“In his new role, Clyburn is laser-focused on promoting one of his signature policies: the ‘10-20-30’ plan that steers federal funding to impoverished communities. That program requires 10 percent of spending on rural development and other programs to be made in communities with 'persistent poverty,' defined as counties where 20 percent or more of the population has lived below the poverty line for 30 years.

Clyburn said his plan drew on lessons from the Great Depression, when Black Southerners were left behind by New Deal-era recovery programs.

“All those jobs they created did not go to Black people. They were white only, in the South, and the only way to get those jobs was to go north. … So I said that we need to do something to make sure these communities, this time, benefit from the recovery.'”