WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd January, 2021) US President Joe Biden signed two executive orders that would increase emergency food aid to the most needy and promote a $15 minimum wage in the Federal public sector.
The National Economic Council Director Brian Deese told reporters earlier on Friday that the action will provide "a critical lifeline to millions of families" and is not a substitute for a comprehensive legislative COVID-19 relief that the White House wants to see approved by the Congress as early as next month.
The first executive order directs agencies to consider "a number of actions that will provide emergency relief for working families affected by the COVID-19."
"Today, I am signing an executive order that directs the whole of government effort to help millions of Americans who are badly hurting, requires all federal agencies to do what they can do to do to provide relief to families, small businesses and communities. In the days ahead I expect agencies to act," Biden said during a signing ceremony on Friday.
President specifically asked the Department of Agriculture to look for immediate measures "to make it easier for the hardest-hit families to enroll and claim more generous benefits in the critical food and nutrition assistance area."
"We need to tackle a growing hunger crisis in America. One in seven households in America, one in seven, more than one in five Black and Latino households in America report they do not have enough food to it. That includes nearly 30 million adults and as many as 12 million children," he said.
The same executive order promotes workers' safety.
"And here President Biden will ask the Department of Labor to consider clarifying that workers have a federally guaranteed right to refuse employment that would jeopardize their health," Deese said.
The second document directs the US administration to immediately initiate a process that will allow Biden within a hundred days to issue an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay no less than $15 an hour and provide emergency paid leave to workers.
"I'll make sure that federal contractors, who are receiving taxpayers' dollars, provide their workers with the pay and benefits they deserve. These are places where federal tax Dollars are administered... to build things from ships to staircases," Biden said.
It is also directs the Office of Public Management to develop recommendations to offer a $15 minimum wage to more federal workers, Deese said.
