Biden pushing infrastructure plans in visit to New Hampshire

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) — President Joe Biden went to Portsmouth Harbor in New Hampshire on Tuesday to focus on how final yr’s infrastructure can enhance transport and assist resolve the nation’s provide chain debacles which have contributed to inflation at a 40-year excessive.

The president used the journey to say that America is more healthy than ever because it emerges from the coronavirus pandemic and a extreme however quick recession. It is a essential message as polling suggests many citizens are uncomfortable concerning the future and Biden’s personal financial management as excessive inflation has overwhelmed the job beneficial properties throughout his watch.

“We’re the one nation on the planet that I imagine has come out of each disaster we confronted stronger than once we went in,” Biden mentioned. “Actually, stronger than we went in. That’s the historical past of the journey of this nation.”

Biden’s vacation spot was the state’s solely deep water harbor, making it a crucial approach station for dwelling heating oil, fiberoptic cables and rock gypsum, which is used to supply drywall. Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan faces New Hampshire voters this yr as she seeks a second time period. Her seat is a Democratic bulwark within the evenly break up Senate, one which the administration seeks to guard.

Beneath the $1 trillion infrastructure regulation, $1.7 million will probably be used to dredge the harbor’s transport channel and basin. The U.S. Military Corps of Engineers already spent $18.2 million to make it simpler for bigger ships to entry the harbor, a challenge meant to scale back delays that trigger larger costs for customers.

Total, the regulation contains $17 billion for upgrading port services at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has induced havoc on worldwide provide chains. The president rattled off the opposite infrastructure investments from the regulation, together with the substitute of lead water pipes, the build-out of broadband web, initiatives to guard towards local weather change and repairs to roads and bridges.

“There’s a lot extra on this regulation. I’m not going to bore you with the remainder of it, nevertheless it’s vital,” mentioned Biden, whose speech then touched on inflation popping out of the pandemic, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, taxes, prescription drug costs and decreasing the funds deficit.

Biden’s journey is his second to New Hampshire as president. The state was his first cease after he signed the infrastructure laws in November, and he spoke in entrance of an outdated bridge that is overdue for repairs.

The president has repeatedly centered on these sorts of initiatives as his extra bold agenda to spice up training, social providers and local weather change initiatives stays stalled.

With the midterm elections approaching later this yr, Biden is raring to persuade voters that certainly one of his administration’s prime accomplishments is creating concrete progress after years of unfulfilled guarantees from his predecessor, President Donald Trump, who by no means minimize a deal on infrastructure spending.

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