[background noises] the president of the united states accompanied by director of consumer financial bureau. >> good afternoon. whether it is a credit card bill, internet bill, grocery bill anything■ else in a monthly budget, president biden has been focused on promoting competition. at lowering costs and stopping profiteering. today we are taking action to stop excessive fees in the banking industry. we are closing a loophole abused by the credit card industry for yeso harvest 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 the president is announcing today to crackdown on junk and help consumers save realdv mone. over the last decade credit card giants have been hiking late fees every year almos lockstep. even as technology has brought many of their costs down they have raised interest rates, squeezing american families out of an extra $25 billion in interest charges last year alone. that's why w you a better deal to make it easier to switch from your height rate credit cards, bait and switch tactics s card rewards and

going after the online tricks that drive consumers to big wiln service and terms for this work is critical some of the biggest players in so many industries are looking to get even bigger and gain more power to corner the market. thank you president biden for your leadership of putting a stop to that profiteering and other unfair practices that■t kp costs high for so many families but it is my pleasure to turn it over to the president of the united state[applause] >> it is good to see you all. look director, thank you for one that introduction freight thank you all for the work of the competition counsel. esults for american people.

i have said before capitalism without competition is not capitalism. it is■ been seeing although some small scale in the minds of people you out of those numbers they are gigantic. we are taking it on. here's what is happening, the pandemic disrupted supply chain we all know that. drills up costs in automobiles. the prices haven't come down ths time for those prices to come back down. the good news is inflation is low's it has been three years. most inflation 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 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. iho 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 suckers. it's one thing no matter how

rich or poor you don't like being taken advantage 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 commissios hig in illegal practices are fraudulent or unfair, deceptive oric enforce the law. we will enforce the law. today we are announcing consumer financial protection bureau is finalizing the to help stop credit card companies from ripping you off with late fees. supposed to charge late fees that are higher than the cost banks have to engage to collect the late payment.anks are generg five times more in late fees

then it cost to they are patting their profit margins and charging hard-working americans $14 billion in 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 moreay lat. that is a lot 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 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 hard-working families with that i'm going to turn this over to the national economic council. i'm supposed to leave for a meeting with the business roundtable on the telephone i'm going to hang around and listen 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 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 team they thought no one is going to 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. members of your competitione

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 mighto is start by hearing from several of your cabinet members about the efforts they have been undertaking over months in the announcements they 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 dertment of defense. >> mr. president very pleased to be here today to report on the progress usda has under the 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 including being a cooperative the livestock and poultry markets. it's going to prohibit

retaliation as livestock producers and poultry growers engaging in very basic activities. 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. also stops deception including false or misleading statements and material omissions and contracting contracts operations and contract termination. slide in the slide drag to mores unfair and deceptive practices the second reaffirms the long-standing essentials 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 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 investments you challenged us to make in meat and poultry processing infrastructure the spring and summer focused on small independently own■u local facilities. to remote research access. all of this, mr. president, is going to provide additional competition more choice and lower cost for consumers. that's just a few of the many ways we are promoting competition at usda 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 and challenged us to do. >> 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 small number of integrators and processors. to the extent they now have more options to be able to process td independently own processing facilities some of which are farmer owned to the extent they 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 a better deal, all, i think, is something that's

been very much desired in the marketplace across all farm groups and across also associations. >> almost 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?u■■f >> basically providing opportunity for small and mid-size farms to stay in business. previous administrations, you have to get big or get 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 businessnd 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 and oklahoma. gone. your administration is trying to put a stop tothank you. thank you. >> yeah, i think that's 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 we've really seen every agency increasing competition and i think secretary austin has undertaken a numberf really important initiatives at the department of defense so 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 our defense industrial base even stronger. 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 nontraditional companies and industries to diversify our supplier base and lowering barrier 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 underscored how

important this is. our security assistance has kept ukrainians in t and also 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 ohio to arizona. now ukraine's 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 promote 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.