Biden headed to Connecticut to promote agenda, visit UConn human rights center

President Biden is heading to Connecticut on Friday to promote his domestic agenda and attend a dedication of a human rights center at the University of Connecticut, the White House said.

Biden will visit Hartford to plug his agenda with a focus on “the importance of investing in child care to keep costs down for working families,” according to the announcement. He will also visit Storrs, home to UConn, to attend the dedication of the school’s Dodd Center for Human Rights, a center named in honor of former Democratic Connecticut Sens. Thomas Dodd and Christopher Dodd.

Thomas Dodd, who died in 1971, is the father of Christopher Dodd, who is expected to attend the ceremony on Friday. The center has been named the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center since its creation in 1995.

“UConn is honoring over a half-century 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,” the university’s interim president, Andrew Agwunobi, said in a statement.

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

Biden’s stop in Hartford, the state capital, is part of the White House’s effort to ramp up public advocacy for the administration’s proposals to expand child care and access to education, provide tax breaks to middle class families and address climate change that will be included in a sweeping multitrillion reconciliation package under negotiations on Capitol Hill.

Biden faces a high-stakes challenge of uniting Democrats behind the package, given disagreements among lawmakers over its size and sequencing with a separate Senate-passed $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that Biden negotiated with a bipartisan group of senators.

Biden has been to Connecticut once since taking office, to deliver a commencement speech at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London.