A6 EZ M2 THE WASHINGTON POST.WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2 , 2022
PHOTOS BY JABIN BOTSFORD/THE WASHINGTON POSTPresident Biden, flanked by Vice President Harris, left, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), delivers his first State of the Union address. The first third of the roughly hour-long address was on Ukraine.
Biden seeks to rally a nation in step on Ukraine, little else
The lawmakers in the chamber
displayed unity as Biden spoke
about Ukraine, as some waved
small Ukrainian flags and Repub-
licans joined Democrats in ap-
plauding his condemnations of
Russia. But that unity evaporated
the moment Biden turned to do-
mestic policy.
When he turned to immigra-
tion, some Republicans began
chanting, “Build the wall! Build
the wall!”
Biden also vowed to keep fight-
ing inflation, calling it his “top
priority.” He declared a “new mo-
ment” in the fight against the
pandemic, saying, “We are mov-
ing forward safely, back to more
normal routines.”
And pushing back against a
slogan adopted by some activists,
he proclaimed, “The answer is not
to defund the police. The answer
is to fund the police. Fund them.
Fund them. Fund them with re-
sources and training, resources
and training they need to protect
our communities.”
But about the first third of the
roughly hour-long address fo-
cused on Ukraine. “Throughout
our history we’ve learned this
lesson — when dictators do not
pay a price for their aggression,
they cause more chaos,” said
Biden. “They keep moving. And,
the costs and threats to America
and the world keep rising.”
And while he underlined that
the United States will not send
troops to help defend Ukraine, he
reiterated that he would defend
any NATO country that Russian
President Vladimir Putin might
be eyeing next. “I have made crys-
tal clear the United States and our
allies will defend every inch of
territory of NATO that is NATO
territory with the full force of our
collective power. Every single
inch,” Biden said to resounding
bipartisan applause.
Biden also announced that the
United States has closed its air-
space to Russian aircraft, a move
that came two days after Canada
and the European Union issued
similar restrictions.
As the president entered the
House chamber unmasked and
wearing a blue tie just after 9 p.m.,
he was greeted by lawmakers
from both parties, many of whom
wore bright blue or yellow blazers
or scarves, the colors of the Ukrai-
nian flag.
One of first lady Jill Biden’s
guests at the event was Oksana
Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassa-
dor to the United States. Before
taking her seat, the first lady em-
braced Markarova.
Still, the speech came at a peril-
ous moment in Biden’s presiden-
cy, as his approval ratings have
plummeted and many of his pri-
BIDEN FROM A1 orities remain unrealized.
Initially, the White House
hoped the speech would function
largely as a reset of his domestic
agenda.
But in recent days, it was re-
vised to focus more on the Russia-
Ukraine conflict. The general re-
vulsion over Putin’s invasion of
Ukraine has offered a rare area
where Americans are demon-
strating some unity, with a recent
Post-ABC News poll showing that
80 percent view Russia negative-
ly. But it’s unclear if Biden can
stretch this sense of commonality
beyond foreign affairs to domes-
tic issues.
In Biden’s first year, he has
often embraced the sweeping lan-
guage and agenda of the liberal
faction of his party, and the “uni-
ty” message could signal a new
strategy of emphasizing victories
that are bipartisan but limited.
The president appeared to con-
cede that his initial, sweeping
Build Back Better proposal would
shrink to a few major elements,
including lowering prescription
drug costs, adopting climate mea-
sures and bolstering child care.
And he outlined a “unity agenda”
that would consist of fighting can-
cer and the opioid epidemic while
bolstering mental health and vet-
erans’ health initiatives.
Biden’s most immediate politi-
cal problem may be persistent
inflation, and Biden focused a
good deal of his address on it.
“Too many families are strug-
gling to keep up with their bills,”
Biden allowed during the speech.
“Inflation is robbing them of the
gains they thought otherwise
they would be able to feel. I get it.
That’s why my top priority is get-
ting prices under control.”
Biden said that he hoped to
drive down costs by making more
goods in America and revitalizing
the country’s manufacturing sec-
tor.
“Make more cars and semicon-
ductors in America. More infra-
structure and innovation in
America,” he said. “More goods
moving faster and cheaper in
America. More jobs where you
can earn a good living in Ameri-
ca.”
A boom in domestic manufac-
turing, the president contends,
would have the added benefit of
reducing the country’s reliance
on foreign supplies. “Economists
call this ‘increasing the produc-
tive capacity of our economy.’ I
call it 'building a better America,”
Biden said. “My plan to fight infla-
tion will lower your costs and
lower the deficit.”
Presidents have long promised
to rebuild domestic manufactur-
ing, to little effect. And it’s unclear
whether those policies would
have any immediate impact on
the higher prices that polls show
most Americans enduring.
White House aides have said
they believe inflation will be low-
er by next year, but their previous
predictions that inflation was
“transitory” over the summer
proved premature.
Hours before the speech, the
Biden administration said it
would release 30 million barrels
of oil from the country’s Stra-
tegic Petroleum Reserve — part
of a 60 million-barrel coordinat-
ed release by several allies. The
aim is to reduce prices that have
soared to more than $100 a bar-
rel amid the Russian invasion of
Ukraine.
It’s the second release in about
four months: In late November, as
gas prices rose, Biden released 60
million barrels of oil from the U.S.
reserve. The current average
price at the pump for regular gas
was $3.62, up nearly a dollar a
gallon from last year, according to
figures kept by AAA.
After touting his bipartisan in-
frastructure bill, Biden sought to
reframe the remaining part of his
economic agenda, which has
stalled in Congress. The president
notably did not use the phrase
“Build Back Better,” the original
name for the intensive social
spending legislation Biden had
proposed.
Biden’s allies have urged the
president to break the slimmed-
down package into “chunks” to
ease their passage.
White House aides and Demo-
crats in Congress are hopeful the
party will be able to pass the
social spending package in the
coming months, but concerns
from Sens. Joe Manchin III
(D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-
Ariz.) have hobbled efforts to re-
vive the legislation.
Biden also unveiled a new mes-
sage on the country’s fight againstcovid on Tuesday night, saying
the virus “no longer need control
our lives.”
Steering clear of declaring vic-
tory over the virus that has killed
roughly 950,000 Americans, the
president emphasized the tools
the country now has to protect
Americans. He signaled he would
be requesting more money from
Congress to ensure the country
has a robust stockpile of tests,
masks and therapeutics.
At the same time, the president
attempted to usher Americans
back to their normal lives. He said
the vast majority of federal em-
ployees will be returning to work
in person, and urged schools to
stay open.
“Let’s use this moment to re-
set,” the president said. “So stop
looking at covid-19 as a partisan
dividing line. See it for what it is —
a God-awful disease.”
Last week the administration
significantly loosened its recom-
mendations on masks and social
distancing, an effort to offer a
fresh path to normalcy. Under the
new guidelines about 70 percent
of the country does not need to
wear masks, Biden health officials
said. Those rules came after most
U.S. states had already dropped
most restrictions.
The White House covid team
planned to release a “new road
map” for the next phase of the
pandemic after Biden’s speech.
Still, the country continues to
feel the impact of the pandemic,
with a seven-day average of more
2,000 deaths a day. But infections
have fallen significantly since
January, when the omicron vari-
ant was spreading rapidly.
Progress against the pandemic
was even apparent from the
crowd in the chamber. Unlike
during Biden’s first address to a
joint session of Congress lastApril, this time all members of
Congress were invited.
But some pandemic restric-
tions remained: Lawmakers were
not allowed to bring guests, and
each had to take a coronavirus
test before attending. But a rule
that they had to wear masks was
lifted days before the speech.
One person who didn’t attend:
Commerce Secretary Gina Rai-
mondo. By tradition, one member
of the Cabinet stays away from the
event to ensure continuity of gov-
ernment in case of an attack on
the U.S. Capitol.
Last year, roughly 200 officials
were invited to be in the audience
that was usually closer to 1,500.
All were asked to wear masks.
Biden called on Congress to
pass gun control legislation, in-
cluding universal background
checks and an assault weapons
bans, an unlikely goal with the
slim Democratic majority in the
Senate.
The president also renewed his
push for Congress to pass legisla-
tion to protect voting rights,
warning they are “under assault.”
Earlier this year, Biden made an
aggressive push for Congress to
pass voting legislation, even call-
ing for the first time for the Senate
to eliminate the filibuster to do so.
But that effort floundered amid
Republican opposition and resis-
tance from Manchin and Sinema
to changing the Senate rules.
Reaching for aims that appear
more achievable, the president
hoped the “unity agenda” will
garner bipartisan support.
That includes a new push on
expanding access to mental
health and urging Congress to
crack down on social media com-
panies, blaming them for creating
a toxic environment that’s partic-
ularly hard for young people.
Under this same agenda, Biden
asked Congress to back a legisla-
tive effort to expand health care
benefits to veterans suffering be-
cause of exposure to burn pits and
other toxins.
The issue is personal to the
president. Biden referenced that
his son Beau by name, saying that
died of brain cancer that the pres-
ident, along with some experts,
have connected to his military
service near pits that were used to
burn waste.
The change would not impact
Biden or his family, but would aim
to ensure that others who may
have been sickened the same way
would receive more care.
Another initiative would boost
nursing home staffing and over-
sight, which the White House has
said is needed in response to the
roughly 200,000 covid deaths at
such facilities. It would require
new minimum staffing levels, re-
ducing the use of shared rooms
and crack down on the poorest-performing nursing homes.
In the hours before Biden’s
speech, the White House sent out
several fact sheets, highlighting
various parts of Biden’s agenda
and how they would benefit dif-
ferent communities, including
Black Americans, rural communi-
ties, seniors and people with dis-
abilities.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, deliv-
ering the Republican response to
the State of the Union, said Biden
has set America back to the late
1970s and early 1980s, a period
characterized by “runaway infla-
tion,” “a violent crime wave” and
the Soviet Union “trying to re-
draw the world map.”
She also assailed Democrats for
keeping schools closed for too
long, touting her home state of
Iowa for being the first to require
schools open their doors and
highlighting the latest culture
wars over school curriculums.
“Keeping schools open is only
the start of the pro-parent, pro-
-family revolution that Republi-
cans are leading in Iowa and
states across this country," Reyn-
olds said. "Republicans believe
that parents matter. It was true
before the pandemic and has nev-
er been more important to say out
loud: Parents matter. They have a
right to know, and to have a say
in, what their kids are being
taught.”
The opposition party typically
does offer a rebuttal to the presi-
dent’s address, but in a bit of
departure from established
norms, on Tuesday night several
factions of the Democratic Party
delivered responses, a develop-
ment that may complicate Biden’s
unity theme.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.)
delivered a respond to Biden’s
speech on behalf of the Working
Families Party, a progressive
group. Tlaib called on Democrats
to move forward on passing
Biden’s expansive social spending
agenda, formerly known as the
Build Back Better plan.
Tlaib argued that Republicans,
along with some “corporate-
backed Democratic obstruction-
ists,” are standing in the way of
Biden’s agenda, but did not call
out any members of Congress by
name.
Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas)
gave remarks on behalf of the
Congressional Black Caucus,
which was supportive of the
speech and what they see as the
Biden agenda’s positive impact
for Black Americans.
And Rep. Josh Gottheimer
(D-N.J.) delivered a response on
behalf of Democratic centrists,
who have sometimes clashed with
the other two groups.Yasmeen Abutaleb contributed to this
report.Biden interacts with Pelosi and Harris just before beginning
Tuesday night’s address, during which he said that continuing to
fight inflation is his “top priority.”STATE OF THE UNION