— Washington According to a White House official, President Biden will travel to Pennsylvania on Tuesday to discuss his $37 billion plan to combat gun violence, celebrate the recent passing of a bipartisan gun control law, and oppose the “extreme MAGA agenda” of congressional Republicans.
The president will travel to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, to discuss his “Safer America Plan,” a proposal that would be financed by funds included in his fiscal year 2023 budget request, which requires congressional approval.
Mr. Biden was born in nearby Scranton, where he spent his early years, and has frequently returned to the town to deliver significant speeches. When he tested positive for COVID-19 in July, he was compelled to postpone his trip and delay his address set for Tuesday.
According to a White House fact sheet, the president’s crime prevention package calls for $13 billion over the next five years to employ and train 100,000 extra police officers and roughly $3 billion to help clear court backlogs and solve murders.
Mr. Biden’s plan would also establish a $15 billion grant program for cities and states to employ over the next decade to encourage measures to avoid violent crime or identify non-violent circumstances that require a public health response, in an effort to reduce the strain on law enforcement officers. Additional $5 billion would be allocated to community violence reduction programs based on empirical data.
A White House official stated that the president will “make clear that the extreme MAGA agenda of Congressional Republicans is a threat to the rule of law” and argue that Republicans “cannot propose defunding the FBI or defend the mob that stormed the Capitol and attacked and assaulted police officers on January 6th and still be pro-police.”
According to the person, Mr. Biden also planned to continue pressuring Congress to ban assault rifles, which is nearly impossible only weeks before midterm elections, while celebrating adoption of “the most substantial gun safety bill in 30 years.”
This summer, lawmakers adopted and the president signed into law a bipartisan bill to alter the nation’s gun regulations, marking the first significant revision to federal guns statutes in decades. The law, known as the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, strengthens background checks for gun buyers under the age of 21, allots billions of dollars for mental health treatments, and reserves $750 million to incentivise states to establish crisis-intervention programs. In addition, the bill addresses the so-called “boyfriend loophole” to prevent convicted domestic abusers from purchasing firearms for five years.