Ahead of President Joe Biden’s first State of the Union  address, the Biden Administration touted it’s historic investments in rural communities through the American Rescue Plan which slashed poverty and lowered costs, created jobs and new economic  opportunities, and expanded access to health care.
While campaigning for president in 2020, the Biden campaign called for policies like tax cuts for the middle class, investing in rural  schools, and partnering with rural communities to enable them to access  federal resources. In office, the administration has addressed several  of those campaign priorities.\
Biden signed the American Rescue Plan in March 2021, after it passed Congress with only Democratic votes. According to the Urban Institute,  after the plan’s passage the annual poverty rate for the United States  was projected to fall from 13.7% to 7.7% for 2021. The Institute  attributed the drop in poverty to benefits sent out by the Rescue Plan,  including unemployment benefits, child tax credits, and means-tested  benefits.
