to a system where we have shop class and all of that in every school for everyone i think we need to offer more pathways for the vast majority of kids who aren't going to end up attaining a four-year bachelors degree. part of that is providing both academic training and practical training in the skilled trades and in professions that will continue to be in demand, like electronics, welding, robotic engineering, and industrial repair that we will need if we are indeed going to compete successfully looking ahead in manufacturing. host: mike in new york on the democratic caller. caller: hello, good morning, thank you for taking my call. the situation of manufacturing under the trump penetration was awful.

we saw that during his presidency, the president could have had -- because [indiscernible] good afternoon, president biden is continuing -- jen: that addresses the climate crisis. it is building on his day one actions of rejoining the paris agreement and strengthening our clean air and water protection and holding polluters accountable. he will take executive action to tackle the climate crisis today at home. he will create good paying union jobs, self sustainable infrastructure, and delivering environmental justice. i am thorough today as part of our effort to bring policy experts into the briefing room. we are joined by two special guests who will talk you through today's executive orders and

take if you questions as well. i will play the role of bad cop national climate advisor jamie mccarthy and special presidential desk residual envoy -- special presidential envoy. go ahead. >> a big day for boston everyday. thank you everybody. today, president biden will build on the actions he took on day one and he will take more steps to fulfill a commitment that he made to tackle the climate crisis while creating good paying union jobs and achieving environmental justice. in his campaign, he and vice president harris put forward the most ambitious climate vision that any presidential ticket has ever embraced. he has spent more time campaigning on crisis -- on climate crisis than we have ever seen.

the president has identified the climate crisis as one of four interrelated, existential crises that are creeping our nation all at once. he is demanding answers that can address all four. he is not waiting to take action, getting us started on his first day in office because science is telling us that we do not have a moment to lose to fight against all four of these crises in a way that recognizes their intersectionality. he is always printed -- committed -- he has already committed the u.s. to reenter the paris climate agreement and he committed us as well to start undoing the assault on our environment that has occurred over the past four years. he is now taking additional action to really target the challenge of climate change. today, for me, it is a good day. just one week into this administration, president biden is continuing to move us forward

at the brett and the pace that climate science demands. today's executive order -- it is the policy of this administration that climate considerations should be an essential element of u.s. foreign policy and national security. that is where the big guy comes in it gives my colleague john kerry the first ever international climate envoy the authority to really drive forward a process that will restore american leadership on climate throughout the world. and you will see and hear more about that from secretary kerry. here at home, we have to do our part. we will not -- or we will not be able to make the worldwide change that climate change demands. this executive order establishes the white house office of the mystic climate policy and it directs everyone who works for the president to use every tool

available at our disposal to solve the climate crisis. because we are going to take a whole of government approach. we are going to power our economy with clean energy. we are going to do that in a way that will produce millions of american jobs that are going to be good paying. that are going to be jobs that have the opportunity for workers to join a union. as president biden has often told us,, when he thinks of climate change, his first thought is about jobs. and it should be because people in this country need a job. this is about making that happen in the most creative and significant way that the federal government can move forward. we are going to make sure that no one is left behind and i'm not just talking about communities in terms of environmental justice, but workers as well. this order takes historic

strides to address environmental injustice. it creates both a white enter agency task force to address environmental injustice as well as an advisory council. it directs the department of health and human services to create an office of climate change and health equity because after all, climate change is the most significant public health challenge of our time. it is a task -- a task the department of justice with creating an office of climate justice because we know the communities that are being hurt and we know we need to start enforcing the standards today and ensure that they are part of the solution in the places that we can and vesta. in fact, it commits 40% of our investment in clean energy towards disadvantaged communities so they can benefit from that new jobs that are available and see that better future. president biden's order establishes a working group on coal and power plant communities

because we have to make sure that in this transition, every agency and -- in government is using every tool at their disposal to drive resources to those communities. and it fulfills long-standing commitments to leverage a vast natural resource to contribute to our clean energy future. it places a pause and review on new and gas leases on federal and public lands and waters consistent with the promise president biden has repeatedly made and has been clear in the face of efforts to distort his promise. it sets the goal of doubling offshore wind production by 2030. in addition, he planned to sign a presidential memorandum that aims to restore scientific integrity across the federal government and earn back the public's trust. making a commitment to base solutions on the best available

science and data. today is a very big day for science and for our efforts to power our economy with a good paying, union jobs. thank you very much. >> good afternoon everybody, it is great to be here. let me say first of all, it is a great pleasure to be here with gina. i am a big fan. we work closely together -- worked mostly together during the campaign when we sat down to bring the bernie sanders folks together around the biden private plan and she is the perfect person to be tackling the domestic side of this equation, which is complicated. nobody knows the details better than she does note and nobody will be more effective in

corralling everybody to move in the same direction. it is also an enormous pleasure to be with jen psaki. she mentioned that nobody will surpass, but i am privileged with working with her. seven years ago, we gathered in the state department meeting room and -- she had not given away any of her fundamental principles and commitment to telling you all the truth, telling the american people the truth and doing so with great candor and transparency and i am happy to be with her. the stakes on climate change could not be any higher than they are right now. it is existential. we use that word too easily. we have a big agenda out in front of us on a global basis. president biden is deeply

committed, -- as you can tell by this executive order and by the other initiative of getting back into paris immediately. that is why he rejoined the paris agreement so quickly. he knows that it is urgent. he also knows that paris alone is not enough, not when almost 90% of all the planet's omissions, global omissions, come outside u.s. borders. we can go to zero tomorrow and the problem is not solved. that is why today, one week into the job, president biden will sign executive orders to move us down the road, ensuring that ambitious private action is global in scope and scale as well as national, here at home. today, in the order that he will sign, that jen has described to you, he makes climate central to

foreign policy planning, to diplomacy, and national security preparedness. it creates new platforms to coordinate planet action across the federal agencies and departments sorely needed. most important of the -- most importantly, it commissions a national estimate on the security implications of climate change to governors and understanding of the challenge. as the first time a president has ever done that. are 17 intelligence agencies are going to come together and assess exactly what the danger and damage and potential risks are. the order directs the state department to prepare a package seeking senate advice and consent on the bengali amendment , the montreal protocol, and an amendment if ratified and fully enforced could hold the earth's

temperature by an entire degree, not insignificant. it sets forth the process to go toward a new paris target, as well as a u.s. climate finance plan. both of which are essential to being able to bring countries of the world together to raise ambition and meet this moment when we go to glasgow for the follow agreement to paris. that is the only way for the world to secede together. again -- world to succeed together. failure is not an option. as he committed to doing on the campaign trail, the president is announcing that he will host a leader's summit on climate change at three months from now. on april 22, which will include a leader level reconvening of the economy 400 we will have specifics to layout over time, but the convening of this summit

is essential to ensuring that 2021 is going to be the year that makes up for the last time of the last four years and that the u.n. climate conference -- which the u.k. is hosting in november to make sure that it is an unqualified success. the road to glasgow will be marked not just by promises, but by progress at a pace that we can all be proud of and gina will put her efforts into making certain that that is true. the world will measure us by what we can do at home. with these executive actions today, we believe that we are steps further down that journey. thank you. >> thank you so much, secretary kerry, question for you. you talked about the fact that

it will not really matter what we do very much at the rest of the world does not do the same thing, but the u.s. has had a fairly rocky relationship with china recently. how do you plan to try to bring both china and india to the table? mr. kerry: let me just say, before i answer that, the issue of making a difference, what we do at home, what i am saying is, you cannot solve the problem alone, but our doing things makes an enormous difference. if gina succeeds in pulling together, it is essential to our ability to have credibility in the world. with respect to china, obviously, we have serious differences with china and imported issues and i am as mindful of that as anyone who has served as secretary of state and in the senate. the issues of theft of intellectual property and access

to markets in the south china sea, you run the list, we all know this. those issues will never be traded for anything that has to do with climate. that is not going to happen. but climate is a critical standalone issue that we have to deal on in the sense that china is 30% of the omissions of the world, we are about 15% of the missions of the road, you had the eu to that, you have three entities that are more than 55% or so. it is urgent that we find a way to compartmentalize, to move forward, and we will wait and see. president biden is very clear about the need to address the other issues with china and i know some people have been concerned nothing is going to be siphoned off into one area from another. >> a question for either of you. your executive order talks about

oil and gas on federal land, but it does not say much about coal. what is this administration's policy when it comes to cold? jen: in terms of the oil and gas decision, making sure that we take a pause and all that review the entire strategy of how we are looking at public land. it will include looking at what new leases ought to be improved. it is looking at our ability to look at coley in that mix. the program review is going to look at how we manage public lands, consistent with climate, but also consistent with the marriage between climate and growing jobs of the future. it would be in the mix to be looked at, but it is not at this point included. it was not part of the commitment from the campaign. we will look at a -- we will take a close look to all of that. i will add on your comment to china, which i am not going to speak to the international dynamic, but part of the challenge that we face here is a

challenge that president biden already started to address with his buy american pledge. we have to start not just shifting to clean energy, but it has to be manufactured in the united states of america. not in other countries and there is going to be a large discussion about how we make sure that a lot of the investment is about building up on manufacturing base again. that is great jobs, hopefully union jobs, but it is also a wonderful opportunity for us to recoup the benefits of that manufacturing and lower the cost of clean energy. part of the way we will get there as making sure that the federal government buys american and at its procurement across every agency so that the breed of what we spend is spent designed to advance job growth in the united states, to advance health benefits for environmental justice

communities, and to begin to tackle the existential climate challenge. >> a question for both of you. can you give us a sense of when you expect to have the so-called ndc or u.s. target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions as part of the paris accord? can you give us a sense of how ambitious you plan to make that number? will it be 40%, 50%, higher than that? >> i am supposed to deliver listing in a timely way. -- deliver this in a timely way but we want to make sure that the ndc is something that can be announced before the summit on earth day. we will be out of the gate working with the agencies to see what kind of reductions and mitigation opportunities there are and also to look at our public lands to make sure that we can continue to store carbon

in our soil, to work with agriculture and others, to look at how we better manage our forests, so we are not seeing the devastating forest fires that we have been having before. all across the federal government, every agency, and you will see many of them specifically tasked in this executive order, will participate in the task force that we will have to develop the most aggressive ndc that we can to deliver that kind of boost that secretary kerry is looking for, to ensure that our international efforts are robust and sufficient to address the challenge internationally. >> a follow up on that for secretary kerry, how do you ensure our international partners that the u.s. will stick to whatever you propose after having seen the trump administration take the u.s. out of the paris accord? mr. kerry: that is why we will

stick by it. our word is strong. i have been on the phone for the last few days talking to our allies in europe and elsewhere around the world. they are welcoming us back. they know that this administration already had a significant part of what will bring us to lascaux, which is the paris agreement. the obama-biden agreement -- administration had great ability on this issue know that having president biden who is driving this forward as a meaningful to the fold stare. they know that i was deeply involved in the negotiations in paris and now, task by the president, president biden, to make certain that we do the same in glasgow if not more. i had no one to question our credibility at this point in time. someone probably will. the answer will be, i think we can achieve things in a course

of the next four years that will move the marketplace the private sector, global finance, innovation and research, in fact, no one, no political person in the future will be able to undo what the planet is going to be organizing over the next months and years. this is the start of something new. i do not know if you read larry fink's letter of blackrock yesterday, but there is a new awareness among major asset managers, commercial banks, and others about the need to put resources into this and ever because it is major in investment demand. i think the proof will be what we do, neither gina or i will throw around a lot of bay promises. you heard what she just said, we work closely because we will bring to the table -- and form

her and the people she is working -- she works with about what people are doing abroad, the steps that they are taking, and how to measure ourselves against them and how they will measure themselves against us. we are aware of that. >> i want to call attention to the fact that cities and states have really picked up the initiative to move forward on clean energy because the solutions are cheap. they compete effectively against fossil fuels. we are talking about solutions that we are not talking about anybody to sacrifice. they are to their advantage. when you look at the record over the past four years, while the prior administration might have wanted clean energy to head in a different direction, it has gone faster and farther than anyone ever expected. and the idea that we could with this new work that we are doing together send signals to the marketplace through our

purchasing at the federal level and re-looking at different ways of having on the ground change, we can build that demand, we can grow significant numbers of clean energy jobs and all of a sudden, the question will not be whether the private sector will buy into it. the private sector will drive it. this is going to be a signal setter the way the federal government ought to set on what our values are, what we think the future needs to be, and this is a effort that pride and has undertaken with full knowledge -- that biden has undertaken with hollande is that this will benefit job come benefit our health, and the future that we want to hand to our children. >> there is certainly oil and gas industry workers who are

watching you both right now who will hear the message, the take away to them is that they are seeing an end to their livelihood. what do you say to them? particularly those people who president trump struck a chord with on the campaign trail when he promised to save their jobs. what is our message them right now? to the oil industry executives who are listening, are you putting them on notice today? mr. kerry: we did not put anybody on notice except to the seriousness about president biden's intent to do what needs to be done to deal with this crisis. it is a crisis. with respect to those workers, no two people are more concerned about them than the president of the united states has expressed in every comment that he has made about the climate. they need to grow the new jobs that pay better, that are cleaner. elected the consequences of

black lung frontline nurse and measure that against the fastest growing jobs in the united states before covid was solar powered technicians. the same people who can do those jobs, but the choice of doing this solar power one is a better choice. considerably. you have the second fastest growing job pre-covid, wind turbine technicians, this is happening, 75% of all of the electricity that has come online in the united states in the last few years came from renewables. coal plants have been closing over the last 20 years. what president biden wants to do is make sure those folks have better choices, that they have alternatives, that they can be people who go to work to make the solar panels, that we are making them here at home. that is going to be a particular focus of the build back better agenda and i think that

unfortunately, workers have been told a false narrative. they have been fed the notion that somehow dealing with climate is coming at their expense. no, it is not. what is happening to them as happening because of other market forces already taking place. what the big banks, the asset managers, private investors, venture capital are all discovering is, there is a lot of money to be made in the creation of these new jobs in these sectors. whether it is green hydrogen, that is going to come, whether it is geothermal heat, whatever it is going to be, those are jobs. the same worker who works in south carolina today according -- putting together a bmw, which happens to be made there, and is an internal combustion engine can put together a car, but it

is electric. this is not a choice between having jobs, having good job, having quality of life. quality of life will be better when gina has put her team together that produces choices for us that are healthier, less cancerous, cleaner air, the greatest cost of children being hospitalized every summer in the united states, we spent $55 billion a year on it, is environmentally induced asthma. that will change as we begin to reign in what we used to call pollution in this country because it is pollution. i think workers are going to see that with the efforts of the biden administration, they are going to have a much better set of choices and frankly, it will create more jobs then stuck where we were. >> can i add by pointing out a couple of things in the executive order that i want you to call to your attention. we talked about the civilian

conservation corps. that is an opportunity to put younger people into work and -- in vitally important efforts. if you like it is, it has set up a task force that is looking at these cold communities, communities that are reliant on their local energy and utility and it talks about how do we revitalize those economies? it talks about how we can put people to work using the skills that they currently have where they are to start looking at those abandoned oil and gas wells that are spewing out methane or all of the coal that has been mined that had not been probably closed that are doing the same. that has great impact on climate, but also would achieve an opportunity for those individuals to have work in their own communities. we are going to ask people to go from the middle of ohio or

pennsylvania and ship out to the coast to have solar jobs. forward jobs will be everywhere, but we need to put people to work in their own communities. that is whether home is. that is where their vision is. we are looking at those opportunities for investment so we can get people understanding that we are not trying to take away jobs. when we say climate change, eventually people are going to think jobs, just like president biden when he hears the words climate change, and so we will do everything we can to recognize revitalization is necessary, and to find creative ways to put them to work and then will do as secretary keerr -- kerry says and invest in new technologies and manufacturing like cement, and steel, those are -- that is work that we should be doing here and is

inevitably going to be necessary to rebuild infrastructure, which is also one of the biggest opportunities that we have for job growth moving forward. >> administrator, one for you and the secretary. what you may hear from some corners of criticism is why are we doing this now when we are already in an economic crisis? you look at the state of new mexico why one third is budget -- funded by oil and gas. why not let the country get back on its feet before we do this? gina: the issue in new mexico is that somebody reported a bit incorrectly or maybe not as precisely that this was not about impacting existing permits and fracking, this was about new leases on federal lands. i think that the opportunity for the states to continue to accrue the royalties from both coal,

oil, and natural gas properly done will continue and there is an opportunity in the review to look at the royalty issues, look at the job growth opportunities, and a variety of things to make sure that public lands are being properly managed. in terms of the job issue, we are explicitly doing this because our economy is right now stagnant. we have millions of people out of work and out of jobs, millions of people that are afraid that they cannot their families. if you are faced with that, what do you do? you boost the economy and grow jobs, but why at the same time are we not thinking about the weaknesses of our current economy in terms of communities that have been left behind, a number of people breathing dirty air and kids are getting asthma. instead, let us think about all of it at the same time, i know it is a crazy idea, but we will

think about all of it, because people need to have jobs. this is all about building the jobs of the future that we want. not continuing to middle at an economy that is no longer going to be where our future lies. >> to you right now over the course of this first week there are a lot of big priorities here, covid, the economy, immigration, racial justice, and climate change. as a veteran of congress and the senate, what is the priority and what legislation what you need to make this permanent? john: well, peter, the priority is exactly what the price -- the president has set out, all of them, all six of the major crises that he faces and he is addressing every single one of them and knows that the united states, all of us have the ability to do that. and, the reason that has to be done is that every single one of them are life-and-death, every

single one represents a challenge to the very challenge of our -- fiber of our society. i agree with everything that gina said, but i specifically add that the reason for doing it now is because the science tells us we have to. that is the one of the things that the president is restoring in the executive order is respect for science and the science office. i mean, -- >> $2 trillion for covid and $2 trillion for this. john: it is real money, and yes, but it costs a lot more if you do not do the things we need to do. it costs a lot more. there are countless economic analyses that show that it is now cheaper to deal with the crisis of climate than it is to ignore it. we spent $265 billion two years ago on three storms, irma, harvey, and maria.

maria destroyed puerto rico, harvey dropped more water on houston then what goes over niagara falls over the year. irma had the first recorded wind of 180 miles per hour for 24 sustained hours. last year we had one storm, $55 billion. we are spending the money but we are not doing it smart or in a way that would actually sustain us for the long term. so, this is critical. the goal of the paris agreement was to hold the earth's temperature to two degrees centigrade. even if you did everything in paris we are going up 3.7 or four, that is catastrophic. what president biden is trying to do is listen to science, facts, and make tough decisions about what we need to do to take the world to a better place, particularly our own country, and that is what he is committed to doing. so, yes, there are a lot of of

challenges and sadly, all of them were exacerbated by the last four years. now we have to make up for that, and that is a hard pull, but the president is capable of doing it and is putting together a great team to help him do that. >> thank you, sir. >> thank you. thank you for joining us. you are free to go. go see the president. you can all see, that they are both experienced and passionate, and tenacious, having worked with both of them in the past. so, the crisis is in good hands. i know i have a short period of time and i know you -- and i want to provide an update on what some of the outreach are teams are doing as it relates to the covid package that is a top priority for president biden. as we have talked about almost every day or almost -- or every

day, our team build support for the american rescue plan as more voices recognize the urgent need to get american families the help they need. we have obviously seen a broad coalition of support emerge from the chamber of commerce to senator sanders and organized labor to hundreds of mayors and local officials. the president and vice president are engaged directly and have a number of productive conversations that will continue through the course of the week and will pick up in the days ahead. senior white house officials are engaging with congressional leaders and also state and local officials, key constituency groups and others to gather feedback on the proposal and move the package forward. let me give you a couple of examples from yesterday. the chief of staff engaged with members directly through the day, and they will continue to do morphing -- moving forward. the counselor to the product -- the president and the office of legislative affairs president or

quarterbacking the teams for broader legislative outreach and are having dozens of conversations to ask -- two understand priorities. in addition to conversations on leadership already, members of the national economic council and domestic policy council and staff from the treasury have met with relevant committees including the house ways and means, house financial services, education and label -- labor. the nec director is doing one-on-one briefings and meetings with caucuses including yesterday's meeting which has been reported, the problem solvers caucus to discuss the proposal. engagement will continue with the new coalition along with several other briefings that are scheduled. our outreach is not limited to congress, which is vitally important. this is also about speaking to the country and building

support, and educating and engaging with leaders across the country. yesterday, the team spoke with bipartisan governors and talked about the covid package. the national -- it was organized by them and officials briefed a number of mayors. the office of public engagement reached civil rights groups yesterday, including the naacp, the coalition of black civic -- organization. today they have meetings with labor leaders as well as organizations dedicated to building wealth in the black community. on friday, the office of public engagement, i hate acronyms, will convene 100 presidents of historically black colleges and universities to discuss the proposal. the only thing i want to mention is that part treasury secretary janet yellen was just confirmed. the president will be meeting

with the economic team on friday including secretary yellen for a briefing on economic relief. alex, your first day the briefing room, two alexes day. there will be an initiation afterwards. >> i know you will be quick. press sec. psaki: i think you have a hard out too. >> i want to talk about impeachment, nearly every republican senator voted to throw out the impeachment against president trump. does president biden have a reaction. does he trust congress to hold president trump accountable for the insurrection, or does he see action against president trump as a viable alternative to conviction? press sec. psaki: the president respects the role that congress has. senators and the senate are

overseeing the trial moving forward and determining the pace. this is for holding the former president accountable, that continues to be his belief. in all of the conversations he has been having with members about the recovery plan, he has -- they have said they expect from him that his focus is on covid relief and that is how he will use the bully pulpit and speak to the american people and they are eager to speak with him on it. that is where his focus remains and what steps they take, he will leave it to them. >> what prevents him from weighing in on the issue? press sec. psaki: we have, the president has been asked. we put out a statement when the house voted on impeachment, i should say, but his focus is on delivering on what the american people elected him to do, which is to get relief to the american people, to get the pandemic under control, insure working families can put food on the table and that is where he feels his effort should remain.

>> does the white house have a comment on the social media profile that has emerged from marjorie taylor greene and their response to weather any disciplinary action should be taken against her? press sec. psaki: we do not and i will not speak further about her i think in this briefing room. >> one more, if you do not mind. the last administration suggested that the origins of the covid-19 virus may have originated in a lab in china, it was never definitive. do you have an update on the origins of what they really are and where they are in the investigation? press sec. psaki: first, obviously the misinformation, of course as we have seen that has also come out of some sources and china is of great concern to us. it is imperative that we get to the bottom of the early stages of the pandemic in china.

we have been supportive of an international educate -- investigation that should be robust. our view is that we must be prepared to draw on information addressed by our intelligence community which is ongoing and to continue work with our allies to evaluate the credibility of the report on the investigation once it is done. in addition, the secretary of state was just born in yesterday, and one of his priorities was ensuring that our staffing on the ground in beijing, which is something that fell back in the last administration is returned to what it was prior, weaning that we want to have science experts and policy experts on the ground and the roles that they should be serving in to ensure that we are also they are representing our interests in china. >> i still do not think i fully understand. has this white house invoked the dpa and how soon will it be

compelled to have vaccines and supplies to vaccinate america? press sec. psaki: it was invoked the day it was signed, and within 24 hours. >> so it was invoked. press sec. psaki: i confirmed that the next day, the following day in the briefing room, and i realize that everybody cannot be here every day. but, it was invoked and it means that our work is ongoing with companies to ensure that we are expediting the manufacturing of materials to ensure that we can get 100 million shots in the arms of americans. and i know there have been confusion about this and what does it mean. there are a few examples that our team has cited including on vaccines applied, such as syringes, which allows for the ability to get an extra dose out of the pfizer vial, which is important to getting more doses out there. additional n95 masks, isolation

gowns, loves, pipette tips and high absorbency -- absorbency phone swap -- swabs. we are talking about what is needed to get some shots in the arms and americans. >> let me ask one other question. my question is a little bit different. we are hearing from the organizers of the summer games in japan. the head of the olympics committee is seeking public reasserts to -- researchers from president biden's given that the u.s. is the largest contingency of athletes at the game should go on. as the world is dealing with the pandemic, based on where we are now, does president biden believe the games in japan can safely go on? press sec. psaki: i am not sure if this readout has gone out yet, but he has spoken with the prime minister of japan earlier this morning and a readout was going out as we were coming out to the briefing. i am not sure if they spoke

about the olympics i am happy to check with our team on that. but, i do not have any more assessment of the olympics. >> so it has not been discussed whether he has a position of whether it is safe to go on yet. press sec. psaki: i do not have anything on -- more. i do not have much more than anything. >> we will follow-up. press sec. psaki: i have not had a chance to call -- to talk about the call this morning. >> two vexing questions. this came up on the covid call. how seriously is the white house considering using the defense production act to compel other pharmaceutical companies to produce the pfizer and moderna vaccine's? press sec. psaki: i did not hear the entirety of the call because we were doing some preparation for the event this afternoon, but from listening to our team talk there are many fact -- they are manufacturing facilities that have the capacity and ability to get these vaccine doses out. we do not want to get behind the

pace of and start from scratch, i should say, and ensuring they are ready to do that. i do not think our concern is whether or not we will have the doses, obviously the president announced yesterday the intention to purchase additional doses, and the manufacturers to have those available. the concerns that we have our, contingency planning and all the different things that can happen because this is a herculean task that has never been done before, but ensuring that we have vaccine sites available. i have not heard from our team plans to seek other manufacturers at this point in time, and i am happy to follow-up and see if there is anything additional. >> on the 200 million doses that the president is ordering, what is the status of the order? have pfizer and moderna agreed to produce 100 million doses each? and how quickly do they say they

can do it? press sec. psaki: we expect to get the doses mid to late summer, the majority by mid to late summer and the majority of that, so we are confident we will be able to get those from the manufacturers. press sec. psaki: go ahead. >> will there be standards for the reopening of schools and what will they look like? press sec. psaki: our cdc director, i am not sure if she was asked about this. an important question. we will have specifics on -- that will we -- that we will defer to the cdc on for the safe reopening of schools. the president has talked about his commitment and his goal of reopening most k-8 schools and 100 days. there are a number of steps to be taken in order for that to be possible, but he departed -- directed the apartment of education, and health and human services to provide guidance and

operating for schools, and institutions of higher education. as our team has outlined, that requires testing materials, vaccinations for teachers, and ensuring they are equity -- equitably providing -- provided. our team will look into putting together specific guidelines for clarity. >> it'll cost them a -- a lot of money and a big part of the covid relief package is a lot of money to school reopening's. if congress does not approve and schools do not have what they need to open safely, with the president support teachers staying at home and virtual learning continuing through this entire school year. press sec. psaki: i think the president recognizes as we all do the value of having children in schools, and doing that in a safeway which is one of the reason that he set this goal of reopening most k-8 schools within 100 days. but, one of the reasons that the funding for safe reopening or

getting schools the equipment, the testing, the ventilation in some cases that they need is that nobody wants to be having a conversation about why schools are not reopened. this goes back to the argument about -- that our team has been making and all of these engagements that i outlined about the importance and vital nature of each component of the package. i will not get into hypotheticals, we are confident that congress will go forward. i am sorry, we will do more questions tomorrow but we had great guests. >> one is on the climate actions today. they leave out oversight councils, which claimant intellectual goal. what is the goals on climate finance and regulators and agencies to address climate change. press sec. psaki: i am going to use a reference that my friend

used yesterday which there are 1453 days left in this administration and addressing climate and the crisis of climate is an issue that the president has conveyed to numbers of his cabinet, and senior teams as an absolute priority. so secretary yellen has been in her role for one day, but i would send you to them for more specifics but this is the beginning, not the end of our work. >> are we concerned about the stock market activity around game stop and other stocks as well including the company that bought blockbuster, and there have been any conversations about how to proceed? press sec. psaki: well, i am also happy to repeat that we have the first female treasury secretary and a team that is surrounding her and questions about the market we will send to them. our economic team is monitoring the situation.

it is a good reminder that the stock market is not the only measure of the health of our economy and it does not reflect how working and middle-class families are doing as you all know. we are in the midst of a k-shaped recovery and workers are struggling to make andys -- ends meet. i will go nadia and then we will be done because everybody has to go. >> i have two questions. one about covid and what about china. regarding covid, the president is talking about increasing supplies to states. if 40% of americans are hesitant to take the vaccine, what is the administration -- is doing to convince americans to reach the herd immunity by the fall? press sec. psaki: you are right that this is one of the biggest challenges we face. for anyone who tuned into the briefing that our health team

lead, it was one of the first issues that the cdc director raised. and one of the things we are doing is prioritizing providing correct information about it. and, -- i will take the opportunity. the pfizer and moderna vaccines are safe and effective, they were tested in large clinical trials to make sure they meet safety standards. 30% of u.s. participants were hispanic, african-american, native american, or asian. half were older adults. we want to provide clear data and also meet people where they are and communicate directly with people of color and use medical and health professionals to do that. you had a china question and then you really have to go. >> many countries talked about the rejoining of the who. if someone was to push into the investigation between the investigation -- into the relationship between china and the who.

yesterday, the governor declined to lack list huawei technology into -- technology. is this a new way to deal with china? press sec. psaki: i think the second reference was to huawei. let me just convey clearly our position on this. let us be clear, telecommunications equipment made by interested vendors is a threat to the security of the u.s. and our allies. we will ensure that the american telecommunications network do not make -- do not use equipment from un-trusted networks and make investments to expand the development of telecommunications equipment by trusted companies. we will take more questions tomorrow. thank you all and have a great rest of your day. >> thank you. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2021] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

>> the white house held a virtual coronavirus response briefing earlier today. here's what the white house covid-19 response team's senior adviser had to say about the rollout of the vaccine. andy: as you hurt us announce yesterday, any stockpile that may have existed previously no longer exists. our practice is to maintain a rolling inventory of two to three days of supply that we could use to supplement any shortfalls in production and to ensure that we are making

deliveries as committed. we are passing doses directly along to states, very much in real time as they order them. and, we are confident that we will receive the supply on a rolling basis from the manufacturers to allow to continue to do so. >> we heard some about this in a briefing and more coming up shortly. president biden will talk about how his administration will tackle climate chains and jot claimant james -- change and jobs. the senate veterans affairs to many holds a confirmation for dennis mcdonough to serve as secretary. our live coverage begins at 3:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. next, secretary of state antony blinken delivers welcome the marts -- welcome remarks on his first day of the state department. he offers several priorities during this 10 minute address.