WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden announced Monday the appointment of economist Gene Sperling as coordinator for the implementation of the actions outlined in the new $ 1.9 trillion stimulus package.
“Gene will be on the phone with mayors, governors … in constant communication, a source of recommendations and support, and above all, he will be the person in charge of completing this great task,” Biden said during a brief conference from the White House.
Sperling will be tasked with seeing that funds from the pandemic bailout plan are distributed appropriately.
The economist was an advisor to Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, and was in charge of the implementation of the 2009 US Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a stimulus package approved after the 2008 economic crisis.
Biden said Monday that a goal was set for the United States to reach 100 million vaccinations against COVID-19 in the next 10 days, while 100 million economic relief checks have also been issued for the pandemic.
“Shots in the arms and money in the pockets,” Biden said.
Some require that many of these benefits be made permanent. Know what they are.
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are scheduled, along with their husbands, on a promotional tour of the stimulus plan recently signed into law after approval by Congress.
The White House hopes to give prominence to the plan with a tour throughout the United States that bears the name of “Help is Here Tour” and whose objective is to explain to Americans regardless of ideology how the rescue package can improve their lives, hit by the pandemic.
The idea arose from the lessons learned during the administration of Barack Obama (2009-2017), who did not do enough to promote and explain his decisions to the population, as recognized by Biden himself.
The tour began this Monday with a trip by Harris, and her husband, Doug Emhoff, to Las Vegas; while the first lady, Jill Biden, will visit the city of Burlington, in New Jersey.
Biden is scheduled to visit a business in Delaware on Tuesday while an event is scheduled for Friday in Atlanta, Georgia, along with the vice president.
Additionally, the tour will include stops in Pennsylvania, Colorado, and New Mexico.
Biden signed into law the new $ 1.9 billion bailout package on Thursday, a day after it passed in the House of Representatives.
The measure provides payments of up to $ 1,400 to individuals who meet the criteria to receive them, and payments of $ 5,600 to families of four who also meet the requirements.
“Payments will be automatically released to taxpayers even as the IRS continues to provide regular refunds for tax returns,” IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said in a statement.
An estimated 85% of Americans are eligible to receive payments. The goal is to make millions of those payments in the coming weeks.