Former Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, have cemented their post-White House plans.
The former second couple has launched the Biden Foundation, a nonprofit that will focus on funding cancer research, supporting military families and preventing violence against women, among other causes.
Biden said he was especially inspired by the nation’s millennials — the “most generous generation” — and wanted the project to help ensure that all Americans are treated equally.
“I’m more optimistic than I’ve ever been since I’ve been in public life,” he said in a video statement announcing the foundation. “This millennia generation is the most open, the most tolerant, the most generous generation in American history. And these kids are ready to change the culture.”
The Bidens have long supported cancer research, and last year Joe Biden launched “The Cancer Moonshot,” an effort within the National Cancer Institute to accelerate research in a bid to make more treatment options available to patients as quickly as possible. Joe Biden’s oldest son, Beau Biden, died from brain cancer in 2015.
But the new Biden Foundation will focus on more than just medical initiatives.
“I’m not going to walk away from my passion — the Violence Against Women Act,” Biden said, referencing the 1994 law, which he drafted while he was serving in the Senate, that established an office for violence against women within the Justice Department and set aside funds to help prosecute crimes against women.
Biden said his family’s foundation will work on more initiatives aimed preventing sexual assult and other violent crimes targeting women.
The foundation will be run by Louisa Terrell, a former Facebook official and Senate staffer. The foundation’s board will be chaired by former Sen. Ted Kaufman, who was also Biden’s former Senate chief of staff. Biden’s sister is also on the board.
The foundation says it will be funded by tax-deductible donations.
With News Wire Services
