President Joe Biden will be visiting Fort Worth on Tuesday, March 8, to promote his administration’s plans to support military veterans. Texas is home to 1.5 million military veterans.
The White House announced the visit to North Texas on Wednesday but did not provide many details.
“The President will travel to Fort Worth, Texas, to discuss upholding our sacred obligation to veterans as part of his Unity Agenda for the Nation,” a news release reads.
On Tuesday, March 1, Biden unveiled his four-part “Unity Agenda” during his State of the Union Address. One part of the agenda was supporting veterans. The other parts of the plan included mental health care, ending the opioid epidemic, and improving infrastructure.
“Veterans are the backbone and the spine of this country,” Biden said during his address. “I’ve always believed that we have a sacred obligation to equip all those we send to war and care for them and their families when they come home.”
Biden spoke about providing job training, housing, and debt-free care from the VA to low-income veterans. He also highlighted injuries that soldiers from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan suffered due to toxic fumes from burn pits used to incinerate hazardous materials.
“They come home — many of the world’s fittest and best-trained warriors in the world — never the same: headaches, numbness, dizziness, a cancer that would put them in a flag-draped coffin,” he said.
The President called on Congress to make sure the veterans injured by the toxic fumes in Iraq and Afghanistan “get the benefits and comprehensive health care they deserve.”
“The VA is pioneering new ways of linking toxic exposures to diseases, already helping more veterans get benefits,” Biden said. “And tonight, I’m announcing we’re expanding eligibility to veterans suffering from nine respiratory cancers.”
Biden then touched on the death of his military veteran son, Major Beau Biden, who died in 2015 of brain cancer.
“We don’t know for sure if a burn pit was the cause of his brain cancer or the diseases of so many of our troops. But I’m committed to finding out everything we can,” Biden said.
Biden’s trip to Fort Worth is part of an effort by the White House to promote his administration’s plans by sending the President and other cabinet members across the country.
The travels “will highlight the President’s mission to unite the country around issues where there has historically been support from both Republicans and Democrats,” the White House said.
One day after his State of the Union Address, Biden was in Superior, Wisconsin, to drum up support for his infrastructure legislation. He was joined by first lady Jill Biden and senior advisor and Infrastructure Coordinator Mitch Landrieu.
A little more than a month into his second year as President, Biden told reporters he would be spending more time on the road this year to sell his policies directly to the American people.
“I’m going to get out of this place more often. I’m going to go out and talk to the public. I’m going to do public fora. I’m going to interface with them. I’m going to make the case of what we’ve already done, why it’s important, and what we’ll do if — what will happen if they support what else I want to do,” Biden said during the January press conference.
U.S. Representative Marc Veasey (D-Fort Worth) told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that he had spoken with the White House. However, he did not have details of the President’s itinerary for his trip to North Texas.
Veasey said he suggested to the White House that Biden address the Central City Flood Control Project, which is being built with funds from the federal infrastructure law.
“I think it’s a great project to talk about and to tout, and while he’s here, he ought to take credit for it,” Veasey said.