COVID-19 scuttled President Joe Biden’s trip earlier this month to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, where he planned to unveil a $37 billion public safety program centered on federal funding for 100,000 new police officers in local law enforcement departments around the nation.
The aim was to respond to anxiety over crime increases in some cities and to make clear to voters, in advance of November’s midterm elections, that he and congressional Democrats do not fit the soft-on-crime caricature painted by former President Donald Trump and other Republican leaders.
Biden’s “Safer America Plan” has moved forward in fits and starts, making its latest appearance Thursday as part of a proposed assault-weapon ban bill. But the House passed the ban Friday without the police funding language, which is expected to reappear at a later date.
