Vice Presidential Pool Reports of March 24, 2021

VP Pool Report #1: event begins

VP pool was led into the vice president's ceremonial office at 3:49 pm. The VP is convening a roundtable currently with women leaders (see description below from the daily guidance).

Some color: the VP nearly walked into the pool hold area just outside her office a few minutes ago. Pool was waiting in her outer office area when Harris started to walk in the door from the hallway. She stopped at the threshold and turned around. She entered her office from another entrance.

A WH official told pool the event that was scheduled for 3:30 started late, because the president and vice president were still in their meeting with HHS and DHS officials.

At 3:30PM EDT, the Vice President will convene a roundtable discussion on Equal Pay Day with women leaders of advocacy organizations. She will be joined by Cecilia Rouse, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, and Heather Boushey, Member of the Council of Economic Advisers. This meeting in the Vice President's Ceremonial Office will have a pool spray at the top.

VP Pool Report #2: Harris remarks

The entire event lasted about 13 minutes. The VP did not respond to a question at the end about when she would go to the border.

Harris delivered about 9 minutes of remarks at the top of the event. Here are some highlights:

"Well now the press has joined us, and we will continue the conversation," she said at the top.

Talking about equal pay for equal work and how much women get paid compared to men, she said as she went into the details, "I don't need to tell this group."

Harris went on to say there is an interconnection between race and gender and pay equity.

"We should require the system itself to be transparent...We have to hold employers accountable. We have to hold corporations accountable."

Women also take a greater share of caregiving, she said, talking about the traditional responsibilities of women.

Harris brought up the federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour. She said that comes out to $15k a year.

"So let's deal with that. Let's deal with the fact that one in three of those are women of color," she said.

Harris said these issues shouldn't just be women's issues. She remarked that as the first woman in a number of positions, reporters would ask her to comment on them, and she would respond by thanking them for asking about "the economy."

Rouse and Boushey spoke for a couple minutes after Harris, providing nore information about women in the workforce. As always please, check pool reports against transcript.

As pool was led out Harris could be heard saying she would now take women advocates' questions.

They were all remote and visible on two screens set up at either end of a long table table. Boushey and Rouse sat on either side of Harris at the table.

Still waiting for the names of the participants. Will send a follow up email with that information.