Signing orders, urging more help
Biden offers some aid and asks Congress for bigger stimulus amid ‘national emergency’
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden signed two executive orders Friday to provide help to struggling families and boost wages for certain workers, turning once again to the power of the executive branch to advance his economic goals as the legislative chances for his broader stimulus package remain unclear.
“The crisis is only deepening,” Biden said during remarks at the White House, calling the need to help those out of work and unable to afford enough food “an economic imperative.”
The president continued: “The bottom line is this: We are in a national emergency. We need to act like we’re in a national emergency,” he said. “So we got to move with everything we got. We’ve got to do it together. I don’t believe Democrats or Republicans are going hungry and losing jobs, I believe, Americans are going hungry and losing jobs.
“We have the tools to help people. So let’s use the tools. All of them. Now,” he said.
Biden’s executive orders will attempt to increase the amount of money poor families get for food each month and provide additional meal money for students whose schools have been closed as a result of the virus. Biden will also direct the Treasury Department to find ways to deliver stimulus checks to at least 8 million Americans who are eligible for money
but have not yet received funds.
A second executive order will lay the groundwork for the federal government to require a $15-per-hour minimum wage for its employees and contract workers, while making it easier for federal workers to bargain collectively for better pay and benefits.
The moves are the latest attempt by Biden to try to quickly address the economic fallout from the virus using his executive authority.
On Wednesday, his first day in office, Biden issued orders extending federal moratoriums on some foreclosures and evictions through the end of March and a pause on student loan payments through the end of September.
But the president’s executive powers are somewhat limited, and the steps that Biden is taking are relatively small and targeted given the scope of the economic pain coursing through the country. Millions of Americans remain out of work, and another 900,000 filed for unemployment insurance Thursday.
Biden, nodding to that reality, once again appealed to Congress to pass the $1.9 trillion package he outlined earlier this month, saying the economy would be worse off if the U.S. did not spend money now to prevent further pain.
“There is a growing economic consensus that we must act decisively and boldly,” he said Friday. “This cannot be what we are as a country. We cannot, will not let people go hungry. We cannot watch people lose their jobs, and we have to act.”
Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, said at a White House briefing Friday that the orders would help provide some immediate relief for families but said they are not a replacement for the type of sweeping stimulus program that Biden outlined earlier this month.
“These actions are not a substitute for comprehensive legislative relief, but they will provide a critical lifeline to millions of families,” Deese said. “The American people are hurting, and they can’t afford to wait.”
On Sunday, Deese, will meet privately with a bipartisan group of 16 senators, mostly centrists, who were among those instrumental in crafting and delivering the most recent round of COVID aid.
The ability to win over that coalition, led by Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., will be key to any path, a test run for working with Congress on a bipartisan basis.
“Any new COVID relief package must be focused on the public health and economic crisis at hand,” Collins said in a statement Friday, adding that she looks forward to hearing more about “the administration’s specific proposals.”
Legislative action will not come easily. Democrats hold a slim majority in Congress, and Republicans are already showing signs of resistance to another spending package. That resistance is only expected to increase given Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday that she would send articles of impeachment to the Senate next week. Angry Republicans are taking the opportunity to stall Biden’s legislative agenda.
The White House is wrestling with whether to spend time trying to find a bipartisan agreement, as Biden has said he would like, or to use a procedural maneuver to push at least part of his proposal through the Senate with a simple majority, avoiding the need for any Republican support.
Pushing for both bipartisanship and the full contents of their stimulus plan, Biden officials have signaled that the price tag and contents could change but have declined to provide any specifics.
“The final package may not look exactly like the package that he proposed, that’s OK, that’s how the process, the legislative process should work,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday.