pandemic. and there is more streaming on our website, including the confirmation hearing for the nominees picked to lead the civil rights division and environment natural resources department at 10:00 eastern. at the same time, tom vilsack testifies before a house appropriations subcommittee about the president's 2022 budget request and that 2:30, a subcommittee holds a hearing on cyber security threats. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. created by america's cable television companies in 19 79, today, we are brought to you by these television companies to provide c-span 2 viewers as a public service. >> at tuesday's white house briefing, dr. anthony fauci and

jeff zients adjust the pausing of the use of the johnson & johnson vaccine because of concerns over blood clotting. and the press secretary announced biden's plan to withdraw troops from afghanistan. this is just over one hour. jen psaki: come on in. i am joined by jeff zients and dr. fauci to talk about the news from the fda this morning. they will also take some questions. i will keep an eye on the clock and with that, turn it over to jeff. jeff: thank you to all of you. good afternoon. as you know, the fda and cdc

announced earlier today that out of an abundance of caution they recommend a pause in the johnson & johnson vaccine as they review data about reports of a rare and severe type of blood clots in individuals after receiving the johnson & johnson vaccine. let me start by saying this announcement will not have a significant impact on our vaccination program. the j&j vaccine makes up less than 5% of the more than 190 million shots in arms in the u.s. to date. the president has always said this is a wartime effort. we are at war against the virus. as such, we have mobilized a wartime effort so we are

prepared for a wide range of scenarios. that is why the president took action earlier this year before the j&j vaccine was even authorized to secure enough pfizer and regina doses for 3 -- moderna doses for 300 million americans through july. we have made more than 25 million doses of them each week. in fact, this week, we will make available 28 million doses of these two vaccines. and as we have done since we took office, we will continue to get the supply out the door as soon as it is available. so, we have more than enough supply of pfizer and moderna vaccines to continue the current pace of about 3 million shots per day.

and that puts us well on pace to meet the goal of 200 million shots by his 100th day in office. and continue to reach every adult who wants to get vaccinated. we are now working with our state and federal partners to get anyone scheduled for a j&j vaccine quickly rescheduled for a pfizer or moderna vaccine, and we are actually already seeing this happen today at sites across the country where j&j appointments are being adjusted that work for today, to actually get modern and pfizer today. so that is happening many places across the country. the president has committed to the american people that his administration always lead with science, tell the truth, and give americans the facts as we know them.

the cdc and fda will continue to do just that and provide regular updates to the public, and they will do so as they continue their investigation. with that, let me hand it over to dr. fauci, and then we will take questions. dr. fauci: thank you very much, jeff. just to follow-up a bit and maybe fill in a couple of points from what jeff said and what our colleagues in the fda and the cdc said earlier this morning at the press conference, a couple of issues have come up of the importance of calling this "pause," because people say what is a pause mean? it really allows both the fda and the cdc to further investigate these cases to try to understand some of the

mechanisms of what it is, more details about the history of the individuals who are involved and might shed some light on looking forward, what will happen and what we will do. that is the first thing. the other thing is to make physicians out there aware of this, and there are some clinical implications of that which i believe are important. for example, if someone comes in with this really rather rare syndrome of thromboses, the most common way to treat that is with heparin. that would be a mistake, because it could be dangerous and make the situation much worse. so there is a clinically relevant reason why you want to make this known to people. also, when individuals, particularly younger women, who might come into eight physician with a particular thrombotic phenomenon, which is things that

happen for other reasons all the time that we want to alert physicians to take a history of a recent vaccination that would be important. so the pause not only allows us to take a look at the cases and learn more, but it is also a signal out there to help the physicians. a common question, and i'm sure we will have a number of questions, which jeff and i will be happy to answer, but one of the question that comes up already rather frequently, does this have anything to do with the efficacy of the vaccine? we know that there have been 6.85 million doses of j&j distributed in the united states thus far. so someone who maybe had it a month or two ago would say, what does this mean for me? it really doesn't mean anything. you are ok, because if you look at the timeframe when this occurs, it is pretty tight from

a few days, 6 to 13 days from the time of the vaccination. the next question is one that we are all obviously aware of. what impact is this going to have about people's attitudes about vaccines in general? so you might know that there have been now 120 million people that have received at least one dose of a vaccine. most of that, subtract the 6.85 million, is in the messenger rna from pfizer or moderna. there have been no red flag signals from those. you are talking about tens and tens of millions of people who have received vaccine, with no adverse effect. this is a really rare event. if you look at what we know so far, there have been six out of the 6.85 million doses, which is less than one and a million. remember, this is something that we always, really out of an

abundance of caution, as jeff said, to give us a time to take a good look at it, and see if we can get further information. i will stop there and we can obviously take some questions. >> you've described this as a really rare event, but this does seem like a pretty drastic step. do you believe that the scientists officially weighed the benefits of this against the damage or the risk this could do to the broader effort and the impact they could have on vaccine hesitancy? >> dr. fauci, madeley will go after me, but i want to say that we have plenty of supply. i've mentioned for the last several weeks we have been sending 25 million doses out and while we are averaging 3 million shots in arms per day, the 25 million supports actually that level and even accelerated, and we just sent out 28 million doses today to states, tribes,

territories, and through our federal channels. we have plenty of supply to continuing our program to hit our goals. dr. fauci: i believe your question is, did we pulled the trigger too soon on this? our fda is internationally known for their capability of making sure that we have the safest products out there. that is what i meant when i said an abundance of caution. you want to make sure that safety is the important issue here. we are totally aware that this is a very rare event. we want to get this worked out as quickly as we possibly can, and that is why you see the word "pause." in other words, you want to hold off a bit and very well may go back to that, maybe with some conditions, or maybe not. but we want to leave that up to the fda and the cdc to investigate. i don't think it was pulling the

trigger too quickly. >> a logistical question more so than anything, the advisory committee on immunization practices is meeting tomorrow to discuss this. why not try to meet today? is this not a moment to drop everything and focus on this? dr. fauci: i think tomorrow is not such a long wait. i'm sure they want to get everybody, there may be people who are not available. they want to get the full component of it. >> can you talk a little bit about the process for this pause, and what comes next? first off, did the white house have advanced notice of the issues with the j&j vaccine, and how do you evaluate when to pause vaccines? are we going to see more of these pauses in the future? >> you do the first part, i will do the second part. dr. fauci: this decision was made by the cdc and the fda, and that is one of the things that i think is such a good thing about our system here, is we are ruled by the science, not any other consideration.

so the decision was really there really made -- decision was really thoroughly made by the cdc and the fda. >> following the science, we were notified last night that there would be an announcement this morning. therefore, we had no other involvement other than knowing last night that there would be an announcement this morning from the fda and cdc. >> what are they looking for, when should we expect a conclusion? dr. fauci: they want to see if there are any clues of any other things going on. for example, hypothetically, if they are going to make a decision to go forward and say we looked at this. if they find some common denominators among the women who were involved that might be synergizing and essentially enabling this type of adverse event, they may know that for those who don't have that, it may be much safer. there may be clues when you go down and really get granular

about every single case. in addition, they want to look at what some of the mechanisms are. the mechanisms might give some insight as to what is going on. >> when should we expect to potentially see further pauses in the future? could this keep happening with the vaccines because they are so new? dr. fauci: if you look at the history, take a look at what has going on with the moderna and the pfizer, where you have literally tens and tens and tens of millions. there have been no red flags. when you have a red flag of something that is as serious as thrombosis, you take that seriously. i don't think that minimal things that very likely have nothing at all to do with vaccine that we are going to pull the trigger so quickly as to keep stopping and stopping and stopping. i think this is an unusual occurrence of a serious, adverse event that you want to make sure

before you go forward you investigate thoroughly, and that is exactly what they are doing. they are pausing so they can look at it more carefully. reporter: thank you. given the impacted patients were all women between the ages of 18 and 48, should women under 50 be excluded from getting the j&j vaccine? dr. fauci: the question you're asking gets back to several of the questions here. that's the reason why the cdc and fda want to look at this and say, are there some categories now where people outside of that categories don't have any of the factors so it is ok to go on? it is entirely conceivable there may be some restriction in the age group or not. we don't know that now. that's the reason why they are working hard to answer the question you're asking. reporter: what is your medical

advice for people who have recently received the j&j vaccine and may be concerned about blood clots? dr. fauci: if someone recently within days -- i would tell them do not get an anxiety reaction, because remember, it is less than one in a million. however, having said that, pay attention. do you have symptoms? headache, shortness of breath, chest discomfort? do you have anything that resembles a neurological syndrome? obviously if you have something as serious as a seizure, that is pretty clear. but the manifestations of this are that headache is a very common component of it. because the sinus thromboses that they have is a draining of the blood in the brain. it would cause enough symptoms to make you notice it. just tell people to watch out for not feeling well. reporter: officials from

different states told us this morning they were really caught off guard by this announcement. they were ready to put shots into people's arms and had to scramble. can you explain that chain of communication? when and how did you notify states that they might have to pause? >> we didn't know about anything in terms of the announcement until last night. we didn't even know the content of the announcement until this morning when everyone else read it. as soon as we got that qamar team farmed out and started contacting folks to make sure everyone knew that was the announcement by the fda and cdc. tuesday had our regular governor's call. at 11:00 a.m. we had the governors already lined up with their teams. we had dr. walensky and dr. fauci join our call. the teams will continue to support the statewide efforts and federal channels. so i think the message got out quickly and clearly.

there was no heads up here. the announcement was made this morning. >> thanks, guys. reporter: do we have a timeline in terms of how long? days, a week? i understand what you're saying related to supply. but when you talk to local officials, the j&j shot because it is one-shot is considered a crucial component in rural areas. in underserved communities. how does that not affect the timeline you guys are on in terms of getting shots in arms? dr. fauci: during one of the questions, which was asked of the cdc i believe, the question was just to yours. -- just yours. i don't know if they are going to be doing what i heard from the previous press discussion. it is going to be more like days to weeks rather than weeks to months. >> we have plenty of supply and plenty of vehicles for delivering that supply. whether it's through the federal

pharmacy channel, mobile units, community health centers, to -- health centers, all of those are equipped to deliver the moderna and pfizer vaccines. we will continue to make sure those units continue to grow in number. because you are right we need to , reach people where they are, >> so you think it is no different, you just swap out the vaccine? mr. zientz: yeah the moderna and , pfizer vaccines are to those vaccines. it's important people come back soit's important people come back for their second those three weeks post their first dose of pfizer and first dose of moderna. but all of our channels are equipped to deliver pfizer and moderna. >> how does this not contribute to the very areas where hesitancy is most predominant at this time?

do you have to change your message, do something difference to address hesitancy? mr. zientz: i think we need to continue to be transparent about what the science is telling us. as dr. fauci said today, there have been tens of millions of doses of pfizer and moderna administered over the last several months, to people in the u.s. and around the world. it is important that we have here the fda, the fda is the gold standard for ensuring safety and effectiveness of the vaccines. and today's action is clear evidence that they are taking every step necessary to ensure the american people have clear and transparent information about the safety and effectiveness of these vaccines. so the bottom line is, the vaccines, moderna and pfizer that are now being administered are clearly safe, and are saving lives, and every american should get vaccinated when it is their turn. >> thanks.

jeff, is j&j production going to continue during this pause? and secondly, is the biden administration considering ordering more doses of pfizer and madonna -- moderna just in , case this problem with the j&j becomes prolonged? mr. zientz: the j&j production issues in baltimore is a separate set of issues, and those are being worked out through the fda process with the company, the production of those vaccines, if and when the fda authorizes that. the second question we really , have thought of this as a wartime effort from the beginning, which is where we purchased excess supply, so that we would be ready for any contingency. and we will continue to look at every possibility in terms of , making sure we always have enough supply for the people. >> just to clarify on the j&j production, not related to the baltimore plant, but just overall is j&j production going

to pause while the pause on administering doses occurs? mr. zientz: production is centered around that baltimore facility. the vast majority of production is at the baltimore facility. >> i want to just ask you very directly, are you ruling out the possibility that the vaccine could be removed from the market? are you ruling out -- are you expecting it to be re-allowed? dr. fauci: i think it would be premature to comment on that. at that is the reason why the pause was done, so they could take a good look at it, look at if in fact -- i wouldn't want to speculate as to what would happen. often, when you see things like this that you pause and come back. whether or not that happens now, i can't guarantee it, but that is exactly what the 58 cdc people are going to be deciding

on and looking at very carefully. >> this is a struggle you have been dealing with, vaccine hesitancy, and this is obviously is a setback. what do you have to ramp up can an additional work type effort to ensure that this message gets out there? do you go to states like mississippi, where the vaccination rate is really low? mr. zientz: let me answer your first question. consistent with it being a wartime effort, we have enough supply of moderna and pfizer to hit the targets we have set, the 200 million shots in 100 days, and to head toward the fourth of july that we have talked about as a country, a more normal fourth of july. part of that is making sure that when aid -- when it is an

american's turn to get vaccinated they get vaccinated. , we need to continue to build confidence, and that is done at the community level. people are trusting of their local doctors, faith leaders, neighbors, which is why it is important that when people do get vaccinated, not only get vaccinated themselves but spread , the word about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines. >> one of the goals that you have today is the hope that you have enough supply on hand for the country by the end of my. is that still operative now at the wake of this pause? and he said that you had only heard about this this morning -- do you wish you had heard sooner? mr. zientz: i heard last night there would be an announcement, not the specifics of the announcement. we want the science agencies to lead with science. there's no reason for us to be involved in any of the scientific decisions. we bring nothing to the table. that is the fda and cdc's role. and they are led by terrific leaders from great teams to do

the science. and this administration will be led by science. as to your first question, we believe there's enough vaccination, the vaccine in the system, the moderna and the pfizer, for all americans who want to get vaccinated to do so. >> do you think the announcement of this pause will increase or decrease vaccine hesitancy? mr. zientz: hesitancy amongst people is a challenge. and we need to be addressing it, and we are. as i talked about by going to , meet people where they are, to follow all that we've learned about who people trust, their local doctor, nurse, faith leaders. the fda, acting the way they did today, shows they are the gold

standard, and that should reassure the american public that they will be very diligent and conservative in how they approach the vaccines. >> so your argument is because the fda tripwire was triggered, that should give americans more peace about the vaccines. mr. zientz: yes, safety and efficacy are being monitored by the gold standard folks at the fda. go ahead. >> you said the fda is the gold standard for ensuring the safety and efficacy of vaccines. to what extent does today's news add urgency to the effort of getting a permanent nominee confirmed as head of the fda? clearly an important post, but how much of a spotlight does this news --?

mr. zientz: have no personal announcements to make today. the fda has an extraordinary group of scientists that lead. >> how important would a permanent leader be in those efforts? mr. zientz: i think the fda does an excellent job. the teams that are addressing these issues are experienced teams. the acting director is a very experienced leader. so i think the experience of the fda and the expertise at the fda is indeed the gold standard. >> are there any immediate plans to accommodate patients because of this pause? can you guarantee every person who was scheduled can be scheduled in a matter of days? mr. zientz: i think there's already, in certain locations, people who were scheduled for today are already rescheduled. we will do anything we can to so support the states on the logistics of rescheduling. and at the same time, the most important thing is that the supply exists to continue to

vaccinate 3 million americans a day, and there is enough supply to actually accelerate that. there is tens of millions of doses in the system. as i said, today we announced 28 million more moderna and pfizer doses today are available to order this week. >> dr. fauci, you said there was no red flag for the other two vaccines. this question might be asking you the obvious, but can you verify that means there were no developments of blood clots symptoms and the recipients of those vaccines? dr. fauci: there have been no serious events to call attention to anything that would relate to a pause. >> then why would they pause one vaccine but not the other two? how does that speak to the safety of the other two vaccines? dr. fauci: i think when you examine everything in general, the fact that you have 120 million doses, individuals have

received at least one dose, and as you subtract from that 120 million, 6.85, you're talking about 114 or so million individuals have received at least one dose, and no negative red flag signals that tells you , you're dealing with a really safe vaccine. and i think apropos of several of the questions people asked about hesitancy, when you want to talk about safety, this is an extraordinary safety record that the others have. and the fact that a pause was done is a testimony to how seriously we take safety and why , we have an fda and a cdc that looks at this very carefully. and hopefully we will resolve it very soon, within days or weeks, apropos of your question. so it's a very strong argument for safety. >> thank you dr. fauci. thank you, jeff. thank you for your time.

>> thank you. ms. psaki: i know there is a lot going on today. you also have a call time, so we will try to get there as much as we can. i want to give you all a couple updates. the president met yesterday with a bipartisan group of members who work on committees of jurisdiction. i also want to give you an update on the work of our jobs cabinet, which will be central to our efforts, especially in this period of time when members are going to work with their staff send each other to see with the path forward is. so far, secretaries from our jobs cabinet have made 27 calls to members, including seven republicans when they connected. our legislative affairs team has made 139 calls to members, chiefs of staff and staff

directors. 39 of those calls to the house were republican and 15 of the 40 calls into the senate. this is ongoing and we will provide regular updates so you have a sense of what is happening. we have held 26 house and senate staff meetings and nine member level briefings included with republican leadership and bipartisan groups. this is picking up. senior administration officials have engaged with world leaders, faith communities, the private sector, bipartisan groups of over 1000 mayors and county elected officials and had conversations with governors from both parties. i want to highlight that this week is black maternal health week and today the vice president and mastic policy advisor susan rice are hosting a roundtable with women will share their experiences with complications from pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum impact post childbirth. as well as their working advocacy and research, highlighting disparities black

women face in maternal health. this started around 12:30, so the event is ongoing. we announced initial actions we are taking to address the maternal health crisis in the u.s., including funding to reduce maternal mortality rates and morbidity rates and improve health equity and race-based disparities nationwide, the approval of a medicaid waiver in illinois to broadly extend postpartum coverage for this approval will help ensure access and vital services, promote better outcomes and reduce maternal morbidity and mortality rates. this is an issue we will continue to work hard on. we are also posting today a virtual small business re-think of the american jobs plan, the small business administrator newly confirmed will join the event with thousands of small business owners to highlight how the american jobs plan supports small business.

the plan the president proposed increases access to federal contracts and invests or than $110 billion in financing and technical assistance programs. the president attended a congressional tribute for u.s. capitol officer william evans this morning. he paid respects to officer evans and met with his family. the president offered his support to the capitol police, who have weathered great stress and responsibility since the january insurrection, in addition to sustaining the loss of a fellow officer. the president will deliver remarks tomorrow on the way forward in afghanistan, including timelines for withdrawing u.s. troops in coordination with partners and allies and the government of afghanistan, and its commitment focusing on threats and opportunities around the world today. we will have more details later today. we are doing a series of

briefings with all of you and others throughout the day. i am limited in what i am going to share because i don't want to get ahead of the president, but i look forward to having conversations with all of you in the coming days. reporter: can you share details on the summit proposed with president putin? what was his response? putin said he talked with biden in march so what is behind the change in posture? ms. psaki: the president had a call with president putin this morning. we put out a readout. let me reiterate highlights. they discussed a number of regional and global issues, including the intent of the u.s. and russia to pursue a strategic stability dialogue on arms control and security issues, building on the new start treaty

extension. president biden made clear the u.s. will act firmly in defense of its national this in response to russia's actions such as cyber intrusions and election interference and he emphasized the united states' commitment to ukraine sovereignty. the president voiced concerns over the aggressive russian military buildup on the border of ukraine and called on russia to de-escalate tensions. as it relates to your question, our approach to our relationship to russia is one where we respect the relationship to remain a challenge. we expect continued difficult conversations. we are prepared to confront those. but our goal is to have a relationship with russia that is predictable and stable. and having a conversation or dialogue, which plans will need to be developed on -- this is

the first conversation at that level. the purpose of that is to be honest and candid where there are areas where we disagree, but also work together on areas where there is mutual interest. that may relate to arms-control, as we did with the extension of new start after the president was inaugurated, or working together on pursuing an iran nuclear deal. there will be a range of topics discussed. as details are finalized, we will share those, but we are at the discussion. reporter: with respect to the russian military buildup on the ukrainian border, our military options being considered? -- are military options being considered? dr. fauci: secretary -- ms. psaki: secretary blinken and

secretary austin are overseas. i don't want to get ahead of them. any discussion of that will be done in coordination. reporter: i want to get your reaction to something mitch mcconnell set. he said [indiscernible] abandoning women in afghanistan, their freedom and human rights will be in peril. what is your response to this criticism, claiming there are no plans to maintain stability there? ms. psaki: i will leave it to the president to lay out his plans for withdrawing troops, his reasoning and focusing on the threats we face today. the president has been

consistent in his view that there is not a military solution to afghanistan, that we have been therefore far too long. that has been his view for some time, well-documented he remains committed to supporting negotiations between the parties, which many of you may be following our resuming next week. add he believes we need to focus our resources on fighting the threat we face today, almost 20 years after the war began. that is his approach and how he looks at this decision, but he will lay out specifics tomorrow. reporter: you mentioned president biden has been consistent. as a candidate, he told cbs a smaller foot rent of troops should remain in afghanistan, and would not be committing to withdrawing troops to a number

that is zero. can you explain the change? ms. psaki: you will have all of these questions answered. i will say that the president's approach and the decisions he has made have been done in close consultation with military leaders, his national security team, with partners and allies around the world, and with his objective in mind of ensuring we are focused on threats we are facing. we are doing that in" a nation with partners and allies. i would leave it to the briefings you will be receiving in his speech tomorrow to outline more further detail. reporter: the u.s. has called on russia about tensions at the ukrainian border. is there any reason putin will listen this time? ms. psaki: when it comes to diplomacy, you don't stop calling on the right actions and approach read actions the world community believes all right

just because you see a hesitation in taking those actions. and what is different now is that there is coordination on the international front with the europeans, our partners. secretary blinken and secretary austin are in brussels having a discussion about a range of issues, including aggression at the border. and that pressure is different. russia as an outlier in many ways in that regard. we will continue to work in partnership with our allies and continue to put on pressure. reporter: a quick follow-up on russia, do you currently characterize the relationship with russia as honest and stable? ms. psaki: what we are working toward is predictable and stable. we are not looking for an establishment of trust as much as a predictability and stability, because there are a range of threats, there are a range of opportunities in the world.

and the president wants to have the bandwidth to focus on them, and not an adversarial relationship with russia. reporter: there has been a back-and-forth between the white house and michigan governor's office. as the white house disappointed with how the governor managed covid interstate recently? ms. psaki: you have been covering it quite closely. we have been at war with the virus for over a year now. governor whitmer has been in charge of a state that has been incredibly hard by covid for that time, and she has done a tremendous job while facing an enormous set of challenges. she has been steadfast to her commitment to keeping people of the state of michigan safe, and a tremendous partner. a year ago, she led the fight to make sure first responders in the state had ppe, she pushed for more testing when the federal government told governors they work on their own and to figure it out on their own.

she has endured a public health crisis and hostile state legislature, with armed aggression at the state capital and threats against her life. she coordinated a response to a faulty dam first, so we feel -- faulty dam burst, so we feel she has shown tremendous grant and resolve it will work with her to address the uptake interstate and how to deploy resources we have available. reporter: the president repeatedly said [indiscernible] to pay for it, is that a redline? izzy open to not paying for some of that proposal? ms. psaki: is only read line -- red line is in action. he is happy to hear proposals members have, whether it is a lower increase of the rate on

corporations, whether there are proposals to pay for this plan in a different way, he is open to hearing it. his starting place is that we should pay for it, but we are at the beginning of the discussions. his only red line is investing in our infrastructure, making sure we are putting americans back to work over the long term. reporter: with russia, the president proposing a summit with vladimir putin would suggest he is looking to de-escalate tensions. does that mean it is unlikely the u.s. is going to enact harsher sanctions on russia? ms. psaki: i am knuckling to get ahead of any announcements we have -- i am not going to get ahead of any announcements we have. the calculations, the process, the review has been ongoing. i expect we will have more to say soon and the president was

clear that there will be consequences, as he has said public. some will be seen, some will be unseen. hopefully, we will have more to share with you soon. reporter: on nominations, the director for immigration customs enforcement was not included in the trunk announced yesterday. why wasn't that person included in that tranche, and when should we expect to see a nominee for that position? ms. psaki: i don't have any personnel announcements. sometimes we knows things because there has been a vetting process and a decision has been made, and while it might be cleaner to do it in a group, we want to get the names nominated as quickly as possible and hopefully we will have a nominee soon. reporter: [indiscernible] the administration has committed to failing with women and minorities -- what about these

people putting their lives at risk? ms. psaki: the president and this administration supports women and girls around the world through a range of action, initiatives, programs we support. we will continue to do that. the president has been consistent. it is his view that there is no viable and to the war, a military bible and to the war in afghanistan. he has said that be for some time. he has to make decisions through the prism of what is in the interest of the national security of the united dates. that includes keeping our focus on where the threats are emerging around the world, whether those are emerging threats from al qaeda in north africa or other threats or opportunities in other. regions those are big moat -- other threats in other regions. those are big motivating factors

in his decisions. reporter: [indiscernible] and possibly giving another look at the tim scott justice act? ms. psaki: senator scott, senator booker and others are in close coordination about what a path forward would look like. we understand that there could be changes to proposals. we believe the george floyd act has a lot of the components that will help rebuild the trust, help put in place many reforms that are long overdue, but we recognize that democracy in action means changes take place. we will have to see what the discussions look like and whether the president can support any changes made through the process. reporter: a congressman responding to a shooting said i am done with government-funded murder.

what do you make of those comments, do you disavow her comments about policing? ms. psaki: what i can say is that that is not the president's view. the president's view is that there are necessary reforms that need to be put in place and accountability needs to happen, that the loss of life is far too high, that these emilys are suffering around the country and that -- these families are suffering around the country and that the community is exhausted from ongoing threats that they feel. but he also believes that there is a forum for putting into place legislation that can help put these necessary reforms in place, and that part of what needs to happen is rebuilding trust in communities in order to get to a better place. reporter: there are people across the country who are demonstrated -- demonstrating and calling for reform. what expectations should they

have changed in the biden era? if qualified immunity, if you can't get that? ms. psaki: we are not going to get ahead of discussions on a bipartisan agreement. i think americans who are exhausted, worried about kids and family members, should know the president sees racial equity as a central focus of his presidency. his actions bear that out. he has signed a number of executive actions. he is a stuck supporter of putting in place legislation that can put in place permanent reforms, and he will elevate and talk about the need to address these issues across the country for a range of opportunities. hopefully, that gives reassurance to the public about his commitment. reporter: on infrastructure, there was rumbling on the hill about an increase in the gasoline tax that was mentioned. ms. psaki: that was a garble,

unintentional. and yesterday's meeting with members of congress, the president mentioned the gas tax only to make a point that even a significant increase in the tax that some have proposed would pay for only a fraction of the investment the country needs. fundamentally, he does not believe that paying for this historic investment in building our infrastructure and creating millions of jobs should be on the backs of americans. he doesn't believe that. he has proposed his own means of paying for it. he was using that as an example of how it would even make a sizable dent in paying for the package. reporter: it was not under consideration? ms. psaki: correct. reporter: we have tensions with russia over ukraine and crime area -- and crimea [indiscernible] is the president confident the u.s. military posture is correct

and prepared to deal with multiple crises occurring almost simultaneously at a time you are withdrawing troops about denniston? -- troops from afghanistan? ms. psaki: absolutely. the president has utmost confidence in secretary austin and his leadership and he believes we have the best military men and women serving in the world. he has absolute confidence. he believes we should lead with lummis he and his leadership and approach air that out. reporter: on china with the climate summit coming up, do you see opportunities to rebuild the relationship and address the tensions in the relationship with china? this ep that as an opportunity to move forward? ms. psaki: we have not made a determination about bilateral meetings that would take place as part of the summit.

we invited over 40 leaders. we are engaged at a range of levels. we are approaching our relationship as one not of conflict, but of competition. the most important steps we can take his rebuild and support our economy here at home and be candid about areas where we have concerns, whether human rights abuses technological abuses -- human rights abuses, technological abuses. that is how we approach our relationship. while the summit is still coming together, i am not sure i would go that far, given we are still finalizing details of the event. reporter: on the domestic front in terms of the george floyd policing act, do you anticipate major protests and riots depending on the verdicts in the chauvin case? and what are you doing to prepare for that? we had a lot of controversy in

the trump administration about the use of national guard troops. i you preparing to put in national guard troops if needed depending on the verdict? i know it is a long question, but you have to prepare for all eventualities. can you walk us through your strategy, given how volatile the situation is? ms. psaki: we are not going to prejudge the outcome, which i realize you are not asking us to do, but just to be clear, we are working with state and local leaders to ensure citizen rights to peaceful protests. we will monitor developments and our team will remain in contact with officials on the ground as well as civil rights leaders and community stakeholders. but i don't think i'm going to read out more than that. reporter: the president as said

individuals and households under $400,000 a year or not going to see their taxes go up. does that apply to indirect effects of corporate tax changes that might not technically be tax increases, but with an average family of four making under that amount, could they see their heating bill go up as companies raise rates to accommodate the 20% corporate rate? is that feasible? ms. psaki: there is no reason that that is what needs to happen. we have evidence of what happened in 2017 when republicans prioritized tax cuts for big corporations over investing in working people. there were many arguments about what the impact would be, the benefits would be passed on to consumers, they would invest in r&d, none of that happen.

there were stock buybacks and record compensation for executives. we have seen countless studies that the biggest impact on these corporations would likely be on capital. that is not a concern we have at the moment. reporter: utility companies did announce rate decreases after the [indiscernible] and attributed it to the [indiscernible] ms. psaki: is there data from economists you are suggesting, or just getting ahead of it? reporter: it would have the intended effect by utility companies saying, we can pass this on to consumers through the utility bills. ms. psaki: and have utility companies said they would raise the cost if this bill passed to

invest in infrastructure and get the lead out of the pipes to make sure there is clean drinking water and williams of jobs? reporter: no specific announcements like that, but that is one of the results that occurred after 2017. ms. psaki: then we don't have an issue yet. go ahead. reporter: [indiscernible] what does that do to the ongoing direct talks? does that complicate them, are the talks on? ms. psaki: first, we take seriously iran's provocative announcement of its intention to begin enriching uranium to 60%, which the p5 plus one should be unified in rejecting. this calls into question seriousness with regard to nuclear talks and underscores the imperative of mutual compliance with jcpoa. we share a common stated objective in returning to mutual

compliance with the jcpoa with the rotted we have what we felt was constructive dialogue last week in vienna, even though indirect. we expect this to be long, but we have not been alerted of any change of plans intended in meetings that will resume this week. we are concerned about these provocative announcements but our goal remains seeing through a diplomatic process, which we expect will resume in vienna this week. reporter: d expect indirect the ghost -- do you expect indirect negotiations to continue even though you question their seriousness? ms. psaki: the diplomatic path is the only path forward and a discussion, even indirect, is the best way to come to resolution. it doesn't mean we hold back on concerns and don't encourage our partners to express the same concerns. reporter: with the u.s. given any heads up about the attack on

the power facility? ms. psaki: i have nothing further about our understanding of the origin or intent of the attack. reporter: was the u.s. involved? ms. psaki: we were not. reporter: this potential summit, is it going to? ? be this summer ms. psaki: we will see. the coming months would be this summer. reporter: does the president have a preference on the location? ms. psaki: we are at the early part of the process. as we have details, we will share them. reporter: in the northern hemisphere? ms. psaki: i don't think we are quite there yet. you are sounding like there is a place you like to summer. i can pass that along, certainly.

i am sure you have a serious question. reporter: thanks. my question is on lgbtq rights. you told me resident bided has stood by his campaign promise for legislation within 100 days. is he close to making the deadline? [indiscernible] does the president continue to stand by the campaign promise? ms. psaki: he does. it continues to work toward it. in order to sign legislation, he needs to come to his desk. he has certainly been a vocal advocate in support for the equality act. he noted it past the house and needs to work its way through the senate -- he noted it passed the house and needs to work its way through the senate and get through the senate in order for him to sign it.

he has put out a statement of administration policy. he talked about his views that this legislation to pass. he has had conversations on a range of topics, but so does our legislative team who works to move forward his agenda every day. reporter: one thing related to this is the supreme court upcoming decision in a case against philadelphia on first amendment rights on child placements same-sex couples. is the administration doing any contingency planning on that decision and the equality act? ms. psaki: you mean if there is a different outcome than we would like from the supreme court ruling? reporter: based on the outcome and how it squares with the legislation. some observers say when decision or another might let the air out. ms. psaki: i would probably have

to talk to our legislative team. we typically don't get ahead of supreme court rulings, but i will talk to them and see if there's anything i can convey to you. reporter: i have a question on immigration. [indiscernible] what is the bided administration's plan to mitigate migration at the u.s.-mexico border? ms. psaki: part of our effort in working with these countries is the recognition that regular migration is a hemisphere issue that wears all countries in the region to play the part. part of our effort was to work with mexico and northern triangle government to implement migration measures. if these are effective, there will be fewer people coming to upper border, so there is an impact even if that announcement we just made ensures countries

have employed security personnel and migration officials and others at their borders to address migration. reporter: last week, we saw large numbers at the border of migrant apprehension. how is the bided administration working with local governments and nonprofits on the border who are picking up some of the costs of covid tests and hotels. -- how is the? ? biden government working with those officials ms. psaki: the? ? biden government working with those officials ms. psaki: they play a tremendously important role. in some cases, it is working with ngo's -- [no audio]

-- the testing. and in other cases, they are covering [no audio] go ahead. reporter: -- evangelicals, conservative white folks, can you take us inside the process as you determine who the best messengers are for those

communities? are you reaching out to targeted people, relying on volunteers, what does the process look like? ms. psaki: a big part of our effort is to create a community corps, a program that gets fact-based messages into the hands of local messengers. what we have seen from data is that local messengers, doctors, lawyers, clergy, civic leaders, are the most effective messengers of anyone. that is why a large part of our $3 billion funding that we are focused on getting out to the country is on working with community-based organizations to strengthen vaccine confidence in the highest risk and hardest-hit communities. we work with faith-based organizations, community health workers, disability organizations, organizations of all different backgrounds and

affiliations, so they can get the message clearly up to communities. reporter: how are you determining which organizations no these influential people are working to reach certain groups that you deal perhaps you are not going to reach? ms. psaki: how we determine who community leaders are? a lot of this is based on taking a local approach. a lot of it is driven through hhs, so they may be best able to answer your question. i went to get to our last person. reporter: do you have a comment on japan's plan to release wastewater from fukushima into the pacific ocean? ms. psaki: then they get you a comment from our national security team. i would be happy to do that. reporter: what about the phone call with president putin and president biden? ms. psaki: i don't think i will

have more information on that now. reporter: does president biden want restore travel between the u.s. and europe as well as with the united kingdom before summer? ms. psaki: you mean as a relates to covid restrictions? we would love to have travel return, just like everybody would like a return to normalcy. but we rely on the advice and guidelines done by our health and medical experts, so we will defer to them on the timeline. reporter: do you see a chance of starting travel between europe and the u.s. by summer? many people need to plan in advance. ms. psaki: we understand that, but will rely on the guidance of our health and medical teams. thanks, everyone. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

>> -- also, a congressman discusses the president's american jobs act and his recent meeting with the president. washington journal, live at 7:00 eastern wednesday morning. be sure to watch saturday morning at 9:00 eastern as we look back on the bay of pigs anniversary, were more than 1400 cia-trained cuban exiles launched a failed invasion to overthrow the fidel castro

government of cuba at the bay of pigs. join the conversation with your textbook comments, texts, tweets and calls. >> on wednesday, the houses back on c-span at 10:00 a.m. for general speeches and business at noon. members are considering bills from the energy and small business committees including legislation to protect seniors and indian tribes from potential scams. on c-span to come of the senate returns at 10:30 to consider the nomination of gary gensler to service chair of the securities and exchange commission and brenda mallory to serve as chair of the council on environmental quality. at 10:00 a.m. on c-span, intel and national security officials testify at a senate hearing on global threats and at 2:00 p.m., senate subcommittee looks at the fema role on responding to the coronavirus pandemic. and there is more streaming live on our website, including a

confirmation hearing for nominees picked to lead the civil rights division and environment and natural resources division at the justice department at that :00 a.m. eastern. at the same time, agriculture secretary tom vilsack testifies before the house about the president's budget request. at 2:30, the senate armed services committee holds a hearing on cyber security threats. >> wednesday, the trial for derek chauvin, the former minneapolis police officer charged in the death of george floyd, enters its 13th day. watch live coverage online at c-span.org starting at 10:00 a.m. eastern. if you miss any live coverage, watch i date :00 p.m. eastern on c-span2. -- watch at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span2. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government, created by

america's cable television companies in 1979. today, we are brought you by the television companies who provide c-span2 viewers as a public service. ♪ >> next, housing policy analysts and civil rights advocates testify on discrimination in housing. the senate banking committee posted this to happen our hearing. chair: the hearing of the senate banking committee will come to order. this is a virtual format. a few reminders --once you start speaking, there will be a slight display before you are just plain -- before you are displayed on the screen. one box on your screen is labeled clock. it will show you how much time is remaining. witnesses have five minutes for opening statements. for senators, the five minutes

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