DETROIT – Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan returned to Michigan Friday evening after a meeting with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House.
“I’ve been to the White House several times, but this was the first time I’ve ever had a meeting in the Oval Office and that was very special,” Duggan said.
The meeting with Biden and Harris also included a bipartisan group of mayors and governors.
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“All of us have people who are out of work, who are afraid that they are going to be evicted when the courts open up, who need housing assistance. All of us need help for the businesses,” he said.
The American Rescue Plan that Biden is pushing calls for $20 billion for vaccines, $50 billion for regular COVID testing to help schools reopen. Michigan would get $604 million and $1.5 billion under each program.
The president chose Duggan as one of two to brief the Washington D.C. Press Corps Friday -- a sign of how highly Biden thinks of Duggan, something the president has shared in the past.
“He (Biden) told the group several stories about being with me in 2014 and 2015 and what we did in Detroit. He’s very proud in the role he had in helping Detroit come out of bankruptcy when he was vice president and he’s still very much committed to our city,” Duggan said.
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