What is the legacy Biden will leave in Connecticut?
In a little less than six months, the door will close on President Joe Biden's administration as his successor is sworn into the presidency.
Since taking office on Jan. 20, 2021, Biden has signed into law major pandemic relief legislation, as well as funding for transportation infrastructure, the semiconductor industry and clean energy programs, plus legislation lowering prescription drug prices and enacting the first new federal gun control standards in nearly three decades.
In addition, the president and the agencies he oversees have issued numerous executive orders and regulatory changes impacting all parts of the country. Last year, for example, the Biden administration redesignated the New England Scenic Trail running through parts of Connecticut as part of the National Park Service, increasing its public profile.
With Biden's recent decision to end his reelection bid — and with his vice president, Kamala Harris, now running to replace him — here are some aspects of his legacy here in Connecticut.
ARPA funding for towns, cities, schools, higher ed
One of Biden's first major acts in office was also one of his administration's most impactful, both nationwide and in Connecticut.
The American Rescue Plan Act, signed into law in March 2021, less than two months after Biden took office, sent $2.8 billion to Connecticut to boost higher education, local governments, nonprofits and businesses as they recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Among other things, this money saved Connecticut's public colleges and universities from financial crisis; helped K-12 districts bolster tutoring, summer programs, mental health services; funded behavioral health investments statewide; and let municipalities upgrade key infrastructure, including broadband internet, sewage lines, ambulances and air quality systems in municipal buildings.
Joe DeLong, executive director of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, said the funds were essential in addressing a wide array of issues.
"Whether it's challenges of poverty, challenges of violence, challenges of lower graduation rates, challenges of people being disconnected completely from the economy — I think you take whatever those serious challenges are, and you probably multiply them tenfold, if it's not for that money," DeLong said.
Expanded child tax credit
ARPA also delivered a key policy victory that had been years in the making for Connecticut's longest-serving members of congress.
Shortly after Biden was inaugurated in January 2021, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-New Haven, met with the president in the Oval Office as the chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee. During the meeting, DeLauro said she pointed to a portrait of Franklin Roosevelt hanging on the wall, and remarked how his administration had effectively slashed poverty among seniors through the enactment of Social Security.
"I said, you have the opportunity with the stroke of a pen to do that for the kids of this country," DeLauro recalled in an interview this week.
Over the ensuing weeks, both Biden and DeLauro successfully fought for the inclusion in the ARPA law of a temporary, one-year expansion of the child tax credit from $2,000 per child to $3,600 for children under 6, and $3,000 for children between the ages of 6 and 18. The change also made the credit fully refundable, meaning anyone who owed less in taxes than the amount of the credit could receive the difference in the form of monthly payments.
As a result, childhood poverty fell to record lows during 2021, according to the U.S. Census, and the policy was hailed by progressives and even some Republicans as a resounding success.
"What it proved to be was the antidote to the issue of poverty," DeLauro said.
While the expansion of the child tax credit expired after one year, DeLauro said she remains hopeful that it can be made permanent, noting that the policy's champions include Harris and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Infrastructure improvements
Biden's administration has also worked to change the physical landscape of Connecticut, funneling billions of dollars to the state to replace aging rail bridges, rebuild highways and expand airports.
"Without the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, there was no path forward for Connecticut to replace these projects without relying solely on the backs of Connecticut taxpayers," said state Department of Transportation Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto.
One of the largest pieces of that endeavor for Connecticut has been the work to improve service along Amtrak's Northeast Corridor that cuts clear across the state on its way from Boston to Washington, D.C. Biden — who made thousands of trips along the corridor while serving as a senator from Delaware — has invested more than $16 billion in rail projects along the route, including $6.5 billion in Connecticut alone.
That eye-popping sum was due in large part out of decades of neglect and underinvestment on the nation's busiest inter-city rail service.
In Connecticut, movable bridges over rivers in Norwalk, Westport, Stratford and Old Saybrook were built more than a century ago, and can cause chaos along the entire corridor when they become stuck open for river traffic.
The eastern part of the state, the corridor takes a winding route as it hugs the coast, and in Fairfield County trains must slow down due to congestion on tracks that are shared with Metro-North. As a result, high-speed Acela trains that are designed to reach 150 miles per hour go nowhere near that fast as they make the trip across Connecticut.
Inflation concerns
If you ask conservative Connecticut residents about Biden's legacy, they are less likely to cite money for schools and roads and families with children and more likely to mention inflation, which rose during the Biden era to the highest levels seen in decades.
"We wish President Biden well in his upcoming retirement," Carol Platt Liebau, president of the conservative Yankee Institute said in a statement Friday. "Unfortunately his tenure in office has seen our state become less affordable due to inflation and misguided energy and environmental policies."
Connecticut House Republican Leader Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, also mentioned inflation in an op-ed this past week about Biden's record, and other Republicans in the state have highlighted the issue as well.
Experts have argued in recent years about the underlying cause of inflation, which spiked not only in the U.S. but also in much of the world. Some have attributed the issue to ARPA and other spending bills Biden championed, while others have pointed to pandemic-driven interruptions to global supply chains.
Inflation has dramatically slowed over the past year, even as the national economy has remained strong, but for many residents the issue remains highly salient.
Student loan cancellation
Another of Biden's highest profile initiatives as President has been the cancellation of at least some student debt for more than 4 million Americans.
Though Biden's efforts around student debt have often faced legal challenges — the Supreme Court threw out his most ambitious proposal in this area — plenty of Connecticut residents have benefited nonetheless.
As of April, the Biden Administration said it had approved $1.3 billion in debt cancellation for 27,340 people in Connecticut, with plans for more. This month, Biden announced yet another wave of cancellation, this time for borrowers enrolled in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
"I myself had all this debt, sitting there, just waiting for a miracle to happen," Chaka Felder-McEntire, who runs a nonprofit aimed at empowering New Haven youth, told CT Insider in May. "And a couple of days ago, I logged in and all of my loans were forgiven."
How many more Connecticut residents see student loan relief could depend in part on the courts. Biden's SAVE initiative, an income-driven plan that has lowered balances for millions of Americans, is currently on hold amid a legal challenge.
Today, 471,000 Connecticut residents owe an estimated $18.9 billion in student loans, according to the non-profit Student Borrower Protection Center.
Climate funding through Inflation Reduction Act
The Inflation Reduction Act, another one of Biden's marquee accomplishments, let Medicare negotiate drug costs, capped insulin prices at $35 a month, imposed new taxes on large companies — and provided for hundreds of millions of dollars in green energy investment.
Some of that money has made its way to Connecticut, such as through new tax credits for developers of offshore wind, boosting an industry Connecticut leaders courted through the re-development of the State Pier in New London.
Earlier this year, developers completed construction of South Fork Wind, the first of three offshore wind farms scheduled to be launched from the pier. Gov. Ned Lamont's administration is also partnering with officials in Rhode Island and Massachusetts to solicit additional bids for offshore wind farms off the states' Atlantic coastline.
Just this past week, the Biden administration announced a $450 million grant for a coalition of New England states that will accelerate adoption of affordable electric heat pumps in the region. Lamont's office estimates about $100 million of that total will come to Connecticut.
"This funding means more residents in Connecticut — and more importantly, more low-income residents in our state — will be able to realize the benefits of truly clean, safe, healthy, and energy-efficient heating and cooling," Lamont said in a statement.
Visits to Connecticut
Some Connecticut residents, at least in certain communities, may also remember the Biden presidency for the president's visits to the state.
In October 2021, Biden attended an event at the The Dodd Center for Human Rights on the University of Connecticut's Storrs campus (and sampled ice cream from the popular UConn Dairy Bar).
In June 2023, he visited again for a gun violence summit at the University of Hartford, delivering the keynote address.
Biden also came to the state this past June for a campaign fundraiser, where he offered sharp words for Donald Trump following the Republican candidate's criminal conviction.
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