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Biden Administration, Congress, Joe Biden, President Joe Biden

SOTU Preview: Biden to Outline Vision to Advance Progress on Unity Agenda in Year Ahead

This year’s State of the Union address by President Joe Biden will have a very different look, with Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy standing in place of Nancy Pelosi, but Biden plans to continue to press for further progress on the Unity Agenda he proposed last year © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com via C-SPAN.

During his first State of the Union address, President Biden announced a four-part Unity Agenda focused on areas where members of both parties can come together and make additional progress for the American people: ending cancer as we know it; delivering on the sacred obligation to veterans; tackling the mental health crisis; and beating the opioid and overdose epidemic.

Over the last year, the President was proud to work with Democrats and Republicans to enact major legislation that delivers on all aspects of this four-part agenda. In his State of the Union today, the President will announce a new set of policies to continue to make progress advancing his Unity Agenda and deliver results for families across the country.

Accelerating Progress to End Cancer as We Know It Today
Cancer has touched nearly every American family, and it remains the second leading cause of death in America. To accelerate progress in the fight against cancer, last year, the President and First Lady reignited the Cancer Moonshot with the goal of cutting U.S. cancer death rates by at least half in 25 years and improving the experience of individuals, caregivers, and families living with and surviving cancer. Over the past year, the Cancer Moonshot has announced nearly 30 new federal programs, policies and resources to close the screening gap, tackle environmental exposure, decrease preventable cancers, advance cutting-edge research, support patients and caregivers, and more. More than 60 private companies, non-profits, academic institutions, and patient groups have also answered the President’s call and stepped up with new actions and collaborations. The President will call on Congress to act to end cancer as we know it, and the Cancer Moonshot will drive additional progress this year by:

Bringing America’s cancer research system into the 21st century. As we work to continue the progress we’ve made over the last year, the Administration is urging Congress to reauthorize the National Cancer Act, which 52 years ago set up the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in its current form. The reauthorization will update the nation’s cancer research and care systems to put modern American innovation fully to work to end cancer as we know it. This includes standing up clinical trial networks, creating new data systems that break down silos, and ensuring that knowledge gained through research is available to as many experts as possible, so we can find answers faster and make a difference for patients. Working with Congress, we can also lock in the strong investment in cancer research that passed in 2016 as part of the broadly bipartisan 21st Century Cures Act, which otherwise expires this year.

Providing patient navigation support to every American facing cancer. The Biden-Harris Administration will take steps to ensure that patient navigation services – services that help guide individuals, caregivers, and families through cancer screening, diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship – are covered benefits going forward for as many people facing cancer as possible. These patient navigation services not only improve the experience for those patients and their families, they improve patient outcomes and provide value back to the health care system. 

Tackling the biggest single driver of cancer deaths in this country – smoking. The Administration is preparing further action to help people avoid smoking in the first place and support Americans who want to quit. These steps could prevent as much as 30 percent of cancer deaths in this country, saving up to 130,000 American lives, annually. While we have made progress, tobacco products still hook too many young people at an early age and take control away from individual Americans to make the decision not to smoke. The Administration is working to put that control back in the hands of Americans.

During his first State of the Union address, President Biden cited the recent announcement of his plan to supercharge the Cancer Moonshot and called on Congress to fund ARPA-H, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, to drive breakthroughs in cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and other diseases. Since that time, the President and Congress have stepped up together to provide ARPA-H $2.5 billion in initial investment. The President also signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act, which will lower prescription drug costs for tens of thousands of cancer patients with Medicare coverage. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will also help cut cancer deaths by accelerating clean-up at Superfund sites and helping states and communities replace lead pipes and service lines.

Supporting America’s Veterans and Their Families, Caregivers, and Survivors
The President believes there is no more sacred obligation than taking care of our nation’s military service members, veterans, and their families, caregivers, and survivors. On health care, education, and housing, the Administration and Congress have worked together to make progress to connect veterans and their families to needed resources. Over the past year, the Administration expanded benefits for veterans as well as their caregivers and survivors, and delivered more benefits and health care more quickly to more veterans than ever before. In 2022, VA processed an all-time record 1.7 million veteran claims, and delivered $128 billion in earned benefits to 6.1 million veterans and survivors. In the State of the Union, the President will announce his Administration plans to continue that work by:

Reducing veteran suicide. Suicide among veterans is a public health and national security crisis. Since 2010, more than 71,000 veterans have died by suicide – more than the total number of deaths from combat during the Vietnam War and operations in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. Since releasing a comprehensive strategy for reducing military and veteran suicide, both DOD and VA reported declines in suicide deaths, but much more remains to be done. This will include actions to:  

  • Support states and territories. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is working with the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Defense (DOD) to partner with 49 states and 5 territories through the Governor’s Challenge. To help facilitate this work, VA will launch a new $10 million program to provide federal resources to states, territories, Tribes and Tribal organizations to develop and implement proposals under the program.
     
  • Increase lethal means safety: In the coming year, VA will deploy new resources to improve suicide risk identification and increase lethal means safety counseling and safe storage. VA will offer additional training for the 1.3 million community providers and expand KeepItSecure, the landmark lethal means safety campaign, with new resources and materials for providers, caregivers, family members of veterans, and gun shop owners to encourage safe storage of firearms and lethal medications.
     
  • Expand outreach to justice involved veterans. Veterans who become involved in the criminal justice system may be at high risk of suicide. Through Veteran Treatment Courts and other justice outreach engagements, VA is able to provide veterans access to benefits and services that can be life-changing, and VA will accelerate hiring of veteran justice outreach professionals to expand these programs.
     
  • Expand Access to Legal Support Services. VA will build upon and expand its current 28 Medical-Legal Partnerships. Family caregivers participating in VA’s Program of Comprehensive Assistance will also be able to receive Financial and Legal Assistance later this year. VA will also award up to 75 grants under its new Legal Services for Homeless Veterans and Veterans at Risk for Homeless (LSV-H) program to provide legal services to veterans who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

Expanding access to peer support, including mental health services. Military service increases the risk of mental health problems and other adjustment challenges for veterans. Veteran Peer Specialists are a critical asset within VA’s workforce, working across various programs to connect their fellow veterans to services, participate as members of health care teams, and provide individual and group-based peer support. Last year, VA pledged to hire an additional 280 peer specialists and is on track to meet this goal by the end of 2023. VA will increase the number of peer specialists working across VA medical centers by 350 over the next 7 years.

Ensuring access to affordable, stable housing for low-income veterans. Every veteran should have a roof over their head. The President’s upcoming budget will triple the number of extremely low-income veterans who can access the assistance they need to afford rent over the years ahead, paving the path to an entitlement for those who have served our country. The number of veterans experiencing homelessness declined by 11% between 2020 and 2022 and the United States permanently housed more than 40,000 veterans in 2022 alone. 

Delivering high-quality job training for veterans and their spouses. Roughly 200,000 service members transition from the military to civilian life each year. In the coming year, DOL’s Veteran Employment and Training Service (DOL-VETS) will implement its Employment Navigator Partnership Pilot, which has already provided one-on-one career assistance to 6,500 transitioning service members and military spouses. And, the Department of Defense will use the Military Spouse Career Accelerator Pilot program, a 12-week paid fellowship program, to expand employment opportunities for eligible military spouses.

In last year’s State of the Union, the President called for Congress to pass comprehensive legislation to address military toxic exposures. In August 2022, President Biden signed the bipartisan PACT Act into law, the most significant expansion of benefits and services for toxic exposed veterans in more than 30 years. Over the last year, the Administration also took critical action to help reduce veteran suicide, including transitioning the Veterans Crisis Line to “988, press 1.” The Administration also expanded access to reproductive health services for women veterans, supported more than 2.3 million children living with wounded, ill, or injured service members through the First Lady’s Joining Forces Initiative, and implemented key measures to protect veterans from predatory for-profit colleges.

Tackling the Mental Health Crisis
Forty percent of American adults report symptoms of anxiety and depression, and the percent of children and adolescents with anxiety and depression has risen nearly thirty percent. Last year, President Biden called for additional actions to advance his Mental Health Strategy across its three objectives: support Americans by creating healthy environments; strengthening system capacity, and connecting more Americans to care.  Over the last year, the Administration invested critical resources to provide mental health and substance use supports to Americans, including by expanding Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics, investing unprecedented resources in the 988 suicide prevention hotline, and taking steps to help address the harms of social media on youth. In the State of the Union, the President will say that we will continue that work by:

Creating healthy environments. Decades of research show that coordinating prevention and recovery support across settings can pay long-term dividends. The Biden-Harris Administration will:

  • Protect kids online. There is compelling and growing evidence that social media and other tech platforms can be harmful to mental health, wellbeing and development. Children, adolescents, and teens are especially vulnerable to such harm. More than one-third of American teens say they use a major social media platform “almost constantly” and that they spend “too much time on social media.” Far too often, the platforms do not enforce their own terms of service with respect to minors who use their products and services. Children are also subject to the platforms’ excessive data collection vacuum, which they use to deliver sensational and harmful content and troves of paid advertising. Children also suffer from bullying, harassment, abuse, and even sexual exploitation by other users online. And platforms use manipulative design techniques embedded in their products to promote addictive and compulsive use by young people in the name of “user engagement” – all to generate more revenue. The Administration will build on the Surgeon-General’s Youth Mental Health Advisory, the Department of Health and Human Services’ new Center of Excellence on Social Media and Mental Wellness, and the recent passage of the Children and Media Research Advancement Act. Platforms and other interactive digital service providers should be required to prioritize the privacy and wellbeing of young people above profit and revenue in their product design, including safety by design standards and practices for online platforms, products, and services. The President is calling for bipartisan support to ban targeted advertising online for children and young people and enact strong protections for their privacy, health and safety online.
     
  • Strengthen data privacy and platform transparency for all Americans: Big Tech companies collect huge amounts of data on the things we buy, the websites we visit, and the places we go.  There should be clear and strict limits on the ability to collect, use, transfer, and maintain our personal data, especially for sensitive data such as geolocation and health information, and the burden must fall on companies – not consumers – to minimize how much information they collect. We must also demand transparency about the algorithms companies use that far too often discriminate against Americans and sow division. The President has called for imposing much stronger transparency requirements on Big Tech platforms and is calling for bipartisan support to impose strong limits on targeted advertising and the personal data that companies collect on all Americans.
     
  • Support the mental health of the health workforce. Even before the pandemic, health workers were experiencing high levels of burnout, anxiety, and depression. Studies have shown that burnout have reached crisis levels, affecting up to 54 percent of nurses and physicians. This year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will launch a new campaign to provide a hub of mental health and resiliency resources to health care organizations in better supporting their workforce
     
  • Promote youth resilience. While rates of anxiety, depression, and self-harm among youth have been on the rise over the past several years, there are also remarkable stories of hope and resilience. To help foster innovation in promoting resilience, HHS will launch a new Children and Youth Resilience Prize Challenge, awarding a total of $750,000 in a new pilot program.  

Connecting more Americans to care.  On average, it takes 11 years after the onset of mental health symptoms for someone to seek treatment. We can do better. To mitigate these challenges, the Administration is working to make care more affordable and accessible across all types of health insurance, integrating mental health services into settings that are more familiar, such as schools, and expanding access to telehealth. To continue this progress, the Biden Administration will:

  • Improve school-based mental health. The Department of Education (ED) will announce more than $280 million in grants to increase the number of mental health care professionals in high-need districts and strengthen the school-based mental health profession pipeline. HHS and ED intend to issue guidance and propose a rule, respectively, to remove red tape for schools, making it easier for them to provide health care to students and more easily bill Medicaid funding for these critical services.
     
  • Strengthen parity. This spring, the Administration will propose new rules to ensure that insurance plans are not imposing inequitable barriers to care and mental health providers are being paid by health plans on par with other health care professionals.
     
  • Enhance crisis services. The Administration launched 988, the National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, in 2022, making it easier for individuals experiencing a behavioral health crisis to receive timely care. In the coming year, HHS will improve the capacity of the 988 Lifeline by investing in an expansion of the crisis care workforce; scaling mobile crisis intervention services; and developing additional guidance on best practices in crisis response. 
     
  • Expand access to telehealth. HHS will triple resources dedicated to promoting interstate license reciprocity for delivery of mental health services across state lines. VA will launch a new nationwide network of behavioral health clinicians to ensure timely access to evidence-based mental health services to veterans enrolled in VA health care. And, DoD will continue to expand the BRAVE program, a virtual behavioral health center providing services 24/7 to service members and their families located on federal installations across the globe.

Strengthening system capacity. Severe shortages in the behavioral health workforce are at the center of the mental health crisis. In addition to implementing legislation passed by Congress that creates 350 new slots to help train the next generation of mental health professionals, the Administration will:

  • Recruit diverse candidates to the mental health profession: HHS will increase funding to recruit future mental health professionals from Historically Black Colleges and Universities and to expand the Minority Fellowship Program.
     
  • Prioritize research: The Office of Science and Technology Policy and Domestic Policy Council released the White House Report on Mental Health Research Priorities, which identifies key areas where additional scientific research is needed to address our national mental health crisis. These priorities will ensure coordination across the federal agencies and private sector partners that support or perform mental health research.

Last year, after the President called for addressing the nation’s mental health crisis in the State of the Union, the Administration made important progress on expanding access to mental health services and treatment for substance use. President Biden signed into law the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which makes unprecedented investment in youth mental health and supports school-based health services. The Administration also oversaw the successful transition to 988, the National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, investing over $500 million to strengthen 988 infrastructure and grow local crisis-center capacity – a twenty-fold increase over the prior administration. The Biden Administration also developed new resources to support the mental health and resilience of frontline workers, expanded Medicare coverage to include additional mental health and substance use disorder services, and encouraged states to better address youth mental health for those with Medicaid coverage.

Beating the Opioid and Overdose Epidemic by Accelerating the Crackdown on Fentanyl Trafficking and Public Health Efforts to Save Lives
Last year, President Biden announced his plan to beat the opioid epidemic as part of his Unity Agenda, because opioid use and trafficking affect families in red communities and blue communities and every community in between. Under President Biden’s leadership, overdose deaths and poisonings have decreased for five months in a row – but these deaths remain unacceptably high and are primarily caused by fentanyl. In the State of the Union, the President will announce key actions the Administration to tackle this issue head on, including by:  

Disrupting the trafficking, distribution, and sale of fentanyl. In just the last year Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has seized a historic 260,000 pounds of illicit drugs primarily at ports of entry on our border, including nearly 15,000 pounds of fentanyl. The Drug Enforcement Administration and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy’s (ONDCP) High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program were involved in the seizure of more than 26,000 pounds of fentanyl in FY22—including 50.6 million fentanyl-laced counterfeit prescription pills—along with over 6,500 pounds of heroin, 335,000 pounds of methamphetamine, and 370,000 pounds of cocaine. The HIDTA seizures denied $9 billion to drug traffickers, cutting into their profits. Further, through President Biden’s Executive Order on Imposing Sanctions on Foreign Persons Involved in the Global Illicit Drug Trade, the Department of the Treasury has imposed sanctions against dozens of individuals and entities involved in the illicit drug trade. To aggressively expand on this historic effort, the President will announce in the State of Union that his administration will:

  • Stop more fentanyl from getting into the U.S. at the Southwest Border Ports of Entry. By providing 123 new large-scale scanners at Land Points of Entry along the Southwest Border by Fiscal Year 2026, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will increase its inspection capacity from what has historically been around two percent of passenger vehicles and about 17 percent of cargo vehicles to 40 percent of passenger vehicles and 70 percent of cargo vehicles. These investments will crack down on a major avenue of fentanyl trafficking, securing our border and keeping dangerous drugs from reaching our country.
     
  • Stop more packages from being shipped into the United States with fentanyl and the materials used to make it. Drug traffickers use small, hard-to-track packages to ship opioids and other illicit materials into and within the United States, hidden among the millions of packages sent daily via commercial package delivery companies. That’s why CBP is working with these companies to have them voluntarily provide data that help law enforcement identify, inspect and intercept suspicious packages. Through these combined public-private efforts, CBP has increased seizures in commercial package delivery services’ warehouses from 42,000 pounds of illicit substances to more than 63,000 pounds in just the past two years. This year, CBP will expand these voluntary data sharing partnerships to capture more information – and, in turn, seize more packages.
     
  • Lead a sustained diplomatic push that will address fentanyl and its supply chain abroad.  The Administration will work with international partners to disrupt the global fentanyl production and supply chain, and call on others to join our efforts. We will focus on seizing chemical ingredients and fentanyl before it can reach our communities, and hold accountable the producers, traffickers, and facilitators of these deadly drugs. Many of these ingredients and materials originate outside our borders, and we will call on global partners to work with us and do more to disrupt the criminal elements within their countries who sell chemicals and tools for the production of counterfeit pills around the world.
     
  • Work with Congress to make permanent tough penalties on suppliers of fentanyl. The federal government regulates illicitly produced fentanyl analogues and related substances as Schedule I drugs, meaning they are subject to strict regulations and criminal penalties. But traffickers have found a loophole: they can easily alter the chemical structure of fentanyl—creating “fentanyl related substances” (FRS)—to evade regulation and enhance the drug’s impact. The DEA and Congress temporarily closed this loophole by making all FRS Schedule I. The Administration looks forward to working with Congress on its comprehensive proposal to permanently schedule all illicitly produced FRS into Schedule I. Traffickers of these deadly substances must face the penalties they deserve, no matter how they adjust their drugs.

Expanding access to evidence-based prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery. Over the last year, the Biden-Harris Administration took unprecedented steps to expand access to naloxone and other harm reduction interventions, such as permitting the use of $50 million for local public health departments to purchase naloxone, releasing guidance to make it easier for programs to obtain and distribute naloxone to at-risk populations, and prioritizing the review of over-the-counter naloxone applications. The Administration has also fundamentally changed addiction treatment across the country by working with Congress to remove barriers that prevented medical professionals from prescribing treatment for opioid use disorder and pursuing rulemaking to make permanent the COVID-19 era flexibilities that allowed for telehealth prescribing of buprenorphine and take-home methadone doses. To further connect people to life-saving help, the Biden-Harris Administration will:

  • Deliver more life-saving naloxone to communities hit hard by fentanyl. In late spring, HHS will take new steps to encourage and aide states in their efforts to use existing funding to purchase naloxone and distribute it in their communities. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) will provide enhanced technical assistance to states who have existing State Opioid Response funds, and will host peer learning forums, national policy academies, and convenings with organizations distributing naloxone beginning this spring.
     
  • Ensure every jail and prison across the nation can provide treatment for substance use disorder. Providing treatment while individuals are in jails and prisons, and continuing their treatment in their communities, has been proven to decrease overdose deaths, reduce crime, and increase employment during reentry. By this summer, the Federal Bureau of Prisons will ensure that each of their 122 facilities are equipped and trained to provide in-house medication-assisted treatment (MAT). Further, since more than 90 percent of individuals who are incarcerated are in state and local jails and prisons, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will provide guidance this spring allowing states to use Medicaid funds to provide health care services—including treatment for people with substance use disorder—to individuals in those facilities prior to their release.
     
  • Build on historic progress to drastically expand access to medications for opioid use disorder. The Biden-Harris Administration will further expand access to treatment by working with medical professionals to make prescribing proven treatments, including buprenorphine for opioid use disorder, part of routine health care delivery and ensure that manufacturers, wholesalers, and pharmacies are making medications available to everyone with a prescription. 
     
  • Launch a national campaign to educate young people on the dangers of fentanyl, and how naloxone saves lives. The Ad Council’s Real Deal on Fentanyl campaign has raised awareness about the dangers of fentanyl among youth. ONDCP and the Ad Council will build on this work by launching a naloxone education component of the campaign, which will reach the young people who are the fastest-growing age group to experience opioid overdose and poisoning by engaging popular social media platforms, college athletes and campus-based organizations. The campaign will also develop media to be shared on college campuses, in bars, public transportation stations, and retail locations to educate young people about the dangers of fentanyl and highlight naloxone resources.

During his first State of the Union address, President Biden called on Congress to get rid of outdated rules that stop doctors from prescribing treatments and provide law enforcement with the tools necessary to stop the flow of illicit drugs like fentanyl. In his State of the Union today, President Biden will highlight a bipartisan effort that delivered on his promise by passing the MAT Act, which removed the X-waiver as a barrier for health care providers prescribing life-saving medications for opioid use disorder at a time when fewer than 1 out of Americans can access the treatment they need. President Biden also signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act that included a two-year extension to classify fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I substances under the Controlled Substances Act, ensuring law enforcement has the tools they need to respond to the manufacture and trafficking of illicitly manufactured synthetic opioids driving the overdose epidemic.

Biden Administration, Health Care

Biden Administration Takes New Actions to Support, Advance Women’s Economic Security

Women’s March 2020, New York City The Biden Administration is marking the 30th anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave Act by announcing new actions to support and advance women’s economic security. Women’s economic security also means reproductive health rights. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

The Biden-Harris Administration is marking the upcoming 30th anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) by announcing new actions to support and advance women’s economic security. For thirty years, the FMLA has helped Americans take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave from work when they are seriously ill or to care for a new child or a sick family member without the risk of losing their jobs. Today, President Biden is demonstrating his commitment to ensuring access to family and medical leave, by encouraging heads of Federal agencies to provide access to leave for Federal employees when they need it, including during their first year of service.

Across the country, millions of workers still face impossible choices between keeping a paycheck and caring for their family or themselves. This is especially true for women, who shoulder disproportionate caregiving responsibilities, with real consequences for their ability to participate in the labor force and support their families over the course of their lives. That’s why the Biden-Harris Administration will continue to champion and take action on national paid family and medical leave, affordable child care, and home and community-based care so that all Americans can both care for and financially support their families.

Improving Access to Leave. Today, President Biden is issuing a Presidential Memorandum to support Federal employees’ access to leave when they need to care for themselves or a loved one. The memorandum calls on heads of Federal agencies to support access to leave without pay for Federal employees, including during their first year of service, to ensure employees are able to bond with a new child, care for a family member with a serious health condition, address their own serious health condition, help manage family affairs when a family member is called to active duty, or grieve after the death of a family member. The Office of Personnel Management is further directed to provide recommendations regarding “safe leave,” to support Federal employees’ access to paid leave and leave without pay for purposes related to seeking safety and recovering from domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking. These may include obtaining medical treatment, seeking assistance from organizations that provide services to survivors, seeking relocation, and taking related legal action.  

This Presidential Memorandum builds on other Administration efforts to improve access to and awareness of family and medical leave, including to:

  • Ensure military personnel have access to 12 weeks of paid parental leave. The Department of Defense issued a memorandum expanding the Military Parental Leave Program. Active-duty service members are now eligible for 12 weeks of parental leave following the birth, adoption, or placement of a child for long-term foster care. The expanded leave erases the previous distinction between primary and secondary caregivers, enabling both parents to take time to care for their children while balancing the needs of their unit, and it is in addition to medical convalescent leave, which continues to be available for birth parents recovering from pregnancy. Additionally, service members may request to take the 12 weeks of parental leave in multiple increments of at least one week, which allows for flexibility to meet both family and mission needs.
     
  • Support paid leave efforts in states. The Administration remains committed to working with states on opportunities to expand access to paid family and medical leave. Yesterday, the White House convened state legislators who are working to advance bills this session that would create statewide paid family and medical leave programs. These new efforts build on the 11 states and the District of Columbia that have passed paid family and medical leave laws. The Department of Labor will also release a new website with information on state paid leave laws.
     
  • Help employees impacted by cancer know their rights under the FMLA. As the Administration marks one year since the launch of President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot, the Department of Labor issued new resources in December to help employees know their rights when diagnosed with cancer or taking on a caregiver role. These new tools included a resource page on “Workplace Protections for Individuals Impacted by Cancer,” a practical guide on “How to Talk to Your Employer about Taking Time Off,” and an easy-to-post flyer to help health care providers support FMLA leave.

Investing in Economic Security. The actions announced today build on critical steps the Biden-Harris Administration has taken recently to support economic security for women and families, including:

  • Protecting the health and economic security of pregnant workers. President Biden signed into law the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act as part of the bipartisan end-of-year omnibus law, which will provide basic, long-overdue protections to ensure that millions of pregnant and postpartum workers have the right to reasonable accommodations in the workplace for pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions. Under the new law, employers must make reasonable accommodations for pregnant workers and job applicants, which may include light duty, breaks, or a stool to sit on, without discriminating or retaliating against them.
     
  • Extending protections for nursing workers. The President also signed into law the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections (PUMP) for Nursing Mothers Act, which extends break time and private space protections for nursing parents to nearly 9 million workers, including teachers, nurses, and farmworkers. These protections will empower parents to continue expressing milk at work, so they do not have to choose between their job or their infant’s health. Today, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division released an updated Fact Sheet detailing employee rights and employer responsibilities under the new law and will continue outreach and public education efforts to help pregnant and nursing workers, and their employers, know their rights.
  • Increasing investments in early childhood education and child care. As part of the end-of-year omnibus, the Administration secured a 30 percent increase in funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant, which could help up to 130,000 more families afford child care and access better child care options. The new law also made significant investments in programs such as Head Start and the Preschool Development Grant – Birth through Five that help young children and their families access quality, affordable early care and education. Greater availability and affordability of high-quality early care and education will help women with young children to enter and stay in the workforce.
     
  • Supporting women’s right to be safe in the workplace and free from sexual harassment and assault. In December, the President signed the Speak Out Act, which will enable survivors to speak out about workplace assault and harassment by prohibiting the enforcement of pre-dispute nondisclosure and non-disparagement clauses regarding allegations of sexual harassment or assault. Earlier last year, the President also signed into law the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021, which amended the Federal Arbitration Act and allows employees who sign pre-dispute mandatory arbitration agreements with their employers to pursue claims of sexual harassment or assault in court.

Meanwhile,on what would have been the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, President Biden issued a Presidential Memorandum on Further Efforts to Protect Access to Reproductive Healthcare Services. Vice President Harris announced the Presidential Memorandum in Florida later today, where she will speak about the next steps in the fight for reproductive rights and reinforce the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to protecting access to abortion, including medication abortion.

Since the day of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, President Biden has emphasized the need to protect access to mifepristone, a drug used in medication abortion that has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for over 20 years and accounts for the majority of all abortions in the United States.

Earlier this month, the FDA took evidence-based action to support safe access to mifepristone by allowing the continued use of telehealth to prescribe the medication and creating a new option for certified pharmacies to dispense it to patients.

Some state officials have taken steps to try to prevent women from legally accessing medication abortion and to discourage pharmacies from becoming certified by the FDA.
Today, President Biden will sign a Presidential Memorandum to further protect access to medication abortion.

In the face of barriers to medication abortion and concerns about the safety of patients, healthcare providers, and pharmacists, today’s Presidential Memorandum announces actions to:

  • Protect Legal Access to Medication Abortion. The Presidential Memorandum directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS), to consider new guidance to support patients, providers, and pharmacies who wish to legally access, prescribe, or provide mifepristone—no matter where they live.
     
  • Safeguard Patient Safety and Security. To ensure that patients understand their right to access reproductive healthcare despite roadblocks, the Presidential Memorandum directs the Secretary of HHS, in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of DHS, to consider new actions to ensure that patients can access legal reproductive care, including medication abortion from a pharmacy, free from threats or violence. The President has long made clear that people should have access to reproductive care free from harassment, threats, or violence. Pharmacies should be treated no differently.

The Attorney General and the Secretaries of HHS and DHS also provided recommendations to the White House Interagency Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access, which was established by President Biden in Executive Order 14076, on additional ways to address barriers faced by patients, providers, and pharmacies in safely and legally accessing or providing medication abortion, consistent with evidence-based requirements set by the FDA.

Biden Administration, Consumer Protection

Biden Administration Calls for Changes to Boost Competition in Mobile App Markets

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) said in a new report that the current mobile app store model is harmful to consumers and developers, and recommended policy changes to fix it. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

WASHINGTON – The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) said in a new report that the current mobile app store model is harmful to consumers and developers, and recommended policy changes to fix it.

Mobile apps have become an essential tool for participation in much of daily life. Two companies – Apple and Google – act as gatekeepers over the apps that people and businesses rely on, NTIA found in its “Competition in the Mobile Application Ecosystem” report.

The companies’ policies have the potential to harm consumers by inflating prices and reducing innovation.

NTIA’s report and recommendations are part of the Biden administration’s push to promote innovation and competition, and to level the economic playing field. NTIA is the president’s principal advisor on telecommunications and Internet policy.

As President Biden wrote in his Wall Street Journal op-ed, “we need to bring more competition back to the tech sector.”

“From finding directions to chatting with loved ones, apps are a critical tool for consumers and an essential part of doing business online,” said Alan Davidson, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator. “It is more important than ever that the market for mobile apps remains competitive. NTIA’s recommendations will make the app ecosystem more fair and innovative for everyone.”

“This report identifies important ways we can promote competition and innovation in the app market, which will benefit consumers, startups, and small businesses,” said Bharat Ramamurti, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council.

After broad outreach, and input that included more than 150 comments from a diverse array of stakeholders, NTIA identified two key policy issues hindering a more competitive app ecosystem:

  1. Consumers largely can’t get apps outside of the app store model, controlled by Apple and Google. This means innovators have very limited avenues for reaching consumers.
     
  2. Apple and Google create hurdles for developers to compete for consumers by imposing technical limits, such as restricting how apps can function or requiring developers to go through slow and opaque review processes.

While the current app store policies do offer some benefits to consumers, including the potential for tighter security controls, the report found that the costs far outweigh the benefits and that privacy and security protections can still be achieved in a more competitive environment.

The report recommends several changes to improve the app ecosystem for users, including:

  • Consumers should have more control over their devices. They should be able to choose their own apps as defaults, use alternative mobile app stores, and delete or hide pre-installed apps.
     
  • App store operators should not be able to “self-preference” their apps in an anticompetitive manner. Operators should not be able to favor their own apps in how they appear in search results or discriminate against other apps that are similar to their own.
     
  • Operators should lift restrictions on alternative ways for consumers to download and install apps. While still preserving appropriate latitude for privacy and security safeguards, legislative and regulatory measures should prohibit restrictions on sideloading, alternative app stores and web apps.
     
  • Addressing limits on in-app purchasing options. This can be done by banning requirements that developers use the app store operators’ in-app payment system.

As the report notes, new legislation and additional antitrust enforcement actions are likely necessary to boost competition in the app ecosystem. The measures identified in the report will help open the app ecosystem to greater competition, innovation and potential benefits for users and developers. NTIA developed the report at the direction of President Biden’s 2021 Executive Order on Competition, committing the administration to promote innovation and competition across the economy.

NTIA’s recommendations, if enacted, would put fairer rules in place in the mobile app ecosystem, to the benefit of consumers and competition.

Biden Administration, Financial Protection, News & Photo Features

Biden Acts to Reduce Credit Card, Concert, Resort, Phone Termination Fees Saving Consumers $Billions

President Biden Calls for a Junk Fee Prevention Act to Eliminate Unfair and Costly Junk Fees 

Times Square NYC where you can use credit cards to buy souvenirs, theater and concert tickets, mobile phones, hotel accommodations. President Biden is proposing to save consumers billions of dollars in fees on everything from surprise resort and destination fees, to concert tickets, early termination for TV, phone and internet, and bank accounts and credit cards © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

As part of the fourth meeting of the President’s Competition Council, the Biden-Harris Administration is announcing two actions that further advance the President’s agenda of promoting competition in the American economy. First, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is proposing a rule that would slash excessive credit card late fees, pursuant to its authority under the bipartisan Credit CARD Act of 2009. The rule is projected to reduce typical late fees from roughly $30 to $8, saving consumers as much as $9 billion a year in late fees. Second, the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is releasing a report assessing the barriers to competition in the current mobile app store ecosystem and providing recommendations to level the playing field for app developers and give consumers more control over their devices.

The President will also highlight the Administration’s steady progress in eliminating or limiting junk fees: those hidden or unexpected fees that Americans pay each day that can total hundreds of dollars a month. Junk fees are not only costly to consumers, but they can stifle competition by encouraging companies to use increasingly sophisticated tools to disguise the true price consumers face. By reducing these fees and increasing transparency, we can provide relief to consumers and make our economy more competitive, particularly for new and growing businesses.

Since the President urged agencies to focus on reducing junk fees at the September 2022 meeting of the Competition Council, agencies have delivered in the following ways:

  • The CFPB targeted overdraft and bounced check fees, releasing two reports in 2021 and ramping up its oversight, driving 15 of the 20 largest banks to agree to put an end to bounced check fees. The CFPB followed up by releasing guidance banning surprise overdraft fees – fees charged for overdrawing a checking account even though at the time of purchase there appeared to be sufficient funds – and surprise depositor fees charged when you deposit someone else’s bounced check. These changes will reduce fees by more than $1 billion annually.
     
  • The Department of Transportation (DOT) proposed a rule to require airlines and online booking services to show the full price of a plane ticket up front, including baggage and other fees. DOT also published a dashboard of airline policies when flights are delayed or cancelled due to issues under the airlines’ control, leading 9 airlines to change policies to guarantee coverage of hotels and 10 airlines to guarantee coverage of meals, none of which was guaranteed before.
     
  • The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released new rules that will go into effect next year to require broadband providers to use “nutrition labels”—similar to those used for food products—to convey key information to consumers about internet service options in an accessible format. The information featured will include prices, speeds, data allowances, and any additional fees charged.

Even as the Administration is taking these significant steps to use existing authority to eliminate junk fees, the President is calling on Congress to pass a Junk Fee Prevention Act that cracks down on four types of junk fees that cost American consumers billions of dollars a year.

Specifically, the President is urging Democrats and Republicans in Congress to come together to:

Crack down on excessive online concert, sporting event, and other entertainment ticket fees. Many online ticket sellers impose massive service fees at check-out that are not disclosed when consumers are choosing their tickets. In a review of 31 different sporting events across five ticket sellers’ websites, service charges averaged more than 20% of the ticket’s face value, and total fees—like processing fees, delivery fees, and facility fees—reached up to more than half the cost of the ticket itself. A family of four attending a show could end up paying far more than $100 in fees above and beyond the cost of the tickets.

Significant concentration in the industry—and a lack of consumer options—makes matters worse. Often, if Americans want to attend a particular concert or sporting event, they only have one online option for making the initial ticket purchase. That means that even if consumers knew they might have to pay a large fee on top of the ticket cost, they would have no way to avoid it if they wanted to attend a particular show. One company has exclusive partnerships with a reported 80 of the top 100 arenas in the United States, allowing it to charge fees to attend events at those leading venues without fear of competition.

While antitrust enforcement agencies have the authority to investigate and address anti-competitive conduct in the industry, the President urges Congress to act now to reduce these fees through legislation. Specifically, the President is calling on Congress to prohibit excessive fees, require the fees to be disclosed in the ticket price, and mandate disclosure of any ticket holdbacks that diminish available supply.

Ban airline fees for family members to sit with young children. Many airlines today charge a fee to select a seat in advance, including for those traveling with children. Parents can find themselves unexpectedly not seated with their young child on a flight or paying large fees to sit next to their children. The President believes no parent should have to pay extra to sit next to their child. 

In July 2022, the DOT issued a notice stating that it is the Department’s policy that U.S. airlines ensure that children who are age 13 or younger are seated next to an accompanying adult with no extra charge, but still no airline guarantees fee-free family seating. DOT will publish a family seating fee dashboard and launch a rulemaking to ban the practice. The President is calling upon Congress to fast-track the ban on family seating fees so that the DOT can crack down on these practices more quickly than through a rulemaking. 

Eliminate exorbitant early termination fees for TV, phone, and internet service. Too often, cable TV, internet, and mobile phone providers have “early termination” fees that consumers must pay if they want to switch to another provider. These fees can exceed $200. Early termination fees are costly for consumers and undermine economic dynamism by making it harder for innovative companies to win a toe-hold in the market by encouraging customers to switch. And these providers often charge people when they’re most vulnerable—people who are forced to move because of a job loss or other financial downturn, for example, may be slammed with hundreds of dollars in early termination fees.

The President urges Congress to eliminate these excessive early termination fees so that companies can no longer lock in customers and must truly compete with each other on the basis of price and quality.

Ban surprise resort and destination fees. When families set their budget for a vacation, they expect that the hotel price they see is the price they will pay. But many travelers encounter surprise “resort fees” or “destination fees” when they check out or at the end of a lengthy online reservation process. These fees harm consumers by preventing them from the seeing the true price when they pick out a hotel and by limiting their ability to comparison shop. Over the past decade, a growing number of hotels have imposed these fees on consumers, which can be $50 or more per night. More than one-third of hotel guests report having paid such fees. And the total costs for Americans are enormous: according to one report, hotels collected billions in these fees and surcharges in 2018.

The President urges Congress to ban these surprise fees by requiring that hotels include them in the price of the room, so consumers aren’t surprised. Travelers should know which hotels charge these fees and which ones do not, so that they can plan and budget accordingly.

The President is calling for passage of a Junk Fee Prevention Act to provide millions of Americans with fast relief from these frustrating and costly fees. This will not only save Americans billions a year, but make our markets more competitive—creating a more even playing field so that businesses that price in a fair and transparent manner no longer lose sales to companies that disguise their actual prices with hidden fees. In the coming weeks and months, the Biden-Harris Administration looks forward to working with Congress to crack down not only on these fees, but also other junk fees that take cash out of Americans’ pockets and hide the true cost of products.

Biden Administration, cryptocurrency

Biden Administration Lays Out Roadmap to Mitigate Cryptocurrency Risks

The Biden Administration is calling on Congress to lay out controls to mitigate against risks posed by cryptocurrency © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

By Brian Deese, Arati Prabhakar, Cecilia Rouse, and Jake Sullivan

2022 was a tough year for cryptocurrencies. In May, a so-called “stablecoin” imploded, prompting a wave of insolvencies. Just months later, a major cryptocurrency exchange collapsed. Many everyday investors who trusted cryptocurrency companies—including young people and people of color—suffered serious losses, but, thankfully, turmoil in the cryptocurrency markets has had little negative impact on the broader financial system to date. While cryptocurrency might be relatively new, the behavior we have seen some cryptocurrency companies exhibit and the risks posed by this behavior are not. As an administration, our focus is on continuing to ensure that cryptocurrencies cannot undermine financial stability, to protect investors, and to hold bad actors accountable.

At President Biden’s direction, we have spent the past year identifying the risks of cryptocurrencies and acting to mitigate them using the authorities that the Executive Branch has.

First, experts across the administration have laid out the first-ever framework for developing digital assets in a safe, responsible way while addressing the risks they pose. To be sure, the technologies powering cryptocurrencies may offer ways to make payments faster, cheaper, and safer. But this framework identifies clear risks. For example, some cryptocurrency entities ignore applicable financial regulations and basic risk controls—practices that protect the country’s households, businesses, and economy. In addition, cryptocurrency platforms and promoters often mislead consumers, have conflicts of interest, fail to make adequate disclosures, or commit outright fraud. And there is poor cybersecurity across the industry that enabled the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to steal over a billion dollars to fund its aggressive missile program.

Second, agencies are using their authorities to ramp up enforcement where appropriate and issue new guidance where needed. The banking agencies issued joint guidance, just this month, on the imperative of separating risky digital assets from the banking system. Agencies across government have launched—or are now developing—public-awareness programs to help consumers understand the risks of buying cryptocurrencies. We encourage regulators to continue these efforts, including those designed to address and limit financial institutions’ exposure to the risks of digital assets.

But the events of the past year underscore that more is needed. Agencies have redoubled their efforts to fight fraud, including the proliferation of false or misleading claims about crypto assets being insured by the FDIC. And while the United States is already a global leader in fighting money laundering and terrorist financing, enforcement agencies are devoting increased resources to combatting illicit activities involving digital assets. In the coming months, the Administration will also unveil priorities for digital assets research and development, which will help the technologies powering cryptocurrencies protect consumers by default.

Congress, too, needs to step up its efforts. For example, Congress should expand regulators’ powers to prevent misuses of customers’ assets—which hurt investors and distort prices—and to mitigate conflicts of interest. Congress could also strengthen transparency and disclosure requirements for cryptocurrency companies so that investors can make more informed decisions about financial and environmental risks. To aid law enforcement, it could strengthen penalties for violating illicit-finance rules and subject cryptocurrency intermediaries to bans against tipping off criminals. It could fund greater law-enforcement capacity building, including with international partners. And it could limit cryptocurrencies’ risks to the financial system by following the steps outlined by the Financial Stability Oversight Council in its recent report, including addressing the risks of stablecoins.

While congressional action in these areas would be welcome, Congress could also make our jobs harder and worsen risks to investors and to the financial system. Legislation should not greenlight mainstream institutions, like pension funds, to dive headlong into cryptocurrency markets. In the past year, traditional financial institutions’ limited exposure to cryptocurrencies has prevented turmoil in cryptocurrencies from infecting the broader financial system. It would be a grave mistake to enact legislation that reverses course and deepens the ties between cryptocurrencies and the broader financial system.

The Administration wholeheartedly supports responsible technological innovations that make financial services cheaper, faster, safer, and more accessible. Yet to realize these benefits, new technologies need commensurate safeguards. Safeguards will ensure that new technologies are secure and beneficial to all—and that the new digital economy works for the many, not just the few. To put the right safeguards in place, we will keep driving forward the digital-assets framework we’ve developed, while working with Congress to achieve these goals.

Biden Administration, Health Care, Obamacare

Record 16.3 Million Signed Up for Obamacare

Affordable Care Act – Obamacare – gives access to affordable health insurance for individuals. The Biden Administration reported a record 16.3 million people signed up for Obamacare in the last open enrollment period, a nearly 50 percent increase in HealthCare.gov signups since President Biden took office; 3.6 million people signed up for health care coverage through the marketplaces for the first time. (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Nearly 50% increase in HealthCare.gov signups since President Biden took office, and 3.6 million people signed up for health care coverage on the Marketplaces for the first time this year

The White House provided this detail about a record 16.3 million people signing up for Obamacare in the just-concluded open enrollment season,  a nearly 50% increase in HealthCare.gov signups since President Biden took office, and 3.6 million people signed up for health care coverage on the Marketplaces for the first time this year

The Biden-Harris Administration announced that a record-breaking 16.3 million people have selected an Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace health plan nationwide during the 2023 Marketplace Open Enrollment Period (OEP) that ran from November 1, 2022-January 15, 2023 for most Marketplaces. President Biden promised to strengthen and build on the Affordable Care Act, and this year, the 10th year of ACA Open Enrollment, more Americans signed up for high-quality, affordable health insurance through the ACA Marketplaces than ever before. Since President Biden took office, the number of people who have signed up for an affordable health care plan through HealthCare.gov has increased by nearly 50%. Because of the President’s plan, millions of working families saved an average of $800 on their health insurance premiums last year.
 
Total plan selections include 3.6 million people (22% of total) who are new to the Marketplaces for 2023, and 12.7 million people (78% of total) who had active 2022 coverage and made a plan selection for 2023 coverage or were automatically re-enrolled. Over 1.8 million more people have signed up for health insurance, or a 13% increase, from this time last year. The 3.6 million plan selections from people who are new to the Marketplaces represent a 21% increase in new-to-Marketplace plan selections over last year.
 
“Unprecedented investments lead to unprecedented results,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. “Thanks to President Biden’s leadership, more than 16 million Americans have health insurance through the Affordable Care Act Marketplaces – an all-time high. The Biden-Harris Administration has made lowering health care costs and expanding access to health insurance a top priority – and these record-breaking numbers show we are delivering results for the American people. We will keep doing everything we can to ensure more people have the peace of mind that comes with high-quality, affordable health care.”
 
“President Biden promised to build on the success of the Affordable Care Act and make it easier for people to enroll and find affordable, quality coverage – and that promise has been kept,” said CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure. “On the tenth anniversary of the ACA Marketplaces, the numbers speak for themselves: more people signed up for plans this year than ever before, and the uninsured rate is at an all-time low.”
 
The Biden-Harris Administration has made expanding access to health insurance and lowering health care costs for America’s families a top priority, and under their leadership, the national uninsured rate reached an all-time low earlier this year, and the 2023 Marketplace Open Enrollment Period saw the highest number of  plan selections of any year since the launch of the ACA Marketplaces ten years ago.
 
This year, individuals benefited from a highly competitive Marketplace. Ninety-two percent of HealthCare.gov enrollees had access to options from three or more insurance companies when they shopped for plans. Also, new standardized plan options were available in 2023 through HealthCare.gov, which helped consumers compare and select plans. Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, more people this year continued to qualify for help purchasing quality health coverage with expanded financial assistance, resulting in four out of five people returning to HealthCare.gov being able to find a plan for $10 or less after tax credits.
 
Today’s snapshot represents activity through January 15, 2023 for the 33 Marketplaces using HealthCare.gov and through January 14 or 15, 2023 for the 18 State-based Marketplaces (SBMs) in 17 states and the District of Columbia that are using their own eligibility and enrollment platforms.
 
Marketplace Enrollment Snapshot Overview:
 

Marketplace and Consumer TypeCumulative 2023 OEP Plan Selections

Total: All Marketplaces
16,306,448
New Consumers3,603,067
Returning Consumers[1]12,703,381
Total HealthCare.gov Marketplaces12,203,622
New Consumers3,000,155
Returning Consumers9,203,467
Total SBMs[2]4,102,826
New Consumers602,912
Returning Consumers3,499,914

1 The returning consumers metric in this report includes both consumers who have returned to their respective Marketplace through the reporting date and selected a plan for 2023 coverage and consumers who have been automatically re-enrolled in their 2022 plan or a suggested alternate plan.
2 In addition to reported plan selections, New York and Minnesota have a Basic Health Program (BHP), which provides coverage to consumers with incomes below 200 percent of the FPL who are not eligible for Medicaid or CHIP and otherwise would be eligible for a QHP.  From November 1 – January 14, 2023, New York had a total of 1,114,406 individuals enroll in a BHP. Minnesota’s BHP data was not available at the time of this report. 

While the 2023 Open Enrollment Period has closed for the 33 Marketplaces using HealthCare.gov, State-Based Marketplace deadlines vary and enrollment continues in several states. State-specific deadlines and other information are available in the State-based Marketplace Open Enrollment Fact Sheet.

Individuals who meet certain conditions may be eligible for a Special Enrollment Period (SEP) and can determine if they qualify by visiting HealthCare.gov, or CuidadoDeSalud.gov, or by calling 1-800-318-2596.

Biden Administration, Discrimination, News & Photo Features

SGOTUS Emhoff at Holocaust Remembrance: US Joins Fight Against Hate, AntiSemitism

From the exhibit, “Auschwitz: Not long ago. Not far away” at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, NYC, 2020. Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff had just visited Auschwitz, told a gathering the United States would renew alliances to combat hate and antisemitism. “Antisemitism has been around for millennia—and some call it the oldest form of hatred—but in recent years, it has been a growing threat in the United States, in Europe, and around the world.  We see ‘so-called’ leaders use antisemitic tropes to promote warped agendas or for their own political gain. .. We cannot normalize this. We must not stay silent.” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

These are the remarks of Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff at a Roundtable on Combatting Antisemitism, held at the Galicia Jewish Museum in Krakow, Poland:

SECOND GENTLEMAN DOUGLAS EMHOFF: Thank you all for being here. 

Thank you to the Galicia Jewish Museum for hosting us and to Director Jakub Nowakowski.

It’s really fitting to gather here today. The Museum aims to challenge stereotypes and to educate Poles and Jews about their own histories – my history. 

The Museum also encourages everyone to think about our shared future.

My trip to Poland and Germany has two main priorities: 

One: I am here not only to honor the victims of the Holocaust, but to talk about and educate people on the true nature of the Holocaust. 

Let’s be clear: the Holocaust was real. 

It happened. And there is no denying that. 

It was a systemic, state-sponsored mass murder aimed to annihilate the Jewish people. This atrocity was motivated by antisemitic ideology and ethnic hatred. 

This trip is a major part of our Administration’s effort to push back against Holocaust denial, distortion, and disinformation.  

Two: I am here as a representative of President Biden and my wife, Vice President Harris, to deepen our relationships with European partners — in and out of government — to combat the rise in antisemitism. 

The President and Vice President have made a priority of revitalizing our partnerships and alliances—and that extends to fighting hate and antisemitism.  

Yesterday, I visited Auschwitz and participated in the wreath laying and memorial service. The service was incredibly moving and powerful.

I am still trying to process what I saw. 

The magnitude of cruelty, hate, and evil that Auschwitz represents is just staggering. 

As the first Jewish spouse of a United States President or Vice President, I know this visit has a special significance — for me, for our Administration, and for Jews around the world. 

My great-grandparents fled persecution in Poland 120 years ago. I am here because they were able to leave. 

Yet, so many others were not. 

I feel a deep connection to all those who perished in Auschwitz. I know many American Jews feel the same way. 

It was an incredibly solemn and sad experience but, it also reminds us why the work we are doing is so important.

Given the rise in antisemitism, it is important for me — and for all of us — to put a spotlight on the history of Jews in Europe.

We know that in some cases knowledge about the Holocaust among young people is vague or nonexistent. 

We must find new ways to remember and educate the next generation about the horrors of the Holocaust. 

To tell the testimonies of survivors. 

To remember the stories of those that perished. 

And work to ensure “Never Again.”

This convening is a critical part of that. 

Antisemitism has been around for centuries. It is based on lies, misleading tropes, and falsehoods that we are all too familiar with. 

Antisemitism is also ever evolving. Our efforts to combat it must be wide-ranging and relentless. 

We must learn to recognize antisemitism in its many forms, so that we can call hate by its proper name and take effective action.

Antisemitism has been around for millennia—and some call it the oldest form of hatred—but in recent years, it has been a growing threat in the United States, in Europe, and around the world.  

We see ‘so-called’ leaders use antisemitic tropes to promote warped agendas or for their own political gain. 

We see other ‘so-called’ leaders who lack the courage to speak out.

We see murderous attacks on Jewish communities. 

We see vandalism, threats, and violent, hateful rhetoric.

People used to be afraid to say the ugly epithets and lies out loud. Now they are literally screaming them.

We are witnessing an epidemic of hate in our country and internationally. 

President Biden and Vice President Harris are firmly committed to countering the rise in global antisemitism.

In fact, before I left on this trip, I spoke to President Biden and the Vice President about it.

The President spoke to me about how his father spoke to him about the horrors of the Holocaust at his dining room table.

And how when he became a father and grandfather, he took his children and grandchildren to see the Dachau concentration camp. 

To teach the next generation the horrors of history.

The Vice President and I have spoken at length about these issues. She has spent her career—as Attorney General, United States Senator, and Vice President—combatting hate and working to bring people together in coalitions. 

And she has really encouraged me to use this platform to push back on the scourge of hate.

They both have told me how important this trip is.

We all need to speak out against antisemitism and call out those who don’t.

We cannot normalize this. We must not stay silent.

We each need to do our part to educate those around us and instill knowledge in the next generation of leaders to help fight antisemitism.

And we are committed to working with you all – community leaders, religious leaders, and experts to take this on. 

You all have done impressive work to promote tolerance, education, and inclusiveness. 

I am with you in this fight. 

So, on behalf of President Biden and Vice President Harris, it is my honor to join you here in Krakow today, and I am looking forward to our work together. Thank you.

See:

‘THE HOLOCAUST: WHAT HATE CAN DO’ AT MUSEUM OF JEWISH HERITAGE HOLDS LESSONS, WARNING FOR TODAY

GROUNDBREAKING EXHIBIT AT MUSEUM OF JEWISH HERITAGE TRANSPORTS TO ‘AUSCHWITZ: NOT LONG AGO. NOT FAR AWAY’

Biden Administration, Jewish issues, Joe Biden

President Biden Marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Crematorium at Mauthausen Concentration Camp one of the killing centers in Hitler’s Final Solution. On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, President Biden denounced the rise in antisemitism, Holocaust deniers and those who are complicit © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Jill and I will pause to mourn the six million Jews who were systematically and savagely murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators during the Holocaust — and to grieve the Roma and Sinti, Slavs, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ individuals, and political dissidents who were also killed. As we join nations around the world in bearing witness to this dark chapter in our shared history, we also honor survivors and their stories—pledging to always remember, and to keep faith with that sacred vow: “never again.”
 
“Never again” was a promise my father first instilled in me at our family dinner table, educating me and my siblings about the horrors of the Shoah. It’s a lesson I’ve passed on to my own children and grandchildren by taking them to Dachau to understand for themselves the depths of this evil—and the complicity of those who knew what was happening, yet said nothing. Seeing neo-Nazis and white nationalists march from the shadows in Charlottesville in 2017, spewing the same antisemitic bile we heard in the 1930s in Europe, drove me to run for president.
 
Sadly, we have seen over and over again that hate never goes away. It only hides—waiting to reemerge whenever it is given just a little bit of oxygen. And today, across our country, we are seeing swastikas on cars, antisemitic banners on bridges, verbal and physical attacks against Jewish businesses and Jewish Americans – even Holocaust denialism. It’s vile. It goes against everything we value as Americans. And each of us must speak out against this poison. Together, we must affirm, over and over, that hate has no safe harbor in America. 
 
That is exactly what my Administration is doing. Working with partners around the country, we held a historic White House Summit on combating hate-fueled violence. We appointed the first Ambassador-level Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism. We are developing a national strategy to fight antisemitism. We’ve secured the largest increase in funding ever for the physical security of non-profits—including synagogues and Jewish Community Centers. We continue to support Holocaust survivors to ensure they can live the rest of their lives with dignity and security. And to mark this day of remembrance, the Second Gentleman of the United States, Douglas Emhoff, is participating in a commemoration ceremony at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland, and will be visiting Berlin, Germany to coordinate international efforts to combat antisemitism.
 
On International Holocaust Remembrance Day  and every day, the United States stands with Holocaust victims, their families, and their descendants. We remember. We honor their stories. We will face down the hate and the lies that carry in them the terrifying echoes of one of the worst chapters in human history. And for generations to come, we will continue to defend our foundational values as a nation—freedom, equality, and dignity for all human beings.
 

See:

‘THE HOLOCAUST: WHAT HATE CAN DO’ AT MUSEUM OF JEWISH HERITAGE HOLDS LESSONS, WARNING FOR TODAY

GROUNDBREAKING EXHIBIT AT MUSEUM OF JEWISH HERITAGE TRANSPORTS TO ‘AUSCHWITZ: NOT LONG AGO. NOT FAR AWAY’

Biden Administration, Housing

FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Announces New Actions to Protect Renters and Promote Rental Affordability

The Biden-Harris Administration is announcing new actions to increase fairness in the rental market and further principles of fair housing. These actions align with a new Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights that the Administration is also releasing. The Blueprint lays out a set of principles to drive action by the federal government, state and local partners, and the private sector to strengthen tenant protections and encourage rental affordability. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

The Biden Administration also launches Resident-Centered Housing Challenge, a call-to-action to improve the quality of life for renters

The Biden-Harris Administration is announcing new actions to increase fairness in the rental market and further principles of fair housing. These actions align with a new Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights that the Administration is also releasing. The Blueprint lays out a set of principles to drive action by the federal government, state and local partners, and the private sector to strengthen tenant protections and encourage rental affordability. Key actions announced include:

  • The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), both independent agencies, announced they will collect information to identify practices that unfairly prevent applicants and tenants from accessing or staying in housing in order to inform enforcement and policy actions under each agency’s jurisdiction. This is the first time the FTC has issued a request for information exploring unfair practices in the rental market. The two agencies will seek information on a broad range of practices that affect the rental market, including the creation and use of tenant background checks, the use of algorithms in tenant screenings, the provision of adverse action notices by landlords and property management companies, and how an applicant’s source of income factors into housing decisions.
     
  • The CFPB announced it will issue guidance and coordinate enforcement efforts with the FTC to ensure accurate information in the credit reporting system and to hold background check companies accountable for having unreasonable procedures.
     
  • The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), an independent agency, announced it will launch a new public process to examine proposed actions promoting renter protections and limits on egregious rent increases for future investments. FHFA will maintain transparency throughout the process and provide periodic updates, including one within 6 months, to interested stakeholders. As announced in November, the FHFA will also increase affordability in the multifamily rental market by establishing requirements that encourage the financing of multifamily loans that guarantee affordable housing. In 2022, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae purchased a combined $142 billion in multifamily loans supporting over one million units. If the same activity holds in 2023, this would mean an investment in approximately 700,000 affordable units.
     
  • A U.S. Department of Justice workshop will inform potential guidance updates around anti-competitive information sharing, including in rental markets.
     
  • The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will publish a notice of proposed rulemaking that would require public housing authorities and owners of project-based rental assistance properties to provide at least 30 days’ advanced notice before terminating a lease due to nonpayment of rent.
     
  • The Administration will hold quarterly meetings with a broad, diverse, and varying group of tenants and tenant advocates to ensure they continue to have a seat at the table and can share ambitious ideas to strengthen tenant protections.

These new announcements are part of a broader set of federal actions that exemplify the principles laid out in the Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights, which underscores key protections every renter deserves:

  • Safe, Quality, Accessible, and Affordable Housing: Renters should have access to housing that is safe, decent, and affordable.
     
  • Clear and Fair Leases: Renters should have a clear and fair lease that has defined rental terms, rights, and responsibilities.
     
  • Education, Enforcement, and Enhancement of Renter Rights: Federal, state, and local governments should do all they can to ensure renters know their rights and to protect renters from unlawful discrimination and exclusion.
     
  • The Right to Organize: Renters should have the freedom to organize without obstruction or harassment from their housing provider or property manager.
     
  • Eviction Prevention, Diversion, and Relief: Renters should be able to access resources that help them avoid eviction, ensure the legal process during an eviction proceeding is fair, and avoid future housing instability.

In addition, the Administration is rallying state and local stakeholders and private housing actors to drive further action to protect renters in line with the Blueprint. As part of this effort, the Administration is launching the Resident-Centered Housing Challenge (Challenge), a call to action to housing providers and other stakeholders to strengthen practices and make their own independent commitments that improve the quality of life for renters. The Challenge, which will occur during the Spring of 2023, also encourages states, local, Tribal, and territorial governments to enhance existing policies and develop new ones that promote fairness and transparency in the rental market. Early commitments in support of the Challenge, which would affect over 15 million rental units, include:

  • Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) and Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency (PHFA) have capped annual rental increases to 5 percent per year for federally or state subsidized affordable housing. Beginning in 2023, WHEDA policy applies to existing residents in properties utilizing state or federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits. PHFA applied this policy to their portfolio of 450 properties with PHFA funding in 2022.  
  • Members of the Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future (SAHF), which collectively own or manage 145,000 housing units across the U.S., commit to offer flexible payment plans for residents with unpaid rent who have engaged with property management and to provide the following notices and protections where permitted by local law and financing documents: at least 30 days’ notice to vacate for nonpayment of rent; at least 5 days to cure a missed rent payment; and 60 days’ notice to tenants of any proposed sale or closure of a property. SAHF also commits to launching a task force of its members to identify best practices for resident-centered practices and share resources with the field including model policies and procedures, sample notices, and case studies.
  • Realtor.com Rentals will pilot a new listing process through their DIY landlord product, Avail, highlighting units and landlords that indicate that they welcome Housing Choice Vouchers. Realtor.com will be able to share this information with its nearly 5 million monthly rentals search visitors. They will also ensure that more than 1.3 million Avail renters have access to their application information so they can submit their application to multiple property owners on the platform without additional cost.
     
  • The National Apartment Association commits to promoting resident programming and practices, such as helping tenants build and improve credit through reporting of positive rent payments to credit bureaus, through their website, industry events and other content channels that reach a network of more over 95,000 members owning and operating more than 11.6 million apartment homes globally.
     
  • The National Association of Realtors and its affiliate, the Institute of Real Estate Management, commit to creating new resources for property managers in their network of 1.5 million members that highlight ways they can incorporate resident-centered property management practices in their businesses. Practices would include a range of examples that have proven effective, such as advertising to prospective residents that Housing Choice Vouchers are accepted at their property, providing information about rental assistance, and using alternative credit scores for applicants without a detailed credit history. 
     
  • The National Multifamily Housing Council commits to working with its 2,000 members to identify business standards that align with principles of resident-centered management practices, such as helping residents build credit, providing resource information to residents in financial distress, and communicating these practices through a new resource hub on its website.

The Administration welcomes additional commitments from interested stakeholders to: pursue high-road practices aligned with the Blueprint principles; create new benefits for residents that enhance their economic mobility, build credit, and prepare them for homeownership; reduce or eliminating rental “junk fees,” which are the hidden fees, charges, and add-ons that take cash out of people’s pockets; expand pathways to eviction mitigation and prevention; and enhance and increase communication about tenant rights. To join the Challenge, interested partners can complete this survey by April 28, 2023. Questions regarding the White House Resident-Centered Housing Challenge team, can be directed to RCHousingChallenge@who.eop.gov.

Over a third of the American population – 44 million households – rent their homes. Before the pandemic, well over 2 million eviction fillings and roughly 900,000 evictions occurred annually – disproportionately affecting Black women and their children. Since then, rental housing has become less affordable with some landlords taking advantage of market conditions to pursue egregious rent increases.  Today’s announcements recognize there are responsible housing providers – large and small, national and local – willing to treat renters fairly, but it also holds accountable those who exploit market realities at the cost of renters’ housing access and stability. 
 
Since taking office, the President has taken substantial steps to promote fairness in the rental market and ease the burden of rental costs for millions of American renters. The Administration kept the national eviction moratorium in place until August 2021, which helped to prevent over 1.5 million eviction filings nationwide. The Administration has delivered over 8 million rental or utility assistance payments to reduce renters’ risk of eviction or housing instability through Emergency Rental Assistance programs and provided over $769 million for housing stability services. Last May, the Administration released a Housing Supply Action Plan, which set the goal of closing America’s housing supply shortfall in five years. The Administration has been making progress advancing a long-term goal of providing housing vouchers to all eligible households: the 2022 and 2023 President’s Budgets proposed to expand rental assistance to an additional 200,000 households – and the Administration has secured rental assistance to more than 100,000 households through the 2022 and 2033 appropriations bills and the American Rescue Plan. And, last week, HUD published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on its efforts to Affirmatively Further Fair Housing.   
 

News & Photo Features

FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Expands Access to Capital and Support for Small Businesses

Over the last two years Americans have applied to start 10.5 million new businesses, making 2021 and 2022 the strongest two years on record for new business applications. With unemployment at a record low and the two strongest years of job creation in our history, this is just the latest confirmation that the President’s economic plan is working to build our economy from the bottom up and middle out.  The Administration convened a roundtable with leaders across the small business space to discuss its commitment to ensuring small businesses have the access to the capital, technical assistance, and support they need to thrive. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

From its first day in office, the Biden-Harris Administration has focused on helping the nation’s businesses recover from the economic impact of the pandemic and grow. Last week, the Census Bureau released data that showed that over the last two years Americans have applied to start 10.5 million new businesses, making 2021 and 2022 the strongest two years on record for new business applications. With unemployment at a record low and the two strongest years of job creation in our history, this is just the latest confirmation that the President’s economic plan is working to build our economy from the bottom up and middle out. 
 
The Administration convened a roundtable with leaders across the small business space to discuss its commitment to ensuring small businesses have the access to the capital, technical assistance, and support they need to thrive. The Administration’s actions include:

Expanding Access to Capital:

Capital is vital for small businesses to start and grow. That’s why expanding access to capital, and making sure there are ample pathways to reach that capital, is a core pillar of the Administration’s agenda to support small businesses. To that end, the Administration is taking a number of steps:

  • Small Business Lending Company (SBLC) Proposed Rule. SBA is committed to meeting borrowers where they are by extending its program offerings to the lenders that underrepresented small businesses turn to for their capital needs. Currently, SBA works with these lenders in a number of ways. Non-bank private lenders are able to participate in the 7a program as guaranteed lenders by obtaining an SBLC license. Yet the number of SBLCs available has been capped at 14 since 1983. In addition, SBA licenses over 60 active CDFIs as lenders through the Community Advantage Pilot program. This proposed rule, if made final, would lift the moratorium on new 7a lending licenses allowing SBA to extend additional licenses to nonbank lenders and CDFIs. SBA would plan to add three licenses in the initial extension. In addition, it would open a path for Community Advantage program to become permanent. These steps would allow SBA to expand the pool of lenders that offer SBA-backed working capital loans to include those non-traditional institutions that have more expertise in meeting the needs of underserved small businesses.
     
  • Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) Proposed Rule.  SBICs are privately owned and managed investment funds licensed and regulated by the SBA. An SBIC invests private capital and borrowed capital with an SBA guarantee to make long-term debt or equity investments in qualifying small businesses. Historically, the structure of interest payments on SBIC loans leads licensed funds to support later stage companies with predictable cash flow as opposed to early-stage companies. The proposed SBIC rule is intended to reduce barriers to program participation for new SBIC fund managers and funds investing in underserved communities and geographies, among other groups. The rule introduces a new class of SBIC license, “Accrual SBICs,” designed to unlock more patient capital financing for startups and small businesses through the SBA’s public – private partnership investment program, the SBIC program. It also implements SBIC program regulatory changes to lower financial, administrative, and procedural barriers to program participation for new fund managers and longer duration equity-oriented fund strategies. Finally, it modernizes the SBIC program license offering and process to align with a more diversified set of private funds investing in underserved and undercapitalized areas.
     
  • Lending Criteria, Affiliation, and Employee Ownership for SBA Business Loan Programs Proposed Rule: SBA is proposing to streamline and modernize various regulations governing its 7(a) and 504 loan programs. The proposed rule, if made final, would allow SBA lenders to underwrite SBA loans using their own standard processes which empowers lenders and opens a path for credit alternatives, significantly simplify affiliation rules which would reduce the processing burden on small business borrowers, and offer a path for employees to take ownership in a small business.
     
  • Implementing the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI): The Treasury Department has implemented the American Rescue Plan’s SSBCI which provides $10 billion to states, the District of Columbia, territories, and Tribal governments to expand access to capital for small businesses, build ecosystems of opportunity and entrepreneurship, and create new jobs and economic opportunity—especially in underserved communities still reeling from the effects of the pandemic. SSBCI provides funding for credit and investment programs for existing small businesses, and technical assistant to small businesses applying for SSBCI funding and other government small business programs. With a focus on equity and reaching underserved communities, SSBCI allocates $2.5 billion in funding and incentives for businesses owned by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals. These federal investments are designed to catalyze $10 of small business lending and investment for every $1 of SSBCI funding which will result in tens of billions of new small business financing across the country before 2030.


Making Historic Investments in Support Services for Small Businesses:

The Administration is focused on meeting small businesses owners where they are and offering extensive support services to navigate available programs. It’s not enough to just provide funding and loans; small businesses need to be able to utilize them as well. This Administration has made historic investments in support services for small businesses. That includes:

  • Emergency Capital Investment Program (ECIP).  In 2022, Treasury closed and funded approximately $8.38 billion in investments with 170 institutions through ECIP. ECIP investments are supporting the efforts of community financial institutions to provide loans, grants, and other assistance to small and minority-owned businesses and consumers, especially in low-income and financially underserved communities that struggled during the pandemic.
     
  • Wide Ranging Investments by the CDFI Fund. In 2022, the CDFI Fund deployed significant funds to provide capital to traditionally underserved communities including $5 billion in New Market Tax Credit allocations, $355 million under the Bond Guarantee program, and more than $580 million in other grant programs. Last fall, the CDFI Fund released the notice of funding availability for the $1.75 billion CDFI Equitable Recovery Program, aimed at providing funding to CDFIs expanding lending in communities that have significant unmet capital needs, and received almost 700 applications.
     
  • Providing SSBCI Technical Assistance: As a critical element of the $10 billion State Small Business Credit Initiative, Treasury has announced the availability of $200 million specifically to support small business technical assistance for states, the District of Columbia, territories, and Tribal governments that are participating in SSBCI. Treasury has also announced a nearly $100 million Capital Readiness Program, a grant program funded as part of SSBCI to help minority and other underserved entrepreneurs that will be administered by the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) at the Department of Commerce. 
     
  • SBA Community Navigators Program: In 2021, SBA awarded a $100 million in grant funding to organizations in all 50 states and Puerto Rico that are working to close resource gaps for U.S small businesses and those in underserved and underrepresented communities. The program offers funding to nonprofits, state and local governments, universities, and tribal entities that serve as “hub” organizations. These hubs have established ties with hundreds of “spoke” organizations—trusted, culturally knowledgeable, local groups and individuals— who they support to increase awareness and connections to federal, state, and local resources. The program was designed to advance equity through its priority focus on socially and economically disadvantaged small businesses, rural communities, and small businesses owned by women and veterans. As of August 2022, Community Navigators have helped secure over $133 million in funding, trained over 170,00 business owners, and provided over 30,000 hours of 1:1 counseling.


Improving Agency Services and Coordination:

This Administration is committed to continuing to improve upon the programs and services that are already provided. To that end, the Administration is taking the following steps:

  • Improving SBA’s Lender Match: SBA will implement significant technological improvements to its small business borrower and lender marketplace tool, Lender Match. This improved version of Lender Match will provide an enhanced landing page to match small business borrowers with SBA lenders and offer the option to be taken through the entire loan process. It will offer automated tools for lenders to streamline underwriting, make the use of credit alternatives more common place, and offer an automated eligibility module to make SBA lending lower risk and lower cost. Additionally, Lender Match’s automated offerings will enable SBA to better fight fraud via increased use of data and automated protocols for SBA-backed loans.
  • Interagency Community Investment Committee (ICIC): In July, Vice President Harris announced the formation of the Interagency Community Investment Committee (ICIC) chaired by the Treasury Department. The ICIC facilitates collaboration and operational coordination of federal community investments to maximize the impact of federal dollars. Last fall, they released a request for information to gather input on how to improve the effectiveness and impact of federal community investment programs and will continue to provide a forum for continued interagency cooperation to support underserved communities, especially when it comes to community investment and access to capital.