Largest Aid Package in US History Caps First Weeks of Biden Presidency

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U.S. President Joe Biden took office three months ago working with a Congress narrowly controlled by Democrats. While Biden faced twin economic and public health crises caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Capitol Hill was consumed by the second impeachment trial of his predecessor, Donald Trump. VOA congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson looks at the new president’s dealings with lawmakers during his first 100 days.Producer: Katherine Gypson.  …

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Biden, Aides Tout Infrastructure, Family Aid Proposals

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U.S. President Joe Biden and key administration officials are embarking on an extensive campaign to promote his $4 trillion spending proposals to repair the country’s infrastructure and boost assistance for children and families.On Thursday, his 100th day in office, Biden headed to the southern state of Georgia, a key political battleground he narrowly captured in the November election to hold a campaign-style drive-in rally near the state’s biggest city, Atlanta.His effort comes the day after his first address to a joint session of Congress in which he laid out what he called a “blue-collar blueprint” to help middle-class Americans gainmore

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Key Takeaways from Biden’s First Joint Speech to Congress

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In his first joint address to Congress, U.S. President Joe Biden called on lawmakers to provide bipartisan support for his $4 trillion economic plan he said would provide Americans relief from the COVID-19 pandemic and make the U.S. more competitive with China.   “Now, after just 100 days, I can report to the nation America is on the move again,” Biden declared.   Here are several key takeaways from Biden’s speech:    Women Make History   Biden was the first U.S. president to deliver a speech to Congress with two women sitting behind him on the dais: Vice President Kamalamore

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Biden’s First 100 Days See Few Big Moves on Africa

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U.S. President Joe Biden has focused most of his energy in his first 100 days in office on taming the coronavirus pandemic on home soil. But in this short, frantic period, he has made a few important gestures that have been welcomed in Africa.  On his first day in office, he halted the U.S.’s plan to exit the World Health Organization. Biden’s reversal of his predecessor’s controversial decision to withdraw from the global body was greeted with near-universal approval, especially from African health experts, who said it could portend a more equitable world order.  Biden also pledged an additional $2more

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What is So Special About a US President’s First 100 Days?

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More than three months after being sworn in as the 46th president of the United States, President Joe Biden will soon pass a milestone: his first 100 days in office.     On Friday, April 30, administration officials, reporters, the general public and Biden himself will mark the benchmark. But many Americans and people overseas may be wondering what is so special about a president’s first 100 days.   Despite the attention to the day, nothing in U.S. law or the U.S Constitution gives any significance to a president’s first 100 days.     In fact, there is nothing inherentlymore

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With Massive Spending Plans, Biden Seeks to Remake Relationship Between Federal Government and Americans

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In his first 100 days as president of the United States, Joe Biden has governed less like a chief executive whose party is clinging to the barest of majorities in the House and Senate, and more like a transformative figure with a broad public mandate for societal change.  In an address to a pandemic-diminished joint session of Congress on Wednesday night, he took a further step in his effort to remake the relationship between the federal government and the American people with a $1.8 trillion proposal to expand Americans’ access to education, provide financial support to families with children, guarantee paidmore

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AP Fact Check: Biden Skews Record on Migrants; GOP on Virus

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Taking a swipe at his predecessor, President Joe Biden gave a distorted account of the historical forces driving migrants to the U.S. border, glossing over the multitudes who were desperate to escape poverty in their homelands when he was vice president.In his speech to Congress on Wednesday night, Biden also made his spending plans sound more broadly supported in Washington than they are.The Republican response to Biden’s speech departed from reality particularly on the subject of the pandemic. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina tried to give the Trump administration credit for turning the tide on the coronavirus in whatmore

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Scott Says Biden Has Failed to Unite Country

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U.S. Senator Tim Scott said President Joe Biden has failed to unite the nation and that his proposals for infrastructure spending and the newly announced package for education and families are pulling the nation further apart. Delivering the Republican response to the Democratic president’s first joint address to Congress on Wednesday night, Scott said, “Our nation is starving for more than empty platitudes.” Biden spent a section of his address celebrating the progress in combatting the coronavirus pandemic, including far exceeding his administration’s goal for vaccinations at this point in his presidency. Scott said Biden “inherited a tide that had already turned,” creditingmore

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America ‘Ready for Takeoff,’ Biden Tells Congress  

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“After 100 days of rescue and renewal, America is ready for takeoff,” U.S. President Joe Biden told a joint session of Congress, using the occasion to push his proposed $4 trillion in government spending and tout his overall performance in coping with a series of historic crises since taking office in January.  The president, in an address on Wednesday evening, said he had inherited a nation in crisis facing the worst pandemic in a century, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and “the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.”  The address on the eve of his 100th day in office, was not deemed a ‘State of the Union’ presentation because it was deliveredmore

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Text of Sen. Tim Scott’s Republican Response to President Biden’s Address to Congress

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Sen. Tim Scott delivered the Republican response following President Biden’s remarks to the joint session of Congress. Below is the text of the Address as prepared for delivery:Good evening. I’m Senator Tim Scott from the great state of South Carolina.We just heard President Biden’s first address to Congress. Our President seems like a good man. His speech was full of good words.But President Biden promised you a specific kind of leadership. He promised to unite a nation. To lower the temperature. To govern for all Americans, no matter how we voted.That was the pitch. You just heard it again.But ourmore

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Harris, Pelosi Make History Seated Behind Biden at Speech

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Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made history Wednesday as the first women to share the stage in Congress during a presidential address. In President Joe Biden’s first prime-time speech to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night, he was flanked by Pelosi and Harris, two California Democrats.  “It’s pretty exciting. And it’s wonderful to make history. It’s about time,” Pelosi said hours before the speech during an interview on MSNBC. Pelosi already knows what it feels like to sit on the rostrum in the House chamber and introduce a president for speeches. She has sat there for several addresses bymore

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