Denis Richard McDonough and Jennifer Rene Psaki

“ Throughout his service at the White House, Secretary McDonough helped lead the Obama-Biden administration’s work on behalf of military families and veterans.
He has a busy schedule, as all of our Cabinet members do, but he has kindly agreed to also take a couple of questions after he speaks. And I will, as always, be the bad cop.
Come on up.
SECRETARY MCDONOUGH: Jen, thanks so much. It’s a — it’s a total joy to be working with you, as it always is. And good afternoon to everybody here. It’s nice to see some old friendly faces. ”

“ At the VA, we’ve risen to the challenge of combating this deadly pandemic. Our integrated healthcare system, the largest in the nation, has been running nonstop since the start of a pandemic to provide much-needed care to infected veterans and vaccines to those most at risk. ”

“ Well, one of the reasons that our health and medical experts have continued to call for the American people to wear masks, to social distance, to get whatever vaccine they have access to is because many of them have — of these vaccines have shown to be effective in addressing the variants and because we’ve seen a spread of variants, reportedly, in some of these states.So I would say, Jeff, that, you know, our concern here is on the health, welfare, wellbeing, and survival, frankly, of people across the country. ”

“ But I would just say, Jeff, that, you know, we are — we are going to continue to use every bully pul- — every method of the bully pulpit at our disposal to convey directly to people living across the country, including in many of these states, that mask wearing, social distancing, getting access to the vaccine is the path to go back to normal. And that is how we are going to get it done and how the American people can return to — believe me, I’d love to take my kids to birthday parties and to parks and to go to a restaurant. I haven’t been to one in a year. You know, we all want that. ”

“ This morning, the Biden administration suspended tariffs on UK exports as part of the Boeing Airbus ongoing dispute. But also on the trade — on this area today, there are continuing tensions around Brexit in Northern Ireland, and the UK has been accused of reneging on international law for the second time over a delay in imposing checks between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.Just those two aspects, in terms of a UK-U.S. trade deal, where do things stand now with the administration? Is a UK-U.S. deal — trade deal a priority for this administration? ”

“ It would appear that notwithstanding, there are still millions of Americans out there who are not following the science, certainly in places like Texas, Mississippi, South Carolina, and other places.So I’m wondering: Why doesn’t the President consider ratcheting up his rhetoric beyond the undertow and personalizing his concern? Why doesn’t — for example, why doesn’t he think about saying, “Folks, here’s the deal: If you don’t wear your masks, people are going to die because of you”? ”

“ Lastly, before getting into a little bit more detail on the health situation, the Veterans Benefits Administration continues to help veterans cope with economic impact of the pandemic, from helping veterans avoid eviction and foreclosure, to making sure that veterans can continue to rely on their GI Bill to pay for tuition. ”

“ When it comes to suicide, what is the VA doing right now tangibly to reach out to veterans proactively, not just messaging campaigns — though I know those are important — but to proactively reach out to veterans to ensure that needs in that general area are being met? SECRETARY MCDONOUGH: Yeah, it’s a major — it’s a major priority for obvious reasons, and it’s heartbreaking every — any individual suicide is absolutely heartbreaking, and we’re very focused on reducing these.The most important set of lessons I think we have to draw from is the availability of telehealth platform. ”

“ Just wondering if you could respond that and talk about how the White House envisions their role in relation to the actual Senate-confirmed heads of those agencies. MS. PSAKI: It really depends on the agency. As you well know, some are independent; some are not independent. Obviously anyone who’s a nominee to lead a Cabinet agency that is not independent is there in part to deliver on the agenda and the policies of the President of the United States. And they certainly know that when they walk into the jobs. ”

“ Q Well, for instance, former Trump HHS Assistant Secretary Admiral Brett Giroir has said that you’re following 99 percent of the playbook they created on vaccines. He has said that the prior administration deserves more credit here for at least getting the ball rolling on some of these. MS. PSAKI: I don’t think anyone deserves credit when half a million people in the country have died of this pandemic. So, what our focus is on, and what the President’s focus is on when he came into office just over a month ago, was ensuring that we had enough vaccines. ”

“ Incidentally and importantly, in the ARP is additional funding for homelessness programming. We know that this continues to — to bedevil us as a country. It’s an outrage any night that any vet is homeless.We’re, you know, over the last 10 years, down 50 percent on those numbers, but they’re creeping back up as a result of the pandemic. And 50 percent, while progress, is nowhere near where we need to be. ”

“ To date, more than 1.4 million veterans have been vaccinated with more than half of them having gotten both vaccines. And we’re making sure that equity is at the forefront of where and how we distribute vaccines. ”

“ It will provide $17 billion in additional funding to VA, to include at least $13.5 billion to improve our ability to provide medical service to veterans affected by COVID; $272 million to cut through the backlog of disability claims and help us manage the compensation exams that have worse- — access to which have worsened as a result of the pandemic; and $386 million to develop a rapid retraining program for veterans unemployed as a result of a pandemic. ”

“ Well, our view is that voting rights; that, you know, addressing needed reforms of unions; that moving forward on a number of long-overdue policy efforts by Congress is too important to prejudge what the outcome will be. ”

“ And in states where the guidelines are not — or where the recommendations from leadership is not following health and medical guidelines, we have concerns about the impact on the population.
Q You know, in Europe, there are — there are travel restrictions between European states. The United States is large and has 50 states. Is there any discussion of restrictions for traveling between states when different states have such different ideas about how to fight COVID? And would you encourage or discourage other Americans from traveling to Texas or Mississippi right now? ”

“ Those veterans in our care currently in the 75 and older and 65 and older who are our particular focus at the moment should be hearing from our schedulers, and our schedulers are in contact with them. ”

“ As the Capitol is on alert today, I wanted to ask you about the veterans who played a role in the January 6th attack. We’ve seen 30-plus veterans be arrested for participating. We see these militia groups that are actively trying to recruit veterans. ”

“ And so we’re — many of our, you know, the 6 — the over 6 million vets who are with us, rely on us for care across the board, are very sophisticated consumers of care. But then we have up to 9 million who are enrolled in the VA system, and they have choices, and we’re seeing them make choices.But again, we are trying to be as affirmative and on the front foot as we can be so that we’re providing that kind of information. ”

“ You know, I think the President feels confident that his nominees across the board are qualified, they’re experienced, they’re prepared to do the job, and he’s eager to have his team in place and hopeful that the Senate moves forward to confirm the remainder of his nominees. ”

“ And as you’d expect, appropriate elements of the intelligence community and law enforcement are providing a steady pace of information and analysis on a regular basis on domestic violent extremism in the country.
Go ahead.
Q Thank you, Jen. As more people are getting vaccinated every day, there’s still a lack of clarity about what they should and shouldn’t do. And we’ve reported that the CDC guidance for them was supposed to be released today, but that’s no longer happening. Do you have any guidance about why not and when Americans should expect to see recommendations? ”

“ And that is what this package is meant to help address.And what I’ve heard him say — and this sounds consistent with that, while I don’t know the full context of this — is that, of course, he wants to build on — build his agenda beyond — build his agenda beyond getting the pandemic under control, beyond addressing and stemming the tide of a fina- — of an economic crisis, because he believes that investing in infrastructure is imperative and long overdue. He believes that modernizing our immigration system is long overdue and is good for the American people, good for our economy. ”

“ None of us think that’s easy.But he has ordered enough vaccines to ensure everybody in the country is vaccinated, and he will have — we will have those vaccines by the end of May, but it will require ongoing social distancing, ongoing mask wearing, as we’ve been talking about, and it will also require the American people getting the vaccine. He can’t force individuals to do that. ”

“ Just one more question on migrants, specifically unaccompanied minors who continue to come to the border every day. We’ve reported that 96 percent of the HHS beds are already accounted for. Is the administration planning to open new influx facilities, specifically for these children — and maybe at military bases or installations, like we’ve seen in the past? ”

“ And as you know — because we’ve talked about it in here — we believe that the humane approach is to treat these kids with humanity and ensure that they have a safe place to be.Well, I don’t have anything to preview for you, in terms of considerations underway at this point in time. But obviously, we recognize that with the number that are coming in and the limited facilities we have and the — our desire to abide by COVID protocols that, you know, it’s a policy process that is imperative and a priority for the — this administration. ”

“ Q So the White House has not seen them yet? MS. PSAKI: I’m not aware of the White House reviewing the guidelines, no. Q And then, on Texas, Governor Abbott said that “the Biden administration must stop importing COVID into the country” because he claims that COVID-positive migrants are being bused into Texas and then sent to other places in the country. Do you have a response to that? And can you elaborate on what the government is doing to test migrants, if anything? MS. PSAKI: Sure. Well, we’re around fact — we’re about facts around here. ”

“ The behavior of.Look, I think the President — what we — what everybody saw yesterday was a reflection of his frustration and exasperation, which I think many American people have, that for almost a year now, people across the country have sacrificed and, many times, they haven’t had the information they need from the federal government. ”

“ And what we’re seeing there is a pretty significant uptake in the community.And so we got to, A, be a good partner with that, ensure that we’re paying those bills on time to local providers. We’re keeping vibrant networks so our people have places that they can find care. ”

“ Well, many of these NGOs are — have stepped in to help ensure that these steps can be taken. Many of these NGOs have also, if quarantining or isolf- — or isolation is needed, have even reserved hotel blocks in some cases. ”

“ Q Gasoline prices are approaching $3 per gallon for the first time since 2014. Americans, as you well know, are cash-strapped. Is the President planning to intervene somehow? OPEC Plus came out this morning and said they were going to limit supply. ”