Biden to Declare U.S. ‘On the Move’ After Pandemic in First Speech to Congress

President Joe Biden will declare that the U.S. has turned the corner on the pandemic that killed more than half a million Americans and crippled the economy in his first speech to Congress, while outlining a broad plan for federal spending on infrastructure, education and other Democratic priorities.

“America is on the move again,” Biden will say in his address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, according to excerpts the White House released. “Turning peril into possibility. Crisis into opportunity. Setback into strength.”

Biden will unveil his American Families Plan, a $1.8 trillion package of tax credits and domestic priorities including child care, paid family leave, and tuition-free community college that would be funded in part by the largest tax increases on wealthy Americans in decades.

He’ll also tout his previously proposed $2 trillion infrastructure bill, casting it as a jobs-maker especially for people without college degrees -- Americans who largely supported his predecessor, former President Donald Trump.

“Nearly 90% of the infrastructure jobs created in the American Jobs Plan don’t require a college degree,” he will say, according to the excerpts. “75% don’t require an associate’s degree.”

The plan, he’ll say, is “a blue-collar blueprint to build America.”

And he’ll try to build popular support for police reform, gun control and immigration proposals that have languished on Capitol Hill.

Biden’s address will celebrate a coronavirus vaccine rollout that’s delivered more than 315 million shots and a stimulus program that provided more than 160 million checks to taxpayers.

But aides and allies say Biden views his speech as much about selling a broad vision to the American public as it is a pitch to lawmakers on any particular legislative program. The president, they say, sees the nation’s emergence from the pandemic as a unique opportunity to persuade voters that the country is more united and that government can help ordinary Americans.

Biden will look to frame both his accomplishments and aspirations as an implicit rebuttal of the disarray that defined the federal government during the Trump administration, eroding confidence in the nation’s ability to meet big challenges.

“We’re vaccinating the nation,” he will say, according to the excerpts. “We’re creating hundreds of thousands of jobs. We’re delivering real results people can see and feel in their own lives.”

The speech will be a “call to action” for solving the crises the nation faces and seek “to prove our government can deliver again,” White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said Thursday during an event at Georgetown University.

Biden will stride to the House rostrum having attended more joint session addresses than any previous president: eight times as vice president and dozens more as a senator. But Wednesday’s will be unlike any in the nation’s past. Two women -- Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- will sit over his shoulder as he addresses the American people.

Biden is expected to paint the gathering as a symbol of renewal after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in which Trump supporters breached the House chamber where he will speak. Before addressing the nation, Biden plans to meet with workers who were in the building as rioters sought to disrupt the certification of Biden’s electoral victory.

Other elements of the evening may only serve to emphasize how far the nation still has to go in battling the coronavirus pandemic. Pelosi limited the number of attendees for the event to around 200 people on the advice of medical experts, less than a fifth of the normal attendance.

Members of Congress won’t be allowed to invite guests, and the first lady’s box -- where presidents traditionally position a group of Americans who help illustrate the need for policies outlined in the speech -- will be empty.

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