Vice Presidential Pool Reports of August 12, 2021

VP Pool Report #1 - Awaiting VP Harris' care economy event

Good afternoon,

It is a sunny and humid 93 degree F day at the White House, with very little breeze (your pooler's weather app tells us it actually feels like 103).

Pool is in the briefing room awaiting Vice President Kamala Harris' roundtable with CEOs to discuss the care economy, per guidance. It's scheduled for 2:15 PM ET. Pool has been told to gather at 1:55 PM.

Passing along some background on the event, per VP's press staff:

Overview

• On the heels of the Senate taking an important step towards passing the Biden-Harris's Build Back Better Agenda – Vice President Harris will meet at the White House with the leaders of seven companies to discuss how the care economy policies in the Build Back Better agenda, especially the childcare provisions, will lower costs for families, help businesses and grow the economy. Participants will include:
  • Vice President Harris
  • Nathan Blecharczyk, Co-Founder, Chief Strategy Officer, AirBnB (virtual participation)
  • Mark Breitbard, CEO and President, Global Gap Brand
  • Jenna Johnson, President, Patagonia
  • Josh Silverman, CEO, Etsy
  • Brad Smith, President, Microsoft (virtual participation)
  • Hamdi Ulukaya, CEO, Chobani
  • Alison Whritenour, CEO, Seventh Generation
• In addition, the Care Can't Wait Coalition announced support from 275+ businesses for care provisions of Build Back Better
• The Vice President will make the point that affordable childcare is a bread and butter issue—as well as a dollar and cents issue. It is a concern for families – and for businesses.
• Each company represented supports child care and/or paid leave policies and recognize these policies are important for workers, companies and the economy.
• When workers don't have adequate care for their families, that can translate to lower productivity, increased absenteeism, and higher turnover – all hurting the bottom line for businesses. It has also contributed to decreases in women's labor force participation in the U.S.
• The Biden-Harris's Build Back Better agenda has a robust plan to invest in care — cutting child care costs by more than half for most American families. It will also make long-term care accessible and affordable, and establish national paid family and medical leave. These policies are a win-win for both employees and employers and will strengthen U.S. competitiveness and grow our economy as a whole.
• The agenda will help workers, businesses and our economy. Stats:
  • One study found a $57 billion annual cost to the economy due to child-care related lost earnings, productivity, and revenue, including nearly $13 billion that employers shoulder due to workers' inability to access high-quality, affordable care.
  • The adoption of a paid leave program is associated with a 4.6 percent increase in revenue per full-time employee and 6.8 percent increase in profit per full-time employee.
  • According to a 2019 Bank of America survey, working caregivers report missing an average of 12 hours per month of work because of their caregiving responsibilities. And, 10 percent left work entirely.

Background on the Vice President's Leadership

• For Vice President Harris, this event with company heads is part of her larger leadership role helping President Biden pass the Build Back Better Agenda.
  • On Tuesday of this week, the Vice President delivered remarks at Unity Health Care's Brentwood Health Center in Washington D.C. on how the President's Build Back Better Agenda will make health care more accessible and affordable.
  • Next week, she will continue her public engagement to rally support around the Build Back Better Agenda as it moves through congress.
  • The Vice President will continue engaging Members of Congress and key stakeholders as the process moves forward.
• Since taking office, the Vice President has led on supporting families and in particular women in the workforce, elevating the impact of women dropping out of the workforce during the pandemic, and calling it a "national emergency."

Policy Backgrounder – President's Build Back Better Agenda

• The Biden-Harris Administration's Build Back Better Agenda

• Cuts costs of child care by more than half for most American families – and enables them to access more convenient, higher quality care where workers receive a better wage and benefits. The President's plan fully covers the cost of high-quality child care for young children for the most hard-pressed working families, and ensures that families earning up to 1.5 times their state's median income will pay no more than seven percent of their income for high-quality child care for all children under age five.
• Supports employers to build on-site child care facilities. The President is calling for an expanded tax credit to encourage businesses to build child care facilities at places of work. Employers will receive 50 percent of the first $1 million of construction costs per facility so that employees can enjoy the peace of mind and convenience that comes with on-site child care.
• Creates a national, comprehensive paid family and medical leave program that will provide a total of 12 weeks of leave per year for parental, family care, and personal illness/safe time by year 10 of the program, as well as three days of bereavement leave per year so that workers aren't forced to choose between their jobs and their caregiving responsibilities.
• Expand access to quality, affordable home- or community-based care, while improving quality of care by boosting wages of caregivers.
• Provides low- and middle-income families a tax cut based on care expenses. Families can receive a tax credit up to half of their expenses related to caring for a child or a loved one with disabilities. This would make permanent the dramatic expansion of the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) enacted in the American Rescue Plan. With this expanded credit, families earning $125,000 can receive up to a total of $4,000 for one dependent or $8,000 for two or more. And, families earning up to $400,000 get at least as generous of a credit as they receive today.

Feel free to reach out with questions.

VP pool report #2: pool holding for event

The pool is holding in an office adjacent to the VP's Ceremonial Office to await her round table with CEOs.

The event is scheduled for 2:15 and running a touch late

On the walls of the holding room are a framed photo of VP Harris and her husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, a photo of Harris holding a round table discussion, and another of Harris seated alongside President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden at inauguration.

VP pool report #3 ; Harris is asked about Afghanistan

VP event on care economy with CEOs started at 235pm. Harris made remarks at the top about this issues importance to the economy, which I will send shorty but a bit of news first.

Kellianne Jones of Fox News shouted a question at the end of Harris' remarks If "Afghanistan is lost to the Taliban?"

Harris didn't answer, but said she would be leaving the meeting to go to a briefing.

Pool was then ushered out of the room as the round table for underway.

I will send quotes from Harris in a second and double check all audio.

VP Pool Report #4: Harris' remarks at the top of CEO care economy roundtable

Hello,

Harris gave a brief set of remarks at the top of her meeting with CEOs, which took place in her Ceremonial Office. Refer to pool report #1 for a list of attendees. Seated at the table to the left of Harris was White House advisor Neera Tanden.

Here are key quotes from Harris' opening remarks, and please check against the official transcript:

"I want to thank you all for joining us for this very important conversation, which is about childcare," Harris said.

"And what it means in terms of the benefit to our economy, the benefit to our families, the benefit to the strength of our nation and our ability to role model to the world what it means to be an economy that is strong...."

She mentioned the Senate Democrats' budget resolution that will benefit Biden's Build Back Better plan. Harris also said the pandemic had revealed "fissures and failures" in America's care system.

"Affordable childcare we know relates to both a business's ability to recruit talent and retain talent," she said.

"We know that it directly impacts worker productivity, and the bottom lines of your businesses. We know that when we prioritize" it, it "contributes to our ability to be competitive globally, in terms of what we know is still an ongoing challenge for our nation which is to keep up with what is happening around the world."

Harris said that this work followed on the heels of the work they did on the American Rescue Plan and the child tax credit. She highlighted that the Biden administration's work "has been designed to help not only families and children, but those who are responsible for the caregiving of seniors."

She thanked the CEOs assembled at the table for their leadership and commitment to the issue.

Harris was then asked a question about whether Afghanistan was lost to the Taliban (see report #3) as the pool was being escorted from the room.

Pool was then escorted out of the room and held in an adjacent office until it was time to disband.

Please email with any questions.