President Joe Biden and other Cabinet officials are planning more than three dozen events in the coming weeks to highlight the climate, health care and corporate tax legislation Democrats passed last week, as the White House hopes the legislation can provide late momentum ahead of November's midterm elections.
Biden is expected to sign the bill this week but hold a celebration in Washington on Sept. 6, after lawmakers have returned from their summer recess. Biden also plans to hold a Cabinet meeting and "will travel across the country to highlight how the Inflation Reduction Act will save money on prescription drugs, cut health care premiums and cut energy costs," Chief of Staff Ron Klain said in a memo distributed by the White House.
Members of the Cabinet are expected to travel to 23 states over 35 trips to tout the legislation by the end of the month, Klain said. Those trips include appearances alongside Democrats up for reelection this fall, like Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack's Aug. 17 visit to Grand Junction, Colorado, alongside Michael Bennet, a Democratic senator from the state.
The bill, which passed the House Aug. 12 in a 220-207 party line vote, includes $437 billion on climate, health subsidies and drought relief while raising about $740 billion in revenue over 10 years. That's funded through new taxes on corporations as well as stepped-up enforcement by the Internal Revenue Service.
"Our internal polling shows that messages touting the cost-lowering features of the Inflation Reduction Act — lowering health care costs, prescription drug costs, and utility bills — are among the highest-testing messages ever," Klain said.
Biden badly needs a recent spate of legislative success to translate into improvement in the polls. Just 40% of Americans approve of the job he's doing while 55% disapprove, according to FiveThirtyEight's consolidated polling analysis.
Klain said Biden will also seek to highlight recent legislative victories beyond the climate and health care bill. Biden is expected to attend a groundbreaking at an Intel Corp. semiconductor facility in Ohio to tout legislation that provides over $50 billion in subsidies for domestic chip manufacturers and visit Pennsylvania to promote gun-control legislation passed in the aftermath of the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
