President biden spoke with reporters i have a meeting with the competition counsel, as part of his initiative to crack down on junk fees. Lloyd austin also talked about his department and how he promotes competition. This iabout 20 minutes. ■h■ distinguished guests, the president of the United States accompanied by roden chopra. Good afternoon. Whether it is a bill, internet mail, grocery bill, or anything else in a monthly budget, President Biden has been focused on promoting competition, lowering costs, and stopping profiteering. Banking industry. We are closing a loophole abused by the credit card industry for years to harst billions of dollars in junk fees. Reducing the typical late fee from 32 down to 8 saving americans an estimated 10 billion each year this is in addition to so many other action the president is announcing today to crackdown on junk and help csumers save real money. Over the last decade credit card giants have been hiking late fees every year a lockstep. Even as technology has brought many of their costs down they have raised interest rates,ue en interest charges last year alone. Th get you a better deal to make it easier to switch from your height rate credit cards, bait and switch tactics on some Credit Card Rewards and going after the online tricks that drive consumers to bigger issuers will worsen service and terms for this work is critical some of the biggest y industries are looking to get even bigger and gain more power to corner the market. Thank you president for your leadership of putting a stop to that profiteering and other unfair p costs high for so many families but it is my pleasure to turn it over to the president of the United States. 12[applause] it is good to see you all. It is nice to see you all in one spot. Look director, thank you for that introduction freight thank you all for the work of the competition counsel. Reducing cost results for american people. I have said before capitalism without competition is nots exp. That is what we have been seeing although some small scale in the minds of people you out of those numbers they are gigantic. We are taking it on. Heres what is happening, the pandemic disrupted supply chain we all know that. Drills up costs iny automobiles. The prices havent come down the the prophets have a sword its time for those prices to come back down. The good news is inflation is lows it has been three years. Rates in the world many have done the right thing. They felt lower cost for americans the supply chains are back to normal some companies are still not passing along the savings to their customers. Many corporations are raising their prices, pad their profits, charging folks more and more for less and less. In fact Soon Companies you wont even notice. When they charge are just as much for the same size bag of potato chips only theres a lot fewer chips in will tell you wh, the cookie monster. He pointed out his cookies are getting smaller. Paying the same price it. I was stunned when i found out that is what actually happened. Some companies are adding junk fees. The hidden costs tha are added to your bill without your knowledge. Some companies have been caught breaking the law while overcharging consumers for the played for suckers. Its one thing no matter how rich or poor you dont like being taken of. That is why today and launching new strikeforce to work on unfair and illegal pricing. To crackdown on companies to break the law while keeping prices high for American Consumers. The new strikeforce will be led by the department of justice and the federal tradeommission. Keep prices high while engaging in illegal practices are fraudulent or unfair, deceptive a law. We will enforce the law. Today we are announcing Consumer FinancialProtection Bureau is e. To help stop Credit Card Companies from ripping you off with late fees. Under the law banks are not supposed to charge late fees that are higher than the cost banks have to engage to colct we estimate banks are generating five times more in late fees then it cost to collect payments they are patting their Profit Margins and charging hardworking americans 14 billion in■4 2022. With the announcement of this new rule late fees are down to 8, 8 instead of a currentof e payments. This action will collectively save families 10 billion in credit card late fees every year. That is the average of 220 in savings annually for more than money. Let me close with this, fair competition is the key economic vision. For that middle out and bottom up not the top down. And it is working. Wages are up more than prices. Unemployment has reached historical lows. Families are finally getting prices are still too high and they should not be this hybrid that is why were going to have thing we can to keep costs for hardworking families with that im going to turn this over to the national council. Im supposed to leave for a meeting with the Business Roundtable on the telephone im little bit. So with your permission i like to stay my staff will tell me when the dropdead hours occurs and passes me a note. Thank you all for the work youre doing a really mean it makes a big difference. When i raise this issue a year or a team they thought no one is going to care much about it. They did not sit at my Kitchen Table while i was growing when u been played for a soccer no matter how much money you have thank you what youre doing, ill turn it over to you. Members of your competition counsel have been very busy since you last met with them about six months ago. We also got a new member ambassador tie his during the competition counsel as well. I thought what we might is start by hearing from several of your cabinet members about the efforts they have been undertaking over announcements y are making for it will start secretary bill sack to hear about the department of agriculture and then perhaps a austin to hear about the department of defense. Mr. President very pleased to be here today to report on the progress usda has competition executive order you signed and american families. First we finished the final rule on inclusive competition and market integrity which bans discrimination on the basis of sex, race, religion and more in cooperative the livestock and poultry markets. Its going to prohibit retaliation as livestock producers and poultry growers activities. Very basic reported to the government forming an association of producers or more. For example it protects livestock produces a poultry growers to communicate with each other and other packers and poultry dealers in search of new opportunities to compete or engage in price discovery. ■h also stops deception including false or misleading statements and material omissions and contracting contracts operations and contractmination. Slide in the slide drag to more proposed rules one tackles unfair and deceptive practices the second reaffirms the longstanding essentials harm the competition along the Sherman Clayton act should not be applied to stockyard cases. We are very close to publishing a final rule that aligns the u. S. A label with consumer understanding of what the claimant means working on a label standards and such as animal raised practices so consumers can trust those labels and lastly we are wrapping up more than 1 billion of investments you challenged us to make in meat and poultry processing infrastructure the spring and summer focused on small independently owned local facilities. To Remote Research access. All of this, mr. President , is going to provi competition more choice and lower cost for consumers. Thats just a few of the many ways we are promoting competition at usda from domestic and fertilizer capacity that you ordered. Usda is using expertise and Balance Sheet to bring down prices for consumers, promote fairness for farmers and workers with the department of justice, ensuring up the resiliency in food and agriculture supply youd and challenged us to do. Can i ask a question . What kind of response are you getting from farmers and producers . Mr. President , they welcome these changes for far too long they felt that they were at the mercy of a relatively small number of integrators and processors. To the extent they now have more options to be able to process their their local and independently own processing facilities some of which are farmer owned to the extent know that they have a balanced Playing Field that they understand better who they are doing business with and they understand they have certain rights, that they can in fact, seek a better deal, all of that, i think, is something thats been very much desired in thew0■ marketplace across all farm groups and across also associations. So this is very popular with farmers. Almost four years ago in iowa and good to see whats the next most important step . Im not going to ask anybody thes questns . Basically providing opportunity for small and midsize farms to stay in si have to get big or get out, thats helped the largescale farming operation. Your administration for the first time is creating an option so that people can stay in business and pass their farms onto their families. I cant emphasize how important this is. Lost 4,054 farms since1 all the farmers in north dakota, south dakota, wisconsin, illinois, iowa, nebraska, colorado, missouri and oklahoma. Gone. Your administration is trying to put a stop to that. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, i think thats a great example of the many ways by giving Small Farmers small ranchers a fair shot we are also helping to bring prices down for American Consumers on things like poultry and meat. One of the unique assets to have Competition Council is that weve reallyee Cabinet Agency increasing competition and i think secretary austin has undertaken a number of really important initiatives at the department of defense so mr. Secretary, perhaps youd like to talk about those next. Thanks, mr. President , as you know well, competition is vital to our Defense Industrial base and to keep america secure we need to make our Defense Industrial base even stronger. In january the Department Released our first ever nationar building a resilient Defense Industrial base thats postured ilities to our war fighters at speed and scale. And that means that expediting or expanding our rel and nontral companies and industries to diversify our Supplier Base and lowering barriers t enter in the defense marketplace and so over the next six months, mr. President , we will keep pushing to implement that strategy and foster more resilient modern and competitive Defense Industrial base. Now, putins ongoing assault on ukraine has underscored how important this is. Our Security Assistance has kept ukrainians in the fight and saved lives and also strengthened our economy and investment have expanded facilities and created job for american wkers and the weapons that weve sent to ukraine to help defend itself are made in america by American Workers to o arizona. Now ukraines fight also shows that we urgently need to expand our own production capabilities and coordinate even more closely with partners and allies and we need congress to pass the National Security supplemental and we can keep investing in our Industrial Base and i appreciate everyone here and your support to make the president s executive order a reality. These initiatives will competition ant revitalize our Defense Industrial base to keep america safe in the 21st century. Thanks. Do you have a message to voters . Thank you all. ■■k , President Biden will give the annual state of the Union Address. We are asking what issue is most important to you. To participate, scan the qr code on your screen or go to cspan. Org pullyour voice to the conversation. A look at the voting so far. As is customary, the president will speak before a joint session ocongress where he expected to outline some policy priorities and share his thoughts on the state of the country. This will be the third state of the Union Address of his presidency, and likely his last speech in front of congress before the 2020 four president ial eleio we will keep the pole open leading up to the president s address. A reminder, our live coverage of the state of the union begins thsday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern with a preview, followed by the president s speech, the gop response by alabama senator katie bread and your reaction on cspan, cspan now, and on cspan. Org. Cspans washington journal. Our live form involving you to e latest issues and government, politics, and public policy. From washington and across the country. Wednesday morning, the super tuesday results and what they mean for the president ial race and key congressional races. Then we will talk about the upcoming funding deadline, border security, and conflicts in gaza and ukraineand ryan claa Bipartisan Group effor to field a Third Party Ticket in 2020 four. Join the conversation at 7 00 eastern wednesdaycspan, cspanr cspan. Org. The 14th anniversary of the Affordable Care act is later this month. The American Enterprise institute hosted a discussion on how Health Care Law hasur