It’s Thursday.
When Biden Bits was posted for Wednesday, President Biden had tweeted 2 times. He added 8 tweets giving him a Wednesday Tweeting Total of 10 tweets and 0 retweets.
His 3rd tweet for Wednesday related to the remarks he gave following the Texas Elementary School shooting, which left 19 children and two teachers dead. The shooter is also deceased.
President Biden: Deer aren’t running through the forest with Kevlar vests on, for God’s sake. It’s just sick. And the gun manufacturers have spent two decades aggressively marketing assault weapons which make them the most and largest profit. For God’s sake, we have to have the courage to stand up to the industry.
The rest of Wednesday’s tweets relate to the Executive Order; on Advancing Effective, Accountable Policing and Criminal Justice Practices to Enhance Public Trust and Public Safety. The YouTube is 27 minutes and 38 seconds long. Vice President Harris also offered remarks. Their full remarks can be found here.
H.R. 1280–George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021 summary:
This bill addresses a wide range of policies and issues regarding policing practices and law enforcement accountability. It increases accountability for law enforcement misconduct, restricts the use of certain policing practices, enhances transparency and data collection, and establishes best practices and training requirements.
The bill enhances existing enforcement mechanisms to remedy violations by law enforcement. Among other things, it does the following:
Congress.gov. 03/03/2021.
- lowers the criminal intent standard—from willful to knowing or reckless—to convict a law enforcement officer for misconduct in a federal prosecution,
- limits qualified immunity as a defense to liability in a private civil action against a law enforcement officer, and
- grants administrative subpoena power to the Department of Justice (DOJ) in pattern-or-practice investigations.
It establishes a framework to prevent and remedy racial profiling by law enforcement at the federal, state, and local levels. It also limits the unnecessary use of force and restricts the use of no-knock warrants, chokeholds, and carotid holds.
The bill creates a national registry—the National Police Misconduct Registry—to compile data on complaints and records of police misconduct. It also establishes new reporting requirements, including on the use of force, officer misconduct, and routine policing practices (e.g., stops and searches).
Finally, it directs DOJ to create uniform accreditation standards for law enforcement agencies and requires law enforcement officers to complete training on racial profiling, implicit bias, and the duty to intervene when another officer uses excessive force.
Congress.gov. 03/03/2021.
Vice President Harris: As a United States senator, I, together with Senator Cory Book [Booker], Congresswoman Karen Bass, introduced legislation to advance much-needed reforms. That legislation would have ensured greater transparency and increased accountability. We later named it the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. And it was passed, because of the strength of the leadership in the House of Representatives, through the House of Representatives. However, last fall, Senate Republicans rejected the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. They walked away from their moral obligation to address what caused millions of Americans to march in the streets: the critical need that a coalition of Americans were demanding, were pleading for, in terms of reform and accountability.
President Biden: That’s why I called on Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act — (applause) — to send it to my desk.
President Biden: This executive order is going to deliver the most significant police reform in decades. It applies directly, under law, to only 100,000 federal law enforcement officers — all the federal law enforcement officers. And though federal incentives and best practices they’re attached to, we expect the order to have significant impact on state and local law enforcement agencies as well.
I’ve gotten to know George Floyd’s family over the years and I promised them that his name will not just become a hashtag. Today, I signed an Executive Order to deliver on that promise and enact the most significant police reform in decades.
— President Biden (@POTUS) May 26, 2022
Here’s what it will do:
First, the Executive Order promotes accountability. It creates a new national law enforcement accountability database, strengthens pattern and practice investigations, and mandates all federal agents wear and activate body cameras while on patrol.
— President Biden (@POTUS) May 26, 2022
Second, the Executive Order raises standards. It bans chokeholds, restricts no-knock entries, and tightens use-of-force policies to emphasize de-escalation and the duty to intervene.
— President Biden (@POTUS) May 26, 2022
Third, it modernizes policing with new tools to screen and vet officers.
This Executive Order includes reforms that have long been talked about, but we’re finally implementing. By building public trust, we can strengthen public safety and we can more effectively fight rising crime in our communities.
— President Biden (@POTUS) May 26, 2022
We can show what’s possible when we work together.
President Biden: Over two years now — for over two years, we’ve gotten to know one another and pray with one another — not figuratively, literally. I promise the Floyd family, among others, that George’s name is not just going to be a hashtag. Your daddy’s name is going to be known for a long time. And that as a nation, we’re going to ensure his legacy and the legacy of so many others remembered today — it’s not about their death but what we do in their memory that matters. The purpose.
President Biden: First, the executive order promotes accountability. It creates a new national law enforcement accountability database to track records of misconduct so that an officer can’t hide the misconduct. It strengthens the pattern-and-practice investigations to address systematic [systemic] misconduct in some departments. It mandates all federal agents wear and activate body cameras while on patrol.
President Biden: Second, the executive order raises standards, bans chokeholds, restricts no-knock warrants, tightens use-of-force policies to emphasize de-escalation and the duty to intervene to stop another officer from using executive [excessive] force, just as occurred — that didn’t occur, but people testified it didn’t occur in George Floyd’s case. And third, the executive order modernizes policing. It calls for a presh [sic] — a fresh approach to recruit, train, promote, and retain law enforcement that tied to advancing public safety and public trust. Right now, we don’t systematically collect data, for instance, on instances of police use of force. This executive order is going to improve that data collection.
President Biden: There’s a lot more as well. The bottom line of the executive order includes reforms that have long been talked about but we’re finally implementing at a federal level. And it comes at a critical time. By building trust, we can strengthen public safety and we can more effectively fight crime in our communities. And we can do one more thing: We can show what’s possible when we work together.
Side-bar not related to tweets:
During his remarks yesterday, President Biden said that he would be traveling to Texas in the “coming days” to meet with the families of those killed at Robb Elementary School.
Jill and I will be traveling to Texas in the coming days to meet with the families and let them know we have a sense — just a sense of their pain, and hopefully bring some little comfort to the community in shock, in grief, and in trauma. As a nation, I think we all must be there for them. Everyone.
White House.gov. 05/25/2022.
For Thursday, May 26th, 2022, President Biden has received his daily brief. That is all President Biden has listed on his public schedule.
The White House posted the following fact-sheet: Biden Administration Announces Launch of First Federally-Supported Test to Treat Site
On his first day in office, President Biden mobilized an unprecedented, comprehensive response to the COVID-19 pandemic—standing up a historic vaccination program that has gotten 220 million Americans fully vaccinated and over 100 million people boosted, and investing in other lifesaving tools, including COVID-19 therapeutics.
One of the most effective treatments in our nation’s medicine cabinet is Paxlovid, an oral antiviral pill, which reduces the risk of hospitalization or death by about 90 percent. Since Paxlovid was first authorized in December 2021, the Administration has moved quickly to ensure that these treatments are widely available and that health care providers and patients know about their availability and efficacy. These efforts include a Test-to-Treat initiative to help make it easier for people to quickly access oral antiviral treatments in one convenient location. There are now more than 2,500 Test-to-Treat locations across the country at local pharmacies and community health centers—up from 2,200 a month ago.
The Administration’s actions to date have resulted in tremendous progress: We have dramatically increased the number of people benefiting from oral antivirals in the last seven weeks, from about 27,000 prescriptions filled each week to more than 182,000 last week—a more than six-fold increase. We have also doubled the number of sites where Paxlovid is available nationally.
Because of the work the Biden Administration has done on vaccines, boosters, treatments, and more, COVID-19 deaths are down 90 percent from when the President took office—even as cases rise in parts of the country. The tools that the Administration has made widely available to the American people are working to prevent serious illness, to keep people out of the hospital, and to save lives.
The tools we have now mean that we can prevent most COVID deaths. The Administration remains laser-focused on making sure that these lifesaving tools are widely available to every American who needs them. To that end, today, the Administration is announcing the launch of the first federally-supported Test-to-Treat site, with more planned in the coming weeks.
White House.gov. 05/26/2022.
Today’s announcement includes:
- Launching the first federally-supported Test-to-Treat site in Rhode Island: Today, Rhode Island will officially launch the nation’s first federally-supported Test-to-Treat site at a clinic in Providence. Federal reimbursement will now allow individuals who test positive for COVID-19 at the clinic to immediately receive an assessment from a medical provider and get oral antiviral treatments—if prescribed—all in one convenient location that serves some of the state’s highest-risk and hardest-hit populations. The clinic also currently offers vaccination, meaning that federal support will help enhance this site into being a true one-stop shop for individuals to protect themselves and their communities from COVID-19.
- Deploying clinical personnel to support state-run Test-to-Treat sites in Minnesota: In the coming days, the Administration will deploy clinical personnel to support staffing across several of Minnesota’s state-run testing sites, transforming them into Test-to-Treat sites that will co-locate testing, an assessment from a medical provider, and oral antiviral treatments. This direct federal support will allow Minnesota to expand the capacity and reach of Test-to-Treat, making these lifesaving oral antiviral treatments more widely available statewide.
- Launching additional federally-supported Test-to-Treat sites in the coming weeks: The Administration will open federally-supported Test-to-Treat sites in New York and Illinois in the coming weeks, and is working with other regions like Massachusetts and New York City to enhance existing state-led efforts to increase access to oral antivirals like Paxlovid.
Today’s announcements build on the significant actions the Administration has taken over the past several weeks to increase access to oral antivirals and boost health care provider and patient awareness, including:
- Doubling the number of places where oral antivirals are available: In late April, the Administration acted to make it easier for local pharmacies to order oral antivirals directly from the federal government. As a result, oral antivirals are now available at almost 40,000 convenient locations nationwide—up from roughly 20,000 a month ago. This means nearly 90 percent of Americans now live within 5 miles of a place where they can pick up their prescriptions for oral antivirals, including local pharmacies, hospitals, urgent care centers, community health centers, rural health clinics, Veterans Affairs clinics, and Department of Defense Medical Treatment Facilities.
- Ensuring equitable access to oral antivirals: In line with the Administration’s unwavering commitment to equity, 40 percent of the pharmacy sites that now have oral antivirals available are located in communities with the highest levels of social vulnerability. To ensure both equitable geographic placement and equitable administration to vulnerable populations, we have also called on all sites dispensing oral antivirals to collect robust demographic data on individuals receiving prescriptions for COVID-19 therapeutics. This demographic data will improve our ability to identify—in real time—any gaps in access and work to promptly alleviate those gaps.
- Expanding the number of Test-to-Treat sites in communities and their reach: Over the past several weeks, the Administration has worked with its federal pharmacy and community health center partners to expand the footprint of Test-to-Treat sites in communities and to enhance overall patient experience. This means that it is even easier for people to make appointments and to access treatments. There are now more than 2,500 Test-to-Treat locations across the country at local pharmacies and community health centers—up from 2,200 a month ago. These Test-to-Treat sites provide people streamlined access to COVID-19 tests, health care provider visits, and if they need it, prescriptions for oral antivirals. In addition, Americans can now find many health care providers on the Test-to-Treat locator that supports telehealth visits to determine if oral antivirals are appropriate. Walgreens has made antiviral treatments available in all of its rural and high Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) locations, and CVS and Kroger have added telehealth-based provider visits to help people get a prescription quickly.
- Supporting health care providers with additional guidance: In the last month, federal health agencies have issued updated guidance to help health care providers stay up to date on the latest science and navigate drug-drug interactions and contraindications. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued two Health Alert Notifications highlighting available COVID-19 treatments, particularly Paxlovid. The National Institutes of Health has updated its treatment guidelines with more info to help providers understand drug-drug interactions. And, the Food and Drug Administration issued a FAQ and created an eligibility screening checklist to help providers get this treatment to all patients that need it.
- Providing more resources for the immunocompromised: The Administration continues to prioritize protections for immunocompromised individuals. This includes ensuring that immunocompromised individuals have free and easy access to additional booster shots, and making pre-exposure prophylaxis drugs like Evusheld widely available and free to help those with moderately and severely compromised immune systems mount an adequate immune response to COVID-19. As part of the Administration’s ongoing commitment, we continue to ensure immunocompromised individuals have easy access to the best and latest information on federal websites about vaccines and Evusheld, including highlighting this information on covid.gov. Additionally, the Administration continues to engage provider organizations representing clinicians that care for the majority of immunocompromised patients to make sure that they are doing everything they can to ensure that all patients who would benefit from Evusheld are informed and offered the opportunity to receive the treatment.
The daily press briefing is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. D.C., time.
This is an Open Thread.
1 Trackback / Pingback
Comments are closed.