Biden to sign order to address growing hunger crisis

US President Joe Biden is signing two executive orders that will increase food aid, protect job seekers on unemployment and clear a path for federal workers and contractors to get a $15 hourly minimum wage.

President Joe Biden's directive also eliminates previous government order that allowed federal agencies to move many career federal employees into a category without job protections.
AP

President Joe Biden's directive also eliminates previous government order that allowed federal agencies to move many career federal employees into a category without job protections.

President Joe Biden will sign two orders to provide a stopgap measure of financial relief to millions of Americans while Congress begins to consider his much larger $1.9 trillion package to help those affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

The two executive orders that Biden will sign on Friday will increase food aid, protect job seekers on unemployment and clear a path for federal workers and contractors to get a $15 hourly minimum wage.

"The American people can't afford to wait. And so many are hanging by a thread, they need help, and we are committed to doing everything we can to provide that help as quickly as possible," said Brian Deese, director of the White House's National Economic Council on Friday. 

Biden's main initiative to turn the economy around is a $1.9 trillion "rescue" package that he outlined last week, followed by a promised proposal aimed at fuelling job creation and spurring hiring.

"Much, much more is needed. And so that's why, as we take these actions, we will continue to engage with Congress and with the American people around the need to move on the American rescue plan," Deese told reporters.

The orders also instruct government agencies to help people more quickly access federal stimulus payments, allow workers to leave jobs that could jeopardise their health, and expand protections for federal workers, while laying the groundwork for a minimum wage increase for federal contractors.

READ MORE: Biden issues executive orders to undo several Trump policies

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Economy wrecked

Even after two massive government aid packages, the US economy is reeling from the damage caused by the pandemic, which has seen the death toll soar to 400,000.

The Labor Department reported more than 1.3 million new applications for unemployment were filed last week, and as of the first week of January, nearly 16 million people were still receiving some form of government jobless benefits.

Amid the widespread joblessness, many families are struggling to pay for groceries: the Commerce Department reported in mid-December that 13.7 percent of adults lived in households where they sometimes or often did not have enough to eat.

And millions of children rely on meals from schools, which have been forced to close or modify their schedules during the pandemic.

The government last year offered families food aid equivalent to what their children would be getting at school.

Biden's order expands that by15 percent, which the White House said would give a family with three children more than $100 extra every two months.

The president order also instructs the Agriculture Department to issue guidance that would allow states to expand food aid to an additional 12 million people, and reevaluate its basis for determining benefits, according to the White House.

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Unemployment benefits

Congress last month gave every American stimulus checks totalling up to $600, and Biden's order calls for the Treasury Department to find ways to get that money to people more quickly and help those who never received the first round of payments last Spring.

It also asks the Labor Department to allow people who turn down jobs that could harm them, including potentially exposing them to Covid-19, to be allowed to claim unemployment benefits.

Biden's second order restores collective bargaining rights to federal government employees and instructs agencies to do the preliminary work to allow him to issue a new order in coming weeks requiring federal contractors to pay their workers a minimum of $15 an hour and provide them with paid emergency leave.

"These steps are designed to help ensure the federal government is a model employer," Deese said.

Biden has proposed raising the national minimum wage to $15, but that would require approval by Congress, where Democrats have a slim majority.

READ MORE: At least 1 million Americans seek job aid for 17th straight week

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