James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
2:45 P.M. EST
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Hi. Good afternoon, everybody. Apologies for the briefing starting late today.
I want to start by saying: Happy Women's History Month — a time when we celebrate the countless women who have fought tirelessly and courageously for equality, justice, and opportunity in our nation. And we reaffirm our commitment to continue advancing rights and opportunities for women and girls in the United States and around the world.
The President is honoring this commitment with action. He signed into law historic legislation to advance gender equity over the last year, including to support women in the workplace, such as the Pregnant Workers Family — Fairness Act — pardon me; the Speak Out Act; and the Pump for Nursing Mothers Act, as well. And to ensure all people can live free from violence through the strengthening and reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.
The President is also proud of having the most diverse group of women at the highest levels of government in U.S. history, including the first woman Vice President and the first gender-equal Cabinet.
This Women's History Month, we remain committed to continuing this important work in service of advancing the full participation of women, a foun- — foundational tenet of our democracy.
And I wanted to lift up some really good news that all of you saw this morning and you also heard from the President as well speak to this, which is the lowering health cost for American people that we heard today.
So, as you know, for far too long, American families have been crushed by drug cost many times higher than the cost to make them and what people in our — in other countries are charged for for that same very — that same prescription.
Insulin costs less than $10 to make, but Americans are sometimes forced to pay over $300 for it as well. As the President said this morning, it's flat wrong. That's why the President fought tooth and nail to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, which caps the price of insulin for Americans on Medicare.
This was a critical action to lower healthcare costs for American people. But the President has been clear that the insulin cap should apply to all Americans. And that was something that we saw congressional Republicans blocked at that time.
In this — in his State of the Union address, he also called on pharma companies to continue this progress and bring prices down for everyone on their own.
Today, Eli Lilly, the largest manufacturer of insulin in the United States, heeded that call and announced that they are lowering their prices, capping what patients pay out of the pocket — out of pocket for drugmakers' insulin products at $30 — at $35.
This is great news and important progress toward lowering costs for all Americans. Unfortunately, congressional Republicans are making — are among the few left that believe insulin costs should be sky high. In fact, they are fighting to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act, which would increase healthcare costs for American people and increase the deficit as well.
And finally, last night, House Republicans voted to overturn the Department of Labor's rule that investors make their own investment decisions free of government interference. The Senate will vote on the measure today.
Republicans talk about their love of free markets, small government, and letting the private sector do its work. The Republican bill is opposite of that. It forces MAGA Republicans' ideology down the throats of private sector and handcuffing investors as well. The bill would bar fiduciaries from considering significant risks like extreme climate threats and poor coop- — coop- — corporate governance when they make investment decisions.
It would give investment professionals less flexibility to make prudent decisions, meaning they won't be free to maximize the retirement savings for millions of Americans. That would jeopardize the retirement and life savings for police officers, firefighters, teachers, and tens of millions of retirees all across the country.
This is unacceptable to the President, and that is why he will veto this bill if it does come to his desk.
President Biden is focused on protecting workers' hard-earned life savings and pensions. And that is — that is what he's going to continue to do. You've heard him say that many times.
And with that, Aamer, you want to kick us off?
Q Yeah. Thank you. So, Chicago had their mayoral — or first round of their mayoral elections yesterday. And it's the latest big American city where frustrations about crime was a central issue of the cycle. Does President Biden — does he feel that this administration and, I guess, Washington writ large is putting enough attention on dealing with the issue of crime, particularly in areas — big urban areas like Chicago?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So, let me just first speak to the mayor's race. Look, the President is committed to working with who — whoever — whomever the — you know, the people in Chicago or the people on the ground, whichever — if it's a city or a state — whomever they choose to represent them. So, that is — is the case and will continue to be the case.
And so I'm going to withhold commenting on any specific race, but I know you're asking about crime specifically. Look, the President put forth, as you know, a comprehensive Safer Communities plan. And he put that forth after inheriting a rise of crime. That is something that he has been focused on since the beginning of his administration.
Let's not forget, in that plan, he calls for more than 100,000 police officers to go into the community, to work with communities, and make sure that communities feel safe, families feel safe. And that's what the President has put forward.
And you'll see — when you see his commitment to crime — you'll see that in his — in his budget next week. As you know, we're going to release that March 9th. And it will reflect his commitment, as well, as we're trying to continue to fight crime, which is — the President has been leading at from the beginning of his administration.
But what we have seen is that, for years — for years, congressional Republicans have been doing the opposite. When you think about the COPS program, which is something that the President put forward, they have wanted to defund that, to take that away.
And if you think about that, that leads to defunding the police. Just recently, they called on defunding the FBI. And you think about the border security funding; they want to take that away as well.
So the President has been committed. And one more thing I would add: Let's not forget the banning assault weapons. That is a key part of this — when we think about crime, when we think about gun crime — that we believe will help alleviate the crime that we're seeing, keep families safe, keep communities safe across the country.
So, the President has walked the talk. The President has been very consistent on making sure that communities feel safe and fighting crime. And he'll continue to do that.
Q Okay. So just one on a different topic. If TikTok isn't safe for federal government workers' devices, does the President believe it's safe for Americans' children's smartphones?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So, I'm glad that you asked about that because, look, we have been clear about our concerns about TikTok, apps like TikTok — and, certainly, our concerns with countries, including China, as they seek to leverage digital technologies and Americans' — and Americans' data in ways that can present harm and — and risk to our national security, clearly.
There was — to your point about families, there was a piece of data, of CDC data, that just found recently that nearly 60 percent of teen girls felt persistently sad or hopeless in 2021, and — and 30 percent seriously considered suicide.
So, this is something that the President has taken action on. If you look at the executive — executive — using his executive branch authorities. When you think about his Unity Agenda, a couple of things that he was able to do was stop collecting — stop collecting personal data on kids and teenagers online, ban targeted advertising to children, and impose stricter limits on the personal data companies collect on all of us.
And so, this is what the President calls on for Congress to pass in a bipartisan way — you know, privacy legislation to hold bi- — big tech accountable.
And so, the President is going to continue to take actions. But we see that. We see that in the data how this has affected young people, especially during this pandemic in the last couple of years.
