Vice Presidential Pool Reports of March 25, 2022

VP pool report #1 — gathering for VP's remarks to the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators

Good afternoon from the White House. Pool is gathering ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris' remarks to NHCSL, scheduled for 3:00pm. We’ll be in VP’s ceremonial office in EEOB.

Pool will send remarks, relevant color, and full quotes in future reports. As always feel free to reach out directly with any questions.

In-town pool report #2 — participants

Passing along from VP’s office:

Participants
- Julie Chávez Rodriguez, Director, White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs (moderator)

- Senator Nellie Pou (NJ-35), Incoming President

- Representative Angela Romero (UT-26), Incoming President-Elect

- Representative Cesar Chávez (AZ-29), VP for Membership

- Representative Teresa Alonso León (OR-22), Secretary

- Delegate Joseline Peña Melnyk (MD-21), East Region Chair

- Senator Christina Castro (IL-22), Midwest Region Chair

- Delegate Elizabeth Guzmán (VA-31), South Region Chair

- Representative Diego Espinoza (AZ-19), West Region Chair

- Representative Angel Matos (PR-40), Incoming VP for Membership

- Representative Victoria Neave (TX-107), Incoming South Region Chair

- Assemblywoman Selena Torres (NV-03), Vice Chair of Education, Media and Culture Task Force

- Assemblywoman Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas (NY-34)

- Kenneth Romero, NHCSL Executive Direct

VP pool report #3 — remarks begin

At 3:07pm

More to follow

VP pool report #4 — remarks conclude

At 3:14pm. Here's audio of VP's remarks:
https://otter.ai/u/tELlpgWVQeuxzj4rV1ybY5TAWAo

VP did not answer 2 immigration questions: is she concerned ending Title 42 will spark another migration surge and will the US increase refugee admittance from any countries beside Ukraine.

HIGHLIGHTS

Harris opened by speaking on the challenges the Hispanic community faces in this country.

She noted her background in local government and thanked attendees in particular for their work throughout the pandemic for their constituents.

"As a point of personal privilege," as a proud daughter of California, Harris noted that she has focused throughout her career on many of the issues discussed today.

Harris specifically spoke about how Black and Latino homeowners are having their homes undervalued because of racial bias in the system. She stated that only 5% of appraisals are done by people of color.

The US must address how expensive the cost of living is for working families, VP declared.

"There's a great sense of responsibility to take care of our elders" especially in multigenerational households, many of which are families of color.

The US must explore reducing the price of prescription drugs, like insulin

"This is some of the work that we are doing together, including the work to fix our broken immigration system"

She noted Biden's efforts to put a bill through Congress including a pathway to citizenship, which she is disappointed Congress has not acted on.

Exact quotes to follow…

VP pool report #5 — full quotes and a pic

Full quotes below. Enjoy the weekend, y'all!

The scene: https://twitter.com/TocRadio/status/1507438285152468994

HARRIS: "Good afternoon everyone, it is my great honor to welcome the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators for a very important discussion that is as much as anything about our shared commitment to help all people of our nation, to recognizing the challenges that people in general are facing, but that specific communities are facing and particularly we'll have a lengthy discussion about the challenges and opportunities that are presented by our administration's priorities [inaudible].

I want to thank you all for your work. I am [inaudible] with a background in local and state government and we fully appreciate, mentally appreciate that we can do a lot here in Washington, DC outside of this building. But then, it requires [inaudible] to lead on the ground, and I thought of you to make it real. And you all have presided over and had this responsibility in your role [inaudible] plans for our country, in particular during the last few years of the pandemic and all the challenges they have had for your constituents. And yet you have stood strong with courage and with a commitment to recognize people who in their times of greatest need, have relied on you. So part of our meeting today is to thank you.

I will say it is a point of personal privilege, as a proud daughter of California, there are many issues that you all are working on as an organization that are issues I've worked on my entire career. And I look forward to talking about them and also our shared goals, not only because of the work we've done over the course of the last year — more of those goals, and so that includes our shared goals of strengthening our economy, and the creation of jobs.

You all know the work that we did early last year in passing the American Rescue Plan to bring relief to working people and small businesses. Part of our agenda has been in a personal area of focus for me: uplifting our small businesses, and we know when we're looking at expanding on small businesses around the country, they're part of the economic lifeblood and strength of our nation. When we look at the work that we have done to get $12 billion — we actually did it [inaudible] this time [inaudible] to the community, to the CDFI as a way to strengthen our ability to uplift community-based business who are often rejected or are not given access to capital by in ways. And so we've been doing that work together.

Together we are doing the work and focusing on what we must do to support homeowners, understanding and reason. Yesterday I highlighted the fact home appraisers, only 5% of people who do professional work of appraising the value of a home for sale, only 5% of that entire population of skilled professionals are people of color. And so what we have found is that, in particular, Black and Latino homeowners are having their homes appraised undervalue because it's what we all recognize as racial bias in the system. So our administration announced what we will do as it relates particularly to the [inaudible] on loans and contracts to make sure that we are acknowledging this issue and doing what we must to train and to make sure that there is an appropriate understanding of how their bias, not just conscious bias, can impact intergenerational wealth among communities.

But this is the work that we are doing together. The work we are doing together is about understanding that we need to address the reality of the fact that it's really expensive to live for so many working families — we refer to that as cost of living. And so what can we do collectively together to bring down the cost of living, things like affordable childcare. Our administration believes working families shouldn't spend more than 7% of their income in childcare. Elder care. We know in so many communities, including communities represented by this organization, there's a great sense of responsibility to take care of our elders, and in many households we see intergenerational households. So we're not talking about the affordability or lack of childcare coexistent with what's happening with elder care, and so this has been an area of my focus for my administration to bring down that.

Prescription medication. We know in this community that is represented in many ways by this organization, all of this organization [inaudible] communities. But what do we need to do to address things like the fact that so many of our families who are experiencing an issue like diabetes find it almost unimaginable and unachievable to be able to afford insulin? And what we should do and as part of our administration's intention to bring down the cost of prescription drugs, including insulin. When we say [Inaudible] no family should spend more than $35 a month on any medication which will save the life of the person with diabetes.

So this is some of the work that we are doing together, including what we must do to fix our broken immigration system. As everyone here knows, it was I think the first step of the president and our administration to put a bill on the floor — send a bill to Congress requiring and demanding a pathway to citizenship with a particular emphasis on what we must do for the DREAMers. We must do today for foreign workers, essential workers, and sadly, we've not seen any movement in Congress on that issue, but together, we will continue to fight for that. Knowing it is the right thing to do. Knowing that it will be in the best interest of so many issues that impact families, individuals in our society, including our economy.

So we will continue to talk about that and how we can work together. And, I'll just close my comments so that we can have our conversation by, again, thanking each of you for the work you do. I think that there are moments like this that really reveal the commitment that especially elected representatives have when in a time of crisis, they continue to do the work with a sense of optimism about what is possible and they reflect the challenges that we must. So thank you all very much. I look forward to our conversation.

QUESTION: Madam Vice President will the US surge refugee admittance from countries other than Ukraine?

QUESTION: Will ending Title 42 lead to another surge in northern migration?