Vice Presidential Pool Reports of February 6, 2023

VP pool report 1: holding for VP

Good afternoon from the EEOB. I'm on tap for your VP pool today for her event on root causes of migration. We are holding in a conference room adjacent to the Indian Treaty Room.

Below is some background and participants. There were also several fact sheets that went out.

The event is being live streamed on the White House website so I will only send color and any other relevant details I get.

Holler with questions.

On background from a White House official:
Today, Vice President Harris announced additional efforts to address the root causes of migration from Northern Central America, including:

• Additional commitments from the private sector, bringing the total amount coordinated through the Call-to-Action initiative to $4.2 billion.
• The launch of Central America Forward, the next phase of the private-public partnership to address the root causes of migration.
• An update from agencies on the implementation of the Root Causes Strategy.

At 2:00pm ET, the Vice President will speak to these commitments at a roundtable with U.S. government leaders and private sector representatives where they will also strategize on next steps. Her remarks will be livestreamed at whitehouse.gov/live.

Today's announcement builds on the Administration's work and Vice President's leadership to address the root causes of migration from Northern Central America (Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala).

The Vice President's work is about thinking long-term while our Administration simultaneously addresses the immediate challenge at the southwest border. Although these are long term efforts and trends fluctuate, over the last eighteen months there has been a decline on the number of individuals encountered at the southwest border from the countries encompassed in the Root Causes Strategy.

The $4.2 billion in commitments is creating economic opportunity for people in Northern Central America, including through jobs, access to the financial system, and connections to the digital economy

Additional participants include those below:
- Lorraine Voles, Chief of Staff to the Vice President
- Dr. Phil Gordon, National Security Advisor
- Dr. Rebecca Lissner, Deputy National Security Advisor
- Lindsey Zuluaga, Special Advisor, NSA
- Mike Pyle, Director for International Economics, NSC
- Scott Nathan, CEO, Development Finance Corporation
- Reta Jo Lewis, President, Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM)
- Emily Mendrala, Deputy Assistance Secretary, U.S. State Department
- Marcela Escobari, Assistant Administrator, United States Agency of International Development (USAID)
- Nathan Younge, Regional Director, United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA)
- Molly McCoy, Associate Deputy Undersecretary, U.S. Department of Labor (DOL)
- Bill Jackson, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative (USTR)
- Jennifer Knight, Deputy Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of Commerce
- Jonathan Fantini Porter, CEO & Executive Director, Partnership for Central America (PCA) (moderator)
- Ajay Banga, Co-Chair, PCA (General Atlantic Vice Chair)
- Ray Chambers, Vice-Chairman, PCA
- Blanca Treviño, Co-Chair, PCA (Softtek CEO)
- Jack Leslie, Executive Committee, PCA (Weber Shandwick Chairman)
- Luis Alberto-Moreno, Executive Committee, PCA (former InterAmerican Development Bank President)
- Michael Froman, Board Member, PCA (Mastercard ViceChairman)
- Dr. Michelle Williams, Dean of Faculty, Harvard School of Public Health
- Hamdi Ulukaya, CEO, Chobani
- Mauricio Ramos, CEO, Millicom
- Marisol Argueta, Director, World Economic Forum
- John Fillmore, President, Chegg Skills - Christina Hennington, Executive Vice President, Target
- Timothy Boyle, Vice President, Columbia Sportswear
- Dr. Ilan Goldfajn, President, Inter-American Development Bank
- Brad Smith, Board Member Lead, PCA (Microsoft President) (virtual)
- Gloria Steele, COO Lead, CARE (virtual)
- Manuel Martos, CEO Lead, Nextil (virtual)
- Sergio Isaza, Protela-Colombia CEO Lead (virtual)
- Kelly Fay Rodriguez, Special Rep for International Labor Affairs Lead (virtual)
- Amanda Hines, State Department Central America Strategy Team Lead (virtual)

VP pool report 2: Remarks about to start

We're entering the room now. VP about to speak.

VP pool report 3: Remarks over, no questions answered

You saw it live. At the end, Harris ignored two shouted and clearly audible questions from CNN's Jasmine Wright about how the administration would get Congress to act on immigration reform and whether Biden would speak about it in his SOTU speech. She didn't even look up/in our direction as we were ushered out.

Harris spoke standing from a lectern in the corner, flanked by flags. Her seat with her seal was at the short end of the U-shaped table that was packed with attendees. TVs with the virtual attendees were on either side of the room.

During her remarks, the audience was attentive, I saw some occasional note-taking.

Harris returned to her seat to listen to Ajay Banga.

On background from a White House Official
Additional speaker is Ajay Banga, Co-Chair, PCA.