President Joe Biden visited a community college in a key Illinois swing district Wednesday to pitch “human infrastructure,” which includes money for child care, health care, and education.
The investments, while part of President Biden’s economic agenda, didn’t make it into the bipartisan infrastructure deal that the president signed onto last month.
The deal includes hundreds of billions of dollars of investments in roads and bridges, transit systems and broadband. “Under a bipartisan infrastructure agreement, we’re going to make the biggest investment in roads and bridges since the construction of the interstate highway system, literally creating millions of good paying jobs,” President Biden said.
However, the deal constitutes only a fraction of the $4 trillion in spending Biden proposed as part of a broader plan to reinvigorate the economy.
“As the president presses for the bipartisan infrastructure framework, he’s also pressing ahead on a dual track for the full breadth and scope of the Build Back Better agenda, which includes his critical climate priorities and the American Families Plan,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday.
Biden highlighted the rest of his proposal Wednesday. This includes plans to invest in child care and workforce development programs, and provide two years of free community college, universal prekindergarten and paid family and medical leave.
The president also highlighted his proposals to establish a clean energy standard and invest in home care for seniors, as well as affordable housing.
Finally, Biden talked about plans to make his child tax credit expansion and expanded health care premium subsidies from the COVID-19 aid bill permanent.
Democrats plan to include many of these plans into a bill they hope to pass through reconciliation, a legislative maneuver that would require just a simple majority vote, skirting the 60-vote hurdle in the Senate.
Biden has said he would prefer the two bills move through Congress together.
The community college Biden visited Wednesday is located in Illinois’ 14th Congressional District. He won the district by about two points last November.