President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will travel to Nevada on Saturday to attend the late Sen. Harry Reid’s funeral, the White House announced Tuesday.
The memorial service is scheduled for Saturday morning at the Smith Center in downtown Las Vegas. Reid’s body will then be returned to Washington, where he will lie in state in the Capitol on Jan. 12.
The former Democratic Senate majority leader, who was the longest-serving senator in Nevada’s history, died last week at 82 after battling pancreatic cancer. Biden and Reid served alongside each other in the Senate for 22 years.
“During the two decades we served together in the United States Senate, and the eight years we worked together while I served as Vice President, Harry met the marker for what I’ve always believed is the most important thing by which you can measure a person — their action and their word,” Biden said last week in a statement on Reid’s passing.
Under Reid’s leadership in the Senate, former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act became law. Obama is also expected to attend and deliver a eulogy on Saturday.