Biden, Harris to travel to Atlanta to sell relief package

President Biden and Vice President Harris will kick off a campaign next week to sell the administration’s coronavirus relief package to the public, including a stop in Atlanta.

Biden will travel to Pennsylvania on Tuesday, and Harris will join him next Friday for the trip to Georgia. The White House said the Atlanta stop will be part of the “Help is Here” tour to amplify the American Rescue Plan.

The event will mark Biden’s first time in Georgia since the state’s Senate runoff elections in early January. Democrats won both elections, sending Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock to the Senate and lifting the party into the majority.

The Georgia Senate wins allowed Biden to pass the $1.9 trillion relief package through the budget reconciliation process, which requires only a simple majority to pass the Senate. The Senate passed the American Rescue Plan in a 50-49 party-line vote.

“These are two places where he of course talked about the importance of delivering on the promise of getting every American the $2,000 checks when he campaigned in Georgia in December, so that’s a place where that message really resonated with the people of the state, and where it was amplified to the public,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.

“But it’s a place also close to his heart. But this is just the beginning of the travel,” she added, telling reporters not to read into Biden’s initial travel destinations.

The bill includes funding for $1,400 direct payments to most Americans, money for vaccine distribution efforts and school reopenings, enhanced unemployment benefits through September and an expansion of the child tax credit and ObamaCare, among other provisions.

Biden and other administration officials are expected to spend the coming weeks selling the bill and its benefits to the public to ensure it retains its popularity.

Updated at 2:49 p.m.