Biden says 'no time to waste' on COVID relief bill

At the second stop on Biden's visit to Texas, Biden, first lady Jill Biden and Houston Food Bank CEO Brian Greene toured the food bank where the first lady had already spent time volunteering Friday.

During the tour, the Bidens went to a room with rotating shelves that carry boxes of food, called the carousel room.

Biden also spent time walking around and speaking with volunteers, even taking a selfie with some. When asked by the press what he thought of the place, he said it is, "amazing, absolutely amazing."

"It’s incredible! It’s an incredible place. They do an -- and they have so many talented people here. It’s not just volunteers, they’re really talented people who do, you know, a lot of work outside before they got here."

Earlier Friday, Biden visited the Harris County Emergency Operations Center in Houston.

-ABC News' Molly Nagle

First lady Jill Biden arrived at the Houston Food Bank around 1 p.m. on Friday with Texas first lady Cecilia Abbott, according to a pool report.

Biden and Abbott first stopped in the main lobby for several minutes and received a rundown of the food bank’s food distribution process from Nicole Lander, the organization’s chief impact officer. Lander told the first ladies that the food bank distributes an average of 18 million pounds of food per month during disasters, the equivalent of 20 tractor-trailer loads. Lander also noted that one in four children in the Houston area lacks consistent access to nutritious food, according to the report.

Biden and Abbott then moved to a warehouse room and joined volunteers in packing bags of food for the food bank’s Backpack Buddy program, which distributes food on weekends to students who rely on school meals during the week.

Biden packed canned peaches, while Abbott packed boxes of raisins.

They were joined by Houston Independent School District Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan, according to the pool report.

After their first stop, Biden and Abbott moved to a separate room to pack meals for seniors through the food bank’s Senior Box program, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and provides a monthly box of food to roughly 11,000 low-income seniors in the Houston area, a separate pool report said.

Biden packed quick oats into boxes. Abbott also helped pack food boxes nearby, wearing a face mask emblazoned with the Texas flag.

Biden toured the Harris County Emergency Operations Center in Houston as the first first stop on his trip in Texas in the wake of deadly winter storms. He was joined by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and other lawmakers and local officials.

"It’s a hell of an operation you’ve got here," Biden said upon arriving to the center.

The director of the center, Mark Sloan, detailed the operations of the facility and of the impact of the winter storms on the region. He said that of the 5 million residents in the county, the storm left 1.5 million people without power and heat and detailed the county's trouble getting water to residents, noting that approximately 3.5 million were without water. He talked about the emergency response, including handing out meals and water.

Biden thanked the workers, saying they were saving lives and "doing God's work."

In a statement shared with Congress, the Biden administration announced Friday that it is creating a new “Khashoggi policy” to impose visa restrictions on any foreign official believed to be directly involved in plots against dissidents, or any “serious, extraterritorial counter-dissident activities,” like the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. 

The State Department has identified 76 Saudi individuals who Secretary of State Antony Blinken says have been hit with these penalties. It’s unclear if Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is in that group because visas are confidential under U.S. law. But the “Khashoggi ban,” as Blinken calls it, will apply to their family members as well. 

The Treasury Department has also sanctioned one former Saudi official, Deputy Intelligence Chief Ahmad Hassan Mohammed al Asiri, another close confidant of bin Salman, but one who was fired after Khashoggi’s murder. But for now, bin Salman escapes U.S. financial penalties—with many U.S. lawmakers already calling for him to face specific sanctions. 

“While the United States remains invested in its relationship with Saudi Arabia, President Biden has made clear that partnership must reflect U.S. values,” Blinken said, adding the U.S. will no longer tolerate these extraterritorial plots and the State Department will begin reporting on them in its annual human rights report.

-ABC News' Conor Finnegan and Trish Turner