White House Correspondents Insider

This week, the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room finally returned to full capacity for the first time since March 16, 2020, marking a hopeful landmark as the White House returns to pre-pandemic norms.

The change was announced by the White House Correspondents Association on Sunday, along with the reintroduction of the pre-pandemic seating chart for the press room, featuring reporters from NBC, Fox News, CBS News, the Associated Press, ABC News, Reuters and CNN, reported Politico. The WHCA also announced that press capacity limitations for the North Lawn and indoor press workspaces would be lifted as well.

For over a year, the White House press briefing room had a severely limited amount of available seating, forcing the WHCA to issue seating rotations to give each outlet an opportunity to ask their questions – an arrangement that had pleased then-President Donald Trump who admitted back in March 2020 that there were only “two or three” reporters that he actually liked, Philip Wegman of RealClearPolitics recounts. “We should get rid of another 75 to 80% of you,” the president remarked at the time.

In late May, the press room returned to 50% capacity, allowing – for the first time in over a year – a full lineup of news outlets to fill the 24 available seats. However, some reporters were alarmed on Monday to see the James S. Brady room make such a quick turnaround. White House reporter and Co-author of Politico’s West Wing Playbook Alex Thompson noted that the briefing room had around 83 attendees on the first day back – far more than the available 49 seats.

Shortly after the two-minute warning leading into the press briefing, an unnamed voice asked the additional reporters not to stand in the aisles, as was customary prior to the pandemic. However, the request was not heeded.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, who has been giving briefings to a limited audience since she first started at the White House, was quick to adjust to the crowded room, reports CBS News. “I’m very thrown off to where everyone’s seated – I’ll adjust to it,” Psaki quipped before taking questions.

According to a survey issued by the WHCA, more than 97% of its members reported being fully vaccinated, serving as motivation for the most recent changes. As early as two weeks ago, journalists were required to take nasal swabs before entering the briefing room. Now, per the WHCA’s new guidance, fully vaccinated journalists do not need to be tested and the White House will not be asking for proof of vaccination.

The White House Correspondents Association’s President Zeke Miller wrote in the announcement that, “Since the onset of the pandemic, our priority has been to keep journalists safe, while ensuring that the critical work of informing the public could continue uninterrupted.”

“We appreciate the sacrifices made by every member of the press corps and we thank you all for your cooperation over the last 15 months,” he added.

The White House is partnering with ride-sharing companies Uber Technologies and Lyft to offer free rides to and from vaccination sites through July 4th, according to an exclusive Wall Street Journal report. The details are to be announced in a Tuesday call with governors as the Biden administration gears up to vaccinate 70% of the U.S. adult population before Independence Day.

“To ensure that transportation is less of a barrier,” said President Joe Biden during a virtual meeting with governors Tuesday, “from May 24th to July 4th, Uber and Lyft are both going to offer everyone free rides to and from vaccination sites.” He added, “I think that is really stepping up.”

Uber and Lyft have previously offered some free and discounted rides to vaccination sites, but this new partnership will expand those services to anyone in the United States. The companies are set to receive data on about 80,000 vaccination sites from the Biden administration and will begin promoting free vaccination rides on May 24th. A new feature will be introduced on their apps that will allow users to “simply select a vaccination site near them, follow simple directions to redeem their ride, and then get a ride to take them to and from a nearby vaccination site free of charge,” reports Axios.

This latest push is part of the Biden Administration’s effort to get enough Americans vaccinated for safer gatherings in time for July 4th. According to Bloomberg’s vaccine tracker, only 34.8% of Americans are fully vaccinated as of May 10th. The current rate of vaccinations is a little over 2.1 million doses a day, putting the United States on target to hit 75% of the population in 3 months. In mid-April, the vaccination effort reached a peak of about 3.38 million doses per day.

The Biden administration is hoping that by shifting their allocation methods towards state and local governments and private companies, they will be able to incentivise new audiences to get vaccinated. White House COVID-19 Coordinator Jeffrey Zients points out that “not everyone has had the chance to get vaccinated yet.” 

“That’s why,” he explains, “we are using all of the tools at our disposal and enlisting partners across sectors to meet the president’s goal of getting 70% of adult Americans with at least one shot by July 4th.”

Uber and Lyft will not be paid by the federal government in order to provide the free rides. Instead, the companies are hoping the program will bring new users back to their services after the pandemic put pressure on their ride-sharing services. 

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said that this latest partnership will help expand on the company’s global commitments to facilitating access to COVID-19 vaccines. “Vaccines are our best hope to beat this pandemic, and soon everyone in America will be able to take a free Uber to get their shot. We are honored to deepen our previous global commitments, and partner with the White House and Lyft to provide free rides to vaccination sites across the US. This is a proud moment for me, for Uber, and for our country,” Mr. Khosrowshahi said. Uber also partnered previously with Moderna to help provide vaccine-safety information.

“Helping more Americans get vaccinated helps the Lyft community of drivers and riders, and we’re grateful to the Biden administration for prioritizing access,” said John Zimmer, the co-founder and president of Lyft.

As partisan politics continue to slow down key legislation in Congress, the founder and head of ENGAGE, Rachel Pearson, has proposed a clever solution: keep the focus on women’s economic security.

ENGAGE is a bipartisan women’s organization that hopes to clue in politicos and policy wonks on the commonly overlooked fact that issues of economic security are, by and large, women’s issues. In a recent op-ed published by The Hill, Pearson lays out her case for why appealing to women on these matters might just bring about the unity that this country has been longing for.

“Women outnumber, outvote, and outlive men,” Pearson points out. “The well-being of American women is, to a significant extent, the well-being of America. Secure their economic prospects and you will have gone a long way in securing the prospects of our many diverse communities.”

Pearson explains three key issues that have stalled in Congress and that women ought to have an outsized interest in:  paid family leave, internet connectivity for all, and retirement security. 

With 7 out of 10 family caregivers being women, Pearson makes the obvious case for why women should care about paid family leave: “How is a working mother who makes less than $75,000 a year on average — and many earn much less — supposed to manage her life and take care of a child with special needs, a father with Alzheimer’s, or a mother who needs to be driven to chemotherapy?”

However, things like internet connectivity and retirement security are also significant issues that impact women disproportionately. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the impact of digital access, or lack thereof, on productivity and success, especially among school age children. Yet, according to Connect the Future, 31 million Americans still lack access to computer technology.

“These millions of Americans have been economically and socially trapped by a lack of technology,” writes Pearson. “Besides education, the absence of access impacts health care and economic security — think of telehealth and entrepreneurs whose small-businesses depend on connectivity,” she adds.

Meanwhile, these inequities tend to build up after a lifetime. With women living longer lives with less earnings, paired with various disparate impacts, women are finding themselves heading towards a retirement cliff.

“All these disadvantages make saving for retirement a daunting challenge for American women,” Pearson explains. “We must immediately grapple with how to support generations of destitute retirees.”

Pearson calls on the Biden administration to take up these issues given the widespread effects it would have, not just for women, but for all demographics. 

“In advancing women’s economic security, you will, by extension, be lifting up our fathers, our brothers, our husbands, and our sons. Women need the Biden administration and Congress to compromise and find the path forward.”

Rachel Pearson founded ENGAGE: Promoting Women’s Economic Security in the wake of the 2018 election. ENGAGE is a bipartisan organization focused on expanding economic opportunity for all American women in the 21st century. Find out more about ENGAGE here.

Washington, D.C. — Uber Technologies, Inc., has teamed up with PayPal and Walgreens to launch an $11 million Vaccine Access Fund, which will provide free rides to COVID-19 vaccination sites in the United States for communities hit hard by COVID-19, as reported by Reuters.

The creation of the fund was announced in a letter to the White House from the CEOs of Uber, PayPal, Walgreens, and the U.S. non-profit Local Initiatives Support Corporation, which is managing the Vaccine Access Fund.

Uber’s support of the Vaccine Access Fund comes in addition to their international commitment to give 10 million free or discounted rides to vaccination sites around the world.

In addition to the federal government’s efforts to combat the pandemic, creative initiatives driven by the private sector, like the Vaccine Access Fund, will help bring us one step closer to returning to normalcy. 

To contribute to the Vaccine Access Fund, donations are accepted here via PayPal or via the donate button found directly in the Uber app.

President Joe Biden answered questions on COVID-19, infrastructure, his plans for the senate filibuster and more during his first official news conference since his inauguration. Journalists who have been patiently waiting for a formal question-and-answer session from the President were quick to draw comparisons to the last administration.

President Biden opened up his first press conference by touting the success of his COVID-19 response and doubling his promised number of vaccines by 100 days from 100 to 200 million vaccines. Biden also said he expects the majority of K-8 students will soon return to their classrooms and announced that more than a 100 million Americans have already cashed their $1,400 stimulus checks.

Biden then opened up the room to questions from reporters. Confronted about the migrant surge on the border Biden said, “Truth of the matter is nothing has changed.”

“As many people came, 28% increase in the children in the border in my administration, 31% in the last year in 2019 before the pandemic in the Trump administration. It happens every single solitary year,” Biden elaborated. 

The president also added that the “vast majority” of migrants at the border are being sent back home. CNN’s Daniel Dale fact-checked this claim, saying “Biden made a more accurate claim about the overall group of migrants but for families in particular, for this particular claim, his claim is not true.” Dale pointed out that while 71% of single adults are being turned away, only 41% of migrants coming as a family were being sent back.

With big plans down the line, reporters were interested in how the President plans to work with Republicans moving forward. Biden’s response was that the filibuster was being “abused in a gigantic way” and said that Republicans will have to decide whether they want “to divide the country, [or] continue the politics of division.”

Though President Biden did acknowledge that the filibuster was a “relic of the Jim Crow era,” he did not show interest in abolishing the filibuster just yet. Though Biden did warn Republicans that, “If we have to, if there’s complete lockdown and chaos as a consequence of the filibuster, then we’ll have to go beyond what I’m talking about.”

Biden talked about his big plans on infrastructure, teasing a major announcement on the topic in Pittsburgh next Wednesday, the 31st. Biden says he hopes to rebuild the “physical and technological infrastructure in this country so we can compete and create significant numbers of really good-paying jobs.”

President Biden also turned heads when he announced interest in running again in 2024: “Yes, my plan is to run for reelection,” he said. “That’s my expectation.”

In an ABC News article, AP Media Writer David Bauder pointed out that the press conference was most notable for what it was missing following the Presidency of Donald Trump. In particular, President Biden received no questions on COVID-19, or any questions from Fox News.

Not taking any questions from Fox News had been expected beforehand because of prior history between Fox News White House Correspondent Peter Doocy and the President. Following the press conference, Doocy said he had a “binder full of questions” for the president, reports RealClearPolitics.

The lack of questions of COVID-19 left some reporters a little more surprised. The New York Times Washington Correspondent Sheryl Gay Stolberg said the questions “suggest that coronavirus is no longer Topic A.” White House Chief of Staff responded saying, “Pretty sure it is for the American people and the Biden White House.”

Washington Post reporter and author of the ‘Power Up’ morning newsletter, Jacqueline Alemany, spoke with Senator Kevin Cramer about his legislative priorities for the 117th Congress this week. The conversation with the junior Senator from North Dakota covered a number of hot button issues including the recent mass shooting in Boulder, CO, the Senate’s filibuster rules, immigration, infrastructure, climate and the future of the Republican Party. You can see the full interview via Washington Post Live, here, or read about it in Alemany’s newsletter, here.

When asked about two gun bills recently introduced in the House, Senator Cramer expressed openness to the legislation, but suggested that a better route would be to ensure that previous gun legislation is properly enforced. 

“Conceptually, I am open to anything,” said Senator Cramer. “There are very few times when I say ‘I will never do that.’ I think you can’t have an honest discussion on non-starters.” 

The senator also said, “We are not adequately enforcing the existing laws within our Constitution.” 

He went on to explain that, “By enforcing, I don’t just mean catching the bad guys… but that registration, the background checks, not making it into the NICS list, the FBI not adequately vetting, not sending in the information for people who should not be eligible for a gun. We have seen that play out in tragic ways.”

On the Senate filibuster, Senator Cramer said he was willing to work with Democrats, but suggested that the Democrats would have to make the first move.

“One of the challenges with regards to the filibuster, you said upfront that the Democrats are taking a ‘wait and see’ attitude to see if we will work with them,” said the North Dakotan senator. “The first thing they have to do — they have to introduce legislation and have hearings.”

“It has been all executive orders and there wasn’t even an invitation, there has never been a public hearing on this. Even if the filibuster is a principle worth maintaining or not,” Senator Cramer continued.

Senator Cramer also reassured Alemany that the upcoming infrastructure package wouldn’t likely go through a budget reconciliation process, saying that, other than opposition to China, it was one of the few issues with a wide base of bi-partisan support.

“I can’t think of a topic where it makes more sense to go the bi-partisan route. We’ve already had a fair bit of success,” said Senator Cramer.

Jacqueline Alemany has worked for the Washington Post since 2018, following up her six years at CBS News where she worked as a Broadcast Associate for ‘Face of the Nation.’ Her morning newsletter features news critical of the many power centers in the United States, including the White House, Capitol Hill, government agencies, and the Pentagon. To see more of her work, check out the ‘Power Up’ newsletter at The Washington Post linked here.

After four years with an administration and president that regularly dismissed the norms of their predecessors, perhaps the biggest sign of normalcy coming back to the White House has been the return of regular press briefings, both from the White House and other departments.

Since President Biden’s Inauguration on January 20th, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has managed to hold a press briefing every day of the business week, marking a sharp contrast to the previous Trump administration, which astonishingly managed to allow 400 days to pass between two of their White House press briefings. Psaki has also managed to bring back a longstanding tradition of waiting for the nod of the attending AP reporter before ending the briefing.

When asked about the courtesy by The Washington Post, Psaki replied, “We have every intention of continuing to look for ways to modernize and be far less traditional, but this tradition sets the right tone of a wire service that is carried in media outlets across the country kicking off the briefing and also signaling when it is time to end.”

Meanwhile, following up on Secretary of State Tony Blinken’s promise to resume normal media relations, the State Department’s Press Secretary Ned Price – the first gay man to hold the position – has also began delivering daily press briefings this Tuesday, reports ABC News. State Department briefings were once a regular thing until fear of contradicting former President Trump’s capricious leadership style left the practice seemingly impossible.

Likewise, Chief Pentagon Press Spokesman, retired Rear Adm. John Kirby, has gone the extra mile, promising an aggressive briefing schedule, “most likely [on] Monday, Wednesday, and Friday,” but also including “an on-the-record but off-camera gaggle” for Tuesdays and Thursdays, according to The Washington Examiner. Kirby also said that he would put an end to strict time limits for those press briefings as well, allowing for more engagement with Pentagon reporters.

“I don’t want to be up there briefing without a chance for everybody to get a shot,” Kirby said. “In the past, there has been a tendency to cut the briefings off after a certain amount of minutes, 30 minutes, whatever it is. But I’m not interested in having a time limit on it.”

The reopening of the press rooms has received applause and excitement from a number of officials from former presidential press offices. In a CNN op-ed, former Clinton Press Secretary Joe Lockhart wrote, “The Biden administration is sending a strong symbol that transparency and accountability, two things lacking in the previous administration, will be central to how the government will work moving forward.”

Lockhart went on to applaud the selection of the press secretaries leading the charge, saying “Jen Psaki at the White House, John Kirby at the Pentagon and Ned Price at State are using decades of experience and credibility built up by being straight with reporters even when the news is not good.” He also added, “Each of President Biden’s picks sends a strong message about how important he sees accountability and transparency in government.”

Its going to be an exciting, active relationship between the Washington press Corps and the Biden administration.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), the nation’s food and health watchdog, has elected Robin Caiola as its new Chair of the Board. 

Caiola, a New York-based development consultant and professional photographer, previously served as CSPI’s director of development and as executive director at 20/20 Vision, the nonprofit grassroots environmental and peace organization.

Caiola will replace former FDA commissioner Dr. David Kessler, who was recently tapped by President Joe Biden to serve as the Chief Science Officer at the White House, where he will lead the nation in the development, manufacture, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. 

CSPI’s decades-long efforts to lobby governments and corporations for a healthier food environment ushered in the widespread use of packaged food labels and menu labeling in chain restaurants, as well as a new mandatory line for “added sugars” as of 2021 on the Nutrition Facts label.

Along with CSPI’s president, Dr. Peter Lurie, Cailoa said she is “working to promote equitable access to safe and nutritious food, strengthen nutrition standards for school foods and kids meals, and continue to reduce consumption of sugary beverages.”

Former Mayor Michael Nutter of Philadelphia will serve as CSPI’s Vice Chair.

For more information on CSPI, visit cspinet.org. 

 

After a year of record high newsroom layoffs, the U.S. Small Business Administration has expanded eligibility criteria for PPP loans to include smaller news organizations for 2021.

Following the passage of the 2020 CARES Act, small publishers were frustrated that several venture-backed news organizations – including Axios and Bustle Digital Group – received PPP loans in the millions, despite having access to other funding sources, Digiday reported in April. Axios later returned their PPP loan, citing politicization around the loans and access to other sources of funding.

Still, newsrooms were left frustrated by the fact that nearly two thirds of U.S. newspapers had been excluded from the PPP loan program despite the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on news media. According to a new study from the global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, newsroom layoffs grew nearly 200% in 2020 and was hit with 16,160 job cuts – up 13% from the industry’s previous record set in 2008, reports The Wrap.

As we have reported here before, the past year has been especially difficult for local news outlets whose revenue depends heavily on advertising dollars from local businesses within their communities. Many of these businesses were unwilling to spend their money on advertising during the pandemic, leaving many local news organizations in dire straits.

Fortunately, the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2021 (CRRSAA), which was signed into law on December 27, 2020, has expanded eligibility requirements to allow more newspapers and TV stations to qualify for PPP loans. Legal analysts at JD Supra published details on changes to the eligibility requirements here.

The action was immediately celebrated by the News Media Alliance, a trade association representing nearly 2000 newspapers in the United States and Canada. In a press release following the passage of the CRRSAA, News Media Alliance CEO David Chavern stated, “These SBA loans will allow news publishers to continue to bring critical news and information to their local communities, particularly at this time of historic challenges.”

The press release went on to say that the association was “extremely grateful to all of the congressional champions, in both the House and the Senate, for their enduring support of high-quality local journalism, and for their leadership in gathering bipartisan support for an SBA affiliation waiver for news publishers.”

Elizabeth Birch had already made a name for herself — working as a top attorney for Apple, having spent a decade as the head of a major civil rights organization, and even running her own D.C. consulting firm — before she ever closed her first commercial real estate deal.

Elizabeth started her career as a lawyer San Francisco at global law firm Bingham McCutchen before becoming chief of litigation and human resources counsel at Apple Computer Inc in 1987. In 1995, she joined the Human Rights Campaign as the Executive Director where she rapidly expanded the organization, both in budget and in membership. 

While at the head of the largest LGBT advocacy group in the United States, Elizabeth was pushing lawmakers and presidents to support more inclusive policies. She even dipped her toe into commercial real estate when she led her non-profit in opening their national headquarters in 2003. But since 2017, Elizabeth has been serving as the Vice President of the CBRE, working full time representing office occupiers in D.C.

In a recent BISNOW feature story, Elizabeth Birch explains how her all-star career eventually led her into the commercial real estate business and shares some of the advice and insight she gathered along the way. 

A lifelong advocate, Elizabeth wasted no time encouraging others to explore the commercial real estate business. “Anyone can learn on the job,” Elizabeth said, “but it is a complex industry where the scenarios you develop for your client must be analyzed with financial precision as to every variable.” 

“Fortunately, CBRE has a deep bench of exceptional talent,” she added.

Elizabeth also offers hope for young folks and those who are also coming from outside the industry. “I had no formal CRE training,” she points out. “On the other hand, I am a lawyer and had vast experience in negotiating lawsuits and contracts both at a major San Francisco law firm and while running litigation at Apple Computer Inc.”

When BISNOW asked Elizabeth if she ever thought of quitting, she responded: “No. But young people should know the competition is fierce. I believe that anyone who puts their client first with laser focus on the details can succeed.”

For the full interview, you can follow this link.