White House Press Briefing – May 25, 2023

by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre –

Update on where things stand with ongoing budget negotiations.

The President’s negotiating team has had productive discussions with the Speaker’s team. And those discussions continue.

You’ve heard all the congressional leaders make it clear that default is not an option. The President has said that, the Speaker has said that, and we want the American people to understand that as well.

Preventing default is not a matter of debate. It’s basically the responsibility of Congress.

What is up for debate, though, is the budget. And that’s what these discussions are about: two very different fiscal visions for our country and our economy.

The President’s plan invests in America and grows the economy from the bottom up and the middle out. And it does that while reducing the deficit by nearly $3 trillion over 10 years by asking the wealthy and corporations to pay their fair share and by slashing wasteful spending on special interests.

House Republicans proposed and passed a very, very different plan. They want to slash programs millions of hardworking Americans count on, while also protecting tax breaks skewed to the wealthy and corporations that will add $3.5 trillion to the debt.

That’s where these negotiations began.

The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act

Today, three years after the murder of George Floyd, President Biden paid tribute to George Floyd, his family, and advocates who have fought tirelessly for reform and accountability measures.

This morning, the President also vetoed a congressional Republican-led disapproval resolution that would have nullified crucial police reforms many enacted in the District of Columbia on an emergency basis in 2020 after George Floyd’s murder, such as banning chokeholds, setting important restrictions on use of force and deadly force, improving access to body-worn camera recordings, and requiring officer training on de-escalation and use of force.

The President has repeatedly said we have an obligation to make sure that all people, all Americans are safe, and that public safety depends on public trust. It is a core policy of this administration to provide law enforcement the resources they need for effective accountability community policing.

And that’s why, last year, the President signed an Executive Order on Advancing Effective Accountable Policing and Criminal Justice Practices to Enhance Public Trust and Public Safety, which requires federal law enforcement agencies to do the following: ban chokeholds, restrict no-knock warrants, mandate the use of body-worn cameras, implement stronger use-of-force policies, provide de-escalation training, submit use-of-force data to the FBI’s Use-of-Force Data Collection, submit officer misconduct records into a new national database, and restrict the transfer of military equipment to local enforcement agencies.

The administration has made significant progress implementing these goals, as detailed in a White House factsheet issued just this morning. But we know that achieving comprehensive and lasting change at the state and local levels requires Congress to act.

So, today, once again, President Biden is urging Congress to pass meaningful reform legislation, including the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. It is — it is up to Congress to send this to his desk. And once they do, he will sign this law.

Read the full briefing at www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room.