Biden laid out the second component of his roughly $ 4 trillion plan to help the nation’s economy recover from the coronavirus pandemic on Wednesday night before Congress. The American Families Plan is a large-scale investment in education, child care and paid family leave.
The proposal would also extend or make permanent enhancements to several key tax credits that were in the Democrats’ $ 1.9 trillion Covid-19 rescue bill, which Biden signed into law last month.
The President has also unveiled a roughly $ 2 trillion plan — the American Jobs Plan — to heavily invest in the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, create jobs and shift the country to greener energy over the next eight years.
It is unclear whether lawmakers will consider Biden’s two plans together or separately. It is also unclear whether Democrats will try to pass the legislation the same way they did with Biden’s Covid-19 relief bill, which had no Republican support.
Biden has said he is willing to listen to ideas on the proposals and negotiate on how to pay for them. In two weeks, Biden will host House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, along with their Republican counterparts — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy — at the White House to discuss the proposals. It will be Biden’s first meeting with the bipartisan congressional leadership since taking office.
The President has already hosted several lawmakers from both sides of the aisle at the White House to discuss infrastructure.
Biden was scheduled to headline a political event in Georgia last month touting his Covid-19 relief bill but the event was postponed following a series of shootings in the Atlanta area that killed eight people, including six Asian women. The President and vice president instead met with Asian American leaders in the area and visited the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.