President Joe Biden will sign two executive orders on Friday aimed at reducing hunger and strengthening workers’ rights during the coronavirus pandemic as his administration pushes Congress to approve another coronavirus relief package.
A White House measure urges the federal government to offer any relief it can through “existing authority,” National Economic Council director Brian Deese said Thursday night. The other calls for “empowering federal workers and contractors.”
The orders set up multiple tools to offer help during the pandemic, while Biden tries to push his $ 1.9 trillion proposal through Congress.
- Biden will ask the U.S. Department of Agriculture to consider allowing states to expand access to enhanced benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program as the country faces an unsustainable hunger crisis. seen in decades.
- The USDA will also consider a 15% increase in the pandemic benefit electronic money transfer program, which replaces meals for low-income children who would otherwise be able to get food at school.
- The president will urge the Treasury Department to adopt tools to more efficiently deliver congressional-approved direct payments to eligible individuals. The White House said up to eight million people did not receive the first $ 1,200 stimulus check approved in March.
- Biden will call on the Department of Labor to establish rules that clarify that workers have the right to reject jobs that endanger their health during the pandemic, without losing eligibility for unemployment benefits.
- The president asked his administration to prepare a possible executive order, which he intends to sign in his first 100 days in office, which would require federal contractors to offer a minimum wage of $ 15 per hour and a paid emergency license.
- Biden will revoke executive orders issued by former President Donald Trump that the White House said it harmed workers ’collective bargaining power and got rid of a rule that limited the job protection of officials.
- It will call on agencies to review which federal workers earn less than $ 15 an hour.
Deese stressed that orders and others signed this week to provide immediate help cannot replace another package of congressional relief.
“These actions do not replace comprehensive legislative relief … but they will provide a critical lifeline to millions of American families,” he told reporters.
Executive action is part of Biden’s early efforts to curb the outbreak and mitigate its damage to the economy. He signed a series of orders on Thursday designed to promote the use of masks and streamline the production of vaccines and Covid protective equipment, among other goals.
His actions on Wednesday began including extensions of a federal eviction moratorium through March and a pause in federal student loan payments and accrued interest until September. Both measures to alleviate the pandemic would have expired at the end of the month.
Biden has struggled to boost the economy through executive orders as he tries to get Congress to approve the $ 1.9 trillion aid package. Republicans have begun expressing doubts about support for another bill after Congress passed $ 900 billion in legislation last month.
Democrats, who control a 50-50 Senate through Vice President Kamala Harris’s tiebreaker vote, will have to win 10 Republican Party votes for the plan or use budget reconciliation, which only requires a majority. The White House has said Biden wants to pass a bill with bipartisan support.
The Biden administration has warned that the U.S. economic recovery could collapse and stressed that the risk of spending too much money is less than the risk of spending too little. Last week, another 900,000 people filed claims for the first time for unemployment and about 16 million people were receiving benefits, the Labor Department said Thursday.
A $ 300 weekly weekly unemployment supplement included in the latest aid law expires on March 14th. Biden’s plan aims to expand unemployment benefits by an increase of $ 400 a week through September.
Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.