BALTIMORE -- President Joe Biden took executive action Friday to speed a stopgap measure of financial relief to millions of Americans affected by the coronavirus pandemic while Congress begins to consider his much-larger $1.9 trillion package.
The two executive orders that Biden signed would increase food aid, protect job seekers on unemployment and clear a path for federal workers and contractors to get a $15 hourly minimum wage.
"This can help tens of millions of families -- especially those who cannot provide meals for their kids," Biden said. "A lot of Americans are hurting. The virus is surging. ... No matter how you look at it, we need to act."
Biden described the pandemic situation in the U.S. as bleak, saying the virus could not be stopped in the next several months and predicting that well more than 600,000 would die. The nation's death toll is nearing 414,000.
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"The crisis is only deepening," Biden said, calling the need to help those out of work and unable to afford enough food "an economic imperative."
"We have the tools to help people," he said. "So let's use the tools. All of them. Now."
The administration has emphasized that the orders are not substitutes for the additional stimulus that Biden says is needed beyond the $4 trillion in aid that has already been approved, including $900 billion in December. Several Republican lawmakers have voiced opposition to provisions in Biden's plan for direct payments to people, state and local government aid and a nationwide minimum wage increase.
Most economists believe the United States can rebound with strength once people are vaccinated against the coronavirus, but the situation is still dire as the disease has closed businesses and schools. Nearly 10 million jobs have been lost since last February, and nearly 30 million households lack secure access to food.
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One of Biden's orders asks the Agriculture Department to consider adjusting the rules for food assistance, so that the government could be obligated to provide more money to the hungry.
Children who are unable to get school meals because of remote learning could receive a 15% increase in food aid, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House. The lowest-income households could qualify for the emergency benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps. And the formula for calculating meal costs could become more generous.
The order also tries to make it easier for people to claim direct payments from the previous aid packages and other benefits. In addition, it would create a guarantee that workers could still collect unemployment benefits if they refused to take a job that could jeopardize their health.
Biden's second executive order would restore union bargaining rights revoked by the Trump administration, protect the civil service system and promote the $15 wage for all federal workers. The Democratic president also plans to start a 100-day process for the federal government to require its contractors to pay at least $15 an hour and provide emergency paid leave to workers, which could put pressure on other private employers to boost their wages and benefits.
DELICATE BALANCE
These orders arrive as the the White House has declined to provide a timeline for getting its proposed relief package through Congress, saying officials are beginning to schedule meetings with lawmakers to discuss the proposal.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a Thursday briefing that the proposal has support ranging from Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
But not all components of the package are popular among Republicans, and that could delay passage in ways that could injure the economy. Psaki stressed that Biden wants any deal to be bipartisan and that the process of meeting with lawmakers to talk through the plan is just beginning.
Biden must balance the need for immediate aid against the risk of prolonged negotiations. Psaki told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Friday that Biden is "not going to take tools off the table" as he looks to enlist Republicans, and she argued that the back-and-forth is "exactly how it should work."
"We'll figure out what the sausage looks like when it comes out of the machine," she said.
Neil Bradley, chief policy officer at the Chamber of Commerce, told reporters Thursday that Congress should act quickly to approve the roughly $400 billion for national vaccination, reopening schools and other elements of the plan with bipartisan support, rather than drag out negotiations.
"We're not going to let areas of disagreement prevent progress on areas where we can find common ground," Bradley said. "We cannot afford six months to get the vaccination process working right. ... We can't even wait six weeks to get vaccinations distributed and schools reopened."
'HUNGER CRISIS'
Biden's moves are the latest attempt in a week full of executive actions to quickly address the economic fallout from the pandemic. 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.
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Most presidents occasionally turn to executive actions, but Biden's decision to sign 29 orders and other directives in three days shows how he is trying to undo President Donald Trump's agenda and begin to carve his own.
The orders Biden signed Friday were aimed at what White House officials called a "growing hunger crisis facing 29 million adults" and up to 12 million children, which has driven families across the country to line up at food banks.
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, a report Thursday showed.
Biden, nodding to that reality, once again appealed to Congress to pass the $1.9 trillion package he outlined 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. "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 Friday that the orders would provide some immediate relief for families but that they are not a replacement for the type of sweeping stimulus program that Biden has outlined.
"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."
GOP CRITICISMS
But the president's swift use of executive action was already drawing rebukes from Republicans. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida panned Biden's early moves, saying on Twitter that "a radical leftist agenda in a divided country will not help unify our country, it will only confirm 75 million Americans' biggest fears about the new administration."
Such brewing discontent shows 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 expected to increase given that Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday that she would send an article of impeachment to the Senate on Monday. That could delay any legislative move on stimulus and further anger Republicans who do not believe the Senate should proceed with an impeachment trial against Trump.
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.
The orders are part of Biden's attempt to override dozens of actions taken by Trump on issues like the Keystone XL pipeline and immigration. The actions Friday signal a break from the Trump administration's attempts to limit the scope of many federal benefits that officials said created a disincentive for Americans to work.
Some Republicans fought an expansion of unemployment benefits last year, saying workers would quit jobs or avoid looking for work in order to draw government benefits. Academic research has not supported that fear, and employers have once again begun shedding jobs as the virus persists, presenting a hurdle for those who want to find employment.
MONEY WAITING
Biden also will direct the Treasury Department to find new ways to get stimulus checks, including $600 checks passed in December and $1,200 checks passed in March, to as many as 8 million eligible people who have not yet received them.
The Trump administration distributed the payments through the IRS, and some people may not have gotten checks if they did not earn enough money to file federal income taxes.
Deese said the Treasury Department would work to create a new online portal that would allow people who have not received their payments to confirm if they are eligible and the Biden administration would try to engage in outreach to ensure people know the money is waiting for them.
Information for this article was contributed by Josh Boak and Zeke Miller of The Associated Press; and by Jim Tankersley and Alan Rappeport of The New York Times.
