华盛顿——一系列进步和支持白宫的团体计划花费近1亿美元来提升总统乔·拜登在国会议员8月休会期间向国会施压。
周一宣布的这一举措，加上总统高级代理人的出行浪潮，旨在促进和确保拜登双轨基础设施计划的通过:一项专注于高速公路、交通和宽带的两党一揽子计划，以及一项仅由民主党人提出的儿童保育和白宫称之为人类基础设施的预算和解法案。
预计未来几周，对这两项提案的投票将会很少，拜登和民主党领导人需要与一群温和的共和党人保持一致，支持近1万亿美元的两党法案，并与一群意识形态不同的民主党人保持一致，支持潜在的3.5万亿美元和解方案。
美联社获悉，一个进步组织的外部联盟发起了一个作战室，并计划在未来六周内举办1000多场活动和行动。官员们说，目标是用电视和数字广告轰炸国会议员的选区，以保持对他们投票的压力，并强调该议程在公众中的受欢迎程度。
参议院上周投票推进了两党基础设施法案，给拜登带来了一场艰难的立法胜利，至少目前来看，这似乎证明了他致力于两党合作的做法是合理的，但他所在的政党中的一些人对此表示怀疑。预计这两项法案都将在未来几周面临辩论和进一步投票。
“随着我们进入8月份的休会期，进步团体正在进攻，”支持总统的外部团体“重建在一起”的执行董事丹妮尔·梅尔菲说。“我们知道支持者越来越多，我们希望向成员们展示，当他们回到自己的地区时。”
传统上，8月是华盛顿一年中最慢的一个月，部分原因是国会离开了这座城市，因此白宫旨在通过一系列事件来填补这一真空，这些事件旨在宣传拜登上任的头六个月，同时承诺应对对长期通胀的日益担忧，以及冠状病毒感染的激增，主要是在未接种疫苗的人群中，原因是高度传染性的三角洲变种。
白宫发言人迈克·格文说:“我们将利用8月份的休会时间，在全国各个角落发起大规模的推动，以此来扩大(对总统计划的支持)，”向所有美国人直接说明为什么这项议程将通过降低日常开支成本、减税和增加经济机会来惠及他们和他们的家庭。”
包括佛罗里达州的里克·斯科特和得克萨斯州的特德·克鲁兹在内的几名共和党参议员抨击了整体价格标签，并表示他们不会支持该法案。克鲁兹认为这是一项“巨大的3.5万亿美元的民主党税收和支出法案。”
白宫表示，副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯和她的丈夫道格·埃姆霍夫将成为活动的头条，仅在8月的头两周，14名内阁秘书将前往13个州的至少26个城市。其中，财政部长珍妮特·耶伦将前往佐治亚州，交通部长皮特·布蒂吉格将前往内华达州、新泽西州和得克萨斯州。
但最大的名字没有旅行计划:拜登预计本周将留在华盛顿，然后前往特拉华州度假。白宫助手表示，总统将于8月底上路推动该计划。
这一两党达成的协议曾几次差点破裂，暂定于本周获得投票。和解法案的时间表不太清楚。
Pro-Biden groups to spend $100 million on August ad blitz
WASHINGTON -- An array of progressive and pro-White House groups plans to spend nearly $100 million to promote PresidentJoe Biden’s agenda over the next month to pressure Congress while lawmakers are on their August recess.
The push being announced Monday, coupled with a wave of travel by the president’s top surrogates, is meant to promote and secure passage of Biden’s two-track infrastructure plan: a bipartisan package focused on highways, transit and broadband, and a Democrats-only budget reconciliation bill for child care and what the White House calls human infrastructure.
Votes on both proposals, expected in the weeks ahead, are expected to be narrow, with Biden and Democratic leaders needing to keep in line a group of moderate Republicans for the nearly $1 trillion bipartisan bill as well as an ideologically diverse set of Democrats for the potentially $3.5 trillion reconciliation package.
An outside coalition of progressive organizations launched a war room and is planning to host over 1,000 events and actions over the next six weeks, The Associated Press learned. The goal, officials said, was to bombard the home districts of members of Congress with ads — both televised and digital — to keep the pressure on to follow through on their votes as well as to underscore much of the agenda’s popularity with the public.
The Senate voted to advance the bipartisan infrastructure bill last week, giving Biden a hard-fought legislative victory that, at least for now, seemed to justify his commitment to a bipartisan approach that some in his own party doubted. Both bills were expected to face debate and further votes in the weeks ahead.
“Progressive groups are going on the offense as we lead into August recess,” said Danielle Melfi, executive director of Building Back Together, an outside group supportive of the president. “We know there is a groundswell of support and we want to show members that while they are back home in their districts.”
Traditionally, August is the slowest month of the year in Washington, in part because Congress leaves town, so the White House aims to fill that vacuum with a blitz of events meant to tout Biden’s first six months in office while also promising to take on rising fears of long-term inflation as well as a surge in coronavirus infections, predominantly among the unvaccinated, due to the highly contagious delta variant.
“We’re going to use the August recess to build on (support for the president’s plan) by launching a massive push in every corner of the country,” said White House spokesman Mike Gwin, “to make the case directly to all Americans on why this agenda is going to benefit them and their families through lower costs for everyday expenses, tax cuts, and greater economic opportunity.”
Several Republican senators, including Rick Scott of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas, blasted the overall price tag and said they would not support the bill. Cruz deemed it a “massive $3.5 trillion Democrat tax-and-spend bill."
Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, will headline events and, in the first two weeks of August alone, 14 Cabinet secretaries will travel to at least 26 cities in 13 states, the White House said. Among them, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will head to Georgia and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to Nevada, New Jersey and Texas.
But the biggest name of all does not have travel scheduled: Biden is expected to remain in Washington this week before departing for a vacation in Delaware. White House aides said the president would hit the road at the end of August to promote the plan.
The bipartisan deal, which nearly fell apart several times, is tentatively slated to receive a vote this week. The timetable for the reconciliation bill is less clear.
