President Joe Biden on Wednesday discussed his coronavirus-aid package and infrastructure plan with labor leaders, continuing a push for two of his top agenda items.
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris met with leaders to discuss his $1.9 trillion relief package, and to “get input on the president’s infrastructure plan,” the White House said.
Biden at the beginning of the session called the U.S. “so far behind the curve” on infrastructure, according to a White House pool report, and described the leaders as his “close friends.”
“A lot of these folks have been my friends for a long, long, long time. As they say in parts of my state, these are the folks that brung me to the dance,” Biden said.
Democrats in Congress are preparing legislation on Biden’s fiscal stimulus plan, aiming to pass it in the next few weeks. And the president has begun to intensify his pitch on infrastructure
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The labor movement is a key constituency for Biden. The president has won plaudits from unions for his “Buy American” executive order, but has also faced blowback for canceling a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline.
Among the participants were AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, North America’s Building Trades Union President Sean McGarvey and International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers International President Robert Martinez Jr.
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“President Biden engaged the labor leaders during the meeting in a conversation about their priorities, recommendations, and the importance of ensuring union workers play a key role in building a resilient and sustainable infrastructure that can withstand extreme weather and a changing climate all while creating millions of good paying union jobs in the process,” the White House said in a statement released late Wednesday.
Martinez said in a statement he was “very confident that President Biden will continue to push for policies that will positively impact America’s working families and create good union jobs here at home.” The union leader also said he pushed for investing in infrastructure “that will benefit American workers and communities that will use domestically produced materials, equipment and tools.”
Trumka called the session with Biden and Harris “the most productive Oval Office meeting in years” for working people.
“President Biden ran on a promise to build back better. As we made clear today, America can only build back better if unions are doing the building,” Trumka said in a statement.
