President Biden WI visit promotes rural electrification funding
WESTBY, Wis. - President Joe Biden is back in western Wisconsin to make good on his promise to provide new investments in rural electrification and other infrastructure improvements.
Biden is scheduled to be in Westby on Thursday to announce $7.3 billion in investments for 16 cooperatives that will provide electricity for rural areas across 23 states. The intent is to bring down the cost of badly needed electricity connections in hard-to-reach areas.
NOTE: FOX6 News plans to stream this event – which is set to begin around 3 p.m.
US President Joe Biden departs from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, on September 5, 2024, as he travels to Wisconsin. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
Funding for the project comes from the Democrats' Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law in August 2022 and passed in Congress along party lines. The law invests roughly $13 billion in rural electrification across multiple programs and will create 4,500 permanent jobs and 16,000 construction jobs, according to the White House.
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The administration calls it the largest investment in rural electrification since the New Deal in the 1930s.
Democrats consider Wisconsin to be one of the must-win states in November’s presidential election between Republican Donald Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. Biden won the state in 2020 by about 20,000 votes, flipping Wisconsin to the Democratic column after Trump narrowly won it in 2016.
And Thursday’s trip will be a return to a state that Biden visited early in his presidency. Then, he made a promise to provide, among other infrastructure improvements, better internet to rural areas.
"It isn’t a luxury; it’s now a necessity, like water and electricity," Biden said at the La Crosse Municipal Transit Utility in June 2021. "And this deal would provide for it for everyone, while bringing down the cost of internet service across the board."
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White House deputy chief of staff Natalie Quillian told reporters Wednesday that when the president returns to Wisconsin, "he will have delivered on so many of those promises."
Reaction
WisGOP Chairman Brian Schimming
"Joe Biden’s return to Wisconsin is the comeback tour that no one wanted. For four years, the Biden-Harris Administration delivered nothing but runaway inflation and mayhem at the southern border. To make matters worse, Kamala Harris and White House officials deliberately misled the public about Biden’s rapid decline and inability to serve. This visit is not a celebration, but a somber reminder that a vote for Harris and Tim Walz this November is a vote for another four years of Joe Biden."
Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler
"Two years ago, President Biden and Vice President Harris passed the Inflation Reduction Act to build a better future for all Americans—and today’s announcement of a $7.3 billion investment in rural clean energy reflects that commitment to investing in America. After four years of Trump’s failed trickle-down policies that drove costs up for working Wisconsinites, today families across Wisconsin are reaping the benefits of President Biden and Vice President Harris’ fight to bring down costs and invest in our state. The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to the work of bringing costs down rather than let big corporations price gouge, create jobs rather than ship them overseas, and invest in American manufacturing rather than cede the race to build the technologies of the future. Wisconsin Democrats are proud to welcome President Biden back to Wisconsin today to highlight how his Investing in America Agenda is delivering for working families."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.