Sameera Fazili, Peter Harrell, and Jennifer Rene Psaki

“ Of course, the President is committed to the Post Office — the Postal Service’s success, which is why yesterday he nominated three extremely qualified individuals to fill the empty spots on the Board of Governors: Anton Hajjar, Amber McReynolds, and Ron Stroman.
And the American people highly value the Postal Service and the men and women who deliver our mail every day. And we’re working hard to do exactly that.
But I think we can all agree, most Americans would agree, that the Postal Service needs leadership that can and will do a better job. ”

“ Well, the President believes that it’s important and long overdue to put in place immigration — to modernize our immigration system, and that includes taking steps to help ensure that high-skilled workers can stay in the country and can go through the proper process to stay in the country. So we’re eager to work with Democrats and Republicans in Congress to get that done. ”

“ And we expect, as we get to the point where there are enough vaccines for Americans — 300 million by the time we get to the end of July, or if not sooner — that one of the challenges will be, you know, ensuring it’s equitably distributed and that people who are — have a history of vaccine hesitancy take the vaccine. ”

“ The Biden-Harris administration is committed to ensuring Americans have access to vaccine in their own communities, including at local pharmacies. And last week alone, the administration doubled our allocation to pharmacies to over 2 million doses across 7,000 pharmacies. ”

“ The head of the group the President is going to meet with today, the National Governors Association, Andrew Cuomo, is being accused of sexual harassment by a former staffer named Lindsey Boylan. She says that Cuomo, while he was governor, gave her an unwanted kiss on the lips. He asked her to play strip poker. Is the White House worried about this becoming a distraction from an important meeting about COVID response? MS. PSAKI: Well, let me first say that the President has been consistent in his position. When a person comes forward, they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect ”

“ You have to use a number of approaches to get into communities where there is vaccine hesitancy, which is an ongoing issue that we’re working to address.So, of course, he feels that there is more that needs to be done and that there’s more that, across his team, he will continue to encourage people to take action on.
Now, there are a number of steps, including partnering with community- and faith-based organizations; enhancing public transit options; working — of course, distributing vaccines to pharmacies ”

“ Well, the President is certainly looking forward to sharing his budget priorities for the fiscal year with Congress and, of course, the American people as our nation faces unprecedented challenges.We anticipated during the transition — and we talked about it a bit during the transition — that the budget would be delayed due to some intransigence we encountered from political appointees at OMB during the transition. ”

“ The President nominated Neera Tanden because she is qualified, because she is experienced, because she has a record of working with people who agree with her and disagree with her, with — and she has decades of experience, and plus, she has lived experience of her own, having benefited from a number of the programs that she would oversee, as a daughter of a single parent and somebody who benefited from food stamps at certain points in time. ”

“ There are a lot of legal immigrants who leave their country and they want to make this country as their home, but they’re having a decade-long wait for the issue of green cards so that once they get it, their potential is unfolded: They can open their company, they still have the startups, and they give employment — create employment and generate employment in this country.What’s the President’s message to those legal immigrants in this country? ”

“ Well, a lot has happened on Brexit — and in the world — since 2016, I think it’s fair to say.I will say that President Biden is focused on strengthening our domestic economy through significant investments in American workers and competitiveness. ”

“ Q Is Pakistan doing enough in the fight against terrorism? MS. PSAKI: Well, of course we remain closely engaged with a range of leaders and officials in the region, including those in Pakistan. But in terms of an assessment of that, I would point you to the State Department or the intelligence department — team. Q Yesterday, President issued a proclamation in which he revoked the previous — his predecessor’s policy on green — issue of new green cards to (inaudible) people who are outside the country. ”

“ That’s his focus. He’s committed to prioritizing those investments at home before signing new trade deals. That’s his approach, and that’s how he sees trade deals in general around the world. Making those investments is critical to restoring the middle class and making us more competitive.
So our team is still reviewing negotiations that were begun under the prior administration. Ambassador-designate Tai, of course, had her hearing this morning, and she will be essential to that review. ”

“ Q There are reports that if Congress launches a 9/11- style commission to investigate the January 6th insurrection, Nancy Pelosi would want it to have seven Democrats and four Republicans as part of the makeup. Would the White House be satisfied with that, or would you rather see it more evenly distributed by party? MS. PSAKI: We leave that up to Congress — leaders in Congress — to determine what that will look like. Q And on immigration: Why does the White House think there is this surge of unaccompanied children right now? ”

“ Well, certainly we’ve long been concerned — the United States has long been concerned about competition from China in Africa. We provide readouts whenever he does calls with foreign leaders, so he has not quite made it to every foreign leader at this point in time. ”

“ Well, this is a meeting and a conversation with a range of governors about how we can all work together to address the pandemic and get relief to the American people, and that’s what I expect the focus of the meeting to be on. Q There are some Democrats in New York who want a — who want congressional hearings about these deaths in nursing homes. There was a Cuomo aide who told lawmakers, in February, that the Cuomo administration withheld the number of residents who died in hospitals from the public due to the fear that it would be used against them by federal prosecutors. ”

“ I just want to ask about the Post Office — a couple of questions. You said earlier today that there was some concerns, I guess, with the leadership. Quote, “It’s clear that the leadership can do better, and so that’s our hope.” ”

“ I can talk to our team and see if there’s more specifics. Q Has the President been briefed and updated on the progress of that review? We’re about 33 — 35 days into it. MS. PSAKI: As you know, the President has daily meetings as a part of the PDB and is certainly tracking threats to our homeland, as a part of what’s discussed there, but I don’t have any update for you on updates on the overall report that’s not due for more than 60 days. Q And what’s the President’s assessment now of the threat from domestic terrorism? ”

“ Is this something the White House thinks would be appropriate for a congressional hearing? MS. PSAKI: It’s really up to Congress to determine how they want to review or have hearings on those reports. Q And I know you were asked about this this weekend, but I’ll try again: Does President Biden still think Andrew Cuomo is the “gold standard” for COVID leadership and that he’s doing a “hell of a job,” which he has said about him? ”

“ He believes the leadership can do better. And we’re eager to have the Board of Governors in place. Q Okay, can I ask on a slightly separate subject? You may have seen that GameStop is spiking again, as are similar stocks — or “stonks” dare I call them. Do you have views on whether the SEC or the administration — the Treasury Secretary will weigh in if we continue to see these sort of “meme” stocks fluctuating and spiking like this? ”