Jennifer Rene Psaki

“ How do you view this possibility of moving the All-Star Game out of Georgia?”
And he said, quote, “I think today’s professional athletes are acting incredibly responsible. I would strongly support them doing that.”
So he was not dictating for — what Major League Baseball should do, that they should — dictating they should move the All-Star game. That is — was their decision. They made that decision. And as he stated earlier, he certainly supports that. ”

“ Some don’t believe that America’s broadband capacity, which is one third of the American — of American — the American people, I should say, don’t have access to broadband, and improving those lines and expanding that access is not infrastructure ”

“ And we’re happy to have discussions with members who have both points of view.But at the end of the day, the package that the President proposed makes a historic investment in our nation’s infrastructure, rebuilds our economy, helps create 19 million jobs. And, you know, we’re hopeful that others will come forward with ideas that are as bold and innovative and will help do the same type of work for American workers and our economy. ”

“ There will be different ideas for tax proposals. That will all need to be weighed by a range of questions, including — with Congress and with leaders in Congress and outspoken members in Congress about whether it should be paid for, over what period of time, how much should be paid for, what the options are for paying for it. There are some that are proposing, as you all know, SALT deductions and other areas that are not revenue raisers. ”

“ The President is always — is obviously quite focused on the American Jobs Plan that he just announced last week. As you all know, he’s already had two bipartisan congressional meetings on infrastructure in the Oval Office, and he plans to continue speaking with leaders from both sides of the aisle to get their input, either on the phone this week or when they return. ”

“ Because again, single adults, based on your own reporting and everyone’s reporting, continue to be — the vast majority continue to be turned away at the border.I don’t have any predictions about numbers that will come. We’re obviously taking steps, as I addressed in response to Alex’s question, to address the root causes, put in place programs that people can utilize to apply from in-country, send a clear message the border is not open and that we’re turning away the majority of adults when they come to the border. ”

“ Some believe that addressing the issue of America’s supply chain so that we’re never again at the mercy of China or any other nation is not investing in infrastructure; the President disagrees.
Some don’t believe that rebuilding schools so that they’re safe and asbestos-free isn’t investing in infrastructure ”

“ Many of you may have seen members of the Jobs Cabinet out over the weekend, speaking on your airwaves directly to the American people.
And the Jobs Cabinet members have also been active and engaging with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, and they will continue to play that role over the course of the coming weeks and months.
So, Jobs Cabinet members to date have made 56 calls to the 28 Democrats and 28 Republicans who are the chairs and ranking members on relevant committees. ”

“ Q To start, the jobs plan has been receiving opposition from both the left and the right. On the right, this weekend, Senator Roy Blunt said that it would be an easy bipartisan win if the bill were more narrowly focused. So why not reduce the bill down to just infrastructure and take out planks like the care workers and the electric vehicle aspects?And then, in addition to that, on the left, Senator Joe Manchin said today that he can’t support a 28 percent tax increase on corporations. ”

“ Well, I think one of the reasons the President asked — and tell me if this is answering your question — but one of the reasons the President asked his Vice President to play a similar role that he played is because he recognizes that unless we address the root causes in these countries; unless we disincentivize young people, families leaving these countries; we improve the economic conditions ”

“ So we are still proposing a rate that is lower than it has been for the vast majority of time, since anyone in this room was alive, I think — or around that amount of time. So that’s our proposal.Of course, what the President proposed — raising it to 28 percent — and combined with the other tax proposals would pay for the totality of the package. That’s why he felt it was a responsible proposal to make. ”

“ But our focus is on doing what we can to advocate for making voter — voting easier and more accessible around the country. And that’s where our efforts are going to be from the White House. Q Before the President said that he would strongly support moving the All-Star game out of Georgia, did he consider the economic impact? ”

“ Of course, we saw what happened, you know, last week and over the weekend where there was a mix-up in what would have amounted to 15 million one-shot doses, which is a lot for what we’re trying to do. So what was the President’s reaction to that? MS. PSAKI: To the — to the news? What — well, I would first say that — Q To the fact that we’re not getting 15 million doses right now that could have been made for American people. MS. PSAKI: Well it’s not exactly what happened, because we are still on track to have the number of doses we need to vaccinate all adult Americans by the end of May. ”

“ Japan alliance is a cornerstone of peace, security, and prosperity in the region, and that is one of the reasons why we’re working to deepen our close coordination across a variety of areas, including supply chains, as Secretary of State Blinken discussed with his counterpart last month. ”

“ We hope that there will be constructive discussions. We hope that there’ll be committees meeting. But we’ll leave it to Hill leadership to define what progress looks like. Q And just back on Senator Blunt’s proposal about a smaller package: Is it out of the question for the White House to split up the infrastructure package, or is that something the President would be willing to do? MS. PSAKI: Well, we certainly expect it. And it has played out that some will believe that the package we proposed is too small; some will believe it’s too big. ”

“ One of the issues that has come up is a — sort of a need to expand the debt relief initiatives to beyond countries that are just the poorest countries; that there are significant numbers of countries that are, you know, middle-income countries. ”

“ Is Operation Warp Speed still in effect, or would this be a continuation of that to address the investment in additional vaccine? MS. PSAKI: Well, companies are still — are producing booster shots and options. ”

“ We have not had a budget director confirmed. We have now an acting budget director, which is an important step forward. But, again, we expect it to be soon. And as soon as we have a timeline, we will make sure you all know.
Q I also wanted to ask you a question about Major League Baseball. The League decided to move its All-Star Game out of Atlanta. That’s something that the President said he supported before. Does he then agree with their decision to move that game out of Atlanta because of the voting law? ”

“ Q Is the administration considering loosening some international travel restriction? MS. PSAKI: I don’t have anything to predict on that front. Obviously, that would be done by our health and medical experts, and we’d refer to them for any timeline on the guidelines. Q And just a follow-up: Will you accept other vaccines that are approved by other countries that’s not approved by FDA yet? MS. PSAKI: Will we accept them here in the United States? Q Yeah — as, like, qualified vaccines. ”

“ We will — we will have some state factsheets, I expect soon, that kind of break down some of the specifics. There are pieces like broadband access and other things, but there’ll be a competitive bidding process once the bill is signed into law. ”

“ Q There is a separate report that — speaking about the adults, there are 1,000 “got-aways,” mostly in Arizona — people who are seen, detected, but they’re not chased because authorities are so busy processing the families. ”

“ They’ll all be advocating for different projects; we certainly expect that. But we’re in the early stages of the process and —
Q So these congressional meetings, these are not about putting specific projects on a list? MS. PSAKI: No. Q Okay.My baseball question is: Today’s home opener for the Texas Rangers is the first major league sports event since the pandemic started that — excuse me — that allows an open — a full — a full house. The President called that a “mistake” last week. Has he spoken to other team owners to try to deter them and get them to hold off from having full-house events? ”

“ And, absolutely, our economic team and number data crunchers will be crunching numbers as we proceed, but we’re kind of in the early stages of these discussions at this point in time.
Q And just real quickly: On OMB, you mentioned that you don’t have a budget director yet. When do you anticipate that the President will nominate someone to replace Neera Tanden? And then I have one more quick international one. MS. PSAKI: Sure. ”