U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said on Monday that despite the need to deal with the immediate crisis facing the economy, policymakers cannot lose sight of the long-term fiscal challenges facing the country.

"We want to be clear: as we take the steps that we must to get through the crisis that we're in now, we will not lose sight of the long-term," Biden said in opening remarks to the White House "Fiscal Responsibility Summit."

"We will not lose sight of the need to tackle unmet needs for health care reform, to deal with the energy policy that we need and so many other challenges that are going to determine what the 21st century looks like," Biden said.