James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
2:26 P.M. EST
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Hey, hey! All right, good afternoon, everyone. Happy Monday. Okay.
Q Monday?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Monday? Wednesday? See! (Laughter.) That is how my week is going.
Q Do you mean previous Monday or next Monday? (Laughter.)
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Ahh, whatever Monday you want is yours.
Okay. So, again, good afternoon, everyone. Please bear with me. There's been a lot of news, so I have a few things at the top.
So, with respect to the FAA system outage that occurred early this morning, the safety of Americans is the top priority of the President, the Department of Transportation, and the FAA.
DOT and FAA report that, yesterday, they were working through issues in the NOTAM system, which is used to communicate key safety information about runways and flight patterns with pilots.
To be clear, we're not talking about air traffic control here, but we still consider this to be a vital safety system as well.
So, FAA staff continued to work through the night to resolve the outage and issued a ground stop at 7:25 a.m. this morning, which lasted for approximately 90 minutes. FAA lifted the ground stop once the NOTAM system was available again, which means that the critical safety information required to resume travel was indeed available.
The President was briefed this morning by Secretary Buttigieg before departing for Walter Reed with the First Lady, as you heard directly from the President on the South Lawn this morning for yourselves.
As we shared this morning as well, we do not have evidence that this outage was caused by a cyberattack. The FAA is working aggressively to get to the bottom of the root causes for the system outage so that it does not happen again.
(Press Office aide sneezes.)
Bless you, Emilie.
Okay, so, yesterday, the Department of Education proposed what would be the most affordable student loan repayment plan in history. The new plan, if implemented, will cut monthly loan payments in half for undergrad borrowers. It will mean borrowers making less than about $30,000 per year will not have to pay a dime on their student loans each month, and it will reduce the time it takes for low-balance borrowers to get their student loan debt forgiven.
The proposal delivers on the plan President Biden announced in August to provide millions of borrowers with more affordable monthly student loan payments, giving them additional breathing room to start a family, buy a car, and purchase a home.
Today, we have further evidence of President Biden's economic plan delivering for American workers. Q CELLS, a major Korean solar manufacturer, announced it will invest more than $2.5 billion to expand their plant in Delton [sic] — in Dalton — pardon me — Georgia, and to build a new plant northwest of Atlanta.
This investment will create 2,500 jobs in Georgia and represent the single-largest investment in solar manufacturing in U.S. — in the United States.
In its announcement, Q CELLS emphasized the Inflation Reduction Act was critical to making this investment possible. This builds on the more than $25 billion in major investments in Georgia in electric vehicle and battery manufacturing, solar manufacturing, construction materials, and more since the President took office.
When the President talks about building our economy from the bottom up and middle out, this is exactly what he is delivering: more investments, more jobs, more manufacturing in America.
In gun safety news, Illinois has now become the ninth state across America to pass an assault bans weapon [assault weapons ban] and take bold action to keep weapons of war off America's street.
President Biden commends the leadership of Illinois's Governor JB Pritzker, House Speaker Chris Welch, Senate President Don Harmon, Representative Bob Morgan, and the numerous advocates, survivors, and elected officials whose tireless efforts turned the pain of Highland Park and other facts — acts of violence into meaningful action on behalf of all of the people who live in Illinois.
As you've heard from me before, President Biden has taken historic action to reduce gun violence, including sign — signing the Bipartisan Safety [Safer] Communities Act last summer. And he has continued to press for more action to keep our homes, schools, and communities safe, including federal laws requiring background checks for all gun sales and a gun — and a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
In the meantime, the President continues to urge other states to join California; New Jersey; Connecticut; Hawaii; Maryland; Massachusetts; New York; Delaware; Washington, D.C.; and now Illinois to ban assault weapons at the state level to save lives.
And finally, a quick note on yesterday's special election in Virginia. We congratulate Aaron Russe [sic] — Rouse for his win in Virginia's Seventh District, a district previously held by a Republican.
He made his campaign clear about the choice Americans across the country have between extreme MAGA Republican policies that would take away women's ability to make their own healthcare decisions and Democrats focused on expanding access to reproductive care and lowering costs for American families.
It's not just in Virginia. This was a — of course, a critical issue in the midterm elections, as many of you reported. And in their first slate of bills, House Republicans are prioritizing legislation that would amount to a national ban on abortion. It's not just tone deaf. As Republican congresswoman Nancy Mace said herself, it's extreme, out of touch with the beliefs of the majority of Americans around the country.
The President knows that women's ability to make their own healthcare decision is non-negotiable. And we will continue to fight to make that cau- — that case at the state and federal level.
And one final note. On Friday, ahead of the President's trip to Atlanta this weekend, we will have a special guest in the briefing room. We'll have Senior Advisor for Public Engagement Keisha Lance Bottoms — will be joining us — will be joining me to talk about some of her work, as well as preview the significance of the President's remarks at Ebenezer Church on what would have been Martin Luther King Jr.'s 94th birthday.
With all of that said — you guys can start waking up now — Zeke, why don't you take us away?
Q Thanks, Karine. I was hoping you could provide an update on what the President has been doing at Walter Reed while the First Lady has been undergoing this procedure. We saw the First Lady's office put out a brief statement a couple of minutes ago, but what has the President been doing? He was supposed to get the PDB at one o'clock. Did that happen while he was up there?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So, I'll — I'll say this and be very simple. Today is about his wife. That is the focus for the President right now. As many of you know, the President accompanied the First Lady to Walter Reed National Medical Center for her scheduled outpatient procedure, commonly known as Mohs surgery.
The First Lady's procedure is proceeding well. And as expected, Dr. O'Connor will provide an update about her — her today.
But again, this is about the Pres- — this is about the President supporting his wife of 45 years. And so, again, when it comes to her condition specifically, Dr. O'Connor will have more to share.
But again, I'm not going to go beyond how important it is for the President to be there with his wife today.
Q Thanks. And then, a couple of specific questions regarding the discovery of, apparently, documents marked classified in the President's former office. The President acknowledged yesterday that he had been briefed that those documents had been found. When was he briefed that those documents had been found?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So, let me just lay this down a little bit because there's some — just for folks who happen to not be following this.
Look, the President addressed this issue yesterday. He addressed it on — in Mexico City, on the world stage, in front of many of you at a press conference with two of our closest neighbors, as you all know. And he said he takes classified documents and information seriously.
He was surprised to learn any records had been found — found there. He doesn't know what was in them. He said this. I'm just repeating what the President has said. As soon as his lawyers realized these documents were there, they did the right thing and immediately turned them over to the Archives.
As he said, his team is cooperating fully with the review. And we also released a statement from the White House Counsel's Office, as you know, on Monday, which had — which had — which had information — detailed information about the particular situation.
As my colleagues in the Counsel have stated and said to all of you yesterday, this is an ongoing process under the review of the Department of Justice. So we are going to be limited on what we can say here.
