adeyemo: Over the last three years we’ve been focused on implementing President Biden’s strategy of investing at home and rebuilding our alliances abroad. The historic investments in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Chips and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act have helped to crowd in private capital from the United States and around the world. This is helping to create a favorable environment for U.S. businesses at home and abroad. In addition to the success of our largest companies, we are incredibly proud of the fact that we’ve seen more small businesses started during this Administration than at any time in history.
Rhett Buttle: The Investing in America Agenda has spurred private sector investment across the country. What role does the Treasury play in implementing the Investing in America agenda? Are there specific components of these policies that you would highlight?
Deputy Secretary Adeyemo: The Treasury Department plays a critical role in designing the Inflation Reduction Act climate and Chips tax credits. The President’s actions have already driven more than $850 billion in announced investments in the U.S. economy, accelerating the clean energy transition and building out a domestic supply chain for critical technologies. These investments are helping to drive the growth of our economy, which is growing twice as fast as any of our G-7 peers.
Rhett Buttle: The Inflation Reduction Act also established many tax credits, especially ones in the clean energy space. Can you describe how they are and how businesses – including small business – should think about these credits?
Deputy Secretary Adeyemo: The Inflation Reduction Act created new incentives for businesses to invest in clean energy and lower energy costs for themselves and their customers. Importantly, the law created two new credit delivery mechanisms—direct pay and transferability—that allow you to unlock the value of certain tax credits even if you don’t have any tax liability. Until the Inflation Reduction Act introduced these new credit delivery mechanisms, startup companies and other businesses with little or no federal tax liability had difficulty accessing clean energy tax credits and could not realize the value of incentives to grow the clean energy economy. The Treasury Department is seeing significant demand from businesses for these new tools, and recently launched a new website for businesses and consumers to learn about all the opportunities created by the Inflation Reduction Act.
Rhett Buttle: How is the Treasury Department working to ensure that opportunities are accessible for businesses, especially those in underserved communities and/or disproportionately affected by economic challenges?
Deputy Secretary Adeyemo: We know that talent is equally spread all over the country, and our goal is to make sure that opportunity is broadly distributed. That is good for those individual communities and good for our economy as a whole. Since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, 75% of announced investments in clean technologies were in areas with lower median incomes and 84% were in areas with below average college graduation rates. This is by design. To start, the Treasury Department stood up a new office charged with outreach and education about the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy provisions, focused on ensuring all Americans benefit from the growth of the clean energy economy. We have partnered with the U.S. Black Chambers, Inc., U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and the National Minority Supplier Development Council. We also designed the Low-Income Communities Bonus Credit Program, which provides additional financial incentives for solar and wind projects in low-income or Tribal communities, to ensure opportunities for local businesses and institutions in those communities.
Rhett Buttle: In 2025, several key provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will sunset unless extended, this provides an opportunity to examine how the tax code could and should work for individuals and businesses. What opportunities exist to orient the tax code to be better positioned to help workers and families?
Deputy Secretary Adeyemo: President Biden has been clear that taxpayers earning less than $400,000 per year will not pay more in taxes. The President also recognizes the importance of fiscal sustainability. This is why he is proposing raising the taxes of the wealthy and corporations modestly to help bring down the deficit and pay for tax cuts for working families and incentives to invest in the U.S. economy. The increase in taxes for wealthy individuals and corporations would take their tax rates to where they were during the Reagan Administration.
Rhett Buttle: In your travels, you often meet business owners and leaders. Can you describe how this work is supporting small businesses and expanding their access to capital?
Deputy Secretary Adeyemo: Under this Administration, we’ve seen a small business boom, with record small business creation. Small businesses are receiving historic public and private support, due in part to our efforts to expand access to capital. At the urging of this Administration, dozens of companies and foundations that are part of the Economic Opportunity Coalition have committed to investing in community lenders to help small businesses grow and create more economic opportunity in underserved communities. More than $1 billion of commitments to community lenders has been made, with a goal of securing an additional $2 billion in deposits this year. The Treasury Department has provided nearly $9 billion in capital investments to support community lenders across the country like Liberty Bank, Latino Community Credit Union, and Asian Bank. When I travel the country meeting small business owners, many of them share how access to capital was critical to recovering from the economic hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. I was recently in Philadelphia and met with several small business owners who were able to relocate, renovate, and purchase new equipment thanks to investments implemented by our administration. I held a meeting at Ninja Bao, a Japanese restaurant in Center City that received a loan from Asian Bank. Run by a father-daughter team, they were able to add a new location and hire additional employees thanks to this loan.
