Biden Bits: “Will Seek to Work With Them in Good Faith”…

October 26, 2023 12:00 pm EDT Tiff Biden Tweets (Open Thread) Comments Off on Biden Bits: “Will Seek to Work With Them in Good Faith”…
Biden Tweets Logo. Image by Lenny Ghoul.

It’s Thursday…

President Biden’s public schedule for 10/26/2023:

10:00 AMIn-Town Pool Call Time
The White House In-Town Pool
11:00 AM
Presidential Daily Brief		The President receives the Presidential Daily Briefing; the Vice President attends
Oval Office Closed Press
1:00 PM
Press Briefing		Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard, and NSC Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, Lael Brainard, and John Kirby @1:00 p.m. D.C., time:


Australia U.S. State Visit Tweets

From Wednesday…

The YouTube is 32 minutes and 37 seconds long. Their full remarks can be found here.

Mr. Prime Minister, we’ve been in close touch since the moment you came into office — please, sit down; I’m sorry — since you came into office, and we’ve met all around the world. 
 
And now it’s wonderful to have you by my side here at the White House and — as we advance our alliance even more — more than it’s already been advanced.  It’s strong now; it’s getting stronger. 

White House.gov. 10/25/2023.

And, Mr. Prime Minister, today we renewed our commitment to defend the values that are at the heart of this alliance, and we continue to stand as one to forge a better future for both of us and all the region.

White House.gov. 10/25/2023.

And finally, our alliance — the alliance between Australia and the United States is an anchor — and I believe this with every fiber of my being — an anchor to peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and, quite frankly, around the world.

White House.gov. 10/25/2023.

The video clip is 22 seconds long. There is no voice over, just music and video footage of the two leaders from the arrival ceremony.

From the White House

10/25/2023:


New Speaker of the House Tweets

From Wednesday…

His full statement:

Jill and I congratulate Speaker Johnson on his election.

As I said when this process began, whoever the Speaker is, I will seek to work with them in good faith on behalf of the American people.

That’s a principle I have always held to, and that I’ve acted on – delivering major bipartisan legislation on infrastructure, outcompeting China, gun reform, and veterans care.

I restated my willingness to continue working across the aisle after Republicans won the majority in the House last year. By the same token, the American people have made clear that they expect House Republicans to work with me and with Senate Democrats to govern across the aisle – to protect our urgent national security interests and grow our economy for the middle class.

While House Republicans spent the last 22 days determining who would lead their conference, I have worked on those pressing issues, proposing a historic supplemental funding package that advances our bipartisan national security interests in Israel and Ukraine, secures our border, and invests in the American people.  These priorities have been endorsed by leaders in both parties.

We need to move swiftly to address our national security needs and to avoid a shutdown in 22 days.

Even though we have real disagreements about important issues, there should be mutual effort to find common ground wherever we can.

This is a time for all of us to act responsibly, and to put the good of the American people and the everyday priorities of American families above any partisanship.

White House.gov. 10/25/2023.

FACT SHEET: White House Calls on Congress to Support Critical Domestic Needs

The Biden-Harris Administration is delivering on its promises – lowering costs for families, protecting American lives from the devastating impacts of challenges like the climate crisis and the opioid epidemic, and ensuring America can compete to win in the global marketplace. At the same time, additional resources are needed to meet the needs of the American people, support our communities, and protect our nation and its interests.
 
The Administration continues to call on Congress to reach a comprehensive, bipartisan agreement to fund the Government, which is critical for a number of bipartisan priorities – including child care, nutrition assistance, public health, research and development, and national security. The Administration also recently communicated with Congress about critical funding needs for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), the Student Aid Administration, and the Social Security Administration to prevent harmful impacts on women and children, students, seniors and individuals with disabilities in the coming year, and we expect Congress to address these needs as well as today’s supplemental funding request.

In the meantime, in order to advance critical domestic priorities and address urgent needs, the Biden-Harris Administration is calling on Congress to provide additional domestic resources that will:

White House.gov. 10/25/2023.

Support Communities Facing Extreme Weather and Climate Disasters

As the President has said repeatedly, the Administration will stand with communities as they recover from extreme weather and climate disasters for as long as it takes. The Administration’s request is based on current estimates of need in communities affected by recent disasters, and the Administration will work with Congress to continue to assess these needs to fully support recovery and rebuilding. To meet our commitment to communities facing flooding, extreme heat, catastrophic wildfires, drought, and other severe weather events over the past year, the Administration is requesting:

White House.gov. 10/25/2023.
  • Funding for the Disaster Relief Fund to enable FEMA to continue supporting critical response efforts and recovery projects in communities across the country.
  • Support for specific disaster-recovery needs, including wildfires on Maui, the Guam typhoon, hurricanes in Florida and the southeastern United States, floods in California and Vermont, tornadoes in Mississippi and other natural disasters across the country.
  • Resources for rural residents, farmers, highway repairs, housing, businesses, K-12 schools, and institutions of higher education adversely affected by disasters nationwide.
  • Funding to implement permanent, comprehensive pay reform for wildland firefighters through the end of the fiscal year. Without congressional action, our nation’s heroic Federal wildland firefighters will face a pay cliff starting as soon as November, with salaries being cut by $20,000 or, in some cases, as much as 50% of base pay.
  • Funding to minimize the economic and employment impacts of disasters, including support for workers to meet cleanup and recovery needs following disasters, and for employment and training services to help Americans who have been dislocated or otherwise put out of work due to disaster-related impacts.
  • Additional funding to states, territories and Tribes through the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) to help cover home heating costs, settle unpaid utility bills, and make cost-effective home energy repairs to lower families’ heating and cooling bills. Last year alone LIHEAP served more than six million households. This funding is critical to preventing drastic service and benefit cuts compared to last year.

Prevent Families from Losing Child Care

The American Rescue Plan provided the largest one-time investment the country has ever made in child care, bringing vital relief to the child care sector, which was already on the brink of crisis prior to the pandemic. These resources enabled all 50 states and D.C. to make payments to over 220,000 child care providers, serving as many as 10 million children, that were at risk of closing—supporting the creation of more child care slots across the country, reducing family child care costs, increasing compensation to recruit and retain staff, and helping parents, especially mothers, return to work or enter the workforce.

Without congressional action, the expiration of child care stabilization funding at the end of September threatens to undo recent gains and destabilize the child care sector. There are already reports of providers needing to raise parent fees to help cover operating costs that were subsidized by child care stabilization funding, or reduce staff wages, exacerbating challenges in hiring and retaining qualified staff. Some providers may be forced to close without additional resources. If this trajectory continues, hardworking families will pay the price—parents will be left with fewer child care options higher costs—preventing parents from working and holding back our entire economy. Addressing this challenge requires congressional action and dedicated resources in addition to the existing Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), which provides child care subsidies to low-income families. As Congress works to reach an agreement on full-year CCDBG appropriations, the Administration is also requesting an additional year of child care stabilization funding to help keep child care providers afloat, mitigating the likelihood that providers will close or raise costs for families.

White House.gov. 10/25/2023.

Continue to Expand Access to High-Speed Internet Across America

In the 21st century, affordable, reliable high-speed internet is a necessity for Americans to do their jobs, participate equally in school learning, access health care, and stay connected. But too often, high costs create a barrier and tens of millions of families, students, and seniors are left without access to high-speed internet, or have to sacrifice other necessities to pay their internet bill, exacerbating underlying inequities. The Affordable Connectivity Program, enacted under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, is already helping over 21 million households save over $500 million per month on their monthly internet bills. The program is also critical for the Administration’s high-speed internet deployment programs for rural, remote, and Tribal communities. Without this funding, tens of millions of people would lose this benefit and would no longer be able to afford high-speed internet service without sacrificing other necessities. The Administration is requesting additional funds to strengthen the program by extending free and discounted high-speed internet for eligible households through December 2024.

White House.gov. 10/25/2023.

Protect American Security and Bolster Energy Independence

Alongside the Administration’s request for funding to address the challenges we face abroad, the Biden-Harris Administration is calling on Congress to provide supplemental funding to strengthen our security at home, including by protecting communities at high-risk of attack, safeguarding our communications infrastructure, and strengthening our energy independence. The requested funding will:

White House.gov. 10/25/2023.
  • Increase grants under FEMA’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program to nonprofit organizations, including synagogues, mosques, and other places of worship, that are at high risk of attack. As the President has said, there is no place in America for hate against anyone. Grant funds would pay for strengthening facility security and increase coordination between nonprofit organizations and state and local governments.
  • Fully reimburse eligible communications providers for the ongoing removal of insecure equipment and software from communications infrastructure that may pose a national security threat to the United States.
  • Mitigate domestic vulnerabilities and enhance U.S. competitiveness in the global market for isotopes used in public health, energy, and national security sectors.
  • Improve long-term, domestic enrichment capabilities for low-enriched uranium and high-assay low-enriched uranium. This is a national security priority as dependence on Russian sources of uranium creates risk to the U.S. economy and the civil nuclear industry that has been further strained by Russia’s war in Ukraine. Without action, Russia will continue its hold on the global uranium market to the detriment of U.S. allies and partners. To be successful, this initiative would also require a long-term ban on enriched uranium product imports from the Russian Federation into the United States.
  • Make capital improvement to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to improve the operational readiness and crude transportation capabilities, better positioning the SPR to combat global oil supply disruptions such as those caused by Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and other global events.

Save Lives by Countering the Fentanyl Crisis

Thanks to historic funding and bipartisan efforts, the rate of overdose deaths is slowing after a period of exponential increase, access to treatment is expanding, and historic amounts of fentanyl are being seized at our borders. But our work to beat the overdose epidemic is far from over and additional resources are needed to continue the Administration’s aggressive action to save lives. As part of the Administration’s National Drug Control Strategy supported by the National Security Supplemental package released last week to crack down on the trafficking of illicit fentanyl, the Administration’s Domestic Supplemental request includes funding for grants to States, Territories and Tribes through the Department of Health and Human Services’ State Opioid Response (SOR) grant program. This critical program provides funding for opioid use disorder treatment, evidence-based harm reduction services, overdose prevention measures like naloxone, and recovery support services in all States and territories. Since 2018, the SOR grant program has provided treatment services to over 1.2 million people, and states have purchased nearly 9 million overdose reversal medication kits using SOR grant funds and helped reverse approximately 500,000 overdoses.

White House.gov. 10/25/2023.

Provide Food Aid to Support Emergency Needs Abroad and Farmers at Home

Humanitarian needs worldwide remain at unprecedented levels due to more frequent and severe natural disasters and worsening food security. Putin’s war on Ukraine is having a devastating impact on global food availability and costs. Alongside the $10 billion in humanitarian aid in the National Security Supplemental request, the Administration is also requesting funding that will:

White House.gov. 10/25/2023.
  • Help respond to emergency food needs around the world. Funds for the Food for Peace program help combat malnutrition, improve the livelihoods of vulnerable groups, and mitigate the impact of disasters which are occurring with greater frequency. The Food for Peace Program uses food commodities grown in the United States by U.S. farmers to feed vulnerable populations in the poorest corners of the world.
  • Provide resources for the McGovern-Dole Food for Education program, which provides for the donation of U.S. agricultural commodities, as well as financial and technical assistance, to support school feeding and maternal and child nutrition projects in low-income, food-deficit countries around the globe.

How the vote played out…


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Member of the Free Press who is politically homeless and a political junkie.