President Joe Biden used an address to the National League of Cities Congressional City Conference on Monday to highlight the one year anniversary of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan (ARP) and to appeal for local leaders to continue to push for more funding from Congress.
Watch Biden's remarks in the player above.
"We need your voices," Biden said. "The voice of local officials who understand what your communities need, your senators and congressperson will listen to you all."
ARP was stuffed with rental assistance, tax rebates, direct payments and money to distribute vaccines that had just become available. Less than two months after Biden took office, it was a hopeful sign that he could fulfill his campaign promise to get Washington's often lumbering machinery working again.
Last Friday was the anniversary of Biden's signing of the American Rescue Plan, and the second anniversary of the World Health Organization's declaration that the coronavirus had become a global pandemic. Looking back, administration officials defend the relief package as a necessary step to insulate the economy and promote a national rebound, and they point to historically low unemployment now as proof of their success.
A fraction of the bill's spending was devoted to directly combating the pandemic, including purchasing shots and treatments, supporting testing and vaccination sites, and treating those infected with the virus that has killed more than 959,000 in the U.S.
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The rest was intended to backstop state and local governments, ease the pain of job losses and pump money into American pocketbooks.
One year after the American Rescue Plan was signed, the federal government has spent down nearly all of its direct COVID-19 assistance, which boosted supply of at-home tests, provided free virus treatment for the uninsured and paid for vaccine doses sent overseas to help prevent the emergence of more dangerous variants.
The White House asked Congress this month for an additional $22.5 billion to continue fighting the pandemic, including money for antibody treatments, a preventative therapy for the immunocompromised and to fund community testing sites.
Lawmakers initially reduced the request, then dropped it completely in the final compromise government-wide spending bill because of disputes over how to pay for the fresh expenditures. That leaves the White House with the challenge of reviving the proposal in a separate piece of legislation that would have an uphill battle in a narrowly divided Senate.
The omicron wave of coronavirus infections is rapidly receding, but more than 1,100 people in the U.S. are still dying each day from the virus. The vast majority are not vaccinated or boosted.