Jennifer Rene Psaki

“ Well, we’re certainly encouraged by the fact that we are vaccinating, our team is vaccinating, our — experts across the country, I should say, are vaccinating an average of about 3 million people a day, which is far larger than any other country in the world.But we know that it’s not just about having the supply or eligibility; it’s also about people in the country, eligible adult Americans, going to their community health center, going to a mass vaccination site, going to a pharmacy to get vaccinated and get that shot in their arm. ”

“ And we are encouraged not just by 80 percent of the public that believes that we — it is long overdue to invest in infrastructure, that — not just roads, rails, and bridges, but there is a way we should — the federal — a role the federal government can play in rebuilding the infrastructure of our economy and helping support American workers for the 21st century.This is a mechanism — as you know, reconciliation is a mechanism for passing budgetary bills in Congress. ”

“ Well, we certainly wouldn’t be at this point had we not purchased enough supply to vaccinate every adult American; had we not increased our — the number of vaccinators who can distribute the vaccine, put them in shots in arms; and had we not massively increased our investment in places where people could go.So it’s a signal that, one, we’re delivering clarity, but also, we are at a point where there are enough — there’s enough supply, there are enough vaccinators, there are enough vaccination sites that every American adult is eligible April 19th. ”

“ Just one more quick thing on the American Jobs Plan. There’s a Moody’s estimate that you have cited — and basically, their estimate is that 2.7 million jobs will be created over 10 years, if that plan is passed as it’s been proposed. I think that works out to something like $850,000 per job. Given that, are you open to ideas about a more targeted way — a cheaper way of achieving the same goal in terms of number of jobs created? MS. PSAKI: Well, we’re always open to hearing from members of Congress and — on their ideas and what they think should be a part of the package. ”

“ We will have enough supply by the end of May, and we certainly remain confident that we will continue to be able to provide the supply that states need to vaccinate people in their states, and we’ll continue to provide supply also independently to the pharmacies, which is a place — a program that has started out as a pilot and has been incredibly successful.So we are confident in what the path looks like ahead, but we also constantly contingency plan; we know things happen. ”

“ He won’t tolerate inaction on rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure, something that has long been outdated. He believes that we need to invest in that so we can improve the lives of ordinary Americans and make it easier to do business. He also believes that investment — investments in long-term economic growth will create good-paying jobs.There was another study that showed that about 75 percent of these jobs — a Georgetown study, I should say — would go to workers who did not have college degrees. ”

“ There will be no federal vaccinations database and no federal mandate requiring everyone to obtain a single vaccination credential.As these tools are being considered by the private and nonprofit sectors, our interest is very simple from the federal government, which is Americans’ privacy and rights should be protected, and so the — so that these systems are not used against people unfairly.
There is a movement, as you know, in the private sector to identify ways that they can return to events where there are large swaths of people safely in soccer stadiums or theaters. ”

“ But I would say that, you know, we track every community; we track every state and locality, and how distribution is going, and how to improve it and make it more effective. And we work very closely with leaders. One size doesn’t fit all. And some — in some cases, that means we increase distribution to pharmacies; we increase distribution to mobile vaccine sites. ”

“ These are millions of jobs that won’t be created if Congress doesn’t act to pass this plan. We see that as a positive, but we also will be very clear and articulate exactly what numbers of jobs it will create. ”

“ So this is more providing clarity to the American public, who may tune in to the President’s remarks or clips that you all share on the news, that they’re all eligible. It create — provides clarity. It reduces confusion. And it ensures that Americans who are not yet vaccinated, who are looking to get vaccinated, they know they are all eligible — all adults, I should say — on April 19th. Q And then, secondly, it’s been about a week since the President announced his infrastructure plan. Lots of states, counties, cities are wondering how they would qualify for any money. ”

“ And it will be hard to have state-by-state — we’ll have state-by-state factsheets out soon, I think, but it will be hard to have state-by-state job creation numbers because we won’t know the specifics because of all of the bidding processes that will take place as it relates to infrastructure.But Moody’s ran an analysis that showed that the economy would create 19 million jobs over the next decade if Congress passes the American Jobs Plan — almost 3 million more than if it doesn’t. ”

“ We work with communities to invest in community violence prevention. He’s actually proposed funding to do exactly that — something that many groups support because they believe, in order to reduce violence, in order to address the prevalence of violence in communities like some in Chicago, that we need to spend the money from the federal government to do exactly that. Q Can the federal government put any resources, right now, immediately, rather than waiting for laws and waiting for community events, or what have you, to take place? ”

“ They know that they are eligible on April 19th — every American out there who is not vaccinated.
This is also — part of the effort here and part of what he’ll be conveying later today is to communicate to seniors and people who have seniors in their community, maybe members of their family: This is the time to go now; to ensure seniors who are your loved ones, your family members, people in your neighborhood to go now because the lines are going to become longer. There are going to be more people waiting. ”

“ It’s up to Major League Baseball to determine where they’re holding their All-Star Game. Q Okay. A quick one from a colleague who cannot be here. You’re talking about the new vaccine eligibility deadline. Is the supply ramping up quicker than expected? And if not, what does moving the eligibility deadline up actually do in practice? Like, are more people going to get vaccinated faster? ”

“ So any changes we would make in advising the public, we would certainly do in close coordination with the advice of the CDC and our health and medical team. I don’t have any expectation of that at this point, but we’re always looking at how we can provide clarity to the public.
Q And you had said that, you know, the lines might start getting longer, so seniors should start getting their shots now just to make sure they’re not doing it when it gets clogged up. Are you concerned that because the eligibility has expanded, that the supply can match that? ”

“ There are some Republicans who have previously called for investment in workforce development as part of comprehensive infrastructure investment. Some have called for that. Some have previously called for investing in broadband and the expansion of broadband as a means of expanding infrastructure. Some even have referenced to replacing pipes as a means of infrastructure.So I would suggest that many of their constituents would be surprised to hear that those are not infrastructure projects. ”

“ The Vice President highlighted the country’s work in the pandemic response to date, including today’s announcement that the President will announce officially, later this afternoon, that we’ve reached 150 million shots in arms since entering government, and that by April 19th, all adult Americans will be eligible to get the vaccine. ”

“ So formula grants are allocated to states based on certain criteria, like the number of miles on an interstate highway or a population in a given urban area. Most of our existing transportation funding flows through formula grants, which gives states a lot of flexibility on how to prioritize and spend their federal dollars based on what their needs are. ”

“ But it is going to take the American people going — masking up, socially distancing, and going and getting vaccinated. We’re going to make that as easy as possible. But there are roles that we can play, and then there are roles that the public have to play. ”

“ Trucks break down. There are issues in manufacturing sites, as we saw just last week. And we are constantly contingency planning about steps we need to take to ensure we have adequate supply out through all of our programs.
Q But the President continues to urge Americans to be vigilant. We expect he’ll do that today in his remarks. But over the weekend, we saw Americans traveling for the holiday weekend. We saw a totally packed baseball stadium in Texas yesterday. Basically, there are Americans across the country who are doing exactly what the President is telling them not to do. ”

“ And what he’s asking people to do is to sacrifice a little bit longer, and he will continue to make that case and make that argument.Now, while we saw the baseball game, as you — as you noted, and other events over the weekend — and we certainly anticipate, as the weather gets warmer, there will be a temptation — we’ve also seen communities where local mayors, businesses have conveyed to their communities that we need to hang together, we need to remain vigilant, we need to wear masks, and we will get through this together. ”

“ But, right now, less than a week after he announced the American Jobs Plan, our focus is on engaging with Democrats and Republicans, with staff, with committee staff, inviting members to the White House next week. And we are encouraged by some of the statements that have been made about components of the package where we could find agreement.
Q On infrastructure, some Republicans have quibbled with the way infrastructure should be defined in the bill. ”

“ He governs for all Americans.He is encouraged by — we all are encouraged by the openness we’ve heard from some who would identify as moderate Democrats or Republicans of discussing components of the package that he has proposed. ”