First Lady Jill Biden touts husband’s economic agenda at Nevada college

At the conclusion of her three-day western trip to promote her husband’s economic agenda, First Lady Jill Biden gave a speech Wednesday at a Nevada college that is currently using U.S. relief funds to assist in training students to meet the growing demand for healthcare professionals.

The demand includes that for nurses as well as radiology and emergency medical technicians.

Mrs. Biden visited several training rooms with mock ambulances and an X-ray lab at Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno, where she had conversations with students who commented that the American Rescue Plan grants they were given were crucial in keeping them in school and the programs operating.

Student Savanna Terrana showed off a training mannequin in the lab with real human bones inside, and she said the $1,500 tuition grant she had been given “was a real game-changer for me.” 

Fellow student Samantha Ramirez, who is studying to become an EMT added that grant money allowed the community college to purchase training equipment like what they will have access to in the field, “so when we get out there, we know more about what we’re doing.”

The first lady was joined at the campus by acting Assistant U.S. Labor Secretary Angela Hanks as well as Gov. Steve Sisolak and Lt. Gov. Lisa Cano Burkhead, two Democrats who are currently up for reelection in the western state.

Biden closed her campaign-style speech by repeating the theme of the president’s current economic agenda that she propped up in Arizona on Monday and Tuesday. “I’ve seen what ‘building a better America’ means for real families like all of yours,” she said.

“It means investing in our workforce…and it means working families have opportunities to train for great jobs, no matter where they live. Programs like these change lives.”

But Republican National Committee spokesman Keith Schipper felt differently about the first lady’s visit, saying it “does nothing to address the real issues facing Nevadans.” He went on, “The Biden administration is failing on the most important issues in Nevada right now, like record-high gas prices, skyrocketing inflation and the historic border crisis.”