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     On September 17, 2021, by Executive Order 14046, I declared a national emergency pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States constituted by the situation in and in relation to northern Ethiopia.

     The situation in and in relation to northern Ethiopia, which has been marked by activities that threaten the peace, security, and stability of Ethiopia and the greater Horn of Africa region, continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.  For this reason, the national emergency declared in Executive Order 14046 of September 17, 2021, must continue in effect beyond September 17, 2024.  Therefore, in accordance with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency declared in Executive Order 14046 with respect to Ethiopia.

     This notice shall be published in the Federal Register and transmitted to the Congress.

                              JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.

THE WHITE HOUSE,
    September 6, 2024.

The post Press Release: Notice on the Continuation of the National Emergency With Respect to Ethiopia appeared first on The White House.

     On September 17, 2021, by Executive Order 14046, I declared a national emergency pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States constituted by the situation in and in relation to northern Ethiopia.

     The situation in and in relation to northern Ethiopia, which has been marked by activities that threaten the peace, security, and stability of Ethiopia and the greater Horn of Africa region, continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.  For this reason, the national emergency declared in Executive Order 14046 of September 17, 2021, must continue in effect beyond September 17, 2024.  Therefore, in accordance with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency declared in Executive Order 14046 with respect to Ethiopia.

     This notice shall be published in the Federal Register and transmitted to the Congress.

                              JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.

THE WHITE HOUSE,
    September 6, 2024.

The post Press Release: Notice on the Continuation of the National Emergency With Respect to Ethiopia appeared first on The White House.

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE
 
SUBJECT:       Delegation of Authority Under Section 506(a)(1)
               of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961
 
 
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 621 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (FAA), I hereby delegate to the Secretary of State the authority under section 506(a)(1) of the FAA to direct the drawdown of up to $250 million in defense articles and services of the Department of Defense, and military education and training, to provide assistance to Ukraine and to make the determinations required under such section to direct such a drawdown.
 
You are authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.
 
  

                              JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.

The post Memorandum on the Delegation of Authority Under Section 506(a)(1) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 appeared first on The White House.

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE
 
SUBJECT:       Delegation of Authority Under Section 506(a)(1)
               of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961
 
 
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 621 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (FAA), I hereby delegate to the Secretary of State the authority under section 506(a)(1) of the FAA to direct the drawdown of up to $250 million in defense articles and services of the Department of Defense, and military education and training, to provide assistance to Ukraine and to make the determinations required under such section to direct such a drawdown.
 
You are authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.
 
  

                              JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.

The post Memorandum on the Delegation of Authority Under Section 506(a)(1) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 appeared first on The White House.

Aboard Air Force One
En Route Detroit, Michigan

1:40 P.M. EDT

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Hello.

Q    Hey.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Hi, hi, everybody.  Hi.  Hello.

Q    How’s it going?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Good.  Good.  I have a guest with me. 

Q    How are you?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Hi, hi.  A lot of new faces and old faces.

Okay.  I’m — I’m going to have a topper, and then I’m going to hand it over to the secretary in a second.  So, here we go.

Today, we are celebrating good news for the American people.  Under the leadership of President Biden and Vice President Harris, jobs and wages are up, while unemployment and inflation are down.

In Ann Arbor, Michigan, the president will discuss the actions the Biden-Harris administration is taking to sustain the historic gains we have made for American workers.

He will visit a pipefitting training center to meet the union members and sign an executive order to help ensure that the Biden-Harris Investing in America agenda continues to promote good, high-quality jobs with paths to the Middle East — to the Middle East? — to middle class.  Oh, my gosh.  You can see where my head is.  Pardon me.  Middle class.

The event is part of a broader tour to profile the workers and communities across America that are re- — reaping the rewards of the Biden-Harris administration’s Investing in America agenda.

I’m joined today, as you can see to my right, by Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su, who will speak more about the President’s commitment to creating high-quality jobs. 

One last thing, and I know you guys look forward to these.  We have a week ahead — a little bit of a week ahead.  Next week will be a very busy week.  Here are just a few things that I can highlight at this time.

On Tuesday, the president will welcome two champion- — championship teams to the White House: the University of South Carolina’s women’s basketball team and the UConn’s men’s basketball team.

On Wednesday, the president and the vice president will travel together to Ground Zero in New York City; to the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania; and to the Pentagon in Virginia to honor the — and to honor and remember the victims of the September 11th terror attacks.

I will also note that next week is the anniversary of the Violence Against Women’s Act, and we will certainly be lifting that up at the White House.

And with that, Secretary —

ACTING SECRETARY SU:  Thank you so much, Karine.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  — the floor is yours.

ACTING SECRETARY SU:  It’s so nice to be here with all of you. 

As you all know, since day one, President Biden pledged to be the most pro-worker, pro-union president this country has ever seen, and it’s a promise that we’re delivering on every day.

The two things that we’re talking about today, the steady jobs report and the president’s executive order, are really evidence of that.

The latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that there were 142,000 jobs created last month, while the unemployment rate ticked down.  That brings us — continues the longest stretch of such a low unemployment rate for the longest time since Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon.

We don’t just care about the number of jobs, although that’s a good news story, we also care about the quality of those jobs, making sure the jobs are, as the president often says, more than a paycheck — that the jobs are safe, that they offer real security, the ability to retire with dignity, the ability to build your future, and the right to join a union.

So, the executive order that the president will sign today is about making sure that our immense federal investments are creating those kinds of good jobs and doing things through tools like project labor agreements, community benefits agreements, equal pay, high safety and job standards, as well as union — union work, union contracts.

So, the executive order really institutionalizes the work that we have been doing and ensures that as we go forward, as more investments hit the ground, that the result of that is not only the outcomes we want in terms of physical infrastructure, clean energy, manufacturing, the like, but also good jobs for — for America’s workers. 

And that’s why we’re really proud to be heading to Michigan today to — to talk about these jobs and the work w- — we’re doing — we’re going to keep doing to — to make sure those are the kind of jobs that get created.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Awesome.  Go ahead.

Q    I guess my first question would be why — someone else can go first.  I —

My first question would be why — why — in this executive order, have you all analyzed what kinds of union jobs these — this could be incentivizing?  Or is it just — or is there any particular sector that you believe this is going to most impact?

ACTING SECRETARY SU:  I mean, you know, we are seeing a moment in this country where there’s a new era of worker power, really, and that’s — that crosses multiple industries — right? — from health care to hospitality to Hollywood; construction workers, obviously; manufacturing and new industries more — right? — clean energy, for example.

And so, we are not specifically naming certain industries.  We’re basically saying that the investments that are being made right now are creating a boom across the country in — in many industries.  And we see that in the jobs report too.

This last month, it was construction.  You know, the last administration had a construction “Infrastructure Week” promise that never materialized.  It’s become a punchline.  We’re — we’ve invested in infrastructure decade.

Health care grew this last month.  We saw the last administration, in the face of a global pandemic, freeze, not know what to do, did not have a — have a strategy, and the health care industry was devastated.  We’ve now seen that come back.

So, our — you know, our commitment to good jobs is — is in every single industry.

Q    What did —

Q    Do you see this —

Q    Go ahead.

Q    Do you see this as kind of an insurance policy in case former President Trump is elected — that, you know, to sort of secure the — the unionization gains to ensure — I mean, how does that work, in practice, if the next president comes in — if it is Trump, comes in and — and revokes that order?

ACTING SECRETARY SU:  I mean, so, as you know, I can’t talk about the election in my official capacity.  But it is very important for there to be a pro-worker, pro-union administration in office if we want to make sure that these investments continue to benefit communities. 

And the other thing about the jobs report is real wages continue to go up.  And, in fact, wage growth has exceeded the rate of inflation.  That means more money in the pockets of working families.

So, we know what — that what we’re doing works.  We see it in the jobs numbers, and we see it when we go on the ground — places, you know, where we’re going now.  And so, our — our job is to keep on doing this work.  And certainly, in the next several months, we’re going to see a lot more federal investments hit the ground, and we want to make sure that the impact on workers is positive.

(Cross-talk.)

Q    What — go ahead.  Go ahead.

Q    I just have a follow-up on that.  So, how do you ensure that there — you know, how do you institutionalize the policies that you’ve pursued as an administration, whether it’s, you know, opening the door to more unionization in sectors that have been resistant to that —

ACTING SECRETARY SU:  Yeah. 

Q    — pri- — 

ACTING SECRETARY SU:  Well, two answers to that: One is that we are seeing workers organize in industries and in regions of the country that many people thought were unorganizable or difficult to organize.  You know, I was in Fort Valley, Georgia, with workers who are building our next-generation electric school busses.  I was in Anniston, Alabama, you know, in facilities where working people — largely Black workforces — are now in union jobs where they’re getting 40 percent wage increases.

This is not happening by accident.  It’s happening because the president and this administration have been so full-throated in its support of why unions are not just good for workers but good for industry and good for the economy. 

But the other answer is, you know, we’ve already heard what’s going to happen if the other guy wins the election.  So, you know, policies like executive orders can be reversed.  We want these investments to be decades-long investments, and the private sector is looking for that too.

And so, you know, the answer to that is that we can — we — we will keep on going for as long as we can keep going.  And — and, you know, we know that this works, so people have a choice to make.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Go ahead, Zolan.

Q    Amid the job numbers today, can you describe how much of a challenge workforce shortages still are?  We’ve been talking to companies throughout the past couple years who have said there’s a lot of money available, but there’s not a lot — enough people to actually hire. 

And then just second question: Can you describe the administration’s involvement in the collective bargaining talks with Boeing right now as well?

ACTING SECRETARY SU:  So, we don’t talk about workforce shortages.  We think about these as good-job shortages.  So, the more good jobs that are created, the more we see workers come into the labor force, right?  The — we — we’ve seen in a tight labor market, workers do have more ability to choose, and that has resulted in employers having to become employers of choice — right? — in order to — in order to recruit a workforce that they want.

Those are all really fundamental to this administration’s vision that you can build an economy where workers come first, and that’s good for everybody.  So, you know, wh- — and — and we are continuing to build what I call an “opportunity infrastructure,” connecting people to the good jobs they want and need, employers to people they want and need.  We need roads and bridges to do that too.  We’ve been building that.

On the negotiations, you know, we continue to support the collective bargaining process.  We know the parties are still at the table.  We’re, you know, in touch with the parties and encourage them to keep on — keep on negotiating and — and reach a fair contract. 

Q    Do we seem likely heading towards a strike or —

ACTING SECRETARY SU:  Here’s what I’ll say, especially from having been at the table a lot over the last couple of years: The parties always seem far apart until they’re not.  And so, as long as they are bargaining, as long as there’s a mutual desire to get to the other side, we think that’s a good thing.

Q    Can I ask you about congressional Republicans who say that more than $32 billion in pandemic unemployment fraud in California on your watch there should not be — the bill should not be footed by the federal government.  What’s your response to that?

ACTING SECRETARY SU:  Yeah.  So, there is no fraud that we are seeking to, you know, forgive or waive or anything else.  You know, we take fraud very seriously and are, you know, continuing to put in place an unemployment insurance system that is going to work better than the one that we had, you know, in the last administration, because there was no national strategy.  So, there’s no effort to — to forgive any kind of fraud. 

Q    Just to clarify, the $32 billion will not be covered by the federal government? 

ACTING SECRETARY SU:  There’s no — it — I don’t know that — that particular figure.  There’s just no frau- — there’s no forgiveness of any fraud payments that were being made.  We are pursuing every avenue to recover funds and to crack down on fraud and send a clear message that there’s no room for fraud in the system. 

Q    Can I get an update on U.S. Steel?  Has the CFIUS recommendation hit the president’s desk?  And is there any concern about what happens if it remains under U.S. ownership and gets broken up into pieces?  Is that a — an outcome that the president would be comfortable with?  And is there anything he can do to help those workers or help U.S. Steel remain intact?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  I’ll — I’ll start it off.  We don’t have any news to make.  The CFIUS — obviously, this is a — CFIUS is independent.  It’s a process under them.  We have not — they have not transmitted or provided their decision.  And so, we don’t have anything to share at this time. 

And I’m just not going to get into hypotheticals here.  We just got to let CFIUS do their — do their job and do their work, and I’m just not going to get ahead of that. 

I don’t know if you want anything to add to that.

ACTING SECRETARY SU:  My answer is going to be similar. 

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Yeah.

ACTING SECRETARY SU:  It’s premature, I think, to — to speculate about any of those things. 

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  All right.

Q    Can I ask one more question —

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Yeah, sure.

Q    — about housing? 

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Okay.

Q    So, I realize you’re the labor secretary, but a lot of these investments that companies are making require housing for workers in those centers.  So, are you seeing that posing a challenge?  Because, of course, it takes time to — to build the housing that would house workers around —

ACTING SECRETARY SU:  Yeah.

Q    — new plants, especially in greenfield sites. 

ACTING SECRETARY SU:  Yeah.  I’ll approach this from the position of the acting labor secretary, which is to say that one reason why we are so committed to creating good jobs in this — in the country is that it shouldn’t be so difficult for a worker to make a decent living and afford to live near where they work.  Right? 

That is why it’s — the executive order and — and the focus on good jobs and, you know, breathing room, as the president says, for — for working families is so key.

Q    So, this executive order, does it — is it — I mean, what specifically do you think will address the housing question there?

ACTING SECRETARY SU:  Yeah.  I mean, you’ve heard — right? — this is sort of — you know, sort of out- — outside of my lane.  But we — we recognize that the cost of housing remains a challenge for — for working people. 

And, again, from my perspective — right? — making sure that workers don’t have to work full time, year round, and still live in poverty, don’t have to work multiple jobs just to get by is a part of how we ensure real security for workers. 

Q    Thank you.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Anyone else?  Anybody else?

Q    Karine, wondering if — outside of the NSC statement, if the White House or the president has any response —

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Hold on one second.  There’s no one — anything — anything else for the secretary? 

ACTING SECRETARY SU:  Thank you all.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  All right.  Thank you so much. 

Q    Thank you so much.  Thank you. 

Q    Thanks for coming.

ACTING SECRETARY SU:  No problem. 

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Go — go ahead.  I’m sorry. 

Q    That’s okay.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  I just didn’t want her standing around —

Q    All good.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  — if it — if you guys were — were done.

Q    I’m wondering if — outside of the NSC statement, if the White House or the president has any reaction to the American citizen killed in the West Bank. 

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  So, look, we are deeply disturbed by the tragic death of an American citizen, Ay- — Aysenur Eygi, today in the West Bank, and our hearts go out to, obviously, her families and — and loved ones. 

We have reached out to the government of Israel to ask for more information and request an investigation into the — the incident. 

You guys may know or may not know — I’m not sure, because we were up in the air — Secretary Blinken actually addressed this as well.  He did a press conference in Dominican Republic.  And so, I refer you to — to his — his comments. 

Q    Hey.  So, on that issue —

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  (Inaudible.) 

Q    — the president of — I’m sorry.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Yeah.

Q    The president of Turkey has said that he considers it “the murder.”  This woman was a U.S.-Turkish citizen, and he — he described it as a deliberate murder by the Israeli government.  Has the president reached out to President Erdoğan?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Yeah.

Q    Has there been any contact with the Turkish government on this?  And do you see this as undermining, you know, the kind of loose, you know, consensus or — I mean, you know, or furthers —

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Yeah.

Q    — you know, exacerbating tensions over the Gaza war anyway?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  So, look, I — I’m going to really — there’s a couple of things that Secretary Blinken said related to your question.  As I said, Secretary Blinken was — was in the Dominican Republican and — and addressed this. 

And he said, “First things first, let’s find out exactly what happened, and we will draw the necessary conclusions and consequences from that.”  “When we have more information, we will share it, make it available, and, as necessary, we’ll act on it.”  And that’s something else that he said. 

And I would say, lastly — and this is coming from the secretary; this is also something that the president truly believes — is that they have no — no higher priority than the safety and protection of American citizens, wherever they are around the world.  And certainly, that is something that the president believes. 

I don’t want to get ahead of anything here.  We are calling for an investigation.  We got to let the process play out, as the secretary said himself moments ago.  And so, I’m just going to leave it there.  I just don’t want to get into hypotheticals.

As you know, as it relates to the ceasefire deal, the hostage deal, this is something that the president’s team, including, obviously, Secretary Blinken, is working around the clock on.  We want to get this done.  We — he wants to make sure that this war ends but also that we get those hostages, which include American hostages, and get that — more aid to the Palestinian people in Gaza. 

And so, that is a priority.  That is a must.  And we’re certainly — there’s a even more sense of urgency, if you will, in getting that done.  And so, we want to focus on that as well.  But I don’t want to get ahead of — of this investigation.  We’re going —

Q    What about reaching out to the Turks?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  I don’t have anything to — to speak to about a conversation or a potential outreach.  You heard from the secretary, you heard from us, you heard from me, and I think I’m just going to leave it there for now.

Q    Does — does the administration trust the Israeli government to investigate this themselves, or should there be some kind of independent oversight of this?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  I mean, look, we’re asking for investigation.  I’m not going to get into — into s- — into — more into that — into, like, specifics beyond that, I should say.  But we’re asking investigation.  We are in conversations.  I just don’t have anything else to share.  I don’t have anything more.

Q    Two — two questions. 

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Yeah.

Q    Does — does the president have a position on whether IVF should be made free for parents, either by government insurance mandate or government payment, as it’s become an issue in the election?

And separately, Republicans are saying that Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to avoid a courtroom airing of his father’s involvement in these business relationships.  Do you have a response to that?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  So, two very different questions.  Let me get to the first one that you just asked. 

Look, the reason why we are in a situation where IVF is now under attack, which shouldn’t be — and you’ve heard us talk about this — and I’m going to be careful.  I’m not talking about the campaign.  I’m talking about more broadly and what this president and this administration, obviously, including the vice president, has fought for. 

We have fought since the — since Dobbs decision was overturned and it took away — it took away something that was the law, which is the Do- — which is — which is Roe v. Wade, which was the law for almost 50 years.  It took that away.  It took women’s freedoms away. 

And the fact that we have our children who are now growing up with less rights than we had when we were growing up is shameful.  And so, we’ve been very clear.  We want to make sure that we protect the right — the right of a woman to make her own personal decisions about her health care with her family. 

And what we’re seeing from Republicans over and over again is that they want to do more.  They want to take it a step further.  They want a national ban on abortion, and we are not for it. 

We want to protect — protect the rights of — of women to make that decision.  I’m not going to go beyond that.  We’ve been very, very clear on where we stand on this. 

As it relates to the — the second question you asked me, look, Hunter is a private citizen.  You heard me say this plenty of times.  So, when it comes to his own legal circumstances, I’m going to have to refer you to his own legal team, his own personal representa- — representatives.  And I just don’t have anything to comment —

Q    Was the president involved in the decision to plead?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  I — I don’t have anything to comment.  He is a private citizen.  I’ve been very clear about this.  He makes — this is his decision to make.  I’m just not going to comment on — on the last 24 hours.  I’m going to be very clear.  And we’ve been very consistent with that.  Nothing new here. 

Q    Can you say something about what the president — I mean, wheth- — you know, where the president was when he heard the news?  Like, just any kind of color around his reaction.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Don’t have any color.  I don’t have any color. 

Q    I think it was yesterday you were asked about a report around the administration considering a change to the asylum restrictions —

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Yeah.

Q    — at the border.  And on a follow-up, you were asked, “Will there be any change?”  And you said, “Nothing expected soon.”  By “change,” did you mean they will not be lifted coming soon or that they’re actually — like, a change could also be that they will become more strict and —

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  I just — I don’t have anything else.  I don’t have anything else.  As you know, it’s being looked at.  I’m just going to be — I’m not —

Q    What’s being looked at?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Well, I — I just don’t have anything else to say.  I don’t have anything else to say.  I’m going to just leave it there. 

Q    Russian President Vladimir Putin recently said that Ukraine’s incursion into the Kursk region was a distraction and a mistake.  Does the administration support still the Ukrainian military’s incursion into that territory?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Look, here’s what I can say — is that, look, what we have seen for more than two years now is Russia’s aggression into a sovereign territory, into Ukraine.  And it is something that we have been very clear is wrong.  It is something that we’ve been very clear that we will continue to have the back of the Ukrainian people as they fight for their freedom, as they fight for their democracy. 

And the president has been pretty steadfast.  He’s gotten more than 50 countries to back that, to support Ukraine as they continue to fight very bravely for their democracy.  And that is what matters. 

And here’s the thing — and you’ve heard my NSC colleagues say this, you’ve heard the president say this — this could end today.  The war in Ukraine that Russia’s aggression, Russia started, could end today if Mr. Putin would decide to end the war that he started.  He started this war, and we cannot forget how we got to this place today. 

Go ahead.  Yeah.

Q    And then several human rights agencies and — and news organizations have recently highlighted some of the more recent atrocities that have taken place in Sudan.  Can you all clarify what your policy is towards the civil war and conflict that’s taking place in that country at the moment? 

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  I mean, look, I think we’ve talked about this before, and, you know, we’ll continue to be pretty — pretty steadfast.  We have been unequivocal about our position towards the senseless war in Sudan.  This is on the hands of the leaders of the SAF and the RSF, and we condemn the ongoing horrific violence in the strongest terms. 

The belligerents may want war, but the Suda- — Sudanese people do not.  Since the conflict erupted, the United States has worked to provide much-needed humanitarian assistance, committing over $1 billion to these efforts, and use sanctions against per- — perpetators — perpetrators — pardon me — of the conflict. 

It’s a little bumpy up here.  (Laughs.)

We will continue to push all parties to come to a negotiated settlement that allows the Sudanese people to shape their political future. 

It’s — I think we have to sit down now.  It’s a little bumpy.

Q    Is —

Q    Karine, can you just say real quickly —

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Yep.

Q    — where the president is going to watch the debate?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  So, I can — I think I confirmed yesterday in the gaggle that the president is very proud of the vice president.  He will be watching the debate.  I don’t have anything beyond —

Q    From the White House, or is he —

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  I don’t have anything beyond that.  We’ll certainly have more to share next week.  I gave you a little bit of color of what next week is going to look like.  I just don’t have anything to share.

Q    Karine, is anyone from the West Wing with the VP while she’s in Pittsburgh, helping her with debate prep?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  You’re going to have to — you’re literally going to have to talk to the campaign.  They could speak to that.

Q    But from the West Wing?  From — from — like, from —

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  From our side of things?

Q    — your side?  Yeah, over there.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Of our side of things, not anyone that I know of.

Q    Okay.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  But you would have to — it’s a campaign debate.  So, you would have to — obviously, a debate for the campaign.  You have to ask her.  But not that I know of. 

Q    Yeah.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  All right, everybody.  Please sit down.  It’s really bumpy — really bumpy.  We’re about to land.

2:01 P.M. EDT

The post Press Gaggle by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su En Route Detroit, MI appeared first on The White House.

New York, New York

The clothing we wear gives us the power to make a statement without saying a word.

But this year, we must wear it, say it, march for it—and then do it: Vote!

The first time I ever voted, I almost didn’t vote for my future husband.

It was the 70s, and I was a student at the University of Delaware.

And there was a genuine buzz on campus for this young candidate. His name was Joe Biden. Everyone was voting for him.

But I wasn’t so sure.

You see, my parents were Republicans. Politics wasn’t any part of my life.

But we were told that every vote mattered. We believed in making a difference.

Joe won that election by only about 3,000 votes.

It could have easily gone the other way.

Years later, on a Saturday afternoon, I was asked on a date from out of the blue.

At the time, I wore my hair down to the middle of my waist, and so did most of the men I dated!

But that evening, a handsome young Senator showed up at my door.

I took one look at his perfect suit and his leather loafers and thought: “Thank God it’s only one date.”

But then over dinner, I said to myself, “Thank God I voted for him!”

Now, your day might not start or stop with politics.

But elections are about much more.

They’re about the freedom for our children to learn without fear, without hate, without gun violence.

This week, we saw yet another tragic school shooting. We all stand with Georgia in sorrow and in prayer. But we also have to act. We cannot accept these school shootings as a fact of life. We must ban assault rifles.

And I know you care about the freedom to make your own choices. Be who you are. Love who you love.

The freedom—your freedom—of creative expression.

These freedoms are at risk. Because of court decisions, book bans, shrugs of apathy, when people forget the power in their vote.

So, let’s remember: Your next president will likely appoint new Supreme Court Justices.

Your next senators will confirm them.

And our children and grandchildren will have to live with the consequences.

But first, you get to decide.

Elections matter.

And I know this crowd is ready for the next one!

Thom, it’s always a good day when I get to share a stage with a fellow Pennsylvanian. Time and time again, you bring new life into the styles we take for granted. And now, you’re bringing new life into civic engagement.

Aurora, when we met earlier this year, one word stayed with me long after that night had faded: future. Because that’s what you help us see with your unstoppable spirit—the same one you’re sharing with us today. You have a way of calling on all of us to secure lasting change.

And Anna, no one has shaped this industry more than you. But you haven’t stopped there. Now you’re shaping the world. The President and I value your counsel and friendship. With all my heart, thank you for being such a powerful force for good.

The fashion community always comes together when it matters most. 

When AIDS engulfed the industry, you raised awareness and money for research. You did the same for breast cancer. As Thom reminded us just now, fashion has always been for our future.

This much is clear: You walk the walk. And you’ve always done it together.

That’s what we have to do again this Fall.

Vote!

Vote early.

Then help others do the same.

Post on social media. Call your friends across the country. And remind everyone that we can vote our way toward a future where freedom really does ring.

Thank you, and God bless you. Let’s get out the vote!

###

The post Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by First Lady Jill Biden at the Fashion For Our Future March appeared first on The White House.

New York, New York

The clothing we wear gives us the power to make a statement without saying a word.

But this year, we must wear it, say it, march for it—and then do it: Vote!

The first time I ever voted, I almost didn’t vote for my future husband.

It was the 70s, and I was a student at the University of Delaware.

And there was a genuine buzz on campus for this young candidate. His name was Joe Biden. Everyone was voting for him.

But I wasn’t so sure.

You see, my parents were Republicans. Politics wasn’t any part of my life.

But we were told that every vote mattered. We believed in making a difference.

Joe won that election by only about 3,000 votes.

It could have easily gone the other way.

Years later, on a Saturday afternoon, I was asked on a date from out of the blue.

At the time, I wore my hair down to the middle of my waist, and so did most of the men I dated!

But that evening, a handsome young Senator showed up at my door.

I took one look at his perfect suit and his leather loafers and thought: “Thank God it’s only one date.”

But then over dinner, I said to myself, “Thank God I voted for him!”

Now, your day might not start or stop with politics.

But elections are about much more.

They’re about the freedom for our children to learn without fear, without hate, without gun violence.

This week, we saw yet another tragic school shooting. We all stand with Georgia in sorrow and in prayer. But we also have to act. We cannot accept these school shootings as a fact of life. We must ban assault rifles.

And I know you care about the freedom to make your own choices. Be who you are. Love who you love.

The freedom—your freedom—of creative expression.

These freedoms are at risk. Because of court decisions, book bans, shrugs of apathy, when people forget the power in their vote.

So, let’s remember: Your next president will likely appoint new Supreme Court Justices.

Your next senators will confirm them.

And our children and grandchildren will have to live with the consequences.

But first, you get to decide.

Elections matter.

And I know this crowd is ready for the next one!

Thom, it’s always a good day when I get to share a stage with a fellow Pennsylvanian. Time and time again, you bring new life into the styles we take for granted. And now, you’re bringing new life into civic engagement.

Aurora, when we met earlier this year, one word stayed with me long after that night had faded: future. Because that’s what you help us see with your unstoppable spirit—the same one you’re sharing with us today. You have a way of calling on all of us to secure lasting change.

And Anna, no one has shaped this industry more than you. But you haven’t stopped there. Now you’re shaping the world. The President and I value your counsel and friendship. With all my heart, thank you for being such a powerful force for good.

The fashion community always comes together when it matters most. 

When AIDS engulfed the industry, you raised awareness and money for research. You did the same for breast cancer. As Thom reminded us just now, fashion has always been for our future.

This much is clear: You walk the walk. And you’ve always done it together.

That’s what we have to do again this Fall.

Vote!

Vote early.

Then help others do the same.

Post on social media. Call your friends across the country. And remind everyone that we can vote our way toward a future where freedom really does ring.

Thank you, and God bless you. Let’s get out the vote!

###

The post Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by First Lady Jill Biden at the Fashion For Our Future March appeared first on The White House.

Since their first day in office, President Biden and Vice President Harris have delivered on the most ambitious climate and conservation agenda in history – including taking action to conserve our ocean and marine ecosystems for future generations. This agenda is driven by the President’s America the Beautiful initiative, which is supporting locally led conservation efforts with a goal to protect, conserve, and restore at least 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.

Today, as part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s unprecedented commitment to protect America’s natural wonders for future generations, honor areas of national importance and of cultural significance to Tribal Nations and Indigenous Peoples, and expand access to nature, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released a final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary. The preferred alternative outlined by NOAA in the FEIS would designate 4,543 square miles of ocean waters off the coast of Central California as a National Marine Sanctuary. If designated, the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary will be the third largest in the National Marine Sanctuary System.

The release of the FEIS for the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary follows nearly a decade of work by Tribes, Indigenous Peoples, community leaders, organizations, businesses, state and local officials, and members of Congress – including then-Senator and now Vice President Kamala Harris – to develop and advance this National Marine Sanctuary proposal. The sanctuary, as described in the preferred alternative of the FEIS, would recognize and celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ connections to the region, and be managed with the active involvement of Tribes and Indigenous communities, inclusive of Indigenous values, knowledge, and traditions. The sanctuary is anticipated to bring comprehensive community- and ecosystem-based management to nationally significant natural, historical, archeological, and cultural resources – including kelp forests, rocky reefs, sandy beaches, underwater mountains, and more than 200 shipwrecks.

The boundaries for the National Marine Sanctuary, as outlined in the preferred alternative in the FEIS, would not include areas where offshore wind turbines are currently planned to be built or where wind energy transmission cables are expected to be authorized. The proposed boundaries reflect extensive input from Tribes, conservation stakeholders, and offshore wind developers on how to simultaneously pursue conservation and clean energy goals. NOAA would consider a potential expansion of the proposed sanctuary in the coming years, however, after transmission cables have been laid.  

Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary

The boundary of the preferred alternative for the proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary stretches along 116 miles of coastline and would encompass 4,543 square miles of ocean, protecting important ecological habitats such as kelp forests, rocky reefs, and sandy beaches, a seabird hotspot, and significant offshore features, including the Rodriguez Seamount, Arguello Canyon, and a portion of Santa Lucia Bank offshore of central California. This area contains abundant, nationally significant natural resources, including many threatened or endangered species, such as blue whales, snowy plovers, black abalone, and leatherback sea turtles, that rely on habitats, physical features, or prey found in the sanctuary. NOAA has documented more than 200 shipwrecks in the sanctuary, two of which (Yankee Blade and U.S. Coast Guard Cutter McCulloch) are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

This region and its abundant resources have been home to coastal, ocean-going Tribal Nations and Indigenous Peoples for tens of thousands of years or more. The proposed sanctuary is anticipated to highlight Chumash and other Indigenous cultures and create opportunities to better understand and protect ancient village sites that may exist along the now-submerged paleo-shoreline. The sanctuary was nominated for designation by the Northern Chumash Tribal Council. NOAA has engaged, consulted, and worked directly with Tribes and Indigenous Peoples throughout the entire review process, including engagement with local Chumash and Salinan Tribes, Indigenous Peoples, and communities and government-to-government consultation with the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. NOAA, under the preferred alternative, would manage the sanctuary through a co-stewardship framework.  Earlier this week, the National Marine Sanctuaries Foundation announced the establishment of the Sanctuary Community Fund, through which an initial $2 million in funding from the President’s Inflation Reduction Act will be delivered to support the capacity of local communities to engage in sanctuaries like this one.

The sanctuary, as described in NOAA’s preferred alternative in the FEIS, would include protections that are similar to those in existing regulations for the adjacent Monterey Bay and Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuaries. The new sanctuary would guard against ecologically detrimental activities, including new offshore oil and gas development, seabed disturbance, discharges, disturbance to submerged maritime heritage resources, attracting a white shark, and introducing an introduced species, while allowing for enjoyment and use of the sanctuary for other recreational and commercial activities. The rules proposed for the sanctuary do not include any new fishing or boating regulations.

The Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary, as discussed in the FEIS, is expected to balance compatible ocean uses and cultural heritage considerations. Through a two-phased approach to the designation of the National Marine Sanctuary, the preferred approach to the sanctuary would protect the natural and cultural resources of the area and maintain opportunities for offshore wind development. This effort demonstrates the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to combating the climate crisis by advancing both conservation and responsible clean energy development. Yesterday, the Biden-Harris Administration announced the 10th approval of a commercial-scale offshore wind project. With that approval, the Administration has now approved more than 15 gigawatts of permitted offshore wind projects – enough to power 5.25 million homes, and capacity equivalent to half of the capacity needed to achieve the 30 gigawatt goal.  This progress shows our nation is more than capable of meeting both our conservation and climate goals while building a clean energy economy that lowers energy costs, reduces emissions, and protects and conserves our lands and waters. 

The Biden-Harris Administration’s Ocean Achievements

Ocean protection

Since the launch of the America the Beautiful initiative in early 2021, the U.S. has experienced one of the most rapid accelerations of conservation progress in the nation’s history, with more than 42 million acres of land and water conserved in just over three years. President Biden understands that the ocean is central to our fight against the climate crisis and to creating a cleaner, safer, and healthier future. Ocean protection highlights by the Biden-Harris Administration include:

• Created two new National Marine Sanctuaries and a new national estuarine research reserve. Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary – whose designation ceremony is taking place today – celebrates the region’s maritime cultural history and provides new opportunities for research, education, recreation, and maritime heritage-related tourism in local coastal communities and the broader Great Lakes region. The Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary provides stewardship for our nation’s maritime heritage in Lake Michigan. The Connecticut National Estuarine Research Reserve protects part of Long Island Sound and the Thames and Connecticut Rivers.
• Protected the U.S. Arctic Ocean from future oil and gas leasing. Using his authority under Section 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, President Biden designated approximately 2.8 million acres of the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean as indefinitely off limits for future oil and gas leasing, completing protections for the entire U.S. Arctic Ocean.

• Taken steps to create one of the largest marine protected areas on the planet in the Pacific Ocean southwest of Hawaiˋi. The President started the process to consider designating approximately 700,000 square miles of the area as a new National Marine Sanctuary.  If the sanctuary is completed, it would conserve more than 700,000 square miles of significant natural and cultural resources and honor the traditional practices and ancestral pathways of Pacific Island voyagers.
• Preserved Bristol Bay salmon fisheries: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency acted to help protect Bristol Bay, the most productive wild salmon ecosystem in the world. This step protects certain waters that are important to sustaining Southwest Alaska’s salmon resources from contamination associated with developing the Pebble Project.
• Advanced designations for three additional sanctuaries in the Hudson Canyon, Lake Erie, and within the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.
• Restored protections to the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, to safeguard the unique biodiversity of the deep canyons and the surrounding waters that teem with life, and finalized this monument’s management plan.
• Finalized long-term collaborative management and community stewardship of the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument by releasing the final management plan in collaboration with the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Combating climate change

To advance the President’s commitment to ocean climate action, in March 2023, the White House released the first-ever Ocean Climate Action Plan (OCAP), a groundbreaking roadmap to harness the power and capacity of the ocean to address the climate crisis. The plan outlined new actions on the Biden-Harris Administration’s ocean climate priorities. One year later, the bold goals and ambitious actions set forth in the OCAP are well underway, complemented by other strategies including the National Ocean Biodiversity Strategy, the National Aquatic Environmental DNA Strategy, and the National Strategy for a Sustainable Ocean Economy. 

As the first comprehensive U.S. strategy to use the power of the ocean and coasts to address and respond to a changing climate, the OCAP has furthered Administration priorities on tackling climate change, advancing equity and environmental justice, and bolstering the U.S. economy. Highlights from the past year of accomplishments include:

• Advancing environmental justice through the release of the first ever Ocean Justice Strategy, which provides a framework for achieving equitable access to the benefits of a healthy ocean and coastal ecosystem in order to address the historic inequities for many communities that are dependent on our ocean and Great Lakes.
• Scaling up the offshore wind energy industry to create a clean energy future, including working with Tribes, states and ocean users to undertake thoughtful processes that have facilitated the approval of ten commercial-scale offshore wind projects in federal waters along the nation’s coasts that combined have the potential to add 15 gigawatts (GW) of clean energy to the nation’s grid – enough to power 5.25 million homes each year, and equivalent to half of the capacity needed to achieve the 30 gigawatt goal. The Administration is collaborating with local, state, and Tribal governments, fishing and wind industries, and other ocean users to ensure that our offshore wind progress meets the needs of all users of coasts and ocean waters.
• Advancing the decarbonization of the U.S. marine transportation system through a $3 billion investment in clean U.S. ports.
• Enhancing community resilience to ocean change through a historic $2.6 billion framework being implemented by NOAA and the Department of Commerce that seeks to protect coastal communities and restore marine resources, including nearly $400 million for Tribal priorities. This work advances the Biden-Harris Administration’s National Climate Resilience Framework, which helps to align climate resilience investments across the public and private sector through common principles and opportunities for action to build a climate-resilient nation. These efforts are backed by President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, through which more than $50 billion is being delivered to advance climate adaptation and resilience across the nation, including in communities that are the most vulnerable to climate impacts.
• Addressing and mitigating the impacts of a changing climate through the establishment of a Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal Fast Track Action Committee and the release of the U.S. Ocean Acidification Action Plan.
• Coordinating and accelerating measurements of greenhouse gases to track progress in achieving the Administration’s historically ambitious goals and enable faster progress where feasible, through establishment of a National Strategy to Enhance the Nation’s Greenhouse Gas Measurement and Monitoring Capabilities.

###

The post FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Advances Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary, Reinforces Ocean Conservation Legacy appeared first on The White House.

Since their first day in office, President Biden and Vice President Harris have delivered on the most ambitious climate and conservation agenda in history – including taking action to conserve our ocean and marine ecosystems for future generations. This agenda is driven by the President’s America the Beautiful initiative, which is supporting locally led conservation efforts with a goal to protect, conserve, and restore at least 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.

Today, as part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s unprecedented commitment to protect America’s natural wonders for future generations, honor areas of national importance and of cultural significance to Tribal Nations and Indigenous Peoples, and expand access to nature, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released a final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary. The preferred alternative outlined by NOAA in the FEIS would designate 4,543 square miles of ocean waters off the coast of Central California as a National Marine Sanctuary. If designated, the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary will be the third largest in the National Marine Sanctuary System.

The release of the FEIS for the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary follows nearly a decade of work by Tribes, Indigenous Peoples, community leaders, organizations, businesses, state and local officials, and members of Congress – including then-Senator and now Vice President Kamala Harris – to develop and advance this National Marine Sanctuary proposal. The sanctuary, as described in the preferred alternative of the FEIS, would recognize and celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ connections to the region, and be managed with the active involvement of Tribes and Indigenous communities, inclusive of Indigenous values, knowledge, and traditions. The sanctuary is anticipated to bring comprehensive community- and ecosystem-based management to nationally significant natural, historical, archeological, and cultural resources – including kelp forests, rocky reefs, sandy beaches, underwater mountains, and more than 200 shipwrecks.

The boundaries for the National Marine Sanctuary, as outlined in the preferred alternative in the FEIS, would not include areas where offshore wind turbines are currently planned to be built or where wind energy transmission cables are expected to be authorized. The proposed boundaries reflect extensive input from Tribes, conservation stakeholders, and offshore wind developers on how to simultaneously pursue conservation and clean energy goals. NOAA would consider a potential expansion of the proposed sanctuary in the coming years, however, after transmission cables have been laid.  

Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary

The boundary of the preferred alternative for the proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary stretches along 116 miles of coastline and would encompass 4,543 square miles of ocean, protecting important ecological habitats such as kelp forests, rocky reefs, and sandy beaches, a seabird hotspot, and significant offshore features, including the Rodriguez Seamount, Arguello Canyon, and a portion of Santa Lucia Bank offshore of central California. This area contains abundant, nationally significant natural resources, including many threatened or endangered species, such as blue whales, snowy plovers, black abalone, and leatherback sea turtles, that rely on habitats, physical features, or prey found in the sanctuary. NOAA has documented more than 200 shipwrecks in the sanctuary, two of which (Yankee Blade and U.S. Coast Guard Cutter McCulloch) are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

This region and its abundant resources have been home to coastal, ocean-going Tribal Nations and Indigenous Peoples for tens of thousands of years or more. The proposed sanctuary is anticipated to highlight Chumash and other Indigenous cultures and create opportunities to better understand and protect ancient village sites that may exist along the now-submerged paleo-shoreline. The sanctuary was nominated for designation by the Northern Chumash Tribal Council. NOAA has engaged, consulted, and worked directly with Tribes and Indigenous Peoples throughout the entire review process, including engagement with local Chumash and Salinan Tribes, Indigenous Peoples, and communities and government-to-government consultation with the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. NOAA, under the preferred alternative, would manage the sanctuary through a co-stewardship framework.  Earlier this week, the National Marine Sanctuaries Foundation announced the establishment of the Sanctuary Community Fund, through which an initial $2 million in funding from the President’s Inflation Reduction Act will be delivered to support the capacity of local communities to engage in sanctuaries like this one.

The sanctuary, as described in NOAA’s preferred alternative in the FEIS, would include protections that are similar to those in existing regulations for the adjacent Monterey Bay and Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuaries. The new sanctuary would guard against ecologically detrimental activities, including new offshore oil and gas development, seabed disturbance, discharges, disturbance to submerged maritime heritage resources, attracting a white shark, and introducing an introduced species, while allowing for enjoyment and use of the sanctuary for other recreational and commercial activities. The rules proposed for the sanctuary do not include any new fishing or boating regulations.

The Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary, as discussed in the FEIS, is expected to balance compatible ocean uses and cultural heritage considerations. Through a two-phased approach to the designation of the National Marine Sanctuary, the preferred approach to the sanctuary would protect the natural and cultural resources of the area and maintain opportunities for offshore wind development. This effort demonstrates the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to combating the climate crisis by advancing both conservation and responsible clean energy development. Yesterday, the Biden-Harris Administration announced the 10th approval of a commercial-scale offshore wind project. With that approval, the Administration has now approved more than 15 gigawatts of permitted offshore wind projects – enough to power 5.25 million homes, and capacity equivalent to half of the capacity needed to achieve the 30 gigawatt goal.  This progress shows our nation is more than capable of meeting both our conservation and climate goals while building a clean energy economy that lowers energy costs, reduces emissions, and protects and conserves our lands and waters. 

The Biden-Harris Administration’s Ocean Achievements

Ocean protection

Since the launch of the America the Beautiful initiative in early 2021, the U.S. has experienced one of the most rapid accelerations of conservation progress in the nation’s history, with more than 42 million acres of land and water conserved in just over three years. President Biden understands that the ocean is central to our fight against the climate crisis and to creating a cleaner, safer, and healthier future. Ocean protection highlights by the Biden-Harris Administration include:

• Created two new National Marine Sanctuaries and a new national estuarine research reserve. Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary – whose designation ceremony is taking place today – celebrates the region’s maritime cultural history and provides new opportunities for research, education, recreation, and maritime heritage-related tourism in local coastal communities and the broader Great Lakes region. The Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary provides stewardship for our nation’s maritime heritage in Lake Michigan. The Connecticut National Estuarine Research Reserve protects part of Long Island Sound and the Thames and Connecticut Rivers.
• Protected the U.S. Arctic Ocean from future oil and gas leasing. Using his authority under Section 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, President Biden designated approximately 2.8 million acres of the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean as indefinitely off limits for future oil and gas leasing, completing protections for the entire U.S. Arctic Ocean.

• Taken steps to create one of the largest marine protected areas on the planet in the Pacific Ocean southwest of Hawaiˋi. The President started the process to consider designating approximately 700,000 square miles of the area as a new National Marine Sanctuary.  If the sanctuary is completed, it would conserve more than 700,000 square miles of significant natural and cultural resources and honor the traditional practices and ancestral pathways of Pacific Island voyagers.
• Preserved Bristol Bay salmon fisheries: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency acted to help protect Bristol Bay, the most productive wild salmon ecosystem in the world. This step protects certain waters that are important to sustaining Southwest Alaska’s salmon resources from contamination associated with developing the Pebble Project.
• Advanced designations for three additional sanctuaries in the Hudson Canyon, Lake Erie, and within the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.
• Restored protections to the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, to safeguard the unique biodiversity of the deep canyons and the surrounding waters that teem with life, and finalized this monument’s management plan.
• Finalized long-term collaborative management and community stewardship of the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument by releasing the final management plan in collaboration with the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Combating climate change

To advance the President’s commitment to ocean climate action, in March 2023, the White House released the first-ever Ocean Climate Action Plan (OCAP), a groundbreaking roadmap to harness the power and capacity of the ocean to address the climate crisis. The plan outlined new actions on the Biden-Harris Administration’s ocean climate priorities. One year later, the bold goals and ambitious actions set forth in the OCAP are well underway, complemented by other strategies including the National Ocean Biodiversity Strategy, the National Aquatic Environmental DNA Strategy, and the National Strategy for a Sustainable Ocean Economy. 

As the first comprehensive U.S. strategy to use the power of the ocean and coasts to address and respond to a changing climate, the OCAP has furthered Administration priorities on tackling climate change, advancing equity and environmental justice, and bolstering the U.S. economy. Highlights from the past year of accomplishments include:

• Advancing environmental justice through the release of the first ever Ocean Justice Strategy, which provides a framework for achieving equitable access to the benefits of a healthy ocean and coastal ecosystem in order to address the historic inequities for many communities that are dependent on our ocean and Great Lakes.
• Scaling up the offshore wind energy industry to create a clean energy future, including working with Tribes, states and ocean users to undertake thoughtful processes that have facilitated the approval of ten commercial-scale offshore wind projects in federal waters along the nation’s coasts that combined have the potential to add 15 gigawatts (GW) of clean energy to the nation’s grid – enough to power 5.25 million homes each year, and equivalent to half of the capacity needed to achieve the 30 gigawatt goal. The Administration is collaborating with local, state, and Tribal governments, fishing and wind industries, and other ocean users to ensure that our offshore wind progress meets the needs of all users of coasts and ocean waters.
• Advancing the decarbonization of the U.S. marine transportation system through a $3 billion investment in clean U.S. ports.
• Enhancing community resilience to ocean change through a historic $2.6 billion framework being implemented by NOAA and the Department of Commerce that seeks to protect coastal communities and restore marine resources, including nearly $400 million for Tribal priorities. This work advances the Biden-Harris Administration’s National Climate Resilience Framework, which helps to align climate resilience investments across the public and private sector through common principles and opportunities for action to build a climate-resilient nation. These efforts are backed by President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, through which more than $50 billion is being delivered to advance climate adaptation and resilience across the nation, including in communities that are the most vulnerable to climate impacts.
• Addressing and mitigating the impacts of a changing climate through the establishment of a Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal Fast Track Action Committee and the release of the U.S. Ocean Acidification Action Plan.
• Coordinating and accelerating measurements of greenhouse gases to track progress in achieving the Administration’s historically ambitious goals and enable faster progress where feasible, through establishment of a National Strategy to Enhance the Nation’s Greenhouse Gas Measurement and Monitoring Capabilities.

###

The post FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Advances Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary, Reinforces Ocean Conservation Legacy appeared first on The White House.

Today’s report showed unemployment fell to 4.2% and another 142,000 jobs were created last month. Thanks to our work to rescue the economy, nearly 16 million new jobs have been created, wages and incomes are rising faster than prices, businesses are investing in America, and millions of entrepreneurs are opening small businesses—acts of hope and confidence in our economy. With inflation back down close to normal levels, it is important to focus on sustaining the historic gains we have made for American workers.

The Vice President and I are fighting to expand opportunity and grow the middle class. We will keep working to support American workers and businesses, and to lower housing and health care costs for hardworking Americans. The last thing we should do is turn back to the failed trickle-down economics pushed by Congressional Republicans, like cutting taxes for the wealthy and large corporations, raising taxes on middle class families by nearly $4,000 per year, or cutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act.

###

The post Statement from President Joe Biden on the August Jobs Report appeared first on The White House.

Today’s report showed unemployment fell to 4.2% and another 142,000 jobs were created last month. Thanks to our work to rescue the economy, nearly 16 million new jobs have been created, wages and incomes are rising faster than prices, businesses are investing in America, and millions of entrepreneurs are opening small businesses—acts of hope and confidence in our economy. With inflation back down close to normal levels, it is important to focus on sustaining the historic gains we have made for American workers.

The Vice President and I are fighting to expand opportunity and grow the middle class. We will keep working to support American workers and businesses, and to lower housing and health care costs for hardworking Americans. The last thing we should do is turn back to the failed trickle-down economics pushed by Congressional Republicans, like cutting taxes for the wealthy and large corporations, raising taxes on middle class families by nearly $4,000 per year, or cutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act.

###

The post Statement from President Joe Biden on the August Jobs Report appeared first on The White House.

“Wall Street did not build America; the middle class built America, and unions built the middle class.” – President Biden on Labor Day, 2024

Today, President Biden will travel to Michigan to sign a landmark Executive Order on Investing in America and Investing in American Workers (“Good Jobs EO”), which will help ensure that the Biden-Harris Investing in America agenda continues to promote good, high-quality jobs with paths to the middle class. The Good Jobs EO promotes strong labor standards such as family-sustaining wages, workplace safety, and the free and fair opportunity to join a union, and encourages agencies to implement these standards through their Investing in America programs. President Biden will sign the Good Jobs EO during a visit to UA Local 190’s Job Training Center, where he will meet with union workers and apprentices who have benefitted from the President’s agenda. The event is part of a broader tour to profile the workers and communities across America who are reaping the rewards of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda.
 
The Biden-Harris Administration is the most pro-union administration in American history. The President and Vice President’s Investing in America agenda—including the American Rescue Plan, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, CHIPS and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act—have already created hundreds of thousands of jobs, and the President and Vice President have been clear that their Administration will use every tool at their disposal to ensure these jobs are good-paying jobs with the free and fair chance to join a union.
 
The President’s Good Jobs EO calls on agencies to adopt a series of high-road labor standards that have long been recognized to lead to both better jobs and on-time, high-quality delivery of federally funded projects. With this Executive Order, the Biden-Harris Administration is the first in history to specify a clear list of labor standards that all Federal agencies should look to prioritize.
 
By mobilizing once-in-a-generation public- and private-sector investments, the Biden-Harris Investing in America agenda is transforming our economy—onshoring manufacturing, modernizing our nation’s infrastructure, and building a clean energy economy. The United States has created nearly 16 million jobs since President Biden and Vice President Harris took office, with the lowest average unemployment rate of any administration in 50 years. Already, their Investing in America agenda has catalyzed over $900 billion in private-sector investment in clean energy and manufacturing. Last year, clean energy jobs grew at double the rate of job growth in the rest of the economy and clean energy unionization rates reached the highest level in history. The Good Jobs EO builds on that momentum and will ensure that these investments continue to improve opportunities for millions of Americans.
 
The Good Jobs EO calls on agencies to adopt the following labor standards:

• Promoting worker voice, through Project Labor Agreements (PLAs), Community Benefits Agreements, voluntary union recognition, and neutrality with respect to union organizing. These instruments, which agencies are encouraged to prioritize where appropriate and consistent with law, mark the strongest package of priorities that any Administration has taken to help promote the free and fair choice to join a union through federally funded and federally supported projects.
• Providing tools to promote high-wage jobs, through prevailing wage standards and other equitable compensation practices, such as prioritizing equal pay and pay transparency. This Administration is taking ground-breaking steps to raise wages by directing agencies to consider incentivizing specific high-wage standards for manufacturing grants—going beyond long-standing Davis-Bacon requirements that only apply to construction jobs.
• Promoting worker economic security, by directing agencies to consider prioritizing projects that supply the benefits that workers need—including child and dependent care to health insurance, paid leave, and retirement benefits.
• Supporting workforce development through registered apprenticeships, pre-apprenticeships, labor-management partnerships, and partnerships with training organizations including community colleges, public workforce boards, and the American Climate Corps.
• Leveling the playing field, by encouraging grantees to develop equitable workforce plans and offering project supports that promote fair hiring and management practices as the projects develop.
• Supporting workplace safety by encouraging agencies to prioritize reporting structures that help ensure compliance with all workplace health and safety laws.

To oversee agencies in their implementation of these labor standards, the Good Jobs EO creates a new Investing in Good Jobs Task Force (Task Force) in the Executive Office of the President. The Task Force will coordinate policy development that drives the creation of high-quality jobs and ensures project delivery. The Task Force will be co-chaired by the Secretary of Labor and the Director of the National Economic Council and include Seniors Advisors to the President and members of the President’s Cabinet.

In addition, the Good Jobs EO outlines strategies for agencies to enact these standards across their grant programs, consistent with applicable law:

• Incentivize these strong labor standards to the greatest extent possible by including application evaluation criteria related to strong labor standards. This includes, consistent with relevant statutes, prioritizing applicants who employ Project Labor Agreements and Community Benefit Agreements in funding opportunities.
• Issue guidance or best practices to promote and implement these priorities.
• Collect data on job quality to further encourage best practices and increase accountability. This includes embedding checkboxes on high-road labor standards into grant applications—a proven strategy that has yielded 22 PLA commitments and 34 new registered apprenticeship programs during a pilot study at the Department of Transportation.
• Conduct pre-award negotiations for key programs and projects as appropriate, and include ensuing commitments in grant agreements.
• Develop staff expertise to ensure every agency has in-house knowledge of strong labor standards and how their investments can promote and support good jobs.

Today’s actions build on many previous Biden-Harris Administration actions to support good jobs, including union jobs, such as:

• Launched the first-ever White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment, chaired by Vice President Harris, which resulted in over 70 actions to promote worker organizing and collective bargaining for federal employees and workers employed by public- and private-sector employers.
• Created the Made in America office, to ensure that American-made construction materials are used on infrastructure projects.
• Published a final rule from the Department of Treasury implementing prevailing wage and apprenticeship bonus credits for clean energy projects funded by the President’s Inflation Reduction Act to ensure clean energy workers are paid good wages and that these projects create equitable pipelines to these good jobs.
• Implemented a new rule to require Project Labor Agreements on nearly all major federal construction projects of over $35 million, so federal construction projects will be delivered on time and on budget with good wages and well-trained workers.
• Signed the Butch Lewis Act as part of the American Rescue Plan to save the pensions of more than one million hard-working union workers and retirees.
• Designated nine Workforce Hubs across the country to ensure we have the skilled, diverse workforce needed to carry out this Administration’s historic investments.
• Published a new rule restoring and extending overtime pay protections to millions of workers.
• Published the first update to Davis-Bacon prevailing wages in nearly 40 years, which will increase pay for one million construction workers over time.
• Proposed a new rule from the Department of Labor that would protect 36 million indoor and outdoor workers from extreme heat on the job.
• Signed a Registered Apprenticeship Executive Order to bolster apprenticeships in the federal workforce. Since then, federal agencies including the Departments Agriculture, Defense, Education Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, Transportation, and Treasury, and the Architect of the Capitol and U.S. Agency for Global Media have identified potential opportunities for developing new and scaling existing registered apprenticeships to create pathways to good jobs, including in mission-critical occupations.
• Through the CHIPS Act, provided $200 million in dedicated CHIPS funding for training and workforce development to ensure local communities have access to the jobs of the future in upcoming projects and introduced a requirement that companies receiving grants under the CHIPS Act over $150 million create a plan to ensure access to quality, affordable child care for their employees.
• Invested nearly $730 million in Registered Apprenticeships, leading to more than 1 million registered apprentices receiving earn-as-you-learn training for in-demand jobs.
• Vocally supported unions, including becoming the first sitting President to walk a picket line.
• The NLRB expanded remedies available to workers when their employers engage in unionbusting, to now include all direct and foreseeable pecuniary harm, such as financial loss from credit card debt, medical bills, or missed rent payments.
• The NLRB overhauled the process for union representation elections by requiring an employer to bargain if it commits an unfair labor practice during the election process, and by reducing unnecessary delays before workers can vote.

###

The post FACT SHEET: Days After Labor Day, Biden-Harris Administration Issues Executive Order to Promote Good Jobs Through Investing in America Agenda appeared first on The White House.

“Wall Street did not build America; the middle class built America, and unions built the middle class.” – President Biden on Labor Day, 2024

Today, President Biden will travel to Michigan to sign a landmark Executive Order on Investing in America and Investing in American Workers (“Good Jobs EO”), which will help ensure that the Biden-Harris Investing in America agenda continues to promote good, high-quality jobs with paths to the middle class. The Good Jobs EO promotes strong labor standards such as family-sustaining wages, workplace safety, and the free and fair opportunity to join a union, and encourages agencies to implement these standards through their Investing in America programs. President Biden will sign the Good Jobs EO during a visit to UA Local 190’s Job Training Center, where he will meet with union workers and apprentices who have benefitted from the President’s agenda. The event is part of a broader tour to profile the workers and communities across America who are reaping the rewards of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda.
 
The Biden-Harris Administration is the most pro-union administration in American history. The President and Vice President’s Investing in America agenda—including the American Rescue Plan, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, CHIPS and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act—have already created hundreds of thousands of jobs, and the President and Vice President have been clear that their Administration will use every tool at their disposal to ensure these jobs are good-paying jobs with the free and fair chance to join a union.
 
The President’s Good Jobs EO calls on agencies to adopt a series of high-road labor standards that have long been recognized to lead to both better jobs and on-time, high-quality delivery of federally funded projects. With this Executive Order, the Biden-Harris Administration is the first in history to specify a clear list of labor standards that all Federal agencies should look to prioritize.
 
By mobilizing once-in-a-generation public- and private-sector investments, the Biden-Harris Investing in America agenda is transforming our economy—onshoring manufacturing, modernizing our nation’s infrastructure, and building a clean energy economy. The United States has created nearly 16 million jobs since President Biden and Vice President Harris took office, with the lowest average unemployment rate of any administration in 50 years. Already, their Investing in America agenda has catalyzed over $900 billion in private-sector investment in clean energy and manufacturing. Last year, clean energy jobs grew at double the rate of job growth in the rest of the economy and clean energy unionization rates reached the highest level in history. The Good Jobs EO builds on that momentum and will ensure that these investments continue to improve opportunities for millions of Americans.
 
The Good Jobs EO calls on agencies to adopt the following labor standards:

• Promoting worker voice, through Project Labor Agreements (PLAs), Community Benefits Agreements, voluntary union recognition, and neutrality with respect to union organizing. These instruments, which agencies are encouraged to prioritize where appropriate and consistent with law, mark the strongest package of priorities that any Administration has taken to help promote the free and fair choice to join a union through federally funded and federally supported projects.
• Providing tools to promote high-wage jobs, through prevailing wage standards and other equitable compensation practices, such as prioritizing equal pay and pay transparency. This Administration is taking ground-breaking steps to raise wages by directing agencies to consider incentivizing specific high-wage standards for manufacturing grants—going beyond long-standing Davis-Bacon requirements that only apply to construction jobs.
• Promoting worker economic security, by directing agencies to consider prioritizing projects that supply the benefits that workers need—including child and dependent care to health insurance, paid leave, and retirement benefits.
• Supporting workforce development through registered apprenticeships, pre-apprenticeships, labor-management partnerships, and partnerships with training organizations including community colleges, public workforce boards, and the American Climate Corps.
• Leveling the playing field, by encouraging grantees to develop equitable workforce plans and offering project supports that promote fair hiring and management practices as the projects develop.
• Supporting workplace safety by encouraging agencies to prioritize reporting structures that help ensure compliance with all workplace health and safety laws.

To oversee agencies in their implementation of these labor standards, the Good Jobs EO creates a new Investing in Good Jobs Task Force (Task Force) in the Executive Office of the President. The Task Force will coordinate policy development that drives the creation of high-quality jobs and ensures project delivery. The Task Force will be co-chaired by the Secretary of Labor and the Director of the National Economic Council and include Seniors Advisors to the President and members of the President’s Cabinet.

In addition, the Good Jobs EO outlines strategies for agencies to enact these standards across their grant programs, consistent with applicable law:

• Incentivize these strong labor standards to the greatest extent possible by including application evaluation criteria related to strong labor standards. This includes, consistent with relevant statutes, prioritizing applicants who employ Project Labor Agreements and Community Benefit Agreements in funding opportunities.
• Issue guidance or best practices to promote and implement these priorities.
• Collect data on job quality to further encourage best practices and increase accountability. This includes embedding checkboxes on high-road labor standards into grant applications—a proven strategy that has yielded 22 PLA commitments and 34 new registered apprenticeship programs during a pilot study at the Department of Transportation.
• Conduct pre-award negotiations for key programs and projects as appropriate, and include ensuing commitments in grant agreements.
• Develop staff expertise to ensure every agency has in-house knowledge of strong labor standards and how their investments can promote and support good jobs.

Today’s actions build on many previous Biden-Harris Administration actions to support good jobs, including union jobs, such as:

• Launched the first-ever White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment, chaired by Vice President Harris, which resulted in over 70 actions to promote worker organizing and collective bargaining for federal employees and workers employed by public- and private-sector employers.
• Created the Made in America office, to ensure that American-made construction materials are used on infrastructure projects.
• Published a final rule from the Department of Treasury implementing prevailing wage and apprenticeship bonus credits for clean energy projects funded by the President’s Inflation Reduction Act to ensure clean energy workers are paid good wages and that these projects create equitable pipelines to these good jobs.
• Implemented a new rule to require Project Labor Agreements on nearly all major federal construction projects of over $35 million, so federal construction projects will be delivered on time and on budget with good wages and well-trained workers.
• Signed the Butch Lewis Act as part of the American Rescue Plan to save the pensions of more than one million hard-working union workers and retirees.
• Designated nine Workforce Hubs across the country to ensure we have the skilled, diverse workforce needed to carry out this Administration’s historic investments.
• Published a new rule restoring and extending overtime pay protections to millions of workers.
• Published the first update to Davis-Bacon prevailing wages in nearly 40 years, which will increase pay for one million construction workers over time.
• Proposed a new rule from the Department of Labor that would protect 36 million indoor and outdoor workers from extreme heat on the job.
• Signed a Registered Apprenticeship Executive Order to bolster apprenticeships in the federal workforce. Since then, federal agencies including the Departments Agriculture, Defense, Education Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, Transportation, and Treasury, and the Architect of the Capitol and U.S. Agency for Global Media have identified potential opportunities for developing new and scaling existing registered apprenticeships to create pathways to good jobs, including in mission-critical occupations.
• Through the CHIPS Act, provided $200 million in dedicated CHIPS funding for training and workforce development to ensure local communities have access to the jobs of the future in upcoming projects and introduced a requirement that companies receiving grants under the CHIPS Act over $150 million create a plan to ensure access to quality, affordable child care for their employees.
• Invested nearly $730 million in Registered Apprenticeships, leading to more than 1 million registered apprentices receiving earn-as-you-learn training for in-demand jobs.
• Vocally supported unions, including becoming the first sitting President to walk a picket line.
• The NLRB expanded remedies available to workers when their employers engage in unionbusting, to now include all direct and foreseeable pecuniary harm, such as financial loss from credit card debt, medical bills, or missed rent payments.
• The NLRB overhauled the process for union representation elections by requiring an employer to bargain if it commits an unfair labor practice during the election process, and by reducing unnecessary delays before workers can vote.

###

The post FACT SHEET: Days After Labor Day, Biden-Harris Administration Issues Executive Order to Promote Good Jobs Through Investing in America Agenda appeared first on The White House.

2:54 P.M. CDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello.  (Applause.)  Hello, hello, hello.  Hello, Wisconsin.  (Applause.)

The first time I was here was about 180 years ago with William Proxmire when I was a 31-year-old senator.  (Laughter.)  I’m only 40 now, but, you know —

Please have a seat, if you have one. 

It’s great to be back. 

Before I begin, with your permission, I’d like to say a few words about the school shooting yesterday in Winder County, Georgia.  You know, my wife, Jill, and I are mourning those four gunned down — two — two students and two teachers — and wounded and hospitalized nine others.  I’m sure you all are as well. 

You know, students — just young teenagers.  Educators just doing their jobs.  A community, like so many around the country, just getting back to school.  And a joyous and exciting time absolutely shattered — shattered.

I directed my team to immediately ensure that we’re doing everything we can to provide support. 

The Department of Justice and the FBI are working closely with the state and local law enforcement o- — investigating this.  We have a lot of information, not all of it.  We are grateful to the school personnel and first responders who prov- — and prevented more people from being killed or injured and brought the suspect to custody. 

But, as a nation, we cannot continue to accept the carnage of gun violence.  (Applause.)  I’m a gun owner.  I believe strongly in the amendment, but we need more tho- — more than thoughts and prayers. 

Some of my Republican friends in Congress just finally have to say, “Enough is enough.  We have to do something.”

Together, let’s ban assault weapons.  (Applause.)  My dad was a hunter.  I don’t know a whole hell of a lot of deer wearing Kevlar vests.  I’m serious about this.  High-capacity magazines — once again, what do we need them for in terms of domestic use? 

There are too many people who are able to access guns that shouldn’t be able to.  So, let’s require safe storage of firearms.  I know I have mine locked up.  But how could you have an assault rifle, a weapon in a house, not locked up, and knowing your kid knows where it is?  We’ve got to hold parents accountable if their — let their child have access to these guns.  (Applause.)

Let’s enact universal background checks and end immunity — and end immunity for gun manufacturers. 

And I realize I’m in a rural area, like the rural parts of my state, where guns — we all have them.  And it’s not popular to talk about it.  But the truth is there’s a difference between rational and irrational. 

Imagine — you know, the only outfit in the world that we can’t sue — and by law; passed by law — are gun manufacturers.  How about if that was the case with Big Tobacco?  What do you think would happen if we were not able to have sued Tobacco how many more people would be dead now but — but for the — but for the ability to change the law?

Folks, commonsense measures supported by responsible gun owners.  You know, it won’t bring back those children, but thousands of children have been gunned down acro- — you know, more children are killed or die from a gunshot wound than any other reason in the entire United States — every disease, every action — everything.  More die as a consequence of a bullet in the United States of America.  But it’ll help save lives if we do the things we’re talking about and prevent communities from being ripped apart again.

We can do it if we do it together, and I really think we can.

So, I just wanted to say that before we began.  (Applause.)  And now to our event today. 

Thank you, Darin, for that introduction and for sharing your story as a family farmer. 

And thank you to one of America’s best — I say one of the three best governors in the entire United States of America.  (Applause.)  Where — where is he?  There he is.  Tony, you’re the best, pal.  When I think of Tony Evers — and I mean this sincerely — one word comes to mind: integrity.  Integrity.  (Applause.)

And sitting next to him is a former governor of not far from here — from Iowa — named Tom Vilsack, who’s a — and his — and his wife, Christie.  Christie, you’re th- — yeah, there you are.  She’s smarter than he is — (laughter) — just like Jill is smarter than I am.  But Tom is doing a hell of a job as secretary of agriculture.  (Applause.)

And thanks to all the local elected labor and community leaders that are here.  And a special thanks to Brent Ridge, the CEO of Dairyland Power Cooperative, for hosting us today.  (Applause.) 

You know, I come from the state of Delaware.  Everybody thinks it’s an Eastern industrial state.  Our largest industry in Delaware — and I served as senator there for 36 years; I know I don’t look that old, but I am — (laughter) — for 36 years — is agriculture.  It’s a $4 billion enterprise in the Delmarva Peninsula. 

And it’s co-ops that made it happen.  But millions of Americans rely on co-ops like yours for electricity every single day.  And it matters. 

In June of 2021, five months after I came into office, I went to nearby La Crosse, Wisconsin.  It was the 65th anniversary of President Eisenhower signing the bill that created the Interstate Highway System.  I talked about my vision to do something just as historic: to invest in infrastructure, in clean energy, and so much more in rural America; to invest in all America and all Americans; to propel us into the future, creating millions — and I mean millions — of good-paying jobs,  and positioning America to win the economic competition of the 21st century. 

And I’m back t- — again today to begin a series of trips and events showing that progress we’ve made together by our Investing in America agenda, an agenda that has come to fruition over the last decade.  Invest in America.  Invest in American workers.  

Here in Westby, you know, I’m proud to announce that my — my investments — that through my investments, the most significant climate change law ever — and, by the way, it is a $369 billion bill.  It’s called the — we — we should have named it what it was, but it — but any rate.  (Laughter.)

The Department of Agriculture is able, from that legislation, to announce $7.3 billion — (applause) — in grants to 16 electric co-ops nationwide to help rural communities transition to clean, affordable, reliable energy. 

It’s the most significant, transformative investment in electritia- — in electrification and clean energy for rural America since FDR’s New Deal nearly 90 years ago.  And that’s not hyper- — that’s a fact.  And it includes Dairyland Power Cooperative, that will receive $580 million to develop — (applause) — and purchase solar power, wind power, energy storage right here in Wisconsin and all across the Midwest. 

And here’s why it’s a game changer.  Before the New Deal, private companies refused to provide affordable electricity to rural communities.  As a result, 1 in 10 rural households — only 1 in 10 had electricity before FDR came to power.  So, farmers had to organize electric co-ops to distribute electricity to their families and their communities. 

With help from the New Deal, there are now more than 800 rural electric co-ops to provide electricity for 40 million Americans in 48 states.  But key challenges — they’ve overc- — overcome them, but there’s still — the co-ops are still nonprofits.  They don’t have the same resources that private utility companies have to modernize their energy infrastructure.  And for decades, they couldn’t access tax credits to make clean energy more affordable. 

That’s why Kamala and I ensured that the — for the first time in American history, that these nonprofit co-ops can benefit from clean energy tax credits just like for-profit utilities have for decades.  (Applause.) 

We also created new tools for co-ops to refinance prior debts so those fu- — they can go out there and not be held back from investing in their future. 

Today’s historic announcement of $7.3 billion for rural electric co-ops builds on those steps.  It means clean, affordable electricity for over 5 million rural households and businesses across 23 states.  It means 20,000 jobs — good-paying, high-quality jobs, including union jobs, so rural America is empowered to lead our clean energy future.  (Applause.) 

It means covering the upfront costs of clean energy so rural families can save on their energy bills and get just a little more breathing room at the end of the month.  And it means rural entrepreneurs and manufacturers, who are so fundamental to our economy, are powered with reliable, affordable energy and they can create more job opportunities in their communities. 

And guess what?  It’s also good for the environment as well. 

Because of our historic actions, we’re going to reduce by 43 million tons greenhouse gas pollution every single year as a consequence of these investments.  (Applause.)  That is the equivalent of removing pollution from more than 10 million gas-powered vehicles — 10 million.  That’s going to save $265 billion [$256 million] in health care costs because of better, cleaner quality of air — people aren’t breathing polluted air and getting sick.  That comes from the NIH.  It matters, folks.  You know it. 

And, folks, I’ve kept my commitment to be president for all America and all Americans, including rural America.  Your communities are the backbone — and that’s not hyper- — you’re the backbone of this country.  You deserve the same resources as folks in our cities and our suburbs.  And that’s what today’s announcement is all about: generating rural power for rural America. 

But that’s not all.  Last year, I was next door with your good neighbor, Governor Walz of Minnesota.  I think the guy is going places (inaudible).  (Applause.)  I talked about we’re making the most fundamental and significant investment ever in rural America, creating new and better markets, new income streams that are generators that rural America — that can grow and thrive. 

For example, we’re taking on big corporations and doing everything from increasing competition in the meat markets to boosting domestic fertilizer production.  In fact, here in Wisconsin, that means $12 million to lower fertilizer costs for farmers across the state, which also creates jobs and grows new businesses. 

Here in Wisconsin, we also invested $47 million to lower energy costs; install renewable and energy-efficient technologies, like solar panels behind me, on farms and rural small businesses. 

Darin just shared how that’s cut his family electricity bill in half.  We’re helping farmers and ranchers and entrepreneurs tackle the climate crisis. 

Climate-smart agriculture, such as cover crops, nutrient management, storing carbon in the soil — these practices reduce the greenhouse gas emissions and improve the overall health of the soil and the water.  They put us on a path to continue to grow the food, the fuel, the fiber that will power our nation for decades to come. 

Through our Bipartisan Infrastructure Law — it’s a fancy way of saying that $366 billion for the environment — the most significant investment in America’s infrastructure.  And what the infrastructure bill, by the way — the bipartisan bill — that was a trillion 200 billion dollars.  And guess what?  We’re still lowering the deficit.  Any rate — (applause).

The most significant investment in America since Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway System.  We’ve invested $4 billion so far in 350 projects to modernize Wisconsin’s transportation — just in Wisconsin that’s been invested — (applause) — infrastructure, (inaudible) three roundabouts on Route 14 — U.S. 14, and a new bridge on County Highway M. 

Folks, look, just like we’re making the most significant investment in rural electrification since FDR, we’re also making the most significant investment ever in affordable high-speed Internet.  Because affordable high-speed Internet is just as essential today as electricity was a century ago.  In order to be able to do business and ev- — when — when things are shut down, your kid doesn’t have to sit outside of McDonald’s and — anyway.  (Laughter.)

That’s why we’ve invested $1.6 billion, just in Wisconsin, to connect everyone to affordable high-speed Internet in Wisconsin.  (Applause.)  And since I took office, 72,000 more Wisconsin homes and small businesses have access to high-speed Internet for the first time ever.  And we’re going to keep it going. 

We’ve also invested $200 million to relace [replace] lead pipes across the state so a kid can drink clean water without worrying about brain damage — and changing their schools as well.  (Applause.)

We’ve launched the Rural Partners Network, putting new federal staff on the ground to help communities access federal resources — let them know what they are, where to go, how to get it, because it’s complicated.  So, I want people on site being able to tell people how they qualify, how they apply, how they get it done.

And after years of importing 90 percent of our semiconductor chips, which, I might add, America invented — we invented the computer chip; it’s needed for everything for automobile engines to weapons — we passed the CHIPS and Science Act. 

It has led private companies from around the world to come back.  We used to have 40 percent of the market not too many years ago.  And now we’ve got down to basically zero.  Invest a- — and so, around from — countries around the — I traveled from everywhere from North Korea — anyway — Sou- — excuse — South Korea to across the world to get these computer chip factories to come.

I asked the — I asked, when we convinced one of the companies in South Korea to invest in building these chips in America — I said, “Why would you do it?”  And they’re investing several billion dollars.  They said, “Because you have the fine- — you have the most advanced workers in the world, and it’s the safest place in the world to invest.”

Well, our CHIPS and Science Act has led private companies from around the world to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in new chips and battery factories and more of them right here in America.  With the leadership of your governor, you’ve already added 200,000 new jobs and attracted over $5 billion in Wisconsin in private-sector investments in clean energy and advanced manufacturing.  (Applause.)

In fact, this spring, I was with your governor in Racine, where Microsoft announced a $3 billion investment — $3 billion investment — (applause) — to build a data center to help operate one of the most powerful artificial intelligence systems in the entire world.  It’s going to create thousands of good-paying jobs on site and across the state, creating even more opportunities in rural communities. 

And let’s remember: My predecessor promised you that he would redevelop Foxconn factory in Racine.  You been there lately?  (Laughter.)  He didn’t do a damn thing.  Nothing.

Folks, all these investment means family farms can stay in the family, rural entrepreneurs can build their dreams, your children and grandchildren won’t have to leave home to make a living. 

I don’t know how many of you have been confronted, growing up, where everything is going well and th- — the son or daughter comes to mom or dad and said, “I can’t stay.  There’s not work for me here.  I got to leave.”  That’s stopping now.  (Applause.)

Because we’re spreading opportunities that benefit everyone, building a future where no one is left behind, growing an economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down.  Because when you do that, everybody does well — everybody does well.

When it c- — my dad used to have an expression — say, “Joey, a job is about a” — my dad was a hardworking guy.  Didn’t go to college — well-read guy — because of World War II. 

Anyway, he worked like hell.  He’d always come home to dinner before he’d go back and close his shop.  And my dad used to say, “Joey, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck.  It’s about your dignity.  It’s about respect.  It’s about being treated with respect.  And it’s about knowing you can look your kid in the eye and say, ‘Honey, it’s going to be okay.  You’re not going to have to leave home to get a job.’”

That’s in stark contrast to my predecessor.  When he was in office, he enacted a $2 trillion tax cut — $2 trillion tax cut that overwhelmingly benefitted the very wealthy and the biggest corporations, and it drove up federal deficit every single year of his presidency.  He left office with the largest annual deficit in American history — $3 trillion. 

And, by the way, I made a commitment when I got elected, and my f- — my vice president made a similar commitment: No one making under $400,000 will see a single penny in their taxes raised — not a single penny.  (Applause.) 

The neighborhood I come from in Claymont, Delaware, and Scranton, Pennsylvania, would say, “Well, that’s too damn much.”  But the point is it’s to make sure that we know it’s not a — this isn’t an attack on the wealthy.

He left us with a pandemic raging and economy reeling.  His allies in Congress — with all due respect, I’ve had this conversation with your senator, Ron Johnson — voted against every one of the things I talked about today.  Every single thing I talked about in terms of rural economy, he voted against it — voted against it. 

It’s hard to imagine your senator voting against interests in a rural state that is so large and so consequential as the state of Wisconsin.  Meanwhile, your other senator, Tammy Baldwin, has done everything to take care of the state so she can be devoted to you.  (Applause.)

Vice President Kamala Harris fought like hell for all of you and for the future worthy of your aspirations. 

Look, just think about how far we’ve come.  We have — we have more to go.  We have more to go.  Too many people are still in trouble.

But nearly four years that we’ve been president and vice president, we’ve had one of the most extraordinary periods of progress in American history. 

COVID no longer controls our lives.  We’ve gone from eco- — an economic crisis to the strongest economy in the world.  Let me say it again: We have the strongest economy in the world, and no one challenged that.  We’ve got more to do.  (Applause.)

And we’re seeing something else.  In thousands of cities and towns across the country and across Wisconsin, we’re seeing the great American comeback story. 

The way I see it — and I talk — the other team talks about how bad off we are and how America is in (inaudible).  The way I see it: Today’s announcement is about far more than just giving rural America the power to turn on the lights.  It’s about giving the power to shape our own future. 

In fact, Wisconsin has been a — has a strong, strong history of neighbor helping neighbor, in forming cooperatives which are literally owned and powered by the people of Wisconsin.  Because of you, we’re planting seeds today that grow and blossom for generations to come. 

That’s what we’re seeing here in Wisconsin, a state with a proud tradition of rural communities leading our nation forward.  And, again, that’s not an exaggeration.  You’ve been a leader in the nation.

Let me close with this.  As I travel this state and the country, I hope you feel what I feel: pride — pride in our hometowns, pride in making a comeback, pride in America, pride in knowing we can get big things done when we work together. 

Folks, I’ve never been more optimistic about our nation’s future.  We just have to remember who in the hell we are.  We’re the United States of America.  (Applause.)  That’s who we are.  Not a joke. 

We’re the only nation in the world that’s come through every crisis stronger than we went into that crisis, because we’re a hardworking, optimistic people — a decent people.  We know from experience that there’s nothing — nothing beyond our capacity when we work together — and, again, that’s not an exaggeration — when we work together.

I remember the days when I first got started, when a lot of Republican senators were my close friends.  We worked together; we compromised.  We didn’t talk about things — and if there was a — we were in a — it was a dire moment, that democracy was at stake, we actually worked together.  We fought like hell, but we worked together. 

We’ve got to return that for our children, because our democracy depends on it. 

I’m keeping you too long in the sun, so let me just say — (laughter) — God bless you all.  And may God protect our troops.  Thank you.  (Applause.)

Thank you.  You’ve got a beautiful state.  (Applause.) 

3:17 P.M. CDT

The post Remarks by President Biden Highlighting How His Investing in America Agenda is Benefitting Communities Across Wisconsin and Ensuring Americans Have a Brighter, More Prosperous Future | Westby, WI appeared first on The White House.

2:54 P.M. CDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello.  (Applause.)  Hello, hello, hello.  Hello, Wisconsin.  (Applause.)

The first time I was here was about 180 years ago with William Proxmire when I was a 31-year-old senator.  (Laughter.)  I’m only 40 now, but, you know —

Please have a seat, if you have one. 

It’s great to be back. 

Before I begin, with your permission, I’d like to say a few words about the school shooting yesterday in Winder County, Georgia.  You know, my wife, Jill, and I are mourning those four gunned down — two — two students and two teachers — and wounded and hospitalized nine others.  I’m sure you all are as well. 

You know, students — just young teenagers.  Educators just doing their jobs.  A community, like so many around the country, just getting back to school.  And a joyous and exciting time absolutely shattered — shattered.

I directed my team to immediately ensure that we’re doing everything we can to provide support. 

The Department of Justice and the FBI are working closely with the state and local law enforcement o- — investigating this.  We have a lot of information, not all of it.  We are grateful to the school personnel and first responders who prov- — and prevented more people from being killed or injured and brought the suspect to custody. 

But, as a nation, we cannot continue to accept the carnage of gun violence.  (Applause.)  I’m a gun owner.  I believe strongly in the amendment, but we need more tho- — more than thoughts and prayers. 

Some of my Republican friends in Congress just finally have to say, “Enough is enough.  We have to do something.”

Together, let’s ban assault weapons.  (Applause.)  My dad was a hunter.  I don’t know a whole hell of a lot of deer wearing Kevlar vests.  I’m serious about this.  High-capacity magazines — once again, what do we need them for in terms of domestic use? 

There are too many people who are able to access guns that shouldn’t be able to.  So, let’s require safe storage of firearms.  I know I have mine locked up.  But how could you have an assault rifle, a weapon in a house, not locked up, and knowing your kid knows where it is?  We’ve got to hold parents accountable if their — let their child have access to these guns.  (Applause.)

Let’s enact universal background checks and end immunity — and end immunity for gun manufacturers. 

And I realize I’m in a rural area, like the rural parts of my state, where guns — we all have them.  And it’s not popular to talk about it.  But the truth is there’s a difference between rational and irrational. 

Imagine — you know, the only outfit in the world that we can’t sue — and by law; passed by law — are gun manufacturers.  How about if that was the case with Big Tobacco?  What do you think would happen if we were not able to have sued Tobacco how many more people would be dead now but — but for the — but for the ability to change the law?

Folks, commonsense measures supported by responsible gun owners.  You know, it won’t bring back those children, but thousands of children have been gunned down acro- — you know, more children are killed or die from a gunshot wound than any other reason in the entire United States — every disease, every action — everything.  More die as a consequence of a bullet in the United States of America.  But it’ll help save lives if we do the things we’re talking about and prevent communities from being ripped apart again.

We can do it if we do it together, and I really think we can.

So, I just wanted to say that before we began.  (Applause.)  And now to our event today. 

Thank you, Darin, for that introduction and for sharing your story as a family farmer. 

And thank you to one of America’s best — I say one of the three best governors in the entire United States of America.  (Applause.)  Where — where is he?  There he is.  Tony, you’re the best, pal.  When I think of Tony Evers — and I mean this sincerely — one word comes to mind: integrity.  Integrity.  (Applause.)

And sitting next to him is a former governor of not far from here — from Iowa — named Tom Vilsack, who’s a — and his — and his wife, Christie.  Christie, you’re th- — yeah, there you are.  She’s smarter than he is — (laughter) — just like Jill is smarter than I am.  But Tom is doing a hell of a job as secretary of agriculture.  (Applause.)

And thanks to all the local elected labor and community leaders that are here.  And a special thanks to Brent Ridge, the CEO of Dairyland Power Cooperative, for hosting us today.  (Applause.) 

You know, I come from the state of Delaware.  Everybody thinks it’s an Eastern industrial state.  Our largest industry in Delaware — and I served as senator there for 36 years; I know I don’t look that old, but I am — (laughter) — for 36 years — is agriculture.  It’s a $4 billion enterprise in the Delmarva Peninsula. 

And it’s co-ops that made it happen.  But millions of Americans rely on co-ops like yours for electricity every single day.  And it matters. 

In June of 2021, five months after I came into office, I went to nearby La Crosse, Wisconsin.  It was the 65th anniversary of President Eisenhower signing the bill that created the Interstate Highway System.  I talked about my vision to do something just as historic: to invest in infrastructure, in clean energy, and so much more in rural America; to invest in all America and all Americans; to propel us into the future, creating millions — and I mean millions — of good-paying jobs,  and positioning America to win the economic competition of the 21st century. 

And I’m back t- — again today to begin a series of trips and events showing that progress we’ve made together by our Investing in America agenda, an agenda that has come to fruition over the last decade.  Invest in America.  Invest in American workers.  

Here in Westby, you know, I’m proud to announce that my — my investments — that through my investments, the most significant climate change law ever — and, by the way, it is a $369 billion bill.  It’s called the — we — we should have named it what it was, but it — but any rate.  (Laughter.)

The Department of Agriculture is able, from that legislation, to announce $7.3 billion — (applause) — in grants to 16 electric co-ops nationwide to help rural communities transition to clean, affordable, reliable energy. 

It’s the most significant, transformative investment in electritia- — in electrification and clean energy for rural America since FDR’s New Deal nearly 90 years ago.  And that’s not hyper- — that’s a fact.  And it includes Dairyland Power Cooperative, that will receive $580 million to develop — (applause) — and purchase solar power, wind power, energy storage right here in Wisconsin and all across the Midwest. 

And here’s why it’s a game changer.  Before the New Deal, private companies refused to provide affordable electricity to rural communities.  As a result, 1 in 10 rural households — only 1 in 10 had electricity before FDR came to power.  So, farmers had to organize electric co-ops to distribute electricity to their families and their communities. 

With help from the New Deal, there are now more than 800 rural electric co-ops to provide electricity for 40 million Americans in 48 states.  But key challenges — they’ve overc- — overcome them, but there’s still — the co-ops are still nonprofits.  They don’t have the same resources that private utility companies have to modernize their energy infrastructure.  And for decades, they couldn’t access tax credits to make clean energy more affordable. 

That’s why Kamala and I ensured that the — for the first time in American history, that these nonprofit co-ops can benefit from clean energy tax credits just like for-profit utilities have for decades.  (Applause.) 

We also created new tools for co-ops to refinance prior debts so those fu- — they can go out there and not be held back from investing in their future. 

Today’s historic announcement of $7.3 billion for rural electric co-ops builds on those steps.  It means clean, affordable electricity for over 5 million rural households and businesses across 23 states.  It means 20,000 jobs — good-paying, high-quality jobs, including union jobs, so rural America is empowered to lead our clean energy future.  (Applause.) 

It means covering the upfront costs of clean energy so rural families can save on their energy bills and get just a little more breathing room at the end of the month.  And it means rural entrepreneurs and manufacturers, who are so fundamental to our economy, are powered with reliable, affordable energy and they can create more job opportunities in their communities. 

And guess what?  It’s also good for the environment as well. 

Because of our historic actions, we’re going to reduce by 43 million tons greenhouse gas pollution every single year as a consequence of these investments.  (Applause.)  That is the equivalent of removing pollution from more than 10 million gas-powered vehicles — 10 million.  That’s going to save $265 billion [$256 million] in health care costs because of better, cleaner quality of air — people aren’t breathing polluted air and getting sick.  That comes from the NIH.  It matters, folks.  You know it. 

And, folks, I’ve kept my commitment to be president for all America and all Americans, including rural America.  Your communities are the backbone — and that’s not hyper- — you’re the backbone of this country.  You deserve the same resources as folks in our cities and our suburbs.  And that’s what today’s announcement is all about: generating rural power for rural America. 

But that’s not all.  Last year, I was next door with your good neighbor, Governor Walz of Minnesota.  I think the guy is going places (inaudible).  (Applause.)  I talked about we’re making the most fundamental and significant investment ever in rural America, creating new and better markets, new income streams that are generators that rural America — that can grow and thrive. 

For example, we’re taking on big corporations and doing everything from increasing competition in the meat markets to boosting domestic fertilizer production.  In fact, here in Wisconsin, that means $12 million to lower fertilizer costs for farmers across the state, which also creates jobs and grows new businesses. 

Here in Wisconsin, we also invested $47 million to lower energy costs; install renewable and energy-efficient technologies, like solar panels behind me, on farms and rural small businesses. 

Darin just shared how that’s cut his family electricity bill in half.  We’re helping farmers and ranchers and entrepreneurs tackle the climate crisis. 

Climate-smart agriculture, such as cover crops, nutrient management, storing carbon in the soil — these practices reduce the greenhouse gas emissions and improve the overall health of the soil and the water.  They put us on a path to continue to grow the food, the fuel, the fiber that will power our nation for decades to come. 

Through our Bipartisan Infrastructure Law — it’s a fancy way of saying that $366 billion for the environment — the most significant investment in America’s infrastructure.  And what the infrastructure bill, by the way — the bipartisan bill — that was a trillion 200 billion dollars.  And guess what?  We’re still lowering the deficit.  Any rate — (applause).

The most significant investment in America since Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway System.  We’ve invested $4 billion so far in 350 projects to modernize Wisconsin’s transportation — just in Wisconsin that’s been invested — (applause) — infrastructure, (inaudible) three roundabouts on Route 14 — U.S. 14, and a new bridge on County Highway M. 

Folks, look, just like we’re making the most significant investment in rural electrification since FDR, we’re also making the most significant investment ever in affordable high-speed Internet.  Because affordable high-speed Internet is just as essential today as electricity was a century ago.  In order to be able to do business and ev- — when — when things are shut down, your kid doesn’t have to sit outside of McDonald’s and — anyway.  (Laughter.)

That’s why we’ve invested $1.6 billion, just in Wisconsin, to connect everyone to affordable high-speed Internet in Wisconsin.  (Applause.)  And since I took office, 72,000 more Wisconsin homes and small businesses have access to high-speed Internet for the first time ever.  And we’re going to keep it going. 

We’ve also invested $200 million to relace [replace] lead pipes across the state so a kid can drink clean water without worrying about brain damage — and changing their schools as well.  (Applause.)

We’ve launched the Rural Partners Network, putting new federal staff on the ground to help communities access federal resources — let them know what they are, where to go, how to get it, because it’s complicated.  So, I want people on site being able to tell people how they qualify, how they apply, how they get it done.

And after years of importing 90 percent of our semiconductor chips, which, I might add, America invented — we invented the computer chip; it’s needed for everything for automobile engines to weapons — we passed the CHIPS and Science Act. 

It has led private companies from around the world to come back.  We used to have 40 percent of the market not too many years ago.  And now we’ve got down to basically zero.  Invest a- — and so, around from — countries around the — I traveled from everywhere from North Korea — anyway — Sou- — excuse — South Korea to across the world to get these computer chip factories to come.

I asked the — I asked, when we convinced one of the companies in South Korea to invest in building these chips in America — I said, “Why would you do it?”  And they’re investing several billion dollars.  They said, “Because you have the fine- — you have the most advanced workers in the world, and it’s the safest place in the world to invest.”

Well, our CHIPS and Science Act has led private companies from around the world to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in new chips and battery factories and more of them right here in America.  With the leadership of your governor, you’ve already added 200,000 new jobs and attracted over $5 billion in Wisconsin in private-sector investments in clean energy and advanced manufacturing.  (Applause.)

In fact, this spring, I was with your governor in Racine, where Microsoft announced a $3 billion investment — $3 billion investment — (applause) — to build a data center to help operate one of the most powerful artificial intelligence systems in the entire world.  It’s going to create thousands of good-paying jobs on site and across the state, creating even more opportunities in rural communities. 

And let’s remember: My predecessor promised you that he would redevelop Foxconn factory in Racine.  You been there lately?  (Laughter.)  He didn’t do a damn thing.  Nothing.

Folks, all these investment means family farms can stay in the family, rural entrepreneurs can build their dreams, your children and grandchildren won’t have to leave home to make a living. 

I don’t know how many of you have been confronted, growing up, where everything is going well and th- — the son or daughter comes to mom or dad and said, “I can’t stay.  There’s not work for me here.  I got to leave.”  That’s stopping now.  (Applause.)

Because we’re spreading opportunities that benefit everyone, building a future where no one is left behind, growing an economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down.  Because when you do that, everybody does well — everybody does well.

When it c- — my dad used to have an expression — say, “Joey, a job is about a” — my dad was a hardworking guy.  Didn’t go to college — well-read guy — because of World War II. 

Anyway, he worked like hell.  He’d always come home to dinner before he’d go back and close his shop.  And my dad used to say, “Joey, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck.  It’s about your dignity.  It’s about respect.  It’s about being treated with respect.  And it’s about knowing you can look your kid in the eye and say, ‘Honey, it’s going to be okay.  You’re not going to have to leave home to get a job.’”

That’s in stark contrast to my predecessor.  When he was in office, he enacted a $2 trillion tax cut — $2 trillion tax cut that overwhelmingly benefitted the very wealthy and the biggest corporations, and it drove up federal deficit every single year of his presidency.  He left office with the largest annual deficit in American history — $3 trillion. 

And, by the way, I made a commitment when I got elected, and my f- — my vice president made a similar commitment: No one making under $400,000 will see a single penny in their taxes raised — not a single penny.  (Applause.) 

The neighborhood I come from in Claymont, Delaware, and Scranton, Pennsylvania, would say, “Well, that’s too damn much.”  But the point is it’s to make sure that we know it’s not a — this isn’t an attack on the wealthy.

He left us with a pandemic raging and economy reeling.  His allies in Congress — with all due respect, I’ve had this conversation with your senator, Ron Johnson — voted against every one of the things I talked about today.  Every single thing I talked about in terms of rural economy, he voted against it — voted against it. 

It’s hard to imagine your senator voting against interests in a rural state that is so large and so consequential as the state of Wisconsin.  Meanwhile, your other senator, Tammy Baldwin, has done everything to take care of the state so she can be devoted to you.  (Applause.)

Vice President Kamala Harris fought like hell for all of you and for the future worthy of your aspirations. 

Look, just think about how far we’ve come.  We have — we have more to go.  We have more to go.  Too many people are still in trouble.

But nearly four years that we’ve been president and vice president, we’ve had one of the most extraordinary periods of progress in American history. 

COVID no longer controls our lives.  We’ve gone from eco- — an economic crisis to the strongest economy in the world.  Let me say it again: We have the strongest economy in the world, and no one challenged that.  We’ve got more to do.  (Applause.)

And we’re seeing something else.  In thousands of cities and towns across the country and across Wisconsin, we’re seeing the great American comeback story. 

The way I see it — and I talk — the other team talks about how bad off we are and how America is in (inaudible).  The way I see it: Today’s announcement is about far more than just giving rural America the power to turn on the lights.  It’s about giving the power to shape our own future. 

In fact, Wisconsin has been a — has a strong, strong history of neighbor helping neighbor, in forming cooperatives which are literally owned and powered by the people of Wisconsin.  Because of you, we’re planting seeds today that grow and blossom for generations to come. 

That’s what we’re seeing here in Wisconsin, a state with a proud tradition of rural communities leading our nation forward.  And, again, that’s not an exaggeration.  You’ve been a leader in the nation.

Let me close with this.  As I travel this state and the country, I hope you feel what I feel: pride — pride in our hometowns, pride in making a comeback, pride in America, pride in knowing we can get big things done when we work together. 

Folks, I’ve never been more optimistic about our nation’s future.  We just have to remember who in the hell we are.  We’re the United States of America.  (Applause.)  That’s who we are.  Not a joke. 

We’re the only nation in the world that’s come through every crisis stronger than we went into that crisis, because we’re a hardworking, optimistic people — a decent people.  We know from experience that there’s nothing — nothing beyond our capacity when we work together — and, again, that’s not an exaggeration — when we work together.

I remember the days when I first got started, when a lot of Republican senators were my close friends.  We worked together; we compromised.  We didn’t talk about things — and if there was a — we were in a — it was a dire moment, that democracy was at stake, we actually worked together.  We fought like hell, but we worked together. 

We’ve got to return that for our children, because our democracy depends on it. 

I’m keeping you too long in the sun, so let me just say — (laughter) — God bless you all.  And may God protect our troops.  Thank you.  (Applause.)

Thank you.  You’ve got a beautiful state.  (Applause.) 

3:17 P.M. CDT

The post Remarks by President Biden Highlighting How His Investing in America Agenda is Benefitting Communities Across Wisconsin and Ensuring Americans Have a Brighter, More Prosperous Future | Westby, WI appeared first on The White House.

1:30 P.M. EDT
 
MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Hi, everybody.
 
Q    Hello!
 
MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Long time, no see.  So, I just have one thing at the top, and then we can get going.
 
So, as you all know, today we’re headed to Westby, Wisconsin, where the president will announce a $7.3 billion investment from the Inflation Reduction Act for clean, affordable, reliable electricity for rural America.
 
The inves- — investment announced today is the largest investment in rural electrification since the New Deal and is part of the president’s Investing in America agenda, which is lowering costs, creating jobs, and bringing new opportunity to communities and families across the country.
 
Sixteen rural electric coop- — cooperatives from across the country have been selected as a part of this first round of awards from the Department of Agriculture’s Empowering Rural America program.  Thanks to this programs, co-ops will lower energy costs for rural Americans, enhance grid reliability, and create more than 4,500 permanent jobs and over 16,000 construction jobs.
 
And we cannot forget that Republican officials’ MAGAnomics agenda would repeal the Inflation Reduction Act, for which Vice President Harris was the deciding vote, and take all these life-changing benefits away from rural Ameri- — rural communities.
 
Also today, we are announcing the 10th approval of a commercial-scale offshore wind project.  The nation has now approved enough offshore wind projects to power more than 5 million homes and get us halfway to achieving the 30-gigawatt goal.
 
At the beginning of the administration, there were no approved commercial-scale offshore wind projects in federal waters in the United States.
 
Thanks to President Biden and Vice President Harris — Harris’ leadership, the nation’s offshore and industry wi- [wind industry] — industry, which is creating good-paying and union jobs, establishing and growing new industries in the United States, providing reliable clean power for homes and businesses, strengthening “Made in America” supply chains, and tackling the climate crisis, and helping lower costs for families.
 
This project, off the shore of Maryland, will provide clean, reliable an- — renewable energy for up to seven thou- — 770,000 homes and will support up to over 2,600 jobs annually over seven years.
 
The administration will continue to use every tool available, including leveraging historic resources from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, to seize offshore wind opportunities across America that will create new good-paying jobs for over — for — for our communities.
 
And, with that, hi.  How are you?
 
Q    Good.  How are you?  On Hunter Biden changing his plea, does the White House have a comment at all?  And does that change the president’s calculus on pardoning his son?
 
MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  So, on your first question, I — I’m not able to com- — to comment at this time.
 
On your second question — which was, I guess, part of one question — it’s no.  It’s still no.
 
Q    Was the president aware that he was going to plead guilty?
 
MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  I — I don’t have anything else.  I’m not able to comment on it.  But I can say that it is still very much a “no” to the questions that I have gotten about if the president is going to pardon his son.
 
Q    And can you —
 
MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  But I don’t have anything else to add.
 
Q    Can you comment on whether a commutation would be on or off the table?
 
MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  That’s also no.
 
Q    Did the decision to change his — his plea have anything to do with the president no longer running for reelection?
 
MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  I don’t have anything to — to say beyond what I just said.
 
Q    On asylum rules.  There’s reporting that there might be an effort in the administration to make it harder to roll back the asylum restrictions, the border restrictions.  Do you have — does the president have a position on that?  Do you want to make that stricter?
 
MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  I don’t have anything else to add, really, to that.  As you know, back in June, the president made his — made that announcement on how he was going to move forward on — on making sure that we do what majority of the Americans want us to do — right? — which is work to — to deal with the challenges at the border.
 
I — I don’t have anything else to add beyond — beyond what — your question that you’re asking me.
 
Q    So, you’re not expecting a rule change, or you just don’t know?
 
MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  I’m not expecting a rule change.
 
Q    Do you have any updates on the president’s awareness or communications with people with regard to yesterday’s school shooting?
 
MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  So, obviously, the president and the first lady mourn the lives that were lost in the horrific tragedy yesterday.
 
What I will say is I don’t have anything to a- — to read out, a call to read out, or a — planned calls to read out.  But obviously, we’re mourning for not just the families but for the community. 
 
And I will say that the president is going to address this at the top of his remarks in Wisconsin today.  So, I’m not going to get ahead of the president.
 
Q    ADP reported that 99,000 jobs were added in August.  How worried are you about a job market slowdown?
 
MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  So, as you know, we have the — the Bureau of Labor Statistics report, which is coming out tomorrow.  ADP jobs report is not the official source of labor market information, so I’m not going to get ahead of what — what we’ll hear tomorrow.  And I’ll just leave it there.
 
Q    Karine, I’m wondering if you have anything fresh on U.S. Steel.  Obv- — obviously, you got some questions on it yesterday, but there was some reporting that there were letters from — one from the administration to the companies involved about national security concerns.  So, I’m wondering if you have anything to add.
 
MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  So, I’m just going to be mindful.  CFIUS is going through their process.  They — that process continues.  They have not made the recommendation — or we have not received the recommendation to the president, which is part of the process.  So, I don’t have any news to make.  I’m going to let CFIUS do — do their jobs.
 
Q    And then I have one quickly.  Boeing is in a — the middle of a labor dispute.  They have negotiations this weekend, and it seems like a strike is at least a possibility.  Can you talk about if you guys are monitoring this, involved in any way in trying to mediate this?  And, if it were to go to a strike, if you’re concerned that it would have either a impact on, you know, domestic travel for — for Americans but also on — Boeing is obviously a huge government supplier for — for the military.
 
MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  So, what I’ll say is — and you know this — the president, who has been called the most pro-union president ever, we — we support collective bargaining, and he believes it’s the best way for American workers and employees [employers] to come to an agreement that works for all parties. 
 
And so, that’s why we continue, and as we’ve done in many times a- — when there are — these moments come up, we encourage all parties to come together in good faith to come to — to come to a conclusion here. 
 
I don’t have anything else to say to your second part of your question.  Obviously, we — this is something we monitor, anything that may affect or have impact on the economy.  But what we want to see is collective bargaining.  That’s what the president believes.  And I’ll just leave it there for now.
 
Q    Karine, I was wondering: What does the president think of Vice President Harris wanting to raise capital gains taxes by less than — than he has called for?  Does he think that’s misguided?
 
MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  So, look, I — you know, we’ve talked about this before.  The president and the vice president stand shoulder to shoulder.  You’ve seen what they’ve been able to do the past three and a half years.  That relates to whether it’s the economy, health care, or anything in that fashion.  And, look, they’ve been able to — to get a lot of work done on behalf of the American people. 
 
And so, look, they share the goal of tax system that lowers — both of them, both the presi- — the president and vice president — that lowers taxes for working Americans and middle- — middle-class families, encourages business investment in America, and asks billionaires to finally pay their fair share. 
 
And what we see from the other side, what we see from congressional Republicans, they want to give tax relief to billionaires and corporations.  That’s not what we bel- — we want to make sure that they — they are — when it comes to corporations and billionaires, that they’re paying their fair share here and not putting it at the — at the feet of the middle class or working Americans. 
 
So, they share the same values of expanding opportunity, growing the middle class, and supporting small business.  It’s a stark contrast, again, to what congressional Republicans want to do.  They want to raise taxes on everyday goods for middle-class families by almost $4,000 per year. 
 
And so, they stand shoulder to shoulder here.  We’ve seen what they’ve been able to do for the last three and half years.  And they want to make sure that we continue to deliver for — for Americans here.
 
Q    Has the president talked to V- — the VP about the debate at all and given her any advice on how to go up against Trump?
 
MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  So, look, I’m going to just let the campaign speak to her debate preparation.  What I can say is the president is proud of the vice president and very much is going — is looking forward to watching her debate — her debate on Tuesday.  I don’t have anything beyond that. 
 
Okay.  All right. 
 
Thanks, everybody.  I’ll see you on the ground.
 
Q    Thank you.
 
1:40 P.M. EDT

The post Press Gaggle by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre En Route La Crosse, WI appeared first on The White House.

1:30 P.M. EDT
 
MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Hi, everybody.
 
Q    Hello!
 
MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Long time, no see.  So, I just have one thing at the top, and then we can get going.
 
So, as you all know, today we’re headed to Westby, Wisconsin, where the president will announce a $7.3 billion investment from the Inflation Reduction Act for clean, affordable, reliable electricity for rural America.
 
The inves- — investment announced today is the largest investment in rural electrification since the New Deal and is part of the president’s Investing in America agenda, which is lowering costs, creating jobs, and bringing new opportunity to communities and families across the country.
 
Sixteen rural electric coop- — cooperatives from across the country have been selected as a part of this first round of awards from the Department of Agriculture’s Empowering Rural America program.  Thanks to this programs, co-ops will lower energy costs for rural Americans, enhance grid reliability, and create more than 4,500 permanent jobs and over 16,000 construction jobs.
 
And we cannot forget that Republican officials’ MAGAnomics agenda would repeal the Inflation Reduction Act, for which Vice President Harris was the deciding vote, and take all these life-changing benefits away from rural Ameri- — rural communities.
 
Also today, we are announcing the 10th approval of a commercial-scale offshore wind project.  The nation has now approved enough offshore wind projects to power more than 5 million homes and get us halfway to achieving the 30-gigawatt goal.
 
At the beginning of the administration, there were no approved commercial-scale offshore wind projects in federal waters in the United States.
 
Thanks to President Biden and Vice President Harris — Harris’ leadership, the nation’s offshore and industry wi- [wind industry] — industry, which is creating good-paying and union jobs, establishing and growing new industries in the United States, providing reliable clean power for homes and businesses, strengthening “Made in America” supply chains, and tackling the climate crisis, and helping lower costs for families.
 
This project, off the shore of Maryland, will provide clean, reliable an- — renewable energy for up to seven thou- — 770,000 homes and will support up to over 2,600 jobs annually over seven years.
 
The administration will continue to use every tool available, including leveraging historic resources from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, to seize offshore wind opportunities across America that will create new good-paying jobs for over — for — for our communities.
 
And, with that, hi.  How are you?
 
Q    Good.  How are you?  On Hunter Biden changing his plea, does the White House have a comment at all?  And does that change the president’s calculus on pardoning his son?
 
MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  So, on your first question, I — I’m not able to com- — to comment at this time.
 
On your second question — which was, I guess, part of one question — it’s no.  It’s still no.
 
Q    Was the president aware that he was going to plead guilty?
 
MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  I — I don’t have anything else.  I’m not able to comment on it.  But I can say that it is still very much a “no” to the questions that I have gotten about if the president is going to pardon his son.
 
Q    And can you —
 
MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  But I don’t have anything else to add.
 
Q    Can you comment on whether a commutation would be on or off the table?
 
MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  That’s also no.
 
Q    Did the decision to change his — his plea have anything to do with the president no longer running for reelection?
 
MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  I don’t have anything to — to say beyond what I just said.
 
Q    On asylum rules.  There’s reporting that there might be an effort in the administration to make it harder to roll back the asylum restrictions, the border restrictions.  Do you have — does the president have a position on that?  Do you want to make that stricter?
 
MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  I don’t have anything else to add, really, to that.  As you know, back in June, the president made his — made that announcement on how he was going to move forward on — on making sure that we do what majority of the Americans want us to do — right? — which is work to — to deal with the challenges at the border.
 
I — I don’t have anything else to add beyond — beyond what — your question that you’re asking me.
 
Q    So, you’re not expecting a rule change, or you just don’t know?
 
MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  I’m not expecting a rule change.
 
Q    Do you have any updates on the president’s awareness or communications with people with regard to yesterday’s school shooting?
 
MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  So, obviously, the president and the first lady mourn the lives that were lost in the horrific tragedy yesterday.
 
What I will say is I don’t have anything to a- — to read out, a call to read out, or a — planned calls to read out.  But obviously, we’re mourning for not just the families but for the community. 
 
And I will say that the president is going to address this at the top of his remarks in Wisconsin today.  So, I’m not going to get ahead of the president.
 
Q    ADP reported that 99,000 jobs were added in August.  How worried are you about a job market slowdown?
 
MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  So, as you know, we have the — the Bureau of Labor Statistics report, which is coming out tomorrow.  ADP jobs report is not the official source of labor market information, so I’m not going to get ahead of what — what we’ll hear tomorrow.  And I’ll just leave it there.
 
Q    Karine, I’m wondering if you have anything fresh on U.S. Steel.  Obv- — obviously, you got some questions on it yesterday, but there was some reporting that there were letters from — one from the administration to the companies involved about national security concerns.  So, I’m wondering if you have anything to add.
 
MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  So, I’m just going to be mindful.  CFIUS is going through their process.  They — that process continues.  They have not made the recommendation — or we have not received the recommendation to the president, which is part of the process.  So, I don’t have any news to make.  I’m going to let CFIUS do — do their jobs.
 
Q    And then I have one quickly.  Boeing is in a — the middle of a labor dispute.  They have negotiations this weekend, and it seems like a strike is at least a possibility.  Can you talk about if you guys are monitoring this, involved in any way in trying to mediate this?  And, if it were to go to a strike, if you’re concerned that it would have either a impact on, you know, domestic travel for — for Americans but also on — Boeing is obviously a huge government supplier for — for the military.
 
MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  So, what I’ll say is — and you know this — the president, who has been called the most pro-union president ever, we — we support collective bargaining, and he believes it’s the best way for American workers and employees [employers] to come to an agreement that works for all parties. 
 
And so, that’s why we continue, and as we’ve done in many times a- — when there are — these moments come up, we encourage all parties to come together in good faith to come to — to come to a conclusion here. 
 
I don’t have anything else to say to your second part of your question.  Obviously, we — this is something we monitor, anything that may affect or have impact on the economy.  But what we want to see is collective bargaining.  That’s what the president believes.  And I’ll just leave it there for now.
 
Q    Karine, I was wondering: What does the president think of Vice President Harris wanting to raise capital gains taxes by less than — than he has called for?  Does he think that’s misguided?
 
MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  So, look, I — you know, we’ve talked about this before.  The president and the vice president stand shoulder to shoulder.  You’ve seen what they’ve been able to do the past three and a half years.  That relates to whether it’s the economy, health care, or anything in that fashion.  And, look, they’ve been able to — to get a lot of work done on behalf of the American people. 
 
And so, look, they share the goal of tax system that lowers — both of them, both the presi- — the president and vice president — that lowers taxes for working Americans and middle- — middle-class families, encourages business investment in America, and asks billionaires to finally pay their fair share. 
 
And what we see from the other side, what we see from congressional Republicans, they want to give tax relief to billionaires and corporations.  That’s not what we bel- — we want to make sure that they — they are — when it comes to corporations and billionaires, that they’re paying their fair share here and not putting it at the — at the feet of the middle class or working Americans. 
 
So, they share the same values of expanding opportunity, growing the middle class, and supporting small business.  It’s a stark contrast, again, to what congressional Republicans want to do.  They want to raise taxes on everyday goods for middle-class families by almost $4,000 per year. 
 
And so, they stand shoulder to shoulder here.  We’ve seen what they’ve been able to do for the last three and half years.  And they want to make sure that we continue to deliver for — for Americans here.
 
Q    Has the president talked to V- — the VP about the debate at all and given her any advice on how to go up against Trump?
 
MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  So, look, I’m going to just let the campaign speak to her debate preparation.  What I can say is the president is proud of the vice president and very much is going — is looking forward to watching her debate — her debate on Tuesday.  I don’t have anything beyond that. 
 
Okay.  All right. 
 
Thanks, everybody.  I’ll see you on the ground.
 
Q    Thank you.
 
1:40 P.M. EDT

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   Twenty-three years ago — on September 11, 2001 — 2,977 precious lives were ripped from us in an evil attack on our Nation.  During these solemn days, we renew our sacred vow:  Never Forget.  Never forget the loved ones we lost.  Never forget the first responders who ran toward the rubble to save others.  Never forget the hundreds of thousands of patriots who signed up to serve in the years after.  And never forget that, when an enemy tried to tear us apart, our country came together.  We stood united.

     While every year we mark this hallowed day, it is never easier.  To all those who are grieving a lost child, parent, spouse, sibling, friend, or coworker — and to all those who still bear the wounds from that September morning — I know how hard this time can be.  It can reopen that black hole in your chest, bringing you back to the moment you saw the news or the moment you got the phone call.  Today and every day, the First Lady and I are holding you close to our hearts.

     We are also thinking of all the families of Americans who showed extraordinary bravery, selflessness, and sacrifice that day.  They are the firefighters, police officers, and first responders who ran into the inferno of jet fuel and debris at Ground Zero and refused to stop searching for months.  They are the civilians and service members at the Pentagon who rushed into the fiery breach to rescue their colleagues.  They are the passengers of Flight 93, who confronted terror with absolute courage.  They are the heroes who signed up to serve and defend our homeland from future attacks.  And they include every American — from communities across our country — who stepped up and stood together.  

     Today — as we remember all those we lost on that searing September day 23 years ago — let us renew our faith in one another.  Let us continue to seek light, even in the darkest of hours.  And drawing from their example, let us resolve to continue building a Nation that stands as a beacon of liberty and justice for all.  That is the truest memorial to their lives — our actions, every day, to ensure that our democracy endures, that our freedom endures, and that the very soul of our Nation endures.

     NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim September 6, 2024, through September 8, 2024, as National Days of Prayer and Remembrance.  I ask that the people of the United States honor the victims of September 11, 2001, and their loved ones with prayer, contemplation, memorial services and visits, bells, candlelight vigils, and other activities.  I invite people around the world to join.  I call on the citizens of our Nation to give thanks for our many freedoms and blessings, and I invite all people of faith to join me in asking for God’s continued guidance, mercy, and protection.
 
     IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifth day of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-ninth.

                             JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.

The post A Proclamation on National Days of Prayer and Remembrance, 2024 appeared first on The White House.

   Twenty-three years ago — on September 11, 2001 — 2,977 precious lives were ripped from us in an evil attack on our Nation.  During these solemn days, we renew our sacred vow:  Never Forget.  Never forget the loved ones we lost.  Never forget the first responders who ran toward the rubble to save others.  Never forget the hundreds of thousands of patriots who signed up to serve in the years after.  And never forget that, when an enemy tried to tear us apart, our country came together.  We stood united.

     While every year we mark this hallowed day, it is never easier.  To all those who are grieving a lost child, parent, spouse, sibling, friend, or coworker — and to all those who still bear the wounds from that September morning — I know how hard this time can be.  It can reopen that black hole in your chest, bringing you back to the moment you saw the news or the moment you got the phone call.  Today and every day, the First Lady and I are holding you close to our hearts.

     We are also thinking of all the families of Americans who showed extraordinary bravery, selflessness, and sacrifice that day.  They are the firefighters, police officers, and first responders who ran into the inferno of jet fuel and debris at Ground Zero and refused to stop searching for months.  They are the civilians and service members at the Pentagon who rushed into the fiery breach to rescue their colleagues.  They are the passengers of Flight 93, who confronted terror with absolute courage.  They are the heroes who signed up to serve and defend our homeland from future attacks.  And they include every American — from communities across our country — who stepped up and stood together.  

     Today — as we remember all those we lost on that searing September day 23 years ago — let us renew our faith in one another.  Let us continue to seek light, even in the darkest of hours.  And drawing from their example, let us resolve to continue building a Nation that stands as a beacon of liberty and justice for all.  That is the truest memorial to their lives — our actions, every day, to ensure that our democracy endures, that our freedom endures, and that the very soul of our Nation endures.

     NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim September 6, 2024, through September 8, 2024, as National Days of Prayer and Remembrance.  I ask that the people of the United States honor the victims of September 11, 2001, and their loved ones with prayer, contemplation, memorial services and visits, bells, candlelight vigils, and other activities.  I invite people around the world to join.  I call on the citizens of our Nation to give thanks for our many freedoms and blessings, and I invite all people of faith to join me in asking for God’s continued guidance, mercy, and protection.
 
     IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifth day of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-ninth.

                             JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.

The post A Proclamation on National Days of Prayer and Remembrance, 2024 appeared first on The White House.

 10:35 A.M. EDT
 
MODERATOR:  Hey, everyone.  Thanks for bearing with us for the last couple minutes.  Kirby has a few words here at the top, and then we’ll go into questions, as always.
 
MR. KIRBY:  Hey, good morning.  Thank you for joining us here again, but there are a few things that we do want to announce.
 
First, in the Western Hemisphere.  As I think you may have seen, in partnership with partners in the Western Hemisphere, early this morning, the United States government secured the release of 135 Nicaraguan political prisoners, including Catholic lay people, human rights defenders, students, and others who the government of Nicaragua consider a threat to their authoritarian rule. 
 
In coordination with President Arévalo of Guatemala and his democratically elected government, the United States helped facilitate the transport of all 135 Nicaraguans to Guatemala, and they should be arriving there as we speak.
 
To our partners in Guatemala, we will help provide them with medical and trauma care, a place to stay, clothing and hygiene kits, along with other immediate support.  And I think it’s important that we don’t forget these are people who have been unjustly detained for months, some of them for years, without access to basic needs.
 
Thanks to President Biden’s Safe Mobility Offices initiative, one of which is located in Guatemala, these Nicaraguan citizens will be able to seek lawful pathways to migrate to a new country, and they’ll — and to rebuild their lives.  So it’s a real tangible example of what democracies can do working together to help people.
 
Turning to Gaza, if I might: Last Sunday, with strong support from the United States, the United Nations, led by the World Health Organization and UNICEF, began a campaign to vaccinate more than half a million children against polio.  The first reports of a polio outbreak in Gaza emerged in late July.  Immediately thereafter, the President directed his team to support WHO and UNICEF’s efforts and to help develop a comprehensive and efficient vaccination plan, recognizing that children under 10 were the most at risk. 
 
We’ve worked closely with the government of Israel to facilitate the necessary access and safety of the vaccination campaign, including securing pauses in military operations and a commitment to timely deconfliction mechanisms.  And we’ve underscored the importance of reaching a critical threshold among children under 10 years old to help prevent the disease from spreading within Gaza and, quite frankly, across the region.
 
We are grateful for this cooperation and for the U.N. and other humanitarian workers who are doing this lifesaving work under extremely difficult and dangerous conditions. 
 
So far, with just three days into the campaign, the estimate is that 189,000 children in Gaza have been vaccinated, and we look forward to continuing to do more over coming days. 
 
The strong turnout that we have seen we believe is a testament to the superb planning that went into this campaign; the strong coordination between us, Israeli authorities, and the U.N.; as well as, quite frankly, the commitment of Palestinian families who don’t — like all families, they want to protect their kids. 
 
In the coming days, this campaign must continue unimpeded throughout Gaza, and we are committed to that.  I want to be crystal clear, though, on one thing: The single most effective way to address this particular urgent challenge of polio and all the humanitarian challenges in Gaza is to reach an immediate ceasefire, enabling the release of all the hostages but also creating the conditions for additional lifesaving assistance to reach Palestinian civilians who are so much in need.  Their suffering simply must stop. 
 
And as we’ve seen certainly in many other ways, but including the threat of polio: Real lives — and, in this case, in polio, real young lives — are hanging in the balance. 
 
Finally, if I can — turning to Africa.
 
Yesterday, Prosper Africa, which is a presidential-level national security initiative, released data that highlighted the Biden-Harris’s — the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to promoting sustainable commercial partnerships and shared prosperity between the United States and the continent. 
 
Since January of 2021, we have closed 1,695 private sector deals valued at 63 and a half billion dollars in some 41 African countries, all of them designed to help improve transparent and credible investment opportunities. 
 
The number of U.S. government-supported deals increased from 262 in 2021 to 401 in just the first six months of this year.  And the estimated value of these deals increased dramatically from 3.1 billion in 2021 to 32 and a half billion dollars. 
 
We’re also responding, of course, to the crisis in Sudan, where hundreds of thousands of Sudanese people live in famine conditions, 25 million of them are facing acute hunger, and more than 10 million have been forced to flee their homes.  That work includes pushing for ceasefire talks between the RSF and the SAF; securing humanitarian commitments from the warring parties to allow safe, unhindered humanitarian access; and reopening the Adré border crossing from Chad, through which some humanitarian supplies have now crossed. 
 
Now, much more needs to be done, of course; we’re mindful of that.  And the RSF and the SAF need to uphold their commitments and expand.  We are doing everything we can to secure humanitarian access and to save lives and to help bring an end to the fighting.
 
And with that, I’ll take some questions. 
 
MODERATOR:  Thank you.  Our first question will go to Steve with Reuters.
 
Q    Hey, John.  You know, Jon Finer was in Ukraine yesterday getting briefed on various things.  Do you now have a better understanding of the peace plan that Zelenskyy is talking about proposing, I think it’s later this month?
 
MR. KIRBY:  Hey, Steve.  I’ll certainly let President Zelenskyy speak to this peace initiative that he’s been talking about. 
 
As you know, we have helped the Ukrainians to move his just peace proposal forward internationally, and it has garnered quite a bit of international support.  And as we have long maintained, if this war is going to end through some sort of negotiation, we want to make sure that President Zelenskyy is in the best possible position to make decisions about what that negotiation looks like, and that’s what we’re focused on right now. 
 
We are absolutely focused on making sure Ukraine has what it needs to defend itself and to put them in that position of strength should, if, and when a negotiation occurs.  And I would add that that includes this week, as the Secretary of Defense is heading over to Ramstein, Germany, to host yet another contact group meeting where our coalition partners will again revisit ways they can continue to support Ukraine.
 
Q    And if I could add, on Gaza: We had a briefing yesterday, and it described the latest update on where things stand.  When do you expect to present this next ceasefire proposal?
 
MR. KIRBY:  Well, all the parties are in communication right now, Steve.  I don’t have a meeting, necessarily, in the region that I can point to at this particular point in time, like we had last week in Cairo and Doha.  But Brett McGurk, our Middle East Coordinator, is actively engaging his counterparts in Qatar, Egypt, Israel to see what we can do to try to move this forward. 
 
I want to be clear that just because I’m not announcing, you know, another meeting, it doesn’t mean that there won’t be one, but it also doesn’t mean that there actually will be one or that there needs to be one.  That’ll be something that, you know, Brett and his interlocutors will try to figure out. 
 
But, again, we believe that these differences can be resolved.  And what the next step looks like in terms of resolving them, I think we just don’t know right now.
 
Q    Thanks, John.
 
MR. KIRBY:  Yes, sir.

MODERATOR:  Thank you.  Our next question will go to Zeke
with the AP.
 
Q    Thanks, John, for doing this.  I was hoping that you could speak to how the execution of the hostages last week has complicated the prisoner swap part of the phase one agreement with fewer hostages who would meet that initial release date.  Is there — has there been any indication that Hamas is dropping the number of prisoners it wants to see released by Israel as part of phase one of that deal?  Or is that — how big of a sticking point is that?
 
MR. KIRBY:  Well, I mean, obviously it’s — it was just a horrific slaughter and shocking to everybody.  But we don’t believe that it necessarily — let me say it a different way.  We believe that the discussions to try to get to a ceasefire deal can and should continue.  And as I think you heard from an administration official last night, we’re very much focused on doing exactly that. 
 
I can’t speak to the motivation to murder those hostages, but we still believe that as tragic as that was, and it certainly was tragic, that the ceasefire negotiations can and should continue.  I think that’s the best way I could put it.
 
Q    Thanks.  And then just separately, I was hoping you might be able to take a swing at Putin’s comments, I guess late last night or early this morning our time, reportedly saying he’s shown a preference for the outcome of the presidential race for the Vice President.  Is there anything you can say on that?  Thank you.
 
MR. KIRBY:  Mr. Putin ought to stop talking about our elections, period.  He shouldn’t be favoring anybody one way or another.  The only people who should get to determine who the next president of the United States is is the American people.  And we would greatly appreciate it if Mr. Putin would, A, stop talking about our election and, B, stop interfering in it.
 
MODERATOR:  Thank you.  Our next question will go to Andrea Mitchell with NBC.
 
Q    Hi.  Thank you so much, John and everyone.  So, following up, I know you can’t discuss the negotiations, but it’s unclear what the U.S. role would be, if any, if there were a way to work with Egypt, on the Egypt side, to somehow secure that border, but how that could be done without Israeli cooperation if the talks are continuing without Israel. 
 
So could you try to explain how the talks could possibly continue if the Prime Minister is, as certainly has been widely reported, is absolutely dead set against yielding on some of the key issues? 
 
Obviously, there can be no release of Palestinian prisoners that Hamas would want, but is there a smaller group of American and other endangered — they’re all endangered, but critically endangered hostages that could be released, and doing it with the other partners and securing that border area?  And how would that involve negotiating with Hamas? 
 
If you could, you know, clarify that at all, I’d really appreciate it.  Thank you so much.
 
MR. KIRBY:  Yeah, let me back up just a second and make clear what’s happening versus what’s not happening. 
 
What’s not happening is, you know, formal, set peace negotiations and mediation, like we saw in the last couple of weeks in Doha and Cairo.  So there’s no formal negotiation going on at this time. 
 
What is going on is communication, sort of point-to-point communication between us and our counterparts in Qatar and Egypt and, of course, Israel to try to still see if we can move this thing forward. 
 
And I’ve heard what the Prime Minister said.  I’m not going to get into a back-and-forth with him here in a public setting.  He can speak for his comments, and he can speak for where he is. 
 
But what I can assure you is our communication with our Israeli counterparts continue.  And we still believe that though this is incredibly difficult, that we can, in fact — if there’s compromise, if there’s leadership, that we can still get there, we can still get this deal.  And that’s what we’re focused on right now, is trying to hammer out the differences that still exist between what Hamas says it wants and what Israel says it needs. 
 
So we’re still working our way through that, but we’re doing that, Andrea, right now in a more informal way.  And I think — you know, you were asking about presence on the border and all that, and I think that gets into the details of the horse trading here that I just am not comfortable engaging in a public conversation on, because those are exactly the kinds of issues that we’re speaking to the Israelis about and our Qatari and Egyptian friends too.
 
Q    Well, but I know you can’t speak for Israel, and I’m not asking you to, when you speak of the Prime Minister, but given the months and months of investment of time, effort, energy, and the risk to the hostages that has gone on, with nine trips by the Secretary of State and countless others by the DCI and other White House officials, can you speak to the feeling in the administration about the unyielding public statements of the Prime Minister and how much of an obstacle that is to the welfare of the hostages who were so close to being released and were brutally killed, murdered by Hamas, which could have (inaudible)?
 
MR. KIRBY:  I certainly understand the — I certainly understand the intent of the question.  Let me tackle it this way, if I might.  And if I am unsatisfying, I’m sure you’ll let me know. 
 
Number one, the biggest obstacle to getting a ceasefire deal is Hamas.  No question about it.  They took the damn hostages in the first place, and they violated a ceasefire.
 
Q    I’m not questioning that. 
 
MR. KIRBY:  No, no — no, no, just let me get there.  Let me get there, please.  There was a ceasefire in place on the 6th of October, which Mr. Sinwar decided to break.  The hostages should be released now.  There should be no reason for them to be held in the first place. 
 
With each passing day, as sadly we have seen over the course of last weekend, the danger to their lives increase.  And that’s why we’re working with such a great sense of urgency here. 
 
On the larger point of what you’re asking about, I won’t get into — I’m just not going to get into a public back-and-forth, through all of you in the press, with Prime Minister Netanyahu.
 
I will just say that this process has at times been cumbersome.  We have faced setbacks and setbacks and more setbacks.  And without question, we here in the administration are frustrated that we still haven’t been able to conclude this deal.  And there’s lots of reasons for that.  But I’m not going to lie to you and say that we haven’t been frustrated.  Of course we have.  We want to see the hostages home as soon as possible. 
 
But I would also say that as frustrating as it has been at times, and as unhelpful as not just public comments, but even private machinations in the negotiation process have been to closure of the deal, it has not dimmed one bit President Biden’s commitment to trying to see this through.  And that is why, as I said earlier, Brett McGurk, Jake Sullivan, Tony Blinken, the entire national security team remains committed to seeing if we can’t move this forward and get it to closure.
 
MODERATOR:  Thank you.  Our next question will go to Alex with CNN.
 
Q    Thanks, guys.  John, I appreciate you not wanting to get into a back-and-forth, but it really does sound like you and the Israelis are not at all on the same page.  We just heard an interview with Netanyahu this morning on another network, and he said very clearly, “There is not a deal in the making.  Unfortunately, it’s not close.”  He was asked about your colleague’s estimation yesterday that the deal is 90 percent done.  He said, “It’s exactly inaccurate.” 
 
The President, on Sunday, said that we’re on the “verge of… an agreement.”  That was after the bodies had been found. 
 
So what do you make of the Prime Minister’s rejection, not just of your characterization of the deal being 90 percent done, but saying, point blank, there is not a deal in the making?
 
MR. KIRBY:  Yeah, I think — first of all, my colleague that you’re referring to also was very clear that while much of the text has been agreed to, the exchange of prisoners has not been agreed to.  And that really comes — that’s the heart of this deal, is the exchange.  And it’s not been agreed to.  As we talked about before, it’s the implementation of the framework.  The framework itself has been agreed to.  And, of course, Hamas executed hostages over the weekend and also, in fact, changed some of the terms of the exchange.
 
So, as I said earlier, while that execution absolutely, certainly dramatically — I shouldn’t say “dramatically” — certainly changed the pool of hostages that could be available, and absolutely created a sense of even greater urgency to get the deal, it also underscores how difficult it is to negotiate with a guy like Mr. Sinwar. 
 
And I think I want to come back to what I’ve said before.  When we talk about obstacles to the deal here, it’s Mr. Sinwar.  But my colleague was not overly rosy or optimistic.  We still believe that it can be done.  We’re not Pollyannaish about the difficulty in getting there. 
 
Q    No, I understand, John.  But 90 percent sounds pretty optimistic.  And the President himself saying “on the verge of… an agreement” is certainly optimistic.  So is it on the verge of an agreement, or is it not close, as the Prime Minister said?
 
MR. KIRBY:  Well, I just —
 
Q    Is there a deal on the table or not?  Because he’s saying there’s no deal in the making, and you guys have persistently said there is a deal to be had.
 
MR. KIRBY:  So, first of all, “90 percent,” “verge of a deal” — you call that optimistic, I call that accurate.  That’s how close we believe we are.  That’s where we have gotten to.  The basic framework of the deal has been agreed to.  What we’re talking about now is the implementing details and, specifically, the exchange of prisoners.  And now that calculus is different because of what happened over the weekend.  It’s not guaranteed that Mr. Sinwar is ever going to accept the deal.  We’ve all said that. 
 
So I’m just going to take issue with the premise of the question and the way it was characterized on television, that it was overly optimistic or rosy.  We have been nothing but pragmatic about talking about this. 
 
Now, have we been hopeful?  Yeah, you bet.  And as I said yesterday, no apologies for that.  Not one bit.  We’d rather get caught trying than not try at all.  And we’re trying. 
 
So I’m just going to take issue with the idea that we’re somehow pulling the wool over your guys’ eyes or being overly optimistic.  We’re being pragmatic about it, and we do believe that we have made an immense amount of progress in the last few months in terms of getting the structure of the deal in place.
 
But nothing is negotiated until everything is negotiated.  And the things that are still in play right now are very, very detailed, data-driven issues, and that’s when things get difficult.  That’s when it gets hard.
 
MODERATOR:  Thank you.  For our next question we’ll go to Alex with the Wall Street Journal. 
 
Q    Thanks.  Very quick, a quick follow-up on the Finer meeting.  Is there — obviously, Finer went there with a — thinking about the agenda of energy security.  I mean, did he come away with any sort of assurances that the Ukrainians will be able to protect their energy grid over this coming winter?  And if there are any sort of specifics on this military planning, did he get an update on Kursk or anything like that?
 
And then, on Gaza, I guess I just want to be clear also about one thing.  We do have — you guys keep saying that, you know, the Philadelphi Corridor, it’s about the densely populated areas, but then at the same time noting, well, that’s actually more of an issue for phase two, in which case I’m wondering why Philadelphi is one of the complications to this deal when it’s a phase two issue, not really a phase one issue.  Thank you.
 
MR. KIRBY:  Look, I’m not going to get into negotiating here in public with you guys on all the details.  I addressed this the other day.  Phase one requires them to leave densely populated areas.  There are parts of the Philadelphi Corridor that don’t qualify for that because they’re not densely populated areas.  And so, I’ve already addressed this. 
 
The Israelis said that they needed locations among Philadelphi Corridor.  That’s not — you know, that is not a — that is not, nor should it be or needs to be, some sort of a deal closer.
 
I’m sorry, and I lost my train of thought.  What was your other question?
 
Q    Just a little bit more on Finer’s meeting in Ukraine. 
 
MR. KIRBY:  Oh, Finer’s visit.  Sorry.  Sorry.
 
Yeah, look, Jon was grateful for the time that Ukrainian officials, including President Zelenskyy, afforded him while he was there.  He had a chance to hear directly from the president and from his staff about their view of the battlefield and what’s going on in the northeast part of the country and, frankly, yes, what’s going on in their Kursk operations.  I’m not going to publicly disclose the details of those conversations, but he did get an update on what they’re doing. 
 
They absolutely had a chance to talk about the energy grid and the threat that that grid continues to come under from Russian air attacks.  And Jon made clear to President Zelenskyy how committed the United States is to not only improving their air defense capabilities to protect that grid, but also to continuing to provide infrastructure support, to repair and to make that grid a little bit more resilient.  And the United States is leading the way on that, and Jon made clear that we’ll continue to do that.
 
MODERATOR:  Thank you.  Our next question will go to Zolan with the New York Times. 
 
Q    Hey there.  Thanks so much for doing this and for taking my question.  I wanted to turn back to Nicaragua just quickly.  Could you just outline for me, John, a bit more about the administration’s involvement in securing this release of folks on humanitarian grounds, and then specifically, also, the Vice President’s involvement too?  This would seem to be kind of in her, sort of, portfolio of dealing with, sort of, democracy issues in Central America.  So if you could just describe her involvement.  And also, if she wasn’t involved, why?  Given this is an assignment in her portfolio.  Thanks.
 
MR. KIRBY:  This was an administration-wide effort to work with partners, as I said in my opening statement, obviously in the region and specifically with Guatemala.  But, you know, this was an effort by both the President and the Vice President to work through the appropriate channels to help secure the release of these individuals.  And as I said, we also help facilitate their transport through charter aircraft coming from the United States to get them to Guatemala. 
 
And we are working, again, across the administration, with our partners, to make sure that as they arrive in Guatemala, they have a place to stay, they’ve got food, they’ve got medical care, and if they need it, they have clothing, as well as now an opportunity to pursue legal pathways to migration to another country. 
 
So this is very much in keeping with the efforts that the Vice President started on root causes.  I mean, this idea of this initiative for legal pathways is very much all about giving people, who are living in places where there are real threats to their existence, opportunities to migrate to other countries.    So, again, all that stemmed right from the work that the Vice President did on root causes. 
 
But, again, it was across the administration, and we were proud to be able to help facilitate this and, quite frankly, very grateful to our international partners who helped make it happen.
 
Sorry about that.
 
MODERATOR:  Thank you.  Our next question will go to Asma with NPR.
 
Q    Hi.  Thanks for doing this.  I just wanted to square some of the characterizations we’ve had of where we are again in the hostage space, John.  I am confused.  So, yesterday, we heard from a senior administration official.  I believe their words were that the killing of the hostages has changed the character of that discussion.  And what I’m trying to understand is: Has that character of the discussion become more urgent, as we heard earlier this week from the administration, or has it become more difficult?  And could you help us understand where things are?
 
MR. KIRBY:  Yeah, I think — I think both, Asma.  And certainly it increased the sense of urgency; I talked about that the other day.  And, yes, as my colleague indicated, it has made it more difficult. 
 
But as I said earlier in this conversation, it doesn’t lessen — in fact, quite the contrary — it increases our desire to move this forward and to try to get it to closure, which is why I didn’t — maybe didn’t do a great job with one of the previous answers about the effect here.  But the point I was trying to make, and I’ll make it again right now, is that the tragic murder and slaughter of those six hostages didn’t wipe away, didn’t eliminate or decrease our desire to see this ceasefire deal in place.  And it didn’t — it didn’t make us believe that we couldn’t still or shouldn’t still have the conversations that we already were having. 
 
But did it increase the sense of urgency?  Yeah, of course it did.  And has it made it — has it made it more difficult, as my colleague said?  Yes, of course it has.  But not impossible. 
 
And I recognize that you all are seeing comments out there in the public.  I recognize that, you know, we’ve suffered yet another huge setback here.  But don’t misconstrue our hopefulness for ignorance.  We know what we’re up against, and in Sinwar —
 
Q    John, can I ask —
 
MR. KIRBY:  In Sinwar, we know who we’re up against.  But that doesn’t mean we’re not going to keep trying. 
 
Q    John, can I ask one related question — which is that earlier this week, you know, the President was asked about presenting a final hostage deal by the end of the week.  We are here at Thursday.  He said that we are very close to that.  That doesn’t sound — that doesn’t sound likely, based on what you’ve been saying.  I just want to confirm that.
 
MR. KIRBY:  I go back to what I said before.  We’re still having active communications with all sides, and we have a sense of urgency, and we’re acting on that sense of urgency.
 
MODERATOR:  Thank you.  And unfortunately, we only have time for one more quick question, which will go to Missy Ryan with the Washington Post.
 
Q    Thank you.  Hey, John.  Just wanted to follow up on the Ukraine questions.  Can you all hear me?
 
MR. KIRBY:  Yes, ma’am. 
 
Q    Okay, great.  And ask if you can comment at all, excuse me, on the request that the Ukrainians have been making for new longer-range weapons, for looser restrictions on the American-made weapons they currently have.  Is it accurate to say that the U.S. is evaluating those requests?  There are some reports out there that the U.S. is preparing to provide new capabilities that would allow them to strike deeper into Russian territory.  Thanks.
 
MR. KIRBY:  I would make two points, Missy.  Number one, there’s been no change in our policy with respect to long-range missile capabilities and where and what and how Ukraine can use those capabilities.  No change in our policy to speak to today.
 
I would also tell you that we are, as we have been every day, including while Jon was in Kyiv, having a conversation with our Ukrainian counterparts about what they need, what’s going on on the battlefield, and what support they require to continue to have success on the battlefield. 
 
So those conversations are iterative, as they always have been, and, in fact, will continue at a higher level at the end of this week when the Secretary of Defense holds his next iteration of the Ramstein group.  So you’ll see that for yourself in Germany here today and tomorrow. 
 
But, again, no change to our policies one way or another to speak to. 
 
MODERATOR:  One more thing before we leave you all today.
 
MR. KIRBY:  Today is a sad day at NSC, particularly in the — on the press team, as we say goodbye to Kate Waters, who’s leaving us and heading off to new ventures in the private sector.  Well deserved.  And we’re very proud of her and happy for her as she also gets ready to welcome her little one.  And we’re all going to miss her greatly. 
 
She’s been an incredible talent, a terrific teammate, a leader, a friend.  And the hole that she’s going to leave is going to be very, very deep.  Very, very deep. 
 
My grandfather used to say — when he found out I was joining the Navy, he said, “If you want to know how important anyone is to the United States Navy, put your fist in a bucket of water and pull it out, see what kind of hole you leave.” Well, when Kate pulls her fist out of the bucket, maybe there won’t be a hole, but the water is going to be a little bit colder.  And we’re going to miss you.  So, thanks very much.  Appreciate you, Kate.
 
That’s it for me today, guys.  Thanks.
 
MODERATOR:  On that note, we’re all crying. 
 
But if you — we weren’t able to get to your question, feel free to reach out and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.  Thanks, everyone.
 
11:10 A.M. EDT

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