U.S. President Joe Biden urged Republican and Democratic governors to keep bridging political differences in order to better Americans’ lives and revive the economy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic’s suffering, Reuters reports.
Vice President Kamala Harris, in addition to 31 governors accompanied by their spouses attended a black-tie dinner at the White House, where Biden gave a speech. Biden said that the legislation passed by Republicans and Democrats on infrastructure spending and domestic semiconductor production were examples of “some bipartisan progress.”
Biden stressed that although members of the two parties won’t always agree, they can still cooperate to benefit their citizens during remarks he made at the dinner at the National Governors Association winter conference at the White House on Saturday, as reported by The Hill.
“I’d like to make a toast to remembering who in God’s name we are. We’re the United States of America,” Biden said. “We can get big things done if we do it together.”
He claimed that governors cannot declare “we’re going to discuss it for six months” and instead must be able to “get things done” swiftly, such as filling potholes and combating crime. In addition, Biden said he wanted to make sure his government included a lot of former mayors and governors because they must take bold action.
Former governors who are now serving in Biden’s cabinet include Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.
Biden cited the $1 trillion infrastructure plan that he signed into law in 2021 as an illustration of what can be achieved via cooperation between the two major parties.
He promised to work on becoming “a little bit less partisan” and hoped others would do the same.
“I hope we’re going to get a little bit – I’m going to try – a little bit less partisan and work on things that we can really get done to change people’s lives,” Biden said, per Reuters.
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