ウィスパリング同時通訳研究会コミュのBiden introduces nominees for labor, commerce secretaries

Joe Biden: (03:39)
Good afternoon. Before I begin, let me just say two things. One when this is all over, I’ll take questions. When we finish today’s announcements, but let me begin by expressing my deep sympathy for the family of a Capitol Officer Sicknick, who has died in the line of duty, our sympathies and our concerns go out for his family and the people responsible should be held accountable and they will be.
(04:18)ここから
But today, I’m pleased to announce the latest members of our economic team. With their announcement, I’m proud to announce we have finished naming our cabinet. I’m saving the best for last here. 24 outstanding women and men who will get our country moving again, and who are going to restore trust in our government again, and all of whom are ready on day one to do their job.
(04:49)
This is a cabinet that I promised you and I’ve fulfilled that promise, that looks like America. It taps into the full range of talent we have in our nation. And we have immense talent. It’s an historic cabinet. This’ll be the first cabinet ever that is evenly composed of as many women as men in the cabinet. This will be the first cabinet ever with a majority of people of color occupying this cabinet. And it has more than a dozen history-making appointments, including the first woman secretary of treasury, first African-American defense secretary, the first openly gay cabinet member and the first Native American cabinet secretary. We’re also on track, we named a record 50 high-level appointments that are subject to president confirmation. More than any president ever elected has done.
(05:46)
We’ve done our job. We’ve begun my job of naming these people. And it’s my expectation and hope that the Senate will now move to confirm these nominees promptly and fairly. It’s especially the case for the nominees of secretary of state, defense, treasury, Homeland security. I nominated them back in November. Given what our country has been through the last four years, the last few days, given the threats and the risks in this world, they should be confirmed as close to January 20th as possible. They should be no vacancies at state, defense and treasury, and Homeland security. And we will remain in this dark winter of pandemic and with the economic crisis that’s deepening. And we have no time to lose with regard to the entire team.
(06:34)
Consider the December jobs report released today. The anxiety and fear of the women and men out there reminds me of when President Obama and I were sworn in during the Great Recession of 2009. This December jobs report shows millions of Americans are still hurting through no fault of their own. We lost another 140,000 jobs. The first negative jobs report since the height of the pandemic in the spring. More people have just lost a job while many have been out of work for a long time. And the ongoing gap between Black and Latino unemployment remains much too large, that gap.
(07:27)
And in many ways, the jobs report is a pandemic report. With the pandemic raging, people are losing work and losing hope. The hospital industry, restaurants and bars lost more than 372,000 jobs. State and local governments are slashing jobs. 20,000 local educators lost their jobs just last month. In the midst of this pandemic, there are millions of people out of work, unable to pay the rent or their mortgage. They’re waiting in line for hours to get food from a food bank. Think of this. The United States of America, people are lined up for miles in their automobiles waiting to get a meal to put on the table to feed their family. And they’re left staring at the ceiling, so many. Unable to sleep. Worried, will they have their health insurance? Wondering if they’ll be okay? The bottom line is the job report shows we need to provide more immediate relief for working families and businesses now. Now. Not just to help them get the other side of this painful crisis, but a larger purpose to avoid a broader economic cost that exists out there, that will happen due to long-term unemployment, hunger, homelessness, and business failings.
(08:56)
But by acting, the vast majority of leading economists suggest that’s what we need to do to revive the economy. In fact, economic research confirms that with conditions like the crisis today, especially with such low interest rates, taking immediate action, even with deficit finance, is going to help the economy long term and short term reduce scarring in the workforce, increase growth and reduce our national debt burden. [Farragut 00:09:25] act will have the opposite effect.
(09:28)
I’ve said before, the bi-partisan COVID relief package passed in December was a very important step, but just a down payment. Next week, I’ll be here with you all laying out the groundwork for the next COVID economic relief package that meets the critical moment of our economy and our country that we face at the moment. For example, vaccines give us hope, but the rollout has been a travesty. This would be the greatest operational challenge. The greatest operational challenge we will ever face as a nation. We’re going to need billions of dollars to get the vaccines from a vial into someone’s arm in the vaccination for millions of Americans. We’re also going to need tens of millions of dollars to help reopen our schools and reopen them safely. State, local, tribal communities need tens of billions of dollars to keep educators, police officers, firefighters, and other first responders and public health workers on the job. We need more direct relief flowing to families, small businesses, including finishing the job of getting people that $2,000 in relief direct payment. 600 are simply not enough when you have to choose between paying rent, putting food on the table, keeping the lights on.
(10:53)
I also hope that democratic control of the house and Senate will raise the odds of prompt action on increasing the minimum wage. I’ve long said that we need to reward work, not just wealth in this country. People in both parties now recognize it’s time to raise the minimum wage so hardworking people are in at least $15 an hour minimum. No one should work, as millions are doing today, 40 hours a week at a job and still live below the poverty line. They’re entitled to at least the $15 minimum wage per hour.
(11:34)
Folks, a big focus has also being small businesses and how to correct the current administration’s failures to get relief to main street, small businesses that are most in need. Mom and pop stores are the backbone of the economy. And they’re also, as you all know, they’re the glue that holds communities together. It holds them together. But today, more than one in four small businesses are not open. At least 400,000 are closed for good. As the month goes by, a third of Black-owned businesses and more than a fifth of Latino-owned businesses and more than a quarter of Native American-owned businesses, have less than one month of reserves to cover expenses. Previous rounds of economic relief last year helped millions of small businesses stay afloat and keep employees in the payroll. But there were clear problems. Black and Brown owned, small businesses had less access to that relief. Mom and pop shops were often the last in line, while big well-connected businesses jumped in front of the line and got more relief and got it faster.
(12:48)
And at every turn this administration, the Trump administration, has undermined accountability for every tax dollar spent. Weakening oversight, firing inspector generals. So it’s no surprise an independent watchdog found that tens of thousands of ineligible companies receive relief they should not have, including from fraud and abuse, siphoning off support for very small businesses that need it so badly. But the good news is that the relief package passed last month provides additional aid to small businesses and workers.
(13:28)
But as I said from the beginning, the need to make sure that relief and future relief reaches everyone who needs it, we need to do more. These relief dollars will start to flow quickly potentially while the current administration is still in office and they may send out money that they won’t have any control over, but for what we have to control… need control over, I want to be very clear what my priorities are. For distributing this emergency aid swiftly and equitably. Our focus will be on small businesses on main street that aren’t wealthy and well-connected, that are facing real economic hardships through no fault of their own. Our priority will be Black, Latino, Asian, and Native American owned small businesses, women owned businesses, and finally having equal access to resources needed to reopen and rebuild.
(14:23)
But we’re going to make a concerted effort to help small businesses in low income communities. In big cities, small towns, rural communities that have faced systemic barriers to relief. Think of the mom and pop owner with a couple of employees, who can’t pick up the phone and call a banker, who doesn’t have a lawyer, an accountant, to help them through this complicated process to know if they’re even qualified or who simply didn’t know where this relief is available in the first place. We went through this, Don, when we were trying to bring… When we brought Detroit back off it’s knees.
(15:02)
As we saw in this morning’s job report, restaurants, bars, and hospitality industry have been slammed by this virus. We’re going to direct relief to those businesses and others that have been so badly hit. Hit the hardest. We owe them that support to help them get through the other side of this crisis. And I promise you, we will investigate and prosecute waste and fraud in these programs. So the money goes to the companies that deserve it and will use it to help their employees and their communities. When my president, President Obama, asked me to handle implement the recovery act, along with Don who helped me a great deal, we invested more than $800 billion in our economy to help recover, rebuild and less than two thirds of 1% waste, fraud or abuse occurred. We know how to do this. We know how important predictability and clarity are to small businesses. From day one, this administration worked to ensure that small businesses and financial institutions in every community understand the rules for these programs, the resources available to them, where they can turn for technical assistance if they need it. We will have navigators who help guide them through each step of this process until the money they need is in their bank account.
(16:29)
And to the lenders participating in these programs, you should move quickly without delay to begin extending relief. But I urge you not to disperse these funds in the same inequitable way you have in the past. Here’s my commitment. In return, we’ll make our expectations of you crystal clear, the banks, so that you can quickly and equitably deliver relief to the communities that you serve, unlike what’s been happening in many places.
(17:08)
The bottom line is, we’re in the midst of the most unequal economic and jobs crisis in modern history. Congress needs to act as quickly as possible on all the issues I just laid out. That’s how we can contain the pandemic, build back better, with an economy that works for all Americans. And this is a team that’s going to help get that done.
(17:34)
For secretary of commerce, I nominate Governor Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island. The daughter of a working class family who knows what it’s like when her parent’s factory job was shipped overseas. She never took her parents’ sacrifices for granted. She always remembers where she came from. She became a successful entrepreneur who created jobs on main street and brought businesses back from the edge. She became a state treasurer who investing in local communities and took on financial predators. And today she’s one of the most effective forward-thinking governors in the United States of America, the first woman ever to lead the Ocean State.
(18:16)
She created an innovative loan program that helped minority-owned and women-owned businesses access the capital they need, but wasn’t always available to them. She’s worked with employers to design skill training programs so the local workers would be equipped to take the good paying jobs in their own communities. She’s put Rhode Island on the path to achieving 100% renewable energy, and she’ll be a key player in helping position the United States as a global leader in the 21st century in clean energy economy. And she knows what her fellow governors, Democrats and Republicans alike, are dealing with on the front lines of the pandemic and economic crisis they’re facing and how we can all partner together as one nation to contain COVID-19 to build back better. I’m honored Governor that you’re willing to join the administration. And we’re really looking forward to working with you.
(19:11)
For secretary of labor, I nominated a good friend and a standup guy, Marty Walsh of Boston, son of Irish immigrants from… His only downside, they’re not from Mayo, they’re from Galway. From Galway, moved to Boston. Marty was born and raised in Dorchester. I know him. Tough as nails. Diagnosed with cancer at age seven, beat it at age 11, joined the Laborers Union to 23. At age 21, elected to the state legislature, became union president and graduated from college at age 42. He’s now in his second term as a successful mayor of the iconic American city of Boston, who always puts working people first. Fighting for a $15 minimum wage.
(20:03)
First, fighting for $15 minimum wage, paid family leave, providing frontline workers with emergency childcare, and protective equipment they need. Marty understands like I do, the middle-class built this country and unions built the middle class. He sees how union workers have been holding this country together during this crisis, health care workers keeping our hospitals safe, clean and effective, and efficient, I might add.
(20:29)
Public service workers, fighting against budget shortfalls to keep communities afloat. Port workers, car haulers, warehouse workers, folks keeping our air and rail systems running. They’re literally what’s keeping us going. And they deserve a secretary of labor who knows how to build our power as workers. Who knows that when I say our future will be made in America, it will be a future built by American workers. A future with historic investments in infrastructure, clean energy manufacturing, and so much more that’s going to create millions of good paying jobs.
(21:11)
Marty knows worker power means not just protecting the right to unionize, but encouraging unionization, and collective bargaining. The Fair Labor Standards Act way back didn’t just say you can have union, it said the government should encourage the formation of unions. It also means protecting pensions, ensuring worker safety, increasing the minimum wage, ensuring workers are paid for the overtime they’ve earned, like we fought for in the Obama-Biden administration, that this administration has weakened.
(21:46)
Making sure that we have a trade policy, where for every decision we make, unions are at the table, focused on winning good jobs for American workers. This is one of the most important departments to me. I Trust Mayor Walsh and I’m honored he accepted. But I also want to say, I did give serious consideration of nominating my friend, Bernie Sanders to this position before. I’m confident he could have done a fantastic job.
(22:17)
I can think of no more passionate, devoted ally to working people in this country. But after two of these results in Georgia, give me a democratic control of the United States Senate, and a tie vote, Bernie and I agreed, matter of fact Bernie says, “We can’t put control of the Senate at risk, on the outcome of a special election Vermont.”
(22:38)
And he agreed we couldn’t take that chance. We also discussed how we’d work together, travel the country together, helping Marty meeting with working men and women who feel forgotten and left behind in this economy. We agreed that we’ll work closely on our shared agenda of increasing worker power and to protect the dignity of work for all working people.
(23:03)
I want to thank Bernie for his continued friendship and leadership. I look forward to us working together along with Marty, and he thinks I made a good choice.