Barack O'Clock: Meeting on College Tuition Tax Credit

The prez will be tackling taxes on Wednesday, Oct. 13. After meeting with his advisers in the Oval Office, he'll be discussing the American Opportunity Tax Credit in the afternoon. Here's what's on tap:
10:00 a.m. -- Press Secretary Robert Gibbs will convene an off-camera gaggle in the Brady Press Briefing Room.
10:30 a.m. -- The president receives the Presidential Daily Briefing in the Oval Office.
11:00 a.m. -- Receives the Economic Daily Briefing in the Oval Office.
11:45 a.m. -- Meets with senior advisers in the Oval Office.
1:45 p.m. -- Meets with college students and their families to discuss the impact of the American Opportunity Tax Credit. For tax years 2009 and 2010, the law allows families with tuition expenses to receive a tax credit of up to $2,500 per student, and up to $1,000 per year of this amount is refundable. According to the White House, the credit is "a key part" of the Recovery Act and something the president is hoping to make permanent in his fiscal year 2011 budget.
1:50 p.m. -- Delivers a statement to the press in the Rose Garden.

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Remarks by the President at a Campaign Event

Walter E. Washington Convention Center
Washington, D.C.
 

 5:12 P.M. EDT


THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, everybody!  (Applause.)  Thank you!  How’s everybody doing?  Good.  Good afternoon.  I want to thank my point guard, Barbara, for that wonderful introduction, and for all the battles you have waged on behalf of America’s women and America’s families.  And I want to thank all of you for being here today –- for all the time and energy that you’ve been giving to our campaign.  Everybody, feel free to sit.  Just relax.  I’ve got a few things to say.  (Laughter.)

It is always a pleasure to be surrounded by so many talented, accomplished women.  It makes me feel right at home.  (Laughter.)  Although, at least here I get a microphone -- (laughter) -- which levels the playing field a little bit.  Bo and I, we try at dinner to try to get a word in.

Now, whether you have joined this cause in its earliest days or in recent months, I know you didn’t join just because of me.  You did it because of the vision that we share for this country.  (Applause.)  It’s not a vision of a country where a shrinking number of people do really well while a growing number barely get by.  It’s a vision for an America where everybody who works hard has the chance to get ahead -– where everybody has a fair shot, and everybody is doing their fair share, and everybody plays by the same set of rules.  That’s the America we know and love.  That’s the America within our reach.

And right now, no issue is more important than restoring economic security for all of our families.  Today, our economy is recovering, but not yet recovered, from the worst crisis since the Great Depression.  Our businesses have added more than 4 million jobs over the past two years.  But too many Americans are still looking for a job that pays enough to cover the bills or the mortgage.  Too many families are still searching for the middle-class security that started slipping away years before the recession hit. 

So we’ve got a lot of work to do.  We’ve got to finish what we started.  And I’m so grateful to have all of you in the Women’s Leadership Forum on our team.

It’s fair to say there’s been a bit of talk about women and women’s issues so far this year.  And I’ve said before, I want to repeat, I think it’s been oversimplified.  Women are not an interest group.  (Applause.)  Women shouldn’t be treated that way.  Women are half this country and half of its workforce.  You’re 80 percent of my household, if you count my mother-in-law -– and I always count my mother-in-law.  (Laughter and applause.)

So I’ve got a vested interest in making sure women do well.  And I’m proud of what we’ve done on behalf of women across this country.  I know you’ve heard a lot about that today.  But I want you to know why we’ve done what we’ve done -- because there are values behind the policies. 

And it begins -- for me, at least -- with the women that have shaped my life.  As some of you know, I grew up the son of a single mom who struggled to put herself through school and make ends meet, even relying on food stamps at one point to help us get by.  But she earned her education, earned her PhD, started traveling around the world, helping women enter into the economy and make a little bit of money and gain a little bit of independence. 

Through scholarships and hard work, she had the opportunity to give back.  And she made sure that my sister and I were able to have those same opportunities.  She used to wake me up before dawn to study, because we were living overseas for a time, and she wanted to make sure I stayed up with my American schooling.  I’d complain, and she’d let loose with “this is no picnic for me either, buster.”  (Laughter.)  Because she had to go to work after she taught me lessons, and that’s part of the reason why my sister, Maya, chose to become a teacher, seeing that example.

And when my mom needed help with us, my grandparents stepped up.  And my grandmother, in particular, who had a high school education, worked during World War II on a bomber assembly line like Rosie the Riveter.  And she didn't get a GI Bill -- unlike today’s Post-9/11 GI Bill, it couldn’t be transferred to family members.  So she got jobs, and eventually she got a job at a local bank.

And she worked hard and eventually made vice president, starting off as a secretary.  And I’m convinced she could have been the best president that bank had ever seen, if she had gotten that chance.  But she hit the glass ceiling like too many women in that generation did, and for the rest of her career, she’d watch men that she had once trained pass her by up that ladder.  I think about her.

And then there’s Michelle.  Earlier this week, I visited a few colleges across the country as part of a battle to keep student loan rates from going up.  And I spent some time on our own story –- about how when Michelle and I got married, we both had loads of student debt from college and law school.  So when we teamed up together, we got poorer together.  (Laughter.) 

We only finished paying off those loans about eight years ago.  And I bring this up because what I really want to point out is that every time I mentioned Michelle, the students cheered more loudly than they did for me.  (Laughter and applause.)  This is what happens.

But once Michelle and I had our girls, we gave it our all to balance raising a family and chasing a career.  And it was tough on me, but let’s face it, it was tougher on her.  I was gone a lot.  I know that when she was with the girls, she’d feel guilty that she wasn’t giving enough time to work.  And when she was at work, she’d feel guilty about not having enough time for the girls.  And like many of you, I’m sure we both wished there was -- there were a machine that would let us be in two places at once.

And then today, I think about these issues as a father, because the highlight every day for me is asking my daughters about theirs.  Their hopes and their futures -- that’s what drives me every single day when I step into the White House.  Every decision I make is all about ensuring that all of our daughters and all of our sons grow up in a country that gives them the equal chance to be anything they set their minds to; a country where more doors are open to them than were open to us.

Those stories are what inform my work.  Those women are what inspire me to do what I do.  That’s at the heart of everything that we’ve done.  That’s the lens through which I view all of this.  And that’s what we mean when we say that these issues are more than just a matter of policy; they’re personal.  They're not just women's issues; they're economic issues, they're family issues.  They're America's issues.  They impact all of us.

When women make less than men for the same work, that hurts families who have to get by with less and businesses who have fewer customers who can spend money there.  When a job doesn’t offer family leave to care for a new baby or sick leave to care for an ailing parent, that burdens all of us.  It's not just a women's issue.  When an insurance plan denies women coverage because of a preexisting condition, that puts a strain on emergency rooms and drives up the cost of care for everybody; it strains family budgets across America.  When any of our citizens can’t fulfill their potential because of factors that had nothing to do with talent or character or work ethic, that diminishes us as a country.  It says something about who we are as Americans.

So when we started off with this administration, we were under no illusions that changing these things would be easy.  We knew it wouldn’t come quickly.  But think about what's happened in three years –- in large part because of you and the support that you've provided.  We've started to see what change looks like.

It's been mentioned -- change is the first bill I signed into law, a law that says women deserve an equal day’s pay for an equal day’s work.  (Applause.)  A law that says our daughters should have the same opportunities as our sons.  A law named for a courageous woman, Lilly Ledbetter, my dear friend, is right here today.  (Applause.)  That’s what change is, and it happened because of you. 

Change is extending more than 16,000 new loans to women-owned businesses, cutting small business taxes more than 18 -- 17 times, so that more women have the power to create new jobs and opportunity.

Change is education reform that does more to encourage young women to join fields like science and technology and engineering and math, and increasing grants that have helped about 2.3 million more young women afford to go to college.

And yes, Barbara is absolutely right -- change is the health care reform we passed after a century of trying that finally gives women more power to make their own choices about their health care.  (Applause.) 

Last year, more than 20 million women received expanded access to preventive services like mammograms and cervical cancer screening at no additional cost.  Nearly 2 million women enrolled in Medicare received a 50 percent discount on the medicine that they needed.  Over one million more young women are insured because they can now stay on their parent’s plan.

Soon, insurance companies will no longer be able to deny coverage based on preexisting conditions like breast cancer, or charge women more just because they’re women.  And this year, women will receive new access to recommended preventive care like domestic violence screening and contraception at no additional cost.  That’s going to be happening.  (Applause.)

This contraception fight in particular was illuminating.  It was like being in a time machine.  (Laughter.)  Republicans in Congress were going so far as to say an employer should be able to have a say in the health care decisions of its female employees.  And I’m always puzzled by this.  This is a party that says it prides itself on being rabidly anti-regulation.  These are folks who claim to believe in freedom from government interference and meddling.  But it doesn’t seem to bother them when it comes to women’s health. 

Now we’ve got governors and legislatures across the river in Virginia, up the road in Pennsylvania, all across the country saying that women can’t be trusted to make your own decisions.  They’re pushing and passing bills forcing women to get ultrasounds, even if they don’t want one.  If you don’t like it, the governor of Pennsylvania said you can “close your eyes.”  It’s a quote. 

It’s appalling.  It’s offensive.  It’s out of touch.  And when it comes to what’s going on out there, you’re not going to close your eyes.  Women across America aren’t closing their eyes.  As long as I’m President, I won’t either.  (Applause.)  The days of male politicians controlling the health care decisions of our wives and our mothers, and our daughters and our sisters, that needs to come to an end. 

And none of these fights have been easy.  We’ve got to wage more fights and win them on these issues and many more.  We’ve got more jobs to create.  More students to educate.  More clean energy to generate.  More troops to bring home.  More doors of opportunity to open for all our kids.  The one thing we can’t do –- the one thing we can’t afford to do right now is to go back to the very same policies that got us into this mess.

Of course, that’s exactly what the other side has planned.  And they make no secret about it.  They want to go back to the days when Wall Street played by its own rules.  They want to go back to the days when insurance companies could deny coverage or jack up premiums without reason.  A lot of them seem like they just want to turn back the clock to the ‘50s, or the ‘40s, or the ‘30s, or maybe further back than that, and close doors of opportunity that we thought we kicked open a long time ago -- doors of opportunity to people who haven’t made it quite yet.

Just look at some of the debates that we’ve already had this year.  Instead of putting forward serious plans to help more Americans back to work, a lot of those folks in the other party have chosen to refight battles we settled long ago. 

And I’ve heard some of them say, look, this is all just a big misunderstanding; they need to get their message out better when it comes to women.  I don’t think that’s the problem.  I think they're getting their message out just fine.  (Applause.)  We don’t need to read between the lines in terms of what they're saying.

When folks talk about “killing” the health care reform that we passed, part of what they’re saying is, is that women should pay more than men for the same health care coverage.  They’re saying we should stop protecting women with preexisting conditions.  They’re saying we should no longer let that 25-year-old daughter and more than a million other young women stay on their parents’ health care plans.

When you talk about how “marvelous” your party’s economic plan is, when you break down the numbers, what you’re really saying is you want to pass massive new tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, pay for them by gutting programs that, among other things, support low-income women, and children, and pregnant mothers, and student aid for -- that disproportionately helps young women.

When you say we should “get rid of” Planned Parenthood, you’re not just talking about restricting a woman’s ability to make her own health care decisions; you’re talking about denying the preventive care like cancer screenings that millions of women rely on. 

And when something like the Violence Against Women Act is actually up for debate, then we know something has gone haywire.  That’s something that should be beyond politics.  This is a bill that my Vice President co-authored when he was in the Senate.  It’s a bill that once passed by wide bipartisan margins.  And it is a bill that we are going to renew.  It is the right thing to do.  (Applause.)

So the choice between going backward and moving forward has never been so clear.  And as long as I’m President, we’re going to keep moving forward.  You can count on that.  (Applause.)  You don’t have to take my word for it –- you’ve got my signature on it.  Because something like standing up for equal pay for equal work isn’t something I’ve got to “get back to you on” –- it’s the first law that I signed.  (Applause.)

Progress is hard.  Change can be slow.  Opportunity, equality of opportunity, they don’t come without a fight.  And sometimes you got to fight to keep what you got.

But we know these things are possible.  We know that because for the first time in history, young girls across the country can see three women sitting on the bench of the highest court in the land.  (Applause.) 

We know change is possible because they can read about the incredible leadership of a woman who went by the title Madam Speaker.  They can turn on the news and see that one of the most formidable presidential candidates ever is now doing as much as anyone to improve America’s standing abroad as one of the best Secretaries of State we’ve ever known.  (Applause.)

These things are possible because earlier generations of Americans did their part to open up new doors of opportunity.  And now it’s our turn to open up these doors even wider.  And what I want to say to all of you is if you’re willing to keep pushing through all those obstacles with me, if you're willing to keep reaching for that vision of America that you hold in your hearts -- that we hold in our hearts -- change will come. 

If you’re willing to work even harder in this election than in the last one, I promise you we’ll finish what we started in 2008.  (Applause.)  If you’re willing to stick with me, and fight with me, and press on with me, I promise you we will remind everybody just why it is that America is still the greatest nation on Earth. 

Thank you.  God bless you.  God bless the United States of America.  (Applause.)

END                              
5:31 P.M. EDT

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Honoring Justice

On March 1st, I had the honor of speaking at the memorial service for civil rights hero and respected jurist Judge Robert L. Carter. These were my reflections:
I had the privilege of serving as Judge Carter?s Law Clerk in 1989. But years before that, I was sure that I wanted to know this man, and to be known by him.
During college, I worked as an intern at the American Civil Liberties Union, and I was assigned to assist Dr. Kenneth Clark in fashioning a school desegregation remedy for, of all places, Topeka, Kansas?which had yet to fully desegregate. Dr. Clark had me read Richard Kluger?s book,�Simple Justice, chronicling the road to�Brown v. Board of Education.
On page 271, I met a man who Kluger described as ?a limber, quiet, and strongly self-disciplined black lawyer named Robert Lee Carter, who came to the [NAACP] Legal Defense Fund after a stormy career in the Air Force.? I was intrigued.
?Carter?s insistence that black officers were entitlted to every privilege that white officers enjoyed,? Kluger wrote, ?got him branded a troublemaker and almost tossed out of the service altogether, until Bill Hastie intervened with Washington?s higher-ups.? I had to know more.
I read in�Simple Justice, and in other places, that, working with Dr. Clark, Judge Carter had crafted the complex mixture of law, history, and social science that won the day in the�Brown�case.
I read that the Judge had argued 22 cases in the U.S. Supreme Court and won 21 of those cases.
And I read that when a threatening white sheriff, backed by an armed mob, had mockingly called the Judge by his first name, young Bob Carter replied with a line worthy of Sidney Poitier or Clint Eastwood: ?Only my best friends call me by my first name, and I don?t think I know you that well.?
The Sheriff, by the way, was the notorious Cecil Price of Philadelphia, Mississippi, who was later convicted on charges stemming from the murders of 3 civil rights workers there. When Sheriff Price told the Judge ?that?s how we do it down here,? the Judge Responded by calling the Sheriff ?Cecil.?
This was someone I had to meet.
And then there was the swimming pool story. Though many of you have heard it before, I think it bears infinite repeating.
As a teenager, the Judge?s family moved to East Orange, New Jersey, not far from where my family and I live now. East Orange High was not officially segregated, but black students were intentionally isolated and made to feel unwelcome.
The school had an excellent swimming team, and learning to swim was part of the white student?s phys ed requirement. But black students were allowed to use the pool only at the close of school, on alternate Fridays?after which it was drained, cleaned, and refilled, as the Judge says in his own book, ?to protect the white children from contamination the blacks might have left in the pool.?
In 1933, at age 16, young Bob Carter read in the newspaper of the New Jersey Supreme Court?s ruling that all public school facilities available to white children in the state had to be equally available to black children. So the next time the white boys headed off to the pool, Bob Carter joined them.
His stunned teacher threatened him with expulsion. It will not surprise any of you to learn that this did not work. The teacher pleaded with him. Those of us who served as the Judge?s law clerks, or appeared in his courtroom, are aware that this was a particularly ineffective approach.
So young Bob got into the pool. But none of the white kids would get in with him. And none of the other black kids would get in with him. And Bob did not know how to swim, because, of course, he?d been excluded from the swimming lessons the white kids had had.
So week after week until graduation, this 16 year old would get into the pool, by himself, and cling to the side of the pool for dear life until the end of the period.
I later came to work for the Judge, to learn from him, to love and respect him?to bring him breakfast every other morning for a year (something they don?t tell you when you apply for a clerkship)?and to see his fearsome intellect and presence in the Courtroom.
But when I think of him now, I will always think of that 16 year old. Clinging to the side of the pool. Clinging to Justice and Equality, and Basic Human Dignity for all of us?as he did throughout his long life.
Thank you, Judge Carter. And Godspeed.
�
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Opportunity Impact Statement: Ensuring an Economy that Works

Americans prioritize finding solutions for our economy and�job creation, and it is clear that we need an economy that works for all of us. This means building the jobs and the infrastructure that will create equal opportunities for success for all Americans. In order to make smart and necessary decisions about how and where we spend our money, we need to evaluate the impact of spending, while also honoring our commitment to avoid engaging in discrimination.
Using a tool that evaluates public spending?what we call an Opportunity Impact Statement (OIS)?at all levels of government can ensure that government looks at where investment is needed most before actually spending funds, whether it?s for job creation, building out transportation to jobs, or schools. This would ensure that all Americans have access to the building blocks of opportunity. The American Constitution Society�has published an issue brief�by The Opportunity Agenda on these statements. As described in the brief, ?[a] coordinated process is needed to ensure that public funding complies with anti-discrimination laws and not only confronts barriers to opportunity that affect regions throughout the United States, but also builds the foundation necessary to give all communities a chance to achieve economic security and mobility.?
We describe in the brief ways for administrative agencies to use an OIS process as part of their evaluation of ongoing and proposed government funded projects and programs, with detailed examples related to housing and transportation.�Read the brief here�to learn about ways to use this flexible tool to promote opportunity as we build our economy.
�
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President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

WASHINGTON – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key Administration posts:

• Tim Broas – Ambassador to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Department of State
• Richard L. Morningstar - Ambassador to the Republic of Azerbaijan, Department of State

The President also announced his intent to appoint the following individuals to key Administration posts:

• Nancy Hellman Bechtle – Member, Board of Directors of the Presidio Trust
• Reginald Dwayne Betts – Member, Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
• Patricia G. Smith – Member, Advisory Board of the National Air and Space Museum

President Obama said, “These dedicated and accomplished individuals will be valued additions to my Administration as we tackle the important challenges facing America.  I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead.”

President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key Administration posts:

Tim Broas, Nominee for Ambassador to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Department of State
Tim Broas is currently a partner at Winston and Strawn, LLP.   Mr. Broas also serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, having been appointed by President Obama in December 2010.  From 1986 to 1995, he was a partner at Anderson Hibey & Blair.  Previously, Mr. Broas worked as an attorney at Whitman & Ransom from 1983 to 1985, and at Conboy Hewitt O’Brien & Boardman from 1980 to 1983.  From 1979 to 1980, he served as a law clerk for Justice Mark Sullivan of the Supreme Court of New Jersey.   Mr. Broas received a B.A. from Boston College and a J.D. from the College of William and Mary.   

Ambassador Richard L. Morningstar, Nominee for Ambassador to the Republic of Azerbaijan, Department of State
Ambassador Richard L. Morningstar is the Secretary of State’s Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy.  Prior to his appointment in April 2009, he was a Senior Director for Stonebridge International LLC.  During this time, he taught courses at Stanford Law School (2004-2009) and at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University (2003-2009).  From 1999 to 2001, he served as U.S. Ambassador to the European Union.  From 1998 to 1999, he was Special Advisor to the President and the Secretary of State for Caspian Basin Energy Diplomacy.  From 1995 to 1998, he served as Special Advisor to the President and Secretary of State on Assistance to the New Independent States of the Former Soviet Union.  From 1993 to 1995, he was Senior Vice President of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.  Prior to serving in the federal government, Ambassador Morningstar worked for Costar Corporation where he was Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer (1990-1993) and President and Chief Executive Officer (1981-1990).  From 1989 to 1993, he also served as a Commissioner of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws.  He began his career in 1970 as an attorney with Nixon and Peabody, formerly known as Peabody and Brown, in Boston. Ambassador Morningstar received his B.A. from Harvard and J.D. from Stanford Law School.

President Obama announced his intent to appoint the following individuals to key Administration posts:

Nancy Hellman Bechtle, Appointee for Member, Board of Directors of the Presidio Trust
Nancy Hellman Bechtle is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Presidio Trust.  Previously, Ms. Bechtle served as the President and CEO of the San Francisco Symphony as well as the Chief Financial Officer and a Director of J.R. Bechtle & Co., a management consulting group.  Ms. Bechtle is currently the Chairman of the Board of the Sugar Bowl Ski Corporation and sits on a number of boards including the University of California San Francisco.  In addition, she is a former member of the board of the National Park Foundation.  Ms. Bechtle recently received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco.  She earned her B.A. from Stanford University.

Reginald Dwayne Betts, Appointee for Member, Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
Reginald Dwayne Betts is an award-winning writer and poet.  Mr. Betts’ memoir, A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison, was the recipient of the 2010 NAACP Image Award for non-fiction. In 2010 he was awarded a Soros Justice Fellowship to complete The Circumference of a Prison, a work of nonfiction exploring the criminal justice system. In addition, Mr. Betts is the author of a collection of poetry, Shahid Reads His Own Palm.  In addition to his writing, Mr. Betts is involved in a number of non-profit organizations, including the Campaign for Youth Justice for which he serves as a national spokesperson.  He received a B.A. from the University of Maryland and was recently awarded a Radcliffe Fellowship to Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Studies.

Patricia G. Smith, Appointee for Member, Advisory Board of the National Air and Space Museum
Patricia G. Smith is the founder of Patti Grace Smith Consulting, L.L.C, an aerospace consulting company.  Ms. Smith served as Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) from 1997 to 2008.  While with the FAA, she headed the agency's operations responsible for licensing, regulating, and promoting the U.S. commercial space transportation industry.  Ms. Smith is currently a member of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Advisory Council, where she serves as Chair of the Commercial Space Committee.  She is also a member of the Space Foundation Board, the American Astronautical Board, the X Prize Advisory Board, and the board of the Conrad Foundation.  Ms. Smith previously served on the SpaceDev Board, and the National Bar Association's Air and Space Law Forum Board.  She received her B.A. from Tuskegee University.

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Statement from Vice President Biden on the Violence Against Women Act

Today, the Senate took bipartisan action to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act.  Now, it’s time for the House to move quickly and pass the bill. 

In 2012, we should be beyond questioning the need for the Violence Against Women Act. This law has been overwhelmingly successful since it was first enacted 17 years ago to improve the criminal justice response to this violent crime and to assist those who experience this abuse.  Since then, the law has twice been reauthorized with the broad support of members of both parties.  It should still be bigger than politics today.  

We’ve made a lot of progress, but the Violence Against Women Act is as important today as it’s ever been.  The Senate’s action today reaffirms that addressing this problem is bigger than politics.   Now the House needs to act so the President can sign this vital legislation as soon as possible. 

###

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Opportunity Impact Statement: Ensuring an Economy that Works

Americans prioritize finding solutions for our economy and�job creation, and it is clear that we need an economy that works for all of us. This means building the jobs and the infrastructure that will create equal opportunities for success for all Americans. In order to make smart and necessary decisions about how and where we spend our money, we need to evaluate the impact of spending, while also honoring our commitment to avoid engaging in discrimination.
Using a tool that evaluates public spending?what we call an Opportunity Impact Statement (OIS)?at all levels of government can ensure that government looks at where investment is needed most before actually spending funds, whether it?s for job creation, building out transportation to jobs, or schools. This would ensure that all Americans have access to the building blocks of opportunity. The American Constitution Society�has published an issue brief�by The Opportunity Agenda on these statements. As described in the brief, ?[a] coordinated process is needed to ensure that public funding complies with anti-discrimination laws and not only confronts barriers to opportunity that affect regions throughout the United States, but also builds the foundation necessary to give all communities a chance to achieve economic security and mobility.?
We describe in the brief ways for administrative agencies to use an OIS process as part of their evaluation of ongoing and proposed government funded projects and programs, with detailed examples related to housing and transportation.�Read the brief here�to learn about ways to use this flexible tool to promote opportunity as we build our economy.
�
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We Can?t Wait: President Obama Takes Action to Stop Deceptive and Misleading Practices by Educational Institutions that Target Veterans, Service Members and their Families

On Friday, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will visit Fort Stewart in Georgia where the President will sign an Executive Order to help ensure all of America’s service members, veterans, spouses, and other family members have the information they need to make informed educational decisions and are protected from aggressive and deceptive targeting by educational institutions. We have a sacred trust with those who serve and protect our nation. It’s a commitment that begins at enlistment, and it must never end.  That’s why President Obama is committed to ensuring veterans and service members have the chance to get a college education and can find work when they return from service.

Since the Post-9/11 GI Bill became law, there have been reports of aggressive and deceptive targeting of service members, veterans, and their families by educational institutions, particularly for-profit career colleges. For example, some institutions have recruited veterans with serious brain injuries and emotional vulnerabilities without providing academic support and counseling; encouraged service members, veterans, and their families to take out costly institutional loans rather than encouraging them to apply for Federal student aid first; engaged in misleading recruiting practices on military installations; and have not disclosed meaningful information that allows potential students to determine whether the institution has a good record of graduating service members, veterans, and their families and positioning them for success in the workforce. 

Members of Congress have introduced legislation to address these issues, but the Administration believes we must do all we can administratively to protect veterans from these deceptive practices by improving the quality of information and services that these schools must provide.  These steps will help ensure that Federal military and veteran education dollars are well spent. Today’s Executive Order will apply to a variety of military and veteran education benefits, including the GI Bill, Tuition Assistance Program, and Military Spouse Career Advancement Account Program (MyCAA).

Today’s Executive Order will:

• Help Ensure Military and Veteran Students Have the Information They Need: The Executive Order will require that colleges provide more transparent information about their outcomes and financial aid options for students, which will help ensure that students are aware of the true cost and likelihood of completion prior to enrolling. According to the Senate HELP Committee, of the ten educational institutions collecting the most Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits between 2009 and 2011, eight were for-profit schools. Six of these schools had bachelor student withdrawal rates above 50 percent.  The Executive Order will require that the Know Before You Owe financial aid form, developed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Department of Education (ED), is made available to every college student that participates in the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Tuition Assistance program (nearly 2,000 schools). The Executive Order will also direct the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to encourage all schools—roughly 6,000 in total—participating in the GI Bill program to provide the Know Before You Owe form.  This form provides students with critical information on tuition and fees, the availability of federal financial aid, estimated student loan debt upon graduation, and information about student outcomes like graduation rates. Further, the Executive Order will require that students are provided additional critical information, including school performance information over time, consumer protection information, and key financial aid documents, prior to the use of their benefits through the eBenefits portal.  The VA will publically post on their website if schools who receive GI Bill benefits agree to adhere to the Executive Order. 

• Keep Bad Actors Off of Military Installations:  There have been numerous reports of some institutions of higher education aggressively and inappropriately targeting military students.  The Executive Order will require the Department of Defense to set forth rules for how educational institutions gain access to military installations in the first place, so that service members are not targeted by institutions known for a history of poor behavior in recruiting and marketing practices.

• Crack Down on Improper Online Recruiting Practices: The Executive Order will direct the VA to initiate a process to register the term “GI Bill,” so that external websites and programs are not deceptively and fraudulently marketing educational services and benefits to program beneficiaries. For instance, some companies have set up websites that suggest that veterans’ benefits are only available at a subset of schools.  The websites are also set up to resemble official government sites, and are marketed heavily at military installations and at separating service members.

• Provide Veterans with a Complaint System: The Executive Order will require VA, DoD, and ED, in consultation with the CFPB and Department of Justice, to create a centralized complaint system for students receiving military and veterans’ educational benefits. Currently, when military and veteran students feel that their school has acted fraudulently, they have no centralized system to file complaints, and federal agencies often lack access to information that will allow for follow-up enforcement or regulatory actions.

• Improve Support Services for Service Members and Veterans: The Executive Order will require that colleges participating in the military and veterans education benefit programs do more to meet the needs of military and veteran students by providing clear educational plans for students, academic and financial aid counseling services with staff that are familiar with the VA and DoD programs, and the ability of service members to more easily re-enroll and/or receive a refund if they must leave school for service-related reasons.

• Provide Students with Better Data on Educational Institutions: The Executive Order will require DoD, VA, and Ed to develop improved student outcome measures, such as completion rates for veterans, and a plan for collecting this data, which will be made available on Ed’s College Navigator website. Currently, retention and completion rates cannot be broken down by veteran or service member status.  Given the unique educational needs of veterans, active-duty service members, and their family members, it is important to provide them with a more accurate picture of what success looks like for students like them. The Executive Order will also require better reporting on the extent to which colleges rely on various types of federal benefits for operational support.

• Strengthen Enforcement of Student Protections: The Executive Order will require that VA and DoD strengthen the enforcement and compliance functions of the VA and DoD, so that, working in conjunction with the Department of Education, DOJ, and the CFPB, agencies (including law enforcement agencies with responsibility over fraud investigations) can effectively act on complaints of improper activity.

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Biden: GOP May Sue to Overturn Social Security

Vice President Joe Biden says Republicans may issue a court challenge to Social Security, just as they have done to the new healthcare law, The Hill reports. No Republicans are suggesting such a step, but obviously it serves Democrats? political purposes to point to Republicans threatening Social Security.
At a fundraiser for Pennsylvania Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dan Onorato, Biden noted that his opponent Tom Corbett "is one of a dozen Republican attorneys general actually suing? to overturn the healthcare law.
"I wonder if next it?s Social Security," Biden says. "We mandate you do that, too.?
The Republican challenge to the healthcare law is that it is unconstitutional to require Americans to buy health insurance. But obviously Biden is making quite a leap in logic.

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President Obama Names Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipients

WASHINGTON – Today, President Barack Obama named thirteen recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  The Medal of Freedom is the Nation’s highest civilian honor, presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.  The awards will be presented at the White House in late spring.

President Obama said, “These extraordinary honorees come from different backgrounds and different walks of life, but each of them has made a lasting contribution to the life of our Nation.  They’ve challenged us, they’ve inspired us, and they’ve made the world a better place.  I look forward to recognizing them with this award.”

The following individuals will be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom:

Madeleine Albright
From 1997 to 2001, under President William J. Clinton, Albright served as the 64th United States Secretary of State, the first woman to hold that position.  During her tenure, she worked to enlarge NATO and helped lead the Alliance’s campaign against terror and ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, pursued peace in the Middle East and Africa, sought to reduce the dangerous spread of nuclear weapons, and was a champion of democracy, human rights, and good governance across the globe.  From 1993 to 1997, she was America’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations.  Since leaving office, she founded the Albright Stonebridge Group and Albright Capital Management, returned to teaching at Georgetown University, and authored five books.  Albright chairs the National Democratic Institute and is President of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation.

John Doar
Doar was a legendary public servant and leader of federal efforts to protect and enforce civil rights during the 1960s.  He served as Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.  In that capacity, he was instrumental during many major civil rights crises, including singlehandedly preventing a riot in Jackson, Mississippi, following the funeral of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evars in 1963.  Doar brought notable civil rights cases, including obtaining convictions for the 1964 killings of three civil rights workers in Neshoba County, Mississippi, and leading the effort to enforce the right to vote and implement the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  He later served as Special Counsel to the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary as it investigated the Watergate scandal and considered articles of impeachment against President Nixon.  Doar continues to practice law at Doar Rieck Kaley & Mack in New York.

Bob Dylan
One of the most influential American musicians of the 20th century, Dylan released his first album in 1962.  Known for his rich and poetic lyrics, his work had considerable influence on the civil rights movement of the 1960s and has had significant impact on American culture over the past five decades.  He has won 11 Grammys, including a lifetime achievement award.  He was named a Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Art et des Lettres and has received a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation.  Dylan was awarded the 2009 National Medal of Arts.  He has written more than 600 songs, and his songs have been recorded more than 3,000 times by other artists.  He continues recording and touring around the world today.

William Foege
A physician and epidemiologist, Foege helped lead the successful campaign to eradicate smallpox in the 1970s.  He was appointed Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1977 and, with colleagues, founded the Task Force for Child Survival in 1984.  Foege became Executive Director of The Carter Center in 1986 and continues to serve the organization as a Senior Fellow.  He helped shape the global health work of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and remains a champion of a wide array of issues, including child survival and development, injury prevention, and preventative medicine.  Foege’s leadership has contributed significantly to increased awareness and action on global health issues, and his enthusiasm, energy, and effectiveness in these endeavors have inspired a generation of leaders in public health.

John Glenn
Glenn is a former United States Marine Corps pilot, astronaut, and United States Senator.  In 1962, he was the third American in space and the first American to orbit the Earth.  After retiring from the Marine Corps, Glenn was elected to the U.S. Senate in Ohio in 1974. He was an architect and sponsor of the 1978 Nonproliferation Act and served as Chairman of the Senate Government Affairs committee from 1987 until 1995.  In 1998, Glenn became the oldest person to visit space at the age of 77. He retired from the Senate in 1999. Glenn is a recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal and the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

Gordon Hirabayashi
Hirabayashi openly defied the forced relocation and internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.  As an undergraduate at the University of Washington, he refused the order to report for evacuation to an internment camp, instead turning himself in to the FBI to assert his belief that these practices were racially discriminatory.  Consequently, he was convicted by a U.S. Federal District Court in Seattle of defying the exclusion order and violating curfew.  Hirabayashi appealed his conviction all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled against him in 1943.  Following World War II and his time in prison, Hirabayashi obtained his doctoral degree in sociology and became a professor.  In 1987, his conviction was overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  Hirabayashi died on January 2, 2012.

Dolores Huerta
Huerta is a civil rights, workers, and women’s advocate. With Cesar Chavez, she co-founded the National Farmworkers Association in 1962, which later became the United Farm Workers of America.  Huerta has served as a community activist and a political organizer, and was influential in securing the passage of California’s Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, and disability insurance for farmworkers in California.  In 2002, she founded the Dolores Huerta Foundation, an organization dedicated to developing community organizers and national leaders.  In 1998, President Clinton awarded her the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights.

Jan Karski
Karski served as an officer in the Polish Underground during World War II and carried among the first eye-witness accounts of the Holocaust to the world.  He worked as a courier, entering the Warsaw ghetto and the Nazi Izbica transit camp, where he saw first-hand the atrocities occurring under Nazi occupation.  Karski later traveled to London to meet with the Polish government-in-exile and with British government officials.  He subsequently traveled to the United States and met with President Roosevelt.  Karski published Story of a Secret State, earned a Ph.D at Georgetown University, and became a professor at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service.  Born in 1914, Karski became a U.S. citizen in 1954 and died in 2000.

Juliette Gordon Low
Born in 1860, Low founded the Girl Scouts in 1912.  The organization strives to teach girls self-reliance and resourcefulness.  It also encourages girls to seek fulfillment in the professional world and to become active citizens in their communities.  Since 1912, the Girl Scouts has grown into the largest educational organization for girls and has had over 50 million members.  Low died in 1927.  This year, the Girl Scouts celebrate their 100th Anniversary, calling 2012 “The Year of the Girl.”

Toni Morrison
One of our nation’s most celebrated novelists, Morrison is renowned for works such as Song of Solomon, Jazz, and Beloved, for which she won a Pulitzer Prize in 1988.  When she became the first African American woman to win a Nobel Prize in 1993, Morrison’s citation captured her as an author “who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality.”  She created the Princeton Atelier at Princeton University to convene artists and students.  Morrison continues to write today. 

Shimon Peres
An ardent advocate for Israel's security and for peace, Shimon Peres was elected the ninth President of Israel in 2007.  First elected to the Knesset in 1959, he has served in a variety of positions throughout the Israeli government, including in twelve Cabinets as Foreign Minister, Minister of Defense, and Minister of Transport and Communications.  Peres served as Prime Minister from 1984-1986 and 1995-1996.  Along with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and then-PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, Peres won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for his work as Foreign Minister during the Middle East peace talks that led to the Oslo Accords. Through his life and work, he has strengthened the unbreakable bonds between Israel and the United States.

John Paul Stevens
Stevens served as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1975 to 2010, when he retired as the third longest-serving Justice in the Court’s history.  Known for his independent, pragmatic and rigorous approach to judging, Justice Stevens and his work have left a lasting imprint on the law in areas such as civil rights, the First Amendment, the death penalty, administrative law, and the separation of powers.  He was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Gerald Ford, and previously served as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.  Stevens is a veteran of World War II, in which he served as a naval intelligence officer and was awarded the Bronze Star.

Pat Summitt
In addition to accomplishing an outstanding career as the all-time winningest leader among all NCAA basketball coaches, Summitt has taken the University of Tennessee to more Final Four appearances than any other coach and has the second best record of NCAA Championships in basketball.  She has received numerous awards, including being named Naismith Women’s Collegiate Coach of the Century.  Off the court, she has been a spokesperson against Alzheimer's.  The Pat Summitt Foundation will make grants to nonprofits to provide education and awareness, support to patients and families, and research to prevent, cure and ultimately eradicate early onset dementia, Alzheimer’s type.

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Biden: GOP May Sue to Overturn Social Security

Vice President Joe Biden says Republicans may issue a court challenge to Social Security, just as they have done to the new healthcare law, The Hill reports. No Republicans are suggesting such a step, but obviously it serves Democrats? political purposes to point to Republicans threatening Social Security.
At a fundraiser for Pennsylvania Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dan Onorato, Biden noted that his opponent Tom Corbett "is one of a dozen Republican attorneys general actually suing? to overturn the healthcare law.
"I wonder if next it?s Social Security," Biden says. "We mandate you do that, too.?
The Republican challenge to the healthcare law is that it is unconstitutional to require Americans to buy health insurance. But obviously Biden is making quite a leap in logic.

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Remarks by the President and First Lady at Fort Stewart, Georgia

Fort Stewart
Hinesville, Georgia

12:45 P.M. EDT

MRS. OBAMA:  Hello, Fort Stewart!  (Applause.)  We are beyond thrilled -- beyond thrilled -- to be with all of you today.  And before I get started, there's just one thing I want to say, and that is, hooah!

AUDIENCE:  Hooah! 

MRS. OBAMA:  Did I do that right?

AUDIENCE:  Hooah!

MRS. OBAMA:  All right, good.  (Laughter.)  Phew. 

I want to start by thanking Sergeant Marshall for that very kind introduction and for sharing his story with us today.  And I want to thank all of you -- our men and women in uniform, our veterans and your extraordinary families.  (Applause.)  Absolutely.  For the families, yes!  (Applause.) 

One of my greatest privileges as First Lady has been meeting folks like you on bases and communities all across this country.  And I always say this, but I can never say it enough:  I am in awe of you.  I'm in awe of how many of you signed up to defend our country in a time of war, serving heroically through deployment after deployment.  I'm in awe of your families -- the spouses who run their households all alone, the kids who step up at home and succeed at school and stay strong through all the challenges they face.  With their service, they make your service possible.

And I'm also in awe of our veterans -- (applause) -- because I know that your service doesn’t end when you hang up your uniform.  For so many of you, your whole life is a tour of duty, and as you become leaders in our communities and continue to give back to our country, you keep serving.  And like so many Americans, the more I've learned about the sacrifices you all make, the more I wanted to find a way to express my gratitude, and that’s -- not just with words, but with action. 

And that’s why last year Jill Biden and I started Joining Forces.  It's a nationwide campaign to recognize, honor and support our veterans, our troops and our military families.  And I have to tell you, we had barely even finished announcing this campaign when we were inundated with offers to help.  I mean, so many people wanted to step up and show their appreciation that we hardly knew where to begin.

In our first year alone, more than 1,600 businesses hired more than 60,000 veterans, and they pledged to hire at least 170,000 more in the coming years.  (Applause.)  National associations of doctors and nurses representing millions of health professionals are working to improve treatment for post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injuries.  We've had TV shows like Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Sesame Street; organizations like NASCAR and Disney -- they're working to share the stories of our military families with the rest of the country.  And these are just a few examples out of thousands all across the country.

So if I can leave you with just one message today, I want you all to know that America does have your backs.  And we are just getting started.  We are going to keep at this.  We're going to keep on working every day to serve all of you as well as you have served this country. 

And the man who has been leading the way is standing right next to me.  (Applause.)  And ladies, I think he's kind of cute.  (Laughter and applause.)  He was fighting for all of you long before he ever became President. 

He's made veteran's employment a national priority, with tax breaks for businesses that hire veterans and wounded warriors.  He's working to end the outrage of veteran's homelessness once and for all.  (Applause.)  He championed the Post-9/11 GI Bill, which has helped more than half a million veterans and military families go to college.  (Applause.)  And today, with this new effort to ensure that you all get the education you've earned, that story continues.

So please join me in welcoming your strongest advocate -- your Commander-In-Chief and our President, my husband, Barack Obama.  (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Hello, Fort Stewart!  (Applause.)  It is good to be here at Fort Stewart.  First of all, how about the First Lady, Michelle Obama?  (Applause.)  Hooah!  She is a tough act to follow.  For the gentlemen out there who are not yet married, let me just explain to you, your goal is to improve your gene pool by marrying somebody who is superior to you.  (Applause.)  Isn’t that right, General?  (Laughter.) 

Listen, and as you just heard, when it comes to all of you -- when it comes to our military, our veterans, your families –- Michelle Obama and Jill Biden have your back.  They are working tirelessly to make sure that our military families are treated with the honor and respect and support that they deserve.  And I could not be prouder of all the efforts that they’ve been making on their behalf.  (Applause.)
It’s a privilege to hang out with some of America’s finest.

AUDIENCE:  Hooah!

THE PRESIDENT:   The ‘Dog Face Soldiers’ of the Third Infantry Division!  (Applause.)  Rock of the Marne!  We’ve got a lot of folks in the house.  We’ve got the Raider Brigade!  (Hooah!)  We’ve got the Spartan Brigade!  (Hooah!)  We’ve got the Vanguard Brigade!  (Hooah!)  We’ve got the Provider Brigade!  (Hooah!)  And we’ve got the Falcon Brigade!  (Hooah!)

Let me thank Major General Abrams and his beautiful wife, Connie, for welcoming us.  Abe is doing an incredible job carrying on his family’s incredible tradition of service to our country.  So we are grateful for him.  Give him a big round of applause.  (Applause.) 

I want to thank Command Sergeant Major Edd Watson and his beautiful wife, Sharon.  (Applause.)  I want to thank someone who’s made it her life’s mission to stand up for the financial security of you and your families, somebody who knows a little bit about military families and military service.  And actually, this is a homecoming for her because she spent over three years when they were posted down here -- Holly Petraeus is in the house.  I want you guys to give her a big round of applause.  (Applause.) 

But most importantly, I want to thank all of you.  I want to thank you for your service.  I want to thank you for your sacrifice.  I want to thank you for your unshakeable commitment to our country.  You have worn the uniform with honor.  You’ve performed heroically in some of the most dangerous places on Earth.  You have done everything that has been asked of you, and more.  And you have earned a special place in our nation’s history. 

Future generations will speak of your achievements.  They’ll speak of how the Third Infantry Division’s ‘thunder run’ into Baghdad signaled the end of a dictatorship, and how you brought Iraq back from the brink of civil war.  They’ll speak of you and your service in Afghanistan and in the fight against al Qaeda, which you have put on the path to defeat. 

And to the members of the Special Operations Forces community, while the American people may never know the full extent of your service, they will surely speak of how you kept our country safe and strong, and how you delivered justice to our enemies. 

So history will remember what you did, and so will we.  We will remember the profound sacrifices that you’ve made in these wars.  Michelle and I just had a few moments at the Warriors Walk, paying tribute to 441 of your fallen comrades -- men and women who gave their last full measure of devotion to keep our nation safe.  And we will remember them.  We will honor them -- always.  And our thoughts and prayers also go out to the troops from Fort Stewart who are serving so bravely right now as we speak in Afghanistan.  (Applause.)  And I know many of you will be deploying there, too, so you know you’re going to be in our thoughts and prayers.
Your generation -- the 9/11 Generation -- has written one of the greatest chapters of military service that America has ever seen.  But I know that for many of you, a new chapter is unfolding.  The war in Iraq is over.  The transition in Afghanistan is underway.  Many of our troops are coming home, back to civilian life.  And as you return, I know that you’re looking for new jobs and new opportunities and new ways to serve this great country of ours.

And three years ago, I made your generation a promise:  I said that when your tour comes to an end -- when you see our flag, when you touch down on our soil -- you’ll be coming home to an America that will forever fight for you, just as you fought for us.

For me, as President, it’s been a top priority.  It’s something I worked on as a senator when I served on the Veterans Affairs Committee.  It’s something I continue to this day.  Since I took office, we’ve hired over 200,000 veterans to serve in the federal government.  (Applause.)

We’ve made it easier for veterans to access all sorts of employment services.  You just heard how Michelle and Jill have worked with businesses to secure tens of thousands of jobs for veterans and their families.  And with support from Democrats and Republicans, we’ve put in place new tax credits for companies that hire veterans.  We want every veteran who wants a job to get a job.  That’s the goal.  (Applause.)

And those of you who want to pursue a higher education and earn new skills, you deserve that opportunity as well. 

Like General Abrams’ dad, my grandfather -- the man who helped raise me -— served in Patton’s Army.  And when he came home, he went to school on the GI Bill, because America decided that every returning veteran of World War II should be able to afford it.  And we owe that same commitment to all of you. 

So as President, I’ve made sure to champion the Post-9/11 GI Bill.  And with that bill -- and the Tuition Assistance program -- last year we supported more than 550,000 veterans and 325,000 servicemembers who are pursuing a higher education.  (Applause.)  Because a higher education is the clearest path to the middle class.  That’s progress.  But we’ve got more to do.  We can’t be satisfied with what we’ve already done, we’ve got more to do.  We’ve got to make sure you’ve got every tool you need to make an informed decision when it comes to picking a school.  And that’s why Michelle and I are here today.

Right now, it’s not that easy.  I’ve heard the stories.  Some of you guys can relate; you may have experienced it yourselves.  You go online to try and find the best school for military members, or your spouses, or other family members.  You end up on a website that looks official.  They ask you for your email, they ask you for your phone number.  They promise to link you up with a program that fits your goals.  Almost immediately after you’ve typed in all that information, your phone starts ringing.  Your inbox starts filling up.  You’ve never been more popular in your life.  All of these schools want you to enroll with them. 

And it sounds good.  Every school and every business should be out there competing for your skills and your talent and your leadership -- everything that you’ve shown in uniform.  But as some of your comrades have discovered, sometimes you’re dealing with folks who aren’t interested in helping you.  They’re not interested in helping you find the best program.  They are interested in getting the money.  They don’t care about you; they care about the cash.

So they harass you into making a quick decision with all those calls and emails.  And if they can’t get you online, they show up on post.  One of the worst examples of this is a college recruiter who had the nerve to visit a barracks at Camp Lejeune and enroll Marines with brain injuries -- just for the money.  These Marines had injuries so severe some of them couldn’t recall what courses the recruiter had signed them up for.  That’s appalling.  That’s disgraceful.  It should never happen in America. 

I’m not talking about all schools.  Many of them -- for-profit and non-profit -- provide quality education to our servicemembers and our veterans and their families.  But there are some bad actors out there.  They’ll say you don’t have to pay a dime for your degree but once you register, they’ll suddenly make you sign up for a high interest student loan.  They’ll say that if you transfer schools, you can transfer credits.  But when you try to actually do that, you suddenly find out that you can’t.  They’ll say they’ve got a job placement program when, in fact, they don’t.  It’s not right.  They’re trying to swindle and hoodwink you.  And today, here at Fort Stewart, we’re going to put an end to it.  (Applause.)  We’re putting an end to it. 

The executive order I’m about to sign will make life a whole lot more secure for you and your families and our veterans -- and a whole lot tougher for those who try to prey on you.  Here’s what we’re going to do.

First, we’re going to require colleges that want to enroll members of our military or veterans or your families to provide clear information about their qualifications and available financial aid.  You’ll be able to get a simple fact sheet called “Know Before You Owe.”  Know before you owe.  (Applause.)  And it will lay out all the information that you need to make your own choices about how best to pay for college.  

Second, we’re going to require those schools to step up their support for our students.  They need to provide a lot more counseling.  If you’ve got to move because of a deployment or a reassignment, they’ve got to help you come up with a plan so that you can still get your degree.  (Applause.)

Number three, we’re going to bring an end to the aggressive -- and sometimes dishonest -- recruiting that takes place.  We’re going to up our oversight of improper recruitment practices.  We’re going to strengthen the rules about who can come on post and talk to servicemembers.  (Applause.)  And we’re going to make it a lot easier for all of you to file complaints and for us to take action when somebody is not acting right.  

This is about making sure you succeed -- because when you succeed, our country succeeds.  It’s that simple.  After all, at the end of World War II, so many Americans like my grandfather came home to new opportunities.  Because of the original GI Bill, by 1947, half of all Americans who enrolled in college were veterans.  And you know what, they did pretty well. 

They rose to become Presidents and Supreme Court Justices and Nobel Prize winners.  They went on to become scientists and engineers, and doctors and nurses.  Eight million Americans were educated under the original GI Bill.  And together, they forged the backbone of what would become the largest middle class that the world had ever seen.  They built this country.  They turned us into that economic superpower. 

And we can do it again.  We face some tough times.  We’ve gone through the worst recession since the Great Depression, two wars.  But you know what, we’ve faced tough times before.  And all of you know something that America should never forget:  Just as you rise or fall as one unit, we rise or fall as one nation.  Just as you have each other’s backs, what has always made America great is that we have each other’s backs.  Each of us is only here because somebody looked out for us.  Not just our parents, but our neighbors and our communities and our houses of worship and our VFW halls.  (Applause.)  Each of us is here because we had a country that was willing to invest in things like community colleges and universities, and scientific research and medicine, and caring for our veterans.  Each of us is only here because somebody, somewhere, had our backs.

This country exists because generations of Americans worked together and looked out for one other.  Out of many, we are one.  Those are the values we’ve got to return to.  If we do, there’s nothing this country cannot achieve.  There’s no challenge that's too great for us.  There’s no destiny beyond our reach.  As long as we’re joined in common purpose and common resolve, better days will always lie ahead, and we will remind everybody why the United States of America is the greatest country on Earth.

And as I look out at this sea of incredible men and women -- (applause) -- it gives me confidence that our best days are still ahead. 

God bless you.  God bless our armed services.  God bless the Third Division.  God bless the United States of America.  Thank you very much.  (Applause.)

And now I’m going to sign this executive order. 

(The executive order is signed.)

END               
1:09 P.M. EDT

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Open Thread: Facebook PSA (Balloon-juice.com)

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Whatever You Call It, Clean Energy is Bipartisan

Clean energy companies are forming a political action committee (PAC) to make sure that clean energy candidates are elected to Congress. The newly-formed Accelerating Energy Leadership PAC (or AccelPAC) was in the news last week not because it represents a significant beefing-up of the clean energy industry?s political might. Bloomberg broke the story by highlighting the way the PAC will talk about clean energy issues. Rather than referring to ?clean? energy, the PAC is focused on ?alternative? energy.
?We want to avoid the catch words -- clean energy, green energy -- that set people off in the wrong way,? said Tim Greeff, the Washington-based PAC?s treasurer. ?The political rhetoric is starting to dictate and override any pragmatic solutions.?
Whatever you call it, AccelPAC makes clear that clean energy is a bipartisan issue. The PAC?s first recipient was Nevada Republican Senator Dean Heller. We?ve highlighted Heller?s clean energy record here before, noting that Heller isn?t afraid to trumpet his support for ?renewable? energy in his campaign.
As the NRDC Action Fund?s Running Clean report shows, leading on clean energy issues is a winning strategy. AccelPAC is a welcome addition to the world of clean energy politics. Because, at the end of the day, electing a clean energy majority is more important than the name we call it.
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Remarks by the First Lady at a Campaign Event

4:28 P.M. CDT

        MRS. OBAMA:  Thank you!  (Applause.)  You all are fired up.  (Applause.)  First of all, just let me say thank you.  Thank you so much.  I am thrilled to be with all of you today, really thrilled. 

        I want to just share with you -- as you can all imagine -- this state has a very special place in my heart, and in Barack's as well.  I am fortunate enough to see so many old friends, folks who were with us right from the very beginning and every step of the way. 

        AUDIENCE MEMBER:  We love you, Michelle!  (Applause.)

        MRS. OBAMA:  Well, it feels great to be back here in Iowa, it really does.

        I want to start by thanking CeCe for that very kind introduction, and very powerful introduction.  (Applause.)  I just want to thank her for her outstanding work on our campaign, she has just been amazing.  Let's give her another round of applause.  (Applause.)

        I also want to recognize Mayor Jerry Sullivan; your state party chair, Sue Dvorsky; and our good friend, Ruth Harkin.  (Applause.)  I'm so glad that all of you could be here today.

        And finally, to all of you, truly, our extraordinary volunteers and organizers -- I just want to say two words that my husband and I simply cannot say enough, and that is thank you.  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Thank you for knocking on those doors.  Thank you for making those calls.  Thank you for organizing all the events and registering those voters.  Thank you for getting out there and giving folks the information they need about the issues they care about. 

        I understand that we now have volunteers in all 99 counties of this state.  (Applause.)  That is amazing.  And you all are holding phone banks every day; you’re out canvassing every weekend.  And I want you to know that the grassroots work that you all are doing to get people focused and fired up?  That work is the core of our campaign, it truly is.  Because that’s who we are.  That’s what we do. 

        We reach out.  We bring folks from all different backgrounds into this democratic process, right? 

        AUDIENCE:  Yes!

        MRS. OBAMA:  And that’s how we did it four years ago, and that’s how we're going to get it done again today.  (Applause.) 

        AUDIENCE:  Four more years!  Four more years!  Four more years!

        MRS. OBAMA:   But the one thing that I know is that all the work you're doing, it isn't easy.  And I know you all are putting in long hours -- that I know.  We've been through this.  I know that you’ve got families to raise, you have jobs to do, classes to attend. 

        But I also know that there’s a reason that you all are devoting so much of your lives to this cause.  I know there’s a reason why I’m here in Des Moines today, and it’s not just because we all support one extraordinary man –- (applause) -- although I admit, I am a little biased, right?  (Laughter.)  And it’s not just because we want to win an election. 

        We’re doing this because of the values we believe in.  We’re doing this because of the vision for this country that we all share, right?

        AUDIENCE:  Right!

        MRS. OBAMA:  We’re doing this because we want our children to have schools worthy of their promise -- schools that push them and inspire them, and prepare them for good jobs where they can make a good living.  We want them to have clean air and safe streets, and we want them to grow up in a world that’s peaceful and secure.  Yes we do.  (Applause.)   

        We want our parents and grandparents to retire with a little dignity, because we believe that after a lifetime of hard work, they should enjoy their golden years.  Yes indeed. 

        We want to restore that basic middle-class security for our families, because we believe that folks shouldn’t go bankrupt because someone gets sick.  They shouldn’t lose their home because someone loses a job. 

        We believe that responsibility should be rewarded, right?

        AUDIENCE:  Yes!  (Applause.)

        MRS. OBAMA:  We believe that hard work should pay off, and that everyone should do their fair share and play by the same rules.  (Applause.) 

        And really, those are basic American values.  And they’re the values that so many of us were raised with, including myself.

        And I share this often -- as many of you know, my father was a blue-collar worker at the city water plant.  My family lived in a little bitty apartment on the South Side of Chicago, and neither of my parents had the opportunity to go to college.  But they did do something important:  they saved, and they sacrificed so that my brother and I could get a good education -- an education they could only dream of.  And while pretty much all of my college tuition came from student loans and grants, my dad still paid his little teeny portion of his -- of it.  And every semester, I remember he was determined to pay that bill right on time.  He was so proud to be sending his kids to college, and he couldn’t bear the thought of me or my brother missing that registration deadline because his check was late.  (Laughter.)  

        And really, more than anything else, that is what’s at stake.  It’s that fundamental promise that no matter how you started out, if you work hard you can build a decent life for yourself and an even better life for your kids.  (Applause.)  And that’s what you need to tell people. 

        With every door you knock on, with every call you make, with every conversation you have, you need to tell folks about our values.  Tell them about everything that’s at stake next November.

        You can tell them how Barack fought for tax cuts for working families and small businesses -- (applause) -- because an economy built to last starts with the middle class, and with folks who are creating jobs and putting people back to work.  (Applause.) 

        You can remind them how, back when Barack first took office, this economy was losing an average of 750,000 jobs a month.  But for the past 25 straight months, we’ve actually been gaining private sector jobs –- (applause) -- a total of more than 4 million jobs in two years.  So while we still have a very long way to go to rebuild our economy, today, millions of people are collecting a paycheck again. 

        You can remind people about how so many folks in Washington told Barack to let the auto industry go under with more than a million jobs on the line.  But remember, Barack had the backs of American workers -- remember that?  (Applause.)  And as a result, today, the auto industry is back on its feet again, and, more importantly, people are back to work providing for their families again.  (Applause.)

        You can tell them how, because we passed health reform, as CeCe was saying -- (applause) -- insurance companies can no longer deny our children coverage because they have a pre-existing condition like asthma.  (Applause.)  They have to cover preventive care -- things like contraception, cancer screenings, prenatal cost -- at no extra cost.  And because our kids can now stay on their parents’ insurance until they’re 26 years old -- (applause) -- because of that, 2.5 million young people in this country are getting the health care they need.  Tell them about that.

        AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Thank you!

        MRS. OBAMA:  You can tell people about what Barack has done to raise standards in our public schools, and make college more affordable so that our young people can get the education that they need for the good jobs that they need, right?

        AUDIENCE:  Yes!

        MRS. OBAMA:  Tell them that.  (Laughter.)  Please, tell them that.  (Laughter.)

        You can tell people how Barack has been fighting for the DREAM Act, so that responsible young immigrants who came here as children and were raised as Americans can earn a path to citizenship by going to college or serving in the military.  (Applause.)    

        You can tell people that because my husband finally ended "don't ask, don't tell," our troops will never again have to lie about who they are to serve the country they love.  (Applause.)

        Because of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act –- (applause) -- the very first bill my husband signed into law, it’s now easier for women to get equal pay for equal work. 

        And of course, with those two brilliant Supreme Court Justices that Barack appointed, for the first time in history, our sons and daughters watched three women take their seats on our nation’s highest court.  (Applause.)

        But all of this is at stake next November.  It's all on the line.  And in the end, it all boils down to one simple question:   Will we continue the change that we’ve begun and the progress we’ve made, or will we allow everything we’ve fought for to just slip away?

        AUDIENCE:  No!

        MRS. OBAMA:  We know what we need to do, right?

        AUDIENCE:  Yes!

        MRS. OBAMA:  We cannot turn back now.  We need to keep moving forward.  Yes, indeed.  Because while we’ve come a long way these past few years, we have so much more to do -- so much more. 

        And more than anything else, that is what we’re working for –- the chance to finish what we started, the chance to keep on fighting for the values we believe in and the vision we share.
        And that’s what my husband has been doing every single day as President -- every single day.  (Applause.)  

        And over the past three-and-a-half years, I’ve had the chance to see up close and personal what that looks like.  I’ve seen how the issues that cross a President’s desk are always the hard ones –- the problems with no easy solutions, the judgment calls where the stakes are so high and there is no margin for error. 

        And as President, you can get all kinds of advice and opinions from all kinds of people.  But at the end of the day, when it comes time to make that decision, all you have to guide you are your values, and your vision, and your life experiences.  In the end, when you’re making those impossible choices, it all boils down to who you are and what you stand for.

        And we all know who my husband is.  (Applause.)  He’s the son of a single mother who struggled to put herself through school and pay the bills -- that’s who he is.  He’s the grandson of a woman who woke up before dawn every day to catch a bus to her job at a bank.  And even though Barack’s grandmother worked hard to help support his family and she was good at her job, she hit that glass ceiling, and men no more qualified than she was were promoted up the ladder ahead of her. 

        So Barack knows what it means when a family struggles.  He knows what it means when someone doesn’t have the chance to fulfill their potential.  And today, as a father, he knows what it means to want something better for your kids.  See, those are the experiences that have made him the man and the President he is today, and we are blessed to have him.  (Applause.)

        So what you need to know is that when it comes time to stand up for American workers and American families, you know what my husband is going to do, right?  When there’s a choice about protecting our rights, our freedoms, you know where Barack stands.  (Applause.)  And when we need a leader to make the hard decisions to keep this country moving forward, you know you can count on my husband, because that is what he’s been doing since the day he first took office.  (Applause.)  That’s what he's been doing.  

        But I have said this before, and I know, Iowa, you heard me say it:  He cannot do this alone. 

        AUDIENCE MEMBER:  We'll help you!

        MRS. OBAMA:  He cannot do it alone.  He needs your help.  He needs all of you to keep giving just a little part of your life each week to this campaign.  And he needs you to keep pounding that pavement, and signing up your friends and your neighbors and your colleagues with those “I’m in” cards.  You've seen them, right?   

        He needs you to recruit even more volunteers and even more organizers, and show them how their day-to-day efforts will absolutely make a difference.  And he needs you to send people to the website gottaregister.com -- you all heard about that? 

        AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Yes.

        MRS. OBAMA:  It's a website that was created to help folks from every state in this country register to vote and find out where to cast their ballots.  It's an important piece of information -- gottaregister.com.  Gotta -- a little grammatically challenged -- gotta.  G-O-T-T-A.  (Laughter.)  Gottaregister.  (Laughter.)  

        And if you have any doubt at all, if you have any doubt about the difference that you’re making, I just want you to remember that in the end, this all could come down to those last few thousand people that we register to vote.  (Applause.)  It's important to remember that it could all come down to those last few thousand folks we need help get to the polls on November -- on the 6 of November to be precise.  (Laughter.)   

        And I want you all to just think for a minute about what those numbers mean when you spread it out over an entire state.  It might mean registering just one more person per town -- just one more.  It might mean helping just one more person in your community get out and vote, right, on Election Day.  Just one more.

        So understand -- with every door you knock on, with every call you make, with every conversation that you have, I just want you to remember that this could be the one that makes the difference.  Treat it that way.  This could be the one.  You could be the one who inspires someone to make their voice heard next November.  That is the impact that all of you have been having and continue to have, right?

        AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Yes!

        MRS. OBAMA:  Just understand it in those terms.  One more person can make the difference.  And that’s up to all of you.

        So I have one last question for you -- are you all in?  Are you all -- are you in?  (Applause.)  Are you ready to do this?  Because I am in.  I am so in.  (Applause.)  

        So I hope that you all are fired up.  (Applause.)  Are you fired up? 

        AUDIENCE:  Fired up!

        MRS. OBAMA:  Are you fired up?

        AUDIENCE:  Fired up!

        MRS. OBAMA:  Let's get this done.  Thank you all.  God bless you.  (Applause.)

END 4:48 P.M. CDT

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