Jill Biden says bills aren't footballs to 'pass or pivot'

Washington, Feb 7 (AP): Jill Biden went public Monday with her frustration over a political process that she says treats legislation like a football to “pass or pivot” while real people, such as her community college students, continue waiting for assistance that would help them build better future.

Jill Biden says bills aren't footballs to 'pass or pivot'

Washington, Feb 7 (AP): Jill Biden went public Monday with her frustration over a political process that she says treats legislation like a football to “pass or pivot” while real people, such as her community college students, continue waiting for assistance that would help them build better futures.

“Governing isn't a game. There are no teams to root for or against, just people. Americans from all walks of life who need help and hope,” the first lady told a meeting of advocates for community colleges in a message that also seemed directed at members of Congress.

She was speaking about a proposal to make community colleges tuition free, promised during the 2020 presidential campaign but now dropped from a much larger social welfare and climate bill that was a core domestic priority for her husband, President Joe Biden.

Her comments were surprising because first ladies generally try to avoid being drawn into the political fray or getting too involved in the legislative process.

But the issue is personal for the first lady, who has taught at community colleges for many years and has advocated for waiving tuition since the Obama administration, when her husband served as vice president.

Biden scrapped the plan as he tried to win the support of key Senate Democrats who objected to the scope and cost of the overall measure, and whose votes the president desperately needed given solid opposition from Republicans in a chamber split 50-50.

But the “Build Back Better” bill ended up stalled in the Senate anyway, and one of those Democrats, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, recently declared that measure “dead.” On Monday, Jill Biden told he Association of Community College Trustees national legislative summit that the president will continue to push Congress to adopt the proposal.

“Joe doesn't quit. He doesn't give up. He is keeping his promise to rebuild our middle class and he knows that community colleges do just that," the first lady said to applause.

Last year, Jill Biden, a veteran community college English and writing professor, addressed the organisation with taped remarks, bowing to the COVID-19 pandemic, and promised that her dream of waiving some tuition would become reality because her husband was in the White House.

“We have to get this done. And we have to do it now. That's why we're going to make sure that everyone has access to free community college and training programmes,” she said in 2021.

Speaking in person Monday to a masked audience packed inside a hotel ballroom, she blamed the failure to deliver on the promise to “compromise” the president had to make.

The first lady teaches at Northern Virginia Community College and talked in her brief speech about having to lend a book to one of her students last week because he couldn't buy the book before pay day.

She also talked about a student mom who eventually dropped out of the class after her child got sick with COVID-19. The students missed classes and fell behind on the course work.

“Build Back Better isn't just a piece of legislation and it's certainly not a football to pass or pivot,” Jill Biden said.

She said she and the president both knew that getting tuition-free college wouldn't “be easy," but she said she was still disappointed “because, like you, these aren't just bills or budgets to me.” “We know what they mean for real people, for our students, and it was a real lesson in human nature that some people just don't get that,” the first lady said. (AP) VM VM

(This story is published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)