President Obama, Vice President Biden to Visit Kokomo, IN

WASHINGTON—On Tuesday, November 23rd, President Obama and Vice President Biden will travel to Kokomo, Indiana, as part of their White House to Main Street tour.

In recent years, Kokomo has been hard-hit by devastating plant closing and layoffs, but with the help of the Recovery Act and the Administration’s auto restructuring plan, Kokomo is on the rebound today and unemployment has dropped by nearly 8 percentage points since mid-2009.  A new hybrid vehicle component manufacturing plant has opened with the help of an $89 million Recovery Act grant; newly-restructured Chrysler has invested $300 million to retool and modernize the Kokomo transmission plant, which has helped retain more than 1,000 workers at its Kokomo plants this year and Recovery Act community development funds have helped support a downtown revitalization that led to the opening of a dozen new businesses in the area.

President Obama last visited Kokomo in April 2008 where he discussed the importance of investing in infrastructure, manufacturing and clean energy to bring good jobs to places like Kokomo.