Biden Bits: “One More Big Step”…

May 17, 2024 11:45 am EDT Tiff Biden Tweets (Open Thread) Comments Off on Biden Bits: “One More Big Step”…
Biden Tweets Logo. Image by Lenny Ghoul.

It’s Friday…

President Biden’s public schedule for 05/17/2024:

10:00 AM
Closed Press		The President receives the President’s Daily Brief
11:00 AMThe President departs the White House en route to the National Museum of African American History and Culture
11:45 AM
Remarks		The President delivers remarks at the National Museum of African American History and Culture
12:20 PMThe President arrives at the White House
1:00 PM
Press Briefing		Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre
3:30 PM
Closed Press		The President and The Vice President meet with the leaders of the Divine Nine, historically Black sororities and fraternities

President Biden Delivers Remarks at the National Museum of African American History and Culture @11:45 a.m. D.C., time:

Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre @1:00 p.m. D.C., time:


The Stock Market Had a Good Day Tweet

From Thursday…

NBC News (05/16/2024): The Dow Jones Industrial Average stock index touched 40,000 briefly for the first time Thursday amid renewed investor hopes for a “soft landing” for the U.S. economy following a favorable inflation report. It retreated slightly at the market close, landing at 39,869.

For what my hot take is worth; the renewed “hopes” investors have is that we continue to see inflation slow enough that the Federal Reserve decides to lower interest rates before September…

Reclassify Marijuana Tweets (pinned tweets)

From Thursday…

From Friday…

The video clip is 45 seconds long.

President Biden: This is monumental. Today, my Administration took a major step to reclassify marijuana from a schedule 1 drug to a schedule 3 drug. It’s an important move toward reversing longstanding inequities. Today’s announcement builds on the work we’ve already done to pardon a record number of federal offenses for simple possession of marijuana. And it adds to the action we’ve taken to lift barriers to housing, employment, small business loans, and so much more for tens of thousands of Americans. Look folks, no one should be in jail for merely for using or possessing marijuana. Period. Far too many lives have been upended because of the failed approach to marijuana. And I’m committed to righting those wrongs. You have my word on it.

From the Department of Justice…

05/16/2024:

Justice Department Submits Proposed Regulation to Reschedule Marijuana:

The Justice Department today announced that the Attorney General has submitted to the Federal Register a notice of proposed rulemaking initiating a formal rulemaking process to consider moving marijuana from a schedule I to schedule III drug under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

Marijuana has been classified as a schedule I drug since Congress enacted the CSA in 1970. On Oct. 6, 2022, President Biden asked the Attorney General and the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to launch a scientific review of how marijuana is scheduled under federal law. After receiving HHS’s recommendations last August, the Attorney General sought the legal advice of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) on questions relevant to this rulemaking. In light of HHS’ medical and scientific determinations, and OLC’s legal advice, the Attorney General exercised his authority under the law to initiate the rulemaking process to transfer marijuana to schedule III.

The rescheduling of a controlled substance follows a formal rulemaking procedure that requires notice to the public, and an opportunity for comment and an administrative hearing. This proposal starts the process, where the Drug Enforcement Administration will gather and consider information and views submitted by the public, in order to make a determination about the appropriate schedule. During that process, and until a final rule is published, marijuana remains a schedule I controlled substance.

The notice of proposed rulemaking submitted by the Department can be viewed here, and the OLC memorandum regarding questions related to the potential rescheduling of marijuana can be found here.

Learn more about the rulemaking process here.

Justice Department Submits Proposed Regulation to Reschedule Marijuana. 05/16/2024.

Brown v. Education turns 70 Tweet

From Thursday…

From the White House…

05/16/2024:

05/17/2024:

FACT SHEET: President Biden Announces New Actions to Advance Racial and Educational Equity on 70th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education; I’m posting just the bullet points and such…

To advance racial and educational equity and continue the work of Brown to support educational opportunity for all students, the Biden-Harris Administration announced the following new actions today:

FACT SHEET: President Biden Announces New Actions to Advance Racial and Educational Equity on 70th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. 05/17/2024.
  • New Magnet School Grants. The Department of Education’s Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP) will invest $20 million in new awards for school districts in Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Texas to establish magnet programs designed to further desegregate public schools by attracting students from different social, economic, ethnic, and racial backgrounds. The President’s 2025 budget request includes $139 million for MSAP and $10 million to continue investments in the Fostering Diverse Schools program.
  • Establishing a new technical assistance center to help states and school districts provide more equitable and adequate approaches to school funding. The U.S. Department of Education announced a new Technical Assistance Center on Fiscal Equity as part of the Comprehensive Centers Program. The Center on Fiscal Equity will provide capacity-building services to support states and school districts build equitable and adequate resource allocation strategies, improve the quality and transparency of fiscal data, and prioritize supports for students and communities with the greatest need.
  • New Data on Equal Access to Math and Science Courses. The Department of Education Office for Civil Rights is releasing a new Civil Rights Data Collection report highlighting students’ access to and enrollment in mathematics, science, and computer science courses and academic programs, drawing from information in the 2020-21 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC). The report reflects stark continuing racial inequities in access to math, science, and computer science courses for students in high schools with high concentrations of Black and Latino students. 
  • Preserving African American History. To further advance the President’s Executive Order on Promoting the Arts, the Humanities, and Museum and Library Services, the Administration is launching an interagency process to develop new actions by the Federal Government to preserve African American history – including preserving historic sites, protecting and increasing access to literature, and ensuring the public, including students, has continuing access to resources. This effort will bolster African American history and culture as integral, indelible parts of American history.

Investing in Underserved Schools

  • Under the American Rescue Plan, the nation’s schools received $130 billion in funding – the most in our Nation’s history – with a focus on undeserved schools. The American Rescue Plan also included new requirements that have driven nearly $800 million in State additional education funding, above and beyond the federal investment, to the most underserved school by protecting schools with high rates of poverty from reductions in State and local education funding.
  • To date, the Biden-Harris Administration has secured nearly $2 billion in additional Title I funding to support our schools with the highest need, for a record $18.4 billion in annual funding.
  • The Biden-Harris Administration has also increased funding for Full-Service Community Schools five-fold, from $30 million in Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 to $150 million in FY 2024 so that underserved schools, including those that serve a majority of students of color, have the additional resources they need to help deliver more services to students and their families, such as health care, housing, and child care, to close resource and opportunity gaps.

Increasing Teacher Diversity

Research indicates that educator diversity can improve student achievement and help close achievement gaps. For example, one study found that Black students randomly assigned to at least one Black teacher in grades K-3 were nearly 19% more likely to enroll in college than their same-school, same-race peers.

FACT SHEET: President Biden Announces New Actions to Advance Racial and Educational Equity on 70th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. 05/17/2024.
  • The Administration is prioritizing efforts to increase educator diversity across 15 competitive grant programs that support teacher preparation, development, recruitment, and retention. These programs awarded nearly $450 million to 263 grantees, 92 percent of which were to grantees that addressed specific priorities related to educator diversity.
  • The Administration secured and awarded a total of more than $23 million in first-time ever funding for the Augustus F. Hawkins Centers of Excellence Grant program which provides grants to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) for teacher preparation programs to increase the number of well-prepared teachers, including teachers of color and multilingual educators.

Strengthening School Diversity

  • During this Administration, the Department of Education is investing more than $300 million in programs that increase school diversity This includes increased investment in the Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP), which aims to reduce racial isolation, including by creating highly effective schools, and the creation of the Fostering Diverse Schools Demonstration Program (FDS), a new initiative to increase school socioeconomic diversity, which awarded more than $14 million in new grants.
  • In August 2023 after the Supreme Court effectively ended affirmative action in college admissions, the Department of Education released a Dear Colleague Letter on Race and School Programming to guide schools on lawful programs to promote racially inclusive school communities and, along with the Department of Justice, a Dear Colleague Letter and a Questions and Answers Resource to help colleges and universities understand the Supreme Court’s decision as they continue to pursue campuses that are racially diverse and that include students with a range of viewpoints, talents, backgrounds, and experiences. The Department of Education published a resource summarizing specific guidance describing Federal legal obligations to ensure that all students have equal access to education regardless of race, color, or national origin.
  • The Department of Education issued a new rule requiring, among other things, many Charter School Program applicants to assure that proposed charter schools would not negatively affect any desegregation efforts in the communities in which charters are to be located.

Closing the School Readiness Gap

Because of the legacy of discrimination, Black children start school on average nearly seven months behind their white peers in reading. One study finds that one year of universal high-quality pre-K could eliminate most of that gap. Others indicate that students who go to preschool are nearly 50% more likely to finish high school and go on to a college degree. Each of the President’s budgets have included proposals that would provide preschool to every four-year-old in the country. In addition:

FACT SHEET: President Biden Announces New Actions to Advance Racial and Educational Equity on 70th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. 05/17/2024.
  • President Biden has secured an additional $1.5 billion for Head Start and nearly a 50% increase in funding for the Child Care & Development Block Grant (CCDBG) program, which helps low-income families afford child care. Approximately 30% of children and families receiving high-quality Head Start services are Black and close to 40% of families benefiting from CCBDG are Black. 
  • The American Rescue Plan provided $24 billion to stabilize child care. Over 44% of programs that received assistance were owned or operated by people of color and 53% of providers receiving stabilization funds were operating in the most racially diverse counties.
  • The Department of Education released guidance on how districts can leverage the increases the President has secured for Title I to expand access to high-quality preschool services, including through partnerships with Head Start programs. This is the first Department of Education preschool guidance in more than a decade.

Joint Chiefs of Staff and Combatant Commanders Meeting Tweet

From Friday…

From the White House…

05/15/2024:

Remarks by President Biden Before Meeting with Joint Chiefs of Staff and Combatant Commanders; the YouTube is 3 minutes and 44 seconds long:

Well, hello, everyone.  Welcome to the Cabinet Room.  Welcome.  And it’s great to see you all.
 
We got some important meeting and business to do in a minute.  But I do want to kick it off with one comment: Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. 
 
You know, first, I want to thank you for your leadership.  I know it’s — I may not look it, but I’ve seen it for a while.  I’ve been arou- — I know I don’t look like I’ve been around very long.  I know that part.  But — but never before have I seen the nation ask so much of our military in so many parts of the world at the same time. 
 
In Europe, you’re equipping and training Ukrainian troops as they defend their freedom against Russia’s vicious onslaught. 
 
In Africa, you’re working with our partners to take terrorists off the battlefield. 
 
In the Indo-Pacific, you’re building alliances with Australia, Philippines, Japan, and Republic of Korea and improving our relationship with India as well and putting our nation in the strongest position we can possibly be in.
 
In the Middle East, you have stepped up to defend against a range of unprecedented attacks on U.S. forces, Israel, and our partners across the region.
 
And I look forward to discussing — I think you’ve been remarkable.  I look forward to discussing all these issues this afternoon.
 
Next, I want to thank you for your commitment.  I know last year hasn’t been easy.  I know, as you’ve faced crises abroad, you’ve also faced unnecessary chaos here at home: polarized politics, which I’m sure doesn’t confuse you at all, but it does me sometimes; and potential shutdowns, performative stunts that impact on morale and readiness and too many military families. 
 
But you keep going.  And you keep showing every person, with the most heart to serve, you’re made up of an incredible group of men and women.  And — and I know I’ve said it before, but I mean it — I don’t think there’s any comparable counterargument — you’re the greatest fighting force the world has ever seen.  And that’s a fact.
 
And, you know, I’ve — I’ve had — I’ve had a vow since I’ve been a young senator, and that is that, you know, we have a lot of obligations but only one — only one overwhelming obligation: to prepare those we send into harm’s way with all they need and to take care of them and their families when they come home and when they don’t come home.
 
And you’ve made progress on this front as well — over the last year, in particular. 
 
I’m proud that, for the first time in nearly a decade, rates of sexual assault and harassment are — within active-duty forces are down.  They’re down.  And that’s because of your leadership.
 
And, finally, as I said a moment ago, I know I’ve asked a lot of you but — and everyone in this room, but I have one more request: Please pass along my deepest thanks to all the servicemen and women under your control and under your charge.  And I really mean it.
 
Right now, all across the world, we’re defending our nation — they’re defending it.  And every day, they’re risking their own safety for the safety of their fellow citizens. 
 
So, this afternoon, I look forward to discussing a whole range of things and how I can continue to help support your needs and what you’re doing for us. 
 
So, I want to thank you again for being here.  And I’m going to ask the press to leave and we get down to business. 
 
Thank you.

Remarks by President Biden Before Meeting with Joint Chiefs of Staff and Combatant Commanders. 05/15/2024.

Q&A:

Q    Mr. President, why debate in June?  Why do you want to debate in June?  Are you worried about your position in the polls, sir?
 
Q    President Biden —
 
Q    Why do you want to debate so early, sir?
 
Q    Did you see Trump says he’ll do a third debate?  Would you?  Why not — why not debate a third time?
 
Q    Are you looking forward to the debates, Mr. President?  Are you looking forward to the debates, Mr. President?
 
THE PRESIDENT:  I am. 

Come on. 
 
Q    You don’t want to debate RFK, Jr.?

THE PRESIDENT:  (Laughs.)

Remarks by President Biden Before Meeting with Joint Chiefs of Staff and Combatant Commanders. 05/15/2024.

“New” from the White House…

05/16/2024:

05/17/2024:

  • A Proclamation on National Emergency Services Week, 2024; NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 19 through May 25, 2024, as National Emergency Medical Services Week. 

This is an open thread

About the opinions in this article…

Any opinions expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this website or of the other authors/contributors who write for it.

About Tiff 3036 Articles
Member of the Free Press who is politically homeless and a political junkie.