Connecticut representatives hope Biden can bridge divide

To Connecticut's fully democratic congressional delegation, President Joe Biden's message of unity, which he brought into office on his first day to a deeply divided country and Congress still reeling from the attack on the Capitol, is the first. of many endeavors they hope to make. help heal the land.

Biden & # 39; s comments were “perfect,” US Representative Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, said in an “inspirational and therapeutic” speech as opposed to a policy address.

"He was clearly talking about the recession and (COVID-19), but the real thrust of his comments was that he was trying to address the divisions in this country," Courtney said in an interview after the inauguration.

Biden faces a monumental task in trying to unite the nation just weeks after a Pro-Trump mob attacked the Capitol – an issue Courtney said he was repeatedly asked about, including recently during a virtual town hall with high school students in Mansfield: How do we do that? Get people to come together in this country?

Many of Courtney & # 39; s Republican colleagues in the House "want to turn the page," and he sees another round of coronavirus relief as "a good place to start."

The $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus plan Biden unveiled late last week will be his first major legislative boost as he takes over for president amid a coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 400,000 Americans and took a toll on it. the American economy.

The slow rollout of vaccines in the US is creating "strong political momentum" in Congress to meet Biden's plan, Courtney said. Biden proposes to spend $ 20 billion on a national vaccination program and has a goal of delivering 100 million doses in his first 100 days in office.

Biden begins his presidency by signing 17 executive orders that reverse many of the Trump administration's actions over the past four years, including re-joining the Paris climate accord and repealing travel bans on several Muslim and African countries.

"Never has a new president broken so clearly and significantly with a predecessor so early in a government," said US Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., During a virtual news media call Wednesday. He said he hopes the Senate will act quickly to confirm Biden & # 39; s appointees as Secretary of the Treasury, head of the Pentagon and head of the Department of Homeland Security.

US Representative John Larson, D-1st District, said in a statement that he looks forward to working with the new government to "tackle the COVID pandemic, provide assistance to working families, strengthen Social Security, the crumbling infrastructure of our country and more. "

"Our country is turning a corner and I'm excited to see what we can accomplish for the American people," said Larson.

The Biden-Harris administration "offers America a new opportunity to pursue a people agenda, restore our international reputation, tackle systematic inequality and close the rifts of political polarity that have sparked and widened", US Representative Jahana Hayes, D-5th District, said in a statement Wednesday.

In view of the & # 39; historical implications & # 39; of Kamala Harris as the first black and Indian American woman to become vice president, Hayes said Harris 'presence in the White House' provides an invaluable level of validation and empowerment to millions of Americans who have never seen anyone who seems to have so much power and responsibility. "

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