Some highlights: $861 million as a “first step toward a four-year commitment” for Central America to address “root causes” of migration; another $345 million for USCIS to help ramp up processing of asylum claims.
The biggest increase in CDC funding “in nearly two decades” -- $8.7 billion -- to help prepare for future pandemics and other global health threats.
A $20 billion increase in funding for Title I schools. A key plank of Biden’s education plan in campaign was to triple funding for Title I schools – from $15 billion to $45 billion -- to support increased teacher pay and other initiatives.
$14 billion in spending across “nearly every agency” to support the “whole-of-government approach to tackling climate change.”
A 19% increase in funding to the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and Community Relations Service to support police reforms, prosecution of hate crimes and enforcement of voting rights.
$6.5 billion in new spending to create “ARPA-H” – another frequent Biden promise that aims to jump-start research in cures for cancer, Alzheimer’s and diabetes. Biden has called it a health research equivalent to DARPA
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CDC Director Rochelle Walensky using today's WH COVID briefing to deliver a more urgent and emotional call for Americans not to let guard down on pandemic.
She said she was tossing her script to plead with Americans to "just hold on a little while longer"
Just yesterday @POTUS also expressed concern that "people are letting their guard down."
"We really need to hold on to the public health measures" as more people get vaccinated, Fauci says, calling this "a race between the vaccine and what's going on with the dynamics of the outbreak. And we can win this by just hanging there a bit longer."
Some of the Day One Biden campaign comms team announced today as part of WH press office. Includes @meghan_hays9 as Director of Message Planning, @KateBerner as dep comms director, @RemiMYamamoto as comms advisor for @RonaldKlain
Others announced today:
-Megan Apper, Director of Research
-Rosemary Boeglin, Assistant Press Secretary
-Amanda Finney, Chief of Staff for the Press Office
-Mike Gwin, Director of Rapid Response
-Paige Hill, Senior Regional Communications Director
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-Michael Kikukawa, Press Assistant
-Jennifer Molina, Senior Director of Coalitions Media
-Kevin Munoz, Assistant Press Secretary
-Vedant Patel, Assistant Press Secretary
-Angela Dela Cruz Perez, Press Assistant
-Emma Riley, Chief of Staff for the Office of Communications
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"We're in the teeth of this crisis right now, and we need presidential leadership right now," @JoeBiden says after noting the higher daily death counts
Biden says some of his picks "are familiar faces. Some are new in their roles. All are facing new circumstances and challenges. That's a good thing."
Biden: "They bring deep experience and bold new thinking. Above all, they know how government should and can work for all Americans."
NEW: @JoeBiden's transition chiefs tell NBC News how they've prepared for this moment, and how they aim for a quick start to building out the Biden/Harris Administration nbcnews.com/politics/2020-…
Biden's transition team has already identified 4,300+ prospective appointees for the 4,000 federal jobs it must ultimately fill, putting a premium on those with responsibility for tackling the Covid-19 pandemic, and others that don’t require Senate confirmation
100 transition staff (and growing) will first begin reaching out to dozens of individuals already IDd as potential hires to begin taking working as part of “agency review teams” to take stock of what needs to be done agency-by-agency