Jill Biden touts rescue plan funding in visit to Reno community college

RENO – First lady Jill Biden toured a community college health sciences center in the Sierra foothills Wednesday to put a local focus on how last year’s federal pandemic aid package helped both the college and its students navigate the privations of the coronavirus pandemic.

It was the first lady’s second stop on a western tour to tout facilities and programs helped or funded outright by the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan her husband signed into law almost one year ago to the day.

The visit comes in the wake of President Biden’s State of the Union address last week where he reframed his economic agenda, renaming it “Building a Better America.” The first lady earlier this week visited an Intel Corp. campus in Chandler, Ariz., to highlight a semiconductor manufacturing boot camp program for community college students funded by the rescue plan.

Her Reno destination, Truckee Meadows Community College, received more than $14 million in rescue plan funding, putting almost $7 million of it toward emergency grants to students. It also used that money to support technology needs of students and staff and to sustain operations and programs amid declining enrollment and revenues.

“I’ve spent the last two days touring Arizona and then here in Nevada, visiting businesses and community colleges, and a community health center,” Biden told an audience after a brisk tour of three Truckee Meadows classroom facilities. “And I’ve seen what Building a Better America means for real families like all of yours. And it means investing in our workforce so that it’s ready for industries of the future. And it means working families have the opportunity to train for great jobs.”

Greeted in Reno by Gov. Steve Sisolak and Lt. Gov. Lisa Cano Burkhead, along with Truckee Meadows Community College President Karin Hilgersom and Dean Julie Ellsworth, the first lady visited a nursing classroom, an EMS training room and a radiologic technology facility before making remarks.

“We know that skills training is essential to our workers and our businesses,” Sisolak said in opening remarks ahead of the first lady. “Our students need more skills, training and certificates to succeed and compete in the world and our community colleges are ready to do the work.”

Introducing Biden, Savannah Terrana, a radiologic technology student, said her life was “dramatically impacted” by the COVID-19 pandemic, making her “unsure how I was going to pay for the rest of my education.” The $1,500 she received from rescue plan funding “was a game changer for me. It paid for my entire fall 2021 semester, which allowed me to focus entirely on my education.”

The first lady began her remarks recounting her husband’s inauguration in January 2021 as well as older family history. She touched on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and her husband’s work to unite with Western European nations in response tro Russia’s aggression before focusing on the day’s theme.

“So I’ve heard how the ARP helped to this school stay open,” she said. “It’s addressing a critical health care shortage like the governor said — I mean, we desperately need health care workers across the country. And make no mistake: schools like TMCC and programs like these change lives. And every person who benefits, who is better off today than they were a year ago, they pass the benefit along.”

The first lady left promptly after her remarks for her next stop at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where she is scheduled to meet families of soldiers deployed to Europe in support of NATO allies.

Contact Capital Bureau reporter Bill Dentzer at bdentzer@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DentzerNews on Twitter.