benefits, increased child tax credits, additional money for vaccines, reopening schools, farms, health care. and the list goes on. now, this measure is already reaping benefits. american airlines is crediting the bill with saving 27,000 jobs. mississippi senator roger wickerbrags, independent restaurant operates have won $28.6 billion of targeted relief. this fund willing ensure that small businesses can survive the pandemic. now, you would be correct in noting senator wicker is a republican. you would also be correct in noting that he was a republican that voted against the bill. you all did. you would be correct in noting that senator wicker is taking a sort of credit for help that he voted against providing. and you would be correct in including, that's pretty messed up. >> so the president's first prime-time address comes as the pandemic crosses the one-year mark. more than 10% of americans are now fully vaccinated and nearly 20% of americans have received their first shot. meanwhile, the situation at the border demands a solution. the biden administration is scrambling to find housing for a surge of unaccompanied migrant children. the white house even considering a vacant nasa site in northern california. we'll have much more on that in a moment. but we begin with cnn's jeremy diamond. he is live at the white house on the president's address tonight. jeremy? >> good morning, alisyn. today marks 50 days since president biden came into office. and now he has this $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package headed to his desk. the president expected to sign that tomorrow. but tonight, marking not only his first 50 days in office, but also this one-year anniversary since the country began to shut down in the face of the coronavirus. president biden reflecting on the last year of struggles, but he will also look forward. one white house official telling me that the president is expected to offer a hopeful vision for what's to come. tonight, president biden delivering his first prime-time speech, marking one year since the country began to shut down in the face of coronavirus. now, biden can tell millions of pandemic-weary americans that help is on the horizon and recovery in sight. >> i'm going to talk about what comes next. i'm going to launch the next phase of the covid response and explain what we will do as a government and what we will ask of the american people. >> reporter: biden will honor the nearly 530,000 american lives lost to covid-19 and note how life has changed forever for millions. the president expected to outline the next steps he will take to get the pandemic under control and offer hope for a return to normal. biden also plans to call the fight against the pandemic the greatest operational challenge the u.s. has faced and outline what his administration has done to expedite vaccine production and delivery. >> the motion is adopted. after house democrats passed biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus package on wednesday, biden will sign the landmark american rescue plan into law tomorrow. >> on this day, we celebrate, because we are honoring a promise made by our president and as we join with him in promising that help is on the way. >> reporter: millions of americans will now receive up to $1,400 stimulus checks and other assi assistance, including extended federal unemployment benefits, tax credit payments, and enhanced child tax credit. biden is taking his relief message on the road. his first stop, pennsylvania next week, to promote the covid-19 relief plan in the places that need it the most. >> his focus now is on the details, the details, the details. when do people get their checks. when do schools get funding? how do people know if they need more unemployment insurance. this is the really important piece now, is the implementation. >> reporter: ramping up the u.s. vaccine program is a key part of president biden's bill. >> everything in the american rescue plan addresses a real need, including investments found our entire vaccination effort. more vaccines, more vaccinators, and more vaccination sites. >> reporter: the white house recruited some former presidents and first ladies to help spread the world. >> the science is clear. these vaccines will protect you and those you love from this dangerous and deadly disease. >> reporter: joining together to encourage americans to get vaccinated in a series of public service announcements. >> we want this pandemic to end as soon as possible. >> so we urge you to get vaccinated when it's available to you. >> to roll up your sleeve and do your part. >> this is our shot. >> reporter: and as president biden prepares to sign that nearly $2 trillion relief package into law, his attention in the white house's focus now turns towards selling it. that is somethinged on mind of white house officials and the president, all of whom served in the obama administration. the lessons of the 2009 stimulus bill have really hung over this entire process. and it will now hang over this effort to sell this relief bill. the president himself has talked about the fact that he felt president obama didn't do enough to sell that 2009 relief package and so now, he will hit the road beginning next week to do just that. john? >> jeremy diamond at the white house, thanks so much. joining us now, cnn political commentator, errol louis. he's the political anchor for spectrum news. president biden was part of the obama administration, and he has reflected on what he thinks the failures were in messaging. and he did this just last week. listen, errol. >> barack was so modest, he didn't want to take a victory lap. i kept saying, tell people what we did. he said, i don't have time. i'm not going to take a victory lap. and we paid a price for it, ironically, that humanility. so you get the sense that biden, now that he's president, isn't going to let that happen again. >> it means first and foremost, they have the plan they wanted. >> it wasn't just modesty in 2009, but they got what they sought. they went into compromises that did not work for them. and i think president biden will go out there and go from place to place to place and tell people over and over again about the things that he promised. about promises made and promises kept. he's only halfway through his first hundred days, but he's meeting a lot of the key things he said he was going to get done. and it is important to remind people of that. in a hyperpartisan environment, zpst stunning that no republicans voted for this package, but he's good to say, if you want to brand this as the biden plan or the democratic plan, we'll take it. it's an astoundingly popular plan. getting 1,400 in the mail should be an easy lift. >> if he doesn't take credit for it, the republicans will, even though they voted against it. the thing with roger wicker yesterday, you know, that was just amazing. roger wicker, republican senator from mississippi, puts out a tweet bragging about the aid that restaurants and small businesses will get as part of this bill, a bill that he voted against. >> yeah. >> it's crazy! >> well, it's -- you know, here's some s.a.t. words for the kids at home, cynicism, affront ery. gall. this is what's at play. there are a number of republicans who will belatedly realize they're on the opposite side of a very popular bill. this is not like obamacare, where they had months and months of time to mischaracterize it, and it was a complicated project in the first place, so that they could mischaracterize it. this is very straightforward. this is money for hungry kids. this is vaccines and other treatment for sick people. this is infrastructure for crumbling roads that people see every day. and most of all, this is a check in the mailbox of people who have been hurting and unemployed for months and months and months. roger wicker is not going to be the last, i think, of republicans to suddenly turn around and at the same time say, this is an awful bill, but look what kind of great stuff i got for you. >> like, roger wicker is to the relief bill as holy crap is to, are you kidding me? that would be the s.a.t. analogy. there is something interesting when you compare what happened at the beginning of the obama administration to this. the stimulus bill under obama was to stop the bleeding. that was something they needed stop the bleeding for an economy that was really in free fall and will continue to slip for some time. this is to accelerate the healing to an extent that has already begun. there is already, i think, for some people, a real feel to the improvement here. >> yeah, i mean, listen. we've had two presidents in a row who called the battle against the coronavirus a war. we've got one now. the president, who is really fighting the battle is joe biden. i mean, he's doing what you do in war. you keep going and you keep going. and you don't stop until you get victory. this announcement we're getting this week, that they're going to buy hundreds of millions more doses of the j&j vaccine, this is, you know, on one level, quote/unquote, not necessary, but that's not the criteria you use to win a war, to save the lives of millions of people. you keep going and keep going and spend whatever you have to spend in order to get the victory. that's the kind of war we're in now. >> errol louis, great to talk to you. tomorrow, reading comprehension. appreciate it. >> thanks, john. >> i'm learning so much. the biden administration faces a growing challenge. a surge of unaccompanied minors at the u.s./mexico border. 3,400 children. the administration now scrambling to find housing for them, even considering a vacant nasa facility as a temporary shelter. cnn immigration reporter priscilla alvarez joins uh now. priscilla, what is the plan for these 3,400 kids? >> reporter: so the biden administration here is tapping federal agencies like nasa to look for space for children. and the reason for that is because the number of children crossing the u.s./mexico border alone is outpacing shelter availability. as you mentioned, we know there are more than 3,400 children in border patrol custody. these are facilities for adults, not for children. they have to be there, though, until officials can place them in shelters across the country. now, what's happening here and what these numbers tell us is that the administration is simply not keeping up with the number of children coming across the border. to give you a point of comparison, alisyn, last week we were reporting that there were more than 1,800 children in border patrol custody. that number, now more than 3,400. >> and am i right that they only have something like 500 beds? >> now, this is what the border patrol looks at. so they try to see that there are 500 beds, to start placing the children. and the short answer is, yes, that is an indicator of the limited capacity. remember, over the course of the pandemic, many of these shelters, which are overseen by the health and human services department, were operating under limited capacity to comply with health guidelines. so they're already under strain here. and as more children arrive, they are frantically looking for more shelter space. again, going back to tapping those federal agencies to look for help. >> priscilla, what about the parents? so much was made, rightfully so, during the trump administration, and their zero tolerance policy of separating children from their parents. and the u.s. is still trying to reunite hundreds of those children. the u.s. still hasn't found the parents and have been able to reunite some of those children. what about this? what about these parents? how will the u.s. attempt to reunite them? >> so, i want to be clear here. these are children who are crossing the u.s./mexico border alone. they are coming without an adult or without a parent. so we know that the majority of these children are 13 years old and up. so their parents could be in the united states. their parents could be back at home. but when they cross the u.s./mexico border, they are alone. and that is what makes it so difficult for this administration, because these children have to be placed in shelters where case managers will work with them to relocate them in the united states. but until they reach that point, they're in these border patrol facilities where they shouldn't be. >> is the problem, one of the problems that they don't have 3,400 case managers? i mean, the manpower is not built for this level of influx. >> so staff retention is certainliey an issue in some of these facilities. i was reading through court filings that say that one of the issues they're facing is they're having a hard time hiring because people don't want to work in congregate settings. it is important for there to be case managers in these locations. you're pointing out many of the challenges that the biden administration is facing here. not only do they not have enough space for some of these children in these shelters, but they also might not have enough people to care for them. >> we have senator jeff merkley coming on later in the program, who has devoted so much time to this during the trump administration and since, so we will ask him if there are any solutions. priscilla, thank you so much. i really appreciate all of the reporting there. >> merrick garland finally gets his momentum, more importantly, the united states gets an attorney general. this morning, he will be sworn in as attorney general as the senate confirmed him on wednesday with bipartisan support. garland, of course, was nominated by president obama to serve on the u.s. supreme court in 2016, but republicans denied him any kind of confirmation hearing. two other historic nominees confirmed, martin fudge will lead the department of housing and urban development, becoming the first black woman to run the agency in more than four decades, and michael regan becomes the first black man to head up the epa. the governor is texas is threatening to sue the mayor of austin if he doesn't lift the city's mask mandate. austin's mayor joins us next. we started with computers. we didn't stop at computers. we didn't stop at storage or cloud. we kept going. working with our customers to enable the kind of technology that can guide an astronaut back to safety. and help make a hospital come to you, instead of you going to it. so when it comes to your business, you know plant-based surfactants like the ones in seventh generation we'll stop at nothing. detergent trap stains at the molecular level so when it comes to your business, you know and flush them away. it's just science! just... science. ♪ for every idea out there, that gets the love it should ♪ seventh generation tackles stains. ♪ there are 5 more that don't succeed ♪ ♪ and so are lost for good ♪ ♪ and some of them are pretty flawed ♪ ♪ and some of them are slightly odd ♪ ♪ but many are small businesses that simply lack the tool ♪ ♪ to find excited people who will stop and say 'that's cool'♪ ♪ and these two, they like this idea ♪ ♪ and those three like that one.♪ ♪ and that's 'cause personalized ads ♪ ♪ find good ideas for everyone ♪ struggling to manage my type 2 diabetes was knocking me out of my zone, but lowering my a1c with once-weekly ozempic® helped me get back in it. ♪ oh, oh, oh, ozempic® ♪ my zone? 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