The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
BIDEN’S FIRST 100 DAYS IN GEORGIA
■ The Democratic-backed stimulus package paid for $1,400 direct stimulus checks for residents who earn less than $75,000 per year or married couples who earn less than $150,000.
Under the complicated aid formula, the state of Georgia will receive about $4.6 billion, and the 159 county governments will receive a combined $2.1 billion. An additional $1.4 billion will be distributed to 534 Georgia cities. More than 190 cities will receive at least $1 million.
■ The administration pushed to build out a nationwide vaccine distribution infrastructure. Federal officials in March opened a mass-vaccination site at Mercedes-benz Stadium to dispense tens of thousands of lifesaving doses each week at a time when state officials were struggling to cope with demand.
■ Biden immediately butted heads with state Republican officials, and a top federal health care official soon put on hold Gov. Brian Kemp’s plan to provide health coverage to thousands of low-income and uninsured adults as long as they meet a work or activity requirement.
■ Biden assailed Georgia’s new election law, calling the voter restrictions an“atrocity”and a“blatant attack on the Constitution and good conscience,” leading to Republican counterattacks that he was misstating its effects. He said he’d “strongly support” Major League Baseball moving its Allstar game from Truist Park days before MLB yanked the event in protest of the law.
■ The president also sought to reward his most loyal supporters, chief among them Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. He held his first campaign fundraiser since his election for Bottoms, who faces a tough November reelection campaign.