President Joe Biden’s first stop after his State of the Union address will be the Madison area, where he is scheduled on Wednesday to tout his economic plan, according to a White House statement.
Biden is scheduled to arrive at the Truax Field Air National Guard Base around 11:30 a.m., according to the statement. At 1 p.m., he is slated to talk about “how his economic plan is creating good-paying, union jobs and delivering real results for the American people” at the Liuna Training Center in DeForest, the statement says. He’s scheduled to depart Madison for the White House at 5 p.m.
Biden last visited the state in September, when he spoke at a Labor Day event in Milwaukee. The last president to visit Madison was Barack Obama in November 2012. Thirteen other presidents have visited Madison, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society.
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Traffic will likely be impacted given the size of presidential motorcades, Madison police spokesperson Stephanie Fryer said.
The president’s visit is scheduled amid a critical month in Wisconsin.
One week after Biden’s visit, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers will present his budget to the Republican-led Legislature, launching a monthslong battle over state government spending.
On Feb. 21, less than one week after Evers’ budget address, four contenders will face off in the Wisconsin Supreme Court primary, an election that will decide which two candidates advance to the April 4 general election.
By the numbers: President Biden at the two-year mark
10.46 million job vacancies
10.46 million: The latest Labor Department figures show more than 10 million job vacancies in the U.S., nearly 1.8 jobs for every unemployed person. Jobless rate at 3.5%, matching a 53-year low. Zero recessions — so far.
1 state dinner
1: The president's lone state dinner to date honored French President Emmanuel Macron. Biden held back on some of the the traditional pomp — and partying — at the White House in the early going of his presidency because of COVID-19 concerns.
$40 billion for bridges
$40 billion: The amount in the infrastructure bill dedicated to repair and rebuild the nation's bridges, the single largest dedicated investment in bridges since the construction of the Eisenhower-era interstate highway system.
43,000: The number of bridges in the U.S. rated as poor and needing repair, according to the White House.
0 Cabinet departures
0: Not one of Biden's original Cabinet appointees has left the administration.
$3.36 average gas price
$3.36: The average price per gallon that American motorists are paying at the pump has fallen since peaking at $5.02 per gallon in June. Motorists were paying a $2.39 per gallon average the week Biden took office.
36 states visited
36: Biden has spread his travel across 36 states (shown here in Pennsylvania) to promote his agenda, but still needs to cross off Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming.
89 pardons and commutations
89: The president has granted nine pardons and 80 commutations, far more than any of his recent predecessors at this point. Donald Trump had granted 11 by this time, George W. Bush seven. Barack Obama didn't take any clemency action in his first two years.
97 federal judges confirmed
97: Confirmation of Biden's picks to the federal bench, including Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, outpacing the president's two immediate predecessors.
21 news conferences
21: Biden held fewer solo or joint news conferences than his three most recent predecessors at the same point in their presidencies.
$24.2 billion in security aid to Ukraine
$24.2 billion: The amount of U.S. security assistance committed to Ukraine since the Russian invasion nearly 11 months ago.
38: The number of High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, known as HIMARS, committed to send to Ukraine. A gamechanger, allowing Ukrainian forces to fire at Russian targets from far away, then drive away before artillery can target them.
A closer look
Taking stock of President Joe Biden's first two years in office compared to his three most recent predecessors.
$1 trillion in infrastructure
$1 trillion: The amount allocated for roads, bridges, ports and more in Biden's bipartisan infrastructure legislation, arguably the most significant legislative achievement of his first two years in office.
$31.38 trillion national debt
$31.38 trillion: The federal debt stood at $27.6 trillion when Biden took office.
2.38 million migrants stopped at border
2.38 million: For the 12 months ending Sept. 30, 2022, Customs and Border Protection reported stopping migrants at the U.S. border nearly 2.4 million times, a record surge driven by sharp increases in Venezuelans, Cubans and Nicaraguans. The previous high was 1.66 million in 2021.
680,000 COVID-19 deaths
680,000: The recorded death toll from the coronavirus pandemic during Biden's term. The worst pandemic in more than a century had already taken more than 400,000 American lives by Biden's inauguration and has taken 1.1 million total since March 2020.
197 days in Delaware
197: There's no place like home. The president spent all or part of 197 days in his home state of Delaware, traveling most weekends to either his home near Wilmington or his vacation home at Rehoboth Beach, according to an AP tally. Beyond the weekend visits, he's also made quick trips for funerals, policy events and to cast his ballot in a Democratic primary.
6 chats with Xi
6: Biden has spoken with Chinese President Xi Jinping a half-dozen times since the start of his term. All but one of those were phone or video calls. They met in person on the sidelines of a summit in Indonesia in November.
22: The minimum number of times that Biden has publicly lapsed into a nostalgic recollection of an intimate conversation he had with Xi during a visit to China when Biden was vice president. Biden said Xi asked him to define America and he responded with one word: Possibilities. Biden even managed to squeeze in the anecdote during a celebration this week for the NBA champion Golden State Warriors.
6.5% annual inflation
6.5%: Annual inflation remains stubbornly high, but is slowly falling after reaching a four-decade high of 9.1% in June.
666 million vaccines administered
666 million: The number of COVID-19 vaccines administered to Americans under Biden. Twenty million had received the jab before Biden took office. The vaccine was not approved until late in Trump's presidency.
15.9%: The percentage of Americans 5 and older who have gotten updated bivalent vaccine.
Alexander Shur | Wisconsin State Journal
Alexander Shur covers state government for the Wisconsin State Journal.
