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Biden to pledge billions towards world efforts

Biden to pledge billions toward global efforts

A health worker applies a Sinovac CoronaVac Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) vaccine to an elderly Citzen on February 18, 2021 in Sao Goncalo, near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Ricardo Moraes | Reuters

President Joe Biden is expected to announce Friday that the US will be spending $ 4 billion on international Covid vaccination efforts, White House officials said.

During his first virtual meeting as president with G7 leaders, Biden will also encourage other nations to pledge more money for the global fight against the pandemic, officials told reporters in a conference call on Thursday afternoon.

“This pandemic will not end if we don’t end it globally,” said an official, while noting that vaccinating Americans remains the government’s “top priority”.

“But pandemics travel,” the official said, “and the more diseases there are, the more likely we are to see additional mutations and variants.”

The funds were provided by Congress under the Covid Relief Act, which was incorporated into law in late December with overwhelming support from both parties, despite former President Donald Trump describing the package as a “disgrace”.

The Biden government plans to donate half of that $ 4 billion “almost immediately” to the Gavi nonprofit global vaccination alliance, an official said.

Gavi is the co-head of COVAX, an international initiative aimed at improving access to Covid vaccines. The initial $ 2 billion shipment from the United States aims to improve access to Covid vaccines for 92 low and middle income economies supported by COVAX’s Advance Market Commitment.

The government plans to spend the remaining $ 2 billion gradually through 2022, officials said, with the aim of encouraging other donors to increase their contributions.

“We basically want to turn this into a way to convert $ 2 billion into billions of dollars,” an official said in the call, setting a target of at least $ 15 billion for “what is likely.” is required to actually increase the delivery of the vaccine around the world. “

The government stressed that the global funding will have no impact on the US domestic vaccination program. Officials said if Congress passes Covid’s additional bill, pushed by Biden lawmakers and the Democrats, they expect to ensure adequate vaccine supplies to meet their schedule goals.

“If we have adequate supplies, we may want to consider donating excess vaccines,” said an overseas official.

When asked the importance of supporting global vaccination efforts, one official said, “In addition to saving many lives … it is the right thing to do to help everyone in America from a national security and economic perspective.”

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Biden tax hikes would possible section in slowly, Treasury Secretary Yellen says

Biden tax hikes would likely phase in slowly, Treasury Secretary Yellen says

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Janet L. Yellen, President-elect Joe Biden, who was elected Treasury Secretary, speaks to the Queen in Wilmington, DE on December 1, 2020.

Demetrius Freeman | The Washington Post | Getty Images

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Thursday that any tax hikes sought by the Biden government to fund spending on large tickets would be phased in.

Yellen, speaking to CNBC’s “Closing Bell,” added that the proposed tax increases would likely come later in 2021 as part of a larger legislative package.

It would “include spending and investing over several years” on agenda items like education and infrastructure, said the CFO. “And likely tax hikes to pay at least part of that, which would likely slowly materialize over time.”

Yellen’s comments are of particular interest to investors who have been searching for months’ insight into the timing or size of future tax increases.

Last month, the new Treasury Secretary testified that the US could afford to impose a higher corporate tax rate that corporations pay on their profits when they coordinate with other economies around the world.

During his campaign, President Joe Biden suggested increasing the corporate rate from the current 21% to 28%. Before former President Donald Trump’s tax cuts in 2017, the U.S. corporate rate was 35%.

Still, Biden and Yellen were both quick to say that plans for a higher corporate rate could not begin until after the Covid-19 threat to the economy passes.

Biden “has said that as part of a larger package that would include significant spending and investment proposals – not now while the pandemic is really depressing the economy – he wants to reverse parts of the 2017 tax cuts that have benefited the highest. Income Americans and big corporations, “Yellen said in January.

Biden’s Treasury Secretary also reiterated her belief that the government’s $ 1.9 trillion proposal could help the US get back to full employment in a year.

“We think it’s very important to have a big package [that] addresses the pain this has caused – 15 million Americans default, 24 million adults and 12 million children who don’t have enough to eat, small businesses fail, “she told CNBC’s Sara Eisen.

“I think the price of too little is much higher than the price of something big. We believe the benefits will far outweigh the costs in the long run,” she said, adding that given the fact, she wasn’t worried historical government spending is about rising inflation.

Yellen is the first woman to lead the finance department.

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Biden Administration Formally Presents to Restart Nuclear Talks With Iran

Biden Administration Formally Offers to Restart Nuclear Talks With Iran

WASHINGTON – The United States took a major step on Thursday to restore the Iranian nuclear deal abandoned by the Trump administration, offering to join European nations in the first substantial diplomacy with Tehran in more than four years, government officials from Biden said.

In a series of moves aimed at delivering on one of President Biden’s key election promises, the administration stepped back on the Trump administration’s efforts to restore United Nations sanctions against Iran. These efforts had separated Washington from its European allies.

At the same time, Foreign Minister Antony J. Blinken announced on Thursday morning in a call to European Foreign Ministers that the United States would work with them to restore the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, which he described as “an important achievement of” multilateral diplomacy. “

Hours later, Enrique Mora, the European Union’s Deputy Secretary-General for Political Affairs, appealed to the original signatories of the nuclear deal to save it from a “critical moment”.

“Intensive discussions with all participants and the USA,” said Mora on Twitter. “I am ready to invite you to an informal meeting to discuss the way forward.”

However, it was unclear whether the Iranians would agree. The first barrier to business recovery can be a politically sensitive dance about who goes first. The Biden government has other goals, including expanding and deepening the deal to curb Iran’s growing missile capability and continued support for terrorist groups and the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad.

Mr Biden has announced that he will only lift the sanctions imposed by President Donald J. Trump if Iran returns to the limits of nuclear production observed until 2019.

Under the original 2015 deal, Iran shipped 97 percent of its nuclear fuel out of the country and agreed on tough restrictions on new production, which would essentially ensure that it would take a year or more to produce enough material for a single weapon to produce. In return, the world powers lifted international sanctions that had stifled the Iranian economy. But when he took office, Mr Trump unilaterally restored American sanctions, arguing that the deal was flawed.

Iran said the United States was the first to violate the 2015 nuclear deal, and it would not be brought back into line until America reversed course and allowed it to sell oil and do banking all over the place World perform. A senior official in the Biden government said Thursday evening that closing this loophole would be a “painstaking” process.

The announcement will open a number of delicate diplomatic offers. A State Department official said the United States had no indication of whether Iran would accept the offer and warned that the prospect of a meeting was a first step in a long, difficult process to restore the nuclear deal.

The new Washington

Updated

Apr. 18, 2021, 6:10 p.m. ET

The offer comes days ahead of the Sunday date when Iran announced it would prevent international inspectors from visiting undeclared nuclear facilities and conducting unannounced nuclear site inspections if the US does not lift sanctions re-imposed by the Trump administration.

Such inspections, mandated by the nuclear deal, are vital to the understanding of the international community of Iran’s progress toward weapons capability. The State Department official said Thursday’s meeting was not specifically designed to prevent Iran from taking this step, as the United States would not offer a concession to forestall an action Iran has absolutely no reason to take .

The official also did not offer details of what proposals the United States might bring to initial meetings with Iran and the Europeans.

Sparring about who moves first will only be the first of many hurdles. And with a presidential election in Iran just four months away, it was not clear whether the country’s top leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the country’s political and military leadership would fully support reintegration into the United States.

A second senior government official from Biden said the negotiations would take place if other world powers, including China and Russia, were part of them. This left the question unanswered as to whether regional powers excluded in the last agreement – Saudi Arabia, Israel and the United Arab Emirates – would play a role.

The State Department said Iran must return to full compliance with the deal before the United States lifted a series of US economic sanctions that Mr Trump has imposed on Tehran and paralyzed the Iranian economy, as the Biden administration has stressed.

Until then, the Biden government with good reason withdrew its demand last fall that the United Nations Security Council enforce international sanctions against Iran for violating the original 2015 agreement that restricted its nuclear program.

Almost every other nation had rejected the Trump administration’s insistence that the United States could invoke the so-called snap-back sanctions because it was no longer part of the deal.

In addition, the Biden government is lifting travel restrictions on Iranian officials wishing to travel to the US to attend UN meetings, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity before announcing the measures.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter that Tehran is waiting for American and European officials to “demand an end to Trump’s legacy of #EconomicTerrorism against Iran”.

“We will be following ACTION w / action,” tweeted Mr Zarif.

When asked whether the United States had preliminary diplomatic communication with Iran, the State Department official did not specifically respond, simply saying that the government had consulted extensively on the issue.

European officials who more than a year ago officially accused Tehran of violating the agreement by collecting and enriching nuclear fuel beyond the limits of the agreement had largely been left to cohesion. In the hope that the deal will be restored once Mr Trump resigns, officials in the UK, France and Germany have since delayed enforcing a dispute mechanism to punish Iran for repeated violations of the deal.

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Health

J&J doesn’t have massive stock of doses, Biden official says

J&J does not have large inventory of doses, Biden official says

Illustration of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine

Given Ruvic | Reuters

Johnson & Johnson will not hold a “large inventory” of its Covid-19 vaccine until regulatory approval expected this month, President Joe Biden’s Covid tsar said Wednesday.

Jeff Zients said the government has learned in recent weeks that J&J will only manufacture “a few million” doses if its single vaccine is likely to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Federal and state health officials expected vaccine supplies to increase rapidly once the J&J emergency vaccine was approved. The FDA scheduled a meeting of its Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biological Products on February 26th to discuss the vaccine. The US could approve the vaccine the next day.

J&J currently has a contract with the U.S. government to deliver 100 million doses of its vaccine by the end of June, said Zients, the president’s Covid-19 response coordinator. Assuming the vaccine is approved, the Biden government will work with J&J to increase supply as soon as possible. US officials hope many of these cans will be available in the first few months of their introduction.

“We are doing everything we can to work with the company and accelerate the delivery schedule,” Zients told reporters during a White House press conference on the pandemic.

The news comes as the Biden government works to increase the supply of cans after states complained that demand for the shots was rapidly exceeding supply. Around 39.7 million out of roughly 331 million Americans have received at least their first dose of Pfizer’s or Moderna’s two-dose vaccines, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And 15 million of those people have already got their second shot.

Biden announced Thursday that the US has received 100 million more doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine and 100 million more of the Moderna vaccine, bringing the total US supply to 600 million doses. Since the vaccines require two doses, a total of 600 million doses would be enough to vaccinate 300 million Americans.

On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced that the Biden administration is increasing the number of Covid-19 vaccine doses sent weekly to states, shipping 13.5 million doses this week and doubling the number of pharmacies sold to pharmacies.

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday that most Americans will have access to a Covid-19 vaccine by mid to late May or early June, a slight delay compared to previous predictions made in late March and April.

The White House chief medical officer said the federal government expects J&J to “significantly increase” starting doses.

“I’m a little disappointed that the number of doses we’re getting early from J&J is relatively small, but as we get further into spring there will be more and more,” said Fauci.

Meanwhile, Pfizer and Moderna are looking into whether their vaccines can prevent transmission of the virus, he said on Wednesday, adding that early studies point in a “favorable direction”.

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Prioritizing instructor vaccinations might be a problem till scarcity is resolved, Biden official says

Prioritizing teacher vaccinations will be a challenge until shortage is resolved, Biden official says

Prioritizing teachers in the distribution of Covid vaccines will continue to be a challenge until more doses become available, Andy Slavitt, senior advisor to the White House’s Covid-19 response team, said Wednesday.

President Joe Biden has made reopening the country’s schools for personal teaching a top priority.

On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published new guidelines that teachers shouldn’t be vaccinated to safely reopen schools, but that states should give teachers priority access to Covid vaccines.

Slavitt said governors had “tough decisions” to make to juggle vaccine distribution to groups like seniors, nursing home workers and teachers.

“We are trying to support them with science as much as possible, but until the shortage is fixed we will still have these challenges,” Slavitt told CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith”.

The question of whether teachers should be vaccinated before returning to class has been a focus in the debate on reopening in-person teaching.

Vice President Kamala Harris said on the Today Show Wednesday morning, “Teachers should be priority.”

During a briefing on Wednesday, White House Chief Covid-19 Coordinator Jeff Zients said that while Biden and Harris believe that frontline teachers and other frontline staff should be on the front lines to get vaccines, they both do The CDC agree that vaccination of teachers “is not a requirement for schools to reopen.”

The CDC guidelines also recommend that schools adapt their reopening plans to the severity of the outbreak in their communities. The agency also recommends schools maintain “essential elements” of personal learning, including wearing masks, exercising physical distancing, and monitoring the spread in the area.

“If that were easy, it would be done,” Slavitt told CNBC. “We’re focused on how we get kids and teachers back to school – not if we should, but how. And that’s the CDC plan, in my opinion.”

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Politics

In Milwaukee, Biden Presents Reassurance, and Tries to Keep away from Point out of ‘the Former Man’

In Milwaukee, Biden Offers Reassurance, and Tries to Avoid Mention of ‘the Former Guy’

WASHINGTON – On his first official trip from Washington since taking office, President Biden reassured Americans Tuesday of the availability of coronavirus vaccines and optimism that his $ 1.9 trillion relief bill was an ambitious plan to restore the American economy could.

“Now is the time we should be,” he said at a CNN town hall in Milwaukee, promoting a plan that previously has no Republican support in Congress. “Now is the time to grow up.”

Regarding the coronavirus, he said any American who wanted a vaccine could get one “by the end of July this year,” which sounded more optimistic than last week when he warned that logistical hurdles would most likely mean many Americans would be by the end of Not vaccinated in summer.

“We’ll have over 600 million doses – enough to vaccinate every single American,” he said at an event attended not only by his own supporters, but also by Trump voters and independents.

Mr Biden predicted that “I think that by next Christmas we will be in a very different situation than we are today.”

The town hall’s question-and-answer format gave the president an opportunity to practice what has been his trademark personal politics for decades. For example, when an independent voter asked him how her son with a pre-existing illness could get the vaccine, Mr. Biden said to her, “If you’re ready, I’ll stay after this is over and maybe we can talk a few Minutes and see if I can help you. “

At another point, he comforted an 8-year-old girl whose mother said she was afraid of dying from Covid-19. “You are the safest group of people in the whole world,” he said. “I wouldn’t worry about that baby, I promise you that.”

Mr Biden expressed his condolences for the girl’s missed school days and said that his administration’s goal is still to open most schools to kindergarten students all day within her first 100 days through eighth grade.

The promise appeared to contradict White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who said last week that the government’s once-ambitious reopening target has been scaled back to ensure that more than 50 percent of schools have “at least one class” a day Week ”in the first 100 days. She later added, “We definitely hope to build on it after 100 days.”

But Mr. Biden was reluctant to lower the bar to one day a week in personal school. “That was reported,” said the president. “That’s not true. It was a mistake in communication.”

He also said he expected school to continue throughout the summer to allow students to catch up.

The trip to Milwaukee seemed like a make-up visit of sorts to the city that was slated to host the 2020 National Democratic Convention last summer before the coronavirus pandemic turned plans for face-to-face meetings upside down.

And the situation in a state he won by less than a percentage point in November made sense to a president promoting a plan to help Americans recover from the ravages of the pandemic.

Updated

Apr 16, 2021 at 10:43 am ET

A surge in coronavirus cases made Wisconsin one of the hardest hit states in the fall and early winter, although the numbers have dropped significantly. The state’s unemployment rate of 5.5 percent is also lower than double-digit highs seen in the early days of the pandemic, but is still higher than last winter.

On Tuesday evening, Air Force One landed in a Wisconsin excavated from a blizzard, and when the country’s attention finally turned more to Mr. Biden after the end of the second impeachment trial of his predecessor Donald J. Trump over the weekend.

Mr Biden continued his practice throughout his impeachment and seemed anxious to avoid mentioning his most recent predecessor. At one point he referred to Mr. Trump as “the former man”.

When asked by the moderator, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, for his thoughts on the impeachment ruling against Mr Trump, Mr Biden said he wanted to move on. “For four years now, everything that’s on the news has been Trump,” he said. “For the next four years, I want to make sure that all news is the American people. I’m tired of talking about Trump. “

At one point, however, he couldn’t resist a veiled dig and told Mr. Cooper that all but one living former president had contacted him by phone to make it clear that it was only Mr. Trump who hadn’t.

When asked by Mr. Cooper how he got used to the presidency, Mr. Biden, who said on inauguration day that it felt like he was “coming home,” seemed humble about the experience.

For one, he was not used to living with a butler who helped him with his coat, as well as with other employees in the White House residence who were there to serve him. “I was brought up so that you weren’t looking for someone to wait for you,” he said. “I am very confident.”

Despite his close relationship with President Barack Obama, Mr Biden said he had never visited the private section of the White House residence before moving in last month. And he said life there is a great contrast to the Vice President’s residence, which has more space and privacy.

“It’s a bit like a gold-plated cage when you can go outside and do things,” he said of life in the White House. “I feel a sense, I have to tell you, a sense of story about it.”

Mr Biden repeatedly apologized when he felt his answers were too complicated or taking too long, and he hoped to lead the country in facing the challenges.

“I literally pray that I have the ability to do what you all deserve for the country,” said Biden.

Ms. Psaki said Tuesday that Mr. Biden hoped “to have a good conversation with people about the way forward and even with people who disagree with it” on the trip. In fact, one of the President’s most vocal critics is Senator Ron Johnson, the state’s Republican Senator, who is vehemently against the Biden bailout plan. But Ms. Psaki said pressure on Mr. Johnson was not the purpose of the trip.

When asked about the divisions in American society, Mr. Biden replied that the country was more unanimous than expected on the need for relief, and found that 69 percent of Americans supported his plan. “The nation is not divided,” he said. “You go out there and look around and talk to people, you have edges on both ends. But it is nowhere near as divided as we imagine. “

Outside the Pabst Theater, where the City Hall was taking place, a group of fast food and other low-wage workers planned a protest to urge Mr. Biden not to give up his promise to raise the minimum wage to $ 15 an hour.

However, the president was asked by several small business owners for his support for a minimum wage of $ 15 an hour, trying to reassure them that the increase would be gradual, as if to show that differences could be overcome. While “no one should work 40 hours a week living in poverty,” said Biden, “it’s perfectly legitimate for small business owners to worry about how this is changing.”

But he highlighted white supremacists as a unique threat to domestic terrorism that needed to be addressed. “I would make sure my Justice Department and Civil Rights Department have a strong focus on these people,” he said. “I would make sure that we actually focus on how to deal with the rise of white supremacy.”

Dan Simmons contributed to coverage from Milwaukee.

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Health

Biden administration to construct two mass websites in New York, Cuomo says

Biden administration to build two mass sites in New York, Cuomo says

A health care worker will administer the Pfizer BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine to a vaccination site in a church in the Bronx, New York on Friday, February 5, 2021.

Angus Mordant | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The Biden government will work with New York to build and occupy two mass vaccination sites for Covid-19 in the New York City area that aim to hit the minority communities hardest hit by the pandemic.

The locations, which will open the week of February 24th, will be at York College in Queens New York and Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, Governor Andrew Cuomo said at a news conference on Wednesday. Each location can administer 3,000 shots a day, making it the largest vaccination center in the state to date.

The federal government will be tasked with supplying cans directly to the centers, and the sites will be manned by members of the New York State National Guard and Army personnel, Cuomo said. More websites are being added in New York state to help target what the governor calls “socially vulnerable” communities.

“These will be very large sites. They will be complicated surgeries, but they will meet a dramatic need to get the vaccine to the people who need it most,” Cuomo said.

A mass vaccination site for Queens residents and other key workers opened in Citi Field earlier Wednesday. The site’s debut, delayed due to lack of doses, comes just days after another mass site opened for residents at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.

New York City Mayor Bill De Blassio speaks to media representatives as an attempt is made to obtain a Covid-19 vaccine at the Citi Field Vaccination site in Queens, New York on February 10, 2021.

I have Betancur | AFP | Getty Images

New York isn’t the only state where the federal government will open mass vaccination centers.

President Joe Biden’s Covid-19 Response Team announced shortly before Cuomo’s briefing that they would be working in a similar manner with representatives from Texas to build three new community vaccination centers in Dallas, Arlington and Houston. Jeff Zients, Bidens Covid-Tsar, said these three centers will enable healthcare providers to administer more than 10,000 shots a day.

Beginning next week, the Biden government will be sending cans direct to community health centers to expand reach to traditionally underserved communities.

These doses will be used in addition to the vials sent directly to the states and pharmacy chains that will be accepting vaccine doses from the federal government starting Thursday.

While supplies are still limited, vaccinations at community health centers will help improve access to life-saving interventions for the homeless, migrant agricultural workers, social housing residents and those with limited English proficiency, said Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, Chair of the White House Covid-19 Health Equity Task Force.

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Biden spokesman TJ Ducklo suspended for reportedly threatening reporter

Biden spokesman TJ Ducklo suspended for reportedly threatening reporter

White House Assistant Secretary TJ Ducklo listens as Press Secretary Jen Psaki speaks during a press conference at the White House on Tuesday, February 9, 2021 in Washington.

Patrick Semansky | AP

President Joe Biden’s deputy press secretary at the White House was suspended for a week without pay after reportedly threatening a reporter.

TJ Ducklo, who was also Biden’s main campaign spokesperson, was put on leave for seven days after a Vanity Fair story that described a controversial conversation with a Politico reporter. During that conversation, Ducklo allegedly said, “I will destroy you.”

Ducklo reportedly made derogatory and misogynistic comments to the reporter, who is a woman.

According to the Vanity Fair story, White House officials were aware of Ducklo’s conversation with the reporter in January. The suspension comes hours after the Vanity Fair story is posted on Friday.

The reporter Ducklo allegedly threatened was investigating Ducklo’s relationship with an Axios reporter who had covered Biden.

Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said in a series of tweets on Friday that Ducklo has been suspended and will no longer be able to speak to reporters at Politico.

Ducklo’s suspension comes weeks after Biden himself told a group of administrative officials that he would fire anyone who treated another colleague with disrespect.

“I’m not kidding when I say this, if you ever work with me and I hear that you are treating another colleague with disrespect, speak to someone and I’ll fire you immediately. No ifs or buts,” Biden said last month .

Ducklo, who didn’t respond to CNBC’s request for comment, was previously an NBC employee.

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Business

Biden and the Fed Go away 1970s Inflation Fears Behind

Biden and the Fed Leave 1970s Inflation Fears Behind

Market-based inflation expectation measures are hovering around 2 percent and the consumer inflation outlook has fallen slightly over the past decade, although one indicator has risen recently. Unless buyers expect higher prices, companies may not be able to increase them, so whatever people expect can determine reality.

It’s also hard to see where a big and sustained price spike would come from, analysts said.

Airfares, clothing prices, and hotel prices have all taken a blow in the depths of the pandemic in 2020, and they are likely to spike as the economy reopens and consumers with money in their pockets go on vacation and renovate their wardrobes, Alan Detmeister said. A former Fed inflation expert who now works at UBS.

However, the price of goods, which jumped as workers moved to their home offices – from the laptop category to the auto category – could decline and weigh on overall profits. Categories that are very important to the overall index, such as rent and health insurance, are both subdued and slow.

In any case, a temporary rise in prices is not the same as an inflation process in which the price gains continue month after month.

Even if prices recover temporarily, the Fed has pledged to be patient with inflation. Over the past few years – also under the supervision of Ms. Yellen – interest rates have been raised before price gains really picked up to counter any possible overheating. The central bank’s new framework, passed last year, calls on policymakers to aim for a period of over 2 percent inflation so that, on average, they meet their target over time.

In addition to stabilizing prices, Congress is also mandating the Fed to try to maximize employment. Charles Evans, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, said earlier this month that $ 1.9 trillion in government spending had the potential to help the Fed meet its inflation and labor market targets faster.

“I have a hard time realizing how big this is, which is causing overheating,” he said.

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Biden calls on Congress to reform gun legal guidelines on anniversary of Parkland capturing

Biden calls on Congress to reform gun laws on anniversary of Parkland shooting

President Joe Biden speaks as he meets with senators from both parties at the White House on February 11, 2021.

Doug Mills-Pool / Getty Images

President Joe Biden on Sunday called on Congress to tighten gun laws on the third anniversary of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

“Today as we mourn with the Parkland community, we mourn all those who lost loved ones to gun violence,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House.

The president called for several provisions, including background checks of all arms sales, a ban on offensive weapons and high-capacity magazines, and the lifting of immunity from arms manufacturers.

“This government will not wait for the next mass shootings to respond to this call. We will take steps to end our gun violence epidemic and make our schools and communities safer,” said Biden. “We owe it to everyone we have lost and everyone who has been left behind to grieve in order to change something.”

Fourteen students and three staff were killed in the Parkland shootings. The student survivors started the March for Our life movement in support of the gun legislation.

Spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Said in a statement on Sunday that Congress would work with the Biden administration to pass two background check laws. The House passed the bipartisan background check law and the extended background check law during the last Congress.

“On this solemn remembrance, Democrats join the American people in renewing our commitment to our unfinished work and to ensure that no family or community is forced to endure the pain of gun violence,” Pelosi said. “We will not rest until all Americans, in schools, at work, in places of worship, and in our communities are safe once and for all.”

Susan Rice, chair of the White House Home Affairs Council, and Cedric Richmond, a senior adviser to Biden, hosted a virtual meeting with leaders of gun violence prevention advocacy groups last week to discuss how gun violence can be reduced.