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White House Briefing on Biden's Executive Actions on Troubled Economy; Biden to Sign Executive Actions on COVID Relief, Worker Protections; White House Briefing as Senate Confirms Lloyd Austin as Defense Secretary. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired January 22, 2021 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[13:00:00]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Hank Aaron, and, again, dead at 86.

We're waiting, of course, for a very important White House briefing. That will take place at the top of the hour, the new economic actions from the new president of the United States.

Don't anywhere on this busy day. Brianna Keilar picks up our coverage right now. Have a good afternoon and a great weekend.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Hello, I'm Brianna Keilar, and we will be taking you to the White House briefing as soon as it begins.

In the next hour, President Biden will continue with his flurry of executive actions. Today, he will be signing a new round of executive orders addressing the economic hardships that have been brought on by the pandemic.

The president is using his second full day in office to target economic aid for millions of struggling Americans. Soon, he will sign an executive order to expand access to food stamps. And today, he will also expand protections for federal employees, and he will raise the minimum wage for federal workers to $15 per hour.

These executive orders are just a curtain raiser to Biden's massive economic COVID relief proposal. He has released details on an ambitious, nearly $2 trillion COVID rescue plan that he hopes to push through Congress. That plan includes a new round of stimulus checks, it includes funding for state and local governments as well as billions of dollars for vaccine funding.

Let's get right now to CNN Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins. Kaitlan, what are we going to hear from the president today?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think this is part of this challenge we were talking about on day one of his time in office. Of course, now we're on day three, where he has spent basically the last few hours signing all these executive orders. Yesterday, he did so many related to the pandemic specifically, but this is the other major part of the pandemic, which is the economic aspect of this. And so they are trying to send coronavirus relief to Americans and try to ease the pain that so many people have felt over the last ten months, given what's been going on with coronavirus restrictions, and, of course, concerns about workers' safety where people returning to work during this pandemic, as we are still trying to get people vaccinated.

And so I think that's the focus that you're seeing at the White House today, because, Brianna, we're actually going to hear from the president in a little bit as he's signing these executive orders, the economic-focused ones. But here at this briefing, one person that we're going to hear from that we have not heard from yet is Brian Deese, that is President Biden's top economic adviser. He's going come out and really lay out what their path work is for the next few steps on this, because, of course, this is such a big aspect of how they are going to be dealing with this over the next few months. Because it's not just getting vaccines to people, it's also how to bolster the economy given where it's gone because of the pandemic. So, we will see that today.

Of course, the other thing we are expecting, Jen Psaki, the press secretary, to be asked about, is this news that we're hearing on Capitol Hill about the article of impeachment for President Trump to be delivered on Monday, meaning that could trigger that trial to start sooner rather than later. And, of course, the concern inside the White House is that it's going to hinder President Biden's agenda his first few days in office. Because, so far, he only has two of those critical cabinet posts filled so far, a second one today with the defense department, but, of course, they have many more to go. Those are incredibly critical positions. And so how that affects what he wants to achieve is going to be something they're asked about.

And so far, they've tried to take a hands-off approach to it and say, we're leaving that timing up to the Senate, but a Biden official told my colleague, Jeff Zeleny, today, we are ready to move past this. They are concerned about it affecting their agenda. And so, we'll see what they say now that we have these developments from Senator Chuck Schumer that this --

KEILAR: And, actually, let's pause, Kaitlan, Jen Psaki is at the podium. Let's listen in.

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Today, we are joined by National Economic Council Director Brian Deese, who will highlight some key aspects of the executive orders the president is issuing today related to the economy and underline their impact on American families and workers.

Brian is kind enough to take a few questions. I didn't have to twist his arm too much, but he does have to go to a briefing with the president, so I will be the bad cop and come up when he has to cut it off.

Go ahead, Brian.

BRIAN DEESE, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL DIRECTOR: Thanks, Jen. So, I wanted to take just a couple minutes to talk to you about the executive actions that the president will take today, but just to start with a little bit of context.

Our economy is at a very precarious moment. We are 10 million jobs short, still, of where the economy was when this pandemic started. Last month, the economy lost jobs for the first time since last spring. Retail sales fell last month, and just yesterday, we saw another 900,000 Americans file for unemployment insurance. That's a weekly rate that is higher than any week during the great recession.

It's a moment that requires decisive action to beat this pandemic and support the economic recovery that American families need.

[13:05:07]

That's why a week ago, President Biden laid out a comprehensive American rescue plan, a plan that is focused on changing the course of the pandemic, getting students back in school, and giving families and businesses a bridge to the economic recovery, while also addressing the stark inequities in our economy that this crisis has exposed.

We have been engaging closely with members of Congress, with governors, mayors, business and labor organizations in the weeks since and will continue to do so and hope that Congress will move quickly to consider this important proposal without delay.

At the same time, the American people are hurting, and they can't afford to wait. They need help right now. And that's the motivation behind the actions that the president will take today.

I want to be very clear. These actions are not a substitute for comprehensive legislative relief but they will provide a critical lifeline to millions of families.

So, just to get into the specifics, the president will sign two executive orders today. The first directs agencies to consider a number of actions that will provide emergency relief for working families affected by the COVID-19 crisis within existing authorities and helping to correct some of the errors or omissions of the prior administration in providing families with relief.

I just want to touch on a couple elements that are in that executive order to give you a sense of what we're talking about. On the issue of food insecurity, which is a growing crisis in America of hunger, nearly 30 million Americans last week said they didn't have enough food to put on the table.

So, the president will ask the Department of Agriculture to consider taking immediate steps to provide nutrition assistance to hard-hit families, first, by increasing pandemic EBT benefits by about 15 percent. This is the program that is aimed at supporting families who traditionally rely on the school lunch program to provide meals to millions of kids through their schools.

So, in the pandemic, the pandemic EBT program provides direct assistance to families to cover those costs. But the way it is being implemented today doesn't get to the full costs necessary. So, with these changes, an eligible family with three children would get an additional $100 over two months to help pay for food.

Second, increasing the SNAP benefits, emergency SNAP benefits, for as many 12 million low-income Americans. This is the core program target at preventing hunger in America. And these changes, again, for a family of four would mean about a 15 to 20 percent benefit increase.

And third, revising the thrifty food plan, which is really the basis for determining SNAP benefits, is out of date and needs to be updated to better reflect the cost of a healthy diet.

Another element of this executive order is to promote worker safety. And here, President Biden will ask the Department of Labor to consider clarifying that workers have a federally guaranteed right to refuse employment that would jeopardize their health. And if they do so, they will still qualify for unemployment insurance.

This is a common sense step to make sure that workers have a right to safe work environments and that we don't put workers in the middle of a pandemic in a position where they have to choose between their own livelihoods and the health of they and their families.

The second executive order that the president will sign is focused on the jobs of federal workers and on federal contractors. He will direct his administration to initiate a process starting today that would allow him, within 100 days, to issue an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay at least a $15 minimum wage and provide emergency pay leave to workers. This was something that the president talked about on the campaign, that when we're using taxpayer dollars, federal contractors should provide the benefits in pay that workers deserve.

The order will also protect and empower federal employees who have dedicated their careers to serving the American people, many in very difficult circumstances during this pandemic. And the steps will include restoring collective bargaining power and worker protections for federal workers, eliminating schedule F, so-called schedule F, which has threatened the protections of career employees and also provided a potential pathway to burrow political appointees into civil service, And also promoting a $15 minimum wage by directing the OPM, the Office of Public Management, to develop recommendations to pay more federal workers at least $15 an hour.

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Finally, just one final note, in addition to the executive orders that we'll be issuing today, we will be focusing on another key priority of the president and the vice president, which is equitable relief to small businesses. In previous rounds of relief, too much of the support that has been dedicated to small businesses has left out the smallest businesses, mom and pop businesses that don't have existing connections with a financial institution, and in particular black, Latino and Native American owned businesses were shut out completely, and a lot of that is because of the outreach in communication from the federal government was either unclear or just nonexistent. And so too many of those companies have been denied relief, and many of them have had to shut their doors for good.

The president is completely focused on changing that, and he has directed us to take immediate steps to make sure that we're listening to these communities, we're taking their advice on how to improve the distribution of relief.

So just this morning, I met, along with representatives of the small business administration, with dozens of groups representing black and brown-owned businesses and other underserved communities as well as lenders to hear their ideas on how we can improve communications and act on them.

We discussed the president's idea of having navigators who are dedicated to helping small business owners find the right relief programs, fill out paperwork, get the money into their bank accounts, the kind of support that many of these businesses don't have because of embedded relationships that more well-connected businesses do.

There are some groups out there in the country who are doing this really successfully. We're determined to learn from them and to scale those efforts nationwide.

And in this vein, I look forward, I will be joining Vice President Harris later today. She will be meeting with small business owners to discuss both the American rescue plan and the need for more effective small business relief delivered without delay.

So that is today. That is our focus through a set of executive orders, and I'm happy to take a couple questions, of which you all have many.

Sure, sure. This is the good --

REPORTER: Thanks, Jen, hi, Brian.

DEESE: Hi.

REPORTER: Good to see you. Thank you for taking questions today.

I want to ask you about a call on Sunday with a bipartisan group of lawmakers. What can you tell us about the call? Will President Biden be on the call? And what is your message to moderate Republicans like Mitt Romney who say the economy can't have another stimulus after you just passed a $900 billion relief package last month?

DEESE: Yes, thanks, Kristen. So, the president has made clear to his team that we should be reaching out to members of Congress from both parties to make the case for the rescue plan and to engage with them, understand their concerns. So that's what we're doing, both myself and senior members of the team. We have been doing that over the course of time. We'll continue to do that, including the call on Sunday that I'll be doing with a group of senators, and we'll continue that engagement going forward.

In terms of the message, it's pretty clear, we're at a precarious moment for the virus and the economy. Without decisive action, we risk falling into a very serious economic hole, even more serious than the crisis we find ourselves in.

And economists across the board, including today, President Trump's former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers arguing strenuously that now is the time for that type of decisive action for the economy, and that we can't wait to provide the resources to make sure that we can open schools, we can get vaccine shots into people's arms, and we can provide that bridging relief to families and small businesses.

There is a lot of support. I met with a group of mayors yesterday, a bipartisan group of mayors from across the country.

[13:15:00]

You hear from mayors, you hear from governors just crying out, that in order to take on these crises, the public health, and the pandemic and the economic crisis at the same time, now is the moment for that kind of decisive action. That's the case we'll be making.

REPORTER: Just to be clear, Brian, will President Biden be on the call? And if not, why not, if this is so urgent?

DEESE: So, like I said, we're doing all outreach. The president has directed the team to do outreach to members of Congress, to business and labor organizations, to mayors and governors, and we're in the process of doing that. I'll be having that conversation on Sunday. You can expect that other members of the administration will be engaging with members of Congress across time as well.

REPORTER: And just very quickly, Brian, if I could, what would a February impeachment trial, how would a February impeachment trial impact be getting the COVID relief package passed?

DEESE: Look, I think that we have -- we are facing right now a period of multiple crises. And what we're going to need is to be able to act on multiple fronts. And so that's certainly -- we understand, and as Jen has spoken to, we understand that the Senate has a constitutional obligation in this context, but we also have these pressing economic and pandemic priorities as well, so we're going to -- that's why we're engaging, that's why we're focused on making the case and certainly with the expectation that Congress will heed that call and move forward.

PSAKI: I promise that we will (INAUDIBLE) after this, so this will (INAUDIBLE) questions for Brian. Go ahead, ma'am.

REPORTER: Thank you very much. If you are able to pass this nearly $2 trillion plan, do you envision this being the last round of stimulus or do you think you may need to do more?

DEESE: What I can tell you is if we don't act now, we will be in a much worse place and we will find ourselves needing to do much more to dig out of a much deeper hole. So what I can tell you is the single most important thing economically right now is to take decisive action, along the lines of what we've laid out in this rescue plan.

And you hear, again, from economists across the board, whether it's the Federal Reserve, the International Monetary Fund and economic experts across the political spectrum as well, when you're at a moment that is as precarious as the one we find ourselves in, the risk of doing too little, the risk of undershooting far outweighs the risk of doing too much, and that's the economic logic, the economic case behind this package.

I think you've also heard the president clearly explain that his economic approach is one where rescue and recovery need to come together, and he'll be speaking more about his recovery plans in the coming weeks that are about building back better and urging priority to start creating the kinds of good jobs that we know we we're going to need coming out of this crisis.

REPORTER: After the recession, it took nearly a decade to get the country back to full employment under the Obama administration. If you're able to pass this rescue package, how long do you think it will take for every American who wants a job to be able to have one?

DEESE: Well, I would just point to one example of an independent analysis that was done of the American rescue plan by Moody's. What they said -- what they found was that if we pass the American rescue plan now, we could see 7.5 million jobs created just this year, and we could see a return to full employment a full year ahead of what is projected if we don't.

So those are the stakes involved, and without this kind of decisive action, we're going to have a much deeper economic hole, and that's why we are so focused on making the case for a decisive action now.

REPORTER: Thanks, Jen and Brian. I want to follow up on Welker's question a little bit. The president is seeking unity on this bill, but also made it clear there are policy differences. So I'm wondering if after this call, which is with sort of the bipartisan coalition that you need to get this bill passed, do you expect to know whether the White House will pursue legislation, a bipartisan legislation, or sort of ahead towards a legislation through reconciliation.

And I'm also wondering if you could talk about what the sort of red lines will be, the point at which you say, okay, if you're not willing to negotiate this in the bill, we're going to just start working with Democrats as Speaker Pelosi and others are going to --

DEESE: I guess I'll say two things to that. The first is, if you look at the elements of the American rescue plan, it was designed with a bottoms-up focus on what our experts saying is the actual need, what's the actual need to get schools open, what's the actual need to have a national vaccination distribution plan to underwrite the strategy that you heard Dr. Fauci and the president talk about yesterday, and what's the need to support families and businesses during this transition.

[13:20:03]

And the second thing is that, as a result of that, I think we're seeing a lot of support. As I said, bipartisan mayors, bipartisan governors, business organizations, chamber of commerce, business roundtable, economists across the board saying this is an appropriate response to an unprecedented economic circumstance.

So that's the approach that we are taking, and that's the perspective that we are bringing here. And I think that we are heartened to see that kind of support, and that's the conversation that we're going to have with members of Congress, be they Republicans or Democrats, including, you know, looking at where we've come over the last year and the lessons we've learned, that without decisive action, we know the consequences.

And so now is a moment not to undershoot or to wait and see. Now is a moment to act.

REPORTER: I guess my question is, I think, a lesson that a lot of President Obama and others have talked about from the ACA fight was continuing to have Republican support beyond the point of it being productive. And so I'm wondering with you guys, what is the decision point going to be where you -- you know, you might not have Republican mayors, but it doesn't look like you don't have Republican senators right now. At what point do you say this is no longer worth kind of pushing forward?

DEESE: We are making the case. We are engaging. We're having conversations. We're listening. And we are also focused on the emergency and the need to act. So, what I can tell you is that's where the president's focus is, that's where the vice president's focus is. That will continue to be the focus is.

We want to engage, and we want to act, and that's going to be what guides us here.

PSAKI: (INAUDIBLE) the last one, but Brian will come back.

REPORTER: Thank you for doing this, Brian. Back to the point of the objections from some of these Republican senators who have already spoken out, they say they just passed 900 million or so at the end of the year. Most of it isn't even out yet. How do you know money hasn't gotten into the system yet that you need to release more at this point? Why move ahead with a $1 trillion plan if the 900 million that's already been approved hasn't even gotten out the door?

DEESE: Sure. Well, first of all, we waited for six months or more before Congress acted. And so, really, a lot of what that 900 billion was doing was filling a hole in the second half of 2020 that desperately needed to be filled. And so this is not an issue of Congress acting too much, it's a bit of an issue of not acting enough.

And the second is if you look at the components of the $900 billion, again, we could go line by line, but these are resources that are either already out the door or are addressing economic challenges or public health challenges that were in the rearview mirror.

So, as we find ourselves today looking forward, we need a very decisive set of actions if we are actually going to get schools open, if we're actually going to get a vaccination program up and running. And I think that the case we will make is that, today, we are not where we need to be.

And if we go line by line in the American rescue plan, these provisions have been designed based on an assessment of need, and we think they're going to absolutely be necessary. So, I think that, looking forward, we're quite confident that this is the prudent assessment of needs.

REPORTER: I want to clarify two quick things. How many federal employees or federal contractors are making minimum wage right now? Do you guys know?

DEESE: So, I don't have an estimate of that right now.

REPORTER: And then last night you said there are roughly 8 million people who haven't received their stimulus checks.

DEESE: Yes.

REPORTER: How do you find them?

DEESE: So, it's a great question. This is principally an issue associated with people who are non-filers, so they are not filing income taxes in most cases because they don't make enough money to need to file federal income taxes. And so as a result, the way that the IRS and the treasury department in the previous administration has focused on getting those checks out has been to work through the tax system.

But those are people who are legally entitled to those checks. And so we have a number of strategies that we're going to pursue, and today we'll start with the president's executive order to direct the Department of Treasury to consider a whole range of efforts, including creating an online portal that would allow people to easily identify if they're eligible to work through counterpart organizations to actually affirmatively do outreach to communities where we know there are significant numbers of these families and these individuals to let people know that they may be available.

[13:25:14]

Some of this is education outreach as well.

And I would just -- you know, it's a little connected to what I was saying about small business as well. What the president is directing all of us to do is to really focus on the affirmative steps that we can take, an affirmative strategy to say it's not enough to just say, well, if folks don't know or if they don't have a network, then they're left out in the cold. We're going to work both directly in what the federal government can do and with partner organizations to try and make sure that every American that's entitled to a benefit is actually receiving it.

REPORTER: If there's someone out there right now that hears you saying this and realizes, I'm eligible and I haven't gotten it, right now, today, is there a way for them to raise their hand and say something like that?

DEESE: Well, starting today, we're going to make a process to make that a lot easier for families, including being able to go online and do that. But that's work that's going to start today.

REPORTER: Thank you. I just have one small question on the mechanics E.O. targeting the food insecurity. Does the U.S. still have the money to distribute these plus-offs (ph) that you're talking about, and is there going to need to be an appropriation for these numbers (ph)?

DEESE: So, these are mandatory appropriated programs. There is no need for additional congressional action. It's a change in regulation on the eligibility for benefits. So, these are changes that can be made under existing statute and under existing budgetary authority without any additional action from Congress.

REPORTER: The money is there though?

DEESE: Yes, a mandatory program, so it operates based on -- the benefits are paid out based on who is eligible.

PSAKI: Thank you, Brian. He'll be back.

DEESE: Great. Thank you, all.

PSAKI: All right, everyone, happy Friday. I have a couple of things just at the top, some things you've been asking about, so hopefully they address some of the questions you may have.

First, we applause the Senate's strong bipartisan confirmation of Lloyd Austin, who has been breaking barriers all of his life. He is the first black secretary of defense in our nation's history. Secretary Austin's confirmation is a major benefit to our national security, and he is going to hit the ground running leading the Pentagon. He will be sworn in today, but he will be sworn in more officially by the -- not more officially, I should say, but he will be sworn in more ceremoniously on Monday by the vice president.

Similarly, the president is very happy to see that Janet Yellen, the first woman who would ever lead the U.S. treasury department, was unanimously voted out of committee this morning. This should only be the beginning.

We're facing unprecedented challenges and threats to our national security during these emergencies in our country that we urgently need our secretary of Homeland Security in place. Alejandor Mayorkas is one of the most knowledgeable homeland security experts in our country. He's earned bipartisan praise and he's been previously confirmed by the Senate three times. This is a confirmation that we are going to continue to press on and all of our engagements and conversations with the Senate.

I also have some news to share on the president's response to domestic violent extremism. The January 6th assault on the Capitol and the tragic deaths and destruction that occurred underscored what we have long known, the rise of domestic violent extremism is a serious and growing national security threat.

The Biden administration will confront this threat with the necessary resources and resolve. We are permitted to developing policies and strategies based on facts and objective and rigorous analysis and onerous constitutionally protected free speech and political activities.

Our initial work on D.V. will broadly fall into three areas. The first is a tasking from President Biden sent to the ODI today, requesting a comprehensive threat assessment coordinated with the FBI and DHS on domestic violent extremism. This assessment will draw on the analysis from across the government, and as appropriate, non-governmental organizations.

The key point here is that we want fact-based analysis on which we can shape policy. So this is really the first step in the process and we will rely on our appropriate law enforcement and intelligence officials to provide that analysis.

The second will be the building of an NSC capability to focus on countering domestic violent extremism. As part of this, the NSC will undertake a policy review effort to determine how the government can share information better about this threat, support efforts to prevent radicalization, disrupt violent extremist networks and more.

There is important work already underway across the interagency in countering DVE, and we need to understand better its current extent and where there may be gaps to address so we can determine the best path forward.