Biden to Appear on CNN and Speak in Ohio

Politics|Biden heads to Ohio to promote his economic plan and appear in a televised town hall.

• July 21, 2021, 10:44 a.m. ET

President Biden is set to fly to Cincinnati on Wednesday to promote his economic agenda and participate in a town hall aired on CNN, even as a bipartisan infrastructure agreement he brokered faces its first formal test in the Senate.

Mr. Biden will tour a union training center, the I.B.E.W./N.E.C.A. Electrical Training Center, where he is scheduled to give remarks making the case that his $4 trillion economic plan will create high-paying union jobs.

The president will then head to Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati, where he will participate in the town hall airing at 8 p.m. Eastern. Mr. Biden will field questions about the impact of the $1.9 trillion economic aid bill he signed into law in March, White House officials said in guidance for reporters, and about the two legislative components of his broader economic agenda.

Those are the bipartisan agreement to spend nearly $600 billion to repair and build physical infrastructure like bridges and broadband internet, and a $3.5 trillion budget blueprint that Democrats in the Senate will seek to use to pass Mr. Biden’s plans to build affordable housing, spur low-carbon energy development, expand home health care for older and disabled Americans, and more.

While Mr. Biden is away, senators are preparing for a scheduled vote to advance the bipartisan infrastructure framework, which is not yet finalized nearly a month after Mr. Biden and centrist lawmakers unveiled it at the White House. The vote’s outcome is uncertain; if it fails, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, might need to schedule another vote next week in hopes of moving the agreement forward.

Administration officials have engaged in negotiations with Republicans and Democrats in recent days to finalize the deal, including how to fully pay for its spending. Even as those talks continue, White House officials have made clear in recent days that they support Mr. Schumer’s attempts to push the bill on Wednesday.

“There are no secrets about what’s in this legislation — it was agreed to in a bipartisan agreement,” the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said on Tuesday. “The only disagreement right now is around some pay-fors, which we’re working through and we’re having discussions about. But, again, there’s ample precedent, and we support Leader Schumer’s strategy of moving this forward.”