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James S. Brady Press Briefing Room 12:52 P.M. EDT
Psaki: Hi everyone.
Question: Hello, Jen. Good to see you.
Psaki: Good to see you. Happy Pride. Celebrating here today.
Okay. I’m just going to give you a quick overview of the week ahead: On Monday, the President will welcome Israeli President Rivlin to the White House. President Rivlin’s visit will highlight the enduring partnership between the United States and Israel and the deep ties between our governments and our people. As President Rivlin approaches the end of his term, the visit will honor the dedication he has shown to strengthening the friendship between the two countries over the course of many years.
On Tuesday, the President will travel to Southwest Wisconsin with Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to talk about growing agriculture — growing agriculture and rural economies.
On Wednesday, he will convene Cabinet officials, governors from western states, and private sector partners to discuss the devastating intersection of drought, heat, and wildfires in the Western United States, and strengthening prevention, preparedness, and response efforts for this wildfire season, which is already outpacing last season alone — outpacing last season alone — sorry — the 2020 wildfire season alone burned over 10 million acres across the United States, resulting in the loss of dozens of lives and tens of billions of dollars in economic damage. This meeting will focus on how the federal government can most effectively protect public safety and deliver assistance to our people in times of urgent need.
And, on Friday, the President will also deliver remarks on the June jobs report.
Next week, even while all of this is going on — a busy week — the President will also continue to work and engage closely with members of Congress about moving his agenda forward, whether it’s the bipartisan infrastructure agreement just announced yesterday or the budget reconciliation process that’s also moving forward.
And he will continue to — on his work to protect the sacred right to vote. You’ll hear from him next week on that. We’re still finalizing the details, and he’s been engaged in that work through his career, so you’ll hear more from him on that next week.
I’d also note, so I don’t forget: Today is Jerome’s last day in the White House Briefing Room as a White House correspondent. So thank you — to your service to the public over the last several years. (Applause.)
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All right. Why don’t we kick it off, Darlene.
Question: Thank you, Jen. Is the infrastructure agreement already stuck in a pothole? (Laughter.)
Psaki: You worked hard on that.
Question: No, I didn’t. I didn’t. (Laughter.)
Psaki: I like it.
Absolutely not, in our view. The President is continuing to, as I said — as he said yesterday, there’s work ahead. There’s no question about that.
But yesterday was a significant moment when you saw Democrats and Republicans and the President of the United States stand outside together and say, “We’ve come to agreement to pa- — to work for — toward passing a historic investment in infrastructure, one that would have…” — I just have this handy chart up here; I thought someone might ask about this — “…would have key components that would help communities across the country.”
And I talked with him about this, this morning: what he was most excited about, what he’s going to continue, what his message is going to be as he continues to advocate for this bill moving forward.
One is the significant economic impact. It’s going to help create millions of good-paying union jobs that will also have a huge impact on low-income communities, on communities of color.
It will eliminate lead pipes to stop kids from drinking poisoned water. Flint, Michigan, should not be so far away that we don’t remember the impact on that community. This is a — part of this package will help prevent that from ever happening again.
It includes the single-largest investment in environmental remediation in history. What does that mean? A lot of people at home don’t know what that means, so I’m going to explain it. And it’s 100 percent of what he asked for. It means cleaning up pollution in communities that have disproportionately borne the brunt of environmental pollution. It’s a capping — it also means capping wells where big oil companies left wells uncapped with methane pouring out. It means putting people back to work to do the work we need to do to help create a clean energy economy for the long term.
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And it has the largest investment in public transit in our nation’s history. We know this will also have an enormous impact on low-income communities — many communities of color.
I’ll also note: There are huge components of this package that will help address the climate crisis. One is the first-ever — first-ever network — first time we’ve ever invested –sorry — in a network of EV charging stations across the country. So electric vehicles — I don’t currently own one; maybe I will in the future. Who knows.
It will make it easier — there will be more charging stations so people can use them across the country. It will have the largest investment in history in a clean energy transmission grid — something that will also help us take a huge step forward.
And this bill also will help us — and this the piece he talked about yesterday, but he is particularly excited about — make us more competitive in the world. And a specific example there is making sure we are building our battery industry here in the United States to compete globally.
So that’s the case he’s making, he’s going to continue to make. There’s no question there’s work ahead, and he’s ready to roll up his sleeves and work like hell to get it done.
Question: But we’re hearing from the Hill, from a lot of senators, that — unhappiness over the President’s decision to want to do both these packages at the same time — the pairing, moving them in tandem. When senators agreed to this deal, was the White House upfront with them that this was the way the President wanted to proceed?
Psaki: Well, first, you all have heard the President say multiple times, publicly, that he wanted to — he was going to move these bills forward — wanted to move them forward in parallel paths. And that’s exactly what’s happening.
That hasn’t been a secret. He hasn’t said it quietly. He hasn’t even whispered it. He said it very much out loud to all of you, as we have said many times from here.
I will say that the President’s view is that the public — the American people — elected him to not lead on process, but to get things done. The House and Senate are going to determine – the Leaders in the House and Senate are going to determine the sequencing, the timeline. And he looks forward to signing both pieces of legislation.
Question: One other quick one.
Psaki: Yeah.