Office of the Press Secretary FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 10, 2020 PRESS BRIEFING BY ACTING OMB DIRECTOR RUSS VOUGHT James S. Brady Press Briefing Room   1:02 P.M. EST     MR. DEERE:  Good afternoon everyone.  Thanks for being here.  I’m going to just remind you that it is an off-camera briefing, but it is on the record from the Acting OMB Director.  So, with that, I will turn it over to our Acting OMB Director Russ Vought.     Q    Can we use the audio?     MR. DEERE:  Yes, you can use the audio.     ACTING OMB DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  Thanks, Judd.  Good afternoon.  I'm here to release the President's Fiscal Year 2021 Budget: A Budget for America's Future.  This is a budget that reflects and builds upon the pro-growth economic policies of this President, which have unleashed one of the most powerful economies in American history.  Unemployment is down across the board.  People are coming back into the workforce.  Wages are rising.     This budget continues these economic policies and once again provides a path for enduring economic expansion by tackling the very real problem of deficits in our nation's debt.  The plan offered today proposes to balance the budget within 15 years by proposing more deficit reduction -- $4.6 trillion -- more than any President in history.     Under this budget, trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see -- with debt, as a percentage of GDP, currently at 81 percent and growing to 100 percent within 10 years -- will be reduced to $261 billion in 2030, with a surplus in 2035.  Debt, as a percentage of GDP, will drop to 66 [percent] by the end of the 10-year window.     But this budget is not a green eyeshades budget.  It funds national priorities that this administration believes are vital for the security and prosperity of the American people.     Let me give you a few examples.  $741 billion is provided for the defense of this country.  This amount is coming after budgets of $700 billion, $716 billion, $738 billion in prior years.  Modernization of our nuclear weapons stockpile itself will receive a nearly 20 percent increase from last fiscal year.     At the same time, this budget also reflects, at a high level, an assumption that our overseas operations will require less funding as the President works to end endless wars.  The budget also makes substantial investments in border security and immigration enforcement.  It ensures that every high school has a high-quality career and technical education program; funds NASA's return to the Moon by ‘24, as a platform for Mars thereafter; grows VA medical care by 13 percent to fully fund the MISSION act; includes substantial resources for the fight against opioids; and proposes a $1 trillion infrastructure package to rebuild our roads and bridges.     This budget will keep our communities safe and secure.  It will also help the promises -- it will also keep the promises that the President Trump has made to the American people to protect Social Security and Medicare for seniors.  This President is a “Promises Made, Promises Kept” kind of President, and this budget is no different.     Despite what you hear from the other side, Medicare will grow at 6 percent under this budget.  The budget does propose good government reforms to lower drug prices, to root out improper payments, and to address wasteful and inefficient spending.  For instance, this budget proposes to remove from Medicare certain programs, such as uncompensated care in graduate medical education that are draining the Medicare trust fund and benefit more than just seniors.  These costs would still be funded outside of Medicare, but with reforms to moderate their growth.     Similarly, this budget proposes payment neutrality for the same service being performed at different locations so a CAT scan that costs the same at an outpatient hospital as it does in a physician's office.     Reducing the cost of healthcare is not a cut.  Medicaid will grow more than 3 percent on average, which is much higher than the rate of inflation.  Medicaid had $57 billion in improper payments last year and HHS lacks the tools to recoup most of these.  This budget would provide such authority, while giving states the option of a block grant or a per capita payment.     Only in Washington, D.C., does one look at a budget that grows every year and say it's a cut.  The budget proposes other commonsense mandatory savers, such as a universal work requirement for Medicaid, TANF housing, and food stamps.  This will ensure that we are helping to lift able-bodied adults off of a cycle of dependency and onto a ladder of economic opportunity.     In terms of discretionary spending, this budget will propose substantial reductions, similar to previous budgets. While budgeting at the defense cap under current law, this budget proposes a 5 percent cut to nondefense spending.  While some agencies, like the VA and DHS and NASA, will see increases, many others will be asked to eliminate waste and inefficient programs.  Foreign aid will be cut by 21 percent, for example.     Before I turn to your questions, I want to anticipate what I'm sure will be one of your first questions: Isn't Congress going to ignore this budget?  And to that I would just say that they have certainly ignored this President’s savings proposals for the first three years.  That may very well continue this year, but it would be unfortunate.     But this budget continues to be a statement from this President and his administration that we stand with families and businesses across the country who have to balance their budgets. Washington, D.C., does not stand with them, and for too long has operated under a different principle of recklessly spending other people's money.  That has to change, and hopefully this budget leads to it.     With that, I’ll answer your questions.     Hans.     Q    Could I talk about -- just (inaudible) assumptions in Q4.  Did you factor anything -- any -- from coronavirus and/or changes in monetary policy?      ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  We don’t have any assumptions with regard to coronavirus.  The economic assumption for this year is 2.8 [percent] so we don’t feel like we're going to be able to get up to 3 percent, but we do think we'll be on the other side of things like the GM strike; hopefully on the other side, at some point, of the Boeing situation.  And our view is that, at this point, coronavirus is not something that is going to have ripple effects.  That’s still at this point.      Q    And monetary policy stays the same, or did you build any of that into your assumptions?      ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  We did not.  We continue to have similar monetary policy as we experience right now.  In terms of interest payments, interest rates, we have more of a Blue Chip forecast than we have in years past, projecting a 2.2 percent increase in fiscal year 2021.  It does increase each year, until it gets back up to 3.2 percent at the end of the window.  I saw some reporting that it just freezes it; that’s not true.  It does increase, but it's down to a much more realistic level for right now.      Q    Yes, sir.  Thank you.  You mention the 21 percent cut in foreign aid.  Could you talk a little bit about the thinking that went into that, especially in light of it’s not only members of Congress of both parties who oppose that, but also generals and diplomats who say that money you put into diplomacy prevents you from having to spend to put boots on the ground in different countries?      ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  Yeah.  And I saw some of those comments today as I was looking through some of the news reporting on it.  And we just disagree.  The President disagrees with the idea that we should continue to have such robust levels of funding in the foreign aid category.  We're still going to be spending about $40 billion in foreign aid, so it's a -- still it's a substantial amount.      We're still going to be at a very high level compared to the rest of world, in terms of what we provide.  Humanitarian assistance is still, under this budget, with carry-over funding, going to be the second highest that the U.S. has ever provided to the world.  So there is substantial amount of foreign aid, even at the 21 percent cut within the program.     But look, we believe that, at the end of the day, it's time to rethink how we do foreign aid in this country.  That we need to move beyond the reality of spending money for the Bob Dylan statue in Mozambique or the NASA space camp in Pakistan or the professional cricket league in Afghanistan.  We have to begin to make choices when we have the level of deficits right now that we're experiencing.     Q    Russ, the Democrats are charging that the cuts or, as you were calling them, "savings" on Medicaid, Medicare, and some of these other welfare programs basically contradict what the President said in his State of the Union Address when he said that he would protect Americans’ healthcare.  How do you respond to that?     ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  Yeah, we would totally disagree with the comments from the Democrats.  As I said, Medicare will go up, every year, 6 percent.  Medicaid is going to go up, on average, 3 percent.     e do have reforms that, in our minds, the Democrats have said they support, such as $135 billion in savings for prescription drugs -- to lower the cost of prescription drugs.  That is something that we want to work with the Democrats on this year.  And, in fact, this budget provides a little less specificity in the area of this issue because we realize there is a House bill and a Senate bill and we want -- ultimately want to get a bill to the President's desk.     We reject the current House Democrat proposal, but we think there is a lot of life as it pertains to Senator Grassley's proposal, and we want to work and get a deal to the President's desk.     Q    Yeah.  Is there any concern -- well, did you take into consideration that by cutting foreign aid, increasing the defense budget, and the nuclear arsenal -- is there any concern that we're going to headlong go into an arms race?  And was there any consideration of when you put together the budget?  And what's a "green eyeshade" budget, just to enlighten me?     ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  Look, I think that, in terms of the commitments that we've made to the defense budget, this reflects where the President is in terms of making sure that even though we bring down, over time, our commitments with regard to ending endless wars, as he's been very clear -- as a policy goal, running on, and continuing to have that concern as the President -- we want to make sure that our defenses never deteriorate to the point that we have seen in the past.  And so we have ongoing high levels of military rebuild.     In terms of "green eyeshades" budget, I just want to -- this is continues to be a budget that funds priorities where the President supports spending money.  He supports spending money on infrastructure.  He supports spending money fighting opioids.  He supports spending money in places like NASA, which will have a 12 percent increase to -- as a major down payment to keep us on track to getting to the Moon in 2024.     So this is not an area where we've gone through every account and figured -- well, we have gone through every account, but we have not gone through every account in the sense of getting to the point where everything is getting a haircut.  We are trying to fund what his priorities are, what his campaign commitments are, and finding savings and inefficiencies where we possibly can.     Q    Just to follow up, though: Are you concerned about a nuclear arms race by increasing the amount of money that we spend on nuclear weapons?     ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  No, no, no, no.  The President is very concerned about making sure our nuclear arsenal is modernized.  We do this, as a country -- it seems like every 30 years or so there is a major modernization effort.  This President believes it's vital to keep the stockpile up to date and that that's an effective deterrent to the rest of the world.     Q    Russ, thank you.  You call them "savings."  The Democrats call them "cuts" to Medicare and Medicaid. Specifically, what are the numbers as to the level of decrease over the 10-year window for each: Medicare and Medicaid?     ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  Yeah.  I'll just give you examples.  So the drug pricing reform is $135 billion in savings.  The two things I mentioned in the testimony -- taking uncompensated care and graduate medical education outside of the Medicare trust fund and allowing them to grow, but not drawing down the Medicare trust fund -- is about $140 billion.     I've talked about site neutrality to make sure that a CAT scan that costs $118 in a physician's location and costs $230 at an outpatient hospital costs the same thing to taxpayers and, in the Medicare program, doesn't lead to people choosing where they refer a patient for the purposes of reimbursement.  That is $266 billion.     So, look, we have a good number of savings and reforms.  And we continue to believe that when you have a level that's going up each and every year that is not a cut to the American people.     Jon.     Q    I was just looking at the chart.  I was hoping you could just give us one number from Medicaid and one number from Medicare.  When you add it all up, what are -- what is it for Medicare and Medicaid?     ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  Sure.  Medicare will grow every year by 6 percent.  Medicaid will grow by 3 percent.  I want to continue to show you the specifics, because I think that's where the truth is with regard to the context of what we're proposing.     Q    Just to follow up on Jeff's question before, part of your answer to Jeff was that in making the case that there weren't real cuts in Medicare wasn't the amount of spending on Medicare will go up.  Does that mean it's the administration's position going forward?  And as long as spending on, say, Medicare and Social Security is higher than the previous year, the program has not been cut, no matter what has happened in terms of where it compared to the baseline?     ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  I think it's a combination of things.  That's certainly one aspect of it and how we define a cut, but I also think it's: What are the actual policies that you're proposing?     There is nothing that touches Social Security or Medicare beneficiaries in these budgets.  We have reforms, as it pertains to on the payment side, where you're -- you're buying and reimbursing for healthcare costs that has to be allocated and it shows a savings in a budget.  It will show a savings in a budget if the Democrats actually did a budget.  So our view is a combination of those things.     Q    On the $1 trillion infrastructure package, how is it paid for?     ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  Sure.  It is paid for with the number of mandatory savings that we have included in the budget. So we do two things:  We have an eight-year reauthorization of the highway program at Barrasso levels.  The President mentioned that bill in the State of the Union.  We also provide a $200 billion amount for things on top of the current highway program, because we think it's important that there are nationally significant projects that need to be done that we have the ability to -- in addition to the current formula program.     So a combination of the two: $800 billion from the reauthorization and $200 billion from the increase set aside.  And then the pay-fors -- both for the new $200 billion and the amount to which the trust fund doesn't have tax revenues coming in -- we do not pay for it with any kind of revenue increase, but we offer substantial mandatory savers for Congress to work with us to pass this part of any bill.      Q    And just one follow-up.      ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  Sure.     Q    Well, some influential groups in town, such as the Chamber and AFL-CIO, are behind increasing gradually the gasoline tax because they believe it's the most likely possibility to a solution.  Why not go that route?     ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  The President doesn't want to do anything right now that could have any impact on economic growth.  There's no tax increases in this budget, and we are proposing to have offsets on the spending side.     Q    Can you quantify and explain why there are cuts to affordable housing, food stamps, and student loans?     ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  RUSS So let’s take food stamps for -- and go in order.  Food stamps has the work requirement that is a substantial driver of the savings in the food stamp program.  And we continue to propose the harvest box to save -- you got 100 billion -- $100 monthly benefit.  Half of it is going to continue to go to your electronic benefit transfer, and half of it is going to be going to a package of shelf-stable foods that states will be able to work and be innovative with regard to the delivery model.     But there’s a perfect example of the fact that we have substantial savings in the food stamp program -- $182 billion over 10 years.  And we don’t believe that will lead to anyone getting a cut of any sort.  It’s just getting people out of the cycle of dependency and on to the ladder of economic opportunity.     Q    So we asked -- so you were going to --     ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  Student loans.  Happy to do student loans.     Q    Student loans and affordable housing.     ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  Student loans is $170 billion in savings.  We are able to rationalize the many different loan forgiveness programs into one loan forgiveness program to have debt relief after 15 years of students paying for, as a percentage of their monthly income.  And then after 30 years, graduate students would have debt relief.  So again, we believe that very real beneficiaries will see a benefit from the federal government making this reform.     In terms of housing reform, we preserve homelessness assistant grants at $2.8 billion.  We do propose reforms to the program as funded at the Department of Homeland -- of Housing and Urban Development.  This is becoming almost a mandatory program in how much it's escalating.  We preserve everyone that's currently on these programs, but we do try to institute elements of welfare reform to allow someone to stay on the program, even though their income might have increased.     Q    Does this budget seek to defund Planned Parenthood?     ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  We have provisions, not specifically, but we have provisions in the bill, or in the budget, that provide -- that do not allow taxpayer resources to go to clinics that perform abortion.  So that could include Planned Parenthood, but they're also moving themselves out of the discretionary grants now as a result of the regulations.     Q    I want to ask you about economic assumptions for GDP over the next few years.  They're so different than the Congressional Budget Office's assumptions for GDP.  So the CBO -- CBO estimates that, in this year, GDP growth will be 2.2 percent, next year it would be 1.9 percent, and would average 1.7 percent through 2030, which is so far apart from your assumptions.  Why are you so far apart?     ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  It's not a surprise that we are different than CBO.  CBO often is playing catch-up.  So if you look at the last four years of the Obama administration, the Obama economic policies included $653 billion in tax increase.  And CBO never projected that it would lead to $3 trillion in revenue loss as a result of what they term “technical changes.”  They don't say “dynamic,” they just say “technical changes.”  And yet, their economic policies led to the floor just completely going in the direction of a major $3 trillion revenue loss.     Let's take our record: Since this President has been in office, the CBO has never called it “dynamic.”  They just keep revising their economic assumptions to have technical changes. And we've now had $1.4 trillion in additional revenues that CBO never projected in the first place because of the types of growth rates that we're talking about.     So, look, in general, we've had more accurate numbers, compared to previous administrations, in the year-to-year levels that we've forecast.  And when it comes to the out-years, this is a post-policy budget.  It assumes -- and we're very upfront about it -- it assumes an infrastructure package.  It assumes getting a handle on our spending.  It assumes people getting off of welfare and getting back into the labor force and increasing the labor force participation rate.     So, again, as why we feel comfortable projecting 3 percent: because it's our fiscal plan based on the policies that we proposed.     Q    Can I ask you about one of your assumptions that you just mentioned?  The infrastructure spending -- that assumption has been made every year, so far, of the Trump administration.  Every year, there's this feeling, “This is the year we're going to get an infrastructure spending plan done.”  This is an election year.  Why are you so confident that an infrastructure spending plan agreement can be reached this year or next year or the following year when you haven't been able to reach one in the prior years?     ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  Well, we don't assume, for the economic assumptions, that it has to be done this year.  In fact, I mentioned that our economic growth rate is 2.8 percent this year.  We do think it can happen and should happen in the years ahead.  And, I think, of all the things that we've proposed in the budget, you would say: What has bipartisan support? Infrastructure spending.     Hopefully it could happen in an election year.  If it doesn't happen in an election year, there's no reason why it can't happen in a second term if the American people give the President another four years.  So to be honest with you, I don't think we feel any skepticism.  That's one of the policies that we could not get bipartisan support for.     Q    Just for clarity, your projection for this year was 2.8 percent -- right? -- economic growth.  The President, in 2017, said that we would see 3, 4, 5, likely even 6 percent growth.  Was that overly ambitious by President Trump to anticipate we would see that over the course of a couple of years?     ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  I think that optimism and the ingenuity and the opportunity that can be unleashed in the economy is reflected in a 3 percent economic growth assumption that --     Q    Not over three -- the 4 and 5 percent he projected, you would concede we’re likely not to reach 4 or 5 percent this year as he projected?     ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  That’s what we -- we propose 3 percent in this budget.  We believe that there is a lot that can be done in the economy if we remove the shackles of Washington, D.C.  And I think the President has long been optimistic on that front because he believes in the American people.     Q    Thank you.     Q    So, fourth year in the administration.  You’ve done this before.  What are the major shifts with this budget, specifically compared to what you did, let's say, last year or two years ago?     ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  It's very similar to years past, particularly last year's budget and the years before.     One of the major shifts that's already been reported on is Yucca Mountain; that is a change.  There is the presence of a view that we need to end this belief that a permanent site is going to be housed at Yucca Mountain if the state where it exists is not supportive of it politically.  And so we're proposing to consider alternatives.  We're proposing interim storage.  These are all things that we want to consider to get the site -- the waste off of sites across the country.  But in terms of Yucca, that is a change.     The NASA budget is a higher level, and that reflects the initial cost of getting to the Moon and then to Mars and beyond.  So -- and there's also a block grant for the education spending that takes about 30 different programs and consolidates them into a $19.4 billion education block grant.  That is a new proposal.  It is basically at the enacted level from fiscal year '20.  Once you subtract programs that we've long proposed to eliminate -- like the 21st Century Learning Center program, which you look at the people who are on the program and they don't really actually increase their proficiency in math or reading.      Q    Hey, Russ.  At the tail end of that GAO report that found that OMB broke the law by holding up on Ukraine funds.  That -- it said that OMB was not providing or responding to the request for information.  With impeachment behind us, are you guys going to give up whatever it is that they want or that they need?     ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  We are happy to work with the committees of jurisdiction and work with GAO.  It's interesting the GAO complained about us not providing information.  GAO normally provides a rundown of their reports before they go public with them, and that was different in this case.     Look, at every step of the way, we were consistent with the law and the tools at our disposal.  And GAO, you know, has long been a skeptic of executive branch authorities.  And this particular GAO has flipped its position three times in the last six months.  One of those precedents was about 40-year precedent.     Q    Yes, quick question on the EPA.  It's one of the biggest and most drastic cuts -- 26 percent.  You reference it, but, specifically, what are some of the areas that you're proposing to cut?  And if you can get -- if you can describe that in layman's terms?     ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  Sure.  Over 30, 40 -- look, the President believes in clean air, clean water, clean land.  He wants to be able to have the EPA fulfill its statutory requirements under the law in those main priority areas.     Over the last 30, 40 years, there's been a lot of voluntary activities, a lot of mission creep, things that could be funded at the state level.     Take Energy Star, as a program.  This is something that companies get a benefit from.  And it's a successful program, we just think it should be funded through user fees, so that those companies that get a benefit from it are also contributing to the taxpayers on that front.     So those are the types of things that we have identified in the area at the EPA.     Q    Thank you.  A regulatory question: The budget says that the government has abused its authority to go after businesses.  Do you have a particular example or how so?     ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  Say that again.  Can you repeat your question?     Q    So it says that the government --     ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  Who?     Q    -- has abused its authority --     ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  Who?     Q    -- to go after business.     ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  Who is saying that?     Q    This was in the budget.     ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  What part?     Q    The introduction -- the introductory letter.  The first two pages.     ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  Okay, I have to -- if you give me a follow-up, I'm happy to address it later.  I don't have it in front of me.     Q    You talk about the -- could you confirm whether or not there's $2 trillion in entitlement cuts?  And if that's not the right number, what is the right number?  And when you talk about those entitlement cuts, are there ones that you think are particularly more important than others?     ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  There are $2 trillion in mandatory savings and reform proposals.  We do not believe these are cuts, we believe these are good government reforms.     Q    But could you talk a little bit about which ones you think are the most important?  We just talked about food stamps, Medicare, Medi- -- like, if you have to fight over the ones -- this is obviously -- we know the President's budget doesn't always get -- doesn't get passed as is.  What are the ones that you think are most important to this administration?     ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  Yeah, I don't want to make choices among the savings proposals in our budget.  But suffice it to say this President believes in getting people who have -- who are in a cycle of dependency off of welfare reform, onto the economic -- off of welfare, onto the ladder of economic opportunity.  And there is a host of proposals along those lines.  That leads to labor force participation; it's something that we're very excited about.     MR. DEERE:  We'll take one last question from Steven.     Q    Okay, thank you.  Could you describe how involved President Trump was this year compared to past years?  And I know you've mentioned a lot of his priorities so far, but are there a couple things that he's really excited about in the budget?     ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  Sure.  He's very active, as always.  I think you could tell this morning, in his comments, he believes the nuclear modernization is a major thing that is important in this budget.  It is something that he continues to want to stress.     The Yucca Mountain policy was something that was significant on his mind and ensuring that the commitments that he's made continue to be reflected in the budget.  So, thank you.     Q    Russ, do you agree with the President when he said at Mar-a-Lago, "Who the hell cares about the budget?"     ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  Yeah, I think that was taken out of context.  I mean, I think what the President said in Mar-a-Lago is not unlike anything he’s said at a rally, which is one of the reasons why he's had to sign budget agreements that include more spending than he would have liked.  And we were very honest -- Secretary Mnuchin, Mick Mulvaney, and I were all trying to get the best possible deal we possibly could.     But at the end of the day, that's why your Commander-in-Chief and you make tough play calls, and he was willing to accept higher nondefense spending to be able to defend the country with higher levels of defense.  And when he makes a comment like that, that's what he means     Q    Realistically, you think any of this will pass?     ACTING DIRECTOR VOUGHT:  Look, the first three budgets have not moved in our direction, but deficits continue to be very high.  The debt, as a percentage of GDP, is something that is -- hopefully there becomes a bipartisan consensus that we're going to tackle.     We're going to keep proposing these types of budgets and hope that, at some point, Congress will have some sense of fiscal sanity and join us in trying to tackle our debt and deficits.                               END                 1:31 P.M. EST

Office of the Press Secretary FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 10, 2020

SEQUESTRATION ORDER FOR FISCAL YEAR 2021 PURSUANT TO SECTION 251A OF THE BALANCED BUDGET AND EMERGENCY DEFICIT CONTROL ACT, AS AMENDED      By the authority vested in me as President by the laws of the United States of America, and in accordance with section 251A of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act (the "Act"), as amended, 2 U.S.C. 901a, I hereby order that, on October 1, 2020, direct spending budgetary resources for fiscal year 2021 in each non-exempt budget account be reduced by the amount calculated by the Office of Management and Budget in its report to the Congress of February 10, 2020.    All sequestrations shall be made in strict accordance with the requirements of section 251A of the Act and the specifications of the Office of Management and Budget's report of February 10, 2020, prepared pursuant to section 251A(9) of the Act.                               DONALD J. TRUMP   THE WHITE HOUSE,     February 10, 2020

Message to the Congress on the 2021 Alternative Plan for Pay Adjustments

Office of the Press Secretary FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 10, 2020 TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES:      I am transmitting an alternative plan for pay adjustments for civilian Federal employees covered by the General Schedule and certain other pay systems in January 2021.      Title 5, United States Code, authorizes me to implement alternative plans for pay adjustments for civilian Federal employees covered by the General Schedule and certain other pay systems if, because of "national emergency or serious economic conditions affecting the general welfare," I view the increases that would otherwise take effect as inappropriate.      Under current law, locality pay increases averaging 20.67 percent, costing $21 billion in the first year alone, would go into effect in January 2021, in addition to a 2.5 percent across-the-board increase for the base General Schedule.      We must maintain efforts to put our Nation on a fiscally sustainable course; Federal agency budgets cannot sustain such increases.  Accordingly, I have determined that it is appropriate to exercise my authority to set alternative pay adjustments for 2021 pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 5303(b) and 5 U.S.C. 5304a.      Specifically, I have determined that for 2021 the across-the-board base pay increase will be limited to 1.0 percent and locality pay percentages will remain at their 2020 levels.  This alternative pay plan decision will not materially affect our ability to attract and retain a well‑qualified Federal workforce.      As noted in my Budget for Fiscal Year 2021, our pay system must reform to align with mission-critical recruitment and retention goals, and to reward employees whose performance provides value for the American people.  For this purpose, my Budget further directs agencies to increase awards spending in FY 2021 by an amount equal to no less than 1 percent of total salary spending.  My Administration will continue to support reforms that advance these aims.      The adjustment described above shall take effect on the first day of the first applicable pay period beginning on or after January 1, 2021.                               DONALD J. TRUMP   THE WHITE HOUSE,     February 10, 2020.

REMARKS BY PRESIDENT TRUMP AT THE WHITE HOUSE BUSINESS SESSION WITH OUR NATION’S GOVERNORS

Office of the Press Secretary FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 10, 2020 REMARKS BY PRESIDENT TRUMP AT THE WHITE HOUSE BUSINESS SESSION WITH OUR NATION’S GOVERNORS State Dining Room   11:11 A.M. EST      THE PRESIDENT:  Wow.  Thank you.  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Thank you very much.  Thank you very much.  Thank you.  Thank you.  It’s a great honor to have you at the White House, a very special place.  Beautiful and so meaningful in so many ways.  And our country has never done better.  You’re all doing really well.  Every state is doing well.  I can say most every state in the room today is setting records.  And we’d like to think that the federal government has been helping you a lot.      But it is wonderful being with you.  And we had a great evening last night.  And the talent of those musicians -- they could be anywhere in the world.  Many of them could work in the great opera houses, but they love the military.      When you heard the violins and the talent, the great talent -- I don't know if anybody has an ear for music.  Believe it or not, a long time ago, I was told I have a great ear for music by somebody.  (Laughter.)  I took a test.  They said, “He has a wonderful aptitude for music.”  I said, “I do?”  (Laughter.)      But when you listen to that, it’s really incredible, the talent.  They’re great people.  They want to be in the military; they don’t want to be anywhere else.  So it’s really -- really something.      As I said in my State of the Union last week, we’re in the midst of a great American comeback.  With the help of many of the people in this room -- and you’ve done, really, a fantastic job -- I think I can say that just about everybody -- I’ll say “just about,” just in case.  Someday, somebody is going to run or do something that I won’t like, and I can have a little bit of an out when I say “just about.”  (Laughter.)  I said, “No, he was included in the ‘just about.’”  But we’re creating the most prosperous economy and the most inclusive society ever to exist, actually.      Since my election, America has gained 7 million new jobs.  We added 225,000 jobs in January alone, crushing expectations.  The unemployment rate reached the lowest level in 50 years.  And a statistic that’s incredible to me is: The average unemployment that we’ve had during this three-year period is the lowest in the history of our country.  Compared to any other administration, the lowest in the history of our country.  The unemployment rate for African American, Hispanic American, and Asian Americans have reached the lowest level ever recorded.      Low-income workers have seen a 16 percent pay increase since my election -- something that’s so great to see.  When I campaigned, they hadn’t had rate increases, pay increases for 20 years, 21 years.  They were working three jobs and two jobs, and making less money than they made 20 years ago.      Median household income, as you all know very well, is the highest ever recorded, by far.  Since 2016, 28 states have reached or matched their lowest unemployment rate on record.  So we have 28 and you -- I think, soon, we’re going to have just about everybody.  And at the end of last year, a record 39 states had unemployment below 4 percent.  Again, another record.      Just as I promised during my campaign, we’re fighting every day to expand opportunity for African American communities all across our country.  African American youth -- we have such great news on African American youth -- unemployment has reached its lowest level ever recorded.  It’s a great statistic.  African American poverty rates have plummeted to their lowest rate ever in history.  And wages for African American workers have increased $2,400 a year.  That’s also a record.      At the center of our economic agenda are Opportunity Zones.  I hope you’re embracing them.  I think many of you are.  My administration has worked with the governors in this room to create nearly 9,000 Opportunity Zones in our most vulnerable communities.  Jobs and money are pouring into these areas that have never seen investment.  I mean, they haven’t seen them in decades and decades and decades.  And hundreds of millions of dollars are pouring into certain communities -- individual communities.  Hundreds of millions of dollars.  And there’s never been anything like it: Opportunity Zones.  Tim Scott did a great job on that.  Senator Tim Scott.      I urge all governors to create a state-level version of our White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council to coordinate the efforts of state government to provide maximum support for the Opportunity Zones.  And we’re there to help you.  If you have a problem, call me.  Literally, call me and we’ll work it out.  But the Opportunity Zones -- and that’s Democrat or Republican, by the way.  Opportunities have been fantastic.      We must not stop until we have delivered equal and abundant opportunity for every community in our land.  And that’s what’s happening.      To give former prisoners a second chance -- this has worked better than any program ever -- I was proud to sign the landmark criminal justice reform into law.  And since that time, 10 states have passed legislation following our lead.  And there were numerous states.  I know Texas was there, Governor, with criminal justice reform.  Amazing.  And Kentucky and a few others that were thought of as being very strict states and yet they had criminal justice reform.  We looked at a lot of what Texas did and some of the other states where it worked so well. And Alice Johnson, as an example, she was in for 22 years and she had another 20 years to serve on something that -- everything is bad, but to be in jail for 40 and 50 years for what Alice did on a telephone was crazy.      Thanks to our roaring economy, former inmates are now finding jobs.  And the employers are so happy.  Now, the economy is really helping, but it's the first time ever where prisoners coming out of jail are finding jobs, loving it.  And the employers -- the feedback we're getting from so many people, so many employers are: These are among the best people they have.  And they were, in a way, forced by the economy, the good economy, because it's hard to get people.  Down to 3.5 [percent] and actually, it went to 3.6 [percent] because we're opening up the valve.  They're hiring more and more people.  That was a positive.  Two hundred and twenty-five thousand, as I said.      But the prisoners are now working and they're doing a phenomenal job, for the most part.      Our booming prosperity is being fueled by our historic regulatory reduction campaign.  In my first month in office, I imposed a “two-for-one” rule, requiring for every one new regulation, two old ones must be eliminated.      Well, that turned out to be -- we went to four, we went to six, we went to eight.  We had a period where we were at 22 to 1.  Twenty-two to one.  And we're eliminating, on average, $3,100 in regulation costs per family a year.  Nobody has ever even heard of such a thing.      And we're getting housing built too.  We have rules and regulations -- made it impossible.  I hope California gets their act together because the cost of regulation is almost the cost of a house.  And they need housing, and they can't -- they can't build it.  They don't know what they're doing.      The Governors’ Initiative on Regulatory Innovation is designed to continue our unprecedented progress through straight -- state-level deregulation.      Governor Doug Ducey has achieved 3 for 1 on cuts.  Where's Doug?  Good job, Doug.  (Laughter.)  Well, you only won by about 17 percent, so, you know.   He should be -- in fact, at 17 percent, you should be at 4 to 1, I think.  Right?  (Laughter.)  That was a big win.  A big win.  That was a great win.      And Governor Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma has reached 2 for 1 and going to 3 for 1.  Where's Kevin?  Hi, Kevin.  Good job.  Great.        We're also working together -- and many of you in the room have done much better than 1 for 1.  Some of you, you're up to four.      We're also working together to reform occupational licensing.  Just this year, at least 12 governors have taken action to reduce burdensome occupational licensing requirements.  That means licensing, where either it's unnecessary or where you actually can do it very quickly.  There are some licensing requirements that takes years to get approved, and it could take a matter of days.  Could take a matter of days.      Governors understand the need to get infrastructure projects quickly approved.  To speed up permitting and reduce traffic conjection -- congestion, last month, we issued a proposed new rule to reduce permitting and the permitting time for new infrastructure by more than 70 percent.  Highways that were taking 12 years to get approved, 14, 15, 17, 21 years, we're trying to get it down to one year.  That means you may get rejected if you have an environmental problem or a safety problem.  In many cases, these highways became much more unsafe and they took a long time because they’d try and get away from certain problems, including nesting.  But they’d try and get away, and instead of having a straight run, they’d create curves in the highway, which obviously make it much more dangerous.  And they had problems with some of those highways.  And they're much more expensive to build -- not only the time -- the design but the time.  I mean, by the time they get it approved.      So we have highways that would take 21 years.  We have roads that took 10 years, 11 years, 12 years to get approved.  And Elaine Chao has been fantastic.  Elaine, thank you very much.  The job you're doing at transportation, we appreciate it very much.      And, Jeff, you were over there for a long while, I will tell you, so I have to give you at least partial credit.  Right now you're at a different location.  (Laughter.)      But you really did -- you did a great job on that.  And -- so we have it down to two years now, but we -- I think we're going to get it down to one.  And very good chance you'll be rejected if it doesn't meet environmental standards and tests.      And we are rescuing students from failing government schools by introducing the Education Freedom Scholarships and Opportunity Act, which will replicate the great success of tax-credit scholarships available in 18 states.  We believe very strongly, or at least many of the people in this room -- not all of them -- but believe very strongly in school choice.      We're also working closely with the states to improve public safety.  This includes the incredible work being done by our nation’s heroic ICE officers.  We've moved thousands of MS-13 out of the country, back to where they came from -- whether it's Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Mexico.      And, as you know, we reached agreements with those countries so that we can do that.  And the past administration, they wouldn't accept them.  They'd come from one of the countries, tough countries, and we would send them back and they wouldn't take them.  Not me.  They take them now.  Now they say, "Thank you so much for sending them back.  We were looking for this killer.  Thank you very much.  We appreciate it."  But they all take them now.  They take them very quickly.      Before, they used to say, "Don't ever even think about landing that airplane.  We don't want those people."  So they take them back rapidly.  Someday they'll tell the real story as to why, but that's the way it has to be.  We have thousands and thousands of killers and gang members that we're bringing back to countries that now accept them.  They were not taking them back.      Last year alone, ICE officers arrested 120,000 criminal aliens charged with nearly 10,000 burglaries, 5,000 sexual assaults, 45,000 violent assaults, and 2,000 murders.  You know, some of them we keep here when they -- it's very egregious.  We don't necessarily trust other people to take care of justice, so we keep them here.  But, you know, we don't like having people in our prisons for 50 years, 60 years.  And we have to pay for it.  And so, for the most part, we bring them back to their countries and give them a very bad recommendation.       State and local cooperation is the backbone of this effort.  We have a tremendous relationship with many of the states and governments, cities.  It's essential that all of our states and cities honor ICE detainer requests to ensure that safe transfer of criminal aliens into federal custody takes place.      Jurisdictions that adopt sanctuary policies that instead release these criminals put all of Americans in harm’s way.  A very, very, serious problem.  I mean, we’re all here for the same thing.  I know we have different policies, different feelings, different everything, but sanctuary cities are causing us a tremendous problem in this country.      We have stone-cold killers that they don’t want to hand over to us, and then they escape into communities and they cause, in some cases, tremendous havoc.      Another vital element of federal and state cooperation is the relentless fight against opioids and the drug epidemic.  We’ve had great progress.  We’re down 18, 19, 20 percent in some of the communities.  The First Lady has been very much involved in that.  Kellyanne has been very much involved in that.  A lot of the people in this room -- almost everybody in this room has been involved in it.      So -- and I want to thank you for that.  We’re making progress.  Very tough.  All over the world -- this is a problem all over the world.  This is a big problem here, but it’s a big problem almost everywhere.      For the first time in three decades, we’ve achieved a decline in drug overdose deaths, including, as an example, Ohio.  Mike is around here someplace.  Mike?  Mike?  Mike?      AIDE:  He left, sir.      THE PRESIDENT:  Twenty-three percent in Ohio.  Nineteen percent in Pennsylvania.  Ten percent in Wisconsin.  And we’re averaging probably about 16, 17 percent.  So it’s been -- it’s not enough, but we’re making a lot of progress.  And if we had more help in Congress, we could get it even lower.      My administration is truly grateful for the leadership, cooperation, partnership, and friendship of the governors in this room.  No matter our party, we must work together and really do the job.  And I think that’s what’s happening.  Our country is now receiving thousands and thousands of companies that are coming into the United States.  Some had left and some had never been here before, but they all want to be where the action is.      We lost 60,000 plants and factories over the years.  Sixty thousand.  It’s hard to even conceive.  And we’ve got many of them back, and many are coming back.  And they’re moving to a lot of your states.  I know a lot of them are coming into Texas and Florida and a lot of different locations -- South Carolina, North Carolina, Pennsylvania.  It’s incredible what’s happening.  Ohio is a big beneficiary.  Michigan is a tremendous beneficiary, with the car companies.  Tremendous.  Somebody was saying they’re so happy in Michigan.      And I meet with Prime Minister Abe of Japan.  I say, “You have to -- Shinzo, you have to get more car companies here.  We have a deficit with you.  You have to get them in.”  And they are -- they’re sending a lot of companies.  We hadn’t built a plant in years and years and decades, frankly.  And now we have car plants being built all over the United States.  And we have expansions -- a lot of expansions of existing plants.      So it’s been, really, an incredible thing.  We’re doing incredible work.  And we’re the number-one country in the world right now, in terms of the economy.      When I was running, and long before I was running, I’d always heard that China -- I have great respect for President Xi and great respect for China, frankly -- but that China was going to be the number-one economy in the world during 2019.  Actually, it was 2018, 2019.  You all heard it, that we were going to go to number two.      And I will tell you, we had our battle.  And we took in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs and other things.  And you saw the -- it was just announced the trade deficit was the lowest it’s been in years with China.  It just happened two days ago.  They just announced.      But we are now so far ahead of China, in terms of the size of our economy, that if somebody is smart that’s at this position for times into the future -- hopefully, after five years -- I won’t joke by saying “nine, thirteen, fifteen.”  (Laughter.)  It drives them crazy -- for the governors.  It drives them crazy.  (Laughter.)  Even when I joke, it drives them crazy, so I won’t say that.  But if somebody smart is in this position, it’ll never happen where China overtakes us.  It’ll never happen.      So we, right now, have -- we’re so far ahead of them.  They’re not catching us for a long time.  If the wrong person stands here or sits in the White House -- that beautiful chair in the White House, in the Oval Office -- sure, they’re going to -- you know, they’re going to catch.  They have 1.5 billion people; we have 350 million people.  But we have a very special place and a very special country, and nobody is going to catch us if we have great leadership.  And you have been great leaders for your states, and we appreciate very much that you’re at the White House.  Thank you very much.      So what we’re going to do is -- I thought maybe we could take a few questions.  If you want, we could leave the press there.  The press would love that, I’m sure.  Or we could have them leave and we could talk in a different fashion.  You won’t have to showboat.  (Laughter.)      So would anybody prefer -- we’ll leave them here for a little while, and then we’ll go a different route perhaps.  Any questions, please?  Please.      GOVERNOR PARSON:  Mr. President, (inaudible) do you feel like your infrastructure?  You’ve got a budget coming out, I think, today.  Where are you going to be on infrastructure?      THE PRESIDENT:  We’re doing a big infrastructure potential deal.  We need -- obviously, we need help from -- we need the votes of Democrats.  They’ve been so focused on something else and wasting a lot of people’s time, although my poll numbers have been driven way the hell up, so that’s one way to do it, I guess.      But they have been so focused on the impeachment hoax that they haven’t had time to do anything else.  But we’re ready to go with a big infrastructure bill if they’re ready to approve it.  We’re also ready to lower drug prices very substantially.  We did -- last year was the first time in 51 years that drug prices -- prescription drug prices -- went down.  First time in 51 years.      But to get them really down, we have to do exactly what we’re doing.  We’re -- we have -- we need the votes of the Democrats, and they just didn’t have the time to do anything.  So maybe they will now have the time.      But we’re all ready to go on infrastructure, on reducing drug prices very substantially.  We can reduce drug prices unbelievably easily and substantially, but we have to get Democrat votes.  Okay?      Thank you.  Thank you, Governor.  Please.      GOVERNOR RICKETTS:  Mr. President, you’ve had a lot of successes on trade -- USMCA, China, and Japan.  What’s next on your agenda for trade?      THE PRESIDENT:  So, Europe has been treating us very badly.  European Union.  It was really formed so they could treat us badly.  So they’ve done their job.  That was one of the primary reasons.  But they treat us badly there and they treat us badly, frankly, on NATO.  But NATO, I’ve gotten, as you know, $130 billion more they will pay.      Because NATO was going down like a rocket ship.  Our past leaders would go over, make a speech, and leave.  I went over, made a speech, and said, “You got to pay more.”  Because the United States was paying everything.  Essentially, they were paying close to 100 percent.  And I let them know: “You have no choice.”  And they are paying more.  They paid $130 billion.      I think my biggest fan in the whole world is Secretary General Stoltenberg, head of NATO.  And he said he can't believe it, because for 20 years it went down.  It's like a roller coaster dip.  No -- none of this; just down.  They paid less and less and less.  And it got more expensive and more expensive with time.      But I raised $130 billion my first meeting, and I raised $400 billion the second meeting.  So now it's in good shape.  But, you know, we were taken advantage of by a lot of countries -- a lot of allies, frankly.  Sometimes allies do a better job on you than the enemy, because the enemies you watch out for, right?      So, Pete, I think that the next thing could be Europe where we talk to them very seriously and they have to do it because they've -- there's been a -- over the last 10, 12 years, there's been a tremendous deficit with Europe.  They have barriers that are incredible.  I didn't do -- I didn’t want to do them while we were doing China, Japan, South Korea.  You know, I didn’t want to do the whole world at one time.  Does that make sense?  (Laughter.)  People have learned that doesn’t work out too well, even on trade.      So we're going to be starting that.  They know that.  They know that.  They're ready for it.  You know, we made a good deal with Japan.  We're going to do a bigger, much more comprehensive deal.  But we're taking in $40 billion from Japan, which they didn’t expect.  Nobody expected.  We've done great on the trade.  It's going to have a tremendous impact.      Now, the virus that we're talking about having to do -- you know, a lot of people think that goes away in April with the heat -- as the heat comes in.  Typically, that will go away in April.  We're in great shape though.  We have 12 cases -- 11 cases, and many of them are in good shape now.  So -- but a very good question.      Yes, please.  Colorado.      GOVERNOR POLIS:  Yeah.  You mentioned deporting criminal aliens.  What about also -- what are your ideas for fixing it for the -- for the, kind of, for the DREAMers and the folks who are here that are hardworking?  And, you know, it's really tough out there, and they work on our farms, and the kids who grew up here.  And how do we do that, and at the same time you're also, kind of, enforcing the other side for those who violate our laws?      THE PRESIDENT:  Well, we almost had a deal on that with the Democrats, as you know.  It was done.  And then we lost the decision, and the Democrats said, "Trump?  Who's that?  Trump?  Who’s that?"  But we were very close to having a deal on the DREAMers with the House and with the Senate.  It would've been a very good deal for everybody.      So we're looking at that, but now we're before the Supreme Court.  I think we're going to win, because if we don’t win, that gives the President of the United States unbelievable powers.      You know, President Obama signed that bill.  It was an executive order.  And when he signed it, he said -- essentially, he said, "I don’t have the right to do this, but I'm going to do it anyway."  And he was upheld by a judge.  And anyway, it will be before the Supreme Court pretty soon.  And at some point, I think we'll probably make a deal on that.  I do feel that way.  Okay?  Good question.      A question?  Yes, please, Gary.      How's Mitt Romney?      GOVERNOR HERBERT:  I haven’t talked to him.      THE PRESIDENT:  You keep him.  (Laughter.)  We don’t want him.  Go ahead.      GOVERNOR HERBERT:  States are used to --      THE PRESIDENT:  Doing a great job in Utah, by the way.  Go ahead, Gary.      GOVERNOR HERBERT:  States are used to balancing the budget.  So I think, by and large, we don’t spend more than we take in.  And I know you've unveiled your budget today, and I know there's -- a concern for you is the growing debt.      THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah.      GOVERNOR HERBERT:  I know we've had nonpartisan economists talk to us as governors saying this is going to come back to bite us in the future if we don’t do something about it.      THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah, I agree.      GOVERNOR HERBERT:  What are we doing, and how can we get to a more balanced budget -- certainly reduce the debt as opposed to continuing to grow the debt?      THE PRESIDENT:  So we're putting out a plan today that, over a period of -- not that long a period of time, brings our budget and our deficit down to what it should be, which is close to zero.  And I think people are going to be very impressed by it.      We're not touching Medicare.  We want to keep Medicare.  We're not touching Social Security.  We're making our country stronger again.  We're not decreasing Medicaid.  But we're doing a lot of things that are very good, including waste and fraud -- tremendous waste and tremendous fraud.      So we're doing that, in terms of certain programs.  And we're taking good care of our military.  We're increasing spending on our nuclear program because we have no choice -- because of what China is doing, what Russia is doing in particular.  And so we have a very big number in for that.      Now, at the same time, Russia and China both want to negotiate with us to stop this craziness of spending billions and billions of dollars on nuclear weapons.  But the only way, until we have that agreement -- the only thing I can do is create, by far, the strongest nuclear force anywhere in the world, which, as you know, over the last three years, we very much upgraded our nuclear.      But we're buying new.  We have the super-fast missiles -- tremendous number of the super-fast.  We call them "super-fast," where they're four, five, six, and even seven times faster than an ordinary missile.  We need that because, again, Russia has some.  I won't tell you how they got it.  They got it, supposedly, from plans from the Obama administration when we weren’t doing it.  And that’s too bad.  That’s not good.  But that's how it happened.  And China, as you know, is doing it.      So we have a tremendous $740 billion for military.  But again, it's also jobs in the United States.  So it's -- you know, everything is made in the United States, proudly.  And we have the best in the world.  We have the best equipment in the world.  The best missiles, planes, rockets.  Everybody wants our equipment.  We have to be very selective, obviously.      But we're -- we’re going to have a very good budget with a very powerful military budget because we have no choice -- okay? -- about that.      Ron, do you have something about, for instance, your plan of buying and cutting prescription drugs?  You want to tell them what we're doing?      GOVERNOR DESANTIS:  Well, so we had a panel about the -- your administration's approval under an old 2003 law that prior administrations did not utilize to allow safe and affordable drugs to be imported from Canada.  So that’s going through the regulatory process.      We, in Florida, are working our own parallel track.  As soon as your rules are done and in place, you know, we're looking to buy.  And, you know, we can save a lot of money just for things like our prison system --      THE PRESIDENT:  Right.      GOVERNOR DESANTIS:  -- because the drugs are a lot cheaper.      So we think there'll be good savings here.  But I think it opens up a larger conversation, which I know you want to have, about: Why are we funding the drugs for everyone in the world?      THE PRESIDENT:  Right.      GOVERNOR DESANTIS:  You know, Americans want relief and I know you've fought hard for that.  But thanks for approving the Florida program.      THE PRESIDENT:  You can go -- and Colorado is doing that also -- you can go to certain countries, and the exact same pill, made in the exact same plant, factory -- wherever it may be -- from one of the big companies will sell for 50, 60, 70 percent less than the United States is paying, because it's broken; it's a broken system.      And so one of the things I’ve authorized is that certain states have requested -- probably after this, everybody in this room will go back -- (laughter) -- but if we buy from Canada, you’ll save 50 percent at this moment.      Now, that may go up or everything may come down.  One thing is going to happen or another.  Either the drug companies are going to raise it and not make it possible to buy.  They’re going to raise it in Canada, meaning so you won’t be able to do it, or everyone is going to go down.  Because you have a middleman in the middle that are making a fortune.  Nobody knows who these people are, but they’re getting rich.  Because we had a broken system and it’s about time it gets fixed.  So a lot of -- a lot of shakeup is going to take place.      But if we had Democrats helping us, we could solve this problem in one day, but they don’t want to vote again.  They don’t have any time to vote.  They don’t have any time to do anything other than what they do.  So they seem to be freed up a lot now.  They’re freed up a lot, actually, I hear.      How about a couple of more and then we’ll let the press go and relax and take it easy?  (Laughter.)      Please, Governor.      GOVERNOR ABBOTT:  Your administration has done a -- your administration has done a great job with regard to addressing the opioid crisis.      THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.      GOVERNOR ABBOTT:  An aspect about that is the growing problem of fentanyl, especially fentanyl coming across the southern border.      THE PRESIDENT:  Right.      GOVERNOR ABBOTT:  And it is my understanding that there’s some information about a lot of that coming from China.      THE PRESIDENT:  Yes.      GOVERNOR ABBOTT:  What I’m curious about is what the status is with regard to the reduction of fentanyl coming from China and our ability to corral that and to reduce that.      THE PRESIDENT:  So, as you know, it’s gone down.  I met with President Xi on the trade deal.  And I said, “You have to stop fentanyl coming into our country.  You have to do me a favor and stop it.  You have to get it stopped.”  It has to end -- because it’s a favor for our country.  And we’re losing thousands and thousands of people to fentanyl.  I mean, the size of a pinhead can kill a lot of people.  It’s unbelievably bad.  And they send it direct and they send it through Mexico and through the border.  And we would catch a lot of it, but even if a little bit got through, it’s a very deadly drug.      And they have cut it way back.  And they’ve also criminalized -- it wasn’t a criminal.  They considered a corporate kind of a thing.  It was a drug of a different nature.  And now, they’ve put it into their criminal statutes.  And criminal, in China, for drugs, by the way, means that’s serious; they’re getting a maximum penalty.  And you know what the maximum penalty is in China for that.  And it goes very quickly.      It’s interesting: Where you have Singapore, they have very little drug problem; where you have China, they have very little drug problem.  States with a very powerful death penalty on drug dealers don’t have a drug problem.  I don’t know that our country is ready for that.  But if you look throughout the world, the countries with a powerful death penalty -- death penalty -- with a fair but quick trial, they have very little, if any, drug problem.  That includes China.      But they’ve put fentanyl now into their -- he’s working on that, and we’ve -- it’s gone down a lot, as you know.  They’ve put it into their penalty system, and people will be getting the death penalty in China now for fentanyl.  That was a big thing.  It’s not -- it’s not part of the trade agreement, but it is part of the trade agreement.  And they have acted on it.      Now, of course, they’re working on something else.  And I think they’re doing a good job on that, on the virus.  I had a long talk with President Xi -- for the people in this room -- two nights ago, and he feels very confident.  He feels very confident.  And he feels that, again, as I mentioned, by April or during the month of April, the heat, generally speaking, kills this kind of virus.  So that would be a good thing.      But we’re in great shape in our country.  We have 11, and the 11 are getting better.  Okay?      It’s a great question.  I think that fentanyl is a huge problem.  It’s almost, at this moment, 100 percent made in China.  And they are starting to enforce it on our behalf.  We have a good relationship with China now.  Probably the best we’ve ever had.  Okay.      Okay, so I think what we’ll do -- any other questions from the governors?  Yes, please.      GOVERNOR HUTCHINSON:  Mr. President, I want to thank you for giving the states more flexibility in healthcare, particularly.  Last week, your Health and Human Services announced the Medicaid block grant --      THE PRESIDENT:  Right.      GOVERNOR HUTCHINSON:  -- waiver authority for the states.  Arkansas will be pursuing that.  But I wanted to thank you for that and also ask you: In terms of your State of the Union Address, you talked about healthcare.  Is there anything that we can expect this year in Congress, with an election year -- is there anything that we can get done that you’re going to be a priority in Congress this year?      THE PRESIDENT:  So we did a big thing on healthcare.  We got rid of the individual mandate on Obamacare, which basically made Obamacare not Obamacare anymore.  It was the most unpopular thing in Obamacare, and basically, you paid a lot of money for the privilege of not paying to have bad healthcare.  And nobody wanted that.  And we got rid of it.  Big, big move.      And I had a choice: I can make -- so it really isn’t Obamacare anymore, but I can -- and we do -- as you know, we left preexisting conditions and everything.  We left it.  Because preexisting will always have -- and I think I can speak for Democrats too.  But we are all going to have preexisting conditions.  We are always going to make sure that that’s taken care of, the preexisting condition situation.      I think I can speak -- I know I can speak for Republicans.  I think I can speak for Democrats.  It’s a -- it’s a part of our society right now, and nobody is going to change it.  If a law is overturned, that’s okay because the new law is going to have it in.  The new law would replace the old law that was overturned.  It would have preexisting conditions.  So I think that’s important to say.      But one thing that we will be doing is, at least from a Republican standpoint -- you have 180 million people out there that have great health insurance.  They love it.  Private health insurance.  And we’re going to save it.  Other people are thinking about terminating it, which is brutal for unions and others.  So I don’t know how they’re going to get around that, but we’re going to be saving that.      But when I took over, I had a choice.  We got rid of the most unpopular thing in Obamacare, almost got rid of Obamacare, but essentially we did.  But now I said: Do we run it really well, or do we run it really poorly?  Do we make everybody unhappy and blame the Democrats, or do we make people relatively happy with a bad law?  It’s a bad law.  Bad -- it’s a bad policy.  But do we make people relatively happy?  And I chose -- I felt I had an obligation to do the latter.      So it’s been working out pretty well, and it goes along, and we’ve done block grants.  We’ve done a lot of different things with different states.  And we’re tailor-made -- really, it’s tailor-made for different states.  We are doing thing for states.  Some people want block grants, some people want something else.  And we’re working with individual states, and I think governors are really happy and really surprised that we’re doing that.      I could’ve just cold-lined it and just said, “We’re not doing anything,” and everybody would be happy, everybody would be complaining.  But I think the best thing for our country to do is the way we’re doing it, until we get a replacement for Obamacare, a full replacement, that’s going to be great.      And I would say this: If we change the House -- if we get the House, the Republicans get the House back, we will have that; otherwise, we’ll just have to negotiate with the Democrats.  And I think at some point they will come around and start negotiating these things, because they really are good.      So, media, thank you very much.  We appreciate it and we’ll have a little more discussion.  Thank you very much.  (Applause.) END                      11:45 A.M. EST

Office of the Press Secretary FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 10, 2020

Statement from the Press Secretary Announcing President Donald J. Trump’s Upcoming Travel to India   President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will visit India on February 24 – 25, 2020. The President and The First Lady will travel to New Delhi and Ahmedabad, which is in Prime Minister Modi’s home state of Gujarat and played such an important role in Mahatma Gandhi’s life and leadership of the Indian independence movement. During a phone call over the weekend, President Trump and Prime Minister Modi agreed the trip will further strengthen the United States-India strategic partnership and highlight the strong and enduring bonds between the American and Indian people.

West Wing Reads Americans Have Failed People With Mental Illness. Trump’s New Budget Will Change That

Americans Have Failed People With Mental Illness. Trump’s New Budget Will Change That. “President Trump is exceptionally focused on fighting for Americans who can’t fight for themselves and confronting problems other administrations, Democratic and Republican, have ignored. This is particularly true for Americans who suffer from addiction and serious mental disorders,” White House Domestic Policy Council Director Joe Grogan writes. Nearly 50 million Americans experienced some form of mental illness in 2018. The President’s new budget, out today, proposes the boldest reforms in decades to help them.    Click here to read more. President Trump’s fiscal 2021 budget comes “with boosts to programs the public support, cuts in those that, for years, conservative presidents have promised but never delivered on, and a long-term promise to cut the deficit.” The Trump Administration “is also putting a focus on rural America by increasing spending for roads, healthcare, and internet service,” Paul Bedard reports for the Washington Examiner. “Democrats talk a big game about raising living standards for the ‘little man,’ but the Trump administration is getting it done: from school choice, criminal justice reform, opportunity zones, record-low minority unemployment, and more. Democrats have promised reform on these issues for generations — but Trump is actually getting it done for disenfranchised urban communities,” Adam Brandon writes in the Washington Examiner “There have been many spectacular jobs reports over the past three years, but the January 2020 jobs report is really quite exceptional.” One big reason for that is an increase in labor-force participation among workers who had left the job market entirely. “Rising wages and an abundance of job opportunities are enticing more Americans to enter the workforce,” former CKE Restaurants CEO Andy Puzder writes for Fox News.

REMARKS BY PRESIDENT TRUMP AT THE 2020 GOVERNORS' BALL

Office of the Press Secretary FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 9, 2020 REMARKS BY PRESIDENT TRUMP AT THE 2020 GOVERNORS' BALL East Room   7:53 P.M. EST      THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Thank you very much.  (Applause.)  Thank you.  Thank you very much, everyone.  It's great to have our governors with us, and spouses and friends.  Please, sit.  Please.      So this is my fourth one with our First Lady, and I want to thank the First Lady for having done such a beautiful job with the settings and all of the things.  She works very hard on these things, so I want to thank her very much.  (Applause.)           I also want to thank Mike Pence, Vice President.  Fantastic person.  (Applause.)  Mike and Karen, thank you very much for working so hard.  (Applause.)      So we have an incredible group of people.  I know just about all of you, and we argue a little bit, but 90 percent of the time we get along.  And I just said, "Call the White House, call me anytime you have difficulty, because we're all in this together."      Our states are doing fantastically well.  We have a tremendous sampling of our governors.  Great -- a great turnout tonight, which we appreciate.  And anything I can do to help, you're going to let me know; you're going to call.      I thought we'd do something a little different tonight that's never been done before, and rather than sitting and making small talk all night, I thought we'll have the press leave.  When they depart, we'll start asking questions, making statements.  You can make -- if you have any suggestions, we'd love to hear them.  If you have any questions, I'd love to answer them for you.      But we'll have an exciting evening, and it's a little bit different.  That hasn’t been done.  We're meeting tomorrow morning, as you know, but this will take a little bit of the edge off tomorrow, but that’s okay with me.  That’s fine.  (Laughter.)      So we're going to have a tremendous evening.  And again, I'd like to thank the military, the bands -- the people who work so hard -- the chefs.  They've been just fantastic.  (Applause.)      We had a tremendous -- we had a tremendous week.  The State of the Union was something that I think people really enjoyed.  I very much appreciate the receptivity to what we all had to say.  And some of you were there; many of you were there, actually.  But I -- it was very exciting.      And then, of course, as you know, last week, we made our deal with China.  We made our deal with Japan a couple of weeks before that -- $40 billion.  We made a tremendous -- a tremendous USMCA deal -- Mexico and Canada.  We've totally renegotiated the deal with South Korea.  It was not a good deal for the United States; now it's a great deal for the United States.  And many other things, all inuring to the benefit of your states and to you as governors.      So I just want to congratulate you on having done, in all cases, a great job.  Most of the states, almost everyone, has set a record.  You've had a record -- virtually every state.  I can almost not even have to put it down in a speech, because I go to states, I speak and I say, "You've had the best year you've ever had."      But the fact is you've -- you've all -- I know you very well.  You've done a tremendous job.  It's not easy being governor.  And it's -- you just look at the way our country is doing: We've never done as well as we're doing right now.      So it's an honor to have you all.  And we're going to be doing some questions and some statements in just a little while.  To the media, thank you very much for attending.  I appreciate it.  Thank you.  Thank you.  (Applause.)                          END                7:57 P.M. EST