Now that ex-President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial is over, President Joe Biden is working this week to focus attention on his ambitious agenda, with COVID-19 and its $ 2 trillion aid package in the center of the stage .
While Biden continues to work to get at least some Senate Republicans on board, he will also take his message outside Washington and directly to the American people, while making his first official trips as president.
On Tuesday, Biden will attend a CNN press conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, before heading to Kalamazoo, Michigan on Thursday, where he is expected to visit a Pfizer factory that currently produces the COVID-19 vaccine and meet with the workers.
The visits will also give him his first opportunity to interact with ordinary Americans since taking his oath in two states that were a critical turning point for him in the 2020 elections, helping to put him in the White House.
National pressure on COVID’s relief also comes with time.
The last round of stimulus approved by Congress is set to expire on March 14, leaving Biden with less than a month to gain the support of Republicans and get the bill passed in the House and Senate before the measure ends.
Despite the tightening of time, Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, one of Biden’s closest allies in the Senate, expressed confidence that Democrats will comply with Biden’s first major legislative push, saying he has broad support outside Washington.
“[I]A month from now, as unemployment checks are about to stop for ten million Americans, we can proceed with an exclusive bill for Democrats. President Biden is uniting the American people, he is moving forward with relief because he has the support of three quarters of the American people, “said Coons on ABC’s” This Week “program on Sunday.
Biden’s allies say that while the president is still committed to winning bipartisan support, he will not rule out the option of going partisan.
“We have many republican mayors, governors, we have more than 50% of republicans in this country. 46% of Trump supporters. There is only one place where we have no one who has signed yet. This is in the United States Congress, ”said Cedric Richmond, senior adviser to the White House and director of the Office of Public Engagement, on CNN on Monday.
“We are still working every day to see if we can get Republican support for the plan. What we are not going to do is slow down and not meet the needs of the American people waiting, ”added Richmond.
Even in the midst of Trump’s impeachment trial, Biden continued his efforts to strengthen bipartisan support for his American Rescue Plan, holding meetings with Republican and Democratic mayors and governors in the Oval Office on Friday, while House Democrats also moved forward. with the bill through the reconciliation process this would allow them to approve the measure in a party line vote, given its small majority in the Senate.
The government also boosted efforts to contain the virus, issuing new guidelines from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention to reopen schools safely, announcing the acquisition of sufficient vaccine doses to fully cover 300 million Americans by the end of July, and launching a special 3-month health enrollment period at Healthcare.gov as the pandemic continues to escalate, leaving many Americans out of work.
In his statement on Monday’s launch of the registration period, Biden said it was “encouraging to see Congress move quickly” to approve the plan. But so far, no Republican in Congress has indicated support for the bill, which, according to a recent ABC News / Ipsos poll, less than half of Americans supports Biden’s approval only with the support of Democrats.
Biden is also expected to address COVID-19 globally this week, attending a virtual meeting with G-7 leaders on Friday that will include “a focus on a global response to the COVID pandemic, including coordination in vaccine production and distribution, and supplies, as well as ongoing efforts to mobilize and cooperate against the threat of emerging infectious diseases, strengthening the country’s capacity and establishing funding for health security, ”according to the White House.