FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 19, 2024
SATURDAY, JULY 20 AND SUNDAY, JULY 21, 2024
Saturday, July 20
At 11:45 AM ET, the Vice President will depart Washington, DC en route to Buzzards Bay, MA. This departure from Joint Base Andrews will be pooled press.
At 12:55 PM ET, the Vice President will arrive in Buzzards Bay, MA. This arrival at Cape Cod Coast Guard Air Station will be pooled press and open to pre-credentialed media.
At 3:20 PM ET, the Vice President will deliver remarks at a political event. These remarks in Provincetown, MA will be open to an editorial pool.
At 5:25 PM ET, the Vice President will depart Buzzards Bay, MA en route to Washington, DC. This departure from Cape Cod Coast Guard Air Station will be pooled press.
At 6:45 PM ET, the Vice President will arrive in Washington, DC. This arrival at Joint Base Andrews will be pooled press.
Sunday, July 21
The Vice President will be in Washington, DC and has no public events scheduled.
July 19, 2024
Westover High School
Fayetteville, North Carolina
2:12 P.M. EDT
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Can we hear it for Kelly?
Good afternoon, North Carolina. Oh, it's good to be back. It's good to be back. And I want to thank Kelly for your work and for your family and all that you have given to our country in service.
And it is so good to be back with so many incredible leaders -- -- including my dear friend, Roy Cooper. You know, Roy and I served together when I was attorney general of California and he was attorney general of North Carolina. I've known him for almost two decades. And he is an extraordinary leader.
And I want to also thank the extraordinary leaders who are service members and their families who are here with us this afternoon. Thank you all.
You know, one of my greatest honors as vice president is to meet with our service members around the world. I have met with our service members from NATO's eastern flank to the Korean DMZ, and from Arizona to Florida. And I will tell you what everybody here knows: All our service members possess an extraordinary skill, discipline, dedication, and love of country. And I know their families serve with equal dedication, and I thank you also.
And I say everywhere I go around the world: We are so proud that the United States military is the greatest fighting force the world has ever seen.
Which is why President Biden and I are proud to have passed the PACT Act -- -- the largest expansion of health care and benefits for veterans and military families and survivors -- the largest benefit in decades. So, thank you, again, everyone here and, in particular, our military members and your families for the service and the dedication that you have shown.
So, today, we are 110 days out from the election. And while many of us have been involved with these elections for every four years, practically, nearly every time we will say, "This is the one." Well, this here is the one -- the most existential, consequential, and important election of our lifetime. And there is so much at stake.
Last night was the latest example. So, some of you may have heard Donald Trump's running mate deliver remarks at the Republican National Convention.
AUDIENCE: Booo --
THE VICE PRESIDENT: He talked about his life story about growing up in southwest Ohio, and it was compelling. It's a compelling story. And it was not the full story.
Frankly, what is very telling is what he did not talk about on that stage. He did not talk about Project 2025 --
AUDIENCE: No.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: -- their 900-page blueprint for a second Trump term. He did not talk about it because their plans are extreme and they are divisive.
In recent days, they've been trying to portray themselves as the party of unity. But here's the thing -- here's the thing. If you claim to stand for unity, you need to do more than just use the word. You cannot claim you stand for unity if you are pushing an agenda that deprives whole groups of Americans of basic freedoms, opportunity, and dignity.
You cannot claim you stand for unity if you are intent on taking reproductive freedoms from the people of America and the women of America -- -- trying to ban abortion nationwide, as they do, and restrict access to IVF and contraception, as their plan calls for.
You cannot claim to be for unity if you try to overturn a free and fair election -- -- and threaten -- and threaten to terminate the United States Constitution.
And you cannot claim to be for unity when your entire economic agenda is designed to prioritize billionaires and big corporations over the middle class.
We're too busy watching what you're doing to hear what you're saying.
And let us unpack that last point about the economy. This race can be boiled down to a single question: Who fights for you? Now we know whose side our president, Joe Biden, is on.
He grew up in a middle-class family in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and he has never forgotten where he came from. With -- and I have been a firsthand witness. With every decision he makes in the Oval Office, he thinks about how it will impact working Americans. He understands. He understands everyday struggles because he has actually lived them.
So, friends, I say the contrast between Joe Biden and Donald Trump is like night and day. But with the selection of his running mate this week, Donald Trump is also trying to distract people. He wants to direct attention away from his record and his Project 2025 plan to suggest that he and his running mate are going to prioritize the middle class. But we are not buying it. We are not falling for the okeydoke.
As many of you know, I am a former prosecutor. So, I say let's look at the facts, shall we?
So, Donald Trump tries to claim he brought back American manufacturing. The fact is, under Donald Trump, America lost tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs, and more than 1,000 factories closed under his watch. The facts.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden and I have created nearly 800,000 new manufacturing jobs -- -- so much so, it's been described as a "manufacturing boom."
Last night, we heard claims that Donald Trump is for fighting for our seniors. Well, how the heck can you claim you fight for seniors when you intend to cut Social Security and Medicare -- -- which we all know is a lifeline for so many of our seniors?
Let me be very clear: President Joe Biden and I will always protect Social Security and we will always protect Medicare -- -- all while we continue to fight to lower the cost of s- -- prescription drugs for our seniors. It is President Biden and I that took on Big Pharma and finally capped the cost of insulin for our seniors at $35 a month.
Who here has a family member with diabetes to know what that means? Right.
But Donald Trump and his running mate intend to get rid of our $35 cap on insulin. They will side with Big Pharma and let them make prescription drugs more expensive.
Not only that, on the issue of health care, they intend to get rid of the Affordable Care Act.
AUDIENCE: Booo --
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Donald Trump and his allies tried more than 60 times to end the Affordable Care Act -- 60 times -- to give insurance companies back the power to deny people with preexisting conditions. You all remember what that was like?
AUDIENCE: Yeah!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Children with asthma, women who had survived breast cancer, grandparents with diabetes.
President Biden and I, on the other hand, have made the Affordable Care Act more strong -- -- because, you see, we believe health care should be a right and not just a privilege of those who can afford it.
Pull up the split screen. Whereas the last administration gave tax cuts to billionaires --
AUDIENCE: Booo --
THE VICE PRESIDENT: -- we gave tax cuts to families through the Child Tax Credit, which cut child poverty in America by half.
And please do note: Their Project 2025 agenda would even end Head Start --
AUDIENCE: Booo --
THE VICE PRESIDENT: -- to take away preschool from hundreds of thousands of our children.
On the issue of the cost of living, Donald Trump says he will implement a 10 percent tariff on all imported goods. Well, understand: Independent economists agree his tariffs would increase the cost of everyday expenses for families -- the cost of gas, groceries, and clothing.
We, on the other hand, have taken on Big Pharma, the big banks, and big corporations to bring down costs.
It is we who have canceled debt, including student loan debt. In fact -- . Testify if you have received it. Indeed.
In fact, so far, we have forgiven student loan debt for nearly 5 million Americans -- -- and twice as much for our public servants, including our teachers, our nurses, and our firefighters.
AUDIENCE MEMBER:
THE VICE PRESIDENT: You're welcome.
We are also fighting to lower energy costs. We made historic investments in clean energy. Today, America has record energy production and we are energy independent. But Trump wants to roll back our progress.
Check this out: In fundraisers with Big Oil lobbyists, he wanted to trade clean energy investments that we made for you for a $1 billion campaign contribution he could get for himself.
AUDIENCE: Booo --
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Understand motivation.
So, North Carolina, I think it is clear: If Donald Tremp -- Donald Trump were to win in November, he will continue to sell out working families, he will continue to attack reproductive freedom, and he will continue to undermine our democracy.
Ultimately, in this election, we each face a question. And this herein lies our power. The question we face is: What kind of country do we want to live in?
Do we want to live in a country of freedom --
AUDIENCE: Yes!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: -- compassion --
AUDIENCE: Yes!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: -- and rule of law?
AUDIENCE: Yes!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Or a country of chaos --
AUDIENCE: No!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: -- fear --
AUDIENCE: No!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: -- and hate?
AUDIENCE: No!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: We each have the power to answer this question.
So, today, then, I ask, North Carolina: Are you ready to make your voices heard?
Do we believe in freedom?
AUDIENCE: Yes!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Do we believe in opportunity?
AUDIENCE: Yes!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: DO we believe in the promise of America?
AUDIENCE: Yes!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: And are we ready to fight for it?
AUDIENCE: Yes!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: And when we fight --
AUDIENCE: We win!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: -- we win.
God bless you. And God bless the United States of America.
God bless you.
END 2:27 P.M. EDT
A Proclamation on Captive Nations Week, 2024
A Proclamation on Captive Nations Week, 2024
During Captive Nations Week, we remember all those around the world living under oppression and fighting for their liberty. They remind us that freedom is never free and that even the most brutal regime cannot erase the human yearning for dignity and self-determination.
As we marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day this year, we were reminded of the dark forces that the United States and its allies fought against in World War II, like aggression, greed, and the desire to dominate and change borders by force. Still today, the struggle between dictatorship and freedom continues. We see it in various places around the world, where rulers govern with contempt for basic human rights, the rule of law, and democratic governance. In countries like Belarus, Cuba, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Iran, Nicaragua, the People's Republic of China, Syria, Russia, Venezuela, and more, millions live without basic freedoms.
In Europe, we see another stark example. Russia is waging an illegal, unjustifiable, and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine. For 2 years, the Ukrainian people have fought with extraordinary courage and bravery. The United States is standing with them, alongside a coalition of more than 50 countries, and we will not walk away or bow down. The autocrats of the world are watching closely to see what happens in Ukraine and if we will let this illegal aggression go unchecked. We cannot let that happen. That is why I signed a national security package into law that provided $61 billion to the people of Ukraine to meet their urgent security and defense needs, ensuring they have the support they need to defend their country.
At the same time, we support the equal and inalienable rights of all people everywhere. That is why my Administration has been working with the Congress to provide up to $11.8 billion through the end of Fiscal Year 2025 to strengthen democracies across the globe. This year, at the Third Summit for Democracy, the United States and countries around the world came together to strengthen democratic resilience, respect for human rights, and good governance globally. But there is still so much we must do. We must continue working to ensure that women and girls enjoy equal rights and equal participation. We must ensure that Indigenous groups; racial, ethnic, and religious minorities; and people with disabilities do not have their potential stifled by systemic discrimination. We must remember wrongfully detained Americans around the world. And we must ensure that LGBTQI+ people are not targeted with violence because of who they are. When human rights are not upheld, the effects are felt everywhere. They are essential to the advancement of human progress that brings us together.
The challenges of our time remind us that we must continue to secure our freedom and democracy here at home. I signed an Executive Order to promote access to voter registration and election information so every American has an opportunity to exercise their right to vote. And I signed the Electoral Count Reform Act to ensure that our elections answer to the will of the people. I continue to call on the Congress to pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would further protect the sacred right to vote.
As Americans, we represent something special to the world. We are the only Nation on Earth founded on the idea that all men and women are created equal. Both at home and abroad, our actions every day will ensure that our democracy endures, the soul of our Nation endures, and the free world remains free. This week, we recommit to ensuring that democracy is preserved, is defended, and prevails.
The Congress, by joint resolution approved July 17, 1959 [73 Stat. 212], has authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation designating the third week of July of each year as "Captive Nations Week."
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim July 21 through July 27, 2024, as Captive Nations Week. I call upon all Americans to reaffirm our commitment to championing those around the world who are working, often at great personal risk, to secure liberty and justice for all.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this nineteenth day of July, 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.
A Proclamation on Made in America Week, 2024
A Proclamation on Made in America Week, 2024
Across the Nation, American workers are writing the greatest comeback story in our country's history. After a once-in-a-century pandemic, they are bringing new jobs, businesses, and hope to their communities. This week, we celebrate the American workers, unions, companies, and innovators who are the backbone of America's economy, who make "Made in America" not just a slogan but a reality, and who are leading our Nation's transformation to win the global economic competition of the 21st century.
For decades, manufacturing products here at home created good-paying jobs across the country and forged a clear path to the middle class. But over the years, trickle-down economics reversed that progress. American manufacturers shut down their factories. American jobs were exported overseas. And American communities were hollowed out. People and families throughout the United States were robbed of not just their jobs but their dignity, hope, and pride.
My Administration was determined to turn things around by investing in America and Americans once again — building an economy from the middle out and bottom up, not the top down. The results are clear: Since I came into office, the economy has created over 15 million jobs — including nearly 800,000 manufacturing jobs. The unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in half a century. And manufacturing is roaring back with new factories being built all across the country — in big cities and rural communities. So far, companies have invested more than $700 billion in American manufacturing.
On my watch, Federal projects are being made with American products and are being built by American workers. I signed the "Invent It Here, Make It Here" Executive Order, which directs Federal agencies to prioritize domestic manufacturing when it comes to research, development, innovation, and bringing inventions to market. We are also using the immense purchasing power of the Federal Government — the largest buyer of consumer goods in the world — to bring manufacturing back home. My Administration has implemented the most robust change to the Buy American Act in almost 70 years by raising the domestic content threshold for Federal procurement from 55 percent to 65 percent in 2024 — and we are set to raise the bar even higher to 75 percent in 2029.
Additionally, thanks to our Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, 60,000 new infrastructure projects have been announced across the country, rebuilding our roads, bridges, airports, ports, rail networks, water systems, and more. We are investing $90 billion to provide affordable, reliable, high-speed internet to everyone in the United States, which is driving manufacturing jobs in industries like fiber optic cable manufacturing. My CHIPS and Science Act is investing in more research and development for manufacturing than ever before, attracting $348 billion in private sector investments to build new semiconductor factories. This manufacturing boom is creating hundreds of thousands of jobs — many of which pay over $100,000 and do not require a college degree.
At the same time, our Inflation Reduction Act is ensuring that the clean energy future is built here in America. Our investments have spurred the private sector to build and create new jobs here at home. To date, the private sector has announced investments in 126 new and expanded solar manufacturing plants; more than 30 wind manufacturing facilities; more than 150 new or expanded sites for electric vehicle assembly, component manufacturing, and charger manufacturing; and more than 250 new or expanded facilities in the battery manufacturing and critical mineral supply chain. These investments are supporting historic growth in clean energy deployment and adoption and creating good-paying jobs across the country. Altogether, since taking office, companies have committed more than $400 billion in private-sector investment in manufacturing and deployment of clean energy, electric vehicles, and batteries.
For the first time in a long time, American workers are putting shovels in the ground and leading our Nation's greatest economic comeback. Thousands of cities and towns across the country are proving that we can get big things done when we work together. This Made in America Week, let us celebrate America's incredible workers who are restoring American pride. Let us honor the proud legacy and promising future of American products. And let us recommit to nurturing the spirit of innovation that will continue to drive American prosperity for generations to come.
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 July 21 through July 27, 2024, as Made in America Week. I call upon all Americans to observe this week by celebrating Made in America and supporting American workers and domestic businesses that are the backbone of building a future here in America.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this nineteenth day of July, 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.
July 19, 2024
Collective bargaining works. I congratulate the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, their 25,000 members, and American Airlines for reaching a tentative agreement. And I thank Acting Secretary Su, Secretary Buttigieg, and other members of my Administration for their efforts to help both sides secure this agreement, which averts a strike that would have been devastating for the industry and consumers. This is the culmination of over 5 years of negotiations and proves once again that collective bargaining benefits workers, companies, and our economy. As the most pro-union and pro-worker president in American history, I'm proud of the record wages and record contracts secured by workers during my Administration. When unions are strong, our nation is strong.
Statement from President Joe Biden on Agreement Between the Association of Professional Flight Attendants and American Airlines
Statement from President Joe Biden on Agreement Between the Association of Professional Flight Attendants and American Airlines
Readout of White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention Convening of State Offices of Gun Violence Prevention
Readout of White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention Convening of State Offices of Gun Violence Prevention
On July 17, the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention convened over 30 state government officials from 16 states, including leaders from 12 state Offices of Gun Violence Prevention [OVPs]. The convening brought together key violence prevention leaders to
These conversations build on the Biden-Harris Administration's long record of empowering state government leaders, who know their communities, to intervene against and prevent gun violence. In attendance were representatives from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin.
Representatives from the United States Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention presented on the resources and programs their agencies offer to support the work of gun violence prevention. The convening also amplified the variety of federal resources available to support community violence intervention efforts and strategies, including through President's Biden's Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the most significant legislation to prevent gun violence in nearly 30 years.
The President continues to use every tool at his disposal to keep Americans safe from violent crime, including the public health crisis of gun violence. State OVPs, a solution recommended in White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention's Safer States Agenda, are a critical piece of a comprehensive effort to keep communities safe.
July 19, 2024
To view the letter from the Physician to the President, visit: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Letter7.19.24.pdf
Letter from Dr. Kevin O'Connor
Letter from Dr. Kevin O’Connor
FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Releases New Strategy to Tackle Plastic Pollution, Takes Action to Reduce Single-Use Plastics in Federal Operations
FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Releases New Strategy to Tackle Plastic Pollution, Takes Action to Reduce Single-Use Plastics in Federal Operations
Communities across the United States and around the world are facing a plastic pollution crisis. Plastic production and waste have doubled over the past two decades, littering our ocean, poisoning the air of communities near production facilities, and threatening public health. The Biden-Harris Administration recognizes that pollution can occur at every stage of the plastic lifecycle, disproportionately impacting communities with environmental justice concerns, contributing to loss of biodiversity, and exacerbating the impacts of climate change.
President Biden is committed to taking ambitious actions throughout the lifecycle of plastic to end plastic pollution and is working with the global community to do the same. Today the Biden-Harris Administration is releasing the first comprehensive, government-wide strategy to target plastic pollution at production, processing, use, and disposal. Mobilizing Federal Action on Plastic Pollution: Progress, Principles, and Priorities outlines existing and new federal actions to reduce the impact of plastic pollution throughout the plastic lifecycle and calls for sustained and coordinated work with state, local, Tribal, and Territorial governments, local communities, the private sector, and other stakeholders to address the scale and breadth of the plastic pollution challenge.
Additionally, the Biden-Harris Administration is announcing a new goal to phase out federal procurement of single-use plastics from food service operations, events, and packaging by 2027, and from all federal operations by 2035. This commitment builds on President Biden's Executive Order on Catalyzing Clean Energy Industries and Jobs through Federal Sustainability and the President's Federal Sustainability Plan, which directs the federal government to achieve net-zero procurement by 2050, including by phasing out procurement of single-use plastic products. Meeting the new goal by selecting reusable, compostable, and highly recyclable products in lieu of single-use plastics in food service will further agencies' obligations under the Executive Order.
Today's actions further leverage the purchasing power of the federal government to reduce emissions, protect public health, and spur markets for new sustainable products. They also enhance domestic initiatives that reinforce United States leadership in ongoing international efforts to develop a strong agreement to tackle the plastic pollution crisis across the globe.
Mobilizing Federal Action on Plastic Pollution: Progress, Principles, and Priorities
In Mobilizing Federal Action on Plastic Pollution: Progress, Principles, and Priorities, the federal government is — for the first time — formally acknowledging the severity of the plastic pollution crisis and the scale of the response that will be required to effectively confront it. Developed by the Biden-Harris Administration's Interagency Policy Committee on Plastic Pollution and a Circular Economy, the report outlines key principles for reducing plastic pollution, focus areas of federal agencies, and opportunities for further action:
Assessing and Reducing Pollution from Plastic Production: Over 90% of plastic is derived from fossil fuels.Under President Biden's leadership, federal agencies are taking steps to reduce pollution from the extraction of fossil fuels and production of plastic. This includes chemicals of concern and a range of hazardous air pollutants and volatile organic compounds, some of which are known carcinogens. Pairing these measures with improved data collection is necessary to understand the full extent of the environmental and human health risks of plastic production. This work aligns with EPA's ongoing efforts towards meeting the goals of the Biden Cancer Moonshot.
Innovating Materials and Product Design: Agencies are advancing work to explore alternative materials and processing methods.Innovation in materials and services can help ensure that products are compatible with waste management systems and have minimal impacts on human health and the environment. Actions include participating in the development of standards to promote recyclability and reuse, innovation in materials management, and additional research and development of materials that will create a more circular economy.
Decreasing Plastic Waste Generation: A key step to decreasing the quantity of plastic waste generated is limiting the initial use of materials that are unnecessary, difficult to manage, or likely to end up as pollution in the environment. Federal agencies are leading by example to reduce single-use plastic within their own operations by targeting specific items or pollution pathways, such as introducing more environmentally friendly systems like water refill stations as a substitute for single-use plastic bottles.
Improving Environmentally Sound Waste Management: President Biden's Investing in America agenda is helping improve environmentally sound waste management, particularly in communities that are already overburdened by pollution. To ensure plastic waste is properly handled, additional actions are needed to improve environmentally-sound and worker-safe waste management practices and the associated infrastructure needs. These include efforts to optimize the collection of plastic, enhance plastic recycling, and other measures to prevent plastic waste from entering the environment.
Informing and Conducting Capture and Removal of Plastic Pollution: Several federal agencies are leading efforts to clean up existing plastic pollution and prevent additional plastic pollution from entering the environment, including the ocean.Additional action is needed to improve the capture of plastic, both before it enters the waste management system, and to address and prevent its escape during the waste management process.
Biden-Harris Administration Leadership to Tackle Plastic Pollution
Today's announcements showcase efforts underway across the Biden-Harris Administration to address plastic pollution across its lifecycle. Examples of agency leadership include:
Addressing Pollution from Chemical Manufacturing for Plastic Production and Advancing Environmental Justice: Under President Biden's leadership, the Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] is providing critical health protections to hundreds of thousands of people living near facilities that produce chemicals used in the manufacture of plastics and other products, including finalizing rules to reduce emissions of toxic air pollutants and harmful pollution that contributes to smog, expanding the Toxics Release Inventory Program to improve the public's understanding of releases associated with plastics production, and starting the process of prioritizing five chemicals used in plastic production, including vinyl chloride, for risk evaluations under the Toxic Substances Control Act [TSCA]. EPA is also currently evaluating several flame retardants and phthalate chemicals used in plastics under TSCA.
Reducing Single-Use Plastic on Public Lands and in Department of the Interior Facilities: Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland issued Secretary's Order 3407 to reduce the procurement, sale, and distribution of single-use plastic products and packaging Department-wide, with a goal of phasing out single-use plastic products on Interior Department-managed lands by 2032. To support this effort, the Department is working to provide additional water bottle filling stations on public lands, working with concessionaires to reduce the sale of single-use plastics on Department-managed lands, and cleaning up plastic marine debris.
Investing in Infrastructure to Improve Reuse, Recycling and Composting: EPA is investing $275 million in Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling grants as part of President Biden's Investing in America agenda. EPA made 140 grant selections for projects ranging from recycling, composting, and reuse infrastructure improvements to technical support for local waste management staff. This grant program marks the first time that funding of this scale has been available specifically for the purpose of improving solid waste infrastructure.
Cleaning Up Existing Plastic Pollution in the Environment: Under President Biden, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA] provided nearly $70 million in federal funding for transformational, multi-year projects removing large marine debris and using proven interception technologies to capture marine debris throughout the coastal United States, Great Lakes, territories, and Freely Associated States. NOAA also announced $27 million for its first 29 Sea Grant projects that support the creation of coalitions and innovative research that will address the prevention and removal of marine debris over time.
July 19, 2024
Communities across the United States and around the world are facing a plastic pollution crisis. Plastic production and waste have doubled over the past two decades, littering our ocean, poisoning the air of communities near production facilities, and threatening public health. The Biden-Harris Administration recognizes that pollution can occur at every stage of the plastic lifecycle, disproportionately impacting communities with environmental justice concerns, contributing to loss of biodiversity, and exacerbating the impacts of climate change.
President Biden is committed to taking ambitious actions throughout the lifecycle of plastic to end plastic pollution and is working with the global community to do the same. Today the Biden-Harris Administration is releasing the first comprehensive, government-wide strategy to target plastic pollution at production, processing, use, and disposal. Mobilizing Federal Action on Plastic Pollution: Progress, Principles, and Priorities outlines existing and new federal actions to reduce the impact of plastic pollution throughout the plastic lifecycle and calls for sustained and coordinated work with state, local, Tribal, and Territorial governments, local communities, the private sector, and other stakeholders to address the scale and breadth of the plastic pollution challenge.
Additionally, the Biden-Harris Administration is announcing a new goal to phase out federal procurement of single-use plastics from food service operations, events, and packaging by 2027, and from all federal operations by 2035. This commitment builds on President Biden's Executive Order on Catalyzing Clean Energy Industries and Jobs through Federal Sustainability and the President's Federal Sustainability Plan , which directs the federal government to achieve net-zero procurement by 2050, including by phasing out procurement of single-use plastic products. Meeting the new goal by selecting reusable, compostable, and highly recyclable products in lieu of single-use plastics in food service will further agencies' obligations under the Executive Order.
Today's actions further leverage the purchasing power of the federal government to reduce emissions, protect public health, and spur markets for new sustainable products. They also enhance domestic initiatives that reinforce United States leadership in ongoing international efforts to develop a strong agreement to tackle the plastic pollution crisis across the globe.
Mobilizing Federal Action on Plastic Pollution: Progress, Principles, and Priorities
In Mobilizing Federal Action on Plastic Pollution: Progress, Principles, and Priorities, the federal government is -- for the first time -- formally acknowledging the severity of the plastic pollution crisis and the scale of the response that will be required to effectively confront it. Developed by the Biden-Harris Administration's Interagency Policy Committee on Plastic Pollution and a Circular Economy, the report outlines key principles for reducing plastic pollution, focus areas of federal agencies, and opportunities for further action:
Assessing and Reducing Pollution from Plastic Production: Over 90% of plastic is derived from fossil fuels. Under President Biden's leadership, federal agencies are taking steps to reduce pollution from the extraction of fossil fuels and production of plastic. This includes chemicals of concern and a range of hazardous air pollutants and volatile organic compounds, some of which are known carcinogens. Pairing these measures with improved data collection is necessary to understand the full extent of the environmental and human health risks of plastic production. This work aligns with EPA's ongoing efforts towards meeting the goals of the Biden Cancer Moonshot.
Innovating Materials and Product Design: Agencies are advancing work to explore alternative materials and processing methods. Innovation in materials and services can help ensure that products are compatible with waste management systems and have minimal impacts on human health and the environment. Actions include participating in the development of standards to promote recyclability and reuse, innovation in materials management, and additional research and development of materials that will create a more circular economy.
Decreasing Plastic Waste Generation: A key step to decreasing the quantity of plastic waste generated is limiting the initial use of materials that are unnecessary, difficult to manage, or likely to end up as pollution in the environment. Federal agencies are leading by example to reduce single-use plastic within their own operations by targeting specific items or pollution pathways, such as introducing more environmentally friendly systems like water refill stations as a substitute for single-use plastic bottles.
Improving Environmentally Sound Waste Management: President Biden's Investing in America agenda is helping improve environmentally sound waste management, particularly in communities that are already overburdened by pollution. To ensure plastic waste is properly handled, additional actions are needed to improve environmentally-sound and worker-safe waste management practices and the associated infrastructure needs. These include efforts to optimize the collection of plastic, enhance plastic recycling, and other measures to prevent plastic waste from entering the environment.
Informing and Conducting Capture and Removal of Plastic Pollution: Several federal agencies are leading efforts to clean up existing plastic pollution and prevent additional plastic pollution from entering the environment, including the ocean. Additional action is needed to improve the capture of plastic, both before it enters the waste management system, and to address and prevent its escape during the waste management process.
Biden-Harris Administration Leadership to Tackle Plastic Pollution
Today's announcements showcase efforts underway across the Biden-Harris Administration to address plastic pollution across its lifecycle. Examples of agency leadership include:
Addressing Pollution from Chemical Manufacturing for Plastic Production and Advancing Environmental Justice: Under President Biden's leadership, the Environmental Protection Agency is providing critical health protections to hundreds of thousands of people living near facilities that produce chemicals used in the manufacture of plastics and other products, including finalizing rules to reduce emissions of toxic air pollutants and harmful pollution that contributes to smog, expanding the Toxics Release Inventory Program to improve the public's understanding of releases associated with plastics production, and starting the process of prioritizing five chemicals used in plastic production,
including vinyl chloride, for risk evaluations under the Toxic Substances Control Act . EPA is also currently evaluating several flame retardants and phthalate chemicals used in plastics under TSCA.
Reducing Single-Use Plastic on Public Lands and in Department of the Interior Facilities: Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland issued Secretary's Order 3407 to reduce the procurement, sale, and distribution of single-use plastic products and packaging Department-wide, with a goal of phasing out single-use plastic products on Interior Department-managed lands by 2032. To support this effort, the Department is working to provide additional water bottle filling stations on public lands, working with concessionaires to reduce the sale of single-use plastics on Department-managed lands, and cleaning up plastic marine debris.
Investing in Infrastructure to Improve Reuse, Recycling and Composting: EPA is investing $275 million in Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling grants as part of President Biden's Investing in America agenda. EPA made 140 grant selections for projects ranging from recycling, composting, and reuse infrastructure improvements to technical support for local waste management staff. This grant program marks the first time that funding of this scale has been available specifically for the purpose of improving solid waste infrastructure.
Cleaning Up Existing Plastic Pollution in the Environment: Under President Biden, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration provided nearly $70 million in federal funding for transformational, multi-year projects removing large marine debris and using proven interception technologies to capture marine debris throughout the coastal United States, Great Lakes, territories, and Freely Associated States. NOAA also announced $27 million for its first 29 Sea Grant projects that support the creation of coalitions and innovative research that will address the prevention and removal of marine debris over time.
July 19, 2024
On Tuesday, July 23, Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Milwaukee, WI for a campaign event. It will be her fifth visit to Wisconsin this year.
July 19, 2024
My condolences to Madam Ngô Thị Mận and the people of Vietnam on the loss of Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng, leader of Vietnam for the last 13 years.
General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng was a champion of the deep ties between the American and Vietnamese people whose leadership helped nurture the friendship and partnership our countries enjoy today. His 2015 historic visit to the White House was a milestone in our bilateral relationship. Thanks to his vision, during my 2023 state visit to Hanoi, Vietnam and the United States became "comprehensive strategic partners," the highest level of partnership in the Vietnamese system. The people of Vietnam and the United States – and people across the Indo-Pacific region – enjoy greater security and opportunity today because of the friendship between our two countries. That is thanks to him.
The United States – and I personally – will remember and appreciate his commitment to reconciliation and to building a future oriented toward peace, stability, and prosperity in the region and around the world. We honor his legacy and mourn his passing alongside the people of Vietnam.
Statement from President Joe Biden on the Passing of General Secretary Nguy?n Phú Tr?ng of Vietnam
Statement from President Joe Biden on the Passing of General Secretary Nguy?n Phú Tr?ng of Vietnam
My condolences to Madam Ngô Th? M?n and the people of Vietnam on the loss of Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary Nguy?n Phú Tr?ng, leader of Vietnam for the last 13 years.
General Secretary Nguy?n Phú Tr?ng was a champion of the deep ties between the American and Vietnamese people whose leadership helped nurture the friendship and partnership our countries enjoy today. His 2015 historic visit to the White House was a milestone in our bilateral relationship. Thanks to his vision, during my 2023 state visit to Hanoi, Vietnam and the United States became "comprehensive strategic partners," the highest level of partnership in the Vietnamese system. The people of Vietnam and the United States – and people across the Indo-Pacific region – enjoy greater security and opportunity today because of the friendship between our two countries. That is thanks to him.
The United States – and I personally – will remember and appreciate his commitment to reconciliation and to building a future oriented toward peace, stability, and prosperity in the region and around the world. We honor his legacy and mourn his passing alongside the people of Vietnam.
July 19, 2024
Today, Evan Gershkovich received a sentence of 16 years in a Russian prison, despite having committed no crime. Rather, he was targeted by the Russian government because he is a journalist and an American. We are pushing hard for Evan's release and will continue to do so.
As I have long said and as the UN also concluded, there is no question that Russia is wrongfully detaining Evan. Journalism is not a crime. We will continue to stand strong for press freedom in Russia and worldwide, and stand against all those who seek to attack the press or target journalists. Additionally, since the very first day of my Administration, I have had no higher priority than seeking the release and safe return of Evan, Paul Whelan and all Americans wrongfully detained and held hostage abroad. Evan has endured his ordeal with remarkable strength. We will not cease in our efforts to bring him home. And Jill and I are holding Evan and his family in our prayers.
Statement by President Joe Biden on the Sentencing of Wrongfully Detained American Evan Gershkovich
Statement by President Joe Biden on the Sentencing of Wrongfully Detained American Evan Gershkovich
Today, Evan Gershkovich received a sentence of 16 years in a Russian prison, despite having committed no crime. Rather, he was targeted by the Russian government because he is a journalist and an American. We are pushing hard for Evan's release and will continue to do so.
As I have long said and as the UN also concluded, there is no question that Russia is wrongfully detaining Evan. Journalism is not a crime. We will continue to stand strong for press freedom in Russia and worldwide, and stand against all those who seek to attack the press or target journalists. Additionally, since the very first day of my Administration, I have had no higher priority than seeking the release and safe return of Evan, Paul Whelan and all Americans wrongfully detained and held hostage abroad. Evan has endured his ordeal with remarkable strength. We will not cease in our efforts to bring him home. And Jill and I are holding Evan and his family in our prayers.
- - - - - - -
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 18, 2024
(202) 401-1576 or press@ed.gov
Statement from U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona on the 8 th Circuit Court of Appeals' Ruling on Biden-Harris Administration's Saving a Valuable Education Plan
U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona today released the following statement about the 8 th Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling on the Biden-Harris Administration's Saving on a Valuable Education Plan:
"Today's ruling from the 8 th Circuit blocking President Biden's SAVE plan could have devastating consequences for millions of student loan borrowers crushed by unaffordable monthly payments if it remains in effect. It's shameful that politically motivated lawsuits waged by Republican elected officials are once again standing in the way of lower payments for millions of borrowers.
"Borrowers enrolled in the SAVE Plan will be placed in an interest-free forbearance while our Administration continues to vigorously defend the SAVE Plan in court. The Department will be providing regular updates to borrowers affected by these rulings in the coming days.
"It wasn't so long ago that a million borrowers defaulted on their student loans every single year, mainly because they couldn't afford the payments. The SAVE plan is a bold and urgently needed effort to fix what's broken in our student loan system and make financing a higher education more affordable in this country. The Biden-Harris Administration remains committed to delivering as much relief as possible for as many borrowers as possible. Already, we've approved an unprecedented $169 billion in relief for nearly 4.8 million Americans, including teachers, veterans, and other public servants, students who were cheated by their colleges, borrowers with disabilities, and more. And from larger Pell Grants to free community college, President Biden, Vice President Harris, and I continue to believe that college affordability is a cause worth fighting for – and we're not giving up."
July 18, 2024
At 10:10 AM MST, the Second Gentleman will deliver remarks at a campaign event. This event in Scottsdale, AZ will be open to pre-credentialed media.
At 11:30 AM MST, the Second Gentleman will deliver remarks as part of the Investing in America tour. In his remarks, the Second Gentleman will highlight Biden-Harris Administration funding to improve public transportation. This event in Tempe, AZ will be open to pre-credentialed media.
At 12:00 PM MST, the Second Gentleman will tour the Valley Metro Streetcar Line. This event in Tempe, AZ will be open to pre-credentialed media.
At 2:45 PM MST, the Second Gentleman will deliver remarks at a campaign event. This event in Phoenix, AZ will be open to pre-credentialed media.
At 6:00 PM MST, the Second Gentleman will attend the WNBA All-Star Weekend Skills Challenge and 3-Point Contest. This event in Phoenix, AZ will be livestreamed and open to pre-credentialed media.
July 18, 2024
FOR FRIDAY, JULY 19, 2024
The Vice President will receive briefings and conduct internal meetings with staff. These meetings will be closed press.
July 18, 2024
BY WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY
COMMUNICATIONS ADVISOR JOHN KIRBY
Via Teleconference
10:34 A.M. EDT
MODERATOR: Hey. Good morning, everyone. Thanks so much for joining today's News of the Day Gaggle with White House National Security Comms Advisor John Kirby. I'll turn it over to him for a topper, and then we'll take some of your questions.
MR. KIRBY: Good morning, everybody. So, just right off the top, since I know many of you are closely tracking the events out of Nairobi, we hope you can understand that this is an evolving situation and we're working to obtain and to help you get as much information as quickly as possible.
We've all seen the reporting, and I just want to stress again that the United States is deeply concerned about and we condemn the reported violence in all its forms. We offer our deepest condolences, of course, to the families who have been impacted by this violence. And we continue to urge restraint so that no further Kenyans are put in harm's way while exercising their right to peaceful public assembly. That right is protected by the Kenyan constitution, and we believe it must be respected.
The United States has been in touch with the Kenyan government to urge appropriate use of force by the police, to respect human rights, and quite frankly, to respect due process for those that have been detained. And we will continue to push for calm to prevail.
And now, yesterday -- switching to Haiti -- the Multinational Security Support Mission, that will grow eventually to 2,500 multinational personnel, arrived in Haiti. As you know, this effort is being led by Kenya and with strong support from the United States. The mission includes personnel, financial support from over a dozen countries that will support the Haitian National Police as they increase their anti-gang operations, build their capacity to maintain public safety, and to ensure that humanitarian assistance reaches everybody in need.
The United States is this particular mission's largest financial contributor and the largest donor to Haiti in general, providing more than $300 million and up to $60 million in equipment. And we're going to continue our diplomatic outreach to encourage others to join that effort as well.
We've also worked with Kenya and other partners to integrate critically important accountability and oversight measures into the mission.
Now, I want to be clear right at the top here: This mission is not going to solve all of Haiti's problems, but it is a good, positive first step and to provide the best chance for Haiti to get on a path toward democratic governance and rule of law. It is about making the Haitian National Police better -- better resourced, better led, better trained, better capable. That's what this is about, and we're going into it with that in mind.
Shifting topics, if I could: Today, we also welcomed the announcement that Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte will serve as the next Secretary General of NATO. President Biden and Prime Minister Rutte have worked very closely together over the past decade when Joe Biden was Vice President and, of course, now that he's Commander-in-Chief. And they work together on a variety of issues, including our shared strong support for Ukraine, on safeguarding advanced technologies, and strengthening the transatlantic alliance. President Biden strongly believes that Mark Rutte will make an excellent Secretary General. And he's grateful for his willingness to serve in that capacity.
We'd also like to thank, of course, Jens Stoltenberg for a decade of service to the Alliance during the most consequential period of European security since World War Two. Under his leadership, the NATO Alliance has become larger and stronger, and Allied unity is at an all-time high, which has been an important priority for President Biden.
And that takes us right -- I mean, his leadership has really guided us right toward next month's 75 th anniversary summit for NATO, here in Washington, D.C., which will be followed by the leadership transition, of course, in the fall when President -- I'm sorry, when Secretary General Stoltenberg steps down and the new Secretary General, Mark Rutte, steps into the job.
Finally, as you all know, Evan Gershkovich appeared in court today for the start of what we view as nothing more than a sham trial. I'll state it again: Evan has never been employed by the United States government. Evan is not a spy. Journalism is not a crime. And Evan should never have been detained in the first place.
Russia has failed to justify Evan's continued detention. He, like fellow American Paul Whelan, is simply being used as a bargaining chip. Embassy Moscow was granted brief access to the courtroom before the proceedings began today. They were not permitted to speak with Evan. So, obviously, we're going to follow this closely. And of course, our embassy in Moscow will continue to seek to attend any and all future hearings.
Now, look, I think this goes without saying too, but all of us -- all of us admire Evan's resilience. I've seen a reporting that his friends say he continues to be in good spirits, which is just incredible given what he's going through. While he shouldn't be going through these proceedings at all, it's always reassuring to see his smile and to hear reports of his morale.
We want both Evan and Paul to know that we all care deeply about their wellbeing and that this administration will continue to do everything it can to bring them home, and that includes, right now, the effort to try to find a way to get these guys released back to their families, where they belong, is ongoing. It's alive, and we're keeping at it.
And with that, I can start taking some questions.
MODERATOR: Thanks. First up, we'll go to Aamer Madhani.
Q Hey there, John. Is Israel's launch -- is an Israeli launch, cross-border offensive, Lebanon Hezbollah -- if that were to happen, will the U.S. back Israel militarily?
And then secondly, on the Assange case, was the White House involved in helping forge the agreement that led to Assange's release? And has the President discussed the matter with the prime minister or any other Australian government officials ahead of the announcement? Thank you.
MR. KIRBY: Yeah, the White House was not involved in any way whatsoever in Julian Assange's case, and the decisions pursuant to that, to his sentencing and his repatriation back to Israel. That was a DOJ matter, and they're the only ones that can speak to it.
I don't have any conversations to read out to you from the President with respect to this. The White House was not involved in any way.
On your first question -- look, first and foremost, we don't want to see a second front opened up, period. And that's why we've been working so hard on diplomacy and trying to find a way diplomatically to prevent that from happening. We don't believe that it's going to be in anybody's interest, quite frankly, least of all the Israeli people. So we're working diplomatically to prevent that outcome from happening. That's where our focus is on.
But as we have said repeatedly, and as we will continue to say: We stand with Israel. We're going to continue to make sure Israel has what it needs to defend itself. And as the President has proven in the past, if there's a way we can prevent further attacks on Israel, we'll do that. And certainly, we're going to continue to help Israel defend itself; that's not going to change.
But as for a hypothetical, specifically with respect to the northern border line, the Blue Line there with Lebanon, again, we want to see no second front opened, and we want to see if we can't resolve the tensions out there through diplomatic processes.
MODERATOR: Next up, we'll go to Jeff Mason.
Q Thank you very much. John, Jake Sullivan has a meeting today with Mr. Gallant of Israel. Could you give us a sense of what you expect the two of them to discuss and also what time that is and whether or not we should expect a readout?
MR. KIRBY: Hey, Jeff. You broke up a little bit, but I think I got the gist of the question. This was about Jake's meeting with Defense Minister Gallant.
Q Yes.
MR. KIRBY: He's meeting with him as we speak, Jeff. That meeting started a little bit after nine o'clock. And as far as I know, sitting here, it's still ongoing. And we absolutely will have a readout of it.
Broadly speaking, I don't think you should expect any major surprises coming out of this discussion. I mean, Jake is looking forward to sitting down with Defense Minister Gallant to talk about what's going on in Gaza; to talk about -- to get a sense of Israeli operations, not only what they look like now, but what they're going to look like in the future; to talk about how we're going to continue to defend Israel and make sure that they have what they need.
And obviously, they will talk about the -- what Aamer just asked me about -- the tensions up near Lebanon and that border, and what the path forward could look like for a diplomatic solution to this, to prevent a second front from opening up.
I have every expectation that they will talk about the broader concerns of Iran in the region and their destabilizing behavior and the manner in which they, Iran, continue to resource, to fund, to support, to train groups that are now attacking Israel but also are supporting such attacks.
So I think the full range of topics will be discussed. I think, also, I would have every expectation that the humanitarian situation will be front and center for Jake, for sure. He'll want to talk to the Israelis about what more we can do to get more trucks in and not only get them in, but get them to the people that most need that aid and assistance.
As you know, though Kerem Shalom is open and trucks are queued up outside, not a lot of them are getting in, and it's not because of the Israelis; it's largely because just criminal gangs now are looting these trucks. And the World Food Program and the U.N. drivers are obviously concerned about getting attacked. And so, we're going have to continue to work with the Israelis to try to address that problem as well.
So, again, I think a broad, big agenda, lots to talk about, but we'll have a readout when it's over.
MODERATOR: Next up, we'll go to Kellie Meyer. You should be able to unmute yourself.
Q Hi, John. Thanks for doing this. A couple quick questions just on the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs warning of a threat to U.S. troops in the region -- as we've been discussing, the tensions between Hezbollah and Israel. Any more precautions that are being taken that you can speak to right now?
MR. KIRBY: One of the things I'm very careful to do is not talk about the specifics on force protection and what we do to ensure force protection. I would refer you to the Chairman to speak to that more. I don't know how much more he'd get into that.
We're certainly mindful of the risk to our troops and our facilities throughout the region. And that risk has certainly not mitigated in recent months, obviously, with what's going on. So it's something we're watching very closely. We continue to monitor it. We also modify force protection procedures and protocols as the threat changes, and it does change. But I think I need to leave it there.
MODERATOR: Next up, we'll go to Aurelia.
Q Hi. Thanks so much for taking my question. A follow-up on Kenya. Not that long ago, President Ruto was at the White House, and President Biden said Kenya and the United States share democratic values. Would you say that this is maybe -- this is still the case after the response to the protests? And more generally, does the administration condemn the use of force against the protesters? Otherwise, how would you qualify what Kenyan police did in Nairobi?
MR. KIRBY: I'll tell you, you know, as a democracy, the Kenyan constitution does allow for the use of defense forces to augment police, particularly like in protecting critical infrastructure. At the same time, that same constitution includes freedom of assembly and the right to protest peacefully, and calls for the government of Kenya to respect the rights of all its citizens.
So, again, we remain deeply concerned about the violence that we've seen, and we absolutely condemn the violence. We don't want to see anybody hurt. And that includes violence that's perpetrated on innocent, peaceful protesters.
So we're going to be in touch. We have been in touch. We're going to stay in touch with our Kenyan colleagues as appropriate.
MODERATOR: Next up, we'll go to Alex Ward.
Q John, I know -- thanks for doing this. I know, you know, the administration has responded a thousand times to the stuff about, you know, the weapons delays or -- reported weapons delays, et cetera. But there's been reporting today that, basically, it seems like there's been a -- because the U.S. has sent so many weapons ahead of time, there's just been sort of a lower amount headed now, and wondering if you think that might be the issue.
And then, sort of number two here, relatedly is: Is Netanyahu someone the administration really feels they can work with now? Obviously, he is the prime minister, and he is -- but he is the interlocutor, but is he someone you guys feel you can have good-faith conversations with about this conflict now? Thanks.
MR. KIRBY: Alex, on your first question, I just want to make a couple of points, because I'm not going to -- I can't speak to the State Department process here. They run this process by which foreign military sales and provisions of weapons and assistance, you know, get to Israel. So I'll let them speak to sequencing and timing. You know, we don't have perfect visibility on that here to speak to that reporting and that process.
I would just tell you, number one: Aid and assistance, military assistance, continues to flow to Israel; that we are in constant touch with our Israeli counterparts about what they need and doing everything we can to get them what they need. I mean, my goodness, you have the defense minister here today. Actually, you know, this week he's been here having meetings; met with Blinken, met with Austin, and now he's meeting with Jake today. I mean, nobody can say that we're not attune to and staying in touch with the Israelis about what they need.
Number two, as you and I speak here, Alex, there remains only one shipment of high-density, low-precision munitions that has been paused. Everything else continues to flow. Again, on the timeline, you know, I'd have to -- and the sequencing -- I'd have to refer you to State. But Israel continues to get arms and ammunition. It continues to flow. We want to make sure that they have what they need. And that will -- that commitment will not waver.
On your second question, at the risk of sounding repetitive, I would just tell you that these are two leaders who have known each other a long, long time -- decades. And they come from different political traditions. They have differing views on a number of issues that are germane not only to the region, but certainly specific to Israel. And they are absolutely competent and capable of being honest with one another. He is the elected prime minister of the State of Israel, and he, therefore, is the leader that we will work with and we have worked with him.
I'm not saying that it's all been smooth in every single instance, including in recent days, but we are not going to get into -- we're not going to respond to every one of the Prime Minister's political statements and his public pronouncements. What we're focused on is making sure, again, that they have what they need. And we believe we're fully capable of doing that with Prime Minister Netanyahu and with this government.
And that's what we're focused on. It's head down -- it's making sure that Israel can defend itself, but just as critically, as I said earlier, that we continue to get humanitarian assistance in to the people who are in need and that we get this ceasefire deal in place.
It's one of the things that -- we haven't talked about it this morning, but we're still working with the Prime Minister and his team to try to get the ceasefire deal in place so that we can potentially end this conflict. And that's what we're focused on. And that means we're going to stay focused on that effort with the Prime Minister and his team because he's the government in place.
MODERATOR: Next up, we'll go to Brad Dress.
Q Yeah, thank you. Just one question. So, despite U.S. efforts, the Houthis are continuing to attack merchant ships. And now they appear to be getting more successful. Why are efforts not working? And do you think the U.S. needs a new strategy to deter that? Thank you.
MR. KIRBY: I think a couple of things are germane here. There's a religious fervor that the Houthi leadership have instilled into this effort. As I went to the podium a while ago -- a week or so ago -- and laid out for everybody, this isn't about standing up for the people of Gaza. It's not about -- it's not some popular movement to assist people in the region, because the ships that they're hitting, sometimes, in one case in particular, was meant to go to a Yemeni port to bring in grain to hungry people in Yemen. They have instilled this sort of religious fervor to this and made it some sort of cause célèbre here. And when you do that, it becomes even more difficult to, as you put it, deter and dissuade. We're mindful of that.
So what we're focused on is taking away their capability to conduct the attacks. And that is why we continue to hit targets inside Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen where we think an attack is imminent and about to occur. We're going to continue to do that. That's why we still have a coalition of 20-some-odd nations operating in the Red Sea and beyond to try to defend against these attacks.
And while, yes, they have had a couple of successful strikes in most recent days -- and I know one vessel in particular sank as a result of the attack -- by and large, most of their attacks are not successful. You don't see press releases about it; you don't necessarily see video of it. But they miss a whole hell of a lot more than they hit, and that's because we're out there working hard to make sure that that's the outcome, at the same time making sure that we're doing everything we can to try to degrade their capabilities.
But they're still getting supplied; they're still getting resourced by Iran. And as I said earlier, I have no doubt that that will be a topic of discussion when Jake and Defense Minister Gallant speak today, about what we can do together to try to take away some of those capabilities. And that's what we're focused on.
MODERATOR: Next up, we'll go to Nadia Charters.
Q Thank you, Eduardo. Hi, John. A couple of questions. Canada has called its citizens to leave Lebanon. What is the U.S. assessment regarding a similar call? I know you have not done something similar to that. Do you believe that the situation is safe for U.S. citizens to stay in Lebanon?
And second, any update -- I know you mentioned the negotiation with Hamas. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Hamas is insisting that they will accept the deal if phase three clearly calls for the end of the war. And this is the sticking point with the Israelis. Israelis said we're happy to go along, but phase three does not mean end of the war. Can you just give us your perspective on that? Thank you.
MR. KIRBY: On your first question, I'm going to refer you to the State Department. Obviously, we want all Americans in Lebanon who are still there, either on business or other travel, to be as careful as possible to make sure that they have registered with the State Department system so that the State Department can stay in regular touch with them and that they do everything they can to be -- to watch out for their own safety.
But as for any announcements or pronouncements, that's really a State Department call, and I'd have to refer you to them.
Clearly, nothing is more important to President Biden than the safety and security of Americans wherever they are. And that includes overseas, and that certainly includes a place like Lebanon.
What we're trying to do is prevent a second front from opening up. We're trying to prevent an escalation of this conflict that certainly would put the people of Israel and of Lebanon at greater physical risk than the risk that is already being incurred by them, particularly those that live near the Blue Line. We want to prevent that outcome, which is why we have been working so hard diplomatically and intensely, thus so, to prevent a second front from opening up and an expansion of this conflict.
But we will, as appropriate, of course, stay in touch with all Americans in Lebanon. Those that sign up to be informed, we'll make sure that they have the latest and greatest information.
But as for any particular pronouncements, that would be a State Department call.
On your second question, the President laid this out really, really well at the end of May. He laid out the entire, sort of, phasing of this process. And it is advancing that phasing and that process that we're focused on, where you want to get to phase one. Phase one gives you six weeks of a ceasefire; it gives you more humanitarian assistance, up to 600 trucks a day; and obviously, critically, it gets a first rendering of hostages -- women, children, the elderly, sick -- out quickly, back to their families.
And then as the President laid out, Nadia, while phase one is ongoing, the two sides then begin to negotiate phase two. So, I understand. I've seen public pronouncements and comments of people, you know, on either side, where they want to sort of leapfrog over the process. But the process as we've laid out, the process that Israel itself proposed and has endorsed calls for phase two negotiations to begin when phase one is agreed to and underway, that's the process that we still believe is the right one and the appropriate one. And that's the one that we're going to continue to talk to both sides about.
And we still believe that discussions about it are valuable and warranted. And we're going to do everything we can to see if we can't get phase one implemented and started so that the rest of the process can take place.
Then last thing I'll say is, as the President said in his speech on the 31 st of May, that you get to phase two -- if you can get phase two negotiated and complete, well, that potentially -- you know, that gives you a potential cessation to the hostilities itself.
MODERATOR: Next up, we'll go to Marek.
Q Thank you, Eduardo. Hi, John. One question. According to Reuters, two close advisors to Donald Trump have presented him with a plan to end Russia's war in Ukraine, in essence by forcing Ukraine to the negotiating table and the ceasefire based on so-called prevailing battle lines. From what we know about the plan right now, which side would this plan benefit if it's implemented? And does it make sense, this framework? Does it make sense to you?
MR. KIRBY: Look, I think you all know -- I think I missed the beginning of your question. But is this a proposal put forth by folks on the Trump team? Is that what you were saying?
Q Yes. General Kellogg and -- they say that they have positive feedback from former president.
MR. KIRBY: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay. I thought that's what you said.
Look, I would just -- I would just say a couple of things here. First of all, in our view, I'm not going to comment about the 2024 election. I'm not going to get, you know, into a public debate here with respect to what former President Trump's advisors may or may not be talking to him about it.
So, with that as a caveat, the President's commitment to supporting Ukraine has been manifestly steady and strident and consistent. We built a global coalition now -- more than 50 countries that are supporting Ukraine as they defend themselves. He just signed at the G7 in Italy, a week or so ago, a historic bilateral security agreement with Ukraine. And he understands -- he understands that the stronger Ukraine's position is on the battlefield, the stronger they will be at the negotiating table when that time comes, Marek. And you know who gets to decide when that time comes? President Zelenskyy. And nobody else.
And what we've said is: Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine. And we're standing strong to make sure that President Zelenskyy has everything he needs so that if and when he's ready to go to the table, he can do it from a position of strength and that he knows he's got our backing and the backing of those some 50-some-odd countries.
Unlike some folks, President Biden believes that any decisions about negotiations, quite frankly, have got to be up to President Zelenskyy and Ukraine. We're not going to force Ukraine to surrender any of its territory, because we understand that if Putin is allowed to conquer Ukraine and subjugate its people, any of its people, the consequences would be severe. He and dictators all around the world would just be emboldened, and we think the world would be a much more dangerous place.
I think that pretty much sums up our views.
MODERATOR: Next up, we'll go to Laura Kelly.
Q Hi. Thank you for taking my question. Just going back to the distribution of aid in Gaza, what is the White House position on where responsibility for distribution rests? There's this blame game going on between Israel and the international aid organizations with security inside Gaza for distribution being seen -- I think is one of the major impediments. So who's responsible for security at this point? What does the White House want to see happen?
MR. KIRBY: We want to see the ceasefire deal in place. We want to get that ceasefire deal in place --
Q But, like, while you're working on the ceasefire deal.
MR. KIRBY: No, but -- let me finish.
We want to see the ceasefire deal in place. Because if you get that ceasefire deal in place, you get six weeks of calm; you get six weeks of calm, you can maybe get up to several hundred trucks a day. And the goal of phase one is 600 trucks a day. So you ask me what we want to see. We want to see this deal put in place, which is why we --
Q So the challenge of getting -- the challenge of not distributing humanitarian aid is pressure on Hamas to go to the ceasefire deal?
MR. KIRBY: No. Look, there's a lot of reasons why aid and assistance is being held up. One of the principal reasons right now is criminal gangs that are operating particularly at Kerem Shalom. That's not the Israelis' fault. And as far as we know, these gangs have no connection to Hamas specifically.
So we're going to continue to work with the U.N. We've been talking to the U.N. about seeing if we can't help get them personal protective gear and equipment, communications, radio communication, so that their truck drivers can feel a little bit more safe, which you can't very well blame these guys for being a little bit nervous about driving a truck into Gaza when their convoys and their trucks could be attacked by these criminal gangs and thugs. And we -- so we're going to obviously work with them and the IDF to see what can be done about that.
But, yes, look, security of these convoys is a live issue. And I'm not trying to pull -- take Hamas off the hook here, because Hamas has, in fact, allowed some of this activity to go on and don't have the best interests of the people of Gaza forefront in their minds. In fact, we've all seen Sinwar's comments about how civilian casualties and civilian suffering actually works -- he believes works to his advantage. So, Hamas is absolutely partly responsible here for this as well.
But there's -- you know, it's a combat zone. And combat operations and combat areas certainly make the delivery of humanitarian assistance a lot more challenging. So we're going to continue to talk to the U.N., we're going to talk to the IDF about what we can do to make it safer and to make it more palatable for these drivers to take this aid in. But the way to get to that, the real answer to this is to get to phase one of this ceasefire deal. You get hostages home to their families. You get six weeks of a sustainable calm that will allow the comfort level for aid organizations to increase to a degree where they can move freely about Gaza. If you have a six-week ceasefire in place, then nobody is shooting at anybody, and it should be a lot easier to move humanitarian assistance.
MODERATOR: Thanks. Next up, we'll go to Paris Wong.
Q Hello. Thank you, John. I'm going to focus to Indo-Pacific region. So, in an interview on Tuesday, Philippines ambassador to the U.S. said if there's a conflict between Taiwan and China that would affect the Philippines, that it would most likely agree to the U.S. using its military bases in the defense of Taiwan. So does the Biden administration welcome Philippines' willingness to work with the U.S. on Taiwan safety? And also, does this mean the United States has successfully mobilized from North Asia to Southeast Asia, from Japan to Philippines, to form a security network in the Indo-Pacific? Thank you.
MR. KIRBY: I think you know I'm not going to get into hypotheticals or speculate about the conflict across the Taiwan Strait. Nothing has changed about our One China policy. We don't want to see the status quo changed or altered unilaterally. We certainly don't want to see it changed or altered by force.
And everything the President has been doing -- in our conversations with the PRC, in our work with allies like South Korea, Japan, and the Philippines -- has been designed to prevent that outcome from happening. And that's what we're focused on.
The Philippines is a treaty ally. We take our alliance commitments seriously with the Philippines, as we have demonstrated certainly in recent weeks and months. And it was terrific to have President Marcos here to participate in the first-ever trilat between the United States, Japan, and the Philippines when we were hosting Prime Minister Kishida for the state visit as well.
So, an awful lot of work has been done by President Biden and this team in terms of shoring up our alliances and partnerships in the Indo-Pacific. And the reason you do that is to make it clear that we don't want to see a conflict, that we do have the capabilities in place to defend ourselves and defend our allies, and that there should be no reason for any of these tensions to erupt into conflict whatsoever.
MODERATOR: Thanks, everyone. That's all the time we have for today. If you have any follow-up questions, feel free to reach out to our team. Thanks again.
11:09 A.M. EDT
On-the-Record Press Gaggle by White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby
On-the-Record Press Gaggle by White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby
Via Teleconference
10:34 A.M. EDT
MODERATOR: Hey. Good morning, everyone. Thanks so much for joining today's News of the Day Gaggle with White House National Security Comms Advisor John Kirby. I'll turn it over to him for a topper, and then we'll take some of your questions.
MR. KIRBY: Good morning, everybody. So, just right off the top, since I know many of you are closely tracking the events out of Nairobi, we hope you can understand that this is an evolving situation and we're working to obtain and to help you get as much information as quickly as possible.
We've all seen the reporting, and I just want to stress again that the United States is deeply concerned about and we condemn the reported violence in all its forms. We offer our deepest condolences, of course, to the families who have been impacted by this violence. And we continue to urge restraint so that no further Kenyans are put in harm's way while exercising their right to peaceful public assembly. That right is protected by the Kenyan constitution, and we believe it must be respected.
The United States has been in touch with the Kenyan government to urge appropriate use of force by the police, to respect human rights, and quite frankly, to respect due process for those that have been detained. And we will continue to push for calm to prevail.
And now, yesterday — switching to Haiti — the Multinational Security Support Mission, that will grow eventually to 2,500 multinational personnel, arrived in Haiti. As you know, this effort is being led by Kenya and with strong support from the United States. The mission includes personnel, financial support from over a dozen countries that will support the Haitian National Police as they increase their anti-gang operations, build their capacity to maintain public safety, and to ensure that humanitarian assistance reaches everybody in need.
The United States is this particular mission's largest financial contributor and the largest donor to Haiti in general, providing more than $300 million and up to $60 million in equipment. And we're going to continue our diplomatic outreach to encourage others to join that effort as well.
We've also worked with Kenya and other partners to integrate critically important accountability and oversight measures into the mission.
Now, I want to be clear right at the top here: This mission is not going to solve all of Haiti's problems, but it is a good, positive first step and to provide the best chance for Haiti to get on a path toward democratic governance and rule of law. It is about making the Haitian National Police better — better resourced, better led, better trained, better capable. That's what this is about, and we're going into it with that in mind.
Shifting topics, if I could: Today, we also welcomed the announcement that Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte will serve as the next Secretary General of NATO. President Biden and Prime Minister Rutte have worked very closely together over the past decade when Joe Biden was Vice President and, of course, now that he's Commander-in-Chief. And they work together on a variety of issues, including our shared strong support for Ukraine, on safeguarding advanced technologies, and strengthening the transatlantic alliance. President Biden strongly believes that Mark Rutte will make an excellent Secretary General. And he's grateful for his willingness to serve in that capacity.
We'd also like to thank, of course, Jens Stoltenberg for a decade of service to the Alliance during the most consequential period of European security since World War Two. Under his leadership, the NATO Alliance has become larger and stronger, and Allied unity is at an all-time high, which has been an important priority for President Biden.
And that takes us right — I mean, his leadership has really guided us right toward next month's 75th anniversary summit for NATO, here in Washington, D.C., which will be followed by the leadership transition, of course, in the fall when President — I'm sorry, when Secretary General Stoltenberg steps down and the new Secretary General, Mark Rutte, steps into the job.
Finally, as you all know, Evan Gershkovich appeared in court today for the start of what we view as nothing more than a sham trial. I'll state it again: Evan has never been employed by the United States government. Evan is not a spy. Journalism is not a crime. And Evan should never have been detained in the first place.
Russia has failed to justify Evan's continued detention. He, like fellow American Paul Whelan, is simply being used as a bargaining chip. Embassy Moscow was granted brief access to the courtroom before the proceedings began today. They were not permitted to speak with Evan. So, obviously, we're going to follow this closely. And of course, our embassy in Moscow will continue to seek to attend any and all future hearings.
Now, look, I think this goes without saying too, but all of us — all of us admire Evan's resilience. I've seen a reporting that his friends say he continues to be in good spirits, which is just incredible given what he's going through. While he shouldn't be going through these proceedings at all, it's always reassuring to see his smile and to hear reports of his morale.
We want both Evan and Paul to know that we all care deeply about their wellbeing and that this administration will continue to do everything it can to bring them home, and that includes, right now, the effort to try to find a way to get these guys released back to their families, where they belong, is ongoing. It's alive, and we're keeping at it.
And with that, I can start taking some questions.
MODERATOR: Thanks. First up, we'll go to Aamer Madhani.
Q Hey there, John. Is Israel's launch — is an Israeli launch, cross-border offensive, Lebanon [inaudible] Hezbollah — if that were to happen, will the U.S. back Israel militarily?
And then secondly, on the Assange case, was the White House involved in helping forge the agreement that led to Assange's release? And has the President discussed the matter with the prime minister or any other Australian government officials ahead of the announcement? Thank you.
MR. KIRBY: Yeah, the White House was not involved in any way whatsoever in Julian Assange's case, and the decisions pursuant to that, to his sentencing and his repatriation back to Israel. That was a DOJ matter, and they're the only ones that can speak to it.
I don't have any conversations to read out to you from the President with respect to this. The White House was not involved in any way.
On your first question — look, first and foremost, we don't want to see a second front opened up, period. And that's why we've been working so hard on diplomacy and trying to find a way diplomatically to prevent that from happening. We don't believe that it's going to be in anybody's interest, quite frankly, least of all the Israeli people. So we're working diplomatically to prevent that outcome from happening. That's where our focus is on.
But as we have said repeatedly, and as we will continue to say: We stand with Israel. We're going to continue to make sure Israel has what it needs to defend itself. And as the President has proven in the past, if there's a way we can prevent further attacks on Israel, we'll do that. And certainly, we're going to continue to help Israel defend itself; that's not going to change.
But as for a hypothetical, specifically with respect to the northern border line, the Blue Line there with Lebanon, again, we want to see no second front opened, and we want to see if we can't resolve the tensions out there through diplomatic processes.
MODERATOR: Next up, we'll go to Jeff Mason.
Q Thank you very much. John, Jake Sullivan has a meeting today with Mr. Gallant of Israel. Could you give us a sense of what you expect the two of them to discuss and also what time that is and whether or not we should expect a readout?
MR. KIRBY: Hey, Jeff. You broke up a little bit, but I think I got the gist of the question. This was about Jake's meeting with Defense Minister Gallant.
Q Yes.
MR. KIRBY: He's meeting with him as we speak, Jeff. That meeting started a little bit after nine o'clock. And as far as I know, sitting here, it's still ongoing. And we absolutely will have a readout of it.
Broadly speaking, I don't think you should expect any major surprises coming out of this discussion. I mean, Jake is looking forward to sitting down with Defense Minister Gallant to talk about what's going on in Gaza; to talk about — to get a sense of Israeli operations, not only what they look like now, but what they're going to look like in the future; to talk about how we're going to continue to defend Israel and make sure that they have what they need.
And obviously, they will talk about the — what Aamer just asked me about — the tensions up near Lebanon and that border, and what the path forward could look like for a diplomatic solution to this, to prevent a second front from opening up.
I have every expectation that they will talk about the broader concerns of Iran in the region and their destabilizing behavior and the manner in which they, Iran, continue to resource, to fund, to support, to train groups that are now attacking Israel but also are supporting such attacks.
So I think the full range of topics will be discussed. I think, also, I would have every expectation that the humanitarian situation will be front and center for Jake, for sure. He'll want to talk to the Israelis about what more we can do to get more trucks in and not only get them in, but get them to the people that most need that aid and assistance.
As you know, though Kerem Shalom is open and trucks are queued up outside, not a lot of them are getting in, and it's not because of the Israelis; it's largely because just criminal gangs now are looting these trucks. And the World Food Program and the U.N. drivers are obviously concerned about getting attacked. And so, we're going have to continue to work with the Israelis to try to address that problem as well.
So, again, I think a broad, big agenda, lots to talk about, but we'll have a readout when it's over.
MODERATOR: Next up, we'll go to Kellie Meyer. You should be able to unmute yourself.
Q Hi, John. Thanks for doing this. A couple quick questions just on the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs warning of a threat to U.S. troops in the region — as we've been discussing, the tensions between Hezbollah and Israel. Any more precautions that are being taken that you can speak to right now?
MR. KIRBY: One of the things I'm very careful to do is not talk about the specifics on force protection and what we do to ensure force protection. I would refer you to the Chairman to speak to that more. I don't know how much more he'd get into that.
We're certainly mindful of the risk to our troops and our facilities throughout the region. And that risk has certainly not mitigated in recent months, obviously, with what's going on. So it's something we're watching very closely. We continue to monitor it. We also modify force protection procedures and protocols as the threat changes, and it does change. But I think I need to leave it there.
MODERATOR: Next up, we'll go to Aurelia.
Q Hi. Thanks so much for taking my question. A follow-up on Kenya. Not that long ago, President Ruto was at the White House, and President Biden said Kenya and the United States share democratic values. Would you say that this is maybe — this is still the case after the response to the protests? And more generally, does the administration condemn the use of force against the protesters? Otherwise, how would you qualify what Kenyan police did in Nairobi?
MR. KIRBY: I'll tell you, you know, as a democracy, the Kenyan constitution does allow for the use of defense forces to augment police, particularly like in protecting critical infrastructure. At the same time, that same constitution includes freedom of assembly and the right to protest peacefully, and calls for the government of Kenya to respect the rights of all its citizens.
So, again, we remain deeply concerned about the violence that we've seen, and we absolutely condemn the violence. We don't want to see anybody hurt. And that includes violence that's perpetrated on innocent, peaceful protesters.
So we're going to be in touch. We have been in touch. We're going to stay in touch with our Kenyan colleagues as appropriate.
MODERATOR: Next up, we'll go to Alex Ward.
Q John, I know — thanks for doing this. I know, you know, the administration has responded a thousand times to the stuff about, you know, the weapons delays or — reported weapons delays, et cetera. But there's been reporting today that, basically, it seems like there's been a — because the U.S. has sent so many weapons ahead of time, there's just been sort of a lower amount headed now, and wondering if you think that might be the issue.
And then, sort of number two here, relatedly is: Is Netanyahu someone the administration really feels they can work with now? Obviously, he is the prime minister, and he is — but he is the interlocutor, but is he someone you guys feel you can have good-faith conversations with about this conflict now? Thanks.
MR. KIRBY: Alex, on your first question, I just want to make a couple of points, because I'm not going to — I can't speak to the State Department process here. They run this process by which foreign military sales and provisions of weapons and assistance, you know, get to Israel. So I'll let them speak to sequencing and timing. You know, we don't have perfect visibility on that here to speak to that reporting and that process.
I would just tell you, number one: Aid and assistance, military assistance, continues to flow to Israel; that we are in constant touch with our Israeli counterparts about what they need and doing everything we can to get them what they need. I mean, my goodness, you have the defense minister here today. Actually, you know, this week he's been here having meetings; met with Blinken, met with Austin, and now he's meeting with Jake today. I mean, nobody can say that we're not attune to and staying in touch with the Israelis about what they need.
Number two, as you and I speak here, Alex, there remains only one shipment of high-density, low-precision munitions that has been paused. Everything else continues to flow. Again, on the timeline, you know, I'd have to — and the sequencing — I'd have to refer you to State. But Israel continues to get arms and ammunition. It continues to flow. We want to make sure that they have what they need. And that will — that commitment will not waver.
On your second question, at the risk of sounding repetitive, I would just tell you that these are two leaders who have known each other a long, long time — decades. And they come from different political traditions. They have differing views on a number of issues that are germane not only to the region, but certainly specific to Israel. And they are absolutely competent and capable of being honest with one another. He is the elected prime minister of the State of Israel, and he, therefore, is the leader that we will work with and we have worked with him.
I'm not saying that it's all been smooth in every single instance, including in recent days, but we are not going to get into — we're not going to respond to every one of the Prime Minister's political statements and his public pronouncements. What we're focused on is making sure, again, that they have what they need. And we believe we're fully capable of doing that with Prime Minister Netanyahu and with this government.
And that's what we're focused on. It's head down — it's making sure that Israel can defend itself, but just as critically, as I said earlier, that we continue to get humanitarian assistance in to the people who are in need and that we get this ceasefire deal in place.
It's one of the things that — we haven't talked about it this morning, but we're still working with the Prime Minister and his team to try to get the ceasefire deal in place so that we can potentially end this conflict. And that's what we're focused on. And that means we're going to stay focused on that effort with the Prime Minister and his team because he's the government in place.
MODERATOR: Next up, we'll go to Brad Dress.
Q Yeah, thank you. Just one question. So, despite U.S. efforts, the Houthis are continuing to attack merchant ships. And now they appear to be getting more successful. Why are efforts not working? And do you think the U.S. needs a new strategy to deter that? Thank you.
MR. KIRBY: I think a couple of things are germane here. There's a religious fervor that the Houthi leadership have instilled into this effort. As I went to the podium a while ago — a week or so ago — and laid out for everybody, this isn't about standing up for the people of Gaza. It's not about — it's not some popular movement to assist people in the region, because the ships that they're hitting, sometimes, in one case in particular, was meant to go to a Yemeni port to bring in grain to hungry people in Yemen. They have instilled this sort of religious fervor to this and made it some sort of cause célèbre here. And when you do that, it becomes even more difficult to, as you put it, deter and dissuade. We're mindful of that.
So what we're focused on is taking away their capability to conduct the attacks. And that is why we continue to hit targets inside Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen where we think an attack is imminent and about to occur. We're going to continue to do that. That's why we still have a coalition of 20-some-odd nations operating in the Red Sea and beyond to try to defend against these attacks.
And while, yes, they have had a couple of successful strikes in most recent days — and I know one vessel in particular sank as a result of the attack — by and large, most of their attacks are not successful. You don't see press releases about it; you don't necessarily see video of it. But they miss a whole hell of a lot more than they hit, and that's because we're out there working hard to make sure that that's the outcome, at the same time making sure that we're doing everything we can to try to degrade their capabilities.
But they're still getting supplied; they're still getting resourced by Iran. And as I said earlier, I have no doubt that that will be a topic of discussion when Jake and Defense Minister Gallant speak today, about what we can do together to try to take away some of those capabilities. And that's what we're focused on.
MODERATOR: Next up, we'll go to Nadia Charters.
Q Thank you, Eduardo. Hi, John. A couple of questions. Canada has called its citizens to leave Lebanon. What is the U.S. assessment regarding a similar call? I know you have not done something similar to that. Do you believe that the situation is safe for U.S. citizens to stay in Lebanon?
And second, any update — I know you mentioned the negotiation with Hamas. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Hamas is insisting that they will accept the deal if phase three clearly calls for the end of the war. And this is the sticking point with the Israelis. Israelis said we're happy to go along, but phase three does not mean end of the war. Can you just give us your perspective on that? Thank you.
MR. KIRBY: On your first question, I'm going to refer you to the State Department. Obviously, we want all Americans in Lebanon who are still there, either on business or other travel, to be as careful as possible to make sure that they have registered with the State Department system so that the State Department can stay in regular touch with them and that they do everything they can to be — to watch out for their own safety.
But as for any announcements or pronouncements, that's really a State Department call, and I'd have to refer you to them.
Clearly, nothing is more important to President Biden than the safety and security of Americans wherever they are. And that includes overseas, and that certainly includes a place like Lebanon.
What we're trying to do is prevent a second front from opening up. We're trying to prevent an escalation of this conflict that certainly would put the people of Israel and of Lebanon at greater physical risk than the risk that is already being incurred by them, particularly those that live near the Blue Line. We want to prevent that outcome, which is why we have been working so hard diplomatically and intensely, thus so, to prevent a second front from opening up and an expansion of this conflict.
But we will, as appropriate, of course, stay in touch with all Americans in Lebanon. Those that sign up to be informed, we'll make sure that they have the latest and greatest information.
But as for any particular pronouncements, that would be a State Department call.
On your second question, the President laid this out really, really well at the end of May. He laid out the entire, sort of, phasing of this process. And it is advancing that phasing and that process that we're focused on, where you want to get to phase one. Phase one gives you six weeks of a ceasefire; it gives you more humanitarian assistance, up to 600 trucks a day; and obviously, critically, it gets a first rendering of hostages — women, children, the elderly, sick — out quickly, back to their families.
And then as the President laid out, Nadia, while phase one is ongoing, the two sides then begin to negotiate phase two. So, I understand. I've seen public pronouncements and comments of people, you know, on either side, where they want to sort of leapfrog over the process. But the process as we've laid out, the process that Israel itself proposed and has endorsed calls for phase two negotiations to begin when phase one is agreed to and underway, that's the process that we still believe is the right one and the appropriate one. And that's the one that we're going to continue to talk to both sides about.
And we still believe that discussions about it are valuable and warranted. And we're going to do everything we can to see if we can't get phase one implemented and started so that the rest of the process can take place.
Then last thing I'll say is, as the President said in his speech on the 31st of May, that you get to phase two — if you can get phase two negotiated and complete, well, that potentially — you know, that gives you a potential cessation to the hostilities itself.
MODERATOR: Next up, we'll go to Marek.
Q Thank you, Eduardo. Hi, John. One question. According to Reuters, two close advisors to Donald Trump have presented him with a plan to end Russia's war in Ukraine, in essence by forcing Ukraine to the negotiating table and the ceasefire based on so-called prevailing battle lines. From what we know about the plan right now, which side would this plan benefit if it's implemented? And does it make sense, this framework? Does it make sense to you?
MR. KIRBY: Look, I think you all know — I think I missed the beginning of your question. But is this a proposal put forth by folks on the Trump team? Is that what you were saying?
Q Yes. General Kellogg and — they say that they have positive feedback from former president.
MR. KIRBY: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay. I thought that's what you said.
Look, I would just — I would just say a couple of things here. First of all, in our view, I'm not going to comment about the 2024 election. I'm not going to get, you know, into a public debate here with respect to what former President Trump's advisors may or may not be talking to him about it.
So, with that as a caveat, the President's commitment to supporting Ukraine has been manifestly steady and strident and consistent. We built a global coalition now — more than 50 countries that are supporting Ukraine as they defend themselves. He just signed at the G7 in Italy, a week or so ago, a historic bilateral security agreement with Ukraine. And he understands — he understands that the stronger Ukraine's position is on the battlefield, the stronger they will be at the negotiating table when that time comes, Marek. And you know who gets to decide when that time comes? President Zelenskyy. And nobody else.
And what we've said is: Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine. And we're standing strong to make sure that President Zelenskyy has everything he needs so that if and when he's ready to go to the table, he can do it from a position of strength and that he knows he's got our backing and the backing of those some 50-some-odd countries.
Unlike some folks, President Biden believes that any decisions about negotiations, quite frankly, have got to be up to President Zelenskyy and Ukraine. We're not going to force Ukraine to surrender any of its territory, because we understand that if Putin is allowed to conquer Ukraine and subjugate its people, any of its people, the consequences would be severe. He and dictators all around the world would just be emboldened, and we think the world would be a much more dangerous place.
I think that pretty much sums up our views.
MODERATOR: Next up, we'll go to Laura Kelly.
Q Hi. Thank you for taking my question. Just going back to the distribution of aid in Gaza, what is the White House position on where responsibility for distribution rests? There's this blame game going on between Israel and the international aid organizations with security inside Gaza for distribution being seen — I think is one of the major impediments. So who's responsible for security at this point? What does the White House want to see happen?
MR. KIRBY: We want to see the ceasefire deal in place. We want to get that ceasefire deal in place —
Q But, like, while you're working on the ceasefire deal.
MR. KIRBY: No, but — let me finish.
We want to see the ceasefire deal in place. Because if you get that ceasefire deal in place, you get six weeks of calm; you get six weeks of calm, you can maybe get up to several hundred trucks a day. And the goal of phase one is 600 trucks a day. So you ask me what we want to see. We want to see this deal put in place, which is why we —
Q So the challenge of getting — the challenge of not distributing humanitarian aid is pressure on Hamas to go to the ceasefire deal?
MR. KIRBY: No. Look, there's a lot of reasons why aid and assistance is being held up. One of the principal reasons right now is criminal gangs that are operating particularly at Kerem Shalom. That's not the Israelis' fault. And as far as we know, these gangs have no connection to Hamas specifically.
So we're going to continue to work with the U.N. We've been talking to the U.N. about seeing if we can't help get them personal protective gear and equipment, communications, radio communication, so that their truck drivers can feel a little bit more safe, which you can't very well blame these guys for being a little bit nervous about driving a truck into Gaza when their convoys and their trucks could be attacked by these criminal gangs and thugs. And we — so we're going to obviously work with them and the IDF to see what can be done about that.
But, yes, look, security of these convoys is a live issue. And I'm not trying to pull — take Hamas off the hook here, because Hamas has, in fact, allowed some of this activity to go on and don't have the best interests of the people of Gaza forefront in their minds. In fact, we've all seen Sinwar's comments about how civilian casualties and civilian suffering actually works — he believes works to his advantage. So, Hamas is absolutely partly responsible here for this as well.
But there's — you know, it's a combat zone. And combat operations and combat areas certainly make the delivery of humanitarian assistance a lot more challenging. So we're going to continue to talk to the U.N., we're going to talk to the IDF about what we can do to make it safer and to make it more palatable for these drivers to take this aid in. But the way to get to that, the real answer to this is to get to phase one of this ceasefire deal. You get hostages home to their families. You get six weeks of a sustainable calm that will allow the comfort level for aid organizations to increase to a degree where they can move freely about Gaza. If you have a six-week ceasefire in place, then nobody is shooting at anybody, and it should be a lot easier to move humanitarian assistance.
MODERATOR: Thanks. Next up, we'll go to Paris Wong.
Q Hello. Thank you, John. I'm going to focus to Indo-Pacific region. So, in an interview on Tuesday, Philippines ambassador to the U.S. said if there's a conflict between Taiwan and China that would affect the Philippines, that it would most likely agree to the U.S. using its military bases in the defense of Taiwan. So does the Biden administration welcome Philippines' willingness to work with the U.S. on Taiwan safety? And also, does this mean the United States has successfully mobilized from North Asia to Southeast Asia, from Japan to Philippines, to form a security network in the Indo-Pacific? Thank you.
MR. KIRBY: I think you know I'm not going to get into hypotheticals or speculate about the conflict across the Taiwan Strait. Nothing has changed about our One China policy. We don't want to see the status quo changed or altered unilaterally. We certainly don't want to see it changed or altered by force.
And everything the President has been doing — in our conversations with the PRC, in our work with allies like South Korea, Japan, and the Philippines — has been designed to prevent that outcome from happening. And that's what we're focused on.
The Philippines is a treaty ally. We take our alliance commitments seriously with the Philippines, as we have demonstrated certainly in recent weeks and months. And it was terrific to have President Marcos here to participate in the first-ever trilat between the United States, Japan, and the Philippines when we were hosting Prime Minister Kishida for the state visit as well.
So, an awful lot of work has been done by President Biden and this team in terms of shoring up our alliances and partnerships in the Indo-Pacific. And the reason you do that is to make it clear that we don't want to see a conflict, that we do have the capabilities in place to defend ourselves and defend our allies, and that there should be no reason for any of these tensions to erupt into conflict whatsoever.
MODERATOR: Thanks, everyone. That's all the time we have for today. If you have any follow-up questions, feel free to reach out to our team. Thanks again.
11:09 A.M. EDT
July 18, 2024
Today, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. declared that a major disaster exists in the State of Montana and ordered Federal assistance to supplement state, tribal, and local recovery efforts in the areas affected by a severe winter storm and flooding from May 6 to May 9, 2024.
Federal funding is available to state, tribal, and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities damaged by the severe winter storm and flooding in the counties of Blaine, Chouteau, Fergus, Hill, Judith Basin, Petroleum, Pondera, Teton, Toole, and Wheatland and the Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation and the Fort Belknap Indian Community.
Federal funding is also available on a cost-sharing basis for hazard mitigation measures statewide.
Mr. Edwin J. Martin of the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been appointed to coordinate Federal recovery operations in the affected areas.
Additional designations may be made at a later date if requested by the state and warranted by the results of further damage assessments.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION MEDIA SHOULD CONTACT THE FEMA NEWS DESK AT (202) 646-3272 OR FEMA-NEWS-DESK@FEMA.DHS.GOV .
President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Approves Montana Disaster Declaration
President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Approves Montana Disaster Declaration
Today, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. declared that a major disaster exists in the State of Montana and ordered Federal assistance to supplement state, tribal, and local recovery efforts in the areas affected by a severe winter storm and flooding from May 6 to May 9, 2024.
Federal funding is available to state, tribal, and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities damaged by the severe winter storm and flooding in the counties of Blaine, Chouteau, Fergus, Hill, Judith Basin, Petroleum, Pondera, Teton, Toole, and Wheatland and the Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation and the Fort Belknap Indian Community.
Federal funding is also available on a cost-sharing basis for hazard mitigation measures statewide.
Mr. Edwin J. Martin of the Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA] has been appointed to coordinate Federal recovery operations in the affected areas.
Additional designations may be made at a later date if requested by the state and warranted by the results of further damage assessments.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION MEDIA SHOULD CONTACT THE FEMA NEWS DESK AT [202] 646-3272 OR FEMA-NEWS-DESK@FEMA.DHS.GOV.
July 18, 2024
Today, the Biden-Harris Administration announced it is canceling student debt for 35,000 people through Public Service Loan Forgiveness, bringing the total number of Americans who have benefitted from its various debt relief actions to 4.76 million people. Each of those borrowers has received an average of over $35,000 in debt cancellation. These 35,000 borrowers approved for forgiveness today are public service workers – teachers, nurses, law enforcement officials, and first responders who have dedicated their lives to strengthening their communities, and because of the fixes we made to Public Service Loan Forgiveness, they will now have more breathing room to support themselves and their families.
President Biden and his Administration will never stop fighting to make higher education more affordable, no matter how many times Republican elected officials try to stop them.
Read more below:
Axios: Biden administration cancels another $1.2 B in student debt
[Jacob Knutson, 7/18/24]
The Biden administration will forgive $1.2 billion in student debt for another 35,000 public service workers, the Department of Education announced on Thursday.
Why it matters: The Biden administration's latest round of debt relief brings the total loan forgiveness it has approved to $168.5 billion for 4.76 million borrowers.
How it works: The Education Department said that the relief was made possible via its work to overhaul the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
PSLF allows public employees, such as teachers, firefighters, members of law enforcement, and people who work for nonprofit organizations, to apply for forgiveness after making 10 years' worth of payments on their federal student loan balance.
CBS News: Biden administration forgives another $1.2 billion in student loans. Here's who qualifies.
[Aimee Picchi, 7/18/24]
[…] The people who qualify for forgiveness in the latest round of debt cancellation are part of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which is designed to help public servants such as teachers, nurses and law enforcement officers get their debt canceled after 10 years of repayments. While PSLF has been around since 2007, until recently very few borrowers were able to get debt relief due to its notoriously complex regulations and often misleading guidance from loan companies.
But the Biden administration has overhauled the program's rules, enabling more public servants to qualify for forgiveness.
"The additional Americans approved for PSLF today are hardworking public servants who will finally receive the financial breathing room they were promised -- and all PSLF recipients can easily track and manage the process through StudentAid.gov," U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in the statement.
CNN: Biden announces additional $1.2 billion in student debt relief for 35,000 public-sector workers
[Katie Lobosco, 7/18/24]
President Joe Biden announced another round of student loan debt forgiveness Thursday, totaling $1.2 billion for 35,000 public-sector workers including teachers, nurses and firefighters.
The borrowers qualify for the debt relief through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which was created nearly two decades ago and expanded by the Biden administration's efforts to make it easier to qualify.
CNBC: Education Department to forgive $1.2 billion in student debt for 35,000 borrowers
[Annie Nova, 7/18/24]
The Biden administration announced Thursday it will cancel $1.2 billion in student debt for 35,000 workers, as a result of its recent fixes to a popular debt relief program for public service workers.
"Once again, the Biden-Harris administration delivers on its historic efforts to reduce the burden of student debt -- making needed and long overdue improvements to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program," U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement.
[…] The Biden administration has so far cleared $69.2 billion in student debt for 946,000 borrowers under PSLF, according to the Education Department. Before President Joe Biden took office, just 7,000 people had received relief through the program.
Bloomberg: Biden Forgives $1.2 Billion in Student Loans in Latest Relief
[Akayla Gardner, 7/18/24]
President Joe Biden canceled an additional $1.2 billion in student debt for public servants on Thursday […].
The assistance will affect 35,000 public service workers enrolled in the government's loan forgiveness program, including nurses, firefighters and teachers. The individuals received waivers or were affected by regulatory changes that gave them more credit toward the system's decade-long payment requirement.
"They will now have more breathing room to support themselves and their families," Biden said in a statement.
Letter from Dr. Kevin O'Connor
Letter from Dr. Kevin O’Connor
July 18, 2024
To view the letter from the Physician to the President, visit: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Letter7.18.24.pdf
July 18, 2024
Air Zoo Aerospace and Science Museum
Portage, Michigan
2:27 P.M. EDT
MS. TROYE: All right. I get to kick this off. It's an honor.
I'm here as a conservative, pro-choice woman. And I don't think 10, 5, or even maybe 2 years ago, we would have been talking about reproductive rights in elections, because it was seen as too controversial, not a winning issue, and, frankly, it seems like settled law.
Clearly, the landscape has shifted 180 degrees. How do you see this moment and how we got here?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: So, first, I want to thank the two of you for your extraordinary courage and leadership on this issue, the voice that you each have carried and continue to carry is the voice of so many people who may not have the ability to do what the two of you have done so courageously, and I thank you for that.
And we should applaud that courage. It takes a lot of courage to do what you two are doing. Extraordinary courage.
So, just over two years ago, the highest court in our land -- you know, I think about it -- the court of Thurgood Marshall and RBG -- took a constitutional right that had been recognized from the people of America, from the women of America.
And thereafter, in state after state, extremists proposed and passed laws that would punish health care providers. I mean, in a state like Texas, you know they -- their law provides for life in prison for a doctor who administers care. Laws that would punish women -- criminalize doctors, punish women. Laws that make no exception even for rape and incest.
You know, many of you know, I started my career as a prosecutor. You may not know one of the reasons why. When I was in high school, I learned that my best friend was being molested by her stepfather.
And I said to her, "You have to come stay with us. You have to come live with us." I called my mother. My mother said, "Of course, she does." And she did.
So, I decided I wanted to take on a career that was about protecting, in particular, women and children from violence.
And the notion that these extremists would say to a survivor of such a crime of violence and a violation of someone's body -- and to say to that survivor, "And you have no right or authority to decide what happens to your body next"? That's immoral.
What has been happening in our state is that -- you know, I've talked with so many women who have a similar story to what you have shared -- women who want to have children and have gone through the horrible experience of a miscarriage and need care -- need medical care, and denied -- denied access to an emergency room because the -- the health care providers there believed they would be exposed to a criminal case if they helped.
The number of stories that I've heard about women sil- -- and their -- their partners, their spouses, their families silently suffering.
Think about what's happening in our country when you know that the majority of women who receive abortion care are mothers. Okay? Well, God help her if she's in a state with a ban. God help her if she has paid family leave or affordable childcare.
Think about -- you know, I say to my -- my staff and my team for years, I say, "You know, in public policy, always ask how does this impact a real human being." Right?
So, think about -- think about what we're saying to her, that she's going to -- God help her if she's got extra money to buy a plane ticket and for a hotel room. And then what does that mean? She has to go to the airport, stand in line at TSA, get on a plane, sit next to a perfect stranger, go to a city where she's never been to receive this care to only get back as soon as she can because she got to take care of those kids. Her best friend is not with her because her best friend taking care of the kids. Think about what we're putting people through.
The other thing, though, the -- that I have experienced in these two years as I travel around our country -- and I've -- I've taken almost 100 trips in connection with this issue. It's six- -- it's my sixth time since the Dobbs decision coming to Michigan.
And one of the things I've found also are the stories of people who tell me about themselves. "You know, I -- I once felt very strongly about this -- didn't believe in abortion, didn't believe in it. But I --"
MS. TROYE: That was me.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Right? And -- and they are saying, "But I didn't expect this would happen."
MS. TROYE: That was -- that was the household I grew up in. That was me --
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Right.
MS. TROYE: -- and my mom. We're conservatives. We grew up in a conservative Catholic household in Texas, very Republican family. That was me. But we've evolved.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Yeah, because I think that, first of all, on this issue, most people believe that one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government should not be telling her what to do with her body. Right?
If she chooses, she will talk with her priest or her pastor or her rabbi or her imam, but it shouldn't be the government telling her what to do.
And I do believe the majority of us, as Americans, have empathy and don't will upon another suffering. I -- I do believe that. And -- and I -- and that's what I'm finding, to your point, about people who felt strongly before the decision came down and now they're seeing how it's playing out, and -- and they don't intend that people would have that experience. So --
MS. STRATTON: All right. As I mentioned earlier, I have personally navigated the challenges of miscarriage and secondary infertility, which has deepened my understanding of the importance of having the right to make informed decisions about your own reproductive health.
Miscarriage is extremely common, with one in four pregnancies ending and loss, yet it remains a topic that's rarely discussed openly.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
MS. STRATTON: My experience highlights the critical need for women to have access to safe and -- safe medical care.
Like this conversation today, you've been intentional about speaking to folks across the political spectrum about what is at stake on this issue. You have traveled all across the country, including to tradit- -- traditionally conservative areas --
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
MS. STRATTON: -- to speak about the importance of reproductive freedom and have shown up at the places where freedom is under attack. And now this is your seventh visit to Michigan as vice president and the second trip this year to -- to Michigan to talk about reproductive rights.
Why is it important for you to show up and bring this message?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Again, I thank you and -- both of you for being here.
I think we -- I'll repeat the point that I made earlier. I think that most of us agree that we shouldn't allow supposed leaders to do things that hurt people.
You know, there is something very basic about this. I think that there is something that is very basic about this in terms of who we are as Americans and our founding principles, which include a founding principle that we believe in freedom. We believe in freedom -- freedom from the government telling us what to do about matters of heart and home. We believe in the right of -- of people to make basic decisions like when and if they will start a family and how.
I -- you know, in -- in traveling the country, part of what I -- I point out, which is what we all know, regardless of your gender -- think about this: If we, in this year of our Lord, 2024, have a state of being where the government can tell you what to do with your body -- I mean, the most basic of things you should have control over -- everybody better watch out about what other freedoms you're taking for granted. Right?
And you are right that this is something that, in my experience traveling the country, going to so-called red and so-called blue and so-called purple states, is that -- you know, you look at when this issue was on the ballot from, you know, Montana to -- to, I don't know, Virginia -- I mean, look at so-called red and blue states: Whenever it was on the ballot, the American people voted for freedom. The American people voted for freedom.
So, I think it's -- it's basic -- it's -- it's something that should also in this moment in our country, where for the last few years we've seen such division and attempts to divide us -- this is a very, very serious, pivotal, foundational issue. But what we have seen is when the American people are presented with this issue, regardless of what party they're registered to vote with, they stand for freedom. Yeah.
MS. TROYE: In that vein -- and thank you, by the way, for traveling -- for all the travel that you've done to reach --
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
MS. TROYE: -- the more conservative areas. I think this is an incredibly important conversation and moment to have.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
MS. TROYE: The extremists -- the extremists are not -- not done. For me -- and I think Amanda would probably say the same -- this isn't -- this isn't the Republican Party I grew up with. This isn't the party that I supported about the things that I'm seeing that Donald Trump has implemented along the way, and I have greater concerns about what's to come.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
MS. TROYE: What do you think is next?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: We have 111 days to determine that.
Because therein, also, in the -- in the midst of those who are trying to take individual freedoms, including the power to make basic decisions about your own life, we should remember the power of the people to make a decision about who sits in these offices. And that power rests with us, each one of us.
And in these moments, we should not become dispirited. This is not a time to throw up our hands. This is a time to roll up our sleeves.
But you're right. I mean, so, the former president, first of all, listen, he hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention that they would do exactly what they did. And he's told us over and over again who he is on this subject. And then now -- well, you know, there's a bit of a gaslight going -- gaslighting going on where, "Oh, well, no, I just believe it should go to the states."
Okay, so, first of all, any of the historians here will know what that means when we start pushing states' rights, but let's put that aside.
Okay, so you believe it should go to the states? Well, the way I look at it is then let's look at all the -- I think it's now 21 or 22 Trump abortion bans in those 21, 22 states, which again make no exception, some, for rape or incest; which have contributed to -- to IVF clinics and care being stifled; which have contributed to women having, I mean, awful experiences around miscarriage; which have contributed to people who are doctors and nurses and health care providers being afraid they might go to jail for administering care.
And, you know -- and then, recently, the former president selected his running mate, the senator, Vance -- J.D. Vance. Understand, this is a fellow who in the United States Senate participated in blocking protections for IVF. This is an individual who has said he is for a national -- and has made every indication that he has for national abortion ban.
And so, again, this is where the power is with the people. We have an election coming up.
Don- -- you -- listen and in contrast to the former president, Joe Biden has been very clear -- has been very clear: If there were any attempt at a national abortion ban, he would veto it. And if we have the right people in Congress, people like Debbie Stabenow and others, and they put back in law the protections of Roe v. Wade, our President Joe Biden will sign it into law.
MS. TROYE: So, pivoting a little bit. This is an issue that I personally very much care about. I've worked on a lot, especially having a family member that experienced gun violence.
As you mentioned in your opening remarks, gun violence in America is top of mind for so many people right now.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
MS. TROYE: And there is no place for political violence or gun violence in our nation.
Last year, I was proud to advocate for new laws that were passed here in Michigan. I advocated as a gun owner -- a responsible gun owner -- -- including red flag law, universal background checks and expanding them, and a safe storage law. But we know that we still need additional reasonable gun safety laws at the federal level.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
MS. TROYE: How are you and President Biden working to address gun violence in America?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: So, Olivia, you've been a great leader on this. And I'm sorry for the personal tragedies that you've experienced.
Gun violence in America today is the number-one cause of the death of children in America. Think about that. The number-one cause of the death of children in America is gun violence -- not car accidents, not some form of cancer, gun violence.
Today in our country, one in five Americans has a relative, a family member who was killed by gun violence. And it doesn't have to be this way.
And it's a false choice for people to say, "Well, you're either in favor of the Second Amendment or you want to take everyone's guns away." I'm in favor of the Second Amendment. I'm also in favor of the assault weapons ban, of universal background checks, red flag laws. Right?
And to your point, the leadership here in Michigan has been extraordinary on this. And we need people in Washington, D.C., to watch what you all have done and how you've done it because you've also pulled together coalitions of people, Democrats and Republicans and independents. That bullet doesn't care who you are registered to vote with. Think about this, and then think about it in terms of the trauma.
So, last fall, I started a college tour. I -- by the way, I love Gen Z. I -- I d- -- you know, I -- -- if you have Gen Z in your life, maybe it's complicated for you, but they're really great. They're really great.
And among the many things that I would ask, you know, these auditoriums full of these young leaders -- I would ask them: Raise your hand if at any time between kindergarten and 12 th grade you had to endure an active shooter drill. It was bone-chilling. Almost every hand went up.
Think about that. You know, when -- when I was growing up -- I'll speak for some of us here, I think -- we had fire drills. But this is a whole other thing.
And our young people -- think: they should be in the classroom experiencing the wonders of the world, and some part of their brain is concerned that someone will bust through that classroom door. And think about the trauma that gun violence has exacted not only on our young people who are afraid of what might happen in the context of a mass shooting, think of the trauma in terms of everyday gun violence that happens in places around our country -- that trauma being undiagnosed and untreated. There are so many permeations and ramifications of this gun violence.
In fact, we just announced a couple days ago -- under the president and our administration, we created 988. In fact, I'd -- I'd encourage everyone here to know about it and pass it on. And it's basically a crisis line where people who are in crisis -- it's not -- it's not only a talk line, but there are mental health professionals who answer it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, anonymously. So, people can text or call when they're experiencing crisis to bring it down and also to know where to get help.
But these are all the ramifications of this. And the solutions don't really require that much creativity.
What they do require is people in the United States Congress to have courage to act and do what we know is the right thing to do and not cower based on special interest and powerful lobbyists who are encouraging them to do something and actually is contrary to what is the health and well-being of our nation on such a specific issue. Yeah.
MS. STRATTON: I've been sharing my personal story with the hope of encouraging women across the country to vote for candidates who support the right to choose because I firmly believe that politicians have no place in family planning, especially when it doesn't go as planned.
Here in Michigan, we worked hard two years ago to pass Prop 3 to protect reproductive freedoms, refe- -- reflecting the belief of 57 percent of Michiganders that every person has the fundamental right to reproductive freedom. However, with the upcoming presidential election, there's still so much at stake if Republicans gain control and are allowed to implement a nationwide abortion ban.
With the election just four months away and the potential implications for reproductive rights, how are you planning to engage and mobilize voters? And what strategies do you think will be most effective in reaching and inspiring people to take action?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Amanda, for that.
One piece of this is to really remind people that they're not alone. I think there is something that has happened -- I mentioned it earlier -- that is making people feel like, you know, "Are people there for me?" And we have to remind people we're all in this together.
I think this is a moment that we have to be very intentional about building community, about reaching out to the folks we know -- relatives, neighbors, coworkers -- and reminding them that we're all in this together and that we can make sense of it if we try.
And part of making sense of it is reminding everyone, in an election year, their power to determine very important issues through their vote. And so, that means, you know, reminding people to register to vote, reminding people to go online -- there's IWillVote.org -- and -- and to make sure you know where you're registered, because, sadly, in so many states in our country right now, they're intentionally passing laws to make it more difficult for people to vote. They're passing laws that allow, you know, for political reasons, that they'll reduce the number of polling sites so that people won't know where to go vote or, because there are reduced polling sites, the lines will be longer, which will deter people from standing in line, especially if they're working two and three jobs; they don't have the time.
So, let's remind people about the connection between their lives and their vote, between their power and the outcome of this election.
Let's organize people building coalitions. You know, again, we're -- there are forces trying to divide us. We got to remember in our hearts and -- and help people remember: The vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us. We've got to remember that, right? I think that's critically important.
You know, sometimes these kinds of moments have a tendency, if not an intention, to make people feel small and make them feel alone and disempower people.
I was saying to -- to -- we had a brief conversation earlier. You know, I think it's -- there's this perversity that has taken place over the last several years to suggest the measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you beat down, when, in fact, the true measure of the strength of a leader, I think we all agree, is based on who you lift up -- right? -- -- that -- that the -- the character -- the character and the strength, therefore, of a real leader this -- I'm looking at a room full of leaders; you wouldn't be here if you weren't -- the character is -- is such that that individual has some level of concern and care about the well-being of other people and then does something about it to lift them up.
So, let's remind people of all of that. And -- and let's organize and let's energize and let's mobilize. Let's, I mean, literally, call up and text and email the folks you know and just bug them. Just bug them. It's okay. It's election time. They'll expect it coming from you. They'll still invite you over for Thanksgiving and Christmas; it's okay.
But let's just stay on people and -- and in that way let, them know that -- that they matter and that we're all in it together. So --
MS. TROYE: Well, speaking of elevating people, as we come to the close of the program, though, I -- I think what you're doing is incredible. I think this is exactly the way forward. I think extending the grace that you have to have Amanda and I on stage, as two Republicans -- or recovering Republicans, as I said earlier -- I think this is an example of how we come together --
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
MS. TROYE -- and how we build this coalition. Like you said, I think it's about empowering each other, and I also think it's a sign of -- that women are going to support women.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: That's right. That's exactly right.
MS. TROYE: We're going to stand by other women.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: That's exactly right. That's right. Well said.
MS. TROYE: So, I hope that that's the message that carries forward. And thank you for providing that avenue --
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
MS. TROYE: -- for us to come together. I -- I do think that this is a big moment in time for our political system and what's at stake. And so, I think that thi- -- I hope that this serves as an example for others to have these types of conversations with each other --
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
MS. TROYE: -- and to extend that grace and understand that --
THE VICE PRESIDENT: That's right.
MS. TROYE: -- we're going to stand by each other.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: That's right.
MS. TROYE: They don't get to win when we're together.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: That's exactly right.
MS. TROYE: Thank you.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: And with that, thank you all.
MS. STRATTON: Thank you.
END 2:53 P.M. CDT
Readout of National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s Meeting with Brazilian Presidential Advisor Celso Amorim
Readout of National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s Meeting with Brazilian Presidential Advisor Celso Amorim
July 18, 2024
Readout of National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan's Meeting with Brazilian Presidential Advisor Celso Amorim
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan hosted Brazilian Presidential Advisor Celso Amorim for a meeting yesterday at the White House. The two leaders discussed progress on deepening our bilateral relationship, including through the Partnership for Workers' Rights, which President Biden and President Lula launched on the margins of last year's United Nations General Assembly to empower workers and combat some of the most significant issues facing working people, such as forced labor, workplace discrimination, and heat stress. National Security Advisor Sullivan and Presidential Advisor Amorim also discussed several global and regional priorities, including Haiti, Venezuela, Russia's war against Ukraine, and the Middle East.
Statement from President Joe Biden on $1.2 Billion in Student Debt Cancellation for 35,000 Borrowers
Statement from President Joe Biden on $1.2 Billion in Student Debt Cancellation for 35,000 Borrowers
Today, my Administration is canceling student debt for 35,000 people through Public Service Loan Forgiveness, bringing the total number of Americans who have benefitted from our various debt relief actions to 4.76 million people. Each of those borrowers has received an average of over $35,000 in debt cancellation. These 35,000 borrowers approved for forgiveness today are public service workers – teachers, nurses, law enforcement officials, and first responders who have dedicated their lives to strengthening their communities, and because of the fixes we made to Public Service Loan Forgiveness, they will now have more breathing room to support themselves and their families.
Today's announcement comes on top of the significant progress we've made for students and borrowers over the past three years. That includes providing the largest increases to the maximum Pell Grant in over a decade; fixing Income-Driven Repayment so borrowers get the relief they are entitled to under the law; and holding colleges accountable for taking advantage of students and families. And earlier this year, I laid out my Administration's new plans that would cancel student debt for more than 30 million Americans when combined with everything we've done so far.
From day one of my Administration, I promised to fight to ensure higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity. I will never stop working to make higher education affordable – no matter how many times Republican elected officials try to stop us.
July 18, 2024
Today, my Administration is canceling student debt for 35,000 people through Public Service Loan Forgiveness, bringing the total number of Americans who have benefitted from our various debt relief actions to 4.76 million people. Each of those borrowers has received an average of over $35,000 in debt cancellation. These 35,000 borrowers approved for forgiveness today are public service workers - teachers, nurses, law enforcement officials, and first responders who have dedicated their lives to strengthening their communities, and because of the fixes we made to Public Service Loan Forgiveness, they will now have more breathing room to support themselves and their families.
Today's announcement comes on top of the significant progress we've made for students and borrowers over the past three years. That includes providing the largest increases to the maximum Pell Grant in over a decade; fixing Income-Driven Repayment so borrowers get the relief they are entitled to under the law; and holding colleges accountable for taking advantage of students and families. And earlier this year, I laid out my Administration's new plans that would cancel student debt for more than 30 million Americans when combined with everything we've done so far.
From day one of my Administration, I promised to fight to ensure higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity. I will never stop working to make higher education affordable – no matter how many times Republican elected officials try to stop us.
July 17, 2024
At 11:30 AM ET, the Second Gentleman will host a roundtable with religious leaders from national faith-based organizations on interfaith coalition building. The Second Gentleman will highlight the Biden-Harris Administration's efforts to counter hate and restore unity. United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Rashad Hussain will also attend. This event in Washington, D.C. will be pooled press.
Remarks by Vice President Harris in a Moderated Conversation with Amanda Stratton and Olivia Troye at a Political Event
Remarks by Vice President Harris in a Moderated Conversation with Amanda Stratton and Olivia Troye at a Political Event
Air Zoo Aerospace and Science Museum
Portage, Michigan
2:27 P.M. EDT
MS. TROYE: All right. I get to kick this off. It's an honor.
I'm here as a conservative, pro-choice woman. And I don't think 10, 5, or even maybe 2 years ago, we would have been talking about reproductive rights in elections, because it was seen as too controversial, not a winning issue, and, frankly, it seems like settled law.
Clearly, the landscape has shifted 180 degrees. How do you see this moment and how we got here?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: So, first, I want to thank the two of you for your extraordinary courage and leadership on this issue, the voice that you each have carried and continue to carry is the voice of so many people who may not have the ability to do what the two of you have done so courageously, and I thank you for that. [Applause]
And we should applaud that courage. It takes a lot of courage to do what you two are doing. Extraordinary courage.
So, just over two years ago, the highest court in our land — you know, I think about it — the court of Thurgood Marshall and RBG — took a constitutional right that had been recognized from the people of America, from the women of America.
And thereafter, in state after state, extremists proposed and passed laws that would punish health care providers. I mean, in a state like Texas, you know they — their law provides for life in prison for a doctor who administers care. Laws that would punish women — criminalize doctors, punish women. Laws that make no exception even for rape and incest.
You know, many of you know, I started my career as a prosecutor. You may not know one of the reasons why. When I was in high school, I learned that my best friend was being molested by her stepfather.
And I said to her, "You have to come stay with us. You have to come live with us." I called my mother. My mother said, "Of course, she does." And she did.
So, I decided I wanted to take on a career that was about protecting, in particular, women and children from violence.
And the notion that these extremists would say to a survivor of such a crime of violence and a violation of someone's body — and to say to that survivor, "And you have no right or authority to decide what happens to your body next"? That's immoral.
What has been happening in our state is that — you know, I've talked with so many women who have a similar story to what you have shared — women who want to have children and have gone through the horrible experience of a miscarriage and need care — need medical care, and denied — denied access to an emergency room because the — the health care providers there believed they would be exposed to a criminal case if they helped.
The number of stories that I've heard about women sil- — and their — their partners, their spouses, their families silently suffering.
Think about what's happening in our country when you know that the majority of women who receive abortion care are mothers. Okay? Well, God help her if she's in a state with a ban. God help her if she has paid family leave or affordable childcare.
Think about — you know, I say to my — my staff and my team for years, I say, "You know, in public policy, always ask how does this impact a real human being." [Applause] Right?
So, think about — think about what we're saying to her, that she's going to — God help her if she's got extra money to buy a plane ticket and for a hotel room. And then what does that mean? She has to go to the airport, stand in line at TSA, get on a plane, sit next to a perfect stranger, go to a city where she's never been to receive this care to only get back as soon as she can because she got to take care of those kids. Her best friend is not with her because her best friend taking care of the kids. Think about what we're putting people through.
The other thing, though, the — that I have experienced in these two years as I travel around our country — and I've — I've taken almost 100 trips in connection with this issue. It's six- — it's my sixth time since the Dobbs decision coming to Michigan.
And one of the things I've found also are the stories of people who tell me about themselves. "You know, I — I once felt very strongly about this — didn't believe in abortion, didn't believe in it. But I –"
MS. TROYE: That was me.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Right? And — and they are saying, "But I didn't expect this would happen."
MS. TROYE: That was — that was the household I grew up in. That was me —
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Right.
MS. TROYE: — and my mom. We're conservatives. We grew up in a conservative Catholic household in Texas, very Republican family. That was me. But we've evolved.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Yeah, because I think that, first of all, on this issue, most people believe that one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government should not be telling her what to do with her body. [Applause] Right?
If she chooses, she will talk with her priest or her pastor or her rabbi or her imam, but it shouldn't be the government telling her what to do.
And I do believe the majority of us, as Americans, have empathy and don't will upon another suffering. I — I do believe that. And — and I — and that's what I'm finding, to your point, about people who felt strongly before the decision came down and now they're seeing how it's playing out, and — and they don't intend that people would have that experience. So —
MS. STRATTON: All right. As I mentioned earlier, I have personally navigated the challenges of miscarriage and secondary infertility, which has deepened my understanding of the importance of having the right to make informed decisions about your own reproductive health.
Miscarriage is extremely common, with one in four pregnancies ending and loss, yet it remains a topic that's rarely discussed openly.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
MS. STRATTON: My experience highlights the critical need for women to have access to safe and — safe medical care.
Like this conversation today, you've been intentional about speaking to folks across the political spectrum about what is at stake on this issue. You have traveled all across the country, including to tradit- — traditionally conservative areas —
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
MS. STRATTON: — to speak about the importance of reproductive freedom and have shown up at the places where freedom is under attack. And now this is your seventh visit to Michigan as vice president and the second trip this year to — to Michigan to talk about reproductive rights.
Why is it important for you to show up and bring this message?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Again, I thank you and — both of you for being here.
I think we — I'll repeat the point that I made earlier. I think that most of us agree that we shouldn't allow supposed leaders to do things that hurt people.
You know, there is something very basic about this. I think that there is something that is very basic about this in terms of who we are as Americans and our founding principles, which include a founding principle that we believe in freedom. We believe in freedom — freedom from the government telling us what to do about matters of heart and home. We believe in the right of — of people to make basic decisions like when and if they will start a family and how.
I — you know, in — in traveling the country, part of what I — I point out, which is what we all know, regardless of your gender — think about this: If we, in this year of our Lord, 2024, have a state of being where the government can tell you what to do with your body — I mean, the most basic of things you should have control over — everybody better watch out about what other freedoms you're taking for granted. [Applause] Right?
And you are right that this is something that, in my experience traveling the country, going to so-called red and so-called blue and so-called purple states, is that — you know, you look at when this issue was on the ballot from, you know, Montana to — to, I don't know, Virginia — I mean, look at so-called red and blue states: Whenever it was on the ballot, the American people voted for freedom. The American people voted for freedom. [Applause]
So, I think it's — it's basic — it's — it's something that should also in this moment in our country, where for the last few years we've seen such division and attempts to divide us — this is a very, very serious, pivotal, foundational issue. But what we have seen is when the American people are presented with this issue, regardless of what party they're registered to vote with, they stand for freedom. Yeah.
MS. TROYE: In that vein — and thank you, by the way, for traveling — for all the travel that you've done to reach —
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
MS. TROYE: — the more conservative areas. I think this is an incredibly important conversation and moment to have.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
MS. TROYE: The extremists — the extremists are not — not done. For me — and I think Amanda would probably say the same — this isn't — this isn't the Republican Party I grew up with. This isn't the party that I supported [inaudible] about the things that I'm seeing that Donald Trump has implemented along the way, and I have greater concerns about what's to come.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
MS. TROYE: What do you think is next?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: We have 111 days to determine that. [Laughs] [Applause]
Because therein, also, in the — in the midst of those who are trying to take individual freedoms, including the power to make basic decisions about your own life, we should remember the power of the people to make a decision about who sits in these offices. [Applause] And that power rests with us, each one of us.
And in these moments, we should not become dispirited. This is not a time to throw up our hands. This is a time to roll up our sleeves. [Applause]
But you're right. I mean, so, the former president, first of all, listen, he hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention that they would do exactly what they did. And he's told us over and over again who he is on this subject. And then now — well, you know, there's a bit of a gaslight going — gaslighting going on where, "Oh, well, no, I just believe it should go to the states."
Okay, so, first of all, any of the historians here will know what that means when we start pushing states' rights, but let's put that aside. [Laughter]
Okay, so you believe it should go to the states? Well, the way I look at it is then let's look at all the — I think it's now 21 or 22 Trump abortion bans in those 21, 22 states, which again make no exception, some, for rape or incest; which have contributed to — to IVF clinics and care being stifled; which have contributed to women having, I mean, awful experiences around miscarriage; which have contributed to people who are doctors and nurses and health care providers being afraid they might go to jail for administering care.
And, you know — and then, recently, the former president selected his running mate, the senator, Vance — J.D. Vance. Understand, this is a fellow who in the United States Senate participated in blocking protections for IVF. This is an individual who has said he is for a national — and has made every indication that he has for national abortion ban.
And so, again, this is where the power is with the people. We have an election coming up.
Don- — you — listen and in contrast to the former president, Joe Biden has been very clear — has been very clear: If there were any attempt at a national abortion ban, he would veto it. And if we have the right people in Congress, people like Debbie Stabenow and others, and they put back in law the protections of Roe v. Wade, our President Joe Biden will sign it into law. [Applause]
MS. TROYE: So, pivoting a little bit. This is an issue that I personally very much care about. I've worked on a lot, especially having a family member that experienced gun violence.
As you mentioned in your opening remarks, gun violence in America is top of mind for so many people right now.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
MS. TROYE: And there is no place for political violence or gun violence in our nation.
Last year, I was proud to advocate for new laws that were passed here in Michigan. I advocated as a gun owner — a responsible gun owner — [applause] — including red flag law, universal background checks and expanding them, and a safe storage law. But we know that we still need additional reasonable gun safety laws at the federal level.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
MS. TROYE: How are you and President Biden working to address gun violence in America?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: So, Olivia, you've been a great leader on this. And I'm sorry for the personal tragedies that you've experienced.
Gun violence in America today is the number-one cause of the death of children in America. Think about that. The number-one cause of the death of children in America is gun violence — not car accidents, not some form of cancer, gun violence.
Today in our country, one in five Americans has a relative, a family member who was killed by gun violence. And it doesn't have to be this way.
And it's a false choice for people to say, "Well, you're either in favor of the Second Amendment or you want to take everyone's guns away." I'm in favor of the Second Amendment. I'm also in favor of the assault weapons ban, of universal background checks, red flag laws. [Applause] Right?
And to your point, the leadership here in Michigan has been extraordinary on this. And we need people in Washington, D.C., to watch what you all have done and how you've done it because you've also pulled together coalitions of people, Democrats and Republicans and independents. That bullet doesn't care who you are registered to vote with. Think about this, and then think about it in terms of the trauma.
So, last fall, I started a college tour. I — by the way, I love Gen Z. I — I d- — you know, I — [laughter] — if you have Gen Z in your life, maybe it's complicated for you, but they're really great. [Laughs] They're really great. [Applause]
And among the many things that I would ask, you know, these auditoriums full of these young leaders — I would ask them: Raise your hand if at any time between kindergarten and 12th grade you had to endure an active shooter drill. It was bone-chilling. Almost every hand went up.
Think about that. You know, when — when I was growing up — I'll speak for some of us here, I think — we had fire drills. [Laughter] But this is a whole other thing.
And our young people — think: they should be in the classroom experiencing the wonders of the world, and some part of their brain is concerned that someone will bust through that classroom door. And think about the trauma that gun violence has exacted not only on our young people who are afraid of what might happen in the context of a mass shooting, think of the trauma in terms of everyday gun violence that happens in places around our country — that trauma being undiagnosed and untreated. There are so many permeations and ramifications of this gun violence.
In fact, we just announced a couple days ago — under the president and our administration, we created 988. In fact, I'd — I'd encourage everyone here to know about it and pass it on. And it's basically a crisis line where people who are in crisis — it's not — it's not only a talk line, but there are mental health professionals who answer it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, anonymously. So, people can text or call when they're experiencing crisis to bring it down and also to know where to get help.
But these are all the ramifications of this. And the solutions don't really require that much creativity.
What they do require is people in the United States Congress to have courage to act and do what we know is the right thing to do and not cower based on special interest and powerful lobbyists who are encouraging them to do something and actually is contrary to what is the health and well-being of our nation on such a specific issue. Yeah.
MS. STRATTON: I've been sharing my personal story with the hope of encouraging women across the country to vote for candidates who support the right to choose because I firmly believe that politicians have no place in family planning, especially when it doesn't go as planned.
Here in Michigan, we worked hard two years ago to pass Prop 3 to protect reproductive freedoms, refe- — reflecting the belief of 57 percent of Michiganders that every person has the fundamental right to reproductive freedom. However, with the upcoming presidential election, there's still so much at stake if Republicans gain control and are allowed to implement a nationwide abortion ban.
With the election just four months away and the potential implications for reproductive rights, how are you planning to engage and mobilize voters? And what strategies do you think will be most effective in reaching and inspiring people to take action?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Amanda, for that.
One piece of this is to really remind people that they're not alone. I think there is something that has happened — I mentioned it earlier — that is making people feel like, you know, "Are people there for me?" And we have to remind people we're all in this together.
I think this is a moment that we have to be very intentional about building community, about reaching out to the folks we know — relatives, neighbors, coworkers — and reminding them that we're all in this together and that we can make sense of it if we try.
And part of making sense of it is reminding everyone, in an election year, their power to determine very important issues through their vote. And so, that means, you know, reminding people to register to vote, reminding people to go online — there's IWillVote.org — and — and to make sure you know where you're registered, because, sadly, in so many states in our country right now, they're intentionally passing laws to make it more difficult for people to vote. They're passing laws that allow, you know, for political reasons, that they'll reduce the number of polling sites so that people won't know where to go vote or, because there are reduced polling sites, the lines will be longer, which will deter people from standing in line, especially if they're working two and three jobs; they don't have the time.
So, let's remind people about the connection between their lives and their vote, between their power and the outcome of this election.
Let's organize people building coalitions. You know, again, we're — there are forces trying to divide us. We got to remember in our hearts and — and help people remember: The vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us. We've got to remember that, right? [Applause] I think that's critically important.
You know, sometimes these kinds of moments have a tendency, if not an intention, to make people feel small and make them feel alone and disempower people.
I was saying to — to — we had a brief conversation earlier. You know, I think it's — there's this perversity that has taken place over the last several years to suggest the measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you beat down, when, in fact, the true measure of the strength of a leader, I think we all agree, is based on who you lift up — right? — [applause] — that — that the — the character — the character and the strength, therefore, of a real leader this — I'm looking at a room full of leaders; you wouldn't be here if you weren't — the character is — is such that that individual has some level of concern and care about the well-being of other people and then does something about it to lift them up.
So, let's remind people of all of that. And — and let's organize and let's energize and let's mobilize. Let's, I mean, literally, call up and text and email the folks you know and just bug them. Just bug them. It's okay. It's election time. They'll expect it coming from you. [Applause] [Laughs] They'll still invite you over for Thanksgiving and Christmas; it's okay. [Laughter]
But let's just stay on people and — and in that way let, them know that — that they matter and that we're all in it together. So —
MS. TROYE: Well, speaking of elevating people, as we come to the close of the program, though, I — I think what you're doing is incredible. I think this is exactly the way forward. I think extending the grace that you have to have Amanda and I on stage, as two Republicans — or recovering Republicans, as I said earlier — I think this is an example of how we come together —
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
MS. TROYE — and how we build this coalition. Like you said, I think it's about empowering each other, and I also think it's a sign of — that women are going to support women.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: That's right. That's exactly right.
MS. TROYE: We're going to stand by other women. [Applause]
THE VICE PRESIDENT: That's exactly right. That's right. Well said.
MS. TROYE: So, I hope that that's the message that carries forward. And thank you for providing that avenue —
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
MS. TROYE: — for us to come together. I — I do think that this is a big moment in time for our political system and what's at stake. And so, I think that thi- — I hope that this serves as an example for others to have these types of conversations with each other —
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
MS. TROYE: — and to extend that grace and understand that —
THE VICE PRESIDENT: That's right.
MS. TROYE: — we're going to stand by each other.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: That's right.
MS. TROYE: They don't get to win when we're together.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: That's exactly right. [Applause]
MS. TROYE: Thank you.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: And with that, thank you all. [Laughs] [Applause]
MS. STRATTON: Thank you.
END 2:53 P.M. CDT
July 17, 2024
FOR THURSDAY, JULY 18, 2024
At 11:40 AM ET, the Vice President will depart Washington, DC en route to Pope Field, NC. This departure from Joint Base Andrews will be pooled press.
At 12:45 PM ET, the Vice President will arrive in Pope Field, NC. This arrival at Pope Army Airfield will be pooled press.
At 1:55 PM ET, the Vice President will deliver remarks at a campaign event in Fayetteville, NC. These remarks will be pooled press and open to pre-credentialed media.
At 2:50 PM ET, the Vice President will depart Pope Field, NC en route to Washington, DC. This departure from Pope Army Airfield will be pooled press.
At 3:50 PM ET, the Vice President will arrive in Washington, DC. This arrival at Joint Base Andrews will be pooled press.
July 17, 2024
The United States welcomes a 15-day extension of the humanitarian truce committed to by the parties to the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo . This extension will be in effect until 11:59 pm local time on August 3 and recommits the parties to the conflict to silence their weapons and provide humanitarian personnel unfettered access to vulnerable populations.
The United States has closely monitored allegations of truce violations since July 5. While the parties to the conflict have largely respected the truce, we condemn the civilian loss of life in Bweremana and will work with the Ad Hoc Verification Mechanism to investigate this and other potential violations and to hold parties responsible.
In support of the Luanda Process, we commit to working with the Governments of the DRC, Rwanda, and Angola to use this truce extension to outline a series of steps to reach a durable cessation of hostilities and set conditions for the voluntary return of displaced populations.
Statement from NSC Spokesperson Adrienne Watson Welcoming an Extension of the Humanitarian Truce in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
Statement from NSC Spokesperson Adrienne Watson Welcoming an Extension of the Humanitarian Truce in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
The United States welcomes a 15-day extension of the humanitarian truce committed to by the parties to the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo [DRC]. This extension will be in effect until 11:59pm local time on August 3 and recommits the parties to the conflict to silence their weapons and provide humanitarian personnel unfettered access to vulnerable populations.
The United States has closely monitored allegations of truce violations since July 5. While the parties to the conflict have largely respected the truce, we condemn the civilian loss of life in Bweremana and will work with the Ad Hoc Verification Mechanism to investigate this and other potential violations and to hold parties responsible.
In support of the Luanda Process, we commit to working with the Governments of the DRC, Rwanda, and Angola to use this truce extension to outline a series of steps to reach a durable cessation of hostilities and set conditions for the voluntary return of displaced populations.
July 17, 2024
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan hosted the inaugural meeting of the Angel Investor Network announced by President Joe Biden, Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in November 2023 under the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity . At the meeting, the diverse group of experienced and successful angel and venture capital investors pledged to collectively invest more than $1 billion in early-stage companies and entrepreneurs in Latin America and the Caribbean by 2030. As a key part of their broader investment pledge, these investors will provide financing, mentoring, and advisory support to entrepreneurs in the Americas Partnership Accelerator program, a program that President Biden launched in November 2023 to link cohorts of innovative entrepreneurs in Latin America and the Caribbean to capital, knowledge, and networks that will help bring their business ideas to life. National Security Advisor Sullivan
reiterated the United States' commitment to support efforts that build entrepreneurial capacity, encourage innovation, and drive inclusive growth in our hemisphere.
U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power, foreign ministers and senior officials of the eleven other Americas Partnership countries, IDB Lab Chief Executive Officer Irene Arias, and members of the Americas Partnership Angel Investor Network discussed how to work together to mobilize more early-stage investments in startups offering solutions to humanity's biggest challenges, such as those in deep tech, green tech, and biotech.
Administrator Power and International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen of Canada described progress made in the Americas Partnership Accelerator programs, including the selection of the first cohort of entrepreneurs. Foreign Minister Omar Paganini of Uruguay described the activities and goals of the Network and encouraged the roundtable participants to expand it to include more angel and venture capital impact investors from throughout the region.
Readout of National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s Meeting to Inaugurate the Americas Partnership Angel Investor Network
Readout of National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s Meeting to Inaugurate the Americas Partnership Angel Investor Network
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan hosted the inaugural meeting of the Angel Investor Network announced by President Joe Biden, Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in November 2023 under the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity [Americas Partnership]. At the meeting, the diverse group of experienced and successful angel and venture capital investors pledged to collectively invest more than $1 billion in early-stage companies and entrepreneurs in Latin America and the Caribbean by 2030. As a key part of their broader investment pledge, these investors will provide financing, mentoring, and advisory support to entrepreneurs in the Americas Partnership Accelerator program, a program that President Biden launched in November 2023 to link cohorts of innovative entrepreneurs in Latin America and the Caribbean to capital, knowledge, and networks that will help bring their business ideas to life. National Security Advisor Sullivan reiterated the United States' commitment to support efforts that build entrepreneurial capacity, encourage innovation, and drive inclusive growth in our hemisphere.
U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power, foreign ministers and senior officials of the eleven other Americas Partnership countries, IDB Lab Chief Executive Officer Irene Arias, and members of the Americas Partnership Angel Investor Network discussed how to work together to mobilize more early-stage investments in startups offering solutions to humanity's biggest challenges, such as those in deep tech, green tech, and biotech.
Administrator Power and International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen of Canada described progress made in the Americas Partnership Accelerator programs, including the selection of the first cohort of entrepreneurs. Foreign Minister Omar Paganini of Uruguay described the activities and goals of the Network and encouraged the roundtable participants to expand it to include more angel and venture capital impact investors from throughout the region.
Executive Order on White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity Through Hispanic-Serving Institutions
Executive Order on White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity Through Hispanic-Serving Institutions
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to advance equity in economic and educational opportunities, strengthen the capacity of Hispanic-Serving Institutions [HSIs] to provide a high-quality education, increase opportunities for these institutions to participate in and benefit from Federal programs, and ensure that HSIs can continue to be engines of educational opportunity and economic mobility, it is hereby ordered as follows
Section 1. Policy. Hispanic-Serving Institutions have a history of expanding educational opportunities for generations of Hispanic and Latino students. As defined in section 502[a)(5] of the Higher Education Act of 1965 [20 U.S.C. 1101a(a][5)), HSIs are institutions of higher education that have an enrollment of at least 25 percent Hispanic undergraduate full-time-equivalent students and satisfy other criteria, including with respect to enrollment of needy students and expenditures per full-time-equivalent undergraduate student.
Today, more than 500 HSIs, located in 27 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, serve more than 4.7 million students annually. Hispanic-Serving Institutions vary in size; support a range of academic interests; and serve urban, rural, and suburban communities. Over half of Hispanic and Latino postsecondary students in America attend an HSI, and nearly 40 percent of those students attend a 2-year HSI. Hispanic-Serving Institutions serve a significant number of students from low-income backgrounds. Students enrolled at HSIs account for approximately 30 percent of all Pell Grant recipients, even though these colleges and universities make up only 13 percent of all postsecondary degree-granting institutions. Further, HSIs can play a critical role in fostering diversity in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. Notably, 69 percent of doctoral students in HSIs are enrolled in science- and engineering-related degrees, highlighting the significant role HSIs can play in ensuring a workforce that meets the Nation's evolving needs in technical fields.
As Hispanic and Latino college enrollment has grown to historic levels over the last few decades, so has the number of HSIs, making HSIs' success vital to the strength of the Nation. These institutions are creating and implementing evidence-based practices that lead to Hispanic and Latino student success.
Despite the fact that HSIs represent a large and fast-growing segment of the Nation's colleges and universities, per-student Federal funding at HSIs is 25 percent less than at other degree-granting institutions. Over the last 30 years, the number of HSIs has more than doubled and Hispanic or Latino student enrollment at HSIs has more than tripled. But per-student Federal funding at HSIs remains low compared to degree-granting institutions generally, and many HSIs report having unmet physical and digital infrastructure needs. This scarcity of resources often leaves HSIs at a disadvantage when compared with better-resourced institutions. Students, faculty, and staff at under-resourced HSIs often face challenges in accessing the resources they need to excel.
Despite these funding disparities, research has shown that HSIs tend to do more for Hispanic and Latino student success than non-HSI colleges and universities — and do so with fewer resources. Many HSIs are leaders in promoting economic mobility for Hispanic and Latino students, including by closing college access, completion, and success gaps. Hispanic-Serving Institutions could further improve outcomes for students if they were adequately funded. The Federal Government must strengthen the capacity of HSIs to improve and expand their reach, while recognizing that HSIs face discrete challenges and opportunities that reflect their history and the communities they serve.
As set forth in Executive Order 14045 of September 13, 2021 (White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics], the Federal Government must collaborate with Hispanic and Latino communities to ensure their long-term success, including by eliminating barriers to Federal funding and strengthening the capacity of HSIs. This order builds on those policies by establishing the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity Through Hispanic-Serving Institutions and the President's Board of Advisors on Hispanic-Serving Institutions.
It is the policy of my Administration to advance educational equity, excellence, and economic opportunity through strong partnerships with HSIs to ensure that they have access to Federal resources to help current and future generations of students succeed. The Federal Government must collaborate with HSIs and the students, families, and communities they serve to address and overcome barriers that may impede educational attainment and upward economic mobility. Strengthening the capacity of the Nation's HSIs is critical to fulfilling that objective.
Sec. 2. White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity Through Hispanic-Serving Institutions. [a) In furtherance of the policy set forth in section 1 of this order, there is established within the Department of Education (Department] the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity Through Hispanic-Serving Institutions [Initiative], of which the Secretary of Education [Secretary] shall serve as Chair. The Secretary shall designate an Executive Director for the Initiative [Executive Director]. The Executive Director shall manage the day-to-day operations of the Initiative, in consultation with the Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, as appropriate, and coordinate with senior officials in the Executive Office of the President, who shall lend their expertise and advice to the Initiative.
[b) The Initiative shall advance educational equity, excellence, and economic opportunity through HSIs by focusing on the following goals:
(i] identifying and promoting the availability of Federal programs and resources to enhance HSIs' educational capacity, including with respect to research and infrastructure development, while also breaking down barriers and expanding pathways for HSIs to access such programs and resources;
[ii) identifying best practices for HSIs on developing, implementing, expanding, and sustaining strategies, programs, and initiatives that support the educational success and economic mobility of their students;
(iii] improving the ability of HSIs to align their program offerings with the Nation's economic needs and promote opportunities for careers in critical professions, with an emphasis on increasing the number of students preparing for careers in in-demand and high-wage fields, such as science, technology, engineering, and math, as well as teaching, including bilingual and multilingual education;
[iv) coordinating efforts to improve the fiscal security of HSIs;
(v] developing new relationships, and fostering collaboration, among HSIs and philanthropic organizations, public- and private-sector organizations, elementary and secondary education providers, labor unions, and other entities to improve postsecondary affordability and degree attainment, pathways for students to enroll in HSIs, career preparation at HSIs, and employment opportunities that advance economic mobility for HSI students and graduates;
[vi) strengthening Federal recruitment activities at HSIs to build accessible and equitable pathways into Federal career opportunities for HSI students, faculty, staff, and alumni;
(vii] encouraging HSIs, as institutions that provide students with degrees that lead to upward economic mobility, to participate in Federal policymaking processes;
[viii] encouraging the development of highly qualified, diverse, multilingual, and culturally responsive educators who support and instruct HSI students and contribute to effectively meeting those students' social, emotional, and academic needs; and
[ix) providing data, tools, and analytics to support HSIs in improving educational equity, excellence, and economic opportunity for students.
(c] On an annual basis, the Executive Director, in consultation with the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, shall report to the President on the Initiative's progress in carrying out its mission and function under this order.
[d) The Executive Director shall meet regularly with HSI students, leaders, and other representatives to discuss matters related to the Initiative's mission and function.
(e] The Department shall provide funding and administrative support for the Initiative to the extent permitted by law and within existing appropriations. To the extent permitted by law, including the Economy Act [31 U.S.C. 1535], and subject to the availability of appropriations, other executive departments and agencies [agencies] and offices may detail personnel to the Initiative to assist the Department in meeting the objectives of this order.
[f) To advance shared priorities and policies that advance educational equity, excellence, and economic opportunity through HSIs, the Initiative shall collaborate and coordinate with other White House Initiatives, including by sharing best practices on improving student success — including the success of Hispanic and Latino students — between HSIs and other institutions of higher education.
Sec. 3. President's Board of Advisors on Hispanic-Serving Institutions. (a] In furtherance of the policy described in section 1 of this order, there is established within the Department the President's Board of Advisors on Hispanic-Serving Institutions [Board].
[b) The Board shall consist of not more than 21 members, appointed by the President, and may include individuals who serve as representatives of their respective organizations and institutions, such as educational institutions, educational advocacy organizations, labor organizations, research institutions, public and private philanthropic organizations, private-sector organizations, nonprofit organizations, and community-based organizations. Members of the Board should be knowledgeable about the experiences of those who attend, work for, and work to strengthen HSIs.
(c] The President shall designate one member of the Board to serve as its Chair, and may designate another member of the Board to serve as Vice Chair. The Chair, in consultation with the Executive Director of the Initiative, shall convene regular meetings of the Board, determine the Board meeting agenda, and support the work of the Board consistent with this order.
[d) The Department shall provide funding and administrative support for the Board to the extent permitted by law and within existing appropriations. Members of the Board shall serve without compensation, but may be allowed travel expenses, including per diem in lieu of subsistence, as authorized by law for persons serving intermittently in the Government service (5 U.S.C. 5701-5707]. Insofar as chapter 10 of title 5, United States Code [commonly known as the Federal Advisory Committee Act], may apply to the Board, any functions of the President under that Act, except that of reporting to the Congress, shall be performed by the Secretary, in accordance with guidelines issued by the Administrator of General Services.
[e) The Board shall provide advice to the President through the Secretary on how to advance the policy goals set forth in section 2(b] of this order, including with respect to:
[i) increasing the visibility of and participation by HSIs in Federal policymaking, including participation in Federal grant review processes;
(ii] providing HSIs, including those that have newly satisfied the criteria for the statutory definition, information about and access to Federal programs and Federal resources;
[iii] supporting the development of institutions on an enrollment trajectory to become an HSI, such as through mentorship with existing HSIs and sharing of best practices on how to improve the fiscal security of HSIs; and
[iv) establishing partnerships between HSIs and philanthropic organizations, public- and private-sector organizations, elementary and secondary education schools and their school districts, and labor unions.
(f] The Board shall periodically report to the President, through the Secretary and after consulting with the Executive Director, on the Board's progress in carrying out its mission and function under this order.
Sec. 4. Administrative Provisions. [a) As used in this order, the terms "Hispanic-Serving Institutions" and "HSIs" mean those institutions that meet the definition of "Hispanic-serving institution" in section 502(a][5) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1101a(a][5)).
(b] The heads of agencies shall assist and provide information to the Initiative and the Board established in this order, consistent with applicable law, as may be necessary to carry out the functions of the Initiative and the Board.
[c) Each agency shall bear its own expenses of participating in the Initiative established in this order.
Sec. 5. General Provisions. (a] Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
[i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii] the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
[b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(c] This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.
THE WHITE HOUSE,
July 17, 2024.
Statement from Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre
Statement from Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre
July 17, 2024
Earlier today following his first event in Las Vegas, President Biden tested positive for COVID-19. He is vaccinated and boosted and he is experiencing mild symptoms. He will be returning to Delaware where he will self-isolate and will continue to carry out all of his duties fully during that time. The White House will provide regular updates on the President's status as he continues to carry out the full duties of the office while in isolation.
Note from the President's Doctor:
The President presented this afternoon with upper respiratory symptoms, to include rhinorhea and non-productive cough, with general mailaise. He felt okay for his first event of the day, but given that he was not feeling better, point of care testing for COVID-19 was conducted, and the results were positive for the COVID-19 virus. Given this, the President will be self-isolating in accordance with CDC guidance for symptomatic individuals. PCR confirmation testing will be pending. His symptoms remain mild, his respiratory rate is normal at 16, his temperature is normal at 97.8 and his pulse oximetry is normal at 97%. The President has received his first dose of Paxlovid. He will be self-isolating at his home in Rehoboth.
July 17, 2024
Air Zoo Aerospace and Science Museum
Portage, Michigan
2:23 P.M. EDT
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Hello. Hi, everyone. Oh, good afternoon. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Please have a seat, everyone. Please have a seat.
It's really good to be back in Michigan. I want to thank you all for the work you're doing. I want to thank Debbie Stabenow. Where are you? She -- that extraordinary senator of yours. She's over there somewhere. There she is. Thank you, Senator. Every time, I think, I've come to the state, she's met me on the tarmac, including today. Thank you for your leadership always. Thank you.
Before we begin our conversation today with these two extraordinary leaders, I do want to discuss briefly what happened on Saturday. I've not had a chance yet to -- to publicly talk about it, but I will say a few words about the attempt on the life of former President Trump over the weekend.
As we all know, it was a heinous, horrible, and cowardly act. My husband, Doug, and I are thankful he was not seriously injured. That day, as soon as we saw what was happening, we said a prayer for his well-being. And our thoughts immediately turned to Melania, who we have met, and their family.
The bottom line is no one should have to fear for the safety of a loved one because they serve in public office.
Our heart goes out to the family of Corey Comperatore, a true hero who died protecting his family. And Doug and I, of course, are holding them close to in our hearts.
We are also wishing those who were critically injured that day a swift and full recovery.
And we are thankful to the United States Secret Service, the first responders, and local authorities. The United States of America, I believe, is the greatest democracy the world has ever known. Yes.
But in the aftermath of this weekend's shootings and -- shooting, excuse me -- one of the questions we now confront the -- one of the questions we now confront is about the way we should engage with one another in this campaign.
On Sunday evening, our President, Joe Biden, issued a call for unity. And there must be unity around the idea that while our nation's history has been scarred by political violence, violence is never acceptable. There can be no equivocation about that.
At the same time, the hallmark of American democracy, the hallmark of any democracy is a strong competition of ideas, policies, and a vision for the future. And just as we must reject political violence, we must also embrace a robust discussion about what is at stake in this election.
The surest way to reaffirm the strength of our democracy is by engaging in a vigorous and civil exchange of ideas. And one of the ideas and one of the principles that is at stake in this election is the issue of reproductive freedom. And that is why I'm here today to discuss that topic, and I look forward to our conversation.
Thank you all very much.
END 2:27 P.M. EDT
Remarks by Vice President Harris at a Political Event
Remarks by Vice President Harris at a Political Event
Air Zoo Aerospace and Science Museum
Portage, Michigan
2:23 P.M. EDT
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Hello. Hi, everyone. [Applause] Oh, good afternoon. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Please have a seat, everyone. Please have a seat.
It's really good to be back in Michigan. I want to thank you all for the work you're doing. I want to thank Debbie Stabenow. Where are you? She — that extraordinary senator of yours. [Applause] She's over there somewhere. There she is. Thank you, Senator. [Applause] Every time, I think, I've come to the state, she's met me on the tarmac, including today. Thank you for your leadership always. Thank you.
Before we begin our conversation today with these two extraordinary leaders, I do want to discuss briefly what happened on Saturday. I've not had a chance yet to — to publicly talk about it, but I will say a few words about the attempt on the life of former President Trump over the weekend.
As we all know, it was a heinous, horrible, and cowardly act. My husband, Doug, and I are thankful he was not seriously injured. That day, as soon as we saw what was happening, we said a prayer for his well-being. And our thoughts immediately turned to Melania, who we have met, and their family.
The bottom line is no one should have to fear for the safety of a loved one because they serve in public office.
Our heart goes out to the family of Corey Comperatore, a true hero who died protecting his family. And Doug and I, of course, are holding them close to in our hearts.
We are also wishing those who were critically injured that day a swift and full recovery.
And we are thankful to the United States Secret Service, the first responders, and local authorities. The United States of America, I believe, is the greatest democracy the world has ever known. [Applause] Yes.
But in the aftermath of this weekend's shootings and — shooting, excuse me — one of the questions we now confront the — one of the questions we now confront is about the way we should engage with one another in this campaign.
On Sunday evening, our President, Joe Biden, issued a call for unity. And there must be unity around the idea that while our nation's history has been scarred by political violence, violence is never acceptable. There can be no equivocation about that. [Applause]
At the same time, the hallmark of American democracy, the hallmark of any democracy is a strong competition of ideas, policies, and a vision for the future. And just as we must reject political violence, we must also embrace a robust discussion about what is at stake in this election.
The surest way to reaffirm the strength of our democracy is by engaging in a vigorous and civil exchange of ideas. And one of the ideas and one of the principles that is at stake in this election is the issue of reproductive freedom. And that is why I'm here today to discuss that topic, and I look forward to our conversation. [Applause]
Thank you all very much. [Applause]
END 2:27 P.M. EDT
July 17, 2024
On Friday, July 19, the Second Gentleman will travel to Scottsdale, AZ to deliver remarks at a campaign event. This event will be open to pre-credentialed media. Additional details to follow.
In the afternoon, as part of the Investing in America tour, the Second Gentleman will deliver remarks in Tempe, AZ. In his remarks, the Second Gentleman will highlight Biden-Harris Administration funding to improve public transportation. Please RSVP HERE by Thursday, June 18 at 11:00 AM MT if you are interested in covering this event. Additional details to follow.
Then, the Second Gentleman will tour the Valley Metro Streetcar Line. Please RSVP HERE by Thursday, June 18 at 11:00 AM MT if you are interested in covering this event. Additional details to follow.
Later in the day, the Second Gentleman will deliver remarks at a campaign event in Phoenix, AZ. This event will be open to pre-credentialed media. Additional details to follow.
In the evening, the Second Gentleman will attend the WNBA All-Star Weekend Skills Challenge and 3-Point Contest. This event will be livestreamed and open to pre-credentialed media. Additional details to follow.
July 17, 2024
AT THE 115 TH NAACP NATIONAL CONVENTION
Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada
2:09 P.M. PDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Folks, my name is Joe Biden, and I'm a lifetime member of the NAACP. And I am all in. My word, I am all in.
President Johnson, thank you for that introduction and for your leadership and, most of all, for your friendship.
And thanks to all of the thousands of members of -- across America that are here. One of the most important organizations in our country.
And a special thanks -- and I mean this sincerely -- to the members of Congress who are here, including Nevada's own Steven Horsford, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. I don't know where he is, but I know he's out there.
As so members of the CBC, members defending freedoms and -- like Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, chair -- -- chair of January 6 th Committee; and the best friend anyone can have, Jim Clyburn of South Carolina.
In case you didn't notice, Jim turned it around for me in 2020.
Look, in June of '47 -- 1947, Harry Truman became the first president to -- to speak at this convention. And he was remembered for a lot of things. With the help of the NAACP, he desegregated the military. He laid the groundwork for the civil rights agenda, and he -- built upon President Kennedy by that -- President Johnson, who signed the Civil Rights Act of '64, 60 years ago.
Harry Truman was a president who was often counted out, but he was also known for something else. The story goes, Truman said, "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog." Well, guess what? The last couple weeks -- after the last couple of weeks, I know what he means.
But that's why it's so good to have real friends. I'm not being solicitous. I have real friends. So many of you had my back, and I think I've had yours as well. And I will never forget it.
We have so- -- a couple of Delaware folks here still, and one of my best friends from when we used to -- when I was a lifeguard in the projects, he was a -- his name is -- his nickname is "Mouse." Mousy, there you are, pal. End up running the longshoremen, and loyal as hell.
I'm truly honored to be here to meet at this tense moment in this country -- and it is a tense moment -- just a few days after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. We're grateful he was not seriously injured. We continue to pray for him and his family.
It's time for an important conversation in this country. Our politics has gotten too heated. I said in the Oval Office on Sunday night, as I've made clear throughout my presidency, we all have a responsibility to lower the tempergee -- temperature and condemn violence in any form.
We've got to remember: In America, we're not enemies. We're friends. We're neighbors. We're fellow Americans.
Most importantly, we must fully and firmly reject not only political violence but violence of any kind. Period. No exceptions. We have to say with one voice that violence is not the answer. That's what we should rally around as a nation. That's the unity I'm talking about.
That's what started it. You know the pain and the price of violence. You understand, if you're going to talk about standing against violence, you must stand against all violence.
We're going to stand against violence perpetrated against presidential candidates in Pennsylvania. We must stand against all violence: the violence perpetrated against George Floyd in Minnesota -- ; against Black veterans like Police Officers Eugene Goodman on January 6 th; and Black election workers like Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss in Atlanta.
We have to stand against the violence and intimidation of white supremacy that murdered innocent lives in that grocery store in Buffalo, New York -- when I went up there -- Mother Emanuel church in Charleston, South Carolina.
We must stand against the violence that murdered children in Sandy Hook and Uvalde, concertgoers in Las Vegas, innocents on the street all across America that never make the news. There's a Uvalde every day in the communities across the country.
If you're going to be outspoken on one, don't be silent on others.
If we're going to speak about violence, we're going to speak about guns.
More children in America die of a gunshot wound than any other reason. That's stunning, and that is sick. And it's sheer cowardice if we do nothing about it.
So, if you want to stand against violence in America, then join me in getting these weapons of war off the streets of America.
An AR-15 was used at the shooting of Donald Trump, just as it was the assault weapons that killed so many others, including children. It's time to outlaw them. I did it once, and I will do it again.
Now, just because we must lower the temperature in our politics as it relates to violence, it doesn't mean we should stop telling the truth. Who you are, what you've done, what you'll do -- that's fair game.
As Harry Truman said, "I have never deliberately given anyone hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell." And that's what I'm going to do.
Well, here's the truth about why Donald Trump's presidency was hell for Black America. He tried to repeal Obamacare to kick millions -- I mean millions of Black Americans off their health insurance. He had a $2 trillion tax cut that overwhelmingly benefitted the super wealthy, the biggest corporations and exploded the federal debt larger than any one president has in one term.
He left no room for us to do what we should be doing: investing in things that affect people's lives, like childcare, eldercare, and so much more that grow the economy and help people.
His mismanagement of the pandemic was especially devastating to Black communities -- -- oh, I -- I know becau- -- and other countries -- other communities of color. That economic crisis drove up Black unemployment, decimated small Black businesses.
And you peacefully protested George Floyd's murder; Donald Trump called for the National Guard to go after you. What in the hell is the matter with this man? No, I'm serious.
Go figure, from the guy who spread the "birthism" lie against Barack Obama, saying he wasn't born in America and he wasn't a U.S. citizen.
Of course, here's what he thinks of "Black jobs." I love his phrase, "Black jobs." It tells a lot about the man and about his character.
Folks, I know what a Black job is. It's the vice president of the United States.
I know what a Black job is: the first Black president in American history, Barack Obama.
I was vice president to Barack, and she is my vice president.
I nominated the first Black Secretary of Defense in America history, and he's doing one hell of a job. I nominated the first Black woman to the United States Supreme Court. It matters. It matters.
And I promised myself and I promised America that my administration would look like America. And I'm proud that we have the most diverse administration in all of history that taps into the full talents of our nation. That's who we are. These guys don't get it. That's why we're so successful. No, I'm serious. That's what makes us the greatest nation on Earth. That's not hyperbole.
Folks, it's because of you that I am president and Kamala Harris is vice president.
And, by the way, she's not only a great vice president; she could be president of the United States.
AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. With th- -- with the help -- with the help of the NAACP, the Black elected members in the Congress, we've gotten so much done. Seriously. Presidential historians said we've gotten more done of consequence than any president since Franklin Roosevelt.
Just think about where the Black community was when we -- community was when I came into office. Think about how far the Black community has come. But we've still got a long way to go.
COVID no longer controls our lives. Our economy is -- not figuratively, literally -- the strongest economy in the world. Historic low Black unemployment. Record growth in Black small businesses.
And let me say this again, because Trump is lying like hell about it. The Black unemployment hit a record low under Biden-Harris administration.
The first bill I passed, we put $1,400 checks, plus $300 checks per child, per family, per month in the pockets of people in this country to get them through the pandemic. Not Trump's administration -- Kamala and I did that. We put more money in the pockets of -- than anyone. We cut Black -- and, of consequence, we cut Black child poverty in half.
And what we're finally getting through to people: My economic policy grows the economy when we spend money -- grows it. We grew the American economy to the strongest in the world. And I'm determined to make that tax cut permanent. No child should ever go hungry in America.
And, by the way, all the data shows if we -- they can't let them tell us we drive up deficits. They drive up deficits, folks.
When you have childcare, guess what? Mom or Dad can work -- -- and the child can be safe.
We're connecting Black neighborhoods that were cut off when old highways and disinvestment decades ago.
My city of Wilmington, Delaware: I-95 runs up through what used to be the Black community, divided it. It's six lanes wide. We're going to make sure that if the states want it, we're going to be able to pave over the top of that and still have the highway -- connecting neighborhoods.
We're removing, which is costly, every poisonous lead pipe in a house in America so every child can drink clean water without fear of brain damage.
We're delivering high-speed and affordable broadband. No child should have to sit out in a parking lot with their moms in front of a McDonald's so they can get online to do their homework.
And because of you, we're not only protecting Obamacare, you allowed me to increase it, making health care more affordable. We're putting -- and, by the way, more than it's ever been -- more than it's ever been. Millions of African Americans have -- now have health care because of what we've done.
We're putting homeownership -- -- homeownership within reach.
How do you generate generational wealth no matter what community you're from? I know how we did it when we -- when everything got stuck in Scranton and we had no jobs; we moved to Delaware. Dad worked like hell so he could get a down payment to buy a small house. That's how you build equity. A small -- it was a three-bedroom, split-level home, with four kids and a grandpop living with us, but it was a home. And he was able to build some equity.
Look, we're making the most significant investment in climate ever in all of history -- -- including the most significant action on environmental justice ever.
Look, folks, think about this. My state of Delaware, if you know -- you don't -- not many of you don't know my state. My state of Delaware has the Delaware River that runs up along and --
AUDIENCE MEMBER: .
THE PRESIDENT: -- is jagged. But at the top of the state, there's a half-moon, and it goes up along more oil refineries on the other side of that half-moon, in Marcus Hook and areas, than anywhere in the country, including Houston.
And guess what? The wind blows southeast. We had the highest cancer rate for the longest time. But you know who was affected? Fence-line communities. Do you know who the fence-line communities are? Black communities.
And I promised, as we make this legislation work, we're going to take care of those communities first -- first, first, first. I mean it. The same way in Louisiana. The same way in other places.
Look, we -- we relieved student debt for more than 4 million borrowers. A significant amount are Black borrowers. I don't know how many have called me to say, "Mr. President, we're god -- gave" -- I've gotten phone numbers; I've called them back -- "Mr. President, thank you. I couldn't get married; my debt was so large." "We couldn't have children." "I couldn't think of" -- No, I'm serious. You know it. "I couldn't buy a home, but what you did: You freed me of my debt and -- and you gave me 10,000 bucks for a down payment on a home."
In this Project 2024, Trump's -- 2025, Trump's deal -- you know, he talks about education. HBCUs are as good as any other university. Guess what the problem is? No, I'm serious. Not a joke.
And Kamala and I have a constant fight: She says -- she says Howard is the best; I say Delaware State is the best, because that's -- -- because that's where I got my start.
But my point is this. My point is this: They don't have the endowment. So, what are the jobs of the future -- the high-tech jobs of the future? They're going to pay a lot of money. They don't have the money for the laboratories, don't have the money for all that material.
So, that's why I've invested a s- -- rech- -- record $16 billion in HBCUs -- -- because no HBCU student is any less qualified than any student anywhere else.
And, by the way, we're making sure that no one goes to jail for the mere use or possession of marijuana. Their records should be expunged. It holds them back.
All told, because of you, the NAACP, we're making the most significant investments in Black America ever in all of history. We're seeing the results.
The racial wealth gap is the lowest it's been in 20 years.
Inflation is down in three years and coming down further, and we're going to have, as they say, a "soft landing."
Folks, you're going to see us grow faster and faster. That's not just my view. It's a view of 16 Nobel Prize-winning economists, who put out a statement looking at my economic plan and Trump's. They said my plan will continue to lower inflation, continue to grow the economy. Prices are falling for cars, appliances, and groceries. We're going to keep co- -- corporate greed at the -- at -- at bay.
But here's the thing, what they said about Trump -- they said his policies will cause a recession. No, this is a -- and -- and, by the way, these aren't -- these are not a Democratic outfit -- 16 Nobel laureates.
Look, and we're going to -- I come from the corporate state of the world, Delaware. I know how they work. There's more corporations incorporated in my state than any state in America, all combined. But let's what? We have to deal with corporate greed now. No, it is. Corporate profits are double since the pandemic, and they keep bringing prices down -- we have to bring prices down further.
That debate is taking place.
The bottom line is we're just getting started.
Well, no, it's not enough to talk about the past. We need a vision for the future.
Here is my plan for the first 100 days in a second term: Kamala and I are calling on Congress to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. I did all that I was constitutionally able to do with executive authority, but we need the act. And we need to pass the Freedom to Vote Act. And I will sign them both into law immediately.
And guess what? Come hell or high water, we're going to restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land.
AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
THE PRESIDENT: I know -- I know you say, "Joe, you may not have a Congress." Well, guess what? You all told me I couldn't pass the Inflation Reduction Act. You all told me I couldn't face the -- anyway, we did it -- -- with your help.
Republicans blocked police reform in Congress, so I signed a hista- -- a historic executive order on police reform.
We're not only going to stop MAGA Republicans, we're going to stop them and their program on 2025. We're going to stop them from cutting Social Security and Medicare. I'm going to expand Social Security and Medicare by making the very wealthy begin to pay their share.
We're going to bring rents down, as I said. We're going to build 2 million affordable homes and cap rent increases at 5 percent a year so corporate landlords can't gau- -- anyway, I don't want to get going. I'm going to get very upset. But what they're -- they're just gouging Americans.
And we're going to keep relieving student debt.
And we're going to end medical debt. We've already made sure medical debt can no longer be put on a credit report. Well, I'm working with states to wipe out medical debt for pennies on the dollar so it's not hanging over you the rest of your life.
We're going to raise the federal minimum wage.
Our first term, we capped the cost of insulin for seniors at $35; total -- total drug costs for seniors, beginning in 2024 -- -5 at $2,000 for -- and some of those cancer drugs are $10-, $12-, $14,000 a year. But the second term, we're going to do that for not just seniors -- for everyone in America.
And, by the way, it not only saves lives. It will save taxpayers, just what I did on the first round on deal- -- dealing with Medicare. It saves the taxpayer $160 billion -- -- because they don't have to pay these exorbitant prices to these -- anyway, I won't --
This year, Medicare is negotiating lower prices for some of the costliest drugs on the market that threats everything for -- that treats everything from heart disease to arthritis. In the next term, we want to go further: give Medicare the power to negotiate lower prices for 50 drugs a year, not 10. That not only will save lives, it's estimated to save the taxpayer another $200 billion a year. This is saving taxpayers money.
And, by the way, if you notice, all the stuff they said -- "Big spendin' Biden" -- we have lowered the deficit, not raised it. We've increased economic growth.
Folks, here's what else I'm determined to do. I'm determined to end Tump's trac- -- Trump's tax cuts for the very wealthy and big corporations and make the tax code fair and ease the burden on working people.
I kept my commitment that no one making less than $400,000 -- which I never saw in my life until I got elected president -- will pay a penny more in federal taxes.
But here's the deal, we have in America, since the pandemic, 1,000 billionaires -- 1,000. You know how much in federal tax they pay? 8.2 percent. That's their federal tax: 8.2 percent.
We're going to make billionaires pay a minimum of 25 percent, which is low. No billionaire should pay a lower tax rate than a teacher, a firefighter, or a nurse, a janitor. That's simply ridiculous. And when we do that, that alone will generate $500 billion in revenue over the next 10 years, allowing us lower costs for families and save the government money. We on can do more eldercare and childcare, bringing down the federal deficit, and so much more.
This is not rocket science, folks. But they've convinced us that any spending of money is costly. It's saving money. I -- God's truth, it's saving money. And it's vitally important.
You know, the next president of the United States could appoint two or more justices to the Supreme Court. Just imagine. I know the stakes.
Folks, my vision for the future will continue to be all about the working people in this nation. In all, I've -- my whole career, you can go back and look at it. I've not been perfect by any stretch of the imagination. But a simple proposition -- the family I come from, the neighborhood I come from: Everybody deserves a shot -- just a shot, no guarantee. Give hate no safe harbor. Leave no one behind.
And that's in stark contrast to my predecessor and the MAGA officials. They'll do everything -- undo everything the NAACP stands for. But now, they're trying to deny it. They're lying about their Project 2025.
They want to deny you freedom: the freedom to vote, have your vote counted.
They would impose a nationwide ban on abortion. His new vice president -- you ever had any doubt, man, just take a look at what he's been saying.
They want to prosecute political enemies.
They'd want to cut Social Security and Medicare; rip away protections for millions of preexisting conditions -- over 400 million people; stop Medicare from negotiating lower prescription drug prices -- risking people's lives, costing the government more money.
They would eliminate the Department of Education.
AUDIENCE: Booo --
THE PRESIDENT: No, you ought to read it. Saying it's a state issue. Give me a break. A state -- we know how well we do with the states.
They would cut school lunches, eliminate the Head Start program for lower-income children.
They'd allow employees to stop paying overtime -- employers to stop paying -- catch this one -- to stop paying overtime to hourly workers. They're such good people. But give the very wealthy a big corporate -- and corporations a new tax cut.
They've already evisevated -- eviscerated affirmative action.
They'd also de- -- decimate diversity, equity, and inclusion all across American life. They're already trying to do it. By banning books, they're trying to erase Black history. Black history is American history. Folks, I'm not being dramatic here. We cannot let that happen.
That's why it's so important to me -- it was so important to me to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. They can't erase it. Now people are going to know what happened on Juneteenth.
And that's why I made federal -- lynching a federal hate crime in Emmett Till's memory, and that's where you're being reminded -- -- remember what they tried to do? -- as well as establish national monuments for Mamie and Emmett Till, and so much more, so there's no doubt about what's happening.
Look, folks, as I've said before, we know Black history is American history. It's as simple as that.
Let me close with this. tells us, "I've been young, and now I'm old; yet, I have not seen the righteous forsaken." I have not seen righteous forsaken, and I will not see the righteous forsaken.
Hopefully, with age, I've demonstrated a little bit of wisdom.
Here's what I do know: I know how to tell the truth.
I know right from wrong.
I know how to do this job.
And I know the good Lord hasn't brought us this far to leave us now.
We have more work to do. This is a moment to be engaged. The work wer- -- you're doing to recruit hundreds of thousands of volunteers, move millions of people to the make their voices heard may well determine America's future for decades to come. And, folks, that's important.
We must all be defenders for freedom, justice, equality, and the bedrock of democracy.
And there's been no more important voice in that truth than the voices of the Black community. I mean it.
And when America has failed to live up to what we say we believe, you don't give up hope, nor do I. We've always loved this country, even when it has not loved us back. We've worked hard -- hard as hell.
Just think about it. Our children, your children, our grandchildren -- ask yourself: What America do you want to leave them?
My answer is an America of hope, fairness, opportunity, possibilities.
Look, I spent more time with Xi Jinping of China than any oth- -- any other world leader has. I was with him in the -- in -- in China, on the steps of the mountains, and he looked at me and he said, "Can you define America for me?" This is the God's truth. And I said -- it's recorded. I said, "Yes, in one word, America: possibilities."
Nothing is beyond our capacity. America, where it's full of promises, available to everybody. America, where racism and violence are no longer the ghost that have too long haunted the nation.
Folks, this is about you and your families and everything the NAACP has stood for for a generation: freedom, democracy, America. Always marching, always believing, always keeping the faith.
We're going to do this.
So, let me ask you, are you all in?
AUDIENCE: All in!
THE PRESIDENT: Because I'm all in.
We just have to remember who we are. We are the United States of America, and there is nothing -- nothing beyond our capacity when we do it together. And let's stay together.
God bless you all. And may God protect our troops.
2:40 P.M. PDT
July 17, 2024
IN ECONOMIC SUMMIT
College of Southern Nevada
North Las Vegas, Nevada
4:19 P.M. PDT
THE PRESIDENT: Hello, hello, hello.
AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, thank you, thank you.
AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Steven, for hosting this summit. You're a good friend, and I'm always grateful for your leadership. And I mean that sincerely.
And thanks to all of you for being here. You're part of an economy that I've always believed in and we're finally building.
The days of failed trickle-down economics are over. We're building an economy from the middle out and the bottom up so that when that happens, the middle class does well, the poor have a shot, and the wealthy still do very well.
We're also providing and proving that Wall Street didn't build America. The middle class built America, and unions built the middle class.
And our plan is working. For example, my administration has announced today that Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority and the City of Las Vegas will receive, as pointed out, a $50 million grant, allowing the city to renovate and build hundreds of affordable housing units; invest in early learning, which studies show increase the prospects that three and four and five years old being able to finish high school and go all the way on to community college -- ; to continue to support small businesses that are really the -- small business makes up half the economy, not just the Fortune 500. Small businesses makes up half the economic growth in America.
And I want to thank Steven for his leadership on all of this.
You know, it grows the economy. It's what we've been doing from the start.
We inherited a pandemic and a historic economic crisis. As soon I came into office, I signed the American Rescue Plan to turn things around.
For example, it funded $1 billion for Nevada to help boost affordable housing; help 8 million families avoid foreclosure and eviction -- -- stay in their home when they had little or no income in the depths of the pandemic. And now, 8,000 new homes are being built across Clark County for families, seniors, and veterans.
This grows the economy. It grows the economy. But that's not all.
We're continuing to take corporate greed -- take it on, getting our rents down.
On my watch, America has been building more houses and apartments than at any time during the Trump presidency.
And Steven's help, a few months ago, I came here to Nevada and announced the boldest housing plan in a generation to make housing more affordable for working families. That includes building 2 million more homes, providing $10,000 tax credit for middle-class families buying their first home with incomes under $200,000 a year.
It' going to help lower housing costs. It's going to help people start to build wealth.
And today, my administration is sending a very clear message to the corporate landlords: We are going to cap rent increases at no more than 5 percent a year. Period. And we're letting them know, if they abuse the system, you'll lose valuable federal tax breaks.
And we also just announced a new initiative to re- -- repurpose federal lands that we no longer need to build affordable housing. Here in Nevada, that would support 15,000 or more affordable homes.
It matters. This matters.
As soon as we came to office, we also changed the way the Pay- -- Paycheck -- Paycheck Protection Act worked under my predecessor, when he favored big businesses to qualify over mom-and-pop businesses. We moved women- and minority-owned business and the small businesses to the front of the line instead of keeping them at the back of the line, as my predecessor did. This grows the economy.
We increased funding for Minority Business [DEL: and :DEL] Development Agency, which my predecessor tried to eliminate. By increasing funding, we can help even more entrepreneurs from underserved communities grow and expand their businesses.
We're increasing the share of federal contract dollars going to small or disadvantaged businesses from 10 percent to 15 percent of all the funding that's available, and this grows the economy.
In addition, we're relieving student debt for borrowers across Nevada. The Supreme Court blocked my original plan to help more than 40 million working- and middle-class American students get relief, but they couldn't stop me.
For example, I took the existing loan forgiveness program for public servants -- teachers, nurses, firefighters, police, et cetera -- and made it work, which says that if you've worked for 10 years in those professions and you paid your -- what you owed for your student loan, at the end of 10 years, it's wiped out. This is good for the economy because it helps folks who are doing the right thing and -- finally be able to start businesses, start families, start homes, build generational .
Don't know how many letters I've gotten from -- in to the White House. "Dear Mr. President, my student debt hung over me like a -- like a -- like a lead balloon. It kept me from being able to get married. It kept us from being able to have a child. I wasn't able to even begin to buy a home. And this has all changed." People just want a shot.
But take a close look at what Trump and the MAGA Republicans are proposing in Trump's Project 2025.
They'd cut off funding for all Hispanic-saving institutions -- ser- -- all Hispanic-serving institutions, including community colleges like the College of Southern Nevada, where we are here today.
They would repeal my Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that's already invested $3.7 billion for Nevada, right here in this state, like America first high-speed rail line that's going to take you from Las Vegas to Los Angeles in two hours; create over thre- -- three hun- -- 30,000 jobs; and -- guess what? -- save billions of tons of -- because of -- of pollution, because people have -- when they -- all the studies show, when you can get from point A to point B in a train or a veh- -- vehicle at the same distance, you take the train.
The law also invested $90 million to replace poisonous lead pipes here in Nevada so every child can turn on a faucet and drink clean water without fear of getting brain damage because of what's going on.
We're doing the same thing by delivering affordable high-speed broadband to every Nevadan.
Remember how Trump promised "Infrastructure Week" every week for four years? He didn't build a damn thing -- -- nothing.
Now his Project 2025 repeals all we're doing. That's what he wants to do.
The bottom of the line is this: Because Trump -- because Trump failed in handling the pandemic, lives were lost and our economy tanked.
And now we've back. Jobs are up. Wages are up. Tourism is back. The economy is growing. Inflation is down and continues to go down.
And 16 Nobel laureates, last week, put out a pa- -- paper saying that America economy is going to grow under me and inflation will continue to go down. But they say, under Trump's plan, these same economists say, we'll fall into recession and inflation will be -- badly damage hard-working Americans.
In fact, Trump is calling for a 10 percent tariff on everything imported into America, including basic necessities like fruits, vegetables, coffee, and more. The economists tell us his plan would cost working families a new tax of $2,500 a year. We can't let that happen.
And, by the way, these aren't liberal economists. These are Wall Street Journal econom- -- these are economists from the major institutions in America.
We have more to do. That's why I'm determined to finish this job.
Look, let me tell you my 100-day agenda. And I'm not going to keep you real long.
We're going to make sure you own more and you owe less. That means going to -- -- it means we're going to keep relusing -- relieving student debt.
We're going to end medical debt. We already made sure medical debt can no longer be put on a credit report. We also work with states to wipe out medical debt for pennies on the dollar.
We're going to raise the fe- -- the federal minimum wage.
We're going to pass the PRO Act and end union busting once and for all.
As was mentioned, we capped the cost of insulin for seniors at $35 a month and total drug costs beginning in next Sept- -- in Septem- -- excuse me, in January, the total drug costs at $2,000 a year, no matter how much they spend, because a lot of them now need cancer drugs, need heart medicines that range from anywhere from 2,000 bucks a year to fifteen thou- -- to 4,000 bucks a year, to 10,000 bucks, to 12.
The second term, we're going to make sure that's -- not only exists, but for every single American -- every American. Folks, and that's not going to cost the government money. It saves the government money.
By the way, these reforms save the lives of taxpayers, but they also save the government -- just what we've done so far -- $160 billion. Savings. And -- and people don't focus on it.
But here's the deal. Instead of Medicare having to pay out $400 for insulin, the -- Medicare only has to pay out $35. It just is a giant savings.
This year, Medicare is negotiating lower prices for some of the costliest drugs on the market that treat everything from heart disease to arthritis.
In a next term, we want to go further and give Medicare the power to negotiate lower prices for 50 drugs a year for the next 10 years. That will not only save lives; it will save the taxpayers another estimated $200 billion.
But get this, Trump would give the power back to Big Pharma to charge whatever they want.
He also wants to "terminate" -- I love his phrasing -- terminate the Affordable Care Act, which means the average family would pay $13,000 more a year for health care. Because guess what? They can't get coverage if they don't have the Affordable Care Act because they may have a preexisting condition. That means 3 million Black Americans, 4 million Latinos, 1 million Asian Americans will be -- will be robbed of their health care coverage.
Look, I'm taking the most significant action ever on climate. That includes bringing relief to millions of -- suffering from the biggest weather killer of all in America: extreme heat.
This -- I must tell you, this surprised me when I learned it about si- -- no, about eight months ago. If you add up hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes -- everything, more people die from extreme heat than all those other natural events combined.
And look what it costs. It costs money for people to have air conditioning. It costs money for people to have the ability to turn on what they need.
Meanwhile, Trump says he doesn't believe climate change is real. Maybe he should step out here in Vegas -- -- when it's 120 degrees in his bare feet.
Look, we're going to end Trump's -- -- I don't want to get going here. We're going to end Trump's tax cuts for the very wealthy and big corporations so they start paying their fair share.
I kept my commitment so no one could say I was going after people with money. I kept my commitment that no one making less than $400,000 a year would pay a single penny more in federal taxes.
There are 1,000 billionaires in America. Right now, you know what their average cost of their -- how much they pay in federal taxes? 8.2 percent. 8.2 percent.
I'm going to make sure billionaires have to pay a minimum of 25 percent -- -- which isn't even in the highest [b]racket.
No billionaire should pay a tax rate lower than a teacher, a firefighter, or a nurse -- someone working like a .
You know what that one thing will do when we get it done? It will generate $500 billion in revenues over the next 10 years, allowing -- allowing us to do more for childcare, eldercare, bring down the federal deficit, and so much more.
And, by the way, what happens when people don't have to worry about what's going to happen to their child if they go to work and they have childcare? The economy grows. It grows. It grows.
I signed the American Rescue Plan into law within months of coming to office. I put $1,400 checks into pockets; expanded the Child Tax Credit, sending $300 checks per child per family per month into the pockets to help them get through this pandemic. I cut child poverty in half for Black families, Latinos, and Asian, and Tribal communities.
The Republicans let it expire. I want to reinstate the -- I want to reinstate and make the Child Care Tax Credit permanent -- permanent.
There's so much more I want to say to you, but I'm resisting. I'm told I should be -- shorten this up a little bit.
Let me close with this. I look at all of you and I see your talent, your dedication. Most of all, I see the dignity of your work.
That's why I can honestly say -- honest to God, I've never been more optimistic about America's prospects than I am now -- never.
We just have to remember who we are. We're the United States of America. There is nothing -- nothing beyond our capacity when we do it together and work together, and that's what we're going to do.
God bless you all. And may God protect our troops.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
We can do this, folks. We're the Democratic Party; we can do it.
4:34 P.M. PDT
July 17, 2024
Today, the U.S. Navy is righting an historic wrong by announcing the exoneration of 258 Black Sailors who were unjustly tried and convicted of mutiny and disobeying orders following the tragic explosion at Port Chicago, California nearly 80 years ago. At the time, future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall represented the "Port Chicago 50" in their appeal of their courts-martial convictions, writing that, "justice can only be done in this case by a complete reversal of findings." With this action, we are answering that call.
On July 17, 1944, two U.S. Navy ships were destroyed when the S.S. E.A. Bryan cargo ship exploded at Port Chicago while being loaded with ammunition. This explosion, the deadliest home-front disaster in the U.S. during World War II, led to the tragic deaths of 320 Sailors and civilians, with hundreds more injured. In the wake of that tragedy, Black Sailors were required to clean up the carnage and return to the dangerous work of handling munitions without adequate training and protective equipment while white Sailors were granted leave. In the face of this injustice, 258 Black Sailors refused orders to load ammunition and soon after were convicted at courts-martials for disobeying orders and mutiny.
After conducting a careful and deliberative review, the U.S. Navy has determined that the courts-martials for all 258 Black Sailors were fundamentally unfair, plagued by legal errors, and tainted by racial discrimination. Today's announcement marks the end of a long and arduous journey for these Black Sailors and their families, who fought for a nation that denied them equal justice under law. May we all remember their courage, sacrifice, and service to our Nation.
July 17, 2024
Readout of Interagency Delegation Travel to Papua New Guinea
A U.S. interagency delegation comprising of senior members of the National Security Council staff, the Departments of State and Defense, U.S. Agency for International Development , and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command traveled to Papua New Guinea, July 14-16, 2024, for meetings with senior Papua New Guinea officials focused on deepening our bilateral relationship, including through the US-PNG Defense Cooperation Agreement. The delegation presented a number of new initiatives responsive to Papua New Guinea's most pressing development and security priorities, advancing this critical Pacific partnership.
The delegation underscored U.S. commitment to PNG through new and sustained initiatives in a whole-of-government approach to: accelerate implementation of new projects linked to the Defense Cooperation Agreement; deployment of civil affairs and medical training teams to Papua New Guinea; work to help resolve the ongoing fuel crisis through government and private sector initiatives; support to PNG's efforts to boost its electricity connectivity through the PNG Electrification Project; partnerships to enhance disaster preparedness and response; grants to increase professional development and educational exchanges; projects to improve community stability, including law enforcement capacity building and support for the prevention and response of gender-based violence through the U.S. Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability; and unprecedented Foreign Military Financing to enhance the capabilities of the PNG Defense Force.
The delegation of interagency partners included Admiral Samuel Paparo, Commander, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command; Dr. Mira Rapp-Hooper, Special Assistant to the President and National Security Council Senior Director for East Asia and Oceania; Daniel Kritenbrink, Department of State Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs; Michael Schiffer, U.S. Agency for International Development Assistant Administrator of the Bureau for Asia; and Anka Lee, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia, joined by U.S. Ambassador to Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and the Republic of Vanuatu Ann Marie Yastishock, representing the full scope of U.S. efforts in diplomacy, development, and defense to advance the U.S.-PNG strategic partnership based on shared history and values.
Readout of Interagency Delegation Travel to Papua New Guinea
Readout of Interagency Delegation Travel to Papua New Guinea
A U.S. interagency delegation comprising of senior members of the National Security Council staff, the Departments of State and Defense, U.S. Agency for International Development [USAID], and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command [INDOPACOM] traveled to Papua New Guinea, July 14-16, 2024, for meetings with senior Papua New Guinea officials focused on deepening our bilateral relationship, including through the US-PNG Defense Cooperation Agreement. The delegation presented a number of new initiatives responsive to Papua New Guinea's most pressing development and security priorities, advancing this critical Pacific partnership.
The delegation underscored U.S. commitment to PNG through new and sustained initiatives in a whole-of-government approach to: accelerate implementation of new projects linked to the Defense Cooperation Agreement; deployment of civil affairs and medical training teams to Papua New Guinea; work to help resolve the ongoing fuel crisis through government and private sector initiatives; support to PNG's efforts to boost its electricity connectivity through the PNG Electrification Project; partnerships to enhance disaster preparedness and response; grants to increase professional development and educational exchanges; projects to improve community stability, including law enforcement capacity building and support for the prevention and response of gender-based violence through the U.S. Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability; and unprecedented Foreign Military Financing to enhance the capabilities of the PNG Defense Force.
The delegation of interagency partners included Admiral Samuel Paparo, Commander, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command; Dr. Mira Rapp-Hooper, Special Assistant to the President and National Security Council Senior Director for East Asia and Oceania; Daniel Kritenbrink, Department of State Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs; Michael Schiffer, U.S. Agency for International Development Assistant Administrator of the Bureau for Asia; and Anka Lee, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia, joined by U.S. Ambassador to Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and the Republic of Vanuatu Ann Marie Yastishock, representing the full scope of U.S. efforts in diplomacy, development, and defense to advance the U.S.-PNG strategic partnership based on shared history and values.
July 17, 2024
Biden-Harris Administration announces $5 billion for new infrastructure projects and releases new tools for Americans to see how the President's actions are lowering costs and benefiting their daily lives
This week, the Biden-Harris Administration will launch its fifth Investing in America tour: Investing in America, Made in America. President Biden's Cabinet and White House officials will make over 70 stops to over 30 states across the country to highlight how President Biden's policies are lowering costs, creating good jobs, rebuilding America's infrastructure, and spurring investments in manufacturing so that goods are once again made in America by American workers. After four years of trickle-down policies that set rural communities back, with President Biden's help, today rural communities are making a comeback. The fifth Investing in America tour comes as Republican Members of Congress continue to push an extreme agenda that would raise costs on American families, cut Medicare and Social Security, and undermine policies that are driving investments in manufacturing and job creation here in America.
To kick off the tour, the White House released new tools on Invest.gov that highlight how the President's agenda is benefitting Americans' daily lives, including a Savings Explorer to show users how the Biden-Harris Administration is helping them save money on everyday costs and basic needs, and a new website page that highlights stories of Americans benefitting from Biden-Harris Administration investments in rural communities. The Biden-Harris Administration also announced $5 billion in awards for infrastructure projects to repair, reconstruct, and restore large bridges across the country. And, today the Department of Commerce announced a $400 million CHIPS and Science Act preliminary agreement with Globalwafers to manufacture semiconductor components, strengthening the domestic supply chain and creating jobs in Texas and Missouri.
White House launches new Savings Explorer on Invest.gov
This week the White House launched a new tool on Invest.gov, allowing Americans to explore how much they can save on average per year from the Biden-Harris Administration actions to lower costs - ranging from health care and home energy to education and groceries. President Biden has taken historic action to lower costs for families, including capping insulin costs at $35 for seniors, giving Medicare the power to negotiate lower prescription drug prices, lowering home energy bills for low-income Americans, canceling student loan debt for 4.75 million people, and cracking down on junk fees in banking and hospitality.
While President Biden continues to take action to lower costs for working families, Congressional Republicans continue to side with special interests to push an extreme agenda that would raise costs on working families, give tax breaks to corporations and billionaires, and cut benefits to Medicare and Social Security. President Biden vowed not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 per year and has taken steps to protect Social Security and Medicare, not weaken it.
Visit to use the Savings Explorer.
Invest.gov/Rural spotlights impact stories in rural communities
President Biden promised to be a President for all Americans, in every state and community. This week, the White House also launched a new website called Invest.gov/rural, highlighting stories of individuals, businesses, and local governments benefitting from Biden-Harris Administration investments in Rural America. It includes impact stories of specific communities - from a town in rural Georgia that is receiving funding to construct a new wastewater treatment plant to a hospital in rural Michigan that is expanding critical, life-saving emergency services thanks to funding from the American Rescue Plan.
Visit to see the impact stories.
Biden-Harris Administration announces $5 billion in awards for bridge infrastructure projects
Today, the Department of Transportation is announcing $5 billion in awards from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to reconstruct, repair, and restore 13 large bridges across the country. These bridges play a critical role in connecting communities to jobs and resources, economic development, and serve as essential corridors for freight travel. These projects will also address important safety issues and make the bridges more resilient to extreme weather, all while creating good-paying construction jobs. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg will travel to Pennsylvania to make the announcement of the awards. To date, the Biden-Harris Administration has announced over 60,000 infrastructure and clean energy projects across the country, funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, including nearly 10,000 bridge projects already underway.
Fifth Investing in America tour highlights Made in America policies and investments
The fifth Investing in America tour: Investing in America, Made in America will highlight how President Biden has unleashed unprecedented investments in the United States, creating good jobs across America, lowering costs, and spurring economic comebacks in communities too often left out or left behind. To date, over 63,000 clean energy and infrastructure projects are underway across the country, and companies have announced $877 billion in private sector manufacturing and clean energy investments. Biden-Harris Administration has taken historic steps to bolster domestic manufacturing of semiconductors, electric vehicles and component materials, clean technology, fiber optic cable, and infrastructure across the United States. Those historic investments have helped double the construction of factories in the United States under President Biden, and construction employment has reached a record high.
The Investing in America, Made in America tour coincides with Made in America week. Throughout the tour, White House officials and the President's Cabinet will highlight these Made in America investments, including:
Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff will travel to Phoenix, Arizona to highlight new funding for the Valley Metro Rio East-Dobson Streetcar Extension, as part of the Administration's efforts to reduce transportation-related air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg will travel to Pennsylvania to highlight $5 billion going to more than a dozen states to repair and replace some of the nation's most significant bridges. Funded by President Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, these investments are helping drive record increases in construction jobs under the Biden-Harris Administration. He will later travel to Southern California to celebrate a groundbreaking on a major port project also funded by the infrastructure law that will improve efficiency, lower costs for consumers, and reduce air pollution.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra is traveling to Nevada to highlight the Biden-Harris Administration's historic actions to lower health care and prescription drug costs, including giving Medicare the power to negotiate lower prescription drug prices.
Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona will travel to South Carolina to highlight the Biden-Harris Administration's work to provide student debt relief, and to visit Historically Black Colleges and Universities and highlight the Biden-Harris Administration's investments in rural and technical HBCUs.
Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm is traveling to the U.S. Virgin Islands to emphasize the Administration's commitment to delivering clean and reliable energy for all Americans, as well as to Puerto Rico to highlight how the Biden-Harris Administration is making historic investments to secure clean energy access during extreme weather events, ensuring battery storage and upgrades to the electric grid to make sure no community is left behind.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan traveled to Nevada for the NAACP Convention and to tour a cooling center to highlight how President Biden's Investing in America agenda is protecting communities from extreme heat and delivering cleaner air, safer water, and environmental justice, while lowering costs and creating economic opportunity in the process. He will also travel to Pennsylvania to announce new investments from the Biden-Harris Administration to tackle the climate crisis and create clean energy jobs in the United States.
Administrator of the Small Business Administration Isabel Guzman will travel to Arkansas to highlight how the Biden-Harris Administration has overseen record small business growth, with 18 million new business applications filed under the President's leadership.
Secretary Haaland will travel to Alaska to meet with Tribes and highlight the transformational investments provided through President Biden's Investing in America agenda to strengthen Indian country. Then, she will travel to Washington to highlight how President Biden's Investing in America agenda is protecting communities from wildland fire, restoring ecosystems in partnership with Tribes and safeguarding local water supplies.
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack will travel to Pennsylvania to highlight how President Biden is making critical investments to support urban and rural agriculture and advance equity in farming and rural communities. He will also discuss how the President's Investing in America agenda is making historic investments in on-farm conservation and helps producers build resilience to climate change.
Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su will travel to Las Vegas, Nevada to address the UNIDOS Conference and the NAACP Annual Conference, highlighting the good jobs created by the Biden-Harris Administration. Also while in Nevada, she will highlight IIA investments during a stop for the Department of Labor's Good Jobs Summer Tour, and will engage members of the AANHPI community at an event with Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden. Later this week, Acting Secretary Su will travel to Georgia to highlight the Administration's recently awarded Domestic Conversion Manufacturing Grants, which are helping auto manufacturing companies like clean school bus manufacturer Blue Bird invest in American manufacturing and create clean energy jobs.
Director of the National Economic Council Lael Brainard will travel to Chicago to discuss building innovation clusters throughout the country. She will also participate in an Energy Communities Summit and a Roosevelt Institute convening on placed based investment policy.
White House Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs Tom Perez will travel to Pennsylvania to highlight the Biden-Harris Administration's recent domestic manufacturing grant to Volvo to help them invest in America and create clean energy jobs.
White House Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy Arati Prabhakar and Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology Laurie E. Locascio will travel to Colorado to highlight a CHIPS and Science Act preliminary agreement with Entegris, which is creating 1,100 new jobs in construction and manufacturing and helping build out the American semiconductor supply chain.
Chief Economist of the White House Investing in America Cabinet Heather Boushey is traveling to Kentucky for a site-visit to a cattle farm that transitioned to solar energy in Hardinsburg. Then, she will travel to Louisville for an event highlighting public and private sector investments in the state highlighting good paying jobs with the Louisville Mayor.
While White House and Cabinet officials are highlighting the President's Made in America policies in communities across the country, Republican elected officials continue to try to raise costs on working families and roll back investments that are bringing jobs and opportunity to their communities. Their plan would:
Increase costs for health care, prescription drugs, and insulin by repealing the Inflation Reduction Act and Affordable Care Act and slashing Medicare.
Increase utility bills and energy costs by repealing the Inflation Reduction Act.
Raise taxes for middle-class families by repealing the Inflation Reduction Act and the Affordable Care Act.
Raise housing costs by cutting rental assistance and programs to build new homes.
Undermine $877 billion in private sector manufacturing and clean energy investments spurred by the President's Investing in America agenda and ship hundreds of thousands of jobs in clean energy and manufacturing overseas by repealing the Inflation Reduction Act.
White House Launches Fifth Investing in America Tour to Highlight How President Biden’s Agenda is Lowering Costs, Creating Good Jobs, and Revitalizing Communities Across the Country
White House Launches Fifth Investing in America Tour to Highlight How President Biden’s Agenda is Lowering Costs, Creating Good Jobs, and Revitalizing Communities Across the Country
Biden-Harris Administration announces $5 billion for new infrastructure projects and releases new tools for Americans to see how the President's actions are lowering costs and benefiting their daily lives
This week, the Biden-Harris Administration will launch its fifth Investing in America tour: Investing in America, Made in America. President Biden's Cabinet and White House officials will make over 70 stops to over 30 states across the country to highlight how President Biden's policies are lowering costs, creating good jobs, rebuilding America's infrastructure, and spurring investments in manufacturing so that goods are once again made in America by American workers. After four years of trickle-down policies that set rural communities back, with President Biden's help, today rural communities are making a comeback. The fifth Investing in America tour comes as Republican Members of Congress continue to push an extreme agenda that would raise costs on American families, cut Medicare and Social Security, and undermine policies that are driving investments in manufacturing and job creation here in America.
To kick off the tour, the White House released new tools on Invest.gov that highlight how the President's agenda is benefitting Americans' daily lives, including a Savings Explorer to show users how the Biden-Harris Administration is helping them save money on everyday costs and basic needs, and a new website page that highlights stories of Americans benefitting from Biden-Harris Administration investments in rural communities. The Biden-Harris Administration also announced $5 billion in awards for infrastructure projects to repair, reconstruct, and restore large bridges across the country. And, today the Department of Commerce announced a $400 million CHIPS and Science Act preliminary agreement with Globalwafers to manufacture semiconductor components, strengthening the domestic supply chain and creating jobs in Texas and Missouri.
White House launches new Savings Explorer on Invest.gov
This week the White House launched a new tool on Invest.gov, allowing Americans to explore how much they can save on average per year from the Biden-Harris Administration actions to lower costs – ranging from health care and home energy to education and groceries. President Biden has taken historic action to lower costs for families, including capping insulin costs at $35 for seniors, giving Medicare the power to negotiate lower prescription drug prices, lowering home energy bills for low-income Americans, canceling student loan debt for 4.75 million people, and cracking down on junk fees in banking and hospitality.
While President Biden continues to take action to lower costs for working families, Congressional Republicans continue to side with special interests to push an extreme agenda that would raise costs on working families, give tax breaks to corporations and billionaires, and cut benefits to Medicare and Social Security. President Biden vowed not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 per year and has taken steps to protect Social Security and Medicare, not weaken it.
Visit invest.gov/savings to use the Savings Explorer.
Invest.gov/Rural spotlights impact stories in rural communities
President Biden promised to be a President for all Americans, in every state and community. This week, the White House also launched a new website called Invest.gov/rural, highlighting stories of individuals, businesses, and local governments benefitting from Biden-Harris Administration investments in Rural America. It includes impact stories of specific communities – from a town in rural Georgia that is receiving funding to construct a new wastewater treatment plant to a hospital in rural Michigan that is expanding critical, life-saving emergency services thanks to funding from the American Rescue Plan.
Visit Invest.gov/Rural to see the impact stories.
Biden-Harris Administration announces $5 billion in awards for bridge infrastructure projects
Today, the Department of Transportation is announcing $5 billion in awards from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to reconstruct, repair, and restore 13 large bridges across the country. These bridges play a critical role in connecting communities to jobs and resources, economic development, and serve as essential corridors for freight travel. These projects will also address important safety issues and make the bridges more resilient to extreme weather, all while creating good-paying construction jobs. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg will travel to Pennsylvania to make the announcement of the awards. To date, the Biden-Harris Administration has announced over 60,000 infrastructure and clean energy projects across the country, funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, including nearly 10,000 bridge projects already underway.
Fifth Investing in America tour highlights Made in America policies and investments
The fifth Investing in America tour: Investing in America, Made in America will highlight how President Biden has unleashed unprecedented investments in the United States, creating good jobs across America, lowering costs, and spurring economic comebacks in communities too often left out or left behind. To date, over 63,000 clean energy and infrastructure projects are underway across the country, and companies have announced $877 billion in private sector manufacturing and clean energy investments. Biden-Harris Administration has taken historic steps to bolster domestic manufacturing of semiconductors, electric vehicles and component materials, clean technology, fiber optic cable, and infrastructure across the United States. Those historic investments have helped double the construction of factories in the United States under President Biden, and construction employment has reached a record high.
The Investing in America, Made in America tour coincides with Made in America week. Throughout the tour, White House officials and the President's Cabinet will highlight these Made in America investments, including:
While White House and Cabinet officials are highlighting the President's Made in America policies in communities across the country, Republican elected officials continue to try to raise costs on working families and roll back investments that are bringing jobs and opportunity to their communities. Their plan would:
FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Announces New Actions to Expand Opportunities for Latino Communities and Ensure Every Family Has a Fair Shot at the American Dream
FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Announces New Actions to Expand Opportunities for Latino Communities and Ensure Every Family Has a Fair Shot at the American Dream
President Biden and Vice President Harris are working to ensure that all Latino families and communities can achieve greater opportunity. Over the past three years, the Administration has taken historic action to expand opportunity for Latino families and communities, including creating more than 15 million jobs – with 5 million created for Latinos, helping Latino entrepreneurs start new businesses at the fastest rate in over 10 years, working to ensure equitable educational opportunity for students, addressing our broken immigration system through new executive actions, and more.
Today, the Biden-Harris Administration is announcing new actions to advance educational opportunities for Latino communities and give more families a fair shot at achieving the American dream.
Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity through Hispanic-Serving Institutions
Hispanic-Serving Institutions [HSIs] play a critical role in shaping the future of our Nation. With more than 500 HSIs across 27 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, HSIs make an extraordinary contribution to our Nation's higher education system, including educating more than 4.7 million students. More than 65 percent of Hispanic and Latino college students in the U.S. attend an HSI, and nearly 40 percent of those students attend a two-year HSI.
To strengthen the Federal Government's commitment to advancing opportunity, today, President Biden will sign an Executive Order establishing the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity through Hispanic-Serving Institutions. This Executive Order creates a new Initiative and President's Board of Advisors for HSIs that will work to:
Making America's Immigration System More Fair and More Just
Since Day One, President Biden has called on Congress to fix our broken immigration system. While Congress has failed to act on these critically needed reforms, the Biden-Harris Administration has taken action to make our immigration system more fair and more just.
Today, the Administration is highlighting steps taken to fulfill the President's promise to keep families together and allow more Dreamers to contribute to our economy, and announcing new actions to expand access to legal representation and immigration services so that more people have the tools and support they need to navigate our complex immigration system. These actions build on steps the Administration has taken to strengthen and improve our immigration system, including eliminating the backlog of naturalization applications, vigorously defending the DACA [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] policy in court, extending Affordable Care Act coverage to DACA recipients, and streamlining, expanding, and instituting new programs so that families can stay together while they complete the immigration process.
Today's new announcements include:
Announcing key progress on actions to keep families together
On June 18th, the President announced a new process to help U.S. citizens with noncitizen spouses and children who have been here for 10 years or more keep their families together. This new action – which will help certain noncitizen spouses and children apply for lawful permanent residence without leaving the country – is expected to apply to approximately half a million spouses of U.S. citizens, and 50,000 noncitizen children whose parent is married to a U.S. citizen. And today, the President is announcing that beginning on August 19, 2024, eligible spouses and children will be able to apply for this process to obtain legal status while remaining with their families.
In June, President Biden also announced new actions to help young people who have been educated in the U.S., including DACA recipients and other Dreamers, receive work visas more quickly. These actions will help more young people use their talents to enrich our communities and strengthen our economy. The Department of State has updated its public guidance – making it clear that it is in the public interest that individuals who graduated from a U.S. institution of higher education and are seeking a work visa are able to put their degree to use in the United States, and that these factors should be considered favorably when recommending waivers in the visa application process.
Helping thousands of Dreamers transition successfully to college
Today, the Administration is also announcing that the Department of Education is issuing a proposed rule to expand the federal TRIO program to ensure Dreamers and others can enroll. By providing high school students with services and supports such as college campus visits, tutoring, and help completing college and financial aid applications, the TRIO program helps students from low-income backgrounds and students who would be the first in their family go to college successfully transition from high school to college. The proposed expansion would mean that an estimated 50,000 more students each year would be able to access TRIO programs and services, and thousands more would go to college.
Expanding access to legal representation
Today, the Department of Justice Executive Office of Immigration Review [EOIR] is doubling the number of locations for their "Attorney of the Day" program, which makes volunteer lawyers available in immigration courtrooms to provide assistance to those who do not have representation at their initial immigration court hearings. The Department will expand this program to include immigration courts in Hyattsville, Maryland; New York City; and Atlanta in addition to the three current locations: San Francisco, New Orleans, and Chicago. The Department is also increasing free and low-cost legal representation by increasing participation of law students in clinical programs and expanding training opportunities such as its mock trial program.
Earlier this year, the Department of Justice announced the launch of the Respondent Access Portal, a secure online platform that allows unrepresented noncitizens with proceedings before EOIR to view case information and scheduled hearings, download their electronic case record, and file documents directly with the immigration court.
Additionally, the Justice Department is creating a new leadership position focused on improving access to the immigration system and finding innovative ways to increase representation rates for noncitizens in immigration court.
Finally, the Administration is announcing a call to action for members of the legal community, including law firms, nonprofits, advocacy organizations, and other stakeholders to make commitments of pro bono support for those who are unrepresented in immigration proceedings. In response, the American Bar Association will leverage its existing resources to help and encourage more lawyers to provide pro bono support to unrepresented noncitizens in immigration proceedings. The Administration welcomes additional commitments from interested stakeholders to build upon these efforts.
Ensuring access to immigration services
The Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services [USCIS] is announcing the launch of a new initiative – "USCIS to You" – to bring immigration-related assistance into local communities, including rural and underserved areas. Services that may be provided include naturalization interviews and oath ceremonies, customer service appointments, and education on immigration benefits and processes. "USCIS to You" events will be coordinated in partnership with communities, including libraries, community colleges, and other local entities.
USCIS is also providing up to $2.6 million to help small public and non-profit organizations establish new citizenship programs and train staff to assist lawful permanent residents in understanding and navigating the naturalization process. USCIS has released this new Notice of Funding Opportunity and plans to announce grant recipients by September 2024.
Today's announcements build on additional historic action President Biden has taken to advance opportunity for Latino communities, including:
July 17, 2024
President Biden and Vice President Harris are working to ensure that all Latino families and communities can achieve greater opportunity. Over the past three years, the Administration has taken historic action to expand opportunity for Latino families and communities, including creating more than 15 million jobs – with 5 million created for Latinos, helping Latino entrepreneurs start new businesses at the fastest rate in over 10 years, working to ensure equitable educational opportunity for students, addressing our broken immigration system through new executive actions, and more.
Today, the Biden-Harris Administration is announcing new actions to advance educational opportunities for Latino communities and give more families a fair shot at achieving the American dream.
Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity through Hispanic-Serving Institutions
Hispanic-Serving Institutions play a critical role in shaping the future of our Nation. With more than 500 HSIs across 27 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, HSIs make an extraordinary contribution to our Nation's higher education system, including educating more than 4.7 million students. More than 65 percent of Hispanic and Latino college students in the U.S. attend an HSI, and nearly 40 percent of those students attend a two-year HSI.
To strengthen the Federal Government's commitment to advancing opportunity, today, President Biden will sign an Executive Order establishing the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity through Hispanic-Serving Institutions. This Executive Order creates a new Initiative and President's Board of Advisors for HSIs that will work to:
Increase awareness of opportunities for HSIs to equally participate in Federal programs and enhance the capacity of HSIs to meet the educational needs of their students.
Identify best practices for HSIs to scale effective strategies, programs, and initiatives to support the educational success and economic mobility of their students.
Improve the ability of HSIs to align program offerings with the economic needs of the Nation and their local economies, especially in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, and teaching.
Coordinate efforts to help HSIs become or remain fiscally secure institutions.
Foster cross-sector collaboration among HSIs and philanthropic, public, and private sector organizations.
Strengthen Federal recruitment activities at HSIs to build accessible and equal pathways into Federal career opportunities for HSI students, faculty, staff, and alumni.
Provide tools, data, and analytics to support HSIs in improving educational equity, excellence, and economic opportunity for students.
Making America's Immigration System More Fair and More Just
Since Day One, President Biden has called on Congress to fix our broken immigration system. While Congress has failed to act on these critically needed reforms, the Biden-Harris Administration has taken action to make our immigration system more fair and more just.
Today, the Administration is highlighting steps taken to fulfill the President's promise to keep families together and allow more Dreamers to contribute to our economy, and announcing new actions to expand access to legal representation and immigration services so that more people have the tools and support they need to navigate our complex immigration system. These actions build on steps the Administration has taken to strengthen and improve our immigration system, including eliminating the backlog of naturalization applications, vigorously defending the DACA policy in court, extending Affordable Care Act coverage to DACA recipients, and streamlining, expanding, and instituting new programs so that families can stay together while they complete the immigration process.
Today's new announcements include:
Announcing key progress on actions to keep families together
On June 18^th, the President announced a new process to help U.S. citizens with noncitizen spouses and children who have been here for 10 years or more keep their families together. This new action - which will help certain noncitizen spouses and children apply for lawful permanent residence without leaving the country – is expected to apply to approximately half a million spouses of U.S. citizens, and 50,000 noncitizen children whose parent is married to a U.S. citizen. And today, the President is announcing that beginning on August 19, 2024, eligible spouses and children will be able to apply for this process to obtain legal status while remaining with their families.
In June, President Biden also announced new actions to help young people who have been educated in the U.S., including DACA recipients and other Dreamers, receive work visas more quickly. These actions will help more young people use their talents to enrich our communities and strengthen our economy. The Department of State has updated its public guidance - making it clear that it is in the public interest that individuals who graduated from a U.S. institution of higher education and are seeking a work visa are able to put their degree to use in the United States, and that these factors should be considered favorably when recommending waivers in the visa application process.
Helping thousands of Dreamers transition successfully to college
Today, the Administration is also announcing that the Department of Education is issuing a proposed rule to expand the federal TRIO program to ensure Dreamers and others can enroll. By providing high school students with services and supports such as college campus visits, tutoring, and help completing college and financial aid applications, the TRIO program helps students from low-income backgrounds and students who would be the first in their family go to college successfully transition from high school to college. The proposed expansion would mean that an estimated 50,000 more students each year would be able to access TRIO programs and services, and thousands more would go to college.
Expanding access to legal representation
Today, the Department of Justice Executive Office of Immigration Review is doubling the number of locations for their "Attorney of the Day" program, which makes volunteer lawyers available in immigration courtrooms to provide assistance to those who do not have representation at their initial immigration court hearings. The Department will expand this program to include immigration courts in Hyattsville, Maryland; New York City; and Atlanta in addition to the three current locations: San Francisco, New Orleans, and Chicago. The Department is also increasing free and low-cost legal representation by increasing participation of law students in clinical programs and expanding training opportunities such as its mock trial program.
Earlier this year, the Department of Justice announced the launch of the Respondent Access Portal , a secure online platform that allows unrepresented noncitizens with proceedings before EOIR to view case information and scheduled hearings, download their electronic case record, and file documents directly with the immigration court.
Additionally, the Justice Department is creating a new leadership position focused on improving access to the immigration system and finding innovative ways to increase representation rates for noncitizens in immigration court.
Finally, the Administration is announcing a call to action for members of the legal community, including law firms, nonprofits, advocacy organizations, and other stakeholders to make commitments of pro bono support for those who are unrepresented in immigration proceedings. In response, the American Bar Association will leverage its existing resources to help and encourage more lawyers to provide pro bono support to unrepresented noncitizens in immigration proceedings. The Administration welcomes additional commitments from interested stakeholders to build upon these efforts.
Ensuring access to immigration services
The Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is announcing the launch of a new initiative – "USCIS to You" – to bring immigration-related assistance into local communities, including rural and underserved areas. Services that may be provided include naturalization interviews and oath ceremonies, customer service appointments, and education on immigration benefits and processes. "USCIS to You" events will be coordinated in partnership with communities, including libraries, community colleges, and other local entities.
USCIS is also providing up to $2.6 million to help small public and non-profit organizations establish new citizenship programs and train staff to assist lawful permanent residents in understanding and navigating the naturalization process. USCIS has released this new Notice of Funding Opportunity and plans to announce grant recipients by September 2024.
Today's announcements build on additional historic action President Biden has taken to advance opportunity for Latino communities, including:
Bringing the Latino unemployment rate to a near record low of 4.9%.
Taking action to support Latino-owned businesses, which are now starting up at the fastest rate in fifteen years.
Doubling Latino enrollment in health coverage through the Affordable Care Act, and fighting to protect the Affordable Care Act.
Expanding access to Affordable Care Act benefits to DACA recipients.
Expanding the Child Tax Credit which lifted 1.2 million Hispanic children out of poverty in 2021.
Investing over $15 billion in Hispanic-serving colleges and universities--the largest ever investment. This investment strengthened the capacity of HSIs to better serve their students, including meeting their basic needs and completing their programs.
Securing a $900 increase to the maximum Pell Grant award – the largest in the last decade – to benefit students from low- and middle-income backgrounds in their pursuit of a college degree.
Canceling $167 billion in student loan debt for 4.75 million borrowers. Student loan debt disproportionately burdens Latino borrowers who are more likely to take on student loans than their white peers and who also end up holding nearly twice as much debt as their white peers four years after graduation.