Biden Bits: “Two New Big Steps”…

April 24, 2024 12:00 pm EDT Tiff Biden Tweets (Open Thread) Comments Off on Biden Bits: “Two New Big Steps”…
Biden Tweets Logo. Image by Lenny Ghoul.

It’s Wednesday…

President Biden’s public schedule for 04/24/2024:

10:00 AM
Presidential Daily Brief		The President receives the President’s Daily Brief
North Grounds In-Town Travel Pool
12:30 PM
Political Remarks		The President delivers political remarks at North America’s Building Trade Union National Legislative Conference
In-Town Travel Pool
1:20 PM
Arrives at the White House		The President arrives at the White House
North Grounds In-Town Travel Pool
1:30 PM
Press Briefing		Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre

FYI: The President delivers political remarks at North America’s Building Trade Union National Legislative Conference; CNN is reporting that today, the NABTU will officially endorse President Biden for the 2024 election.

Julia Hamelburg with the Biden-Harris campaign posted the following Morning Joe clip:

Straight political campaign events are not live streamed by the White House…


National Security Package Tweets

From Tuesday…

The Senate on Tuesday passed the National Security Package:

Statement from President Joe Biden on Senate Passage of the National Security Package

Tonight, a bipartisan majority in the Senate joined the House to answer history’s call at this critical inflection point. Congress has passed my legislation to strengthen our national security and send a message to the world about the power of American leadership: we stand resolutely for democracy and freedom, and against tyranny and oppression.

I will sign this bill into law and address the American people as soon as it reaches my desk tomorrow so we can begin sending weapons and equipment to Ukraine this week. The need is urgent: for Ukraine, facing unrelenting bombardment from Russia; for Israel, which just faced unprecedented attacks from Iran; for refugees and those impacted by conflicts and natural disasters around the world, including in Gaza, Sudan, and Haiti; and for our partners seeking security and stability in the Indo-Pacific. I want to thank Leader Schumer, Leader McConnell, and all of the bipartisan lawmakers in the Senate who voted for this bill. This critical legislation will make our nation and world more secure as we support our friends who are defending themselves against terrorists like Hamas and tyrants like Putin.

Statement from President Joe Biden on Senate Passage of the National Security Package. 04/23/2024.

On Monday the Department of Defense said:

U.S. officials are poised and ready to begin delivering needed military capabilities to Ukraine following passage of supplemental budget legislation by the House of Representatives Saturday, Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said today.

The Senate must approve the bill and deliver it to President Joe Biden for his signature.  

Ryder said the legislation will make the United States and its allies and partners more secure. This new legislation is proof to Russian President Vladimir Putin that his supposition that the group supporting Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion would fall apart was absolutely wrong, the general said. 

On Friday, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Air Force Gen. CQ Brown, Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will host the 21st meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group. The virtual meeting comes two years to the day from when Austin first convened the group. “I would say that it’s notable that despite Russia’s assumptions that the international community would fragment and lose interest in supporting Ukraine over time, the opposite has been true,” Ryder said.  

The group is composed of 50 nations, and it has remained unified in opposition to Putin’s invasion. Putin also thought his attack on Ukraine would somehow fracture the NATO alliance. “You’ve seen the NATO alliance for collective defense expand, underscoring international consensus that Ukraine’s security matters to the security of all of our nations,” the press secretary said. 

Defense.gov. 04/22/2024.

From Wednesday…

Replay: He did not take questions.

Two New Big Steps Tweet

From Tuesday…

Show more =’s First, the @FTC is cracking down on “non-compete agreements,” contracts that employers use to prevent their workers from changing jobs even if that job will pay a few dollars more, or provide better working conditions. Workers ought to have the right to choose who they want to work for. Second, for millions of workers who make less than $58,656, my @USDOL is saying you have the right to overtime protections. If you work extra hours, you deserve extra pay.

From the White House…

04/23/2024:

Readout of White House Event Announcing Overtime and Retirement Security Rules

Today, National Economic Advisor Lael Brainard, Domestic Policy Council Director Neera Tanden, and Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su led a White House event announcing two new rules to support workers and grow the American economy from the bottom up and the middle out.

Senior administration officials were joined by workers, union leaders, and advocates to discuss new Department of Labor (DOL) actions to update the outdated overtime threshold and protect Americans from hidden fees that eat into their retirement savings. First, DOL’s overtime rule will extend overtime protections to millions of workers, fulfilling the promise that a hard day’s work leads to a fair day’s pay. The rule will also ensure that the threshold for determining overtime eligibility rises with wage growth in the future. Additionally, DOL’s new retirement rule will save Americans billions of dollars as they prepare for retirement by ensuring that savers receive retirement advice in their best interest, rather than in the interest of retirement professionals. By preventing hard-earned savings from being lost in hidden fees from bad advice, Americans can save up to 20% more in retirement savings.

Specifically, the new rules will:

Readout of White House Event Announcing Overtime and Retirement Security Rules. 04/23/2024.
  • Extend Overtime Pay Eligibility: For more than 80 years, salaried workers earning less than a certain threshold have been entitled to time-and-a-half pay when they work more than 40 hours per week. However, the threshold that helps determine eligibility for overtime pay has risen far slower than wage growth, excluding many lower-paid salaried workers from overtime protections. DOL’s rule will raise the minimum salary threshold for the overtime exemption for executive, administrative, and professional employees in two stages, and provide for increases every 3 years to ensure the threshold keeps up with wage growth. This change will extend overtime protections to nearly 1 million workers based on an initial salary increase to $43,888 ($844 per week) on July 1, up from $35,568 ($684 per week). And it will extend protections to about 3 million more workers on January 1, 2025 based on a second increase to $58,656 per year ($1,128 per week).
  • Enhance Retirement Security: DOL’s rule will protect the millions of Americans who are diligently saving for retirement when they rely on advice from trusted professionals on how to invest their savings. For example, hidden fees from bad advice on just a single product—fixed index annuities—is currently costing savers as much as $5 billion per year. The rule will require trusted investment advice providers to give prudent, loyal, and honest advice, and prevent them from providing recommendations that favor the investment advice providers’ interests—financial or otherwise—at retirement savers’ expense. These new safeguards will save tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars per impacted middle-class saver.

From the FTC…

Noncompete Rule Summary:

  • Under the final Noncompete Rule, the FTC adopts a comprehensive ban on new noncompetes with all workers, including senior executives.
    • The final rule provides that it is an unfair method of competition—and therefore a violation of Section 5—for employers to enter into noncompetes with workers.
    • Note: The regulation’s effective date is 120 days after Federal Register publication – not after the FTC’s public announcement.
  • For existing noncompetes, the final rule adopts a different approach for senior executives than for other workers. For senior executives, existing noncompetes can remain in force. Existing noncompetes with workers other than senior executives are not enforceable after the effective date.
    • Fewer than 1% of workers are estimated to be senior executives under the final rule.
    • Specifically, the final rule defines the term “senior executive” to refer to workers earning more than $151,164 who are in a “policy-making position.”
  • The FTC estimates that banning noncompetes will result in:
    • Reduced health care costs: $74-194 billion in reduced spending on physician services over the next decade.
    • New business formation: 2.7% increase in the rate of new firm formation, resulting in an additional 8,500 new businesses created each year.
    • Rise in innovation: an average of 17,000-29,000 more patents each year.
      • This reflects an estimated increase of about 3,000 to 5,000 new patents in the first year noncompetes are banned, rising to about 30,000-53,000 in the tenth year.
      • This represents an estimated increase of 11-19% annually over a ten-year period.
    • Higher worker earnings: $400-$488 billion in increased wages for workers over the next decade.
      • The average worker’s earnings will rise an estimated extra $524 per year.
  • Next Steps
    • The final rule will become effective 120 days after publication in the Federal Register.
    • Once the rule is effective, market participants can report information on a suspected violation of the rule to the Bureau of Competition by emailing noncompete@ftc.gov. 

From the Department of Labor…

04/23/2024:

BIDEN-HARRIS ADMINISTRATION FINALIZES RULE TO INCREASE COMPENSATION THRESHOLDS FOR OVERTIME ELIGIBILITY, EXPANDING PROTECTIONS FOR MILLIONS OF WORKERS

The Biden-Harris administration today announced a final rule that expands overtime protections for millions of the nation’s lower-paid salaried workers by increasing the salary thresholds required to exempt a salaried bona fide executive, administrative or professional employee from federal overtime pay requirements. 

Effective July 1, 2024, the salary threshold will increase to the equivalent of an annual salary of $43,888 and increase to $58,656 on Jan. 1, 2025. The July 1 increase updates the present annual salary threshold of $35,568 based on the methodology used by the prior administration in the 2019 overtime rule update. On Jan. 1, 2025, the rule’s new methodology takes effect, resulting in the additional increase. In addition, the rule will adjust the threshold for highly compensated employees. Starting July 1, 2027, salary thresholds will update every three years, by applying up-to-date wage data to determine new salary levels.

“This rule will restore the promise to workers that if you work more than 40 hours in a week, you should be paid more for that time,” said Acting Secretary Julie Su. “Too often, lower-paid salaried workers are doing the same job as their hourly counterparts but are spending more time away from their families for no additional pay. That is unacceptable. The Biden-Harris administration is following through on our promise to raise the bar for workers who help lay the foundation for our economic prosperity.”

The department conducted extensive engagement with employers, workers, unions and other stakeholders before issuing its proposed rule in September 2023, and considered more than 33,000 comments in developing its final rule. The updated rule defines and delimits who is a bona fide executive, administrative and professional employee exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime protections. 

“The Department of Labor is ensuring that lower-paid salaried workers receive their hard-earned pay or get much-deserved time back with their families,” said Wage and Hour Administrator Jessica Looman. “This rule establishes clear, predictable guidance for employers on how to pay employees for overtime hours and provides more economic security to the millions of people working long hours without overtime pay.”

Key provisions of the final rule include the following:

BIDEN-HARRIS ADMINISTRATION FINALIZES RULE TO INCREASE COMPENSATION THRESHOLDS FOR OVERTIME ELIGIBILITY, EXPANDING PROTECTIONS FOR MILLIONS OF WORKERS. 04/23/2024
  • Expanding overtime protections to lower-paid salaried workers.
  • Giving more workers pay or valuable time back with their family: By better identifying which employees are executive, administrative or professional employees who should be overtime exempt, the final rule ensures that those employees who are not exempt receive time-and-a-half pay when working more than 40 hours in a week or gain more time with their families.
  • Providing for regular updates to ensure predictability. The rule establishes regular updates to the salary thresholds every three years to reflect changes in earnings. This protects future erosion of overtime protections so that they do not become less effective over time.

National Parks/Waterway Tweets

From Tuesday…

From the White House…

04/19/2024:

04/23/2024:


“New” from the White House…

04/23/2024:

04/24/2024:

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About Tiff 2567 Articles
Member of the Free Press who is politically homeless and a political junkie.