Aurelia Butler

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday credited Brian Deese, his outgoing top White House economic adviser, for helping achieve the administration’s economic vision for the country.Biden said Deese’s work as director of the National Economic Council (NEC) was critical to ensuring passage of a series of major laws, including the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, that have bolstered the U.S. economy.”Brian has … helped steer my economic vision into reality, and managed the transition of our historic economic recovery to steady and stable growth,” Biden said.Deese, who is expected to step down in mid-February, told MSNBC that Biden had not made any decision on his replacement.Officials familiar with the process told Reuters on Wednesday that no final decision on a replacement was expected before the Democratic president gives his State of the Union speech to Congress next Tuesday.Biden is focused on that speech and had not made a decision on the top jobs at the NEC or the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), officials said.Biden aides have considered candidates including Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard for the NEC director’s position, and long-time Biden confidant Jared Bernstein to head the CEA, according to people familiar with the process.Brainard is a Harvard-educated Democrat who has been at the Fed for nearly a decade and served as Treasury’s top international affairs expert under President Barack Obama.Biden is making over his top economic team as the Fed continues to hike interest rates but the U.S. labor market remains tight, raising the prospect of an unusual recession without significant job losses.The next NEC director and CEA chair will help shape the White House’s economic policy, from executive orders to congressional spending bills and raising the debt limit, in the face of a more hostile U.S. House of Representatives, now controlled by Republicans.Other candidates for the NEC job include Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Reuters reported last week.Only the CEA job requires Senate confirmation.Deese plans to return to his wife and two children, who had remained in Maine over the past two years, officials said. More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday joined former President Bill Clinton to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1993 law that allows Americans to take unpaid medical leave, and vowed to keep fighting for paid leave for all Americans.The Family and Medical Leave Act, the first Clinton signed after taking office, guarantees that certain workers may take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave without losing their jobs or health insurance benefits. The law applies to public agencies, schools and private sector employers with at least 49 employees.”It’s about being a country where women and all people can both work and raise a family,” Biden told a packed event at the White House. “How can we compete in a global economy if millions of American parents, especially moms, can’t join the workforce?”Biden’s legislation ensuring paid family and medical leave for Americans has been thwarted by Republicans who argue it is too costly – and some Democrats – in Congress. On Thursday, he signed a presidential memorandum urging federal agencies provide leave without pay for federal workers, including during their first year of service.He said he would continue to push for a national program of paid family and medical leave to bring the United States in line with “every single other major economy in the world.” The United States is the only wealthy country where women are not routinely entitled to paid maternity leave.”I call on Congress to act and I’ll continue fighting as I know you will as well,” he said. “No American should ever … have to choose between a paycheck and taking care of a family member or taking care of themselves.”Biden’s memorandum is aimed at ensuring that federal workers can get leave for caring for a new child, dealing with their own or a family member’s serious health condition, managing family affairs when a family member is called to active duty, or grieving the death of a family member, the White House said.The Defense Department this month expanded its paid parental leave program to allow both active-duty parents to take 12 weeks off after the birth, adoption or placement into long-term foster care of a child.Biden’s memo directs agencies to use their discretion to aid workers, especially during their first year of service before they qualify for family and medical leave or paid parental leave. It directs the Office of Personnel Management to provide recommendations on paid and unpaid “safe leave” for federal workers affected by domestic or dating violence, sexual assault or stalking, according to a White House fact sheet.Jen Klein, who heads the White House Gender Policy Council, told reporters the Biden administration would “do whatever we can do by executive action” to advance protections for workers while continuing to push for national legislation ensuring paid family and medical leave. Heather Boushey, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said such changes would buttress the strength of the U.S. economy. Increased women’s workforce participation had added about 10% – or $2.14 trillion – to the U.S. economy since the 1970s, she said.Boushey said a recent study estimated that about 56% of U.S. workers – or 90 million people – had care responsibilities outside of their full-time jobs, and the situation was growing more dire given the aging population. More

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Sam Bankman-Fried is in talks with U.S. prosecutors to resolve a dispute over the FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder’s bail conditions, his lawyer said on Thursday. The judge overseeing Bankman-Fried’s criminal fraud case in federal court in Manhattan on Wednesday temporarily barred the 30-year-old former billionaire from contacting employees of FTX or his Alameda Research hedge fund, after prosecutors raised concerns he might tamper with witnesses. His lawyers had previously countered that he had contacted current executives at the now-bankrupt exchange to offer “assistance” and not to interfere, and so the additional bail condition was not needed.Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty and is under house arrest at his parents’ California home.In a court filing, defense lawyer Mark Cohen asked U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan to postpone a Feb. 7 hearing on the matter, as well as a Feb. 2 deadline to explain why he should be able to access and transfer cryptocurrency before trial.”The parties would like to continue these discussions, which we are optimistic will lead to an agreement between the parties in the next few days and eliminate the need for further litigation,” Cohen wrote, noting that prosecutors consented to the request. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan declined to comment. Once worth an estimated $26 billion, Bankman-Fried was arrested in December after FTX collapsed.Prosecutors have said he looted billions of dollars in FTX customer funds to plug losses at Alameda. Two former colleagues have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with prosecutors. Bankman-Fried has acknowledged risk management failures, but said FTX collapsed because of a liquidity crunch and that he did not steal funds. A trial is scheduled for Oct. 2. More