[background noises] the president of the united states accompanied by director of consumer financial bureau. >> gf=ood afternoon. whether it is a credit card bill, internet bill, grocery bill, or anything else in a monthly budget, president biden at lowering costs and stopping profiteering. today we are taking action to stop excessive fees in the tvbanking industry. we are closing a loophole abused by the credit card industry for years to harvest■z■yn junk fees.

reducing the typical late fee from $32 down to $8 s estimated $10 billion each year this is in addition to so many other action the pridnnouncing today to crackdown on junk and help consumers save real money. last decade credit card giants have been hiking late fees every year almost in■= lockstep. even as technology has brought many of their costs down they have raised interest rates, squeezing american families out ofn extra $25 billion in interest charges last year alone. that's why we are working across government to get you a better deal to make it easier to switch from your height rate credit cards, bait and switch tactics on someards and

going after the online tricks that drive consumers to bigger credit card issuers will worsen service and terms for this work is critical some of the biggest players in so manyndustries are looking to get even bigger and gain more power to corner the market. thank you president biden leadea stop to that profiteering and other unfair practices that keep costs high for so many families but it is my pleasure to turn it over to the president of the united states. pplause] >> 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 not capitalism. it is exploitation. been seeing although some small scale in the minds of people you out of those numbers they are gigantic. we are taking it on. is happenie pandemic disrupted supply chain we all know that. drills up costs in automobiles. the prices haven't come down the state. the prophets have a sword it's time for those prices to come back down. the good news is inflation is low's it has been three years. most inflation rates imany havet

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 mor for less and less. in fact soon small snack companies you won't even notice. when they charge are just as much for the same size bag of potato chips only there's a lot fewer chips in it. i will tell you who did notice, 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 that are added to your bill without your knowledge. some companies have been caught breaking the law while overcharging consumers for the american people are tired of been played for

it's one thing no matter how rich or poor you don't like 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 trade commission. keep price high while engaging in illegal practices are fraudulent or unfair, deceptive or anticompetitive will enforce the law. we will enforce the law. today we are announcing consumer financial protection bureau is finalizing the rp stop credit cd companies from ripping you off with late fees. under the law banks are not supposed t charge fees that are higher than the cost banks have to engage to collect the late payment. 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 hard-working americans $14 billion in 2022. with the announcement of this new rule late fees are down to $8, $8 instead of a current average of $32 and late fee 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 45 million americans are typically have to pay late fees. th of money. let me close with this, fair competition is the key to my 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 can to keep costs fr hard-working families with that i'm going to turn this over to the national economic councposea meeting with the business roundtable on the telephone i'm going to hang around and listen little bit. so with your permission i like to stay my staff will tell me when the dropdead hours occurs and note. thank you all for the work you're doing a really mean it makes a big difference. when i raise this issue a year or so ago with some of my no ono care much about it. they did not sit at my kitchen table while i was growing up. you care a whole lot when you been played for a soccer no matter how much money you have thank you what you're doing, i'll turn it over to you. >> mr. president i think the

members of your competition counsel have been very busy since you last met with them about six months ago. we also"■e■, got new member ambassador tie his during the competition counsel as well. i thought what we might do is start by hearing from several of your cabinet members about the efforts they have been undertaking over the last few months in t 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 made under the signed and american families. first we finished the final rule on inclusive which bans discrimination on the basis of sex, race, religion and more including being a cooperative th poultry

markets. it's going to prohibit retaliation as livestock producers and poultry growers engaging in very basic acvities. 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.eceptg false or misleading statements and material omissions and contracting contracts operations and contract termination. slide in the slide drag to more proposed res unfair and deceptive practices the second reaffirms the long-standing essentials harm the competition alo sherman clayton act should not be applied to stockyard cases. we are very close to publishing u.s. a label with consumerhe

understanding of what the claimant means working on a label standards and verification guidance for claims such as animal raised practices so consumers can trust those labels and lastly we are wrapping up more than $1 billion of inst challenged us to make in meat and poultry processing infrastructure the spring and summer focused on small independently owned local facilities. !z■n to remote research access. all of this, mr. president, is going to provide additional lower cost for consumers. that's just a few of the many ways we are promoting competition at usda from dome a capacity

that you ordered. usda is using expertise and balance sheet to bring down prices for consumers, promo fairness for farmers and workers with the department of justice, ensuring up the resiliency in food and agriculture supply chain all of which you directed. >> can i ask a question? what kind of response are you getting from farmers and particularly livestock 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 --ocal and independently own processing facilities some of which are farmer owned to the extent they know thad 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 that's

been very much desired in the marketplace across all farm groups and across also associations. so this is very popular with fa]er four years ago in iowa and good to see -- what's the next most important step? i'm not going to ask anybody these questions? >> basically providing opportunity for small and mid-size farms to stay in business. previous administrations, you have to get big oret out, that's helped the large-scale 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 can't emphasize how important this is. we lost 4,054 farms since 1981

all the farmers in north dakota, south dakota, wisconsin, illinois, iowa, nebraska, colorado, missouri oklahoma. gone. your administration is trying to put a stop to that. >> yeah, i think that's a great example of the many ways by giving small farmers sma ranchers a fair shot we are also helping to bring prices down for american consumers on things like poult and meat. one of the unique assets to have competition council is that we've really seen every c■in agency increasing competition and i think secretary austin has undertaken a number of really department of defense so the mr. secretary, perhaps you'd 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 odustrial base eve. in january the department released our first ever national defense industrial strategy. that's our blueprint for building a resilient defense industrial base that's postured to deliver capabilities to our war fighters at speed and scale. and that means that expediting or expanding our relationships with small and companies and industries to diversify our supplier base and lowering barriers to enter in the defense marketplace and so over the next six months, mr. president, we will keep pushing to implement that strategy and foster a more resilient modern and competitive defense industrial base. now, putin's ongoing assault on ukraine has

important this is. our security assistance has kept ukrainians in the fight and strengthened our economy and investment have expanded facilities and created job for american workers and the weapons that we've sent to ukraine to help defend itself are made in america by american workers nationwide from texas to to arizona. now ukraine's fight also shows that we urgently need to expand our own production capabil coory 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 promoteer defense industrial base to keep america safe in the 21st

century. thanks. >> do you have a message to voters? >> you all.■3■#