Albany

Vice President Joe Biden will visit the Capital Region on Tuesday for an announcement by Gov. Andrew Cuomo concerning using federal disaster aid to rebuild infrastructure, according to sources familiar with the event.

Cuomo invited Biden as part of the presentation on how New York state will invest into infrastructure projects the federal disaster relief monies received after Hurricane Sandy. Cuomo also appears poised to discuss the projects during his State of the State address on Wednesday. Early indications are that the Biden meeting will take place in the Red Room at the Capital, and not in a more public setting, according to another source.

It will be Biden's first appearance here since a speech he made at Shenendehowa High School in July 2009. But unlike four years ago, this meeting brings together two men who might have eyes on the Oval Office — in a state in which one of its former senators, Hillary Rodham Clinton, might also be vying for the Democratic nomination.

But Hank Sheinkopf, a political consultant based in Manhattan, said Cuomo's move is to show the administration is working on the issue and a reminder that Cuomo is the state's top Democrat, a week after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio had former President Bill Clinton front and center at his swearing-in ceremony. "Today, (Cuomo) is not thinking about running for president. What he's thinking about is showing who's in charge," Sheinkopf said.

Both Biden and Cuomo are at the back of the pack in early polling for the presidential race: A CNN survey released in September put Hillary Clinton far ahead as the choice of 65 percent of Democratic and independent respondents. Biden came in a distant second at 10 percent, followed by freshman Sen. Elizabeth Warren — a progressive favorite — at 7 percent, and Cuomo at 6 percent.

"I can die a happy man never having been president of the United States of America," Biden told a reporter for GQ magazine for a profile that ran in July. "But it doesn't mean I won't run ... The judgment I'll make (before 2016) is, first of all, am I still as full of as much energy as I have now — do I feel this?" he said. "Number two, do I think I'm the best person in the position to move the ball? And, you know, we'll see where the hell I am."

The White House has kept the details of this week's vice presidential visit, including where and when, under wraps, only saying in a statement Sunday that Biden will travel to Albany to participate in an event with Cuomo.

Aides with U.S. Reps. Chris Gibson, R-Kinderhook, and Paul D. Tonko, D-Amsterdam, also were trying to find out specifics about Biden's visit and if the congressmen will be able to attend; a House vote scheduled at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. Cuomo's office said it had no information to pass along Sunday.

Biden's 2009 speech in Shenendehowa's gymnasium was part of a nationwide tour touting the success of the Recovery Act. In September 2009, his wife, Jill Biden, a professor, accompanied President Barack Obama to Hudson Valley Community College. That visit was one of three that Obama has made to the region since taking office in 2009, including General Electric Co. in Schenectady in January 2011 and the University at Albany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering in May 2012.

Biden was busy in early December with a six-day tour to China, Japan and the Republic of Korea. His last visit inside the U.S., on Nov. 25 in Chicago, involved a groundbreaking ceremony for a new domestic violence shelter.

Casey Seiler contributed. lstanforth@timesunion.com • 518-454-5697