COLUMBUS, Ohio — President Joe Biden unveiled his $1.8 trillion American Families Plan Wednesday night, and for the most part, Ohio lawmakers reacted within party lines.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, supports the president's plan, saying it's a "huge step" toward rebuilding the economy. The plan includes an extension of the Child Tax Credit, a top priority for Democrats who want to make it permanent.
Brown confirmed Tuesday that the House plans to introduce legislation to make the credit permanent. In the American Families Plan, the Child Tax Credit would expire in 2025.
Starting in July, families will receive up to $3,600 annually for each child under age 6 and as much as $3,000 for those up to 17.
“The problems for working families don’t go away in five years,” said Brown during a meeting Tuesday. “This is the most important thing we can do in this bill."
Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-3rd, also voiced her support for the president throughout the night.
“The middle class built this country and unions built the middle class.” — I agree wholeheartedly President Biden.
— Joyce Beatty (@JoyceBeatty) April 29, 2021
On the other side of the aisle, Ohio Republicans said Biden's plan wasn't prioritizing the issues that needed to be addressed.
"Pres. Biden's $2.7 trillion plan infrastructure goes way beyond any reasonable definition of infrastructure -- only $115 billion, less than 5%, goes towards our nation’s roads and bridges. In reality, it is just a massive spending bill packed with liberal priorities," Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, tweeted.
There is a better path forward. Let’s work together on fixing our roads, bridges, ports, broadband & other key infrastructure priorities, and set aside the liberal wishlist of proposals that have never been defined as infrastructure. We can do this in a bipartisan way.
— Rob Portman (@senrobportman) April 29, 2021
Biden unveiled his American Jobs Plan last month to address infrastructure needs across the country. Nearly 1,400 bridges and 5,000 miles of highways are in poor condition, according to the White House. Under this plan, $600 billion would go toward fixing transportation infrastructure, as well as $115 billion repairing roads and bridges.
U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, R-6th, said Biden has been able to get this far with the help of Former President Donald Trump, using the examples Operation Warp Speed and the vaccine rollout.
“No speechwriter can cover for the fact that while Joe Biden promised unity. The exact opposite has happened since he became president,” Johnson said.
At the time Biden took office, around 16 million Americans had received a COVID-19 vaccine, according to a Washington Post tally. As of Wednesday morning, more than 234 million vaccine doses have been administered nationwide, according to data from the CDC.
Biden covered a slew of hot-button issues, such as immigration, police reform and education. Click here for eight takeaways on Biden's speech.