It’s Monday.
When Biden Bits was posted for Friday, President Biden had tweeted 2 times. He added 7 tweets and 1 retweet giving him a Friday Tweeting Total of 9 tweets and 1 retweet.
As you know Friday happened to be my least favorite Friday of the month. Jobs Report day. This past Friday, wasn’t so bad, the report was not a huge surprise to most. There were no huge gains or losses…
As he typically does on Jobs Report Friday he offered remarks. The YouTube is 8 minutes and 29 seconds long. His full remarks can be found here.
President Biden: Good morning. Today, we learned that in March, our economy created 431,000 jobs. Nice sound to it. And we also learned that in January and February, our economy created 100,000 more jobs than had — we previously had thought. That means that over the last three months, the economy has created more than a half million — more than 500,000 jobs a month. Over the course of my presidency, our recovery has now created 7.9 million jobs — more jobs created over the first 14 months of any presidency in any term ever. And that’s striking.
President Biden: But what’s even more striking is this: In March, the unemployment rate fell to 3.6 percent, down from 6.4 percent when I took office about 15 months ago — the fastest decline in unemployment to start a President’s term ever recorded. In fact, there have been only three months in the last 50 years where the unemployment rate in America is lower than it is now. And that me- — what it means is clear, is very clear: Americans are back to work. And that’s good news for millions of families who have a little more breathing room and the dignity that comes from earning a paycheck — just the dignity of having a job.
The video clip is 1 minute and 33 seconds long. It features most of the text that appears in the above 4 tweets.
President Biden: Good morning. Today, we learned that in March, our economy created 431,000 jobs. Nice sound to it. And we also learned that in January and February, our economy created 100,000 more jobs than had — we previously had thought. That means that over the last three months, the economy has created more than a half million — more than 500,000 jobs a month.
Over the course of my presidency, our recovery has now created 7.9 million jobs — more jobs created over the first 14 months of any presidency in any term ever. And that’s striking.
But what’s even more striking is this: In March, the unemployment rate fell to 3.6 percent, down from 6.4 percent when I took office about 15 months ago — the fastest decline in unemployment to start a President’s term ever recorded.
In fact, there have been only three months in the last 50 years where the unemployment rate in America is lower than it is now.
And that me- — what it means is clear, is very clear: Americans are back to work. And that’s good news for millions of families who have a little more breathing room and the dignity that comes from earning a paycheck — just the dignity of having a job.
And more and more Americans get jobs — as they do, it’s going to help to ease the supply pressures we’ve seen. And that’s good news for fighting inflation, it’s good news for our economy, and it means that our economy has gone from being on the mend to being on the move.
To keep like with like; I’ve made the executive decision to include 1 of 2 of his Saturday tweets here…
His second Saturday tweet…
President Biden: You know, the American people, I think they — they’re beginning to understand that the American Rescue Plan — and there’s no reason why they should know the names of all these pieces of legislation that got passed — but the American Rescue Plan, with it, we were able to get Americans vaccinated, schools open, and businesses humming. A leading financial firm, Moody’s, estimated that because of the Rescue Plan, 4 million more American jobs were created and unemployment is 2 percent lower than it would have been had we failed to move that legislation.
Friday’s final two tweets:
His full statement:
Jill and I extend our best wishes to Muslim communities here in the United States and around the world on the beginning of the blessed month of Ramadan.
For so many around the globe, including fellow Americans all across the country, this sacred month is a time for reflection and spiritual growth. Communities come together to practice forgiveness and resilience, to show compassion and generosity of spirit to those in need, of giving, and to celebrate the many blessings of life with loved ones.
This year, the simple act of breaking the fast will be an even more poignant reminder of the joys of health, family, and community. And we will continue to hold in our hearts all those families grieving a lost loved one who are facing an empty chair at the table.
As we continue to rebuild from the pandemic, we must also continue all of our efforts to stand with all those who are suffering and vulnerable around the world, those who are facing persecution or hardship. As the Holy Qur’an teaches, “whoever does even an atom’s weight of good will see its results.”
Every day, we see heartbreaking accounts of lost lives and the images of families and children struggling to survive. These tragedies remind us of our common humanity—and the common teaching of all great faiths, including Islam—that we should always do unto others as we would have done unto us. During this holy month, as Muslims everywhere honor God’s great mercy let us also renew our shared commitment to show kindness, mercy, and understanding to one another. Let us honor the simple yet profound truth that all people are equal in dignity and rights. That’s why the United States will continue to speak out for human rights everywhere–including for Uyghurs in China, Rohingya in Burma, and other Muslim communities all over the world.
From the Biden family to yours, and from the People’s House to your own homes, Jill and I wish you and your loved ones a blessed and prosperous month. Ramadan Kareem!
White House.gov. 04/01/2022.
Saturday’s first tweet…
The YouTube is 1 hour and 8 minutes long. Their full remarks can be found here. The President begins his remarks at the 44 minute and 4 second mark. First Lady Dr., Jill Biden begins her remarks at the 47 minute and 24 second mark.
His Sunday Tweeting Total is 2 tweets and 1 retweet.
One tweet is regarding Saturday’s commissioning commemoration ceremony of the USS Delaware.
President Biden: It’s always a good day when I get to celebrate Delaware or spend time with service members and their families or introduce Jill. That’s a trifecta in my family.
Naval News says that the First Lady preformed the traditional honor “of calling for the crew to man the ship and “bring her to life,” a ceremonial procession following the commemorative setting of the first watch,” because she was the ship sponsor.
His second Sunday Tweet…
His budget was released on Monday; Tuesday he tweeted a crap ton of tweets focused on the 2023 budget.
His retweet:
On March 29th, 2022, President Biden signed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act into law. Emmett Till’s cousin Wheeler Parker was at the signing ceremony. The video snip is 58 seconds long.
For Monday, April 4th, 2022, President Biden has received his daily brief. This afternoon he will deliver remarks on the progress on his; Administration’s Trucking Action Plan to strengthen our nation’s supply chains. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg will also offer remarks.
The White House posted the following fact-sheet; The Biden Administration’s Unprecedented Actions to Expand and Improve Trucking Jobs
Since Day 1, the Biden-Harris Administration has taken on the supply chain disruptions and price increases resulting from the decades-long lack of investment in the nation’s goods movement supply chain. The Administration enacted the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to bring our infrastructure to the 21st century, worked with ports to clear the docks and gets good moving, launched a pilot initiative to create the digital infrastructure to connect key stakeholders in the supply chain, and more. The result is a modern goods movement system that boosts American competitiveness and cuts families’ costs.
Trucking moves 72 percent of goods in America and is a lynchpin in our goods movement supply chain. Trucking costs grew more than 20 percent last year as a surge in demand for goods caused by the pandemic confronted a decline in trucking employment that preceded the pandemic. The low supply of drivers is driven by high turnover and low job quality. Turnover in trucking routinely averages 90 percent for some carriers and drivers spend about 40 percent of their workday waiting to load and unload goods – hours that are typically unpaid. Many truckers are not directly employed and operate as independent small businesses, bearing the burden of leasing, gas, insurance, and maintenance costs themselves. These financial burdens cause many to leave the profession. Trucking also draws on an older, heavily male workforce—the median age is four years higher than the overall workforce and almost 90 percent of the industry is men—which adds to its recruiting challenges.
Last December, the Administration confronted these challenges head on. The U.S. Department of Transportation and the U.S. Department of Labor launched a Trucking Action Plan to increase the supply of truck drivers by creating new pathways into the profession, cutting red tape to expand high quality training through Registered Apprenticeship, and laying the foundation for improving job quality to keep people in the profession.Major Achievements of Biden Effort to Expand and Improve Trucking Jobs:
White House.gov. 04/04/2024.
- Getting Americans Working in Better Trucking Jobs: Since President Biden took office, we have seen historic increases in trucking employment with 2021 registering as the best year for trucking employment growth since 1994 and December 2021-February 2022 as the best three-month stretch for long distance truck hiring since the 1990s. And frontline truckers’ real wages grew this year despite elevated inflation.
- Cutting red-tape in Commercial Driver’s licensing: DOT gave states the tools to more than double new commercial driver’s license issuances in January and February 2022 compared to January and February 2021. States have issued more than 876,000 CDLs since January 2021.
- Scaling Registered Apprenticeships in trucking to improve retention: Over 100 employers including Domino’s, Frito-Lay, and UPS launched Registered Apprenticeship programs in 90 days as DOL cut the amount of time it takes to a launch a program from months to as little as 48 hours. This could result in more than 10,000 additional apprentices.
- Helping connect veterans to trucking careers: The trucking industry partnered with leading Veterans Service Organizations to launch Task Force Movement: Life-Cycle Pathways for Veterans and Military into Trucking, chaired by former Congressman and veteran Patrick Murphy, to support the recruitment and retention of veterans and military family members.
Since the launch of the plan in December, the Administration hosted seven listening sessions with over 100 participants. Continuing to listen and work with drivers is a pillar of the Administration’s work to address job quality in the DOL and DOT’s Driving Good Jobs Initiative. This initiative supports the trucking workforce by creating a task force on truck leasing arrangements, launching a Women of Trucking Advisory Board, and more. The Administration is also committed to addressing core job quality challenges from misclassification to hours of service to workplace safety.
Getting Americans to Work in Better Trucking Jobs
When President Biden took office, there were 30,000 fewer trucking jobs than in February 2020 and trucking employment had been falling even before that. But last year’s historic job growth across the economy resulted in 2021 registering as the best year for trucking job growth since 1994. Trucking employment now exceeds its pre-pandemic level by 35,000 and is higher than it was before it began to decline in 2019. Trucking employment growth over the last year was strongest in California where it exceeded 10 percent as well as Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, and Washington where it exceeded 8 percent.
Long-distance truck driving has been the sector of trucking facing the most challenges, but we are now seeing fresh momentum there: December through February was the best three-month stretch for long-distancing trucking employment growth since the 1990s (data are currently only available through February).Cutting Red Tape: More than Doubling Commercial Driver’s License Processing Compared to 2021
The Administration and U.S. Department of Transportation worked with states and Governors to accelerate CDL processing. DOT announced over $57 million in funding available to help states expedite CDLs, coordinated waivers, sent all 50 states a toolkit detailing specific actions to expedite licensing and worked hand-in-hand with states to address challenges. This resulted in a 112 percent increase in CDL processing in January and February 2022 compared to January and February 2021. States have issued more than 876,000 CDLs since January 2021.Scaling Apprenticeships: Moving the Market on How Truckers are Recruited, Trained, and Retained
White House.gov. 04/04/2024.
The Departments of Labor and Transportation launched the 90 Day Trucking Apprenticeship Challenge to jumpstart this proven workforce strategy in trucking.
- Over 100 employers across trucking, food and grocery, and the oil and gas industries launched Registered Apprenticeship programs in 90 days. This includes Domino’s, Frito-Lay, UPS, states and national partners such as FASTPORT and the International Brotherhood of the Teamsters. This proven earn and learn model of workforce training will help employers and labor develop and retain a skilled workforce. Apprentices are already hitting the road with NFI and Total Transportation each hiring over 50 apprentices after launching new programs under the Apprenticeship Challenge.
With these 100 employers and 7 trade associations now offering apprenticeships, we have nearly doubled the number of programs nationwide. This could, in turn, double the number of registered apprenticeships in 2022 and result in more than 10,000 new registered apprenticeships. As a point of comparison, annual trucking employment growth averaged 24,000 in the decade before the pandemic.
White House.gov. 04/04/2024.
- Through the Apprenticeship Challenge, industry associations are now leading on the expansion of trucking apprenticeships and will be across the U.S. for years to come. This includes the American Trucking Association, the National Tank Truck Association, FMI (the Food Industry Association), the National Minority Trucking Association, the North American Punjabi Trucking Association, and the Truckload Carriers Association. And the Trucking Alliance, where every member carrier – among the largest long-haul companies that collectively employ more than 80,000 drivers – committed to offer truck driver registered apprenticeships in more than 200 apprenticeship locations in 36 states across the country.
- Over 70 additional employers of all sizes and industry segments including Sysco and WM (Waste Management Inc.) are in the process of developing and launching apprenticeship programs.
- DOT launched the Safe Driver Apprenticeship Pilot, established through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, to safely connect American adults under the age of 21 to good-paying jobs in the trucking industry through Registered Apprenticeship.
Connecting Veterans to Trucking: Forging Partnerships to Help Veterans and Transitioning Service Members Enter Trucking
White House.gov. 04/04/2024.
The Administration worked with Veterans Service Organizations and related associations representing more than 4 million veterans and military family members to create ways for the industry to attract, train, place, and retain veterans in trucking jobs. This builds on the already strong connection between veterans and trucking as at least one in ten truckers are veterans, which is double the rate of workers overall.
- The trucking industry partnered with leading Veterans Service Organizations like the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, and the Union Veterans Council to launch Task Force Movement: Life-Cycle Pathways for Veterans and Military into Trucking, chaired by former Congressman and veteran Patrick Murphy, to support the recruitment and retention of veterans and military family members in trucking.
- DOL partnered with FASTPORT to connect transitioning service members with apprenticeship and employment opportunities in the trucking industry, while DOD has committed to improve its credentialing programs for all service members—200,000 of whom transition out of military service each year.
Continuing the Driving Good Jobs Initiative to Improve the Quality of Trucking Careers
White House.gov. 04/04/2024.
The Administration launched the new Driving Good Jobs initiative between DOL and DOT to commit to ongoing work to ensure trucking jobs are good jobs. Over the last 90 Days, the Administration held a number of listening sessions and engagements with drivers, unions and worker centers, industry, and advocates to ensure their voices and experiences are shaping future actions across key areas. The initiative will maintain a focus on:
- Ensuring a safe and inclusive industry for women: Expanding opportunities for women in trucking, including by creating safe and inclusive work environments, is critical for increasing trucking supply. This includes:
- The Women of Trucking Advisory Board will review and report on challenges facing woman drivers and those interested in joining the profession, such as on-the-job safety risks, mentorship, quality training, and opportunities for advancement. DOT has begun soliciting nominations.
- The Administration is announcing a Day of Action in April, coinciding with Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month, to raise awareness and advocate for the prevention of sexual assault and sexual harassment in trucking. We will call on industry to commit to actions to promote safe training and work environments including zero-tolerance policies for sexual assault, improving sexual harassment training, and more.
- The Administration is taking steps to ensure drivers entering the profession have a safe environment. DOT is now highlighting whistleblower and coercion protections for individuals facing sexual harassment and unsafe training conditions in its Entry Level Driver Training Program FAQ, which will be distributed to the 11,000 training providers. DOL is identifying employers in the trucking industry that have built supportive and inclusive workplaces for women and developing a “train the trainer” module for new Registered Apprenticeships sponsors who would receive a “seal of approval” upon completion to indicate training programs follow model gender-responsive training standards.
- Truck Leasing: DOT, DOL, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), have stood up a Truck Leasing Task Force to address predatory truck leasing arrangements and identify actions that could make leases more equitable and transparent. The Task Force will review and report on common leasing arrangements, arrangements that result in outsize and unanticipated debt for incoming drivers, and more.
- Detention Time and Compensation Studies: DOT released a scope of work to study driver detention time — the loading and unloading time that is often unpaid — and its impact on safety and compensation. This study will provide a detailed understanding of wait time’s effects on drivers across jurisdictions and industry sectors. DOT is also partnering with the National Academies of Science to study the impact various methods of driver compensation have on safety and retention.
- Truck Parking: Lack of truck parking across the country is about more than just inconvenience, it impacts safety and retention as exhausted drivers have nowhere to rest. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) provides funding in at least five programs that states can use to address truck parking while requiring states to include an analysis of truck parking needs in their State freight plans, laying the foundation to understand local needs.
- Strengthening workplace safety and worker’s rights: DOL and DOT will continue coordination on critical truck driver labor, employment and safety protections, including releasing new guidance and information for drivers about their workplace rights, and employers about their obligations. Additionally, they are conducting joint outreach and education to employers and drivers about these rights and responsibilities under federal wage and hour law. The Administration is committed to addressing core challenges, such as worker misclassification, while expanding high-road employer practices to build a next generation trucking workforce.
President Biden has tweeted…
He’s tweeted 1 time so far for Monday.
The Senate Judiciary Committee met this morning to vote on moving Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court nomination to a full Senate vote.
NBC News reporter Sahil Kapur says the vote is/was expected to be a deadlock, which will cause Democrats to “discharge” her nomination but even with all the unnecessary political theater her confirmation to the Supreme Court seems certain. The vote is expected sometime this week.
This morning when President Biden returned from Delaware to the White House he spoke with reporters; I’m including this because well, I’ve had like 4 breaking news alerts over what he said about Putin…
He says in the clip when asked if he believes what happened is “genocide” he says “no, I believe it was a war crime.” He also says when asked about adding more sanctions against that he is “seeking more sanctions.”
President Biden’s remarks are scheduled for 1:45 p.m. D.C., time.
The daily press briefing is scheduled for 2:45 p.m. D.C., time.
In personal news–news…
I will be off Tuesday and Wednesday; the lovely Halodoc will be covering for me…
See you beautiful peeps, Thursday!!!
This is an Open Thread.
