By Colleen Long, Holly Ramer and Alexandra Jaffe | The Associated Press
MANCHESTER, NH – President Joe Biden arrived in New Hampshire on Tuesday for the first time since his 2020 primary election, this time with a resounding victory in tow: the newly signed $1 trillion infrastructure plan he hopes to sell across the country in the coming years. are weeks.
While Biden left the state in February of 2020, before voting closed after his fifth-place Democratic primary, he now returns as president, upgrading America’s roads, bridges and transit systems. Looking forward to talking about the billions in investment that he signed on. Law Monday.
Biden is down in the polls, but hopes to use the successful new legislation to shift the political winds in his direction and provide new impetus for his sweeping $1.85 trillion social spending package before Congress.
The president held a spectacular bipartisan bill-signing ceremony for hundreds of people on the White House South Lawn on Monday, where lawmakers and union workers clapped.
“America is moving forward again, and your life is going to change for the better,” Biden promised Americans.
The president and members of his cabinet are also spreading across the country to showcase the package. Biden himself has stopped in Woodstock, New Hampshire on Tuesday and Detroit on Wednesday to promote new legislation that helps repair aging roads, bridges, pipes and ports and ease inflation and supply chain woes Can go
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said, “As he goes around the country, he’s going to really figure out how these issues will affect people’s everyday lives, what they talk about at their kitchen tables.” We do.”
Also, this week, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan will tour the South hitting Louisiana and Texas, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland will visit Massachusetts, California and the state he represented in Congress, New Mexico, and The Vice President will visit Kamala Harris. Ohio, among the administration’s top officials on the street.
The president, whose voting numbers have been falling even after the bill was passed, is asking patients tired of the pandemic to be patient and worried about rising inflation. The White House says infrastructure funding could begin within months, and says it will have a measurable impact on Americans’ lives by helping to create new, well-paying jobs.
Biden defeated Donald Trump in New Hampshire by 7 percentage points in the 2020 election, but his popularity in the state has waned. In last month’s University of New Hampshire Survey Center Granite State poll, he had an overall favorable rating of 34%, with 53% holding an unfavorable view.
On Tuesday, the president will visit a bridge that carries State Route 175 over the Pemigwasset River. Built in 1939, the bridge has been on the state’s “Red List” since 2014 due to its poor condition. Another bridge over the river was added in 2018.
“The president is going there because a broken bridge needs to be repaired,” said Saki.
Republican Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, who had planned to greet Biden at the airport, sent a letter to the president on Tuesday asking him to work with Congress to finance even more infrastructure for the state. . He also urged Biden to address supply chain issues, workforce shortages and rising construction materials costs.
“Ensuring that roads are built, bridges are repaired, and drinking water is improved will be even more challenging given the economic challenges,” Sununu said. $225 million in aid for highways and bridges, the White House said.
The infrastructure bill to repair aging highways, bridges and roads includes a total of $110 billion. According to the White House, 173,000 total miles or about 280,000 kilometers of US highways and major roads and 45,000 bridges are in poor condition. The legislation for bridges marks the largest dedicated bridge investment of nearly $40 billion since the creation of the National Highway System, according to the Biden administration.
Many details of how the money is spent will depend on the state governments. Biden has named former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu as the liaison between the White House and the states to help keep things running smoothly and prevent waste and fraud.
