State and UConn set for Biden visit

Officials will press for funding of key programs

SOUTHINGTON — Gov. Ned Lamont is eager to share his wish list of infrastructure and social-spending needs to President Joe Biden on Friday during stops at a child care center in Hartford and a human-rights research facility at UConn.

But a lot still depends on the mood and power dynamics in a sharply divided Congress, where even majority Democrats can’t agree on the full extent of investments, including an increase in the tax on corporations.

Speaking Tuesday morning after an event celebrating federal funding to hire new firefighter personnel in the Plantsville neighborhood here, Lamont pointed to needs including the aging 78-year-old Gold Star Memorial Bridge that links New London to Groton over the Thames River.

“There it is, only in one direction can trucks go over it,” Lamont said of the two state’s longest bridges, at 6,000 feet, but cannot accept the heaviest, overweight trucking traffic. “Look what that means in terms of efficiency. It slows up the construction of the submarines and such.”

More affordable funding for child care would mean that more single parents finally leave their homes after more than a year and a half of the pandemic, he said. “That gives every kid a really great start in life and allows their moms and dads to work,” Lamont told reporters.

Lamont has plans for more than $1.6 billion in infrastructure plans, including the installation of broadband internet in underserved communities and road and bridge projects that he wanted to pay with the billion dollars over 10 years. He wanted Connecticut to join the regional Transportation and Climate Initiative that would raise gasoline prices by five cents a gallons in attempt to get the petroleum industry to pay for its share of greenhouse gas emissions. The General Assembly, however, turned down the idea this year.

“We need 50,000 child care spots because that’s what we lost during the pandemic,” said Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz. “We’ve been using some CARES Act and federal funding to build that back. A lot of them — mainly women who had child care centers either in their home or larger facilities, went out of business. And so we want to encourage people who are entrepreneurs to start back up and maybe get some of those people back. Child care is critical infrastructure to open our economy.”

Facing Republican opposition in Congress, Biden is plotting ways to move ahead, including a trillion-dollar infrastructure proposal for highways, the electric grid, bridges, trains and seaports. There is also a massive social-spending plan that is tied up in the congressional gridlock.

In Hartford on Friday, Biden will promote his Build Back Better Agenda and the importance of investing in child care to help working class families, the White House said. He will then travel to Storrs to dedicate the opening of the Dodd Center for Human Rights, with former U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd.

“We are deeply honored that President Biden is joining us as we dedicate ourselves to extending the Dodd family legacy,” UConn President Andrew Agwunobi said.

UConn’s plans are for the newly named Dodd Center for Human Rights to be the umbrella for the university’s human rights programming, including The Human Rights Institute and Dodd Impact. It had previously been named after Dodd’s father, former U.S. Sen. Thomas J. Dodd, the chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials that brought Nazis to justice for crimes against humanity in World War II.

“UConn is honoring over a halfcentury of public service of Connecticut’s father and son U.S. senators, Thomas J. Dodd and Christopher J. Dodd, as well as the commitment of the Dodd family to supporting the growth and development of UConn’s widely recognized human rights academic, research, and engagement programs,” Agwunobi said.

Biden’s trip to Connecticut Friday will mark his second visit as president. In May, he participated in the commencement ceremony at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London.

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