It’s Monday.
For Monday May 3rd, 2021, President Biden will; receive his daily brief before he travels to Virginia with First Lady Dr. Jill Biden. The pair are scheduled to deliver remarks at Tidewater Community College at 1:30 p.m. D.C., time.
On Friday President Biden had tweeted 2 times and retweeted 0 times by the time Friday’s Open Thread was published. He added 5 tweets and no retweets giving him a Friday total of 7 tweets and 0 retweets.
2:45 p.m. D.C., time he shared a live feed to remarks he gave to celebrate Amtrak’s 50 Anniversary.
The live stream is 36 minutes and 41 seconds long. President Biden begins speaking at the 12 minute and 44 second mark. His full remarks can be found @ White House.gov.
3:27 p.m. D.C., time he says that his American Jobs Plan will “make the investments that can help get America back on track.”
President Biden (22:45): But we have to do more than just build back; we have to build back better. And today, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to position Amtrak and rail and inner-city rail as well, in general, to play a central role in our transformation in transportation and economic future, to make investments that can help America get back on track — no pun intended.
8:12 p.m. D.C., time he shared a photo of himself as he delivered remarks to celebrate Amtrak’s 50th Anniversary.
President Biden (28:09) So, on this momentous birthday of Amtrak, I want to — I want to thank you for making so many birthdays possible. I believe that the best days for Amtrak and for rail and for America are ahead. I really believe that.
In between his celebration of Amtrak he sent a tweet at 5:21 p.m. D.C., time that says the American Families Plan would “finally provide up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave for every American.”
On April 28th, 2021, ahead of his joint-address to Congress, President Biden released the American Families Plan.
From the fact-sheet:
- Provide direct support to children and families. Our nation is strongest when everyone has the opportunity to join the workforce and contribute to the economy. But many workers struggle to both hold a full-time job and care for themselves and their families. The American Families Plan will provide direct support to families to ensure that low- and middle-income families spend no more than seven percent of their income on child care, and that the child care they access is of high-quality. It will also provide direct support to workers and families by creating a national comprehensive paid family and medical leave program that will bring the American system in line with competitor nations that offer paid leave programs. The system will also allow people to manage their health and the health of their families. And, it will provide critical nutrition assistance to families who need it most and expand access to healthy meals to our nation’s students – dramatically reducing childhood hunger.
Paid family and medical leave supports workers and families and is a critical investment in the strength and equity of our economy. President Biden’s American Families Plan will:
White House.gov. 04/28/2021.
- Create a national comprehensive paid family and medical leave program. The program will ensure workers receive partial wage replacement to take time to bond with a new child, care for a seriously ill loved one, deal with a loved one’s military deployment, find safety from sexual assault, stalking, or domestic violence, heal from their own serious illness, or take time to deal with the death of a loved one. It will guarantee twelve weeks of paid parental, family, and personal illness/safe leave by year 10 of the program, and also ensure workers get three days of bereavement leave per year starting in year one. The program will provide workers up to $4,000 a month, with a minimum of two-thirds of average weekly wages replaced, rising to 80 percent for the lowest wage workers. We estimate this program will cost $225 billion over a decade.
President Biden’s paid leave plan has broad benefits for working families and the economy as a whole. Studies have shown that, under state paid leave laws, new mothers are 18 percentage points more likely to be working a year after the birth of their child. In addition, paid leave can reduce racial disparities in wage loss between workers of color and white workers, improve child health and well-being, support employers by improving employee retention and reducing turnover costs, and increase women’s labor force participation. Over 30 million workers, including 67 percent of low-wage workers, do not have access to a single paid sick day. Low-wage and part-time workers, a majority of whom are women, are less likely to have access to paid sick days.
White House.gov. 04/28/2021.
8:55 p.m. D.C., time he says April’s been a big month. He’s excited to see what “we accomplish in May.”
For Saturday May 1st, 2021, President Biden tweeted 4 times and retweeted 0 times.
12:00 p.m. D.C., time he shares a 2 minute and 22 second video from the Weekly Conversations online series. This time Vice President Kamala Harris talks with Eldraen from Connecticut.
Vice President Kamala Harris: I want to talk with you about you and your family.
Eldraen from Connecticut: I have the best jobs in the world. I am a letter carrier and a National Guardsman, but I’m most proud of being a father. My wife and I work full-time. So, when COVID forced our daughter’s daycare to close, we had to make a choice: who would stay home and take care of her? My wife is a frontline nurse, so we decided that I’d stay home on daddy duty. That was possible only because I had paid leave. Everyone should have paid leave. My wife included. I told her that, and today, I told the Vice President of the United States that too.
Vice President Kamala Harris: It is good to see you again and I’m looking forward to our conversation. You guys have been giving so much of your lives and yourselves to the service of other people. You were able to stay at home with the kids, right? While your wife was working?
Eldraen from Connecticut: I knew Crystal was doing the frontline-nursing. So, that was like a critical positing to have, so, I was like–I just think that in our situation, what’s best for the group would be for me to be home with the daddy day care.
Vice President Kamala Harris: But you were also able to do it because you had paid family leave, right?
Eldraen from Connecticut: That was the oil that greased it all, because if I was going without a paycheck, it would have been completely different.
Vice President Kamala Harris: I mean, I think that your story speaks so much to the importance of paid family leave, for family members to be able to take care of their family in a moment of crisis in particular, and not have to worry about whether you’d be able to do that and also pay the rent and put food on the table.
Eldraen from Connecticut: You love your kids and you never really want them to think that you can’t afford something, so you just kind of–you’ll do it if you can.
Vice President Kamala Harris: We are also investing in what we call, and what I call, human infrastructure. So, the human infrastructure is about caregivers, and our caregiving economy and making sure that we have affordable child care, that we have accessible child care. And you are a perfect example of why that is necessary, because you were not able to work full time as a National Guardsman or a postal worker while you were taking care of your children.
Eldraen from Connecticut: I think that’s spot on. I think, just the Administration as a whole, has really dedicated themselves to saying: ‘this is the mission and let’s see it through.’
Vice President Kamala Harris: Let’s see it through.
1:00 p.m. D.C., time he says that during “Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we recognize the history and achievements of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders across our nation.”
On Friday the White House issued a Proclamation “on Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month, 2021.”
This May, during Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we recognize the history and achievements of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AANHPIs) across our Nation. In the midst of a difficult year of pain and fear, we reflect on the tradition of leadership, resilience, and courage shown by AANHPI communities, and recommit to the struggle for AANHPI equity.
Asian Americans, and Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders make our Nation more vibrant through diversity of cultures, languages, and religions. There is no single story of the AANHPI experience, but rather a diversity of contributions that enrich America’s culture and society and strengthen the United States’ role as a global leader. The American story as we know it would be impossible without the strength, contributions, and legacies of AANHPIs who have helped build and unite this country in each successive generation. From laying railroad tracks, tilling fields, and starting businesses, to caring for our loved ones and honorably serving our Nation in uniform, AANHPI communities are deeply rooted in the history of the United States.
We also celebrate and honor the invaluable contributions the AANHPI communities have made to our Nation’s culture and the arts, law, science and technology, sports and public service — including the courageous AANHPIs who have served on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic as health care providers, first responders, teachers, and other essential workers.
During this year’s Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month, our Nation celebrates the achievements of Vice President Harris, the first person of South Asian descent to hold the Office of the Vice President. Vice President Harris has blazed a trail and set an example for young people across the country to aspire to follow, including members of AANHPI communities and AANHPI women in particular.
In spite of the strength shown and successes achieved, the American dream remains out of reach for far too many AANHPI families. AANHPI communities face systemic barriers to economic justice, health equity, educational attainment, and personal safety. These challenges are compounded by stark gaps in Federal data, which too often fails to reflect the diversity of AANHPI communities and the particular barriers that Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, Southeast Asian, and South Asian communities in the United States continue to face.
My Administration also recognizes the heightened fear felt by many Asian American communities in the wake of increasing rates of anti-Asian harassment and violence during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the increasingly observable layers of hate now directed toward women and elders of Asian descent in particular. Our Nation continues to grieve the senseless killings of six women of Asian descent in Atlanta, and the unconscionable acts of violence victimizing our beloved Asian American seniors in cities across the country.
Acts of anti-Asian bias are wrong, they are un-American, and they must stop. My Administration will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with AANHPI communities in condemning, denouncing, and preventing these acts of violence. We will continue to look for opportunities to heal together and fight against the racism and xenophobia that still exists in this country.
Present-day inequities faced by AANHPI communities are rooted in our Nation’s history of exclusion, discrimination, racism, and xenophobia against Asian Americans. Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders have endured a long history of injustice — including the Page Act of 1875, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the incarceration of Japanese American citizens during World War II, the murder of Vincent Chin, the mass shooting of Southeast Asian refugee children in 1989, and the targeting of South Asian Americans, especially those who are Muslim, Hindu, or Sikh, after the national tragedy of 9/11. It is long past time for Federal leadership to advance inclusion, belonging, and acceptance for all AANHPI communities. My Administration is committed to a whole-of-government effort to advance equity, root out racial injustices in our Federal institutions, and finally deliver the promise of America for all Americans.
Vice President Harris and I affirm that Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders make our Nation stronger. I urge my fellow Americans to join us this month in celebrating AANHPI history, people, and cultures.
White House.gov. 04/30/2021.
6:33 p.m. D.C., time he says on National College Signing Day “we celebrate all those students chasing their passions and setting the stage for the future.”
For those like me who had zero idea this was a thing…we turn to YouTube.
The description of the event as posted by Better Make Room: Better Make Room is a campaign within the Reach Higher Initiative. Reach Higher, started by former First Lady Michelle Obama during her time at the White House, works to inspire every student in America to take charge of their future by completing their education past high school, whether at a professional training program, a community college, a four-year college or university or the military. Both Reach Higher and Better Make Room are housed within Common App, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization.
From their Twitter feed…
7:01 p.m. D.C., time he shares a sentence…
For Sunday May 2nd, 2021, President Biden tweeted 4 times and retweeted 0 times.
11:45 a.m. D.C., time he shares a link to a Proclamation on Jewish American Heritage Month.
Proclamation on Jewish American Heritage Month, 2021:
The Jewish American experience is a story of faith, fortitude, and progress. It is a quintessential American experience — one that is connected to key tenets of American identity, including our Nation’s commitment to freedom of religion and conscience. This month, we honor Jewish Americans — past and present — who have inextricably woven their experience and their accomplishments into the fabric of our national identity.
Generations of Jewish people have come to this Nation fleeing oppression, discrimination, and persecution in search of a better life for themselves and their children. These Jewish Americans have created lives for themselves and their families and played indispensable roles in our Nation’s civic and community life, making invaluable contributions to our Nation through their leadership and achievements.
And this year, we also recognize two historic firsts, as America saw the Vice President take the oath of office alongside her Jewish spouse, and a Jewish American became the first Majority Leader of the United States Senate and the highest-ranking Jewish American elected official in our Nation’s history.
Alongside this narrative of achievement and opportunity, there is also a history — far older than the Nation itself — of racism, bigotry, and other forms of injustice. This includes the scourge of anti-Semitism. In recent years, Jewish Americans have increasingly been the target of white nationalism and the antisemitic violence it fuels.
As our Nation strives to heal these wounds and overcome these challenges, let us acknowledge and celebrate the crucial contributions that Jewish Americans have made to our collective struggle for a more just and fair society; leading movements for social justice, working to ensure that the opportunities they have secured are extended to others, and heeding the words of the Torah, “Justice, justice shall you pursue.”
A central concept in Judaism, “l’dor v’dor”, or “from generation to generation,” recognizes both the continuity of the Jewish people and the intergenerational responsibility we have to heal the world for our children. During Jewish American Heritage Month, we honor Jewish Americans, who, inspired by Jewish values and American ideals, have engaged in the ongoing work of forming a more perfect union.
White House.gov. 04/30/2021.
2:28 p.m. D.C., time he shares an excerpt from his Joint-Congressional Address that was held on April 28th, 2021.
His full speech via YouTube.
From his full remarks as delivered as they relate to the above tweet:
President Biden (1:04:27): As I stand here tonight before you, in a new and vital hour of life and democracy of our nation, and I can say with absolute confidence: I have never been more confident or optimistic about America — not because I’m President, because what’s happening with the American people. We have stared into the abyss of insurrection and autocracy, pandemic and pain, and “We the People” did not flinch. At the very moment our adversaries were certain we would pull apart and fail, we came together. We united. With light and hope, we summoned a new strength, new resolve to position us to win the competition of the 21st century, on our way to a union more perfect, more prosperous, and more just, as one people, one nation, and one America.
3:30 p.m. D.C., time he shares a link to his statement on the Occasion of Orthodox Easter.
The statement:
Jill and I extend warm wishes to all our friends in the Orthodox Christian community observing Easter.
On this occasion of joy and renewal, Orthodox Christians worldwide rejoice in the miracle of the Resurrection and affirm commitments to spiritual disciplines and service to those in need.
This is also a season of remembrance—to honor the sacrifice Jesus Christ made for the world and to stand in solidarity with all those in the Orthodox community who have been persecuted for their faith and those who remain under threat today. No one should be targeted for their religious affiliation, beliefs, and practices. No one should be fearful of celebrating their faith and traditions. The United States will continue to work to protect freedom of religion, both at home and around the world.
This Easter, as Orthodox Christians and so many other people of faith have had to once again modify religious traditions to prevent the spread of COVID-19, we can also look to the future with hope. Thanks to the leadership of countless people, including so many people of faith, the progress we are making in our battle against the virus will soon allow for a return to our timeless and treasured traditions of Easter and other holidays.
We wish a blessed Easter to all Orthodox Christians around the world celebrating a risen Christ and the triumph of light over darkness.
White House.gov. 05/02/2021.
6:05 p.m. D.C., time he tells us to “Let’s get this done.”
The Executive Order on the minimum wage increase for federal contractors was issued on April 27th, 2021.
For Monday he has tweeted 2 times and retweeted 0 times so far.
9:31 a.m. D.C., time he tells us to “please, thank a teacher.”
11:56 a.m. D.C., time he shares another excerpt from his Joint Address to Congress.
President Biden *(17:21): For me, when I think “climate change,” I think “jobs.” The American Jobs Plan will put engineers and construction workers to work building more energy-efficient buildings and homes. Electrical workers — IBEW members — installing 500,000 charging stations along our highways so we can own so we can own the electric car market. Farmers — farmers planting cover crops so they can reduce the carbon dioxide in the air and get paid for doing it. Look, but think about it: There is simply no reason why the blades for wind turbines can’t be built in Pittsburgh instead of Beijing. No reason. None. No reason.
*I used the YouTube video posted above for the cue time mark*
Since the President is traveling today I assume the daily press briefing will be an Air Force One press gaggle.
The President and First Lady’s remarks at Tidewater Community College are schedule to begin at 1:30 p.m. D.C., time.
This is an Open Thread.
