美属维尔京群岛，克里斯蒂安斯塔德-乔·拜登总统和政府高级官员将在全国展开讨论，谈论经济如何从他与民主党人和共和党人的合作中受益，从而开启分裂政府的新一年。
作为推销的一部分，拜登和参议院共和党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔(Mitch McConnell)将于周三在麦康奈尔的家乡肯塔基州罕见地联合露面，以强调立法者在2021年两党基础上批准的近1万亿美元基础设施支出。
白宫表示，民主党总统在访问辛辛那提地区的肯塔基州时，还将加入一个两党民选官员小组，包括俄亥俄州参议员谢罗德·布朗(Sherrod Brown)、肯塔基州民主党州长安迪·贝希尔(Andy be shire)和俄亥俄州共和党州长迈克·德温(Mike DeWine)。
拜登的两党合作闪电战是在共和党周二从民主党手中夺回众议院控制权的两天前宣布的，此前共和党在11月份获得了控制权选举南这一转变结束了民主党对国会的统一政治控制，并使拜登未来的立法议程复杂化。民主党将继续掌管参议院。
在去年年底离开华盛顿度假之前，拜登呼吁减少党派偏见，他说，他希望每个人都“不是以民主党人或共和党人的身份，不是以‘红队’或‘蓝队’的成员的身份，而是以我们真正的身份，美国同胞们。”
总统此行似乎与肯塔基州和俄亥俄州最近的一项声明有关，该声明称，他们将获得超过16.3亿美元的联邦拨款，以帮助在辛辛那提附近修建一座新的俄亥俄河大桥，并改善那里现有的超载跨度，这是一条连接中西部和南部的繁忙货运路线。
75号和71号州际公路上的布伦特斯宾塞桥的拥堵多年来一直是一个关键航运走廊上令人沮丧的瓶颈，也是美国日益增长的基础设施需求的象征。官员们表示，这座桥建于20世纪60年代，每天可承载约8万辆汽车，但在其狭窄的车道上，交通负荷增加了一倍，导致联邦公路管理局宣布它在功能上已经过时。
计划中的项目覆盖约8英里(12公里)，包括改善桥梁和一些连接道路，并在附近建设一个配套跨度。这两个州协调一致，要求根据拜登在2021年签署的近1万亿美元的两党基础设施协议提供资金，拜登在国会通过立法时强调了该项目。
麦康奈尔说，姊妹桥“将是该法案的最高成就之一。”
DeWine说，两个州已经讨论该项目近20年了，“现在，我们终于可以超越会谈，开始工作。”
官员们希望今年晚些时候破土动工，到2029年完成大部分工作。
拜登的访问也可能为贝希尔提供政治上的推动，贝希尔今年正在他占压倒多数的共和党州寻求连任。
在2022年12月接受美联社采访时，贝希尔对拜登的工作表现进行了褒贬不一的评价。拜登去年和贝希尔一起去了肯塔基州遭受龙卷风和洪水袭击的地区。
贝希尔在谈到拜登时说:“有些事情我认为已经做得很好，有些事情我希望能做得更好。”。
其他政府高级官员本周也将帮助宣传拜登的经济政策。
周三，副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯将在芝加哥讨论“总统的经济计划如何重建我们的基础设施，创造高薪工作——不需要四年学位的工作，以及振兴落后社区，”白宫在声明中说。
交通部长皮特·布蒂吉格也于周三在康涅狄格州新伦敦传达了同样的信息。
负责促进基础设施支出的白宫官员米奇·兰德里欧(Mitch Landrieu)将于周四在旧金山与即将成为前众议院议长的南希·佩洛西(Nancy Pelosi)会面，她在国会中代表她。
拜登与家人在美属维尔京群岛的圣克罗伊岛度过近一周时间后，原定于周一返回白宫。
周日，总统观看了2023年的第一次日出，并在克里斯蒂安斯泰德的圣十字天主教堂参加了弥撒，这是他过去访问该岛时参加的宗教服务。
Biden's new year pitch focuses on benefits of bipartisanship
CHRISTIANSTED, U.S. Virgin Islands -- President Joe Biden and top administration officials will open a new year of divided government by fanning out across the country to talk about how the economy is benefiting from his work with Democrats and Republicans.
As part of the pitch, Biden and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell will make a rare joint appearance in McConnell's home state of Kentucky on Wednesday to highlight nearly $1 trillion in infrastructure spending that lawmakers approved on a bipartisan basis in 2021.
The Democratic president will also be joined by a bipartisan group of elected officials when he visits the Kentucky side of the Cincinnati area, including Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Republican Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio, the White House said.
Biden's bipartisanship blitz was announced two days before Republicans retake control of the House from Democrats on Tuesday following GOP gains in the November elections. The shift ends unified political control of Congress by Democrats and complicates Biden's future legislative agenda. Democrats will remain in charge in the Senate.
Before he departed Washington for vacation at the end of last year, Biden appealed for less partisanship, saying he hoped everyone will see each other “not as Democrats or Republicans, not as members of ‘Team Red’ or ‘Team Blue,’ but as who we really are, fellow Americans.”
The president's trip appeared tied to a recent announcement by Kentucky and Ohio that they will receive more than $1.63 billion in federal grants to help build a new Ohio River bridge near Cincinnati and improve the existing overloaded span there, a heavily used freight route linking the Midwest and the South.
Congestion at the Brent Spence Bridge on Interstates 75 and 71 has for years been a frustrating bottleneck on a key shipping corridor and a symbol of the nation’s growing infrastructure needs. Officials say the bridge was built in the 1960s to carry around 80,000 vehicles a day but has seen double that traffic load on its narrow lanes, leading the Federal Highway Administration to declare it functionally obsolete.
The planned project covers about 8 miles (12 kilometers) and includes improvements to the bridge and some connecting roads and construction of a companion span nearby. Both states coordinated to request funding under the nearly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal signed in 2021 by Biden, who had highlighted the project as the legislation moved through Congress.
McConnell said the companion bridge “will be one of the bill’s crowning accomplishments.”
DeWine said both states have been discussing the project for almost two decades “and now, we can finally move beyond the talk and get to work.”
Officials hope to break ground later this year and complete much of the work by 2029.
Biden's visit could also provide a political boost to Beshear, who is seeking reelection this year in his overwhelmingly Republican state.
In a December 2022 interview with The Associated Press, Beshear gave a mixed review of Biden's job performance. Biden had joined Beshear to tour tornado- and flood-stricken regions of Kentucky last year.
“There are things that I think have been done well, and there are things that I wish would have been done better," Beshear said of Biden.
Other top administration officials will also help promote Biden's economic policies this week.
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In Chicago on Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris will discuss "how the President’s economic plan is rebuilding our infrastructure, creating good-paying jobs – jobs that don’t require a four-year degree, and revitalizing communities left behind,” the White House said in its announcement.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was delivering the same message in New London, Connecticut, also on Wednesday.
Mitch Landrieu, the White House official tasked with promoting infrastructure spending, will join soon-to-be former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday in San Francisco, which she represents in Congress.
Biden was scheduled to return to the White House on Monday after spending nearly a week with family on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The president opened New Year's Day on Sunday by watching the first sunrise of 2023 and attending Mass at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Christiansted, where he has attended religious services during his past visits to the island.
