US President Joe Biden speaks about his Investing in America agenda at the Wilmington Convention Center in Wilmington, North Carolina, on May 2, 2024.
Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images
President Joe Biden is set to meet Tuesday afternoon with a slate of executives from a variety of industries, some of which have been the targets of his regulatory agenda.
The guest list includes United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, Citi CEO Jane Fraser, Evercore founder and senior chairman Roger Altman, Marriott International CEO Anthony Capuano, Flex CEO Revathi Advaithi, Bechtel Group CEO Brendan Bechtel, former Xerox CEO Ursula Burns and Corning CEO Wendell Weeks, according to a White House official.
Biden is planning to discuss his “strategy of investing in America and rebuilding international alliances,” the official said in a statement.
It is not the first time the president has called a huddle with business executives, as both the White House and the private sector have had to navigate the economy’s wobbly post-pandemic recovery over the past several years. In October, Biden hosted another group of top executives.
Tuesday’s meeting will be an opportunity for Biden to face executives in some of the industries that he has been trying to crack down on during his administration.
Months into his first term, Biden issued an executive order that laid out an aggressive antitrust approach to target big business in industries like airlines, banking, cable, grocery, pharmaceuticals and tech.
The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice’s antitrust division have been at the forefront of carrying out that agenda with a slew of lawsuits against proposed mergers and other regulatory action.
And as part of a broader siege against what Biden calls “junk fees,” the White House has issued rules prohibiting certain fees from airlines and credit card companies.
Beyond policy, Biden has turned up his rhetoric against corporations, especially to blame them for sticky inflation and other lingering economic woes that have dimmed consumers’ outlook on the economy’s recovery.
“Any corporation that has not brought their prices back down, even as inflation has come down, even as the supply chains have been rebuilt, it’s time to stop the price gouging,” Biden said in November. “Give the American consumer a break.”