Barack Obama - Govinfo.gov

PUBLIC PAPERS OF THE PRESIDENTSOF THE

UNITED STATES

PUBLIC PAPERS OF THE PRESIDENTSOF THE

UNITED STATES

WASHINGTON : 2018

Barack Obama

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE

2013(IN TWO BOOKS)

BOOK I—JANUARY 1 TO JUNE 30, 2013

Published by theOffice of the Federal Register

National Archives and Records Administration

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Publishing Office• Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov • Phone: (202) 512–1800 • Fax: (202) 512–1204

• Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20401

ForewordIn January, I pledged a solemn oath to serve a second term as President of the United States.

During a moment of hope and resolve, I addressed the American people about what binds our Nationtogether—not the color of our skin, the tenets of our faith, or the origins of our names, but ourallegiance to a set of ideals declared by our forebears more than two centuries ago. And I called on allAmericans to join in bridging the meaning of those ideals with the realities of our time.

In the first half of the year, we recommitted to reigniting the true engine of America’s economicgrowth—a rising, thriving middle class. Where I was able to work with the Congress, I did—signing abipartisan tax agreement that prevented a tax hike for 98 percent of Americans and reduced the deficit.When the Congress failed to avoid a series of severe, arbitrary spending cuts that hit workers, businessowners, and families across our country, my Administration took action—proposing a budget thatmade targeted investments to create jobs right away and prime our economy to keep generating goodjobs down the road.

We worked to secure the American promise of equal opportunity for all by protecting the rightsand safety of everyone who calls America home. I urged the Congress to fix our broken immigrationsystem, so that we might welcome the best and the brightest from around the world and hopeful,striving, young people who are Americans in every way but on paper can reach their full potential. Iapplauded the Supreme Court for striking down the Defense of Marriage Act, and I signed thebipartisan reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. And in the wake of the tragedy inNewtown, Connecticut, I introduced 23 Executive actions to reduce gun violence and keep our kidssafe—from helping schools hire more resource officers to directing the Centers for Disease Control tostudy the best ways to reduce gun violence.

At the same time that we made progress at home, we worked to strengthen our relationshipsabroad. During the first international trip of my second term, I met with leaders in Israel, the WestBank, and Jordan to discuss security, peace, and prosperity in the Middle East. In Northern Ireland, Iadvanced a broad range of issues with key allies—from development and counterterrorism to globaltrade and transparency. I traveled to Senegal, South Africa, and Tanzania to reaffirm America’scommitment to bolstering democratic institutions throughout Africa, expanding economic growth, andinvesting in African innovation. As we marked the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’sstirring defense of freedom, I stood at the Brandenburg Gate and challenged the global community tocontinue the vital work of pursuing peace and justice for all mankind.

Nothing could prepare Americans for the tragedy these 6 months would bring. Unspeakableterrorist attacks at the Boston Marathon, an explosion at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, anddevastating tornadoes in Oklahoma shook us all. While our hearts still ache for those we lost and ourprayers remain with their families, these communities proved once more that the grit and resilience ofthe American people are stronger than any challenge. Their strength and compassion in the face ofadversity inspire us to continue our efforts, as citizens, to deliver on our founding values of life, liberty,and the pursuit of happiness for all our people. In the years to come, it remains for all of us to meetthat task together and write the next great chapter of the American story.

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PrefaceThis book contains the papers and speeches of the President of the United States that were

issued by the Office of the Press Secretary during the period January 1–June 30, 2013. Thematerial has been compiled and published by the Office of the Federal Register, NationalArchives and Records Administration.

The material is presented in chronological order, and the dates shown in the headings are thedates of the documents or events. In instances when the release date differs from the date of thedocument itself, that fact is shown in the textnote. Every effort has been made to ensureaccuracy: Remarks are checked against an audio recording, and signed documents are checkedagainst the original. Textnotes and cross references have been provided by the editors forpurposes of identification or clarity. Speeches were delivered in Washington, DC, unlessotherwise indicated. The times noted are local times. All materials that are printed in full text inthe book have been indexed in the subject and name indexes and listed in the documentcategories list.

The Public Papers of the Presidents series was begun in 1957 in response to arecommendation of the National Historical Publications Commission. An extensive compilationof messages and papers of the Presidents covering the period 1789 to 1897 was assembled byJames D. Richardson and published under congressional authority between 1896 and 1899. Sincethen, various private compilations have been issued, but there was no uniform publicationcomparable to the Congressional Record or the United States Supreme Court Reports. ManyPresidential papers could be found only in the form of mimeographed White House releases oras reported in the press. The Commission therefore recommended the establishment of anofficial series in which Presidential writings, addresses, and remarks of a public nature could bemade available.

The Commission’s recommendation was incorporated in regulations of the AdministrativeCommittee of the Federal Register, issued under section 6 of the Federal Register Act (44 U.S.C.1506), which may be found in title 1, part 10, of the Code of Federal Regulations.

A companion publication to the Public Papers series, the Weekly Compilation of PresidentialDocuments, was begun in 1965 to provide a broader range of Presidential materials on a moretimely basis to meet the needs of the contemporary reader. Beginning with the administration ofJimmy Carter, the Public Papers series expanded its coverage to include additional material asprinted in the Weekly Compilation. On January 20, 2009, the printed Weekly Compilation ofPresidential Documents was superseded by the online Daily Compilation of PresidentialDocuments. The Daily Compilation provides a listing of the President’s daily schedule andmeetings, when announced, and other items of general interest issued by the Office of the PressSecretary. In 2012, the Government Printing Office and the Office of the Federal Registerreleased a mobile web application (http://m.gpo.gov/dcpd) that catalogues the daily publicactivities of the President of the United States and enhances features of the online DailyCompilation with user-friendly search capability, allowing users to access Presidential content bydate, category, subject, or location.

Also included in the printed edition are lists of the President’s nominations submitted to theSenate, materials released by the Office of the Press Secretary that are not printed in full text inthe book, and proclamations, Executive orders, and other Presidential documents released by theOffice of the Press Secretary and published in the Federal Register. This information appears inthe appendixes at the end of the book.

Volumes covering the administrations of Presidents Herbert Hoover, Harry S. Truman,Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald R. Ford,

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Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, William J. Clinton, and George W. Bush arealso included in the Public Papers series.

The Public Papers of the Presidents publication program is under the direction of John HyrumMartinez, Director of the Publications and Services Division, Office of the Federal Register. Theseries is produced by the Presidential and Legislative Publications Unit, Laurice A. Clark, Supervisor.The Chief Editor of this book was Joseph K. Vetter; the Managing Editor was Joshua H. Liberatore,assisted by Amelia E. Otovo.

The frontispiece and photographs used in the portfolio were supplied by the White HousePhoto Office. The typography and design of the book were developed by the GovernmentPublishing Office under the direction of Andrew M. Sherman, Acting Deputy Director.

Oliver A. PottsDirector of the Federal Register

David S. FerrieroArchivist of the United States

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ContentsForeword . . . v

Preface . . . vii

Cabinet . . . xi

Public Papers of Barack Obama,January 1–June 30, 2013 . . . 1

Appendix ADigest of Other White House Announcements . . . 719

Appendix BNominations Submitted to the Senate . . . 753

Appendix CChecklist of White House Press Releases . . . 769

Appendix DPresidential Documents Published in the Federal Register . . . 781

Subject Index . . . A–1

Name Index . . . B–1

Document Categories List . . . C–1

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Cabinet

Vice President.............................................. Joseph R. Biden, Jr.

Secretary of State......................................... Hillary Rodham Clinton(resigned February 1)John F. Kerry(confirmed January 29)

Secretary of the Treasury ............................ Timothy F. Geithner(resigned January 25)Jacob J. Lew(confirmed February 27)

Secretary of Defense ................................... Leon E. Panetta(resigned February 8)Charles T. Hagel(confirmed February 26)

Attorney General.......................................... Eric H. Holder, Jr.

Secretary of the Interior ............................. Kenneth L. Salazar(resigned April 12)Sarah M.R. “Sally” Jewell(confirmed April 10)

Secretary of Agriculture .............................. Thomas J. Vilsack

Secretary of Commerce .............................. Rebecca M. Blank, Acting(resigned May 31)Penny S. Pritzker(confirmed June 25)

Secretary of Labor ....................................... Hilda L. Solis(resigned January 22)Seth D. Harris, Acting(appointed January 24)

Secretary of Health and Human Services ........................................................ Kathleen Sebelius

Secretary of Housing and UrbanDevelopment............................................... Shaun L.S. Donovan

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Secretary of Transportation ........................ Raymond H. LaHood(resigned June 27)Anthony R. Foxx(confirmed June 27)

Secretary of Energy ..................................... Steven Chu(resigned April 23)Ernest J. Moniz(confirmed May 16)

Secretary of Education ................................ Arne Duncan

Secretary of Veterans Affairs ....................... Eric K. Shinseki

Secretary of Homeland Security ................. Janet A. Napolitano

Chief of Staff ............................................... Jacob J. Lew(nominated as Treasury Secretary January 10)Denis R. McDonough(appointed January 25)

Administrator of the EnvironmentalProtection Agency........................................ Lisa P. Jackson

(resigned February 14)Robert Perciasepe, Acting(appointed February 15)

United States Trade Representative ........... Ronald Kirk(resigned March 15)Michael B. Froman(confirmed June 19)

Director of the Office of Management and Budget ......................................................... Jeffrey D. Zients, Acting

Sylvia Mathews Burwell(confirmed April 24)

Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers Alan B. Krueger

United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations....................................... Susan E. Rice

Administrator of the Small Business Administration................................... Karen G. Mills

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Administration of Barack Obama

2013

Statement on Senate Passage of Tax Reform LegislationJanuary 1, 2013

Leaders from both parties in the Senatecame together to reach an agreement thatpassed with overwhelming bipartisan supporttoday that protects 98 percent of Americansand 97 percent of small-business owners froma middle class tax hike. While neither Demo-crats nor Republicans got everything theywanted, this agreement is the right thing to dofor our country, and the House should pass itwithout delay.

This agreement will also grow the economyand shrink our deficits in a balanced way: byinvesting in our middle class and by asking thewealthy to pay a little more.

What’s more, today’s agreement builds onprevious efforts to reduce our deficits. Lastyear, I worked with Democrats and Republi-cans to cut spending by more than $1 trillion.Tonight’s agreement does even more by asking

millionaires and billionaires to begin to paytheir fair share for the first time in 20 years. Aspromised, that increase will be immediate, andit will be permanent.

There’s more work to do to reduce our defi-cits, and I’m willing to do it. But tonight’sagreement ensures that, going forward, we willcontinue to reduce the deficit through a com-bination of new spending cuts and new reve-nues from the wealthiest Americans. And as weaddress our ongoing fiscal challenges, I willcontinue to fight every day on behalf of themiddle class and all those fighting to get intothe middle class to forge an economy thatgrows from the middle out, not from the topdown.

NOTE: The statement referred to H.R. 8.

Remarks on Congressional Passage of Tax Reform LegislationJanuary 1, 2013

The President. Happy New Year, everybody.Audience members. Happy New Year, Mr.

President.The President. A central promise of my cam-

paign for President was to change the TaxCode that was too skewed towards the wealthyat the expense of working middle class Ameri-cans. Tonight we’ve done that. Thanks to thevotes of Democrats and Republicans in Con-gress, I will sign a law that raises taxes on thewealthiest 2 percent of Americans while pre-venting a middle class tax hike that could havesent the economy back into recession and obvi-ously had a severe impact on families all acrossAmerica.

I want to thank all the leaders of the Houseand Senate. In particular, I want to thank thework that was done by my extraordinary VicePresident, Joe Biden, as well as Leader HarryReid, Speaker Boehner, Nancy Pelosi, andMitch McConnell. Everybody worked very

hard on this, and I appreciate it. And, Joe, onceagain, I want to thank you for your great work.

Under this law, more than 98 percent ofAmericans and 97 percent of small businesseswill not see their income taxes go up. Millionsof families will continue to receive tax creditsto help raise their kids and send them to col-lege. Companies will continue to receive taxcredits for the research that they do, the in-vestments they make, and the clean energyjobs that they create. And 2 million Americanswho are out of work, but out there looking,pounding the pavement every day, are going tocontinue to receive unemployment benefits aslong as they’re actively looking for a job.

But I think we all recognize, this law is justone step in the broader effort to strengthenour economy and broaden opportunity for ev-erybody. The fact is, the deficit is still too high,and we’re still investing too little in the things

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Jan. 1 / Administration of Barack Obama, 2013

that we need for the economy to grow as fast asit should.

And that’s why Speaker Boehner and I origi-nally tried to negotiate a larger agreement thatwould put this country on a path to payingdown its debt while also putting Americansback to work rebuilding our roads and bridgesand providing investments in areas like educa-tion and job training. Unfortunately, there justwasn’t enough support or time for that kind oflarge agreement in a lame duck session of Con-gress. And that failure comes with a cost, as themessy nature of the process over the past sev-eral weeks has made business more uncertainand consumers less confident.

But we are continuing to chip away at thisproblem, step by step. Last year, I signed intolaw $1.7 trillion in deficit reduction. Tonight’sagreement further reduces the deficit by rais-ing $620 billion in revenue from the wealthiesthouseholds in America. And there will be moredeficit reduction as Congress decides what todo about the automatic spending cuts that wehave now delayed for 2 months.

I want to make this point: As I’ve demon-strated throughout the past several weeks, I amvery open to compromise. I agree with Demo-crats and Republicans that the aging popula-tion and the rising cost of health care makesMedicare the biggest contributor to our defi-cit. I believe we’ve got to find ways to reformthat program without hurting seniors whocount on it to survive. And I believe thatthere’s further unnecessary spending in Gov-ernment that we can eliminate.

But we can’t simply cut our way to prosperi-ty. Cutting spending has to go hand in handwith further reforms to our Tax Code so thatthe wealthiest corporations and individualscan’t take advantage of loopholes and deduc-tions that aren’t available to most Americans.And we can’t keep cutting things like basic re-search and new technology and still expect tosucceed in a 21st-century economy. So we’regoing to have to continue to move forward indeficit reduction, but we have to do it in a bal-anced way, making sure that we are growingeven as we get a handle on our spending.

Now, one last point I want to make: While Iwill negotiate over many things, I will not haveanother debate with this Congress over wheth-er or not they should pay the bills that they’vealready racked up through the laws that theypassed. Let me repeat: We can’t not pay billsthat we’ve already incurred. If Congress refus-es to give the United States Government theability to pay these bills on time, the conse-quences for the entire global economy wouldbe catastrophic, far worse than the impact of afiscal cliff.

People will remember, back in 2011, the lasttime this course of action was threatened, ourentire recovery was put at risk. Consumer con-fidence plunged. Business investmentplunged. Growth dropped. We can’t go downthat path again.

Now, today’s agreement enshrines, I think, aprinciple into law that will remain in place aslong as I am President: The deficit needs to bereduced in a way that’s balanced. Everyonepays their fair share. Everyone does their part.That’s how our economy works best. That’show we grow.

The sum total of all the budget agreementswe’ve reached so far proves that there is a pathforward, that it is possible if we focus not onour politics, but what’s—but on what’s right forthe country. And the one thing that, I think,hopefully, in the new year we’ll focus on is see-ing if we can put a package like this togetherwith a little bit less drama, a little less brinks-manship, not scare the heck out of folks quiteas much.

We can come together as Democrats andRepublicans to cut spending and raise revenuein a way that reduces our deficit, protects ourmiddle class, provides ladders into the middleclass for everybody who’s willing to work hard.We can find a way to afford the investmentsthat we need to grow and compete. We cansettle this debate, or at the very least, not allowit to be so all-consuming all the time that itstops us from meeting a host of other challeng-es that we face: creating jobs, boosting in-comes, fixing our infrastructure, fixing our im-migration system, protecting our planet fromthe harmful effects of climate change, boosting

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Administration of Barack Obama, 2013 / Jan. 2

domestic energy production, protecting ourkids from the horrors of gun violence.

It’s not just possible to do these things, it’san obligation to ourselves and to future genera-tions. And I look forward to working with everysingle Member of Congress to meet this obli-gation in the new year.

And I hope that everybody now gets at leasta day off, I guess, or a few days off, so that peo-

ple can refresh themselves, because we’re go-ing to have a lot of work to do in 2013.

Thanks, everybody. Happy New Year.

NOTE: The President spoke at 11:20 p.m. inthe James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at theWhite House. In his remarks, he referred toH.R. 8.

Statement on Funding for Hurricane Sandy Recovery EffortsJanuary 2, 2013

It has only been 2 months since HurricaneSandy devastated communities across NewYork, New Jersey, and Connecticut, as well asother eastern States. Our citizens are still try-ing to put their lives back together. Our Statesare still trying to rebuild vital infrastructure.And so last month, working closely with theGovernors of the affected States, I sent Con-gress an urgent request to support their effortsto rebuild and recover. The Senate passed thisrequest with bipartisan support. But the Houseof Representatives has refused to act, even asthere are families and communities who still

need our help to rebuild in the months andyears ahead and who also still need immediatesupport with the bulk of winter still in front ofus.

When tragedy strikes, Americans come to-gether to support those in need. I urge Repub-licans in the House of Representatives to dothe same, bring this important request to avote today, and pass it without delay for ourfellow Americans.


Statement on Signing the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year2013January 2, 2013

Today I have signed into law H.R. 4310, the“National Defense Authorization Act for FiscalYear 2013.” I have approved this annual de-fense authorization legislation, as I have in pre-vious years, because it authorizes essential sup-port for service members and their families,renews vital national security programs, andhelps ensure that the United States will contin-ue to have the strongest military in the world.

Even though I support the vast majority ofthe provisions contained in this Act, which iscomprised of hundreds of sections spanningmore than 680 pages of text, I do not agreewith them all. Our Constitution does not affordthe President the opportunity to approve or re-ject statutory sections one by one. I am em-powered either to sign the bill, or reject it, as a

whole. In this case, though I continue to op-pose certain sections of the Act, the need to re-new critical defense authorities and fundingwas too great to ignore.

In a time when all public servants recognizethe need to eliminate wasteful or duplicativespending, various sections in the Act limit theDefense Department’s ability to direct scarceresources towards the highest priorities for ournational security. For example, restrictions onthe Defense Department’s ability to retire un-needed ships and aircraft will divert scarce re-sources needed for readiness and result in fu-ture unfunded liabilities. Additionally, the De-partment has endeavored to constrain man-power costs by recommending prudent costsharing reforms in its health care programs. By

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failing to allow some of these cost savings mea-sures, the Congress may force reductions inthe overall size of our military forces.

Section 533 is an unnecessary and ill-advisedprovision, as the military already appropriatelyprotects the freedom of conscience of chap-lains and service members. The Secretary ofDefense will ensure that the implementingregulations do not permit or condone discrimi-natory actions that compromise good orderand discipline or otherwise violate militarycodes of conduct. My Administration remainsfully committed to continuing the successfulimplementation of the repeal of Don’t Ask,Don’t Tell, and to protecting the rights of gayand lesbian service members; Section 533 willnot alter that.

Several provisions in the bill also raise con-stitutional concerns. Section 1025 places limitson the military’s authority to transfer thirdcountry nationals currently held at the deten-tion facility in Parwan, Afghanistan. That facili-ty is located within the territory of a foreignsovereign in the midst of an armed conflict.Decisions regarding the disposition of detain-ees captured on foreign battlefields have tradi-tionally been based upon the judgment of ex-perienced military commanders and nationalsecurity professionals without unwarranted in-terference by Members of Congress. Section1025 threatens to upend that tradition, andcould interfere with my ability as Commanderin Chief to make time-sensitive determinationsabout the appropriate disposition of detaineesin an active area of hostilities. Under certaincircumstances, the section could violate consti-tutional separation of powers principles. If sec-tion 1025 operates in a manner that violatesconstitutional separation of powers principles,my Administration will implement it to avoidthe constitutional conflict.

Sections 1022, 1027 and 1028 continue un-wise funding restrictions that curtail optionsavailable to the executive branch. Section 1027renews the bar against using appropriatedfunds for fiscal year 2012 to transfer Guantana-mo detainees into the United States for anypurpose. I continue to oppose this provision,which substitutes the Congress’s blanket politi-

cal determination for careful and fact-baseddeterminations, made by counterterrorism andlaw enforcement professionals, of when andwhere to prosecute Guantanamo detainees.For decades, Republican and Democratic ad-ministrations have successfully prosecutedhundreds of terrorists in Federal court. Thoseprosecutions are a legitimate, effective, andpowerful tool in our efforts to protect the Na-tion, and in certain cases may be the only legal-ly available process for trying detainees. Re-moving that tool from the executive branch un-dermines our national security. Moreover, thisprovision would, under certain circumstances,violate constitutional separation of powersprinciples.

Section 1028 fundamentally maintains theunwarranted restrictions on the executivebranch’s authority to transfer detainees to aforeign country. This provision hinders the Ex-ecutive’s ability to carry out its military, nation-al security, and foreign relations activities andwould, under certain circumstances, violateconstitutional separation of powers principles.The executive branch must have the flexibilityto act swiftly in conducting negotiations withforeign countries regarding the circumstancesof detainee transfers. The Congress designedthese sections, and has here renewed themonce more, in order to foreclose my ability toshut down the Guantanamo Bay detention fa-cility. I continue to believe that operating thefacility weakens our national security by wast-ing resources, damaging our relationships withkey allies, and strengthening our enemies. MyAdministration will interpret these provisionsas consistent with existing and future determi-nations by the agencies of the Executive re-sponsible for detainee transfers. And, in theevent that these statutory restrictions operatein a manner that violates constitutional separa-tion of powers principles, my Administrationwill implement them in a manner that avoidsthe constitutional conflict.

As my Administration previously informedthe Congress, certain provisions in this bill, in-cluding sections 1225, 913, 1531, and 3122,could interfere with my constitutional authori-ty to conduct the foreign relations of the Unit-

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ed States. In these instances, my Administra-tion will interpret and implement these provi-sions in a manner that does not interfere withmy constitutional authority to conduct diplo-macy. Section 1035, which adds a new section495(c) to title 10, is deeply problematic, as itwould impede the fulfillment of future U.S.obligations agreed to in the New START Trea-ty, which the Senate provided its advice andconsent to in 2010, and hinder the Executive’sability to determine an appropriate nuclearforce structure. I am therefore pleased that theCongress has included a provision to adequate-ly amend this provision in H.R. 8, the Ameri-can Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which I willbe signing into law today.

Certain provisions in the Act threaten to in-terfere with my constitutional duty to supervisethe executive branch. Specifically, sections827, 828, and 3164 could be interpreted in amanner that would interfere with my authorityto manage and direct executive branch offi-cials. As my Administration previously in-formed the Congress, I will interpret thosesections consistent with my authority to directthe heads of executive departments to super-vise, control, and correct employees’ commu-nications with the Congress in cases where

such communications would be unlawful orwould reveal information that is properly privi-leged or otherwise confidential. Additionally,section 1034 would require a subordinate tosubmit materials directly to the Congress with-out change, and thereby obstructs the tradi-tional chain of command. I will implement thisprovision in a manner consistent with my au-thority as the Commander in Chief of theArmed Forces and the head of the executivebranch.

A number of provisions in the bill—includ-ing sections 534(b)(6), 674, 675, 735, 737,1033(b), 1068, and 1803—could intrude uponmy constitutional authority to recommendsuch measures to the Congress as I “judge nec-essary and expedient.” My Administration willinterpret and implement these provisions in amanner that does not interfere with my consti-tutional authority.

BARACK OBAMA

The White House,January 2, 2013.

NOTE: An original was not available for verifi-cation of the content of this statement.

The President’s Weekly AddressJanuary 5, 2013

Hi, everybody. Over the past year, as I trav-eled across the country campaigning for thisoffice, I told you that if I was fortunate enoughto be reelected, I’d work to change a Tax Codethat too often benefited the wealthy at the ex-pense of the middle class.

This week, we did that. For the first time intwo decades, we raised taxes on the wealthiest2 percent of Americans in a bipartisan way,while preventing a middle class tax hike thatcould have thrown our economy back into re-cession.

Under this law, more than 98 percent ofAmericans and 97 percent of small businesseswill not see their income taxes go up one dime.We also made sure that millions of families willcontinue to receive tax credits to help raise

their children and send them to college. Com-panies will continue to receive tax credits forthe research they do, the investments that theymake, and the clean energy jobs that they cre-ate. And 2 million Americans who are out ofwork will continue to receive unemploymentbenefits so long as they are actively looking fora job.

But all this was just one step in the broadereffort to grow our economy and shrink our def-icits. We still need to do more to put Ameri-cans back to work while also putting this coun-try on a path to pay down its debt. And oureconomy can’t afford more protracted show-downs or manufactured crises along the way.Because even as our businesses created 2 mil-lion new jobs last year—including 168,000 new

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jobs last month—the messy brinksmanship inCongress made business owners more uncer-tain and consumers less confident.

We know there’s a path forward. Last year, Isigned into law $1.7 trillion in deficit reduc-tion. This week’s action further reduces thedeficit by $737 billion, making it one of thelargest deficit reduction bills passed by Con-gress in over a decade. And I’m willing to domore.

I believe we can find more places to cutspending without shortchanging things like ed-ucation, job training, research, and technology,all of which are critical to our prosperity in a21st-century economy. But spending cuts mustbe balanced with more reforms to our TaxCode. The wealthiest individuals and the big-gest corporations shouldn’t be able to take ad-vantage of loopholes and deductions that aren’tavailable to most Americans.

And as I said earlier this week, one thing Iwill not compromise over is whether or notCongress should pay the tab for a bill they’vealready racked up. If Congress refuses to givethe United States the ability to pay its bills ontime, the consequences for the entire globaleconomy could be catastrophic. The last timeCongress threatened this course of action, ourentire economy suffered for it. Our familiesand our businesses cannot afford that danger-ous game again.

I congratulate the newly sworn-in Membersof Congress, and I look forward to workingwith the new Congress in a bipartisan way. Ifwe focus on the interests of our country abovethe interests of party, I’m convinced we can cutspending and raise revenue in a manner thatreduces our deficit and protects the middleclass. And we can step up to meet the impor-tant business that awaits us this year: creatingjobs, boosting incomes, fixing our infrastruc-ture and our immigration system, promotingour energy independence while protecting ourplanet from the harmful effects of climatechange, educating our children, and shieldingthem from the horrors of gun violence.

These aren’t just things we should do,they’re things we must do. And in this newyear, I’ll fight as hard as I know how to getthem done. Happy New Year, everybody.

NOTE: The address was recorded at approxi-mately 9:30 a.m. on January 4 in Kailua, HI, forbroadcast on January 5. In the address, thePresident referred to the American TaxpayerRelief Act of 2012, which was approved on Jan-uary 2 and assigned Public Law No. 112–240.The transcript was made available by the Of-fice of the Press Secretary on January 4, butwas embargoed for release until 6 a.m. on Jan-uary 5.

Remarks on the Nominations of Charles T. Hagel To Be Secretary ofDefense and John O. Brennan To Be Director of Central IntelligenceJanuary 7, 2013

Good afternoon, everybody. Please have aseat. As President and Commander in Chief,my most solemn obligation is the security ofthe American people. Over the past 4 years,we’ve met that responsibility: by ending thewar in Iraq and beginning a transition in Af-ghanistan, by decimating the Al Qaida core andtaking out Usama bin Laden, by disrupting ter-rorist plots and saving countless Americanlives.

Among an outstanding national securityteam, I am especially grateful to Leon Panetta,

who has led the CIA and our military with in-credible skill. Leon, after nearly five decades ofservice, you have more than earned the right toreturn to civilian life. I’ll have much more tosay about Leon’s distinguished service in thedays ahead. Today I simply want to conveyboth to you and to Sylvia the eternal gratitudeof the entire Nation. Thank you so much, Le-on.

I also want to thank Michael Morell, whohas earned the admiration of all of us who’veworked with him across Government and here

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in the White House. In moments of transition,he’s guided the CIA with a steady hand as Act-ing Director, not once, but twice. And he is aconsummate professional. As I said, everybodyin the White House who works with him, ev-erybody across agencies who works with him,considers him truly to be one of our most out-standing national security team members. Andso, Michael, on behalf of all of us, thank youand Mary Beth for your continued service.

As these leaders know, the work of protect-ing our Nation is never done, and we’ve stillgot much to do: ending the war in Afghanistanand caring for those who have borne the battle;preparing for the full range of threats, from theunconventional to the conventional, includingthings like cybersecurity; and within our mili-tary, continuing to ensure that our men andwomen in uniform can serve the country theylove, no matter who they love.

To help meet the challenges of our time, I’mproud to announce my choice for two keymembers of my national security team: ChuckHagel for Secretary of Defense and John Bren-nan for Director of the Central IntelligenceAgency.

Now, Chuck Hagel is the leader that ourtroops deserve. He is an American patriot. Heenlisted in the Army and volunteered for Viet-nam. As a young private and then a sergeant,he served with honor, alongside his own broth-er. When Chuck was hit by shrapnel, his broth-er saved him. When his brother was injured bya mine, Chuck risked his life to pull him tosafety. To this day, Chuck bears the scars—andthe shrapnel—from the battles he fought inour name.

Chuck Hagel’s leadership of our militarywould be historic. He’d be the first person ofenlisted rank to serve as Secretary of Defense,one of the few Secretaries who have beenwounded in war, and the first Vietnam veteranto lead the Department. As I saw during ourvisits together to Afghanistan and Iraq, inChuck Hagel our troops see a decorated com-bat veteran of character and strength. They seeone of their own.

Chuck is a champion of our troops and ourveterans and our military families. As a leader

at the VA, he fought to give our veterans thebenefits they deserved. As head of the USO, hedevoted himself to caring for our troops. Hav-ing studied under the GI bill himself, hehelped lead the fight for the post-9/11 GI billso today’s returning heroes can get their edu-cation too. Having cochaired my IntelligenceAdvisory Board, he knows that our ArmedForces collect, analyze, and depend on goodintelligence.

And Chuck recognizes that American lead-ership is indispensable in a dangerous world. Isaw this in our travels together across the Mid-dle East. He understands that America standsstrongest when we stand with allies and withfriends. As a successful businessman, he alsoknows that even as we make tough fiscal choic-es, we have to do so wisely, guided by our strat-egy, and keep our military the strongest fight-ing force the world has ever known.

Maybe more—most importantly, Chuckknows that war is not an abstraction. He un-derstands that sending young Americans tofight and bleed in the dirt and mud, that’ssomething we only do when it’s absolutely nec-essary. My frame of reference, he has said, isgeared towards the guy at the bottom who’sdoing the fighting and the dying. With Chuck,our troops will always know, just like SergeantHagel was there for his own brother, SecretaryHagel will be there for you.

And finally, Chuck represents the bipartisantradition that we need more of in Washington.For his independence and commitment toconsensus, he’s earned the respect of nationalsecurity and military leaders, Republicans andDemocrats, including me. In the Senate, Icame to admire his courage and his judgment,his willingness to speak his mind, even if itwasn’t popular, even if it defied the conven-tional wisdom.

And that’s exactly the spirit I want on my na-tional security team: a recognition that when itcomes to the defense of our country, we arenot Democrats or Republicans, we are Ameri-cans. Each of us has a responsibility, Chuck hassaid, to be guided not by the interest of ourparty or our President even, but by the inter-ests of our country.

7


So, Chuck, I thank you and Lilibet foragreeing to serve once more in the interests ofour country.

Now, when I’m on the subject of patriots, letme say a few words about John Brennan. InJohn Brennan the men and women of the CIAwill have the leadership of one of our Nation’smost skilled and respected intelligence profes-sionals, not to mention that unique combina-tion of smarts and strength that he claimscomes from growing up in New Jersey.[Laughter]

A 25-year veteran of the CIA, John knowswhat our national security demands: intelli-gence that provides policymakers with thefacts, strong analytic insights, and a keen un-derstanding of a dynamic world. Given his ex-tensive experience and travels, which include,by the way, traveling through the Arabian Pen-insula, where he camped with tribesmen in thedesert, John has an invaluable perspective onthe forces—the history, the culture, the poli-tics, economics, the desire for human dignity—driving so much of the changes in today’sworld.

Having held senior management, analytic,and operational positions at the Agency, John’scommitted to investing in the range of intelli-gence capabilities we need, technical and hu-man. He literally built and then led the Nation-al Counterterrorism Center. And he knows therisks that our intelligence professionals face ev-ery day. John has lost colleagues and friends,heroes whose stars now grace that memorialwall at Langley.

For the last 4 years, as my adviser for Coun-terterrorism and Homeland Security, John de-veloped and has overseen our comprehensivecounterterrorism strategy, a collaborative ef-fort across the Government, including intelli-gence and defense and homeland security andlaw enforcement agencies.

And so think about the results. More Al Qai-da leaders and commanders have been re-moved from the battlefield than at any timesince 9/11. Their communications, recruiting,training, finances are all under enormous

strain, all of which makes it harder to plan andcarry out large-scale attacks against our home-land. And our entire team, including our ex-ceptional Director of National Intelligence,Jim Clapper, will remain relentless against AlQaida and its affiliates.

In all this work, John has been tireless. Peo-ple here in the White House work hard. ButJohn is legendary, even in the White House,for working hard. [Laughter] He is one of thehardest working public servants I’ve ever seen.I’m not sure he’s slept in 4 years. [Laughter]We—when I was on Martha’s Vineyard, Johncame and did the press briefing; this is in sum-mer, it’s August, he’s in full suit and tie. Andone of the reporters asked him, don’t you everget any down time? And John said, I don’t dodown time. [Laughter] He’s not even smilingnow. [Laughter]

There’s another reason I value John somuch, and that is his integrity and his commit-ment to the values that define us as Americans.He has worked to embed our efforts in a stronglegal framework. He understands we are a na-tion of laws. In moments of debate and deci-sion, he asks the tough question, and he insistson high and rigorous standards. Time andagain, he’s spoken to the American peopleabout our counterterrorism policies becausehe recognizes we have a responsibility to be[as]* open and transparent as possible.

And so, John, you’ve been one of my closestadvisers. You’ve been a great friend. I amdeeply grateful for your extraordinary service.I’m even more grateful for Kathy’s willingnessto put up with you. And I’m grateful to both ofyou for your willingness to take this assign-ment.

Today I can say to the men and women ofthe CIA: In Director John Brennan you willhave one of your own, a leader who knows you,who cares for you deeply, and who will fight foryou every single day. And you’ll have a leaderwho has my complete confidence and my com-plete trust.

As I said, the work of defending our Nationis never done. My number-one criteria in mak-

* White House correction.

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ing these decisions was simple: Who is going todo the best job in securing America? Thesetwo leaders have dedicated their lives to pro-tecting our country. I’m confident they will doan outstanding job. I urge the Senate to con-firm them as soon as possible so we can keepour Nation secure and the American peoplesafe.

And so, Chuck and John, congratulations.And with that, I want to invite each of these

leaders on stage to say a few words, startingwith Mr. Leon Panetta.

[At this point, Secretary of Defense Leon E. Pa-netta, Secretary-designate Hagel, Acting Direc-tor of Central Intelligence Michael J. Morell,and Director-designate Brennan each madebrief remarks. The President then continuedhis remarks as follows.]

Well, these are four outstanding individuals.We are grateful to all of them. I want, in partic-ular, to thank Mike Morell and Leon Panettafor their extraordinary service. And I just wantto repeat: I hope that the Senate will act onthese confirmations promptly. When it comesto national security, we don’t like to leave a lotof gaps between the time that one set of lead-ers transitions out and another transitions in.So we need to get moving quickly on this.

Final point I will make: One of the reasonsthat I am so confident that Chuck Hagel is go-ing to be an outstanding Secretary of Defenseand John Brennan is going to be an outstand-ing Director of the Central Intelligence Agen-cy is, they understand that we are only success-

ful because of the folks up and down the line inthese respective institutions, the folks on theground who are oftentimes putting their livesat risk for us and are oftentimes at great re-move from Washington and its politics.

To have those who have been in the field,who have been in the heat of battle, who un-derstand the consequences of decisions thatwe make in this town and how it has an impactand ramifications for everybody who actuallyhas to execute our national security strategies,that’s something invaluable. It will provide methe kinds of insights that I need in making verydifficult decisions, but it will also mean thatthese folks are going to be looking out for thepeople who work for them. And that’s some-thing that, I think, in these leadership positionsis absolutely critical.

So I’m looking forward to working withthese two gentlemen. They are going to be out-standing.

Thank you very much, everybody.

NOTE: The President spoke at 1:15 p.m. in theEast Room at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to Sylvia M. Panetta, wife ofSecretary Panetta; Mary Beth Morell, wife ofActing Director Morell; Thomas Hagel, broth-er, and Lilibet Ziller Hagel, wife, of Secretary-designate Hagel; and Kathy Pokluda Brennan,wife of Director-designate Brennan. The tran-script released by the Office of the Press Sec-retary also included the remarks of SecretaryPanetta, Secretary-designate Hagel, Acting Di-rector Morell, and Director-designate Bren-nan.

Memorandum on the National Flood Insurance ProgramJanuary 7, 2013

Memorandum for the Secretary of HomelandSecurity

Subject: National Flood Insurance Program

I have reviewed your request for approval toissue notes to the Secretary of the Treasury inexcess of $20.725 billion, but not to exceed

$30.425 billion, for the National Flood Insur-ance Program and am hereby granting approv-al for you to do so.

BARACK OBAMA

NOTE: An original was not available for verifi-cation of the content of this memorandum.

9


Statement on the Resignation of Hilda L. Solis as Secretary of LaborJanuary 9, 2013

Over her long career in public service—asan advocate for environmental justice in Cali-fornia, State legislator, Member of Congress,and Secretary of Labor—Hilda Solis has beena tireless champion for working families. Overthe last 4 years, Secretary Solis has been a crit-ical member of my economic team as we haveworked to recover from the worst economicdownturn since the Great Depression and

strengthen the economy for the middle class.Her efforts have helped train workers for thejobs of the future, protect workers’ health andsafety, and put millions of Americans back towork. I am grateful to Secretary Solis for hersteadfast commitment and service not only tothe administration, but on behalf of the Ameri-can people. I wish her all the best in her futureendeavors.

Remarks on the Nomination of White House Chief of Staff Jacob J. Lew ToBe Secretary of the TreasuryJanuary 10, 2013

Good afternoon, everybody. Please have aseat.

A little more than 4 years ago, I stood withMr. Tim Geithner and announced him as myfirst nominee to my Cabinet. We were barely 2months into the financial crisis. The stock mar-ket had cratered. The housing market had cra-tered as well. Bank after bank was on the vergeof collapse. And worst of all, more than800,000 Americans would lose their jobs in justthat month. And the bottom was not yet insight.

So I couldn’t blame Tim when he tried totell me he wasn’t the right guy for the job.[Laughter] But I knew that Tim’s extensive ex-perience with economic policy made him emi-nently qualified, and I also knew that he couldhit the ground running. As Chairman of theNew York Federal Reserve, he had just spentseveral sleepless and chaotic weeks immersedin the complexities of the crisis and had beenworking closely with his Republican predeces-sor at Treasury to save the financial system.

Then, with the wreckage of our economystill smoldering and unstable, I asked Tim tohelp put it back together. And thanks in largepart to his steady hand, our economy has beengrowing again for the past 3 years, our busi-nesses have created nearly 6 million new jobs.The money that we spent to save the financialsystem has largely been paid back. We’ve put

in place rules to prevent that kind of financialmeltdown from ever happening again. An autoindustry was saved. We made sure taxpayersare not on the hook if the biggest firms failagain. We’ve taken steps to help underwaterhomeowners come up for air and open newmarkets to sell American goods overseas. Andwe’ve begun to reduce our deficit through abalanced mix of spending cuts and reforms to aTax Code that, at the time that we both camein, was too skewed in favor of the wealthy atthe expense of middle class Americans. Sowhen the history books are written, Tim Geith-ner is going to go down as one of our finestSecretaries of the Treasury. [Applause] Allright, don’t embarrass him. [Laughter]

On a personal note, Tim has been a wonder-ful friend and a dependable adviser throughoutthese last 4 years. There’s an unofficial sayingover at Treasury: “No peacocks, no jerks, nowhiners.” That would be a good saying for allof Washington—[laughter]—“no peacocks, nojerks, no whiners.” Few embody that ideal bet-ter than Tim Geithner. That’s why, when Timwas thinking about leaving a couple of yearsago, I had to personally get on my knees withCarole to help convince him to stay on a littlebit longer. [Laughter] And I could not be moregrateful to Carole and the entire Geithner fam-ily for allowing him to make the sacrifices that

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so many of our Cabinet members ask of theirfamilies in serving the country.

The fact is, while a lot of work remains, espe-cially to rebuild a strong middle class and offerworking folks new pathways to rise into the mid-dle class, our economy is better positioned fortomorrow than most of those other countries hitby the financial crisis. The tough decisions Timmade and carried out deserve a lot of credit forthat. So I understand that Tim is ready for abreak. Obviously, we’re sad to see him go. But Icannot think of a better person to continueTim’s work at Treasury than Jack Lew.

Now, this is bittersweet not only becauseTim is leaving, but also because Jack has beenmy Chief of Staff for the last year. He was myBudget Director before that. I trust his judg-ment; I value his friendship. I know very fewpeople with greater integrity than the man tomy left. And so I don’t want to see him go be-cause it’s working out really well for me to havehim here in the White House. But my loss willbe the Nation’s gain.

Jack has the distinction of having workedand succeeded in some of the toughest jobs inWashington and the private sector. As a con-gressional staffer in the 1980s, he helped nego-tiate the deal between President Reagan andTip O’Neill to save Social Security. UnderPresident Clinton, he presided over three bud-get surpluses in a row. So for all the talk outthere about deficit reduction, making sure ourbooks are balanced, this is the guy who did it—three times. He helped oversee one of our Na-tion’s finest universities and one of our largestinvestment banks. In my administration, he hasmanaged operations for the State Departmentand the budget for the entire executive branch.And over the past year, I’ve sought Jack’s ad-vice on virtually every decision that I’ve made,from economic policy to foreign policy.

Now, one reason Jack has been so effectivein this town is because he is a low-key guy whoprefers to surround himself with policy expertsrather than television cameras. And over theyears, he’s built a reputation as a master of pol-icy who can work with members of both partiesand forge principled compromises. And maybemost importantly, as the son of a Polish immi-

grant, a man of deep and devout faith, Jackknows that every number on a page, every dol-lar we budget, every decision we make, has tobe an expression of who we wish to be as a na-tion, our values. The values that say everybodygets a fair shot at opportunity—and says thatwe expect all of us to fulfill our individual obli-gations as citizens in return.

So Jack has my complete trust. I know I’mnot alone in that. In the words of one formerSenator, “Having Lew on your team is theequivalent, as a coach, of having the luxury ofputting somebody at almost any position andknowing he will do well.” And I could notagree more. So I hope the Senate will confirmhim as quickly as possible.

I want to personally thank both of these menand their families, especially Carole and Ruth,for their extraordinary service to our country.And with that, I’d like to invite them to say afew words, starting with Tim.

[At this point, Secretary of the Treasury Timo-thy F. Geithner and Secretary-designate Lewmade brief remarks. The President then contin-ued his remarks as follows.]

Well, these are two outstanding public ser-vants. I think the only point that I want tomake—leave you with is the fact that I hadnever noticed Jack’s signature. [Laughter] Andwhen this was highlighted yesterday in thepress, I considered rescinding—[laughter]—my offer to appoint him. Jack assures me thathe is going to work to make at least one letterlegible in order not to debase our currency—[laughter]—should he be confirmed as Secre-tary of the Treasury.


NOTE: The President spoke at 1:40 p.m. in theEast Room at the White House. In his remarks,he referred to former Secretary of the TreasuryHenry M. Paulson, Jr.; Carole SonnenfeldGeithner, wife of Secretary Geithner; formerSen. Thomas A. Daschle; and Ruth SchwartzLew, wife of Secretary-designate Lew. Thetranscript released by the Office of the PressSecretary also included the remarks of Secre-tary Geithner and Secretary-designate Lew.

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The President’s News Conference With President Hamid Karzai ofAfghanistanJanuary 11, 2013

President Obama. Good afternoon, every-body. Please have a seat.

It is my pleasure to welcome President Kar-zai back to the White House, as well as his del-egation. We last saw each other during theNATO summit in my hometown of Chicago, acity that reflects the friendship between ourpeoples, including many Afghan Americans, aswell as the Karzai family.

President Karzai. Yes.President Obama. So, Mr. President, wel-

come.We meet at a critical moment. The 33,000

additional forces that I ordered to Afghanistanhave served with honor. They’ve completedtheir mission and, as promised, returned homethis past fall. The transition is well underway,and soon, nearly 90 percent of Afghans will livein areas where Afghan forces are in the lead fortheir own security.

This year, we’ll mark another milestone: Af-ghan forces will take the lead for securityacross the entire country. And by the end ofnext year, 2014, the transition will be com-plete: Afghans will have full responsibility fortheir security, and this war will come to a re-sponsible end.

This progress is only possible because of theincredible sacrifices of our troops and our dip-lomats, the forces of our many coalition part-ners, and the Afghan people, who have en-dured extraordinary hardship. In this war,more than 2,000 of America’s sons and daugh-ters have given their lives. These are patriotsthat we honor today, tomorrow, and forever.And as we announced today, the next month, Iwill present our Nation’s highest military deco-ration, the Medal of Honor, to Staff SergeantClinton Romesha for his heroic service in Af-ghanistan.

Today, because of the courage of our citi-zens, President Karzai and I have been able toreview our shared strategy. With the devastat-ing blows we’ve struck against Al Qaida, ourcore objective—the reason we went to war in

the first place—is now within reach: ensuringthat Al Qaida can never again use Afghanistanto launch attacks against our country. At thesame time, we pushed the Taliban out of theirstrongholds. Today, most major cities—andmost Afghans—are more secure, and insur-gents have continued to lose territory.

Meanwhile, Afghan forces continue to growstronger. As planned, some 352,000 Afghansoldiers and police are now in training or onduty. Most missions are already being led byAfghan forces. And of all the men and womenin uniform in Afghanistan, the vast majority areAfghans who are fighting and dying for theircountry every day.

We still face significant challenges. But be-cause of this progress, our transition is ontrack. At the NATO summit last year, weagreed with our coalition partners that Afghanforces will take the lead for security in mid-2013.

President Karzai and his team have beenhere for several days. We’ve shared a vision forhow we’re going to move ahead. We’ve con-sulted with our coalition partners, and we willcontinue to do so. And today we agreed that asAfghan forces take the lead and as PresidentKarzai announces the final phase of the transi-tion, coalition forces will move to a supportrole this spring. Our troops will continue tofight alongside Afghans, when needed. But letme say it as plainly as I can. Starting thisspring, our troops will have a different mission:training, advising, assisting Afghan forces. Itwill be a historic moment and another step to-ward full Afghan sovereignty, something Iknow that President Karzai cares deeply about,as do the Afghan people.

This sets the stage for the further reductionof coalition forces. We’ve already reduced ourpresence in Afghanistan to roughly 66,000 U.S.troops. I’ve pledged we’ll continue to bring ourforces home at a steady pace, and in the com-ing months, I’ll announce the next phase of our

12


drawdown, a responsible drawdown that pro-tects the gains our troops have made.

President Karzai and I also discussed the na-ture of our security cooperation after 2014.Our teams continue to work toward a securityagreement. And as they do, they will be guidedby our respect for Afghan sovereignty and byour two long-term tasks, which will be veryspecific and very narrow: first, training and as-sisting Afghan forces; and second, targetingcounterterrorism missions—targeted counter-terrorism missions against Al Qaida and its af-filiates. Our discussions will focus on how bestto achieve these two tasks after 2014, and it’sour hope that we can reach an agreement thisyear.

Ultimately, security gains must be matchedby political progress. So we recommitted ournations to a reconciliation process between theAfghan Government and the Taliban. Presi-dent Karzai updated me on the Afghan Gov-ernment’s road map to peace. And today weagreed that this process should be advanced bythe opening of a Taliban office to facilitatetalks.

Reconciliation also requires constructivesupport from across the region, including Paki-stan. We welcome recent steps that have beentaken in that regard, and we’ll look for moretangible steps, because a stable and secure Af-ghanistan is in the interest not only of the Af-ghan people and the United States, but of theentire region.

And finally, we reaffirmed the strategic part-nership that we signed last year in Kabul, anenduring partnership between two sovereignnations. This includes deepening ties of trade,commerce, strengthening institutions, devel-opment, education, and opportunities for allAfghans: men and women, boys and girls. Andthis sends a clear message to Afghans and tothe region: As Afghans stand up, they will notstand alone; the United States, and the world,stands with them.

Now, let me close by saying that this contin-ues to be a very difficult mission. Our forcescontinue to serve and make tremendous sacri-fices every day. The Afghan people make sig-nificant sacrifices every day. Afghan forces still

need to grow stronger. We remain vigilantagainst insider attacks. Lasting peace and secu-rity will require governance and developmentthat delivers for the Afghan people and an endto safe havens for Al Qaida and its ilk. All thiswill continue to be our work.

But make no mistake: Our path is clear, andwe are moving forward. Every day, more Af-ghans are stepping up and taking responsibilityfor their own security. And as they do, ourtroops will come home. And next year, thislong war will come to a responsible end.

President Karzai, I thank you and your dele-gation for the progress we’ve made togetherand for your commitment to the goals that weshare: a strong and sovereign Afghanistanwhere Afghans find security, peace, prosperity,and dignity. And in pursuit of that future, Af-ghanistan will have a long-term partner in theUnited States of America.

Mr. President.President Karzai. Thank you. Thank you

very much, Mr. President, for the very graciousand warm welcome to me and the Afghan dele-gation on this visit to Washington and for bear-ing with us, as I mentioned during our talks, inthe Blair House, with all the crowds that wehave there.

The President and I discussed today in greatdetail all the relevant issues between the twocountries. I was happy to see that we havemade progress on some of the important issuesfor Afghanistan. Concerning Afghan sovereign-ty, we agreed on the complete return of deten-tion centers and detainees to Afghan sover-eignty and that this will be implemented soonafter my return to Afghanistan. We also dis-cussed all aspects of transition to Afghan gov-ernance and security.

I’m very happy to hear from the President,as we also discussed it earlier, that in springthis year, the Afghan forces will be fully re-sponsible for providing security and protectionto the Afghan people and that the internationalforces, the American forces, will be no longerpresent in Afghan villages, that the task will bethat of the Afghan forces to provide for the Af-ghan people in security and protection.

13


That we also agreed on the steps that weshould be taking to—in the peace process,which is of highest priority to Afghanistan. Weagreed on allowing a Taliban office in Qatar, inDoha, where the Taliban will engage in directtalks with the representatives of the AfghanHigh Council for Peace, where we will beseeking the help of relevant regional countries,including Pakistan, where we’ll be trying ourbest, together with the United States and ourother allies, to return peace and stability to Af-ghanistan as soon as possible and employing allthe means that we have within our power to dothat so the Afghan people can live in securityand peace and work for their prosperity andeducate their children.

The President and I also discussed the eco-nomic transition in Afghanistan and all that en-tails for Afghanistan. Once the transition to Af-ghan forces is completed, once the bulk ofthese international forces have withdrawnfrom Afghanistan, we hope that the dividendsof that transition economically to Afghanistanwill be beneficial to the Afghan people and willnot have adverse effects on Afghan economyand the prosperity that we have gained in thepast many years.

We also discussed the issue of election in Af-ghanistan and the importance of election forthe Afghan people, with the hope that we’ll beconducting a free and fair election in Afghani-stan, where our friends in the internationalcommunity—in particular, the United States—will be assisting in conducting those elections;of course, where Afghanistan will have theright environment for conducting electionswithout interference and without undue con-cern in that regard for the Afghan people.

We also discussed in a bit of detail and inthe environment that we have, all aspects ofthe bilateral security agreement between Af-ghanistan and the United States, and I in-formed the President that the Afghan peo-ple—already in the loya jirga that we calledfor—the strategic partnership agreement be-tween us and the United States, have giventheir approval to this relationship, and they val-ue it as one that’s good for Afghanistan. So, inthat context, the bilateral security agreement is

one that the Afghan people approve. And I’msure we will conduct it in detail, where boththe interests of the United States and the inter-ests of Afghanistan will be kept in mind.

We had a number of other issues also to talkabout. During our conversations, and perhapsmany times in that conversation, beginningwith the conversation, of course, I thanked thePresident for the help that the United Stateshas given to the Afghan people, for all that wehave gained in the past 10 years, and that thosegains will be kept by any standard while we areworking for peace and stability in Afghanistan,including the respect for Afghan Constitution.

I also thanked the President and endorsedwith him the sacrifices of American men andwomen in uniform and those of other coun-tries. Accordingly, I also informed PresidentObama of the sacrifices of the Afghan peo-ple—of the immense sacrifices of the Afghanpeople in the past 10 years—both of the ser-vicemen and of the Afghan people.

I’ll be going back to Afghanistan this eve-ning to bring to the Afghan people the news ofAfghanistan standing shoulder to shoulder withAmerica as a sovereign, independent country,but in cooperation and in partnership.

Thank you, Mr. President, for the hospitali-ty.

President Obama. Thank you very much,Mr. President.

Okay, we’ve got two questions each, I think,from U.S. and Afghan press. I will start withScott Wilson of the Washington Post.

U.S. Military Operations in Afghanistan/U.S.Troop Levels in Afghanistan/Bilateral SecurityAgreement Negotiations

Q. Thank you, Mr. President and PresidentKarzai.

Mr. President, does moving up the deadlinefor the transition to an Afghan security rolelead in the spring mean you’ll be winding downU.S. troops faster than you expected this year?And as specifically as possible, how manytroops do you expect to leave in Afghanistanbeyond 2014 for the two missions you out-lined? And would you consider leaving any

14


troops in Afghanistan beyond that date withoutan immunity agreement for their actions?

And, President Karzai, you’ve spoken oftenabout the threat the American presence in Af-ghanistan poses to the—your nation’s sover-eignty. But I’m wondering if you will be con-sidering and working on behalf of an immunityagreement to preserve some U.S. forces in Af-ghanistan after the 2014 date and how manyU.S. troops you would accept after that time.

Thank you.President Obama. Scott, our first task has

been to meet the transition plan that we setfirst in Lisbon, then in Chicago. And becauseof the progress that’s been made by our troops,because of the progress that’s been made interms of Afghan security forces, their capacityto take the lead, we are able to meet thosegoals and accelerate them somewhat.

So let me repeat: What’s going to happenthis spring is that Afghans will be in the leadthroughout the country. That doesn’t meanthat coalition forces, including U.S. forces, areno longer fighting. They will still be fightingalongside Afghan troops. It does mean, though,that Afghans will have taken the lead and ourpresence, the nature of our work will be differ-ent. We will be in a training, assisting, advisingrole.

Obviously, we will still have troops there,and that means that our men and women willstill be in harm’s way, that there will still be theneed for force protection. The environment isgoing to still be very dangerous. But whatwe’ve seen is, is that Afghan soldiers are step-ping up, at great risk to themselves, and that al-lows us then to make this transition during thespring.

What that translates into precisely in termsof how this drawdown of U.S. troop proceeds issomething that isn’t yet fully determined. I’mgoing to be, over the coming weeks, gettingrecommendations from General Allen and oth-er commanders on the ground. They will bedesigning and shaping a responsible plan tomake sure that we’re not losing the gains thathave already been made, to make sure thatwe’re in a position to support Afghan unitswhen they’re in theater, and to make sure that

our folks are also protected even as we’redrawing down.

So I can’t give you a precise number at thispoint. I’ll probably make a separate announce-ment once I’ve gotten recommendations fromtroops—from the generals and our command-ers in terms of what that drawdown might looklike.

With respect to post-2014, we’ve got twogoals, and the—our main conversation todaywas establishing a meeting of the minds in termsof what those goals would be with a follow-onpresence of U.S. troops: number one, to train,assist, and advise Afghan forces so that they canmaintain their own security; and number two,making sure that we can continue to go afterremnants of Al Qaida or other affiliates thatmight threaten our homeland.

That is a very limited mission, and it is notone that would require the same kind of foot-print, obviously, that we’ve had over the last 10years in Afghanistan.

Similar to the issue of drawdown, I’m stillgetting recommendations from the Pentagonand our commanders on the ground in termsof what that would look like. And when wehave more information about that, I will be de-scribing that to the American people.

I think President Karzai’s primary con-cern—and obviously, you’ll hear directly fromhim—is making sure that Afghan sovereignty isrespected. And if we have a follow-on force ofany sort past 2014, it’s got to be at the invita-tion of the Afghan Government, and they haveto feel comfortable with it.

I will say—and I’ve said to President Kar-zai—that we have arrangements like this withcountries all around the world, and nowheredo we have any kind of security agreementwith a country without immunity for ourtroops. That’s how I, as Commander in Chief,can make sure that our folks are protected incarrying out very difficult missions.

And so I think President Karzai understandsthat. I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves interms of the negotiations that are still remain-ing on the bilateral security agreement, but Ithink it’s fair to say that, from my perspectiveat least, it will not be possible for us to have any

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kind of U.S. troop presence post-2014 withoutassurances that our men and women who areoperating there are in some way subject to thejurisdiction of another country. Okay?

President Karzai. Well, sir, the bilateral se-curity agreement is in mind for the interests ofboth countries. We understand that the issueof immunity is of very specific importance forthe United States, as was, for us, the issue ofsovereignty and detentions and the continuedpresence of international forces in Afghan vil-lages and the very conduct of the war itself.

With those issues resolved, as we did today,part of it—the rest was done earlier—I can goto the Afghan people and argue for immunityfor U.S. troops in Afghanistan in a way that Af-ghan sovereignty will not be compromised, in away that Afghan law will not be compromised,in a way that the provisions that we arrive atthrough our talks will give the United Statesthe satisfaction of what it seeks and will alsoprovide the Afghan people the benefits thatthey are seeking through this partnership andthe subsequent agreement.

Q. Do you have any sense of how manytroops you would be willing to accept?

President Karzai. That’s not for us to decide.It’s an issue for the United States. Numbersare not going to make a difference to the situa-tion in Afghanistan. It’s the broader relation-ship that will make a difference to Afghanistanand beyond in the region. The specifics ofnumbers are issues that the military will de-cide, and Afghanistan will have no particularconcern when we are talking of numbers andhow they are deployed.

An Afghan press? English-speaking press?

[At this point, President Karzai addressed re-porters briefly in Dari, and no transcript wasprovided.]

U.S. Military Operations in Afghanistan/Paki-stan-Afghanistan Relations

Q. I am Abdul Qadeer Merzai, correspon-dent for Ariana Television, Kabul, Afghanistan.I prefer to ask my question to my own lan-guage.

[The reporter asked a question in Dari, and itwas translated by an interpreter as follows.]

Mr. President, the missions of—combatmissions of United States after 2014—how thismission will be? How will it be resembling thesame mission as it was during 11 years? Or isthere a difference, different kind of missions?Those who are in Pakistan, particularly the safehavens that are in Pakistan, what kind of policywill you have? Thank you.

President Obama. Just to repeat, our mainreason, should we have troops in Afghanistanpost-2014 at the invitation of the Afghan Gov-ernment, will be to make sure that we aretraining, assisting, and advising Afghan securityforces who have now taken the lead for and areresponsible for security throughout Afghani-stan, and an interest that the United Stateshas—the very reason that we went to Afghani-stan in the first place—and that is to make surethat Al Qaida and its affiliates cannot launch anattack against the United States or other coun-tries from Afghan soil.

We believe that we can achieve that missionin a way that’s very different from the very ac-tive presence that we’ve had in Afghanistanover the last 11 years. President Karzai has em-phasized the strains that U.S. troop presencesin Afghan villages, for example, have created.Well, that’s not going to be a strain that exists ifthere is a follow-up operation because that willnot be our responsibility, that will be the re-sponsibility of the Afghan National SecurityForces, to maintain peace and order and stabil-ity in Afghan villages, in Afghan territory.

So I think, although, obviously, we’re still 2years away, I can say with assurance that this isa very different mission and a very differenttask and a very different footprint for the U.S.if we are able to come to an appropriate agree-ment.

And with respect to Pakistan’s—and safe ha-vens there, Afghanistan and the United Statesand Pakistan all have an interest in reducingthe threat of extremism in some of these bor-der regions between Afghanistan and Pakistan.And that’s going to require more than simplymilitary actions. That’s really going to require

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political and diplomatic work between Afghan-istan and Pakistan. And the United States obvi-ously will have an interest in facilitating andparticipating in cooperation between the twosovereign countries.

But as President Karzai, I think, has indicat-ed, it’s very hard to imagine a stability andpeace in the region if Pakistan and Afghanistandon’t come to some basic agreement and un-derstanding about the threat of extremism toboth countries and both Governments andboth capitals. And I think you’re starting to seea greater awareness of that on the part of thePakistani Government.

[President Karzai spoke in Dari, and his re-marks were translated by an interpreter as fol-lows.]

President Karzai. The question that youhave made about—we talked about this issuein details today about the prisoners, about thedetention centers. All of these will transfer tothe Afghan sovereignty, where—and the U.S.forces will pull out from villages, will go totheir bases, where—and Afghan sovereigntywill be restored.

And after 2014, we are working on it, on thisrelations. This relation will have a different na-ture and will have—will base on different prin-ciples. It will resemble probably to Turkey-United States—to Turkey or Germany. We arestudying these relationships, and we will dothat.

U.S. Military Objectives in Afghanistan/Af-ghanistan-U.S. Relations

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. As you con-template the end of this war, can you say asCommander in Chief that the huge human andfinancial costs that this has entailed can be jus-tified, given the fact that the Afghanistan thatthe world will leave behind is somewhat dimin-ished from the visions of reconstruction anddemocracy that were kind of prevalent at thebeginning of the war?

And, President Karzai, many independentstudies have criticized Afghanistan for corrup-tion and poor governance. Do you stand by

your assertion last month that much of this isdue to the influence of foreigners? And are youcompletely committed to stepping down asPresident after the elections next year?

President Obama. I want us to rememberwhy we went to Afghanistan. We went into Af-ghanistan because 3,000 Americans were vi-ciously murdered by a terrorist organizationthat was operating openly and at the invitationof those who were then ruling Afghanistan.

It was absolutely the right thing to do for usto go after that organization, to go after thehost Government that had aided and abet-ted—or at least allowed for these attacks totake place. And because of the heroic work ofour men and women in uniform, and becauseof the cooperation and sacrifices of Afghanswho had also been brutalized by that then-hostGovernment, we achieved our central goal,which is—or have come very close to achievingour central goal, which is to decapacitate AlQaida, to dismantle them, to make sure thatthey can’t attack us again.

And everything that we’ve done over the last10 years, from the perspective of the U.S. na-tional security interest, have been focused onthat aim. And I have—at the end of this con-flict, we are going to be able to say that the sac-rifices that were made by those men and wom-en in uniform has brought about the goal thatwe sought.

Now, what we also recognized very early onwas that it was in our national security interestto have a stable, sovereign Afghanistan thatwas a responsible international actor, that wasin partnership with us, and that that requiredAfghanistan to have its own security capacityand to be on a path that was more likely toachieve prosperity and peace for its own peo-ple. And I think President Karzai would be thefirst to acknowledge that Afghanistan still haswork to do to accomplish those goals, butthere’s no doubt that the possibility of peaceand prosperity in Afghanistan today is higherthan before we went in. And that is also in partbecause of the sacrifices that the Americanpeople have made during this long conflict.

So I think that—have we achieved every-thing that some might have imagined us

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achieving in the best of scenarios? Probablynot. This is a human enterprise, and you fallshort of the ideal. Did we achieve our centralgoal? And have we been able, I think, to shapea strong relationship with a responsible AfghanGovernment that is willing to cooperate withus to make sure that it is not a launching padfor future attacks against the United States?We have achieved that goal. We are in the pro-cess of achieving that goal. And for that, I thinkwe have to thank our extraordinary military, in-telligence, and diplomatic teams, as well as thecooperation of the Afghan Government andthe Afghan people.

President Karzai. Sir, on the question of cor-ruption, whether it has a foreign element to it,if I have correctly understood your question,there is corruption in Afghanistan. There iscorruption in the Afghan Government that weare fighting against, employing various meansand methods. We have succeeded in certainways. But if your question is whether we aresatisfied, of course not.

And on the corruption that is foreign in ori-gin, but occurring in Afghanistan, I have beenvery clear and explicit, and I don’t think thatAfghanistan can see less corruption unlessthere is cooperation between us and our inter-national partners on correcting some of themethods or applications of delivery of assis-tance to Afghanistan, without cooperation andwithout recognition of the problems.

On elections, for me, the greatest of myachievements, eventually, seen by the Afghanpeople, will be a proper, well-organized, inter-ference-free election in which the Afghan peo-ple can elect their next President. And certain-ly, I would be a retired President and very hap-pily a retired President.

President Obama. Last question from one ofyours.

Status of Women in Afghanistan

Q. My name is Mujahid Kakar from Tolo TV,Afghanistan. My question is to you, Mr. Presi-dent. Afghan women fears that they will be thereal victim of reconciliation process in Afghani-stan. What assurances you can give them thatthey will not suffer because of that process?

Thank you.President Obama. Well, the United States

has been very clear that any peace process, anyreconciliation process must be Afghan led. It isnot for the United States to determine whatthe terms of this peace will be. But what wehave also been very clear about is that, fromour perspective, it is not possible to reconcilewithout the Taliban renouncing terrorism,without them recognizing the Afghan Consti-tution and recognizing that if there are changesthat they want to make to how the Afghan Gov-ernment operates, then there is a orderly con-stitutional process to do that, and that you can’tresort to violence.

The Afghan Constitution protects the rights ofAfghan women. And the United States stronglybelieves that Afghanistan cannot succeed unlessit gives opportunity to its women. We believethat about every country in the world.

And so we will continue to voice very strong-ly support for the Afghan Constitution, its pro-tection of minorities, its protection of women.And we think that a failure to provide that pro-tection not only will make reconciliation im-possible to achieve, but also would make Af-ghanistan’s long-term development impossibleto achieve.

The single best indicator, or one of the sin-gle best indicators, of a country’s prosperityaround the world is how does it treat its wom-en. Does it educate that half of the population?Does it give them opportunity? When it does,you unleash the power of everyone, not justsome. And I think there was great wisdom inAfghanistan ratifying a constitution that recog-nized that. That should be part of the legacy ofthese last 10 years.

President Karzai. Indeed. Indeed. President Obama. Thank you very much, ev-

erybody.

NOTE: The President’s news conference beganat 1:40 p.m. in the East Room at the WhiteHouse. In his remarks, he referred to S. Sgt.Clinton Romesha, USA; and Gen. John R. Al-len, USMC, commander, NATO InternationalSecurity Assistance Force, Afghanistan.

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Joint Statement by President Obama and President Hamid Karzai ofAfghanistanJanuary 11, 2013

At the invitation of President Obama, Presi-dent Karzai and his delegation visited Wash-ington January 8–11, 2013. President Karzai’svisit comes at an important juncture for bothour nations, as we take steps to furtherstrengthen an enduring partnership as sover-eign nations, and based upon recognition ofour shared interests and shared security.

In their meetings today, President Obamaand President Karzai discussed a strategic vi-sion for a secure, stable and prosperous Af-ghanistan and reaffirmed the U.S.-AfghanistanEnduring Strategic Partnership Agreementsigned in May 2012. Further, the Leaders’ dis-cussion emphasized a convergence of interestsand vision. The two Presidents reviewed thesecurity and economic transitions underway inAfghanistan, election preparations, evolvingthreats and opportunities in the region, and re-affirmed shared commitments to U.S. and Af-ghan strategic objectives: advancing peace, se-curity, reconciliation, and regional coopera-tion; strengthening Afghanistan’s democraticinstitutions; and supporting Afghanistan’s long-term economic and social development.

Security Transition

During their meetings, the Presidents wel-comed recent improvements in Afghanistan’ssecurity environment. The Leaders welcomedAfghan security forces’ increasing assumptionof lead responsibility, noting the marked prog-ress made in the growth and capabilities of theAfghan National Security Forces (ANSF). Ex-ceeding initial expectations, Afghan forces be-gan leading the majority of operations in July2012 and now lead approximately 80% of oper-ations. In February, in conjunction with thefourth tranche of transition, the ANSF is ex-pected to have the lead in securing nearly 90%of the Afghan population.

Consistent with Afghan priorities, Leadersat the Chicago Summit committed to mark amilestone in mid-2013 when the ISAF mission

would shift from combat to support. PresidentObama welcomed President Karzai’s desire tomark this milestone this spring, when theANSF are expected to assume the operationallead across Afghanistan, and ISAF will moveinto an advisor-support role. This milestonewould coincide with announcing the fifth andfinal tranche of transition, which would com-mence implementation in the summer, subjectto final NATO and Afghan approval.

At the time of the milestone, most unilateralU.S. combat operations should end, with U.S.forces pulling back their patrols from Afghanvillages. Both Leaders recognized that, as theAfghan security forces take greater responsibil-ity for security, improving the quality of theANSF, including the accelerated provision ofappropriate equipment and enablers, remainsa key priority.

Building upon significant progress in 2012to transfer responsibility for detentions to theAfghan Government, the Presidents commit-ted to placing Afghan detainees under the sov-ereignty and control of Afghanistan, while alsoensuring that dangerous fighters remain off thebattlefield. President Obama reaffirmed thatthe United States continues to provide assis-tance to the Afghan detention system. The twoPresidents also reaffirmed their mutual com-mitment to the lawful and humane treatmentof detainees, and their intention to ensureproper security arrangements for the protec-tion of Afghan, U.S., and coalition forces.

Economic Transition

The Leaders discussed the significant devel-opment gains in Afghanistan over the past de-cade and the need for continued progress on afoundation of sustainable economic growthand fiscal self-reliance from Transition in 2014and through the Transformation Decade thatfollows. Afghanistan’s economic strategy is fo-cused on investing in its human capital to leadthe country’s institutions and to create an

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enabling environment for inclusive economicgrowth and investment, to harness the privatesector, entrepreneurs, and natural wealth forthe creation of a prosperous country. To thisend, the Presidents reaffirmed the commit-ments made in Bonn, Chicago, and Tokyo, in-cluding long-term economic and security assis-tance in the context of the Tokyo Mutual Ac-countability Framework.

President Karzai affirmed his view that theinternational community’s assistance must beeffective, efficient, and sustainable, and hestressed the critical importance of Afghancommitments to build a stable, democratic so-ciety, based on the rule of law, respect for therights of all Afghan citizens, including women,an effective and independent judiciary andgood governance, including progress in socialdevelopment and the shared fight against cor-ruption.

President Obama reiterated the U.S. com-mitment to support Afghan stability bystrengthening Afghanistan’s economic founda-tions and supporting Afghan reforms toachieve sustainable development and self-suf-ficiency. He reaffirmed the conclusions of theTokyo Conference, including that the U.S.align 80 percent of aid with Afghan prioritiesand channel at least 50 percent of develop-ment assistance through the national budget ofthe Afghan Government.

Elections 2014

During the Leaders’ meetings, PresidentKarzai outlined the Government of Afghani-stan’s plans to hold free, fair, inclusive, anddemocratic elections in 2014. The Leaders re-viewed preparations for the 2014 elections andagreed that independent Afghan institutionsare to lead election preparations and imple-mentation, in close consultation with legiti-mate stakeholders in the democratic process.President Obama welcomed the Afghan Inde-pendent Election Commission’s establishmentof April 5, 2014 as the date for presidential andprovincial council elections, and he reiteratedthat the United States’ role is not to supportany particular candidate but to support a fairand inclusive electoral process.

Peace and Reconciliation

The Presidents reaffirmed that Afghan-ledpeace and reconciliation is the surest way toend violence and ensure lasting stability of Af-ghanistan and the region. Noting progress inthe process of peace and reconciliation, theystressed the importance of accelerating efforts,including by countries in the region that have arole to play in support of the Afghan peaceprocess. Through the High Peace Council, theAfghan Government will intensify its efforts topromote the peace process. The Leaders saidthat they would support an office in Doha forthe purpose of negotiations between the HighPeace Council and the authorized representa-tives of the Taliban. In this context, the Lead-ers called on the armed opposition to join a po-litical process, including by taking those stepsnecessary to open a Taliban office. They urgedthe Government of Qatar to facilitate this ef-fort. The two Presidents reiterated that theoutcomes of peace and reconciliation must re-spect the historic achievements that Afghani-stan has made over the past decade, includingprotecting the rights that all citizens of Afghan-istan, both men and women, guaranteed underthe constitution. As a part of the outcome ofany process, the Taliban and other armed op-position groups must end violence, break tieswith Al Qaeda, and accept Afghanistan’s con-stitution.

Regional Environment

President Obama and President Karzai rec-ognized the important role of the region insupporting Afghanistan’s progress towards sta-bility and prosperity. In this context, PresidentObama expressed support for Afghanistan’s ef-forts to promote regional cooperation to fostera region that is secure, free from extremismand radicalization and that enjoys greater eco-nomic integration. The Leaders expressed sup-port for Afghanistan’s emerging role as a focalpoint for trade and economic activity at theHeart of Asia. The Leaders also reiterated thatthe goals of the U.S.-Afghanistan partnershipare fully consistent with Afghanistan’s vision

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for building strong and cooperative ties with itsneighbors and regional partners.

Bilateral Security Agreement

As we further develop the U.S.-Afghanistanpartnership, the United States and Afghanistanlook forward to expanded cooperation underthe auspices of the U.S.-Afghanistan BilateralCommission, through 2014 and beyond. Presi-dent Obama and President Karzai committedto conclude the Bilateral Security Agreementas soon as possible, reaffirming that such anagreement is in both countries’ interest. Theydiscussed the possibility of a post-2014 U.S.presence that is sustainable, that supports a ca-pable and effective Afghan National SecurityForce, and that continues to pressure the rem-nants of al-Qa’ida and its affiliates. The scopeand nature of any possible post-2014 U.S. pres-ence, legal protections for U.S. forces, and se-curity cooperation between the two countriesis to be specified in the Bilateral Security

Agreement. The U.S. reaffirmed that it doesnot seek permanent bases in Afghanistan.

Conclusion

President Obama reaffirmed the UnitedStates’ respect for Afghanistan’s sovereigntyand reiterated that as Afghanistan takes full re-sponsibility for its security and development,the United States continues to be committedto supporting the Afghan people. Both Presi-dents paid tribute to the sacrifices made by Af-ghanistan, the United States, and our interna-tional partners in efforts to achieve a stable,prosperous, peaceful, sovereign and democrat-ic future for Afghanistan, as well as security forthe international community. The UnitedStates and Afghanistan intend to continueworking together to achieve the full promise ofour enduring partnership.

NOTE: An original was not available for verifi-cation of the content of this joint statement.

Statement on Senator John D. “Jay” Rockefeller IV’s Decision Not To SeekReelectionJanuary 11, 2013

Jay Rockefeller first arrived in West Virginiaas a young volunteer, eager to improve thelives of working families. And for more thanfour decades, he has continued to fight tire-lessly on their behalf. From his time in theState legislature to the Governor’s office, tothe Senate floor, Jay has built an impressivelegacy, one that can be found in the childrenwho have better schools, the miners who havesafer working conditions, the seniors who have

retired with greater dignity, and the new in-dustries that he helped bring to West Virginia.A long-time champion of health care reform,Jay was also instrumental in the fight to makesure that nobody in America has to go brokebecause they get sick. Michelle and I join thepeople of West Virginia in thanking SenatorRockefeller for a lifetime of service, and I lookforward to continuing to work with him overthe next 2 years.


Hi, everybody. This week, I welcomed Pres-ident Hamid Karzai to the White House to dis-cuss the way ahead in Afghanistan. And today Iwant to update you on how we will end thiswar, bring our troops home, and continue thework of rebuilding America.

Over the past 4 years, thanks to our bravemen and women in uniform, we’ve dealt devas-tating blows to Al Qaida. We’ve pushed theTaliban out of their strongholds. And our coreobjective—the reason we went to war in thefirst place—is now within reach: ensuring that

21


Al Qaida can never again use Afghanistan tolaunch attacks against America.

The 33,000 additional forces that I orderedto Afghanistan served with honor. They com-pleted their mission and, as promised, re-turned home last fall. This week, we agreedthat this spring, Afghan forces will take thelead for security across the entire country andour troops will shift to a support role. In thecoming months, I’ll announce the next phaseof our drawdown. And by the end of next year,America’s war in Afghanistan will be over.

This progress has only been possible be-cause of the heroic sacrifices of our troops anddiplomats, alongside forces from many othernations. More than a half million Americans—military and civilian—have served in Afghani-stan. Thousands have been wounded. Morethan 2,000 have given their lives.

This remains a very difficult mission. Thework ahead will not be easy. Our forces are stillin harm’s way. But make no mistake: Our pathis clear, and we are moving forward. Becauseafter more than a decade of war, the nation weneed to rebuild is our own.

As we do, we have to care of our troops andveterans who fought in our name. We have togrow our economy and shrink our deficits, cre-ate new jobs and boost family incomes. Wehave to fix our infrastructure and our immigra-tion system. We have to protect our planetfrom the destructive effects of climate changeand protect our children from the horrors ofgun violence.

These, too, will be difficult missions forAmerica, but they must be met. And if we canjust summon a fraction of the determination ofour men and women in uniform, I know wecan meet them. And I intend to work as hard asI know how to make sure we do.

Thank you.

NOTE: The address was recorded at approxi-mately 4:05 p.m. on January 11 in the StateDining Room at the White House for broad-cast on January 12. The transcript was madeavailable by the Office of the Press Secretaryon January 11, but was embargoed for releaseuntil 6 a.m. on January 12.

Letter to Congressional Leaders Reporting on U.S. Military Support for aFrench Rescue Operation in SomaliaJanuary 13, 2013

Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)

On January 11, 2013, French forces con-ducted an operation in Somalia in which theyattempted to rescue a French citizen beingheld hostage by al-Shabaab. United Statesforces provided limited technical support tothe French forces in that operation, but tookno direct part in the assault on the compoundwhere it was believed the French citizen wasbeing held hostage. United States combat air-craft briefly entered Somali airspace to supportthe rescue operation, if needed. These aircraftdid not employ weapons during the operation.The U.S. forces that supported this operationleft Somalia by approximately 8:00 p.m. East-ern Standard Time on January 11, 2013.

I directed U.S. forces to support this rescueoperation in furtherance of U.S. national secu-rity interests, and pursuant to my constitution-al authority to conduct U.S. foreign relationsand as Commander in Chief and Chief Execu-tive.

I am providing this report as part of my ef-forts to keep the Congress fully informed, con-sistent with the War Powers Resolution (PublicLaw 93–148). I appreciate the support of theCongress in this action.

Sincerely,

BARACK OBAMA

NOTE: Identical letters were sent to John A.Boehner, Speaker of the House of Representa-tives, and Patrick J. Leahy, President pro tem-

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pore of the Senate. The letter referred to De-nis Allex, a French intelligence operative who

was kidnapped in Mogadishu, Somalia, in2009.

The President’s News ConferenceJanuary 14, 2013

The President. Please have a seat, every-body. Good morning. I thought it might makesense to take some questions this week, as myfirst term comes to an end.

It’s been a busy and productive 4 years. AndI expect the same for the next 4 years. I intendto carry out the agenda that I campaigned on:an agenda for new jobs, new opportunity, andnew security for the middle class.

Now, right now our economy is growing,and our businesses are creating new jobs, sowe are poised for a good year if we make smartdecisions and sound investments and as long asWashington politics don’t get in the way ofAmerica’s progress.

As I said on the campaign, one componentto growing our economy and broadening op-portunity for the middle class is shrinking ourdeficits in a balanced and responsible way. Andfor nearly 2 years now, I’ve been fighting forsuch a plan, one that would reduce our deficitsby $4 trillion over the next decade, whichwould stabilize our debt and our deficit in asustainable way for the next decade. Thatwould be enough not only to stop the growth ofour debt relative to the size of our economy,but it would make it manageable so it doesn’tcrowd out the investments we need to make inpeople and education and job training and sci-ence and medical research—all the things thathelp us grow.

Now, step by step, we’ve made progress to-wards that goal. Over the past 2 years, I’vesigned into law about $1.4 trillion in spendingcuts. Two weeks ago, I signed into law morethan $600 billion in new revenue by makingsure the wealthiest Americans begin to paytheir fair share. When you add the money thatwe’ll save in interest payments on the debt, alltogether that adds up to a total of about $2.5trillion in deficit reduction over the past 2years, not counting the $400 billion already

saved from winding down the wars in Iraq andAfghanistan.

So we’ve made progress. We are moving to-wards our ultimate goal of getting to a $4 tril-lion reduction. And there will be more deficitreduction when Congress decides what to doabout the $1.2 trillion in automatic spendingcuts that have been pushed off until nextmonth.

The fact is, though, we can’t finish the job ofdeficit reduction through spending cuts alone.The cuts we’ve already made to priorities otherthan Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, anddefense mean that we spend on everythingfrom education to public safety less as a shareof our economy than it has—than has beentrue for a generation. And that’s not a recipefor growth.

So we’ve got to do more both to stabilize ourfinances over the medium and long term, butalso spur more growth in the short term. Now,I’ve said I’ve—I’m open to making modest ad-justments to programs like Medicare to protectthem for future generations. I’ve also said thatwe need more revenue through tax reform byclosing loopholes in our Tax Code for thewealthiest Americans. If we combine a bal-anced package of savings from spending onhealth care and revenues from closing loop-holes, we can solve the deficit issue withoutsacrificing our investments in things like edu-cation that are going to help us grow.

It turns out, the American people agree withme. They listened to an entire year’s debateover this issue, and they made a clear decisionabout the approach they prefer. They don’tthink it’s fair, for example, to ask a senior topay more for his or her health care or a scien-tist to shut down lifesaving research so that amultimillionaire investor can pay less in taxrates than a secretary. They don’t think it’ssmart to protect endless corporate loopholesand tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans

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rather than rebuild our roads and our schools,invest in our workers’ skills, or help manufac-turers bring jobs back to America. So theywant us to get our books in order in a balancedway, where everybody pulls their weight, ev-eryone does their part.

That’s what I want as well. That’s what I’veproposed. And we can get it done, but we’regoing to have to make sure that people arelooking at this in a responsible way rather thanjust through the lens of politics.

Now, the other congressionally imposeddeadline coming up is the so-called debt ceil-ing, something most Americans hadn’t evenheard of before 2 years ago. So I want to beclear about this. The debt ceiling is not a ques-tion of authorizing more spending. Raising thedebt ceiling does not authorize more spending.It simply allows the country to pay for spend-ing that Congress has already committed to.These are bills that have already been rackedup, and we need to pay them.

So while I’m willing to compromise and findcommon ground over how to reduce our defi-cits, America cannot afford another debatewith this Congress about whether or not theyshould pay the bills they’ve already racked up.

If congressional Republicans refuse to payAmerica’s bills on time, Social Security checksand veterans’ benefits will be delayed. Wemight not be able to pay our troops or honorour contracts with small-business owners.Food inspectors, air traffic controllers, special-ists who track down loose nuclear materialswouldn’t get their paychecks. Investors aroundthe world will ask if the United States of Amer-ica is, in fact, a safe bet. Markets could go hay-wire. Interest rates would spike for anybodywho borrows money: every homeowner with amortgage, every student with a college loan,every small-business owner who wants to growand hire. It would be a self-inflicted wound onthe economy. It would slow down our growth,might tip us into recession, and ironically,would probably increase our deficit.

So to even entertain the idea of this happen-ing—of the United States of America not pay-ing its bills—is irresponsible. It’s absurd. Asthe Speaker said 2 years ago, it would be—and

I’m quoting Speaker Boehner now—“a finan-cial disaster, not only for us, but for the world-wide economy.”

So we’ve got to pay our bills. And Republi-cans in Congress have two choices here: Theycan act responsibly and pay America’s bills, orthey can act irresponsibly, and put Americathrough another economic crisis. But they willnot collect a ransom in exchange for not crash-ing the American economy. The financial well-being of the American people is not leverage tobe used. The full faith and credit of the UnitedStates of America is not a bargaining chip.

And they’d better choose quickly, becausetime is running short. The last time Republi-cans in Congress even flirted with this idea,our AAA credit rating was downgraded for thefirst time in our history, our businesses createdthe fewest jobs of any month in nearly the past3 years, and ironically, the whole fiasco actuallyadded to the deficit.

So it shouldn’t be surprising, given all thistalk, that the American people think Washing-ton is hurting, rather than helping, the countryat the moment. They see their representativesconsumed with partisan brinksmanship overpaying our bills, while they overwhelminglywant us to focus on growing the economy andcreating more jobs.

So let’s finish this debate. Let’s give ourbusinesses and the world the certainty that oureconomy and our reputation are still second tonone. We pay our bills. We handle our busi-ness. And then we can move on, becauseAmerica has a lot to do. We’ve got to createmore jobs. We’ve got to boost the wages ofthose who have work. And we’ve got to reachfor energy independence. We’ve got to reformour immigration system. We’ve got to give ourchildren the best education possible, and we’vegot to do everything we can to protect themfrom the horrors of gun violence.

And let me say I’m grateful to Vice Presi-dent Biden for his work on this issue of gun vi-olence and for his proposals, which I’m goingto be reviewing today and I will address in thenext few days and I intend to vigorously pur-sue.

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So with that, I’m going to take some ques-tions. And I’m going to start with Julie Pace ofAP. And I want to congratulate Julie for thisnew, important job.

Q. Thank you very much.The President. Yes.

Gun Control/School Shootings in Newtown, CT

Q. I wanted to ask about gun violence. To-day marks the 1-year—or 1-month anniversaryof the shooting in Newtown, which seemed togenerate some momentum for reinstating theassault weapons ban. But there’s been freshopposition to that ban from the NRA. Andeven Harry Reid has said that he questionswhether it could pass Congress. Given that,how hard will you push for an assault weaponsban? And if one cannot pass Congress, whatother measures would need to be included in abroad package in order to curb gun violencesuccessfully?

The President. All right. Well, as I said, theVice President and a number of members ofmy Cabinet went through a very thorough pro-cess over the last month, meeting with a lot ofstakeholders in this, including the NRA, lis-tened to proposals from all quarters, andthey’ve presented me now with a list of sensi-ble, commonsense steps that can be taken tomake sure that the kinds of violence we saw atNewtown doesn’t happen again.

I’m going to be meeting with the Vice Presi-dent today. I expect to have a fuller presenta-tion later in the week to give people some spe-cifics about what I think we need to do.

My starting point is not to worry about thepolitics, my starting point is to focus on whatmakes sense, what works: What should we bedoing to make sure that our children are safeand that we’re reducing the incidents of gun vi-olence? And I think we can do that in a sensi-ble way that comports with the SecondAmendment.

And then, Members of Congress, I think,are going to have to have a debate and examinetheir own conscience, because if, in fact—andI believe this is true—everybody across partylines was as deeply moved and saddened as Iwas by what happened in Newtown, then we’re

going to have to vote based on what we think isbest. We’re going to have to come up with an-swers that set politics aside. And that’s what Iexpect Congress to do.

But what you can count on is, is that thethings that I’ve said in the past—the belief thatwe have to have stronger background checks,that we can do a much better job in terms ofkeeping these magazine clips with high capaci-ty out of the hands of folks who shouldn’t havethem, an assault weapons ban that is meaning-ful—that those are things I continue to believemake sense.

Okay. Will all of them get through this Con-gress? I don’t know. But what’s uppermost inmy mind is making sure that I’m honest withthe American people and with Members ofCongress about what I think will work, what Ithink is something that will make a difference.And to repeat what I’ve said earlier: If there isa step we can take that will save even one childfrom what happened in Newtown, we shouldtake that step.

Q. Can a package be discussed to allow anassault weapons ban?

The President. I’ll present the details later inthe week.

Chuck Todd, NBC.

Debt Ceiling/National Economy

Q. Thank you, sir. As you know, SenateDemocrats, Harry Reid, sent you a letter beg-ging you, essentially, to take—consider somesort of executive action on this debt ceiling is-sue. I know you’ve said you’re not negotiatingon it. Your administration has ruled out thevarious ideas that have been out there, the14th Amendment. But just this morning,House—one of the House Democratic leaders,Jim Clyburn, asked you to use the 14thAmendment and even said, sometimes that’swhat it takes. He brought up the EmancipationProclamation as saying it took executive actionwhen Congress wouldn’t act, and he comparedthe debt ceiling to that. So are you consideringa plan B, and if not, why not?

The President. Well, Chuck, the issue here iswhether or not America pays its bills. We arenot a deadbeat nation. And so there’s a very

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simple solution to this: Congress authorizes usto pay our bills.

Now, if the House and the Senate want togive me the authority so that they don’t have totake these tough votes, if they want to put theresponsibility on me to raise the debt ceiling,I’m happily to take it. Mitch McConnell, theRepublican leader in the Senate, had a propos-al like that last year, and I’m happy to accept it.But if they want to keep this responsibility,then they need to go ahead and get it done.

And there are no magic tricks here. Thereare no loopholes. There are no easy outs. Thisis a matter of Congress authorizes spending.They order me to spend. They tell me, youneed to fund our Defense Department at suchand such a level; you need to send out SocialSecurity checks; you need to make sure thatyou are paying to care for our veterans. Theylay all this out for me, and—because they havethe spending power. And so I am required bylaw to go ahead and pay these bills.

Separately, they also have to authorize theraising of the debt ceiling in order to makesure that those bills are paid. And so what Con-gress can’t do is tell me to spend X, and thensay, but we’re not going to give you the author-ity to go ahead and pay the bills.

And I just want to repeat, because I thinksometimes the American people, understand-ably, aren’t following all the debates here inWashington: Raising the debt ceiling does notauthorize us to spend more. All it does is saythat America will pay its bills. And we are not adeadbeat nation. And the consequences of usnot paying our bills, as I outlined in my open-ing statement, would be disastrous.

So I understand the impulse to try to getaround this in a simple way. But there’s oneway to get around this. There’s one way to dealwith it. And that is for Congress to authorizeme to pay for those items of spending that theyhave already authorized.

And the notion that Republicans in theHouse, or maybe some Republicans in theSenate, would suggest that in order for us toget our way on our spending priorities, that wewould risk the full faith and credit of the Unit-ed States, that, I think, is not what the Found-

ers intended. That’s not how I think mostAmericans think our democracy should work.They’ve got a point of view; Democrats in Con-gress have a point of view. They need to sitdown and work out a compromise.

Q. You just outlined an entire rationale forwhy this can’t happen.

The President. Yes.Q. And if—then if—and you’re not negotiat-

ing on the debt ceiling.The President. Yes.

Debt Ceiling/Deficit and National Debt/Feder-al Budget Negotiations

Q. So you’re not negotiating and they sayyou have to negotiate, and you’re not consider-ing another plan B, then do you just wait it out,and we do go—we do see all these things hap-pen?

The President. Well look, Chuck, thereare—there’s a pretty straightforward way ofdoing this, and that is to set the debt ceilingaside, we pay our bills, and then we have a vig-orous debate about how we’re going to do fur-ther deficit reduction in a balanced way.

Now, keep in mind that what we’ve heardfrom some Republicans in both the House andthe Senate is that they will only increase thedebt ceiling by the amount of spending cutsthat they’re able to push through and—in or-der to replace the automatic spending cuts ofthe sequester—that’s $1.2 trillion. Say it takesanother trillion or trillion-two to get us throughone more year, they’d have to identify $2.5 tril-lion in cuts just to get the debt ceiling extendedto next year—2.5 trillion.

They can’t even—Congress has not beenable to identify $1.2 trillion in cuts that they’rehappy with. Because these same Republicanssay they don’t want to cut defense; they’veclaimed that they don’t want to gut Medicareor harm the vulnerable. But the truth of thematter is, is that you can’t meet their own crite-ria without drastically cutting Medicare or hav-ing an impact on Medicaid or affecting our de-fense spending. So the math just doesn’t addup.

Now, what—here’s what would work. Whatwould work would be for us to say we’ve al-

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ready done close to $2 trillion in deficit reduc-tion, and if you add the interest that we won’tbe paying because of less spending and in-creased revenue, it adds up to about $2.5 tril-lion. The consensus is we need about $4 tril-lion to stabilize our debt and our deficit, whichmeans we need about $1.5 trillion more. Thepackage that I offered to Speaker Boehner be-fore we—before the new year would achievethat. We were actually fairly close in terms ofarriving at that number.

So if the goal is to make sure that we are be-ing responsible about our debt and our deficit,if that’s the conversation we’re having, I’mhappy to have that conversation. And by clos-ing some additional loopholes through tax re-form—which, Speaker Boehner has acknowl-edged, can raise money in a sensible way—andby doing some additional cuts, including mak-ing sure that we are reducing our health carespending, which is the main driver of our defi-cits, we can arrive at a package that gets thisthing done.

I’m happy to have that conversation. What Iwill not do is to have that negotiation with agun at the head of the American people: thethreat that unless we get our way, unless yougut Medicare or Medicaid or otherwise slashthings that the American people don’t believeshould be slashed, that we’re going to threatento wreck the entire economy. That is not how,historically, this has been done. That’s not howwe’re going to do it this time.

Q. No plan B? No, you’re not searching forany other ideas or—[inaudible]—the 14thAmendment is completely off the table?

The President. Chuck, what I’m saying toyou is that there is no simpler solution, noready, credible solution, other than Congresseither give me the authority to raise the debtceiling, or exercise the responsibility that theyhave kept for themselves and raise the debtceiling. Because this is about paying your bills.

Everybody here understands this. I mean,this is not a complicated concept. You don’t goout to dinner and then eat all you want andthen leave without paying the check. And ifyou do, you’re breaking the law. And Congressshould think about it the same way that the

American people do. You don’t—now, if Con-gress wants to have a debate about maybe weshouldn’t go out to dinner next time, maybe weshould go to a more modest restaurant, that’sfine. That’s a debate that we should have. Butyou don’t say, in order for me to control my ap-petites, I’m going to not pay the people who al-ready provided me services, people who al-ready lent me the money. That’s not showingany discipline. All that’s doing is not meetingyour obligations. You can’t do that.

And that’s not a credible way to run thisGovernment. We’ve got to stop lurching fromcrisis to crisis to crisis, when there’s this clearpath ahead of us that simply requires some dis-cipline, some responsibility, and some compro-mise. That’s where we need to go. That’s howthis needs to work.

Major Garrett [CBS News].

Debt Ceiling/Deficit and National Debt/Feder-al Budget Negotiations

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. As you wellknow, sir, finding votes for the debt ceiling cansometimes be complicated. You, yourself, as aMember of the Senate, voted against a debtceiling increase. And in previous aspects ofAmerican history—President Reagan in 1985,President George Herbert Walker Bush in1990, President Clinton in 1997—all signeddeficit reduction deals that were contingentupon or in the context of raising the debt ceil-ing. You, yourself, four times have done that.Three times, those were related to deficit re-duction or budget maneuvers.

What Chuck and I and, I think, many peopleare curious about is this new, adamant desireon your part not to negotiate, when that seemsto conflict with the entire history in the mod-ern era of American Presidents and the debtceiling and your own history on the debt ceil-ing. And doesn’t that suggest that we are goingto go into a default situation, because no one istalking to each other about how to resolve this?

The President. Well, no, Major, I think ifyou look at the history, getting votes for thedebt ceiling is always difficult, and budgets inthis town are always difficult. I went throughthis just last year. But what’s different is we

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never saw a situation as we saw last year inwhich certain groups in Congress took such anabsolutist position that we came within a fewdays of defaulting. And the fact of the matteris, is that we have never seen the debt ceilingused in this fashion, where the notion was, youknow what, we might default unless we get ahundred percent of what we want. That hasn’thappened.

Now, as I indicated before, I’m happy tohave a conversation about how we reduce ourdeficits further in a sensible way. Although,one thing I want to point out is that the Ameri-can people are also concerned about how wegrow our economy, how we put people back towork, how we make sure that we finance ourworkers getting properly trained and ourschools are giving our kids the education wedeserve. There’s a whole growth agenda whichwill reduce our deficits that’s important aswell.

But what you’ve never seen is the notionthat has been presented, so far at least, by theRepublicans that deficit reduction—we’ll onlycount spending cuts; that we will raise the defi-cit—or the debt ceiling dollar for dollar onspending cuts. There are a whole set of rulesthat have been established that are impossibleto meet without doing severe damage to theeconomy.

And so what we’re not going to do is putourselves in a position where in order to payfor spending that we’ve already incurred, thatour two options are we’re either going to pro-foundly hurt the economy and hurt middleclass families and hurt seniors and hurt kidswho are trying to go to college, or alternatively,we’re going to blow up the economy. We’renot going to do that.

Q. Therefore, you’re open to a 1- to 3-month extension to the debt ceiling; whateverCongress sends you, you’re okay with it?

The President. No, not whatever Congresssends me. They’re going to have to send mesomething that’s sensible. And we shouldn’t bedoing this——

Q. [Inaudible]The President. ——and we shouldn’t be do-

ing this on a 1- to 3-month timeframe. Why

would we do that? This is the United States ofAmerica, Major. What, we can’t manage ouraffairs in such a way that we pay our bills andwe provide some certainty in terms of how wepay our bills?

Look, I don’t think anybody would considermy position unreasonable here. The—I have——

Q. But why does it presuppose the need tonegotiate and talk about this on a daily basis?Because if default is the biggest threat to theeconomy, why not talk about it——

The President. Major, the—I am happy tohave a conversation about how we reduce ourdeficits. I’m not going to have a monthly or every-3-months conversation about whether or not wepay our bills. Because that in and of itself does se-vere damage. Even the threat of default hurtsour economy. It’s hurting our economy as wespeak. We shouldn’t be having that debate.

If we want to have a conversation about howto reduce our deficit, let’s have that. We’vebeen having that for the last 2 years. We justhad an entire campaign about it. And by theway, the American people agreed with me thatwe should reduce our deficits in a balancedway that also takes into account the need for usto grow this economy and put people back towork.

And despite that conversation, and despitethe election results, the position that’s beentaken on the part of some House Republicansis that, no, we’ve got to do it our way, and if wedon’t, we simply won’t pay America’s bills.Well, that can’t be a position that is sustainableover time. It’s not one that’s good for the econ-omy now. It’s certainly not going to be the kindof precedent that I want to establish, not justfor my Presidency, but for future Presidents,even if it was on the other side.

Democrats don’t like voting for the debtceiling when a Republican is President, and yetyou—but you never saw a situation in whichDemocrats suggested somehow that we wouldgo ahead and default if we didn’t get a hundredpercent of our way. That’s just not how it’s sup-posed to work.

Jon Karl [ABC News].

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Gun Control/School Shootings in Newtown,Connecticut

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. On the issueof guns, given how difficult it will be—somewould say impossible—to get any gun controlmeasure passed through this Congress, whatare you willing or able to do, using the powersof your Presidency, to act without Congress?And I’d also like to know, what do you make ofthese long lines we’re seeing at gun shows andgun stores all around the country? I mean,even in Connecticut, applications for guns areup since the shooting in Newtown.

The President. Well, my understanding isthe Vice President is going to provide a rangeof steps that we can take to reduce gun vio-lence. Some of them will require legislation.Some of them I can accomplish through execu-tive action. And so I’ll be reviewing those to-day. And as I said, I’ll speak in more detail towhat we’re going to go ahead and propose laterin the week.

But I’m confident that there are some stepsthat we can take that don’t require legislationand that are within my authority as President.And where you get a step that has the opportu-nity to reduce the possibility of gun violence,then I want to go ahead and take it.

Q. Can you give an idea of what kind ofsteps?

The President. Well, I think, for example,how we are gathering data, for example, onguns that fall into the hands of criminals andhow we track that more effectively, there maybe some steps that we can take administrative-ly, as opposed through legislation.

As far as people lining up and purchasingmore guns, I think that we’ve seen for sometime now that those who oppose any common-sense gun control or gun safety measures havea pretty effective way of ginning up fear, on thepart of gun owners, that somehow the FederalGovernment’s about to take all your guns away.And there’s probably an economic element tothat. It obviously is good for business.

But I think that those of us who look at thisproblem have repeatedly said that responsiblegun owners, people who have a gun for protec-

tion, for hunting, for sportsmanship, they don’thave anything to worry about. The issue here isnot whether or not we believe in the SecondAmendment. The issue is, are there some sen-sible steps that we can take to make sure thatsomebody like the individual in Newtown can’twalk into a school and gun down a bunch ofchildren in a shockingly rapid fashion. Andsurely we can do something about that.

But part of the challenge that we confront is,is that even the slightest hint of some sensible,responsible legislation in this area fans this no-tion that somehow, here it comes and that ev-erybody’s guns are going to be taken away. It’sunfortunate, but that’s the case. And if youlook at over the first 4 years of my administra-tion, we’ve tried to tighten up and enforcesome of the laws that were already on thebooks. But it would be pretty hard to arguethat somehow gun owners have had their rightsinfringed.

Q. So you think this is an irrational fearthat’s driving all these people to go and stockup——

The President. Excuse me?Q. Do you think this is an irrational fear

causing——The President. Well, as I said, I think it’s a

fear that’s fanned by those who are worriedabout the possibility of any legislation gettingout there.

Julianna Goldman [Bloomberg News].

Tax Reform/Federal Budget Negotiations/DebtCeiling

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. I just want tocome back to the debt ceiling, because in thesummer of 2011, you said that you wouldn’tnegotiate on the debt ceiling, and you did. Lastyear, you said that you wouldn’t extend any ofthe Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, and you did.So as you say now that you’re not going to ne-gotiate on the debt ceiling this year, whyshould House Republicans take that seriouslyand think that if we get to the 1-minute-to-midnight scenario, that you’re not going toback down?

The President. Well, first of all, Julianna,let’s take the example of this year and the fiscal

29


cliff. I didn’t say that I would not have any con-versations at all about extending the Bush taxcuts. What I said was, we weren’t going to ex-tend Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, and wedidn’t. Now, you can argue that during thecampaign, I said—I set the criteria for wealthyat 250, and we ended up being at 400. But thefact of the matter is millionaires, billionaires,are paying significantly more in taxes, just as Isaid. So, from the start, my concern was mak-ing sure that we had a Tax Code that was fairand that protected the middle class, and mybiggest priority was making sure that middleclass taxes did not go up.

The difference between this year and 2011is the fact that we’ve already made $1.2 trillionin cuts. And at the time, I indicated that therewere cuts that we could sensibly make thatwould not damage our economy, would not im-pede growth. I said at the time I think weshould pair it up with revenue in order to havean overall balanced package. But my own bud-get reflected cuts in discretionary spending.My own budget reflected the cuts that neededto be made, and we’ve made those cuts.

Now, the challenge going forward is thatwe’ve now made some big cuts, and if we’regoing to do further deficit reduction, the onlyway to do it is in a balanced and responsibleway.

The alternative is for us to go ahead and cutcommitments that we’ve made on things likeMedicare or Social Security or Medicaid andfor us to fundamentally change commitmentsthat we’ve made to make sure that seniorsdon’t go into poverty or that children who aredisabled are properly cared for. For us tochange that contract we’ve made with theAmerican people rather than look at optionslike closing loopholes for corporations thatthey don’t need, that points to a long-termtrend in which we have fundamentally, I think,undermined what people expect out of thisGovernment, which is, is that parties sit down,they negotiate, they compromise, but they alsoreflect the will of the American people; thatyou don’t have one narrow faction that is ableto simply dictate a hundred percent of what

they want all the time or otherwise threatenthat we destroy the American economy.

Another way of putting it is, we’ve got tobreak the habit of negotiating through crisisover and over again. And now we—now is asgood of a time as any, at the start of my secondterm, because if we continue down this path,then there’s really no stopping the principle. Imean, literally—even in divided government,even where we’ve got a Democratic Presidentand a Democratic Senate—that a small groupin the House of Representatives could simplysay every 2 months, every 3 months, every 6months, every year, we are going to more andmore change the economy in ways that we pre-fer, despite strong objections of Americans allacross the country, or otherwise, we’re going tohave America not pay its bills. And that is noway for us to do business.

And by the way, I would make the same ar-gument if it was a Republican President and aRepublican Senate, and you had a handful ofDemocrats who were suggesting that we aregoing to hijack the process and make sure thateither we get our way a hundred percent of thetime, or otherwise, we are going to default onAmerica’s obligations.

Q. Drawing the line in the sand as you arenegotiating, how is that not playing chickenwith the economy?

The President. No, no, look, what I’ve said isthat I’m happy to have a conversation aboutdeficit reduction——

Q. So you technically are willing to negoti-ate?

The President. No, Julianna, look, this ispretty straightforward. Either Congress paysits bills, or it doesn’t. Now, if—and they wantto keep this responsibility; if John Boehner andMitch McConnell think that they can come upwith a plan that somehow meets their criteriathat they’ve set for why they will—when theywill raise the debt ceiling, they’re free to goahead and try. But the proposals that they’veput forward in order to accomplish that—onlyby cutting spending—means cuts to things likeMedicare and education that the Americanpeople profoundly reject.

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Now, if they think that they can get thatthrough Congress, then they’re free to try. ButI think that a better way of doing this is to goahead and say, we’re going to pay our bills. Thequestion now is, how do we actually get ourdeficit in a manageable, sustainable way? Andthat’s a conversation I’m happy to have.

All right. Matt Spetalnick [Reuters].

Federal Government Shutdown/Deficit andNational Debt

Q. Thank you, sir. You’ve spoken extensivelyabout the debt ceiling debate, but some Re-publicans have further said that they’re willingto allow a Government shutdown to take placerather than put off deep spending cuts. Areyou prepared to allow the Government togrind to a halt if you disagree with the spend-ing cut proposals they put forth? And who doyou think the American people would blame ifthat came to pass?

The President. Well, ultimately, Congressmakes the decisions about whether or not wespend money and whether or not we keep thisGovernment open. And if the Republicans inCongress have made a decision that they wantto shut down the Government in order to gettheir way, then they have the votes at least inthe House of Representatives, probably, to dothat.

I think that would be a mistake. I think itwould be profoundly damaging to our econo-my. I think it would actually add to our deficitbecause it will impede growth. I think it’sshortsighted. But they’re elected representa-tives, and folks put them into those positions,and they’re going to have to make a decisionabout that. And I don’t—I suspect that theAmerican people would blame all of Washing-ton for not being able to get its act together.

But the larger issue here has to do with,well, what is it that we’re trying to accomplish.Are we trying to reduce the deficit? Because ifwe’re trying to reduce the deficit, then we canshape a bipartisan plan to reduce the deficit. Imean, is that really our objective? Our concernis that we’re spending more than we take in,and if that’s the case, then there’s a way of bal-ancing that out so that we take in more money,

increasing revenue, and we reduce spending.And there’s a recipe for getting that done.

And in the conversations that I had withSpeaker Boehner before the end of the year,we came pretty close; I mean, a few hundredbillion dollars separating us when stretched outover a 10-year period, that’s not a lot.

But it seems as if what’s motivating and pro-pelling at this point some of the House Repub-licans is more than simply deficit reduction.They have a particular vision about what Gov-ernment should and should not do. So they aresuspicious about Government’s commitments,for example, to make sure that seniors have de-cent health care as they get older. They havesuspicions about Social Security. They havesuspicions about whether Government shouldmake sure that kids in poverty are gettingenough to eat or whether we should be spend-ing money on medical research. So they’ve gota particular view of what Government shoulddo and should be.

And that view was rejected by the Americanpeople when it was debated during the Presi-dential campaign. I think every poll that’s outthere indicates that the American people actu-ally think our commitment to Medicare or toeducation is really important, and that’s some-thing that we should look at as a last resort interms of reducing the deficit, and it makes a lotmore sense for us to close, for example, corpo-rate loopholes before we go to putting a biggerburden on students or seniors.

But if the House Republicans disagree withthat and they want to shut down the Govern-ment to see if they can get their way on it,that’s their prerogative. That’s how the systemis set up. It will damage our economy.

The Government is a big part of this econo-my, and it’s interesting that a lot of times, youhave people who recognize that when it comesto defense spending; some of the same folkswho say we’ve got to cut spending or complainthat Government jobs don’t do anything, whenit comes to that defense contractor in their dis-trict, they think, wow, this is a pretty importantpart of the economy in my district, and weshouldn’t stop spending on that. Let’s just

31


make sure we’re not spending on those otherfolks.

Q. So if you fail to come to an agreementwith Republicans on this and—could you cometo—[inaudible]—shut down——

The President. Look, my hope is, is thatcommon sense prevails. That’s always my pref-erence. And I think that would the preferenceof the American people, and that’s what wouldbe good for the economy.

So let me just repeat: If the issue is deficitreduction, getting our deficits sustainable overtime, getting our debt in a sustainable place,then Democrats and Republicans in Congresswill have a partner with me.

We can achieve that, and we can achieve itfairly quickly. I mean, we know what the num-bers are. We know what needs to be done. Weknow what a balanced approach would take.And we’ve already done probably more thanhalf of the deficit reduction we need to stabi-lize the debt and the deficit. There’s probablybeen more pain and drama in getting therethan we needed. And so finishing the jobshouldn’t be that difficult, if everybody comesto the conversation with an open mind, and ifwe recognize that there are some things, likenot paying our bills, that should be out ofbounds.

All right. I’m going to take one last question.Jackie Calmes [New York Times].

Q. Thank you, Mr. President.The President. Yes.

Diversity in the President’s Cabinet/President’sRelations With Congress

Q. I’d like to ask you, now that you’vereached the end of your first term, startingyour second, about a couple of criticisms—onethat’s longstanding, another more recent. Thelongstanding one seems to have become a tru-ism of sorts that you’re—you and your staff aretoo insular, that you don’t socialize enough.And the second, the more recent criticism isthat your team taking shape isn’t diverse—isn’tas diverse as it could be or even was, in termsof getting additional voices: gender, race, eth-nic diversity. So I’d like you to address both ofthose.

The President. Sure. Let me take the secondone first. I’m very proud that in the first 4years, we had as diverse, if not more diverse, aWhite House and a Cabinet than any in histo-ry. And I intend to continue that, because itturns out that when you look for the very bestpeople, given the incredible diversity of thiscountry, you’re going to end up with a diversestaff and a diverse team. And that very diversi-ty helps to create more effective policymakingand better decisionmaking for me, because itbrings different perspectives to the table.

So if you think about my first 4 years, theperson who probably had the most influenceon my foreign policy was a woman. The peoplewho were in charge of moving forward mymost important domestic initiative, healthcare, were women. The person in charge of ourhomeland security was a woman. My two ap-pointments to the Supreme Court were wom-en, and 50 percent of my White House staffwere women. So I think people should expectthat that record will be built upon during thenext 4 years.

Now, what, I’ve made four appointments sofar? And one women—admittedly, a high-pro-file one—is leaving the—has already left theadministration, and I have made a replace-ment. But I would just suggest that everybodykind of wait until they’ve seen all my appoint-ments, who’s in the White House staff andwho’s in my Cabinet, before they rush to judg-ment.

Q. [Inaudible]—the big three.The President. Yes, but I guess what I’m say-

ing, Jackie, is that I think until you’ve seenwhat my overall team looks like, it’s prematureto assume that somehow we’re going back-wards. We’re not going backwards, we’re goingforward.

With respect to this “truism” about me notsocializing enough and patting folks on theback and all that stuff, most people who knowme know I’m a pretty friendly guy. [Laughter]And I like a good party. [Laughter] And thetruth is that when I was in the Senate, I hadgreat relationships over there, and up until thepoint that I became President, this was not anaccusation that you heard very frequently.

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I think that really what’s gone on in terms ofsome of the paralysis here in Washington ordifficulties in negotiations just have to do withsome very stark differences in terms of policy,some very sharp differences in terms of wherewe stand on issues. And if you think about, let’ssay, myself and Speaker Boehner, I like Speak-er Boehner personally, and when we went outand played golf, we had a great time. But thatdidn’t get a deal done in 2011. When I’m overhere at the congressional picnic, and folks arecoming up and taking pictures with their fami-ly, I promise you, Michelle and I are very niceto them, and we have a wonderful time.[Laughter] But it doesn’t prevent them fromgoing onto the floor of the House and blastingme for being a big-spending Socialist. [Laugh-ter]

And the reason that, in many cases, Con-gress votes the way they do or talks the waythey talk or takes positions in negotiations thatthey take doesn’t have to do with me. It has todo with the imperatives that they feel in termsof their own politics, right? They’re worriedabout their district. They’re worried aboutwhat’s going on back home.

I think there are a lot of Republicans at thispoint that feel that given how much energy hasbeen devoted in some of the media that’s pre-ferred by Republican constituencies to demon-ize me, that it doesn’t look real good socializingwith me. Charlie Crist down in Florida, I think,testifies to that. And I think a lot of folks say,well, if we look like we’re being too coopera-tive or too chummy with the President, thatmight cause us problems. That might be an ex-cuse for us to get a challenge from somebodyin a primary.

So that tends to be the challenge. I promiseyou, we invite folks from Congress over hereall the time. And I—when they choose tocome, I enjoy their company. Sometimes, they

don’t choose to come, and that has to do withthe fact that, I think, they don’t consider theoptics useful for them politically. And ulti-mately, the way we’re going to get stuff done—personal relationships are important, and obvi-ously, I can always do a better job, and the nicething is, is that now that my girls are gettingolder, they don’t want to spend that much timewith me anyway, so I’ll be probably callingaround, looking for somebody to play cardswith me or something, because I’m gettingkind of lonely in this big house. [Laughter] Somaybe a whole bunch of members of theHouse Republican Caucus want to come overand socialize more.

But my suspicion is getting the issues re-solved that we just talked about, the big stuff—whether or not we get sensible laws passed toprevent gun violence, whether or not Americais paying its bills, whether or not we get immi-gration reform done—all that’s going to be de-termined largely by where the respective par-ties stand on policy and, maybe most impor-tantly, the attitude of the American people.

If the American people feel strongly aboutthese issues and they push hard and they re-ward or don’t reward Members of Congresswith their votes, if they reject, sort of, uncom-promising positions or sharp partisanship or al-ways looking out for the next election and theyreward folks who are trying to find commonground, then I think you’ll see behavior inCongress change. And that will be true wheth-er I’m the life of the party or a stick in themud.


NOTE: The President’s news conference beganat 11:39 a.m. in the East Room at the WhiteHouse. In his remarks, he referred to formerGov. Charles J. Crist, Jr., of Florida.

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Statement on Signing the Department of State Rewards Program Updateand Technical Corrections Act of 2012January 15, 2013

Today I signed into law S. 2318, the Depart-ment of State Rewards Program Update andTechnical Corrections Act of 2012. This legis-lation will enhance the ability of the U.S. Gov-ernment to offer monetary rewards for infor-mation that leads to the arrest or conviction offoreign nationals accused by internationalcriminal tribunals of atrocity-related crimesand of individuals involved in transnational or-ganized crime.

This powerful new tool can be used to helpbring to justice perpetrators of the worstcrimes known to humankind. This includes in-dividuals such as Joseph Kony and other lead-ers of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), aswell as certain commanders of M23 and theDemocratic Forces for the Liberation ofRwanda (FDLR). All of these individuals facecharges before international criminal tribunalsfor horrific acts, including attacks on civilians,

murder, the recruitment and use of child sol-diers, and rape. We have made unmistakablyclear that the United States is committed toseeing war criminals and other perpetrators ofatrocities held accountable for their crimes,and today’s legislation can help us achieve thatgoal.

The legislation also authorizes the U.S. Gov-ernment to offer rewards for information lead-ing to the arrest or conviction of individuals in-volved in transnational organized crime, suchas money laundering and trafficking in per-sons, arms, and illicit goods. This importantnew tool will support my administration’s strat-egy to combat transnational organized crime,bolster our fight against the scourge of modernslavery, and protect our national security.

NOTE: S. 2318, approved January 15, was as-signed Public Law No. 112–283.

Remarks on Gun ViolenceJanuary 16, 2013

Vice President Joe Biden. Before I begin to-day, let me say to the families of the innocentswho were murdered 33 days ago, our heartgoes out to you. And you show incredible cour-age—incredible courage—being here. And thePresident and I are going to do everything inour power to honor the memory of your chil-dren and your wives with the work we take uphere today.

It’s been 33 days since the Nation’s heartwas broken by the horrific, senseless violencethat took place at Sandy Hook ElementarySchool: twenty—twenty—beautiful first-grad-ers gunned down in a place that’s supposed tobe their second sanctuary; six—six—membersof the staff killed trying to save those children.It’s literally been hard for the Nation to com-prehend, hard for the Nation to fathom.

And I know for the families who are herethat time is not measured in days, but it’s mea-

sured in minutes, in seconds, since you re-ceived that news. Another minute without yourdaughter. Another minute without your son.Another minute without your wife. Anotherminute without your mom.

I want to personally thank Chris and LynnMcDonnell, who lost their beautiful daughterGrace, and the other parents who I had achance to speak to, for their suggestions andfor—again, just for the courage of all of you tobe here today. I admire the grace and the re-solve that you all are showing. And I must sayI’ve been deeply affected by your faith as well.And the President and I are going to do every-thing to try to match the resolve you’ve demon-strated.

No one can know for certain if this senselessact could have been prevented, but we allknow we have a moral obligation—a moral ob-ligation—to do everything in our power to di-

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minish the prospect that something like thiscould happen again.

As the President knows, I’ve worked in thisfield a long time, in the United States Senate,having chaired a Committee that had jurisdic-tion over these issues of guns and crime andhaving drafted the first gun violence legisla-tion—the last gun violence legislation, I shouldsay. And I have no illusions about what we’reup against or how hard the task is in front of us.But I also have never seen the Nation’s con-science so shaken by what happened at SandyHook. The world has changed, and it’s de-manding action.

It’s in this context that the President askedme to put together, along with Cabinet mem-bers, a set of recommendations about how weshould proceed to meet that moral obligationwe have. And toward that end, the Cabinetmembers and I sat down with 229 groups—notjust individuals, representing groups—229groups, from law enforcement agencies topublic health officials, to gun officials, to gunadvocacy groups, to sportsmen and huntersand religious leaders. And I’ve spoken withMembers of Congress on both sides of theaisle, had extensive conversation with mayorsand Governors and county officials.

And the recommendations we provided tothe President on Monday call for executive ac-tions he could sign, legislation he could call for,and long-term research that should be under-taken. They’re based on the emerging consen-sus we heard from all the groups with whomwe spoke, including some of you who are vic-tims of this god-awful occurrence, ways tokeep guns out of the wrong hands, as well asways to take comprehensive action to preventviolence in the first place.

We should do as much as we can, as quicklyas we can. And we cannot let the perfect be theenemy of the good. So some of what you willhear from the President will happen immedi-ately; some will take some time. But we havebegun. And we are starting here today, andwe’re resolved to continue this fight.

During the meetings that we held, we metwith a young man who’s here today; I think Co-lin Goddard is here. Where are you, Colin?

Colin was one of the survivors of the VirginiaTech massacre. He was in the classroom. Hecalls himself one of the lucky seven. And he’lltell you he was shot four times on that day, andhe has three bullets that are still inside him.

And when I asked Colin about what hethought we should be doing, he said that, hesaid: “I’m not here because of what happenedto me. I’m here because of what happened tome keeps happening to other people and wehave to do something about it.”

Colin, we will. Colin, I promise you, we will.This is our intention. We must do what we cannow. And there’s no person who is more com-mitted to acting on this moral obligation wehave than the President of the United States ofAmerica.

Ladies and gentlemen, President BarackObama.

The President. Thank you. Thank you somuch. Thank you, everybody. Please have aseat. Good afternoon, everybody.

Let me begin by thanking our Vice Presi-dent, Joe Biden, for your dedication, Joe, tothis issue, for bringing so many different voicesto the table. Because while reducing gun vio-lence is a complicated challenge, protectingour children from harm shouldn’t be a divisiveone.

Over the month since the tragedy in New-town, we’ve heard from so many, and obvious-ly, none have affected us more than the fami-lies of those gorgeous children and their teach-ers and guardians who were lost. And so we’regrateful to all of you for taking the time to behere and recognizing that we honor theirmemories in part by doing everything we canto prevent this from happening again.

But we also heard from some unexpectedpeople. In particular, I started getting a lot ofletters from kids. Four of them are here today:Grant Fritz, Julia Stokes, Hinna Zeejah, andTaejah Goode. They’re pretty representative ofsome of the messages that I got. These aresome pretty smart letters from some prettysmart young people.

Hinna, a third-grader—you can go aheadand wave, Hinna. Yes, you. [Laughter] Hinnawrote: “I feel terrible for the parents who lost

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their children. . . . I love my country, and Iwant everybody to be happy and safe.”

And then, Grant—go ahead and wave,Grant. [Laughter] Grant said: “I think thereshould be some changes. We should learn fromwhat happened at Sandy Hook. I feel reallybad.”

And then, Julia said—Julia, where are you?There you go. “I’m not scared for my safety,I’m scared for others. I have four brothers andsisters, and I know I would not be able to bearthe thought of losing any of them.”

These are our kids. This is what they’rethinking about. And so what we should bethinking about is our responsibility to care forthem and shield them from harm and givethem the tools they need to grow up and do ev-erything that they’re capable of doing, not justto pursue their own dreams, but to help buildthis country. This is our first task as a society:keeping our children safe. This is how we willbe judged. And their voices should compel usto change.

And that’s why, last month, I asked Joe tolead an effort, along with members of my Cab-inet, to come up with some concrete steps wecan take right now to keep our children safe, tohelp prevent mass shootings, to reduce thebroader epidemic of gun violence in this coun-try.

And we can’t put this off any longer. Just lastThursday, as TV networks were covering oneof Joe’s meetings on this topic, news broke ofanother school shooting, this one in California.In the month since 20 precious children and 6brave adults were violently taken from us atSandy Hook Elementary, more than 900 of ourfellow Americans have reportedly died at theend of a gun—900 in the past month. And ev-ery day we wait, that number will keep grow-ing.

So I’m putting forward a specific set of pro-posals based on the work of Joe’s Task Force.And in the days ahead, I intend to use whatev-er weight this office holds to make them a real-ity. Because while there is no law or set of lawsthat can prevent every senseless act of violencecompletely, no piece of legislation that willprevent every tragedy, every act of evil, if there

is even one thing we can do to reduce this vio-lence, if there is even one life that can besaved, then we’ve got an obligation to try.

And I’m going to do my part. As soon as I’mfinished speaking here, I will sit at that desk,and I will sign a directive giving law enforce-ment, schools, mental health professionals, andthe public health community some of the toolsthey need to help reduce gun violence.

We will make it easier to keep guns out ofthe hands of criminals by strengthening thebackground check system. We will helpschools hire more resource officers, if theywant them, and develop emergency prepared-ness plans. We will make sure mental healthprofessionals know their options for reportingthreats of violence, even as we acknowledgethat someone with a mental illness is far morelikely to be a victim of violent crime than theperpetrator.

And while year after year, those who opposeeven modest gun safety measures have threat-ened to defund scientific or medical researchinto the causes of gun violence, I will direct theCenters for Disease Control to go ahead andstudy the best ways to reduce it. And Congressshould fund research into the effects that vio-lent video games have on young minds. Wedon’t benefit from ignorance. We don’t benefitfrom not knowing the science of this epidemicof violence.

Now, these are a few of the 23 executive ac-tions that I’m announcing today. But as impor-tant as these steps are, they are in no way asubstitute for action from Members of Con-gress. To make a real and lasting difference,Congress, too, must act, and Congress must actsoon. And I’m calling on Congress to passsome very specific proposals right away.

First, it’s time for Congress to require a uni-versal background check for anyone trying tobuy a gun. The law already requires licensedgun dealers to run background checks, andover the last 14 years, that’s kept 1.5 million ofthe wrong people from getting their hands on agun. But it’s hard to enforce that law when asmany as 40 percent of all gun purchases areconducted without a background check. That’s

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not safe. That’s not smart. It’s not fair to re-sponsible gun buyers or sellers.

If you want to buy a gun—whether it’s froma licensed dealer or a private seller—youshould at least have to show you are not a felonor somebody legally prohibited from buyingone. This is common sense. And an over-whelming majority of Americans agree with uson the need for universal background checks,including more than 70 percent of the NationalRifle Association’s members, according to onesurvey. So there’s no reason we can’t do this.

Second, Congress should restore a ban onmilitary-style assault weapons and a 10-roundlimit for magazines. The type of assault rifleused in Aurora, for example, when paired withhigh-capacity magazines, has one purpose: topump out as many bullets as possible, as quick-ly as possible; to do as much damage, usingbullets often designed to inflict maximumdamage.

And that’s what allowed the gunman in Au-rora to shoot 70 people—70 people—killing 12in a matter of minutes. Weapons designed forthe theater of war have no place in a movietheater. A majority of Americans agree with uson this.

And by the way, so did Ronald Reagan, oneof the staunchest defenders of the SecondAmendment, who wrote to Congress in 1994,urging them—this is Ronald Reagan speak-ing—urging them to listen to the Americanpublic and to the law enforcement communityand support a ban on the further manufactureof military-style assault weapons.

And finally, Congress needs to help, ratherthan hinder, law enforcement as it does its job.We should get tougher on people who buyguns with the express purpose of turningaround and selling them to criminals. And weshould severely punish anybody who helpsthem do this. Since Congress hasn’t confirmeda Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobaccoand Firearms in 6 years, they should confirmTodd Jones, who will be—who has been Act-ing, and I will be nominating for the post.

And at a time when budget cuts are forcingmany communities to reduce their police

force, we should put more cops back on the joband back on our streets.

Now, let me be absolutely clear. Like mostAmericans, I believe the Second Amendmentguarantees an individual right to bear arms. Irespect our strong tradition of gun ownershipand the rights of hunters and sportsmen. Thereare millions of responsible, law-abiding gunowners in America who cherish their right tobear arms for hunting or sport or protection orcollection.

I also believe most gun owners agree that wecan respect the Second Amendment whilekeeping an irresponsible, law-breaking fewfrom inflicting harm on a massive scale. I be-lieve most of them agree that if Americaworked harder to keep guns out of the hands ofdangerous people, there would be fewer atroc-ities like the one that occurred in Newtown.That’s what these reforms are designed to do.They’re commonsense measures. They havethe support of the majority of the Americanpeople.

And yet that doesn’t mean any of this is go-ing to be easy to enact or implement. If it were,we’d already have universal backgroundchecks. The ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines never would have been al-lowed to expire. More of our fellow Americansmight still be alive, celebrating birthdays andanniversaries and graduations.

This will be difficult. There will be punditsand politicians and special interest lobbyistspublicly warning of a tyrannical, all-out assaulton liberty, not because that’s true, but becausethey want to gin up fear or higher ratings orrevenue for themselves. And behind thescenes, they’ll do everything they can to blockany commonsense reform and make sure noth-ing changes whatsoever.

The only way we will be able to change is iftheir audience, their constituents, their mem-bership says this time must be different, thatthis time, we must do something to protect ourcommunities and our kids.

I will put everything I’ve got into this, and sowill Joe. But I tell you, the only way we canchange is if the American people demand it.And by the way, that doesn’t just mean from

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certain parts of the country. We’re going toneed voices in those areas, in those congressio-nal districts, where the tradition of gun owner-ship is strong to speak up and to say this is im-portant. It can’t just be the usual suspects. Wehave to examine ourselves and our hearts andask ourselves what is important.

This will not happen unless the Americanpeople demand it. If parents and teachers, po-lice officers and pastors, if hunters and sports-men, if responsible gun owners, if Americansof every background stand up and say:“Enough. We’ve suffered too much pain andcare too much about our children to allow thisto continue.” Then change will come. That’swhat it’s going to take.

In the letter that Julia wrote me, she said, “Iknow that laws have to be passed by Congress,but I beg you to try very hard.” [Laughter] Ju-lia, I will try very hard. But she’s right: Themost important changes we can make dependon congressional action. They need to bringthese proposals up for a vote, and the Ameri-can people need to make sure that they do.

Get them on record. Ask your Member ofCongress if they support universal backgroundchecks to keep guns out of the wrong hands.Ask them if they support renewing a ban onmilitary-style assault weapons and high-capaci-ty magazines. And if they say no, ask them whynot. Ask them what’s more important: doingwhatever it takes to get a A grade from the gunlobby that funds their campaigns or giving par-ents some peace of mind when they drop theirchild off for first grade?

This is the land of the free, and it always willbe. As Americans, we are endowed by our Cre-ator with certain inalienable rights that no manor government can take away from us. Butwe’ve also long recognized, as our Foundersrecognized, that with rights come responsibili-ties. Along with our freedom to live our lives aswe will comes an obligation to allow others todo the same. We don’t live in isolation. We livein a society, a government of and by and for thepeople. We are responsible for each other.

The right to worship freely and safely, thatright was denied to Sikhs in Oak Creek, Wis-consin. The right to assemble peacefully, that

right was denied shoppers in Clackamas, Ore-gon, and moviegoers in Aurora, Colorado. Thatmost fundamental set of rights to life and liber-ty and the pursuit of happiness, fundamentalrights that were denied to college students atVirginia Tech and high school students at Col-umbine and elementary school students inNewtown and kids on street corners in Chica-go on too frequent a basis to tolerate and allthe families who’ve never imagined that they’dlose a loved one to a bullet, those rights are atstake. We’re responsible.

When I visited Newtown last month, I spentsome private time with many of the familieswho lost their children that day. And one wasthe family of Grace McDonnell. Grace’s par-ents are here. Grace was 7 years old when shewas struck down, just a gorgeous, caring, joyfullittle girl. I’m told she loved pink. She lovedthe beach. She dreamed of becoming a paint-er.

And so, just before I left, Chris, her father,gave me one of her paintings, and I hung it inmy private study just off the Oval Office. Andevery time I look at that painting, I think aboutGrace. And I think about the life that she livedand the life that lay ahead of her, and most ofall, I think about how, when it comes to pro-tecting the most vulnerable among us, we mustact now. For Grace. For the 25 other innocentchildren and devoted educators who had somuch left to give. For the men and women inbig cities and small towns who fall victim tosenseless violence each and every day. For allthe Americans who are counting on us to keepthem safe from harm. Let’s do the right thing.Let’s do the right thing for them and for thiscountry that we love so much.

Thank you. Let’s sign these orders.

[At this point, the President signed memoran-dums to increase research by Federal agenciesinto the causes and prevention of gun violence,improve the availability of records to the Na-tional Instant Criminal Background CheckSystem, and strengthen firearms tracing effortsby Federal law enforcement agencies.]

All right, there we go.

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NOTE: The President spoke at approximately11:52 a.m. in the South Court Auditorium ofthe Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive OfficeBuilding. In his remarks, he referred to Secre-tary of Education Arne Duncan; AttorneyGeneral Eric H. Holder, Jr.; Secretary ofHomeland Security Janet A. Napolitano; Sec-retary of Health and Human Services KathleenSebelius; and James E. Holmes, accused gun-

man in the July 20, 2012, shootings at the Cen-tury 16 multiplex in Aurora, CO. Vice Presi-dent Biden referred to Colin Goddard, assis-tant director for legislative affairs, Brady Cam-paign To Prevent Gun Violence. He alsoreferred to the Violent Crime Control and LawEnforcement Act of 1994. The memorandumsare listed in Appendix D at the end of this vol-ume.

Statement on the Resignation of Kenneth L. Salazar as Secretary of the InteriorJanuary 16, 2013

I want to thank Ken for his hard work andleadership on behalf of the American people.As the Secretary of the Interior, Ken hashelped usher in a new era of conservation forour Nation’s land, water, and wildlife.

Ken has played an integral role in my admin-istration’s successful efforts to expand responsi-ble development of our Nation’s domestic ener-gy resources. In his work to promote renewableenergy projects on our public lands and increasethe development of oil and gas production, Ken

has ensured that the Department’s decisions aredriven by the best science and promote thehighest safety standards. Ken has also made his-toric strides in strengthening our nation-to-na-tion relationship with Indian Country, helpingto resolve longstanding disputes and make tribalcommunities safer and stronger.

I have valued Ken’s friendship since we bothentered the Senate in 2005, and I look forwardto receiving his counsel even after he returnsto his home State of Colorado.

Letter to Congressional Leaders on Review of Title III of the Cuban Libertyand Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act of 1996January 16, 2013

Dear __________:

Consistent with section 306(c)(2) of the Cu-ban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIB-ERTAD) Act of 1996 (Public Law 104–114)(the “Act”), I hereby determine and report tothe Congress that suspension, for 6 months be-yond February 1, 2013, of the right to bring anaction under title III of the Act is necessary tothe national interests of the United States andwill expedite a transition to democracy in Cuba.

Sincerely, BARACK OBAMA

NOTE: Identical letters were sent to Barbara A.Mikulski, chairman, and W. Thad Cochran,vice chairman, Senate Committee on Appro-priations; John F. Kerry, chairman, and RobertP. Corker, Jr., ranking member, Senate Com-mittee on Foreign Relations; Harold D. Rog-ers, chairman, and Nita M. Lowey, rankingmember, House Committee on Appropria-tions; and Edward R. Royce, chairman, and El-iot L. Engel, ranking member, House Com-mittee on Foreign Affairs.

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Letter to Congressional Leaders on Continuation of the National EmergencyWith Respect to Terrorists Who Threaten To Disrupt the Middle East PeaceProcessJanuary 17, 2013


Section 202(d) of the National EmergenciesAct (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)) provides for the auto-matic termination of a national emergency un-less, within 90 days prior to the anniversarydate of its declaration, the President publishesin the Federal Register and transmits to theCongress a notice stating that the emergency isto continue in effect beyond the anniversarydate. In accordance with this provision, I havesent to the Federal Register for publication theenclosed notice stating that the national emer-gency declared with respect to foreign terror-ists who threaten to disrupt the Middle Eastpeace process is to continue in effect beyondJanuary 23, 2013.

The crisis with respect to grave acts of vio-lence committed by foreign terrorists whothreaten to disrupt the Middle East peace pro-cess that led to the declaration of a nationalemergency on January 23, 1995, has not been

resolved. Terrorist groups continue to engagein activities that have the purpose or effect ofthreatening the Middle East peace process andthat are hostile to United States interests in theregion. Such actions constitute an unusual andextraordinary threat to the national security,foreign policy, and economy of the UnitedStates. Therefore, I have determined that it isnecessary to continue the national emergencywith respect to foreign terrorists who threatento disrupt the Middle East peace process andto maintain in force the economic sanctionsagainst them to respond to this threat.

Sincerely,

BARACK OBAMA

NOTE: Identical letters were sent to John A.Boehner, Speaker of the House of Representa-tives, and Joseph R. Biden, Jr., President of theSenate. The notice is listed in Appendix D atthe end of this volume.


Hi, everybody. This week, I announced a se-ries of concrete steps we should take to protectour children and our communities from gun vi-olence.

These proposals grew out of meetings VicePresident Biden and his Task Force held overthe last month with more than 200 differentgroups, from parents and teachers to law en-forcement and sportsmen, to religious leadersand mental health professionals. And in theweeks ahead, I’ll do everything in my power tomake them a reality. Because while we may notbe able to prevent every senseless act of vio-lence in this country, if there is even one thingthat we can do to reduce it, if even one life canbe saved, we’ve got an obligation to try.

My administration is taking a series of ac-tions right away, from strengthening our back-ground check system to helping schools hiremore resource officers if they want them, to di-recting the Centers for Disease Control tostudy the best ways to reduce gun violence.But the truth is, making a real and lasting dif-ference also requires Congress to act and actsoon.

First, it’s time for Congress to require a uni-versal background check for anyone trying tobuy a gun. The law already requires licensedgun dealers to perform these checks, but asmany as 40 percent of all gun purchases areconducted without one. That’s not safe, it’s notsmart, and it’s not fair to responsible gun buy-ers or sellers. An overwhelming majority of

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Americans agree that anyone trying to buy agun should at least have to prove that they’renot a felon or somebody legally prohibitedfrom owning one. That’s just common sense.

Second, Congress should restore a ban onmilitary-style assault weapons and a 10-roundlimit for magazines. Many assault rifles, whencombined with high-capacity magazines, haveone purpose and one purpose only: to fire asmany bullets as possible as quickly as possible.These weapons have no place in our communi-ties, and a majority of the American peopleagree with me.

Finally, Congress needs to make it easier,rather than harder, for law enforcement to doits job. We should get tougher on people whobuy guns only to turn around and sell them tocriminals. And at a time when many communi-ties have been forced to make cuts to their po-lice force, we should put more cops back onthe job and back on the street.

Like most Americans, I believe the SecondAmendment guarantees an individual right tobear arms. We have a strong tradition of gunownership in this country, and the vast majori-ty of gun owners act responsibly. But I also be-lieve most gun owners agree that we can re-spect the Second Amendment while keepingan irresponsible, law-breaking few from caus-ing harm on a massive scale. That’s what thesereforms are designed to do.

None of this will be easy. Already, we’re see-ing pundits and politicians and special interestlobbyists calling any attempt at commonsensereform an all-out assault on liberty, not be-cause that’s true, but because that’s how they

get higher ratings or make more money. Andbehind the scenes, they’re doing everythingthey can to protect the status quo.

But this time, it can’t be up to them. It’s gotto be up to you. If, like me, you want this timeto be different, then I need your help to makeit different. Ask your Member of Congress ifthey support universal background checks andrenewing a ban on military-style assault weap-ons and high-capacity magazines. And if theanswer is no, ask them why not. Ask them whyan A grade from the gun lobby is more impor-tant than keeping kids safe in a first gradeclassroom.

Since the tragedy in Newtown, I’ve gottenletters from all over the country, includingmany from our young people. One of them wasfrom 8-year-old Rachel, who lives in Brooklyn,New York. She wrote: “Please do something sothat bad people cannot get guns to kill otherpeople. Children should be safe, especially inschool.”

Rachel is counting on us. Let’s get this donefor her and all the other children in this coun-try, and let’s make sure this country is a saferplace for all children to learn and to grow.

Thanks, and have a great weekend.

NOTE: The address was recorded at approxi-mately 2:25 p.m. on January 18 in the MapRoom at the White House for broadcast onJanuary 19. The transcript was made availableby the Office of the Press Secretary on January18, but was embargoed for release until 6 a.m.on January 19.

Remarks at a Service Event at Burrville Elementary SchoolJanuary 19, 2013

The President. Hello, everybody! Well, thisis a good-looking crew here. First of all, we justwant to acknowledge Burrville ElementarySchool and the principal here, Tui Roper, whois doing outstanding work. If you see Tui, youmay think she’s a student, but no, she’s theprincipal.

As I look around the room, I see friendsfrom all across the country, people who have

been such great supporters of ours, but moreimportantly, everybody here—adults to chil-dren—understand the importance of givingback. And as we think about not so much Inau-guration, but we think about the fact that this isDr. King’s birthday that we’re going to be cele-brating this weekend, I’m always remindedthat he said, everybody wants to be first, every-body wants to be a drum major; but if you’re

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going to be a drum major, be a drum major forservice, be a drum major for justice, be a drummajor for looking out for other people.

And organizations like City Year, the Corpo-ration for National Service, all these—all thegreat work that’s being done day in, day outshows that there’s a huge hunger on the part ofyoung people to get involved and to get en-gaged. And it was interesting—we were talkingto one of the young people, I was staining ashelf——

The First Lady. He did a fine job.The President. And Michelle says I did a fine

job. [Laughter] And one of the City Year folks,I was talking to them, I said, how’d you get in-volved? They said, our parents, every holiday,we’d always do service, and so I was taught at avery young age. So the fact that we’ve got someoutstanding young people here today, I want tosay thank you to the parents for showing earlyon to all our young people how gratifying andhow fulfilling this is.

This is really what America is about. This iswhat we celebrate. This Inauguration we’re go-ing to be—it’s a symbol of how our democracyworks and how we peacefully transfer power,but it should also be an affirmation that we’reall in this together and that we’ve got to lookout for each other and work hard on behalf ofeach other.

So we’re thrilled that all of you are here. Wehope you guys are having a great time. I hearreports that the very young people did somereally good work and some of the older folkslike me, who it hurt getting our knees, kind ofbending down a little bit, we were able to man-age also, and somehow, Michelle looked stylishthe whole time she was doing it.

So, Miche, you want to say a few words?

The First Lady. You all, thank you so much.It’s wonderful to have such great turnout forthis Day of Service. And I know that we have alot of family members in the audience—andwe always force our family, when they come upand do something really cool, they have toserve, and they do it happily. So I’m proud ofour families for always being there for us. Welove you guys.

So, as Barack said, this is a weekend of cele-bration, but through it all, we have to remem-ber that the reason why we’re here, why we’restanding here, why we’re able to celebrate thisweekend is because a lot of people workedhard and supported us. And we’ve got a job todo. And this is a symbol of the kind of workthat we need to be doing for the next 4 yearsand beyond.

[At this point, there was a loud crash.]

The President. That was a cameraman.The First Lady. That was the press. This is

press. [Laughter] It’s okay, though, it’s okay.Hope you didn’t break it. [Laughter]

So, for all the young people, and we’ve got alot of young people—City Year members, thestudents here at this school—you know, asBarack says, we’re passing the baton onto youall. So the goal is, is that as you make your waythrough life, who are you pulling up behindyou? And as long as you’re pulling somebodyup behind you, you’re doing the right thing.

So thank you all. We’re very proud of youand we’re going to come down and shake somehands.

NOTE: The President spoke at 12:46 p.m.

Statement on the Terrorist Attack in AlgeriaJanuary 19, 2013

Today the thoughts and prayers of theAmerican people are with the families of allthose who were killed and injured in the ter-rorist attack in Algeria. The blame for this trag-edy rests with the terrorists who carried it out,and the United States condemns their actions

in the strongest possible terms. We have beenin constant contact with Algerian officials andstand ready to provide whatever assistancethey need in the aftermath of this attack.

We also will continue to work closely with allof our partners to combat the scourge of ter-

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rorism in the region, which has claimed toomany innocent lives. This attack is another re-minder of the threat posed by Al Qaida andother violent extremist groups in North Africa.In the coming days, we will remain in close

touch with the Government of Algeria to gain afuller understanding of what took place so thatwe can work together to prevent tragedies likethis in the future.

Remarks at an Inaugural ReceptionJanuary 20, 2013

[Vice President Joe Biden was introduced byhis wife, Jill T. Biden. He then made brief re-marks, concluding as follows.]

Vice President Biden. Ladies and gentle-men, it’s my great honor to introduce you to amagnificent, a truly magnificent First Lady,Michelle Obama, and the guy she hangs outwith, my friend, President Barack Obama.

Hey, hey. [Laughter] I thought you weren’tcoming out. [Laughter] I thought you weren’tcoming. I thought you’d changed your mind.[Laughter]

The First Lady. Hi, everybody. Excuse ourtardiness. But you know what, when StevieWonder has a few words to say to you—[laugh-ter]—you don’t rush Stevie Wonder. [Laugh-ter] So pardon our delay, but thank you.Thanks so much, Jill. Thank you for that kindintroduction. But more importantly, thank youfor your leadership and service.

I love Joe Biden. I love Jill a little bit more.[Laughter] But I want to thank you both formaking this journey so much more fun. Ourfamilies have bonded, and this has just been aphenomenal 4 years. And I’m ready to do 4more with both of you.

The President. Four more.The First Lady. Four more.And—but most of all, I want to thank all of

you here tonight for everything—everything—that you’ve done to bring this Inauguration tolife. This weekend has been such a wonderfulcelebration for our people and for the future.And we know that none of it could have hap-pened without all of you. And that’s why it wasso important for all of us to be here and tospend some time with you.

So this weekend, as we look ahead to thenext 4 years, we should absolutely take some

time to truly enjoy this next few days. Right? Imean, the last one was kind of fast. [Laughter]So we’ve all agreed that we’re going to takesome time to just breathe in and enjoy it.

But let’s also remember that this Inaugura-tion is about more than all of the events thatwe will all enjoy this weekend. It’s about morethan swearing in a President. It’s about morethan what we accomplish together over thenext 4 years. It’s also about the opportunitieswe have to make a real difference in people’slives. I mean, the truth is it’s about our oppor-tunity to continue to lift up our families, tohelp more of our children achieve theirdreams, and to put our country on a solid foun-dation not just for these next few years, but forgenerations to come.

So tonight let us rededicate ourselves to thatwork. Let us keep building on the progress thatwe’ve made. And let’s keep working and fight-ing and pushing forward——

The President. Forward.The First Lady. Forward.The President. Forward.The First Lady. ——forward to make the

real changes that’s happened.And that’s what this man, my husband, has

been doing for these last 4 years. And let metell you, it has just been a true thrill to watchthis handsome, charming—[laughter]—indi-vidual grow into the man and the President thathe is. We have seen him every single day: hisintegrity, his character, his sense of humor—[laughter]—his compassion, his courage. Andno matter what the obstacles, we have seen himbe so steady facing the challenges that lie aheadand, as always, held true to one unwavering be-lief, and that is that we love this country and wecan all work together to change it.

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So, ladies and gentlemen, it is my distincthonor and pleasure to welcome the love of mylife and our President for the next 4 years,Barack Obama.

The President. Hello, everybody. Good eve-ning. Now, first of all, I love Michelle Obama.And to address the most significant event ofthis weekend, I love her bangs. [Laughter] Shelooks good. She always looks good.

You know, as President, you make a lot ofimportant decisions. Probably the most impor-tant decision is who is going to be your partnerduring the course of your Presidency. Andthere have been some decisions I got right,some maybe folks might question. But one de-cision I know was absolutely correct, absolutelyspot on, was my choice of Vice President. Icould not have a better partner than Joe Biden.And Joe Biden couldn’t have a better partnerthan Dr. Jill Biden. We love these folks. Givethem a round of applause.

Now, some of you may have heard the storyof Andrew Jackson’s Inaugural reception. Par-ty-goers got so rowdy, they broke several thou-sands of dollars’ worth of White House china.[Laughter] So my first big thank you tonight isto the National Building Museum for hostingus here. [Laughter]

I also want to thank the Source for their out-standing entertainment, the U.S. Navy SeaChanters, and a guy who has been known tomake pretty good music, Mr. Stevie Wonder.

I’m delivering another speech tomorrow, sotonight I’m going to be pretty brief, becausethere are a limited amount of good lines andyou don’t want to use them all up tonight.[Laughter] My main purpose tonight is just tosay thank you.

And as I look out on the room, we’ve gotpeople from every walk of life, every cornerand nook and cranny of this country—everyState, every city, every suburb—people whohave invested so much heart, soul, time, mon-ey, energy. One of the things that made thiscampaign unique was the degree of investmentand ownership people had in this commonproject of ours, because you understood thiswas not just about a candidate, it was not justabout Joe Biden or Barack Obama. This was

about us, who we are as a nation, what valueswe cherish, how hard we’re willing to fight tomake sure that those values live not just for to-day, but for future generations.

All of you here understood and were com-mitted to the basic notion that when we putour shoulders to the wheel of history, it moves.[Applause] It moves. It moves forward. Andthat’s part of what we celebrate when we cometogether for Inauguration.

Yesterday Americans in all 50 States tookpart in a National Day of Service. Tomorrowhundreds of thousands will join us in the Na-tional Mall. And what the Inauguration re-minds us of is the role we have as fellow citi-zens in promoting a common good even as wecarry out our individual responsibilities: thesense that there’s something larger than our-selves that gives shape and meaning to ourlives.

The theme of this year’s Inauguration is“Our People and Our Future.” And through-out my career, what’s always given me energyand inspiration and hope, what’s allowed me tostand up when I’ve been knocked down, arefolks like you: the decency, the goodness, theresilience, the neighborliness, the patriotism,the sense of duty, the sense of responsibility ofthe American people. You have inspired methroughout.

And so whenever I think about the chal-lenges that Joe and I and Jill and Michelleface, we know that we stand amongst friendsand colleagues and fellow citizens and thatthe work is not just ours, that we are workingtogether.

So I just want to say thank you. Thank youvery much. Thank you. And I want all of you toknow that even as we celebrate over the nextcouple of days—and feel free to stay up as lateas you want. Tomorrow is not a school night.Make sure to bundle up, although it won’t beas cold as it was 4 years ago. [Laughter] Makesure you know that what we’re celebrating isnot the election of or swearing-in of a Presi-dent; what we’re doing is celebrating each oth-er and celebrating this incredible Nation thatwe call home.

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And after we celebrate, let’s make sure towork as hard as we can to pass on an Americathat is worthy not only of our past, but also ofour future.

God bless you, guys. I love you. We’ll seeyou tomorrow.

NOTE: The President spoke at approxomimate-ly 8:55 p.m. at the National Building Museum.In his remarks, he referred to musician StevieWonder. The transcript released by the Officeof the Press Secretary also included the full re-marks of Vice President Biden and Mrs. Biden.

Inaugural AddressJanuary 21, 2013

Thank you. Thank you so much.Vice President Biden, Mr. Chief Justice,

Members of the United States Congress, dis-tinguished guests, and fellow citizens:

Each time we gather to inaugurate a Presi-dent, we bear witness to the enduring strengthof our Constitution. We affirm the promise ofour democracy. We recall that what binds thisNation together is not the colors of our skin orthe tenets of our faith or the origins of ournames. What makes us exceptional—whatmakes us American—is our allegiance to anidea articulated in a declaration made morethan two centuries ago:

We hold these truths to be self-evident,that all men are created equal; that theyare endowed by their Creator with cer-tain unalienable rights; that among theseare life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi-ness.

Today we continue a never-ending journeyto bridge the meaning of those words with therealities of our time. For history tells us thatwhile these truths may be self-evident, they’venever been self-executing; that while freedomis a gift from God, it must be secured by Hispeople here on Earth. The patriots of 1776 didnot fight to replace the tyranny of a king withthe privileges of a few or the rule of a mob.They gave to us a republic, a government ofand by and for the people, entrusting eachgeneration to keep safe our founding creed.

And for more than 200 years, we have.Through blood drawn by lash and blood

drawn by sword, we learned that no unionfounded on the principles of liberty and equal-ity could survive half slave and half free. We

made ourselves anew, and vowed to move for-ward together.

Together, we determined that a moderneconomy requires railroads and highways tospeed travel and commerce, schools and col-leges to train our workers.

Together, we discovered that a free marketonly thrives when there are rules to ensurecompetition and fair play.

Together, we resolved that a great nationmust care for the vulnerable and protect itspeople from life’s worst hazards and misfor-tune.

Through it all, we have never relinquishedour skepticism of central authority, nor havewe succumbed to the fiction that all society’sills can be cured through government alone.Our celebration of initiative and enterprise,our insistence on hard work and personal re-sponsibility, these are constants in our charac-ter.

But we have always understood that whentimes change, so must we; that fidelity to ourfounding principles requires new responses tonew challenges; that preserving our individualfreedoms ultimately requires collective action.For the American people can no more meetthe demands of today’s world by acting alonethan American soldiers could have met theforces of fascism or communism with musketsand militias. No single person can train all themath and science teachers we’ll need to equipour children for the future, or build the roadsand networks and research labs that will bringnew jobs and businesses to our shores. Nowmore than ever, we must do these things to-gether, as one Nation and one people.

This generation of Americans has been test-ed by crises that steeled our resolve and

45


proved our resilience. A decade of war is nowending. An economic recovery has begun.America’s possibilities are limitless, for we pos-sess all the qualities that this world withoutboundaries demands: youth and drive, diversi-ty and openness, an endless capacity for riskand a gift for reinvention. My fellow Ameri-cans, we are made for this moment and we willseize it—so long as we seize it together.

For we, the people, understand that ourcountry cannot succeed when a shrinking fewdo very well and a growing many barely makeit. We believe that America’s prosperity mustrest upon the broad shoulders of a rising mid-dle class. We know that America thrives whenevery person can find independence and pridein their work; when the wages of honest laborliberate families from the brink of hardship.We are true to our creed when a little girl borninto the bleakest poverty knows that she hasthe same chance to succeed as anybody else,because she is an American; she is free and sheis equal, not just in the eyes of God, but also inour own.

We understand that outworn programs areinadequate to the needs of our time. So wemust harness new ideas and technology to re-make our Government, revamp our Tax Code,reform our schools, and empower our citizenswith the skills they need to work harder, learnmore, reach higher. But while the means willchange, our purpose endures: a nation that re-wards the effort and determination of everysingle American. That is what this moment re-quires. That is what will give real meaning toour creed.

We, the people, still believe that every citi-zen deserves a basic measure of security anddignity. We must make the hard choices to re-duce the cost of health care and the size of ourdeficit. But we reject the belief that Americamust choose between caring for the generationthat built this country and investing in the gen-eration that will build its future. For we re-member the lessons of our past, when twilightyears were spent in poverty and parents of achild with a disability had nowhere to turn.

We do not believe that in this country free-dom is reserved for the lucky, or happiness for

the few. We recognize that no matter how re-sponsibly we live our lives, any one of us at anytime may face a job loss or a sudden illness or ahome swept away in a terrible storm. The com-mitments we make to each other throughMedicare and Medicaid and Social Security,these things do not sap our initiative, theystrengthen us. They do not make us a nation oftakers, they free us to take the risks that makethis country great.

We, the people, still believe that our obliga-tions as Americans are not just to ourselves,but to all posterity. We will respond to thethreat of climate change, knowing that the fail-ure to do so would betray our children and fu-ture generations. Some may still deny the over-whelming judgment of science, but none canavoid the devastating impact of raging fires andcrippling drought and more powerful storms.

The path towards sustainable energy sourceswill be long and sometimes difficult. ButAmerica cannot resist this transition, we mustlead it. We cannot cede to other nations thetechnology that will power new jobs and newindustries, we must claim its promise. That’show we will maintain our economic vitality andour national treasure—our forests and water-ways, our crop lands and snow-capped peaks.That is how we will preserve our planet, com-manded to our care by God. That’s what willlend meaning to the creed our fathers once de-clared.

We, the people, still believe that enduringsecurity and lasting peace do not require per-petual war. Our brave men and women in uni-form, tempered by the flames of battle, are un-matched in skill and courage. Our citizens,seared by the memory of those we have lost,know too well the price that is paid for liberty.The knowledge of their sacrifice will keep usforever vigilant against those who would do usharm. But we are also heirs to those who wonthe peace and not just the war, who turnedsworn enemies into the surest of friends. Andwe must carry those lessons into this time aswell.

We will defend our people and uphold ourvalues through strength of arms and rule oflaw. We will show the courage to try and re-

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solve our differences with other nations peace-fully, not because we are naive about the dan-gers we face, but because engagement canmore durably lift suspicion and fear.

America will remain the anchor of strong al-liances in every corner of the globe. And wewill renew those institutions that extend ourcapacity to manage crisis abroad, for no onehas a greater stake in a peaceful world than itsmost powerful nation. We will support democ-racy from Asia to Africa, from the Americas tothe Middle East, because our interests and ourconscience compel us to act on behalf of thosewho long for freedom. And we must be asource of hope to the poor, the sick, the mar-ginalized, the victims of prejudice, not out ofmere charity, but because peace in our timerequires the constant advance of those princi-ples that our common creed describes: toler-ance and opportunity, human dignity and jus-tice.

We, the people, declare today that the mostevident of truths—that all of us are createdequal—is the star that guides us still; just as itguided our forebears through Seneca Falls andSelma and Stonewall; just as it guided all thosemen and women, sung and unsung, who leftfootprints along this great Mall, to hear apreacher say that we cannot walk alone; to heara King proclaim that our individual freedom isinextricably bound to the freedom of everysoul on Earth.

It is now our generation’s task to carry onwhat those pioneers began. For our journey isnot complete until our wives, our mothers anddaughters can earn a living equal to their ef-forts. Our journey is not complete until our gaybrothers and sisters are treated like anyoneelse under the law, for if we are truly createdequal, then surely the love we commit to oneanother must be equal as well. Our journey isnot complete until no citizen is forced to waitfor hours to exercise the right to vote. Ourjourney is not complete until we find a betterway to welcome the striving, hopeful immi-grants who still see America as a land of oppor-tunity, until bright young students and engi-neers are enlisted in our workforce rather thanexpelled from our country. Our journey is not

complete until all our children, from thestreets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia, tothe quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they arecared for and cherished and always safe fromharm.

That is our generation’s task: to make thesewords, these rights, these values of life and lib-erty and the pursuit of happiness real for everyAmerican. Being true to our founding docu-ments does not require us to agree on everycontour of life. It does not mean we all defineliberty in exactly the same way or follow thesame precise path to happiness. Progress doesnot compel us to settle centuries-long debatesabout the role of government for all time, but itdoes require us to act in our time.

For now decisions are upon us, and we can-not afford delay. We cannot mistake absolut-ism for principle or substitute spectacle forpolitics or treat name-calling as reasoned de-bate. We must act. We must act, knowing thatour work will be imperfect. We must act,knowing that today’s victories will be only par-tial and that it will be up to those who standhere in 4 years and 40 years and 400 yearshence to advance the timeless spirit once con-ferred to us in a spare Philadelphia hall.

My fellow Americans, the oath I have swornbefore you today, like the one recited by otherswho serve in this Capitol, was an oath to Godand country, not party or faction. And we mustfaithfully execute that pledge during the dura-tion of our service. But the words I spoke todayare not so different from the oath that is takeneach time a soldier signs up for duty or an im-migrant realizes her dream. My oath is not sodifferent from the pledge we all make to theflag that waves above and that fills our heartswith pride.

They are the words of citizens, and they rep-resent our greatest hope. You and I, as citizens,have the power to set this country’s course. Youand I, as citizens, have the obligation to shapethe debates of our time, not only with the voteswe cast, but with the voices we lift in defense ofour most ancient values and enduring ideals.

Let us, each of us, now embrace with sol-emn duty and awesome joy what is our lastingbirthright. With common effort and common

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purpose, with passion and dedication, let usanswer the call of history and carry into an un-certain future that precious light of freedom.

Thank you. God bless you, and may He for-ever bless these United States of America.

NOTE: The President spoke at 11:55 a.m. atthe West Front of the U.S. Capitol. Prior to theaddress, Chief Justice of the United StatesJohn G. Roberts, Jr., administered the oath ofoffice.

Remarks at an Inaugural LuncheonJanuary 21, 2013

Senator Charles E. Schumer. Mr. President,Dr. Biden, and your whole wonderful family, Inow rise to toast the Vice President of theUnited States and my former colleague and myfriend, Joe Biden.

Mr. Vice President, you’ve been an extraor-dinary leader of this Nation and a true partnerto our President these past 4 years. You playmany roles: adviser, advocate, implementer,persuader, strategist, and most important ofall, friend. We’re confident this unique part-nership between you and our great Presidentwill only grow stronger and more productiveover the next 4 years.

Mr. Vice President, on the surface, we don’tshare a common ancestry, but on a deeper lev-el, we do share a common story, an Americanstory, of achieving our dreams thanks to thesacrifice of our immigrant forebears.

As you embark on your well-deserved sec-ond term, in the spirit of those who came be-fore us, and on behalf of all Americans, we of-fer you all our support and warmest wishes,and we say to you, Slainte, l’chaim, salud,cent’anni, and cheers. To our great Vice Presi-dent.

[At this point, Sen. Schumer offered a toast.]

Vice President Joe Biden. Mr. President, andto all the Presidents assembled: I always en-joyed this lunch more than anything we did inthe Capitol. For the 36 years I served in theSenate, I had the great honor of being includ-ed in this lunch of former Presidents and VicePresidents and—because it really is the placewhere we get together in a way unlike any oth-er time when we gather. It’s always a new be-ginning every time we’re in this room. Andthere’s a sense of possibilities and a sense of

opportunity and a sense—sometimes it’s fleet-ing—but a sense that maybe we can really, re-ally begin to work together.

And, Chuck, we may come from differentancestries, but as all our colleagues know overthe years, we’re cut from the same cloth: thatwe share that same common, absolute convic-tion that was expressed by Harry Trumanwhen he said: “America was not built on fear.America was built on courage, on imagination,and an unbeatable determination to do the jobat hand.”

That’s what you’ve done throughout your ca-reer, and that’s what almost everyone in thisroom has done. At the end of the day, it’s anabsolute confidence—absolute confidence—there’s not a thing, a single thing, this countrycan’t do.

I spent too much time with all of you not toknow you feel it with every fiber in your beingthat there’s nothing—nothing—this country isincapable of.

I must say, the President kids me occasion-ally—I know Harry Reid always calls me a Sen-ate man. I am proud to have been a Senateman. I am proud to be President of the Senate.But that pride is exceeded only by the fact I’mproud to be Vice President of the UnitedStates, serving as Barack Obama’s Vice Presi-dent. It’s been one of the great privileges—[applause]—one of the great privileges of mylife.

As a matter of fact, if the President will for-give me, as we were walking out and he was, ashe said, savoring the moment, looking out atthe crowd and all those Americans assembled,I found myself—surprised me, even—I turnedto him saying, thank you. Thanks. Thanks forthe chance. Thanks for the chance to continueto serve.

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And so, folks, I raise my glass to a man whonever, never, never operates out of fear, onlyoperates out of confidence—and I’m toastingyou, Chuck. [Laughter] And a guy who I planon working with—you can’t get rid of me, man.Remember, I’m still part of the Senate.[Laughter]

God bless you, Chuck. You’ve done a greatjob. And, Lamar, you have as well. To ChuckSchumer. Good to see you, pal.

[Vice President Biden offered a toast.]

Sen. Schumer. The best parts of these eventsare unscripted. [Laughter]

I’d now like to introduce our Senate Majori-ty Leader, my good friend and, really, foxholebuddy, a great man, Harry Reid, to offer theofficial toast to the President.

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid.Americans today are wishing the PresidentGodspeed for the next 4 years. People all overthe world are looking at us, and our exemplarydemocracy, and wishing the President the bestin the years to come.

I’ve had the good fortune for the last manyyears to work on a very close, personal basiswith President Obama. I’ve watched him in themost difficult challenges that a person couldface. I’ve watched him do this with brilliance,with patience, with courage, wisdom, and kind-ness, for which I have learned a great deal.

So, Mr. President, I toast and pray for you,your wonderful family, and our great country:Four more successful years.

Barack Obama.

[Sen. Schumer offered a toast.]

The President. Michelle and the Speaker ofthe House came to a meeting of the minds thatI may be delaying the proceedings too much.And so I’m just going to be extraordinarilybrief and say thank you: to my Vice President,who has not only been an extraordinary part-ner, but an extraordinary friend, and to Dr. JillBiden, who has partnered with my wife with anextraordinary generosity on behalf of our menand women in uniform.

To the entire Cabinet that is here, I amgrateful to you. Some of you are staying, andsome of you are leaving, but I know the ex-traordinary sacrifices that you and my teamhave made to try to advance the cause of prog-ress in this country, and I’m always going to begrateful to you for that.

To the Speaker of the House and Nancy Pe-losi, to Democratic Leader Harry Reid, as wellas Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, andto all the congressional leaders and all theMembers of Congress who are here: I recog-nize that democracy is not always easy, and Irecognize there are profound differences inthis room, but I just want to say thank you foryour service, and I want to thank your familiesfor their service, because regardless of our po-litical persuasions and perspectives, I knowthat all of us serve because we believe that wecan make America for future generations.

And I’m confident that we can act at thismoment in a way that makes a difference forour children and our children’s children. Iknow that former President Carter, PresidentClinton, they understand the irony of the Pres-idential office, which is, the longer you’re therethe more humble you become and the moremindful you are that it is beyond your poorpowers individually to move this great country.You can only do it because you have extraordi-nary partners and a spirit of good will, andmost of all, because of the strength and resil-ience and fundamental goodness of the Ameri-can people.

And so I would like to join all of you not onlyin toasting the extraordinary work that ChuckSchumer and Lamar Alexander and othershave done to create this special day for us, butI also want to thank each and every one of youfor not only your service in the past, but hope-fully, your service in the future as well.

And I would like to offer one last toast, andthat is to my extraordinary wife Michelle.There is controversy about the quality of thePresident, no controversy about the quality ofour current First Lady. [Laughter]

Thank you, everybody. God bless you, andGod bless America.

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NOTE: The President spoke at 2:35 p.m. in theNational Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol. In hisremarks, he referred to Jill T. Biden, wife of VicePresident Biden; and Sens. Charles E. Schumer,chairman, and Lamar Alexander, ranking mem-

ber, Senate Committee on Rules and Adminis-tration, in their capacity as members of the JointCongressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremo-nies. The related proclamation is listed in Ap-pendix D at the end of this volume.

Remarks at the Commander in Chief BallJanuary 21, 2013

The President. Let me begin by just sayingyou all dress up pretty nice. I hope everybodyis having a wonderful time. Now, those of youwho are in uniform, you look outstanding. Yourdates do look better though. I just want topoint this out. [Laughter]

Now, I’m not going to give a long speech.What I really want to do is come down and ex-press the extraordinary gratitude not just of meas your Commander in Chief, but more impor-tantly, the thanks of all the American people.

I want to start by thanking some of our out-standing leaders who are here: our hosts, oursenior enlisted advisers from all five branchesof our military. The Chairman of the JointChiefs of Staff, General Marty Dempsey, whopromised to sing sometime tonight, so youshould hold him to it. [Laughter] The ViceChairman, Sandy Winnefeld, and all our out-standing members of the Joint Chiefs. OurSecretary of Veterans Affairs and Vietnam vet-eran, Ric Shinseki, who is here.

And we’re honored to be joined by sometruly extraordinary Americans, our woundedwarriors, who inspire us with their incrediblestrength and resolve. Our enlisted men andwomen and junior officers: the backbone ofour military. Our amazing military families, in-cluding the families of the fallen—our GoldStar families—we will stand with you always.

The members of the legendary TuskegeeAirmen in the house. And the recipients of ourNation’s highest military decoration—theMedal of Honor—we are honored by yourpresence.

Today we experienced the majesty of ourdemocracy, a ritual only possible in a form ofgovernment that is of and by and for the peo-ple, a day made possible because there are pa-

triots like each and every one of you who de-fend our freedom every single day.

So this little party is just another way to saysomething we can never say enough: thankyou. Thank you for volunteering. Thank youfor stepping up. Thank you for keeping usstrong. Thank you for always making us proud.I have no greater honor than being your Com-mander in Chief.

It’s because of you that, with honor, we wereable to end the war in Iraq, because of you thatwe delivered justice to Usama bin Laden, be-cause of you that it’s even possible to give Af-ghans a chance to determine their own destiny.We are going forward, and we’ll keep our mili-tary the finest fighting force that the world hasever known.

Now, tonight we’re also joined by some ofour servicemembers in Afghanistan. They can’tsee us, but we can see them on this monitor.

Who we got there? General, are you there?Abe?

Major General Robert B. “Abe” Abrams,USA. Sir, good evening. Mr. President, con-gratulations on your Inauguration. It is MajorGeneral Abrams, commanding general of the3d Infantry Division and Regional Com-mand–South. We’re honored to be able to joinyou there this evening.

Sir, I’m joined tonight by some fantastic air-men and noncommissioned officers and sol-diers serving here in Kandahar.

Sergeant First Class Orlando Jackson, USA.Congratulations, Mr. President. Sergeant FirstClass Orlando Jackson from Lake Charles,Louisiana, 3d Infantry Division, Falcon Bri-gade, Task Force Light Horse. I just wanted tocongratulate you on a job well done.

Master Sergeant Robert Skowronski, USAF.Mr. President, Master Sergeant Robert Skow-

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ronski, superintendent, 807th ExpeditionaryAir Support Operations Squadron, hailingfrom Detroit, Michigan. I want to say, go Ti-gers!

Sergeant First Class David Wood, USA.Good evening, Mr. President. My name is Ser-geant First Class David Wood. I’m out of Mon-ument, Colorado, 3d Infantry Division, FalconBrigade, Task Force Light Horse. Thank youvery much for having us here at your party.Congratulations.

Master Sergeant James Godlewski, USAF.Good evening, Mr. President. Master SergeantJames Godlewski. I’m the operations superin-tendent, the 807th Expeditionary Air SupportOperations Squadron and the world’s greatestAir Force. I want to say congratulations on to-night. And you guys have a blessed evening.

Maj. Gen. Abrams. Mr. President, we’rehonored to be able to join you tonight. Andwe’ve got one more thing for all of you there:Rock of the Marne!

The President. [Laughter] Well, listen, to allof you who are there, we know it’s tough beingaway from your families. We know the incredi-ble sacrifices and challenges that you meet ev-ery single day. But I can tell you that you’ve gota room full of patriots here. And although I’vegot to admit that they’re a little spiffied upright now—[laughter]—their heart and soul,their dedication, their sense of duty is at onewith every single one of the folks who are inKandahar right now.

And I want you to know that when I wasstanding on the steps of the Capitol today,looking out over close to a million people, thesingle biggest cheer that I always get—and to-day was no different at my Inauguration—waswhen I spoke about the extraordinary men andwomen in uniform that preserve our freedomand keep our country strong. So know that ev-ery single day we are thinking of you.

We’re going to make sure that you’ve got theequipment, the strategy, the mission that al-lows you to succeed and keep our country safe.Know that we are going to be looking after andthinking about your families every single dayand that when you get back home, you’re goingto be greeted by a grateful nation and that youwill be on our minds tonight and every singlenight until our mission in Afghanistan is com-pleted.

Can everybody please give our comrades-in-arms a huge round of applause? And please, allof you give our very best to your families backhome, because I know it’s just as tough, if nottougher, for them to see you in harm’s way andaway from the family. God bless you. God blessthe United States of America. Thank you.

Now, there’s one last thing I’ve got to do.I’ve got a date with me here. She inspires meevery day. She makes me a better man and abetter President. The fact that she is so devot-ed to taking care of our troops and our militaryfamilies is just one more sign of her extraordi-nary love and grace and strength. I’m just luckyto have her.

I said today at the lunch over at the Con-gress that some may dispute the quality of ourPresident, but nobody disputes the quality ofour First Lady.

Ladies and gentlemen, my better half andmy dance partner, Michelle Obama.

NOTE: The President spoke at 8:48 p.m. at theWalter E. Washington Convention Center. Inhis remarks, he referred to SMMC Michael P.Barrett, USMC; SMA Raymond F. ChandlerIII, USA; MCPOCG Michael P. Leavitt,USCG; CMSAF James A. Roy, USAF;MCPON Michael D. Stevens, USN; and for-mer Tuskegee Airmen Homer Hogues, Clay-ton Lawrence, Ezra Hill, and Grant Williams.

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Statement on the 40th Anniversary of the Supreme Court Decision in Roe v.WadeJanuary 22, 2013

On the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, wereaffirm its historic commitment to protect thehealth and reproductive freedom of womenacross this country and stand by its guidingprinciple: that government should not intrudeon our most private family matters and womenshould be able to make their own choicesabout their bodies and their health care. Today

and every day, my administration continuesour efforts to reduce unintended pregnancies,support maternal and child health, and mini-mize the need for abortion. On this anniversa-ry, we recommit ourselves to supporting wom-en and families in the choices they make andredouble our efforts to promote safe andhealthy communities.

Statement on the Resignation of Ronald Kirk as United States TradeRepresentativeJanuary 22, 2013

I want to thank Ambassador Kirk for hishard work on behalf of the American peopleover the past 4 years. There’s no question Rondelivered results for the American people andfor our economy. From bringing home newtrade agreements with Korea, Colombia, andPanama and negotiating to open up new mar-kets for American businesses, to cracking down

on unfair trade practices around the world, hehas been a tremendous advocate for the Amer-ican worker. As a former mayor, Ron was re-lentless in making the case to the Americanpublic that a balanced, thoughtful trade policycan contribute to a stronger economic futurefor America. I appreciate his service and wishhim the best of luck.

Remarks at the Staff Inaugural BallJanuary 22, 2013

The President. Hello, everybody! You allclean up pretty good. You are looking good.

Couple of acknowledgements I want tomake. First of all, please give it up for DJ MelSandico. The U.S. Army Band is in the house.We’re so proud; they can play anything, any-thing. Go ahead and make a request; they’llplay it. They are outstanding. And we are sograteful for their service to our country eachand every day.

Now, this is just a little gathering, little par-ty, among friends. Represented here are ouroutstanding OFA staff and volunteers; ouramazing PIC, that would be Presidential Inau-gural Committee team.

The First Lady. This has been a great Inau-guration. They’ve done a great job.

The President. Michelle just said this hasbeen a great Inauguration, and you’ve done agreat job.

We’ve got the DNC convention team thatdid an amazing job. We’ve got the DNC teamthat did an amazing job. And we’ve got theWhite House team, which is pretty good. Theydid an amazing job.

Audience member. And you!The President. I’m here too, that’s true. And

the First Lady of the United States, bangs andall, looking very sparkly and twinkly. [Laugh-ter] Now, I’m not going to speak long, mainlybecause I’ve been speaking a lot and you allhave heard me before.

The First Lady. And the entertainment ispretty good.

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The President. And more importantly, we’vegot a couple of people who are pretty goodmusicians named Lady Gaga and Tony Ben-nett in the house. This is like my—Michelle islike doing interpretive dance of everything Isay. It’s been a long weekend; she’s getting alittle silly now. [Laughter]

But my main job here tonight is real simple,and it’s just to say thank you. Some of you wereinvolved the very first time I ran, back in 2007,2008. Some of you were 14 at the time and sojust got involved this time out. You know whoyou are.

The First Lady. That’s right.The President. But regardless of whether

you got involved 6 years ago or you got involved6 months ago, what is true is that all of you havecome to represent for me and Michelle ourdeepest hopes for America. The average agehere is probably around 20-something, andthat’s only because I’m here, which brings theaverage age up quite a bit. But when I thinkabout traveling around the country during thecourse of the campaign and getting to knowsome of you and meeting some of you and see-ing the work you do in the White House—orthe work that you did during the convention—and I meet young people who are so muchsmarter and more thoughtful and more caringabout the future than I ever was at your age, somuch more capable, so much more serious, somuch more poised, it makes me know thatAmerica’s future is in good hands.

As long as all of you understand the im-mense and incredible power that you possesswhen you work together, when you join voices,when you extend yourselves not just on behalfof your own ambitions, but on behalf of a larg-er cause, you cannot be stopped. And part ofthe reason I know that America will succeed iswhen I look at how you work together. What Isaw in offices from Vegas to Richmond, to Col-orado Springs, to Manchester, New Hamp-shire, to Orlando, Florida, it didn’t matter—[applause]. It didn’t matter where I was. I’dwalk into a volunteer office, and what you sawwas people from every walk of life: Black,White, Hispanic, Asian, Native American,young, gay, straight. It didn’t matter where you

came from. You came together with a missionin mind and a vision in mind. And you werewilling to set aside whatever surface differenc-es you had because you understood you wereworking on behalf of an America that was a lit-tle more just and a little more fair and a littlemore compassionate, and better stewards forour environment.

And seeing that kind of spirit operate day in,day out—no matter how hard the work, nomatter how little you got paid, no matter howbad your candidate screwed up, it didn’t mat-ter, you just kept on going. And there weretimes during the course of this year where Imight have gotten down, but you picked meback up. You lifted me up on your shoulders.And you said, yeah, we know he’s gotten kindof old and gray haired and we know sometimeshe stumbles, but we are going to carry himacross the finish line. Because this is not abouthim, this is about us. This is about America.This is about what we believe. This is aboutwhat our values are. This is what our ideals areall about. We are going to go out there andchange America. That’s what you did every sin-gle day. And so this weekend belonged toyou—to you.

So my final message—because I’m alreadybreaking my promise, I said I wasn’t going totalk long—is to say that you can’t stop now. Iknow some of you got to go back to school. Iknow some of your parents are all like, okay,you did your own little thing, but now you’vegot to go back and get your degree. I knowsome of you’ve got some rent to pay, so you’vegot to——

The First Lady. Some loans.The President. ——get some loans to repay.

You may be making a whole range of careerchoices and decisions right now. And look, notall of you will end up staying in politics. Not allof you will end up pursuing professionally pub-lic service. But every single one of you, in yourcommunities, in your neighborhoods, in yourworkplaces, wherever you decide to put downroots, wherever you decide to make a differ-ence, as long as you retain that spirit thatyou’ve shown during the course of these cam-paigns—the idea that you’re a citizen, that

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America only works when you make it work,that you have the power to move this countryand, as a consequence, the world—if you re-tain that sense and never lose it, then I tell you,not only is America going to be in good hands,but what’s going to happen is you’re going toinfluence your peers and your friends and thefolks you live next to and your neighbors andpeople in your workplace. And suddenly, likeRobert Kennedy described, you’re like a stonethrown in a pool, and it starts rippling out. Andyou don’t know where those ripples are goingto go, and that’s the future that I see for you.

I know that every single person here donat-ed $10 to a memorial on behalf of Alex OkrentMemorial. And Alex was one of you: this in-credibly thoughtful, talented, compassionate,caring young person, who decided to get in-volved because he thought he could make adifference. And tragically, he ended up leavingus while working in the campaign. Some of thepeople here were there when it happened.And it was heartbreaking, and it reminded usof how precious our time on this Earth is.

We don’t have a lot of time. I know whenyou’re young it seems like it goes on forever. Itturns out things are fragile. And yet the thingthat outlives each of us is what we do for some-body else, what difference did we make. Andwe know Alex made a difference. And so hisimpact outlives him. And that means——

Audience members. [Inaudible]The President. That’s all right. Somebody is

over there, and they’ve probably fainted be-cause they’ve been standing too long. Many ofyou have been at rallies—there’s one overhere. We’ve got EMS folks here. People, bend

your knees while you’re here. [Laughter] Andtry to get hydrated as well.

The First Lady. You know, you’ve got todrink some water!

The President. Drink water is what I mean.Juice is okay too. [Laughter]

But in the same way that Alex left this indel-ible mark on my life and Michelle’s life andmany of your lives, you will leave an indeliblemark as well, as long as you decide that you’regoing to spend your life giving something back.

You’ve already given me an incredible gift.You’ve given America an incredible gift. Don’tstop. Keep on going. Don’t stop. Stay fired up.Are you fired up?

Audience members. Fired up!The President. Are you ready to go?Audience members. Ready to go!The President. Fired up?Audience members. Fired up!The President. Ready to go?Audience members. Ready to go!The President. I think Lady Gaga is fired up

too.God bless you, guys! I love you! Thank you!

God bless you. God bless the United States ofAmerica.

NOTE: The President spoke at 9 p.m. at theWalter E. Washington Convention Center. Inhis remarks, he referred to musician StefaniJ.A. “Lady Gaga” Germanotta; and Alex S.Okrent, an Obama for America staff memberwho died on July 13, 2012, while working atcampaign headquarters in Chicago, IL. Thetranscript was released by the Office of thePress Secretary on January 23. A portion ofthese remarks could not be verified becausethe audio was incomplete.

Remarks on the Nomination of Mary Jo White To Be Chair of the Securityand Exchange Commission and the Renomination of Richard A. Cordray ToBe Director of the Consumer Financial Protection BureauJanuary 24, 2013

The President. Good afternoon, everybody.Over the last 4 years, I’ve talked about howshared prosperity from Wall Street to Main

Street depends on smart, commonsense regu-lations that protect the vast majority of Ameri-cans from the irresponsible actions of a few.

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That’s why we passed tough reforms to pro-tect consumers and our financial system fromthe kinds of abuse that nearly brought theeconomy to its knees. Today, there are rules tohelp families—responsible families buy ahome or send their child to college withoutworrying about being tricked out of their lifesavings. There are rules to make sure that fi-nancial firms which do the right thing aren’tundermined by those that don’t do the rightthing. And there are rules to end taxpayer-funded Wall Street bailouts once and for all.

But it’s not enough to change the law. Wealso need cops on the beat to enforce the law.And that’s why today I am nominating Mary JoWhite to lead the Security and Exchange Com-mission and Richard Cordray to continue lead-ing the Consumer Financial Protection Bu-reau.

This guy is bothering me here——

[At this point, the President swatted at a fly.]

As a young girl, Mary Jo White was a big fanof the Hardy Boys. I was too, by the way.

Chair-designate White. Good. Good.The President. Yes. As an adult, she’s built a

career the Hardy Boys could only dream of.Over a decade as a U.S. attorney in New York,she helped prosecute white-collar criminalsand money launderers. In the early 1990s, shebrought down John Gotti, the head of theGambino crime syndicate. And she brought tojustice the terrorists responsible for bombingthe World Trade Center and the AmericanEmbassies in Africa. So I’d say that’s a prettygood run. You don’t want to mess with MaryJo.

As one former SEC Chairman said, Mary Jo“does not intimidate easily.” And that’s impor-tant, because she has a big job ahead of her.The SEC played a critical role in protectingour financial system during the worst of the fi-nancial crisis. But there’s much more work tobe done to complete the task of reforming WallStreet and making sure that American inves-tors are better informed and better protectedgoing forward. And we need to keep going af-ter irresponsible behavior in the financial in-dustry so that taxpayers don’t pay the price.

I am absolutely confident that Mary Jo hasthe experience and the resolve to tackle thesecomplex issues and protect the American peo-ple in a way that is smart and in a way that isfair.

And I want to thank Elisse Walter, who hasdone an outstanding job holding down the fortas Chairwoman. And I expect the Senate toconfirm Mary Jo as soon as possible so she canget to work.

My second nominee is a familiar face. A yearand a half ago, I nominated Richard Cordray tolead the watchdog agency we created to giveAmericans the information they need to makesound financial choices and protect them fromunscrupulous lenders and debt collectors.

As a former attorney general of Ohio with along record of working with Democrats andRepublicans on behalf of the American people,nobody questioned Richard’s qualifications.But he wasn’t allowed an up-or-down vote inthe Senate, and as a consequence, I took actionto appoint him on my own. And over the lastyear, Richard has proved to be a champion ofAmerican consumers.

Thanks to his leadership, we’ve made ittougher for families to be tricked into mortgag-es they can’t afford. We’ve set clearer rules sothat responsible lenders know how to operatefairly. We’ve launched a “Know Before YouOwe” campaign to help parents and studentsmake smart decisions about paying for college.We’ve cracked down on credit card companiesthat charge hidden fees and forced those com-panies to make things right. And through it all,Richard has earned a reputation as a straightshooter and somebody who’s willing to bringevery voice to the table in order to do what’sright for consumers and our economy.

Now, Richard’s appointment runs out at theend of the year, and he can’t stay on the job un-less the Senate finally gives him the vote thathe deserves. Financial institutions have plentyof lobbyists looking out for their interests. TheAmerican people need Richard to keep stand-ing up for them, and there’s absolutely no ex-cuse for the Senate to wait any longer to con-firm him.

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So I want to thank Mary Jo, Richard, andtheir families once again for agreeing to serve.And now I’d like to invite them to say a fewwords, starting with Mary Jo.

Chair-designate White. [Inaudible] Thankyou, Mr. President, for the confidence that youhave placed in me and the faith that you’veshown in me by nominating me to be the nextChair of the Securities and Exchange Commis-sion. I’m deeply, deeply honored.

If confirmed by the Senate, I look forwardto committing all of my energies to workingwith my fellow commissioners and the ex-tremely dedicated and talented men and wom-en of the staff of the SEC to fulfill the agency’smission to protect investors and to ensure thestrength, efficiency, and the transparency ofour capital markets.

The SEC, long a vital and positive force forthe markets, has a lot of hard and importantwork ahead of it. I would welcome the oppor-tunity to lead those efforts and to build on thework of Chairman Mary Schapiro and Chair-man Elisse Walter, who I’m very honored ispresent today.

And finally, and most importantly, I want tothank my husband John White, who is here to-day, on what is our 43d wedding anniversary——

The President. Today?Chair-designate White. Today—for his

strong support of me in seeking to engage inthis very significant and challenging public ser-vice.

Thank you very much.The President. Thank you. Richard.

Director Cordray. Thank you, Mr. Presi-dent, for the confidence you’ve placed in meand our team at the Consumer Financial Pro-tection Bureau. We understand that our mis-sion is to stand on the side of consumers—ourmothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sonsand daughters—and see that they’re treatedfairly.

For more than a year, we’ve been focusedon making consumer finance markets workbetter for the American people. We approachthis work with open minds, open ears, andgreat determination.

We all thank you and the Congress for theopportunity and the honor to serve our countryin this important way. Thank you.

The President. Well, I just want to thankagain Mary Jo and Richard for their willingnessto serve. These are people with proven trackrecords. They are going to look out for theAmerican people, for American consumers,and make sure that our marketplace works bet-ter: more transparently, more efficiently, moreeffectively. So I again would urge the Senate toconfirm both of them as quickly as possible.

And I also want to express congratulations tothe Whites for their anniversary. If I hadknown, we would have maybe rolled out a cakeor something. [Laughter] But have fun.

Chair-designate White. Thank you.The President. I hope you enjoy it.

NOTE: The President spoke at 2:38 p.m. in theState Dining Room at the White House.

Statement on the Opening of United States Armed Forces Combat Units toWomenJanuary 24, 2013

Today, by moving to open more military po-sitions—including ground combat units—towomen, our Armed Forces have taken anotherhistoric step toward harnessing the talents andskills of all our citizens. This milestone reflectsthe courageous and patriotic service of womenthrough more than two centuries of Americanhistory and the indispensable role of women in

today’s military. Many have made the ultimatesacrifice, including more than 150 women whohave given their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan:patriots whose sacrifices show that valor knowsno gender.

Earlier today I called Secretary of DefensePanetta to express my strong support for thisdecision, which will strengthen our military,

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enhance our readiness, and be another step to-ward fulfilling our Nation’s founding ideals offairness and equality. I congratulate our mili-tary, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for therigor that they have brought to this process. AsCommander in Chief, I am absolutely confi-dent that—as with the repeal of “don’t ask,

don’t tell”—the professionalism of our ArmedForces will ensure a smooth transition andkeep our military the very best in the world.Today every American can be proud that ourmilitary will grow even stronger with our moth-ers, wives, sisters, and daughters playing agreater role in protecting this country we love.

Statement on Procedural Rule Changes in the SenateJanuary 24, 2013

In my State of the Union last year, I urgedCongress to take steps to fix the way they dobusiness. Specifically, I asked them to addressthe fact that a simple majority is no longerenough to pass anything—even routine busi-ness—through the Senate. And today I ampleased that a bipartisan group of Senators hasagreed to take action.

Too often over the past 4 years, a single Sen-ator or a handful of Senators has been able tounilaterally block or delay bipartisan legislationfor the sole purpose of making a political point.At a time when we face critical decisions on awhole range of issues—from preventing fur-ther gun violence, to reforming our broken im-migration system, to getting our fiscal house inorder and creating good-paying jobs—we can-not afford unnecessary obstruction. And I amhopeful that today’s bipartisan agreement will

pave the way for the Senate to take meaningfulaction in the days and weeks ahead.

I also want to thank leaders in Congress forchanging the Senate rules in an effort to resur-rect the longstanding tradition of consideringconsensus district court judicial nominationson a more routine basis. After being approvedby the Senate Judiciary Committee, my judi-cial nominees have waited more than threetimes longer to receive confirmation votes thanthose of my predecessor, even though theoverwhelming majority of my nominees havebeen confirmed with little, if any, dissent.These months of unnecessary delay havethreatened our judiciary. Today’s reforms are apositive step towards a fairer and more effi-cient system of considering district court nomi-nees, and I urge the Senate to treat all of myjudicial nominees in the same spirit.

Remarks on the Appointment of Denis R. McDonough as White HouseChief of StaffJanuary 25, 2013

Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome tothe announcement of one of the worst kept se-crets in Washington. [Laughter]

As President, I rely on an extraordinaryteam of men and women here at the WhiteHouse every single day. And I rely on my Chiefof Staff to keep up with them—and our entireGovernment—making sure that we’re all mov-ing in the same direction, making sure that mypriorities are being carried out and that ourpolicies are consistent with the commitmentsthat I’ve made to the American people, andthat we’re delivering progress to the American

people. As I said earlier this month, I could notbe more grateful to Jack Lew for his amazingservice, first as our OMB Director, then at theState Department, and ultimately, as my Chiefof Staff.

As he prepares for his confirmation hearingsand the challenge of leading our Treasury De-partment, I am pleased to announce my nextChief of Staff, and a great friend to me and ev-erybody who works here at the White House,Mr. Denis McDonough.

Now, I have been counting on Denis fornearly a decade, since I first came to

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Washington, when he helped set up my Senateoffice. Along with Pete Rouse, he was able toshow me where the restrooms were and howyou passed a bill. [Laughter] I should point outthat even then, Denis had gray hair. [Laughter]I’ve been trying to catch up to him. [Laughter]But at that time, I relied on his intellect and hisgood judgment, and that has continued eversince. He’s been one of my closest and mosttrusted advisers, on my Presidential campaign,on my transition team.

He has been an indispensable member ofmy national security team as well. Denis hasplayed a key role in every major national secu-rity decision of my Presidency, from endingthe war in Iraq to winding down the war in Af-ghanistan, from our response to natural disas-ters around the world like Haiti and the tsuna-mi in Japan, to the repeal of “don’t ask, don’ttell,” to countless crises in between, day andnight—and that includes many nights. I’ve ac-tually begun to think that Denis likes pullingall-nighters. [Laughter] The truth is, nobodyoutworks Denis McDonough.

And part of the reason you saw such warmthof applause is that, in addition to being an in-credible talent and such a hard worker, Denisis also a pretty humble guy. To so many of hisfriends and admirers, he’s still just the dudefrom Stillwater, Minnesota. [Laughter] Andgiven his humility, I don’t think people alwaysappreciate the breadth of his experience andthe range of his talents. And it’s precisely be-cause of that intellect, that experience, his ded-ication, his determination, that I wanted Denisin this job.

As a veteran of Capitol Hill, where he wasmentored by the likes of Lee Hamilton andTom Daschle, Denis understands the impor-tance of reaching across the aisle to deliver re-sults for the American people, whether it’s onjobs and the economy, health care or educa-tion, reducing the deficit or addressing climatechange.

Denis is respected by leaders across ourGovernment. Add it all up, and I think he’sspent most of the past 4 years leading inter-agency meetings: hearing people out, listeningto them, forging consensus, and then making

sure that our policies are implemented andthat everybody is held accountable. And he al-ways holds himself accountable first and fore-most. And it’s no easy task, but through it all,Denis does it with class and integrity andthoughtfulness for other people’s point ofviews. He is the consummate public servant.He plays it straight. And that’s the kind ofteamwork that I want in the White House.

Time and again, I’ve relied on Denis to helpin our outreach to the American people aswell, including immigrant and minority com-munities and faith communities. Denis is aman of deep faith, and he understands that inthe end, our policies and our programs aremeasured in the concrete differences that theymake in the lives of our fellow human beingsand in the values that we advance as Ameri-cans.

Denis insists on knowing for himself the re-al-world impact of the decisions that we make.So, away from the cameras, without a lot offanfare, he’s visited our troops in Iraq and Af-ghanistan repeatedly, hearing their concerns,finding out what they need, and then makingsure to follow up. He travels to Walter Reed—again, without fanfare—to spend time with ourwounded warriors, getting to know them andwhat we as a nation can do to take care of themand their families. And then, he comes backhere to the White House, and he gets it done.And that’s the kind of focus, but also the kindof heart, that I want in this White House.

Now, don’t get me wrong, Denis can betough. It probably comes from being one ofeleven children: You’ve got to be tough.[Laughter] Two of his sisters are here today, bythe way, Mary and Anna. And I know theycould—they’re just beaming. [Laughter] Theycould not be more proud of their brother.Maybe it comes from his college football daysas defensive back under the legendary JohnGagliardi. I always tease Denis that he madeup for modest talents with extraordinary dedi-cation and a high threshold for pain. [Laugh-ter] This does remind me of perhaps the onetopic on which Denis and I will never agree,and that is Vikings versus Bears.

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There’s another reason we all love Denis somuch, and that’s his decency, his respect forthose around him. Ask any of the staff who arehere today, and they’ll tell you that despite theunbelievable pressures of service at this level,Denis is still the first to think about a colleagueor to write a handwritten note saying thank youor to ask about your family. That’s the spiritthat I want in this White House.

And this, of course, is reflected in his in-credible love for his own family. Kari, Addie,Liam, Teddy, I know that Dad has been atwork a lot during the week and on weekends,but—and I guarantee he’d much rather bewith you than with me. [Laughter] The nextjob that he’s going to have is going to be de-manding too, but the one reason he does this isbecause he wants to make sure that this worldis a better place for all of you. Dad will proba-bly have to stop riding his bike to work. AsChief of Staff, I don’t think that’s allowed.[Laughter] But he does what he does becausehe cares and loves you guys so much and hewants to make sure that the next generation isinheriting the kind of America that we all want.So I’m grateful to the entire McDonough fam-ily for putting up with us.

Denis, you’re not just one of my closestfriends, but you’re also one of my closest advis-ers, and like everybody here, I cannot imaginethe White House without you. Thank you forsigning up for this very, very difficult job, asJack Lew will testify. [Laughter] I know you’llalways give it to me straight, as only a friendcan, telling me not only what I want to hear,but more importantly, what I need to hear tomake the best possible decisions on behalf ofthe American people.

So for me, for Michelle, for all your friendsand colleagues who are here today, thank youfor taking this assignment. Congratulations.

I just have one other thing to add. We madea number of personnel announcements today.There is going to be an incredible team thatDenis will help lead. But I thought I’d take theoccasion to just embarrass somebody. Some ofyou may know that today is David Plouffe’s lastday in the White House. [Laughter] I had tohide this in the end of my remarks because Iknew he wouldn’t want me to bring it up. Sowe had some secret squirrel stuff going on hereto—[laughter]—avoid him thinking that wewere going to talk about him.

But as many of you know, David has beenwith me from the very start of this enterpriserunning for President. I can’t tell you howlucky I have been to have him manage ourcampaign back in 2008, then join the WhiteHouse during these very challenging last 2years. He’s built a well-deserved reputation asbeing a numbers genius and a pretty toughcombatant when it comes to politics. But whatpeople don’t always realize, because he doesn’tlike to show it, is the reason he does this stuff isbecause he cares deeply about people. And hecares about justice, and he cares about makingsure that everybody gets a shot in life. Andthose values have motivated him to do incredi-ble things, and were it not for him, we wouldnot have been as effective a White House and Iprobably wouldn’t be here.

So I thought it was worthwhile for us just tosay, even if he doesn’t want us to say it, thankyou to David Plouffe for his—[inaudible].

Thank you, everybody.

NOTE: The President spoke at 12:13 p.m. inthe East Room at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to former Rep. Lee H.Hamilton; former Sen. Thomas A. Daschle;John P. Gagliardi, former head football coach,Saint John’s University; and Kari McDonough,wife of Chief of Staff McDonough, and theirchildren Addie, Liam, and Teddy.

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Statement on the Resignation of Christopher P. Lu as Assistant to thePresident and Cabinet SecretaryJanuary 25, 2013

Chris Lu is one of my longest serving andclosest advisors, first crafting my legislativeagenda in the Senate, then leading my Presi-dential transition, and most recently, managingmy relations with the Cabinet. Through hisdedication and tireless efforts, Chris has over-seen one of the most stable and effective Cabi-nets in history, a Cabinet that has produced ex-

traordinary accomplishments over the past 4years. For that reason, I have asked Chris toconsider other opportunities to serve in my ad-ministration, and after he enjoys some time off,I hope he will consider those opportunities. Iknow I speak on behalf of the entire Cabinet inthanking Chris for his friendship and excep-tional service to our Nation.


Hi, everybody. Here in America, we knowthe free market is the greatest force for eco-nomic progress the world has ever known. Butwe also know the free market works best foreverybody when we have smart, commonsenserules in place to prevent irresponsible behav-ior.

That’s why we passed tough reforms to pro-tect consumers and our financial system fromthe kind of abuse that nearly brought our econ-omy to its knees. And that’s why we’ve takensteps to end taxpayer-funded bailouts andmake sure businesses and individuals who dothe right thing aren’t undermined by thosewho don’t.

But it’s not enough to change the law, we al-so need cops on the beat to enforce the law.And that’s why, on Thursday, I nominatedMary Jo White to lead the Securities and Ex-change Commission and Richard Cordray tocontinue leading the Consumer Financial Pro-tection Bureau.

Mary Jo White has decades of experiencecracking down on white-collar criminals andbringing mobsters and terrorists to justice. Atthe SEC, she will help complete the task of re-forming Wall Street and keep going after irre-sponsible behavior in the financial industry sothat taxpayers don’t pay the price.

Richard Cordray is a champion for Ameri-can consumers. After the Senate refused to al-low Richard an up-or-down vote when I nomi-

nated him in 2011, I took action to appoint himon my own. And since then, he’s helped pro-tect Americans from predatory lenders,launched a “Know Before You Owe” campaignto help families make smart decisions aboutpaying for college, and cracked down on creditcard companies that charge hidden fees. ButRichard’s appointment runs out at the end ofthe year, and in order for him to stay on thejob, the Senate needs to finally give him thevote he deserves.

As President, my top priority is simple: to doeverything in my power to fight for middleclass families and give every American thetools they need to reach the middle class.

That means bringing in people like Mary Joand Richard whose job it is to stand up for you.It means encouraging businesses to createmore jobs and pay higher wages and improvingeducation and job training so that more peoplecan get the skills that businesses are lookingfor. It means reforming our immigration sys-tem and keeping our children safe from themenace of gun violence. And it means bringingdown our deficit in a balanced way by makingnecessary reforms and asking every Americanto pay their fair share.

I am honored and humbled to continue toserve as your President. And I’m more hopefulthan ever that 4 years from now, with yourhelp, this country will be more prosperous,

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more open, and more committed to the princi-ples on which we were founded.


NOTE: The address was recorded at approxi-mately 5:30 p.m. on January 25 in the State Di-ining Room at the White House for broadcast

on January 26. In the address, the President re-ferred to Mary Jo White, partner, Debevoise &Plimpton LLP. The transcript was made avail-able by the Office of the Press Secretary onJanuary 25, but was embargoed for release un-til 6 a.m. on January 26.

Statement on Senator Thomas R. Harkin’s Decision Not To Seek ReelectionJanuary 26, 2013

By the time Senator Harkin finishes his fifthterm, he will have represented the people ofIowa in the United States Congress for an in-credible 40 years. He has served in the U.S.Senate longer than any Democrat in Iowa’shistory. During his tenure, he has fought pas-sionately to improve quality of life for Ameri-

cans with disabilities and their families, to re-form our education system, and ensure that ev-ery American has access to affordable healthcare. Senator Harkin will be missed, and Mi-chelle and I join Iowans in thanking him for hislongstanding service and wish him and his wifeRuth all the best in the future.

Statement on International Holocaust Remembrance DayJanuary 27, 2013

On January 27th, International HolocaustRemembrance Day, we honor the memories ofthe 6 million Jews and millions of other inno-cent victims whose lives were tragically takenduring the Holocaust over 60 years ago. Thosewho experienced the horrors of the cattle cars,ghettos, and concentration camps have wit-nessed humanity at its very worst and know toowell the pain of losing loved ones to senselessviolence.

But while this is a time for mourning and re-flection, it is also the time for action. On thisday, we recall the courage, spirit, and determi-nation of those who heroically resisted the Na-

zis, exemplifying the very best of humanity.And like these courageous individuals, we mustcommit ourselves to resisting hate and perse-cution in all its forms. The United States, alongwith the international community, resolves tostand in the way of any tyrant or dictator whocommits crimes against humanity and stay trueto the principle of “never again.”

By remaining vigilant against those who seekto perpetrate violence and murder, we honorthose we lost during one of the darkest periodsin human history. And we keep their memoryalive for generations to come.

Remarks Prior to a Meeting With Law Enforcement OfficialsJanuary 28, 2013

Well, Vice President Biden and I just wantto thank the police chiefs and sheriffs who arehere today representing law enforcement offi-cials all across the country who obviously shareour deep concern about issues of gun safetyand how we can protect our communities andkeep our kids safe.

A couple of weeks ago, I appeared alongwith Joe to present the administration’s ideasin terms of steps that we have to take. And I is-sued a number of executive actions that can—could be taken unilaterally in order to improveour collection of data, to make sure that we’recoordinating more effectively with State and

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local governments, and to do everything thatwe could to improve the issue of gun safety andto make our communities safer.

But as we’ve indicated before, the only waythat we’re going to be able to do everythingthat needs to be done is with the cooperationof Congress. And that means passing seriouslaws that restrict the access and availability ofassault weapons and magazine clips that aren’tnecessary for hunters and sportsmen and thosewho—responsible gun owners who are outthere. It means that we are serious about uni-versal background checks. It means that wetake seriously issues of mental health andschool safety.

We recognize that this is an issue that elicitsa lot of passion all across the country. And Joeand my Cabinet members who have been in-volved in this have been on a listening sessionover the last several months. No group is moreimportant for us to listen to than our law en-forcement officials. They are where the rubberhits the road.

And so I welcome this opportunity to workwith them, to hear their views in terms of whatwill make the biggest difference to preventsomething like Newtown or Oak Creek fromhappening again. But many of them also recog-nize that it’s not only the high-profile massshootings that are of concern here, it’s alsowhat happens on a day-in-day-out basis in plac-es like Chicago or Philadelphia, where youngpeople are victims of gun violence every singleday. That’s why part of the conversation that

we’re going to be having today relates not onlyto the issue of new laws or better enforcementof our gun laws, it also means what are we do-ing to make sure that we’ve got the strongestpossible law enforcement teams on theground? What are we doing to hire more cops?What are we doing to make sure that they’regetting the training that they need? What arewe doing to make sure our sheriff’s offices inrural counties have access to some of the re-sources that some of the big cities do in orderto deal with some of these emergencies?

So I’m looking forward to a robust conversa-tion. I know that this is not a shy group, mainlybecause they’re dealing with life-and-death sit-uations every single day. But I’m very gratefulto them for their participation. This is a repre-sentative group. It comes from a wide cross-section of communities across the country.And hopefully, if law enforcement officialswho are dealing with this stuff every single daycan come to some basic consensus in terms ofsteps that we need to take, Congress is going tobe paying attention to them and we’ll be ableto make progress.

All right? Thank you very much, everybody.

NOTE: The President spoke at 11:28 a.m. inthe Roosevelt Room at the White House. Inhis remarks, he referred to Secretary of Educa-tion Arne Duncan; Attorney General Eric H.Holder, Jr.; Secretary of Homeland SecurityJanet A. Napolitano; and Secretary of Healthand Human Services Kathleen Sebelius.

Remarks Honoring the 2012 National Basketball Association ChampionMiami HeatJanuary 28, 2013

The President. Thank you. Everybody,please have a seat. Well, today I am honored towelcome a little up-and-coming basketballteam—[laughter]—to the White House calledthe world champion Miami Heat.

Now, for many of teams that come here, thisis a lot of cameras in one place. It’s a little over-whelming. [Laughter] But for the Heat, this iswhat practice looks like. [Laughter] This is

normal. I know this is the first trip for some ofthese players, but a few of them were here acouple of years ago for a pickup game on mybirthday.

Now, I’m not trying to take all the credit,Coach, but I think that it’s clear that going upagainst me prepared them to take on KevinDurant and Russell Westbrook. [Laughter] Itsharpened their skills. It gave them the com-

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petitive edge that they needed. And I thinkpart of the reason they came back today is theywant another shot at the old guy. [Laughter]

But first, I have to congratulate the Heat ontheir well-earned title. This team traveled along road to get to where they are. In 2011, theHeat got all the way to the finals only to comeup short. But when you fall, the real test iswhether you can ignore the naysayers, pickyourself up, and come back stronger. Andthat’s true in basketball, but it’s also true in life.That’s exactly what these guys did.

Instead of getting down, they got better.Dwyane Wade worked on his core. LeBronlearned some post moves from Hakeem. ShaneBattier came on board. They became a morecomplete team. They got to know each otherbetter and trust each other more. And they be-came more fun to watch.

In game four against the Thunder last year,we saw LeBron carried off the floor withcramps, only to come back a few minutes laterand hit a dagger of a 3-pointer to put the Heatahead. During game six, we saw him pull offone of the greatest performances in basketballplayoff history, dropping 45 points, and he hada scary look in his eye. [Laughter]

We saw Dwyane Wade, the heart and soulof this team, continue to do whatever it takesto win, including leading the team in blocks.And at the postgame press conferences, hedressed well enough to land himself in GQmagazine. [Laughter] Show them your kickshere, Dwyane. [Laughter] If any of you canpull this off—[laughter]—other than DwyaneWade, let me know. We saw Chris Bosh get in-jured, but get healthy right at the perfect timeand do outstanding work throughout the rest ofthe playoffs.

And it wasn’t just the Big Three. Mike Mill-er could barely walk. Mike, you look betternow. [Laughter] You looked broke down lastyear—[laughter]—but still hit seven 3-pointersin the final game. I don’t know how he did itbecause he could not walk. He looked like anold man. [Laughter] Mario Chalmers earnedhimself a nickname from Dwyane Wade thatI’m not allowed to repeat. [Laughter] But hedid a great job.

Shane Battier, as always, played impeccabledefense, hit big threes. Juwan Howard—Grandpa—became the first member of theFab Five to win a ring. And Coach continuallyset the tone and kept these guys motivated theentire way.

So that team mentality—with everybody do-ing their part—is what finally put the Heatover the top. And it’s especially impressivewhen you think about everything they’ve hadto deal with over the last few years. This teaminspired a lot of passions on both sides. AndI’m just talking about their dance moves now.[Laughter] We saw that video, LeBron.[Laughter]

But even though I’m a little disappointedthat the Bulls didn’t make it, I do want to con-gratulate the Heat for a well-earned champion-ship. LeBron said, “It’s about damn time.” AndI want to thank them for taking the time thisafternoon to spend with wounded warriors atWalter Reed, because you guys are heroes tothem, but they are heroes to all of us.

And let me just say one last thing aboutthese guys, and I mentioned this as we werecoming in. Now, there’s a lot of focus on whathappens on the court, but what’s also impor-tant is what happens off the court. And I don’tknow all these guys, but I do know LeBron andDwyane and Chris. And one of the things I’mproudest of is that they take their roles as fa-thers seriously. And for all the young men outthere who are looking up to them all the time,for them to see somebody who cares abouttheir kids and is there for them day in, day out,that’s a good message to send. It’s a positivemessage to send, and we’re very proud of themfor that. So the—[applause].

So congratulations again to the Miami Heat.And now we are going to take a picture thatmakes me look very short. [Laughter] I’m ac-customed to it, but first I’m going to ask Coachto say a few words. Thank you, Coach.

Head Coach Erik Spoelstra. Well, on behalfof Micky Arison, Pat Riley, the entire MiamiHeat organization, and our families, we want tothank you for your hospitality today to be in theWhite House and also to be inspired by thegreat men and women of the Walter Reed

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Hospital. We are honored and truly, trulyhumbled to be here.

Because we actually hope that this teamserves as an inspiration to the Nation of what agroup can do when you come together and sac-rifice your egos for a greater goal, to come to-gether with a real hardhat work ethic, and tobe able to persevere through adversity and awhole heck of a lot of criticism—[laughter]—and still be able to accomplish the ultimatedream.

The President. Fantastic. Thank you somuch.

Forward LeBron James. Am I supposed tosay something?

The President. Hey, you can if you want. It’syour world, man. [Laughter]

Mr. James. I mean, on behalf of myself andmy teammates, we just want to thank you—topiggyback what Spo’ said—for the hospitality,for allowing us to be, I mean, in the WhiteHouse. I mean, we’re in the White House.[Laughter] I mean—and Coach said—and thePrez said this real casual. So I mean, we’re kidsfrom Chicago and Dallas, Texas and Michigan

and Ohio and South Dakota—[laughter]—Mi-ami. I mean—and we’re in the White Houseright now. This is like, “Hey, mama, I made it.”[Laughter]

Guard Dwyane Wade. All I’ve got to say is,we’ve got a 10-day contract left?

The President. Yes. Mr. Wade. Pick my man up. [Laughter] The President. You guys could use a shooter.

[Laughter] Mr. Wade. My point guard. [Laughter] The President. Thank you. Thank you. All

right.

NOTE: The President spoke at 1:44 p.m. in theEast Room at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to Kevin Durant, forward,and Russell Westbrook, point guard, NBA’sOklahoma City Thunder; Shane Battier, ChrisBosh, Mike Miller, and Juwan Howard, for-wards, and Mario Chalmers, point guard, Mi-ami Heat; and Hakeem Abdul Olajuwon, for-mer center, Houston Rockets. Mr. Spoelstrareferred to Micky Arison, general manager,and Pat Riley, president, the HEAT Group.

Statement on Congressional Passage of Funding for Hurricane SandyRecovery EffortsJanuary 28, 2013

I am pleased that Congress took bipartisanaction to provide funding for the communitiesin New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut,and other Eastern States devastated by Hurri-cane Sandy. For the families working to puttheir lives back together, every day without re-lief is one day too many. So while I had hopedCongress would provide this aid sooner, I ap-plaud the lawmakers from both parties whohelped shepherd this important packagethough.

My administration remains committed tosupporting our State and local partners andbringing every resource to bear as we help ourneighbors rebuild. And we will continue to

work closely with Governors and mayors to en-sure this money is used appropriately. To date,we have already provided over 3 billion in aidto help recovery efforts, including hundreds ofmillions of dollars that have gone directly tofamilies and businesses impacted by the storm.Brick by brick, block by block, our communi-ties are being made whole again. And we willnot rest until the job is done. Again, I com-mend Congress for giving families and busi-nesses the help they deserve, and I will signthis bill into law as soon as it hits my desk.


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Remarks at Del Sol High School in Las Vegas, NevadaJanuary 29, 2013

The President. Thank you so much. Well, itis good to be back in Las Vegas! And it is goodto be among so many good friends.

Let me start off by thanking everybody atDel Sol High School for hosting us. Go Drag-ons! Let me especially thank your outstandingprincipal, Lisa Primas.

There are all kinds of notable guests here,but I just want to mention a few. First of all,our outstanding Secretary of the Departmentof Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, ishere. Our wonderful Secretary of the Interior,Ken Salazar; former Secretary of Labor, HildaSolis. Two of the outstanding members of thecongressional delegation from Nevada, SteveHorsford and Dina Titus; your own mayor,Carolyn Goodman.

But we also have some mayors that flew inbecause they know how important the issuewe’re going to talk about today is: Marie LopezRogers from Avondale, Arizona; Kasim Reedfrom Atlanta, Georgia; Greg Stanton fromPhoenix, Arizona; and Ashley Swearengin fromFresno, California.

And all of you are here, as well as some ofthe top labor leaders in the country. And weare just so grateful. Some outstanding businessleaders are here as well. And of course, we’vegot wonderful students here, so I could not beprouder of our students.

Now, those of you have a seat, feel free totake a seat. I don’t mind.

Audience member. I love you, Mr. Presi-dent!

The President. I love you back.Now, last week, I had the honor of being

sworn in for a second term as President of theUnited States. And during my Inaugural Ad-dress, I talked about how making progress onthe defining challenges of our time doesn’t re-quire us to settle every debate or ignore everydifference that we may have, but it does re-quire us to find common ground and move for-ward in common purpose. It requires us to act.

I know that some issues will be harder to liftthan others. Some debates will be more con-

tentious. That’s to be expected. But the reasonI came here today is because of a challengewhere the differences are dwindling, where abroad consensus is emerging, and where a callfor action can now be heard coming from allacross America. I’m here today because thetime has come for commonsense, comprehen-sive immigration reform. The time is now. [Ap-plause] Now is the time. Now is the time. Nowis the time.

Audience members. Si, se puede! Si, se pu-ede! Si, se puede!

The President. Now is the time.I’m here because most Americans agree that

it’s time to fix a system that’s been broken forway too long. I’m here because business lead-ers, faith leaders, labor leaders, law enforce-ment, and leaders from both parties are com-ing together to say now is the time to find abetter way to welcome the striving, hopefulimmigrants who still see America as the land ofopportunity. Now is the time to do this so wecan strengthen our economy and strengthenour country’s future.

Think about it: We define ourselves as a na-tion of immigrants. That’s who we are in ourbones. The promise we see in those who comehere from every corner of the globe, that’s al-ways been one of our greatest strengths. Itkeeps our workforce young. It keeps our coun-try on the cutting edge. And it’s helped buildthe greatest economic engine the world has ev-er known.

After all, immigrants helped start businesseslike Google and Yahoo! They created entirenew industries that, in turn, created new jobsand new prosperity for our citizens. In recentyears, one in four high-tech startups in Ameri-ca were founded by immigrants. One in fournew small-business owners were immigrants,including right here in Nevada: folks who camehere seeking opportunity and now want toshare that opportunity with other Americans.

But we all know that today, we have an im-migration system that’s out of date and badlybroken; a system that’s holding us back instead

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of helping us grow our economy and strength-en our middle class.

Right now we have 11 million undocument-ed immigrants in America, 11 million men andwomen from all over the world who live theirlives in the shadows. Yes, they broke the rules.They crossed the border illegally. Maybe theyoverstayed their visas. Those are the facts. No-body disputes them. But these 11 million menand women are now here. Many of them havebeen here for years. And the overwhelmingmajority of these individuals aren’t looking forany trouble. They’re contributing members ofthe community. They’re looking out for theirfamilies. They’re looking out for their neigh-bors. They’re woven into the fabric of our lives.

Every day, like the rest of us, they go outand try to earn a living. Often, they do that in ashadow economy, a place where employersmay offer them less than the minimum wage ormake them work overtime without extra pay.And when that happens, it’s not just bad forthem, it’s bad for the entire economy. Becauseall the businesses that are trying to do the rightthing—that are hiring people legally, paying adecent wage, following the rules—they’re theones who suffer. They’ve got to competeagainst companies that are breaking the rules.And the wages and working conditions ofAmerican workers are threatened too.

So if we’re truly committed to strengtheningour middle class and providing more ladders ofopportunity to those who are willing to workhard to make it into the middle class, we’ve gotto fix the system.

We have to make sure that every businessand every worker in America is playing by thesame set of rules. We have to bring this shadoweconomy into the light so that everybody isheld accountable: businesses for who they hireand immigrants for getting on the right side ofthe law. That’s common sense. And that’s whywe need comprehensive immigration reform.

And, now, there’s another economic reasonwhy we need reform. It’s not just about thefolks who come here illegally and have the ef-fect they have on our economy. It’s also aboutthe folks who try to come here legally but have

a hard time doing so and the effect that has onour economy.

Right now there are brilliant students fromall over the world sitting in classrooms at ourtop universities. They’re earning degrees in thefields of the future, like engineering and com-puter science. But once they finish school,once they earn that diploma, there’s a goodchance they’ll have to leave our country. Now,think about that.

Intel was started with the help of an immi-grant who studied here and then stayed here.Instagram was started with the help of an im-migrant who studied here and then stayedhere. Right now in one of those classrooms,there’s a student wrestling with how to turntheir big idea—their Intel or Instagram—intoa big business. We’re giving them all the skillsthey need to figure that out, but then we’re go-ing to turn around and tell them to start thatbusiness and create those jobs in China or In-dia or Mexico or someplace else. That’s nothow you grow new industries in America.That’s how you give new industries to our com-petitors. That’s why we need comprehensiveimmigration reform.

Now, now during my first term, we tooksteps to try and patch up some of the worstcracks in the system.

First, we strengthened security at the bor-ders so that we could finally stem the tide of il-legal immigrants. We put more boots on theground on the southern border than at anytime in our history. And today, illegal crossingsare down nearly 80 percent from their peak in2000.

Second, we focused our enforcement effortson criminals who are here illegally and who en-danger our communities. And today, deporta-tions of criminals is at its highest level ever.

And third, we took up the cause of thedreamers: the young people who were broughtto this country as children, young people whohave grown up here, built their lives here, havefutures here. We said that if you’re able tomeet some basic criteria, like pursuing an edu-cation, then we’ll consider offering you thechance to come out of the shadows so that youcan live here and work here legally, so that you

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can finally have the dignity of knowing you be-long.

But because this change isn’t permanent, weneed Congress to act, and not just on theDREAM Act. We need Congress to act on acomprehensive approach that finally deals withthe 11 million undocumented immigrants whoare in the country right now. That’s what weneed.

Now, the good news is that for the first timein many years, Republicans and Democratsseem ready to tackle this problem together.Members of both parties, in both Chambers,are actively working on a solution. Yesterday abipartisan group of Senators announced theirprinciples for comprehensive immigration re-form, which are very much in line with theprinciples I’ve proposed and campaigned onfor the last few years. So, at this moment, itlooks like there’s a genuine desire to get thisdone soon, and that’s very encouraging.

But this time, action must follow. We can’tallow immigration reform to get bogged downin an endless debate. We’ve been debating thisa very long time. So it’s not as if we don’t knowtechnically what needs to get done. As a conse-quence, to help move this process along, todayI’m laying out my ideas for immigration re-form. And my hope is that this provides somekey markers to Members of Congress as theycraft a bill, because the ideas I’m proposinghave traditionally been supported by bothDemocrats like Ted Kennedy and Republicanslike President George W. Bush. You don’t getthat matchup very often. [Laughter] So weknow where the consensus should be.

Now, of course, there will be rigorous de-bate about many of the details, and everystakeholder should engage in real give and takein the process. But it’s important for us to rec-ognize that the foundation for bipartisan actionis already in place. And if Congress is unable tomove forward in a timely fashion, I will sendup a bill based on my proposal and insist thatthey vote on it right away.

So the principles are pretty straightforward.There are a lot of details behind it. We’re goingto hand out a bunch of paper so that everybody

will know exactly what we’re talking about. Butthe principles are pretty straightforward.

First, I believe we need to stay focused onenforcement. That means continuing tostrengthen security at our borders. It meanscracking down more forcefully on businessesthat knowingly hire undocumented workers.To be fair, most businesses want to do the rightthing, but a lot of them have a hard time figur-ing out who’s here legally, who’s not. So weneed to implement a national system that al-lows businesses to quickly and accurately verifysomeone’s employment status. And if they stillknowingly hire undocumented workers, thenwe need to ramp up the penalties.

Second, we have to deal with the 11 millionindividuals who are here illegally. We all agreethat these men and women should have to earntheir way to citizenship. But for comprehen-sive immigration reform to work, it must beclear from the outset that there is a pathway tocitizenship.

We’ve got to lay out a path: a process that in-cludes passing a background check, paying tax-es, paying a penalty, learning English, and thengoing to the back of the line, behind all thefolks who are trying to come here legally.That’s only fair, right?

So that means it won’t be a quick process,but it will be a fair process. And it will lift theseindividuals out of the shadows and give them achance to earn their way to a green card andeventually to citizenship.

And the third principle is we’ve got to bringour legal immigration system into the 21st cen-tury because it no longer reflects the realitiesof our time. For example, if you are a citizen,you shouldn’t have to wait years before yourfamily is able to join you in America. Youshouldn’t have to wait years.

If you’re a foreign student who wants to pur-sue a career in science or technology or a for-eign entrepreneur who wants to start a busi-ness with the backing of American investors,we should help you do that here. Because ifyou succeed, you’ll create American businessesand American jobs. You’ll help us grow oureconomy. You’ll help us strengthen our middleclass.

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So that’s what comprehensive immigrationreform looks like: smarter enforcement, apathway to earned citizenship, improvementsin the legal immigration system so that we con-tinue to be a magnet for the best and thebrightest all around the world. It’s prettystraightforward.

The question now is simple: Do we have theresolve as a people, as a country, as a Govern-ment to finally put this issue behind us? I be-lieve that we do. [Applause] I believe that wedo. I believe we are finally at a moment wherecomprehensive immigration reform is withinour grasp.

But I promise you this: The closer we get,the more emotional this debate is going to be-come. Immigration’s always been an issue thatenflames passions. That’s not surprising. Thereare few things that are more important to us asa society than who gets to come here and callour country home, who gets the privilege ofbecoming a citizen of the United States ofAmerica. That’s a big deal.

When we talk about that in the abstract, it’seasy sometimes for the discussion to take on afeeling of us versus them And when that hap-pens, a lot of folks forget that most of us usedto be them. We forget that.

It’s really important for us to remember ourhistory. Unless you’re one of the first Ameri-cans, a Native American, you came from some-place else. Somebody brought you.

Ken Salazar, he’s of Mexican American de-scent, but he points out that his family’s beenliving where he lives for 400 years, so he didn’timmigrate anywhere. [Laughter]

The Irish who left behind a land of famine,the Germans who fled persecution, the Scandi-navians who arrived eager to pioneer out west,the Polish, the Russians, the Italians, the Chi-nese, the Japanese, the West Indians, the hud-dled masses who came through Ellis Island onone coast and Angel Island on the other—allthose folks, before they were us, they werethem.

And when each new wave of immigrants ar-rived, they faced resistance from those whowere already here. They faced hardship. Theyfaced racism. They faced ridicule. But over

time, as they went about their daily lives, asthey earned a living, as they raised a family, asthey built a community, as their kids went toschool here, they did their part to build a na-tion.

They were the Einsteins and the Carnegies.But they were also the millions of women andmen whose names history may not remember,but whose actions helped make us who we are,who built this country hand by hand, brick bybrick. They all came here knowing that whatmakes somebody an American is not just bloodor birth, but allegiance to our founding princi-ples and the faith in the idea that anyone fromanywhere can write the next great chapter ofour story.

And that’s still true today. Just ask Alan Ale-man. Alan is here this afternoon; where is Al-an? He’s around here; there he is right here.Now, Alan was born in Mexico. He wasbrought to this country by his parents when hewas a child. Growing up, Alan went to anAmerican school, pledged allegiance to theAmerican flag, felt American in every way. Andhe was, except for one: on paper.

In high school, Alan watched his friendscome of age: driving around town with theirnew licenses, earning some extra cash fromtheir summer jobs at the mall. He knew hecouldn’t do those things. But it didn’t matterthat much. What mattered to Alan was earningan education so that he could live up to hisGod-given potential.

Last year, when Alan heard the news that wewere going to offer a chance for folks like himto emerge from the shadows—even if it’s justfor 2 years at a time—he was one of the first tosign up. And a few months ago, he was one ofthe first people in Nevada to get approved. Inthat moment, Alan said: “I felt the fear vanish.I felt accepted.”

So today, Alan’s in his second year at theCollege of Southern Nevada. Alan is studyingto become a doctor. He hopes to join the AirForce. He’s working hard every single day tobuild a better life for himself and his family.And all he wants is the opportunity to do hispart to build a better America.

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So, in the coming weeks, as the idea of re-form becomes more real and the debate be-comes more heated, and there are folks whoare trying to pull this thing apart, rememberAlan and all those who share the same hopesand the same dreams. Remember that this isnot just a debate about policy. It’s about peo-ple. It’s about men and women and young peo-ple who want nothing more than the chance toearn their way into the American story.

And throughout our history, that has onlymade our Nation stronger. And it’s how we willmake sure that this century is the same as thelast: an American century, welcoming of every-

body who aspires to do something more and iswilling to work hard to do it and is willing topledge that allegiance to our flag.

Thank you. God bless you, and God blessthe United States of America.

NOTE: The President spoke at 11:40 a.m. Inhis remarks, he referred to Sergey M. Brin, co-founder and former president, Google Inc.;Jerry Yang, cofounder and former chief execu-tive officer, Yahoo! Inc.; Andrew S. Grove, co-founder and former chief executive officer, In-tel Corp.; and Mike Krieger, cofounder, Insta-gram, Inc.

Videotaped Remarks on the Situation in SyriaJanuary 29, 2013

For nearly 2 years, the Asad regime haswaged a brutal war against the Syrian people,murdering innocent men, women, and chil-dren in their homes, in bread lines, and at uni-versities. In the face of this barbarism, theUnited States has joined with nations aroundthe world in calling for an end to the Asad re-gime and a transition that leads to a peaceful,inclusive, and democratic Syria, where therights of all Syrians are protected. We’veworked to isolate Asad and his regime, imposesanctions that starve the regime of funds, rec-ognize the Syrian opposition coalition as the le-gitimate representative of the Syrian people,call for accountability for perpetrators of atroc-ities, and provide humanitarian relief to Syri-ans in need.

The relief we send doesn’t say “Made inAmerica,” but make no mistake, our aid re-flects the commitment of the American peo-ple. American aid means food and clean waterfor millions of Syrians. American aid meansmedicine and treatment for hundreds of thou-sands of patients in Damascus, Dara’a, andHoms. It means immunizations for 1 millionSyrian children. American aid means wintersupplies for more than half a million people inAleppo, Homs, and Dayr az Zawr. And we’reworking with allies and partners so that this aidreaches those in need.

Today we’re taking another step. I’ve ap-proved an additional $155 million in humani-tarian aid for people in Syria and refugees flee-ing the violence. Here, I want to speak directlyto the people of Syria. This new aid will meanmore warm clothing for children and medicinefor the elderly, flour and wheat for your fami-lies, and blankets, boots, and stoves for thosehuddled in damaged buildings. It will meanhealth care for victims of sexual violence andfield hospitals for the wounded. Even as wework to end the violence against you, this aidwill help address some of the immediate needsyou face each day.

This new commitment will bring America’stotal humanitarian aid to Syria to $365 mil-lion, making us the largest single donor of hu-manitarian assistance to the Syrian people.Today I also call on the international commu-nity to do more to help these Syrians in needand to contribute to the latest U.N. humani-tarian appeal.

We’re under no illusions. The days aheadwill continue to be very difficult. But what’sclear is that the regime continues to weakenand lose control of territory. The oppositioncontinues to grow stronger. More Syrians arestanding up for their dignity. The Asad regimewill come to an end. The Syrian people willhave their chance to forge their own future.

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And they will continue to find a partner in theUnited States of America.

NOTE: In his remarks, the President referredto President Bashar al-Asad of Syria. The Of-

fice of the Press Secretary also released an Ara-bic language transcript of this address. Record-ing information was unavailable.

Statement on the Resignation of Raymond H. LaHood as Secretary ofTransportationJanuary 29, 2013

I want to thank Secretary LaHood for his ded-ication, his hard work, and his years of service tothe American people, including the outstandingwork he’s done over the last 4 years as Secretaryof Transportation. I also want to thank Ray forhis friendship. Years ago, we were drawn togeth-er by a shared belief that those of us in publicservice owe an allegiance not to party or faction,but to the people we were elected to represent.And Ray has never wavered in that belief.

As Secretary of Transportation, he has foughtto create jobs and grow our economy by re-

building our roads, bridges, and transit systems.Under his leadership, we have made significantinvestments in our passenger rail system andlaid the groundwork for the high-speed rail net-work of the future. And every American whotravels by air, rail, or highway can thank Ray forhis commitment to making our entire transpor-tation system safer and stronger. I am gratefulto Ray for everything he’s done, and I wish himonly the best going forward.

Statement on Senate Confirmation of John F. Kerry as Secretary of StateJanuary 29, 2013

I am pleased that the Senate has confirmedJohn Kerry as our next Secretary of State withoverwhelming bipartisan support. From hisdecorated service in Vietnam to his decades inthe Senate as a champion of American globalleadership, John’s distinguished career hasprepared him to guide American diplomacy inthe years ahead.

John has earned the respect of leaders aroundthe world and the confidence of Democrats andRepublicans in the Senate, and I am confidenthe will make an extraordinary Secretary of State.I look forward to his counsel and partnership inthe years ahead as we ensure American leader-ship in the world and advance the interests andvalues that keep our Nation strong.

Letter to Congressional Leaders Regarding the Disaster Relief AppropriationsAct, 2013January 29, 2013


In accordance with section 902 of the Disas-ter Relief Appropriations Act, 2013, I herebydesignate as emergency requirements all fund-ing so designated by the Congress in the Actpursuant to section 251(b)(2)(A)(i) of the Bal-

anced Budget and Emergency Deficit ControlAct of 1985, as amended, as outlined in the en-closed list of accounts.

The details of this action are set forth in theenclosed letter from the Deputy Director forManagement of the Office of Managementand Budget.

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Administration of Barack Obama, 2013 / Feb. 1

Sincerely,

BARACK OBAMA

NOTE: Identical letters were sent to John A. Boeh-ner, Speaker of the House of Representatives, andJoseph R. Biden, Jr., President of the Senate.

Letter to Congressional Leaders Transmitting a Report Regarding theWaiver of Sanctions Against North KoreaJanuary 31, 2013

Dear __________:

Pursuant to section 1405 of the Supplemen-tal Appropriations Act, 2008 (Public Law110–252) (the “Act”), and in order to keep theCongress fully informed, I am providing theenclosed report prepared by my Administra-tion. The report includes information relatedto the issuance of any waivers under the au-thority of section 1405 of the Act of certainsanctions against North Korea and to certainother matters relating to North Korea.

Sincerely,

BARACK OBAMA

NOTE: Identical letters were sent to Barbara A.Mikulski, chairman, and W. Thad Cochran,vice chairman, Senate Committee on Appro-priations; Carl M. Levin, chairman, and JamesM. Inhofe, ranking member, Senate Commit-tee on Armed Services; John F. Kerry, chair-man, and Robert P. Corker, Jr., ranking mem-ber, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations;Harold D. Rogers, chairman, and Nita M.Lowey, ranking member, House Committeeon Appropriations; Howard P. “Buck” McKe-on, chairman, and Adam Smith, ranking mem-ber, House Committee on Armed Services;and Edward R. Royce, chairman, and Eliot L.Engel, ranking member, House Committee onForeign Affairs.

Remarks on Presenting the National Medal of Science and the NationalMedal of Technology and InnovationFebruary 1, 2013

The President. Thank you so much. Please,everyone have a seat. Well, it is my incrediblepleasure and honor to welcome this incrediblytalented group of men and women in theWhite House. And I want to congratulate themon earning America’s highest honor for inven-tion and discovery: the National Medals of Sci-ence and the National Medals of Technologyand Innovation.

Before we start, I want to acknowledge thehead of the National Science Foundation, Dr.Subra Suresh, as well as the members of myCabinet who are with us here today. Where iseverybody? Where did Subra go? [Laughter]There you go. All right, I just wanted to makesure they all showed up.

I especially want to thank Secretary StevenChu, who announced this morning that he will

be leaving the Department of Energy. Thatwill be a loss for us. Steve has been a greatfriend, a tremendous colleague over the past 4years, working on a whole range of energy is-sues, but also designing a cap to plug a hole inthe middle of the Gulf of Mexico when nobodyelse could figure it out. And that’s typical of theincredible contributions that he’s made to thiscountry. Because of his leadership, this countryis further along on the path to energy indepen-dence. It’s better positioned for the jobs andindustries of the future.

So, Steve, you have earned more than yourfair share of relaxation time, but we are gratefulfor your extraordinary service. So thank you.

Now, this is the most collection of brainpow-er we’ve had under this roof in a long time—[laughter]—maybe since the last time we gave

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Feb. 1 / Administration of Barack Obama, 2013

out these medals. I have no way to prove that,and I know this crowd likes proof. [Laughter]But I can’t imagine too many people compet-ing with those who we honor here today.

If there is one idea that sets this countryapart, one idea that makes us different fromevery other nation on Earth, it’s that here inAmerica, success does not depend on whereyou were born or what your last name is. Suc-cess depends on the ideas that you can dreamup, the possibilities that you envision, and thehard work, the blood, sweat, and tears you’rewilling to put in to make them real.

We don’t always recognize the genius be-hind these ideas right away. The New YorkTimes once described Robert Goddard’s beliefthat rockets could one day go to the Moon as,quote, “lacking the knowledge ladled out dailyin high schools.” [Laughter] One engineercalled Einstein’s brand-new theory of relativity“voodoo nonsense.” But with enough time, weusually come around. And we don’t give folksthe same treatment that Galileo got when hecame up with new ideas. [Laughter] And to-day, it’s clearer than ever that our future as anation depends on keeping that spirit of curios-ity and innovation alive in our time.

So these honorees are at the forefront ofthat mission. Thanks to the sacrifices they’vemade, the chances they’ve taken, the gallons ofcoffee they’ve consumed—[laughter]—wenow have batteries that power everything fromcell phones to electric cars. We have a map ofthe human genome and new ways to producerenewable energy. We’re learning to grow or-gans in the lab and better understand what’shappening in our deepest oceans. And if that’snot enough, the people on this stage are alsogoing to be responsible for devising a formulato tame frizzy hair—[laughter]—as well as in-spiring the game Tetris.

But what also makes these individualsunique is how they’ve gotten here: the obsta-cles they’ve overcome and the commitmentsthey’ve made to push the boundaries of ourunderstanding.

Jim Gates’s father, for example, was in theArmy, and by the time Jim was in sixth grade,he had attended six different schools. But he

still remembers the day he came home and sawhis father standing on the porch with a bigsmile on his face. And that’s how Jim knew hehad gotten into MIT, on his way to becomingone of our foremost experts in supersymmetryand string theory.

When Gholam Peyman first accepted a posi-tion at the University of Illinois, his office was aconverted restroom. [Laughter] But he carvedout enough space for himself, his secretary,and his lab equipment. And today, he’s knownas the father of LASIK eye surgery.

Sandra Moore Faber had a passion for as-tronomy from the very beginning. But whenshe visited one of our Nation’s top observato-ries as a grad student, they didn’t have a dormfor female astronomers, so Sandra ended upsleeping on the sofa in the caretaker’s cottage.Now, luckily, that didn’t slow her down, andshe became one of the world’s foremost ex-perts in the evolution of the universe.

You know, in a global economy where thebest jobs follow talent—whether in Calcutta orCleveland—we need to do everything we canto encourage that same kind of passion, make iteasier for more young people to blaze a newtrail.

Right now only about a third of undergradu-ate students are graduating with degrees in sci-ence, technology, engineering, and math, areasthat will be crucial if we expect to complete thework that has been done by these folks andcompete for the jobs of the future. And that’swhy we’ve worked to make more affordablecollege opportunities and set a goal of training100,000 new math and science teachers overthe next decade. And we’re working to train 2million Americans at our community collegeswith the skills businesses are looking for rightnow.

We also need to do something about all thestudents who come here from around theworld to study, but we then send home oncethey graduate. On Tuesday, I was in Las Vegastalking about the need for comprehensive im-migration reform. And one important piece ofthat reform is allowing more of the best andbrightest minds from around the world to startbusinesses, initiate new discoveries, create jobs

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here in the United States of America. If wewant to grow our economy and strengthen themiddle class, we need an immigration systembuilt for the 21st century. It’s that simple.

One of the scientists being honored today isJan Vilcek. Jan was born in Slovakia to Jewishparents who fled the Nazis during World WarII. To keep their young son safe, his parentsplaced him in an orphanage run by Catholicnuns. And later, he and his mother were takenin by some brave farmers in a remote Slovakvillage and hidden until the war was over. Andtoday, Jan is a pioneer in the study of the im-mune system and the treatment of inflammato-ry diseases like arthritis.

People like Jan obviously had enormous tal-ent. In some fundamental ways, they were des-tined to be on this stage. The minds they wereborn with, the drive they innately possess, thepositive forces that shaped their lives weremore powerful than the forces aligned againstthem. So they beat the odds. But even with allthose gifts, every one of today’s honorees alsohad somebody who offered them a hand: ateacher who sparked their interest, a scholar-ship that paved the way, and an opportunity tocome to America and bring even the most dis-tant dream within our reach.

And that reminds us of our obligations toeach other and to this country. We can—nomatter how many talented folks there are inthis country, if we’re not offering a hand up, alot of those folks are going to miss out on whatmight be their destiny. We can make it easierfor our young people to learn the skills of thefuture. We can attract the brightest minds toour shore. We can celebrate and lift up andspotlight researchers and scientists like theones here today, so that somewhere, a boy onan Army base or a girl looking through a tele-scope or a young scientist working out of a con-verted bathroom can make it their goal tostand where these honorees will be standingwhen they receive their medals.

That’s what we can do and that’s what wemust do. That’s what I intend to do as long asI’m President.

So I want to congratulate these extraordi-nary Americans once again for all their accom-

plishments. I want to wish our Military Aidesthe best of luck as they attempt to read the ci-tations. [Laughter] Because I can assure youthey practiced hard on this all week long.

You good? You feel good? [Laughter] Allright. There are a lot of syllables in some ofthese things. [Laughter] I won’t know the dif-ference, but they will. [Laughter]

Congratulations, everybody.

[At this point, Lt. Cmdr. Scott Phy, USCG,Coast Guard Aide to the President, read the ci-tations and the President presented the medals,assisted by Lt. Cmdr. Tiffany Hill, USN, NavyAide to the President.]

The President. That wasn’t bad. [Laughter]Well, again, I just want to congratulate all

the honorees here today. Can everybody pleasegive them one more big round of applause?[Applause]

We are so grateful to all of you. The incredi-ble contributions that you’ve made have en-hanced our lives in immeasurable ways, inways that are practical, but also inspirational.

And so we know that you are going to con-tinue to inspire and in many cases teach thenext generation of inventors and scientists whowill discover things that we can’t even dream ofat this point. So thank you so much for every-thing that you’ve done.

I hope that all of you enjoy this wonderfulreception. Feel free to party here. [Laughter]This looks like a somewhat wild crowd.[Laughter] So just remember there are SecretService here—[laughter]—if you guys get outof hand. [Laughter]


NOTE: The President spoke at 2:22 p.m. in theEast Room at the White House. Participatingin the ceremony were National Medal of Sci-ence recipients Allen J. Bard; Sallie W. Ch-isholm; Sidney D. Drell; Sandra M. Faber; S.James Gates, Jr.; Solomon W. Golomb; John B.Goodenough; M. Frederick Hawthorne; LeroyHood; Barry C. Mazur; Lucy Shapiro; andAnne M. Treisman; and National Medal ofTechnology and Innovation recipients FrancesH. Arnold; George Carruthers; Robert Langer;

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Norman R. McCombs; Gholam A. Peyman;Arthur H. Rosenfield; Jan T. Vilcek; Rangas-wamy Srinivasan; James Wynne; and EdwardCampbell, accepting on behalf of Raytheon

BBN Technologies in Cambridge, MA. Thetranscript released by the Office of the PressSecretary also included the reading of the cita-tions.

Statement on the Resignation of Steven Chu as Secretary of EnergyFebruary 1, 2013

I want to thank Secretary Chu for his dedi-cated service on behalf of the American people.As a Nobel Prize–winning scientist, Stevebrought to the Energy Department a uniqueunderstanding of both the urgent challenge pre-sented by climate change and the tremendousopportunity that clean energy represents for oureconomy. And during his time as Secretary,Steve helped my administration move Americatowards real energy independence. Over the

past 4 years, we have doubled the use of renew-able energy, dramatically reduced our depen-dence on foreign oil, and put our country on apath to win the global race for clean energyjobs. Thanks to Steve, we also expanded supportfor our brightest engineers and entrepreneursas they pursue groundbreaking innovations thatcould transform our energy future. I am grate-ful that Steve agreed to join in my Cabinet, andI wish him all the best in his future endeavors.

Statement on the Death of Edward I. KochFebruary 1, 2013

Ed Koch was an extraordinary mayor, irre-pressible character, and quintessential NewYorker. He took office at a time when NewYork was in fiscal crisis and helped his cityachieve economic renewal, expand affordablehousing, and extend opportunity to more ofits people. In public office and beyond, his

energy, force of personality, and commit-ment to causes ranging from civic issues tothe security of the State of Israel always in-formed and enlivened the public discourse.Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayersto Ed’s loved ones and to the city that sur-vives him.

Statement on the Resignation of Mark J. Sullivan as Director of the UnitedStates Secret ServiceFebruary 1, 2013

I want to thank Mark Sullivan for nearly 30years of service to our Nation at the UnitedStates Secret Service, a tenure that saw theagency protect five First Families, including myown. Mark started out in the Detroit field officebefore joining the Presidential Protective Divi-sion. And since 2006, as Director, Mark has ledthe agency with incredible dedication and in-tegrity. The Secret Service is best known for

protecting our Nation’s leaders, but every daythey also protect the American people. Fromsecuring large events such as Presidential Inau-gurations to safeguarding our financial system,the men and women of the agency performtheir mission with professionalism and dedica-tion. That is a testament to Mark and his stead-fast leadership, which will be missed. Michelleand I wish him all the best.

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The President’s Weekly AddressFebruary 2, 2013

Hi, everybody. In the coming weeks, weface some important decisions about how topay down our debt in a way that grows oureconomy and creates good jobs, decisions thatwill make a real difference in the strength andpace of our recovery.

We began this year with economists andbusiness leaders saying that we are poised togrow in 2013, and there are real signs of prog-ress. Home prices are starting to climb again.Car sales are at a 5-year high. Manufacturing isroaring back. Our businesses created 2.2 mil-lion jobs last year. And we just learned that oureconomy created more jobs over the last fewmonths than economists originally thought.

But this week, we also received the first esti-mate of America’s economic growth over thelast few months. And it reminded us that baddecisions in Washington can get in the way ofour economic progress.

We all agree that it’s critical to cut unneces-sary spending. But we can’t just cut our way toprosperity. It hasn’t worked in the past, and itwon’t work today. It could slow down our re-covery, it could weaken our economy, and itcould cost us jobs, not just now, but in the fu-ture.

What we need instead is a balanced ap-proach, an approach that says let’s cut what wecan’t afford, but let’s make the investments wecan’t afford to live without: investments in edu-cation and infrastructure, research and devel-opment, the things that will help America com-pete for the best jobs and new industries.

Already, Republicans and Democrats haveworked together to reduce our deficits by $2.5trillion. That’s a good start. But to get the restof the way, we need a balanced set of reforms.

For example, we need to lower the cost ofhealth care in programs like Medicare that arethe biggest drivers of our deficit, without justpassing the burden off to seniors. And these re-forms must go hand in hand with eliminatingexcess spending in our Tax Code so that thewealthiest individuals and biggest corporationscan’t take advantage of loopholes and deduc-tions that aren’t available to most Americans.

Two thousand thirteen can be a year of solidgrowth, more jobs, and higher wages. But thatwill only happen if we put a stop to self-inflict-ed wounds in Washington. Everyone in Wash-ington needs to focus not on politics, but onwhat’s right for the country, on what’s right foryou and your families. That’s how we’ll get oureconomy growing faster, that’s how we’llstrengthen our middle class, and that’s howwe’ll build a country that rewards the effortand determination of every single American.

Thanks. And have a great weekend.

NOTE: The address was recorded at approxi-mately 3:50 p.m. on February 1 in the Roos-evelt Room at the White House for broadcaston February 2. The transcript was made avail-able by the Office of the Press Secretary onFebruary 1, but was embargoed for release un-til 6 a.m. on February 2.

Remarks at the Minneapolis Police Department’s Special Operations Centerin Minneapolis, MinnesotaFebruary 4, 2013

Hello, everybody. Please have a seat. Have aseat.

Well, it is good to be back in Minnesota. It isgood to be back. Although I was commentingthat they don’t really have winter in Washing-ton, DC. [Laughter] So I’ve gotten soft over

these last 4 years. When I was in Chicago, thiswas nothing. Now it’s something. [Laughter]But I’m grateful for all of you being here today.I want to thank Chief Harteau and the entireMinneapolis Police Department for having mehere today.

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There are a number of other people that Ijust want to acknowledge here. First of all, awonderful man and one of America’s greatestpublic servants is here: Walter Mondale, for-mer Vice President. Your outstanding Gover-nor, Mark Dayton, is here. Two great mayors:Mayor R.T. Rybak of Minneapolis and MayorChris Coleman of St. Paul. And your outstand-ing congressional delegation: Senator AmyKlobuchar, Senator Al Franken, Representa-tive Keith Ellison, and Representative BettyMcCollum.

And I should acknowledge my outstandingAttorney General—what’s your name again?[Laughter] He does a great job every singleday, and I could not be prouder of Eric Holderfor his leadership on this issue in particular.

Now, I just had a chance to sit down withsome local police officers, but also communityleaders, as well as folks who themselves hadbeen victims or whose families had been vic-tims of gun violence, to hear their ideas abouthow we can protect our kids and address thebroader epidemic of gun violence in this coun-try. Because if we’re serious about preventingthe kinds of tragedies that happened in New-town or the tragedies that happen every day inplaces like Chicago or Philadelphia or Minne-apolis, then law enforcement and other com-munity leaders must have a seat at the table.

All the folks standing here behind me today,they’re the ones on the front line of this fight.They see the awful consequences: the liveslost, the families shattered. They know whatworks, they know what doesn’t work, and theyknow how to get things done without regardfor politics.

So we’ve had a very productive discussion.And one of the things that struck me was thateven though those who were sitting aroundthat table represented very different commu-nities, from big cities to small towns, they allbelieve it’s time to take some basic, common-sense steps to reduce gun violence. We maynot be able to prevent every massacre or ran-dom shooting. No law or set of laws can keepour children completely safe. But if there’seven one thing we can do, if there’s just onelife we can save, we’ve got an obligation to try.

That’s been the philosophy here in Minne-apolis. A few years back, you suffered a spike inviolent crime involving young people. So thiscity came together. You launched a series ofyouth initiatives that have reduced the numberof young people injured by guns by 40 per-cent—40 percent. So when it comes to pro-tecting our children from gun violence, you’veshown that progress is possible. We’ve still gotto deal with the 60 percent that remains, butthat 40 percent means lives saved, parentswhose hearts aren’t broken, communities thataren’t terrorized and afraid.

We don’t have to agree on everything toagree it’s time to do something. That’s mymain message here today.

And each of us has a role to play. A fewweeks ago, I took action on my own tostrengthen background checks, to help schoolsget more resource officers if they want them,and to direct the Centers for Disease Controlto study the causes of violence. Because for along time, even looking at the evidence wasconsidered somehow tough politics. And soCongress had taken the approach that we don’twant to know. Well, that’s never the answer toa problem, is not wanting to know what is go-ing on.

So we’ve been able to take some stepsthrough administrative action. But while thesesteps are important, real and lasting change al-so requires Congress to do its part and to do itsoon, not to wait. The good news is that we’restarting to see a consensus emerge about theaction Congress needs to take.

The vast majority of Americans—including amajority of gun owners—support requiringcriminal background checks for anyone tryingto buy a gun. So right now Democrats and Re-publicans in the Senate are working on a billthat would ban anyone from selling a gun tosomebody legally prohibited from owning one.That’s common sense. There’s no reason whywe can’t get that done. That is not a liberal ideaor a conservative idea, it’s not a Democratic orRepublican idea, that is a smart idea. We wantto keep those guns out of hands of folks whoshouldn’t have them.

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Senators from both parties have also cometogether and proposed a bill that would crackdown on people who buy guns only to turnthem around and sell them to criminals. It’s abill that would keep more guns off the streetand out of the hands of people with the intentof doing harm.

And by the way, in addition to reducing vio-lence on the streets, it would also make life alot easier and a lot safer for the people standingbehind me here today.

We shouldn’t stop there. We should restorethe ban on military-style assault weapons and a10-round limit for magazines. And that de-serves a vote in Congress, because weapons ofwar have no place on our streets or in ourschools or threatening our law enforcement of-ficers. Our law enforcement officers shouldnever be outgunned on the streets.

But we also know that if we’re going to solvethe problem of gun violence, then we’ve got tolook at root causes as well. That means weshould make it easier for young people to getaccess to mental health treatment. We shouldhelp communities like this one keep more copson the beat. And since Congress hasn’t con-firmed a director of the Bureau of Alcohol, To-bacco and Firearms in 6 years, they shouldconfirm your U.S. attorney from Minnesota,Todd Jones, who is here today and who I’venominated for this post.

These are commonsense measures support-ed by Democrats, Republicans, and Indepen-dents, and many of them are responsible gunowners. And we’re seeing Members of Con-gress from both parties put aside their differ-ences and work together to make many ofthem a reality.

But if there’s one thing that I’ve learnedover the last 4 years, it’s that you can’t count onanything in Washington until it’s done. Andnothing is done yet. There’s been a lot of talk, alot of conversation, a lot of publicity, but wehaven’t actually taken concrete steps yet.

Last week, the Senate held its first hearingsince Newtown on the need to address gun vio-lence and the best way to move forward, andthe first people to offer testimony were GabbyGiffords and her husband Mark Kelly. They

talked about how a complex problem like thishas no single solution, but if we still had a 10-round limit on magazines, for example, thegunman who shot Gabby may never have beenable to inflict 33 gunshot wounds in 15 sec-onds. Fifteen seconds, 33 rounds fired. Someof the six people who lost their lives that day inTucson might still be with us.

Now, changing the status quo is never easy;this will be no exception. The only way we canreduce gun violence in this country is if theAmerican people decide it’s important. If youdecide it’s important. If parents and teachers,police officers and pastors, hunters and sports-men, Americans of every background stand upand say this time it’s got to be different, we’vesuffered too much pain to stand by and donothing.

And by the way, it’s really important for usto engage with folks who don’t agree with us oneverything, because we hope that we can findsome areas where we do agree. And we have torecognize that there are going to be regionaldifferences and geographic differences. Theexperience that people have of guns in an ur-ban neighborhood may not be the same as in arural community.

But we know, for example, from polling thatuniversal background checks are universallysupported, just about, by gun owners. The ma-jority of gun owners, overwhelming majority ofgun owners, think that’s a good idea. So ifwe’ve got lobbyists in Washington claiming tospeak for gun owners saying something differ-ent, we need to go to the source and reach outto people directly. We can’t allow those filtersto get in the way of common sense.

That’s why I need everybody who’s listeningto keep the pressure on your Member of Con-gress to do the right thing. Ask them if theysupport commonsense reforms like requiringuniversal background checks or restoring theban on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Tell them there’s no legis-lation to eliminate all guns, there’s no legisla-tion being proposed to subvert the SecondAmendment. Tell them specifically what we’retalking about, things that the majority of Amer-icans, when they’re asked, support. And tell

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them now is the time for action. That we’re notgoing to wait until the next Newtown or thenext Aurora. We’re not going to wait until afterwe lose more innocent Americans on streetcorners all across the country. We’re not goingto wait until somebody else’s father or son aremurdered.

Some of the officers here today know whatit’s like to look into the eyes of a parent or agrandparent, a brother or a sister who has justlost a loved one to an act of violence; to see thepain and the heartbreak from wondering whythis precious life, this piece of your heart wasin the wrong place at the wrong time. It chang-es you. You’re not the same afterwards.

And obviously, whatever that experience islike is nothing compared to the experience thatthose families are actually going through. Andit makes you realize that if there’s even onething we can do to keep our children and ourcommunity safe, if there’s just one step we can

take to prevent more families from feelingwhat they feel after they’ve lost a loved one,we’ve got an obligation to take that step. We’vegot an obligation to give our police officers andour communities the tools they need to makesome of the same progress that’s been madehere in Minneapolis.

There won’t be perfect solutions. We’re notgoing to save every life. But we can make a dif-ference. And that’s our responsibility as Ameri-cans. And that’s what I’ll do every single day aslong I’ve got the honor of serving as your Pres-ident.

So thank you. God bless you. God blessthese United States of America. Thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 1:46 p.m. In hisremarks, he referred to former Rep. GabrielleD. Giffords and her husband Mark E. Kelly;and Jared L. Loughner, convicted gunman inthe January 8, 2011, shootings in Tucson, AZ.

Message to the Congress on Continuation of the National Emergency WithRespect to the Situation in or in Relation to Côte d’IvoireFebruary 4, 2013

To the Congress of the United States:

Section 202(d) of the National EmergenciesAct (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)) provides for the auto-matic termination of a national emergency, un-less, within 90 days prior to the anniversarydate of its declaration, the President publishesin the Federal Register and transmits to theCongress a notice stating that the emergency isto continue in effect beyond the anniversarydate. In accordance with this provision, I havesent to the Federal Register for publication theenclosed notice stating that the national emer-gency declared in Executive Order 13396 ofFebruary 7, 2006, with respect to the situationin or in relation to Côte d’Ivoire is to continuein effect beyond February 7, 2013.

The situation in or in relation to Côted’Ivoire, which has been addressed by theUnited Nations Security Council in Resolution1572 of November 15, 2004, and subsequentresolutions, has resulted in the massacre of

large numbers of civilians, widespread humanrights abuses, significant political violence andunrest, and fatal attacks against internationalpeacekeeping forces. Since the inauguration ofPresident Alassane Ouattara in May 2011, theGovernment of Côte d’Ivoire has made prog-ress in advancing democratic freedoms andeconomic development. While the Govern-ment of Côte d’Ivoire and its people continueto make progress towards peace and prosperi-ty, the situation in or in relation to Côted’Ivoire continues to pose an unusual and ex-traordinary threat to the national security andforeign policy of the United States. For thesereasons, I have determined that it is necessaryto continue the national emergency and relat-ed measures blocking the property of certainpersons contributing to the conflict in Côted’Ivoire.

BARACK OBAMA

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The White House,February 4, 2013.

NOTE: The notice is listed in Appendix D atthe end of this volume.

Remarks on the Federal BudgetFebruary 5, 2013

Good afternoon, everybody.I wanted to say a few words about the loom-

ing deadlines and decisions that we face on ourbudget and on our deficit, and these are deci-sions that will have real and lasting impacts onthe strength and pace of our recovery.

Economists and business leaders fromacross the spectrum have said that our econo-my is poised for progress in 2013. And we’veseen signs of this progress over the last severalweeks. Home prices continue to climb. Carsales are at a 5-year high. Manufacturing hasbeen strong. And we’ve created more than 6million jobs in the last 35 months.

But we’ve also seen the effects that politicaldysfunction can have on our economic prog-ress. The drawn-out process for resolving thefiscal cliff hurt consumer confidence. Thethreat of massive automatic cuts have alreadystarted to affect business decisions. So we’vebeen reminded that while it’s critical for us tocut wasteful spending, we can’t just cut ourway to prosperity. Deep, indiscriminate cuts tothings like education and training, energy andnational security will cost us jobs, and it willslow down our recovery. It’s not the right thingto do for the economy; it’s not the right thingfor folks who are out there still looking forwork.

And the good news is, this doesn’t have tohappen. For all the drama and disagreementsthat we’ve had over the past few years, Demo-crats and Republicans have still been able tocome together and cut the deficit by more than$2.5 trillion through a mix of spending cuts andhigher rates on taxes for the wealthy. A bal-anced approach has achieved more than $2.5trillion in deficit reduction. That’s more thanhalfway towards the $4 trillion in deficit reduc-tion that economists and elected officials fromboth parties believe is required to stabilize ourdebt. So we’ve made progress. And I still be-

lieve that we can finish the job with a balancedmix of spending cuts and more tax reform.

The proposals that I put forward during thefiscal cliff negotiations in discussions withSpeaker Boehner and others are still verymuch on the table. I just want to repeat: Thedeals that I put forward, the balanced ap-proach of spending cuts and entitlement re-form and tax reform that I put forward are stillon the table.

I’ve offered sensible reforms to Medicareand other entitlements, and my health care pro-posals achieve the same amount of savings bythe beginning of the next decade as the reformsthat have been proposed by the bipartisanBowles-Simpson fiscal commission. These re-forms would reduce our Government’s bill——

[At this point, there was a loud crash.]

What’s up, cameraman? [Laughter] Comeon, guys. [Laughter] They’re breaking my flowall the time. [Laughter]

These reforms would reduce our Govern-ment’s bills by reducing the cost of health care,not shifting all those costs on to middle classseniors or the working poor or children withdisabilities, but nevertheless, achieving thekinds of savings that we’re looking for.

But in order to achieve the full $4 trillion indeficit reductions that is the stated goal ofeconomists and our elected leaders, thesemodest reforms in our social insurance pro-grams have to go hand in hand with a processof tax reform so that the wealthiest individualsand corporations can’t take advantage of loop-holes and deductions that aren’t available tomost Americans.

Leaders in both parties have already identi-fied the need to get rid of these loopholes anddeductions. There’s no reason why we shouldkeep them at a time when we’re trying to cutdown on our deficit. And if we are going to

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close these loopholes, then there’s no reasonwe should use the savings that we obtain andturn around and spend that on new tax breaksfor the wealthiest or for corporations. If we’reserious about paying down the deficit, the sav-ings we achieve from tax reform should beused to pay down the deficit and, potentially,to make our businesses more competitive.

Now, I think this balanced mix of spendingcuts and tax reform is the best way to finish thejob of deficit reduction. The overwhelmingmajority of the American people—Democratsand Republicans, as well as Independents—have the same view. And both the House andthe Senate are working towards budget pro-posals that I hope reflect this balanced ap-proach. Having said that, I know that a fullbudget may not be finished before March 1,and unfortunately, that’s the date when a seriesof harmful automatic cuts to job-creating in-vestments and defense spending—also knownas the sequester—are scheduled to take effect.

So if Congress can’t act immediately on abigger package, if they can’t get a bigger pack-age done by the time the sequester is sched-uled to go into effect, then I believe that theyshould at least pass a smaller package of spend-ing cuts and tax reforms that would delay theeconomically damaging effects of the seques-ter for a few more months until Congress findsa way to replace these cuts with a smarter solu-tion.

There is no reason that the jobs of thousandsof Americans who work in national security or

education or clean energy, not to mention thegrowth of the entire economy should be put injeopardy just because folks in Washingtoncouldn’t come together to eliminate a few spe-cial interest tax loopholes or Government pro-grams that we agree need some reform.

Congress is already working towards a bud-get that would permanently replace the se-quester. At the very least, we should give themthe chance to come up with this budget insteadof making indiscriminate cuts now that willcost us jobs and significantly slow down our re-covery.

So let me just repeat: Our economy rightnow is headed in the right direction, and it willstay that way as long as there aren’t any moreself-inflicted wounds coming out of Washing-ton. So let’s keep on chipping away at thisproblem together, as Democrats and Republi-cans, to give our workers and our businessesthe support that they need to thrive in theweeks and months ahead.

Thanks very much. And I know that you’regoing to have a whole bunch of other ques-tions. And that’s why I hired this guy, Jay Car-ney—[laughter]—to take those questions.


NOTE: The President spoke at 1:16 p.m. in theJames S. Brady Press Briefing Room at theWhite House. In his remarks, he referred toErskine B. Bowles and Alan K. Simpson, Co-chairs, National Commission on Fiscal Re-sponsibility and Reform.

Statement on the 20th Anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave ActFebruary 5, 2013

Twenty years ago today, the Family andMedical Leave Act became law, and we took agroundbreaking step forward for America’sworkers and families. Before the FMLA, tak-ing time off to care for yourself or a familymember may have meant risking a job or de-railing a career, especially for women, who of-ten faced discrimination and stereotypes in theworkplace. But this law helped level the play-ing field by extending protections to bothwomen and men so that more workers could

meet their responsibilities to themselves andtheir families without jeopardizing their liveli-hood.

Two decades later, we should take pride inthe law’s success, and I am proud of the workmy administration has done to expand the FM-LA’s protections to military families and airlineworkers. But we also know there is still morework to do. Not all employees are covered bythe law, and oftentimes workers cannot affordto take unpaid leave. So as we mark this anni-

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versary, let us also recommit ourselves to thevalues that inspired the law and redouble our

efforts on behalf of fairer workplaces andhealthier, more secure families.

Statement on the Resignation of Subra Suresh as Director of the NationalScience FoundationFebruary 5, 2013

We have been very fortunate to have SubraSuresh guiding the National Science Founda-tion for the last 2 years. Subra has shownhimself to be a consummate scientist and en-gineer, beholden to evidence and committedto upholding the highest scientific standards.

He has also done his part to make sure theAmerican people benefit from advances intechnology and opened up more opportuni-ties for women, minorities, and other under-represented groups. I am grateful for his ser-vice.

Remarks on the Nomination of Sarah M.R. “Sally” Jewell To Be Secretary ofthe InteriorFebruary 6, 2013

The President. Hello, everybody. Pleasehave a seat. Everybody’s so formal—[laugh-ter]—or maybe it’s just after lunch. Well, goodafternoon, everybody.

Ken Salazar likes to say that the Departmentof the Interior is actually the Department ofAmerica. Other members of my Cabinet maynot entirely agree with that statement, but youcan see where he’s coming from. The Secre-tary of the Interior is in charge of overseeing500 million acres of public land—includingplaces like Yellowstone and the Grand Can-yon—and protecting our natural heritage forour children and our grandchildren and theirchildren to come.

But the job also requires keeping an eye onAmerica’s future and making smart decisionsabout how we create jobs and help businessesgrow and put ourselves on a path towards ener-gy independence. And that’s not always an easybalancing act, but with enthusiasm and skilland dedication, that’s exactly what Ken Salazarhas done over the last 4 years.

We were just reminiscing a little bit. I’veknown Ken since we were both running for theSenate together and became the only two in-coming Democrats in our Senate class. PeteRouse remembers this. It was a lonely time.[Laughter] We actually lived in the same build-ing when we first arrived in Washington. And,

Ken, you’ll recall it was a little discouraging be-cause basically everyone else who lived therewas 20 or 25. [Laughter] So we were the twogeriatrics in this building.

But I came to appreciate quickly not just hisfriendship—which, if you’ve got Ken Salazar asa friend, you’ve got a real friend. Not only did Icome to appreciate his jump shot—he is sur-prisingly quick on the court—[laughter]—butalso his patriotism and his belief that we’ve gota responsibility to care for the land with whichwe’ve been blessed.

And it’s not surprising that Ken feels thisway; after all, his ancestors were living here be-fore the Mayflower set sail. As he explains it—and relevant, as we are working to get immi-gration reform passed—his family did not crossthe border, the border crossed them. [Laugh-ter] And that’s why, when I needed somebodyto lead Interior, I didn’t have to look very far.

Since being confirmed, Ken has crackeddown on waste. He’s improved the manage-ment of the Department to make it work bet-ter for the American people. He has ushered ina new era of conservation for our land, our wa-ter, and our wildlife. He’s established 7 newnational parks, 10 new national wildlife refug-es. He has opened more public land and waterfor safe and responsible energy production, notjust gas and oil, but also wind and solar,

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creating thousands of new jobs and nearly dou-bling our use of renewable energy in this coun-try. He has helped to forge what is probablythe strongest working relationship with triballeaders that the Federal Government has seenin modern times. And when the unexpectedhas happened—like the Gulf oil spill or Hurri-cane Sandy—he has been on the ground mak-ing sure that people get help right away and wedeal with these challenges as professionally aspossible.

So I really like Ken Salazar, if you haven’tgotten the point. [Laughter] Ken is now readyto head back to Colorado and spend more timewith Hope and his family. And so, in additionto just saying thank you, Ken, for the extraordi-nary work that you’ve done, Ken is also goingto have the opportunity to introduce his suc-cessor. And I am extraordinarily proud today tonominate another strong and capable leader totake the reins at Interior, and that is Ms. SallyJewell.

In high school, Sally’s aptitude test showedshe had a knack for mechanical reasoning andspatial ability. [Laughter] We checked. We dothorough vetting before nominations. [Laugh-ter] Of course, her recommended professionsafter she took these tests were to be a nurse ora teacher, just like all the other girls in herclass. And it wasn’t until she was an undergrad-uate at the University of Washington studyingto be a dentist when Sally realized her boy-friend’s homework was more interesting thanhers, and she decided to become an engineer.

After graduation, Sally went on to work inthe oil fields of Oklahoma and Colorado. Later,she brought her experience in the energy sec-tor to banking, where she spent 19 years deter-mining what makes companies succeed andfail. And most recently, as the CEO of REI, aposition that she’s held for the last 8 years, Sal-ly has helped turn a stalling outdoor retailer in-to one of America’s most successful and envi-ronmentally conscious companies. Last year,REI donated almost $4 million to protect trailsand parks, and 20 percent of the electricityused in their stores comes from renewablesources.

So even as Sally has spent the majority ofher career outside of Washington—where, Imight add, the majority of our interior is locat-ed—[laughter]—she is an expert on the energyand climate issues that are going to shape ourfuture. She is committed to building our na-tion-to-nation relationship with Indian Coun-try. She knows the link between conservationand good jobs. She knows that there’s no con-tradiction between being good stewards of theland and our economic progress, that in fact,those two things need to go hand in hand. Shehas shown that a company with more than $1billion in sales can do the right thing for ourplanet.

Sally’s broad expertise and set of values Iknow are going to serve her well as she takeson these new challenges. She’s got a wonderfuland supportive family, who, I understand, en-joy the great outdoors just like she does. Sothey’ve got a vested interest in making surethat the Department of the Interior is doingthe right thing. And when Sally is confirmed,I’m willing to bet that she will be the first Sec-retary of the Interior who frequently hikesMailbox Peak in her native Washington Stateand who once spent a month climbing moun-tains in Antarctica, which is just not somethingI’d think of doing—[laughter]—because itseems like it would be cold, and I was born inHawaii. [Laughter]

So for Sally, the toughest part of this job willprobably be sitting behind a desk. I suspectshe’ll want to get out of the office quite a bit.But again, I want to thank Ken Salazar and theentire Salazar family for their extraordinaryservice, their extraordinary friendship. TheDepartment of the Interior is stronger, thiscountry is stronger, our natural resources arein a better place because of his extraordinaryservice. I could not be more thrilled with thework that Sally, I know, is going to do in fol-lowing that path that Ken has carved. I expectthe Senate to confirm her as quickly as possi-ble.

And with that, I’d like to invite both of themto say a few words, starting with my dearfriend, Ken Salazar.

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Secretary of the Interior Kenneth L. Salazar.Thank you, Mr. President. Is it the same one Ihave?

The President. No, that’s Sally’s. [Laughter]I just didn’t want to get them mixed up.

[At this point, Secretary Salazar and Secre-tary-designate Jewell each made brief remarks,with Secretary-designate Jewell concluding asfollows.]

Secretary-designate Jewell. I’m excited totake this new challenge. Thank you so much.

The President. You’re going to do great.Secretary-designate Jewell. Thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 2:06 p.m. in theState Dining Room at the White House. In hisremarks, he referred to Counselor to the Presi-dent Peter M. Rouse, in his former capacity asthe President’s chief of staff during his tenurein the U.S. Senate; and Esperanza “Hope”Salazar, wife of Secretary Salazar. The tran-script released by the Office of the Press Sec-retary also included the remarks of SecretarySalazar and Secretary-designate Jewell.

Remarks at the National Prayer BreakfastFebruary 7, 2013

Thank you very much. Please have a seat.Mark, thank you for that introduction. I

thought he was going to talk about my grayhair. [Laughter] It is true that my daughtersare gorgeous. [Laughter] That’s because mywife is gorgeous. And my goal is to improve mygene pool.

To Mark and Jeff, thank you for your won-derful work on behalf of this breakfast. To allof those who work so hard to put this together,to the heads of state, Members of Congress,and my Cabinet, religious leaders, and distin-guished guests, to our outstanding speaker, toall the faithful who’ve journeyed to our Capital:Michelle and I are truly honored to be withyou this morning.

But before I begin, I hope people don’tmind me taking a moment of personal privi-lege. I want to say a quick word about a closefriend of mine and yours, Joshua DuBois.Now, some of you may not know Joshua, butJoshua has been at my side—in work and inprayer—for years now. He is a young reverend,but wise in years. He’s worked on my staff.He’s done an outstanding job as the head ofour Faith-Based Office.

Every morning, he sends me, via e-mail, adaily meditation: a snippet of Scripture for meto reflect on. And it has meant the world to me.And despite my pleas, tomorrow will be his lastday in the White House. So this morning Iwant to publicly thank Joshua for all that he’s

done, and I know that everybody joins me inwishing him all the best in his future endeav-ors, including getting married.

It says something about us—as a nation, as apeople—that every year, for 61 years now, thisgreat prayerful tradition has endured. It sayssomething about us that every year, in times oftriumph and in tragedy, in calm and in crisis,we come together, not as Democrats or Re-publicans, but as brothers and sisters and aschildren of God. Every year, in the midst of allour busy and noisy lives, we set aside onemorning to gather as one community, united inprayer.

And we do so because we’re a nation everhumbled by our history and we’re ever atten-tive to our imperfections, particularly the im-perfections of our President. We come togeth-er because we’re a people of faith. We knowthat faith is something that must be cultivated.Faith is not a possession, faith is a process.

I was struck by the passage that was readearlier from the Book of Hebrews: “Withoutfaith, it is impossible to please God, becauseanyone who comes to Him must believe thatHe exists and He rewards those who diligentlyseek Him.” He rewards those who diligentlyseek Him, not just for one moment or one day,but for every moment and every day.

As Christians, we place our faith in the nail-scarred hands of Jesus Christ. But so many oth-er Americans also know the close embrace of

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faith: Muslims and Jews, Hindus and Sikhs.And all Americans, whether religious or secu-lar, have a deep abiding faith in this Nation.

Recently, I had occasion to reflect on thepower of faith. A few weeks ago, during the In-auguration, I was blessed to place my hand onthe Bibles of two great Americans, two menwhose faith still echoes today. One was the Bi-ble owned by President Abraham Lincoln, andthe other, the Bible owned by Dr. Martin Lu-ther King, Jr. As I prepared to take the sacredoath, I thought about these two men, and Ithought of how, in times of joy and pain anduncertainty, they turned to their Bibles to seekthe wisdom of God’s words and thought ofhow, for as long as we’ve been a nation, somany of our leaders—our Presidents and ourpreachers, our legislators and our jurists—havedone the same. Each one faced their own chal-lenges, each one finding in Scripture their ownlessons from the Lord.

And as I was looking out on the crowd dur-ing Inauguration, I thought of Dr. King. Weoften think of him standing tall in front of theendless crowds, stirring the Nation’s con-science with a bellowing voice and a mightydream. But I also thought of his doubts and hisfears, for those moments came as well: thelonely moments when he was left to confrontthe presence of long-festering injustice and un-disguised hate; imagined the darkness and thedoubt that must have surrounded him when hewas in that Birmingham jail, and the anger thatsurely rose up in him the night his house wasbombed with his wife and child inside, and thegrief that shook him as he eulogized those fourprecious girls taken from this Earth as theygathered in a house of God.

And I was reminded that, yes, Dr. King wasa man of audacious hope and a man of relent-less optimism. But he was always—he was alsoa man occasionally brought to his knees in fearand in doubt and in helplessness. And in thosemoments, we know that he retreated alone to aquiet space so he could reflect and he couldpray and he could grow his faith.

And I imagine he turned to certain versesthat we now read. I imagine him reflecting onIsaiah: that we wait upon the Lord; that the

Lord shall renew those who wait; that theyshall mount up with wings as eagles, and theyshall run and not be weary, and they shall walkand not faint.

We know that in Scripture, Dr. King foundstrength, and in the Bible, he found conviction.In the words of God, he found a truth aboutthe dignity of man that, once realized, he neverrelinquished.

We know Lincoln had such moments aswell. To see this country torn apart, to see hisfellow citizens waging a ferocious war that pit-ted brother against brother, family against fam-ily, that was as heavy a burden as any Presidentwill ever have to bear.

We know Lincoln constantly met withtroops and visited the wounded and honoredthe dead. And the toll mounted day after day,week after week. And you can see in the linesof his face the toll that the war cost him. But hedid not break. Even as he buried a belovedson, he did not break. Even as he struggled toovercome melancholy, despair, grief, he didnot break.

And we know that he surely found solace inScripture, that he could acknowledge his owndoubts, that he was humbled in the face of theLord. And that, I think, allowed him to becomea better leader. It’s what allowed him, in whatmay be one of the greatest speeches ever writ-ten, in his Second Inaugural, to describe theUnion and the Confederate soldier alike: bothreading the same Bible, both prayed to thesame God, but “the prayers of both could not beanswered. That of neither has been answeredfully. The Almighty has His own purposes.”

In Lincoln’s eyes, the power of faith washumbling, allowing us to embrace our limits inknowing God’s will. And as a consequence, hewas able to see God in those who vehementlyopposed him.

Today, the divisions in this country are,thankfully, not as deep or destructive as whenLincoln led, but they are real. The differencesin how we hope to move our Nation forwardare less pronounced than when Kingmarched, but they do exist. And as we debatewhat is right and what is just, what is the sur-est way to create a more hopeful—for our

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children, how we’re going to reduce our defi-cit, what kind of tax plans we’re going to have,how we’re going to make sure that every childis getting a great education. And, Doctor, it isvery encouraging to me that you turned out sowell by your mom not letting you watch TV.I’m going to tell my daughters that when theycomplain. [Laughter] In the midst of all thesedebates, we must keep that same humilitythat Dr. King and Lincoln and Washingtonand all our great leaders understood is at thecore of true leadership.

In a democracy as big and as diverse asours, we will encounter every opinion. Andour task as citizens—whether we are leadersin government or business or spreading theword—is to spend our days with open heartsand open minds, to seek out the truth that ex-ists in an opposing view, and to find the com-mon ground that allows for us as a nation, as apeople, to take real and meaningful action.And we have to do that humbly, for no onecan know the full and encompassing mind ofGod. And we have to do it every day, not justat a prayer breakfast.

I have to say I’ve—this is now our fifth prayerbreakfast, and it is always just a wonderfulevent. But I do worry sometimes that as soon aswe leave the prayer breakfast, everything we’vebeen talking about the whole time at the prayerbreakfast seems to be forgotten, on the sameday of the prayer breakfast. [Laughter] I mean,you’d like to think that the shelf life wasn’t soshort. [Laughter] But I go back to the Oval Of-fice, and I start watching the cable news net-works, and it’s like we didn’t pray. [Laughter]

And so my hope is that humility, that thatcarries over every day, every moment. WhileGod may reveal His plan to us in portions, theexpanse of His plan is for God, and God alone,to understand: “For now we see through aglass, darkly; but then face to face; now I knowin part, but then shall I know even as also I amknown.” Until that moment, until we know andare fully known, all we can do is live our lives ina godly way and assume that those we deal withevery day, including those in an opposing par-ty, they’re groping their way, doing their best,

going through the same struggles we’re goingthrough.

And in that pursuit, we are blessed withguidance. God has told us how He wishes forus to spend our days. His Commandments arethere to be followed. Jesus is there to guide us,the Holy Spirit to help us. Love the Lord Godwith all your heart and with all your soul andwith all your mind. Love your neighbor asyourself. See in everyone, even in those withwhom you disagree most vehemently, the faceof God. For we are all His children.

That’s what I thought of as I took the oathof office a few weeks ago and touched thoseBibles: the comfort that Scripture gave Lin-coln and King and so many leaders through-out our history, the verses they cherished, andhow those words of God are there for us aswell, waiting to be read any day that wechoose. I thought about how their faith gavethem the strength to meet the challenges oftheir time, just as our faith can give us thestrength to meet the challenges of ours. Andmost of all, I thought about their humility andhow we don’t seem to live that out the way weshould every day, even when we give lip ser-vice to it.

As President, sometimes I have to search forthe words to console the inconsolable. Some-times I search Scripture to determine how bestto balance life as a President and as a husbandand as a father. I often search for Scripture tofigure out how I can be a better man as well asa better President. And I believe that we areunited in these struggles. But I also believethat we are united in the knowledge of a re-deeming Savior, whose grace is sufficient forthe multitude of our sins and whose love isnever failing.

And most of all, I know that all Americans—men and women of different faiths and, yes,those of no faith that they can name—are, nev-ertheless, joined together in common purpose,believing in something that is bigger than our-selves and the ideals that lie at the heart of ourNation’s founding, that as a people we arebound together.

And so this morning, let us summon thecommon resolve that comes from our faith. Let

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us pray to God that we may be worthy of themany blessings He has bestowed upon our Na-tion. Let us retain that humility not just duringthis hour, but for every hour. And let me sug-gest that those of us with the most power andinfluence need to be the most humble. And letus promise Him and to each other, every day asthe Sun rises over America, that it will rise overa people who are striving to make this a moreperfect Union.

Thank you. God bless you, and God blessthe United States of America.

NOTE: The President spoke at 9:03 a.m. at theWashington Hilton hotel. In his remarks, hereferred to Sens. Mark L. Pryor and JeffersonB. Sessions III, in their capacity as cochairs,and Benjamin S. Carson, director, PediatricNeurosurgery Division of Johns Hopkins Hos-pital, in his capacity as keynote speaker, of theNational Prayer Breakfast.

Remarks at the House Democratic Issues Conference in Leesburg, VirginiaFebruary 7, 2013

Thank you, everybody. Please have a seat.Xavier, thank you for that very gracious intro-duction and your outstanding leadership.

Let me begin by saying that I could not behappier that one of my most important friendsand partners is still leading our Democrats inthe House of Representatives. I love NancyPelosi. Give her a big round of applause. LoveNancy Pelosi. Also, she just generates good-looking grandbabies. [Laughter] They’re all sohandsome and sharp and beautiful.

To Steny Hoyer and Jim Clyburn, as well asXavier and Joe Crowley, thank you so much forthe great work that you guys are doing eachand every day. And to Steve Israel, whoworked tirelessly to bring on 49 new outstand-ing members of this caucus. I am looking for-ward to spending time with all 49 of you. Andhopefully, we’ll be seeing you over at theWhite House and at various events, but obvi-ously, I know that you came here to get some-thing done. And I am looking forward to work-ing with you every single day to make sure thatwe’re doing right by the people who sent ushere.

Now, I actually just changed the formathere. I called an audible, because originally,the way this was scheduled was I was just goingto talk and then I was going to shake somehands, and I thought, since this is not a shybunch, it might make sense for me to takesome questions and some advice I’m sure youguys have for me. [Laughter] So what I’m go-ing to do is I’m just going to make s few points

at the top, and then what I’d like is maybeXavier or Steve or somebody can come uphere, you can call on folks, and we’ll spend alittle time with Q and A before I get a chanceto say hello to everybody.

And part of the reason I want to keep my re-marks short is because I just made a prettylong speech a couple of weeks ago, and I’mabout to make another one next week, and Idon’t want you guys tired of me. [Laughter]

But obviously, I’m deeply grateful to havebeen reelected, and I’m humbled by the sup-port that I received from all across the country.And I said at the National Prayer Breakfast thismorning—and I was telling the truth—I genu-inely am humbled. The fascinating thing aboutthis job is the longer you’re in it, the morehumble you get and the more you recognizeyour own imperfections. And you try to makeup with effort and hard work those gaps inyour personality or your intelligence that be-come so apparent to everybody on the dailynews every day. [Laughter]

But even as I think it’s important to be hum-bled by the privilege of this office and the priv-ilege of serving in the United States Congress,even as it’s important not to read too much intoany particular political victory—because thiscountry is big, it is diverse, it is contentious,and we don’t have a monopoly on wisdom, andwe need to remember that—despite all thosethings, I think it’s also important for us to feelconfident and bold about the values we careabout and what we stand for.

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And I tried to do that in my Inaugurationspeech, and I’m hoping that we all do that overthe next 4 years. Because when I think aboutwhat it means to be a Democrat in this day andage, I start with the basic proposition that weare all created equal, that we’re all endowed byour Creator with certain inalienable rights.And my governing philosophy and my interestin public service grows out of how we makethat Union more perfect for more people, dayin, day out.

And that starts with an economy that worksfor everybody. Throughout my campaign, andthroughout many of your campaigns, we talkedabout this bedrock notion that our economysucceeds and our economy grows when every-body is getting a fair shot and everybody is get-ting a fair shake and everybody is playing bythe same rules. That we have an economy inwhich we’re growing a vibrant middle class;that it grows from the middle out and the bot-tom up, not from the top down.

And over the next 4 years, as I work with thiscaucus and every caucus, the question I willask myself on every item, every issue is, is thishelping to make sure that everybody has got afair shot and everybody is doing their fair shareand everybody is playing by the same rules.Because I believe that is a growth agenda—notjust an equity agenda, not just a fairness agen-da—that is a growth agenda. That is when wehave grown fastest.

And that means that what you’ll hear fromme next week, I’m going to be talking aboutmaking sure that we’re focused on job creationhere in the United States of America. It meansthat we’re focused on education and that everyyoung person is equipped with the skills theyneed to compete in the 21st century. It meansthat we’ve got an energy agenda that can makeus less dependent on foreign oil, but also thatwe’re cultivating the kind of clean energy strat-egy that will maintain our leadership well intothe future.

It means that we’re going to talk about, yes,deficits and taxes and sequesters and potentialGovernment shutdowns and debt ceiling. We’lltalk about that stuff, but all from the perspec-tive of how are we making sure that somebody

who works hard in this country—a cop or ateacher or a construction worker or a recep-tionist—that they can make it if they work hardand that their kids can make it and dream evenbigger dreams than they have achieved.

And obviously, a lot of what we’ll be workingon initially over the next few weeks is going tobe on how do we deal with the sequester issue.And I just want to make this quick point. I hada press conference this week in which I reiter-ated, I am prepared, eager, and anxious to do abig deal, a big package that ends this gover-nance by crisis, where every 2 weeks or every 2months or every 6 months, we are threateningthis hard-won recovery, where finally housingis starting to pick up, and commercial real es-tate is starting to do better, and the unemploy-ment numbers are still too high, but we’re see-ing some job growth, and businesses are in-vesting and manufacturing is doing well; andwe continue to have these self-inflicted criseshere in Washington that suddenly leads every-body to tap the brakes.

And so what I said this week was, I want todo something big to provide certainty andsteadiness for the economy and for Americanfamilies. And that means a balanced packagethat will reduce our long-term deficit and debt,but that still allows us to invest in those thingsthat we need to grow right now, because that’salso a deficit reduction agenda, us growingfaster.

And in order to have a balanced package,that means that—we’ve already done a lot ofcuts. We’ve done some revenue now. And sothe rest of the way moving forward, we can dosome additional reforms and make our healthcare programs work better and make themmore efficient, and we can cut out programsthat we don’t need. But it also means thatwe’ve got to be able to close some tax loop-holes and deductions that the average Ameri-can cannot take advantage of, to raise the reve-nue to actually do the job in a way that allowsus to continue to grow.

Now, the reason this is relevant is because Igather—and I haven’t gotten this from first-hand sources, but from secondhand sources inthe press—that our friends on the other side of

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the aisle, their position is: We’re concernedabout the sequester. We recognize that justcutting the Federal spending with a meat ax, asopposed to scalpel, is probably damaging; itwill damage our national security; it will dam-age our educational system. We’ll have kidsgetting kicked off of Head Start. It will meanpeople who have disabled kids suddenly havingless help.

They recognize that the sequester is a badidea, but what they’ve suggested is that the on-ly way to replace it now is for us to cut SocialSecurity, cut Medicare, and not close a singleloophole, not raise any additional revenue fromthe wealthiest Americans or corporations whohave a lot of lawyers and accountants who areable to maneuver and manage and work andgame the system.

And I have to tell you, if that’s an argumentthat they want to have before the court of pub-lic opinion, that is an argument I’m more thanwilling to engage in. Because I believe theAmerican people understand that yes, we needto reduce the deficit, but it shouldn’t just be onthe backs of seniors; it shouldn’t just be on thebacks of young people who are trying to get acollege education; it should not just be on thebacks of parents who are trying to give theirkids a better start in life; that all of us have toparticipate; and that if, in fact, it’s importantfor us to make sure we’ve got a strong nationaldefense and that we reduce our spending in asmart way, we sure as heck should be willing toask those of us who are luckiest in this societyto close a few loopholes and deductions thatthe average American doesn’t get.

And if that’s the choice that we’ve got, Ipromise you we can win that debate, becausewe’re on the right side of this argument. And Iexpect that you guys will be with me on that.

Last point I’ll make: Obviously, economicgrowth is a priority, but making sure that we’reopening up opportunity for everybody is alsoimportant. And that’s why immigration reformis so critical. I said this is going to be a top pri-ority and an early priority of my administration.I am heartened to see Republicans and Demo-crats starting to be in a serious conversationabout getting this done. Now is the time.

I recognize that the politics aren’t alwayseasy. There are regional variations. I under-stand that in some places this may end up be-ing a tough issue. But what I also know is thatpart of our strength is our youth and our dyna-mism and our history of attracting talent fromall around the globe. And I’ve seen that talentin some of the young DREAMers that I’ve metwho want to serve in our military, want to getan engineering degree, want to help build thiscountry, want to start a business. And I want tomake sure that that American future is se-cured.

So we need to get immigration reform done.And I’m going to be pushing hard to get itdone early.

And we’re also going to have to make surethat we keep the American people safe, whichmeans that we’re going to continue to work,even as we draw down our troops in Afghani-stan, to go after those who would attack Ameri-ca.

And we’ve got to be mindful about steps wecan take to end the cycle of gun violence in thiscountry. And we should do so recognizing that,again, there are regional differences here, andwe should respect those, and guns mean some-thing different for somebody who grew up on afarm in a rural community than somebody whogrew up in an inner city, and they’re differentrealities, and we have to respect them. Butwhat we know is the majority of responsiblegun owners recognize we cannot have a situa-tion in which 20 more of our children or a 100more of our children or a 1,000 more of ourchildren are shot and killed in a senseless fash-ion, and that there are some commonsensesteps that we can take and build a consensusaround. And we cannot be—we cannot shyaway from taking those steps.

So the bottom line is this, people: We’ve gota lot of work to do. What we’ve learned overthe last 4 years—at least what I’ve learned overthe last 4 years—is that it won’t be smooth; itwon’t be simple. There will be frustrations.There will be times when you guys are mad atme—[laughter]—and I’ll occasionally readabout it. But as long as we keep in mind whywe came here in the first place, as long as we

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think back to whatever inspired each of us tosay, maybe I can give something back, maybe Ican make a difference, maybe my purposehere on Earth is not just thinking about what’sin it for me, but thinking about what’s in it forthe broader community—for my neighbor-hood, for my State, for my country—if we keepthat in mind every single day, I have no doubtthat we will continue the extraordinary prog-ress that we’ve made already.

And as a byproduct of doing that good workand keeping that focus, I would expect that Nan-cy Pelosi is going to be Speaker again pretty soon.

All right? So thank you very much, every-body. God bless you. Thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 12:49 p.m. atLansdowne Resort and Spa. In his remarks, hereferred to Rep. Xavier Becerra, in his capacityas chairman, and Rep. Joseph Crowley, in hiscapacity as vice chair, of the House Democrat-ic Caucus; and Rep. Steven J. Israel, in his ca-pacity as chairman, and Rep. James E. Cly-burn, in his capacity as national mobilizationchair, of the Democratic Congressional Cam-paign Committee.

Remarks at an Armed Forces Farewell Tribute in Honor of Secretary ofDefense Leon E. Panetta at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, VirginiaFebruary 8, 2013

The President. In the years between theworld wars, a young married couple in Italypacked up what few belongings that they hadand boarded a boat for a new world. Theypassed under the Statue of Liberty and wentthrough the lines of Ellis Island.

Carmelo and Carmelina Panetta had nomoney and spoke little English. But they had adream of a better life. They worked hard. Theywent west to California. They started a familyand taught their sons that if they studied andworked, if they gave back to this country, thatthey, too, could share in America’s promise.

Today we pay tribute to their son Leon Pa-netta, a man who hasn’t simply lived up to theAmerican Dream, but has helped to protect itfor all of us.

Leon, our presence here today—Membersof Congress, Deputy Secretary Carter, GeneralDempsey and the members of the Joint Chiefs,service secretaries, and the men and women ofthe greatest military that the world has everknown—all this is a reflection of our personalappreciation to you and the gratitude of a na-tion that you have helped to keep strong and tokeep free.

By the time I came to office, Leon Panettawas already regarded as one of our Nation’sfinest public servants, with an extraordinary ca-reer across more than four decades. He and

Sylvia had settled into the good life: their beau-tiful Monterey, their beloved walnut farm.Now, Leon will deny it, but I hear he wasgrowing restless; he wanted less time on thetractor and enjoying good weather and moretime in the office; less time in California, moretime in Washington, interacting with the WestWing and Members of Congress. Whowouldn’t? [Laughter] And so we gave him hiswish.

Leon, I’ll always be grateful that you agreedto return to public service. And, Sylvia, I am sograteful that you put up with him. Your leader-ship of the CIA will forever be rememberedfor the blows that we struck against Al Qaidaand perhaps the greatest intelligence successin American history: delivering justice to Usa-ma bin Laden.

By then, Leon had every right to expect thathe could return home. And I’ll admit thatwhen we first asked him to stay on and lead thePentagon, his answer was simple: No. [Laugh-ter] But I kept asking. I am persistent; that’show Michelle married me. I just kept at it. Andit is a testament to Leon’s patriotism, to hissense of duty, that he agreed to serve on thisone last tour.

And perhaps it was the memory, duringWorld War II, of his parents opening up theirhomes to GIs headed for the Pacific. Perhaps it

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was because Leon served himself, as a younglieutenant in the Army. Perhaps it was the ex-perience of watching his youngest son deployto Afghanistan. What we do know is this: Asour Nation’s 23d Secretary of Defense, everyaction Leon Panetta has taken, every decisionthat he has made, has been with one goal inmind: taking care of our sons and our daugh-ters in uniform and keeping America safe.

And just think of the progress under hiswatch. Because we ended the war in Iraq andare winding down the war in Afghanistan, ourtroops are coming home and next year our warin Afghanistan will come to an end. We’ve putthe core of Al Qaida on the path to defeat, andwe’ve been relentless against its affiliates. Be-cause we have a sacred obligation to ourtroops—to take care of them like they’ve takencare of us—we’re improving treatment for ourwounded warriors, stepping up support for ourmilitary families, and doing more than ever tohelp our newest veterans transition to civilianlife, and that includes the jobs our veteransneed as we do some nation-building here athome.

Because we believe in opportunity for allAmericans, the tenure of Secretary Leon Pa-netta, this son of immigrants, this first-genera-tion American, will be remembered for historicprogress in welcoming more of our fellow citi-zens to military service; for the formal and finalrepeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell”; for openingcombat roles to our incredible women in uni-form; in short, for making our military and ourNation that much stronger.

Because we forged a new defense strategy,we’ll be better prepared for the future, betterprepared to meet the threats that we face with-out larger military footprints, better preparedagainst cyber attacks, better prepared to ad-vance our interests in the Asia-Pacific region,and after more than a decade of war, betterprepared for the broadest range of contingen-cies.

Keeping us prepared will be the mission ofmy nominee to be the next Secretary of De-fense: a combat veteran with the experience,judgment, and vision that our troops deserve,Chuck Hagel.

And since we are now just weeks away fromdeep, automatic cuts to Federal spending, in-cluding defense, let me say this: There is noreason—no reason—for that to happen. Put-ting our fiscal house in order calls for a bal-anced approach, not massive, indiscriminatecuts that could have a severe impact on ourmilitary preparedness.

So here today, for the sake of our prosperity,for the sake of all these men and women inuniform and all their brothers and sisters inuniform that they represent, now is the time toact, for Democrats and Republicans to cometogether in the same spirit that Leon Panettaalways brought to public service: solving prob-lems, not trying to score points; doing right forthe country, not for any particular politicalagenda; sustaining our economic recovery; bal-ancing budgets—Leon knows something aboutit—but also maintaining the finest military inhistory.

Leon, this, too, will be part of your legacy,for no one has raised their voice as firmly or asforcefully on behalf of our troops as you have.You’ve served with integrity and decency andgrace. You’re a reminder of what public serviceought to be. You’ve led with heart, and you’veled with humor. Indeed, they say that you’venever seen our wounded warriors smile as wideor heard them laugh as loud as when they get avisit from their Secretary of Defense. Andwhatever the challenge, Leon, you always giveit to us straight, sometimes in words that can’tbe repeated here in public. [Laughter]

Today we want to make sure to thank Sylviaand the entire Panetta family for sharing theirhusband, their father, and their grandfatherwith the rest of us, for sharing Bravo, the FirstDog of the Pentagon. Sylvia, Leon’s service hasalso been your sacrifice. And we promise, thistime, he really is coming home.

Leon, from your first day in uniform untiltoday, your dedicated service to America hasspanned nearly 50 remarkable years. And asyou review these fine troops one last time, asyou return home and walk your farm, knowthat the grand arc of your life speaks to ourlarger American story. For you can say withconfidence and with pride that you’ve fulfilled

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the hopes that brought Carmelo and Carmeli-na Panetta to these shores all those years ago.You’ve made them proud. You’ve helped tokeep alive the American Dream for not onlyyour children and grandchildren, but for all ofour children and grandchildren. And for that,we will be eternally grateful.

So, Leon, as your parents would say, grazie.God bless you, and God bless these UnitedStates of America.

Ladies and gentlemen, our Secretary of De-fense, Leon Panetta.

Secretary Panetta. Thank you very much.Mr. President, I’m deeply touched by yourmoving words about me, about my family,more importantly, about the men and womenwho serve in the Department of Defense. Allof us are truly honored by your presence, and Ithank you.

[At this point, Secretary Panetta continued hisremarks, concluding as follows.]

It has been the honor of my life to haveserved in the position as Secretary of Defense.And wherever I go and whatever I do, I willthank God every day for the men and womenin this country who are willing to put their liveson the line for all of us. They have respondedto the call of the bugle with courage and withselfless dedication to country. My prayer, as Ileave, is that we all have the same courage anddedication to protecting our Nation: the Unit-ed States of America, the home of the free andthe brave.

God bless America, God bless you, and Godbless the men and women in the Departmentof Defense.

NOTE: The President spoke at 4:18 p.m. In hisremarks, he referred to Lt. James Panetta, in-telligence analyst, U.S. Naval Reserve, son ofSecretary Panetta; and former Sen. Charles T.Hagel. The transcript released by the Office ofthe Press Secretary also included the remarksof Secretary Panetta.

Statement on the Observance of the Lunar New YearFebruary 8, 2013

Michelle and I send our warmest wishes toall those who will be celebrating the LunarNew Year this Sunday, February 10th. Here inAmerica and around the world, people of Asianand Pacific Islander descent will welcome theYear of the Snake. In Chinese tradition, thesnake represents wisdom and a thoughtful ap-proach to tackling the challenges before us,

principles that I hope will continue to guide usas we perfect our Union and create a more justand equal future for every American. Our chal-lenges may be great, but our diversity and thetraditions that thrive here give us the strengthto meet them. To everyone celebrating the Lu-nar New Year, I wish you peace, prosperity,and good health and fortune.


Hi, everybody. Over the last few years,Democrats and Republicans have come to-gether and cut our deficit by more than $2.5trillion through a balanced mix of spendingcuts and higher tax rates for the wealthiestAmericans. That’s more than halfway towardsthe $4 trillion in deficit reductions that econo-mists and elected officials from both parties saywe need to stabilize our debt. I believe we can

finish the job the same way we started it, with abalanced mix of more spending cuts and moretax reform. And the overwhelming majority ofthe American people agree, both Democratsand Republicans.

Now, my preference, and the preference ofmany Members of Congress, is to do that in abalanced, comprehensive way, by making sen-sible changes to entitlement programs and

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reforming our Tax Code. As we speak, both theHouse and Senate are working towards budgetproposals that, I hope, will lay out this kind ofbalanced path going forward.

But the budget process takes time. Andright now, if Congress doesn’t act by March 1,a series of harmful, automatic cuts to job-creat-ing investment and defense spending, alsoknown as the sequester, are scheduled to takeeffect. And the result could be a huge blow tomiddle class families and our economy as awhole.

If the sequester is allowed to go forward,thousands of Americans who work in fields likenational security, education, or clean energyare likely to be laid off. Firefighters and foodinspectors could also find themselves out ofwork, leaving our communities vulnerable.Programs like Head Start would be cut, andlifesaving research into diseases like cancerand Alzheimer’s could be scaled back. Smallbusinesses could be prevented from gettingthe resources and support they need to keeptheir doors open. People with disabilities whoare waiting for their benefits could be forced towait even longer. All our economic progresscould be put at risk.

And then there’s the impact on our militaryreadiness. Already, the threat of deep cuts hasforced the Navy to delay an aircraft carrier thatwas supposed to deploy to the Persian Gulf. Asour military leaders have made clear, changeslike this affect our ability to respond to threatsin an unstable part of the world. And we’ll beforced to make even more tough decisions inthe weeks ahead if Congress fails to act.

The good news is, there’s another option.Two months ago, we faced a similar deadline,and instead of making deep, indiscriminatecuts that would have cost jobs and sloweddown our recovery, Democrats and Republi-cans came together and made responsible cutsand manageable changes to our Tax Code that

will bring down our deficit. This time, Con-gress should pass a similar set of balanced cutsand close more tax loopholes until they canfind a way to replace the sequester with asmarter, longer term solution.

Right now most Members of Congress, in-cluding many Republicans, don’t think it’s agood idea to put thousands of jobs at risk anddo unnecessary damage to our economy. Andyet the current Republican plan puts the bur-den of avoiding those cuts mainly on seniorsand middle class families. They’d rather askmore from the vast majority of Americans andput our recovery at risk than close even a singletax loophole that benefits the wealthy.

Over the last few years, we’ve made goodprogress towards reducing our deficit in a bal-anced way. There’s no reason we can’t keepchipping away at this problem. And there’s cer-tainly no reason that middle class families andsmall businesses should suffer just becauseWashington couldn’t come together and elimi-nate a few special interest tax loopholes orGovernment programs that just don’t work. Ata time when economists and business leadersfrom across the spectrum have said that oureconomy is poised for progress, we shouldn’tallow self-inflicted wounds to put that progressin jeopardy.

So my message to Congress is this: Let’skeep working together to solve this problem,and let’s give our workers and our businessesthe support they need to grow and to thrive.


NOTE: The address was recorded at approxi-mately 5:50 p.m. on February 8 in the BlueRoom at the White House for broadcast onFebruary 9. The transcript was made availableby the Office of the Press Secretary on Febru-ary 8, but was embargoed for release until 6a.m. on February 9.

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Remarks on Presenting the Medal of Honor to Staff Sergeant Clinton L.RomeshaFebruary 11, 2013

The President. Please be seated, everybody.Good afternoon. And on behalf of Michelleand myself, welcome to the White House.

Every day at the White House, we receivethousands of letters from folks all across Amer-ica. And at night, upstairs in my study, I read afew. About 3 years ago, I received a letter froma mom in West Virginia. Her son, Stephan, aspecialist in the Army, just 21 years old, hadgiven his life in Afghanistan. She had receivedthe condolence letter that I’d sent to her fami-ly, as I send to every family of the fallen. Andshe wrote me back: “Mr. President,” she said,“you wrote me a letter telling me that my sonwas a hero. I just wanted you to know whatkind of hero he was.”

“My son was a great soldier,” she wrote. “Asfar back as I can remember, Stephan wanted toserve his country.” She spoke of how he “lovedhis brothers in B Troop,” how he “would doanything for them.” And of the brave actionsthat would cost Stephan his life, she wrote,“His sacrifice was driven by pure love.”

Today we are honored to be joined byStephan’s mother Vanessa and his father Larry.Please stand, Vanessa and Larry.

We’re joined by the families of the sevenother patriots who also gave their lives thatday. Can we please have them stand so we canacknowledge them as well.

We’re joined by members of Bravo Troop,whose courage that day was driven by purelove. And we gather to present the Medal ofHonor to one of these soldiers: Staff SergeantClinton L. Romesha.

Clint, this is our Nation’s highest militarydecoration. It reflects the gratitude of our en-tire country. So we’re joined by Members ofCongress; leaders from across our ArmedForces, including Secretary of Defense LeonPanetta, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of StaffMarty Dempsey, Army Secretary JohnMcHugh, and Army Chief of Staff General RayOdierno. We are especially honored to bejoined by Clint’s 4th Infantry Division—“Iron

Horse”—soldiers, and members of the Medalof Honor Society, who today welcome you intotheir ranks.

Now, despite all this attention, you may al-ready have a sense that Clint is a pretty humbleguy. We just spent some time together in theOval Office. He grew up in Lake City, Califor-nia, population less than a hundred. We wel-comed his family, including mom and dad,Tish and Gary. Clint—I hope he doesn’tmind—he shared that Clint was actually bornat home. These days, Clint works in the oil-fields of North Dakota. He is a man of faith,and after more than a decade in uniform, hesays the thing he looks forward to the most isjust being a husband and a father.

In fact, this is not even the biggest event forClint this week because tomorrow he and hiswife Tammy will celebrate their 13th weddinganniversary. Clint and Tammy, this is probablynot the kind of intimate anniversary youplanned. [Laughter] But we’re so glad thatyou’re here, along with your three beautifulchildren: Dessi, Gwen, and Colin. Colin is notas shy as Clint. [Laughter] He was in the OvalOffice, and he was racing around pretty goodand sampled a number of the apples before hefound the one that was just right. [Laughter]

Now, to truly understand the extraordinaryactions for which Clint is being honored, youneed to understand the almost unbelievableconditions under which he and B Troopserved. This was a time, in 2009, when many ofour troops still served in small, rugged out-posts, even as our commanders were shiftingtheir focus to larger towns and cities. So Com-bat Outpost Keating was a collection of build-ings of concrete and plywood with trenchesand sandbags.

Of all the outposts in Afghanistan, Keatingwas among the most remote. It sat at the bot-tom of a steep valley, surrounded by moun-tains, terrain that a later investigation said gave“ideal” cover for insurgents to attack. COP Ke-ating, the investigation found, was “tactically

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indefensible.” But that’s what these soldierswere asked to do: defend the indefensible.

The attack came in the morning, just as theSun rose. Some of our guys were standingguard. Most, like Clint, were still sleeping. Theexplosions shook them out of their beds andsent them rushing for their weapons. Andsoon, the awful odds became clear: These 53Americans were surrounded by more than 300Taliban fighters.

What happened next has been described asone of the most intense battles of the entirewar in Afghanistan. The attackers had the ad-vantage: the high ground, the mountainsabove. And they were unleashing everythingthey had: rocket-propelled grenades, heavymachineguns, mortars, snipers taking aim. Tothose Americans down below, the fire wascoming in from every single direction. They’dnever seen anything like it.

With gunfire impacting all around him,Clint raced to one of the barracks and grabbeda machinegun. He took aim at one of the ene-my machine teams and took it out. A rocket-propelled grenade exploded, sending shrapnelinto his hip, his arm, and his neck. But he keptfighting, disregarding his own wounds, andtending to an injured comrade instead.

Then, over the radio, came words no soldierever wants to hear: “Enemy in the wire.” TheTaliban had penetrated the camp. They weretaking over buildings. The combat was close, attimes as close as 10 feet. When Clint took aimat three of them, they never took another step.

But still, the enemy advanced. So the Amer-icans pulled back, to buildings that were easierto defend, to make one last stand. One of themwas later compared to the Alamo—one ofthem later compared it to the Alamo. Keating,it seemed, was going to be overrun. And that’swhen Clint Romesha decided to retake thatcamp.

Clint gathered up his guys, and they beganto fight their way back, storming one building,then another, pushing the enemy back, havingto actually shoot up at the enemy in the moun-tains above. By now, most of the camp was onfire. Amid the flames and smoke, Clint stood in

a doorway, calling in airstrikes that shook theearth all around them.

Over the radio, they heard comrades whowere pinned down in a Humvee. So Clint andhis team unloaded everything they had into theenemy positions. And with that cover, threewounded Americans made their escape, in-cluding a grievously injured Stephan Mace.

But more Americans, their bodies, were stillout there. And Clint Romesha lives the Sol-dier’s Creed: “I will never leave a fallen com-rade.” So he and his team started charging asenemy fire poured down. And they kept charg-ing: 50 meters; 80 meters; ultimately, a 100-meter run through a hail of bullets. And theyreached their fallen friends, and they broughtthem home.

Now, throughout history, the question hasoften been asked, why? Why do those in uni-form take such extraordinary risks? And whatcompels them to such courage? You ask Clintand any of these soldiers who are here today,and they’ll tell you. Yes, they fight for theircountry, and they fight for our freedom. Yes,they fight to come home to their families. Butmost of all, they fight for each other, to keepeach other safe and to have each other’s backs.

When I called Clint to tell him that hewould receive this medal, he said he was hon-ored, but he also said, “It wasn’t just me outthere; it was a team effort.” And so today we al-so honor this American team, including thosewho made the ultimate sacrifice: Private FirstClass Kevin Thomson, who would have turned26 years old today; Sergeant Michael Scusa;Sergeant Joshua Kirk; Sergeant ChristopherGriffin; Staff Sergeant Justin Gallegos; StaffSergeant Vernon Martin; Sergeant JoshuaHardt; and Specialist Stephan Mace.

Each of these patriots gave their lives look-ing out for each other. In a battle that ragedall day, that brand of selflessness was dis-played again and again and again: soldiers ex-posing themselves to enemy fire to pull acomrade to safety, tending to each other’swounds, performing “buddy transfusions”—giving each other their own blood. And if youseek a measure of that day, you need to lookno further than the medals and ribbons that

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grace their chests: for their sustained hero-ism, 37 Army Commendation Medals; fortheir wounds, 27 Purple Hearts; for their val-or, 18 Bronze Stars; for their gallantry, 9 Sil-ver Stars.

These men were outnumbered, out-gunned, and almost overrun. Looking back,one of them said, “I’m surprised any of usmade it out.” But they are here today, and Iwould ask these soldiers, this band of broth-ers, to stand and accept the gratitude of ourentire Nation.

There were many lessons from COP Keat-ing. One of them is that our troops should nev-er, ever, be put in a position where they haveto defend the indefensible. But that’s whatthese soldiers did for each other, in sacrifice,driven by pure love. And because they did,eight grieving families were at least able towelcome their soldiers home one last time.And more than 40 American soldiers are alivetoday to carry on, to keep alive the memory oftheir fallen brothers, to help make sure thatthis country that we love so much remainsstrong and free.

What was it that turned the tide that day?How was it that so few Americans prevailedagainst so many? As we prepare for the readingof the citation, I leave you with the words ofClint himself, because they say somethingabout our Army and they say something aboutAmerica. They say something about our spirit,which will never be broken. “We weren’t goingto be beat that day,” Clint said. “You’re not go-ing to back down in the face of adversity like

that. We were just going to win, plain and sim-ple.”

God bless you, Clint Romesha, and all ofyour team. God bless all who serve. And Godbless the United States of America.

With that, I’d like the citation to be read.

[At this point, Maj. Gary Marlowe, USAF, AirForce Aide to the President, read the citation.The President then presented the medal, assist-ed by Lt. Col. Owen G. Ray, USA, Army Aideto the President. Following the presentation ofthe medal, Maj. Gen. Donald L. Rutherford,USA, Army Chief of Chaplains, said a prayer.]

The President. Well, thank you, everybody.Most of all, thank you for Clint and the entireteam for their extraordinary service and devo-tion to our country.

We’re going to have an opportunity to cele-brate, and there’s going to be a wonderful re-ception. I hear the food around here is prettygood; I know the band is good; and Colin reallyneeds to get down. [Laughter]

So enjoy, everybody. Give our newest recip-ient of the Medal of Honor a big round of ap-plause once again.

NOTE: The President spoke at 1:40 p.m. in theEast Room at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to Martishia Rogers andGary Romesha, parents of S. Sgt. Romesha.The transcript released by the Office of thePress Secretary also included the reading ofthe citation.

Statement on the Resignation of Karen G. Mills as Administrator of theSmall Business AdministrationFebruary 11, 2013

I want to thank Administrator Mills for heroutstanding work on behalf of America’s small-business owners and entrepreneurs. I askedKaren to lead the Small Business Administra-tion because I knew she had the skills and ex-perience to help America’s small businesses re-cover from the worst economic crisis in gener-ations, and that’s exactly what she’s done. Over

the last 4 years, Karen has made it easier forsmall businesses to interact with the FederalGovernment by reducing paperwork and cut-ting through redtape. She has played a leadingrole in my administration’s efforts to supportstartups and entrepreneurs. And she was in-strumental in the passage of the Small Busi-ness Jobs Act. Because of Karen’s hard work

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and dedication, our small businesses are betterpositioned to create jobs and our entire econo-

my is stronger. I want to thank Karen and amgrateful for her service.

Statement on the Resignation of Pope Benedict XVIFebruary 11, 2013

On behalf of Americans everywhere, Mi-chelle and I wish to extend our appreciationand prayers to His Holiness Pope BenedictXVI. Michelle and I warmly remember ourmeeting with the Holy Father in 2009, and I

have appreciated our work together over theselast 4 years. The Church plays a critical role inthe United States and the world, and I wish thebest to those who will soon gather to chooseHis Holiness Pope Benedict XVI’s successor.

Statement on the Situation in North KoreaFebruary 12, 2013

North Korea announced today that it con-ducted a third nuclear test. This is a highly pro-vocative act that, following its December 12ballistic missile launch, undermines regionalstability, violates North Korea’s obligations un-der numerous United Nations Security Coun-cil resolutions, contravenes its commitmentsunder the September 19, 2005, Joint State-ment of the Six-Party Talks and increases therisk of proliferation. North Korea’s nuclearweapons and ballistic missile programs consti-tute a threat to U.S. national security and to in-ternational peace and security. The UnitedStates remains vigilant in the face of North Ko-rean provocations and steadfast in our defensecommitments to allies in the region.

These provocations do not make North Ko-rea more secure. Far from achieving its statedgoal of becoming a strong and prosperous na-tion, North Korea has instead increasingly iso-lated and impoverished its people through itsill-advised pursuit of weapons of mass destruc-tion and their means of delivery.

The danger posed by North Korea’s threat-ening activities warrants further swift andcredible action by the international communi-ty. The United States will also continue to takesteps necessary to defend ourselves and our al-lies. We will strengthen close coordinationwith allies and partners and work with our six-party partners, the United Nations SecurityCouncil, and other U.N. member states to pur-sue firm action.

Statement on Senate Passage of Legislation To Prevent Violence AgainstWomenFebruary 12, 2013

Today the Senate passed a strong biparti-san bill to reauthorize and strengthen the Vi-olence Against Women Act. This importantstep shows what we can do when we come to-gether across party lines to take up a justcause. The bill passed by the Senate will helpreduce homicides that occur from domesticviolence, improve the criminal justice re-sponse to rape and sexual assault, address thehigh rates of dating violence experienced by

young women, and provide justice to themost vulnerable among us. I want to thankSenator Leahy and his colleagues from bothsides of the aisle for the leadership they haveshown on behalf of victims of abuse. It’s nowtime for the House to follow suit and sendthis bill to my desk so that I can sign it intolaw.

NOTE: The statement referred to S. 47.

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Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the UnionFebruary 12, 2013

Please, everybody, have a seat. Mr. Speaker,Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, fel-low Americans: Fifty-one years ago, John F.Kennedy declared to this Chamber that “theConstitution makes us not rivals for power, butpartners for progress.” “It is my task,” he said,“to report the state of the Union; to improve itis the task of us all.”

Tonight, thanks to the grit and determina-tion of the American people, there is muchprogress to report. After a decade of grindingwar, our brave men and women in uniform arecoming home. After years of grueling reces-sion, our businesses have created over 6 mil-lion new jobs. We buy more American carsthan we have in 5 years and less foreign oilthan we have in 20. Our housing market ishealing, our stock market is rebounding, andconsumers, patients, and homeowners enjoystronger protections than ever before.

So together, we have cleared away the rub-ble of crisis, and we can say with renewed con-fidence that the state of our Union is stronger.

But we gather here knowing that there aremillions of Americans whose hard work anddedication have not yet been rewarded. Oureconomy is adding jobs, but too many peoplestill can’t find full-time employment. Corpo-rate profits have skyrocketed to alltime highs,but for more than a decade, wages and in-comes have barely budged.

It is our generation’s task, then, to reignitethe true engine of America’s economic growth:a rising, thriving middle class.

It is our unfinished task to restore the basicbargain that built this country: the idea that ifyou work hard and meet your responsibilities,you can get ahead, no matter where you comefrom, no matter what you look like or who youlove.

It is our unfinished task to make sure thatthis Government works on behalf of the many,and not just the few; that it encourages free en-terprise, rewards individual initiative, andopens the doors of opportunity to every childacross this great Nation.

The American people don’t expect govern-ment to solve every problem. They don’t ex-pect those of us in this Chamber to agree onevery issue. But they do expect us to put theNation’s interests before party. They do expectus to forge reasonable compromise where wecan. For they know that America moves for-ward only when we do so together and that theresponsibility of improving this Union remainsthe task of us all.

Now, our work must begin by making somebasic decisions about our budget, decisionsthat will have a huge impact on the strength ofour recovery.

Over the last few years, both parties haveworked together to reduce the deficit by morethan $2.5 trillion, mostly through spendingcuts, but also by raising tax rates on the wealth-iest 1 percent of Americans. As a result, we aremore than halfway towards the goal of $4 tril-lion in deficit reduction that economists say weneed to stabilize our finances.

Now we need to finish the job. And thequestion is, how?

In 2011, Congress passed a law saying that ifboth parties couldn’t agree on a plan to reachour deficit goal, about a trillion dollars’ worthof budget cuts would automatically go into ef-fect this year. These sudden, harsh, arbitrarycuts would jeopardize our military readiness.They’d devastate priorities like education andenergy and medical research. They would cer-tainly slow our recovery and cost us hundredsof thousands of jobs. And that’s why Demo-crats, Republicans, business leaders, and econ-omists have already said that these cuts—known here in Washington as the sequester—are a really bad idea.

Now, some in Congress have proposed pre-venting only the defense cuts by making evenbigger cuts to things like education and jobtraining, Medicare, and Social Security bene-fits. That idea is even worse.

Yes, the biggest driver of our long-term debtis the rising cost of health care for an agingpopulation. And those of us who care deeply

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about programs like Medicare must embracethe need for modest reforms; otherwise, ourretirement programs will crowd out the invest-ments we need for our children and jeopardizethe promise of a secure retirement for futuregenerations.

But we can’t ask senior citizens and workingfamilies to shoulder the entire burden of defi-cit reduction while asking nothing more fromthe wealthiest and the most powerful. Wewon’t grow the middle class simply by shiftingthe cost of health care or college onto familiesthat are already struggling or by forcing com-munities to lay off more teachers and morecops and more firefighters. Most Americans—Democrats, Republicans, and Independents—understand that we can’t just cut our way toprosperity. They know that broad-based eco-nomic growth requires a balanced approach todeficit reduction, with spending cuts and reve-nue and with everybody doing their fair share.And that’s the approach I offer tonight.

On Medicare, I’m prepared to enact re-forms that will achieve the same amount ofhealth care savings by the beginning of thenext decade as the reforms proposed by the bi-partisan Simpson-Bowles Commission.

Already, the Affordable Care Act is helpingto slow the growth of health care costs. And thereforms I’m proposing go even further. We’llreduce taxpayer subsidies to prescription drugcompanies and ask more from the wealthiestseniors. We’ll bring down costs by changingthe way our Government pays for Medicare,because our medical bills shouldn’t be basedon the number of tests ordered or days spentin the hospital; they should be based on thequality of care that our seniors receive. And Iam open to additional reforms from both par-ties, so long as they don’t violate the guaranteeof a secure retirement. Our Governmentshouldn’t make promises we cannot keep, butwe must keep the promises we’ve alreadymade.

To hit the rest of our deficit reduction tar-get, we should do what leaders in both partieshave already suggested and save hundreds ofbillions of dollars by getting rid of tax loopholesand deductions for the well off and the well

connected. After all, why would we choose tomake deeper cuts to education and Medicarejust to protect special interest tax breaks? Howis that fair? Why is it that deficit reduction is abig emergency justifying making cuts in SocialSecurity benefits, but not closing some loop-holes? How does that promote growth?

Now is our best chance for bipartisan, com-prehensive tax reform that encourages job cre-ation and helps bring down the deficit. We canget this done. The American people deserve aTax Code that helps small businesses spendless time filling out complicated forms andmore time expanding and hiring; a Tax Codethat ensures billionaires with high-powered ac-countants can’t work the system and pay a low-er rate than their hard-working secretaries; aTax Code that lowers incentives to move jobsoverseas and lowers tax rates for businessesand manufacturers that are creating jobs righthere in the United States of America. That’swhat tax reform can deliver. That’s what wecan do together.

I realize that tax reform and entitlement re-form will not be easy. The politics will be hardfor both sides. None of us will get a hundredpercent of what we want. But the alternativewill cost us jobs, hurt our economy, visit hard-ship on millions of hard-working Americans.So let’s set party interests aside and work topass a budget that replaces reckless cuts withsmart savings and wise investments in our fu-ture. And let’s do it without the brinksmanshipthat stresses consumers and scares off inves-tors. The greatest nation on Earth cannot keepconducting its business by drifting from onemanufactured crisis to the next. We can’t do it.

Let’s agree right here, right now to keep thepeople’s Government open and pay our billson time and always uphold the full faith andcredit of the United States of America. TheAmerican people have worked too hard, for toolong, rebuilding from one crisis to see theirelected officials cause another.

Now, most of us agree that a plan to reducethe deficit must be part of our agenda. But let’sbe clear: Deficit reduction alone is not an eco-nomic plan. A growing economy that createsgood, middle class jobs, that must be the north

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star that guides our efforts. Every day, weshould ask ourselves three questions as a na-tion: How do we attract more jobs to ourshores? How do we equip our people with theskills they need to get those jobs? And how dowe make sure that hard work leads to a decentliving?

Now, a year and a half ago, I put forward anAmerican Jobs Act that independent econo-mists said would create more than 1 millionnew jobs. And I thank the last Congress forpassing some of that agenda. I urge this Con-gress to pass the rest. But tonight I’ll lay outadditional proposals that are fully paid for andfully consistent with the budget frameworkboth parties agreed to just 18 months ago. Letme repeat: Nothing I’m proposing tonightshould increase our deficit by a single dime. Itis not a bigger Government we need, but asmarter Government that sets priorities and in-vests in broad-based growth. That’s what weshould be looking for.

Our first priority is making America a mag-net for new jobs and manufacturing. Aftershedding jobs for more than 10 years, our man-ufacturers have added about 500,000 jobs overthe past 3. Caterpillar is bringing jobs backfrom Japan. Ford is bringing jobs back fromMexico. And this year, Apple will start makingMacs in America again.

There are things we can do right now to ac-celerate this trend. Last year, we created ourfirst manufacturing innovation institute inYoungstown, Ohio. A once-shuttered ware-house is now a state-of-the-art lab where newworkers are mastering the 3–D printing thathas the potential to revolutionize the way wemake almost everything. There’s no reason thiscan’t happen in other towns.

So tonight I’m announcing the launch ofthree more of these manufacturing hubs,where businesses will partner with the Depart-ment of Defense and Energy to turn regionsleft behind by globalization into global centersof high-tech jobs. And I ask this Congress tohelp create a network of 15 of these hubs andguarantee that the next revolution in manufac-turing is made right here in America. We canget that done.

Now, if we want to make the best products,we also have to invest in the best ideas. Everydollar we invested to map the human genomereturned $140 to our economy—every dollar.Today, our scientists are mapping the humanbrain to unlock the answers to Alzheimer’s.They’re developing drugs to regenerate dam-aged organs, devising new materials to makebatteries 10 times more powerful. Now is notthe time to gut these job-creating investmentsin science and innovation, now is the time toreach a level of research and development notseen since the height of the space race. Weneed to make those investments.

Today, no area holds more promise than ourinvestments in American energy. After years oftalking about it, we’re finally poised to controlour own energy future. We produce more oil athome than we have in 15 years. We have dou-bled the distance our cars will go on a gallon ofgas and the amount of renewable energy wegenerate from sources like wind and solar, withtens of thousands of good American jobs toshow for it. We produce more natural gas thanever before, and nearly everyone’s energy bill islower because of it. And over the last 4 years,our emissions of the dangerous carbon pollutionthat threatens our planet have actually fallen.

But for the sake of our children and our fu-ture, we must do more to combat climatechange. Now, it’s true that no single eventmakes a trend. But the fact is, the 12 hottestyears on record have all come in the last 15.Heat waves, droughts, wildfires, floods—all arenow more frequent and more intense. We canchoose to believe that Superstorm Sandy andthe most severe drought in decades and theworst wildfires some States have ever seenwere all just a freak coincidence. Or we canchoose to believe in the overwhelming judg-ment of science and act before it’s too late.

Now, the good news is we can make mean-ingful progress on this issue while drivingstrong economic growth. I urge this Congressto get together, pursue a bipartisan, market-based solution to climate change, like the oneJohn McCain and Joe Lieberman worked ontogether a few years ago. But if Congress won’tact soon to protect future generations, I will. I

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will direct my Cabinet to come up with execu-tive actions we can take, now and in the future,to reduce pollution, prepare our communitiesfor the consequences of climate change, andspeed the transition to more sustainable sourc-es of energy.

And 4 years ago, other countries dominatedthe clean energy market and the jobs that camewith it. And we’ve begun to change that. Lastyear, wind energy added nearly half of all newpower capacity in America. So let’s generateeven more. Solar energy gets cheaper by theyear; let’s drive down costs even further. Aslong as countries like China keep going all inon clean energy, so must we.

Now, in the meantime, the natural gas boomhas led to cleaner power and greater energy in-dependence. We need to encourage that. Andthat’s why my administration will keep cuttingredtape and speeding up new oil and gas per-mits. That’s got to be part of an all-of-the-above plan. But I also want to work with thisCongress to encourage the research and tech-nology that helps natural gas burn even cleanerand protects our air and our water.

In fact, much of our new-found energy isdrawn from lands and waters that we, the pub-lic, own together. So tonight I propose we usesome of our oil and gas revenues to fund an en-ergy security trust that will drive new researchand technology to shift our cars and trucks offoil for good. If a nonpartisan coalition of CEOsand retired generals and admirals can get be-hind this idea, then so can we. Let’s take theiradvice and free our families and businessesfrom the painful spikes in gas prices we’ve putup with for far too long.

I’m also issuing a new goal for America:Let’s cut in half the energy wasted by ourhomes and businesses over the next 20 years.We’ll work with the States to do it. ThoseStates with the best ideas to create jobs andlower energy bills by constructing more effi-cient buildings will receive Federal support tohelp make that happen.

America’s energy sector is just one part of anaging infrastructure badly in need of repair.Ask any CEO where they’d rather locate andhire, a country with deteriorating roads and

bridges or one with high-speed rail and Inter-net, high-tech schools, self-healing powergrids. The CEO of Siemens America—a com-pany that brought hundreds of new jobs toNorth Carolina—said that if we upgrade ourinfrastructure, they’ll bring even more jobs.And that’s the attitude of a lot of companies allaround the world. And I know you want thesejob-creating projects in your district. I’ve seenall those ribbon-cuttings. [Laughter]

So tonight I propose a Fix-It-First programto put people to work as soon as possible onour most urgent repairs, like the nearly 70,000structurally deficient bridges across the coun-try. And to make sure taxpayers don’t shoulderthe whole burden, I’m also proposing a part-nership to rebuild America that attracts privatecapital to upgrade what our businesses needmost: modern ports to move our goods, mod-ern pipelines to withstand a storm, modernschools worthy of our children. Let’s provethere’s no better place to do business than herein the United States of America, and let’s startright away. We can get this done.

And part of our rebuilding effort must alsoinvolve our housing sector. The good news is,our housing market is finally healing from thecollapse of 2007. Home prices are rising at thefastest pace in 6 years. Home purchases are upnearly 50 percent, and construction is expand-ing again.

But even with mortgage rates near a 50-yearlow, too many families with solid credit whowant to buy a home are being rejected. Toomany families who never missed a paymentand want to refinance are being told no. That’sholding our entire economy back. We need tofix it.

Right now there’s a bill in this Congress thatwould give every responsible homeowner inAmerica the chance to save $3,000 a year byrefinancing at today’s rates. Democrats andRepublicans have supported it before, so whatare we waiting for? Take a vote and send methat bill. Why are—why would we be againstthat? Why would that be a partisan issue, help-ing folks refinance? Right now overlappingregulations keep responsible young familiesfrom buying their first home. What’s holding

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us back? Let’s streamline the process and helpour economy grow.

These initiatives in manufacturing, energy,infrastructure, housing, all these things willhelp entrepreneurs and small-business ownersexpand and create new jobs. But none of it willmatter unless we also equip our citizens withthe skills and training to fill those jobs.

And that has to start at the earliest possibleage. Study after study shows that the sooner achild begins learning, the better he or she doesdown the road. But today, fewer than 3 in 10 4-year-olds are enrolled in a high-quality pre-school program. Most middle class parentscan’t afford a few hundred bucks a week for aprivate preschool. And for poor kids who needhelp the most, this lack of access to preschooleducation can shadow them for the rest oftheir lives. So tonight I propose working withStates to make high-quality preschool availableto every single child in America. That’s some-thing we should be able to do.

Every dollar we invest in high-quality earlychildhood education can save more than $7 lat-er on: by boosting graduation rates, reducingteen pregnancy, even reducing violent crime.In States that make it a priority to educate ouryoungest children, like Georgia or Oklahoma,studies show students grow up more likely toread and do math at grade level, graduate highschool, hold a job, form more stable families oftheir own. We know this works. So let’s dowhat works and make sure none of our chil-dren start the race of life already behind. Let’sgive our kids that chance.

Let’s also make sure that a high school di-ploma puts our kids on a path to a good job.Right now countries like Germany focus ongraduating their high school students with theequivalent of a technical degree from one ofour community colleges. So those Germankids, they’re ready for a job when they gradu-ate high school. They’ve been trained for thejobs that are there. Now at schools likeP–TECH in Brooklyn, a collaboration betweenNew York Public Schools and City Universityof New York and IBM, students will graduatewith a high school diploma and an associate’sdegree in computers or engineering. We need

to give every American student opportunitieslike this.

And 4 years ago, we started Race to the Top,a competition that convinced almost everyState to develop smarter curricula and higherstandards, all for about 1 percent of what wespend on education each year. Tonight I’m an-nouncing a new challenge to redesign Ameri-ca’s high schools so they better equip gradu-ates for the demands of a high-tech economy.And we’ll reward schools that develop newpartnerships with colleges and employers andcreate classes that focus on science, technolo-gy, engineering, and math: the skills today’semployers are looking for to fill the jobs thatare there right now and will be there in the fu-ture.

Now, even with better high schools, mostyoung people will need some higher education.It’s a simple fact: The more education you’vegot, the more likely you are to have a good joband work your way into the middle class. Buttoday, skyrocketing costs price too many youngpeople out of a higher education or saddlethem with unsustainable debt.

Through tax credits, grants, and betterloans, we’ve made college more affordable formillions of students and families over the lastfew years. But taxpayers can’t keep on subsi-dizing higher and higher and higher costs forhigher education. Colleges must do their partto keep costs down, and it’s our job to makesure that they do.

So tonight I ask Congress to change theHigher Education Act so that affordability andvalue are included in determining which col-leges receive certain types of Federal aid. Andtomorrow my administration will release a newcollege scorecard that parents and students canuse to compare schools based on a simple cri-terion: where you can get the most bang foryour educational buck.

Now, to grow our middle class, our citizenshave to have access to the education and train-ing that today’s jobs require. But we also haveto make sure that America remains a placewhere everyone who’s willing to work—every-body who’s willing to work hard—has thechance to get ahead.

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Our economy is stronger when we harnessthe talents and ingenuity of striving, hopefulimmigrants. And right now leaders from thebusiness, labor, law enforcement, faith com-munities, they all agree that the time has cometo pass comprehensive immigration reform.Now is the time to do it. Now is the time to getit done. [Applause] Now is the time to get itdone.

Real reform means stronger border security,and we can build on the progress my adminis-tration has already made: putting more bootson the southern border than at any time in ourhistory and reducing illegal crossings to theirlowest levels in 40 years.

Real reform means establishing a responsi-ble pathway to earned citizenship, a path thatincludes passing a background check, payingtaxes and a meaningful penalty, learning Eng-lish, and going to the back of the line behindthe folks trying to come here legally.

And real reform means fixing the legal im-migration system to cut waiting periods and at-tract the highly skilled entrepreneurs and engi-neers that will help create jobs and grow oureconomy.

In other words, we know what needs to bedone. And as we speak, bipartisan groups inboth Chambers are working diligently to drafta bill, and I applaud their efforts. So let’s getthis done. Send me a comprehensive immigra-tion reform bill in the next few months, and Iwill sign it right away. And America will be bet-ter for it. Let’s get it done. [Applause] Let’s getit done.

But we can’t stop there. We know our econ-omy is stronger when our wives, our mothers,our daughters can live their lives free from dis-crimination in the workplace and free from thefear of domestic violence. Today the Senatepassed the Violence Against Women’s Act thatJoe Biden originally wrote almost 20 years ago.And I now urge the House to do the same.Good job, Joe. And I ask this Congress to de-clare that women should earn a living equal totheir efforts, and finally pass the “PaycheckFairness Act” this year.

We know our economy is stronger when wereward an honest day’s work with honest wag-

es. But today, a full-time worker making theminimum wage earns $14,500 a year. Evenwith the tax relief we put in place, a family withtwo kids that earns the minimum wage stilllives below the poverty line. That’s wrong.That’s why, since the last time this Congressraised the minimum wage, 19 States have cho-sen to bump theirs even higher.

Tonight let’s declare that in the wealthiestnation on Earth, no one who works full-timeshould have to live in poverty and raise theFederal minimum wage to $9 an hour. Weshould be able to get that done.

This single step would raise the incomes ofmillions of working families. It could mean thedifference between groceries or the food bank,rent or eviction, scraping by or finally gettingahead. For businesses across the country, itwould mean customers with more money intheir pockets. And a whole lot of folks outthere would probably need less help from gov-ernment. In fact, working folks shouldn’t haveto wait year after year for the minimum wageto go up while CEO pay has never been high-er. So here’s an idea that Governor Romneyand I actually agreed on last year: Let’s tie theminimum wage to the cost of living so that it fi-nally becomes a wage you can live on.

Tonight let’s also recognize that there arecommunities in this country where no matterhow hard you work, it is virtually impossible toget ahead: factory towns decimated from yearsof plants packing up; inescapable pockets ofpoverty, urban and rural, where young adultsare still fighting for their first job. America isnot a place where the chance of birth or cir-cumstance should decide our destiny. Andthat’s why we need to build new ladders of op-portunity into the middle class for all who arewilling to climb them.

Let’s offer incentives to companies that hireAmericans who’ve got what it takes to fill thatjob opening, but have been out of work so longthat no one will give them a chance anymore.Let’s put people back to work rebuilding va-cant homes in rundown neighborhoods. Andthis year, my administration will begin to part-ner with 20 of the hardest hit towns in Americato get these communities back on their feet.

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Now, we’ll work with local leaders to target re-sources at public safety and education andhousing.

We’ll give new tax credits to businesses thathire and invest. And we’ll work to strengthenfamilies by removing the financial deterrentsto marriage for low-income couples and domore to encourage fatherhood, because whatmakes you a man isn’t the ability to conceive achild, it’s having the courage to raise one. Andwe want to encourage that. We want to helpthat.

Stronger families. Stronger communities. Astronger America. It is this kind of prosperi-ty—broad, shared, built on a thriving middleclass—that has always been the source of ourprogress at home. It’s also the foundation ofour power and influence throughout the world.

Tonight we stand united in saluting thetroops and civilians who sacrifice every day toprotect us. Because of them, we can say withconfidence that America will complete its mis-sion in Afghanistan and achieve our objectiveof defeating the core of Al Qaida.

Already, we have brought home 33,000 ofour brave service men and women. Thisspring, our forces will move into a support role,while Afghan security forces take the lead. To-night I can announce that over the next year,another 34,000 American troops will comehome from Afghanistan. This drawdown willcontinue, and by the end of next year, our warin Afghanistan will be over.

Beyond 2014, America’s commitment to aunified and sovereign Afghanistan will endure,but the nature of our commitment will change.We’re negotiating an agreement with the Af-ghan Government that focuses on two mis-sions: training and equipping Afghan forces sothat the country does not again slip into chaosand counterterrorism efforts that allow us topursue the remnants of Al Qaida and their af-filiates.

Today, the organization that attacked us on9/11 is a shadow of its former self. It’s true, dif-ferent Al Qaida affiliates and extremist groupshave emerged, from the Arabian Peninsula toAfrica. The threat these groups pose is evolv-ing. But to meet this threat, we don’t need to

send tens of thousands of our sons and daugh-ters abroad or occupy other nations. Instead,we’ll need to help countries like Yemen andLibya and Somalia provide for their own secu-rity and help allies who take the fight to terror-ists, as we have in Mali. And where necessary,through a range of capabilities, we will contin-ue to take direct action against those terroristswho pose the gravest threat to Americans.

Now, as we do, we must enlist our values inthe fight. That’s why my administration hasworked tirelessly to forge a durable legal andpolicy framework to guide our counterterror-ism efforts. Throughout, we have kept Con-gress fully informed of our efforts. I recognizethat in our democracy, no one should just takemy word for it that we’re doing things the rightway. So, in the months ahead, I will continue toengage Congress to ensure not only that ourtargeting, detention, and prosecution of terror-ists remains consistent with our laws and sys-tem of checks and balances, but that our ef-forts are even more transparent to the Ameri-can people and to the world.

Of course, our challenges don’t end with AlQaida. America will continue to lead the effortto prevent the spread of the world’s most dan-gerous weapons. The regime in North Koreamust know they will only achieve security andprosperity by meeting their international obli-gations. Provocations of the sort we saw lastnight will only further isolate them, as we standby our allies, strengthen our own missile de-fense, and lead the world in taking firm actionin response to these threats.

Likewise, the leaders of Iran must recognizethat now is the time for a diplomatic solution,because a coalition stands united in demandingthat they meet their obligations, and we will dowhat is necessary to prevent them from gettinga nuclear weapon.

At the same time, we’ll engage Russia toseek further reductions in our nuclear arsenalsand continue leading the global effort to securenuclear materials that could fall into the wronghands, because our ability to influence othersdepends on our willingness to lead and meetour obligations.

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America must also face the rapidly growingthreat from cyber attacks. Now, we know hack-ers steal people’s identities and infiltrate pri-vate e-mails. We know foreign countries andcompanies swipe our corporate secrets. Nowour enemies are also seeking the ability to sab-otage our power grid, our financial institutions,our air traffic control systems. We cannot lookback years from now and wonder why we didnothing in the face of real threats to our securi-ty and our economy.

And that’s why, earlier today, I signed a newExecutive order that will strengthen our cyberdefenses by increasing information sharing anddeveloping standards to protect our nationalsecurity, our jobs, and our privacy.

But now Congress must act as well, by pass-ing legislation to give our Government a great-er capacity to secure our networks and deterattacks. This is something we should be able toget done on a bipartisan basis.

Now, even as we protect our people, weshould remember that today’s world presentsnot just dangers, not just threats, it presentsopportunities. To boost American exports, sup-port American jobs and level the playing fieldin the growing markets of Asia, we intend tocomplete negotiations on a Trans-Pacific Part-nership. And tonight I’m announcing that wewill launch talks on a comprehensive Transat-lantic Trade and Investment Partnership withthe European Union, because trade that is fairand free across the Atlantic supports millionsof good-paying American jobs.

We also know that progress in the most im-poverished parts of our world enriches us all,not only because it creates new markets, morestable order in certain regions of the world, butalso because it’s the right thing to do. In manyplaces, people live on little more than a dollar aday. So the United States will join with our al-lies to eradicate such extreme poverty in thenext two decades by connecting more peopleto the global economy, by empowering wom-en, by giving our young and brightest mindsnew opportunities to serve and helping com-munities to feed and power and educate them-selves, by saving the world’s children from pre-ventable deaths, and by realizing the promise

of an AIDS-free generation, which is withinour reach.

You see, America must remain a beacon toall who seek freedom during this period of his-toric change. I saw the power of hope last yearin Rangoon, in Burma, when Aung San SuuKyi welcomed an American President into thehome where she had been imprisoned foryears; when thousands of Burmese lined thestreets, waving American flags, including aman who said: “There is justice and law in theUnited States. I want our country to be likethat.”

In defense of freedom, we’ll remain the an-chor of strong alliances from the Americas toAfrica, from Europe to Asia. In the MiddleEast, we will stand with citizens as they de-mand their universal rights and support stabletransitions to democracy.

We know the process will be messy, and wecannot presume to dictate the course ofchange in countries like Egypt, but we can andwill insist on respect for the fundamental rightsof all people. We’ll keep the pressure on a Syr-ian regime that has murdered its own peopleand support opposition leaders that respect therights of every Syrian. And we will stand stead-fast with Israel in pursuit of security and a last-ing peace.

These are the messages I’ll deliver when Itravel to the Middle East next month. And allthis work depends on the courage and sacrificeof those who serve in dangerous places at greatpersonal risk: our diplomats, our intelligenceofficers, and the men and women of the Unit-ed States Armed Forces. As long as I’m Com-mander in Chief, we will do whatever we mustto protect those who serve their countryabroad, and we will maintain the best militarythe world has ever known.

We’ll invest in new capabilities, even as wereduce waste and wartime spending. We willensure equal treatment for all servicemembersand equal benefits for their families, gay andstraight. We will draw upon the courage andskills of our sisters and daughters and moms,because women have proven under fire thatthey are ready for combat.

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We will keep faith with our veterans, invest-ing in world-class care—including mentalhealth care—for our wounded warriors, sup-porting our military families, giving our veter-ans the benefits and education and job oppor-tunities that they have earned. And I want tothank my wife Michelle and Dr. Jill Biden fortheir continued dedication to serving our mili-tary families as well as they have served us.Thank you, honey. Thank you, Jill.

Defending our freedom, though, is not justthe job of our military alone. We must all doour part to make sure our God-given rights areprotected here at home. That includes one ofthe most fundamental rights of a democracy:the right to vote. Now, when any American, nomatter where they live or what their party, aredenied that right because they can’t afford towait for 5 or 6 or 7 hours just to cast their bal-lot, we are betraying our ideals.

So tonight I’m announcing a nonpartisancommission to improve the voting experiencein America. And it definitely needs improve-ment. I’m asking two long-time experts in thefield—who, by the way, recently served as thetop attorneys for my campaign and for Gover-nor Romney’s campaign—to lead it. We can fixthis, and we will. The American people de-mand it, and so does our democracy.

Of course, what I’ve said tonight matters lit-tle if we don’t come together to protect ourmost precious resource: our children. It hasbeen 2 months since Newtown. I know this isnot the first time this country has debated howto reduce gun violence. But this time is differ-ent. Overwhelming majorities of Americans—Americans who believe in the Second Amend-ment—have come together around common-sense reform, like background checks that willmake it harder for criminals to get their handson a gun. Senators of both parties are workingtogether on tough new laws to prevent anyonefrom buying guns for resale to criminals. Policechiefs are asking our help to get weapons ofwar and massive ammunition magazines offour streets, because these police chiefs, they’retired of seeing their guys and gals being out-gunned.

Each of these proposals deserves a vote inCongress. Now, if you want to vote no, that’syour choice. But these proposals deserve avote. Because in the 2 months since Newtown,more than a thousand birthdays, graduations,anniversaries have been stolen from our livesby a bullet from a gun—more than a thousand.

One of those we lost was a young girl namedHadiya Pendleton. She was 15 years old. Sheloved Fig Newtons and lip gloss. She was a ma-jorette. She was so good to her friends, they allthought they were her best friend. Just 3 weeksago, she was here, in Washington, with herclassmates, performing for her country at myInauguration. And a week later, she was shotand killed in a Chicago park after school, just amile away from my house.

Hadiya’s parents, Nate and Cleo, are in thisChamber tonight, along with more than twodozen Americans whose lives have been tornapart by gun violence. They deserve a vote.They deserve a vote. [Applause] They deservea vote. Gabby Giffords deserves a vote. Thefamilies of Newtown deserve a vote. The fami-lies of Aurora deserve a vote. The families ofOak Creek and Tucson and Blacksburg, andthe countless other communities ripped openby gun violence, they deserve a simple vote.They deserve a simple vote.

Our actions will not prevent every senselessact of violence in this country. In fact, no laws,no initiatives, no administrative acts will per-fectly solve all the challenges I’ve outlined to-night. But we were never sent here to be per-fect. We were sent here to make what differ-ence we can, to secure this Nation, expand op-portunity, uphold our ideals through the hard,often frustrating, but absolutely necessarywork of self-government.

We were sent here to look out for our fellowAmericans the same way they look out for oneanother, every single day, usually without fan-fare, all across this country. We should followtheir example.

We should follow the example of a NewYork City nurse named Menchu Sanchez.When Hurricane Sandy plunged her hospitalinto darkness, she wasn’t thinking about howher own home was faring. Her mind was on the

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20 precious newborns in her care and the res-cue plan she devised that kept them all safe.

We should follow the example of a NorthMiami woman named Desiline Victor. WhenDesiline arrived at her polling place, she wastold the wait to vote might be 6 hours. And astime ticked by, her concern was not with hertired body or aching feet, but whether folkslike her would get to have their say. And hourafter hour, a throng of people stayed in line tosupport her, because Desiline is 102 years old.And they erupted in cheers when she finallyput on a sticker that read, “I voted.” [Applause]There’s Desiline.

We should follow the example of a police of-ficer named Brian Murphy. When a gunmanopened fire on a Sikh temple in Wisconsin andBrian was the first to arrive—and he did notconsider his own safety. He fought back untilhelp arrived and ordered his fellow officers toprotect the safety of the Americans worshipinginside, even as he lay bleeding from 12 bulletwounds. And when asked how he did that, Bri-an said, “That’s just the way we’re made.”

That’s just the way we’re made. We may dodifferent jobs and wear different uniforms andhold different views than the person beside us.But as Americans, we all share the same proudtitle: We are citizens. It’s a word that doesn’tjust describe our nationality or legal status. Itdescribes the way we’re made. It describeswhat we believe. It captures the enduring ideathat this country only works when we acceptcertain obligations to one another and to future

generations; that our rights are wrapped up inthe rights of others; and that well into our thirdcentury as a nation, it remains the task of us all,as citizens of these United States, to be the au-thors of the next great chapter of our Americanstory.

Thank you. God bless you, and God blessthese United States of America.

NOTE: The President spoke at 9:15 p.m. in theHouse Chamber of the U.S. Capitol. In his re-marks, he referred to Erskine B. Bowles andAlan K. Simpson, Cochairs, National Commis-sion on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform; for-mer Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman; Eric A. Spiegel,president and chief executive officer, SiemensCorporation; 2012 Republican Presidentialnominee W. Mitt Romney; Member of Parlia-ment and National League for Democracy Par-ty Leader Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma; Jill T.Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden; for-mer White House Counsel Robert F. Bauerand Benjamin L. Ginsberg, partner, PattonBoggs LLP, in their capacity as Cochairs of thePresidential Commission on Election Adminis-tration; Nathaniel Pendleton and CleopatraCrowley-Pendleton, parents of Hadiya Z.Pendleton, who was killed in Chicago, IL, onJanuary 29; former Rep. Gabrielle D. Giffords;Menchu de Luna Sanchez, registered nurse,New York University Langone Medical Cen-ter; and Lt. Brian Murphy, Oak Creek PoliceDepartment in Oak Creek, WI. He also re-ferred to S. 47.

Directive on Critical Infrastructure Security and ResilienceFebruary 12, 2013

Presidential Policy Directive/PPD–21

Subject: Critical Infrastructure Security andResilience

The Presidential Policy Directive (PPD) onCritical Infrastructure Security and Resilienceadvances a national unity of effort to strength-en and maintain secure, functioning, and resil-ient critical infrastructure.

Introduction

The Nation’s critical infrastructure providesthe essential services that underpin Americansociety. Proactive and coordinated efforts arenecessary to strengthen and maintain secure,functioning, and resilient critical infrastruc-ture—including assets, networks, and sys-tems—that are vital to public confidence andthe Nation’s safety, prosperity, and well-being.

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The Nation’s critical infrastructure is diverseand complex. It includes distributed networks,varied organizational structures and operatingmodels (including multinational ownership),interdependent functions and systems in boththe physical space and cyberspace, and gover-nance constructs that involve multi-level au-thorities, responsibilities, and regulations. Crit-ical infrastructure owners and operators areuniquely positioned to manage risks to their in-dividual operations and assets, and to deter-mine effective strategies to make them moresecure and resilient.

Critical infrastructure must be secure andable to withstand and rapidly recover from allhazards. Achieving this will require integrationwith the national preparedness system acrossprevention, protection, mitigation, response,and recovery.

This directive establishes national policy oncritical infrastructure security and resilience.This endeavor is a shared responsibility amongthe Federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial(SLTT) entities, and public and private ownersand operators of critical infrastructure (hereinreferred to as “critical infrastructure ownersand operators”). This directive also refines andclarifies the critical infrastructure-related func-tions, roles, and responsibilities across theFederal Government, as well as enhancesoverall coordination and collaboration. TheFederal Government also has a responsibilityto strengthen the security and resilience of itsown critical infrastructure, for the continuity ofnational essential functions, and to organize it-self to partner effectively with and add value tothe security and resilience efforts of critical in-frastructure owners and operators.

Policy

It is the policy of the United States tostrengthen the security and resilience of itscritical infrastructure against both physical andcyber threats. The Federal Government shallwork with critical infrastructure owners andoperators and SLTT entities to take proactivesteps to manage risk and strengthen the securi-ty and resilience of the Nation’s critical infra-structure, considering all hazards that could

have a debilitating impact on national security,economic stability, public health and safety, orany combination thereof. These efforts shallseek to reduce vulnerabilities, minimize conse-quences, identify and disrupt threats, and has-ten response and recovery efforts related tocritical infrastructure.

The Federal Government shall also engagewith international partners to strengthen thesecurity and resilience of domestic critical in-frastructure and critical infrastructure locatedoutside of the United States on which the Na-tion depends.

U.S. efforts shall address the security andresilience of critical infrastructure in an inte-grated, holistic manner to reflect this infra-structure’s interconnectedness and interde-pendency. This directive also identifies energyand communications systems as uniquely criti-cal due to the enabling functions they provideacross all critical infrastructure sectors.

Three strategic imperatives shall drive theFederal approach to strengthen critical infra-structure security and resilience:

1) Refine and clarify functional relation-ships across the Federal Government toadvance the national unity of effort tostrengthen critical infrastructure securi-ty and resilience;

2) Enable effective information exchangeby identifying baseline data and systemsrequirements for the Federal Govern-ment; and

3) Implement an integration and analysisfunction to inform planning and opera-tions decisions regarding critical infra-structure.

All Federal department and agency headsare responsible for the identification, prioriti-zation, assessment, remediation, and securityof their respective internal critical infrastruc-ture that supports primary mission essentialfunctions. Such infrastructure shall be ad-dressed in the plans and execution of the re-quirements in the National Continuity Policy.

Federal departments and agencies shall im-plement this directive in a manner consistentwith applicable law, Presidential directives,

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and Federal regulations, including those pro-tecting privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties.In addition, Federal departments and agenciesshall protect all information associated withcarrying out this directive consistent with ap-plicable legal authorities and policies.

Roles and Responsibilities

Effective implementation of this directiverequires a national unity of effort pursuant tostrategic guidance from the Secretary ofHomeland Security. That national effort mustinclude expertise and day-to-day engagementfrom the Sector-Specific Agencies (SSAs) aswell as the specialized or support capabilitiesfrom other Federal departments and agencies,and strong collaboration with critical infra-structure owners and operators and SLTT en-tities. Although the roles and responsibilitiesidentified in this directive are directed at Fed-eral departments and agencies, effective part-nerships with critical infrastructure owners andoperators and SLTT entities are imperative tostrengthen the security and resilience of theNation’s critical infrastructure.

Secretary of Homeland Security

The Secretary of Homeland Security shallprovide strategic guidance, promote a nationalunity of effort, and coordinate the overall Fed-eral effort to promote the security and resil-ience of the Nation’s critical infrastructure. Incarrying out the responsibilities assigned in theHomeland Security Act of 2002, as amended,the Secretary of Homeland Security evaluatesnational capabilities, opportunities, and chal-lenges in protecting critical infrastructure; ana-lyzes threats to, vulnerabilities of, and potentialconsequences from all hazards on critical infra-structure; identifies security and resiliencefunctions that are necessary for effective pub-lic-private engagement with all critical infra-structure sectors; develops a national plan andmetrics, in coordination with SSAs and othercritical infrastructure partners; integrates andcoordinates Federal cross-sector security andresilience activities; identifies and analyzes keyinterdependencies among critical infrastruc-

ture sectors; and reports on the effectivenessof national efforts to strengthen the Nation’ssecurity and resilience posture for critical in-frastructure.

Additional roles and responsibilities for theSecretary of Homeland Security include:

1) Identify and prioritize critical infrastruc-ture, considering physical and cyberthreats, vulnerabilities, and consequenc-es, in coordination with SSAs and otherFederal departments and agencies;

2) Maintain national critical infrastructurecenters that shall provide a situationalawareness capability that includes inte-grated, actionable information aboutemerging trends, imminent threats, andthe status of incidents that may impactcritical infrastructure;

3) In coordination with SSAs and otherFederal departments and agencies, pro-vide analysis, expertise, and other techni-cal assistance to critical infrastructureowners and operators and facilitate ac-cess to and exchange of information andintelligence necessary to strengthen thesecurity and resilience of critical infra-structure;

4) Conduct comprehensive assessments ofthe vulnerabilities of the Nation’s criticalinfrastructure in coordination with theSSAs and in collaboration with SLTT en-tities and critical infrastructure ownersand operators;

5) Coordinate Federal Government re-sponses to significant cyber or physicalincidents affecting critical infrastructureconsistent with statutory authorities;

6) Support the Attorney General and lawenforcement agencies with their respon-sibilities to investigate and prosecutethreats to and attacks against critical in-frastructure;

7) Coordinate with and utilize the expertiseof SSAs and other appropriate Federaldepartments and agencies to map geo-spatially, image, analyze, and sort critical

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infrastructure by employing commercialsatellite and airborne systems, as well asexisting capabilities within other depart-ments and agencies; and

8) Report annually on the status of nationalcritical infrastructure efforts as requiredby statute.

Sector-Specific Agencies

Each critical infrastructure sector hasunique characteristics, operating models, andrisk profiles that benefit from an identifiedSector-Specific Agency that has institutionalknowledge and specialized expertise about thesector. Recognizing existing statutory or regu-latory authorities of specific Federal depart-ments and agencies, and leveraging existingsector familiarity and relationships, SSAs shallcarry out the following roles and responsibili-ties for their respective sectors:

1) As part of the broader national effort tostrengthen the security and resilience ofcritical infrastructure, coordinate withthe Department of Homeland Security(DHS) and other relevant Federal de-partments and agencies and collaboratewith critical infrastructure owners andoperators, where appropriate with inde-pendent regulatory agencies, and withSLTT entities, as appropriate, to imple-ment this directive;

2) Serve as a day-to-day Federal interfacefor the dynamic prioritization and coordi-nation of sector-specific activities;

3) Carry out incident management respon-sibilities consistent with statutory author-ity and other appropriate policies, direc-tives, or regulations;

4) Provide, support, or facilitate technicalassistance and consultations for that sec-tor to identify vulnerabilities and helpmitigate incidents, as appropriate; and

5) Support the Secretary of Homeland Se-curity’s statutorily required reporting re-quirements by providing on an annual

basis sector-specific critical infrastruc-ture information.

Additional Federal Responsibilities

The following departments and agencieshave specialized or support functions related tocritical infrastructure security and resiliencethat shall be carried out by, or along with, oth-er Federal departments and agencies and inde-pendent regulatory agencies, as appropriate.

1) The Department of State, in coordinationwith DHS, SSAs, and other Federal de-partments and agencies, shall engage for-eign governments and international orga-nizations to strengthen the security andresilience of critical infrastructure locat-ed outside the United States and to facil-itate the overall exchange of best practic-es and lessons learned for promoting thesecurity and resilience of critical infra-structure on which the Nation depends.

2) The Department of Justice (DOJ), includ-ing the Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI), shall lead counterterrorism andcounterintelligence investigations and re-lated law enforcement activities across thecritical infrastructure sectors. DOJ shallinvestigate, disrupt, prosecute, and other-wise reduce foreign intelligence, terrorist,and other threats to, and actual or at-tempted attacks on, or sabotage of, theNation’s critical infrastructure. The FBIalso conducts domestic collection, analy-sis, and dissemination of cyber threat in-formation, and shall be responsible for theoperation of the National Cyber Investi-gative Joint Task Force (NCIJTF). TheNCIJTF serves as a multi-agency nationalfocal point for coordinating, integrating,and sharing pertinent information relatedto cyber threat investigations, with repre-sentation from DHS, the IntelligenceCommunity (IC), the Department of De-fense (DOD), and other agencies as ap-propriate. The Attorney General and theSecretary of Homeland Security shall col-laborate to carry out their respective criti-cal infrastructure missions.

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3) The Department of the Interior, in col-laboration with the SSA for the Govern-ment Facilities Sector, shall identify, pri-oritize, and coordinate the security andresilience efforts for national monumentsand icons and incorporate measures toreduce risk to these critical assets, whilealso promoting their use and enjoyment.

4) The Department of Commerce (DOC),in collaboration with DHS and other rel-evant Federal departments and agencies,shall engage private sector, research, aca-demic, and government organizations toimprove security for technology and toolsrelated to cyber-based systems, and pro-mote the development of other effortsrelated to critical infrastructure to enablethe timely availability of industrial prod-ucts, materials, and services to meethomeland security requirements.

5) The IC, led by the Director of NationalIntelligence (DNI), shall use applicableauthorities and coordination mechanismsto provide, as appropriate, intelligenceassessments regarding threats to criticalinfrastructure and coordinate on intelli-gence and other sensitive or proprietaryinformation related to critical infrastruc-ture. In addition, information securitypolicies, directives, standards, and guide-lines for safeguarding national securitysystems shall be overseen as directed bythe President, applicable law, and in ac-cordance with that direction, carried outunder the authority of the heads of agen-cies that operate or exercise authorityover such national security systems.

6) The General Services Administration, inconsultation with DOD, DHS, and otherdepartments and agencies as appropri-ate, shall provide or support government-wide contracts for critical infrastructuresystems and ensure that such contractsinclude audit rights for the security andresilience of critical infrastructure.

7) The Nuclear Regulatory Commission(NRC) is to oversee its licensees’ protec-tion of commercial nuclear power reac-

tors and non-power nuclear reactorsused for research, testing, and training;nuclear materials in medical, industrial,and academic settings, and facilities thatfabricate nuclear fuel; and the transpor-tation, storage, and disposal of nuclearmaterials and waste. The NRC is to col-laborate, to the extent possible, withDHS, DOJ, the Department of Energy,the Environmental Protection Agency,and other Federal departments andagencies, as appropriate, on strengthen-ing critical infrastructure security and re-silience.

8) The Federal Communications Commis-sion, to the extent permitted by law, is toexercise its authority and expertise topartner with DHS and the Departmentof State, as well as other Federal depart-ments and agencies and SSAs as appro-priate, on: (1) identifying and prioritizingcommunications infrastructure; (2) iden-tifying communications sector vulnera-bilities and working with industry andother stakeholders to address those vul-nerabilities; and (3) working with stake-holders, including industry, and engagingforeign governments and internationalorganizations to increase the security andresilience of critical infrastructure withinthe communications sector and facilitat-ing the development and implementa-tion of best practices promoting the secu-rity and resilience of critical communica-tions infrastructure on which the Nationdepends.

9) Federal departments and agencies shallprovide timely information to the Secre-tary of Homeland Security and the na-tional critical infrastructure centers nec-essary to support cross-sector analysisand inform the situational awareness ca-pability for critical infrastructure.

Three Strategic Imperatives

1) Refine and Clarify Functional Relation-ships across the Federal Government to Ad-vance the National Unity of Effort to Strength-

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en Critical Infrastructure Security and Resil-ience

An effective national effort to strengthencritical infrastructure security and resiliencemust be guided by a national plan that identi-fies roles and responsibilities and is informedby the expertise, experience, capabilities, andresponsibilities of the SSAs, other Federal de-partments and agencies with critical infrastruc-ture roles, SLTT entities, and critical infra-structure owners and operators.

During the past decade, new programs andinitiatives have been established to addressspecific infrastructure issues, and prioritieshave shifted and expanded. As a result, Federalfunctions related to critical infrastructure secu-rity and resilience shall be clarified and refinedto establish baseline capabilities that will re-flect this evolution of knowledge, to define rel-evant Federal program functions, and to facili-tate collaboration and information exchangebetween and among the Federal Government,critical infrastructure owners and operators,and SLTT entities.

As part of this refined structure, there shallbe two national critical infrastructure centersoperated by DHS—one for physical infrastruc-ture and another for cyber infrastructure. Theyshall function in an integrated manner andserve as focal points for critical infrastructurepartners to obtain situational awareness and in-tegrated, actionable information to protect thephysical and cyber aspects of critical infrastruc-ture. Just as the physical and cyber elements ofcritical infrastructure are inextricably linked, soare the vulnerabilities. Accordingly, an integra-tion and analysis function (further developedin Strategic Imperative 3) shall be implement-ed between these two national centers.

The success of these national centers, in-cluding the integration and analysis function, isdependent on the quality and timeliness of theinformation and intelligence they receive fromthe SSAs and other Federal departments andagencies, as well as from critical infrastructureowners and operators and SLTT entities.

These national centers shall not impede theability of the heads of Federal departmentsand agencies to carry out or perform their re-

sponsibilities for national defense, criminal,counterintelligence, counterterrorism, or in-vestigative activities.

2) Enable Efficient Information Exchangeby Identifying Baseline Data and Systems Re-quirements for the Federal Government

A secure, functioning, and resilient criticalinfrastructure requires the efficient exchangeof information, including intelligence, betweenall levels of governments and critical infra-structure owners and operators. This must fa-cilitate the timely exchange of threat and vul-nerability information as well as informationthat allows for the development of a situationalawareness capability during incidents. The goalis to enable efficient information exchangethrough the identification of requirements fordata and information formats and accessibility,system interoperability, and redundant systemsand alternate capabilities should there be a dis-ruption in the primary systems.

Greater information sharing within the gov-ernment and with the private sector can andmust be done while respecting privacy and civilliberties. Federal departments and agenciesshall ensure that all existing privacy principles,policies, and procedures are implemented con-sistent with applicable law and policy and shallinclude senior agency officials for privacy intheir efforts to govern and oversee informationsharing properly.

3) Implement an Integration and AnalysisFunction to Inform Planning and OperationalDecisions Regarding Critical Infrastructure

The third strategic imperative builds on thefirst two and calls for the implementation of anintegration and analysis function for critical in-frastructure that includes operational and stra-tegic analysis on incidents, threats, and emerg-ing risks. It shall reside at the intersection ofthe two national centers as identified in Strate-gic Imperative 1, and it shall include the capa-bility to collate, assess, and integrate vulnera-bility and consequence information with threatstreams and hazard information to:

a. Aid in prioritizing assets and managingrisks to critical infrastructure;

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b. Anticipate interdependencies and cas-cading impacts;

c. Recommend security and resilience mea-sures for critical infrastructure prior to,during, and after an event or incident;and

d. Support incident management and resto-ration efforts related to critical infra-structure.

This function shall not replicate the analysisfunction of the IC or the National Counterter-rorism Center, nor shall it involve intelligencecollection activities. The IC, DOD, DOJ,DHS, and other Federal departments andagencies with relevant intelligence or informa-tion shall, however, inform this integration andanalysis capability regarding the Nation’s criti-cal infrastructure by providing relevant, timely,and appropriate information to the nationalcenters. This function shall also use informa-tion and intelligence provided by other criticalinfrastructure partners, including SLTT andnongovernmental analytic entities.

Finally, this integration and analysis func-tion shall support DHS’s ability to maintainand share, as a common Federal service, a nearreal-time situational awareness capability forcritical infrastructure that includes actionableinformation about imminent threats, signifi-cant trends, and awareness of incidents thatmay affect critical infrastructure.

Innovation and Research and Development

The Secretary of Homeland Security, in co-ordination with the Office of Science andTechnology Policy (OSTP), the SSAs, DOC,and other Federal departments and agencies,shall provide input to align those Federal andFederally-funded research and development(R&D) activities that seek to strengthen the se-curity and resilience of the Nation’s critical in-frastructure, including:

1) Promoting R&D to enable the secureand resilient design and construction ofcritical infrastructure and more secureaccompanying cyber technology;

2) Enhancing modeling capabilities to de-termine potential impacts on critical in-frastructure of an incident or threat sce-nario, as well as cascading effects on oth-er sectors;

3) Facilitating initiatives to incentivize cy-bersecurity investments and the adoptionof critical infrastructure design featuresthat strengthen all-hazards security andresilience; and

4) Prioritizing efforts to support the strate-gic guidance issued by the Secretary ofHomeland Security.

Implementation of the Directive

The Secretary of Homeland Security shalltake the following actions as part of the imple-mentation of this directive.

1) Critical Infrastructure Security and Resil-ience Functional Relationships. Within 120days of the date of this directive, the Secretaryof Homeland Security shall develop a descrip-tion of the functional relationships within DHSand across the Federal Government related tocritical infrastructure security and resilience. Itshould include the roles and functions of thetwo national critical infrastructure centers anda discussion of the analysis and integrationfunction. When complete, it should serve as aroadmap for critical infrastructure owners andoperators and SLTT entities to navigate theFederal Government’s functions and primarypoints of contact assigned to those functionsfor critical infrastructure security and resil-ience against both physical and cyber threats.The Secretary shall coordinate this effort withthe SSAs and other relevant Federal depart-ments and agencies. The Secretary shall pro-vide the description to the President throughthe Assistant to the President for HomelandSecurity and Counterterrorism.

2) Evaluation of the Existing Public-PrivatePartnership Model. Within 150 days of thedate of this directive, the Secretary of Home-land Security, in coordination with the SSAs,other relevant Federal departments and agen-cies, SLTT entities, and critical infrastructure

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owners and operators, shall conduct an analysisof the existing public-private partnership mod-el and recommend options for improving theeffectiveness of the partnership in both thephysical and cyber space. The evaluation shallconsider options to streamline processes forcollaboration and exchange of information andto minimize duplication of effort. Further-more, the analysis shall consider how the mod-el can be flexible and adaptable to meet theunique needs of individual sectors while pro-viding a focused, disciplined, and effective ap-proach for the Federal Government to coordi-nate with the critical infrastructure owners andoperators and with SLTT governments. Theevaluation shall result in recommendations toenhance partnerships to be approved for im-plementation through the processes estab-lished in the Organization of the National Se-curity Council System directive.

3) Identification of Baseline Data and Sys-tems Requirements for the Federal Govern-ment to Enable Efficient Information Ex-change. Within 180 days of the date of this di-rective, the Secretary of Homeland Security, incoordination with the SSAs and other Federaldepartments and agencies, shall convene ateam of experts to identify baseline data andsystems requirements to enable the efficientexchange of information and intelligence rele-vant to strengthening the security and resil-ience of critical infrastructure. The expertsshould include representatives from those enti-ties that routinely possess information impor-tant to critical infrastructure security and resil-ience; those that determine and manage infor-mation technology systems used to exchangeinformation; and those responsible for the se-curity of information being exchanged. In-teroperability with critical infrastructure part-ners; identification of key data and the infor-mation requirements of key Federal, SLTT,and private sector entities; availability, accessi-bility, and formats of data; the ability to ex-change various classifications of information;and the security of those systems to be used;and appropriate protections for individual pri-vacy and civil liberties should be included inthe analysis. The analysis should result in base-

line requirements for sharing of data and in-teroperability of systems to enable the timelyexchange of data and information to securecritical infrastructure and make it more resil-ient. The Secretary shall provide that analysisto the President through the Assistant to thePresident for Homeland Security and Coun-terterrorism.

4) Development of a Situational AwarenessCapability for Critical Infrastructure. Within240 days of the date of this directive, the Sec-retary of Homeland Security shall demonstratea near real-time situational awareness capabili-ty for critical infrastructure that includes threatstreams and all-hazards information as well asvulnerabilities; provides the status of criticalinfrastructure and potential cascading effects;supports decision making; and disseminatescritical information that may be needed to saveor sustain lives, mitigate damage, or reducefurther degradation of a critical infrastructurecapability throughout an incident. This capa-bility should be available for and cover physicaland cyber elements of critical infrastructure,and enable an integration of information as ne-cessitated by the incident.

5) Update to National Infrastructure Protec-tion Plan. Within 240 days of the date of thisdirective, the Secretary of Homeland Securityshall provide to the President, through the As-sistant to the President for Homeland Securityand Counterterrorism, a successor to the Na-tional Infrastructure Protection Plan to addressthe implementation of this directive, the re-quirements of Title II of the Homeland Securi-ty Act of 2002 as amended, and alignment withthe National Preparedness Goal and Systemrequired by PPD–8. The plan shall include theidentification of a risk management frameworkto be used to strengthen the security and resil-ience of critical infrastructure; the methods tobe used to prioritize critical infrastructure; theprotocols to be used to synchronize communi-cation and actions within the Federal Govern-ment; and a metrics and analysis process to beused to measure the Nation’s ability to manageand reduce risks to critical infrastructure. Theupdated plan shall also reflect the identifiedfunctional relationships within DHS and across

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the Federal Government and the updates tothe public-private partnership model. Finally,the plan should consider sector dependencieson energy and communications systems, andidentify pre-event and mitigation measures oralternate capabilities during disruptions tothose systems. The Secretary shall coordinatethis effort with the SSAs, other relevant Feder-al departments and agencies, SLTT entities,and critical infrastructure owners and opera-tors.

6) National Critical Infrastructure Securityand Resilience R&D Plan. Within 2 years of thedate of this directive, the Secretary of Home-land Security, in coordination with the OSTP,the SSAs, DOC, and other Federal depart-ments and agencies, shall provide to the Presi-dent, through the Assistant to the President forHomeland Security and Counterterrorism, aNational Critical Infrastructure Security andResilience R&D Plan that takes into accountthe evolving threat landscape, annual metrics,and other relevant information to identify pri-orities and guide R&D requirements and in-vestments. The plan should be issued every 4years after its initial delivery, with interim up-dates as needed.

Policy coordination, dispute resolution, andperiodic in-progress reviews for the implemen-tation of this directive shall be carried out con-sistent with PPD–1, including the use of Inter-agency Policy Committees coordinated by theNational Security Staff.

Nothing in this directive alters, supersedes,or impedes the authorities of Federal depart-ments and agencies, including independentregulatory agencies, to carry out their functionsand duties consistent with applicable legal au-thorities and other Presidential guidance anddirectives, including, but not limited to, thedesignation of critical infrastructure undersuch authorities.

This directive revokes Homeland SecurityPresidential Directive/HSPD–7, Critical Infra-structure Identification, Prioritization, andProtection, issued December 17, 2003. Plansdeveloped pursuant to HSPD–7 shall remainin effect until specifically revoked or supersed-ed.

Designated Critical Infrastructure Sectorsand Sector-Specific Agencies

This directive identifies 16 critical infra-structure sectors and designates associatedFederal SSAs. In some cases co-SSAs are des-ignated where those departments share theroles and responsibilities of the SSA. The Sec-retary of Homeland Security shall periodicallyevaluate the need for and approve changes tocritical infrastructure sectors and shall consultwith the Assistant to the President for Home-land Security and Counterterrorism beforechanging a critical infrastructure sector or adesignated SSA for that sector. The sectors andSSAs are as follows:

Chemical:Sector-Specific Agency: Department of Home-

land SecurityCommercial Facilities:

Sector-Specific Agency: Department of Home-land Security

Communications:Sector-Specific Agency: Department of Home-

land SecurityCritical Manufacturing:


Dams:Sector-Specific Agency: Department of Home-

land SecurityDefense Industrial Base:

Sector-Specific Agency: Department of DefenseEmergency Services:


Energy:Sector-Specific Agency: Department of Energy

Financial Services:Sector-Specific Agency: Department of the

TreasuryFood and Agriculture:

Co-Sector-Specific Agencies: U.S. Depart-ment of Agriculture and Department ofHealth and Human Services

Government Facilities:Co-Sector-Specific Agencies: Department

of Homeland Security and General Ser-vices Administration

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Healthcare and Public Health:Sector-Specific Agency: Department of Health

and Human ServicesInformation Technology:


Nuclear Reactors, Materials, and Waste:Sector-Specific Agency: Department of Home-

land SecurityTransportation Systems:

Co-Sector-Specific Agencies: Departmentof Homeland Security and Department ofTransportation

Water and Wastewater Systems:Sector-Specific Agency: Environmental Pro-

tection Agency

Definitions

For purposes of this directive:The term “all hazards” means a threat or an

incident, natural or manmade, that warrantsaction to protect life, property, the environ-ment, and public health or safety, and to mini-mize disruptions of government, social, or eco-nomic activities. It includes natural disasters,cyber incidents, industrial accidents, pandem-ics, acts of terrorism, sabotage, and destructivecriminal activity targeting critical infrastruc-ture.

The term “collaboration” means the processof working together to achieve shared goals.

The terms “coordinate” and “in coordinationwith” mean a consensus decision-making processin which the named coordinating department oragency is responsible for working with the affect-ed departments and agencies to achieve consen-sus and a consistent course of action.

The term “critical infrastructure” has themeaning provided in section 1016(e) of theUSA Patriot Act of 2001 (42 U.S.C. 5195c(e)),namely systems and assets, whether physical orvirtual, so vital to the United States that the in-capacity or destruction of such systems and as-sets would have a debilitating impact on securi-ty, national economic security, national publichealth or safety, or any combination of thosematters.

The term “Federal departments and agen-cies” means any authority of the United States

that is an “agency” under 44 U.S.C. 3502(1),other than those considered to be independentregulatory agencies, as defined in 44 U.S.C.3502(5).

The term “national essential functions”means that subset of Government functionsthat are necessary to lead and sustain the Na-tion during a catastrophic emergency.

The term “primary mission essential func-tions” means those Government functions thatmust be performed in order to support or im-plement the performance of the national es-sential functions before, during, and in the af-termath of an emergency.

The term “national security systems” has themeaning given to it in the Federal InformationSecurity Management Act of 2002 (44 U.S.C.3542(b)).

The term “resilience” means the ability toprepare for and adapt to changing conditionsand withstand and recover rapidly from disrup-tions. Resilience includes the ability to with-stand and recover from deliberate attacks, acci-dents, or naturally occurring threats or inci-dents.

The term “Sector-Specific Agency” (SSA)means the Federal department or agency des-ignated under this directive to be responsiblefor providing institutional knowledge and spe-cialized expertise as well as leading, facilitating,or supporting the security and resilience pro-grams and associated activities of its designatedcritical infrastructure sector in the all-hazardsenvironment.

The terms “secure” and “security” refer toreducing the risk to critical infrastructure byphysical means or defense cyber measures tointrusions, attacks, or the effects of natural ormanmade disasters.

NOTE: The text of this directive was made avail-able by the Office of the Press Secretary on theafternoon of February 12, but was embargoedfor release until the delivery of the President’sState of the Union Address. An original was notavailable for verification of the content of thisdirective. The related Executive order is listedin Appendix D at the end of this volume.

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Remarks at the Facilities of the Linamar Corporation in Arden, NorthCarolinaFebruary 13, 2013

The President. Hello, everybody! Hello,North Carolina! It is good to be back. I lovecoming to Asheville. Love coming to Asheville.The—Michelle and I always talk about how af-ter this whole Presidency thing, and we’relooking for a little spot to—you know?

Audience member. Come on down.The President. Come on down. Play a little

golf, do a little hiking, fishing, barbecue. Thereare two things that keep bringing me backhere. Number one is I really like the people.And number two is 12 Bones, which I will bestopping on the way back to the airport.[Laughter]

Now, I want to start off by thanking Strattonfor the wonderful introduction. And whatmade it wonderful was not only did he do agreat job, but it was really brief. [Laughter]And I also want to thank Frank and Jim and ev-erybody at Linamar for hosting us and givingme this terrific tour of the plant.

I want to point out two elected officials whoare with us here today—first of all, your mayor,Terry Bellamy. Where is Mayor Bellamy?There she is. Good to see you. Plus, you got awonderful mayor. I like that in you too. And al-so, Congressman Mel Watt is here. So giveCongressman Watt a big round of applause.

So last night I delivered the State of theUnion Address. And I talked about steps wecan take right now to strengthen our recovery,but also to build up our middle class. And Isaid that while we’re seeing some signs of solidprogress—car sales are up, housing is startingto recover—we’re still a ways away from wherewe need to be. There are still too many Ameri-cans who are out there every day, they’repounding the pavement; they’re looking forwork. You guys probably know friends or fami-ly members who are still pretty strapped, hav-ing a difficult time. And while it’s true that cor-porate profits have skyrocketed to an alltimehigh, it’s also true that for more than a decadenow, wages and incomes haven’t gone up at all,just about.

So we’ve got a lot of work to do. And ourjob—and this is a job for everybody; it’s not aDemocratic thing or a Republican thing—ourjob as Americans is to restore that basic bar-gain that says if you work hard, if you’re willingto meet your responsibilities, you can getahead. [Applause] You can get ahead. Itdoesn’t matter what you look like. It doesn’tmatter where you come from. That’s what weshould be focused on: How do we make surethat people who are willing to work hard canmake a decent living and look after their fami-ly?

Because the true engine of America’s eco-nomic growth has always been our middleclass. Now, there are a lot of countries thathave folks at the top who are doing real welland a bunch of folks at the bottom, but part ofwhat set America apart was ordinary folks, ifthey worked hard, they could do well. Ourmiddle class—when it’s growing, when it’sthriving, when there are ladders of opportunityfor people to do a little bit better each year andthen make sure that their kids are doing evenbetter than them—that’s the American Dream.That’s what we’ve got to fight for. That has tobe the north star that guides everything we do.

And as I said last night, we should be askingourselves three questions every single day. Itdoesn’t matter whether you’re in North Caroli-na or Texas or California or Oregon. It doesn’tmatter. Wherever we are, three things weshould be asking. Number one, how do webring more jobs to America? Number two, howdo we equip people with the skills they need todo those jobs? And number three, how do wemake sure that once they have a job, it leads toa decent living?

I believe we reward effort and determina-tion with wages that allow working families toraise their kids and get ahead. And that’s partof the reason why I said last night that it’s timefor an increase in the minimum wage, becauseif you work full time, you shouldn’t be pover-ty—in poverty.

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I also believe we provide our people skillsand training by investing in education, and thathas to start early. It has to start early. So I talk-ed about making sure that kids are getting anearly childhood education, making sure thatour high schools are preparing our children fora high-tech economy, and making sure thatcolleges are affordable and accessible to everysingle American.

And I believe we attract new jobs to Ameri-ca by investing in new sources of energy andnew infrastructure and the next generation ofhigh-wage, high-tech American manufactur-ing. I believe in manufacturing. I think itmakes our country stronger.

So that’s what we can do together. Andthat’s why I wanted to come down here toAsheville, because there’s a good story to tellhere. I know that a few years ago, manufactur-ing comebacks in North Carolina, a manufac-turing comeback in Asheville, may not haveseemed real likely, because Volvo had just lefttown. This plant had gone dark. Twenty-eight—22—228 jobs had vanished. And thatwas a big blow for this area, because part ofwhat happens is, when those manufacturingjobs go away, then suddenly, the restaurant hasfewer customers, and suppliers for the plantstart withering. And it’s hard for everybody. Ithas a ripple effect.

But then, local officials started reaching outto companies, offering new incentives to takeover this plant. Some of the workers who gotlaid off, like Stratton, went back to school, andthey learned new skills. And then, a year later,Linamar showed up. They were looking for aplace to build some big parts. And these partsare big, I’ve got to say—[laughter]—hubs andwheels and anchors for 400-ton mining trucks.And while they could have gone any place inthe world, they saw this incredible potentialright here in Asheville. They saw the mostpromise in this workforce, so they chose to in-vest in Asheville, in North Carolina, in theUnited States of America.

So to date, Linamar has hired 160 workers.It will be 200 by the end of the year, and it’sjust going to keep on going after that. So thefolks at Linamar said, they came to Asheville to

grow their business. They came here to stayand put down some roots.

And the good news is, what’s happeninghere is happening all around the country. Be-cause just as it’s becoming more and more ex-pensive to do business in places like China,America is getting more competitive and moreproductive.

And after shedding jobs for more than 10years, our manufacturers have now addedabout 500,000 jobs over the past 3 years. Allright? And I mentioned this last night: Cater-pillar, which I know you guys supply, they’rebringing jobs back from Japan. Ford is bring-ing jobs back from Mexico. After placing plantsin other countries like China, Intel is openingits most advanced plant here in the UnitedStates. Apple is starting to make Macs inAmerica again.

So we’re seeing this trend of what we call in-sourcing, not just outsourcing. And the reasonis because America has got outstanding work-ers. We’re starting to produce more home-grown energy, which is driving down our ener-gy costs. And obviously, we’ve still got the big-gest market in the world. And if we try to im-prove our infrastructure a little bit more, thenwe’re going to be even that much more com-petitive.

Now, I want to be honest with you. We’renot going to bring back every job that’s beenlost to outsourcing and automation over thelast decade. Now, I was talking to some of theguys who were showing me their facilities, whohad been in manufacturing for 20 years, andthey explained how things had changed. Itused to be you had to—you wanted to do thekind of stuff you guys are doing here, every-thing was done manually. Right? Now you’vegot a computer, and you’re punching in stuff.So it’s changed, and that means that you canjust produce a lot more with fewer people.

But there are things we can do right now toaccelerate the resurgence of American manu-facturing.

Number one, we can create more centersfor high-tech manufacturing in America. Lastyear, my administration created our first man-ufacturing innovation institute. We put it in

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Youngstown, Ohio, which had been really hardhit when manufacturing started going overseas.And so you had a once-shuttered warehouse,it’s now a state-of-the art lab where new work-ers are mastering what’s called 3–D printing,which has the potential to revolutionize theway we make everything. That’s the future.And there’s no reason that those same kinds ofprojects can’t take root in other cities andtowns.

So last night I announced the launch ofthree more institutes. And I’m calling on Con-gress to help us set up 15 institutes: global cen-ters of high-tech jobs and advanced manufac-turing around the country.

The second thing we need to do is make ourTax Code more competitive. Right now com-panies get all kinds of tax breaks for movingjobs and profits overseas, but companies thatstay here get hit with one of the highest taxrates in the world. That doesn’t make anysense. So what I’m proposing is that we reformour Tax Code, stop rewarding businesses thatship jobs overseas, reward companies that arecreating jobs right here in the United States ofAmerica. That makes sense.

Number three, if you’re a manufacturingtown, especially one that’s taken a hit—that’sseen a company close up shop or a plant shutdown—I want to partner with local leaders tohelp you attract new investment. Because oncethat investment starts coming in, things canstart turning around. And that means infra-structure gets modernized and research facili-ties get built, and suddenly, a community thatwas knocked down is getting back up, andthey’re attracting new manufacturers who wantto come and expand and hire.

So I want us to focus on, if a place like—when Asheville lost the Volvo plant, we’ve gotto come in here real quick and help them fig-ure out, all right, what is it that we need to at-tract a new employer.

Number four, we’ve got to help our workersget the training to compete for the industriesof tomorrow. At least a couple of the guys thatI had a chance to meet as we were taking thetour told me they were out of work for a year,in one case, 2 years. In part because we kept

unemployment insurance in place so folkscould get back on their feet, they were able togo back to school and now are gainfully em-ployed. No job in America should go unfilledbecause somebody doesn’t have the right skillsto get that job—nobody.

So if there is a job open, we should trainthose folks right away, so that they can do thejob. And that’s why I’m proposing a nationalgoal of training 2 million Americans with skillsthat will lead directly to a job. And we knowthis works. After Linamar came to town, theystarted working with AB-Tech, one of the com-munity colleges here in Asheville. And AB-Tech and Linamar worked together to dosomething that is really smart. Rather thanhave kids just—or in some cases not kids, olderworkers—show up and they’re taking a bunchof classes, but they don’t know how this is di-rectly going to lead to a job, what you do is youcustomize the class to train people so they cancome and work at the plant and they’re gettingexperience that’s directly applicable to what’sbeing done here at the job.

That’s good for the community. It’s good forLinamar because they’re getting workers whothey know can do the job. It’s good for thefolks who are going to the community collegebecause they know if they work hard and theydo well in the class, there’s a job waiting forthem. It’s good for the economy as a whole.

So those are four commonsense steps thatwe can take right now to strengthen manufac-turing in America. Now, there’s no magic bul-let here. It’s just some commonsense stuff.People still have to work hard. Companies likeLinamar still have to make good products. Butthe point is, is that if we can just do a fewthings, then over time, what happens is westart rebuilding our manufacturing base in away that strengthens our economy as a whole.

Now, I’m doing what I can just through ad-ministrative action, but I need Congress tohelp. I need Congress to do their part. [Ap-plause] I need Congress to do their part. Ineed Congress to take up these initiatives, be-cause we’ve come too far and we’ve worked toohard to turn back now.

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And you think about all that this city and allof you have been through over the last fewyears. Think about folks like Jeff Brower. Now,Jeff was in the trucking industry for over a de-cade. Two years ago, he got laid off, lost his jobas a diesel mechanic. That’s a tough thing to gothrough, even though Jeff’s a pretty tough guy.But he bounced back. He decided it was timefor him to change careers. He decided it wastime to get some new skills. He went to AB-Tech, took a class in automated machining. Afew months ago, Jeff got his diploma. He grad-uated on a Wednesday, interviewed at thisplant on Thursday. By Friday, he was workingas a machine operator.

Where’s Jeff? There he is, right here. Now,obviously, Jeff is pretty good at interviews—[laughter]—because he just got hired like that.I hope he can give me some advice. [Laughter]

But here’s the thing. The reason Jeff did allthat—obviously, a lot of it was to support him-self and his family—but it wasn’t just to puncha clock at a new plant or pick up a paycheckfrom a new company. It was to make sure hecould have a better future for his family and forhis community and his country. Jeff said: “Get-ting my foot in the door has opened my eyes tobigger horizons. And I want to keep on going.”I want to keep on going.

So that’s our story. That’s the American sto-ry. We don’t give up. We get up. We innovate.We adapt. We learn new skills. We keep going.And I just want everybody here to know at thisplant—but everybody in Asheville, everybodyin North Carolina, and everybody all across thecountry—I want you to know as long as you’reout here fighting every day to better your livesand to better the lives of your children, thenI’ll be back in Washington fighting for you. Iwill be back there fighting for you, becausethere’s nothing we can’t do and no possibilitieswe can’t reach when we’re working together.We just have to work together.

And we’ve got to stop with some of the poli-tics that we see in Washington sometimesthat’s focused on who’s up and who’s down.Let’s just focus on the same kind of commonsense and cooperation that we’re seeing at thisplant and we see all across the country.

So thank you, everybody. God bless you.God bless America. Thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 12:10 p.m. Inhis remarks, he referred to Stratton Taylor,employee, Frank Hasenfratz, chairman of theboard of directors, Jim Jarrell, president andchief operating officer, and Jeff Brower, ma-chinist, Linamar Corp.; and Mayor Terry M.Bellamy of Asheville, NC.

Statement on the Observance of Ash WednesdayFebruary 13, 2013

Michelle and I join with Christians hereand around the world in marking AshWednesday. This is a day of both reflectionand joy, a time to ponder the meaning of re-

pentance and restoration. As we enter Lent,we join millions in renewing our faith and re-membering our commitment to love andserve one another.

Joint Statement by President Obama, President Herman Van Rompuy of theEuropean Council, and President José Manuel Durão Barroso of theEuropean CommissionFebruary 13, 2013

We, the Leaders of the United States andthe European Union, are pleased to announcethat, based on recommendations from theU.S.-EU High Level Working Group on Jobs

and Growth co-chaired by United States TradeRepresentative Kirk and European TradeCommissioner De Gucht, the United Statesand the European Union will each initiate the

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internal procedures necessary to launch nego-tiations on a Transatlantic Trade and Invest-ment Partnership.

The transatlantic economic relationship isalready the world’s largest, accounting for halfof global economic output and nearly one tril-lion dollars in goods and services trade, andsupporting millions of jobs on both sides of theAtlantic.

We are committed to making this relation-ship an even stronger driver of our prosperity.In that regard, we welcome the High LevelWorking Group’s recommendations on howwe can expand further our transatlantic trade

and investment partnership, promoting greatergrowth and supporting more jobs.

A high-standard Transatlantic Trade and In-vestment Partnership would advance trade andinvestment liberalization and address regulato-ry and other non-tariff barriers.

Through this negotiation, the United Statesand the European Union will have the oppor-tunity not only to expand trade and investmentacross the Atlantic, but also to contribute tothe development of global rules that canstrengthen the multilateral trading system.


Message to the Congress on Continuation of the National Emergency WithRespect to LibyaFebruary 13, 2013


Section 202(d) of the National EmergenciesAct (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)) provides for the auto-matic termination of a national emergency un-less, within 90 days prior to the anniversarydate of its declaration, the President publishesin the Federal Register and transmits to theCongress a notice stating that the emergency isto continue in effect beyond the anniversarydate. In accordance with this provision, I havesent to the Federal Register for publication theenclosed notice stating that the national emer-gency declared in Executive Order 13566 ofFebruary 25, 2011, is to continue in effect be-yond February 25, 2013.

Colonel Muammar Qadhafi, his govern-ment, and close associates took extreme mea-sures against the people of Libya, including byusing weapons of war, mercenaries, and wan-ton violence against unarmed civilians. In addi-tion, there was a serious risk that Libyan stateassets would be misappropriated by Qadhafi,members of his government, members of hisfamily, or his close associates if those assetswere not protected. The foregoing circum-stances, the prolonged attacks, and the in-creased numbers of Libyans seeking refuge inother countries caused a deterioration in the

security of Libya, posed a serious risk to its sta-bility, and led me to declare a national emer-gency to deal with this threat to the national se-curity and foreign policy of the United States.

We are in the process of winding down thesanctions in response to developments in Lib-ya, including the fall of Qadhafi and his gov-ernment and the establishment of a democrati-cally elected government. We are workingclosely with the new Libyan government andwith the international community to effectivelyand appropriately ease restrictions on sanc-tioned entities, including by taking actions con-sistent with the U.N. Security Council’s deci-sion to lift sanctions against the Central Bankof Libya and two other entities on December16, 2011. The situation in Libya, however, con-tinues to pose an unusual and extraordinarythreat to the national security and foreign poli-cy of the United States and we need to protectagainst this threat and the diversion of assets orother abuse by certain members of Qadhafi’sfamily and other former regime officials.Therefore, I have determined that it is neces-sary to continue the national emergency withrespect to Libya.

BARACK OBAMA

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The White House,February 13, 2013.


Remarks at the Decatur Community Recreation Center in Decatur, GeorgiaFebruary 14, 2013

Hello, everybody! Well, it is great to be inGeorgia! Great to be in Decatur!

You know, I can’t imagine a more romanticway to spend Valentine’s Day—[laughter]—than with all of you, with all the press here. Ac-tually, Michelle says hello. She made mepromise to get back in time for our date to-night. [Laughter] That’s important. That’s im-portant. I’ve already got a gift, got the flowers.I was telling folks the flowers are a little easier,though, because I’ve got this Rose Garden.[Laughter] Lot of people keeping flowersaround.

I want to acknowledge a few people who arehere. First of all, Congressman Hank Johnsonis here. Where’s Hank? Your mayor, Jim Bas-kett, is here. Another mayor you may know,Kasim Reed, snuck in here. I want to acknowl-edge the Decatur School Board, who I had achance to meet and has helped to do so muchgreat work around here. Folks right here.

And of course, I want to thank Mary for thewonderful introduction and for teaching mehow to count earlier today. [Laughter] I’ve gotto tell you it was wonderful to be there. I wantto thank all the teachers and the parents andthe administrators of Decatur City Schools, be-cause behind every child who is doing greatthere is a great teacher, and I’m proud of everysingle one of you for the work that you do heretoday.

Now, on Tuesday, I delivered my State ofthe Union Address. And I laid out a plan for re-igniting what I believe is the true engine ofAmerica’s economic growth, and that is a thriv-ing, growing, rising middle class. And that alsomeans ladders for people to get into the mid-dle class. And the plan I put forward says weneed to make smart choices as a country, bothto grow our economy, shrink our deficits in abalanced way by cutting what we don’t need,but then investing in the things that we do

need to make sure that everybody has a chanceto get ahead in life.

What we need is to make America a magnetfor new jobs by investing in manufacturing andenergy and better roads and bridges andschools. We’ve got to make sure hard work isrewarded with a wage that you can live on andraise a family on.

We need to make sure that we’ve got sharedresponsibility for giving every American thechance to earn the skills and education thatthey need for a really competitive, global jobmarket.

As I said on Tuesday night, that educationhas to start at the earliest possible age. Andthat’s what you have realized here in Decatur.Study after study shows that the earlier a childbegins learning, the better he or she doesdown the road. But here’s the thing: We arenot doing enough to give all of our kids thatchance. The kids we saw today that I had achance to spend time with in Mary’s classroom,they’re some of the lucky ones, because fewerthan 3 in 10 4-year-olds are enrolled in a high-quality preschool program.

Most middle class parents can’t afford a fewhundred bucks a week for private preschool.And for the poor children who need it themost, the lack of access to a great preschool ed-ucation can have an impact on their entirelives. And we all pay a price for that. And as Isaid, this is not speculation. Study after studyshows the achievement gap starts off veryyoung. Kids who, when they go into kindergar-ten, their first day, if they already have a lotfewer vocabulary words, they don’t know theirnumbers and their shapes and have the capaci-ty for focus, they’re going to be behind thatfirst day. And it’s very hard for them to catchup over time.

And then, at a certain point—I bet a lot ofteachers have seen this—kids aren’t stupid.They know they’re behind at a certain point,

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and then they start pulling back, and they actlike they’re disinterested in school becausethey’re frustrated that they’re not doing as wellas they should, and then you may lose them.

And that’s why, on Tuesday night, I pro-posed working with States like Georgia tomake high-quality preschool available to everychild in America. Every child.

Every dollar we invest in high-quality earlyeducation can save more than $7 later on:boosting graduation rates, reducing teen preg-nancy, reducing violent crime. In States likeGeorgia that have made it a priority to educateour youngest children, States like Oklahoma,students don’t just show up in kindergartenand first grade more prepared to learn, they’realso more likely to grow up reading and doingmath at grade level, graduating from highschool, holding a job, even forming more sta-ble families.

Hope is found in what works. This works.We know it works. If you are looking for a goodbang for your educational buck, this is it, righthere.

That’s why, even in times of tight budgets,States like Georgia and Oklahoma have workedto make a preschool slot available for nearly ev-ery parent who is looking for one for theirchild. And they’re being staffed with folks likeMary: qualified, highly educated teachers. Thisis not babysitting, all right, this is teaching.

So at the age that our children are justsponges soaking stuff in, their minds are grow-ing fastest, what we saw in the classroom heretoday was kids are taught numbers, they’retaught shapes, but also how to answer ques-tions, discover patterns, play well with others.And the teachers who were in the classroom,they’ve got a coach who’s coming in and work-ing with them on best practices and paying at-tention to how they can constantly improvewhat they’re doing.

And that whole playing well with others, bythe way, is a trait we could use more in Wash-ington. So maybe we need to bring the teach-ers up. Every once in a while, have some quiettime. [Laughter] Time out. [Laughter]

So at the College Heights Early ChildhoodLearning Center that I visited earlier today,

nearly 200 little kids are spending full dayslearning in classrooms with highly qualifiedteachers. And so I was working with them tobuild towers and replicate sculptures and singsongs. And look, I’ve got to admit, I was not al-ways the fastest guy on some of this stuff. Thekids were beating me to the punch. Butthrough this interactive learning, they’re learn-ing math, writing, how to tell stories.

And one of the things that you’ve done herein Decatur that’s wonderful also is, is thatyou’ve combined kids from different incomelevels: You’ve got disabled kids all in the sameclassroom so we’re all learning together. Andwhat that means is, is that all the kids are beingleveled up, and you’re not seeing some of thatsame stratification that you see that eventuallyleads to these massive achievement gaps.

So, before you know it, these kids are goingto be moving on to bigger and better things inkindergarten, and they’re going to be betterprepared to succeed. And what’s more, I don’tthink you’ll find a working parent in Americawho wouldn’t appreciate the peace of mindthat their child is in a safe, high-quality learn-ing environment every single day.

Michelle and I remember how tough it canbe to find good childcare. I remember how ex-pensive it can be too. The size of your pay-check, though, shouldn’t determine your child’sfuture. So let’s fix this. Let’s make sure none ofour kids start out the race of life already a stepbehind. Let’s make it a national priority to giveevery child access to a high-quality early educa-tion. Let’s give our kids that chance.

Now, I do have to warn the parents who arehere who still have young kids, they grow up tobe, like, 5´10´´—[laughter]—and even ifthey’re still nice to you, they basically don’thave a lot of time for you during the weekends.[Laughter] They have sleepovers and dates.[Laughter] So all that early investment—[laughter]—just leads them to go away.[Laughter]

Now, what I also said on Tuesday night isthat our commitment to our kids’ education hasto continue throughout their academic lives. Sofrom the time our kids start grade school, weneed to equip them with the skills they need to

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compete in a high-tech economy. That’s whywe’re working to recruit and train 100,000 newteachers in the fields of the future: in scienceand technology and engineering and math,where we are most likely to fall behind.

We’ve got to redesign our high schools sothat a diploma puts our kids on a path to agood job. We want to reward schools that de-velop new partnerships with colleges and em-ployers and create classes that focus on sci-ence and technology and engineering andmath, all the things that can help our kids fillthose jobs that are there right now, but also inthe future.

And obviously, once our kids graduate fromhigh school, we’ve got to make sure that sky-rocketing costs don’t price middle class fami-lies out of a higher education or saddle themwith unsustainable debt. I mean, some of theyounger teachers who are here, they’ve chosena career path that is terrific, but let’s face it,you don’t go into teaching to get rich. [Laugh-ter] And it is very important that we make surethat they can afford to get a great educationand can choose to be a teacher, can choose tobe in a teaching profession.

So we’ve worked to make college more af-fordable for millions of students and familiesalready through tax credits and grants andloans that go farther than before. But taxpay-ers can’t keep subsidizing ever-escalatingprice tags for higher education. At somepoint you run out of money. So colleges haveto do their part. And colleges that don’t doenough to keep costs in check should get lessFederal support, so that we’re incentivizingcolleges to think about how to keep theircosts down.

And just yesterday we released what we’recalling a new College Scorecard that gives par-

ents and students all the information they needto compare schools by value and affordabilityso that they can make the best choice. And anyinterested parent, by the way, who’s out therecan check it out at whitehouse.gov.

Now, in the end, that’s what this is all about:giving our kids the best possible shot at life;equipping them with the skills, education thata 21st-century economy demands; giving themevery chance to go as far as their hard work andGod-given potential will take them.

That’s not just going to make sure that theydo well, that will strengthen our economy andour country for all of us. Because if their gen-eration prospers, if they’ve got the skills theyneed to get a good job, that means businesseswant to locate here. And it also means, by theway, they’re well-equipped as citizens with thecritical thinking skills that they need in order tohelp guide our democracy. We’ll all prosperthat way. That’s what we’re fighting for.They’re the ones who are going to write thatnext great chapter in the American story, andwe’ve got to make sure that we’re providingthat investment.

I am so proud of every single teacher who ishere who has dedicated their lives to makingsure those kids get a good start in life. I want tomake sure that I’m helping, and I want to makesure that the country is behind you every stepof the way.

Thank you, everybody. God bless you. Godbless America.

NOTE: The President spoke at 1:28 p.m. In hisremarks, he referred to Mayor Kasim Reed ofAtlanta, GA; and Mary McMahon, teacher,College Heights Early Childhood LearningCenter in Decatur, GA.

Statement on Senator Frank R. Lautenberg’s Decision Not To Seek ReelectionFebruary 14, 2013

Frank is a steadfast champion of the peopleof New Jersey. Throughout his time in theSenate, Frank has fought tirelessly for work-ers, veterans, members of our military andtheir families, and immigrants, and he contin-

ues to make extraordinary contributions toour Nation’s safety and the health and welfareof our citizens. His service in World War II isa testament to his character and deep com-mitment to public service. I look forward to

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working with Frank on critical issues beforeus these next 2 years, and Michelle and I wishhim and Bonnie all the best.

NOTE: The statement referred to Bonnie En-glebardt Lautenberg, wife of Sen. Lauten-berg.

Remarks Prior to a Meeting With President Giorgio Napolitano of ItalyFebruary 15, 2013

President Obama. Well, I want to extend thewarmest greetings to my good friend, Presi-dent Napolitano, on a return visit to the WhiteHouse. I think it’s entirely appropriate the dayafter Valentine’s Day, since we know that St.Valentine was associated with Italy, that wehad a chance to express our love for the Italianpeople and my high regard for President Na-politano.

He has been an extraordinary leader not justin Italy, but also in Europe. We’ve had occa-sion to meet many times in which we have ex-pressed again and again the importance of thetransatlantic relationship and the deep andabiding friendship and connection and bondbetween the Italian people and the Americanpeople.

And obviously, we constantly talk about theextraordinary connection that derives from thetradition of Italian Americans making enor-mous contributions to the United States. Presi-dent Napolitano has been so gracious in talkingabout his memories of the role that Americaplayed in liberating Europe and instituting thekinds of democratic practices and traditionsthat have served both sides of the Atlantic sowell for so many years.

I want to thank the people of Italy for theirenormous contributions to the NATO alliance.Italy is one of our biggest contributors in Af-ghanistan and makes enormous sacrifices.They welcome and host our troops on Italiansoil. The economic bonds between our twocountries are very significant. And in all this,President Napolitano has shown himself to bea visionary leader who has helped to guide andsteer Europe towards greater unification, butalways with a strong transatlantic relationshipin mind.

The last point I would make is that Presi-dent Napolitano has also just been a good per-sonal friend, a tremendous host to my family

when they visited Italy. You should know, Mr.President, that one of the few things that mydaughters asked me after I was reelected was,does this mean we can go back to Italy again?So I confirmed to them that any excuse we canfind to visit Italy, we shall return, hopefully.

And this will give us an opportunity to notonly visit, but also to talk about some importantissues, including the world economy. I an-nounced at the State of the Union this weekmy interest and intention in pursuing a U.S.-European Union free trade agreement, whichI know is something of great interest to thePresident. I’ll be interested in hearing fromhim how he anticipates the elections and gov-ernment formation in Italy and what implica-tions that has for the larger European project.And I’m sure we’ll have a chance to talk aboutsome national security issues as well.

But my main message is to say, thank you foryour extraordinary service, and I’m so glad thatwe had an opportunity to visit once again be-fore you move on to even better things—I as-sume they’re at least having more fun than pol-itics.

President Napolitano. Thank you very much.I don’t need to say how deeply touched I am bythe generous appreciation we just heard of mylong public service in the interest of Italy, ofour alliance, of our common cause. And I amgrateful to President Obama for inviting me topay a farewell visit at the White House and forgiving me the opportunity of an exchange ofideas before I conclude my Presidential man-date.

I am sure that we will be able today to ex-press a common sense of confidence in the fu-ture of Italy and of U.S.-Italy relations, moregenerally speaking, in the future of our jointcommitment to advance global peace, democ-racy, and human rights.

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Italy has made a remarkable progress in thepast 14 months: the Italian Government withparliamentary support of different and evenopposite political forces, and with the compre-hension of different social groups and of all cit-izens. While this progress must and will contin-ue and be developed because Italy needs it,Europe needs it, and I think the world as awhole needs it.

The announcement which has been made,just made in Brussels and in Washington—sig-nificantly because I was impressed by thewords, “We, the leaders of the EuropeanUnion and of the United States.” It was a beau-tiful incipit. Yes, well, I think that the trade—the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Part-nership, which will be realized—now we arethe opening talks, but I am sure about also theconclusion—can represent a relevant contribu-tion for promoting a new wave of develop-ment, of technologic advancement, of socialjustice on both shores of the Atlantic. And Ithink it can represent even something more. Itis to say a new historic stage in relations be-tween Europe and the United States, not only

economically, but also from a political andmoral point of view.

My conviction is that the effect that a shifthas been taking place in the center of gravity ofthe world development of international rela-tions doesn’t cancel at all the crucial impor-tance of transatlantic alliance, of transatlanticrelations. On the contrary, it represents a newstimulus for us to make such a framework ofrelation more active, more competitive. It isabsolutely necessary for a better world to haveour common heritage of values and experienc-es be a decisive factor also in the course of glo-balization in the next future.

It is the spirit in which I am here to testifyonce more my personal friendship and my ad-miration for President Obama, only deploringthat the visit of President and his family inRome was so short, and expecting a new visitalso in my new capacity. I be in another palace,but I be there to welcome you.

President Obama. That’s great. Thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 10:10 a.m. inthe Oval Office at the White House.

Remarks on Presenting the Presidential Citizens MedalFebruary 15, 2013

The President. Thank you very much, every-body. Please, please have a seat. Well, it is apleasure to welcome some of our Nation’s fin-est citizens here to the people’s house. And letme be the first to congratulate each of you andyour family members for the receipt of thehighest honor a civilian can receive: the Citi-zens Medal.

We host a lot of events at the White House,but I have to admit this is one of my favorites,because it’s a moment when, as a people, weget to recognize some extraordinary men andwomen who have gone above and beyond fortheir country and for their fellow citizens, of-ten without fanfare, often with not a lot of at-tention, very rarely for any profit. You do it be-cause it’s the right thing to do, because youwant to give back. And today we honor you, wecelebrate you, and most of all, we have a

chance to say thank you. Because all of us—arewhat the rest of us aspire to be.

In America, we have the benefit of living inthis big and diverse nation. We’re home to 315million people who come from every back-ground, who worship every faith, who hold ev-ery single point of view. But what binds us to-gether, what unites us, is a single sacred word:citizen.

It’s a word that, as I said in my State of theUnion Address, doesn’t just describe our na-tionality or our legal status, the fact that wehold a passport. It defines our way of life. Itcaptures our belief in something bigger thanourselves; our willingness to accept certain ob-ligations to one another and to embrace theidea that we’re all in this together, that out ofmany, we are one. It’s the thing that de Toc-queville noticed about America when he firstcame to visit: These folks participate, they get

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involved, they have a point of view; they don’tjust wait for somebody else to do something,they go out there and do it, and they join, andthey become part of groups, and they mobilize,and they organize.

That’s who we are; that’s in our DNA. That’swhat it means to be a citizen of the UnitedStates of America. We’ve all got busy lives.We’ve got bills to pay. We’ve got kids to car-pool, errands to get done. And in the midst ofall the running around, it would be easy andeven understandable for folks to just focus onthemselves, to worry about our own lives, tolook down the street and see a neighbor inneed and say, “I’d like to help, but I’ve gotproblems of my own.” To look across town at acommunity that’s in despair and say, “That’sjust too big a challenge for us to be able to takeon.”

That’s not who we are. That’s not what wedo. That’s not what built this country. In thiscountry, we look out for one another. We geteach other’s backs, especially in times of hard-ship or challenge. It’s part of the reason whyapplications to AmeriCorps are at an alltimehigh. That’s why volunteering in America is atthe highest level it’s been in years. And I knowthat makes Harris proud to hear.

Now, Harris Wofford has devoted his entirelife to creating opportunities for Americans toserve. And the reason it’s such a privilege forme to share the stage with him and all the oth-ers who are participating here today, is becauseyou’ve taken commitment to a whole new lev-el. Every day, you’re out there righting wrongs,healing hurts, changing lives.

And when Janice Jackson was hit by a car atthe age of 24, she was told by her doctors thatthe only thing she would ever move again wereher shoulders. After suffering an injury likethat, nobody would have faulted Janice for justfocusing on herself. But as she recovered, andshe regained her strength, she resolved to givesome of that strength to others in need. Janicesaid that “from a wheelchair, I decided to de-vote my life to women with disabilities to tellthem that even though you have limitations,you also have abilities.” And every day, through

her mentorship and through her advocacy,that’s exactly what she’s doing.

When Adam Burke returned from Iraq, hehad more than earned the right to just focus onhimself. He had served our Nation with honor:a recipient of the Purple Heart for wounds hereceived while rescuing a comrade from ene-my fire. Because of that attack—because of theshrapnel that tore through his head and hislegs—when Adam came home, he came homea wounded warrior, suffering from a traumaticbrain injury, posttraumatic stress disorder. Buta few years later, Adam found himself back onthe family farm, and he noticed that workingthe land was therapeutic. His coordination im-proved. He was able to put aside his cane. Sohe decided to use farming to help other veter-ans with similar injuries see similar benefits.And by starting Veterans Farm, he’s doing thatevery day.

When Jeanne Manford learned that her sonMorty had been badly beaten up at a gay rightsdemonstration, nobody would have faulted herfor bringing him home, holding him close, justfocusing on her child. This was back in 1972.There was a lot of hate, a lot of vitriol towardsgays and lesbians and anyone who supportedthem. But instead, she wrote to the local news-paper and took to the streets with a simplemessage: No matter who her son was—no mat-ter who he loved—she loved him and wouldn’tput up with this kind of nonsense. And in thatsimple act, she inspired a movement and gaverise to a national organization that has given somuch support to parents and families andfriends and helped to change this country. Welost Jeanne last month, but her legacy carrieson, every day, in the countless lives that shetouched.

And then when Dawn Hochsprung andMary Sherlach, Vicki Soto, Lauren Rousseau,Rachel D’Avino, Anne Marie Murphy, whenthey showed up for work at Sandy Hook Ele-mentary on December 14 of last year, they ex-pected a day like any other, doing what wasright for their kids, spent a chilly morningreadying classrooms and welcoming young stu-dents. They had no idea that evil was about tostrike. And when it did, they could have taken

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shelter by themselves. They could have fo-cused on their own safety, on their own well-being. But they didn’t. They gave their lives toprotect the precious children in their care.They gave all they had for the most innocentand helpless among us.

And that’s what we honor today: the coura-geous heart, the selfless spirit, the inspiring ac-tions of extraordinary Americans, extraordinarycitizens.

We are a nation of 315 million people. Outof all these folks, around 6,000 were nominat-ed for this medal. And today you’re the onesreceiving it not just for what you do, but forwhat you represent: for the shining examplethat you set every single day and the inspira-tion that you give each of us as fellow citizens,including your President.

So congratulations to the recipients. Andnow I would like our Military Aide to read thecitations.

[At this point, Lt. Col. Owen G. Ray, USA, Ar-my Aide to the President, read the citations.The President then presented the medals, as-sisted by Maj. Gary Marlowe, USAF, Air ForceAide to the President.]

The President. Let me close by just saying afew words of thanks. First of all, to Wendy andall the people at the Corporation for Nationaland Community Service, thank you for all thatyou do to make our communities and ourcountry stronger. We’re very grateful.

To those who nominated these outstandingindividuals, thank you for taking the time to

share their stories. The competition was stiff.And your words gave life to their work.

To all the family and friends who are herecelebrating with the winners, thank you for thelove and support that you provide to them ev-ery single day, because they couldn’t do whatthey do unless somebody had that love andsupport for them. I know the awardees wouldagree that this honor belongs not just to them-selves, but to everybody who supports them.

And finally, to the winners of this year’s Citi-zens Medal, we want to congratulate you onceagain. A special note just to the families whoare here from Sandy Hook: We are so blessedto be with you. I’ve gotten to know many ofyou during the course of some very difficultweeks. And your courage and love for eachother and your communities shines throughevery single day. And we could not be moreblessed and grateful for your loved ones whogave everything they had on behalf of our kids.

On behalf of a grateful nation, thanks to allof you for showing us what it means to be a cit-izen of this country that we love. Hopefully, wewill all draw inspiration from this and remem-ber why it is that we’re lucky to be living in thegreatest nation on Earth. Thank you all forcoming, and enjoy the reception.

NOTE: The President spoke at 11:30 a.m. inthe East Room at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to former Sen. Harris L.Wofford; Janice Y. Jackson, creator and pro-gram director, Women Embracing AbilitiesNow; and Wendy Spencer, chair, Corporationfor National and Community Service.

Remarks at the Hyde Park Academy High School in Chicago, IllinoisFebruary 15, 2013

The President. Hey, Chicago! Hello, Chica-go! Hello, everybody. Hello, Hyde Park. It isgood to be home. It is good to be home. Every-body, have a seat. You all relax. It’s just me.You all know me. It is good to be back home.

A couple of people I want to acknowledge:First of all, I want to thank your mayor, mygreat friend, Rahm Emanuel, for his outstand-ing leadership of the city and his kind introduc-

tion. I want to thank everybody here at HydePark Academy for welcoming me here today.

I want to acknowledge your principal andyour assistant principal—although, they reallymake me feel old, because when I saw them—[laughter]—where are they? Where are they?Stand up, stand up. They are doing outstand-ing work. We’re very, very proud of them. Butyou do make me feel old. Sit down. [Laughter]

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A couple other people I want to acknowl-edge: Governor Pat Quinn is here doing greatwork down in Springfield. My great friend andsenior Senator, Dick Durbin is in the house.Congressman Bobby Rush is here; we’re in hisdistrict. Attorney General—and former seat-mate of mine when I was in the State senate—Lisa Madigan; County Board President—usedto be my alderwoman—Tony Preckwinkle inthe house.

And I’ve got—I see a lot of reverend clergyhere, but I’m not going to mention them, be-cause if I miss one, I’m in trouble. [Laughter]They’re all friends of mine. They’ve beenknowing me.

You know, some people may not know this,but obviously, this is my old neighborhood. Iused to teach right around the corner. This iswhere Michelle and I met, where we fell inlove.

Audience members. Aww!The President. This is where we raised our

daughters, in a house just about a mile awayfrom here—less than a mile. And that’s reallywhat I’ve come here to talk about today: raisingour kids.

Audience members. We love you!The President. I love you too. I love you too.I’m here to make sure that we talk about and

then work towards giving every child everychance in life, building stronger communitiesand new ladders of opportunity that they canclimb into the middle class and beyond, andmost importantly, keeping them safe fromharm.

Michelle was born and raised here: a prouddaughter of the South Side. Last weekend, shecame home, but it was to attend the funeral ofHadiya Pendleton. And Hadiya’s parents, bythe way, are here, and I want to just acknowl-edge them. They are just wonderful, wonderfulpeople.

And as you know, this week, in my State ofthe Union, I talked about Hadiya on Tuesdaynight and the fact that unfortunately what hap-pened to Hadiya is not unique. It’s not uniqueto Chicago. It’s not unique to this country. Toomany of our children are being taken awayfrom us.

Two months ago, America mourned 26 in-nocent first-graders and their educators inNewtown. And today I had the high honor ofgiving the highest civilian award I can give tothe parent—or the families of the educatorswho had been killed in Newtown. And therewas something profound and uniquely heart-breaking and tragic, obviously, about a groupof 6-year-olds being killed. But last year, therewere 443 murders with a firearm on the streetsof this city, and 65 of those victims were 18 andunder. So that’s the equivalent of a Newtownevery 4 months.

And that’s precisely why the overwhelmingmajority of Americans are asking for somecommonsense proposals to make it harder forcriminals to get their hands on a gun. And as Isaid on Tuesday night, I recognize not every-body agrees with every issue. There are region-al differences. The experience of gun owner-ship is different in urban areas than it is in ru-ral areas, different from upstate and downstateIllinois. But these proposals deserve a vote inCongress. They deserve a vote. [Applause]They deserve a vote. And I want to thank thoseMembers of Congress who are working togeth-er in a serious way to try to address this issue.

But I’ve also said no law or set of laws canprevent every senseless act of violence in thiscountry. When a child opens fire on anotherchild, there’s a hole in that child’s heart thatgovernment can’t fill; only community and par-ents and teachers and clergy can fill that hole.In too many neighborhoods today—whetherhere in Chicago or the farthest reaches of ruralAmerica—it can feel like for a lot of youngpeople the future only extends to the nextstreet corner or the outskirts of town, that nomatter how much you work or how hard youtry, your destiny was determined the momentyou were born. There are entire neighbor-hoods where young people, they don’t see anexample of somebody succeeding. And for a lotof young boys and young men, in particular,they don’t see an example of fathers or grand-fathers, uncles, who are in a position to supportfamilies and be held up and respected.

And so that means that this is not just a gunissue, it’s also an issue of the kinds of commu-

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nities that we’re building. And for that, we allshare a responsibility, as citizens, to fix it. Weall share a responsibility to move this countrycloser to our founding vision that no matterwho you are or where you come from, here inAmerica, you can decide your own destiny. Youcan succeed if you work hard and fulfill yourresponsibilities.

Now, that means we’ve got to grow oureconomy and create more good jobs. It meanswe’ve got to equip every American with theskills and the training to fill those jobs. And itmeans we’ve got to rebuild ladders of opportu-nity for everybody willing to climb them.

Now, that starts at home. There’s no moreimportant ingredient for success, nothing thatwould be more important for us reducing vio-lence than strong, stable families, which meanswe should do more to promote marriage andencourage fatherhood. Don’t get me wrong: Asthe son of a single mom, who gave everythingshe had to raise me with the help of my grand-parents, I turned out okay. [Laughter] But—no, no, but I think it’s—so we’ve got singlemoms out here, they’re heroic in what they’redoing, and we are so proud of them. But at thesame time, I wish I had had a father who wasaround and involved. Loving, supportive par-ents—and by the way, that’s all kinds of par-ents. That includes foster parents, and that in-cludes grandparents and extended families; itincludes gay or straight parents.

Those parents—those parents supportingkids—that’s the single most important thing.Unconditional love for your child, that makes adifference. If a child grows up with parentswho have work and have some education andcan be role models and can teach integrity andresponsibility and discipline and delayed grati-fication—all those things give a child the kindof foundation that allows them to say, my fu-ture, I can make it what I want. And we’ve gotto make sure that every child has that, and insome cases, we may have to fill the gap and thevoid if children don’t have that.

So we should encourage marriage by remov-ing the financial disincentives for couples wholove one another, but may find it financiallydisadvantageous if they get married. We

should reform our child support laws to getmore men working and engaged with theirchildren. And my administration will continueto work with the faith community and the pri-vate sector this year on a campaign to encour-age strong parenting and fatherhood. Becausewhat makes you a man is not the ability tomake a child, it’s the courage to raise one.

We also know, though, that there is no surerpath to success in the middle class than a goodeducation. And what we now know is that thathas to begin in the earliest years. Study afterstudy shows that the earlier a child starts learn-ing, the more likely they are to succeed: themore likely they are to do well at Hyde ParkAcademy; the more likely they are to graduate;the more likely they are to get a good job; themore likely they are to form stable families andthen be able to raise children themselves whoget off to a good start.

Chicago already has a competition, thanks towhat the mayor is doing, that rewards the bestpreschools in the city; so Rahm has already pri-oritized this. But what I’ve also done is say, let’sgive every child across America access to high-quality, public preschool. Every child, not justsome. Every dollar we put into early childhoodeducation can save $7 down the road by boost-ing graduation rates, reducing teen pregnancy,reducing violent crime, reducing the welfarerolls, making sure that folks who have work,now they’re paying taxes. All this stuff paysback huge dividends if we make the invest-ment. So let’s make this happen. Let’s makesure every child has the chance they deserve.

As kids go through school, we’ll recruit newmath and science teachers to make sure thatthey’ve got the skills that the future demands.We’ll help more young people in low-incomeneighborhoods get summer jobs. We’ll rede-sign our high schools and encourage our kids tostay in high school, so that the diploma they getleads directly to a good job once they graduate.

Right here in Chicago, five new high schoolshave partnered with companies and communi-ty colleges to prepare our kids with the skillsthat businesses are looking for right now. Andyour College to Careers program helps com-munity college students get access to the same

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kinds of real-world experiences. So we knowwhat works. Let’s just do it in more places.Let’s reach more young people. Let’s givemore kids a chance.

So we know how important families are. Weknow how important education is. We recog-nize that government alone can’t solve theseproblems of violence and poverty, that every-body has to be involved. But we also have toremember that the broader economic environ-ment of communities is critical as well. For ex-ample, we need to make sure that folks whoare working now, often in the hardest jobs, seetheir work rewarded with wages that allowthem to raise a family without falling into pov-erty.

Today, a family with two kids that workshard and relies on a minimum wage salary stilllives below the poverty line. That’s wrong, andwe should fix it. We should reward an honestday’s work with honest wages. And that’s whywe should raise the minimum wage to $9 anhour and make it a wage you can live on.

And even though some cities have bouncedback pretty quickly from the recession, weknow that there are communities and neigh-borhoods within cities or in small towns thathaven’t bounced back. Cities like Chicago areringed with former factory towns that nevercame back all the way from plants packing up;there are pockets of poverty where youngadults are still looking for their first job.

And that’s why on Tuesday, I announced—and that’s part of what I want to focus on herein Chicago and across the country—is my in-tention to partner with 20 of the hardest hitcommunities in America to get them back inthe game—get them back in the game.

First of all, we’ll work with local leaders tocut through redtape and improve things likepublic safety and education and housing. Andwe’ll bring all the resources to bear in a coordi-nated fashion so that we can get that tippingpoint where suddenly a community starts feel-ing like things are changing and we can comeback.

Second of all, if you’re willing to play a rolein a child’s education, then we’ll help you re-form your schools. We want to seed more and

more partnerships of the kind that Rahm is try-ing to set up.

Third, we’re going to help bring jobs andgrowth to hard-hit neighborhoods by giving taxbreaks to business owners who invest and hirein those neighborhoods.

Fourth, and specific to the issue of violence,because it’s very hard to develop economicallyif people don’t feel safe. If they don’t feel likethey can walk down the street and shop at astore without getting hit over the head orworse, then commerce dries up, businessesdon’t want to locate, families move out, you getinto the wrong cycle. So we’re going to targetneighborhoods struggling to deal with violentcrime and help them reduce that violence inways that have been proven to work. And Iknow this is a priority of your mayor’s; it’s go-ing to be a priority of mine.

And finally, we’re going to keep working incommunities all across the country, includinghere in Chicago, to replace rundown publichousing that doesn’t offer much hope or safetywith new, healthy homes for low- and moder-ate-income families.

And here in Woodlawn, you’ve seen some ofthe progress that we can make when we cometogether to rebuild our neighborhoods, and at-tract new businesses and improve our schools.Woodlawn is not all the way where it needs tobe, but thanks to wonderful institutions likeApostolic Church, we’ve made great progress.

So we want to help more communities fol-low your example. And let’s go even farther byoffering incentives to companies that hire un-employed Americans who have got what ittakes to fill a job opening, but they may havebeen out of work so long that nobody is willingto give them a chance right now. Let’s put ourpeople back to work rebuilding vacant homesin need of repair. Young people can get experi-ence, apprenticeships, learn a trade. And we’reremoving blight from our community.

If we gather together what works, we can ex-tend more ladders of opportunity for anybodywho’s working to build a strong, middle classlife for themselves. Because in America, yourdestiny shouldn’t be determined by where youlive, where you were born. It should be deter-

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mined by how big you’re willing to dream, howmuch effort and sweat and tears you’re willingto put in to realizing that dream.

When I first moved to Chicago, before anyof the students in this room were born—[laughter]—and a whole lot of people who arein the audience remember me from thosedays—I lived in a community on the SouthSide right up the block, but I also worked fur-ther south where communities had been dev-astated by some of the steel plants closing. Andmy job was to work with churches and laypeo-ple and local leaders to rebuild neighborhoodsand improve schools and help young peoplewho felt like they had nowhere to turn.

And those of you who worked with me, Rev-erend Love, you remember, it wasn’t easy.Progress didn’t come quickly. Sometimes, I gotso discouraged I thought about just giving up.But what kept me going was the belief thatwith enough determination and effort and per-sistence and perseverance, change is alwayspossible; that we may not be able to help ev-erybody, but if we help a few, then that propelsprogress forward. We may not be able to saveevery child from gun violence, but if we save afew, that starts changing the atmosphere in ourcommunities. We may not be able to get every-body a job right away, but if we get a few folksa job, then everybody starts feeling a littlemore hopeful and a little more encouraged.Neighborhood by neighborhood, one block byone block, one family at a time.

Now, this is what I had a chance to talkabout when I met with some young men fromHyde Park Academy who were participating inthis BAM program. Where are the guys I talk-ed to? Stand up you all, so we can all see youguys. So these are some—these are all someexceptional young men, and I couldn’t beprouder of them. And the reason I’m proud ofthem is because a lot of them have had someissues. That’s part of the reason why you guysare in the program. [Laughter]

But what I explained to them was, I had is-sues too when I was their age. I just had an en-vironment that was a little more forgiving. Sowhen I screwed up, the consequences weren’tas high as when kids on the South Side screw

up. So I had more of a safety net. But theseguys are no different than me, and we had thatconversation about what does it take to change.And the same thing that it takes for us individ-ually to change, I said to them, well, that’s whatit takes for communities to change. That’s whatit takes for countries to change. It’s not easy.

But it does require us, first of all, having a vi-sion about where we want to be. It requires usrecognizing that it will be hard work gettingthere. It requires us being able to overcome andpersevere in the face of roadblocks and disap-pointments and failures. It requires us reflect-ing internally about who we are and what webelieve in and facing up to our own fears and in-securities and admitting when we’re wrong.And that same thing that we have to do in ourindividual lives that these guys talked about,that’s what we have to do for our communities.And it will not be easy, but it can be done.

When Hadiya Pendleton and her classmatesvisited Washington 3 weeks ago, they spenttime visiting the monuments, including the Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial just off theNational Mall. And that memorial stands as atribute to everything Dr. King achieved in hislifetime. But it also reminds us of how hardthat work was and how many disappointmentshe experienced. He was here in Chicago fight-ing poverty, and just like a lot of us, there weretimes where he felt like he was losing hope. So,in some ways, that memorial is a testament notto work that’s completed, but it’s a testamentto the work that remains unfinished.

His goal was to free us not only from theshackles of discrimination, but from the shad-ow of poverty that haunts too many of ourcommunities, the self-destructive impulses andthe mindless violence that claims so many livesof so many innocent young people.

These are difficult challenges. No solutionwe offer will be perfect. But perfection hasnever been our goal. Our goal has been to tryand make whatever difference we can. Ourgoal has been to engage in the hard, but neces-sary work of bringing America one step closerto the Nation we know we can be.

If we do that, if we’re striving with every fi-ber of our being to strengthen our middle class,

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to extend ladders of opportunity for everybodywho is trying to—as hard as they can—to createa better life for themselves; if we do everythingin our power to keep our children safe fromharm; if we’re fulfilling our obligations to oneanother and to future generations; if we makethat effort, then I’m confident, I’m confidentthat we will write the next great chapter in ourAmerican story. I’m not going to be able to do itby myself, though. Nobody can. We’re going tohave to do it together.

Thank you, everybody. God bless you. Godbless the United States of America.

NOTE: The President spoke at 3:31 p.m. In hisremarks, he referred to Antonio Ross, princi-pal, and Terea Brown, assistant principal, HydePark Academy High School; Nathaniel Pendle-ton and Cleopatra Crowley-Pendleton, parentsof Hadiya Z. Pendleton, who was killed in Chi-cago, IL, on January 29; and Alvin Love, pastor,Lilydale First Baptist Church in Chicago, IL.


This week, I’ve been traveling across thecountry, from North Carolina to Georgia tohere at Hyde Park Academy in my hometownof Chicago, talking with folks about the impor-tant task that I laid out in my State of theUnion Address: reigniting the true engine ofAmerica’s economic growth, a rising, thriving,middle class.

Every day, we should ask ourselves threequestions: How do we bring good jobs toAmerica? How do we equip people with theskills those jobs require? And how do we makesure your hard work leads to a decent living?

I believe all that starts by making America amagnet for new jobs and manufacturing. Aftershedding jobs for more than 10 years, our man-ufacturers have added about 500,000 jobs overthe past 3. What we need to do now is simple:We need to accelerate that trend. We need tolaunch manufacturing hubs across the countrythat will transform hard hit regions into globalcenters of high-tech jobs and manufacturing.We need to make our Tax Code more compet-itive, ending tax breaks for companies that shipjobs overseas and rewarding companies thatcreate jobs here at home. And we need to in-vest in the research and technology that will al-low us to harness more of our energy and putmore people back to work repairing our crum-bling roads and bridges.

These steps will help our businesses expandand create new jobs. But we also need to pro-vide every American with the skills and train-ing that they need to fill those jobs. Let’s start

in the earliest years by offering high-qualitypreschool to every child in America, becausewe know kids in these programs do betterthroughout their lives. Let’s redesign our highschools so that our students graduate with theskills that employers are looking for right now.And because taxpayers can’t continue to subsi-dize the soaring cost of higher education, I’vecalled on Congress to take affordability andvalue into account when determining whichcolleges receive certain types of Federal aid.

So those are steps we can take to help bringgood jobs to America and equip our peoplewith the skills those jobs require. And thatbrings us to the third question: How do wemake sure hard work leads to a decent living?

No one in America should work full timeand raise their children in poverty. So let’sraise the minimum wage so that it’s a wage youcan live on. And it’s time to harness the talentsand ingenuity of hard-working immigrants byfinally passing comprehensive immigration re-form: securing our borders, establishing a re-sponsible path to earned citizenship, and at-tracting the highly skilled entrepreneurs andengineers that will help create jobs.

These steps will help grow our economy andrebuild a rising, thriving middle class. And wecan do it while shrinking our deficits. We don’thave to choose between the two, we just haveto make smarter choices.

Over the last few years, both parties haveworked together to reduce the deficit by morethan $2.5 trillion, which puts us more than

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halfway towards the goal of $4 trillion in deficitreduction that economists say we need to stabi-lize our finances. Now we need to finish thejob.

But I disagree with Republicans who thinkwe should do that by making even bigger cutsto things like education and job training orMedicare and Social Security benefits. Thatwould force our senior citizens and workingfamilies to bear the burden of deficit reductionwhile the wealthiest are asked to do nothingmore. That won’t work. We can’t just cut ourway to prosperity.

Instead, I’ve proposed a balanced approach,one that makes responsible reforms to bringdown the cost of health care and saves hun-dreds of billions of dollars by getting rid of taxloopholes and deductions for the well off andwell connected. And we should finally pursuebipartisan, comprehensive tax reform that en-courages job creation and helps bring downthe deficit. So we know what we need to do. All

the steps I’ve mentioned are common sense.And, together, they will help us grow our econ-omy and strengthen our middle class.

In the coming weeks and months, our workwon’t be easy and we won’t agree on every-thing. But America only moves forward whenwe do so together, when we accept certain ob-ligations to one another and to future genera-tions. That’s the American story. And that ishow we will write the next great chapter—together.


NOTE: The address was recorded at approxi-mately 3:30 p.m. on February 15 in classroom202 at the Hyde Park Academy High School inChicago, IL, for broadcast on February 16.The transcript was made available by the Of-fice of the Press Secretary on February 15, butwas embargoed for release until 6 a.m. on Feb-ruary 16.

Remarks on the Federal BudgetFebruary 19, 2013

Good morning, everybody. Please have aseat. Well, welcome to the White House.

As I said in my State of the Union Addresslast week, our top priority must be to do every-thing we can to grow the economy and creategood, middle class jobs. That’s our top priority.That’s our north star. That drives every deci-sion we make. And it has to drive every deci-sion that Congress and everybody in Washing-ton makes over the next several years.

And that’s why it’s so troubling that just 10days from now, Congress might allow a seriesof automatic, severe budget cuts to take placethat will do the exact opposite: won’t help theeconomy, won’t create jobs, will visit hardshipon a whole lot of people.

Here’s what’s at stake. Over the last fewyears, both parties have worked together to re-duce our deficits by more than $2.5 trillion.More than two-thirds of that was through somepretty tough spending cuts. The rest of it wasthrough raising taxes—tax rates on the wealthi-est 1 percent of Americans. And together,

when you take the spending cuts and the in-creased tax rates on the top 1 percent, it putsus more than halfway towards the goal of $4trillion in deficit reduction that economists saywe need to stabilize our finances.

Now, Congress, back in 2011, also passed alaw saying that if both parties couldn’t agree ona plan to reach that $4 trillion goal, about a tril-lion dollars of additional, arbitrary budget cutswould start to take effect this year. And by theway, the whole design of these arbitrary cutswas to make them so unattractive and unap-pealing that Democrats and Republicanswould actually get together and find a goodcompromise of sensible cuts as well as closingtax loopholes and so forth. And so this was alldesigned to say we can’t do these bad cuts; let’sdo something smarter. That was the wholepoint of this so-called sequestration.

Unfortunately, Congress didn’t compro-mise. They haven’t come together and donetheir jobs, and so as a consequence, we’ve got

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these automatic, brutal spending cuts that arepoised to happen next Friday.

Now, if Congress allows this meat cleaverapproach to take place, it will jeopardize ourmilitary readiness; it will eviscerate job-creat-ing investments in education and energy andmedical research. It won’t consider whetherwe’re cutting some bloated program that hasoutlived its usefulness or a vital service thatAmericans depend on every single day. Itdoesn’t make those distinctions.

Emergency responders like the ones whoare here today, their ability to help communi-ties respond to and recover from disasters willbe degraded. Border Patrol agents will seetheir hours reduced. FBI agents will be fur-loughed. Federal prosecutors will have to closecases and let criminals go. Air traffic control-lers and airport security will see cutbacks,which means more delays at airports across thecountry. Thousands of teachers and educatorswill be laid off. Tens of thousands of parentswill have to scramble to find childcare for theirkids. Hundreds of thousands of Americans willlose access to primary care and preventive carelike flu vaccinations and cancer screenings.

And already, the threat of these cuts hasforced the Navy to delay an aircraft carrier thatwas supposed to deploy to the Persian Gulf.And as our military leaders have made clear,changes like this—not well thought through,not phased in properly—changes like this af-fect our ability to respond to threats in unsta-ble parts of the world.

So these cuts are not smart. They are notfair. They will hurt our economy. They will addhundreds of thousands of Americans to the un-employment rolls. This is not an abstraction:people will lose their jobs; the unemploymentrate might tick up again.

And that’s why Democrats, Republicans,business leaders, and economists, they’ve al-ready said that these cuts, known here inWashington as sequestration, are a bad idea.They’re not good for our economy. They’re nothow we should run our Government.

And here’s the thing: They don’t have tohappen. There is a smarter way to do this: to

reduce our deficits without harming our econ-omy. But Congress has to act in order for thatto happen.

Now, for 2 years, I’ve offered a balanced ap-proach to deficit reduction that would preventthese harmful cuts. I outlined it again last weekat the State of the Union. I am willing to cutmore spending that we don’t need, get rid ofprograms that aren’t working. I’ve laid out spe-cific reforms to our entitlement programs thatcan achieve the same amount of health caresavings by the beginning of the next decade asthe reforms that were proposed by the biparti-san Simpson-Bowles commission. I’m willingto save hundreds of billions of dollars by enact-ing comprehensive tax reform that gets rid oftax loopholes and deductions for the well offand well connected, without raising tax rates.

I believe such a balanced approach thatcombines tax reform with some additionalspending reforms, done in a smart, thoughtfulway, is the best way to finish the job of deficitreduction and avoid these cuts once and for allthat could hurt our economy, slow our recov-ery, put people out of work. And most Ameri-cans agree with me.

Now, the House and the Senate are workingon budgets that I hope reflect on—reflect thisapproach. But if they can’t get such a budgetagreement done by next Friday, the day theseharmful cuts begin to take effect, then at mini-mum, Congress should pass a smaller packageof spending cuts and tax reforms that wouldprevent these harmful cuts, not to kick the candown the road, but to give them time to worktogether on a plan that finishes the job of defi-cit reduction in a sensible way.

I know Democrats in the House and in theSenate have proposed such a plan, a balancedplan, one that pairs more spending cuts withtax reform that closes special interest loopholesand makes sure that billionaires can’t pay alower tax rate than their salary—their secretar-ies.

And I know that Republicans have proposedsome ideas too. I have to say, though, that sofar, at least, the ideas that the Republicanshave proposed ask nothing of the wealthiest

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Americans or biggest corporations, so the bur-den is all on first responders or seniors or mid-dle class families. They double down, in fact,on the harsh, harmful cuts that I’ve outlined.They slash Medicare and investments that cre-ate good, middle class jobs. And so far, at least,what they’ve expressed is a preference wherethey’d rather have these cuts go into effectthan close a single tax loophole for the wealthi-est Americans. Not one.

Well, that’s not balanced. That would be likeDemocrats saying we have to close our deficitswithout any spending cuts whatsoever. It’s alltaxes. That’s not the position Democrats havetaken. That’s certainly not the position I’ve tak-en. It’s wrong to ask the middle class to bear thefull burden of deficit reduction. And that’s why Iwill not sign a plan that harms the middle class.

So now Republicans in Congress face a sim-ple choice: Are they willing to compromise toprotect vital investments in education andhealth care and national security and all thejobs that depend on them? Or would they rath-er put hundreds of thousands of jobs and ourentire economy at risk just to protect a fewspecial interest tax loopholes that benefit onlythe wealthiest Americans and biggest corpora-tions? That’s the choice.

Are you willing to see a bunch of first re-sponders lose their job because you want toprotect some special interest tax loophole?Are you willing to have teachers laid off orkids not have access to Head Start or deepercuts in student loan programs just becauseyou want to protect a special tax interest loop-hole that the vast majority of Americans don’tbenefit from? That’s the choice. That’s thequestion.

And this is not an abstraction. There arepeople whose livelihoods are at stake. Thereare communities that are going to be impactedin a negative way. And I know that sometimesall this squabbling in Washington seems veryabstract, and in the abstract, people like theidea, you know, there must be some spendingwe can cut, there must be some waste outthere. There absolutely is. But this isn’t theright way to do it.

So my door is open. I’ve put tough cuts andreforms on the table. I am willing to work withanybody to get this job done. None of us willget a hundred percent of what we want. Butnobody should want these cuts to go through,because the last thing our families can affordright now is pain imposed unnecessarily bypartisan recklessness and ideological rigidityhere in Washington.

As I said at the State of the Union, theAmerican people have worked too hard, toolong rebuilding from one crisis to see theirelected officials cause yet another one. And itseems like every 3 months around here there’ssome manufactured crisis. We’ve got morework to do than to just try to dig ourselves outof these self-inflicted wounds.

And while a plan to reduce our deficit has tobe part of our agenda, we also have to remem-ber deficit reduction alone is not an economicplan. We learned in the 1990s, when Bill Clin-ton was President, nothing shrinks the deficitfaster than a growing economy that createsgood, middle class jobs. That should be ourdriving focus: making America a magnet forgood jobs, equipping our people with the skillsrequired to fill those jobs, making sure theirhard work leads to a decent living. Those arethe things we should be pushing ourselves tothink about and work on every single day.That’s what the American people expect.That’s what I’m going to work on every singleday to help deliver.

So I need everybody who’s watching todayto understand, we’ve got a few days. Congresscan do the right thing. We can avert just onemore Washington-manufactured problemthat slows our recovery and bring down ourdeficits in a balanced, responsible way. That’smy goal. That’s what would do right by thesefirst responders. That’s what would do rightby America’s middle class. That’s what I’mgoing to be working on and fighting for notjust over the next few weeks, but over thenext few years.

Thanks very much, everybody. Thank you,guys, for your service.

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NOTE: The President spoke at 10:50 a.m. inthe South Court Auditorium of the Dwight D.Eisenhower Executive Office Building. In his

remarks, he referred to Erskine B. Bowles andAlan K. Simpson, Cochairs, National Commis-sion on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.

Statement on the Retirement of General John R. AllenFebruary 19, 2013

Today I met with General John Allen andaccepted his request to retire from the militaryso that he can address health issues within hisfamily. I told General Allen that he has mydeep, personal appreciation for his extraordi-nary service over the last 19 months in Afghan-istan, as well as his decades of service in theUnited States Marine Corps. General Allenpresided over the significant growth in the sizeand capability of Afghan National SecurityForces, the further degradation of Al Qaidaand their extremist allies, and the ongoingtransition to Afghan security responsibilityacross the country. He worked tirelessly to

strengthen our coalition through his leadershipof the International Security Assistance Force(ISAF) and to improve our relations with theAfghan Government. Above all, he cares deep-ly for the men and women in uniform whoserve our Nation, as well as their families, and Iam grateful for the sacrifices made by his fami-ly in supporting him during his service. JohnAllen is one of America’s finest military lead-ers, a true patriot, and a man I have come torespect greatly. I wish him and his family thevery best as they begin this new chapter, andwe will carry forward the extraordinary workthat General Allen led in Afghanistan.

Remarks Following a Meeting With Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan andan Exchange With ReportersFebruary 22, 2013

President Obama. Well, I want to extend awarm welcome to Prime Minister Abe andcongratulate him on his victory and his leader-ship of Japan.

Obviously, Japan is one of our closest allies,and the U.S.-Japan alliance is the central foun-dation for our regional security and so much ofwhat we do in the Pacific region. And thatfriendship extends not just between our gov-ernments, but also between our peoples.

Prime Minister Abe himself is no stranger tothe United States. I think he and I studied inCalifornia around the same time, and this isnot his first visit to the Oval Office. So we’relooking forward to building a very strong work-ing relationship on a whole range of issues.

We had close consultations on a wide rangeof security issues, in particular our concernsabout the provocative actions that have beentaken in North Korea and our determination totake strong actions in response.

We also discussed a wide range of multilat-eral issues, and I expressed my appreciation forthe support Japan has provided to our effortsin Afghanistan, our efforts to resolve the nucle-ar issue in Iran, and we expressed mutual con-dolences around the loss of life at the BP plantin Algeria and pledged that this would spurgreater counterterrorism cooperation.

After this brief session with the press, we’llhave an opportunity to extend these discus-sions over lunch, and we’ll have a chance totalk about the close economic cooperation be-tween our two countries.

And I know that Prime Minister Abe and Iboth agree that our number-one priority has tobe making sure that we are increasing growthand making sure that people have the opportu-nity to prosper if they’re willing to work hard inboth our countries. And so we’ll be talkingabout a host of issues that—and steps that wecan take in our respective countries to encour-age the kind of trade, expanded commerce,

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and robust growth that will lead to greater op-portunity for both the United States and Japan.

Mr. Prime Minister, welcome. And pleaseextend our warmest wishes to the people of Ja-pan, and you can rest assured that you willhave a strong partner in the United Statesthroughout your tenure as Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Abe. Yes, Mr. President, youalready gave a very detailed briefing of thecontent of our briefing, so there’s nothing forme to add, but I would like to make some addi-tional remarks.

First of all, I would like to thank PresidentObama for creating this opportunity to have asummit meeting between Japan and the Unit-ed States at a very busy time, when his secondterm is beginning.

I think today’s one big theme in our meetingtoday was for us to discuss in which directionwe would be strengthening the alliance be-tween Japan and the United States. And wetouched upon many issues that we have to dealwith in that regard.

And as a result of our discussion, we wereable to share our understanding on not justconcrete policy, but on the direction to whichour alliance is headed. I think I can declarewith confidence that the trust and the bond inour alliance is back.

And when we look at the security environ-ment in the Asia-Pacific, it’s becoming moreand more difficult. And we need to create anorder in this region based on cooperation be-tween our two countries to secure the freedomof the seas and to secure a region which is gov-erned based on laws, not on force.

And we just cannot tolerate the actions ofNorth Korea, such as launching missiles andconducting nuclear tests. So we agreed that wewould cooperate with each other in dealingresolutely with North Korea. And I also ex-plained to Mr. President the abduction issueby North Korea, and the President understoodmy explanation and expressed his support.

So we intend to continue to strengthen ouralliance and, by doing so, secure our nationalinterest and make this world a better place.

President Obama. Go ahead.

U.S. Federal Budget Negotiations/GovernmentSpending Reductions

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. We’re oneweek from the sequester deadline. I’m won-dering, at this point, if you think those cuts go-ing into effect are inevitable, and what you’retelling the Prime Minister and other worldleaders about the impact that that would haveon the global economy.

President Obama. Well, I never think thatanything is inevitable. We always have the op-portunity to make the right decisions. And I’vebeen very clear that these kinds of arbitrary,automatic cuts would have an adverse impacton families, on teachers, on parents who are re-liant on Head Start programs, on our militaryreadiness, on mental health services, on medi-cal research. This is not a smart way for us toreduce the deficit.

I’ve also been very clear that there’s an alter-native, which is for us to take the kind of bal-anced approach that I’ve presented, where wehave more strategic cuts on programs we don’tneed and we close some tax loopholes that aretaken advantage of only by the well connectedand the well off. By the way, that’s what themajority of the American people prefer.

So I will continue to have conversations withMembers of Congress, both while they’re goneand when they get back next week. My hope is,is that we can see a different course taken byCongress. This should be a no-brainer. And letme just point out that the overall impact of theeconomy will be to slow down the recovery.And not only may there end up being directjob loss, but because the economy is softer, italso means that we’re not going to be drivingdown unemployment as quickly as we should.

So, with respect to world leaders, I thinkthat unlike issues like the debt ceiling, the se-quester going into effect will not threaten theworld financial system. It’s not like the equiva-lent of the U.S. defaulting on its obligations.What it does mean, though, is that if the U.S. isgrowing slower, then other countries growslower, because we continue to be a central en-gine in world economic growth. So I don’tthink anybody would like to see this outcome.

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And particularly, when we’re poised to growrapidly as housing comes back and we’re start-ing to see real signs of the recovery taking root,it’s the wrong prescription. But ultimately, Idon’t need to persuade world leaders of that.They know that. I’ve got to persuade Membersof Congress, and that can be harder some-times.

Q. Even if you think a deal—or even if youthink averting the cuts is not inevitable, do yousee any realistic sign of being able to reach adeal over the next week?

President Obama. Hope springs eternal.And I will just keep on making my case not on-ly to Congress, but more importantly, theAmerican people to take a smart approach todeficit reduction and do it in a way that doesn’tendanger our economy and endanger jobs.

I just realized I didn’t have a translation ofthat. It was sort of a domestic question. Mysuggestion would be, why don’t we just goahead and direct the next question to PrimeMinister Abe. That one will be translated.

Q. Mr. Prime Minister, I would like to askwhat you discussed with President Obamaabout actions by North Korea, such as thelaunching of missiles and a nuclear test. And al-so, the provocative actions that China is takingvis-a-vis the Senkaku Islands. And also, on whatactions and measures you have discussed tostrengthen the alliance between Japan and theUnited States at a time when the security envi-ronment in the region is deteriorating. Whatkind of concrete measures did you discuss withthe President to strengthen our alliance?

Prime Minister Abe. On North Korea, theimportant thing we discussed, we agreed that it

was important for Japan and the United Statesto not provide rewards to North Korea for theiractions such as launching missiles and conduct-ing nuclear tests. That’s number one.

And number two, we agreed that we wouldcooperate so that a resolution, including sanc-tions, would be adopted in the U.N. We alsodiscussed additional sanctions, for example, fi-nancial sanctions, and we agreed to continuecooperating in that regard as well.

And then, we also talked about the impor-tance of cooperating with other countries, es-pecially Japan, the U.S., and Korea, in dealingwith the issue of North Korea.

Concerning the South China Sea and theSenkaku Islands, we agree that the very exis-tence of the Japan-U.S. alliance is a stabilizingfactor, which contributes to the peace and sta-bility of the region. We agreed that we wouldstay in close coordination with each other indealing with such issues and other issues and awide range of issues that we are faced with inthis region. So we will continue to coordinate indealing with such issues based on the Japan-U.S. alliance.

And I also explained that we have alwaysbeen dealing with this issue, the Senkaku issue,in a calm manner. We will continue to do soand we have always done so.

President Obama. Thank you, everybody.

NOTE: The President spoke at 1:30 p.m. in theOval Office at the White House. Prime Minis-ter Abe and a reporter spoke in Japanese, andtheir remarks were translated by an interpret-er.

Joint Statement by President Obama and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of JapanFebruary 22, 2013

The two Governments confirm that shouldJapan participate in the TPP negotiations, allgoods would be subject to negotiation, and Ja-pan would join others in achieving a comprehen-sive, high-standard agreement, as described inthe Outlines of the TPP Agreement announcedby TPP Leaders on November 12, 2011.

Recognizing that both countries have bilat-eral trade sensitivities, such as certain agricul-tural products for Japan and certain manufac-tured products for the United States, the twoGovernments confirm that, as the final out-come will be determined during the negotia-tions, it is not required to make a prior com-

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mitment to unilaterally eliminate all tariffs up-on joining the TPP negotiations.

The two Governments will continue their bi-lateral consultations with respect to Japan’s pos-sible interest in joining the TPP. While progresshas been made in these consultations, morework remains to be done, including addressing

outstanding concerns with respect to the auto-motive and insurance sectors, addressing othernon-tariff measures, and completing work re-garding meeting the high TPP standards.


Letter to Congressional Leaders on the Deployment of United States ArmedForces Personnel to NigerFebruary 22, 2013


On February 20, 2013, the last elements of adeployment of approximately 40 additionalU.S. military personnel entered Niger with theconsent of the Government of Niger. This de-ployment will provide support for intelligencecollection and will also facilitate intelligencesharing with French forces conducting opera-tions in Mali, and with other partners in the re-gion. The total number of U.S. military person-nel deployed to Niger is approximately 100.The recently deployed forces have deployedwith weapons for the purpose of providingtheir own force protection and security.

I directed this deployment of U.S. forces infurtherance of U.S. national security interests,

and pursuant to my constitutional authority toconduct U.S. foreign relations and as Com-mander in Chief and Chief Executive.

I am providing this report as part of my ef-forts to keep the Congress fully informed, con-sistent with the War Powers Resolution (PublicLaw 93–148). I appreciate the support of theCongress in this action.

Sincerely,

BARACK OBAMA

NOTE: Identical letters were sent to John A.Boehner, Speaker of the House of Representa-tives, and Patrick J. Leahy, President pro tem-pore of the Senate.

Letter to Congressional Leaders on Continuation of the National EmergencyWith Respect to Cuba and of the Emergency Authority Relating to theRegulation of the Anchorage and Movement of VesselsFebruary 22, 2013


Section 202(d) of the National EmergenciesAct (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)) provides for the automat-ic termination of a national emergency unless,within 90 days prior to the anniversary date of itsdeclaration, the President publishes in the Feder-al Register and transmits to the Congress a noticestating that the emergency is to continue in effectbeyond the anniversary date. In accordance withthis provision, I have sent the enclosed notice tothe Federal Register for publication, stating thatthe national emergency declared on March 1,1996, with respect to the Government of Cuba’s

destruction of two unarmed U.S.-registered civil-ian aircraft in international airspace north of Cu-ba on February 24, 1996, as amended and ex-panded on February 26, 2004, is to continue ineffect beyond March 1, 2013.

Sincerely,

BARACK OBAMA


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Hi, everybody. Our top priority as a countryright now should be doing everything we can togrow our economy and create good, middleclass jobs.

And yet, less than 1 week from now, Con-gress is poised to allow a series of arbitrary, au-tomatic budget cuts that will do the exact op-posite. They’ll slow our economy. They’ll elim-inate good jobs. They’ll leave many familieswho are already stretched to the limit scram-bling to figure out what to do.

But here’s the thing: These cuts don’t haveto happen. Congress can turn them off anytimewith just a little compromise. They can pass abalanced plan for deficit reduction. They cancut spending in a smart way and close wastefultax loopholes for the well off and well connect-ed.

Unfortunately, it appears that Republicansin Congress have decided that instead of com-promising—instead of asking anything of thewealthiest Americans—they’d rather let thesecuts fall squarely on the middle class.

And here’s what that choice means. Oncethese cuts take effect, thousands of teachersand educators will be laid off, and tens of thou-sands of parents will have to scramble to findchildcare for their kids. Air traffic controllersand airport security will see cutbacks, causingdelays across the country. Even PresidentBush’s Director of the National Institutes ofHealth says these cuts will set back medical sci-ence for a generation.

Already, the threat of these cuts has forcedthe Navy to delay the deployment of an aircraftcarrier to the Persian Gulf, affecting our abilityto respond to threats in an unstable part of theworld. And just this week, the Pentagon an-nounced that if these cuts go through, almost800,000 defense employees—the equivalent ofevery person in Miami and Cleveland com-bined—will be forced to take an unpaid leave.

That’s what this choice means. Are Republi-cans in Congress really willing to let these cuts

fall on our kids’ schools and mental health carejust to protect tax loopholes for corporate jetowners? Are they really willing to slash militaryhealth care and the border patrol just becausethey refuse to eliminate tax breaks for big oilcompanies? Are they seriously prepared to in-flict more pain on the middle class becausethey refuse to ask anything more of those at thevery top?

These are the questions Republicans inCongress need to ask themselves. And I’mhopeful they’ll change their minds. Becausethe American people have worked too hard fortoo long to see everything they’ve built undoneby partisan recklessness in Washington.

Instead of these reckless, unbalanced cuts, Ibelieve we should work together to build onthe more than $2.5 trillion in deficit reductionwe’ve already achieved. We should do it in abalanced way: with smart spending cuts, enti-tlement reform, and tax reform. That’s myplan. It’s got tough cuts, tough reforms, andasks more of the wealthiest Americans. It’s onthe White House website for everybody to see.And it requires Democrats and Republicans tomeet halfway to resolve the problem. That’swhat the American people expect. And that’swhat you deserve.

We just need Republicans in Washington tocome around. Because we need their help tofinish the job of reducing our deficit in a smartway that doesn’t hurt our economy or our peo-ple. After all, as we learned in the 1990s, noth-ing shrinks the deficit faster than a growingeconomy that creates good, middle class jobs.That has to be our driving focus. That has to beour north star: making America a magnet forgood jobs, equipping our people with the skillsrequired to fill those jobs, making sure yourhard work leads to a decent living. That’s whatthis city should be focused on like a laser. AndI’m going to keep pushing folks here to re-member that.

Thanks so much.

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NOTE: The address was recorded at approxi-mately 5:20 p.m. on February 22 in the BlueRoom at the White House for broadcast onFebruary 23. In the address, the President re-ferred to former President George W. Bush;

and Elias A. Zeroing, former Director, Nation-al Institutes of Health. The transcript wasmade available by the Office of the Press Sec-retary on February 22, but was embargoed forrelease until 6 a.m. on February 23.

Remarks at the National Governors Association DinnerFebruary 24, 2013

Welcome, everybody. It is wonderful for us tohave you here at the White House. Michelle andI are so happy to host you, and I want to start byacknowledging your outstanding chair, JackMarkell, and your vice chair, Mary Fallin. Butmore importantly, I want to recognize the FirstLady of Delaware and the First Gentleman ofOklahoma because we know that the spousesput up with an awful lot. That’s who this dinner’sreally for. [Laughter] And we hope that you allget a chance to celebrate a little bit tonight.

Last year, I got to see firsthand some of thegreat work that our Governors are helping toaccomplish all across the country. Now, it’strue that I had the chance to see some accom-plishments in some States more than others.Ohio. [Laughter] Iowa. [Laughter] Colorado.[Laughter] Virginia. [Laughter] But I hope tosee more of you this year, the rest of you.

But all of you have helped to steer yourStates through some of the Nation’s toughesttimes. You’ve had to make hard choices. You’vehad to make wise investments and mobilize theconstituencies to do what needs to be done togrow your State. And that work is paying off.Companies are bringing jobs back to ourshores. New homes are popping up in ourneighborhoods. Small businesses are revitaliz-ing our communities.

And many of you also had to deal with someincredible natural disasters. And, obviously, it’salways painful to see the loss and the hardshipthat our families have suffered, but it’s alwayswonderful to see the way in which Governorsin particular are able to lead and mobilize theirStates and their communities, rallying aroundneighbors, friends, and communities.

So we know we’ve got more work to do:more jobs to create and more children to edu-cate and more roads to repair. The task before

us is to find smart, commonsense solutions toeach of these challenges that we can move for-ward on. And I’m looking for good partners.Because while nobody in this room sees eye toeye on everything, we know that when we worktogether, Democrats and Republicans—North,South, East, and West—we can accomplish somuch more than we can on our own. Whetherit’s helping our citizens rebuild from a horrifichurricane or a turbulent economic storm, we’restronger when we work together as a team.

One of my predecessors, a former Governorhimself, put it well. “America is nothing if itconsists merely of each other”—“if it consistsmerely of each of us,” Woodrow Wilson said.“It’s something only if it consists of all of us.”And nearly 100 years later, I expect that thosewords continue to be true, and they should beguiding all of our efforts.

So I want to wish everybody a toast. For thegood that we’ve accomplished together, for thegood that’s yet to be done. I look forward to ayear of progress working with all of you. I amgrateful for your service. To those who are re-cently elected, congratulations. We look for-ward to seeing you again over the next severalyears. Cheers.

[At this point, the President offered a toast.]

And with that, I would like to present yourchairman, Jack Markell.

[Gov. Jack A. Markell of Delaware made briefremarks.]

NOTE: The President spoke at approximately7:20 p.m. in the State Dining Room at theWhite House. In his remarks, he referred toCarla Markell, wife of Gov. Markell; and D.

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Wade Christensen, husband of Gov. Mary Fal-lin of Oklahoma. The transcript released by the

Office of the Press Secretary also included theremarks of Gov. Markell.

Remarks to the National Governors AssociationFebruary 25, 2013

Thank you, guys. Please have a seat. Well,welcome, everybody. Thanks for being here.

We all have a lot on our plate, everythingfrom our immigration system to our educationsystem. As Joe talked about, our goal is to makesure that we can be an effective partner withyou.

I want to thank the members of my Cabinetwho are here, and members of the administra-tion. I want to thank Jack and Mary for theirleadership of the NGA. And, everybody else, Ijust want to say thanks to you for being on yourbest behavior last night. [Laughter] I’m toldnothing was broken. No silverware is missing.[Laughter] I didn’t get any calls from theneighbors about the noise, although I can’tspeak for Joe’s after-party at the Observatory. Ihear that was wild. [Laughter]

Now, I always enjoy this weekend when Ihave a chance to see the Governors. As leaders,we share responsibility to do whatever we canto help grow our economy and create goodmiddle class jobs and open up new doors of op-portunity for all of our people. That’s our truenorth, our highest priority. And it’s got to guideevery decision that we make at every level.

As I’ve said, we should be asking ourselvesthree questions every single day: How do wemake America a magnet for good jobs? Howdo we equip our people with the skills and thetraining to get those jobs? And how do wemake sure if they get those jobs that their hardwork actually pays off?

As Governors, you’re the ones who are onthe ground, seeing firsthand every single daywhat works, what doesn’t work, and that’s whatmakes you so indispensable. Whatever yourparty, you ran for office to do everything thatyou could to make our folks’ lives better. Andone thing I know unites all of us and all ofyou—Democrats and Republicans—and that isthe last thing you want to see is Washington getin the way of progress.

Unfortunately, in just 4 days, Congress ispoised to allow a series of arbitrary, automaticbudget cuts to kick in that will slow our econo-my, eliminate good jobs, and leave a lot of folkswho are already pretty thinly stretched scram-bling to figure out what to do.

This morning you received a report outlin-ing exactly how these cuts will harm middleclass families in your States. Thousands ofteachers and educators will be laid off. Tens ofthousands of parents will have to deal withfinding childcare for their children. Hundredsof thousands of Americans will lose access toprimary care and preventive care like flu vacci-nations and cancer screenings. Tomorrow, forexample, I’ll be in the Tidewater region of Vir-ginia, where workers will sit idle when theyshould be repairing ships, and a carrier sits idlewhen it should be deploying to the PersianGulf.

Now, these impacts will not all be felt on dayone. But rest assured, the uncertainty is al-ready having an effect. Companies are prepar-ing layoff notices. Families are preparing to cutback on expenses. And the longer these cutsare in place, the bigger the impact will be-come.

So, while you are in town, I hope that youspeak with your congressional delegation andremind them in no uncertain terms exactlywhat is at stake and exactly who is at risk. Be-cause here’s the thing: These cuts do not haveto happen. Congress can turn them off anytime with just a little bit of compromise. To doso, Democrats like me need to acknowledgethat we’re going to have to make modest re-forms in Medicare if we want the programthere for future generations and if we hope tomaintain our ability to invest in critical thingslike education, research, and infrastructure.

I’ve made that commitment. It’s reflected inproposals I made last year and the year beforethat and will be reflected in my budget, and I

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stand by those commitments to make the re-forms for smart spending cuts.

But we also need Republicans to adopt thesame approach to tax reform that SpeakerBoehner championed just 2 months ago. Un-der our concept of tax reform, nobody’s rateswould go up, but we’d be able to reduce thedeficit by making some tough, smart spendingcuts and getting rid of wasteful tax loopholesthat benefit the well off and the well connect-ed.

I know that sometimes folks in Congressthink that compromise is a bad word. They fig-ure they’ll pay a higher price at the polls forworking with the other side than they will forstanding pat or engaging in obstructionism.But as Governors, some of you with legisla-tures controlled by the other party, you knowthat compromise is essential to getting thingsdone. And so is prioritizing, making smartchoices.

That’s how Governor O’Malley in Marylandput his State on track to all but eliminate hisdeficit while keeping tuition down and makingMaryland’s public schools among the best inAmerica 5 years running. That’s how GovernorHaslam balanced his budget last year in Ten-nessee while still investing in key areas like ed-ucation for Tennessee’s kids. Like the rest ofus, they know we can’t just cut our way to pros-perity. Cutting alone is not an economic policy.We’ve got to make the tough, smart choices tocut what we don’t need so that we can invest inthe things that we do need.

Let me highlight two examples of what wedo need. The first is infrastructure. This didn’tused to be a partisan issue. I don’t know whenexactly that happened. It should be a no-brain-er. Businesses are not going to set up shop inplaces where roads and bridges and ports andschools are falling apart. They’re going to opentheir doors wherever they can connect the besttransportation and communications networksto their businesses and to their customers.

And that’s why I proposed what we’re call-ing Fix-It-First—I talked about this in myState of the Union Address—to put people towork right now on urgent repairs, like thenearly 70,000 structurally deficient bridges

across the country. And to make sure taxpayersdon’t shoulder the entire burden, I also pro-posed a partnership to rebuild America that at-tracts private capital to upgrade what our busi-nesses need most: modern ports to move ourgoods, modern pipelines to withstand a storm,modern schools that are worthy of our chil-dren.

I know that some people in Congress reflex-ively oppose any idea that I put forward, evenif it’s an idea that they once supported, but re-building infrastructure is not my idea. It’s ev-erybody’s idea. It’s what built this country.Governor Kitzhaber, a Democrat in Oregon,has made clean energy infrastructure a top pri-ority. Governor Brownback of Kansas, a Re-publican, has been fighting to upgrade waterinfrastructure there.

And folks who think spending really is ourbiggest problem should be more concernedthan anybody about improving our infrastruc-ture right now. We’re talking about deferredmaintenance here. We know we’re going tohave to spend the money. And the longer wewait, the more it’s going to cost. That is a fact. Ithink Matt Mead, a Republican, put it prettywell in Wyoming’s State of—State address. Hesaid failing to maintain our roads “is not a planfor being fiscally conservative.” Well, what’strue in Wyoming is true all across the UnitedStates.

And we could be putting folks back to workright now. We know contractors are beggingfor work. They’ll come in on time, under bud-get, which never happens. And we could makea whole lot of progress right now on things thatwe know we’re going to have to do at somepoint. This is like fixing the roof or repairing aboiler that’s broken. It will save us money inthe long term.

I know that one of the biggest hurdles thatyou face when it comes to fixing infrastructureis redtape. And oftentimes, that comes out ofWashington with regulations. In my first term,we started to take some steps to address that.And we’ve shaved months—in some cases,even years—off the timeline of infrastructureprojects across America.

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So today I’m accelerating that effort. We’resetting up regional teams that will focus onsome of the unique needs each of you have invarious parts of the country. We’re going tohelp the Pacific Northwest move faster on re-newable energy projects. We’re going to helpthe Northeast Corridor move faster on high-speed rail service. We’re going to help theMidwest and other States like Colorado movefaster on projects that help farmers deal withworsening drought. We’re going to help Stateslike North Dakota and South Dakota and Mon-tana move faster on oil and gas production. Allof these projects will get more Americans backto work faster. And we can do even more if wecan get Congress to act.

The second priority that I want to talk aboutis education, and in particular, education thatstarts at the earliest age. I want to partner witheach of you to make high-quality preschoolavailable to every child in America.

Now, this is an area where we’ve alreadyseen great bipartisan work at the State level. Iwas just in Governor Deal’s State to highlightthis issue because Georgia has made it a priori-ty to educate our youngest kids. And in theschool district where I visited in Decatur,Georgia, you’re already seeing closing of theachievement gap. Kids who are poor are level-ing up. And everybody is seeing real improve-ment, because it’s high-quality early childhoodeducation.

Study after study shows that the sooner chil-dren begin to learn in these high-quality set-tings, the better he or she does down the road,and we all end up saving money. Unfortunate-ly, today, fewer than 3 in 10 4-year-olds are en-rolled in a high-quality preschool program.Most middle class parents can’t afford a fewhundred bucks a week in additional income forthese kinds of preschool programs. And poorkids, who need it most, lack access. And thatlack of access can shadow them for the rest oftheir lives. We all pay a price for that.

Every dollar we invest in early childhood ed-ucation can save more than $7 later on: boost-ing graduation rates, reducing teen pregnancy,even reducing incidents of violent crime.

And again, I’m not the first person to focuson this. Governor Bentley has made this a pri-ority in Alabama. Governor Snyder is making ita priority in Michigan. Governor Tomblin hasmade this a priority in West Virginia. Even in atime of tight budgets, Republicans and Demo-crats are focused on high-quality early child-hood education. We want to make sure that wecan be an effective partner in that process.

We should be able to do that for every child,everywhere—Democrat, Republican, blueState, red State—it shouldn’t matter. All of uswant our kids to grow up more likely to readand write and do math at grade level, to gradu-ate high school, hold a job, and form more sta-ble families of their own. That will be betterfor every State. That will be better for thiscountry. That’s what high-quality early child-hood education can deliver. And I hope thatyou’re willing to partner with us to make thathappen.

Let me just close with this. There are alwaysgoing to be areas where we have some genuinedisagreement, here in Washington and in yourrespective States. But there are more areaswhere we can do a lot more cooperating than Ithink we’ve seen over the last several years. Todo that, though, this town has to get past its ob-session with focusing on the next election in-stead of the next generation.

All of us are elected officials. All of us areconcerned about our politics, both in our ownparty’s as well as the other party’s. But at somepoint, we’ve got to do some governing. Andcertainly, what we can’t do is keep careeningfrom manufactured crisis to manufactured cri-sis. As I said in the State of the Union, theAmerican people have worked hard and longto dig themselves out of one crisis; they don’tneed us creating another one. And unfortu-nately, that’s what we’ve been seeing too muchout there.

The American people are out there everysingle day, meeting their responsibilities, givingit their all to provide for their families and theircommunities. A lot of you are doing the samethings in your respective States. Well, we needthat same kind of attitude here in Washington.

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At the very least, the American people have aright to expect that from their representatives.

And so I look forward to working with all ofyou not just to strengthen our economy for theshort term, but also to reignite what has alwaysbeen the central premise of America’s eco-nomic engine, and that is that we build astrong, growing, thriving middle class, where ifyou work hard in this country, no matter whoyou are, what you look like, you can make it;you can succeed. That’s our goal, and I knowthat’s the goal of all of you as well.

So I look forward to our partnering. Andwith that, what I want to do is clear out thepress so we can take some questions. All right?

NOTE: The President spoke at 11:18 a.m. in theState Dining Room at the White House. In hisremarks, he referred to Vice President JoeBiden; and Gov. Jack A. Markell of Delaware,in his capacity as chair, and Gov. Mary Fallin ofOklahoma, in her capacity as vice chair, Nation-al Governors Association. The transcript re-leased by the Office of the Press Secretary alsoincluded the remarks of Vice President Biden.

Remarks at Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, VirginiaFebruary 26, 2013

Hello, Newport News! Well, it is good to seeall of you here today.

I want to thank your CEO, Mike Petters, forshowing me around. I usually don’t get achance to hang out with nuclear submarines,especially submarines that my wife has spon-sored. So right there, that was worth the trip.But most importantly, it’s a great chance to seethe incredible men and women who, every sin-gle day, are helping to keep America safe andare just the bedrock of this country’s manufac-turing base. Thank you to all of you.

I want to thank our outstanding Secretary ofthe Navy, Ray Mabus, who’s here. There he isright there: the good-looking guy there, over atthe end. [Laughter] I want to thank your may-or, McKinley Price, who served this Nationbravely in the U.S. Army. I want to thank twooutstanding Congressmen who care about thisfacility, care about Virginia, and care about thecountry: Congressman Bobby Scott is here,and Congressman Scott Rigell is here as well.

Now, the reason I came here today, in addi-tion to seeing just some incredible stuff—it’strue, every time I come to these places, I don’tknow how you all do it; it is just amazing work.But the main reason I’m here is to call atten-tion to the important work that you’re doing onbehalf of the Nation’s defense and to let theAmerican people know that this work, alongwith hundreds of thousands of jobs, are cur-

rently in jeopardy because of politics in Wash-ington.

In a few days, Congress might allow a seriesof immediate, painful, arbitrary budget cuts totake place, known in Washington as the se-quester. Now, that’s a pretty bad name: se-quester. But the effects are even worse thanthe name. Instead of cutting out the Govern-ment spending we don’t need—wasteful pro-grams that don’t work, special interest tax loop-holes, and tax breaks—what the sequester doesis it uses a meat cleaver approach to gut criticalinvestments in things like education and na-tional security and lifesaving medical research.And the impact of this policy won’t be feltovernight, but it will be real. The sequester willweaken America’s economic recovery, it willweaken our military readiness, and it willweaken the basic services that the Americanpeople depend on every single day.

Already, the uncertainty around these cuts ishaving an effect. Companies are starting toprepare for layoff notices. Families are prepar-ing to cut back on expenses. And the longerthese cuts are in place, the greater the damage.

So, here at Newport News Shipbuilding, youguys have made an enormous investment, be-cause we’ve said in order to maintain the finestNavy that the world has ever known, we’ve gotto make sure that there is an orderly processwhereby we are continually upgrading ourships, building new ships, maintaining our

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ships properly. And these are some big ships,so it’s expensive, and it’s complicated. Andyou’ve got 5,000 suppliers all across the coun-try, and you’ve got to have some certainty andsome knowledge about how things are going toproceed over the long term for Mike and oth-ers to plan properly. So you’re rightly con-cerned, Mike is properly concerned, about theimpact that these cuts will have on not just thiscompany, but companies and small businessesfrom all 50 States that supply you with partsand equipment.

Mike was telling me that you guys have al-ready made a billion dollars’ worth of capitalinvestment. You’ve got half a billion dollars intraining costs as you recruit and hire new peo-ple. Well, those aren’t commitments that youmake lightly. You’ve got to have the capacity toplan and have some certainty in terms of whatit is that we’re going to be doing. And youknow that if Congress can’t get together andplan our Nation’s finances for the long term,that over time, some of your jobs and business-es could be at risk.

Over at the Norfolk Naval Station, the threatof these cuts has already forced the Navy tocancel the deployment or delay the repair ofcertain aircraft carriers. One that’s currentlybeing built might not get finished. Anothercarrier might not get started at all. And thathurts your bottom line. That hurts this commu-nity.

Because of these automatic cuts, about90,000 Virginians who work for the Depart-ment of Defense would be forced to take un-paid leave from their jobs. So that’s money outof their pockets, money out of their paychecks.And then that means there’s going to be a rip-ple effect on thousands of other jobs and busi-nesses and services throughout the Common-wealth, because if they don’t have money intheir pockets—or less money in their pock-ets—that means they’re less able to afford tobuy goods and services from other businesses.So it’s not just restricted to the defense indus-try.

All told, the sequester could cost tens ofthousands of jobs right here in Virginia. But itdoesn’t just stop there. If the sequester goes

into effect, more than 2,000 college studentswould lose their financial aid. Early educationlike Head Start and Early Start would be elimi-nated for nearly 1,000 children, and around18,000 fewer Virginians would get the skillsand training they need to find a job.

Across the country, these cuts will forceFederal prosecutors to close cases and poten-tially let criminals go. Air traffic controllers andairport security will see cutbacks, and thatcould cause delays at airports across the coun-try. Tens of thousands of parents will have toscramble to find childcare for their kids. Hun-dreds of thousands of Americans will lose ac-cess to primary care and preventive care likeflu vaccinations and cancer screenings, includ-ing more than 3,500 children right here in Vir-ginia.

So these cuts are wrong. They’re not smart.They’re not fair. They’re a self-inflicted woundthat doesn’t have to happen.

Now, the reason that we’re even thinkingabout the sequester is because people arerightly concerned about the deficit and thedebt. But there is a sensible way of doingthings, and there is a dumb way of doingthings. I mean, think about your own family,right? Let’s say that suddenly you’ve got a littleless money coming in. Are you going to say,well, we’ll cut out college tuition for the kid,we’ll stop feeding the little guy over here, wewon’t pay our car note even though that meanswe can’t get to work? That’s not what you do,right?

You step back, and you say, what is it that’simportant: our child’s education, making surethey’re healthy, making sure we can get to thejob, keeping our house repaired? And then yousay, here are the things that aren’t so impor-tant, and you cut those out. You prioritize, andyou make smart decisions. Well, we should bedoing the same thing.

Now, I’ve laid out a plan that details how wecan pay down our deficit in a way that’s bal-anced and responsible. We have the plan righton a website, the White House website. Every-body can go see it. It details exactly how we cancut programs that don’t work, how we can raisemoney by closing loopholes that are only serv-

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ing a few, as opposed to the average American.We detailed $930 billion in sensible spendingcuts that we’re willing to make and $580 billionin wasteful tax loopholes and deductions thatwe’re willing to eliminate through tax reform.

And what I’ve said is if the Republicans inCongress don’t like every detail of my propos-al, which I don’t expect them to, I’ve told themmy door is open. I am more than willing to ne-gotiate. I want to compromise. There’s no rea-son why we can’t come together and find a sen-sible way to reduce the deficit over the longterm without affecting vital services, withouthurting families, without impacting outstand-ing facilities like this one and our national de-fense. There’s a way of doing this.

And the fact is, there are leaders in bothparties throughout this country who want to dothe same. I’ve got to give Scott Rigell credit.He is one of your Republican Congressmenwho’s with us here today, and that’s not alwayshealthy for a Republican, being with me. Butthe reason he’s doing it is because he knows it’simportant to you. And he’s asked his colleaguesin the House to consider closing tax loopholesinstead of letting these automatic cuts gothrough. He’s concerned about the deficit, andhe’s more than prepared to make some reallytough cuts, but he wants to do it in a smartway.

Bobby Scott, same thing. Some of the cutswe’ve proposed, Bobby might not think areperfect, but he knows that we’ve got to makesome tough decisions. He just wants to makesure that you aren’t the ones who are adverselyimpacted and that we’re sharing the sacrifice inbringing down our deficit, we’re not justdumping it on a few people, and we’re not do-ing it in a dumb way. Senators like John Mc-Cain have made similar statements to whatScott said. Your Republican Governor, alongwith other Governors around the country, havesaid they want Congress to stop the sequester,to stop these cuts.

But I just have to be honest with you. Thereare too many Republicans in Congress rightnow who refuse to compromise even an inchwhen it comes to closing tax loopholes and spe-

cial interest tax breaks. And that’s what’s hold-ing things up right now.

Keep in mind, nobody is asking them toraise income tax rates. All we’re asking is toconsider closing tax loopholes and deductionsthat the Speaker of the House, John Boehner,said he was willing to do just a few months ago.He said there were a bunch of loopholes anddeductions you could close. He said you couldraise 800 billion, a trillion dollars, by closingloopholes.

Well, we’re not even asking for that much.All we’re asking is that they close loopholes forthe well off and the well connected—for hedgefund managers or oil companies or corporatejet owners, who are all doing very well anddon’t need these tax loopholes—so we canavoid laying off workers or kicking kids offHead Start or reducing financial aid for collegestudents. I don’t think that’s too much to ask. Ido not think that is partisan. The majority ofthe American people agree with me. The ma-jority of Newport News agrees with me. Weneed to get this done.

But the choice is up to Congress. Only Con-gress has the power to pass a law that stopsthese damaging cuts and replaces them withsmart savings and tax reform. And the second Iget that bill on my desk, I will sign it into law.But I’ve got to get Congress to pass it.

None of us will get 100 percent of what wewant. Democrats, they’ve got to make sometough choices too. Democrats like me, we’vesaid we’re prepared to make some tough cutsand reforms, including to programs like Medi-care. But if we’re willing to compromise, thenRepublicans in the House have to compromiseas well. That’s what democracy is about. That’swhat this country needs right now.

So let me just make one last point, by theway, for those of you who are following this.Now, lately, some people have been saying,well, maybe we’ll just give the President someflexibility. He could make the cuts the way hewants, and that way it won’t be as damaging.The problem is, when you’re cutting $85 bil-lion in 7 months, which represents over a 10-percent cut in the defense budget in 7 months,there’s no smart way to do that. There’s no

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smart way to do that. You don’t want to have tochoose between, let’s see, do I close fundingfor the disabled kid or the poor kid? Do I closethis Navy shipyard or some other one? Whenyou’re doing things in a way that’s not smart,you can’t gloss over the pain and the impact it’sgoing to have on the economy.

And the broader point is, Virginia, we can’tjust cut our way to prosperity. We can’t just cutour way to prosperity. We can’t ask seniors andworking families like yours to shoulder the en-tire burden of deficit reduction while askingnothing more from the wealthiest and the mostpowerful. We’re not going to grow the middleclass just by shifting the cost of health care orcollege onto families that are already strug-gling, or forcing communities to lay off moreteachers or cops or firefighters or shipbuilders,and then folks who are doing really well don’thave to do anything more. That’s not fair, andit’s not good for the economy.

And the other thing we’ve got to do is tostop having these crises manufactured everymonth. It seems like—I know you guys mustget tired of it—didn’t we just solve this thing?Now we’ve got another thing coming up? Imean, think about if Mike Petters ran his busi-ness this way: Once every month or two, therewould be some crisis, and you wouldn’t be surewhether or not you’re working or not. Even if itgot solved eventually or ultimately, it would bepretty discouraging on people. You would beless productive. Ships wouldn’t get built as fast.You would waste money because you don’tknow exactly what to expect. Folks aren’t sure:Am I showing up to work today, or not? If it’snot a good way to run a business, it’s sure not agood way to run a country.

Now, all of you, the American people,you’ve worked too hard for too long rebuildingand digging our way out of the financial crisisback in 2007 and 2008 just to have—to seeCongress cause another one. The greatest na-tion on Earth can’t keep on conducting itsbusiness drifting from one crisis to the next.

We’ve got to have a plan. We’ve got to investin our common future. Our true north is agrowing economy that creates good middleclass jobs, a country that provides its people

with the skills they need to get those jobs andmakes sure that you’re getting paid a decentwage for working hard so you can support yourfamilies. That’s what we should be focused onright now, not weakening the economy, notlaying people off.

That’s what we should be talking about inWashington. And if you agree with me, I needyou to make sure your voices are heard. Letyour leaders know what you expect of them.Let them know what you believe. Let themknow that what this country was built on was asense of obligation to not just each other, butto future generations; that we’ve got to shoul-der those obligations as one Nation and as onepeople.

I was in a conversation with some of theGovernors from across the country yesterday,and I told them, I said, I’ve run my last elec-tion. Michelle is very happy about that.[Laughter] I’m not interested in spin; I’m notinterested in playing a blame game. At thispoint, all I’m interested in is just solving prob-lems. All I’m interested in is making sure thatwhen you get up early in the morning and getto this shift at 5:30 in the morning, that youknow if you do a good job and if you work hardand if you’re making sure that all the parts tothis incredible ship that you’re building iswhere they need to be—if you’re doing whatyou do, then you can go home feeling satisfied.I did my job; I did my part. I can support myfamily. I can take pride in what I’ve done forthis country.

That’s all I want. I want us to be able to lookback 5 years from now, 10 years from now, andsay we took care of our business and we put anend to some of these games that maybe, Iguess, are entertaining for some, but are hurt-ing too many people.

But in order for us to make that happen, I’mgoing to need you. The one thing about beingPresident is, after 4 years, you get pretty hum-ble. [Laughter] You’d think maybe youwouldn’t, but actually, you become more hum-ble. You realize what you don’t know. You real-ize all the mistakes you’ve made. But you alsorealize you can’t do things by yourself. That’snot how our system works. You’ve got to have

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the help and the good will of Congress, andwhat that means is you’ve got to make sure thatconstituents of Members of Congress are put-ting some pressure on them, making surethey’re doing the right thing, putting an end tosome of these political games.

So I need you, Virginia, to keep up the pres-sure. I need you to keep up the effort. I needyou to keep up the fight. If you do, Congresswill listen. If you stand up and speak out, Con-gress will listen. And together, we will unleashour true potential. And we’ll remind the world

just why it is the United States builds the great-est ships on Earth and is the greatest nation onEarth.

Thank you. God bless you. God bless theUnited States of America.

NOTE: The President spoke at 1:23 p.m. In hisremarks, he referred to C. Michael Petters,president and chief executive officer, Hunting-ton Ingalls Industries, which owns NewportNews Shipbuilding; and Gov. Robert F. Mc-Donnell of Virginia.

Statement on Senate Confirmation of Charles T. Hagel as Secretary ofDefenseFebruary 26, 2013

With the bipartisan confirmation of ChuckHagel as our next Secretary of Defense, we willhave the Defense Secretary our Nation needsand the leader our troops deserve. From themoment he volunteered for military service inVietnam, Chuck has devoted his life to keepingAmerica secure and our Armed Forces strong.An American patriot who fought and bled forour country, he understands our sacred obliga-tions to our servicemembers, military families,and veterans.

I will be counting on Chuck’s judgment andcounsel as we end the war in Afghanistan,bring our troops home, stay ready to meet thethreats of our time, and keep our military thefinest fighting force in the world. Most of all, Iam grateful to Chuck for reminding us thatwhen it comes to our national defense, we arenot Democrats or Republicans, we are Ameri-cans, and our greatest responsibility is the se-curity of the American people.

Remarks at the Dedication Ceremony for a Statue Honoring Rosa Parks atthe United States CapitolFebruary 27, 2013

Thank you. Thank you very much.Mr. Speaker, Leader Reid, Leader McCon-

nell, Leader Pelosi, Assistant Leader Clyburn;to the friends and family of Rosa Parks; to thedistinguished guests who are gathered here to-day.

This morning we celebrate a seamstress,slight in stature, but mighty in courage. Shedefied the odds, and she defied injustice. Shelived a life of activism, but also a life of dignityand grace. And in a single moment, with thesimplest of gestures, she helped change Ameri-ca—and change the world.

Rosa Parks held no elected office. She pos-sessed no fortune, lived her life far from the

formal seats of power. And yet today she takesher rightful place among those who’ve shapedthis Nation’s course. I thank all those persons,in particular the members of the CongressionalBlack Caucus, both past and present, for mak-ing this moment possible.

A childhood friend once said about Mrs.Parks, “Nobody ever bossed Rosa around andgot away with it.” [Laughter] That’s what anAlabama driver learned on December 1, 1955.Twelve years earlier, he had kicked Mrs. Parksoff his bus simply because she entered throughthe front door when the back door was toocrowded. He grabbed her sleeve, and hepushed her off the bus. It made her mad

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enough, she would recall, that she avoided rid-ing his bus for a while.

And when they met again that winter eve-ning in 1955, Rosa Parks would not be pushed.When the driver got up from his seat to insistthat she give up hers, she would not be pushed.When he threatened to have her arrested, shesimply replied, “You may do that.” And he did.

A few days later, Rosa Parks challenged herarrest. A little-known pastor, new to town andonly 26 years old, stood with her, a man namedMartin Luther King, Jr. So did thousands ofMontgomery, Alabama, commuters. They be-gan a boycott: teachers and laborers, clergy anddomestics, through rain and cold and swelter-ing heat, day after day, week after week, monthafter month, walking miles if they had to, ar-ranging carpools where they could, not thinkingabout the blisters on their feet, the wearinessafter a full day of work. Walking for respect,walking for freedom, driven by a solemn deter-mination to affirm their God-given dignity.

Three hundred and eighty-five days afterRosa Parks refused to give up her seat, theboycott ended. Black men and women andchildren reboarded the buses of Montgomery,newly desegregated, and sat in whatever seathappen to be open. And with that victory, theentire edifice of segregation, like the ancientwalls of Jericho, began to slowly come tum-bling down.

It’s been often remarked that Rosa Parks’sactivism didn’t begin on that bus. Long beforeshe made headlines, she had stood up for free-dom, stood up for equality: fighting for votingrights, rallying against discrimination in thecriminal justice system, serving in the localchapter of the NAACP. Her quiet leadershipwould continue long after she became an iconof the civil rights movement, working withCongressman Conyers to find homes for thehomeless, preparing disadvantaged youth for apath to success, striving each day to right somewrong somewhere in this world.

And yet our minds fasten on that single mo-ment on the bus: Ms. Parks alone in that seat,clutching her purse, staring out a window,waiting to be arrested. That moment tells ussomething about how change happens or

doesn’t happen, the choices we make or don’tmake. “For now we see through a glass, dark-ly,” Scripture says, and it’s true. Whether outof inertia or selfishness, whether out of fear ora simple lack of moral imagination, we so oftenspend our lives as if in a fog, accepting injus-tice, rationalizing inequity, tolerating the intol-erable.

Like the busdriver, but also like the passen-gers on the bus, we see the way things are: chil-dren hungry in a land of plenty, entire neigh-borhoods ravaged by violence, families hob-bled by job loss or illness. And we make excus-es for inaction, and we say to ourselves: That’snot my responsibility; there’s nothing I can do.

Rosa Parks tells us there’s always somethingwe can do. She tells us that we all have respon-sibilities, to ourselves and to one another. Shereminds us that this is how change happens,not mainly through the exploits of the famousand the powerful, but through the countlessacts of often anonymous courage and kindnessand fellow feeling and responsibility that con-tinually, stubbornly expand our conception ofjustice, our conception of what is possible.

Rosa Parks’s singular act of disobediencelaunched a movement. The tired feet of thosewho walked the dusty roads of Montgomeryhelped a nation see that to which it had oncebeen blind. It is because of these men and wom-en that I stand here today. It is because of themthat our children grow up in a land more freeand more fair, a land truer to its founding creed.

And that is why this statue belongs in thishall: to remind us, no matter how humble orlofty our positions, just what it is that leader-ship requires, just what it is that citizenship re-quires. Rosa Parks would have turned 100years old this month. We do well by placing astatue of her here. But we can do no greaterhonor to her memory than to carry forward thepower of her principle and a courage born ofconviction.

May God bless the memory of Rosa Parks,and may God bless these United States ofAmerica.

NOTE: The President spoke at 11:45 a.m. inNational Statuary Hall.

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Statement on Senate Confirmation of Jacob J. Lew as Secretary of theTreasuryFebruary 27, 2013

I am pleased that the Senate took bipartisanaction today to confirm Jack Lew as our Na-tion’s next Treasury Secretary. At this criticaltime for our economy and our country, there isno one more qualified for this position thanJack. As my Chief of Staff, Jack was by my sideas we confronted our Nation’s toughest chal-lenges. His reputation as a master of fiscal is-

sues who can work with leaders on both sidesof the aisle has already helped him succeed insome of the toughest jobs in Washington. AndI will continue to rely on his advice and soundjudgment as we work to create good, middleclass jobs, provide more people with the skillsthose jobs require, and ensure every hard-working American can earn a decent living.

Remarks at the Business Council DinnerFebruary 27, 2013

Thank you. Please—I didn’t think they weregoing to do the music. [Laughter]

Andrew, thank you very much for your in-troduction and your leadership. I want to sayhello to everybody. Many of you I’ve known fora very long time, and some of you I’ve metmore recently. But let me say at the top what Ialways like to emphasize when I get a chanceto speak to our business leaders, and that is, Iam very much rooting for your success, be-cause what is absolutely true is that when yourcompanies are thriving, when your bottom lineis where it needs to be, then the possibilities ofjobs and growth and people being able toachieve their dreams are greatly enhanced.

Now, the good news is, is that after 4 yearsof difficult times, we have seen a steady recov-ery, if not as robust as we would like. Andwe’ve seen over 6 million jobs created over thelast 35 months. Housing is finally beginning torecover. There is reason for optimism as wemove forward.

I think what everybody here is aware of,though, is that we’ve got a long way to go. Un-employment is still too high. Middle class fam-ilies are still feeling enormous stresses andstrains. And what I think everybody is con-cerned about is the enormous uncertainty interms of the political framework, the taxframework, the debt framework within whichall of you are going to be operating over thenext several years.

And right now the biggest manifestation ofthat is the potential for a sequester that kicksin, starting at the end of this week. Now, Ishould point out and I’m sure you’ve heardfrom a number of experts and economists thatthis is not a cliff, but it is a tumble downward.It’s conceivable that in the first week, the first2 weeks, the first 3 weeks, the first month, thatunless your business is directly related to theDefense Department, unless you live in a townthat is directly impacted by a military installa-tion, unless you’re a family that now is trying tofigure out where to keep your kids during theday because you just lost a Head Start slot, a lotof people may not notice the full impact of thesequester.

But this is going to be a big hit on the econo-my. And both private sector as well as publicsector economists are estimating that we couldlose as much as six-tenths of a point, maybe alittle bit more, of economic growth. And thatmeans, inevitably, hundreds of thousands ofpeople who are not going to get jobs that oth-erwise would get them. It means that you havefewer customers with money in their pocketsready to buy your goods and services. It meansthat the global economy will be weaker, be-cause although we obviously still have a longway to go in recovery, we’re actually doing sig-nificantly better than some of the other devel-oped nations. And the worst part of it is, it’s

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entirely unnecessary. It’s not what we shouldbe doing.

I’ve said this before, I will say it again, and Isuspect I will be repeating it during the ques-tion-and-answer session, but if you look rightnow at what our economy needs, taking $85billion out of it over the next 6 months—indis-criminately, arbitrarily, without a strategy be-hind it—that’s not a smart thing to do if we’reserious about making sure that America growsand that our middle class is thriving and thereare ladders of opportunity into the middleclass.

What we should be doing—and what I’vebeen calling for repeatedly over the last notjust several months, but several years—is a bal-anced approach to deficit reduction that com-bines some tough spending cuts, particularlyfocused on how do we deal with long-termtrends on some of our entitlement programs,and a tax reform agenda that without raisingtax rates further could in fact raise sufficientrevenues that combined would yield about$1.5 trillion in deficit reduction over the nextdecade, would replace the sequester, wouldbring our deficit-to-GDP ratios below the 3-percent threshold that we need for stabiliza-tion, that would stabilize our debt-to-GDP ra-tios for the next decade, and would lay thegroundwork for more expansive growth be-cause we would have simplified our tax system,closed some loopholes, broadened our base,seen an opportunity for corporate tax reformthat could also make the whole system moresensible and give you guys a more competitiveposture internationally. That’s what we shouldbe doing.

Now, you’ll be happy to know that that’swhat I offered to my Republican friends backin December after my election, before the fis-cal cliff. Many of you were involved in voicingsupport for such a balanced approach, even ifyou didn’t sign on to every detail and every lineitem in our recommended budget. And whatI’ve said is that that continues to be the offeron the table. I am prepared to make sometough decisions, some of which will garnersome significant frustration on the part of

members of my party, but I think it’s the rightthing to do.

What I can’t do is to abide by a set of deci-sions here in Washington that would put theentire burden of deficit reduction on our se-niors, making their health care more expen-sive; students, that would make their studentloans and going to college more expensive; thatwould gut our investments in education and re-search and infrastructure—all the foundationsfor long-term growth. That’s not what we’regoing to do, because it wouldn’t be good forthe country, and frankly, it would not be goodfor your businesses.

Now, the question then becomes, how dowe get from here to there? And I was tellingAndrew before we came out, the issue is nottechnical, the issue is political. And the ques-tion is whether or not we are going to see awillingness on the part of all parties to compro-mise in a meaningful way. And what thatmeans is Democrats have to accept the needfor entitlement reform. But it also means thatRepublicans have to accept the need for addi-tional revenues if we’re going to be able to ac-tually close this deficit and provide the kind ofcertainty that you need to make your long-terminvestments.

Whether that can be done in the next 2days—I haven’t seen things done in 2 dayshere in Washington in quite some time. On theother hand, the good news is that I think thepublic is beginning to pay attention to this, andone thing I’m certain about is that the countryas a whole is weary of Washington for presid-ing over a manufactured crisis every 3 months.It’s not good for business confidence. It’s cer-tainly not good for consumer confidence. It’sunnecessary.

And my strong hope, and the case that I’mtaking to the American people, is that we canonce and for all resolve this in a way that is eq-uitable, in a way that is focused on growth, in away that provides opportunity for everybody inthis country who’s willing to work hard, regard-less of what they look like or where they comefrom or what region of the country they live in.And it’s right there. It’s there for the taking.

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And what I strongly believe is that if thebusiness community speaks out for such a sen-sible, balanced, responsible approach, theneventually it will get done. I think it was Win-ston Churchill who once said that Americansalways do the right thing after they’ve exhaust-ed every other possibility. And we’re getting tothe point where we’ve now exhausted everyother possibility. And I have confidence thatwhat’s been true for our country in the pastwill be true for this country in the future.

So with that, let me just open it up and takesome questions. I think we’re going to movethe press out of the way. Thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 7:39 p.m. at thePark Hyatt Washington hotel. In his remarks,he referred to Andrew N. Liveris, chairmanand chief executive officer, Dow ChemicalCo., in his capacity as chairman of the BusinessCouncil.

Statement on House of Representatives Passage of Legislation To PreventViolence Against WomenFebruary 28, 2013

I was pleased to see the House of Represen-tatives come together and vote to reauthorizeand strengthen the Violence Against WomenAct. Over more than two decades, this law hassaved countless lives and transformed the waywe treat victims of abuse. Today’s vote will goeven further by continuing to reduce domesticviolence, improving how we treat victims ofrape, and extending protections to NativeAmerican women and members of the LGBTcommunity. The bill also reauthorizes the Traf-ficking Victims Protection Act, providing critical

support for both international and domestic vic-tims of trafficking and helping ensure traffickersare brought to justice. I want to thank leadersfrom both parties, especially Leader Pelosi,Congresswoman Gwen Moore, and SenatorLeahy, for everything they’ve done to make thishappen. Renewing this bill is an important steptowards making sure no one in America isforced to live in fear, and I look forward to sign-ing it into law as soon as it hits my desk.

NOTE: The statement referred to S. 47.

Statement on Senate Action on Federal Budget LegislationFebruary 28, 2013

Today Republicans in the Senate faced achoice about how to grow our economy and re-duce our deficit. And instead of closing a singletax loophole that benefits the well off and wellconnected, they chose to cut vital services forchildren, seniors, our men and women in uni-form, and their families. They voted to let theentire burden of deficit reduction fall squarelyon the middle class.

I believe we should do better. We shouldwork together to reduce our deficit in a bal-anced way: by making smart spending cuts andclosing special interest tax loopholes. That’s ex-actly the kind of plan Democrats in the Senatehave proposed. But even though a majority ofSenators support this approach, Republicans

have refused to allow it an up-or-down vote,threatening our economy with a series of arbi-trary, automatic budget cuts that will cost usjobs and slow our recovery.

Tomorrow I will bring together leaders fromboth parties to discuss a path forward. As a na-tion, we can’t keep lurching from one manu-factured crisis to another. Middle class familiescan’t keep paying the price for dysfunction inWashington. We can build on the over $2.5trillion in deficit reduction we’ve alreadyachieved, but doing so will require Republi-cans to compromise. That’s how our democra-cy works, and that’s what the American peopledeserve.

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Mar. 1 / Administration of Barack Obama, 2013

The President’s News ConferenceMarch 1, 2013

The President. Good morning, everybody.As you know, I just met with leaders of bothparties to discuss a way forward in light of thesevere budget cuts that start to take effect to-day. I told them these cuts will hurt our econo-my. They’ll cost us jobs. And to set it right,both sides need to be willing to compromise.

The good news is, the American people arestrong, and they’re resilient. They fought hardto recover from the worst economic crisis sincethe Great Depression, and we will get throughthis as well. Even with these cuts in place, folksall across this country will work hard to makesure that we keep the recovery going. ButWashington sure isn’t making it easy. At a timewhen our businesses have finally begun to getsome traction—hiring new workers, bringingjobs back to America—we shouldn’t be makinga series of dumb, arbitrary cuts to things thatbusinesses depend on and workers depend on,like education and research and infrastructureand defense. It’s unnecessary. And at a timewhen too many Americans are still looking forwork, it’s inexcusable.

Now, what’s important to understand is thatnot everyone will feel the pain of these cutsright away. The pain, though, will be real. Be-ginning this week, many middle class familieswill have their lives disrupted in significantways. Businesses that work with the military,like the Virginia shipbuilder that I visited onTuesday, may have to lay folks off. Communi-ties near military bases will take a serious blow.Hundreds of thousands of Americans whoserve their country—Border Patrol agents,FBI agents, civilians who work at the Penta-gon—all will suffer significant pay cuts and fur-loughs.

All of this will cause a ripple effect through-out our economy. Layoffs and pay cuts meansthat people have less money in their pockets,and that means that they have less money tospend at local businesses. That means lowerprofits. That means fewer hires. The longerthese cuts remain in place, the greater the

damage to our economy: a slow grind that willintensify with each passing day.

So economists are estimating that as a con-sequence of this sequester, that we could seegrowth cut by over one-half of 1 percent. It willcost about 750,000 jobs at a time when weshould be growing jobs more quickly. So everytime that we get a piece of economic news,over the next month, next 2 months, next 6months, as long as the sequester is in place,we’ll know that that economic news could havebeen better if Congress had not failed to act.

And let’s be clear: None of this is necessary.It’s happening because a choice that Republi-cans in Congress have made. They’ve allowedthese cuts to happen because they refuse tobudge on closing a single wasteful loophole tohelp reduce the deficit. As recently as yester-day, they decided to protect special interest taxbreaks for the well off and well connected, andthey think that that’s apparently more impor-tant than protecting our military or middleclass families from the pain of these cuts.

I do believe that we can and must replacethese cuts with a more balanced approach thatasks something from everybody: smart spend-ing cuts, entitlement reform, tax reform thatmakes the Tax Code more fair for families andbusinesses without raising tax rates, all so thatwe can responsibly lower the deficit withoutlaying off workers or forcing parents to scram-ble for childcare or slashing financial aid forcollege students.

I don’t think that’s too much to ask. I don’tthink that is partisan. It’s the kind of approachthat I’ve proposed for 2 years. It’s what I ranon last year. The majority of the American peo-ple agree with me in this approach, including,by the way, a majority of Republicans. We justneed Republicans in Congress to catch up withtheir own party and their country on this. Andif they did so, we could make a lot of progress.

I do know that there are Republicans inCongress who privately, at least, say that theywould rather close tax loopholes than let thesecuts go through. I know that there are Demo-

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Administration of Barack Obama, 2013 / Mar. 1

crats who’d rather do smart entitlement reformthan let these cuts go through. So there is acaucus of common sense up on Capitol Hill.It’s just, it’s a silent group right now, and wewant to make sure that their voices start get-ting heard.

In the coming days and in the coming weeksI’m going to keep on reaching out to them,both individually and as groups of Senators orMembers of the House and say to them, let’sfix this, not just for a month or two, but foryears to come. Because the greatest nation onEarth does not conduct its business in month-to-month increments or by careening from cri-sis to crisis. And America has got a lot morework to do.

In the meantime, we can’t let political grid-lock around the budget stand in the way of oth-er areas where we can make progress. I waspleased to see that the House passed the Vio-lence Against Women Act yesterday. That is abig win for not just women, but for familiesand for the American people. It’s a law that’sgoing to save lives and help more Americanslive free from fear. It’s something that we’vebeen pushing on for a long time. I was glad tosee that done. And it’s an example of how wecan still get some important bipartisan legisla-tion through this Congress even though thereis still these fiscal arguments taking place.

And I think there are other areas where wecan make progress even with the sequester un-resolved. I will continue to push for those ini-tiatives. I’m going to keep pushing for high-quality preschool for every family that wants it.I’m going to keep pushing to make sure thatwe raise the minimum wage so that it’s onethat families can live on. I’m going to keep onpushing for immigration reform and reform ofour voting system and improvements on ourtransportation sector. And I’m going to keeppushing for sensible gun reforms because I stillthink they deserve a vote.

This is the agenda that the American peoplevoted for. These are America’s priorities. Theyare too important to go unaddressed. And I’mgoing to keep pushing to make sure that we seethem through.

So with that, I’m going to take some ques-tions. I’m going to start with Julie [Julie Pace,Associated Press].

Federal Budget Negotiations

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. How much re-sponsibility do you feel like you bear for thesecuts taking effect? And is the only way to offsetthem at this point for Republicans to bend onrevenue, or do you see any alternatives?

The President. Look, we’ve already cut $2.5trillion in our deficit. Everybody says we needto cut $4 trillion, which means we have tocome up with another trillion and a half. Thevast majority of economists agree that theproblem when it comes to deficits is not discre-tionary spending. It’s not that we’re spendingtoo much money on education. It’s not thatwe’re spending too much money on job train-ing or that we’re spending too much money re-building our roads and our bridges. We’re not.

The problem that we have is a long-termproblem in terms of our health care costs andprograms like Medicare. And what I’ve saidvery specifically, very detailed, is that I’m pre-pared to take on the problem where it exists—on entitlements—and do some things that myown party really doesn’t like, if it’s part of abroader package of sensible deficit reduction.So the deal that I’ve put forward over the last 2years, the deal that I put forward as recently asDecember is still on the table. I am preparedto do hard things and to push my Democraticfriends to do hard things.

But what I can’t do is ask middle class fami-lies, ask seniors, ask students to bear the entireburden of deficit reduction when we knowwe’ve got a bunch of tax loopholes that arebenefiting the well off and the well connected,aren’t contributing to growth, aren’t contribut-ing to our economy. It’s not fair. It’s not right.The American people don’t think it’s fair or—and don’t think it’s right.

So I recognize that Speaker Boehner has gotchallenges in his caucus. I recognize that it’svery hard for Republican leaders to be per-ceived as making concessions to me. Some-times, I reflect, is there something else I coulddo to make these guys—I’m not talking about

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the leaders now, but maybe some of the HouseRepublican Caucus members—not paint hornson my head? And I genuinely believe thatthere’s an opportunity for us to cooperate.

But what doesn’t make sense—and the onlything that we’ve seen from Republicans so farin terms of proposals—is to replace this set ofarbitrary cuts with even worse arbitrary cuts.That’s not going to help the economy. That’snot going to help growth. That’s not going tocreate jobs. And as a number of economistshave noted, ironically, it doesn’t even reduceour deficit in the smartest way possible or thefastest way possible.

So in terms of going forward, my hope isthat after some reflection, as Members of Con-gress start hearing from constituents who arebeing negatively impacted, as we start seeingthe impact that the sequester is having, thatthey step back and say, all right, is there a wayfor us to move forward on a package of entitle-ment reforms, tax reform, not raising tax rates,identifying programs that don’t work, comingup with a plan that’s comprehensive and thatmakes sense? And it may take a couple ofweeks. It may take a couple of months, but I’mjust going to keep on pushing on it. And myview is, is that, ultimately, common sense pre-vails.

But what is true right now is that the Repub-licans have made a choice that maintaining anironclad rule that we will not accept an extradime’s worth of revenue makes it very difficultfor us to get any larger comprehensive deal.And that’s a choice they’re making. They’resaying that it’s more important to preservethese tax loopholes than it is to prevent thesearbitrary cuts.

And what’s interesting is, Speaker Boehner,just a couple months ago, identified these taxloopholes and tax breaks and said we shouldclose them and raise revenue. So it’s not as ifit’s not possible to do. They themselves havesuggested that it’s possible to do. And if theybelieve that in fact these tax loopholes andthese tax breaks for the well off and the wellconnected aren’t contributing to growth, aren’tgood for our economy, aren’t particularly fair

and can raise revenue, well, why don’t we getstarted? Why don’t we do that?

It may be that because of the politics withinthe Republican Party, they can’t do it rightnow. I understand that. My hope is, is that theycan do it later.

And I just want to repeat, Julie, because Ithink it’s very important to understand, it’s notas if Democrats aren’t being asked to do any-thing, either, to compromise. I mean, there aremembers of my party who violently disagreewith the notion that we should do anything onMedicare. And I’m willing to say to them, I dis-agree with you, because I want to preserveMedicare for the long haul. And we’re going tohave some tough politics within my party to getthis done.

This is not a situation where I’m only askingfor concessions from Republicans and askingnothing from Democrats. I’m saying that ev-erybody is going to have to do something. Andthe one key to this whole thing is trying tomake sure we keep in mind who we’re herefor. We are not here for ourselves, we’re nothere for our parties, we’re not here to advanceour electoral prospects. We’re here for Ameri-can families who have been getting batteredpretty good over the last 4 years, are just start-ing to see the economy improve; businessesare just starting to see some confidence com-ing back. And this is not a win for anybody, thisis a loss for the American people.

And again, if we step back and just remindourselves what it is we’re supposed to be doinghere, then hopefully, common sense will out inthe end.

Q. It sounds like you’re saying that this is aRepublican problem and not one that you bearany responsibility for.

The President. Well, Julie, give me an exam-ple of what I might do.

Q. I’m just trying to clarify your statement.The President. Well, no, but I’m trying to

clarify the question. What I’m suggesting is,I’ve put forward a plan that calls for seriousspending cuts, serious entitlement reforms,goes right at the problem that is at the heart ofour long-term deficit problem. I’ve offered ne-gotiations around that kind of balanced ap-

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proach. And so far, we’ve gotten rebuffed be-cause what Speaker Boehner and the Republi-cans have said is, we cannot do any revenue,we can’t do a dime’s worth of revenue.

So what more do you think I should do?Okay, I just wanted to clarify. [Laughter] Be-cause if people have a suggestion, I’m happyto—this is a room full of smart folks. So—[laughter].

All right. Zach Goldfarb [Washington Post].

Federal Budget Negotiations/Continuing Bud-get Resolution

Q. Mr. President, the next focal point seemsto be the continuing resolution that’s fundingthe Government at the end of the month, thatexpires at the end of the month. Would yousign a CR that continues the sequester, butcontinues to fund the Government? And in arelated point, how do you truly reach the limitsof your persuasive power? Is there any otherleverage you have to convince the Republicans,to convince folks that this isn’t the way to go?

The President. Well, I’d like to think I’ve stillgot some persuasive power left. Let me check.[Laughter] Look, the issue is not my persua-sive power. The American people agree withmy approach. They agree that we should havea balanced approach to deficit reduction.

The question is, can the American peoplehelp persuade their Members of Congress todo the right thing? And I have a lot of confi-dence that over time, if the American peopleexpress their displeasure about how somethingis working, that eventually, Congress responds.Sometimes, there is a little gap between whatthe American people think and what Congressthinks. But eventually, Congress catches up.

With respect to the budget and keeping theGovernment open, I’ll try for our viewing audi-ence to make sure that we’re not talking inWashington gobbledygook. What’s called thecontinuing resolution, which is essentially justan extension of last year’s budget into thisyear’s budget to make sure that basic Govern-ment functions continue, I think it’s the rightthing to do to make sure that we don’t have aGovernment shutdown. And that’s prevent-able.

We have a Budget Control Act, right? Weagreed to a certain amount of money that wasgoing to be spent each year and certain fund-ing levels for our military, our education sys-tem, and so forth. If we stick to that deal, thenI will be supportive of us sticking to that deal.It’s a deal that I made.

The sequester are additional cuts on top ofthat. And by law, until Congress takes the se-quester away, we’d have to abide by those ad-ditional cuts. But there’s no reason why weshould have another crisis by shutting the Gov-ernment down in addition to these arbitraryspending cuts.

Q. Just to make it 100 percent clear, you’dsign a budget that continues to fund the Gov-ernment even at the lower levels of the seques-ter, even if you don’t prefer to do that?

The President. Zach, I’m not going to—Inever want to make myself 100 percent clearwith you guys. [Laughter] But I think it’s fair tosay that I made a deal for a certain budget, cer-tain numbers. There’s no reason why that dealneeds to be reopened. It was a deal that Speak-er Boehner made as well and all the leadershipmade. And if the bill that arrives on my desk isreflective of the commitments that we’ve pre-viously made, then obviously, I would sign itbecause I want to make sure that we keep ondoing what we need to do for the Americanpeople. All right?

Jessica [Jessica Yellin, CNN].

Federal Budget Negotiations/Presidential Lead-ership

Q. Mr. President, to your question, whatcould you do: First of all, couldn’t you just havethem down here and refuse to let them leavethe room until you have a deal? [Laughter]

The President. I mean, Jessica, I am not adictator, I’m the President. So, ultimately, ifMitch McConnell or John Boehner say, weneed to go to catch a plane, I can’t have SecretService block the doorway, right? [Laughter]So——

Q. But isn’t that part of leadership? I’m sor-ry to interrupt, but isn’t——

The President. I understand. And I knowthat this has been some of the conventional

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wisdom that’s been floating around Washing-ton: that somehow, even though most peopleagree that I’m being reasonable, that most peo-ple agree I’m presenting a fair deal, the factthat they don’t take it means that I shouldsomehow do a Jedi mind meld with these folksand convince them to do what’s right. Well,they’re elected. We have a constitutional sys-tem of government. The Speaker of the Houseand the leader of the Senate and all those folkshave responsibilities.

What I can do is I can make the best possi-ble case for why we need to do the right thing.I can speak to the American people about theconsequences of the decisions that Congress ismaking or the lack of decisionmaking by Con-gress. But ultimately, it’s a choice they make.

And the—this idea that somehow there’s asecret formula or secret sauce to get SpeakerBoehner or Mitch McConnell to say, you knowwhat, Mr. President, you’re right, we shouldclose some tax loopholes for the well off andwell connected in exchange for some seriousentitlement reform and spending cuts of pro-grams we don’t need. I think if there was a se-cret way to do that, I would have tried it. Iwould have done it.

What I can do is I can make the best possi-ble argument. And I can offer concessions, andI can offer compromise. I can negotiate. I canmake sure that my party is willing to compro-mise and is not being ideological or thinkingabout these just in terms of political terms.And I think I’ve done that, and I will continueto do that.

But what I can’t do is force Congress to dothe right thing. The American people may havethe capacity to do that. And in the absence of adecision on the part of the Speaker of theHouse and others to put middle class familiesahead of whatever political imperatives hemight have right now, we’re going to havethese cuts in place. But again, I’m hopefulabout human nature. I think that over time,people do the right thing. And I will keep onreaching out and seeing if there are other for-mulas or other ways to jigger this thing intoplace so that we get a better result.

Q. What do you say to the people like MayorBloomberg—who is no critic of yours in gener-al; he endorsed you—who argues that there issome what he calls “posturing” in these claimsthat there are going to be big layoffs and a lotof people out of work and think that the effectsof the spending cuts are being overstated bythe administration?

The President. Well, Jessica, look, I’ll justgive you an example. The Department of De-fense right now has to figure out how the chil-dren of military families are going to continuewith their schooling over the next severalmonths, because teachers at these Army basesare typically civilians. They are therefore sub-ject to furlough, which means that they maynot be able to teach 1 day a week.

Now, I expect that we’ll be able to managearound it. But if I’m a man or woman in uni-form in Afghanistan right now, the notion thatmy spouse back home is having to worry aboutwhether or not our kids are getting the best ed-ucation possible, the notion that my school formy children on an Army base might be disrupt-ed because Congress didn’t act, that’s an im-pact. Now, Mayor Bloomberg and others maynot feel that impact. I suspect they won’t. Butthat family will.

The Border Patrol agents who are out therein the hot sun, doing what Congress saidthey’re supposed to be doing, finding out sud-denly that they’re getting a 10-percent pay cutand having to go home and explain that to theirfamilies, I don’t think they feel like this is anexaggerated impact. So I guess it depends onwhere you sit.

Now, what is absolutely true is, is that noteverybody is going to feel it. Not everybody isgoing to feel it all at once. What is true is thatthe accumulation of those stories all across thiscountry, folks who suddenly—might have beenworking all their lives to get an education, justso that they can get that job and get out of wel-fare, and they’ve got their kid in Head Start,and now, suddenly, that Head Start slot isgone, and they’re trying to figure out: How amI going to keep my job, because I can’t affordchildcare for my kid. Some of the suppliers forthose shipbuilders down in Virginia, where

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you’ve got some suppliers who are small busi-nesses, this is all they do, and they may shutdown those companies, and their employeesare going to be laid off. The accumulation of allof those stories of impact is going to make oureconomy weaker. It’s going to mean lessgrowth. It’s going to mean hundreds of thou-sands of jobs lost.

That is real. That’s not—we’re not makingthat up. That’s not a scare tactic, that’s a fact.

Starting tomorrow, everybody here, all thefolks who are cleaning the floors at the Capi-tol—now that Congress has left, somebody isgoing to be vacuuming and cleaning thosefloors and throwing out the garbage—they’regoing to have less pay. The janitors, the securi-ty guards, they just got a pay cut, and they’vegot to figure out how to manage that. That’s re-al.

So I want to be very clear here. It is abso-lutely true that this is not going to precipitatethe kind of crisis we talked about with Americadefaulting and some of the problems aroundthe debt ceiling. I don’t anticipate a huge fi-nancial crisis, but people are going to be hurt.The economy will not grow as quickly as itwould have. Unemployment will not go downas quickly as it would have. And there are livesbehind that. And that’s real. And it’s not neces-sary; that’s the problem.

Christi Parsons [Chicago Tribune].Q. Thank you.

U.S. Supreme Court Case on California’s Prop-osition 8/Marriage Equality

The President. Hey, Christi.Q. Mr. President, your administration

weighed in yesterday on the Proposition 8case. A few months ago, it looked like youmight be averse to doing that, and I just won-dered if you could talk a little bit about yourdeliberations and how your thinking evolvedon that. Were there conversations that wereimportant to you? Were there things that youread that influenced your thinking?

The President. As everybody here knows,last year, upon a long period of reflection, Iconcluded that we cannot discriminate againstsame-sex couples when it comes to marriage;

that the basic principle that America is found-ed on—the idea that we’re all created equal—applies to everybody, regardless of sexual ori-entation, as well as race or gender or religionor ethnicity.

And I think that the same evolution that I’vegone through is an evolution that the countryas a whole has gone through. And I think it is aprofoundly positive thing. So that when the Su-preme Court essentially called the question bytaking this case about California’s law, I didn’tfeel like that was something that this adminis-tration could avoid. I felt it was important forus to articulate what I believe and what this ad-ministration stands for.

And although I do think that we’re seeing,on a State-by-State basis, progress beingmade—more and more States recognizingsame-sex couples and giving them the opportu-nity to marry and maintain all the benefits ofmarriage that heterosexual couples do—whenthe Supreme Court asks, do you think that theCalifornia law, which doesn’t provide any ratio-nale for discriminating against same-sex cou-ples other than just the notion that, well,they’re same-sex couples, if the SupremeCourt asks me or my Attorney General or So-licitor General, do we think that meets consti-tutional muster, I felt it was important for us toanswer that question honestly, and the answeris no.

Q. Well, and given the fact that you do holdthat position about gay marriage, I wonder ifyou thought about just—once you’d made thedecision to weigh in, why not just argue thatmarriage is a right that should be available toall people of this country?

The President. Well, that’s an argument thatI’ve made personally. The Solicitor General inhis institutional role going before the SupremeCourt is obliged to answer the specific ques-tion before them. And the specific questionpresented before the Court right now iswhether Prop. 8 and the California law is un-constitutional.

And what we’ve done is we’ve put forward abasic principle, which is—which applies to allequal protection cases. Whenever a particulargroup is being discriminated against, the Court

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asks the question, what’s the rationale forthis—and it better be a good reason. And if youdon’t have a good reason, we’re going to strikeit down.

And what we’ve said is, is that same-sexcouples are a group, a class, that deservesheightened scrutiny, that the Supreme Courtneeds to ask the State why it’s doing it. And ifthe State doesn’t have a good reason, it shouldbe struck down. That’s the core principle, asapplied to this case.

Now, what the Court—the Court may de-cide that if it doesn’t apply in this case, it prob-ably can’t apply in any case. There’s no goodreason for it. If I were on the Court, that wouldprobably be the view that I’d put forward. ButI’m not a judge, I’m the President. So the basicprinciple, though, is let’s treat everybody fairly;let’s treat everybody equally. And I think thatthe brief that’s been presented accurately re-flects our views.

Ari Shapiro [NPR].

President’s Policy Agenda/Presidential Leader-ship

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. You said a fewminutes ago and you’ve said repeatedly thatthe country has to stop careening from crisis tocrisis.

The President. Right.Q. So with a few crises behind us and a few

more crises ahead of us, taking a step backfrom this specific debate over the sequester,how, as the leader of this country, do you planto stop the country from careening to—fromcrisis to crisis?

The President. Well, a couple of things.Number one is to make sure that we keep mak-ing progress wherever we can on things thatare important to middle class Americans andthose who are fighting to get into the middleclass. So if you set aside budget fights for a sec-ond, we’ve been able to get now the ViolenceAgainst Women Act done. The conversationsthat are taking place on a bipartisan basisaround immigration reform are moving for-ward. We’ve seen great interest in a bipartisanfashion around how we can continue to im-prove our education system, including around

early childhood education. There have beenconstructive discussions around how do we re-duce gun violence.

And what I’m going to keep on trying to dois to make sure that we push on those thingsthat are important to families. And we won’tget everything done all at once, but we can geta lot done. So that’s point number one.

With respect to the budget, what I’ve doneis to make a case to the American people thatwe have to make sure that we have a balancedapproach to deficit reduction, but that deficitreduction alone is not an economic policy. Andpart of the challenge that we’ve had here is thatnot only Congress, but, I think, Washingtongenerally spends all its time talking about defi-cits and doesn’t spend a lot of time talkingabout how do we create jobs. So I want tomake sure that we’re talking about both.

I think that, for example, we could put a lotof people back to work right now rebuildingour roads and bridges. And this is deferredmaintenance. We know we’re going to have todo it. And I went to a bridge that connectsMitch McConnell’s State to John Boehner’sState, and it was a rotten bridge, and every-body knows it. And I’ll bet they really want tosee that improved. Well, how do we do it?Let’s have a conversation about it. That willcreate jobs. It will be good for businesses, re-duce commuter times, improve commutersafety. That has to be part of this conversation,not just this constant argument about cuttingand spending.

So I guess my point is, Ari, that what I wantto try to do is to make sure that we’re constant-ly focused, that our true north is on how are wehelping American families succeed. Deficit re-duction is part of that agenda and an importantpart. But it’s not the only part. And I don’twant us to be paralyzed on everything just be-cause we disagree on this one thing.

And as I already said to Jessica, what I’m al-so hoping is, is that, over time—perhaps afterRepublicans step back and maybe they can say,you know what, we stuck tough on the seques-ter, and this makes us feel good, and the Re-publican caucus is in a better mood when theycome back—maybe then we can have a more

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serious discussion about what the real prob-lems on deficit and deficit reduction are.

And the good thing about America is thatsometimes we get to these bottlenecks and weget stuck, and you have these sharp, partisanfights, but the American people pretty steadilyare commonsense and practical, and eventual-ly, that commonsense, practical approach winsout. And I think that’s what will happen here aswell.

And in the meantime, just to make the finalpoint about the sequester, we will get throughthis. This is not going to be a apocalypse, Ithink, as some people have said. It’s just dumb.And it’s going to hurt. It’s going to hurt individ-ual people, and it’s going to hurt the economyoverall.

But if Congress comes to its senses a weekfrom now, a month from now, 3 months fromnow, then there’s a lot of open running roomthere for us to grow our economy much morequickly and to advance the agenda of theAmerican people dramatically. And so I—thisis a temporary stop on what I believe is thelong-term, outstanding prospect for Americangrowth and greatness.

Thank you very much. All right?

NOTE: The President’s news conference beganat 11:39 a.m. in the James S. Brady Press Brief-ing Room at the White House. In his remarks,the President referred to Mayor Michael R.Bloomberg of New York City. He also referredto S. 47.

Message to the Congress on Continuation of the National Emergency WithRespect to the Situation in ZimbabweMarch 1, 2013


Section 202(d) of the National EmergenciesAct (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)) provides for the auto-matic termination of a national emergency un-less, within 90 days prior to the anniversarydate of its declaration, the President publishesin the Federal Register and transmits to theCongress a notice stating that the emergency isto continue in effect beyond the anniversarydate. In accordance with this provision, I havesent to the Federal Register for publication theenclosed notice stating that the national emer-gency declared in Executive Order 13288 ofMarch 6, 2003, with respect to the actions andpolicies of certain members of the Govern-ment of Zimbabwe and other persons to un-dermine Zimbabwe’s democratic processes orinstitutions is to continue in effect beyondMarch 6, 2013.

The crisis constituted by the actions and pol-icies of certain members of the Government ofZimbabwe and other persons to undermineZimbabwe’s democratic processes or institu-tions has not been resolved. These actions andpolicies continue to pose an unusual and ex-traordinary threat to the foreign policy of theUnited States. For these reasons, I have deter-mined that it is necessary to continue this na-tional emergency and to maintain in force thesanctions to respond to this threat.

BARACK OBAMA

The White House,March 1, 2013.


The President’s Weekly AddressMarch 2, 2013

Hi, everybody. On Friday, I met with lead-ers of both parties in Congress to try and find a

way forward in light of the severe budget cuts,known in Washington as the sequester, that

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have already started to inflict pain on commu-nities across the country. These cuts are notsmart. They’ll hurt our economy and cost usjobs. And Congress can turn them off at anytime, as soon as both sides are willing to com-promise.

As a nation, we’ve already fought back fromthe worst economic crisis of our lifetimes, andwe’ll get through this too. But at a time whenour businesses are finally gaining some trac-tion, hiring new workers, bringing jobs back toAmerica, the last thing Washington should dois to get in their way. That’s what these cuts toeducation and research and defense will do.It’s unnecessary. And at a time when too manyof our friends and neighbors are still lookingfor work, it’s inexcusable.

Now, it’s important to understand that,while not everyone will feel the pain of thesecuts right away, the pain will be real. Manymiddle class families will have their lives dis-rupted in a significant way. Beginning thisweek, businesses that work with the militarywill have to lay folks off. Communities nearmilitary bases will take a serious blow. Hun-dreds of thousands of Americans who servetheir country—Border Patrol agents, FBIagents, civilians who work for the Defense De-partment—will see their wages cut and theirhours reduced.

This will cause a ripple effect across theeconomy. Businesses will suffer because cus-tomers will have less money to spend. The lon-ger these cuts remain in place, the greater thedamage. Economists estimate they could even-tually cost us more than 750,000 jobs and slowour economy by over one-half of 1 percent.

Here’s the thing: None of this is necessary.It’s happening because Republicans in Con-gress chose this outcome over closing a singlewasteful tax loophole that helps reduce thedeficit. Just this week, they decided that pro-tecting special interest tax breaks for the welloff and well connected is more important thanprotecting our military and middle class fami-lies from these cuts.

I still believe we can and must replace thesecuts with a balanced approach, one that com-bines smart spending cuts with entitlement re-form and changes to our Tax Code that make itmore fair for families and businesses withoutraising anyone’s tax rates. That’s how we canreduce our deficit without laying off workers orforcing parents and students to pay the price. Idon’t think that’s too much to ask. It’s the kindof approach I’ve proposed for 2 years now. Amajority of the American people agree with meon this approach, including a majority of Re-publicans. We just need Republicans in Con-gress to catch up with their own party and therest of the country.

Now, I know there are Republicans in Con-gress who would actually rather see tax loop-holes closed than let these cuts go through.And I know there are Democrats who’d ratherdo smart entitlement reform than let these cutsgo through. There’s a caucus of common senseout there, and I’m going to keep reaching outto them to fix this for good.

Because the American people are weary ofperpetual partisanship and brinksmanship.This is America, and in America, we don’t justbounce from one manufactured crisis to anoth-er. We make smart choices. We plan. We pri-oritize. So I’m going to push through this pa-ralysis and keep fighting for the real challengesfacing middle class families. I’m going to keeppushing for high-quality preschool for everyfamily that wants it and make sure the mini-mum wage becomes a wage you can live on.I’m going to keep pushing to fix our immigra-tion system, repair our transportation system,and keep our children safe from gun violence.

That’s the work you elected me to do. That’swhat I’m focused on every single day. Thanksso much.

NOTE: The address was recorded at approxi-mately 2:30 p.m. on March 1 in the GrandFoyer at the White House for broadcast onMarch 2. The transcript was made available bythe Office of the Press Secretary on March 1,but was embargoed for release until 6 a.m. onMarch 2.

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Statement on the Death of Harvey L. “Van” Cliburn, Jr.March 3, 2013

This week, we mark the passing of Van Cli-burn, one of the most talented pianists of thelast century and a musical artist of rare dis-tinction. At the young age of 23, Mr. Cliburnswept the world off its feet with his winningperformance at the first International Tchai-kovsky Competition in Moscow, and he quick-ly became a beloved ambassador of Americanculture around the world, especially in theformer Soviet Union. His music transcended

the challenges of international politics andcontributed to an unlikely thaw in cold warrelations. He was truly a man of his moment.Like every President since Harry Truman, Ienjoyed the privilege of hearing Mr. Cliburnplay, and I am confident that the enduringbeauty of his art will sustain his legendary sta-tus for years to come. Michelle and I send ourthoughts and prayers to Mr. Cliburn’s lovedones.

Remarks on the Nomination of Ernest J. Moniz To Be Secretary of Energy,Regina McCarthy To Be Administrator of the Environmental ProtectionAgency, and Sylvia Mathews Burwell To Be Director of the Office ofManagement and BudgetMarch 4, 2013

All right. This is a serious group. [Laughter]Everybody, have a seat, have a seat.

Well, good morning, everybody. This after-noon I’ll hold my first Cabinet meeting of mysecond term. And there will be some new fac-es, and there will be some familiar faces in newjobs. But there will also be some seats waitingto be filled on a permanent basis. And todayI’m announcing my plan to nominate threeoutstanding individuals to help us tackle someof our most important challenges.

One of those challenges is building on thework that we’ve done to control our own ener-gy future while reducing pollution that contrib-utes to climate change. And few people haveplayed more of a role in addressing these issuesthan current Secretary of Energy Steven Chu.Steven has helped us to speed the transition tomore sustainable sources of energy. He’s givenmore of our brightest young scientists the op-portunity to pursue the ideas that will shapeour future. So I could not be more grateful toSteve for the incredible contribution that he’smade to this country.

And now that he’s decided to leave Wash-ington for sunny California, I’m proud to nom-inate another brilliant scientist to take his

place, Mr. Ernie Moniz. So there’s Ernie rightthere.

Now, the good news is that Ernie alreadyknows his way around the Department of En-ergy. He is a physicist by training, but he alsoserved as Under Secretary of Energy underPresident Clinton. Since then, he’s directedMIT’s Energy Initiative, which brings togetherprominent thinkers and energy companies todevelop the technologies that can lead us tomore energy independence and also to newjobs.

Most importantly, Ernie knows that we canproduce more energy and grow our economywhile still taking care of our air, our water, andour climate. And so I could not be morepleased to have Ernie join us. And he will bejoined in that effort by my nominee to lead theEnvironmental Protection Agency.

Over the last 4 years, Lisa Jackson and herteam at the EPA have helped us to reduceemissions of the dangerous carbon pollutionthat causes climate change, put in place thetoughest new pollution standards in two de-cades. Lisa is now ready for a well-deservedbreak. And I want to very much thank BobPerciasepe, who’s not only been a great Depu-ty Administrator, but has also been acting as

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the Acting Administrator. So please, Bob—ev-erybody give Bob a big round of applause.

As we move forward, I think there is nobodywho can do a better job in filling Lisa’s shoespermanently than my nominee who’s standingbeside me here, Gina McCarthy.

Now, you wouldn’t know from talking toher, but Gina is from Boston. [Laughter] Andone of her proudest moments was yelling “Playball!” at Fenway Park before a Red Sox game.But Gina has got plenty more to be proud of.As a top environmental official in Massachu-setts and Connecticut, she helped design pro-grams to expand energy efficiency and pro-mote renewable energy. As Assistant EPA Ad-ministrator, Gina has focused on practical,cost-effective ways to keep our air clean andour economy growing. She’s earned a reputa-tion as a straight shooter. She welcomes differ-ent points of views. I’m confident that she’s go-ing to do an outstanding job leading the EPA.

So these two over here, they’re going to bemaking sure that we’re investing in Americanenergy, that we’re doing everything that wecan to combat the threat of climate change,that we’re going to be creating jobs and eco-nomic opportunity in the first place. They aregoing to be a great team. And these are someof my top priorities going forward.

But as President, one of the things you learnvery quickly is that it’s not enough just to talk abig game; the real test is whether your priori-ties are reflected in a budget. And that’s wherethe rubber hits the road. That’s where my thirdnominee comes in.

Since I took office, Jeff Zients has served asAmerica’s first Chief Performance Officer andthe Deputy Director of the management—Di-rector for Management of the Office of Man-agement and Budget. He’s made our Govern-ment more efficient. He’s saved taxpayers a lotof money. He’s stepped in as Acting Directorof OMB not once, but twice, including leadingup to the fiscal cliff. So there’s no question thatJeff’s skill and versatility have served theAmerican people very well. I expect it will con-tinue to serve us well in the future.

In the meantime, I am confident that mynominee for OMB Director, Sylvia Mathews

Burwell, is the right person to continue Jeff’sgreat work.

In the 1990s, when she was, what, 19—[laughter]—Sylvia served under Jack Lew asDeputy Director of OMB, part of a team thatpresided over three budget surpluses in a row.Later, she helped the Gates Foundation growinto a global force for good, and then shehelped the Walmart Foundation expand itscharitable work. So Sylvia knows her wayaround a budget.

But as the granddaughter of Greek immi-grants, she also understands that our goal whenwe put together a budget is not just to makethe numbers add up. Our goal is also to reig-nite the true engine of economic growth in thiscountry, and that is a strong and growing mid-dle class; to offer ladders of opportunity foranybody willing to climb them.

Sylvia’s mom is here. And I—Sylvia loves totalk about her parents growing up in West Vir-ginia and the values that they instilled in her aseducators. And I think that reflects everythingthat Sylvia now does. And so I’m absolutelyconfident that she’s going to do a great job atOMB. And those values are especially impor-tant to remember now, as we continue to tryand find a way forward in light of the budgetcuts that are already starting to cost us jobs andhurt our economy.

As I said before, the American people areresilient. And I know that Jeff and Sylvia willdo everything in their power to blunt the im-pact of these cuts on businesses and middleclass families. But eventually, a lot of peopleare going to feel some pain. That’s why we’vegot to keep on working to reduce our deficit ina balanced way, an approach that’s supportedby the majority of the American people, in-cluding a majority of Republicans. And I’mconfident that we can get there if people ofgood will come together.

So I want to thank Steve and Lisa and Jeffonce more for their outstanding service, for allthe great work that they’ve done in this admin-istration over the last several years. I want tothank Ernie, Gina, and Sylvia, and their fami-lies, for agreeing to take on these big roles.

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I hope the Senate will confirm them as soonas possible, because we’ve got a lot of work todo and we cannot afford delay. But I can prom-ise you that as soon as the Senate gives themthe go ahead, they’re going to hit the groundrunning and they’re going to help make Ameri-ca a stronger and more prosperous country.

So thank you very much, everybody.

NOTE: The President spoke at 10:27 a.m. inthe East Room at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to Cleo Mathews, motherof Director-designate Burwell.

Remarks Prior to a Cabinet MeetingMarch 4, 2013

Well, this is my 17th meeting with my Cabi-net; the first one in a second term. And obvi-ously, we’ve got some familiar faces, we havesome new faces, we have some familiar faces innew positions. I want to make sure that I saythank you to all of you for the work that you’vealready done and the work that you’re going tobe doing.

I want to welcome Jack Lew, former Chiefof Staff and OMB Director and now Secretaryof the Treasury. We’re thrilled to have him inthat position. I want to welcome Mr. ChuckHagel, who’s in the position of Secretary ofDefense. And to all of you, I appreciate every-thing that you’ve done.

Obviously, we’re going to be spending sometime talking about the potential impact of thesequester on all the agencies and missionsacross the board. It is an area of deep concern,and I think everybody knows where I stand onthis issue. We are going to manage it as best wecan, to try to minimize the impacts on Ameri-can families, but it’s not the right way for us togo about deficit reduction.

It makes sense for us to take a balanced ap-proach that takes a long view and doesn’t re-duce our commitment to things like educationand basic research that will help us grow overthe long term. And so I will continue to seekout partners on the other side of the aisle sothat we can create the kind of balanced ap-proach of spending cuts, revenues, entitlementreform that everybody knows is the right wayto do things.

In the meantime, we’re going to do our bestto make sure that our agencies have the sup-port they need to try to make some very diffi-cult decisions, understanding that there are go-

ing to be families and communities that arehurt and that this will slow our growth. It willmean lower employment in the United Statesthan otherwise would have been.

But we can manage through it, and we’regoing to rely on the outstanding leadership ofall these agencies to make sure that we dowhatever it is that we need to get done to helpAmerica’s families.

Now, my agenda obviously is broader thanjust the sequester, because I laid out both inthe Inauguration and during the State of theUnion a very robust agenda to make sure thatwe’re doing everything we can to grow thiseconomy and to help families thrive and ex-pand their opportunities. We want to makesure we’ve got a growing middle class andmore ladders of opportunity into the middleclass.

So, in addition to talking about budget is-sues, we’re also going to spend some time talk-ing about making sure that we have compre-hensive immigration reform done. And I wantto again thank Members of Congress who on abipartisan basis are moving forward on thatagenda. We’re going to have the opportunity totalk about initiatives like early childhood edu-cation that can have an enormous impact onour kids and, ultimately, our growth and pro-ductivity. We’ll have a chance to hear from Joeand other members of the Cabinet about prog-ress in reducing gun violence in this country.

So one of the things that I’ve instructed notjust my White House, but every agency is tomake sure that, regardless of some of the chal-lenges that they may face because of sequestra-tion, we’re not going to stop working on behalfof the American people to make sure that

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we’re doing everything we can to continue togrow this economy and improve people’s pros-pects. All right.


NOTE: The President spoke at 1:08 p.m. in theCabinet Room at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to Vice President JoeBiden.

Statement on the Death of President Hugo Chavez Frias of VenezuelaMarch 5, 2013

At this challenging time of President Hu-go Chavez’s passing, the United States reaf-firms its support for the Venezuelan peopleand its interest in developing a constructiverelationship with the Venezuelan Govern-

ment. As Venezuela begins a new chapter inits history, the United States remains com-mitted to policies that promote democraticprinciples, the rule of law, and respect forhuman rights.

Statement on Senate Action To Block the Nomination of Caitlin J. HalliganTo Be a Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District ofColumbia CircuitMarch 6, 2013

I am deeply disappointed that despite sup-port from a majority of the United States Sen-ate, a minority of Senators continues to blockthe nomination of Caitlin Halligan to serve onthe U.S. Court of Appeals for the District ofColumbia Circuit. Nearly 2½ years after beingnominated, Ms. Halligan continues to wait fora simple up-or-down vote. In the past, filibus-ters of judicial nominations required “extraor-dinary circumstances,” and a Republican Sena-tor who was part of this agreement articulatedthat only an ethics or qualification issue—notideology—would qualify. Ms. Halligan has al-ways practiced law with the highest ethical ide-als, and her qualifications are beyond question.Furthermore, her career in public service andas a law enforcement lawyer serving the citi-

zens of New York is well within the main-stream.

Today’s vote continues the Republican pat-tern of obstruction. My judicial nominees waitmore than three times as long on the Senatefloor to receive a vote than my predecessor’snominees. The effects of this obstruction takethe heaviest toll on the DC Circuit, consideredthe Nation’s second highest court, which nowhas only seven active judges and four vacan-cies. Until last month, for more than 4 years,the court has always had at least 8 active judgesand as many as 12. A majority of the Senateagrees that Ms. Halligan is exactly the kind ofperson who should serve on this court, and Iurge Senate Republicans to allow the Senate toexpress its will and to confirm Ms. Halliganwithout further delay.

Remarks on Signing the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of2013March 7, 2013

The President. Thank you, everybody!Thank you. Well, please, everybody, have aseat. Have a seat.

I want to thank all of you for being here. Iwant to thank Secretary Salazar, my great

friend, for letting us into the building. [Laugh-ter] Make sure everybody picks up their straysoda cans and stuff afterwards. [Laughter] Iwant to thank Attorney General Holder forjoining us. He’s doing a great job.

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We usually host these bill signings over atthe White House, but there were just too manyof you who helped to make this happen.[Laughter] And you all deserve to be a part ofthis moment. I want to thank everybody on thisstage. Joe just mentioned the extraordinarywork that each and every one of these leaders,both advocates as well as legislators——

Vice President Joe Biden. And I left outCongressman Tom Cole.

The President. Well, there you go. Give Toma big round of applause.

But everybody on this stage worked extraor-dinarily hard. Most of all, though, this is yourday. This is the day of the advocates, the day ofthe survivors. This is your victory.

Audience member. We love you, Mr. Presi-dent!

The President. I love you back.And this victory shows that when the Ameri-

can people make their voices heard, Washing-ton listens. So I want to join Joe in thanking allthe Members of Congress from both partieswho came together, got this bill across the fin-ish line.

I want to say a special thanks to Pat Leahyand Mike Crapo as well. Thank you, guys, foryour leadership. And I want to give much loveto Gwen Moore, who worked so hard on this.

And I also want to take a minute before Ibegin to thank the Senators who, just a fewhours ago, took another big step towards sensi-ble gun safety reforms by advancing a Federalgun trafficking bill. That’s real progress. Now,the Senate Judiciary Committee sent legisla-tion to the Senate floor that would crack downon folks who buy guns only to turn around andfunnel them to dangerous criminals.

It’s a bill named, in part, for Hadiya Pendle-ton, who was murdered in Chicago earlier thisyear. You’ll remember I told this story abouthow she had marched in the Inauguration pa-rade and just a few weeks later had beengunned down about a mile away from myhouse.

So I urge the Senate to give that bill a vote; Iurge the House to follow suit. And I urge Con-gress to move on other areas that have supportof the American people, from requiring uni-

versal background checks to getting assaultweapons off our streets, because we need tostop the flow of illegal guns to criminals andbecause Hadiya’s family and too many otherfamilies really do deserve a vote.

Finally, I want to thank Joe Biden for beingsuch an outstanding Vice President. That’sright, you can stand for Joe. Stand for Joe. Giveit up for Joe Biden. Joe is a hard-working VicePresident.

Audience members. Yes, he is!The President. And he told me when he

agreed—when I asked him to be Vice Presi-dent, he said, “Well, I don’t want to just be sit-ting around.” I said, “I promise you, I won’t letyou just sit around.” [Laughter] And he hasnot. He has played a key role in forging the gunsafety reforms that I talked about, largely byworking closely with survivors of gun violenceand their families. He forged the ViolenceAgainst Women Act 20 years ago, never forget-ting who it was all about.

So, on behalf of everybody here and all thelives that you’ve had a positive impact andtouched through the Violence Against WomenAct—the survivors who are alive today becauseof this law, the women who are no longer hid-ing in fear because of this law, the girls who aregrowing up aware of their right to be free fromabuse because of this law—on behalf of themand all their families, I want to thank Joe Bidenfor making this one of the causes of his career.

Now, as Joe said earlier, we’ve come a longway. Back when Joe wrote this law, domesticabuse was too often seen as a private matter,best hidden behind closed doors. Victims toooften stayed silent or felt that they had to livein shame, that somehow they had done some-thing wrong. Even when they went to the hos-pital or the police station, too often they weresent back home without any real interventionor support. They felt trapped, isolated. And asa result, domestic violence too often ended ingreater tragedy.

So one of the great legacies of this law is thatit didn’t just change the rules, it changed ourculture. It empowered people to start speakingout. It made it okay for us, as a society, to talkabout domestic abuse. It made it possible for

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us, as a country, to address the problem in a re-al and meaningful way. And it made clear tovictims that they were not alone, that they al-ways had a place to go and they always hadpeople on their side.

And today, because members of both partiesworked together, we’re able to renew that com-mitment. Reauthorizing the Violence AgainstWomen Act is something I called for in myState of the Union Address. And when I seehow quick it got done, I’m feeling—makes mefeel optimistic.

Because of this bill, we’ll keep in place allthe protections and services that Joe described,and, as he said, we’ll expand them to covereven more women. Because this is a countrywhere everybody should be able to pursuetheir own measure of happiness and live theirlives free from fear, no matter who you are, nomatter who you love. That’s got to be our pri-ority. That’s what today is about.

Today is about the millions of women, thevictims of domestic abuse and sexual assault,who are out there right now looking for a life-line, looking for support. Because of this bill,they’ll continue to have access to all the servic-es that Joe first helped establish 19 years ago:the national hotline, network of shelters, pro-tection orders that carry across State lines. Andbecause of this bill, we’re also expanding hous-ing assistance so that no woman has to choosebetween a violent home and no home at all.That’s what today is all about.

Today is about all the law enforcement offi-cials like Police Chief Jim Johnson. They’re thefirst to respond when a victim calls for help.And because of this bill, we’re continuing allthe training and support that’s proven so effec-tive in bridging some gaps that were in actualenforcement of the law so that we can actuallybring more offenders to justice. And we’re giv-ing our law enforcement better tools to investi-gate cases of rape, which remains a consistent-ly underreported crime in our country. Help-ing police officers deliver on the most impor-tant part of their job—preventing harm andsaving lives—that’s what today is all about.

Today is about women like Diane. I’m sograteful Diane shared her story. That takes

great courage. And tragically, it is a commonstory. I know we’ve got tribal leaders here to-day, and I want to thank all of you for fightingso hard on behalf of your people to make thisbill a reality.

Indian Country has some of the highestrates of domestic abuse in America. And one ofthe reasons is that when Native Americanwomen are abused on tribal lands by an attack-er who is not Native American, the attacker isimmune from prosecution by tribal courts.Well, as soon as I sign this bill, that ends. [Ap-plause] That ends. That ends. Tribal govern-ments have an inherent right to protect theirpeople, and all women deserve the right to livefree from fear. And that is what today is allabout.

Today is about all the Americans who facediscrimination based on sexual orientation andgender identity when they seek help. So I wantto thank Sharon Stapel, who’s here. Where didshe go? There she is, right there—for the workshe’s doing, the great work she’s doing with theAnti-Violence Project. But Sharon and all theother advocates who are focused on this com-munity, they can’t do it alone. And then nowthey won’t have to. That’s what today is allabout. That’s what today is all about.

Today is about the women who come toRosie Hidalgo looking for support, immigrantswho are victims of domestic abuse. I mean,imagine the dilemma for so many: If your im-migration status is tied to a husband who beatsyou or abuses you, if you’re an undocumentedimmigrant, you may feel there’s too much tolose by coming forward. The Violence AgainstWomen Act already had protections so thatvictims could call the police without fear of de-portation, and those protections saved lives.And because we fought hard to keep them inplace, they remain a lifeline for so many wom-en. That’s part of what today is all about.

Today is about young women like Tye, whobrought—who was brought into the sex tradeby a neighbor when she was 12 years old. Tyewas rescued with the help of an organizationled by trafficking survivors. Today, she’s en-rolled in college. She’s working full-time tohelp at-risk girls stay out of the sex trade.

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Couldn’t be prouder of her—so proud. So withthis bill, we reauthorize the Trafficking VictimsProtection Act to help more girls turn out likeTye. That’s what today is all about.

So today is about all the survivors, all the ad-vocates who are standing on this stage. But it’salso about the millions more they represent,that you represent. It’s about our commitmentas a country to address this problem in everycorner of America, every community, everytown, every big city, as long as it takes.

And we’ve made incredible progress since1994. But we cannot let up, not when domesticviolence still kills three women a day, not whenone in five women will be a victim of rape intheir lifetime, not when one in three women isabused by a partner.

So I promise you, not just as your President,but as a son and a husband and a father, I’mgoing to keep at this. I know Vice PresidentBiden is going to keep at it. My administrationis going to keep at it for as long as it takes.

And I know that all the advocates up here,all the legislators, Republican and Democrat,who supported this, I know they could not beprouder of the work that they’ve done togeth-er. And I think I speak for all of them when wesay we could not have done it without you.

So with that, let me sign this bill.

[At this point, the President signed the bill.]

NOTE: The President spoke at 2:16 p.m. at theDepartment of the Interior. In his remarks, hereferred to James W. Johnson, chief, BaltimoreCounty Police Department; Diane E. Millich,executive director, Our Sister’s Keeper Coali-tion, Inc.; Sharon Stapel, executive director,New York City Anti-Violence Project; andRosemary Hidalgo-McCabe, director of publicpolicy, Casa de Esperanza. S. 47, approvedMarch 7, was assigned Public Law No. 113–4.The transcript released by the Office of thePress Secretary also included the remarks ofVice President Biden.

Statement on Senate Confirmation of John O. Brennan as Director ofCentral IntelligenceMarch 7, 2013

With the bipartisan confirmation of JohnBrennan as Director of the Central Intelli-gence Agency, the Senate has recognized inJohn the qualities I value so much: his determi-nation to keep America safe, his commitmentto working with Congress, his ability to buildrelationships with foreign partners, and his fi-delity to the values that define us as a nation.

With John’s 25 years of experience at theAgency, our extraordinary men and women ofthe CIA will be led by one of their own. I amespecially appreciative to Michael Morell for

being such an outstanding Acting Director andfor agreeing to continue his service as DeputyDirector.

Timely, accurate intelligence is absolutelycritical to disrupting terrorist attacks, disman-tling Al Qaida and its affiliates, and meetingthe broad array of security challenges that weface as a nation. John’s leadership and our ded-icated intelligence professionals will be essen-tial in these efforts. I am deeply grateful toJohn and his family for their continued serviceto our Nation.

Statement on Senator Carl M. Levin’s Decision Not To Seek ReelectionMarch 7, 2013

If you’ve ever worn the uniform, worked ashift on an assembly line, or sacrificed to makeends meet, then you’ve had a voice and a votein Senator Carl Levin. No one has worked

harder to bring manufacturing jobs back to ourshores, close unfair tax loopholes, and ensurethat everyone plays by the same set of rules. Aschairman of the Armed Services Committee,

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Senator Levin is a true champion for all thosewho serve, and his tireless work will be missednot just in his home State of Michigan, but bymilitary families across our country. Michelle

and I wish Carl, Barbara, and their family allthe best, and I look forward to working withCarl over the next 2 years as we continue tack-ling some of our Nation’s toughest challenges.

Statement on International Women’s DayMarch 8, 2013

On International Women’s Day, we cele-brate the many milestones on the road to gen-der equality and recommit ourselves to fightfor the rights and opportunities of women andgirls around the world.

Empowering women isn’t just the rightthing to do, it’s the smart thing to do. Whenwomen succeed, nations are more safe, moresecure, and more prosperous. Over the lastyear, we’ve seen women and girls inspiringcommunities and entire countries to stand upfor freedom and justice, and I’m proud of myadministration’s efforts to promote genderequality worldwide.

As a nation, we’ve launched new efforts topromote women’s economic empowermentand political participation, to prevent and re-spond to gender-based violence, and to

strengthen our commitment to helping morewomen participate in peace-building and con-flict resolution. We are promoting food securi-ty initiatives that recognize the rights andneeds of women farmers and ensuring thatwomen and girls are at the center of globalhealth programs. And we will continue to focuson empowering women and girls at home andabroad.

We’ve also worked with a wide range ofpartners, from the United Nations and civil so-ciety groups to the private sector, to advancethis important agenda. Because when it comesto creating a world in which our sons anddaughters can reach their potential, we eachhave a role to play. And we can make evenmore progress together.


Hi, everybody. As I’ve said before, my toppriority as President is making sure we do ev-erything we can to reignite the true engine ofAmerica’s economic growth: a rising, thrivingmiddle class.

Yesterday we received some welcome newson that front. We learned that our businessesadded nearly 250,000 new jobs last month. Theunemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent: still toohigh, but now lower than it was when I took of-fice.

Our businesses have created jobs everymonth for 3 years straight, nearly 6.4 millionnew jobs in all. Our manufacturers are bring-ing jobs back to America. Our stock market hasrebounded. New homes are being built andsold at a faster pace. And we need to do every-thing we can to keep that momentum going.

That means asking ourselves three questionsevery day: How do we make America a magnetfor new jobs? How do we equip more of ourpeople with the skills those jobs require? Andhow do we make sure that your hard workleads to a decent living?

And that has to be our driving focus, ournorth star. And at a time when our businessesare gaining a little more traction, the last thingwe should do is allow Washington politics toget in the way. You deserve better than thesame political gridlock and refusal to compro-mise that has too often passed for serious de-bate over the last few years.

And that’s why I’ve been reaching out to Re-publicans and Democrats to see if we can un-tangle some of the gridlock. Earlier this week,for example, I met with some Republican Sen-

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ators to see if there were smarter ways to growour economy and reduce our deficits than thearbitrary cuts and the so-called sequester thatrecently went into place. We had an open andhonest conversation about critical issues likeimmigration reform and gun violence, and oth-er areas where we can work together to movethis country forward. And next week, I’ll attendboth the Democratic and Republican Partymeetings in the Capitol to continue those dis-cussions.

The fact is, America is a nation of differentbeliefs and different points of view. That’s partof what makes us strong and, frankly, makesour democratic debates messy and, a lot oftimes, pretty frustrating. But ultimately, whatmakes us special is when we summon the abili-ty to see past those differences and come to-gether around the belief that what binds us to-gether will always be more powerful than whatdrives us apart.

As Democrats and Republicans, we may dis-agree on the best way to achieve our goals, butI’m confident we can agree on what those goalsshould be: a strong and vibrant middle class; aneconomy that allows businesses to grow andthrive; an education system that gives moreAmericans the skills they need to compete for

the jobs of the future; an immigration systemthat actually works for families and businesses;stronger communities and safer streets for ourchildren.

Making progress on these issues won’t beeasy. In the months ahead, there will be morecontentious debate and honest disagreementbetween principled people who want what’sbest for this country. But I still believe thatcompromise is possible. I still believe we cancome together to do big things. And I knowthere are leaders on the other side of the aislewho share that belief.

So I’ll keep fighting to solve the real chal-lenges facing middle class families. And I’ll en-list anyone who is willing to help. That’s whatthis country needs right now, and that’s whatyou deserve.

Thanks so much.

NOTE: The address was recorded at approxi-mately 3:35 p.m. on March 8 in the State Din-ing Room at the White House for broadcast onMarch 9. The transcript was made available bythe Office of the Press Secretary on March 8,but was embargoed for release until 6 a.m. onMarch 9.

Remarks at the Gridiron Club DinnerMarch 9, 2013

Before I begin, I know some of you have no-ticed that I’m dressed a little differently fromthe other gentlemen. Because of sequester,they cut my tails. My joke writers have beenplaced on furlough. [Laughter] I know a lot ofyou reported that no one will feel any immedi-ate impact because of the sequester. Well,you’re about to find out how wrong you are.[Laughter]

Of course, there’s one thing in Washingtonthat didn’t get cut: the length of this dinner.Yet more proof that the sequester makes nosense. [Laughter]

As you know, I last attended the Gridirondinner 2 years ago. Back then, I addressed anumber of topics: a dysfunctional Congress, alooming budget crisis, complaints that I don’t

spend enough time with the press. It’s funny, itseems like it was just yesterday. [Laughter]

We noticed that some folks couldn’t make itthis evening. It’s been noted that Bob Wood-ward sends his regrets, which Gene Sperlingpredicted. [Laughter] I have to admit thiswhole brouhaha had me a little surprised. Whoknew Gene could be so intimidating? Or letme phrase it differently: Who knew anybodynamed Gene could be this intimidating?[Laughter]

Now, I know that some folks think we re-sponded to Woodward too aggressively. Buthey, when has—can anybody tell me when anadministration has ever regretted picking afight with Bob Woodward? What’s the worstthat could happen? [Laughter]

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But don’t worry. We’re all friends again inthe spirit of that wonderful song. As you mayhave heard, Bob invited Gene over to his place.And Bob says he actually thinks that I shouldmake it too. And I might take him up on the of-fer. I mean, nothing says “not a threat” likeshowing up at somebody’s house with guyswith machine guns. [Laughter]

Now, since I don’t often speak to a room fullof journalists, I thought I should address a fewconcerns tonight. [Laughter] Some of you havesaid that I’m ignoring the Washington presscorps, that we’re too controlling. You knowwhat, you were right. I was wrong, and I wantto apologize in a video you can watch exclusive-ly at whitehouse.gov. [Laughter]

While we’re on this subject, I want to ac-knowledge Ed Henry, who is here—who is thefearless leader of the Washington press corpsnow. And at Ed’s request, tonight I will takeone question from the press. Jay, do we have aquestion? [Laughter] Surprisingly, it’s a ques-tion from Ed Henry. [Laughter] “Mr. Presi-dent, will you be taking any questions tonight?”[Laughter] I’m happy to answer that. No, Ed, Iwill not. [Laughter]

I also want to recognize David Corn. He’shere from Mother Jones magazine. Hebrought his iPhone. So, Bobby Jindal, if youthought your remarks were off the record, askMitt Romney about that.

I have to say, I thought Bobby was incredi-bly funny this evening. I thought he was terrif-ic. Amy Klobuchar was sparkling and fantasticand fabulous. I am worried about Al Frankenthough. [Laughter] How do you start off beingone of the original writers for “Saturday NightLive” and end up being the second funniestSenator in Minnesota? [Laughter] How themighty have fallen. [Laughter]

Now, I’m sure that you’ve noticed thatthere’s somebody very special in my life who ismissing tonight, somebody who has always gotmy back, stands with me no matter what, andgives me hope no matter how dark thingsseem. So tonight I want to publicly thank myrock, my foundation. Thank you, Nate Silver.[Laughter]

Of course, as I begin my second term, ourcountry is still facing enormous challenges. Wehave a lot of work to do.

[At this point, the President took a sip of wa-ter.]

That, Marco Rubio, is how you take a sip ofwater. [Laughter]

As I was saying, we face major challenges.March, in particular, is going to be full of toughdecisions. But I want to assure you, I have mytop advisers working around the clock. Afterall, my March Madness bracket isn’t going tofill itself out. [Laughter] And don’t worry,there is an entire team in the Situation Roomas we speak, planning my next golf outing,right now at this moment. [Laughter]

But those aren’t the only issues on my mind.As you are aware—as has been noted this eve-ning—we’ve had to make some very tough,huge budget cuts, apparently with no regard tolong-term consequences, which means I knowhow you feel in journalism. [Laughter] I’vebeen trying to explain this situation to theAmerican people, but clearly I am not perfect.After a very public mixup last week, my com-munications team has provided me with aneasy way to distinguish between “Star Trek”and “Star Wars.” Spock is what MaureenDowd calls me. Darth Vader is what JohnBoehner calls me. [Laughter]

Of course, maintaining credibility in thiscynical atmosphere is harder than ever, incred-ibly challenging. My administration recentlyput out a photo of me skeet shooting, and eventhat wasn’t enough for some people. Nextweek, we’re releasing a photo of me clinging toreligion. [Laughter]

I’m also doing what I can to smooth thingsover with Republicans in Congress. In fact,these days, John McCain and I are spending somuch time together that he told me we werebecoming friends. I said: “John, stop. ChuckHagel warned me how this ends up.” [Laugh-ter]

It took a while, but I’m glad that the Senatefinally confirmed my Secretary of Defense.And I have to say, I don’t know what happenedto Chuck in those hearings. I know he worked

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hard; he studied his brief. And I even lent himmy Presidential debate team to work with him.[Laughter] It’s confusing what happened.

But all these changes to my team are toughto handle, I’ve got to admit. After 9 years, I fi-nally said goodbye to my chief speechwriter,Jon Favreau. I watched him grow up. He’s al-most like a son to me, he’s been with me solong. And I said to him when he first informedme of his decision, I said, “Favs, you can’tleave.” And he answered with three simplewords: “Yes, I can.” [Laughter] Fortunately, hedid not take the prompter on his way out. Thatwould have been a problem. [Laughter]

With all these new faces, it’s hard to keeptrack of who is in, who is out. And I know it’sdifficult for you guys as reporters. But I can of-fer you an easy way of remembering the newteam. If Ted Cruz calls somebody a Commu-nist, then you know they’re in my Cabinet.[Laughter]

Jack Lew is getting started on his new role asTreasury Secretary. Jack is so low key, hemakes Tim Geithner look like Tom Cruise.[Laughter] Don’t worry, everybody, Jacksigned off on that joke, or a 5-year-old drew aSlinky. [Laughter] I don’t know which.

Another big change has been at the StateDepartment. Everybody has noticed that obvi-ously. And let’s face it: Hillary is a tough act tofollow. But John Kerry is doing great so far. Heis doing everything he can to ensure continuity.Frankly, though, I think it’s time for him tostop showing up at work in pantsuits. It’s a dis-turbing image. [Laughter] It really is. I don’tknow where he buys them. He is a tall guy.[Laughter]

And even though I’m just beginning my sec-ond term, I know that some folks are lookingahead to bigger things. Look, it’s no secret thatmy Vice President is still ambitious. But let’sface it, his age is an issue. Just the other day, Ihad to take Joe aside and say, “Joe, you are waytoo young to be the Pope.” [Laughter] “Youcan’t do it. You got to mature a little bit.”[Laughter]

Now, I do want to end on a serious note. Iknow that there are people who get frustratedwith the way journalism is practiced these

days. And sometimes, those people are me.[Laughter] But the truth is, our country needsyou and our democracy needs you.

In an age when all it takes to attract atten-tion is a Twitter handle and some followers, it’seasier than ever to get it wrong. But it’s moreimportant than ever to get it right. And I amgrateful for all the journalists who do one ofthe toughest jobs there is with integrity and in-sight and dedication—and a sense of pur-pose—that goes beyond a business model or anews cycle.

This year alone, reporters have exposed cor-ruption here at home and around the world.They’ve risked everything to bring us storiesfrom places like Syria and Kenya, stories thatneed to be told. And they’ve helped people un-derstand the ways in which we’re all connect-ed: how something that happens or doesn’thappen halfway around the world or here inWashington can have consequences for Ameri-can families.

These are extraordinary times. The stakesare high and the tensions can sometimes behigh as well. But while we’ll always have dis-agreements, I believe that we share the beliefthat a free press—a press that questions us,that holds us accountable, that sometimes getsunder our skin—is absolutely an essential partof our democracy.

So I want to thank everybody for not just awonderful evening—and, Chuck, I want tothank you for your outstanding presidency—but I also just want to thank you for the workthat you do each and every day. And in thewords of one of my favorite “Star Trek” charac-ters, Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enter-prise, “May the force be with you.” [Laughter]

NOTE: The President spoke at 10:03 p.m. inthe grand ballroom at the Renaissance Wash-ington, DC Downtown Hotel. In his remarks,he referred to Bob Woodward, associate edi-tor, Washington Post; Edward M. Henry, chiefWhite House correspondent, Fox News, in hiscapacity as president of the White House Cor-respondents’ Association; White House PressSecretary James F. “Jay” Carney; Gov. Piyush“Bobby” Jindal of Louisiana; 2012 Republican

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Presidential nominee W. Mitt Romney; Na-thaniel R. Silver, statistician and polling ana-lyst, and Maureen B. Dowd, columnist, NewYork Times; Sen. R. Edward “Ted” Cruz; for-mer Secretary of the Treasury Timothy F.Geithner; actor Tom Cruise; former Secretary

of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; and ChuckTodd, chief White House correspondent, NBCNews, in his capacity as president of the Grid-iron Club and Foundation Washington, DC.Audio was not available for verification of thecontent of these remarks.

Remarks at a Meeting of the President’s Export CouncilMarch 12, 2013

The President. I want to get back to the offi-cial business at hand. But I did want to stop by.First of all, I just want to say thanks to the PECfor the unbelievable work that you guys havedone and the extraordinary leadership thatyou’ve provided to our team and the adminis-tration as we’ve tried to promote exports allaround the world. And I’m glad to see thatwe’ve got a couple of our outstanding Senatorshere as well who, I know, care deeply about ex-ports because their States benefit from ex-ports. We all do.

And I assume that part of these charts wasBecky going over, the progress that we’vemade over the last several years, so I won’t reit-erate it. The good news is we are well on ourway to meeting a very ambitious goal that weset several years ago to double U.S. exports.And what we know is, is that a lot of thegrowth, a lot of the new jobs that we’ve seenduring the course of this recovery, have beenexport driven.

What’s also encouraging is it’s been comingfrom a whole variety of sectors. Obviously, ouragricultural sector has always been strong, andit’s gotten even stronger. But what we’ve alsoseen is, is that our manufacturing base, ourhigh-tech, our services across the board, we’reseeing significant increases. And the questionnow becomes, how do we sustain this momen-tum?

Part of it is making sure that we get in placestrong trade deals. And having ratified, withthe help of a number of our legislators, thePanama, Colombia, and most significantly,South Korean trade deals, we’ve now beenmoving aggressively on the Trans-Pacific Part-nership, a high-standards trade regime that wethink can advantage U.S. companies and U.S.

workers because it sets a bar that ensures thattrade is fair and free. And for those of us whoabide by high labor standards and high envi-ronmental standards, obviously being able tolock in those kinds of high standards in thefastest growing region of the world and themost populous region of the world can yieldenormous benefits and help to generate bil-lions of dollars in trade and millions of jobs.

As I announced at the State of the UnionAddress, we’re also going to be launching aneffort to lock in a EU-U.S. trade deal as well.And already, Europe is our largest tradingpartner—the EU as a whole—and we thinkthat we can expand that even further. Andsome of this has to do with us being able tobreak down some existing barriers across theAtlantic to U.S. products and services, butsome of it also has to do with smoothing outdifferences in regulatory approaches, just tradefrictions that arise that are unnecessary thatare—carries over from earlier periods. And wethink just as the TPP can be an enormousboost to U.S. trade and growth, that our tradewith Europe can expand substantially and thatwill advantage U.S. companies and U.S. busi-nesses.

But in order for us to do this, we’re going toneed the help of industry and labor and all theparties that are represented here. One of thethings that we’ve also been trying to do duringthe course of this process is to make sure thatit’s not just the Xeroxes and the Dow Chemi-cals that are benefiting from this, although wewant our Fortune 100 companies to be sellingas much as possible. They also have a whole lotof suppliers, so small businesses stand to bene-fit immensely from this process. We actuallythink that there’s room for small and medium-

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size businesses to export directly, not just sup-plying large businesses, but also to break openand enter into these markets. And that canmake a huge difference in terms of our long-term prospects.

So overall, this is a good story, this is an opti-mistic story, but it’s one that we’re going tohave to continue to sustain.

One last point, just because I had a chanceto see Bob. I think many of you are aware ofthe fact that when tourists come here andspend money, that’s an export. That goes onthe export side of the ledger. And thanks tosome of the great work that we’ve done in apublic-private partnership, we’ve been able toaccelerate visas. We’ve been able to make surethat we are out there actively seeking visitors tocome here and promoting the U.S. as a touristdestination.

Just to give you a small example—somethingthat I didn’t realize until I went to Disney-world—it turns out that in Florida, for exam-ple, Brazilians are the fastest growing—one ofthe largest sources of tourism in Florida. Andby the way, when they come, they stay a lotlonger, and they spend a lot more money.

The problem we had was we had, I think,three places—three places—to get visas in allof Brazil, which is a pretty big country. And sowe’ve been able to cut down visa times drasti-cally. We’ve seen as a consequence some sig-nificant expansion in tourism out of SouthAmerica because of some of the steps thatwe’ve taken. That’s the kind of smart, verycost-effective set of steps that we can take thatcan make a big difference.

And a lot of those ideas have been generatedfrom this group. So I just want to say thank youto all of the terrific people who have been in-volved, and I’m looking forward to us just stay-ing on this thing until we get it right. Okay?

President’s Export Council Chairman W.James McNerney, Jr. Great to have you here.

The President. Good to be here.Chairman McNerney. We discussed a lot of

the FTA momentum that was started duringyour first term and now you’re doubling downin the second term, and many of us around the

room are very supportive and delighted to bepart of the effort.

I think maybe just another word or two onthe European effort from your point of view.TPP, I think we all get, we’re working on,we’re in the flow. The European thing, be-cause it is a stalled, back-and-forth situationright now because of their economy, just won-dered what the theory of the case was fromyour——

The President. Here’s why we’re modestlyoptimistic that we can get this done. I think inthe past, the EU, because they’ve got to coor-dinate among so many countries, consistentlyhad to pursue the lowest common denomina-tor. And there are certain countries who—whose agricultural sector is very strong, whotended to block at critical junctures the kindsof broad-based trade agreements that wouldmake it a good deal for us. If one of the areaswhere we’ve got the greatest comparative ad-vantage is cordoned off from an overall tradedeal, it’s very hard to get something going.

What I think has changed is the recognitionthroughout Europe that it is hard for them tofigure out a recipe for growth at this point, inpart because of the austerity measures thathave been put in place throughout the eurozone, in the absence of a more aggressive tradecomponent. So I think they are hungrier for adeal than they have been in the past.

I think, thanks to the work of good peoplelike Mike Froman, we’ve been able to narrowsome of the differences. We’ve identified onthe regulatory side, customs side, areas wherewe can synchronize without hurting eitherside, but simply lubricating more effectivetrade between the two countries.

So we’ve narrowed down the issues. I thinkit will still be a heavy slog. There’s no guaran-tee that in the end, some of the countries thathave been hard cases in the past won’t block itagain, but I think that you’re going to see morepressure from more countries on the other sideof the Atlantic to get this done than we’ve seenin the past.

Lael, Mike, is that a fair assessment? Theseguys spend more time in Europe than I do.

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Deputy National Security Adviser for Inter-national Economic Affairs Michael B. Froman.Yes.

Chairman McNerney. Do you have time totake a couple questions——

The President. Sure.Chairman McNerney. ——from the group?

Anybody care to weigh in?The President. Or comments.Chairman McNerney. Or comments? Sure.The President. Everybody is just dying to get

back to Becky’s charts. [Laughter] They’renice-looking charts.

Sen. Amy J. Klobuchar. They’re very good.Mr. President, thank you for your leadershipon this issue. And I just think setting that goalof doubling the exports was one that many ofus have used over and over again. And many ofus were talking about the need for more kids togo into science, engineering, technology. Weare—literally have so many jobs that are un-filled right now, particularly in western Minne-sota, and I think finding some simple goal likethat of getting the increase in the number ofkids going into these areas and selling it assomething that they want to do would be agood idea.

And I wanted to commend the State De-partment—I did earlier—for the work on thevisas. I still think there’s so much more thatcan be done. We’ve doubled—doubled—thetourism. It’s up 50 percent from China. And Ithink that there’s even obviously more that wecan do with videoconferencing on visa inter-views, other things that we should try to usethe technology that we have.

As you’ve noted, people are spending tons ofmoney going to Disneyland; I would also addgoing to the Mall of America in Bloomington,Minnesota—[laughter]—a hot spot for Asiatourists, especially. Not as much Brazilians; it’stoo cold in our State for them. [Laughter] ButI see so much promise here with the tourism.

And the last is what you mentioned, thisgrowing political support for fair trade agree-ments is huge. And it’s about the big compa-nies, but when people see in their own townsthese small and medium-sized companieswhere their brothers and sisters work, it cre-

ates a kind of support for trade that is muchmore organic and really goes in a grassrootsway across the country. And I think we have toremember that as a piece of what’s good forthe economy, but also it will grow support forthis new global economy.

So I just want to thank you for your effortsand hope that we can look at this—the work-force training issue—in a different way interms of setting some goals for these kids sothey see it as a career opportunity.

The President. Well, look, what’s absolutelytrue is that exports, trade are one brick in thisbroader economic foundation that we’re tryingto build. But we’re not going to succeed inmeeting our export goals if we’re not makinggreat products and delivering great services.And we’re not going to be able to do that un-less we’ve got a great workforce.

You may want to come with me, becauseI’m—after this I’m about to go these Intel Na-tional Science Award winners, where you meet15- and 16-year-olds who invents plasmas—[laughter]—and cure cancer, and most of thetime, I have no idea what they’re talking about.[Laughter] But they’re very impressive and in-spiring.

We are setting a set of goals for STEM edu-cation, number of engineers that we need toproduce. All that stuff is going to be important.But what we also—one of the things that I’vealso been pointing out, when you look at a lotof those jobs that go unfilled, they’re not nec-essarily Ph.D. jobs. The issue here is can wereintroduce an effective model for vocationaltraining where—and part of the goal that we’veset for ourselves with respect to high schools isduplicating some of the things that are beingdone, for example, by IBM, where they go intoa high school in New York, and they say, we’lltrain you, and during high school, you will getthe equivalent of an associate’s degree so thatby the time you graduate, maybe you take 2years of community college, you are now fullytrained for jobs that we know are out there andthat people are hiring for, which makes thekids more engaged in high school, saves themmoney, reduces the number of Pell grantsthey’re taking out. It’s a win-win situation for

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everybody. And the employers then have greatquality control in terms of knowing who it isthat they’re getting.

We want to see if we can duplicate thatacross the board.

Yes, Kirsten.Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand. Well, I want to

thank you, Mr. President, for your vision be-cause I am telling you it’s making an absolutedifference in my own State in high-tech manu-facturing and increasing our exports.

We also had an easy win—I appreciate theleadership you took with regard to Canada,something so parochial, so easy—but increas-ing our exports to Canada. For New York Stateto have Montreal and Toronto a stone’s throwaway is such a huge market for our entrepre-neurs.

And some work still can be done. There’s nostreamlining of what governmental require-ments are required on both sides of the bor-der, and that’s something that we can actuallyfix: making a one-stop shop for a young entre-preneur who’s starting a business who wants toknow what forms do I have to fill out to exportmy product abroad. That’s a place where wehave enormous export potential.

And even just in agricultural products, forapples that are going from New York to Cana-da, they have to be inspected on both sides ofthe border. Unnecessary. So there’s some realstreamlining I think we could do, to increaseexports just between those two areas of thecountry.

But I just want to thank you, because, asAmy said, in terms of filling these jobs, what’sreally worked is part of your initiatives of allow-ing the community colleges to work directlywith the manufacturers to build the coursework for the job the manufacturer needs.

And we had a fantastic example where Bom-bardier, who builds a lot of things, includingsubways, needed advanced welders. Well, theywant to Adirondack Community College, builtthe course work, and those employees got theirtraining, got a higher wage, and filled the spots.And so it’s really exciting what you’re doing ineducation innovation, which is training thepeople for the jobs that are available with the

collaboration of the employers building thecourse work. It’s a win-win for everybody. AndI just want to congratulate you for your visionon that issue.

The President. Great. A couple more? Mayor Alvin Brown of Jacksonville, FL. Mr.

President, I want to thank you for supportingthe U.S. Conference of Mayors for the ports.Ports are a big economic engine in our cities,and they really focus on small business and en-trepreneurs, helping them to export. So I wantto thank you for that.

I know the policy you pushed to allow thestudy to be released early from the ArmyCorps of Engineers, which helped Jacksonville,Florida, by the way. Really appreciate that.Florida is very important. And like you saidwith Brazil, which is Florida’s number-onetrading partner, so we really appreciate yoursupport on the ports and modernizing the portso that we can compete and position cities toreally be competitive in the marketplace.

The President. Well, one of the things thatwe talked about is if we’re going to export ef-fectively, we’ve got to have effective infrastruc-ture. The ports issue all around the Gulf is go-ing to be critical. The Panama Canal is beingmodified. You’re going to have bigger shipscoming in. And if you want to unload thoseships, you got to have high-quality ports. Thatobviously is a gateway for everything that’shappening in Central and South America.

Recently, we had the challenge of—I know Italked to Pat about this—getting goods fromthe Midwest down the Mississippi when thewater started going down. And if, in fact, tem-peratures are warming—I know this is not ourclimate change meeting—[laughter]—but Ithink we can anticipate that we may end uphaving some challenges in terms of managingour waterways. Well, whether or not we cancontinue to use barges to move a lot of productout of the American heartland to ports aroundthe world, that’s going to depend on our infra-structure.

So we are going to, in our budget, continueto push Congress to see if we can essentiallydeal with deferred maintenance. Sometimes,

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when it comes to Government spending, ev-erybody thinks it’s all the same. I think every-body around this table knows in your business-es, you think very differently about capital in-vestments, long-term investments that are go-ing to make your company more competitive,versus wasting money. And here’s an exampleof where we should be doing less of somethings that are not helping us grow. Buildinginfrastructure is something that does help usgrow. Okay?

All right, guys, I think you’ve got smarterpeople around the table than me to deal withsome of these issues. Again, I just want tothank all of you who’ve been involved. We aregoing to continue to push this agenda.

One of the things I hope that you’ve seenduring the course of these last 4 years is that ifwe hear good ideas, we’ll implement them,we’ll move them. So the great thing about acouncil like this is that it gives us insight intohow things are actually operating or not oper-

ating, and we can start cutting through some ofthe redtape and get things done.

So continue to provide us with recommen-dations. We’ll work them through. There’s aninteragency process; it’s a good way for us tobreak down some of the silos that develop be-tween various agencies. And I think we canmake significant improvement and continue tobuild on the goals that we’ve set.


NOTE: The President spoke at 10:22 a.m. inRoom 350 of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Exec-utive Office Building. In his remarks, he re-ferred to Acting Secretary of Commerce Re-becca M. Blank; Robert A. Iger, president andchief executive officer, the Walt Disney Com-pany; Under Secretary of the Treasury for In-ternational Affairs Lael Brainard; and PatriciaA. Woertz, chairman, chief executive officer,and president, Archer Daniels Midland Co.

Remarks Following a Meeting With Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of BruneiMarch 12, 2013

President Obama. Well, it is a great pleasureto welcome my good friend, His Majesty theSultan of Brunei. The Sultan and I have hadthe opportunity to get to know each other froma series of multilateral meetings, particularlythe ASEAN East Asia Summit meetings. He isa key leader in the Southeast Asia region, butalso widely respected around the world.

And part of the reason that we thought nowwas a good time for a meeting here in the OvalOffice is because His Majesty will be hostingthe next ASEAN East Asia Summit meeting inBrunei this October. There are a range of is-sues that we’ve worked on together, and thatshould be no surprise because the friendshipbetween the United States and Brunei actuallydates back 160 years.

His Majesty himself has led his country for40 years now, and he’s gone through nine U.S.Presidents. I won’t ask him which one was hisfavorite—[laughter]—but our interests in hav-ing a strong, peaceful, prosperous Asia-Pacificregion is something that we share.

And so, at the ASEAN East Asia Summit,we will be discussing a wide range of issues: ev-erything from how we deal with issues of ener-gy and climate change to how we expand com-merce, potentially through the Trans-PacificPartnership that has the opportunity of creat-ing jobs and prosperity here in the UnitedStates, but also throughout the region.

We’ll be discussing maritime issues. Obvi-ously, there have been a lot of tensions in theregion around maritime issues. And His Majes-ty has shown great leadership in trying to bringthe countries together to make sure that every-body is abiding by the basic precepts of rule oflaw and international standards so that con-flicts can be resolved peacefully and effectivelyand that everybody is brought into that kind ofstructure.

We’ve also had a chance to work together oneducational issues. His Majesty himself andBrunei have helped to finance a number ofEnglish-language instructors so that moreyouth in the Southeast Asia region are learning

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English, which obviously can help to expandcommerce, but also strengthen the ties be-tween the United States and the region.

And we’re also going to be doing, for thefirst time, a joint—ASEAN-U.S.-Chinese jointexercises around disaster and humanitarian re-lief, which points to the fact that our militaries,that are extraordinarily capable, and the bilat-eral military relationship between the UnitedStates and Brunei has the capacity to help peo-ple in times of need and to try to help avoidconflict rather than start conflict.

So, overall, I’m very grateful for His Majes-ty’s outstanding leadership and his friendship.I’m glad that he’s had a chance to visit. He gothere yesterday and flew in his own 747, mean-ing he actually piloted it himself. I think he’sprobably the only head of state in the worldwho flies a 747 himself. And so, in case AirForce One, the pilots have problems, we knowwho to consult. [Laughter] And my under-standing is tomorrow he’s going to have an op-portunity to take his family up to New York,where we’re going to encourage him to dosome shopping because we want to continue tostrengthen the U.S. economy. [Laughter]

So, Your Majesty, it’s wonderful to see you.Thank you so much. Thank you.

Sultan Hassanal. Ladies and gentlemen ofthe press. Mr. President, firstly, thank you forinviting me to visit the United States. I knowyou have a very busy schedule. It’s very kind ofyou to receive me.

This visit gives me a good opportunity to re-new the longstanding and warm friendship be-tween Brunei Darussalam and the UnitedStates—the relations, which dated back to1850, with the signing of the Treaty of Peace,Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation, soonafter the USS Constitution called at our port.

President Barack Obama and I have had anexcellent meeting this morning. I am indeedvery happy with the progress of our bilateralcooperation, especially in energy, education,defense interests. The Brunei-U.S. joint 5-yearEnglish-language program, which waslaunched last year, is progressing well. It ismeant for the people in ASEAN in order toimprove and strengthen the English-languageskills.

On energy cooperation, there are already anumber of American companies providing arange of upstream and downstream services inour oil and gas sector. In the Trans-PacificPartnership agreement, we are negotiatingwith further buildup of this economic condi-tion.

I also had the pleasure to share with Presi-dent Obama some of our plans as ASEANchair this year. As ASEAN chair, we have ex-tended an invitation to President Obama to theEast Asia Summit and the first ASEAN-U.S.leaders’ summit in October this year.

The United States has been a good friend toASEAN and is actively involved in many of ourprojects, such as the Comprehensive EnergyPartnership and the Expanded Economic En-gagement of E–3 initiative. And we are confi-dent that these initiatives will strengthen theeconomic linkages between ASEAN and theUnited States.

In closing, I thank President Obama againfor today’s meeting. We look forward to wel-coming you to Brunei Darussalam later thisyear, Mr. President, and to working together tostrengthen the important relationship betweenASEAN and the United States.

Thank you.President Obama. Thank you very much.

NOTE: The President spoke at 11:54 a.m. inthe Oval Office at the White House.

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Message to the Congress on Continuation of the National Emergency WithRespect to IranMarch 12, 2013


Section 202(d) of the National EmergenciesAct (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)) provides for the auto-matic termination of a national emergency un-less, within 90 days prior to the anniversarydate of its declaration, the President publishesin the Federal Register and transmits to theCongress a notice stating that the emergency isto continue in effect beyond the anniversarydate. In accordance with this provision, I havesent to the Federal Register for publication theenclosed notice stating that the national emer-gency with respect to Iran that was declared onMarch 15, 1995, is to continue in effect beyondMarch 15, 2013.

The crisis between the United States andIran resulting from the actions and policies ofthe Government of Iran has not been resolved.

The actions and policies of the Government ofIran are contrary to the interests of the UnitedStates in the region and continue to pose anunusual and extraordinary threat to the nation-al security, foreign policy, and economy of theUnited States. For these reasons, I have deter-mined that it is necessary to continue the na-tional emergency declared with respect to Iranand to maintain in force comprehensive sanc-tions against Iran to deal with this threat.

BARACK OBAMA

The White House,March 12, 2012.


Statement on the Election of Pope FrancisMarch 13, 2013

On behalf of the American people, Michelleand I offer our warm wishes to His HolinessPope Francis as he ascends to the Chair ofSaint Peter and begins his papacy. As a cham-pion of the poor and the most vulnerableamong us, he carries forth the message of loveand compassion that has inspired the world formore than 2,000 years: that in each other wesee the face of God. As the first Pope from theAmericas, his selection also speaks to thestrength and vitality of a region that is increas-

ingly shaping our world, and alongside millionsof Hispanic Americans, those of us in the Unit-ed States share the joy of this historic day. Justas I appreciated our work with Pope BenedictXVI, I look forward to working with His Holi-ness to advance peace, security, and dignity forour fellow human beings, regardless of theirfaith. We join with people around the world inoffering our prayers for the Holy Father as hebegins the sacred work of leading the CatholicChurch in our modern world.

Remarks at an Organizing for Action DinnerMarch 13, 2013

Hello, everybody. Hello, hello. Thank you.Everybody, have a seat. Have a seat.

Well, it’s good to see all of you. I missedyou. [Laughter] The—let me first of all thankJim and Jon for organizing this. I want tothank all of you. I’ve got a bunch of friends in

this room: people who have supported meeven before I ran for President, new friends,old friends, everybody here in it for the rightreasons, folks who care deeply about thiscountry and want to see us to continue tomove forward.

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I said in 2008—and I’m pretty sure I repeat-ed in 2012—that you run elections not simplyto get elected. You run elections to have an op-portunity to deliver on behalf of the Americanpeople. And the central premise of our cam-paign was always that this great country of oursis built on some foundational ideas, the mostimportant of which is that anybody, anywhere,if they’re willing to work hard and take respon-sibility, can succeed, and that if we’ve got agrowing, thriving middle class and ladders ofopportunity into the middle class, then nobodycan beat us. That’s the reason why we attractedimmigrants from every corner of the world.That’s the reason why our culture has alwaysbeen viewed as dynamic and forward looking:not looking backwards, but consistently lookingat that next horizon.

And the good news is that America in 2013is poised, as it always has been, to succeed inways that will make us the envy of the world ifwe make good policy decisions.

Since the election, since I saw many of you,we’ve made some progress on some fronts. Wehave seen that there’s actually a bipartisancommitment—at least in the Senate—to po-tentially overhaul our immigration system sothat we can continue to attract the best andbrightest from around the world.

We are having terrific conversations aroundissues like cybersecurity and how we makesure that people’s privacy and civil liberties areprotected, but how we also protect our criticalinfrastructure and we make sure that the pow-er of the Internet isn’t used for ill as well asgood.

We’ve seen some progress after the heart-breaking tragedy of Newtown, where people fi-nally say we can do something about gun vio-lence in a way that’s respectful of the SecondAmendment, but insists that no society shouldtolerate our children being gunned down,whether it’s on the streets or in their class-rooms.

And when it comes to issues of the budget,we’ve made progress in making sure that thoseat the very top are paying a greater share ofwhat is required to run a Government andfund basic research, move education forward.

And so we’ve seen some progress. And I laidout in both the Inauguration and in the State ofthe Union a vision that doesn’t require massiveexpansion of Government, but does require usto do certain things that we can’t do as well byourselves: whether it’s providing early child-hood education; whether it’s investing in infra-structure so that our businesses can movegoods and services more rapidly around theworld; whether it’s continuing to expand ourmanufacturing base and encouraging insourc-ing and not just outsourcing; whether it’s mak-ing sure that we continue to be at the cuttingedge of science and technology and research;or whether we are going to choose an energyfuture that doesn’t just look at the energysource of the past, but also looks at the energysources of tomorrow and addresses climatechange in a serious way.

And some people remarked that I looked—Ihad a little more pep in my step in the Inaugu-ration and in the State of the Union. And Ihave to tell you, it wasn’t because I was off thecampaign trail, because actually nothing ener-gizes me like interacting with the Americanpeople day in and day out. The reason was Ifelt like this is a vision that, if we can get it im-plemented, really would allow America to takeoff.

Our economy is recovering. It is resilient.But it is not yet where it needs to be. We’ve gotmillions of people who are still out of work orunderemployed. We’ve still got businesses thatcould be thriving if we were able to make surethat Washington doesn’t engage in self-in-duced crises.

And so we’re going to have a lot of work todo. And let’s face it, there are still a lot of divi-sions and arguments here in Washington. Andalthough we are doing our very best to reachout to the other side, and I think there’s a gen-uine desire on the part of Republicans andDemocrats to try to get something done, Ithink there is a weariness among membershipin the Senate and in the House about this con-stant grind, day in, day out, of argument andcrises instead of productivity and movementforward.

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The politics of a lot of these issues are tough,and Members sometimes are scared aboutmaking the right decisions. And they’re partic-ularly scared because they’re subject to pres-sure from special interest groups and well-fi-nanced organizations that may be pushing in adifferent direction.

And so I think the idea here, the concept is,we’ve got 20 million people who got involvedin the campaign or close to it. We have 4 mil-lion people who actively contributed to thecampaign in $5 and $10 and $25 increments.Now, a sizable portion of those just wanteddinner with George Clooney—[laughter]—butI think there was a large number of them thatbelieved in our vision for the future as well.

And part of what Jim and Jon and I havespoken about is just how do we make sure thatpeople stay involved? How do we make sure allthose neighborhood groups are engaged, feel asense of connection? We did not do as good ofa job in 2008 as I would have hoped in makingsure they still felt a part of the process.

And it’s not just a matter of lobbying Con-gress. It’s a matter of them taking ownership sothat if we’re setting up health care exchangesin their States, maybe they want to contactsome friends in their—or neighbors who don’thave health care and say, you know what,here’s something that might help you. If we’vegot a disaster like we had during Sandy, is thatcommunity built in that allows us to go out andimmediately help relief efforts. Can we sustainand maintain the sense of citizenship that aroseduring the course of the campaign outside of acampaign structure, outside of the immediate,okay, we’re trying to win this many votes in thismany States, but can, instead, we activate peo-ple around an agenda?

I think here in Washington, this idea hasbeen viewed with puzzle—some both suspi-cion and people have been puzzled about whatit is that we’re trying to do. Because the usualidea is, well, this must just be a mechanism totry to win the next election in 2014. And whatwe’ve tried to explain to people is, is that, no, Iactually just want to govern—at least for a cou-ple of years—[laughter]—but I also want tomake sure that the voices of ordinary people

are heard in the debates that are going to betaking place.

If you have a Senator or a Congressman in aswing district who is prepared to take a toughvote—or what they consider to be a toughvote—on immigration reform or legislationaround background checks for guns, I want tomake sure that they feel supported and thatthey know that there are constituencies oftheirs who agree with them, even if they maybe getting a lot of pushback in that district. Ifwe move aggressively on an issue like climatechange, that’s not an easy issue for a lot offolks, because the benefits may be out in thefuture. And I want to make sure that a Con-gressman, Senator feels as if they’ve got the in-formation and the grassroots network that’s go-ing to support them in that effort.

And so that more than anything is what in-spired this idea. What we want is to make surethat the voices of the people who put me herecontinue to be heard: that they’re not justheard during election time; that they’re notjust heard in terms of dollar solicitations; thatwe are helping to build or sustain a network ofcitizens who have a voice in the most criticaldebates that are going to be taking place overthe next year and year and a half, and if itworks, potentially beyond.

So that’s part of the reason why I’m excitedabout this and why I’m so grateful that all ofyou are participating. One of the things I’mproudest of during the course of two cam-paigns, where we raised an awful lot of money,is that the people who got involved didn’t askme for stuff, except to be true to my vision andtrue to our agenda.

And all of you represent, like it or not, abunch of true believers who got involved andare still here after all the ups and downs of thecampaign. Well, there are going to be ups anddowns in terms of governing as well. But if wedo it well, then I’m confident that we can movestrong immigration legislation through Con-gress. I’m confident that we can get common-sense gun safety legislation through Congress.I am confident that we can craft a budget thatis responsible and reduces our deficit, but alsomakes sure that we’re investing in those things

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we need to grow and that our basic safety—so-cial safety net is preserved. But I can’t do thatby myself.

So I’ll just close with this comment. You re-member during the campaign, at one point Iwas asked about gridlock in Washington, and Isaid one of the lessons I’ve learned in my first 4years is that you can’t change Washington fromthe inside. And some people took that as say-ing, oh, Obama has given up and you know—no. That’s what I’ve always claimed.

I’ve always said that I am representing peo-ple, and that change comes about because peo-ple are activated, people are involved. Peopleshape the agenda. People determine theframework for debate. People let their Mem-bers of Congress know what is that they be-lieve. And when those voices are heard, youcan’t stop it. That’s when change happens.

Well, what was true back in 2008 is just astrue today. And what we don’t want to do is re-peat the mistake, I think, that I believe in 2008we made, where some of that energy just kindof dissipated and where we’re only playing aninside game, and I’m sitting in a room with abunch of folks negotiating all the time, butthose voices are no longer heard.

Over the last several weeks, the press herein Washington has been reporting aboutObama’s charm offensive. Well, the truth ofthe matter is all I’ve been doing is just callingup folks and trying to see if we can breakthrough some of the gobbledygook of our poli-tics here. And I do believe that—at this junc-ture, one of the things I believe is that we’vegot to get Members of Congress involved inthese discussions, not just leadership. Because

I think a lot of them feel as if they don’t havethe opportunity to break out of some of thispartisan gridlock. And ironically, I actuallythink some of the leadership want their mem-bership to create a permission structure. Theydon’t like getting too far ahead of their leader-ship. So we’re reaching out to these individualMembers so that they create a space wherethings can get done.

But the same principle applies doubly whenit comes to the American people. And the onlyidea here that we’re promoting is the notionthat if the American people are speaking out,organized, activated, that may give space herein Washington to do the kind of work—hope-fully, bipartisan work—that’s required. But inorder to do that I’m going to need all yourhelp.

I used to say that being friends with a politi-cian is like perpetually having a kid in college,because you’re writing checks all the time andit doesn’t seem like the kid ever graduates.Well, I’ve graduated. [Laughter] I’ve run mylast campaign. But we’re not done with thework that led me to run in the first place. AndI’m hopeful that with your continued ideas andsupport, your voices, that we can continue tomake progress over the next several years. Allright?


NOTE: The President spoke at 6:44 p.m. at theAdour restaurant in the St. Regis Hotel. In hisremarks, he referred to James A. Messina, na-tional chairman, and Jon Carson, executive di-rector, Organizing for Action; and actorGeorge T. Clooney.

Statement on Senate Action on Gun Control LegislationMarch 14, 2013

I thank the Senate for taking another stepforward in our common effort to help reducegun violence by advancing a bill that would re-instate and strengthen a ban on the sale of mil-itary-style assault weapons and set a 10-roundlimit for magazines. These weapons of war,when combined with high-capacity magazines,have one purpose: to inflict maximum damage

as quickly as possible. They are designed forthe battlefield, and they have no place on ourstreets, in our schools, or threatening our lawenforcement officers.

The Senate has now advanced legislation ad-dressing three of the most important elementsof my proposal to help reduce the epidemic ofgun violence in this country. Now the full

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Senate and the House need to vote on this bill,as well as the measures advanced in the pastweek that would impose serious penalties onanyone who buys a gun as part of a scheme toarm criminals; improve school safety; and help

keep guns out of the hands of criminals, peoplewith a severe mental illness, and others whoshouldn’t have them. Each of these proposalsdeserves a vote.

Remarks at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, IllinoisMarch 15, 2013

Hello, everybody! Hello, Illinois! Hello! It isgood to be home!

Well, let me begin by thanking Ann for thegreat introduction, the great work she’s doing,the leadership she’s showing with her team onso many different, amazing technologicalbreakthroughs. I want to thank Dr. Isaacs andDr. Crabtree for giving me a great tour of yourfacilities.

It’s not every day that I get to walk into athermal test chamber. [Laughter] I told mygirls that I was going to go into a thermal testchamber and they were pretty excited. I toldthem I’d come out looking like the Hulk.[Laughter] They didn’t believe that. But——

I want to thank my friend and your friend, atruly great U.S. Senator, Senator DickDurbin—huge supporter of Argonne. An out-standing Member of Congress who actuallycould explain some of the stuff that’s going onhere, Bill Foster is here. Congressman BobbyRush, a big supporter of Argonne, glad he’shere. We’ve got a number of State and local of-ficials with us, including your mayor, BrianReaves.

And I could not come to Argonne withoutbringing my own Nobel Prize–winning scien-tist, someone who has served our country sowell over the past 4 years, our Energy Secre-tary, Dr. Steven Chu.

Now, I’m here today to talk about whatshould be our top priority as a nation, andthat’s reigniting the true engine of America’seconomic growth: a rising, thriving middleclass and an economy built on innovation. Inmy State of the Union Address, I said our mostimportant task was to drive that economicgrowth, and I meant it. And every day, weshould be asking ourselves three questions:How do we make America a magnet for good

jobs? How do we equip our people with theskills and training to do those jobs? And howdo we make sure that hard work leads to a de-cent living?

Oh, those of you who have chairs—I wasn’tsure everybody had chairs there. [Laughter]Please feel free to sit down, I’m sorry. Every-body was standing, and I thought Argonne—one of the effects of the sequester, you hadto—[laughter]—get rid of chairs. That’s good.I’m glad we’ve got some chairs.

So I chose Argonne National Lab becauseright now few areas hold more promise for cre-ating good jobs and growing our economy thanhow we use American energy.

After years of talking about it, we’re finallypoised to take control of our energy future. Weproduce more oil than we have in 15 years. Weimport less oil than we have in 20 years. We’vedoubled the amount of renewable energy thatwe generate from sources like wind and solar,with 10,000—tens of thousands of good jobs toshow for it. We’re producing more natural gasthan we ever have before, with hundreds ofthousands of good jobs to show for it. We sup-ported the first new nuclear power plant inAmerica since the 1970s. And we’re sendingless carbon pollution into the environmentthan we have in nearly 20 years.

So we’re making real progress across theboard. And it’s possible, in part, because oflabs like this and outstanding scientists like somany of you, entrepreneurs, innovators—all ofyou who are working together to take your dis-coveries and turn them into a business.

So think about this: Just a few years ago, theAmerican auto industry was flatlining. Today,thanks in part to discoveries made right here atArgonne, some of the most high-tech, fuel-effi-cient, pretty spiffy cars in the world are once

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again designed, engineered, and built here inthe United States.

And that’s why we have to keep investing inscientific research. It’s why we have to main-tain our edge, because the work you’re doingtoday will end up in the products that we makeand sell tomorrow. You’re helping to secureour energy future. And if we do it well, thenthat’s going to help us avoid some of the perilsof climate change and leave a healthier planetfor our kids. But to do it, we’ve got to makesure that we’re making the right choices inWashington.

Just the other day, Dr. Isaacs and directorsof two of our other national laboratories wroteabout the effects of the so-called sequester—these across-the-board budget cuts put inplace 2 weeks ago—and specifically, the effectsit will have on America’s scientific research.And one of the reasons I was opposed to thesecuts is because they don’t distinguish betweenwasteful programs and vital investments. Theydon’t trim the fat; they cut into muscle and intobone, like research and development beingdone right here that not only gives a greatplace for young researchers to come and plytheir trade, but also ends up creating all kindsof spinoffs that create good jobs and good wag-es.

So Dr. Isaacs said these cuts will force himto stop any new project that’s coming down theline. And I’m quoting him now, he says, “Thissudden halt on new starts will freeze Americanscience in place while the rest of the world rac-es forward, and it will knock a generation ofyoung scientists off their stride, ultimatelycosting billions of dollars in missed future op-portunities.” I mean, essentially because of thissequester, we’re looking at 2 years where wedon’t start new research. And at a time whenevery month you’ve got to replace your smart-phone because something new has come up,imagine what that means when China and Ger-many and Japan are all continuing to plump uptheir basic research and we’re just sitting theredoing nothing.

We can’t afford to miss these opportunitieswhile the rest of the world races forward. Wehave to seize these opportunities. I want the

next great job-creating breakthroughs—wheth-er it’s in energy or nanotechnology or bioengi-neering—I want those breakthroughs to beright here in the United States of America, cre-ating American jobs and maintaining our tech-nological lead.

So I just want to be clear: These cuts willharm, not help, our economy. They aren’t thesmart way to cut our deficits. And that’s whyI’m reaching out to Republicans and Demo-crats to come together around a balanced ap-proach, a smart, phased-in approach to deficitreduction that includes smart spending cutsand entitlement reforms and new revenue, andthat won’t hurt our middle class or slow eco-nomic growth. And if we do that, then we canmove beyond governing from crisis to crisis tocrisis, and we keep our focus on policies thatactually create jobs and grow our economy andmove forward to face all of the other challeng-es we face, from fixing our broken immigrationsystem to educating our kids to keeping themsafe from gun violence.

And few pieces of business are more impor-tant for us than getting our energy future right.So here at Argonne and other labs around thecountry, scientists are working on getting uswhere we need to get 10 years from now, 20years from now. Today, what most Americansfeel first when it comes to energy prices—orenergy issues are prices that they pay at thepump. And over the past few weeks, we saw—we went through another spike in gas prices.And people are nodding here. They weren’thappy about it. The problem is, this happensevery year. It happened last year, the year be-fore that. And it’s a serious blow to family bud-gets. It feels like you’re getting hit with a newtax coming right out of your pocket. And everytime it happens, politicians, they dust off theirthree-point plans for $2 gas, but nothing hap-pens, and then we go through the same cycleagain.

But here’s the thing: Over the past 4 years,we haven’t just talked about it, we’ve actuallystarted doing something about it. We’veworked with the auto companies to put inplace the toughest fuel economy standards inour history. What that means is, by the middle

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of the next decade, our cars will go twice as faron a gallon of gas. And the standards that weset are part of what’s driving some of the amaz-ing scientists and engineers who are workinghere at Argonne Labs. We’ve set some achiev-able, but ambitious goals. So in the middle ofthe next decade, we expect that you’ll fill uphalf as often, which means you spend half asmuch. And over the life of a new car, the aver-age family will save more than $8,000 at thepump. That’s worth applauding. That’s bignews.

In fact, a new report issued today shows thatAmerica is becoming a global leader in ad-vanced vehicles. You walk into any dealershiptoday, and you’ll see twice as many hybrids tochoose from as there were 5 years ago. You’llsee seven times as many cars that can go 40miles a gallon or more. And as costs go down,sales are going up.

Last year, General Motors sold more hybridvehicles than ever before. Ford is selling someof the most fuel-efficient cars so quickly thatdealers are having a tough time keeping upwith the demand. So by investing in our energysecurity, we’re helping our businesses succeedand we’re creating good middle class jobs righthere in America.

So we’re making progress, but the only wayto really break this cycle of spiking gas prices,the only way to break that cycle for good is toshift our cars entirely—our cars and trucks—off oil. That’s why, in my State of the UnionAddress, I called on Congress to set up an en-ergy security trust to fund research into newtechnologies that will help us reach that goal.

Now, I’d like to take credit for this idea, be-cause it’s a good idea, but I can’t. Basically, myproposal builds off a proposal that was put for-ward by a nonpartisan coalition that includesretired generals and admirals and leadingCEOs. And these leaders came togetheraround a simple idea: Much of our energy isdrawn from lands and waters that we, the pub-lic, own together. So what they’ve proposed islet’s take some of our oil and gas revenues frompublic lands and put it towards research thatwill benefit the public so we can support

American ingenuity without adding a dime toour deficit.

We can support scientists who are designingnew engines that are more energy efficient;support scientists that are developing cheaperbatteries that can go farther on a single charge;support scientists and engineers that are devis-ing new ways to fuel our cars and trucks withnew sources of clean energy, like advancedbiofuels and natural gas, so drivers can one daygo coast to coast without using a drop of oil.

And the reason so many different peoplefrom the private sector, the public sector, ourmilitary support this idea is because it’s not justabout saving money, it’s also about saving theenvironment, but it’s also about our nationalsecurity. For military officials—like GeneralPaul Kelley, a former Commandant of the Ma-rine Corps—this is about national security.Our reliance on oil makes us way too depen-dent on other parts of the world, many ofwhich are very volatile. For business leaders—like Fred Smith, the CEO of FedEx—this isabout economic security, because when fuelprices shoot up, it’s harder to plan investments,expand operations, create new jobs.

So these leaders all say we need to fix this.This is not a Democratic idea or a Republicanidea, this is just a smart idea. And we should betaking their advice. Let’s set up an energy se-curity trust that helps us free our families andour businesses from painful spikes in gas onceand for all. Let’s do that. We can do it. We’vedone it before; we innovated here at Argonne.

And in the meantime, we’ll keep moving onthe all-of-the-above energy strategy that we’vebeen working on for the last couple years,where we’re producing more oil and gas hereat home, but we’re also producing more biofu-els, we’re also producing more fuel-efficientvehicles, more solar power, more wind power.We’re working to make sure that here inAmerica, we’re building cars and homes andbusinesses that waste less energy.

We can do this. The nature of America’s mi-raculous rise has been our drive, our restlessspirit, our willingness to reach out to new hori-zons, our willingness to take risks, our willing-ness to innovate. We are not satisfied just be-

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cause things—this is how things have been.We’re going to try something that maybe wejust imagine now, but if we work at it, we’llachieve it. That’s the nature of America. That’swhat Argonne National Lab is about. That’swhat this facility is about.

Two decades ago, scientists at Argonne, ledby Mike Thackeray, who’s here today. Whereis Mike? There he is right here. Mike startedwork on a rechargeable lithium battery forcars. And some folks at the time said the ideawasn’t worth the effort. They said that even ifyou had the technology, the car would cost toomuch, it wouldn’t go far enough.

But Mike and his team knew better. Theyknew you could do better. And America, ourGovernment, our Federal Government madeit a priority, and we funded those efforts. AndMike went to work. And when others gave up,the team kept on at it. And when developmenthit a snag, the team found solutions. And a fewyears ago, all of this hard work paid off, and sci-entists here at Argonne helped create a lithiumion battery that costs less, lasts longer than anythat had come before.

So what was just an idea two decades ago isnow rolling off assembly lines in cutting-edge,fuel-efficient cars that you can plug in at night.Well, imagine all the ideas right now with all ofthese young scientists and engineers that 20years ago—or 20 years from now will be offer-ing solutions to our problems that we can’teven comprehend, as long as we’re still fund-ing these young scientists and engineers; aslong as the pipeline for research is maintained;as long as we recognize, there are some thingswe do together as a country, because individu-

ally we can’t do it. And by the way, the privatesector on its own will not invest in this researchbecause it’s too expensive. It’s too risky. Theycan’t afford it in terms of their bottom lines.

So we’ve got to support it. And we’ll all ben-efit from it, and our kids will benefit from it,and our grandkids will benefit from it. That’swho we are. That’s been the American story.

We don’t stand still, we look forward. We in-vent. We build. We turn new ideas into new in-dustries. We change the way we can live ourlives here at home and around the world.That’s how we sent a man to the Moon. That’show we invented the Internet.

When somebody tells us we can’t, we say,yes, we can. And I’m telling all of you, I am ab-solutely confident that America is poised tosucceed in the same way, as long as we don’tlose that spirit of innovation and recognize thatwe can only do it together. And I’m going towork as hard as I can every single day to makesure that we do. All right?

So congratulations, Argonne. Let’s keep itup. Thank you. God bless you. God blessAmerica.

NOTE: The President spoke at 1:31 p.m. In hisremarks, he referred to Ann M. Schlenker, Di-rector of the Center for Transportation Re-search, George Crabtree, Director of the JointCenter for Energy Storage Research, MichaelThackeray, Distinguished Fellow and Materi-als Scientist, and Eric D. Isaacs, Director, Ar-gonne National Laboratory; Thom Mason, Di-rector, Oak Ridge National Laboratory; and A.Paul Alivisatos, Director, Lawrence BerkeleyNational Laboratory.

Memorandum on Deferred Enforced Departure for LiberiansMarch 15, 2013

Memorandum for the Secretary of HomelandSecurity

Subject: Deferred Enforced Departure for Li-berians

Since 1991, the United States has providedsafe haven for Liberians who were forced to

flee their country as a result of armed conflictand widespread civil strife, in part throughgranting Temporary Protected Status (TPS).The armed conflict ended in 2003 and condi-tions improved such that TPS ended effectiveOctober 1, 2007. President Bush then deferredthe enforced departure of the Liberians origi-nally granted TPS. I extended that grant of

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Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) toMarch 31, 2013. I have determined that thereare compelling foreign policy reasons to againextend DED to those Liberians presently re-siding in the United States under the existinggrant of DED.

Pursuant to my constitutional authority toconduct the foreign relations of the UnitedStates, I have determined that it is in the for-eign policy interest of the United States to de-fer for 18 months the removal of any Liberiannational, or person without nationality who lasthabitually resided in Liberia, who is present inthe United States and who is under a grant ofDED as of September 30, 2011. The grant ofDED only applies to an individual who hascontinuously resided in the United States sinceOctober 1, 2002, except for Liberian nationals,or persons without nationality who last habitu-ally resided in Liberia:

(1) who are ineligible for TPS for the rea-sons provided in section 244(c)(2)(B) of theImmigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C.1254a(c)(2)(B);

(2) whose removal you determine is in theinterest of the United States;

(3) whose presence or activities in the Unit-ed States the Secretary of State has reasonablegrounds to believe would have potentially seri-ous adverse foreign policy consequences forthe United States;

(4) who have voluntarily returned to Liberiaor his or her country of last habitual residenceoutside the United States;

(5) who were deported, excluded, or re-moved prior to the date of this memorandum;or

(6) who are subject to extradition.

Accordingly, I direct you to take the neces-sary steps to implement for eligible Liberians:

(1) a deferral of enforced departure fromthe United States for 18 months from March31, 2013; and

(2) authorization for employment for 18months from March 31, 2013.

BARACK OBAMA


Hi, everybody. As a nation, our top priorityis growing our economy and creating good,middle class jobs. That’s why this week I’mspeaking to you from the Argonne NationalLaboratory in Illinois, because few areas holdas much promise as what they’re focused onright here: harnessing American energy.

You see, after years of talking about it, we’refinally poised to take control of our energy fu-ture. We produce more oil than we have in 15years. We import less oil than we have in 20years. We’ve doubled the amount of renewableenergy we generate from sources like wind andsolar, with tens of thousands of good jobs toshow for it. We’re producing more natural gasthan ever before, with hundreds of thousandsof good jobs to show for it. We’ve supportedthe first new nuclear power plant since the1970s. And we’re sending less carbon pollution

into the environment than we have in nearly 20years.

So we’re making real progress. But over thepast few weeks, we’ve got a reminder that wehave more work to do. We went through an-other spike in gas prices, just like last year andthe year before that. It happens every year. It’sa serious blow to your budget, like getting hitwith a new tax coming right out of your pocket.

Over the past 4 years, as part of our all-of-the-above energy strategy, we’ve taken steps tosoften that blow by making sure our cars useless gas. We’ve put in place the toughest fueleconomy standards in our history so that by themiddle of the next decade, our cars will gotwice as far on a gallon of gas. Over the life of anew car, the average family will save more than$8,000 at the pump.

But the only way we’re going to break thiscycle of spiking gas prices for good is to shift

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our cars and trucks off of oil for good. That’swhy, in my State of the Union Address, I calledon Congress to set up an energy security trustto fund research into new technologies thatwill help us reach that goal.

Here’s how it would work. Much of our en-ergy is drawn from lands and waters that we,the public, own together. So I’m proposingthat we take some of our oil and gas revenuesfrom public lands and put it towards researchthat will benefit the public so that we can sup-port American ingenuity without adding adime to our deficit. We can support scientistswho are designing new engines that are moreenergy efficient, developing cheaper batteriesthat go farther on a single charge, and devisingnew ways to fuel our cars and trucks with newsources of clean energy—like advanced biofu-els and natural gas—so drivers can one day gocoast to coast without using a drop of oil.

Now, this idea isn’t mine. It actually buildsoff a proposal put forward by a nonpartisan co-alition of CEOs and retired generals and admi-

rals. So let’s take their advice and free our fam-ilies and our businesses from painful spikes ingas prices once and for all.

And in the meantime, let’s keep moving for-ward on an all-of-the-above energy strategy: astrategy where we produce more oil and gashere at home, but also more biofuels and fuel-efficient vehicles, more solar power and windpower; a strategy where we put more people towork building cars, homes, and businesses thatwaste less energy. We can do this. We’reAmericans. And when we commit ourselves tosomething, there’s no telling how far we’ll go.


NOTE: The address was recorded at approxi-mately 12:40 p.m. on March 15 in Building 371at the Argonne National Laboratory in Lem-ont, IL, for broadcast on March 16. The tran-script was made available by the Office of thePress Secretary on March 15, but was embar-goed for release until 6 a.m. on March 16.

Remarks on the Nomination of Thomas E. Perez To Be Secretary of LaborMarch 18, 2013

The President. Thank you. Everybody have aseat. Have a seat. As I’ve said before, my toppriority as President is doing everything weneed to do to make sure that we’re growing oureconomy and that we’re strengthening ourmiddle class. And as I said in my State of theUnion Address last month, every day weshould be asking ourselves three questions.One, how do we make sure America is a mag-net for good jobs? Number two, how do weequip people with the skills they need to getthose jobs? And number three, how do wemake sure that hard work actually pays off in adecent living?

These are the challenges that I’ve instructedmy team here at the White House and in myentire Cabinet to focus on. And a positionthat’s instrumental to tackling these challengesis having an outstanding Secretary of Labor.

So I want to begin by thanking Hilda Solisand her entire team—[applause]—includingActing Secretary Seth Harris, for the outstand-

ing work that they’ve been doing over the past4 years. Their efforts at the Department of La-bor have given more young people a chance toearn new skills, more returning vets the chanceto find a job. They’ve looked out for workersafety from construction sites to coal mines.They’ve stood up for workers’ rights to orga-nize, women’s rights to get paid equally for thework that they do. They’ve done an extraordi-nary job fighting on behalf of working familiesacross the board.

And today I’m proud to nominate a leader tocarry on those efforts as America’s next Secre-tary of Labor, Tom Perez.

Like so many Americans, Tom knows whatit’s like to climb the ladder of opportunity. Heis the son of Dominican immigrants. Hehelped pay his way through college as a gar-bage collector and working at a warehouse. Hewent on to become the first lawyer in his fami-ly. So his story reminds us of this country’spromise: that if you’re willing to work hard, it

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doesn’t matter who you are, where you comefrom, what your last name is, you can make it ifyou try.

And Tom has made protecting that promisefor everybody the cause of his life. As a civilrights attorney, an aide to Senator Ted Kenne-dy, a member of the Montgomery, Maryland,County Council, Tom fought for a level playingfield where hard work and responsibility arerewarded and working families can get ahead.

And this is not the first time that he’s chosento be a labor secretary either. We’ve got heretoday Governor Martin O’Malley, and Martinappointed Tom as secretary of Maryland’s De-partment of Labor, where he helped imple-ment the country’s first statewide living-wagelaw, because he understood that a minimumwage should be a wage that you can live on.

In his current role as the head of the U.S.Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division,Tom has fought to open pathways into theworkforce for everyone willing to contribute,including people with disabilities, LGBTAmericans, and immigrants. And he hashelped settle some of the largest cases ever onbehalf of families targeted by unfair mortgagelending.

Now, while he’s tackled plenty of tough is-sues, Tom has also spent a career as a consen-sus builder. He’s worked with CEOs, he’sworked with labor leaders. He’s worked atFederal, State, and local government levels.And throughout, he understands that oureconomy works best when the middle class andthose working to get into the middle class havethe security they need on the job, a democraticvoice in the workplace, everybody playing bythe same set of rules.

So Tom’s knowledge and experience willmake him an outstanding Secretary of Labor.And there’s plenty of work to do. We’re goingto have to work very hard to make sure thatfolks find jobs with good wages and good bene-fits. We’ve got to make sure that our veteranswho are returning home from Iraq and Af-ghanistan have a chance to put their incredibleskills and leadership to work at home. We needto build an immigration system that works forevery employee and every family and every

business. I’m confident that Tom is going to beable to work to promote economic growth, butalso make sure that that growth is broad based.And he’s going to be an integral part of ouroverall economic team.

So these are just a few of the many challeng-es working families out there are facing andwhere they need an advocate, and Tom is theright person for that job. So I hope that theSenate will act swiftly to confirm Tom so wecan work together to address all these con-cerns. I want to thank not only Tom but hiswonderful family for agreeing to take on thisnew role. I just heard that Tom has beencoaching basketball and baseball. He doesn’tclaim to be a great coach—[laughter]—but hebrings passion to it. He may end up missing afew of the games over the next several months,but it’s going to be for a good cause. And I ap-preciate his family being willing to make thesesacrifices as well.

So with that, I would like to introduce mynominee to be our next Secretary of Labor,give him a chance to say a few words. Andagain, I’d urge the Senate to confirm him asquickly as possible.

Mr. Tom Perez.Secretary-designate Perez. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Presi-dent, for your confidence in me.

[At this point, Secretary-designate Perez madebrief remarks in Spanish, and no transcript ortranslation was provided. He then continued inEnglish as follows.]

It is a remarkably humbling and excitingphenomenon to be here today.

My parents taught my four siblings and meto work hard, to give back to our community,and to make sure that the ladder of opportuni-ty was there for those coming after us. Over mycareer, I’ve learned that true progress is possi-ble if you keep an open mind, listen to all sides,and focus on results. I look forward to takingthese lessons with me, if confirmed, to my newrole as Secretary of the Department of Labor.

As you well know, our Nation still faces criti-cal economic challenges, and the Depart-ment’s mission is as important as ever. I am

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confident that together with our partners in or-ganized labor, the business community, grass-roots communities, Republicans, Democrats,and Independents alike, we can keep makingprogress for all working families.

In the coming weeks, as the confirmationprocess unfolds, I look forward to meeting withSenators of both parties to discuss the LaborDepartment’s key role: protecting and growingthe middle class.

I’ll close again, Mr. President, by thankingyou once again for this tremendous opportunity.

[Secretary-designate Perez made brief remarksin Spanish, and no transcript or translationwas provided. He then concluded in English asfollows.]

I look forward to this opportunity to contin-ue serving our Nation. Thank you so much.

NOTE: The President spoke at 11:47 a.m. inthe East Room at the White House.

Remarks at a Women’s History Month ReceptionMarch 18, 2013

Well, hello, everybody! And can everybodyplease give Amanda another big round of ap-plause? It seems to me she would be prettygood at sales. [Laughter] I was sold just listen-ing to her right there.

Thank you, Amanda, for your—for sharingyour story, the wonderful introduction. It is anhonor to welcome all of you here to the WhiteHouse.

Now, let’s be clear: I am used to being sur-rounded every day by talented, accomplishedwomen, from all the meetings I have in theWest Wing to the dinner table with Michelle,Malia, and Sasha. [Laughter] But I have to say,even for somebody who is accustomed to it,this is a pretty exceptional group that I’m look-ing around here. We’ve got business leaderslike Abbe Raven, CEO of the A&E Networks.There she is right there. We’ve got activists likeDolores Huerta and Lilly Ledbetter, all-starathletes like Tamika Catchings, and outstand-ing public servants from Congress and my ad-ministration, including Valerie Jarrett, whoserves as our Chair of the Council for Womenand Girls here at the White House.

And when I look around this room, it is hardto believe that 100 years ago this month, thou-sands of women were marching right outsidethis house demanding one of our most funda-mental rights: the right to vote, to have a say inour democracy. And today, a century later, itsrooms are full of accomplished women whohave overcome discrimination, shattered glass

ceilings, and become outstanding role modelsfor all of our sons and daughters. And thatmeans we’ve come a long way, and that’sthanks to the efforts of so many people likeyou.

Because of the hard work and exemplaryleadership of the women in this room, militaryfamilies have protected family and medicalleave. Women have legal recourse to fightagainst pay discrimination, as Amanda took ad-vantage of. Women have the opportunity toserve on the front lines of our military con-flicts, and that means that they’re getting paidand promoted equally. Women have the op-portunity to make their own choices abouttheir health.

We’re also seeing expanded opportunity forwomen’s—to reach their full potential allaround the world. That’s in large part because4 years ago, former Secretary of State HillaryClinton—a tireless advocate for women her-self—designated an Ambassador-at-Large forGlobal Women’s Issues, whose sole job it is tomake sure that women and girls are a centralpart of every aspect of our foreign policy, thattheir concerns are considered at the highestlevel of our diplomatic decisionmaking.

For 4 years, the incredible Melanne Verveerheld that role. Where is Melanne? Is she here?All right, well, she’s incredible. Take my wordfor it. [Laughter] We’re so grateful for her ser-vice, along with the millions of women aroundthe world that she helped to amplify and

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helped to fight alongside on the causes that areso important. But with Melanne leaving on,we’ve got some big shoes to fill. So today I amvery pleased to announce that I will be nomi-nating Cathy Russell as our next Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues.

Now, Cathy is a longtime advocate for wom-en, for justice, for fairness. She’s worked onpreventing violence against women here andaround the world. Throughout my first term,she’s served as chief of staff to Dr. Jill Biden.She’s worked tirelessly alongside Michelle andJill to make sure that our military families getevery single benefit and bit of assistance thatthey so richly deserve and have earned. I’mcertain that Jill will miss Cathy, but I know shejoins me in saying that we could not be proud-er of Cathy’s hard work and her advocacy. Andwe know that she’s going to be a powerfulvoice on behalf of women and girls around theworld. So thank you, Cathy, for your continuedservice.

It’s women like Cathy, like Jill, like Amanda,like Michelle, like all of you, that inspire somuch progress each and every day. And I’vegot to tell you, all of you inspire me to makesure that I’m doing everything that I can asPresident to carry on that progress and to doeverything we can to ensure equality and op-portunity for all women. Just last week, I wasproud to sign the reauthorization of the Vio-lence Against Women’s Act, a law, by the way,that Cathy helped to make possible in the firstplace: securing for women the protections andthe services to help them live their lives freefrom fear of violence and free to pursue theirown measure of happiness.

And that’s what everybody deserves in thiscountry, the opportunity to make of their lives

what they will, no matter who they are, whatthey look like, whether they are boys or girls,women or men. That’s why I ran for Presidentin the first place: to put the same rights and op-portunities within the reach of all of ourdaughters and sons. And while there’s still a lotof work to be done, I’m confident that we canreach that goal, that we can make sure that ev-ery single door is open, every dream is withinreach—for Malia, for Sasha, for your daugh-ters, for your granddaughters—to make surethat they never feel like there are barriers infront of them, and that if they work hard, theycan make it.

So I want to thank all of you for your incred-ible advocacy. I could not be prouder of you.I’m glad that you had a chance to join us. I un-derstand that we had some great panels earliertoday, and I expect this conversation and, moreimportantly, the work will continue for manyyears to come.

So thank you very much, everybody. Enjoythe reception.

NOTE: The President spoke at 5:04 p.m. in theEast Room at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to Jackson, MS, residentAmanda McMillan, plaintiff in an Equal Em-ployment Opportunity Commission sex dis-crimination lawsuit against the Forrest CityGrocery Co.; Dolores C. Huerta, cofounder,United Farm Workers; Lily Ledbetter, formeremployee, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co.plant in Gadsden, AL; and Tamika Catchings,forward, Women’s National Basketball Associ-ation’s Indian Fever. The proclamation of Feb-ruary 28 is listed in Appendix D at the end ofthis volume.

Videotaped Remarks on the Observance of NowruzMarch 18, 2013

Dorood. As you and your families come to-gether to celebrate Nowruz, I want to extendmy best wishes to this new spring and newyear. Around the world, and here in the UnitedStates, you’re gathering at the Nowruz table togive thanks for loved ones, reflect on your

blessings, and welcome all the possibilities of anew season.

As I have every year as President, I want totake this opportunity to speak directly to thepeople and leaders of Iran. Since taking office,I’ve offered the Iranian Government an oppor-

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tunity: If it meets its international obligations,then there could be a new relationship be-tween our two countries, and Iran could beginto return to its rightful place among the com-munity of nations.

I have no illusions about the difficulty ofovercoming decades of mistrust. It will take aserious and sustained effort to resolve themany differences between Iran and the UnitedStates. This includes the world’s serious andgrowing concerns about Iran’s nuclear pro-gram, which threatens peace and security inthe region and beyond.

Iran’s leaders say that their nuclear programis for medical research and electricity. To date,however, they have been unable to convincethe international community that their nuclearactivities are solely for peaceful purposes.That’s why the world is united in its resolve toaddress this issue and why Iran is now so isolat-ed. The people of Iran have paid a high andunnecessary price because of your leaders’ un-willingness to address this issue.

As I’ve said all along, the United States pre-fers to resolve this matter peacefully, diplomat-ically. Indeed, if—as Iran’s leaders say—theirnuclear program is for peaceful purposes, thenthere is a basis for a practical solution. It’s a so-lution that would give Iran access to peacefulnuclear energy while resolving once and for allthe serious questions that the world has aboutthe true nature of the Iranian nuclear program.

The United States, alongside the rest of theinternational community, is ready to reachsuch a solution. Now is the time for the IranianGovernment to take immediate and meaning-ful steps to reduce tensions and work towardan enduring, long-term settlement of the nu-clear issue.

Finding a solution will be no easy task. But ifwe can, the Iranian people will begin to see thebenefits of greater trade and ties with other na-tions, including the United States, whereas ifthe Iranian Government continues down itscurrent path, it will only further isolate Iran.This is the choice now before Iran’s leaders.

I hope they choose a better path for the sakeof the Iranian people and for the sake of theworld. Because there’s no good reason for Ira-nians to be denied the opportunities enjoyedby people in other countries, just as Iraniansdeserve the same freedoms and rights as peo-ple everywhere.

Iran’s isolation isn’t good for the world ei-ther. Just as your forbearers enriched the artsand sciences throughout history, all nationswould benefit from the talents and creativity ofthe Iranian people, especially your young peo-ple. Every day that you are cut off from us is aday we’re not working together, building to-gether, innovating together, and building a fu-ture of peace and prosperity that is at the heartof this holiday.

As you gather with family and friends thisNowruz, many of you will turn to the poetHafez, who wrote: “Plant the tree of friendshipthat bears the fruit of fulfillment; uproot thesapling of enmity that bears endless suffering.”

As a new spring begins, I remain hopefulthat our two countries can move beyond ten-sion. And I will continue to work toward a newday between our nations that bears the fruit offriendship and peace.

Thank you, and Eid-eh Shoma mobarak.

NOTE: The remarks were recorded at approxi-mately 1 p.m. on March 15 in Building 371 atArgonne National Laboratory in Lemont, IL.

Statement on the Resignation of Acting Secretary and Deputy Secretary ofCommerce Rebecca M. BlankMarch 18, 2013

I want to thank Dr. Blank for her hard workand exceptional service on behalf of the Amer-ican people. Over the past 4 years, I have askedBecky to take on several roles at the Depart-

ment of Commerce, and in each one, she hasdistinguished herself as a steady leader and avital member of my economic team. A tirelessadvocate for American businesses, Becky has

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helped to increase our competitiveness, sup-port our innovators and entrepreneurs, andbring good-paying jobs back to our shores.While I will be sad to see her go this summer, I

want to wish her the best of luck in her excitingnew role. I know the University of WisconsinBadgers will have an outstanding chancellorfor years to come.

Remarks Prior to a Meeting With Prime Minister Enda Kenny of IrelandMarch 19, 2013

President Obama. Well, it is a great pleasureto welcome back Taoiseach Kenny to the OvalOffice, to the White House and his entire dele-gation. Obviously, we cherish this opportunityonce a year to reaffirm the incredible bond be-tween the United States and Ireland. Thisyear, it also gives us an excuse to stretch out St.Patrick’s Day for a couple of extra days, whichis always good.

This is now my fifth time to welcome theTaoiseach to the Oval Office. I’ve had the oc-casion to visit Ireland as well, one of the won-derful—truly wonderful—trips that I’ve takenas President of the United States. And the rea-son that these meetings go so well is because ofthe incredible bond and history between ourtwo countries.

Obviously, the contributions of Irish Ameri-cans to the United States is legendary. Butwhat is also true is that we have an incrediblystrong partnership on economic issues, on se-curity issues. The Taoiseach has shown greatleadership during difficult times in Ireland.And we’re seeing progress in the Irish econo-my. That’s good for the U.S. economy becausewe have a lot of trade, a lot of investment inIreland.

There was a story this morning about a dealbetween Ryanair and Boeing, in which we’ll beselling a whole lot of airplanes to Ireland. Andit’s an example of how the progress that’s madein Ireland benefits jobs and businesses here inthe United States. Obviously, the Taoiseach isvery interested, as well as in continuing to at-tract direct investment from the United Statesto Ireland. So this will be a major topic of dis-cussion.

Ireland also punches above its weight inter-nationally when it comes to humanitarian assis-tance, peacekeeping. Irish troops are in manyvery difficult places in the world and provide

the kinds of stabilization and humanitarian ef-forts that make all the difference and savelives.

And so I’m very much looking forward tohaving a good conversation. I’m sure we will al-so touch on the issue of Northern Ireland, inwhich we have continued to see progress com-ing out of the Good Friday agreements, but wealso have to recognize that there’s a lot morework to be done before there’s true unity of ef-fort in that country. And I know that both indiscussions with the Taoiseach as well as intalking to the Ministers who are here fromNorthern Ireland, we’ll have an opportunity tofind out how the United States can be helpfulin that overall effort as well.

So again, Taoiseach, I want to welcome you.Thank you for giving me an excuse to break outmy green tie. [Laughter] And I’m sure thatwe’ll have a wonderful lunch up on Capitol Hilland once again be able to reaffirm the incredi-ble friendship between our peoples.

Prime Minister Kenny. Thank you, Mr. Pres-ident.

The President. Thank you.Prime Minister Kenny. Could I to say that

it’s a particular privilege to be able to comehere to the White House to visit PresidentObama, to continue this wonderful traditionthat the American Governments over the yearshas shown to Ireland because of the particularand unique relationship between our countriescovering many centuries.

I come here both as Taoiseach, but also asthe Presidency of the European Union. I sup-pose I should say this because I’ll never get thechance again, it’s great to meet on Presidentialterms here. [Laughter] The President of theUnited States, an Irishman, and the Presidentof Europe, an Irishman, meeting in the OvalOffice. [Laughter]

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But I would like to say seriously, it’s an op-portunity for me to brief the President on theprogress being made in challenging times forthe Irish Government, following a very clearand strategic plan. It’s also an opportunity tobrief the President on issues of the EuropeanUnion and the progress being made by the Eu-ropean Council, with particular reference tothe EU-U.S. trade—participation and freetrade, to which the President referred in hisState of the Union Address. I’d like to followthat through with him. Also, to brief the Presi-dent on updates in respect of Northern Ire-land, immigration—undocumented Irish—andof course, the general perspectives both for theworld economy. And as the President is mov-ing to the Middle East this evening, I can givehim an update on the recent meeting and dis-cussion that the European Council held there.

Besides, it’s a real opportunity to celebrateSt. Patrick’s week. I have a second tie for the

President, if he so wishes. And of course, thereis a standing open invitation to PresidentObama to come back to Ireland whenever isconvenient and appropriate and when he sowishes. And maybe the next time, when oureconomies are moving in a more positive direc-tion, we might actually have time to take outthe sticks on the golf course. I’m looking for-ward to that sometime in the future.

So to First Lady Michelle, the children, Ma-lia and Sasha, we wish the President continuedsuccess and good fortune in the very onerousresponsibilities that lay upon his shoulders asthe leader of the free world. And it’s a pleasureand a privilege to be here in the Oval Office.

NOTE: The President spoke at 10:41 a.m. inthe Oval Office at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to First Minister PeterRobinson and Deputy First Minister J. MartinP. McGuinness of Northern Ireland.

Remarks at the Congressional Friends of Ireland LuncheonMarch 19, 2013

President Obama. Thank you so much.Please, everybody, have a seat.

To our host, Speaker Boehner, to the distin-guished Members of the House and the Sen-ate, thank you all for having me here today.Obviously, we are thrilled to have the Taoise-ach back, and his lovely wife and his delega-tion.

But before I begin, I just want to say a fewwords about a tragic accident in Nevada thattook the lives of seven U.S. servicemembersand wounded several others yesterday. All ofus share our thoughts and prayers with theirfamilies. And I think this should serve as a re-minder that even as we’re able to gather todayin tradition and in friendship, it’s the extraordi-nary and enduring sacrifice of our men andwomen in uniform that make this possible andthe sacrifices that their families make as well.And all Americans stand united in grateful sup-port of all that they do.

Now, I know I speak for everyone when Isay we’re pleased to welcome Taoiseach Kennyand his wife Fionnuala back to Washington.

They are just wonderful friends. I also want towelcome First Minister Peter Robinson andDeputy First Minister Martin McGuinnessfrom Northern Ireland. Where are Peter andMartin? There they are right here.

We spend the whole year trying to bring thistown together, and these leaders are able to doit in a single afternoon. They even get us todress alike. [Laughter] So my question is, howlong can you stay? [Laughter] Because we’vegot some budget discussions coming up. Per-haps you can be helpful.

Now, even though most of the debate inCongress on this day is about who is more Irishthan whom, that doesn’t make it any less heat-ed. But no matter how much green is in yourfamily tree, remember that Speaker Boehner ispart Irish and spent much of his childhood sur-rounded by characters in his father’s bar, sothe rest of us are probably playing for secondplace in this contest.

I will say that after visiting my ancestralhometown of Moneygall 2 years ago, I’ve nowseen the official Irish records proving my Irish

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heritage on my mother’s side. I thought thatwould come in handy more often, but it turnsout that on St. Patrick’s Day, people just takeyour word for it. [Laughter] I’m keeping all myrecords. [Laughter] Just in case. [Laughter]

The truth is we have plenty of Irish men andwomen here today, but not just today, here ev-ery day. They represent the latest in the longline of sons and daughters of Erin who havewalked the halls of Congress and who’ve occu-pied the Oval Office. To adapt an old saying,the curse of the Irish is not that they don’t havean opinion about anything, it’s that they havean opinion about everything. So it’s not hard tosee why politics has always been a good fit.

But no matter how far Irish Americans trav-el or how high they climb, the Emerald Isle al-ways has a way of pulling at their heart strings.President Kennedy once joked that he wouldsupport any Presidential candidate who of-fered him an Ambassadorship to Ireland afterhe left office. His younger brother Teddy Ken-nedy remembered walking along the beach asa boy and hearing Jack tell him that on a clearday, you could see all the way to Ireland.

And then there was President Reagan, oneof the founders of this gathering. During histime in office, he made a pilgrimage back to hishome county of Tipperary, and walkingthrough the ruins of an ancient cemetery, Rea-gan came across a large stone with the follow-ing inscription: “Remember me as you pass by,for as you are, so once was I. But as I am, youwill be, so be content to follow me.”

And apparently, one visitor could let thatstand because below the inscription, somebodyhad carved: “To follow you I am content, I wishI knew which way you went.” [Laughter]

For my part, I will never forget the magicalday that Michelle and I spent in Ireland. TheIrish people were incredibly warm and incredi-bly gracious, even with a little mist falling.They made Michelle and me feel right athome, and we both left with thousands of newfriends and dozens of new relatives. And I’mvery much looking forward to visiting NorthernIreland for the G–8 summit this June.

So, on this St. Patty’s Day, let’s rememberthe Irish, both those who have left us and those

who are with us today, who have fought andbled and labored to make this country a betterplace for their children and for ours. Let’s givethanks for the men and women who provedthat through hard work and perseverance, any-body can earn themselves a piece of the Amer-ican Dream.

And let’s welcome our Irish brethren whohave welcomed so many of us, not just as alliesand as friends, but as family as well.

So to our guest, the Taoiseach of Ireland, Iwould like to propose a toast: To the eternalfriendship between our two countries.

[At this point, President Obama offered a toast.]

And with that, should I go ahead and just in-troduce him, or you got something to say?[Laughter] With that, let me introduce Taoise-ach Kenny.

Prime Minister Enda Kenny of Ireland.Please. I am not the President of the UnitedStates, I’m a visiting Taoiseach from Ireland.Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, Tánaiste Gilmore,Ambassadors, First Minister, Deputy FirstMinister, ladies and gentlemen: You have noidea of the impact that a day like this makes onus and the honor that is bestows on us for ourpeople.

I want to thank you for your grandmother’srecipe for the spinach. It’s absolutely delicious.[Laughter] So it’s a privilege, actually, to comeback here again to Capitol Hill on this St. Pat-rick’s week, the extension of a tradition goingback for very many years to celebrate Irishnessand the connection between the United Statesand Ireland in so many forms over the years.

When I came here 2 years ago, I was able toreport that we had come through very chal-lenging times and were starting on the imple-mentation of a strategy and a program to res-cue our public finances, to restore our eco-nomic independence, to put our people backto work, to restore our integrity and credibilityinternationally. And I’m very happy to be ableto say to you that 2 years on, despite the enor-mous challenge that this has presented, Irelandhas made very steady progress. We hope to exitthe IMF-EU program later this year and beable to be back fully in the bond markets next

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year and play our part as a constructive, com-petent country in the interest of our people.

So to have our third consecutive year of eco-nomic growth, a return to the bond marketshas been on a phased basis. We had a $5 billionsale, with yields down from 14 percent to justover 4 percent in less than 15 months, whichwas quite a significant move for Ireland.

But I also come here not just as an Irishmanor as Taoiseach, but as the Presidency of theEuropean Union. I did say to the Presidentthat I’ll only get this chance once, because thePresidency revolves through the Union on a 6-monthly basis, so it will be 16 years or there-abouts before it comes back to Ireland again.It’s a great thing that as the President of Eu-rope, I can meet the President of the UnitedStates on our own ground, both Irishmen.[Laughter] Think about that.

But to be serious, may I say, I want to thankAmerica and the United States for their contin-ued interest, for their support—for their tangi-ble support—in respect of Northern Irelandand the difficulties that we’ve had there overthe years. And in the presence of the FirstMinister, the Deputy First Minister, theTánaiste, and the Speaker and the President, Iwant you all to understand that this a time ofgreat fragility in Northern Ireland. It’s a timefor clear political leadership. And we as a Gov-ernment in the Republic—together with theexecutive First and Deputy First Minister, theBritish Government, and all the parties—wantthis to succeed. We want it to succeed. We donot want a situation where those minority whohave bad thoughts and bad blood want to turnthe days back to the dark days of the Troubles.We do not want that to happen.

As we approach the 15th anniversary of theGood Friday agreement, as one of the coguar-antors of that agreement, we, together with theBritish Government, the executive of the elect-ed assembly in Northern Ireland, will walkwith all of these partners to restore a clearsense of political leadership and progress forpeace and continued peace.

And that’s why, Mr. Speaker and Mr. Presi-dent, it’s absolutely critical that the Americanadministration continue to show the support

that they’ve always done down through theyears, and there are Representatives here fromCongress and from the Senate who have dem-onstrated that more than amply.

So my plea is to keep that interest verymuch alive, because we intend to work verydiligently on that in the time ahead, both theTánaiste and I. I might say that this year wemark the 50th anniversary of the visit of Presi-dent Kennedy to Ireland in 1963. And as hesaid, it was his words and his visit that timewhen he said, “We are divided by distance, butunited by history.” And these things are sotrue.

And that’s why the year of the gathering in2013 is Ireland’s call to people from all overthe world to come back in the year of 2013 tosample the delights and the hospitality of ourcountry if they choose to do so. We don’t wantthem all to come together, because 75 millionmight be a bit too much to arrive at one time.[Laughter] That’s why I know that the Presi-dent was happy to speak about the Ryanairdeal with Boeing. Even all those planes fullyladen, flying 24 hours a day, wouldn’t be ableto get that diaspora in there fully.

So let me just say that this is a time of greatconfidence returning to our country. Yes, fra-gility and obstacles up ahead, but as a smallcountry, we want to play our part in the Euro-pean Union with our great friends here in theUnited States.

On Thursday—on Sunday, I had the privi-lege of going to Breezy Point to see the devas-tation wreaked by Sandy, but also to see thespirit of the community which is focused onbeing—rebuilding that community strongerthan ever. I admire their courage. I admiretheir consistency. And there is a word for it,Speaker, in Ireland, when communities cometogether with a common objective, supportand assistance is given pro bono, we call it themeitheal concept—m-e-i-t-h-e-a-l. It meansthat when communities are down, communi-ties rally together, and our sense of values andconviction and belief are stronger than ever. Iwas very happy to go to Breezy Point and seethat.

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Now, the news is not out yet, but on somegolf course in Ireland, some morning, the localgreenkeeper is going to wake up, and he says, athree ball gone down there, and they’re notsure who it is. None of them are really goodgolfers, though, they could have impact in oth-er places. This match has yet to be arranged.It’s between the Speaker of the House here,Mr. Boehner, who proclaims that he’s the bestof the trio——

Speaker of the House of RepresentativesJohn A. Boehner. I do. [Laughter]

Prime Minister Kenny. ——the President ofthe United States, and the Taoiseach of Ire-land. And we can’t go on Air Force One; it’stoo obvious. We can’t go on a military machine,because they would know it’s from the U.S. AirForce. So you’re going to have to arrive byIrish style, and in that sense, we have our ownways of getting onto golf courses that nobodyknows about. [Laughter] And if they find out,you’ll understand what the digital communica-

tions system is able to do, because I doubt ifyou’ll get off the place without having to signthousands of autographs.

Listen, thank you, here in Congress, Mr.Speaker, Mr. President, for your diligence, foryour friendship, for your courtesy. We love thiscountry and want to work with you for the ben-efit of so many people. So we’ve spoken aboutimmigration, Northern Ireland, EU-U.S.trade—that’s where the future is. And after all,the future is the only place where we all haveto live.

Thank you very much, indeed.

NOTE: The President spoke at 1:05 p.m. in theRayburn Room at the U.S. Capitol. Prime Min-ister Kenny referred to Deputy Prime MinisterEamon Gilmore of Ireland; Ireland’s Ambassa-dor to the U.S. Michael Collins; and U.S. Am-bassador to Ireland Daniel M. Rooney. Audiowas not available for verification of the contentof these remarks.

Remarks at a St. Patrick’s Day ReceptionMarch 19, 2013

President Obama. Hello, everybody! Goodevening, everybody.

Audience members. Good evening.President Obama. Welcome to St. Patrick’s

week here at the White House. Not just a day,we get a week.

I want to welcome back our good friendTaoiseach Kenny and his wonderful wife Fion-nuala. We are so glad that they are here, andwe want to thank them for bringing some gen-uine Irish shamrocks. I want to say a specialthanks to Michael Collins, who has done suchan outstanding job here as the Irish Ambassa-dor to the United States. This is his last St. Pat-rick’s Day in America before heading to Ger-many, so we want to wish him and his lovelywife all the best.

I also want to welcome First Minister PeterRobinson and Deputy First Minister MartinMcGuinness of Northern Ireland, who arewith us here today. And as I said earlier, I amvery much looking forward to visiting NorthernIreland for the G–8 summit in June.

Now, we have way too many Irish and IrishAmerican and wannabe Irish Americans in thehouse for me to name—[laughter]—but I willsay that the next 4 years are shaping up to bevery green ones here in the White House. Mynew Chief of Staff is a McDonough. My Na-tional Security Adviser is a Donilon. Our newCIA Director is a Brennan. My new headspeechwriter is a Keenan. And Joe Biden hasvery kindly agreed to stay on as Irishman inChief. [Laughter]

Now, Joe couldn’t be here tonight becausehe is on his way back from the installation ofPope Francis in Rome. For those of you whoknow Joe, literally, the only thing that couldkeep him away from St. Patrick’s Day at theWhite House is the installation of a new Pope.[Laughter] So he sends his best.

Ever since the first son or daughter of theEmerald Isle set foot here on American soil,this day has served as a reminder of just howmany threads of green are woven into the red,white, and blue. And in times of war and

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peace, good times and bad, Americans have al-ways found a way to celebrate that heritage.

During the Civil War, a quartermaster forthe Irish Brigade was sent to Washington to se-cure a St. Patrick’s Day dinner consisting of aside of roasted ox, a pig stuffed with boiled tur-keys, and 35 hams. And even during the GreatDepression, when food was scarce and familieswere struggling, a judge in New York informedthe District Attorney that he would not try anycases on St. Patrick’s Day in which the defen-dant or the lawyers were Irish. [Laughter]

Now, just to be clear: I looked into continu-ing some of these traditions. No, I could notget the White House chefs to go along or theAttorney General to go along with these tradi-tions. [Laughter] So tonight we’re going in aslightly different direction, but we do so mind-ful of the fact that even in times of trouble, ifwe’re lucky enough to be Irish—even if it’s on-ly in spirit—then we’re lucky enough. Andthat’s reason to give thanks.

Looking out on this room, it’s clear just howmuch America owes to our brothers and sistersfrom across the Atlantic, and how many of us—myself included—wouldn’t be here if it werenot for the brave souls who set off for the NewWorld with no earthly idea of what awaitedthem on the other side.

And it’s a reminder of just how many trialsthe people of Ireland have endured, from hun-ger and troubles, to the economic challenges ofrecent years. It’s yet another reason why weneed to build an immigration system for the21st century, one that works for families andbusinesses and our economy. But it’s also atribute to the incredible resilience of the Irishcharacter and the enormous power of faith: inGod, in one another, and in the possibility of abetter life.

It was that faith that brought millions ofIrish to our shores, but that faith alone didn’tjoin our two nations in common cause. It washow the Irish put that faith into practice intheir new Nation. They wanted a governmentof and by and for the people, so they helped usdesign one. And they understood the impor-tance of saving the Union, so they fought anddied for the cause. They saw potential in our

railways, bridges, and skyscrapers, so theypoured their sweat and blood into buildingthem. And they believed that each of us has anobligation, not just to ourselves, but to eachother and to our country. So that’s how theylived their lives here in America.

A great nation is one that contributes moreto the world than it takes out, and by that defi-nition, America owes a profound debt of grati-tude to the great nation of Ireland. And togeth-er, our people have never stopped dreaming ofa better future and never stopped working tomake that dream a reality.

And we saw that again in October, whenHurricane Sandy set off one of the worst resi-dential fires in New York City’s history. Hun-dreds of homes were left charred and flooded,and many families were suddenly faced withthe task of picking up the pieces and rebuildingtheir lives, including in Breezy Point, a neigh-borhood with a large Irish American popula-tion. In fact, more than half of Breezy Pointresidents can trace their families to the oldcountry, and the folks back in the old countrywere not about to sit by and watch their Amer-ican brothers and sisters struggle alone.

So they pitched in. Gaelic rock stars raisedmoney. Athletes from the Gaelic Games didconstruction work and brought the Sam Magu-ire chalice with them to lift spirits. The IrishTenors came over to sing Christmas carols.The Irish Government pledged hundreds ofthousands of dollars, not just to help the resi-dents of Breezy Point, but to help folks rebuildacross the region. And the Taoiseach himselfwas in Breezy Point on Sunday to attend Mass.

As one official said, “New York has beenvery good to the Irish, and now the Irish aregiving back to New York.” And that’s the storyof America and Ireland: We look out for eachother, we have each other’s backs, and we rec-ognize that no challenge is too great, no obsta-cle is too high, if you’ve got a friend beside youand a nation behind you. That’s been our histo-ry; that will be our future.

So I hope everyone has a wonderful time.There’s an old Irish saying that the recipe for along life is to leave the table hungry, leave thebed sleepy, leave the bar thirsty. [Laughter]

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We’ll see if that works tonight. Happy SaintPatrick’s Day, everybody.

And now I’d like to introduce my goodfriend and our honored guest, Taoiseach Ken-ny.

[At this point, Prime Minister Enda Kenny ofIreland said a phrase in Irish, and no tran-script or translation was provided.]

Prime Minister Kenny. Mr. President, FirstLady, Happy Saint Patrick’s week to you, yourfamilies, and the American people. I’m de-lighted to be here. I want to join with the Pres-ident in wishing Ambassador Michael Collinsand his wife Marie the very best. Thank you foryour service to this country and to Ireland.

I’d like to add to that the service given byAmbassador Dan Rooney and his wife Patriciafrom the United States to Ireland, two wonder-ful people also. And thank you, Mr. President,for your warm welcome that you’ve given toFionnuala and to me, to the Tánaiste and Car-ol, and indeed everyone in the Irish delegation.It really is a privilege and wonderful to beback. Our warmest congratulations on yoursecond term. Perhaps there will be—[ap-plause]—perhaps there will be a second visithome in due course. [Laughter]

For generations now, there’s been a veryspecial relationship between the President ofthe United States and the Irish people. In fact,if the truth could be confirmed—and it’s diffi-cult to do so—there are reports that PresidentLincoln himself is living in County Wicklow—[laughter]—and he’s married to Arthur Mill-er’s daughter. [Laughter]

In 1963, President Kennedy came home toIreland. He told our Parliament, our Dáil,about the Irish Brigade, the Fighting 69th.Thanks to him, that brigade’s green flag speaksalmost as eloquently as he did, at LeinsterHouse today. From Bull Run to Fredericks-burg to Gettysburg, the Fighting 69th distin-guished themselves on the battleground, show-ing outstanding courage and resilience and in-telligence. And for you, Mr. President, theirbattle cry in Irish was fág an bealach—“clearthe way.” Can you say that? Fág an bealach.

President Obama. Fág an bealach.

Prime Minister Kenny. [Inaudible] Genera-tions on, it rings out loud and clear on the oth-er side of the Atlantic, because after difficultyears, we, the Irish people, are at last clearingthe way. Táimid ag fágaint an bealach: To abrighter, better, more prosperous future, boththis time for all our people.

Mr. President, a chairde Gael, we’ve still along way to go on our journey to national re-covery. But tonight I’m proud to say here inthe White House: That confidence is returningto our country and to our people.

Here this evening with this bowl of sham-rock that contains traditional Irish shamrock,we’ve got a perfect example of that new confi-dence and that new hope. Because unlike thebowl that James Joyce spoke of at the Atlantic,of “the bowl of bitter tears,” or President Ken-nedy, this bowl here was made by Sean Egan,unemployed 4 years ago. He spent 300 hourscreating this in a labor of love.

It sparkles with the story of who we are now.It glistens with the story of what we oncebrought here on the risky yet life-giving jour-ney to America, not only those memories ofplace and home and family, but our songs, ourmusic, our stories, sung and recited until theywere threadbare so that new generations—many of you here—could actually make themyour own.

Just as we Irish made our own of America,today in Ireland, we do as we have alwaysdone. As a nation, we make joy from sadness.As a country, we forge success from difficulty.As a republic, we create ourselves anew. Andas we do, we remember and we honor the old.

They say that if you laid out a timber memo-rial for every Irish man, woman, and child bur-ied at sea on the Famine Crossing that youcould walk from Cork to Boston. They say, aswe say in Irish, that they’re idir eadartha—“inbetween”—between past and future, betweentwo nations, two republics who stand proudand determined and strong, either side of theAtlantic Ocean; exhilarated indeed by the pos-sibilities of science, intrigued by the potentialof discovery, and curious about the secrets andthe powers of invention; united in our passion-ate belief in the capacity of experiment and

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thought and imagination and, indeed, intuitionitself to transform our world.

And when the crew of the InternationalSpace Station—who are on Twitter—[inaudi-ble]—these days, when they look on this world,on our planet and see it go a little greener,chances are they don’t just think American,they don’t just think British or Indonesian orany place else, they might well think that downthere, that’s our human family, the family ofman, and they are at home.

And because we are, Mr. President. For allwe build, for all we make in finance, in politics,in business or economics, we know, because ofthese connections, that our real wealth are thereserves of love and kindness and insight andunderstanding and courage and compassionthat were so carefully attained and accruedover those many long years. And as we cele-brate St. Patrick and St. Patrick’s week, let usbuild on those reserves to build better nations,better people, and a better world. There, here,

Mr. President, the sun is new every day. Andmay it shine brightly on our peoples and on allthat we undertake together in the cause ofeach other.

So in your responsibilities all around theworld, the many onerous responsibilities youcarry, we wish you good fortune and goodhealth and success. And in the words of theFighting 69th: “Our Union, our country, andIreland forever. Fág an bealach.” Is féidir linn.

NOTE: The President spoke at 5:47 p.m. in theEast Room at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to White House Director ofSpeechwriting Cody S. Keenan. Prime Minis-ter Kenny referred to Deputy Prime MinisterEamon Gilmore of Ireland and his wife CarolHanney; author and filmmaker Rebecca Mill-er, wife of Irish actor Daniel Day-Lewis, whoportrayed Abraham Lincoln in the film “Lin-coln”; and crystal engraver Sean Egan.

Statement on the 10th Anniversary of the Iraq WarMarch 19, 2013

As we mark the 10th anniversary of the be-ginning of the Iraq war, Michelle and I join ourfellow Americans in paying tribute to all whoserved and sacrificed in one of our Nation’slongest wars. We salute the courage and re-solve of more than 1.5 million servicemembersand civilians who, during multiple tours, wroteone of the most extraordinary chapters in mili-tary service. We honor the memory of thenearly 4,500 Americans who made the ultimatesacrifice to give the Iraqi people an opportuni-ty to forge their own future after many years ofhardship. And we express our gratitude to ourextraordinary military families who sacrificedon the home front, especially our Gold Starfamilies who remain in our prayers.

The last of our troops left Iraq with theirheads held high in 2011, and the United Statescontinues to work with our Iraqi partners to

advance our shared interest in security andpeace. Here at home, our obligations to thosewho served endure. We must ensure that themore than 30,000 Americans wounded in Iraqreceive the care and benefits they deserve andthat we continue to improve treatment fortraumatic brain injury and posttraumatic stressdisorder. With a strong post-9/11 GI bill, wemust help our newest veterans pursue their ed-ucation and find jobs worthy of their incredibletalents. And all Americans can continue to sup-port and honor our military families who arepillars of so many of our communities. On thissolemn anniversary, we draw strength and in-spiration from these American patriots who ex-emplify the values of courage, selflessness, andteamwork that define our Armed Forces andkeep our Nation great.

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Remarks at an Arrival Ceremony in Tel Aviv, IsraelMarch 20, 2013

Shalom. President Peres, Prime MinisterNetanyahu, and most of all, to the people of Is-rael: thank you for this incredibly warm wel-come. This is my third visit to Israel, so let mejust say tov lihiyot shuv ba-aretz.

I’m so honored to be here as you prepare tocelebrate the 65th anniversary of a free and in-dependent State of Israel. Yet I know that instepping foot on this land, I walk with you onthe historic homeland of the Jewish people.

More than 3,000 years ago, the Jewish peo-ple lived here, tended the land here, prayed toGod here. And after centuries of exile and per-secution, unparalleled in the history of man,the founding of the Jewish State of Israel was arebirth, a redemption unlike any in history.

Today, the sons of Abraham and the daugh-ters of Sarah are fulfilling the dream of the ag-es to be masters of their own fate in their ownsovereign state. And just as we have for thesepast 65 years, the United States is proud tostand with you as your strongest ally and yourgreatest friend.

As I begin my second term as President, Is-rael is the first stop on my first foreign trip.This is no accident. Across this region, thewinds of change bring both promise and peril.So I see this visit as an opportunity to reaffirmthe unbreakable bond between our nations, torestate America’s unwavering commitment toIsrael’s security, and to speak directly to thepeople of Israel and to your neighbors.

I want to begin right now by answering aquestion that is sometimes asked about our re-lationship: Why? Why does the United Statesstand so strongly, so firmly with the State of Is-rael? And the answer is simple. We stand to-gether because we share a common story: pa-triots determined to be a free people in ourland, pioneers who forged a nation, heroes whosacrificed to preserve our freedom, and immi-

grants from every corner of the world who re-new constantly our diverse societies.

We stand together because we are democra-cies. For as noisy and messy as it may be, weknow that democracy is the greatest form ofgovernment ever devised by man.

We stand together because it makes us moreprosperous. Our trade and investment createjobs for both our peoples. Our partnerships inscience and medicine and health bring us clos-er to new cures, harness new energy, and havehelped transform us into high-tech hubs of ourglobal economy.

We stand together because we share a com-mitment to helping our fellow human beingsaround the world. When the earth shakes andthe floods come, our doctors and rescuersreach out to help. When people are suffering,from Africa to Asia, we partner to fight diseaseand overcome hunger.

And we stand together because peace mustcome to the Holy Land. For even as we areclear eyed about the difficulties, we will neverlose sight of the vision of an Israel at peacewith its neighbors.

So, as I begin this visit, let me say as clearlyas I can: the United States of America standswith the State of Israel because it is in our fun-damental national security interest to standwith Israel, it makes us both stronger, it makesus both more prosperous, and it makes theworld a better place.

That’s why the United States was the veryfirst nation to recognize the State of Israel 65years ago. That’s why the Star of David and theStars and Stripes fly together today. And that iswhy I’m confident in declaring that our alli-ance is eternal. It is forever: lanetzach.

Thank you very much.

NOTE: The President spoke at 12:55 p.m. atBen Gurion Airport.

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Remarks Following a Meeting With President Shimon Peres of Israel inJerusalemMarch 20, 2013

President Peres. President Obama, it is agreat privilege for me and for the people of Is-rael to host you here in Jerusalem.

It was a real pleasure to sit with a truefriend—very knowledgeable, unfortunately—and see that we can agree and discuss with youopenly and freely.

After the meeting we just had, I am evenmore confident that your vision can be—trans-form the Middle East. Your vision is achiev-able. You arrived here already with an impres-sive record of answering our needs, particular-ly—and unforgettably—in the domain of secu-rity. I want to thank you personally, dearfriend, for the long days and for many long,sleepless nights—that we know about them—which you spend caring for our country and forour future.

We live in an age that is both global and do-mestic, inseparably. Interest may divide peo-ple; vision may unite them. There is commonvision uniting us to confront the dangers, tobring peace closer as soon as possible. Thegreatest danger is the nuclear—is a nuclearIran; so you said, so you do. We trust your poli-cy, which calls to, first, by nonmilitary—tofight by nonmilitary means with a clear state-ment that other options remain on the table.You made it clear that your intention is not tocontain, but to prevent.

We are trying together to restart negotia-tions with the Palestinians. We already agreedthat the goal is a two-state—for the two peo-ple—solution. There is no better one or moreachievable one. We consider that the Presidentof the Palestinian Authority, Abu Mazen, is ourpartner in that effort to stop terror and bringpeace.

Hamas remains a terror organization thattargets innocent people. On our northern bor-der, Iran’s proxy Hizballah continues to stock-pile arms and threaten our civilians while theyurgently—while they target innocent peopleacross the world. Hizballah is destroying Leba-non and supporting the brutal massacre of the

Syrian people by President Asad. Fortunately,the Syrian nuclear capacity was destroyed. Butunfortunately, thousands of their chemicalweapons remain. We cannot allow that thoseweapons to fall in the terrorists’ hands. It couldlead to an epic tragedy.

There is an attempt to bring spring to theArab world. It is an Arab choice. It is an Arabinitiative. It may bring peace to the region,freedom to the people, economic growth to theArab States. If realized, it can lead to a bettertomorrow. We pray it will become a reality.

I believe the real division is between skep-tics and those who believe in peace. Your voicewill encourage belief. You came to us with aclear message that no one should let skepticismwin the day, a vision that says clearly that peaceis not only a wish, but a possibility. I fully sup-port your call. There is no other way to makethe future better. There is no better leader tomake it possible.

Your visit is a historic step in that direction.We shall journey with you all the way. Thankyou.

President Obama. Thank you so much.Well, thank you, President Peres, for your

very generous words and your warm welcome.It is wonderful to be here once again. I first vis-ited you when I was still a Senator and had theopportunity to visit the lovely garden, and forme to be able to bring a tree from the UnitedStates that will find a home in that garden, Ithink, is symbolic of not only the friendship be-tween our two nations, but between the two ofus personally.

Mr. President, you once remarked that aPrime Minister’s job is to rule, a President’sjob is to charm. Well, as with all our visits to-gether, I have once again succumbed to yourcharms, and I’m grateful to your hospitality.

It is wonderful to be back in Jerusalem, thisEternal City. And I’m pleased to begin my visitwith a son of Israel who’s devoted his life tokeeping Israel strong and sustaining the bondsbetween our two nations. President Peres

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knows that this is a work of generations. Just ashe joined the struggle for Israeli independencein his early twenties, he’s always looking ahead,connecting with young people. And I’m espe-cially grateful for the time that he allowed meto share with those extraordinary Israeli boysand girls.

Their dreams are much the same as childreneverywhere. In another sense, though, theirlives reflect the difficult realities that Israelisface every single day. They want to be safe.They want to be free from rockets that hit theirhomes or their schools. They want a worldwhere science and technology is created tobuild and not destroy. They want to live inpeace, free from terror and threats that are sooften directed at the Israeli people. That’s thefuture that they deserve. That’s the vision thatis shared by both our nations. And that is Shi-mon Peres’s life work.

And, Mr. President, Michelle and I havesuch fond memories of your visit to the WhiteHouse last spring, when I was honored to pres-ent you with America’s highest civilian honor:our Medal of Freedom. And that medal was atribute to your extraordinary life, in whichyou’ve held virtually every position in the Is-raeli Government.

So today was another opportunity for me tobenefit from the President’s perspective on awhole range of topics: from the historic chang-es that are taking place across the region to theperils of a nuclear-armed Iran, to the impera-tives of peace between Israelis and Palestin-ians, to the promise of our digital age.

And I should note that one of the advantag-es of talking to President Peres is not only doeshe have astonishing vision, but he’s also a pret-ty practical-minded politician and consistentlyhas good advice in terms of how we can ap-proach many of these problems.

I reaffirmed to President Peres, as I work—as I will throughout my visit, that in this work,the State of Israel will have no greater friend

than the United States. And the work we do inour time will make it more likely that the chil-dren that we saw today—alongside childrenfrom throughout the region—have the oppor-tunity for security and peace and prosperity.

This obligation to future generations, Ithink, was well symbolized by the tree-plantingthat we started our meeting with. The Talmudrecounts the story of Honi, the miracle worker,who saw a man planting a carob tree. And heasked the man, “How long before this treeyields fruit?” To which the man responded,“Seventy years.” And so Honi asked, “Are yousure you’ll be alive in another 70 years to seeit?” And the man replied: “When I came intothe world, I found carob trees. As my forefa-thers planted for me, so will I plant for my chil-dren.”

President Peres, I think, understands thatstory well. And so we want to all thank you forall the seeds you’ve planted—the seeds ofprogress, the seeds of security, the seeds ofpeace—all the seeds that have helped not onlyIsrael grow, but also the relationship betweenour two nations grow. And I believe that if wetend to them, if we nurture them, they willyield fruit in every hill and valley of this land,not only for the children we met today, but forIsraelis, for Palestinians, for Arabs across theregion. That’s not only good for the children ofthis region, but it’s good for my children andthe children of America.

I deeply believe that. And I couldn’t ask fora more wise or more thoughtful partner in thatprocess. I’m very grateful for you hospitality,and I look forward to our continued work inthe future.

President Peres. Thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 5:10 p.m. at thePresident’s Residence. President Peres re-ferred to President Mahmoud Abbas of thePalestinian Authority.

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The President’s News Conference With Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu of Israel in JerusalemMarch 20, 2013

Prime Minister Netanyahu. Mr. President,Barack, it’s a great pleasure for me to host youhere in Jerusalem. You’ve graciously hosted memany times in Washington, so I’m very pleasedto have this opportunity to reciprocate. I hopethat the good will and warmth of the people ofIsrael has already made you feel at home.

President Obama. Very much so.Prime Minister Netanyahu. We had an op-

portunity to—today to begin discussing thewide range of issues that are critical to both ourcountries. And foremost among these is Iran’srelentless pursuit of nuclear weapons. Mr.President, you have made it clear that you aredetermined to prevent Iran from developingnuclear weapons. I appreciate your forthrightposition on this point. I also appreciate thatyou have noted—that you have acted to thwartthis threat both through determined diplomacyand strong sanctions that are getting strongeryet.

Notwithstanding our joint efforts and yourgreat success in mobilizing the internationalcommunity, diplomacy and sanctions so farhave not stopped Iran’s nuclear program. Andas you know, my view is that in order to stopIran’s nuclear programs peacefully, diplomacyand sanctions must be augmented by a clearand credible threat of military action.

In this regard, Mr. President, I want tothank you once again for always making clearthat Israel must be able to defend itself, by it-self, against any threat. I deeply appreciatethose words because they speak to the greattransformation that has occurred in the life ofthe Jewish people with the rebirth of the Jew-ish state. The Jewish people only two genera-tions ago were once a powerless people, de-fenseless against those who sought our de-struction. Today, we have both the right andthe capability to defend ourselves.

And you said earlier today, the essence ofthe State of Israel, the essence of the rebirth ofthe Jewish state is we’ve fulfilled the age-olddream of the Jewish people to be masters of

our fate in our own state. And I think that wasa wonderful line that I will cherish because itreally gets down to the essence of what thisstate is about. That is why I know that you ap-preciate that Israel can never cede the right todefend ourselves to others, even to the greatestof our friends. And Israel has no better friendthan the United States of America. So I lookforward to continuing to work with you to ad-dress what is an existential threat to Israel anda grave threat to the peace and security of theworld.

Mr. President, we discussed today the situa-tion in Syria. We share the goal of seeing a sta-ble and peaceful Syria emerge from the car-nage that we have witnessed over the last 2years. That carnage has already resulted in thedeaths of over 70,000 people and the sufferingof millions. We also share a determination toprevent the deadly arsenal of weapons withinSyria from falling into the hands of terroristhands. And I have no doubt that the best wayto do that is to work closely with the UnitedStates and other countries in the region to ad-dress this challenge. And that is what we in-tend to do.

Finally, Mr. President, your visit gave us anopportunity to try to find a way to advancepeace between Israelis and Palestinians. Mygovernment—new government was sworn in 2days ago. I know there have been questions re-garding what the policy of the new governmentwill be towards peace with the Palestinians. Solet me be clear: Israel remains fully committedto peace and to the solution of two states fortwo peoples. We extend our hand in peace andin friendship to the Palestinian people.

I hope that your visit, along with the visit ofSecretary of State Kerry, will help us turn apage in our relations with the Palestinians. Letus sit down at the negotiating table. Let us putaside all preconditions. Let us work together toachieve the historic compromise that will endour conflict once and for all.

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Let me conclude, Mr. President, on a per-sonal note. I know how valuable the time andthe energies of the American President, ofyourself. This is the 10th time that we havemet since you became President and since Ibecame Prime Minister. You’ve chosen Israelas your first venue in your visit—your foreignvisits in your second term. I want to thank youfor the investment you have made in our rela-tionship and in strengthening the friendshipand alliance between our two countries. It isdeeply, deeply appreciated.

You’ve come here on the eve of Passover.I’ve always considered it as our most cherishedholiday. It celebrates the Jewish people’s pas-sage from slavery to freedom. Through the ag-es, it has also inspired people struggling forfreedom, including the foundings—theFounding Fathers of the United States. So it’sa profound honor to host you, the leader of thefree world, at this historic time in our ancientcapital.

Mr. President, welcome to Israel. Welcometo Jerusalem.

President Obama. Thank you.Well, thank you, Prime Minister Netanyahu,

for your kind words and for your wonderfulwelcome here today. And I want to express aspecial thanks to Sara as well as your two sonsfor their warmth and hospitality. It was won-derful to see them. They are—I did inform thePrime Minister that they are very good-lookingyoung men who clearly got their looks fromtheir mother. [Laughter]

Prime Minister Netanyahu. Well, I can saythe same of your daughters. [Laughter]

President Obama. This is true. Our goal is toimprove our gene pool by marrying womenwho are better than we are.

Mr. Prime Minister, I want to begin by con-gratulating you on the formation of your newgovernment. In the United States, we workhard to find agreement between our two majorparties. Here in Israel, you have to find con-sensus among many more. And few legislaturescan compete with the intensity of the Knesset.But all of this reflects the thriving nature of Is-rael’s democracy.

As Bibi mentioned, this is our 10th meeting.We’ve spent more time together, working to-gether, than I have with any leader. And thisspeaks to the closest—the closeness of our twonations, the interests and the values that weshare, and the depth and breadth of the tiesbetween our two peoples.

As leaders, our most solemn responsibility isthe security of our people; that’s job numberone. My job as President of the United States,is—first and foremost, is to keep the Americanpeople safe. Bibi, as Prime Minister, your firsttask is to keep the people of Israel safe. And Is-rael’s security needs are truly unique, as I’veseen myself. In past trips, I’ve visited villagesnear the Blue Line. I’ve walked through Israelihomes devastated by Hizballah rockets. I’vestood in Sderot and met with children whosimply want to grow up free from fear. And fly-ing in today, I saw again how Israel’s securitycan be measured in mere miles and minutes.

As President, I’ve therefore made it clearAmerica’s commitment to the security of theState of Israel is a solemn obligation, and thesecurity of Israel is nonnegotiable.

Today, our military and intelligence person-nel cooperate more closely than ever before.We conduct more joint exercises and trainingthan ever before. We’re providing more securi-ty assistance and advanced technology to Israelthan ever before. And that includes more sup-port for the missile defenses like Iron Dome,which I saw today and which has saved somany Israeli lives.

In short—and I don’t think this is just myopinion; I think, Bibi, you would share this—America’s support for Israel’s security is un-precedented, and the alliance between our na-tions has never been stronger.

That’s the sturdy foundation we built on to-day as we addressed a range of shared chal-lenges. As part of our long-term commitmentto Israel’s security, the Prime Minister and Iagreed to begin discussions on extending mili-tary assistance to Israel. Our current agree-ment lasts through 2017, and we’ve directedour teams to start working on extending it forthe years beyond.

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I’m also pleased to announce that we willtake steps to ensure that there’s no interrup-tion of funding for Iron Dome. As a result ofdecisions that I made last year, Israel will re-ceive approximately $200 million this fiscalyear, and we will continue to work with Con-gress on future funding of Iron Dome. Theseare further reminders that we will help to pre-serve Israel’s qualitative military edge so thatIsrael can defend itself, by itself, against anythreat.

We also discussed the way forward to a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestin-ians. And I very much welcomed Bibi’s wordsbefore I spoke. I’ll be meeting with PresidentAbbas tomorrow, and will—and I will havemore to say on this topic in the speech that Ideliver to the Israeli people tomorrow. But fornow, let me just reiterate that a central ele-ment of a lasting peace must be a strong andsecure Jewish state, where Israel’s securityconcerns are met, alongside a sovereign and in-dependent Palestinian state.

In this regard, I’d note that last year was amilestone: the first year in four decades whennot a single Israeli citizen lost their life becauseof terrorism emanating from the West Bank.It’s a reminder that Israel has a profound inter-est in a strong and effective Palestinian Au-thority. And as the Prime Minister’s new gov-ernment begins its work, we’ll continue to lookfor steps that both Israelis and Palestinians cantake to build trust and confidence upon whichlasting peace will depend.

We also reaffirmed the importance of ensur-ing Israel’s security given the changes and un-certainty in the region. As the United Statessupports the Egyptian people in their historictransition to democracy, we continue to under-score the necessity of Egypt contributing to re-gional security, preventing Hamas from rearm-ing and upholding its peace treaty with Israel.

With respect to Syria, the United States con-tinues to work with allies and friends and theSyrian opposition to hasten the end of Asad’srule, to stop the violence against the Syrianpeople, and begin a transition toward a newgovernment that respects the rights of all itspeople.

Asad has lost his legitimacy to lead by at-tacking the Syrian people with almost everyconventional weapon in his arsenal, includingScud missiles. And we have been clear that theuse of chemical weapons against the Syrianpeople would be a serious and tragic mistake.We also share Israel’s grave concern about thetransfer of chemical or other weapon systemsto terrorists—such as Hizballah—that mightbe used against Israel. The Asad regime mustunderstand that they will be held accountablefor the use of chemical weapons or their trans-fer to terrorists.

And finally, we continued our close consul-tation on Iran. We agree that a nuclear-armedIran would be a threat to the region, a threat tothe world, and potentially, an existential threatto Israel. And we agree on our goal. We do nothave a policy of containment when it comes toa nuclear Iran. Our policy is to prevent Iranfrom acquiring a nuclear weapon.

We prefer to resolve this diplomatically, andthere’s still time to do so. Iran’s leaders mustunderstand, however, that they have to meettheir international obligations. And meanwhile,the international community will continue toincrease the pressure on the Iranian Govern-ment. The United States will continue to con-sult closely with Israel on next steps. And I willrepeat: All options are on the table. We will dowhat is necessary to prevent Iran from gettingthe world’s worst weapons.

Now, meeting none of these challenges willbe easy. It will demand the same courage andresolve as those who have preceded us.

And on Friday, I’ll be honored to visitMount Herzl and pay tribute to the leadersand soldiers who have laid down their lives forIsrael. One of them was Yoni Netanyahu. Andin one of his letters home, he wrote to his fam-ily, “Don’t forget, strength, justice, andstaunch resolution are on our side, and that is agreat deal.”

Mr. Prime Minister, like families across Is-rael, you and your family have served and sac-rificed to defend your country and to pass it,safe and strong, to your children just as it waspassed on to you. Standing here today, I cansay with confidence that Israel’s security is

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guaranteed because it has a great deal on itsside, including the unwavering support of theUnited States of America.

Syria

Moderator. The first question, Israel Chan-nel 2, Udi Segal.

Q. Mr. President, may I ask you about Syriaa practical question and a moral one? Morally,how is it possible that for the last 2 years, tensof thousands of innocent civilians are beingmassacred and no one—the world, the UnitedStates, and you—are doing anything to stop itimmediately? On a practical level, you havesaid today and also in the past that the use ofchemical weapons would be a crossing of a redline. It seems like this line was crossed yester-day. What specifically do you intend to doabout it?

President Obama. I’ll answer the question inreverse order, if you don’t mind. I’ll talk aboutthe chemical weapons first and then the largerquestion.

With respect to chemical weapons, we in-tend to investigate thoroughly exactly whathappened. Obviously, in Syria right now you’vegot a war zone. You have information that’s fil-tered out, but we have to make sure that weknow exactly what happened: what was the na-ture of the incident, what can we document,what can we prove. So I’ve instructed myteams to work closely with all other countriesin the region and international organizationsand institutions to find out precisely whetheror not this red line was crossed.

I will note, without at this point having allthe facts before me, that we know the SyrianGovernment has the capacity to carry outchemical weapon attacks. We know that thereare those in the Syrian Government who haveexpressed a willingness to use chemical weap-ons, if necessary, to protect themselves. I amdeeply skeptical of any claim that, in fact, it wasthe opposition that used chemical weapons.Everybody who knows the facts of the chemi-cal weapon stockpiles inside Syria as well as theSyrian Government’s capabilities, I think,would question those claims. But I know thatthey’re floating out there right now.

The broader point is, is that once we estab-lish the facts, I have made clear that the use ofchemical weapons is a game changer. And Iwon’t make an announcement today about nextsteps because I think we have to gather thefacts. But I do think that when you start seeingweapons that can cause potential devastationand mass casualties and you let that genie outof the bottle, then you are looking potentiallyat even more horrific scenes than we’ve alreadyseen in Syria. And the international communityhas to act on that additional information.

But I—as is always the case when it comesto issues of war and peace, I think having thefacts before you act is very important.

More broadly, as I said in my opening state-ment, I believe that the Asad regime has lostall credibility and legitimacy. And I think Asadmust go, and I believe he will go. It is incorrectfor you to say that we have done nothing. Wehave helped to mobilize the isolation of theAsad regime internationally. We have support-ed and recognized the opposition. We haveprovided hundreds of millions of dollars insupport for humanitarian aid. We have workeddiligently with other countries in the region toprovide additional tools to move towards a po-litical transition within Syria.

If your suggestion is, is that I have not actedunilaterally militarily inside of Syria, well, theresponse has been—or my response would bethat, to the extent possible, I want to make surethat we’re working as an international commu-nity to deal with this problem because I thinkit’s a world problem, not simply a UnitedStates problem or an Israel problem or a Turk-ish problem. It’s a world problem when tens ofthousands of people are being slaughtered, in-cluding innocent women and children.

And so we will continue to work in an inter-national framework to try to bring about thekind of change that’s necessary in Syria. Secre-tary Kerry has been working nonstop since hecame into his current position to try to helpmobilize and organize our overall efforts, andwe will continue to push every lever that wehave to try to bring about a resolution inside ofSyria that respects the rights and the safety and

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security of all people, regardless of whateversectarian lines currently divide Syria.

Last point I’ll make, which is probably obvi-ous, is this is not easy. When you start seeing acivil war that has sectarian elements to it, andyou’ve got a repressive Government that is in-tent on maintaining power, and you have mis-trust that has broken out along sectarian lines,and you have an opposition that has not hadthe opportunity or time to organize itself bothpolitically as well as militarily, then you end upseeing some of the devastation that you’vebeen seeing. And we’re going to do everythingwe can to continue to prevent it. And I knowthat the vast majority of our international part-ners feel the same way.

Iran

White House Press Secretary James F. “Jay”Carney. From the White House press corps,Matt Spetalnick of Reuters.

Q. Yes, thank you. There was some friendlybanter between you two gentlemen on the tar-mac today about red lines, and I’m wonderinghow much of a serious matter that actually be-came in your talks and will be in your talks tocome tonight. President Obama has said it willtake Iran at least a year to build a bomb. That’smonths longer than the Prime Minister be-lieves.

Mr. President, are you asking the PrimeMinister to be more patient, to hold off for atleast a year on any kind of military actionagainst Iran?

Mr. Prime Minister, has President Obama’swords, have they convinced you that he is put-ting forth the credible military threat that youhave repeatedly asked for, or does he need togo further? Thank you.

President Obama. Bibi, why don’t you go—take a first swing at this.

Prime Minister Netanyahu. Well, first of all,there are so many strips of different colors onthe tarmac that we—[laughter]—we had a—we did have a joke about that. But obviously,this matter is no joke. It relates to our very ex-istence and to something also that the Presi-dent correctly identified as a grave strategic

threat to the United States and to the peaceand security of the world.

I’m absolutely convinced that the Presidentis determined to prevent Iran from getting nu-clear weapons. I appreciate that. And I also ap-preciate something that he said, which I men-tioned in my opening remarks, that the Jewishpeople have come back to their own country tobe the masters of their own fate. And I appre-ciate the fact that the President has reaf-firmed—more than any other President—Isra-el’s right and duty to defend itself, by itself,against any threat. We just heard those impor-tant words now, and I think that sums up our, Iwould say, our common view.

Iran is a grave threat to Israel, a grave threatto the world—a nuclear Iran. The UnitedStates is committed to deal with it. Israel iscommitted to deal with it. We have differentvulnerabilities obviously and different capabili-ties. We take that into account. But what we domaintain—and the President, I think, is thefirst to do so—is that Israel has a right to inde-pendently defend itself against any threat, in-cluding the Iranian threat.

President Obama. I think the only thing Iwould add is that our intelligence cooperationon this issue—the consultation between ourmilitaries, our intelligence—is unprecedent-ed, and there is not a lot of light—a lot of day-light between our countries’ assessments interms of where Iran is right now.

I think that what Bibi alluded to, which isabsolutely correct, is each country has to makeits own decisions when it comes to the awe-some decision to engage in any kind of militaryaction, and Israel is differently situated thanthe United States. And I would not expect thatthe Prime Minister would make a decisionabout his country’s security and defer that toany other country, any more than the UnitedStates would defer our decisions about whatwas important for our national security.

I have shared with Bibi, as I’ve said to theentire world, as I’ve said to the Iranian peopleand Iranian leaders, that I think there is timeto resolve this issue diplomatically. The ques-tion is, will Iranian leadership seize that oppor-tunity? Will they walk through that door?

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And it would be in everybody’s interests—not just Israel’s interests, not just the UnitedStates interests—it would be in the interest ofthe Iranian people if this gets resolved diplo-matically. Because the truth of the matter is, isthat the most permanent solution to the Irani-an situation is ultimately going to be their deci-sion that it is not worth it for them to pursuenuclear weapons. That will be the lastingchange. If we can get that, that’s good for ev-erybody, including Iran, because it would allowthem to break out of the isolation that hashampered their society and their economic de-velopment for many years.

But I don’t know whether they’re going tobe willing to take that step. And obviously,their past behavior indicates that, in the wordsof—or a play on words on what Ronald Reagansaid, we can’t even trust yet, much less verify.But we do have to test the proposition that thiscan be resolved diplomatically. And if it can’t,then I’ve repeated to Bibi what I’ve said pub-licly, and that is, is that we will leave all optionson the table in resolving it.

Q. Mr. Prime Minister, do you agree or dis-agree with the President’s 1-year assessment?

Prime Minister Netanyahu. We have anoth-er question.

Moderator. Channel 1 Israel, Ayala Hasson.

President Obama’s Visit to Israel/Arab-IsraeliPeace Process

Q. Thank you. Welcome, Mr. President. Onyour way back to Washington on Friday, whatwill you consider a successful visit? Convincingthe Israeli leaders that they can rely on you onthe Iranian issue, especially that they learnedthat there are differences between Israel andthe United States concerning the enrichmentof the uranium, or convincing both sides—Is-raelis and the Palestinians—to revive thefloundering negotiation, reviving the peaceprocess, the floundering peace process?

President Obama. Well, my main goal onthis trip has been to have an opportunity tospeak directly to the Israeli people at a timewhen obviously what was already a prettytough neighborhood has gotten tougher and letthem know that they’ve got a friend in the

United States, that we have your back; that weconsider Israel’s security of extraordinary im-portance to us, not just because of the bondsbetween our peoples, but also because of ourown national security interests.

In that context, what I have also sought toachieve here is further consultations, buildingon what we’ve already discussed—as Bibi hasjust formed a new government, as I am enter-ing my second term—that we continue to haveclose consultation around these—some ofthese shared interests that we’ve already dis-cussed, Iran being obviously a prominentshared concern. I want to make sure that theIsraeli people and the Israeli Government con-sistently understand my thinking and how I’mapproaching this problem. And I want to un-derstand how the Israeli Government and thePrime Minister is approaching this problem tomake sure that there are no misunderstandingsthere.

With respect to the peace process, as I said,I’ll have more to say about this tomorrow. ButI think you are absolutely right that over thelast year, year and a half, 2 years, 2½ years, wehaven’t gone forward. We haven’t seen thekind of progress that we would like to see.

There’s some elements of good news. Imean, the fact of the matter is, is that evenwith all that’s been happening in the region,the Palestinian Authority has worked effective-ly in cooperation with the international com-munity—in part, because of some of the train-ing that we, the United States, provided—todo its part in maintaining security in the WestBank. We have seen some progress when itcomes to economic development and opportu-nity for the Palestinian people.

But the truth of the matter is trying to bringthis to some sort of clear settlement, a solutionthat would allow Israelis to feel as if they’vebroken out of the current isolation that they’rein, in this region, that would allow the incredi-ble economic growth that’s taking place insidethis country to be a model for trade and com-merce and development throughout the regionat a time when all these other countries needtechnology and commerce and jobs for theiryoung people; for Palestinians to feel a sense

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that they, too, are masters of their own fate; forIsrael to feel that the possibilities of rocketsraining down on their families has dimin-ished—that kind of solution we have not yetseen.

And so what I want to do is listen, hear fromPrime Minister Netanyahu—tomorrow I’llhave a chance to hear from Abu Mazen—to geta sense from them, how do they see this pro-cess moving forward. What are the possibilitiesand what are the constraints, and how can theUnited States be helpful? And I purposely didnot want to come here and make some big an-nouncement that might not match up withwhat the realities and possibilities on theground are. I wanted to spend some time lis-tening before I talked, which my mother al-ways taught me was a good idea.

And so, hopefully, I’ll consider it a success ifwhen I go back on Friday, I’m able to say tomyself, I have a better understanding of whatthe constraints are, what the interests of thevarious parties are, and how the United Statescan play a constructive role in bringing about alasting peace and two states living side by sidein peace and security. Thank you.

Arab-Israeli Peace Process

Press Secretary Carney. Chuck Todd, fromNBC.

Q. Thank you, Mr. President, Mr. PrimeMinister.

Mr. President, I want to follow up a little biton the peace process. You began your term,your first term, big fanfare: the Cairo speech totalk to the Muslim world, the decision to havea Middle East envoy early. You said youweren’t going to let this slip to your secondterm. We’re in your second term with the Mid-east peace process. What went wrong? Whyare we further away from a two-state solution?I know you said you want to talk more aboutthis tomorrow, but I am curious to—what doyou believe went wrong? Did you push Israeltoo hard? What do you wish you would havedone differently?

And, Mr. Prime Minister, I want to help outmy colleague over here on the follow-up thathe had, which had to do with, do you accept

the President’s understanding that Iran is ayear away when it comes to nuclear weapons?And a question—another question I had foryou——

President Obama. How many have you got?Do you guys do this in the Israeli press? Yousay you get one question, and then you add,like, five?

Q. Well, I’m helping him. I’m helping himwith his follow-up.

President Obama. You see how the young la-dy from Channel 1, she had one question. Shewas very well behaved, Chuck.

Q. I had that one for you and—[laughter].Prime Minister Netanyahu. These are com-

muted questions they have. [Laughter]Q. Apparently. I thought I had four questions.Prime Minister Netanyahu. Reiterations.Q. Passover starts in a couple of days.

[Laughter] I get four questions, right?Prime Minister Netanyahu. Look, this is not

a kosher question, but don’t hog it. [Laughter]Q. I guess my question to you was going to

be, why do you believe the Israeli people havenot embraced President Obama the same waythey embraced our last two U.S. Presidents?Thank you.

President Obama. Oh, so you had to get apolling question in there right at the end?[Laughter] Chuck, I mean, you’re just incorri-gible. [Laughter]

Well, look, the opening premise of yourquestion was that having failed to achievepeace in the Middle East in my first term, thatI must have screwed up somehow. And I willtell you I hope I’m a better President now thanwhen I first came into office, but my commit-ment was not to achieve a peace deal in myfirst year or in my second year or my third year.That would have been nice. What I said was Iwas not going to wait to start on the issue untilmy second term, because I thought it was tooimportant. And that’s exactly what I did.

I’m absolutely sure that there are a host ofthings that I could have done that would havebeen more deft and would have created betteroptics. But ultimately, this is a really hardproblem. It’s been lingering for over six de-cades. And the parties involved have some

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profound interests that you can’t spin, youcan’t smooth over. And it is a hard slog to workthrough all of these issues.

I will add that both parties also have politics,just like we do back home. There are a wholebunch of things that I’d like to do back in theUnited States that I didn’t get done in my firstterm. And I’m sure I could have been moredeft there as well. But some of it’s just becauseit’s hard, and people disagree, and it takes, Ithink, a confluence of both good diplomaticwork, but also timing, serendipity, things fall-ing into place at the right time, the right play-ers feeling that this is the moment to seize it.

And my goal here is just to make sure thatthe United State is a positive force in trying tocreate those opportunities as frequently as pos-sible and to be as clear as possible as to why wethink that this is an important priority, not onlybecause of some Pollyannaish views aboutcan’t we all get along and hold hands and sing“Kumbaya,” but because I actually believe thatIsrael’s security will be enhanced with a resolu-tion to this issue. I believe that Palestinians willprosper and can channel their extraordinaryenergies and entrepreneurship in more posi-tive ways with a resolution to this issue. Theentire region, I think, will be healthier with aresolution to this issue.

So I’m going to keep on making that argu-ment. And I will admit that, frankly, some-times, it would be easier not to make the argu-ment and to avoid the question, precisely be-cause it’s hard. That’s not the approach thatI’ve tried to take.

And there have probably been times where,when I’ve made statements about what I thinkneeds to happen, the way it gets filteredthrough our press, it may be interpreted inways that get Israelis nervous, just like thereare folks back home who sometimes get ner-vous about areas where they aren’t sure exactlywhere I stand on things. That’s why I alwayslike the opportunity to talk directly to you guys.Hopefully, you’ll show the live film, as opposedto the edited version.

With that, I think you’ve got four questionsto answer, Bibi. [Laughter]

Prime Minister Netanyahu. I think thatthere’s a misunderstanding about time. If Irandecides to go for a nuclear weapon—that is, toactually manufacture the weapon—then itprobably—then it would take them about ayear. I think that’s correct. They could deferthat a long time, but still get through the en-richment process. That is, to make a weapon,you need two things; You need enriched urani-um of a critical amount, and then you need aweapon. You can’t have the weapon withoutthe enriched uranium, but you can have theenriched uranium without the weapon.

Iran right now is enriching uranium. Itwill—it’s pursuing it. It hasn’t yet reached thered line that I had described in my speech atthe U.N.; they’re getting closer though.

And the question of manufacturing theweapon is a different thing. The President saidcorrectly that we have—on these issues thatare a little arcane; they sound a little detailedto you—but on these matters we share infor-mation and we have a common assessment.We have a common assessment.

In any case, Iran gets to an immunity zonewhen they get through the enrichment pro-cess, in our view—in our view—and whatevertime is left, there’s not a lot of time. And everyday that passes diminishes it. But we do have acommon assessment. On these schedules, onintelligence, we share that intelligence, and wedon’t have any argument about it. I think it’simportant to state that clearly.

I think that people should get to know Presi-dent Obama the way I’ve gotten to know him.And I think you’ve just heard something that isvery meaningful. It may have escaped you, butit hasn’t escaped me. And that is, the Presidentannounced that in addition to all the aid thathis administration has provided—includingIron Dome, including defense funding for Is-rael during very difficult times—he has an-nounced that we are going to begin talks on an-other 10-year process arrangement to ensureAmerican military assistance to Israel. I thinkthis is very significant.

And I want to express my thanks for every-thing that you have done. And I want to thank

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you also for that statement you just made. Ithink it’s very, very important.

So I think Israelis will judge this by the un-folding events and by what is happening, whatis actually taking place. And for this, youknow, there’s a very simple answer to yourquestion—the gentleman from NBC, right?Yes. Well, for this, you need, you see, a sec-ond term as President and a third term asPrime Minister. That really fixes things.[Laughter]

President Obama. All right, thank you verymuch, everybody.

NOTE: The President’s news conference beganat 8:30 p.m. on the patio of the Prime Minis-ter’s Residence. In his remarks, the Presidentreferred to Yair and Avner Netanyahu, sons ofPrime Minister Netanyahu; President Mah-moud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority; andPresident Bashar al-Asad of Syria. A reporterreferred to former U.S. Special Envoy for Mid-dle East Peace George J. Mitchell.

The President’s News Conference With President Mahmoud Abbas of thePalestinian Authority in Ramallah, West BankMarch 21, 2013

President Abbas. In the name of God, theMerciful, the Compassionate.

Mr. President Barack Obama, I wish towarmly welcome you and the accompanyingdelegation to Palestine.

Mr. President, during your visit to our coun-try, you will meet a people proud of their histo-ry, heritage, culture, and symbols; a young,creative, and entrepreneurial people who havemade the miracle and arose from the calami-ties of the Nakba and continue the path oftheir ancestors, extending since the ancienttimes over this land, their land; a people whoadhere to their rights and are in harmony andkeep abreast with the realities of the age, itslanguage and methods; a people who build in-stitutions of the state of Palestine, giving an ex-emplary model despite all hardships and hur-dles.

The people of Palestine, Mr. President, whoreceive you today aspire to attain their simplestrights—the right to freedom, independence,and peace—and look forward to that day tocome quickly in which they exercise normaland natural life over the land of the state ofPalestine—the independent state of Pales-tine—along the borders of the 4th of June,1967, with Jerusalem, the “Lady of the Cities,”as its capital, alongside the State of Israel.

We, Mr. President, believe that peace isnecessary and inevitable, and we also believethat it is possible. We believe that peacemak-

ing—and as much as it requires, political cour-age—also requires an expression of good faith,a recognition of people’s rights, respect for theother, and dissemination of a culture of peaceand the commitment to international legitima-cy and its resolutions. Certainly, peace shallnot be made through violence, occupation,walls, settlements, arrests, siege, and denial ofrefugee rights.

We are extremely in pleasure to receive youtoday in our country. Our people share withAmerican people—and with you personally—the belief in the values and principles of free-dom, equality, justice, and respect for humanrights. And we, together with the peoples ofthe world, are partners in the pursuit toachieve a just peace that ends occupation andwar and achieves security, stability, and pros-perity to all the peoples of our region.

Today, ladies and gentlemen, we have con-ducted a good and useful round of talks withHis Excellency President Obama. It was an op-portunity to focus, on our side, on the risks—and the disastrous risks—that the continuationof settlement activity represent on this two-state solution and over the need to release pris-oners.

I asserted to His Excellency the Presidentthat Palestine has taken long and additionalsteps for the sake of making peace. I hereby as-sert again that we are ready to implement allour commitments and obligations and to

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respect the signed agreements and internation-al legitimacy resolutions in order to provide forthe requirements of launching the peace pro-cess and achieving the two-state solutions, Pal-estine and Israel.

We are also serious in ending the divisionand achieve the Palestinian reconciliation,which constitutes an additional source of pow-er for us to continue our march towards mak-ing peace, security, and stability in the region.

I have renewed confidence that the UnitedStates, represented by His Excellency Presi-dent Obama and Mr. John Kerry, shall intensi-fy its efforts to remove the obstacles ahead ofthe efforts to achieve a just peace, which thepeoples of the region have long awaited.

Here I wish to thank the President for hiscontinuous confirmation of the U.S. commit-ment to provide support to the Palestinianpeople and to thank him and his administrationfor the support that has been provided duringthe past years—various forms of support—tothe Palestinian treasury, to development proj-ects, and to the UNRWA.

Mr. President, once again, you are welcomein Palestine. Thank you.

President Obama. Marhaba. Thank you,President Abbas, for your generous words andfor welcoming me to Ramallah. I was last here5 years ago, and it’s a pleasure to be back, tosee the progress that’s happened since my lastvisit, but also to bear witness to the enduringchallenges to peace and security that so manyPalestinians seek. I’ve returned to the WestBank because the United States is deeply com-mitted to the creation of an independent andsovereign state of Palestine.

The Palestinian people deserve an end tooccupation and the daily indignities that comewith it. Palestinians deserve to move and travelfreely and to feel secure in their communities.Like people everywhere, Palestinians deserve afuture of hope: that their rights will be respect-ed; that tomorrow will be better than today;and that they can give their children a life ofdignity and opportunity. Put simply, Palestin-ians deserve a state of their own.

I want to commend President Abbas and hisPrime Minister, Salam Fayyad, for the prog-

ress that they’ve made in building the institu-tions of a Palestinian state. And the UnitedStates is a proud partner in these efforts, as thesingle largest donor of assistance that improvesthe lives of Palestinians, both in the West Bankand Gaza. As your partner, we salute yourachievements, and we mourn your losses. Weoffer condolences, in particular, over the lossof your fellow Palestinians last weekend in thetragic accident in Jordan.

And Ramallah is a very different city thanthe one I visited 5 years ago. There’s new con-struction. There’s new businesses, new start-ups, including many high-tech companies, con-necting Palestinians to the global economy.The Palestinian Authority is more efficient andmore transparent. There are new efforts tocombat corruption so entrepreneurs and de-velopment can expand. Palestinian securityforces are stronger and more professional,serving communities like Bethlehem, wherePresident Abbas and I will visit the Church ofthe Nativity tomorrow.

Moreover, this progress has been achievedunder some extremely challenging circum-stances. So I want to pay tribute to PresidentAbbas and Prime Minister Fayyad for theircourage, for their tenacity, and for their com-mitment to building the institutions uponwhich a lasting peace and security will depend.

I would point out that all this stands in starkcontrast to the misery and repression that somany Palestinians continue to confront in Gazabecause Hamas refuses to renounce violence,because Hamas cares more about enforcing itsown rigid dogmas than allowing Palestinians tolive freely, and because too often it focuses ontearing Israel down rather than building Pales-tine up. And we saw the continuing threat fromGaza again overnight, with the rockets that tar-geted Sderot. We condemn this violation of theimportant cease-fire that protects both Israelisand Palestinians, a violation that Hamas has aresponsibility to prevent.

Now, here in the West Bank, I realize thatthis continues to be a difficult time for the Pal-estinian Authority financially. So I’m pleasedthat in recent weeks the United States hasbeen able to provide additional assistance to

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help the Palestinian Authority bolster its fi-nances. Projects through USAID will helpstrengthen governance, rule of law, economicdevelopment, education, and health. We con-sider these to be investments in a future Pales-tinian state, investments in peace, which is inall of our interests.

And more broadly, in our discussions today,I reaffirmed to President Abbas that the Unit-ed States remains committed to realizing thevision of two states, which is in the interests ofthe Palestinian people and also in the nationalsecurity interests of Israel, the United States,and the world. We seek an independent, a via-ble, and contiguous Palestinian state as thehomeland of the Palestinian people, alongsidethe Jewish State of Israel: two nations enjoyingself-determination, security, and peace.

As I’ve said many times, the only way toachieve that goal is through direct negotiationsbetween Israelis and Palestinians themselves.There is no shortcut to a sustainable solution.

In our discussion with President Abbas, Iheard him speak eloquently about the difficultissues that cannot be ignored, among themproblems caused by continued settlement ac-tivity, the plight of Palestinian prisoners, andaccess to holy sites in Jerusalem. I understandthat the status quo isn’t really a status quo, be-cause the situation on the ground continues toevolve in a direction that makes it harder toreach a two-state solution. And I know that thePalestinian people are deeply frustrated.

So one of my main messages today—thesame message I’m conveying in Israel—is thatwe cannot give up. We cannot give up on thesearch for peace, no matter how hard it is. As Isaid with Prime Minister Netanyahu yesterday,we will continue to look for steps that both Is-raelis and Palestinians can take to build thetrust and the confidence upon which lastingpeace will depend. And I very much appreciatehearing President Abbas’s ideas on what thosesteps could be.

I want both sides to know that, as difficult asthe current situation is, my administration iscommitted to doing our part. And I know thatSecretary of State John Kerry intends to spendsignificant time, effort, and energy in trying to

bring about a closing of the gap between theparties. We cannot give up on the search forpeace. Too much is at stake.

And if we’re going to succeed, part of whatwe’re going to have to do is to get out of someof the formulas and habits that have blockedprogress for so long. Both sides are going tohave to think anew. Those of us in the UnitedStates are going to have to think anew. But I’mconfident that we can arrive at our destinationto advance the vision of two nations, two neigh-bors at peace: Israel and Palestine.

If given the chance, one thing that I’m verycertain of is that the Palestinians have the tal-ent, the drive, and the courage to succeed intheir own state. I think of the villages that holdpeaceful protests because they understand themoral force of nonviolence. I think of the im-portance that Palestinian families place on ed-ucation. I think of the entrepreneurs deter-mined to create something new, like the youngPalestinian woman I met at the entrepreneur-ship summit that I hosted who wants to buildrecreation centers for Palestinian youth. Ithink of the aspirations that so many youngPalestinians have for their future, which is whyI’m looking forward to visiting with some ofthem right after we conclude this press confer-ence.

That’s why we can’t give up, because ofyoung Palestinians and young Israelis who de-serve a better future than one that is continual-ly defined by conflict. Whenever I meet theseyoung people, whether they’re Palestinian orIsraeli, I’m reminded of my own daughters,and I know what hopes and aspirations I havefor them. And those of us in the United Statesunderstand that change takes time, but it is al-so possible, because there was a time when mydaughters could not expect to have the sameopportunities in their own country as some-body else’s daughters.

What’s true in the United States can be truehere as well. We can make those changes, butwe’re going to have to be determined. We’regoing to have to have courage. We’re going tohave to be willing to break out of the old hab-its, the old arguments, to reach for that newplace, that new world. And I want all the

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people here and throughout the region toknow that you will have the President of theUnited States and an administration that iscommitted to achieving that goal.


Arab-Israeli Peace Process/Entrepreneurial Spir-it of Israelis and Palestinians/Israeli Settlementsin the West Bank

Moderator. Thank you, President Obama.Thank you, President Abbas. We will nowopen the floor to questions. We will take twoquestions. First question, Ali Sawafta, Reuters.

Q. Mr. President, after you meet leadersfrom both sides, is there any chance to resumepeace talks as soon as possible? And do youthink that the two-state solution is still valid inthis policy of expanding settlements is continu-ing going on? And my last question: Did youraise the freezing of settlement activity withthe Prime Minister Netanyahu when you methim? Thanks.

President Obama. Based on the conversa-tions that I’ve had with Prime Minister Netan-yahu and President Abbas, I do think the possi-bility continues to exist for a two-state solution.I continue to believe it is our best—and in-deed, in some ways, our only—chance toachieve the kinds of peaceful resolution of oldconflicts, but also the opening up of new op-portunities for peoples on both sides to thrive,to succeed, for both Israel and a state of Pales-tine to be incorporated into the global econo-my.

I mean, one of the striking things, one of theironies of this conflict is that both the Israelispeople and the Palestinian people are extreme-ly entrepreneurial. They have a keen businesssense. They could be hugely successful in help-ing to lift up the economy of the region as awhole.

I was with President Peres this morning be-fore I came here, looking at a high-tech exhibitthat was taking place in Jerusalem. And therewas actually a program that U.S.—a U.S. com-pany, Cisco, had set up, where it was hiringyoung Arab engineers and Palestinian engi-neers because they were so well qualified, sotalented, and there was a great hunger for

those kinds of skills. Well, imagine if you havea strong, independent state that’s peaceful, allthe talent that currently is being untapped thatcould be creating jobs and businesses andprosperity throughout this area.

So I absolutely believe that it is still possible.But I think it is very difficult. I think it’s diffi-cult because of all sorts of political constraintson both sides. I think it’s difficult, frankly, be-cause sometimes, even though we know whatcompromises have to be made in order toachieve peace, it’s hard to admit that thosecompromises need to be made, because peoplewant to cling on to their old positions and wantto have 100 percent of what they want or 95percent of what they want, instead of makingthe necessary compromises.

And as a politician, I can say it’s hard for po-litical leaders to get too far ahead of your con-stituencies. And that’s true for Prime MinisterNetanyahu; I’m sure it’s true for President Ab-bas as well.

But if we can get direct negotiations startedagain, I believe that the shape of a potentialdeal is there. And if both sides can make thatleap together, then not only do I believe thatthe Israeli people and the Palestinian peoplewould ultimately support it in huge numbers,but I also think the world and the region wouldcheer. There would be some who would be up-set because they benefit from the current con-flict. They like the status quo; they like the ar-rangement as it is. But I actually think thatthere are majorities out there who right nowdon’t feel helpful, but still would strongly sup-port both Palestinian and Israeli leadershipthat made the necessary effort and compromis-es for peace.

Now, one of the challenges, I know, hasbeen continued settlement activity in the WestBank area. And I’ve been clear with PrimeMinister Netanyahu and other Israeli leader-ship that it has been the United States policy,not just for my administration, but for all pre-ceding administrations, that we do not consid-er continued settlement activity to be con-structive, to be appropriate, to be somethingthat can advance the cause of peace. So I don’t

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think there’s any confusion in terms of whatour position is.

I will say, with respect to Israel, that the pol-itics there are complex, and I recognize thatthat’s not an issue that’s going to be solved im-mediately. It’s not going to be solved over-night.

On the other hand, what I shared with Pres-ident Abbas and I will share with the Palestin-ian people is that if the expectation is, is thatwe can only have direct negotiations when ev-erything is settled ahead of time, then there’sno point for negotiations.

So I think it’s important for us to workthrough this process, even if there are irritantson both sides. The Israelis have concerns aboutrockets flying into their cities to—last night.And it would be easy for them to say, you see,this is why we can’t have peace, because wecan’t afford to have our kids in beds sleepingand suddenly a rocket comes through the roof.But my argument is, even though both sidesmay have areas of strong disagreement, may beengaging in activities that the other side con-siders to be a breach of good faith, we have topush through those things to try to get to anagreement, because if we get an agreement,then it will be very clear what the nature ofthat agreement is: There will be a sovereignPalestinian state, a sovereign Jewish State ofIsrael.

And those two states, I think, will be able todeal with each other the same way all states do.I mean, the United States and Canada has ar-guments once in a while, but they’re not thenature of arguments that can’t be solved diplo-matically. And I think we can keep pushingthrough some of these problems and makesure that we don’t use them as an excuse not todo anything.

Israeli Settlements in the West Bank/Arab-IsraeliPeace Process

Moderator. Our second question comesfrom the U.S. delegation, and it will be the lastquestion, from Major Garrett of CBS News.

Q. Mr. President, President Abbas, on be-half of all my colleagues, I want to get a littlebit more specific on the question of settle-

ments and the overall peace process. Mr. Pres-ident, when you started your administration,you called for a halt of new settlement activity.That held up for a while, but then it dissipated.And then late last year when the Israeli Gov-ernment announced very sensitive settlementactivity in the E–1 zone, your administrationput out a statement that many in this regionthought was either tepid or completely nonre-sponsive. What would you say here, in Ramal-lah, Mr. President, to those entrepreneurialPalestinians you referenced who believe you’veeither been equivocal or nonresponsive to theissue of Israeli settlements?

And do you, President Abbas, do you be-lieve it is necessary for the peace process tostart with a declaration publicly from the Israe-li Government that it will either slow down orstop entirely new settlement activity?

And broadly, on the peace process itself,Mr. President, you talked about thinking anew.Historically, the theory has been nothing isagreed to until everything is agreed to. Areyou, Mr. President Obama and President Ab-bas, open to a theory that would say, if thingsare agreed to, they shall be implemented, tobuild confidence on both sides and restart thepeace process? Thank you.

President Obama. Well, Major, I think I an-swered the question previously about settle-ments. You mentioned E–1, in particular. Ithink that is a—an example of a—at least apublic statement by the Israeli Governmentthat would be very difficult to square with atwo-state solution. And I’ve said that to PrimeMinister Netanyahu. I don’t think that’s a se-cret.

With respect to whether there’s a require-ment for a freeze or moratorium, I want to re-peat what I just said earlier, which is, if the on-ly way to even begin the conversations is thatwe get everything right at the outset—or atleast, each party is constantly negotiating aboutwhat’s required to get into talks in the firstplace—then we’re never going to get to thebroader issue, which is, how do you actuallystructure a state of Palestine that is sovereign,contiguous, and provides the Palestinian peo-ple dignity, and how do you provide Israel

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confidence about its security, which are thecore issues?

The core issue right now is, how do we geta—sovereignty for the Palestinian people andhow do we assure security for the Israeli peo-ple? And that’s the essence of this negotiation.And that’s not to say settlements are not im-portant. It is to say that if we solve those twoproblems, the settlement problem will besolved.

So I don’t want to put the cart before thehorse. I want to make sure that we are gettingto the core issues and the substance, under-standing that both sides should be doing whatthey can to build confidence, to rebuild a senseof trust. And that’s where, hopefully, the U.S.Government can be helpful.

On your last point, I think that part of mygoal during this trip has been to hear fromboth President Abbas and Prime Minister Ne-tanyahu about what they would need and howthey would see a potential path, how it wouldbe structured. And so I think it’s premature forme to give you an answer to the question youjust posed. I think it was a good one, I think itwas a legitimate one, but I’m still hearing fromthem. And me, Secretary Kerry, others, we’regoing to go back and look at what we’ve heardfrom both sides and make a determination asto what has the best prospect for success.

I will say this: that I think incremental stepsthat serve to delay and put off some of themore fundamental issues, rather than incre-mental steps that help to shape what a final set-tlement might look like, are probably not goingto be the best approach, because I—it’s notclear that that would, in fact, build trust. If youhave a situation where it looks like the incre-mental steps replace the broader vision, as op-posed to incremental steps in pursuit of abroader vision, then I think what you end upgetting is 4 more years, 10 more years, 20 moreyears of conflict and tension, in which bothsides are testing the boundaries of those incre-mental agreements.

Whereas if we can get a broad-based agree-ment that assures the Palestinians that theyhave a state, and you have a comprehensive ap-proach that ensures Israel the kind of security

that they need, the likelihood of that deal hold-ing—and ultimately, the sense of trust thatcomes from people-to-people relations, notjust governmental relations—I think that’smuch more likely to occur.

President Abbas. Regarding the issue of set-tlements, it is not only our perception that set-tlements are illegal, but it is a global perspec-tive. Everybody considers settlements not onlya hurdle, but even more than a hurdle, towardsthe two-state solution.

We mentioned and we remember that theSecurity Council, during the seventies andeighties, had issued more than 13 resolutionsnot only condemning settlements, but de-manding ending them and removing them be-cause they are illegal. We are asking for noth-ing outside the framework of international le-gitimacy. Hence, it is the duty of the IsraeliGovernment to at least halt the activity so thatwe can speak of issues. And when we defineour borders and their borders together, eachside will know its territory in which it can dowhatever it pleases.

So the issue of settlements is clear. We nev-er give up our vision, whether now or previous-ly, but we continue to maintain this vision, andwe believe the settlements are illegal and thatsettlement activity is illegal. We hope that theIsraeli Government understands this. We hopethey listen to many opinions inside Israel itselfspeaking of the illegality of settlements.

We spoke about this with Mr. President, andwe clarified our point of view on how we canreach a solution. Many Palestinians, when theysee settlements everywhere in the WestBank—and I don’t know who gave Israel thatright—they do not trust the two-state solutionor vision anymore. And this is very dangerous,that people and the new generation reachesthe conviction that it is no more possible to be-lieve in the two-state solution.

We continue to believe in the two-state vi-sion on the 1967 borders, and consequently, ifpeace between us and the Israelis is achieved,the Israelis will know very well that the Araband Islamic world all together, which means 57Arab and Muslim States, shall immediately rec-

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ognize the State of Israel according to the roadmap—and thank you—and the Arab initiative.

NOTE: The President’s news conference beganat 1:33 p.m. at the Muqata Presidential Com-pound. In his remarks, President Obama re-ferred to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

and President Shimon Peres of Israel. Presi-dent Abbas referred to the United Nations Re-lief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugeesin the Near East (UNRWA). President Abbasspoke in Arabic, and his remarks were translat-ed by an interpreter.

Remarks at the International Convention Center in JerusalemMarch 21, 2013

Shalom. Thank you so much. Well, it is agreat honor to be with you here in Jerusalem,and I’m so grateful for the welcome that I’vereceived from the people of Israel. Thank you.I bring with me the support of the Americanpeople and the friendship that binds us togeth-er.

Over the last 2 days, I’ve reaffirmed thebonds between our countries with Prime Min-ister Netanyahu and President Peres. I’veborne witness to the ancient history of the Jew-ish people at the Shrine of the Book, and I’veseen Israel’s shining future in your scientistsand your entrepreneurs. This is a nation of mu-seums and patents, timeless holy sites, ground-breaking innovation. Only in Israel could yousee the Dead Sea Scrolls and the place wherethe technology onboard the Mars Rover origi-nated at the same time.

But what I’ve most looked forward to is theability to speak directly to you, the Israeli peo-ple—especially so many young people who arehere today—to talk about the history thatbrought us here today and the future that youwill make in the years to come.

Now, I know that in Israel’s vibrant democ-racy, every word and every gesture is carefullyscrutinized. [Laughter] But I want to clearsomething up just so you know: Any drama be-tween me and my friend Bibi over the yearswas just a plot to create material for “Eretz Ne-hederet.” That’s the only thing that was goingon. We just wanted to make sure the writershad good material. [Laughter]

I also know that I come to Israel on the eveof a sacred holiday, the celebration of Passover.And that is where I would like to begin today.

Just a few days from now, Jews here in Israeland around the world will sit with family andfriends at the Seder table and celebrate withsongs, wine, and symbolic foods. After enjoy-ing Seders with family and friends in Chicagoand on the campaign trail, I’m proud that I’venow brought this tradition into the WhiteHouse, and I did so because I wanted mydaughters to experience the Haggadah and thestory at the center of Passover that makes thistime of year so powerful.

It’s a story of centuries of slavery and yearsof wandering in the desert, a story of persever-ance amidst persecution and faith in God andthe Torah. It’s a story about finding freedom inyour own land. And for the Jewish people, thisstory is central to who you’ve become. But it’salso a story that holds within it the universalhuman experience, with all of its suffering, butalso all of its salvation.

It’s a part of the three great religions—Juda-ism, Christianity, and Islam—that trace theirorigins to Abraham and see Jerusalem as sa-cred. And it’s a story that’s inspired communi-ties across the globe, including me and my fel-low Americans.

In the United States, a nation made up ofpeople who crossed oceans to start anew, we’renaturally drawn to the idea of finding freedomin our land. To African Americans, the story ofthe Exodus was perhaps the central story, themost powerful image about emerging from thegrip of bondage to reach for liberty and humandignity, a tale that was carried from slaverythrough the civil rights movement into today.

For generations, this promise helped peopleweather poverty and persecution, while hold-ing on to the hope that a better day was on the

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horizon. For me, personally, growing up in far-flung parts of the world and without firm roots,the story spoke to a yearning within every hu-man being for a home.

Of course, even as we draw strength fromthe story of God’s will and His gift of freedomexpressed on Passover, we also know that hereon Earth, we must bear our responsibilities inan imperfect world. That means accepting ourmeasure of sacrifice and struggle, just like pre-vious generations. It means us workingthrough generation after generation on behalfof that ideal of freedom.

As Dr. Martin Luther King said on the daybefore he was killed: “I may not get there withyou. But I want you to know that we, as a peo-ple, will get to the Promised Land.” So just asJoshua carried on after Moses, the work goeson for all of you, the Joshua generation, for jus-tice and dignity, for opportunity and freedom.

For the Jewish people, the journey to thepromise of the State of Israel wound throughcountless generations. It involved centuries ofsuffering and exile, prejudice and pogroms andeven genocide. Through it all, the Jewish peo-ple sustained their unique identity and tradi-tions, as well as a longing to return home. Andwhile Jews achieved extraordinary success inmany parts of the world, the dream of truefreedom finally found its full expression in theZionist idea: to be a free people in your home-land. That’s why I believe that Israel is rootednot just in history and tradition, but also in asimple and profound idea: the idea that peopledeserve to be free in a land of their own.

Over the last 65 years, when Israel has beenat its best, Israelis have demonstrated that re-sponsibility does not end when you reach thePromised Land, it only begins. And so Israelhas been a refuge for the diaspora, welcomingJews from Europe, from the former SovietUnion, from Ethiopia, from North Africa.

Israel has built a prosperous nation, throughkibbutzim that made the desert bloom, busi-ness that broadened the middle class, innova-tors who reached new frontiers, from thesmallest microchip to the orbits of space. Israelhas established a thriving democracy, with aspirited civil society and proud political parties

and a tireless free press and a lively public de-bate; “lively” may be an understatement.

And Israel has achieved all this even as it’sovercome relentless threats to its security,through the courage of the Israel DefenseForces and the citizenry that is so resilient inthe face of terror.

This is the story of Israel. This is the workthat has brought the dreams of so many gener-ations to life. And every step of the way, Israelhas built unbreakable bonds of friendship withmy country, the United States of America.

Those ties began only 11 minutes after Is-raeli independence, when the United Stateswas the first nation to recognize the State of Is-rael. As President Truman said in explaininghis decision to recognize Israel, he said, “I be-lieve it has a glorious future before it not just asanother sovereign nation, but as an embodi-ment of the great ideals of our civilization.”And since then, we’ve built a friendship thatadvances our shared interests.

Together, we share a commitment to securi-ty for our citizens and the stability of the Mid-dle East and North Africa. Together, we sharea focus on advancing economic growth aroundthe globe and strengthening the middle classwithin our own countries. Together, we share astake in the success of democracy.

But the source of our friendship extends be-yond mere interests, just as it has transcendedpolitical parties and individual leaders. Ameri-ca is a nation of immigrants. America isstrengthened by diversity. America is enrichedby faith. We are governed not simply by menand women, but by laws. We’re fueled by en-trepreneurship and innovation, and we are de-fined by a democratic discourse that allowseach generation to reimagine and renew ourUnion once more. So in Israel, we see valuesthat we share, even as we recognize whatmakes us different. That is an essential part ofour bond.

Now, I stand here today mindful that forboth our nations, these are some complicatedtimes. We have difficult issues to work throughwithin our own countries, and we face dangersand upheaval around the world. And when Ilook at young people within the United States,

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I think about the choices that they must makein their lives to define who we’ll be as a nationin this 21st century, particularly as we emergefrom two wars and the worst recession sincethe Great Depression. But part of the reason Ilike talking to young people is because, no mat-ter how great the challenges are, their ideal-ism, their energy, their ambition always givesme hope.

And I see the same spirit in the young peo-ple here today. I believe that you will shapeour future. And given the ties between ourcountries, I believe your future is bound toours.

[At this point, there was a disruption in the au-dience.]

No, no, this is part of the lively debate thatwe talked about. This is good. You know, Ihave to say, we actually arranged for that, be-cause it made me feel at home. [Laughter] Iwouldn’t feel comfortable if I didn’t have atleast one heckler. [Laughter]

I’d like to focus on how we—and when I say“we,” in particular, young people—can worktogether to make progress in three areas thatwill define our times: security, peace, and pros-perity.

Let me begin with security. I’m proud thatthe security relationship between the UnitedStates and Israel has never been stronger. Nev-er. More exercises between our militaries;more exchanges among our political and mili-tary and intelligence officials than ever before;the largest program to date to help you retainyour qualitative military edge. These are thefacts. These aren’t my opinions, these are facts.But to me, this is not simply measured on abalance sheet. I know that here, in Israel, secu-rity is something personal.

Here’s what I think about when I considerthese issues. When I consider Israel’s security,I think about children like Osher Twito, who Imet in Sderot: children the same age as myown daughters, who went to bed at night fear-ful that a rocket would land in their bedroomsimply because of who they are and where theylive.

That reality is why we’ve invested in theIron Dome system to save countless lives, be-cause those children deserve to sleep better atnight. That’s why we’ve made it clear, time andagain, that Israel cannot accept rocket attacksfrom Gaza, and we have stood up for Israel’sright to defend itself. And that’s why Israel hasa right to expect Hamas to renounce violenceand recognize Israel’s right to exist.

When I think about Israel’s security, I thinkabout five Israelis who boarded a bus in Bul-garia, who were blown up because of wherethey came from, robbed of the ability to liveand love and raise families. That’s why everycountry that values justice should call Hizbal-lah what it truly is: a terrorist organization. Be-cause the world cannot tolerate an organizationthat murders innocent civilians, stockpilesrockets to shoot at cities, and supports the mas-sacre of men and women and children in Syriaright now.

The fact that Hizballah’s ally, the Asad re-gime, has stockpiles of chemical weapons onlyheightens the urgency. We will continue to co-operate closely to guard against that danger.I’ve made it clear to Bashar al-Asad and all whofollow his orders: We will not tolerate the useof chemical weapons against the Syrian peopleor the transfer of those weapons to terrorists.The world is watching; we will hold you ac-countable.

The Syrian people have the right to be freedfrom the grip of a dictator who would ratherkill his own people than relinquish power.Asad must go so that Syria’s future can begin.Because true stability in Syria depends uponestablishing a government that is responsibleto its people, one that protects all communitieswithin its borders, while making peace withcountries beyond them.

These are the things I think about when Ithink about Israel’s security. When I considerIsrael’s security, I also think about a peoplewho have a living memory of the Holocaust,faced with the prospect of a nuclear-armedIranian Government that has called for Israel’sdestruction. It’s no wonder Israelis view this asan existential threat. But this is not simply achallenge for Israel, it is a danger for the entire

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world, including the United States. A nuclear-armed Iran would raise the risk of nuclear ter-rorism. It would undermine the nonprolifera-tion regime. It would spark an arms race in avolatile region. And it would embolden a Gov-ernment that has shown no respect for therights of its own people or the responsibilitiesof nations.

That’s why America has built a coalition toincrease the cost to Iran of failing to meet theirobligations. The Iranian Government is nowunder more pressure than ever before, andthat pressure is increasing. It is isolated. Itseconomy is in dire straits. Its leadership is di-vided. And its position—in the region and theworld—has only grown weaker.

I do believe that all of us have an interest inresolving this issue peacefully. Strong and prin-cipled diplomacy is the best way to ensure thatthe Iranian Government forsakes nuclearweapons. Peace is far more preferable to war.And the inevitable costs, the unintended con-sequences that would come with war meansthat we have to do everything we can to try toresolve this diplomatically. Because of the co-operation between our governments, we knowthat there remains time to pursue a diplomaticresolution. That’s what America will do, withclear eyes, working with a world that’s unitedand with the sense of urgency that’s required.

But Iran must know this time is not unlimit-ed. And I’ve made the position of the UnitedStates of America clear: Iran must not get a nu-clear weapon. This is not a danger that can becontained, and as President, I’ve said all op-tions are on the table for achieving our objec-tives. America will do what we must to preventa nuclear-armed Iran.

For young Israelis, I know that these issuesof security are rooted in an experience that iseven more fundamental than the pressingthreat of the day. You live in a neighborhoodwhere many of your neighbors have rejectedthe right of your nation to exist. Your grandpar-ents had to risk their lives and all that they hadto make a place for themselves in this world.Your parents lived through war after war to en-sure the survival of the Jewish state. Your chil-dren grow up knowing that people they’ve nev-

er met may hate them because of who they are,in a region that is full of turmoil and changingunderneath your feet.

So that’s what I think about when Israel isfaced with these challenges, that sense of an Is-rael that is surrounded by many in this regionwho still reject it and many in the world whorefuse to accept it. And that’s why the securityof the Jewish people in Israel is so important.It cannot be taken for granted.

But make no mistake: Those who adhere tothe ideology of rejecting Israel’s right to exist,they might as well reject the earth beneaththem or the sky above, because Israel is not go-ing anywhere. And today I want to tell you—particularly, the young people—so that there’sno mistake here: So long as there is a UnitedStates of America: Atem lo levad—you are notalone.

The question is, what kind of future Israelwill look forward to? Israel is not going any-where, but especially for the young people inthis audience, the question is, what does its fu-ture hold? And that brings me to the subject ofpeace.

I know Israel has taken risks for peace.Brave leaders—Menachem Begin, YitzhakRabin—reached treaties with two of yourneighbors. You made credible proposals to thePalestinians at Annapolis. You withdrew fromGaza and Lebanon and then faced terror androckets. Across the region, you’ve extended ahand of friendship and all too often, you’vebeen confronted with rejection and, in somecases, the ugly reality of anti-Semitism. So Ibelieve that the Israeli people do want peace,and I also understand why too many Israelis—maybe an increasing number, maybe a lot ofyoung people here today—are skeptical that itcan be achieved.

But today, Israel is at a crossroads. It can betempting to put aside the frustrations and sac-rifices that come with the pursuit of peace,particularly when Iron Dome repels rockets,barriers keep out suicide bombers. There’s somany other pressing issues that demand yourattention. And I know that only Israelis canmake the fundamental decisions about yourcountry’s future. I recognize that.

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I also know, by the way, that not everyone inthis hall will agree with what I have to sayabout peace. I recognize that there are thosewho are not simply skeptical about peace, butquestion its underlying premise, have a differ-ent vision for Israel’s future. And that’s part ofa democracy. That’s part of the discourse be-tween our two countries. I recognize that. ButI also believe it’s important to be open andhonest, especially with your friends. I also be-lieve that.

Politically, given the strong bipartisan sup-port for Israel in America, the easiest thing forme to do would be to put this issue aside, justexpress unconditional support for whatever Is-rael decides to do. That would be the easiestpolitical path. But I want you to know that Ispeak to you as a friend who is deeply con-cerned and committed to your future, and Iask you to consider three points.

First, peace is necessary. I believe that. I be-lieve that peace is the only path to true securi-ty. You can be—you have the opportunity to bethe generation that permanently secures theZionist dream, or you can face a growing chal-lenge to its future. Given the demographicswest of the Jordan River, the only way for Isra-el to endure and thrive as a Jewish and demo-cratic state is through the realization of an in-dependent and viable Palestine. That is true.

There are other factors involved. Given thefrustration in the international communityabout this conflict, Israel needs to reverse anundertow of isolation. And given the march oftechnology, the only way to truly protect theIsraeli people over the long term is through theabsence of war. Because no wall is high enoughand no Iron Dome is strong enough or perfectenough to stop every enemy that is intent ondoing so from inflicting harm.

And this truth is more pronounced given thechanges sweeping the Arab world. I under-stand that with the uncertainty in the region—people in the streets, changes in leadership,the rise of nonsecular parties in politics—it’stempting to turn inward, because the situationoutside of Israel seems so chaotic. But this isprecisely the time to respond to the wave ofrevolution with a resolve and commitment for

peace. Because as more governments respondto popular will, the days when Israel could seekpeace simply with a handful of autocratic lead-ers, those days are over. Peace will have to bemade among peoples, not just governments.

No one—no single step—can change over-night what lies in the hearts and minds of mil-lions. No single step is going to erase years ofhistory and propaganda. But progress with thePalestinians is a powerful way to begin, whilesidelining extremists who thrive on conflict andthrive on division. It would make a difference.

So peace is necessary. But peace is also just.Peace is also just. There is no question that Is-rael has faced Palestinian factions who turnedto terror, leaders who missed historic opportu-nities. That is all true. And that’s why securitymust be at the center of any agreement. Andthere is no question that the only path to peaceis through negotiations, which is why, despitethe criticism we’ve received, the United Stateswill oppose unilateral efforts to bypass negotia-tions through the United Nations. It has to bedone by the parties. But the Palestinian peo-ple’s right to self-determination, their right tojustice, must also be recognized.

Put yourself in their shoes. Look at theworld through their eyes. It is not fair that aPalestinian child cannot grow up in a state oftheir own, living their entire lives with thepresence of a foreign army that controls themovements not just of those young people, buttheir parents, their grandparents, every singleday. It’s not just when settler violence againstPalestinians goes unpunished. It’s not right toprevent Palestinians from farming their landsor restricting a student’s ability to move aroundthe West Bank or displace Palestinian familiesfrom their homes. Neither occupation nor ex-pulsion is the answer. Just as Israelis built astate in their homeland, Palestinians have aright to be a free people in their own land.

I’m going off script here for a second, butbefore I came here, I met with a group ofyoung Palestinians from the age of 15 to 22.And talking to them, they weren’t that differ-ent from my daughters. They weren’t that dif-ferent from your daughters or sons. I honestlybelieve that if any Israeli parent sat down with

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those kids, they’d say, I want these kids to suc-ceed; I want them to prosper. I want them tohave opportunities just like my kids do. I be-lieve that’s what Israeli parents would want forthese kids if they had a chance to listen to themand talk to them. I believe that.

Now, only you can determine what kind ofdemocracy you will have. But remember thatas you make these decisions, you will definenot simply the future of your relationship withthe Palestinians, you will define the future ofIsrael as well.

As Ariel Sharon said—I’m quoting him—“Itis impossible to have a Jewish democratic state,at the same time to control all of Eretz Israel.If we insist on fulfilling the dream in its entire-ty, we are liable to lose it all.” Or from a differ-ent perspective, I think of what the novelistDavid Grossman said shortly after losing hisson, as he described the necessity of peace: “Apeace of no choice,” he said, “must be ap-proached with the same determination andcreativity as one approaches a war of nochoice.”

Now, Israel cannot be expected to negotiatewith anyone who is dedicated to its destruc-tion. But while I know you have had differenc-es with the Palestinian Authority, I genuinelybelieve that you do have a true partner in Pres-ident Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad. I be-lieve that. And they have a track record toprove it. Over the last few years, they havebuilt institutions and maintained security onthe West Bank in ways that few could haveimagined just a few years ago. So many Pales-tinians—including young people—have reject-ed violence as a means of achieving their aspi-rations.

There is an opportunity there, there’s a win-dow, which brings me to my third point: Peaceis possible. [Applause] It is possible. I’m notsaying it’s guaranteed. I can’t even say that it ismore likely than not. But it is possible. I knowit doesn’t seem that way. There are always go-ing to be reasons to avoid risk. There are costsfor failure. There will always be extremists whoprovide an excuse not to act.

I know there must be something exhaustingabout endless talks about talks and daily con-

troversies and just the grinding status quo. AndI’m sure there’s a temptation just to say, “Ah,enough.” Let me focus on my small corner ofthe world and my family and my job and what Ican control. But it’s possible.

Negotiations will be necessary, but there’slittle secret about where they must lead: twostates for two peoples. [Applause] Two statesfor two peoples.

There will be differences about how to getthere. There are going to be hard choices alongthe way. Arab States must adapt to a world thathas changed. The days when they could con-demn Israel to distract their people from a lackof opportunity or government corruption ormismanagement, those days need to be over.Now is the time for the Arab world to takesteps towards normalizing relations with Israel.

Meanwhile, Palestinians must recognizethat Israel will be a Jewish state and that Israe-lis have the right to insist upon their security.Israelis must recognize that continued settle-ment activity is counterproductive to the causeof peace and that an independent Palestinemust be viable with real borders that have tobe drawn.

I’ve suggested principles on territory and se-curity that I believe can be the basis for thesetalks. But for the moment, put aside the plansand the process. I ask you instead to thinkabout what can be done to build trust betweenpeople.

Now, 4 years ago, I stood in Cairo in front ofan audience of young people; politically, reli-giously, they must seem a world away. But thethings they want, they’re not so different fromwhat the young people here want. They wantthe ability to make their own decisions and toget an education, to get a good job, to worshipGod in their own way, to get married, to raise afamily. The same is true of those young Pales-tinians that I met with this morning. The sameis true for young Palestinians who yearn for abetter life in Gaza.

That’s where peace begins, not just in theplans of leaders, but in the hearts of people;not just in some carefully designed process,but in the daily connections, that sense of em-pathy that takes place among those who live to-

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gether in this land and in this sacred city of Je-rusalem.

And let me say this as a politician. I canpromise you this: Political leaders will nevertake risks if the people do not push them totake some risks. You must create the changethat you want to see. Ordinary people can ac-complish extraordinary things.

I know this is possible. Look to the bridgesbeing built in business and civil society bysome of you here today. Look at the youngpeople who’ve not yet learned a reason to mis-trust or those young people who’ve learned toovercome a legacy of mistrust that they inherit-ed from their parents because they simply rec-ognize that we hold more hopes in commonthan fears that drive us apart. Your voices mustbe louder than those who would drown outhope. Your hopes must light the way forward.

Look to a future in which Jews and Muslimsand Christians can all live in peace and greaterprosperity in this Holy Land. Believe in that.And most of all, look to the future that youwant for your own children, a future in which aJewish, democratic, vibrant state is protectedand accepted for this time and for all time.

There will be many who say this is not possi-ble, but remember this: Israel is the most pow-erful country in this region. Israel has the un-shakeable support of the most powerful coun-try in the world. Israel is not going anywhere.Israel has the wisdom to see the world as it is,but—this is in your nature—Israel also has thecourage to see the world as it should be.

Ben Gurion once said, “In Israel, in order tobe a realist, you must believe in miracles.”Sometimes, the greatest miracle is recognizingthat the world can change. That’s a lesson thatthe world has learned from the Jewish people.

And that brings me to the final area that I’llfocus on: prosperity and Israel’s broader role inthe world. I know that all the talk about securi-ty and peace can sometimes seem to dominatethe headlines, but that’s not where people live.And every day, even amidst the threats thatyou face, Israelis are defining themselves bythe opportunities that you’re creating.

Through talent and hard work, Israelis haveput this small country at the forefront of theglobal economy.

Israelis understand the value of educationand have produced 10 Nobel laureates. Israelisunderstand the power of invention, and youruniversities educate engineers and inventors.And that spirit has led to economic growth andhuman progress: solar power and electric cars;and bandages and prosthetic limbs that savelives; stem cell research and new drugs thattreat disease; cell phones and computer tech-nology that changed the way people aroundthe world live.

So if people want to see the future of theworld economy, they should look at Tel Aviv,home to hundreds of startups and researchcenters. Israelis are so active on social mediathat every day seemed to bring a differentFacebook campaign about where I should givethis speech. [Laughter]

That innovation is just as important to therelationship between the United States and Is-rael as our security cooperation. Our first freetrade agreement in the world was reached withIsrael, nearly three decades ago. Today, thetrade between our two countries is at $40 bil-lion every year. More importantly, that part-nership is creating new products and medicaltreatments; it’s pushing new frontiers of sci-ence and exploration.

That’s the kind of relationship that Israelshould have—and could have—with everycountry in the world. Already, we see how thatinnovation could reshape this region. There’s aprogram here in Jerusalem that brings togetheryoung Israelis and Palestinians to learn vitalskills in technology and business. An Israeliand Palestinian have started a venture capitalfund to finance Palestinian startups. Over 100high-tech companies have found home on theWest Bank, which speaks to the talent and en-trepreneurial spirit of the Palestinian people.

One of the great ironies of what’s happeningin the broader region is that so much of whatpeople are yearning for—education, entrepre-neurship, the ability to start a business withoutpaying a bribe, the ability to connect to theglobal economy—those are things that can be

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found here in Israel. This should be a hub forthriving regional trade and an engine for op-portunity.

Israel is already a center for innovation thathelps power the global economy. And I believethat all of that potential for prosperity can beenhanced with greater security, enhanced withlasting peace.

Here, in this small strip of land that hasbeen the center of so much of the world’s his-tory, so much triumph and so much tragedy,Israelis have built something that few couldhave imagined 65 years ago. Tomorrow I willpay tribute to that history: at the grave of Her-zl, a man who had the foresight to see the fu-ture of the Jewish people had to be reconnect-ed to their past; at the grave of Rabin, who un-derstood that Israel’s victories in war had to befollowed by the battles for peace; at Yad Vash-em, where the world is reminded of the cloudof evil that can descend on the Jewish peopleand all of humanity if we ever fail to be vigilant.

We bear all that history on our shoulders.We carry all that history in our hearts. Today,as we face the twilight of Israel’s founding gen-

eration, you, the young people of Israel, mustnow claim its future. It falls to you to write thenext chapter in the great story of this great na-tion.

And as the President of a country that youcan count on as your greatest friend, I am con-fident that you can help us find the promise inthe days that lie ahead. And as a man who’sbeen inspired in my own life by that timelesscalling within the Jewish experience, tikkun ol-am, I am hopeful that we can draw upon what’sbest in ourselves to meet the challenges thatwill come, to win the battles for peace in thewake of so much war, and to do the work of re-pairing this world. That’s your job. That’s myjob. That’s the task of all of us.

May God bless you. May God bless Israel.May God bless the United States of America.Toda raba. Thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 4:37 p.m. In hisremarks, he referred to Osher Twito of Sderot,Israel, who was wounded in a rocket attack onFebruary 9, 2008; former Prime Minister ArielSharon of Israel; and author David Grossman.

Remarks at a State Dinner Hosted by President Shimon Peres of Israel inJerusalemMarch 21, 2013

President Peres. I think that’s the President’sremarks. Mr. President, can I read yourspeech, if you want me to? [Laughter] Theyare mistaken. [Laughter]

President Barack Obama, my dear friend,let me say first of all, bravo. Bravo, President.

It is my great pleasure to welcome you to-night. I was moved the way in which you spoketo the hearts of our young Israelis. Our young-sters, in time of need, are always willing tostand up and defend their country. Today youhave seen how much the same young peoplelong for peace. How enthusiastic they were,how engaged they were, listening to the visionof peace, which you beautifully delivered andmoved the heart.

Mr. President, this morning several rocketswere shot from the Gaza Strip toward the civil-

ian targets in Israel, including Sderot, that youhave visited. From here, in the name of all ofus, I want to convey our love to the inhabitantsof the south around Gaza, who carry this heavyburden courageously and continue to plowtheir land, their—plant their trees, raise theirchildren. It is an inspiration to each of us. To-day the enemies of peace spoke in the only lan-guage they know: the language of terror. I amconvinced that together, we shall defeat them.

Dear Barack, your visit here is a historicevent. We are so happy to receive you and yourdistinguished delegation. I am very glad to seeSecretary John Kerry, a reassured friend. John,I know you are and I know you will be success-ful. I’m not sure that the prophets have hadspeechwriters—[laughter]—but if they had, Iimagine Isaiah would have said—but actually,

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he has said on that occasion, and I’m quotinghim—“How beautiful on the mountains arethe feet of those who bring good news, whoproclaim peace, who bring good tidings, whoproclaim salvation.” Well, you have to be satis-fied with my tired language; I cannot speak likehim. [Laughter]

It is my privilege to present you with ourcountry’s highest honor: the Medal of Distinc-tion. This award speaks to you, to your tirelesswork to make Israel strong, to make peace pos-sible. Your Presidency has given the closest tiesbetween Israel and the United States a newheight, a sense of intimacy, a vision for the fu-ture.

The people of Israel are particularly movedby your unforgettable contribution to their se-curity: You are defending our skies. To you—[inaudible]—in the domain of intelligence,which is the right way to preempt bloodshed.The diplomatic and the military bonds be-tween us have reached an unprecedented lev-el.

When I visit you in Washington, I thought inmy heart, America is so great, and we are sosmall. I learned that you don’t measure us bysize, but by values. Thank you. When it comesto values, we are you, and you are us. On occa-sions when we were alone, you stood with us sowe were not alone. We were alone together.We shall never forget it.

During your previous visit to Israel, youasked me if I had any advice to offer. Well, it’snot my nature not to let questions go unan-swered. [Laughter] So I suggested that, whilepeople say that the future belongs to theyoung, it is the present that really belongs tothe young. Leave the future to me. I have time.[Laughter]

I think I was right, because the moment youcame into office, you immediately had to facedaunting and demanding challenges day in,day out. I prayed that you would meet themwith wisdom and determination, without losinghope, without allowing others to lose hope.The prayers were answered; after all, theycame from Jerusalem, and they came to us as agreat message. It is a tribute to your leader-ship, to the strength of your character, to your

principles, that you have never surrendered tohopelessness. You stood and stand firmly byyour vision. Your values serve your nation.They serve our nation as well.

So I know that you will never stop to strivefor a better world, as you say today in a goodHebrew, tikkun olam. We have a rich heritageand a great dream. As I look back, I feel thatthe Israel of today has exceeded the vision wehave had 65 years ago. Reality has surpassedthe dreams. The United States of Americahelped us to make this possible.

Still, the path to tomorrow may be fraughtwith obstacles. I believe that we can overcomethem by our determination and by your com-mitment. I’m convinced that you will do what-ever is necessary to free the world’s horizonsand the skies of Jerusalem from the Iranianthreat. Iran denies the Shoah and calls for anew one. Iran is building a nuclear bomb anddenies it. The Iranian regime is the greatestdanger to the world peace. History has showntime and again that peace, prosperity, and sta-ble civil society cannot flourish when threatsand belligerency abound.

Ladies and gentlemen, tonight the Iranianpeople are celebrating their New Year,Nowruz. I wish them, from the depths of myheart, a happy holiday and a real freedom.

Israel will seize any opportunity for peace.Being small, we have to maintain our qualita-tive edge. I know that you responded and willrespond to it. The strength of Israel is its de-fense forces. They afford us the ability to seekpeace. And what America has contributed toIsrael’s security is the best guarantee to endthe march of folly, the march of terror andbloodshed.

We watch with admiration the way you leadthe United States of America, the way youstayed true, time and again, to your bonds offriendship with us. Your commitment anddeeds speaks volumes about the principles thatguides America. To strive for freedom and de-mocracy at home, but also all over the world,you send the boys to fight for the freedom ofothers. What is uplifting is that the UnitedStates brought freedom not only to its own

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people, but never stops, and never will stop, tohelp other people to become free.

You represent democracy at its best. Youhave deepened its meaning: namely, that de-mocracy is not just the right to be equal, butthe equal right to be different. Democracy isnot just a free expression, but is self-expressionas well.

You exemplify the spirit of democracy bystriving for justice and equality of opportunityin the American society. As the world has nowbecome global and yet remains individual, andyou offer those principles. You have shownglobal responsibility and individual sensitivity.

On Monday night, Mr. President, we shallcelebrate Passover, the festival of freedom, thecelebration of spring. The celebration of springmeans our journey from the house of slaves tothe home of the free that started more than3,000 years ago. We remember it every year.We are commended to feel as though each of uspersonally participated in that journey. We shallnot forget where we came from. We shall re-member always where we are headed to, whichis to make the Promised Land a land of prom-ise: a land of freedom, justice, and equality.

While reality calls for vigilance, Passovercalls to remain believers. Israel is an island in astormy sea. We have to make our island safe,and we wish that the sea will become tranquil.We converted our desert into a garden. It wasachieved by the talents of our people and thepotential of science. What we have done, Mr.President, can be done all over the MiddleEast, as you have rightly said tonight. Israel isdescribed as a startup nation. The Middle Eastcan become a startup region.

Dear President, you noted in your addresstoday that peace is the greatest hope for thehuman being. I share your vision. Your call toreopen the peace process may pave the way forthe implementation of the two-state solutionagreed by all of us, as you said: a Jewish state,Israel; an Arab state, Palestine.

If I’m not wrong, next to you sits our PrimeMinister, who was just reelected. He openedhis address in the Knesset by reiterating hiscommitment to the two-state solution. Dearfriends, I have seen in my life—I earned the

right to believe—that peace is attainable. Asyou felt today, I know, this is the deep convic-tion of our people. With our resolve and yoursupport, dear Barack Obama, we shall win, andit will happen.

Mr. President, I am privileged to bestow up-on you the Medal of Distinction. It was recom-mended by a committee of seven prominentIsraeli citizens, headed by our former Chief ofJustice Meir Shamgar, and includes our formerPresident Yitzhak Navon. It was my view and Iwas glad to accept their recommendation. Youinspired the world with your leadership. Todaraba, Mr. President. Toda from a grateful na-tion to a very great leader.

God bless America. God bless Israel.

[At this point, the citation was read, and Presi-dent Obama received the medal. PresidentPeres then offered a toast.]

President Obama. Thank you so much. Pres-ident Peres; Prime Minister Netanyahu andFirst Lady Sara; distinguished guests andfriends: This is a extraordinary honor for me,and I could not be more deeply moved. And Ihave to say, after the incredible welcome I’vereceived over the past 2 days and the warmthof the Israeli people, the tribute from Presi-dent Peres, the honor of this medal, I mean, asyou say, dayenu.

Now, I’m told that the Talmud teaches thatyou shouldn’t pronounce all the praises of aperson in their presence. And, Mr. President,if I praised all the chapters of your remarkablelife, then we would be here all night. [Laugh-ter] So let me simply say this about our gra-cious host. Mr. President, the State of Israelhas been the cause of your life: through bitterwars and fragile peace, through hardship andprosperity. You’ve built her. You’ve cared forher. You’ve strengthened her. You’ve nurturedthe next generation who will inherit her.

Ben Gurion. Meir. Begin. Rabin. These gi-ants have left us. Only you are with us still: afounding father in our midst. And we are sograteful for your vision, your friendship, butmost of all, for your example, including the ex-ample of your extraordinary vitality. Everytime I see your President, I ask him who his

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doctor is. [Laughter] We all want to know thesecret.

So with gratitude for your life and your ser-vice, and as you prepare to celebrate your 90thbirthday this summer—and since I’m startingto get pretty good at Hebrew—[laughter]—letme propose a toast, even though you’ve takenaway my wine—[laughter]. Come on. Bringanother one.

How are you?Server. Here you are, sir. You’re welcome.President Obama. A toast. Ad me’ah ve’es-

rim. L’chaim!

[President Obama offered a toast.]

Mmm, that’s good wine. [Laughter] Actual-ly, we should probably get this out of the pho-tograph. All these people will say I’m havingtoo much fun in Israel. [Laughter]

Just a few more words, Mr. President. Youmentioned that this medal is presented in rec-ognition of progress toward the ideals of equal-ity and opportunity and justice. But I am mind-ful that I stand here tonight because of somany others, including the example and thesacrifices of the Jewish people.

In a few days, as we do at every Seder, we’llbreak and hide a piece of matzoh. It’s a greatway to entertain the kids. Malia and Sasha,even though they are getting older, they stillenjoy it. And there are a lot of good places tohide it in the White House. [Laughter] But ona much deeper level, it speaks to the scope ofour human experience: how parts of our livescan be broken while other parts can be elusive;how we can never give up searching for thethings that make us whole. And few know thisbetter than the Jewish people.

After slavery and decades in the wildernessand with Moses gone, the future of the Israel-ites was in doubt. But with Joshua as theirguide, they pushed on to victory. After theFirst Temple was destroyed, it seemed Jerusa-lem was lost. But with courage and resolve, theSecond Temple reestablished the Jewish pres-ence. After centuries of persecution and po-groms, the Shoah aimed to eliminate the entireJewish people. But the gates of the camps flewopen; there emerged the ultimate rebuke to

hate and to ignorance: Survivors would live andlove again.

When the moment of Israel’s independencewas met by aggression on all sides, it was un-clear whether this nation would survive. Butwith heroism and sacrifice, the State of Israelnot only endured, but thrived. And during 6days in June and Yom Kippur one October, itseemed as though all you had built might belost. But when the guns fell silent, it was clear:“The nation of Israel lives.”

As I said in my speech earlier today, this sto-ry—from slavery to salvation, of overcomingeven the most overwhelming odds—is a mes-sage that’s inspired the world. And that in-cludes Jewish Americans, but also AfricanAmericans, who have so often had to deal withtheir own challenges, but with whom you havestood shoulder to shoulder.

African Americans and Jewish Americansmarched together at Selma and Montgomery,with rabbis carrying the Torah as they walked.They boarded buses for freedom rides togeth-er. They bled together. They gave their livestogether: Jewish Americans like Andrew Good-man and Michael Schwerner alongside AfricanAmerican James Chaney.

Because of their sacrifice, because of thestruggle of generations in both our countries,we can come together tonight, in freedom andin security. So if I can paraphrase the Psalm:They turned our mourning into dancing; theychanged our sack cloths into robes of joy.

And this evening, I’d like to close with thewords of two leaders who brought us some ofthis joy. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wasborn in Poland and lost his mother and sister tothe Nazis. He came to America. He raised hisvoice for social justice. He marched with Mar-tin Luther King. And he spoke of the State ofIsrael in words that could well describe thestruggle for equality in America. “Our very ex-istence is a witness that man must live towardredemption,” he said, and “that history is notalways made by man alone.”

Rabbi Joachim Prinz was born in Germany,expelled by the Nazis, and found refuge inAmerica, and he built support for the newState of Israel. And on that August day in 1963,

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he joined Dr. King at the March on Washing-ton. And this is what Rabbi Prinz said to thecrowd:

In the realm of the spirit, our fatherstaught us thousands of years ago thatwhen God created man, he created him aseverybody’s neighbor. Neighbor is not ageographic concept. It is a moral concept.It means our collective responsibility forthe preservation of man’s dignity and in-tegrity.

President Peres, Prime Minister Netanyahu,friends: Our very existence, our presence heretonight, is a testament that all things are possi-ble, even those things that, in moments of

darkness and doubt, may seem elusive. Thestories of our peoples teach us to never stopsearching for the things—the justice and thepeace—that make us whole. And so, as we goforward together with confidence, we’ll knowthat, while our countries may be separated by agreat ocean, in the realm of the spirit, we willalways be neighbors and friends.

I very humbly accept this award, understand-ing that I’m accepting it on behalf of the Ameri-can people, who are joined together with you.

May God bless you, and may He watch overour two great nations. Thank you very much.

NOTE: The President spoke at 8:15 p.m. at thePresident’s Residence.

Remarks at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in JerusalemMarch 22, 2013

“Unto them I will give my house and withinmy walls a memorial and a name, an everlast-ing name that shall not be cut off.”

President Peres, Prime Minister Netanyahu,Chairman Shalev, Rabbi Lau: Thank you forsharing this house, this memorial, with me to-day. Thank you to the people of Israel for pre-serving the names of the millions taken fromus, of blessed memory, names that shall neverbe forgotten.

This is my second visit to this living memori-al. Since then, I’ve walked among the barbedwire and guard towers of Buchenwald. RabbiLau told me of his time there, and we remi-nisced about our good friend, Elie Wiesel, andthe memories that he shared with me. I’vestood in the old Warsaw ghetto, with survivorswho would not go quietly. But nothing equalsthe wrenching power of this sacred place,where the totality of the Shoah is told. Wecould come here a thousand times, and eachtime our hearts would break.

For here, we see the depravity to which mancan sink, the barbarism that unfolds when webegin to see our fellow human beings as some-how less than us, less worthy of dignity and oflife. We see how evil can, for a moment intime, triumph when good people do nothing

and how silence abetted a crime unique in hu-man history.

Here, we see their faces, and we hear theirvoices. We look upon the objects of their lives:the art that they created, the prayer books thatthey carried. We see that even as they had hateetched into their arms, they were not numbers.They were men and women and children—somany children—sent to their deaths because ofwho they were, how they prayed, or who theyloved.

And yet here, alongside man’s capacity forevil, we also are reminded of man’s capacity forgood: the rescuers, the “righteous among na-tions” who refused to be bystanders. And intheir noble acts of courage, we see how thisplace—this accounting of horror—is in the enda source of hope.

For here, we learn that we are never power-less. In our lives we always have choices: tosuccumb to our worst instincts or to summonthe better angels of our nature; to be indiffer-ent to suffering wherever it may be, whoever itmay be visited upon, or to display empathy thatis at the core of our humanity. We have thechoice to acquiesce to evil or make real our sol-emn vow: “Never again.” We have the choiceto ignore what happens to others or to act on

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behalf of others and to continually examine inourselves whatever dark places there may bethat might lead to such actions or inactions.This is our obligation: not simply to bear wit-ness, but to act.

For us, in our time, this means confrontingbigotry and hatred in all of its forms, racism,especially anti-Semitism. None of that has aplace in the civilized world: not in the class-rooms of children, not in the corridors of pow-er. And let us never forget the link between thetwo. For our sons and daughters are not bornto hate, they are taught to hate. So let us filltheir young hearts with the same understand-ing and compassion that we hope others havefor them.

Here, we hope. Because after you walkthrough these halls, after you pass through thedarkness, there is light: a glorious view of theJerusalem Forest, with the Sun shining overthe historic homeland of the Jewish people; afulfillment of the prophecy, “you shall liveagain . . . upon your own soil.” Here, on yourancient land, let it be said for all the world tohear: The State of Israel does not exist becauseof the Holocaust. But with the survival of a

strong Jewish State of Israel, such a Holocaustwill never happen again.

Here, we pray that we all can be better, thatwe can all grow, like the sapling near the Chil-dren’s Memorial, a sapling from a chestnuttree that Anne Frank could see from her win-dow. The last time she described it in her dia-ry, she wrote: “Our chestnut tree is in fullbloom. It’s covered with leaves and is evenmore beautiful than last year.” That’s a re-minder of who we can be. But we have to workfor it. We have to work for it here in Israel. Wehave to work for it in America. We have towork for it around the world: to tend the lightand the brightness as opposed to our worst in-stincts.

So may God bless the memory of the mil-lions, may their souls be bound up in the bondof eternal life, and may each spring bring a fullbloom even more beautiful than the last.

NOTE: The President spoke at 10:22 a.m. atthe Children’s Memorial. In his remarks, hereferred to Avner Shalev, chairman of the di-rectorate, Yad Vashem; Yisrael Meir Lau, chiefrabbi of Tel Aviv-Yaffo and former chief rabbiof Israel; and Nobel Prize winner, author, andHolocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.

Statement on Israel-Turkey RelationsMarch 22, 2013

I welcome the call today between PrimeMinister Netanyahu and Prime Minister Erdo-gan. The United States deeply values our closepartnerships with both Turkey and Israel, andwe attach great importance to the restorationof positive relations between them in order toadvance regional peace and security. I amhopeful that today’s exchange between the two

leaders will enable them to engage in deepercooperation on this and a range of other chal-lenges and opportunities.

NOTE: The statement referred to Prime Min-ister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel; andPrime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ofTurkey.

Statement on the Resignation of Julius M. Genachowski as Chairman of theFederal Communications CommissionMarch 22, 2013

I want to thank Chairman Genachowski forhis dedicated service on behalf of the Ameri-can people. Over the last 4 years, Julius has

brought to the Federal Communications Com-mission a clear focus on spurring innovation,helping our businesses compete in a global

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economy, and helping our country attract theindustries and jobs of tomorrow. Because ofhis leadership, we have expanded high-speedInternet access, fueled growth in the mobile

sector, and continued to protect the open In-ternet as a platform for entrepreneurship andfree speech. I am grateful for his service andfriendship, and I wish Julius the best of luck.

Statement on the Withdrawal of the Nomination of Caitlin J. Halligan To Bea Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of ColumbiaCircuitMarch 22, 2013

Today I accepted Caitlin Halligan’s requestto withdraw as a nominee for the U.S. Courtof Appeals for the District of Columbia Cir-cuit. I am deeply disappointed that even afternearly 2½ years, a minority of Senators contin-ued to block a simple up-or-down vote on hernomination. This unjustified filibuster ob-structed the majority of Senators from ex-pressing their support. I am confident that

with Caitlin’s impressive qualifications andreputation, she would have served with dis-tinction.

The DC Circuit is considered the Nation’ssecond highest court, but it now has more va-cancies than any other circuit court. This is un-acceptable. I remain committed to filling thesevacancies to ensure equal and timely access tojustice for all Americans.

The President’s News Conference With King Abdullah II of Jordan inAmman, JordanMarch 22, 2013

King Abdullah. First of all, Mr. President, ifyou allow me, on behalf of myself and all Jor-danians, to welcome you and your distin-guished delegation back here in Jordan. I fond-ly remember your visit here several years agowhen you were a Senator, and it is a great de-light to welcome you back to Jordan as thePresident of the United States, enjoying yoursecond term.

We are delighted with the in-depth discus-sions that were very, very fruitful on our strate-gic and historic partnership, and you have beenan old friend, as has the United States, for somany decades. We are very grateful to you, sir,and the administration, as well as Congress andthe American people, for the continuous sup-port that has been shown to Jordan over somany years. And the U.S. assistance that hashelped us throughout so many years has al-lowed us to get Jordan to where we are todayand, hopefully, will continue to help us ad-vance our shared goals of development, securi-ty, and regional peace.

We did have the opportunity to discuss Syr-ia. And obviously, we are all horrified by theloss of life and the brutality of the conflict. Weare extremely concerned of the risk of pro-longed sectarian conflict that—if it continuesas we’re seeing—leads to the fragmentation ofSyria, which obviously will have disastrous con-sequences on the region for generations tocome. Therefore, it is immediate—it is impor-tant to have an immediate need for an inclusivepolitical transition that ends the conflict andthe threats that emanate from it.

What we are facing now, today, obviously isan urgent need for the international communi-ty to help in humanitarian assistance to catchup to the challenges that we are facing, as thecountries bordering Syria. And not only do weneed to look at the ability to stockpile humani-tarian supplies to the Syrian people inside theircountry, but also to be able to assist those thathave fled.

Jordan today is hosting, by far, the largestnumber of Syrian refugees. The numbers have

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just exceeded 460,000 Syrians. That is 10 per-cent of our population. And the alarming fig-ures—if the rates continue as we’re seeing to-day—will probably double by the end of theyear. So for the Americans in the audience,that’s the equivalent of 30 million refugeescrossing into the United States, the possibilityof that going up to 60 million by the end of theyear, relative obviously to our populations.

The refugee camp in the north—Zaatari ref-ugee camp—today is the fifth largest city inJordan. And obviously, this has added econom-ic and financial costs due to the influx, and hasfurther strained the economy that is alreadyunder considerable external pressures, with anunstable region, a sluggish global economy thatis still recovering.

But having said that, as I already alluded to,we are so grateful to the U.S. assistance inshouldering this enormous responsibility, andtogether, we continue to appeal to the interna-tional community for more help to face thishumanitarian calamity.

We had the opportunity obviously to talkabout the peace process. And we were very de-lighted by the vision and the depth of wisdomthat the President showed over the past severaldays in his trip with the Israelis and the Pales-tinians. Obviously, I reiterate Jordan’s commit-ment to the peace process and the crucial im-portance of U.S. leadership in resuming thePalestinian-Israeli negotiations based on thetwo-state solution.

There is simply no other formula, no otheralternative. The two-state solution is the onlyway to go. And if you compare that also withthe radicalization of Syria—together with theimpasse in the peace process—this is going tobe a serious threat to an already volatile region.

I believe there is a window of opportunity tomake a serious push for resuming negotiationson the final status issues. But the window, I be-lieve, is fast closing, primarily due to increasingsettlement activities. So there is no time towaste.

And lastly, I had the opportunity with thePrime Minister-designate to share details ofJordan’s homegrown reform model and its sup-porting roadmap. We believe that we have a

model that has a clear end goal of parliamenta-ry government, with milestones and prerequi-sites, built on strong democratic institutions,that guarantees checks and balances of properdemocracy, an empowered Parliament, and anew constitutional court.

We also have a new independent electionscommission, and we are looking at Jordan as amodel that is evolutionary, consensual, andpeaceful and ensures pluralism, openness, tol-erance, moderation, and unity, and equally asimportant, a level playing field. This will en-sure safeguards for civil liberties and politicalrights and obviously encourage political partic-ipation.

Today, we’re looking forward to our PrimeMinister-designate forming his parliamentarygovernment, hopefully, in the next couple ofweeks. Based on his consultations with Parlia-ment, which is an extension of the same con-sultation process that led to his designation as aresult of receiving the highest number of nom-inations.

So I’m very proud of the progress so far. Thehard work is definitely ahead of us. This is theJordanian moment, what we’re saying is the“third way” in the Middle East. What we aresaying that the Arab Spring is behind us; we inJordan are looking now at the “Arab summer”for us all, which means that we all have to rollour sleeves. It’s going to be a bumpy and diffi-cult road, but I am very encouraged with theprocess, and I am very excited about the fu-ture.

So again, Mr. President, very welcome toJordan. I wish you all the success in whatyou’ve been able to achieve in the past severaldays, and I hope that the success will continuein your visit here to Jordan. Thank you.

President Obama. Thank you very much.Well, it’s a great pleasure to be back in Jor-

dan. I’m grateful to my good friend, His Majes-ty King Abdullah. Thank you for your kindwords. Thank you to the Jordanian people forthe extraordinary warmth and hospitality that Iremembered well from my first visit as a Sena-tor.

The thing I mainly remember when I camehere was that His Majesty was kind enough to

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personally drive me to the airport. I won’t tellyou how fast he was going, but Secret Service Idon’t think could keep up. So nevertheless,we’re very much appreciative for you welcom-ing me and my delegation.

The reason I’m here is simple. Jordan is aninvaluable ally. It is a great friend. We’ve beenworking together since the early years of theKingdom under His Majesty’s great-grandfa-ther, King Abdullah I, who gave his life in thename of peace. Today, our partnership in de-velopment, education, health, science, tech-nology, improve the lives of our peoples. Ourclose security cooperation helps keep your citi-zens and ours safe from terrorism. Your mili-tary and police help train other security forcesfrom the Palestinian Authority to Yemen.

And I’m especially grateful to His Majesty,who, like his father—memorialized by themosque I saw when I arrived—is a force forpeace in word and in deed. You’ve investeddeeply and personally in strengthening the tiesbetween our countries. And that’s why youwere the first Arab leader I welcomed to theOval Office when I became President. And Ivery much appreciate the work we’ve done to-gether on a broad range of challenges. And soI’ve come to Jordan to build on what is alreadya very strong foundation and to deepen what isalready extraordinary cooperation.

As His Majesty mentioned, today was achance for me to hear from him about the nec-essary political reforms that are underwayhere. And I want to commend the people ofJordan on this year’s parliamentary elections,which represented a positive step toward amore transparent and credible and inclusivepolitical process. I appreciated hearing HisMajesty’s plans for a parliamentary govern-ment that responds to the aspirations of theJordanian people, and I very much welcomehis commitment to active citizenship, wherecitizens play a larger role in the future of thisnation.

At a time of so much change and tumultacross the region, I think His Majesty recog-nizes Jordan has a great opportunity to showthe benefits of genuine and peaceful reform—including stronger political parties and good

governance and transparency—all of whichmakes government more effective and makessure that the people feel a connection to theirgovernment.

Your Majesty, you’ve been a driving forcefor these efforts, and you can be assured thatthe United States will continue to work withyou and Prime Minister Nsour as you build onthis progress.

We also discussed the economic progressthat has to come with political progress. TheJordanian Government is working hard tomanage its current budget challenges. I thinkHis Majesty outlined the enormous pressuresthat Jordan is experiencing, often not becauseof any factors internal, but rather, a range ofexternal factors as well. And I recognize thatwhile the economic reforms are difficult, theyare essential over the long term to creating thekind of growth and opportunity and dynamismin the economy that will help the Jordanianpeople achieve their dreams. So we want youto succeed.

So my administration is therefore workingwith Congress to provide loan guarantees toJordan this year. Together, I believe we canhelp deliver the results that Jordanians de-serve: to see their schools better, their roadsimproved, health care, clean water all en-hanced; the training that I know a lot of Jorda-nians seek, particularly young people, to get ajob or to turn entrepreneurial skills into a busi-ness that creates even more jobs.

And I was proud to welcome some youngJordanians to the entrepreneurship summitthat I hosted back in Washington. And we’regoing to continue to focus on creating econom-ic opportunities, because the people here inJordan deserve the same opportunities as peo-ple everywhere.

We spent a good deal of time on regionalchallenges. And I updated His Majesty on mydiscussions with Prime Minister Netanyahuand President Abbas. As I said in my speechyesterday, I believe there are steps that side—both sides can take to build confidence andtrust, and move a serious negotiation forward.We’re not there yet, but I’m confident that itcan happen, in part, because it must happen. It

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will be good for the Israelis, and it will be goodfor the Palestinians.

I’m very grateful for His Majesty’s readinessto advance these efforts. As has been true inthe past, His Majesty and Jordan will be criticalto making progress towards a just and lastingpeace between Israelis and Palestinians.

And we spent a significant amount of timeconsulting on Syria. I want to commend HisMajesty for his leadership, and I want to com-mend the Jordanian people for their compas-sion during an extraordinarily difficult time fortheir neighbors. His Majesty was the first Arableader to publicly call on Asad to step down,because of the horrific violence that was beinginflicted on the Syrian people. Jordan hasplayed a leading role in trying to begin a politi-cal transition toward a new government. We’reworking together to strengthen a credible Syri-an opposition.

We share Jordan’s concerns about violencespilling across the border, so I want to take thisopportunity to make it clear: The United Statesis committed to the security of Jordan, which isbacked by our strong alliance.

As has been mentioned, during this crisis,the Jordanian people have displayed extraordi-nary generosity, but the strains of so many ref-ugees inevitably is showing. Every day, Jorda-nians are extending a hand of support to neigh-bors far from home, but this is a heavy burden.And the international community needs to stepup to make sure that they are helping to shoul-der this burden.

The United States will certainly do our part.We are already the single largest donor of hu-manitarian assistance to the Syrian people.Some of this has helped people here in Jordan,and today I’m announcing that my administra-tion will work with Congress to provide Jordanwith an additional $200 million in budget sup-port this year, as it cares for Syrian refugeesand Jordanian communities affected by thiscrisis.

This will mean more humanitarian assis-tance in basic services, including education forSyrian children so far from home whose liveshave been upended. And I think, as parents,we can only imagine how heartbreaking that

must be for any parent to see their childrenhaving to go through the kinds of tumult thatthey’re experiencing.

Our cooperation on Syria is an example ofhow the partnership between the UnitedStates and Jordan improves the lives not onlyof the Jordanian people, but peoples across theregion.

So again, Your Majesty, I want to express mygreat appreciation for our partnership. I wantto thank you and the Jordanian people for thefriendship and hospitality that they’ve shownme and to my fellow Americans. And just as Ivisited the Citadel here in Amman on my lastvisit, I’m looking forward to seeing Petra to-morrow—weather permitting—one of thegreat wonders of history that the world can ex-perience, thanks to the care and dedication ofJordan and its people.

So shukran. Thank you.King Abdullah. Thank you. Sa’ad.

Syria

Q. Thank you, Your Majesty, Mr. President.Sir, I want to ask you, Your Majesty, for how

long are you going to keep your borders openfor the Syrian refugees? Next to you is a land ofwar, and anything could happen any time. Ifthe regime, let’s say, shut the electricity or thewater, you are not too far from the Damascus,from the capital. It’s, like, less than one hours.You might find a thousand of thousand of refu-gees, not just the number that you spokeabout, Your Majesty.

And, Mr. President, thank you again, and Ijust want to know—you are a superpower; youare leading the superpower, the United Statesof America. You don’t have a plan to put anend for what’s going on in Syria: the blood-shed, the killing? And now they are talkingabout using the chemical weapon. What’s yourcomment about that?

Thank you, Your Majesty.King Abdullah. Well, first of all, Sa’ad, the

problem with refugees comes down to an hu-manitarian issue. I mean, how are you going toturn back women, children, and the wounded?This is something that we just can’t do. It’s notthe Jordanian way. We have historically

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opened our arms to many of our neighborsthrough many decades of Jordan’s history. Sothat is a challenge that we just can’t turn ourbacks on. So that’s the reality that we are facingon the ground. So Jordan has always been asafe haven to people around us through many,many decades. So, unfortunately, from thatpoint of view, refugees will continue to cometo Jordan, and we will continue, within ourmeans, to look after them as best as we can.

The problem is obviously that the burdenit’s having on Jordan, and we’ve tried to quanti-fy it as much as possible; the latest figures areit’s going to cost us roughly $550 million a year.But if those figures double, as we think theywill, by the end of the year, then obviously,we’re talking a billion-plus. Not only is that aproblem, but it’s going to be a tremendousstrain obviously on infrastructure, and it’s cre-ating social problems and security problems.

And so this is one of the reasons that we’reasking for the international community to help.But physically, you can’t turn away young chil-dren, women, people in desperate need, andthe wounded. So we will continue to burdenthat responsibility.

President Obama. Since the start of the situ-ation in Syria, we have stepped up, as not just asuperpower, as you phrased it, but also be-cause of basic humanity, to say that Asad hadneeded to go. We haven’t just led with words,but we’ve also led with deeds. As I indicated,we’re the single largest humanitarian donor tothe Syrian people. We have worked diligentlyin cooperation with the international commu-nity to help organize and mobilize a politicalopposition that is credible, because in the ab-sence of a credible political opposition, it willbe impossible for us to transition to a morepeaceful and more representative and legiti-mate government structure inside of Syria.

And that’s an area where we have been in-volved on almost a daily basis. First, SecretaryHillary Clinton helped to spearhead the effortsthat formed a coherent Syrian oppositioncouncil. Now you’ve got Secretary Kerry, who’sdeeply involved in that effort as well. And weare providing not just advice, not just words,but we’re providing resources, training, capaci-

ty, in order for that political opposition tomaintain links within Syria and to be able toprovide direct services to people inside of Syr-ia, including the kinds of relief efforts that ob-viously we’ve—we’re seeing here in Jordan,but there are a whole bunch of people who areinternally displaced inside of Syria who needhelp.

I think that what your question may be sug-gesting is, why haven’t we simply gone in mili-tarily? And I think it’s fair to say that the Unit-ed States often finds itself in a situation whereif it goes in militarily, then it’s criticized for go-ing in militarily, and if doesn’t go in militarily,then people say, why aren’t you doing some-thing militarily?

And my response at this stage is to makesure that what we do contributes to bringing anend to the bloodshed as quickly as possible.And working in a multilateral context, in an in-ternational context, because we think our expe-rience shows that when we lead, but we are al-so working with others—like the Jordanians,like the Turks, like other interested parties inthe region—then the outcomes are better.When we are working with the Syrians them-selves, so that this is not externally imposed,but rather something that is linked directlywith the aspirations and hopes of the peopleinside of Syria, it will work better. And so weare going to continue to use every lever and ev-ery bit of influence that we have to effect thesituation inside of Syria.

You mentioned the issue of chemical weap-ons. We have called for, and we know that theU.N. is now moving forward on an investiga-tion of exactly what happened. We’re monitor-ing the situation ourselves. I have said publiclythat the use of chemical weapons by the Asadregime would be a game changer from our per-spective, because once you let that situationspin out of control, it’s very hard to stop andcan have enormous spillover effects across theregion.

And so we are going to continue to closelyconsult with everybody in the region and doeverything we can to bring an end to the blood-shed and to allow the Syrian people to get outfrom under the yoke of a leader who has lost all

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legitimacy because he is willing to slaughter hisown people. And I’m confident that Asad willgo. It’s not a question of if, it’s when.

And so part of what we have to spend a lot oftime thinking about is what’s the aftermath ofthat, and how does that work in a way that ac-tually serves the Syrian people and, by the way,serves the Syrian people from all walks of life,from all religious affiliations. Because one ofthe things that we know is happening in this re-gion is that if we fail to create a model in theArab world in which people can live side byside, regardless of whether they are Sunni orShi’a or Alawites or Druze—regardless of themanner in which they worship their God—ifwe don’t create that possibility, then theseproblems are going to recur again and againand again and again.

I think His Majesty understands that. I thinkthe people of Jordan understand that. Andthese kinds of sectarian and tribal faultlines arepart of what we have to get beyond, becausethey don’t work in a modern world. They don’tcreate jobs. They don’t put food in the mouthsof children. They don’t provide an education.They don’t create a thriving economy.

And that’s going to be a central challengenot just in Syria, but across the region. And theUnited States, I think, has something to sayabout that, because part of what makes us a su-perpower is because we have people of everywalk of life, every background, every religion,and if they’ve got a good idea and they’re will-ing to work hard, they can succeed. And that’sgot to be something that’s more consistentlyspoken about not just in—with respect to theSyria situation, but I think with respect to thisenormous moment of both promise, but alsodanger in the Arab world and in North Africa.

Julie Pace [Associated Press].

Syria/Israel-Turkey Relations

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. You men-tioned the aftermath of the Asad regime.There’s a lot of concern in Jordan and else-where that the upheaval in Syria is creating ha-vens for extremism.

President Obama. Yes.

Q. How concerned are you at this point thatextremists or jihadists could actually take overin Syria and perhaps be even worse than Asad?And I was also hoping you could give us someinsight into how you brokered the call todaybetween Prime Ministers Erdogan and Netan-yahu. And how much of their willingness totalk do you think is actually driven by the ur-gency in Syria?

And, Your Majesty, you have offered Asadasylum, which he rejected. Does that offer ofasylum still stand? Thank you.

President Obama. Well, I am very con-cerned about Syria becoming an enclave forextremism, because extremists thrive in chaos.They thrive in failed states. They thrive in pow-er vacuums. They don’t have much to offerwhen it comes to actually building things, butthey’re very good about exploiting situationsthat are no longer functioning. They fill thatgap.

And that’s why I think it’s so important forus to work as an international community tohelp accelerate a political transition that is via-ble, so that a Syrian state continues to function;so that the basic institutions can be rebuilt, thatthey’re not destroyed beyond recognition; thatwe are avoiding what inevitably becomes Syri-an—or sectarian divisions—because, by defini-tion, if you’re an extremist, then you don’t havea lot of tolerance for people who don’t shareyour beliefs.

So this is part of the reason why, for theAmerican people, we’ve got to recognize, wehave a stake here. We can’t do it alone. Andthe outcome in Syria is not going to be ideal.Even if we execute our assistance and our co-ordination and our planning and our supportflawlessly, the situation in Syria now is going tobe difficult. And that’s what happens when youhave a leader who cares more about clinging topower than they do about holding their coun-try together and looking after their people.

It’s tragic. It’s heartbreaking. And the sightof children and women being slaughtered thatwe’ve seen so much, I think, has to compel allof us to say, what more can we do? And that’s aquestion that I’m asking as President every

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single day. And that’s a question I know HisMajesty is asking in his capacity here in Jordan.

And what I am confident about is that ulti-mately, what the people of Syria are looking foris not replacing oppression with a new form ofoppression. What they’re looking for is replac-ing oppression with freedom and opportunityand democracy and the capacity to live togeth-er and build together. And that’s what we haveto begin planning for now, understanding thatit is going to be difficult.

Something has been broken in Syria, and it’snot going to be put back together perfectly,immediately, anytime soon, even after Asadleaves. But we can begin the process of movingit in a better direction. And having a cohesivepolitical opposition, I think, is critical to that.

With respect to the conversation that tookplace between Prime Minister Netanyahu andPrime Minister Erdogan, I have long said thatit is in both the interests of Israel and Turkeyto restore normal relations between two coun-tries that have historically had good ties. Itbroke down several years ago as a consequenceof the flotilla incident. For the last 2 years, I’vespoken to both Prime Minister Netanyahu andPrime Minister Erdogan about why this rup-ture has to be mended, that they don’t have toagree on everything in order for them to cometogether around a whole range of common in-terests and common concerns.

During my visit, it appeared that the timingwas good for that conversation to take place. Idiscussed it with Prime Minister Netanyahu,and both of us agreed that the moment wasright, and fortunately, they were able to beginthe process of rebuilding normal relations be-tween two very important countries in the re-gion.

This is a work in process. It’s just beginning.As I said, there are obviously going to still besome significant disagreements between Tur-key and Israel, not just on the Palestinian ques-tion, but on a range of different issues. Butthey also have a whole range of shared inter-ests, and they both happen to be extraordinari-ly strong partners and friends of ours, and soit’s in the interest of the United States thatthey begin this process of getting their rela-

tionship back in order. And I’m very glad to seethat it’s happening.

King Abdullah. Thank you. I think the ques-tion about asylum is something that Asad has toanswer himself. First, is he interested in asy-lum, and would he be interested in coming toJordan?

Obviously, from our point of view, as wewere saying, we need an inclusive politicaltransition as quickly as possible, so if the issueof asylum ever came up, that’s something that Ithink all of us would have to put our heads to-gether and figure out whether or not, if that,sort of, ends the violence quickly, is somethingworth pursuing. So that’s a question that’sslightly beyond my pay grade at this stage, butsomething that I’m sure if it ever came up,would be something that we discussed at thelevel of international community. Samir.

Arab-Israeli Peace Process

Q. Thank you, Your Majesty, last year Jor-dan managed to break the impasse in the peaceprocess by hosting the Amman talks, bringingIsraelis and Palestinians together at the negoti-ating table. Now, there was no follow-up tothat. Do you have anything in mind? Or areyou going to have any similar effort?

And, Mr. President, would you support anysuch effort, particularly that we know that thetwo sides need to be prodded back to the nego-tiating table? Thank you.

King Abdullah. Well, Samir, at this stage—obviously, last year, we kept Israelis and Pales-tinians—the dialogue going simply because wewanted to keep the process alive as much as wecould, knowing full well that we were waitingfor this opportunity. The President has, I think,finished a very successful visit to both the Is-raelis and Palestinians. We have been in closecontact with State Department leading up tothis visit, and I think Secretary Kerry has beenvery right in keeping expectations low so thatwhat I call the homework stage is still in effect.

Obviously, we’re all consulting at this stageof how to build on this visit, and I believe thatas we all share notes, we’ll have a better under-standing, over the next several weeks, what isthe next step.

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Jordan’s role is to be there as a facilitatorand a support to both the Israelis and Palestin-ians, to bring them closer together, so that Ibelieve in the next several weeks to this nextseveral months, we’ll have the homework orthe framework that allows both sides to cometogether and move forward.

So Jordan obviously will welcome hosting Is-raelis and Palestinians together if that’s whatthey want. And we always have been in a sup-port mode for both sides. And as I said earlier,we see a window of opportunity, and I believethe statements that the President has made tothe Israeli and to the Palestinian is an opportu-nity to regalvanize the effort and one that wewill stand by in support mode as we comparenotes of the President’s visit to the three coun-tries.

President Obama. Well, first of all, I thinkHis Majesty described what I’ve tried to ac-complish on this trip very well. This is a trip tomake sure I’m doing my homework. We allrecognize how vital it could be to see a resolu-tion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We setexpectations low precisely because there’sbeen a lot of talk over decades, but it hasn’tproduced the results that everybody wants tosee.

And so my approach here has been, let melisten to the parties first; let me find out exactlywhat the roadblocks are for progress; let mediscuss with them ways that we might movethose roadblocks out of the way in order toachieve a concrete result.

And I’ve also been modest because frankly,peace will not be achieved unless ultimatelythe parties themselves want peace.

I think all of us in the international commu-nity share this frustration: Why can’t we getthis problem solved? I think the Israeli peopleare frustrated that they feel this problem is notsolved. They don’t enjoy the isolation that hasresulted from this conflict. I think the Palestin-ian people certainly feel that frustration.

As I mentioned in my speech yesterday, Ihad the opportunity to meet with young peoplewho are growing up unable to do the basicthings that a free people should expect theyshould be able to do, simple things like travel

or enjoying the kinds of privacy in their ownhomes that so many of us take for granted. Andthese are children, these are young people,these are young men and women who, as I de-scribed yesterday, aren’t very different frommy daughters, and they deserve the same op-portunities. They deserve this cloud to be lift-ed from their lives, because they can achieve,and they have enormous potential, and I don’twant them living up under a sense of constrict-ed possibility.

I also don’t want the Israeli people continu-ally looking over their shoulder, thinking thatat any point, their house may be hit by a rock-et, or a bus may be blown up. And so part ofthe tragedy of the situation has been that nei-ther side is getting exactly what they want, butit’s not been possible to break out of old pat-terns and a difficult history.

So my hope and expectation is that, as a con-sequence of us doing our homework, we canexplore with the parties a mechanism for themto sit back down, to get rid of some of the oldassumptions, to think in new ways, and to getthis done. And I think if it gets done in a timelyway, then the Israeli people will be safer andthe Palestinian people will be freer. And chil-dren on both sides will have a better life. Andas a consequence, the region and a whole—as awhole will be strengthened, and the world willbe safer.

I can’t guarantee that that’s going to happen.What I can guarantee is we’ll make the effort.What I can guarantee is that Secretary Kerry isgoing to be spending a good deal of time in dis-cussions with the parties. What I can assureyou is, is that nobody feels a greater interest inus achieving this than His Majesty. And sowe’re just going to keep on plugging away.

The one thing I did say, I think, to bothsides is the window of opportunity still exists,but it’s getting more and more difficult. Themistrust is building instead of ebbing. The lo-gistics of providing security for Israel get moredifficult with new technologies. And the logis-tics of creating a contiguous and functioningPalestinian state become more difficult withsettlements. And so both sides have to begin tothink about their long-term strategic interests

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instead of worrying about, can I gain a short-term tactical advantage here or there, and sayto themselves, what’s the big picture and howdo we get this done?

And that’s ultimately what I believe bothpeoples want, which is why I think—I think itwas very interesting that in my speech in Jeru-salem, some of the strongest applause camewhen I addressed the Israeli people and I said,you have to think about these Palestinian chil-dren like your own children. It tapped intosomething that they understood inherently.And that gives me hope. I think that showsthere’s possibility there. But it’s hard. And I—what I also said was that ultimately, peoplehave to help provide the structures for leadersto take some very difficult risks.

So that’s why I wanted to speak directly tothe Israeli people and to the Palestinian peo-ple, so that they help empower their leadershipto make some very difficult decisions and trad-eoffs in order to achieve a compromise whereneither side is going to get a hundred percentof what they want. And so we’ll see if we canmake it happen.

Jon Karl [ABC News].

Iran

Q. Thank you, Mr. President, King Abdul-lah.

Mr. President, you have said repeatedly onthis trip and before that all options are on thetable to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weap-on, including military action. Yesterday the Su-preme Leader of Iran came out and said that ifany action is taken against his country, he willraze the cities in Israel of Tel Aviv and Haifa tothe ground. So my question to you is, are youprepared to deal with the retaliation, the fall-out that would come after a military strikeagainst Iran’s nuclear facilities?

And to King Abdullah, if I can ask what youthink would happen here: What would be theaftermath of a military strike, whether taken bythe United States or by Israel, against Iran?What is a bigger threat to stability in this re-gion: Iran with nuclear weapons or anotherwar in this region?

President Obama. Well, first of all, Jon, I’mnot going to engage in a whole bunch of hypo-theticals. Because what I’ve said from the mo-ment I came into office was that the best reso-lution of this situation is through diplomacy,and I continue to believe that.

We have organized the international com-munity around a sanctions regime that is hav-ing an impact on Iran, not because we forcedother countries to do it, because they recog-nize that if you trigger a nuclear arms race inthis region, as volatile as it is, if you have theprospect of nuclear weapons getting into thehands of terrorists and extremists, that it’s notjust Israel that’s threatened, it’s a whole rangeof people that could be threatened.

We’re talking right now about the possibilityof Syria using chemical weapons. What wouldbe the conversation if Syria possessed nuclearweapons?

So this is not just a problem for Israel. It’snot just a problem for the United States. It’s aregional and worldwide problem. And by theway, we have been consistent in saying thatnonproliferation is a problem around theglobe, not just with respect to Iran. Now, thefact of the matter is, is that Iran has not beenable to establish credibly with the internationalcommunity that, in fact, it is simply pursuingpeaceful nuclear power. There’s a reason whyit’s subject to all these resolutions and viola-tions identified by the United Nations. That’snot something we made up.

There are a lot of other countries who havethe technical capacity, but for some reason,they are able to get right with the internationalcommunity. Iran has not been able to do so.

Now, if in fact what the Supreme Leaderhas said is the case, which is that developing anuclear weapon would be un-Islamic and thatIran has no interest in developing nuclearweapons, then there should be a practical, ver-ifiable way to assure the international commu-nity that it’s not doing so. And this problem willbe solved, to the benefit of the region and tothe benefit of the Iranian people.

The Iranian people are celebrating Nowruz,their most important holiday. And every year, Ideliver a Nowruz message. And I remind the

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people of Iran that they are a great civilization;they have an extraordinary history; they haveunbelievable talent. They should be fully inte-grated into the international community,where they can thrive and build businesses andexpand commerce. And there should be ex-changes and travel and interactions with theIranian people and everyone else, includingthe United States. That should be the vision,not threats to raze Israeli cities to the ground.

Part of the frustration that I think we all feelsometimes is that it seems as if people spendall their time organizing around how they cangain advantage over other people or inflict vio-lence on other people or isolate other people,instead of trying to figure out how do we solveproblems. This is a solvable problem if in factIran is not pursuing a nuclear weapon.

And so we’re going to continue to apply thepressure that we have, in a nonmilitary way, totry to resolve the problem. We will continue totry to pursue diplomatic solutions to the situa-tion.

But yes, I have said as President of the Unit-ed States that I will maintain every optionthat’s available to prevent Iran from getting anuclear weapon because I think the conse-quences for the region and for the world wouldbe extraordinarily dangerous.

I—my hope and expectation is, is that,among a menu of options, the option that in-volves negotiations, discussions, compromise,and resolution of the problem is the one that’s

exercised. But as President of the UnitedStates, I would never take any option off the ta-ble.

King Abdullah. There’s very little that Iwould like to add to what the President said. Ithink, looking from the Jordanian point of viewand the challenges that Jordan faces as we lookaround the region—the challenges of what theIsraelis and the Palestinians that we’ll be facingin 2012, the instability as you’re seeing in Syria,we have the concerns as to what’s happening inIraq—any military action at the moment,whether Israeli or Iranian, to me at this stage isPandora’s box, because nobody can guaranteewhat the outcome will be.

So, hopefully, there is another way of resolv-ing this problem. At a time with so much insta-bility in the Middle East, we just don’t needanother thing on our shoulders.

Thank you.President Obama. Thank you to the people

of Jordan.

NOTE: The President spoke at 8:23 p.m. at theRoyal Al Hummar Offices. In his remarks, hereferred to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanya-hu of Israel; President Mahmoud Abbas of thePalestinian Authority; President Bashar al-Asad of Syria; former Secretary of State HillaryRodham Clinton; Prime Minister Recep Tayy-ip Erdogan of Turkey; and Supreme LeaderAyatollah Ali Hoseini-Khamenei of Iran.


It has now been 3 months since the tragicevents in Newtown, Connecticut: 3 monthssince we lost 20 innocent children and 6 dedi-cated adults who had so much left to give; 3months since we, as Americans, began askingourselves if we’re really doing enough to protectour communities and keep our children safe.

For the families who lost a loved one on thatterrible day, 3 months doesn’t even begin toease the pain they’re feeling right now. Itdoesn’t come close to mending the woundsthat may never fully heal.

But as a nation, the last 3 months havechanged us. They forced us to answer somedifficult questions about what we can do—what we must do—to prevent the kinds of mas-sacres we’ve seen in Newtown and Aurora andOak Creek, as well as the everyday tragediesthat happen far too often in big cities and smalltowns all across America.

Today, there’s still genuine disagreementamong well-meaning people about what stepswe should take to reduce the epidemic of gunviolence in this country. But you, the American

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people, have spoken. You’ve made it clear thatit’s time to do something. And over the last fewweeks, Senators here in Washington have lis-tened and taken some big steps forward.

Two weeks ago, the Senate advanced a billthat would make it harder for criminals andpeople with a severe mental illness from get-ting their hands on a gun, an idea supported by9 out of 10 Americans, including a majority ofgun owners. The Senate also made progress ona bill that would crack down on anyone whobuys a gun as part of a scheme to funnel it tocriminals, reducing violent crime and protect-ing our law enforcement officers. Finally, theSenate took steps to reinstate and strengthen aban on the sale of military-style assault weap-ons, set a 10-round limit for magazines, andmake our schools safer places for kids to learnand grow.

These ideas shouldn’t be controversial.They’re common sense. They’re supported bya majority of the American people. And I urgethe Senate and the House to give each of thema vote.

As I’ve said before, we may not be able toprevent every act of violence in this country.But together, we have an obligation to try. Wehave an obligation to do what we can.

Right now we have a real chance to reducegun violence in America and prevent the veryworst violence. We have a unique opportunityto reaffirm our tradition of responsible gunownership and also do more to keep guns outof the hands of criminals or people with a se-vere mental illness.

We’ve made progress over the last 3 months,but we’re not there yet. And in the weeksahead, I hope Members of Congress will joinme in finishing the job: for our communitiesand, most importantly, for our kids. Thanks.

NOTE: The address was recorded at approxi-mately 5:05 p.m. on March 19 in the RooseveltRoom at the White House for broadcast onMarch 23. The transcript was made availableby the Office of the Press Secretary on March22, but was embargoed for release until 6 a.m.on March 23.

Statement on the Third Anniversary of the Signing of the Patient Protectionand Affordable Care ActMarch 23, 2013

Three years ago today, I signed into law theprinciple that in the wealthiest nation onEarth, no one should go broke just becausethey get sick. The Affordable Care Act will givehard-working, middle class families the healthcare security they deserve and protect everyAmerican from the worst insurance companyabuses. Already, millions of seniors are saving$600 a year on their prescription drugs. Mil-lions of young people have been able to stay ontheir family’s health plan until age 26. Preven-tive care, like mammograms for women andwellness visits for seniors, is covered free ofcharge. Most importantly, for the sake of ourfiscal future, the growth of health care costs isbeginning to slow. In fact, last year, Medicaidcosts fell for the first time in decades.

Because of the Affordable Care Act, insur-ance companies will no longer have unchecked

power to cancel your policy, deny you cover-age, or charge women more than men. Andsoon, no American will ever again be deniedcare or charged more due to a preexisting con-dition like cancer or even asthma.

Later this year, millions of Americans will fi-nally have the opportunity to buy the samekind of health care Members of Congress givethemselves. Beginning in October, you’ll beable to sign up for new private health careplans through a new health insurance market-place where private plans will compete to savemiddle class families money. Through thesemarketplaces, Americans and small-businessowners will be able to choose from a menu ofhealth plans that fit their budget and providequality coverage they can count on when theyneed it most. If you like the plan you have, youcan keep it. If you cannot afford a plan, you or

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your small business may get financial assis-tance to make it affordable.

There’s more work to do to implement thislaw, and I look forward to working with leaders

of both parties to help Americans save moneyon health care and extend the security of cov-erage to every family.

Remarks at a Naturalization Ceremony for Active Duty Servicemembers andCiviliansMarch 25, 2013

Thank you so much. Well, good morning,everybody. Secretary Napolitano, thank you foradministering the oath and making it official.Director Mayorkas, distinguished guests, fami-ly and friends, it is a great pleasure to have youhere at the White House. And it is an honor tobe among the first to greet some of my fellowcitizens of the United States.

Today, here in the people’s house—a housedesigned by an Irish immigrant—we welcome28 men and women, immigrants themselves,who from this day forward have earned theprecious right to call this country home.

And I know this is an incredibly special mo-ment for you and your families, but I have tosay, it’s a special moment for the rest of us aswell. Because as we look out across this room,we’re reminded that what makes somebodyAmerican isn’t just their bloodlines, it’s not justan accident of birth. It’s a fidelity to our found-ing principles, a faith in the idea that anyone,anywhere, can write the next great chapter inthis American story.

That’s the promise of America. And todaywe know it’s alive and well in each and everyone of you.

At first glance, of course, it would be easy todefine this group by their differences. They allhail from different corners of the world, fromNigeria to Nicaragua, from the Philippines toPeru. They arrived here in different ways.Some of you came here as children, carried byparents who wished for a life that they had nev-er had. Others came as adults, leaving behindeverything you knew to seek a new life. Butwhat binds you together—what binds us all to-gether—is something more meaningful thananything of that. A love for this country and all

that it represents—that’s what unites each andevery one of you.

For Nikita Kirichenko—there’s Nikita righthere—that love runs so deep it led him to en-list in our military. Nikita came here at the ageof 11 from Ukraine. His mother saw Americaas the one place on Earth where her son coulddo anything he wanted. And a few years ago,Nikita decided that he wanted to join the AirForce so that, in his words, “I could give backto a country that took me in and gave me a bet-ter life.” Thank you, Nikita. Today we proudlysalute him not just as a member of our military,but also as a citizen of our country.

Today we salute Elrina Brits. Where did El-rina go? There she is. Elrina was born in SouthAfrica, came here as a child, grew up in Wash-ington State. When Elrina decided to join theNavy, somebody told her that she wouldn’t beable to cut it. But even though she wasn’t yetAmerican on paper, she had that Americanquality of being defiant when somebody saysyou can’t do something. [Laughter] So sheproved them wrong. She deployed twice to theMiddle East, once to Haiti, showcasing anoth-er quintessentially American impulse, andthat’s helping others in need. And as a new cit-izen, Elrina hopes to serve her country in anew way: as a police officer. So congratula-tions, Elrina.

Elrina, Nikita, every member of the militarywith us have shown incredible patriotism; awillingness to risk their lives in defense of a na-tion that was not yet their own. And that’s a re-markable act. And it made each of them one ofus. It made each of them in some ways Ameri-can even before it was official. Because thatkind of service and sacrifice has defined ourNation for more than two centuries.

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In America, we look out for one another.We see citizenship not just as a collection ofrights, but also as a set of responsibilities.That’s who we are. And that’s what brought somany to our shores, including Kingsley Elebo.Kingsley came here at the age of 35 from Nige-ria, pursued his master’s in information tech-nology. He’s now pursuing his doctorate. Hewants to become a professor so he can helpAmerica lead the world in high-tech industriesof tomorrow. And what Kingsley said is, “Whatmakes this country great is that if you’re a citi-zen you’re part of something bigger than your-self.” And he’s right. And we’re glad that, as oftoday, Kingsley is part of it too.

We’re also glad to welcome Pertula George-Redd. Pertula arrived in America from St. Lu-cia at the age of 23, leaving behind her parentsand seven siblings. She came here to study in-ternational development. She stayed, for over adecade now, to work at nonprofits that teachour kids about sustainable foods and how tolive a healthier life by eating well—which Iknow Michelle is very happy about. Today shealso has the gratitude of her new nation. Sothank you so much.

We are so proud of everybody here. In eachof you, we see the true spirit of America. Andwe see a bit of ourselves too, because most ofour stories trace back to moments just like thisone. To an ancestor who, just like the men andwomen here today, raised their right hand andrecited that sacred oath.

And the point is that unless you are one ofthe first Americans, unless you are a NativeAmerican, you came from someplace else.That’s why we’ve always defined ourselves as anation of immigrants. And we’ve always beenbetter off for it. The promise we see in thosewho come from all over the world is one of ourgreatest strengths. It’s kept our workforceyoung. It keeps our businesses on the cuttingedge. It’s helped to build the greatest econom-ic engine that the world has ever known. Andyou think about the drive and the determina-tion that it took for each of these 28 men andwomen to reach this moment. Imagine how farthey’ll go from here, the kind of difference thatthey’ll be making on behalf of this country.

Immigration makes us a stronger. It keepsus vibrant. It keeps us hungry. It keeps us pros-perous. It is part of what makes this such a dy-namic country. And if we want to keep attract-ing the best and the brightest that the worldhas to offer, then we need to do a better job ofwelcoming them. We’ve known for years thatour immigration system is broken, that we’renot doing enough to harness the talent and in-genuity of all those who want to work hard andfind a place here in America. And after avoid-ing the problem for years, the time has come tofix it once and for all. The time has come for acomprehensive, sensible immigration reform.

Now, a couple months ago in Nevada, andthen last month again in my State of the UnionAddress, I talked about how Republicans andDemocrats were ready to tackle this problemtogether. And the good news is that since then,we’ve seen some real action in Congress.There are bipartisan groups in both the Houseand the Senate working to tackle this chal-lenge, and I applaud them for that. We aremaking progress, but we’ve got to finish thejob, because this issue is not new.

Everyone pretty much knows what’s broken.Everybody knows how to fix it. We’ve all pro-posed solutions and we’ve got a lot of white pa-pers and studies. And we’ve just got, at thispoint, to work up the political courage to dowhat’s required to be done. So I expect a bill tobe put forward. I expect the debate to beginnext month. I want to sign that bill into law assoon as possible.

We know that real reform means continuingto strengthen our border security and holdingemployers accountable. We know that real re-form means providing a responsible pathway toearned citizenship for the 11 million undocu-mented immigrants who are currently living inthe shadows, a pathway that includes passing abackground check and paying taxes and a pen-alty and learning English, and then going tothe back of the line behind everyone else whois trying to come here legally.

We know that real reform requires modern-izing the legal immigration system so that ourcitizens don’t have to wait years before theirloved ones are able to join them in America,

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and so that we’re attracting the highly skilledentrepreneurs and engineers that are going tohelp create good paying jobs and grow oureconomy.

So let’s get this done, and let’s do it in a waythat keeps faith with our history and our val-ues. And no other country on Earth welcomesas many new arrivals as us. And as long as thepromise of America endures, as long as wecontinue to stand tall as a beacon of hope andopportunity, then the world’s hardest workers,the hungriest entrepreneurs, the men andwomen who are willing to make enormous sac-rifices to get a better life, not just for them-selves but for their children and their grand-children, they’re going to keep on coming.

And like the millions who came before—andlike the 28 Americans who are here today—they will bring with them new hopes and newdreams, new ideas and new optimism aboutour future. That will make us stronger. That’show we’ll make sure that our best days areahead of us and not behind us.

So I want to thank each and every one of youfor allowing me the opportunity to share in thisincredible moment. One of the best things Iget to do as President of the United States is toaddress all of you as fellow citizens. God blessyou, and God bless the United States of Amer-ica.

And we now have one last piece of businessto conclude the ceremony. I’d like to ask one ofour newest citizens, Julian de la Valle, fromColombia, to lead us in the Pledge of Alle-giance.

Julian.

[At this point, Julian de la Valle led the recita-tion of the Pledge of Allegiance. The Presidentthen concluded as follows.]

Congratulations. Congratulations all of you.Thank you.

And now, enjoy the White House, all right?[Laughter] Thank you very much, everybody.

NOTE: The President spoke at 11:36 a.m. inthe East Room at the White House.

Statement on the Observance of PassoverMarch 25, 2013

As we prepare for our fifth Seder in theWhite House, Michelle and I send our warm-est wishes to all those celebrating Passoverhere in America, in the State of Israel, andaround the world.

Tonight Jewish families will gather withfamily and friends to celebrate with songs,wine, and food. They will read from the Hag-gadah and retell the story that makes this holi-day so powerful.

Last week, I visited the State of Israel forthe third time, my first as President. I reaf-firmed our countries’ unbreakable bonds withPrime Minister Netanyahu and PresidentPeres. I had the chance to speak directly withyoung Israelis about the future they wanted fortheir country, their region, and the world. And

I saw once again how the dream of true free-dom found its full expression in those words ofhope from Hatikvah: ’lihyot ’am chofshibe’artzeinu’—“to be a free people in our land.”

Passover is a celebration of the freedom ourancestors dreamed of, fought for, and ultimate-ly won. But even as we give thanks, we arecalled to look to the future. We are remindedthat responsibility does not end when we reachthe Promised Land, it only begins. As my fami-ly and I prepare to once again take part in thisancient and powerful tradition, I am hopefulthat we can draw upon the best in ourselves tofind the promise in the days that lie ahead,meet the challenges that will come, and con-tinuing the hard work of repairing the world.Chag sameach.

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Remarks Honoring the 2012 Stanley Cup Champion Los Angeles Kings andthe 2012 Major League Soccer Champion Los Angeles GalaxyMarch 26, 2013

The President. Hello, everybody! Welcometo the White House. And welcome back to theback-to-back MLS champion, the L.A. Galaxy.I was telling these guys, they’re starting to get alittle comfortable around here, because theyjust keep on coming back. But this time, theybrought some company: the Stanley Cupchampion, L.A. Kings.

Now, it is great to have both teams here, notjust because they share a hometown. I’m a lit-tle resentful, coming from Chicago, that L.A.seems to be getting all these championships.But they don’t just share a hometown, they alsoshare a pretty good comeback story.

When it comes to the Galaxy, a team withLandon Donovan on it is rarely the underdog.But when the Galaxy was here last year, theirchances of repeating as champions didn’t lookall that good. The injury bug plagued the team.It seemed like it might be a rebuilding year.But right after that visit, they turned thingsaround. And you can call it a coincidence, but Ijust want to point out that right after they visit-ed with me, the Galaxy built the best record inthe league. [Laughter]

In the MLS Cup Final, the Galaxy trailed athalftime, and it stayed that way until OmarGonzalez, who is with the National Team to-day, scored the equalizer in the 60th minute. Afew minutes after that, Landon did what hedoes best and scored the go-ahead goal. Andpretty soon, they were up 3 to 1. And thenmidfielder Juninho was probably dancing thesamba—[laughter]—the MLS Cup belongedto L.A. for the second-straight year, and thatwas the fourth in Galaxy history.

Now, the Kings’ story is a little bit different.These guys were not defending champions. Infact, before last year, L.A. had never won theStanley Cup. And after switching head coachesmidseason—a coach, I should add, who gotgood training from the Chicago Blackhawks—[laughter]—squeaking into the playoffs as anumber-eight seed, it looked like the streak ofnot winning was going to continue. No eight

seed had ever won a championship in any ofour professional sports.

But something happened during the play-offs. Timing is everything. And as center JarretStoll says, “We all came together at the righttime, and we all peaked at the right time.”With playoff MVP Jonathan Quick playinglights out in goal, these guys just kept winninggame after game after game. And eventually,the rest of the league started to take notice.

Captain Dustin Brown put it best before thefinal game. He said, “I don’t know what 45years of energy sounds like, but if we play ourgame, maybe we’ll find out.” And that night atthe Staples Center, they found out. And Amer-ica found out that Southern California actuallyhas some pretty intense hockey fans.

So I’m going to be a good sport: These guyspointed out that they beat my Blackhawks lastnight. I will also say that, given this season, howrare it is to beat the Blackhawks, I want to con-gratulate them for that as well. [Laughter]

We also found out that both these teams arefull of some pretty stand-up players and coach-es. They’re out in the community year round.They’re changing lives, they’re making a differ-ence. As Coach Arena of the Galaxy says: “Thesoccer is very much secondary. If we can havean impact on the lives of young kids, we wantto be a part of that.”

And that’s something we all appreciate, es-pecially those of us who are parents. And weare thrilled that you guys are sticking around tohost a “Let’s Move!” question-and-answer ses-sion with kids from all across the country.

So I want to give a hearty congratulations toboth the Kings and the Galaxy one more timefor bringing two championships to L.A. and fordoing so much for your fans back in California.

And we also know that there are a couple ofGalaxy players who couldn’t be here because ofWorld Cup qualifying, so I want to wish TeamU.S.A. the very best of luck as they take onMexico tonight. I hope both these teams have agreat rest of the season.

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So everybody give them a big round of ap-plause. Congratulations. Congratulations.

All right, we’ve got some—are we going todo the jerseys at the podium? All right, soLandon, what do we got here?

L.A. Galaxy forward Landon Donovan. Wehave a ball for you, and then we’ve got a——

[At this point, the President tossed the soccerball upward, bounced it off his forehead, andcaught it.]

Mr. Donovan. That was pretty good.[Laughter] And then, we’ve got a jersey foryou.

The President. I hope you guys caught that.That doesn’t happen very often. [Laughter]

Mr. Donovan. And a jersey.

The President. That is a nice-looking jersey.All right, let’s—thank you.

So am I going to stand over here? Okay. Andwhat do we got here?

L.A. Kings right wing Dustin Brown. Just ajersey here.

The President. That’s a good-looking jersey.Forty-four, it’s a lucky number. All right, thankyou.

NOTE: The President spoke at 2 p.m. in theEast Room at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to Omar Gonzalez, defend-er, Juninho Pernambucano, midfielder, andBruce Arena, head coach, Los Angeles Galaxy;and Terry Murray, former head coach, DarrylSutter, head coach, Jarret Stoll, center, andJonathan Quick, goaltender, Los AngelesKings.

Statement on Senator Timothy P. Johnson’s Decision Not To Seek ReelectionMarch 26, 2013

For more than three decades, Tim Johnsonhas dedicated himself to improving the lives ofSouth Dakota’s working families. From his earlydays in the State legislature to his distinguishedcareer in the Senate, Tim has worked tirelesslyto protect our environment, empower rural andNative American communities, and build a fi-nancial system that is better able to serve the

American people. Always a fighter, Tim’s returnto the Senate floor after a life-threatening braininjury was a powerful moment, and his recoverycontinues to inspire us all. I look forward toworking with Senator Johnson as he finishes histhird term, and Michelle and I join the peopleof South Dakota in wishing Tim, Barbara, andtheir entire family all the best.

Letter to Congressional Leaders Regarding Designation of Funds for GlobalCounterterrorism and Overseas Contingency OperationsMarch 26, 2013


In accordance with section 5 of the Consoli-dated and Further Continuing AppropriationsAct, 2013, I hereby designate for OverseasContingency Operations/Global War on Ter-rorism all funding (including the rescission offunds) so designated by the Congress in theAct pursuant to section 251(b)(2)(A) of theBalanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Con-trol Act of 1985, as amended, as outlined in theenclosed list of accounts.

The details of this action are set forth in theenclosed memorandum from the Acting Di-rector of the Office of Management and Bud-get.

Sincerely,

BARACK OBAMA

NOTE: Identical letters were sent to John A.Boehner, Speaker of the House of Representa-tives, and Joseph R. Biden, Jr., President of theSenate.

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Remarks at a Swearing-In Ceremony for Julia A. Pierson as Director of theUnited States Secret Service and an Exchange With ReportersMarch 27, 2013

The President. Okay, Joe. You got the floor.

[At this point, Vice President Joe Biden admin-istered the oath of office to Director Pierson.]

Vice President Biden. Congratulations.The President. Great job.Director Pierson. Thank you very much, Mr.

President.The President. Thank you so much. Well, lis-

ten, I have to say that Julia’s reputation withinthe Service is extraordinary. She’s come upthrough the ranks. She’s done just about everyjob there is to do at the Secret Service.

Obviously, she’s breaking the mold in termsof Directors of the agencies, and I think thatpeople are all extraordinarily proud of her. Andwe have the greatest confidence in the won-derful task that lies ahead and very confidentthat she is going to do a great job. So we justwant to say congratulations.

As Joe Biden pointed out, this person nowprobably has more control over our lives thananyone else—[laughter]—except for our spous-es. And I couldn’t be placing our lives in betterhands than Julia’s.

Vice President Biden. And my agents are ex-cited that we picked her.

The President. Absolutely. You’re going todo a great job.

Director Pierson’s Qualifications

Q. How did you make your decision?The President. She has extraordinary qualifi-

cations, and I think a lot of people who haveworked with Julia know how dedicated, howprofessional, how committed she is, and, Ithink, are absolutely certain that she’s going tothrive in this job. All right?

Thank you, guys.

NCAA Basketball Tournament

Q. How are you feeling about your bracket,sir?

The President. Busted. [Laughter] I thinkmy women’s bracket is doing much better thanmy men’s bracket.

NOTE: The President spoke at 3:16 p.m. in theOval Office at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to Jill T. Biden, wife of VicePresident Biden.

Remarks on Gun ViolenceMarch 28, 2013

Thank you, everybody. Thank you, Katerina,for sharing your story. Reema was lucky tohave you as a teacher, and all of us are fortu-nate to have you here today. And I’m glad wehad a chance to remember her.

Katerina, as you just heard, lost one of hermost promising students in Virginia Tech, theshootings there that took place 6 years ago.And she and dozens of other moms and dads,all victims of gun violence, have come here to-day from across the country, united not only ingrief and loss, but also in resolve and in cour-age and in a deep determination to do whatev-

er they can, as parents and as citizens, to pro-tect other kids and spare other families fromthe awful pain that they have endured.

As any of the families and friends who arehere today can tell you, the grief doesn’t evergo away. That loss, that pain sticks with you. Itlingers on in places like Blacksburg and Tucsonand Aurora. That anguish is still fresh in New-town. It’s been barely 100 days since 20 inno-cent children and 6 brave educators were tak-en from us by gun violence, including GraceMcDonnell and Lauren Rousseau and JesseLewis, whose families are here today.

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That agony burns deep in the families ofthousands—thousands—of Americans whohave been stolen from our lives by a bulletfrom a gun over these last 100 days, includingHadiya Pendleton, who was killed on her wayto school less than 2 months ago and whosemom is also here today. Everything they livedfor and hoped for, taken away in an instant. Wehave moms on this stage whose children werekilled as recently as 35 days ago.

I don’t think any of us who are parents canhear their stories and not think about our owndaughters and our own sons and our owngrandchildren. We all feel that it is our first im-pulse as parents to do everything we can toprotect our children from harm, to make anysacrifice to keep them safe, to do what we haveto do to give them a future where they cangrow up and learn and explore and become theamazing people they’re destined to be.

That’s why, in January, Joe Biden, leading aTask Force, came up with, and I put forward, aseries of commonsense proposals to reduce theepidemic of gun violence and keep our kidssafe. In my State of the Union Address, I calledon Congress to give these proposals a vote.And in just a couple of weeks, they will.

Earlier this month, the Senate advancedsome of the most important reforms designedto reduce gun violence. All of them are consis-tent with the Second Amendment. None ofthem will infringe on the rights of responsiblegun owners. What they will do is keep guns outof the hands of dangerous people who put oth-ers at risk. And this is our best chance in morethan a decade to take commonsense steps thatwill save lives.

As I said when I visited Newtown just over 3months ago, if there is a step we can take thatwill save just one child, just one parent, just an-other town from experiencing the same griefthat some of the moms and dads who are herehave endured, then we should be doing it. Wehave an obligation to try.

Now, in the coming weeks, Members ofCongress will vote on whether we should re-quire universal background checks for anyonewho wants to buy a gun so that criminals orpeople with severe mental illnesses can’t get

their hands on one. They’ll vote on tough newpenalties for anyone who buys guns only toturn around and sell them to criminals. They’llvote on a measure that would keep weapons ofwar and high-capacity ammunition magazinesthat facilitate these mass killings off our streets.They’ll get to vote on legislation that wouldhelp schools become safer and help peoplestruggling with mental health problems to getthe treatment that they need.

None of these ideas should be controversial.Why wouldn’t we want to make it more diffi-cult for a dangerous person to get his or herhand on a gun? Why wouldn’t we want to closethe loophole that allows as many as 40 percentof all gun purchases to take place without abackground check? Why wouldn’t we do that?

And if you ask most Americans outside ofWashington—including many gun owners—some of these ideas, they don’t consider themcontroversial. Right now 90 percent of Ameri-cans—90 percent—support backgroundchecks that will keep criminals and people whohave been found to be a danger to themselvesor others from buying a gun. More than 80percent of Republicans agree. More than 80percent of gun owners agree. Think about that.How often do 90 percent of Americans agreeon anything? [Laughter] It never happens.

Many other reforms are supported by clearmajorities of Americans. And I ask everyAmerican to find out where your Member ofCongress stands on these ideas. If they’re notpart of that 90 percent who agree that weshould make it harder for a criminal or some-body with a severe mental illness to buy a gun,then you should ask them, why not? Why areyou part of the 10 percent?

There’s absolutely no reason why we can’tget this done. But the reason we’re talkingabout it here today is because it’s not done un-til it’s done. And there are some powerful voic-es on the other side that are interested in run-ning out the clock or changing the subject ordrowning out the majority of the Americanpeople to prevent any of these reforms fromhappening at all. They’re doing everything theycan to make all our progress collapse under the

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weight of fear and frustration. Or their as-sumption is that people will just forget about it.

I read an article in the news just the otherday wondering is Washington—has Washing-ton missed its opportunity, because as timegoes on after Newtown, somehow, people startmoving on and forgetting. Let me tell you, thepeople here, they don’t forget. Grace’s dad isnot forgetting. Hadiya’s mom hasn’t forgotten.The notion that 2 months or 3 months aftersomething as horrific as what happened inNewtown happens and we’ve moved on to oth-er things, that’s not who we are. That’s not whowe are.

Now, I want to make sure every American islistening today. Less than 100 days ago thathappened, and the entire country was shocked.And the entire country pledged we would dosomething about it and that this time would bedifferent. Shame on us if we’ve forgotten. I ha-ven’t forgotten those kids. Shame on us ifwe’ve forgotten.

If there’s one thing I’ve said consistentlysince I first ran for this office: Nothing is morepowerful than millions of voices calling forchange. And that’s why it’s so important that allthese moms and dads are here today. But that’salso why it’s important that we’ve got grass-roots groups out there that got started and areout there mobilizing and organizing and keep-ing up the fight. That’s what it’s going to taketo make this country safer. It’s going to takemoms and dads, and hunters and sportsmenand clergy and local officials, like the mayorswho are here today, standing up and saying,this time really is different: that we’re not justgoing to sit back and wait until the next New-town or the next Blacksburg or the next inno-cent, beautiful child is gunned down in a play-ground in Chicago or Philadelphia or Los An-geles before we summon the will to act.

Right now Members of Congress are backhome in their districts, and many of them areholding events where they can hear from theirconstituents. So I want everybody who is lis-tening to make yourself heard right now.

If you think that checking someone’s crimi-nal record before he can check out a gun showis common sense, you’ve got to make yourself

heard. If you’re a responsible, law-abiding gunowner who wants to keep irresponsible, law-breaking individuals from abusing the right tobear arms by inflicting harm on a massivescale, speak up. We need your voices in thisdebate. If you’re a mom like Katerina whowants to make this country safer, a strongerplace for our children to learn and grow up, gettogether with other moms, like the ones heretoday, and raise your voices and make your-selves unmistakably heard.

We need everybody to remember how wefelt 100 days ago and make sure that what wesaid at that time wasn’t just a bunch of plati-tudes, that we meant it.

The desire to make a difference is whatbrought Corey Thornblad here today. Coreygrew up in Oklahoma, where her dad sold fire-arms at gun shows. And today, she’s a momand a teacher. And Corey said that after New-town, she cried for days: for the students whocould have been her students; for the parentsshe could have known; for the teachers like herwho go to work every single day and love theirkids and want them to succeed. And Coreysays: “My heart was broken. And I decidednow was the time to act, to march, the time topetition, the time to make phone calls, becausetears were no longer enough.” And that’s myattitude.

Tears aren’t enough. Expressions of sympa-thy aren’t enough. Speeches aren’t enough.We’ve cried enough. We’ve known enoughheartbreak. What we’re proposing is not radi-cal, it’s not taking away anybody’s gun rights.It’s something that, if we are serious, we willdo.

Now is the time to turn that heartbreak intosomething real. It won’t solve every problem.There will still be gun deaths. There will stillbe tragedies. There will still be violence. Therewill still be evil. But we can make a differenceif not just the activists here on this stage, butthe general public—including responsible gunowners—say, you know what, we can do betterthan this. We can do better to make sure thatfewer parents have to endure the pain of losinga child to an act of violence.

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That’s what this is about. And enough peo-ple like Katerina and Corey and the rest of theparents who are here today get involved, and ifenough Members of Congress take a stand forcooperation and common sense and lead anddon’t get squishy because time has passed andmaybe it’s not on the news every single day, ifthat’s who we are, if that’s our character, thatwe’re willing to follow through on commit-ments that we say are important—commit-ments to each other and to our kids—then I’mconfident we can make this country a saferplace for all of them.

So thank you very much, everybody. Godbless you. God bless America.

NOTE: The President spoke at 11:58 a.m. in theEast Room at the White House. In his remarks,he referred to Katerina Rodgaard, member,Mothers Demand Action for Gun Sense inAmerica; Cleopatra Crowley-Pendleton, moth-er of Hadiya Z. Pendleton, who was killed inChicago, IL, on January 29; Chris McDonnell,father of Grace McDonnell, who was killed inthe shootings at Sandy Hook ElementarySchool in Newtown, CT, on December 14,2012; and Corey T. Thornblad, social studiesteacher, Joyce Kilmer Middle School in Vienna,VA.

Remarks Following a Meeting With African Leaders and an Exchange WithReportersMarch 28, 2013

The President. Well, it is a great pleasure towelcome four leaders from Africa, all of whomare doing extraordinary work: President Sallfrom Senegal, President Banda from Malawi,President Koroma from Sierra Leone, andPrime Minister Neves from Cape Verde.

The reason that I’m meeting with these fouris, they exemplify the progress that we’re see-ing in Africa. All of them have had to deal withsome extraordinary challenges. Sierra Leone,just 10 years ago, was in the midst of as brutal acivil war as we’ve ever seen. And yet now we’veseen consecutive fair and free elections. Andunder President Koroma’s leadership, we’veseen not only good governance, but also signif-icant economic growth.

When you talk about Malawi, there was aconstitutional crisis just last year. And yet Pres-ident Banda has not only been able to be in of-fice and make sure that constitutional orderwas restored, but has also made significantprogress on behalf of her people. And her per-sonal story of overcoming a history of abuseand leading women throughout her country, Ithink, indicates the kinds of progress that canbe made when you’ve got strong leadership.

The same is true for His Excellency Presi-dent Sall. There were some bumps in the road

in terms of transition from the previous Presi-dent, and yet the Senegalese rose up at a grass-roots level and sustained their democracy.

And Cape Verde is a real success story. Wewere hearing from Prime Minister Nevesabout the fact that just in a few decades,they’ve moved from a per capita income ofmaybe $200 a year to now $4,000 a year andare now moving into the middle of the pack interms of development levels because of goodgovernance and management.

So what our discussion has focused on is,number one, how do we continue to build onstrong democracies, how do we continue tobuild on transparency and accountability. Be-cause what we’ve learned over the last severaldecades is that when you’ve got good gover-nance—when you have democracies that work,sound management of public funds, transpar-ency and accountability to the citizens that putleaders in place—it turns out that that is notonly good for the state and the functioning ofgovernment, it’s also good for economic devel-opment, because it gives people confidence, itattracts business, it facilitates trade and com-merce.

And all of these leaders have good stories totell on that. They recognize that there’s still

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more work to be done, and so I’m very pleasedthat all of them are looking to move forward onthe Open Government Partnership that wehelped to organize through the United Nationsseveral years ago and that we are now seeingcountries from all across the world sign up for,setting up international norms for accountabili-ty and transparency that can lead to good gov-ernance.

We also talked about the economic situa-tion. And all of us recognize that, although Af-rica has actually been growing faster than al-most every other region of the world, it startedfrom a low baseline, and it still has a lot of workto do. And that means building human capacityand improving education and job skills for rap-idly growing and young populations. It meansimproving access to energy and transportationsectors. And so we discussed how the UnitedStates can continue to partner effectively witheach of these countries.

And then, we finally talked about youngpeople generally and how we can mobilize thenext generation of African leadership. And in-dividuals like President Koroma have takengreat interest in finding additional ways thatwe can recruit and engage young people notonly to get involved in public service, but alsoto get involved in entrepreneurship that helpsbuild these countries.

And so my main message to each of theseleaders is that the United States is going to be astrong partner, not based on the old model inwhich we are a donor and they are simply a re-cipient, but a new model that’s based on part-nership and recognizing that no continent hasgreater potential or greater upside than thecontinent of Africa if they in fact have the kindof strong leadership that these four individualsrepresent.

And we intend to continue to engage withthem through a range of programs—throughthe Millennium Challenge, through theUSAID, through the PEPFAR programs—butwe’re also looking for new models that can po-tentially improve our bilateral relations evenmore.

The last point I’d make: We all discussedsome of the regional challenges involved. Ob-

viously, economic development, prosperitydoesn’t happen if you have constant conflict.And nobody knows that more than these indi-viduals. Some, like President Koroma, has seenthat firsthand.

Now many of the threats are transnational.You’ve seen terrorism infiltrate into the region.We’ve seen drug cartels that are using WestAfrica in particular as a transit point. All of thisundermines some of the progress that’s beenmade, and so the United States will continue tocooperate with each of these countries to try tofind smart solutions so that they can build ad-ditional capacity and make sure that these can-cers don’t grow in their region. And the UnitedStates intends to be a strong partner for that.

So I just want to say to each of them, thankyou for your extraordinary work. You shouldknow that you have a great friend in the UnitedStates, in the people of the United States, andin the President of the United States, becausewe believe that if you’re successful, that ulti-mately will help us grow our economies andcontribute to a more peaceful world as well. Sothank you very much.

Thank you, guys.

Health of Former President Nelson R. Mandelaof South Africa

Q. Mandela? You can be brief.The President. Well, obviously, we’re all

deeply concerned with Nelson Mandela’shealth. He’s a hero, I think, to all of us. I’msure that I speak for the other leaders here.And we will be keeping him in our thoughtsand prayers and his entire family. He is asstrong physically as he’s been in character andin leadership over so many decades, and hope-fully, he will come out of this latest challenge.

But we all recognize that he has given every-thing to his people, the people of South Africa,to the people of the continent, and he’s endedup being an inspiration to all of us. When youthink of a single individual that embodies thekind of leadership qualities that I think we allaspire to, the first name that comes up is Nel-son Mandela, and so we wish him all the verybest.

Thank you, guys.

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NOTE: The President spoke at 3:45 p.m. in theCabinet Room at the White House. In his re-

marks, he referred to former President Abdou-laye Wade of Senegal.

Statement on the Nomination of General Philip M. Breedlove To BeSupreme Allied Commander EuropeMarch 28, 2013

Today I am proud to announce my intentionto nominate General Philip Breedlove as thenext Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SA-CEUR) and Commander of U.S. EuropeanCommand. For over three decades, GeneralBreedlove has served with distinction in as-signments at all levels of the U.S. Air Forceand around the globe, from Washington toGermany, Italy, Spain, and South Korea. AsCommander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe andthe Commander of NATO’s Allied Air Com-mand, General Breedlove has established trustand deep relations with our NATO allies and

partners, assets he will draw upon in taking onthis important new role on behalf of the Unit-ed States and the alliance.

If confirmed by the Senate, General Breed-love will replace Admiral Jim Stavridis as theSupreme Allied Commander in late Spring.Admiral Stavridis has played an absolutely es-sential role in strengthening the NATO alli-ance to meet the challenges of the 21st centu-ry, to include enhancing our collective capabil-ities and partnerships. I am grateful for hissteadfast service on behalf of our country andNATO.

Statement on the Decision of Mayor Thomas M. Menino of Boston,Massachusetts, Not To Seek ReelectionMarch 28, 2013

Boston is the vibrant, welcoming, andworld-class city it is today because of Tom Me-nino. For more than two decades, Mayor Me-nino has served the city and every one of itsresidents with extraordinary leadership, vision,and compassion. His efforts to revitalize neigh-borhoods, schools, and businesses, better inte-grate police officers into their communitiesand reduce gun violence, reach out to the

homeless and marginalized, and engage youngpeople in the life of their city has charted Bos-ton on a course for a better future. No twopeople wear their hearts on their sleeve for theCity of Boston and its people as openly as Tomand Angela Menino. And as they depart CityHall next year, Boston will be a better place tolive, work, and raise a family because of theMeninos’ proud service to the city they love.

Statement on the 15th Anniversary of the Good Friday AgreementMarch 28, 2013

As Easter approaches, we mark the 15th an-niversary of the signing of the Good Fridayagreement. The people of Northern Irelandand their leaders have traveled a great distanceover the past 15 years. Step by step, they havetraded bullets for ballots, destruction and divi-sion for dialogue and institutions, and pointedthe way toward a shared future for all. There isurgent work still to be done, and there will be

more tests to come. There are still those fewwho prefer to look backward rather than for-ward, who prefer to inspire hate rather thanhope. The many who have brought NorthernIreland this far must keep rejecting their call.From building cross-community trust to bring-ing opportunity to hard-to-reach communitiesin Belfast and beyond, every citizen and everypolitical party needs to work together in service

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of true and lasting peace and prosperity. And atevery step of the way, the United States will bethere as a friend and partner. That is the mes-sage I will carry with me when I visit NorthernIreland and attend the G–8 summit in June.

On behalf of the American people, I salutethe people and leaders of Northern Ireland

and the model they have given to othersstruggling toward peace and reconciliationaround the world. I pledge our continuedsupport for their efforts to build a strong soci-ety, a vibrant economy, and an enduringpeace.

Remarks at PortMiami in Miami, FloridaMarch 29, 2013

The President. Hello, Miami! It is good to beback. You know, I’ve been waiting for spring. Irealize I just had to come down to Miami.[Laughter] It is wonderful to be here.

We’ve got some outstanding Representa-tives in Congress from this area. Joe Garcia isin the house. Frederica Wilson is in the house.And we’ve got Debbie Wasserman Schultzhere. I want to thank the mayor of Miami-Dade County, Carlos Gimenez. And of course,it’s good to see all of you. And I want to thankthe gentlemen who just gave me a amazingtour of the PortMiami Tunnel.

Audience member. Yay!The President. What are you yelling about?

Hey, sweetie.Audience member. She came just to see you!The President. Okay, well, hello. [Laughter]

She’s going to be a politician, because I couldhear her without a mike from far away.[Laughter]

Now, before we get started, I’ve got to getinto a sticky subject right off the bat. I knowyou guys aren’t happy with my Chicago Bulls.

Audience members. Boo!The President. But I just want you to know

the Heat are going to be just fine. They’re go-ing to be okay. They are playing basketball theright way. The Hurricanes—they had a greatseason—no, no, they deserve a big round ofapplause. Tonight you’ve got Florida and Flor-ida Gulf Coast going at it. One of them will goto the Elite Eight. So let’s face it: Florida is thecenter of basketball right now.

But I’m not here to talk about hoops. I’mhere to talk about one of the plans that I putforward in my State of the Union Address: aplan to put people to work rebuilding America.

I’ve come to PortMiami today because thereare few more important things we can do tocreate jobs right now and strengthen our econ-omy over the long haul than rebuilding the in-frastructure that powers our businesses andour economy: our roads, our bridges, ourschools, and our ports just like this one.

As President, my top priority is to make surewe are doing everything we can to reignite thetrue engine of our economic growth, and thatis a rising, thriving middle class. A growingeconomy that creates good, middle class jobs.That’s got to be our true north. That’s what hasto guide our efforts every single day. And to dothat, we should be asking ourselves three ques-tions every single day. Number one, how do wemake America a magnet for good jobs? Num-ber two, how do we equip our workers with theskills they need to do the jobs? Number three,how do we make sure that hard work leads to adecent living?

When it comes to good jobs, no workerswere hammered harder by the recession thanconstruction workers. Fortunately, the unem-ployment rate for construction has been cutnearly in half over the past 3 years, partly be-cause the housing market is starting to bounceback. But construction still has the highest un-employment rate of any industry. Breakingground on more projects like this tunnel that Ijust saw means more good construction jobsthat can’t be outsourced. They have to be doneright here in America. And they end up givingpeople good pay and good opportunities toraise their families.

Projects like this create a lot of other goodjobs too. You ask any CEO where would theyrather locate their business and hire new work-

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ers. Are you going to set up shop in a countrythat’s got raggedy roads, runways that are pot-holed; backed up supply chains? Or are you go-ing to seek out high-speed rail, Internet, high-tech schools, new state-of-the-art power grids,new bridges, new tunnels, new ports that helpyou ship products made in America to the restof the world as fast as possible? That’s whatpeople are looking for. That’s what CEOs arelooking for.

When you ask companies who brought jobsback to America in the last few years, they’llsay, if we upgrade our infrastructure, we’llbring even more. So what are we waiting for?There’s work to be done, there are workerswho are ready to do it. Let’s prove to the worldthere’s no better place to do business thanright here in the United States of America, andlet’s get started rebuilding America.

Now, over the last 4 years, we’ve done somegood work. Construction crews have built orimproved more than 350,000 miles of road.That’s enough to circle the globe 14 times.We’ve upgraded more than 6,000 miles of rail,enough to go coast to coast and back. We’ve re-paired or replaced more than 20,000 bridges.We’ve helped get tens of thousands of con-struction workers back on the job.

Because of these efforts, when the Ameri-can Society of Engineers [American Society ofCivil Engineers]* put out their 2013 reportcard on our national infrastructure, they gave itthe best overall grade in 12 years. That’s thegood news. The bad news is we went from a Dto a D-plus. We still have all kinds of deferredmaintenance. We still have too many ports thataren’t equipped for today’s world commerce.We’ve still got too many rail lines that are tooslow and clogged up. We’ve still got too manyroads that are in disrepair, too many bridgesthat aren’t safe.

We don’t have to accept that for America.We can do better. We can build better. And ina time of tight budgets, we’ve got to do it in away that makes sure taxpayer dollars are spentwisely.

Now what these outstanding folks here inMiami have been doing is a good example ofhow my plan would work. Port of Miami is abusy place. Hundreds of cargo containers passthrough every day. Nearly one in five cruiseship passengers in North America sets sailfrom this port. All that commerce helps sup-port a whole lot of high-paying jobs not just inMiami-Dade, but throughout the region.

But it also, let’s face it, creates some conges-tion. Right now 16,000 cars and trucks travel toand from PortMiami every day, and they’restuck going through downtown. And those traf-fic jams are bad for business. Whether you’re asmall-business owner in South Beach or amanufacturer in Atlanta trying to get yourgoods overseas, that congestion wastes timeand money.

Now some smart folks decided we couldsolve this problem by digging under the bay,linking the port directly to the highway. State,county, and local governments got togetherand agreed to jointly fund PortMiami Tunnel.Everybody had some skin in the game. Theydid something else; they partnered with agroup of private sector companies to financethe design and construction of the project.They made it clear that the payments to thesecompanies would be linked to their perfor-mance so if there were big cost overruns, theprivate companies would have to eat those ex-tra costs. Because of those efforts, constructionworkers are on the job digging this tunnel, do-ing great jobs, getting good pay, boosting theeconomy, strengthening it for the long run.The port is in better shape, which means it’sgoing to be able to get all the containers thatare coming in from all around the world,matched up with the improvements that arebeing done on the Panama Canal, whichmeans we’re not going to be losing jobs to oth-er countries.

We can do this not just here in Miami-Dade,but we can do this all across the country. So to-day I’m expanding on a proposal I made in theState of the Union. I’m calling it a Partnershipto Rebuild America. It’s a partnership with the


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private sector that creates jobs upgrading whatour businesses need most: modern ports tomove our goods, modern pipelines to with-stand a storm, modern schools worthy of ourchildren.

And my plan does three things. First, we’llset up an independent fund that will attractprivate investment to build projects like thisone and make sure companies share in the riskand returns. Instead of picking projects basedon pork barrel politics, we’ll pick them basedon how much good they’ll actually do for theeconomy, how much the projects make sense.And we’ll better finance projects that involvemore than one mode of transportation or morethan one town or State, with less redtape togum up the works. So all of this will make theprocess more efficient. It will help us breakground on some of the projects that our citiesand States need most, and they can do it fasterand better.

Second, we’re going to fund more projectsat less cost, by establishing a new infrastruc-ture initiative called America Fast Forwardbonds. It’s going to give mayors and Governorsmore flexibility and power to attract private in-vestment for public projects.

Number three, we’ll strengthen a loan pro-gram that in recent years has helped Gover-nors and mayors leverage four times the mon-ey Washington put into it and that means we’rehelping construction workers get on the jobquicker, repaying taxpayers their hard-earnedmoney faster. That’s the kind of approach weused to help PortMiami Tunnel get off theground—or I guess underground. [Laughter]

That’s the Partnership to Rebuild America.That’s how we’ll create good jobs, doing thework America needs done. That’s how we’ll en-courage more businesses to start here andgrow here and hire workers here.

And by the way, this should not be a partisanidea. I know in Washington, people just like toargue. I guess it gets them on TV. But the factis you’ve got the Chamber of Commerce andthe AFL–CIO agreeing to better infrastruc-ture, knowing that it will help both businessesand workers. So if you’re got the Chamber and

the unions agreeing, then the politiciansshould be able to agree too. Building betterroads and bridges and schools, that’s not a par-tisan idea. And in fact, that’s where you can getmayors and Governors from both parties tofind some common ground.

I know that Members of Congress are happyto welcome projects like this in their districts. Iknow because I’ve seen them at the ribbon cut-tings. [Laughter] They’ll all say how, no, wedon’t want to do it. And then, they’re all writ-ing me letters saying, we really need this port.Cut somebody else’s port out. That’s whatthey’ll say. Cut somebody else’s road. Cutsomebody else’s—well, no, we’re all in this to-gether. So if you think it’s good for your dis-trict, then it’s probably good for other districtstoo.

We can’t afford Washington politics to standin the way of America’s progress. So I’ve putforward some ideas to get the private sector in-volved to protect taxpayer dollars. But ulti-mately, Congress has to fund these projects.And by the way, the three Members of Con-gress who are here, they all believe in this, theyall support it. It will put people back to workand it will grow our economy in the process.

So, Miami-Dade, my main message is:Let’s get this done. Let’s rebuild this countrywe love. Let’s make sure we’re staying on thecutting edge. Let’s make sure we’ve alwaysgot the best ports. Let’s make sure we’ve gotthe best airports. Let’s make sure we’ve gotthe best rail lines. Let’s make sure we’ve gotthe best roads. Let’s make sure we’ve got thebest schools.

We’re going to push on this issue each andevery day, and make sure we get the middleclass going again. We’re going to fix our econ-omy. We’re going to fix our immigration sys-tem. We are going to make sure that ouryoung people are getting a great education.We’re going to prevent them from being vic-tims of gun violence. We are going to makesure that everybody in this country has a fairshot and is doing their fair share so that whenwe pass on this country to the next generationand the generation after that, we’ll be able to

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once again say that here in the United Statesof America, it doesn’t matter what you looklike or where you come from, if you workhard, you can make it.


NOTE: The President spoke at 1:40 p.m.

Statement on the Observance of EasterMarch 29, 2013

This weekend, Michelle and I join our fel-low Christians here at home and around theworld in marking Good Friday and celebratingEaster. These holy days are a time to reflect onthe momentous sacrifice that Jesus Christmade for each of us and to celebrate the tri-umph of the resurrection and His gift of grace.

It is a time for renewed hope amidst continuedchallenges. It’s also a time to ponder the com-mon values that unite us: to have compassionfor all and to treat others as we wish to betreated ourselves. As we embrace our lovedones and give thanks for our blessings, we wishall who celebrate with us a blessed Easter.


Hi, everybody. For millions of Americans,this is a special and sacred time of year.

This week, Jewish families gathered aroundthe Seder table, commemorating the Exodusfrom Egypt and the triumph of faith over op-pression. And this weekend, Michelle, Malia,Sasha, and I will join Christians around theworld to celebrate the resurrection of JesusChrist and the hopeful promise of Easter.

In the midst of all of our busy and noisylives, these holy days afford us the precious op-portunity to slow down and spend some quietmoments in prayer and reflection. As Chris-tians, my family and I remember the incrediblesacrifice Jesus made for each and every one ofus, how He took on the sins of the world andextended the gift of salvation. And we recom-mit ourselves to following His example here onEarth, to loving our Lord and Savior, to lovingour neighbors, and to seeing everyone, espe-cially “the least of these,” as a child of God.

Of course, those values are at the heart notjust of the Christian faith, but of all faiths.From Judaism to Islam, Hinduism to Sikhism,there echoes a powerful call to serve our broth-ers and sisters, to keep in our hearts a deep and

abiding compassion for all, and to treat othersas we wish to be treated ourselves.

That’s the common humanity that binds ustogether. And as Americans, we’re united bysomething else too: faith in the ideals that lie atthe heart of our founding and the belief that, aspart of something bigger than ourselves, wehave a shared responsibility to look out for ourfellow citizens.

So this weekend, I hope we’re all able totake a moment and pause and reflect, to em-brace our loved ones, to give thanks for ourblessings, to rededicate ourselves to interestslarger than our own. And to all the Christianfamilies who are celebrating the resurrection,Michelle and I wish you a blessed and joyfulEaster.

God bless you, and may God continue tobless the United States of America.

NOTE: The address was recorded at approxi-mately 6:15 p.m. on March 29 in the GrandFoyer at the White House for broadcast onMarch 30. The transcript was made availableby the Office of the Press Secretary on March29, but was embargoed for release until 6 a.m.on March 30.

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Apr. 1 / Administration of Barack Obama, 2013

Remarks at the White House Easter Egg RollApril 1, 2013

The President. Miss Jessica Sanchez, every-body! Give her a big round of applause. KidPresident—give Kid President a big round ofapplause. The Easter Bunny is here. Give Eas-ter Bunny a big round of applause.

It is wonderful to see all of you. And I justwant to say welcome. You guys brought thegreat weather. It was a little shaky this morn-ing, but all of you did a great job sending amessage upstairs, and now we’ve got beautifulweather.

And I now want to introduce the star of theObama family, my wife, the First Lady, Mi-chelle Obama.

The First Lady. Thank you, Mr. President.Thank you, Kid President, Robbie Novak. Isn’the wonderful? Robbie, we’re so proud to haveyou here. You have been so inspiring. I can’timagine that there’s anyone who hasn’t seenyour video, right? You make us all want to workhard and be better. That’s right. So you’re go-ing to spend a little time in the Oval Office justfixing things up for this President, aren’t you?All right, well, it’s good to have you here.

And it’s great to have everyone here thismorning. We are so excited. The Easter eggroll is the biggest event that we have here on

the South Lawn of the White House each year.Today we’re going to have more than 30,000people who will pass through this yard in cele-bration of nutrition and health and activity.And we could not do this if it were not for all ofour wonderful volunteers, our staff, all of theterrific performers and athletes who have tak-en time out of their lives and their busy days tomake this important. So we need to give all ofthem a round of applause for all their hardwork. Yes, indeed!

So today we want you to have a great time.We want you to run around. We want you to goover and see the White House Garden. Wewant you to learn about making tasty, healthyfood. We’re going to come down and do someEaster egg roll. We’re going to read some sto-ries. But overall, we want you guys to have agood time and keep moving and be healthy.And, kids, eat your vegetables, okay?

All right, you all, take care. We’ll see youdown there. Bye-bye. Thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 10:48 a.m. fromthe South Portico at the White House. In hisremarks, he referred to musician Jessica San-chez, who sang the national anthem.

Remarks on Science and TechnologyApril 2, 2013

The President. Thank you so much. Thankyou, everybody. Please have a seat. Well, firstof all, let me thank Dr. Collins not just for theintroduction, but for his incredible leadershipat NIH. Those of you who know Francis alsoknow that he’s quite a gifted singer and musi-cian. So I was asking whether he was going tobe willing to sing the introduction—[laugh-ter]—and he declined.

But his leadership has been extraordinary.And I’m glad I’ve been promoted Scientist inChief. [Laughter] Given my grades in physics,I’m not sure it’s deserving, but I hold science

in proper esteem, so maybe that gives me a lit-tle credit.

Today I’ve invited some of the smartest peo-ple in the country, some of the most imagina-tive and effective researchers in the country—some very smart people—to talk about thechallenge that I issued in my State of theUnion Address: to grow our economy, to createnew jobs, to reignite a rising, thriving middleclass by investing in one of our core strengths,and that’s American innovation.

Ideas are what power our economy. It’swhat sets us apart. It’s what America has beenall about. We have been a nation of dreamers

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Administration of Barack Obama, 2013 / Apr. 2

and risk takers, people who see what nobodyelse sees, sooner than anybody else sees it. Wedo innovation better than anybody else, andthat makes our economy stronger. When weinvest in the best ideas before anybody elsedoes, our businesses and our workers can makethe best products and deliver the best servicesbefore anybody else.

And because of that incredible dynamism,we don’t just attract the best scientists or thebest entrepreneurs, we also continually investin their success. We support labs and universi-ties to help them learn and explore. And wefund grants to help them turn a dream into areality. And we have a patent system to protecttheir inventions. And we offer loans to helpthem turn those inventions into successfulbusinesses.

And the investments don’t always pay off.But when they do, they change our lives inways that we could never have imagined. Com-puter chips and GPS technology, the Inter-net—all these things grew out of Governmentinvestments in basic research. And sometimes,in fact, some of the best products and servicesspin off completely from unintended researchthat nobody expected to have certain applica-tions. Businesses then use that technology tocreate countless new jobs.

So the founders of Google got their earlysupport from the National Science Founda-tion. The Apollo project that put a man on theMoon also gave us, eventually, CAT scans. Andevery dollar we spent to map the human ge-nome has returned $140 to our economy—$1of investment, $140 in return. Dr. Collinshelped lead that genome effort, and that’s whywe thought it was appropriate to have him hereto announce the next great American project,and that’s what we’re calling the BRAIN Initia-tive.

As humans, we can identify galaxies lightyears away, we can study particles smaller thanan atom. But we still haven’t unlocked the mys-tery of the three pounds of matter that sits be-tween our ears. [Laughter] But today, scien-tists possess the capability to study individualneurons and figure out the main functions ofcertain areas of the brain. But a human brain

contains almost 100 billion neurons makingtrillions of connections. So Dr. Collins says it’slike listening to the string section and trying tofigure out what the whole orchestra soundslike. So, as a result, we’re still unable to curediseases like Alzheimer’s or autism or fully re-verse the effects of a stroke. And the mostpowerful computer in the world isn’t nearly asintuitive as the one we’re born with.

So there is this enormous mystery waiting tobe unlocked, and the BRAIN Initiative willchange that by giving scientists the tools theyneed to get a dynamic picture of the brain inaction and better understand how we think andhow we learn and how we remember. And thatknowledge could be—will be—transformative.

In the budget I will send to Congress nextweek, I will propose a significant investment bythe National Institutes of Health, DARPA, andthe National Science Foundation to help getthis project off the ground. I’m directing mybioethics commission to make sure all of theresearch is being done in a responsible way.And we’re also partnering with the private sec-tor, including leading companies and founda-tions and research institutions, to tap the Na-tion’s brightest minds to help us reach ourgoal.

And of course, none of this will be easy. If itwas, we would already know everything therewas about how the brain works, and presum-ably my life would be simpler here. [Laughter]It would—could explain all kinds of things thatgo on in Washington. [Laughter] We couldprescribe something. [Laughter]

So it won’t be easy. But think about what wecould do once we do crack this code. Imagineif no family had to feel helpless watching aloved one disappear behind the mask of Par-kinson’s or struggle in the grip of epilepsy.Imagine if we could reverse traumatic brain in-jury or PTSD for our veterans who are cominghome. Imagine if someone with a prostheticlimb can now play the piano or throw a base-ball as well as anybody else because the wiringfrom the brain to that prosthetic is direct andtriggered by what’s already happening in thepatient’s mind. What if computers could re-spond to our thoughts or our language barriers

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could come tumbling down. Or if millions ofAmericans were suddenly finding new jobs inthese fields—jobs we haven’t even dreamt upyet—because we chose to invest in this project.

That’s the future we’re imagining. That’swhat we’re hoping for. That’s why the BRAINInitiative is so absolutely important. And that’swhy it’s so important that we think about basicresearch generally as a driver of growth andthat we replace the across-the-board budgetcuts that are threatening to set us back beforewe even get started. A few weeks ago, the di-rectors of some of our national laboratoriessaid that the sequester—these arbitrary,across-the-board cuts that have gone intoplace—are so severe, so poorly designed, thatthey will hold back a generation of young sci-entists.

When our leading thinkers wonder if it stillmakes sense to encourage young people to getinvolved in science in the first place becausethey’re not sure whether the research fundingand the grants will be there to cultivate an en-tire new generation of scientists, that’s some-thing we should worry about. We can’t affordto miss these opportunities while the rest ofthe world races ahead. We have to seize them.I don’t want the next job-creating discoveriesto happen in China or India or Germany, Iwant them to happen right here, in the UnitedStates of America.

And that’s part of what this BRAIN Initia-tive is about. That’s why we’re pursuing othergrand challenges like making solar energy ascheap as coal or making electric vehicles as af-fordable as the ones that run on gas. They’reambitious goals, but they’re achievable. Andwe’re encouraging companies and researchuniversities and other organizations to get in-volved and help us make progress.

We have a chance to improve the lives of notjust millions, but billions of people on thisplanet through the research that’s done in thisBRAIN Initiative alone. But it’s going to re-quire a serious effort, a sustained effort. Andit’s going to require us as a country to embodyand embrace that spirit of discovery that iswhat made America America.

The year before I was born, an Americancompany came out with one of the earliestminicomputers. It was a revolutionary ma-chine, didn’t require its own air conditioningsystem. That was a big deal. It took only oneperson to operate, but each computer was 8feet tall, weighed 1,200 pounds, and cost morethan $100,000. And today, most of the peoplein this room, including the person whose cellphone just rang—[laughter]—have a far morepowerful computer in their pocket. Computershave become so small, so universal, so ubiqui-tous, most of us can’t imagine life withoutthem; certainly, my kids can’t.

And as a consequence, millions of Ameri-cans work in fields that didn’t exist before theirparents were born. Watson—the computerthat won “Jeopardy!”—is now being used inhospitals across the country to diagnose diseas-es like cancer. That’s how much progress hasbeen made in my lifetime and in many ofyours. That’s how fast we can move when wemake the investments.

But we can’t predict what that next big thingwill be. We don’t know what life will be like 20years from now or 50 years or 100 years downthe road. What we do know is if we keep in-vesting in the most prominent, promising solu-tions to our toughest problems, then things willget better.

I don’t want our children or grandchildrento look back on this day and wish we had donemore to keep America at the cutting edge. Iwant them to look back and be proud that wetook some risks, that we seized this opportuni-ty. That’s what the American story is about.That’s who we are. That’s why this BRAIN Ini-tiative is so important. And if we keep takingbold steps like the one we’re talking about tolearn about the brain, then I’m confidentAmerica will continue to lead the world in thenext frontiers of human understanding. And allof you are going to help us get there.

So I’m very excited about this project. Fran-cis, let’s get to work. God bless you, and Godbless the United States of America. Thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 10:04 a.m. inthe East Room at the White House. In his re-

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marks, he referred to Larry Page and SergeyM. Brin, cofounders, Google Inc.; Eric D.Isaacs, Director, Argonne National Laborato-

ry; Thom Mason, Director, Oak Ridge Nation-al Laboratory; and A. Paul Alivisatos, Director,Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Remarks Prior to a Meeting With Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong ofSingaporeApril 2, 2013

President Obama. Well, it is a great pleasurefor me to welcome my good friend, PrimeMinister Lee, to the Oval Office. He and Ihave had interacted in a whole range of inter-national fora, and not surprisingly, he has prov-en to be an outstanding partner for us on theinternational stage, not surprising because Sin-gapore and the United States have historicallyhad an extraordinary relationship. Singapore isone of the most successful countries in theworld.

I think their progress and their developmentover the last several decades has been an exam-ple for many countries around the world. Wehave extremely close military cooperation. AndI want to thank Singapore for all the facilitiesthat they provide that allow us to maintain oureffective Pacific presence.

They are an outstanding economic partner.Over the last decade, since we signed our freetrade agreement, we have seen a doubling oftrade between our countries, and that createsjobs here in the United States as well as in Sin-gapore. As a leader in ASEAN and the EastAsia Summit, they’ve provided, I think, asteady vision of how countries in the Pacific re-gion can cooperate effectively for the prosperi-ty and security of all and are strong promotersof rules of the road and international normsthat the United States strongly supports.

And so, across the board, we have verymuch appreciated the extraordinary relation-ship between our two countries. And personal-ly, I can tell you that there are very few worldleaders who I am more appreciative of, interms of their advice and counsel and thought-ful analysis, than Prime Minister Lee.

And as we continue the process that wecalled rebalancing when I first came into of-fice, we’ve continued to seek out the advice

and good counsel of Singapore in how to effectthat in a way that creates not only strong secu-rity, but also increase prosperity for both theUnited States and the countries of the region.

So I’m very thankful for Singapore and itspartnership. I’m thankful for Prime MinisterLee for his outstanding work. I’m grateful forthe people of Singapore. As many of you know,I spent some time in my youth in this part ofthe world and have a great fondness and affec-tion for the people of Singapore. I’m extraordi-narily pleased to see their great success, andI’m looking forward to a very productive dis-cussion about how we can continue to improveprospects for people not just in the Asia-Pacificregion, but around the world.

So thank you very much, Mr. Prime Minis-ter.

Prime Minister Lee. Well, thank you, Mr.President. I’m very happy to be here in Wash-ington during cherry blossom season and veryhonored to be calling on the President so earlyin his second term.

We have very good relations between Singa-pore and the United States, grown in deep co-operation. We work together in education, re-search and development. We work together ineconomic areas and trade. We work togetherin counterterrorism and defense. And it’s acomprehensive relationship, and we look for-ward particularly in the next few weeks to wel-coming the first littoral combat ship, which willbe arriving in Singapore, and we will be playinghost to it for a few months.

But more broadly, Singapore is very happythat the U.S. and the Obama administrationhas been putting greater emphasis on its rela-tions with Asia, that it’s rebalancing towardsAsia, and that it’s engaging Asia across manyfronts, not just security, but also economics,

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also cultural and educational. And Singaporewould like to be of help in furthering this pro-cess in deepening the relationship.

The TPP, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, is avery important part of it, and we’re working onthat agenda now. There’s also work going ondeepening ASEAN’s relations with the UnitedStates, which the President initiated when welast met in November back then.

And there are other important bilateral rela-tionships in Asia, including what is perhaps themost important bilateral relationship in theworld, which is between the U.S. and China.And we are happy that the administration’s at-tention is focused on this, and Singapore will

do our part what we can to help America en-gage the region constructively, productively,and in a way which fosters stability and pros-perity for all other countries.

So I’m very happy to be here, to be callingon this President, and I hope I’ll have the op-portunity to invite him to come and visit Singa-pore before too long and for me to reciprocatehis wonderful hospitality.

President Obama. Thank you very much, ev-erybody. Thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 2:14 p.m. in theOval Office at the White House.

Remarks on Gun Violence in Denver, ColoradoApril 3, 2013

Everybody, please have a seat. Thank you.Well, it is wonderful to be back in Colorado. Itis wonderful to be back in Denver. I want tothank Chief White for that introduction.You’ve got some outstanding elected officialswho are here today, and I want to acknowledgethem. First of all, a wonderful Governor, JohnHickenlooper is here. He’s here somewhere. Iknow, because I just talked to him. [Laughter]There he is. Next to him, an outstanding Lieu-tenant Governor, Joe Garcia. One of the finestyoung Senators in the country, Michael Bennetis here. Terrific Members of the House ofRepresentatives: Ed Perlmutter and DianaDeGette. And your own mayor, Michael Han-cock, is here.

I want to say thank you to the Denver Policefor having me here, more importantly, for theoutstanding work that all of you do each andevery day to serve your communities and pro-tect your citizens.

Before I came out here, I had a chance to sitdown with some local law enforcement, Attor-ney General Holder, and some of the leaders Ijust mentioned, the wonderful mayor of Auro-ra who’s here, and sportsmen, parents, lovedones of the victims of the shootings in Colum-bine and Aurora. And we talked about what wecan do to protect more of our citizens from gunviolence.

And from the beginning of this effort, we’vewanted law enforcement front and center inshaping this discussion and the reforms thatemerge from it, because law enforcement livesthis every day. Law enforcement are the first tosee the terrible consequences of any kind of vi-olence, certainly gun violence: lives lost, fami-lies broken, communities that are changed for-ever. They’re very often in the line of fire. Thelaw enforcement knows what works and whatdoesn’t, and so we wanted that experience andthat advice.

And it was also important for us to hear frommayors like Steve Hogan, because he’s been onthe frontlines having to deal with these issues,under incredibly sad circumstances. And I’vecome to Denver today in particular becauseColorado is proving a model of what’s possible.

It’s now been just over 100 days since themurder of 20 innocent children and 6 braveeducators in Newtown, Connecticut, an eventthat shocked this country and, I think, galva-nized parents all across the country to say,we’ve got to do something more to protect ourkids. But consider this: Over those 100 days orso, more than 100 times as many Americanshave fallen victim to gun violence. More than2,000 of our fellow citizens, struck down, oftenbecause they were just going about their dailyround. They weren’t doing anything special.

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Just doing what folks do every day: shopping,going to school. Every day that we wait to dosomething about it, even more of our fellowcitizens are stolen from our lives by a bulletfrom a gun.

Now, the good news is, Colorado has alreadychosen to do something about it. Look, this is aState that has suffered the tragedy of two ofthe worst mass shootings in our history: 14years ago this month in Columbine and justlast year in Aurora. But this is also a State thattreasures its Second Amendment rights, theState of proud hunters and sportsmen. And bythe way, the Governor wanted me to remindeverybody that there is outstanding elk huntinghere in Colorado. [Laughter] There’s a strongtradition of gun ownership that’s handed downfrom generation to generation, and it’s part ofthe fabric of people’s lives. And they treat gunownership with reverence and respect.

And so I’m here because I believe theredoesn’t have to be a conflict in reconcilingthese realities. There doesn’t have to be a con-flict between protecting our citizens and pro-tecting our Second Amendment rights. I’ve gotstacks of letters in my office from proud gunowners, whether they’re for sport or protectionor collection, who tell me how deeply theycherish their rights, don’t want them infringedupon, but they still want us to do something tostop the epidemic of gun violence. And I ap-preciate every one of those letters. And I’velearned from them.

And I think that Colorado has shown thatpractical progress is possible thanks to theleadership of wonderful Governor Hicken-looper and some of the State legislators whoare here today. When I was talking to Steve, hementioned that Aurora is very much a purplecity. It’s got a majority Republican city council;a majority of the State legislators are Demo-crat. But they came together understandingthat out of this tragedy, there had to be some-thing that made sense. And so we’ve seen en-acted tougher background checks that won’tinfringe on the rights of responsible gun own-ers, but will help keep guns out of the hands ofdangerous people.

Now, in January, just a few weeks afterNewtown, I put forward a series of common-sense proposals along the same lines as what’spassed here in Colorado to reduce gun vio-lence and keep our kids safe. In my State of theUnion Address, I urged Congress to give theseproposals a vote. And by the way, before weeven asked for a vote, I had already signed nu-merous Executive orders doing what we couldadministratively to make sure that guns don’tfall into the hands of the wrong people.

But what I said then is still true: If we’re re-ally going to tackle this problem seriously, thenwe’ve got to get Congress to take the next step.And as soon as next week, they will be voting.As soon as next week, every Senator will get tovote on whether or not we should requirebackground checks for anyone who wants topurchase a gun.

Now, some say, well, we already have back-ground checks. And they’re right. Over thepast 20 years, those background checks havekept more than 2 million dangerous peoplefrom buying a gun. But the loopholes that cur-rently exist in the law have allowed way toomany criminals and folks who shouldn’t be get-ting guns, it’s allowed them to avoid back-ground checks entirely. That makes it harderfor law enforcement to do its job. It’s not safe.It’s not smart. And by the way, it’s not fair toresponsible gun owners who are playing by therules.

Now, understand, nobody is talking aboutcreating an entirely new system. We are simplytalking about plugging holes, sealing a poroussystem that isn’t working as well as it should. Ifyou want to buy a gun, whether it’s from a li-censed dealer or a private seller, you should atleast have to pass a background check to showyou’re not a criminal or someone legally pro-hibited from buying one. And that’s just com-mon sense.

During our roundtable discussion, GovernorHickenlooper, I know, was in the midst of thispassionate debate about the legislation here inColorado, and some people said, well, back-ground checks aren’t going to stop everybody.And the Governor was the first one to acknowl-edge, yes, they won’t stop everybody, but as he

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pointed out, statistically, there are a wholebunch of folks who have been stopped.

As a consequence of background checks, lawenforcement has been able to stop people whohad been convicted of murder from getting agun, people who are under restraining ordersfor having committed violent domestic abusefrom getting a gun. In a couple of cases—theGovernor mentioned to me—law enforce-ment has actually been able to arrest peoplewho came to pick up their gun—[laughter]—because they were criminals, wanted.

So this does work. And by the way, if you’reselling a gun, wouldn’t you want to know whoyou’re selling it to? Wouldn’t you want toknow? Wouldn’t you want in your conscienceto know that the person you’re selling to isn’tgoing to commit a crime?

So these enhanced background checks won’tstop all gun crimes, but they will certainly helpprevent some. This is common sense. And bythe way, most gun owners—more than 80 per-cent—agree this makes sense. More than 70percent of NRA members agree. Ninety per-cent of the American people agree. So there’sno reason we can’t do this unless politics is get-ting in the way. There’s no reason we can’t dothis.

As soon as next week, every Senator will geta chance to vote on a proposal to help strength-en school safety and help people strugglingwith mental health problems get the treatmentthat they need.

As soon as next week, every Senator will getto vote on whether or not we should crackdown on folks who buy guns as part of ascheme to arm criminals. That would keepmore guns off the streets and out of the handsof people who are intent on doing harm. And itwould make life a whole lot easier and safer forthe people behind me, police officers.

Every Senator will get a say on whether ornot we should keep weapons of war and high-capacity ammunition magazines that facilitatemass killings off our streets. The type of assaultrifle used in Aurora, for example, when pairedwith a high-capacity magazine, has one pur-pose: to pump out as many bullets as possible,as fast as possible. It’s what allowed that gun-

man to shoot 70 people and kill 12 in a matterof a few minutes. I don’t believe that weaponsdesigned for theaters of war have a place inmovie theaters. Most Americans agree withthat.

Most of these ideas are not controversial.Right now 90 percent of Americans—90 per-cent—support background checks that willkeep criminals and people who have beenfound to be a danger to themselves or othersfrom buying a gun. More than 80 percent ofRepublicans agree. Most gun owners agree.Think about it: How often do 90 percent ofAmericans agree on anything? [Laughter]

And yet there are already some Senatorsback in Washington floating the idea that theymight use obscure procedural stunts to preventor delay any of these votes on reform. Thinkabout that. They’re not just saying they’ll voteno on the proposal that most Americans sup-port. They’re saying they’ll do everything theycan to avoid even allowing a vote on a proposalthat the overwhelming majority of the Ameri-can people support. They’re saying your opin-ion doesn’t matter.

Now, we knew from the beginning thatchange wouldn’t be easy. And we knew thatthere would be powerful voices that would doeverything they could to run out the clock,change the subject, ignore the majority of theAmerican people. We knew they’d try to makeany progress collapse under the weight of fearand frustration, or maybe people would juststop paying attention.

The only way this time will be different is ifthe American people demand that this time itmust be different, that this time we must dosomething to protect our communities and ourkids. We need parents, we need teachers, weneed police officers, we need pastors, we needhunters and sportsmen—Americans of everybackground—to say, we’ve suffered too muchpain and care too much about our children toallow this continue. We’re not going to just waitfor the next Newtown or the next Aurora be-fore we act. And I genuinely believe that’s whatthe overwhelming majority of Americans—Idon’t care what party they belong to—that’s

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what they want. They just want to see someprogress.

It was interesting, during the conversation, anumber of people had talked about the trust is-sue. Part of the reason it’s so hard to get thisdone is because both sides of the debate some-times don’t listen to each other. The peoplewho take absolute positions on these issues, onboth sides, sometimes aren’t willing to concedeeven an inch of ground.

And so one of the questions we talked aboutwas, how do you build trust? How do you re-build some trust? And I told the story abouttwo conversations I had. The first conversationwas when Michelle came back from doingsome campaigning out in rural Iowa. And wewere sitting at dinner, and she had been to abig county, a lot of driving out there, a lot offarmland. And she said, you know, if I was liv-ing out in a farm in Iowa, I’d probably want agun too. If somebody just drives up into yourdriveway, and you’re not home, you don’t knowwho these people are, and you don’t know howlong it’s going to take for the sheriffs to re-spond. I can see why you’d want some guns forprotection. That’s one conversation.

I had another conversation just a couple ofmonths ago with a mom from Chicago—actu-ally, Evanston, Illinois—whose son had beenkilled in a random shooting. And she said, youknow, I hate it when people tell me that myson was shot because he was in the wrongplace at the wrong time. He was in the rightplace. He was on his way to school. He wasn’tin the wrong place. He was exactly where hewas supposed to be.

Now, both those things are true. And some-times, we’re so divided between rural and ur-ban, and folks whose hunting is part of theirlives and folks whose only experience withguns is street crime. And the two sides just talkpast one another. And more than anything,what I want to just emphasize is, there aregood people on both sides of this thing, but wehave to be able to put ourselves in the otherperson’s shoes. If you’re a hunter, if you’re asportsman, if you have a gun in your house forprotection, you’ve got to understand what it

feels like for that mom whose son was random-ly shot.

And if you live in an urban area and you’reworried about street crime, you’ve got to un-derstand what it might be like if you grew outon a ranch and your dad had been taking youhunting all your life. And we had a couple ofsportsmen in our conversation today, and Ithought one of them said something very im-portant. He said, all my experiences with gunshave been positive, but I realize that for others,all their experiences about guns have beennegative. Well, that’s a start, right? If we startlistening to each other, then we should be ableto get something done that’s constructive. Weshould be able to get that done.

Now, one last thing I’m going to mention isthat during this conversation—I hope youdon’t mind me quoting you, Joe. Joe Garcia, Ithought, also made an important point, andthat is that the opponents of some of thesecommonsense laws have ginned up fearsamong responsible gun owners that have noth-ing to do with what’s being proposed, nothingto do with the facts, but feeds into this suspi-cion about government.

You hear some of these quotes: I need a gunto protect myself from the government. Wecan’t do background checks because the gov-ernment is going to come take my guns away.

Well, the government is us. These officialsare elected by you. They are elected by you. Iam elected by you. I am constrained, as theyare constrained, by a system that our Foundersput in place. It’s a government of and by andfor the people.

And so, surely, we can have a debate that’snot based on the notion somehow that yourelected representatives are trying to do some-thing to you other than potentially prevent an-other group of families from grieving the waythe families of Aurora or Newtown or Colum-bine have grieved. So we’ve got to get pastsome of the rhetoric that gets perpetuated thatbreaks down trust and is so over the top that itjust shuts down all discussion. And it’s impor-tant for all of us when we hear that kind of talkto say, hold on a second. If there are any folkswho are out there right now who are gun

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owners, and you’ve been hearing that some-how somebody is taking away your guns, getthe facts. We’re not proposing a gun registra-tion system, we’re proposing backgroundchecks for criminals.

Don’t just listen to what some advocates orfolks who have an interest in this thing are say-ing. Look at the actual legislation. That’s whathappened here in Colorado. And hopefully, ifwe know the facts and we’re listening to eachother, then we can actually move forward.

And that’s what Members of Congress needto hear from you. Right now Members of Con-gress are home in their districts. Many of themare holding events where they can hear fromtheir constituents. So I’m asking anyone outthere who is listening today, find out whereyour Member of Congress stands on these is-sues. If they’re not part of the 90 percent ofAmericans who agree on background checks,then ask them why not. Why wouldn’t youwant to make it more difficult for a dangerouscriminal to get his or her hands on a gun? Whywouldn’t you want to close the loophole that al-lows too many criminals to buy a gun withouteven the simplest of background checks? Whyon Earth wouldn’t you want to make it easierrather than harder for law enforcement to dotheir job?

I know that some of the officers here todayknow what it’s like to look into the eyes of aparent or a grandparent, a brother or a sister,or a spouse who has just lost a loved one to anact of violence. Some of those families, by theway, are here today. And as police officers, youknow as well as anybody, there is no magic so-lution to prevent every bad thing from happen-ing in the world. You still suit up, you put onyour badge, put yourself at risk every singleday. Every single day, you go to work, and youtry to do the best you can to protect the people

you’re sworn to protect and serve. Well, howcan the rest of us as citizens do anything less?

If there is just one step we can take to pre-vent more Americans from knowing the painthat some of the families who are here haveknown, don’t we have an obligation to try?Don’t we have an obligation to try? If these re-forms keep one person from murdering dozensof innocent children or worshippers or movie-goers in a span of minutes, isn’t it worth fight-ing for? I believe it is. That’s why I’m going tokeep on working. I’m going to keep on giving itmy best efforts. But I’m going to need yourhelp.

This is not easy. And I’ll be blunt: A lot ofMembers of Congress, this is tough for them.Because those who are opposed to any form oflegislation affecting guns, they’re very well or-ganized; they’re very well financed. But it canbe done if enough voices are heard.

So I want to thank all the police officers whoare here for giving their best efforts every sin-gle day. I want to thank Governor Hickenloop-er for his outstanding leadership. I want tothank all the families who are here for yourcourage in being willing to take out of this trag-edy something positive. I want to thank thepeople of Colorado for coming together in sen-sible ways. Let’s see if we can get the wholecountry to do so.

Thank you, Denver. God bless you, and Godbless the United States of America.

NOTE: The President spoke at 3:19 p.m. at theDenver Police Academy. In his remarks, he re-ferred to Robert C. White, chief of police,Denver, CO; Mayor Steven Hogan of Aurora,CO; and James E. Holmes, accused gunman inthe July 20, 2012, shootings at the Century 16multiplex in Aurora, CO. The related memo-randums of January 16 are listed in AppendixD at the end of this volume.

Remarks at a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Fundraiserin San Francisco, CaliforniaApril 3, 2013

Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Well,first of all, I want to thank Tom and Kat for

opening up this spectacular home. They werebragging about the view—[laughter]—but Se-

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cret Service wasn’t going to let me look at theview. But I’m now in my second term, so Ican—[laughter]—so I called an audible, and Iwent out there, and it is spectacular. And theywere all apologetic. They said, well, you can’tsee the bridge. [Laughter] I said, it’s okay, Ican see the Pacific Ocean; that’s pretty good.[Laughter] So I was perfectly satisfied with theview, and I could not be more grateful andthankful to them for hosting us here tonight.So give them a big round of applause.

I want to thank Brandi Carlile for singingthe—there she is. Now, I just—the reason Iknow Brandi is because the White House Pho-tographer, Pete Souza, was a fan of Brandi’sbefore the rest of the world knew Brandi andfollowed her around everywhere. He didn’tstalk her, he was just—[laughter]—he was afan. And so Pete Souza gets credit, before Jim-my Fallon or anybody else, for Brandi Carlilebeing discovered, at least by me. [Laughter]But we’re so grateful for her participating heretonight.

The main reason we’re here is actually notme. The main reason we’re here is because wehave got a fearless leader who happens to beyour neighbor, who day in, day out is fightingthe good fight on every single issue that mat-ters in terms of making this a more equitable,more prosperous, more generous, more com-petitive nation. And she has been an extraordi-nary friend of mine, but more importantly,she’s a friend to working families all across thecountry each and every day. I could not beprouder of her, and I expect that she is going tobe once again the Speaker of the House—Nancy Pelosi. Love Nancy.

And Nancy wouldn’t be—I think would bethe first to say that she could not do what shedoes if it weren’t for her extraordinary Mem-bers. Right now her chief rebounder, assistperson, handyman—[laughter]—the guy whois making this enormous effort work is SteveIsrael. So we want to thank CongressmanSteve Israel. And we’ve got three other Mem-bers here today. Mike Honda—where’s Mike?There he is in the back. Jared Huffman. Jaredis right there. And Eric Swalwell. There he is.

All right, now, first of all, Tom used thatanalogy, I think, 2 days after I went 2 for 20at—[laughter]—at the Easter egg roll, guardedby a number of 6-year-olds. [Laughter] So,clearly, I have not been playing enough basket-ball for anybody to want to use that analogy.But what I think is absolutely true is that theway I have always thought about politics, Iknow the way Nancy thinks about politics, isthat we are a team. And when I say we, I’m notsimply referring to the people in Washington.

If you noticed, during my Inauguration Ad-dress and my State of the Union, I talked aboutcitizenship; I talked about what it means to bea citizen. And the notion of citizenship is notsimply a matter of voting, it’s not simply a mat-ter of writing a check to a candidate who youlike. The notion of citizenship is that all of ushave obligations to this Nation, to our fellowcitizens, and to future generations, and thateach and every day, we are tested and asked toparticipate in ways large and small to push thatboulder up the hill a little bit and to make surethat when our time here has passed, we cansay, America is stronger, it’s more prosperous,and opportunity is available to every singleAmerican.

That’s not just my job, it’s not just Nancy’sjob, it’s your job as well. And the fact that all ofyou are here is an indicator that you take thisnotion of citizenship seriously. And becauseyou do, Nancy and I, and Steve and others,we’ve had an opportunity over these last 4years and a couple of months to make some ex-traordinary changes in this country.

We were able to yank an economy that wason the verge of a depression out of depression.And although we’re not all the way back, theeconomy has stabilized, our financial marketshave stabilized, housing is beginning to comeback, and families are starting to feel a littlemore hopeful about their prospects for the fu-ture.

Because of you, because of our team, wehave been able to assure that people who al-ready have health insurance have better healthinsurance: that they’ve got preventive care;they’ve got contraceptive care; that insurancecompanies can’t drop them for no good reason;

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that young people can stay on their parent’splan until they’re 26. And by next year, we’llknow that 35 million people, most of whomwork, are never again going to have to say tothemselves that because of a preexisting condi-tion or simply a lack of money, that they endup bankrupt or end up in an emergency roomwhen they or their family members get sick.That happened because of all of you.

Because of you, we were able to make surethat serving your country didn’t depend onwho you loved, and as a consequence of someof those changes, we’re now starting to see aextraordinary transformation in our culturethat assures that the LGBT community has fulland equal citizenship in this country. That hap-pened because of you.

Because of you, roads have been built thatneeded repair, and people were put back towork. Because of you, research has happenedthat is looking to cure everything from Al-zheimer’s to Parkinson’s to juvenile diabetes.Because of you, we’re actually seeing genuineimprovement in our schools, and States allacross the country—including very redStates—have embarked on a reform agendathat makes certain that our kids can compete inthis new global economy.

Because of you, millions of young peoplehave health insurance—they have health insur-ance, but are also able to afford college andcouldn’t afford it before. And because of you,despite a very aggressive agenda on the otherside to block action, we’ve been able to doublefuel efficiency standards on cars. We’ve beenable to take mercury out of our air. We havebeen able to reduce carbon emissions in thiscountry and have made not only this a healthi-er place to live, but have also begun to addressin a serious way one of the biggest challengesof our time, and that is the challenge of climatechange. That all happened because of you.

But here is the thing: We’ve got a lot morework to do. That’s why I ran for a second term.The plane is nice—[laughter]—but the truthis, is that being in the bubble drives me crazy.So if I didn’t think I was actually going to getsomething done, I wouldn’t have run.

Nancy has gorgeous grandchildren. And if itweren’t for the fact that we have more work todo, I’m sure that she wouldn’t be going afterthe Speakership again. The reason we do so,and the reason you’re here, is because weknow we can do so much more to make thiscountry what it can be.

Now, over the next couple of months, we’vegot a couple of issues. Gun control. I just camefrom Denver, where the issue of gun violenceis something that has haunted families for waytoo long, and it is possible for us to create com-monsense gun safety measures that respect thetraditions of gun ownership in this country andhunters and sportsmen, but also make surethat we don’t have another 20 children in aclassroom gunned down by a semiautomaticweapon, by a fully automatic weapon in thatcase, sadly.

Immigration reform is something that I be-lieve that we can get done over the next coupleof months. It’s interesting how clarifying to themind Democrats getting 70 percent of the La-tino vote was in suggesting that maybe weneeded to get—finally fix a broken immigra-tion system and making sure that we’re both anation of laws and a nation of immigrants.

But even if we’re able to get those twothings done—and I’m hopeful that we do overthe next couple of months—we’re going tohave some big challenges. We still have to re-build this country. We’ve got about $2 trillionworth of deferred maintenance. We could beputting back to work Americans all across thiscountry not just rebuilding roads and bridges,but building state-of-the-art schools and asmart grid that would make sure that we’rewasting less energy and link cities that are us-ing energy with wind farms in the Dakotas andin the plains of Colorado.

We’ve got still more work to do to make col-lege more affordable. We’re going to have a lotmore work to do to make sure that hard workpays off, which is why passing a minimum wageincrease is so important, because there are alot of families out there, even who have jobs,who are having a tough time each and everyday.

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And something that I know is near and dearto Tom and Kat’s hearts and to Nancy’s, we’vegot more work to do in terms of dealing withclimate change and making sure that we’ve gotan economy that is energy efficient, that is pro-ductive, that is cutting edge, and thinks aboutnot just the energy sources of the past, but alsothe energy promise of the future.

And the thing that I’m going to have to try towork to persuade the American people a littlemore convincingly on is this notion that there’sa contradiction between our economy and ourenvironment is just a false choice, that if we in-vest now, we will create jobs, we will create en-tire new industries. Other countries will belooking to catch up; they will be looking to im-port what we do. We will set the standard, andeverybody else will have to adapt.

But—and I mentioned this to Tom and Katand a few folks right before I came out here—the politics of this are tough. Because if you ha-ven’t seen a raise in a decade; if your house isstill $25,000, $30,000 underwater; if you’re justhappy that you’ve still got that factor job that ispowered by cheap energy; if every time you goto fill up your old car because you can’t affordto buy a new one and you certainly can’t affordto buy a Prius, you’re spending 40 bucks thatyou don’t have, which means that you may notbe able to save for retirement—you may beconcerned about the temperature of the plan-et, but it’s probably not rising to your number-one concern. And if people think, well, that’sshortsighted, that’s what happens when you’restruggling to get by. You’re thinking aboutwhat’s right in front of you, which is, how do Ifill up my gas tank and how do I feed my fami-ly?

And so part of what we’re going to have todo is to marry a genuine, passionate concernabout middle class families and everybody whois trying to get into the middle class to showthem that we’re working just as hard for themas we are for our environmental agenda, andthat we can bridge these things in a way thatadvances the causes of both. And that’s goingto take some work.

But the most important thing that it’s goingto take is people in Washington who are willing

to speak truth to power, are willing to takesome risks politically, are willing to get a littlebit out ahead of the curve—not 2 miles aheadof the curve, but just a little bit ahead of it. Andthat’s why your presence here is so important.

Look, my intention here is to try to get asmuch done with the Republican Party over thenext 2 years as I can, because we can’t haveperpetual campaigns. And so I mean what Isay: I am looking to find areas of commonground with Republicans every single day. Iwant to make sure that we’re working togetherto stabilize our finances. And I think actuallythat we can come up with a fiscal deal that in-stead of lurching from crisis to crisis every 3months, we lay the groundwork for long-termgrowth, controlling our deficits, controlling ourdebt, but also making sure we can invest in ourfuture. I want to get an immigration deal done.I want to find some commonsense gun safetylegislation that we can get done. And I do be-lieve that there are well-meaning Republicansout there who care about their kids just as pas-sionately as we do.

Despite all the rhetoric on television, I actu-ally believe that Americans have a lot more incommon than our political rhetoric would giveus credit for. But having said all that, I knowNancy Pelosi. I’ve seen her courage. I knowthat she is willing to do the right thing, evenwhen it’s not politically popular. And I wanther once again as a fully empowered partnerfor us to be able to move our agenda forward.

And so I’m going to expect that you guys arefighting for issues, helping to move publicopinion, engaging in organizing and engagingin advocacy and public policy work, all the stuffthat—and I’m looking around this room, it’sfull of do-gooders here—all the stuff you do.But I also want to make sure that you are pay-ing attention to what can we do to support theprospect of Nancy Pelosi being Speaker onceagain.

If we do that, then I’m confident that notonly can we deliver on this profound issue ofclimate change, not only can we make sure thatclean energy is the norm here in America, butI also think that we can give America that senseof confidence and forward movement that’s

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always been our hallmark that characterizeswho we are. To do that, I’m going to need you,and Nancy is going to need you.

And so I hope that this is not the end of yourinvolvement. I hope it is the beginning. If, infact, all the energy that’s represented in thisroom is fully deployed, then I feel pretty goodabout Malia and Sasha, I feel pretty good aboutthese young people right here. They’re smarterthan we are. If we hand off the kind of Americathat we should be handing off to them, I prom-ise you they will take it to ever greater heights.

All right, thank you very much, everybody.God bless you. God bless America.

NOTE: The President spoke at 6:53 p.m. at theresidence of Thomas Steyer and Kathryn Tay-lor. In his remarks, he referred to James T.Fallon, Jr., host, NBC’s “Late Night With Jim-my Fallon” program; and Rep. Steven J. Israel,in his capacity as chairman of the DemocraticCongressional Campaign Committee. Audiowas not available for verification of the contentof these remarks.

Remarks at a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Fundraiserin San FranciscoApril 3, 2013

The President. Thank you. Well, first of all,let me thank Ann and Gordon for once againextending such gracious hospitality to all of us.I was reminded that I was first here in 2008,when I was running the first time, and I hadmuch less gray hair. [Laughter] But they werekind to me then and have been kind to mesince, and I appreciate very much their friend-ship and support.

I want to acknowledge Steve Israel, who ishere and has an often thankless, extraordinarilydifficult, but critically important job, and he’sdone so with good humor and boundless ener-gy. And so please give Congressman Steve Is-rael a big round of applause.

And of course, I’m here because your neigh-bor told me I needed to be here. [Laughter]And I am here because there are very few peo-ple in public office who I am more fond of andrespectful than the person who just introducedme, Nancy Pelosi. She is thoughtful, she’s vi-sionary, she’s as tough as nails. [Laughter] Sheis practical. She never lets ideology cloud herjudgment. She’s constantly motivated by howdo we create a country that is more just, morefair, more dynamic. She knows why she’s inpublic life. It’s connected to her values: the val-ues that she grew up with, the values that she’sraised her kids and now spoils her grandkidswith. [Laughter] And I’m just so proud to callher a friend.

And I am here because I won my last elec-tion. But I’m here because my job is not simplyto occupy the Oval Office. My job is to makesure we move the country forward, and I thinkwe can best do that if Nancy Pelosi is Speakerof the House once again.

Nancy used a word that I’ve spent a lot oftime thinking about these days. And that’s theword “citizenship.” I talked about it at the In-auguration speech. I talked about it at theState of the Union speech. I actually talkedabout it at the convention, my acceptancespeech. And the reason I care about the wordso much is because there are times in today’sbusy world, the media chatter, where there’s agovernment over here somewhere, and thenthere’s people and ordinary life and the privatesector, and all that stuff is over there. Andsomehow, the notion is that these two thingsare separate.

And some of the folks who most adamantlyinsist that government is something alien anddistant are the same folks who claim the man-tle of the Founders and believe that their viewsbest represent the original intentions of thosewho fought for and formed this country.

And yet, when I read the Declaration of In-dependence, when I read the Constitution,when I look at all the great documents andlaws that have been passed that built this coun-try up, what I see is this central idea that citi-

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zenship means we are the government—thegovernment of and by and for the people—which means we have responsibilities that ex-tend beyond voting or even writing a check.

It speaks to rights, but it also speaks to re-sponsibilities and obligations. It suggests thatwe are responsible for ourselves and our fami-lies and our neighborhoods and our cities andour farmlands and our neighbors and our Na-tion and future generations. And so we don’tjust think about us, we think about “we thepeople.” That’s the idea that motivated me toget into public service in the first place. That’swhat, I think, has always been at the heart ofAmerica.

And the reason that we’ve been able tomake significant progress over the last 4 yearsand couple months is because a lot of you havebelieved it too. That’s how I got elected in2008. That’s how Nancy Pelosi became Speak-er in 2006. That’s the reason that we were ableto yank an economy on the verge of depressionand get it back on track to growth and job cre-ation. That’s the reason that we were able topass a health care law that is already helpingmillions of people and will help millions morewhen it is fully implemented next year.

That’s the reason we’ve been able to putpeople back to work building roads and bridgesand water systems and new park trails all acrossthis country. That’s the reason that we wereable to double fuel efficiency standards oncars, begin the process of reducing carbonsand making our economy more energy effi-cient, and doubling the amount of clean energythat we’re producing through wind and solarand other renewables.

It’s the reason that we’ve been able slowly tonurse the housing market back to health. Thatis the reason that we’ve been able to keep thiscountry safe while still being true to our valuesand principles of rule of law.

That is the reason why we’ve been able tohelp millions of kids all across this country goto college who couldn’t otherwise afford it.We’ve started to reform schools at the K–12level.

We were able to do all this because you be-lieved in citizenship. And the reason I ran for

another term was because I think we’ve gotmore work to do. And the reason that Nancywants to be Speaker again is because she thinkswe have more work to do. I assure you that shedoes not like being away from her grandkids.[Laughter] She could be doing a lot of otherstuff. Steve makes enormous sacrifices. He’sgot to travel all across the country raising mon-ey constantly and recruiting candidates. He’dlove to be home. But we think we’ve got morework to do.

Now, this year, we have a window. Just com-pleted one election. We would like to see somegoverning done in Washington before the nextelection starts. [Laughter] And so we’ve gotthis opportunity that we need to seize to initi-ate serious gun safety legislation, reduce gunviolence, to make sure that we finally get acomprehensive immigration reform done, be-cause we are a nation of laws, but we are also anation of immigrants, and those two things arenot incompatible.

We have more work to do to make sure thatwe stabilize our finances in a way that still al-lows us to make investments in critical infra-structure and basic research. Somebody men-tioned to me, they heard my speech about thenew BRAIN Initiative that we’ve put forward,just an entire sweeping horizon of possibilitieswhen it comes to curing Alzheimer’s and cur-ing Parkinson’s and so many diseases, but alsojust allowing us to do things that we couldn’teven imagine a year ago, 2 years ago. Nowwe’re on the threshold of cracking a code thatcould open up endless possibilities.

Now, in order to do that, we’ve got to beable to pass laws. There are some things I cando administratively, a lot of stuff that we can doadministratively, but a lot of stuff we’ve got todo legislatively. Right now we’re constrainedby what we get done. And I have said publicly,and I will say it to this room once again, that Ibelieve that Republicans love their kids andtheir country as much as we do and there are awhole bunch of folks out there who I believeactually want to cooperate with us, but feelconstrained right now because of their ownpolitics.

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I’m looking and probing for every crack andpossible opportunity to join in a bipartisanfashion to solve these problems, because Ithink most of the problems out there are onesthat, at least historically, have garnered sup-port from Democrats and Republicans, andthat’s—there is nothing inherently Democraticabout building roads or funding research orlooking out for the environment. It used to bea great bipartisan set of ideas.

And so my hope is, is that we can get somegoverning done this year, and I know that Nan-cy feels the same way. By the way, she’s alreadyworked with her caucus to deliver votes onthings that aren’t necessarily politically advan-tageous, but are the right thing to do. She did itas Speaker, and she’s done it as DemocraticLeader in the House. So we want to get this—we just want to get stuff done.

And I won’t say—I won’t speak for Nancyhere. I will speak for myself. I would love noth-ing better than an effective, loyal oppositionthat is willing to meet us halfway and move thecountry forward, because that’s what theAmerican people are looking for. The economyis growing, but there is still a lot of folks outthere who are struggling: still way too manypeople who are unemployed; people who ha-ven’t seen a raise in a decade; people whosehomes are still underwater; people who whenthey see 4-dollar-a-gallon gas know that that ismoney that’s coming straight out of their pock-ets or their retirement funds and is going to bevery hard to make up. And they’re hoping thatwe can do some governing. And that’s what Iintend to do this year and the year after thatand the year after that.

But I would be dishonest if I didn’t say thatit would be a whole lot easier to govern if I hadNancy Pelosi as Speaker. [Laughter] Becausehere are the stakes: I actually think we’ve got agreat chance of getting immigration reformdone. I think we have a good chance of gettingserious gun safety legislation done. But if we’regoing to move forward on some of the otherthings I talked about in the State of theUnion—making sure that we’ve got early child-hood education for every child in America sothat they can—[inaudible].

If we’re going to deal with the $2 trillion ofdeferred maintenance we’ve got in terms of in-frastructure—not just roads and bridges, but asmart grid that can connect up clean energy toour cities and make sure that we continue toreduce not only existing loads of renewable en-ergy, but also discovering those breakthroughsthat are going to make all the difference downthe future—then I’m going to need some morehelp in Congress.

If we’re going to deal with climate change ina serious way, then we’ve got to have folks inCongress—even when it’s not politically con-venient—to talk about it and advocate for itand break out of this notion that somehowthere’s a contradiction between us being goodstewards of the environment and us growingthis economy. They are not a contradiction.We can grow this economy fast and faster if weare seizing the opportunities of the future andnot just looking at the energy sources of thepast. We’re going to need some help.

I’m going to need some help if we are goingto continue to make progress in assuring thatevery young person in this country has achance to go to college and that they can affordit. I’m going to need some help if we’re goingto make sure that simple stuff—what should besimple—that everybody in America right nowcan refinance their homes. We could put$3,000 a year into the pockets of every singleAmerican just by passing a law in Congressthat, by the way, Mitt Romney’s key economicadviser, chief economic adviser says was a goodidea. For some reason, we still can’t get itthrough the Congress—3,000 bucks. It’s likefree money for families who right now arestruggling. Think about what they could dowith it and what that will do in terms of boost-ing our growth. I need some help.

And my hope is, is that we’re going to seemore and more Republicans who say, youknow what, I didn’t come here just to fight thePresident or demonize Nancy Pelosi, I camehere to get some stuff done. And they will begreeted with great enthusiasm by me and, Ithink, by Nancy if we could get some morestuff done right now. But realistically, I could

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get a whole lot more done if Nancy Pelosi isSpeaker of the House.

So let me just close by saying this. And Iknow that Nancy’s people will have a chance toanswer some more specific questions abouttheir game plan, all the great candidatesthey’ve recruited, the significant financial bur-den that will have to be bent in order to helpelect these candidates.

But let me close by saying this, go back towhere I started this notion of citizenship. Peo-ple ask me, does it feel different now in yoursecond term than it did in your first? It does.Look, I would hope, I’m better at my job nowthan I was when I first came in. I’ve got somenicks, bruises to prove that I’ve been to this ro-deo before. Hopefully, I’m making better deci-sions, and our team is better organized, and weknow what works and what doesn’t, what someof the pitfalls are.

But the main difference really is a sense ofperspective and realization that nothing worth-while happens in 6 months or a year. It hap-pens over decades. It happens over genera-tions, that the story of America has been ussteadily, through fits and starts, expanding op-portunity, creating a more perfect Union, seiz-ing the promise of the future, fighting off someof our own worst impulses. And that any one ofus, our job is not to do it by ourselves or get itall done in one year or one term or even neces-sarily in our lifetimes, but our job is to makesure that we’re pressing and pushing so thatthe whole country, over time, is moving in theright direction.

We did a screening of the Jackie—there’s anew movie about Jackie Robinson called “42,”which I usually don’t plug movies, but I strong-ly recommend people take their kids and theirgrandkids to see this. A lot of people don’t nec-essarily remember the story of Jackie Robin-son, or if they, it’s sort of vague. His widow,Rachel Robinson, was there. She’s 90 years oldand gorgeous. And in the theater at the WhiteHouse, I thanked her. I thanked the peoplewho made the film, just for reminding me invery visceral terms that in her lifetime, she sawher husband being the first African Americanto play in Major League Baseball, and now

she’s sitting there with me in the White House.That’s a long time, 70 years. On the otherhand, that’s a blink of an eye in terms of humanhistory. And that required Branch Rickey, itrequired Jackie Robinson, and then it re-quired——

Audience member. Chandler. The commis-sioner, Happy Chandler.

The President. ——and it just—it required asuccession of people making tough choices,but the right choice. And then slowly, thingschanged. A culture transformed itself.

I was just in another house here in—veryclose by. A wonderful young woman, singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile, was performing.And she was with her wife. Just got married, Iguess, the day that I announced that I support-ed same-sex marriage. And she’s a young wom-an, and I’m assuming she’s thinking about allthe people who were fighting the good fightnot just in Stonewall, but well before that.

And so, generation after generation, we justplug away, and sometimes, we make progress,and sometimes, it feels like we’re not makingprogress. We just stay at it and stay at it. Andthen suddenly, there’s a breakthrough, and theentire culture shifts.

And that’s what citizenship means. That’swhy it’s so important, because it’s not going tohappen all at once. And all of us have to carrythe burden of moving things forward.

So I hope that when you hear from Nancyand Steve, I hope that all of you understandthis is not just a one-off, this is not just check-ing this off the list. You’ve got to stay withthem. And it’ll be frustrating, it’ll be slow, andthere will be times where you lose hope, andthere will be times where you won’t be mad atNancy, but there will certainly be times whereyou’re mad at me. [Laughter]

But if you stay with it, if you and your neigh-bors and your friends and your children andyour grandchildren, if they maintain that sensethat this is our Government, not somebodyelse’s, and we can change it, then I’ve got greatoptimism for the future of this country and forthe future of citizens in America.


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NOTE: The President spoke at 8:24 p.m. at theresidence of Gordon and Ann Getty. In his re-marks, he referred to Steven J. Israel, in his ca-pacity as chairman of the Democratic Congres-sional Campaign Committee; 2012 RepublicanPresidential nominee W. Mitt Romney; and R.

Glenn Hubbard, dean, Columbia UniversityBusiness School, in his former capacity as chiefeconomic adviser to Mr. Romney. Audio wasnot available for verification of the content ofthese remarks.

Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Fundraiser in Atherton,CaliforniaApril 4, 2013

Thank you so much. Well, it is wonderful tosee all of you. This is an intimate group. What Iwant to do is mostly have a conversation. Butfirst of all, obviously, I want to thank Liz andMark for their incredible hospitality. Wecouldn’t be more appreciative. And I want tothank all of you for being here today.

A lot of you—in fact, almost everybody hereI’ve known, have supported me. Some of youwere involved in my first campaign when no-body could pronounce my name. [Laughter]And you stuck with me through thick and thin,and I just want to say how much I appreciateall of you for taking the time.

Some people have been asking me, “Well,what’s different about the second term?” And Isay, well, for one thing, I’m not raising moneyfor myself, and that’s good. [Laughter] For an-other thing, the girls are getting old enoughnow where they don’t want to spend time withus on the weekends. [Laughter] They havesleepovers and parties and sports and all thatstuff. I don’t know if you guys are doing thesame thing to your parents, but it’s starting tohappen.

But I think the most important thing is thatwhen you don’t have another race to run, allyou’re really thinking about it is how do I leavea legacy, not simply for the next President, butfor the next generation, that makes Americastronger: that helps assure our children cancompete with an ever-changing world; that weare solving what I think is one of the core chal-lenges we face as a generation; and that is mak-ing sure that we have a strong, growing middleclass and ladders of opportunity for everybodywho is willing to work to get into that middle

class; that we continue to be innovative; thatwe address some of our core environmentalchallenges, particularly climate change, tomake sure that the planet we leave behind isone that our children can thrive in.

So you end up taking the long view onthings. And you also feel a great urgency be-cause you know you don’t have a lot of time.And so the main message I want to deliverhere today is that I could not be prouder of thetrack record that we’ve put together over thelast 4 years and 2 months, whether it was sav-ing an economy from a great depression; dou-bling fuel efficiency standards on cars; expand-ing access to college for the millions of youngpeople; making sure that nobody in this coun-try has to go bankrupt because they get sick;reupping the law preventing violence againstwomen; making sure that we have the “don’task, don’t tell” policy, which I think has laid thegroundwork for further progress when itcomes to LGBT rights.

On so many issues, we’ve made progress.But we’ve got so much more work to do. And Ilaid out what that vision might look like duringboth the Inauguration speech and in the Stateof the Union. I want to make sure that we’vegot the best education system in the world andthat starts young. And so we’ve given all the re-search that we have. Expanding our invest-ment in childhood education can make all thedifference in the world and will pay enormousdividends for a very, very long time.

I want to make sure that we’re rebuildingthis country, our infrastructure. We’ve got $2trillion in deferred maintenance. We could beputting people back to work right now, and not

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only improving our current economic growth,but laying the foundation for economic growthfor many years to come. Many of you are awarethat I am a big proponent of investments in sci-ence and research, and obviously, this entireregion has thrived precisely because it hasbeen the epicenter of innovation. And that re-quires us putting money into research in bio-medicine, in nanoscience. Our recent initiativearound the brain and being able to map thatand crack the code potentially not only canhelp us cure things like Alzheimer’s and Par-kinson’s, but can generate entire new indus-tries and put people back to work and be thenext great challenge for the American econo-my.

And I believe that we’ve got to get a handleon our energy policy so that we are growingand we are productive, but we are not simplyinvesting in the energy sources of the past,we’re also investing in the energy sources ofthe future. We’ve doubled fuel efficiency stan-dards on cars, but we’ve also had a chance todouble our production in solar and wind andbiofuels. We can continue to make progress onthat front. We can continue to make sure thatelectric cars and other new technologies fortransportation are built here in the UnitedStates of America and not someplace else.

We can make sure that our buildings, ourschools, our hospitals are more efficient. If wewere able to achieve the same efficiencies thatJapan already has achieved using existing tech-nologies, we’d cut our power utilization by 15,20 percent, which would have enormous rami-fications in bringing down our carbon foot-print.

And we can do all this without spendingmassive amounts of money. The truth is, is thatour fiscal situation has improved significantlysince I first came into office, but we still have along way to go. The way for us to do it intelli-gently is the kind of balanced approach I’vetalked about in the past: making sure that ev-erybody is doing their fair share; making surethat those of us in this room and, frankly, inthis whole town probably—[laughter]—recog-nizes the incredible blessings that we’ve beengiven and make sure that we’re willing to invest

back in the next generation and also makingsure that our money is wisely spent.

We still waste money in all kinds of thingsthat don’t work, and we have the capacity toshift those dollars into things that do work andthat will grow our economy. And we can re-duce our deficit, stabilize our debt, and do sowithout sacrificing the kinds of investmentsthat are going to be required to grow.

Now, the last point I’ll make is just politics.Our policies, the ones that we prevented—orthe ones that we’ve presented, traditionally,would be considered pretty bipartisan. There’snothing particularly Democratic about roadbuilding or basic science or environmental pro-tection. Teddy Roosevelt started the conserva-tion movement. Abraham Lincoln, the first Re-publican President, was pretty big on buildinginfrastructure and investing in things like sci-ence and research.

Unfortunately, we continue to still havesome of that gridlock in Washington. Part of itis fed by changes in information and communi-cations that amplify conflict and extremes asopposed to trying to bring people together. Iknow it’s a great source of frustration for theAmerican people. I assure you it’s a source offrustration for me as well. [Laughter]

But what I believed when I was running forthis office back in 2007, 2008, what I believedwhen I was running for a second term is what Istill believe now, and that is, this country is notas divided as our politics would suggest. Andthe only way we break through this gridlock iswhen people’s voices are heard and people areengaged and involved. I am very optimisticthat we get immigration reform done in thenext few months. And the reason I’m optimis-tic is because people spoke out through theballot box, and that’s breaking gridlock.

It’s going to be tougher to get better gunlegislation to reduce gun violence through theSenate and the House that so many of us, Ithink, want to see, particularly after the trage-dy in Newtown. But I still think it can get doneif people are activated and involved.

And so on every front, on every issue that allof you care about, making sure that we canprovide good information to the American

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people, engage them, inform them, make surethat they are embracing a form of citizenshipthat goes beyond just voting, but involves un-derstanding what’s at stake and talking to theirneighbors, talking to their coworkers, talking totheir friends, writing to their Members of Con-gress, getting organized, getting mobilized—allthat ends up being really the critical ingredientand the constant dynamic change and im-provement that has characterized this countryfor so long.

And your involvement with the DNC helpsus do that. It will help us register voters. It willhelp us make sure that they understand what’sat stake in all of these issues. It’s hugely impor-tant. It’s not always glamorous. It’s not always

sexy. But it’s really what ends up driving ourability to make policy and to deliver for theyoung people who are here today.

So again, I want to thank Liz and Mark formaking this spectacular home available to us.And I want to thank all of you for not only whatyou’ve done in the past on my behalf, but moreimportantly, what you’re continuing to do onbehalf of this country as a whole.

Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

NOTE: The President spoke at 10:28 a.m. atthe residence of Elizabeth Simons and MarkW. Heising. Audio was not available for verifi-cation of the content of these remarks.

Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Fundraiser in AthertonApril 4, 2013

The President. Hello, everybody! It is goodto be back in California.

Audience members. It’s good to have you![Laughter]

The President. Thank you. Somebody said—somebody told me, they were in the photo line,they said, we’re glad you could join our State.[Laughter] They made it sound like a healthclub or something. [Laughter] But I appreciatethat you allowed me to join—[laughter]—be-cause it is obviously a spectacular place, andwe’ve got so many good friends here, and someof you I see out there worked tirelessly datingback to when people could not pronounce myname. [Laughter] And so I’m grateful to all ofyou.

First of all, though, I want to give a specialacknowledgement to John and Marcia for theincredible job they’ve done and their greathospitality. Thank you so much. And I must saythat if you had a cute baby competition, theirgranddaughter would have to be an entry.[Laughter] And I’ve got to say, I might have topick her, because she is adorable and did notdrool on my suit when I grabbed her. [Laugh-ter] So I’m grateful. I’m grateful to her for that.

We’ve got some elected officials who are do-ing incredible work, great friends. First of all,somebody who works tirelessly on behalf of

California every day, but also works on behalfof working people and makes sure that we’vegot a more inclusive America, a good friend ofmine, somebody who you guys should be veryproud of, Congressman Mike Honda is here.Where is Mike? He is around here somewhere.There he is. Yes, I mean, he’s not like a real tallguy, but he’s a great guy. [Laughter]

Second of all, you have to be careful to, firstof all, say she is brilliant and she is dedicatedand she is tough, and she is exactly what you’dwant in anybody who is administering the law,and making sure that everybody is getting a fairshake. She also happens to be by far the bestlooking attorney general in the country; Kama-la Harris is here. It’s true. Come on. [Laugh-ter] And she is a great friend and has just beena great supporter for many, many years.

And finally, somebody who is not yet proba-bly as well known on the national scene, but iscertainly well known in all of us who worked onmy campaign this last time out. He did incredi-ble work, could not have been more effective,and has now taken on what can sometimes be athankless job of being the DNC finance chair,Henry Muñoz is here. Can everybody pleasegive Henry Muñoz a big round of applause.

So my election is over and you thought youwouldn’t have to see me again at these fund-

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raisers. [Laughter] And a close friend of mine,Abner Mikva, who was White House Coun-sel—he was a longtime Congressman from theChicago area—he used to say that beingfriends with a politician is like perpetually hav-ing a child in college. [Laughter] It’s like everyfew months you have to write this check, andyou’re thinking when is it going to be over.With elected officials, it’s never over.

But the reason I’m here is not for me. Thereason I’m here is because the country stillneeds you. We have, as John indicated, donesome work that I’m very, very proud of overthe last 4 years. We took an economy that wasabout to go into a great depression, and wewere able to yank it out and put us back on apath towards growth and putting people backto work. We were able to make sure that in theprocess we rebuilt roads and bridges and asmarter infrastructure all across the countryand invested in clean energy and made surethat schools got the kinds of Internet connec-tions that they needed and invested in basicscience and research—all of which will pay div-idends for years and years to come.

We said that in a country as wealthy as ours,nobody should go bankrupt just because theygot sick. And already, millions of people arebenefiting from the Affordable Care Act. Andby next year, we will know that millions of peo-ple all across the country who previously didnot have health insurance will have it, includ-ing folks with preexisting conditions, which willmake everybody a little bit more secure.

We expanded access to college by expandingour student loan programs. We are in the pro-cess of reforming our schools to make sure thatevery child gets a fair shot in life. We ended“don’t ask, don’t tell,” laying the groundwork tomake sure that this was a country where youwere treated fairly and equally no matter whoyou love.

We expanded national service. We doubledfuel efficiency on cars. We doubled the pro-duction of wind and solar energy. We madesure that the Violence Against Women Act wasresigned and that it provided even greater pro-tection for women all across this country. Weended one war, as promised. We’re in the pro-

cess of ending another, and at the same timehave been able to keep the American peoplesafe.

And so I’m very proud of the work thatwe’ve done. But we’ve got a lot more work todo. We all know that. This country is the great-est nation on Earth, but it can be even greater.And my main message here today is that Amer-ica’s greatness will not result simply from whoyou elect to office, it’s going to depend on you,as citizens, and how badly you want it.

During the State of the Union speech, aswell as my Inauguration speech, I talked aboutcitizenship. And this is a word that I spend a lotof time thinking about these days, partly be-cause my background, my orientation, I cameinto politics believing that politics works bestwhen people are involved. I’ve never believedthat more than I do now, in my second term asPresident, that the idea of citizenship is notjust that you vote, it’s not just that you write acheck where you can to support a candidate.It’s this notion, fundamental to who we are,that we have responsibilities to ourselves andour families, but we also have obligations toour neighborhood, our community, our cities,our States, and ultimately, the Nation and thenext generation.

And the only way that this country movesforward is when we, the people, collectively,make it our business to meet the challenges ofour time. And we know what those challengesare. And we know we’ve got to do better.

Now, in the next couple of months, we’vegot the opportunity to make some very signifi-cant changes. Number one, I believe that wecan get comprehensive immigration reformpassed and that is going to mean that Americacan continue to be a nation of laws, but also anation of immigrants, and attract the best andthe brightest from all around the world. And ifwe push hard and we stay focused, we’ve gotthe opportunity to get this done over the nextcouple of months.

I believe that we have a chance to, after 30years, frankly, of doing almost nothing, to re-duce gun violence in our society. And it’s goingto be hard, it’s going to be tough, but I think

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we’ve got a chance to get some stuff done onthat.

Now, one of the things that I want to be veryclear on is that this year, next year, and for thenext 4 years that I’m in office, I am always go-ing to be seeking, wherever I can, bipartisansolutions. And I intend to continue to reachout to Republicans because I genuinely believethat the politics that you see in Washingtonisn’t representative of America; that most peo-ple actually have common sense, and mostfolks think cooperation and occasional compro-mise is part of life. And I also think that wehave to govern, not simply politick.

And so, whether it’s on immigration reformor the budget or any of these issues, I will con-tinue to do everything I can to reach out to myfriends on the other side of the aisle. And look,I believe that they love their kids and thiscountry just as much as we do, and althoughwe may have some very fundamental disagree-ments about how to get there, I don’t thinkwe’ve got a disagreement about what we needto be as a nation.

Having said that, though, there are stillsome really big arguments that we’re having inWashington, and I believe that Democrats rep-resent those values that will best advance theinterests of middle class families and every-body who is willing to work hard to get into themiddle class, that will grow this economy in abroad-based way, and that will lay the founda-tion for prosperity for generations to come.

And you believe that too. That’s why you’rehere. In order for us to do that, you’re going tohave to stay involved. Think about some of thethings I spoke about during the State of theUnion Address: making sure that every child inAmerica has outstanding, high quality, earlychildhood education. We know that there’snothing more important to a child’s successthan those early years. And if we do that right,not only are we going to see better perfor-mance in our schools, we’re going to see betterperformance in our economy. And we can doit. We can afford to do it.

But in order for us to make that happen,we’re going to have to have an active, motivat-ed, Democratic national party. People here in

this area care deeply about issues of energyand climate change. And I think that the sci-ence is indisputable, and this is an obligationwe owe to future generations. And as I said,we’ve already done a lot to reduce our carbonfootprint and to make our economy more ener-gy efficient. But if we’re going to do more,then we’ve got to make sure that we’re activeand involved and helping to educate ourfriends and our neighbors and our coworkersabout why this is important and why there’s nocontradiction between a sound environmentand strong economic growth; that, in fact, if wedo this right, the energy sources of the future,the clean energy sources of the future can bean engine for economic growth for decadesand decades to come.

When it comes to our economy, making surethat we’re investing in basic research and sci-ence. This is the epicenter of innovation in thisNation. Some of you saw, a couple of days ago,I announced a new BRAIN Initiative that willallow us to crack the code and map what thisincredible gray matter between our ears, oneof the greatest mysteries there is, what’s caus-ing things like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s,and to not just provide cures, but also to helpgenerate entire new industries that can putpeople to work in this region and around thecountry.

In order for us to make sure that we’re in-vesting sufficiently in basic science and re-search, you’re going to have to be involved.You have to push. You can’t just wait for it tohappen, because there are going to be compet-ing interests and folks who want to spend thoseresources in a different way.

When it comes to our budget, I actuallythink that we can stabilize our finances, reduceour debt, reduce our deficit in a prudent, bal-anced way. But we’ve got the other side insist-ing that somehow we can cut our way to pros-perity. I disagree with that. I will take that caseto the American people. But for me to be suc-cessful in resolving that argument in a way thatallows us to keep growing and keep investing,I’m going to need your help.

Making sure that we’re providing ladders ofopportunity in communities all across the

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country that have been left behind—and insome cases, have been behind for decades—sothat we’re not just investing in education, butalso making sure that we’re providing transpor-tation assistance and tax credits so that impov-erished communities can be part of this globaleconomy. That will make us all stronger. I can’tdo that unless I have your help.

And for us to continue to make progress sothat this is a society that is more just and moreequal and more inclusive, we’ve made remark-able progress over these last few years, butthat’s not because of what started in Washing-ton, it’s because of what happened in commu-nities all across the country.

I was mentioning to people I had a chanceto see an early screening of this new moviecalled “42.” It’s about Jackie Robinson. And Ilook around the room—young people—[laughter]—kind of vaguely know, yes, JackieRobinson—[laughter]—first African Ameri-can baseball player. His widow was there, Ra-chel Robinson, who’s gorgeous and 90, butlooks better than I do—[laughter]—and couldnot be more gracious.

And to sit there in a movie theater watchingwhat happened in her lifetime and to knowthat because of the decisions and courage ofJackie Robison and Branch Rickey and all theother pathbreakers, that we now have a coun-try that is fairer and better, for it is a reminderof how change happens in this country. Itdoesn’t happen all at once. It doesn’t happen inone fell swoop. It doesn’t happen because aPresident gives a speech. It happens because awhole bunch of people out there, day in andday out, are making choices and decisionsabout whether we’re going to be fair or lessfair, whether we’re going to be generous or lessgenerous, whether we are going to be inclusiveor less inclusive. And that changing of ourhearts and our minds ultimately translates it-self into politics, but it begins with citizens. Itbegins with you.

And if the Democratic Party stands for any-thing, then it has to stand for that basic propo-

sition that not only do we want an economywhere if you work hard, you can make it if youtry—no matter where you come from, whatyou look like, who you love—but also that theway to get there is by giving everybody a voiceand making sure everybody is involved and ev-erybody is included. If we stand for anything asDemocrats, that’s got to be what we stand for.

And so the DNC is an important part of thatoverall process. And the fact that you are here,the fact that John and Marcia were willing toopen up their home like this gives me confi-dence that, in fact, we will be able to sustainthese efforts. And it has to be sustained beyondelections. You can’t just wait until a Presiden-tial election to do this. It’s all those days in be-tween that are going to determine whether ornot we bring about the changes that we so des-perately believe in.

So to all of you, I want to say thank you. Butunderstand this is just a beginning, it’s not anend. You are going to be called on to do morework. You are going to be called on to get moreengaged and more involved. And if you everhave any doubts as to why you’re doing it, thenyou have to look at John and Marcia’s grandba-by or that young man who’s falling asleep be-cause I’ve been talking too long. [Laughter]And you will remember that ultimately, the on-ly thing that matters is whether or not we’releaving behind a country that’s a little bit bet-ter than the one we founded for them. That’swhy we do what we do. That’s why I do what Ido, for Malia and Sasha, and all the Malias andSashas out there, I want to make sure we’re do-ing right by them.

All right, thank you very much, everybody.God bless you. Thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 12:12 p.m. atthe residence of John D. and Marcia L. Gold-man. In his remarks, he referred to Henry R.Muñoz III, national finance committee chair,Democratic National Committee. Audio wasnot available for verification of the content ofthese remarks.

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Statement on the Death of Roger EbertApril 4, 2013

Michelle and I are saddened to hear aboutthe passing of Roger Ebert. For a generation ofAmericans, and especially Chicagoans, Rogerwas the movies. When he didn’t like a film, hewas honest; when he did, he was effusive, cap-turing the unique power of the movies to takeus somewhere magical. Even amidst his ownbattles with cancer, Roger was as productive as

he was resilient, continuing to share his passionand perspective with the world. The movieswon’t be the same without Roger, and ourthoughts and prayers are with Chaz and therest of the Ebert family.

NOTE: The statement referred to Chaz Ebert,wife of Mr. Ebert.

Letter on Continuation of the National Emergency With Respect to SomaliaApril 4, 2013


Section 202(d) of the National EmergenciesAct (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)) provides for the auto-matic termination of a national emergency un-less, within 90 days prior to the anniversarydate of its declaration, the President publishesin the Federal Register and transmits to theCongress a notice stating that the emergency isto continue in effect beyond the anniversarydate. In accordance with this provision, I havesent to the Federal Register for publication theenclosed notice stating that the national emer-gency declared in Executive Order 13536 ofApril 12, 2010, with respect to Somalia is tocontinue in effect beyond April 12, 2013.

On January 17, 2013, the United States Gov-ernment announced its formal recognition ofthe Government of Somalia. The United Stateshad not recognized a government in Somaliafor the previous 22 years. Although the U.S.

recognition underscores a strong commitmentto Somalia’s stabilization, it does not removethe importance of U.S. sanctions, especiallyagainst persons undermining the stability ofSomalia. For this reason, I have determinedthat it is necessary to continue the nationalemergency with respect to Somalia and tomaintain in force the sanctions to respond tothis threat.

Sincerely,

BARACK OBAMA

NOTE: Identical letters were sent to John A.Boehner, Speaker of the House of Representa-tives, and Joseph R. Biden, Jr., President of theSenate. An original was not available for verifi-cation of the content of this letter. The noticeis listed in Appendix D at the end of this vol-ume.

Remarks at an Easter Prayer BreakfastApril 5, 2013

The President. Thank you. Everybody,please have a seat. Thank you.

Well, good morning, everybody.Audience members. Good morning.The President. Welcome, once again, to the

White House. It is always wonderful to see somany friends from all across the country. Iwant to thank you for joining us today. I want

to thank everybody for their prayers, but mostimportantly, I want to thank everybody fortheir good works through your ministries. It’smaking a difference in communities all acrossthis Nation, and we could not be more proudto often have a chance to work with you.

To all the pastors in the house, I hope you’veenjoyed some well-deserved rest after a very

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busy Holy Week. I see some chuckles, so may-be not. [Laughter] Here at the White House,I’m pleased to say that we survived yet anotherEaster egg roll. [Laughter]

Now, if you’ve been to this breakfast before,you know that I always try to avoid preachingin front of people who do it for a living. That’ssound advice. So this morning I’m just going toleave the sermon to others and offer maybe afew remarks as we mark this—the end of thisEaster season.

In these sacred days, those of us as Chris-tians remember the tremendous sacrifice Jesusmade for each of us, how, in all His humilityand His grace, He took on the sins of the worldand extended the gift of salvation. And we re-commit ourselves to following His example, toloving the Lord our God with all our hearts andall our souls and with all our minds, and to lov-ing our neighbors as ourselves.

That’s the eternal spirit of Easter. And thisyear, I had—I think was particularly special forme because right before Easter, I had a chanceto feel that spirit during my trip to the HolyLand. And I think so many of you here knowthere are few experiences more powerful ormore humbling than visiting that sacred earth.

It brings Scripture to life. It brings us closerto Christ. It reminds us that our Savior, whosuffered and died, was resurrected, both fullyGod and also a man: a human being who livedand walked and felt joy and sorrow just like us.

And so for Christians to walk where Hewalked and see what He saw are blessed mo-ments. And while I had been to Jerusalem be-fore, where Jesus healed the sick and cured theblind and embraced the least of these, I alsohad a chance to go to the Church of the Nativi-ty in Bethlehem. And those of you who havebeen there know that entering the church is aremarkable experience, although it is a usefulinstruction to see how managing different sec-tions of the church and different clergy—itfeels familiar. [Laughter] Let’s just put it thatway. [Laughter]

And as I approached the Altar of the Nativi-ty, as I neared the 14-pointed Silver Star thatmarks the spot where Christ was born, the Pa-triarch of Jerusalem welcomed me to, in hiswords, “the place where heaven and Earthmet.”

And there, I had a chance to pray and reflecton Christ’s birth and His life, His sacrifice, Hisresurrection. I thought about all the faithfulpilgrims, who for 2,000 years have done thesame thing: giving thanks for the fact that, asthe Book of Romans tells us, “just as Christ wasraised from the dead through the glory of theFather, we too may live a new life.”

I thought of the poor and the sick who seekcomfort and the marginalized and the forsakenwho seek solace and the grateful who merelyseek to offer thanks for the simple blessings ofthis life and the awesome glory of the next. Ithought of all who would travel to this place forcenturies to come and the lives they mightknow.

And I was reminded that while our time onEarth is fleeting, He is eternal. His life, Hislessons live on in our hearts and, most impor-tantly, in our actions. When we tend to thesick, when we console those in pain, when wesacrifice for those in need, wherever andwhenever we are there to give comfort and toguide and to love, then Christ is with us.

So this morning let us pray that we’re wor-thy of His many blessings, that this Nation isworthy of His many blessings. Let us promiseto keep in our hearts, in our souls, in ourminds, on this day and on every day, the lifeand lessons of Christ, our Lord.

And with that, I’d like to ask Father LarrySnyder to deliver our opening prayer.

NOTE: The President spoke at 9:28 a.m. in theEast Room at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to Theophilos III, GreekOrthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem; and Rev.Larry Snyder, president, Catholic CharitiesU.S.A. The transcript released by the Office ofthe Press Secretary also included the remarksof Vice President Joe Biden.

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The President’s Weekly AddressApril 6, 2013

Hi, everybody. Our top priority as a nation,and my top priority as President, must be do-ing everything we can to reignite the engine ofAmerica’s growth: a rising, thriving middleclass. That’s our north star. That must drive ev-ery decision that we make.

Now, yesterday we learned that our busi-nesses created 95,000 new jobs last month.That’s about 500,000 new jobs this year andnearly 6.5 million new jobs over the past 3years.

But we’ve got more to do to get the econo-my growing faster so that everybody who wantsa job can find one. And that means we needfewer self-inflicted wounds from Washington,like the across-the-board spending cuts thatare already hurting many communities, cutsthat economists predict will cost our economyhundreds of thousands of jobs this year.

If we want to keep rebuilding this economyon a stronger, sturdier foundation for growth—growth that creates good, middle class jobs—we have to make smarter choices.

This week, I’ll send a budget to Congressthat will help do just that, a fiscally responsibleblueprint for middle class jobs and growth.

For years, an argument in Washington hasraged between reducing our deficits at all costsand making the investments we need to growthe economy. My budget puts that argument torest. Because we don’t have to choose betweenthese goals, we can do both. After all, as wesaw in the 1990s, nothing reduces deficits fast-er than a growing economy.

My budget will reduce our deficits not withaimless, reckless spending cuts that hurt stu-dents and seniors and middle class families,but through the balanced approach that theAmerican people prefer and the investmentsthat a growing economy demands.

Now, the truth is, our deficits are alreadyshrinking. That’s a fact. I’ve already signedmore than $2.5 trillion in deficit reduction intolaw, and my budget will reduce our deficits bynearly $2 trillion more, without harming therecovery. That surpasses the goal of $4 trillion

in deficit reduction that many economists be-lieve will stabilize our finances.

We’ll make the tough reforms required tostrengthen Medicare for the future, withoutundermining the rock-solid guarantee at itscore. And we’ll enact commonsense tax reformthat includes closing wasteful tax loopholes forthe wealthy and well connected, loopholes likethe ones that can allow a billionaire to pay alower tax rate than his or her secretary.

This is the compromise I offered the Speak-er of the House at the end of last year. Whileit’s not my ideal plan to further reduce the def-icit, it’s a compromise I’m willing to accept inorder to move beyond a cycle of short-term,crisis-driven decisionmaking and so that wecan focus on growing our economy and ourmiddle class for the long run. It includes ideasmany Republicans have said they could acceptas well. It’s a way we can make progress to-gether.

But deficit reduction cannot come at thecost of economic growth or middle class secu-rity. And it doesn’t have to. My budget willmake critical investments to grow the econo-my, create jobs, and strengthen the middleclass.

As I said in my State of the Union Address,every day, we should ask ourselves three ques-tions: How do we make America a magnet forgood jobs? How do we give our workers theskills they need to do those jobs? And how dowe make sure that hard work leads to a decentliving?

To make America a magnet for good jobs,we’ll invest in high-tech manufacturing andhomegrown American energy, put people towork building new roads and bridges andschools and cut redtape to help businessesgrow.

To give workers the skills they need to dothose jobs, we’ll invest in education that beginsin the earliest years and job training that betterequips workers to compete in the 21st-centuryeconomy.

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To make sure hard work is rewarded, we’llbuild new ladders of opportunity into the mid-dle class and focus on revitalizing some of ourcommunities hardest hit by recession and jobloss.

All of these investments will help grow theeconomy and create jobs. None of them willadd to the deficit. And I will lay out these pri-orities in greater detail in the days ahead.

It’s a budget that doesn’t spend beyond ourmeans. And it’s a budget that doesn’t makeharsh and unnecessary cuts that only serve toslow our economy. We’ll keep our promise toan aging generation by shoring up Medicare.And we’ll keep our promise to the next genera-

tion by investing in the fundamentals that havealways made America strong: manufacturing,innovation, energy, and education.

Because that’s what it’ll take to make sureAmerica remains strong in the years ahead andto leave behind something better for our kids.

Thanks so much. Have a great weekend.

NOTE: The address was recorded at approxi-mately 4:35 p.m. on April 5 in the Blue Roomat the White House for broadcast on April 6.The transcript was made available by the Of-fice of the Press Secretary on April 5, but wasembargoed for release until 6 a.m. on April 6.

Statement on the 19th Anniversary of the Genocide in RwandaApril 7, 2013

Nineteen years ago, Rwanda was torn apartby a great evil. Today we stand with the peo-ple of Rwanda to commemorate the Rwandangenocide. We honor the victims, and we ex-press our solidarity with the survivors. Morethan 800,000 men, women, and children werekilled in a wave of brutal violence, and count-less others continue to live with the pain andtrauma of their loss. Today, as the United

States grieves with the Rwandan people atthis moment of remembrance, we are in-spired by their spirit as they build a morepeaceful and prosperous tomorrow. We lookwith you to the future and renew our commit-ment to human rights and the rule of law, tothe protection of the vulnerable, and to theprevention of atrocities so that such evil isnever repeated.

Remarks at the University of Hartford in Hartford, ConnecticutApril 8, 2013

The President. Hello, Connecticut. Thankyou. Well, thank you so much, everybody. Letme begin by thanking Nicole and Ian for yourbrave words. I want to thank them and all theNewtown families who have come here today,including your first selectman, Pat Llodra. No-body could be more eloquent than Nicole andthe other families on this issue. And we are sograteful for their courage and willingness toshare their stories again and again, understand-ing that nothing is going to be more importantin making sure the Congress moves forwardthis week than hearing from them.

I want to thank all the educators from SandyHook Elementary who have come here as well,the survivors——

Audience members. We love you, Obama!The President. I love you back. I do—[ap-

plause]—the survivors who still mourn andgrieve, but are still going to work every day tolove and raise those precious children in theircare as fiercely as ever.

I want to thank Governor Malloy for hisleadership. Very proud of him. I want to thankthe University of Hartford for hosting us thisafternoon. Thank you, Hawks. And I want tothank the people of Connecticut for everythingyou’ve done to honor the memories of the vic-tims, because you’re part of their family aswell.

One of your recent alumni, Rachel D’Avino,was a behavioral therapist at Sandy Hook. Two

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alumni of your performing arts school, JimmyGreene and Nelba Marquez-Greene, lost theirdaughter Ana, an incredible, vibrant younggirl, who looked up to them and learned fromthem and inherited their talents by singing be-fore she could talk.

So every family in this State was shaken bythe tragedy of that morning. Every family inthis country was shaken. We hugged our kidsmore tightly. We asked what could we do, as asociety, to help prevent a tragedy like that fromhappening again.

And as a society, we decided that we have tochange. We must. [Applause] We mustchange.

I noticed that Nicole and others refer to thatday as 12/14. For these families, it was a daythat changed everything. And I know many ofyou in Newtown wondered if the rest of uswould live up to the promise we made in thosedark days; if we’d change too; or if, once thetelevision trucks left, once the candles flick-ered out, once the teddy bears were carefullygathered up together, that the country wouldsomehow move on to other things.

Over the weekend, I heard Francine Wheel-er, who lost her son Ben that day, say that the 4months since the tragedy might feel like a briefmoment for some, but for her, it feels like it’sbeen years since she saw Ben. And she’s deter-mined not to let what happened that day justfade away. “We’re not going anywhere,” shesaid. “We are here. We are going to be here.”And I know that she speaks for everybody inNewtown, everybody who was impacted.

And, Newtown, we want you to know thatwe’re here with you. We will not walk awayfrom the promises we’ve made. We are as de-termined as ever to do what must be done. Infact, I’m here to ask you to help me show thatwe can get it done. We’re not forgetting.

We can’t forget. Your families still grieve inways most of us can’t comprehend. But somany of you have used that grief to make a dif-ference, not just to honor your own children,but to protect the lives of all of our children. Somany of you have mobilized and organized andpetitioned your elected officials “with love and

logic,” as Nicole put it, as citizens determinedto right something gone wrong.

And last week, here in Connecticut, yourelected leaders responded. The Connecticutlegislature, led by many of the legislators heretoday, passed new measures to protect more ofour children and our communities from gun vi-olence. And Governor Malloy signed that legis-lation into law.

So I want to be clear: You, the families ofNewtown, people across Connecticut, youhelped make that happen. Your voices, yourdetermination made that happen. Obviously,the elected leaders did an extraordinary jobmoving it forward, but it couldn’t have hap-pened if they weren’t hearing from people intheir respective districts, people all across theState. That’s the power of your voice.

And by the way, Connecticut is not alone. Inthe past few months, New York, Colorado,Maryland have all passed new, commonsensegun safety reforms as well.

These are all States that share an awful fa-miliarity with gun violence, whether it’s thehorror of mass killings or street crime that’s toocommon in too many neighborhoods. All ofthese States also share a strong tradition ofhunting and sport shooting and gun ownership.It’s been a part of the fabric of people’s livesfor generations. And every single one of thoseStates—including here in Connecticut—de-cided that, yes, we can protect more of our cit-izens from gun violence while still protectingour Second Amendment rights. Those twothings don’t contradict each other. We can passcommonsense laws that protect our kids andprotect our rights.

So Connecticut has shown the way. Andnow is the time for Congress to do the same.[Applause] Now is the time for Congress to dothe same. This week is the time for Congress todo the same.

Now, back in January, just a few months af-ter the tragedy in Newtown, I announced a se-ries of executive actions to reduce gun violenceand keep our kids safe. And I put forward com-monsense proposals—much like those thatpassed here in Connecticut—for Congress toconsider. And you’ll remember in my State of

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the Union Address, I urged Congress to givethose proposals a vote. And that moment isnow.

As soon as this week, Congress will begindebating these commonsense proposals to re-duce gun violence. Your Senators, Dick Blu-menthal and Chris Murphy—they’re here—your Representatives, John Larson, Rosa De-Lauro, Elizabeth Esty, Jim Himes, Joe Court-ney, they are all pushing to pass this legislation.But much of Congress is going to only act ifthey hear from you, the American people. Sohere’s what we have to do.

Audience member. I love you, Mr. Presi-dent.

The President. I appreciate that. [Laughter]Here’s what we’ve got to do. We have to tellCongress it’s time to require a backgroundcheck for anyone who wants to buy a gun sothat people who are dangerous to themselvesand others cannot get their hands on a gun.Let’s make that happen.

We have to tell Congress it’s time to crackdown on gun trafficking so that folks will thinktwice before buying a gun as part of a schemeto arm someone who won’t pass a backgroundcheck. Let’s get that done.

We have to tell Congress it’s time to restorethe ban on military-style assault weapons and a10-round limit for magazines to make it harderfor a gunman to fire 154 bullets into his victimsin less than 5 minutes. Let’s put that to a vote.

We have to tell Congress it’s time tostrengthen school safety and help people strug-gling with mental health problems get thetreatment they need before it’s too late. Let’sdo that for our kids and for our communities.

Now, I know that some of these proposalsinspire more debate than others, but each ofthem has the support of the majority of theAmerican people. All of them are commonsense. All of them deserve a vote. [Applause]All of them deserve a vote.

Consider background checks. Over the past20 years, background checks have kept morethan 2 million dangerous people from gettingtheir hands on a gun. A group of police officersin Colorado told me last week that, thanks tobackground checks, they’ve been able to stop

convicted murderers, folks under restrainingorders for committing violent domestic abusefrom buying a gun. In some cases, they’ve actu-ally arrested the person as they were coming topurchase the gun.

So we know that background checks canwork. But the problem is, loopholes in the cur-rent law let so many people avoid backgroundchecks altogether. That’s not safe. It doesn’tmake sense. If you’re a law-abiding citizen andyou go through a background check to buy agun, wouldn’t you expect other people to playby the same rules?

If you’re a law-abiding gun seller, wouldn’tyou want to know you’re not selling your gun tosomeone who’s likely to commit a crime?Shouldn’t we make it harder, not easier forsomebody who is convicted of domestic abuseto get his hands on a gun?

It turns out 90 percent of Americans thinkso. Ninety percent of Americans support uni-versal background checks. Think about that.How often do 90 percent of Americans agreeon anything? [Laughter] And yet 90 percentagree on this: Republicans, Democrats, folkswho own guns, folks who don’t own guns, 80percent of Republicans, more than 80 percentof gun owners, more than 70 percent of NRAhouseholds. It is common sense.

And yet there is only one thing that canstand in the way of change that just about ev-erybody agrees on, and that’s politics in Wash-ington. You would think that with those num-bers, Congress would rush to make this hap-pen. That’s what you would think. If our de-mocracy is working the way it’s supposed toand 90 percent of the American people agreeon something, in the wake of a tragedy, you’dthink this would not be a heavy lift.

And yet some folks back in Washington arealready floating the idea that they may use po-litical stunts to prevent votes on any of thesereforms. Think about that. They’re not just say-ing they’ll vote no on ideas that almost allAmericans support, they’re saying they’ll doeverything they can to even prevent any voteson these provisions. They’re saying your opin-ion doesn’t matter. And that’s not right.

Audience members. Boo!

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The President. That is not right.Audience members. We want a vote!The President. We need a vote.Audience members. We want a vote! We

want a vote! We want a vote!The President. We need a vote.Audience members. We want a vote! We

want a vote! We want a vote!The President. Now, I’ve also heard some in

the Washington press suggest that what hap-pens to gun violence legislation in Congressthis week will either be a political victory or de-feat for me. Connecticut, this is not about me.This is not about politics. This is about doingthe right thing for all the families who are herethat have been torn apart by gun violence. It’sabout them and all the families going forward,so we can prevent this from happening again.That’s what it’s about. It’s about the law en-forcement officials putting their lives at risk.That’s what this is about. This is not about poli-tics. This is not about politics.

This is about these families and families allacross the country who are saying let’s make ita little harder for our kids to get gunned down.

When I said in my State of the Union Ad-dress that these proposals deserve a vote—thatfamilies of Newtown and Aurora and Tucsonand a former Member of Congress, Gabby Gif-fords, that they all deserved a vote—virtuallyevery Member of that Chamber stood up andapplauded. And now they’re going to start de-nying your families a vote when the camerasare off and when the lobbyists have workedwhat they do? You deserve better than that.You deserve a vote.

Now, look, we knew from the beginning ofthis debate that change would not be easy. Weknew that there would be powerful intereststhat are very good at confusing the subject,that are good at amplifying conflict and ex-tremes, that are good at drowning out rationaldebate, good at ginning up irrational fears, allof which stands in the way of progress.

But if our history teaches us anything, thenit’s up to us—the people—to stand up to thosewho say we can’t or we won’t, stand up for thechange that we need. And I believe that that’swhat the American people are looking for.

When I first ran for this office, I said that Idid not believe the country was as divided asour politics would suggest, and I still believethat. I know sometimes, when you watch cablenews or talk radio or you browse the Internet,you’d think, man, everybody just hates eachother, everybody is just at each other’s throats.But that’s not how most Americans think aboutthese issues. There are good people on bothsides of every issue.

So if we’re going to move forward, we can’tjust talk past one another. We’ve got to listento one another. That’s what Governor Malloyand all these legislative leaders did. That’s whythey were able to pass bipartisan legislation. Allright?

I’ve got stacks of letters from gun ownerswho want me to know that they care passion-ately about their right to bear arms, don’t wantthem infringed upon, and I appreciate everyone of those letters. I’ve learned from them.But a lot of those letters, what they’ve also saidis—they’re not just gun owners, they’re alsoparents or police officers or veterans, and theyagree that we can’t stand by and keep lettingthese tragedies happen, that with our rightscome some responsibilities and obligations toour communities and ourselves and most of allto our children. We can’t just think about “us,”we’ve got to think about “we the people.”

I was in Colorado. I told a story about Mi-chelle. She came back from a trip to rural Io-wa; we were out there campaigning. Some-times it would be miles between farms, letalone towns. And she said, you know, comingback, I can understand why somebody wouldwant a gun for protection. If somebody droveup into the driveway and, Barack, you weren’thome, the sheriff lived miles away, I mightwant that security. So she can understand whatit might be like in terms of somebody wantingthat kind of security.

On the other hand, I also talked to a hunterlast week who said, “All my experiences withguns have been positive, but I also realize thatfor others, all their experiences with guns havebeen negative.”

And when he said that, I thought about themom I met from suburban Chicago whose son

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was killed in a random shooting. And this momtold me: “I hate it when people tell me that myson was in the wrong place at the wrong time.He was on his way to school. He was exactlywhere he was supposed to be. He was in theright place at the right time, and he still gotshot.”

The kids at Sandy Hook were where theywere supposed to be. So were those moviego-ers in Aurora. So were those worshippers inOak Creek. So was Gabby Giffords. She was ata supermarket, listening to the concerns of herconstituents. They were exactly where theywere supposed to be. They were also exercis-ing their rights: to assemble peaceably, to wor-ship freely and safely. They were exercising therights of life and liberty and the pursuit of hap-piness. So, surely, we can reconcile those twothings. Surely, America doesn’t have to be di-vided between rural and urban and Democratand Republican when it comes to somethinglike this.

If you’re an American who wants to dosomething to prevent more families fromknowing the immeasurable anguish that thesefamilies here have known, then we have to act.Now is the time to get engaged. Now is thetime to get involved. Now is the time to pushback on fear and frustration and misinforma-tion. Now is the time for everybody to maketheir voices heard from every State house tothe corridors of Congress.

And I’m asking everyone listening today,find out where your Member of Congressstands on this. If they’re not part of the 90 per-cent of Americans who agree on backgroundchecks, then ask them, why not? Why wouldn’tyou want to make it easier for law enforcementto do their job? Why wouldn’t you want tomake it harder for a dangerous person to gethis or her hands on a gun? What’s more impor-tant to you, our children or an A-grade fromthe gun lobby?

I’ve heard Nicole talk about what her lifehas been like since Dylan was taken from herin December. And one thing she said struckme. She said: “Every night, I beg for him tocome to me in my dreams so that I can see himagain. And during the day, I just focus on what

I need to do to honor him and make change.”Now, if Nicole can summon the courage to dothat, how can the rest of us do any less? [Ap-plause] How can we do any less?

If there is even one thing we can do to pro-tect our kids, don’t we have an obligation totry? If there is even one step we can take tokeep somebody from murdering dozens of in-nocents in the span of minutes, shouldn’t webe taking that step? If there is just one thingwe can do to keep one father from having tobury his child, isn’t that worth fighting for?

I’ve got to tell you, the—I’ve had tough daysin the Presidency—I’ve said this before: Theday Newtown happened was the toughest dayof my Presidency. But I’ve got to tell you, if wedon’t respond to this, that will be a tough dayfor me too. Because we’ve got to expect morefrom ourselves, and we’ve got to expect morefrom Congress. We’ve got to believe that everyonce in a while, we set politics aside, and wejust do what’s right. We’ve got to believe that.

And if you believe that, I’m asking you tostand up. If you believe in the right to beararms, like I do, but think we should prevent anirresponsible few from inflicting harm, standup. [Applause] Stand up.

If you believe that the families of Newtownand Aurora and Tucson and Virginia Tech andthe thousands of Americans who have beengunned down in the last 4 months deserve avote, we all have to stand up.

If you want the people you send to Washing-ton to have just an iota of the courage that theeducators at Sandy Hook showed when dangerarrived on their doorstep, then we’re all goingto have to stand up.

And if we do, if we come together and raiseour voices together and demand this changetogether, I’m convinced cooperation and com-mon sense will prevail. We will find sensible,intelligent ways to make this country strongerand safer for our children.

So let’s do the right thing. Let’s do right byour kids. Let’s do right by these families. Let’sget this done. Connecticut, thank you. Godbless you. God bless the United States ofAmerica.

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NOTE: The President spoke at 5:45 p.m. in theChase Family Arena of the Sports Center. Inhis remarks, he referred to Nicole and IanHockley, parents of Dylan Hockley, who was

killed in the shootings at Sandy Hook Elemen-tary School in Newtown, CT, on December 14,2012; and First Selectman E. Patricia Llodra ofNewtown, CT.

Statement on the Death of Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of theUnited KingdomApril 8, 2013

With the passing of Baroness MargaretThatcher, the world has lost one of the greatchampions of freedom and liberty, and Ameri-ca has lost a true friend. As a grocer’s daughterwho rose to become Britain’s first femalePrime Minister, she stands as an example toour daughters that there is no glass ceiling thatcan’t be shattered. As Prime Minister, shehelped restore the confidence and pride thathas always been the hallmark of Britain at itsbest. And as an unapologetic supporter of ourtransatlantic alliance, she knew that with

strength and resolve, we could win the coldwar and extend freedom’s promise.

Here in America, many of us will never for-get her standing shoulder to shoulder withPresident Reagan, reminding the world thatwe are not simply carried along by the currentsof history, we can shape them with moral con-viction, unyielding courage, and iron will. Mi-chelle and I send our thoughts to the Thatcherfamily and all the British people, as we carry onthe work to which she dedicated her life: freepeoples standing together, determined to writeour own destiny.

Statement on Holocaust Remembrance DayApril 8, 2013

I join people here in the United States, in Is-rael, and around the world in observing Holo-caust Remembrance Day. Today we honor thememories of the 6 million Jewish victims andmillions of others who perished in the darknessof the Shoah. As we reflect on the beautifullives lost and their great potential that wouldnever be fulfilled, we also pay tribute to allthose who resisted the Nazis’ heinous acts andall those who survived.

On my recent trip to Israel, I had the oppor-tunity to visit Yad Vashem, Israel’s nationalHolocaust memorial, and reaffirm our collec-tive responsibility to confront anti-Semitism,prejudice, and intolerance across the world.On this Yom Hashoah, we must accept the fullresponsibility of remembrance—as nations andas individuals—not simply to pledge “neveragain,” but to commit ourselves to the under-standing, empathy and compassion that is thefoundation of peace and human dignity.

Remarks at PBS’s “In Performance at the White House: Memphis Soul”April 9, 2013

Everybody, please have a seat. And give it upfor our musical director, Booker T. and the Mem-phis Soul all-stars. I just want everybody to knowthat it is now my second term, so rather than“Hail to the Chief,” we’re going with that fromhere on out. [Laughter] Little change in tradition.

Now, before we get started, I am going toexercise some Presidential prerogative to say afew words about two very special people whoare here tonight. This will humiliate them, butI’m going to go ahead and do it anyway. JessWright and Kenny Thompson both work on

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my staff, crucial members of my team sinceway back in Iowa in 2007.

Over the weekend, Kenny popped the ques-tion, and Jess said yes. So I want to congratu-late—publicly—Kenny Thompson, JessWright. Beautiful couple. We love them. Theyare wonderful. They’ve been loyal, shown suchgreat friendship to me, and I’m so glad thatthey have gone ahead and taken the plunge.

By the way, guys, Justin Timberlake just gotmarried to this lovely young lady right here,Jessica Biel. So Justin can probably offer you afew pointers. And, Justin, they are looking for awedding singer. [Laughter] I’m just saying.

Tonight I am speaking not just as a Presi-dent, but as one of America’s best known AlGreen impersonators. [Laughter] So I have anew appreciation for what Al once said aboutthe Memphis soul sound that he helped create:“We don’t even know ourselves how that musichas endured for so long and how that came outof us.”

All I know is I’ve been looking forward to to-night because, let’s face it, who does not lovethis music? These songs get us on the dancefloor. Even the Governor of Tennessee saidhe’s going to dance tonight. [Laughter] Theyget stuck in our heads. We go back over themagain and again. And they’ve played an impor-tant part in our history.

In the sixties and seventies, Memphis knewits share of division and discord and injustice.But in that turbulent time, the sound of Hi andDuke and Sun and Stax records tried to bridgethose divides, to create a little harmony withharmony. The great Memphis musician DonNix went to an all-White school, and he de-scribed what it was like. He said: “If you couldimagine, nobody’s ever heard R&B music be-fore. White kids had never heard it. And youcan imagine what that did to us.”

So he and others kept playing music that ev-erybody could get in to. They created a wholenew sound, and as they did, they broke downbarriers. On McLemore Avenue, in the heartof a segregated city, Stax Records was integrat-ed from the studio musicians all the way to up-per management. Booker T. Jones and SteveCropper, who are both here tonight, helped

form one of the city’s first integrated bands.They weren’t allowed to go to school together.They weren’t always allowed to travel or eat to-gether. But no one could stop them from play-ing music together.

And that was the spirit of their music—thesound of “Soulsville, U.S.A.”—a music that, atits core, is about the pain of being alone, thepower of human connection, and the impor-tance of treating each other right. After all, thisis the music that asked us to “Try a Little Ten-derness.” It’s the music that put “Mr. BigStuff” in his place. [Laughter] And it’s the mu-sic that challenged us to accept new ways ofthinking with four timeless words: “Can youdig it?” [Laughter]

So it’s really no surprise that Memphis soulswept the Nation, and it has stood the test oftime. Tonight we bring it to the White House.

We’ve got folks here who were there at thebeginning, legends like Mavis Staples, CharlieMusselwhite, William Bell, and Eddie Floyd.We’ve got artists like Cyndi Lauper and BenHarper and Queen Latifah, who still turn toMemphis for inspiration. We’ve got JustinTimberlake, a proud son of Memphis who’snever forgotten his roots, and the AlabamaShakes, who are bringing the Muscle Shoalssound to a new generation.

So to all of you, even more than for the mu-sic you’ve created, I want to say a special thankyou for the difference that you’ve made in ourlives. More than half a century after Soulsville,U.S.A., first opened its doors, you still bring ustogether. You still remind us how much wehave in common. You still help us imagine abetter place. And you promise, through yourbeautiful music, that you can take us there.

So tonight we’re going to start things offwith two extraordinary artists who span thegenerations. One’s a Memphis legend who’sbeen around just about forever, the other an“American Idol” who’s turning 21 today. In theheyday of soul music, no band had more hitsthan the group known simply as Sam andDave. Here to perform his classic “Soul Man”along with Joshua Ledet, please welcome thegreat Sam Moore.

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NOTE: The President spoke at 7:40 p.m. inthe East Room at the White House. In hisremarks, he referred to Kenneth D. Thomp-son, Director of Messaging, Office of the

Vice President; actor Jessica C. Biel; Gov.William E. Haslam of Tennessee; and musi-cians Al Green and Dana E. “Queen Latifah”Owens.

Remarks on the Federal BudgetApril 10, 2013

Good morning, everybody. Please, pleasehave a seat. Well, as President, my top priorityis to do everything I can to reignite what I con-sider to be the true engine of the Americaneconomy: a rising, thriving middle class. That’swhat I think about every day. That’s the drivingforce behind every decision that I make.

And over the past 3 years, our businesseshave created nearly 6.5 million new jobs. Butwe know we can help them create more. Cor-porate profits are at an alltime high. But wehave to get wages and incomes rising as well.Our deficits are falling at the fastest pace inyears. But we can do more to bring them downin a balanced and responsible way.

The point is, our economy is poised forprogress, as long as Washington doesn’t get inthe way. Frankly, the American people deservebetter than what we’ve been seeing: a short-sighted, crisis-driven decisionmaking, like thereckless, across-the-board spending cuts thatare already hurting a lot of communities outthere, cuts that economists predict will cost ushundreds of thousands of jobs during thecourse of this year.

If we want to keep rebuilding our economyon a stronger, more stable foundation, thenwe’ve got to get smarter about our priorities asa nation. And that’s what the budget I’m send-ing to Congress today represents: a fiscally re-sponsible blueprint for middle class jobs andgrowth.

For years, the debate in this town has ragedbetween reducing our deficits at all costs andmaking the investments necessary to grow oureconomy. And this budget answers that argu-ment, because we can do both. We can growour economy and shrink our deficits. In fact, aswe saw in the 1990s, nothing shrinks deficitsfaster than a growing economy. That’s been my

goal since I took office. And that should be ourgoal going forward.

At a time when too many Americans are stilllooking for work, my budget begins by makingtargeted investments in areas that will createjobs right now and prime our economy to keepgenerating good jobs down the road. As I saidin my State of the Union Address, we shouldask ourselves three questions every day: Howdo we make America a magnet for new jobs?How do we give our workers the skills theyneed to do those jobs? And how do we makesure that hard work leads to a decent living?

To make America a magnet for good jobs,this budget invests in new manufacturing hubsto help turn regions left behind by globaliza-tion into global centers of high-tech jobs. We’llspark new American innovation and industrywith cutting-edge research, like the initiative Iannounced to map the human brain and curedisease. We’ll continue our march towards en-ergy independence and address the threat ofclimate change. And our Rebuild AmericaPartnership will attract private investment toput construction workers back on the job re-building our roads, our bridges, and ourschools, in turn attracting even more new busi-ness to communities across the country.

To help workers earn the skills they need tofill those jobs, we’ll work with States to makehigh-quality preschool available to every childin America. And we’re going to pay for it byraising taxes on tobacco products that harmour young people. It’s the right thing to do.

We’ll reform our high schools and job train-ing programs to equip more Americans withthe skills they need to compete in the 21st-cen-tury economy. And we’ll help more middleclass families afford the rising cost of college.

To make sure hard work is rewarded, we’llbuild new ladders of opportunity into the mid-

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dle class for anybody who is willing to workhard to climb them. So we’ll partner with 20 ofour communities hit hardest by the recessionto help them improve housing and educationand business investment. And we should makethe minimum wage a wage you can live on, be-cause no one who works full time should haveto raise his or her family in poverty.

My budget also replaces the foolish, across-the-board spending cuts that are already hurt-ing our economy. And I have to point out thatmany of the same Members of Congress whosupported deep cuts are now the ones com-plaining about them the loudest as they hittheir own communities. Of course, the peopleI feel for are the people who are directly feel-ing the pain of these cuts, the people who canleast afford it. They’re hurting military com-munities that have already sacrificed enough.They’re hurting middle class families. Thereare children who have had to enter a lottery todetermine which of them get to stay in theirHead Start program with their friends. Thereare seniors who depend on programs likeMeals on Wheels so they can live independent-ly, but who are seeing their services cut.

That’s what this so-called sequester means.Some people may not have been impacted, butthere are a lot of folks who are being increas-ingly impacted all across this country. Andthat’s why my budget replaces these cuts withsmarter ones, making long-term reforms, elim-inating actual waste and programs we don’tneed anymore.

So building new roads and bridges, educat-ing our children from the youngest age, help-ing more families afford college, making surethat hard work pays—these are things thatshould not be partisan. They should not becontroversial. We need to make them happen.My budget makes these investments to growour economy and create jobs, and it does sowithout adding a dime to our deficits.

Now, on the topic of deficits, despite all thenoise in Washington, here’s a clear and unas-sailable fact: Our deficits are already falling.Over the past 2 years, I’ve signed legislationthat will reduce our deficits by more than $2.5trillion, more than two-thirds of it through

spending cuts and the rest through asking thewealthiest Americans to begin paying their fairshare.

That doesn’t mean we don’t have more workto do. But here’s how we finish the job. Mybudget will reduce our deficits by nearly an-other $2 trillion so that all told we will havesurpassed the goal of $4 trillion in deficit re-duction that independent economists believewe need to stabilize our finances. But it does soin a balanced and responsible way, a way thatmost Americans prefer.

Both parties, for example, agree that the ris-ing cost of caring for an aging generation is thesingle biggest driver of our long-term deficits.And the truth is, for those like me who deeplybelieve in our social insurance programs, thinkit’s one of the core things that our Governmentneeds to do, if we want to keep Medicareworking as well as it has, if we want to preservethe ironclad guarantee that Medicare repre-sents, then we’re going to have to make somechanges. But they don’t have to be drasticones. And instead of making drastic ones later,what we should be doing is making some man-ageable ones now.

The reforms I’m proposing will strengthenMedicare for future generations without un-dermining that ironclad guarantee that Medi-care represents. We’ll reduce our Govern-ment’s Medicare bills by finding new ways toreduce the cost of health care, not by shiftingthe costs to seniors or the poor or families withdisabilities. They are reforms that keep thepromise we’ve made to our seniors: basic secu-rity that is rock solid and dependable and therefor you when you need it. That’s what my bud-get represents.

My budget does also contain the compro-mise I offered Speaker Boehner at the end oflast year, including reforms championed byRepublican leaders in Congress. And I don’tbelieve that all these ideas are optimal, but I’mwilling to accept them as part of a compromise,if—and only if—they contain protections forthe most vulnerable Americans.

But if we’re serious about deficit reduction,then these reforms have to go hand in handwith reforming our Tax Code to make it more

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simple and more fair so that the wealthiest in-dividuals and biggest corporations cannot keeptaking advantage of loopholes and deductionsthat most Americans don’t get. That’s the bot-tom line.

If you’re serious about deficit reduction,then there’s no excuse to keep these loopholesopen. They don’t serve an economic purpose.They don’t grow our economy. They don’t putpeople back to work. All they do is to allowfolks, who are already well off and well con-nected, game the system. If anyone thinks I’llfinish the job of deficit reduction on the backsof middle class families or through spendingcuts alone that actually hurt our economyshort-term, they should think again.

When it comes to deficit reduction, I’ve al-ready met Republicans more than halfway. Soin the coming days and weeks, I hope that Re-publicans will come forward and demonstratethat they’re really as serious about the deficitsand debt as they claim to be.

So, growing our economy, creating jobs,shrinking our deficits, keeping our promise tothe generation that made us great, but also in-vesting in the next generation, the next genera-tion that will make us even greater. These arenot conflicting goals. We can do them in con-cert. That’s what my budget does. That’s whyI’m so grateful for the great work that JeffZients and his team have done in shaping thisbudget. The numbers work. There’s not a lot ofsmoke and mirrors in here.

And if we can come together, have a serious,reasoned debate—not driven by politics—andcome together around common sense andcompromise, then I’m confident we’ll movethis country forward and leave behind some-thing better for our children. That’s our task.


NOTE: The President spoke at 11 a.m. in theRose Garden at the White House.

Statement on Senate Action on Gun Control LegislationApril 10, 2013

I applaud Senators Joe Manchin and PatToomey for their leadership on forging a bipar-tisan agreement around commonsense back-ground checks that will make it harder for dan-gerous people to get their hands on a gun.

This is not my bill, and there are aspectsof the agreement that I might prefer to bestronger. But the agreement does representwelcome and significant bipartisan progress.It recognizes that there are good people onboth sides of this issue, and we don’t have toagree on everything to know that we’ve got

to do something to stem the tide of gun vio-lence.

Of course, a lot of work remains. Congressneeds to finish the job. The Senate must over-come obstruction by defeating a threatened fil-ibuster and allow a vote on this and other com-monsense reforms to protect our kids and ourcommunities. Any bill still has to clear theHouse. So I’m going to keep asking the Ameri-can people to stand up and raise their voices,because these measures deserve a vote, and sodo the families and communities they’re de-signed to protect.

Statement on Senate Confirmation of Sarah M.R. “Sally” Jewell as Secretaryof the InteriorApril 10, 2013

I am pleased that today the Senate took bi-partisan action to confirm Sally Jewell as ournext Secretary of the Interior. With her exten-sive business experience, including her back-

ground in the energy sector, along with herlifelong commitment to conservation, Sally isthe right person for this important job. Shebrings an important mix of strong management

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skills, appreciation for our Nation’s tradition ofprotecting our public lands and heritage, and akeen understanding of what it means to begood stewards of our natural resources.

Sally’s commitment to energy and climateissues, her belief in our strong government-to-government relationship with IndianCountry, and her understanding of the inher-

ent link between conservation and good jobsensure that she will be an exceptional Secre-tary of the Interior. I am very glad she is join-ing my team, and I look forward to her coun-sel on these important issues as we continueto leverage our natural resources responsiblywhile protecting our Nation’s treasures forgenerations to come.

Remarks on Presenting Posthumously the Medal of Honor to Captain EmilJ. KapaunApril 11, 2013

Good afternoon, everybody. Please have aseat. On behalf of Michelle and myself, wel-come to the White House. Thank you, Chap-lain.

This year, we mark the 60th anniversary ofthe end of the Korean war, a time when thou-sands of our prisoners of war finally camehome after years of starvation and hardshipand, in some cases, torture. And among thehomecomings, one stood out.

A group of our POWs emerged carrying alarge wooden crucifix, nearly 4 feet tall. Theyhad spent months on it, secretly collecting fire-wood, carving it—the cross and the body—us-ing radio wire for a crown of thorns. It was atribute to their friend, their chaplain, their fel-low prisoner, who had touched their souls andsaved their lives: Father Emil Kapaun.

This is an amazing story. Father Kapaun hasbeen called a shepherd in combat boots. Hisfellow soldiers who felt his grace and his mercycalled him a saint, a blessing from God. Todaywe bestow another title on him—recipient ofour Nation’s highest military decoration—theMedal of Honor. After more than six decadesof working to make this medal a reality, I knowone of Father Kapaun’s comrades spoke for alot of folks here when he said, “It’s abouttime.”

Father, as they called him, was just 35 yearsold when he died in that hellish prison camp.His parents and his only sibling, his brother,are no longer with us. But we are extremelyproud to welcome members of the Kapaunfamily—his nephews, his niece, their chil-

dren—two of whom currently serve in thiscountry’s National Guard. And we are veryproud of them.

We’re also joined by Members of the Kansascongressional delegation, leaders from acrossour armed forces, and representatives from theCatholic Church, which recognizes Father Ka-paun as a “Servant of God.” And we are trulyhumbled to be joined by men who servedalongside him: veterans and former POWsfrom the Korean war. Thank you.

Now, obviously, I never met Father Kapaun.But I have a sense of the man he was, becausein his story, I see reflections of my own grand-parents and their values, the people whohelped to raise me. Emil and my grandfatherwere both born in Kansas about the same time,both were raised in small towns outside ofWichita. They were part of that greatest gener-ation: surviving the Depression, joining the Ar-my, serving in World War II. And they embod-ied those heartland values of honesty and hardwork, decency and humility: quiet heroes de-termined to do their part.

For Father Kapaun, this meant becoming anArmy chaplain: serving God and country. Afterthe Communist invasion of South Korea, hewas among the first American troops that hitthe beaches and pushed their way norththrough hard mountains and bitter cold. In hisunderstated, midwestern way, he wrote home,saying, “This outdoor life is quite a thing”—[laughter]—and “I’d prefer to live in a houseonce in a while.” But he had hope, saying, “Itlooks like the war will end soon.”

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That’s when Chinese forces entered the warwith a massive surprise attack, perhaps 20,000soldiers pouring down on a few thousandAmericans. In the chaos, dodging bullets andexplosions, Father Kapaun raced between fox-holes, out past the front lines, and into no-man’s land, dragging the wounded to safety.

When his commanders ordered an evacua-tion, he chose to stay, gathering the injured,tending to their wounds. When the enemybroke through and the combat was hand tohand, he carried on, comforting the injuredand the dying, offering some measure of peaceas they left this Earth.

When enemy forces bore down, it seemedlike the end: that these wounded Americans,more than a dozen of them, would be gunneddown. But Father Kapaun spotted a woundedChinese officer. He pleaded with this Chineseofficer and convinced him to call out to his fel-low Chinese. The shooting stopped, and theynegotiated a safe surrender, saving thoseAmerican lives.

Then, as Father Kapaun was being led away,he saw another American: wounded, unable towalk, laying in a ditch, defenseless. An enemysoldier was standing over him, rifle aimed athis head, ready to shoot. And Father Kapaunmarched over and pushed the enemy soldieraside. And then as the soldier watched,stunned, Father Kapaun carried that woundedAmerican away.

This is the valor we honor today: an Ameri-can soldier who didn’t fire a gun, but whowielded the mightiest weapon of all, a love forhis brothers so pure that he was willing to dieso that they might live. And yet the incrediblestory of Father Kapaun does not end there.

He carried that injured American for miles,as their captors forced them on a death march.When Father Kapaun grew tired, he’d help thewounded soldier hop on one leg. When otherprisoners stumbled, he picked them up. Whenthey wanted to quit—knowing that stragglerswould be shot—he begged them to keep walk-ing.

In the camps that winter, deep in a valley,men could freeze to death in their sleep. Fa-ther Kapaun offered them his own clothes.

They starved on tiny rations of millet and cornand birdseed. He somehow snuck past theguards, foraged in nearby fields, and returnedwith rice and potatoes. In desperation, somemen hoarded food. He convinced them toshare. Their bodies were ravaged by dysentery.He grabbed some rocks, pounded metal intopots and boiled clean water. They lived in filth.He washed their clothes, and he cleansed theirwounds.

The guards ridiculed his devotion to his Sav-ior and the Almighty. They took his clothes andmade him stand in the freezing cold for hours.Yet he never lost his faith. If anything, it onlygrew stronger. At night, he slipped into huts tolead prisoners in prayer, saying the rosary, ad-ministering the sacraments, offering three sim-ple words: “God bless you.” One of them latersaid that with his very presence, he could justfor a moment turn a mud hut into a cathedral.

That spring, he went further; he held anEaster service. I just met with the Kapaun fam-ily. They showed me something extraordinary:the actual stole, the purple vestment, that Fa-ther Kapaun wore when he celebrated Massinside that prison camp.

As the Sun rose that Easter Sunday, he puton that purple stole and led dozens of prison-ers to the ruins of an old church in the camp.And he read from a prayer missal that they hadkept hidden. He held up a small crucifix thathe had made from sticks. And as the guardswatched, Father Kapaun and all those prison-ers—mens of different faith, perhaps somemen of no faith—sang the Lord’s Prayer and“America the Beautiful.” They sang so loudthat other prisoners across the camp not onlyheard them, they joined in too, filling that val-ley with song and with prayer.

That faith—that they might be deliveredfrom evil, that they could make it home—wasperhaps the greatest gift to those men: thateven amidst such hardship and despair, therecould be hope; amid their misery in the tempo-ral, they could see those truths that are eternal;that even in such hell, there could be a touchof the divine. Looking back, one of them saidthat that is what “kept a lot of us alive.”

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Yet, for Father Kapaun, the horrific condi-tions took their toll. Thin, frail, he began tolimp, with a blood clot in his leg. And thencame dysentery, then pneumonia. That’s whenthe guards saw their chance to finally rid them-selves of this priest and the hope he inspired.They came for him. And over the protests andtears of the men who loved him, the guardssent him to a death house—a hellhole with nofood or water—to be left to die.

And yet, even then, his faith held firm. “I’mgoing to where I’ve always wanted to go,” hetold his brothers. “And when I get up there, I’llsay a prayer for all of you.” And then, as he wastaken away, he did something remarkable; heblessed the guards. “Forgive them,” he said,“for they know not what they do.” Two dayslater, in that house of death, Father Kapaunbreathed his last breath. His body was takenaway, his grave unmarked, his remains unre-covered to this day.

The war and the awful captivity would dragon for another 2 years, but these men held on,steeled by the memory and moral example ofthe man they called Father. And on their firstday of freedom, in his honor, they carried thatbeautiful wooden crucifix with them.

Some of these men are here today, includingHerb Miller, the soldier that Father Kapaunsaved in that ditch and then carried all thosemiles. Many are now in their eighties, butmake no mistake, they are among the strongestmen that America has ever produced. And Iwould ask all of our courageous POWs fromthe Korean war to stand if they’re able and ac-cept the gratitude of a grateful nation.

I’m told that in their darkest hours in thecamp in that valley, these men turned to aPsalm. As we prepare for the presentation ofthe Medal of Honor to Father Kapaun’s neph-ew, Ray, I want to leave you with the words ofthat Psalm, which sustained these men allthose years ago:

Even though I walk in the valley of theshadow of death,

I will fear no evil, for you are with me;Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table for me in the pres-ence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil; my cupoverflows.

Surely, your goodness and love will followme all the days of my life.

And I will dwell in the house of the Lordforever.

Ray, would you please join me on stage forthe reading of the citation?

[At this point, Lt. Cmdr. Tiffany Hill, USN, Na-vy Aide to the President, read the citation. ThePresident then presented the medal, assisted byLt. Col. Owen G. Ray, USA, Army Aide to thePresident. Following the presentation, Maj.Gen. Donald L. Rutherford, USA, Army Chiefof Chaplains, said a prayer.]

Well, I can’t imagine a better example for allof us—whether in uniform or not in uniform—a better example to follow. Father Kapaun’slife, I think, is a testimony to the human spirit,the power of faith, and reminds us of the goodthat we can do each and every day regardless ofthe most difficult of circumstances. We can al-ways be an instrument of his will.

So I hope all of you have enjoyed this cere-mony. I certainly have been extremely touchedby it. To the Kapaun family, God bless you. Toall our veterans, we’re so proud of you.

And my understanding is, is that the WhiteHouse has pretty decent food—[laughter]—soI hope all of you enjoy the reception. Thankyou very much.

NOTE: The President spoke at 2:22 p.m. in theEast Room at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to Korean war veteran andprisoner of war Mike Dowe, who wrote the ini-tial recommendation for Capt. Kapaun to re-ceive the Medal of Honor; Sfc. Herbert A.Miller, USA; and Ray Kapaun, nephew ofCapt. Kapaun. The transcript released by theOffice of the Press Secretary also included thereading of the citation and the prayer said byMaj. Gen. Rutherford.

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Remarks Following a Meeting With Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of theUnited NationsApril 11, 2013

President Obama. Well, it is wonderful tohave the opportunity to welcome my goodfriend, Secretary-General of the United Na-tions Ban Ki-moon, to the Oval Office. He andI consult quite frequently and in various multi-lateral settings, but this has been a useful op-portunity for us to talk more specifically abouthow the United States and the United Nationscan work together.

Let me first of all say that I think I speak forworld leaders in a wide variety of countrieswhen I say that the Secretary-General hasshown outstanding leadership during what hasbeen one of the most challenging and turbu-lent times in international affairs. I think he’sfairminded. I think he has shown a willingnessto tackle tough issues and to speak hard truths,and I very much appreciate personally thework that he’s done.

Sometimes, people ask why the UnitedStates is so devoted to the United Nations, andobviously, beyond the fact that we helped setup the United Nations, what was true 60, 70years ago is still true today. And that is thatwithout a forum for discussion, negotiation,and diplomacy, the world is a worse place, andit is very much in the United States interests toensure that international norms, rules of theroad, and humanitarian norms are observed.And the United Nations gives us a critical op-portunity to try to prevent conflict, createpeace, maintain stability—all of which ulti-mately is good for America’s security andAmerica’s prosperity.

We discussed a wide range of issues duringthis meeting. We started with Syria, where ob-viously the humanitarian crisis has gottenworse. And Secretary-General Ban and Ishared the view that we are at a critical junc-ture, that it is important for us to bring aboutan effective political transition that would re-spect the rights of all Syrians, and that in theinterim, it’s important for us to try to eliminatesome of the carnage that’s been taking placedirected at civilians and noncombatants.

And so we’ll be strategizing about how theUnited Nations—or the United States, whichis the largest donor to the humanitarian assis-tance in Syria and is also a strong supporter ofthe more moderate elements of the Syrian op-position, can work together with the UnitedNations to bring about if not a full resolution tothe crisis, at least an improvement for the peo-ple of Syria and lay the foundation for a kind ofpolitical transition that is necessary.

We had an opportunity to discuss North Ko-rea, where the Secretary-General obviously hasan important political interest, but also a per-sonal interest as a native of the Republic of Ko-rea. And we both agree that now is the time forNorth Korea to end the kind of belligerent ap-proach that they’ve been taking and to try tolower temperatures. Nobody wants to see aconflict on the Korean Peninsula. But it’s im-portant for North Korea, like every other coun-try in the world, to observe the basic rules andnorms that are set forth, including a wide vari-ety of U.N. resolutions that have passed. Andwe will continue to try to work to resolve someof those issues diplomatically, even as I indicat-ed to the Secretary-General that the UnitedStates will take all necessary steps to protect itspeople and to meet our obligations under ouralliances in the region.

We talked about Middle East peace, wherethere is at least a window of opportunity forboth Israelis and Palestinians to get back to thepeace table. And we explored how the UnitedStates, as a strong friend of Israel and a sup-porter of a Palestinian state, can work with theUnited Nations and other multilateral bodiesto try to move that process forward.

And we also had an opportunity to talk morebroadly about an issue that affects every coun-try, and that is climate change. And I appreci-ate very much the Secretary-General’s leader-ship on that front.

The last point I’d make is that the Secretary-General has actually shown significant progressin U.N. reform, making the institution more

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efficient, more effective. I think the Secretary-General would be the first to acknowledge thatthere is more work to do on that front, but he ismaking an earnest effort in making progress.And we very much appreciate that and encour-age that to continue, because we think we needa strong, healthy United Nations, but at a timewhen all the member countries are under se-vere fiscal constraints, we want to make sureobviously that the United Nations is operatingas efficiently as possible.

So, overall, I found it to be a very usefulconversation, and I want to thank, once again,the Secretary-General for his leadership. TheSecretary-General has been quoted as sayingthat there is no opt-out clause to the great chal-lenges that we face around the world, and I as-sured him that the United States of America,as the largest economy and the most powerfulmilitary in the world, has no intention of optingout any time soon.

We have a deep interest in making sure thatthe United Nations and the various interna-tional institutions that we have are functioningeffectively, because when they do, the UnitedStates does well and all its partner countries dowell. And so I’m looking forward to continuingto support his efforts in any way that I can.

Thank you very much.Secretary-General Ban. Thank you, thank

you very much, Mr. President. I really appreci-ate President Obama for inviting me to theOval Office, and I really appreciate your globalleadership to make this world more peaceful,more prosperous, and where all human rightsare protected and respected.

The United Nations and the United Statesshare common goals in peace and security, hu-man rights, and development. In that regard, Ireally appreciate such a strong leadership andcooperation and support of the U.S. Govern-ment and President Obama. You and theAmerican people care about the world of jus-tice, freedom, and opportunity for all. I amvery confident that the partnership betweenthe United Nations and the United States isnow making very solid foundation and strongand stronger, and I count on your continuingsupport on that.

As President Obama has just explained indetailed manner, I do not have much to add toall the subjects, but if I may just say a fewwords from my own perspective as the Secre-tary-General. On Syria, this is the most trou-bling situation, where all the leaders of theworld should really take much more strength-ened leadership on. I have asked PresidentObama to demonstrate and exercise his stron-ger leadership in working together with the keypartners of the Security Council.

As the Secretary-General, I have been work-ing very closely with Joint Special Representa-tive, Lakhdar Brahimi, and I will continue todo that. Unfortunately, this crisis, having en-tered a third year, in the absence of a politicalsolution, we have seen well over 70,000 peoplebe killed and more than 50 percent of schools,hospitals, and all infrastructures have been de-stroyed. More than 6 million people have beeninternally displaced, and we have 1.3 millionrefugees around the neighboring countries ofSyria. This continuing military struggle as wellas intensifying this sectarian war make us reallyworried that unless we stop this violence, thiswhole Syrian society may be destroyed. Wehave been mobilizing all possible humanitarianassistance, and I really appreciate PresidentObama and his Government’s very generoussupport on this humanitarian assistance.

On chemical weapons investigation, it’s re-grettable that the Syrian Government has re-jected my offer to engage in an investigation.This is my authority in accordance with theGeneral Assembly and Security Council reso-lutions. I sincerely hope that the Syrian Gov-ernment will allow so that this investigationteam will be able to conduct investigation, asrequested by them. And I have received re-quests from other member states. That’s why Ihave already assembled very experienced ex-perts as a team. They are now ready. They canbe deployed any time soon. So this is my origi-nal plan.

On the situation in and around the KoreanPeninsula, I am deeply concerned, and weshare such a grave concern together on thesecontinuing tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Iurge the D.P.R.K. authorities to refrain from

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making any further provocative—[inaudible]—and rhetoric. This is not helpful. And I reallyhighly commended President Obama’s firm,principled, but measured response in closeconsultation with the Republic of Korea Gov-ernment and with strong engagement withneighboring countries like China.

We hope that more of the countries, includ-ing China, who may have influence over NorthKorea, can exercise their leadership and influ-ence so that this situation will be resolvedpeacefully. First and foremost, tension levelsmust come down. North Korea should not con-front the international community as they arenow doing. I hope that concerned parties, in-cluding the United States, China, the Republicof Korea, and Russia, and Japan will continueto work together on this matter.

On Middle East, I really appreciate Presi-dent Obama’s initiative to visit the region. Weneed to do more of our efforts to fully utilize

the generated momentum by PresidentObama’s visit so that a two-state solution canbe successfully implemented as soon as possi-ble.

On climate change, I intend to work veryclosely with the member states so that the le-gally binding global treaty can be achieved bythe end of 2015. And for that possible—to fa-cilitate this process, I intend to convene a lead-ers meeting sometime next year. I have invitedPresident Obama. I invited him to play a veryimportant leadership role for humanity.

As far as the United Nations reform is con-cerned, we will continue to make this organiza-tion more effective, efficient, accountable, andmore trustworthy. I thank you for your leader-ship.

NOTE: The President spoke at 3:47 p.m. in theOval Office at the White House.

Remarks on Presenting the Commander in Chief’s Trophy to the UnitedStates Naval Academy MidshipmenApril 12, 2013

The President. Hello, everybody. Hello.Please, everybody have a seat. Well, good af-ternoon. Welcome to the White House.

I want to start by recognizing Coach KenNiumatalolo, my fellow Hawaiian, for beinghere once again. Where is he? There he is righthere. [Laughter] Hard to miss him. Give him abig round of applause. I also want to recognizeVice Admiral Mike Miller, the Superintendentof the Naval Academy, for his outstanding ser-vice to our country and for keeping all of youguys in line. [Laughter]

Now, it is my pleasure to welcome the NavyMidshipmen back to the White House to re-ceive the Commander in Chief’s Trophy again.They have now won 19 of their last 21 gamesagainst the other service academies, makingthis their eighth trip here in 10 years. And soMichelle and I were thinking about just leavingthe key under the rug. [Laughter]

This season, you finished 8 and 5, earnedyour ninth bowl appearance in the last 10

years. But perhaps most importantly, after a 2-year break, you achieved that very first goalyou set at the start of every season: You beatAir Force, you beat Army, and lugged this 170-pound trophy back to Annapolis.

Against Air Force, you lost your quarterbackto an injury in the middle of the game. Youtrailed by eight points in the fourth quarter.But freshman quarterback Keenan Reynoldstook over and led you back in overtime. That’swhen an unlikely hero, offensive lineman JakeZuzek, gave you a——

Team members. Zu!The President. Zu!——gave you a 28–21 win when he recov-

ered a fumbled snap in the end zone for hisfirst-ever touchdown. [Laughter] I’m not sureCoach called the fumblerooski, but I bet thatJake will take it anyway.

That set up a winner-take-all game with Ar-my to end the season. Down three entering thefourth quarter, Keenan again led the come-

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back, driving the team down the field for 80yards and the winning score, and showing whyhe was only the third Navy freshman ever tostart at quarterback. The win gave the Mid-shipmen their 11th straight victory over Army,which is a series record.

But at Navy, obviously, it’s not just about thewins. It’s about how you win. This year, yourteam motto was INAM, which is short for “It’sNot About Me.” And that ethic of teamworkand discipline and unselfishness was led byyour captains, Bo Snelson and Brye French,and it ran through your entire season.

All season long you kept your priorities inline, your mission in focus. Your work in theclassroom helped keep the Naval Academy’sgraduation rate in the top 10 of the NCAA forthe eighth straight year, including linebackerKeegan Wetzel, a first-team Academic All-American with a 3.89 GPA in system engineer-ing. So give Keegan a big round of applause. Ilike that.

And when you faced adversity, you pulledtogether. Over Thanksgiving break, freshmanRafi Montalvo was in a serious car accident,and doctors pulled him into a coma. And eventhough the Army game was next on the sched-ule, Coach was one of his first visitors at thehospital down in Florida. And then prettysoon, his teammates started showing up. Whenit came time to take the field against your big-gest rival, you all put “Rafi” stickers on yourhelmets and gave him the game ball after yourvictory.

So, gentlemen, that’s why I have no greaterhonor than serving as your Commander inChief. You’re there for each other, and you arethere for our country. In just a few weeks whenI visit you all for commencement—and I al-ways have to get ready, because Midshipmen,they’ve got strong handshakes, some of themgive me chest bumps, I’ve got to just make sure

I don’t tip over—18 of you will be commis-sioned as ensigns in the Navy and 10 more assecond lieutenants in the Marine Corps.

And in the years to come, you will all followtheir footsteps. You’ll be leading your peers insome of the most complex, dangerous missionson the planet. You’ll be teaching them to pulltogether, to keep their mission in focus, to al-ways remember that “It’s Not About Me.” Andtogether, your victories will not simply beabout football trophies—as impressive as thattrophy is—but it will be about our security andour values and protecting our freedom.

So I want you to know that I could not beprouder to have each of you representing thisgreat country of ours. Americans all across thecountry feel the very same way. And every sin-gle day, we will stand behind you and supportyou and do the very best that we can in ourown lives to reflect the courage and the honorand the character of the men and women ofthe United States Naval Academy. So Godbless you.

And with that, let’s—I understand I’ve got alittle something waiting for me. All right, that’sthe official Navy helmet, fitted for me. [Laugh-ter] Pretty sharp.

Audience member. Put it on.The President. All right. [Laughter] Here’s a

general rule: You don’t put stuff on your headif you’re President. [Laughter] So yes, that’sPolitics 101. [Laughter] You never look goodwearing something on your head. Are we goingto—we’re going to have the coach up here.Come on.

Coach, great to see you again.

NOTE: The President spoke at 2:12 p.m. in theEast Room at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to Trey Miller and Ralph“Rafi” Motalvo, quarterbacks, U.S. NavalAcademy football team.

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Statement on the Resignation of M. John Berry as Director of the Office ofPersonnel ManagementApril 12, 2013

John Berry has served the American peoplewell as Director of the Office of PersonnelManagement. He’s streamlined the way Fed-eral employees are hired, modernized theworkplace, made the Federal workforce morediverse, and increased the number of returningservicemembers hired by the Government.

John has been a champion for Federal work-ers: men and women who devote their lives tovital tasks like securing our borders, curing dis-ease, and keeping the American people safe.This country is better off because of John’s tal-ent and dedication, and I’m grateful to him forhis service.

Remarks Honoring the 2012 NCAA Football Champion University ofAlabama Crimson TideApril 15, 2013

The President. Roll Tide! Audience members. Roll Tide!The President. Everybody, have a seat. Have

a seat here. It is a great pleasure to welcomethe Alabama Crimson Tide to the WhiteHouse again. I want to congratulate them onwinning their 15th national championship andtheir third in 4 years. They are starting to learntheir way around the White House. [Laughter]I was thinking about just having some cots forthem here, they’re here so often, except wecouldn’t find any that were big enough.[Laughter]

Now, before I begin, I want to extend sym-pathies to the family of Mal Moore, whopassed away last month, after a career thatspanned six decades as a player, a coach, andathletic director at Alabama. Mal did morethan just about anybody to make this programwhat it is today. Our prayers go out to all themembers of the Alabama community whoknew him and loved him.

Now, last year obviously also had a lot ofbright spots for the Crimson Tide. From thebeginning of spring practice, the best teams inthe country had one goal, and that was to try toat least be as good, if not better, than Alabama.But the Tide kept on rising to the occasion,and they never let up.

Back in January, with the whole countrywatching, this team lined up against the num-ber-one ranked, undefeated Fighting Irish of

Notre Dame and dominated from the first pos-session. At halftime it was 28 to 0. That’s whenI stopped watching. [Laughter] When theclock ran out, it was 42 to 14. And they left nodoubt who was the best team in the country.And after the game, the Notre Dame athleticdirector said: “They’re not just better than us.They’re better than everyone.”

And that was no accident. A few days afterwinning the title last year, Coach Saban was al-ready back to work. And even after losing somepretty big names in the draft last year, he andhis terrific coaching team made sure that theydid not lose a step.

A.J. McCarron showed the kind of poise thatvery few 22-year-olds possess, passing for morethan 2,900 yards and 30 touchdowns on theseason. I hear he’s coming back for 1 moreyear, because apparently the rest of the SECdefenses haven’t suffered enough. [Laughter]So he’s going to subject them to a little morepain.

Then there were the seniors, who finishedtheir 4 years with a combined record of 49 and5, which I think is pretty good. Barrett Jonesended his career as one of the most decoratedfootball players in Alabama history, even play-ing in the national championship game withtorn ligaments in his foot. After the game, hesaid, “It was painful, but you couldn’t havepulled me off the field with a tractor.” And I

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don’t think he was joking. I think that’s true.[Laughter]

This title also belongs to everyone whohelped these young men get to where they aretoday: family and friends, high school coachesand loved ones, trainers, staff, grocers. [Laugh-ter] These guys eat a lot. It belongs to everystudent who came to every game, all the fanswho yelled “Roll Tide” at kickoff and cheeredon the Million Dollar Band.

In Miami, on the night the Tide won thechampionship, one Notre Dame fan apparent-ly asked if “Roll Tide” is a noun or a verb, towhich another fan dressed head to toe in crim-son replied, “It’s a way of life.” [Laughter]

And that way of life has created legends likeBear Bryant and Joe Namath. It’s also a legacycarried on by this team and generations of fanswho will fill Bryant-Denny Stadium to the raf-ters on Saturday afternoons.

So, obviously, everybody here has a lot to beproud of. I want to congratulate Alabama onemore time on a great season. I want to wish theplayers luck who will be taking part in the NFLdraft next year. And since I’ll be around for 4more football seasons, I expect I just might seethese guys again before I leave.

So roll Tide! Thank you.Coach.Head Coach Nicholas L. Saban. Mr. Presi-

dent, we certainly appreciate what you do for

our country. It’s certainly special for you totake the time to honor out team, which we’revery proud of their accomplishments relativeto all of our fans, all of our supporters, all ofour coaches and players. And this is really aspecial occasion and something you never real-ly get used to. So we really appreciate it.

And we do have something that we want topresent you with today.

[At this point, the President was presented witha jersey.]

Coach Saban. And I might say, we’re kind ofkeeping inventory of what we’ve been givingyou, and now you have a full uniform. You’rean official member of the team. [Laughter]And I will have a meeting later with you to de-cide how much playing time you’re going toget. [Laughter]

The President. I think we should keep me onthe bench. [Laughter]

NOTE: The President spoke at 2:04 p.m. on theSouth Portico at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to John B. Swarbrick, Jr.,vice president and director of athletics, Uni-versity of Notre Dame; and Raymond Anthony“A.J.” McCarron, Jr., quarterback, and BarrettJones, offensive lineman, University of Ala-bama football team.

Remarks on the Terrorist Attack in Boston, MassachusettsApril 15, 2013

Good afternoon, everybody. Earlier today Iwas briefed by my homeland security team onthe events in Boston. We’re continuing tomonitor and respond to the situation as it un-folds. And I’ve directed the full resources ofthe Federal Government to help State and lo-cal authorities protect our people, increase se-curity around the United States as necessary,and investigate what happened.

The American people will say a prayer forBoston tonight, and Michelle and I send ourdeepest thoughts and prayers to the families ofthe victims in the wake of this senseless loss.

We don’t yet have all the answers. But we doknow that multiple people have been wound-ed, some gravely, in explosions at the BostonMarathon.

I’ve spoken to FBI Director Mueller andSecretary of Homeland Security Napolitano,and they’re mobilizing the appropriate re-sources to investigate and to respond.

I’ve updated leaders of Congress in bothparties, and we reaffirmed that on days likethis, there are no Republicans or Democrats;we are Americans, united in concern for ourfellow citizens.

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I’ve also spoken with Governor Patrick andMayor Menino and made it clear that theyhave every single Federal resource necessaryto care for the victims and counsel the families.And above all, I made clear to them that allAmericans stand with the people of Boston.

Boston police, firefighters, and first re-sponders, as well as the National Guard, re-sponded heroically and continue to do so as wespeak. It’s a reminder that so many Americansserve and sacrifice on our behalf every singleday, without regard to their own safety, in dan-gerous and difficult circumstances. And we sa-lute all those who assisted in responding soquickly and professionally to this tragedy.

We still do not know who did this or why.And people shouldn’t jump to conclusions be-fore we have all the facts. But make no mis-take, we will get to the bottom of this. And wewill find out who did this; we’ll find out whythey did this. Any responsible individuals, anyresponsible groups will feel the full weight ofjustice.

Today is a holiday in Massachusetts, Patri-ots’ Day. It’s a day that celebrates the free andfiercely independent spirit that this greatAmerican city of Boston has reflected from theearliest days of our Nation. And it’s a day thatdraws the world to Boston’s streets in a spirit offriendly competition. Boston is a tough and re-silient town. So are its people. I’m supremelyconfident that Bostonians will pull together,take care of each other, and move forward asone proud city. And as they do, the Americanpeople will be with them every single step ofthe way.

You should anticipate that as we get moreinformation, our teams will provide you brief-ings. We’re still in the investigation stage atthis point. But I just want to reiterate, we willfind out who did this, and we will hold themaccountable.


NOTE: The President spoke at 6:11 p.m. in theJames S. Brady Press Briefing Room at theWhite House.

Remarks on the Terrorist Attack in Boston, MassachusettsApril 16, 2013

Good morning, everybody. I’ve just beenbriefed by my national security team, includingFBI Director Mueller, Attorney GeneralHolder, Secretary Napolitano, and my Coun-terterrorism and Homeland Security AdviserLisa Monaco, on the attacks in Boston. Wecontinue to mobilize and deploy all appropri-ate law enforcement resources to protect ourcitizens and to investigate and to respond tothis attack.

Obviously, our first thoughts this morningare with the victims, their families, and the cityof Boston. We know that two explosions grave-ly wounded dozens of Americans and took thelives of others, including a 8-year-old boy.

This was a heinous and cowardly act. Andgiven what we now know about what tookplace, the FBI is investigating it as an act ofterrorism. Any time bombs are used to targetinnocent civilians, it is an act of terror. Whatwe don’t yet know, however, is who carried out

this attack, or why, whether it was planned andexecuted by a terrorist organization, foreign ordomestic, or was the act of a malevolent indi-vidual. That’s what we don’t yet know. Andclearly, we’re at the beginning of our investiga-tion.

It will take time to follow every lead and de-termine what happened. But we will find out.We will find whoever harmed our citizens, andwe will bring them to justice.

We also know this: The American people re-fuse to be terrorized. Because what the worldsaw yesterday in the aftermath of the explo-sions were stories of heroism and kindness andgenerosity and love: exhausted runners whokept running to the nearest hospital to giveblood and those who stayed to tend to thewounded, some tearing off their own clothes tomake tourniquets; the first responders who raninto the chaos to save lives; the men and wom-en who are still treating the wounded at some

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of the best hospitals in the world and the med-ical students who hurried to help, saying,“When we heard, we all came in”; the priestswho opened their churches and ministered tothe hurt and the fearful; and the good peopleof Boston who opened their homes to the vic-tims of this attack and those shaken by it.

So if you want to know who we are, whatAmerica is, how we respond to evil, that’s it:selflessly, compassionately unafraid.

In the coming days, we will pursue every ef-fort to get to the bottom of what happened.And we will continue to remain vigilant. I’vedirected my administration to take appropriatesecurity measures to protect the Americanpeople. And this is a good time for all of us toremember that we all have a part to play inalerting authorities: If you see something sus-picious, speak up.

I have extraordinary confidence in the menand women of the FBI, the Boston Police De-partment, and the other agencies that respond-ed so heroically and effectively in the after-math of yesterday’s events. I’m very gratefulfor the leadership of Governor Patrick andMayor Menino. And I know that even as weprotect our people and aggressively pursue thisinvestigation, the people of Boston will contin-

ue to respond in the same proud and heroicway that they have thus far, and their fellowAmericans will be right there with them.

Thank you very much. And you can expectfurther briefings from our law enforcement of-ficials as the day goes on. When we have moredetails, they will be disclosed. What I’ve indi-cated to you is what we know now. We know itwas bombs that were set off. We know that ob-viously they did some severe damage. We donot know who did them. We do not knowwhether this was an act of an organization or anindividual or individuals. We don’t have asense of motive yet. So everything else at thispoint is speculation. But as we receive more in-formation, as the FBI has more information, asour counterterrorism teams have more infor-mation, we will make sure to keep you and theAmerican people posted. All right?


NOTE: The President spoke at 11:30 a.m. inthe James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at theWhite House. In his remarks, he referred toDorchester, MA, resident Martin Richard,who was killed in the attack. The related proc-lamation is listed in Appendix D at the end ofthis volume.

Statement on Israeli Independence DayApril 16, 2013

On the 65th anniversary of the founding ofthe State of Israel, I join my fellow Americansin wishing the Israeli people a joyous Indepen-dence Day. On this date 65 years ago, the Jew-ish people realized their dream of the ages: tobe masters of their fate in their own sovereignstate. From that moment on, a free and inde-pendent Israel has had no greater friend andally than the United States. As I said during myvisit to Israel last month, our two nations standtogether because it makes our countries safer,stronger, and more prosperous, and it makesthe world a better place.

Among the many memories I will alwayscherish from my visit will be my time at MountHerzl. There, I was honored to pay tribute toTheodor Herzl, who did so much to realize thedream of an independent Israel, to the Presi-dents and Prime Ministers who guided her,and to those in uniform who have laid downtheir lives to protect her. The strong and pros-perous Israel we see today proves Herzl’s vi-sion: “If you will it, it is no dream.” On this an-niversary, we reaffirm the unbreakable alliancebetween our two nations and our shared deter-mination to realize the dreams of our people tolive in security and peace.

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Statement on Immigration ReformApril 16, 2013

This afternoon Senators Schumer and Mc-Cain briefed me on the bipartisan immigrationreform bill that they have drafted with theircolleagues in the Senate. This bill is clearly acompromise, and no one will get everythingthey wanted, including me. But it is largelyconsistent with the principles that I have re-peatedly laid out for comprehensive reform.This bill would continue to strengthen securityat our borders and hold employers more ac-countable if they knowingly hire undocument-ed workers. It would provide a pathway toearned citizenship for the 11 million individu-

als who are already in this country illegally.And it would modernize our legal immigrationsystem so that we’re able to reunite familiesand attract the highly skilled entrepreneursand engineers who will help create good pay-ing jobs and grow our economy. These are allcommonsense steps that the majority of Amer-icans support. I urge the Senate to quicklymove this bill forward, and as I told SenatorsSchumer and McCain, I stand willing to dowhatever it takes to make sure that compre-hensive immigration reform becomes a realityas soon as possible.

Joint Statement by President Obama and Crown Prince Mohammed binZayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, Deputy Supreme Commander of theArmed Forces of the United Arab EmiratesApril 16, 2013

In their meeting today at the White House,President Obama and the UAE’s CrownPrince of Abu Dhabi Mohammed bin Zayed AlNahyan reaffirmed their commitment to thestrong partnership and friendship betweentheir two countries.

The Crown Prince expressed his condolenc-es for those who were affected by yesterday’sattack in Boston.

The two leaders highlighted the expandingties between the United States and the UAE,reflecting common strategic interests. TheCrown Prince thanked President Obama for theUnited States’ leadership in the region, includ-ing the President’s efforts to advance peace, se-curity, and opportunity in the Middle East.

The President and Crown Prince pledged tosustain the expanding economic ties betweenthe United States and the UAE, noting that theUAE remains the United States’ largest exportmarket in the Middle East and a significant in-vestor in the United States. The Presidentcommended the UAE for hosting the success-ful Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Dubailast December, and both leaders highlightedthe importance of fostering broad-based eco-

nomic opportunity in the region, particularlyfor young people. They also discussed the rela-tionships the UAE is building with leadingU.S. institutions, including in education, healthcare, and the arts.

The President and Crown Prince also reaf-firmed their shared commitment to close de-fense and security cooperation, including jointtraining exercises, counterterrorism coopera-tion and the deployment of interoperable U.S.defense systems. The President expressed ap-preciation for the UAE’s contributions toNATO missions in Afghanistan and Libya. ThePresident and the Crown Prince also discusseda range of regional challenges, including theneed for Iran to meet its international obliga-tions with respect to its nuclear program, theongoing conflict in Syria, and countering thethreat of violent extremism.

The President and Crown Prince pledged tocontinue to deepen the U.S.-UAE partnershipthrough close and regular consultations be-tween the two countries.


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Remarks at the Wounded Warrior Project Soldier Ride Opening CeremonyApril 17, 2013

The President. Thank you, everybody. Thankyou. Well, welcome to the White House. Thankyou, Ric, for your introduction and for yourleadership at the VA. And I want to thank all ofyou for coming out today.

This is actually good, a little overcast, tokeep you guys not too hot. This is one of my fa-vorite events of the year.

Audience member. I love you, Mr. Presi-dent!

The President. I love you back. [Laughter]We obviously meet at a time when our

thoughts and prayers are with the people ofBoston. Our hearts are with the families of thevictims. And now we send our support and en-couragement to people who never expectedthat they’d need it: the wounded civilians whoare just beginning what will be, I’m sure forsome of them, a long road to recovery.

It’s a road that the remarkable warriors andathletes here know all too well. And as a conse-quence, they’re going to serve for all of thefamilies as well as all Americans a continuedinspiration.

We do this every spring, and as all of youknow, it started in a bar, where a lot of goodideas start. [Laughter]

Did you say “woo”?Chris Carney and some of his buddies, who

are here today, were talking about what theycould do to support our wounded warriors, andChris came up with the idea of biking coast-to-coast to raise money and awareness.

Now, even he has admitted in hindsight, “Itmay have been the beer muscles talking.” Buthe followed through, and he started in Long Is-land, he ended in San Diego. Along the way,he inspired people all across the country. Andsince then, more than a thousand woundedwarriors have joined soldier rides across Amer-ica. This is the fourth time I’ve had the chanceto welcome these rides here at the WhiteHouse. And as always, we’ve got Army. We’vegot Navy. We’ve got Air Force. And we’ve gotsome marines in the house.

Together, with your outstanding families,you represent what’s best in America. Whenwe needed patriots to defend our freedom, youhave answered the call. You’ve risked every-thing for our country and for each other. Andyou’ve made sacrifices most of us can barelyimagine.

So thanks to your courage and your resolve,we’ve been able to end one war; we’re begin-ning to wind down another. But for all of you,as is true for all of our wounded warriors, com-ing home doesn’t mean that the fight is over.In some ways, it’s just begun.

You think about folks like Sergeant SeanKarpf. I first met Sean last June at WalterReed; he had just lost his left leg to an IED inAfghanistan, he knew that there was a longroad ahead of him. But today Sean is here, he’sready to ride. He’s trained to compete in swim-ming and track at the Wounded WarriorGames. He’s lined up an internship in thephysical therapy section at Walter Reed, wherehe’s going to help fellow wounded warriorsmake the same journey that he did.

Then there’s Staff Sergeant Erick Millette.During two tours in Iraq, Erick survived 17IED attacks. They left him with the kinds ofinjuries that you can’t always see: head trauma,brain injury, PTSD. Erick’s military career wascut short, but he’s taken on a new mission, andthat’s sharing his story with audiences acrossthe country.

So he spread the message that it’s okay totalk about these unseen wounds of war. It’sokay to seek out help and to seek out support.Erick says that the Wounded Warrior Projectliterally saved his life, and now through hiswork, he’s helping save even more lives. So,Erick, thank you so much. And obviously, toSean and everybody who is participating, wecould not be prouder of you.

I also want to thank folks like Captain MaryMcGriff, First Lieutenant Jason Church for re-turning for another soldier ride as peer men-tors for first-time riders. That’s a big part ofwhat the soldier rides are about: not just what

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you can do for yourself, but what you can do asa team. As one rider put it: “It’s just like in themilitary. You ride for the warrior next to you.”

So 9 years ago, Chris Carney told a reporterthat the most daunting part of that first ridewas being alone. He said he had only playedteam sports in the past, that he wasn’t used to asolo effort. But what Chris and others discov-ered is that when it comes to supporting ourreturning heroes, there’s no such thing as go-ing it alone. We do this as a team. We get eachother’s backs.

Those who have served under our proudflag never lose that sense of service to one an-other or to country, and we saw that on Mon-day. When that first explosion went off, Na-tional Guardsmen, servicemembers, veteransin the area all did what warriors do: They raninto harm’s way to protect their fellow Ameri-cans. They applied tourniquets. They went tohospitals; they donated blood. Doctors usedexperience they acquired in part overseas tohelp save lives here at home.

That’s the strong stuff that our warriors aremade out of, and that’s why we’re so proud andso grateful to the men and women and veter-ans of our armed forces. And that’s why, asCommander in Chief, I’ll keep doing every-thing in my power to make sure we serve youas well as you’ve served us. And that meansmaking sure you get the care and the benefitsyou need. It means making sure you don’t haveto fight for a job when you get home. It meansrecognizing our military families and givingthem the support that they deserve. And rightnow it means saying a big thank you to all ofour riders.

So I’m asking every American out there andeveryone who is along the route to get out and

show their support, wave a flag. Cheer forthese outstanding men and women.

Good luck over the next 3 days. Have funout there. And know that you’ve got a countryand a Commander in Chief who appreciatesyou, who’s proud of you and who will alwayshave your back.

So thank you. God bless you. God blessAmerica. And let’s get this thing going. You cansee that they’re ready to go.

[At this point, the President was given an airhorn by a member of his staff.]

The President. And this is my favorite part,using this little horn here. Are you ready?

Audience member. Oh, yeah.The President. You guys, everybody ready

here?Audience members. Yes!The President. All right. So you guys all

ready?Audience member. Ready.The President. You sure?Audience member. Positive!The President. All right I just want to make

sure. All right. So I’m going to say “on yourmark, get set,” and then I’m going to blow thehorn. All right? On your mark. Get set.

[The President blew the horn, and the ride be-gan.]

NOTE: The President spoke at 3:54 p.m. on theSouth Lawn at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to Secretary of Veterans Af-fairs Eric K. Shinseki; and Chris Carney,founder, Wounded Warrior Project SoldierRide.

Remarks on Senate Action on Gun Control LegislationApril 17, 2013

A few months ago, in response to toomany tragedies, including the shootings of aUnited States Congresswoman, Gabby Gif-fords, who’s here today, and the murder of20 innocent schoolchildren and their teach-ers, this country took up the cause of pro-

tecting more of our people from gun vio-lence.

Families that know unspeakable grief sum-moned the courage to petition their electedleaders, not just to honor the memory of theirchildren, but to protect the lives of all of our

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children. A few minutes ago, a minority in theUnited States Senate decided it wasn’t worthit. They blocked commonsense gun reformseven while these families looked on from theSenate gallery.

By now, it’s well known that 90-percent ofthe American people support universal back-ground checks that make it harder for a dan-gerous person to buy a gun. We’re talkingabout convicted felons, people convicted of do-mestic violence, people with a severe mentalillness. Ninety percent of Americans supportthat idea. Most Americans think that’s alreadythe law.

And a few minutes ago, 90 percent of Dem-ocrats in the Senate voted for that idea. But it’snot going to happen, because 90 percent ofRepublicans in the Senate just voted againstthat idea. A majority of Senators voted yes toprotecting more of our citizens with smarterbackground checks. But by this continuing dis-tortion of Senate rules, a minority was able toblock it from moving forward.

Now, I’m going to speak plainly and honest-ly about what’s happened here, because theAmerican people are trying to figure out: Howcan something have 90 percent support and yetnot happen? We had a Democrat and a Repub-lican—both gun owners, both fierce defendersof our Second Amendment, with A gradesfrom the NRA—come together and work to-gether to write a commonsense compromiseon background checks. And I want to thank JoeManchin and Pat Toomey for their courage indoing that. That was not easy given their tradi-tional strong support for Second Amendmentrights.

As they said, nobody could honestly claimthat the package they put together infringed onour Second Amendment rights. All it did wasextend the same background check rules thatalready apply to guns purchased from a dealerto guns purchased at gun shows or over the In-ternet. So 60 percent of guns are already pur-chased through a background check system;this would have covered a lot of the guns thatare currently outside that system.

Their legislation showed respect for gunowners, and it showed respect for the victims

of gun violence. And Gabby Giffords, by theway, is both; she’s a gun owner and a victim ofgun violence. She is a westerner and a moder-ate. And she supports these backgroundchecks.

In fact, even the NRA used to support ex-panded background checks. The current lead-er of the NRA used to support these back-ground checks. So while this compromisedidn’t contain everything I wanted or every-thing that these families wanted, it did repre-sent progress. It represented moderation andcommon sense. That’s why 90 percent of theAmerican people supported it.

But instead of supporting this compromise,the gun lobby and its allies willfully lied aboutthe bill. They claimed that it would createsome sort of Big Brother gun registry, eventhough the bill did the opposite. This legisla-tion, in fact, outlawed any registry. Plain andsimple, right there in the text. But that didn’tmatter.

And unfortunately, this pattern of spreadinguntruths about this legislation served a pur-pose, because those lies upset an intense mi-nority of gun owners, and that in turn intimi-dated a lot of Senators. And I talked to severalof these Senators over the past few weeks, andthey’re all good people. I know all of themwere shocked by tragedies like Newtown. AndI also understand that they come from Statesthat are strongly pro-gun. And I have consis-tently said that there are regional differenceswhen it comes to guns and that both sides haveto listen to each other.

But the fact is, most of these Senators couldnot offer any good reason why we wouldn’twant to make it harder for criminals and thosewith severe mental illnesses to buy a gun.There were no coherent arguments as to whywe wouldn’t do this. It came down to politics:the worry that that vocal minority of gun own-ers would come after them in future elections.They worried that the gun lobby would spend alot of money and paint them as anti–SecondAmendment.

And obviously, a lot of Republicans had thatfear, but Democrats had that fear too. And so

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they caved to the pressure, and they startedlooking for an excuse—any excuse—to vote no.

One common argument I heard was thatthis legislation wouldn’t prevent all future mas-sacres. And that’s true. As I said from the start,no single piece of legislation can stop every actof violence and evil. We learned that tragicallyjust 2 days ago. But if action by Congress couldhave saved one person, one child, a few hun-dred, a few thousand, if it could have prevent-ed those people from losing their lives to gunviolence in the future while preserving ourSecond Amendment rights, we had an obliga-tion to try. And this legislation met that test.And too many Senators failed theirs.

I’ve heard some say that blocking this stepwould be a victory. And my question is, a victo-ry for who? A victory for what? All that hap-pened today was the preservation of the loop-hole that lets dangerous criminals buy gunswithout a background check. That didn’t makeour kids safer. Victory for not doing somethingthat 90 percent of Americans, 80 percent ofRepublicans, the vast majority of your constitu-ents wanted to get done? It begs the question,who are we here to represent?

I’ve heard folks say that having the familiesof victims lobby for this legislation was some-how misplaced. “A prop,” somebody calledthem. “Emotional blackmail,” some outletssaid. Are they serious? Do we really think thatthousands of families whose lives have beenshattered by gun violence don’t have a right toweigh in on this issue? Do we think their emo-tions, their loss is not relevant to this debate?So, all in all, this was a pretty shameful day forWashington.

But this effort is not over. I want to make itclear to the American people: We can stillbring about meaningful changes that reducegun violence, so long as the American peopledon’t give up on it. Even without Congress, myadministration will keep doing everything itcan to protect more of our communities. We’regoing to address the barriers that preventStates from participating in the existing back-ground check system. We’re going to give lawenforcement more information about lost andstolen guns so it can do its job. We’re going to

help to put in place emergency plans to protectour children in their schools.

But we can do more if Congress gets its acttogether. And if this Congress refuses to listento the American people and pass common-sense gun legislation, then the real impact isgoing to have to come from the voters.

To all the people who supported this legisla-tion—law enforcement and responsible gunowners, Democrats and Republicans, urbanmoms, rural hunters, whoever you are—youneed to let your Representatives in Congressknow that you are disappointed and that if theydon’t act this time, you will remember comeelection time.

To the wide majority of NRA householdswho supported this legislation, you need to letyour leadership and lobbyists in Washingtonknow they didn’t represent your views on thisone.

The point is, those who care deeply aboutpreventing more and more gun violence willhave to be as passionate and as organized andas vocal as those who blocked these common-sense steps to help keep our kids safe. Ulti-mately, you outnumber those who argued theother way. But they’re better organized.They’re better financed. They’ve been at it lon-ger. And they make sure to stay focused on thisone issue during election time. And that’s thereason why you can have something that 90percent of Americans support and you can’tget it through the Senate or the House of Rep-resentatives.

So to change Washington, you, the Ameri-can people, are going to have to sustain somepassion about this. And when necessary, you’vegot to send the right people to Washington.And that requires strength, and it requires per-sistence.

And that’s the one thing that these familiesshould have inspired in all of us. I still don’tknow how they have been able to muster upthe strength to do what they’ve doing over thelast several weeks, last several months.

And I see this as just round one. WhenNewtown happened, I met with these familiesand I spoke to the community, and I said,something must be different right now. We’re

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going to have to change. That’s what the wholecountry said. Everybody talked about how wewere going to change something to make surethis didn’t happen again, just like everybodytalked about how we needed to do somethingafter Aurora. Everybody talked about, weneeded to change something after Tucson.

And I’m assuming that the emotions thatwe’ve all felt since Newtown, the emotions thatwe’ve all felt since Tucson and Aurora and Chi-cago—the pain we share with these familiesand families all across the country who’ve lost aloved one to gun violence—I’m assuming that’snot a temporary thing. I’m assuming our ex-pressions of grief and our commitment to dosomething different—to prevent these thingsfrom happening—are not empty words.

I believe we’re going to be able to get thisdone. Sooner or later, we are going to get thisright. The memories of these children demandit. And so do the American people.


NOTE: The President spoke at 5:35 p.m. in theRose Garden at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to Wayne LaPierre, execu-tive vice president and chief executive officer,National Rifle Association. The transcript re-leased by the Office of the Press Secretary alsoincluded the remarks of Mark Barden, fatherof Daniel Barden, who was killed in the shoot-ings at Sandy Hook Elementary School inNewtown, CT, on December 14, 2012.

Remarks at an Interfaith Prayer Service for the Victims of the TerroristAttack in Boston, MassachusettsApril 18, 2013

Thank you. Please. Hello, Boston.Scripture tells us to “run with endurance the

race that is set before us.” Run with endurancethe race that is set before us.

On Monday morning, the Sun rose overBoston. The sunlight glistened off the State-house dome. In the Common and the PublicGarden, spring was in bloom. On this Patriot’sDay, like so many before, fans jumped onto the“T” to see the Sox at Fenway. In Hopkinton,runners laced up their shoes and set out on a26.2-mile test of dedication and grit and thehuman spirit. And across this city, hundreds ofthousands of Bostonians lined the streets: tohand the runners cups of water and to cheerthem on.

It was a beautiful day to be in Boston, a daythat explains why a poet once wrote that thistown is not just a capital, not just a place. Bos-ton, he said, “is the perfect state of grace.”

And then, in an instant, the day’s beauty wasshattered. A celebration became a tragedy.And so we come together to pray and mournand measure our loss. But we also come to-gether today to reclaim that state of grace: toreaffirm that the spirit of this city is undaunted

and the spirit of this country shall remain un-dimmed.

To Governor Patrick; Mayor Menino; Cardi-nal O’Malley and all the faith leaders who arehere; Governors Romney, Swift, Weld, andDukakis; Members of Congress; and most ofall, the people of Boston and the familieswho’ve lost a piece of your heart: We thank youfor your leadership. We thank you for yourcourage. We thank you for your grace.

I’m here today on behalf of the Americanpeople with a simple message: Every one of ushas been touched by this attack on your be-loved city. Every one of us stands with you.

Because, after all, it’s our beloved city too.Boston may be your hometown, but we claim ittoo. It’s one of America’s iconic cities. It’s oneof the world’s great cities. And one of the rea-sons the world knows Boston so well is thatBoston opens its heart to the world.

Over successive generations, you’ve wel-comed again and again new arrivals to ourshores, immigrants who constantly reinvigorat-ed this city and this Commonwealth and ourNation. Every fall, you welcome students fromall across America and all across the globe, and

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every spring you graduate them back into theworld, a Boston diaspora that excels in everyfield of human endeavor. Year after year, youwelcome the greatest talents in the arts andscience, research; you welcome them to yourconcert halls and your hospitals and your labo-ratories to exchange ideas and insights thatdraw this world together.

And every third Monday in April, you wel-come people from all around the world to the“Hub” for friendship and fellowship andhealthy competition: a gathering of men andwomen of every race and every religion, everyshape and every size; a multitude representedby all those flags that flew over the finish line.

So whether folks come here to Boston forjust a day or they stay here for years, they leavewith a piece of this town tucked firmly intotheir hearts. So Boston is your hometown, butwe claim it a little bit too.

I know this because there’s a piece of Bos-ton in me. You welcomed me as a young lawstudent across the river, welcomed Michelletoo. You welcomed me during a conventionwhen I was still a State senator and very fewpeople could pronounce my name right.[Laughter]

Like you, Michelle and I have walked thesestreets. Like you, we know these neighbor-hoods. And like you, in this moment of grief,we join you in saying, “Boston, you’re myhome.” For millions of us, what happened onMonday is personal. It’s personal.

Today our prayers are with the Campbellfamily of Medford. They’re here today. Theirdaughter Krystle was always smiling. Thosewho knew her said that with her red hair andher freckles and her ever-eager willingness tospeak her mind, she was beautiful, sometimesshe could be a little noisy, and everybody lovedher for it. She would have turned 30 nextmonth. As her mother said through her tears,“This doesn’t make any sense.”

Our prayers are with the Lu family of China,who sent their daughter Lingzi to BU so thatshe could experience all this city has to offer.She was a 23-year-old student, far from home.And in the heartache of her family and friends

on both sides of a great ocean, we’re remindedof the humanity that we all share.

Our prayers are with the Richard family ofDorchester: to Denise and their young daugh-ter Jane as they fight to recover. And ourhearts are broken for 8-year-old Martin, withhis big smile and bright eyes. His last hourswere as perfect as an 8-year-old boy couldhope for: with his family, eating ice cream at asporting event. And we’re left with two endur-ing images of this little boy, forever smiling forhis beloved Bruins and forever expressing awish he made on a blue poster board: “Nomore hurting people. Peace.” No more hurtingpeople. Peace.

Our prayers are with the injured, so manywounded, some gravely. From their beds,some are surely watching us gather here today.And if you are, know this: As you begin thislong journey of recovery, your city is with you.Your Commonwealth is with you. Your countryis with you. We will all be with you as you learnto stand and walk and, yes, run again. Of that Ihave no doubt. You will run again. [Applause]You will run again.

Because that’s what the people of Bostonare made of. Your resolve is the greatest re-buke to whoever committed this heinous act. Ifthey sought to intimidate us, to terrorize us, toshake us from those values that Deval de-scribed, the values that make us who we are, asAmericans, well, it should be pretty clear bynow that they picked the wrong city to do it.Not here in Boston. [Applause] Not here inBoston.

You’ve shown us, Boston, that in the face ofevil, Americans will lift up what’s good. In theface of cruelty, we will choose compassion. Inthe face of those who would visit death uponinnocents, we will choose to save and to com-fort and to heal. We’ll choose friendship. We’llchoose love.

The Scripture teaches us, “God has not giv-en us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power,love, and self-discipline.” And that’s the spirityou’ve displayed in recent days.

When doctors and nurses, police and fire-fighters, and EMTs and guardsmen run to-

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wards explosions to treat the wounded, that’sdiscipline.

When exhausted runners, including ourtroops and veterans, who never expected to seesuch carnage on the streets back home, be-come first responders themselves, tending tothe injured, that’s real power.

When Bostonians carry victims in theirarms, deliver water and blankets, line up togive blood, open their homes to total strangers,give them rides back to reunite with their fam-ilies, that’s love.

That’s the message we send to those whocarried this out and anyone who would doharm to our people. Yes, we will find you. Andyes, you will face justice. We will find you. Wewill hold you accountable. But more than that,our fidelity to our way of life—for a free andopen society—will only grow stronger. ForGod has not given us a spirit of fear and timidi-ty, but one of power and love and self-disci-pline.

Like Bill Iffrig, 78 years old, the runner inthe orange tank top who we all saw getknocked down by the blast, we may be mo-mentarily knocked off our feet, but we’ll pickourselves up. We’ll keep going. We will finishthe race. In the words of Dick Hoyt, who’spushed his disabled son Rick in 31 BostonMarathons, “We can’t let something like thisstop us.” This doesn’t stop us.

And that’s what you’ve taught us, Boston.That’s what you’ve reminded us: to push on, topersevere, to not grow weary, to not get faint.Even when it hurts, even when our heartaches, we summon the strength that maybe wedidn’t even know we had, and we carry on. Wefinish the race. [Applause] We finish the race.

And we do that because of who we are. Andwe do that because we know that somewherearound the bend, a stranger has a cup of water.Around the bend, somebody is there to boostour spirits. On that toughest mile, just whenwe think that we’ve hit a wall, someone will be

there to cheer us on and pick us up if we fall.We know that.

And that’s what the perpetrators of suchsenseless violence—these small, stunted indi-viduals who would destroy instead of build andthink somehow that makes them important—that’s what they don’t understand. Our faith ineach other, our love for each other, our love forcountry, our common creed that cuts acrosswhatever superficial differences there maybe—that is our power. That’s our strength.

That’s why a bomb can’t beat us. That’s whywe don’t hunker down. That’s why we don’tcower in fear. We carry on. We race. We strive.We build, and we work, and we love. And weraise our kids to do the same. And we come to-gether to celebrate life and to walk our cities,and to cheer for our teams. When the Sox andCeltics and Patriots or Bruins are championsagain—to the chagrin of New York and Chica-go fans—[laughter]—the crowds will gatherand watch a parade go down Boylston Street.

And this time next year, on the third Mon-day in April, the world will return to this greatAmerican city to run harder than ever and tocheer even louder, for the 118th Boston Mara-thon. Bet on it.

Tomorrow the Sun will rise over Boston. To-morrow the Sun will rise over this country thatwe love: this special place, this state of grace.

Scripture tells us to “run with endurance therace that is set before us.” As we do, may Godhold close those who’ve been taken from us toosoon. May He comfort their families. And mayHe continue to watch over these United Statesof America.

NOTE: The President spoke at 12:04 p.m. atthe Cathedral of the Holy Cross. In his re-marks, he referred to Krystle M. Campbell,Martin Richard, and Lingzi Lu, who werekilled in the April 15 terrorist attack in Boston,MA; and Denise Richard, mother, and JaneRichard, sister, of Martin Richard. The relatedproclamation of April 16 is listed in AppendixD at the end of this volume.

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Remarks to First Responders and Volunteers in BostonApril 18, 2013

Thank you, everybody. Well, listen, we justhad a wonderful interfaith service, and I wantto thank Governor Patrick for helping to orga-nize that. I want to thank both the Governorand your extraordinary mayor, Tom Menino,for the incredible leadership and cool underpressure, the organization, the mobilization,and the courage that they have shown, reflec-tive of this great city and reflective of this greatCommonwealth of Massachusetts.

Now, I’m not going to speak long. I just—hestarted calling me Reverend Obama, so Iknow—[laughter]—I know I was—I don’twant to go on any longer than I need to. Themain message, in addition to just giving—hav-ing a chance to shake some hands and givesome hugs, is just to say how proud the wholecountry is of you, how grateful we are that inthe face of chaos and to tragedy, all of you dis-played the very best of the American spirit.

You displayed grit. You displayed compas-sion. You displayed civic duty. You displayedcourage. And when we see that kind of spirit,there’s something about that that’s infectious.It makes us all want to be better people. You’veinspired the entire country. You’ve inspired theworld. And for that, you should be profoundlyproud.

But as Deval and I were talking as we weredriving in from the airport, the key is that wehang on to a little bit of that, because it’s right

there under the surface every day. And it ex-presses itself obviously in the Marathon. It ex-presses itself in Patriot’s Day. It expresses itselfin all the small interactions, the gestures ofkindness and generosity and tolerance andcompassion that make up the fabric of ourlives. And we don’t always pay attention to it,and we don’t always celebrate it, and it’s cer-tainly not usually on a television screen; it’s notalways reported on. But that’s who we are.

And if there’s anything that was a theme inthat interfaith service, it’s that out of these ash-es, out of the blood that’s spilled and the inju-ries borne, out of that, we get a chance to seeand highlight and appreciate that spirit. Andwe’ve got to sustain it, because in all of ourlives at some point, there are going to be sometroubles, and there’s evil in the world, andthere’s hardship. But if that spirit is evidentand manifest, and that’s what we’re teachingour kids and that’s what we’re embodying inour own lives, then who can stop us? Who cantouch us?

So thank you, everybody. I’m proud of you.I’m proud of Boston. And I just said, I’m look-ing forward to the 118th Boston Marathon.God bless you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 12:35 p.m. atCathedral High School.

Statement on the Explosion at the West Fertilizer Company Plant in West,TexasApril 18, 2013

Today our prayers go out to the people ofWest, Texas, in the aftermath of last night’sdeadly explosion at a fertilizer plant. A tight-knit community has been shaken, and good,hard-working people have lost their lives. Iwant to thank the first responders who workedtirelessly through the night to contain the situa-tion and treat the wounded. My administration,

through FEMA and other agencies, is in closecontact with our State and local partners on theground to make sure there are no unmet needsas search-and-rescue and response operationscontinue. West is a town that many Texans holdnear and dear to their hearts, and as residentscontinue to respond to this tragedy, they willhave the support of the American people.

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Remarks on the Arrest of Boston Terrorist Attack Suspect DzhokharTsarnaevApril 19, 2013

Good evening, everybody. Tonight our Na-tion is in debt to the people of Boston and thepeople of Massachusetts. After a vicious attackon their city, Bostonians responded with re-solve and determination. They did their part ascitizens and partners in this investigation.

Boston police and State police and local po-lice across the Commonwealth of Massachu-setts responded with professionalism and brav-ery over 5 long days. And tonight, because oftheir determined efforts, we’ve closed an im-portant chapter in this tragedy.

I’ve been briefed earlier this evening by FBIDirector Mueller. After the attacks on Mon-day, I directed the full resources of the FederalGovernment to be made available to help Stateand local authorities in the investigation and toincrease security as needed. And over the pastweek, close coordination among Federal,State, and local officials—sharing information,moving swiftly to track down leads—has beencritical to this effort.

They all worked as they should, as a team.And we are extremely grateful for that. Weowe a tremendous debt of gratitude to all ouroutstanding law enforcement professionals.These men and women get up every day, theyput on that uniform, they risk their lives tokeep us safe, and as this week showed, theydon’t always know what to expect. So ourthoughts are with those who were wounded inpursuit of the suspects, and we pray for theirfull recovery.

We also send our prayers to the Collier fam-ily who grieve the loss of their son and brother,Sean. “He was born to be a police officer,” saidhis chief at MIT. He was just 26 years old. Andas his family has said, he died bravely in theline of duty and doing what he committed hislife to doing: serving and protecting others. Sowe’re grateful to him.

Obviously, tonight there are still many unan-swered questions. Among them, why did youngmen who grew up and studied here, as part ofour communities and our country, resort to

such violence? How did they plan and carryout these attacks? And did they receive anyhelp? The families of those killed so senselesslydeserve answers. The wounded—some ofwhom now have to learn how to stand and walkand live again—deserve answers.

And so I’ve instructed the FBI and the De-partment of Homeland Security and our intel-ligence community to continue to deploy allthe necessary resources to support the investi-gation, to collect intelligence, and to protectour citizens. We will determine what hap-pened. We will investigate any associations thatthese terrorists may have had. And we’ll con-tinue to do whatever we have to do to keep ourpeople safe.

One thing we do know is that whatever hate-ful agenda drove young these men to such hei-nous acts will not—cannot—prevail. Whateverthey thought they could ultimately achieve,they’ve already failed. They failed because thepeople of Boston refuse to be intimidated.They failed because, as Americans, we refuseto be terrorized. They failed because we willnot waver from the character and the compas-sion and the values that define us as a country.Nor will we break the bonds that hold us to-gether as Americans.

That American spirit includes staying true tothe unity and diversity that makes us strong,like no other nation in the world. In this age ofinstant reporting and tweets and blogs, there’sa temptation to latch on to any bit of informa-tion, sometimes to jump to conclusions. Butwhen a tragedy like this happens, with publicsafety at risk and the stakes so high, it’s impor-tant that we do this right. That’s why we haveinvestigations. That’s why we relentlessly gath-er the facts. That’s why we have courts. Andthat’s why we take care not to rush to judg-ment, not about the motivations of these indi-viduals, certainly not about entire groups ofpeople.

After all, one of the things that makes Amer-ica the greatest nation on Earth—but also one

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of the things that makes Boston such a greatcity—is that we welcome people from allaround the world: people of every faith, everyethnicity, from every corner of the globe. So aswe continue to learn more about why and howthis tragedy happened, let’s make sure that wesustain that spirit.

Tonight we think of all the wounded, stillstruggling to recover. Certainly, we think ofKrystle Campbell. We think of Lingzi Lu. Wethink of little Martin Richard. Their lives re-flected all the diversity and beauty of our coun-try, and they were sharing the great Americanexperience together.

Explosion at the West Fertilizer CompanyPlant in West, Texas

Finally, let me say that even as so much at-tention has been focused on the tragic eventsin Boston, understandably, we’ve also seen atight-knit community in Texas devastated by aterrible explosion. And I want them to knowthat they are not forgotten. Our thoughts, ourprayers are with the people of West, Texas,where so many good people lost their lives,some lost their homes, many are injured, manyare still missing.

I’ve talked to Governor Perry and MayorMuska, and I’ve pledged that the people ofWest will have the resources that they need torecover and rebuild. And I want everybody inTexas to know that we will follow through withthose commitments.

All in all, this has been a tough week. Butwe’ve seen the character of our country oncemore. And as President, I’m confident that wehave the courage and the resilience and thespirit to overcome these challenges and to goforward, as one Nation under God, indivisible,with liberty and justice for all.


NOTE: The President spoke at 10:05 p.m. inthe James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at theWhite House. In his remarks, he referred toSean A. Collier, police officer, MassachusettsInstitute of Technology, who was killed onApril 19 in pursuit of the suspected bombers ofthe April 15 terrorist attack in Boston, MA;John DiFava, chief of police, MassachusettsInstitute of Technology; suspected bombersTamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed in a shoot-out with police on April 19, and DzhokharTsarnaev; and Krystle M. Campbell, Lingzi Lu,and Martin Richard, who were killed in the at-tack.


On Monday, an act of terror wounded doz-ens and killed three innocent people at theBoston Marathon. But in the days since, theworld has witnessed one sure and steadfasttruth: Americans refuse to be terrorized.

Ultimately, that’s what we’ll remember fromthis week. That’s what will remain: the storiesof heroism and kindness, resolve and resil-ience, generosity and love. The brave first re-sponders—police officers and firefighters,EMTs, and National Guard—who ran towarddanger to help their fellow citizens. The racevolunteers, spectators, and exhausted runnerswho rushed to help, including troops and vet-erans who never expected to see such sceneson the streets of America.

The determined doctors and nurses at someof the world’s best hospitals, who have toiledday and night to save so many lives. The big-hearted people of Boston—residents, priests,shopkeepers—who carried victims in theirarms, delivered water and blankets, lined up togive blood, opened their homes up to totalstrangers.

And the heroic Federal agents and police of-ficers who worked together throughout theweek, often at great risk to themselves, to keepour communities safe. As a country, we areeternally grateful for the profound sacrificesthey make in the line of duty, sometimes mak-ing the ultimate sacrifice to defend the peoplethey’ve sworn to protect.

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If anyone wants to know who we are, whatAmerica is, how we respond to evil and terror,that’s it: selflessly, compassionately, and un-afraid.

Through the days that would test even thesturdiest of souls, Boston’s spirit remains un-daunted. America’s spirit remains undimmed.Our faith in each other, our love for this coun-try, our common creed that cuts across whatev-er superficial differences we may have, that’swhat makes us strong. That’s why we endure.

In the days to come, we will remain vigilantas a nation. And I have no doubt the city ofBoston and its surrounding communities willcontinue to respond in the same proud and he-roic way that they have thus far, and their fel-

low Americans will be right there with themevery step of the way. May God bless the peo-ple of Boston and the United States of Ameri-ca.

NOTE: The address was recorded at approxi-mately 3:50 p.m. on April 19 in the Blue Roomat the White House for broadcast on April 20.In the address, the President referred to Krys-tle M. Campbell, Lingzi Lu, and Martin Rich-ard, who were killed in the April 15 terrorist at-tack in Boston, MA. The transcript was madeavailable by the Office of the Press Secretaryon April 19, but was embargoed for release un-til 6 a.m. on April 20.

Statement on the Reelection of President Giorgio Napolitano of ItalyApril 20, 2013

I congratulate President Giorgio Napolitanoon his reelection as President of Italy. For 7years, President Napolitano has demonstratedextraordinary leadership in Italy, in Europe,and around the world. I admire his decision toonce again serve the Italian people as Presi-dent and welcome the decision that the ItalianParliament has made to come together to se-lect him for continued service.

President Napolitano’s steadfast commit-ment to the alliance between the UnitedStates and Italy is deep and abiding and re-flects the enduring bonds among our people.His continued stewardship of the transatlan-tic relationship will ensure that we move for-ward together in facing the challenges of ourtimes.

Remarks at the White House Science FairApril 22, 2013

Thank you, everybody. Please have a seat.Have a seat. Well, good afternoon, everybody.And welcome to the White House ScienceFair, one of my favorite events during thecourse of the year.

And I just had a chance to see some of theoutstanding exhibits that have been put for-ward by some of these amazing young people.And let me just start by saying, in my officialcapacity as President: This stuff is really cool.[Laughter] And I want to thank these incredi-ble young people for explaining to me what theheck is going on. [Laughter]

Every one of you is enormously talented,obviously, but there’s also a community of peo-

ple who helped all these young people suc-ceed: dedicated teachers who believed in themand challenged them to do even more; all ofthem have loving parents and mentors andfamily. So I want to not only give the youngpeople a big round of applause, but all the par-ents and teachers and principals and everybodywho was involved, give yourselves a big roundof applause as well.

Of course, primarily, we’re here to celebratethese young scientists and visionaries whodream and create and innovate, who ask thequestion, why not? Why not try something bet-ter, something that’s faster, something thathelps more people? And that drive, that refusal

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to give up, that focus on the future is part ofwhat makes America great. And all of you areparticipants in this long line of inventors andcreators that have made this the most dynamiceconomy and the most dynamic country onEarth.

And that’s one of the things that I’ve beenfocused on as President, is how do we createan all-hands-on-deck approach to science,technology, engineering, and math. And I’mhappy to have so many key members of my sci-ence team who are here today, including myChief Science Adviser, John Holdren, who ishere. There’s John. NIH Director Francis Col-lins. There’s Francis right there, the tall guy.We’ve got Acting Director of the National Sci-ence Foundation Cora Marrett, who is here.There’s Cora. And we’ve got real-life astronautand NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.Where’s Charlie? There he is, right there.

So we need to make this a priority: to trainan army of new teachers in these subject areasand to make sure that all of us as a country arelifting up these subjects for the respect thatthey deserve. And one of the things I’m con-cerned about is that, as a culture, we’re greatconsumers of technology, but we’re not alwaysproperly respecting the people who are in thelabs and behind the scenes creating the stuffthat we now take for granted. And we’ve got togive the millions of Americans who work in sci-ence and technology not only the kind of re-spect they deserve, but also new ways to en-gage young people.

So today I’m proud to announce a newAmeriCorps program that are going to——

[At this point, an audience member applauded.]

That’s our Community Service Director,so—[laughter]—she is a little bit biased, but Ilike that in her. She’s got that kind of get-up-and-go. A new AmeriCorps program that’s go-ing to connect more professional scientists andengineers to young students who might followin their footsteps.

And other people are stepping up too. Someof America’s biggest tech companies are en-couraging their workers to mentor young stu-dents. You’ve got media organizations that are

working with athletes, like outstanding widereceiver Victor Cruz from the New York Gi-ants, who’s here to highlight how critical mathand science are to sports. And by the way,since Victor is here, I don’t know, did you seethe exhibit about the whole cooling shoulderpads and helmet that these young guys did?And they had a whole slogan that said you cansucceed in athletics and science. They werevery impressive. Had the little Gatorade com-ing in so you—[laughter]—you didn’t evenhave to, like, reach for your Gatorade; youcould just—it would automatically transmit it-self into your helmet. [Laughter] It couldwork.

We’ve got nonprofits that are helping to or-ganize 1,000 summer learning events this year.They all realize how important science, tech-nology, engineering, and math are to the fu-ture. So we are doing this together.

And after all, the Science Fair projects of to-day could become the products and businessesof tomorrow. Three students—Evan Jackson,Alec Jackson, Caleb Robinson—those are thefolks that I talked about. They’re from FlippenElementary School. Keep in mind, they’re inthird, fourth grade, and they’ve already got thisidea for cool pads so that Victor doesn’t getoverheated when he’s out on the field. Butthink about that. If you’re inventing stuff in thethird grade, what are you going to do by thetime you get to college? [Laughter] And wejust had the University of Alabama’s nationalchampionship football team here last week,and I know they’re interested in this idea be-cause it gets really hot down in Alabama.

A lot of these students are working on thenext generation of medical research. So listento this story. When pancreatic cancer took thelife of Jack Andraka’s close family friend, it in-spired Jack to look for new ways to improve de-tection. So Jack requested space from researchlabs to pursue his work nearly 200 times. Twohundred times he asked; 200 times he wasturned down. Finally, with the help of somefolks at John Hopkins, he got the research fa-cilities that he needed, developed a pancreaticcancer test that is faster, cheaper, and moresensitive than the test that came before it,

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which is not bad for a guy who is just barely oldenough to drive. So where’s Jack? There he is.Jack, stand up, because that’s pretty spectacu-lar stuff. That’s great work. I don’t know whatyou guys were doing when you were juniors inhigh school. [Laughter] That’s what Jack’s do-ing. [Laughter] Better than I was doing, Ipromise you. [Laughter]

Now, today is not just the third WhiteHouse Science Fair, it’s also the 43d EarthDay. So I want to give a special shout-out to allof the young people who participated who fo-cused their attention on how to harness cleanerforms of energy and how to create more ener-gy efficiency. So we’ve got young people likeCaleb Meyer. Where’s Caleb? Caleb’s wayback there. Stand up, Caleb, so we can see you.Caleb built a wind turbine that’s small and fastenough to be installed on your roof or in yourfront yard.

We’ve got Jon Kubricki and Bridget Zarych,who, together with their classmates, designedan inexpensive press that can recycle garbagelike banana peels into briquettes as an alterna-tive to using wood for fuel. They’re in eighthgrade. I don’t know what you were doing ineighth grade. [Laughter] That’s what they’redoing, which could potentially help to reducecarbon emissions, save trees and deforestation,and reduce the amount of smoke inhalationthat has an impact on people.

We’ve got Sara Volz, who is breeding newtypes of algae. Where’s Sara? There’s Sara.Sara is breeding new types of algae. She storesthis in a lab in her bedroom. [Laughter] So,Sara, you have very supportive parents.[Laughter] One reporter asked her, “Exactlywhat is growing under your bed that’s going tosave the planet?” [Laughter] And Sara’s answerwas algae that can produce more oil for cheap-er biofuels. So, by the way, Jon Kubricki andBridget Zarych, I didn’t have them stand up. Iwant to acknowledge them. I saw them. Maybethey’re still cleaning their hands off from—[laughter]. But there they are. There they are.

So I’ve got to say, young people like these,every one of them have these kinds of incredi-ble innovations. Some of them are already fullyoperational. Some of them are getting fine

tuned. But young people like these have tomake you hopeful about the future of ourcountry. And it’s also a reminder for us, theadults, we’ve got to do our part. We’ve got todo everything we can to make sure that we aregiving these young people opportunity to pur-sue their studies and discover new ways of do-ing things. And we’ve got to make sure thatwe’re also leaving behind a world that is saferand cleaner and healthier than the one wefind—found it. That’s our obligation.

And that’s why, over the last 4 years, we’vemade historic investments in the clean energyfuture that we need. And today, we import lessoil than we have in 20 years. Thanks to new fu-el economy standards, by the middle of thenext decade, cars will go twice as far on a gal-lon of gas. We’ve doubled the amount of re-newable energy that we’re generating fromsources like wind and solar, and by the way,creating tens of thousands of good, Americanjobs in the process. We’re emitting less carbonpollution into the environment than we have innearly 20 years.

But we understand this is not enough.We’ve got to do better. And that’s why we’vegot to pursue an all-of-the-above energy strate-gy that includes investing in more biofuels andmore fuel-efficient vehicles and more solarpower and more wind power and more peoplegoing back to work building cars and homesand businesses that are more energy efficientthan the ones that we’ve got right now.

That’s why I’ve proposed new job-creatinginvestments in science and innovation. And allthese young people, as young as they are,they’re all going to be going to college, and alot of them are going to want to continue topursue their research and to pursue theirdreams. And if there is not the research grantpipeline in place, many of them will not havethe resources to invent and discover the thingsthat will make us healthier and make us moreenergy efficient and improve the quality of ourlives.

So this is not the time to gut investmentsthat keep our businesses on the cutting edge,that keep our economy humming, that im-prove the quality of our lives. This is the time

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to reach a level of research and developmentthat we haven’t seen since the height of thespace race. That’s what we should be doing.That’s what we should be focused on.

And that should not be a partisan idea.America has always been about discovery andinvention and engineering and science and evi-dence. That’s who we are. That’s in our DNA.That’s how this country became the greatesteconomic power in the history of the world.That’s how we were able to provide so manycontributions to people all around the worldwith our scientific and medical and technologi-cal discoveries.

And that’s what these young people are—here are all about. And if extraordinary youngpeople like all of you can use your talents toshape the future for our families and our com-munities and our countries, we’ve got a re-sponsibility to make sure that they’ve got thetools to do it.

So I want to thank all the Science Fair win-ners, not only for the work that you guys aredoing, but also the example that you’re settingfor your peers and also for your adults, theadults that are in your lives. We could not beprouder of you. And I want you to keep upyour incredible work.

And part of the reason that we’re doing thishere, we celebrate our great football playerslike Victor, and we celebrate outstanding musi-cians, and that’s all appropriate. But we’ve gotto make sure that we’re also celebrating everysingle day in our schools, in our classrooms,and in our country the outstanding contribu-tions that scientists and engineers and mathe-maticians and engineers are providing to us ev-ery single day. And we want you to know thatyou’ve got a whole country behind you as youpursue your dreams. And your success is goingto be our success as well. So way to go.

Thank you. Appreciate it, everybody. Thankyou very much.

NOTE: The President spoke at 2:21 p.m. in theEast Room at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to Wendy Spencer, ChiefExecutive Officer, Corporation for Nationaland Community Service; White House ScienceFair participants Evan Jackson, Alec Jackson,and Caleb Robinson of McDonough, GA, JackAndraka of Crownsville, MD, Caleb Meyer ofHope, ND, Jon Kubricki and Bridget Zarych ofLittle Egg Harbor, NJ, and Sara Volz of Colo-rado Springs, CO, and her parents David andPattye Volz; and John Roach, contributingwriter, NBC News Digital.

Message to the Senate Transmitting the Convention on the Conservationand Management of High Seas Fisheries Resources in the North PacificOceanApril 22, 2013

To the Senate of the United States:

With a view to receiving the advice and con-sent of the Senate to ratification, I transmitherewith the Convention on the Conservationand Management of High Seas Fisheries Re-sources in the North Pacific Ocean, done atTokyo on February 24, 2012, and signed by theUnited States on May 2, 2012 (the “Conven-tion”). I also transmit, for the information ofthe Senate, the report of the Secretary of Stateon the Convention that includes an article-by-article analysis.

The Convention establishes a regional fish-eries management organization through whichParties will cooperate to ensure the long-termconservation and sustainable use of the fisher-ies resources in the high seas of the North Pa-cific Ocean while protecting the marine eco-systems in which these resources occur.

The Convention will require implementinglegislation, which is being drafted and will besubmitted separately to the Congress for itsconsideration.

Cooperation under the Convention will ad-dress fisheries resources not covered under

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preexisting international fisheries manage-ment instruments and will help to prevent de-structive fishing practices on the high seasthat may have impacts on fisheries resourcesin areas subject to U.S. jurisdiction. Ratifica-tion by the United States would also ensurethat future U.S. fisheries interests in the re-gion subject to the Convention will be fac-tored into allocation decisions. I therefore

recommend that the Senate give favorableconsideration to the Convention and give itsadvice and consent to ratification at the earli-est possible date.

BARACK OBAMA

The White House,April 22, 2013.

Message to the Senate Transmitting the Amendment to the Convention onFuture Multilateral Cooperation in the Northwest Atlantic FisheriesApril 22, 2013


With a view to receiving the advice and con-sent of the Senate to ratification, I transmitherewith the Amendment to the Conventionon Future Multilateral Cooperation in theNorthwest Atlantic Fisheries (the “Conven-tion”), adopted on September 28, 2007, at thetwenty-ninth Annual Meeting of the North At-lantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO). I alsotransmit, for the information of the Senate, thereport of the Secretary of State on the Amend-ment, which includes an article-by-article anal-ysis.

The Amendment serves to bring the Con-vention in line with modern international fish-eries governance, including revisions to its de-cisionmaking and objection rules and a newcomprehensive dispute settlement procedure.The Amendment also reflects changes to thebudget contribution scheme that are expectedto significantly reduce U.S. annual payments to

NAFO. Involved Federal agencies and stake-holders strongly support the proposed changesto the Convention. The strengthened Conven-tion will improve the way NAFO manages thefish stocks under its purview and enforcescompliance with the measures it adopts, whichin turn will improve the chances that key stocksin the Northwest Atlantic will recover enoughto support resumed fishing.

The recommended changes to the North-west Atlantic Fisheries Convention Act of 1995necessary to implement the Amendment willbe submitted separately to the Congress. Itherefore recommend that the Senate give fa-vorable consideration to the Amendment tothe Convention and give its advice and consentto ratification at the earliest possible date.

BARACK OBAMA


Message to the Senate Transmitting the Convention on the Conservationand Management of High Seas Fishery Resources in the South Pacific OceanApril 22, 2013


I transmit herewith the Convention on theConservation and Management of High SeasFishery Resources in the South Pacific Ocean(the “Convention”), done at Auckland, New

Zealand, November 14, 2009, with a view toreceiving the advice and consent of the Senateto ratification. I also transmit, for the informa-tion of the Senate, the report of the Secretaryof State on the Convention that includes an ar-ticle-by-article analysis.

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The Convention establishes a regional fish-eries management organization through whichParties will give effect to their duty to cooper-ate in the conservation and sustainable use ofthe high seas fishery resources in the South Pa-cific Ocean and to safeguard the marine eco-systems in which these resources occur.

The Convention requires Parties to applyspecific conservation and management princi-ples and approaches in giving effect to the ob-jective of the Convention. These principlesand approaches are enshrined in existing inter-national instruments to which the UnitedStates is a party, such as the Agreement for theImplementation of the Provisions of the Unit-ed Nations Convention on the Law of the Seaof December 10, 1982, relating to the Conser-vation and Management of Straddling FishStocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks ofDecember 4, 1995. In addition, the Conven-

tion requires that Parties design and adopt spe-cific conservation and management measures,such as limitations on catch or effort, time orarea closures, and gear restrictions.

The Department of State, Department ofCommerce, U.S. Coast Guard, and relevantU.S. stakeholders strongly support the Con-vention. The legislation necessary to imple-ment the Convention will be submitted sepa-rately to the Congress for its consideration. Itherefore recommend that the Senate give ear-ly and favorable consideration to this Conven-tion and give its advice and consent to ratifica-tion.

BARACK OBAMA


Remarks Honoring the 2013 National and State Teachers of the YearApril 23, 2013

The President. Well, hello, everybody.Please have a seat. I am thrilled to welcomeour State and National Teachers of the Year tothe White House this afternoon.

Now, if—people who know me know I’vejust got a soft spot for teachers, partly—my sis-ter is a teacher, my mom was a teacher for awhile. And if there’s one thing we can’t sayenough to our Nation’s educators, it is “thankyou.” So today we’ve got a chance to do that: toshow our extraordinary appreciation for thedifference that they make in the lives of ourchildren and the lives of our Nation.

Now, before we get started, I’ve got to rec-ognize another outstanding educator, our Sec-retary of Education, Arne Duncan, who is aspassionate about the future of our kids as any-body that I know. And I’d like to acknowledgeand applaud the three outstanding principalsof the year who are joining us because weknow that unless we’ve got outstanding leader-ship in our schools, it’s very hard for even greatteachers to do their job. And so please givethem a big round of applause as well.

Now, these educators behind me come fromall over the country. They represent cities andtowns of every shape and size, all types ofschools. But the one thing that binds them to-gether is that they are absolutely devoted tonurturing the next generation. They’re rolemodels who show our kids how to work hard toreach their potential. They encourage our chil-dren’s passion. They inspire our children’simaginations.

And this year’s National Teacher of theYear, Jeff Charbonneau, is from Zillah, Wash-ington. Did I say that right, Jeff?

Jeff Charbonneau. Charbonneau, so yes.The President. Charbonneau.Mr. Charbonneau. Charbonneau from Zil-

lah.The President. From Zillah. [Laughter]

That’s why he’s a good teacher. [Laughter] AsJeff put it, a teacher’s “greatest accomplish-ments are revealed each time a student realizesthat he or she has an unlimited potential.” AndI’ll bet any—everybody here can remember amoment like that, when a teacher helped themfind that spark that allowed them to get to

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where they are today, a teacher who saw some-thing in us that maybe at the time we didn’t seein ourselves.

Twelve years ago, when Jeff decided to re-turn to his hometown to teach, Zillah HighSchool had no engineering curriculum. Thescience curriculum was lagging. Kids had to gooff campus for technology classes, and thecomputer resources were frankly pretty poor.

But Jeff was determined to turn that around.He wanted to convince kids that somethinglike quantum mechanics wasn’t something torun away from, but something to dive into. Andhe said, “It’s my job to convince them that theyare smart enough, that they can do anything.”

And now, with Jeff’s leadership at his highschool, science enrollment is way up. Kids aregraduating at college-level science—with col-lege-level science credits. The school expectsto have to hire more teachers now to meet thedemand.

This kind of transformation is exactly whyI’ve proposed preparing an additional 100,000math and science teachers across the countryover the next decade. And excellent teacherslike Jeff could make up part of a master teach-ers corps, a network of outstanding educatorswho serve as leaders and mentors for their col-leagues in these particular subject areas.

But it’s not just classroom teaching that dis-tinguishes Jeff. He reinvigorated the school’syearbook. He started an outdoors club. Hebrought his passion to the drama program.He’s even helping out other schools. And be-cause of Jeff, hundreds of thousands—or hun-dreds of students all over the State are nowparticipating in high-skills robotics competi-tions and gaining valuable engineering experi-ence, all in the name of creating what Jeff calls“paradise.” That’s what school is for him, that’swhat he wants it to be for his students, in theirclassrooms, but also in their activities and thegreater community.

And basically, there’s nothing that Jeff willnot try to give his students the best educationin every respect. And by the way, I think it’simportant for us to acknowledge Jeff’s wife andchildren and mom and dad and brother, allpresumably have to put up with him constantly

doing all this stuff. [Laughter] And we appreci-ate them for the great support that they’ve giv-en him.

Now, what’s true for Jeff is true for everyeducator standing behind me. They under-stand that their job is more than teaching sub-jects like reading or chemistry. They’re not justfilling blackboards with numbers and dia-grams. In classrooms across America, they’reteaching things like character and compassionand resilience and imagination. They’re fillingyoung minds with virtues and values and teach-ing our kids how to cooperate and overcomeobstacles. So today we honor the dedicatedprofessionals that help guide that critical de-velopment.

Any parent knows it’s hard to drop your sonoff or your daughter off at school that firsttime. In the instant that car door slams or theschool bus door shuts, there is a little flutterthat goes on. I like quoting somebody who saidthat being a parent is like having your heartoutside your body wandering around. [Laugh-ter] But these teachers, they’re the ones thatwe trust with our kids. They’re people wholove our kids.

A few months ago, we saw the true depths ofa teacher’s commitment when six educatorswere killed trying to protect the children theyembraced as their own. There was the teacherwho locked her first-grade students in a bath-room and whispered, “I love you,” because, inher words, “I wanted that to be the last thingthey heard, and not gunfire.” The special edu-cation teacher who was found cradling a stu-dent in her arms, trying to protect him fromthe evil that ultimately took them both.

In those moments, those brave teachersshowed the world what they do is more thanjust educate kids. They embrace them, andthey nurture them, and they love them. Andwe know that the men and women behind medo the same.

These folks did not go into teaching formoney. [Laughter] They certainly didn’t go in-to it because of the light hours and the easywork. They walk into the classroom every sin-gle day because they love doing what they do,because they’re passionate about helping our

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children realize the best versions of themselvesso that our country can become the best ver-sion of itself.

And I just want to say to all of them, I hopethat in some small measure, this award keepsthem going. Because I never want our teachersto feel discouraged at a time of budget cuts, ata time when all too often problems in theschools are laid at the feet of teachers; wherewe expect them to do so much, and sometimesthey get so little in return.

I want you guys to know that the country ap-preciates you. The kids appreciate you. Parentsappreciate you. What you do matters. It’s criti-cal to our success as a country, but most impor-tantly, it’s critical to those kids themselves. Icannot think of something more importantthan reaching that child who, maybe, came inuninspired, and suddenly, you’ve inspiredthem.

And by the way, I want to mention, I oftentalk about STEM and math and science; I real-ly do think it’s critically important. We’ve fall-en behind on a lot of those subjects. But I don’twant to neglect our English teachers and ourarts teachers, our music teachers, our historyteachers, our social science teachers, because,yes, we want folks inventing things and weneed more engineers and scientists and proba-bly fewer lawyers. I can say that as a lawyer.[Laughter] But part of what you’re also teach-ing young people is qualities like compassionand being able to put yourself in somebodyelse’s shoes. And that’s what makes our societyworth living in as well.

So, bottom line is, thank you. And the leastthe rest—the least that the rest of us can do isto give all of these folks the respect that they’veearned, the gratitude we owe them. Teachingis a profession and it should be treated likeone. And that means we’re going to have to re-cruit and prepare and reward our next genera-tion of great educators more effectively. Secre-

tary Duncan’s been working with folks aroundthe country on a new blueprint for teaching inthe 21st century, listening to some of theseoutstanding teachers and educators and princi-pals so that we can figure out what best prac-tices are out there.

Educators like Jeff and everyone up here to-day, they represent the very best of America:committed professionals who give themselvesfully to the growth and development of ourkids. And with them at the front of the class-room and leading our schools, I am absolutelyconfident that our children are going to be pre-pared to meet the tests of our time and thetests of the future.

So we’re grateful to all of you. Thanks forhelping our kids dream big, hope deeply, andrealize a brighter future. So with that, I wouldnow like to present Jeff with his apple. And Iwant to—but don’t bite into it—[laughter]—and invite him to say a few words. Give Jeff abig round of applause.

NOTE: The President spoke at 2:10 p.m. in theRose Garden at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to Susan Chin, principal,Veazie Street Elementary School in Provi-dence, RI; Laurie Barron, principal, SmokeyRoad Middle School in Newnan, GA; TrevorGreene, principal, Toppenish High School inToppenish, WA; Monika M. Charbonneau,wife, Andrew J. and Makayla M. Charbonneau,children, Marc E. and Darline M. Charbon-neau, parents, and Ryan E. Charbonneau,brother, of 2013 National Teacher of the YearJeffrey A. Charbonneau; Kaitlin Roig, teacher,Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown,CT; and Anne Marie Murphy, special educa-tion aide, Sandy Hook Elementary School,who was killed in the December 14, 2012,shootings in Newtown. He also referred to hissister Maya Soetoro-Ng.

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Remarks Following a Meeting With Amir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani ofQatarApril 23, 2013

The President. Well, I just want to welcomethe Amir of Qatar and thank him and the peo-ple of his country for the friendship thatthey’ve shown towards the United States.There’s an excellent relationship between theUnited States and Qatar on a whole range oflevels: with respect to security, with respect toour military cooperation, our commerce andour trade.

Qatar has been a center of innovation.We’ve seen enormous progress within thecountry on everything ranging from educationto health care. And I think His Highness hasshown extraordinary leadership over the lastmany years in helping to guide his country.

Obviously, Qatar is also an important coun-try in the region and has an influence that ex-tends beyond its relatively small population.And so we had an opportunity to discuss awhole range of issues that directly relate toU.S. interests and U.S. security, but more im-portantly, the security of the entire world.

We had a conversation about the situation inSyria. And obviously, we have been cooperat-ing closely with Qatar and other countries inseeking to bring about an end to the slaughterthat’s taking place there—the removal of Presi-dent Asad, who has shown himself to have noregard for his own people—and to strengthenan opposition that can bring about a democrat-ic Syria that represents all people and respectstheir rights regardless of their ethnicity or theirreligious affiliations. And I’m very pleased thatwe are going to be continuing to work in thecoming months to try to further support theSyrian opposition, and we’ll be closely coordi-nating our strategies to bring about a morepeaceful resolution to the Syrian crisis.

We also had an opportunity to discuss thesituation in Egypt, where we both very muchwant to see success on the part of Egyptian de-mocracy. And both of our countries are com-mitted to trying to encourage not only progressin this new democracy, but also economic

progress that can translate into actual prosperi-ty for the people there.

We had an opportunity to discuss the situa-tion with respect to the Israeli-Palestinian con-flict, and we both agree that peace is in the in-terests of everyone: a secure Israel side by sidewith a sovereign Palestinian state. And we ex-changed ideas about how we can advance thosenegotiations, and I’ve shared the importance ofproviding support to President Abbas and thePalestinian Authority so that they can be in po-sition to have fruitful negotiations with the Is-raelis that can bring about, in a timely fashion,a two-state solution.

And I had an opportunity to thank the Amirfor the strong support that his country has pro-vided to our efforts in Afghanistan, includingthe efforts that he has personally been involvedwith in getting a dialogue between the AfghanGovernment and the Taliban that might poten-tially result in some sort of political reconcilia-tion.

These are all very difficult issues, and nei-ther of us are under any illusions that they willbe solved overnight. But what we agree with isthat if our two countries are communicatingfrankly and constructively and pursuing com-mon strategies, that we can be a force for goodfor the entire region and for a vision of theMiddle East that is democratic, that is prosper-ous, that is tolerant, that is representative of allpeoples, and that is a force for good around theworld.

And so I want to thank the Amir for this visitand for his friendship. And I look forward toworking with him and the Government of Qa-tar for many years to come.

[At this point, Amir Hamad spoke in Arabic,and his remarks were then translated by an in-terpreter as follows.]

Interpreter. I was delighted to have this verypositive meeting with the President today. Wediscussed several issues of mutual concerns to

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both our countries, especially the situation inSyria. We also addressed issues concerning ourmutual military relationship, which is good, asyou know, and also exchanges in education. Asyou know, there are several universities, Amer-ican universities that opened branches in Qa-tar.

We also discussed our economic relation-ship. There are joint oil and gas projects be-tween the two countries.

We also talked about the serious changesthat are affecting the Middle East, especiallycountries like Egypt, which we consider to be avery important country and also important forpeace with Israel. And for Qatar, it’s very im-portant for us to see peace between Israel andthe Palestinians, and to see also a good rela-tionship between Arab countries and Israelonce a Palestinian-Israeli peace agreement isreached.

[Amir Hamad spoke in English as follows.]

Amir Hamad. Actually, she meant by “gasand oil” that we will talk with the President,but it’s with a relation between us and Ameri-cans, with big American companies like Exxon-Mobil, et cetera. They are enjoying workingwith us in the sector of the hydrocarbon.

The other thing, it’s the Syrian issue. As youknow——

[Amir Hamad spoke in Arabic, and his remarkswere then translated by an interpreter as fol-lows.]

Interpreter. We also discussed the Syrian is-sue. What’s happening in Syria is a major, hor-rific tragedy in the region and the world. Andwe hope to find a solution for the bloodshed inSyria and for this current Government to leavepower so that—to give room to others to takeover. And we hope that any party that succeedsthe current regime would be supportive of de-mocracy and the political process.

[Amir Hamad continued in Arabic, and his re-marks were then translated by an interpreteras follows.]

Interpreter. We in Qatar support the peaceprocess and finding a political peace, and Qatarsupports that.

And we once again would like to thank thePresident.

[Amir Hamad spoke in English as follows.]

Amir Hamad. Thank you very much.President Obama. Thank you, everybody.

NOTE: The President spoke at 4:28 p.m. in theOval Office at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to President Mahmoud Ab-bas of the Palestinian Authority.

Statement on Senator Max S. Baucus’s Decision Not To Seek ReelectionApril 23, 2013

I want to thank Max Baucus for his nearly35 years of service to the people of Mon-tana. Max has made small businesses a toppriority, often taking “Work Days” to visitlocal businesses across Montana and spenda day working alongside his constituents togain perspective and help bolster the localeconomy. As Finance Committee Chairman

and a senior member of both the Agricul-ture and the Environment and PublicWorks Committees, Max has been a leaderon a broad range of issues that touch thelives of Americans across the country. Mi-chelle and I commend Senator Baucus onhis career and wish him and his family wellin the future.

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Statement on Armenian Remembrance DayApril 24, 2013

Today we commemorate the Meds Yeghernand honor those who perished in one of theworst atrocities of the 20th century. Ninety-eight years ago, 1.5 million Armenians weremassacred or marched to their deaths in the fi-nal days of the Ottoman Empire. We pause toreflect on the lives extinguished and rememberthe unspeakable suffering that occurred. In sodoing, we are joined by millions across theworld and in the United States, where it is sol-emnly commemorated by our States, institu-tions, communities, and families. We also re-mind ourselves of our commitment to ensurethat such dark chapters of history are not re-peated.

I have consistently stated my own view ofwhat occurred in 1915, and my view has notchanged. A full, frank, and just acknowledge-ment of the facts is in all of our interests. Na-tions grow stronger by acknowledging andreckoning with painful elements of the past,thereby building a foundation for a more justand tolerant future. We appreciate this lesson

in the United States, as we strive to reconcilesome of the darkest moments in our own histo-ry. We recognize those courageous Armeniansand Turks who have already taken this pathand encourage more to do so, with the backingof their Governments and mine.

The history and legacy of the Armenian peo-ple is marked by an indomitable spirit and agreat resiliency in the face of tremendous ad-versity and suffering. The United States isstronger for the contributions Armenian Amer-icans have made to our society, our culture,and our communities. In small measure, we re-turn that contribution by supporting the Arme-nian people as they work toward building a na-tion that would make their ancestors proud:one that cherishes democracy and respect forhuman liberty and dignity.

Today we stand with Armenians everywherein recalling the horror of the Meds Yeghern,honoring the memory of those lost, and affirm-ing our enduring commitment to the people ofArmenia.

Statement on Senate Confirmation of Sylvia Mathews Burwell as Director ofthe Office of Management and BudgetApril 24, 2013

I am pleased that the Senate took bipartisanaction today to confirm Sylvia Mathews Burwellas the Director of the Office of Managementand Budget. Sylvia shares my commitment togrowing our economy, shrinking our deficits in abalanced way, and reigniting a rising, thrivingmiddle class. Sylvia has spent a career fightingfor working families, and she was part of an

OMB team that presided over three budget sur-pluses in a row. Her experience will be especial-ly important as we continue our efforts to re-place the indiscriminate budget cuts that are al-ready starting to cost jobs, hurt families, and in-convenience Americans. Sylvia will be a keymember of my economic team, and I look for-ward to working with her in the years ahead.

Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Fundraiser in Dallas, TexasApril 24, 2013

Thank you so much. Well, let me begin bythanking Naomi and Larry for opening up thisextraordinary home to all of us. It is wonderfulto see them again. And they’ve been such long-time supporters. They were there back in the

day when many of you could not pronounce myname. [Laughter] But they’ve just been greatfriends and are active on so many fronts. Obvi-ously, Larry is labor, and Naomi is manage-ment—[laughter]—as is true in our household

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as well. [Laughter] But we really appreciatethem and their very impressive sons.

I also want to acknowledge Henry Muñozwho’s here and is just doing an outstanding jobas our finance chair of the DNC. Where’sHenry? There he is. Thank you, Henry. And Iunderstand that the former mayor of this greatcity, Ron Kirk, is still around. So, everybody,give a big round of applause to Ron.

Obviously, this has been a tough couple ofweeks for the country. I have spent time inBoston and have been inspired by the incredi-ble resilience of that city in the wake of such ahorrific tragedy, had a chance to visit withsome of the victims of the explosion and talk tothe families of some of the folks who were lost.And then tomorrow I’ll be attending a memori-al service for the tragedy that took place inWest, Texas, and have a chance to visit withsome of those families.

And there’s no words that are satisfactorywhen you’re confronting these kinds of losses.And families cope, they do their best, but obvi-ously, their lives are transformed by this. Andso I don’t want to pretend that somehow youcan put a positive gloss on those kinds ofevents. On the other hand, what is remarkableis the strength and the courage and the fellow-ship that you see in people when they’re con-fronted with these kinds of challenges. And inBoston, what you saw was not just the charac-ter of an extraordinary American city, but itwas also the character of a nation.

There is something about tough times thatbrings out the best in us, and all the petty dif-ferences and the divisions of race and class andreligion and political persuasion all seem tofade away. And I remember, as I was drivingfrom the airport to the memorial service inBoston, I was with Deval Patrick—outstandingGovernor of Massachusetts and a great friend,who handled the whole situation as well as any-body could—and we agreed that wouldn’t it besomething if we could just somehow captureand sustain that spirit beyond tragedy.

That’s kind of a cliche. We talk about this alot. We talked about this after 9/11; we talkabout it after a natural disaster like Sandy.We’re all struck by how we come to each oth-

er’s aid and these huge waves of empathy comeforward and people are willing to do anythingfor strangers because they understand therebut for the grace of God go I. And they also un-derstand that there’s something fundamentalthat binds us together as Americans and thatwe love this country and this country is simplya collection of incredible people: our fellow cit-izens.

And that idea of citizenship, the idea that wedon’t just have obligations to ourselves—wedo; we have obligations obviously to our fami-lies and our immediate circles. But we have al-so an obligation to something larger than our-selves; that our orbit of concern extends to achild somewhere in a border town in Texaswho is struggling to get a decent education.And it extends to a senior citizen somewhere inMaine that is trying to figure out how they canget enough heating oil to get through a winterand have enough to eat at the same time. Andit extends to the young immigrant who justcame here and is trying to find their way inCalifornia. And it applies to a single mom inNew York who is going back and has gotten hereducation and is looking for some decent day-care. That all of us have a stake in their success,and all of us have a stake in a country that ex-presses this incredible quality of compassionand concern and fellow feeling not just in ourchurches or our synagogues or our mosques orour temples, not just in our workplaces or ourneighborhoods or our Little League, but alsoexpresses itself through our government.

And the reason, I think, all of you are here isbecause you believe that too. And the Demo-cratic Party at its best tries to give expression tothat. The Democratic Party doesn’t always getit right, and this is not a feeling that is uniqueto Democrats. I’m really looking forward to at-tending the Bush Library opening tomorrow,and one of the things I will insist upon is thatwhatever our political differences, PresidentBush loves this country and loves its peopleand shared that same concern and was con-cerned about all people in America, not justsome, not just those who voted Republican. Ithink that’s true about him, and I think that’strue about most of us.

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But what’s also true is that policy matters.How we express that best part of ourselves is amatter of significant debate, and it’s a matter ofvotes, and it’s a matter of legislation and bud-gets and how we’re allocating resources andhow we’re prioritizing what we think is impor-tant. And although I couldn’t be prouder of thework that we’ve done over the last 4 years, weall know we’ve got a lot more work to do onthat front.

Middle class families all across America arestruggling to get by. And things have stabilizedsince the crisis in 2008, but for a lot of folks,they’re still just barely keeping their headsabove water. There are millions of kids acrossthis country who are still poorly educated ormalnourished or don’t have any place to gooutside of school. And for them, college is justa distant dream. They can’t even imagine theprospect of actually creating a life for them-selves that’s similar to what they see on televi-sion or maybe just walking down the streets ofDallas. It’s like looking through a pane of glass.

We have made enormous strides when itcomes to broadening equality in this country.And I could not be prouder of the work thatwe’ve done under my administration to makesure that we have a strong civil rights division,that we ended “don’t ask, don’t tell,” that we’rechampioning the rights of the LGBT commu-nity, that we’re making sure that women aregetting paid the same as men for the work thatthey do. But we all know that in all kinds of in-teractions, large and small, there are peopleout there who aren’t getting a fair shot, still ar-en’t getting a fair deal, still aren’t being treatedthe way we would want ourselves to be treated.And government has something to say aboutthat.

We have enormous challenges like climatechange that are easy to ignore in the shortterm, and yet I think most of us here want tomake sure that the next generation is be-queathed the same incredible bounty, thisamazing land of ours, that we inherited fromour parents and our grandparents.

So we’ve got a lot of work to do. And unfor-tunately, right now Washington is not—how doI put this charitably? [Laughter] It’s not as

functional as it should be. It could do better.And when you think about the work that we’vebeen able to do over the last 4, 4½ years, someof it, happily, has been bipartisan. There havebeen times where we’ve been able to tackle is-sues together. And particularly when it comesto national security and keeping America safe,I think that there’s been some convergenceamong Democrats and Republicans that wehave to act wisely overseas and we’ve got tomake sure that we’re supporting our troopswhen they come home and we’ve got to takeevery step that we can to guard against terroristacts, but we’ve also got to do so consistent withour Constitution and rule of law.

But when it comes to domestic policy, whenit comes to budgets, when it comes to actionthat is translating into real change for peopleday to day, the fact of the matter is, is thatwhen Democrats were in charge of the House,we were able to make sure that 30 million peo-ple get health care and that people who havehealth care have the kinds of protections theyneed from insurance company abuse and aregetting the kind of preventive care that’s goingto drive our health care costs down over thelong term.

The fact of the matter is, is that when Dem-ocrats were in charge, we were able to rein insome of the excesses of Wall Street in a waythat assures long-term stability in the financialsystem and makes it a lot less likely that we endup seeing the kinds of taxpayer bailouts thatnot only weren’t fair, but aren’t good for oureconomy. The fact is, is that when Democratswere in charge, that’s when we were able tomake sure that we got “don’t ask, don’t tell”ended. And so who’s setting the agenda andwho’s running the show in Congress makes adifference.

And I’m going to spend the next year and ahalf doing everything I can to try to bring theparties together around some basic, smart,commonsense agendas that in past years ha-ven’t even been particularly partisan: makingsure that we’re balancing our budget or makingsure that we’re bringing down our deficits andmanaging our budgets in a way that doesn’tjust load up the entire burden on seniors or

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students or the poor, but asks a little bit fromeverybody.

And making sure that we can still invest inthings like early childhood education and mak-ing sure that we’re investing in research andscience so that we can continue to maintainour cutting edge internationally, rebuilding ourinfrastructure so that we continue to have thebest infrastructure in the world—these are notthings that, in the past at least, have beenDemocrat and Republican.

I come from the “Land of Lincoln,” and itturns out that was the first Republican Presi-dent’s agenda as well. He wanted to build rail-roads and locks and dams, and he started theNational Foundation for Science and startedland-grant colleges because he understood thatwe have a free market and the genius of Amer-ica is unleashing the capacities of our people.But he also understood that there’s a role forGovernment to play to make sure that every-body is getting a fair shot, to make sure thatthere are ladders of opportunity, to make surethat everybody can realize their full potential.

So these aren’t Democratic ideas, these areAmerican ideas. Unfortunately, they’ve gottencaught up in some partisan politics. And we’regoing to do everything we can over the nextyear and a half to break through that.

So, occasionally, I may make some of youangry because I am going to reach out to Re-publicans. I’m going to keep on doing it. Evenif some of you guys think I’m a sap, I will keepon doing it—[laughter]—because I think that’swhat the country needs. But what I also be-lieve in is that when Democrats have the op-portunity to set the agenda, then we don’t havea country where just a few are doing really, re-ally well; we’ve got a country where potentiallyeverybody has a chance to do well if they’re

willing to work hard and if they’re willing totake responsibility.

That’s what we’re fighting for. That’s whyyou’re here. And I hope that all of you recog-nize that despite the fact that I’ve got a lot ofgray hair and I don’t look exactly like I did thefirst time I came to Dallas as a potential Senatecandidate, the same passion and the same val-ues that motivated me then are the values thatmotivate me now and that we win elections togive us the possibility of actually getting stuffdone on behalf of the American people. Wedon’t win elections just to have a party on Inau-guration Day, and we don’t win elections justso we’ve got a title on our door, and we don’twin elections just because it’s sport. We winelections so that we have the possibility of de-livering for the American people. And deliver-ing means sustained work after the election.

So I can’t do that by myself. I can only do itwith you. And as Larry helpfully reminded me,I understand that Texas is a so-called red State,but you’ve got 10 million Democrats here inTexas. And beyond the fact that there are awhole lot of Democrats in Texas, there are awhole lot of people here in Texas who need usand who need us to fight for them. And I don’tknow about you, but I intend to fight for themas long as I have the honor of holding this of-fice and probably a little bit after that as well.


NOTE: The President spoke at 8:06 p.m. at theresidence of Naomi Aberly and Laurence H.Lebowitz. In his remarks, he referred to for-mer U.S. Trade Representative Ronald Kirk.The transcript was released by the Office ofthe Press Secretary on April 25. Audio was notavailable for verification of the content of theseremarks.

Remarks at the Dedication Ceremony for the George W. Bush PresidentialLibrary and Museum in DallasApril 25, 2013

Thank you. Please be seated. To PresidentBush and Mrs. Bush; to President Clinton andnow former Secretary Clinton; to President

George H.W. Bush and Mrs. Bush; to Presi-dent and Mrs. Carter; to current and formerworld leaders and all the distinguished guests

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here today: Michelle and I are honored to bewith you to mark this historic occasion.

This is a Texas-sized party. And that’s wor-thy of what we’re here to do today: honor thelife and legacy of the 43d President of theUnited States, George W. Bush.

When all the living former Presidents are to-gether, it’s also a special day for our democra-cy. We’ve been called “the world’s most exclu-sive club,” and we do have a pretty nice club-house. But the truth is, our club is more like asupport group. The last time we all got togeth-er was just before I took office. And I neededthat. Because as each of these leaders will tellyou, no matter how much you may think you’reready to assume the office of the Presidency,it’s impossible to truly understand the natureof the job until it’s yours, until you’re sitting atthat desk.

And that’s why every President gains agreater appreciation for all those who servedbefore him, for the leaders from both partieswho have taken on the momentous challengesand felt the enormous weight of a nation ontheir shoulders. And for me, that appreciationvery much extends to President Bush.

The first thing I found in that desk the day Itook office was a letter from George, and onethat demonstrated his compassion and gener-osity. For he knew that I would come to learnwhat he had learned: that being President,above all, is a humbling job. There are mo-ments where you make mistakes. There aretimes where you wish you could turn back theclock. And what I know is true about PresidentBush, and I hope my successor will say aboutme, is that we love this country and we do ourbest.

Now, in the past, President Bush has said it’simpossible to pass judgment on his Presidencywhile he’s still alive. So maybe this is a little bitpremature. But even now there are certainthings that we know for certain.

We know about the son who was raised bytwo strong, loving parents in Midland, famous-ly inheriting, as he says, “my daddy’s eyes andmy mother’s mouth.” [Laughter] The youngboy who once came home after a trip to a mu-seum and proudly presented his horrified

mother with a small dinosaur tailbone he hadsmuggled home in his pocket. [Laughter] I’llbet that went over great with Barbara.

We know about the young man who met thelove of his life at a dinner party, ditching hisplans to go to bed early and instead talkingwith the brilliant and charming Laura Welchlate into the night.

We know about the father who raised tworemarkable, caring, beautiful daughters, evenafter they tried to discourage him from run-ning for President, saying, “Dad, you’re not ascool as you think you are.” [Laughter] Mr.President, I can relate. [Laughter] And now wesee President Bush the grandfather, just begin-ning to spoil his brandnew granddaughter.

So we know President Bush the man. Andwhat President Clinton said is absolutely true:To know the man is to like the man, becausehe’s comfortable in his own skin. He knowswho he is. He doesn’t put on any pretenses. Hetakes his job seriously, but he doesn’t take him-self too seriously. He is a good man.

But we also know something about GeorgeBush the leader. As we walk through this li-brary, obviously, we’re reminded of the incred-ible strength and resolve that came throughthat bullhorn as he stood amid the rubble andthe ruins of Ground Zero, promising to deliverjustice to those who had sought to destroy ourway of life.

We remember the compassion that heshowed by leading the global fight againstHIV/AIDS and malaria, helping to save mil-lions of lives, and reminding people in some ofthe poorest corners of the globe that Americacares and that we’re here to help.

We remember his commitment to reachingacross the aisle to unlikely allies like Ted Ken-nedy, because he believed that we had to re-form our schools in ways that help every childlearn, not just some; that we have to repair abroken immigration system; and that this prog-ress is only possible when we do it together.

Seven years ago, President Bush restartedan important conversation by speaking withthe American people about our history as a na-tion of laws and a nation of immigrants. Andeven though comprehensive immigration

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reform has taken a little longer than any of usexpected, I am hopeful that this year, with thehelp of Speaker Boehner and some of the Sen-ators and Members of Congress who are heretoday, that we bring it home for our familiesand our economy and our security and for thisincredible country that we love. And if we dothat, it will be in large part thanks to the hardwork of President George W. Bush.

And finally, a President bears no greater de-cision and no more solemn burden than serv-ing as Commander in Chief of the greatest mil-itary that the world has ever known. As Presi-dent Bush himself has said, “America must andwill keep its word to the men and women whohave given us so much.” So even as we Ameri-cans may at times disagree on matters of for-eign policy, we share a profound respect andreverence for the men and women of our mili-tary and their families. And we are united inour determination to comfort the families ofthe fallen and to care for those who wear theuniform of the United States.

On the flight back from Russia, after negoti-ating with Nikita Khrushchev at the height ofthe cold war, President Kennedy’s secretaryfound a small slip of paper on which the Presi-

dent had written a favorite saying: “I knowthere is a God. And I see a storm coming. If hehas a place for me, I believe I am ready.”

No one can be completely ready for this of-fice. But America needs leaders who are will-ing to face the storm head on, even as theypray for God’s strength and wisdom so thatthey can do what they believe is right. Andthat’s what the leaders with whom I share thisstage have all done. That’s what PresidentGeorge W. Bush chose to do. That’s why I’mhonored to be part of today’s celebration.

Mr. President, for your service, for yourcourage, for your sense of humor, and most ofall, for your love of country, thank you verymuch. From all the citizens of the UnitedStates of America, God bless you. And Godbless these United States.

NOTE: The President spoke at 10:42 a.m. atthe George W. Bush Presidential Center onthe campus of Southern Methodist University.In his remarks, he referred to Barbara P. Bushand Jenna Bush Hager, daughters, and Marga-ret Laura “Mila” Hager, granddaughter, of for-mer President George W. Bush.

Remarks at a Memorial Service for the Victims of the Explosion at the WestFertilizer Company Plant at Baylor University in Waco, TexasApril 25, 2013

Please. Thank you, Senator Cornyn, Gover-nor Perry, President Starr, gathered dignitar-ies, the community of Baylor and Waco, mostof all, the family and the friends and neighborsof West, Texas.

I cannot match the power of the voices youjust heard on that video. And no words ade-quately describe the courage that was dis-played on that deadly night. What I can do isoffer the love and support and prayers of theNation.

The Book of Psalms tells us: “For you, OGod, have tested us; you have tried us. Wewent through fire and through water; yet youhave brought us out to a place of abundance.”We went through fire and through water; yet

you have brought us out to a place of abun-dance.

For this State, for our country, these havebeen trying and difficult days. We gather herein Texas to mourn brave men who wentthrough fire and all those who have been takenfrom us. We remain mindful of our fellowAmericans in flooded States to the north whoendure the high waters. We pray for those inBoston who have been tested and the woundedwhose greatest tests still lie ahead.

But know this: While the eyes of the worldmay have been fixed on places far away, ourhearts have also been here, in your time oftribulation. And even amidst such sorrow andso much pain, we recognize God’s abundance.

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We give thanks for the courage and the com-passion and the incredible grace of the peopleof West.

We’re grateful for Mayor Muska and MayorDuncan and all those who have shown suchleadership during this tragedy. And to the fam-ilies and neighbors grappling with unbearableloss, we are here to say, you are not alone, youare not forgotten. We may not all live here inTexas, but we’re neighbors too. We’re Ameri-cans too, and we stand with you, and we do notforget. And we’ll be there even after the cam-eras leave and after the attention turns else-where. Your country will remain ever ready tohelp you recover and rebuild and reclaim yourcommunity.

Now, until last week, I think it’s fair to saythat few outside this State had ever heard ofWest. And I suspect that’s the way most peoplein West like it. [Laughter] Now, it is true thatweary travelers—and now the wider world—know they can rely on the Czech Stop for abrief respite in the middle of a long stretch ofhighway. I want to say, by the way, all the Pres-idents—former Presidents in Dallas send theirthoughts and prayers, and George W. and Lau-ra Bush spoke longingly about the kolaches—[laughter]—and the even better company, asthey’ve driven through West. And what theyunderstood, and what all of you understand, iswhat makes West special is not the attentioncoming from far-flung places. What makesWest special, what puts it on the map is whatmakes it familiar: the people who live there,neighbors you can count on, places that haven’tchanged, things that are solid and true and last-ing.

Most of the people in West know everybodyin West. Many of you are probably descendedfrom some of those first settlers: hardy immi-grants who crossed an ocean and kept on go-ing. So for you, there’s no such thing as astranger. When someone is in need, you reachout to them, and you support them; you dowhat it takes to help them carry on.

That’s what happened last Wednesday,when a fire alarm sounded across a quiet Texasevening. As we’ve heard, the call went out tovolunteers—not professionals—people who

just love to serve. People who want to helptheir neighbors. A call went out to farmers andcar salesmen and welders and funeral home di-rectors, the city secretary, and the mayor. Itwent out to folks who are tough enough andselfless enough to put in a full day’s work andthen be ready for more.

And together, you answered the call. Youdropped your schoolwork, left your families,jumped in firetrucks and rushed to the flames.And when you got to the scene, you forgot fear,and you fought that blaze as hard as you could,knowing the danger, buying time so otherscould escape. And then, about 20 minutes afterthe first alarm, the Earth shook, and the skywent dark, and West changed forever.

Today our prayers are with the families of allwho we’ve lost: the proud sons and daughtersof West whose memories will live on in ourhearts, parents who loved their kids, and lead-ers who served their communities. They wereyoung and old, from different backgrounds anddifferent walks of life. A few were just goingabout their business. But an awful lot ran to-wards the scene of disaster trying to help. Onewas described as the kind of guy whose phonewas always ringing with folks in need of help,help he always provided. That’s just who thesefolks were.

Our thoughts are with those who face a longroad: the wounded, the heartbroken, familieswho lost their homes and possessions in an in-stant. They’re going to need their friends inWest, but they’re also going to need theirfriends in Texas and their friends all across thiscountry. They’ll still need you to answer thatcall. They will still need those things that arelasting and true. For as Scripture teaches us, “afriend loves at all times, and a brother is bornfor adversity.”

To the people of West, just as we’ve seenthe love you share in better times, as friendsand brothers and sisters, these hard days haveshown your ability to stand tall in times of un-imaginable adversity.

You saw it in leaders like Mayor Muska, wholost close friends. And you saw it in the hospitalstaff who spent the night treating people thatthey knew, toiling through their tears as they

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did what had to be done. We saw it in the folkswho helped evacuate an entire nursing home,including one man who drove an elderly resi-dent to safety and then came back to do itagain, twice. We saw it in the people so gener-ous that when the Red Cross set up a shelterfor folks who couldn’t go back to their homes,not that many people showed up, because mosthad already been offered a place to stay withtheir friends and family and neighbors.

Complete strangers drove from hundreds ofmiles to donate supplies. Firefighters from sur-rounding communities manned the stations sosurviving volunteers could recover from theirwounds. Right here at Baylor, students stood inline for hours to give blood. And a nearbyschool district opened its doors to the studentswho can’t go back to their classrooms, puttingwelcome signs on lockers and in the hallways.

So that’s the thing about this tragedy. Thissmall town’s family is bigger now. It extendsbeyond the boundaries of West. And in thedays ahead, this love and support will be moreimportant than ever, because there will be mo-ments of doubt and pain and the temptation towonder how this community will ever fully re-cover. Families who have lost such remarkablemen of the sort that we saw in that video, thereare going to be times where they simply don’tunderstand how this could have happened.

But today I see in the people of West, inyour eyes, that what makes West special isn’tgoing to go away. And instead of changing whoyou are, this tragedy has simply revealed whoyou’ve always been.

It’s the courage of Deborah Sulak, whoworks as a cashier just around the corner fromthe fire station. She said: “It’s going to betough for the families. But we’re going to re-bound because we’re fighters.” And that cour-age will bring West back.

It’s the love of Carla Ruiz, who used to livein West, but now lives in Austin. And last week,she drove all the way back. “I had to be here,”she said. “You have to be here for family.” Thatlove will keep West going.

It’s the faith of someone like Pastor JohnCrowder that will sustain the good people ofWest for as long as it takes. His church was

damaged in the explosion. So on Sunday, thecongregation assembled outside. “What hap-pened Wednesday was awful,” he told them,“but God is bigger than all of this.” God is big-ger than all of this, and He is here with you inWest. He is bigger than all of this, and He ishere with you.

Going forward, it’s not just your town thatneeds your courage and your love and yourfaith. America does too. We need towns whereif you don’t know what your kids are up to,then chances are your neighbors do too, andthey’ll tell on those kids in a second. [Laugh-ter] America needs towns that holds fundrais-ers to help folks pay the medical bills and thentake the time to drop off a home-cooked meal,because they know a family is under stress.America needs communities where there’s al-ways somebody to call if your car gets stuck oryour house gets flooded. We need people whoso love their neighbors as themselves thatthey’re willing to lay down their lives for them.

America needs towns like West. That’s whatmakes this country great, is towns like West.“For you, O God, have tested us; you havetried us. We went through fire and throughwater; yet you have brought us out to a place ofabundance.”

You have been tested, West. You have beentried. You have gone through fire. But you areand always will be surrounded by an abun-dance of love. You saw it in the voices on thosevideos. You see it in the firefighters and firstresponders who are here. All across America,people are praying for you and thinking of you.And when they see the faces of those families,they understand that these are not strangers,these are neighbors. And that’s why we knowthat we will get through this.

God bless West. May God grant His peaceon those that we’ve lost, His comfort on theirfamilies. May He continue to bless this greatState of Texas, and may He continue to blessthese United States of America.

NOTE: The President spoke at 3:54 p.m. in theFerrell Center. In his remarks, he referred toKenneth W. Starr, president, Baylor Universi-ty; Mayor Tommy Muska of West, TX; Mayor

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Malcolm Duncan, Jr., of Waco, TX; Joseph F.Pustejovsky, city secretary, West, TX, who waskilled during the West Fertilizer Co. explosionon April 17; and John Crowder, pastor, First

Baptist Church in West, TX. The related proc-lamation of April 24 is listed in Appendix D atthe end of this volume.

Remarks at the Planned Parenthood National ConferenceApril 26, 2013

The President. Hello, everybody! Thank you.Thank you! All right, everybody, have a seat.Have a seat. You’re making me blush. [Laugh-ter]

Audience member. I love you!The President. I love you back. Thank you.Cecile, thank you for the warm introduction,

and thank you for the outstanding leadershipthat you’ve shown over the years. You just do agreat, great job. I want to thank all of you forthe remarkable work that you’re doing day in,day out in providing quality health care towomen all across America. You are somebodythat women—young women, old women,women in between—count on for so many im-portant services. And we are truly grateful toyou.

I’m sorry that I could not be at the party yes-terday. I understand it was a little wild.[Laughter] That’s what I heard. But as all ofyou know, obviously, we’ve gone through apretty tough week and a half, and I was downin Texas, letting know—letting the people ofWest, Texas, know that we all love them andcare about them in their time of grieving.

But obviously, this is a special national con-ference because it’s been nearly a hundredyears since the first health clinic of what laterwould become Planned Parenthood opened itsdoors to women in Brooklyn. And for nearly acentury now, one core principle has guided ev-erything all of you do: that women should beallowed to make their own decisions abouttheir own health. It’s a simple principle.

So what I see in this audience, extraordinarydoctors and nurses and advocates and staff whowork tirelessly to keep the doors at health cen-ters all across the country going, then I’m re-minded of those very early efforts and all thestrides that we’ve made in subsequent decades.And I also think about the millions of mothers

and daughters and wives and sisters, friendsand neighbors, who walk through those doorsevery year.

And somewhere, there’s a woman who justreceived a new lease on life because of ascreening that you provided that helped catchher cancer in time. Somewhere, there’s a wom-an who’s breathing easier today because of thesupport and counseling she got at her localPlanned Parenthood health clinic. Somewhere,there’s a young woman starting a career who,because of you, is able to decide for herselfwhen she wants to start a family.

One in five women in this country hasturned to Planned Parenthood for healthcare—one in five. And for many, Planned Par-enthood is their primary source of health care,not just for contraceptive care, but for lifesav-ing preventive care, like cancer screenings andhealth counseling.

So when politicians try to turn Planned Par-enthood into a punching bag, they’re not justtalking about you, they’re talking about themillions of women who you serve. And whenthey talk about cutting off your funding, let’sbe clear: They’re talking about telling many ofthose women, you’re on your own. They’retalking about shutting those women out at atime when they may need it most, shutting offcommunities that need more health care op-tions for women, not less.

So the fact is, after decades of progress,there’s still those who want to turn back theclock to policies more suited to the 1950s thanthe 21st century. And they’ve been involved inan orchestrated and historic effort to roll backbasic rights when it comes to women’s health.

Forty-two States have introduced laws thatwould ban or severely limit access to a wom-an’s right to choose; laws that would make itharder for women to get the contraceptive care

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that they need; laws that would cut off accessto cancer screenings and end educational pro-grams that help prevent teen pregnancy.

In North Dakota, they just passed a law thatoutlaws your right to choose, starting as earlyas 6 weeks, even if a woman’s raped. A womanmay not even know that she’s pregnant at 6weeks. In Mississippi, a ballot initiative was putforward that could not only have outlawed yourright to choose, but could have had all sorts ofother far-reaching consequences, like cuttingoff fertility treatments, making certain forms ofcontraception a crime.

That’s absurd. It’s wrong. It’s an assault onwomen’s rights. And that’s why when the peo-ple of Mississippi were given a chance to voteon that initiative, they turned it down. AndMississippi is a conservative State. [Applause]Mississippi is a conservative State, but theywanted to make clear there’s nothing conserva-tive about the government injecting itself intodecisions best made between a woman and herdoctor. And folks are trying to do this all acrossthe country.

When you read about some of these laws,you want to check the calendar; you want tomake sure you’re still living in 2013. [Laugh-ter]

Forty years after the Supreme Court af-firmed a woman’s constitutional right to priva-cy, including the right to choose, we shouldn’thave to remind people that when it comes to awoman’s health, no politician should get to de-cide what’s best for you. No insurer should getto decide what kind of care that you get. Theonly person who should get to make decisionsabout your health is you. That’s why we foughtso hard to make health care reform a reality.

That principle is at the heart of the Afford-able Care Act. Because of the ACA, most in-surance plans are now covering the cost of con-traceptive care so that a working mom doesn’thave to put off the care she needs just so shecan pay her bills on time. Because of the Af-fordable Care Act, 47 million women have newaccess to preventive care like mammogramsand cancer screenings with no copay, no de-ductible, no out-of-pocket costs, so they don’thave to put off a mammogram just because

money is tight. Because of the Affordable CareAct, young people under the age of 26 can nowstay on their parent’s health care plan. And in-surance companies soon will no longer be ableto deny you coverage based on preexisting con-ditions like breast cancer or charge you morejust because you are a woman. Those days areending. [Applause] Those days are ending.

Now, I know how hard you worked to helpus pass health care reform. You and your sup-porters got out there: You organized, you mo-bilized, you made your voices heard. It madeall the difference. But here’s the thing: IfAmericans don’t know how to access the newbenefits and protections that they’re going toreceive as we implement this law, then healthcare reform won’t make much of a differencein their lives.

So I’m here to also ask for your help, be-cause we need to get the word out. We needyou to tell your patients, your friends, yourneighbors, your family members what thehealth care law means for them. Make surethey know that if they don’t have health insur-ance, they’ll be able to sign up for quality, af-fordable health insurance starting this fall in anonline marketplace where private insurers willcompete for their business. Make sure thatthey know that there are plans out there rightnow that cover the cost of contraception andpreventive care free of charge.

We’ve got to spread the word, particularlyamong women, particularly among youngwomen, who are the ones who are most likelyto benefit from these laws. We need all thewomen who come through your doors tellingtheir children, their husbands, and their folksin their neighborhoods about their health careoptions. We need all college students whocome through your doors to call up theirfriends and post on Facebook talking about theprotections and benefits that are kicking in.

And you are all in a unique position to deliv-er that message because the women you serveknow you and they trust you. And the reasonfor that is that you haven’t let them down be-fore.

I know it’s not always easy. As Cecile de-scribes, Planned Parenthood is the only organi-

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zation that she’s ever been at where there areopponents who, in her words, “literally get upevery day trying to figure out how to keep usfrom doing our work.” Now, if she had workedin the administration—[laughter]—she’d bemore familiar with this phenomenon. [Laugh-ter] But when it comes to your patients, younever let them down, no matter what.

And that’s because you never forget whothis is all about. This is about a woman fromChicago named Courtney who has a diseasethat can leave women infertile. So, in college,she turned to Planned Parenthood for access toaffordable contraceptive care to keep herhealthy. You didn’t just help her plan for a fam-ily, you made sure she could start one. And to-day, she’s got two beautiful kids. That’s whatPlanned Parenthood is about.

This is about a woman in Washington Statenamed Joyce who for years could only affordhealth care at her local Planned Parenthoodclinic. And heeding your advice, she nevermissed her annual exam. During one of them,your doctors helped catch an aggressive formof cervical cancer early enough to save her life.Today, she’s been cancer free for 25 years.

So every day, in every State, in every centerthat Planned Parenthood operates, there arestories like those: lives you’ve saved, womenyou’ve empowered, families that you’vestrengthened. That’s why, no matter how greatthe challenge, no matter how fierce the opposi-tion, if there’s one thing the past few yearshave shown, it’s that Planned Parenthood isnot going anywhere. It’s not going anywheretoday. It’s not going anywhere tomorrow.

As long as we’ve got to fight to make surewomen have access to quality, affordablehealth care, and as long as we’ve got to fight toprotect a woman’s right to make her ownchoices about her own health, I want you toknow that you’ve also got a President who’s go-ing to be right there with you fighting everystep of the way.

Thank you, Planned Parenthood. God blessyou. God bless America. Thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 11:17 a.m. atthe Washington Marriott Wardman Park hotel.In his remarks, he referred to Cecile Richards,president, Planned Parenthood Federation ofAmerica.

Remarks Prior to a Meeting With King Abdullah II of Jordan and anExchange With ReportersApril 26, 2013

President Obama. Well, I want to welcometo the Oval Office once again King Abdullah.His Majesty is a great friend of the UnitedStates. And Jordan is a great partner to theUnited States on a whole host of issues. Andobviously, although we just recently saw eachother—and I want to thank again His Majestyfor the extraordinary hospitality that heshowed during our visit—there remain a hostof very urgent issues in the region that we’regoing to have an opportunity to discuss.

First of all, I want to congratulate His Maj-esty on a series of reforms that he’s initiated in-side of Jordan, and we want to find out how wecan continue to be supportive and helpful increating greater economic opportunity andprosperity in the area.

We have been supportive with respect toloan guarantees and other efforts, in part be-cause we’ve also seen King Abdullah take somevery important steps to further open democra-tization and entrepreneurship and economicdevelopment inside of Jordan. We want to en-courage that because we think Jordan can bean extraordinary model for effective gover-nance in the region.

We’re also going to have an opportunity totalk about the Middle East peace process. Andthe last time I saw King Abdullah, I’d justcome out of Israel and the West Bank in con-sultations with Prime Minister Netanyahu andPresident Abbas. And Jordan, like the UnitedStates, has an enormous stake in peace. Andwe do think that there’s a window of

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opportunity that needs to be seized, and so wewill both consult in how we can jumpstart seri-ous conversations that could lead to a peacefulsettlement and both a secure Israel with nor-malized relations with its neighbors and a Pal-estinian state that was sovereign.

Of great urgency right now obviously is thesituation in Syria. Jordan has experienced ahuge influx of refugees coming into the coun-try from Syria, people who’ve been displaced.Jordan historically has maintained open bor-ders and allowed these refugees, on a humani-tarian basis, to come in, but it’s an enormousstrain on a small country. And we are mobiliz-ing international support to help with theserefugees, but obviously, our goal is to create astable Syria, where civilians are not at risk.

And we both agree that at this point, Presi-dent Asad has lost legitimacy and that we needto find a political transition that allows a multi-sect, democratic transition to take place so thatSyria can be a place where all people can livein peace and harmony.

This will be difficult to accomplish. And yes-terday some of you saw that I asked my peopleto brief Congress about the fact that we nowhave some evidence that chemical weaponshave been used on the populations in Syria.Now, these are preliminary assessments;they’re based on our intelligence gathering.It—we have varying degrees of confidenceabout the actual use, but there are a range ofquestions around how, when, where theseweapons may have been used.

So we’re going to be pursuing a very vigor-ous investigation ourselves, and we’re going tobe consulting with our partners in the region aswell as the international community and theUnited Nations to make sure that we are inves-tigating this as effectively and as quickly as wecan.

But I meant what I’ve said, and I will repeat,that it’s obviously horrific as it is when mortarsare being fired on civilians and people are be-ing indiscriminately killed. To use potentialweapons of mass destruction on civilian popu-lations crosses another line with respect to in-ternational norms and international law. Andthat is going to be a game changer.

We have to act prudently. We have to makethese assessments deliberately. But I think allof us, not just in the United States, but aroundthe world, recognize how we cannot stand byand permit the systematic use of weapons likechemical weapons on civilian populations.

So this is going to be something that we’ll bepaying a lot of attention to, trying to confirm,and mobilize the international communityaround those issues.

But in everything that we do, we very muchappreciate the kinds of support, advice, coun-sel, and partnership that we have with HisMajesty and the people of Jordan. And we lookforward to a fruitful consultation this after-noon.

King Abdullah. Mr. President, thank youvery much. We’re delighted to be back hereagain. And may I first start off by expressing,on behalf of myself, the delegation and peopleof Jordan, our true, heartfelt condolences onthe tremendous tragedies both in Boston forthe bombings, as well as that of Texas, espe-cially that of Boston. We’ve always stood to-gether in our fight against terrorism, and this isan issue that we will always be strong partnersthere.

As you’ve mentioned, sir, on the issue of thepeace process, when you were in Jordan, I—we had mentioned, this is the homework stage.Jordan will continue to work very closely withthe Israelis and the Palestinians, obviously withour American allies to see how we can bringboth sides closer together.

But one of the major concerns that brings ushere to Washington together, as you alludedto, is obviously the challenge with Syria, thefragmentation of Syrian society, which is be-coming more and more alarming.

Since your last visit to Jordan 5 weeks ago,we’ve had over 60,000 refugees, up to over halfa million, so we’re at 10 percent of an increaseof our population. We’re so grateful to the sup-port that you and the American people havegiven to our country. You couldn’t do more,quite honestly, and we’re so grateful. I justwanted to express our appreciation on behalfof myself and the Jordanian people for that.

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I think, sir, that we are both working veryhard to look for a political solution for a Syriathat is one that is, as you mentioned, inclusiveso that we bring everybody together, which issort of our last hope to—as we’re now seeing,the surge of the second threat appear, which isthat of militant terrorist organizations that haverisen over the past several months. But I amconfident, with your leadership and with themeetings that we will have today, that we canfind a mechanism to bring the solution—to anend as quickly as possible.

Lastly, sir, you had the Crown Prince of theUnited Arab Emirates, Mohammed bin Zayed,who is one of our strongest strategic allies. AndI know that is his position with the UnitedStates, as well as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia;the three of us are working very hard in coop-eration with the United States to try to find aquick and just solution to the Syrian crisis.

So I look forward to our discussions laterthis afternoon, and I hope that together we willbe able to alleviate the suffering—[inaudible].

President Obama. Okay.

Syria

Q. Mr. President, why has the red line beencrossed——

President Obama. You guys all have thesame question?

Q. Yes.Q. You know that they are——Q. Do you have a red line, Mr. President?

Do you have a red line?President Obama. Hold on a second, guys.

One at a time. The—what we have right now is an intelli-

gence assessment. And as I said, knowing thatpotentially chemical weapons have been usedinside of Syria doesn’t tell us when they wereused, how they were used. Obtaining confir-mation and strong evidence, all of those thingswe have to make sure that we work on with theinternational community. And we ourselves aregoing to be putting a lot of resources into fo-cusing on this.

And I think that, in many ways, a line’s beencrossed when we see tens of thousands of inno-cent people being killed by a regime. But theuse of chemical weapons and the dangers thatposes to the international community, toneighbors of Syria, the potential for chemicalweapons to get into the hands of terrorists—allof those things add increased urgency to whatis already a significant security problem andhumanitarian problem in the region.

So we’re going to be working with countrieslike Jordan to try to obtain more direct evi-dence and confirmation of this potential use.In the meantime, I’ve been very clear publicly,but also privately, that for the Syrian Govern-ment to utilize chemical weapons on its peoplecrosses a line that will change my calculus andhow the United States approaches these issues.

So this is not an on-or-off switch. This is anongoing challenge that all of us have to be con-cerned about. And we’re going to be workingwith the international community and ourpartners to keep our eyes on what’s happeningon the ground, to gather any evidence of po-tential chemical weapon use, and at the sametime, to continue to help with a moderate andinclusive opposition to help bring about theday when the Syrian people can once again fo-cus on living their lives, raising their children,starting businesses, and obtaining basic free-dom and human rights.

This is going to be a long-term proposition.This is not going to be something that is solvedeasily overnight. But I know that King Abdul-lah is committed to trying to find these kinds ofsolutions. So am I. All right?


NOTE: The President spoke at 2:07 p.m. in theOval Office at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to Prime Minister Benja-min Netanyahu of Israel; and President Mah-moud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority. KingAbdullah referred to Crown Prince Moham-med bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, Dep-uty Supreme Commander of the Armed Forc-es of the United Arab Emirates.

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Hi, everybody. Our top priority as a nationmust be growing the economy, creating goodjobs, and rebuilding opportunity for the middleclass.

But 2 months ago, Congress allowed a seriesof automatic budget cuts to fall across the Fed-eral Government that would do the opposite.In Washington-speak, these cuts were calledthe sequester. It was a bad idea then. And asthe country saw this week, it’s a bad idea now.

Because of these reckless cuts, there areparents whose kids just got kicked out of HeadStart programs who right now are scramblingfor a solution. There are seniors who dependon programs like Meals on Wheels to live inde-pendently looking for help. There are militarycommunities—families that have obviously al-ready sacrificed enough—coping under newstrains. All because of these cuts.

This week, the sequester hurt travelers, whowere stuck for hours in airports and on planesand rightly frustrated by it. And maybe be-cause they fly home each weekend, the Mem-bers of Congress who insisted on these cuts fi-nally realized that they actually apply to themtoo.

Republicans claimed victory when the se-quester first took effect, and now they’ve de-cided it was a bad idea all along. Well, first,they should look at their own budget. If thecuts they proposed were applied across theboard, the FAA would suffer cuts three timesdeeper.

So Congress passed a temporary fix, a ban-daid. But these cuts are scheduled to keep fall-ing across other parts of the Government thatprovide vital services for the American people.And we can’t just keep putting bandaids on ev-ery cut. It’s not a responsible way to govern.

There is only one way to truly fix the sequester:by replacing it before it causes further damage.

A couple of weeks ago, I put forward a bud-get that replaces the next several years of thesedumb cuts with smarter cuts, reforms our TaxCode to close wasteful special interest loop-holes, and invests in things like education, re-search, and manufacturing that will create newjobs right now.

So I hope Members of Congress will findthe same sense of urgency and bipartisan coop-eration to help the families still in the cross-hairs of these cuts. Members of Congress maynot feel the pain felt by kids kicked off HeadStart or the 750,000 Americans projected tolose their jobs because of these cuts or thelong-term unemployed who will be furtherhurt by them. But that pain is real.

The American people worked too hard, fortoo long, rebuilding from one economic crisisjust to see your elected officials keep causingmore. Our economy is growing. And our defi-cits are shrinking. We’re creating jobs on aconsistent basis. But we need to do more tohelp middle class families get ahead, and givemore folks a chance to earn their way into themiddle class. We can do that, if we work to-gether. That’s what you expect. And that’s whatI’m going to keep on working on every singleday to help deliver. Thanks so much.

NOTE: The address was recorded at approxi-mately 4:40 p.m. on April 26 in the Dwight D.Eisenhower Executive Office Building forbroadcast on April 27. The transcript was madeavailable by the Office of the Press Secretaryon April 26, but was embargoed for release un-til 6 a.m. on April 27.

Remarks at the White House Correspondents’ Association DinnerApril 27, 2013

White House Correspondents’ AssociationPresident Ed Henry. And without further ado,

I’d like to introduce the President of the Unit-ed States.

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[At this point “Hail to the Chief” began to play.The music then changed to “All I Do Is Win”by rap artist DJ Khaled.]

The President. Thank you. Thank you, ev-erybody. [Laughter] How do you like my newentrance music? Rush Limbaugh warned youabout this. Second term, baby. [Laughter]We’re changing things around here a little bit.[Laughter]

Actually, my advisers were a little worriedabout the new rap entrance music. [Laughter]They are a little more traditional. They sug-gested that I should start with some jokes atmy own expense, just take myself down a peg. Iwas like, guys, after 4½ years, how many pegsare there left? [Laughter]

I want to thank the White House correspon-dents. Ed, you’re doing an outstanding job. Weare grateful for the great work you’ve done. Toall the dignitaries who are here, everybody onthe dais; I especially want to say thank you toRay Odierno, who does outstanding service onbehalf of our country, and all our men andwomen in uniform every single day.

And of course, our extraordinary First Lady,Michelle Obama. Everybody loves Michelle.[Laughter] She’s on the cover of Vogue, highpoll numbers. But don’t worry, I recently gotmy own magazine cover. [Laughter]

[An image of a magazine titled “Senior Lei-sure” with a photo of the President and VicePresident Joe Biden playing golf was shown.]

Now, look, I get it. These days, I look in themirror and I have to admit, I’m not the strap-ping young Muslim Socialist that I used to be.[Laughter] Time passes. You get a little gray.[Laughter]

And yet, even after all this time, I still makerookie mistakes. Like, I’m out in California,we’re at a fundraiser, we’re having a nice time.I happen to mention that Kamala Harris is thebest looking attorney general in the country.[Laughter] As you might imagine, I got troublewhen I got back home. [Laughter] Who knewEric Holder was so sensitive? [Laughter]

And then, there’s the Easter egg roll, whichis supposed to be just a nice, fun event with the

kids. I go out on the basketball court, took 22shots, made 2 of them. [Laughter] That’s right:2 hits, 20 misses. The executives at NBC asked,“What’s your secret?” [Laughter]

So yes, maybe I have lost a step. But somethings are beyond my control. For example,this whole controversy about Jay-Z going toCuba, it’s unbelievable. I’ve got 99 problems,and now Jay-Z is one. [Laughter] That’s anoth-er rap reference, Bill. [Laughter] I wanted tolet you know.

Of course, everybody has got plenty of ad-vice. Maureen Dowd said I could solve all myproblems if I were just more like MichaelDouglas in “The American President.” [Laugh-ter] And I know Michael is here tonight. Mi-chael, what’s your secret, man? [Laughter]Could it be that you were an actor in an AaronSorkin liberal fantasy? [Laughter] Might thathave something to do with it? I don’t know.Check in with me. Maybe it’s something else.[Laughter]

Anyway, I recognize that this job can take atoll on you. I understand, second term, youneed a burst of new energy, try some newthings. And my team and I talked about it. Wewere willing to try anything. So we borrowedone of Michelle’s tricks. [Laughter]

[Several images of the President with a bangshairstyle were shown.]

I thought this looked pretty good, but nobounce. [Laughter] Anyway——

I want to give a shout-out to our headliner,Conan O’Brien. I was just talking to Ed, and Iunderstand that when the Correspondents’ As-sociation was considering Conan for this gig,they were faced with that age-old dilemma: Doyou offer it to him now or wait for 5 years andthen give it to Jimmy Fallon? [Laughter] Thatwas a little harsh. [Laughter] I love Conan.

And of course, the White House press corpsis here. I know CNN has taken some knockslately, but the fact is, I admire their commit-ment to cover all sides of a story, just in case oneof them happens to be accurate. [Laughter]

Some of my former advisers have switchedover to the dark side. For example, David Axel-rod now works for MSNBC, which is a nice

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change of pace since MSNBC used to work forDavid Axelrod. [Laughter]

The History Channel is not here. I guessthey were embarrassed about the wholeObama-is-a-devil thing. [Laughter]

[An image of Satan, played by actor MohamenMehdi Ouazanni, from the History Channel’sminiseries “The Bible” was shown.]

Of course, that never kept Fox News fromshowing up. [Laughter] They actually thoughtthe comparison was not fair—to Satan.[Laughter]

But the problem is, is that the media land-scape is changing so rapidly. You can’t keep upwith it. I mean, I remember when BuzzFeedwas just something I did in college around 2a.m. [Laughter] It’s true. [Laughter]

Recently, though, I found a new favoritesource for political news. These guys are great.I think everybody here should check it out;they tell it like it is. It’s called whitehouse.gov.[Laughter] I cannot get enough of it.

The fact is, I really do respect the press. Irecognize that the press and I have differentjobs to do. My job is to be President; your jobis to keep me humble. Frankly, I think I’m do-ing my job better. [Laughter]

But part of the problem is, everybody is socynical. I mean, we’re constantly feeding cyni-cism, suspicion, conspiracies. You remember afew months ago, my administration put out aphotograph of me going skeet shooting atCamp David? You remember that? And quitea number of people insisted that this had beenPhotoshopped.

[An image of the President skeet shooting wasshown.]

But tonight I have something to confess:You were right. Guys, can we show them theactual photo? [Laughter]

[An image of the President skeet shooting, witha bald eagle perched on his shoulder, kneelingon the roof of a racecar driven by Vice Presi-dent Biden in a barren, rocky landscape with arainbow, lightning, and a large full moon in the

sky, and a giant kitten shooting laser beams outof its eyes at a monster truck in the backgroundwas shown.]

We were just trying to tone it down a littlebit. [Laughter] That was an awesome day.[Laughter]

There are other new players in the medialandscape as well, like super PACs. Did youknow that Sheldon Adelson spent $100 millionof his own money last year on negative ads?You’ve got to really dislike me—[laughter]—tospend that kind of money. I mean, that’s Oprahmoney. [Laughter] You could buy an islandand call it “Nobama” for that kind of money.[Laughter] Sheldon would have been better offoffering me $100 million to drop out of therace. [Laughter] I probably wouldn’t have tak-en it, but I’d have thought about it. [Laughter]Michelle would have taken it. [Laughter] Youthink I’m joking? [Laughter]

I know Republicans are still sorting out whathappened in 2012, but one thing they all agreeon is they need to do a better job reaching outto minorities. And look, call me self-centered,but I can think of one minority they could startwith. [Laughter]

[The President raised his hand.]

Hello. [Laughter] Think of me as a trial run,you know? [Laughter] See how it goes.[Laughter]

If they won’t come to me, I will come tothem. Recently, I had dinner—it’s been wellpublicized—I had dinner with a number of theRepublican Senators. And I’ll admit it wasn’teasy. I proposed a toast; it died in committee.[Laughter]

Of course, even after I’ve done all this, somefolks still don’t think I spend enough time withCongress. Why don’t you get a drink withMitch, they ask. Really? [Laughter] Why don’tyou get a drink with Mitch McConnell?[Laughter] I’m sorry. I get frustrated some-times.

I am not giving up. In fact, I’m taking mycharm offensive on the road: a Texas barbequewith Ted Cruz, a Kentucky bluegrass concert

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with Rand Paul, and a book-burning with Mi-chele Bachmann. [Laughter]

My charm offensive has helped me learnsome interesting things about what’s going onin Congress: It turns out, absolutely nothing.[Laughter] But the point of my charm offen-sive is simple: We need to make progress onsome important issues. Take the sequester. Re-publicans fell in love with this thing, and nowthey can’t stop talking about how much theyhate it. It’s like we’re trapped in a Taylor Swiftalbum. [Laughter]

One Senator who has reached across theaisle recently is Marco Rubio, but I don’t knowabout 2016. I mean, the guy has not even fin-ished a single term in the Senate and he thinkshe’s ready to be President. [Laughter] Kidsthese days.

I, on the other hand, have run my last cam-paign. On Thursday, as Ed mentioned, I wentto the opening of the Bush Presidential Libraryin Dallas. It was a wonderful event, and that in-spired me to get started on my own legacy,which will actually begin by building anotheredifice right next to the Bush Library. Can weshow that, please? [Laughter]

[An image of the Bush Library was shown. Abillboard atop an adjacent building displayedthe words “His Fault,” with an arrow pointingtoward the Bush Library. The adjacent build-ing was labeled “The Blame Bush Library.”]

I’m also hard at work on plans for theObama Library. And some have suggested thatwe put it in my birthplace, but I’d rather keepit in the United States. [Laughter] Did any-body not see that joke coming? [Laughter]Show of hands. Only Gallup? Maybe DickMorris? [Laughter]

Now, speaking of Presidents and their lega-cies, I want to acknowledge a wonderful friend,Steven Spielberg, and Daniel Day-Lewis, whoare here tonight. We had a screening of theirmost recent film, “Lincoln,” which was an ex-traordinary film. I am a little nervous, though,about Steven’s next project. I saw a behind-the-scenes look on HBO. Well, let’s just checkit out. Roll the tape.

[A video about a mock film project by directorSteven Spielberg titled “Obama” was shown.]

It’s a remarkable transformation. Do I reallysound like that, though, honey? [Laughter]Wow.

Groucho Marx once said—and, SenatorCruz, that’s Groucho Marx, not Karl. That’sthe other guy. [Laughter] Groucho Marx oncetold an audience, “Before I speak, I have some-thing important to say.” [Laughter] And alongthose same lines, I want to close on a more se-rious note.

Obviously, there has been no shortage ofnews to cover over these past few weeks. Andthese have been some very hard days for toomany of our citizens. Even as we gather heretonight, our thoughts are not far from the peo-ple of Boston and the people of West, Texas.There are families in the Midwest who arecoping with some terrible floods. So we’ve hadsome difficult days.

But even when the days seemed darkest, wehave seen humanity shine at its brightest.We’ve seen first responders and NationalGuardsmen who have dashed into danger, lawenforcement officers who lived their oath toserve and to protect, and everyday Americanswho are opening their homes and their heartsto perfect strangers.

And we also saw journalists at their best, es-pecially those who took the time to wade up-stream through the torrent of digital rumors tochase down leads and verify facts and painstak-ingly put the pieces together to inform and toeducate and to tell stories that demanded to betold.

If anyone wonders, for example, whethernewspapers are a thing of the past, all youneeded to do was to pick up or log on to paperslike the Boston Globe. When their communi-ties and the wider world needed them most,they were there making sense of events thatmight at first blush seem beyond our compre-hension. And that’s what great journalism is,and that’s what great journalists do. And that’swhy, for example, Pete Williams’s new nick-name around the NBC newsroom is “Big Papi.”

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And in these past few weeks, as I’ve gotten achance to meet many of the first respondersand the police officers and volunteers whoraced to help when hardship hits, I was re-minded, as I’m always reminded when I meetour men and women in uniform—whetherthey’re in war theater or here back home or atWalter Reed in Bethesda—I’m reminded thatall these folks, they don’t do it to be honored,they don’t do it to be celebrated. They do it be-cause they love their families and they lovetheir neighborhoods and they love their coun-try.

And so these men and women should in-spire all of us in this room to live up to thosesame standards, to be worthy of their trust, todo our jobs with the same fidelity and the sameintegrity and the same sense of purpose andthe same love of country. Because if we’re onlyfocused on profits or ratings or polls, thenwe’re contributing to the cynicism that somany people feel right now.

And so those of us in this room tonight, weare incredibly lucky. And the fact is, we can dobetter, all of us. Those of us in public office,those of us in the press, those who produce en-tertainment for our kids, those with power,those with influence—all of us, including my-self—we can strive to value those things that Isuspect led most of us to do the work that we

do in the first place: because we believed insomething that was true and we believed inservice and the idea that we can have a lasting,positive impact on the lives of the peoplearound us.

And that’s our obligation. That’s a task weshould gladly embrace on behalf of all of thosefolks who are counting on us, on behalf of thiscountry that’s given us so much.

So thank you all, to the White House corre-spondents for the great work you do. God blessyou all. May God bless the United States ofAmerica.

NOTE: The President spoke at 10:14 p.m. atthe Washington Hilton hotel. In his remarks,he referred to radio show hosts Rush Lim-baugh and Dick Morris; musician Shawn C.“Jay-Z” Carter; Bill O’Reilly, host, Fox NewsChannel’s “The O’Reilly Factor” program;Maureen B. Dowd, columnist, New YorkTimes; screenwriter Aaron Sorkin; Conan C.O’Brien, host, TBS’s “Conan” program; JamesT. Fallon, Jr., host, NBC’s “Late Night WithJimmy Fallon” program; former White HouseSenior Adviser David M. Axelrod; Sheldon G.Adelson, chairman and chief executive officer,Las Vegas Sands Corp.; talk show host OprahWinfrey; actor Daniel Day-Lewis; and PeteWilliams, correspondent, NBC News.

Remarks at the National Academy of SciencesApril 29, 2013

Thank you so much. Please, everybody, havea seat.

Well, it’s good to be back. Good morning,everybody, and thank you, Dr. Cicerone, forthe kind introduction and the great work thatyou do. The good doctor was reminding methat the first time I came here, he—apparentlyjoking, I warned him and John Holdren not toage too much in their jobs. And it turns out,I’m the guy who’s aged. [Laughter] They lookgreat.

But as always, it’s an honor to join our Na-tion’s preeminent scholars, including my ownscience adviser, John Holdren, to celebrate the150th anniversary of the National Academy of

Sciences. And since I did not do well enough inchemistry or physics to impress you much onthose topics, let me instead tell a story.

One hundred and fifty years ago, the Na-tion, as all of you know, was in the midst of theCivil War, and the Union had recently suffereda devastating defeat at Fredericksburg. Theroad ahead seemed long and uncertain. Con-federate advances in weapons technology casta dark shadow on the Union.

The previous spring, in the waters outside ofHampton Roads, the ironclad Confederatebattleship Virginia had sunk two woodenUnion ships and advanced on a third, and thisendangered the Union blockade of Virginia

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and threatened Union forces along the Po-tomac River. And then, overnight, the USSMonitor, an ironclad herself, arrived andfought the Virginia to a draw in the world’sfirst battle between ironsided ships.

There was no victor, but the era of ironcladwarfare had begun. And it brought unexpectedchallenges for President Lincoln and his Navyas they expanded this fleet in early 1863, be-cause aboard their new ironside battleships,sailors found that the iron siding made theships’ compasses unpredictable, so it skewednavigation and they were bumping into thingsand going the wrong way. [Laughter] So thebasic physics of magnetism undermined theusefulness of the ironclad vessels, even as theConfederates were stocking up on them.

And that’s where your predecessors came in.Because in March of 1983—1863, rather—President Lincoln and Congress establishedthe National Academy of Sciences as an inde-pendent and nonprofit institution charged withthe mission to provide the Government withthe scientific advice that it needed. And thiswas advice that was particularly useful in thethick of battle.

The National Academy soon counted theNation’s top scientists as members. Theyquickly got to work. By the next year, theywere inspecting the Union’s ironclads and in-stalling an array of bar magnets around thecompasses to correct their navigation. So rightoff the bat, you guys were really useful.[Laughter] In fact, it’s fair to say we might notbe here had you not—[laughter]—certainly, Iwould not be here. [Laughter]

Now, political leaders have long recognizedthe connection between technology and war-fare throughout our human history. Sadly, thisis an element of the human condition. We takeour wars very seriously, and we’re always look-ing for new ways to engage in a war. But Presi-dent Lincoln founded the Academy with amandate that went far beyond the science andtechnology of war. Even as the Nation was atwar with itself, President Lincoln had the wis-dom to look forward, and he recognized thatfinding a way to harness the highest caliber sci-entific advice for the Government would serve

a whole range of long-term goals for the Na-tion.

It was the same foresight that led him to es-tablish land-grant colleges and finish the trans-continental railroad: the idea that the essenceof America is this hunger to innovate, this rest-lessness, this quest for the next big thing. Andalthough much of this innovation would begenerated by the powers of our free market,the investments and the convening power ofthe Federal Government could accelerate dis-covery in a way that would continually push theNation forward.

That’s our inheritance, and now the task fallsto us. We, too, face significant challenges, obvi-ously not of the magnitude that President Lin-coln faced, but we’ve got severe economic andsecurity and environmental challenges. Andwhat we know from our past is that the invest-ments we make today are bound to pay offmany times over in the years to come.

So we will continue to pursue advances inscience and engineering, in infrastructure andinnovation, in education and environmentalprotection, especially science-based initiativesto help us minimize and adapt to global threatslike climate change.

And I’m confident we’ll meet that task be-cause we’ve got you—brilliant and committedscientists—to help us guide the way. And partof what’s made the Academy so effective is thatall the scientists elected to your elite ranks arevolunteers, which is fortunate because we haveno money anyway. [Laughter] For 150 years,you’ve strived to answer big questions, solvetough problems, not for yourselves, but for thebenefit of the Nation. And that legacy has en-dured from the Academy’s founding days. Andwhen you look at our history, you’ve steppedup at the times of enormous need and, in somecases, great peril.

When Woodrow Wilson needed help under-standing the science of military preparedness,he asked the Academy’s eminent scientists tolay it out for him. When George W. Bush,more recently, wanted to study the long-termhealth effects of traumatic brain injuries suf-fered by soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, heset your scholars to the task. Today, my

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administration relies on your expertise to an-swer critical questions like: How do we set ourbasic priorities for research? How can we getthe most out of the nanotechnology revolu-tion? What are the underlying causes of gun vi-olence?

And more important than any single studyor report, the members of this institution em-body what is so necessary for us to continueour scientific advance and to maintain our cut-ting edge, and that’s restless curiosity andboundless hope, but also a fidelity to facts andtruth and a willingness to follow where the evi-dence leads.

Now, I’d like to acknowledge the other orga-nizations that have been obviously very impor-tant in this whole process—the National Acad-emy of Sciences, the National Academy of En-gineering, the Institute of Medicine—allwho’ve contributed similar leadership in main-taining the tradition, upholding the higheststandard of science.

And by the way, we do have colleagues inCongress who believe in science and believe inevidence. One of them is here, CongressmanRush Holt. We’re very grateful to him for hisoutstanding work. And I want to thank many ofthe members of my administration, as well asPCAST, my—I always forget what exactly itstands for, but—[laughter]—it’s my smart sci-ence people, who have contributed enormous-ly to the work that we’re doing on a wholerange of issues, from energy to manufactur-ing—advanced manufacturing, have reallybeen extraordinary. I want to thank the mem-bers of my administration who are here as well,who all are invested in making sure that wekeep American science the best in the world.

Now, the good news is America remains aworld leader in patents and scientific discov-ery. Our university system is the crown jewel ofour economy as well as our civilization. Andthat’s what’s allowing us to continually replen-ish our stock of people who are willing todream big dreams and reach higher than any-body else.

And what I want to communicate to all ofyou is, is that as long as I’m President, we’regoing to continue to be committed to investing

in the promising ideas that are generated fromyou and your institutions, because they lead toinnovative products, they help boost our econ-omy, but also because that’s who we are. I’mcommitted to it because that’s what makes usspecial and ultimately what makes life worthliving.

And that’s why we’re pursuing “Grand Chal-lenges” like making solar energy as cheap ascoal and building electric vehicles as affordableas the ones that run on gas. And earlier thismonth, I unveiled the BRAIN Initiative, whichwill give scientists the tools that they need toget a dynamic picture of the brain in action andbetter understand how we think and learn andremember.

Today, all around the country, scientists likeyou are developing therapies to regeneratedamaged organs, creating new devices to en-able brain-controlled prosthetic limbs, andsending sophisticated robots into space tosearch for signs of past life on Mars. That senseof wonder and that sense of discovery, it haspractical application, but it also nurtures what Ibelieve is best in us.

And right now we’re on the brink of amazingbreakthroughs that have the chance, the po-tential, to change life for the better, which iswhy we can’t afford to gut these investments inscience and technology. Unfortunately, that’swhat we’re facing right now. Because of theacross-the-board cuts that Congress put inplace—the sequester, as it’s known in Wash-ingtonspeak—it’s hitting our scientific re-search. Instead of racing ahead on the next cut-ting-edge discovery, our scientists are left won-dering if they’ll get to start any new projects—any new research projects at all over the nextfew years, which means that we could lose ayear, 2 years of scientific research as a practicalmatter because of misguided priorities here inthis town.

With the pace of technological innovation to-day, we can’t afford to stand still for a year or 2years or 3 years. We’ve got to seize every oppor-tunity we have to stay ahead. And we can’t letother countries win the race for ideas and tech-nology of the future. And I say that, by the way,not out of just any nationalistic pride—although,

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obviously, that’s part of it—but it’s also becausenobody does it better than we do when it’s ade-quately funded, when it’s adequately supported.And what we produce here ends up having ben-efits worldwide. We should be reaching for alevel of private and public research and develop-ment investment that we haven’t seen since theheight of the space race. That’s my goal.

And it’s not just resources. I mean, one ofthe things that I’ve tried to do over these last 4years, and will continue to do over the next 4years, is to make sure that we are promotingthe integrity of our scientific process; that notjust in the physical and life sciences, but also infields like psychology and anthropology andeconomics and political science—all of whichare sciences because scholars develop and testhypotheses and subject them to peer review—but in all the sciences, we’ve got to make surethat we are supporting the idea that they’re notsubject to politics, that they’re not skewed byan agenda; that, as I said before, we make surethat we go where the evidence leads us. Andthat’s why we’ve got to keep investing in thesesciences.

And what’s true of all sciences is that in or-der for us to maintain our edge, we’ve got toprotect our rigorous peer review system andensure that we only fund proposals that prom-ise the biggest bang for taxpayer dollars. And Iwill keep working to make sure that our scien-tific research does not fall victim to politicalmaneuvers or agendas that in some ways wouldimpact on the integrity of the scientific pro-cess. That’s what’s going to maintain our stan-dards of scientific excellence for years to come.

That’s why, by the way, one of the thingsthat I’ve focused on as President is an all-hands-on-deck approach to the sciences, aswell as technology and engineering and math.And that’s why we’re spending a lot of time fo-cused on the next generation. With the help ofJohn Holdren and everybody who’s workingwith my administration, we want to make surethat we are exciting young people around mathand science and technology and computer sci-ence. We don’t want our kids just to be con-sumers of the amazing things that science gen-erates, we want them to be producers as well.

And we want to make sure that those who his-torically have not participated in the sciencesas robustly—girls, members of minority groupshere in this country—that they are encouragedas well.

We’ve got to make sure that we’re traininggreat calculus and biology teachers and en-couraging students to keep up with their phys-ics and chemistry classes. That includes Maliaand Sasha. [Laughter] It means teaching prop-er research methods and encouraging youngpeople to challenge accepted knowledge. Itmeans expanding and maintaining critical in-vestments in biomedical research and helpinginnovators turn their discoveries into new busi-nesses and products. And it means maintainingthat spirit of discovery.

Last week, I got a chance to do one of my fa-vorite things as President, and that is, we start-ed these White House Science Fairs. Andthese kids are remarkable. I mean, I know youguys were smart when you were their age,but—[laughter]—I might give them the edge.[Laughter] I mean, you had young people whowere converting algae into sustainable biofuels.That was one of my favorites because theyoung lady had—she kept the algae under herbed; she had, like, a whole lab, which meantthat she had really supportive parents. [Laugh-ter] I pictured it bubbling out and starting tocreep into the hallways. [Laughter]

You had young people who were purifyingwater with bicycle-power-generated batteries.You had young people who had already de-vised faster and cheaper tests for cancer. Theseare 15-, 16-year-olds.

They were all dreaming to grow up and bejust like you, maybe with a little less grayhair—[laughter]—but they shared your pas-sion. They shared that excitement. And whatwas interesting was, not only did they sharethat sense of wonder and discovery, but theyalso shared this fundamental optimism that ifyou figured this stuff out, people’s lives wouldbe better; that there were no inherent barriersto us solving the big problems that we face aslong as we were diligent and focused and ob-servant and curious.

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And we’ve got to make sure that we’re sup-porting that next generation of dreamers andrisk takers, because if we are, things will begood. They leave me with extraordinary opti-mism. They leave me hopeful. They leave—they put a smile on my face. And I am abso-lutely convinced that if this Academy and thesuccessors who become members of this Acad-emy are there at the center and the heart ofour public debate, that we’ll be able to contin-ue to use the innovation that powers our econ-omy and improves our health, protects our en-vironment and security, that makes us the envyof the world.

So I want to thank you on behalf of theAmerican people. And I want to make sure

that you know that you’ve got a strong support-er in the White House.

God bless you. God bless the United Statesof America. Thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 11:30 a.m. Inhis remarks, he referred to Ralph J. Cicerone,president, National Academy of Sciences; SaraVolz, student, Cheyenne Mountain HighSchool in Colorado Springs, CO, and her par-ents David and Pattye Volz; Payton Karr andKiona Elliott, students, Northeast High Schoolin Oakland Park, FL; and Jack Andraka, stu-dent, North County High School in Crowns-ville, MD. He also referred to the President’sCouncil of Advisers on Science and Technolo-gy (PCAST).

Remarks on the Nomination of Anthony R. Foxx To Be Secretary ofTransportationApril 29, 2013

The President. Thank you. Everybody,please have a seat.

Audience members. Good afternoon.The President. Ray LaHood has said that be-

ing the Secretary of Transportation is the bestjob he ever had in public service. And that’s fit-ting, because Ray may be the best Secretary ofTransportation that the Nation’s ever had.

From the day that he was sworn in, Ray hasfought tirelessly to rebuild America’s infra-structure, creating good jobs that strengthenthe economy and allow us to better compete inthe global economy. Over the past 4 years,thanks to Ray’s leadership, we’ve built or im-proved more than 350,000 miles of road,enough to circle the world more than 14 times.We’ve upgraded more than 6,000 miles of rail,enough to go coast to coast and back. We’ve re-paired or replaced more than 20,000 bridgesand helped put tens of thousands of construc-tion workers back on the job. And that’s all duein no small part to Ray LaHood’s leadership.

So every American can thank Ray for hisdedication to make our transportation systemnot just stronger, but also safer. When it comesto his focused attention on the dangers of dis-tracted driving, for example, it’s saving lives.

And on a personal note, Ray LaHood hasbeen a good friend of mine for many years. Be-fore he served in my Cabinet, we served to-gether in Congress. He’s a Republican; I’m aDemocrat. These days, that sometimes keepsfolks apart, but what always brought Ray and Itogether was a shared belief that those of uswho serve in public service owe their alle-giance not to party, but to the people whoelected them to represent them.

And it helps that we’re from the same State.Ray is from Peoria; I’m from Chicago. But weboth love the State of Illinois, and we both getout there on the golf course—and we’re notthat good—[laughter]—but we don’t take our-selves too seriously. He is a good man and hasbeen an outstanding public servant and a mod-el for the kind of bipartisan approach to gover-nance that I think we need so badly in thistown.

So, Ray, on a personal level, I could not bemore grateful to you for your service and foryour friendship.

Now, unfortunately, for us, but fortunatelyfor them, Ray is now looking forward to spend-ing more time with his wife Kathy and theirfamily, especially a whole gaggle of grandchil-

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dren. And so today I’m proud to announce myintent to nominate another impressive leaderto carry on his great work at the Department ofTransportation: the mayor of Charlotte, myfriend from North Carolina, Mr. AnthonyFoxx.

Anthony’s life reflects the values he learnedgrowing up in West Charlotte, where he wasraised by his single mom and his grandparents.I should add, by the way, that his grandmotheris here, and she informed me that she workedhere in the White House in the Truman ad-ministration. So she’s just coming back to—she’s just coming back for a visit. And so thevalues that they instilled in them was to takepride in hard work, to take responsibility foryour actions, to take care of your community.And over the past 3½ years, those values havehelped Anthony become one of the most effec-tive mayors that Charlotte’s ever seen.

When Anthony became mayor in 2009,Charlotte, like the rest of the country, was go-ing through a bruising economic crisis. But thecity has managed to turn things around. Theeconomy is growing. There are more jobs,more opportunity. And if you ask Anthony howthat happened, he’ll tell you that one of thereasons is that Charlotte made one of the larg-est investments in transportation in the city’shistory.

Since Anthony took office, they’ve brokenground on a new streetcar project that’s goingto bring modern electric tram service to thedowntown area. They’ve expanded the interna-tional airport. And they’re extending the city’slight rail system. All of that has not only helpedcreate new jobs, it’s helped Charlotte becomemore attractive to business.

So I know Anthony’s experience will makehim an outstanding Transportation Secretary.He’s got the respect of his peers, mayors andGovernors all across the country. And as a con-sequence, I think that he’s going to be extraor-dinarily effective. One of the things that Raytaught me in watching him do his job is that es-tablishing personal relationships with mayorsand Governors and county executives makes allthe difference in the world, because transpor-

tation is one of those things that—it’s happen-ing on the ground.

And the Federal Government has got to beresponsive and has to understand what it’s likewhen you’re a mayor or a Governor or a countyexecutive trying to get these projects up andrunning, which also means that we have thepotential of continuing to streamline our ap-provals and get rid of some—sometimes diffi-culties in permitting that slow projects down,because we want to get people back to workand we want to get this country moving.

So I am absolutely confident that Anthony isgoing to do an outstanding job. I want to thankhis mom and grandma and lovely wife and twogood-looking kids for being willing to serve aswell. And I hope that the Senate confirms himquickly because we’ve got a lot of work to do.

Our top priority as a nation right now is do-ing everything we can to grow our economyand create good jobs and rebuild opportunityfor the middle class. And one of the best wayswe can do that is to put more Americans backto work rebuilding our infrastructure.

So that’s why, in my State of the Union Ad-dress, I proposed a Fix-It-First program to putmore people to work as soon as possible on ourmost urgent repairs. And to make sure taxpay-ers don’t shoulder the entire burden, I’ve alsoproposed a partnership with the private sector.But Congress has to step up, fund these proj-ects. They need to do it right away.

We need to modernize the infrastructurethat powers our economy. We need more high-speed rail and Internet and high-tech schoolsand self-healing power grids and bridges andtunnels and ports that help us ship products allaround the world stamped with three proudwords: Made in America. That’s how we’re go-ing to attract more businesses. That’s how we’regoing to create more jobs. That’s how we’re go-ing to stay competitive in this global economy.

So to Ray LaHood and his entire family, Iwant to thank you for just doing an extraordi-nary job. To Anthony and his family, I want tothank you guys for agreeing to serve. And Iknow that today’s announcement is not the big-gest thing that Anthony’s family’s got going onin the next week, because tomorrow is

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Anthony’s birthday. [Laughter] So we’re happythat we can kick off the celebration here at theWhite House.

And with that, what I’d like to do is ask bothof them to say a few words, starting with ouroutstanding current Secretary of Transporta-tion, Mr. Ray LaHood.

NOTE: The President spoke at 2:10 p.m. in theEast Room at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to Laura Foxx, mother,Mary Foxx, grandmother, Samara Foxx, wife,and Zachary and Hillary, children, of Secre-tary-designate Foxx.

The President’s News ConferenceApril 30, 2013

The President. Good afternoon—or goodmorning, everybody. I am here to answer ques-tions in honor of Ed Henry [Fox News], as hewraps up his tenure as president of the WhiteHouse Correspondents’ Association.

Ed, because of that, you get the first ques-tion. Congratulations.

Q. Thank you, sir, I really appreciate that.And I hope we can go back to business and be-ing mad at each other a little bit. [Laughter]

The President. I’m never mad at you.Q. Okay, good. Thank you, I appreciate that.The President. You may be mad at me.

[Laughter]

Syria

Q. I’m not. A couple of questions on nation-al security. On Syria, you said that the red linewas not just about chemical weapons beingused, but being spread, and it was a gamechanger. It seemed cut and dry. And now youradministration seems to be suggesting that lineis not clear. Do you risk U.S. credibility if youdon’t take military action?

And then on Benghazi, there are some survi-vors of that terror attack who say they want tocome forward and testify—some in your StateDepartment—and they say they’ve beenblocked. Will you allow them to testify?

The President. Well, first of all, on Syria, Ithink it’s important to understand that for sev-eral years now, what we’ve been seeing is aslowly unfolding disaster for the Syrian people.And this is not a situation in which we’ve beensimply bystanders to what’s been happening.My policy from the beginning has been thatPresident Asad had lost credibility, that he at-

tacked his own people, has killed his own peo-ple, unleashed a military against innocent civil-ians, and that the only way to bring stabilityand peace to Syria is going to be for Asad tostep down and to move forward on a politicaltransition.

In pursuit of that strategy, we’ve organizedthe international community. We are the larg-est humanitarian donor. We have worked tostrengthen the opposition. We have providednonlethal assistance to the opposition. We haveapplied sanctions on Syria. So there are awhole host of steps that we’ve been taking pre-cisely because, even separate from the chemi-cal weapons issue, what’s happening in Syria isa blemish on the international community gen-erally, and we’ve got to make sure that we’redoing everything we can to protect the Syrianpeople.

In that context, what I’ve also said is that theuse of chemical weapons would be a gamechanger, not simply for the United States, butfor the international community. And the rea-son for that is that we have established interna-tional law and international norms that saywhen you use these kinds of weapons, you havethe potential of killing massive numbers ofpeople in the most inhumane way possible, andthe proliferation risks are so significant that wedon’t want that genie out of the bottle. Sowhen I said that the use of chemical weaponswould be a game changer, that wasn’t uniqueto—that wasn’t a position unique to the UnitedStates, and it shouldn’t have been a surprise.

And what we now have is evidence thatchemical weapons have been used inside ofSyria, but we don’t know how they were used,when they were used, who used them. We

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don’t have a chain of custody that establisheswhat exactly happened. And when I am mak-ing decisions about America’s national securityand the potential for taking additional action inresponse to chemical weapon use, I’ve got tomake sure I’ve got the facts. That’s what theAmerican people would expect.

And if we end up rushing to judgment with-out hard, effective evidence, then we can findourselves in a position where we can’t mobilizethe international community to support whatwe do. There may be objections even amongsome people in the region who are sympatheticwith the opposition if we take action. So it’s im-portant for us to do this in a prudent way.

And what I’ve said to my team is we’ve gotto do everything we can to investigate and es-tablish with some certainty what exactly hashappened in Syria, what is happening in Syria.We will use all the assets and resources that wehave at our disposal. We’ll work with theneighboring countries to see whether we canestablish a clear baseline of facts. And we’ve al-so called on the United Nations to investigate.

But the important point I want to make hereis that we already are deeply engaged in tryingto bring about a solution in Syria. It is a diffi-cult problem. But even if chemical weaponswere not being used in Syria, we’d still bethinking about tens of thousands of people, in-nocent civilians—women, children—who’vebeen killed by a regime that’s more concernedabout staying in power than it is about the well-being of its people. And so we are alreadydeeply invested in trying to find a solutionhere.

What is true, though, is, is that if I can estab-lish in a way that not only the United States,but also the international community feel con-fident is the use of chemical weapons by theAsad regime, then that is a game changer be-cause what that portends is potentially evenmore devastating attacks on civilians, and itraises the strong possibility that those chemicalweapons can fall into the wrong hands and getdisseminated in ways that would threaten U.S.security or the security of our allies.

Q. By game changer, you mean U.S. militaryaction?

The President. By game changer, I meanthat we would have to rethink the range of op-tions that are available to us.

Now, we’re already, as I’ve said, invested intrying to bring about a solution inside of Syria.Obviously, there are options that are availableto me that are on the shelf right now that wehave not deployed. And that’s a spectrum ofoptions. As early as last year, I asked the Penta-gon, our military, our intelligence officials toprepare for me what options might be avail-able. And I won’t go into the details of whatthose options might be, but clearly, that wouldbe an escalation, in our view, of the threat tothe security of the international community,our allies, and the United States, and thatmeans that there are some options that wemight not otherwise exercise that we wouldstrongly consider.

2012 Attack on the U.S. Mission in Benghazi,Libya

Q. And on the Benghazi question, I knowpieces of this story have been litigated, andyou’ve been asked about it. But there are peo-ple in your own State Department sayingthey’ve been blocked from coming forward,that they survived the terror attack, and theywant to tell their story. Will you help themcome forward and just say it once and for all?

The President. Ed, I’m not familiar with thisnotion that anybody has been blocked fromtestifying. So what I’ll do is I will find out whatexactly you’re referring to. What I’ve been veryclear about from the start is that our job withrespect to Benghazi has been to find out exact-ly what happened, to make sure that U.S. Em-bassies not just in the Middle East, but aroundthe world are safe and secure, and to bringthose who carried it out to justice.

But I’ll find out what exactly you’re referringto.

Q. They’ve hired an attorney becausethey’re saying that they’ve been blocked fromcoming forward.

The President. I’m not familiar with it.Q. Okay.The President. Jessica [Jessica Yellin, CNN].

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Terrorist Attack in Boston, MA

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. There’s a re-port that your Director of National Intelli-gence has ordered a broad review—this is re-gards to the Boston Marathon bombing—thatyour DNI has ordered a broad review of all theintelligence gathering prior to the attack.There is also a series of Senators—Susan Col-lins, Saxby Chambliss, Lindsey Graham—whoallege that all these years after 9/11, there stillwasn’t enough intelligence shared prior to theattack. And now, Lindsey Graham, who is a se-nior member of the Armed Services Commit-tee, has said that Benghazi and Boston areboth examples of the U.S. going backwards onnational security. Is he right? And did our in-telligence miss something?

The President. No, Mr. Graham is not righton this issue, although I’m sure it generatedsome headlines.

I think that what we saw in Boston wasState, local, Federal officials, every agency ral-lying around a city that had been attacked,identifying the perpetrators just hours after thescene had been examined. We now have oneindividual deceased, one in custody. Chargeshave been brought.

I think that all our law enforcement officialsperformed in an exemplary fashion after thebombing had taken place. And we should bevery proud of their work, as obviously we’reproud of the people of Boston and all the firstresponders and the medical personnel thathelped save lives.

What we also know is that the Russian intel-ligence services had alerted U.S. intelligenceabout the older brother as well as the mother,indicating that they might be sympathizers toextremists. The FBI investigated that olderbrother. It’s not as if the FBI did nothing. Theynot only investigated the older brother, theyinterviewed the older brother. They concludedthat there were no signs that he was engagingin extremist activity. So that much we know.

And the question then is, was there some-thing that happened that triggered radicaliza-tion and actual—an actual decision by thebrother to engage in the attack that we—the

tragic attack we actually saw in Boston? Andare there things—additional things that couldhave been done in that interim that might haveprevented it?

Now, what Director Clapper is doing is stan-dard procedure around here, which is when anevent like this happens, we want to go back andwe want to review every step that was taken.We want to leave no stone unturned. We wantto see, is there, in fact, additional protocols andprocedures that could be put in place thatwould further improve and enhance our abilityto detect a potential attack? And we won’tknow that until that review is completed. Wewon’t know that until the investigation of theactual crime is fully completed. And that’s stillongoing.

But what I can say is, is that based on whatI’ve seen so far, the FBI performed its duties,the Department of Homeland Security didwhat it was supposed to be doing.

But this is hard stuff. And I’ve said for quitesome time that because of the pressure thatwe’ve put on Al Qaida core, because of thepressure that we’ve put on these networks thatare well financed and more sophisticated andcan engage in and project transnational threatsagainst the United States, one of the dangersthat we now face are self-radicalized individu-als who are already here in the United States,in some cases, may not be part of any kind ofnetwork, but because of whatever warped,twisted ideas they may have, may decide tocarry out an attack. And those are in some waysmore difficult to prevent.

And so what I’ve done for months now is toindicate to our entire counterterrorism team,what more can we do on that threat that islooming on the horizon? Are there more thingsthat we can do, whether it’s engaging in com-munities—engaging with communities wherethere’s a potential for self-radicalization atthis—of this sort? Is there work that can bedone in terms of detection? But all of this hasto be done in the context of our laws, due pro-cess.

And so part of what Director Clapper is do-ing, then, is going to be to see if we can deter-mine any lessons learned from what happened.

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Counterterrorism Cooperation With Russia/Ter-rorism

Q. Are you getting all the intelligence andinformation you need from the Russians? Andshould Americans be worried when they go tobig, public events now?

The President. The Russians have been verycooperative with us since the Boston bombing.Obviously, old habits die hard; there’s still sus-picions sometimes between our intelligenceand law enforcement agencies that date back10, 20, 30 years, back to the cold war. Butthey’re continually improving. I’ve spoken toPresident Putin directly. He’s committed toworking with me to make sure that those whoreport to us are cooperating fully in not onlythis investigation, but how do we work oncounterterrorism issues generally.

In terms of what—the response of theAmerican people, I think everybody can take acue from Boston. You don’t get a sense thatanybody is intimidated when they go to Fen-way Park a couple days after the bombing.There are joggers right now, I guarantee you,all throughout Boston and Cambridge and Wa-tertown. And I think one of the things that I’vebeen most proud of in watching the country’sresponse to the terrible tragedy there, is asense of resilience and toughness. And we’renot going to be intimidated. We are going tolive our lives.

And people, I think, understand that we’vegot to do everything we can to prevent thesekinds of attacks from taking place, but peoplealso understand—in the same way they under-stand after a shooting in Aurora or Newtown orVirginia Tech or after the foiled attempts inTimes Square or in Detroit—that we’re not go-ing to stop living our lives because warped,twisted individuals try to intimidate us. We’regoing to do what we do, which is go to work,raise our kids, go to ball games, run in mara-thons. And at the same time, we’re going tomake sure that everybody is cooperating and isvigilant in doing everything we can, withoutbeing naive, to try to prevent these attacksfrom happening in the future.

Jonathan Karl [ABC News].

The President’s Policy Agenda/Budget ControlAct of 2011

Q. Mr. President, you are a hundred days in-to your second term. On the gun bill, you put,it seems, everything into it to try to get itpassed. Obviously, it didn’t. Congress has ig-nored your efforts to try to get them to undothese sequester cuts. There was even a bill thatyou threatened to veto that got 92 Democratsin the House voting yes. So my question to youis, do you still have the juice to get the rest ofyour agenda through this Congress?

The President. If you put it that way, Jona-than—[laughter]—maybe I should just packup and go home. Golly.

I think it’s a little—as Mark Twain said, ru-mors of my demise may be a little exaggeratedat this point.

We understand that we’re in a divided Gov-ernment right now. The Republicans controlthe House of Representatives. In the Senate,this habit of requiring 60 votes for even themost modest piece of legislation has gummedup the works there. And I think it comes to nosurprise not even to the American people, buteven Members of Congress themselves thatright now things are pretty dysfunctional up onCapitol Hill.

Despite that, I’m actually confident thatthere are a range of things that we’re going tobe able to get done. I feel confident that the bi-partisan work that’s been done on immigrationreform will result in a bill that passes the Sen-ate, passes the House, and gets on my desk.And that’s going to be a historic achievement.And I’m—I’ve been very complimentary of theefforts of both Republicans and Democrats inthose efforts.

It is true that the sequester is in place rightnow. It’s damaging our economy. It’s hurtingour people. And we need to lift it. What’s clearis, is that the only way we’re going to lift it is ifwe do a bigger deal that meets the test of low-ering our deficit and growing our economy atthe same time. And that’s going to requiresome compromises on the part of both Demo-crats and Republicans.

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I’ve had some good conversations with Re-publican Senators so far. Those conversationsare continuing. I think there’s a genuine desireon many of their parts to move past not onlysequester, but Washington dysfunction.Whether we can get it done or not, we’ll see.

But I think the sequester is a good exam-ple—or this recent FAA issue is a good exam-ple. You will recall that even as recently as mycampaign, Republicans we’re saying, sequesteris terrible, this is a disaster, it’s going to ruinour military, it’s going to be disastrous for theeconomy, we’ve got to do something about it.Then, when it was determined that doingsomething about it might mean that we closesome tax loopholes for the wealthy and the wellconnected, suddenly, well, you know what,we’ll take the sequester. And the notion wassomehow that we had exaggerated the effectsof the sequester, remember? The President’scrying wolf. He’s Chicken Little. The seques-ter, no problem.

And then, in rapid succession, suddenly,White House tours, this is terrible! How canwe let that happen? Meat inspectors, we’ve gotto fix that. And most recently, what are we go-ing to do about potential delays at airports?

So, despite the fact that a lot of Members ofCongress were suggesting that somehow thesequester was a victory for them and thiswouldn’t hurt the economy, what we now knowis that what I warned earlier, what Jay stood uphere and warned repeatedly, is happening. It’sslowed our growth. It’s resulting in people be-ing thrown out of work. And it’s hurting folksall across the country.

And the fact that Congress responded to theshort-term problem of flight delays by givingus the option of shifting money that’s designedto repair and improve airports over the longterm to fix the short-term problem, well, that’snot a solution. So—and essentially, what we’vedone is we’ve said, in order to avoid delays thissummer, we’re going to ensure delays for thenext two or three decades.

Federal Aviation Administration/Budget Con-trol Act of 2011

Q. Why’d you go along with it?

The President. Well, hold on a second.So the alternative, of course, is either to go

ahead and impose a whole bunch of delays onpassengers now—which also does not fix theproblem—or the third alternative is to actuallyfix the problem by coming up with a broader,larger deal.

But, Jonathan, you seem to suggest thatsomehow, these folks over there have no re-sponsibilities and that my job is to somehowget them to behave. That’s their job. They’reelected; Members of Congress are elected inorder to do what’s right for their constituenciesand for the American people.

So if in fact they are seriously concernedabout passenger convenience and safety, thenthey shouldn’t just be thinking about tomorrowor next week or the week after that; theyshould be thinking about what’s going to hap-pen 5 years from now, 10 years from now, or15 years from now. The only way to do that isfor them to engage with me on coming up witha broader deal. And that’s exactly what I’m try-ing to do, is to continue to talk to them aboutare there ways for us to fix this.

Frankly, I don’t think that if I were to veto,for example, this FAA bill, that that somehowwould lead to the broader fix. It just meansthat there’d be pain now, which they would tryto blame on me, as opposed to pain 5 yearsfrom now. But either way, the problem is notgetting fixed.

The only way the problem does get fixed is ifboth parties sit down and they say: How are wegoing to make sure that we’re reducing ourdeficit sensibly? How are we making sure thatwe’re investing in things like rebuilding ourairports and our roads and our bridges and in-vesting in early childhood education, all the—basic research, all the things that are going tohelp us grow? And that’s what the Americanpeople want.

Just one interesting statistic when it comesto airports. There was a recent survey of thetop airports in the country—in the world, andthere was not a single U.S. airport that came inthe top 25. Not one. Not one U.S. airport wasconsidered by the experts and consumers whouse these airports to be in the top 25 in the

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world. I think Cincinnati Airport came inaround 30th.

What does that say about our long-termcompetitiveness and future? And so when folkssay, well, there was some money in the FAA todeal with these furloughs, well, yes, the moneyis this pool of funds that are supposed to try toupgrade our airports so we don’t rank in thebottom of industrialized countries when itcomes to our infrastructure.

And that’s what we’re doing; we’re using ourseed corn short term. And the only reasonwe’re doing it is because right now we’ve gotfolks who are unwilling to make some simplechanges to our Tax Code, for example, to closeloopholes that aren’t adding to our competi-tiveness and aren’t helping middle class fami-lies.

So I’m—that’s a long way of answering yourquestion, but the point is that there are com-monsense solutions to our problems right now.I cannot force Republicans to embrace thosecommonsense solutions. I can urge them to. Ican put pressure on them. I can rally theAmerican people around those commonsensesolutions. But ultimately, they, themselves, aregoing to have to say, we want to do the rightthing.

And I think there are Members certainly inthe Senate right now, and I suspect Membersin the House as well, who understand thatdeep down. But they’re worried about theirpolitics. It’s tough. Their base thinks that com-promise with me is somehow a betrayal.They’re worried about primaries. And I under-stand all that. And we’re going to try to do ev-erything we can to create a permission struc-ture for them to be able to do what’s going tobe best for the country. But it’s going to takesome time.

Bill Plante [CBS News].

Detention Facilities at Guantanamo Bay NavalBase, Cuba

Q. Mr. President, as you’re probably aware,there’s a growing hunger strike on Guantana-mo Bay among prisoners there. Is it any sur-prise really that they would prefer death rather

than have no end in sight to their confine-ment?

The President. Well, it is not a surprise tome that we’ve got problems in Guantanamo,which is why when I was campaigning in 2007and 2008, and when I was elected in 2008, Isaid we need to close Guantanamo. I continueto believe that we’ve got to close Guantanamo.

Q. [Inaudible]—can do it?The President. Well, I think it is critical for

us to understand that Guantanamo is not nec-essary to keep America safe. It is expensive. Itis inefficient. It hurts us in terms of our inter-national standing. It lessens cooperation withour allies on counterterrorism efforts. It is a re-cruitment tool for extremists. It needs to beclosed.

Now, Congress determined that they wouldnot let us close it and despite the fact thatthere are a number of the folks who are cur-rently in Guantanamo, who the courts havesaid could be returned to their country of ori-gin or potentially a third country.

I’m going to go back at this. I’ve asked myteam to review everything that’s currently be-ing done in Guantanamo, everything that wecan do administratively. And I’m going to reen-gage with Congress to try to make the case thatthis is not something that’s in the best interestsof the American people. And it’s not sustain-able.

I mean, the notion that we’re going to con-tinue to keep over a hundred individuals in ano-man’s land in perpetuity, even at a timewhen we’ve wound down the war in Iraq, we’rewinding down the war in Afghanistan, we’rehaving success defeating Al Qaida core, we’vekept the pressure up on all these transnationalterrorist networks, when we’ve transferred de-tention authority in Afghanistan—the idea thatwe would still maintain forever a group of indi-viduals who have not been tried, that is con-trary to who we are, it is contrary to our inter-ests, and it needs to stop.

Now, it’s a hard case to make because Ithink for a lot of Americans, the notion is out ofsight, out of mind. And it’s easy to demagoguethe issue. That’s what happened the first time

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this came up. I’m going to go back at it becauseI think it’s important.

Q. Meanwhile, you continue to force-feedthese folks so they don’t die?

The President. I don’t want these individualsto die. Obviously, the Pentagon is trying tomanage the situation as best as they can. But Ithink all of us should reflect on why exactly arewe doing this? Why are we doing this? I mean,we’ve got a whole bunch of individuals whohave been tried who are currently in maximumsecurity prisons around the country. Nothing’shappened to them. Justice has been served. It’sbeen done in a way that’s consistent with ourConstitution, consistent with due process, con-sistent with rule of law, consistent with our tra-ditions.

The individual who attempted to bombTimes Square: in prison, serving a life sen-tence. The individual who tried to bomb aplane in Detroit: in prison, serving a life sen-tence. A Somali who was part of Al Shabaab,who we captured: in prison. So we can handlethis.

And I understand that in the immediate af-termath of 9/11, with the traumas that had tak-en place, why, for a lot of Americans, the no-tion was somehow that we had to create a spe-cial facility like Guantanamo and we couldn’thandle this in a normal, conventional fashion. Iunderstand that reaction. But we’re now over adecade out. We should be wiser. We shouldhave more experience in how we prosecuteterrorists.

And this is a lingering problem that is notgoing to get better. It’s going to get worse. It’sgoing to fester. And so I’m going to, as I saidbefore, examine every option that we have ad-ministratively to try to deal with this issue, butultimately, we’re also going to need some helpfrom Congress, and I’m going to ask some folksover there who care about fighting terrorism,but also care about who we are as a people tostep up and help me on it.

Chuck Todd [NBC News].

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

Q. Mr. President, thank you. Max Baucus,Democratic Senator, referred to the imple-

mentation of your health care law as a potentialtrain wreck. You’ve had other Democrats beenwhispering nervousness about the implemen-tation and the impact—and it’s all self-cen-tered a little bit, the impact that it might haveon their own political campaigns in 2014. Whydo you think—just curious—why does SenatorBaucus, somebody who ostensibly helped writeyour bill, believe that this is going to be a trainwreck? And why do you believe he’s wrong?

The President. Well, I think that any timeyou’re implementing something big, there’sgoing to be people who are nervous and anx-ious about, is it going to get done, until it’s ac-tually done.

But let’s just step back for a second andmake sure the American people understandwhat it is that we’re doing. The AffordableCare Act—Obamacare—has now been with usfor 3 years. It’s gone through Supreme Courttests. It’s gone through efforts to repeal. Ahuge chunk of it has already been implement-ed. And for the 85 to 90 percent of Americanswho already have health insurance, they’re al-ready experiencing most of the benefits of theAffordable Care Act even if they don’t know it.Their insurance is more secure. Insurancecompanies can’t drop them for bad reasons.Their kids are able to stay on their health in-surance until they’re 26 years old. They’re get-ting free preventive care.

So there are a whole host of benefits that,for the average American out there—for the 85to 90 percent of Americans who already havehealth insurance—this thing’s already hap-pened. And their only impact is that their in-surance is stronger, better, more secure than itwas before. Full stop. That’s it. They don’thave to worry about anything else.

The implementation issues come in forthose who don’t have health insurance, maybebecause they have a preexisting condition andthe only way they can get health insurance is togo out on the individual market, and they’repaying 50 percent or 100 percent more thanthose of us who are lucky enough to havegroup plans; people who are too poor to gethealth insurance and the employers don’t offerthem. Maybe they work for a small business,

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and this small business can’t afford right nowto provide health insurance.

So all the implementation issues that arecoming up are implementation issues relatedto that small group of people, 10 to 15 percentof Americans—now, it’s still 30 million Ameri-cans, but a relatively narrow group—who don’thave health insurance right now or are on theindividual market and are paying exorbitantamounts for coverage that isn’t that great.

And what we’re doing is, we’re setting up apool so that they can all pool together and get abetter deal from insurance companies. Andthose who can’t afford it, we’re going to pro-vide them with some subsidies. That’s it. Imean, that’s what’s left to implement, becausethe other stuff has been implemented and it’sworking fine.

The challenge is that setting up a market-based system—basically, an online market-place where you can go on and sign up and fig-ure out what kind of insurance you can affordand figuring out how to get the subsidies—that’s still a big, complicated piece of business.And when you’re doing it nationwide, relativelyfast, and you’ve got half of Congress who is de-termined to try to block implementation andnot adequately funding implementation, andthen you’ve got a number of members of—orGovernors, Republican Governors who knowthat it’s bad politics for them to try to imple-ment this effectively and some even who havedecided to implement it and then their Repub-lican-controlled State legislatures say, don’timplement and won’t pass enabling legislation,when you have that kind of situation, thatmakes it harder.

But having said all that, we’ve got a greatteam in place. We are pushing very hard tomake sure that we’re hitting all the deadlinesand the benchmarks.

I’ll give you an example, a recent example.We put together, initially, an application formfor signing up for participation in the exchang-es that was initially about 21 pages long, andimmediately, everybody sat around the tableand said, well, this is too long. Especially in thisage of the Internet, people aren’t going to havethe patience to sit there for hours on end. Let’s

streamline this thing. So we cut what was a 21-page form now down to a form that’s about 3pages for an individual, a little more than thatfor a family, well below the industry average.So those kinds of refinements we’re going tocontinue to be working on.

But I think the main message I want to giveto the American people here is, despite all thehue and cry and sky-is-falling predictions aboutthis stuff, if you’ve already got health insur-ance, then that part of Obamacare that affectsyou, it’s pretty much already in place. Andthat’s about 85 percent of the country.

What is left to be implemented is those pro-visions to help the 10 to 15 percent of theAmerican public that is unlucky enough thatthey don’t have health insurance. And by theway, some of you who have health insuranceright now, at some point, you may lose yourhealth insurance, and if you’ve got a preexist-ing condition, this structure will make sure thatyou are not left vulnerable.

But it’s still a big undertaking. And whatwe’re doing is making sure that every singleday, we are constantly trying to hit our marksso that it will be in place.

And the last point I’ll make: Even if we do ev-erything perfectly, there will still be glitches andbumps, and there will be stories that can be writ-ten that say, oh, look, this thing is not working theway it’s supposed to and this happened and thathappened. And that’s pretty much true of everygovernment program that’s ever been set up. Butif we stay with it and we understand what ourlong-term objective is, which is making sure thatin a country as wealthy as ours, nobody should gobankrupt if they get sick and that we would ratherhave people getting regular checkups than goingto the emergency room because they don’t havehealth care, if we keep that in mind, then we’regoing to be able to drive down costs, we’re goingto be able to improve efficiencies in the system,we’re going to be able to see people benefit frombetter health care. And that will save the countrymoney as a whole over the long term.

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

Q. Do you believe, without the cooperationof a handful of Governors, particularly large

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States like Florida and Texas, that you can fullyimplement this?

The President. I think it’s harder. There’s nodoubt about it.

Q. But can you do it without them?The President. We will implement it. There

will be—we have a backup Federal exchange.If States aren’t cooperating, we set up a Feder-al exchange so that people can access that Fed-eral exchange.

But yes, it puts more of a burden on us. Andit’s ironic, since all these folks say that they be-lieve in empowering States, that they’re goingto end up having the Federal Government dosomething that we’d actually prefer States todo if they were properly cooperating.

Let’s see how we’re doing on time here. Lastquestion, Antonieta Cadiz [La Opinión]—where’s Antonieta? There you are. Tell thosebig guys to get out of your way. [Laughter]

Immigration Reform/Mexico/President’s Trav-el to Costa Rica

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. And two ques-tions. There are concerns about how the immi-gration bill from the House, from the Gang ofEight—in the House, has complicated chancesfor immigration reform in the Senate. It seemsto be a more conservative proposal. Is thereroom for a more conservative proposal thanthe one presented in the Senate? That’s immi-gration.

And second, on Mexico, yesterday the Mexi-can Government said all contact with the U.S.law enforcement will now go through a singledoor, the Federal Interior Ministry. Is thischange good for the U.S. relationship withMexico? Do you think the level of security andcooperation can be maintained?

The President. On immigration reform, I’vebeen impressed by the work that was done bythe Gang of Eight in the Senate. The bill thatthey produced is not the bill that I would havewritten, there are elements of it that I wouldchange, but I do think that it meets the basiccriteria that I laid out from the start, which is:We’ve got to have more effective border secu-rity, although it should build on the great im-provements that have been made on border se-

curity over the last 4 to 5 years. We shouldmake sure that we are cracking down on em-ployers that are gaming the system. We shouldmake the legal immigration system work moreeffectively so that the waits are not as burden-some, the bureaucracy is not as complicated,so that we can continue to attract the best andthe brightest from around the world to ourshores in a legal fashion. And we want to makesure that we’ve got a pathway to citizenshipthat is tough, but allows people to earn overtime their legal status here in this country.

And the Senate bill meets that—those crite-ria, in some cases not in the way that I would,but it meets those basic criteria. And I think it’sa testament to the Senators that were involvedthat they made some tough choices and madesome tough compromises in order to hammerout that bill.

Now, I haven’t seen what Members of theHouse are yet proposing. And maybe theythink that they can answer some of those ques-tions differently or better. And I think we’vegot to be openminded in seeing what theycome up with. The bottom line, though, is, isthat they’ve still got to meet those basic crite-ria: Is it making the border safer? Is it dealingwith employers in how they work with the gov-ernments to make sure that people are not be-ing taken advantage of or taking advantage ofthe system? Are we improving our legal immi-gration system? And are we creating a pathwayfor citizenship for the 11 million or so who areundocumented in this country?

And if they meet those criteria, but they’reslightly different than the Senate bill, then Ithink that we should be able to come up withan appropriate compromise. If it doesn’t meetthose criteria, then I will not support such abill. So we’ll have to wait and see.

When it comes to Mexico, I’m very muchlooking forward to taking the trip down toMexico to see the new President, Peña Nieto. Ihad a chance to meet him here, but this will bethe first, more extensive consultations, and itwill be an opportunity for his Ministers, myCabinet members who are participating, to re-ally hammer out some of these issues.

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A lot of the focus is going to be on econom-ics. We’ve spent so much time on security is-sues between the United States and Mexicothat sometimes, I think we forget this is a mas-sive trading partner responsible for hugeamounts of commerce and huge numbers ofjobs on both sides of the border. We want tosee how we can deepen that, how we can im-prove that and maintain that economic dia-logue over a long period of time.

That doesn’t mean that we’re not going tobe talking about security. I think that in myfirst conversation with the President, he indi-cated to me that he very much continues to beconcerned about how we can work together todeal with transnational drug cartels. We’vemade great strides in the coordination and co-operation between our two Governments overthe last several years. But my suspicion is, isthat things can be improved.

And some of the issues that he’s talkingabout really had to do with refinements andimprovements in terms of how Mexican au-thorities work with each other, how they coor-dinate more effectively, and it has less to dowith how they’re dealing with us, per se. So I’mnot going to yet judge how this will alter the re-lationship between the United States and Mex-ico until I’ve heard directly from them to seewhat exactly are they trying to accomplish.

But overall, what I can say is that my im-pression is, is that the new President is seriousabout reform. He’s already made some toughdecisions. I think he’s going to make more thatwill improve the economy and security of Mex-ican citizens, and that will improve the bilateralrelationship as well.

And I don’t want to leave out that we’re alsogoing to be talking to, during my visit to CostaRica, Presidents of Central American coun-tries, many of whom are struggling with botheconomic issues and security issues, but areimportant partners for us, because I think thatthe vision here is that we want to make surethat our hemisphere is more effectively inte-grated to improve the economy and security ofall people. That’s good for the United States.That will enhance our economy. That can im-prove our energy independence.

There are a whole range of opportunities,and that’s going to be the purpose of this trip.And I’m sure that those of you who will havethe chance to travel with me, we’ll have achance to discuss this further.

All right? Thank you very much, everybody.Thank you, guys.

National Basketball Association Player JasonCollins/Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgen-der Rights

Q. Jason Collins? Do you want to say any-thing about it?

The President. Yes. I’ll say something aboutJason Collins. I had a chance to talk to him yes-terday. He seems like a terrific young man.And I told him I couldn’t be prouder of him.

One of the extraordinary measures of prog-ress that we’ve seen in this country has beenthe recognition that the LGBT community de-serves full equality, not just partial equality,not just tolerance, but a recognition thatthey’re fully a part of the American family.

And given the importance of sports in oursociety, for an individual who has excelled atthe highest levels in one of the major sports togo ahead and say, this is who I am, I’m proudof it, I’m still a great competitor, I’m still 7 foottall and can bang with Shaq—[laughter]—anddeliver a hard foul, and for, I think, a lot ofyoung people out there who are gay or lesbianwho are struggling with these issues, to see arole model like that who is unafraid, I think it’sa great thing.

And I think Americans should be proud thatthis is just one more step in this ongoing recog-nition that we treat everybody fairly and every-body is part of a family, and we judge peopleon the basis of their character and their perfor-mance and not their sexual orientation. So I’mvery proud of him.

All right?

NOTE: The President’s news conference beganat 10:46 a.m. in the James S. Brady Press Brief-ing Room at the White House. In his remarks,he referred to suspected April 15 Boston Mar-athon bombers Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who waskilled in a shootout with police on April 19, and

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Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; Zubeidat Tsarnaeva,mother of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev;Faisal Shahzad, who was convicted for the May1, 2010, attempted bombing of Times Squarein New York City; Umar Farouk Abdulmutal-lab, who was convicted for the December 25,2009, attempted bombing of Northwest Air-

lines Flight 253; Sens. Marco A. Rubio, JeffreyL. Flake, John S. McCain III, Lindsey O. Gra-ham, Richard J. Durbin, Robert Menendez,Charles E. Schumer, and Michael F. Bennet;Jason Collins, center, National Basketball As-sociation’s Washington Wizards; and formerNBA player Shaquille O’Neal.

Remarks at a Joining Forces Initiative Veterans Employment EventApril 30, 2013

Thank you. Please, everybody, have a seat.David, thank you so much for your introduc-tion and sharing your story, but most impor-tantly, thanks for your extraordinary service toour Nation. We are very, very proud of you.

Thank you to our partners in crime—[laugh-ter]—the outstanding Joe Biden and the evenmore outstanding Jill Biden. [Laughter] Weare grateful for their leadership, their commit-ment on a whole range of issues. But I’m par-ticularly grateful for the passion that, Jill,you’ve shown when it comes to our militaryfamilies, because you know what it’s like whena loved one is deployed. And that passioncomes through with everything you do. Sowe’re very, very proud of you.

I also want to recognize the members of myCabinet and Joint Chiefs and some of our topbrass who are here. We appreciate all the greatwork that they’re doing. And your presence re-flects our commitment to this cause across theentire Government.

And now I’ve got a simple task this morning,and that is to introduce the graceful, brilliant,inspiring love of my life—[laughter]—First La-dy Michelle Obama. Joe and I are just warmupacts today, which in our families means, it’s justanother Tuesday. [Laughter] That’s how itgenerally goes.

But of all the honors and privileges of serv-ing as President, the opportunity to meet in-credible people like David is among the thingsthat I cherish the most. David, being here to-day is representative of a 9/11 generation: menand women who volunteered to put the uni-form on even though they understood it waswartime, knowing full well they could be sentinto harm’s way.

And for more than a decade, they have an-swered every call, executing some of the mostdangerous missions on the planet, operatingsome of the most cutting-edge, complex tech-nologies known to man, leading their peers inmoments where their decisions can determinelife or death. And, as we saw during the attacksin Boston, as guardsmen and as veterans wereracing towards danger, they put that courageand experience and skills that they’ve earnedserving in our military to use every single day.George Washington once said, “When we as-sumed the soldier, we did not lay aside the citi-zen.”

Our troops and our military families whoserve right alongside them keep us strong andthey keep us safe. And as Commander inChief, I’ve pledged that just as they’ve lefttheir homes and families to take care of us,we’ve got to make sure we’re taking care ofthem when they come home. That’s our sacredobligation: to make sure that they get the careand the benefits and opportunities that theydeserve. And that includes economic opportu-nity: good jobs worthy of their incredible tal-ents.

And as David indicated, unfortunately,when they hit the job market, employers don’talways recognize the high-quality, high-techskills our newest veterans have gained in theirmilitary. They don’t understand the leadershipthat they’ve shown under extraordinary cir-cumstances. So, too often, just when thesemen and women are looking to move forwardin the next chapter of their lives, they’re stuckin neutral, scraping together odd jobs just topay the bills.

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Now, our economy is growing. It’s creatingjobs on a consistent basis. Although I just had apress conference; we could be doing even bet-ter if we’d get a little more cooperation downthe street. But for post-9/11 veterans, employ-ment continues to lag behind the national aver-age, and that’s especially true for our youngestveterans. And this does not make any sense.

If you can save a life on the battlefield, thenyou sure as heck can save one in an ambulanceand a state-of-the-art hospital. If you can over-see a convoy of equipment and track millionsof dollars of assets, then you can run a compa-ny’s supply chain or you can balance its books.If you can lead a platoon in a war zone, then Ithink you can lead a team in a conference cen-ter.

There are lots of extremely talented youngpeople who are more than qualified for thejobs that businesses are looking to fill. We’vegot the end of the Iraq war. The war in Afghan-istan is drawing to a close. More than 1 millionservicemembers are going to be transitioningback to civilian life in the coming years. Sowe’ve got to do everything we can to make surethey have every opportunity to succeed.

That’s why, a year and a half ago, I signednew tax credits for companies that hire unem-ployed veterans and wounded warriors. Andsince then, the number of veterans hiredthrough tax credits like these has more thandoubled. And my budget’s proposed extendingthese tax credits permanently. Congress needsto get that done.

We’re working to help our troops earn thecredentials they need for jobs in manufactur-ing and medicine and transportation. Westrengthened the post-9/11 GI bill, helpingnearly 1 million veterans and military familymembers get a college education. And for thefirst time in 20 years, we’ve overhauled themilitary’s Transition Assistance Program tohelp our newest veterans compete for thoseprivate sector jobs. Our online Veterans JobsBank now has more than 2.5 million searchablejob postings. With our Veterans Gold Card,our veterans receive 6 months of personalizedcareer counseling. At my direction, the Feder-

al Government has hired nearly 250,000 veter-ans.

So we’ve made progress, but we know theGovernment alone can’t put every veteran andmilitary spouse to work. So, about a year and ahalf ago, I went down to the Navy Yard and is-sued a challenge to America’s businesses: Hireor train 100,000 veterans and military spousesby the end of 2013. And I am proud to say thatthese companies stepped up. And some ofthose companies are represented here today.

In just a year, businesses had already hired125,000 veterans or military spouses. Theycommitted to hiring 250,000 more. Todaywe’re announcing a major milestone in this ef-fort, thanks in large part to the leadership of somany companies that are represented here to-day. And we could not be more grateful for thecommitments of these companies.

Now, they’re doing it partly because it’sgood business sense, because they’re gettinggreat employees. But they’re also doing it be-cause they’re patriots. They’re also doing it be-cause they really care about this country andthey understand that they don’t succeed unlessthey’ve got an incredible military that’s doingthis.

Hiring our veterans and military spouses isnot just the patriotic thing to do, it’s the smartthing to do. They’re looking for highly skilledworkers; highly skilled veterans and militaryspouses are looking for jobs. Let’s connectthem up. It’s good for families, it’s good forbusinesses, it’s good for our country.

And that’s why Joining Forces is so impor-tant. It’s a way for us to both honor and servethe men and women who have served us sowell, but also to move the country forward.That’s why we’ve all got to step up and do ourparts: government, business, schools, hospitals,community groups, houses of worship, neigh-bors, and obviously, our military and our VA.We’ve had to up our game, and we’re not thereyet, but we continually try to strive to improveto make sure we’re doing the right thing. Andjust as service and sacrifice defines our militaryfamilies, serving our military families has to de-fine who we are as Americans.

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Now, none of this could have happened hadit not been for the extraordinary work that Mi-chelle and Jill have engaged in over the last 2years. And that’s a call that we’re renewinghere today. I’ve got to tell you, I’m proud of mywife all the time. I could not be prouder of thework that she and Jill have done in this effort.They have put their heart and their soul into it;they care about it deeply. They identify sodeeply with these military families becausethey understand the sacrifices that they’remaking.

So with that, let me introduce a woman whoI’ve seen live out that message every day as awife and a mother, a tireless champion of mili-

tary families. Love her dearly: my wife, FirstLady Michelle Obama.

[At this point, the First Lady made remarks.]

NOTE: The President spoke at 11:46 a.m. inthe East Room at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to PO David Padilla, USN,who found employment through the ParalyzedVeterans of America’s Operation PAVE pro-gram; and Jill T. Biden, wife, and Joseph R.“Beau” Biden III, son, of Vice President JoeBiden. The transcript released by the Office ofthe Press Secretary also included the remarksof Vice President Biden, Mrs. Biden, PO Padil-la, and the First Lady.

Statement on the Investiture of King Willem-Alexander of the NetherlandsApril 30, 2013

On behalf of the American people, Michelleand I congratulate His Majesty Willem-Alexan-der on the occasion of his investiture as King ofthe Netherlands, and we wish the very best tohim and Queen Maxima as they assume theirnew roles. Our two nations share a rich historyand strong ties, and we enjoyed hosting theroyal couple at the White House in September2009, when they visited the United States to

mark the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’shistoric voyage. We also send our heartfelt ap-preciation to Princess Beatrix for her steadfastfriendship, selfless service, and exemplaryleadership as she steps down after 33 years.The Kingdom of the Netherlands is a valuedfriend of the United States, and we look for-ward to continuing our close cooperation in theyears to come.

Remarks on the Nomination of Representative Melvin L. Watt To BeDirector of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and Thomas E. WheelerTo Be Chairman of the Federal Communications CommissionMay 1, 2013

Thank you, everybody. Please have a seat.Thank you so much.

Well, good afternoon, everybody. And todayI’m proud to put forward two outstanding indi-viduals who are going to help us grow oureconomy, but are also going to be looking outfor the middle class.

Seven years after the housing bubble burst,triggering the worst financial crisis of our life-times and costing Americans millions of jobsand, in some cases, their homes, our housingmarket is finally beginning to heal. Construc-tion is expanding; housing starts are up nearly

50 percent. Just yesterday we learned thathome prices in many cities are rising at thefastest rate since 2006.

So we’re starting to see some bright spots inone of the most important parts of our econo-my. But I think everybody understands we’vestill got more work to do. We’ve got more folksto help. We’ve got responsible homeownerswho have never missed a payment, but aren’tallowed to refinance. We’ve got working fami-lies who are doing everything right, but stillowe more on their homes than they’re worth.We’ve got young people who are trying to start

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a family and get into the housing market andhave seen difficulties in terms of financing.

So there are a lot of areas where we canmake significant improvement. That’s why I’vecalled on Congress to give every responsiblehomeowner in America the chance to save$3,000 a year by refinancing at today’s histori-cally low rates. That’s $3,000; it’s like a tax cutfor every family who refinances. And familieswho would be interested in refinancing shouldask their Representatives, why wouldn’t we acton that, why don’t we get moving on that? I’mready to sign that bill, and I know that we’retalking to Members of Congress on both sidesof the aisle who recognize this is somethingthat needs to get done.

In the meantime, I’ll keep taking whateversteps I can administratively on my own. Andone of the best things I can do is to nominateMel Watt to lead the Federal Housing FinanceAgency.

Mel was raised by a single mom, who is heretoday. It’s wonderful to see you. You look justgreat. And Michelle does say hi. The—[ap-plause]. Like many people I meet, when I firstmet Mel’s mom, first thing she says is, I wantto see Michelle. [Laughter] So that’s kind ofhow things go for me. [Laughter]

Anyway, Mel’s mom raised Mel and hisbrothers in Charlotte, North Carolina, just out-side. Grew up in a house where you could seethe stars through the roof and the groundthrough the floor. But Evelyn Watt sacrificedand worked hard to give her boys a fightingchance. As Mel says, “[She] never, ever let usknow we were poor or couldn’t do anythingthat anybody else could do.”

And that love and support eventually ledMel to Congress, where he’s represented thepeople of North Carolina for 20 years, everyone of them, as a member of the committeethat oversees housing policy. And in that ca-pacity, Mel has led efforts to rein in unscrupu-lous mortgage lenders. He’s helped protectconsumers from the kind of reckless risk-tak-ing that led to the financial crisis in the firstplace. And he’s fought to give more Americansin low-income neighborhoods access to afford-able housing.

So Mel understands as well as anybody whatcaused the housing crisis. He knows what it’sgoing to take to help responsible homeownersfully recover. And he’s committed to helpingfolks just like his mom: Americans who workreally hard, play by the rules, day in and dayout, to provide for their families. So, Mel,thank you so much for agreeing to accept thisnomination. Thank you.

You can tell he’s a good Congressman be-cause some of his staff is choking up. [Laughter]

My second nominee will have a very differ-ent job, but one that’s equally important to thefuture of America’s economy.

When the Federal Communications Com-mission was founded almost 80 years ago, itwas in charge of overseeing a few hundred ra-dio stations and a few million phone lines. Andtoday, the FCC sits at the center of a commu-nications universe that is growing and changingfaster than you can tweet. And that’s why JuliusGenachowski, who is an old buddy from lawschool and had so much success in the privatesector as well as previously serving in the FCC,that’s why Julius has had one of the toughestjobs in Washington.

Four years ago, Julius set two priorities asChairman of the FCC: making high-speed In-ternet available everywhere and keeping itopen to everyone. And thanks to his hard workand his leadership, the FCC has made extraor-dinary progress on both fronts. We’re helpingmillions more Americans connect to high-speed Internet. We’re unleashing the airwavesto support the latest in mobile technology.We’re protecting the Internet as an open plat-form for innovation and free speech. Andwe’re poised to do even more, thanks to Ju-lius’s efforts.

So he has been an extraordinary FCC Chair-man, but Julius has decided to move on to newchallenges in the digital frontier. And so todayit is my great pleasure to nominate TomWheeler to take his place. Give Tom a biground of applause.

Now, if anybody is wondering about Tom’squalifications, Tom is the only member of boththe cable television and the wireless industryhall of fame. So he’s like the Jim Brown of

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telecom—or the Bo Jackson of telecom.[Laughter] And that’s because for more than30 years, Tom has been at the forefront ofsome of the very dramatic changes that we’veseen in the way we communicate and how welive our lives.

He was one of the leaders of a company thathelped create thousands of good, high-techjobs. He’s in charge of the group that advisesthe FCC on the latest technology issues. He’shelped give American consumers more choicesand better products. So Tom knows this stuffinside and out. And I think Julius will attest tothat, because Julius has benefited frequentlyfrom Tom’s input and advice.

I also want to thank Mignon Clyburn—where is Mignon? There she is right there—who has been an incredible asset to the FCCfor the last few years. And so Mignon is goingto be Acting Chair until Tom is confirmed.And together, they’ve got a very important mis-sion: giving businesses and workers the toolsthey need to compete in the 21st-centuryeconomy and making sure we’re staying at thecutting edge of an industry that, again andagain, we’ve revolutionized here in America.

And as technology continues to shape theway that we do business and communicate andtransform the world, we want to make sure

that it’s American ingenuity, American innova-tion, and that we’re setting up legal structuresand regulatory structures that facilitate thiscontinued growth and expansion that can cre-ate good jobs and continue to grow our econo-my.

So I just want to thank Julius and his family,his wonderful wife Rachel and the entire fami-ly, for their extraordinary service. I want tothank Mel, I want to thank Tom and their fam-ilies for agreeing to step into these new andchallenging roles. And I’m going to go aheadand thank the Senate now for what I’m sure—[laughter]—will be a speedy confirmation pro-cess so these two gentlemen can get to workright away.

Thank you very much, everybody. Hey!

NOTE: The President spoke at 2:27 p.m. in theState Dining Room at the White House. In hisremarks, he referred to Evelyn Herron, moth-er, and Graham Watt, brother, of Rep. Watt;James N. Brown, former running back, Nation-al Football League’s Cleveland Browns; for-mer NFL and Major League Baseball playerVincent E. “Bo” Jackson; and Rachel Goslins,wife of former Federal Communications Com-mission Chairman Julius M. Genachowski.

Remarks on the Nomination of Penny S. Pritzker To Be Secretary ofCommerce and Michael B. Froman To Be United States Trade RepresentativeMay 2, 2013

Thank you. Good morning, everybody.Please have a seat. Sit. [Laughter]

My top priority as President is to grow theeconomy, create good middle class jobs, makesure that the next generation prospers. And ina few minutes, I’ll be departing the WhiteHouse for a trip that will promote that priority.

First, I’m going to visit Mexico, one of ourlargest economic partners. Then I’ll be visitingCosta Rica, where I’ll attend a summit withCentral American leaders. And in both instanc-es, I’m going to be working to deepen our eco-nomic and trade relationships across LatinAmerica, relationships that create jobs and

growth here at home and offer our businessesgrowing markets where they can sell moreAmerican-made goods and services abroad.

But before I go, I had some business to do. Iam proud to announce that I’ll be nominatingtwo outstanding individuals to my Cabinet whowill focus on precisely these issues.

Over the past 4 years, I’ve tasked the Secre-tary of Commerce and the U.S. Trade Repre-sentative with opening new markets for Ameri-can goods and services, doubling our exportsfor those goods and services all in support ofmillions of American jobs. And over those 4years, Ron Kirk, along with his outstanding

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team at USTR, has stood up for free trade andfor American workers and businesses aroundthe world. So he’s finalized trade deals withSouth Korea, Colombia, Panama. He’s crackeddown on unfair trading practices to give Amer-ican workers a fair shot in the global economy.And I could not be prouder of the work that hehas done.

Meanwhile, at the Department of Com-merce, Becky Blank has led our efforts to helppromote high-tech manufacturing and traveland tourism—it is a big portfolio—and she hasworked closely with the private sector to makesure that America remains the best place in theworld to do business.

So I could not be more thankful to Ron andto Becky for their outstanding service. Roncouldn’t be here today, but many members ofhis team are here, and we are so thankful tothem. Becky, thank you. Becky is going to betaking on a pretty big job: making sure thoseBadgers behave up in Wisconsin. [Laughter]And we know she’s going to be extraordinaryleading that institution.

But today I’m in a position to nominate twoextraordinary individuals to continue the workof Ron and Becky as key members of my eco-nomic team.

As I said in my State of the Union Address,when it comes to growing our economy andour middle class, we should focus on threethings. Number one, making sure America is amagnet for good jobs. Number two, helpingworkers earn the skills they need to get thosejobs. And number three, making sure theirhard work actually leads to a decent living.Both these individuals share that focus.

First, I’m nominating Penny Pritzker toserve as my Secretary of Commerce. Now,Penny is one of our country’s most distin-guished business leaders. She’s got more than25 years of management experience in indus-tries including real estate, finance, and hospi-tality. She’s built companies from the groundup. She knows from experience that no govern-ment program alone can take the place of agreat entrepreneur. She knows that what wecan do is to give every business and every

worker the best possible chance to succeed bymaking America a magnet for good jobs.

And Penny understands that just as greatcompanies strengthen the community aroundthem, strong communities and skilled workersalso help companies thrive. So she’s been anextraordinary civic leader in our shared home-town of Chicago. She served as a member ofmy Jobs Council. She was the driving force be-hind Skills for America’s Future, which is aprogram that brings together companies andcommunity colleges to shape and prepareskills-based training programs for workers thatare tied into the businesses that potentially willhire them.

So she’s got extraordinary experience. Andin case I haven’t embarrassed her enough,she’s got a wonderful family; I watched herkids grow up, and today is her birthday. So,happy birthday, Penny. For your birthday pres-ent, you get to go through confirmation.[Laughter] It’s going to be great. [Laughter]

Meanwhile, over two decades in both thepublic and private sectors, Mike Froman, whoI’m nominating to serve as my U.S. Trade Rep-resentative, has established himself as one ofthe world’s foremost experts on our globaleconomy. And I’m not surprised, by the way,because we went to law school together. Hewas much smarter than me then; he continuesto be smarter than me now.

And over the past 4 years, he’s been mypoint person at global forums like the G–8 andthe G–20. And by the way, when I say pointperson, he’s really been the driving force, of-tentimes, in organizing these incredible inter-national summits in which huge amounts ofbusiness gets done. He’s been a key negotiatoralongside Ron Kirk on those trade agreementsfor South Korea, Colombia, and Panama,which support tens of thousands of Americanjobs.

He has won the respect of our trading part-ners around the world. He has also won a repu-tation as being an extraordinarily tough negoti-ator while doing it. He does not rest until he’sdelivered the best possible deal for Americanbusinesses and American workers. He’s fought

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to make sure that countries that break the rulesare held accountable.

And Mike believes, just as I believe and justas Penny believes, that our workers are themost competitive in the world, so they deservea level playing field. And Mike’s going to con-tinue to fight for that level playing field in hisnew role, as he helps to move forward tradenegotiations with both the Asia-Pacific regionand Europe, and will also continue to adviseme on a broad range of economic issues.

And as I think some of you have gathered,I’ve had a chance to get to know Penny andMike not just as leaders and professionals, butalso as friends. And one of the reasons I’mproud to nominate them is they don’t forgetwhat matters. They know this is not about justgrowing balance sheets. It’s about growing op-portunity for people. It’s about growing a senseof security for the middle class. And most ofall, they operate with integrity, and they under-

stand that public service is a privilege andyou’ve got to do it right when you get involvedon behalf of the American people.

So I just want to thank Penny and Mike andtheir extraordinary families for agreeing toserve in these roles. I urge the Senate to con-firm Penny and Mike without delay, becausethey’ve got a lot of work to do. And I intend towork them to the bone as soon as they’re offi-cial. [Laughter] So thank you very much, ev-erybody. And thanks to their families for put-ting up with what I know will be challenging,but ultimately, the extraordinary reward ofworking on behalf of the American people.


NOTE: The President spoke at 10:12 a.m. inthe Rose Garden at the White House. In hisremarks, he referred to Donald P. and Rose P.Traubert, children of Secretary-designatePritzker.

The President’s News Conference With President Enrique Peña Nieto ofMexico in Mexico City, MexicoMay 2, 2013

President Peña Nieto. Ladies and gentle-men, good afternoon, everyone. First and fore-most, after the bilateral meeting, I would liketo extend the warmest welcome to PresidentBarack Obama, his team joining him. Onceagain, we would like to welcome all of you withopen arms, and we hope you feel at home.

We appreciate your will to have upon thismeeting a relation built on mutual respect, col-laboration for the benefit of our peoples.

Before we cover the areas that we haveshared during our bilateral meeting, on behalfof the Mexican people, I would like to reiterateour solidarity for the regretful acts that werecommitted in your country: in Boston and inWest, in Texas. Unfortunately, it took the livesof American citizens.

If you allow me, I would like to share withthe audience and the members of the mediathe areas that we have addressed with Presi-dent Obama during the meeting that we justhave had.

First of all, we have reached an agreementthat the relation between Mexico and the Unit-ed States should be broad in terms of the areasthat it covers. It should open up opportunityand collaboration spaces in different arenas,with a very clear purpose in mind to makeNorth American region a more productive andcompetitive region that will, in result, triggerthe enormous potential that our peoples have,that our nations have. And we’re well aware ofthe fact that we can take stock of our bilateralrelation. Within the framework of the agree-ments made, we have reached a new level ofunderstanding, as our two new administrationsthat begin roughly at the same time: the sec-ond term of President Obama and my adminis-tration.

Among the items that we covered, I canspeak for how relevant trade and commerce isin the Mexico-U.S. relation. We have dimen-sion of all the achievements made upon thefree trade agreement and the benefits that our

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economies have received from it. The exportsmade from the U.S. to its top trade partners,Mexico and Canada, this represents one-third,one out of each three products that are export-ed from the U.S. And only the relation withMexico is higher than the one the U.S. has withEuropean countries like the U.K., France, theNetherlands all together. Or the exports sentto China and Japan together doesn’t reach thelevel that the U.S. has with Mexico.

I must stand out that the integration of oureconomies in the last years has shown to be rel-evant, and the content of exports sent out fromMexico have 40 percent of U.S. input. There-fore, I can conclude that the more growthMexico shows and the more capacity to export,the more benefit the U.S. gets. Jobs are creat-ed in Mexico; therefore, jobs are created in theUnited States.

Therefore, one of the first agreements thatwe have made was to create a high-level dia-logue that, within its framework, will fostertrade and commerce with the United States.This means that for the first time—and proba-bly, this is unprecedented—we will have theMexican economic cabinet with their counter-parts from various Government agencies fromthe United States, as well high-ranking offi-cials. And we’ve heard from the President thatin this group, the Vice President of the UnitedStates will participate in order to set a dialoguethat will result in arrangements in terms ofhow the government can support all the effortsmade by the private sector in order to have astronger economic integration.

For this purpose, we have agreed that dur-ing the fall of this year, this high-level groupwill meet for the first time with the attendanceof high-ranking officials to start working in thearea of the economy.

We have also agreed to endeavor joint ac-tions to have a safer border. Within the frame-work of the agreement made, we will have a21st-century border that was about to be de-fined the work and action agenda that ourteams have already set up. And now, throughthis agenda, we will have safer borders that willenable and expedite the transit of people andgoods that every day cross our borders.

We have also agreed to create a binationalgroup in order to find joint actions and jointmechanisms to support entrepreneurs in bothof our countries, and by this, we will boostSMEs in our countries. We believe that thismechanism will serve as an enabler, and it willsee further development for these small andmedium-size companies that are present inboth of our countries. And we hope that all theactions in a very near future will make theSMEs in the future becoming large enterpris-es. And this action will favor specifically youngentrepreneurs in both of our countries.

Thirdly, we have agreed to boost our econo-my and our potential; we have agreed to createa bilateral forum on higher education, innova-tion, and research. Two government agencieswill work together—CONACYT and the Na-tional Science Foundation from the U.S.—andpresidents from Mexico and U.S. universitieswill be part of this group. And by this, more ex-changes will happen between Mexico and theU.S., and students coming from the U.S. toMexico.

We have agreed that higher educationserves as a platform to boost the economic po-tential that we have in our nations. In order tocompete with the world, specifically with high-ly developed countries where science andtechnology have been the target of their effortsand investment, it is fundamental that we havewell-prepared youngsters with the skills neces-sary to give our economic development agreater strength and a greater capacity.

In a different arena, we have addressed se-curity. We have both recognized the level ofcooperation that the U.S. has shown towardsthe Mexican Government. And the new strate-gy in the area of security in our country has avery clear purpose, and that is to fight orga-nized crime in all of its forms, be it drug deal-ing, kidnapping for ransom, extortion, or anycrime perpetrated. We are not going to re-nounce to that responsibility as a Governmentand my administration. We’re going to facecrime in all of its forms.

But in our new strategy, we have empha-sized the fact that we will reduce violence. Un-fortunately, it affects coexistence between

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Mexicans. To fight organized crime and reduceviolence are not objectives that contradict eachother. There is no clash between these twogoals. These are two goals that fall within theframework of one same strategy. And Presi-dent Obama’s administration has expressed hiswill, as we know, to cooperate on the basis ofmutual respect, to be more efficient in our se-curity strategy that we are implementing inMexico.

I have shared with President Obama, aswell, what Mexico has done during the firstmonths of my administration. I have sharedwith President Obama that Mexico hasreached maturity in terms of its democracy. Allpolitical forces in the country have reached po-litical maturity, have shown to be civil, andhave managed to show respect to each otherand also towards the Government of Mexico.Together, we have managed to set up a work-ing agenda that, in result, will advance the re-forms that will transform this structure thatMexico needs to boost its development. I haveshared with President Obama the fact that werecognize all political voices in Mexico.

Finally, I would like to share with all of youthat we fully agree that our nations, that ourpeoples must move from being neighbors tobeing part of a community. We are already partof a trade integration process. We havereached high levels of development. But still,there is potential to make of our nations,through a collaboration and integration ofNorth America, we can make a more produc-tive and a more competitive region.

I would like to conclude by quoting thewords of former President Kennedy sharedduring his visit to Palacio Nacional 51 yearsago, under former President Adolfo LópezMateos. We have shared this quote with Presi-dent Obama, but I would like to share it withall of you.

President Kennedy said to President LópezMateos, “Geography has made us neighbors;tradition has made us friends.” Let us not allowa gap fall between what nature has united. Andthat is why we vow so that this understanding,this dialogue climate that we have set up, in re-

sult, will give us more growth, more develop-ment, and more opportunities for our peoples.

Once again, allow me to reiterate, PresidentObama—and this goes for your delegation aswell—you are warmly welcomed to Mexico,and I hope that your stay is fruitful and you en-joy your stay in Mexico as well.

Thank you very much.President Obama. Muchas gracias, Señor

Presidente, to President Peña Nieto for yourkind words and your extraordinary hospitality.As President-elect, you were the first leader Iwelcomed to the White House after our elec-tion. It was a sign of our extraordinarily closerelationship between our two countries.

During Enrique’s visit, I noted that he spenttime as a student in the United States in one ofour most beautiful States, the State of Maine. Imust say, though: Maine is very cold, and sowhen I come here on a beautiful spring dayhere in this beautiful city, I understand whyyou came back home.

I want to thank you for your hospitality. Ilook forward to joining you and the First Lady,la Señora Rivera, this evening. And I want tothank all the people of Mexico for such a warmwelcome. It’s always a pleasure to visit.

As President Peña Nieto discussed, betweenour two countries, we’re some 430 million peo-ple. Ten million—tens of millions of MexicanAmericans enrich our national life in the Unit-ed States. Well over 1 million Americans livehere in Mexico. Every year, millions of tour-ists—most of them from the United States—visit this magnificent country. Every day, mil-lions of workers in our countries earn a livingfrom the jobs that are made possible by ourtrade, and more than 1 million people crossour shared border: businesspeople, students,educators, scientists, researchers, collaboratingin every sphere of human endeavor.

In other words, Mexico and the UnitedStates have one of the largest, most dynamicrelationships of any two countries on Earth.And yet we don’t always hear about all aspectsof these extraordinary ties because too oftentwo issues get attention: security or immigra-tion.

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Obviously, these are serious challenges, andPresident Peña Nieto and I discussed them indepth today. I agreed to continue our close co-operation on security, even as the nature ofthat cooperation will evolve. As I told the Pres-ident, it is obviously up to the Mexican peopleto determine their security structures and howit engages with other nations, including theUnited States. But the main point I made tothe President is that we support Mexican Gov-ernment’s focus on reducing violence, and welook forward to continuing our good coopera-tion in any way that the Mexican Governmentdeems appropriate.

I also reaffirmed our determination in theUnited States to meet our responsibilities: toreduce the demand for illegal drugs and tocombat the southbound flow of illegal gunsand cash that help to fuel violence.

Again, I want to pay tribute to the people ofMexico, who have made extraordinary sacrific-es for their security and display great courageand resolve every day.

But even as we continue to deal with theseurgent challenges, we can’t lose sight of thelarger relationship between our peoples, in-cluding the promise of Mexico’s economicprogress. I believe we’ve got a historic oppor-tunity to foster even more cooperation, moretrade, more jobs on both sides of the border,and that’s the focus of my visit.

The United States and Mexico have one ofthe largest economic relationships in theworld. Our annual trade has now surpassed$500 billion, more than $1 billion every day.We are your largest customer, buying the vastmajority of Mexican exports. Mexico is the sec-ond largest market for U.S. exports. So, everyday, our companies and our workers, with theirintegrated supply chains, are building productstogether. And this is the strong foundation thatwe can build on.

I want to commend President Peña Nietoand the Mexican people for the ambitious re-forms that you’ve embarked on to make youreconomy more competitive, to make your insti-tutions more effective. And I know it’s hard,but it’s also necessary.

Ultimately, only Mexicans can decide howMexico reforms. But let me repeat what I toldto the President: As Mexico works to becomemore competitive, you’ve got a strong partnerin the United States, because our success isshared. When one of us prospers, both of usprosper. And that’s the context for the progressthat we made today.

As President mentioned, we’re, first of all,creating a high-level dialogue to broaden anddeepen our economic relationship. On ourside, it will be led by members of my Cabinet.Vice President Biden will participate as well.Together with Mexico, we’ll focus on increas-ing the connections between our businessesand workers, promoting innovation and entre-preneurship and making our economies evenmore competitive.

To that end, we also reaffirmed our goal ofconcluding negotiations on the Trans-PacificPartnership this year. This would be anothermajor step in integrating our two economiesand positioning us to compete in the fastestgrowing markets in the world, those in theAsia-Pacific region. We want to be able to sellmore goods from Mexico and the UnitedStates. And if we’re partnering together, wecan do even better.

We agreed to continue to make our sharedborder even more efficient with new infra-structure and new technologies so it’s evenfaster and cheaper to trade and do business to-gether. We reaffirmed our commitment to theclean energy partnerships that allow our twocountries to enhance our energy security andcombat climate change. And I’m very pleasedthat we’ve agreed to expand collaborations andexchanges between our students, our schools,and our universities.

Just as Enrique once studied in our country,we want more Mexicans studying in the UnitedStates, and we want more American studentsstudying here in Mexico. And we’re going tofocus on science and technology and engineer-ing and math to help our young people, includ-ing our daughters, succeed in this global econ-omy.

And finally, I updated the President on our ef-forts in the United States to pass commonsense,

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comprehensive immigration reform that lives upto our tradition as a nation of laws and a nation ofimmigrants, including generations of MexicanAmericans.

As we do, I think it’s important for every-body to remember that our shared border ismore secure than it’s been in years. Illegal im-migration attempts into the United States arenear their lowest level in decades, and legalimmigration continues to make both of ourcountries stronger and more prosperous andmore competitive.

And this, in part, reflects the economicprogress and greater opportunities here inMexico. I think this progress should help in-form the debate in the United States. And I’moptimistic that we’re finally going to get com-prehensive immigration reform passed.

I’ll have much more to say about this andsome other issues in my speech tomorrow. Butfor now, I want to express my gratitude to thePresident for his hospitality and also for yourleadership. And given the progress that we’reseeing here in Mexico, I see so many opportu-nities to continue to deepen the extraordinaryfriendship and common bond that we sharebetween our two great nations and our twogreat peoples. I know we will do that.

So thank you very much. Muchas gracias.Moderator. Now we will have a round of

four questions. Marú Rojas from Radio For-mula.

Border Security/Mexico-U.S. Relations

Q. To the President of Mexico, we welcomegladly that the agenda is broadened. There isno speculation on the priority topics to be in-cluded in your agendas. Could you clarify ifthis high-level group, please, as you have point-ed out, will overcome efficiently the results ofa fight that these two nations had on the issueof security? It seems to be that trade is now apriority; no longer security is.

And for President Obama, given your exper-tise during this second administration, what isyour take on Enrique Peña Nieto’s new admin-istration in terms of reforms? You have ac-knowledged the reforms made so far. Is theU.S. Government seeing this reform as on the

part of the administration or a pact? Thankyou.

President Peña Nieto. Thank you very much.We have relaunched our relationship, and wehave agreed on the climate within which we’regoing to work on. We have defined our priori-ties. We don’t want to make this relationshiptargeted on one single issue. We want tobroaden our relation to include different areas,and we want to specially emphasize our rela-tion on the trade relation potential betweenMexico and the U.S.

We’re also going to cover other areas. Ofcourse, public safety is included, and we haveshared our view on that topic to work towardsreducing violence by combating efficiently or-ganized crime.

And I must insist, we have reviewed the longlist of potential and opportunities that we haveidentified in the economic relation betweenthe U.S. and Mexico in the area of trade andcommerce. President Obama has already put itfor the U.S. We represent a market that re-ceives their exports. We’re the second exportdestination, and in our case, the United Statesranks first. We need to identify the areas wherewe can supplement each other’s production ofgoods and exports and goods from Mexico tothe world, because these products have a highcontent of U.S. input.

As I have stated, this means that if Mexicodoes well in its productive capabilities—that isto say, by creating more labor and its capabilityto export more products—the U.S. will bene-fit, and vice versa.

That is why this high-level meeting foreseesthe participation of officials that are a part ofmy cabinet. The U.S. has not a tradition of hav-ing cabinets like the ones we have, but Presi-dent Obama has decided that high-ranking of-ficials from different Government agencies willparticipate, including the U.S. Vice President.They will be part of this high-level group thatwill define specific actions. That—what hasbeen done so far in the private sector comple-mentarity has happened. And we have seen agood flow of trade between our countries.There is no doubt that even when it hasreached a certain level, we can push it further.

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We can extend its capabilities if both of ourgovernments identify the right mechanisms,the right formula to boost economic integra-tion. And that is precisely the agreement thatwe have reached today.

President Obama. Well, first of all, just onthe security issue, I think it’s natural that a newadministration here in Mexico is looking care-fully at how it’s going to approach what has ob-viously been a serious problem. And we arevery much looking forward to cooperating inany ways that we can to battle organized crime,as President Peña Nieto stated.

And we anticipate that there’s going to bestrong cooperation, that on our side of the bor-der, we have continued work to do to reducedemand and to try to stem the flow of guns andcash from north to south.

So this is a partnership that will continue. Ithink that President Peña Nieto and his teamare organizing a vision about how they canmost efficiently and effectively address theseissues. And we will interact with them in waysthat are appropriate, respecting that ultimate-ly, Mexico has to deal with its problems inter-nally and we have to deal with ours as well.

With respect to the President’s agenda, wehad a wonderful relationship with PresidentCalderón and the previous administration. Thebonds between our two countries go beyondparty. If a Republican President replaces me,there’s still going to be great bonds betweenMexico and the United States because not justthe geography, but friendship and our interac-tions.

But what I have been impressed with is thePresident’s boldness in his reform agenda.He’s tackling big issues. And that’s what thetimes demand. We live in a world that ischanging rapidly, and in both the United Statesand in Mexico we can’t be caught flatfooted asthe world advances.

We have to make sure that our young peopleare the best educated in the world. And thatmeans that some of the old ways of educatingour kids may not work. We have to make surethat we’re staying at the forefront of scienceand technology. And that means we’ve got tomake sure that we’re investing in those areas

appropriately. We have to make certain thatour economies are competitive around theworld and that when it comes to energy, thatwe’re addressing issues like climate change,but also making sure that it’s done in a waythat’s creating jobs and businesses on bothsides of the border.

And so what I very much appreciate is thePresident’s willingness to take on hard issues,because sometimes, I think there’s a tempta-tion, once somebody is elected, to just stayelected, as opposed to trying to make sure thatwe use our time as well as we can to bringabout the kinds of changes will help move thecountry forward.

Syria/Immigration Reform

White House Press Secretary James F. “Jay”Carney. From the U.S. press, Julie Pace of theAssociated Press.

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. Administra-tion officials, including Secretary Hagel, saythat the U.S. is now more seriously consideringsending weapons to the Syrian rebels. How hasyour thinking on the effectiveness of such astep evolved as the violence in Syria has con-tinued? And do you now see lethal aid as thebest option available for a U.S. escalation inSyria?

I also had a question on immigration that Iwas hoping you both could address. SenatorRubio said today that on the immigration billbeing considered on Capitol Hill may not passthe Senate unless the border security measuresare strengthened. Are you concerned that aneffort to bolster those border security triggersmay make a pathway to citizenship almost im-possible for many people already in the U.S. il-legally, including many Mexicans?

President Obama. Well, first of all, on Syria,what Secretary Hagel said today is what I’vebeen saying now for months, which is we arecontinually evaluating the situation on theground, working with our international part-ners to find the best way to move a politicaltransition that has Asad leaving, stabilizes thecountry, ends the killing, and allows the Syrianpeople to determine their own destiny. Andwe’ve made enormous investments, not just in

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humanitarian aid, but also in helping the oppo-sition organize itself and make sure that it has aconsistent vision about how it’s operating.

And as we’ve seen evidence of furtherbloodshed, potential use of chemical weaponsinside of Syria, what I’ve said is, is that we’regoing to look at all options. And we know thatthere are countries that are currently providinglethal aid to the opposition. We also know thatthe Asad regime is getting not just lethal aid,but also training and support from countriesoutside of Syria. And we want to evaluate andmake sure that every step that we take advanc-es the day when Asad is gone and you havepeople inside of Syria who are able to deter-mine their own destiny rather than engage in along, bloody sectarian war.

And we’ll continue to evaluate that everystep of the way. But as I mentioned at my pressconference back in DC, we want to make surethat we look before we leap and that whatwe’re doing is actually helpful to the situationas opposed to making it more deadly or morecomplex.

With respect to immigration reform, I ex-pressed to President Peña Nieto that I’m opti-mistic about us getting this done, because it’sthe right thing to do. We’ve seen leaders fromboth parties indicate that now is the time to getcomprehensive immigration reform done. Andpart of what we discussed is the importance ofgetting it done precisely because we do somuch business between our two countries; thatfor us to constantly bog down on these borderissues and debates instead of moving forwardwith a 21st-century border that’s maintainingsecurity and that is making sure that legal im-migration and legal trade and commerce is fa-cilitated, but at the same time, ensures thatwe’re not seeing a lot of illegal traffic and al-lows us to continue to be a nation of immi-grants that has contributed so much to thewealth and prosperity of our Nation—if we’regoing to get that done, now is the time to do it.

And the bill that Senator Rubio and othersput forward, I think, is a great place to start. Itdoesn’t contain everything I want, and I sus-pect that the final legislation will not contain

everything I want. It won’t contain everythingthat Republican leaders want either. But if wecan get a basic framework that secures our bor-der, building on the extraordinary successwe’ve already had and the cooperation we’vehad with the Mexican Government; that cracksdown on employers who are not taking the lawseriously; that streamlines and enhances ourlegal immigration system, because the prob-lems with our legal immigration system oftenforce people into the illegal immigration sys-tem; and provides a pathway to citizenship forthose who are currently living in the shadowsinside of the United States—if it has those ele-ments, then we should be able to build on that.And we can have arguments about other ele-ments of this as we go further, but that’s thecore of what we need.

And frankly, we’ve put enormous resourcesinto border security. Don’t take my word for it:You had folks like Senator McCain and SenatorGraham come down to the border and see theprogress that’s been made. There are areaswhere there’s still more work to be done. Someof it, by the way, is not simply securing theUnited States from illegal traffic, some of it isalso improving the infrastructure, which wetalked about, for commerce to be able to comein smoothly, which creates jobs and helps ourbusinesses both in the United States and inMexico.

But what I’m not going to do is to go alongwith something where we’re looking for an ex-cuse not to do it as opposed to a way to do it.And I think we can. I think if all sides operatein good faith, that can be accomplished.

President Peña Nieto. On that matter, allowme to note that the Mexican Government ac-knowledges the efforts made by—the leader-ship made by President Barack Obama andyour Congress to eventually pass the immigra-tion bill. Mexico understands that this is a do-mestic affair for the U.S., and we wish you thebest in this push that you’re giving to immigra-tion.

That is what I have to say in terms of the re-form. Francisco Reséndiz from El Universaljournal.

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International Trade

Q. Thank you very much. Good afternoon.Mr. President, good afternoon. I would like toask you both, specifically, what would be themost important outcome of President Obama’svisit to Mexico, on the one hand? That is myquestion. And I would like to ask you as well:Have you considered the possibility to scale upthe Mexico-U.S. relation and to integrate theregion further? This could lead to a binationalstrategy in terms of fighting organized crimetransnationally. Thank you very much for youranswers.

President Peña Nieto. Thank you very much.In order to conclude this meeting, I would liketo say that we have revitalized our relation be-tween two governments that have two new ad-ministrations. This is President Obama’s sec-ond term and this new administration for Mex-ico. The climate within which we are strength-ening our relation is based on cordiality. Ourrelation is based on respect; it’s based on coop-eration and collaboration in all of those areasthat we share a common interest.

We are not going to target this relation inone specific area. We want to address multipleissues. We want to work on an agenda thatwould allow us to identify all the potential ar-eas that could help us advance our agenda.

We have emphasized trade and commerceduring this visit because we have made a thor-ough analysis of the U.S. and Mexico trade re-lations. We have analyzed trade flows and howour economies supplement each other. Andthere is potential if we truly want to become ina more productive and more competitiveNorth American region, well, that’s what weneed to do first to compete with other regionsin the world.

Those are the highlights and specifically theagreements made to create a high-level dia-logue, the bilateral forum to advance academicexchanges and to work towards science and in-novation in both of our countries.

Also, we will have a binational dialogue tofoster SMEs. Undoubtedly, these are mecha-nisms that, in result, will help us project fur-

ther the economic and trade relation that Mex-ico has with the United States.

And certainly, I must insist, let me say itvery clearly, the cooperation that we alreadyhave with the U.S. in the area of security, letme tell you that under this new strategy, we’regoing to order things up. We’re going to makeit institutional. The channels will be very clear.We’re going to use one single channel in orderto make—to be more efficient, to attain betterresults.

And we have reached a very good under-standing with the U.S. Government. Theyknow why we’re emphasizing violence reduc-tion in our strategy. President Obama has ex-pressed his respect to the strategy that theMexico’s Government will define in the area ofsecurity, and they have shown to be willing tocooperate with us in order to reach the goalsthat we have set up to have a peaceful Mexicowhere there is security.

President Obama. Well, I think PresidentPeña Nieto summarized it well. Let me giveyou one specific example, and that is the workthat our countries are doing together aroundthe Trans-Pacific Partnership, the TPP.

Our largest trading partner is Canada. Oursecond largest trading partner is Mexico. SoNorth America has already become far moreintegrated economically than it was 10 yearsago or 20 years ago. There are suppliers fromMexico who sell to U.S. companies that in turnsell back into Mexico or sell to Canada or sellaround the world. There are jobs that are cre-ated in Mexico, jobs that are created in theUnited States. All of our economies havegrown as a consequence of the work that’s tak-ing place together.

But as I said, the world is changing. So thefastest growing part of the world is the Asia-Pa-cific region, huge markets. And by us workingclosely together to upgrade and revamp ourtrade relationship, we’re also in a position toproject outward and start selling more goodsand services around the world. And that meansmore jobs and more businesses that are suc-cessful in Mexico and in the United States.

Some of that is going to be bilateral. So find-ing ways that we can reduce trade frictions,

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improving our transportation and our infra-structure cross-border, how we can improveour clean energy cooperation. Already, youhave a situation in which energy that is createdin power plants in California sometimes is soldduring nonpeak times into Mexico. And thenwhen it’s peak times in California, then it’s soldback into California, which makes it more effi-cient on both sides of the border, and that re-duces the cost for consumers on both sides.Well, those are the kinds of very specific areasthat we can continue to refine and improve on.And that’s what this high-level economic dia-logue will accomplish.

But even as we’re improving our bilateralnegotiations, what it also allows us to do, then,is to say we’re aligned in projecting both to thePacific and to the Atlantic in saying, let’s makesure that we’re taking advantage of all the eco-nomic opportunities that are taking placearound the world.

When the United States prospers, Mexicodoes well. And when Mexico does well, theUnited States does well. And that I think is themain message of my visit here today. That’swhat I want to make sure we’re focused on, be-cause certainly in the United States—and Iknow here in Mexico as well—when the econ-omy is growing, when people have opportuni-ty, then a lot of our other problems are solved,or at least we have the resources to solve them.And so that is something that we really want tomake sure that we’re focused on during therest of my term in office and during PresidentPeña Nieto’s term in office.

Family Planning and Access to Contracep-tion/Gun Control

Press Secretary Carney. Next from the U.S.press, Kathleen Hennessey of the Los AngelesTimes.

Q. Thanks to you both. Mr. President, Iwanted to ask about a domestic issue if I could,the FDA rule on the morning-after pill thatcame out this week that prohibits girls under15 from buying the “morning after” pill with-out a prescription. I’m wondering if—whatyour opinion on the rule is, and if it resolvessome of the concerns you expressed last year

when you talked about your role as a father andhow that’s influenced your thinking on this,and if you believe that there’s scientific evi-dence to justify the 15-year-old cutoff.

And for President Peña Nieto, I wanted toask you about gun control. The President’smost recent attempt to pass new legislation onguns just failed in the Senate. You’ve spokenout on this before. I’m wondering if you talkedto him about this in your meeting and if youwould urge him—have urged him—to tryagain, or if there’s more that you think theWhite House could do administratively, with-out approval from Congress, to resolve the is-sue. Thank you.

President Obama. Well, first of all, on theFDA issue, let me make a couple points clear.Number one, this is a decision made by theFDA and the Secretary of Health and HumanServices. It’s not my decision to make.

The first time around, where there were noage restrictions, Secretary Sebelius expressedconcerns, and I supported those concerns. AndI gave voice to them in the press room back inDC.

I—the rule that’s been put forward by theFDA, Secretary Sebelius has reviewed, she’scomfortable with. I’m comfortable with it.

The second point I want to make is, I’m verysupportive of contraception because I think it’svery important that women have control overtheir health care choices and when they arestarting a family. That’s their decision to make.And so we want to make sure that they have ac-cess to contraception. As you know we had alittle bit of a fuss around what we’re doing withthe Affordable Care Act, but I very much thinkthat’s the right thing to do.

So the current ruling is actually—youphrased it as prohibiting. I think you couldphrase it as, they’re now allowing these contra-ceptions to be—contraceptives to be sold overthe counter for 15-year-olds and older. It hasnot resolved the question of girls younger than15.

There was a court case that came up that isbeing appealed by the Justice Department.That’s a Justice Department decision. My un-derstanding is, part of it has to do with the

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precedent and the way in which the judge han-dled that case. And my suspicion is, is that theFDA may now be called upon to make furtherdecisions about whether there’s sufficient sci-entific evidence for girls younger than 15.

That’s the FDA’s decision to make. That’sSecretary Sebelius’s decision to review. ButI’m very comfortable with the decision they’vemade right now based on solid scientific evi-dence for girls 15 and older.

I know you didn’t direct the question to me,though I do want to editorialize just for a sec-ond about gun control. As I think all your Mex-ican counterparts understand and as I talkedabout with President Peña Nieto, we recognizewe’ve got obligations when it comes to gunsthat are oftentimes being shipped down southand contributing to violence here in Mexico.

But frankly, what I’m most moved by are thevictims of gun violence not just in Mexico, butback home, like the parents in Newtown. And Isaid the day that the legislation that had beenproposed by Senators Manchin and Toomey inthe Senate, the day that that failed to get 60votes, that that was not the end, this was thebeginning.

The last time we had major gun legislation ittook six, seven, eight tries to get passed. Thingshappen somewhat slowly in Washington. Butthis is just the first round. And when you’ve got90 percent of the American people supportingthe initiatives that we put forward aroundbackground checks and making sure that drugtraffickers, for example, can’t just send insomebody with a clean record to purchaseguns on their behalf with no way of tracking orstopping that. When you have commonsenselegislation like that that the overwhelming ma-jority of Americans, including gun owners,those of us who strongly support the SecondAmendment, all of us supporting, I believe thateventually, we’re going to get that done. AndI’m going to keep on trying.

So I didn’t mean to horn in on President Pe-ña Nieto’s response, but I just want to be clearthat we’re going to keep at this. One thing I amis persistent.

President Peña Nieto. In that regard, I be-lieve that we have an agreement with President

Obama’s words. And what Mexico would liketo see happening in the U.S., that is to controlbetter the sales of weapons. And we cannot ig-nore the efforts made by President Obama’sadministration in order to approve the bettercontrol of weapons. If Mexico could add itselfup to this important sector of the U.S. popula-tion—90 percent in favor of gun control—wewould do it. But this is a domestic issue in theUnited States.

In terms of the areas that we are working incollaboration, areas that we can address, is spe-cifically the fact—to avoid the fact that weap-ons bought in the U.S. could be brought toMexico. Regretfully, many lives of Mexicanshave been lost due to that illegal smuggling ofweapons bought in the United States havereached Mexican soil. We have made our com-mitment, and we’re working on it to work to-gether towards making our borders safer. Weare fighting illegal smuggling of weapons.

Mexico vows towards the efforts made byyour Government, and we’ll keep on support-ing you to have better gun control in yourcountry. But we’re not going to wait until thathappens. We are working by using more intel-ligence information, and we are taking actionto have safer borders so that we don’t haveweapons being smuggled into Mexico that re-gretfully end up hurting many Mexicans.

President Obama. Thank you very much, ev-erybody.

President Peña Nieto. Muchas gracias.President Obama. Muchas gracias.

NOTE: The President’s news conference beganat 4:24 p.m. at the Palacio Nacional. In his re-marks, the President referred to Angelica Ri-vera, wife of President Peña Nieto; formerPresident Felipe de Jesus Calderón Hinojosaof Mexico; President Bashar al-Asad of Syria;and Edward R. Korman, judge, U.S. DistrictCourt for the Eastern District of New York.President Peña Nieto referred to the ConsejoNacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONA-CYT). President Peña Nieto, the moderator,and some reporters spoke in Spanish, and theirremarks were translated by an interpreter.

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Joint Statement by President Obama and President Enrique Peña Nieto ofMexicoMay 2, 2013

At the invitation of President Enrique PeñaNieto, President Barack Obama travelled toMexico City on May 2–3 to discuss the broadrange of bilateral, regional, and global issuesthat bind the United States and Mexico andtouch the daily lives of citizens of both coun-tries. Building on their positive initial meetingin Washington, D.C. last November, the twoPresidents renewed their commitment to theUnited States-Mexico relationship.

Looking ahead to the next 4 years duringwhich their presidencies will overlap, the twoleaders noted the importance of taking advan-tage of opportunities and harnessing the en-thusiasm and optimism that a new stage in bi-lateral relations brings. The Presidents under-scored the strategic importance of the bilateralrelationship and expressed a desire for evengreater cooperation between their two nations.Specifically, the Presidents focused on: 1) eco-nomic competitiveness; 2) people-to-peopleconnections; 3) leadership on regional andglobal issues; and 4) citizen security.

Economic Competitiveness

Underpinning our successful United States-Mexico economic relationship are trade and in-vestment flows that support jobs in both coun-tries. Bilateral trade was almost half a trilliondollars in 2012.

The two Presidents agreed on the need tocontinue forging a close and productive eco-nomic relationship to enhance their nations’competitiveness and to create more trade andinvestment opportunities. With this purpose,they decided to establish a High Level Eco-nomic Dialogue, which will be chaired at thecabinet level and focus on promoting competi-tiveness, productivity and connectivity, foster-ing economic growth and innovation, and part-nering for global leadership. The leaders in-tend for the first meeting of the Dialogue totake place later this year, include representa-tives from relevant agencies and departments

from both governments, and engage with rele-vant stakeholders, notably the private sector.

The two leaders also discussed the impor-tance of the United States and Mexico workingtogether, and with their Canadian partners, tomake North America the most dynamic andcompetitive region in the world. They agreedto seek a successful conclusion to a high-stan-dard Trans-Pacific Partnership this year thatincludes 21st century provisions that signifi-cantly strengthen the North American FreeTrade Agreement. They also reiterated theircommitment to the resolution of specific tradeissues between their countries, and their inter-est in maintaining close coordination with re-gards to other relevant trade negotiations.

The Presidents also underscored the impor-tance to both countries of a secure and effi-cient shared border. They noted the recentmeeting of the 21st Century Border Manage-ment Executive Steering Committee, the firstunder President Peña Nieto’s tenure, andagreed to support key projects and initiativesthat improve infrastructure, support the effortsof local communities, facilitate the secure flowof legitimate trade and travel, and enhance lawenforcement cooperation along the border.

President Obama and President Peña Nietowelcomed the positive steps the U.S. Congressis taking to implement the Transboundary Hy-drocarbon Agreement, which will enhance en-ergy security in North America and bolster thetwo countries’ responsible stewardship of theGulf of Mexico. They look forward to full im-plementation of the Agreement.

People-to-People Connections

The two leaders underscored the broad anddeep connections that exist between the peo-ples of both countries, and their importance tothe prosperity and culture of both societies.

The Presidents agreed to establish a Bilater-al Forum on Higher Education, Innovation,and Research. It should start meeting this year

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and bring together government, academia, andcivil society to develop a shared vision on edu-cational cooperation and propose concreteshort-term and mid-term initiatives to promotebilateral collaboration and policy coordination.

Both Presidents expressed support for theU.S. government’s “100,000 Strong in theAmericas Initiative” as a way of enhancing aca-demic mobility between Mexico and the Unit-ed States.

President Obama noted that the bipartisanimmigration bill recently introduced in theU.S. Senate was largely consistent with theprinciples he has repeatedly laid out. He reit-erated his commitment to commonsense im-migration reform that would institute a fair andeffective immigration system that lives up tothe United States’ heritage as a nation of lawsand recognizes the extraordinary contributionsof immigrants, including generations of immi-grants from Mexico, to make the United Statesa strong and vibrant Nation. President PeñaNieto recognized President Obama’s efforts toadvance this issue, and reaffirmed the Govern-ment of Mexico’s commitment to supportingthe wellbeing of Mexicans living abroad.

Global and Regional Leadership

The Presidents underscored the importanceof their countries’ cooperation on regional andinternational issues. These include job creationthrough sustained economic growth, the pro-tection of human rights, gender equality, dem-ocratic governance, and addressing the chal-lenges of climate change. They emphasized theimportance of the Equal Futures Partnership,which Mexico will formally join, as a multilat-eral effort to expand women’s economic em-powerment and political participation.

As part of a commitment to working togeth-er in Central American and the hemisphere,the two Leaders noted a recently concluded

Memorandum of Understanding for Interna-tional Cooperation between the Secretariat ofForeign Relation’s Mexican Agency for Inter-national Development Cooperation (AMEX-CID) and the United States Agency for Inter-national Development (USAID) that will pro-mote joint activities concerning developmentand cooperation with third countries. The twoPresidents also reaffirmed their support to in-creased interconnection of electricity grids inthe Americas, for example through the Con-necting the Americas 2022 initiative launchedat the Sixth Summit of the Americas.

Citizen Security

The Presidents reaffirmed their commit-ment to act as co-responsible partners througha renewed collaborative approach to citizen se-curity. President Peña Nieto discussed the im-portance of ensuring a peaceful Mexico, as oneof the five main pillars of his government’sstrategy, and of preventing crime by address-ing the conditions that contribute to its occur-rence, and strengthening institutions and therule of law.

President Obama reiterated U.S. supportfor Mexico’s efforts, and in particular for thetransition to an accusatory system of justicethat is transparent, effective, and efficient. ThePresidents also emphasized the importance ofcontinued actions against transnational orga-nized crime, enhanced counter-illicit financeand arms trafficking efforts, and measures toreduce drug use and its consequences.

Presidents Obama and Peña Nieto will re-main in close consultation on these and otherissues of mutual interest, in order to furtheradvance the partnership between their nations.


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Letter to Congressional Leaders on Continuation of the National EmergencyWith Respect to BurmaMay 2, 2013


Section 202(d) of the National EmergenciesAct (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)) provides for the auto-matic termination of a national emergency un-less, within 90 days prior to the anniversarydate of its declaration, the President publishesin the Federal Register and transmits to theCongress a notice stating that the emergency isto continue in effect beyond the anniversarydate. In accordance with this provision, I havesent to the Federal Register for publication theenclosed notice stating that the national emer-gency with respect to Burma that was declaredon May 20, 1997, is to continue in effect be-yond May 20, 2013.

The Government of Burma has made signif-icant progress in a number of critical areas, in-cluding releasing hundreds of political prison-ers, achieving cease-fire talks with the 11armed ethnic groups, taking significant stepstoward eliminating press censorship, and en-abling the participation of opposition parties inthe country’s political system.

Despite great strides that Burma has madein its reform effort, the situation in the countrycontinues to pose an unusual and extraordinarythreat to the national security and foreign poli-cy of the United States. The political openingis nascent, and concerns persist regarding re-maining political prisoners, ongoing conflictand human rights abuses in ethnic minority ar-eas, and the country’s continued military rela-tionship with the Democratic People’s Repub-lic of Korea. The United States is committed tosupporting and strengthening Burma’s reformefforts to ensure that the democratic transitionbecomes irreversible. For this reason, I havedetermined that it is necessary to continue thenational emergency with respect to Burma.

Sincerely,

BARACK OBAMA


Remarks at the National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City, MexicoMay 3, 2013

Hola! Buenos dias! Please, please, every-body, have a seat. It is wonderful to be back inMexico, lindo y querido. I bring with me thegreetings and friendship of the people of theUnited States, including tens of millions ofproud Mexican Americans.

Now, this is my fourth visit to Mexico asPresident. This is my second visit to this muse-um. And each time that I come, I’ve been in-spired by your culture and by the beauty of thisland, and most of all, by the Mexican people.You’ve been so kind and gracious to me.You’ve welcomed my wife Michelle here to elDF. You’ve welcomed our daughter Malia andher classmates to Oaxaca. And as a proud fa-

ther, I have to say that Malia’s Spanish is get-ting very good. It helps that she’s smarter thanI am.

And it’s an honor to be back in Mexico City,one of the world’s great cities. Es un placer es-tar entre amigos.

And it’s fitting that we gather at this greatmuseum, which celebrates Mexico’s ancientcivilizations and their achievements in arts andarchitecture, in medicine and mathematics. Inmodern times, Mexico’s blend of cultures andtraditions found its expression in the murals ofRivera and the paintings of Frida and the poet-ry of Sor Juana and the essays of Octavio Paz.And Paz once spoke words that capture the

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spirit of our gathering here today, in this placethat celebrates your past, but which this morn-ing is filled with so many young people whowill shape Mexico’s future. Octavio Paz said:“Modernity is not outside us, it is within us. Itis today and the most ancient antiquity; it is to-morrow and the beginning of the world; it is athousand years old and yet newborn.”

And that’s why I wanted this opportunity tospeak with all of you today, because you live atthe intersection of history that Octavio Paz wasreferring to. The young people of Mexico, youhonor your heritage, thousands of years old,but you’re also part of something new, a nationthat’s in the process of remaking itself. And asour modern world changes around us, it’s thespirit of young people—your optimism andyour idealism and your willingness to discardold habits that are no longer working—that willdrive the world forward.

You see the difference between the world asit is and the world as it could to be, betweenold attitudes that stifle progress and the newthinking that allows us to connect and collabo-rate across cultures. And by the way, that in-cludes how we think about the relationship be-tween Mexico and the United States.

Despite all the bonds and the values that weshare, despite all the people who claim heri-tage on both sides, our attitudes sometimes aretrapped in old stereotypes. Some Americansonly see the Mexico that is depicted in sensa-tional headlines of violence and border cross-ings. And let’s admit it, some Mexicans thinkthat America disrespects Mexico or thinks thatAmerica is trying to impose itself on Mexicansovereignty or just wants to wall ourselves off.And in both countries, such distortions createmisunderstandings that make it harder for usto move forward together. So I’ve come toMexico because I think it’s time for us to putthe old mindsets aside. It’s time to recognizenew realities, including the impressive prog-ress of today’s Mexico.

It is true that there are Mexicans all acrossthis country who are making courageous sacri-fices for the security of your country, that inthe countryside and in the neighborhoods notfar from here, there are those who are still

struggling to give their children a better life.But what’s also clear is that a new Mexico isemerging.

I see it in the deepening of Mexico’s democ-racy: citizens who are standing up and sayingthat violence and impunity is not acceptable; acourageous press that’s working to hold leadersaccountable; a robust civil society, includingbrave defenders of human rights who demanddignity and rule of law. You have political partiesthat are competing vigorously, but also transfer-ring power peacefully and forging compromise.And that’s all a sign of the extraordinary progressthat’s taken place here in Mexico.

And even though we know the work of per-fecting democracy is never finished—that’strue in America, that’s true here in Mexico—you go forward knowing the truth that BenitoJuarez once spoke: “Democracy is the destinyof humanity.” And we are seeing that here inMexico. [Applause] We’re seeing that here inMexico.

We’re also seeing a Mexico that’s creatingnew prosperity: trading with the world; becom-ing a manufacturing powerhouse, from Tijuanato Monterrey to Guadalajara and across thecentral highlands; a global leader in automo-biles and appliances and electronics, but also acenter of high-tech innovation, producing thesoftware and the hardware of our digital age.One man in Querétaro spoke for an increasingnumber of Mexicans: “There’s no reason to goabroad in search of a better life. There aregood opportunities here.” That’s what he said,and you are an example of that.

And in fact, I see a Mexico that’s lifted mil-lions of people from poverty. Because of thesacrifices of generations, a majority of Mexi-cans now call themselves middle class, with aquality of life that your parents and grandpar-ents could only dream of. This includes, by theway, opportunities for women, who are provingthat when you give women a chance, they willshape our destiny just as well as men, if notbetter.

And I also see in Mexico’s youth an empow-ered generation because of technology. I think Isee some of you tweeting right now—[laugh-ter]—what’s happening. [Laughter] And wheth-

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er it’s harnessing social media to preserve indig-enous languages or speaking up for the futurethat you want, you’re making it clear that youwant your voice heard.

And because of all the dynamic progressthat’s taking place here in Mexico, Mexico is al-so taking its rightful place in the world, on theworld stage. Mexico is standing up for democ-racy not just here in Mexico, but throughoutthe hemisphere. Mexico is sharing expertisewith neighbors across the Americas. Whenthey face earthquakes or threats to their citi-zens or go to the polls to cast their votes, Mexi-co is there, helping its neighbors. Mexico hasjoined the ranks of the world’s largest econo-mies. It became the first Latin American na-tion to host the G–20.

And just as Mexico is being transformed, soare the ties between our two countries. AsPresident, I’ve been guided by a basic proposi-tion: In this relationship, there’s no senior part-ner or junior partner, we are two equal part-ners, two sovereign nations. We must work to-gether in mutual interest and mutual respect.And if we do that, both Mexico and the UnitedStates will prosper.

And just as I worked with President Calde-rón, I’ve reaffirmed with President Peña Nietothat the great partnership between our twocountries will not simply continue, it’s going togrow stronger and become broader. And in mytime with President Peña Nieto, I’ve come tosee his deep commitment to Mexico and its fu-ture. And we share the belief that as leaders,our guiding mission is to improve the lives ofour people. And so we agree that the relation-ship between our nations must be defined notby the threats that we face, but by the prosper-ity and the opportunity that we can create to-gether.

Now, as equal partners, both our nationsmust recognize our mutual responsibilities. So,here in Mexico, you’ve embarked on an ambi-tious reform agenda to make your economymore competitive and your institutions moreaccountable to you, the Mexican people. Andas you pursue these reforms, I want you toknow that you have strong support in the Unit-ed States. Because we believe—I believe—

that people all around the world deserve thebest from their government. And whetheryou’re looking for basic services or trying tostart a new business, we share your belief thatyou should be able to make it through your daywithout paying a bribe. And when talentedMexicans like you imagine your future, youshould have every opportunity to succeed righthere in the country you love.

And in the United States, we recognize ourresponsibilities. We understand that much ofthe root cause of violence that’s been happen-ing here in Mexico, for which many so Mexi-cans have suffered, is the demand for illegaldrugs in the United States. And so we’ve got tocontinue to make progress on that front.

I’ve been asked, and I honestly do not be-lieve that legalizing drugs is the answer. But Ido believe that a comprehensive approach—not just law enforcement, but education andprevention and treatment—that’s what wehave to do. And we’re going to stay at it, be-cause the lives of our children and the future ofour nations depend on it.

And we also recognize that most of the gunsused to commit violence here in Mexico comefrom the United States. I think many of youknow that in America, our Constitution guar-antees our individual right to bear arms, and asPresident, I swore an oath to uphold that right,and I always will. But at the same time, as I’vesaid in the United States, I will continue to doeverything in my power to pass commonsensereforms that keep guns out of the hands ofcriminals and dangerous people. That can savelives here in Mexico and back home in theUnited States. It’s the right thing to do. Sowe’ll keep increasing the pressure on gun traf-fickers who bring illegal guns into Mexico.We’ll keep putting these criminals where theybelong: behind bars.

So we recognize we’ve got work to do on se-curity issues, but we also recognize our respon-sibility, as a nation that believes that all peopleare created equal: We believe it’s our responsi-bility to make sure that we treat one anotherwith dignity and respect. And this includes rec-ognizing how the United States has beenstrengthened by the extraordinary contribu-

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tions of immigrants from Mexico and by Amer-icans of Mexican heritage.

Now, Mexican Americans enrich our com-munities, including my hometown of Chicago,where you can walk through neighborhoodslike Pilsen, Little Village—La Villita—[laugh-ter]—dotted with murals of Mexican patriots.You can stop at a fonda, you can hear some ma-riachi, you—where we are inspired by thedeep faith of our both our peoples at churcheslike Our Lady of Guadalupe. [Applause] Andwe’ve got a Chicagoan in here somewhere.[Laughter]

And we’re so grateful to Mexican Americansin every segment of our society: for teachingour children and running our companies andserving with honor in our military and makingbreakthroughs in science and standing up forsocial justice. Now, Dr. Martin Luther King,Jr., told Cesar Chavez once, we are “brothersin the fight for equality.” And in fact, withoutthe strong support of Latinos, including somany Mexican Americans, I would not bestanding today as President of the UnitedStates. That’s the truth.

And so given that is America’s heritage, giv-en that we share a border with Mexico, giventies that run back generations, it is critical thatthe United States recognize the need to reformour immigration system, because we are a na-tion of laws, but we’re also a nation of immi-grants. Like every nation, we have a responsi-bility to ensure that our laws are upheld. Butwe also know that as a nation of immigrants,the immigration system we have in the UnitedStates right now doesn’t reflect our values. Itseparates families when we should be reunitingthem. It’s led to millions of people to live in theshadows. It deprives us of the talents of somany young people, even though we know thatimmigrants have always been the engine of oureconomy, starting some of our greatest compa-nies and pioneering new industries.

That’s one of the reasons I acted to lift theshadow of deportation from what we call thedreamers, young people brought to the UnitedStates as children. And that’s why I’m workingwith our Congress to pass commonsense immi-gration reform this year—I’m convinced we

can get it done—reform that continues tostrengthen border security and strengthen le-gal immigration so citizens don’t have to waityears to bring their families to the UnitedStates; reform that holds everyone accountableso immigrants get on the right side of the lawand so immigrants are not exploited andabused; and most of all, reform that gives mil-lions of undocumented individuals a pathwayto earn their citizenship. And I’m optimisticthat after years of trying, we are going to get itdone this year. I’m absolutely convinced of it.

And obviously, we’re going to have to workwith the Mexican Government to make surethat we’ve got a well-regulated border. But Ialso want to work with the Mexican Govern-ment because I believe that the long-term so-lution to the challenge of illegal immigration isa growing and prosperous Mexico that createsmore jobs and opportunities for young peoplehere.

I agree with the Mexican student who said,“I feel like we can reach the same level as any-one in the world.” That’s absolutely true. Andso I firmly believe, juntos, podemos lograrmás—together, we can achieve more. So withthe remainder of my time today, I want to fo-cus on five areas where we can do more.

Number one, let’s do more to expand tradeand commerce that creates good jobs for ourpeople. We already buy more of your exportsthan any country in the world. We sell more ofour exports to Mexico than we do to Brazil,Russia, India, and China combined. Mexicancompanies are investing more in the UnitedStates, and we’re the largest foreign investor inMexico, because we believe in Mexico andwant to be a partner in your success.

So, guided by the new economic dialoguethat President Peña Nieto and I announcedyesterday, let’s do more to unlock the true po-tential of our relationship. Let’s keep investingin our roads and our bridges and our bordercrossings so we can trade faster and cheaper.Let’s help our smaller businesses, which em-ploy most of our workers, access new marketsand new capital, the big markets right acrossthe border. Let’s empower our young entre-preneurs as they create startup companies that

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can transform how we live. And let’s realize theTrans-Pacific Partnership this year so our twonations can compete and win in the fast-grow-ing markets of the Asia-Pacific. If the UnitedStates and Mexico are working together, wecan sell a whole lot of things on the other sideof the Pacific Ocean where the fastest growingeconomies are taking off right now. So that’snumber one.

Number two, let’s not just sell more thingsto each other, let’s build more things together.So, with many of our companies operating inboth countries, parts are now being shippedback and forth across the border as they’re as-sembled. So, every day, U.S. and Mexicanworkers are building things together, whetherit’s crafts—whether it’s cars or aircraft or com-puters or satellites.

And I think this is only the beginning. Giventhe skills of our workers, it makes even moresense for companies around the world to set upshop in the United States and set up shop inMexico. And as Mexico reforms, we’re going tobe able to do more business together and sellmore goods around the world. And the morethat our companies collaborate, the more com-petitive they’ll be. And the entire hemispherewill benefit because of those links and chainsthat have been created between our two coun-tries.

Number three, as we secure our economicfuture, let’s secure our energy future, includ-ing the clean energy that we need to combatclimate change. Our nations are blessed withboundless natural beauty, from our coastlinesand farmlands to your tropical forests. But cli-mate change is happening. The science is un-deniable. And so is the fact that our economiesmust become greener.

So, in the United States, we’ve made historiccommitments to clean and renewable energylike solar and wind power. And we’ve made acommitment to reduce the emission of harm-ful carbon pollution. And here in Mexico,you’re a leader in cutting carbon emissions andhelping developing countries do the same. Sotogether, let’s keep building new energy part-nerships by harnessing all these new sourcesand, by the way, creating the good jobs that

come with these new technologies. And let’skeep investing in green buildings and technol-ogies that make our entire economy more effi-cient, but also make our planet cleaner and saf-er for future generations.

Number four—and this is part of stayingcompetitive—let’s do more together in educa-tion so our young people have the knowledgeand skills to succeed. Here in Mexico you’vemade important progress, with more childrenstaying in school longer and record numbers ofstudents like you getting a university educa-tion. Just imagine how much the students ofour two countries could do together, howmuch we could learn from each other.

And that’s why President Peña Nieto and Iannounced a new partnership in higher educa-tion to encourage more collaboration betweenour universities and our university students. Sowe’re going to focus on science and technolo-gy, on engineering and mathematics. And thisis part of my broader initiative called 100,000Strong in the Americas. We want 100,000 stu-dents from the United States studying in LatinAmerica, including Mexico. And we want100,000 Latin American students, includingMexican students, to come to study in theUnited States of America. Because when westudy together and we learn together, we worktogether and we prosper together. That’s whatI believe.

And finally, to help spark prosperity in bothout countries, let’s truly invest in innovationand research and development together. Herein Mexico, you’re now a global leader in gradu-ating engineers and technicians. One of Mexi-co’s leading scientists, Rafael Navarro-González, is helping analyze data from the rov-er that we’ve landed on Mars.

So together, let’s remember that every dol-lar, every peso that we invest in research anddevelopment returns so much more to oureconomies in jobs and opportunity, new prod-ucts, new services. And that’s why I’m callingfor us to forge new partnerships in aerospaceand IT and nanotechnology and biotechnologyand robotics. Let’s answer the hope of a youngwoman, a student at the National PolytechnicInstitute, who spoke for many in your genera-

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tion, so eager to make your mark. She said,“Give us jobs as creators.” Give us jobs as cre-ators.

Sometimes, young people are known as justconsumers of goods, but we want young peoplecreating the new products, the next big thingthat will change how we live our lives. So that’sthe agenda that I want to pursue.

And I understand that there are those—both here in Mexico and elsewhere in LatinAmerica, but also back home in the UnitedStates—who are skeptical of progress, whomaybe doubt the capacity for us to make themost of this moment. There are always cynicswho say, “Aw, this is too hard,” the headwindsyou face are too stiff. They say: “Mexico hasbeen here before. We look like we’re makingprogress, we’re looking at a bright horizon, onthe verge of great possibility, but then we getblown off course.”

And it’s true that nothing is inevitable. Prog-ress and success is never guaranteed. The fu-ture that you dream of, the Mexico you imag-ine, it must be built; it must be earned. No-body else can do it for you. Only you can earnit. You are the future. As Nervo wrote in “LaRaza de Bronce,” tu eres el sueño—you are thedream.

For just as it was patriots who answered thecall when Father Hidalgo rang the church belltwo centuries ago, you—your lives in a freeMexico—are the dream that they imagined.And now it falls to you to keep alive those vir-

tues for which so many generations of Mexi-cans struggled.

You are the dream that can stand up for jus-tice and human rights and human dignity, hereat home and around the world. You’re the cre-ators and the builders and the climbers and thestrivers who can deliver progress and prosperi-ty that will lift up not just the Mexican peoplefor generations to come, but the entire world.

You’re the men and women who will pushthis nation upwards as Mexico assumes itsrightful place, as you proudly sing, “in heavenyour eternal destiny was written by the fingerof God.”

You are the dream. This is your moment.And as you reach for the future, always re-member that you have the greatest of partners,the greatest of friends, the nation that is root-ing for your success more than anybody else,your neighbor, the United States of America.

Viva México! Viva los Estados Unidos! QueDios los bendiga! Thank you very much.

NOTE: The President spoke at 9:29 a.m. In hisremarks, he referred to former President Feli-pe de Jesus Calderón Hinojosa of Mexico; Ale-jandro Landin Cruz and Emelyn Medina, stu-dents, National Polytechnic Institute in MexicoCity, Mexico; and Rafael Navarro-González,professor of astrobiology, National Autono-mous University of Mexico in Mexico City,Mexico.

The President’s News Conference With President Laura Chinchilla Mirandaof Costa Rica in San Jose, Costa RicaMay 3, 2013

President Chinchilla. Good afternoon. Goodafternoon, dear friends. Dear friends, journal-ists—international journalists, and from Amer-ican and SICA. Thank you very much. Thankyou for being here with us this afternoon.

In the first place and before we get anydeeper concerning the results of the meetingsthat we just had recently, in the first place,what I’d like to do is to reiterate our warmestwelcome, on behalf of all the Costa Rican peo-

ple, to President Barack Obama and his dele-gation. And also I would like to reiterate on be-half of all Costa Ricans the feelings that we feeltowards the United States of America.

And I also wanted to thank you very muchfor the way so cordial and constructive inwhich we have been able to develop this after-noon’s issues, Mr. President, because I thinkthat we have had very successful conversationsin the bilateral meeting. It was my pleasure to

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report that precisely thanks to this open pro-cess of conversations that we have had, it isthat we can explore new horizons, always try-ing to strengthen these all traditions based onthe defense of values—the essential values—that have characterized the relationship be-tween the United States and Costa Rica.

Particularly speaking, I’m talking about val-ues of peace, freedom, democracy, respect tothe human rights, and the human develop-ment. These are the values that we share. Andthese are the values on which we aspire to con-tinue to develop the relationship between ourtwo nations.

The conversations that we have had havebeen very useful, and I—and they have basical-ly focused on six fundamental issues that re-flect this rich diversity that characterizes therelationship between the two nations. We talk-ed about institutional strengthening. We talkedabout the issues of international policy and theinvolvement, in particular, to which Costa Ricaaspires in the international economic scenario.

We also talked about the use of fundamentalinstruments in the relationship of the two na-tions, like CAFTA, for instance. We talkedabout an issue that is important but it is not theone that defines our relationship, which is se-curity. And we also talked about a fundamentalissue that undoubtedly is going to define theprogress and the joint development, not onlybetween the United States of America andCosta Rica, but also between the United Statesand the Central American region, which is thearea of energy.

And finally, of course, in our Costa Ricanagenda, we included issues having to do witheducation, entrepreneurship, and innovation.

And please allow me to briefly walk youthrough these six issues so that you can get toknow which has been the central element ineach of them.

In the area of institutional strengthening, asyou know, the Government of the UnitedStates is promoting what is called the allianceof open governments, that basically seeks tostrengthen practices that are much more trans-parent and integral in everything that has to do

with the exercise of institutions of public func-tion.

Costa Rica has been an enthusiastic partici-pant in this initiative. We have already pro-posed our action plan, and we aspire to contin-ue to share initiatives, practices, exchanges ofexperiences in this issue.

In the area of involvement of Costa Rica inthe economic global scenario and some of theissues of international policy, we have taken in-to account—we have used this session to talkabout the involvement of the United States inthe area of the fire weapons, and that together,they have been able to get the approval in therecent meeting of the United Nations.

Thank you very much, Mr. President, forhaving sponsored one of the treaties that is go-ing to contribute the most to the peace in theworld. In addition, I would like to recognize, inparticular, the efforts of President Obama inthe area—in his own country in order to raiseawareness concerning the regulation of fireweapons.

Costa Rica, as some of you already know, istrying to play a more protagonistic role, espe-cially in the area of global development. CostaRica is a small economy, but it’s a very openeconomy. It’s a model of success. The incep-tion of global value chains with more and morecompetitive, attracting—in the attractionbased on high technology. And being a middle-income country, we are a country that is notseeking to get more aid. We basically want tohave more opportunities to export what ourpeople are producing.

As we have said in the past, we either exportour products the people are able to produce orgenerate, or we’re going to end up exportingour own people. And Costa Rica will continueto keep Costa Ricans in Costa Rica, with betteropportunities of economic growth and withbetter opportunities of welfare.

And that is that the aspirations of Costa Ricainclude to be able to insert itself in the differ-ent fora where we will continue to widen theopportunities of trade, investment, and as aconsequence, the opportunities to continue togenerate employment and welfare in our coun-try.

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To this extent, we have talked to PresidentObama about two important fora where CostaRica aspires to be present. One is the alli-ance—the Trans-Pacific alliance, the TPP,where the Government of the United States,and especially the Obama administration, isplaying an important leadership to the effect ofclosing these negotiations. And we would hopethat Costa Rica will continue to be the centerof attention of the pioneer countries to be ableto insert ourselves in the same initiative.

And the other important forum where wehave given our best efforts is the forum for thecooperation and development. Costa Ricawants to be there precisely because we want tocontinue to adopt the best possible practices inmatters of development of public policy.

In the area of the using of the CAFTA plat-form, as you know, this is going to be an is-sue—a regional issue, an issue of regionalscope—but this becomes a bilateral issue tothe extent that Costa Rica and the SICA—Cos-ta Rica is one of the economies that has takenthe best advantage of the opportunity providedby the economic—by the American market.We have become in the SICA framework themost important partner with the United States.Thanks to CAFTA, the countries in our regionhave increased by 70 percent the internationaltrade. And what we basically seek is to be ableto promote initiatives in the area of facilitationof trade.

Concerning the area of security, this, as Imentioned before, is an obligated issue. As youknow, Costa Rica considered this a fundamen-tal issue—has been considering this issue afundamental one in the recent years. We havebeen able to do well facing common crime. Wehave been able to reduce the homicide ratessignificantly. We have been able to reduce therates of violent crime, thanks to an integral ap-proach in the area of prevention and sanction,as well as the issues having to do with control.But we also have to admit that the issue of or-ganized crime continues to be important onthe institution of stability and the integrity ofour nations.

Thus, we talked about this issue. We had aconversation about it. We reiterated the im-

portance of keeping the levels of cooperationthat’s—that we have had so far. But very par-ticularly, we made the point on the efforts thatare being displayed by the SICA countries aswell as the United States Government with thepurpose of approaching the issue of organizedcrime and drug smuggling from a much moreintegral approach, a much more diverse ap-proach, and not only through the instrumentsof war. Thinking that we’re going to be able toovercome this evil, a country like Costa Ricacannot go, of course, to war, but we have totake very seriously the strengthening of thosemechanisms and those policies that would al-low to prevent the entry of organized crime inour country.

And in that sense, we are celebrating the ef-forts that we might be able to continue on do-ing in the matter of prevention of the con-sumption, with the matter of more opportuni-ties for the younger communities of our coun-try on the subject of strengthening the state oflaw, of the judicial independence, of the freepress that might be able to carry out the neces-sary investigations, and the accusations withouthaving on them any effect or threat.

The fifth point of the agenda was a subjectregarding the energy. As it is well known alsofor Costa Rica, the energy subject has been avalue from the point of view of its sustainabledevelopment. Ninety percent of the energythat we consume comes from renewable sourc-es. Nevertheless, Costa Rica, as well as the restof Central America, have a very big challengeahead of them from the point of view of thecost of this energy. If we do not solve this inthe short, midterm, this will have a tremen-dous weight on the level of competivity of ourregion.

Therefore, we have explored with PresidentObama the possibilities of using the platformof the CAFTA—of the CAFTA platform sothat in the future—and once the Governmentof the United States resolves some of the inter-nal discussions that it might have—to be ableto enjoy some preferences in regard to the im-port of the natural gas, natural liquefied gas, asource of energy to which the Government of

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President Obama have put a lot of emphasison.

We have also commented about the effortsthat we are developing here in Costa Rica withthe purpose of promoting a group of new ener-gies, especially the energies based on hydro-gen, and the initiatives that have already beenworking on by the private enterprises—bothNorth Americans and Costa Ricans—with thecooperation of the public sector of Costa Rica,to take them into consideration as part of theinitiatives that he has promoted in the frame-work of the alliance of the Americas for the en-ergy and for the climate change.

And I finish by talking about the subject ofan interpartnership of innovation and of theeducation as essential elements of any agendafor the development. For Costa Rica, the edu-cation has been a constant in its historical de-velopment. And as I was telling PresidentObama, we were born as one of the poorestprovinces of the colony, and we have become,little by little, in—the nation with great oppor-tunities in the subject of economic develop-ment and of well-being for the people, and afundamental factor, an essential factor hasbeen precisely the education.

Much more—much before many other na-tions of the world, Costa Rica decreed the freeand mandatory access to education. And nowwe dedicate 7 percent of our GDP to financethe public education, and we need, above all,to face the challenge of the reallocation of thiseducation to the demands of the new economyto which we are aspiring to move our country.

In that sense, we have called upon the atten-tion in regard to the possibility of using—witha greater intensity—the very beautiful programthat has been characterized by the internation-al policy of the United States, which is thePeace Corps, so that, through them, we mightbe able to improve even more. They have pro-grams of bilingualism that Costa Rica, for 15 or20 years, we have already been introducing inour public education.

We believe that through Peace Corps wecan achieve training programs with our teach-ers, with our professors, our English profes-sors, so that that English is a more proficient

English, more competitive, with greater quali-ty, and bound precisely to the aspirations of at-tracting investments and generation of em-ployments—intelligent employments that weare working on.

Finally, also, we have called PresidentObama’s attention to the fact that there isnothing more valuable, that there is nothingmore important than anybody to get to know asociety from the inside. I am a true exampleprecisely of the benefits of the scholarship pro-grams that the United States in the past haveoffered the Central American region. As a mat-ter of fact, that is why we have made a summitso that we can continue on promoting thosescholarship programs and intensify them sothat the youth of the Central American re-gion—and of course, of my country—can con-tinue on also knowing or feeding of not only forknowledge of the best universities, of the qual-ity of education of the United States, but alsoof the livelihood, the values that have charac-terized this great nation.

So thank you very much. Mr. PresidentObama.

President Obama. Buenas tardes. Thank youso much, President Chinchilla, for your kindwords and for welcoming me here today. Thisis my first visit to Costa Rica. And even thoughit is a brief one, I can already tell the incrediblespirit of the people, the natural beauty of thecountry. I understand that the official sloganfor those who are thinking about visiting CostaRica is “un pais sin ingredientes artificiales.”So there’s nothing artificial about Costa Rica.Everything is genuine. And that’s certainly trueabout the friendship between our two coun-tries.

And President Chinchilla has been so gra-cious in her hospitality. We are very grateful toher. I want to thank publicly the wonderfulschoolchildren who sang for us. And I noticedthat, Madam President, you and I didn’t sing.We didn’t trust our voices. But we certainly en-joyed the spirit that those children delivered.

In the United States, we are so grateful forthe contributions that Costa Ricans make toour country every day. You welcome manyAmericans as tourists, ecotourists, and many

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others who have chosen to make Costa Rica anew home. This year we’re also marking the50th anniversary of the Peace Corps here, in-cluding President John F. Kennedy’s visit toCosta Rica and his vision for partnerships thatadvance development and democracy in theAmericas.

I had actually a chance during the bilateralmeeting to see a photograph of President Ken-nedy at the same table that we were meetingat; it had been specially commissioned. And soit shows the longstanding ties between our twocountries.

And I’m here because Costa Rica is a greatpartner not just regionally, but globally. GivenCosta Rica’s proud democratic traditions, westand up together for democracy and justiceand human rights in Central America andacross the hemisphere. And I want to com-mend Costa Rica for your landmark law againstthe scourge of human trafficking. I’m proud tobe here as you host World Press Freedom Day.So everybody from the American press corps,you should thank the people of Costa Rica forcelebrating free speech and an independentpress as essential pillars of our democracy.

Costa Rica shows the benefits of trade thatis free and fair. Over the last few years, underthe Central American Free Trade Agreement,our trade with Costa Rica has doubled, creat-ing more jobs for people in both of our coun-tries. Our partnerships are creating more op-portunities for small businesses and entrepre-neurs, including young people and women. AsI told President Chinchilla, the United Stateswill continue to be your partner as Costa Ricamodernizes its economy so that you’re attract-ing more investment and creating even moretrade and more jobs.

Costa Rica, of course, has long been a leaderin sustainable development that protects theenvironment. The President and I agreed tocontinue deepening our clean energy partner-ships. For example, we’re moving ahead withour regional efforts to ensure universal accessto clean, affordable, sustainable electricity forthe people of the Americas, including CostaRicans. And this is also another way that we

can meet our shared commitments to addressclimate change.

The President and I reaffirmed our determi-nation to confront the growing security con-cerns that have affected many Costa Ricanfamilies and communities. And under the Cen-tral America Regional Security Initiative, theUnited States has committed nearly half a bil-lion dollars to help Costa Rica and its neigh-bors in this fight. We’re disrupting drug cartelsand gangs. We’re working to strengthen lawenforcement and the judicial system. Andwe’re addressing the underlying forces that fu-el criminality with prevention programs for at-risk youth and with economic developmentthat gives young people hope and opportunity.

Meanwhile, as I said in Mexico yesterday,the United States recognizes that we’ve got re-sponsibilities; that much of the violence in theregion is fueled by demand for illegal drugs, in-cluding in the United States. So we’re going tokeep on pursuing a comprehensive approachnot only through law enforcement, but alsothrough education and prevention and treat-ment that can reduce demand.

And finally, I updated the President on ourefforts in the United States to pass comprehen-sive immigration reform. I know this is of greatinterest to the entire region, especially thosewith families in our country. And I’m optimis-tic that we’re going to achieve reform that re-flects our heritage as both a nation of laws anda nation of immigrants: men and women andchildren who need to be treated with full dig-nity and respect.

So, President Chinchilla, thank you so muchfor your partnership. Thank you and the peo-ple of Costa Rica for your hospitality.

I’m told there’s a well-known quote here inCosta Rica: “Where there is a Costa Rican,wherever it is, there’s liberty.” And in the Unit-ed States, we’re thankful for the many CostaRicans who contribute to our prosperity andour liberty. And we’re grateful for Costa Rica’sleadership in this region, as we’ll see againwhen President Chinchilla hosts tonight’s SI-CA meeting.

I’d note that our presence at tonight’s meet-ing with the leaders of Central America and

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the Dominican Republic is a sign of the impor-tance that the United States places on this re-gion, as well as our commitment to being asteady and strong and reliable partner, becausewe believe that no matter where you live, thepeople of this region deserve security and op-portunity and dignity.

So let me, again, say thank you, and in mybest Tican: pura vida. Muchas gracias.

So I think we’re going to go Costa Ricanpress first, and then I’ll call on someone?

Drug Trafficking/Costa Rica

Q. Good afternoon. Welcome, PresidentObama. The policy of the United States forCentral America has centered on drug smug-gling and organized crime. Don’t you think, forboth Presidents, that the time has come to im-prove our relationships and go on to an agendathat apart from security, we have the subjectsof the social aspects of education and health?

And my second question would be, if we’regoing to be supporting Costa Rica in subjectsthat were presented today in the organizationof the SICA? So thank you, and welcome.

President Obama. Well, thank you verymuch. First of all, I completely agree with you,and I’ve tried to emphasize this throughout mytrip: So much of the focus ends up being on se-curity. And we understand that in the absenceof security, it’s very hard to develop. But we al-so have to recognize that problems like nar-cotrafficking arise in part when a country isvulnerable because of poverty, because of in-stitutions that are not working for the people,because young people don’t see a brighter fu-ture ahead.

And so what President Chinchilla and Ispoke extensively about are initiatives like edu-cation, institution building and capacity, tryingto create greater economic opportunity, be-cause the stronger the economies and the insti-tutions for legitimate—for individuals who areseeking legitimate careers, the more those arethere, then the less powerful these narcotraf-ficking operations are going to be.

And so not only are we interested in pro-moting trade and highlighting the already ex-tensive trade that we’re doing, but we also

want to see how can we build on the successesto improve education even in our strategies tofight narcotrafficking. We, for example, helpedto finance youth centers that can give youngpeople a different vision for their futures. Weconsider that to be part of our overall effort. Soit can’t just be law enforcement. It also has tobe human development, inclusive economicdevelopment. We’ve got to make sure that ev-erybody feels opportunity.

Now, even if a country is doing well, thescourge of drugs and drug trafficking will stillbe there, and there still needs to be a stronglaw enforcement component. But we can dobetter than we’re currently doing. And I knowthat President Chinchilla is taking a great in-terest here in Costa Rica around these humandevelopment issues.

As far as the issues that you mentionedaround international organizations, as I indi-cated earlier, Costa Rica has shown itself to bea world leader and model around free trade,freedom of the press, democracy, respect forhuman rights, and that makes it an outstandingcandidate for membership in the OECD, forexample. And so we will expect that we’ll con-tinue to support Costa Rica in expanding its in-fluence.

We enjoy a great partnership on, for exam-ple, regional human rights councils, as well asinternational human rights efforts. Costa Ricahas been a real leader, and we appreciate that.And there’s something very effective whenlarge countries like the United States, smallercountries like Costa Rica share values. Wecome in together. And I think it’s a great wayto make the point that regardless of the coun-try’s size, regardless of the language that itspeaks, the idea of certain universal rights thatare observed for all people is important. Andthat’s why we value this partnership so much.

President Chinchilla. Well, I was just goingto add a couple of comments. And I think thatit seems to me that I should start by thankingPresident Obama for his expressed support tothe aspirations of Costa Rica for going in—forbeing a member of OECD. We know thatthere are tests that we have to comply with,

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and we know that we will be able to complywith them.

And also, to add something precisely—acomment in regard to the subject of narcotraf-fic, organized crime. We believe that there isnot a single doubt that President Obama’s ad-ministration—since his coming to Mexico andnow his visit here in Central America—bringsalong an agenda that is trying to redefine thoserelationships based on a greater diversity.

As it was being said, our countries are morethan just in security and violence and nar-cotraffic. That doesn’t mean that it is not animportant problem, but I would like to basical-ly finally add the following. What some othercountries have done for a few years now, withthe purpose of trying to review some strategiesthat fall under the fight against the drugs, arebased basically on the fact that some of themost immediate experiences we have seen inregion are experiences that have had to call up-on the extreme fight of the war on drugs. CostaRica doesn’t have an army. And since we don’twant to found an army, we do not want to allowourselves to come to war scenarios to face drugsmuggling or organized crime.

Many times, the journalists ask me, how hasCosta Rica done to face such a big threat whenyou don’t have an army and precisely the coun-tries next to you do have an army? But curious-ly enough, Costa Rica has demonstrated thatwe have been more effective and more suc-cessful in fighting against these threats precise-ly without having an army. And what am I go-ing to with this? That what we’re looking for,for a while now, is precisely the signals that theObama administration is sending in the sensethat effective policy for the fight against drugsand narcotraffic goes through the strengthen-ing of the institutions, through prevention,through open society, a more transparent soci-ety, and through a citizenship that is muchmore aware of the problem.

It seems to me that advancing in that direc-tion is precisely advancing in the correct direc-tion.

President Obama. All right. Mark Felsenthalof Reuters. Mark.

Syria

Q. Thank you, Mr. President, Madam Presi-dent. Mr. President, on Syria, you said yester-day that anything the United States doesshould make the situation better, not worse.How long are you prepared to wait to deter-mine whether chemical weapons were used?What happens when you make your determi-nation? And will you take your case to theUnited Nations? And have you ruled out put-ting U.S. troops on the ground in Syria?

President Obama. Well, first all, I empha-sized yesterday, so let me reemphasize: We’renot waiting. We’re not standing by. We arecurrently the largest humanitarian donor todeal with the crisis in Syria. We are the largestcontributor to—of nonlethal aid to the opposi-tion. We’ve mobilized 80 countries to supportthe opposition. We are working to apply everypressure point that we can on Syria, workingwith our international partners.

And so we are actively engaged on a day-to-day basis to try to deal with this crisis and to re-store a Syria that is respectful of the rights andaspirations of the Syrian people.

Now, as I’ve said before, if in fact we seestrong evidence that we can present and thatallows us to say that the Syrian military and theSyrian Government is using chemical weapons,then that is a game changer for us because, notonly is there the prospect of widespread use ofchemical weapons inside of Syria, but there’sthe possibility that it lands in the hands of orga-nizations like Hizballah.

We have evidence that chemical weaponshave been used. We don’t know when, where,or how they were used. We are initiating onour own to investigate and get a better handleon the facts inside of Syria. We’re also workingwith the international community and ourpartners to try to get a better handle on what’shappening, and we’ve already gone to theUnited Nations to say we want a full-blown in-vestigation inside of Syria. So far, for unsur-prising reasons, President Asad has resisted.

We will stay on this. Now, if in fact there’sthe kind of systematic use of chemical weaponsinside of Syria, we expect that we’re going to

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get additional further evidence. And at thatpoint, absolutely, we will present that to the in-ternational community, because I think this is,again, not just an American problem, this is aworld problem. There are international rulesand protocols and norms and ethics. And whenit comes to using chemical weapons, the entireworld should be concerned.

Now, in terms of what that means in termsof American action, keep in mind, we’re al-ready taking a whole range of actions. We’regoing to continue to take a whole range of ac-tions. Separate and apart from the chemicalweapon use, we’ve got tens of thousands ofpeople who are being killed inside of Syria, andwe want to see that stopped for humanitarianreasons, but also for strategic reasons.

But in terms of any additional steps that wetake, it’s going to be based on, number one, thefacts on the ground. Number two, it’s going tobe based on what’s in the interest of the Amer-ican people and our national security. And asPresident of the United States, I’m going tomake those decisions based on the best evi-dence and after careful consultation, becausewhen we rush into things, when we leap beforewe look, then not only do we pay a price, butoftentimes, we see unintended consequenceson the ground. So it’s important for us to do itright. And that’s exactly what we’re doing rightnow. Okay?

Drug Trafficking/Central America-U.S. Relations

Q. Last question on behalf of Costa Rica,from Alvaro—[inaudible]. Good afternoon,President Obama. Good afternoon, MadamPresident. President Obama, 10 years ago, youwere about to begin—you were about to cometo the Senate. Ten years have gone by andCentral America has lost more than 130,000lives caused by drugs traffic. This has been thesacrifice that the region has had because of thisproblem. What is the sacrifice that in your 4years of government you pretend to undertakefor this business that feeds on the profit thatare produced especially by the consumption inyour country? And if the United States also be-lieves that the best option is to use warships to

be able to surveil or keep a watch on the season the joint antinarcotic drug war?

And, Madam President, you have also ex-pressed the values that the Government ofCosta Rica has with the Government of theUnited States and your point of view with thePresident Obama, for example, on the subjectof the international trade of weapons—of fireweapons. You say that President Obama saidthe time has come to recognize the rights forthe bisexual couples of the United States.When is the time going to come for that inCosta Rica?

President Obama. Well, I think all of us rec-ognize the pain and hardship that’s beencaused by drug trafficking and transnationaldrug cartels here in Central America. There’s acost obviously in the United States as well. Imean, it’s not as if we don’t have tragic drugproblems throughout the United States. Andwhen you look at poor communities inside ofthe United States, including communities inmy hometown of Chicago, there are youngpeople who are killed every day as part of thedrug trade.

So this is not a situation where we do notfeel the effects. There are common effects, andthere are common responsibilities, which iswhy it’s so important that we work on this on aregional basis.

Now, since I’ve been President, we’ve putour money where our mouth is. I’ve spent—ormy administration has spent approximately $30billion in reducing drug demand in the UnitedStates over the last several years. And we’re ac-tually seeing an impact in terms of reduced de-mand. But the United States is a big countryand a big market, and so progress sometimes isslower than we’d like it to be.

There is obviously a role for law enforce-ment. I’m not interested in militarizing thestruggle against drug trafficking. This is a lawenforcement problem. And if we have effectivelaw enforcement cooperation and coordina-tion, and if we build up capacity for countriesin Central America, then we can continue tomake progress.

But the important thing that I’ve tried toemphasize throughout is that this is a common

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problem. This is one where we’ll only solve itwhen we’re working together. It has adverseeffects in all of our countries. But—last pointI’d make—I think it’s very important to makesure that our bilateral relationship and theUnited States relationship with the region as awhole is not solely defined by this problem.Because when it is, we’re missing all the op-portunities that exist out there.

When I got off the plane, I was greeted byDr. Chang, obviously a well-known scientisthere, who worked at NASA and is working nowon developing a whole new vision for clean en-ergy, and he brought along four young people,these incredibly talented young people whoare in their last year of high school here. Andall four of them, thanks to some of the goodwork of our Ambassador and others, will be at-tending universities in the United States nextfall.

And when you talk to those young people,there’s incredible hope and incredible promiseand incredible optimism. And I don’t want ev-ery story to be about drug traffickers and no-body is writing a story about those four youngpeople and what they represent in terms of thefuture of Costa Rica and the future of this re-gion.

President Chinchilla. Every nation or everysociety has its own way of evolving towards theresponses that have to be provided to the dif-ferent demands of the social groups and of thedifferent collectiveness that a country mighthave.

And when we analyze the evolution of thedifferent nations, we see how some of themhave advanced a little more acceleratedly andto subjects maybe of commitment towards theenvironment, in subjects, for example, for thecontrol of some important aspects in the sub-ject of protection of human life, like for exam-ple, the subject of the control of the fire weap-ons. And others are advancing furthermore inthe recognition of certain rights, among themlike the one that you have mentioned, therights of the couples of the same sex.

The important thing, Alvaro, is that we can-not simply pass on or go beyond the rhythm orthe evolution of the debates from one nation to

another. Each one of the nations has its ownrhythm. The important thing here, I believe—and what is of worth here—is that in Costa Ri-ca the framework precisely of democracy thathas characterized us, the debate has to be anopen debate, a live debate, an active debate—adebate like the one that I have in qualifyingit—that has to take place with the greatest ofrespect without putting a stigmas on the differ-ent positions that are proper to the debatesthat take place in a democracy.

And only the mature, ripened, seasoned de-bate will end up giving the result that will haveto give—be given where it has to be given,which is inside the Parliament. So it seems tome that that is what is important, that the de-bate in Costa Rica is an open debate, a free de-bate that has to continue as a debate withoutrestrictions.

That is why I have advocated and restatedopportunities in my recent report to the nationthat this is a dialogue that has been facedsometimes inconveniently on some positionsthat take sides. And as long as this is faced inthis way, I think that the advancement is goingto be very slow. I hope and I trust that the de-bate might really be a much more balanced,much more mature dialogue, without puttingstigmas on it, and that this might eventuallygenerate a decision in the Congress of the Re-public.

President Obama. Okay, last question. Lisa[Lisa Lerer, Bloomberg News].

Syria/Immigration Reform

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. Senator Leahyis pushing for a bill on recognizing same-sexcouples as part of the immigration bill. Are youconcerned at all that that undermines the suc-cess of the package? And given that you madea point throughout your Presidency to makeclear that you don’t think LGTB Americansshould be treated any differently, will you signa bill that will do exactly that?

And for you, Madam President, is there anyconcern that the more—that by creating morestringent immigration standards could hamperthe ability of Costa Ricans to emigrate to theU.S.? Thanks.

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President Obama. Lisa, I hope you don’tmind, before I answer your question, I want toget back to Mark because I realize there wasone clause in your question—sometimes, youguys have a lot of clauses in your question—that I didn’t specifically answer, and I didn’twant anybody to extrapolate from that.

You asked about boots on the ground andwhether we’ve ruled boots out on the groundin Syria. As a general rule, I don’t rule thingsout as Commander in Chief, because circum-stances change, and you want to make surethat I always have the full power of the UnitedStates at our disposal to meet American nation-al security interests.

Having said that, I do not foresee a scenarioin which boots on the ground in Syria, Ameri-can boots on the ground in Syria, would notonly be good for America, but also would begood for Syria. And by the way, when I consultwith leaders in the region who are very muchinterested in seeing President Asad leave officeand stabilizing the situation in Syria, they agreewith that assessment.

So just wanted to make sure that my omis-sion there did not turn into a story.

To your question, Lisa, as I’ve indicated,I’ve got four broad criteria for immigration re-form. I want to make sure that our border is se-cure and well regulated, in part so that we canget down to the business of smoothing tradeand commerce across our borders and creatingjobs in the United States, but also making surethat negative actors aren’t able to penetrate theUnited States.

Number two, cracking down on employerswho are breaking the law. Number three, mak-ing sure we’ve got a legal immigration systemthat works better, smarter, and so that we cancontinue to attract the best and the brightest tothe United States.

And by the way, when it comes to legal im-migration, the issue here is not going to bestringency, per se, the issue is do we make thesystem more rational, more effective, better. Ifthere are smart engineers and young peopleand scientists who—and students who arelooking to emigrate to the United States fromCosta Rica, then we want them to know that

we’re a nation of immigrants. But we want tomake sure that the legal process is in place sothat it’s easier and simpler, but also more ef-fective in managing the legal immigration pro-cess.

And finally, that we’ve got a pathway so thatthe 11 million or so undocumented workers in-side the United States are able to pursue atough, long, difficult, but fair path to legal sta-tus and citizenship.

So those are my broad-based criteria. Now,the provision that you’ve discussed that Sena-tor Leahy has talked about is one that I sup-port, and I’ve said in the past that the LGBTcommunity should be treated like everybodyelse. That’s, to me, the essential, core principlebehind our founding documents, the idea thatwe’re all created equal and that we’re equal be-fore the law and it’s applied fairly to every-body.

And so Senator Leahy may present this pro-vision in committee. It may be presented onthe floor. It will be one of many amendmentsand provisions that are presented, some ofwhich I’ll support, some of which I’ll think arereally bad ideas. And I think that the generalprinciple for me is, are we advancing, are weimproving the immigration system? Becauseultimately, this is an immigration bill.

And we’ll evaluate the end product. I thinkit’s premature for me to start talking aboutwhat I will or will not do before I get a finalproduct since the road is going to be long andbumpy before I finally see an actual bill on mydesk. But I can tell you, I think that the provi-sion is the right thing to do.

I can also tell you that I’m not going to geteverything I want in this bill. Republicans arenot going to get everything that they want in thisbill. But if we keep focused on what our mainaim is here, which is creating a smart, effectiveimmigration system that allows us to be a nationof laws and a nation of immigrants, then we’regoing to be in a position to not only improve oureconomy and what’s happening inside the Unit-ed States, I—we’re going to, I think, have amuch stronger relationship with the region. Andthat’s going to help enhance our economy andjobs and our growth over the long term.

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And, last point I’ll make, as is true with ev-ery bill, if there are things that end up beingleft out in this bill or things that I want to takeout of a bill, but if it’s meeting those core crite-ria around a comprehensive immigration billthat I’m looking for, then we go back at it, andwe fix what’s not there, and we continually im-prove what’s been presented.

I think that this comprehensive immigrationbill has the opportunity to do something histor-ic that we have not done in decades. But Idon’t expect that, after we’re finished with it,that people are going to say, there’s not a singleproblem that we have with our immigrationsystem, any more than is true after any piece oflegislation that we pass. All right?

Well, thank you very much everybody. Mu-chas gracias.

President Chinchilla. Thank you very much.Thank you very much.

NOTE: The President’s news conference beganat 4:55 p.m. at the National Center for Art andCulture. In his remarks, the President referredto Franklin Chang Diaz, president and chiefexecutive officer, Ad Astra Rocket Company;Bryan Badilla, Katherine Fernandez, John Ju-nier, and Genesis Soto, recipients of theFranklin Chang Scholarship to study in theU.S. as part of the 100,000 Strong in the Amer-icas exchange initiative; and U.S. Ambassadorto Costa Rica Anne Slaughter Andrew. He alsoreferred to the Central American IntegrationSystem (SICA). President Chinchilla and somereporters spoke in Spanish, and their remarkswere translated by an interpreter.

Remarks at a Dinner for Central American Integration System Leaders inSan JoseMay 3, 2013

[The President’s remarks were joined in prog-ress.]

——during this visit. And I want to thankyou for your thoughtful presentation aboutsome of the agenda items that we need to ad-dress.

We last met as a group during the Summitof the Americas in 2009. And I was mentioningthat at that time, I had less gray hair than yousee today. I know that the United States istechnically here in our observer status, andsometimes, that means that you observe, butdon’t speak, so I know that you’re all indulgingme by allowing to say a few words. But I amhere, more than anything, to listen and hearthe concerns that all of you have not only indi-vidually, but collectively as a region.

This is a region that has more than 40 mil-lion people. Every day they work to give theirfamilies and children a better life, and we’regrateful for the strong bonds between theUnited States and the people who trace theirorigins to the countries that are represented atthis table.

As governments, our job is to make sure thatwe’re doing everything we can to provide secu-rity and opportunity and ladders for successand prosperity for our people: economicgrowth that creates jobs, security for people sothat they can be safe in their own neighbor-hoods, and development that allows people tolive in dignity. And so that’s why we’re here.

The agenda is a broad-based, socially inclu-sive agenda that ensures that our entire regionand hemisphere are prospering. And in pursuitof that, I think some of the issues that Presi-dent Chinchilla mentioned are going to be vi-tal.

Number one, we need to think about invest-ments in our infrastructure—roads, bridges,border crossings, customs, electricity grids—allof which can allow for more trade, moregrowth, more jobs. As I mentioned as we werewalking in, this is a very competitive global en-vironment. And it’s important for us to recog-nize that if the hemisphere is working effec-tively together, all of us benefit. And if we’renot, then we will lose in that competition toother regions. And we know that trade and

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investment flows to areas where there arestrong public institutions, where there’s ac-countability and transparency and effectivegovernance. And I think one of the things thatwe need to talk about is how we can work to-gether to help each other in those areas.

The second area that has been mentioned isenergy. Costa Rica has shown great leadershipin clean energy. And as somebody who be-lieves in the challenges of climate change—and I think that everybody in Central Americahas to be concerned about that given the histo-ry of natural disasters and the severe costs thattake place here. We want to continue to pursuea whole range of energy strategies for the fu-ture: solar, wind, hydropower. It is true thatthe United States has been making great prog-ress in oil and natural gas development due tonew technologies. And I know that’s somethingthat’s of interest to you, so that’s an area thatwe can discuss.

But the bottom line is, my concern is help-ing every country at this table reduce its energycosts, making its economy more efficient, be-cause when you have high power costs, that’snot only a tax on your citizens effectively, butit’s also a situation that impedes growth overthe long term. And so that’s an area wherewe’re very interested in helping.

Investing in people: In this knowledge-based economy, if we don’t have the best work-ers in the world, the most highly skilled andtrained workers in the world, then we’re goingto lose. And it’s important to recognize that weneed high-skilled labor throughout the hemi-sphere, because our economies have becomemore integrated. And if you look at that globalvalue chain, we want to be not at the bottom,but we want to be nearer to the top becausethat means more prosperity for our people. Soeverything we can do to train our young peoplein math, science, technology, and everythingwe can do to pool our resources to help achievethose goals, I think, will end up benefiting ev-erybody.

And by the way, I think it’s very important,those countries that are succeeding are invest-ing in the development of their young people,

not just some young people, but women andgirls, indigenous communities. It’s importantthat we don’t go onto the field with just halfour team. We’ve got to make sure that the en-tire team is on the field. That’s how we’re go-ing to succeed.

And then finally, the issue of citizen securi-ty, obviously, that’s something that’s important.During this trip I’ve tried to make the pointthat we are interested in cooperating with ev-ery country around issues of citizen security.We know what a major toll it’s taken. We areobviously deeply concerned about narcotraf-ficking and the drug trade.

I was asked a question about this in a pressconference that President Chinchilla and Iwere doing, and the questioner suggested, giv-en all the violence that is taking place in Cen-tral America, how does America feel aboutthat? And I had to remind people that we haveviolence in the United States. If you go to myhometown of Chicago, and you go to someneighborhoods, they’re just as violent, if notmore violent, than some of the countries at thistable, in part because of the pernicious influ-ence of the drug trade.

And so—but what I also believe is that wecan’t just have a law-enforcement-only ap-proach. We also have to have a prevention ap-proach. We have to have an education ap-proach. We have to think creatively, becauseobviously, some of the things that we’re doinghave worked, but some things haven’t worked.We’ve got to think about institution buildingand capacity in our law enforcement and ourjudicial systems. Those are all going to be veryimportant, and I know that the work that we’vedone together has made some progress, butI’m interested in learning more about otherthings that we can do.

So I’ve spoken long enough considering I’man observer, but I just want to again say thankyou to all of you for taking the time to comemeet with me. I know that all of you are ex-traordinarily busy and have great demands onyour time. So for you to come in is somethingthat I’m very grateful for, and I’m looking for-ward to a good discussion.

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NOTE: The President spoke at 6:40 p.m. in thefoyer of the National Theater. In his remarks,

he referred to President Laura Chinchilla Mi-randa of Costa Rica.

The President’s Weekly AddressMay 4, 2013

Hi, everybody. Today I’m speaking to youfrom the road, a trip to Mexico and Costa Rica.I’m here because Latin America represents anincredible opportunity for the United States,especially when it comes to my top priority asPresident, which is creating good, middle classjobs.

On Friday, we learned that our businessescreated another 176,000 jobs last month. Andthat’s 2.2 million new jobs over the past yearand 6.8 million new jobs over the past 38months. But as I’ve said before, I won’t be sat-isfied until everyone who wants a job can findone. So I’m going to keep doing everything Ican and go everywhere I need to go to help ourbusinesses create jobs.

Now, one of the best ways to grow our econ-omy is to sell more goods and services made inAmerica to the rest of the world. And that in-cludes our neighbors to the south. Right nowover 40 percent of our exports go to the Amer-icas. And those exports are growing faster thanour trade with the rest of the world. And that’swhy I visited Latin America this week, to workwith leaders to deepen our economic ties andexpand trade between our nations.

In Mexico, I also talked about immigrationreform because that’s an important issue thataffects both our countries. The truth is, rightnow our border with Mexico is more securethan it’s been in years. We’ve put more bootson that border than at any time in our history,and illegal crossings are down by nearly 80 per-cent from their peak in 2000. But we’ve gotmore to do, not just to secure the border, butto fix an immigration system that is badly bro-ken.

In recent weeks, we’ve seen a commonsenseimmigration reform bill introduced in the Sen-ate. This bill is a compromise, which meansthat nobody got everything they wanted, in-cluding me. But it’s largely consistent with theprinciples I’ve laid out from the beginning.

It would continue to strengthen security atour borders and hold employers more account-able if they knowingly hire undocumentedworkers. It would provide a pathway to earnedcitizenship for the 11 million individuals whoare already living in this country illegally. Andit would modernize our legal immigration sys-tem so that we’re able to reunite families andattract the highly skilled entrepreneurs and en-gineers who will help create good paying jobsand grow our economy.

These are all commonsense steps that themajority of Americans support. So there’s noreason that immigration reform can’t become areality this year.

In the meantime, I’ll keep working with ourneighbors on our common security and ourcommon prosperity. Millions of Americansearn a living right now because of the trade be-tween our nations. And after this week, I’m asconfident as ever that we can build on ourshared heritage and values to open more mar-kets for American businesses and create morejobs for American workers.


NOTE: The address was recorded at approxi-mately 10:10 a.m. on May 3 at the National An-thropology Museum in Mexico City, Mexico,for broadcast on May 4. The transcript wasmade available by the Office of the Press Sec-retary on May 3, but was embargoed for re-lease until 6 a.m. on May 4.

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Remarks and a Question-and-Answer Session at INCAE Business School’sCentral American Forum on Sustainable Economic Development in SanJose, Costa RicaMay 4, 2013

President Obama. Well, thank you so much,Mr. Condo. And once again, I want to thankPresident Chinchilla and all the people of Cos-ta Rica for their incredible hospitality. I’ve al-ready been scouting out where I’m going tostay when I come back here for vacation.[Laughter] But unfortunately, I’m going tohave to leave after this forum.

But Arturo and I were discussing backstagethe fact that INCAE, which has such a won-derful reputation throughout the region—Iknow we have two former alumni who now arePresidents of Panama and Guatemala, respec-tively—that the origination of this idea waswhen President Kennedy visited 50 years agoand, I think, recognized at that time the enor-mous potential for the private sector as a criti-cal ingredient in progress and development forthe hemisphere as a whole; that when youcombined good government with a thrivingfree market, then that was an extraordinaryrecipe for opportunity for all people.

And for me to be able to visit 50 years laterand to see how much progress has been madeboth in the region and in the ties between theUnited States and Central America, I think, in-dicates that President Kennedy’s vision wassound, and it also speaks to, I think, the impor-tance of us continuing to build these kinds ofnetworks and relationships for the future.

I’ve been interviewed several times duringthe course of my travels both in Mexico andCentral America, and I’ve emphasized that, al-though I understand why there’s been a greatfocus over the last several years on security is-sues—security is important; it’s very hard tocreate a strong economy when people are per-sonally feeling insecure. There’s been a lot ofemphasis on immigration, and I understandwhy that is. Obviously, it’s of great importanceto this region and to the United States. Weshouldn’t lose sight of the critical importanceof trade and commerce and business to the

prospects both for Costa Rica, the UnitedStates, and the entire hemisphere.

The United States considers our trading re-lationships with CAFTA countries, with Mexi-co, to be of enormous importance. When youlook at the scale of business that’s being donecurrently, it’s creating jobs in the UnitedStates, it’s creating jobs here. And what wewant to do is to find ways that we can continueto enhance that relationship, how we can getideas from this region and find ways in whichwe can improve and foster small-business de-velopment, medium-sized business develop-ment, make this entire region more competi-tive.

Because, as I said to the leaders of SICAyesterday, we now live in a very competitive21st-century world, and if we do not have ef-fective integration in our hemisphere, if wedon’t have the best education systems, the bestregulatory systems, if we don’t coordinate ouractivities, then we’re going to fall behind otherregions of the world. And given the talents thatI’ve seen on display and that are evident here,I’m confident that we can compete as long aswe’re cooperating effectively.

So again, I want to thank President Chin-chilla for the great hospitality. I want to con-gratulate INCAE for its wonderful history.And I look forward to taking a few questions,and maybe I’ll hear some ideas in this meeting.

INCAE Business School President ArturoCondo. Absolutely. And thanks a lot for yourwords.

[At this point, Mr. Condo made brief remarks,concluding as follows.]

Finally, let me borrow your words, Presi-dent Obama. Thinking and working for a trulyintegrated Central America is our “audacity ofhope.” The United States is literally a union of50 countries, working together as one. We candream of Central America as one single mar-

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ket, as one single energy system, one single so-ciety. We will be bold in working to make thata reality.

Well, thank you very much.And with that briefing, I would like to

open—we have some time for questions andanswers. And I would like to take some ques-tions for what is a historic opportunity. Canyou please identify yourself and state yourquestion?

Q. [Inaudible]Mr. Condo. Can you—Alberto, can you wait

until we get the microphone close?

Border Security and Efficiency

Q. Good morning. Alberto Aleman, for-mer—[inaudible]—both freight and security.Our borders are slow and impede the develop-ment and impact of freedom of commerce,creating fewer product options and higherprices for our consumers in the U.S.A. TheU.S. appears to have made tremendous ad-vances in maintaining and improving speed,while also ensure security on its land border.What has been the most valuable for the U.S.in advancing safe and efficient border policy?And what will the U.S. recommend to the Cen-tral American countries to move towards a safeand efficient borders that we need?

President Obama. Well, there’s no doubtthat we’ve made progress. More progressneeds to be made in improving border securityand facilitating speed and efficiency when itcomes to trade and commerce.

And those two things go hand in hand. Bothin the United States and on the other side ofthe border in Mexico, as well as our northernborder with Canada, a lot of the press focus ison security and immigration. But one of the ar-guments that we’ve made in pursuit of com-prehensive immigration reform is that youcan’t separate out the dangers or challenges orconcerns of a border from the enormous op-portunities that a well-managed, well-regulat-ed border represents.

And so my administration’s focus has been,number one, let’s make sure that we’ve got asound system of immigration, customs, and aregulatory environment, in cooperation with

Canada and Mexico, that as much as possibleeases the flow of goods and people and servicesthat are legitimate.

So, for example, in the North AmericaLeadership Summit that I have with the Mexi-can President and the Canadian President, alot of our work centers around how can wecontinue to find ways to synchronize existingregulations so that we can speed up the move-ment of goods and services. Are there ways inwhich there are regular, frequent trading prac-tices that are going on between the countries,where we essentially are able to put them on afast lane, as opposed to the more typical travelfor tourists or sporadic visitors? And so thatregulatory coordination, I think, is numberone.

Number two is infrastructure. The fact ofthe matter is, is that we have massive bordersboth to the south and to the north, and in orderfor us to make sure that we’re facilitating tradeand commerce, we’ve got to have the best in-frastructure, the best portals through whichpeople can go in a efficient, effective, and sys-tematic way that still allows for us to preserveour security and screen out those problematicelements that might cross our borders.

And one of the things that I’ve been talkingto President Peña Nieto about on our southernborder is, are there ways that we can do morejoint infrastructure investment at a time whenall countries—not just the United States andMexico, but I’m sure Costa Rica and Guatema-la and Panama—we’re always trying to findmoney somewhere. And when it comes to theborder, they’re shared. Are there ways inwhich we can share some of the costs for con-tinual infrastructure upgrades?

But the bottom line is, it’s both the hard-ware—the infrastructure—but also the soft-ware—the regulation—that’s going to makesure that you’ve got an effective border system.

Comprehensive immigration reform—thatI’m hopeful we can pass this year, after 30years—can make an enormous difference inimproving what is already a system that’s betterthan it was.

But I want to echo what Arturo said aboutthe Central American countries. And this is not

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unique, by the way, to Central America. Yousee this in other parts of the world, like in Afri-ca, for example. Sometimes, it’s easier to trans-port goods from parts of Central America tothe United States than it is from one CentralAmerican country to another. The same is truein parts of Africa, where it’s easier to shipsomething to Europe than it is to the countryright next door.

And to think about working with the Inter-American Development Bank, with the UnitedStates, with other partners, how do we buildthe kind of connectivity and emphasize inter-nal integration and trade and markets, that’sgoing to strengthen you. That will put you in amore effective position to compete in worldmarkets, and it will allow you then to interfacewith Mexico and the United States and Colom-bia and other parts of the hemisphere. Becausewhat I said to the SICA leaders yesterday was,the more integrated we are, the more effectivewe’re going to compete internationally.

But that’s going to require some investment.I just want to emphasize, it’s not just buildingthe road or the bridge or the port. It’s also hav-ing the regulatory structures that make thosework.

Mr. Condo. Thank you very much. Anotherquestion. Paula.

Early Childhood Education

Q. Good morning. My name is Paula Rob-erts. And I am a Central American from CostaRica, and I am also an MBA student from IN-CAE. My question is in relation with earlychildhood support. There is strong consensusin Central America that has been validated bythe IDB and INCAE that early childhood sup-port is one of the best investments our coun-tries can make. Yet we are still struggling, try-ing to provide primary and secondary educa-tion coverage to the entire population, andeven this is pushing the boundaries of our bud-gets. So my question is, how can—or howshould countries invest in this without sacrific-ing gains in other areas? Thank you.

President Obama. Well, I’ll just say verybriefly that all the science shows that effective,

high-quality early childhood education paysmore dividends than almost anything else youcan do educationally. Because if children get agood start, if they’re read to and their vocabu-lary is expanding and they’re taught their num-bers and their colors and all the basic buildingblocks, then they’re much more likely to suc-ceed. And that’s true in the United States;that’s true here in Central America.

So the way we think about early childhoodeducation is not just as an add-on to our overalleducation policy. What we’re trying to argue inmy administration is, this is part of our entireeducation strategy. It starts when the child isborn, and increasingly, in this knowledge-based economy, it’s going to continue even af-ter people have graduated from college;they’re going to have to continue learning.

You’re right that paying for it is difficult andquality control is difficult. Good-quality earlychildhood education is not just babysitting. It’shaving trained professionals who know how tostimulate very young children to give them thepreparation that they need, which means set-ting up training programs and making surethey’re adequately paid.

And in terms of financing, in my State of theUnion—because in the United States, by theway, we don’t have the kind of early childhoodeducation system that I think we should have.And when you compare what we do to some ofthe more advanced countries in the OECD,we’re not where I want us to be. So what I didin the State of the Union was propose that weimpose an additional Federal tax on cigarettesin order to pay for an expansion for high-quali-ty, universal, early childhood education. Youget the dual benefit of reducing smoking,which saves on our health care costs at thesame time as we’re able to improve early child-hood education.

Now, whether we’re going to be able to getthat passed or not, I don’t know. It’s always astruggle to get new revenue for worthy endeav-ors, but there’s no bigger bang for the buckthat you can get than making this investment inearly childhood education. So I’m going tokeep on arguing for it forcefully.

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[President Laura Chinchilla Miranda of CostaRica made brief remarks.]

Mr. Condo. Thank you very much, MadamPresident. The youth, we have a businessmanfrom the energy sector.

Alternative and Renewable Energy Sources andTechnologies/Energy Infrastructure/Regional In-tegration

Q. Hello. Thank you. Hi. My name is Ale-jandro Brenes. I’m the founder of an energycompany, Central American, a global shaper.Central America has significant renewable en-ergy resources. Our economies are bashed bythe volatility of oil energy prices, because ourrenewables take longer to put on line, also de-lays and local oppositions are taking us in a de-faultist state that we’re using more fossil fuel,taking us farther from our original goal of amore sustainable energy mix.

And on top of that, we have earthquakes andfrequent severe weather that makes our elec-trical system vulnerable. Saying that, how canwe accelerate investment in more sustainableenergy? And what are the opportunities andpossible role of the U.S. and U.S. companies towork with Central America and to advance in amore sustainable energy mix that the regionneeds and to reduce the volatility of our elec-trical system? Thank you.

President Obama. Well, I have to say that allof the SICA leaders that I met with yesterdayemphasized this issue of energy. President Per-ez, President Martinelli, and President Chin-chilla all focused on the fact that electricitycosts here in Central America may cost threetimes as much as they do in Washington, DC,and that’s a huge structural disadvantage forbusinesses and families in the region. So this issomething you’re going to have to fix.

Now, the good news is that you’ve alreadymade enormous progress in renewable ener-gies in ways that, in fact, are well in advance ofwhat other parts of the world are doing. Thefact that Costa Rica is already getting 90 per-cent of your energy from renewable sources isa great achievement, and it means that you’vegot technology and expertise and a tradition of

renewable energy in the region that you needto build on.

And what the United States can do, I thinkthe most helpful thing we can do is work withyou—because we have a common goal of cre-ating more renewable energy sources—let’scollaborate on research, technology. Let’s net-work companies that are advancing new re-newable energy strategies and see if we canhave more joint ventures and projects. Becauseit’s my view that if any of us find good answersto renewable energy, that will spread like wild-fire, and everybody will ultimately benefit. Italmost doesn’t matter where the innovationsoccur, because they’ll be readily transferablearound the world.

What I also understand is, is that we’re notgoing to immediately be able to transition offof traditional sources of energy—fossil fuelslike oil and gas—and even Costa Rica, it’s get-ting a lot of renewable energy, but it’s still gotto make up that difference, and that’s going tobe a transition for all countries over the next20, 30 years.

And it’s true that because of the extraordi-nary advances in technology that we’ve madein the United States, we are likely to be a netnatural gas exporter as soon as 2020. And soone of the things that I’ve discussed with yourPresidents is, how can we potentially use thatas a bridging mechanism? I’ve got to make adecision—an executive decision broadly aboutwhether or not we export liquefied natural gasat all. But I can assure you that once I makethat decision, then factoring in how we can usethat to facilitate lower costs in the hemisphereand in Central America will be on my agenda.

The last point—which Arturo mentioned,but I can’t emphasize enough—whether you’retalking about traditional energy sources, re-newable energy, setting up structures and reg-ulatory regimes for creating economies of scaleand efficiencies are critical.

I was mentioning that in California, the util-ities, when they produce energy during non-peak hours, they ship it across the border downto Mexico. When they have peak hours, theybring that energy back to California. And be-cause of not only the technology, but also the

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laws that are in place, that saves consumersmoney on both sides of the border.

And given the small size of many CentralAmerican countries, it’s critical to create a re-gional market. And that’s not just transmissionlines. It’s also having the rules in place that al-low the free flow of energy back and forth.

People get nervous about that, becausethey’re worried, well, Panama is going to stealmy electricity, and then Costa Rica, I don’tknow, maybe they’re going to poach some ofour power. But the truth of the matter is, isthat everybody stands to benefit.

And we’ll work with the Inter-American De-velopment Bank. We put forward—I think itwas last year—maybe it was the year before,when we initiated Connect 2022—and so ourgoal is to use whatever convening power wehave to network with the private sector as wellas the public sector to find ways to enhancethat integration. If you can solve this problem,it will free up resources for early childhood ed-ucation, it will put money in the pockets ofconsumers, and the economic benefits will beextraordinary.

So we look forward to partnering with youon that issue.

[President Chinchilla made brief remarks.]

Education/Budgetary Priorities/Opportunities forWomen and Girls

Mr. Condo. Let me take advantage of myposition now. Let me ask you—both of you—afollow-up question to—on the early childhoodpoint; we all agree it’s critical. As you men-tioned in—that what was called a consulta inSan Jose in 2008, that was the top social invest-ment that could have been made for LatinAmerica in general: early childhood.

You mentioned, President Obama, it’s hardfor everyone to gather the fiscal resources toinvest in these innovative, very valuable—so-cially valuable—programs. How do you goabout, in both of your experiences, creatingsuch social demand or social support for mis-sions like that that imply greater resources andthe need for greater resources?

President Obama. Well, first of all, at least inthe United States, and I’m almost certain—Ihaven’t looked at the polling, but I’m sure it’strue in Central America—selling people on theimportance of education is not difficult. Peopleunderstand—even those who don’t have an ed-ucation understand—that in this economy, ifwe don’t have a highly skilled, highly trainedworkforce, then we’ll lose. And I think everyparent has aspirations for their children to doeven better than they did. And the only waythat’s going to happen is, is if they’re getting anexcellent education.

So I think generally, the issue is not going tobe, will there be social demand. I think, num-ber one, it’s making sure that education re-forms are in place so that we are using themoney that we have as effectively as possible.

In the United States, what we found is, isthat sometimes, money in schools are not wellspent. And our schools—we’ve had publicschools for a very long time, but many of themwere designed back in the 1800s in a largelyagricultural society; now the needs are differ-ent, and we’ve got to adapt. We also have newtools, like the use of technology and distancelearning, that can reduce costs and improveoutcomes.

We have to spend a lot of time focusing onteacher quality and training teachers so thatthey’re up to speed on the best practices to im-prove learning.

And—but I think it is actually easy to getpublic support around education. What’s hard-er is to, A, make sure that the money is wellspent, and B, recognize that, as is true for busi-nesses, it’s also true for governments, you haveto prioritize, and you have to decide, all right,if we’re going to spend more money on earlyeducation, then we’re going to have to eitherincrease revenue through taxation or we’re go-ing to have to stop doing some other thingsthat are less important. And that’s part of whatdemocracy is about, is having that debate.

But one last point I want to make about edu-cation: A lot of studies have shown that the sin-gle best indicator of a country’s developmentand advancement is how does it treat its girls.If you are not educating half the population, if

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you’re not using all the opportunities—or pro-viding opportunities for all the girls in yourcountry, you will fall behind. And it’s been saidbefore, the advantage of when you’re giving agood education to girls is you’re also going tobe educating the children of the moms.

And so making sure that social equity andgender equity is built into our education agen-da—especially around things like math and sci-ence and engineering, where traditionally, a lotof times, young girls are discouraged becauseit’s viewed somehow as not their subjects—that’s something that we’re spending a lot oftime on. And we’d be happy to collaborate withSICA and other organizations to find ways thatwe can make sure that we’re encouragingyoung women are getting the exact same op-portunities as young men are getting.

Mr. Condo. Thank you. Well, we need towrap up due to our short time constraints. ButI’d like to hear from President Chinchilla firstand then President Obama maybe some clos-ing remarks and parting words.

[President Chinchilla made brief remarks.]

President Obama. Well, again, I just want tothank this wonderful institution and the peopleof Costa Rica, as well as President Chinchilla,for giving me this wonderful opportunity to in-teract with outstanding business leaders andcivil society leaders.

The main message that I have is that theUnited States recognizes, our fates are tied upwith your success. We want to be a partner.I’ve said this before—and I will repeat—wedon’t think there are senior partners or juniorpartners in that partnership. I think it’s a part-nership based on equality and mutual respectand mutual interest. If you are doing well, we

will do better. And if we’re doing well, wethink your situation improves.

And so, through all the various forums thatwe have, let’s continue to build. And let’s rec-ognize that in this global economy that we nowlive in that for us to be successful, we’re goingto have to further integrate, and it’s—we’re go-ing to have to use not just the powers of gov-ernments—government-to-government rela-tions—it’s going to be people to people, busi-ness to business. It’s going to be networks. It’sgoing to be private sector, public sector, non-for-profits all working together around com-mon goals.

And I think this forum is a extraordinary op-portunity to build on the talents of a lot of peo-ple from a lot of sectors around the region. Welook forward to working with you. We look for-ward to partnering with you. And I have to say,this visit has made me extraordinarily optimis-tic about not just the future of the UnitedStates and the future of Central America, butthe entire hemisphere.

So thank you very much.

NOTE: The President spoke at 10:58 a.m. atthe Old Customs House. In his remarks, he re-ferred to Arturo Condo, president, InstitutoCentroamericano de Administración de Em-presas (INCAE); President Ricardo BerrocalMartinelli of Panama; President Otto Fernan-do Perez Molina of Guatemala; President En-rique Peña Nieto of Mexico; and Prime Minis-ter Stephen J. Harper of Canada. He also re-ferred to the Central American IntegrationSystem (SICA). A participant referred to theInter-American Development Bank (IDB).President Chinchilla spoke in Spanish, and herremarks were translated by an interpreter, butno transcript was provided.

Statement on the Observance of Orthodox EasterMay 4, 2013

This weekend, Michelle and I extend ourbest wishes to members of the Orthodox Chris-tian community here in America and aroundthe world as they observe Holy Friday and theFeast of the Resurrection.

For millions of Orthodox Christians, this is ajoyful time. But it’s also a reminder of the sac-rifice Christ made so that we might have eter-nal life. His decision to choose love in the faceof hate, hope in the face of despair, is an

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example we should always strive to follow. Butit’s especially important to remember this year,as members of the Orthodox community havebeen confronted with persecution and vio-lence, particularly in the Middle East andNorth Africa. For centuries, the region and theworld has been enriched by the contributions

of Orthodox communities in countries likeEgypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq.

As a nation, we reaffirm our commitment toprotecting universal human rights, includingthe freedom of religion. And in this season ofhope and restoration, we celebrate the trans-formational power of sacrificial love.

Commencement Address at Ohio State University in Columbus, OhioMay 5, 2013

The President. Thank you. Hello, Buckeyes!O–H!

Audience members. I–O!The President. O–H!Audience members. I–O!The President. O–H!Audience members. I–O! The President. Well, thank you so much. Ev-

erybody, please be seated. Thank you, Dr.Gee, for the wonderful introduction. I suspectthe good president may have edited out someother words that were used to describe me.[Laughter] I appreciate that. But I’m going tolet Michelle know of all the good comments.

To the Board of Trustees, CongresswomanBeatty, Mayor Coleman, and all of you whomake up the Ohio State University for allowingme to join you: It is an incredible honor.

And most of all, congratulations, class of2013. And of course, congratulations to all theparents and family and friends and faculty herein the Horseshoe. This is your day as well. I’vebeen told to ask everybody, though, please becareful with the turf. Coach Meyer has bigplans for this fall. [Laughter]

I very much appreciate the president’s intro-duction. I will not be singing today. [Laughter]

Audience members. Aww. [Laughter]The President. Aww. [Laughter] It is true

that I did speak at that certain university upnorth a few years ago. But to be fair, you did letPresident Ford speak here once, and he playedfootball for Michigan. [Laughter] So every-body can get some redemption.

In my defense, this is my fifth visit to cam-pus in the past year or so. One time, I stoppedat Sloppy’s to grab some lunch. Many of you—Sloopy’s—I know. [Laughter] It’s Sunday, and

I’m coming off a foreign trip. [Laughter] Any-way, so I’m at Sloopy’s, and many of you werestill eating breakfast. At 11:30. [Laughter] On aTuesday. [Laughter] So to the class of 2013, Iwill offer my first piece of advice: Enjoy itwhile you can. [Laughter] Soon, you will notget to wake up and have breakfast at 11:30 onTuesday. [Laughter] And once you have chil-dren, it gets even earlier. [Laughter]

But, class of 2013, your path to this momenthas wound you through years of breathtakingchange. You were born as freedom forced itsway through a wall in Berlin, tore down an IronCurtain across Europe. You were educated inan era of instant information that put theworld’s accumulated knowledge at your finger-tips. And you came of age as terror touchedour shores and a historic recession spreadacross the Nation and a new generation signedup to go to war.

So you’ve been tested and you’ve been tem-pered by events that your parents and I neverimagined we’d see when we sat where you sit.And yet, despite all this—or perhaps becauseof it—yours has become a generation pos-sessed with that most American of ideas: thatpeople who love their country can change it forthe better. For all the turmoil, for all the timesyou’ve been let down or frustrated at the handsthat you’ve been dealt, what I have seen—whatwe have witnessed from your generation—isthat perennial, quintessentially American valueof optimism, altruism, empathy, tolerance, asense of community, a sense of service, all ofwhich makes me optimistic for our future.

Consider that today, 50 ROTC cadets inyour graduating class will become commis-sioned officers in the Army, Navy, Air Force,

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and Marines. A hundred and thirty of your fel-low graduates have already served: some incombat, some on multiple deployments. Of the98 veterans earning bachelor’s degrees today,20 are graduating with honors, and at least onekept serving his fellow veterans when he camehome by starting up a campus organizationcalled Vets4Vets. And as your Commander inChief, I could not be prouder of all of you.

Consider that graduates of this universityserve their country through the Peace Corpsand educate our children through establishedprograms like Teach for America, startups likeBlue Engine, often earning little pay for mak-ing the biggest impact. Some of you have al-ready launched startup companies of yourown. And I suspect that those of you who pur-sue more education or climb the corporate lad-der or enter the arts or science or journalism,you will still choose a cause that you care aboutin your life and you will fight like heck to real-ize your vision.

There is a word for this. It’s citizenship. Andwe don’t always talk about this idea much thesedays—citizenship—let alone celebrate it.Sometimes, we see it as a virtue from anothertime, a distant past, one that’s slipping from asociety that celebrates individual ambitionabove all else, a society awash in instant tech-nology that empowers us to leverage our skillsand talents like never before, but just as easilyallows us to retreat from the world. And the re-sult is that we sometimes forget the largerbonds we share as one American family.

But it’s still out there, all the time, everyday, especially when we need it most. Just lookat the past year. When a hurricane struck ourmightiest city and a factory exploded in a smalltown in Texas, we saw citizenship. Whenbombs went off in Boston and when a malevo-lent spree of gunfire visited a movie theater, atemple, an Ohio high school, a first-gradeclassroom in Connecticut, we saw citizenship.In the aftermath of darkest tragedy, we haveseen the American spirit at its brightest.

We’ve seen the petty divisions of color andclass and creed replaced by a united urge tohelp each other. We’ve seen courage and com-passion, a sense of civic duty, and a recogni-

tion, we are not a collection of strangers: Weare bound to one another by a set of ideals andlaws and commitments and a deep devotion tothis country that we love.

And that’s what citizenship is. It’s at theheart of our founding, that as Americans, weare blessed with God-given talents and inalien-able rights, but with those rights come respon-sibilities: to ourselves and to one another andto future generations.

Now, if we’re being honest with ourselves,as you’ve studied and worked and served to be-come good citizens, the fact is that all too of-ten, the institutions that give structure to oursociety have, at times, betrayed your trust. Inthe runup to the financial crisis, too many onWall Street forgot that their obligations don’tend with what’s happening with their shares.In entertainment and in the media, ratings andshock value often trump news and storytelling.

In Washington—well, this is a joyous occa-sion, so let me put it charitably—I think it’s fairto say our democracy isn’t working as well aswe know it can. It could do better. And sothose of us fortunate enough to serve in theseinstitutions owe it to you to do better every sin-gle day.

And I’ve been thinking a lot lately abouthow we can keep this idea of citizenship in itsfullest sense alive at the national level, not juston election day, not just in times of tragedy,but all the days in between. And perhaps be-cause I spend a lot of time in Washington, I’mobsessed with this issue, because that sense ofcitizenship is so sorely needed there. And Ithink of what your generation’s traits—com-passion and energy and a sense of selfless-ness—might mean for a democracy that mustadapt more quickly to keep up with the speedof technological and demographic and wrench-ing economic change.

I think about how we might perpetuate thisnotion of citizenship in a way that another poli-tician from my home State of Illinois, AdlaiStevenson, once described patriotism: not as“short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but thetranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.”That’s what patriotism is. That’s what citizen-ship is.

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Now, I don’t pretend to have all the an-swers. I’m not going to offer some grand theo-ry on a beautiful day like this. You guys all havecelebrating to do. I’m not going to get partisan,either, because that’s not what citizenship isabout. In fact, I’m asking the same thing of youthat President Bush did when he spoke at thiscommencement in 2002. “America needs morethan taxpayers, spectators, and occasional vot-ers,” he said. “America needs full-time citi-zens.” And as graduates from a university—as agraduate from a university whose motto is,“Education for Citizenship,” I know all of youget that this is what you’ve signed up for. It’swhat your country expects of you.

So, briefly, I’ll ask for two things from theclass of 2013: to participate and to persevere.After all, your democracy does not functionwithout your active participation. At a bareminimum that means voting, eagerly and of-ten—not having somebody drag you to it at11:30 when you’re having breakfast. [Laugh-ter] It means knowing who’s been elected tomake decisions on your behalf and what theybelieve in and whether or not they deliveredon what they said they would. And if they don’trepresent you the way you want or conductthemselves the way you expect, if they put spe-cial interests above your own, you’ve got to letthem know that’s not okay. And if they let youdown often enough, there’s a built-in day inNovember where you can really let them knowit’s not okay.

But participation, your civic duty, is morethan just voting. You don’t have to run for of-fice yourself, but I hope many of you do, at alllevels, because our democracy needs you. AndI promise you, it will give you a tough skin. Iknow a little bit about this. President Wilsononce said, “If you want to make enemies, try tochange something.”

And that’s precisely what the Founders leftus: the power—each of us—to adapt to chang-ing times. They left us the keys to a system ofself-government, the tools to do big things andimportant things together that we could notpossibly do alone: to stretch railroads and elec-tricity and a highway system across a sprawlingcontinent; to educate our people with a system

of public schools and land-grant colleges, in-cluding the Ohio State University; to care forthe sick and the vulnerable and provide a basiclevel of protection from falling into abject pov-erty in the wealthiest nation on Earth; to con-quer fascism and disease; to visit the Moon andMars; to gradually secure our God-given rightsfor all of our citizens, regardless of who theyare or what they look like or who they love.

We, the people, chose to do these things to-gether because we know this country cannotaccomplish great things if we pursue nothinggreater than our own individual ambition.

Unfortunately, you’ve grown up hearingvoices that incessantly warn of government asnothing more than some separate, sinister enti-ty that’s at the root of all our problems, some ofthese same voices also doing their best to gumup the works. They’ll warn that tyranny is al-ways lurking just around the corner. Youshould reject these voices because what theysuggest is that our brave and creative andunique experiment in self-rule is somehow justa sham with which we can’t be trusted.

We have never been a people who place allof our faith in government to solve our prob-lems; we shouldn’t want to. But we don’t thinkthe government is the source of all our prob-lems either. Because we understand that thisdemocracy is ours. And as citizens, we under-stand that it’s not about what America can dofor us, it’s about what can be done by us, to-gether, through the hard and frustrating, butabsolutely necessary work of self-government.And, class of 2013, you have to be involved inthat process.

The Founders trusted us with this awesomeauthority. We should trust ourselves with ittoo. Because when we don’t, when we turnaway and get discouraged and cynical and ab-dicate that authority, we grant our silent con-sent to someone who will gladly claim it. That’show we end up with lobbyists who set theagenda and policies detached from what mid-dle class families face every day, the well con-nected who publicly demand that Washingtonstay out of their business and then whisper ingovernment’s ear for special treatment thatyou don’t get.

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That’s how a small minority of lawmakersget cover to defeat something the vast majorityof their constituents want. That’s how our po-litical system gets consumed by small thingswhen we are a people called to do great things,like rebuild a middle class and reverse the riseof inequality and repair the deteriorating cli-mate that threatens everything we plan to leavefor our kids and our grandkids.

Class of 2013, only you can ultimately breakthat cycle. Only you can make sure the democ-racy you inherit is as good as we know it canbe. But it requires your dedicated and in-formed and engaged citizenship. And that citi-zenship is a harder, higher road to take, but itleads to a better place. It’s how we built thiscountry: together.

It’s the question that President Kennedyposed to the Nation at his Inauguration. It’sthe dream that Dr. King invoked. It does notpromise easy success or immediate progress,but it has led to success, and it has led to prog-ress, and it has to continue with you.

Which brings me to the second thing I ask ofall of you: I ask that you persevere. Whetheryou start a business or run for office or devoteyourself to alleviating poverty or hunger,please remember that nothing worth doinghappens overnight. A British inventor namedDyson went through more than 5,000 proto-types before getting that first really fancy vacu-um cleaner just right. We remember MichaelJordan’s six championships; we don’t remem-ber his nearly 15,000 missed shots. As for me, Ilost my first race for Congress, and look at menow: I’m an honorary graduate of the OhioState University.

The point is, if you are living your life to thefullest, you will fail, you will stumble, you willscrew up, you will fall down. But it will makeyou stronger, and you’ll get it right the nexttime or the time after that or the time afterthat. And that is not only true for your personalpursuits, but it’s also true for the broadercauses that you believe in as well.

So you can’t give up your passion if thingsdon’t work right away. You can’t lose heart orgrow cynical if there are twists and turns onyour journey. The cynics may be the loudest

voices, but I promise you, they will accomplishthe least. It’s those folks who stay at it, thosewho do the long, hard, committed work ofchange that gradually push this country in theright direction and make the most lasting dif-ference.

So whenever you feel that creeping cyni-cism, whenever you hear those voices sayingyou can’t do it, you can’t make a difference,whenever somebody tells you to set your sightslower, the trajectory of this great Nationshould give you hope. What generations havedone before you should give you hope, becauseit was young people just like you who marchedand mobilized and stood up and sat in to se-cure women’s rights and voting rights andworkers’ rights and gay rights, often at incredi-ble odds, often at great danger, often over thecourse of years, sometimes over the tranquiland steady dedication of a lifetime. And theynever got acknowledged for it, but they made adifference.

And even if their rights were already se-cured, there were those who fought to securethose same rights and opportunities for others.And that should give you some hope.

Where we’re going should give you hope,because while things are still hard for a lot ofpeople, you have every reason to believe thatyour future is bright. You’re graduating into aneconomy and a job market that is steadily heal-ing. The once-dying American auto industry ison pace for its strongest performance in 20years, something that means everything tomany communities in Ohio and across theMidwest. Huge strides in domestic energy,driven in part by research at universities likethis one, have us on track to secure our ownenergy future. Incredible advances in informa-tion and technology, spurred largely by the risktakers of your generation, have the potential tochange the way we do almost everything.

There is not another country on Earth thatwould not gladly change places with the Unit-ed States of America, and that will be true foryour generation just as it was true for previousgenerations.

So you’ve got a lot to look forward to, but ifthere’s one certainty about the decade ahead,

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it’s that things will be uncertain. Change willbe a constant, just as it has been throughoutour history. And yes, we still face many impor-tant challenges. Some will require technologi-cal breakthroughs or new policy insights. Butmore than anything, what we will need is polit-ical will: to harness the ingenuity of your gen-eration and encourage and inspire the hardwork of dedicated citizens; to repair the middleclass; to give more families a fair shake; to re-ject a country in which only a lucky few pros-per, because that’s antithetical to our idealsand our democracy. All of this is going to hap-pen if you are involved, because it takesdogged determination, the dogged determina-tion of our citizens.

To educate more children at a younger ageand to reform our high schools for a new timeand to give more young people the chance toearn the kind of education that you did at theOhio State University and to make it more af-fordable so that young people don’t leave witha mountain of debt, that will take the care andconcern of citizens like you.

To build better roads and airports and fasterInternet and to advance the kinds of basic re-search and technology that’s always keptAmerica ahead of everybody else, that will takethe grit and fortitude of citizens.

To confront the threat of climate change be-fore it’s too late, that requires the idealism andthe initiative of citizens.

To protect more of our kids from the hor-rors of gun violence, that requires the unwav-

ering passion, the untiring resolve of citizens.It will require you.

Fifty years ago, President Kennedy told theclass of 1963 that “our problems are man-made—therefore, they can be solved by man.And man can be as big as he wants.” We’reblessed to live in the greatest nation on Earth.But we can always be greater. We can alwaysaspire to something more. That doesn’t de-pend on who you elect to office. It depends onyou as citizens, how big you want us to be, howbadly you want to see these changes for thebetter.

And look at all that America has already ac-complished. Look at how big we’ve been. Idare you, class of 2013, to do better. I dare youto dream bigger.

And from what I’ve seen of your generation,I’m confident that you will. And so I wish youcourage and compassion and all the strengththat you will need for that tranquil and steadydedication of a lifetime.

Thank you. God bless you, and God blessthese United States of America.

NOTE: The President spoke at 1 p.m. at OhioStadium. In his remarks, he referred to E.Gordon Gee, president, and Urban Meyer,head football coach, Ohio State University;Richard Hayek, founder, Vets4Vets; formerPresident George W. Bush; James Dyson,founder, Dyson Co.; and Michael Jordan, for-mer guard, National Basketball Association’sChicago Bulls.

Statement on Cinco de MayoMay 5, 2013

Today we honor the victory of the Mexicanpeople in their fight for freedom at the Battleof Puebla 151 years ago. On Cinco de Mayo,we celebrate the contributions and heritage ofMexican Americans and we recognize thestrong cultural, familial, and economic ties thatbind the United States and Mexico.

This week, I was proud to visit Mexico to re-affirm our vision for the Americas as a regionof shared opportunity and prosperity. I lefteven more convinced that we have historic op-

portunities to expand trade and make oureconomies even more competitive so that wecontinue creating good jobs in both of ourcountries.

In Mexico, I also emphasized the need topass commonsense immigration reform thatlives up to our tradition as a nation of laws anda nation of immigrants, including generationsof Mexican Americans who have enriched ourcountry. Fixing our immigration system is oneof my top legislative priorities, and I am hope-

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ful that we can make immigration reform a re-ality this year.

Cinco de Mayo reminds us that America’sdiversity is America’s strength. Today, as we

celebrate the contributions and history of Mex-ican Americans and Hispanics in America, letus celebrate the larger story of America andour unique immigrant heritage.

The President’s News Conference With President Park Geun-hye of SouthKoreaMay 7, 2013

President Obama. Good afternoon, every-body. Please have a seat.

Let me begin by saying it is a great pleasureto welcome President Park and our friendsfrom the Republic of Korea. Madam Presi-dent, we are greatly honored that you’ve cho-sen the United States as your first foreign visit.This, of course, reflects the deep friendshipbetween our peoples and the great alliance be-tween our nations, which is marking anothermilestone. I’m told that in Korea, a 60th birth-day is a special celebration of life and longevi-ty, a hwangab. [Laughter] Well, this year,we’re marking the 60th anniversary of the de-fense treaty between our nations.

Yesterday President Park visited ArlingtonNational Cemetery and our memorial to ourKorean war veterans. Tonight she’s hosting adinner to pay tribute to the generation ofAmerican veterans who have served in the de-fense of South Korea. And tomorrow she’ll ad-dress a joint session of Congress, an honor thatis reserved for our closest of friends.

And in this sense, this visit also reflectsSouth Korea’s extraordinary progress overthese six decades: from the ashes of war to oneof the world’s largest economies, from a recipi-ent of foreign aid to a donor that now helpsother nations develop. And of course, aroundthe world, people are being swept up by Kore-an culture, the Korean Wave. And as I men-tioned to President Park, my daughters havetaught me a pretty good Gangnam Style.[Laughter]

President Park, in your first months in of-fice, South Korea has faced threats and provo-cations that would test any nation. Yet you’vedisplayed calm and steady resolve that has de-fined your life. Like people around the world,

those of us in the United States have also beeninspired by your example as the first femalePresident of South Korea. And today I’ve cometo appreciate the leadership qualities for whichyou are known: your focus and discipline andstraightforwardness. And I very much thankyou for the progress that we’ve already madetogether.

Today we agreed to continue the implemen-tation of our historic trade agreement, which isalready yielding benefits for both our coun-tries. On our side, we’re selling more exports toKorea: more manufactured goods, more ser-vices, more agricultural products. Even as wehave a long way to go, our automobile exportsare up nearly 50 percent, and our Big Three—Ford, Chrysler, and GM—are selling morecars in Korea. And as President Park and Iagreed to make sure that we continue to fullyimplement this agreement, we believe that it’sgoing to make both of our economies morecompetitive. It will boost U.S. exports by some$10 billion in support of tens of thousands ofAmerican jobs. And obviously, it will be creat-ing jobs in Korea as they are able to continueto do extraordinary work in expanding theireconomy and moving it further and further upthe value chain.

We agreed to continue the clean energypartnerships that help us to enhance our ener-gy security and address climate change. Giventhe importance of a peaceful nuclear energyindustry to South Korea, we recently agreed toextend the existing civilian nuclear agreementbetween our two countries, but we also em-phasized in our discussions the need to contin-ue to work diligently towards a new agreement.As I told the President, I believe that we canfind a way to support South Korea’s energy and

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commercial needs even as we uphold our mu-tual commitments to prevent nuclear prolifera-tion.

We agreed to continuing modernizing oursecurity alliance. Guided by our joint vision,we’re investing in the shared capabilities andtechnologies and missile defenses that allowour forces to operate and succeed together.We are on track for South Korea to assume op-erational control for the alliance in 2015. Andwe’re determined to be fully prepared for anychallenge or threat to our security. And obvi-ously, that includes the threat from North Ko-rea.

If Pyongyang thought its recent threatswould drive a wedge between South Korea andthe United States or somehow garner theNorth international respect, today is furtherevidence that North Korea has failed again.President Park and South Koreans have stoodfirm, with confidence and resolve. The UnitedStates and the Republic of Korea are as unitedas ever. And faced with new international sanc-tions, North Korea is more isolated than ever.In short, the days when North Korea couldcreate a crisis and elicit concessions, those daysare over.

Our two nations are prepared to engage withNorth Korea diplomatically and, over time,build trust. But as always—and as PresidentPark has made clear—the burden is on Pyong-yang to take meaningful steps to abide by itscommitments and obligations, particularly thedenuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

And we discussed that Pyongyang shouldtake notice of events in countries like Burma,which, as it reforms, is seeing more trade andinvestment and diplomatic ties with the world,including the United States and South Korea.

For our part, we’ll continue to coordinateclosely with South Korea and with Japan. And Iwant to make clear: The United States is fullyprepared and capable of defending ourselvesand our allies with the full range of capabilitiesavailable, including the deterrence provided byour conventional and nuclear forces. As I saidin Seoul last year, the commitment of the Unit-ed States to the security of the Republic of Ko-rea will never waver.

More broadly, we agreed to continue ex-panding our cooperation globally. In Afghani-stan—where our troops serve together andwhere South Korea is a major donor of devel-opment assistance—we’re on track to com-plete the transition to Afghan-led operationsby the end of next year. We discussed Syria,where both our nations are working tostrengthen the opposition and plan for a Syriawithout Bashar Asad. And I’m pleased that ourtwo nations—and our Peace Corps—haveagreed to expand our efforts to promote devel-opment around the world.

Finally, we’re expanding the already strongties between our young people. As an engineerby training, President Park knows the impor-tance of education. Madam President, you’vesaid—and I’m quoting you—“We live in an agewhere a single individual can raise the value ofan entire nation.” I could not agree more. SoI’m pleased that we’re renewing exchange pro-grams that bring our students together. And aswe pursue commonsense immigration reformhere in the United States, we want to make iteasier for foreign entrepreneurs and foreigngraduate students from countries like Korea tostay and contribute to our country, just as somany Korean Americans already do.

So again, thank you, President Park, formaking the United States your first foreigntrip. In your Inaugural Address, you celebratedthe can-do spirit of the Korean people. That isa spirit that we share. And after our meetingtoday, I’m confident that if our two nationscontinue to stand together, there’s nothing wecannot do together.

So, Madam President, welcome to the Unit-ed States.

President Park. Let me start by thankingPresident Obama for his invitation and his gra-cious hospitality.

During my meeting with the President to-day, I was able to have a heart-to-heart talkwith him on a wide range of common interests.I found that the two us of have a broad com-mon view about the vision and roles thatshould guide the Korea-U.S. alliance as itmoves forward, and I was delighted to see this.

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First of all, the President and I shared theview that the Korea-U.S. alliance has beenfaithfully carrying out its role as a bulwark ofpeace and stability on the Korean Peninsulaand in Northeast Asia and that the allianceshould continue to serve as a linchpin for peaceand stability on the Korean Peninsula and inAsia. In this regard, I believe it is significantthat the joint declaration on the 60th anniver-sary of our alliance we adopted spells out thedirection that our comprehensive strategic alli-ance should take.

Next, the President and I reaffirmed that wewill by no means tolerate North Korea’s threatsand provocations, which have recently been es-calating further, and that such actions wouldonly deepen North Korea’s isolation. The Pres-ident and I noted that it is important that wecontinue to strengthen our deterrence againstNorth Korea’s nuclear and conventional weap-ons threat and shared the view that in this re-spect, the transition of wartime operationalcontrol should also proceed in a way thatstrengthens our combined defense capabilitiesand preparations being made toward that wayas well.

We also shared the view that realizing Presi-dent Obama’s vision of a world without nuclearweapons should start on the Korean Peninsula,and we stated that we would continue tostrongly urge North Korea—in close concertwith the other members of the six-party talksand the international community—to faithfullyabide by its international obligations under theSeptember 19 joint statements and the rele-vant Security Council resolutions.

Korea and the U.S. will work jointly to in-duce North Korea to make the right choicethrough multifaceted efforts, including the im-plementation of the Korean Peninsula trust-building process that I had spelled out.

I take this opportunity to once again send aclear message: North Korea will not be able tosurvive if it only clings to developing its nuclearweapons at the expense of its people’s happi-ness. Concurrently pursuing nuclear arsenalsand economic development can by no meanssucceed.

This is the shared view of the other mem-bers of the six-party talks and the internationalcommunity. However, should North Koreachoose the path to becoming a responsiblemember of the community of nations, we arewilling to provide assistance, together with theinternational community.

We also had meaningful discussions on theeconomy and ways to engage in substantive co-operation. The President and I welcome thefact that the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agree-ment, which went into effect 1 year ago, is con-tributing to our shared prosperity. We also saidwe will make efforts to enable our people tobetter feel the benefits of our free trade agree-ment for them.

I highlighted the importance of securinghigh-skilled U.S. work visas for Korean citizensand asked for executive branch support, to theextent possible, to see to it that the relevantlegislation is passed in the U.S. Congress.

Moreover, we arrived at the view that theKorea-U.S. civil nuclear energy cooperationagreement should be revised into an advancedand mutually beneficial successor agreement.We said we would do our best to conclude ournegotiations as soon as possible.

The President and I also had in-depth dis-cussions on ways to enhance our global part-nership. First, we noted together that North-east Asia needs to move beyond conflict anddivisions and open a new era of peace and co-operation and that there would be synergy be-tween President’s Obama’s policy of rebalanc-ing to Asia and my initiative for peace and co-operation in Northeast Asia as we pursuepeace and development in the region. Weshared the view about playing the role of coar-chitects to flesh out this vision.

Furthermore, we decided that the Korea-U.S. alliance should deal not just with chal-lenges relating to the Korean Peninsula andNortheast Asia, but confronting the broaderinternational community.

I am very delighted that I was able to buildpersonal trust with President Obama throughour summit meeting today and to have laid aframework for cooperation.

Thank you.

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Syria/North Korea

President Obama. All right, we’ve got a cou-ple of questions from each side, so we’ll startwith Stephen Collinson of AFP.

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. Does theUnited States have a core national security in-terest in stopping the slaughter in Syria ormerely a strong moral desire to see the vio-lence end? And at what point does the cost ofnot intervening in a more direct way than youhave done so far outweigh the cost of doing so?

And if I may ask, President Park, PresidentObama’s critics have warned that failing to acton perceived violations of U.S. red lines in Syr-ia could embolden U.S. enemies elsewhere, in-cluding in North Korea. Are you convincedthat Kim Jong Un has taken the U.S. and SouthKorean warnings seriously, and do you see thewithdrawal of two missiles from a test site as asign that he’s willing to deescalate the situa-tion?

President Obama. Well, Stephen, I thinkthat we have both a moral obligation and a na-tional security interest in, A, ending the slaugh-ter in Syria, but, B, also ensuring that we’ve gota stable Syria that is representative of all theSyrian people and is not creating chaos for itsneighbors. And that’s why for the last 2 years,we have been active in trying to ensure thatBashar Asad exits the stage and that we can be-gin a political transition process.

That’s the reason why we’ve invested somuch in humanitarian aid. That’s the reasonwhy we are so invested in helping the opposi-tion and why we’ve mobilized the internationalcommunity to isolate Syria. That’s why we arenow providing nonlethal assistance to the op-position, and that’s why we’re going to contin-ue to do the work that we need to do.

And in terms of the costs and the benefits, Ithink there’d be severe costs in doing nothing.That’s why we’re not doing nothing. That’s whywe are actively invested in the process. If whatyou’re asking is, are there continuing reevalua-tions about what we do, what actions we take inconjunction with other international partnersto optimize the day when—or to hasten theday when we can see a better situation in Syria,

we’ve been doing that all along and we’ll con-tinue to do that.

I think that, understandably, there is a de-sire for easy answers. That’s not the situationthere. And my job is to constantly measure ourvery real and legitimate humanitarian and na-tional security interests in Syria, but measuringthose against my bottom line, which is what’sin the best interest of America’s security andmaking sure that I’m making decisions notbased on a hope and a prayer, but on hard-headed analysis in terms of what will actuallymake us safer and stabilize the region.

I would note—not to answer the questionthat you lobbed over to President Park—thatyou suggested even in your question a per-ceived crossing of a red line. The operativeword there, I guess, Stephen, is “perceived.”And what I’ve said is that we have evidencethat there has been the use of chemical weap-ons inside of Syria, but I don’t make decisionsbased on “perceived.” And I can’t organize in-ternational coalitions around “perceived.”We’ve tried that in the past, by the way, and itdidn’t work out well.

So we want to make sure that we have thebest analysis possible. We want to make surethat we are acting deliberately. But I wouldjust point out that there have been several in-stances during the course of my Presidencywhere I said I was going to do something, andit ended up getting done. And there weretimes when there were folks on the sidelineswondering why hasn’t it happened yet andwhat’s going on and why didn’t it go on tomor-row? But in the end, whether it’s bin Laden orQaddafi, if we say we’re taking a position, Iwould think at this point the international com-munity has a pretty good sense that we typical-ly follow through on our commitments.

President Park. With regard to actions to-wards Syria, what kind of message would thatcommunicate to North Korea? That was thequestion. And recently, North Korea seems tobe deescalating its threats and provocations.What seems to be behind that? You askedthese two questions. In fact, North Korea isisolated at the moment, so it’s hard to find any-one that could really accurately fathom the sit-

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uation in North Korea. Its actions are all sovery unpredictable. Hence, whether the Syriansituation would have an impact is hard to sayfor sure.

Why is North Korea appearing to deescalateits threats and provocations? There’s no know-ing for sure. But what is clear and what I be-lieve for sure is that the international commu-nity with regard to North Korea’s bad behav-ior, its provocations, must speak with onevoice, a firm message, and consistently send afirm message that they will not stand and thatNorth Korea’s actions in breach of internation-al norms will be met with so-and-so sanctionsand measures by the international community.At the same time, if it goes along the right way,there will be so-and-so reward. So if we consis-tently send that message to North Korea, I feelthat North Korea will be left with no choicebut to change.

And instead of just hoping to see North Ko-rea change, the international community mustalso consistently send that message with onevoice to tell them and communicate to themthat they have no choice but to change and toshape an environment where they are left withno choice but to make the strategic decision tochange. And I think that’s the effective and im-portant way.

North Korea/International Diplomatic Efforts

Q. My question goes to President Park. Youjust mentioned that North Korea—in order toinduce North Korea to abandon its nuclearweapons, what is most important is the con-certed actions of the international community.With regard to this, during your meeting withPresident Obama today, I would like to askwhat was said and the views that you shared.And with regard to this, what Russia and Chi-na—the role that they’re playing in terms of in-ducing North Korea to abandon its nuclearweapons, how do you feel about that?

My next question is to President Obama.Regarding the young leader of North Korea,Kim Jong Un, I would appreciate your viewsabout the leader of North Korea. And if youwere to send a message to him today, whatkind of message would you send to him?

President Park. With regard to the NorthKorea issue, Korea and the United States, aswell as the international community, the ulti-mate objective that all of us should be adoptingis for North Korea to abandon its nuclearweapons and to induce it to become a respon-sible member of the international community.This serves the interest of peace on the KoreanPeninsula and the world, and it also serves theinterest of North Korea’s own development aswell. That is my view.

And so in order to encourage North Koreato walk that path and change its perceptions,we have to work in concert. And in this regard,China’s role, China’s influence can be exten-sive, so if—so China taking part in these en-deavors is important. And we shared views onthat.

With regard to China and Russia’s stance, Ibelieve that China and Russia—not to mentionthe international community, of course—sharethe need for a denuclearized Korean Peninsulaand are cooperating closely to induce NorthKorea to take the right path. In the case of Chi-na, with regard to North Korea’s missile fireand nuclear testing, China has taken an activepart in adopting U.N. Security Council resolu-tions and is faithfully implementing those reso-lutions.

And with regard to Russia, Russia is alsofirmly committed to the denuclearization ofthe Korean Peninsula. And with regard to theadoption of U.N. Security Council resolutionson North Korea, it has been very active in sup-porting them. And they’ve also sent a very—and they’ve also worked very hard to include astern message to North Korea in the jointstatement of the G–8 Foreign Ministers meet-ing. Such constructive efforts on the part ofChina and Russia are vital to sending a unifiedmessage to North Korea that their nuclearweapons will not stand, and encouraging andurging North Korea to make the right decision.

President Obama. Obviously, I don’t knowKim Jong Un personally. I haven’t had a con-versation with him, can’t really give you anopinion about his personal characteristics.What we do know is the actions that he’s taken

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that have been provocative and seem to pursuea dead end.

And I want to emphasize, President Parkand myself very much share the view that weare going to maintain a strong deterrent capa-bility, that we’re not going to reward provoca-tive behavior. But we remain open to the pros-pect of North Korea taking a peaceful path ofdenuclearization, abiding by internationalcommitments, rejoining the international com-munity, and seeing a gradual progression inwhich both security and prosperity for the peo-ple of North Korea can be achieved.

If what North Korea has been doing has notresulted in a strong, prosperous nation, thennow is a good time for Kim Jong Un to evaluatethat history and take a different path. And Ithink that, should he choose to take a differentpath, not only President Park and myself wouldwelcome it, but the international community asa whole would welcome it.

And I think that China and Russia and Japanand other key players that have been partici-pants in six-party talks have made that clear.But there’s going to have to be changes in be-havior. And we have an expression in English:Don’t worry about what I say; watch what I do.And we’re—so far at least, we haven’t seen ac-tions on the part of the North Koreans thatwould indicate they’re prepared to move in adifferent direction.

Christi Parsons [Chicago Tribune].

Sexual Assault in the U.S. Armed Forces/NorthKorea

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. The Pentagonsaid today that there may be as many as 70 sex-ual assaults a day in the military—up by 35 per-cent during your term in office—and also thatmany sexual assaults may not be reported, infact. Given what we know about an Air Forceofficer in charge of preventing sexual assaultrecently being charged with sexual assault andalso the recent cases of a couple of Air Forcegenerals who’ve set aside convictions of in-stances of sexual assault, can you speak to theculture in the U.S. military that may be at playhere and talk about your response to that and

what you can do going forward to improvethings?

And if I may, President Park, I would askyou, yesterday you said that if North Koreadoes not change its behavior, we will makethem pay. I wondered if you could elaborateon that comment a little bit. Thank you.

President Obama. Well, let’s start with theprinciple that sexual assault is an outrage; it is acrime. That’s true for society at large. And ifit’s happening inside our military, then whoev-er carries it out is betraying the uniform thatthey’re wearing. And they may consider them-selves patriots, but when you engage in thiskind of behavior, that’s not patriotic, it’s acrime. And we have to do everything we can toroot this out.

Now, this is not a new phenomenon. One ofthe things that we’ve been trying to do is createa structure in which we’re starting to get accu-rate reporting. And up and down the chain, weare seeing a process, a system of accountabilityand transparency so that we can root this outcompletely.

And this is a discussion that I had with Sec-retary Panetta. He had begun the process ofmoving this forward. But I have directly spo-ken to Secretary Hagel already today and indi-cating to him that we’re going to have to notjust step up our game, we have to exponentiallystep up our game, to go at this thing hard.

And for those who are in uniform who haveexperienced sexual assault, I want them to heardirectly from their Commander in Chief thatI’ve got their backs. I will support them. Andwe’re not going to tolerate this stuff, and therewill be accountability. If people have engagedin this behavior, they should be prosecuted.

And anybody in the military who has knowl-edge of this stuff should understand this is notwho we are. This is not what the U.S. militaryis about. And it dishonors the vast majority ofmen and women in uniform who carry outtheir responsibilities and obligations with hon-or and dignity and incredible courage everysingle day.

So bottom line is, I have no tolerance forthis. I have communicated this to the Secretaryof Defense. We’re going to communicate this

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again to folks up and down the chain in areas ofauthority, and I expect consequences.

So I don’t want just more speeches orawareness programs or training, but ultimately,folks look the other way. If we find out some-body is engaging in this stuff, they’ve got to beheld accountable: prosecuted, stripped of theirpositions, court-martialed, fired, dishonorablydischarged. Period. It’s not acceptable.

President Park. Regarding North Korea’sprovocations and bad behavior, we will makethem pay. With regard to that, for instance,what I meant was that if they engage in militaryprovocations and harm the lives of our peopleand the safety of our people, then naturally, asa President who gives the top priority to ensur-ing the safety of our people, it is somethingthat we can’t just pass over.

So if North Korea engages in provocations, Iwill fully trust the judgment of our military. Soif our military makes a judgment which theyfeel is the right thing, then they should act ac-cordingly. And this is the instruction that I hadmade.

And North Korea has to pay a price when itcomes not only with regard to provocations,but also with regard to the recent Kaesong in-dustrial complex issue, where, based on agree-ments between the two sides, companies hadbelieved in the agreement that was made andactually went to invest in the Kaesong industri-al complex, but they suddenly completely dis-miss and disregard this agreement overnightand deny various medical supplies and foodsupplies to Korean citizens left in that industri-al complex, refusing to accept our request toallow in those supplies, which is what prompt-ed us to withdraw all of our citizens from thatpark. This situation unfolded in the full view ofthe international community.

So who would invest, not to mention Koreancompanies, but also companies of other coun-tries, who would invest in North Korea in aplace that shows such flagrant disregard foragreements, and how could they, under thosecircumstances, actually pull off economicachievement? So I think, in this regard, they’reactually paying the price for their own mis-deeds.

North Korea/South Korea

Q. I am—[inaudible]—from Seoul newspa-per. My question goes to President Obama.President Park has been talking about the Ko-rean Peninsula trust-building process as a wayto promote peace on Korean Peninsula. I won-der what you feel about this trust-building pro-cess on the Korean Peninsula?

President Obama. Well, as I indicated be-fore, President Park’s approach is very compat-ible with my approach and the approach thatwe have been taking together for several yearsnow. And as I understand it, the key is that wewill be prepared for a deterrence that we willrespond to aggression, that we will not rewardprovocative actions, but that we will maintainan openness to an engagement process whenwe see North Korea taking steps that would in-dicate that it is following a different path. Andthat’s exactly the right approach.

All of us would benefit from a North Koreathat transformed itself. Certainly, the people ofNorth Korea would benefit. South Koreawould be even stronger in a less tense environ-ment on the Peninsula. All the surroundingneighbors would welcome such a transition,such a transformation. But I don’t think eitherPresident Park or I are naive about the difficul-ties of that taking place. And we’ve got to seeaction before we can have confidence that that,in fact, is the path that North Korea intends totake.

But the one thing I want to emphasize justbased on the excellent meetings and consulta-tion that we had today, as well as watchingPresident Park over the last several monthsdealing with the provocative escalations thathave been taking place in North Korea, whatI’m very confident about is, President Park istough. I think she has a very clear, realisticview of the situation, but she also has the wis-dom to believe that conflict is not inevitableand is not preferable. And that’s true on theKorean Peninsula. That’s true around theworld.

And we very much appreciate her visit andlook forward to excellent cooperation not onlyon this issue, but on the more positive issues of

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economic and commercial ties between ourtwo countries, educational exchanges, work onenergy, climate change, helping other coun-tries develop.

I’ve had a wonderful time every time I’vevisited the Republic of Korea. And what isclear is that the Republic of Korea is one of thegreat success stories of our lifetime. And theRepublic of Korea’s leadership around theglobe will be increasingly important. And whatunderpins that in part has been the extraordi-nary history of the alliance between the UnitedStates and the Republic of Korea. And we wantto make sure that that remains a strong founda-tion for progress in the future.

So thank you so much, Madam President.

NOTE: The President’s news conference beganat 1:44 p.m. in the East Room at the WhiteHouse. In his remarks, the President referredto President Bashar al-Asad of Syria; SupremeCommander Kim Jong Un of North Korea;and former Secretary of Defense Leon E. Pa-netta. A reporter referred to Lt. Col. JeffreyKrusinski, USAF, chief, Air Force Sexual As-sault Prevention and Response program; Lt.Gen. Susan J. Helms, USAF, commander, U.S.Strategic Command’s Joint Functional Com-ponent Command for Space and 14th AirForce; and Lt. Gen. Craig A. Franklin, USAF,commander, 3d Air Force and 17th Expedi-tionary Air Force. President Park and some re-porters spoke in Korean, and their remarkswere translated by an interpreter.

Joint Statement by President Obama and President Park Geun-hye of SouthKoreaMay 7, 2013

For six decades, the U.S.-ROK Alliance hasserved as an anchor for stability, security, andprosperity on the Korean Peninsula, in theAsia-Pacific region, and increasingly aroundthe world. President Barack Obama of theUnited States of America and President ParkGeun-hye of the Republic of Korea, meeting inWashington, D.C. on May 7, 2013, present thisJoint Declaration in celebration of sixty yearsof bilateral partnership and shared prosperity.The two leaders affirm that the Alliance iswell-placed to address the opportunities andchallenges of the future.

The U.S.-ROK Alliance, forged in the Kore-an War and founded on the 1953 UnitedStates-Republic of Korea Mutual DefenseTreaty, has evolved into a comprehensive stra-tegic alliance with deep cooperation extendingbeyond security to also encompass the politi-cal, economic, cultural, and people-to-peoplerealms. The freedom, friendship, and sharedprosperity we enjoy today rest upon our sharedvalues of liberty, democracy, and a marketeconomy.

Building on the past sixty years of stabilityon the Korean Peninsula, we continue to

strengthen and adapt our Alliance to serve as alinchpin of peace and stability in the Asia-Pa-cific and to meet the security challenges of the21st century. The United States remains firmlycommitted to the defense of the Republic ofKorea, including through extended deterrenceand the full range of U.S. military capabilities,both conventional and nuclear.

This year also marks another milestone forour two nations—the first anniversary of theentry into force of the U.S.-Korea Free TradeAgreement (KORUS FTA). This agreementembodies the positive evolution of our partner-ship and demonstrates how deeply the UnitedStates and the Republic of Korea are commit-ted to a shared future of growth and prosperi-ty. We are pleased to note the positive resultsof the KORUS FTA, including increased tradeand investment between our two countries,and recognize its potential for expanding bilat-eral cooperation and business opportunities,including in the energy sector. Our two coun-tries will fully implement the KORUS FTA toensure that the agreement serves as an eco-nomic growth engine in both our countries.

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We are pleased with the significant progressmade in realizing the 2009 Joint Vision for theAlliance of the United States of America andthe Republic of Korea, which lays out a blue-print for the future development of our strate-gic Alliance. We pledge to continue to build abetter and more secure future for all Koreanpeople, working on the basis of the Joint Visionto foster enduring peace and stability on theKorean Peninsula and its peaceful reunifica-tion based on the principles of denucleariza-tion, democracy and a free market economy.In this context, the United States and the Re-public of Korea will continue to work throughthe Alliance to bring North Korea in to compli-ance with its international obligations and pro-mote peace and prosperity on the Korean Pen-insula, including through the trust-buildingprocess initiated by President Park.

We share the deep concern that North Ko-rea’s nuclear and ballistic missiles programsand its repeated provocations pose gravethreats to the peace and stability of the KoreanPeninsula and Northeast Asia. Both the UnitedStates and the Republic of Korea are deter-mined to achieve the peaceful denucleariza-tion of North Korea and are working with oth-er Six-Party Talks partners and the internation-al community to insist that North Korea ad-heres to its international obligations andcommitments. While we invite North Korea totake the path that leads out of isolation and tojoin the community of nations as a responsiblemember, we are resolved to continue to de-fend our citizens against North Korea’s provo-cations by strengthening our comprehensive,interoperable, and combined defense capabili-ties, to include shared efforts to counter themissile threat posed by North Korea and inte-grated intelligence, surveillance, and recon-naissance systems. Because both the UnitedStates and the Republic of Korea share a deep

concern for the well-being of the North Kore-an people, we encourage North Korea to investin, and improve, the conditions for its citizensand to respect their basic human rights.

The peace and prosperity of both our na-tions are inextricably linked to regional andglobal security and economic growth. Based onthe solid U.S.-ROK Alliance, we are preparedto address our common challenges and seekways to build an era of peace and cooperationin Northeast Asia. The U.S.-ROK Alliance isan increasingly global partnership, and theUnited States welcomes the Republic of Ko-rea’s leadership and active engagement on theworld stage, including in international fora. Wewill strengthen our efforts to address globalchallenges such as climate change and to pro-mote clean energy, energy security, humanrights, humanitarian assistance, developmentassistance cooperation, counter-terrorism,peaceful uses of nuclear energy, nuclear safety,non-proliferation, cybersecurity, and counter-piracy.

Our sixty years of partnership and sharedprosperity have demonstrated that the strengthof our Alliance stems from the close relation-ships between our peoples. The large Korean-American community in the United States notonly serves as a significant link between ourtwo countries, but also makes countless contri-butions to the strength and vitality of Americansociety. We pledge to continue programs andefforts to build even closer ties between oursocieties, including cooperation among busi-ness, civic, academic, and other institutions.

As allies and Asia-Pacific nations, we lookforward to shaping together the future of Asiafor generations to come.


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Message to the Congress on Continuation of the National Emergency WithRespect to the Actions of the Government of SyriaMay 7, 2013


Section 202(d) of the National EmergenciesAct, 50 U.S.C. 1622(d), provides for the auto-matic termination of a national emergency, un-less, within 90 days prior to the anniversarydate of its declaration, the President publishesin the Federal Register and transmits to theCongress a notice stating that the emergency isto continue in effect beyond the anniversarydate. In accordance with this provision, I havesent to the Federal Register for publication theenclosed notice stating that the national emer-gency with respect to the actions of the Gov-ernment of Syria declared in Executive Order13338 of May 11, 2004—as modified in scopeand relied upon for additional steps taken inExecutive Order 13399 of April 25, 2006, Ex-ecutive Order 13460 of February 13, 2008, Ex-ecutive Order 13572 of April 29, 2011, Execu-tive Order 13573 of May 18, 2011, ExecutiveOrder 13582 of August 17, 2011, ExecutiveOrder 13606 of April 22, 2012, and ExecutiveOrder 13608 of May 1, 2012—is to continue ineffect beyond May 11, 2013.

While the Syrian regime has reduced thenumber of foreign fighters bound for Iraq, theregime’s brutal war on the Syrian people, whohave been calling for freedom and a represen-tative government, endangers not only the Syr-ian people themselves, but could yield greaterinstability throughout the region. The Syrian

regime’s actions and policies, including pursu-ing chemical and biological weapons, support-ing terrorist organizations, and obstructing theLebanese government’s ability to function ef-fectively, continue to pose an unusual and ex-traordinary threat to the national security, for-eign policy, and economy of the United States.For these reasons, I have determined that it isnecessary to continue in effect the nationalemergency declared with respect to this threatand to maintain in force the sanctions to ad-dress this national emergency.

In addition, the United States condemns theAsad regime’s use of brutal violence and hu-man rights abuses and calls on the Asad regimeto stop its violent war and step aside to allow apolitical transition in Syria that will forge acredible path to a future of greater freedom,democracy, opportunity, and justice.

The United States will consider changes inthe composition, policies, and actions of theGovernment of Syria in determining whetherto continue or terminate this national emer-gency in the future.

BARACK OBAMA

The White House,May 7, 2013.


Remarks at Manor New Technology High School in Manor, TexasMay 9, 2013

Hello, Texas. Well, howdy, Manor. Go Ti-tans! Now, I hear that there’s a rule that any-one who gives a presentation in front of theclass has to dress up, so I made sure to wear atie. [Laughter] I didn’t want to lose points.

I want to thank Tevyn for the very generousintroduction. Give Tevyn a big round of ap-plause. I want to thank Principal Zipkes for his

great work. I want to thank Dylan and Jahmanfor showing me around. Great job.

We’ve got a number of other luminaries heretoday. First of all, we’ve got Acting Secretariesof Commerce and Labor, Becky Blank andSeth Harris. There they are right there. Beckyis going to be leaving us to become the presi-dent of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

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So the—if you all are interested in cold weath-er, you can apply. [Laughter] You’ve got thehookup right here. And she’s going to do agreat job.

We’ve got Congressman Lloyd Doggett,who’s here. We’ve got Mayor Jeff Turner,who’s here. And it is Teacher AppreciationWeek. So all the teachers, raise your hands.Everybody give them a big round of applause.We appreciate you. Teachers work hard everysingle day, and they don’t do it for the money.They do it because of the love of learning andthe love of their students. And so we could notbe prouder of them, and we are grateful to allof them. And I want to thank all of you for aTexas-sized welcome.

Now, those of you who have seats, feel freeto sit down. Those of you who don’t, you’re outof luck. [Laughter] So you’ve got to keepstanding.

The—so this is the first stop that I’m makingon a tour of the Austin area today. And I choseAustin, partly because I just love Austin, but al-so because there are some terrific things goingon in this area, in communities like Manor.And there are terrific things going on in com-munities all across the country that are goodmodels for all of America to follow.

You might not know this, because if you lis-ten to all the doom and gloom in Washington,in politics, and you’re watching cable TV some-times, you might get kind of thinking, nothingis going right. But the truth is, there’s a lot ofreasons for us to feel optimistic about wherewe’re headed as a country, especially after allthe tough times that we’ve been through overthe last several years. And that should encour-age us to roll up our sleeves and work evenharder and work together to take on the chal-lenges that are still holding back parts of oureconomy.

Now, in a little over 3 years, our businesseshave now created more than 6.5 million newjobs. And while our unemployment rate is stilltoo high, it’s actually the lowest that it’s beensince 2008. But that’s not good enough. Nowwe’ve got to create even more good, middleclass jobs, and we’ve got to do it faster so that

by the time you guys graduate from college thejob market is strong.

Corporate profits have skyrocketed to all-time highs. But that’s not good enough. We’vegot to make sure that middle class wages andincomes are also going up, because most fami-lies haven’t seen their take-home pay rise foryears now. Our housing market is healing, butthat’s not good enough. We still need to help alot more families stay in their homes or refi-nance to take advantage of historically low in-terest rates.

Our deficits are falling at the fastest rate inyears. But now we’ve got to budget in a smart-er way so it doesn’t hurt middle class familiesor prevent us from making the critical invest-ments that we need for your future.

So a lot of sectors of our economy are doingbetter. The American auto industry is thriving.American energy is booming. American inge-nuity in our tech sector continues to be thebest in the world and has the potential tochange almost everything that we do. Andthanks to the grit and determination of theAmerican people, we’ve cleared away the rub-ble of the worst economic crisis in our life-times.

So we’re poised for progress. All acrossAmerica, Americans are working harder andthey’re living up to their responsibilities, bothto themselves and to one another and to theircommunities, every single day. Part of ourchallenge, though, is you’ve got to try to seethe same kind of seriousness of purpose in yourleaders. From Washington to Wall Street, all ofus have to commit ourselves to doing betterthan we’re doing now.

And all of us have to rally around the singlegreatest challenge that we face as a countryright now, and that’s reigniting the true engineof economic growth: a rising, thriving middleclass, where if you work hard—no matter whatyou look like, where you come from—you cansucceed. That’s what we’re fighting for.

Now, there are three things that we’ve got tofocus on to create more jobs and opportunityfor the middle class. First of all, we’ve got tomake America a magnet for good jobs. Second,we’ve got to help people earn the education

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and develop the skills they need to do thosejobs. And number three, we’ve got to makesure that people who are working hard are ableto achieve a decent living. All right? That’swhat we’ve got to focus on.

And I’ve sent Congress proposals on a wholerange of ideas that will help in these three ar-eas: creating jobs, helping families stay in theirhomes, lifting wages, helping more young peo-ple get a good education and afford college.But some of them have been blocked in Con-gress for frankly political reasons. And I’m go-ing to keep on trying. I’m a very—I’m an opti-mistic guy, so I’m just going to keep on talkingto Members of Congress, because I believethat America does best when we work togeth-er. I believe that.

Every once in a while, I’m going to needyour help to lean on your elected representa-tives and say, hey, let’s do something aboutthis; even if don’t like it politically, if it’s a goodidea, let’s go ahead and support it. So some-times, I’m going to need constituents to pres-sure their Members of Congress to do the rightthing.

But where I can, I’m just going to go aheadand take action on my own, including some ex-ecutive actions that I’m taking today that I’mconvinced will spur innovation and help busi-nesses create more jobs, because we knowwhat’s possible when Americans—whetherthey’re Republicans or Democrats or Indepen-dents—are working together and when parentsand teachers and business owners and localleaders come together.

And that’s what we’re seeing here in Austin.We’re seeing people working together, not be-cause of politics, not because of some selfishreason, but because folks here understand thatwhen we’re all working together, everybodydoes better, everybody succeeds.

So, over the last 3 years in the Austin area,businesses have created 85,000 new jobs. Andcompanies like Apple and Visa are gettingready to open new offices. General Motors isalready hiring at its new innovation center. Ac-cording to one report, the tech sector nowdrives more than one-quarter of Austin’s econ-

omy. And all of this has helped to make Austinone of the fastest growing cities in America.

So folks around here are doing somethingright, and I think the rest of the country canlearn from what you’re doing because I’ve al-ways believed that the best ideas usually don’tstart in Washington, they trickle up to Wash-ington. So I’ve come to listen and learn andhighlight some of the good work that’s beingdone.

This afternoon I’m going to go visit a localfactory where workers are building the equip-ment that makes cutting-edge microchips. Allthose smartphones and iPads and—that youguys are using, a lot of this stuff is made there.I’m going to have lunch with some local fami-lies to talk about what they’re facing, the chal-lenges that they’re facing, and figure out howwe can make sure that people’s hard work paysoff.

But as you can see, my first stop was ManorNew Tech. [Applause] That’s my first stop.And the reason is because our economy can’tsucceed unless our young people have theskills that they need to succeed. And that’swhat’s happening here, right at Manor NewTech. There’s a reason why teachers and prin-cipals from all over the country are comingdown to see what you’re up to. Because everyday, this school is proving that every child hasthe potential to learn the real-world skills theyneed to succeed in college and beyond.

And you all are doing it together. At Manor,a history teacher might get together with amath teacher and develop a project about theimpact of castles on world history and the engi-neering behind building castles. Or a group ofstudents might be in charge of putting togethera multimedia presentation about the moral di-lemmas in literature as applied to World WarII. Internships help students get even morehands-on experience. And while most highschool students in America give a handful ofspeeches by the time they graduate, a studentat this school might give as many as 200. Now,that’s a lot of speeches. I can relate. [Laughter]

And I just had a chance to see some of theincredible work that some of the young peoplehere are doing: folks who used mathematical

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equations to build musical instruments, andtests on bungee jumping with rubber bandsand weights, and robots that were being built,and all kinds of great stuff. And you’re doingthings a little differently around here than a lotof high schools, and it’s working. [Applause]It’s working.

And by the way, the majority of students atManor don’t come from wealth or privilege.Some folks here might have come from somepretty tough backgrounds. And yet the vastmajority of students here stay in school, theygraduate. Your test scores in most subjectshave been higher than the State average. Al-most every member of the recent graduatingclass went on to college, and about 60 percentof them were the first in their families to do so.You should be proud of that.

And you can see it when I was talking tosome of your classmates on the projects theywere working on. There were a couple of yourclassmates who were studying how earthwormsregenerate when they’re injured. I saw solarcars. Your championship regional “TEXplo-sion” robotics team competed in the worldchampionships a couple of weeks ago. And thisprogram has only been around for 5 years.

So this is an impressive group. And theteachers here, you can tell, are passionateabout what they do and couldn’t be more im-pressive, although, some of them look like theywere in high school. [Laughter] There were acouple of them I met, I said, are you sureyou’re a teacher? [Laughter] No, not you. Youlook like you’re—[laughter]—I’m teasing. Youreally are a student. I know. [Laughter]

But it’s important to remember that, everyyear, schools like Manor New Tech hold blindlotteries to determine who gets in, becausethere just aren’t enough spots for all the stu-dents who want to go to a school like this one.There are too many kids in America who arenot getting the same kinds of opportunitiesthrough no fault of their own, and we can dobetter than that. [Applause] We can do betterthan that.

Every young person in America deserves aworld-class education. We’ve got an obligationto give it to them. And by the way, that helps

the whole economy. Every business in Ameri-ca, we want to draw from the world’s highestskilled and most educated workforce. We canmake that happen. But we’re going to have toput our shoulder against the wheel and work alittle harder than we’re doing right now as a na-tion.

So, number one, we’ve got to start educatingour kids at the earliest possible age. And thatmeans giving every child in America access tohigh-quality, public preschool, something thatI’m pushing for.

Every dollar that we put into early child-hood education can save $7 down the road be-cause it boosts graduation rates, reduces thingslike teen pregnancy and violent crime, helpsyoung people succeed not just in high school,but beyond. So let’s make that happen. Let’smake every child’s early success a recipe forlong-term success. We can do that.

We’ve also got to make sure that we helpmore students at more schools get the kinds ofskills they’re getting here at Manor Tech tocompete in a high-tech economy. So that’s whywe’re working to recruit and train 100,000 newteachers in science and technology, engineer-ing and math; helping our most talented teach-ers serve as mentors for their colleagues so thatthey can help to push the great stuff that’s go-ing on here out to other schools throughout theState and throughout the country.

We’ve also got to start rethinking and rede-signing America’s high schools. That’s part ofwhat’s happening here is, there’s innovationgoing on that equip graduates for the demandsof a high-tech economy. There’s a lot of hands-on learning here. People aren’t just sitting at adesk reading all the time. Reading is impor-tant. I’m a big reader. But part of what makesthis place special is, is that there’s all this inte-gration of various subjects and actual projectsand young people doing and not just sittingthere listening, so we’ve got to reward schoolslike this one that focus on the fields of the fu-ture—schools that focus on the fields of the fu-ture, use technology effectively to help stu-dents learn, and are also developing partner-ships with local colleges and businesses so thata diploma here leads directly to a good job.

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And finally, we know that even with betterhigh schools, if you want a good job and workyour way into the middle class, most youngpeople are going to need some higher educa-tion. Unfortunately, in recent years, collegecosts have skyrocketed, and that’s left too manystudents and their families saddled with amountain of debt. So we’ve worked to makecollege more affordable for millions of stu-dents already and families through tax creditsand grants, more access to student loans thatgo farther than before. We’ve reformed thestudent loan process by putting students aheadof big banks, providing options to make it easi-er for young people to repay these loans.

But even if we do all that, if the price ofhigher education keeps going up, then eventu-ally, there’s not going to be enough money tohelp young people. So we’ve got to figure outhow to reduce college costs. And that’s why myadministration has released what we’re callinga college scorecard that gives parents and stu-dents the clear, concise information that you’llneed to find a school that best fits your needs,but also gives you the best value. Gives you thebest value. It’s like a consumer report for col-leges, because you don’t want a lemon, and youdon’t want too much debt.

And going forward, colleges that don’t doenough to keep costs down, I think, should getless taxpayer support. We want to support theschools that are doing a great job giving goodvalue to students. That’s what we want. Andyoung people and families, you shouldn’t haveto subsidize skyrocketing costs if the collegesaren’t trying hard enough to keep costs downand provide a high-quality education.

So I could not be prouder of what’s happen-ing here at Manor. That’s why I wanted tocome. Last month, students in a digital media

class made a YouTube video describing whythis school was so special. Some students talk-ed about how they’re looking forward to beingthe first in their family to go to college. Otherstalked about learning new skills, taking onmore responsibility. And one sophomoresummed it up nicely when she said: “Thisschool is a lot more than just a school. It’s afamily. And it’s filled with people that are go-ing to care about you and are going to helpyou.”

Well, Manor, that’s what every schoolshould be. That’s what our country should be:caring for each other, helping each another,being invested in each other’s success. We’renot just a collection of individuals, we’re oneAmerican family. And if we follow Manor’s ex-ample, if we give every child the chance toclimb new ladders of opportunity, if we equipevery American with the skills and educationthey need to succeed in the jobs of the future,if we make sure that hard work pays off and re-sponsibility is rewarded, and if we fight to keepAmerica a place where you can make it if youtry, then you’re not just going to be the oneswho prosper, we’ll all prosper. And together,we’ll write the next great chapter in America’shistory.


NOTE: The President spoke at 1:38 p.m. In hisremarks, he referred to Tevyn Washington,Jahman B. Harden, Dylan Randolph, MasonTyler-Nyman, D’Angelo Miller, CharismaVanderpuye, Gabriela Guadarrama, Alexis Ru-bio, Jorge Flores, and Epiphany B. Harden,students, and Steven M. Zipkes, principal,Manor New Technology High School.

Remarks at Applied Materials, Inc., in Austin, TexasMay 9, 2013

Hello, Austin! How you doing? Well, it iswonderful to see all of you here today. First ofall, give Nicole an outstanding round of ap-plause for the great job that she did.

It is wonderful to be here at Applied Materi-als. I want to thank Mike and everybody whohelped out hosting us and a wonderful tour ofthe facility. It was incredible. Rick was showing

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me some of your clean rooms where you arebuilding the equipment that makes the chipsthat is basically powering—[laughter]—that’sbasically powering everything that you guys aretaking pictures with right now. [Laughter]Smartphones, computers, iPads, laptops. Andit is just remarkable to see. Every time I walkthrough these kinds of facilities, I’m thinking:now, this is just magic. I don’t know how theydo it.

Somebody was explaining to me that—Iguess one of the wafers was being cleaned, andhe said, this would be the equivalent—it wasAlex who told me this; Alex is around heresomewhere—the equivalent of, if you weremowing the South Lawn, but every blade ofgrass was exactly cut at the same height withina single human hair. That’s how precise thingsare. That sounds pretty precise to me. And ifthat’s, by the way, the precision that you oper-ate on, if that’s how you define a clean room,then Sasha and Malia are going to have to stepup their game at home. [Laughter] Because itis not that clean. [Laughter]

I want to thank your mayor, Lee Leffin-gwell, and—who’s doing a great job. Lee is do-ing outstanding work every day and helping tobring the Austin community together. Con-gressman Lloyd Doggett is here. They’ve beengreat hosts. We actually have a special guest:The mayor of San Antonio in the house, myfriend Julian Castro is here.

Now, I’ve spent the day in Austin talkingwith folks about what we can do to reignite thetrue engine of America’s economic growth: athriving, rising middle class and a dynamic,cutting-edge economy. That’s our priority.That should be Washington’s top priority. AndI see three things that we need to focus on todo it.

Number one, we’ve got to make America amagnet for good jobs. Number two, we’ve gotto help people earn the skills they need to dothose jobs. Number three, we’ve got to makesure people’s hard work is rewarded so thatthey can make a decent living doing those jobs.

And if you watch the news sometimes, youmay think that there’s just doom and gloom outthere. But the truth is, there’s incredible stuff

going on all across America and right here inAustin that I think can be good models for therest of America to follow.

This morning I visited Manor New TechHigh School where students are learning high-tech skills that companies like Applied arelooking for right now. They are getting excited,working with math and science and technologyand engineering. And it’s a hands-on highschool, where subjects are integrated and kidsare building things and conducting experi-ments at very early ages. And it’s sparking theirimagination in ways that may lead them to startup the next Applied or come here and work atApplied.

And then I joined a few local families forlunch to talk about how we can make sure thathard work pays off with wages you can live onand raise a family, with health care that youcan count on and the chance to put away somemoney for retirement. And we also had goodbarbecue—[laughter]—which is necessary foreconomic growth. [Laughter] Some good bar-becue once in a while. And then I came to Ap-plied Materials to talk about what we can do tomake America a magnet for new jobs in manu-facturing.

And after shedding jobs for a decade, ourmanufacturers have added now about 500,000new manufacturing jobs over the past 3 years.[Applause] That’s good news. Caterpillar isbringing jobs back from Japan, and Ford isbringing jobs back from Mexico. And afterplacing plants in other countries like China, In-tel is opening its most advanced plant righthere at home. This year, Apple started makingMacs in America again.

So there are some good trend lines there,but we’ve got to do everything we can tostrengthen that trend. We’ve got to do every-thing we can to help the kind of high-techmanufacturing that you’re doing right here atApplied. And we want to make sure it takesroot here in Austin and all across the country.And that means, first of all, creating more cen-ters of high-tech manufacturing.

Last year, we launched our first manufactur-ing innovation institute in Youngstown, Ohio,to develop new technologies and equip

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workers with the skills required to master 3–Dprinting techniques. And in my State of theUnion Address, I called on Congress to set up15 more of these manufacturing hubs all acrossAmerica, and I said that my administration wasgoing to go ahead and move forward with threenew hubs on our own, even without congres-sional action.

Well, today we’re launching a competitionfor those hubs. We are looking for businessesand universities that are willing to partner to-gether to help their region—help turn their re-gion into global centers of high-tech jobs. Be-cause we want the next revolution in manufac-turing to be made in America. [Applause]We’re going to do that.

The truth is, over the past couple decades,too many communities have been hit hardwhen plants closed down and jobs dried up.The economy obviously is changing all thetime. Nobody knows that better than folks hereat Applied. I was talking to somebody who’s—after showing me the wafer and some chips,and then they showed me a smartphone, theypointed to the smartphone, and they said, 40years ago, there’d be about $3 billion just try-ing to get this much computing power in thislittle thing, except it would fill up a wholeroom.

And so the economy is dynamic. Technologyis constantly changing. That means we’ve gotto adapt as well. And even as we’re working toreverse the trend of communities that havebeen hard hit with old manufacturing leaving,we’ve got to propose partnerships with localleaders in manufacturing communities to helpattract new investment in the infrastructureand the research that will attract new jobs andnew businesses so that communities that havebeen knocked down can get back up and getback on their feet.

And we should help our workers get thetraining they need to compete for the indus-tries of tomorrow. No job in America should gounfilled just because we don’t have anybodywith the right skills. And that’s a priority. Now,some of your colleagues that I met, some ofthem have advanced degrees. Some of themcame to apply basically right out of high school.

But all of you, whether it was in some casesthrough a university education, in some casesthe military, in some cases just on-the-jobtraining, all of you have specialized skills thatare exactly what we need to continue to growour economy. But we’ve got a whole bunch offolks out there who don’t have those skills, ei-ther because the education system failed themor because their skills have been rendered ob-solete.

And that’s why I want to rethink how ourhigh school kids are prepared. I want to makesure that we’re training 2 million Americans atour community colleges for skills that will leaddirectly to a job. We—and that’s also whywe’ve got to make sure that college is afford-able and people aren’t burdened by a moun-tain of debt so that they can continue to up-grade their skills as well.

Now, if we want to manufacture the bestproducts, we’ve also got to invest in and culti-vate the best ideas. All right? Innovation, inge-nuity, that’s the constant of the Americaneconomy. That’s one of the constants of ourcharacter. It’s what keeps America on the cut-ting edge.

And just before I came here, I visited theCapital Factory, which, as some of you know, isa place that helps startups take off. And every-where you turn, somebody has got a new idea.They’re all thinking big. They’re taking risks.It’s exciting.

There was a young woman who is in awheelchair and physically disabled, but is justincredibly inspired to make sure that she’s notin any way confined by that situation. And she’sbasically designed and is now manufacturing acar that people in wheelchairs can just drivetheir wheelchair right into the car and startdriving.

And then, you had a young man who had a3–D camera—it was about this big—and basi-cally, from filming either a static image or inthe round, can basically download that imme-diately and create a 3–D image and then usethat for 3–D manufacturing—3–D printingand manufacturing. And what currently costsabout $80,000, costs about $3,000—the tech-

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nology that he’s developed. So they’re doingamazing stuff.

And one of the things we’re doing to fuelmore inventiveness like this—to fuel more pri-vate sector innovation and discovery—is tomake the vast amounts of America’s data openand easy to access for the first time in history.So talented entrepreneurs are doing somepretty amazing stuff with data that’s alreadybeing collected by Government.

So, over at the Capital Factory, I met withfolks behind the startup called Stormpulse,which uses Government data on weather tohelp businesses anticipate disruptions in ser-vice. And then you’ve got a Virginia companycalled Opower, that’s used Government dataon trends in energy use to save its customers$200 million on their energy bills. There’s anapp called iTriage, founded by a pair of ERdoctors that uses data from the Department ofHealth and Human Services to help users un-derstand medical symptoms and find local doc-tors and health care providers.

And today I’m announcing that we’re mak-ing even more Government data available andwe’re making it easier for people to find and touse. And that’s going to help launch morestartups. It’s going to help launch more busi-nesses. Some of them undoubtedly will be us-ing this data powered by chips that essentiallystarted right here at Applied Materials. It’s go-ing to help more entrepreneurs come up withproducts and services that we haven’t evenimagined yet.

This kind of innovation and ingenuity hasthe potential to transform the way we do al-most everything. One-third of jobs in Austinare now supported by the tech sector. And weshould do all that we can to encourage thiskind of innovation economy all across America,in ways that produce new jobs and new oppor-tunities for the middle class.

And we’re poised for a time of progress ifwe’re willing to seize it. Not even 5 years afterthe worst economic crisis in our lifetimes, ourjobs market and our housing market are steadi-ly healing. Our deficits are falling at the fastestrate in decades. The American auto industryhas made a comeback; it’s thriving. American

energy is booming. But we’ve got to keep onmoving forward, and we’ve got to make surethat Washington is not administering self-in-flicted wounds when we’re making progress.

So Mike and I were talking about the factthat if we can reform our tax system to elimi-nate some of these loopholes, potentially, wecould lower some rates. That would make ourbusinesses more competitive.

Basic research, you’ll hear people talk abouthow government is not going to do anything forus. Well, we all understand that the privatesector powers and drives our economy. On theother hand, most of the private sector rightnow has a lot of trouble financing basic re-search. And that basic research is the founda-tion for everything that’s done at this company,and everything that’s done for most of yourcustomers. And we can’t afford to fall behindwhen it comes to basic research. So there’ssome key things that we can do that shouldn’tbe ideological. They’re not Democratic ideasor Republican ideas or Independent ideas,they’re just good ideas that allow the govern-ment to help create the foundation, the plat-form, the environment in which companieslike Applied Materials can thrive. And that’swhat we’ve got to constantly champion.

And when you’re talking to your Membersof Congress or you’re talking to elected offi-cials, you’ve got to remind them we don’t wantgovernment to do everything for us, but it’s gota role to play on infrastructure, basic research,making sure that we’ve got a fair—a tax systemthat’s fair, making sure that we’ve got some ba-sic stability in our budget so people aren’t al-ways guessing what’s going to happen aroundthe corner.

Think about how this company was built.Back in 1967, when Applied Materials was justgetting off the ground, there were five employ-ees. They worked out of this small industrialunit in California. And I suppose they had aclean room in there, but I don’t know what itlooked like. [Laughter] But what they lacked insize, they made up with ingenuity and imagina-tion and risk-taking. And over the years, as yougrew to become a leader in high-tech manufac-turing, that ingenuity never faltered. Whether

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you’ve been with this company for decades—asI know some of you have—or just for a year,you’re all focused on the future. Every day,you’re pushing the limits of technology a littlebit further.

And you’re not alone, because somewhereover at the Capital Factory, there’s an entre-preneur mapping out a new product on awhiteboard that may be the next big thing.Somewhere over at Manor New Tech HighSchool, there’s a kid scribbling down an ideafor a new invention that one day may turn intoan entirely new industry. That’s America.

And when you look out across this room,what you also notice is there’s talent drawnfrom every segment of our society. We don’tcare what you look like, where you come from,what your last name is. We just want to makesure we’re all working together to create a bet-ter future for our kids.

That’s America. We innovate. And we adapt.We move forward. That’s what Austin is allabout. That’s what’s going on in this city. Andthat’s what I want to keep on promoting as

your President of the United States of Ameri-ca.


NOTE: The President spoke at 4:57 p.m. In hisremarks, he referred to Michael R. Splinter,chairman of the board of directors and chiefexecutive officer, Rick G. Gesing, corporatevice president of global operations manufac-turing, Nicole C. Wayman, ETCH programmanager, and Alex B. Alexander, engineeringtechnician, Applied Materials, Inc.; Stacy Zo-ern, chief executive officer, Community CarsInc.; Chris Slaughter, chief executive officer,Longhorn Startup’s Lynx Laboratories; Mat-thew Wensing, cofounder and chief executiveofficer, and Brad Wiemerslage, cofounder andchief technology officer, Stormpulse; and Pe-ter Hudson, cofounder and chief executive of-ficer, and Wayne Guerra, cofounder and chiefmedical officer, iTriage. He also referred toExecutive Order 13642, which is listed in Ap-pendix D at the end of this volume.

Remarks on Health Care ReformMay 10, 2013

Thank you so much, everybody, and wel-come to the White House. I want to thank Car-ol for the wonderful introduction.

And let me just start off with a public serviceannouncement to dads, partners, kids of Amer-ica—[laughter]—Sunday is Mother’s Day.[Laughter] You should not forget. [Laughter]You can’t go wrong with flowers, a homemadecard, giving some mom—giving mom some re-lief, some quiet time. That is appreciated.[Laughter]

So it’s a day when we put moms first. And Istill remember one time I said to Michelle—this is back when we had just gotten married,and I think Malia had just been born, and wewere fussing around Mother’s Day, and I said,but you know, how come we do so much stuffon Mother’s Day? She says, because every oth-er day is Man’s Day. [Laughter] So this is, like,one day. And there was, as usual, profound in-sight in Michelle’s remarks, because moms so

often put themselves last. So often they put ev-erything else before themselves.

And that’s particularly true when it comes tothings like health care. Moms take care of us.

[At this point, a baby in the audience cried.]

Yes, see? [Laughter] Case in point. Sickkids, aging parents, grumpy husbands. And Iknow there are lots of moms out there who of-ten go without the care that they need or thecheckups they know they should get, becausethey’re worrying that copay that has to go togas or groceries or the new soccer uniform in-stead. Or worse, they know the unfairness ofbeing charged more for their health care justbecause they’re a woman or the stress of tryingto manage a family budget when health carecosts are impinging on it or trying to insure asick child only to be told no over and overagain.

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So we decided that needed to change. In acountry as wealthy as this one, there was noreason why a family’s security should be deter-mined by the chance of an illness or an acci-dent. We decided to do something about it.

Thanks to the women in this room and peo-ple all across the country, we worked reallyhard, and it’s now been more than 3 years sinceCongress passed the Affordable Care Act and Isigned it into law. It’s been nearly a year sincethe Supreme Court upheld the law under theConstitution. And by the way, 6 months ago,the American people went to the polls and de-cided to keep going in this direction. So thelaw is here to stay.

And those of us who believe that everyAmerican deserves access to quality, affordablehealth care have an obligation to now makesure that full implementation moves forwardthe way it needs to.

Basically, there are two main things that theAmerican people need to know about this lawand what it means. First, if you’re one of thenearly 85 percent of Americans who alreadyhave health insurance—whether it’s throughyour employer or Medicare or Medicaid—youdon’t have to do a thing. This law already pro-vides you with a wide array of new benefits,tough new consumer protections, stronger costcontrol measures than existed before the lawpassed. And those things are already in place;you’re benefiting from them, you just may notknow it: making sure that insurers can’t takeadvantage of you, making sure that your childcan stay on your health insurance until they’re27 years old. So a lot of those provisions are al-ready in place providing help and assistance topeople all across the country.

Now, second, if you’re one of the tens ofmillions who don’t have health insurance, be-ginning this fall, you’ll finally be able to com-pare and buy quality, affordable private plansthat work for you. So that’s what you need toknow. If you’ve already got health insurance,this has just enhanced it. And if you don’t,you’re going to be able to get it.

For 3 years now, this law has provided realand tangible benefits to millions of Americans.Women, in particular, now have more control

over their own care than ever before. And I’mpleased to be joined today by many womenwho wrote in to tell us what the AffordableCare Act means to them.

Carol Metcalf told us: “My oldest child is 22,recent college grad, a traumatic brain injurysurvivor, with a rare genetic lung disease.Without the Affordable Care Act, he wouldhave been removed from our family health in-surance policy this year. And his health is ex-cellent, but the cost of maintenance is over-whelming. And given his history, he would bevirtually uninsurable under the old set of rules.Instead of contemplating law school, all of hisresources would have been channeled intosomehow, somewhere, finding health insur-ance.” That’s what Carol wrote.

So Carol and her son Justin are why the Af-fordable Care Act lets young people stay ontheir parent’s plan until they turn 26. And to-day, as she put it, “now Justin’s future is gov-erned by what he wants to achieve, not whathealth insurance mandates.” And by the way,Justin is here, fine-looking young man righthere. Sunday is Mother’s Day. [Laughter]

Justin Metcalf. Yes.The President. Just wanted to make sure you

remembered that.Alycia is the mother of Avey, who is a beau-

tiful, sweet, 3-year-old girl who also happens tohave leukemia. Imagine what that’s like for aparent. While you’re just figuring out how totake care of a baby, you’ve got to figure outhow you’re going to pay for expensive treat-ment that could save your baby’s life.

Any parent knows that there is nothing wewon’t do to take care of our kids. And it’s niceto have somebody getting your back. And that’swhy the Affordable Care Act made it illegal forbad actors in the insurance industry to discrim-inate against kids like Avey. And today, Avey isdoing just great. She was here just a secondago. Where is she? There’s Avey. Hey, sweetie!So Alycia wrote in, she said: “The health carelaw is about people like me. It’s Alyciacare.”[Laughter]

And because of Alyciacare—the AffordableCare Act—insurance companies can no longerimpose lifetime limits on the amount of care

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you receive or drop your coverage if you getsick or discriminate against children with pre-existing conditions. And women now have ac-cess to free preventive care like checkups andmammograms and cancer screenings so youcan catch preventable illness on the front end.And that provision has already helped morethan 70 million Americans with private insur-ance. That’s already happening. A lot of peopledon’t know it, but you’ve got those protections.

Because of the Affordable Care Act, youngadults under the age of 26, as we talked about,are able to stay on their parent’s health insur-ance plan, and that’s already helping more than6 million young adults.

Because of the Affordable Care Act, seniorson Medicare receive free checkups and pre-ventive care with no copay or deductible andget a discount on their prescription drugs. Thathas already saved over 6 million seniors morethan $700 each. That’s already been happen-ing. Seniors may not know that they’ve beengetting $600 discounts, but it’s there.

Because of the Affordable Care Act, insur-ers now have to justify double-digit rate in-creases publicly, for everybody to see. Andmost States have new authority—thanks to in-centives under this law—to reject unjustifiablerate increases. Insurers are now required tospend at least 80 percent of the money you payin premiums on actual health care, not on prof-its, not on overhead, but on you. And if theyfail to meet that target, they actually have to re-imburse you, either with a rebate or lower pre-miums. Millions of Americans discovered thislast year. They opened an envelope from theirinsurance company that wasn’t a bill, it was acheck. That’s already happened. A lot of peo-ple don’t know it, but that’s what’s—that’swhat the Affordable Care Act is all about.

Beginning this week, as part of the law’sprice transparency tools, we made public theprices that different hospitals charge you formost common services so you can see if you’regetting what you pay for. And soon, bad actorsin the insurance industry will never again beable to discriminate you—discriminate againstyou just because you’ve gotten sick in the past.[Applause] They can’t discriminate against you

because you’ve got a preexisting condition.And by the way, they can’t charge you morejust for being a woman. Pregnancy will no lon-ger be considered a preexisting condition.

And finally, beginning this fall, if you’re oneof the millions of Americans who don’t havehealth insurance, you’ll finally have the chanceto buy quality, affordable care just like every-body else.

So here’s how this is going to work. We’resetting up a new online marketplace, wherebeginning October 1, you can go online or talkto organizations in every State that are going tohave this set up, and you can then comparisonshop an array of private health insurance plans.You can look at them side by side, just likeyou’d go online and compare cars. And be-cause you’ll now be part of a new pool of mil-lions of other Americans—part of this ex-change—insurance companies will actuallywant to compete for your business the sameway they compete for the business of a bigcompany with a lot of employees.

So once these marketplaces are up and run-ning, no one can be turned away from privateinsurance plans. Period. If you’re sick, you’ll fi-nally have the same chance to buy quality, af-fordable health care as everybody else. If youcan’t afford to buy private insurance, if it’s stilltoo expensive—even though you’re gettingmuch better prices through these exchangesthan you would in the individual market, goingout there by yourself, or if you work for just asmall company that doesn’t have a lot of lever-age with insurance companies, you’re going tohave a better deal through these exchanges—but if you still can’t afford it, then you’re goingto get help reducing your out-of-pocket premi-ums with the largest health care tax cut forworking families and small businesses in ourhistory. All right?

So what does all this mean? It means that ifyou lose your job or you change your job or youstart that new business, you’ll still be able topurchase quality, affordable health care that’syours, and you’ll have the security and peace ofmind that comes with it. If you’re a young per-son expecting to try many different jobs andcareers until you find one that suits you, you’ll

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be able to buy insurance that goes with you,travels with you, that gives you the freedom topursue whatever you want without the fearthat illness or accident somehow derails yourdreams.

So there’s a lot that this law is already doingfor Americans with insurance, and there is a lotmore that is going to happen for folks whodon’t have insurance. But we’ve still got a lot ofwork to do in the coming months to make suremore Americans can buy affordable coverage.And with something as personal as health care,I realize there are people who are anxious,people who are nervous, making sure that weget this done right.

So I’m here to tell you, I am 110-percentcommitted to getting it done right. It’s not aneasy undertaking, but if it were easy, it wouldhave already been done long time ago. Un-doubtedly, there will be some mistakes andhiccups as the thing gets started up, but we’relearning already from them. For example,when the prototype of the application to jointhe marketplace came in at 21 pages—the ini-tial, first cut at it—we said, you know what, wecan do better than that. It’s now three pageslong. Three pages. By the way, the industrystandard is actually about 17 pages. So threepages is good. [Laughter] That’s a lot shorterthan the application you generally have to fillout now for private insurance.

But this is going to be a lot of work. And ob-viously, there is still a lot of political bickeringover this law. The same folks who fought toothand nail 4 years ago and tried to make politicalhay out of Obamacare, they’re still telling talltales about its impact. Some small businessesare being told their costs are going to go up,even though they’re exempted from the law orthey actually stand to benefit from it. Andwhenever insurance premiums go up, you’rebeing told it’s because of Obamacare, eventhough there’s no evidence that that’s the case.So right now there are a whole bunch of folksout there, their insurance company decided tojack up rates, and they’re automatically assum-ing, well, somehow the law had something todo with it. No, that had to do with an insurancecompany—a decision the insurance company

made. In some cases, employers may be shift-ing more costs onto employees because theythink that will help their bottom line. Now, it’sconvenient to somehow say, well, it must bethe new law. It’s not the case.

So, precisely because there’re been so muchmisinformation, sometimes, people may nothave a sense of what the law actually does. Andthat misinformation will continue, at leastthrough the next election day.

But what all the people on this stage under-stand is this is too important for politicalgames. Most moms and dads don’t think aboutpolitics when their kid gets sick. They’re think-ing about doing whatever it takes to make surethat child is well. This is an issue of personalsecurity. This is personal to Carol and Alyciaand anybody who’s ever known the injusticeand anxiety of a broken health care system.That’s what this is about. That’s why we foughtso hard to make this happen. And that’s whywe’re determined to get it done right.

And we’re going to need everybody outthere to make sure—get the right information.Don’t just read a blog—[laughter]—or somecommentary from some pundit that has a polit-ical agenda. Make sure you know what the ac-tual facts are, because you stand to benefit ifyou’re not already benefiting from this thing.Don’t let people confuse you. Don’t let themrun the okeydoke on you. [Laughter] Don’t bebamboozled. [Laughter]

Now, there’s one more person I want tomention here today, somebody who I’ve spo-ken of several times over the past few years.When I first received a letter from NatomaCanfield, she was a self-employed cancer survi-vor from Ohio; she’d always done the responsi-ble thing by buying her own insurance on theprivate market, even though it was very expen-sive.

A few years ago, her insurance companycharged her over $6,000 in premiums, paid foronly $900 worth of care, told her they’d jack upher rates another 40 percent anyway, eventhough she’d been cancer-free for more than adecade. Despite her desire to keep her healthinsurance—despite her fears that she wouldget sick again—she finally just had to

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surrender her coverage, couldn’t afford it,hung her fortunes on chance. And just a fewweeks later, she fell ill and was diagnosed withleukemia, just days before health care reformbecame a reality.

And I kept Natoma’s story with me as wefought to pass this law, and I hung her letter onone of my walls in the Oval Office. And whileshe couldn’t be there the day I signed the Af-fordable Care Act into law, Natoma is here to-day. And because of this law—here’s Natomaright here. Give her a big round of applause.Because of this law, there are millions of otherAmericans—moms and dads and daughtersand sons—who no longer have to hang theirfortunes on chance.

Because we are not going to inflict thathardship on the American people again. TheUnited States of America does not sentence itspeople to suffering just because they don’tmake enough to buy insurance on the privatemarket, just because their work doesn’t pro-vide health insurance, just because they fallsick or suffer an accident—that could happento anybody. And regular access to a doctor or

medicine or preventive care, that’s not someearned privilege, it is a right.

So I understand the politics of this stuffsometimes, but there are times where I justwant people to step back and say, are you reallyprepared to say that 30 million Americans outhere shouldn’t have health insurance? Are youreally prepared to say that’s not a worthy goal?Because of politics?

That’s why we’re going to keep fighting witheverything we’ve got to secure that right, tomake sure that every American gets the carethat they need when they need it at a price thatthey can afford. That’s what our families de-serve. That’s what the vast majority of Ameri-cans believe in. That’s what we’re going tomake sure that we deliver. And we’re going todo it with your help.

Thank you very much, everybody. God blessyou. Thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 2:49 p.m. in theEast Room at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to Herndon, VA, residentCarol Metcalf; Towson, MD, resident AlyciaSteinberg; and Medina, OH, resident NatomaCanfield.


Hi, everybody. Our top priority as a nation isreigniting the true engine of our economicgrowth: a rising, thriving middle class. And fewthings define what it is to be middle class inAmerica more than owning your own corner-stone of the American Dream: a home.

Today, 7 years after the real estate bubbleburst, triggering the worst economic crisissince the Great Depression and costing mil-lions of responsible Americans their jobs andtheir homes, our housing market is healing.Sales are up. Foreclosures are down. Construc-tion is expanding. And thanks to rising homeprices over the past year, 1.7 million moreAmerican families have been able to come upfor air, because they’re no longer underwateron their mortgages.

From the day I took office, I’ve made it apriority to help responsible homeowners andprevent the kind of recklessness that helpedcause this crisis in the first place.

My housing plan has already helped morethan 2 million people refinance their mortgag-es, and they’re saving an average of $3,000 peryear.

My new consumer watchdog agency is mov-ing forward on protections like a simpler,shorter mortgage form that will help to keephard-working families from getting ripped off.

But we’ve still got more work to do. We’vegot more responsible homeowners to help:folks who have never missed a mortgage pay-ment, but aren’t allowed to refinance; workingfamilies who have done everything right, but

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still owe more on their homes than they’reworth.

Last week, I nominated a man named MelWatt to take on these challenges as the head ofthe Federal Housing Finance Agency. Mel’srepresented the people of North Carolina inCongress for 20 years, and in that time, hehelped lead efforts to put in place rules of theroad that protect consumers from dishonestmortgage lenders and give responsible Ameri-cans the chance to own their own home. He’sthe right person for the job, and that’s whyCongress should do its job and confirm himwithout delay.

And they shouldn’t stop there. As I said be-fore, more than 2 million Americans have al-ready refinanced at today’s low rates, but wecan do a lot better than that. I’ve called onCongress to give every responsible homeownerthe chance to refinance and, with it, the oppor-tunity to save $3,000 a year. That’s like a

$3,000 tax cut. And if you’re one of the millionsof Americans who could take advantage of that,you should ask your representative in Congresswhy they won’t act on it.

Our economy and our housing market arepoised for progress, but we could do so muchmore if we work together. More good jobs.Greater security for middle class families. Asense that your hard work is rewarded. That’swhat I’m fighting for, and that’s what I’m goingto keep on fighting for as long as I hold this of-fice.

Thank you, and have a great weekend.

NOTE: The address was recorded at approxi-mately 5:15 p.m. on May 10 in the State Din-ing Room at the White House for broadcast onMay 11. The transcript was made available bythe Office of the Press Secretary on May 10,but was embargoed for release until 6 a.m. onMay 11.

Remarks at a Ceremony Honoring the National Association of PoliceOrganizations TOP COPSMay 11, 2013

Thank you so much, everybody. Everybody,please have a seat. Well, good morning, andwelcome to the White House for what’s one ofmy favorite events all year.

I want to start by thanking Gil Kerlikowske,a former police officer: police chief in Seattle,police commissioner in Buffalo, police officerin St. Petersburg, Florida; now serves as thehead of the Office of National Drug ControlPolicy. He is doing outstanding work everyday, helping to make sure that our young peo-ple are safe and not exposed to some of theworst drugs out there. And so we very muchwant to give him a big round of applause.Thank you, Gil. We’ve got NAPO PresidentTom Nee right here next to me. Tom is doingan outstanding job every day. And of course,we’ve got our 2013 TOP COPS. Hey!

Now, as President, I get to meet and workwith a lot of extraordinary law enforcement of-ficers every single day, from men and womenwho protect me and my family—the folks in

the Secret Service—to local police who helpout on motorcades and events around thecountry. And I’m incredibly grateful that allthese law enforcement officers are doing suchoutstanding work.

And then, just a few weeks ago, obviously, inBoston, our entire country saw once again thestrong stuff that these men and women in uni-form are made of: police officers, first respond-ers who were running towards explosions, notknowing if there was something more on theway; law enforcement from different agenciesand different parts of the country working to-gether as one united team to identify suspectsand bring them to justice; and in a momentthat few of us will ever forget, the citizens ofWatertown, Massachusetts, lining their streetsto cheer on and high-five and hug the officersas they headed home after a job well done.

We don’t always get that opportunity tostand and applaud the men and women whokeep us safe. But they’re out there, hundreds

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of thousands of you, patrolling our streets ev-ery single day. And we know that when weneed you most, you’ll be ready to dash intodanger, to protect our lives even if it meansputting your lives on the line. That’s what thesefolks are all about. That’s what the men instanding—the men and women standing be-hind me have proven: their heart, their cour-age, their dedication.

And of course, as always, they’re a humblegroup. They’ll tell you they’re not heroes.They’ll say they were just doing their jobs. Andtoday we honor them as TOP COPS becausethey’re half right. It’s true: They were just do-ing their jobs. From the moment they swore anoffice—swore an oath to serve with honor,from the first time they put on a uniform andpinned on a badge, they knew they might becalled upon to do some really tough stuff. But Ithink that makes them more heroic, not lessheroic, because they signed up for this. Theyvolunteered and yet continued, day in, day out,to dedicate themselves. And when the momentcame, they were ready to respond.

I already talked about one of this year’s TOPCOPS, Brian Murphy, in my State of theUnion Address. When a gunman opened fireon a temple in Wisconsin and Brian was thefirst to arrive, he did not consider his own safe-ty. He fought back until help arrived and or-dered his fellow officers, who are here today,to protect the safety of the Americans worship-ing inside, even though he was lying there,bleeding from 12 bullet wounds. When he wasasked how he did it, he said, “That’s just theway we’re made.”

That’s what you’ve got to do. That’s whatyou’ve got to be made of to take down homi-cide suspects in Los Angeles or Vegas or shoot-ers in Miami or Indiana or Chicago or Iowa,saving untold numbers of lives. That’s whatyou’ve got to be made of to dodge live powerlines during Hurricane Sandy to free your part-ner pinned down by a tree, all the while saying,I’ve got you, pal.

So yes, this is their job. But it’s not justabout the uniform that they wear. It’s aboutwho they are, what they’re made of. When agunman entered a restaurant in Pasadena, Tex-

as, it was three off-duty cops who put them-selves in harm’s way so that others could es-cape.

Detective Ivan Marcano didn’t care that hewas off duty when he saw two muggers attack-ing a cab driver in the Bronx. He got out of hisgirlfriend’s car to stop them and was shot pointblank in the chest, a bullet inches from hisheart. But his story doesn’t end there. As hisgirlfriend was driving him to the hospital, I’msure not very happy with him—where’s Ivan?There he is. Yes. [Laughter] By total coinci-dence, they ran into the shooter’s getaway car.

So what does Detective Marcano do? Hejumps out of the car. He’s getting—he’s beenshot—keeps pressure on his chest with his lefthand, holding a service weapon with his right,runs after the suspects. Took one of themdown, which led to the capture of the others.He wasn’t on the clock when any of this hap-pened. This was his date night. You know? It’sunbelievable. [Laughter] Hey, by the way, didyou invite your girlfriend down here?

New York Police Department Detective IvanMarcano. Yes. She’s over there—[inaudible].

The President. Where are you? Stand up. Allright. She has got to get a big round of ap-plause. She deserves a really nice dinner—[laughter]—after putting her through that.

The cab driver who Detective Marcano res-cued put it simply. He said, I will be thankfulto him for the rest of his life—or for the rest ofmy life. So today, to all our TOP COPS, let mesay that our Nation shares that sense of grati-tude. You embody America at its best and at itsbravest. And you set an example, because ifTOP COPS can risk their lives to do their jobs,the rest of us should just be able to summonsome tiny fraction of courage and the samesense of responsibility. And certainly, that ap-plies for those of us responsible for supportinglaw enforcement and first responders here inWashington.

Even during tough economic times, we’vegot to make sure they’ve got the resources thatthey need, whether that’s supporting theCOPS program or helping you hire new offi-cers or preventing layoffs or giving you themost advanced crime-fighting tools and the

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mobile technology and critical data, all ofwhich you need in this 21st century, when itcomes to crime fighting. And we also need totake some commonsense steps that protect ourrights, protect our children, protect officers inthe line of duty by making it harder for danger-ous criminals to get their hands on lethal weap-ons.

These officers represent the best of us, andthey deserve the best from us. And that beginswith being thankful to them not just today, butfor the rest of their lives, and recognizing thesacrifices not only they make, but their parentsand spouses and kids who watch their lovedones go off and serve every day knowing thatthere’s real danger out there. So I’d ask allAmericans, everybody who is watching allacross the country, when you see a police offi-cer, you meet an officer’s family, let themknow how much you appreciate it. It’s the leastwe can do for the men and women who give usso much and help keep us safe.

All right. So with that in mind, let me giveanother huge thank you to our TOP COPS of

2003 [2013],* our entire law enforcement com-munity, all the families who are here. All thekids who are here, thanks for being patient andlistening to me. [Laughter] And now what wewant to do is get a picture. So I think we’re go-ing to strike this podium, and I’m going to lineup. I think there’s a spot left for us. Everybody,say cheese.

NOTE: The President spoke at 11:10 a.m. inthe East Room at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to suspected April 15 Bos-ton Marathon bombers Tamerlan Tsarnaev,who was killed in a shootout with police onApril 19, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; Lt. BrianMurphy, Oak Creek Police Department in OakCreek, WI; Jason Levia and Rodain Ortega,suspects in the shooting of New York City po-lice officer Ivan Marcano; Mario Abarca, aNew York City taxi driver whose alleged rob-bery and assault were disrupted by Mr. Marca-no; and Hilda Miolan Forteza, girlfriend of Mr.Marcano.

Statement on Elections in PakistanMay 12, 2013

I congratulate the people of Pakistan onthe successful completion of yesterday’s par-liamentary elections. The United Statesstands with all Pakistanis in welcoming thishistoric peaceful and transparent transfer ofcivilian power, which is a significant mile-stone in Pakistan’s democratic progress. Byconducting competitive campaigns, freely ex-ercising your democratic rights, and persever-ing despite intimidation by violent extremists,you have affirmed a commitment to demo-

cratic rule that will be critical to achievingpeace and prosperity for all Pakistanis foryears to come.

The United States and Pakistan have a longhistory of working together on mutual inter-ests, and my administration looks forward tocontinuing our cooperation with the PakistaniGovernment that emerges from this election asequal partners in supporting a more stable, se-cure, and prosperous future for the people ofPakistan.


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The President’s News Conference With Prime Minister David Cameron ofthe United KingdomMay 13, 2013

President Obama. Good morning, every-body. Please have a seat. And to all our momsout there, I hope you had a wonderful Moth-er’s Day.

It’s always a great pleasure to welcome myfriend and partner, Prime Minister DavidCameron. Michelle and I have wonderfulmemories from when David and Samantha vis-ited us last year. There was a lot of attentionabout how I took David to March Madness—we went to Ohio. And a year later, we have toconfess that David still does not understandbasketball. I still do not understand cricket.

As we’ve said before, the great alliance be-tween the United States and the United King-dom is rooted in shared interests and sharedvalues, and it’s indispensable to global securityand prosperity. But as we’ve seen again recent-ly, it’s also a partnership of the heart. Here inthe United States, we joined our British friendsin mourning the passing of Baroness MargaretThatcher, a great champion of freedom andliberty and of the alliance that we carry on to-day. And after the bombings in Boston, weAmericans were grateful for the support offriends from around the world, particularlythose across the Atlantic. At the London Mara-thon, runners paused in a moment of silenceand dedicated their race to Boston. And Davidwill be visiting Boston to pay tribute to the vic-tims and first responders.

So, David, I want to thank you and the Brit-ish people for reminding us that in good timesand in bad, our two peoples stand as one.

Now, David is here, first and foremost, as heprepares to host the G–8 next month. I appre-ciate him updating me on the agenda as it takesshape, and we discussed how the summit willbe another opportunity to sustain the globaleconomic recovery with a focus on growth andcreating jobs for our people. Michelle and I arelooking forward to visiting Northern Ireland,and I know that the summit is going to be agreat success under David’s fine leadership.

We discussed the importance of movingahead with the EU towards negotiations on theTransatlantic Trade and Investment Partner-ship. Our extensive trade with the U.K. is cen-tral to our broader transatlantic economic rela-tionship, which supports more than 13 millionjobs. And I want to thank David for his strongsupport for building on those ties, and I lookforward to launching negotiations with the EUin the coming months. I believe we’ve got a re-al opportunity to cut tariffs, open markets, cre-ate jobs, and make all of our economies evenmore competitive.

With regard to global security, we reviewedprogress in Afghanistan, where our troops con-tinue to serve with extraordinary couragealongside each other. And I want to commendDavid for his efforts to encourage greater dia-logue between Afghanistan and Pakistan,which is critical to regional security.

As planned, Afghan forces will take the leadfor security across the country soon, thisspring. U.S., British, and coalition forces willmove into a support role. Our troops will con-tinue to come home, and the war will end bythe end of next year, even as we work with ourAfghan partners to make sure that Afghanistanis never again a haven for terrorists who wouldattack our nations.

Given our shared commitment to MiddleEast peace, I updated David on Secretary Ker-ry’s efforts with Israelis and Palestinians andthe importance of moving towards negotia-tions. And we reaffirmed our support for dem-ocratic transitions in the Middle East andNorth Africa, including the economic reformsthat have to go along with political reforms.

Of course, we discussed Syria and the ap-palling violence being inflicted on the Syrianpeople. Together, we’re going to continue ourefforts to increase pressure on the Asad re-gime, to provide humanitarian aid to the long-suffering Syrian people, to strengthen themoderate opposition, and to prepare for ademocratic Syria without Bashar Asad.

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And that includes bringing together repre-sentatives of the regime and the opposition inGeneva in the coming weeks to agree on atransitional body, which would allow a transferof power from Asad to this governing body.Meanwhile, we’ll continue to work to establishthe facts around the use of chemical weaponsin Syria, and those facts will help guide ournext steps.

We discussed Iran, where we agreed to keepup the pressure on Tehran for its continuedfailure to abide by its nuclear obligations. Theburden is on Iran to engage constructively withus and our P–5-plus-1 partners in order to re-solve the world’s concerns about its nuclearprogram.

And finally, today we’re reaffirming ourcommitment to global development. Specifi-cally, we’re encouraged by the ambitious re-forms underway at the Global Fund To FightAIDS, TB and Malaria, where both of our na-tions are stepping up our efforts. And David’smade it clear that the G–8 summit will be an-other opportunity to make progress on nutri-tion and food security.

So, David, thank you very much, as always,for your leadership and your partnership. Aswe prepare for our work in Northern Ireland,as we consider the challenges we face aroundthe world, it’s clear we face a demanding agen-da. But if the history of our people show any-thing, it is that we persevere. As one of thoseLondon runners said at the marathon, “We’regoing to keep running, and we’re going to keepon doing this.” And that’s the spirit of confi-dence and resolve that we will continue todraw upon as we work together to meet thesechallenges.

So, David, thank you very much. And wel-come.

Prime Minister Cameron. Thank you verymuch, Barack. And thank you for the warmwelcome. It’s great to be back here with you inthe White House. Thank you for what you saidabout Margaret Thatcher. It was a pleasure towelcome so many Americans to her remark-able funeral in the U.K.

I absolutely echo what you said about theappalling outrage in Boston. I look forward to

going there to pay my tribute to the people ofthat remarkable city and their courage. And wewill always stand with you in the fight againstterrorism.

Thank you for the remarks about the cricketand the basketball. I haven’t made much prog-ress; I made a bit of progress on baseball; I ac-tually read a book about it this year, so maybenext time, we’ll get to work on that one.

It’s good to be back for the first time sincethe American people returned you to office.And as you said, the relationship between Brit-ain and the United States is a partnership with-out parallel. Day in, day out, across the world,our diplomats and intelligence agencies worktogether, our soldiers serve together, and ourbusinesses trade with each other.

In Afghanistan, our armed forces are togeth-er defending the stability that will make us allsafer. And in the global economic race, ourbusinesses are doing more than $17 billion oftrade across the Atlantic every month of everyyear. And in a changing world, our nationsshare a resolve to stand up for democracy, forenterprise, and for freedom.

We’ve discussed many issues today, as thePresident has said. Let me highlight three: theeconomy, the G–8, and Syria.

Our greatest challenge is to secure a sustain-able economic recovery. Each of us has to findthe right solutions at home. For all of us, itmeans dealing with debt, it means restoringstability, getting our economy growing, and to-gether seizing new opportunities to grow oureconomies.

President Obama and I have both champi-oned a free trade deal between the EuropeanUnion and the United States. And there is a re-al chance now to get the process launched intime for the G–8. So the next 5 weeks are cru-cial. To realize the huge benefits this dealcould bring will take ambition and politicalwill. That means everything on the table, eventhe difficult issues, and no exceptions. It’sworth the effort. For Britain alone, an ambi-tious deal could be worth up to £10 billion ayear, boosting industries from car manufactur-ing to financial services.

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We discussed the G–8 Summit in some de-tail. When we meet on the shores of LochErne in Northern Ireland 5 weeks from today,I want us to agree ambitious action for eco-nomic growth. Open trade is at the heart ofthis, but we have a broader agenda too: tomake sure everyone shares in the benefits ofthis greater openness, not just in our advancedeconomies, but in the developing world too.I’m an unashamedly probusiness politician, butas we open up our economies to get businessgrowing, we need to make sure that all compa-nies pay their taxes properly and enable citi-zens to hold their governments and businessesto account.

Today we’ve agreed to tackle the scourge oftax evasion. We need to know who really owns acompany, who profits from it, whether taxes arepaid. And we need a new mechanism to trackwhere multinationals make their money andwhere they pay their taxes so we can stop thosethat are manipulating the system unfairly.

Finally, we discussed the brutal conflict inSyria: 80,000 dead, 5 million people forcedfrom their homes. Syria’s history is being writ-ten in the blood of her people, and it is hap-pening on our watch. The world urgentlyneeds to come together to bring the killing toan end. None of us have any interest in seeingmore lives lost, in seeing chemical weaponsused or extremist violence spreading even fur-ther.

So we welcome President Putin’s agreementto join an effort to achieve a political solution.The challenges remain formidable, but wehave an urgent window of opportunity beforethe worst fears are realized. There is no moreurgent international task than this. We need toget Syrians to the table to agree a transitionalgovernment that can win the consent of all ofthe Syrian people. But there will be no politicalprogress unless the opposition is able to with-stand the onslaught and put pressure on Asadso he knows there is no military victory. So wewill also increase our efforts to support and toshape the moderate opposition.

Britain is pushing for more flexibility in theEU arms embargo, and we will double nonle-thal support to the Syrian opposition in the

coming year. Armored vehicles, body armor,and power generators are right to be shipped.We’re helping local councils govern the areasthat they liberate, and we’re supporting Leba-non and Jordan to deal with the influx of refu-gees. We’ll also do more for those in desperatehumanitarian need: care for trauma injuries,helping torture victims to recover, getting Syri-an families drinking clean water, having accessto food, to shelter.

There is now, I believe, common ground be-tween the U.S., U.K., Russia, and many othersthat whatever our differences, we have thesame aim: a stable, inclusive, and peaceful Syr-ia, free from the scourge of extremism. Thereis real political will behind this. We now needto get on and do everything we can to make ithappen.

Barack, thank you once again for your warmwelcome and for our talks today.

President Obama. Thank you. All right, we’vegot time for a couple of questions. We’re goingto start with Julie Pace [Associated Press].

Internal Revenue Service/Attack on U.S. Mis-sion in Benghazi, Libya

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. I wanted toask about the IRS and Benghazi. When did youfirst learn that the IRS was targeting conserva-tive political groups? Do you feel that the IRShas betrayed the public’s trust? And what doyou think the repercussions for these actionsshould be? And on Benghazi, newly public e-mails show that the White House and the StateDepartment appear to have been more closelyinvolved with the crafting of the talking pointson the attack than first acknowledged. Do youthink the White House misled the public aboutits role in shaping the talking points? And doyou stand by your administration’s assertionsthat the talking points were not purposelychanged to downplay the prospects of terror-ism? And, Prime Minister Cameron, on Syria,if the EU arms embargo that you mentioned isamended or lapses, is it your intention to sendthe Syrian opposition forces weapons? And areyou encouraging President Obama to take thesame step? Thank you.

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President Obama. Well, let me take the IRSsituation first. I first learned about it from thesame news reports that, I think, most peoplelearned about this. I think it was on Friday.And this is pretty straightforward.

If in fact IRS personnel engaged in the kindof practices that had been reported on andwere intentionally targeting conservativegroups, then that’s outrageous, and there’s noplace for it. And they have to be held fully ac-countable, because the IRS, as an independentagency, requires absolute integrity, and peoplehave to have confidence that they’re applying itin a nonpartisan way—applying the laws in anonpartisan way.

And you should feel that way regardless ofparty. I don’t care whether you’re a Democrat,Independent, or a Republican. At some point,there are going to be Republican administra-tions. At some point, there are going to beDemocratic ones. Either way, you don’t wantthe IRS ever being perceived to be biased andanything less than neutral in terms of how theyoperate. So this is something that I think peo-ple are properly concerned about.

The IG is conducting its investigation. And Iam not going to comment on their specificfindings prematurely, but I can tell you that ifyou’ve got the IRS operating in anything lessthan a neutral and nonpartisan way, then thatis outrageous; it is contrary to our traditions.And people have to be held accountable, andit’s got to be fixed. So we’ll wait and see whatexactly all the details and the facts are. But I’vegot no patience with it. I will not tolerate it.And we will make sure that we find out exactlywhat happened on this.

With respect to Benghazi, we’ve now seenthis argument that’s been made by some folks,primarily up on Capitol Hill, for months now.And I’ve just got to say, here’s what we know:Americans died in Benghazi. What we alsoknow is clearly they were not in a positionwhere they were adequately protected. Theday after it happened, I acknowledged that thiswas an act of terrorism. And what I pledged tothe American people was that we would findout what happened, we would make sure thatit did not happen again, and we would make

sure that we held accountable those who hadperpetrated this terrible crime.

And that’s exactly what we’ve been trying todo. And over the last several months, there wasa review board headed by two distinguishedAmericans—Mike Mullen and Tom Picker-ing—who investigated every element of this.And what they discovered was some prettyharsh judgments in terms of how we hadworked to protect consulates and Embassiesaround the world. They gave us a whole seriesof recommendations. Those recommendationsare being implemented as we speak.

The whole issue of this—of talking points,frankly, throughout this process, has been asideshow. What we have been very clear aboutthroughout was that immediately after thisevent happened, we were not clear who exactlyhad carried it out, how it had been—how it hadoccurred, what the motivations were. It hap-pened at the same time as we had seen attackson U.S. Embassies in Cairo as a consequenceof this film. And nobody understood exactlywhat was taking place during the course ofthose first few days.

And the e-mails that you allude to were pro-vided by us to congressional committees. Theyreviewed them several months ago, concludedthat, in fact, there was nothing afoul in termsof the process that we had used. And suddenly,3 days ago, this gets spun up as if there’s some-thing new to the story. There’s no “there”there.

Keep in mind, by the way, these so-calledtalking points that were prepared for SusanRice 5, 6 days after the event occurred prettymuch matched the assessments that I was re-ceiving at that time in my Presidential dailybriefing. And keep in mind that 2 to 3 days af-ter Susan Rice appeared on the Sundayshows—using these talking points, which havebeen the source of all this controversy—I sentup the head of our National CounterterrorismCenter, Matt Olsen, up to Capitol Hill andspecifically said it was an act of terrorism andthat extremist elements inside of Libya hadbeen involved in it.

So if this was some effort on our part to tryto downplay what had happened or tamp it

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down, that would be a pretty odd thing that 3days later, we end up putting out all the infor-mation that in fact has now served as the basisfor everybody recognizing that this was a ter-rorist attack and that it may have included ele-ments that were planned by extremists insideof Libya.

Who executes some sort of coverup or effortto tamp things down for 3 days? So the wholething defies logic. And the fact that this keepson getting churned out frankly has a lot to dowith political motivations. We’ve had folks whohave challenged Hillary Clinton’s integrity, Su-san Rice’s integrity, Mike Mullen and TomPickering’s integrity. It’s a given that mine getschallenged by these same folks. They’ve used itfor fundraising.

And frankly, if anybody out there wants toactually focus on how we make sure somethinglike this does not happen again, I am happy toget their advice and information and counsel.But the fact of the matter is, these 4 Ameri-cans, as I said right when it happened, werepeople I sent into the field, and I’ve been veryclear about taking responsibility for the factthat we were not able to prevent their deaths.And we are doing everything we can to makesure we prevent it, in part because there arestill diplomats around the world who are invery dangerous, difficult situations. And wedon’t have time to be playing these kinds of po-litical games here in Washington. We shouldbe focused on what are we doing to protectthem.

And that’s not easy, by the way. And it’s go-ing to require resources and tough judgmentsand tough calls. And there are a whole bunchof diplomats out there who know that they’rein harm’s way. And there are threat streamsthat come through every so often, with respectto our Embassies and our consulates. Andthat’s not just us, by the way; the British haveto deal with the same thing.

And we’ve got a whole bunch of people inthe State Department who consistently say,you know what, I’m willing to step up, I’m will-ing to put myself in harm’s way because I thinkthat this mission is important in terms of serv-

ing the United States and advancing our inter-ests around the globe.

And so we dishonor them when we turnthings like this into a political circus. Whathappened was tragic. It was carried out by ex-tremists inside of Libya. We are out there try-ing to hunt down the folks who carried this out,and we are trying to make sure that we fix thesystem so that it doesn’t happen again. David.

Prime Minister Cameron. Thank you. Onthe issue of the opposition in Syria, I mean, wehave not made the decision to arm oppositiongroups in Syria. What we’ve done is we haveamended the EU arms embargo in order thatwe can give technical assistance and technicaladvice. And as I said in my statement, that’s ex-actly what we’re doing.

We’re continuing to examine and look at theEU arms embargo and see whether we need tomake further changes to it in order to facilitateour work with the opposition. I do believe thatthere’s more we can do, alongside technical ad-vice, assistance, help, in order to shape them,in order to work with them. And to those whodoubt that approach, I would just argue that,look, if we don’t help the Syrian opposition—who we do recognize as being legitimate, whohave signed up to a statement about a futurefor Syria that is democratic, that respects therights of minorities—if we don’t work with thatpart of the opposition, then we shouldn’t besurprised if the extremist elements grow.

So I think being engaged with the Syrian op-position is the right approach, and that is anapproach I know I share with the Presidentand with other colleagues in the EuropeanUnion.

James Landale from the BBC.

United Kingdom-European Union Rela-tions/Syria/Russia-U.S. Relations

Q. James Landale, BBC. Prime Minister,you’re talking here today about a new EU-U.S.trade deal, and yet members of your party arenow talking about leaving the EuropeanUnion. What is your message to them and tothose pushing for an early referendum? And ifthere were a referendum tomorrow, howwould you vote?

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And, Mr. President, earlier this year, youtold David Cameron that you wanted a strongU.K. in a strong EU. How concerned are youthat members of David Cameron’s Cabinet arenow openly contemplating withdrawal?

And on Syria, if I may, a question to both ofyou: What gives you any confidence that theRussians are going to help you on this?

Prime Minister Cameron. Well, first of all,on the issue of a referendum, look, there’s notgoing to be a referendum tomorrow. Andthere’s a very good reason why there’s not go-ing to be a referendum tomorrow, is because itwould give the British public, I think, an en-tirely false choice between the status quo,which I don’t think is acceptable. I want to seethe European Union change. I want to seeBritain’s relationship with the European[Union]* change and improve. So it would be afalse choice between the status quo and leav-ing. And I don’t think that is the choice theBritish public want or the British public de-serve.

Everything I do in this area is guided by avery simple principle, which is, what is in thenational interests of Britain? Is it in the nation-al interests of Britain to have a transatlantictrade deal that will make our countries moreprosperous, that will get people to work, thatwill help our businesses? Yes, it is. And so wewill push for this transatlantic trade deal.

Is it in our interests to reform the EuropeanUnion to make it more open, more competi-tive, more flexible, and to improve Britain’splace within the European Union? Yes, it is inour national interest. And it’s not only in ournational interest, it is achievable, because Eu-rope has to change because the single currencyis driving change for that part of the EuropeanUnion that is in the single currency. And just asthey want changes, so, I believe, Britain isquite entitled to ask for and to get changes inresponse.

And then, finally, is it in Britain’s nationalinterest, once we have achieved those changes,but before the end of 2017, to consult the Brit-ish public in a proper, full-on, in-out referen-

dum? Yes, I believe it is. So that’s the approachthat we take: everything driven by what is inthe British national interest.

That is what I’m going to deliver. It’s abso-lutely right for our country. It has very strongsupport throughout the country and in theConservative Party, and that’s exactly what I’mgoing to do.

On the Syrian issue, you asked the question,what are the signs of Russian engagement?Well, I had very good talks with President Pu-tin in Sochi on Friday. And look, we had a veryfrank conversation in that we have approachedthis—and in some extent, still do approachthis—in a different way. I have been very vocalin supporting the Syrian opposition and sayingthat Asad is—has to go, that he is not legiti-mate, and I continue to say that. And PresidentPutin has taken a different point of view.

But where there is a common interest is thatit is in both our interests that at the end of thisthere is a stable, democratic Syria, that there isa stable neighborhood, and that we don’t en-courage the growth of violent extremism. AndI think both the Russian President, the Ameri-can President, and myself, I think we can allsee that the current trajectory of how thingsare going is not actually in anybody’s interests,and so it is worth this major diplomatic effort,which we are all together leading this majordiplomatic effort to bring the parties to the ta-ble to achieve a transition at the top in Syria sothat we can make the change that countryneeds. Go ahead.

President Obama. With respect to the rela-tionship between the U.K. and the EU, wehave a special relationship with the UnitedKingdom. And we believe that our capacity topartner with a United Kingdom that is active,robust, outward looking, and engaged with theworld is hugely important to our own interestsas well as the world. And I think the U.K.’s par-ticipation in the EU is an expression of its in-fluence and its role in the world, as well as ob-viously a very important economic partnership.

Now, ultimately, the people of the U.K.have to make decisions for themselves. I will


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say this, that David’s basic point that you prob-ably want to see if you can fix what’s broken ina very important relationship before you breakit off makes some sense to me. And I know thatDavid has been very active in seeking some re-forms internal to the EU. Those are tough ne-gotiations. You’ve got a lot of countries in-volved; I recognize that. But so long as we ha-ven’t yet evaluated how successful those re-forms will be, I at least would be interested inseeing whether or not those are successful be-fore rendering a final judgment. Again, I wantto emphasize these are issues for the people ofthe United Kingdom to make a decision about,not ours.

With respect to Syria, I think David said itvery well. If you look objectively, the entireworld community has an interest in seeing aSyria that is not engaged in sectarian war, inwhich the Syrian people are not being slaugh-tered, that is an island of peace as opposed topotentially an outpost for extremists. That’s notjust true for the United States, that’s not justtrue for Great Britain, that’s not just true forcountries like Jordan and Turkey that borderSyria, but that’s also true for Russia.

And I’m pleased to hear that David had avery constructive conversation with PresidentPutin shortly after the conversation that hadtaken place between John Kerry and PresidentPutin. I’ve spoken to President Putin severaltimes on this topic. And our basic argument isthat as a leader on the world stage, Russia hasan interest, as well as an obligation, to try to re-solve this issue in a way that can lead to thekind of outcome that we’d all like to see overthe long term.

And look, I don’t think it’s any secret thatthere remains lingering suspicions betweenRussia and other members of the G–8 or theWest. It’s been several decades now since Rus-sia transformed itself and the Eastern Bloctransformed itself. But some of those suspi-cions still exist.

And part of what my goal has been, JohnKerry’s goal has been, and I know that David’sgoal has been to try to break down some of

those suspicions and look objectively at the sit-uation.

If in fact we can broker a peaceful politicaltransition that leads to Asad’s departure, but astate in Syria that is still intact; that accommo-dates the interests of all the ethnic groups, allthe religious groups inside of Syria; and thatends the bloodshed, stabilizes the situation—that’s not just going to be good for us, that willbe good for everybody. And we’re going to bevery persistent in trying to make that happen.

I’m not promising that it’s going to be suc-cessful. Frankly, sometimes, once sort of theFuries have been unleashed in a situation likewe’re seeing in Syria, it’s very hard to putthings back together. And there is—there aregoing to be enormous challenges in getting acredible process going even if Russia is in-volved, because we have still other countrieslike Iran and we have nonstate actors like Hiz-ballah that have been actively involved. Andfrankly, on the other side we’ve got organiza-tions like al-Nusra that are essentially affiliatedto Al Qaida that have another agenda beyondjust getting rid of Asad.

So all that makes a combustible mix, and it’sgoing to be challenging, but it’s worth the ef-fort. And what we can tell you is that we’re al-ways more successful in any global effort whenwe’ve got a strong friend and partner likeGreat Britain by our side and strong leadershipby Prime Minister David Cameron.


NOTE: The President’s news conference beganat 11:41 a.m. in the Rose Garden at the WhiteHouse. In his remarks, the President referredto Treasury Inspector General for Tax Admin-istration J. Russell George; former Chairmanof the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael G. Mullen,USN (Ret.), and former Ambassador ThomasR. Pickering, in their capacity as Cochairs ofthe Accountability Review Board for the attackon the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya; andformer Secretary of State Hillary RodhamClinton.

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Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Fundraiser in New York CityMay 13, 2013

Thank you, everybody. Well, first of all, Ihave to thank Harvey and Georgina for onceagain extending incredible hospitality to us.We are so grateful for their friendship and sup-port, and for the amazing movies that they’vemade. And it is wonderful to see all of you. Isee old friends, new friends, and people who,when I have time to watch movies or TV, I verymuch appreciate. So thank you for the greatwork that you guys do.

I’m going to spend most of this time in aconversation with everybody, so I’m not goingto give a long speech at the front end. Over thelast 3 weeks, month, the country has gonethrough some tough times. Obviously, we hadthe Boston bombing and the incredible trage-dy that marred what is one of the greatestsporting events in the world and an iconicevent here in America. We went out to West,Texas, to a tiny town that had been devastatedby an explosion there.

And I remember, I was with Deval Patrick, awonderful Governor—the Governor of Massa-chusetts—as we were driving to a memorial inBoston shortly after the attack. And we talkedabout that in the midst of tragedy, the incredi-ble strength and courage and resolve of theAmerican people just comes out and the neigh-borliness and the sense of willing to supportstrangers and neighbors and friends duringtough times. And that same spirit, which Iwould later see when I visited West, Texas—you can’t get two places more different thanBoston and West, Texas. So it’s a pretty goodrepresentative sampling of America.

And part of what Deval and I talked aboutwas what do we need to do to make sure thatthat same spirit is reflected in our politics andour Government, because it’s there every dayfor people to see. It doesn’t matter whetherpeople are Democrats or Republicans or Inde-pendents. If you go into schools, you go to Lit-tle League games, you talk to people at theworkplace, everybody has the same sense thatwe live in the greatest country on Earth, thatwe’ve gone through some tough times, but

we’re resilient and we can overcome whateverchallenges are thrown at us. And there’s a de-sire to get outside of the constant squabblingand bickering and positioning and gamesman-ship and get to the business of figuring out howdo we make sure that the next generation doesbetter than this generation.

And as I think about my second term, andpeople have asked me, what’s different aboutyour second term, well, other than me beinggrayer—[laughter]—and my girls being taller,the main thing about a second term is, A, Idon’t have to run for office again, but, B, youalso start just thinking about history, and youstart thinking about—in longer sweeps of time,and you start saying to yourself that the 3½years that I’ve got is not a lot, and so I’ve got tomake sure that I use everything I’ve got tomake as much of a difference as I can.

And more than anything, what I will bestriving for over the next 3½ years is to see ifthat spirit that I saw in Boston and West, Tex-as, if we can institutionalize that, if we can cre-ate a framework where everybody is workingtogether and moving this country forward.

Now, the good news is that if we do that,we’ve got the best cards of any country onEarth, and that’s the truth. Look, there’s noAmerican politician, much less American Pres-ident, who’s not going to say that we’re not thegreatest country on Earth. So that’s a cliche.On the other hand, objectively, when you lookat where we are right now, we are poised for a21st century that is as much the American cen-tury as the 20th century was.

We have recovered from the worst econom-ic crisis since the Great Depression, and yetthe economy is growing: millions of jobs havebeen created, the stock market has hit recordhighs, the housing market has begun to recov-er. When you look at our companies, innova-tion, dynamism, inventiveness still take roothere in the United States more than anyplaceelse on Earth.

When it comes to energy, not only have webeen able to double our production of clean

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energy, but even in terms of traditional energy,we will probably be a net exporter of naturalgas in somewhere between 5 and 10 years. Andso the idea of the United States being energyindependent—which seemed farfetched as re-cently as 10 years ago—now is actually a possi-bility.

When you travel around the world, peoplestill look to the United States for leadership. Iwent down to Mexico and then Costa Rica, andI met with Central American leaders downthere, and each and every one of them, includ-ing Daniel Ortega, who was at one of the meet-ings—and some of you are too young to re-member, I guess, Daniel Ortega, and I’mnot—[laughter]—all of them talked about howcan we trade, how can we work more effective-ly together. And so the possibilities for us toshape a world that is more peaceful, moreprosperous, more innovative, more environ-mentally conscious, more tolerant, more open,that opportunity exists, but there are just a fewthings that we’re going to have to do to makesure that we realize those opportunities, thatpotential.

We’ve got to continue to revamp our educa-tion system so it’s meeting the demands of the21st century. We’ve got to rebuild our infra-structure so we don’t have the worst airports inthe world. We’ve got to make sure—and portsand roads and bridges and broadband lines.We’ve got to make sure that we continue to fo-cus on putting people back to work, becausejobs are not just a matter of income, they’re amatter of dignity and stitching the fabric of acommunity together.

We’ve got to deal with climate change in anhonest, realistic way. We’re not going to re-verse the trends overnight, but we have to startnow for the sake of our kids, and in fact, thetools are available to us to make huge strides inthe coming years if we make the smart invest-ments. We’ve got to keep on investing in re-search and development. And we’ve got to getour fiscal house in order in a way that is sensi-ble so that everybody is paying their fair share;everybody understands that we have to—if wewant a first-class education system, for exam-ple, then we’ve got to pay for it. If we want

first-class infrastructure, we’ve got to pay for it.But we also want a government that is lean andeffective and efficient and not bloated.

And these are all things that we can accom-plish. What’s blocking us right now is sort ofhyperpartisanship in Washington that, frankly,I was hoping to overcome in 2008. And in themidst of crisis, I think the other party reacted,rather than saying now is the time for us all tojoin together, decided to take a different path.

My thinking was, after we beat them in2012, well, that might break the fever—[laugh-ter]—and it’s not quite broken yet. [Laughter]But I am persistent. And I am staying at it. AndI genuinely believe that there are actually Re-publicans out there who would like to workwith us, but they’re fearful of their base, andthey’re concerned about what Rush Limbaughmight say about them. And as a consequence,we get the kind of gridlock that makes peoplecynical about government and inhibits ourprogress.

So the bottom line is this: Everybody is hereto support the DNC, and I very much appreci-ate that. But I want everybody to understandthat my intentions over the next 3½ years areto govern, because I don’t have another raceleft. If we’ve got folks on the other side whoare prepared to cooperate, that is great, and weare ready to go. On the other hand, if there arefolks who are more interested in winning elec-tions than they are thinking about the nextgeneration, then I want to make sure that thereare consequences to that.

And what you all are here today to facilitate isour ability to make sure that the values and con-cerns that we all have for Dash and all the otherbabies that are out there—Steve has got a newone, and I’m starting to feel like the old manaround here because mine are this tall and ev-erybody else has these little babies. But I wantto make sure that that generation is getting ev-erything and more that we can give them. Andthat’s going to require us to work hard. It’s go-ing to require persistence. There are going to beups and downs in this whole process.

But one of the benefits of a second term isyou start taking the long view. And what I knowis, is that as long as we are pointing towards that

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true north, that eventually we’ll get there.That’s what this country has always done. That’swhat I expect will happen this time as well.

So with that, I’m going to stop, and I’m justgoing to open it up for questions.

NOTE: The President spoke at 4:24 p.m. atthe residence of Harvey Weinstein and Geor-

gina Chapman. In his remarks, he referred toPresident Daniel Ortega Saavedra of Nicara-gua; radio show host Rush Limbaugh; andDashiell Weinstein, son of Mr. Weinsteinand Ms. Chapman. Audio was not availablefor verification of the content of these re-marks.

Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Fundraiser in New York CityMay 13, 2013

Well, first of all, I want to make sure every-body has got their food—[laughter]—becauseI don’t want to get in the way of dinner here,because it looks delicious.

I want to thank Alexandra and Sam for theirwonderful hospitality. It is not easy opening upyour house for an event with the President, be-tween all the tables and then the Secret Ser-vice and this and that. But you guys have beengreat friends, and this means so much to us, sowe are very, very grateful. [Applause] Yes, ab-solutely.

I see a lot of friends and supporters in theroom. So many of you were active during thecourse of the campaign. I could not be moregrateful for it and more humbled. One personI do want to acknowledge—because not onlywas he active in the campaign, but he has nowbeen volunteered to head up the DNC Fi-nance Committee—Henry Muñoz is herefrom the great State of Texas. So I want to saythank you to Henry.

This is a pretty rambunctious group, so Iwant to use most of my time for questions andanswers. But let me just make a few commentsat the top. Obviously, this last month, Americafaced some enormous challenges. We had theBoston bombing, the explosion in West, Texas.And I was mentioning at an event before Icame here, I was driving with Deval Patrick tothe memorial service in Boston, and we re-marked on how when tragedy strikes, when acrisis occurs, there’s something about theAmerican spirit: The resilience, strength, butmost of all, that sense of community and neigh-borliness just shines through.

And even in our darkest hours, you can’thelp but come away incredibly optimisticabout the country. Now, the question Devaland I asked ourselves is, how do we sustain thatbeyond moments of crisis and tragedy, andhow do we translate that into our politics andour institutions? Because obviously, that spiritisn’t always in evidence in Washington.[Laughter] But having said that, one of the vir-tues of a second term is it gives you some per-spective. And I don’t have another race to run.And what I’ve learned from my first term in of-fice—and probably, what I’ve learned duringthe course of my life—is things that are worthdoing don’t happen right away. And it requirespersistence and just the steady, constant appli-cation of hard work and tenacity and the abilityto maintain a vision about where you want togo.

So here, domestically, our work is not yetdone. And I am absolutely confident that if westay with it, we are going to be able to get im-migration reform done this year. We’re goingto be able to continue some of the incredibleeducation work that’s being done all aroundthe country, and Randi has been an incrediblepartner in that process. We’re going to be ableto continue to work to make sure that we’re re-building our infrastructure in our country, put-ting people back to work, helping the housingmarket continue to recover, putting people allacross the country in a position where if they’rewilling to work hard, they can succeed andachieve their own American dreams.

So we’ve got a big agenda here at home. Butwe also have a big agenda internationally. Ob-viously, all of us are deeply concerned about

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what’s happening in Syria. And my administra-tion has worked with international partners tomobilize humanitarian aid, nonlethal assis-tance to the opposition, isolating Asad, andcontinuing to press for political transition thatends the slaughter and brings about an end tothe Asad regime.

We also have a lot of unfinished businesswith respect to Afghanistan. Our troops arecoming home, and we’re transitioning out. Butit’s still a very dangerous place. And we have tomake sure that the gains that have been madeare sustained. And we’ve got to make sure thatwe’re being vigilant when it comes to dealingwith Al Qaida and other terrorist elements.

And then, something that so many people inthis room are knowledgeable about, the peaceprocess and reinvigorating a sense of hope andpossibility for both Israelis and Palestinians.One of the highlights obviously of this earlysecond term was the trip that I was able to taketo Israel and to the Palestinian Authority andto the West Bank. And what made the trip soincredible was not only the capacity to see theincredible progress that Israel has made on somany fronts—we looked at science exhibitionsand to see how the economy is transforming it-self into a high-tech, entrepreneurial centerand to have a chance to talk to young peoplewho are doing so many incredible things.

But what was also encouraging was thesense that for all the difficulties, for all the set-backs, for all the false starts, deep down,there’s still this incredible desire for peace. Itexists in Israel; it exists among the Palestinians.And the question is, can we create a frameworkin which to actually finally deliver on thatpromise, particularly because the window ofopportunity is growing smaller by the day? Andin some ways, it’s more difficult because of theincredible tumult that’s taking place through-out the Middle East.

When change is happening so fast—and insome cases, so chaotically and sometimes vio-lently—it makes people tend not to take risks.On the other hand, precisely because those

changes are taking place all around the region,Israel’s security and the prospect of Palestinianstatehood all requires that those risks are takenand they’re taken now.

And in order for us to achieve that, it’s goingto be important that John Kerry and my ad-ministration continue to work this thing veryhard. But part of what’s going to be required isalso that those who are committed to peacehere in this country continue to make theirvoices heard and continue to speak out. Somany of you already have and are already mak-ing a difference, but I urge you to continue.And it’s going to have to happen not just in in-teractions with the State Department or myadministration, you’re going to have to be vocalon Capitol Hill as well.

And if we sustain that, then, in fits andstarts—it will be difficult, it will be tough,there will be times where it feels like we’re go-ing backwards instead of forwards—I believethat in the end, peace can be achieved. I am abig believer in a quote that I took from Dr.King, but I think describes my general per-spective about both America and our future,but also our role in the world, and that is that“the arc of the moral universe is long, but itbends towards justice.” It requires persistence,it requires tenacity, but in the end, I think thatgood overcomes evil and light overcomes dark-ness. And that’s what we have to strive for ev-ery single day, and that’s how I intend to spendthe 3½ years that I have remaining as Presi-dent, and I couldn’t have done that without thehelp of all of you.

So thank you very much.

NOTE: The President spoke at 5:52 p.m. at theresidence of Alexandra Stanton and SamuelNatapoff. In his remarks, he referred to Gov.Deval L. Patrick of Massachusetts; Randi We-ingarten, president, American Federation ofTeachers; and President Bashar al-Asad of Syr-ia. Audio was not available for verification ofthe content of these remarks.

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Letter to Congressional Leaders on Continuation of the National EmergencyWith Respect to YemenMay 13, 2013

Dear Mr. Speaker: (Mr. President:)

Section 202(d) of the National EmergenciesAct (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)) provides for the auto-matic termination of a national emergency un-less, within 90 days prior to the anniversarydate of its declaration, the President publishesin the Federal Register and transmits to theCongress a notice stating that the emergency isto continue in effect beyond the anniversarydate. In accordance with this provision, I havesent to the Federal Register for publication theenclosed notice stating that the national emer-gency declared in Executive Order 13611 ofMay 16, 2012, with respect to Yemen is to con-tinue in effect beyond May 16, 2013.

The actions and policies of certain membersof the Government of Yemen and others con-tinue to threaten Yemen’s peace, security, andstability, including by obstructing the imple-

mentation of the agreement of November 23,2011, between the Government of Yemen andthose in opposition to it, which provided for apeaceful transition of power that meets the le-gitimate demands and aspirations of the Yeme-ni people for change, and by obstructing thepolitical process in Yemen. For this reason, Ihave determined that it is necessary to contin-ue the national emergency declared in Execu-tive Order 13611 with respect to Yemen.

Sincerely,

BARACK OBAMA


Remarks at a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee andDemocratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Fundraiser in New York CityMay 13, 2013

Thank you. Please, everybody, have a seat.Well, first of all, thank you so much, Steve

Israel, not only for the wonderful introduction,but I love the story of your grandparents. Andso often we spend time thinking about how wegot into this strange business—[laughter]—butso often it traces back to the values that werepassed on generation through generation. Andto hear that story, I think, affirms not only whyyou’re such an outstanding Congressman, butalso the kind of man you are. And so we’rethrilled to have you here and just the great jobyou’re doing on behalf of the DCCC. So giveSteve a big round of applause.

I want to say thank you to somebody whohas been a great friend. If you are in a foxhole,this is the person you want with you: the soon-to-be-again Speaker of the House, LeaderNancy Pelosi. We love Nancy.

And one of my favorite Senators, just a guywho everybody who meets him says, that guy,he’s just solid, sincere, hard-working, a won-derful family, and has really helped to trans-form politics in Colorado: Michael Bennet.Give Michael a big round of applause.

And of course, I want to acknowledge all theoutstanding members of the New York delega-tion who are here. But I’ve got to give a specialshout-out to somebody who is helping to engi-neer some of the most important legislativeagendas—items that we’ve got in my secondterm, could not be prouder of him: ChuckSchumer. Give Chuck a big round of applause.

So, over the last month, we’ve gone throughsome tough times in this country. Obviously,we saw the horrific bombing of the BostonMarathon. I had traveled down to a tiny townof West, Texas, to deal with the aftermath of a

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terrible explosion there that had such a devas-tating impact on the city. It’s hard to find twocommunities more different than Boston, Mas-sachusetts, and West, Texas, I assure you. Andyet what was striking about that very difficult,challenging week was the consistency of spiritfrom Boston all the way to West, Texas.

And I remember being in a car with DevalPatrick, the outstanding mayor of—Governorof Massachusetts, and we were driving to a me-morial service, and we were talking about theemergency response and how first responderswho were actually running in the race all ran tothe site of the explosion, and how the hospitalsand doctors responded magnificently to sortthrough who would go where to maximize theirability to care for the victims, and the peoplewho were driving runners to their homes, com-plete strangers, because of everything that hadhappened. And what Deval and I agreed onwas that in times of tragedy, in the midst of justterrible pain, there’s something about theAmerican spirit that just rises up.

And it’s not just resilience. There is a gener-osity and a sense of neighborliness and an insis-tence on doing the right thing and thinkingabout others. And Deval and I talked abouthow this is a constant in America, and it’s notjust during tragedies, not just during crises.You can see it out on a Little League fieldwhere parents are out there volunteering. Yousee it in churches and synagogues and mosquesand temples all across the country. You see it inneighbors helping neighbors, and you see it inworkplaces where workers are taking pride ofgreat American products and services thatthey’re creating, helping to build a Nation.

But the one thing Deval and I agreed on wasthat we’re not seeing enough of it in our poli-tics, and we’re certainly not seeing enough of itin Washington. And one of the things that asecond term affords you is a little bit of per-spective, because I don’t have to run again, asMichelle happily reminds me. [Laughter] AndI’ve been through some tough battles over thelast 4 years and then my time in the Senate be-fore that. And you’re able to project out a littlebit into the future.

And precisely because of that spirit that wasevident in West, Texas, and in Boston, I’veprobably never been more optimistic aboutAmerica. Having gone through these extraordi-nary hardships—worst financial crisis since theGreat Depression, the financial system on theverge of meltdown, dealing with two wars andall the losses associated with that and the enor-mous strains on our budget—we are now inthe process of having cleared out the rubble.

And although we are nowhere near wherewe need to be, given everything that we’vegone through, we have seen job growth for al-most 3 consecutive years now. We have seenthe economy growing. We have seen people’s401(k)s and investments on Wall Street re-stored. We’ve seen health care costs grow at aslower pace over the last 3 years than any timein the last 50 years. We are in the process ofimplementing and making sure that millions ofpeople all across the country finally get afford-able health care that they’ve never had before.

We have doubled the production of clean,renewable energy, and our traditional, nation-al—natural gas and oil deposits have beentapped with new technology in ways that willprobably lead us to be a net exporter of naturalgas within the next 5 to 10 years.

And housing, which was probably the big-gest drag on our economy, is steadily begin-ning to recover. And so, across the board, thereare all these signs of progress. And that’s theAmerican spirit at work. That’s the Americanpeople—through grit and determination and avision of possibility, just brick by brick, neigh-borhood by neighborhood, city by city, State byState—rebuilding.

And when I travel internationally—I took atrip down to Mexico and met with not only thenew Mexican President, but also leaders ofCentral American countries. What was strikingis that in a part of the world where in the pastthere had been times where there had beensuspicions directed at the United States andwhat our motives were, there’s an enormoushunger to engage in trade and commerce andcooperation to deal with these transnationaldrug networks and a genuine sense of the—notjust the desire, but the need for American

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leadership. Not a leadership that dictates, not aleadership that seeks simply to impose our willon others, but a leadership in which we areconvening and collaborating and partnering,based on mutual interest and mutual respect.

And so the bottom line is, when I canvas theworld, there is no nation that we would want totrade hands with. And there’s no nation thatsecretly—they couldn’t admit it—wouldn’tmind having the hand that we’re holding. Andthe only thing that’s holding us back—the onlything that’s holding us back—is a spirit inWashington that isn’t reflective of the spirit ofthe American people, a spirit in Washingtonthat’s more interested in game-playing thangetting things done, a spirit in Washington thatis more concerned about the next election thanthe next generation. And that has to change.And that’s why you’re here tonight, becauseyou know it has to change.

We’ve got more work to do. And I spelledout in my Inauguration and I spelled out in myState of the Union exactly what we need to do.We need to continue to build on the tremen-dous progress we’ve made in reforming our ed-ucation system and make sure that every childin America is prepared before they start schoolwith universal pre-K for every kid, which canmake an enormous difference in achievementlevels all across the country; modernize ourhigh schools so they’re adapted to the 21st cen-tury; make sure that our community collegesare linking up with businesses to prepare ouryoung people for the jobs of tomorrow; makecollege more affordable. We know that weneed to do that. There’s no credible argumentfor not doing it.

We know we’ve got to rebuild our infra-structure. We’ve got $2 trillion worth of de-ferred maintenance. There was a list a fewmonths back of the top airports in the world,not one out of the top 25 were in the UnitedStates of America. Not one. Imagine that.Roads, bridges, airports, ports, broadbandlines, smart grids.

We know what we’ve got to do. And by theway, if we are rebuilding our infrastructure,we’re putting people back to work right now.

So it’s strengthening our economy now and forthe future. We know what we need to do.

We know that we have to control our energyfuture. And as promising as these new technol-ogies are to tap into new sources of energy, wealso know that climate change is real. And if wewant to leave a world for our children and ourgrandchildren that is as beautiful as the onethat we inherited, then we’re going to have todouble down on our investments in basic re-search and science around clean energy anddiscover not just the energy source of the past,but also the energy source of the future. We’vegot to win that race. We know that. We knowthat.

We know we’ve got to get immigration re-form done, because we want America to attractthe best and the brightest. We want the mes-sage of the Statue of Liberty to be resonatingaround the world, that flame to continue toshine as a beacon, not just for freedom, but al-so for people who are ambitious and have driveand who are unconstrained by the past, be-cause they believe in the future. We knowwe’ve got to do that.

And we know that we’ve got to have a sensi-ble budget, a budget that invests in educationand invests in research and is true to our com-mitment to keeping our seniors out of povertyand is true to our investment in the infrastruc-ture that’s going to continue to make this agrowing, dynamic economy. And we can do allthat. We don’t have to do anything radical. Weknow what the basic plan is.

And with just some modest steps, with thedeficit already coming down quicker than atany time since World War II, at a faster pace,we know that if we just make a few smart deci-sions both on the revenue side and on thespending side—not through automatic, mind-less spending cuts that are slashing our com-mitments to research and our investments inour kids, but through smart, targeted spendingcuts and revenue—that we can stabilize ourbudget for decades to come, just open fieldrunning from there on out. America cannot bestopped if we make some smart decisions.

Internationally, as I said, people are lookingfor our leadership. But what they’re not

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looking for is us simply seeing every problemas a military problem. They’re looking for us tobe proponents of peace and work on its behalf.

They are looking for us for us to show lead-ership in helping make sure that childrenaround the world aren’t dying of malnutritionand that they get a decent education and thatpeople in extreme poverty making less than $2a day, that they’re put in a position in whichthey can succeed because they understand thatif they succeed, then America will succeed aswell. And they don’t understand exactly some-times what’s holding us back.

So the promise of America is alive and well,and I could not be more optimistic. But thatspirit that we saw in Boston, that spirit that wesaw in West, Texas, we’re going to have to un-leash that. And the only way we unleash that isto make sure that Washington, our electedleadership, that they start reflecting that spiritas well. And I can tell you that the Democraticleaders in that room—in this room, they reflectthat spirit, because I see them every single day.I know their values and I know what they careabout, and I know what they’re working for.

And truth be told, there are folks on the oth-er side of the aisle who have that spirit as well.It’s not a Democratic or a Republican spirit.It’s not a partisan spirit. It’s an American spirit.

But what is also true is that the dynamic onthe other side of the aisle right now runs con-trary to what we need in order to succeed, thatthey’ve got a different point of view right now,reinforced by some folks around the countrythat don’t share our vision for America as aplace where everybody gets a fair shot and ev-erybody is doing their fair share.

And now, I’m going to do everything I canover the next 3½ years to continue to reach outto my Republican friends on the other side ofthe aisle, because I sure want to do some gov-erning. I want to get some stuff done. I don’thave a lot of time. I’ve got 3½ years left, and itgoes by like that. And if any of you doubt that3½ years goes by quick, try having some teen-age or close-to-teenage girls. [Laughter] Be-cause you look up, and you don’t know whathappened. [Laughter]

So I want to get moving. And any time thatthe other side is ready and willing and pre-pared to work on the things that ChuckSchumer has been working on, like immigra-tion and making sure that we’re reducing gunviolence in this country; any time that some-body is willing to work on the kinds of thingsthat Michael Bennet has been working on, likeimproving our education system and makingsure that we’ve got world-class research; anytime that somebody is willing to cooperate withNancy Pelosi to make sure that our budget re-flects our commitment to not just the folks atthe very top, but a broad-based prosperity forall Americans; and that we’re making sure thatwe’re rebuilding our manufacturing base inthis country—any time those folks want to getto work, we are ready to work.

But what I also say is that during those 2years that Nancy Pelosi was Speaker, man, wegot a lot of stuff done. And what I also know isthat unless we had a Democratic Senate, wewould not have ended “don’t ask, don’t tell.”Unless we had had a Democratic Senate, wewould not have been able to make sure that ev-erybody in this country is able to access afford-able health care. What I know is, is that if wehadn’t had a Democratic House and a Demo-cratic Senate, college would be a lot less af-fordable for our young people.

We know that. So I want to be clear: I amPresident of all Americans, not just the leaderof a party. And my top priority is to make surethat when I leave this office, I can honestly saythat America is in a stronger position and amore secure position and a more promisingposition than it was before I took office.

But what I also know is, is that with leaderslike Nancy Pelosi and Steve Israel and Mi-chael Bennet and Chuck Schumer and all theNew York delegation here, with them as part-ners, this country will take off like we haven’tseen in a very long time. That’s what you’reinvesting in. You’re investing in people whoshare your values and your vision for the fu-ture.

And that’s why, even though I’ve run mylast race, I’m going to be working as hard as Ican to make sure that that their vision is one

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that is dominant on Capitol Hill. It’s that spir-it that we saw in West, Texas. It’s the spirit wesaw in Boston. It’s the spirit that we see herein New York City. And as I was driving up andsaw the new Freedom Tower rising, it re-minded me of just what it is that we’re fight-ing for.


NOTE: The President spoke at 8:29 p.m. at theWaldorf Astoria New York hotel. In his re-marks, he referred to President Enrique PeñaNieto of Mexico.

Statement on the Internal Revenue ServiceMay 14, 2013

I have now had the opportunity to reviewthe Treasury Department watchdog’s reporton its investigation of IRS personnel who im-properly targeted conservative groups applyingfor tax-exempt status. And the report’s findingsare intolerable and inexcusable. The FederalGovernment must conduct itself in a way that’sworthy of the public’s trust, and that’s especial-ly true for the IRS. The IRS must apply the lawin a fair and impartial way, and its employeesmust act with utmost integrity. This reportshows that some of its employees failed thattest.

I’ve directed Secretary Lew to hold thoseresponsible for these failures accountable andto make sure that each of the Inspector Gener-

al’s recommendations are implemented quick-ly so that such conduct never happens again.But regardless of how this conduct was allowedto take place, the bottom line is, it was wrong.Public service is a solemn privilege. I expecteveryone who serves in the Federal Govern-ment to hold themselves to the highest ethicaland moral standards. So do the American peo-ple. And as President, I intend to make sureour public servants live up to those standardsevery day.

NOTE: The statement referred to Treasury In-spector General for Tax Administration J. Rus-sell George.

Remarks at the National Peace Officers Memorial ServiceMay 15, 2013

Thank you, everybody. Please have a seat.Thank you, Chuck, for that introduction and,more importantly, for your leadership as Na-tional President of the Fraternal Order of Po-lice. I want to recognize the entire order andall its leaders, including Jim Pasco, for every-thing that you do on behalf of the fine officerswho walk the beat or answer the call and dothe difficult work of keeping our communitiessafe all across the country.

I want to also acknowledge FOP AuxiliaryPresident Linda Hennie for the good work thatshe and all her members do to support thefamilies of police officers. We are very gratefulto you. To Speaker Boehner, Leader Pelosi,Members of Congress, members of my admin-istration who are here, to all the law enforce-

ment officials who are here, and most of all, tothe survivor families: Scripture tells us, “Noneof us lives to himself, and none of us dies tohimself.” None of us lives to himself, and noneof us dies to himself. The brave officers wegather to remember today devoted themselvesso fully to others—to serve and to protect oth-ers—that in the process they were willing togive their lives.

And so today let us not remember them justfor how they died, but also for how they lived.

Officer Bruce St. Laurent of the Jupiter,Florida, police department was, according to afriend, “just what a cop should be: tough, com-passionate, caring, and brave.” But to his com-munity, he was more than a cop. He was a can-cer survivor. He was a guest teacher at Jupiter

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High School who used the laws of traffic tohelp kids learn physics. He was an amateursnake charmer of sorts, eagerly taking panickedcalls about snakes on the loose. And at Christ-mastime, he loved being Santa Claus for thekids in the local Head Start program.

I have the privilege of working with some ofthe Nation’s finest law enforcement officersand professionals every day. And I’m perpetu-ally mindful of the sacrifices they make for meand for my family and for other leaders and vis-iting dignitaries, but never more so than whenI was told that Officer St. Laurent was struckand killed by another vehicle while driving hismotorcycle as part of my motorcade.

Bruce was a loving husband to Brenda, adoting father to Larry and Albert and Lennyand Chartelle. And he will be missed so deeplyby his family at home and by his family in theforce. And the police officers who came fromall over the country to attend Bruce’s funeral,some bringing their motorcycles as far away asCalifornia, they’re a testimony to how muchhe’ll be missed.

Like Bruce, Deputy Sheriff Barbara AnnPill of Brevard County Sheriff’s Office in Flori-da was a force for good in her community, re-membered as a behind-the-scenes hero bythose who knew her. Because for Barbara,helping others was never a question. Beforejoining the force, she counseled abused chil-dren and helped families struggling with do-mestic abuse. That passion served her and ledher to a career in law enforcement and in-spired her two sons to follow. So when Barbarawas shot while investigating a suspicious vehi-cle last spring, not only did her husband Stevelose his partner of more than 30 years, thetown of Melbourne, and the Nation itself, lostone of its most dedicated citizens.

All of you in law enforcement, you devoteyour lives to serving and protecting your com-munities. Many of you have done it for yourcountry as well. After serving two tours in Iraqas a marine, Bradley Michael Fox retired withhonor and followed his dream to becoming apolice officer. He had been with the PlymouthTownship Police Department in Pennsylvaniafor 5 years when he was shot and killed pursu-

ing a suspect last September. It was the day be-fore his 35th birthday and 6 months before thebirth of his son.

Nothing will replace the enthusiasm that hebrought to his job or the tremendous pride hehad in his family. But today, Brad’s wife Lynsayand daughter Kadence and baby Brad Jr. hav-ing—have a living reminder of their fallen he-ro; that’s Brad’s K–9 partner, a trusty shepherdnamed Nick, who Lynsay adopted into thefamily when he retired from the force last fall.

Deputy Sheriff Scott Ward also defined ser-vice. He was a former officer in the Air Force,a deputy in the Baldwin County, Alabama,sheriff’s office for 15 years, and finished a tourin Afghanistan last year as a reservist in theCoast Guard.

Last November, Deputy Sheriff Ward wasshot and killed in the line of duty while tryingto settle a domestic dispute. And he died as helived: serving his community and his country.And the fact that his funeral processionstretched for miles demonstrated the thanks ofa grateful nation to Scott’s wife Andrea and hisfamily.

At Scott’s funeral, Baldwin Country SheriffHuey Mack said: “Tomorrow we will continueto grieve Scott, but we will have to move on.That’s what Scott would want us to do becauseour mission does not stop.”

That message, I think, rings true in everypolice department across the country. As diffi-cult as times may be, as tough as the losses maybe, your mission does not stop. You never letdown your guard. And those of us who youprotect should never let slide our gratitude ei-ther. We should not pause and remember tothank first responders and police officers onlyin the wake of tragedy. We should do it everyday. And those of us who have the privilege tolead should all strive to support you better,whether it’s making sure police departmentsand first responders have the resources theyneed to do their jobs or the reforms that are re-quired to protect more of our officers and theirfamilies from the senseless epidemics of vio-lence that all too often wrack our cities andhaunt our neighborhoods.

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Bobby Kennedy once said that the fightagainst crime “is a fight to preserve that qualityof community which is at the root of our great-ness.”

The 143 fallen officers we honor today putthemselves on the front lines of that fight, topreserve that quality of community and to pro-tect the roots of our greatness. They exempli-fied the very idea of citizenship: that with ourGod-given rights come responsibilities and ob-ligations to ourselves and to others. They em-bodied that idea. That’s the way they died.That’s how we must remember them. Andthat’s how we must live.

We can never repay our debt to these offi-cers and their families, but we must do whatwe can, with all that we have, to live our lives ina way that pays tribute to their memory. That

begins, but does not end, by gathering here,with heavy hearts, to carve their names instone so that all will know them and that theirlegacy will endure. We are grateful to them,and we are grateful to you.

May God bless the memory of those we lost,and may God continue to bless the UnitedStates of America.

NOTE: The President spoke at 11:10 a.m. onthe West Front Lawn at the U.S. Capitol. Inhis remarks, he referred to K. Charles Canter-bury, Jr., national president, and James O. Pas-co, Jr., executive director, Fraternal Order ofPolice; and Jeremy and Ryan Pill, sons of Bar-bara A. Pill. The related proclamation of May10 is listed in Appendix D at the end of thisvolume.

Remarks on the Internal Revenue ServiceMay 15, 2013

Good afternoon, everybody. I just finishedspeaking with Secretary Lew and senior offi-cials at the Treasury Department to discuss theinvestigation into IRS personnel who improp-erly screened conservative groups applying fortax-exempt status. And I look forward to takingsome questions at tomorrow’s press confer-ence, but today I wanted to make sure to getout to all of you some information about whatwe’re doing about this and where we go fromhere.

I’ve reviewed the Treasury Departmentwatchdog’s report, and the misconduct that ituncovered is inexcusable. It’s inexcusable, andAmericans are right to be angry about it, and Iam angry about it. I will not tolerate this kindof behavior in any agency, but especially in theIRS, given the power that it has and the reachthat it has into all of our lives. And as I said ear-lier, it should not matter what political stripeyou’re from; the fact of the matter is, is that theIRS has to operate with absolute integrity. TheGovernment generally has to conduct itself in away that is true to the public trust. That’s espe-cially true for the IRS.

So here’s what we’re going to do. First,we’re going to hold the responsible parties ac-

countable. Yesterday I directed Secretary Lewto follow up on the IG audit to see how thishappened and who is responsible and to makesure that we understand all the facts. TodaySecretary Lew took the first step by requestingand accepting the resignation of the ActingCommissioner of the IRS, because given thecontroversy surrounding this audit, it’s impor-tant to institute new leadership that can helprestore confidence going forward.

Second, we’re going to put in place newsafeguards to make sure this kind of behaviorcannot happen again. And I’ve directed Secre-tary Lew to ensure the IRS begins implement-ing the IG’s recommendations right away.

Third, we will work with Congress as it per-forms its oversight role. And our administra-tion has to make sure that we are working handin hand with Congress to get this thing fixed.Congress—Democrats and Republicans—oweit to the American people to treat that authori-ty with the responsibility it deserves and in away that doesn’t smack of politics or partisanagendas. Because I think one thing that you’veseen is, across the board, everybody believeswhat happened in—as reported in the IG’s re-port is an outrage. The good news is, it’s

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fixable, and it’s in everyone’s best interest towork together to fix it.

I’ll do everything in my power to make surenothing like this happens again: by holding theresponsible parties accountable; by putting inplace new checks and new safeguards; and go-ing forward, by making sure that the law is ap-plied as it should be, in a fair and impartialway. And we’re going to have to make sure thatthe laws are clear so that we can have confi-dence that they are enforced in a fair and im-partial way and that there’s not too much ambi-guity surrounding these laws.

So that’s what I expect. That’s what theAmerican people deserve. And that’s whatwe’re going to do.


NOTE: The President spoke at 6:21 p.m. in theEast Room at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to Treasury Inspector Gen-eral for Tax Administration J. Russell George;and Steven T. Miller, former Deputy Commis-sioner for Services and Enforcement, InternalRevenue Service.

The President’s News Conference With Prime Minister Recep TayyipErdogan of TurkeyMay 16, 2013

President Obama. Please be seated, every-body. Good afternoon.

It is a great pleasure to welcome my friend,Prime Minister Erdogan, back to the WhiteHouse. This visit is also another opportunityfor me to return the extraordinary hospitalitythat the Prime Minister and the Turkish peo-ple showed me on my visit to Turkey 4 yearsago. And that included my visit to the PrimeMinister’s beautiful hometown of Istanbul.

This visit reflects the importance that theUnited States places on our relationship withour ally, Turkey, and I value so much the part-nership that I’ve been able to develop withPrime Minister Erdogan.

Today we discussed the many areas in whichour countries cooperate, including Afghani-stan, where our troops serve bravely together;the G–20, where we promote our shared pros-perity; and Iran, where we agree it is criticalthat we do not see that country acquire a nu-clear weapon and potentially trigger an armsrace throughout the region.

Given our shared interest in peace, I want tonote the Prime Minister’s efforts to normalizerelations with Israel. This will benefit both theTurkish and Israeli people and can also help usmake progress on a two-state solution, includ-ing an independent Palestinian state.

Today we focused on three areas that I wantto highlight. First, we agreed to keep expand-ing trade and investment. Over the past 4years, our trade has surged, and U.S. exports toTurkey have more than doubled. As the UnitedStates pursues a new trade and investmentpartnership with the EU, I want to make surethat we also keep deepening our economic tieswith Turkey. So we’re creating a new high-lev-el committee that will focus on increasingtrade and investment between our two coun-tries and will help fuel Turkish innovation. Andthe progress that Turkey’s economy has madeover the last several years, I think, has been re-markable, and the Prime Minister deservesmuch credit for some of the reforms that arealready taking place.

Second, as NATO allies we’re reaffirmingour solemn commitment to our mutual securi-ty. Now, Mr. Prime Minister, on behalf of theAmerican people, I want to express our condo-lences to the Turkish people and the victims ofthe outrageous bombings that took place inReyhanli. As always, the United States standswith you as you defend your nation against ter-rorism. We want to thank you for the coopera-tion that you provided us in threats against theUnited States.

And I want to take this opportunity to com-mend you and the Turkish people for your

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courage in seeking an historic and peacefulresolution of the PKK violence that hasplagued Turkey for so long. And just as theUnited States has stood with you in your longsearch for security, we will support efforts inTurkey to uphold the rule of law and good gov-ernance and human rights for all.

Finally, we spent a great deal of time on anissue that has wracked the region, the issue ofSyria. Under the Prime Minister’s leadership,the Turkish people have shown extraordinarygenerosity to the Syrians who have found ref-uge in Turkey. And I know this is a heavy bur-den. I’ve made it clear again today that theUnited States is going to keep on helping coun-tries in the region, including Turkey, shoulderthis burden, doing our part as a major donor ofhumanitarian aid to the Syrian people, includ-ing those refugees in Turkey. And we’re goingto keep working with our Turkish partners todeliver the food, shelter, and medicine that’sneeded to save lives.

At the same time, we’re going to keep in-creasing the pressure on the Asad regime andworking with the Syrian opposition. The PrimeMinister has been at the forefront of the inter-national effort to push for a transition to ademocratic Syria without Bashar Asad. AndTurkey is going to play an important role as webring representatives of the regime and oppo-sition together in the coming weeks.

We both agree that Asad needs to go. Heneeds to transfer power to a transitional body.That is the only way that we’re going to resolvethis crisis. And we’re going to keep working fora Syria that is free from Asad’s tyranny, that isintact and inclusive of all ethnic and religiousgroups, and that’s a source of stability, not ex-tremism, because it’s in the profound interestof all our nations, especially Turkey.

So again, Mr. Prime Minister, I want tothank you for being here and for being such astrong ally and partner in the region andaround the world. I know that Michelle appre-ciates the opportunity to host Mrs. Erdoganand your two wonderful daughters this morn-ing. I’m looking forward to our dinner tonight.And as always, among the topics where I ap-preciate your advice is close to our hearts, and

that’s how to raise our daughters well. You’re alittle ahead of me in terms of their ages.

With the Prime Minister’s permission, Iwant to make one other point. There’s been in-tense discussion in Congress lately around theattacks in Benghazi. We lost four brave Ameri-cans, patriots who accepted the risks that comewith service because they know that their con-tributions are vital to our national interests andnational security.

I am intent on making sure that we do ev-erything we can to prevent another tragedy likethis from happening. But that means we owe itto them and all who serve to do everything inour power to protect our personnel servingoverseas. That’s why, at my direction, we’vebeen taking a series of steps that were recom-mended by the review board after the incident.We’re continuing to review our security athigh-threat diplomatic posts, including the sizeand nature of our presence; improving trainingfor those headed to dangerous posts; increas-ing intelligence and warning capabilities. AndI’ve directed the Defense Department to en-sure that our military can respond lightningquick in times of crisis.

But we’re not going to be able to do thisalone. We’re going to need Congress as a part-ner. So I’ve been in discussions, and my teamhas been in discussions, with both Democratsand Republicans, and I’m calling on Congressto work with us to support and fully fund ourbudget request to improve the security of ourEmbassies around the world. We also needCongress to work with us to provide the re-sources and new authorities so we can fully im-plement all of the recommendations of the Ac-countability Review Board. And we’re going toneed Congress’s help in terms of increasing thenumber of our Marine Corps Guard who pro-tect our Embassies.

So I want to say to Members of Congress inboth parties, we need to come together andtruly honor the sacrifice of those four coura-geous Americans and better secure our diplo-matic posts around the world. And I shouldadd, by the way, that we’re getting some helpfrom the Turkish Government on some ofthese issues. That’s how we learn the lessons of

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Benghazi. That’s how we keep faith with themen and women who we send overseas to rep-resent America. And that’s what I will stay fo-cused on as Commander in Chief.

So with that, Mr. Prime Minister, welcometo the United States. I’m sorry the weather isnot fully cooperating with our lovely Rose Gar-den press conference, but I think we’ll be okay.

Prime Minister Erdogan. Thank you.Mr. President, distinguished members of

the press, ladies and gentlemen. My dearfriend, President of the United States, a friendand ally, I’m here to—I’m once again verypleased to be here in Washington to havemeetings with the President. I would like to ex-press my thanks for the hospitality that hasbeen shown to us on occasion—on this occa-sion on behalf of myself and my delegation.

In the President’s person, I would like to ex-press our condolences for the terror attack thattook place in Boston. I—we express our condo-lences to the American people. We are a coun-try which has been fighting against terrorismfor many years. We’ve lost many lives in thatfight against terrorism, and so we very well un-derstand the feelings and sentiments of theAmerican people in face of such an event. AsTurkey and the United States, we are both de-termined to continue to fight jointly againstterrorism.

My dear friends, Turkey and the UnitedStates have many issues that cover the MiddleEast to the Balkans to Central Asia to other ar-eas, including issues such as energy, security ofsupply, and many other issues. And in all theseareas and on all these issues, we display a verystrong cooperation.

And in our meetings with President Obamatoday, we talked about relations between Tur-key and the United States and also about sometopical issues which remain on both of ouragenda. We had an opportunity to exchangeviews on regional and the global issues, and ourexchange of views and opinions will continuethroughout the day with other meetings thatwill take place during the rest of the day.

I am here with close to a hundred business-people, and they are holding meetings withtheir counterparts in the United States, and

they will continue to talk and meet with theircounterparts this afternoon as well.

Bilateral economic relations between Tur-key and the United States have to be im-proved, and we both have this aim. Ten yearsago, our trade stood at $8 billion; at the mo-ment, trade stands at $20 billion. But thisamount is still not sufficient. We have to in-crease the amount of trade between our twocountries.

Bilateral economic and trade relations be-tween Turkey and the United States will con-tinue to develop. And as we carry forward withthese efforts, we need to strengthen this rela-tionship with free trade agreements and otheragreements. And I can tell you that as leadersof our nations, we have the will to continue todevelop our economic relations.

In our discussions that pertain to regional is-sues, Syria was at the top of our agenda. WhileSyria—while we discussed Syria, we talkedabout what has happened so far, and we talkedabout what can be done in the future. And wehave views that overlap, as the President hasjust said. We will continue to discuss this issuein greater detail in our meeting this evening.But let me tell you that ending this bloody pro-cess in Syria and meeting the legitimate de-mands of the people by establishing a new gov-ernment are two areas where we are in fullagreement with the United States.

Supporting the opposition and Asad leavingare important issues. We also agree that wehave to prevent Syria from becoming an areafor terrorist organizations. We also agree thatchemical weapons should not be used and allminorities and their rights should be secured.These are all priority areas for all of us. And wediscussed what needs to be done on these is-sues with the President. And this evening wewill continue to talk about these in greater de-tail.

Iraq was also another area of discussion forus on regional issues. Transparent elections inIraq and the participation of—and ensuringthe participation of all political groups in theelections are both very important in Iraq. Witheveryone’s participation, we would like to see a

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peaceful period in Iraq. And this is what bothwe and United States would like to see.

With respect to the Middle East peace pro-cess, we discussed with the President this im-portant issue, which is very important for re-gional peace. In the attack against Mavi Mar-mara, which was taking humanitarian aid toGaza, Turkish citizens and one Turkish Ameri-can citizen were killed. And as you know, weare working with the Israeli Government forcompensation for those who lost their lives.And the visit that I will pay to Gaza will con-tribute to the peace in Gaza and to unity inPalestine, in my opinion.

The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus isalways in favor of—and in Cyprus we believethat there is a lot of opportunity to reach anagreement on the Cyprus issue, and this is anarea which we continue to focus on. We’ve alsodiscussed Iran, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, and allthese issues. And we have also briefly touchedupon some developments in Africa and alsoabout Myanmar.

Our joint fight against terrorism will contin-ue to be the case, as I said before. And we alsotouched upon issues related to the defense in-dustry. And I can say that this has been a his-toric day, a historic turning point in the contextof Turkish-American relations.

On regional and global issues, the partner-ship between Turkey and the United Statesserves peace, security, and stability and willcontinue to do so even more in the future.

I will cut my remarks shortly, not because Iam trying to flee from the rain; rain is consid-ered to be a great source of abundance. But Iwill stop here to say that I hope our discussionswill be beneficial for our future relations.

Thank you.President Obama. Well, before we get start-

ed let me just make sure that I’m a good host.Mr. Prime Minister, do you want an umbrella?[Laughter] Because we can arrange it if youneed it. You’re okay? All right. This will be in-centive for the press to ask concise questionsand us to give concise answers.

I’m going to start with Julianna Goldman ofBloomberg.

Internal Revenue Service

Q. Unfortunately, we all forgot umbrellas. President Obama. Yes.Q. Mr. President, I want to ask you about

the IRS. Can you assure the American peoplethat nobody in the White House knew aboutthe agency’s actions before your Counsel’s Of-fice found out on April 22? And when they didfind out, do you think that you should havelearned about it before you learned about itfrom news reports as you said last Friday? Andalso, are you opposed to there being a specialcounsel appointed to lead the Justice Depart-ment investigation?

And also, Mr. Prime Minister, what is thestatus on efforts to normalize relations with Is-rael? And do you still plan to go to Gaza in thecoming weeks? Thanks.

President Obama. Well, with respect to theIRS, I spoke to this yesterday. My main con-cern is fixing a problem, and we began thatprocess yesterday by asking and accepting theresignation of the Acting Director there. Wewill be putting in new leadership that will beable to make sure that—following up on the IGaudit—that we gather up all the facts, that wehold accountable those who have taken theseoutrageous actions. As I said last night, it is justsimply unacceptable for there to even be a hintof partisanship or ideology when it comes tothe application of our tax laws.

I am going to go ahead and ask folks—whydon’t you—why don’t we get a couple of ma-rines; they’re going to look good next to us—[laughter]—just because—[laughter]. I’ve gota change of suits, but I don’t know about ourPrime Minister. [Laughter]

[At this point, two Marine Corps sentries ar-rived to hold umbrellas for President Obamaand Prime Minister Erdogan.]

President Obama. There we go. That’s good.You guys I’m sorry about. [Laughter]

[Prime Minister Erdogan spoke in Turkish, andno translation was provided. President Obamathen continued his remarks as follows.]

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But let me make sure that I answer yourspecific question. I can assure you that I cer-tainly did not know anything about the IG re-port before the IG report had been leakedthrough press—through the press. Typically,the IG reports are not supposed to be widelydistributed or shared. They tend to be a pro-cess that everybody is trying to protect the in-tegrity of. But what I’m absolutely certain of isthat the actions that were described in that IGreport are unacceptable.

So in addition to making sure that we’ve gota new Acting Director there, we’re also goingto make sure that we gather up the facts andhold accountable and responsible anybody whowas involved in this. We’re going to make surethat we identify any structural or managementissues to prevent something like this from hap-pening again. We’re going to make sure thatwe are accepting all of the recommendationsthat the IG has in the report.

And I’m looking forward to working withCongress to fully investigate what happened,make sure that it doesn’t happen again, and al-so look at some of the laws that create a bunchof ambiguity in which the IRS may not haveenough guidance and not be clear about whatexactly they need to be doing and doing it rightso that the American people have confidencethat the tax laws are being applied fairly andevenly.

So in terms of the White House and report-ing, I think that you’ve gotten that informationfrom Mr. Carney and others. I promise youthis, that the minute I found out about it, thenmy main focus is making sure we get the thingfixed. I think that it’s going to be sufficient forus to be working with Congress. They’ve got awhole bunch of committees. We’ve got IGs al-ready there.

The IG has done an audit; it’s now my un-derstanding they’re going to be recommendingan investigation. And Attorney General Holderalso announced a criminal investigation of whathappened. Between those investigations, Ithink we’re going to be able to figure out exact-ly what happened, who was involved, whatwent wrong, and we’re going to be able to im-plement steps to fix it.

And that ultimately is the main priority thatI have, but also, I think, the American peoplehave. They understand that we’ve got an agen-cy that has enormous potential power and is in-volved in everybody’s lives. And that’s part ofthe reason why it’s been treated as a quasi-independent institution. But that’s also whywe’ve got to make sure that it is doing its jobscrupulously and without even a hint of bias ora hint that somehow they’re favoring one groupover another.

And as I said yesterday, I’m outraged by thisin part because, look, I’m a public figure; the—if a future administration is starting to use thetax laws to favor one party over another or onepolitical view over another, obviously, we’re allvulnerable. And that’s why, as I’ve said, itdoesn’t matter whether you’re a Democrat or aRepublican, you should be equally outraged ateven the prospect that the IRS might not beacting with the kind of complete neutrality thatwe expect.

And I think we’re going to be able to fix it.We’re going to be able to get there and get itdone, and we’ve already begun that progress,and we’re going to keep on going until it’s fin-ished. Okay? All right, guys, I think the——

[The President motioned to relieve the MarineCorps sentries.]

Prime Minister Erdogan. The questionabout Gaza: According to my plans, most prob-ably, I would be visiting Gaza in June. But itwill not be a visit only to Gaza, I will also go tothe West Bank.

I place a lot of significance on this visit interms of peace in the Middle East, and I—thisvisit in no way means favoring of one or theother. I’m hoping that that visit will contributeto unity in Palestine, first of all. This is some-thing that I focus on very much. And I hopethat my visit can contribute to that process.Thank you.

Syria

Q. Senturk from Haberturk. My first ques-tion to you, Prime Minister: You talked aboutchemical weapons, and we know that Turkey

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has some evidence. Did you present those—that evidence to President Obama in today’smeeting? And what does Turkey expect fromthe United States in this process?

Question to President Obama about Syria:You had said earlier that chemical weaponswould be a red line in Syria. Do you believethat at this point in time Syria has overgone thered line? And you said that Asad should go.Will the U.S. take more initiative to see Asadgo in the future?

Prime Minister Erdogan. Let me, first of all,say that chemical weapons and missiles, rock-ets, all that have been fired, all that informa-tion is shared between the relevant bodieswithin our administrations. And it’s not justTurkey and United States. For example, Unit-ed Kingdom and all others have that—thosedocuments, that information, because we shareinformation. And the U.N. Security Council,all the other relevant authorities will also re-ceive that information in the proper time sothat more information is provided to the pub-lic. So we will continue to work in this way.

President Obama. Well, as the Prime Minis-ter indicated, our militaries, our intelligenceand diplomatic personnel are constantly shar-ing information. And I’ve said in the past, wehave seen evidence of the use of chemicalweapons inside of Syria. It is important for usto make sure that we’re able to get more spe-cific information about what exactly is happen-ing there.

But separate and apart from the chemicalweapons, we know that tens of thousands ofpeople are being killed with artillery and mor-tars and that the humanitarian crisis and theslaughter that’s taking place by itself is suffi-cient to prompt strong international action.

And that’s why the Prime Minister and Ispoke extensively about the steps we’re takingon humanitarian efforts; the steps that we’retaking to strengthen the opposition politicallyso that it is inclusive and representative of allthe people inside of Syria; the steps that weneed to take to continue to strengthen the ca-pacity of the Syrian opposition that are on theground fighting to protect themselves from theAsad regime; and that we continue to try to

mobilize the entire international community toput more and more pressure on Asad so thathe recognizes that he is no longer legitimateand that he needs to go, and that we are able tomove to a political transition in which the insti-tutions inside of Syria are still functioning, butwe have a representative, multiethnic, multire-ligious body that can bring about democracyand peace inside of Syria.

With respect to what I’ve said in the pastaround red lines, what I’ve said is that the useof chemical weapons are something that thecivilized world has recognized should be out ofbounds. And as we gather more evidence andwork together, my intention is to make surethat we’re presenting everything that we knowto the international community as an additionalreason, an additional mechanism, for the inter-national community to put all the pressure thatthey can on the Asad regime and to work withthe opposition to bring about that politicaltransition.

Now, there are a whole range of options thatthe United States is already engaged in, and Ipreserve the options of taking additionalsteps—both diplomatic and military—becausethose chemical weapons inside of Syria alsothreaten our security over the long term, aswell as our allies and friends and neighbors.

But this is also an international problem.And it is very much my hope to continue towork with all the various parties involved, in-cluding Turkey, to find a solution that bringspeace to Syria, stabilizes the region, stabilizesthose chemical weapons. But it’s not going tobe something that the United States does by it-self. And I don’t think anybody in the region,including the Prime Minister, would think thatU.S. unilateral actions in and of themselveswould bring about a better outcome inside ofSyria.

Jeff Mason [Reuters].

Internal Revenue Service/U.S. Diplomatic Se-curity/Balancing National Security and Free-dom of the Press

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. I’d like to askyou about the Justice Department. Do you be-lieve that the seizure of phone records from

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Associated Press journalists this week—or be-fore that was announced recently this weekwas an overreach? And do you still have fullconfidence in your Attorney General? Shouldwe interpret yesterday’s renewed interest bythe White House in a media shield law as a re-sponse to that? And more broadly, how do youfeel about comparisons by some of your criticsof this week’s scandals to those that happenedunder the Nixon administration?

President Obama. Well, I’ll let you guys en-gage in those comparisons, and you can goahead and read the history, I think, and drawyour own conclusions.

My concern is making sure that if there’s aproblem in the Government, that we fix it.That’s my responsibility, and that’s what we’regoing to do. That’s true with respect to the IRSand making sure that they apply the laws theway they were intended. That’s true with re-spect to the security of our diplomats, which iswhy we’re going to need to work with Congressto make sure that there’s adequate funding forwhat’s necessary out there.

Now, with respect to the Department ofJustice, I’m not going to comment on a specificand pending case. But I can talk broadly aboutthe balance that we have to strike. Leaks relat-ed to national security can put people at risk.They can put men and women in uniform thatI’ve sent into the battlefield at risk. They canput some of our intelligence officers, who arein various, dangerous situations that are easilycompromised, at risk.

U.S. national security is dependent on thosefolks being able to operate with confidencethat folks back home have their backs sothey’re not just left out there high and dry andpotentially put in even more danger than theymay already be. And so I make no apologies,and I don’t think the American people wouldexpect me as Commander in Chief not to beconcerned about information that might com-promise their missions or might get themkilled.

Now, the flip side of it is, we also live in ademocracy where a free press, free expression,and the open flow of information helps holdme accountable, helps hold our Government

accountable, and helps our democracy func-tion. And the whole reason I got involved inpolitics is because I believe so deeply in thatdemocracy and that process.

So the whole goal of this media shield law—that was worked on and largely endorsed byfolks like the Washington Post editorial pageand by prosecutors—was finding a way tostrike that balance appropriately. And to theextent that this case—which we still don’tknow all the details of—to the extent that thiscase has prompted renewed interest about howdo we strike that balance properly, then I thinknow is the time for us to go ahead and revisitthat legislation. I think that’s a worthy conver-sation to have, and I think that’s important.

But I also think it’s important to recognizethat when we express concern about leaks at atime when I’ve still got 60,000-plus troops inAfghanistan and I’ve still got a whole bunch ofintelligence officers around the world who arein risky situations—in outposts that, in somecases, are as dangerous as the outpost in Beng-hazi—that part of my job is to make sure thatwe’re protecting what they do, while still ac-commodating for the need for information,so—or the need for the public to be informedand be able to hold my office accountable.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr.

Q. I asked about Holder as well.And for the Prime Minister, I wanted to ask

you, sir, if the United States does not step up itsinvolvement in Syria, in your view, how will thataffect the war? And what plans do you have toreact to the bombing of the border town thatthe President mentioned of Reyhanli?

President Obama. Mr. Prime Minister, justexcuse me, you’re right, I have complete confi-dence in Eric Holder as Attorney General.He’s an outstanding Attorney General anddoes his job with integrity, and I expect he willcontinue to do so. Okay?

Prime Minister Erdogan. You are talkingabout the part of the glass which is empty. Ilike to look at things with the glass half full in-stead of half empty. We are—what we wouldlike to see is the sensitivity on the part of theinternational community with respect to what’s

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going on in Syria. And this is what we, as Tur-key, are striving for, and I do believe that theUnited States is doing the same. And othercountries, the United Nations Security Coun-cil, the Arab League. And other countries—though not part of these structures—are stillsensitive to what is going on in Syria.

Our aim is to accelerate this process, and Iwill be visiting other countries—my ForeignMinister will be visiting other countries—justto see how we can speed things up in a waywhich will prevent the death of more peopleand in a way which will ensure a transition to ademocratic system in Syria. Our goal is to seethe tyranny, the dictatorship, go away in Syriaand to be replaced with democracy. And Ithink this is a collective responsibility on thepart of all countries that believe in democracy.And this is what we will all continue to do.

Syria

Q. My name is—[inaudible]. I’m with Turk-ish NTV television. Mr. President, my firstquestion is to you. You mentioned that Asadshould go, and the question is how and when.Is there a rough timetable? And for instance,shall we be talking about the Syrian tragedynext year at this time? What’s the idea?

[The reporter then asked a question in Turkish,which was translated by an interpreter as follows.]

And, Mr. Prime Minister, before your de-parture from Ankara, you stated that you hadexpectations from this visit and that you havesome expectations. What is your general obser-vation about this visit?

President Obama. We would have preferredAsad go 2 years ago, last year, 6 months ago, 2months ago. And there has been consistencyon the part of my administration that Asad lostlegitimacy when he started firing on his ownpeople and killing his own people, who initiallywere protesting peacefully for a greater voicein their country’s affairs. And obviously, that’sescalated during the course of time. So the an-swer is, the sooner the better.

Now, in terms of the question how, I thinkwe’ve already discussed that. There’s no magic

formula for dealing with a extraordinarily vio-lent and difficult situation like Syria’s. If therewas, I think the Prime Minister and I wouldhave already acted on it and it would alreadybe finished.

And instead, what we have to do is applysteady international pressure, strengthen theopposition. I do think that the prospect of talksin Geneva, involving the Russians and repre-sentatives, about a serious political transitionthat all the parties can buy into may yield re-sults. But in the meantime, we’re going to con-tinue to make sure that we’re helping the op-position and obviously dealing with the hu-manitarian situation. And we’ll do so in closeconsultation with Turkey, which obviously isdeeply invested in this and with whom we’vegot an outstanding relationship with.

Prime Minister Erdogan. Thank you verymuch. As you know, we will be meeting againthis evening, so we’ll have time to go in furtherdetail. As I said before, our views do overlap,and with our discussions this evening, we willcontinue to explore what we can do together,what we can consider as parts of a roadmaplooking at Geneva and beyond.

Russia and China being part of this processis very important, and this is important in thecontext of the permanent members of the U.N.Security Council. Their participation in thisprocess will certainly add greater impetus. Thepressure of the international community con-tinues to be a very important element, andwhen we look at the humanitarian support thatwe have provided so far, we see that supportequaling to more than $1½ billion.

And we continue to keep an open door poli-cy, and we will continue to do this because wehave a border which is 910 kilometers in lengthwith Syria; we have—there are relatives acrossthe border on each side. So we will continuethese efforts.

These are all very important for regionalpeace, because, on the one hand, you have thesteps that have been taken, efforts that are inplace to normalize relations between the Pales-tinians and the Israelis. We don’t need to haveother problems, issues in the region. We had, asyou know, taken steps to bring Syria and Israel

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together to solve their problems. We had fiverounds of discussions, but unfortunately, theycame to an end. But I hope that all the stepsthat we take in the future with respect to re-gional peace will yield results and we can worktogether with the United States with determina-tion to achieve peace in the region. Thank you.

We are discussing all these issues. The stepto be taken by the U.N. Security Council andthe Geneva process are important. We willcontinue to assess that between us.

Thank you.President Obama. Thank you, everybody.

Thank you. Thank you, guys.

NOTE: The President’s news conference be-gan at 12:48 p.m. in the Rose Garden at the

White House. In his remarks, the Presidentreferred to Ermine Erdogan, wife, and Esreand Sümeyye, daughters, of Prime MinisterErdogan; Steven T. Miller, former DeputyCommissioner for Services and Enforce-ment, and Daniel Werfel, Acting Commis-sioner, Internal Revenue Service; and Trea-sury Inspector General for Tax Administra-tion J. Russell George. He also referred tothe Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) insur-gent group. Prime Minister Erdogan re-ferred to Minister of Foreign Affairs AhmetDavutoglu of Turkey. Prime Minister Erdo-gan and some reporters spoke in Turkish,and their remarks were translated by an in-terpreter.

Remarks Following a Meeting on Preventing Sexual Assault in the ArmedForcesMay 16, 2013

Well, I appreciate all of you coming in justfor a second. We have gathered here all the toppeople in not just our military, but our entirenational security operation. And I want to startoff by thanking all the people sitting aroundthis table and in this room for the extraordinaryservice that they’ve rendered this country.

And I want to also remind everybody thatwe have folks active in theater right now—menand women in uniform—who are making hero-ic sacrifices on behalf of our security. And ourthoughts and prayers are with them and theirfamilies, because they are dealing with a wholelot to make sure that we are safe.

We have focused this conversation, though,on something that is at the core of our effec-tiveness as a military. So I told all these peoplethat one of the great honors of my life is serv-ing as Commander in Chief to what I considerto be the best military in the history of theworld. And I am in awe of the work that thevast majority of our men and women in uni-form do.

But the reason we are so good is not becauseof the fancy equipment. It’s not because of ourincredible weapon systems and technology. It’sbecause of our people. And the capacity for

our men and women in uniform to work as ateam, a disciplined unit looking out for eachother in the most severe of circumstances, ispremised, as Ray Odierno said, on trust. Itcomes down to, do people trust each other anddo they understand that they’re all part of asingle system that has to operate under what-ever circumstances effectively?

The issue of sexual assault in our ArmedForces undermines that trust. So not only is it acrime, not only is it shameful and disgraceful,but it also is going to make and has made themilitary less effective than it can be. And assuch, it is dangerous to our national security.So this is not a sideshow. This is not, sort of, asecond-order problem that we’re experiencing.This is—goes to the heart and the core of whowe are and how effective we’re going to be.

Now, the good news is, I am absolutely con-fident that everybody in this room and ourleadership, starting with Chuck Hagel andMarty Dempsey and the Joint Chiefs, as well asour top enlisted men and women, they careabout this. And they’re angry about it. And Iheard directly from all of them that they’reashamed by some of what’s happened.

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But it’s not fixed yet, and that’s clear. So,even though I think there’s a level of concernand interest that is appropriate, we haven’t ac-tually been able to ensure that our men andwomen in uniform are not experiencing thisand if they do experience it, that there’s seriousaccountability.

So what I’ve done is, I’ve asked Secretary ofDefense Hagel and Marty Dempsey to helplead a process to continue to get at this. Thatstarts with accountability, and that means atevery level. And that includes accountabilitynot just for enforcing the law, but also trainingour personnel effectively, putting our best peo-ple on this challenge.

I think Secretary of the Army McHughmade a very good point, which is, I’m not surewe’ve incentivized some of our top people tounderstand, this is as core to our mission asanything else. And we’ve got to reward them,not think of this as a sideline for anything elsethat they do, but incentivize ambitious folks inthe ranks to make sure that they understandthis is important. So that’s part of accountabili-ty.

Empowering victims: We’ve got to create anenvironment in which victims feel that they’recomfortable coming forward and they knowpeople have their backs and that they will workthrough this process in a way that keeps the fo-cus on justice and making right what’s beenwrong as opposed to, suddenly, they’re on trial,it may weaken their position, it may compro-mise their ability to advance. That’s going to beimportant. They’ve got to know that theyshould have no fear of retaliation, no fear ofstigma, no damage to their careers, and cer-tainly no protection for criminals.

Third thing is justice for the victims. Whenvictims do come forward, they deserve justice.Perpetrators have to experience consequences.And I’m pleased that Secretary Hagel has pro-posed reforms that would restrict the ability ofcommanders to overturn convictions after trial.Those reforms have my full support.

There are a range of ideas that are beingproposed on Capitol Hill, and I know thatChuck and Marty are both engaged with thoseMembers of Congress. But what I’ve said to

them is, I want to leave no stone unturned andI want us to explore every good idea that’s outthere in order to fix this problem. And I’mpleased to say that Secretary Hagel is not onlyconsulting with Congress, but is also looking atmilitaries around the world—the Canadians orthe Israelis or others—that may have designedsystems that get at this to see if there are anylessons learned in terms of best practices.

And Vice President Biden, who has been achampion for issues—around issues of domes-tic violence for 20 years or more, he made animportant point, which is, is that we’ve got tomake sure that advocates and professionalswho are in the civilian system and have beenworking on this problem for a long time, thatwe’re listening to them as well; that we don’tassume that the military has to completely rec-reate the wheel. And I think that’s a very im-portant point.

So I want to thank all the work that Con-gress is doing, especially our friends in theSenate. All of us here are committed to work-ing with them.

The last point I’m going to make, and that isthat there is no silver bullet to solving thisproblem. This is going to require a sustainedeffort over a long period of time. And that’swhy I’m very pleased to know that SecretaryHagel is going to be having weekly meetings onthis. And I want us to make sure that we’ve goteffective metrics and feedback loops so that weare continually evaluating how well we’re do-ing.

One point that was made around the table isthat a sign that we’re actually getting at thisproblem may initially be increased reportingrather than less reporting. We may see morereporting of incidents, in part because evenoutside of our military, traditionally, theseproblems of sexual assault are vastly underre-ported. And so over the next several monthsand years, if I start seeing a—data that showsthat in fact we are seeing more reports, thatmay actually indicate to me that people are be-coming more confident about moving forward.

On the other hand, I would then want thosetrend lines to start going down because that in-dicates that we’re also starting to fix the

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problem and we’ve highlighted it and peoplewho are engaging in despicable behavior, theyget fully punished for it.

So again, I want to emphasize: Everybody inthis room has heard from me directly. They’veheard from Secretary Hagel, and they’ve heardfrom Marty Dempsey. They all understand this

is a priority and we will not stop until we’veseen this scourge, from what is the greatestmilitary in the world, eliminated. All right?


NOTE: The President spoke at 4:53 p.m. in theCabinet Room at the White House.

Statement on Senate Confirmation of Ernest J. Moniz as Secretary of EnergyMay 16, 2013

I am pleased that today, by a unanimousvote, the Senate confirmed Ernest Moniz asour next Energy Secretary. Dr. Moniz is aworld-class scientist with expertise in a rangeof energy sources and a leader with a provenrecord of bringing prominent thinkers andinnovators together to advance new energysolutions. He also shares my conviction thatthe United States must lead the world in de-veloping more sustainable sources of energy

that create new jobs and new industries andin responding to the threat of global climatechange. I am thrilled that Ernie is joining myteam, and I look forward to his counsel onthese issues as my administration continuesto increase our Nation’s energy security,strengthen our nuclear security, develop thenext generation of clean energy technolo-gies, and compete for the jobs of the 21stcentury.

Remarks at Ellicott Dredges, LLC, in Baltimore, MarylandMay 17, 2013

The President. Hello, Baltimore! Well, it iswonderful to see all of you. Give Duncan a biground of applause for the great introduction. Iwant to thank all of you for the warm welcome,the great hospitality. And I tell you what, I’mgoing to return the favor by hosting your SuperBowl Champion Baltimore Ravens at theWhite House this summer. So we’ll have RayLewis in the China Room. What could gowrong? [Laughter]

I want to thank your CEO, Peter Bowe, andyour plant manager, Robert Croom, and yourentire team for showing me around this greatfacility. I was told that one of your customersonce named a dredge after President Clinton,so I’ve got my fingers crossed. [Laughter] Nev-er had a dredge named after me, so I’m look-ing after—looking forward to that.

I’ve come here today to talk about our singlemost important priority as a country right now.And that is reigniting the true engine of oureconomic growth, and that is a rising, thrivingmiddle class. And as I said in my State of the

Union Address this year, that’s our north star.That’s what we have to focus on. That’s whathas to guide all our efforts.

And we’ve got some great people who arechampioning middle class families every singleday. First of all, your outstanding Governor—come on—Martin O’Malley. Your outstandingmayor, Madam Mayor. You’ve got some out-standing Members of Congress, led by your se-nior Senator, Barbara Mikulski. And your ownleader in the House of Representatives, he isdoing a great job every single day, and he lovesthis State: Steny Hoyer.

The—so we’ve got just some extraordinaryfolks here. Every—let me make sure I’ve—Eli-jah Cummings is here. But more importantly,Elijah’s mom is here. And we are so proud ofElijah, but his mom apparently prays for meevery day, so I’m very grateful for her as well.

And the—all of these, all of your Membersof Congress, every single day, are working,fighting on behalf—on your behalf in terms ofmaking sure that we’re growing an economy

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that creates outstanding middle class jobs.That’s the challenge that we should be rallyingaround every single day. And I know it canseem frustrating sometimes when it seems likeWashington’s priorities aren’t the same as yourpriorities. I know it often seems like folks downthere are more concerned with their jobs thanwith yours. Others may get distracted by chas-ing every fleeting issue that passes by. But themiddle class will always be my number-one fo-cus, period. Your jobs, your families, your com-munities, that’s why I ran for President. That’swhat drives me every day as I step into theOval Office. That’s what I’m going to keepfighting for over the next 4 years.

And that’s why I’m so proud to have thesepartners. The—John Sarbanes I saved for last,because Congressman Sarbanes, he himself isdoing a great job, but when I first came in, hisfather was one of the people who I so admiredin the Senate. He had served for a long time.And I remember just a conversation that wehad. He probably doesn’t remember it, buthe—I asked him—I came and paid him a visit,and I asked him, what’s your advice? He says:“Just keep in mind the people who sent you.Because here in Washington, sometimes peo-ple get distracted. But you’re here to work onbehalf of your constituencies. And if you stickto that, you’re going to be just fine.”

And that’s what’s happening here in Mary-land. Under Governor O’Malley’s leadership,Maryland has won back almost 100 percent ofthe jobs that were claimed by the recession. Soyou might not know it if you were just watchingthe news and you’re exposed to all these parti-san battles and brinksmanship in Washington,but the truth is, there are a lot of reasons to beoptimistic about where this country is headed,especially after all that we’ve been throughover the past several years. And that’s got toencourage us to roll up our sleeves and worktogether and take on the challenges that arestill holding back the economy and holdingdown working families.

Now, the good news is, in a little over 3years, businesses like this one have createdmore than 6.5 million new jobs. And while ourunemployment rate is still too high, it’s the

lowest it’s been since 2008. That’s good news.But that’s not enough because we’ve also got tocreate even more good, middle class jobs, andwe’ve go to do it even faster.

Corporate profits have skyrocketed at an all-time high. Now we’ve got to make sure thatmiddle class wages and incomes are going uptoo, because families all across America haven’tseen their take-home pay rise for nearly a de-cade. That’s the next phase. It’s good that com-panies are profitable. I want you to be profit-able. I want you to be taking a little more homein your paycheck.

Our housing market is healing. But that’snot enough. Now we’ve got to help more fami-lies stay in their homes or refinance to take ad-vantage of these historically low interest rates.

Our deficits are shrinking at the fastest ratein decades. That’s the truth. That’s worth ap-plause, sure, because you wouldn’t alwaysknow that listening to folks in Washington. Butthe fact is, our deficits are going down fasterthan they have gone down in decades. But westill have to create a budget that is smart anddoesn’t hurt middle class families or harm ourcritical investments into our future.

Barbara Mikulski is on the AppropriationsCommittee; she’s fighting hard to make surethat this sequester that is slowing downgrowth—and we’re starting to see growth slow-ing down because of furloughs and cuts in de-fense spending and a whole bunch of stuff thatwasn’t well thought through. We’ve got tomake sure that we’ve got a budget that doesn’tpush our economy back down. We need a bud-get that pushes our economy back up.

The American auto industry is thriving.American energy is booming. American inge-nuity in our tech sector has the potential tochange the way we do almost everything.

And thanks to the grit and determination ofthe American people, we’ve been able to clearaway the rubble of the crisis. We’re now poisedfor progress, but our work is not done, and ourfocus cannot drift. We’ve got to stay focused onour economy and putting people back to work,and raising wages and bringing manufacturingback to the United States of America. That has

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to be what we’re thinking about every singleday.

Middle class has been taking a beating formore than a decade. You deserve folks inWashington who are willing to fight back onyour behalf every single day. Because everysingle day, you and Americans like you allacross the country are working hard and livingup to your responsibilities. So you’ve got tohave the same seriousness of purpose in yourleaders.

Now, I see three areas where we need to fo-cus if we’re really going to keep the recoverygoing, but take it to new heights. Number one,we’ve got to make America a magnet for goodjobs. Number two, we’ve got to make sure thatworkers are able to get the education and skillsthey need to do those jobs. Number three,we’ve got to make sure that, if and when you’reworking hard, that that leads to a decent living.

And that’s why I wanted to come to Balti-more, because a lot of people here in Balti-more, they work hard. Baltimore has gonethrough tough times in the past, but Baltimorehas come bouncing back.

I started a few hours ago at a pre-K programat Moravia Park Elementary School. There,kids are getting a head start learning skills theyneed to succeed in college and the workplace.And by the way, this is a center that was namedafter Steny’s—Steny Hoyer’s late wife Judy be-cause she and Steny share my belief in the im-portance of giving every kid every chance asearly as possible.

I got to help with one of the lessons; wewere having to draw zoo animals. [Laughter]And I’ve got to say, my tiger was not very good.[Laughter] The kids were unimpressed. Theykind of looked at it, they said, that doesn’t looklike a tiger. [Laughter] But they were amazing.

And later today I’m going to visit with a pro-gram that helps people who have gone throughsome tough circumstances, especially low-in-come dads, and this program is now helpingthem get the training and the guidance theyneed to find work and support a family. The—which is a priority because—and probably,some of these folks who I’m meeting, theydidn’t get that early childhood education that

put them on the right track. And what we wantto do is, first of all, make sure our kids are get-ting the training they need, but if they missedout early on, we still want to give them oppor-tunity on the backend.

But obviously, the training of kids, givingthem good education, training older workers,none of that is going to make a difference if wedon’t have great companies that are hiring.And that’s why I wanted to come to Ellicott.

Ellicott Dredges, you guys are an example ofwhat we can do to make America a magnet forgood jobs. After all, you all know a thing or twoabout growing the economy; you’ve been doingit for more than a century. This company wasfounded in 1885. You’ve been right here onBush Street since 1900. This company builtdredging equipment that helped dig the Pana-ma Canal. [Applause] That’s impressive.

What that means is this company, right herein Baltimore, literally helped create our globaleconomy, because that was one of the first con-nectors, right, that started to allow us to shipgoods and cut the distances that integrated theworld economy.

And yet, after all this time, this company stillhas a set of core values that’s lasted for genera-tions. Just like the folks who came before you,you’ve got that drive to make the best ma-chines that money can buy, to sell products allover the world, to grow not just a business, buta community, and by doing that, you’re grow-ing our country.

And these values have seen you through anera of enormous change. Your leaders saw thepotential in developing markets like China andIndia and Brazil and Bangladesh. So youramped up your focus on airports—on ex-ports—maybe on airports too—[laughter]—but on exports. And the Federal Governmenthas worked with you as a partner to sell dredg-ing equipment right out of this shop all overthe world. You maintained your quality. Youbuilt a sales force that travels everywhere, out-hustling the competition in search of new busi-ness.

All that hard work has paid off. Today, thiscompany, you have sold equipment to morethan 100 different countries. You’ve made new

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investments here at home. You employ morethan 200 people in Baltimore and Wisconsinand Kansas. And over the past few decades,during some of the tough times for our work-ers, you were able to keep building equipmentstamped with those three proud words: Madein America. And you’re selling it around theworld.

As Steny Hoyer and some of these HouseMembers like to say, that means you’re makingit in America.

Representative Steny H. Hoyer. All right.The President. See, Steny gets excited.

[Laughter] You’re actually making stuff here inAmerica, but it also means that we’re all mak-ing it here in America when you do what you’redoing. And this is a great example.

And the good news is, more and more com-panies are following your example. After shed-ding jobs for 10 years, our manufacturers haveadded more than 500,000 jobs over the past 3years. Ford is bringing jobs back from Mexico.Caterpillar is bringing jobs back from Japan.After placing plants in other countries like Chi-na, Intel, which is making the chips in yoursmartphone and your iPad and your—all ofthese gizmos everybody is holding up rightnow—[laughter]—Intel is opening its most ad-vanced plant right here at home, right here inAmerica.

Washington should be helping these kindsof success stories take root all across the coun-try. That’s why we’ve boosted—my administra-tion has boosted our efforts to help businessesexport more of their goods and services. That’swhy we signed trade agreements that will pro-tect American workers, but open up new mar-kets and support tens of thousands of good-paying jobs.

That’s why we reauthorized the Export-Im-port Bank. And we are proud to have thebank’s chairman right here, Fred Hochberg.He’s here this afternoon. He’s helping thiscompany, as we speak, sell more goods over-seas. And so today, exports are at an alltimehigh. We are selling more stuff around theworld. We’ve added more than a million ex-port-supported jobs since I took office.

So all these steps are making a difference,but there’s more we can do. We need to pur-sue new trade agreements with Europe andthe Pacific region. We need to invest in high-tech manufacturing centers, because I wantthe next revolution in manufacturing to bemade here in America.

Our workers are at our best when we’rebuilding stuff. So today I’m also announcingthe next step in our effort to cut throughredtape that keeps big construction projectsfrom getting off the ground.

Now, some of you, if you’ve heard me, I’mreally big on us rebuilding our .infrastructurein this country I want to put people back towork improving our roads, our bridges, our air-ports, our ports. We were talking about thePanama Canal. The Panama Canal is being re-vamped down in Panama so that it can accom-modate even bigger ships. And these cargoships are so big that if we don’t remodel ourports here in the United States, they can’t dockat our ports. They’ll dock someplace else. We’lllose that business.

So we’ve got to up our game when it comesto infrastructure. And the good news is, whenyou do that, you’re putting people back to workright away, operating dredging equipment anddoing other stuff, and you’re also laying thefoundation for future economic growth.

Now, the problem is, we’ve had some trou-ble out of Congress just going ahead and fund-ing——

Audience member. [Inaudible]The President. I know, it’s surprising, isn’t

it? [Laughter] But we’ve had some little diffi-culty getting our Republican friends to workwith us to find a steady funding source forthese projects that everybody knows needs tohappen. But in fairness, one of the problemswe’ve had in the past is, is that sometimes, ittakes too long to get projects off the ground.There are all these permits and redtape andplanning and this and that, and some of it’s im-portant to do, but we could do it faster.

So a while back, what I did was, I orderedeverybody who was involved in approving proj-ects to speed up the permitting process for 50different big projects all across the country,

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from the Tappan Zee Bridge in New York tothe Port of Charleston in South Carolina. Andwe’ve been able to, in some cases, cut approvaltimes from 7 years down to a year. Right? Sowe’ve made progress.

Today I’m directing agencies across theGovernment to do what it takes to cut time-lines for breaking ground on major infrastruc-ture projects in half. And what that will meanis, is that construction workers get back on thejobs faster. It means more money going backinto local economies, and it means more de-mand for outstanding dredging equipment thatis made right here in Baltimore.

Now, some of you know, one of the guyswho has been working on this, he’s DeputyTransportation Secretary John Porcari, yourformer transportation secretary here in Mary-land before Governor O’Malley generouslyagreed to share him with the entire country.

So those are some of the ways that we cancreate the conditions for businesses like thisone to generate even more good jobs. Andthese are the kinds of ideas that we have to stayfocused on every single day. This should be ourprincipal focus: How are we making ourselvesmore competitive? How are we training ourworkers so that they can do the jobs that needto be done? How can we make sure that westay on the cutting edge in terms of technolo-gy? How are we making it easier for businessesto succeed?

And I’m going to keep trying to work withboth parties in Washington to make progress,because our challenges are solvable. I travel allaround the world, and I meet people from allwalks of life. And I can tell you, there’s not acountry on Earth that wouldn’t trade placeswith the United States of America. That’s real-ly true. They know we’ve got all the ingredientsto succeed. We’ve got the answers. The onlything that’s holding us back sometimes is a lackof political will. Sometimes, our leadershipisn’t focused where we need to be focused.And that’s where you come in. It’s up to youand all the people across the country to tell thepeople in Washington, focus on getting stuffdone. We may not agree on the way to do cer-

tain things, but I think we all love our country.We all want what’s best for our kids and ourgrandkids.

Wouldn’t we be better off if every Americancould find a good job that pays the bills and letsyou afford a home and maybe take a vacation,put some money away to retire? Wouldn’t weall be better off if we knew that all of our kidswere getting a good education from an earliestage, if we reformed our high schools for thisnew economy, if we’re helping more youngpeople afford to go to college?

Wouldn’t we be better off if every worker’swage was a wage you could live on? Nobodywants to be on welfare. Nobody wants to haveto rely on a handout. They want to work. Butlet’s make sure that work pays.

Wouldn’t we be better off if every Americancould afford quality healthcare and the peaceof mind that comes with it? That’s why wepassed health care reform. Wouldn’t we bebetter off if we did what’s necessary to protectmore of our children from the horrors of gunviolence?

There are going to be disagreements abouthow we get there. But let’s remind ourselvesthat when we work together nobody can stopus, when we do the right thing. That’s what Ibelieve. That’s what I’m going to keep fightingfor. That’s what drives me; it’s all the stories ofpeople like you that I have the great honor ofmeeting and working with every single day.You deserve leaders with the same dedicationand commitment and focus that the peoplewho work at this company bring to their jobsevery single day. And you look at those dredgesup there—and I met folks who have workedhere 38 years, some who have worked 40 years,and the pride that they take in their productand the way they all work together, that’s theattitude that we’ve got to bring to bear here.

I think about a woman here, Myrna La-Barre. Myrna LaBarre. Where is Myrna?There’s Myrna right here. [Applause] MyrnaLaBarre. Myrna has been at Ellicott for morethan 50 years. Now, that means she startedwhen there were no child labor laws, becauseshe—it was clearly illegal. [Laughter] She was

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about 4 or 5, and they started putting her towork, put a broom in her hand. But whensomebody asked Myrna what lessons shelearned after 50 years working at the samecompany, she said, “Be honest, be helpful, ac-cept your mistakes and improve upon them, begood to people, keep a good sense of humor,have the best work ethic possible, and handlethe good times and get over the bad.” That’s apretty good recipe for success right there.That’s who we are. [Applause] That’s who weare. Thank you, Myrna.

I mean, that pretty much sums up every-thing. [Laughter] That’s who we like to under-stand America to be, who we are as Americans.We’re honest and helpful. We work hard.We’re good to others. We handle the goodtimes, and we get over the bad times. If wekeep that in mind, if we just all keep Myrna’sadvice in mind, keep plugging away, keepfighting, we’ll build an even better Americathan we’ve got right now.

Audience member. We’re praying!The President. And I know you’re going to—

we can pray too; we’ll add that in there.[Laughter]

If we work to create more jobs, if we give ev-ery American the tools that they need for thosejobs, if we make sure that hard work pays offand that responsibility is rewarded, then once

again, America is going to be the place whereyou can always make it if you try. And we’ll allprosper together. And we’ll make sure thatAmerica remains the greatest nation on Earth.


NOTE: The President spoke at 1:20 p.m. In hisremarks, he referred to Duncan A. McTaggart,contract administrator, Peter A. Bowe, presi-dent and chief executive officer, Robert E.Croom, general manager, Martin E. Barnes,Jr., executive vice president and chief operat-ing officer, and Myrna L. LaBarre, executiveassistant, Ellicott Dredges, LLC; Ing ManuelOrdonez Galan, a former customer of EllicottDredges, LLC, who named a dredge after for-mer President William J. Clinton; Ray Lewis,former linebacker, National Football League’sBaltimore Ravens; Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake of Baltimore, MD; Ruth Cummings,mother of Rep. Elijah E. Cummings; and for-mer Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes, father of Rep. JohnP. Sarbanes. He also referred to the memoran-dum on modernizing Federal infrastructurereview and permitting regulations, policies,and procedures, which was signed on May 17and is listed in Appendix D at the end of thisvolume.

Message to the Congress on Continuation of the National Emergency WithRespect to the Stabilization of IraqMay 17, 2013


Section 202(d) of the National EmergenciesAct (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)) provides for the auto-matic termination of a national emergency un-less, within 90 days prior to the anniversarydate of its declaration, the President publishesin the Federal Register and transmits to theCongress a notice stating that the emergency isto continue in effect beyond the anniversarydate. In accordance with this provision, I havesent to the Federal Register for publication the

enclosed notice stating that the national emer-gency with respect to the stabilization of Iraqthat was declared in Executive Order 13303 ofMay 22, 2003, is to continue in effect beyondMay 22, 2013.

Obstacles to the continued reconstruction ofIraq, the restoration and maintenance of peaceand security in the country, and the develop-ment of political, administrative, and economicinstitutions in Iraq continue to pose an unusualand extraordinary threat to the national securi-ty and foreign policy of the United States.

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Accordingly, I have determined that it is nec-essary to continue the national emergency withrespect to the stabilization of Iraq.

BARACK OBAMA

The White House,May 17, 2013.


Letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives Transmitting BudgetAmendments for Fiscal Year 2014May 17, 2013

Dear Mr. Speaker:

I ask the Congress to consider the enclosedFiscal Year (FY) 2014 Budget amendments forthe Departments of Agriculture, Defense,Health and Human Services, Housing and Ur-ban Development, the Interior, Justice, State,and Transportation, as well as Other Interna-tional Programs, the National Aeronautics andSpace Administration, and the Federal TradeCommission. These amendments do not affectthe proposed FY 2014 Budget totals. Theseamendments are necessary to reflect correctlypolicies assumed in the FY 2014 Budget.

Also included is a new Department of De-fense (DOD) General Provision that would au-thorize the Secretary of the Navy to receiveand retain payment in-kind for the settlementof the longstanding A–12 aircraft contract liti-gation. This litigation has been ongoing forover two decades.

The final decision about the pace of thedrawdown in Afghanistan was not made at thetime the FY 2014 Budget request was devel-oped. As a result, the Budget included a place-holder for DOD FY 2014 Overseas Contingen-cy Operations (OCO) funding, equivalent to

the amount provided in the President’s FY2013 Budget. The Administration noted in theFY 2014 Budget that after determining the re-quired force levels in Afghanistan, a Budgetamendment updating the OCO request wouldbe submitted to the Congress. The enclosedDOD amendments also include the necessaryupdates to the OCO request, which funds mili-tary operations in Afghanistan and other activi-ties that primarily support Operation EnduringFreedom.

In addition, this transmittal contains FY2014 amendments for the Legislative Branch.As a matter of comity and tradition, these ap-propriations requests for the LegislativeBranch are transmitted without change.

The details of these amendments are setforth in the enclosed letter from the Directorof the Office of Management and Budget.

I again urge the Congress to consider my FY2014 Budget, which takes a balanced approachto further deficit reduction and replaces se-questration.

Sincerely,

BARACK OBAMA


Hi, everybody. Over the past few months,I’ve laid out a series of commonsense ideas toreignite the true engine of our economicgrowth: a rising, thriving middle class.

The way I see it, there are three areas wherewe need to focus: one, making America a mag-net for good jobs; two, making sure our work-

ers have the education and skills they need todo those jobs; and three, making sure yourhard work leads to a decent living.

I’ve also been visiting cities across the coun-try that are doing some interesting and creativethings along these lines. So on Friday, for ex-ample, I stopped by a factory in Baltimore

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that’s creating good jobs here at home by ex-porting dredging equipment abroad. I readwith young kids at a pre-K program, wherekids are getting a head start learning the skillsthey need to succeed in life. And I stopped bya program that’s helping folks in tough circum-stances, especially low-income dads, get thetraining and guidance they need to find workand support their families.

That’s why I like getting out of the Washing-ton echo chamber whenever I can, because toooften our politics aren’t focused on the samethings you are: working hard, supporting yourfamily and supporting your community, mak-ing sure your kids have every chance in life.

More than anything, the American peoplemake me optimistic about where we’re headedas a nation, especially after all we’ve beenthrough during the past several years. And thatshould encourage us all to work even harder onthe issues that matter to you.

In a little over 3 years, our businesses havecreated more than 6.5 million new jobs. Andwhile our unemployment rate is still too high,it’s the lowest it’s been since 2008. But now,we need to create even more good, middleclass jobs, and we’ve got to do it faster.

Corporate profits have skyrocketed to an all-time high. But now we need to get middle classwages and incomes rising too.

Our housing market is healing. But we needto do a lot more to help families stay in their

homes or to help them refinance to take advan-tage of historically low rates.

And our deficits, well, they’re shrinking atthe fastest rate in decades. But now we’ve gotto budget in a smarter way that doesn’t hurtmiddle class families or harm critical invest-ments in our future.

So, in a lot of sectors, things are looking up.The American auto industry is thriving. Ameri-can energy is booming. And American ingenu-ity in our high-tech sector has the potential tochange the way we do almost everything.

In the coming weeks, I’m going to visit morecities like Baltimore and Austin, Texas—whereI was 2 weeks ago—places where Americansare coming together to strengthen their owncommunities and economies and, in the pro-cess, making this country better for all of us.

And I’m going to keep on trying to workwith both parties in Washington to make prog-ress on your priorities. Because I know that ifwe come together around creating more jobs,educating more of our kids, and building newladders of opportunity for everyone who’s will-ing to climb them, we’ll all prosper together.


NOTE: The address was recorded at approxi-mately 4 p.m. on May 17 in the RooseveltRoom at the White House for broadcast onMay 18. The transcript was made available bythe Office of the Press Secretary on May 17,but was embargoed for release until 6 a.m. onMay 18.

Commencement Address at Morehouse College in Atlanta, GeorgiaMay 19, 2013

The President. Hello, Morehouse! Well,thank you, everybody. Please be seated.

Audience member. We love you!The President. I love you back. [Laughter]

That is why I am here.Now, I have to say that it is one of the great

honors of my life to be able to address thisgathering here today. I want to thank Dr. Wil-son for his outstanding leadership, and theBoard of Trustees. We have Congressmen Ce-dric Richmond and Sanford Bishop, both

proud alumni of this school, as well as Con-gressman Hank Johnson. And one of my dearfriends and a great inspiration to us all, thegreat John Lewis is here. We have your out-standing mayor, Mr. Kasim Reed, in the house.

To all the members of the Morehouse fami-ly, and most of all, congratulations to this dis-tinguished group of Morehouse men, the classof 2013.

I have to say that it’s a little hard to follow—not Dr. Wilson, but a skinny guy with a funny

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name. [Laughter] Betsegaw Tadele, he’s goingto be doing something.

[At this point, thunder sounded in the back-ground.]

I also have to say that you all are going to getwet. [Laughter] And I’d be out there with youif I could. But Secret Service gets nervous.[Laughter] So I’m going to have to stay here,dry. But know that I’m there with you in spirit.[Laughter]

Some of you are graduating summa cumlaude. Some of you are graduating magna cumlaude. I know some of you are just graduating,“thank you, Lordy.” [Laughter] And that’s ap-propriate because it’s a Sunday. [Laughter]

I see some moms and grandmas here, aunts,in their Sunday best; although, they are upsetabout their hair getting messed up. [Laughter]Michelle would not be sitting in the rain. Shehas taught me about hair. [Laughter]

I want to congratulate all of you: the par-ents, the grandparents, the brothers and sis-ters, the family and friends who supportedthese young men in so many ways. This is yourday as well. Just think about it: Your sons, yourbrothers, your nephews, they’ve spent the last4 years far from home and close to Spelman,and yet they are still here today. So you’vedone something right. Graduates, give a biground of applause to your family for everythingthat they’ve done for you.

I know that some of you had to wait in longlines to get into today’s ceremony. And I wouldapologize, but it did not have anything to dowith security. Those graduates just wanted youto know what it’s like to register for classeshere. [Laughter] And this time of year brings adifferent kind of stress: every senior stoppingby Gloster Hall over the past week making sureyour name was actually on the list of studentswho met all the graduation requirements. If itwasn’t on the list, you had to figure out why.Was it that library book you lent to that triflingroommate who didn’t return it? [Laughter]Was it Dr. Johnson’s policy class? Did you getenough Crown Forum credits?

On that last point, I’m going to exercise mypower as President to declare this speech suffi-

cient Crown Forum credits for any otherwiseeligible student to graduate. That is my gradu-ation gift to you. You have a special dispensa-tion.

Now, graduates, I am humbled to standhere with all of you as an honorary Morehouseman. I finally made it. [Laughter] And as I do,I am mindful of an old saying: “You can alwaystell a Morehouse man, but you can’t tell himmuch.” [Laughter] And that makes my task alittle more difficult, I suppose. But I think it al-so reflects the sense of pride that’s always beenpart of this school’s tradition.

Benjamin Mays, who served as the presidentof Morehouse for almost 30 years, understoodthat tradition better than anybody. He said,and I quote, “It will not be sufficient for More-house College, for any college, for that matter,to produce clever graduates; but rather honestmen, men who can be trusted in public andprivate life, men who are sensitive to thewrongs, the sufferings, and the injustices of so-ciety and who are willing to accept responsibil-ity for correcting those ills.”

It was that mission, not just to educate men,but to cultivate good men, strong men, uprightmen, that brought community leaders togetherjust 2 years after the end of the Civil War.They assembled a list of 37 men, free Blacksand freed slaves, who would make up the firstprospective class of what later became More-house College. Most of those first students hada desire to become teachers and preachers, tobetter themselves so they could help others dothe same.

A century and a half later, times havechanged. But the Morehouse mystique still en-dures. Some of you probably came here fromcommunities where everybody looked like you.Others may have come here in search of acommunity. And I suspect that some of youprobably felt a little bit of culture shock thefirst time you came together as a class in King’sChapel. All of a sudden, you weren’t the onlyhigh school sports captain, you weren’t the on-ly student council president. You were sudden-ly in a group of high achievers, and that meantyou were expected to do something more.

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And that’s the unique sense of purpose thatthis place has always infused: the convictionthat this is a training ground not only for indi-vidual success, but for leadership that canchange the world.

Dr. King was just 15 years old when he en-rolled here at Morehouse. He was an un-known, undersized, unassuming young fresh-man who lived at home with his parents. And Ithink it’s fair to say he wasn’t the coolest kid oncampus; for the suits he wore, his classmatescalled him Tweed. But his education at More-house helped to forge the intellect, the disci-pline, the compassion, the soul force thatwould transform America. It was here that hewas introduced to the writings of Gandhi andThoreau and the theory of civil disobedience.It was here that professors encouraged him tolook past the world as it was and fight for theworld as it should be. And it was here, at More-house, as Dr. King later wrote, where “I real-ized that nobody . . . was afraid.”

Not even of some bad weather. I added onthat part. [Laughter] I know it’s wet out there.But Dr. Wilson told me you all had a choiceand decided to do it out here anyway. That’s aMorehouse man talking.

Now, think about it: For Black men in theforties and the fifties, the threat of violence,the constant humiliations, large and small, theuncertainty that you could support a family,the gnawing doubts born of the Jim Crow cul-ture that told you every day that somehow youwere inferior, the temptation to shrink fromthe world, to accept your place, to avoid risks,to be afraid—that temptation was necessarilystrong.

And yet here, under the tutelage of men likeDr. Mays, young Martin learned to be un-afraid. And he, in turn, taught others to be un-afraid. And over time, he taught a nation to beunafraid. And over the last 50 years, thanks tothe moral force of Dr. King and a Moses gen-eration that overcame their fear and their cyni-cism and their despair, barriers have cometumbling down, and new doors of opportunityhave swung open, and laws and hearts andminds have been changed to the point wheresomeone who looks just like you can somehow

come to serve as President of these UnitedStates of America.

So the history we share should give youhope. The future we share should give youhope. You’re graduating into an improving jobmarket. You’re living in a time when advancesin technology and communication put theworld at your fingertips. Your generation isuniquely poised for success unlike any genera-tion of African Americans that came before it.

But that doesn’t mean we don’t have work,because if we’re honest with ourselves, weknow that too few of our brothers have the op-portunities that you’ve had here at Morehouse.In troubled neighborhoods all across this coun-try, many of them heavily African American,too few of our citizens have role models toguide them. Communities just a couple ofmiles from my house in Chicago, communitiesjust a couple miles from here, they’re placeswhere jobs are still too scarce and wages arestill too low; where schools are underfundedand violence is pervasive; where too many ofour men spend their youths, not behind a deskin a classroom, but hanging out on the streetsor brooding behind a jail cell.

My job as President is to advocate for poli-cies that generate more opportunity for every-body: policies that strengthen the middle classand give more people the chance to climb theirway into the middle class, policies that createmore good jobs and reduce poverty and edu-cate more children and give more families thesecurity of health care and protect more of ourchildren from the horrors of gun violence.That’s my job. Those are matters of public pol-icy, and it is important for all of us—Black,White, and Brown—to advocate for an Ameri-ca where everybody has got a fair shot in life.Not just some. Not just a few.

But along with collective responsibilities, wehave individual responsibilities. There aresome things, as Black men, we can only do forourselves. There are some things, as More-house men, that you are obliged to do for thosestill left behind. As Morehouse men, you nowwield something even more powerful than thediploma you’re about to collect, and that’s thepower of your example.

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So what I ask of you today is the same thingI ask of every graduating class I address: Usethat power for something larger than yourself.Live up to President Mays’s challenge. Be“sensitive to the wrongs, the sufferings, and theinjustices of society.” And be “willing to acceptresponsibility for correcting those ills.”

I know that some of you came to Morehousefrom communities where life was about keep-ing your head down and looking out for your-self. Maybe you feel like you escaped and nowyou can take your degree and get that fancy joband the nice house and the nice car and neverlook back. And don’t get me wrong, with allthose student loans you’ve had to take out, Iknow you’ve got to earn some money. Withdoors open to you that your parents and grand-parents could not even imagine, no one ex-pects you to take a vow of poverty. But I willsay, it betrays a poverty of ambition if all youthink about is what goods you can buy insteadof what good you can do.

So yes, go get that law degree. But if you do,ask yourself if the only option is to defend therich and the powerful or if you can also findsome time to defend the powerless. Sure, goget your MBA or start that business. We needBlack businesses out there. But ask yourselveswhat broader purpose your business mightserve in putting people back to work or trans-forming a neighborhood. The most successfulCEOs I know didn’t start out intent just onmaking money; rather, they had a vision of howtheir product or service would change things,and the money followed.

Some of you may be headed to medicalschool to become doctors. But make sure youheal folks in underserved communities who re-ally need it too. For generations, certaingroups in this country, especially AfricanAmericans, have been desperate in need of ac-cess to quality, affordable health care. And as asociety, we’re finally beginning to change that.Those of you who are under age 26 alreadyhave the option to stay on your parent’s healthcare plan. But all of you are heading into aneconomy where many young people expect notonly to have multiple jobs, but multiple ca-reers.

So starting October 1, because of the Af-fordable Care Act—otherwise known asObamacare—you’ll be able to shop for a quali-ty, affordable plan that’s yours and travels withyou, a plan that will insure not only yourhealth, but your dreams if you are sick or go—get in an accident. But we’re going to needsome doctors to make sure it works too. We’vegot to make sure everybody has good health inthis country. It’s not just good for you, it’s goodfor this country. So you’re going to have tospread the word to your fellow young people.

Which brings me to a second point: Just asMorehouse has taught you to expect more ofyourselves, inspire those who look up to you toexpect more of themselves. We know that toomany young men in our community continueto make bad choices. And I have to say, grow-ing up, I made quite a few myself. Sometimes,I wrote off my own failings as just another ex-ample of the world trying to keep a Black mandown. I had a tendency sometimes to make ex-cuses for me not doing the right thing. But oneof the things that all of you have learned overthe last 4 years is, there’s no longer any roomfor excuses.

I understand there’s a common fraternitycreed here at Morehouse: “Excuses are tools ofthe incompetent used to build bridges to no-where and monuments of nothingness.” Well,we’ve got no time for excuses. Not because thebitter legacy of slavery and segregation havevanished entirely; they have not. Not becauseracism and discrimination no longer exist; weknow those are still out there. It’s just that intoday’s hyperconnected, hypercompetitiveworld, with millions of young people from Chi-na and India and Brazil, many of whom startedwith a whole lot less than all of you did, all ofthem entering the global workforce alongsideyou, nobody is going to give you anything thatyou have not earned.

Nobody cares how tough your upbringingwas. Nobody cares if you suffered some dis-crimination. And moreover, you have to re-member that whatever you’ve gone through, itpales in comparison to the hardships previousgenerations endured, and they overcame them.

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And if they overcame them, you can overcomethem too.

You now hail from a lineage and legacy ofimmeasurably strong men, men who bore tre-mendous burdens and still laid the stones forthe path on which we now walk. You wear themantle of Frederick Douglass and Booker T.Washington and Ralph Bunche and LangstonHughes and George Washington Carver andRalph Abernathy and Thurgood Marshall and,yes, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. These menwere many things to many people. And theyknew full well the role that racism played intheir lives. But when it came to their own ac-complishments and sense of purpose, they hadno time for excuses.

Every one of you have a grandma or an un-cle or a parent who’s told you that at somepoint in life, as an African American, you haveto work twice as hard as anyone else if youwant to get by. I think President Mays put iteven better. He said, “Whatever you do, striveto do it so well that no man living and no mandead and no man yet to be born can do it anybetter.”

And I promise you, what was needed in Dr.Mays’s time—that spirit of excellence and hardwork and dedication and no excuses—is need-ed now more than ever. If you think you canjust get over in this economy just because youhave a Morehouse degree, you’re in for a rudeawakening. But if you stay hungry, if you keephustling, if you keep on your grind and get oth-er folks to do the same, nobody can stop you.

And when I talk about pursuing excellenceand setting an example, I’m not just talkingabout in your professional life. One of today’sgraduates, Frederick Anderson—where’sFrederick? Frederick, right here. I want—Iknow it’s raining, but I’m going to tell aboutFrederick. Frederick started his college careerin Ohio, only to find out that his high schoolsweetheart back in Georgia was pregnant. Sohe came back and enrolled in Morehouse to becloser to her. Pretty soon, helping raise a new-born and working night shifts became toomuch, so he started taking business classes at atechnical college instead, doing everything

from delivering newspapers to buffing hospitalfloors to support his family.

And then, he enrolled at Morehouse a sec-ond time. But even with a job, he couldn’tkeep up with the cost of tuition. So, after get-ting his degree from that technical school, thisfather of three decided to come back to More-house for a third time. As Frederick says, “Godhas a plan for my life, and He’s not done withme yet.”

And today, Frederick is a family man and aworking man and a Morehouse man. Andthat’s what I’m asking all of you to do: Keepsetting an example for what it means to be aman. Be the best husband to your wife or yourboyfriend or your partner. Be the best fatheryou can be to your children, because nothing ismore important.

I was raised by a heroic single mom, won-derful grandparents, made incredible sacrificesfor me. And I know there are moms and grand-parents here today who did the same thing forall of you. But I sure wish I had had a fatherwho was not only present, but involved. Didn’tknow my dad. And so my whole life, I’ve triedto be for Michelle and my girls what my fatherwas not for my mother and me. I want to breakthat cycle where a father is not at home, wherea father is not helping to raise that son ordaughter. I want to be a better father, a betterhusband, a better man.

It’s hard work that demands your constantattention and frequent sacrifice. And I promiseyou—Michelle will tell you—I’m not perfect.She’s got a long list of my imperfections.[Laughter] Even now I’m still practicing, I’mstill learning, still getting corrected in terms ofhow to be a fine husband and a good father.But I will tell you this: Everything else is unful-filled if we fail at family, if we fail at that re-sponsibility.

I know that when I am on my deathbedsomeday, I will not be thinking about any par-ticular legislation I pass. I will not be thinkingabout a policy I promoted. I will not be think-ing about the speech I gave. I will not be think-ing the Nobel Prize I received. I will be think-ing about that walk I took with my daughters.I’ll be thinking about a lazy afternoon with my

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wife. I’ll be thinking about sitting around thedinner table and seeing them happy andhealthy and knowing that they were loved. AndI’ll be thinking about whether I did right by allof them.

So be a good role model. Set a good examplefor that young brother coming up. If you knowsomebody who’s not on point, go back andbring that brother along. Those who’ve beenleft behind, who haven’t had the same oppor-tunities we have, they need to hear from you.You’ve got to be engaged on the barbershop,on the basketball court, at church, spend timeand energy and presence to give people oppor-tunities and a chance. Pull them up, exposethem, support their dreams. Don’t put themdown.

We’ve got to teach them—just like what wehave to learn—what it means to be a man: toserve your city like Maynard Jackson; to shapethe culture like Spike Lee; to be like ChesterDavenport, one of the first people to integratethe University of Georgia Law School. Whenhe got there, nobody would sit next to him inclass. But Chester didn’t mind. Later on, hesaid: “It was the right thing for me to do.Someone needed to be the first.” And todayChester is here celebrating his 50th reunion.Where is Chester Davenport? He’s here.

So if you’ve had role models—fathers,brothers like that—thank them today. And ifyou haven’t, commit yourself to being that manto somebody else.

And finally, as you do these things, do themnot just for yourself, but don’t even do themjust for the African American community. Iwant you to set your sights higher. At the turnof the last century, W.E.B. Du Bois spokeabout the “talented tenth,” a class of highly ed-ucated, socially conscious leaders in the Blackcommunity. But it’s not just the African Ameri-can community that needs you. The countryneeds you. The world needs you.

As Morehouse men, many of you know whatit’s like to be an outsider, know what it’s like tobe marginalized, know what it’s like to feel thestring of—sting of discrimination. And that’san experience that a lot of Americans share.Hispanic Americans know that feeling when

somebody asks them where they come from ortell them to go back. Gay and lesbian Ameri-cans feel it when a stranger passes judgmenton their parenting skills or the love that theyshare. Muslim Americans feel it when they’restared at with suspicion because of their faith.Any woman who knows the injustice of earningless pay for doing the same work, she knowswhat it’s like to be on the outside looking in.

So your experiences give you special insightthat today’s leaders need. If you tap into thatexperience, it should endow you with empathy:the understanding of what it’s like to walk insomebody else’s shoes, to see through theireyes; to know what it’s like when you’re notborn on third base, thinking you hit a triple. Itshould give you the ability to connect. It shouldgive you a sense of compassion and what itmeans to overcome barriers.

And I will tell you, class of 2013, whateversuccess I have achieved, whatever positions ofleadership I have held have depended less onIvy League degrees or SAT scores or GPAsand have instead been due to that sense of con-nection and empathy, the special obligation Ifelt, as a Black man like you, to help those whoneed it most: people who didn’t have the op-portunities that I had. Because there but forthe grace of God go I; I might have been intheir shoes. I might have been in prison. Imight have been unemployed. I might nothave been able to support a family. And thatmotivates me.

So it’s up to you to widen your circle of con-cern, to care about justice for everybody:White, Black, and Brown. Everybody. Not justin your own community, but also across thiscountry and around the world. To make sureeveryone has a voice and everybody gets a seatat the table; that everybody, no matter whatyou look like or where you come from, whatyour last name is, where—it doesn’t matter, ev-erybody gets a chance to walk through thosedoors of opportunity if they are willing to workhard enough.

When Leland Shelton was 4 years old—where’s Leland? Stand up, Leland. When Le-land Shelton was 4 years old, social servicestook him away from his mama, put him in the

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care of his grandparents. By age 14, he was inthe foster care system. Three years after that,Leland enrolled in Morehouse. And today he isgraduating Phi Beta Kappa on his way to Har-vard Law School. But he’s not stopping there.As a member of the National Foster CareYouth and Alumni Policy Council, he plans touse his law degree to make sure kids like himdon’t fall through the cracks. And it won’t mat-ter whether they’re Black kids or Brown kids orWhite kids or Native American kids, becausehe’ll understand what they’re going through.And he’ll be fighting for them. He’ll be in theircorner. That’s leadership. That’s a Morehouseman right there.

That’s what we’ve come to expect from you,Morehouse, a legacy of leaders, not just in ourBlack community, but for the entire Americancommunity: to recognize the burdens you car-ry with you, but to resist the temptation to usethem as excuses; to transform the way we thinkabout manhood and set higher standards forourselves and for others; to be successful, butalso to understand that each of us has responsi-bilities not just to ourselves, but to one anotherand to future generations. Men who refuse tobe afraid. Men who refuse to be afraid.

Members of the class of 2013, you are heirsto a great legacy. You have within you thatsame courage and that same strength, the sameresolve as the men who came before you.That’s what being a Morehouse man is allabout. That’s what being an American is allabout.

Success may not come quickly or easily. Butif you strive to do what’s right, if you workharder and dream bigger, if you set an examplein your own lives and do your part to help meetthe challenges of our times, then I am confi-dent that, together, we will continue the never-ending task of perfecting our Union.

Congratulations, class of 2013. God blessyou, God bless Morehouse, and God bless theUnited States of America.

NOTE: The President spoke at 12:06 p.m. onCentury Campus. In his remarks, he referredto John Silvanus Wilson, president, BetsegawTadele, 2013 valedictorian, and Tobe Johnson,professor of political science, Morehouse Col-lege; filmmaker Spike Lee; and Chester C.Davenport, managing director, GeorgetownPartners, LLC.

Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Fundraiser in AtlantaMay 19, 2013

Thank you, everybody. Everybody, pleasehave a seat. Please have a seat.

Let me begin by saying that you just heardfrom one of the finest Senators we’ve got inthis country and an example of the kind ofyoung national leadership that we are seeing.Michael, who was a superintendent in schools,cares about policy, cares about education, andhe’s doing a great job in the Senate. And so Icouldn’t be prouder to call him a friend. Pleasegive Michael Bennet a big round of applause.

And, Michael, if it makes you feel any bet-ter, what—the feeling you described is exactlyhow I feel every time I precede Michelle onthe podium. [Laughter] She—people want toget rid of me quick too. [Laughter]

I also want to acknowledge one of the finestyoung mayors that we’ve got in the country,

Kasim Reed in the house. And the person pri-marily responsible for Kasim’s success, hismother, who, of course, looks too young to behis mother, but is his mother. [Laughter]

And I want to thank Arthur Blank for host-ing us. Speaking of people responsible for oursuccess, Arthur’s mom is here. She is celebrat-ing her 98th birthday today, and so we’ve got togive her a big round of applause. Happy birth-day. [Applause] Happy birthday. And Arthur’spromised, for your birthday, that the Falconswill win the Super Bowl this year. [Laughter]That’s a promise.

I just had the pleasure of speaking at theMorehouse commencement. And it was aspectacular gathering, a very wet gathering be-cause there were thunderstorms, but peoplewere undaunted. And you had 500-plus

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incredible young men and their families there.The valedictorian was a young man, an immi-grant from Ethiopia, who, like me, was skinny,and initially at least, it was very hard to pro-nounce his name. And he’s now going to be go-ing off to Microsoft to help do program designat Microsoft’s head office.

During the course of the address that I gaveI had the opportunity to address a young manwho had been taken away from his motherwhen he was 4, lived with his grandparents, butthen had some issues there, ended up in thefoster system, and 3 years after he entered intothe foster care system, was admitted to More-house and is now on his way to Harvard LawSchool, where he intends to practice law in thechild welfare system and is already on the na-tional advisory board for children’s welfare.

And I tell these stories because all aroundthe country, I get a chance to meet young peo-ple who are simply remarkable, who have over-come the biggest odds, who are doing thingsthat I could not ever dream of doing. And itmakes you so optimistic about the future ofAmerica. There is a spirit of innovation and aspirit of determination, and there is an aware-ness of the environment and social equity and abelief that there’s nothing that can stop Ameri-ca when people are pulling together. And yousee it in these young people, and it just makesyou ready to go out there and fight the goodfight.

And the challenge is, is that all too often,that same spirit isn’t as evident as it needs to bein Washington. Sometimes, you feel as ifWashington is impeding rather than advancingthe possibilities that these young people repre-sent.

And so, for the last 4 years, I’ve been fairlybusy—[laughter]—ending a war; windingdown another war; making sure that we wentafter Al Qaida and those who attacked us on9/11; recovering from the worst economic cri-sis since the Great Depression; saving an autoindustry; stabilizing the banking system; mak-ing sure that we have a system in place that ev-ery American has access to health care; ensur-ing that we begin on the road to energy inde-pendence; deal with issues like climate change;

double our fuel efficiency on cars; double ourproduction of clean energy; make sure that oureducation system is on a solid path of reform;and making sure that college is affordable sothat those young people that I saw at More-house, that more of them are able to graduatewithout a mountain of debt.

And all of that progress is because of you.Couldn’t have done it had it not been for theincredible support of so many people in thisroom. But what I think we’re all aware of isthat our job is not finished, that those More-house graduates that we just saw, they’re en-tering into a job market that is still challenging,and because of some policies in Washingtonlike the sequester, growth may end up slowingand we may start seeing once again the jobmarket stall in ways that makes it a lot harderfor them to realize their full potential.

We know that we’ve still got a lot of work todo when it comes to education. One of thethings that I talked about during the State of theUnion is making sure that we’ve got early child-hood education in place. The last time I was inGeorgia, I was out at Decatur. It’s got a wonder-ful model program for early childhood educa-tion. You’ve got kids who are poor alongside kidswho are middle class and alongside disabledkids, all of them coming together with outstand-ing teachers who have teacher-coaches.

And we can document, every dollar wespend on early childhood education, we get $7back in fewer dropouts, in fewer teen pregnan-cies, in fewer incarcerations. It pays off. Butwhat those kids in Decatur experience, thereare a lot more kids out there who don’t havethat same chance, don’t have that same shot.

We know that we’ve still got a lot—to do alot more work when it comes to energy. We aresitting on this revolution in the energy sector.Probably in 5, 6, 7 years, America will be a netexporter of natural gas. And we will be able tosay, probably in 15 years or so, that we areabout as close as you can be to energy indepen-dent as America has ever been. But despitethat, what we also know is, is that the energysources of the future are not going to beenough—or the past are not going to be

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enough. We’ve got to look at the energy sourceof the future.

And there’s still a lot more work to be doneto make our economy more energy efficient, tomake sure that we’re dealing with serious is-sues like climate change. When I look at Ar-thur’s incredible kids and grandkids, I’m think-ing—just like I’m thinking about when I seeMalia and Sasha—I want to make sure that 30years from now, 40 years from now, whenthey’re with their kids and their grandkids, thatthey’ve got a planet that isn’t in chaos becauseof decisions that we made or decisions that wefailed to make. So we’ve got a lot more work todo there.

We’ve still got to implement health care.We’ve actually seen health care costs increaseat the slowest rate that we’ve seen in decades,and it’s now—we’ve seen this over the last 3,3½ years. So we’re making real changes interms of health care delivery to improve quali-ty and reduce costs. But unfortunately, for a lotof people, they’re not seeing those savings be-cause costs are being passed on to them fromtheir employers. And it’s still the biggest driverof our deficits. It’s still a source of concernwhen it comes to Medicare and Medicaid. Sowe’re going to have to do a lot of work on thatfront.

Infrastructure: We’ve got about $2 trillion ofdeferred maintenance. And I haven’t gonethrough the Atlanta airport recently—[laugh-ter]. I don’t have to take off my shoes, general-ly, when I fly. [Laughter] But my assumptionis, is that there’s some reworking that we couldbe doing: roads, bridges, ports all across theGulf. I was down in Costa Rica meeting withthe Central American Presidents, and I was re-minded once again, Panama is revamping itscanal; they’re going to be bringing in thesemega-container cargo ships. And right now abunch of those ships can’t dock in our ports allalong the Gulf—Georgia, South Carolina, Lou-isiana. And if we don’t revamp those, we’re go-ing to lose business.

So the good news is, every single item that Ijust mentioned, we’ve got good, commonsensesolutions that we can implement right now.

The bad news is, is that there’s a shortage ofcommon sense in Washington. [Laughter]

And so part of the reason that what you’redoing here today is so important is because itgives us the opportunity to elect more peoplelike a Michael Bennet, who are not ideological,who don’t come at this thinking there’s just oneway of doing things, who are interested in dataand are interested in facts and are interested infiguring out what works. And that kind of ap-proach to governance—if we get a critical massin the Senate and we can potentially get a criti-cal mass of folks like that in the House—meansthat the sky is the limit. Nothing can stop us.

I travel all around the world, and the onething I have to tell you is there’s not a countrythat would not gladly trade places with theUnited States of America. All right? I mean,you’re seeing tremendous changes every-where. Obviously, in a place like China, we’veseen more people rise out of poverty than anytime in human history. That is a good thing.We shouldn’t feel threatened by that, weshould welcome that by—first of all, becauseour humanity demands that we welcome peo-ple being out of dire poverty, and if it’s man-aged properly, it means that China is morelikely to be peaceful, and it means those are bigmarkets for our companies.

But what it also means is that, sometimes,people get worried, are we being overtaken? IsAmerica falling behind?

[At this point, an audience member sneezed.]

Well—bless you. [Laughter] Let me tellyou, you talk to Chinese leaders; they look atwhat we’ve got in terms of our network of uni-versities and the dynamism and talent of ourbusinesses and our strong middle class, andthey would love to have our problems. Wouldlove to have our problems. India, same thing.Brazil, same thing. What’s holding us back is atendency in Washington to put politics aheadof policy, to put the next election ahead of thenext generation. And that mindset is what weneed to change.

And that’s what Michael Bennet represents,and that’s what your efforts represent here: ourcapacity to get beyond the kind of short-term

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tactical, partisan thinking that has come to sodominate Washington and to start moving in adirection in which we’re just trying to get stuffdone.

Which doesn’t mean that there aren’t goingto be politics involved; it doesn’t mean thatthere are not going to be some rough and tum-ble. And one thing that I think folks like myselfand Michael and Kasim and others learned isthat if you get in this business, folks are goingto take their shots at you. And I’ve got the grayhair to prove it. [Laughter] But that kind ofstuff doesn’t bother me, and I know it doesn’tbother others who are in elected office, if wefeel like we’re getting stuff done. If we feelthat, at the end of the day, when we look backon our public service, we can say, you knowwhat, this country is stronger, better positionedfor the future than it was before.

And I think we have that possibility. Andyou’re starting to see in Washington somesense, even among the most partisan folksthere, that we’ve, kind of—the balance hastipped too far away from getting stuff done.And that’s why, for example, I’m optimisticabout our capacity to get immigration reformdone. Michael is one of the group of eightthat’s been putting this together, seeing fourDemocrats, four Republicans, who are sittingdown and methodically, systematically just try-ing to fix a broken system because they under-stand that it needs to get done and that if, infact, we’re able to preserve our identity as a na-tion of laws and a nation of immigrants, oureconomy is going to be strong, and we’re goingto be better positioned to compete all aroundthe world.

So the upshot is this: Despite sometimes thedoom and gloom of what you hear emanatingout of Washington, you should be optimisticabout this country. I sure am. I think that weare on track with just a few important decisionsthat are well within our capacity to make surethat the 21st century is the American centuryjust like the 20th century was.

But we can’t do it alone. What I told thoseyoung Morehouse men is that it’s not enoughthat you now have succeeded individually, younow have a broader obligation to this countryand to the world. And all of you who, in thisroom, have been so successful in so many dif-ferent walks of life, I hope you still feel thatsense of obligation, that sense of citizenship,that sense of giving back. That’s what built thiscountry. That’s its essence. And with your help,that’s the kind of spirit that Michael and I andothers want to continue to bring to Washingtonfor as long as we can. All right?

Thank you very much, everybody. Appreci-ate it.

NOTE: The President spoke at 2:12 p.m. at theArthur M. Blank Family Foundation. In his re-marks, he referred to Sen. Michael F. Bennet,in his capacity as chair of the Democratic Sen-atorial Campaign Committee; Sylvia Reed,mother of Mayor M. Kasim Reed of Atlanta,GA; Arthur M. Blank, owner, National Foot-ball League’s Atlanta Falcons, and his motherMolly Blank; Betsegaw Tadele and LelandShelton, 2013 graduates, Morehouse College;and Sens. Marco A. Rubio, Jeffrey L. Flake,John S. McCain III, Lindsey O. Graham, Rich-ard J. Durbin, Robert Menendez, and CharlesE. Schumer.

Remarks Following a Meeting With President Thein Sein of BurmaMay 20, 2013

President Obama. I want to welcome Presi-dent Thein Sein to the United States of Ameri-ca and to the Oval Office.

Last year, I was proud to make a historic vis-it to Myanmar as the first U.S. President everto visit that country. And now President Sein isable to return the favor by making a visit to the

United States, and my understanding is thatthis is the first visit by a leader of Myanmar inalmost 50 years.

Obviously, during this period in between,there have been significant bilateral tensionsbetween our countries. But what has allowedthis shift in relations is the leadership that

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President Sein has shown in moving Myanmardown a path of both political and economic re-form.

Over the last 2 years, we’ve seen a steadyprocess in which political prisoners, includingAung San Suu Kyi, have been released andhave been incorporated into the political pro-cess.

We’ve seen credible elections and a legisla-ture that is continuing to make strides in thedirection of more inclusivity and greater repre-sentation of all the various groups withinMyanmar.

President Sein has also made genuine ef-forts to resolve longstanding ethnic conflictswithin the country and has recognized theneed to establish laws that respect the rights ofthe people of Myanmar.

As a consequence of these changes in policyinside of Myanmar, the United States has beenable to relax sanctions that had been placed onMyanmar, and many countries around theworld have followed suit.

And this has also allowed the United Statesand other countries to—and international in-stitutions to participate in engagement withthe Myanmar Government about how we canbe helpful in spurring economic developmentthat is broad based and that produces concreteresults for the people of Myanmar. And thatincludes the prospect of increasing trade andinvestment in Myanmar, which can producejobs and higher standards of living.

But as President Sein is the first to admit,this is a long journey and there is still muchwork to be done. And during our discussions,President Thein shared with me the fact—themanner in which he intends to continue tomove forward on releasing more political pris-oners; making sure that the Government ofMyanmar institutionalizes some of the politicalreforms that have already taken place; howrule of law is codified so that it continues intothe future; and the process whereby these eth-nic conflicts that have existed are resolved notsimply by a cease-fire, but an actual incorpora-tion of all these communities into the politicalprocess.

I also shared with President Sein our deepconcern about communal violence that hasbeen directed at Muslim communities insideof Myanmar. The displacement of people, theviolence directed towards them needs to stop,and we are prepared to work in any ways thatwe can with both the Government of Myanmarand the international community to assure thatpeople are getting the help that they need, butmore importantly, that their rights and theirdignity is recognized over the long term.

As I indicated to President Sein, countriesthat are successful are countries that tap intothe talents of all people and respect the rightsof all people. And I’m confident that if Myan-mar follows that recipe, that it will be not onlya successful democracy, but also a thrivingeconomy.

We also discussed some very concrete proj-ects that we’ve already initiated. For example,USAID is already working to evaluate how wecan improve agricultural productivity in Myan-mar; that can benefit farmers, increase in-comes, and improve standards of living in alargely agricultural country.

And we’re also working, for example, onprojects like improving the road that currentlyexists between Rangoon and Mandalay.

Finally, I wanted to thank President Sein forhis participation in ASEAN and the East AsiaSummit in which the United States is activelyengaged in all the countries in Southeast Asia,as part of our broader refocusing on the Asia-Pacific region, a region of enormous growthand potential with which we want to continueto strengthen our bonds.

So, Mr. President, welcome to the UnitedStates of America. We very much appreciateyour efforts and leadership in leading Myan-mar in a new direction, and we want you toknow that the United States will make everyeffort to assist you on what I know is a long andsometimes difficult, but ultimately, correctpath to follow.

President Thein Sein. I would like to expressmy sincere thanks to President Obama for in-viting me to come to the United States. In-deed, this is my very first visit to Washington,DC, as well as to the White House.

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And I am also very pleased to have this op-portunity to discuss about the democratizationprocess and reform process undertaken in mycountry.

Our two countries established diplomatic re-lations since 1947, a year before our indepen-dence. And since then, we have been able toenjoy—historically, our two countries have en-joyed cordial relations, and there were also ex-change of—high-level exchange of visits be-tween our two countries.

But I have to say that in the past, there weredifficulties or difficulties in our bilateral rela-tionship. But now we are very pleased that ourrelations have been improved significantly, andI am very thankful that in 50 years, I am repay-ing a visit to the United States at the invitationof President Obama. And I am very grateful forextending an invitation to me to pay a visit tothe United States.

Now that our country, Myanmar, has startedto practice democratic system, so we can saythat we have—both our countries have similarpolitical system in our two countries.

As you all know, our government is just—our democratic government is just 2 years old.And we have—within the 2—short period of 2years, our government have carried out politi-cal and economic reforms in our country. Be-cause we are in a very nascent stage of demo-cratic—a democratic stage, we still need a lotof democratic experience and practices to belearned. And we have seen successes. At thesame time, we have been encountering obsta-cles and challenges along our democratizationprocess, our path.

And the improvement in our relation is alsoin recognition—U.S. Government’s recogni-tion of our democratization efforts and my—our genuine efforts for democratization pro-cess in our country. And it is also due to—thanks to the President Obama’s reengage-ment policy to reengage with our country sothat we have seen improvement in our bilateralrelations within a short period of time.

Myanmar, being a developing country, andas we are undertaking changes of our democra-tization reforms, it is a daunting task ahead ofus. We encounter many challenges, such as, at

present, our poverty rate in the country is quitehigh, and we have very few job opportunities.And then, as well as, we have a—we do nothave much middle class in our country. Andthen we still—our people needs to be more fa-miliar with democratic practice, democraticnorms and values.

So we have a lot of challenges ahead of us,but we have to—thanks to the U.S. Govern-ment and the people’s support and their un-derstanding that we will be able to encounterthese challenges as we undertake the reformprocess in our country.

During our—my meeting with—our discus-sion with President, as he have already elabo-rated, we discussed about the rule of law in ourcountry; the strengthening of judicial bodies;and the providing necessary assistance so thatour police and military force become profes-sional forces. And then to—we also discussedwhat related to the poverty alleviation to—forthe rural people and farmers, agricultural de-velopment, as well as health—uplifting thehealth and education sectors of our countries.

So we had a very fruitful discussion withPresident Obama, and then I should—I mustsay that I am very pleased to have this opportu-nity to have a candid and frank discussion withPresident Obama. And I believe that I have—my success—my visit to the United States isquite successful and meaningful.

For in—for democracy to flourish in ourcountry, we will have to move forward, and wewill have to undertake reforms, political re-forms and economic reforms, in the yearsahead. We will also have to—we are trying ourbest with our own resources—our own effortsto have political and economic reforms in ourcountry. But we will also need—along thispath, we will also need the assistance and un-derstanding from the international community,including the United States.

And what I want to say is that PresidentObama has frequently used the word “forward.”And I will take this opportunity to reiterate thatMyanmar and I will continue to take the for-ward—move forward so that we will have—wecan build a new democratic state—a new Myan-mar, a new democratic state in our country.

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I thank you all.President Obama. Thank you so much.

NOTE: The President spoke at 3:30 p.m. in theOval Office at the White House. In his re-

marks, he referred to Member of Parliamentand National League for Democracy PartyLeader Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma. PresidentThein Sein spoke in Burmese, and his remarkswere translated by an interpreter.

Remarks on the Tornadoes in OklahomaMay 21, 2013

Good morning, everybody. As we all knowby now, a series of storms swept across thePlains yesterday, and one of the most destruc-tive tornadoes in history sliced through thetowns of Newcastle and Moore, Oklahoma. Inan instant, neighborhoods were destroyed.Dozens of people lost their lives. Many morewere injured. And among the victims wereyoung children, trying to take shelter in thesafest place they knew, their school.

So our prayers are with the people of Okla-homa today.

Our gratitude is with the teachers who gavetheir all to shield their children, with theneighbors, first responders and emergencypersonnel who raced to help as soon as the tor-nado passed, and with all of those who, as dark-ness fell, searched for survivors through thenight.

As a nation, our full focus right now is on theurgent work of rescue and the hard work of re-covery and rebuilding that lies ahead.

Yesterday I spoke with Governor Fallin tomake it clear to Oklahomans that they wouldhave all the resources that they need at theirdisposal. Last night, I issued a disaster declara-tion to expedite those resources, to support theGovernor’s team in the immediate response,and to offer direct assistance to folks who havesuffered loss. I also just spoke with MayorLewis of Moore, Oklahoma, to ensure that he’sgetting everything that he needs.

I’ve met with Secretary Napolitano thismorning and my Homeland Security andCounterterrorism Adviser, Lisa Monaco, tounderscore that point that Oklahoma needs toget everything that it needs right away. TheFEMA Administrator, Craig Fugate, is on hisway to Oklahoma as we speak. FEMA staff wasfirst deployed to Oklahoma’s Emergency Op-

erations Center on Sunday, as the State alreadywas facing down the first wave of deadly torna-does. Yesterday FEMA activated urban searchand rescue teams from Texas, Nebraska, andTennessee to assist in the ongoing search andrescue efforts and a mobile response unit toboost communications and logistical support.

So the people of Moore should know thattheir country will remain on the ground, therefor them, beside them as long as it takes. Forthere are homes and schools to rebuild, busi-nesses and hospitals to reopen, there are par-ents to console, first responders to comfort,and of course, frightened children who willneed our continued love and attention.

There are empty spaces where there used tobe living rooms, and bedrooms, and class-rooms, and in time, we’re going to need to re-fill those spaces with love and laughter andcommunity.

We don’t yet know the full extent of thedamage from this week’s storm. We don’tknow both the human and economic lossesthat may have occurred. We know that severerumbling of weather, bad weather, throughmuch of the country still continues, and we’realso preparing for a hurricane season that be-gins next week.

But if there is hope to hold on to—not justin Oklahoma, but around the country—it’s theknowledge that the good people there and inOklahoma are better prepared for this type ofstorm than most. And what they can be certainof is that Americans from every corner of thiscountry will be right there with them, openingour homes, our hearts to those in need. Be-cause we’re a nation that stands with our fellowcitizens as long as it takes. We’ve seen thatspirit in Joplin, in Tuscaloosa; we saw that spir-it in Boston and Breezy Point. And that’s what

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the people of Oklahoma are going to needfrom us right now.

For those of you who want to help, you cango online right now to the American Red Cross,which is already on the ground in Moore. Al-ready we’ve seen the University of Oklahomaannounce that it will provide housing for dis-placed families. We’ve seen local churches andcompanies open their doors and their wallets.And last night the people of Joplin dispatched ateam to help the people of Moore.

So for all those who’ve been affected, werecognize that you face a long road ahead. In

some cases, there will be enormous grief thathas to be absorbed, but you will not travel thatpath alone. Your country will travel it with you,fueled by our faith in the Almighty and ourfaith in one another.

So our prayers are with the people of Okla-homa today. And we will back up those prayerswith deeds for as long as it takes.


NOTE: The President spoke at 10:08 a.m. inthe State Dining Room at the White House.

Statement on Senate Action on Immigration Reform LegislationMay 21, 2013

I congratulate the Senate Judiciary Commit-tee on completing its work on S. 744, the Bor-der Security, Economic Opportunity, and Im-migration Modernization Act. Thanks to theleadership of Chairman Leahy and a bipartisangroup of eight Senators, the legislation thatpassed the Judiciary Committee with a strongbipartisan vote is largely consistent with theprinciples of commonsense reform I have pro-posed and meets the challenge of fixing ourbroken immigration system. The process forconsidering this legislation has been open andinclusive with multiple hearings, and morethan a hundred amendments were consideredand adopted, in many cases with bipartisansupport. I applaud the committee members for

their hard work, especially Gang of Eightmembers, Senators Schumer, Durbin, Gra-ham, and Flake. None of the committee mem-bers got everything they wanted, and neitherdid I, but in the end, we all owe it to the Amer-ican people to get the best possible result overthe finish line. I encourage the full Senate tobring this bipartisan bill to the floor at the ear-liest possible opportunity and remain hopefulthat the amendment process will lead to fur-ther improvements.

NOTE: The statement referred to Sens. MarcoA. Rubio, John S. McCain III, Robert Menen-dez, and Michael F. Bennet.

Remarks at PBS’s “Carole King: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize forPopular Song In Performance at the White House”May 22, 2013

Thank you. I have to say that as the podiumcame out, which meant that was my cue, mymother-in-law said, “Oh, shoot.” [Laughter]True story! She was getting into the music.[Laughter] Welcome to the White House, ev-erybody.

I want to start by thanking all the incredibleartists who have joined us to pay tribute to theone and only Carole King. I also want to thankDr. James Billington and all the folks at the Li-

brary of Congress not just for making thisevent possible, but for the outstanding workthat they do every day to preserve the very bestof our culture for generations to come.

Of course, as we gather tonight to presentthis award, our thoughts and prayers remainwith the wonderful people of Oklahoma. Theyhave suffered mightily this week. And whilethe road ahead will be long, their country willbe with them every single step of the way.

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That’s who we are, and that’s how we treat ourfamily and friends and our neighbors whereverthey are in the country. So we’re going to helpthem recover. We’re going to help them re-build for as long as it takes. And eventually, lifewill go on and new memories will be made.And new laughter will come. New songs will besung.

And that’s often why we turn to music, dur-ing trying times, for comfort and for inspira-tion, and sometimes, just for a good diversion.And George Gershwin, it was said, was a “manwho lives in music,” who “expresses every-thing, serious or not, sound or superficial, bymeans of music, because it is his native lan-guage.” And I can’t think of a better descrip-tion of tonight’s Gershwin Prize recipient,singer-songwriter Carole King.

By the age of 4, Carole was already master-ing the piano. By 15, she had already conduct-ed her first orchestra. By 17, she had alreadywritten her first number-one hit, which you’vealready heard, “Will You Love Me Tomor-row?” with Gerry Goffin. So, at this point, all ofyou are feeling like underachievers. I under-stand. [Laughter] It was pretty clear by thistime that this promising young musician fromNew York, who grew up not far from whereGeorge and Ira Gershwin were born, was des-tined for similar heights.

Whether it was Little Eva telling us to do“The Loco-Motion” or Aretha Franklin beltingout the anthem of “A Natural Woman” orJames Taylor reminding us that even here inWashington, “You’ve Got a Friend”—[laugh-ter]—for an entire decade, behind so many ofthe songs that touched our hearts, behind somany of the lyrics that stirred our soul, therewas Carole, ever joyful, ever uplifting.

And then, in 1971, came the biggest breakof all, when she showed the world that she

couldn’t just write hit songs, she could singthem too. Her album “Tapestry” struck a chordwith a whole new legion of fans, including me.It was the very first solo album by a female art-ist to reach diamond status, meaning it soldmore than 10 million copies. It was the first al-bum by a female artist to win all the top Gram-my awards for record, song, and album of theyear, along with the Grammy for best pop vo-cal performance. And as one of the best sellingalbums of all time, it cemented Carole’s statusas one of the most influential singer-songwrit-ers that America has ever seen.

To date, Carole has written more than 400compositions that have been recorded by over1,000 artists, resulting in over 100 hits. She’sdone everything from doo-wop to pop. She’splayed with everyone from Bono to Babyface.She’s been inducted into the Songwriters Hallof Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.And tonight she’s still reaching new heights,becoming the first female artist to win the Ger-shwin Prize for Popular Song.

As Carole tells it, the secret to her success isthat “I try to get out of the way and let the pro-cess be guided by whatever is driving me.”That’s what makes her songs so personal and sopowerful, so enduring. Like the Gershwins, it’snot just that Carole lives the music, it’s thatmusic lives in her.

So tonight it is my great pleasure to presentAmerica’s highest award for popular music to aliving legend, Carole King.

NOTE: The President spoke at 8:32 p.m. in theEast Room at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to his mother-in-law Mari-an Robinson; lyricist Gerry Goffin; and musi-cians Paul D. “Bono” Hewson and Kenneth B.“Babyface” Edmonds.

Remarks at National Defense UniversityMay 23, 2013

The President. Good afternoon, everybody.Please be seated.

It is a great honor to return to the NationalDefense University. Here at Fort McNair,

Americans have served in uniform since 1791,standing guard in the earliest days of the Re-public and contemplating the future of warfarehere in the 21st century.

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For over two centuries, the United Stateshas been bound together by founding docu-ments that defined who we are as Americansand served as our compass through every typeof change. Matters of war and peace are no dif-ferent. Americans are deeply ambivalent aboutwar, but having fought for our independence,we know a price must be paid for freedom.From the Civil War to our struggle against fas-cism, on through the long twilight struggle ofthe cold war, battlefields have changed, andtechnology has evolved. But our commitmentto constitutional principles has weathered ev-ery war, and every war has come to an end.

And with the collapse of the Berlin Wall, anew dawn of democracy took hold abroad, anda decade of peace and prosperity arrived hereat home. And for a moment, it seemed the 21stcentury would be a tranquil time. And then, onSeptember 11, 2001, we were shaken out ofcomplacency. Thousands were taken from us,as clouds of fire and metal and ash descendedupon a sun-filled morning. This was a differentkind of war. No armies came to our shores, andour military was not the principal target. In-stead, a group of terrorists came to kill as manycivilians as they could.

And so our Nation went to war. We havenow been at war for well over a decade. I won’treview the full history. What is clear is that wequickly drove Al Qaida out of Afghanistan, butthen shifted our focus and began a new war inIraq. And this carried significant consequencesfor our fight against Al Qaida, our standing inthe world, and to this day, our interests in a vi-tal region.

Meanwhile, we strengthened our defenses:hardening targets, tightening transportation se-curity, giving law enforcement new tools toprevent terror. Most of these changes weresound. Some caused inconvenience. But some,like expanded surveillance, raised difficultquestions about the balance that we strike be-tween our interests in security and our valuesof privacy. And in some cases, I believe wecompromised our basic values, by using tortureto interrogate our enemies and detaining indi-viduals in a way that ran counter to the rule oflaw.

So, after I took office, we stepped up thewar against Al Qaida, but we also sought tochange its course. We relentlessly targeted AlQaida’s leadership. We ended the war in Iraqand brought nearly 150,000 troops home. Wepursued a new strategy in Afghanistan and in-creased our training of Afghan forces. We un-equivocally banned torture, affirmed our com-mitment to civilian courts, worked to align ourpolicies with the rule of law, and expanded ourconsultations with Congress.

Today, Usama bin Laden is dead, and so aremost of his top lieutenants. There have beenno large-scale attacks on the United States, andour homeland is more secure. Fewer of ourtroops are in harm’s way, and over the next 19months, they will continue to come home. Ouralliances are strong, and so is our standing inthe world. In sum, we are safer because of ourefforts.

Now, make no mistake, our Nation is stillthreatened by terrorists. From Benghazi toBoston, we have been tragically reminded ofthat truth. But we have to recognize that thethreat has shifted and evolved from the onethat came to our shores on 9/11. With a decadeof experience now to draw from, this is the mo-ment to ask ourselves hard questions about thenature of today’s threats and how we shouldconfront them. And these questions matter toevery American.

For over the last decade, our Nation hasspent well over a trillion dollars on war, help-ing to explode our deficits and constraining ourability to nation-build here at home. Our ser-vicemembers and their families have sacrificedfar more on our behalf. Nearly 7,000 Ameri-cans have made the ultimate sacrifice. Manymore have left a part of themselves on the bat-tlefield or brought the shadows of battle backhome. From our use of drones to the detentionof terror suspects, the decisions that we aremaking now will define the type of nation andworld that we leave to our children.

So America is at a crossroads. We must de-fine the nature and scope of this struggle, orelse, it will define us. We have to be mindful ofJames Madison’s warning that “no nation couldpreserve its freedom in the midst of continual

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warfare.” Neither I, nor any President, canpromise the total defeat of terror. We will nev-er erase the evil that lies in the hearts of somehuman beings, nor stamp out every danger toour open society. But what we can do—whatwe must do—is dismantle networks that pose adirect danger to us and make it less likely fornew groups to gain a foothold, all the whilemaintaining the freedoms and ideals that wedefend. And to define that strategy, we have tomake decisions based not on fear, but on hard-earned wisdom. And that begins with under-standing the current threat that we face.

Today, the core of Al Qaida in Afghanistanand Pakistan is on the path to defeat. Their re-maining operatives spend more time thinkingabout their own safety than plotting against us.They did not direct the attacks in Benghazi orBoston. They’ve not carried out a successful at-tack on our homeland since 9/11.

Instead, what we’ve seen is the emergenceof various Al Qaida affiliates. From Yemen toIraq, from Somalia to North Africa, the threattoday is more diffuse, with Al Qaida’s affiliatesin the Arabian Peninsula, AQAP, the most ac-tive in plotting against our homeland. Andwhile none of AQAP’s efforts approach thescale of 9/11, they have continued to plot actsof terror, like the attempt to blow up an air-plane on Christmas Day in 2009.

Unrest in the Arab world has also allowedextremists to gain a foothold in countries likeLibya and Syria. But here too, there are differ-ences from 9/11. In some cases, we continue toconfront state-sponsored networks like Hizbal-lah that engage in acts of terror to achieve po-litical goals. Other of these groups are simplycollections of local militias or extremists inter-ested in seizing territory. And while we are vig-ilant for signs that these groups may pose atransnational threat, most are focused on oper-ating in the countries and regions where theyare based. And that means we’ll face more lo-calized threats like the—what we saw in Beng-hazi or the BP oil facility in Algeria, in whichlocal operatives, perhaps in loose affiliationwith regional networks, launch periodic attacksagainst Western diplomats, companies, andother soft targets or resort to kidnapping and

other criminal enterprises to fund their opera-tions.

And finally, we face a real threat from radi-calized individuals here in the United States.Whether it’s a shooter at a Sikh temple in Wis-consin, a plane flying into a building in Texas,or the extremists who killed 168 people at theFederal Building in Oklahoma City, Americahas confronted many forms of violent extrem-ism in our history. Deranged or alienated indi-viduals—often U.S. citizens or legal resi-dents—can do enormous damage, particularlywhen inspired by larger notions of violent ji-had. And that pull towards extremism appearsto have led to the shooting at Fort Hood andthe bombing of the Boston Marathon.

So that’s the current threat: lethal yet lesscapable Al Qaida affiliates, threats to diplomat-ic facilities and businesses abroad, homegrownextremists. This is the future of terrorism. Wehave to take these threats seriously and do allthat we can to confront them. But as we shapeour response, we have to recognize that thescale of this threat closely resembles the typesof attacks we faced before 9/11.

In the 1980s, we lost Americans to terrorismat our Embassy in Beirut, at our Marine Bar-racks in Lebanon, on a cruise ship at sea, at adisco in Berlin, and on a Pan Am flight—Flight103—over Lockerbie. In the 1990s, we lostAmericans to terrorism at the World TradeCenter, at our military facilities in Saudi Ara-bia, and at our Embassy in Kenya. These at-tacks were all brutal, they were all deadly, andwe learned that left unchecked, these threatscan grow. But if dealt with smartly and propor-tionally, these threats need not rise to the levelthat we saw on the eve of 9/11.

Moreover, we have to recognize that thesethreats don’t arise in a vacuum. Most, thoughnot all, of the terrorism we faced is fueled by acommon ideology, a belief by some extremiststhat Islam is in conflict with the United Statesand the West and that violence against West-ern targets, including civilians, is justified inpursuit of a larger cause. Of course, this ideolo-gy is based on a lie, for the United States is notat war with Islam. And this ideology is rejected

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by the vast majority of Muslims, who are themost frequent victims of terrorist attacks.

Nevertheless, this ideology persists, and inan age when ideas and images can travel theglobe in an instant, our response to terrorismcan’t depend on military or law enforcementalone. We need all elements of national powerto win a battle of wills, a battle of ideas. Sowhat I want to discuss here today is the compo-nents of such a comprehensive counterterror-ism strategy.

First, we must finish the work of defeatingAl Qaida and its associated forces.

In Afghanistan, we will complete our transi-tion to Afghan responsibility for that country’ssecurity. Our troops will come home. Ourcombat mission will come to an end. And wewill work with the Afghan Government to trainsecurity forces and sustain a counterterrorismforce, which ensures that Al Qaida can neveragain establish a safe haven to launch attacksagainst us or our allies.

Now, beyond Afghanistan, we must defineour effort not as a boundless global war on ter-ror, but rather, as a series of persistent, target-ed efforts to dismantle specific networks of vio-lent extremists that threaten America. In manycases, this will involve partnerships with othercountries. Already, thousands of Pakistani sol-diers have lost their lives fighting extremists. InYemen, we are supporting security forces thathave reclaimed territory from AQAP. In Soma-lia, we helped a coalition of African nationspush Al Shabaab out of its strongholds. In Ma-li, we’re providing military aid to French-ledintervention to push back Al Qaida in theMaghreb and help the people of Mali reclaimtheir future.

Much of our best counterterrorism coopera-tion results in the gathering and sharing of in-telligence, the arrest and prosecution of terror-ists. That’s how a Somali terrorist apprehendedoff the coast of Yemen is now in a prison inNew York. That’s how we worked with Euro-pean allies to disrupt plots from Denmark toGermany to the United Kingdom. That’s howintelligence collected with Saudi Arabia helpedus stop a cargo plane from being blown up overthe Atlantic. These partnerships work.

But despite our strong preference for thedetention and prosecution of terrorists, some-times, this approach is foreclosed. Al Qaidaand its affiliates try to gain footholds in some ofthe most distant and unforgiving places onEarth. They take refuge in remote tribal re-gions. They hide in caves and walled com-pounds. They train in empty deserts and rug-ged mountains.

In some of these places, such as parts of So-malia and Yemen, the state only has the mosttenuous reach into the territory. In other cases,the state lacks the capacity or will to take ac-tion. And it’s also not possible for America tosimply deploy a team of special forces to cap-ture every terrorist. Even when such an ap-proach may be possible, there are places whereit would pose profound risks to our troops andlocal civilians, where a terrorist compound can-not be breached without triggering a firefightwith surrounding tribal communities, for ex-ample, that pose no threat to us; times whenputting U.S. boots on the ground may trigger amajor international crisis.

To put it another way, our operation in Paki-stan against Usama bin Laden cannot be thenorm. The risks in that case were immense.The likelihood of capture, although that wasour preference, was remote given the certaintythat our folks would confront resistance. Thefact that we did not find ourselves confrontedwith civilian casualties or embroiled in an ex-tended firefight was a testament to the meticu-lous planning and professionalism of our spe-cial forces, but it also depended on some luck.And it was supported by massive infrastructurein Afghanistan.

And even then, the cost to our relationshipwith Pakistan and the backlash among the Pak-istani public over encroachment on their terri-tory was so severe that we are just now begin-ning to rebuild this important partnership.

So it is in this context that the United Stateshas taken lethal, targeted action against Al Qai-da and its associated forces, including with re-motely piloted aircraft, commonly referred toas drones.

As was true in previous armed conflicts, thisnew technology raises profound questions:

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about who is targeted and why, about civiliancasualties and the risk of creating new ene-mies, about the legality of such strikes underU.S. and international law, about accountabili-ty and morality. So let me address these ques-tions.

To begin with, our actions are effective.Don’t take my word for it. In the intelligencegathered at bin Laden’s compound, we foundthat he wrote: “We could lose the reserves toenemy’s air strikes. We cannot fight air strikeswith explosives.” Other communications fromAl Qaida operatives confirm this as well. Doz-ens of highly skilled Al Qaida commanders,trainers, bomb makers, and operatives havebeen taken off the battlefield. Plots have beendisrupted that would have targeted interna-tional aviation, U.S. transit systems, Europeancities, and our troops in Afghanistan. Simplyput: These strikes have saved lives.

Moreover, America’s actions are legal. Wewere attacked on 9/11. Within a week, Con-gress overwhelmingly authorized the use offorce. Under domestic law and internationallaw, the United States is at war with Al Qaida,the Taliban, and their associated forces. Weare at war with an organization that right nowwould kill as many Americans as they could ifwe did not stop them first. So this is a just war,a war waged proportionally, in last resort, andin self-defense.

And yet, as our fight enters a new phase,America’s legitimate claim of self-defense can-not be the end of the discussion. To say a mili-tary tactic is legal, or even effective, is not tosay it is wise or moral in every instance. For thesame progress that gives us the technology tostrike half a world away also demands the disci-pline to constrain that power or risk abusing it.And that’s why, over the last 4 years, my ad-ministration has worked vigorously to establisha framework that governs our use of forceagainst terrorists—insisting upon clear guide-lines, oversight, and accountability—that isnow codified in a Presidential policy guidancethat I signed yesterday.

In the Afghan war theater, we must and willcontinue to support our troops until the transi-tion is complete at the end of 2014. And that

means we will continue to take strikes againsthigh-value Al Qaida targets, but also againstforces that are massing to support attacks oncoalition forces. But by the end of 2014, wewill no longer have the same need for forceprotection, and the progress we’ve madeagainst core Al Qaida will reduce the need forunmanned strikes.

Beyond the Afghan theater, we only targetAl Qaida and its associated forces. And eventhen, the use of drones is heavily constrained.America does not take strikes when we havethe ability to capture individual terrorists. Ourpreference is always to detain, interrogate, andprosecute. America cannot take strikes wher-ever we choose; our actions are bound by con-sultations with partners and respect for statesovereignty.

America does not take strikes to punish indi-viduals; we act against terrorists who pose acontinuing and imminent threat to the Ameri-can people and when there are no other gov-ernments capable of effectively addressing thethreat. And before any strike is taken, theremust be near certainty that no civilians will bekilled or injured, the highest standard we canset.

Now, this last point is critical, because muchof the criticism about drone strikes, both hereat home and abroad, understandably centerson reports of civilian casualties. There’s a widegap between U.S. assessments of such casual-ties and nongovernmental reports. Neverthe-less, it is a hard fact that U.S. strikes have re-sulted in civilian casualties, a risk that exists inevery war. And for the families of those civil-ians, no words or legal construct can justifytheir loss. For me and those in my chain ofcommand, those deaths will haunt us as long aswe live, just as we are haunted by the civiliancasualties that have occurred throughout con-ventional fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.

But as Commander in Chief, I must weighthese heartbreaking tragedies against the alter-natives. To do nothing in the face of terroristnetworks would invite far more civilian casual-ties, not just in our cities at home and our facil-ities abroad, but also in the very places like Sa-na’a and Kabul and Mogadishu where

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terrorists seek a foothold. Remember that theterrorists we are after target civilians and thedeath toll from their acts of terrorism againstMuslims dwarfs any estimate of civilian casual-ties from drone strikes. So doing nothing is notan option.

Where foreign governments cannot or willnot effectively stop terrorism in their territory,the primary alternative to targeted lethal actionwould be the use of conventional military op-tions. As I’ve already said, even small specialoperations carry enormous risks. Conventionalairpower or missiles are far less precise thandrones and are likely to cause more civilian ca-sualties and more local outrage. And invasionsof these territories lead us to be viewed as oc-cupying armies, unleash a torrent of unintend-ed consequences, are difficult to contain, resultin large numbers of civilian casualties, and ulti-mately, empower those who thrive on violentconflict.

So it is false to assert that putting boots onthe ground is less likely to result in civiliandeaths or less likely to create enemies in theMuslim world. The results would be more U.S.deaths, more Black Hawks down, more con-frontations with local populations, and an inev-itable mission creep in support of such raidsthat could easily escalate into new wars.

Yes, the conflict with Al Qaida, like allarmed conflict, invites tragedy. But by narrow-ly targeting our action against those who wantto kill us and not the people they hide among,we are choosing the course of action least likelyto result in the loss of innocent life.

Our efforts must be measured against thehistory of putting American troops in distantlands among hostile populations. In Vietnam,hundreds of thousands of civilians died in a warwhere the boundaries of battle were blurred.In Iraq and Afghanistan, despite the extraordi-nary courage and discipline of our troops,thousands of civilians have been killed. So nei-ther conventional military action nor waitingfor attacks to occur offers moral safe harbor,and neither does a sole reliance on law en-forcement in territories that have no function-ing police or security services and, indeed,have no functioning law.

Now, this is not to say that the risks are notreal. Any U.S. military action in foreign landsrisks creating more enemies and impacts pub-lic opinion overseas. Moreover, our laws con-strain the power of the President, even duringwartime, and I have taken an oath to defendthe Constitution of the United States. The veryprecision of drone strikes and the necessary se-crecy often involved in such actions can end upshielding our Government from the publicscrutiny that a troop deployment invites. It canalso lead a President and his team to viewdrone strikes as a cure-all for terrorism.

Now, for this reason, I’ve insisted on strongoversight of all lethal action. After I took office,my administration began briefing all strikesoutside of Iraq and Afghanistan to the appro-priate committees of Congress. Let me repeatthat: Not only did Congress authorize the useof force, it is briefed on every strike that Amer-ica takes—every strike. That includes the oneinstance where we target—targeted an Ameri-can citizen: Anwar Awlaki, the chief of externaloperations for AQAP.

Now, this week, I authorized the declassifi-cation of this action and the deaths of threeother Americans in drone strikes to facilitatetransparency and debate on this issue and todismiss some of the more outlandish claimsthat have been made. For the record, I do notbelieve it would be constitutional for the Gov-ernment to target and kill any U.S. citizen witha drone or with a shotgun, without due pro-cess; nor should any President deploy armeddrones over U.S. soil.

But when a U.S. citizen goes abroad to wagewar against America and is actively plotting tokill U.S. citizens and when neither the UnitedStates, nor our partners are in a position tocapture him before he carries out a plot, hiscitizenship should no more serve as a shieldthan a sniper shooting down on an innocentcrowd should be protected from a SWATteam.

That’s who Anwar Awlaki was; he was con-tinuously trying to kill people. He helped over-see the 2010 plot to detonate explosive deviceson two U.S.-bound cargo planes. He was in-volved in planning to blow up an airliner in

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2009. When Farouk Abdulmutallab, theChristmas Day bomber, went to Yemen in2009, Awlaki hosted him, approved his suicideoperation, helped him tape a martyrdom videoto be shown after the attack, and his last in-structions were to blow up the airplane when itwas over American soil. I would have detainedand prosecuted Awlaki if we captured him be-fore he carried out a plot, but we couldn’t. Andas President, I would have been derelict in myduty had I not authorized the strike that tookhim out.

Of course, the targeting of any Americanraises constitutional issues that are not presentin other strikes, which is why my administra-tion submitted information about Awlaki to theDepartment of Justice months before Awlakiwas killed and briefed the Congress before thisstrike as well. But the high threshold thatwe’ve set for taking lethal action applies to allpotential terrorist targets, regardless of wheth-er or not they are American citizens. Thisthreshold respects the inherent dignity of ev-ery human life. Alongside the decision to putour men and women in uniform in harm’s way,the decision to use force against individuals orgroups, even against a sworn enemy of theUnited States, is the hardest thing I do as Pres-ident. But these decisions must be made, givenmy responsibility to protect the American peo-ple.

Now, going forward, I’ve asked my adminis-tration to review proposals to extend oversightof lethal actions outside of war zones that gobeyond our reporting to Congress. Each optionhas virtues in theory, but poses difficulties inpractice. For example, the establishment of aspecial court to evaluate and authorize the le-thal action has the benefit of bringing a thirdbranch of Government into the process, butraises serious constitutional issues about Presi-dential and judicial authority. Another ideathat’s been suggested, the establishment of anindependent oversight board in the executivebranch, avoids those problems, but may intro-duce a layer of bureaucracy into national secu-rity decisionmaking, without inspiring addi-tional public confidence in the process. Butdespite these challenges, I look forward to ac-

tively engaging Congress to explore these andother options for increased oversight.

I believe, however, that the use of forcemust be seen as part of a larger discussion weneed to have about a comprehensive counter-terrorism strategy, because for all the focus onthe use of force, force alone cannot make ussafe. We cannot use force everywhere that aradical ideology takes root. And in the absenceof a strategy that reduces the wellspring of ex-tremism, a perpetual war—through drones orspecial forces or troop deployments—willprove self-defeating, and alter our country introubling ways.

So the next element of our strategy involvesaddressing the underlying grievances and con-flicts that feed extremism, from North Africato South Asia. As we’ve learned this past de-cade, this is a vast and complex undertaking.We must be humble in our expectation that wecan quickly resolve deep-rooted problems likepoverty and sectarian hatred. Moreover, notwo countries are alike, and some will undergochaotic change before things get better. Butour security and our values demand that wemake the effort.

This means patiently supporting transitionsto democracy in places like Egypt and Tunisiaand Libya, because the peaceful realization ofindividual aspirations will serve as a rebuke toviolent extremism. We must strengthen the op-position in Syria, while isolating extremist ele-ments, because the end of a tyrant must notgive way to the tyranny of terrorism. We areactively working to promote peace between Is-raelis and Palestinians because it is right andbecause such a peace could help reshape atti-tudes in the region. And we must help coun-tries modernize economies, upgrade educa-tion, and encourage entrepreneurship, becauseAmerican leadership has always been elevatedby our ability to connect with people’s hopesand not simply their fears.

Success on all these fronts requires sus-tained engagement, but it will also require re-sources. I know that foreign aid is one of theleast popular expenditures that there is. That’strue for Democrats and Republicans—I’veseen the polling—even though it amounts to

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less than 1 percent of the Federal budget. Infact, a lot of folks think it’s 25 percent, if youask people on the streets. Less than 1 percent,still wildly unpopular. But foreign assistancecannot be viewed as charity. It is fundamentalto our national security. And it’s fundamentalto any sensible long-term strategy to battle ex-tremism.

Moreover, foreign assistance is a tiny frac-tion of what we spend fighting wars that our as-sistance might ultimately prevent. For what wespent in a month in Iraq at the height of thewar, we could be training security forces inLibya, maintaining peace agreements betweenIsrael and its neighbors, feeding the hungry inYemen, building schools in Pakistan, and creat-ing reservoirs of good will that marginalize ex-tremists. So that has to be part of our strategy.

Moreover, America cannot carry out thiswork if we don’t have diplomats serving insome very dangerous places. Over the past de-cade, we have strengthened security at ourEmbassies, and I am implementing every rec-ommendation of the Accountability ReviewBoard, which found unacceptable failures inBenghazi. I’ve called on Congress to fully fundthese efforts to bolster security and harden fa-cilities, improve intelligence, and facilitate aquicker response time from our military if acrisis emerges.

But even after we take these steps, some ir-reducible risks to our diplomats will remain.This is the price of being the world’s mostpowerful nation, particularly as a wave ofchange washes over the Arab world. And inbalancing the tradeoffs between security andactive diplomacy, I firmly believe that any re-treat from challenging regions will only in-crease the dangers that we face in the long run.And that’s why we should be grateful to thosediplomats who are willing to serve there.

Targeted action against terrorists, effectivepartnerships, diplomatic engagement and as-sistance—through such a comprehensive strat-egy, we can significantly reduce the chances oflarge-scale attacks on the homeland and miti-gate threats to Americans overseas. But as weguard against dangers from abroad, we cannot

neglect the daunting challenge of terrorismfrom within our borders.

As I said earlier, this threat is not new. Buttechnology and the Internet increase its fre-quency and, in some cases, its lethality. Today,a person can consume hateful propaganda,commit themselves to a violent agenda, andlearn how to kill without leaving their home.To address this threat, 2 years ago, my admin-istration did a comprehensive review and en-gaged with law enforcement.

And the best way to prevent violent extrem-ism inspired by violent jihadists is to work withthe Muslim American community, which hasconsistently rejected terrorism, to identifysigns of radicalization and partner with law en-forcement when an individual is drifting to-wards violence. And these partnerships can on-ly work when we recognize that Muslims are afundamental part of the American family. Infact, the success of American Muslims and ourdetermination to guard against any encroach-ments on their civil liberties is the ultimate re-buke to those who say that we’re at war with Is-lam.

Now, thwarting homegrown plots presentsparticular challenges in part because of ourproud commitment to civil liberties for all whocall America home. That’s why, in the years tocome, we will have to keep working hard tostrike the appropriate balance between ourneed for security and preserving those free-doms that make us who we are. That means re-viewing the authorities of law enforcement sowe can intercept new types of communication,but also build in privacy protections to preventabuse.

That means that—even after Boston—wedo not deport someone or throw somebody inprison in the absence of evidence. That meansputting careful constraints on the tools theGovernment uses to protect sensitive informa-tion, such as the state secrets doctrine. Andthat means finally having a strong Privacy andCivil Liberties Board to review those issueswhere our counterterrorism efforts and ourvalues may come into tension.

The Justice Department’s investigation ofnational security leaks offers a recent example

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of the challenges involved in striking the rightbalance between our security and our open so-ciety. As Commander in Chief, I believe wemust keep information secret that protects ouroperations and our people in the field. To doso, we must enforce consequences for thosewho break the law and breach their commit-ment to protect classified information. But afree press is also essential for our democracy.That’s who we are. And I’m troubled by thepossibility that leak investigations may chill theinvestigative journalism that holds govern-ment accountable.

Journalists should not be at legal risk for do-ing their jobs. Our focus must be on those whobreak the law. And that’s why I’ve called onCongress to pass a media shield law to guardagainst Government overreach. And I’ve raisedthese issues with the Attorney General, whoshares my concerns. So he has agreed to reviewexisting Department of Justice guidelines gov-erning investigations that involve reporters,and he’ll convene a group of media organiza-tions to hear their concerns as part of that re-view. And I’ve directed the Attorney Generalto report back to me by July 12.

Now, all these issues remind us that thechoices we make about war can impact—insometimes unintended ways—the opennessand freedom on which our way of life depends.And that is why I intend to engage Congressabout the existing authorization to use militaryforce, or AUMF, to determine how we cancontinue to fight terrorism without keepingAmerica on a perpetual wartime footing.

The AUMF is now nearly 12 years old. TheAfghan war is coming to an end. Core Al Qaidais a shell of its former self. Groups like AQAPmust be dealt with, but in the years to come,not every collection of thugs that labels them-selves Al Qaida will pose a credible threat tothe United States. Unless we discipline ourthinking, our definitions, our actions, we maybe drawn into more wars we don’t need to fightor continue to grant Presidents unbound pow-ers more suited for traditional armed conflictsbetween nation-states.

So I look forward to engaging Congress andthe American people in efforts to refine, and

ultimately repeal, the AUMF’s mandate. And Iwill not sign laws designed to expand this man-date further. Our systematic effort to disman-tle terrorist organizations must continue. Butthis war, like all wars, must end. That’s whathistory advises. That’s what our democracy de-mands.

And that brings me to my final topic: the de-tention of terror suspects. I’m going to repeatone more time: As a matter of policy, the pref-erence of the United States is to capture ter-rorist suspects. When we do detain a suspect,we interrogate them. And if the suspect can beprosecuted, we decide whether to try him in acivilian court or a military commission.

During the past decade, the vast majority ofthose detained by our military were capturedon the battlefield. In Iraq, we turned overthousands of prisoners as we ended the war. InAfghanistan, we have transitioned detention fa-cilities to the Afghans, as part of the process ofrestoring Afghan sovereignty. So we bring law-of-war detention to an end, and we are com-mitted to prosecuting terrorists wherever wecan.

The glaring exception to this time-tested ap-proach is the detention center at GuantanamoBay. The original premise for opening Git-mo—that detainees would not be able to chal-lenge their detention—was found unconstitu-tional 5 years ago. In the meantime, Gitmo hasbecome a symbol around the world for anAmerica that flouts the rule of law. Our allieswon’t cooperate with us if they think a terroristwill end up at Gitmo.

During a time of budget cuts, we spend$150 million each year to imprison 166 people,almost a million dollars per prisoner. And theDepartment of Defense estimates that wemust spend another 200 million to keep Gitmoopen at a time when we’re cutting investmentsin education and research here at home andwhen the Pentagon is struggling with sequesterand budget cuts.

Now, as President, I have tried to close Git-mo. I transferred 67 detainees to other coun-tries, before Congress imposed restrictions toeffectively prevent us from either transferring

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detainees to other countries or imprisoningthem here in the United States.

These restrictions make no sense. After all,under President Bush, some 530 detaineeswere transferred from Gitmo with Congress’ssupport. When I ran for President the firsttime, John McCain supported closing Gitmo;this was a bipartisan issue. No person has everescaped one of our supermax or military pris-ons here in the United States—ever. Ourcourts have convicted hundreds of people forterrorism or terrorism-related offenses, includ-ing some folks who are more dangerous thanmost Gitmo detainees. They’re in our prisons.

And given my administration’s relentlesspursuit of Al Qaida’s leadership, there is nojustification, beyond politics, for Congress toprevent us from closing a facility that shouldhave never have been opened.

CODEPINK Cofounder Medea Benjamin.Excuse me, President Obama, you are theCommander in Chief. You have the authori-ty——

The President. Today—[applause]. So—letme finish, ma’am. So today, once again——

Ms. Benjamin. There’s 102 people on a hun-ger strike. These are desperate people.

The President. I’m about to address it,ma’am, but you’ve got to let me speak. I’mabout to address it.

Ms. Benjamin. You are Commander inChief——

The President. Let me address it.Ms. Benjamin. You can close Guantanamo

Bay.The President. Why don’t you let me address

it, ma’am.Ms. Benjamin. [Inaudible]—release those

86 prisoners——The President. Why don’t you sit down, and

I will tell you exactly what I’m going to do.Ms. Benjamin. [Inaudible]—that includes 57

Yemenis.The President. Thank you, ma’am. Thank

you. Thank you. Ma’am, thank you. You shouldlet me finish my sentence.

Today I once again call on Congress to liftthe restrictions on detainee transfers from Git-mo.

I have asked the Department of Defense todesignate a site in the United States where wecan hold military commissions. I’m appointinga new Senior Envoy at the State Departmentand Defense Department whose sole responsi-bility will be to achieve the transfer of detain-ees to third countries.

I am lifting the moratorium on detaineetransfers to Yemen so we can review them on acase-by-case basis. To the greatest extent pos-sible, we will transfer detainees who have beencleared to go to other countries.

Ms. Benjamin. Eighty-seven are cleared al-ready. Release them today.

The President. Where appropriate, we willbring terrorists to justice in our courts and ourmilitary justice system. And we will insist thatjudicial review be available for every detainee.

Ms. Benjamin. It needs to be——The President. Now, ma’am, let me finish.

Let me finish, ma’am. This is—part of freespeech is you being able to speak, but also, youlistening and me being able to speak. All right?[Applause] Thank you.

Now, even after we take these steps one is-sue will remain, which is how to deal withthose Gitmo detainees who we know have par-ticipated in dangerous plots or attacks, but whocannot be prosecuted, for example, becausethe evidence against them has been compro-mised or is inadmissible in a court of law. Butonce we commit to a process of closing Gitmo,I am confident that this legacy problem can beresolved, consistent with our commitment tothe rule of law.

And I know the politics are hard. But historywill cast a harsh judgment on this aspect of ourfight against terrorism and those of us who failto end it. Imagine a future, 10 years from nowor 20 years from now, when the United Statesof America is still holding people who havebeen charged with no crime on a piece of landthat is not part of our country. Look at the cur-rent situation, where we are force-feeding de-tainees who are hold—being held on a hungerstrike. I’m willing to cut the young lady who in-terrupted me some slack because it’s worth be-ing passionate about. Is this who we are? Isthat something our Founders foresaw? Is that

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the America we want to leave our children?Our sense of justice is stronger than that.

We have prosecuted scores of terrorists inour courts. That includes Umar Farouk Abdul-mutallab, who tried to blow up an airplaneover Detroit, and Faisal Shahzad, who put acar bomb in Times Square. It’s in a court of lawthat we will try Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is ac-cused of bombing the Boston Marathon. Rich-ard Reid, the shoe bomber, is, as we speak,serving a life sentence in a maximum securityprison here in the United States. In sentencingReid, Judge William Young told him, “The waywe treat you is the measure of our own liberty.”When we——

Ms. Benjamin. How about Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, 16-year-old boy, killed by a drone?

The President. We went——Ms. Benjamin. Is that the way we treat a 16-

year-old American?The President. He went on——Ms. Benjamin. Why was he killed? Can you

tell us why Abdulrahman al-Awlaki should bekilled? Can you tell the Muslim people theirlives are as precious as our lives? Can you takethe drones out of the hands of the CIA? Canyou stop the signature strikes that are killingpeople on the basis of suspicious activities?

The President. We’re addressing that,ma’am.

Ms. Benjamin. Can you apologize to thethousands of Muslims that you have killed?Will you compensate the innocent family vic-tim? That would make us safer here at home. Ilove my country. I love the rule of law. Butdrones are making us less safe. And keepingpeople in indefinite detention at Guantanamois making us less safe. Abide by the rule of law.You’re a constitutional lawyer.

[At this point, Ms. Benjamin was escorted outof the auditorium.]

The President. I think that the—and I’m go-ing off script, as you might expect here.[Laughter] The voice of that woman is worthpaying attention to. Obviously, I do not agreewith much of what she said, and obviously, shewasn’t listening to me in much of what I said.

But these are tough issues, and the suggestionthat we can gloss over them is wrong.

When that judge sentenced Mr. Reid, theshoe bomber, he went on to point to the Amer-ican flag that flew in the courtroom. “Thatflag,” he said, “will fly there long after this is allforgotten. That flag still stands for freedom.”

So, America, we’ve faced down dangers fargreater than Al Qaida. By staying true to thevalues of our founding and by using our consti-tutional compass, we have overcome slaveryand Civil War and fascism and communism. Injust these last few years as President, I’vewatched the American people bounce backfrom painful recession, mass shootings, naturaldisasters like the recent tornados that devastat-ed Oklahoma. These events were heartbreak-ing; they shook our communities to the core.But because of the resilience of the Americanpeople, these events could not come close tobreaking us.

I think of Lauren Manning, the 9/11 survi-vor who had severe burns over 80 percent ofher body, who said: “That’s my reality. I put aBand-Aid on it, literally, and I move on.” Ithink of the New Yorkers who filled TimesSquare the day after an attempted car bomb asif nothing had happened. I think of the proudPakistani parents who, after their daughter wasinvited to the White House, wrote to us, “Wehave raised an American Muslim daughter todream big and never give up because it doespay off.”

I think of all the wounded warriors rebuild-ing their lives and helping other vets to findjobs. I think of the runner planning to do the2014 Boston Marathon, who said: “Next year,you’re going to have more people than ever.Determination is not something to be messedwith.” That’s who the American people are: de-termined and not to be messed with. And nowwe need a strategy and a politics that reflectsthis resilient spirit.

Our victory against terrorism won’t be mea-sured in a surrender ceremony at a battleshipor a statue being pulled to the ground. Victorywill be measured in parents taking their kids toschool, immigrants coming to our shores, fanstaking in a ballgame, a veteran starting a

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business, a bustling city street, a citizen shout-ing her concerns at a President.

The quiet determination, that strength ofcharacter and bond of fellowship, that refuta-tion of fear—that is both our sword and ourshield. And long after the current messengersof hate have faded from the world’s memory—alongside the brutal despots and derangedmadmen and ruthless demagogues who litterhistory—the flag of the United States will stillwave from small-town cemeteries to nationalmonuments to distant outposts abroad. Andthat flag will still stand for freedom.

Thank you very much, everybody. God blessyou. May God bless the United States of Amer-ica.

NOTE: The President spoke at 2:01 p.m. In hisremarks, he referred to Ahmed AbdulkadirWarsame, an accused member of the AlShabaab terrorist organization in U.S. custodywho pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges; for-mer President George W. Bush; 2008 Republi-can Presidential nominee Sen. John S. McCainIII; and William G. Young, judge, U.S. DistrictCourt for the District of Massachusetts.

Statement on the Attack on a British Servicemember in London, UnitedKingdomMay 23, 2013

I condemn in the strongest terms the appall-ing attack against a British servicemember inWoolwich on May 22. The United Statesstands resolute with the United Kingdom, ourally and friend, against violent extremism andterror. There can be absolutely no justificationfor such acts, and our thoughts and prayers arewith the family of the victim, the police and se-curity services responding to this horrific actand the communities they serve, and the Brit-ish people. Our special relationship with the

United Kingdom is especially important duringtimes of trial, and I look forward to my trip tothe United Kingdom to participate in the JuneG–8 summit hosted by Prime Minister Camer-on, which will include discussions on the im-portant global security challenges our coun-tries face together.

NOTE: The statement referred to Lee Rigby, aBritish servicemember who was killed on May22.

Statement on Senate Confirmation of Srikanth Srinivasan as a Judge on theUnited States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia CircuitMay 23, 2013

I’m pleased the Senate unanimously con-firmed Sri Srinivasan to be a judge on the U.S.Court of Appeals for the District of ColumbiaCircuit. Sri is a trailblazer who personifies thebest of America. Born in Chandigarh, India,and raised in Lawrence, Kansas, Sri spentnearly two decades as an extraordinary litigatorbefore serving as Principal Deputy SolicitorGeneral of the United States. Now he will

serve with distinction on the Federal bench.Sri will in fact be the first South Asian Ameri-can to serve as a circuit court judge in our his-tory. While I applaud the Senate’s action, it’simportant to remember that this confirmationis the first one to this important court in 7years. The three remaining vacancies must befilled, as well as other vacancies across thecountry.

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Commencement Address at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis,MarylandMay 24, 2013

Hello, midshipmen! Well, thank you, Gover-nor O’Malley, for your kind introduction andthe great support that Maryland gives thisAcademy. To Secretary Mabus, AdmiralGreenert, and General Paxton: Thank you allfor your incredible leadership of our extraordi-nary Navy and Marine Corps teams.

To Vice Admiral Miller, thank you for theoutstanding work that you do. To CaptainClark and all the faculty and staff; to the momsand dads who raised your sons and daughtersto seek this life of service; to the local sponsorfamilies who cared for them far from home;the members of the class of 1963—veteranswho’ve guided these midshipmen along theway—today is also a tribute to your supportand your patriotism. And I know that the classof 2013 joins me in saluting your service aswell.

To the entire Brigade of Midshipmen: Youembody the highest virtues of this venerableinstitution. And yet I know that some of you attimes have enjoyed yourselves at other local in-stitutions like McGarvey’s and Armadillo’s. Buttoday is a day of celebration and also forgive-ness. And so, in keeping with tradition, I de-clare all midshipmen on restriction for minorconduct offenses are hereby absolved. As al-ways, Admiral Miller gets to decide what’s “mi-nor.” [Laughter] Some of these guys are laugh-ing a little nervously about that. [Laughter]

Now, obviously, most of all, it is wonderfulto be able to celebrate this incredible class of2013. This has special meaning for me as well,because the United States Naval Academy wasthe very first service academy that I had theprivilege to address as President. On thatspring day 4 years ago, most of you were still inhigh school, finishing your senior year, or atNAPS, finishing up prep school. You were a lit-tle younger, and I was too. You had your entireNaval Academy experience ahead of you; I wasalready getting chest bumps from the gradu-ates of 2009. [Laughter]

Soon after, you came to the Yard, and yougot quite a welcome: the joy of I-Day, wonder-ful haircuts, stylish eyeglasses. And all thatPlebe Year, if you got something wrong, yourupperclassmen kindly corrected you, at highvolume, at very close range. [Laughter] WhenMichelle brought our daughter Sasha here fora visit, she got a somewhat different reception.She was just in elementary school, but itseemed like the Navy was already doing somerecruiting, because as she went through Ban-croft Hall, she came to one room and saw thename on the door: “Sasha Obama, Class of2023.” [Laughter] So you never know.

Today each of you can take enormous pride,for you’ve met the mission of this Academy.You’ve proven yourselves morally, living a con-cept of honor and integrity, and this includestreating one another with respect and recog-nizing the strength of every member of yourteam. You’re the most diverse class to graduatein Naval Academy history. And among themany proud young women graduating today,13 will serve on submarines.

You’ve proven yourselves mentally. Now, Iknow that some think of this as just a small en-gineering school on the Severn. You’ve not on-ly met its rigorous standards, you’ve helpedthis Academy earn a new distinction: the num-ber-one public liberal arts school in America.

And you’ve proven yourselves physically: aHerndon climb of 2 minutes, 5 seconds. Nowthat they put the grease back on, no one willever match your time. [Laughter] More impor-tantly, last month, I welcomed Coach Ken andthe team back to the White House because youbeat Air Force, you beat Army, and youbrought the Commander in Chief’s Trophyback to Annapolis.

So, class of 2013, in your 4 years by theBay, you’ve met every test before you. And to-day is the day that you’ve been counting downto for so long. You will take your oath. Thoseboards and gold bars will be placed on yourshoulders. And as your Commander in Chief,

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I congratulate each of you on becoming ournewest officers: ensigns in the United StatesNavy, second lieutenants in the United StatesMarine Corps.

And soon you will join the fleet. You willlead marines. And just as you’ve changed overthe past 4 years, so too have the challenges fac-ing our military. Before you arrived here, ourNation was engaged in two wars, Al Qaida’sleadership was entrenched in their safe havens,many of our alliances were strained, and ourNation’s standing in the world had suffered.And over the past 4 years, we’ve strengthenedour alliances and restored America’s image inthe world.

The war in Iraq is over, and we welcomedour troops home. Thanks to our brave person-nel—including our incredible Navy SEALs—we delivered justice to Usama bin Laden. InAfghanistan, the transition is underway, ourtroops are coming home, and by the end ofnext year, our war in Afghanistan will come toan end.

And today we salute all the Americans whomade the ultimate sacrifice in these wars, in-cluding 18 graduates of this Academy. We hon-or them all, now and forever.

Yesterday I spoke about the way forward inthe fight to keep our country secure, for evenas we’ve decimated the Al Qaida leadership,we still face threats from Al Qaida affiliates andfrom individuals caught up in its ideology.Even as we move beyond deploying largeground armies abroad, we still need to conductprecise, targeted strikes against terrorists be-fore they kill our citizens. And even as we stayvigilant in the face of terrorism and stay true toour Constitution and our values, we need tostay ready for the full range of threats, from na-tions seeking weapons of mass destruction tocyber criminals seeking to unleash weapons ofmass destruction.

Now, in these tough fiscal times, we alsohave to make hard choices at home, includingin our Armed Forces. But I want you all toknow, as you enter in what I know will be ex-traordinary years of service, let me say as clear-ly as I can: The United States of America willalways maintain our military superiority. And

as your Commander in Chief, I’m going tokeep fighting to give you the equipment andsupport required to meet the missions we askof you, and also to make sure that you are get-ting the pay and the benefits and the supportthat you deserve.

I’ll keep fighting for the capabilities andtechnologies you need to prevail and a ship-building plan that puts us on track to achieve a300-ship fleet, with capabilities that exceed thepower of the next dozen navies combined.

And I’ll keep fighting to end those foolishacross-the-board budget cuts known as the se-quester, which is threatening our readiness.With deficits falling at the fastest rate in de-cades, it’s time for Congress to budget in asmarter way that protects middle class priori-ties, preserves investments in our future, andkeeps our military strong. Because we have thebest trained, best led, best equipped military inhistory, and I am determined to keep it thatway, and Congress should be too.

We need you to project power across theoceans, from the Pacific to the Persian Gulf,100 percent on watch. We need you to partnerwith other navies and militaries, from Africa tothe Americas. We need you to respond withcompassion in times of disaster, as when youhelped respond to Hurricane Sandy. And in allyour work—in your lifetime of service—weneed you to uphold the highest standards of in-tegrity and character.

With the time I have left—and I know it’s alittle wet, but the Superintendent told me thatmarines and folks in the Navy don’t mind a lit-tle water. [Laughter]

With the time I have left, that’s what I wantto discuss today. It’s no secret that in recentdecades, many Americans have lost confidencein many of the institutions that help shape oursociety and our democracy. But I suggest toyou today that institutions do not fail in a vacu-um. Institutions are made up of people, indi-viduals. And we’ve seen how the actions of afew can undermine the integrity of those insti-tutions.

Every day, men and women of talent andskill work in the financial institutions that fundnew businesses and put new families—put

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families in new homes and help students go tocollege. But we’ve also seen how the misdeedsof some—wild risk-taking or putting profits be-fore people—sparked a financial crisis anddeepened the recession that cost millions ofAmericans their jobs.

Every day, elected officials like those on thisstage, but also all across the Nation, devotethemselves to improving our communities andour country. But all too often, we’ve seen a pol-itics where compromise is rejected as a dirtyword and policies are driven by special inter-ests rather than the national interest. And thatbreeds a cynicism that threatens our democra-cy.

Every day, our civil servants do their jobswith professionalism, protecting our nationalsecurity and delivering the services that somany Americans expect. But, as we’ve seenagain in recent days, it only takes the miscon-duct of a few to further erode the people’strust in their government. And that’s unaccept-able to me, and I know it’s unacceptable toyou.

And against this backdrop, what I said here4 years ago remains true today: Our militaryremains the most trusted institution in Ameri-ca. When others have shirked their responsibil-ities, our Armed Forces have met every mis-sion we’ve given them. When others have beendistracted by petty arguments, our men andwomen in uniform come together as oneAmerican team.

And yet we must acknowledge that evenhere, even in our military, we’ve seen how themisconduct of some can have effects that rip-ple far and wide. In our digital age, a single im-age from the battlefield of troops falling shortof their standards can go viral and endangerour forces and undermine our efforts toachieve security and peace. Likewise, thosewho commit sexual assault are not only com-mitting a crime, they threaten the trust anddiscipline that make our military strong. That’swhy we have to be determined to stop thesecrimes, because they’ve got no place in thegreatest military on Earth.

So, class of 2013, I say all this because you’reabout to assume the burden of leadership. As

officers, you will be trusted with the most awe-some of responsibilities: the lives of the menand women under your command. And whenyour service is complete, many of you will goon to help lead your communities, America’scompanies. You will lead this country. And ifwe want to restore the trust that the Americanpeople deserve to have in their institutions, allof us have to do our part. And those of us inleadership—myself included—have to con-stantly strive to remain worthy of the publictrust.

As you go forward in your careers, we needyou to carry forth the values that you’velearned at this institution, because our Nationneeds them now more than ever.

We need your honor, that inner compassthat guides you, not when the path is easy andobvious, but when it’s hard and uncertain; thattells you the difference between that which isright and that which is wrong. Perhaps it willbe a moment when you think nobody is watch-ing. But never forget that honor, like character,is what you do when nobody is looking. Morelikely, it will be when you’re in the spotlight,leading others, the men and women who arelooking up to you to set an example. Never askthem to do what you don’t ask of yourself. Livewith integrity and speak with honesty and takeresponsibility and demand accountability.

We need your honor, and we need yourcourage. Yes, the daring that tells you to movetoward danger when every fiber of your beingsays to turn the other way, but even more thanphysical courage, we need your moral courage:the strength to do what’s right, especially whenit’s unpopular. Because at the end of the dayand at the end of your career, you want to lookin the mirror and say with confidence and withpride, I fulfilled my oath. I did my duty. Istayed true to my values.

We need your honor and courage, and weneed your commitment: that sense of purposethat says I will try even harder, I will do evenbetter in what I expect of myself, in the way Iinteract with others, including those of differ-ent backgrounds. It’s no accident that our mili-tary is the most respected institution in Ameri-ca and one of the most diverse institutions in

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America. So recognize the dignity in every hu-man being. Treat one another with respect.Remember that when we harness the talents ofevery man and every woman from every raceand every religion and every creed, no nationcan ever match us.

And finally, we need your resolve, the samespirit reflected in your class motto: “Surrenderto Nothing.” And if you seek an example, youdon’t need to look far, because not long ago,two midshipmen sat where you sat—from theclass of 2006—and they inspire us today.

Here at the Academy, Brad Snyder was thecaptain of the swim team. He deployed to Af-ghanistan, and while rushing to the aid of histeammates, he stepped on an IED and lostboth his eyes. With the support of family andfriends, Brad learned to feel his way and moveagain. And before long, he was back in theswimming pool, where he said, “I’m free.”Then, just 1 year later, Brad competed at theLondon Paralympics and won three medals, in-cluding two golds.

And when Michelle and I welcomed ourU.S. Olympians to the White House, Bradjoined us standing tall, right in front. And hesaid: “Overcoming adversity is a decision. Youcan let that beat you, or you can make the deci-sion to move forward.”

Here at the Academy, Matt Lampert was onthe rowing team. He deployed to Afghanistanwith his Marine special ops team. And as theyentered a compound, an IED exploded, andMatt lost both his legs. He endured a long andpainful recovery. But with his new legs, helearned to walk again. He practiced, hetrained, and then, he passed his physical testsand deployed to Afghanistan again, a doubleamputee, back in the fight.

And Matt recently completed his tour. He isback home and is looking ahead to many yearsof service. Reflecting on his journey—his mis-sion to return to his unit—he said he was de-termined, “however long it was going to take.”

So, class of 2013, I cannot promise you a lifeof comfort and ease, for you have chosen anancient path—the profession of arms—whichcarries all the perils of our modern world. Andjust as classes before you could not know thatthey would find themselves at Coral Sea orMidway or Fallujah or Helmand, we cannotknow sitting here today where your service willcarry you.

But I do know this. As you say farewell toBancroft Hall, as you make your way downStribling Walk one last time, you’re becomingthe newest link in a storied chain. As I look intoyour eyes today, I see the same confidence andthe same professionalism, the same fidelity toour values of those who have served beforeyou—the Jones and Nimitz and Lejeune andBurke, and yes, the Snyder and the Lampert—Americans who surrendered to nothing.

And I’m absolutely confident that you willuphold the highest of standards and that yourcourage and honor and your commitment willsee us through and that you will always proveyourselves worthy of the trust our Nation isplacing in you today.

So congratulations, class of 2013. God blessour Navy, and God bless our Marine Corps.God bless our Armed Services. God bless theseUnited States of America.

NOTE: The President spoke at 10:29 a.m. atNavy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. In hisremarks, he referred to Gen. John M. Paxton,USMC, Assistant Commandant, and Ken Niu-matalolo, head football coach, U.S. NavalAcademy.


Hi, everybody. This week, I’ve been speak-ing about America’s national security: our past,our present, and our future.

On Thursday, I outlined the future of ourfight against terrorism: the threats we face, andthe way in which we will meet them. On Fri-

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day, I went to Annapolis to celebrate the ex-traordinary young men and women of theUnited States Naval Academy’s class of 2013,the sailors and marines who will not only leadthat fight, but who will lead our country for de-cades to come. And on Monday, we celebrateMemorial Day. Unofficially, it’s the start ofsummer, a chance for us to spend some extratime with family and friends, at barbecues oron the beach, getting a little fun and relaxationin before heading back to work.

It’s also a day on which we set aside sometime, on our own or with our families, to honorand remember all the men and women whohave given their lives in service to this countrywe love. They are heroes, each and every one.They gave America the most precious thingthey had: “the last full measure of devotion.”And because they did, we are who we are to-day: a free and prosperous nation, the greatestin the world.

At a time when only about 1 percent of theAmerican people bear the burden of our de-fense, the service and sacrifice of our men andwomen in uniform isn’t always readily appar-ent. And that’s partly because our soldiers, sail-ors, airmen, marines, and coastguardsmen areso skilled at what they do. It’s also becausethose who serve tend to do so quietly. Theydon’t seek the limelight. They don’t serve forour admiration or even our gratitude. They risktheir lives, and many give their lives, for some-thing larger than themselves or any of us: theideals of liberty and justice that make Americaa beacon of hope for the world.

That’s been true throughout our history,from our earliest days, when a tiny band of rev-olutionaries stood up to an empire, to our 9/11generation, which continues to serve and sacri-fice today.

Every time a threat has risen, Americanshave risen to meet it. And because of that cour-

age—that willingness to fight and even die—America endures. That is the purpose of Me-morial Day: to remember with gratitude thecountless men and women who gave their livesso we could know peace and live in freedom.

And we must do more than remember. Wemust care for the loved ones that our fallen ser-vicemembers have left behind. We must makesure all our veterans have the care and benefitsthey’ve earned and the jobs and opportunitythey deserve. We must be there for the mili-tary families whose loved ones are in harm’sway, for they serve as well. And above all, wemust make sure that the men and women ofour Armed Forces have the support they needto achieve their missions safely at home andabroad.

The young men and women I met at the Na-val Academy this week know the meaning ofservice. They’ve studied the heroes of our his-tory. They’ve chosen to follow in their foot-steps: to stand their watch, man a ship, lead aplatoon. They are doing their part. And each ofus must do ours.

So this weekend, as we commemorate Me-morial Day, I ask you to hold all our fallen he-roes in your hearts. And every day, let’s worktogether to preserve what their sacrificesachieved: to make our country even stronger,even more fair, even more free. That’s our mis-sion, it’s our obligation, and it is our privilege,as the heirs of those who came before us and ascitizens of the United States of America.

Thanks.

NOTE: The address was recorded at approxi-mately 5 p.m. on May 24 in the Green Room atthe White House for broadcast on May 25. Thetranscript was made available by the Office ofthe Press Secretary on May 24, but was embar-goed for release until 6 a.m. on May 25.

Remarks Following a Tour of Tornado Damage in Moore, OklahomaMay 26, 2013

Good afternoon, everybody. Obviously, apicture is worth a thousand words, and whatwe’re seeing here, I think, gives you some

sense of what the people of Moore and thepeople of Oklahoma have been dealing withover these last several days.

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There are a couple of acknowledgementsthat I want to make, but let me begin by justsaying that whenever I come to an area that’sbeen devastated by some natural disaster likethis, I want to make sure everybody under-stands I’m speaking on behalf of the entirecountry. Everywhere, fellow Americans arepraying with you, they’re thinking about you,and they want to help.

And so I’m just a messenger here today, let-ting everybody here know that you are notalone, that you’ve got folks behind you.

Obviously, the damage here is pretty hard tocomprehend. Our hearts go out to the familieswho have been impacted, including those whohave had loved ones who were lost. And thatwas true for the parents of some of the chil-dren here at Plaza Towers Elementary school.

There are a number of people I want to es-pecially thank, because they’ve engaged insome heroic efforts in dealing with this disas-ter. First of all, Governor Mary Fallin, thankyou so much for your quick response and youroutstanding work. Mayor Glenn Lewis, themayor of Moore, who has been mayor here be-fore when there was a disaster, and because ofhis strong spirit and sense of community hasbeen able to help lead the community throughthis disaster. We very much appreciate yourwork.

Representative Tom Cole, not only is thishis congressional district, but more important-ly, this is his hometown. And so for him, thiscarries a special sadness, but also a resolve interms of trying to make sure that the city ofMoore bounces back. Mayor Mick Cornett,Oklahoma City, a neighbor and friend, we ap-preciate him being here. Craig Fugate is here,and obviously we are very proud of the workthat he and his FEMA team have done. SusiePierce, superintendent of schools here, thankyou for your leadership.

Amy Simpson, I want to especially com-mend, Plaza Towers Elementary school princi-pal, as well as Shelley McMillin, the BriarwoodElementary school principal. They were on theground when this happened, and because oftheir quick response, their keeping a levelhead, their putting kids first saved a lot of peo-

ple. And they’re still going through some toughtimes. I can only imagine being their husbands,who are here, and the panic that I’m sure theywere feeling when the tornado first struck. ButI know that they could not be prouder of theirwives for the outstanding work that they did inthis amazing situation.

I want to thank Chief of Police Jerry Still-ings and all the first responders in this areawho were some of the first folks on the scenewho were putting themselves at risk to saveother people’s lives. That’s what first respond-ers do, but sometimes, we take them for grant-ed, and it’s important we don’t and we remem-ber moments like that. That’s why it’s so im-portant that we continually support them.

At my direction, Craig Fugate arrived hereon Tuesday. FEMA was on the ground evenbefore Monday’s tornado hit. And their teamshave now completed searches of more than1,200 buildings. We’ve helped to register morethan 4,200 people for disaster assistance, andwe’ve approved more than $3.4 million in di-rect aid. Obviously, there’s a lot more to come.But it’s not just a Government response. We’veseen incredible outpourings of support fromchurches, from community groups who arehelping folks begin to recover.

This area has known more than its share ofheartbreak. But people here pride themselveson the Oklahoma standard, what GovernorFallin has called, “Being able to work throughdisasters like this, and [to] come out strongeron the other side.” And that’s what we’ve beenseeing this week.

From the forecasters who issued the warn-ings, to the first responders who dug throughthe rubble, to the teachers who shielded withtheir own bodies their students, Oklahomanshave inspired us with their love and their cour-age and their fellowship.

Neighbors have been offering up spare bed-rooms and couches for those in need of shelter.Universities have opened up their buildings fortemporary housing, and local companies havepitched in.

So this is a strong community with strongcharacter. There’s no doubt they’re going tobounce back. But they need help, just like any

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of us would need help if we saw the kind ofdevastation that we’re seeing here. We haveabout 1,200 homes that have been completelydestroyed, but we’ve got 12,000 that have beendamaged in one way or another, and that’s abig piece of business. And along with theschools, we’ve got a hospital that has been de-stroyed. It’s going to take a long time for thiscommunity to rebuild.

So I want to urge every American to step up.If I’ve got one message for folks here today: Goonline, donate to the American Red Cross.And if you’re from the area and you need toregister for disaster assistance, you can call1–800–621–FEMA. That’s 1–800–621–FEMA.Or you can go to disasterassistance.gov. Disas-terassistance.gov on the web. Either way, Iguarantee you, if you’ve got some significantdamage and have been impacted, go ahead andreach out, and there are going to be profession-als there who are ready and willing to provideyou the assistance that you need.

We know Moore is going to come backstronger from this tragedy. Your mayor saidthat you’re already printing new street signs.

Mayor Glenn Lewis of Moore, OK. Yes, sir.The President. And I want folks affected

throughout Oklahoma to know that we’re go-ing to be with you every step of the way.

On Sunday, the first deadly tornadoestouched down about 40 miles from here. And Imentioned this the day afterwards—there wasa story that really struck me in the press—inthe rubble was found a Bible, open to thewords that read: “A man will be as a hidingplace from the wind, and a cover from the tem-pest.” And that—it’s a reminder, as Scriptureoften is, that God has a plan, and it’s important,though, that we also recognize we’re an instru-ment of his will. And we need to know that asfellow Americans, we’re going to be there asshelter from the storm for the people of Moorewho have been impacted.

And when we say that we’ve got your back, Ipromise you, we keep our word. If you talk tofolks in Alabama who have been affected overthe last couple of years; you talk to the folks at

Joplin, who I know have actually sent volun-teers down here to Moore; if you talk to folksin New Jersey and New York, they’ll tell youthat when we say we’re going to be there untilyou completely rebuild, we mean it. And Iwant everybody to have that confidence.

So again, to all the people here behind me, Iwant to say how proud I am of them, howgrateful I am for their service. I want to makeone final comment. A lot of the first respond-ers talked about the training that they’ve done,in part through some Federal grants, to pre-pare for disasters like this. And as a conse-quence, when it actually happens, they knowwhat to do, they’re not losing time, they’re ableto go through all the drills and the training thatthey’ve gone through.

Training, education, both for citizenry, butalso for first responders, is absolutely critical.And we’ve got to make sure that those resourc-es remain in place. So I know everybody inCongress cares deeply about what’s happening,and I’m confident that resources will be forth-coming when it comes to rebuilding. But re-member that it’s also the ongoing training andequipment, that we’re making sure that thosethings are in place. We can’t shortchange thatkind of ongoing disaster response. We can’tjust wait until the disaster happens. That’show, in part, we were able to save a lot of lives,and I want everybody to keep that in mind.

So with that, let me just again say thank youto everybody here. Madam Governor, thankyou for your leadership. And may God blessthe people of Oklahoma and obviously contin-ue to bless the United States of America.

Thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 12:57 p.m. infront of the remains of Plaza Towers Elemen-tary. In his remarks, he referred to Matthew C.Shipman, husband of Amy D. Simpson, princi-pal, Plaza Towers Elementary in Moore, OK;and Michael McMillin, husband of ShelleyJaques-McMillin, principal, Briarwood Ele-mentary in Oklahoma City, OK.

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Remarks at a Memorial Day Ceremony in Arlington, VirginiaMay 27, 2013

Thank you very much. Good morning, ev-erybody. I want to thank Secretary Chuck Ha-gel, not only for the introduction, but, Chuck,for your lifetime of service, from sergeant inthe Army to Secretary of Defense, but always aman who carries with you the memory offriends and fallen heroes from Vietnam. We’regrateful to you.

I want to thank General Dempsey; MajorGeneral Linnington; Kathryn Condon, who hasserved Arlington with extraordinary dedicationand grace and who will be leaving us, but weare so grateful for the work that she’s done; forChaplain Brainerd; Secretary Shinseki; all ourguests. And most of all, to members of ourArmed Services and our veterans; to the fami-lies and friends of the fallen who we honor to-day; to Americans from all across the countrywho have come to pay your respects: I have tosay it is always a great honor to spend this Me-morial Day with you at this sacred place wherewe honor our fallen heroes, those who we re-member fondly in our memories and thoseknown only to God.

Beyond these quiet hills, across that specialbridge, is a city of monuments dedicated to vi-sionary leaders and singular moments in thelife of our Republic. But it is here, on this hal-lowed ground, where we choose to build amonument to a constant thread in the Ameri-can character: the truth that our Nation en-dures because it has always been home to menand women who are willing to give their all andlay down their very lives to preserve and pro-tect this land that we love.

That character, that selflessness, beats in thehearts of the very first patriots who died for ademocracy they had never known and wouldnever see. It lived on in the men and womenwho fought to hold our Union together and inthose who fought to defend it abroad, from thebeaches of Europe to the mountains and jun-gles of Asia. This year, as we mark the 60th an-niversary of the end of fighting in Korea, we of-fer a special salute to all those who served andgave their lives in the Korean war. And over

the last decade, we’ve seen the character of ourcountry again in the nearly 7,000 Americanswho have made the ultimate sacrifice on bat-tlefields and city streets half a world away.

Last Memorial Day, I stood here and spokeabout how, for the first time in 9 years, Ameri-cans were no longer fighting and dying in Iraq.Today, a transition is underway in Afghanistan,and our troops are coming home. FewerAmericans are making the ultimate sacrifice inAfghanistan, and that’s progress for which weare profoundly grateful. And this time nextyear, we will mark the final Memorial Day ofour war in Afghanistan.

And so, as I said last week, America stands ata crossroads. But even as we turn a page on adecade of conflict, even as we look forward, letus never forget, as we gather here today, thatour Nation is still at war.

It should be self-evident. And in generationspast, it was. And during World War II, millionsof Americans contributed to the war effort: sol-diers like my own grandfather; women like mygrandmother, who worked the assembly lines.During the Vietnam war, just about everybodyknew somebody—a brother, a son, a friend—who served in harm’s way.

Today, it’s different. Perhaps it’s a tribute toour remarkable All-Volunteer Force, made upof men and women who step forward to serveand do so with extraordinary skill and valor.Perhaps it’s a testament to our advanced tech-nologies, which allow smaller numbers oftroops to wield greater and greater power. Butregardless the reason, this truth cannot be ig-nored: that today, most Americans are not di-rectly touched by war.

As a consequence, not all Americans may al-ways see or fully grasp the depth of sacrifice,the profound costs that are made in our name:right now, as we speak, every day. Our troopsand our military families understand this, andthey mention to me their concern aboutwhether the country fully appreciates what’shappening. I think about a letter I receivedfrom a naval officer, a reservist who had just

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returned from a deployment to Afghanistan.And he wrote me, “I’m concerned that ourwork in Afghanistan is fading from memory.”And he went on to ask that we do more to keepthis conflict “alive and focused in the heartsand minds of our own people.”

And he’s right. As we gather here today, atthis very moment, more than 60,000 of our fel-low Americans still serve far from home in Af-ghanistan. They’re still going out on patrol, stillliving in spartan forward operating bases, stillrisking their lives to carry out their mission.And when they give their lives, they are stillbeing laid to rest in cemeteries in the quietcorners across our country, including here inArlington.

Captain Sara Cullen had a smile that couldlight up a room and a love of country that ledher to West Point. And after graduation, Sarabecame a Black Hawk pilot and married a for-mer Black Hawk pilot. She was just 27 yearsold when she and four other soldiers werekilled in a helicopter crash during a trainingmission near Kandahar. This past April, Sarawas laid to rest here, in Section 60. Today Sarais remembered by her mother Lynn, who saysshe is “proud of her daughter’s life, proud ofher faith, and proud of her service to our coun-try.”

Staff Sergeant Frankie Phillips came from amilitary family and is—was as tough as theycome. A combat medic, Frankie was on patrolin Afghanistan 3 weeks ago when his vehiclewas hit by a roadside bomb. He was so humblethat his parents never knew how many lives hehad saved until soldiers started showing up athis funeral from thousands of miles away. Andlast week, Frankie was laid to rest just a fewrows over from Sara.

Staff Sergeant Eric Christian was a bornleader. A member of the Marine Corps SpecialOperatings Command, Eric had served fivetours of duty, but kept going back because hefelt responsible for his teammates and was de-termined to finish the mission. On May 4, Ericgave his life after escorting a high-ranking U.S.official to meet with Afghan leaders. Later, hisfamily got a letter from a marine who hadserved two tours with Eric. In it, the marine

wrote: “There were people who measuredtheir success based on how many enemies theykilled or how many missions they led to con-quer a foe. Eric based his success on how manyof his friends he brought home, and hebrought home many, including me.” Eric waslaid to rest here at Arlington, just 6 days ago.

So today we remember their service. Today,just steps from where these brave Americanslie in eternal peace, we declare, as a proud andgrateful nation, that their sacrifice will neverbe forgotten. And just as we honor them, wehold their families close. Because for the par-ents who lose a child, for the husbands andwives who lose a partner, for the children wholose a parent, every loss is devastating. And forthose of us who bear the solemn responsibilityof sending these men and women into harm’sway, we know the consequences all too well. Ifeel it every time I meet a wounded warrior,every time I visit Walter Reed, and every timeI grieve with a Gold Star family.

And that’s why on this day we rememberour sacred obligation to those who laid downtheir lives so we could live ours: to finish thejob these men and women started by keepingour promise to those who wear America’s uni-form; to give our troops the resources theyneed; to keep faith with our veterans and theirfamilies, now and always; to never stop search-ing for those who have gone missing or who areheld as prisoners of war.

But on a more basic level, every Americancan do something even simpler. As we goabout our daily lives, we must remember thatour countrymen are still serving, still fighting,still putting their lives on the line for all of us.

Last fall, I received a letter from Candie Av-erette of Charlotte, North Carolina. Both ofher sons are marines. Her oldest served twotours in Iraq. Her youngest was in Afghanistanat the time. He was, in her words, “A hundredpercent devoted to his deployment andwouldn’t have had it any other way.”

Reading Candie’s letter, it was clear she wasextraordinarily proud of the life her boys hadchosen. But she also had a request on behalf ofall the mothers just like her. She said, “Pleasedon’t forget about my child and every other

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marine and soldier over there who proudlychoose to defend their country.”

A mother’s plea: Please don’t forget. On thisMemorial Day, and every day, let us be trueand meet that promise. Let it be our task, ev-ery single one of us, to honor the strength andthe resolve and the love these brave Americansfelt for each other and for our country. Let usnever forget to always remember and to beworthy of the sacrifice they make in our name.

May God bless the fallen and all those whoserve. And may God continue to bless theUnited States of America.

NOTE: The President spoke at 11:31 a.m. inthe Memorial Amphitheater at Arlington Na-

tional Cemetery. In his remarks, he referredto Maj. Gen. Michael S. Linnington, USA,commanding general, and Col. Michael E.Brainerd, USA, command chaplain, JointForce Headquarters-National Capital Regionand Military District of Washington; KathrynA. Condon, Executive Director, Army Na-tional Military Cemeteries; Christopher C.Cullen, husband, and Lynn Brinkworth Knut-son, mother, of Capt. Sara M. Cullen, USA;Francis G. Phillips III and Cherie ForslundPhillips, parents of S. Sgt. Francis G. PhillipsIV, USA. The related proclamation of May 24is listed in Appendix D at the end of this vol-ume.

Remarks in Asbury Park, New JerseyMay 28, 2013

The President. Hello, New Jersey! It is goodto be back in Jersey.

Audience member. We love you!The President. I love you back!Let me, first of all, say thank you to Gover-

nor Christie for that introduction and the greatwork he’s done here. Your mayor, Ed Johnson,is here as well and has been working tirelesslyon your behalf. We’ve got three great Repre-sentatives in Congress from New Jersey: RushHolt, Frank Pallone, Donald Payne, Jr.

Now, last week, my advisers asked me, theysaid, Mr. President, do you want to spend nextTuesday in Washington, or would you ratherspend it at the Jersey Shore? And I’ve got to say,I’ve got to make some tough decisions as Presi-dent, but this wasn’t one of them. [Laughter]

Audience member. We love you anyway.The President. I appreciate that.Governor Christie and I just spent some

time on the Point Pleasant boardwalk. I got achance to see the world’s tallest sandcastle be-ing built. We played some Touchdown Fever.I’ve got to say, Christie got it in the tire the firsttry—[laughter]—although I did pay for histhrows. [Laughter] I played a little Frog Bog,and Governor Christie’s kids taught me theright technique for hitting the hammer to getthose frogs in the buckets the way I was sup-

posed to. [Laughter] And of course, I met withfolks who are still rebuilding after Sandy.

Now, we all understand there’s still a lot ofwork to be done. There are homes to rebuild.There are businesses to reopen. There arelandmarks and beaches and boardwalks thataren’t all the way back yet. But thanks to thehard work of an awful lot of people, we’ve gotwonderful shops and restaurants and arcadesthat are opening their doors. And I saw whatthousands of Americans saw over MemorialDay weekend: You are stronger than thestorm. After all you’ve dealt with, after allyou’ve been through, the Jersey Shore is backand it is open for business, and they want allAmericans to know that they’re ready to wel-come you here.

And I’ve got to say, if they ever let me haveany fun, I’d have some fun here. [Laughter] Iwas telling my staff on the ride over, I couldsee being a little younger—[laughter]—andhaving some fun on the Jersey Shore. I can’t dothat anymore. [Laughter] Maybe after I leaveoffice. [Laughter]

I think a friend of mine from here once putit pretty well: “Down the shore, everything’s allright.” He’s the only guy a President still has tocall the Boss. [Laughter] Other than the FirstLady. [Laughter]

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But for generations, that’s what this placehas been about. Life isn’t always easy. We’repeople who have to work hard and do what ittakes to provide for our families. But when youcome here, everything’s all right. And whetheryou spend a lifetime here or a weekend or asummer, the shore holds a special place in yourheart and in—a special place in America’s my-thology, America’s memory.

When I was here 7 months ago, HurricaneSandy had just hammered communities allacross the East Coast, and lives were lost, andhomes and businesses were destroyed, andfolks were hurting. And I remember some-thing Chris said back then. He said, “We can-not permit that sorrow to replace the resiliencethat I know all New Jerseyans have.”

Audience member. Yes, we do!The President. And it didn’t. You didn’t let

it. You kept going. Because these towns have aspecial character, not just in the summer, butall year round. From the moment the hurri-cane hit, first responders worked around theclock to save lives and property. And neighborsopened their homes and their hearts to one an-other. And you came together as citizens to re-build.

And we’re not done yet, and I want to makesure everybody understands that, because forsomebody who hasn’t seen their home rebuiltyet or is still trying to get their business up andrunning again after all those losses, we don’twant them to think that somehow we’vechecked a box and we’ve moved on. That’s partof the reason I came back: to let people knowwe’re going to keep on going until we finish.

But if anybody wondered whether the shorecould ever be all right again, you got—you gotyour answer this weekend. From Sea Bright toBay Head, from Belmar to Seaside Heights,folks were hanging out on balconies and beach-es. Shows were sold out at the Stone Pony.Kids were eating ice cream, going on rides, go-ing and eating some more ice cream. [Laugh-ter] Guys were trying to win those big stuffedanimals to impress a special girl. So, like I said,the Jersey Shore is back in business.

The work’s not over, though. Seven monthsago, I promised you that your country would

have your back. I told you we would not quituntil the job was done, and I meant it. [Ap-plause] I meant it.

Craig Fugate, the head of FEMA, hecouldn’t be here today, but I want to thank himand his team for their ongoing work. FEMAwas here before Sandy made landfall; they’restill here today. They’re working with the Gov-ernor’s team and with the Task Force I set upto support families and communities who stillneed help. Since the storm hit, we’ve providedbillions of dollars to families and State and lo-cal governments across the region, and more ison the way.

And even as my team is helping communi-ties recover from the last hurricane season,they’re already starting to prepare for the nexthurricane season, which starts this Saturday.Because if there’s one thing that we’ve learnedlast year, it’s that when a storm hits, we’ve gotto be ready. Education, preparation, that’swhat makes a difference. That’s what saveslives. And anyone who wants to make surethey’re ready—for a hurricane or any other di-saster—I want them to visit something: a web-site called ready.gov. Make a plan. It’s nevertoo early.

And we’ve also got to remember that re-building efforts like these aren’t measured inweeks or months, but they’re measured inyears. That’s why just this past Thursday, weannounced billions of new relief aid for NewYork and New Jersey transit agencies. Andthat’s why the Army Corps of Engineers isworking to restore beaches and strengthen theshore’s natural defenses. That’s why I joinedGovernor Christie and your representatives,fighting to get a relief package through Con-gress. We’re going to keep doing what it takesto rebuild all the way and make it better than itwas before, make it stronger than it was before,make it more resilient than it was before.

So, Jersey, you’ve got a—you’ve still got along road ahead, but when you look out on thisbeach—this beautiful beach here—even in therain, it looks good. You look out over the hori-zon, you can count on the fact that you won’tbe alone. Your fellow citizens will be there foryou, just like we’ll be there for folks in Breezy

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Point and Staten Island, and obviously, we’regoing to be there for the folks in Monroe[Moore],* Oklahoma, after the devastation oflast week.

Part of the reason I wanted to come backhere was not just to send a message to NewJersey, but send a message to folks in Oklaho-ma: When we make a commitment that we’vegot your back, we mean it, and we’re not goingto finish until the work is done. Because that’swho we are. We help each other as Americansthrough the bad times, and we sure make themost of the good times.

So let’s have some good times on the NewJersey Shore this summer. And next summerand the summer after that and all year long,

America, bring your family and friends. Spenda little money on the Jersey Shore. You’ll findsome of the friendliest folks on Earth, some ofthe best beaches on Earth. And you’ll see thateven after a tough couple of months, this spaceis as special as ever, and down the shore, every-thing is still all right.


NOTE: The President spoke at 1:26 p.m. at As-bury Park Convention Hall. In his remarks, hereferred to Andrew, Sarah, Patrick, and Bridg-et Christie, children of Gov. Christopher J.Christie of New Jersey; and musician BruceSpringsteen.

Remarks at a Reception Celebrating Asian American and Pacific IslanderHeritage MonthMay 28, 2013

The President. Everybody, please have aseat. Thank you so much. Aloha!

Audience members. Aloha!The President. Welcome to the White

House, everybody. And thank you, Joan, forthe introduction. And I want to thank every-body who’s here, the incredible warmth of thereception. A sign of the warmth is the lipstickon my collar. [Laughter] I have to say, I think Iknow the culprit. Where is Jessica Sanchez?[Laughter] Jessica—no, it wasn’t Jessica. It washer aunt. Where is she? [Laughter] Auntie,right there. Look at this. [Laughter] Look atthis. I just want everybody to witness. [Laugh-ter] So I do not want to be in trouble with Mi-chelle. [Laughter] That’s why I’m calling youout right in front of everybody. [Laughter]

We are here today to honor the incrediblyrich heritage and contributions of Asian Amer-icans and Pacific Islanders. And there’s no bet-ter example of that diversity than the peoplewho are in this room. We’ve got Members ofCongress. We’ve got members of my adminis-tration. We’ve got lots of special guests and tal-ented performers.

And every day, we’re reminded of the manyways in which Asian Americans, Native Hawai-ians, Pacific Islanders have all contributed andenriched our Nation throughout our history.Obviously for me, I don’t have to look any fur-ther than my own family. I’ve got my brother-in-law here, Konrad, who is—Konrad Ng,who’s heading up the Smithsonian AsianAmerican center—or it probably has a longername than that. [Laughter] My sister Maya,their beautiful daughters, my nieces Suhailaand Savita.

I can think back to my college years whenmy roommates were Indian and Pakistanis,which is how I learned how to cook keema anddal. [Laughter] Very good. And of course, I candig back into my own memories of growing upin Hawaii and in Indonesia. And so, certainly,it’s been a central part of my life, the entireAsia-Pacific region.

But it’s more than food and family, becausegenerations of Asian Americans and Pacific Is-landers helped build this country and helpedto defend this country and to make Americawhat it is today. It’s a history that speaks to the


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promise of our Nation, one that welcomes thecontributions of all people, no matter their col-or or their beliefs, because we draw from therich traditions of everybody who calls Americahome. E pluribus unum—“out of many, one.”

And the artists joining us today exemplifythat creed. So we’ve got performers like KarshKale, who fuses the best of East and West,mixing eclectic beats with the sounds of hisheritage and creating music that’s distinctly hisown; that’s a trait obviously that’s distinctlyAmerican. We’ve got musicians like Paula Fu-ga and John Cruz, whose work represents thespirit of my native Hawaii and reminds us thatwe’re all part of the same ohana. We have au-thors like Amy Tan, who uses her own family’simmigration story to trace the stories of others.She makes out of the particular something veryuniversal.

We value these voices because from the verybeginning, ours has been a nation of immi-grants, a nation challenged and shaped andpushed ever forward by diverse perspectivesand fresh thinking. And in order to keep ouredge and stay ahead in the global race, weneed to figure out how to way—a way to fix ourbroken immigration system, to welcome thatinfusion of newness while still maintaining theenduring strength of our laws. And the serviceand the leadership of Asian Americans and Pa-cific Islanders have proved that point time andagain.

So we take opportunities like today to honorthe legacy of those who paved the way, like myfriend, the late Senator from Hawaii, DanielInouye, the first Japanese American to serve inCongress. And to celebrate the pioneers of thisgeneration, like Congresswoman TammyDuckworth, one of the first female veteranselected to Congress. And one of my favoritepeople right now, Sri Srinivasan, who has justbeen confirmed. Here’s Sri, right here.

I was proud to nominate Sri, and he was justconfirmed unanimously to become the first

South Asian American Federal appeals courtjudge. I was telling his kids, who are here to-day, if he starts getting a big head, walkingaround the house with a robe—[laughter]—asking them to call him Your Honor—[laugh-ter]—then they should talk to me. But—[laughter].

In every election, at every board meeting, inevery town across America, we see more andmore different faces of leadership, setting anexample for every young kid who sees a leaderwho looks like him or her. And that’s a goodthing. We’ve got to keep that up. We’ve got todo everything we can to make sure everybodyworks hard, everybody plays by the rules, ev-erybody has a chance to get ahead—to starttheir own business, to earn a degree, to writetheir own page in the American story—that thelaws respect everybody; that civil rights applyto everybody. That’s who we are at our best,and that’s what we’re here to celebrate. That’sthe challenge that I believe we’re going tomeet together.

So I want to thank all of you for being heretonight. It is going to be a wonderful, wonder-ful gathering. And from Michelle and Maliaand Sasha and Bo—[laughter]—thank you allfor the incredible contributions that you’remaking each and every day.

God bless you. God bless America.

NOTE: The President spoke at 5:28 p.m. in theEast Room at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to Joan Shikegawa, ActingChair, National Endowment for the Arts; mu-sician Jessica Sanchez and her grandmotherVirginia Bugay; Srikanth Srinivasan, judge,U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Co-lumbia Circuit, and his children Maya and Vi-kram. He also referred to his sister MayaSoetoro-Ng, her husband Konrad Ng, andtheir daughters Suhaila and Savita. The relatedproclamation of April 30 is listed in AppendixD at the end of this volume.

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Remarks at a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Fundraiserin Chicago, IllinoisMay 29, 2013

Hello, Chicago!Michael Jordan—no, different Michael Jor-

dan. [Laughter] It is great to be home, and it isgreat to be among so many good friends. Start-ing with Jan Schakowsky, what she does notmention is—in her introduction—that not toomany folks gave me a chance to win that firstSenate race, but Jan Schakowsky was one ofthe few people who did and stepped out, alongwith Robin Kelly, along with Michael Jordan.

So there is a certain crew here of true be-lievers, and we ended up having the primarynight celebration in this hotel. And I was justsaying that was probably—maybe my favoritemoment in politics, as opposed to governing—[laughter]—just because nobody expected it,including maybe me. [Laughter] So it’s won-derful to have Jan here.

A couple other people, obviously, I want toacknowledge. First of all, outstanding leader,soon once again to be Speaker, Nancy Pelosi inthe house. We love Nancy.

A man who is doing a thankless job withstyle and grace, our DCCC chairman, Steve Is-rael. Tomorrow is Steve Israel’s birthday, so Iwant to wish everybody—yes, let’s go aheadand sing.

[At this point, the President led audience mem-bers in singing “Happy Birthday.”]

Yay! We’ve got a number of other extraordi-nary Members: a visitor, Steny Hoyer, whoseleadership is invaluable and works so closelywith Nancy; and then just an incredible con-gressional delegation headed up by our ownDick Durbin. I already mentioned Robin Kel-ly. We’ve got Cheri Bustos here. We’ve got BillFoster here. We’ve got Bobby Rush here.We’ve got Rick Nolan here. Rick is not from Il-linois, but we like him anyway. [Laughter] San-dy Levin is here. And candidate in the Illinois13th from down south who is going to win, AnnCallis is in the house.

And finally, a great friend and somebodywho’s showing what leadership is all about herein Chicago—I could not be prouder of him—your great mayor, Rahm Emanuel.

All right. Now, my remarks are going to berelatively brief because game seven of theBlackhawks game is going on right now. And Iexpect the Blackhawks to win. I know theCrosstown Classic is going on this week, and Iexpect the White Sox to win. But I love theCubs too; they’re great. [Laughter] I’m not aCubs hater; I’m just saying. [Laughter] I thinkthe Sox will win. [Laughter]

But the main reason I’m here is just to saythanks to all of you for the incredible privilegethat you’ve given me to lead this country and tosay that our work is not yet done.

Jan rattled off a list of accomplishments thatI could not be prouder of, and I couldn’t havegotten them done had it not been for NancyPelosi and an incredible congressional delega-tion from here in Illinois. But what we alsoknow is, despite the headlines talking aboutthe economy starting to pick up steam, despiterecovery in the housing market, despite thefact that we’ve created all those jobs, despitethe fact that the stock market has hit an alltimehigh, what we also know is, is that there arepeople all across this country who are still hurt-ing.

People whose homes are still underwater.People just a few miles from here who desper-ately want to work and can’t yet find work orcan’t get the skills they need to work. There arepeople just a few miles from here who are stillworried about gun violence striking down theirchildren on the way to school. There are folksall across the country who are willing to workhard, have the same kinds of values that builtthis country, looking after their families, takingresponsibility not just for themselves, but alsofor their communities and their neighbor-hoods.

But the environment has changed for them,and what they need desperately is an entire na-

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tion that is willing to rally around the basicconcept that if you work hard in this country,you can make it—doesn’t matter where youcome from, what you look like, what faith youpractice, who you love—that here in America,you can make it if you try.

Now, the good news is that we know the an-swers to so many of our challenges. We know,for example, that even though the economy haspicked up, that if, in fact, we started puttingpeople back to work all across this country re-building our roads and our bridges and ourports and our dams and our airports, that notonly would that accelerate economic growthright now, but it would lay the foundation foreconomic growth for decades to come. Weknow that.

And we know, by the way, if we just put itoff, it’s just going to get worse. This is deferredmaintenance. It’s like not fixing the roof onyour house and—when it’s leaking. It’s goingto be more expensive to fix later.

We know that in this global economy,knowledge and skills and education count foreverything and that the biggest bang we canget for our education dollar is if we are invest-ing in early childhood education so that everychild is getting a good start when they enterkindergarten. We know that.

And we’ve got great models all across thecountry. We know how to do early childhoodeducation well. The problem is, we haven’t in-vested in it. We probably invest less in earlychildhood education in this country than in anyother industrialized country in the world.Same, by the way, goes for infrastructure,which is why not a single airport out of the top25 in the world are in America.

We know that if we have some common-sense laws that check to see if we’re keepingguns out of the hands of criminals or folks whohave significant mental illnesses, we know thatthat can reduce some deaths, save some kids. Itdoesn’t solve the whole problem, but we knowthat. So—and we know that 90 percent of theAmerican people and 80 percent of gun own-ers agree with us. Why aren’t we getting thatdone?

We know that energy is what makes aneconomy go. And the great news, here inAmerica, is that by 2020, we’ll be a net export-er of natural gas. We will, over the next coupleof decades, have the capacity to be energy in-dependent for the first time. Incrediblechange. It will change geopolitics for genera-tions to come, and it frees ourselves from de-pendence not only on foreign oil generally, butfrom some of the most volatile parts of theworld.

But what we also know is, is that the climateis changing in ways that we can’t fully predict,but we know are not going to be good for ourkids. And the good news is, we’ve already dou-bled fuel efficiency standards on cars. We’vealready doubled our production of clean ener-gy. And if we continue to make the invest-ments, nobody has the know-how and the sci-entific skill to create the kinds of break-throughs that deal with climate change, butwe’ve got to go ahead and make that decisionso that we can be leaders not just for our ownkids, but for kids all around the world.

We know that making investments in sci-ence and technology pay off like nothing else.And yet right now we’ve got a budget that is ac-tually cutting our commitment to science andenergy because bad priorities in Washington.

And yet how else are we going to competeagainst China and Germany when they’re dou-bling or tripling their R&D investments andwe’re actually seeing ours fall or at least staystagnant?

So the good news is that the United States ofAmerica is better positioned than any countryon Earth to make sure that the 21st century re-mains our century, just like the 20th was. And aworld city like Chicago is better positionedthan just about anybody. Look at the assetsthat are here. We’ve got the best universities.We’ve got the most dynamic entrepreneurs.We’ve got everything we need to succeed.

But the one thing that’s still missing is a pol-itics that matches up with the decency and thehard work and determination and creativity ofthe American people. We’ve got a politicsthat’s stuck right now. And the reason it’s stuckis because people spend more time thinking

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about the next election than they do thinkingabout the next generation.

Now, I’ve got to tell you, I’ve run my last po-litical race, and many of you may be relievedabout that because—[laughter]—my goodfriend Ab Mikva in this town used to say thathaving a friend who is a politician is like per-manently having a child in college. [Laughter]You’re just—you’re always writing checks. SoI’ve graduated. [Laughter]

But the reason that I’m here is because forme to govern effectively over the next 3, 3 ½years, part of my task is to constantly, continu-ally reach out to the other side to try to findcommon ground; to look for those Republicanswho don’t think compromise is a dirty word; tocontinue to advance the agenda that the Amer-ican people sent me there to advance; to makework pay; to attract new businesses to ourshores; to make sure that we’re competitive; tobuild a middle class. And so any opportunitiesI have to do that, I will seize them.

And I have to say, as tough a fighter as Nan-cy Pelosi is, I have watched her, and I havewatched some of the Democrats who are inthis room take very tough votes, even goingagainst some of the special interests who sup-port Democrats typically if we think it’s theright thing to do. We’ve shown ourselves will-ing to do it.

And so I’m constantly eager to find Republi-cans who are willing to do the same, because Iactually don’t think that any party has a mo-nopoly on wisdom. And I actually think thatDemocrats, we have to be willing to compro-mise sometimes to get stuff done. We’re not anideological party, we’re a practical party.

But what I will also say is this: that if day in,day out, what we confront is obstructionism forthe sake of obstructionism and what appears tobe an interest only in scoring political points orplacating a base as opposed to trying to ad-vance the interests of the American people,then we’ve got to figure out a way to workaround that. And one of the best ways to workaround it is to have a Democratic House ofRepresentatives.

So the—so thanks to the work of Steve Isra-el, thanks to incredible candidates like Ann

Callis, we’ve got a great chance of taking backthe House. And I’m going to be working tire-lessly, wherever I get the opportunity, to makethe case to the American people that our ideasare the right ones for growing the middle class,that our ideas are the right ones to protect ourenvironment, that our ideas are the right onesin terms of making sure our kids are getting agreat education.

And any Republican who joins up and says,“I agree, those are the right ideas,” hey, I’mready to work. But those who don’t, I’m goingto be out there making the case. And I knowthat that’s what some of the great candidates atthe DCCC are going to be doing as well. Andthe only way they’re able to do that is if they’vegot support from folks like you.

So I just want to say to all of you, I’m grate-ful to you, but do not get complacent. Do notbuy into this notion somehow that, oh, theseproblems are too big or Washington is broken.No. Washington is not broken. It’s brokenright now for a particular reason, but it’s notpermanently broken. It can be fixed.

We got a whole bunch of stuff done my first2 years. We’ve gotten a whole bunch of done—stuff done since that time. And I’m optimisticabout us getting legislation passed this year,but we could be doing a whole lot more. Wecan only do it with you. We can only do it notonly by you contributing to the DCCC, but al-so by talking to your friends and neighbors andcolleagues about the ideas that are importantfor America.

And we can only do it if you guys sustain asense of hope, a sense of promise, a belief thathere in America, sometimes, we take a badturn, sometimes, we make mistakes, but thetrajectory of this country is for greater rights,more prosperity, greater tolerance. People stillfrom around the world come here, recognizingthat in this country there is this unique ideathat all of us count and that all of us can makeit. And that’s just a great gift, and it shouldmake us hopeful.

And when I see young people—some ofwhom are here today—I am constantly inspiredbecause they are smarter than we were, they’remore sophisticated than we were, in many ways

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they’re more conscientious than we were. Sothis is—the generation coming behind us, Imean, they are spectacular. We’ve just got tomake sure that we leave for them a political sys-tem that allows them to express all that incredi-ble creativity and ingenuity and wonderful val-ues that they’re going to be able to expressthrough our politics. That’s what this project isabout, and we can’t do it without you. All right?


NOTE: The President spoke at 5:35 p.m. atthe Hilton Chicago hotel. In his remarks, hereferred to Michael J. Jordan, board member,Obama for America; Reps. Robin L. Kelly,Cheri Bustos, Bill Foster, and Richard M.Kelly; Ann Callis, former chief judge, Madi-son County Circuit Court in Edwardsville, IL;and former White House Counsel Abner J.Mikva.

Remarks at a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Fundraiserin ChicagoMay 29, 2013

The President. Thank you, everybody. Thankyou. No, no, no, don’t do that. This is my—youknow, this is like old home week.

Bettylu K. Saltzman. Mr. President.The President. Yes?Mrs. Saltzman. Sandy Levin is here from

Michigan.The President. Yes.Mrs. Saltzman. Sandy Levin.The President. We’ve got a—that’s because

he’s got a relative here. [Laughter] The goodexcuse to——

Rep. Sander M. Levin. I came here to cheerfor the Red Wings.

The President. Oh, no!Audience members. Boo!The President. Secret Service, can you have

this man removed, please? [Laughter] The—[laughter].

Audience member. What’s the score?The President. We don’t know yet. If any-

body is monitoring the score, please let usknow. I’ll make the announcement.

Well, look, everybody here has been intro-duced, but I want to say something about ev-erybody. First of all, the Whip, Steny Hoyer,does a great job every single day. And there’snobody in the House of Representatives whounderstands the mechanics of getting thingsdone and is able to deliver on behalf of the val-ues that we care about than an outstandingCongressman from Maryland: Steny Hoyer.

Steve Israel has the thankless job of travel-ing around the country every day on behalf ofDemocrats, trying to get a Democratic Houseback. And he does it with good humor andgrace and has been outstanding. And we’re sograteful for him. It also happens to be the daybefore his birthday, so wish every—everybodywish Steve a happy birthday.

I was going to say nice things about SandyLevin, but we’ll skip over that. [Laughter] Ac-tually, Sandy is wonderful, and nobody fightsfor working people harder than Sandy Levin.And we’re just grateful him, for everything thathe does.

Jan Schakowsky has been a progressivechampion in this State for so many years andwas one of my earliest supporters when I ranfor the United States Senate. And I could nothave ever achieved what I did nationally with-out the support of Jan Schakowsky. So we’regrateful for her.

Nancy Pelosi. It is absolutely true that thethings I’m proudest of having accomplished asPresident, I accomplished with Nancy Pelosifighting every step of the way. You could nothave a better partner than her. She is tough asnails. She is a great politician. She is a greatleader. But all that’s in service of a mission,which is to make sure that the American peo-ple can achieve their dreams through hardwork and responsibility.

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And I was mentioning this to the other—wehad a little event—larger event downtown; Iguess we’re now in River North. But I said tothem that one of—we’re all politicians; we’reall members of parties. But one of the thingsthat I’m proud of as a Democrat is the fact thatat certain critical junctures, we’re willing to putwhat is politically expedient aside to do what’sright. And I’ve seen Nancy do that, consistent-ly. I’ve seen her be willing, not just to staredown the other side and say, “No, this is what’simportant for the American people,” I’ve seenher—to her own constituencies and her ownbase—say: “You know what? This is somethingthat we need to do to compromise and getsomething done.”

And I’ve got to tell you, I could not beprouder of Nancy Pelosi and the work thatshe’s done, and I could not be more anxiousand eager to have her back as Speaker of theHouse. She is a great friend. So, finally, beforeI just make some very brief remarks and then Iwant to spend some time on questions, I’ve gotto talk about Bettylu and Paul. No, it’s goingto—you know, don’t worry. [Laughter]

Mrs. Saltzman. Should I leave the room?The President. No, no, it’s just an expression

of love. The—I don’t know if Bettylu actuallytold me that she thought I could be President.[Laughter] But what I do know is this, that I—when I had just gotten out of law school andwas still finding my way, and I had come backhere, and I was assigned to work to registervoters with Project Vote, Bettylu even thenwas at the forefront of a nonpartisan effort toget people registered and voting, back in 1992.And right away, Bettylu treated me like a sonand with the warmth and concern, and she wassomebody who introduced me to so many ofthe people in this room and introduced me toso many people here in Chicago.

And so when I look around the room and Isee folks like Joan Harris and Judy Gaynor andpeople who have been supporters of minefrom the get-go, I can all trace that back toBettylu. And we’ve got kind of a Obama cabalhere in this room. [Laughter] But it’s fittingthat we’re here, because she invested highhopes and expectations in me. And through all

the ups and downs of my political career, shehas been a constant, and she’s always beenthere and has always been supportive. Andwhen times have been tough, she was rightthere and stepping up all over again. And Paul,who may have been skeptical during this wholetime—[laughter]—was kind enough to goalong with it.

And so I make this point only—there arevery few people—Steny or Nancy, you mayhave somebody in your life like this, where youcan honestly say—it’s not just words—you canhonestly say, I probably would not be here to-day were it not for—I can honestly say I proba-bly would not be President of the UnitedStates were it not for Bettylu Saltzman. And soI just wanted to say that. That’s true. [Ap-plause] That’s true. That is true. Love thatwoman. Love Bettylu. It’s true. Love thatwoman. [Laughter] All right.

Mrs. Saltzman. Thank you, thank you.The President. It’s true.So we’re going to have time for questions.

I’m just going to make a couple of quick re-marks to give you a sense of where we are now.

If you read the headlines over the last cou-ple of days, you’d actually see housing recover-ing, the economy stronger than expected, stockmarket hitting record highs. And you’d have animpression, rightly, that having—after havinggone through the worst economic crisis sincethe Great Depression, that we are—we haverecovered faster, we have gone further, oureconomy is doing better than just about everyindustrialized country in the world, or at least alarge portion of them. And that’s good news,and we should celebrate that.

But if you go beneath the headlines, whatwe also know is that there are huge numbers ofpeople all across America who are still seeingtheir house underwater, huge numbers ofAmericans who want to work, believe in thedignity of work, but no matter how hard theytry right now, still can’t find a job.

There are still kids just a few miles fromhere, who are threatened by gun violence, whoaren’t in a school that is giving them what theyneed to compete in this 21st century, andwhose prospects are dim, if we’re honest, not

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because they don’t have the innate capacity,but because we as a society have decided,that’s not our priority.

We still have a situation in which, on the onehand, our energy future is more promisingthan we’ve ever allowed ourselves to believe. Imean, we will probably be a net exporter oftraditional fossil fuels over the next 20 years—within the next 20 years; probably a net export-er of natural gas in the next 3 or 4 years—something that could not be imagined even 5,10 years ago—because of the dynamism andtechnology that America has produced.

But the flipside is, we also know that the cli-mate is warming faster than anybody anticipat-ed 5 or 10 years ago, and that the future of Bet-tylu’s grandkids, in part, is going to depend onour willingness to deal with something that wemay not be able to see or smell, the way youcould when the Chicago River was on fire, orat least could have caught on fire, but is insome ways more serious, more fundamental.

America is probably more tolerant, more ac-cepting of difference than any time in our his-tory. Obviously, you’ve got an African Ameri-can President, a former and soon-to-be-againfemale Speaker of the House. The work thatwe did together to end “don’t ask, don’t tell” issomething that I could not be prouder of. Butwe also know that there’s still a lot of peoplewho are excluded in our society and we’ve gotmore work to do.

Here in Illinois, we’ve got a vote on same-sex marriage that’s going to be coming up inthe State legislature. And I just want to say forthe record, it’s something that I deeply sup-port. I wrestled with this for a long time, and Iam absolutely convinced, it is the right thing todo. And we have to make sure that whereverwe go, we are reminding people that the es-sence of America is that everybody is treatedequally under the law, without exception.

And so, across the board—whether it’s get-ting early childhood education done or re-building our infrastructure when we’ve gotbridges that are buckling all across the countryand airports that aren’t working the way they’resupposed to and ports that are too small to ac-commodate the big ships that are going to be

coming through the Panama Canal; whetherit’s making sure that we’ve got job training forpeople who have to retrain for the jobs of thefuture—we have a lot of business to do.

And the good news is that we have all the in-gredients for success. We’ve got the best cards.And there’s not a country on Earth that wouldnot gladly trade places with the United Statesof America. The bad news is, is that what’sstopping us from making more progress thanwe’ve already made is a situation in Washing-ton in which people are willing to put the nextelection ahead of the next generation.

And I’ve said this before, and I will say itagain: I’ve run my last election. My only inter-est at this point is effective governance. My on-ly interest is making sure that when I look back20 years from now, I say I accomplished every-thing that I could while I had this incredibleprivilege to advance the interests of the broad-est number of Americans and to make surethat this country was stronger and more pros-perous than it was when I came into office.That’s my only interest.

And that means that I am willing to workwith anybody—Republican, Democrat, or In-dependent—to get stuff done. And I am notgoing to put the pause button on for the nextyear and a half or 2 years or whatever it is sim-ply to position myself for the next election. IfI’ve got a Republican who’s willing to workwith me to rebuild our infrastructure, let’s go.I’ve got a Republican out there who’s willing toget serious about what we need to deal withour long-term deficit challenges, I’m prepared;come on, let’s talk. I’ve got somebody who hasa different approach to dealing with climatechange—I don’t have much patience for peo-ple who deny climate change, but if you’ve gotcreative approaches, market-based approach-es, tell me about them. If you think I’m doingit the wrong way, let me know. I’m happy towork with you.

But what I have not seen so far is the samewillingness that I saw and continue to see inNancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer and Jan Scha-kowsky and Sandy Levin, that same willingnessto put party interests or political interests aside

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to advance the interests of the American peo-ple. I have not seen that on the other side yet.

And what that tells me is, is that they’ve stillgot their minds on winning another election.And if that’s the case, then even as we’re doingeverything we can to govern and even as I’mgoing to continue to reach out to the otherside, I’m going to do everything I can to makesure that we’ve got Nancy Pelosi back in thespeakership, because that’s where she belongs.And I know the American people will benefitfrom her leadership.

So, last thing I’ll say, and then we’ll open itup for questions: This will be hard. And frank-ly, the way gerrymandering now works and thegeographical distribution of the populationmakes winning back the House a challenge.But you know what? Me winning the Presiden-cy was a challenge. Nancy Pelosi becoming thefirst female Speaker, that was a challenge. Itwasn’t easy back in 2006. It wasn’t easy back in2008. So it’s always challenging. Politics inAmerica is tough, and it’s competitive, and thecountry does have some very deep divisions ona whole range of issues. But it can be done.

And the question is going to be, are not onlythe folks in this room, who are the choir, butare we able and willing to mobilize friends,neighbors, coworkers, business partners, andgrab them by the collar—not literally, neces-sarily, but figuratively—and say to them, “Thestakes are big here, and we’ve got to stop fool-ing around”?

If all of you feel the same passion and inten-sity around this midterm election as so many ofyou felt in 2007, 2008 when I was running forPresident or in 2004 when I was running forSenate, then we’re going to get the Houseback. And when we do, we’re going to be in aposition to deliver for that next generation.And nothing else should matter. Nothing elseis more important.

Thank you. All right.

NOTE: The President spoke at 7:37 p.m. at theresidence of Bettylu K. and Paul W. Saltzman.In his remarks, he referred to Joan W. Harris,chairwoman, Irving B. Harris Foundation; andJudith Gaynor, founding cochair, HumanRights Watch Chicago Committee.

Remarks on the Federal Student Loan ProgramMay 31, 2013

Good morning, everybody. Have a seat,have a seat. Welcome to the White House. Iknow it’s a little warm. [Laughter]

One of my favorite things about this job isthat I get to spend some time with remarkableyoung people from all across the country. It in-spires me. It makes me feel good. Those of youwho have had to put on suits and ties and showup at the White House first thing on a Fridaymorning may not feel the same way I do—[laughter]—but I appreciate all of you beinghere. You cleaned up very well.

And these students and graduates are hereto talk about something that matters to millionsof young people and their families, and that’sthe cost of a college education. Because thisisn’t just critical for their futures, but it’s alsocritical for America’s futures.

Over the past 4½ years, we’ve been fightingour way back from a financial crisis and an in-

credibly punishing recession—the worst sincethe Great Depression—and it cost millions ofAmericans their jobs and their homes, thesense of security that they’d spent their livesbuilding up.

The good news is, today, our businesseshave created nearly 7 million new jobs over thepast 38 months. Five hundred thousand ofthose jobs are in manufacturing. We’re pro-ducing more of our own energy, we’re consum-ing less energy, and we’re importing less fromother countries. The housing market is comingback. The stock market has rebounded. Ourdeficits are shrinking at the fastest pace in 50years. People’s retirement savings are growingagain. The rise of health care costs are slowing.The American auto industry is back.

So we’re seeing progress, and the economyis starting to pick up steam. The gears are start-ing to turn again, and we’re getting some trac-

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tion. But the thing is, the way we measure ourprogress as a country is not just where thestock market is; it’s not just to how well thefolks at the top are doing; it’s not just about theaggregate economic numbers; it’s about howmuch progress ordinary families are making.Are we creating ladders of opportunity for ev-erybody who’s willing to work hard? Are wecreating not only a growing economy, but alsothe engine that is critical to long-lasting, sus-tained economic growth, and that is a rising,thriving middle class. That’s our focus. That’swhat we’ve got to be concerned about everysingle day. That’s our north star.

And that means there are three questionswe have to ask ourselves as a nation. Numberone, how do we make America a magnet forgood jobs in this competitive 21st-centuryeconomy? Number two, how do we make surethat our workers earn the skills and educationthey need to do those jobs? And number three,how do we make sure those jobs actually pay adecent wage or salary so that people can savefor retirement, send their kids to college?

Those are the questions we’ve got to be ask-ing ourselves every single day. So we’re heretoday to talk about that second question: Howdo we make sure our workers earn the skillsand education they need to do the jobs thatcompanies are hiring for right now and are go-ing to keep hiring for in the future? We knowthat the surest path to the middle class is someform of higher education: a 4-year degree, acommunity college degree, an advanced de-gree. You’re going to need more than just ahigh school education to succeed in this econo-my.

And the young people here today, they getthat. They’re working through college—maybejust graduated—and earning their degree isn’tjust the best investment that they can make fortheir future, it’s the best investment that theycan make in America’s future.

But like a lot of young people all across thecountry, these students have had to take onmore and more and more debt to pay for thisinvestment. Since most of today’s college stu-dents were born, tuition and fees at public uni-versities have more than doubled. And these

days, the average student who takes out loansto pay for 4 years of college graduates owingmore than $26,000. How many people are ontrack here for $26,000?

And that doesn’t just hold back our younggraduates, it holds back our entire middle classbecause Americans now owe more on our stu-dent loans than we do on our credit cards. Andthose payments can last for years, even de-cades, which means that young people are put-ting off buying their first car or their firsthouse—the things that grow our economy andcreate new jobs. And I’ve said this before, Iknow this first hand, Michelle and I, we did notfinish paying off our student loans until about 9years ago. And our student loans cost morethan our mortgage. Right when we wanted tostart saving for Sasha and Malia’s college edu-cation, we were still paying off our own collegeeducation.

And we were lucky. We had more resourcesthan many. So we cannot price the middleclass—or folks who are willing to work hard toget into the middle class—out of a college edu-cation. We can’t keep saddling young peoplewith more and more and more debt, just asthey’re starting out in life.

Now, the good news is, over the past 4 years,my administration has done a lot to addressthis. Working with Members of Congress,we’ve expanded student aid. We’ve reformedthe student loan system. We’ve saved tens ofbillions of taxpayer dollars that were just goingto big banks and made sure that the moneywent to helping more young people afford col-lege.

We made it easier to pay back those loans bypassing a law that says you’ll only have to pay10 percent of your monthly income towardsyour student—Federal student loans once yougraduate. This is important to emphasize, bythe way, because a lot of your peers, a lot ofyoung people don’t know this. Under existinglaw that we passed, you never have to pay morethan 10 percent of your income in paying backyour Federal student loans, which means if youwant to be a teacher, you want to go into a pro-fession that does not pay a lot of money, but

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gives you a lot of satisfaction, you are still capa-ble of doing that and supporting yourself.

We unveiled a new college scorecard thatgives parents and students the clear, conciseinformation that you need to shop around for aschool with the best value for you. And I’vemade it clear that those colleges that don’t doenough to keep college costs down should getless taxpayer support.

So we’re doing what we can, but here’s thething: If Congress doesn’t act by July 1, Feder-al student loan rates are set to double. And thatmeans that the average student with theseloans will rack up an additional $1,000 in debt.That’s like a $1,000 tax hike. I assume most ofyou cannot afford that. Anybody here can af-ford that? No.

Now, if this sounds like déjà vu all overagain, that’s because it is. We went throughthis last summer. Some of you were here. Itwasn’t as hot. [Laughter] I don’t think we didthis event outside. [Laughter] But we wentthrough this. And eventually, Congress lis-tened to all the parents and young people whosaid, don’t double my rate. And because folksmade their voices heard, Congress acted tokeep interest rates low. But they only did it fora year, and that year is almost up.

So the test here is simple: We’ve got to makesure that Federal student loan rates don’t dou-ble on July 1. Now, the House of Representa-tives has already passed a student loan bill, andI’m glad that they took action. But unfortu-nately, their bill does not meet that test. It failsto lock in low rates for students next year.That’s not smart. It eliminates safeguards forlower income families. That’s not fair. It couldactually cost a freshman starting school this fallmore over the next 4 years than if we did noth-ing at all and let the interest rates double onJuly 1.

So the House bill isn’t smart, and it’s notfair. I’m glad the House is paying attention toit, but they didn’t do it in the right way. So I’masking young people to get involved and makeyour voices heard once again. Last year, youconvinced 186 Republicans in the House and24 Republicans in the Senate to work withDemocrats to keep student loan rates low. You

made something bipartisan happen in thistown that is—that’s a powerful thing. You guyswere able to get Democrats and Republicansto vote for something that was important.

So this year, if it looks like your representa-tives have changed their minds, you’re going tohave to call them up again or e-mail them againor tweet them again and ask them what hap-pened—what changed? You’re still taking outthese loans. You’re still facing challenges.

Remind them that we’re a people who helpone another earn an education, because it ben-efits all of us. During the Civil War, Lincolnhad the foresight to set up a system of land-grant colleges. At the end of World War II, weset up the GI bill so that people like my grand-father could come back from a war and get aneducation. All these things created the greatestmiddle class on Earth.

My mom, a single mom, was able to get thesupport that she needed through loans andgrants—even while she was also working andraising two kids—to get her degrees. I’m onlyhere, Michelle is only right over there on theEast Wing, because we got great educations.We didn’t come from privilege. And we wantto make sure that the next generation has thosesame opportunities, because that has beengood for the country as a whole.

It’s up to us now to carry forward that tradi-tion. Higher education cannot be a luxury for aprivileged few. It is an economic necessity thatevery family should be able to afford, everyyoung person with dreams and ambitionshould be able to access. And now is not thetime for us to turn back on young people. Nowis not the time to slash the investments thathelp us grow. Now is the time to reaffirm ourcommitment to you and the generation that’scoming behind you, and that if we work to-gether to generate more jobs and educatemore kids and open up new opportunities foreverybody who’s willing to work and willing topush through those doors of opportunity,America can’t be stopped. All right?

So I’m putting my faith in you. Let’s worktogether. Let’s get this done by July 1. Thankyou everybody. God bless you. God blessAmerica. Thank you.

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NOTE: The President spoke at 10:26 a.m. inthe Rose Garden at the White House. In his

remarks, he referred to his sister Maya Soeto-ro-Ng. He also referred to H.R. 1911.

Remarks Following a Meeting With Secretary General Anders FoghRasmussen of the North Atlantic Treaty OrganizationMay 31, 2013

President Obama. Well, it’s a great pleasureonce again to welcome our Secretary ofNATO, Anders Rasmussen. He has been anextraordinary partner for us and, I believe, agreat leader for NATO.

Over the last several years, he has helped toorchestrate a very successful Lisbon summit, avery successful Chicago summit. And in be-tween, he has been able to mobilize and acti-vate NATO members to take a whole host ofactions that have resulted in a more secureworld and has helped to underscore the impor-tance of this alliance in the 21st century as abaseline whereby the United States and othermember nations achieve security for their peo-ple. And so I’m very grateful for his extraordi-nary service.

We had an excellent discussion today fo-cused on a number of issues that are of con-cern to all NATO members and are of greatconcern to the United States. Obviously, at thetop of our list was Afghanistan, where the in-ternational coalition that has worked alongsideour U.S. troops has achieved significant prog-ress. And we are now looking over the next sev-eral weeks to a new milestone, one that was setin Chicago, where we are transitioning to Af-ghan lead for combat operations in Afghanistanand NATO members and ISAF members willbe shifting into a train, assist, and advise mode.

We’ve seen great progress in the Afghan Na-tional Security Forces. We want to continuethose—that progress. And central to that willbe those NATO members, who are contribut-ing, continuing to work effectively with theirAfghan counterparts so that moving into nextyear, we have a successful Afghan election andwe continue transition until the end of 2014whereby our combat roles will be completed.

We had an opportunity to discuss not onlythe planning for the next year and a half, but

also what kinds of steps we could take post-2014 to continue to ensure that Afghan securi-ty forces are effective and can control theirown borders and that NATO members can beassured that Afghanistan will not be used as abase for terrorism in the future.

And what we’ve agreed to is that in order forus facilitate this entire process, that it would beappropriate for us to have another NATO sum-mit next year. And so Secretary Rasmussen willbe working diligently, as he always does, toidentify a host country and to plan for a 2014NATO summit, at which time not only will webe able to underscore this final chapter in ourAfghan operations, but also to paint a pictureof the future whereby we’re partnering withthe Afghan Government on behalf of the Af-ghan people and on behalf of world security.

In addition to talking about Afghanistan, wealso discussed the importance of continuing toimprove NATO defense capabilities in a newworld with new threats. And Anders has takenthe lead talking with all the NATO membersabout how we start building up greater andgreater capacity and integration. That requiresburden-sharing on the part of all NATO mem-bers. It means that even during times of aus-terity, that we work smarter together to ensurethat we can meet and are prepared for anythreats that may arise, whether it is improvingour joint surveillance capabilities or addressingnew threats like cybersecurity.

And because of Anders’s leadership, I thinkwe’ve made real progress on this front. One ofthe goals of a 2014 NATO summit would be tolock in some of the progress that’s already beenmade into a set of commitments that are clear-ly understood by all the NATO members, and Ivery much appreciate the work that Anders hasdone on that front.

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We had a chance to talk about Libya, wherewe obviously had a very successful NATO op-eration to liberate Libya from a decades-longdictatorship. We now have a Libyan Govern-ment that is in a transition process. And part ofwhere we think we can be helpful is to assurethat a democratically elected Libyan Govern-ment has the capacity to control its borders, toensure that it does not become a safe haven forterrorism. And I think NATO has an importantrole to play on that front, and I know that Sec-retary Rasmussen recently met with the PrimeMinister of Libya and had discussions abouthow we could provide assistance.

We are very supportive of those efforts be-cause we think it’s critical that we have strongpartners in places like North Africa that areable to meet the security needs of their ownpeople, but are also working with the interna-tional community to meet the security needs ofall of us.

And finally, I congratulated Anders on theexcellent work that was done to achieve anagreement with respect to the Kosovo situationthat has the potential to be historic and indi-cates the degree to which NATO forces in thatregion continue to play a very important role inunderwriting the security of people who histor-ically, obviously, have been racked by all sortsof conflict and violence. And we’re very sup-portive of those efforts.

It’s one more example of the kind of leader-ship that Secretary Rasmussen has shown dur-ing the course of his tenure. We appreciate thefact that he has extended that tenure longerthan he and his family originally anticipated,but we’re all very fortunate that he’s taken onthis assignment. And I look forward to continu-ing productive work with him and his entireteam at NATO over the next year of the—ofhis service.

Thank you very much, Anders.Secretary General Rasmussen. Thank you

very much, Mr. President, for your kind words.Thank you for your support. Thank you foryour strong commitment to a strong NATO.

NATO brings together 28 nations that sharethe same values: freedom, democracy, the ruleof law. And those 28 nations offer a pool of

forces and capabilities that is second to none.After almost two decades of operations, ourforces are stronger and more experienced thanever. And in these tough economic times,NATO’s collective and multilateral defense isfar more effective and far more efficient thanany individual national capability. ThroughNATO, you get more value for money; you getmore security for money.

Now, our main operation is our ISAF mis-sion in Afghanistan. Our goal is in sight. Soon,we will reach an important milestone. The Af-ghans will take the lead for security across thecountry. Our troops will move into a supportrole. By the end of 2014, our combat missionwill be completed, our combat troops will re-turn home, the Afghan security forces will takefull responsibility for the security, but we willstill be there to train, advise, and assist.

And to that end, we are now preparing atraining mission to be established from 2015. Itwill be a very different mission: a noncombatmission with a significantly lower number oftroops and trainers. So we are determinedlymoving towards our goal: an Afghanistan thatcan stand on its own feet. But the Afghans willnot stand alone. We are prepared for an endur-ing partnership with the Afghan people.

As we draw down our operations, we will en-hance the modernization of our defense to en-sure effective protection of our populationsagainst new and emerging security threats andchallenges. That’s why we are building aNATO missile defense, strengthening cyberse-curity, and we will step up joint military exer-cises, training, and education to maintain andfurther develop our ability to work and operatetogether.

Today the President and I have discussedthis vision of change from a deployed NATO toa prepared NATO. And we look very much for-ward to further outlining and discussing thisshared mission with NATO allies at a summitin 2014.

President Obama. Thank you, sir.Secretary General Rasmussen. Yes, thank

you.President Obama. Thank you, everybody.

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Administration of Barack Obama, 2013 / June 1

NOTE: The President spoke at 11:45 a.m. inthe Oval Office at the White House. In his re-

marks, he referred to Prime Minister Ali Zay-dan of Libya.

Letter to Congressional Leaders Transmitting Designations Under theKingpin ActMay 31, 2013

Dear __________:

This report to the Congress, under section804(a) of the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Des-ignation Act, 21 U.S.C. 1903(b)(1) (the “King-pin Act”), transmits my designations of the fol-lowing six foreign individuals and groups as ap-propriate for sanctions under the Kingpin Actand reports my direction of sanctions againstthem under the Act:

Mihael Karner (Slovenia) Haji Khotwal Noorzai (Afghanistan) Luis Fernando Sanchez Arellano (Mexico)Los Caballeros Templarios (Mexico) Los Urabeños (Colombia) Los Cachiros (Honduras)

Sincerely,

BARACK OBAMA

NOTE: Identical letters were sent to Carl M.Levin, chairman, and James M. Inhofe, rank-ing member, Senate Committee on Armed

Services; Max S. Baucus, chairman, and OrrinG. Hatch, ranking member, Senate Committeeon Finance; Robert Menendez, chairman, andRobert P. Corker, Jr., ranking member, SenateCommittee on Foreign Relations; Patrick J.Leahy, chairman, and Charles E. Grassley,ranking member, Senate Committee on the Ju-diciary; Dianne Feinstein, chair, and SaxbyChambliss, vice chairman, Senate Select Com-mittee on Intelligence; Howard P. “Buck”McKeon, chairman, and Adam Smith, rankingmember, House Committee on Armed Servic-es; Edward R. Royce, chairman, and Eliot L.Engel, ranking member, House Committee onForeign Affairs; Robert W. Goodlatte, chair-man, and John Conyers, Jr., ranking member,House Committee on the Judiciary; Michael J.Rogers, chairman, and C.A. “Dutch” Ruppers-berger, ranking member, House PermanentSelect Committee on Intelligence; and DavidL. Camp, chairman, and Sander M. Levin,ranking member, House Committee on Waysand Means. The related memorandum is listedin Appendix D at the end of this volume.

The President’s Weekly AddressJune 1, 2013

Hi, everybody. Over the past 4½we’ve been fighting our way back from an eco-nomic crisis and punishing recession that costmillions of Americans their jobs, their homes,and the sense of security they’d worked so hardto build.

But thanks to the grit and determination ofthe American people, our businesses have nowcreated nearly 7 million new jobs over the past38 months. An auto industry that was flatliningis once again the heartbeat of American manu-facturing, with Americans buying more cars

than we have in 5 years. Within the next fewmonths, we’re projected to begin producingmore of our own crude oil at home than webuy from other countries, the first time that’shappened in 16 years.

Deficits that were growing for years are nowshrinking at the fastest rate in decades. Therise of health care costs is slowing too. And ahousing market that was in tatters is showingnew signs of real strength. Sales are rising,foreclosures are declining, construction is ex-panding, and home prices that are rising at the

years,

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June 1 / Administration of Barack Obama, 2013

fastest rate in nearly 7 years are helping a lot offamilies breathe a lot easier.

Now we need to do more. This week, my ad-ministration announced that we’re extending aprogram to help more responsible familiesmodify their mortgages so they can stay in theirhomes. But to keep our housing market andour economy growing, Congress needs to stepup and do its part. Members of Congress willbe coming back next week for an importantmonth of work. We’ve got to keep this progressgoing until middle class families start regainingthat sense of security. And we can’t let partisanpolitics get in the way.

Congress should pass a law giving every re-sponsible homeowner the chance to save about$3,000 a year on their mortgage by refinancingat historically low interest rates. Congressshould put more Americans to work rebuildingour crumbling roads and bridges, like the onethat collapsed last week in Washington State.We’d all be safer, and the unemployment ratewould fall faster.

And Congress should fix our broken immi-gration system by passing commonsense re-form that continues to strengthen our borders,

hold employers accountable, and provides apathway to earned citizenship and also mod-ernizes our legal immigration system so thatwe’re reuniting families and attracting thehighly skilled entrepreneurs and engineerswho will help our economy grow.

So there are a lot of reasons to feel optimis-tic about where we’re headed as a country, es-pecially after all we’ve fought through togeth-er. We’ve just got to keep going, because we’vegot more good jobs to create. We’ve got morekids to educate. We’ve got more doors of op-portunity to open for anyone who’s willing towork hard enough to walk through those doors.

And if we work together, I’m as confident asI’ve ever been that we’ll get to where we needto be.


NOTE: The address was recorded at approxi-mately 2:50 p.m. on May 31 in the RooseveltRoom at the White House for broadcast onJune 1. The transcript was made available bythe Office of the Press Secretary on May 31,but was embargoed for release until 6 a.m. onJune 1.

Remarks at the National Conference on Mental HealthJune 3, 2013

The President. Thank you so much. Every-body, please have a seat. Thank you so much.Welcome to the White House. And thank you,Janelle, for that introduction and sharing yourstory and making such a difference throughyour organization. We’re really proud to haveyou here.

I want to thank Secretary Sebelius, Secre-tary Arne Duncan, Secretary Ric Shinseki fortheir leadership and helping to organize thisevent. And I also want to acknowledge someoutstanding Members of Congress who arehere and who care deeply about this issue.

And finally, I want to thank all of you forparticipating in this National Conference onMental Health. We wanted to bring togetherfolks who’ve suffered from mental illness andfamilies who’ve supported them. We wanted to

bring together advocates and educators, faithleaders, veterans, local officials.

All of you have shown an extraordinary com-mitment to what is a critical goal, and that is tomake sure that people aren’t suffering in si-lence and that we have the capacity to pull to-gether all the resources and support and lovethat’s out there to go after an extraordinarychallenge in our society.

The main goal of this conference is not tostart a conversation; so many of you have spentdecades waging long and lonely battles to beheard. Instead, it’s about elevating that conver-sation to a national level and bringing mentalillness out of the shadows.

We want to let people living with mentalhealth challenges know that they are not alone,and we’ve got to be making sure that we’recommitted to support those fellow Americans,

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because struggling with a mental illness or car-ing for someone who does can be isolating.And I think everybody here who’s experiencedthis—the issue in one way or another under-stands that. It begins to feel as if not only areyou alone, but that you shouldn’t burden oth-ers with the challenge, and the darkness, dayin, day out—what some call a cloud that youjust can’t seem to escape—begins to close in.

The truth is, in any given year, one in fiveadults experience a mental illness—one in five.Forty-five million Americans suffer fromthings like depression or anxiety, schizophreniaor PTSD. Young people are affected at a simi-lar rate. So we all know somebody—a familymember, a friend, a neighbor—who has strug-gled or will struggle with mental health issuesat some point in their lives. Michelle and Ihave both known people who have battled se-vere depression over the years, people we love.And oftentimes, those who seek treatment goon to lead happy, healthy, productive lives.

So we know that recovery is possible, weknow help is available, and yet, as a society, weoften think about mental health differentlythan other forms of health. You see commer-cials on TV about a whole array of physicalhealth issues, some of them very personal.[Laughter] And yet we whisper about mentalhealth issues and avoid asking too many ques-tions.

And the brain is a body part too; we justknow less about it. And there should be noshame in discussing or seeking help for treat-able illnesses that affect too many people thatwe love. We’ve got to get rid of that embarrass-ment; we’ve got to get rid of that stigma. Toomany Americans who struggle with mentalhealth illnesses are still suffering in silencerather than seeking help, and we need to see itthat men and women who would never hesitateto go see a doctor if they had a broken arm orcame down with the flu, that they have thatsame attitude when it comes to their mentalhealth.

And we see it in veterans who come homefrom the battlefield with the invisible woundsof war, but who feel somehow that seekingtreatment is a sign of weakness, when in fact

it’s a sign of strength. We see it in parents whowould do anything for their kids, but who oftenfight their mental health battle alone, afraidthat reaching out would somehow reflect badlyon them.

We see it in the tragedies that we have thepower to prevent. And I want to be absolutelyclear: The overwhelming majority of peoplewho suffer from mental illnesses are not vio-lent. They will never pose a threat to them-selves or others. And there are a whole lot ofviolent people with no diagnosable mentalhealth issues. But we also know that most sui-cides each year involve someone with a mentalhealth or substance abuse disorder. And insome cases, when a condition goes untreated,it can lead to tragedy on a larger scale.

We can do something about stories likethese. Many cases, treatment is available andeffective. We can help people who suffer froma mental illness continue to be great col-leagues, great friends, the people we love. Wecan take out some pain and give them a newsense of hope. But it requires all of us to act.And there are a few ways we can do our part.

First, we’ve got to do a better job recogniz-ing mental health issues in our children andmaking it easier for Americans of all ages toseek help. Today, less than 40 percent of peo-ple with mental illness receive treatment—lessthan 40 percent. Even though three-quartersof mental illnesses emerge by the end of—bythe age of 24, only about half of children withmental health problems receive treatment.Now, think about it: We wouldn’t accept it ifonly 40 percent of Americans with cancers gottreatment. And we wouldn’t accept it if onlyhalf of young people with diabetes got help.Why should we accept it when it comes tomental health? It doesn’t make any sense.

But the good news is, there are plenty ofgroups that are stepping up to change that. Soa former colleague of mine, Gordon Smith, aformer Republican Senator, lost his son to sui-cide 10 years ago. And I remember him speak-ing so eloquently about it. Gordon is now thehead of the National Association of Broadcast-ers, and today the National Association ofBroadcasters is announcing a new campaign

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designed to change attitudes about mental ill-ness through TV ads and social media, becauseGordon doesn’t want other parents to gothrough the agonizing loss that he’s endured.So we thank you, Gordon, for that great work.

You’ve got secondary school principals whoare holding assemblies on mental health.You’ve got organizations like the YMCA whoare volunteering to train staff to recognize thesigns of depression and other mental illnessesin our young people. You got leaders from dif-ferent faith communities who are getting theircongregations involved. And dozens of otherorganizations have today made similar commit-ments, so we’ve very thankful to all of you.

There are other people who are leading byexample. My great friend, Patrick Kennedy,when he was running for reelection back in2006, he could have avoided talking about hisstruggles with bipolar disorder and addiction.Let’s face it, he’s a Kennedy. You know.[Laughter] He was—his seat was pretty safe.Everybody loved him. And yet Patrick used hisexperience as a way to connect and to lift upthese issues, not hide from them.

And one day, a woman came up to Patrick ata senior center and told him she was afraid totell her friends she was taking medication for amental illness because they—she was worriedthey might treat her differently. She told Pat-rick, “You’re the only one who knows asidefrom my son.” And so Patrick started realizinghow much power there could be for people tospeak out on these issues. And Patrick carriedthese stories back with him to Washington,where he worked with a bipartisan group oflawmakers, including his dad, to make sure themental health services you get through your in-surance plan at work are covered the same waythat physical health services are. A huge victo-ry. So—[applause].

So because of Patrick’s efforts and the col-leagues who worked with him, it’s easier formillions of people to join him on the road torecovery, which brings me to a second point.It’s not enough to help more Americans seektreatment, we also have to make sure that thetreatment is there when they’re ready to seekit.

For years now, our mental health system hasstruggled to serve people who depend on it.That’s why, under the Affordable Care Act,we’re expanding mental health and substanceabuse benefits for more than 60 million Ameri-cans. And new health insurance plans are re-quired to cover things like depression screen-ings for adults and behavioral assessments forchildren. And beginning next year, insurancecompanies will no longer be able to deny any-body coverage because of a preexisting mentalhealth condition.

We’re also investing in science and basic re-search to make it easier to diagnose and treatdisease early. And earlier this year, I an-nounced an ambitious initiative to developtools for mapping the human brain, whichcould help scientists and researchers unlockthe answers to conditions that affect mentalhealth.

We’re also doing more to support our troopsand our veterans who are suffering from thingslike traumatic brain disorder—or traumaticbrain injury or PTSD, posttraumatic stress dis-order. Today, we lose 22 veterans a day to sui-cide—22. We’ve got to do a better job thanthat, of preventing these all too often silenttragedies. That’s why we’ve poured an enor-mous amount of resources into high-qualitycare and better treatment for our troops.

And today, under Ric Shinseki’s leadership,the VA is going even further. They’re partner-ing with 24 communities in 9 States to help re-duce wait times for veterans seeking mentalhealth care. And they’re—they’ve met theirgoal of hiring 1,600 new mental health provid-ers, which means this summer, they’re going tohold more than 150 summits like this one incommunities all across the country so that ev-ery one of our servicemembers and veteransunderstand: Just like you take care of your-selves and each other on the battlefield, you’vegot to do the same thing off the battlefield.That’s part of being strong.

For many people who suffer from a mentalillness, recovery can be challenging. But whathelps more than anything, what gives so manyof our friends and loved ones strength, is theknowledge that you are not alone. You’re not

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alone. You’re surrounded by people who careabout you and who will support you on thejourney to get well. We’re here for you.

And that’s what this conference is about.That’s why these issues are so important. So ifthere’s anybody out there who’s listening, ifyou’re struggling, seek help.

Audience member. Thank you, Mr. Presi-dent.

The President. You’re welcome. If you knowsomebody who is struggling, help them reachout. Remember the family members whoshoulder their own burdens and needs oursupport as well. And more than anything, letpeople who are suffering in silence know thatrecovery is possible. They’re not alone. There’s

hope. There’s possibility. And that’s what all ofyou represent with the extraordinary advocacyand work that you’ve already done.

So thank you all for being here. Let’s do ev-erything we can to help our fellow Americansheal and thrive. And now I’d like to turn it overto Secretary Sebelius, who will be leading ouropening panel. All right?


NOTE: The President spoke at 10 a.m. in theEast Room at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to Janelle Montano, speak-er, Active Minds, Inc.; and former Rep. PatrickJ. Kennedy.

Statement on the Death of Senator Frank R. LautenbergJune 3, 2013

Michelle and I were deeply saddened tolearn of the passing of Senator Frank Lauten-berg, a proud New Jerseyan who lived Ameri-ca’s promise as a citizen and fought to keepthat promise alive as a Senator.

The son of working class immigrants, Frankjoined the Army during World War II, went tocollege on the GI bill, and cofounded one ofAmerica’s most successful companies. Firstelected to the Senate in 1982, he improved thelives of countless Americans with his commit-

ment to our Nation’s health and safety, fromimproving our public transportation to protect-ing citizens from gun violence, to ensuring thatmembers of our military and their families getthe care they deserve. Michelle and I extendour deepest condolences to Bonnie, the Laut-enberg family, and the people of New Jersey,whom Frank served so well.

NOTE: The statement referred to Bonnie En-glebardt Lautenberg, wife of Sen. Lautenberg.

Message to the Congress on Authorizing Additional Sanctions With Respectto IranJune 3, 2013


Pursuant to the International EmergencyEconomic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.)(IEEPA), I hereby report that I have issued anExecutive Order (the “order”) that takes addi-tional steps with respect to the national emer-gency declared in Executive Order 12957 ofMarch 15, 1995, and implements certain statu-tory requirements of the Iran Freedom andCounter-Proliferation Act of 2012 (subtitle Dof title XII of Public Law 112–239) (22 U.S.C.

8801 et seq.) (IFCA), which amends the Com-prehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, andDivestment Act of 2010 (Public Law 111–195)(22 U.S.C. 8501 et seq.) (CISADA).

In Executive Order 12957, the Presidentfound that the actions and policies of the Gov-ernment of Iran threaten the national security,foreign policy, and economy of the UnitedStates. To deal with that threat, the Presidentdeclared a national emergency and imposedprohibitions on certain transactions with re-spect to the development of Iranian petroleum

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resources. To further respond to that threat,Executive Order 12959 of May 6, 1995, im-posed comprehensive trade and financial sanc-tions on Iran. Executive Order 13059 of Au-gust 19, 1997, consolidated and clarified theprevious orders. To take additional steps withrespect to the national emergency declared inExecutive Order 12957 and to implement sec-tion 105(a) of CISADA, I issued Executive Or-der 13553 on September 28, 2010, to imposesanctions on officials of the Government ofIran and other persons acting on behalf of theGovernment of Iran determined to be respon-sible for or complicit in certain serious humanrights abuses.

To take additional steps with respect to thethreat posed by Iran and to provide imple-menting authority for a number of the sanc-tions set forth in the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996(Public Law 104–172) (50 U.S.C. 1701 note)(ISA), as amended by CISADA, I issued Exec-utive Order 13574 on May 23, 2011, to autho-rize the Secretary of the Treasury to imple-ment certain sanctions imposed by the Secre-tary of State pursuant to ISA, as amended byCISADA. I also issued Executive Order 13590on November 20, 2011, to take additional stepswith respect to this emergency by authorizingthe Secretary of State to impose sanctions onpersons providing certain goods, services, tech-nology, or support that contribute either toIran’s development of petroleum resources orto Iran’s production of petrochemicals, and toauthorize the Secretary of the Treasury to im-plement some of those sanctions. On February5, 2012, in order to take further steps pursuantto this emergency, and to implement section1245(c) of the National Defense AuthorizationAct for Fiscal Year 2012 (Public Law 112–81)(22 U.S.C. 8513a), I issued Executive Order13599 blocking the property of the Govern-ment of Iran, all Iranian financial institutions,and persons determined to be owned or con-trolled by, or acting for or on behalf of, suchparties. On April 22, 2012, and May 1, 2012, Iissued Executive Orders 13606 and 13608, re-spectively. Executive Orders 13606 and 13608each take additional steps with respect to vari-ous emergencies, including the emergency de-

clared in Executive Order 12957 concerningIran, to address the use of computer and infor-mation technology to commit serious humanrights abuses and efforts by foreign persons toevade sanctions.

To take additional steps with respect to thenational emergency declared in Executive Or-der 12957, I issued Executive Order 13622 ofJuly 30, 2012, imposing further sanctions inlight of the Government of Iran’s use of reve-nues from petroleum, petroleum products, andpetrochemicals for illicit purposes; Iran’s con-tinued attempts to evade international sanc-tions through deceptive practices; and the un-acceptable risk posed to the international fi-nancial system by Iran’s activities.

Most recently, I issued Executive Order13628 of October 9, 2012, to take additionalsteps with respect to the national emergencydeclared in Executive Order 12957 and to im-plement certain statutory requirements of theIran Threat Reduction and Syria HumanRights Act of 2012 (Public Law 112–158) (22U.S.C. 8701 et seq.) (TRA), including itsamendments to the statutory requirements ofISA and CISADA.

With respect to the order that I have just is-sued, section 1 of the order authorizes the Sec-retary of the Treasury, in consultation with theSecretary of State, to impose financial sanc-tions on or to block all property and interests inproperty that are in the United States, thatcome within the United States, or that are orcome within the possession or control of anyUnited States person (including any foreignbranch) of a foreign financial institution deter-mined to have, on or after the effective date ofthe order:

• knowingly conducted or facilitated anysignificant transaction related to the pur-chase or sale of Iranian rials or a deriva-tive, swap, future, forward, or other simi-lar contract whose value is based on theexchange rate of the Iranian rial; or

• maintained significant funds or accountsoutside the territory of Iran denominatedin the Iranian rial.

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Section 2 of the order authorizes the Secre-tary of the Treasury, in consultation with theSecretary of State, to block all property and in-terests in property that are in the UnitedStates, that come within the United States, orthat are or come within the possession or con-trol of any United States person (including anyforeign branch) of any person upon determin-ing:

• that the person has materially assisted,sponsored, or provided financial, materi-al, or technological support for, or goodsor services to or in support of, any Irani-an person included on the list of Special-ly Designated Nationals and BlockedPersons maintained by the Office of For-eign Assets Control (SDN List) (otherthan an Iranian depository institutionwhose property and interests in propertyare blocked solely pursuant to ExecutiveOrder 13599) or any other person includ-ed on the SDN List whose property andinterests in property are blocked pursu-ant to this paragraph or Executive Order13599 (other than an Iranian depositoryinstitution whose property and interestsin property are blocked solely pursuantto Executive Order 13599); or

• pursuant to authority delegated by thePresident and in accordance with theterms of such delegation, that sanctionsshall be imposed on such person pursu-ant to section 1244(c)(1)(A) of IFCA.

Section 3 of the order authorizes the Secre-tary of the Treasury, in consultation with theSecretary of State, to impose financial sanc-tions on a foreign financial institution deter-mined to have knowingly conducted or facili-tated any significant financial transaction:

• on behalf of any Iranian person includedon the SDN List (other than an Iraniandepository institution whose propertyand interests in property are blockedsolely pursuant to Executive Order13599) or any other person included onthe SDN List whose property and inter-ests in property are blocked pursuant tosubsection 2(a)(i) of the order or Execu-

tive Order 13599 (other than an Iraniandepository institution whose propertyand interests in property are blockedsolely pursuant to Executive Order13599); or

• on or after the effective date of the order,for the sale, supply, or transfer to Iran ofsignificant goods or services used in con-nection with the automotive sector ofIran.

Section 5 of the order authorizes the Secre-tary of State, in consultation with the Secretaryof the Treasury, the Secretary of Commerce,the Secretary of Homeland Security, and theUnited States Trade Representative, and withthe President of the Export-Import Bank, theChairman of the Board of Governors of theFederal Reserve System, and other agenciesand officials as appropriate, to impose sanc-tions on a person upon determining that theperson:

• on or after the effective date of the order,knowingly engaged in a significant trans-action for the sale, supply, or transfer toIran of significant goods or services usedin connection with the automotive sectorof Iran;

• is a successor entity to a person deter-mined to meet that criterion;

• owns or controls a person determined tomeet that criterion, and had knowledgethat the person engaged in the activitiesreferred to therein; or

• is owned or controlled by, or under com-mon ownership or control with, a persondetermined to meet that criterion, andknowingly participated in the activitiestherein.

Sections 6 and 7 of the order provide that,for persons determined to meet any of thesecriteria, the heads of the relevant agencies, inconsultation with the Secretary of State, shallimplement the sanctions imposed by the Sec-retary of State. Those sanctions may includethe following actions:

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• the Board of Directors of the Export-Im-port Bank shall deny approval of the issu-ance of any guarantee, insurance, exten-sion of credit, or participation in an ex-tension of credit in connection with theexport of any goods or services to thesanctioned person;

• agencies shall not issue any specific li-cense or grant any other specific permis-sion or authority under any statute thatrequires the prior review and approval ofthe United States Government as a con-dition for the export or reexport of goodsor technology to the sanctioned person;

• for a sanctioned person that is a financialinstitution: the Chairman of the Board ofGovernors of the Federal Reserve Sys-tem and the President of the Federal Re-serve Bank of New York shall take suchactions as they deem appropriate, includ-ing denying designation, or terminatingthe continuation of any prior designationof, the sanctioned person as a primarydealer in United States Government debtinstruments; or agencies shall preventthe sanctioned person from serving as anagent of the United States Governmentor serving as a repository for UnitedStates Government funds;

• agencies shall not procure, or enter into acontract for the procurement of, anygoods or services from the sanctionedperson;

• the Secretary of State shall deny a visa to,and the Secretary of Homeland Securityshall exclude from the United States, anyalien that the Secretary of State deter-mines is a corporate officer or principalof, or a shareholder with a controlling in-terest in, a sanctioned person;

• the heads of the relevant agencies, as ap-propriate, shall impose on the principalexecutive officer or officers, or personsperforming similar functions and withsimilar authorities, of a sanctioned per-son any of the sanctions described above,as selected by the Secretary of State;

• the Secretary of the Treasury shall takeactions where necessary to:

prohibit any United States financial in-stitution from making loans or provid-ing credits to the sanctioned persontotaling more than $10,000,000 in any12-month period, unless such personis engaged in activities to relieve hu-man suffering and the loans or creditsare provided for such activities;

prohibit any transactions in foreign ex-change that are subject to the jurisdic-tion of the United States and in whichthe sanctioned person has any interest;

prohibit any transfers of credit or pay-ments between financial institutions orby, through, or to any financial institu-tion, to the extent that such transfersor payments are subject to the juris-diction of the United States and in-volve any interest of the sanctionedperson;

block all property and interests inproperty that are in the United States,that come within the United States, orthat are or come within the possessionor control of any United States person,(including any foreign branch) of thesanctioned person, and provide thatsuch property and interests in propertymay not be transferred, paid, exported,withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in;

prohibit any United States personfrom investing in or purchasing signifi-cant amounts of equity or debt instru-ments of a sanctioned person;

restrict or prohibit imports of goods,technology, or services, directly or in-directly, into the United States fromthe sanctioned person; or

impose on the principal executive offi-cer or officers, or persons performingsimilar functions and with similar au-thorities, of a sanctioned person any ofthe sanctions described above, as ap-propriate.

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

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Section 7 of the order also provides that,when the Secretary of State or the Secretary ofthe Treasury pursuant to authority delegatedby the President and in accordance with theterms of such delegation, has determined thatsanctions shall be imposed on a person pursu-ant to sections 1244(d)(1)(A), 1245(a)(1), or1246(a)(1) of IFCA (including in each case asinformed by section 1253(c)(2) of IFCA), suchSecretary may select one or more of the sanc-tions described above for which the Secretaryof the Treasury shall take such action, and theSecretary of the Treasury shall take actionswhere necessary to implement those sanctions.

Sections 8 and 11 of the order implementthe statutory requirements of CISADA, asamended by section 1249 of IFCA. They au-thorize the Secretary of the Treasury to blockall property and interests in property that arein the United States, that come within theUnited States, or that are or come within thepossession or control of any United States per-son (including any foreign branch), and theSecretary of State to suspend entry into theUnited States, of persons determined by theSecretary of the Treasury, in consultation withor at the recommendation of the Secretary ofState:

• to have engaged, on or after January 2,2013, in corruption or other activities re-lating to the diversion of goods, includingagricultural commodities, food, medi-cine, and medical devices, intended forthe people of Iran;

• to have engaged, on or after January 2,2013, in corruption or other activities re-lating to the misappropriation of pro-

ceeds from the sale or resale of goods de-scribed above;

• to have materially assisted, sponsored, orprovided financial, material, or techno-logical support for, or goods or servicesto or in support of, the activities de-scribed above or any person whose prop-erty and interests in property are blockedpursuant to these provisions; or

• to be owned or controlled by, or to haveacted or purported to act for or on behalfof, directly or indirectly, any personwhose property and interests in propertyare blocked pursuant to these provisions.

I have delegated to the Secretary of theTreasury the authority, in consultation with theSecretary of State, to take such actions, includ-ing the promulgation of rules and regulations,and to employ all powers granted to the Presi-dent by IEEPA, as may be necessary to carryout the purposes of the order, other than thepurposes described in sections 5, 6, and 11 ofthe order. All agencies of the United StatesGovernment are directed to take all appropri-ate measures within their authority to carry outthe provisions of the order.

The order, a copy of which is enclosed, be-comes effective at 12:01 a.m. eastern daylighttime on July 1, 2013.

BARACK OBAMA

The White House,June 3, 2013.

NOTE: The related Executive order and mem-orandum are listed in Appendix D at the end ofthis volume.

Memorandum on the Emergency Leave Transfer Program for FederalEmployees Adversely Affected by the Severe Storms and Tornadoes in OklahomaJune 3, 2013

Memorandum for the Heads of Executive De-partments and Agencies

Subject: Emergency Leave Transfer Programfor Federal Employees Adversely Affected by

the Severe Storms and Tornadoes in Oklaho-ma

I am deeply saddened by the devastatinglosses caused by the severe storms and

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tornadoes in Oklahoma and their aftermath.The Federal Government has mobilized to re-spond to this major disaster, and many Federalemployees are dealing with overwhelming per-sonal losses.

To further assist Federal employees andtheir family members adversely affected by thestorms and tornadoes in Oklahoma, I herebydirect the Office of Personnel Management(OPM) to establish an emergency leave trans-fer program, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 6391. Theprogram will permit employees in the execu-

tive and judicial branches, or an agency leavebank established under 5 U.S.C. 6363, to do-nate unused annual leave for transfer to em-ployees of the same or other agencies (or thejudicial branch) who were adversely affectedby the storms and tornadoes in Oklahoma andwho need additional time off for recovery. Ifurther direct OPM to provide additional guid-ance to agencies on the program’s administra-tion.

BARACK OBAMA

Remarks on the Nominations of Patricia A. Millett, Cornelia T.L. “Nina”Pillard, and Robert L. Wilkins To Be Judges on the United States Court ofAppeals for the District of Columbia CircuitJune 4, 2013

Good morning, everybody. Please have aseat.

So one of the most important responsibili-ties of a President is to nominate qualified menand women to serve as judges on the Federalbench.

And Congress has a responsibility as well.The Senate is tasked with providing advice andconsent. They can approve a President’s nomi-nee, or they can reject a President’s nominee.But they have a constitutional duty to promptlyconsider judicial nominees for confirmation.

Now, throughout my first term as President,the Senate too often failed to do that. Timeand again, congressional Republicans cynicallyused Senate rules and procedures to delay andeven block qualified nominees from coming toa full vote.

As a result, my judicial nominees have wait-ed three times longer to receive confirmationvotes than those of my Republican predeces-sor. Let me repeat that: My nominees havetaken three times longer to receive confirma-tion votes than those of my Republican prede-cessor. These individuals that I nominate arequalified. When they were given an up-or-down vote in the Senate—when they were fi-nally given an up-or-down vote in the Senate—every one of them was confirmed. So this is not

about principled opposition, this is about polit-ical obstruction.

I recognize that neither party has a perfecttrack record here. Democrats weren’t com-pletely blameless when I was in the Senate.But what’s happening now is unprecedented.For the good of the American people, it has tostop. Too much of the people’s business is atstake. Our legal framework depends on timelyconfirmations of judicial nominees. And no-where is this more apparent than with the DCCircuit Court of Appeals.

The DC Circuit is known as the secondhighest court in the country, and there’s a goodreason for that. The judges on the DC Circuitroutinely have the final say on a broad range ofcases involving everything from national secu-rity to environmental policy, from questions ofcampaign finance to workers’ rights. In otherwords, the court’s decisions impact almost ev-ery aspect of our lives.

There are 11 seats on the DC Circuit Court.When I first took office, there were two vacan-cies. Since then, two more judges have retired.That means there are four vacancies that need-ed to be filled. And by February of this year,more than one-third of the seats on the Na-tion’s second highest court were empty. Imean, imagine if a third of the seats on thehighest court—the Supreme Court—were

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empty. We would rightly consider that a judi-cial crisis. If we want to ensure a fair and func-tioning judiciary, our courts cannot be shortstaffed.

Now, in 2010, I put forward a highly quali-fied nominee for the DC Circuit: Caitlin Halli-gan. Caitlin’s credentials were beyond ques-tion. She had bipartisan support from the legaland law enforcement communities. She hadthe support of a majority of Senators. Nobodysuggested she was not qualified to serve on thecourt. If Caitlin had gotten a simple up-or-down vote before the full Senate, I am confi-dent she would have been easily confirmed.But instead, for 2½ years, Senate Republicansblocked her nominations. It had nothing to dowith Caitlin’s qualifications. It was all aboutpolitics. And after 2 ½ years of languishing inlimbo, this brilliant and principled lawyerasked me to withdraw her nomination.

Now, the good news is, last year, I put forwardanother highly qualified nominee: Sri Srinivasan.And Sri’s credentials were also beyond question.And no doubt due to some mounting publicpressure, along with the vocal bipartisan supportthat he received, Sri was unanimously confirmeda few weeks ago, becoming the first South AsianAmerican to serve as a Circuit Court judge in ourNation’s history.

So I’m pleased that the Senate acted. I’mglad Republicans chose not to play politics andobstruct Sri’s nomination the way they did withCaitlin’s. And I’m hopeful that we can nowbuild on that progress, because Sri’s confirma-tion was the first to the DC Circuit in 7 years.So out of the four vacancies that existed, onehas now been filled. There are three seats stillvacant on the DC Circuit Court—one of them,by the way—one of them has been vacant sinceChief Justice Roberts was elevated to the Su-preme Court in 2005. Anybody who values therole of our courts should find that unaccept-able regardless of your party, which brings meto today. That’s why today I’m nominatingthree outstanding, highly qualified individualsto fill those remaining seats.

Now, Patricia Millett is one of our Nation’sfinest appellate attorneys and, until recently,held the record for the most Supreme Court

arguments by a female lawyer. She served inthe Solicitor General’s Office for 11 years forboth Democratic and Republican Presidents.Since then, in private practice, she’s represent-ed everyone from large businesses to individu-al pro bono plaintiffs. And by the way, as thewife of a retired Navy officer, Patricia hasserved our Nation outside the courtroom, aswell, as a member of a military family.

Nina Pillard’s career has been defined by anunshakeable commitment to the public good.She twice served in the Department of Justiceand was an attorney for the NAACP Legal De-fense and Education Fund. Her landmark suc-cesses before the Supreme Court include de-fending the constitutionality of the Family andMedical Leave Act and opening the doors ofthe Virginia Military Institute to female stu-dents. And today, Nina is a professor atGeorgetown and, if confirmed, would continuethe DC Circuit’s strong tradition of distin-guished scholars going on to serve as judges,from Antonin Scalia to Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

And finally, this is the second time I’vecalled on Judge Robert Wilkins to serve, be-cause in 2010, I nominated Robert to the DCDistrict Court, and the Senate confirmed himwithout opposition. Before serving with dis-tinction as a Federal judge, Robert spent 8years in private practice and a decade as a pub-lic defender here in Washington, DC, provid-ing legal representation to defendants whocould not afford an attorney. And throughouthis career, Robert has distinguished himself asa principled attorney of the utmost integrity.

So these three individuals are highly quali-fied to serve on the DC Circuit. They havebroad bipartisan support from across the legalcommunity. The nonpartisan American BarAssociation have given them—each of them—its highest rating. These are no slouches.[Laughter] These are no hacks. These are in-credibly accomplished lawyers by all accounts.And there are Members of Congress here to-day who are ready to move forward with thesenominations, including the Chairman, PatrickLeahy. So there’s no reason—aside from poli-tics—for Republicans to block these individu-als from getting an up-or-down vote.

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Despite that, some Republicans recentlyhave suggested that by nominating these threeindividuals, I’m somehow engaging in—andI’m quoting here—in “court-packing.” [Laugh-ter] No, I—people laugh, but this is an argu-ment I’ve made. For those of you who are fa-miliar with the history of court-packing, thatinvolved Franklin Delano Roosevelt trying toadd additional seats to the Supreme Court inorder to water down and get more support forhis political agenda. We’re not adding seatshere. We’re trying to fill seats that are alreadyexisting. Each of the past five Presidents hasseen at least three of their nominees confirmedto the DC Circuit. Since I’ve been President,obstruction has slowed that down to one.

Right now there are three open seats on acritical court. I didn’t create these seats. Ididn’t just wake up one day and say, let’s addthree seats to the District Court of Appeals.These are open seats. And the Constitution de-mands that I nominate qualified individuals tofill those seats. What I am doing today is myjob. I need the Senate to do its job.

The fact that Republican Senators are nowpushing a proposal to reduce the number ofjudges on this independent Federal court alsomakes no sense. When a Republican was Presi-dent, 11 judges on the DC Circuit Court madecomplete sense. Now that a Democrat is Presi-dent, it apparently doesn’t. Eight is suddenlyenough. [Laughter] People are laughing be-cause it’s obviously a blatant political move.

We know that because some of the sameRepublicans behind this current proposal toreduce the number of seats on the DC CircuitCourt voted in 2007 to keep 11 judges on theDC Circuit, same folks. They say the workloadhas decreased since then, but in April, the Ju-dicial Conference of the United States—which, by the way, is led by Chief Justice JohnRoberts and includes judges from various lev-

els of the Federal court system—told the Sen-ate that the current workload before the DCCircuit requires 11 judges. So they shouldknow. That was just 2 months ago.

Chief Justice John Roberts, the Chief Jus-tice of the highest court in the land and formermember of the DC Circuit Court, says theyneed 11 judges. So it’s important we don’t playgames here, and it’s important that we cutthrough the verbiage.

An essential part of our democracy is theseparation of powers. The executive, the legis-lative, and the judiciary each have a role toplay. And when it comes to judicial nominees,my responsibility is to put forward qualified in-dividuals. These are threeof the most qualifiedindividuals you’ll ever meet. The Senate’s re-sponsibility in turn is to promptly give them anup or down vote.

So today I’m doing my part. I hope in thecoming months that the Senate does its part,because I assure you, when these three out-standing individuals are on the bench, they willdo their part. That’s what the Constitution de-mands. It’s what the American people expect.And I look forward to years of outstanding ser-vice by these outstanding lawyers of incredibleintegrity.

And I promised that I would mention thisto—before all of you: They also have reallygood-looking families. [Laughter] Because Ijust saw their kids and—[applause]. All right.Thank you very much, everybody.

NOTE: The President spoke at 10:28 a.m. inthe Rose Garden at the White House. In hisremarks, he referred to former Chief JudgeDavid B. Sentelle and former Judge DouglasH. Ginsburg of the U.S. Court of Appeals forthe District of Columbia Circuit; and RobertKing, husband of Judge-designate Millett.

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Remarks Following a Meeting With President Sebastian Piñera Echeniqueof ChileJune 4, 2013

President Obama. I want to welcome Presi-dent Piñera and his delegation to the Oval Of-fice. It gives me an opportunity to return theextraordinary hospitality that they showed dur-ing my visit to Santiago and the wonderfulwarmth that the Chilean people extended tome and my delegation during my visit.

Obviously, we’ve got strong relationshipsthroughout the hemisphere, but the relation-ship between the United States and Chile is asstrong and as important as any of the relation-ships that we have. Chile has been on a re-markable growth trajectory over several de-cades, and the progress that it’s made in termsof strengthening its economy, pulling peopleout of poverty, establishing a strong manufac-turing and industrial and service base, itsstrong exports sector are all proof of the talentsof the Chilean people, but also Chile’s em-brace of democracy and human rights and amarket economy. And as a consequence, Chilehas become not only a leader in the hemi-sphere, but also a leader in the world.

President Piñera’s outstanding leadershiphas continued and enhanced this process, andhe and I have had an excellent relationship in anumber of multilateral settings.

Today we had a wide-ranging discussion.Some of the topics were very specific: for ex-ample, the process whereby we anticipateChile being able to achieve a membership inthe Visa Waiver Program that will facilitate thefreer flow of people between our two countriesand, I know, is one of President Piñera’s high-est priorities.

We discussed the Trans-Pacific Partnership,a high-standard, a high-level trade agreementwith the countries of the Asia-Pacific region,which is the most dynamic and fastest growingregion of the world. And Chile has been an ex-cellent partner with us in trying to bring thismultilateral trade agreement to a close.

I congratulated President Piñera on thework that Chile is doing in the Pacific partner-ship, in which Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and

Peru are joining together to create not onlyeconomic integration, but also educational andscientific exchanges that will not only enhanceeach member country, but also are pointingthe way for a model of economic developmentand growth throughout the region that I thinka lot of people are paying attention to.

And we also discussed the ways in which theUnited States and Chile can continue tostrengthen its people-to-people exchanges andcontinue to deepen our cooperation on areaslike energy that are so important to the contin-ued prosperity of our people.

So overall, I think that the relationship be-tween the United States and Chile is extraordi-narily strong. I want to thank President Piñerafor his friendship and his leadership. I’m confi-dent that during the remaining year in whichhe’s in office, he’s going to accomplish evenmore for the Chilean people and continue toproject Chile on the world stage as a very posi-tive force for good. And I hope that he hasfound this visit here to the United States use-ful.

I look forward to an opportunity at somepoint to returning to Chile, one of my favoritevisits during the course of my travels. And Ilook forward to a lot of good work in the yearsahead.

So thank you very much, Mr. President.President Piñera. Well, thank you very

much, President Obama. You know that youare always welcome in Chile. Your visit was avery important one, not only for Chile, but forthe whole hemisphere.

We have confirmed once again that theUnited States and Chile, we share the samevalues: our commitment with democracy, hu-man rights, rule of law, our market-orientedeconomy, our commitment with world peace.And therefore, we will keep collaborating withthe U.S. in strengthening and promoting thesevalues all over the world.

Of course, we discussed many different as-pects; one of them was the Trans-Pacific

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Partnership. And Chile is fully committed, notonly with a Chilean agreement and create thelargest free trade zone in the world, whichwould be the case if the Trans-Pacific Partner-ship is approved, but also we want to approve itwithin the timeframe that we have set.

So we hope that in the near future we willbe able to make the progress necessary to getthat Trans-Pacific Partnership deal done.

On the other hand, we have a free tradeagreement with the U.S., was signed in 2004.Since then, we have more than tripled ourtrade with U.S. The U.S. has a very significantsurplus in its trade with Chile; we are very hap-py with that. But it’s not only in trade. We’reinterested in many other things. That’s whythis conversation has been extremely helpful,because we have discussed other issues likeeconomy—the education, clean renewable en-ergies, science, technology. In all those areas,

we have a lot to learn from the U.S., and wehave a lot to collaborate with the U.S.

We are very happy that we have signed spe-cial agreements with two States: with Califor-nia and with Massachusetts. And therefore, Iwould like to emphasize, President Obama,that we are following what you are doing in theU.S. Of course, it has been a difficult task, be-cause the world is going through difficulttimes. But we are very optimistic that the U.S.economy is picking up. It’s growing. It’s creat-ing jobs. And that’s good for the U.S. people,but also for the whole world.

A little bit in Spanish.

[At this point, President Piñera made remarksin Spanish, and no translation was provided.]

President Obama. Thank you very much.

NOTE: The President spoke at 12:05 p.m. inthe Oval Office at the White House.

Remarks Honoring the 2013 Super Bowl Champion Baltimore RavensJune 5, 2013

The President. Hello, everybody! Welcometo the White House. And welcome to the Su-per Bowl champion—world champion—Balti-more Ravens. Everybody can have a seat.That’s why we set up chairs. [Laughter]

Now, I suspect that these guys are wonder-ing, what kind of introduction is that? Nosmoke machine. [Laughter] No fire cannons.Obama didn’t even tear up chunks of turf andrub them on his suit. [Laughter]

Team member. Man, that’s rough.The President. That reminds me, by the way,

please don’t do that on the South Lawn. [Laughter]I want to congratulate Coach John Har-

baugh, an outstanding coach, and general man-ager, Ozzie Newsome, outstanding generalmanager. I know there’s some very proud Ra-vens fans in the house today, including—yougot the entire delegation from Maryland here,and they’re a little puffed up.

I notice, though, I’m the only one wearingpurple. [Laughter] Some of you guys didn’t getthe memo.

Now, I imagine there were times last yearwhen these players were the only ones whoknew that they’d make it here to show off thistrophy. Because, during the year, they lostplayer after player to injury; they dropped fourof their last five regular season games. In theplayoffs, they trailed Denver by a touchdownwith 70 yards and less than a minute to go. AndI still don’t know how, well—[laughter]. Andthen, in the Super Bowl, just when it lookedlike they had the momentum, the lights wentout for a half hour.

Team member. They call you for that?The President. Yes. [Laughter]But these Ravens always pulled through. In

that playoff game against Broncos, JacobyJones—those are all fans of “Dancing With theStars”—[laughter]—he slipped behind the de-fense to catch a Joe Flacco Hail Mary to forceovertime. I’m trying to figure out whether hewas doing the two-step or the fox trot. Butsomehow he got open and Joe got him the ball.

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And then, in the Super Bowl, after the lightscame back on and 49ers came storming back,this team’s defense—the pride and joy of Balti-more—stopped a fierce offense four straighttimes inside the 10-yard line: one of the mostdramatic goal line stands in Super Bowl history.

Joe was named the game’s MVP. Where’sJoe?

Team member. Easy Joe. Easy Joe.The President. There he is. Good timing

with that contract up. [Laughter] That wassome good timing. [Laughter] Capped off oneof the greatest postseasons ever by a quarter-back: more than 1,100 passing yards, 11 touch-downs, no interceptions. I don’t know aboutyou, Joe, but I would say that qualifies as elite.[Laughter] And I’d say that if you keep onplaying like that, you’re going to challengeBiden for the most popular person from Dela-ware. [Laughter]

After the Super Bowl, Joe said: “The winwas representative and symbolic of our city.We’re a blue-collar city, and I know that wehad to keep grinding it out.”

You see that same attitude, great pride buthumility in Coach Harbaugh, a guy who re-sponds to all the attention he got for coachingagainst his brother in the Super Bowl by say-ing, “This isn’t exactly Churchill and Roosevelt,just a couple of football coaches coming to-gether.”

You see that grit in team advisor O.J. Brig-ance, a former Raven whose courageous fightagainst ALS is an inspiration to Americans allacross the country.

You see the resilience in players like TorreySmith who lost his younger brother in a motor-cycle accident the night before the gameagainst the Patriots, but Torrey wanted to play,and he responded with 127 yards and twoscores. So we’re so proud of Torrey.

And then, of course, you can’t think aboutBaltimore without thinking of Ray Lewis andEd Reed, two of the greatest defenders whoever played the game. Now, these two won’t bewearing purple next year. Everybody is goingto have to get used to that. It’s welcome newsfor quarterbacks.

Ray retired on top, coming back from a tri-cep injury, which, I believe, was caused by thatdance he does. [Laughter]

Team member. You’ve got to do that——The President. But—no, I’m not doing that

dance. [Laughter] It caused him to miss mostof the regular season.

Ed sprained ligaments in both of his kneesduring the Super Bowl, but he still made thegame’s only interception. And before he leftHouston, where he’ll be playing next year, Edtook out a full-page ad in the Baltimore Sun tothank Ravens fans, saying, “I have such deeplove for all of you.” So that’s a class act. Thankyou.

I will point out, by the way, that Ed is get-ting some gray hair, though. [Laughter] I’mnot the only one. [Laughter]

Former Safety Edward E. Reed, Jr. No, notat all.

The President. Huh? You’re like an old man.[Laughter]

Mr. Reed. You know what they’ll do to you.The President. I’m telling you. That makes

me feel better. [Laughter] I thought I was theonly guy. No. All right.

Well, but that’s the spirit of the entire team.Last year, this team donated more than $1 mil-lion to charitable causes. They helped youngpeople get active through the Play 60 cam-paign. Over Thanksgiving, they Skyped with aMaryland National Guard unit stationed in Af-ghanistan. Later this month, Coach Harbaughwill host a youth football clinic that emphasizesplayer safety and proper tackling technique.

And today I’m proud to announce that theRavens will be donating brand new uniformsfor varsity football and girls’ basketball teamsat public schools all across Baltimore; that’s atotal of 42 teams. We’re glad to have some highschool athletes from Baltimore here to cele-brate with us here today.

So this year, Baltimore won’t just be seeingthe Ravens on Sundays or Monday night orThursday night. You’ll see their impact in highschools under Friday night lights. And that’s atestimony to the connection they feel to thiscity.

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You’ll see players spending their Tuesdays—normally, their only day off during the sea-son—visiting hospitals and schools and seniorcenters, and day after day, you’ll see a teamthat loves Baltimore as much as Baltimoreloves the Ravens. So I want to thank all of youfor the good work that you’re doing.

Congratulations again on your Super BowlChampionship. Best of luck next season; you’regoing to need it in week 11 when you go to myhometown of Chicago to play the Bears. Ibrought some Chicago fans in here. Just so weweren’t overwhelmed—[laughter]—and keepthings in proper perspective. But with that, Iwould like to have Ozzie Newsome and CoachHarbaugh come up and just say a few words,and then I’m going to get my spiffy jersey.[Laughter]

[At this point, General Manager Ozzie New-some, Jr., and Head Coach John Harbaughmade brief remarks.]

The President. Fantastic. All right. Let’sstrike the podium here, and we’ll get some pic-tures.

NOTE: The President spoke at 12:11 p.m. onthe South Lawn at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to Jacoby R. Jones and J.Torrey Smith, wide receivers, Joseph V. Flac-co, quarterback, and Raymond A. Lewis, Jr.,former linebacker, Baltimore Ravens; James J.Harbaugh, head coach, National FootballLeague’s San Francisco 49ers; and Vice Presi-dent Joe Biden.

Remarks on the Resignation of Thomas E. Donilon as National SecurityAdviser, the Appointment of Susan E. Rice as National Security Adviser, andthe Nomination of Samantha Power To Be United States PermanentRepresentative to the United NationsJune 5, 2013

The President. Thank you, everybody.Thank you. Please, everybody have a seat.Well, good afternoon. It is a beautiful day, andit’s good to see so many friends here.

Of all the jobs in government, leading mynational security team is certainly one of themost demanding, if not the most demanding.And since the moment I took office, I’vecounted on the exceptional experience and in-sights of Tom Donilon. Nearly every day forthe past several years, I’ve started each morn-ing with Tom leading the Presidential dailybrief, hundreds of times, a sweeping assess-ment of global developments and the mostpressing challenges. As my National SecurityAdviser, his portfolio is literally the entireworld.

He has definitely advanced our strategic for-eign policy initiatives while at the same timehaving to respond to unexpected crises, andthat happens just about every day. He’s over-seen and coordinated our entire national secu-

rity team across the Government, a Herculeantask. And it’s nonstop, 24/7, 365 days a year.

Today I am wistful to announce that aftermore than 4 years of extraordinary service,Tom has decided to step aside at the beginningof July. And I am extraordinarily proud to an-nounce my new National Security Adviser, ouroutstanding Ambassador to the United Na-tions, Susan Rice, as well as my nominee to re-place Susan in New York, Samantha Power.

When I first asked Tom to join my team, Iknew I was getting one of our Nation’s premierforeign policy leaders, somebody with a deepsense of history and a keen understanding ofour Nation’s place in the world. He shared myview that in order to renew American leader-ship for the 21st century, we had to fundamen-tally rebalance our foreign policy. And morethan that, he knew how we could do it.

See, Tom is that rare combination of thestrategic and the tactical. He has a strategicsense of where we need to go, and he has a tac-tical sense of how to get there.

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Moreover, Tom’s work ethic is legendary.He began his public service in the CarterWhite House when he was just 22 years old,and somehow, he has been able to maintainthe same drive and the same stamina and thesame enthusiasm and reverence for serving inGovernment. He has helped shape every singlenational security policy of my Presidency, fromforging a new national security strategy rootedin our economic strength here at home to end-ing the war in Iraq. Here at the White House,Tom oversaw the operation that led us to binLaden. He’s helped keep our transition ontrack as we wind down the war in Afghanistan.

At the same time, Tom has played a criticalrole as we’ve bolstered the enduring pillars ofAmerican power: strengthening our alliancesfrom Europe to Asia, enhancing our relation-ship with key powers, and moving ahead withnew trade agreements and energy partner-ships. And from our tough sanctions on Iran toour unprecedented military and intelligencecooperation with Israel——

[At this point, a baby in the audience criedout.]

It’s true—[laughter]—from New STARTwith Russia to deeper partnerships withemerging powers like India, to stronger tieswith the Gulf States, Tom has been instrumen-tal every step of the way.

I’m especially appreciative to Tom for help-ing us renew American leadership in the Asia-Pacific, where so much of our future securityand prosperity will be shaped. He has workedtirelessly to forge a constructive relationshipwith China that advances our interests and ourvalues. And I’m grateful that Tom will be join-ing me as I meet with President Xi of Chinathis week.

And finally, Tom, I am personally gratefulfor your advice, for your counsel, and most ofall, for your friendship. Whenever we sit downtogether—whether it’s in the Oval Office orthe Situation Room—I do so knowing that youhave led a rigorous process, that you’ve chal-lenged assumptions, that you’ve asked thetough questions, that you’ve led an incrediblyhard-working national security staff, and pre-

sented me with a range of options to advanceour national interests. A President can’t ask foranything more than that, and this is a testa-ment to your incredible professionalism, butalso your deep love of country.

I know that this relentless pace has meantsacrifices for your family: for Cathy, who ishere, Dr. Biden’s former Chief of Staff, who Iwas proud to nominate as our new Global Am-bassador for Women; and for Tom and Cathy’swonderful children Sarah and Teddy. So todayI want to publicly thank all the Donilons fortheir abiding commitment to public servicethat runs through the family.

You’ve been with me every step of the waythese past 4 years, and the American peopleowe you an enormous debt of gratitude for ev-erything that you’ve done. You’ve helped to re-store our Nation’s prestige and standing in theworld. You’ve positioned us well to continue tolead in the years ahead. I think that Tom Do-nilon has been one of the most effective Na-tional Security Advisers our country has everhad, and he’s done so without a lot of fanfareand a lot of fuss. So, Tom, on behalf of us all,thank you for your extraordinary service.

Now, I am proud that this work will be car-ried on by another exemplary public servant,Ambassador Susan Rice. Susan was a trustedadviser during my first campaign for President.She helped to build my foreign policy teamand lead our diplomacy at the United Nationsin my first term. I’m absolutely thrilled thatshe’ll be back at my side, leading my nationalsecurity team in my second term.

With her background as a scholar, Susan un-derstands that there is no substitute for Ameri-can leadership. She is at once passionate andpragmatic. I think everybody understands Su-san is a fierce champion for justice and humandignity, but she’s also mindful that we have toexercise our power wisely and deliberately.

Having served on the National SecurityCouncil staff herself, she knows how to bringpeople together around a common policy andthen push it through to completion so thatwe’re making a difference where it mattersmost, here in the country that we’ve pledged to

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defend and in the daily lives of people we’retrying to help around the world.

Having served as an Assistant Secretary ofState, she knows our policies are strongerwhen we harness the views and talents of peo-ple across Government. So Susan’s the con-summate public servant: a patriot who puts hercountry first. She is fearless; she is tough. Shehas a great tennis game and a pretty good bas-ketball game. [Laughter] Her brother is here,who I play with occasionally, and it runs in thefamily, throwing the occasional elbow—[laughter]—but hitting the big shot.

As our Ambassador to the U.N., Susan hasbeen a tireless advocate in advancing our inter-ests. She has reinvigorated American diploma-cy in New York. She’s helped to put in placetough sanctions on Iran and North Korea. Shehas defended Israel. She has stood up for inno-cent civilians from Libya to Côte d’Ivoire. Shehas supported an independent South Sudan.She has raised her voice for human rights, in-cluding women’s rights.

Put simply, Susan exemplifies the finest tra-dition of American diplomacy and leadership.So thank you, Susan, for being willing to takeon this next assignment. I’m absolutely confi-dent that you’re going to hit the ground run-ning. And I know that after years of commut-ing to New York while Ian, Jake, and Marisstayed here in Washington, you will be the firstperson ever in this job who will see their familymore by taking the National Security Adviser’sjob.

Now, normally, I’d be worried about losingsuch an extraordinary person up at the UnitedNations and be trying to figure out, how are weever going to replace her? But fortunately, I’mconfident we’ve got an experienced, effective,and energetic U.N. Ambassador-in-waiting inSamantha Power.

Samantha first came to work for me in 2005shortly after I became a United States Senator,as one of our country’s leading journalists; Ithink she won the Pulitzer Prize at the age of15 or 16. One of our foremost thinkers on for-eign policy, she showed us that the internation-al community has a moral responsibility and a

profound interest in resolving conflicts and de-fending human dignity.

As a senior member of my national securityteam, she has been a relentless advocate forAmerican interests and values, building part-nerships on behalf of democracy and humanrights, fighting the scourge of anti-Semitism,and combating human trafficking. To thosewho care deeply about America’s engagementand indispensable leadership in the world, youwill find no stronger advocate for that causethan Samantha.

And over the last 4 years, Samantha’sworked hand in glove with Susan in her rolebecause Samantha has been the lead WhiteHouse staffer on issues related to the UnitedNations. And I’m fully confident she will beready on day one to lead our mission in NewYork, while continuing to be an indispensablemember of my national security team.

She knows the U.N.’s strengths. She knowsits weaknesses. She knows that American inter-ests are advanced when we can rally the worldto our side. And she knows that we have tostand up for the things that we believe in. Andto ensure that we have the principled leader-ship we need at the United Nations, I wouldstrongly urge the Senate to confirm her with-out delay.

So, Samantha, thank you to Cass and youand Declan and Rian, for continuing to serveour country.

This team of people has been extraordinarilydedicated to America. They have made Ameri-ca safer. They have made America’s values livein corners of the world that are crying out forour support and our leadership. I could not beprouder of these three individuals, not onlytheir intelligence, not only their savvy, buttheir integrity and their heart.

And I’m very, very proud to have had theprivilege of working with Tom. I’m very proudthat I’ll continue to have the privilege of work-ing with Samantha and with Susan.

So with that, I’d invite Tom to say a fewwords. Tom.

National Security Adviser Donilon. Thankyou, Mr. President. You mentioned the many

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hours that we’ve worked together in the Situa-tion Room, put together here by John Kenne-dy and without windows.

The President. No windows.National Security Adviser Donilon. No win-

dows. So I would first like to thank you for thisrare opportunity to be outside and experiencethe natural light. [Laughter]

[Outgoing National Security Adviser Donilonmade additional remarks. Then, AmbassadorRice and Ambassador-designate Power eachmade brief remarks, and the President con-cluded his remarks as follows.]

The President. Thank you, everybody.

NOTE: The President spoke at 2:17 p.m. inthe Rose Garden at the White House. In hisremarks, he referred to Catherine M. Rus-sell, wife of outgoing National Security Ad-viser Donilon; Jill T. Biden, wife of VicePresident Joe Biden; E. John Rice, Jr., broth-er, Ian O. Cameron, husband, and Jake andMaris Rice-Cameron, children, of Ambassa-dor Rice; and Cass R. Sunstein, husband ofSamantha Power, National Security CouncilSenior Director for Multilateral Affairs, andtheir children Declan and Rian Power-Sunstein. The transcript released by the Of-fice of the Press Secretary also included theremarks of outgoing National Security Advis-er Donilon, Ambassador Rice, and Ambassa-dor-designate Power.

Remarks at Mooresville Middle School in Mooresville, North CarolinaJune 6, 2013

The President. Hello, Mooresville! Hello,Mooresville. It is good to be back in NorthCarolina. Now, first of all, I want to thankmy staff for being smart enough to schedulea visit right before school lets out. [Laugh-ter] Because that means everybody is in agood mood. [Laughter] However, PrincipalTulbert told me that if I wanted to visit, Ihad to follow school rules. And since we justrecited the Pledge of Allegiance, let me saythat “it’s always a great day to be a Red Imp.”The—I gather some of you are going to beBlue Devils next year. I mean, being an Impis okay, but I guess being a Devil—[laugh-ter].

Now, I want to thank Maureen for thewonderful introduction, but more important-ly, for the great work that she and all thestaff at this school are doing. I could not bemore impressed with the teachers and theadministrators. So give it up for them. Stu-dents, clap for your teachers. You may notrealize how lucky you are to have great, ded-icated teachers, but as a parent, I realize howimportant that is. And so we can’t thankthem enough.

I want to make sure everybody knows thatwe’ve got one of the finest Secretaries of Edu-

cation we’ve ever had in Arne Duncan, who’shere. Your mayor, Miles Atkins, is in the house.And Superintendent Edwards is here, who’sdoing such great work. So give him a big roundof applause.

So I want to thank you for inviting me heretoday. I know it’s a little warm in here, as it al-ways is in a school gym. But I was spending alot of time talking to the students, and theywere showing me such incredible work that Igot kind of carried away.

I’ve come here to Mooresville to announcean important step that we’re taking to grow oureconomy and to reignite the engine that pow-ers our economy, and that’s a rising and thriv-ing middle class where everybody has opportu-nity.

Over the past 4½ years, we have been fight-ing back from the worst recession since theGreat Depression, which cost millions ofAmericans their jobs and their homes and thesense of security that they’d worked so hard tobuild. And North Carolina got hit worse than alot of States.

But thanks to the grit and the determinationof the American people, folks are starting tocome back. Our businesses have created nearly7 million new jobs over the past 38 months;

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530 [530,000]* of those jobs are new manufac-turing jobs that help us sell goods made inAmerica all around the world. We’re produc-ing more of our own energy. We’re consumingless energy from other countries. The housingmarket and the stock markets are rebounding.Our deficit is shrinking. People’s retirementsavings are growing. The American auto indus-try has come roaring back.

So we’re getting traction. The gears to theeconomy are turning. We’re starting to makeprogress. But we’ve got to build on that prog-ress. Because while the economy is growing,there’s still a lot of families out there who feellike they’re working harder and harder, butcan’t get ahead. And the middle class has to beprospering, not just folks at the very top. That’sgot to be our focus: a growing economy. We’vegot to have a growing economy that createsgood, middle class jobs. That’s got to be thenorth star that guides all of our efforts.

Now, what that means—I said this at myState of the Union Address—every day, we’vegot to ask ourselves three questions as a nation:Number one, how do we make America a mag-net for good jobs? Number two, how do wemake sure our workers, our people, have theskills and education they need to do thosejobs? And then, number three, how do wemake sure that those jobs pay well so that ahard work leads to a decent living?

But the reason I’m here today is because youare helping to answer that second question:How do we make sure Americans have thechance to earn the best skills and educationpossible? That’s why I came to Mooresville. Be-cause at a moment when the rest of the world istrying to outeducate us, we’ve got to make surethat our young people—all you guys—have ev-ery tool that you need to go as far as your tal-ents and your dreams and your ambitions andyour hard work will take you. All right?

So that’s the spirit that’s reflected in themotto of your school district: “Every Child, Ev-ery Day.” It’s that fundamental belief that nomatter who you are, no matter what you like—look like, no matter where you come from, ev-

ery child can learn. Every child can succeed.Every child, every day, deserves that chance.We’ve got an obligation to give every youngperson that chance.

That means making sure we’ve got the bestteachers and giving those teachers support andpaying them what they deserve. [Applause]

Audience member. Yes!The President. Right? Yes. All the teachers

say, amen.Audience members. Amen!The President. Amen. It requires parents

who are more active and involved. Parents,school is not a passive thing where you justdump off your kids, they come back, and some-how, automatically they learn. You’ve got to beinvolved in the education process. It requiressmarter schools that are safer places to learn.And in an age when the world’s information isa just click away, it demands that we bring ourschools and libraries into the 21st century. Wecan’t be stuck in the 19th century when we’reliving in a 21st-century economy.

And that’s why today we’re going to take anew step to make sure that virtually every childin America’s classrooms has access to the fastestInternet and the most cutting-edge learningtools. And that step will better prepare our chil-dren for the jobs and challenges of the future,and it will provide them a surer path into themiddle class. And as a consequence, it will meana stronger, more secure economy for all of us.

Specifically, today I am directing the Feder-al Communications Commission—which is theFCC—to begin a process that will connect 99percent of America’s students to high-speedbroadband Internet within 5 years. Within 5years, we’re going to get it done. [Applause]Within 5 years.

Now, those of you here at Mooresville un-derstand why this is important, but I’m speak-ing to a larger audience, so I want to explainwhy this is important. Today, the averageAmerican school has about the same band-width as the average American home, eventhough obviously, there are 200 times as manypeople at school as there are at home. Only


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around 20 percent of our students have accessto true high-speed Internet in their classroom.By comparison, South Korea has 100 percentof its kids with high-speed Internet. We’ve got20 percent; South Korea 100 percent. In coun-tries where we—in a country where we expectfree Wi-Fi with our coffee, why shouldn’t wehave it in our schools? Right? Why wouldn’t wehave it available for our children’s education?

So the good news is, here in Mooresville,you’ve committed yourself to this cause. Start-ing in the third grade, as all of you know be-cause you’ve lived through it, every student inthe district gets a laptop and high-speed, wire-less Internet in the classroom.

And I just saw the ways that it’s changinghow you learn. You don’t just write papers andtake tests. You’re working together on videosand presentations and movies and poetry. Yourhigh school Spanish class might Skype withstudents in Barcelona or Buenos Aires. Onestudent proudly said, “We’re able to work onmore projects and homework outside of class.”Now, that’s not normally something teenagersbrag about. [Laughter] But that’s exactly theattitude that’s going to help you succeed andhelp your country succeed.

And as I was learning in talking to some ofthe teachers here, it’s helping the teachers too,because if a student is falling behind, a teacheris seeing it in real time.

Somebody fall down? One thing you guysgot to do, by the way, bend your knees a littlebit when you’re standing. If you stand upstraight—yes. I’m just giving you a tip so youdon’t faint—[laughter]—which happens all thetime, and it’s really embarrassing. [Laughter]But if you already did, you should sit down.

But it gives teachers the ability to see in realtime what students need help, who’s falling be-hind, and then offer extra help. If you’ve al-ready mastered a lesson, you can move on tothe next one. So as one teacher said, “Thething I’m most proud of is not the technology,it’s the relationships I can build with the stu-dents that I teach.”

Now, here at this school, this has only beengoing on for a few years. But so far, the resultshave been remarkable. Graduation rates are

up. Last year, out of 115 school districts inNorth Carolina, you ranked in the bottom 10 inthe amount of money you spend per student,but you ranked number 2 in student achieve-ment. All right? [Applause] Number two. Soyou’re spending less money getting better out-comes. And around the country, educatorshave started to take notice. So many peoplewant to see this school for themselves thatthere’s a waiting list for tours all the way into2014.

But here’s the thing: As special as whatyou’ve done is, I don’t want this success to berestricted to one school or one school district.There is no reason why we can’t replicate thesuccess you’ve found here. And imagine whatthat will mean for our country.

Imagine a young girl growing up on a farmin a rural area who can now take an AP biologyor AP physics class, even if her school is toosmall to offer it. Imagine a young boy with achronic illness that means he can’t go toschool, but now he can join his classmates viaSkype or FaceTime and fully participate inwhat’s going on.

Imagine educators spending fewer hoursteaching to a test, more time helping kids learnin new and innovative ways. Imagine morebusinesses starting here and hiring here in thisarea, in North Carolina, because they know fora fact that we’ve committed ourselves to equip-ping all of our kids with better skills and educa-tion than any place else on Earth. That’s whatwe need.

So, over the next 5 years, we’re going topartner with private companies to put peopleto work laying fiber optic cables to our schoolsand setting up wireless connections in ourschools with speeds 10 to 100 times faster thanwhat most schools have today. We’re going towork with States to give teachers who want touse these technologies in the classroom theprofessional development that they need, be-cause I was talking to Ms. Tulbert, she said, forall the teachers here, it took some adaptationto get used to these new technologies.

Once all these classrooms are wired for su-perfast Internet, that means a big new marketfor private innovation—America’s companies

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who created the computers and smartphonesand tablets that we all use——

Audience member. [Inaudible]The President. It’s okay. It’ll be—this hap-

pens. They’ll be all right. Just give them a littlespace. That’s why we’ve got the medics here.They’ll be okay.

Oh, teachers give me some tips here. I’velost their attention. [Laughter] All right, every-body. Right over here.

So what we’re going to be able to do is to getcompanies to compete to create affordable dig-ital devices designed specifically to these newconnected classrooms. I want to see a tabletthat’s the same price as a textbook. I want tosee more apps that can be instantly updatedwith academic content the day it’s available, soyou don’t have old, outdated textbooks withstudent names still in them from years ago.These are the tools that our children deserve.

And there’s no reason why we can’t do allthis. If you think about the history of America,we united a continent by rail. We stretched anetwork of highways from sea to shining sea.We brought light to dark and remote areas. Weconnected the world through the Internet,through our imagination. All these projects cre-ated jobs. All these projects grew our economy.They also unified the country, and they are uni-fying the world. And this project we’re talkingabout today can do the same thing. I am deter-mined to see it through on behalf of our kids.

And for those of you who follow politics inWashington, here’s the best news: None of thisrequires an act of Congress. We can and wewill get started right away. Yes, we can. Now,look, there are all kinds of things I do needCongress to do, and I want to work with themeverywhere I can. But where we’ve got an op-portunity to just go ahead and do somethingthat’s going to help our young people, help ourteachers, help our education system, help thiseconomy, help our middle class, help to createjobs, we’ve just got to go ahead and do it. Thisis something we have to do for the sake of ourkids and our future.

But there are other things that I’m going tobe working with Congress to do that will im-prove our education system on behalf of our

kids and our future. Because if we can bringour kids and our schools into the digital age,you can’t tell me we can’t start improving ourearly childhood education system and makinghigh-quality preschool available to every childin America. You can’t tell me that we can’t findthe wherewithal to hire even more good teach-ers in science and math and technology andengineering. You can’t tell me that we can’t re-think and redesign our high schools or partnerwith colleges and businesses to put our youngpeople on the path of jobs, not just today’sjobs, but tomorrow’s jobs.

We can make sure that middle class familiesaren’t priced out of a college education. Wecan make sure that interest rates on Federalstudent loans don’t double for students andparents at the end of this month. I want towork with Democrats and Republicans to keepthose rates low.

How many students here expect to go to col-lege? I expect all of them to raise their hand.And so we’ve got to make sure that college isaffordable for every young person, and that’sgoing to require some help from Congress.

But we have to give every child, every day,the shot of—at success that they deserve.

Audience member. Yes!The President. Every day. FDR once said,

“We cannot always build the future for ouryouth, but we can build our youth for the fu-ture.” And as long as I’m President, I’m going tokeep fighting with everything I’ve got to build abetter future for our young people and to givethem a chance to build their own future. That’show we’re going to strengthen our middle class.That’s how we’ll secure America’s future for gen-erations to come. That’s what I’m going to fightfor as President of the United States. That’s whyI’m so proud of all of you here at Mooresville.

Congratulations, everybody. Have a greatsummer. God bless you. God bless America.

NOTE: The President spoke at 3:03 p.m. In hisremarks, he referred to Carrie Tulbert, princi-pal, and Maureen Fitzsimmons, mathematicschair, Mooresville Middle School; and Mark A.Edwards, superintendent, Mooresville Grad-ed School District.

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Remarks at a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Fundraiser inPalo Alto, CaliforniaJune 6, 2013

Thank you, everybody! It is good to be backin California, especially when the weather isthis good. [Laughter] And obviously, I want tofirst of all thank Mike and Marci and their twobeautiful daughters and mom and uncles andaunt—[laughter]—and everybody who helpedto participate.

And I also want to just acknowledge some-body who I think is one of the finest public ser-vants we’ve got in Washington and was some-body who worked in the private sector, thentook on an incredible job of running the publicschools in Denver, helped to turn themaround, is now representing the great State ofColorado and is a great friend: Michael Ben-net. So give Michael a big round of applause.

Somebody was asking where I was earlier to-day and asking whether I got to sleep in be-tween, and the answer is no, because, unfortu-nately, Air Force One is pretty loaded up. Youcan make phone calls, you can read e-mails,you can look at computers, so you don’t rest onplane trips.

But earlier this morning I had a chance tovisit a school in Mooresville, North Carolina,and the reason we were there is becausethey’ve undergone this amazing transforma-tion. Several years ago, their superintendantmade a decision that he was just going to getrid of textbooks. They were hugely expensive.Oftentimes, they were on a 7-year cycle so thatkids were looking and there was still a map ofthe Soviet Union in there in their social studiesclass. [Laughter] And he made this radical de-cision that he was going to replace every text-book with a laptop for every student in theschool, starting in third grade. And as a conse-quence of not just the technology, but trainingteachers to think entirely differently about cur-riculum and teaching, what they’ve done is, de-spite the fact that they—out of 115 districts, Ithink it is—they are 110th in spending per dis-trict, they now rank number 2 in performance.

The kids are unbelievably enthusiastic. Andthey showed me a whole range of things. One

group of math students had started a businesson their laptops—and this was for math class—and they were calculating their profits andtheir break-even point and when they go fromred to black. It was an M&M’s machine, notsurprisingly. [Laughter]

Another group of kids were dissecting theInaugural Address that had been done in myfirst—or the Inaugural poem that had been de-livered at my first Inauguration by ElizabethAlexander, but they were able to do it on thescreen, make notes on the screen that were au-tomatically transmitted onto all the laptops ofthe school. And you could see these kids justexcited about learning and wanting to keeplearning well after the school day was done.

And so what we announced was our initia-tive that we’re going to make sure, in 5 years,every school across America has the highestspeed, most state-of-the-art connections sothat every classroom is wired and every studentcan take advantage of these technologies. Andone of the great things about it is in order to dothis, we don’t need a vote from Congress,which means that we actually, I think, will beable to get it done on time. [Laughter]

But I tell this story because all around thecountry, in places like Austin and in NorthCarolina and here, obviously, in California,there are incredible things going on. And we’venow gone through some of the toughest yearseconomically that this country has ever gonethrough, and yet, after the worst recessionsince the Great Depression, we’re now seeingthe economy slowly regain steam. Not just thestock market, which has been hitting recordhighs, but housing is beginning to bounceback. We’ve now seen growth for 3 ½straight, jobs being created just about everymonth, and the auto industry come roaringback, the financial system stabilizing.

The truth of the matter is, is that because ofthe grit and determination of the Americanpeople, we’ve got all the cards we need in or-der to make sure that the 21st century is the

years

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American century, just like the 20th. The onlything that’s holding us back is our capacity towork together around a commonsense set ofsolutions. Whether it’s in education, whetherit’s on clean energy, whether it’s on spurringmore technology and entrepreneurship thatobviously this part of the country representsand has captured the imagination of the entireworld, whether we’re talking about how wedeal with our infrastructure, how we make surethat our fiscal policies are in line so that we’renot passing on debt to the next generation, butwe’re also making sure that we meet our com-mitments to current generations when itcomes to things like Social Security and Medi-care, on all of these issues, there is a range ofcommonsense solutions available to us rightnow. And if we implement them, then we’regoing to leave an America behind for our kidsthat—and our grandkids—that is stronger,more prosperous, more unified, more tolerantthan ever before.

And so the reason I’m here today is to deliv-er the good news that we’ve got what we needin order to succeed. Now, I’ve got to leaventhat with a little bad news. The bad news is thattoo often, Washington is getting in our way ofthis progress. And the reason it’s getting in ourway is not because, as some suggest, Govern-ment has no role to play in this process; Gov-ernment has always had a role to play.

I come from Illinois, the great Land of Lin-coln. And in the midst of civil war, AbrahamLincoln starts the land-grant colleges, helps tocreate the intercontinental railroad system thatlinks our country together, starts the NationalInstitute of Science, understanding that thereare certain investments we can only make to-gether; that although our economy is driven byentrepreneurship and risk-taking and the pri-vate sector—the greatest engine of prosperitythe world has ever known—there are somethings we do better together.

And people in this area understand that aswell as anybody. The incredible prosperity thatis generated from Silicon Valley in part is be-cause we collectively—or at least our parentsor our grandparents—made investments inthings like DARPA and basic research and sci-

ence and helped to facilitate the frameworkthat created the world wide web and all thespinoffs that came out of that.

Oftentimes, the private sector cannot or willnot make those investments because they don’tautomatically show a profit right away, becausethey may be too expensive for any single enter-prise to invest in. But that’s what then providesus the platform to do the incredible things thatwe do.

So the reason that Washington is a problemis not because Government generically is theproblem, the reason Washington is a problemis right now it’s broken. It’s not working theway it needs to. And look, historically, I am astrong Democrat because I believe in the basicprinciple that everybody should have a chance.Everybody should have opportunity; it doesn’tmatter where they’re born, what their lastname is, what circumstances they started in,who they love. I want everybody to have a fairshot. But I’m the first one to admit Democratsdon’t have a monopoly on wisdom. I will say,though, right now—[laughter]—when it comesto doing the things that need to get done, we’rejust not getting a lot of cooperation from theother side. We’re just not getting a lot of coop-eration from the other side.

And I remain hopeful—because I’ve run mylast campaign—that over the next 3 years,we’re going to see more of the bipartisan ef-forts that we’re seeing in some areas. For ex-ample, Michael Bennet is doing a great jobworking with the so-called Gang of Eight to fi-nally get immigration reform done so thatwe’re a nation of laws and a nation of immi-grants and we are fixing a broken immigrationsystem. So there are areas where we’re startingto see glimmers of functionality in Washington.

But on too many area, we’re not getting thekind of cooperation that we need, not becausethe Democrats are particularly ideological orleft wing right now. The truth of the matter is,Michael and I—I know that there are a fewRepublicans here in the audience—if you talkto us, it turns out we’re pretty commonsensefolks. We don’t think Government can do ev-erything. We don’t think that top-down solu-tions are the right way to go. We believe in the

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free market. We believe in a light touch whenit comes to regulations. We don’t want to tax allbusinesses out of business. But we do thinkthat there’s a role to play for Government.

When it comes to, for example, making surethat every child in America has early childhoodeducation so they’re getting a healthy start andby the time they hit school they’re prepared tolearn, that’s an investment we can make.

When it comes to making sure a nation thiswealthy provides affordable, accessible healthcare for every American, that’s something wecan do. There’s no other advanced nation onEarth where 10, 15 percent of the populationdoesn’t have health care. None. Well, whyshould we be any different as the greatest na-tion on Earth? And Government has a role toplay to make that happen.

We have to make sure that we keep ouredge when it comes to research and develop-ment. This so-called sequester that has stayedin place—in part because of the stubbornnessof the other side in negotiating a sensible bud-get framework—is freezing up research pre-cisely at a time when it’s never been more im-portant. And you got brilliant young people allacross the country, including in this area, whomay not have the capacity to go into their cho-sen fields because the research grants havedried up. We have a role to play.

When it comes to what I think will be one ofthe most important decisions that we make as anation—this generation makes—the issue ofclimate change, we’re not going to be able tomake those changes solely through a bunch ofindividual decisions that are made. We’re go-ing to have to make some collective decisionsabout how much do we care about this whenthe science is irrefutable. And that means Gov-ernment is going to have a role to play in help-ing to organize clean energy research and mak-ing sure that we’re taking into account the pol-lution that we’re sending into the air and thatwe’re encouraging new ways of delivering en-ergy and using it more efficiently. We’re goingto have a role to play.

And obviously, our Government is going tohave a role to play internationally, whether it’sin making sure that we’re keeping the Ameri-

can people safe or trying to make sure thatwe’re delivering prosperity and hope to theparts of the world where people, religious mi-norities, young girls still don’t have opportuni-ty. Those are all things that we have to do to-gether.

So here’s the bottom line: I have never beenmore optimistic about America than I am rightnow. People sometimes ask me this. They no-tice my gray hair, and they say, boy—[laugh-ter]—you’ve got a really hard job, and how doyou put up with all the stuff that’s going on allthe time and everything that’s said about youand this and that and the other? And I try toremind folks that in so many ways, this is thegreatest time in human history. For all thetragedies that we witness, for all the terriblethings that we read about, for all the millions ofpeople here in America who are still locked outof opportunity and the struggles that middleclass families are going through every singleday, all the people who are still unemployed,folks whose houses are still underwater, thefact of the matter is, is that we’re more inclu-sive, we’re more prosperous, we are less vio-lent now than just about any time in humanhistory. And that should give us hope.

And when we see these beautiful kids run-ning around, I suspect they will further im-prove on our—on this project. But we’ve got toget this right. And the only way I’m going to beable to do that is if I’ve got people in Congresswho share my optimism and share a sense thatthere are practical solutions out there and thatcompromise is not a dirty word. That’s the kindof Senator that Michael Bennet represents,and that’s what we’re going to need in theUnited States Senate. And I haven’t even start-ed talking about things like judicial nomina-tions, which obviously are contingent on usmaintaining a strong Democratic majority inthe United States Senate.

So I would just ask all of you, number one,to be optimistic. Number two, I’d ask you all tostay engaged. Number three, I’d ask you to re-ally focus on what you can do in order to en-sure that the very best people who care deeplyabout this country, but also have a practicalbent: how do we get those folks in the Senate,

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staying in the Senate, working cooperatively.Because ultimately, our Government repre-sents us, and if we neglect it, then it doesn’twork. And when we’re engaged, it works.

You showed that in 2008; that’s how I gotelected. You showed that in 2012; that’s how Igot reelected. I need you to show that onemore time to make sure that we have a Demo-cratic Senate, and having a Democratic Housewouldn’t be bad either. [Laughter]


NOTE: The President spoke at 6:39 p.m. atthe residence of Mike and Marci McCue. In

his remarks, he referred to Sen. Michael F.Bennet, in his capacity as chair of the Demo-cratic Senatorial Campaign Committee; Lilyand Katie McCue, daughters of Mr. and Mrs.McCue; Lucy McCue Allan, mother of Mr.McCue; Mark A. Edwards, superintendent,Mooresville Graded School District inMooresville, NC; and Sens. Marco A. Rubio,Jeffrey L. Flake, John S. McCain III, LindseyO. Graham, Richard J. Durbin, RobertMenendez, and Charles E. Schumer. Audiowas not available for verification of the con-tent of these remarks.

Remarks at a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Fundraiser inPortola Valley, CaliforniaJune 6, 2013

The President. Thank you, everybody. Well,first of all, I want to thank Vinod and Neeruand the entire family and these beasts—[laughter]—for hosting us here today. Thesetwo could eat Bo in one gulp. [Laughter] Butit’s wonderful to be here in this spectacular set-ting on such a beautiful day in Northern Cali-fornia, one of my favorite places.

There are a couple other people I want toacknowledge. First of all, we’ve got three of thefinest Senators in the country who are herewith us today. The person who has the thank-less, but absolutely critical job of maintainingthe Democratic majority in the Senate, Mi-chael Bennet from Colorado is here. We’ve gotmy fellow midwesterner, who is doing wonder-ful work on a whole range of issues, AmyKlobuchar from Minnesota. Where’s Maria?There she is. And from the closest thing to be-ing your neighbor and somebody who obvious-ly knows the extraordinary capacity, ingenuity,and entrepreneurship because she’s been inthe field herself and does great work in theSenate every day: Maria Cantwell.

We’re going to have some time for questionsand, hopefully, some answers in this great set-ting, so I’m going to be fairly brief. I was tellingVinod that this morning, I was in North Caroli-na at Mooresville Middle School. And Moores-

ville Middle School ranks 110th out of 115 dis-tricts in North Carolina when it comes tospending per pupil. They now rank second inperformance in North Carolina. And the rea-son is, is because they have this incredible su-perintendent who, several years ago, madewhat many considered a pretty radical deci-sion. He said: “We’re just going to eliminatetextbooks. We’re going to use the money tobuy a laptop for every student and we are goingto completely redesign our curriculum andhow we engage our young people, and we’regoing to train our teachers so that we com-pletely transform the learning experience inthis middle school.”

Actually, it starts in 3d grade and continuesall the way through 12th, but I went to themiddle school. And so I had a chance to gofrom station to station: kids who were creatingtheir own films and poetry based on a bookthat they had read in English class; kids whowere designing their own business plans inmath class, figuring out when they’d go fromred to black; young people who were debatingthe merits of studying mythology, using re-search that had been done entirely online.

And what they’ve discovered is, is that thepassion that young people now have for learn-ing because of the—since the ownership that

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they’ve got, because of the sense that insteadof just sitting there passively with somebody atthe front of the classroom, they are fully en-gaged in this constant creative exchange witheach other and their teachers. Because of that,the school has transformed itself.

And so we were down there to announceour goal, which is that in 5 years, every schoolin America will be sufficiently equipped withbroadband and wireless so that you’ve got 100-percent coverage or 99 percent coverage. Thisis something, it turns out, we can do withoutCongress. We’re going to meet this deadline,and it has the potential to be transformationalin our education system and save money in theprocess.

And I say that because, not only am I in Sili-con Valley and around the world this is rightlyviewed as the center of innovation, but also be-cause so many of you who I’ve gotten to knowover the years are yourselves innovators andentrepreneurs who have transformed theworld because of the work that you’ve done.

The central question for America now is,how do we engage the entire country in a con-versation about using this incredible advantagewe’ve got of openness and inquiry and discov-ery, how do we use that to make ourselvesmore competitive? And how do we make surethat every single person in America has accessto the platforms and the frameworks that theyneed so that if they’re willing to work hard,they can succeed as well, the way Vinod suc-ceeded, the way Mark succeeded, the waySteve succeeded, the way all of us in thisroom—so many of us who started with not toomuch—have been able to live out that Ameri-can Dream.

Now, the good news is that after an extraor-dinary economic crisis, the economy has stabi-lized. We’re growing; housing is coming back;deficits are going down; auto industry has re-covered; we’re creating jobs. And as I travelaround the world, it turns out, actually, we’vegot probably the best cards out of any country.I know everybody worries about China—I’mgoing to be meeting with the President of Chi-na on——

Audience member. Tomorrow.

The President. ——tomorrow, on Friday.Tomorrow, right. [Laughter] And the transfor-mation that’s taking place in China is extraordi-nary. And never in the history of humanityhave we seen so many people move out of pov-erty so rapidly, in part because of what’s hap-pening in China and what’s happening in In-dia. And yet, when you look at the challengesthey face and you look at the challenges weface, I’ll take our challenges any day of theweek.

In order for us to meet those challenges,though, we’ve got to have a functioning Gov-ernment. This is not an argument that Govern-ment can do it all. It’s an argument that Gov-ernment has a critical role to play in fundingscience and research, in creating the infra-structure, not only the old infrastructure ofroads and bridges and ports, but the new infra-structure of smart grids and broadband. Gov-ernment has a role in educating our kids, tomake sure that they’ve got the skills they needto compete. Government has a role in creatinga regulatory structure that ensures that we’reencouraging the development of clean energyand that we’re protecting intellectual property.

Government has a role in all these things.And if we’re able to get that part of it right, no-body can stop us. Because the innovation that’staking place in places like Silicon Valley, they’llmove it, but we’ve got to make sure that whathappens here is happening in a small town inOhio and in rural parts of North Carolina; thatwe’re not creating two societies—one that’s hy-percompetitive and innovative and extraordi-narily prosperous and then another half inwhich folks are struggling just barely to get byand are having a tough time competing—butrather a situation in which all of us have achance of success.

That’s what we’re fighting for. And from myperspective, that’s what it means to be a Dem-ocrat. And I think that I speak for Maria andAmy and Mike as well; that’s what leads us tobelieve in this democratic ideal.

So in order for us to accomplish that we’regoing to need to have a Democratic Senate. Inorder for us to accomplish that, I’d also like aDemocratic House. Not because Democrats

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have a monopoly on wisdom and not becauseI’m more interested in politics than gover-nance, because I’ve run my last election. I justwant to get stuff done. And I’m going to bespending the next 3½ years, every day, reach-ing out to Republicans and seeing where wecan agree.

Michael Bennet is doing some great work onimmigration reform. I think we have a greatchance of getting that done this year. We re-cently announced the need to pull together abipartisan effort around dealing with patenttrolls, something that everybody here is deeplyinterested in. We have a chance of getting thatdone.

But on too much of the big stuff, what wesee coming out of the other party is an interestin winning elections or in obstruction, notenough interest in solving problems. And toooften, what we see is the notion that compro-mise is a dirty word. And sometimes, we seejust the denial of science around climatechange, for example. And in that environment,it’s going to be hard for us to make progress onthings that all of us here care so deeply about.

So I’ll just leave you with this thought. Forall the frustrations of Washington, though, I’ve

never been more optimistic about this country,because of those kids I saw in Mooresville, be-cause of the businesses that I see popping upevery single day here in Silicon Valley. We’vegot what it takes to make sure the 21st centuryis the American century, just like the 20th, andthat impact ripples around the world.

But I’m going to need your help to make ithappen. Michael, Amy, Maria, we’re all goingto need your help to make that happen. And ifyou’re willing to engage and be involved andstay committed as deeply as you were in 2008and 2012, then I think we’ll be successful.

Thank you very much, everybody. Thankyou.

NOTE: The President spoke at 7:56 p.m. at theresidence of Vinod and Neeru Khosla. In hisremarks, he referred to Sen. Michael F. Ben-net, in his capacity as chair of the DemocraticSenatorial Campaign Committee; Mark A. Ed-wards, superintendent, Mooresville GradedSchool District in Mooresville, NC; and Presi-dent Xi Jinping of China. Audio was not avail-able for verification of the content of these re-marks.

Remarks on Health Care Reform and an Exchange With Reporters in SanJose, CaliforniaJune 7, 2013

The President. Good morning, everybody. Itis wonderful to see all of you, and I want tothank everybody who is here. I think there’sonly one problem, and that is that my remarksare not sitting here. People! [Laughter] Youknow, things on—by Friday afternoon, thingsget a little challenged.

Q. Will you answer a question in the——The President. I’m going to have a—I’m go-

ing to answer a question at the end of the re-marks, but I want to make sure that we get theremarks out. People!

[At this point, a staff member walked towardthe podium.]

Oh, goodness. [Laughter]

[The staff member tripped.]

Oh, somebody is tripping. I mean—[laugh-ter].

[The staff member handed the President a copyof his remarks.]

Folks are sweating back there right now.[Laughter]

Well, good morning, everybody. This after-noon I’m going to be in Southern California tomeet with President Xi of China. But before Ileave Northern California, I wanted to take aminute to address something that’s happeningwith the Affordable Care Act in this State, andI wanted to meet with a group of people who

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are doing some very important work on behalfof California’s middle class families.

These leaders from California’s government,the California Endowment, and major Spanishlanguage media outlets have joined together tohelp implement the Affordable Care Act herein California and to educate folks about how tosign up and shop for quality, affordable plans.And their efforts have already shown some ex-cellent results in the biggest insurance marketin the country.

There are two main things that Americansneed to know when it comes to the AffordableCare Act and what it means for you.

First of all, if you’re one of the nearly 85percent of Americans who already have insur-ance, either through Medicare or Medicaid oryour employer, you don’t have to do a thing.You’ve just got a wide array of new benefits,better protections, and stronger cost controlsthat you didn’t have before. And that will, overtime, improve the quality of the insurance thatyou’ve got, benefits like free preventive care:checkups, flu shots, mammograms, and contra-ception.

You are now going to be able to get thosethings through your insurance where they pre-viously were not—didn’t have to be provided.Protections like allowing people up to the ageof 26 to stay on their parents’ health care plans,which has already helped 6 million Americans,including 6 million [1 million]* young LatinoAmericans.

Cost controls like requiring insurance com-panies to spend at least 80 percent of the mon-ey that you pay in premiums in your actualhealth care costs, as opposed to administrativecosts or CEO pay: Not overhead, but thatmoney has to be spent on you. And if theydon’t meet that target, they actually have to re-imburse you. So, in California, we’re alreadygetting reports that insurers are giving rebatesto consumers and small-business owners to thetune of $45 million this year. So already, we’reseeing millions of dollars of rebates sent backto consumers by insurance companies as a con-sequence of this law.

Now, all of that is happening because of theAffordable Care Act. All of this is in place rightnow, already, for 85 percent of Americans whohave health insurance. By the way, all of this iswhat the Republican Party has now voted 37times to repeal, at least in the House of Repre-sentatives. And my suggestion to them hasbeen, let’s stop refighting the old battles andstart working with people like the leaders whoare on stage here today to make this law workthe way it’s supposed to.

We’re focused on moving forward and mak-ing sure that this law works for middle classfamilies. And that brings me to the secondthing that people need to know about the Af-fordable Care Act.

If you’re one of nearly 6 million Californiansor 10 million—tens of millions of Americanswho don’t currently have health insurance,you’ll soon be able to buy quality, affordablecare just like everybody else.

And here’s how. States like California aresetting up new, online marketplaces where, be-ginning on October 1 of this year, you cancomparison shop an array of private health in-surance plans side by side, just like you weregoing online to compare cars or airline tickets.And that means insurance companies will actu-ally have to compete with each other for yourbusiness. And that means new choices.

See, right now most States don’t have a lotof competition. In nearly every State, morethan half of all consumers are covered by onlytwo insurers. So there’s no incentive to provideyou a lot of choices or to keep costs down. TheAffordable Care Act changes that.

Beginning next year, once these marketplac-es are open, most States will offer new privateinsurance choices that don’t exist today. Andbased on early reports, about 9 in 10 Ameri-cans expected to enroll in these marketplaceslive in States where they’ll be able to choosebetween five or more different insurers. So, forexample, here in California, 33 insurers ap-plied to join the marketplace. Covered Califor-nia then selected 13 based on access, quality,


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and affordability, four of which are brand newto your individual market.

So what’s happening is, through the Afford-able Care Act, we’re creating these market-places with more competition, more choice,and so the question is, what happens to cost?

Now, a lot of the opponents of the Afford-able Care Act said, they had all kinds of sky-is-falling, doom-and-gloom predictions that notonly would the law fail, but what we’d also iscosts would skyrocket for everybody. Well, itturns out we’re actually seeing that in theStates that have committed themselves to im-plementing this law correctly, we’re seeingsome good news. Competition and choice arepushing down costs in the individual marketjust like the law was designed to do.

The 13 insurance companies that were cho-sen by Covered California have unveiled pre-miums that were lower than anybody expected.And those who can’t afford to buy private in-surance will get help reducing their out-of-pocket premiums even further with the largesthealth care tax cut for working families andsmall businesses in our history. So about 2.6million Californians—nearly half of whom areLatinos—will qualify for tax credits that will insome cases lower their premiums a significantamount.

Now, none of this is a surprise. This is theway that the law was designed to work. Butsince everybody has been saying how it’s notgoing to happen, I think it’s important for us torecognize and acknowledge, this is working theway it’s supposed to. We’ve seen similar goodnews, by the way, not just here in California,but in Oregon and Washington. In States thatare working hard to implement this law prop-erly, we’re seeing it work for people: for mid-dle class families, for consumers.

Now, that’s not to say that everything is go-ing to go perfectly right away. When you’re im-plementing a program this large, there will besome glitches. There are going to be some hic-cups. But no matter what, every single con-sumer will be covered by the new benefits andprotections under this law permanently.

So the bottom line is, you can listen to abunch of political talk out there—negative ads

and fearmongering geared towards the nextelection—or alternatively, you can actuallylook at what’s happening in States like Califor-nia right now. And the fact of the matter is,through these exchanges, not only are the 85percent of people who already have health in-surance getting better protections and receiv-ing rebates and being able to keep their kids ontheir health insurance until they’re 26 and get-ting free preventive care, but if you don’t havehealth insurance and you’re trying to get itthrough the individual market and it’s too ex-pensive or it’s too restricted, you now havethese marketplaces where they’re going to of-fer you a better deal because of choice andcompetition.

And if—even if these lower rates and betterinsurance that you’re getting through thesemarketplaces, you still can’t afford it, you’regoing to be getting tax cuts and tax creditsthrough the Affordable Care Act that will helpyou afford it. And that’s how we’re going tomake sure that millions of people who don’tcurrently have health insurance or are getting areally bad deal on their health insurance are fi-nally going to get it.

But—and here’s my final point—to take ad-vantage of these marketplaces, folks are goingto need to sign up. So you can find out how tosign up at healthcare.gov—healthcare.gov—orhere in California, you can sign up at covered-CA.com—coveredCA.com. Because qualitycare is not something that should be a privi-lege, it should be a right. In the greatest coun-try on Earth, we’ve got to make sure that everysingle person that needs health care can get it.And we’ve got to make sure that we do it in themost efficient way possible.

One last point I’m going to make on this, be-cause there are a lot of people who currentlyget health insurance through their employ-ers—the 85 percent who are already outthere—and they may be saying, well, if this lawis so great, why is it that my premiums stillwent up? Well, part of what’s happening acrossthe country is, in some cases, for example, em-ployers may be shifting more costs throughhigher premiums or higher deductibles orhigher copays, and so there may still be folks

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who are out there feeling increased costs notbecause of the Affordable Care Act, but be-cause those costs are being passed on to work-ers or insurance companies, in some cases.Even with these laws in place, they’re still jack-ing up prices unnecessarily.

So this doesn’t solve the whole problem, butit moves us in the right direction. It’s also thereason why we have to keep on implementingchanges in how our health care system worksto continually drive better efficiency, higherquality, lower cost. We’re starting to see that.Health care cost inflation has gone up at thelowest rate over the last 3 years that we’ve seenin many, many years. So we’re making progressin actually reducing overall health care costswhile improving quality, but we’re going tohave to continue to push on that front as well.That’s also part of what we’re doing in the Af-fordable Care Act. All right?

But the main message I want for Califor-nians and people all across the country, start-ing on October 1, if you’re in the individualmarket, you can get a better deal. If you’re asmall business that’s providing health insur-ance to your employees, you can get a betterdeal through these exchanges. You’ve got tosign up: healthcare.gov, or here in California,coveredCA.com.

All right? So thank you very much.Q. Mr. President?The President. I’m going to take one ques-

tion. And then, remember, people are going tohave opportunities to also answer questionswhen I’m with the Chinese President today. SoI don’t want the whole day to just be a bleedingpress conference. But I’m going to take JackieCalmes’s [New York Times] question.

National Security Agency’s Electronic Surveil-lance Program

Q. Mr. President, could you please react tothe reports of secret Government surveillanceof phones and Internets? And can you also as-sure Americans that the Government—yourGovernment—doesn’t have some massive se-cret database of all their personal online infor-mation and activities?

The President. Yes. The—when I came intothis office, I made two commitments that aremore important than any commitment I made:number one, to keep the American peoplesafe; and number two, to uphold the Constitu-tion. And that includes what I consider to be aconstitutional right to privacy and an obser-vance of civil liberties.

Now, the programs that have been discussedover the last couple days in the press are secretin the sense that they’re classified. But they’renot secret in the sense that when it comes totelephone calls, every Member of Congress hasbeen briefed on this program. With respect toall these programs, the relevant intelligencecommittees are fully briefed on these pro-grams. These are programs that have been au-thorized by broad bipartisan majorities repeat-edly since 2006.

And so I think, at the outset, it’s importantto understand that your duly elected represen-tatives have been consistently informed on ex-actly what we’re doing. Now, let me take thetwo issues separately.

When it comes to telephone calls, nobody islistening to your telephone calls. That’s notwhat this program is about. As was indicated,what the intelligence community is doing islooking at phone numbers and durations ofcalls. They are not looking at people’s names,and they’re not looking at content. But by sift-ing through this so-called metadata, they mayidentify potential leads with respect to folkswho might engage in terrorism. If thesefolks—if the intelligence community then ac-tually wants to listen to a phone call, they’vegot to go back to a Federal judge, just like theywould in a criminal investigation.

So I want to be very clear—some of thehype that we’ve been hearing over the last dayor so—nobody is listening to the content ofpeople’s phone calls. This program, by the way,is fully overseen not just by Congress, but bythe FISA Court, a court specially put togetherto evaluate classified programs to make surethat the executive branch, or Government gen-erally, is not abusing them and that it’s beingcarried out consistent with the Constitutionand rule of law.

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And so not only does that court authorizethe initial gathering of data, but I want to re-peat: If anybody in Government wanted to gofurther than just that top-line data and want to,for example, listen to Jackie Calmes’s phonecall, they would have to go back to a Federaljudge and indicate why, in fact, they were do-ing further probing.

Now, with respect to the Internet and e-mails, this does not apply to U.S. citizens, andit does not apply to people living in the UnitedStates. And again, in this instance, not only isCongress fully apprised of it, but what is alsotrue is that the FISA Court has to authorize it.

So, in summary, what you’ve got is two pro-grams that were originally authorized by Con-gress, have been repeatedly authorized byCongress, bipartisan majorities have approvedon them, Congress is continually briefed onhow these are conducted. There are a wholerange of safeguards involved, and Federaljudges are overseeing the entire programthroughout. We’re also setting up—we’ve alsoset up an audit process, when I came into of-fice, to make sure that we’re, after the fact,making absolutely certain that all the safe-guards are being properly observed.

Now, having said all that, you’ll rememberwhen I made that speech a couple of weeksago about the need for us to shift out of a per-petual war mindset, I specifically said that oneof the things that we’re going to have to discussand debate is how were we striking this bal-ance between the need to keep the Americanpeople safe and our concerns about privacy?Because there are some tradeoffs involved.

Now, I welcome this debate. And I think it’shealthy for our democracy. I think it’s a sign ofmaturity, because probably 5 years ago, 6 yearsago, we might not have been having this de-bate. And I think it’s interesting that there aresome folks on the left, but also some folks onthe right, who are now worried about it, whoweren’t very worried about it when there was aRepublican President. I think that’s good thatwe’re having this discussion.

But I think it’s important for everybody tounderstand—and I think the American peopleunderstand—that there are some tradeoffs in-

volved. I came in with a healthy skepticismabout these programs. My team evaluatedthem. We scrubbed them thoroughly. We ac-tually expanded some of the oversight, in-creased some of safeguards. But my assess-ment and my team’s assessment was that theyhelp us prevent terrorist attacks. And the mod-est encroachments on the privacy that are in-volved in getting phone numbers or durationwithout a name attached and not looking atcontent, that on net, it was worth us doing.Some other folks may have a different assess-ment on that.

But I think it’s important to recognize thatyou can’t have a hundred-percent security andalso then have a hundred-percent privacy andzero inconvenience. We’re going to have tomake some choices as a society. And what I cansay is, is that in evaluating these programs, theymake a difference in our capacity to anticipateand prevent possible terrorist activity. And thefact that they’re under very strict supervisionby all three branches of Government and thatthey do not involve listening to people’s phonecalls, do not involve reading the e-mails of U.S.citizens or U.S. residents absent further actionby a Federal court that is entirely consistentwith what we would do, for example, in a crim-inal investigation, I think, on balance, we haveestablished a process and a procedure that theAmerican people should feel comfortableabout.

But again, this—these programs are subjectto congressional oversight and congressionalreauthorization and congressional debate. Andif there are Members of Congress who feel dif-ferently, then they should speak up. And we’rehappy to have that debate.

Okay? All right. And we’ll have a chance totalk further during the course of the next cou-ple of days.

Classified National Security Information/Pri-vacy

Q. You welcome the debate, sir? Do youwelcome the leaks, if you welcome the debate?

The President. I don’t welcome leaks, be-cause there’s a reason why these programs areclassified. I think that there is a suggestion that

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somehow any classified program is a quote, un-quote “secret” program, which means it’ssomehow suspicious.

But the fact of the matter is in our modernhistory, there are a whole range of programsthat have been classified because, when itcomes to, for example, fighting terror, our goalis to stop folks from doing us harm. And if ev-ery step that we’re taking to try to prevent aterrorist act is on the front page of the newspa-pers or on television, then presumably, thepeople who are trying to do us harm are goingto be able to get around our preventive mea-sures. That’s why these things are classified.

But that’s also why we set up congressionaloversight. These are the folks you all vote for asyour representatives in Congress, and they’rebeing fully briefed on these programs. And ifin fact there was—there were abuses takingplace, presumably those Members of Congresscould raise those issues very aggressively.They’re empowered to do so.

We also have Federal judges that we put inplace who are not subject to political pressure.They’ve got lifetime tenure as Federal judges,and they’re empowered to look over our shoul-der, at the executive branch, to make sure thatthese programs aren’t being abused.

So we have a system in which some informa-tion is classified, and we have a system ofchecks and balances to make sure that it’s notabused. And if in fact this information ends upjust being dumped out willy-nilly without re-gard to risks to the program, risks to the peopleinvolved—in some cases, on other leaks, risksto personnel in very dangerous situations—then it’s very hard for us to be as effective inprotecting the American people.

That’s not to suggest that you just say trustme, we’re doing the right thing, we know whothe bad guys are. And the reason that’s not howit works is because we’ve got congressionaloversight and judicial oversight. And if people

can’t trust not only the executive branch, butalso don’t trust Congress and don’t trust Fed-eral judges to make sure that we’re abiding bythe Constitution, due process, and rule of law,then we’re going to have some problems here.

But my observation is, is that the peoplewho are involved in America’s national securi-ty, they take this work very seriously. Theycherish our Constitution. The last thing they’dbe doing is taking programs like this to listen tosomebody’s phone calls.

And by the way, with respect to my concernsabout privacy issues, I will leave this office atsome point, sometime in the last—next 3½years, and after that, I will be a private citizen.And I suspect that, on a list of people whomight be targeted so that somebody could readtheir e-mails or listen to their phone calls, I’dprobably be pretty high on that list. It’s not as ifI don’t have a personal interest in making suremy privacy is protected.

But I know that the people who are involvedin these programs, they operate like profes-sionals. And these things are very narrowly cir-cumscribed. They’re very focused. And in theabstract, you can complain about Big Brotherand how this is a potential program run amok,but when you actually look at the details, then Ithink we’ve struck the right balance. All right?

Thank you very much, guys. That’s it.

NOTE: The President spoke at 9:01 a.m. at theFairmont San Jose hotel. In his remarks, he re-ferred to Peter V. Lee, executive director, Cov-ered California; Robert K. Koss, president andchief executive officer, California Endowment;Manuel Abud, president, Telemundo StationGroup; Monica K. Lozano, chief executive offi-cer, impreMedia; and Stephen Keppel, eco-nomics editor and director of financial content,Univision News. He also referred to formerPresident George W. Bush.

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Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Fundraiser in Santa Monica,CaliforniaJune 7, 2013

Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Oh,we’re okay, guys. Sit down. Thank you. Thankyou.

Well, to Peter and Meg, I just want to thankthem so much. Not only have they been long-time supporters, back when a lot of peoplecouldn’t pronounce my name—[laughter]—but more importantly, they have supported somany good causes, most recently Meg’s unbe-lievable work on education here in Los Ange-les. We truly appreciate it. They are not onlygreat friends, but they’re great citizens. Andfor them to open up their home like this wevery much appreciate. So give them a biground of applause.

As has already been mentioned, we’ve gotyour current mayor, who has been able to over-come his natural reticence, his shyness—[laughter]—to somehow become one of thefinest leaders that we have in this country. Wecould not be prouder of his tenure, Mayor Vil-laraigosa. We’re grateful for him.

Eric Garcetti and I rode over here together,and we were reminded that the last time Ithink I was in this neighborhood, I was ridingwith Eric Garcetti—[laughter]—who, at thetime, I was still a candidate for President andEric was doing great work on the city counciland one of my earliest supporters. And to seehim now have the opportunity to take on allthe enormous challenges, but also realize theunbelievable potential of this great city is justreally encouraging. So I’m looking for greatthings out of Eric Garcetti. We’re really proudof him.

And I don’t remember whether she was inthe car or not, but I know she was part of thatsame team back when we were running, andsince that time, she has been elected to Con-gress, and she is doing great work day in andday out fighting on behalf of working families.So I could not be more grateful for her friend-ship: Karen Bass is here as well.

Now, Peter gave a pretty exhaustive summa-ry of what we need to do and what we’ve done,

and I’m not sure I’ve got a lot to add. [Laugh-ter] And yet I feel obligated to—[laughter]—since you guys wrote these big checks to theDNC—to say something. [Laughter] So let megive it a shot. What I’ll do is I’ll tell—I’ll startwith a story of what I did yesterday.

Yesterday morning—because I know thereare a lot of folks here who are interested in ed-ucation—yesterday morning I visited a town,Mooresville, North Carolina. And the reasonwe went down there was because Mooresvilleranks 110th, I think, out of 115 school districtsin North Carolina when it comes to funding,and yet, in terms of student performance, theyrank number 2.

And the reason is, is that the superinten-dent—and your superintendent, I know, isprobably familiar with some of what’s hap-pened there—the superintendent there madea radical decision to replace all textbooks withlaptops. They just stopped buying textbooks.The theory was, is that textbooks were only be-ing renewed every 7 years. By the time you gotit, some third-grader is looking at geography,and the Soviet Union is still around—[laugh-ter]—and it’s out of date. And so he said, we’rejust going to move to laptops; we’re going toentirely reshape our teacher training processso that they understand how to interact withyoung people in this new medium.

And so I went from station to station, meet-ing kids who, in math class, were starting theirown businesses on their laptops and trackingprofits and losses and inputs and outputs andmarketing. In English class, a group was evalu-ating the Inauguration poem that was read inmy first Inauguration, except one of the stu-dents was leading the class, writing notes on aboard that was automatically transmitted ontothe laptops of every student in the class. Youhad students who said—who bragged aboutthe fact that, we keep on learning even afterschool is finished, which is not what normallyteenagers brag about.

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And you have this distillation of what I seeas I travel all across the country, which is in-credible people, remarkable youth, energy, dy-namism, creativity, enthusiasm, optimismabout the country. And sometimes, when peo-ple ask me, how do you manage through all thecrises and so on that you have to deal with ev-ery day, I tell them stories like that because itreminds me, as Peter and I were talking aboutbefore we walked out, sometimes, we do notfully appreciate what a good hand we’ve beendealt here in this country.

We have so much going for us, starting withour people. We have a sense of energy and dy-namism and creativity that is not matched any-where in the world. We have a system that isopen and creative and disruptive, that when it’soperating at its best, gives every single personthe chance, if they work hard and they’ve got anew idea, to achieve their dreams.

When you look at our position in the world,we have been blessed with incredible naturalresources. We have an unparalleled universitysystem. We’ve got the best researchers, thebest scientists. We’ve got incredibly hard work-ers and an incredibly hard work ethic. Andwhen you add all this up, there’s absolutely noreason why the 21st century shouldn’t be theAmerican century just like the 20th century.

The one place where we’re challenged is noton a particular issue, it’s the fact that over thelast several years, we’ve got a Federal Govern-ment that has been gridlocked and a politicalculture that makes it difficult for us to makecommon cause and make commonsense, smartdecisions that would serve those kids that I sawyesterday well.

And that’s the reason you’re here. That’s thereason I ran in 2008. That’s the reason I ran in2012. That’s the reason Antonio has been fight-ing the good fight and Eric is about to take upthe challenge and Karen slugs it out in Con-gress, is because we’re interested in changing apolitical culture in which the focus is on howdo we score political points, and instead we fo-cus on how do we get things done on behalf ofthe next generation. And if we get that right,we cannot be stopped.

On every issue that Peter mentioned, thereare solutions that we know can work. You careabout education? We have models of schoolswhere kids from the poorest backgrounds, ifthey’re getting early childhood education, ifthey’re getting high-quality teachers, they’regoing to succeed. They can overcome—theyare so resilient, that can overcome stuff thatmost of us can’t even imagine.

You care about climate change? We’ve dou-bled fuel efficiency standards on cars andtrucks. We have doubled the production ofclean energy. We have actually reduced carbonemissions down to 1994 levels, and the entireeconomy has become more energy efficient.And if we just take a few steps that don’t re-quire any reduction in growth or diminution inour standard of living, we can make real prog-ress, and we can lead the world. We know whatwe need to do.

If you care about jobs and the economy,manufacturing has come roaring back. We’vecreated over half a million new manufacturingjobs at a time when people said, there’s no wayfor manufacturing to succeed in this country. Itturns out, actually, that folks are insourcing;they’re bringing jobs back here to the UnitedStates because of low energy costs, becausewe’ve got incredibly productive workers, andwe remain a massive market. And if we changeour Tax Code, for example, to incentivize man-ufacturing here in the United States, there’s noreason that can’t continue.

When it comes to fiscal issues, you’ll recallthat we had this big debate as recently as 6months ago about the deficit and the crisis anddisaster. Well, it turns out we’ve actually re-duced the deficit now at the fastest pace sinceWorld War II. By 2015, the deficit is projectedto be 2.1 percent of GDP. It was 10 percentwhen I came into office.

And if we had just made some sensible deci-sions with respect to our health care programsand with respect to our Tax Code, the truth ofthe matter is, is that we can make every invest-ment that we need to make to ensure long-term growth and ensure fiscal stability for gen-erations. We don’t have to make the kinds ofadjustments that you’re seeing Europe have to

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make. We don’t have to radically transform oureconomy in ways that the Chinese are going tohave to make decisions about over the neverseveral years, because the basic framework thatwe’ve got is sound. We just have to buck upand make some sensible decisions.

So there is not a single issue out there whereI look at it and I say we can’t make progress.And by the way, there’s not a single issue outthere in which I say what’s needed is somedeeply ideological, top-down approach. Thereare a bunch of sensible, commonsense, centristapproaches that would do just fine.

So that’s all by way of saying that the reasonwe’re here today is, we’ve got to figure out howwe change that political culture. Now, I’ve runmy last campaign. I have a friend Ab Mikva, inChicago, a former Congressman, Federaljudge, White House Counsel. Ab came fromthe same neighborhood in Hyde Park where Ilive. And Ab used to say that being friends witha politician is like perpetually having a kid incollege. [Laughter] They just—every so often,you got to write this big check. And you’re try-ing to figure out, where is this money going.[Laughter] Now, the good news is, I’m aboutto graduate. [Laughter] So—I can’t say thesame for the rest of these elected officials here,but I’ve run my last campaign. So all I careabout right now is governance and gettingthings right so that I can look back at this timewhere I had this incredible privilege of leadingthis country and say the country is better be-cause of my tenure. That’s all I care about,which means that for the next 3 years, everysingle time I’ve got an opportunity to do somework with Republicans and they’re game to dosomething sensible, I’m ready to do it.

So, for example, we have seen some hopefulsigns that we can get finally a broken immigra-tion reform system fixed, and I intend to getthat done before the end of the summer. Andfor us to be able to accomplish that, we’ve gotto have Republicans who are willing to takewhat, for them, are some difficult votes andsome tough stands. And we’ve seen some goodleadership from people like John McCain andJeff Flake, but also from folks like Marco Ru-bio.

And every time I see that opportunity towork with Republicans, I will seize it. And myhope is, is that on things like early childhoodeducation and rebuilding America’s infrastruc-ture that traditionally have not been ideologi-cal issues that I can get some cooperation outof them.

But I have to say that right now the natureof the Republican Party makes it very difficultfor them to engage in commonsense discus-sions around solving problems. And all of yousee it. I don’t have to spell it out for you. Butwithin their ranks there is a tendency to be-lieve that compromise is a dirty word and thatgovernment is something to be torn down, asopposed to something to be embraced as a fa-cilitator for the private sector and ordinary citi-zens to be able to achieve their dreams.

And so what that means is, is that I will get alot more done with a Democratic House, and Isure need to keep a Democratic Senate.

And there shouldn’t be any contradiction forpeople to recognize that wherever I can get co-operation from Republicans, I want coopera-tion, regardless of the politics. If I’ve got abunch of Republicans who, just for purely po-litical reasons, decide we’ve got to get rightwith immigration communities and so we’regoing to pass immigration reform, I’m not con-cerned about their motives—although, I thinkthe folks who so far have stood up are deeplysincere about what needs to be done—buteven if it’s political calculation, I’m game.

But what I also know is that deep down,there are some contradictions right now in theRepublican Party that makes it hard for themto do what needs to get done in this country.And that’s why I’m going to be fighting as hardas I can to make sure that we send to Congresspeople who share my values and share a senseof America’s promise and understand thatAmerica’s promise is based entirely on the no-tion that everybody gets a fair shot, regardlessof where they came from, what they look like,what their last name is, who they love.

And then, those kids that I saw in Moores-ville, there are kids just as gifted, just as talent-ed, just as promising in East L.A. or in SouthSide of Chicago or in some rural community in

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Arkansas, and that we’ve got to be working forall those kids. That’s what, for me, it means tobe a Democrat. And I think that’s what itmeans for a lot of you as well.

So I want to thank you for your efforts. I ap-preciate what Peter said about donor fatigue.On the other hand, we don’t have time to befatigued, because we’ve got too much to do.And everybody here has been blessed in waysthat require us to give something back. Every-body here has got a story to tell, but the truthof the matter is we’re here in part because wewere lucky enough to be born in a countrywhere if we worked hard and we had a bigdream, we could make it happen.

We were lucky. And we’ve got an obligationthen to make sure that folks coming behind usare blessed with that same good luck. And it’swithin our capacity. So we don’t have time to

be tired and we don’t have excuses. We knowwhat needs to be done. I intend to make surethat it gets done. And I’m going to need yourhelp.


NOTE: The President spoke at 12:16 p.m. atthe residence of Peter F. and Megan Chernin.In his remarks, he referred to Mayor AntonioR. Villaraigosa and Mayor-elect Eric M. Gar-cetti of Los Angeles, CA; Mark A. Edwards, su-perintendent, Mooresville Graded School Dis-trict in Mooresville, NC; John E. Deasy, super-intendent, Los Angeles Unified School Dis-trict; and former White House Counsel AbnerJ. Mikva. Audio was not available for verifica-tion of the content of these remarks.

Remarks Prior to a Meeting With President Xi Jinping of China in RanchoMirage, CaliforniaJune 7, 2013

President Obama. Well, it gives me greatpleasure to welcome President Xi back to theUnited States. We first met during my visit toChina in 2009, and I had the opportunity towelcome him to the Oval Office last year whenhe was still Vice President and a guest of VicePresident Biden’s.

I think some of you may know that PresidentXi is no stranger to the United States. He’s re-membered fondly in Iowa, where he once visit-ed and stayed with a local family, and on his triplast year, he had a chance to come to California,including, I understand, going to a Lakersgame, which I was very jealous of. [Laughter]

President Xi just took office in March. Ourdecision to meet so early, I think, signifies theimportance of the U.S.-China relationship. It’simportant not only for the prosperity of ourtwo countries and the security of our two coun-tries, but it’s also important for the Asia-Pacificregion and important for the world.

And the importance of this relationship, insome ways, is reflected with this somewhat un-usual setting that we are hosting the President

in. Our thought was that we would have theopportunity for a more extended and more in-formal conversation in which we were able toshare both our visions for our respective coun-tries and how we can forge a new model of co-operation between countries based on mutualinterest and mutual respect.

I think both of us agree that continuous andcandid and constructive conversation and com-munication is critically important to shapingour relationship for years to come.

And for my part, this will give me an oppor-tunity to reiterate how the United States wel-comes the continuing peaceful rise of China asa world power and that, in fact, it is in theUnited States interest that China continues onthe path of success, because we believe that apeaceful and stable and prosperous China isnot only good for Chinese, but also good forthe world and for the United States.

Of course, as two of the largest economies inthe world, we’re going to have a healthy eco-nomic competition, but we also have a wholerange of challenges on which we have to

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cooperate, from nuclear—North Korea—orNorth Korea’s nuclear and missile programs toproliferation, to issues like climate change.

And the United States seeks an internationaleconomy and an international economic orderwhere nations are playing by the same rules,where trade is free and fair, and where theUnited States and China work together to ad-dress issues like cybersecurity and the protec-tion of intellectual property.

In addition to the strategic concerns that weshare and the economic challenges that each ofour countries face, I will continue to empha-size the importance of human rights. PresidentXi has spoken of a nation and a people that arecommitted to continuous self-improvementand progress, and history shows that upholdinguniversal rights are ultimately a key to successand prosperity and justice for all nations.

So I want to again welcome President Xi tothe United States. We’re very glad that he’shere. Inevitably, there are areas of tension be-tween our two countries, but what I’ve learnedover the last 4 years is both the Chinese peopleand the American people want a strong, coop-erative relationship and that I think there’s astrong recognition on the part of both Presi-dent Xi and myself that it is very much in ourinterests to work together to meet the globalchallenges that we face. And I’m very muchlooking forward to this being a strong founda-tion for the kind of new model of cooperationthat we can establish for years to come.

So welcome very—and thank you very muchfor being here.

Thank you.President Xi. Honorable President Obama,

it’s my great pleasure to meet you. We’remeeting with each other earlier than peoplemight have expected. They thought that wemight have to wait until the Saint PetersburgG–20 summit to wait—to meet with each oth-er, but here we are. I want to thank you foryour invitation, and it’s my great pleasure tomeet you here at the Sunnylands, the Annen-berg Estate.

This is a wonderful place, a place of sun-shine, and it’s very close to the Pacific Ocean.

And on the other side of the ocean is China.When I visited the United States last year, Istated that the vast Pacific Ocean has enoughspace for the two large countries of China andthe United States. I still believe so. And, Mr.President, we’re meeting here today to chartthe future of China-U.S. relations and draw ablueprint for this relationship and continue ourcooperation across the Pacific Ocean.

And this reminds us of what happened over40 years ago, when the leaders of China andthe United States, with the strategists’ politicalcourage and wisdom, realized a handshakeacross the Pacific Ocean, and it reopened thedoor of exchanges between China and theUnited States. And in the more than 40 yearssince then, the China-U.S. relationship hasgone through winds and rains, and it made his-torical progress. And our two peoples and thepeople elsewhere in the world have reapedhuge benefits from this.

And at present, the China-U.S. relationshiphas reached a new historical starting point. Ourtwo countries have vast convergence of sharedinterests, from promoting our respective eco-nomic growth at home to ensuring the stabilityof the global economy, from addressing inter-national and regional hotspots issues to dealingwith all kinds of global challenges. On all theseissues, our two countries need to increase ex-changes and cooperation.

And under the new environment, we needto take a close look at our bilateral relationship:What kind of China-U.S. relationship do weboth want? What kind of cooperation can ourtwo nations carry out for mutual benefit? Andhow can our two nations join together to pro-mote peace and development in the world?These are things that not just the people in ourtwo countries are watching closely, but thewhole world is also watching very closely.

Both sides should proceed from the funda-mental interests of our peoples and bear inmind human development and progress. Weneed to think creatively and act energeticallyso that working together, we can build a newmodel of major country relationship.

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President Obama, I look forward to havingin-depth communication with you on majorstrategic issues of common interest to deepenour mutual understanding and to push forwardall-around cooperation. I’m confident that ourmeeting will achieve positive outcomes and in-ject fresh momentum into the China-U.S. rela-tionship.

Thank you.President Obama. Thank you very much, ev-

erybody.

NOTE: The President spoke at 5:21 p.m. at theAnnenberg Retreat at Sunnylands. PresidentXi spoke in Chinese, and his remarks weretranslated by an interpreter.

Statement on Representative John D. Dingell, Jr., Becoming the LongestServing Member of Congress in United States HistoryJune 7, 2013

I want to congratulate Congressman JohnDingell on becoming the longest serving Mem-ber of Congress in our country’s history. Firstelected in 1955 to the seat formerly held by hisfather, John Dingell, Sr., John has alwaysworked tirelessly for people of his belovedMichigan and for working families across Amer-ica. He has helped pass some of the most im-portant laws of the last half-century, from Medi-

care to the Civil Rights Act to the Clean Air Actto the Affordable Care Act, and he continues tofight for workers’ rights, access to affordablehealth care, and the preservation of our envi-ronment for future generations to enjoy.

Michelle and I send our warmest wishes toJohn and his family. And I look forward to con-gratulating him in person at the White Housenext week.

Letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives Transmitting aSupplemental Budget Proposal for the Judicial Branch for Fiscal Year 2013June 7, 2013

Dear Mr. Speaker:

As a matter of comity, and consistent with31 U.S.C. 1107, I am transmitting to the Con-gress, without modification, the enclosed sup-plemental proposal from the Judicial Branchfor fiscal year 2013.

The details of this request are set forth inthe enclosed letter from the Director of theOffice of Management and Budget.

Sincerely,

BARACK OBAMA

NOTE: An original was not available for verifi-cation of the content of this letter.

Remarks Following a Meeting With President Xi Jinping of China and anExchange With Reporters in Rancho Mirage, CaliforniaJune 7, 2013

President Obama. Everybody ready? Well, Iknow we’re a little behind, but that’s mainlybecause President Xi and I had a very con-structive conversation on a whole range of stra-tegic issues, from North Korea to cyberspaceto international institutions. And I’m very

much looking forward to continuing the con-versation, not only tonight at dinner, but alsotomorrow.

But I thought we’d take a quick break just totake a question from both the U.S. and Chi-nese press. So what I’ll do is, I’ll start with Julie

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Pace [Associated Press], and then President Xican call on a Chinese counterpart.

Cybersecurity/National Security Agency’s Elec-tronic Surveillance Program

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. How damag-ing has Chinese cyber-hacking been to theU.S.? And did you warn your counterpartabout any specific consequences if those ac-tions continue? And also, while there are obvi-ously differences between China’s alleged ac-tions and your Government’s surveillance pro-grams, do you think that the new NSA revela-tions undermine your position on these issuesat all during these talks?

And, President Xi, did——President Obama. Why don’t you let the in-

terpreter——Q. Sure.

[At this point, an interpreter translated thequestions into Chinese. The reporter then con-tinued as follows.]

And President Xi, did you acknowledge inyour talks with President Obama that Chinahas been launching cyber attacks against theU.S.? Do you also believe that the U.S. islaunching similar attacks against China? And ifso, can you tell us what any of the targets mayhave been? Thank you.

[The interpreter translated the questions intoChinese.]

President Obama. Well, Julie, first of all, wehaven’t had, yet, in-depth discussions aboutthe cybersecurity issue. We’re speaking at the40,000-foot level, and we’ll have more inten-sive discussions during this evening’s dinner.

What both President Xi and I recognize isthat because of these incredible advances intechnology, that the issue of cybersecurity andthe need for rules and common approaches tocybersecurity are going to be increasingly im-portant as part of bilateral relationships andmultilateral relationships.

In some ways, these are uncharted waters,and you don’t have the kinds of protocols that

have governed military issues, for example, andarms issues, where nations have a lot of experi-ence in trying to negotiate what’s acceptableand what’s not. And it’s critical, as two of thelargest economies and military powers in theworld, that China and the United States arrivesat a firm understanding of how we work to-gether on these issues.

But I think it’s important, Julie, to get to thesecond part of your question, to distinguish be-tween the deep concerns we have as a Govern-ment around theft of intellectual property orhacking into systems that might disrupt thosesystems—whether it’s our financial systems,our critical infrastructure, and so forth—versussome of the issues that have been raisedaround NSA programs.

When it comes to those cybersecurity issueslike hacking or theft, those are not issues thatare unique to the U.S.-China relationship,those are issues that are of international con-cern. Oftentimes it’s nonstate actors who areengaging in these issues as well. And we’re go-ing to have to work very hard to build a systemof defenses and protections, both in the privatesector and in the public sector, even as we ne-gotiate with other countries around setting upa common rules of the road.

And as China continues in its developmentprocess and more of its economy is based onresearch and innovation and entrepreneurship,they’re going to have similar concerns, which iswhy I believe we can work together on thisrather than at cross purposes.

Now, the NSA program, as I discussed thismorning, is a very limited issue, but it doeshave broad implications for our society, be-cause you’ve got a lot of data out there, a lot ofcommunications that are in cyberspace. Andhow we deal with both identifying potentialterrorists or criminals, how the private sectordeals with potential theft, and how the FederalGovernment, State governments, local govern-ments, and the private sector coordinate tokeep out some of these malicious forces whilestill preserving the openness and the incrediblepower of the Internet and the web and thesenew telecommunications systems, that’s a com-plicated and important piece of business. But

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it’s different from these issues of theft andhacking.

And every government is then inevitably go-ing to be involved in these issues, just like bigcompanies are going to be involved in these is-sues. I mean, you’ve got private companies thathave a lot more data and a lot more detailsabout people’s e-mails and telephone calls thanthe Federal Government does. And if we’recalled upon to—not only to make sure thatwe’re anticipating terrorist communications,but we’re also called upon to work with the pri-vate sector to prevent theft out of ATMs, et ce-tera, then we’re going to have to find ways todeal with this big data in ways that are consis-tent with our values, in ways that protect peo-ple’s privacy, that ensure oversight, and strikethe right balance.

And as I indicated this morning, that’s a con-versation that I welcome having.

President Xi. As President Obama said inour meeting this afternoon, we just brieflytouched upon the issue of cybersecurity. Andthe Chinese Government is firm in upholdingcybersecurity, and we have major concernsabout cybersecurity.

In the few days before President Obamaand I meet today, I note sharply increased me-dia coverage of the issue of cybersecurity. Thismight give people the sense or feeling that cy-bersecurity as a threat mainly comes from Chi-na or that the issue of cybersecurity is the big-gest problem in the China-U.S. relationship.

The application of new technology is a dou-ble-edged sword. On the one hand, it will driveprogress in ensuring better material and cul-tural life for the people. On the other hand, itmight create some problems for regulators,and it might infringe upon the rights of states,enterprises, societies, and individuals.

We need to pay close attention to this issueand study ways to effectively resolve this issue.And this matter can actually be an area for Chi-na and the United States to work together witheach other in a pragmatic way. And I’m happyto learn that, within the context of the China-U.S. strategic and economic dialogue, a work-ing group has been established to discuss cy-

bersecurity issues. So this is an issue that thetwo sides will continue to discuss.

By conducting good-faith cooperation, wecan remove misgivings and make informationsecurity and cybersecurity a positive area of co-operation between China and the U.S., be-cause China and the United States both have aneed and both share a concern, and China is avictim of cyber attacks, and we hope that ear-nest measures can be taken to resolve this mat-ter.

Thank you.

China-U.S. Relations

Q. I’m with China Central Television andmy question for President Xi is: What are themain issues that were discussed in the longer-than-expected meeting this afternoon? Andwhat are the major areas of consensus thathave emerged from the discussion? And lastyear, when you were visiting the United States,you raised the concept of the two sides workingtogether to explore what you call a new modelof major country relationship, something thatis unprecedented in the relationship and thatcan inspire future generations. And after thisconcept was raised, there has been much dis-cussion and comment on it, both in China andthe United States and in the world morebroadly. So did you have further discussion onthis issue in your meeting this afternoon?

And my question for President Obama is,what will the United States do to contribute tothe building of a new model of major countryrelationship between China and the U.S.?

President Xi. In the first meeting that I’vehad with President Obama this afternoon, wehad an in-depth, sincere, and candid discussionon the domestic and foreign policies of Chinaand the United States, on our joint work tobuild a new model of major country relation-ship, and our international and regional issuesof mutual interest. And the President and Ireached important consensus on these issues.

I stated very clearly to President Obama thatChina will be firmly committed to the path ofpeaceful development and China will be firmin deepening reform and opening up the coun-try wider to the world. China will work hard to

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realize the Chinese dream of the great nationalrenewal and will work hard to push forward thenoble cause of peace and development for allmankind.

By the Chinese dream, we seek to have eco-nomic prosperity, national renewal, and peo-ple’s well-being. The Chinese dream is aboutcooperation, development, peace, and win-win, and it is connected to the AmericanDream and the beautiful dreams people inother countries may have.

President Obama and I both believe that inthe age of economic globalization and facingthe objective need of countries sticking togeth-er in the face of difficulties, China and theUnited States must find a new path, one that isdifferent from the inevitable confrontation andconflict between the major countries of thepast. And that is to say, the two sides mustwork together to build a new model of majorcountry relationship based on mutual respectand win-win cooperation for the benefit of theChinese and American peoples and peopleelsewhere in the world.

The international community looks to Chinaand the United States to deliver this. WhenChina and the United States work together, wecan be an anchor for world stability and thepropeller of world peace.

I stand ready to work with President Obamato expand on all levels of exchanges betweenthe two sides. I look forward to maintainingclose communication with the Presidentthrough mutual visits, bilateral meetings, ex-change of letters, and phone calls. And I invitePresident Obama to come to China at an ap-propriate time for a similar meeting like this.And we look forward to visiting each other’scountry.

At the same time, the two sides will workhard to make progress in the various bilateralmechanisms, such as the strategic and econom-ic dialogue and the high-level consultation onpeople-to-people exchange. Also, the ChineseMinister of Foreign Affairs and the ChineseMinister of National Defense will both makevisits to the United States within the year.

Our two sides should also step up exchangesand cooperation in economy and trade, energy,

environment, people-to-people, and culturalfields, as well as at the subnational level, so thatwe can deepen the shared interests of the twocountries and expand them to all areas.

We should also improve and strengthen themilitary-to-military relationship between thetwo countries and promote the building of anew model of military relationship betweenthe two sides. The two sides should also im-prove coordination on microeconomic policiesso that, by strengthening cooperation, we cancontribute to our respective development athome and promote strong, sustainable, andbalanced economic growth in the Asia-Pacificregion and the world at large.

And I’m confident in our joint effort to builda new model of major country relationship. Ibelieve success hinges on the human effort.Firstly, both sides have the political will tobuild this relationship. Secondly, our coopera-tion in the last 40 years provides a good foun-dation for us to build on. Thirdly, betweenChina and the United States, there are over 90intergovernmental mechanisms which providethe institutional underpinning for our efforts.

Fourth, there is strong public support forthis kind of relationship between China andthe United States. There are 220 pairs of sisterProvinces, States, and cities between Chinaand the U.S. There are 190,000 Chinese stu-dents in the United States and 20,000 Ameri-can students in China. And fifth, there is enor-mous scope for future cooperation betweenChina and the U.S.

Of course, this endeavor is unprecedentedand one that will inspire future generations. Sowe need to deepen our mutual understanding,strengthen our mutual trust, further developour cooperation, and manage our differencesso that we can avoid the traditional path of in-evitable confrontation between major coun-tries and really embark on a new path.

The Chinese nation and American nationare great nations, and the Chinese people andthe American people are great peoples. As longas we stand high and look far, as long as wemake specific progress and accumulate themover time, as long as we maintain confidenceand determination, as long as we have wisdom

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and patience, I’m confident that we will suc-ceed in achieving this historical mission.

I’m sorry for going too long. Thank you.President Obama. Well, I think President Xi

summarized very well the scope of our conver-sations. We spoke about some very specific is-sues; for example, President Xi mentioned theimportance of military-to-military communica-tions. In the past, we’ve had high-level diplo-matic communications about economic andstrategic issues, but we haven’t always had aseffective communications between our militar-ies. And at a time when there’s so much activi-ty around the world, it’s very important that weeach understand our strategic objectives at themilitary as well as the political levels. So that’san example of concrete progress that can ad-vance this new model of relations between theUnited States and China.

So we’ll be taking steps to institutionalizeand regularize such discussions. But morebroadly, I think President Xi identified the es-sence of our discussions in which we sharedour respective visions for our countries’ futuresand agreed that we’re more likely to achieveour objectives of prosperity and security of ourpeople if we are working together cooperative-ly, rather than engaged in conflict.

And I emphasized my firm belief to Presi-dent Xi that it is very much in the interest ofthe United States for China to continue itspeaceful rise, because if China is successful,that helps to drive the world economy, and itputs China in the position to work with us asequal partners in dealing with many of theglobal challenges that no single nation can ad-dress by itself.

So, for example, neither country by itselfcan deal with the challenge of climate change.That’s an issue that we’ll have to deal with to-gether. China, as the largest country, as it con-tinues to develop, will be a larger and largercarbon emitter unless we find new mecha-nisms for green growth. The United States, wehave the largest carbon footprint per capita inthe world; we’ve got to bring down our carbonlevels in order to accommodate continuedgrowth. And so that will translate then into op-portunities for specific work around greentechnologies and research and developmentand interactions between our scientists so thatwe can, together, help advance the goal of asustainable planet, even as we continue togrow and develop.

We’ve got a lot of work to do to take thesebroad understandings down to the level of spe-cifics and that will require further discussionsnot only today and tomorrow, but for weeks,months, years to come. But what I’m very en-couraged about is that both President Xi andmyself recognize we have a unique opportunityto take the U.S.-China relationship to a newlevel. And I am absolutely committed to mak-ing sure that we don’t miss that opportunity.


NOTE: The President spoke at 8:09 p.m. at theAnnenberg Retreat at Sunnylands. PresidentXi referred to Minister of Foreign Affairs YiWang and Minister of National DefenseChang Wanquan of China. President Xi and areporter spoke in Chinese, and their remarkswere translated by an interpreter.


Hi, everybody. In the next few days, Ameri-ca will take an important step towards fixingour broken immigration system. The entireUnited States Senate will begin debating acommonsense immigration reform bill that hasbipartisan support.

We define ourselves as a nation of immi-grants. The promise we find in those who come

from every corner of the globe has always beenone of our greatest strengths. It’s kept ourworkforce vibrant and dynamic, it’s kept ourbusinesses on the cutting edge, and it’s helpedbuild the greatest economic engine the worldhas ever known. But for years, our out-of-dateimmigration system has actually harmed oureconomy and threatened our security.

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Now, over the past 4 years, we’ve takensteps to try to patch up some of the worstcracks in the system. We strengthened securityon the southern border by putting more bootson the ground than at any time in our history.And in part by using technology more effec-tively, today, illegal crossings are near theirlowest level in decades. We focused enforce-ment efforts on criminals who are here illegal-ly—who endanger our communities—and to-day, we deport more criminals than ever be-fore.

And we took up the cause of DREAMers,the young people who were brought to thiscountry as children. We said that if they’re ableto meet certain criteria, we’d consider offeringthem the chance to come out of the shadows sothey can continue to work here and study hereand contribute to our communities legally.

But if we’re going to truly fix a broken sys-tem, we need Congress to act in a comprehen-sive way. And that’s why what’s happening nextweek is so important. Now, the bill before theSenate isn’t perfect; it’s a compromise. Nobodywill get everything they want: not Democrats,not Republicans, not me. But it is a bill that’slargely consistent with the principles I’ve re-peatedly laid out for commonsense immigra-tion reform.

This bill would continue to strengthen secu-rity at our borders, increase criminal penaltiesagainst smugglers and traffickers, and hold em-ployers more accountable if they knowinglyhire undocumented workers. If enacted, itwould represent the most ambitious enforce-ment plan in recent memory.

This bill would provide a pathway to earnedcitizenship for the 11 million individuals whoare already in this country illegally, a pathwaythat includes passing a background check,learning English, paying taxes and a penalty,and then going to the back of the line, behindeveryone who’s playing by the rules and tryingto come here legally.

This bill would modernize the legal immi-gration system so that, alongside training

American workers for the jobs of tomorrow,we’re also attracting highly skilled entrepre-neurs and engineers who will grow our econo-my, and so that our people don’t have to waityears before their loved ones are able to jointhem in this country that we love.

That’s what immigration reform looks like:smarter enforcement, a pathway to earn citi-zenship, improvements to the legal immigra-tion system. They’re all commonsense steps.They’ve got broad support from Republicansand Democrats, CEOs and labor leaders, lawenforcement and clergy. So there is no reasonthat Congress can’t work together to send a billto my desk by the end of the summer.

We know the opponents of reform are goingto do everything they can to prevent that.They’ll try to stoke fear and create division.They’ll try to play politics with an issue that thevast majority of Americans want addressed.And if they succeed, we will lose this chance tofinally fix an immigration system that is badlybroken.

So if you agree that now is the time for com-monsense reform, reach out to your represen-tatives. Tell them we have to get this done sothat everyone is playing by the same rules. Tellthem we have the power to do this in a waythat lives up to our traditions as a nation of lawsand a nation of immigrants.

In the end, that’s what this is all about. Menand women who want nothing more than thechance to earn their way into the Americanstory, just like so many of our ancestors did.Throughout our history, that has only made usstronger. And it’s how we’ll make sure thatAmerica’s best days always lie ahead.


NOTE: The address was recorded at approxi-mately 3:25 p.m. on June 6 in the band room atMooresville Middle School in Mooresville,NC, for broadcast on June 8. The transcriptwas made available by the Office of the PressSecretary on June 7, but was embargoed for re-lease until 6 a.m. on June 8.

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Remarks on the 50th Anniversary of the Equal Pay ActJune 10, 2013

The President. Thanks so much, everybody.Everybody have a seat. Well, welcome to theWhite House. It is wonderful to see all of you.Thank you, Joe, for that kind introduction.Thank you, Valerie, for the great leadershipyou’ve shown on this. And to all of you—busi-ness leaders and advocates, Members of Con-gress who are here, members of my adminis-tration—I am so glad that all of you could behere to celebrate the 50th anniversary of theEqual Pay Act.

Now, when you think about it, we’re not justcelebrating a law, we’re honoring the heroeswho made that law possible, the fierce deter-mination of Americans who saw a wrong andworked to right it. There were women whowere sick and tired of being sick and tired—[laughter]—of seeing the same jobs advertisedwith different pay scales; women who weretired of being treated like second-class work-ers; women like Dorothy Height and Con-gresswoman Edna Kelly and Esther Peterson,all who pushed to make the Equal Pay Act a re-ality. And today we recognize the work of thosebrave women. But until equal pay truly is a re-ality, we’re also here to recommit ourselves tothe work that remains to be done.

Fifty years ago today, President Kennedysigned the Equal Pay Act into law, right here inthe White House. He said it was basic to ourdemocracy. It’s the idea that all of us are creat-ed equal. And as I said in my Inaugural Ad-dress this year, our journey to equality is notcomplete until our wives, our mothers, ourdaughters can earn a living equal to their ef-forts.

The day that the bill was signed into law,women earned 30—59 cents for every dollar aman earned, on average. Today, it’s about 77cents. So it was 59, and now it’s 77 cents. It’seven less, by the way, if you’re an AfricanAmerican or a Latina. So I guess that’s prog-ress, but does anybody here think that’s goodenough?

Audience members. No!

The President. I assume everybody thinkswe can do better.

Audience members. Yes!Audience member. We can.The President. Yes, we can. [Laughter] So—

[applause]. That’s right.Over the course of her career, a working

woman with a college degree will earn, on av-erage, hundreds of thousands of dollars lessthan a man who does the same work. Now,that’s wrong. I don’t want that for Malia andSasha. I don’t want that for your daughters. Idon’t want that to be an example that any childgrowing up ends up accepting as somehow thenorm. I want every child to grow up knowingthat a woman’s hard work is valued and re-warded just as much as any man’s.

Now, what’s important to realize also,though, is this is not just an issue of fairness.This is a family issue. This is a middle class is-sue. This is an economic issue. Just last week, areport confirmed what we already know: thatwomen are increasingly the breadwinners forAmerican families. Women are now the prima-ry source of income for nearly 40 percent ofAmerican families. Forty percent, almost half.

That’s not something to panic about or to beafraid about, that’s a sign of the progress andthe strides that we’ve made. But what it doesmean is that when more women are bringinghome the bacon, they shouldn’t just be gettinga little bit of bacon. [Laughter] If they’rebringing home more of the income and that in-come is less than a fair share, that means thatfamilies have less to get by on for childcare orhealth care or gas or groceries. It makes itharder for middle class families to save and re-tire. It leaves small businesses with customerswho have less money in their pockets, which isnot good for the economy. That’s not a goodexample to set for our sons and daughters, butit’s also not a good recipe for long-term, stableeconomic growth.

So to anyone who says 77 cents on the dollarsounds pretty close to equal, I say, you’re mathis bad. [Laughter] You wouldn’t like it if your

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vote only counted in three out of four elec-tions. [Laughter] You wouldn’t like it if yourdaughters or sons went to school, but they onlygot taught 3 out of 4 days a week or 4 out of 5days a week. You wouldn’t like it if you wereforced to work every fourth day without pay.Men would be complaining about that.[Laughter] They wouldn’t think that was equalor fair.

So this is the 21st century. It’s time to closethat gap. That’s why the first bill I signed intolaw was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

That’s why, as Valerie mentioned, I createdthe first-ever White House Council on Womenand Girls, which is working to close that gap.And Valerie’s Council—this Council is doing agreat job in bringing the experiences of womeninto our Federal policies as well.

It’s why I established a National Equal PayTask Force to help crack down on violations ofequal pay laws, which, by the way, they’re do-ing at a record rate. And through educationand outreach, they’re also helping employersdevelop tools to comply with the Nation’sequal pay laws on their own. And that’s why,earlier this year, I signed a Presidential memo-randum directing the Federal Government toclose that gap for good for its employees.Right? We have to set an example.

It’s also why we’re using the latest technolo-gy to help workers get the information theyneed to figure out if they’re underpaid. Andthanks to innovators like Rachel and Laquitta,who are up here, we can now say, “There’s anapp for that.” [Laughter] But as long as thisgap persists, we’re going to have more work todo. And now is the time to keep up the workthat all those trailblazers started 50 years ago.

Now is the time for Congress to step up andpass the Paycheck Fairness Act so women havebetter tools to fight for equal pay for equalwork. Now is the time for us to encouragemore young women to pursue math and sci-ence education. Now is the time for us to hiremore STEM teachers so all our children areprepared for the high-tech, high-wage jobs oftomorrow.

Now is the time to make sure businesses of-fer men and women the flexibility to be good

employees and good parents. And I really wantto commend Deloitte and SumAll and theCEOs who are with us here today. They arecreating exactly the kind of—kinds of innova-tive workplaces that help hard-working Ameri-cans thrive, and they’re committed to pay equi-ty. And so when you have a chance to talk toJoe, say thank you. And CEOs who are outthere, if you want a first-class company that istapping into the talents and resources of allyour employees, make sure that you’re puttingin place systems so that they all feel like they’rebeing treated fairly and equally. It’s a simpleprinciple, and it’s a powerful one.

And now is the time to make sure that weare putting in place a minimum wage that youcan live on, because 60 percent of those mak-ing the minimum wage are women.

We do all this, and this will be part of ourbroader agenda to create good jobs and tostrengthen middle class security, to keep re-building an economy that works for everybody,that gives every American the chance to getahead, no matter who you are or what you looklike, what your last name is, who you love.

That’s what I’m going to keep on fighting for.That’s what you’re going to keep on fighting for.And we have all of you and your predecessors tothank for the incredible progress this countryhas made in eliminating the barriers and injus-tices that might keep our daughters from enjoy-ing the same rights, same chances, and samefreedoms as our sons. I’m proud of you.


NOTE: The President spoke at 11:53 a.m. inthe East Room at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to Joe Echevarria, chief ex-ecutive officer, Deloitte LLP; White HouseSenior Adviser Valerie B. Jarrett, in her capaci-ty as Chair of the White House Council onWomen and Girls; and Rachel Koch of Carne-gie Mellon University’s Heinz College and La-quitta Martell-DeMerchant of Fuzion Apps,Inc., winners of the Department of Labor’sEqual Pay App Challenge. He also referred tothe May 10 memorandum on advancing payequality in the Federal Government, which islisted in Appendix D at the end of this volume.

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Remarks on the Resignation of Alan B. Krueger as Chairman of the Councilof Economic Advisers and the Nomination of Jason L. Furman To BeChairman of the Council of Economic AdvisersJune 10, 2013

Good afternoon, all of you. It’s now beennearly 5 years since an economic crisis and apunishing recession came together to cost fartoo many Americans their jobs and their homesand the sense of security that they had built upover time. And by the time I took office, myteam and I were facing bubbles that had burst,markets that had cratered, bank after bank onthe verge of collapse. And the heartbeat ofAmerican manufacturing, our auto industry,was flatlining. And all this meant that hundredsof thousands of Americans were losing theirjobs each month. So this was a scary time. Andnobody had any idea where the bottom wouldbe.

Four and a half years later, our businesseshave created nearly 7 million new jobs over thepast 36 months. The American auto industryhas come roaring back. We’re producing moreof our own energy; we’re consuming less thatwe import from other countries. Our deficitsare shrinking rapidly. The cost of health care isslowing. The housing market is rebounding.People’s retirement savings are growing. Thewealth that was lost from that recession hasnow been recovered.

All of this progress is a testament to the gritand resolve of the American people, most ofall. But it’s also due in some measurable way tothe incredible dedication of the men and wom-en who helped to engineer America’s response.And two of those people are standing next tome, two very smart economists: Alan Kruegerand Jason Furman.

Today I can announce that Alan is headingback to teach his beloved students at Mi-chelle’s alma mater, Princeton University.When they get together, all they can talk aboutis Princeton, and they’re all very proud, andthose of us who didn’t go to Princeton have toput up with it. [Laughter] And I’m proud to saythat Jason Furman has agreed to replace Alanas the Chairman of my Council of EconomicAdvisers.

Now, during the crisis, Alan stepped in ini-tially to help engineer our response as AssistantSecretary and chief economist at the TreasuryDepartment. He was so good that we then hadto beg him to come back, extend his tour, toserve as the Chairman of my Council of Eco-nomic Advisers, where he’s been the drivingforce behind actions that we’ve taken to helprestart the flow of lending to small businessesand create new jobs and arm workers with theskills they need to fill them, to reduce incomeinequality, to rebuild our aging infrastructure,and to bring down our deficits in a responsibleway.

And Alan is driven by the basic bargain atthe heart of our economy: the idea that hardwork should be rewarded. He’s motivated bythe principle that no one who works full timein the greatest nation on Earth should have toraise their families in poverty or below povertylevels. His commitment to a rising, thrivingmiddle class shines through in his often pas-sionate presentations and—at least for aneconomist, they’re passionate—[laughter]—and in the policies that he’s pushed, and Iknow this will continue to be a focus of his re-search.

Alan’s wife and son are here today, and Iknow that they’re all looking forward to havingAlan back. [Laughter] And now that Alan hassome free time, he can return to another burn-ing passion of his: “rockonomics,” the econom-ics of rock and roll. This is something that Alanactually cares about; seriously, on Wednesday,he’s giving a speech at the Rock and Roll Hallof Fame. He’s got a T-shirt under his suit—[laughter]—with a big tongue sticking out.[Laughter] Don’t show it. [Laughter]

So Alan has become one of my most trustedadvisers. He’s become a wonderful friend. I’msad to see him go. But I know that he will con-tinue to do outstanding work, and fortunately,he’ll still be available for us to consult with himperiodically, because he’s a constant font of

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good ideas about how we can further help theAmerican people. So thank you very much, Al-an, for all the good work that you’ve done.

Now, I’m also proud to nominate anotheroutstanding economist to take his place. JasonFurman is one of the most brilliant economicminds of his generation. Don’t take my wordfor it: You can talk to other economists whoknow a lot more than I do about it. He’s wonthe respect and admiration from his peersacross the political spectrum. His Ph.D. thesisadviser, Greg Mankiw, chaired the Council ofEconomic Advisers under George W. Bush.Nobel Prize Winner Joe Stiglitz, on the otherside of the economic spectrum, hired Jason towork for the CEA under President Clinton.

After leaving President Clinton’s WhiteHouse, Jason finished his Ph.D. in economics,quickly acquired a reputation as a world-classscholar and researcher. But public service keptcalling, and Jason’s kept answering that call be-cause he believes deeply in it. So from workingat the World Bank on issues of inequality andinternational finance to developing new pro-posals to strengthen our health and retirementprograms, he helped to shape some of ourmost important economic policy debates.

And when I asked him to join my team in2008, even though his baby daughter—that’sright—[laughter]—you were this big, had justbeen born—he agreed to serve once again.And over the last 5 years, I’ve come to trust notonly his head, but also his heart, because Jasonnever forgets who it is that we’re fighting for:middle class families, folks who are workinghard to climb their way into the middle class,the next generation.

And when the stakes are highest, there’s noone I’d rather turn to for straightforward, un-varnished advice that helps me to do my job.He understands all sides of an argument, notjust one side of it. He’s worked tirelessly onjust about every major economic challenge ofthe past 4½ years, from averting a second de-pression to fighting for tax cuts that help mil-lions of working families make ends meet, tocreating new incentives for businesses to hire,to reducing our deficits in a balanced way thatbenefits the middle class.

And so Eve, Jason’s wife, who is an accom-plished writer herself, has put up with a lot ofhours with Jason away. Henry and Louisa, whoare here, they’ve made a lot of sacrifices so thattheir husband and dad could be here workingfor the American people. So I appreciate youguys for sharing daddy—[laughter]—just a lit-tle bit longer. [Laughter] And the reason it’simportant is because, while we’ve cleared awaythe rubble of crisis and laid a new foundationfor growth, our work is nowhere near done.

Even though the economy is growing, toomany middle class families still feel like they’reworking harder and harder and can’t getahead. Inequality is still growing in our society.Too many young people aren’t sure whetherthey’ll be able to match the living standards oftheir parents. We have too many kids in pover-ty in this country still.

There are some basic steps that we can taketo strengthen the position of working people inthis country, to help our economy grow faster,to make sure that it’s more competitive. Andsome of that requires political will. Some of itrequires an abiding passion for making sure ev-erybody in this country has a fair shot. But it al-so requires good economists. I know it’s calleda dismal science, but I don’t find it that dismal.[Laughter] I think it’s actually pretty interest-ing. Alan and Jason appreciate that. [Laughter]So sometimes, the rest of my staff thinks, oh,Obama is getting together with his economists,and they’re going to have a wonkfest for thenext hour. [Laughter]

But this stuff matters. It’s not just numberson a page. It makes a difference in terms ofwhether or not people get a chance at life andalso, how do we optimize opportunity andmake sure that it—we don’t have a contradic-tion between an efficient, growing, free marketeconomy, and one in which everybody gets afair shot and where we’re caring for the vulner-able and the disabled and folks in our societywho need help.

So a growing economy that creates goodmiddle class jobs, that rewards hard work andresponsibility, that’s our north star. Jasonshares that focus. I know Alan shares that pas-sion. In Jason’s new role as the Chairman of

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the Economic—Council of Economic Advis-ers, he’ll be working with some of our country’sleading economists, including Jim Stock, whohas joined us. And I’m relying on them to pro-vide analysis and recommendations with justone thing in mind: What’s going to do the mostgood for the most people in this country, notwhat’s best for a political party, not what’s bestfor a special interest. I don’t have another elec-tion. It’s not what’s best for me—what’s bestfor our middle class, and everybody who isworking hard to get there. That’s what theAmerican people deserve.

So I would urge the Senate to swiftly con-firm Jason Furman. And I want to again thankAlan for his outstanding service. I want to

thank Jason and his family for continuing toserve the country they love. And for all theeconomists in the room, thank you for the oc-casionally underappreciated work that you do.[Laughter]

Thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 2:14 p.m. in theState Dining Room at the White House. In hisremarks, he referred to Lisa Simon Krueger,wife, and Benjamin, son, of Chairman Krueger;Eve Gerber, wife, and Louisa and Henry, chil-dren, of Chairman-designate Furman; andJames H. Stock, member, Council of EconomicAdvisers.

Remarks on Immigration ReformJune 11, 2013

Well, good morning, everybody. Welcometo the White House. It is a pleasure to have somany distinguished Americans today from somany different walks of life. We’ve got Demo-crats and Republicans; we’ve got labor andbusiness leaders up on stage; we have law en-forcement and clergy—Americans who don’tsee eye to eye on every issue, in fact, in somecases, don’t see eye to eye on just about any is-sue—[laughter]—but who are today standingunited in support of the legislation that is frontand center in Congress this week: a bipartisanbill to fix our broken immigration system.

And I have to say, please give Tolu anotherround of applause. She did a wonderful job. Ittakes a lot of courage to do what Tolu did: tostep out of the shadows, to share her story, andto hope that, despite the risks, she could makea difference. But Tolu, I think, is representa-tive of so many DREAMers out there whohave worked so hard—and I’ve had a chance tomeet so many of them—who’ve been willing togive a face to the undocumented and have in-spired a movement across America. And witheach step, they’ve reminded us, time andagain, what this debate is all about. This is notan abstract debate. This is about incredibleyoung people who understand themselves tobe Americans, who have done everything right,

but have still been hampered in achieving theirAmerican Dream.

And they remind us that we’re a nation ofimmigrants. Throughout our history, thepromise we found in those who come from ev-ery corner of the globe has always been one ofour greatest strengths. It’s kept our workforcevibrant and dynamic. It’s kept our businesseson the cutting edge. It’s helped build the great-est economic engine that the world has everknown.

When I speak to other world leaders, one ofthe biggest advantages we have economically isour demographics. We’re constantly replenish-ing ourselves with talent from all across theglobe. No other country can match that history.

[At this point, a beeping noise came from theaudience.]

And what was true years ago is still true to-day. Who’s beeping over there? [Laughter]You’re feeling kind of self-conscious, aren’tyou? [Laughter] It’s okay.

In recent years, one in four of America’s newsmall-business owners were immigrants. One infour high-tech startups in America were foundedby immigrants. Forty percent of Fortune 500 com-panies were started by a first- or second-generation

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American. Think about that: Almost half of theFortune 500 companies, when they were started,were started by first- or second-generation immi-grants. So immigration isn’t just part of our nation-al character, it is a driving force in our economythat creates jobs and prosperity for all of our citi-zens.

Now, here’s the thing: Over the past two de-cades, our immigration system hasn’t kept pacewith changing times and hasn’t matched upwith our most cherished values.

Right now our immigration system invitesthe best and the brightest from all over theworld to come and study at our top universi-ties, and then once they finish—once they’vegotten the training they need to build a new in-vention or create a new business—our systemtoo often tells them to go back home so thatother countries can reap the benefits: the newjobs, the new businesses, the new industries.That’s not smart. But that’s the broken systemwe have today.

Right now our immigration system keepsfamilies apart for years at a time, even for folkswho, technically, under the legal immigrationsystem, should be eligible to become citizens,but it is so long and so cumbersome, so byzan-tine, that families end up being separated foryears. Because of a backlog in visas, peoplewho come here legally—who are ready to giveit their all to earn their place in America—endup waiting for years to join their loved oneshere in the United States. It’s not right. Butthat’s the broken system we have today.

Right now our immigration system has nocredible way of dealing with the 11 millionmen and women who are in this country ille-gally. And yes, they broke the rules; they didn’twait their turn. They shouldn’t be let off easy.They shouldn’t be allowed to game the system.But at the same time, the vast majority of theseindividuals aren’t looking for any trouble.They’re just looking to provide for their fami-lies, contribute to their communities.

They’re our neighbors. We know their kids.Too often, they’re forced to do what they do ina shadow economy, where shady employerscan exploit them by paying less than the mini-mum wage, making them work without over-

time, not giving them any benefits. That push-es down standards for all workers. It’s bad foreverybody, because all the businesses that doplay by the rules, that hire people legally, thatpay them fairly, they’re at a competitive disad-vantage. American workers end up being at acompetitive disadvantage. It’s not fair. Butthat’s the broken system that we have today.

Now, over the past 4 years, we’ve tried topatch up some of the worst cracks in the sys-tem. We made border security a top priority.Today, we have twice as many border patrolagents as we did in 2004. We have more bootson the ground along our southern border thanat any time in our history. And in part, by usingtechnology more effectively, illegal crossingsare near their lowest level in decades.

We focused our enforcement efforts oncriminals who are here illegally and who areendangering our communities. And today, de-portation of criminals is at its highest level ev-er.

And having put border security in place,having refocused on those who could do ourcommunities harm, we also then took up thecause of the DREAMers, young people likeTolu who were brought to this country as chil-dren. We said that if you’re able to meet somebasic criteria, like pursuing a higher education,then we’ll consider offering you the chance tocome out of the shadows so you can continueto work here and study here and contribute toour communities legally.

So my administration has done what we canon our own. And we’ve got members of my ad-ministration here who’ve done outstandingwork over the past few years to try to close upsome of the gaps that exist in the system. Butthe system is still broken. And to truly dealwith this issue, Congress needs to act. And thatmoment is now.

This week, the Senate will consider a com-monsense, bipartisan bill that is the bestchance we’ve had in years to fix our broken im-migration system. It will build on what we’vedone and continue to strengthen our borders.It will make sure that businesses and workersare all playing by the same set of rules, and itincludes tough penalties for those who don’t.

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It’s fair for middle class families, by makingsure that those who are brought into the sys-tem pay their fair share in taxes and for servic-es. And it’s fair for those who try to immigratelegally by stopping those who try to skip theline. It’s the right thing to do.

Now, this bill isn’t perfect. It’s a compro-mise. And going forward, nobody is going toget everything that they want: not Democrats,not Republicans, not me. But this is a bill that’slargely consistent with the principles that I andthe people on this stage have laid out for com-monsense reform.

First of all, if passed, this bill would be thebiggest commitment to border security in ourNation’s history. It would put another $6.5 bil-lion—on top of what we’re already spending—towards stronger, smarter security along ourborders. It would increase criminal penaltiesagainst smugglers and traffickers. It would fi-nally give every employer a reliable way tocheck that every person they’re hiring is herelegally. And it would hold employers more ac-countable if they knowingly hire undocument-ed workers. So it strengthens border security,but also enforcement within our borders.

I know there’s a lot of talk right now aboutborder security, so let me repeat: Today, illegalcrossings are near their lowest level in decades.And if passed, the Senate bill—as currentlywritten and as hitting the floor—would put inplace the toughest border enforcement planthat America has ever seen. So nobody is tak-ing border enforcement lightly. That’s part ofthis bill.

Number two, this bill would provide a path-way to earned citizenship for the 11 million in-dividuals who are in this country illegally. Sothat pathway is arduous. You’ve got to passbackground checks. You’ve got to learn Eng-lish. You’ve got to pay taxes and a penalty. Andthen you’ve got to go to the back of the line be-hind everybody who’s done things the rightway and have tried to come here legally.

So this won’t be a quick process. It will takeat least 13 years before the vast majority ofthese individuals are able to even apply for citi-zenship. So this is no cakewalk. But it’s the on-ly way we can make sure that everyone who’s

here is playing by the same rules as ordinaryfamilies: paying taxes and getting their ownhealth insurance.

That’s why, for immigration reform to work,it must be clear from the outset that there is apathway to citizenship. If we’re asking every-body to play by the same rules, you got to givepeople a sense of certainty that they gothrough all these sacrifices, do all this, thatthere’s, at the end of the horizon, the opportu-nity—not the guarantee, but the opportunity—to be part of this American family. And by theway, a majority of Americans support this idea.

Number three, this bill would modernizethe legal immigration system so that, alongsidetraining American workers for the jobs of to-morrow, we’re also attracting the highly skilledentrepreneurs and engineers from around theworld who will ultimately grow our economy.And this bill would help make sure that ourpeople don’t have to wait years before theirloved ones are able to join them here in Amer-ica.

So that’s what immigration reform lookslike: smarter enforcement, a pathway to earnedcitizenship, improvements to our legal system.They’re all commonsense steps. They’ve got bi-partisan support. They’ve got the support of abroad cross-section of leaders from every walkof life. So there’s no reason Congress can’t getthis done by the end of the summer.

Remember, the process that led to this billwas open and inclusive. For months, the bipar-tisan Gang of Eight looked at every issue, rec-onciled competing ideas, built a compromisethat works. Then the Judiciary Committee heldnumerous hearings. More than a hundredamendments were added, often with bipartisansupport. And the good news is, every day thatgoes by, more and more Republicans andDemocrats are coming out to support thiscommonsense immigration reform bill.

And I’m sure the bill will go through a fewmore changes in the weeks to come. But thismuch is clear: If you genuinely believe weneed to fix our broken immigration system,there’s no good reason to stand in the way ofthis bill. A lot of people—Democrats and Re-publicans—have done a lot of good work on

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this bill. So if you’re serious about actually fix-ing the system, then this is the vehicle to do it.

If you’re not serious about it, if you thinkthat a broken system is the best America cando, then I guess it might make sense to try toblock it. But if you’re actually serious and sin-cere about fixing a broken system, this is thevehicle to do it. And now is the time to get itdone. There is no good reason to play proce-dural games or engage in obstruction just toblock the best chance we’ve had in years to ad-dress this problem in a way that’s fair to middleclass families, to business owners, to legal im-migrants.

And there’s no good reason to undo theprogress we’ve already made, especially whenit comes to extreme steps like stripping protec-tions from DREAMers that my administrationhas provided or asking law enforcement totreat them the same way they treat violentcriminals. That’s not who we are.

We owe it to America to do better. We oweit to the DREAMers to do better. We owe it tothe young people like Tolu and Diego Sán-chez, who’s with us here today. Where’s Di-ego? Right here. Diego came here from Ar-gentina with his parents when he was just a kid,and growing up, America was his home. This iswhere he went to school. This is where hemade friends. This is where he built a life. Youask Diego, and he’ll tell you, he feels Americanin every way except one: on paper.

In high school, Diego found out that he wasundocumented. Think about that. With all thestuff you’re already dealing with in highschool—[laughter]—and suddenly: “Oh, man.Really?” [Laughter] So he had done everythingright—stayed out of trouble, excelled in class,contributed to his community—feeling hope-ful about his future, and suddenly, he finds outhe’s got to live in fear of deportation: watchinghis friends get their licenses knowing hecouldn’t get one himself; seeing his classmatesapply for summer jobs knowing he couldn’t dothat either.

When Diego heard that we were going to of-fer a chance for folks like him to emerge fromthe shadows, he went and signed up. All hewanted, he said, was a chance to, “live a normal

life” and to “contribute to the country I love.”And Diego, this year, was approved for de-ferred action. A few weeks ago, he graduatedfrom St. Thomas University, where he was stu-dent body president and student of the year.

So now he’s set his sights higher—master’sdegree and then law school—so he can pursuea career in public policy, help America shapeits future. Why wouldn’t we want to do theright thing by Diego? What rationale is thereout there that we wouldn’t want to make sureDiego achieves his dreams? Because if hedoes, that helps us all achieve our dreams.

So, in the weeks to come, you’ll hear someopponents of immigration reform try to gin upfear and create division and spread the sameold rumors and untruths that we’ve heard be-fore. And when that happens, I want you tothink about Tolu, I want you to think about Di-ego, and I want you to think about your ownparents and your own grandparents and yourown great-grandparents and all the men andwomen and children who came here. The no-tion that somehow those who came throughEllis Island had all their papers right—[laugh-ter]—had checked every box and followed pro-cedures as they were getting on that boat—they were looking for a better life just likethese families. And they want to earn their wayinto the American story.

And if you’re willing to stand with them—and if you’re willing to stand with all these out-standing leaders up here—then now is thetime to make your voice heard. You need tocall and e-mail and tweet your Senators andtell them, don’t kick this problem down theroad. Come together. Work together. Do yourjob not only to fix a broken immigration systemonce and for all, but to leave something betterfor all the generations to come, to make surewe continue to be a nation of laws and a nationof immigrants. Do the right thing.

Thanks. God bless you. God bless America.All right.

NOTE: The President spoke at 10:38 a.m. in theEast Room at the White House. In his remarks,he referred to immigration reform activist ToluOlubunmi, who introduced the President;

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Sens. Marco A. Rubio, Jeffrey L. Flake, John S.McCain III, Lindsey O. Graham, Richard J.Durbin, Robert Menendez, Charles E. Schum-

er, and Michael F. Bennet; and Luis Sánchezand Alejandra Saucedo, parents of immigrationreform activist Diego N. Sánchez.

Remarks Following a Meeting With President Ollanta Moises Humala Tassoof PeruJune 11, 2013

President Obama. I’m very happy to wel-come President Humala and his delegation tothe Oval Office. We’ve been able to work to-gether and interact in a wide range of multilat-eral forums, but this is the first time that I’vebeen able to have the President here in Wash-ington.

Peru is one of our strongest and most reli-able partners in the hemisphere. We have astrong commercial and trading relationship.We cooperate on a wide range of security is-sues, including our counternarcotics efforts.And we spent most of our discussion focusedon how we can further deepen this importantbilateral relationship.

I want to congratulate President Humala onbeing able to sustain strong growth rates in Pe-ru and his focus on broad-based economicgrowth that includes all people. As a conse-quence, Peru has been able to see not only in-creased growth, but also reduced poverty andsteps to reduce inequality.

For both the United States and Peru,growth is also dependent on our continued ex-pansion in the global marketplace, and that’swhy I’m very glad that Peru and the UnitedStates are working so closely together in final-izing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which of-fers the possibility of opening up marketsthroughout the Asia-Pacific region with highstandards and protections for labor and the en-vironment.

We’ve also agreed to a number of bilateralprograms that will strengthen our cooperation.For example, as part of my 100,000 Strong inthe Americas program, we’re going to deepeneducation exchange programs between our twocountries, and we’re also focusing on how wework together to include small businesses andmedium-sized businesses in a hemisphere-

wide network that allows those businesses toaccess markets throughout the region.

And we also talked about how we can deep-en, at a strategic level, our work together tocontinue to combat the scourge of transnation-al drug networks that have an adverse impactnot only in Peru, but throughout the region.

So overall, the state of our relationship isvery strong. I think it will become even stron-ger as a result of some of the initiatives thatwe’ve shaped in this meeting. And I’m veryglad that President Humala was able to visit us.I also wish the Peruvian soccer team the bestof luck this evening. [Laughter]

President Humala. Thank you very much,President Obama. My visit here is a sign of thestrength that we want to carry out in our rela-tionships between the United States and Peru.

We have found in your administration anopen environment in which we can build on allthe strategic areas so as to strengthen ourbonds. I am convinced that under your admin-istration, we will substantively and qualitativelyfight against the scourge of drugs.

But that has not been the only topic that wehave addressed during our talk. We have alsodiscussed about education, training, science,technology, and strengthening the capacities ofour young population. We wish to move forwardon exchange programs and scholarships not onlywith the States—the United States, but alsowith the states of the union, so that way we canprovide young people more opportunities.

We have agreed on the importance of build-ing democracy, on respecting human rights, onimproving economic openness, on working ontrade, because this allows us to grow our econ-omies and to develop further. In addition, wehave highlighted that Peru is an importanttrade partner with the United States. We

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provide economic growth. We have economictrust. We also provide a legal stability.

Finally, we have invited President Obama,despite his busy agenda, to visit Peru. I hope hedoes find the time to come down and visit us.

We would like to thank you for your wellwishes for the match this afternoon. The refer-ee is from the U.S. [Laughter] No, I’m just kid-ding. I’m just kidding. [Laughter] This is nottrue. I’m just kidding.

President Obama. Well, if it was, hopefully,the Peruvian team will be so strong that itdoesn’t need help from the referee. [Laugh-ter]

Gracias. Thank you. Thank you, everybody.

NOTE: The President spoke at 12:16 p.m. inthe Oval Office at the White House. PresidentHumala spoke in Spanish, and his remarkswere translated by an interpreter.

Joint Statement by President Obama and President Ollanta Moises HumalaTasso of PeruJune 11, 2013

TOWARD A STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPFOR THE 21ST CENTURY

President Barack Obama and President Ol-lanta Humala reaffirmed today their desire tostrengthen the U.S.-Peru relationship by fur-ther deepening cooperation on economic pros-perity and social inclusion; education; scienceand technology; and citizen security. The twoleaders resolved to continue working togetheron a diversified cooperative agenda to bolsterour relationship and ensure it remains strongand relevant to the challenges and opportuni-ties of the 21st century.

Both Presidents acknowledged the historicrelationship between our two nations and reaf-firmed their intent to strengthen and deepen itbased on shared fundamental values and prin-ciples such as democracy, respect for humanrights, belief in open markets, and the rule oflaw.

Both leaders also recognized that the UnitedStates and Peru are working to consolidate astrategic partnership for the 21st century thatwill further enhance security, prosperity anddevelopment in the hemisphere.

They also welcomed closer relationships atthe state and local level to expand opportuni-ties for mutual cooperation.

ECONOMIC PROSPERITY AND SOCIALINCLUSION

Underpinning our successful U.S.-Peru eco-nomic relationship is the successful implemen-tation of the U.S.-Peru Trade PromotionAgreement, which facilitated nearly $16 billionin bilateral trade in 2012 and supported robustjob creation in both countries. The two Presi-dents noted that in the four years since theAgreement entered into force, the UnitedStates and Peru have made it easier for ourbusinesses to trade, further diversified ourtrading relationship, and continue to workjointly to protect the environment. They reiter-ated the importance of maintaining regular di-alogue on specific proposals for deepening thetrading relationship. The two Presidents alsoreviewed Trans-Pacific Partnership negotia-tions, including at the 17th negotiating Roundhosted by Peru in May, and reaffirmed theirshared commitment to conclude negotiationsthis year.

Both Presidents discussed the importance oftaking advantage of economic prosperity to al-so reduce poverty and inequality. In this con-text, the leaders noted the importance of pub-lic-private partnerships and expressed their be-lief in sustainable and inclusive economicgrowth.

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The United States welcomed Peru to theSmall Business Network of the Americas,wherein the United States will support the es-tablishment of small business developmentcenters in Peru to provide entrepreneurs andsmall business owners with training and otherjob creating services.

The two leaders also highlighted joint effortsto expand internet connectivity to rural areasof Peru, apply science and technology to accel-erate development, and provide support to1,000 small- and medium-sized businesses ledby Peruvian women entrepreneurs through thePathways Access Initiative and ongoing Wom-en’s Entrepreneurship in the Americas Initia-tive (WEAmericas). As founding members ofthe Equal Futures Partnership, Peru and theUnited States have committed to expand op-portunities for women and girls and to pro-mote gender equality across political, econom-ic and social spheres.

The leaders reaffirmed their desire to boostsustainable, inclusive, and balanced growthand job creation; promote productive invest-ment; reform and strengthen the internationalfinancial architecture; and enhance multilater-al trade. They reiterated their support for asuccessful ninth WTO Ministerial Meeting,which will take place in December this year inBali, Indonesia.

The Presidents also highlighted the impor-tance of the “Pacific Alliance,” one of the mostinnovative regional integration initiatives, andunderscored its auspicious prospects for deep-ening trade liberalization and enhancing coop-eration between its members.

EDUCATION

The two Presidents highlighted education asan increasingly important strategic priority forboth countries, focusing particularly on sci-ence, technology, innovation, and competitive-ness. Recognizing the economic advantages forboth countries of increasing contact betweenAmericans and Peruvians, the United Statesand Peru launched an Education Policy Dia-logue to further facilitate information-sharingand best practices, and to promote linkages toPresident Obama’s 100,000 Strong in the

Americas initiative, as well as Peruvian scholar-ship initiatives such as “Beca 18” and “BecaPresidente de la República.” Both presidentsalso welcomed joint efforts to provide high-quality English language training and instruc-tion to Peruvian teachers and students.

Both Presidents recognized the importanceof cultural heritage to their respective nationsand expressed willingness to continuouslystrengthen bilateral cooperation to prevent il-licit traffic of cultural heritage property and re-store it to its country of origin in accordancewith bilateral and multilateral agreements towhich both countries are party.

SCIENCE AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Both nations resolved to work together toaddress the impact of global climate change.The two leaders welcomed the signing of aMemorandum of Understanding that lays outmeasures to enhance Peru’s capacity to designand implement a Low Emissions DevelopmentStrategy. Through the design and implementa-tion of such actions, the United States and Pe-ru intend to work together to reduce emissionsfrom Peru’s largest greenhouse gas emissionsources.

The two countries also intend promote cleanenergy and energy security throughout Peruunder the auspices of the Energy and ClimatePartnership of the Americas, and the “Con-necting the Americas 2022” initiative. Presi-dent Obama and President Humala affirmedtheir decision to work together toward success-ful outcomes at the international negotiationson climate change. This cooperation includesworking together to building a new interna-tional climate regime that is ambitious, effec-tive, and can attract the participation of all par-ties.

They welcomed strong and deepening cooper-ation on environmental related science and tech-nology issues between the two nations, includingthe ongoing collaboration and exchange of ex-perts between the U.S. National Oceanic and At-mospheric Administration and the Instituto delMar del Perú in the field of maritime matters,and the further establishment of a frameworkagreement between both institutions.

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ENHANCING CITIZEN SECURITY

The two leaders reiterated their shared in-terest in enhancing citizen security, highlight-ing the importance of strengthening institu-tions that build and sustain the rule of law, pro-tect human rights, and improve public securityover the long-term.

President Obama applauded Peru’s partici-pation in the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti,where Peruvian peacekeeping forces havebeen continuously deployed since the mission’sestablishment in 2004. President Humala wel-comed U.S. support for the Peruvian NationalPolice, including educational opportunitiesand training on enhanced community policing.

Highlighting the threat posed by narcoticstrafficking to both countries, President Obamareaffirmed U.S. commitment to partneringwith Peru to combat the production and traf-ficking of illicit narcotics. President Humalawelcomed President Obama’s intent to in-crease counternarcotics and alternative devel-opment assistance to Peru by more than $20million to provide additional support for theimplementation of the Government of Peru’scounternarcotics strategy. The two leaders alsoapplauded joint initiatives to: reduce the pro-duction of cocaine and further advance an in-clusive and sustainable alternative develop-ment strategy in coca-growing regions, noting

successes with cacao and coffee; investigateand prosecute organized criminal organiza-tions; support Peru’s transition to a new crimi-nal procedure code; and strengthen coopera-tion to combat money laundering and financialcrimes.

The two leaders agreed to develop closer bi-lateral defense ties, and welcomed the prog-ress made in the negotiations toward a robustnew Defense Cooperation Agreement be-tween the United States and Peru intended toaddress shared security challenges and threatssuch as drug trafficking, terrorism, prolifera-tion, and natural disasters.

The United States and Peru also welcomedthe signature of the Megaports initiative agree-ment to begin a cooperative effort to detect,deter, and interdict illicit smuggling of nuclearand other radioactive material.

The presidents expressed their mutual com-mitment to the Open Government Partnershipas a means of enhancing transparency, govern-ment accountability to citizens, fighting cor-ruption and encouraging citizen participation.

Presidents Obama and Humala will remainin close consultation on these and other issuesof mutual interest in order to further the part-nership between our nations.


Remarks at a Fundraiser for Senatorial Candidate Representative Edward J.Markey in Boston, MassachusettsJune 12, 2013

The President. Hello, Boston! It is great tobe back in Boston. Good to be back in Massa-chusetts. And most of all, it is great to be herewith the next Senator from Massachusetts: EdMarkey.

First of all, I want to thank Ed for that greatintroduction. Because I am here with my greatfriends from Boston, because I’m here to cam-paign on behalf of somebody who will be anoutstanding Member of the United States Sen-ate, I am not going to talk trash about the hock-ey game. [Laughter] I’m not going to say any-

thing about the outstanding qualities of theChicago Blackhawks. [Laughter]

Audience members. Boo!The President. I’m not going to say anything.

I’m not going to do it. [Laughter] Because Idon’t want to make you all feel bad. [Laughter]I want you to feel good.

Part of the reason you should feel good isnot only do you have an outstanding congres-sional delegation, you also have a great Gover-nor, my good friend, Deval Patrick. You’ve gotone of the finest mayors in the United States ofAmerica; we love Tom Menino. I was just

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backstage talking to Tom, and he doesn’t justinspire Boston and make it a better place, heinspires the country. And we’re grateful for hislifetime of service.

The last time I saw Tom, the last time I sawa lot of you was for the memorial service hon-oring the victims of the marathon bombing. Sothis morning, before I came here, I wanted tospend some time with some Bostonians, so westopped by Charlie’s Sandwich Shoppe, and Igot a burger and fries. And we were saying hito everybody and hugging folks, and Ed waswith me. And one of the people I met in theshop just by happenstance was a young manwhose family had been injured by the bomb-ing. And he was with a nurse who had been atMass General the day those folks got broughtin. And she was on her day off. But I gave her abig hug, and I reminded her of how much whatshe did had meant to so many people allthroughout the city and she was an example ofthe spirit of Boston during a very difficult time.And I asked people, how is the city doing? Andthey said, you know, we’re bouncing back.

Boylston Street may be open again. Lifemay be back to normal in a lot of ways. But weknow there’s still too many middle class fami-lies that aren’t seeing their hard work reward-ed, too many young people who are looking forwork and can’t find it, too many Americanswho feel like the rungs on the ladder of oppor-tunity have grown farther and farther apart.And that’s why Ed and I are focused on build-ing the true engine of long-term economicgrowth, and that is, a rising, thriving middleclass.

And every day I wake up, I ask three ques-tions: How do I make America a magnet forgood jobs? How do we make sure our workersearn the skills and education they need forthose jobs? How do we make sure those jobsare paying a decent living? And the answer tothat is, government can’t do it by itself. Obvi-ously, the private sector is the driver of oureconomy. It’s the engine of our growth.

But when people say the whole problem isgovernment, they don’t understand govern-ment can help by establishing smart priorities,by making smart choices: by investing in Amer-

ican manufacturing so we’re bringing more ofour jobs back from overseas; investing in ourroads and our bridges and our ports to makesure that we are staying competitive all aroundthe world; educating our children from theearliest years; keeping them safe from gun vio-lence; rethinking our high schools; making col-lege more affordable; making sure we stay atthe cutting edge in science and technology; se-curing our energy future; addressing climatechange. There are some things that govern-ment can do that will help middle class fami-lies, and that’s what Ed Markey is committedto doing.

We can do all this. We have all the plans.We have all the policies. We have solutions toour challenges. We have all the ingredients forsuccess. This is not only the greatest nation onEarth in the past, this is going to be the great-est nation on Earth for the foreseeable future.There’s no country on Earth that would notgladly trade places with the United States. Butwhat’s holding us back right now is inaction inWashington, gridlock in Washington: too manyfolks in Washington who are putting the nextelection ahead of the next generation.

Now, Boston, I want you to know I’ve runmy last campaign. Michelle is very happy aboutthat. [Laughter] So my only concern is makingsure that we advance the interests of thebroadest number of Americans and we leaveour children a stronger, safer, more prosperouscountry than the one we inherited. That’s all Icare about. And that means I’m willing to workwith anybody; I’ll work with Republicans,Democrats, Independents, anybody who wantsto make progress. I’m ready to get going. Iwant to work with them.

So, for example, right now on immigration,we’ve got a good bipartisan bill movingthrough the Senate that strengthens our bor-ders and reforms the system so that everybodyis playing by the same rules, reform that will al-low us to continue to attract talent from allaround the world, the best and the brightest.And whenever Republicans are ready to workwith me, I’m ready to work with them. I wantto govern not just politic.

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And I notice on gun violence, there are a lotof Republicans out there who recognize thatwe need some commonsense gun safety mea-sures. Some Republicans may be rethinkingthe stances that they took in the past. That’sthe good news. We want to encourage that.But the fact of the matter is that a whole bunchof Republicans out there are not interested ingetting things done. They think compromise isa dirty word. They think the problem we’ve gotis just working people who join unions, thatthat’s what holding us back. They think envi-ronmental regulations are what’s holding usback. They think that we’re spending, I guess,too much money on science and research andtechnology.

And because of those attitudes, we’ve got tohave some Democrats like Ed Markey, whowill stand up and do the right thing. That’swhat we need.

Ed mentioned that the idea of being a Dem-ocrat—look, I don’t believe that any single par-ty has a monopoly on wisdom. My favoritePresident is a guy from Illinois who foundedthe Republican Party, effectively: AbrahamLincoln, our first Republican President. Butwhat does make me a Democrat is the basicidea that in this country, no matter what youlook like, no matter where you come from, nomatter who you love, you should be able to getahead if you’re willing to work hard and act re-sponsibly.

You should be able to buy a home and sendyour kids to college and save a little bit for re-tirement, make sure your kids get a good edu-cation, not go bankrupt when you get sick.Most Americans aren’t asking for a lot. Theyknow they’ve got to take care of themselves.They just want to make sure that if they’reworking hard, they can get ahead. That’s theessence of what it means to be a Democrat.

And that’s why we’ve got to have folks likeEd Markey, who are going to help keep weap-ons of war off the streets and out of ourschools, make it harder for criminals to get agun in their hands.

That’s why we’ve got to have a Democratwho is going to make sure that we implementthe Affordable Care Act, because in a nation

this wealthy, nobody should have to go withoutaffordable, accessible health care. They don’thave to do it in Massachusetts. They shouldn’thave to do it anywhere else. It’s the right thingto do, and we need Ed Markey to make surethat it gets implemented.

We’re fighting to make sure that when itcomes to women’s health, no employer or in-surance company or politician gets to decideyour health care. Women should make deci-sions about their health care, not some politi-cian in Washington.

We need somebody who is going to be sup-portive of the Consumer Financial ProtectionBoard that Elizabeth Warren and I startedtalking about even before I was elected Presi-dent and that we’ve now implemented to makesure you’re not getting cheated by unscrupu-lous financial practices. We need somebodywho is going to support that robustly. That’swhat Ed is going to do.

We don’t need politicians who are going toroll back these rights, we need somebody likeEd Markey who is going to fight to securethem, no matter how many times the Republi-cans in Washington want to refight the old bat-tles.

Do you know that the House Republicanshave held nearly 40 votes to repeal Obam-acare? They did another one just 2 weeks agobecause they figured that they were a couplenew Representatives that hadn’t had a chanceto vote against Obamacare. That’s not a pro-ductive thing to do, people.

This law is going to mean big things for theeconomic security of middle class families. Weshould be spending time figuring out how tospread the word that if you don’t have healthinsurance, you can now get it.

We need a Senator from Massachusetts whowill help me, work with me, to deal with cli-mate change in an honest, realistic way. Ed hasbeen fighting this battle for decades. If wewant our children and our grandchildren tolive in the same beautiful planet, the sameabundance, and natural glory that we have en-joyed in our lives, we’ve got to double down onour investment in science and basic research.We can’t just develop the energy sources of the

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past. We’ve got to develop the energy sourcesof the future.

We’ve got the tools and the capabilities tomake huge strides. We’ve already doubled theproduction of clean energy. We’ve alreadydoubled fuel efficiency standards on cars.We’ve got to keep on going forward, not back-wards. And that’s what Ed Markey is going tohelp us do.

We’ve ended a war in Iraq; we’re windingdown the war in Afghanistan responsibly. Nowwe’re going to have to take care of our veteransand keep Americans safe. And I will keepworking with the other side of the aisle onthese issues. But I want somebody like EdMarkey who every single day is going to befighting on behalf of our veterans, going to befighting on behalf of our first responders.

These budget battles we have in Washing-ton, they have implications for whether or notwe’re helping cities and States fund their fire-fighters, fund their police officers. And every-body here in Boston knows how much thosefirst responders mean to us when a crisis hashit. And we’ve got to make sure we’re there forthem.

So look, here’s the bottom line: We’ve gonethrough some tough times over these last fewyears, and so many of you put your faith in mein 2008 and 2012. The folks here in Massachu-setts were very kind to me back in 2004, whennobody could pronounce my name. [Laughter]

And every single day, I think about all ofyou. I look out on the faces in this crowd; someof you I know, some of you have knocked ondoors for me, some of you poured your heartand soul into our efforts.

But here’s the thing that I think all of us un-derstand: The job of rebuilding America, thejob of making sure our kids have a great educa-tion, the job of making sure everybody hashealth care, the job of making sure that finan-cial institutions treat everybody fairly, the jobof making sure our veterans have the care thatthey need, the job of making sure we have abright energy future, the job of preserving ourenvironment, the job of making sure we stayon the cutting edge when it comes to innova-tion, that job is not mine alone. I can’t do it by

myself. I’ve got to have folks with me who careas passionately about these things as I do. I’vegot to have folks in the United States Senatewho are willing to stand up for working peoplejust like I have. I need folks in the UnitedStates Senate who, every day, are waking upthinking about the people who sent them thereand trying to figure out how do I make surethat they are getting a brighter future.

That’s who Ed Markey is. I need Ed Markeyin the United States Senate.

So this election is going to come down toturnout. We’ve got a whole lot of Democrats inthis State and a whole lot of Obama voters, butyou can’t just turnout during a presidential elec-tion. You’ve got to turn out in this election. Youcan’t think, oh, I did my work in 2012. You’vegot some work to do right now in 2013. Youcan’t just pat your back and say, well, I knockedon some doors back in November. I need youknocking on some doors right now in June.

And if you work with the same focus and thesame passion—if you are knocking on somedoors and making some phone calls, if you’retalking to your friends and you’re talking toyour neighbors, if you’re talking to cousin Jim-my who doesn’t always vote unless you givehim a phone call—if you are making sure thatpeople know Ed Markey’s remarkable recordin Congress, then I guarantee you, he will bethe next United States Senator from Massa-chusetts. He’ll join Elizabeth Warren. He’llcarry on the legacy of Ted Kennedy and JohnKerry. He will be my partner, and we will con-tinue the march forward on behalf of not justthis generation, but future generations.

Thank you. Let’s get to work. God bless you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 1:27 p.m. at theReggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center. In hisremarks, he referred to Jessica Wiggins, nurse,Massachusetts General Hospital; Sen. ElizabethWarren, in her former capacity as Assistant tothe President and Special Adviser to the Secre-tary of the Treasury on the Consumer FinancialProtection Bureau; and Secretary of State JohnF. Kerry, in his former capacity as U.S. Senatorfrom Massachusetts. Audio was not available forverification of the content of these remarks.

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Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Fundraiser in Miami, FloridaJune 12, 2013

Thank you, everybody. Everybody, have aseat. Have a seat. Well, Tom, thank you somuch for that introduction and the great sup-port that you’ve given me and the incredibleinnovation that you and your company repre-sents.

There are a couple of other people I want tothank. In addition to Shasta and Azza, who’sback there and is growing like a weed—[laugh-ter]—we’ve got our outstanding DNC chair,Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Florida’s own.Where’s Debbie? She was here. I don’t knowwhere she is now.

Our DNC finance chair—don’t blame himfor the fact that he’s from San Antonio—HenryMuñoz is here. Our Florida finance chair, J.P.Austin, is here. And our Florida DemocraticParty chair, Allison Tant, is here.

So the story that Tom describes is the storyof America. Somebody starts off selling lumberon the back of a pickup truck, and they end upin Florida with some really nice artwork.[Laughter] But in so many ways, Tom has livedout the American Dream, but there are two el-ements that Tom describes that go to the heartof why I think most of you are here today.

Number one, the idea that anybody canmake it if they’ve got a good idea. That’s whatAmerica is about. That you don’t have to beborn into fame and fortune in order to suc-ceed. If you work hard, we have the most open,most innovative, most entrepreneurial societyon Earth.

Number two, that we bet on technology.That’s what’s always driven progress in thiscountry; that we believe in the idea that we cando something better. That we may have fig-ured out how to mass-produce automobiles,but we also can figure out how to mass-pro-duce better automobiles. That we can inventcommunications systems that ultimately bringthe entire world together. And that’s alwaysbeen part of who we are: at the cutting edge.

And then there’s a third thing that Tom rep-resents, and that is, a belief that there’s no con-tradiction between doing well and doing good.

The idea that those of us who have beenblessed in this society—we work hard, we suc-ceed—we’ve got to give thing back. And thatthere are broader issues about how we makesure that we’re passing on to the next genera-tion the same opportunities that were given tous.

Now those are all American values. But partof the reason we’re here is because we believethat the Democratic Party best representsthose values right now. I always say this: Thathasn’t always been the case. I come from Illi-nois, and we had a pretty good RepublicanPresident named Lincoln.

But right now I think that when you look atwho’s pushing to make sure that we’re invest-ing in research and technology, who’s seriousabout discovering the new sources of energy,energy of the future and not just energy of thepast; who’s serious about making sure that ev-ery young person has educational opportuni-ties, so that if they work hard they can succeed,that’s us. That’s what the Democratic Party isall about.

And most of all, who believes that every sin-gle person in this country—not just some ofus—but everybody should have a chance atsuccess. No matter what you look like, no mat-ter where you come from, no matter what yourlast name, no matter who you love, if you workhard, if you take responsibility, you can suc-ceed. That’s what we stand for.

That’s why I ran in 2008. That’s why I ranfor reelection in 2012. And obviously, we’vemade enormous progress over the last 4½years, with the help of folks like Debbie Was-serman Schultz, making sure that every singleperson in America can get affordable, accessi-ble health care we’re implementing right now,making sure that we double fuel efficiencystandards on cars and double the production ofclean energy.

Hey, Azza. You want to come up and saysomething? [Laughter] Daddy is right overhere. Yes, she’s right over there. [Laughter]

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You can’t beat daughters. I mean, sons areokay, but—[applause].

We were able to restore growth to an econo-my that was crashing: 39 consecutive monthsof job growth, the stock market exceedingwhere it was before the financial crisis. Hous-ing beginning to bounce back. So we’ve madeprogress. But what we also know is that we’vestill got an awful lot of work to do. And the onlyway we’re going to get that done is if I stay fo-cused, as President, on those issues that gotpeople to send me to Washington: making surethat we’re focused on bringing manufacturingback, making sure that we’re focused on mak-ing college more affordable, making sure thatwe’re reforming our K–12 system so that ourkids get what they need, making sure thatwe’re investing in clean energy, dealing withclimate change. But I can’t do it by myself. I’vegot to have partners.

Now, in some cases, we’re seeing Republi-cans willing to work with us and compromise.I’m pleased to see that we got a good vote thisweek so far on immigration. That immigrationbill is on the floor, and I think we have an enor-mous opportunity to get a bipartisan immigra-tion bill done. And that will be not just anenormous political achievement, but an impor-tant economic foundation for us to continue toattract the best and the brightest from allaround the world.

But sadly, all too often, we’re not gettingmuch cooperation from the other side. Theyseem more interested in winning the next elec-tion than helping the next generation. And so Iwill spend the next 3½ years doing everything Ican to work with anybody—Democrat, Repub-lican, or Independent—to advance the cause

of middle class families and everybody who’swilling to work hard to get into the middleclass. I will be doing that. But I tell you what: Itwould be a lot easier if I had a DemocraticHouse and a Democratic Senate to do it.

So to all of you who have invested in me andinvested in our vision for the future, I want tosay thank you. But I also want to tell you thatwe’ve got a lot more work to do and it’s goingto be absolutely critical that everybody herefeels the same urgency and intensity over thenext year and a half leading up to the midtermelections as you did in 2008 and 2012.

If you do, then we can take back the House,we can keep the Senate in Democratic hands.That will allow me to appoint outstandingjudges to the Federal bench. That will allow usto make sure that we are advancing issues likeclimate change that are critically important forthe next generation. And it can be done, but itcan only be done with you.

And for all that you’ve done, but also for allthat you’re going to be doing, I want to just sayhow much I appreciate it, and I’m looking for-ward to us partnering together for severalmore years so that we can get that whole agen-da in place and make sure that Azza and all herpeers can look back and say, you know what,our parents and our grandparents, they tookcare of business.

So thank you very much, everybody. Thankyou.

NOTE: The President spoke at 6:08 p.m. at theresidence of Thomas D. Sullivan. In his re-marks, he referred to Shasta Montes de Oca,girlfriend, and Azza Sullivan, daughter, of Mr.Sullivan.

Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Fundraiser in Miami Beach,FloridaJune 12, 2013

The President. Hello, everybody!Audience members. Hello!The President. It is good to be back in Mi-

ami. Don’t worry, I still think it’s going to be aseven-game series. I’m just saying. [Laughter]

I know everybody in Miami is feeling a littlestressed right now, but—[laughter]—you’vegot two great teams playing.

I want to, first of all, just say thank you toJoe for hosting us. Opening up your house is a

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big deal on any occasion. When you’ve got Se-cret Service and everybody else runningaround, moving furniture, potentially bumpinginto that painting that’s probably worth a lot ofmoney—[laughter]—that makes you morestressed. So can you all please move away fromthe painting? [Laughter] Just wanted to makethat point. You’re welcome, Joe. All right.

A couple of other people that I want to men-tion. We’ve got Debbie Wasserman Schultzhere, the great Congresswoman and head ofour DNC. We’ve got our DNC finance chair,Henry Muñoz, who’s here. And we have theFlorida Democratic Party chair, Allison Tant ishere. And I am here. And you are here. Sowe’ve got a good party going on here tonight.

Audience member. Yes, we do!The President. [Laughter] Happy birthday.

[Laughter]It’s wonderful to be out of Washington and

have a chance to see folks who are doing allkinds of great work in their communities. As Iwas taking pictures with some people, I talkedto doctors, I talked to folks who are active inthe community, people who are working onbehalf of immigration reform, people who areworking on behalf of low-income families,teachers. And so we’ve got a pretty good grouphere of folks who, aside from politics, are mak-ing a difference every single day. And that’swhat America is about, is neighbors helpingneighbors, friends helping friends, communi-ties figuring out how can we continually makeourselves a better place for our kids and for ourgrandkids.

And after having gone through the worst re-cession since the Great Depression, America,all across the country in communities north,south, east, and west are starting to slowly seerecovery. We’ve now created jobs for 39 con-secutive months, close to 7 million jobs. Wehave seen housing begin to come back. Thestock market has recovered. The economy isgrowing. We’re producing more energy thanwe have in years. We’re importing less than wehave in decades. We’ve doubled our produc-tion of clean energy. We’ve doubled the fuelefficiency standards on cars.

Across the board, people are feeling like, allright, America is moving, and it’s moving in theright direction. But what we also know——

Audience member. Good job, Mr. President.Good job.

The President. What we also know is, is thatwe’ve got a lot more work to do. Because allacross the country, we still have people whoare looking for work and can’t find it. We stillhave young people in schools that aren’t learn-ing what they need to compete in the 21st cen-tury. We still have young people who are bur-dened by massive college costs. We still haveinfrastructure that needs to be rebuilt. We’vegot research projects that could help to revolu-tionize our economy, but are not being ade-quately funded. We have folks whose homesare still underwater, and they’re still struggling.And people are concerned about the possibili-ties of retiring with dignity and respect.

So we’ve got a lot more work to do. And thereason I’m here today is to ask for your help.I’m very proud of the record that we’ve beenable to put together over the last 4½making sure that every American in this coun-try gets health care, and we are implementinghealth care reform so that every single Ameri-can is able to get health care and won’t gobankrupt when they get sick.

We’re very proud of the work we’ve done onfinancial reform, setting up, for example, aconsumer finance agency that for the first timewill be protecting consumers from unscrupu-lous mortgage lenders or financial institutions.I couldn’t be prouder of us repealing “don’task, don’t tell” and being at the forefront ofmaking sure that in this country, it doesn’t mat-ter who you love, it matters whether you wantto serve the country that you love.

We’re making progress on reforming educa-tion. We’ve put billions of dollars that werepreviously going to banks into helping youngpeople go to college. We’re making progress.But with all the stuff that remains to be done, Ican’t do it by myself. Our system of govern-ment was designed to separate powers, and soyou’ve got three coequal branches. And I canpropose a whole bunch of good stuff, thingsthat I know will make a difference in the lives

years,

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of middle class families and everybody who’sworking to get into the middle class. But if Idon’t have the kind of cooperation from Con-gress that I need, then all too often, those arejust plans on the shelf.

Now, I’ve run my last campaign, and Mi-chelle is very happy about that. [Laughter] Andso what that means is, I think you can haveconfidence that all I care about right now isgoverning. All I care about right now is makingsure that the country is stronger, more pros-perous 3 years from now, 4 years from now, 10years from now, 20 years from now than it wasbefore I took office. And I will work with ev-erybody who’s got that same attitude.

So the good news is, for example, right nowCongress is working on a serious effort to re-form our broken immigration system. And Iactually am pretty confident that before thesummer is over, I can sign into law compre-hensive immigration reform that will strength-en our borders, fix our legal immigration sys-tem, and make sure that those who are hereand are undocumented can earn their way—inan arduous process, but earn their way—to befull-fledged members of our country.

And that’s an example of what we can ac-complish when we work on a bipartisan basis.Unfortunately, all too often, Republicans ar-en’t interested in the compromise that’s re-quired to get things done. They’ve got a differ-ent philosophical view on a whole lot of issues.I don’t think the vision that they have is onethat would make the country stronger andmore prosperous, but I understand they’re en-titled to their opinion.

And no party has a monopoly on wisdom,but when you get to the point where the otherparty will not compromise at all; when you getto the point where you’ve got another partythat is more interested in trying to roll backhealth care for 30 million Americans than pro-vide health care for 30 million Americans;when you have a party that is trying to roll backWall Street reform and trying to—instead oftrying to implement it so that we don’t have an-other batch of Wall Street bailouts; when youhave a situation where folks are trying to makesure that women don’t have the capacity to

choose health care for themselves and maketheir own health care decisions and, in somecases, are on the wrong side of the issue whenit comes to equality for the LGBT community;when folks aren’t interested in compromising,then I want to make sure that I’ve got peoplethere who are ready to do some work.

I want Members of Congress who are look-ing out for you, not looking out for special in-terests, not looking out for folks who franklyare doing just fine. But I want to make surethat we’ve got people who are looking out forthose who need help and those who are com-mitted to growing this economy in a broad-based way for everybody so that every child inAmerica—doesn’t matter what they look like,where they come from, what their last nameis—that they can succeed. That’s our goal.That’s the kind of Congress I want.

And in order for that to happen, I’m going toneed all of you to be just as engaged as youwere in 2012 and 2008. Sometimes, the Presi-dential campaigns are the ones that get a lot ofnotice and a lot of fanfare. And what happens,particularly among Democrats, is when it’s nota Presidential year, our turnout drops off.That’s what happened in 2010. You had thisbig gap between the number of people whovote on a Presidential year and those who voteon a non-Presidential year. We can’t think inthose terms. It’s like if—those of you who arebasketball fans, you can’t take off—[laugh-ter]—you can’t just play in the fourth quarter,you’ve got to play all the quarters. [Laughter]You’ve got to play hard the whole time, not justpart of the time. Well, the same is true when itcomes to being engaged in the political pro-cess.

And so I’m spending a lot of time travelingaround the country. I was over in North Caroli-na looking at a school district that had trans-formed itself: gotten rid of textbooks, boughtevery child in the school district a laptop, andare now performing higher than every schooldistrict except one in North Carolina eventhough they’re spending less money than al-most every school district.

I was in Austin, Texas, and seeing an incuba-tor where young entrepreneurs are inventing

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new products and new systems—in part be-cause of the research dollars that are flowingfrom the Federal Government—and are creat-ing new businesses and jobs that will keepAmerica at the cutting edge.

I have the honor of serving as Commanderin Chief and meeting young men and womenall across the country and all around the worldwho are putting their lives on the line everysingle day to protect us.

And I meet young people everywhere whoare so inspiring because they have this innateoptimism about what’s possible in this country.They’re not willing to settle for environmentaldegradation. They’re not willing to settle forinequality. They’re not willing to settle for peo-ple being treated differently because—or be-ing bullied because of their sexual orientation.

And these young people, when you talk tothem, it reminds you—just like it reminds youwhen you talk to our men and women in uni-form, just like it reminds you when you talk tosome of our small-business owners—Americahas got all the cards we need to succeed as longas everybody is involved. As long as everybody

is engaged. As long as the vision that has driventhis country all these years expresses itself notonly in our neighborhoods, not only in ourworkplaces, not only in our churches or syna-gogues or mosques, not only in our day-to-daylives, but also expresses itself in Washington,expresses itself in Congress. That’s what we’refighting for.

So I want to make sure everybody here un-derstands our work is not done, and I’m notgoing to be able to do it by myself. We’re goingto need great Members of Congress who arepassionate and motivated and thinking abouthow we build a thriving, growing middle classand providing ladders of opportunity for peo-ple to get into the middle class. And in orderfor me to have those Members of Congress,I’m going to need all of you active. So let’s getto work. I hope you’re still fired up.

I love you, Miami. Good luck in game four.

NOTE: The President spoke at 8:26 p.m. at theresidence of Joseph W. Blount. Audio was notavailable for verification of the content of theseremarks.

Remarks at a Reception Celebrating Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, andTransgender Pride MonthJune 13, 2013

The President. All right, I will not beat thatact. [Laughter] We could not be prouder ofZea and Luna for the introduction. And wel-come, all of you, to the White House for PrideMonth.

Zea and Luna are here with their moms andalso, I think, with Grandma and Grandpa, cor-rect? And so feel free to congratulate them af-terwards for their outstanding introduction.

There are a few other folks who don’t havethe same star wattage that I want to acknowl-edge: first of all, my Vice President, Joe Biden.[Laughter] We’ve got some outstanding Mem-bers of Congress here, including a record num-ber from the Congressional Equality Caucus.Eric Fanning, the Under Secretary of the AirForce, is here. Major General Patricia Rose andher wife, Retired Lieutenant Julie Roth, are

here. We’ve got Fred Hochberg and Elaine Ka-plan, two outstanding members of my team,who are here. And John Berry is here; John is aformer member of my team. You may not rec-ognize him because he looks so well rested nowthat he’s left the administration. [Laughter]

And even though she couldn’t be here to-day, because she’s getting ready to finally takeher seat on the bench and get to work, I wantto congratulate Nitza Quinones Alejandro,who, just a few hours ago, was confirmed bythe Senate, making her the first openly gayHispanic Federal judge in our country’s histo-ry.

And what I’m especially excited about, inaddition to Zea and Luna, we’ve got citizensfrom all across the country who wrote me let-ters over the last several years. In a letter from

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Kathleen, a young woman from Massachusetts,I saw someone who had experienced too muchdiscrimination and hatred at such a young age,at the age of 24. But I also read about someonewho dreams of becoming a doctor so that shecan help others and who is determined tomake a difference because, as she put it, she is“hopeful of a world filled with love.”

Love is what I saw in Valerie and Diane’sletter from North Dakota, who’ve been togeth-er for 37 years. Their son Madison is here, 14.They told me that when Madison was little—he’s not little now, by the way. [Laughter] Heused to say that someday, he was going to be-come President and make it legal for his momsto get married. And now, they added, “I don’tthink we’re going to have to wait that long.”

Madison, I agree with you that it’s time. Iagree that you should run for President.[Laughter]

Audience member. Does that include Joe?Vice President Joe Biden. I agree too.

[Laughter]The President. And I agree that we’re not

going to have to wait that long, because fromMinnesota to Maryland, from the UnitedStates Senate to the NBA, it’s clear, we’rereaching a turning point. We have—we’ve be-come not just more accepting; we’ve becomemore loving, as a country, and as a people.Hearts and minds change with time. Laws dotoo. Change like that isn’t something that startshere in Washington, but it’s something that hasthe power that Washington has a great deal ofdifficulty resisting over time.

It’s something that comes from the courageof those who stood up and sat in and came out.It’s something that comes from the compassionof family and friends and coworkers and team-mates who show their love and support.

[At this point, a baby cried.]

Yes, it’s true. [Laughter]And it’s something that can be traced back

to our Declaration of Independence: the fun-damental principle that all of us are createdequal. And as I said in my Inaugural Address, ifwe truly are created equal, then surely the love

we commit to one another must be equal aswell. And—[applause].

That’s the principle that’s guided my admin-istration over the past four and a half years. Wepassed a hate crimes bill in Matthew Shepard’sname. We lifted the HIV entry ban, releasedthe first National HIV/AIDS Strategy. Westrengthened the Violence Against Women Actto protect LGBT victims. We told Medicarethat—we told hospitals that accept Medicareand Medicaid that they have to treat LGBT pa-tients just like everybody else. Starting nextyear, the Affordable Care Act will ban insur-ance companies from denying someone forcoverage—from coverage just for being LG-BT. We put in place new policies that treattransgender Americans with dignity and re-spect. And because no one should have to hidewho they love to serve the country that theylove, we ended “don’t ask, don’t tell” once andfor all.

But we’re—but part of the reason we’rehere is because we know we’re not done yet.When Zea and Luna wrote me last December,they told me they would have voted for me ifthey could have. Thanks, guys. [Laughter]They also laid out quite an agenda. I hopeCongress is listening to them.

But I want them and all of you to know thatI’m not giving up the fight to keep our kids safefrom gun violence. I’m not giving up the fightfor smarter and better schools. I’ll continue tosupport marriage equality and States’ attemptsto legalize it, including in my own home Stateof Illinois. We’re not giving up on that.

And as we saw earlier this year with the gunsafety debate, sometimes, this stuff takes time,and it’s frustrating. You take two steps forward,and sometimes, there’s a step back. But Ideeply believe in something that Martin Lu-ther King, Jr., said often, and that is that “thearc of the moral universe is long, but it bendstowards justice.” Eventually, America gets itright.

Now, that doesn’t mean we can be patient.We know from our own history that changehappens because people push to make it hap-pen. We’ve got to do the hard work of educat-ing others, empathize—showing empathy to

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others, changing hearts and minds. And whenwe do that, then change occurs. It doesn’tcome always as quickly as we like, but progresscomes.

We’ve got to keep pushing. We’ve got tomake access to health care more available andaffordable for folks living with HIV. We’ve gotto implement the protections in the AffordableCare Act. We’ve got to keep making our class-rooms and our neighborhoods safe for all ofour young people.

And I agree with Susan, a PFLAG momfrom Ohio: We’ve got to end LGBT discrimi-nation in the places where we work. Susanwrote me and said, “If I have a concern, it isthat there are so many LGBT men and womenwho contribute to the wealth and growth of ourNation . . . but they’re still not protected fromharassment in the workplace.”

And I share that concern. In 34 States, youcan be fired just because of who you are orwho you love. That’s wrong. We’ve got tochange it. There’s a bipartisan bill moving for-ward in the Senate that would ban discrimina-tion against all LGBT Americans in the work-place, now and forever. We need to get thatpassed. I want to sign that bill. We need to getit done now.

And I think we can make that happen, be-cause after the last 4½ years, you can’t tell me,things can’t happen. Look around. We’ve gotgay and lesbian soldiers and sailors and airmenand marines who are here today. We’ve gotmarried couples from places like New Yorkand Washington State. You’ve got a couple ofguys here on stage who I don’t think anybodyin their high schools thought would be the

President and the Vice President of the UnitedStates. [Laughter]

Vice President Biden. They thought aboutyou. [Laughter]

The President. So don’t tell me that thingscan’t happen when we put our minds to them.[Laughter]

The genius of America is that America canchange. And people who love this country canchange it. And that’s what we’re called to do.And I hope that when we gather here next yearand the year after that, we’ll be able to say,with pride and confidence, that together we’vemade our fellow citizens a little more free.We’ve made this country a little more equal.We’ve made our world a little more full of love.

Thank you very much, everybody. God blessyou. God bless America. Enjoy the party.

NOTE: The President spoke at 5:21 p.m. in theEast Room at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to Arcata, CA, residents Zeaand Luna Weiss-Wynne and their mothersLara Weiss and Nora Wynne; Maj. Gen. Patri-cia A. Rose, USAF, mobilization assistant tothe commander, Air Force Materiel Com-mand, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, OH;Elaine Kaplan, Director, and M. John Berry,former Director, Office of Personnel Manage-ment; Nitza I. Quinones Alejandro, judge, U.S.District Court for the Eastern District ofPennsylvania; Wahpeton, ND, residents Valer-ie Nelson and Diane Gira and their son Madi-son; and Susan Mason, president, Parents,Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays(PFLAG) Urbana Area in Urbana, OH.

Message to the Congress on Continuation of the National Emergency WithRespect to the Actions and Policies of Certain Members of the Governmentof Belarus and Other Persons To Undermine the Democratic Processes orInstitutions of BelarusJune 13, 2013


Section 202(d) of the National EmergenciesAct (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)) provides for the auto-

matic termination of a national emergency un-less, within 90 days prior to the anniversarydate of its declaration, the President publishesin the Federal Register and transmits to the

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Congress a notice stating that the emergency isto continue in effect beyond the anniversarydate. In accordance with this provision, I havesent to the Federal Register for publication theenclosed notice stating that the national emer-gency with respect to the actions and policiesof certain members of the Government of Be-larus and other persons to undermine Belarus’sdemocratic processes or institutions that wasdeclared in Executive Order 13405 of June 16,2006, is to continue in effect beyond June 16,2013.

In 2012, the Government of Belarus contin-ued its crackdown against political opposition,civil society, and independent media. The Sep-tember 23 elections failed to meet internation-al standards. The government arbitrarily ar-rested, detained, and imprisoned citizens forcriticizing officials or for participating in dem-onstrations; imprisoned at least one humanrights activist on manufactured charges; andprevented independent media from dissemi-nating information and materials. These ac-tions show that the Government of Belarus hasnot taken steps forward in the development of

democratic governance and respect for humanrights.

The actions and policies of certain membersof the Government of Belarus and other per-sons to undermine Belarus’s democratic pro-cesses or institutions, to commit human rightsabuses related to political repression, and toengage in public corruption continue to posean unusual and extraordinary threat to the na-tional security and foreign policy of the UnitedStates. For this reason, I have determined thatit is necessary to continue the national emer-gency declared in Executive Order 13405 withrespect to Belarus.

BARACK OBAMA


NOTE: An original was not available for verifi-cation of the content of this message. The no-tice is listed in Appendix D at the end of thisvolume.

Remarks Honoring the 2012 Women’s National Basketball AssociationChampion Indiana FeverJune 14, 2013

The President. Hello, everybody. Welcometo the White House. Everybody, please have aseat. Congratulations to the 2012 WNBAchampions, the Indiana Fever. [Applause]Hey! I told them, if you’re from Indiana, you’dbetter have a good basketball team. [Laughter]They brought Indiana’s other championshipteam with them, the Division III women’s bas-ketball champions, the 34-and-0 DePauw Ti-gers, who are in the audience. Where are you,Tigers? Tigers, right back here. How aboutthat? Well, that’s pretty cool. Well, we’re goingto have to get a picture after we do all this, withthe Tigers. I don’t know, by the way, if this is arecruiting violation, you guys bringing themhere. [Laughter] This is—she’s keeping hereye out for new talent.

This is not Coach Dunn’s first trip to theWhite House. She came here when she was aGirl Scout; I won’t say which administrationthat was. [Laughter]

Head Coach Lin Dunn. Thank you.The President. I also want to recognize the

WNBA President, Laurel Richie, and Feverteam owner Herb Simons. Where are they? Ididn’t know where you went. Now, Herb is al-so the owner of the Indiana Pacers. I will notcomment on that. [Laughter] Although, we doboth have something in common, which is, ourteams got knocked out by the Heat. [Laughter]But we will get even next year.

And while our towns have a friendly rivalrygoing on, I still recognize those Midwesternvalues when I see them. We saw it in the Indi-ana Fever, which is, you look out for your

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teammates. You kept fighting, no matter whatgets thrown at you. As Coach Dunn put it: “Weare all blue collar. We work hard on defense.We rebound. We’re tough.”

And that toughness got this team through aseason with more than its fair share of injuries.Nevertheless, whenever one player wentdown, another stepped up. So, in game 3against Connecticut in the Eastern ConferenceFinals, hometown hero Katie Douglas wassidelined for the rest of the season. It lookedthe team might be in real trouble, and thenplayers like Erin Philips came alive. Theystormed back, won the game, then the series,earning a spot in the Finals.

That’s when they had their “Hoosiers” mo-ment. To be fair, you have a lot more courttime under your belts than the team fromHickory High. But you came into the finals asunderdogs. The Minnesota Lynx were the de-fending champions. They had won the seasonseries 2–0. They knew that they had to step uptheir game, and that’s what they did. They ral-lied behind my good friend—who I’ve had thepleasure of being on the court, and she took iteasy on me—Tamika Catchings, MVP, whocan now add a WBNA championship to herNCAA championship—three-time Gold Med-alist. And all of you then brought in—home In-diana’s first professional basketball title since1973. That’s a long time.

And obviously, the Fever’s incredible seasoninspired your States, inspired your fans. But Iwas mentioning backstage, WNBA generallyinspires a lot of young people. I occasionallycoach Sasha’s basketball team, and for her tohave wonderful role models like this who workhard, know how to play like a team, are incred-ibly poised and competitors, but also showgood sportsmanship, that’s the kind of modelsyou want for your children.

So Coach Dunn has 2 years—was 2 years in-to her coaching career when title IX waspassed. Today we’ve got two women’s basket-ball championships—championship teamshere in the White House. And that’s a remind-er of the incredible progress that we’ve made,thanks to pioneers like Coach Dunn. And so

we really thank you for that. And we appreciatethat. And I want—[applause].

And I want to thank the entire Indiana Fe-ver for giving back to their communities, notjust being role models, but also taking time outoff the court. Tamika has her own foundation,Catch the Stars, and she’s helped the First La-dy, Michelle, with the “Let’s Move!” programto encourage kids to eat healthy and exercise.Players on the Fever have received a combined13 WNBA Community Assist Awards forcountless hours they spend volunteering. Theyvisit local school kids as part of the Read toAchieve program. They’ve teamed up with theHabitat of Humanity to help build homes forfolks in Indianapolis. And right after this,they’re going to run a basketball clinic on theSouth Lawn for young people here in DC.

So it’s that kind of commitment that makesthe Fever not just a winning team, but a specialteam. So I really want to congratulate them onan incredible 2012 season. We wish them thebest of luck in 2013. Everybody, give the Indi-ana Fever a big round of applause.

So yes! I’ve got mine, got my jersey. Here,let’s take down the—Coach, do you want to saysomething?

Coach Dunn. Yes, I do.The President. Yes, go ahead. [Laughter]

Come on.Coach Dunn. Well, first of all, on—I’m a lit-

tle nervous. I haven’t been to the White Housesince the fifth grade. [Laughter]

The President. Since the fifth grade.Coach Dunn. But on behalf of our owner,

Herb Simon, and the great leadership that wehave at Pacers Sports and Entertainment—Rick Fuson, Jim Morris, Kelly Krauskopf—andall of our families and friends that are here to-day. We just want to thank you so much for in-viting us here to see the White House, to meetyou—that’s really special too, because I’m aDemocrat so—[laughter]—and to celebrateour championship season, our 2012 champion-ship season.

And I just want you to know that this is anamazing group of women. What they did underjust tremendous adversity—they kept fightingback, they kept fighting back. Nobody expect-

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ed us to win the conference. And certainly noone, none of the reporters—you know all thosepeople—[laughter]—none of them picked usto win and certainly not to upset the defendingWNBA championship. So not only are theygreat players, great people, but they are tre-mendous role models. You’re proud to meet agreat group here. So I just want you to knowhow special they are.

And, Mr. President, the last thing I want tosay is, I want to thank you personally, you andthe First Lady, for all you do to empowerwomen. You have no idea. Every day, everyday, you both send a strong message that littlegirls can do anything they want to do and theycan be anything they want to be.

The President. That’s the truth.Coach Dunn. And so we thank you.The President. I appreciate that. Thank you.Coach Dunn. We’ve got some gifts for you.

The President. Thank you. Got my ball, gotmy hat, got my jersey. I’m set. And I just wantto say that I might try to recruit Coach Dunnto run for something. [Laughter]

All right, let’s strike the podium, and let’sget a good picture.

NOTE: The President spoke at 2:50 p.m. in theEast Room at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to Herbert Simon, owner,chairman, and chief executive officer, PacersSports & Entertainment; and Katie Douglas,guard/forward, Erin Phillips, guard, and Tami-ka Catchings, forward, Indiana Fever. CoachDunn referred to W.F. “Rick” Fuson, chief op-erating officer, and Jim Morris, president, Pac-ers Sports & Entertainment; and Kelly Kraus-kopf, president and general manager, FeverBasketball Corp.

Letter to Congressional Leaders on the Global Deployment of United StatesCombat-Equipped Armed ForcesJune 14, 2013


I am providing this supplemental consolidat-ed report, prepared by my Administration andconsistent with the War Powers Resolution(Public Law 93–148), as part of my efforts tokeep the Congress informed about deploy-ments of U.S. Armed Forces equipped forcombat.

MILITARY OPERATIONS IN SUPPORT OFU.S. COUNTERTERRORISM OBJECTIVES

In furtherance of U.S. counterterrorism ef-forts, the United States continues to work withpartners around the globe, with a particular fo-cus on the U.S. Central Command’s and U.S.Africa Command’s areas of responsibility. Inthis context, the United States has deployedU.S. combat-equipped forces to enhance thecounterterrorism capabilities and support thecounterterrorism operations of our friends andallies, including special operations and otherforces for sensitive operations in various loca-

tions around the world. Specific informationabout counterterrorism deployments to selectcountries is provided below, and a classifiedannex to this report provides further informa-tion.

Military Operations Against al-Qa’ida, the Tal-iban, and Associated Forces and in Support ofRelated U.S. Counterterrorism Objectives

Since October 7, 2001, the United Stateshas conducted combat operations in Afghani-stan against al-Qa’ida, the Taliban, and associ-ated forces. In support of these and other over-seas operations, the United States has de-ployed combat-equipped forces to a number oflocations in the U.S. Central, Pacific, Europe-an, Southern, and Africa Command areas ofoperation. Previously, such operations and de-ployments have been reported, consistent withPublic Law 107–40 and the War Powers Reso-lution, and operations and deployments remainongoing. These operations, which the UnitedStates has carried out with the assistance of

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numerous international partners, have beensuccessful in seriously degrading al-Qa’ida’s ca-pabilities and brought an end to the Taliban’sleadership of Afghanistan. The United States iscommitted to thwarting the efforts of al-Qa’ida, the Taliban, and associated forces tocarry out future acts of international terrorism,and we have continued to work with our coun-terterrorism partners to disrupt and degradethe capabilities of al-Qa’ida, the Taliban, andassociated forces. As necessary, in response tothis terrorist threat, I will direct additionalmeasures to protect U.S. citizens and interests.It is not possible to know at this time the pre-cise scope or the duration of the deploymentsof U.S. Armed Forces necessary to counter thisterrorist threat to the United States.

Afghanistan. United States Armed Forcescontinue to pursue and engage remaining al-Qa’ida and Taliban fighters in Afghanistanwhile transitioning to an Afghan security lead.The Afghanistan Force Management Level isapproximately 62,000 U.S. forces. Approxi-mately 49,000 of these forces are assigned tothe North Atlantic Treaty Organization(NATO)–led International Security AssistanceForce (ISAF) in Afghanistan. Further Presi-dentially directed force reductions will contin-ue to the 34,000 level by February 12, 2014.

The U.N. Security Council most recently re-affirmed its authorization of ISAF for a 12-month period until October 13, 2013, in U.N.Security Council Resolution 2069 (October 9,2012). The mission of ISAF, under NATOcommand and in partnership with the Govern-ment of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, isto prevent Afghanistan from once again be-coming a safe haven for international terrorists.Fifty nations, including the United States andall 28 NATO members, contribute forces toISAF. These forces broke Taliban momentumand trained additional Afghan National Securi-ty Forces (ANSF). The ANSF are now increas-ingly assuming responsibility for security onthe timeline committed to at the 2010 NATOSummit in Lisbon, and renewed at the Summitin Chicago, by the United States, our NATOallies, ISAF partners, and the Government ofAfghanistan. The nations contributing to ISAF

will continue to support Afghanistan on itspath towards self-reliance in security, im-proved governance, and economic and socialdevelopment. This path will prevent Afghani-stan from again becoming a safe haven for ter-rorists that threaten Afghanistan, the region,and the world.

On March 25, 2013, the United Statessigned a Memorandum of Understanding(MOU) with the Afghan government underwhich the United States transferred all Afghannationals detained by U.S. forces in Afghani-stan to the custody and control of the Afghangovernment. Pursuant to the MOU, any newAfghan detainees are to be transferred to Af-ghan custody and control within 96 hours aftercapture. United States forces in Afghanistancontinue to detain approximately 66 third-country nationals under the 2001 Authoriza-tion for the Use of Military Force (Public Law107–40), as informed by the law of war.

Somalia. In Somalia, the U.S. military hasworked to counter the terrorist threat posed byal-Qa’ida and associated elements of al-Shabaab. As detailed in my report of January13, 2013, and at my direction, on January 11,2013, U.S. combat aircraft briefly entered So-mali airspace and U.S. forces provided limitedtechnical support to French forces conductingan operation in Somalia in which they attempt-ed to rescue a French citizen being held hos-tage by al-Shabaab.

Yemen. The U.S. military has also beenworking closely with the Yemeni governmentto dismantle operationally and ultimately elim-inate the terrorist threat posed by al-Qa’ida inthe Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the most activeand dangerous affiliate of al-Qa’ida today. Ourjoint efforts have resulted in direct actionagainst a limited number of AQAP operativesand senior leaders in Yemen who posed a ter-rorist threat to the United States and our inter-ests.

Cuba. Combat-equipped forces, deployedsince January 2002 to the Naval Base in Guan-tanamo Bay, Cuba, continue to conduct hu-mane and secure detention operations for theapproximately 166 detainees at GuantanamoBay under the authority provided by the 2001

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Authorization for the Use of Military Force(Public Law 107–40) as informed by the law ofwar.

Military Operations in Niger in Support ofU.S. Counterterrorism Objectives

As detailed in my report of February 22,2013, and at my direction, on February 20,2013, the last elements of a deployment of 40additional U.S. military personnel entered Ni-ger with the consent of the Government of Ni-ger. This deployment provides support for in-telligence collection and facilitates intelli-gence sharing with French forces conductingoperations in Mali, and with other partners inthe region. The total number of U.S. militarypersonnel deployed to Niger is approximately180.

MILITARY OPERATIONS IN CENTRAL AF-RICA

In October and November 2011, U.S. mili-tary personnel with appropriate combat equip-ment deployed to Uganda to serve as advisorsto regional forces that are working to appre-hend or remove Joseph Kony and other seniorLord’s Resistance Army (LRA) leaders fromthe battlefield, and to protect local popula-tions. The total number of U.S. military per-sonnel deployed for this mission, includingthose providing logistical and support func-tions, is approximately 100. United States forc-es are working with select partner nation forcesto enhance cooperation, information-sharingand synchronization, operational planning, andoverall effectiveness. Elements of these U.S.forces have deployed to forward locations inthe LRA-affected areas of the Republic ofSouth Sudan, the Democratic Republic of theCongo, and the Central African Republic toenhance regional efforts against the LRA.These forces will not engage LRA forces ex-cept in self-defense. It is in the U.S. nationalsecurity interest to help our regional partnersin Africa to develop their capability to addressthreats to regional peace and security, includ-ing the threat posed by the LRA. The UnitedStates is pursuing a comprehensive strategy to

help the governments and people of this regionin their efforts to end the threat posed by theLRA and to address the impact of the LRA’satrocities.

MARITIME INTERCEPTION OPERATIONS

As noted in previous reports, the UnitedStates remains prepared to conduct maritimeinterception operations on the high seas in theareas of responsibility of each of the geograph-ic combatant commands. These maritime op-erations are aimed at stopping the movement,arming, and financing of certain internationalterrorist groups, and also include operationsaimed at stopping proliferation by sea of weap-ons of mass destruction and related materials.As detailed in my report of January 28, 2013,and at my direction, on January 23, 2013, aU.S. Navy warship with Yemeni Coast Guardpersonnel aboard entered Yemeni territorialwaters, at the invitation of the Government ofYemen, to assist the Government of Yemen inintercepting and inspecting a vessel suspectedof smuggling contraband into Yemen. Uponboarding and searching the vessel, a combinedU.S. and Yemeni team discovered various con-ventional weapons and explosives, apparentlyof Iranian origin, concealed within the vessel.The vessel was escorted to Aden and turnedover to the Yemeni Coast Guard on January 30,2013.

MILITARY OPERATIONS IN EGYPT

Approximately 690 military personnel areassigned to the U.S. contingent of the Multina-tional Force and Observers, which have beenpresent in Egypt since 1981.

U.S./NATO OPERATIONS IN KOSOVO

The U.N. Security Council authorizedMember States to establish a NATO-led Koso-vo Force (KFOR) in Resolution 1244 on June10, 1999. The original mission of KFOR was tomonitor, verify, and, when necessary, enforcecompliance with the Military Technical Agree-ment between NATO and the then-FederalRepublic of Yugoslavia (now Serbia), while

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maintaining a safe and secure environment.Today, KFOR deters renewed hostilities in co-operation with local authorities, bilateral part-ners, and international institutions. The princi-pal military tasks of KFOR forces are to helpmaintain a safe and secure environment and toensure freedom of movement throughoutKosovo.

Currently, 23 NATO Allies contribute toKFOR. Seven non-NATO countries also par-ticipate. The United States contribution toKFOR is approximately 750 U.S. military per-sonnel out of the total strength of approximate-ly 5,165 personnel.

REGIONAL SECURITY OPERATIONS

As detailed in my report of December 14,2012, the security forces that deployed to Lib-ya on September 12, 2012, and the securityforces deployed to Yemen on September 13,2012, to support the security of U.S. personnelremain in place and will remain until the secu-rity situation no longer requires them. On May17, 2013, approximately 30 additional U.S.forces deployed to Libya to further support thesecurity of U.S. personnel in Libya.

As detailed in my report of December 29,2012, due to the deteriorating security situa-tion in the Central African Republic and thepotential threat to U.S. citizens, U.S. embassypersonnel and several private U.S. citizens

were evacuated on December 27, 2012, fromBangui, Central African Republic. On Decem-ber 27, 2012, a standby response and evacua-tion force of approximately 50 U.S. militarypersonnel from U.S. Africa Command de-ployed to Chad to support the evacuation ofU.S. embassy personnel and U.S. citizens fromthe Central African Republic. The last of thoseforces departed Chad on December 29, 2012.

Additional information about regional secu-rity operations is provided in the classified an-nex.

I have directed the participation of U.S.Armed Forces in all of these operations pursu-ant to my constitutional and statutory authorityas Commander in Chief (including the authori-ty to carry out Public Law 107–40 and otherstatutes) and as Chief Executive, as well as myconstitutional and statutory authority to con-duct the foreign relations of the United States.Officials of my Administration and I communi-cate regularly with the leadership and otherMembers of Congress with regard to these de-ployments, and we will continue to do so.

Sincerely,

BARACK OBAMA



Hi, everybody. This Sunday is Father’s Day,and so I wanted to take a moment to talk aboutthe most important job many of us will everhave, and that’s being a dad.

Today, we’re blessed to live in a worldwhere technology allows us to connect instant-ly with just about anyone on the planet. But nomatter how advanced we get, there will neverbe a substitute for the love and support and,most importantly, the presence of a parent in achild’s life. And in many ways, that’s uniquelytrue for fathers.

I never really knew my own father. I wasraised by a single mom and two wonderfulgrandparents who made incredible sacrificesfor me. And there are single parents, like mymom, all across the country, who do a heroicjob raising terrific kids. But I still wish I had adad who was not only around, but involved; an-other role model to teach me what my momdid her best to instill—values like hard workand integrity, responsibility, delayed gratifica-tion—all of the things that give a child thefoundation to envision a brighter future forthemselves.

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That’s why I try, every day, to be for Mi-chelle and my girls what my father was not formy mother and me. And I’ve met plenty of oth-er people—dads and uncles and men without afamily connection—who are trying to breakthe cycle and give more of our young people astrong male role model.

Being a good parent—whether you’re gay orstraight, a foster parent or a grandparent—isn’teasy. It demands your constant attention, fre-quent sacrifice, and of course, a healthy dose ofpatience. And nobody’s perfect. To this day,I’m still trying to figure out how to be a betterhusband to my wife and a better father to mykids.

And I want to do what I can as President, toencourage strong marriage and strong families.We should reform our child support laws to getmore men working and engaged with theirchildren. And my administration will continueto work with the faith and other community or-ganizations, as well as businesses, on a cam-paign to encourage strong parenting and fa-therhood.

Because if there’s one thing I’ve learnedalong the way, it’s that all our personal success-es shine a little less brightly if we fail at family.

That’s what matters most. When I look back onmy life, I won’t be thinking about any particu-lar legislation I passed or policy I promoted. I’llbe thinking about Michelle and the journeywe’ve been on together. I’ll be thinking aboutSasha’s dance recitals and Malia’s tennismatches, about the conversations we’ve hadand the quiet moments we’ve shared. I’ll bethinking about whether I did right by them andwhether they knew, every day, just how muchthey were loved.

That’s what I think about when I think aboutfatherhood. And if we can do our best to be asource of comfort and encouragement to ourkids, if we can show them unconditional loveand help them grow into the people they weremeant to be, then we will have succeeded.

So happy Father’s Day to all the dads outthere, and have a great weekend.

NOTE: The address was recorded at approxi-mately 5:50 p.m. on June 14 in the RooseveltRoom at the White House for broadcast onJune 15. The transcript was made available bythe Office of the Press Secretary on June 14,but was embargoed for release until 6 a.m. onJune 15.

Remarks at a Youth Town Hall Meeting in Belfast, Northern IrelandJune 17, 2013

President Obama. Thank you. Please beseated. Please.

Well, hello, Belfast! Hello, Northern Ire-land! You now know why it’s so difficult tospeak after Michelle; she’s better than me.[Laughter] But on behalf of both of us, thankyou so much for this extraordinarily warm wel-come.

And I want to thank Hannah for introducingmy wife. We had a chance to speak with Han-nah backstage, and she’s an extraordinaryyoung woman, who I know is going to do evengreater things in years to come.

I want to thank two men, who I’ve hosted atthe White House on many a St. Patrick’s Day,for their warm welcome: First Minister PeterRobinson and Deputy First Minister MartinMcGuinness. I spend the whole year trying to

unite Washington around things, and theycome to visit on St. Patrick’s Day, and they doit in a single afternoon. [Laughter]

I want to thank the Secretary of State forNorthern Ireland, Theresa Villiers. To all theMinisters in the audience; to Lord MayorMáirtín Ó Muilleoir. And I want to thank allthe citizens of Belfast and Northern Ireland foryour hospitality.

As our daughters pointed out as we weredriving in, I cause a big fuss wherever I go.[Laughter] So traffic and barricades and policeofficers, and it’s all a big production, a lot ofpeople are involved, and I’m very, very gratefulfor accommodating us.

The first time Michelle and I visited this is-land was about 2 years ago. We were honoredto join tens of thousands on College Green in

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Dublin. We traveled to the little village ofMoneygall, where, as it turned out, my great-great-great-grandfather was born. And I actu-ally identified this individual in this place onlya few years ago. When I was first running foroffice in Chicago, I didn’t know this, but I wishI had. [Laughter] When I was in Chicago, as Iwas campaigning, they’d look at my last name,and they’d say: “Oh, there’s an O’Bama fromthe homeland running on the South Side. Sohe must be Irish—[laughter]—but I’ve neverheard the Gaelic name, Barack.” [Laughter]But it pays to be Irish in Chicago.

So while we were in Moneygall, I had achance to meet my eighth cousin, Henry,who’s also known as Henry the Eighth.[Laughter] We knew he was my cousin be-cause his ears flapped out just like mine.[Laughter] I leafed through the parish logswhere the names of my ancestors are recorded.I even watched Michelle learn how to pull aproper pint of “black.”

Audience member. Whoop! [Laughter]President Obama. Who’s cheering for that?

[Laughter]So it was a magical visit. But the only prob-

lem was it was far too short. A volcano in Ice-land forced us to leave before we could evenspend the night. So we’ve been eager for achance to return to the Emerald Isle eversince. And this time, we brought our daughterstoo.

In particular, we wanted to come here, toNorthern Ireland, a place of remarkable beau-ty and extraordinary history, part of an islandwith which tens of millions of Americans sharean eternal relationship. America’s story, inpart, began right outside the doors of thisgleaming hall. Three hundred and twenty-fiveyears ago, a ship set sail from the River Laganfor the Chesapeake Bay, filled with men andwomen who dreamed of building a new life ina new land.

They, followed by hundreds of thousandsmore, helped America write those early chap-ters. They helped us win our independence.They helped us draft our Constitution. Andsoon after, America returned to Belfast, open-ing one of our very first consulates here in

1796, when George Washington was still Presi-dent.

So today, names familiar to many of you areetched on schools and courthouses and solemnmemorials of war across the United States:names like Wilson and Kelly, Campbell andO’Neill. So many of the qualities that weAmericans hold dear we imported from thisland: perseverance, faith, an unbending beliefthat we make our own destiny, and an unshak-able dream that if we work hard and we live re-sponsibly, something better lies just aroundthe bend.

So our histories are bound by blood and be-lief, by culture and by commerce. And our fu-tures are equally, inextricably linked. Andthat’s why I’ve come to Belfast today: to talkabout the future we can build together.

Your generation, the young generation, hascome of age in a world with fewer walls. You’vebeen educated in an era of instant information.You’ve been tempered by some very difficulttimes around the globe. And as I travel, whatI’ve seen of young people like you around theworld show me these currents have conspiredto make you a generation possessed by both aclear-eyed realism, but also an optimistic ideal-ism; a generation keenly aware of the world asit is, but eager to forge the world as it shouldbe. And when it comes to the future we share,that fills me with hope. Young people fill mewith hope.

Here in Northern Ireland, this generationhas known even more rapid change than manyyoung people have seen around the world. Andwhile you have unique challenges of your own,you also have unique reasons to be hopeful.For you are the first generation in this land toinherit more than just the hardened attitudesand the bitter prejudices of the past. You’re aninheritor of a just and hard-earned peace. Younow live in a thoroughly modern Northern Ire-land.

Of course, the recessions that spreadthrough nearly every country in recent yearshave inflicted hardship here too, and there arecommunities that still endure real pain. Butday to day, life is changing throughout theNorth. There was a time, people couldn’t have

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imagined Northern Ireland hosting a gatheringof world leaders, as you are today. And I wantto thank Chief Constable Matt Baggott forworking to keep everyone safe this week.

Northern Ireland is hosting the World Po-lice and Fire Games later this year, whichDame Mary Peters is helping to organize. Golffans like me had to wait a long six decades forthe Irish Open to return to the North last year.I am unhappy that I will not get a few roundsin while I’m here. [Laughter] I did meet RoryMcIlroy last year, and Rory offered to get myswing “sorted”—[laughter]—which was a po-lite way of saying, “Mr. President, you needhelp.” [Laughter]

None of that would have been imaginable ageneration ago. And Belfast is a different city.Once-abandoned factories are rebuilt. Formerindustrial sites are reborn. Visitors come fromall over to see an exhibit at the MAC, a play atthe Lyric, a concert here at Waterfront Hall.Families crowd into pubs in the CathedralQuarter to hear “trad.” Students lounge at ca-fes, asking each other, “What’s the craic?”Right? [Laughter] Hey! So to paraphrase Sea-mus Heaney, it’s the manifestation of sheer,bloody genius. This island is now chic.

And these daily moments of life in a bustlingcity and a changing country, it may seem ordi-nary to many of you, and that’s what makes itso extraordinary. For that’s what your parentsand grandparents dreamt for all of you: to trav-el without the burden of checkpoints or road-blocks or seeing soldiers on patrol; to enjoy asunny day free from the ever-present aware-ness that violence could blacken it at any mo-ment; to befriend or fall in love with whomeveryou want. They hoped for a day when theworld would think something different whenthey heard the word “Belfast.” And because oftheir effort, because of their courage, that dayhas come. Because of their work, those dreamsthey had for you became the most incrediblething of all: They became a reality.

It’s been 15 years now since the Good Fri-day agreement, since clenched fists gave wayto outstretched hands. The people of this is-land voted in overwhelming numbers to seebeyond the scars of violence and mistrust and

to choose to wage peace. Over the years, otherbreakthroughs and agreements have followed.That’s extraordinary, because for years, fewconflicts in the world seemed more intractablethan the one here in Northern Ireland. So thatwhen peace was achieved here, it gave the en-tire world hope.

The world rejoiced in your achievement, es-pecially in America. Pubs from Chicago to Bos-ton were scenes of revelry, folks celebratingthe hard work of Hume and Trimble and Ad-ams and Paisley and so many others. In Ameri-ca, you helped us transcend our differences,because if there’s one thing on which Demo-crats and Republicans in America wholeheart-edly agree, it’s that we strongly support apeaceful and prosperous Northern Ireland.

But as all of you know all too well, for all thestrides that you’ve made, there’s still muchwork to do. There’s still people who haven’treaped the rewards of peace. There are thosewho aren’t convinced that the effort is worth it.There are still wounds that haven’t healed andcommunities where tensions and mistrusthangs in the air. There are walls that still stand.There are still many miles to go.

From the start, no one was naive enough tobelieve that peace would be anything but along journey. Yeats once wrote, “Peace comesdropping slow.” But that doesn’t mean our ef-forts to forge a real and lasting peace shouldcome dropping slow. This work is as urgentnow as it has ever been because there’s moreto lose now than there’s ever been.

In today’s hyperconnected world, what hap-pens here has an impact on lives far from thesegreen shores. And if you continue your coura-geous path toward a permanent peace, and allthe social and economic benefits that havecome with it, that won’t just be good for you, itwill be good for this entire island. It will begood for the United Kingdom. It will be goodfor Europe. It will be good for the world.

We need you to get this right. And what’smore, you set an example for those who seek apeace of their own. Because beyond theseshores, right now, in scattered corners of theworld, there are people living in the grip ofconflict—ethnic conflict, religious conflict,

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tribal conflicts—and they know something bet-ter is out there. And they’re groping to find away to discover how to move beyond the heavyhand of history, to put aside the violence.They’re studying what you’re doing. Andthey’re wondering, “Perhaps if Northern Ire-land can achieve peace, we can too.” So you’retheir blueprint to follow. You’re their proof ofwhat is possible, because hope is contagious.They’re watching to see what you do next.

Now, some of that is up to your leaders. Assomeone who knows firsthand how politics canencourage division and discourage coopera-tion, I admire the Northern Ireland Executiveand the Northern Ireland Assembly all themore for making power-sharing work. That’snot easy to do. It requires compromise, and itrequires absorbing some pain from your ownside. So I applaud them for taking responsibili-ty for law enforcement and for justice, and Icommend their effort to “Building a UnitedCommunity,” important next steps along yourtransformational journey.

Because issues like segregated schools andhousing, lack of jobs and opportunity, symbolsof history that are a source of pride for someand pain for others, these are not tangential topeace; they’re essential to it. If towns remaindivided, if Catholics have their schools andbuildings and Protestants have theirs, if wecan’t see ourselves in one another, if fear or re-sentment are allowed to harden, that encour-ages division. It discourages cooperation.

Ultimately, peace is not just about politics,it’s about attitudes; it’s about a sense of empa-thy; it’s about breaking down the divisions thatwe create for ourselves in our own minds andour own hearts, that don’t exist in any objectivereality, but that we carry with us generation af-ter generation.

And I know, because America, we too havehad to work hard over the decades, slowly,gradually, sometimes painfully, in fits andstarts, to keep perfecting our Union. A hun-dred and fifty years ago, we were torn open bya terrible conflict. Our Civil War was far short-er than the Troubles, but it killed hundreds ofthousands of our people. And of course, thelegacy of slavery endured for generations.

Even a century after we achieved our ownpeace, we were not fully united. When I was aboy, many cities still had separate drinkingfountains and lunch counters and washroomsfor Blacks and Whites. My own parents’ mar-riage would have been illegal in certain States.And someone who looked like me often had ahard time casting a ballot, much less being on aballot.

But over time, laws changed, and hearts andminds changed, sometimes driven by coura-geous lawmakers, but more often driven bycommitted citizens. Politicians oftentimes fol-low rather than lead. And so, especially youngpeople helped to push and to prod and to pro-test and to make common cause with thosewho did not look like them. And that trans-formed America, so that Malia and Sasha’sgeneration, they have different attitudes aboutdifferences and race than mine and certainlydifferent from the generation before that. Andeach successive generation creates a new spacefor peace and tolerance and justice and fair-ness.

And while we have work to do in many ways,we have surely become more tolerant andmore just and more accepting, more willing tosee our diversity in America not as somethingto fear, but as something to welcome, becauseit’s a source of our national strength.

So as your leaders step forward to addressyour challenges through talks by all parties,they’ll need you young people to keep pushingthem to create a space for them, to change atti-tudes. Because ultimately, whether your com-munities deal with the past and face the futureunited together isn’t something you have towait for somebody else to do, that’s a choiceyou have to make right now.

It’s within your power to bring aboutchange. Whether you are a good neighbor tosomeone from the other side of past battles,that’s up to you. Whether you treat them withthe dignity and respect they deserve, that’s upto you. Whether you let your kids play withkids who attend a different church, that’s yourdecision. Whether you take a stand against vio-lence and hatred and tell extremists on bothsides that no matter how many times they at-

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tack the peace, they will not succeed, that is inyour hands. And whether you reach your ownoutstretched hand across dividing lines—across peace walls—to build trust in a spirit ofrespect, that’s up to you. The terms of peacemay be negotiated by political leaders, but thefate of peace is up to each of us.

This peace in Northern Ireland has beentested over the past 15 years. It’s been testedover the past year. It will be tested again. Butremember something that President Clintonsaid when he spoke here in Belfast just a fewweeks after the horrors of Omagh. “Thatbomb,” he said, “was not the last bomb of theTroubles, it was the opening shot of a viciousattack on the peace.”

And whenever your peace is attacked, youwill have to choose whether to respond withthe same bravery that you’ve summoned so faror whether you succumb to the worst instincts,those impulses that kept this great land dividedfor too long. You’ll have to choose whether tokeep going forward, not backwards.

And you should know that so long as you aremoving forward, America will always stand byyou as you do. We will keep working closelywith leaders in Stormont, Dublin, and West-minster to support your political progress.We’ll keep working to strengthen our econo-mies, including through efforts like the broadeconomic initiative announced on Friday tounlock new opportunities for growth and in-vestment between our two countries’ business-es, because jobs and opportunity are essentialto peace.

Our scientists will keep collaborating withyours in fields like nanotechnology and cleanenergy and health care that make our lives bet-ter and fuel economic growth on both sides ofthe Atlantic, because progress is essential topeace. And because knowledge and under-standing is essential to peace, we will keep in-vesting in programs that enrich both of us, pro-grams like the one at Belfast Metropolitan Col-lege, which teaches students from West andNorth Belfast the skills they need for new jobs,and exchange programs that have given thou-sands in Northern Ireland and the United

States the chance to travel to each other’s com-munities and learn from one another.

Now, one of those young people are—ishere today. Sylvia Gordon is the director of anorganization called Groundwork Northern Ire-land, which aims to bring about change fromthe ground up. Where’s Sylvia? Where’s Syl-via? Is Sylvia here somewhere? Where is she?She’s here somewhere. Well, you’re here too,yes. Some guy just waved; he said, “I’m here.”[Laughter] Which is good, I appreciate you be-ing here. [Laughter]

As someone who got my start as a communi-ty organizer, I was so impressed with what Syl-via has done, because a few years ago, Sylviavisited the United States to learn more abouthow Americans organize to improve their com-munities. So, after she came home, Sylviarolled up her sleeves here in Belfast and decid-ed to do something about Alexandra Park.Some of you may know this park. For years, itwas thought to be the only park in Europe stilldivided by a wall. Think about that. In all ofEurope, that one park has got a wall in themiddle of it.

So Sylvia and her colleagues knew how hardit would be to do anything about a peace wall,but they reached out to the police; theyreached out to the Department of Justice.They brought together people from across thecommunities. They knew it was going to behard, but they tried anyway. And together,they all decided to build a gate to open thatwall. And now people can walk freely throughthe park and enjoy the sun—when it comesout—[laughter]—just like people do every dayin parks all around the world.

It’s a small bit of progress. But the fact thatso far we’ve only got a gate open and the wall isstill up means there’s more work to do. Andthat’s the work of your generation. So long asmore walls still stand, we will need more peo-ple like Sylvia. We’ll need more of you, youngpeople, who imagine the world as it should be,who knock down walls, who knock down barri-ers, who imagine something different and havethe courage to make it happen. The courage tobring communities together, who make eventhe small impossibilities a shining example of

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what is possible. And that, more than anything,will shape what Northern Ireland looks like 15years from now and beyond.

All of you—every single young person heretoday—possess something the generation be-fore yours did not, and that is, an example tofollow. When those who took a chance onpeace got started, they didn’t have a successfulmodel to emulate. They didn’t know how itwould work. But they took a chance. And sofar, it has succeeded. And the first steps are thehardest and requires the most courage. Therest now is up to you.

“Peace is indeed harder than war,” the Irishauthor Colum McCann recently wrote. “Andits constant fragility is part of its beauty. A bul-let need happen only once, but for peace towork, we need to be reminded of its existenceagain and again and again.”

And that’s what we need from you. That’swhat we need from every young person inNorthern Ireland, and that’s what we needfrom every young person around the world.You must remind us of the existence of peace,the possibility of peace. You have to remind usof hope again and again and again. Despite re-sistance, despite setbacks, despite hardship,despite tragedy, you have to remind us of thefuture again and again and again.

I have confidence you will choose that path,you will embrace that task. And to those whochoose the path of peace, I promise you theUnited States of America will support you ev-ery step of the way. We will always be a wind atyour back. And as I said when I visited 2 yearsago, I am convinced that this little island thatinspires the biggest of things—this little is-land—its best days are yet ahead.

Good luck. God bless you, and God bless allthe people of Northern Ireland. Thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 9:58 a.m. at theBelfast Waterfront Conference Centre. In hisremarks, he referred to Hannah Nelson, win-ner of an essay contest sponsored by the U.S.consulate in Belfast, Northern Ireland; MattBaggott, chief constable, Police Service ofNorthern Ireland; British Olympic gold medal-ist and “Freedom of Belfast” honoree Mary Pe-ters; poet Seamus Heaney; John Hume, formerleader of the Social Democratic and LabourParty in Northern Ireland and former Memberof Parliament of the United Kingdom; formerFirst Ministers W. David Trimble and Ian R.K.Paisley of Northern Ireland; and Gerry Adams,president, Sinn Fein political party and organi-zation. He also referred to his cousin HenryHealy. The transcript released by the Office ofthe Press Secretary also included the remarksof the First Lady.

Remarks With Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom,President José Manuel Durão Barroso of the European Commission, andPresident Herman Van Rompuy of the European Council in Lough Erne,Northern IrelandJune 17, 2013

Prime Minister Cameron. Well, good after-noon and welcome, everyone. Welcome toLough Erne.

I always said that the whole point of thismeeting in Lough Erne is to fire up our econo-mies and drive growth and prosperity aroundthe world, to do things that make a real differ-ence to people’s lives. And there is no morepowerful way to achieve that than by boostingtrade. And there’s no better way than by

launching these negotiations on a landmarkdeal between the European Union and theUnited States of America, a deal that could addas much as a £100 billion to the EU economy,£80 billion to the U.S. economy, and as muchas £85 billion to the rest of the world.

And we should be clear about what thesenumbers could really mean: 2 million extrajobs, more choice and lower prices in ourshops. We’re talking about what could be the

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biggest bilateral trade deal in history; a dealthat will have a greater impact than all the oth-er trade deals on the table put together.

When we last met at Camp David in theG–8 and we first suggested we could reach thismoment here in Lough Erne, many doubted itwould be possible. Everyone knows these tradedeals are difficult. Some take years to get offthe ground, and some never happen at all. Soit’s a testament to the leadership and the politi-cal will of everyone here that we’ve reachedthis point. We must maintain that political willin the months ahead. This is a once-in-a-gener-ation prize, and we are determined to seize it.

President Barroso—José Manuel, over toyou.

President Barroso. Thank you. Thank you,David.

Today is a special day for the relations be-tween European Union and the United States.Today we announce we will start negotiationsof a comprehensive Transatlantic Trade andInvestment Partnership agreement. Veryfrankly, 2 years ago, very few would have betthat today we’d be in the position to launch ne-gotiations of an ambitious European Union-United States free trade agreement.

And when the teams of the European Com-mission and United States will meet for thefirst round of the negotiations next month, itwill be the start of a joint undertaking of realstrategic importance. Our joint endeavor ispart of our overall agenda for growth and jobsto both sides of the Atlantic by boosting tradeand investment. It is also a powerful demon-stration of our determination to shape a open,rules-based world.

We intend to move forward fast. We can saythat neither of us will give up content for thesake of speed, but we intend to make rapidprogress. I do not underestimate the core chal-lenge: moving our regulatory regimes closerand addressing the harmful effect of behind-the-border trade barriers. Huge economicbenefits are expected from reducing redtape,avoiding divergent regulations for the future.

I would rather have our companies invest innew, innovative products and services and jobcreation, than in double-testing or multiple in-

spections or even separate manufacturinglines. Our regulators need to build bridgesfaster and more systematically. The currenteconomic climate requires us to join forces andto do more with less. More importantly, in do-ing so, we will remain strong global playerswho set the standards for the 21st century.

Therefore, I call on our legislators—Euro-pean side, especially the European Parlia-ment—our regulators, our civil society to playa constructive and engaged part in these nego-tiations.

The business communities on both sides ofthe Atlantic, in particular, have been a strongadvocate of free trade and investment betweenEurope and the United States. And this is alsogood for the rest of the world. Given the inte-grated supply chains in today’s global markets,everyone can benefit from this agreement.

Integrating two of the most developed, mostsophisticated, and certainly the largest econo-mies in the world can never be an easy task,but we will find convincing answers to legiti-mate concerns. We will find solutions to thornyissues. We will keep our eyes on the prize, andwe’ll succeed. So even if these negotiationsmay not always be easy, I’m sure they will beworth it for the sake of the jobs it creates andbecause of the strategic dimension of what weare doing: to write the next chapter of what isour common history, also forged by the sensethat we share the same principles and values,the principles and values of open economiesand open societies.

Prime Minister Cameron. Well, thank youvery much, José Manuel. President Obama—Barack.

President Obama. Thank you very much,David. And good afternoon. It is wonderful tobe here in Lough Erne. And thank you somuch to the people of Northern Ireland fortheir warm hospitality. And, Prime MinisterCameron, thank you for all the outstanding ar-rangements.

Among the things we’ll discuss here are pro-moting new growth and jobs on both sides ofthe Atlantic. And I’m pleased to join theseleaders to announce the launch of negotiationson a new trade agreement that will help us do

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just that—the Transatlantic Trade and Invest-ment Partnership, also known as T–TIP.

I want to thank not only the gentlemen onthis stage, but also Presidents Hollande, Chan-cellor Merkel, Prime Minister Letta, and Tao-iseach Kenny. We just had an excellent meet-ing. And I’m proud to say that America willhave the opportunity to host the first round ofnegotiations next month in Washington.

As has already been mentioned, the U.S.-EU relationship is the largest in the world. Itmakes up nearly half of global GDP. We tradeabout a trillion dollars in goods and serviceseach year. We invest nearly $4 trillion in eachother’s economies. And all that supportsaround 13 million jobs on both sides of the At-lantic.

And this potentially groundbreaking part-nership would deepen those ties. It would in-crease exports, decrease barriers to trade andinvestment. As part of broader growth strate-gies in both our economies, it would supporthundreds of thousands of jobs on both sides ofthe ocean.

So I’m pleased to hear that this negotiationenjoys the support not only of the countriesthat are here today, but also the broader EUmembership. I can tell you that it’s beenwarmly received in the United States as well,both in our Congress and in our business com-munity.

And that broad support, on both sides of theAtlantic, will help us work through some of thetough issues that have already been men-tioned. There are going to be sensitivities onboth sides. There are going to be politics onboth sides. But if we can look beyond the nar-row concerns to stay focused on the big pic-ture—the economic and strategic importanceof this partnership—I’m hopeful we canachieve the kind of high-standard, comprehen-sive agreement that the global trading systemis looking to us to develop.

America and Europe have done extraordi-nary things together before. And I believe wecan forge an economic alliance as strong as ourdiplomatic and security alliances, which, ofcourse, have been the most powerful in histo-

ry, and by doing that, we can also strengthenthe multilateral trading system.

So this Transatlantic Trade and InvestmentPartnership is going to be a priority of mineand my administration. It is important that weget it right, and that means resisting the temp-tation to downsize our ambitions or avoidtough issues just for the sake of getting a deal.And then make sure also—it’s important thatwe also make sure that it’s part of an overallplan to do what it takes to promote growth andjobs. Trade is critical, but it is not alone a silverbullet; it has to be part of a comprehensivestrategy that we pursue on both sides of the At-lantic. That’s what our people deserve.

I very much look forward to working withmy fellow leaders to make it happen. We’re go-ing to give a strong mandate to our negotiators,but occasionally, I suspect, we’re going to haveto intervene and break through some logjams.Nevertheless, I’m confident that we can get itdone.

So thank you very much.Prime Minister Cameron. Thank you,

Barack. And thank you very much for that.Now, we’re going to hear from the President ofthe European Council, Herman Van Rompuy.Herman.

President Van Rompuy. Good afternoon, la-dies and gentlemen. This is a special moment.At the last EU-U.S. summit with PresidentObama, we jointly decided to see if launchingsuch historical negotiations would be possible.It was. And now we can already start the talks.A year and a half ago, we were not even surethe place had a door, and now we are enteringthe negotiating room together.

It’s a sign of the strong political will on bothsides. This February, in the European Council,our European heads of state and governmentreiterated their support for a comprehensivetrade and investment deal with the UnitedStates. A political signal formalized last Fridayby ministers under the Irish Presidency for-mally gave the EU negotiators the green lightto start the talks.

It shows the political will to work together,to work together with our longstanding andmost trusted partner on the essential objective

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for governments on either side of the Atlantic:growth, jobs, and prosperity. We both knowthere are no magic solutions. Recent economicturbulence underlines it. But we cannot expectto harvest new jobs today; we can plant theseeds for the jobs of tomorrow. And that’s ex-actly what the trade agreement is about.

Together, Europe and the United States arethe backbone of the world economy. Openingup that space further for opportunities forbusiness and consumers is simply commonsense. Not just our own economies, but alsothose of our trading partners will benefit. Thepositive ramifications will even go beyond theeconomy as such.

We are making our economies all over theworld more interdependent, and this will makethe world safer. What is at stake with the trans-atlantic free trade area is to enshrine Europeand America’s role as the world’s standard-set-ters, beyond product specifications, by settinga positive force in shaping the way we workand the way we live our daily lives. This is ofkey strategic significance.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Atlantic is notthe past; it is also the future. And that’s why weare impatient to start, although we know thatnegotiations won’t be a smooth ride. Obvious-ly, there are and will be sensitive issues on eachside. With flexibility, openmindedness andsome creativity, the greatest asset for negotia-

tors and statesmen, I’m confident we will findsolutions. There is too much at stake.

We will find these solutions not only be-cause we know the great benefit it will bring,not only because we share the same rules-based approach at home and abroad in thesematters, but also because trade is one vital partof our overall relationship. It will knit ourtransatlantic destinies even closer together.

The launch of our negotiations, therefore,stands for our continued common commit-ment to engage with each other in order to en-gage with the world. The EU and its memberstates are ready to engage and look forward tothe new trade landscape we will shape togeth-er.

Thank you.Prime Minister Cameron. Thank you very

much, Herman. We’ll be now welcoming theother guests to the G–8, and we’ll be takingquestions at the end of the G–8 at the end ofour discussions.Thank you very much, indeed.

President Obama. Thank you, everybody.

NOTE: The President spoke at approximately3:30 p.m. at Lough Erne Resort. In his re-marks, he referred to President François Hol-lande of France; Chancellor Angela Merkel ofGermany; Prime Minister Enrico Letta of Ita-ly; and Prime Minister Enda Kenny of Ireland.

Joint Statement by Group of Eight Leaders on the Global EconomyJune 17, 2013

Following their discussion on the globaleconomy this afternoon, G–8 leaders at LoughErne, Northern Ireland, have concluded:

Promoting growth and jobs is our top priori-ty. We agreed to nurture the global recoveryby supporting demand, securing our public fi-nances and exploiting all sources of growth.The fight against unemployment, particularlylong-term and youth unemployment remainscritical in our domestic and collective agendas.

Global economic prospects remain weak,though downside risks have reduced thanks inpart to significant policy actions taken in theUS, euro area and Japan, and to the resilience

of major developing and emerging marketeconomies. Most financial markets have seenmarked gains as a result. However, this opti-mism is yet to be translated fully into broaderimprovements in economic activity and em-ployment in most advanced economies. In fact,prospects for growth in some regions haveweakened since the Camp David summit.While countries have taken steps to avoid theworst of the tail risks that faced the worldeconomy in 2012, vulnerabilities remain in2013, highlighting the need for countries topress ahead with the necessary reforms to re-store sustainable growth and jobs.

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Downside risks in the euro area have abatedover the past year, but it remains in recession.Additional strengthening of the architecture ofthe European Economic and Monetary Union,including through the development of theagreed elements of a banking union, is stronglyneeded to contribute to further reducing fi-nancial fragmentation, and continued strength-ening of banks’ balance sheets. Fiscal sustain-ability and restoring financial stability need togo hand in hand with well-designed growthstrategies, including growth-oriented structur-al reforms. The US recovery is continuing andthe deficit is declining rapidly in the context ofa continuing need for further progress towardsbalanced medium-term fiscal sustainability andtargeted investments to enhance growth. Ja-pan’s growth will be supported by its near-termfiscal stimulus, bold monetary policy and re-cently announced strategy for promoting pri-vate investment. However it will need to ad-dress the challenge of defining a credible me-dium-term fiscal plan. Some of our centralbanks have continued to use highly accommo-dative monetary policy to support their domes-tic economies, including through unconven-tional means such as quantitative easing. Rus-sia is experiencing low unemployment and a fa-vourable fiscal position, but more moderateglobal growth and volatile commodity priceswill be a challenge.

In light of this background we are commit-ted to taking further action now to restore con-fidence, encourage investment and job cre-ation, support the recovery and reduce globalimbalances. We agreed today that:

• Decisive action is needed to nurture asustainable recovery and restore the re-silience of the global economy. Advancedeconomies need to balance supporting

domestic demand with reforms to tacklestructural weaknesses that weigh ongrowth, while implementing credible fis-cal plans. We reaffirm our commitmentto cooperate to achieve a lasting reduc-tion in global imbalances, which surplusand deficit countries must address.

• Monetary policy should continue to sup-port the recovery and be directed to-wards domestic price stability, accordingto the respective mandates of centralbanks.

• Restoring medium-term fiscal sustain-ability remains a priority. Fiscal policyshould allow for near-term flexibility toaccommodate economic conditions in-cluding through focusing on the structur-al deficit as appropriate. The pace of fis-cal consolidation should be differentiatedfor our different national economic cir-cumstances.

• Structural reforms are key to improvingsustainable growth and long-term livingstandards, enhancing competitiveness,providing well-functioning credit chan-nels for investment including by smalland medium sized enterprises (SMEs)and strengthening confidence. Urgentand specific measures are needed to cre-ate quality jobs, particularly for theyoung and the long-term unemployed.We are all committed to make the neces-sary reforms in our own economies tosupport stronger financial systems,healthy labour markets, jobs and growth,and bolster world trade.


Message to the Congress on Continuation of the National Emergency WithRespect to the Western BalkansJune 17, 2013


Section 202(d) of the National Emergencies

Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)) provides for the auto-matic termination of a national emergency un-less, within 90 days prior to the anniversary

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date of its declaration, the President publishesin the Federal Register and transmits to theCongress a notice stating that the emergency isto continue in effect beyond the anniversarydate. In accordance with this provision, I havesent to the Federal Register for publication theenclosed notice stating that the national emer-gency with respect to the Western Balkans thatwas declared in Executive Order 13219 of June26, 2001, is to remain in effect beyond June 26,2013.

The crisis constituted by the actions of per-sons engaged in, or assisting, sponsoring, orsupporting (i) extremist violence in the Repub-lic of Macedonia and elsewhere in the WesternBalkans region, or (ii) acts obstructing imple-mentation of the Dayton Accords in Bosnia orUnited Nations Security Council Resolution1244 of June 10, 1999, related to Kosovo,which led to the declaration of a national emer-gency on June 26, 2001, in Executive Order13219 and to the amendment of that order inExecutive Order 13304 of May 28, 2003, to in-

clude acts obstructing implementation of theOhrid Framework Agreement of 2001 inMacedonia, has not been resolved. The acts ofextremist violence and obstructionist activityoutlined in Executive Order 13219, as amend-ed, are hostile to U.S. interests and continue topose an unusual and extraordinary threat to thenational security and foreign policy of theUnited States. For this reason, I have deter-mined that it is necessary to continue the na-tional emergency declared with respect to theWestern Balkans.

BARACK OBAMA


NOTE: An original was not available for verifi-cation of the content of this message. The no-tice is listed in Appendix D at the end of thisvolume.

Remarks Following a Meeting With President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putinof Russia in Lough Erne, Northern IrelandJune 17, 2013

President Putin. I’ve had detailed talks withthe President of the United States on almost allthe matters. We began with economy, and wehad detailed discussions. We’ve agreed tolaunch new mechanisms of cooperation in thisdomain, including at the levels of the Chair-man of Government of the Russian Federationand the Vice President of the U.S.

We have spoken in detail about the mattersof security—of strategic security between thetwo countries and the world as such. I believethat we have an opportunity to move forwardon most sensitive directions.

We also spoke about problem spots on theplanet, including Syria. And of course, ouropinions do not coincide, but all of us have theintention to stop the violence in Syria, to stopthe growth of victims, and to solve the situationpeacefully, including by bringing the parties to

the negotiations table in Geneva. We agreed topush the parties to the negotiations table.

I hope that after the elections in Iran therewill be new opportunities to solve the Iraniannuclear problem. And we’ll be trying to do thatbilaterally and in the international negotiationsprocess.

We also spoke about the problem of NorthKorea, and we agreed to emphasize our inter-action on all the directions.

And I am very grateful to the U.S. Presidentfor the detailed discussion and for the frank ex-change of opinions on these matters.

President Obama. Well, I had a very usefulconversation with President Putin, and I beganby thanking him again for the cooperation thatthey’ve provided in dealing with the tragedy ofthe bombing at the Boston Marathon. We havea shared interest in countering terrorist vio-lence, and we are continuing to strengthen our

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cooperation on this issue, including as we wel-come Russia hosting the Winter Olympics inSochi.

As President Putin indicated, we had exten-sive discussions about how we can furtherdeepen our economic and commercial rela-tionships. With Russian accession to the WTO,the removal of Jackson-Vanik, I think we’repoised to increase both trade and investmentbetween our two countries. And that can cre-ate jobs and business opportunities, both forRussians and Americans.

Our discussions on North Korea and Iranwere very productive, and we both agreed toconsult closely on the North Korean issue. Andin Iran, we both accept—expressed cautiousoptimism that with a new election there, wemay be able to move forward on a dialoguethat allows us to resolve the problems withIran’s nuclear program.

And with respect to Syria, we do have differ-ing perspectives on the problem, but we sharean interest in reducing the violence; securingchemical weapons and ensuring that they’reneither used, nor are they subject to prolifera-tion, and that we want to try to resolve the is-sue through political means, if possible. And sowe will—have instructed our teams to continueto work on the potential of a Geneva follow-upto the first meeting.

And finally, we had a discussion about thefact—as the two nuclear superpowers, we havea special obligation to try to continue to reduce

tensions, to build on the work that we did withNew START, and to lead the world in both nu-clear security issues and proliferation issues.

And one of the concrete outcomes of thismeeting is that we’ll be signing here the con-tinuation of the cooperation that was first es-tablished through the Nunn-Lugar program tocounter potential threats of proliferation and toenhance nuclear security.

And this, I think, is an example of the kindof constructive, cooperative relationship thatmoves us out of a cold war mindset into therealm where, by working together, we not onlyincrease security and prosperity for the Rus-sian and American people, but also help leadthe world to a better place.

And finally, we compared notes on Presi-dent Putin’s expertise in judo and my decliningskills in basketball. [Laughter] And we bothagreed that as you get older, it takes more timeto recover.

President Putin. The President wants to re-lax me with his statement that the age—[inau-dible]. [Laughter]

President Obama. Thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 8:33 p.m. at theLough Erne Resort. President Putin referredto Prime Minister Dmitry Anatolyevich Med-vedev of Russia. President Putin spoke in Rus-sian, and his remarks were translated by an in-terpreter. A portion of these remarks could notbe verified because the audio was incomplete.

Joint Statement by President Obama and President Vladimir VladimirovichPutin of Russia on Enhanced Bilateral EngagementJune 17, 2013

The United States of America and the Rus-sian Federation reaffirm their readiness to in-tensify bilateral cooperation based on the prin-ciples of mutual respect, equality, and genuinerespect for each other’s interests.

Guided by this approach, today we reachedan understanding on a positive agenda for rela-tions between our countries that encompassesthe strategically important issues of arms con-trol, nonproliferation, international security,

increasing trade and investment, responding toglobal threats and challenges, countering ter-rorism and militant extremism, and enhancingtries between our societies and people. Thiswide-ranging program of action requires en-hanced engagement at all levels.

To strengthen the constructive nature of ourrelations, we intend to maintain regular con-tacts at the highest level, and to hold a U.S.-Russia summit in Moscow on September 3–4,

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2013, to discuss in greater detail the full rangeof bilateral and international issues.

We have also decided to expand the dia-logue between the U.S. Vice President and theRussian Prime Minister to address our jointagenda, including discussion of the develop-ment and diversification of trade and invest-ment links, to promote the strengthening of re-lations and economic growth in both countries.

An understanding was reached on launchinga regular dialogue in the “two plus two” formatbetween foreign and defense ministers to ad-dress issues of strategic stability, internationalsecurity, and shared threats to our countries.

With a view to intensifying cooperation inthe security realm, we instructed the SecurityCouncils of the United States and Russia tomaintain a regular dialogue to discuss issues ofmutual interest.

The Bilateral Presidential Commission willcontinue to play an important role in develop-

ing engagement in various areas. More thansixty U.S. and Russian government agenciescurrently take part in its activities. To comple-ment the governments’ work on intensifyingcooperation, we call on public and businesscommunities in the United States and Russiato establish close links in the interest of bring-ing our countries closer together.

Expanding direct contracts between Ameri-cans and Russians, including through imple-mentation of the bilateral Agreement on Sim-plifying Visa Formalities, which has been inforce since 2012, will serve to strengthen mu-tual understanding and trust and make it possi-ble to raise U.S.-Russian relations to a qualita-tively new level.

NOTE: The joint statement referred to PrimeMinister Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev ofRussia. An original was not available for verifi-cation of the content of this joint statement.

Joint Statement by President Obama and President Vladimir VladimirovichPutin of Russia on Cooperation in Countering TerrorismJune 17, 2013

The United States and Russia resolutelycondemn terrorism in all its forms and mani-festations. The explosions in Boston on April15, 2013, and the explosion of the terrorist sui-cide bomber in Makhachkala on May 25, 2013,have demonstrated anew that the global terror-ist threat is not weakening and calls for a build-up of our joint efforts in countering it.

Terrorists do not acknowledge borders andseek to impose their extremist ideology of vio-lence everywhere. We note with concern thecases in which terrorist groups have coalescedwith transborder organized crime, in particularin the area of the illegal traffic in drugs andarms.

The terrorist threat calls for a concerted,comprehensive response that presupposes lawenforcement measures for the protection ofour citizens, as well as the implementation of along-term strategy aimed at denying terroristsany social or material support, and workingwith societies to prevent the spread of the ter-

rorist ideology. To that end, the United Statesand Russia intend to strengthen our counter-terrorism cooperation on the basis of mutualtrust, including the exchange of pertinent op-erational information between intelligence ser-vices and the conduct of coordinated opera-tions.

We intend to continue to contribute to in-ternational endeavors to counter terrorismwithin the framework of the United Nations(UN), Organization for Security and Coopera-tion in Europe (OSCE), Financial Action TaskForce on Money Laundering (FATF), GlobalCounterterrorism Forum (GCTF), Russia-NATO Council, Asia-Pacific Economic Coop-eration (APEC), and Group of Eight (G–8). Byway of example, the United States and Russiaare engaged in active joint work in the Coun-ter-Terrorism Committee of the UN SecurityCouncil, as well as the Al-Qaida SanctionsCommittee and the Taliban Sanctions Com-mittee. Together, we work in the G–8 on

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implementing the initiative for countering im-provised explosive devices; in the GCTF, onstrengthening the institutions of criminal jus-tice and on the objective of countering violentextremism; and in APEC, on enhancing the se-curity and stability of critical infrastructure.Our countries are cooperating closely asfounders and co-chairs of the Global Initiativeto Counter Nuclear Terrorism (GICNT),which already counts 85 participant states.

The joint efforts of the United States andRussia, including in the context of the Coun-terterrorism Working Group of the BilateralPresidential Commission, are focused on pre-venting weapons of mass destruction from fall-ing into the hands of terrorists, and halting thefunding of terrorist activities, the recruitmentand training of those who commit terroristacts, and the actions of lone terrorists.

Another cause of serious concern is the ter-rorists’ use of contemporary information andcommunication technologies for staying intouch, collecting information, spreading their

ideology, attracting new adherents and finan-cial resources, planning, organizing, and carry-ing out terrorist acts. With due respect for thefreedom to express opinions, as provided for ininternational law, we intend to use all legalmeans to counter the abuse of the Internet forterrorist or other criminal purposes.

The United States and Russia intend to con-tinue to develop their counterterrorism part-nership with the business community, includ-ing in the field of protecting the tourist sector.Providing security for major sporting and pub-lic events, including the Winter OlympicGames in Sochi, is to be an important area ofinteraction.

We reiterate our firm resolve to join incountering terrorism in accordance with na-tional laws and the fundamental principles ofinternational law, including respect for humanrights and fundamental freedoms.


Joint Statement by President Obama and President Vladimir VladimirovichPutin of Russia on a New Field of Cooperation in Confidence BuildingJune 17, 2013

We, the Presidents of the United States ofAmerica and the Russian Federation, recog-nize the unprecedented progress in the use ofInformation and Communications Technolo-gies (ICTs), the new capacity they create forthe economies and societies of our countries,and the increasing interdependence of themodern world.

We recognize that threats to or in the use ofICTs include political-military and criminalthreats, as well as threats of a terrorist nature,and are some of the most serious national andinternational security challenges we face in the21st Century. We affirm the importance of co-operation between the United States of Ameri-ca and the Russian Federation for the purposeof enhancing bilateral understanding in this ar-ea. We view this cooperation as essential tosafeguarding the security of our countries, andto achieving security and reliability in the use

of ICTs that are essential to innovation andglobal interoperability.

Demonstrating our commitment to promot-ing international peace and security, today weaffirm the completion of landmark steps de-signed to strengthen relations, increase trans-parency, and build confidence between ourtwo nations:

• To create a mechanism for informationsharing in order to better protect criticalinformation systems, we have establisheda communication channel and informa-tion sharing arrangements between ourcomputer emergency response teams;

• To facilitate the exchange of urgent com-munications that can reduce the risk ofmisperception, escalation and conflict,we have authorized the use of the directcommunications link between our Nu-

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clear Risk Reduction Centers for thispurpose;

• Finally, we have directed officials in theWhite House and the Kremlin to estab-lish a direct communication link betweenhigh-level officials to manage potentiallydangerous situations arising from eventsthat may carry security threats to or inthe use of ICTs.

We have decided to create (in the frame-work of the U.S.-Russia Bilateral PresidentialCommission) a bilateral working group on is-sues of threats to or in the use of ICTs in thecontext of international security that is to meeton a regular basis to consult on issues of mutu-al interest and concern. This working group isto assess emerging threats, elaborate, proposeand coordinate concrete joint measures to ad-

dress such threats as well as strengthen confi-dence. This group should be created within thenext month and should immediately start itspractical activities.

These steps are necessary in order to meetour national and broader international inter-ests. They are important practical measureswhich can help to further the advancement ofnorms of peaceful and just interstate conductwith respect to the use of ICTs. To furtherdeepen our relationship, relevant agencies ofour countries plan to continue their regular di-alogue and to identify additional areas for mu-tually-beneficial cooperation in combatingthreats to or in the use of ICTs.


Remarks Following a Meeting With President François Hollande of Francein Lough Erne, Northern IrelandJune 18, 2013

President Obama. Well, I just had an excel-lent conversation with President Hollande andhis delegation. At the end of G–8, it’s very im-portant and appropriate that the United Statesmeet with our oldest ally, France. And obvi-ously, we coordinate on a whole range of inter-national issues. And the bilateral relationship isas strong as ever.

The topics that we covered were wide rang-ing. Today we spent some time discussing thetransition in Afghanistan, where there havebeen some important developments. Afghanforces are now in the lead in Afghanistan, ful-filling the milestone that we agreed to at theNATO summit in Chicago.

We also discussed Qatar’s announcementthat an office is opening in Doha for the pur-poses of negotiations between Afghans so thatwe have a parallel political track that matchesup with the transition that’s taking place mili-tarily in Afghanistan and the elections that willbe coming up next year. Both President Hol-lande and I agree that an Afghan-led and Af-ghan-owned peace process is the best way toend the violence and to ensure lasting stability

in Afghanistan and the region. And so this is animportant first step towards reconciliation. Al-though it’s a very early step—we anticipatethere will be a lot of bumps in the road—butthe fact that the parties have an opportunity totalk and discuss Afghan—the Afghanistan’s fu-ture I think is very important.

The one thing that we do believe is that anyinsurgent group, including the Taliban, is go-ing to need to accept an Afghan Constitutionthat renounces ties with Al Qaida, ends vio-lence, and is committed to the protection ofwomen and minorities in the country.

And over the last several months, I’ve dis-cussed this issue frequently with PresidentKarzai and also the Amir of Qatar. So I want topublicly commend President Karzai for takingthis courageous step and his determination toend the conflict and build a future of securityand peace and prosperity for the Afghan peo-ple. And I know that President Hollandeshares my view on this.

We’re going to continue to support these ef-forts in partnership with the Afghan Govern-ment. I want to repeat: We don’t anticipate this

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process will be easy or quick, but we must pur-sue it in parallel with our military approach.And we, in the meantime, remain fully com-mitted to our military efforts to defeat Al Qaidaand to support the Afghan National SecurityForces.

In addition to talking about Afghanistan, wespoke about the economic and commercial tiesthat have been subject to the entire G–8. Pres-ident Hollande, I think, is appropriately com-mitted to a growth strategy that ensures, we allare able to lower our unemployment rates, par-ticularly when it comes to youth unemploy-ment, and to build a fiscally prudent strategyfor long-term economic growth. And theTransatlantic Trade and Investment Partner-ship is a strong component of a broader, com-prehensive strategy that we all have to pursuewith respect to growth.

In the Middle East and Syria, we very muchshare the view that it is important for us tobuild on the G–8 communique—to move to-wards a political transition inside of Syria, tobuild a strong opposition that can function in apost-Asad world—and that we will continue towork to try to find a political solution to thisprocess and, most importantly, alleviate suffer-ing and ensure that chemical weapons are notused by anyone inside of Syria. Both of ourgovernments have strong evidence that, in fact,chemical weapons have been used in the pastby the Asad regime. But we are very comfort-able with the approach taken by the G–8 thatallows the U.N. the full powers it needs to in-vestigate and establish these facts on theground.

I congratulated President Hollande and hisentire team for the effective work that they’vedone in Mali. This is a situation in whichFrance was able to stop the splintering of a na-tion-state by a terrorist organization and now isin a position to reaffirm democracy and legiti-

macy and an effective government inside ofMali. That involved considerable sacrifice onthe part of the French people, but it’s part of abroader commitment on both our parts to pur-sue a smart counterterrorism policy that workswith partners in the region.

And finally, I wanted to say that I welcomeFrance’s decision to support the EU designa-tion of Hizballah—Lebanese Hizballah—as aterrorist organization. I think that sends a pow-erful signal that Europe stands firmly againstHizballah’s terrorist activities and is consistentwith the view that the only way that we canbring about a peaceful and prosperous MiddleEast is to isolate extremism and to promotethose persons and institutions that are commit-ted to a pluralistic, open, and tolerant societythat’s based on rule of law.

And so we are very much committed to con-tinuing to strengthen our cooperation with theFrench Government. When countries like theUnited States and France act in concert, wecan get an awful lot done. And I very much ap-preciate not only the partnership, but also thefriendship of President Hollande. He extendedan invitation for me to visit France, and I toldhim that we are always happy to visit France.

And so we hope that we have the opportuni-ty to schedule that perhaps some time nextyear.

[At this point, President Hollande spoke inFrench, and his remarks were translated by aninterpreter, but no transcript was provided.]

The President. Thank you, everybody.

NOTE: The President spoke at 4:10 p.m. atLough Erne Resort. In his remarks, he re-ferred to Amir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani ofQatar; President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan;and President Bashar al-Asad of Syria.

Joint Statement—Group of Eight Lough Erne DeclarationJune 18, 2013

Private enterprise drives growth, reducespoverty, and creates jobs and prosperity forpeople around the world. Governments have a

special responsibility to make proper rules andpromote good governance. Fair taxes, in-creased transparency and open trade are vital

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drivers of this. We will make a real differenceby doing the following:

1. Tax authorities across the world shouldautomatically share information to fightthe scourge of tax evasion.

2. Countries should change rules that letcompanies shift their profits across bor-ders to avoid taxes, and multinationalsshould report to tax authorities what taxthey pay where.

3. Companies should know who really ownsthem and tax collectors and law enforcersshould be able to obtain this informationeasily.

4. Developing countries should have the in-formation and capacity to collect the tax-es owed them—and other countries havea duty to help them.

5. Extractive companies should report pay-ments to all governments—and govern-ments should publish income from suchcompanies.

6. Minerals should be sourced legitimately,not plundered from conflict zones.

7. Land transactions should be transparent,respecting the property rights of localcommunities.

8. Governments should roll back protec-tionism and agree new trade deals thatboost jobs and growth worldwide.

9. Governments should cut wasteful bu-reaucracy at borders and make it easierand quicker to move goods between de-veloping countries.

10. Governments should publish informationon laws, budgets, spending, national sta-tistics, elections and government con-tracts in a way that is easy to read and re-use, so that citizens can hold them to ac-count.


Joint Statement—Group of Eight Leaders CommuniqueJune 18, 2013

2013 LOUGH ERNE

Preamble

1. As leaders of the G8, we are committed toopen economies, open societies and open govern-ments as the basis of lasting growth and stability.We have today agreed concrete steps to play ourpart in ensuring a safe and prosperous world.

2. We met at a time of continued economicuncertainty. Our urgent priority is to promotegrowth and jobs, particularly for the young andlong-term unemployed. We will continue tonurture the global recovery by supporting de-mand, securing our public finances and re-forming our economies to deliver growth.

3. Our economies together make up aroundhalf of the global economy, and we have a re-sponsibility to support prosperity worldwide.We agreed actions in three specific areas:

• Trade—a key engine of global economicgrowth. We will break down barriers totrade at home and abroad by resistingprotectionism and concluding a set ofambitious trade deals. In particular, wewelcome the launch of negotiations foran EU-US trade agreement, the majorprogress towards agreeing the Trans Pa-cific Partnership and the launch of theEU-Japan trade agreement negotiationsand we look forward to the completion ofthe EU-Canada trade agreement. Weaim to finalise all these deals as soon aspossible. We also welcome the trade andeconomic integration of Russia withsome of the countries in the region,which will be pursued in line with WorldTrade Organisation (WTO) principles.We are committed to strengthening themultilateral trading system and securing

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a WTO deal in December that cuts bu-reaucracy to make it easier and faster forgoods to cross borders. And we will keepour promises to help developing coun-tries slash barriers to trade that impedegrowth.

• Tax systems—essential to fairness andprosperity for all. We commit to establishthe automatic exchange of informationbetween tax authorities as the new globalstandard, and will work with the Organi-sation for Economic Cooperation andDevelopment (OECD) to develop rapid-ly a multilateral model which will make iteasier for governments to find and pun-ish tax evaders. On tax avoidance, wesupport the OECD’s work to tackle baseerosion and profit shifting. We will workto create a common template for multi-nationals to report to tax authoritieswhere they make their profits and paytheir taxes across the world. We will sup-port developing countries to collect thetaxes owed them, with access to the glob-al tax information they need. We agree topublish national Action Plans to make in-formation on who really owns and profitsfrom companies and trusts available totax collection and law enforcement agen-cies, for example through central regis-tries of company beneficial ownership.

• Transparency—empowering people tohold governments and companies to ac-count. We have agreed a transformativeOpen Data Charter to make budget dataand other government information pub-lic in an easily accessible way. We willmake progress towards common globalreporting standards to make extractiveindustry payments more transparent.And we will work with resource-richcountries to help them better managetheir extractive revenues so as to providea route out of poverty and reliance onaid.

4. We will continue to work with the poorestcountries to help lift people out of poverty bykeeping our aid promises and being account-

able to the public for them. We will accelerateefforts to tackle the under-nutrition thatblights millions of lives. We will work closelywith African governments and citizens to pro-mote sustainable growth.

5. We share a commitment to work togetherto counter terrorism and tackle the drivers ofinstability wherever in the world they arefound and particularly in northern Africa andthe Middle East. We have identified five prior-ity areas for action to respond to the growingthreat posed by terrorists operating in the arcof instability from Mauritania to Somalia.Alongside the countries themselves, we willwork together, focussing our collective politicaland practical support, to help governmentsfind and dismantle terrorist networks and tobuild effective and accountable government.

6. We are committed to protecting our na-tionals and reducing terrorist groups’ access tofunding which allows them to thrive. We un-equivocally reject the payment of ransoms toterrorists and we call on countries and compa-nies around the world to follow our lead andstamp out this as well as other lucrative sourcesof income for terrorists. We will help each oth-er to resolve hostage incidents by sharing bestpractice in advance and offering expertise asnecessary when they take place.

7. We strongly support the proposal for aconference to reach a political solution to theappalling conflict in Syria through full imple-mentation of the 2012 Geneva Communiqué.We will contribute generously to the latestUnited Nations (UN) appeal for humanitarianhelp. We condemn in the strongest terms anyuse of chemical weapons and all human rightsviolations in Syria. We are committed to lead-ing international support for Libya’s securityand democratic transition and to urgent workfor a lasting peace in the Middle East.

Global Economy

8. Promoting growth and jobs is our top pri-ority. We agreed to nurture the global recoveryby supporting demand, securing our public fi-nances and exploiting all sources of growth.The fight against unemployment, particularly

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long-term and youth unemployment, remainscritical in our domestic and collective agendas.

9. Global economic prospects remain weak,though downside risks have reduced thanks inpart to significant policy actions taken in theUS, euro area and Japan, and to the resilienceof major developing and emerging marketeconomies. Most financial markets have seenmarked gains as a result. However, this opti-mism is yet to be translated fully into broaderimprovements in economic activity and em-ployment in most advanced economies. In fact,prospects for growth in some regions haveweakened since the Camp David summit.While countries have taken steps to avoid theworst of the tail risks that faced the worldeconomy in 2012, vulnerabilities remain in2013, highlighting the need for countries topress ahead with the necessary reforms to re-store sustainable growth and jobs.

10. Downside risks in the euro area haveabated over the past year, but it remains in re-cession. Additional strengthening of the archi-tecture of the European Economic and Mone-tary Union, including through the develop-ment of the agreed elements of a bankingunion, is strongly needed to contribute to fur-ther reducing financial fragmentation, andcontinued strengthening of banks’ balancesheets. Fiscal sustainability and restoring fi-nancial stability need to go hand in hand withwell-designed growth strategies, includinggrowth-oriented structural reforms. The USrecovery is continuing and the deficit is declin-ing rapidly in the context of a continuing needfor further progress towards balanced medi-um-term fiscal sustainability and targeted in-vestments to enhance growth. Japan’s growthwill be supported by its near-term fiscal stimu-lus, bold monetary policy and recently an-nounced strategy for promoting private invest-ment. However, it will need to address thechallenge of defining a credible medium-termfiscal plan. Some of our central banks havecontinued to use highly accommodative mone-tary policy to support their domestic econo-mies, including through unconventional meanssuch as quantitative easing. Russia is experi-encing low unemployment and a favourable

fiscal position, but more moderate globalgrowth and volatile commodity prices will be achallenge.

11. In light of this background we are com-mitted to taking further action now to restoreconfidence, encourage investment and job cre-ation, support the recovery and reduce globalimbalances. We agreed today that:

• Decisive action is needed to nurture asustainable recovery and restore the re-silience of the global economy. Advancedeconomies need to balance supportingdomestic demand with reforms to tacklestructural weaknesses that weigh ongrowth, while implementing credible fis-cal plans. We reaffirm our commitmentto cooperate to achieve a lasting reduc-tion in global imbalances, which surplusand deficit countries must address.

• Monetary policy should continue to sup-port the recovery and be directed to-wards domestic price stability, accordingto the respective mandates of centralbanks.

• Restoring medium-term fiscal sustain-ability remains a priority. Fiscal policyshould allow for near-term flexibility toaccommodate economic conditions in-cluding through focusing on the structur-al deficit as appropriate. The pace of fis-cal consolidation should be differentiatedfor our different national economic cir-cumstances.

• Structural reforms are key to improvingsustainable growth and long-term livingstandards, enhancing competitiveness,providing well-functioning credit chan-nels for investment including by smalland medium sized enterprises (SMEs)and strengthening confidence. Urgentand specific measures are needed to cre-ate quality jobs, particularly for theyoung and the long-term unemployed.We are all committed to make the neces-sary reforms in our own economies tosupport stronger financial systems,healthy labour markets, jobs and growth,and bolster world trade.

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Trade

12. Trade and investment are key engines ofglobal economic growth, job creation and sus-tainable development. The nature of interna-tional trade is changing radically, with goodsnow increasingly produced within complexsupply chains that use components from coun-tries that span the globe. Today, nearly 60% oftrade in goods is in components. Trade in ser-vices also makes a growing contribution to theglobal economy, and is increasingly bound upwith trade in goods. This 21st century realityprovides a powerful argument for driving for-ward free trade based on a fair, strong rules-based trading system, protecting and promot-ing investments, and deepening economic in-tegration.

13. We are therefore committed to takingsteps to unlock further the potential of tradeand investment to boost growth, jobs and sus-tainable development. We will also keep ourword to refrain from and roll back protectionistmeasures and support a further extension ofthe G20 standstill commitment. We call onothers to do the same. We commit our supportto efforts to liberalise trade in green goods andservices, emphasising that progress in this areawill boost green growth. In this regard wecommend Asia-Pacific Economic Coopera-tion’s (APEC) decision in September 2012 toreduce tariffs on environmental goods as animportant contribution to this end.

14. As a demonstration of our commitmentto open markets we will work to concludedeep, ambitious and genuinely liberalising bi-lateral, regional and plurilateral agreements.These agreements will address a broad rangeof issues in addition to tariff reductions, includ-ing behind-the-border barriers, rules, and reg-ulatory coherence and better alignment ofstandards, all of which are central to unleash-ing the full potential of trade. Such deals willbe consistent with and supportive of the WTOframework, acting as building blocks for futuremultilateral agreements in the WTO, which ul-timately remain the most effective means ofreducing trade barriers globally.

15. We reiterate our support for the centralrole of the WTO in setting the rules that un-derpin global trade, in bringing down the bar-riers to trade that currently inhibit globalgrowth, in resisting and rolling back protec-tionism and in ensuring proper rules enforce-ment for a level playing field in world trade.We support the continued provision of an ef-fective protectionism monitoring mechanismand measures to further strengthen the peerreview process in the WTO. We welcome thenew Director-General and pledge our supportfor efforts to build a strong agenda that main-tains the centrality of the WTO.

16. Cutting the costs of trade by reducingand streamlining bureaucracy at borders wouldbenefit everyone and could boost the globaleconomy by $1 trillion. It would open new ex-port opportunities for developing countries,boosting jobs and growth. Better border proce-dures will also improve customs and tax collec-tion in developing countries. We will thereforemake determined efforts to reach agreement atthe 9th WTO Ministerial Conference in Bali inDecember on a package that has Trade Facili-tation at its core. We note that achieving thisgoal requires contributions from all majorWTO partners. A successful Bali Ministerialwould pave the way for a reinvigorated WTOnegotiating agenda.

17. Every Aid for Trade dollar spent on tack-ling trade bureaucracy can increase the recipi-ent’s trade by almost $700 each year. We standready to continue to provide, within our cur-rent Aid for Trade commitments, substantialtechnical assistance and capacity building tohelp implement a WTO Trade Facilitationdeal, in particular to the benefit of the LeastDeveloped Countries. We will also be moretransparent in reporting the aid we provide,and work with developing countries, especiallythe poorest, to ensure that resources are bettermatched to needs.

Africa Trade and Infrastructure

18. Africa is the next emerging continent,with a growing share of the world’s trade, in-vestment and economic output. We have anhistorical opportunity to work with our African

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partners to help promote inclusive and resil-ient growth in Africa, through greater transpar-ency, improved infrastructure, better trade fa-cilitation, the elimination of trade barriers andthe management of natural resources. We wel-come the contribution of the Fifth Tokyo In-ternational Conference on African Develop-ment (TICADV) to advancing these objectives.

19. The G8 strongly welcomes Africa’s ownregional integration agenda, which would re-duce barriers to trade and continue to unlockthe internal potential of Africa. We support theAfrican Union’s (AU) Action Plan on BoostingIntra-African Trade (BIAT). Cutting transittimes will boost African trade within the conti-nent and with global markets. The G8 willwork with African countries and regional eco-nomic communities to meet the AU’s target ofdoubling intra-Africa trade and reducing cross-ing times at key border posts by 50% by 2022.

20. More effective border crossings and in-creased trade need investment in infrastruc-ture, including transport, energy and telecom-munications. In particular, better project prep-aration and risk mitigation efforts are requiredto boost private investment. The G8 commitsto provide increased support for project prepa-ration facilities for African regional infrastruc-ture programmes and recognises the impor-tance of the New Partnership for Africa’s De-velopment (NEPAD) Infrastructure ProjectPreparation Facility hosted by the African De-velopment Bank and other similar mecha-nisms.

21. The G8 urges multilateral developmentinstitutions to establish and prioritise, as partof ongoing work on International Develop-ment Association–17, African DevelopmentFund–13 and European Development Fund-11 replenishments, more effective mechanismsfor collaboration on project preparation, fund-ing and risk mitigation for Africa’s regional in-frastructure programmes, such as the Pro-gramme for Infrastructure Development (PI-DA). The G8 recognises the work being doneby the G20 on financing for infrastructure inAfrica.

22. The G8 commits to explore and identifyin advance of our next meeting the further

steps it can take together or individually, in col-laboration with the private sector, Internation-al Financial Institutions (IFIs) and other inter-national organisations to facilitate institutionalinvestment flows into bankable trade-relatedinfrastructure projects in developing countries.

Tax

23. As we strive to maintain fiscal sustain-ability and to secure jobs and growth for ourcitizens, we commit to playing our part in de-veloping global solutions to the problems of taxevasion and tax avoidance. We will act to re-store confidence in the fairness and effective-ness of our international tax rules and practic-es, and to ensure that each country is able tocollect taxes owing and that developing coun-tries are also able to secure the benefits ofprogress made on this agenda.

24. We welcome the OECD work on ad-dressing Base Erosion and Profit Shifting(BEPS) by multinational enterprises and em-phasise the importance of the OECD develop-ing an ambitious and comprehensive actionplan for the Finance Ministers and CentralBank Governors of the G20 in July. We lookforward to the OECD recommendations andcommit to take the necessary individual andcollective action. We agree to work together toaddress base erosion and profit shifting, and toensure that international and our own tax rulesdo not allow or encourage any multinationalenterprises to reduce overall taxes paid by arti-ficially shifting profits to low-tax jurisdictions.The ongoing OECD work will involve contin-ued engagement with all stakeholders, includ-ing developing countries.

25. Comprehensive and relevant informa-tion on the financial position of multinationalenterprises aids all tax administrations effec-tively to identify and assess tax risks. The infor-mation would be of greatest use to tax authori-ties, including those of developing countries, ifit were presented in a standardised format fo-cusing on high level information on the globalallocation of profits and taxes paid. We call onthe OECD to develop a common template forcountry-by-country reporting to tax authoritiesby major multinational enterprises, taking

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account of concerns regarding non-cooperativejurisdictions. This will improve the flow of in-formation between multinational enterprisesand tax authorities in the countries in whichthe multinationals operate to enhance trans-parency and improve risk assessment.

26. A critical tool in the fight against tax eva-sion is the exchange of information betweenjurisdictions. We see recent developments intax transparency as setting a new standard andcommit to developing a single truly globalmodel for multilateral and bilateral automatictax information exchange building on existingsystems. We support the OECD report on thepracticalities of implementation of multilateralautomatic exchange and will work togetherwith the OECD and in the G20 to implementits recommendations urgently. We call on alljurisdictions to adopt and effectively imple-ment this new single global standard at the ear-liest opportunity. It is important that all juris-dictions, including developing countries, bene-fit from this new standard in information ex-change. We therefore call on the OECD towork to ensure that the relevant systems andprocesses are as accessible as possible to helpenable all countries to implement this newstandard.

Tax and Development

27. It is in everyone’s interests for develop-ing countries to be able to: strengthen their taxbase to help create stable and sustainablestates; improve their ability to fund their bud-gets through their own domestic revenues; andincrease ownership of their own developmentprocesses. We will continue to provide practi-cal support to developing countries’ efforts tobuild capacity to collect the taxes owed to themand to engage in and benefit from changingglobal standards on exchange of information,including automatic exchange of information.We call on all jurisdictions to join the GlobalForum on Transparency and Exchange of In-formation for Tax Purposes and the Multilater-al Convention and we will continue to providepractical support for developing countriesseeking to join the Global Forum. We eachcommit to continue to share our expertise,

help build capacity, including by engaging inlong-term partnership programmes to securesuccess.

28. We welcome the OECD’s feasibilitystudy for its Tax Inspectors Without Bordersproposal to assist tax administrations investi-gate specific and complex tax cases. We willtake practical steps to support this initiative, in-cluding by making tax experts available.

29. The ability of tax administrations to com-pare relevant price information across jurisdic-tions is essential for the effective operation oftransfer pricing rules, and a lack of data oncomparable transactions is a significant issuefor effective tax collection, particularly in de-veloping countries. We ask the OECD to findways to address the concerns expressed by de-veloping countries on the quality and availabili-ty of the information on comparable transac-tions that is needed to administer transfer pric-ing effectively.

Transparency of companies and legal arrange-ments

30. A lack of knowledge about who ultimate-ly controls, owns and profits from companiesand legal arrangements, including trusts, notonly assists those who seek to evade tax, but al-so those who seek to launder the proceeds ofcrime, often across borders. Shell companiescan be misused to facilitate illicit financialflows stemming from corruption, tax evasionand money laundering. Misuse of shell compa-nies can be a severe impediment to sustainableeconomic growth and sound governance. Wewill make a concerted and collective effort totackle this issue and improve the transparencyof companies and legal arrangements. Improv-ing transparency will also improve the invest-ment climate; ease the security of doing busi-ness and tackle corruption and bribery. It willsupport law enforcement’s efforts to pursuecriminal networks, enforce sanctions, andidentify and recover stolen assets.

31. We are determined to take action totackle the misuse of companies and legal ar-rangements. We will lead by example in ourimplementation of the Financial Action TaskForce (FATF) standards. We today agreed to

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publish national Action Plans based on com-mon principles (annexed). Subject to our dif-ferent constitutional circumstances, these Ac-tion Plans set out the concrete action, with re-spect to money laundering and tax evasion,each of us will take to tackle this issue to en-sure that companies know who really owns andcontrols them by requiring companies to ob-tain and hold information on their beneficialownership, and to ensure that this informationis available in a timely fashion to law enforce-ment, tax collection agencies and other rele-vant authorities as appropriate, including fi-nancial intelligence units, for example throughcentral registries; and by ensuring trusteesknow the beneficial ownership information re-garding the trust and that law enforcement, taxcollection agencies and other relevant authori-ties as appropriate, including financial intelli-gence units, can access this information. Wewill work with our FATF partners to ensureambitious progress at a global level, includingby prioritising the assessment of relevantFATF recommendations.

Anti-Money Laundering

32. Our financial systems are exposed to sig-nificant risks from money laundering and ter-rorist financing. We fully support the FATFStandards and commit to implementing themeffectively. We support the FATF’s identifica-tion and monitoring of high risk jurisdictionswith strategic anti-money laundering andcounter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) defi-ciencies, and encourage all countries to takemeasures to ensure they meet the FATF stan-dards. We are committed to ensuring propor-tionate and effective supervision and enforce-ment of our AML/CFT requirements to en-sure corporate wrongdoers are held to account.

33. Taking measures to enhance financialtransparency would also improve the opportu-nities for African business and for markets toexpand. As African economies grow, African fi-nancial institutions will increasingly risk expo-sure to illicit financial activity, affecting the op-portunities for African business and markets toexpand. We will hold the first Public-PrivateSector Dialogue with Eastern and Southern

African nations on 6–8 September in Swakop-mund, Namibia, involving governments and fi-nancial institutions from the G8 and the re-gion. This will provide a platform for greaterongoing collaboration, dialogue and public-pri-vate sector partnership, and we will considerextending the Dialogue to other regions on anannual basis.

Extractives

34. Natural resources have the potential, ifdeveloped and managed responsibly, in linewith internationally recognised environmentaland social standards, to be a key driver ofstrong and sustainable growth, especially in de-veloping countries with an abundance of natu-ral resources. To illustrate, oil exports in 2010from a single African country exceeded totalnet aid to sub-Saharan Africa. These resourcesoffer a long term route out of poverty for manydeveloping countries and an opportunity to re-duce dependence on external assistance.

35. However, the lack of strong systems oftransparency and accountability in the man-agement of the extractive sector in some re-source-rich countries has too often allowedrevenues to be diverted from high-priority na-tional needs. Raising global standards of trans-parency in the extractive sector and buildingthe capacity of countries to manage their re-sources effectively will improve accountability,reduce the space for corruption and other illic-it activities and ensure that citizens benefit ful-ly from the extraction of natural resources.

36. The G8 will take action to raise globalstandards for extractives transparency andmake progress towards common global report-ing standards, both for countries with signifi-cant domestic extractive industries and thehome countries of large multinational extrac-tives corporations. Under such common stan-dards companies would be required to reporton extractives payments, governments wouldtake steps to ensure disclosure compliance,and those governments that wish to move to-wards the Extractives Industries TransparencyInitiative (EITI) standard will voluntarily re-port their revenues. This would reduce report-ing burdens on businesses, help to fight

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corruption, and encourage more effective andefficient investment, including in developingcountries.

37. Thirty-nine countries have signed up tothe EITI, which increases transparency and ac-countability in the payments companies makeand the revenues governments receive fortheir natural resources. We welcome the newEITI rules adopted in May, which aim to in-crease the coverage and accessibility of dataproduced by EITI countries and ensure thatparticipating countries are held to a high stan-dard. We encourage other countries to sign upto the EITI.

38. The US has adopted legislation requiringcertain publicly traded extractives companiesto report their payments to governmentsaround the world. The EU Accounting andTransparency Directives will introduce equiva-lent standards for EU Member States. EU G8members will quickly implement the EU Ac-counting and Transparency Directives. Thesewill require mandatory reporting of paymentsto governments by all listed and large unlistedextractive companies in the EU to all govern-ments, and are consistent with section 1504 ofthe US Dodd Frank legislation and the newEITI standard. The US, UK and France willseek candidacy status for the new EITI stan-dard by 2014. Canada will launch consultationswith stakeholders across Canada with a view todeveloping an equivalent mandatory reportingregime for extractive companies within thenext two years. Italy will seek candidacy statusfor the new EITI standard as soon as possible.Germany is planning to test EITI implementa-tion in a pilot region in view of a future candi-dacy as implementation country. Russia and Ja-pan support the goal of EITI and will encour-age national companies to become supporters.

39. We encourage other countries that hostmajor multinational or state-owned enterprisesthat invest abroad to implement equivalentmandatory reporting rules with a view to creat-ing an international reporting regime thatavoids duplicate reporting burdens on busi-ness. These global standards should move to-wards project-level reporting.

40. As part of our commitment to extractivestransparency, we continue to support responsi-ble, conflict-free sourcing of minerals fromconflict-affected regions, including gold, dia-monds and other precious stones. We will pro-mote positive economic development and re-sponsible sourcing in the artisanal mining sec-tor, particularly from conflict and high-risk ar-eas. We reaffirm our continued support for theOECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsi-ble Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas, and the Inter-national Conference of the Great Lakes Re-gional Certification Mechanism as part of glob-al multilateral, multi-stakeholder efforts tocombat the trade in conflict minerals throughcertification, responsible business conduct andrespect for human rights. We also reaffirm oursupport for the Kimberley Process as the glob-al, multi-stakeholder initiative to curb thetrade in “conflict diamonds” and encourage theKimberley Process to resolve discussions con-cerning the definition of “conflict diamond”.

41. We welcome the leadership of the AUand the Intergovernmental Forum on Miningin promoting good governance and transparen-cy in the extractive sector including throughthe African Mining Vision, the African MineralDevelopment Centre and the Mining PolicyFramework. We also welcome the increasinginterest of the NEPAD on these issues. Thetechnical assistance provided to strengthen thecapacities of the developing countries to nego-tiate natural resources contracts is paramount.We welcome the financial support provided tothe African Development Bank’s African LegalSupport Facility and the Facility for Fair Ex-ploitation of Extractive Resources in Africa,and encourage other countries to commit tothese facilities. In support of such initiatives,we will partner with resource rich developingcountries, the private sector and civil society tostrengthen capacity and increase transparencyin the extractive sectors.

42. We have this week launched initial part-nerships with Burkina Faso (France), Colom-bia (EU), Ghana (UK), Mongolia (Germany),Burma/Myanmar (US), Guinea (US), Peru(Canada) and Tanzania (Canada). Italy is on

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track to finalise a partnership with an Africancountry. They will be tailored to the needs ofeach country and support national develop-ment plans with the objective of improvingtransparency and governance in the extractivesector by 2015.

Land

43. Weak land governance and propertyrights systems can lead to opaque land deals,which facilitate corruption and undercut re-sponsible actors seeking access to land for pro-ductive investment. Weak governance in manydeveloping countries allows unproductive landspeculation and undermines agricultural pro-ductivity. Increasing security of land rights andtransparency of land governance fosters partic-ipation of citizens, contributes to governmentaccountability, reduces costs for businesses,and strengthens the climate for responsible in-vestment. We welcome global activities to im-prove land tenure governance, includingthrough access to information and participa-tion of citizens in decision making. We ac-knowledge the importance of multilateral ef-forts to promote greater land transparency, inparticular, the role of the Food and AgricultureOrganisation (FAO) in providing global policyguidance for good land governance and trans-parency. We welcome the launch of the con-sultations on the principles for ResponsibleAgricultural Investment (rai), highlighting thatgood governance in the land sector is central torural development, food security and sustain-able public and private agricultural investment.

44. We will support greater transparency inland transactions including at early stages, andincreased capacity to develop good land gover-nance systems in developing countries. Lastyear, the G8 welcomed the UN Committee onWorld Food Security’s Voluntary Guidelineson the Responsible Governance of Tenure ofLand, Fisheries and Forests in the Context ofNational Food Security (VGGT). To imple-ment them, and to support regional processessuch as the Land Policy Initiative of the AU,this year we are establishing partnerships withcertain developing countries and relevant in-ternational organisations to accelerate and tar-

get support to countries’ existing land gover-nance programmes in conjunction with busi-nesses, in particular farmers, and civil society.

45. We have this week launched initial part-nerships with Burkina Faso (US), South Sudan(EU), Namibia (Germany), Nigeria (UK), Ni-ger (EU), Senegal (France) and Tanzania(UK). They will be tailored to the needs ofeach country and support national develop-ment plans with the objective of improvingland governance and in particular transparencyin land transactions by 2015. In addition, Japanand Italy are providing increased supportthrough FAO and World Bank to support im-plementation of the VGGT in developingcountries.

Open Data

46. Open government data are an essentialresource of the information age. Moving datainto the public sphere can improve the lives ofcitizens, and increasing access to these datacan drive innovation, economic growth and thecreation of good jobs. Making government datapublicly available by default and reusable freeof charge in machine-readable, readily-accessi-ble, open formats, and describing these dataclearly so that the public can readily under-stand their contents and meanings, generatesnew fuel for innovation by private sector inno-vators, entrepreneurs, and non-governmentalorganisations. Open data also increase aware-ness about how countries’ natural resourcesare used, how extractives revenues are spent,and how land is transacted and managed.

47. We have today agreed and published anOpen Data Charter (annexed) with the follow-ing principles:

• Open Data by Default—foster expecta-tions that government data be publishedopenly while continuing to safeguard pri-vacy;

• Quality and Quantity—release quality,timely and well described open data;

• Useable by All—release as much data inas many open formats as possible;

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• Releasing Data for Improved Gover-nance—share expertise and be transpar-ent about data collection, standards andpublishing processes;

• Releasing Data for Innovation—consultwith users and empower future genera-tions of innovators.

48. This Open Data Charter will increasethe supply of open government data across anumber of key categories including health, en-vironment and transport; support democraticprocesses; and ensure that all data supplied areeasy to use. We encourage others to adopt thisCharter. G8 members will, by the end of thisyear, develop action plans, with a view to im-plementation of the Charter and technical an-nex by the end of 2015 at the latest. We will re-view progress at our next meeting in 2014.

49. In keeping with the Open Data Charterprinciples, transparent data on G8 develop-ment assistance are also essential for account-ability. We have all agreed to implement theBusan Common Standard on Aid Transparen-cy, including both the Creditor Reporting Sys-tem of the OECD Development AssistanceCommittee and the International Aid Trans-parency Initiative (IATI), by 2015. To showgreater G8 leadership we will ensure data onG8 development assistance is open, timely,comprehensive and comparable.

50. G8 members should over time apply theBusan common transparency standards to theirrespective Development Finance Institutionsand international public climate finance flowsconsistent with the reporting of climate financeunder the UN Framework Convention on Cli-mate Change (UNFCCC).

Accountability

51. We are committed to holding ourselvesto account for the promises we have made inan open and transparent way as agreed atL’Aquila in 2009. We welcome the LoughErne Accountability Report 2013—a compre-hensive report covering the 56 developmentcommitments that were the subject of the 2010Comprehensive Accountability Report and the

additional commitments Leaders made atMuskoka, Deauville, and Camp David Sum-mits. We reaffirm our determination to contin-ue working with partner countries and otherstakeholders to end extreme poverty, buildingon our shared experiences and addressing newchallenges under country-owned strategies.Transparency and mutual accountability re-main cornerstones of our approach.

52. The Report shows good progress in areassuch as supporting maternal and child health;access to clean water; improving food security;and helping to build peace and security, partic-ularly in Africa. But it also identifies that moreaction is required to deliver on our promises insome areas. In addition to working on existingcommitments, we also recognise the need toface up to and address new challenges in closepartnership with others.

Food Security and Nutrition

53. G8 members reaffirm their commitmentto respond with the scale and urgency neededto achieve sustainable global food and nutritionsecurity, and note that we have met our finan-cial pledges made at L’Aquila in 2009 and willwork to complete disbursements. We reaffirmour commitment to the New Alliance for FoodSecurity and Nutrition and welcome progresssince its launch in 2012. We reaffirm our com-mitment to the Comprehensive Africa Agricul-ture Development Programme (CAADP) asthe guiding framework for agricultural trans-formation in Africa, recognising the New Alli-ance as a means to increase private sector in-vestment in support of CAADP Country In-vestment Plans. We will build on the achieve-ments of the US G8 Presidency by advancingaction in four areas:

• Leadership—by reinforcing African own-ership and establishing the LeadershipCouncil as the primary oversight body forthe New Alliance;

• Accountability—by agreeing a credibleand effective way to track and reporttransparently on progress, aligned withthe CAADP monitoring framework;

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• Expansion—by expanding participationin the New Alliance by African countries,global and African private sector, and de-velopment partners;

• Deepening impact—by ensuring that in-vestments have a measurable impact onreducing poverty and malnutrition, par-ticularly for smallholders and women,and are made responsibly and supportthe sustainable use of natural resources.

54. The progress report to the New AllianceLeadership Council highlights the creation ofpartnership agreements in six African coun-tries; progress made implementing policy re-forms and catalysing private sector investment;and the launch of tools to mobilise capital, im-prove access to new technology, manage riskand improve nutrition. We welcome expansionof the New Alliance to include Nigeria, Beninand Malawi and the initial steps to develop anew Cooperation Framework with Senegal.We recognise the critical role played by small-holder farmers, especially women. We wel-come the establishment of a robust system totrack results integrated into the CAADP moni-toring framework. G8 Members continue tosupport the Global Agriculture and Food Se-curity Programme to finance country-ownedagricultural development activities, especiallythose that achieve positive nutrition outcomes,and to leverage greater flows of private capitalto smallholder farmers and agribusinesses inlow-income countries.

55. We welcome the recently announcedGlobal Nutrition for Growth Compact whichcommits to under-nutrition reduction targetsfor 2020. We also welcome the financial andpolicy commitments to accelerate progress to-wards ending under-nutrition for women andyoung children. Progress on these commit-ments should be regularly reported and re-viewed, including through the Scaling-Up Nu-trition Movement, which we continue to sup-port.

Climate Change

56. Climate change is one of the foremostchallenges for our future economic growth and

well-being. We remain strongly committed toaddressing the urgent need to reduce green-house gas emissions significantly by 2020 andto pursue our low carbon path afterwards, witha view to doing our part to limit effectively theincrease in global temperature below 2ºCabove pre-industrial levels, consistent with sci-ence.

57. We will pursue ambitious and transpar-ent action, both domestically and internation-ally, in the UNFCCC, complemented by ac-tions addressed through other relevant fora, in-cluding but not limited to:

• the Major Economies Forum (MEF),where we will work with our partners tosecure progress on the MEF ActionAgenda and to overcome differences onthe road to the global deal in 2015;

• the International Civil Aviation Organisa-tion (ICAO), where we call for the agree-ment at the Assembly in September 2013on an ambitious package related to bothmarket-based and non-market basedmeasures to address rising aviation emis-sions;

• the International Maritime Organisation(IMO), where we continue to work to-gether on further measures to addressthe issue of shipping emissions;

• the Climate and Clean Air Coalitionwhich we all committed to join at our lastSummit, where we will build on the eightglobal initiatives already begun and fur-ther develop the scientific evidence baseand private sector involvement.

58. We recognise climate change as a con-tributing factor in increased economic and se-curity risks globally. The G8 has agreed to con-sider means to better respond to this challengeand its associated risks, recalling that interna-tional climate policy and sustainable economicdevelopment are mutually reinforcing.

59. In the UNFCCC we will work to ensurethat a new protocol, another legal instrumentor an agreed outcome with legal force underthe Convention applicable to all parties is ad-opted by 2015, to come into effect and be

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implemented from 2020. We also note withgrave concern the gap between current coun-try pledges and what is needed, and will worktowards increasing mitigation ambition in theperiod to 2020. We reiterate our commitmentto the developed countries’ goal of mobilisingjointly $100 billion of climate finance per yearby 2020 from a wide variety of sources in thecontext of meaningful mitigation actions andtransparency on implementation and are ad-vancing our efforts to continue to improve thetransparency of international climate financeflows. We welcome the efforts of the Secre-tary-General of the United Nations to mobilisepolitical will through 2014 towards a successfulglobal agreement in 2015 during the Confer-ence of the Parties that France stands ready tohost. We look forward to the fifth AssessmentReport of the International Panel on ClimateChange (IPCC).

Deauville Partnership with Arab Countries inTransition

60. The aspirations of the people of the Mid-dle East and North Africa (MENA) for free-dom, dignity and opportunity remain undimin-ished. Progress has been achieved. But the re-gion continues to face serious challenges. Wepledge our continued support for the politicaland economic reforms in the region and en-courage Leaders of Arab Countries in Transi-tion to continue to make progress through thedifficult transition toward democracy, prosper-ity, open economies and more inclusive societ-ies, including respect for the rights of womenand girls and the right to practice religiousfaith in safety and security.

61. Through co-ordinated bilateral and mul-tilateral support, we will help countries in tran-sition work towards achieving the economicstability, structural reform, and good gover-nance and anti-corruption reforms necessaryto enable sustainable and inclusive growth andcreate jobs.

62. We will continue to support country-ledreforms, including projects to support institu-tional reform, enhanced trade, investment andjob creation, including through the MENATransition Fund, alongside other support from

Partners. We welcome the approval of around$100 million of projects in the Fund’s first yearof operation and encourage partners to deliveron pledges made to date and to increase con-tributions to ensure the initial capitalization of$250 million is met. We further welcome andencourage new donors to the Fund beyond thePartnership.

63. We will continue to support greatertrade, investment and economic integration inthe region, including through ambitious bilat-eral trade and investment agreements and im-proved access to capital for governments andbusinesses. We hope soon to welcome Yemeninto the WTO and support Libya’s path to ac-cession. We welcome the investments in theregion by the IFIs and international organisa-tions. We welcome the imminent ratificationby all members of the extension of the Europe-an Bank for Reconstruction and Develop-ment’s geographical mandate to facilitate fur-ther investment in transition countries. Werecognise the critical role played by young peo-ple, women and SMEs in economic stabilityand growth. We will continue to work with theIFIs to take forward the SME action plans inparallel with a new initiative to provide men-toring support to SMEs.

64. We reiterate our high level of commit-ment to return stolen assets to countries intransition, including through participation inthe Arab Forum on Asset Recovery. We willcontinue to strengthen cooperation on bilateralcasework and develop further the collaborationamong our practitioners. Each G8 country willpresent a road-map by the second Arab Forumon Asset Recovery (AFAR II) in October 2013that sets out the steps we are taking to meetour commitments under the 2012 Asset Recov-ery Action Plan. We will enhance coordinationin our provision of capacity-building and tech-nical assistance. We will work to agree andadopt principles of good practice in the trans-literation of Arabic names in our legal docu-ments by AFAR II. We will support the devel-opment of an active law-enforcement networkon asset recovery in the Middle East/North Af-rica region.

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65. In line with the G8 tradition of account-ability, Foreign Ministers of the Partnershipwill consider a report on an assessment ofprogress against commitments at their meetingin September 2013.

Counter Terrorism

66. We reiterate our condemnation of ter-rorism in all its forms and manifestations, andwherever it occurs. We remain concernedabout the increasingly fragmented and geo-graphically diverse threat posed by terroristgroups including al-Qaeda and its affiliates.None of us are immune: since Camp David ev-ery G8 partner has been directly affected byacts of terrorism, either at home or overseas.We recognise the valuable leadership role ofthe UN, including through its Global CounterTerrorism Strategy, the work of the Roma Ly-on Group and the importance of the GlobalCounter Terrorism Forum (GCTF). We arecommitted to working together to reduce therisk of terrorism for our own citizens, includingfrom home-grown terrorism, and for our part-ners overseas. Our response must be robust,intelligent and based on a comprehensive ap-proach, respecting human rights and the ruleof law, which counters radicalisation, violentextremism and terrorist financing (includingflows channelled through off-shore jurisdic-tions), and which tackles the conditions andgrievances that terrorists seek to exploit.

67. While recognising the global threat fromterrorism, recent developments in Africa, nota-bly in an arc running from Mauritania in thewest to Somalia in the east, show how terror-ism combines with other factors to threatenstability and economic interests. That is whywe support efforts to dismantle the terroristsafe haven in northern Mali. We welcomeFrance’s important contribution in this regard.Following the successful international high-level donors’ conference to Brussels on 15May, we support the swift deployment of a UNstabilisation force in Mali, and encourage theGovernment of Mali energetically to pursue apolitical process which can build long-term sta-bility. We also support the Federal Govern-ment of Somalia as it re-establishes peace and

security after years of conflict fuelled by terror-ist groups and commend the commitment ofAU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) forces. Wesupport the Government’s efforts to set up arobust, impartial and effective justice system.We support the Somali Government’s effortsto introduce economic reforms which will helpfacilitate the welcome process of Somalia’s re-engagement with the IFIs.

68. We need a co-ordinated and coherentapproach to tackle the spread of terrorism andaddress the drivers of instability in northernAfrica and the Sahel. We will seek to reinforcethe work being taken forward in this area, in-cluding by the UN, EU, AU, Economic Com-munity of West Africa States (ECOWAS) andthe GCTF. We have identified five priority ar-eas for action in those countries in northernAfrica where the problems of terrorism and itsdrivers are most profound. We will take for-ward this work in close co-operation with thecountries themselves.

69. Building security and rule-of-law capaci-ty. We will work individually and collectively,including through the UN, AU, and GCTF tohelp build capacity to identify, disrupt andprosecute terrorist activity, while respectinghuman rights. We will also support multina-tional efforts, including the EU Training Mis-sions in Mali and Somalia, and welcome the es-tablishment of the International Institute ofJustice and Rule of Law in Tunisia.

70. Tackling criminal trafficking andstrengthening border security. We will offerpolitical and practical support to those regionaland international organisations leading effortsto enhance the ability of countries to monitorand control their borders and to tackle facilitat-ing factors such as corruption, transnational or-ganised crime and illicit trafficking of drugsand people, which undermine governance andthe rule of law and in some cases provide animportant source of funding for terrorists. Werecognise the important work of the UN Officeon Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in this regard.We encourage the UNODC (with GCTF andECOWAS supporting) to convene a high-levelmeeting to bring together the countries of theregion, donors and those with relevant exper-

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tise to look at the particular challenges facingNorth and West Africa, including cooperationin tackling, by a variety of means, terroristgroups that move across borders. We will alsotake action to tackle the illegal trafficking ofprotected or endangered wildlife species.

71. Countering violent extremism. We willsupport work to counter violent extremism, inparticular addressing extremist narratives thatseek to justify terrorist activity in these coun-tries, including supporting the GCTF and itswork to develop the Hedayah Centre, the firstinternational centre of excellence on counter-ing violent extremism. We are also dedicatedto enhancing cooperation to tackle the escalat-ing risks of recruitment and radicalisation, in-cluding through providing support to vulnera-ble communities, and building capacity tocounter violent extremism.

72. Reducing the vulnerability of multina-tional companies. Foreign direct investmenthelps deliver economic growth and is a meansto tackle instability. We welcome the intentionof the Roma Lyon Group to develop a set ofprinciples to guide our work with multinationalcompanies, supporting them to operate secure-ly in high threat environments, whilst protect-ing their staff and equities from terrorism.Once agreed, we will aim to encourage adop-tion of these principles on a global basis.

73. Addressing the wider drivers of instabili-ty. Poverty and socio-economic disparities con-tribute to instability and are exploited by ter-rorists. We will support the efforts of interna-tional and regional organisations, including theIFIs to promote sustainable development andeconomic growth in northern Africa helping tocreate the conditions that give people a stakein stability, security and the rule of law.Through the EITI and mandatory disclosurerequirements as appropriate, we will also en-courage transparent and accountable manage-ment of mineral resources. We endorse thework done to improve agriculture and liveli-hoods through the leadership of the AllianceGlobale pour l’Initiative Résilience-Sahel(AGIR-Sahel) process. And we will support thetransition of Arab Spring countries acrossNorth Africa through the Deauville Partner-

ship working for open economies and inclusivegrowth.

74. We are determined to use our collectiveresources to deliver progress in these areas.This collective effort will be augmented by bi-lateral cooperation that reflects our differenthistorical, economic, cultural and political tiesto the countries of northern Africa and the Sa-hel, and our traditional areas of capacity-build-ing expertise. We have agreed to hold a furtherG8 meeting later this year, at the level of Na-tional Security Advisers or other senior offi-cials, and involving regional and internationalpartners, to review progress and further ourobjectives.

The threat posed by kidnapping for ransom byterrorists and the preventive steps the interna-tional community can take

75. The international community has madesignificant progress in combating the flow offunds to terrorist organisations. However, inthe last three years, we estimate that Al Qaeda-affiliated and other Islamist extremist groupsworldwide have collected tens of millions ofdollars in ransoms. Payments to terrorists fromSahel to the Horn of Africa helped fuel insta-bility in the region, and contributed to largescale attacks like In Amenas. The payment ofransoms to terrorist groups is one of the sourc-es of income which supports their recruitmentefforts, strengthens their operational capabilityto organise and carry out terrorist attacks, andincentivises future incidents of kidnapping forransom, thereby increasing the risks to our na-tionals.

76. We are committed to protecting the livesof our nationals and reducing terrorist groups’access to the funding that allows them to sur-vive and thrive in accordance with relevant in-ternational conventions. We unequivocally re-ject the payment of ransoms to terrorists in linewith the UN Security Council Resolution 1904(2009) which requires that Member States pre-vent the payment of ransoms, directly or indi-rectly, to terrorists designated under the UNAl Qaeda sanctions regime through the freez-ing of funds and other assets.

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77. We welcome efforts to prevent kidnap-ping and to secure the safe release of hostageswithout ransom payments, such as those rec-ommended by the GCTF, specifically in theAlgiers Memorandum on Good Practices onPreventing and Denying the Benefits of Kid-napping for Ransom by Terrorists. We encour-age further expert discussion, including at theRoma Lyon group, to deepen our understand-ing of this problem. We also encourage privatesector partners, including aid and media organ-isations, travel and insurance companies, andother businesses to adopt their own similarguidelines and good practices for preventingand responding to terrorist kidnaps.

78. We continue to support efforts to reduceterrorist groups’ access to funding and financialservices through the ongoing work of theFATF to improve anti–money laundering andterrorist financing frameworks worldwide. Wecall on all countries to effectively implementthe revised FATF Standards.

79. But when the worst happens, we agreeto provide mutual assistance to States respond-ing to terrorist kidnaps including, as appropri-ate and feasible, through information sharingand specialist expertise or assistance, or theprovision of resources related to hostage res-cue. We will also support capacity-building ini-tiatives to help states prevent, and prepare torespond to future terrorist kidnaps includingthrough bringing terrorists to justice more ef-fectively and ensuing that they do not avoid re-sponsibility.

80. We call on discussions at the UN on newmechanisms to increase international aware-ness of the threat of kidnapping for ransom,and propose consideration of further UN Se-curity Council resolutions to address and miti-gate the threat.

81. We strongly support efforts by the inter-national community to tackle other forms ofkidnapping and to reduce the threat of piracy.

Foreign Policy

82. We are determined to work together tostop the bloodshed and loss of life in Syria andto support the Syrian people to establish peaceand stability through political means. We are

gravely concerned at the appalling human trag-edy that the UN estimates has cost the lives ofover 93,000 people and led to 4.2 million inter-nally displaced persons and 1.6 million refu-gees. We acknowledge the vital humanitarianrole played by neighbouring countries hostingSyrian refugees, above all Lebanon and Jordan,in dealing with the significant economic andsecurity pressures they are facing as a result ofthe conflict and refugee influx.

83. Given the extraordinary humanitarianneed as reflected in the latest UN appeal for$5.2 billion in 2013, we are resolved to makeexceptional contributions commensurate withthe scale of the problem. At this meeting G8Leaders confirmed additional contributions ofalmost $1.5 billion to meet humanitarian needsin Syria and its neighbours. We recognise thatfurther contributions will be needed given thescale of the challenge. We urge other countriesand organisations to make similar commit-ments. We call for aid agencies to be given im-mediate access to provide humanitarian assis-tance to all civilians in need, in accordancewith humanitarian principles and internationallaw, particularly in the worst affected areassuch as Qusayr.

84. We remain committed to achieving a po-litical solution to the crisis based on a vision fora united, inclusive and democratic Syria. Westrongly endorse the decision to hold as soon aspossible the Geneva Conference on Syria toimplement fully the Geneva Communiqué of30 June 2012, which sets out a number of keysteps beginning with agreement on a transi-tional governing body with full executive pow-ers, formed by mutual consent. As the GenevaCommuniqué says, the public services must bepreserved or restored. This includes the mili-tary forces and security services. However allgovernmental institutions and state officesmust perform according to professional andhuman rights standards, operating under a topleadership that inspires public confidence, un-der the control of the transitional governingbody.

85. Both sides at the Conference must en-gage seriously and constructively. They shouldbe fully representative of the Syrian people

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and committed to the implementation of theGeneva Communiqué and to the achievementof stability and reconciliation. We will engageactively with the parties in order to achievesuccessful outcomes.

86. We are deeply concerned by the growingthreat from terrorism and extremism in Syria,and also by the increasingly sectarian nature ofthe conflict. Syria must belong to all Syrians,including its minorities and all religiousgroups. We call on the Syrian authorities andopposition at the Geneva Conference jointly tocommit to destroying and expelling from Syriaall organisations and individuals affiliated to AlQaeda, and any other non-state actors linked toterrorism. We will support UN planning forSyria’s transition, recovery, and reconstructionneeds, in particular by maintaining continuityof state institutions during transition and help-ing to ensure that the security forces are effec-tive, accountable and able to deal with thethreat of terrorism and extremism.

87. We condemn any use of chemical weap-ons in Syria and call on all parties to the con-flict to allow access to the UN investigatingteam mandated by the UN Secretary-General,and drawing on the expertise of the Organisa-tion for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons(OPCW) and World Health Organisation(WHO), in order to conduct an objective in-vestigation into reports of use of chemicalweapons. The UN team should make their re-port and deliver it to the UN Security Councilfor their assessment. We are determined thatthose who may be found responsible for theuse of chemical weapons will be held account-able. We emphasise the need for the secureand safe storage of all chemical weapons inSyria, pending their destruction under interna-tional verification. We also condemn in thestrongest possible terms all human rights viola-tions and abuses in Syria, committed by any-one, including indiscriminate attacks on civil-ians. We call on all sides to respect internation-al humanitarian and human rights laws, notingthe particular responsibility of the Syrian au-thorities in this regard.

88. Following the elections in Libya lastyear, the first for over four decades, we wel-

come the progress made by the Libyan govern-ment under the stewardship of Prime MinisterZeidan. We encourage the government to con-tinue this progress, delivering concrete results.To ensure an effective transition to a more sta-ble, democratic and prosperous future, weurge continued and sustained engagement bythe international community, coordinated bythe UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL).This engagement should support the LibyanGovernment’s efforts to increase the effective-ness and capacity of its security and justice sec-tor institutions, to complete a successful transi-tion to democracy, and, following four decadesof mismanagement, to develop the Libyaneconomy and to improve the provision of pub-lic services. We encourage all Libyans to en-gage with the political process of reconciliationand constitutional reform through peacefuland inclusive means, underpinned by respectfor the rule of law.

89. We agreed that all relevant parties mustwork urgently for a just, lasting and compre-hensive peace in the Middle East. We supporta two-state solution with an independent, dem-ocratic, contiguous, and viable Palestinian stateliving side-by-side in peace and security withIsrael and its other neighbours. We call for thenecessary steps to build trust and urge the par-ties to work towards the resumption of directnegotiations without preconditions, taking noteof the 23 September 2011 statement of theMiddle East Quartet. We affirm our supportfor the Palestinian Authority and its state-building efforts and encourage the internation-al community to extend the fullest assistancepossible to revitalising the Palestinian econo-my.

90. We recognise the progress made by theAfghan National Security Forces in taking thelead for security across Afghanistan from mid-2013. We will continue to assist the Govern-ment of Afghanistan with meeting their com-mitments to strengthen their institutions ofgovernance, to combat corruption and thethreat of terrorism. We underline the continu-ing need for the Afghan Government, withsupport from the international community totackle more effectively illicit drug production,

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trade and trafficking. This should include fur-ther measures to reduce the cultivation of opi-um poppy and the production of, trafficking inand consumption of opiates. Presidential andProvincial elections in 2014 should be credible,inclusive and transparent, as agreed under theTokyo Mutual Accountability Framework. AllAfghans should be able to participate peaceful-ly in the country’s political future. We supportan inclusive Afghan-led and Afghan-ownedprocess of reconciliation, based on the princi-ples of renouncing violence, cutting ties withterrorist groups and respecting the AfghanConstitution, including its human rights provi-sions, notably on the rights of women and mi-norities. Our commitment to Afghanistan,within a stable region, will endure beyond thisimportant year of transition.

91. Preventing the proliferation of weaponsof mass destruction and their means of deliveryis a top priority. Such proliferation is a majorthreat to international peace and security.

92. Iran’s nuclear programme, which it con-tinues to develop in violation of UN SecurityCouncil Resolutions and in defiance of the In-ternational Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)Board of Governors resolutions, remains asource of serious concern. We once again urgeIran to comply fully and without delay withthese international obligations. We call on theinternational community to ensure full imple-mentation of UN sanctions. We stress that it isessential and urgent for Iran to cooperate fullywith the IAEA on all aspects of its nuclear pro-gramme, including to resolve questions on itspossible military dimensions, and to engage ac-tively and constructively with the E3+3 (China,France, Germany, Russia, the UK, the US andthe EU High Representative) to find the diplo-matic resolution to the nuclear issue which weseek. We reaffirm that in line with the UN Se-curity Council’s approved dual track approach,Iran has the ability to avoid further isolationand improve its situation only if it promptly ad-dresses the concerns of the international com-munity. We strongly urge Iran to fully respectits human rights obligations. We note the elec-tion of President-elect Rouhani and we invite

Iran to use this opportunity to resolve its dif-ferences with the international community.

93. We remain deeply concerned aboutNorth Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile pro-grammes. North Korea must meet its interna-tional obligations by completely, verifiably andirreversibly abandoning its nuclear and ballisticmissile programmes. It must engage construc-tively in credible and authentic multilateraltalks and refrain from provocative actions. Itmust abide by its obligations under relevantUN Security Council Resolutions and the 19September 2005 Joint Statement of the SixParty Talks. Whilst it refuses to meet these ob-ligations, we call on the international commu-nity to ensure full implementation of UN sanc-tions against North Korea. We urge North Ko-rea to address the concerns of the internationalcommunity over its human rights violations, in-cluding the abductions issue and treatment ofrefugees returned to North Korea.

94. We welcomed the historic Declarationon Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict ad-opted by G8 Foreign Ministers on 11 April andencouraged its early implementation. TheDeclaration contains political and practical ele-ments, including acknowledgement by G8members that rape and serious sexual violencein international armed conflict constitute gravebreaches of the Geneva Conventions.

Nuclear Safety

95. Two years after the accident at the TEP-CO’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power sta-tion, achieving and maintaining the highestlevels of nuclear safety worlwide remains a pri-ority. We reaffirm the importance of interna-tional cooperation and our full support to theIAEA Action Plan on Nuclear Safety. We willcontinue, in our national capacity as well ascollectively, to take our full share in its imple-mentation. In this regard, we commend andsupport the work being done at the IAEA forimproving the effectiveness of the Conventionon Nuclear Safety and stress the need to fur-ther strenghen the implementation of otherrelevant conventions as well as national capa-bilities and international mechanisms for nu-clear emergency preparedness and response.

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Conclusion

96. We look forward to meeting under thePresidency of Russia in Sochi on 4–5 June2014.

Annex 1: G8 Action Plan Principles to preventthe misuse of companies and legal arrange-ments

Subject to our different constitutional cir-cumstances, and understanding that a one-size-fits all approach may not be the most ef-fective, the G8 endorses the following coreprinciples that are fundamental to the trans-parency of ownership and control of compa-nies and legal arrangements. These core prin-ciples, consistent with the FATF standards, areessential to ensure the integrity of beneficialownership and basic company information, thetimely access to such information by law en-forcement for investigative purposes, as wellas, where appropriate, the legitimate commer-cial interests of the private sector.

The G8 also commits to publish national Ac-tion Plans based on these principles that setout the concrete action each of us will take tocounter money laundering and tax evasion. Toensure G8 members are held to account fortheir commitments, the G8 agrees to a processof self reporting through a public update onthe progress made against individual actionplans and to inform the Financial Action TaskForce.

1. Companies should know who owns andcontrols them and their beneficial owner-ship and basic information should be ad-equate, accurate, and current. As such,companies should be required to obtainand hold their beneficial ownership andbasic information, and ensure documen-tation of this information is accurate.

2. Beneficial ownership information oncompanies should be accessible onshoreto law enforcement, tax administrationsand other relevant authorities including,as appropriate, financial intelligenceunits. This could be achieved throughcentral registries of company beneficial

ownership and basic information at na-tional or state level. Countries shouldconsider measures to facilitate access tocompany beneficial ownership informa-tion by financial institutions and otherregulated businesses. Some basic compa-ny information should be publicly acces-sible.

3. Trustees of express trusts should knowthe beneficial ownership of the trust, in-cluding information on beneficiaries andsettlors. This information should be ac-cessible by law enforcement, tax adminis-trations and other relevant authorities in-cluding, as appropriate, financial intelli-gence units.

4. Authorities should understand the risksto which their anti-money launderingand countering the financing of terrorismregime is exposed and implement effec-tive and proportionate measures to targetthose risks. Appropriate information onthe results of the risk assessments shouldbe shared with relevant authorities, regu-lated businesses and other jurisdictions.

5. The misuse of financial instruments andof certain shareholding structures whichmay obstruct transparency, such as bear-er shares and nominee shareholders anddirectors, should be prevented.

6. Financial institutions and designated nonfinancial businesses and professions, in-cluding trust and company service pro-viders, should be subject to effective anti-money laundering and counter terroristfinancing obligations to identify and veri-fy the beneficial ownership of their cus-tomers. Countries should ensure effectivesupervision of these obligations.

7. Effective, proportionate and dissuasivesanctions should be available for compa-nies, financial institutions and other reg-ulated businesses that do not complywith their respective obligations, includ-ing those regarding customer due dili-gence. These sanctions should be robust-ly enforced.

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8. National authorities should cooperate ef-fectively domestically and across bordersto combat the abuse of companies and le-gal arrangements for illicit activity.Countries should ensure that their rele-vant authorities can rapidly, constructive-ly, and effectively provide basic companyand beneficial ownership informationupon request from foreign counterparts.

Annex 2: G8 Open Data Charter

Preamble

1. The world is witnessing the growth of aglobal movement facilitated by technology andsocial media and fuelled by information—onethat contains enormous potential to createmore accountable, efficient, responsive, andeffective governments and businesses, and tospur economic growth.

Open data sit at the heart of this global move-ment.

2. Access to data allows individuals and or-ganisations to develop new insights and inno-vations that can improve the lives of others andhelp to improve the flow of information withinand between countries. While governmentsand businesses collect a wide range of data,they do not always share these data in ways thatare easily discoverable, useable, or understand-able by the public.

This is a missed opportunity.

3. Today, people expect to be able to accessinformation and services electronically whenand how they want. Increasingly, this is true ofgovernment data as well. We have arrived at atipping point, heralding a new era in whichpeople can use open data to generate insights,ideas, and services to create a better world forall.

4. Open data can increase transparencyabout what government and business are do-ing. Open data also increase awareness abouthow countries’ natural resources are used, howextractives revenues are spent, and how land is

transacted and managed. All of which pro-motes accountability and good governance, en-hances public debate, and helps to combat cor-ruption. Transparent data on G8 developmentassistance are also essential for accountability.

5. Providing access to government data canempower individuals, the media, civil society,and business to fuel better outcomes in publicservices such as health, education, public safe-ty, environmental protection, and governance.Open data can do this by:

• showing how and where public money isspent, providing strong incentives forthat money to be used most effectively;

• enabling people to make better informedchoices about the services they receiveand the standards they should expect.

6. Freely-available government data can beused in innovative ways to create useful toolsand products that help people navigate mod-ern life more easily. Used in this way, open da-ta are a catalyst for innovation in the privatesector, supporting the creation of new markets,businesses, and jobs. Beyond government,these benefits can multiply as more businessesadopt open data practices modelled by govern-ment and share their own data with the public.

7. We, the G8, agree that open data are anuntapped resource with huge potential to en-courage the building of stronger, more inter-connected societies that better meet the needsof our citizens and allow innovation and pros-perity to flourish.

8. We therefore agree to follow a set of prin-ciples that will be the foundation for access to,and the release and re-use of, data made avail-able by G8 governments. They are:

• Open Data by Default

• Quality and Quantity

• Useable by All

• Releasing Data for Improved Gover-nance

• Releasing Data for Innovation

9. While working within our national politi-cal and legal frameworks, we will implement

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these principles in accordance with the techni-cal best practises and timeframes set out in ournational action plans. G8 members will, by theend of this year, develop action plans, with aview to implementation of the Charter andtechnical annex by the end of 2015 at the lat-est. We will review progress at our next meet-ing in 2014.

10. We also recognise the benefits of opendata can and should be enjoyed by citizens ofall nations. In the spirit of openness we offerthis Open Data Charter for consideration byother countries, multinational organisationsand initiatives.

Principle 1: Open Data by Default

11. We recognise that free access to, andsubsequent re-use of, open data are of signifi-cant value to society and the economy.

12. We agree to orient our governments to-wards open data by default.

13. We recognise that the term governmentdata is meant in the widest sense possible. Thiscould apply to data owned by national, federal,local, or international government bodies, orby the wider public sector.

14. We recognise that there is national andinternational legislation, in particular pertain-ing to intellectual property, personally-identifi-able and sensitive information, which must beobserved.

15. We will:

• establish an expectation that all govern-ment data be published openly by de-fault, as outlined in this Charter, whilerecognising that there are legitimate rea-sons why some data cannot be released.

Principle 2: Quality and Quantity

16. We recognise that governments and thepublic sector hold vast amounts of informationthat may be of interest to citizens.

17. We also recognise that it may take timeto prepare high-quality data, and the impor-tance of consulting with each other and withnational, and wider, open data users to identify

which data to prioritise for release or improve-ment.

18. We will:

• release high-quality open data that aretimely, comprehensive, and accurate. Tothe extent possible, data will be in theiroriginal, unmodified form and at the fin-est level of granularity available;

• ensure that information in the data iswritten in plain, clear language, so that itcan be understood by all, though thisCharter does not require translation intoother languages;

• make sure that data are fully described,so that consumers have sufficient infor-mation to understand their strengths,weaknesses, analytical limitations, andsecurity requirements, as well as how toprocess the data; and

• release data as early as possible, allow us-ers to provide feedback, and then contin-ue to make revisions to ensure the high-est standards of open data quality aremet.

Principle 3: Usable by All

19. We agree to release data in a way thathelps all people to obtain and re-use it.

20. We recognise that open data should beavailable free of charge in order to encouragetheir most widespread use.

21. We agree that when open data are re-leased, it should be done without bureaucraticor administrative barriers, such as registrationrequirements, which can deter people from ac-cessing the data.

22. We will:

• release data in open formats whereverpossible, ensuring that the data are avail-able to the widest range of users for thewidest range of purposes; and

• release as much data as possible, andwhere it is not possible to offer free ac-cess at present, promote the benefits andencourage the allowance of free access todata. In many cases this will include pro-

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viding data in multiple formats, so thatthey can be processed by computers andunderstood by people.

Principle 4: Releasing Data for Improved Gov-ernance

23. We recognise that the release of opendata strengthens our democratic institutionsand encourages better policy-making to meetsthe needs of our citizens. This is true not onlyin our own countries but across the world.

24. We also recognise that interest in opendata is growing in other multilateral organisa-tions and initiatives.

25. We will:

• share technical expertise and experiencewith each other and with other countriesacross the world so that everyone canreap the benefits of open data; and

• be transparent about our own data collec-tion, standards, and publishing process-es, by documenting all of these relatedprocesses online.

Principle 5: Releasing Data for Innovation

26. Recognising the importance of diversityin stimulating creativity and innovation, weagree that the more people and organisationsthat use our data, the greater the social andeconomic benefits that will be generated. Thisis true for both commercial and non-commer-cial uses.

27. We will:

• work to increase open data literacy andencourage people, such as developers ofapplications and civil society organisa-tions that work in the field of open datapromotion, to unlock the value of opendata;

• empower a future generation of data in-novators by providing data in machine-readable formats.

G8 Open Data Charter: Technical Annex

Introduction

1. We, the G8, have consulted with technicalexperts to identify some best practices (partone) and collective actions (part two) that wewill use to meet the principles set out in the G8Open Data Charter.

2. While working within our national politi-cal and legal frameworks, we agree to imple-ment these practices as quickly as possible andaim to complete our activities by 2015 at thelatest. This will be done in accordance with thetimeframes in our national action plans.

3. The Annex constitutes a ‘living’ set ofguidelines that may be subject to amendmentsafter consideration o emerging technology so-lutions or practical experience gained duringthe course of implementation of the G8 OpenData Charter.

Part One—Best Practices

Principle 1: Open Data by Default

4. We recognise the importance of open da-ta and we will establish an expectation that allgovernment data be published openly by de-fault.

5. We will:

• define our open data position in a publicstatement of intent, such as an announce-ment, strategy or policy, so that our plansfor progressing the open data agenda inour jurisdictions are clear;

• publish a national action plan to providemore specific details on our plans to re-lease data according to the principles inthe G8 Open Data Charter; and

• publish data on a national portal so thatall government data that has been re-leased can be found easily in one place. Aportal may be a central website fromwhich data can be downloaded, or a web-site which lists all open government datastored at a different location. Each portalwill include a registry file that lists all the

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data and metadata used on the portal, aswell as providing APIs for developers.Where it is yet not possible to publish alldata on a portal, the location of data willbe communicated clearly and not movedwithout notice.

Principle 2: Quality and Quantity

6. We commit to releasing data that are bothhigh in quality as well as high in quantity.When releasing data, we aim to do so in a waythat helps people to use and understand them.This will help to increase the interoperabilityof data from different policy areas, businessesor countries.

7. We will:

• use robust and consistent metadata (i.e.the fields or elements that describe theactual data);

• publish and maintain an up-to-date map-ping of the core descriptive metadatafields across G8 members to enable easi-er use and comprehension by peoplefrom around the world. This will allowcountries, in the G8 and beyond, who donot currently have a data portal to con-sider adopting the metadata fields in-cluded in this mapping;

• ensure data are fully described, as appro-priate, to help users to fully understandthe data. This may include:

Documentation that provides explana-tions about the data fields used;

Data dictionaries to link different data;and

A user’s guide that describes the pur-pose of the collection, the target audi-ence, the characteristics of the sample,and the method of data collection.

• listen to feedback from data users to im-prove the breadth, quality and accessibil-ity of data we offer. This could be in theform of a public consultation on the na-tional data strategy or policy, discussionswith civil society, creation of a feedback

mechanism on the data portal, orthrough other appropriate mechanisms.

Principle 3: Usable by All

8. We agree to release data in a way thathelps all people find and re-use them.

9. We will:

• make data available in convenient openformats to ensure files can be easily re-trieved, downloaded, indexed, andsearched by all commonly used Websearch applications. Open formats, forexample non-proprietary CSV files, areones where the specification for the for-mat is available to anyone for free, there-by allowing the data contained in a file tobe opened by different software pro-grammes.

Principle 4: Releasing Data for Improved Gov-ernance

10. We recognise that data are a powerfultool to help drive government effectiveness, ef-ficiency and responsiveness to citizen needswhile fuelling further demand for open data.

11. We will:

• develop links with civil society organisa-tions and individuals to allow the publicto provide feedback on the most impor-tant data they would like released;

• be open about our own data standards, sothat we take into account:

Data that are released by other nation-al and international organisations

The standards emerging from otherinternational transparency initiatives;and

• document our own experiences of work-ing with open data by, for example, pub-lishing technical information about ouropen data policies, practices, and portalsso that the benefits of open data can beenjoyed in other countries.

•

•

•

•

•

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Principle 5: Releasing Data for Innovation

12. We agree that our citizens can use ourdata to fuel innovation in our own countriesand around the world. We recognise that freeaccess to, and reuse of, open government dataare an essential part of this.

13. We will:

• support the release of data using open li-cences or other relevant instruments—while respecting intellectual propertyrights—so that no restrictions or chargesare placed on the re-use of the informa-tion for non-commercial or commercialpurposes, save for exceptional circum-stances;

• ensure data are machine readable in bulkby providing data that are well structuredto allow automated processing and accesswith the minimum number of file down-loads;

• release data using application program-ming interfaces (APIs), where appropri-

ate, to ensure easy access to the mostregularly updated and accessed data; and

• encourage innovative uses of our datathrough the organisation of challenges,prizes or mentoring for data users in ourindividual jurisdictions.

Part Two—Collective Actions

Action 1: G8 National Action Plans

• We will publish individual action plansdetailing how we will implement theOpen Data Charter according to our na-tional frameworks (October 2013)

• We will report progress on an annual ba-sis (via the G8 Accountability WorkingGroup) (2014 and 2015)

Action 2: Release of high value data

• We recognise the following as areas ofhigh value, both for improving our de-mocracies and encouraging innovativere-use of data.

NOTE cation of the content of this joint statement.

Data Category (alphabetical order) Example datasetsCompanies Company/business registerCrime and Justice Crime statistics, safetyEarth observation Meteorological/weather, agriculture, forest-

ry, fishing, and huntingEducation List of schools; performance of schools, digi-

tal skillsEnergy and Environment Pollution levels, energy consumptionFinance and contracts Transaction spend, contracts let, call for ten-

der, future tenders, local budget, nation-al budget (planned and spent)

Geospatial Topography, postcodes, national maps, localmaps

Global Development Aid, food security, extractives, landGovernment Accountability

and DemocracyGovernment contact points, election results,

legislation and statutes, salaries (payscales), hospitality/gifts

Health Prescription data, performance dataScience and Research Genome data, research and educational ac-

tivity, experiment results

: An original was not available for verifi

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Joint Statement by President Obama, President Vladimir VladimirovichPutin of Russia, and President François Hollande of France on the Nagorno-Karabakh ConflictJune 18, 2013

We, the Presidents of the OSCE MinskGroup Co-Chair countries—France, the Rus-sian Federation, and the United States ofAmerica—remain committed to helping theparties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict reacha lasting and peaceful settlement. We expressour deep regret that, rather than trying to finda solution based upon mutual interests, theparties have continued to seek one-sided ad-vantage in the negotiation process.

We continue to firmly believe that the ele-ments outlined in the statements of our coun-tries over the last four years must be the foun-dation of any fair and lasting settlement to theNagorno-Karabakh conflict. These elementsshould be seen as an integrated whole, as anyattempt to select some elements over otherswould make it impossible to achieve a balancedsolution.

We reiterate that only a negotiated settle-ment can lead to peace, stability, and reconcili-ation, opening opportunities for regional de-velopment and cooperation. The use of mili-tary force that has already created the currentsituation of confrontation and instability willnot resolve the conflict. A renewal of hostilities

would be disastrous for the population of theregion, resulting in loss of life, more destruc-tion, additional refugees, and enormous finan-cial costs. We strongly urge the leaders of allthe sides to recommit to the Helsinki princi-ples, particularly those relating to the non-useof force or the threat of force, territorial integ-rity, and equal rights and self-determination ofpeoples. We also appeal to them to refrainfrom any actions or rhetoric that could raisetension in the region and lead to escalation ofthe conflict. The leaders should prepare theirpeople for peace, not war.

Our countries stand ready to assist the sides,but the responsibility for putting an end to theNagorno-Karabakh conflict remains withthem. We strongly believe that further delay inreaching a balanced agreement on the frame-work for a comprehensive peace is unaccept-able, and urge the leaders of Azerbaijan andArmenia to focus with renewed energy on theissues that remain unresolved.


The President’s News Conference With Chancellor Angela Merkel ofGermany in Berlin, GermanyJune 19, 2013

Chancellor Merkel. Well, hello, ladies andgentlemen. I would like to bid a very warmwelcome to the President of the United States,Barack Obama. A very warm welcome, indeed,to Berlin. It’s his first visit to Berlin as Presi-dent of the United States, certainly not his firstvisit to Germany.

And we have had on numerous occasions theopportunity to talk. We have established ties offriendship based on trust. And I would like tothank you for this. Our cooperation is based onties of friendship that have lasted for many,

many decades between the Federal Republic ofGermany and the United States. And this is sucha very good relationship because it is based onshared values. If—when the President addressesthe crowd in front of the Brandenburg Gate, hewill be a President who can do this in front of agate that is open. Other Presidents had to re-mind us all of the wall needed to be torn down,and the wall is down. And this is what we owe toour American partners and friends.

But we also see that the world is changingand, indeed, changing at a very rapid pace, so

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new challenges come to the fore. And we wantto tackle them with resolve, and we want totackle them together.

What looms most prominently on our agen-da here in Germany, but also in Europe and, Itrust, in the United States, and could be a veryvalued project to these two great economies ofthe world, the free trade agreement. I’m veryglad that we were able to conclude the negotia-tions leading up to the mandate. We will throwour effort behind this fully and squarely be-cause we think that economies on both sides ofthe Atlantic will very much benefit from that.It’s going to be a win-win situation, and it alsois an eloquent testimony to this globalizedworld, where we can work better together bothpolitically and economically.

So this is why I think this is in a very, veryimportant free trade agreement. And I say thison behalf of the Federal Government as awhole.

We talked about questions of the Internet inthe context of PRISM. We talked at greatlength about the new possibilities and about,also, the new threats that the Internet looms—opens up to all of us. The Internet is new terri-tory, uncharted territory to all of us. And it alsoenables our enemies. It enables enemies of afree, liberal order to use it, to abuse it, to bringa threat to all of us, to threaten our way of life.And this is why we value cooperation with theUnited States on questions of security.

I also outlined, however, that although wedo see the need for gathering information, andthere needs to be due diligence also as regardsthe proportionality. Free, liberal democracieslive off people having a feeling of security. Andthis is why an equitable balance needs to bestruck; there needs to be proportionality. Andthat is something that we agreed on: to have afree exchange of views on—between our staff,but also the staff of the Home Secretary in theStates and also the Minister of Interior here inGermany. And this is going to be an ongoingdialogue.

We talked about a number of foreign policyissues. We are both of us engaged in Afghani-stan. A new process has been initiated there ofa transition of responsibility. This is a process

that we are going to tackle together, just as wetackled the greater military challenges of thepast together, building up the security forces inAfghanistan together. We will stand togetherwith the United States and solve outstandingproblems that are very difficult, indeed, still.

We also addressed Iran. We addressed theMiddle East situation as regards the peace pro-cess in the Middle East. I think that the initia-tive of Secretary Kerry offers a very good op-portunity to revive—revitalize peace talks. Theunion—the region needs peace. The partnersought to take up the offer that is on the table,because it is urgently necessary to bring aboutnegotiations. And we will continue also to workon Iran, on the nuclear program of Iran. Thatis also something that we’re agreed on.

We had very good talks. We had, as usual,very open and candid talks. So, yet again, avery warm welcome to you, Mr. President.

President Obama. Well, thank you verymuch. Guten Tag. It is wonderful to be back inBerlin. I’ve always appreciated the warmthwith which I’ve been greeted by the Germanpeople, and it’s no different today, althoughI’m particularly impressed with the warmth ofthe weather here in Berlin.

And I’m also very grateful for ChancellorMerkel’s invitation, 50 years after the visit ofPresident Kennedy.

The Chancellor and I are just back from theG–8 summit, just one of the latest meetingsthat we’ve had together. During my time in theWhite House, I’ve had the privilege of workingwith Angela on a whole host of issues. Lasttime she was at the White House, I had theprivilege of presenting her with the Medal ofFreedom, our highest civilian honor that aPresident can bestow. And that speaks to thecloseness of our relationship, the strength ofour alliance.

I know that here in Germany, sometimes,there’s been talk that the transatlantic alliancehas been—is fading in importance, that theUnited States has turned its attention more to-wards Asia and the Pacific. And in both conver-sations with Chancellor Merkel and earlierwith your President, I reminded them thatfrom our perspective, the relationship with

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Europe remains the cornerstone of our free-dom and our security, that Europe is our part-ner in almost everything that we do, and thatalthough the nature of the challenges we facehave changed, the strength of our relation-ships, the enduring bonds based on commonvalues and common ideals very much remains.

We began today talking about economic is-sues, following up on the discussions that wehad at the G–8 summit. Overall, Germany isour largest trading partner in the EU, so we’vegot a profound stake in each other’s success.We agreed that there’s more work to do. Notonly do we have to grow, but we also have toreform our economies structurally.

And when you look within the—Europe, ob-viously, different countries are at differentstages in that reform and restructuring process.We’re going through our own need to reform,for example, our health care system, which ismuch more expensive than most of the devel-oped world and largely accounts for our defi-cits and our debt. The good news is, though,that we have gone through the worst recessionin years, and we are poised to come back stron-ger if we take advantage of these opportunities.

One of the opportunities that we spokeabout obviously was the Transatlantic Tradeand Investment Partnership, or T–TIP. TheU.S.-EU relationship is already the largest inthe world, economically. Thirteen millionAmericans and Europeans have jobs that aredirectly supported by mutual trade and invest-ment. And the Chancellor and I share the con-viction that if we are successful in these negoti-ations, we can grow economies on both sides ofthe Atlantic, create jobs, improve efficiency,improve productivity and our competitivenessaround the world. And by doing so, we’re alsoraising standards for free trade around theworld that will not just benefit us, but benefiteveryone.

When it comes to our security, the UnitedStates and Germany are more than just NATOallies. More American personnel are stationedin Germany than any other country outside ofthe U.S. We are extraordinarily grateful for thehospitality of the German people. One of thelast times I was in Germany, I had a chance to

visit our facility where everyone who’s injuredin the battlefield comes through, and to see thededication, but also the hospitality that Ger-mans are providing for our young men andwomen when they’ve been grievously injured,I think, is a strong symbol of how much thismeans to us.

Our men and women have been serving sideby side in Afghanistan. Germany is the thirdlargest troop-contributing nation there. We’reboth grateful for the sacrifices that our servicemen and women and their families have madein this common effort. And because of thoseefforts, Afghanistan now has the opportunity tosecure itself and determine its own destiny.

We welcome President Karzai’s announce-ment yesterday that Afghan forces will soontake the lead for security across the country,which is an important milestone, one that weestablished in our NATO summit. Even as wewind down the war responsibly and NATO’scombat mission in Afghanistan comes to anend, we’re going to have to continue to investin the shared capabilities and interoperabilitypainstakingly built by the tremendous sacrific-es of our troops. And I appreciate Germany’sinterest in making sure that even after ourtroops are no longer involved in combat opera-tions that we can continue to see progress inAfghanistan.

And many of you noted that yesterday therewas an announcement about the Taliban open-ing an office for purpose of negotiations in Qa-tar. I said yesterday this is going to be a diffi-cult process. The parties there have been fight-ing for a very long time, even before 9/11, andwe don’t expect that it will be easy. But we dothink ultimately we’re going to need to see Af-ghans talking to Afghans about how they canmove forward and end the cycle of violencethere so that they can start actually buildingtheir country.

We also discussed the other challenges inthe region, including Syria. We are united tosee a negotiated political settlement to thatconflict. We want to see a Syria that’s unified,democratic, and at peace. Right now we needto see an end to the bloodshed, and we have tomake sure that chemical weapons are not used

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on the ground. I thought we saw some progressat the G–8 in reaffirming the need for a transi-tional governing process and a U.N. investiga-tion of the potential use of chemical weaponsthere.

I thanked the Chancellor in—for Germany’sunwavering support of the search for peace be-tween Israelis and Palestinians, and I briefedher on my Secretary of State John Kerry’s ef-forts to find common ground there.

And finally, I want to thank ChancellorMerkel’s not only generous invitation, but alsothe humbling privilege that I’ll have to addressthe people of Berlin from Pariser Platz on theeastern side of the Brandenburg Gate, the oth-er side of the wall that once stood there, thewall that President Reagan insisted be torndown. A quarter century since then has beenone of extraordinary progress. We can witnessthis in the incredible vibrancy and prosperityof Berlin. But one of the things I’ll address to-day is the fact that, given the extraordinaryblessings that we enjoy as Americans and asGermans, we have an obligation to make surethat walls around the world are torn down. Andwe can only accomplish that together.

So I’m grateful for our alliance, I’m gratefulfor our friendship, and I’m looking forward, anopportunity to answer some questions.

Am I starting off? Or——White House Press Secretary James F. “Jay”

Carney. From the American press, Julie Paceof the Associated Press.

President Obama. Yes.

Afghanistan/National Security Agency’s Elec-tronic Surveillance Program

Q. I wanted to follow up on your commentsabout the Taliban talks. When you announcedthose talks yesterday, you praised Afghan Pres-ident Hamid Karzai as being courageous forbeing willing to take that step.

President Obama. Right.Q. Yet today Karzai says that he is suspend-

ing talks with the U.S. in response to the Tal-iban negotiations. How is it possible for youand President Karzai to be on such differentpages about this key decision? And is Karzai

saying different things to you privately than heis publicly today?

And, Chancellor Merkel, you mentionedthat PRISM came up in your discussions todaywith President Obama. Are you more reas-sured now about the scope of those programsfollowing the discussions? And did PresidentObama give you any reassurances that the pro-grams don’t violate German privacy rights?Thank you.

President Obama. We had extensive conver-sations with President Karzai both before andafter the Taliban opened the office in Doha. AsI think has been reported, there were someconcerns about the manner in which the Tal-iban opened it, some of the language that theyused.

We had anticipated that at the outset, therewere going to be some areas of friction, to putit mildly, in getting this thing off the ground.That’s not surprising. As I said, they’ve beenfighting for a very long time. There’s enormousmistrust. Not only have the Taliban and the Af-ghan Government been fighting for a longtime, they’re fighting as we speak. I mean,we’re in the middle of a war. And Afghans arestill being killed, and by the way, members ofthe international forces there are still beingkilled. And that’s not abating as we speak.

But what we also believe is that alongsidethe process in which we are training, equip-ping a Afghan Government that can be respon-sible for its own security—even as we gothrough some frankly difficult negotiationsaround what it would mean for the internation-al community to have an ongoing training andadvising presence after 2014—we still believethat you’ve got to have a parallel track to atleast look at the prospect of some sort of politi-cal reconciliation.

Whether that bears fruit, whether it actuallyhappens, or whether, post-2014, there’s goingto continue to be fighting, as there was beforeISAF forces got into Afghanistan, that’s a ques-tion that only the Afghans can answer. But Ithink that President Karzai himself recognizesthe need for political reconciliation. The chal-lenge is, how do you get those things startedwhile you’re also at war? And my hope is, and

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expectation is, is that despite those challenges,the process will proceed.

Chancellor Merkel, if you don’t mind, eventhough the question was directed at you, Ithink it would be appropriate for me to goahead and talk about the NSA issue, which ob-viously caused controversy back home, but alsohere in Europe. And then, obviously, Chancel-lor Merkel will have her own views on this.

What I explained to Chancellor Merkel is, isthat I came into office committed to protectingthe American people, but also committed toour values and our ideals. And one of our high-est ideals is civil liberties and privacy. And Iwas a critic of the previous administration forthose occasions in which I felt they had violat-ed our values, and I came in with a healthyskepticism about how our various programswere structured. But what I have been able todo is examine and scrub how our intelligenceservices are operating, and I’m confident thatat this point, we have struck the appropriatebalance.

Now, let me be very specific in terms of—and this is what I described to ChancellorMerkel—what these programs are that havecaused so much controversy.

Essentially, one program allows us to take aphone number that has been discovered sepa-rately from the—through some lead that is typ-ical of what our intelligence services do, but weget a phone number. And what we try to dis-cover is, has anybody else been called fromthat phone? And we have bulk data that allowsus to just check on phone numbers and noth-ing else, no content; nobody is listening in on aconversation at that point. It’s just determiningwhether or not if, for example, we found aphone number in Usama bin Laden’s com-pound after the raid, had he called anybody inNew York or Berlin or anyplace else.

If in fact we discover that another call hasbeen made, at that point, in order to listen toany phone call, we would have to then go to ajudge and seek information through a processthat is court supervised. And this entire thinghas been set up under the supervision of aFederal court judge.

When it comes to the Internet and e-mail, asChancellor Merkel said, we’re now in an Inter-net age, and we have to make sure that our ad-ministrative rules and our protections catch upwith this new cyber world. What I can say toeverybody in Germany and everybody aroundthe world is this applies very narrowly to leadsthat we have obtained on issues related to ter-rorism or proliferation of weapons of mass de-struction.

So there are a few narrow categories. We getvery specific leads. And based on those leads,again, with court supervision and oversight, weare able then to access information.

This is not a situation in which we are riflingthrough the ordinary e-mails of German citi-zens or American citizens or French citizens oranybody else. This is not a situation where wesimply go into the Internet and start searchingany way that we want. This is a circumscribed,narrow system directed at us being able to pro-tect our people. And all of it is done under theoversight of the courts.

And as a consequence, we’ve saved lives. Weknow of at least 50 threats that have beenaverted because of this information not just inthe United States, but in some cases, threatshere in Germany. So lives have been saved.And the encroachment on privacy has beenstrictly limited by a court-approved process torelate to these particular categories.

Having said all that, what I’ve said in theUnited States is what I shared with ChancellorMerkel, and that is that we do have to strike abalance and we do have to be cautious abouthow our governments are operating when itcomes to intelligence. And so this is a debatethat I welcome.

What we’re going to be doing when I getback home is trying to find ways to declassifyfurther some of these programs without com-pletely compromising their effectiveness, shar-ing that information with the public, and also,our intelligence teams are directed to workvery closely with our German intelligencecounterparts so that they have clarity and as-surance that they’re not being abused.

But I think one of the things that separatesus from some other governments is, is that we

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welcome these debates. That’s what a democ-racy is about. And I’m confident that we canstrike this right balance, keep our people safe,but also preserve our civil liberties even in thisInternet age.

Chancellor Merkel. Well, for the Germanpeople, I can only say the following: It’s impor-tant, it’s necessary for us to debate these issues.People have concerns, precisely concerns thatthere may be some kind of blanket, across-the-board gathering of information. We talkedabout this. The questions that we have not yetperhaps satisfactorily addressed, we will do—address later on.

But there needs to be a balance. Thereneeds to be proportionality obviously betweenupholding security and safety of our peopleand our country, and privacy lines. There arequite a lot of instances where we were gettingvery important information from the UnitedStates, for example, the so-called Sauerlandgroup. And at the same time, obviously, peoplewant to use those new, modern means of com-munication and technology and do so freely.And as we learn to live and deal responsiblywith other new means of technology, we haveto learn and deal responsible—responsiblywith this one.

And I think today was an important first stepin the right direction, and I think it has broughtus forward.

Guantanamo Bay Detention Center/U.S. DroneProgram

Q. Madam Chancellor, Mr. President. First,a question addressed to you, Mr. President.There are—were a number of hopes in theworld that were in a way shattered as regardsyour legislative term, for example, the closingdown of Guantanamo or scrapping the deathpenalty throughout the whole of the UnitedStates, in all of the States. And now, as regardsAsia and—are you singling out Germany be-cause there’s a big risk here? Or——

And, Madam Chancellor, the Nobel Prizewinner, Obama is waging a drone war also viaGermany. And is he allowed to do that, accord-ing to German law?

The President. Let me see if I understoodyour question properly. First question was re-lated to policies back home, related to Guanta-namo or the death penalty. And then you want-ed to talk about drones, or did you just want tofocus on the drone question? I just want tomake sure that I’m responsive to your ques-tion.

Chancellor Merkel. I guess I ought to an-swer on the drones. And Guantanamo, that wasa question, I believe, addressed to you.

President Obama. Okay. Well, it continuesto be my policy that I want to close Guantana-mo. It has been more difficult than I hadhoped, in part because there’s been significantresistance from Congress on this, and on someissues, I need congressional authorization.

But about a month ago I gave a speech inwhich I said that I would redouble my effortsto do so. Because 9/11 happened, and we nowhave been involved in one form or another in awar for over a decade. One war, I think, in Af-ghanistan, was necessary. One war I disagreedwith strongly. But in either case, there are dan-gers if we get on a perpetual war footing.

The threat of terrorism remains real, and wehave to be vigilant, and we have to take steps toprotect ourselves, consistent with our valuesand consistent with international law. But wealso have to guard against being so driven byfear that we are not changing the fabric of oursociety in ways that we don’t intend and do notwant for the future. I think closing Guantana-mo is an example of us getting out of that per-petual war mentality.

Some of thepeople at Guantanamo are dan-gerous. Some of them did bad things. But wecannot have a permanent outpost in whichthey’re being held even as we’re ending a warin Afghanistan that triggered some of these—the capture of some of these detainees in thefirst place.

So I’m confident that we can continue tomake progress on this front, although, you’reright, it has not been as fast as I would haveliked. One of the things you discover as a poli-tician is, is that people don’t always do exactlywhat you want. It’s shocking. [Laughter] Andthen you have to keep on working at it.

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One thing with respect to drone policy: Inthat speech that I gave, I also addressed that is-sue of—that, the lethal targeting of identifiedterrorists. This also is a source of controversy.We have constrained it tightly. And as we de-feat Al Qaida, we have to, I think, very careful-ly examine how these technologies are used. Ican say, though, that we do not use Germanyas a launching point for unmanned drones togo after counter—as part of our counterterror-ism activities. And so I know that there havebeen some reports here in Germany that thatmight be the case. That is not.

Chancellor Merkel. Let me complement bysaying that the United States of America havebases here, they have soldiers here. They fulfilla very important function, particularly in thefight against terrorism. If I think of Ramstein,for example—and also supplies to soldiers, butalso caring for wounded soldiers.

We as allies, as members of NATO, standshoulder to shoulder here. And we providebases for our activities, and our work is basedalso on shared values. As I said, we exchangeon—have exchanges on values. But I think it’sgood. I think it’s the right thing to do for theUnited States of America to be present herewith military bases in Germany. It’s a normalthing within an alliance, and this is as it shouldbe and as it will be and continue to be.

Syria/Russia

Q. Thank you. Mr. President, on Syria, forthe purposes of transparency, can you be spe-cific about what military arms the UnitedStates will be providing to Syrian rebels andabout which groups will be receiving them?And on the same subject, President Putin ap-peared resolute and isolated on Syria at theG–8. How can a political process succeed inbringing peace if Russia continues to supportAsad, both militarily and politically?

[At this point, the reporter asked a question inGerman, which was translated by an interpret-er as follows.]

Madam Chancellor, if I may in German, theFederal Government has always argued along

the lines that weapons—exports and deliveriesof supplies would always as—lead to an escala-tion because they could land in the hands ofterrorists. Don’t you think that the situation isgoing to be exacerbated if the America—America supplies it? Perhaps you would alsocomment on Mr. Putin. Thank you.

President Obama. Well, first of all, Jeff [JeffMason, Reuters], I’m very impressed with yourGerman. [Laughter] And I don’t know if youhad to practice, but you sounded great. I—Chancellor Merkel said you were just okay.[Laughter]

I cannot and will not comment on specificsaround our programs related to the Syrian op-position. What I can say is that we have had asteady, consistent policy, which is, we want aSyria that is peaceful, nonsectarian, democrat-ic, legitimate, tolerant. And that is our overrid-ing goal. We want to end the bloodshed. Wewant to make sure that chemical weapons arenot used and that chemical weapons do not fallinto the hands of people who would be willingto use them. And so we’ve had a consistentview in our desired outcome in Syria.

It’s also been our view that the best way toget there is through a political transition. Andwe said that a year ago; we said that 2 yearsago. President Asad made a different decisionand has brought chaos and bloodshed to hiscountry and has been killing his own people.And it is our view that it is not possible for himto regain a legitimacy after over 100,000 peo-ple have been killed and millions have beendisplaced inside the country.

So the question now is just, as a practicalmatter—and this is what I said to PresidentPutin—as a practical matter, if in fact Syria isto remain a unified country and the bloodshedis going to end, how do we do that? The onlyway to do that is through some sort of politicaltransition process.

And the good news out of the G–8 meetingwas, is that you saw all the countries, includingRussia, reaffirming the communique comingout of the first Geneva talks that said, we needto create a transitional governing body with fullpowers.

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The second good thing that came out of theG–8 discussions was that all of us, includingRussia, said we have to investigate use ofchemical weapons inside of Syria, and all theparties, including the Government of Basharal-Asad, have to cooperate with that investiga-tion.

We’re confident that, in fact, the Govern-ment has used chemical weapons. The Rus-sians are skeptical. We said, fine, let’s have theUnited Nations get in there, but do a seriousinvestigation of it, because we don’t want any-body using chemical weapons.

Now, the issue for us is, how have—how canwe continue to support a political oppositionand a military opposition that becomes morecapable, becomes more unified, that isolatesextremists who have incorporated themselvesinto the opposition forces inside of Syria sothat if in fact, and when, we get a political tran-sition, there’s somebody there who can takeover and function in governing and lead to abetter future for all Syrians?

That’s a difficult process. It’s not one that’shappening overnight. But all the assistancethat we are providing both to the political andmilitary opposition is designed for that pur-pose.

Some of the stories that have been out therepublicly have, I think, gotten a little over-cranked in terms of the idea that somehow theUnited States is preparing to go all in and par-ticipate in another war. What we want to do isend a war. But the only way it’s going to end isif in fact we have the kind of transition that Idescribed.

And although you’re right that at this point,President Putin believes that what would re-place Asad would be worse than Asad himself,what I think will become more and more ap-parent over the coming weeks and months isthat without a different government, you can’tbring peace and, in fact, you’re going to seesectarian divisions get worse and worse andstart spilling over into the other parts of the re-gion, and that would be good for nobody.

Chancellor Merkel. On the issue of armssupplies, Germany has very clear, strict ruleson this, legal rules, according to which we are

not allowed to supply arms into areas wherethere is civil strife. And that is not specificallydesigned for the Syrian question, it is a generalrule.

But that does not mean that we do notwish—and can play a constructive role as re-gards the political processes: for example, asregards humanitarian assistance; as regards al-so the debate on which is the right way to goabout this. How can we strengthen the opposi-tion, those forces that work in the best interestof the people in Syria on the ground? And thesituation is somewhat vague as regards themembers of the opposition and quite different.

And it is our task also, as we see it, that thosewho wish for a good future for Syria, who arenot linked with terrorists, get a chance toachieve full legitimacy, because Germany toois of the opinion that Asad has certainly lostthat legitimacy.

The Russian President, as I understand him,says not so clearly what I said just now, that theSyrian President, namely, has lost his legitima-cy. But we have found common language inthe sense that we wish to work for a transitiongovernment. And the question also has to beasked, what is going to come after that? Andthat is a question we need to address, and wedid so. And in the language of the communi-que of the G–8, it says, we, all of us, reject ter-rorist forces in Syria because they would againexacerbate the suffering and—of the peoplethere.

Now we have to see to it that, step by step,all of these different strands are brought to-gether because, unfortunately, as yet, there isno common U.N. position, because Russia sofar was not on the side of the others. But wemust leave no stone unturned in trying, as wedid during the G–8, to find a common basis onwhich we can also speak with Russia.

And there are certain areas where we obvi-ously differ, but our political responsibility isto, time and again, seek to bring this matterforward in the right direction. And since thesituation—if we look to Jordan, if we look toother countries in the vicinity—becomes moreand more unstable, what with the flow of refu-gees and all, I think it’s worth every effort to

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try, all of us to try to do something, based onthe language of the communique of yesterday,to do something in the interest of the people inSyria.

Global Economy

Q. Mr. President, in the past, there weresome different points of view about the bestway out of the global financial crisis. AndChancellor Merkel stands for a policy of cut-ting back budgets to reach that of financial sta-bility throughout the euro zone to win backtrust of the markets. Did you talk about this is-sue? And what’s your position on that?

[The reporter asked a question in German,which was translated by an interpreter as fol-lows.]

Same question addressed to you: Has therebeen a discussion on the euro zone, and do youwish to abide by the policy that you—in view ofthe problems that the countries in the southhave currently?

Chancellor Merkel. Maybe I will just startwith something, because your question insinu-ates something that we don’t want. We wantprosperity. We want competitiveness. We wanteconomic strength in order to bring about re-duction of unemployment.

We talked about this at some length. And Ialso said Germany in the long run will only beable to live well if Europe as a whole is doingwell. So it would be a very wrong tack for ourpolicy to take if we were pursuing a kind ofpolicy where we weaken those countries intowhich we, after all, wish to export our goods. Ithink the world is changing, however, and Eu-rope is not competitiveness enough in all of—all areas. And budget consolidation is onepiece of the mosaic. Structural reforms have tocome into this.

The Italian Prime Minister addressed this is-sue at some length during the G–8. What doesthis mean for young people? What does itmean for jobs for young people?

But still, the task is, if 90 percent of growthglobally is generated outside of Europe, thenwe need to produce goods that are so competi-

tive—as competitive for other markets to actu-ally buy them. And this is something that weneed to undergo. We need to draw downredtape, bureaucracy. We need to be moreopen for research and development. We needto have structural reforms. We need to have,for example, affordable energy. If I look at theenergy price development in the UnitedStates, all of this needs to be done. And partand parcel of that also is—particularly in a con-tinent that is growing ever older—that we areable to reduce our budget deficits so that wedon’t live at the expense of future generation.

That is what this is all about. This is what Iam fervently asking for and working for. AndEurope can only help that is strong. And so afuture without Europe is something that I can-not envisage for Germany. It’s two sides of oneand the same coin. On the one hand, Germanyneeds to want—needs and wants to be compet-itive, and we also want others to be competitiveand improve their competiveness. And we allare—belong together. This is why we showedsolidarity time again, and this is, too, some-thing that we addressed.

President Obama. Well, as Angela said, all ofus want the same thing. We want to have aneconomy that is growing, where people, ifthey’re willing to work hard, are able to suc-ceed and can find jobs that pay a living wageand can retire with some dignity and can sendtheir children to good schools and have healthcare that is affordable. And we have to do allthose things in a way that’s fiscally prudent sothat we’re not mortgaging our future or bur-dening our children and our grandchildren.

And I think all developing countries—or allmore developed countries have been goingthrough some of the same challenges. And wejust went through the worst recession in manyyears.

The good news is, is that we’ve seen someprogress. In the United States, we fixed ourbanks, which was the source initially, the trig-ger for some of these major problems. Wehave a—so we have a much stronger bankingsystem now, with much tighter supervision.The housing market’s begun to recover. We’ve

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now grown for close to 4 years, 3½ years, andwe’ve created 7 million new jobs.

But we still have some reforms that we haveto do. We’ve got to improve the skills of ourworkforce. We’ve got to improve our infra-structure. We have to continue to invest in re-search and development. In all countriesaround the world, you’re seeing growing in-equality, and so we have to find ways to makesure that ladders of opportunity exist for thoseat the bottom and that profits and increasedproductivity all does not just benefit those atthe top.

And so what’s true in the United States is al-so true in Europe. Europe has different sets ofproblems. Part of the challenge of the eurozone is, is that you have countries at differentstages and levels of productivity and are fur-ther or less far along on this path of restructur-ing and reform.

So we’ve been discussing this—this has beena 4-year conversation that we’ve been having,and I don’t think there’s a perfect recipe. All ofus have to make sure that our budgets are notout of control. All of us have to undergo struc-tural reforms to adapt to a new and highlycompetitive economy. What’s true is, though,all of us also have to focus on growth, and wehave to make sure that, in pursuit of our longerterm policies—whether it’s fiscal consolida-tion or reforms of our overly rigid labor mar-kets or pension reforms—that we don’t losesight of our main goal, which is to make lives ofpeople better.

And if, for example, we start seeing youthunemployment go too high, then at somepoint, we’ve got to modulate our approach toensure that we don’t just lose a generation whomay never recover in terms of their careers.And that’s the struggle that I think all of us aregoing through. That’s the discussion we had inthe G–8. That’s a discussion that Angela and Ihad here today.

I’m confident that Germany will succeed inthis process. I’m confident that ChancellorMerkel cares about maintaining the euro zoneand the European project. And she, I think, isconfident that the United States wants to doeverything we can to get Europe through thisdifficult patch so that it can be a force forgrowth and prosperity well into the future. Allright?

Thank you very much, everybody.Chancellor Merkel. Danke schön.President Obama. Danke schön.

NOTE: The President’s news conference beganat 12:46 p.m. at the German Chancellery. Inhis remarks, the President referred to Presi-dent Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan; and Presi-dent Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of Russia.Chancellor Merkel referred to U.S. Secretaryof Homeland Security Janet A. Napolitano;Minister of Interior Hans-Peter Friedrich ofGermany; and Prime Minister Enrico Letta ofItaly. Chancellor Merkel and some reportersspoke in German, and their remarks weretranslated by an interpreter.

Remarks at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, GermanyJune 19, 2013

Hello, Berlin! Thank you, Chancellor Merkel,for your leadership, your friendship, and the ex-ample of your life: from a child of the East to theleader of a free and united Germany.

As I’ve said, Angela and I don’t exactly looklike previous German and American leaders.But the fact that we can stand here today,along the faultline where a city was divided,speaks to an eternal truth: No wall can standagainst the yearning of justice, the yearnings

for freedom, the yearnings for peace that burnsin the human heart.

Mayor Wowereit, distinguished guests, andespecially the people of Berlin and Germany:Thank you for this extraordinarily warm wel-come. In fact, it’s so warm and I feel so goodthat I’m actually going to take off my jacket,and anybody else who wants to, feel free to.The—we can be a little more informal amongfriends.

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As your Chancellor mentioned, 5 years ago Ihad the privilege to address this city as Sena-tor. Today I’m proud to return as President ofthe United States. And I bring with me the en-during friendship of the American people aswell as my wife Michelle and Malia and Sasha.You may notice that they’re not here. The lastthing they want to do is to listen to anotherspeech from me. [Laughter] So they’re out ex-periencing the beauty and the history of Ber-lin. And this history speaks to us today.

Here, for thousands of years, the people ofthis land have journeyed from tribe to princi-pality to nation-state, through Reformation andEnlightenment, renowned as a “land of poetsand thinkers,” among them Immanuel Kant,who taught us that freedom is the “unoriginat-ed birthright of man, and it belongs to him byforce of his humanity.”

Here, for two centuries, this gate stood tallas the world around it convulsed: through therise and fall of empires, through revolutionsand republics, art and music and science thatreflected the height of human endeavor, butalso war and carnage that exposed the depthsof man’s cruelty to man.

It was here that Berliners carved out an is-land of democracy against the greatest of odds.As has already been mentioned, they were sup-ported by an airlift of hope, and we are so hon-ored to be joined by Colonel Halvorsen, 92years old, the original “Candy Bomber.” Wecould not be prouder of him. I hope I look thatgood, by the way, when I’m 92. [Laughter]

During that time, a Marshall Plan seeded amiracle, and a North Atlantic alliance protect-ed our people. And those in the neighborhoodsand nations to the east drew strength from theknowledge that freedom was possible here inBerlin, that the waves of crackdowns and sup-pressions might therefore someday be over-come.

Today, 60 years after they rose up againstoppression, we remember the East Germanheroes of June 17. When the wall finally camedown, it was their dreams that were fulfilled.Their strength and their passion, their endur-ing example, remind us that for all the powerof militaries, for all the authority of govern-

ments, it is citizens who choose whether to bedefined by a wall or whether to tear it down.

And we’re now surrounded by the symbolsof a Germany reborn: a rebuilt Reichstag andits glistening glass dome, an American Embas-sy back at its historic home on Pariser Platz.And this square itself, once a desolate no man’sland, is now open to all. So while I am not thefirst American President to come to this gate, Iam proud to stand on its eastern side to paytribute to the past.

For throughout all this history, the fate ofthis city came down to a simple question: Willwe live free or in chains? Under governmentsthat uphold our universal rights or regimes thatsuppress them? In open societies that respectthe sanctity of the individual and our free willor in closed societies that suffocate the soul?

As free peoples, we stated our convictionslong ago. As Americans, we believe that “allmen are created equal” with the right to lifeand liberty and of the pursuit of happiness.And as Germans, you declared in your BasicLaw that “the dignity of man is inviolable.”Around the world, nations have pledged them-selves to a Universal Declaration of HumanRights, which recognizes the inherent dignityand rights of all members of our human family.

And this is what was at stake here in Berlinall those years. And because courageouscrowds climbed atop that wall, because corruptdictatorships gave way to new democracies, be-cause millions across this continent nowbreathe the fresh air of freedom, we can say—here in Berlin, here in Europe—our valueswon, openness won, tolerance won, and free-dom won. Here in Berlin.

And yet, more than two decades after thattriumph, we must acknowledge that there can,at times, be a complacency among our West-ern democracies. Today, people often come to-gether in places like this to remember history,not to make it. After all, we face no concretewalls, no barbed wire. There are no tankspoised across a border. There are no visits tofallout shelters. And so sometimes, there canbe a sense that the great challenges have some-how passed. And that brings with it a tempta-tion to turn inward: to think of our own pur-

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suits and not the sweep of history; to believethat we’ve settled history’s accounts, that wecan simply enjoy the fruits won by our fore-bears.

But I come here today, Berlin, to say com-placency is not the character of great nations.Today’s threats are not as stark as they werehalf a century ago, but the struggle for freedomand security and human dignity, that strugglegoes on. And I’ve come here to this city ofhope because the tests of our time demand thesame fighting spirit that defined Berlin a half-century ago.

Chancellor Merkel mentioned that we markthe anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’sstirring defense of freedom, embodied in thepeople of this great city. His pledge of solidari-ty—“Ich bin ein Berliner”—echoes throughthe ages. But that’s not all that he said that day.Less remembered is the challenge that he is-sued to the crowd before him: “Let me askyou,” he said to those Berliners, “let me askyou to lift your eyes beyond the dangers of to-day and beyond the freedom of merely thiscity.” Look, he said, “to the day of peace withjustice, beyond yourselves and ourselves to allmankind.”

Now, President Kennedy was taken from usless than 6 months after he spoke those words.And like so many who died in those decades ofdivision, he did not live to see Berlin unitedand free. Instead, he lives forever as a youngman in our memory. But his words are timelessbecause they call upon us to care more aboutthings than just our own self-comfort, aboutour own city, about our own country. They de-mand that we embrace the common endeavorof all humanity.

And if we lift our eyes, as President Kenne-dy called us to do, then we’ll recognize that ourwork is not yet done. For we are not only citi-zens of America or Germany, we are also citi-zens of the world. And our fates and fortunesare linked like never before.

We may no longer live in fear of global anni-hilation, but so long as nuclear weapons exist,we are not truly safe. We may strike blowsagainst terrorist networks, but if we ignore theinstability and intolerance that fuels extrem-

ism, our own freedom will eventually be en-dangered. We may enjoy a standard of livingthat is in the envy of the world, but so long ashundreds of millions endure the agony of anempty stomach or the anguish of unemploy-ment, we’re not truly prosperous.

I say all this here, in the heart of Europe,because our shared past shows that none ofthese challenges can be met unless we see our-selves as part of something bigger than ourown experience. Our alliance is the foundationof global security. Our trade and our com-merce is the engine of our global economy.Our values call upon us to care about the livesof people we will never meet. When Europeand America lead with our hopes instead of ourfears, we do things that no other nations cando, no other nations will do. So we have to liftup our eyes today and consider the day ofpeace with justice that our generation wantsfor this world.

I’d suggest that peace with justice beginswith the example we set here at home, for weknow from our own histories that intolerancebreeds injustice. Whether it’s based on race orreligion, gender or sexual orientation, we arestronger when all our people—no matter whothey are or what they look like—are grantedopportunity and when our wives and ourdaughters have the same opportunities as ourhusbands and our sons.

When we respect the faiths practiced in ourchurches and synagogues, our mosques andour temples, we’re more secure. When we wel-come the immigrant with his talents or herdreams, we are renewed. When we stand upfor our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters andtreat their love and their rights equally underthe law, we defend our own liberty as well. Weare more free when all people can pursue theirown happiness. And as long as walls exist in ourhearts to separate us from those who don’t looklike us or think like us or worship as we do,then we’re going to have to work harder, to-gether, to bring those walls of division down.

Peace with justice means free enterprisethat unleashes the talents and creativity thatreside in each of us. Other models direct eco-nomic growth from the top down or rely solely

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on the resources extracted from the earth. Butwe believe that real prosperity comes from ourmost precious resource: our people. And that’swhy we choose to invest in education and sci-ence and research.

And now, as we emerge from recession, wemust not avert our eyes from the insult of wid-ening inequality or the pain of youth who areunemployed. We have to build new ladders ofopportunity in our own societies that—even aswe pursue new trade and investment that fuelsgrowth across the Atlantic.

America will stand with Europe as youstrengthen your union. And we want to workwith you to make sure that every person canenjoy the dignity that comes from work;whether they live in Chicago or Cleveland orBelfast or Berlin, in Athens or Madrid, every-body deserves opportunity. We have to haveeconomies that are working for all people, notjust those at the very top.

Peace with justice means extending a handto those who reach for freedom, wherever theylive. Different peoples and cultures will followtheir own path, but we must reject the lie thatthose who live in distant places don’t yearn forfreedom and self-determination just like wedo, that they don’t somehow yearn for dignityand rule of law just like we do. We cannot dic-tate the pace of change in places like the Arabworld, but we must reject the excuse that wecan do nothing to support it.

We cannot shrink from our role of advanc-ing the values we believe in, whether it’s sup-porting Afghans as they take responsibility fortheir future or working for an Israeli-Palestin-ian peace or engaging, as we’ve done in Burma,to help create space for brave people toemerge from decades of dictatorship. In thiscentury, these are the citizens who long to jointhe free world. They are who you were. Theydeserve our support, for they too, in their ownway, are citizens of Berlin. And we have to helpthem every day.

Peace with justice means pursuing the secu-rity of a world without nuclear weapons, nomatter how distant that dream may be. And so,as President, I’ve strengthened our efforts tostop the spread of nuclear weapons and re-

duced the number and role of America’s nucle-ar weapons. Because of the New START Trea-ty, we’re on track to cut American and Russiandeployed nuclear warheads to their lowest lev-els since the 1950s.

But we have more work to do. So today I’mannouncing additional steps forward. After acomprehensive review, I’ve determined thatwe can ensure the security of America and ourallies and maintain a strong and credible strate-gic deterrent while reducing our deployed stra-tegic nuclear weapons by up to one-third. AndI intend to seek negotiated cuts with Russia tomove beyond cold war nuclear postures.

At the same time, we’ll work with ourNATO allies to seek bold reductions in U.S.and Russian tactical weapons in Europe. Andwe can forge a new international frameworkfor peaceful nuclear power, reject the nuclearweaponization that North Korea and Iran maybe seeking.

America will host a summit in 2016 to con-tinue our efforts to secure nuclear materialsaround the world, and we will work to buildsupport in the United States to ratify the Com-prehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and callon all nations to begin negotiations on a treatythat ends the production of fissile materials fornuclear weapons. These are steps we can taketo create a world of peace with justice.

Peace with justice means refusing to con-demn our children to a harsher, less hospitableplanet. The effort to slow climate change re-quires bold action. And on this, Germany andEurope have led. In the United States, we haverecently doubled our renewable energy fromclean sources like wind and solar power. We’redoubling fuel efficiency on our cars. Our dan-gerous carbon emissions have come down. Butwe know we have to do more, and we will domore.

With a global middle class consuming moreenergy every day, this must now be an effort ofall nations, not just some. For the grim alterna-tive affects all nations: more severe storms,more famine and floods, new waves of refu-gees, coastlines that vanish, oceans that rise.This is the future we must avert. This is theglobal threat of our time. And for the sake of

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future generations, our generation must movetoward a global compact to confront a chang-ing climate before it is too late. That is our job.That is our task. We have to get to work.

Peace with justice means meeting our moralobligations. And we have a moral obligationand a profound interest in helping lift the im-poverished corners of the world: by promotinggrowth so we spare a child born today a life-time of extreme poverty; by investing in agri-culture so we aren’t just sending food, but alsoteaching farmers to grow food; by strengthen-ing public health so we’re not just sendingmedicine, but training doctors and nurses whowill help end the outrage of children dyingfrom preventable diseases; making sure thatwe do everything we can to realize the prom-ise, an achievable promise, of the first AIDS-free generation. That is something that is pos-sible if we feel a sufficient sense of urgency.

Our efforts have to be about more than justcharity. They’re about new models of empow-ering people: to build institutions; to abandonthe rot of corruption; to create ties of trade,not just aid, both with the West and among thenations that are seeking to rise and increasetheir capacity. Because when they succeed, wewill be more successful as well. Our fates arelinked, and we cannot ignore those who areyearning not only for freedom, but also pros-perity.

And finally, let’s remember that peace withjustice depends on our ability to sustain boththe security of our societies and the opennessthat defines them. Threats to freedom don’tmerely come from the outside, they canemerge from within: from our own fears, fromthe disengagement of our citizens.

For over a decade, America has been at war.Yet much has now changed over the 5 yearssince I last spoke here in Berlin. The Iraq waris now over. The Afghan war is coming to anend. Usama bin Laden is no more. Our effortsagainst Al Qaida are evolving.

And given these changes, last month, Ispoke about America’s efforts against terror-ism. And I drew inspiration from one of ourFounding Fathers, James Madison, who wrote,“No nation could preserve its freedom in the

midst of continual warfare.” James Madison isright, which is why even as we remain vigilantabout the threat of terrorism, we must movebeyond the mindset of perpetual war. And inAmerica, that means redoubling our efforts toclose the prison at Guantanamo. It meanstightly controlling our use of new technologieslike drones. It means balancing the pursuit ofsecurity with the protection of privacy.

And I’m confident that that balance can bestruck. I’m confident of that, and I’m confidentthat working with Germany, we can keep eachother safe while at the same time maintainingthose essential values for which we fought for.

Our current programs are bound by the ruleof law, and they’re focused on threats to our se-curity, not the communications of ordinarypersons. They help confront real dangers, andthey keep people safe here in the United Statesand here in Europe. But we must accept thechallenge that all of us in democratic govern-ments face: to listen to the voices who disagreewith us, to have an open debate about how weuse our powers and how we must constrainthem, and to always remember that govern-ment exists to serve the power of the individualand not the other way around. That’s whatmakes us who we are, and that’s what makes usdifferent from those on the other side of thewall.

That is how we’ll stay true to our better his-tory while reaching for the day of peace andjustice that is to come. These are the beliefsthat guide us, the values that inspire us, theprinciples that bind us together as free peopleswho still believe the words of Dr. Martin Lu-ther King, Jr., that “injustice anywhere is athreat to justice everywhere.”

And we should ask—should anyone ask ifour generation has the courage to meet thesetests, if anybody asks if President Kennedy’swords ring true today, let them come to Berlin,for here they will find the people who emergedfrom the ruins of war to reap the blessings ofpeace, from the pain of division to the joy ofreunification. And here, they will recall howpeople trapped behind a wall braved bulletsand jumped barbed wire and dashed acrossminefields and dug through tunnels and leapt

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from buildings and swam across the Spree toclaim their most basic right of freedom.

The wall belongs to history. But we have his-tory to make as well. And the heroes that camebefore us now call to us to live up to thosehighest ideals: to care for the young peoplewho can’t find a job in our own countries andthe girls who aren’t allowed to go to schooloverseas; to be vigilant in safeguarding our ownfreedoms, but also to extend a hand to thosewho are reaching for freedom abroad.

This is the lesson of the ages. This is the spir-it of Berlin. And the greatest tribute that wecan pay to those who came before us is by car-rying on their work to pursue peace and justicenot only in our countries, but for all mankind.

Vielen Dank. God bless you. God bless thepeoples of Germany. And God bless the Unit-ed States of America. Thank you very much.

NOTE: The President spoke at 3:29 p.m. In hisremarks, he referred to Col. Gail S. Halvorsen,USAF (Ret.).

Statement on Senate Confirmation of Michael B. Froman as United StatesTrade RepresentativeJune 19, 2013

I am pleased that the Senate took biparti-san action today to confirm Michael Fromanas the United States Trade Representative.Mike has been my closest adviser on a broadrange of international economic issues andwill continue to play a key role on my eco-nomic team. He’s trusted and well respectedby our partners around the world, and forthe last several years, he’s been a driving

force behind our international economicagenda.

In his new position, Mike will stay focusedon our primary economic goals: promotinggrowth, creating jobs, and strengthening themiddle class. And he will continue to help opennew markets for American businesses, level theplaying field for American workers, farmers,and ranchers, and fully enforce our trade rights.

Remarks at a Dinner Hosted by Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany inBerlin, GermanyJune 19, 2013

Chancellor Merkel. Ladies and gentlemen, Iwould like to welcome you all, also on behalf ofProfessor Sauer, to this dinner here at Charlot-tenburg Palace. And obviously, I would like tobid a very special and very warm welcome toour guest of honor, the President of the UnitedStates of America, Barack Obama, and his wifeMichelle—a very warm welcome to you.

And let me say that I am personally verygrateful to be able to welcome you here to-night because this affords me again to thankyou for the wonderful reception, for the won-derful evening we had. And I’m able to say thisalso on behalf of the whole—of the FederalRepublic of Germany, because I am aware ob-viously that this was an honor that was grantedto me on behalf of my country when, 2 years

ago, you gave us this wonderful and graciousreception in the Rose Garden of the WhiteHouse. And we still have very fond memories.This was indeed a very moving moment, andwe greatly appreciated the warmth of your hos-pitality and also the friendship that you showedthrough this evening. Thank you, yet again.

Barack Obama, I think what was possible to-day also, again, was to show you how manypeople here in Germany feel a great sense ofadmiration towards you, because, in manyways, you personally embody the image of theUnited States as a country of unlimited possi-bility. And I think that that was something thatalso came out very strongly in your speech to-day that you gave at the Brandenburg Gate,and I think it is a feeling that many people not

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only on the square in front of BrandenburgGate were able to share and appreciate, but al-so the people who were watching the ceremo-ny on television screens all around the country.

Mr. President, your visit shows yet againhow close this friendship is and that it is afriendship that is not only close, but that is alsounshakeable in its foundation, but that certain-ly is not something that can be taken as a mat-ter of course. It’s not a natural kind of develop-ment if you think of the past of the two terriblewars and the wars for which Germany was re-sponsible.

If you think of the break with civilizationthat the Shoah had constituted, if you think ofthe long way that we’ve come together—for ex-ample, the fact that then your countrystretched out a hand of friendship, the CandyBombers; that Kennedy made this commit-ment to our country in saying, “I am a Berlin-er.” All of that has not come as a matter ofcourse. All the way to Ronald Reagan’s excla-mation, tear down—an appeal—“Tear downthis wall.”

We’ve come a long way. Again, it was not amatter of course, it was not natural, but it is along way that has brought us to this placewhere we finally can celebrate, can meet to-gether and celebrate our freedom together.

All the way leading up to German unity, tothe unification of our country, you have dem-onstrated that you trust us, that the UnitedStates of America places great trust in ourcountry. During the period of the cold war,you have demonstrated time and again that yousupport us, that you place trust in us, and thatis something for which we are very grateful.

Some people said that when unificationcame about, that this constituted, in effect, theend of history. But I think current events bearme out when I say there still remains quite alot to do for all of us—matters that we need toaddress together, challenges that we need toface—and that’s something that you addressedalso today in your speech, Mr. President. Andwe talked about, for example, as you did, aboutthe regulation of financial markets, about theprotection of climate, about the threat of nu-clear arms and nuclear proliferation.

But the fact that there are many areas in ourworld today that still remain unstable, that issomething that we need to address together—we, the Germans, and you, the Americans.

Cheers. The first translation. [Laughter]This world of the 21st century is growing ev-

er closer together, but it is true that in this 21stcentury too, as I said, I see great challengesahead. And what’s also true is, in order to mas-ter those challenges, there can possibly and ar-guably be no better partner for Germany, forEurope, than the United States of America,and the reverse, obviously, is also true.

So allow me to raise my glass and drink toyour very good health, Mr. President, to thevery good health of your wife Michelle, and topay tribute at the same time to the friendshipbetween the Federal Republic of Germanyand the United States, and to the people ofAmerica and the people of Germany, who con-stitute the true core of our friendship.

President Obama. Guten abend. Thank youto you, Angela, for your very kind words, to youand Professor Sauer for your extraordinaryhospitality and all of you for the incrediblywarm welcome, both literally and figuratively.[Laughter]

Your English is much better than our Ger-man. I was just mentioning to the Chancellorthat this is an area where the United Statesclearly has lagged behind: making sure that allof our young people learn a second and thirdlanguage. So we’re going to give my interpret-ers a break this evening.

Fifty years ago, as this city prepared to wel-come President Kennedy, Berliners were ec-static. Mayor Willy Brandt tried to calm every-body down; he told them, don’t be too emo-tional. It didn’t work. So, after one speech, onenewspaper wrote that it was one of the mostemotional responses President Kennedy hadever received; it’s said that more than 1,000people fainted. We did not have 1,000 peoplefaint today. The few who did, did so because ofthe weather and not because of my speech.[Laughter]

But like Presidents before me, and as duringmy previous visits, I could not be more gratefulfor the incredible reception that we have

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received. And I recognize that this signifies theincredible friendship between our two coun-tries. I’m especially pleased that I’ve been ableto bring Michelle and Malia and Sasha along.And let me just say, on behalf of Michelle andmyself, we’re incredibly grateful that Sasha andMalia have had the privilege to see not only thebeauty, but also the history of this city. Andthey took a number of tours, and when wewere in the hotel room, Malia was recitingback to me everything that she had learnedabout the formation of the wall and the historyof reunification. And nothing is more gratifyingthan when you see your children understand-ing not only the facts of history, but also thevalues that drive history.

In these stunning surroundings tonight,we’re reminded of the breadth of that historyand the friendship between our two peoples.About the same time this palace was beingbuilt, a band of families from along theRhine—Mennonites—set out across the Atlan-tic, arrived in what is now Philadelphia, andfound a new home that remains to this day:Germantown. And immigrants from Germanyand German Americans have continued toshape America ever since.

For our independence, we thank von Steu-ben. For our prosperity, families like Chryslerand Guggenheim, Heinz and Hershey. For in-spiration, Einstein, Steinway, Steinbeck, BabeRuth, Lou Gehrig. Young Americans, like ourdaughters, will always be grateful to LeviStrauss for their blue jeans. [Laughter] AndAmericans will always be grateful especially forsome very important German immigrants: An-heuser-Busch. [Laughter]

Now, on a very personal level, I’m thankfulto Angela. Schiller once said, “Keep true to thedreams of your youth.” Angela, you’ve spokenoften of the dreams of your youth, the freedomthat you longed for. Today, as we were out onthe balcony before our lunch, she pointed tothe train tracks along which the wall used torun, and her memories of riding to her univer-sity and then hearing the tracks on the otherside and imagining one day that she would befree. And you’ve not only kept to those dreams,

but you’ve also helped those dreams becomereal for millions of your countrymen.

I’m extraordinarily grateful for our partner-ship and our friendship. As I’ve said before,you’re an inspiration to me and to peoplearound the world.

Two years ago, Chancellor Merkel becameonly the second German leader to address ourCongress; the other was Adenauer. And as youclosed your speech, you mentioned the Free-dom Bell that hangs in the former town hallhere, which was a gift in 1950 from the Ameri-can people to the people of Germany, and itwas modeled after our Liberty Bell. Here inBerlin, that bell tolled after President Kenne-dy’s speech. It rang after German unification.It rang after 9/11, which obviously meant somuch to us as a symbol of the freedom andfriendship that binds us together.

What you may not know is that before thebell was given to our German friends, it traveledall around the United States. Millions of Ameri-cans joined the effort, lending their support andsigning their names to a declaration of freedom.

And so I want to close tonight by proposinga toast. I left my wine there, so I’ll go with wa-ter. [Laughter]

[At this point, President Obama was handed aglass of wine.]

Oh, here we go. And I’m going to do so byborrowing the words that those millions ofAmericans once expressed to their Germanfriends as part of this gift, the Liberty Bell.Here’s what they said: “We believe in the sa-credness and dignity of the individual. We be-lieve that all men derive the right of freedomequally from God. And we are proud to join withmillions of men and women throughout theworld who hold the cause of freedom sacred.”

Zum wohl.

[President Obama offered a toast.]

NOTE: The President spoke at approximately7:30 p.m. at Schloss Charlottenburg. In his re-marks, he referred to Joachim Sauer, husband

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of Chancellor Merkel. Chancellor Merkelspoke in German, and her remarks were trans-

lated by an interpreter. Her remarks could notbe verified because the audio was incomplete.

Statement on World Refugee DayJune 20, 2013

On World Refugee Day, the United Statesstands with the more than 45 million peoplearound the world who have been forced to fleetheir homes due to conflict and political violence.

This year, I want especially to thank coun-tries and communities working to meet theneeds of those who have fled the ongoing vio-lence in Syria. In word and deed, countries likeLebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq, and Egypthave taken on extraordinary burdens as they

host people displaced by horrific violence. Weare grateful for their generosity and pleased tosupport their efforts in addressing this humani-tarian crisis.

Today we reaffirm our commitment toworking with the Office of the U.N. HighCommissioner for Refugees and our partnersand allies to protect and assist all those dis-placed as they work to rebuild their lives inpeace and dignity.

Message to the Congress on Continuation of the National Emergency WithRespect to the Disposition of Russian Highly Enriched UraniumJune 20, 2013


Section 202(d) of the National EmergenciesAct (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)) provides for the auto-matic termination of a national emergency un-less, within 90 days prior to the anniversarydate of its declaration, the President publishesin the Federal Register and transmits to theCongress a notice stating that the emergency isto continue in effect beyond the anniversarydate. In accordance with this provision, I havesent to the Federal Register for publication theenclosed notice stating that the emergency de-clared in Executive Order 13617 of June 25,2012, with respect to the disposition of Russianhighly enriched uranium is to continue in ef-fect beyond June 25, 2013.

The risk of nuclear proliferation created bythe accumulation of a large volume of weapons-usable fissile material in the territory of the Rus-sian Federation continues to pose an unusualand extraordinary threat to the national securityand foreign policy of the United States. There-fore, I have determined that it is necessary tocontinue the national emergency declared in Ex-ecutive Order 13617 with respect to the disposi-tion of Russian highly enriched uranium.

BARACK OBAMA



Remarks on the Resignation of Robert S. Mueller III as Director of theFederal Bureau of Investigation and the Nomination of James B. Comey, Jr.,To Be Director of the Federal Bureau of InvestigationJune 21, 2013

The President. Good afternoon, everybody.Please have a seat.

For more than a century, we have countedon the dedicated men and women of the FBI

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to keep us safe. In that time, the FBI has beenled by six Directors. And the second longestserving Director of the FBI, for the last 12years, has been an exemplary public servant,Bob Mueller.

And by law, FBI Directors only serve for 10years. But back in 2011, when Bob’s term wasup, I asked Congress to give him 2 more years.It wasn’t a request I made lightly, and I knowCongress didn’t grant it lightly. But at a timewhen transitions were underway at the CIAand the Pentagon, and given the threats facingour Nation, we felt it was critical to have Bob’ssteady hand and strong leadership at the Bu-reau.

Twelve years is a long time to do anything,and I guarantee you that Bob’s wife Annagrees. So, in addition to asking Congress, Ithink we needed approval from Ann as well forthose extra 2 years. Today, as Bob prepares tocomplete his service, this is a wonderful oppor-tunity to—for all of us as a nation to say thankyou to Bob and Ann, but also, it gives me achance to announce my choice to be the nextDirector of the FBI, Jim Comey.

Every day, our FBI special agents, analysts,and professional staff devote—and often risk—their lives keeping us secure, from the streetsof our cities to the battlefield of Afghanistan.They embody the core principles of fidelity,bravery, and integrity.

Bob Mueller has embodied those valuesthrough decades of public service and livedthem every day as FBI Director during an ex-traordinary period in our Nation’s history. Bob,some of you will recall, was sworn in just daysbefore 9/11, and Bob not only played a key rolein our response to those attacks, he began oneof the biggest transformations of the FBI inhistory to make sure that nothing like that everhappens again.

Like the marine that he’s always been, Bobnever took his eyes off his mission. Under hiswatch, the FBI joined forces with our intelli-gence, military, and homeland security profes-sionals to break up Al Qaida cells, disrupt theiractivities, and thwart their plots. I’ll say it asclearly as I can: Countless Americans are alivetoday and our country is more secure because

of the FBI’s outstanding work under the lead-ership of Bob Mueller.

All the while, Bob and the FBI have beentireless against a whole range of challenges,from preventing violent crime and reducinggang activity, including along our border, tocracking down on white-collar criminals.

Today, there are many in the FBI who’venever known the Bureau without Bob at thehelm. And like us, they’ve admired his tenacity,but also his calm under pressure, his devotionto our security, and his fidelity to the valuesthat make us who we are. It’s a trademark—atribute to Bob’s trademark humility that mostAmericans probably wouldn’t recognize himon the street, but all of us are better because ofhis service.

And, Bob, I can’t tell you how personallygrateful I am to you and to Ann for your ser-vice. I know that everyone here joins me insaying that you will be remembered as one ofthe finest Directors in the history of the FBIand one of the most admired public servants ofour time. And I have to say, just personally, notonly has it been a pleasure to work with Bob,but I know very few people in public life whohave shown more integrity, more consistently,under more pressure than Bob Mueller.

Director Mueller. Thank you.The President. Now, I think Bob will agree

with me when I say that we have the perfectperson to carry on this work in Jim Comey, aman who stands up very tall for justice and therule of law. I was saying while we were takingpictures with his gorgeous family here, thatthey are all what Michelle calls “normalheight.” [Laughter]

The grandson of a patrolman who workedhis way up to lead the Yonkers Police Depart-ment, Jim has law enforcement in his blood. Asa young prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Of-fice in Manhattan, he helped bring down theGambino crime family. As a Federal prosecu-tor in Virginia, he led an aggressive effort tocombat gun violence that reduced homiciderates and saved lives. He has been relentless,whether it’s standing up for consumers againstcorporate fraud or bringing terrorists to justice.

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And as Deputy Attorney General, he helpedlead the Justice Department with skill and wis-dom, meeting the threats we know about andstaying perpetually prepared for the ones thatcan emerge suddenly. So Jim is exceptionallyqualified to handle the full range of challengesfaced by today’s FBI, from traditional threatslike violent and organized crime to protectingcivil rights and children from exploitation, tomeeting transnational challenges like terrorismand cyber threats.

Now, just as important as Jim’s extraordi-nary experience is his character. He’s talkedabout how, as a young boy, he and his brothernearly lost their lives. They were at home, andan intruder broke in and held them at gun-point. So Jim understands, deeply, in his core,the anguish of victims of crime—what they gothrough—and he’s made it his life’s work tospare others that pain.

To know Jim Comey is also to know hisfierce independence and his deep integrity.Like Bob, he’s that rarity in Washington some-times. He doesn’t care about politics; he onlycares about getting the job done. At key mo-ments, when it’s mattered most, he joined Bobin standing up for what he believed was right.He was prepared to give up a job he lovedrather than be part of something he felt wasfundamentally wrong. As Jim has said, “Weknow that the rule of law sets this Nation apartand is its foundation.”

Jim understands that in time of crisis, we ar-en’t judged solely by how many plots we dis-rupt or how many criminals we bring to justice,we’re also judged by our commitment to theConstitution that we’ve sworn to defend and tothe values and civil liberties that we’ve pledgedto protect. And as we’ve seen in recent days,this work of striking a balance between our se-curity, but also making sure we are maintainingfidelity to those values that we cherish, is aconstant mission. That’s who we are.

And it is in large part because of my confi-dence not only in his experience and his skill,but his integrity, that I’m confident that Jimwill be a leader who understands how to keepAmerica safe and stay true to our founding ide-als, no matter what the future may bring.

So to Bob and Ann, I want to thank youagain for your incredible service. I want tothank Jim, his wife Patrice, and their five chil-dren who are here today, Maurene, Kath-leen—Katherine, Brien, Claire, and Abby, forsupporting Jim as he takes on this importantrole. I know he couldn’t do this without you.And he is extraordinarily proud of all of you,and I can see why.

This is a 10-year assignment. I make thisnomination confident that long after I’ve leftoffice, our Nation’s security will be in goodhands with public servants like Jim Comey.And so I assure—I urge, as usual, for the Sen-ate to act promptly with hearings and to con-firm our next FBI Director right away.

I’d like now to give both of them a chance tosay a few words, starting with Bob.

Director Mueller. Thank you, Mr. President.Let me start by thanking you, Mr. President,for those kind words. And I also want to ex-press my gratitude to both President Bush andPresident Obama for giving me the honor andthe privilege of serving as the FBI Directorduring these last few years.

I particularly want to take the opportunity,though, to thank the men and women of theFBI. It’s through their hard work, their dedica-tion, their adaptability that the FBI is betterable to predict and to prevent terrorism andcrime both here and abroad. Of course, I wantto thank my wife Ann, my family, for their sup-port and their patience over the last 12 years.

And finally, I want to commend the Presi-dent for the choice of Jim Comey as the nextDirector of the FBI. I have had the opportuni-ty to work with Jim for a number of years in theDepartment of Justice, and I have found himto be a man of honesty, dedication, and integri-ty. His experience, his judgment, and hisstrong sense of duty will benefit not only theBureau, but the country as a whole.

Again, Mr. President, thank you for this op-portunity to serve.

Director-designate Comey. Thank you, Mr.President, for this honor and this opportunity.I’m not sure I have the words to describe howexcited I am to return to the Department ofJustice and especially to get to work again with

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the people of the FBI. They are men andwomen who have devoted their lives to servingand protecting others, and I simply can’t waitto be their colleague again.

Nearly everything I am and have done in myadult life is due to the great good fortune ofmarrying up. [Laughter] Thanks to the loveand support, and occasional constructive criti-cism—[laughter]—of my beloved troops, ofmy amazing wife Patrice and Abby, Claire,Brien, Kate, and Maurene, I am a much betterperson than I would have been without you. Ilove you guys. I have a debt I cannot repay you,but thank you for that.

I must be out of my mind to be followingBob Mueller. [Laughter] I don’t know whetherI can fill those shoes. But I know that howeverI do, I will be standing truly on the shoulders

of a giant, someone who has made a remark-able difference in the life of this country. I canpromise you, Mr. President and Mr. Director,that I will do my very best to honor and protectthat legacy.

And I thank you again, Mr. President, forthis chance to serve. Thank you. Thank you,sir.

The President. Can we give Bob Muellerand Ann one more big round of applause?

NOTE: The President spoke at 2:11 p.m. in theRose Garden at the White House. In his re-marks, he referred to former FBI DirectorsLouis J. Freeh, William H. Sessions, and Wil-liam H. Webster; and Peter Comey, brother ofDirector-designate Comey. Director Muellerreferred to former President George W. Bush.

Letter to Congressional Leaders on the War Powers Resolution Report forJordanJune 21, 2013


Certain U.S. forces recently deployed to Jor-dan solely to participate in a training exercise.This exercise ended on June 20, 2013. At therequest of the Government of Jordan, a com-bat-equipped detachment of approximately700 of these forces remained in Jordan afterthe conclusion of the exercise to join otherU.S. forces already in Jordan.

This detachment that participated in the ex-ercise and remained in Jordan includes Patriotmissile systems, fighter aircraft, and relatedsupport, command, control, and communica-tions personnel and systems. The detachmentwill remain in Jordan, in full coordination withthe Government of Jordan, until the security sit-uation becomes such that it is no longer needed.

The deployment of this detachment hasbeen directed in furtherance of U.S. national

security and foreign policy interests, includingthe important national interests in supportingthe security of Jordan and promoting regionalstability, pursuant to my constitutional authori-ty to conduct U.S. foreign relations and asCommander in Chief and Chief Executive.

I am providing this report as part of my ef-forts to keep the Congress fully informed, con-sistent with the War Powers Resolution (PublicLaw 93–148). I appreciate the support of theCongress in these actions.

Sincerely,

BARACK OBAMA


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Letter to Congressional Leaders on the Continuation of the NationalEmergency With Respect to North KoreaJune 21, 2013


Section 202(d) of the National EmergenciesAct (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)) provides for the auto-matic termination of a national emergency un-less, within 90 days prior to the anniversarydate of its declaration, the President publishesin the Federal Register and transmits to theCongress a notice stating that the emergency isto continue in effect beyond the anniversarydate. In accordance with this provision, I havesent to the Federal Register for publication theenclosed notice stating that the national emer-gency declared in Executive Order 13466 ofJune 26, 2008, expanded in scope in ExecutiveOrder 13551 of August 30, 2010, and ad-dressed further in Executive Order 13570 ofApril 18, 2011, is to continue in effect beyondJune 26, 2013.

The existence and risk of proliferation ofweapons-usable fissile material on the Korean

Peninsula, and the actions and policies of theGovernment of North Korea that destabilizethe Korean Peninsula and imperil U.S. ArmedForces, allies, and trading partners in the re-gion continue to constitute an unusual and ex-traordinary threat to the national security, for-eign policy, and economy of the United States.For these reasons, I have determined that it isnecessary to continue the national emergencywith respect to these threats and maintain inforce the measures taken to deal with that na-tional emergency.

Sincerely,

BARACK OBAMA



Hi, everybody. Right now the United StatesSenate is debating a bipartisan, commonsensebill that’d be an important step toward fixingour broken immigration system.

It’s a bill that would continue to strengthensecurity at our borders and hold employersmore accountable if they knowingly hire un-documented workers so they won’t have an un-fair advantage over businesses that follow thelaw.

It’s a bill that would modernize the legal im-migration system so that, as we train Americanworkers for the jobs of tomorrow, we’re also at-tracting the highly skilled entrepreneurs andengineers who grow our economy for every-one.

It’s a bill that would provide a pathway toearned citizenship for the 11 million individu-als who are in this country illegally, a pathway

that includes passing a background check,learning English, paying taxes and a penalty,and then going to the back of the line behindeveryone trying to come here legally.

And a few days ago, a report from the Con-gressional Budget Office definitively showedthat this bipartisan, commonsense bill will helpthe middle class grow our economy and shrinkour deficits by making sure that every workerin America plays by the same set of rules andpays taxes like everyone else. According to thisindependent report, reforming our immigra-tion system would reduce our deficits by al-most a trillion dollars over the next two de-cades. And it will boost our economy by morethan 5 percent, in part because of businessescreated, investments made, and technologiesinvented by immigrants.

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This comes on the heel of another reportfrom the independent office that monitors So-cial Security’s finances, which says that this im-migration bill would actually strengthen thelong-term health and solvency of Social Securi-ty for future generations. Because with thisbill, millions of additional people will start pay-ing more in taxes for things like Social Securityand education. That’ll make the economy fair-er for middle class families.

So that’s what comprehensive immigrationreform looks like: stronger enforcement, asmarter legal immigration system, a pathway toearned citizenship, a more vibrant, growingeconomy that’s fairer on the middle class, anda more stable fiscal future for our kids.

Now, the bill isn’t perfect. It’s a compro-mise. Nobody is going to get everything theywant: not Democrats, not Republicans, notme. But it’s consistent with the principles thatI and others have laid out for commonsense re-

form. That’s why Republicans and Democrats,CEOs and labor leaders, are saying that now isthe time to pass this bill. If you agree with us,reach out to your Senators and Representa-tives. Tell them that the time for excuses isover; it’s time to fix our broken immigrationsystem once and for all.

We can do this, because we are a nation oflaws and a nation of immigrants—a place en-riched by the contributions of people from allover the world—and stronger for it. That’sbeen the story of America from the start, solet’s keep it going.


NOTE: The address was recorded at approxi-mately 4:25 p.m. on June 21 in the Blue Roomat the White House for broadcast on June 22.The transcript was made available by the Of-fice of the Press Secretary on June 21, but wasembargoed for release until 6 a.m. on June 22.

Remarks at a Roundtable Discussion on Immigration Reform and anExchange With ReportersJune 24, 2013

The President. Hello, everybody. I want towelcome these extraordinary business leaderswho are here today in support of comprehen-sive immigration reform. As all of you know,we are at a critical point in the debate that’staking place in the Senate.

All these business leaders recognize the de-gree to which immigration is a contributor togrowth, a contributor to expansion, a creator ofjobs, but they also recognize that the immigra-tion system that we currently have is broken.

We have a system in which we bring out-standing young people from all across theworld to educate them here, and unfortunate-ly, too often, we send them right back so thatthey can start companies or help to grow com-panies somewhere else instead of here.

We have a situation in which millions of in-dividuals are in the shadow economy, often-times exploited at lower wages, and that hurtsthose companies that are following the rules

because they end up being at a disadvantage tosome of these less scrupulous companies.

And so all of us, I think, recognize that nowis the time to get comprehensive immigrationreform done: one that involves having verystrong border security; that makes sure thatwe’re holding employers accountable to followthe rules; one that provides earned citizenshipfor those 11 million so that they have to payback taxes, pay a fine, learn English, follow therules, get to the back of the line, but ultimatelycan be part of the above-board economy, asopposed to the below-board economy; and asystem that fixes and cleans up our legal immi-gration system so that we can continue to be anation of laws and a nation of immigrants.

The good news is, is that we’ve got a strongbipartisan bill that meets many of those princi-ples. As I’ve said before, it’s not a bill that rep-resents everything that I would like to see; itrepresents a compromise. And I think all thebusiness leaders here recognize that there are

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elements of it that they might want to tweakone way or another. But it does adhere to thecore principles that we need for a comprehen-sive immigration reform, and now is the timeto do it.

Just this past week, the Congressional Bud-get Office noted that this would end up bring-ing more money into the Federal Government.It would reduce our deficits; people would bepaying taxes. It would end up strengtheningour economy, growing our economy. And soyou’ve got a broad consensus all throughoutthe country, not just business leaders who arerepresented here today—many of whom areimmigrants themselves, many of whom startedbusinesses and are now creating opportunityall across the country—but we’re also seeinglabor leaders, we’re seeing clergy, we’re seeingpeople from all different walks of life sayingnow is the time to get this done.

So I very much appreciate all the businessleaders who are here for making this push. AndI know they’re going to be talking to variousSenators and Members of Congress over thenext several days. I would urge the Senate tobring this to the floor, and I hope that we canget the strongest possible vote out of the Sen-ate so that we can then move to the House andget this done before the summer break.

And if we get this done—when we get thisdone—I think every business leader here feelsconfident that they’ll be in a stronger positionto continue to innovate, to continue to invest,to continue to create jobs, and ensure that thiscontinues to be the land of opportunity forgenerations to come.

So thank you very much to all of you for be-ing here. And thank you guys in the press.

[At this point, several reporters spoke at once.]

Former National Security Agency ContractorEdward J. Snowden

Q. Mr. President, have you spoken to Mr.Putin, and are you confident that they’ll ex-pel—he’ll be expelled?

The President. What we know is, is thatwe’re following all of the appropriate legalchannels, and working with various other coun-tries to make sure that rule of law is observed.And beyond that, I’ll refer to the Justice De-partment, that has been actively involved inthe case. All right?

Thank you, guys.

NOTE: The President spoke at 2:10 p.m. in theRoosevelt Room at the White House. A report-er referred to President Vladimir Vladimirov-ich Putin of Russia.

Remarks at Georgetown UniversityJune 25, 2013

Thank you, Georgetown. Everybody, pleasebe seated. And my first announcement today isthat you should all take off your jackets.[Laughter] I’m going to do the same. We’vegot—[applause]. It’s not that sexy, now.[Laughter]

It is good to be back on campus, and it is agreat privilege to speak from the steps of thishistoric hall that welcomed Presidents goingback to George Washington.

I want to thank your president, PresidentDeGioia, who’s here today. I want to thankhim for hosting us. I want to thank the manymembers of my Cabinet and my administra-

tion. I want to thank Leader Pelosi and theMembers of Congress who are here. We arevery grateful for their support.

And I want to say thank you to the Hoyas inthe house for having me back. It was importantfor me to speak directly to your generation, be-cause the decisions that we make now and inthe years ahead will have a profound impact onthe world that all of you inherit.

On Christmas Eve, 1968, the astronauts ofApollo 8 did a live broadcast from lunar orbit.So Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, William An-ders—the first humans to orbit the Moon—de-scribed what they saw, and they read Scripture

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from the Book of Genesis to the rest of us backhere. And later that night, they took a photothat would change the way we see and thinkabout our world.

It was an image of Earth: beautiful, breath-taking, a glowing marble of blue oceans andgreen forests and brown mountains brushedwith white clouds, rising over the surface of theMoon.

And while the sight of our planet from spacemight seem routine today, imagine what itlooked like to those of us seeing our home, ourplanet, for the first time. Imagine what itlooked like to children like me. Even the astro-nauts were amazed. “It makes you realize,”Lovell would say, “just what you have backthere on Earth.”

And around the same time we began explor-ing space, scientists were studying changes tak-ing place in the Earth’s atmosphere. Now, sci-entists had known since the 1800s that green-house gases like carbon dioxide trap heat andthat burning fossil fuels release those gases in-to the air. That wasn’t news. But in the late1950s, the National Weather Service beganmeasuring the levels of carbon dioxide in ouratmosphere, with the worry that rising levelsmight someday disrupt the fragile balance thatmakes our planet so hospitable. And whatthey’ve found, year after year, is that the levelsof carbon pollution in our atmosphere have in-creased dramatically.

That science, accumulated and reviewedover decades, tells us that our planet is chang-ing in ways that will have profound impacts onall of humankind.

The 12 warmest years in recorded historyhave all come in the last 15 years. Last year,temperatures in some areas of the oceanreached record highs, and ice in the Arcticshrank to its smallest size on record, faster thanmost models had predicted it would. These arefacts.

Now, we know that no single weather eventis caused solely by climate change. Droughtsand fires and floods, they go back to ancienttimes. But we also know that in a world that’swarmer than it used to be, all weather eventsare affected by a warming planet. The fact that

sea levels in New York—in New York Har-bor—are now a foot higher than a century ago,that didn’t cause Hurricane Sandy, but it cer-tainly contributed to the destruction that leftlarge parts of our mightiest city dark and underwater.

The potential impacts go beyond rising sealevels. Here at home, 2012 was the warmestyear in our history. Midwest farms wereparched by the worst drought since the DustBowl, and then drenched by the wettest springon record. Western wildfires scorched an arealarger than the State of Maryland. Just lastweek, a heat wave in Alaska shot temperaturesinto the nineties.

And we know that the costs of these eventscan be measured in lost lives and lost liveli-hoods, lost homes, lost businesses, hundreds ofbillions of dollars in emergency services and di-saster relief. In fact, those who are alreadyfeeling the effects of climate change don’t havetime to deny it; they’re busy dealing with it.Firefighters are braving longer wildfire sea-sons, and States and Federal governmentshave to figure out how to budget for that. Now,I had to sit on a meeting with the Departmentof Interior and Agriculture and some of therest of my team just to figure out how we’re go-ing to pay for more and more expensive fireseasons.

Farmers see crops wilted one year, washedaway the next, and higher food prices getpassed on to you, the American consumer.Mountain communities worry about whatsmaller snowpacks will mean for tourism, andthen families at the bottom of the mountainswonder what it will mean for their drinking wa-ter. Americans across the country are alreadypaying the price of inaction in insurance pre-miums, State and local taxes, and the costs ofrebuilding and disaster relief.

So the question is not whether we need toact. The overwhelming judgment of science—of chemistry and physics and millions of mea-surements—has put all that to rest. Ninety-seven percent of scientists—including, by theway, some who originally disputed the data—have now put that to rest. They’ve acknowl-

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edged the planet is warming and human activi-ty is contributing to it.

So the question now is whether we will havethe courage to act before it’s too late. And howwe answer will have a profound impact on theworld that we leave behind not just to you, butto your children and to your grandchildren. Asa President, as a father, and as an American,I’m here to say we need to act.

I refuse to condemn your generation and fu-ture generations to a planet that’s beyond fix-ing. And that’s why today I’m announcing anew national climate action plan, and I’m hereto enlist your generation’s help in keeping theUnited States of America a leader—a globalleader—in the fight against climate change.

Now, this plan builds on progress that we’vealready made. Last year, I took office—theyear that I took office, my administrationpledged to reduce America’s greenhouse gasemissions by about 17 percent from their 2005levels by the end of this decade. And we rolledup our sleeves, and we got to work. We dou-bled the electricity we generate from wind andthe sun. We doubled the mileage our cars willget on a gallon of gas by the middle of the nextdecade.

Here at Georgetown, I unveiled my strategyfor a secure energy future. And thanks to theingenuity of our businesses, we’re starting toproduce much more of our own energy. We’rebuilding the first nuclear power plants in morethan three decades in Georgia and South Caro-lina. For the first time in 18 years, America ispoised to produce more of our own oil than webuy from other nations. And today, we producemore natural gas than anybody else. So we’reproducing energy. And these advances havegrown our economy, they’ve created new jobs,they can’t be shipped overseas, and by the way,they’ve also helped to drive our carbon pollu-tion to its lowest levels in nearly 20 years. Since2006, no country on Earth has reduced its totalcarbon pollution by as much as the UnitedStates of America.

So it’s a good start. But the reason we’re allhere in the heat today is because we knowwe’ve got more to do. In my State of the UnionAddress, I urged Congress to come up with a

bipartisan, market-based solution to climatechange, like the one that Republican andDemocratic Senators worked on together a fewyears ago. And I still want to see that happen.I’m willing to work with anyone to make thathappen.

But this is a challenge that does not pausefor partisan gridlock. It demands our attentionnow. And this is my plan to meet it: a plan tocut carbon pollution, a plan to protect ourcountry from the impacts of climate change,and a plan to lead the world in a coordinatedassault on a changing climate.

This plan begins with cutting carbon pollu-tion by changing the way we use energy: usingless dirty energy, using more clean energy,wasting less energy throughout our economy.

Now, 43 years ago, Congress passed a lawcalled the Clean Air Act of 1970. It was a goodlaw. The reasoning behind it was simple: Newtechnology can protect our health by protect-ing the air we breathe from harmful pollution.And that law passed the Senate unanimously.Think about that: It passed the Senate unani-mously. It passed the House of Representa-tives 375 to 1. I don’t know who the one guywas—I haven’t looked that up. [Laughter] Imean, you can barely get that many votes toname a post office these days. [Laughter]

It was signed into law by a Republican Pres-ident. It was later strengthened by another Re-publican President. This used to be a biparti-san issue.

Six years ago, the Supreme Court ruled thatgreenhouse gases are pollutants covered bythat same Clean Air Act. And they required theEnvironmental Protection Agency, the EPA, todetermine whether they’re a threat to ourhealth and welfare. And in 2009, the EPA de-termined that they are a threat to both ourhealth and our welfare in many differentways—from dirtier air to more common heatwaves—and therefore subject to regulation.

Now, today, about 40 percent of America’scarbon pollution comes from our power plants.But here’s the thing: Right now there are noFederal limits to the amount of carbon pollu-tion that those plants can pump into our air.None. Zero. We limit the amount of toxic

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chemicals like mercury and sulfur and arsenicin our air or our water, but power plants canstill dump unlimited amounts of carbon pollu-tion into the air for free. That’s not right, that’snot safe, and it needs to stop.

So today, for the sake of our children andthe health and safety of all Americans, I’m di-recting the Environmental Protection Agencyto put an end to the limitless dumping of car-bon pollution from our power plants and com-plete new pollution standards for both new andexisting power plants.

I’m also directing the EPA to develop thesestandards in an open and transparent way, toprovide flexibility to different States with dif-ferent needs, and build on the leadership thatmany States and cities and companies have al-ready shown. In fact, many power companieshave already begun modernizing their plantsand creating new jobs in the process. Othershave shifted to burning cleaner natural gas in-stead of dirtier fuel sources.

Nearly a dozen States have already imple-mented or are implementing their own mar-ket-based programs to reduce carbon pollu-tion. More than 25 have set energy efficiencytargets. More than 35 have set renewable ener-gy targets. Over 1,000 mayors have signedagreements to cut carbon pollution. So theidea of setting higher pollution standards forour power plants is not new. It’s just time forWashington to catch up with the rest of thecountry. And that’s what we intend to do.

Now, what you’ll hear from the special inter-ests and their allies in Congress is that this willkill jobs and crush the economy and basicallyend American free enterprise as we know it.And the reason I know you’ll hear those thingsis because that’s what they said every timeAmerica sets clear rules and better standardsfor our air and our water and our children’shealth. And every time, they’ve been wrong.

For example, in 1970, when we decidedthrough the Clean Air Act to do somethingabout the smog that was choking our cities—and by the way, most young people here aren’told enough to remember what it was like, butwhen I was going to school in 1979, 1980 inLos Angeles, there were days where folks

couldn’t go outside. And the sunsets werespectacular because of all the pollution in theair.

But at the time when we passed the CleanAir Act to try to get rid of some of this smog,some of the same doomsayers were saying newpollution standards will decimate the auto in-dustry. Guess what? It didn’t happen. Our airgot cleaner.

In 1990, when we decided to do somethingabout acid rain, they said our electricity billswould go up, the lights would go off, business-es around the country would suffer, I quote, “aquiet death.” None of it happened, except wecut acid rain dramatically.

See, the problem with all these tired excusesfor inaction is that it suggests a fundamentallack of faith in American business and Ameri-can ingenuity. These critics seem to think thatwhen we ask our businesses to innovate and re-duce pollution and lead, they can’t or theywon’t do it. They’ll just kind of give up andquit. But in America, we know that’s not true.Look at our history.

When we restricted cancer-causing chemi-cals in plastics and leaded fuel in our cars, itdidn’t end the plastics industry or the oil indus-try. American chemists came up with bettersubstitutes. When we phased out CFCs—thegases that were depleting the ozone layer—itdidn’t kill off refrigerators or air conditionersor deodorant. [Laughter] American workersand businesses figured out how to do it betterwithout harming the environment as much.The fuel standards that we put in place just afew years ago didn’t cripple automakers. TheAmerican auto industry retooled, and today,our automakers are selling the best cars in theworld at a faster rate than they have in 5 years,with more hybrid, more plug-in, more fuel-ef-ficient cars for everybody to choose from.

So the point is, if you look at our history,don’t bet against American industry. Don’t betagainst American workers. Don’t tell folks thatwe have to choose between the health of ourchildren or the health of our economy.

The old rules may say we can’t protect ourenvironment and promote economic growth atthe same time, but in America, we’ve always

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used new technologies—we’ve used science,we’ve used research and development and dis-covery—to make the old rules obsolete.

Today, we use more clean energy—more re-newables and natural gas—which is supportinghundreds of thousands of good jobs. We wasteless energy, which saves you money at thepump and in your pocketbooks. And guesswhat? Our economy is 60-percent bigger thanit was 20 years ago, while our carbon emissionsare roughly back to where they were 20 yearsago.

So, obviously, we can figure this out. It’s notan either-or, it’s a both-and. We’ve got to lookafter our children, we have to look after our fu-ture, and we have to grow the economy andcreate jobs. We can do all of that as long as wedon’t fear the future, instead, we seize it.

And by the way, don’t take my word for it.Recently, more than 500 businesses, includinggiants like GM and Nike, issued a climate dec-laration, calling action on climate change “oneof the great opportunities of the 21st century.”Walmart is working to cut its carbon pollutionby 20 percent and transition completely to re-newable energy. [Applause] Yes. Walmart de-serves a cheer for that. But think about it:Would the biggest company, the biggest retail-er in America, would they really do that if itweren’t good for business? If it weren’t goodfor their shareholders?

A low-carbon, clean energy economy can bean engine of growth for decades to come. AndI want America to build that engine. I wantAmerica to build that future right here in theUnited States of America. That’s our task.

Now, one thing I want to make sure every-body understands: This does not mean thatwe’re going to suddenly stop producing fossilfuels. Our economy wouldn’t run very well if itdid. And transitioning to a clean energy econo-my takes time. But when the doomsayers trotout the old warnings that these ambitions willsomehow hurt our energy supply, just remindthem that America produced more oil than wehave in 15 years. What is true is that we can’tjust drill our way out of the energy and climatechallenge that we face. That’s not possible.

I’ve put forward in the past an all-of-the-above energy strategy, but our energy strategymust be about more than just producing moreoil. And by the way, it’s certainly got to beabout more than just building one pipeline.

Now, I know there’s been, for example, a lotof controversy surrounding the proposal tobuild a pipeline, the Keystone pipeline, thatwould carry oil from Canadian tar sands downto refineries in the Gulf. And the State Depart-ment is going through the final stages of evalu-ating the proposal. That’s how it’s always beendone. But I do want to be clear: Allowing theKeystone pipeline to be built requires a findingthat doing so would be in our Nation’s interest.And our national interest will be served only ifthis project does not significantly exacerbatethe problem of carbon pollution. The net ef-fects of the pipeline’s impact on our climatewill be absolutely critical to determiningwhether this project is allowed to go forward.It’s relevant.

Now, even as we’re producing more domes-tic oil, we’re also producing more cleaner-burning natural gas than any other country onEarth. And again, sometimes, there are dis-putes about natural gas, but let me say this: Weshould strengthen our position as the top natu-ral gas producer because, in the medium termat least, it not only can provide safe, cheappower, but it can also help reduce our carbonemissions.

Federally supported technology has helpedour businesses drill more effectively and ex-tract more gas. And now we’ll keep workingwith the industry to make drilling safer andcleaner, to make sure that we’re not seeingmethane emissions, and to put people to workmodernizing our natural gas infrastructure sothat we can power more homes and businesseswith cleaner energy.

The bottom line is, natural gas is creatingjobs. It’s lowering many families’ heat andpower bills. And it’s the transition fuel that canpower our economy with less carbon pollutioneven as our businesses work to develop andthen deploy more of the technology requiredfor the even cleaner energy economy of the fu-ture.

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And that brings me to the second way thatwe’re going to reduce carbon pollution: by us-ing more clean energy. Over the past 4 years,we’ve doubled the electricity that we generatefrom zero-carbon wind and solar power. Andthat means jobs: jobs manufacturing the windturbines that now generate enough electricityto power nearly 15 million homes; jobs install-ing the solar panels that now generate morethan four times the power at less cost than justa few years ago.

I know some Republicans in Washingtondismiss these jobs, but those who do need tocall home, because 75 percent of all wind ener-gy in this country is generated in Republicandistricts. [Laughter] And that may explain whylast year, Republican Governors in Kansas andOklahoma and Iowa—Iowa, by the way, a Statethat harnessed—harnesses almost 25 percentof its electricity from the wind—helped us inthe fight to extend tax credits for wind energymanufacturers and producers. Tens of thou-sands of good jobs were on the line, and thosejobs were worth the fight.

And countries like China and Germany aregoing all in in the race for clean energy. I be-lieve Americans build things better than any-body else. I want America to win that race, butwe can’t win it if we’re not in it.

So the plan I’m announcing today will helpus double again our energy from wind and sun.Today I’m directing the Interior Departmentto green-light enough private, renewable ener-gy capacity on public lands to power more than6 million homes by 2020.

The Department of Defense—the biggestenergy consumer in America—will install 3gigawatts of renewable power on its bases, gen-erating about the same amount of electricityeach year as you’d get from burning 3 milliontons of coal.

And because billions of your tax dollars con-tinue to—still—subsidize some of the mostprofitable corporations in the history of theworld, my budget once again calls for Congressto end the tax breaks for big oil companies andinvest in the clean energy companies that willfuel our future.

Now, the third way to reduce carbon pollu-tion is to waste less energy: in our cars, ourhomes, our businesses. The fuel standards weset over the past few years mean that by themiddle of the next decade, the cars and truckswe buy will go twice as far on a gallon of gas.That means you’ll have to fill up half as often;we’ll all reduce carbon pollution. And we builton that success by setting the first-ever stan-dards for heavy-duty trucks and buses andvans. And in the coming months, we’ll partnerwith truck makers to do it again for the nextgeneration of vehicles.

Now, meanwhile, the energy we use in ourhomes and our businesses and our factories,our schools, our hospitals, that’s responsiblefor about one-third of our greenhouse gases.The good news is, simple upgrades don’t justcut that pollution, they put people to workmanufacturing and installing smarter lights andwindows and sensors and appliances. And thesavings show up in our electricity bills everymonth forever. And that’s why we’ve set newenergy standards for appliances like refrigera-tors and dishwashers. And today, our business-es are building better ones that will also cutcarbon pollution and cut consumers’ electricitybills by hundreds of billions of dollars.

That means, by the way, that our FederalGovernment also has to lead by example. I’mproud that Federal agencies have reducedtheir greenhouse gas emissions by more than15 percent since I took office. But we can doeven better than that. So today I’m setting anew goal: Your Federal Government will con-sume 20 percent of its electricity from renew-able sources within the next 7 years. We aregoing to set that goal.

We’ll also encourage private capital to getoff the sidelines and get into these energy-sav-ing investments. And by the end of the next de-cade, these combined efficiency standards forappliances and Federal buildings will reducecarbon pollution by at least 3 billion tons.That’s an amount equal to what our entire en-ergy sector emits in nearly half a year.

So I know these standards don’t sound allthat sexy, but think of it this way: That’s theequivalent of planting 7.6 billion trees and let-

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ting them grow for 10 years, all while doing thedishes. It is a great deal, and we need to be do-ing it.

So using less dirty energy, transitioning tocleaner sources of energy, wasting less energythrough our economy is where we need to go.And this plan will get us there faster. But Iwant to be honest: This will not get us thereovernight. The hard truth is, carbon pollutionhas built up in our atmosphere for decadesnow. And even if we Americans do our part,the planet will slowly keep warming for sometime to come. The seas will slowly keep rising,and storms will get more severe, based on thescience. It’s like tapping the brakes of a car be-fore you come to a complete stop and then canshift into reverse. It’s going to take time forcarbon emissions to stabilize.

So, in the meantime, we’re going to need toget prepared. And that’s why this plan will alsoprotect critical sectors of our economy andprepare the United States for the impacts ofclimate change that we cannot avoid. Statesand cities across the country are already takingit upon themselves to get ready. Miami Beachis hardening its water supply against seepingsaltwater. We’re partnering with the State ofFlorida to restore Florida’s natural clean waterdelivery system: the Everglades.

The overwhelmingly Republican legislaturein Texas voted to spend money on a new waterdevelopment bank as long—as a long-runningdrought cost jobs and forced a town to truck inwater from the outside.

New York City is fortifying its 520 miles ofcoastline as an insurance policy against morefrequent and costly storms. And what we’velearned from Hurricane Sandy and other disas-ters is that we’ve got to build smarter, more re-silient infrastructure that can protect ourhomes and businesses and withstand morepowerful storms. That means stronger sea-walls, natural barriers, hardened power grids,hardened water systems, hardened fuel sup-plies.

So the budget I sent Congress includesfunding to support communities that buildthese projects, and this plan directs Federalagencies to make sure that any new project

funded with taxpayer dollars is built to with-stand increased flood risk.

And we’ll partner with communities seekinghelp to prepare for droughts and floods, re-duce the risk of wildfires, protect the dunesand wetlands that pull double duty as greenspace and as natural storm barriers. And we’llalso open our climate data and NASA climateimagery to the public to make sure that citiesand States assess risk under different climatescenarios so that we don’t waste money build-ing structures that don’t withstand the nextstorm.

So that’s what my administration will do tosupport the work already underway acrossAmerica, not only to cut carbon pollution, butalso to protect ourselves from climate change.But as I think everybody here understands, nonation can solve this challenge alone, not evenone as powerful as ours. And that’s why the fi-nal part of our plan calls on America to lead:lead international efforts to combat a changingclimate.

And make no mistake, the world still looksto America to lead. When I spoke to youngpeople in Turkey a few years ago, the firstquestion I got wasn’t about the challenges thatpart of the world faces, it was about the climatechallenge that we all face and America’s role inaddressing it. And it was a fair question be-cause as the world’s largest economy and sec-ond largest carbon emitter, as a country withunsurpassed ability to drive innovation and sci-entific breakthroughs, as the country that peo-ple around the world continue to look to intimes of crisis, we’ve got a vital role to play. Wecan’t stand on the sidelines. We’ve got aunique responsibility. And the steps that I’veoutlined today prove that we’re willing to meetthat responsibility.

But while America’s carbon pollution felllast year, global carbon pollution rose to a re-cord high. That’s a problem. Developing coun-tries are using more and more energy, and tensof millions of people entering a global middleclass naturally want to buy cars and air condi-tioners of their own, just like us. Can’t blamethem for that. And when you have conversa-tions with poorer countries, they’ll say: Well,

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you went through these stages of development.Why can’t we?

But what we also have to recognize is thesesame countries are also more vulnerable to theeffects of climate change than we are. Theydon’t just have as much to lose, they probablyhave more to lose.

Developing nations with some of the fastestrising levels of carbon pollution are going tohave to take action to meet this challengealongside us. They’re watching what we do, butwe’ve got to make sure that they’re stepping upto the plate as well. We’ll—we compete forbusiness with them, but we also share a planet.And we have to all shoulder the responsibilityfor keeping the planet habitable, or we’re go-ing to suffer the consequences, together.

So to help more countries transitioning tocleaner sources of energy and to help them doit faster, we’re going to partner with our pri-vate sector to apply private sector technologi-cal know-how in countries that transition tonatural gas. We’ve mobilized billions of dollarsin private capital for clean energy projectsaround the world.

Today I’m calling for an end of public fi-nancing for new coal plants overseas, unlessthey deploy carbon capture technologies orthere’s no other viable way for the poorestcountries to generate electricity. And I urgeother countries to join this effort.

And I’m directing my administration tolaunch negotiations toward global free trade inenvironmental goods and services, includingclean energy technology, to help more coun-tries skip past the dirty phase of developmentand join a global low-carbon economy. Theydon’t have to repeat all the same mistakes thatwe make.

We’ve also intensified our climate coopera-tion with major emerging economies like Indiaand Brazil and China, the world’s largest emit-ter. So, for example, earlier this month, Presi-dent Xi of China and I reached an importantagreement to jointly phase down our produc-tion and consumption of dangerous hydrofluo-rocarbons, and we intend to take more stepstogether in the months to come. It will make a

difference. It’s a significant step in the reduc-tion of carbon emissions.

And finally, my administration will redoubleour efforts to engage our international partnersin reaching a new global agreement to reducecarbon pollution through concrete action.

Four years ago, in Copenhagen, every majorcountry agreed, for the first time, to limit car-bon pollution by 2020. Two years ago, we de-cided to forge a new agreement beyond 2020that would apply to all countries, not just de-veloped countries.

What we need is an agreement that’s ambi-tious, because that’s what the scale of the chal-lenge demands. We need an inclusive agree-ment because every country has to play itspart. And we need an agreement that’s flexible,because different nations have different needs.And if we can come together and get this right,we can define a sustainable future for yourgeneration.

So that’s my plan. The actions I’ve an-nounced today should send a strong signal tothe world that America intends to take bold ac-tion to reduce carbon pollution. We will con-tinue to lead by the power of our example, be-cause that’s what the United States of Americahas always done.

I am convinced this is the fight America canand will lead in the 21st century. And I’m con-vinced this is a fight that America must lead.But it will require all of us to do our part. We’llneed scientists to design new fuels, and we’llneed farmers to grow new fuels. We’ll needengineers to devise new technologies, and we’llneed businesses to make and sell those tech-nologies. We’ll need workers to operate assem-bly lines that hum with high-tech, zero-carboncomponents, but we’ll also need builders tohammer into place the foundations for a newclean energy era.

We’re going to need to give special care topeople and communities that are unsettled bythis transition, not just here in the UnitedStates, but around the world. And those of usin positions of responsibility, we’ll need to beless concerned with the judgment of special in-terests and well-connected donors and moreconcerned with the judgment of posterity. Be-

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cause you and your children and your chil-dren’s children will have to live with the conse-quences of our decisions.

As I said before, climate change has becomea partisan issue, but it hasn’t always been. Itwasn’t that long ago that Republicans led theway on new and innovative policies to tacklethese issues. Richard Nixon opened the EPA.George H.W. Bush declared—first U.S. Presi-dent to declare—“human activities are chang-ing the atmosphere in unexpected and unprec-edented ways.” Someone who never shies awayfrom a challenge, John McCain introduced amarket-based cap-and-trade bill to slow carbonpollution.

The woman that I’ve chosen to head up theEPA, Gina McCarthy, she’s worked—[ap-plause]—she’s terrific. Gina has worked for theEPA in my administration, but she’s alsoworked for five Republican Governors. She’sgot a long track record of working with indus-try and business leaders to forge commonsensesolutions. Unfortunately, she’s being held up inthe Senate. She’s been held up for months,forced to jump through hoops no Cabinetnominee should ever have to, not because shelacks qualifications, but because there are toomany in the Republican Party right now whothink that the Environmental Protection Agen-cy has no business protecting our environmentfrom carbon pollution. The Senate should con-firm her without any further obstruction or de-lay.

But more broadly, we’ve got to move be-yond partisan politics on this issue. I want to beclear: I am willing to work with anybody—Re-publicans, Democrats, Independents, Liber-tarians, Greens, anybody—to combat thisthreat on behalf of our kids. I am open to allsorts of new ideas, maybe better ideas, to makesure that we deal with climate change in a waythat promotes jobs and growth.

Nobody has a monopoly on what is a veryhard problem, but I don’t have much patiencefor anyone who denies that this challenge is re-al. We don’t have time for a meeting of theFlat Earth Society. Sticking your head in thesand might make you feel safer, but it’s not go-ing to protect you from the coming storm. And

ultimately, we will be judged as a people and asa society and as a country on where we go fromhere.

Our Founders believed that those of us inpositions of power are elected not just to serveas custodians of the present, but as caretakersof the future. And they charged us to make de-cisions with an eye on a longer horizon thanthe arc of our own political careers. That’swhat the American people expect. That’s whatthey deserve.

And someday, our children and our chil-dren’s children will look at us in the eye, andthey’ll ask us, did we do all that we could whenwe had the chance to deal with this problemand leave them a cleaner, safer, more stableworld? And I want to be able to say, yes, wedid. Don’t you want that?

Americans are not a people who look back-wards, we’re a people who look forward. We’renot a people who fear what the future holds,we shape it. What we need in this fight are citi-zens who will stand up and speak up and com-pel us to do what this moment demands.

Understand, this is not just a job for politi-cians. So I’m going to need all of you to edu-cate your classmates, your colleagues, yourparents, your friends. Tell them what’s at stake.Speak up at town halls, church groups, PTAmeetings. Push back on misinformation. Speakup for the facts. Broaden the circle of thosewho are willing to stand up for our future.

Convince those in power to reduce our car-bon pollution. Push your own communities toadopt smarter practices. Invest. Divest. Re-mind folks there’s no contradiction between asound environment and strong economicgrowth. And remind everyone who representsyou at every level of government that shelter-ing future generations against the ravages ofclimate change is a prerequisite for your vote.Make yourself heard on this issue.

I understand the politics will be tough. Thechallenge we must accept will not reward uswith a clear moment of victory. There’s nogathering army to defeat. There’s no peacetreaty to sign. When President Kennedy saidwe’d go to the moon within the decade, weknew we’d build a spaceship and we’d meet

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the goal. Our progress here will be measureddifferently: in crises averted, in a planet pre-served. But can we imagine a more worthygoal? For while we may not live to see the fullrealization of our ambition, we will have thesatisfaction of knowing that the world we leaveto our children will be better off for what wedid.

“It makes you realize,” that astronaut said allthose years ago, “just what you have back thereon Earth.” And that image in the photograph,that bright blue ball rising over the Moon’s sur-face containing everything we hold dear—thelaughter of children, a quiet sunset, all thehopes and dreams of posterity—that’s what’s at

stake. That’s what we’re fighting for. And if weremember that, I’m absolutely sure we’ll suc-ceed.

Now, thank you. God bless you. God blessthe United States of America.

NOTE: The President spoke at 1:45 p.m. out-side the Old North building. In his remarks, hereferred to former President George H.W.Bush; Gov. Samuel D. Brownback of Kansas;Gov. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma; Gov. Terry E.Branstad of Iowa; former Govs. William F.Weld, A. Paul Cellucci, Jane M. Swift, and W.Mitt Romney of Massachusetts; and formerGov. M. Jodi Rell of Connecticut.

Statement on the Accession of Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani as Amir of QatarJune 25, 2013

I extend my best wishes to His HighnessSheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani as he as-sumes his new role as the Amir of Qatar. Qatar isan important partner of the United States, andwe look forward to further strengthening our co-operation in the years ahead. I also extend my

appreciation to His Highness Sheikh Hamad binKhalifa Al Thani for his friendship and leader-ship. The United States looks forward to work-ing with Sheikh Tamim to deepen the ties be-tween our two countries and to continue ourclose partnership on issues of mutual interest.

Statement on the United States Supreme Court Ruling on the Voting RightsActJune 25, 2013

I am deeply disappointed with the SupremeCourt’s decision today. For nearly 50 years, theVoting Rights Act—enacted and repeatedly re-newed by wide bipartisan majorities in Con-gress—has helped secure the right to vote formillions of Americans. Today’s decision invali-dating one of its core provisions upsets decadesof well-established practices that help makesure voting is fair, especially in places wherevoting discrimination has been historicallyprevalent.

As a nation, we’ve made a great deal of prog-ress towards guaranteeing every American theright to vote. But as the Supreme Court recog-nized, voting discrimination still exists. Andwhile today’s decision is a setback, it doesn’trepresent the end of our efforts to end votingdiscrimination. I am calling on Congress topass legislation to ensure every American hasequal access to the polls. My administrationwill continue to do everything in its power toensure a fair and equal voting process.

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Statement on Senate Confirmation of Penny S. Pritzker as Secretary ofCommerceJune 25, 2013

I am pleased the Senate took bipartisan ac-tion to confirm Penny Pritzker as our nextCommerce Secretary. Penny is a provenleader, a successful entrepreneur, and one ofthe most accomplished and highly respectedwomen in business today. She knows what ittakes to build companies from the ground up,

and she shares my belief in doing everythingwe can to help businesses and workers suc-ceed and make America a magnet for goodjobs. Penny will be a key member of my eco-nomic team as we continue to work to growour economy and strengthen the middleclass.

Statement on the Election of Edward J. Markey to the United States SenateJune 25, 2013

Tonight I spoke to Ed Markey to congratu-late him on his election to the United StatesSenate.

During more than 36 years as a Congress-man, Ed has distinguished himself as a leaderon many of the key challenges of our time,from fighting carbon pollution to protectingour children from gun violence, to creatinggood middle class jobs. He’s earned a reputa-tion as an effective, creative legislator, willingto partner with colleagues across the aisle tomake progress on the issues that matter most.The people of Massachusetts can be proud thatthey have another strong leader fighting forthem in the Senate, and people across thecountry will benefit from Ed’s talent and integ-rity.

I also want to thank Mo Cowan for his hardwork and dedication over the last 5 months.And I want to thank John Kerry for his nearlythree decades of extraordinary service to thepeople of Massachusetts in the Senate and foragreeing to continue to serve the Americanpeople as Secretary of State. I’m confident Edwill help carry on that legacy, and I look for-ward to working with him to strengthen oureconomy, protect the middle class, and expandopportunity.

NOTE: The statement referred to Sen. WilliamM. “Mo” Cowan, who was appointed by Gov.Deval L. Patrick of Massachusetts to assumeoffice on an interim basis following the resig-nation of former Sen. John F. Kerry.

Statement on the United States Supreme Court Ruling on the Defense ofMarriage ActJune 26, 2013

I applaud the Supreme Court’s decision tostrike down the Defense of Marriage Act. Thiswas discrimination enshrined in law. It treatedloving, committed gay and lesbian couples as aseparate and lesser class of people. The Su-preme Court has righted that wrong, and ourcountry is better off for it. We are a peoplewho declared that we are all created equal, andthe love we commit to one another must beequal as well.

This ruling is a victory for couples who havelong fought for equal treatment under the law;for children whose parents’ marriages will nowbe recognized, rightly, as legitimate; for fami-lies that, at long last, will get the respect andprotection they deserve; and for friends andsupporters who have wanted nothing morethan to see their loved ones treated fairly andhave worked hard to persuade their Nation tochange for the better.

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So we welcome today’s decision, and I’ve di-rected the Attorney General to work with oth-er members of my Cabinet to review all rele-vant Federal statutes to ensure this decision,including its implications for Federal benefitsand obligations, is implemented swiftly andsmoothly.

On an issue as sensitive as this, knowing thatAmericans hold a wide range of views based ondeeply held beliefs, maintaining our Nation’s

commitment to religious freedom is also vital.How religious institutions define and conse-crate marriage has always been up to those in-stitutions. Nothing about this decision, whichapplies only to civil marriages, changes that.

The laws of our land are catching up to thefundamental truth that millions of Americanshold in our hearts: When all Americans aretreated as equal, no matter who they are orwhom they love, we are all more free.

Statement on the Renomination of General Martin E. Dempsey To BeChairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Admiral James A. “Sandy”Winnefeld, Jr., To Be Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of StaffJune 26, 2013

Today I am proud to announce my intentionto renominate General Marty Dempsey asChairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Ad-miral Sandy Winnefeld as the Vice Chairmanof the Joint Chiefs of Staff. These two superbofficers have led our military and their familieswith great distinction, deep conviction, and ab-solute integrity over the past 2 years, and I amconfident in saying that our Nation is safer andmore secure today because of their visionary,dedicated, and tireless leadership.

General Dempsey often talks about trust asthe foundational quality of the profession ofarms: trust between leaders, those they lead,the institutions they represent, and the Nationthey serve. These two distinguished militaryleaders have earned my trust and that of theAmerican people. I am inspired by their dedi-cated service to our great Nation and the ex-ample they set for our women and men in uni-form. I urge the Senate to reconfirm these out-standing officers as swiftly as possible.

The President’s News Conference With President Macky Sall of Senegal inDakar, SenegalJune 27, 2013

[President Sall spoke in French, and his re-marks were translated by an interpreter as fol-lows.]

President Sall. Mr. President, Mr. BarackObama, good morning, ladies and gentlemen.I’m extremely happy to welcome PresidentBarack Obama for his first trip to Africa sincehis reelection in November last year.

So, Mr. President, I’d like to once again wel-come you to Senegal and wish you a pleasantstay in Senegal. Your stay among us, Mr. Presi-dent, is a source of pride for the Senegalesepopulation and its Government.

Now, with this visit we are jointly pursuingan age-old tradition, a privileged tradition fullof trust between Senegal and the United Statesof America. I’m extremely happy that you’vechosen Senegal to be the first point of entry onthis continent after having received me verywarmly on the 20th of March in the Oval Of-fice.

President Obama and myself, we have heldtalks on issues of common interest on the Afri-can Continent as well as at the internationallevel. Of course, we discussed bilateral issuesand my capacity as the current chairperson ofthe orientation committee of NEPAD.

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I informed the President about our Africaninfrastructure projects as well as a discussionon a bilateral level about the excellent coopera-tion between our two countries. And I thankedthe U.S. for the help in developing Senegal.And we also have a common vision of the mainvalues: freedom, democracy, peaceful coexis-tence of cultures and religions, and good gov-ernance.

On this last issue, Senegal would like tocommend the American initiative of OpenGovernment Partnership, which we fully en-dorse. We are working together to protect andpromote all these common shared values forthe strengthening of our bilateral cooperationand the continuation of our joint efforts for sta-bility in Africa and the protection of peace andsecurity at the international level.

I would like to commend President Obama’sleadership and his will to start a new—give anew impetus to a relationship between Africaand the U.S. U.S.A. are a great country, spear-heading progress in all fields for greater pros-perity between the African Continent and theU.S. And the African Continent is progressing,is marching ahead with the tremendous poten-tial in terms of natural and human resources.

On both sides, we have a historical opportu-nity here to open new prospects for relationson the business of complementarity by offeringgreater opportunities to our youth and by stim-ulating trade and investments for shared pros-perity. Senegal is extremely happy with thisnew impetus, Mr. President, and I’m ready topursue our efforts with you in this direction.

I thank you, and I would like to give thefloor to you so that you can address the press.Thank you.

President Obama. Thank you very much,President Sall, for your generous words andthe very warm welcome that we’ve receivedfrom your delegation. On behalf of myself andMichelle, our two daughters Malia and Sasha,and our entire delegation: It is wonderful to behere in Senegal.

[President Sall spoke in English.]

President Sall. Thank you.

President Obama. To all the Senegalese wholined the streets to welcome us: We are deeplytouched. We are so grateful for your teranga,your hospitality.

I’m making this visit to Africa because, asI’ve said before, I see this as a moment of greatprogress and great promise for the continent.It’s true that Africa faces great challenges, andmeeting these challenges together is a focus ofmy trip. But all too often the world overlooksthe amazing progress that Africa is making, in-cluding progress in strengthening democracy.Many African nations have made tremendousstrides in improving democratic governanceand empowering citizens. Here in West Africa,we see progress in Sierra Leone and Liberia,Cote d’Ivoire and Niger, in Ghana and here inSenegal.

And that’s why I welcomed President Sall tothe White House this spring. And that’s whyI’m beginning my trip here in Dakar. Senegalis one of the most stable democracies in Africaand one of the strongest partners that we havein the region. It’s moving in the right directionwith reforms to deepen democratic institu-tions. And as more Africans across this conti-nent stand up and demand governments thatare accountable and serve the people, I believeSenegal can be a great example.

I’m told there’s a word here, disso, which re-flects the desire of Senegalese to resolve dis-agreements through dialogue and not conflict.Senegal has never suffered a military coup.There are free and fair elections, repeatedtransfers of power, peacefully, a vibrant civilsociety, a strong press, and dozens of politicalparties. And I have to say, back in Washington,we have our hands full with just two parties.

President Sall. Yes. Two hundred, sir.[Laughter]

President Obama. I don’t know how youmanage it. [Laughter] But after last year’s elec-tion here, we were inspired by the citizens ofSenegal demanding that their votes be respect-ed and that President Sall be sworn in as thedemocratically elected leader of this nation.

Of course, we all know that democracy is notjust what happens on election day, it’s alsowhat happens in between elections. So,

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President Sall, I want to commend you for theambitious reforms that you’re pursuing tostrengthen democratic governance: moreopenness, more transparency, more account-ability. I know it’s hard, but it’s absolutely nec-essary both politically and economically. Histo-ry shows that governments that are more openand more responsive to citizens are more ef-fective in delivering basic services. They’re alsomore successful in attracting the trade and in-vestment that creates jobs and lifts people outof poverty.

President Sall, during our discussions, up-dated me on his reform efforts, including ef-forts to stamp out corruption. As progress ismade, I look forward to seeing Senegal join theOpen Government Partnership. And becausejust as the United States stood with the peopleof Senegal as you defended your democracylast year, we want to remain your partner foryears to come, to show that democracy deliversprogress and jobs and justice that people de-serve.

With regard to jobs, the President and I dis-cussed the need to increase our trade andmake it easier to invest and do business togeth-er. On our side, the African Growth and Op-portunity Act, also known as AGOA, expires in2 years, and I’m looking for ways to renew it,but also improve it so that we’re generatingmore jobs and more trade. We also need to domore across this region. So I’m directing mynew U.S. Trade Representative, Mike Froman,to finalize a new trade and investment agree-ment with ECOWAS, the Economic Commu-nity of West African States.

Ultimately, though, growth and progress hasto reach more people. We believe in broad-based development and growth, not just forthe few, but for the many. And our mission’salways been to try to deliver that kind of broad-based growth through our development pro-gram. So, as one example, I’m very proud to behere as we mark the 50th anniversary of thePeace Corps in Senegal. Today I’m reaffirmingthat the United States will remain one of Sene-gal’s strongest partners in development, fromnew roads and bridges, so merchants can gettheir goods to the market, to new textbooks

and schools, including the Internet, so thatmore students can learn.

Since most people in Senegal, as is trueacross Africa, work in agriculture, our food se-curity initiative will keep helping farmers har-ness new seeds and technologies, increaseyields and boost incomes. And as President Sallpursues land reforms, we’re looking forward toSenegal joining the New Alliance for Food Se-curity and Nutrition, which I’ll be discussingfurther tomorrow. We will continue effortsthat are shared against HIV and AIDS, whichwe’ve—because of those efforts, we’ve beenable to keep infection rates here relatively low.We’ll continue distributing the nets that aresaving the lives of countless Senegalese frommalaria.

And more broadly, I want to thank Senegalfor being such a strong partner in regional se-curity. Senegalese peacekeepers have servedbravely from Cote d’Ivoire to the Congo. Sene-galese are currently helping the people of Malireclaim their country, and I assured PresidentSall that American support for that mission willcontinue. And with Senegal, we support—within Senegal, we support President Sall’s de-termined efforts to achieve a lasting peace inthe Casamance region.

Finally, I’m very pleased that we’re deepen-ing the ties between our peoples, especiallyyoung people. I was proud to welcome twoSenegalese—both women—to the forum foryoung African leaders that we hosted in theWhite House. And in the coming days I’ll beannouncing an expansion of our efforts to em-power more young Africans who want to con-tribute to their respective countries. I hopethat will include young people here in Senegalbecause we believe in Senegal and we believein its people. We believe we can make progresstogether. And we believe in investing in theyouth of tomorrow.

So again, President Sall, thank you for yourpartnership, and thank you for the extraordi-nary welcome that my family and I have re-ceived. Our nation are partners—nyo far. Andmy only——

President Sall. Thank you very much.[Laughter]

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President Obama. ——my only regret onthis visit is that I won’t be here long enough totake in a match of Senegal’s world-famouswrestling. I have to see that. Maybe next time.

President Sall. Next time.President Obama. So for now, I’ll simply say

thank you. Jerejef.President Sall. Thank you very much, Mr.

President. And your Wolof is wonderful.[Laughter]

Now I think we can give the floor to thepress. Tijane Barry.

Q. Tijane Barry, journalist at the RadioTelevision of Senegal. Firstly, on behalf of thenational and international media, we wouldlike to welcome Mr. President Obama. Myquestion is for President Macky Sall. Mr. Pres-ident, how do you describe this visit? And whatare the new prospects that this visit opens forSenegal and Africa?

Thank you.


President Sall. Well, this visit is extremelyimportant for Senegal and for Africa because itis indeed the visit by the President of theU.S.A. And it’s not every day that we have theprivilege of having the President of the UnitedStates of America on our soil.

This visit is also important, because the—this trip by President Obama will further buildtrust for the corporate and business environ-ment. And we are convinced that Africa’s prog-ress and development and growth throughpartnership—in the private investment tradeand partnership. The importance of his pres-ence, the trust that he has in Senegal and inthe future of the continent should enable us toestablish a bridge between the U.S.A. and Afri-ca, particularly for the development of privateinvestment.

We do have shared values, such as democra-cy, freedom, human rights, good governance.Africa has made very important progress onthese last aspects over the years. Of course, inthe past, Africa did suffer a lot. But for about10 years or so, during the last decade, this has

been a decade towards democratization, andthis is a prerequisite for the development ofAfrica. We have tremendous natural resources.We have a lot of human resources. We needinfrastructure to accompany the developmentof all these resources, but all this in the contextof good governance; otherwise, these resourceswill be in vain.

Now, the presence of President Obama, ashe has said, is also meant to give a new contractfor AGOA, revisit the conditions which shouldenable countries like Senegal to do more tobetter export towards the United States ofAmerica. But this has to also do with the rela-tionship between ECOWAS and the U.S. forfast-tracked trade relations.

The U.S. is already intervening through dif-ferent mechanisms: The Millennium Chal-lenge Corporation is one of the latest, which isdoing a lot of things in Senegal with a programof $542 million, which should allow us to reha-bilitate our Highway Number 6 in Casamance,which will lead to giving better access to theregion. We have the Ngallenka road for the de-velopment of 10,000 hectares to step up agri-cultural production.

So, generally speaking, the Peace Corps,USAID, in short, all are the supporting instru-ments, which are supporting cooperation,should enable us to further boost the alreadyexcellent relations at the political and econom-ic levels. And I’m sure that this visit will give anadditional boost to our relationship.

Thank you.

U.S. Supreme Court Ruling on the Defense ofMarriage Act/Civil Rights/Former PresidentNelson R. Mandela of South Africa

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. You called theDOMA ruling a victory for couples everywherewho are seeking equal treatment under thelaw. But this leaves unanswered questions forcouples in States that don’t recognize same-sexmarriage. And now it’s largely up to you. Willyou direct the Government to make sure thatFederal benefits are extended—like Social Se-curity—to all couples, no matter where theylive? And will you comment generally on thehistoric nature of yesterday’s rulings? Also, did

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you press President Sall to make sure that ho-mosexuality is decriminalized in Senegal?

And, President Sall, may I ask you, sir—thank you, first of all, for your hospitality. Youjust said that you embrace democracy and free-dom. As this country’s new President, sir, willyou work to decriminalize homosexuality inthis country?

And may I also ask both of you, because——President Obama. How many questions you

got there, Jessica [Jessica Yellin, CNN]?Q. One more. [Laughter] Just one more, sir.

Because the world is watching and becausePresident Mandela is in such a fragile condi-tion right now, may I ask both of you just tocomment on his legacy and what he means toboth of you?

President Obama. Well, first of all, I thinkthe Supreme Court ruling yesterday was notsimply a victory for the LGBT community, Ithink it was a victory for American democracy.I believe at the root of who we are as a peo-ple—as Americans—is the basic precept thatwe are all equal under the law. We believe inbasic fairness. And what I think yesterday’s rul-ing signifies is one more step towards ensuringthat those basic principles apply to everybody.

When I spoke to Ms. Windsor—83 yearsold—and I thought about the 40 years of herrelationship and her partner, who is nowpassed, for her to live to see this day, wherethat relationship was the vehicle whereby morepeople received their rights and are recognizedas a testament to the love and commitmentthat they have made to each other, that wasspecial. And that’s just a microcosm of what itmeant for families and their children all acrossAmerica. So it was a proud day, I think, forAmerica.

Now, as you point out, there are a whole lotof implications that flow from it, because theSupreme Court did not make a blanket rulingthat applies nationally, but rather, lifted up theability of States to recognize the dignity and re-spect of same-sex marriage; and that the Fed-eral Government couldn’t negate the decisionby those States. We now have to comb throughevery Federal statute. And although we hadn’tprejudged what the ruling had been, I had

asked my White House Counsel to help workwith lawyers across every agency in the Feder-al Government to start getting a sense of whatstatutes would it—be implicated and what itwill mean for us to administratively apply therule that Federal benefits apply to all marriedcouples.

What’s true though is, is that you still have awhole bunch of States that do not recognize it.The Supreme Court continues to leave it up tothe States to make these decisions. And we aregoing to have to go back and do a legal analysisof what that means. It’s my personal belief—but I’m speaking now as a President as op-posed to as a lawyer—that if you’ve been mar-ried in Massachusetts and you move someplaceelse, you’re still married; and that under Fed-eral law you should be able to obtain the bene-fits of any lawfully married couple. But again,I’m speaking as a President, not a lawyer.

So we’re going to be evaluating all these is-sues and making sure that we work throughthem in a systematic and prompt way, becausenow that the Supreme Court has spoken, it’simportant that people who deserve these bene-fits know that they’re getting them quickly.And I know that, for example, Chuck Hagel al-ready mentioned some work that the Depart-ment of Defense is doing on that front. And Ithink we’re going to be seeing that in all thevarious agencies.

Now, this topic did not come up in the con-versation that I had with President Sall in bilat-eral meeting, but let me just make a generalstatement: The issue of gays and lesbians, andhow they’re treated, has come up and has beencontroversial in many parts of Africa. So Iwanted the African people just to hear what Ibelieve, and that is that every country, everygroup of people, every religion have differentcustoms, different traditions. And when itcomes to people’s personal views and their reli-gious faith, et cetera, I think we have to respectthe diversity of views that are there.

But when it comes to how the state treatspeople, how the law treats people, I believethat everybody has to be treated equally. Idon’t believe in discrimination of any sort.That’s my personal view. And I speak as some-

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body who obviously comes from a country inwhich there were times where people were nottreated equally under the law, and we had tofight long and hard through a civil rights strug-gle to make sure that happens.

So my basic view is that regardless of race,regardless of religion, regardless of gender, re-gardless of sexual orientation, when it comes tohow the law treats you, how the state treatsyou—the benefits, the rights and the responsi-bilities under the law—people should be treat-ed equally. And that’s a principle that I thinkapplies universally, and the good news is, it’s aneasy principle to remember. Every world reli-gion has this basic notion that is embodied inthe Golden Rule: You treat people the way youwant to be treated. And I think that applieshere as well.

Finally, with respect to Mr. Mandela—andby the way, Mr. President, I apologize. Some-times my press—I notice yours just asked onequestion; we try to fit in three or four or fivequestions in there. So—[laughter].

My first act of political activism was when Iwas at Occidental College as a 19-year-old. Igot involved in the antiapartheid movementback in 1979, ’80, because I was inspired bywhat was taking place in South Africa. I thinkat that time, I didn’t necessarily imagine thatNelson Mandela might be released, but I hadread his writings and his speeches, and I un-derstood that this was somebody who believedin that basic principle I just talked about—treating people equally—and was willing tosacrifice his life for that belief.

When I was in law school, in 1990, ’91, tosee Nelson Mandela step forward after 27years of captivity and not only help usher in de-mocracy and majority rule and one person, onevote in South Africa, but as importantly, forhim to say, I embrace my former captors andmy former oppressors and believe in one na-tion and believe in judging people on the basisof their character and not their color, it gaveme a sense of what is possible in the worldwhen righteous people—when people of goodwill—work together on behalf of a largercause.

So, obviously, our thoughts and prayers rightnow are with the people of South Africa and,more specifically, the Mandela family. I will betraveling there over the next several days, afterI leave Senegal. I’ve had the privilege of meet-ing Madiba and speaking to him. And he’s apersonal hero, but I don’t think I’m unique inthat regard. I think he’s a hero for the world.And if and when he passes from this place, onething I think we’ll all know is that his legacy isone that will linger on throughout the ages.

President Sall. Thank you very much. I willleave the floor to you and then react maybe.Alessane.

Q. Good morning, Mr. President. AlessaneSamba Diop, director of RFM. I have a ques-tion regarding the subregional context. Presi-dent Barack Obama has come here at a timewhen the situation is quite volatile. I’d like toknow if he has discussed the subregional con-text with you.

And the other question is the following: TheU.S. is not intervening militarily, but they dohave a special envoy for Casamance. I’d like toknow if the peace process in Casamance hasbeen discussed by the two Presidents. Thankyou.

President Sall. Mr. President. Followingyour own statement, I’d like to come back totwo issues before I address the question raisedby Mr. Alessane Samba Diop Firstly, regardingMandela, I think we are all extremely sad andpained to see Madima—Madiba in this situa-tion of health for the past 3 weeks. My hopewas to see him be a centenarian. And—but Ithink Mandela has—is an example for thewhole world. And for us, as political leaders,we need to take inspiration from his humilityand his capacity of sacrifice and self-denial, butalso from his greatness and forgiveness that hehas given us as reference.

As President Obama said, he is more than anidol for all of us. When we all pray—we allprayed for him to recover his freedom. Buteven now, and after he passes, we should al-ways draw inspiration from his thoughts, be-cause South Africa is a rainbow nation evennow. And we hope that leaders all over theworld will learn from his example.

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Now, on the issue of homosexuality, Mr.President, you did make a long developmenton this issue. But you said something very im-portant, general principles which all nationscould share, and that is the respect for the hu-man being and nondiscrimination. But theseissues are all societal issues, basically, and wecannot have a standard model which is applica-ble to all nations, all countries. You said it, weall have different cultures. We have differentreligions. We have different traditions. Andeven in countries where this has been decrimi-nalized and homosexual marriage is allowed,people don’t share the same views.

Senegal, as far as it is concerned, is a verytolerant country which does not discriminate interms of inalienable rights of the human being.We don’t tell anybody that he will not be re-cruited because he is gay or he will not access ajob because his sexual orientation is different.But we are still not ready to decriminalize ho-mosexuality. I’ve already said it in the past, inour cabinet meeting, it is Senegal’s option, atleast for the time being, while we have respectfor the rights of homosexuals—but for the timebeing, we are still not ready to change the law.

But of course, this does not mean that weare all homophobic. But the society has to ab-sorb these issues. It has to take time to digestthem without bringing pressure to bear uponthem, on such issues. It is just like the capitalpunishment. I mean, do you know, in ourcountry, we have abolished it for many years.In other countries, it is still the order of theday, because the situation in the country re-quires it. And we do respect the choice of eachcountry. But please be assured that Senegal isa country of freedom, and homosexuals are notbeing prosecuted—persecuted. But we mustalso show respect for the values and choices ofthe other Senegalese people.

And we are discussing issues such as adop-tion of children. And this is a serious topic fordebate within the Government. The Parlia-ment will be taking over shortly. So these areissues that will be addressed by the societybased on the progress of the mentalities and onwhat people believe is acceptable or unaccept-able. That’s what I wanted to say on that issue.

Now, to come back very quickly to the sub-regional context for the crisis ongoing in Mali.Of course, we discussed it at length. And Ithanked President Obama for the support of-fered by the U.S. You know that today it is theU.S. who are giving almost all the food and fuelused by MINUSMA, that is, the United Na-tions mission for Mali. And they’re also inter-vening to assist us with the logistics after theFrench response—which we of course ap-proved—with the Serval Operation.

We also worked to develop a model of coop-eration. Senegal does cooperate with the U.S.from the military standpoint. And given theconstant global threat of terrorism, as well asother scourges such as drugs in the subregion,human beings trafficking, circulation of weap-ons and piracy, we have decided to pursue ourcooperation in all these fields. And our govern-ments and our administrations will continuethese consultations in order to arrive at greaterefficiency for African forces, because I thinkit’s time for Africa to stand up and address itsown issues. And for this, we do need the Amer-ican support in terms of capacity, in terms ofequipment, in terms of training.

But we will be ready to cope for this andSenegal will continue to supply troops forpeacekeeping in the world. We are present inmore than five countries with more than 2,000peacekeeping soldiers. And we can build upthese forces if required.

And to conclude, of course, Casamance, wedid discuss it. I also thanked him for the inter-est shown by the U.S. in solving this conflict.He has encouraged me in the efforts to obtainpeace. And I’ve also asked for the contributionof the U.S. in development projects, becauseone of the responses to this crisis is to give aneconomic perspective. We need reconciliation,of course, to start with. We need reintegration.We need development—sustainable develop-ment—in Casamance. On all these issues, wedid have a discussion. And I thank the Presi-dent for the interest he has in Senegal and inCasamance. Thank you.

President Obama. Major [Major Garrett,CBS News].

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U.S. Supreme Court Ruling on the VotingRights Act/Former National Security AgencyContractor Edward J. Snowden/PresidentObama’s Travel to Africa

Q. Morning, Mr. President. Morning, Presi-dent Sall. Thank you for your hospitality. It’s apleasure to be in your country. PresidentObama, two subjects: First of all, picking up onyour comments about equal rights under thelaw, could you give us your gut, your visceralreaction to the Supreme Court’s decision inthe voting rights case? Explain legislative rem-edy you will pursue and the pace of that?

Secondly, Edward Snowden, there havebeen a lot of developments. First of all, there’sword that he might be given safe passage toEcuador. Mr. President, will you use U.S. mili-tary assets to in any way intercept Mr.Snowden should he at the—some point in thefuture leave Russia to try to find safe passage inanother country? Have you spoken to Presi-dent Xi of China, President Putin about thispersonally, and if not, why not? And how frus-trated or angry are you, sir, that China’s defi-ance and Russia’s indifference have vastlycomplicated the pursuit of Mr. Snowden andturned it into what some people regard as kindof an international game of cat-and-mousethat’s almost farcical? Thank you.

President Obama. Well, let me take the is-sue of voting rights first. The Voting RightsAct, sections 2, 4, 5, were the cornerstones ofproviding political power to African Americansthat then led to a whole range of other steps tomake America more just and more equal. Itwas the cornerstone and the culmination ofyears of struggle: blood, sweat, tears, in somecases, deaths.

I might not be here as President had it notbeen for those who courageously helped topass the Voting Rights Act. I think that the Su-preme Court made a mistake in its ruling, butthat decision is now here. I think the SupremeCourt didn’t recognize the degree to whichvoter suppression is still a problem around thecountry and that it makes sense for us to put inplace mechanisms to check practices and pro-cedures that may make it harder for people to

vote in those areas where there’s been a historyin the past of discrimination.

And part of the reason, Major, is because,even though lawsuits can still be filed now ifthere’s discrimination, if you don’t have thestructure of section 4 and section 5 in placeahead of time, the election may be over by thetime lawsuits are filed or a court rules. And of-tentimes, it may be too late.

Having said that, the Supreme Court hasruled, and Congress can’t overturn this partic-ular aspect of their ruling. The good news isthat there are other potential remedies, andthe most important one is to simply make surethat everybody around the country can voteand that everywhere around the country we’renot seeing 7-hour lines; around the country,we’re not seeing mechanisms put in place tomake it harder for people to vote, but rather,we should have mechanisms that make it easierto vote. And that is within Congress’s power.Congress doesn’t have to target or identify aparticular jurisdiction. What it can do now is tosay, regardless of where you are—regardless ofwhere you live—there are going to be certainrules that apply to elections.

And we—as you know, right after the elec-tion when we had already seen some of theseproblems, I assigned a close adviser of mine,Bob Bauer, to work with a close adviser of MittRomney’s. They’re going to be issuing a reportin terms of how we can start making it easierfor folks to vote. I recognize that whenever youget into voting rights issues, inevitably somepartisan thoughts cross people’s minds aboutwho is it going to advantage or disadvantage.

But in the wake of this Supreme Court rul-ing, surely we can all agree that people shouldbe able to vote, they shouldn’t be restrictedfrom voting because—or have to jump througha whole bunch of hoops in order to vote; andthat there should be some uniformity in termsof how that right is upheld. It’s the cornerstoneof our democracy. It’s what makes our democ-racy work. And I’m looking forward to workingwith both Democrats and Republicans in anonpartisan basis to make sure that if you’re acitizen of the United States of America, youcan vote without a whole bunch of barriers,

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regardless of your race or your political lean-ing. So that’s on the voting rights issue.

With respect to Mr. Snowden, we have is-sued, through our Justice Department, veryclear requests to both, initially, Hong Kong,and then Russia, that we seek the extradition ofMr. Snowden. And we are going through theregular legal channels that are involved whenwe try to extradite somebody. I have not calledPresident Xi personally or President Putin per-sonally. And the reason is because, numberone, I shouldn’t have to. This is something thatroutinely is dealt with between law enforce-ment officials in various countries. And this isnot exceptional from a legal perspective.

Number two, we’ve got a whole lot of busi-ness that we do with China and Russia. AndI’m not going to have one case of a suspect whowe’re trying to extradite suddenly being elevat-ed to the point where I’ve got to start doingwheeling and dealing and trading on a wholehost of other issues simply to get a guy extradit-ed so that he can face the justice system herein the United States.

Now, I get why it’s a fascinating story from apress perspective. And I’m sure there will be amade-for-TV movie somewhere down the line.But in terms of U.S. interests, the damage wasdone with respect to the initial leaks. And whatI’m really focused on is making sure, numberone, that we are doing everything we can toprevent the kind of thing that happened at theNSA from happening again, because we don’tknow right now what Mr. Snowden’s motiveswere except for those things that he said pub-licly. And I don’t want to prejudge the case,but it does show some pretty significant vul-nerabilities over at the NSA that we’ve got tosolve. That’s number one.

Number two, I’m focused on making surethat we have a healthy, effective debate in theUnited States about how we balance our secu-rity and our privacy concerns, because theseprograms, which I believe make Americasafe—help make America safe, and that I be-lieve draw the appropriate balance, right noware generating a lot of questions in the pressand in the American public. And I want tomake sure that everybody—Congress, opinion

leaders, and our government officials—feelconfident that the laws are being obeyed, thatthere’s strong oversight and that the Americanpeople don’t have a Big Brother who is snoop-ing into their business. I’m confident of that,but I want to make sure everybody is confidentof that. And so I think we have to have a strongpublic debate to make that happen.

So I am interested in making sure that therules of extradition are obeyed. Now, we don’thave an extradition treaty with Russia, whichmakes it more complicated. You don’t have tohave an extradition treaty, though, to resolvesome of these issues. There have been someuseful conversations that have taken place be-tween the United States Government and theRussian Government. And my continued ex-pectation is that Russia, or other countries thathave talked about potentially providing Mr.Snowden asylum, recognize that they are partof an international community, and that theyshould be abiding by international law. Andwe’ll continue to press them as hard as we canto make sure that they do so——

Q. Mr. President——President Obama. But let me—one last

thing, because you asked a final question: No,I’m not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker.

Q. Do you believe that all the damage thathe can do has been done by Mr. Snowden? Isthat what you’re saying, Mr. President?

President Obama. What I’m——Q. We——President Obama. What I’m saying is, is that

he has those documents. He has released someof them. Not all of them have been released.The damage that’s been done essentially goesto the fact of some of these programs. And wedon’t yet know what other documents he maytry to dribble in—out there.

On the other hand, what I’m also confidentabout is, is that the way we run these programsabides by the laws that were passed by Con-gress, the oversight of the FISA courts. And weare trying to declassify as much as possible sothat the American people and our internationalpartners feel confidence about how we operatein this regard.

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I continue to be concerned about the otherdocuments that he may have. That’s part of thereason why we’d like to have Mr. Snowden incustody. But what I think we’re going to con-tinue to do is to make sure that we are follow-ing the various channels that are well estab-lished and the rules that are well established totry to get this thing done.

In the meantime, we’ve got other businessto do. For example, we’re here in Africa, and Idon’t want people to forget why we’re here.


President Sall. Right.President Obama. The fact of the matter is,

is that Africa oftentimes is not focused on byour press and our leadership back home unlessthere’s a crisis. And part of the reason why wewant to focus here, starting in Senegal, is tomake sure people understand there is enor-mous potential here. Six of the ten fastestgrowing economies in the world are happeningright here in Africa. You talk about PresidentXi. China is paying a lot of attention to Africa;Brazil, Turkey, India are heavily invested intrying to expand trade and commerce with Af-rica. We have economic and security intereststhat are critical. We’re seeing countries likeSenegal that are—have sustained democracyand have sustained peace for many years, whowant to partner with us, who are making sacri-fices in places like Mali to maintain regionalstability.

And so I just want to make sure that wedon’t lose focus here. The reason I came to Af-rica is because Africa is rising. And it is in theUnited States interests—not simply in Africa’sinterests—that the United States don’t missthe opportunity to deepen and broaden thepartnerships and potential here. This is going

to be a continent that is on the move. It isyoung. It is vibrant and full of energy. Andthere’s a reason why a lot of other countriesaround the world are spending a lot of timehere.

We historically have been an enormous pro-vider of development aid to Africa, food, medi-cine. But what I want us to do is to have a shiftin paradigm, where we start focusing on trade,development, partnerships where we see our-selves as benefiting and not simply giving to—in the relationship with Africa. And I thinkthat’s what people like President Sall are look-ing forward to. All right.

Thank you very much. That was a very longanswer.

Moderator. Yes, the press conference is——The President. But these are big questions

you guys are asking.President Sall. Thank you.Moderator. Thank you very much for being

here. We wish you a good stay. Thank you.

NOTE: The President’s news conference beganat 11 a.m. at the Presidential Palace. In his re-marks, the President referred to MaimounaNdour Ep Faye and Aissatou Padane, partici-pants in the White House Young African Lead-ers Forum held in August 2010; Edith Wind-sor, defendant, United States v. Windsor; for-mer White House Counsel Robert F. Bauerand Benjamin L. Ginsberg, partner, PattonBoggs LLP, in their capacity as Cochairs of thePresidential Commission on Election Adminis-tration; and 2012 Republican Presidentialnominee W. Mitt Romney. President Sall re-ferred to the New Partnership for Africa’s De-velopment (NEPAD). Some reporters spoke inFrench, and their remarks were translated byan interpreter.

Remarks During a Meeting With African Judicial Leaders in DakarJune 27, 2013

Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chief Jus-tice, for your service here in Senegal, foryour powerful words about the work thatbrings us here together: the recognition that

strong democracies depend on strong insti-tutions. And that includes an independentjudiciary system and respect for the rule oflaw.

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I have to say that it’s a great honor to be withsuch a distinguished group of Justices fromacross Africa. Some of you may know, I am alawyer myself. My grandmother very muchwanted me to be a judge instead of going intopolitics, so even though I disappointed her bygoing into politics, at least now she knows thata group of judges are willing to meet with meeven if I’m not one myself. So she would behappy about that.

First and foremost, this is an opportunity forme to salute the fine work that all of you aredoing. These men and women, and the institu-tions that they represent are known for theirintegrity, their determination to deliver justicefairly, sometimes in the face of threats andsometimes in the face of intimidation. But theyunderstand that what makes for a strong de-mocracy includes a strong judiciary: one that’sindependent from politics; one that operatestransparently so that citizens can have confi-dence that the process is free from undue in-fluences; accountability, because even judgesare not above the law.

And of course, on a much more basic level,judicial systems need funding to do their jobs.So I wanted to have this meeting here as partof my first full day in Africa on this trip be-cause I believe that the rule of law is a founda-tion for governance and also a foundation forhuman rights and economic growth. It’s a pillarof our democracy.

Societies are stronger and more stable whenthere are checks and balances on governmentpower, when citizens know that their rights willbe protected from arbitrary or capricious ac-tions, when they have peaceful recourse whenthey’ve been on the receiving end of injustice.

Rule of law is what upholds universal humanrights. Sometimes, when nobody else will, ajudge can stand up on behalf of someone. Andin the United States, one of the basic principlesthat we strongly believe in is, is that the judi-

ciary is most important when it comes to mi-nority rights because the political process of-tentimes will recognize the desires of the ma-jority. The question is, when people are on theunpopular side of an issue or a member of aminority group, where can they seek recourse?And oftentimes, it’s in the courts.

So at our—at their best, our courts are ven-ues where justice and equality can be realizedfor women and children and the poor, for mar-ginalized groups, for victims of discrimination,victims of violence. But as I mentioned earlier,I think it’s also a critical ingredient for eco-nomic development and prosperity in Africa.

I mentioned to President Sall of Senegal,who I was visiting with before I came here,that trade and investment around the world in-creasingly flows to places where there are rulesand regulations that are fair and predictable,where assets and intellectual property are pro-tected. And the courts play a vital role in thatprocess.

So I wanted to have this meeting to hearfrom you about how we can be helpful and en-couraging in building even stronger judiciariesand systems of law around the continent. TheUnited States is proud to work with partnersacross Africa to strengthen independent judi-ciaries and help prepare future jurists. So Iwant to hear your thoughts, your challenges,and I want to hear from you how you think theUnited States can be most helpful in continu-ing the work that you were already doing.

So again, thank you for your hospitality, Mr.Chief Justice. Thanks to all of you who have, insome cases, traveled from a very long way to behere, and with that, let me give the press a mo-ment to depart so we can have a good conver-sation.

NOTE: The President spoke at 12:08 p.m. at LaCour Supreme. In his remarks, he referred toChief Justice Papa Oumar Sakho of Senegal.

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Remarks Following a Tour of the Maison des Esclaves on Goree Island,SenegalJune 27, 2013

Hey! Well, the—I want to thank the Presi-dent of Senegal, but also the mayor of Goreeand the museum curator here. Obviously, it’s avery powerful moment whenever I can travelwith my family, but especially for Michelle andMalia and my mother-in-law to be able tocome here and to fully appreciate the magni-tude of the slave trade, to get a sense, in a veryintimate way, of the incredible inhumanity andhardship that people faced before they madethe Middle Passage and that crossing.

And I think more than anything, what it re-minds us of is that we have to remain vigilantwhen it comes to the defense of people’s hu-man rights, because I’m a firm believer thathumanity is fundamentally good, but it’s onlygood when good people stand up for what’sright. And this is a testament to, when we’re

not vigilant in defense of what’s right, what canhappen.

And so it’s always powerful for me to visitcountries outside of the United States general-ly, but obviously, for an African American—and an African American President—to beable to visit this site, I think, gives me evengreater motivation in terms of the defense ofhuman rights around the world. All right?

Thank you, guys.

NOTE: The President spoke at 3:33 p.m. In hisremarks, he referred to President Macky Sallof Senegal; Mayor Augustin Senghor of Goree,Senegal; and Eloi Coly, museum curator, Mai-son des Esclaves de Goree. He also referred tohis mother-in-law Marian Robinson.

Remarks at a Meeting With Civil Society Leaders on Goree IslandJune 27, 2013

Well, let me just say thank you so much fortaking the time to meet with me. We’ve had awonderful visit here in Senegal, and I had goodopportunity to discuss a range of issues withPresident Sall this morning.

And obviously, it was very powerful to bevisiting the Slave Museum here in Goree as areminder of the potential for man’s inhumanityto man, but also as a reminder that we all haveto continually be vigilant on behalf of humanrights.

The leaders—just for the press—the leaderswho are gathered here today, these are all rep-resentatives of civil society, which is incrediblystrong here in Senegal. And last year, whenthere were some significant questions as towhether Senegal’s democracy would continueto represent the will of the people, it is leaderslike these that were able to maintain the pres-sure and to maintain the focus on the peacefultransfer of power and the continuation of dem-ocratic traditions here in Senegal. And it’s a re-

minder that democracy is not just about elec-tion day.

Democracy and good governance involvesthe need for transparency and accountabilityon the part of government, but also active citi-zens who are monitoring what the governmentis doing, that are speaking out. It involves afree press, freedom of assembly, rule of law.And it also involves organizations like this thataren’t just working politically, but are alsoworking to increase youth employment, help-ing to empower women, making sure that chil-dren and other vulnerable populations are pro-tected. That’s all part of the democratic pro-cess.

And I think that history shows that thosecountries that enjoy good governance, respecthuman rights, also end up having better eco-nomic growth, greater social stability and cohe-sion.

And so I just want to say, again, thank youfor taking the time to meet with me. I’m

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looking forward to hearing how we can bemore helpful in forging stronger ties betweenthe United States and Senegal, but also to con-tinue to encourage the kinds of empowermentthat all of you represent; and that a particularfocus of mine is how do we encourage moreyoung people to get involved.

So, for example, Aissatou here attendedthe Young African Leaders Forum that weheld at the White House a couple of yearsago, and we’re going to be talking during the

course of this trip about how we can contin-ue to expand and recruit more outstandingyoung African leaders to network and partic-ipate.


NOTE: The President spoke at 4:46 p.m. at theGoree Institute. In his remarks, he referred toAissatou Padane, a participant in the WhiteHouse Young African Leaders Forum held inAugust 2010.

Statement on National HIV Testing DayJune 27, 2013

Today is National HIV Testing Day, whenwe encourage people across the United Statesto get tested. Early detection and treatment forHIV saves lives, and yet over half of adults inthe United States have never been tested.Nearly one in five people living with HIV inthis country doesn’t know his or her status.That delays treatment, increases the risk oftransmission, and sets us back in our fightagainst the epidemic.

Getting an HIV test is easier and faster thanever. And this past April, the United StatesPreventive Services Task Force recommendedthat everyone between the ages of 15 and 65get screened for HIV as part of their routinehealth care. That means, under the Affordable

Care Act, new health care plans will be re-quired to cover HIV testing without any addi-tional out-of-pocket costs.

But more Americans still need to decide totake the test. We know from experience hereat home and around the world that HIV testingopens the door to treatment, reduces thespread of the virus, and helps people lead lon-ger, healthier lives. That’s why, on a trip to Af-rica in 2006, Michelle and I were tested forHIV, because there should be no shame orstigma associated with knowing your status.And if we each do our part by getting testedand encourage our friends and family to do thesame, then we will move closer to an AIDS-free generation.

Statement on Senate Confirmation of Anthony R. Foxx as Secretary ofTransportationJune 27, 2013

I am pleased that the Senate today votedunanimously to confirm Anthony Foxx as thenext Secretary of Transportation. Anthony knowsfirsthand that investing in our roads, bridges, andtransit systems is vital to creating good jobs and

ensuring American businesses can grow andcompete in a 21st-century global economy. Iwelcome Anthony to my team, and I look for-ward to working with him as we aim to modern-ize the infrastructure that powers our economy.

Statement on Senate Passage of Immigration Reform LegislationJune 27, 2013

Today, with a strong bipartisan vote, theUnited States Senate delivered for the Ameri-

can people, bringing us a critical step closer tofixing our broken immigration system once and

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for all. I thank Majority Leader Reid, SenatorLeahy, Senator Schumer, and every memberof the Gang of Eight for their leadership, and Icommend all Senators who worked across par-ty lines to get this done.

The bipartisan bill that passed today was acompromise. By definition, nobody got every-thing they wanted: not Democrats, not Repub-licans, not me. But the Senate bill is consistentwith the key principles for commonsense re-form that I and many others have repeatedlylaid out.

If enacted, the Senate bill would establishthe most aggressive border security plan in ourhistory. It would offer a pathway to earned citi-zenship for the 11 million individuals who arein this country illegally, a pathway that includespassing a background check, learning English,paying taxes and a penalty, and then going tothe back of the line behind everyone who’splaying by the rules and trying to come here le-gally. It would modernize the legal immigra-tion system so that it once again reflects ourvalues as a nation and addresses the urgentneeds of our time. And it would provide a bigboost to our recovery by shrinking our deficitsand growing our economy.

Today the Senate did its job. It’s now up tothe House to do the same.

As this process moves forward, I urge every-one who cares about this issue to keep a watch-ful eye. Now is the time when opponents willtry their hardest to pull this bipartisan effortapart so they can stop commonsense reformfrom becoming a reality. We cannot let thathappen. If you’re among the clear majority ofAmericans who support reform—from CEOsto labor leaders, law enforcement to clergy—reach out to your Member of Congress. Tellthem to do the right thing. Tell them to passcommonsense reform so that our businessesand workers are all playing by the same rulesand everyone who’s in this country is payingtheir fair share in taxes.

We have a unique opportunity to fix ourbroken system in a way that upholds our tradi-tions as a nation of laws and a nation of immi-grants. We just need Congress to finish the job.

NOTE: The statement referred to Sens. MarcoA. Rubio, Jeffrey L. Flake, John S. McCain III,Lindsey O. Graham, Richard J. Durbin, Rob-ert Menendez, and Michael F. Bennet. It alsoreferred to S. 744.

Statement on the Presidential Election in MongoliaJune 27, 2013

I congratulate President Ts. Elbegdorj onhis success in the election held on Wednes-day in Mongolia. President Elbegdorj hasbeen an important leader in advancing de-mocracy and freedom in his country and akey partner for the United States in Asia andglobally. I look forward to working with him

to further strengthen the friendship and tiesbetween our two countries. Through its im-pressive democratic achievements and itsprogress on economic liberalization, Mongo-lia serves as a significant example of positivereform and transformation for peoplesaround the world.

Message to the Congress on Suspending Generalized System of PreferencesBenefits to BangladeshJune 27, 2013


In accordance with section 502(f)(2) of theTrade Act of 1974, as amended (the “1974Act”) (19 U.S.C. 2462(f)(2)), I am providing no-

tification of my intent to suspend the designa-tion of Bangladesh as a beneficiary developingcountry under the Generalized System of Pref-erences (GSP) program. Section 502(b)(2)(G)of the 1974 Act (19 U.S.C. 2462(b)(2)(G))

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provides that the President shall not designateany country a beneficiary developing countryunder the GSP if such country has not taken oris not taking steps to afford internationally rec-ognized worker rights in the country (includingany designated zone in that country). Section502(d)(2) of the 1974 Act (19 U.S.C.2462(d)(2)) provides that, after complying withthe requirements of section 502(f)(2) of the1974 Act, the President shall withdraw or sus-pend the designation of any country as a benefi-ciary developing country if, after such designa-tion, the President determines that as the resultof changed circumstances such country wouldbe barred from designation as a beneficiary de-veloping country under section 502(b)(2) of the1974 Act.

Pursuant to section 502(d) of the 1974 Act,having considered the factors set forth in sec-tion 502(b)(2)(G), I have determined that it isappropriate to suspend Bangladesh’s designa-tion as a beneficiary developing country underthe GSP program because it is not taking stepsto afford internationally recognized workerrights to workers in the country.

BARACK OBAMA


NOTE: The related proclamation is listed inAppendix D at the end of this volume.

Remarks at a State Dinner Hosted by President Macky Sall of Senegal inDakar, SenegalJune 27, 2013


President Sall. Your Excellency, Mr. Presi-dent Barack Obama; distinguished First LadyMichelle Obama; distinguished First Lady ofSenegal Marieme Sall; distinguished membersof the American delegation; distinguishedSpeaker of the Parliament; distinguishedPrime Minister; Madam President of the Eco-nomic, Social and Environmental Council; dis-tinguished senior ministers; distinguished min-isters; honorable Members of Parliament; YourExcellencies, distinguished Ambassadors; dearfriends and dear guests.

Mr. President, 3 months after having warm-ly received me at the White House, you are vis-iting me with your wife, your children, and theimportant delegation accompanying you. Andyou have honored us by choosing Senegal asyour entry point to Africa for your first visit tothe continent since your brilliant reelection lastNovember.

In relationships between states, every choiceconveys a symbol and a message. My fellow

countrymen and myself, we understand andappreciate your visit as a token of friendshipand esteem for us. This feeling, Mr. President,is mutual, and it is for you and for your greatpeople.


President Sall. We welcome you, Mr. Presi-dent, and First Lady Michelle Obama. Wewish you and your delegation a pleasant stay inSenegal, the land of teranga.


President Sall. Ties between the Americanand Senegalese peoples are ancient, robust,and trustworthy. And the circumstances of his-tory have bequeathed common memories tous.

In 1776, when the American people startedtheir historical struggle for their freedom, inthe north of Senegal, some revolutionaries re-belled the same year for the same principles ofjustice and freedom against excesses commit-

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ted by the authorities in place. In 1761, accord-ing to Johnson and Patricia Smith in “Africansin America,” it was said that in 1761, a 7-year-old Senegalese girl embarked for a one-waytrip. She disembarked in Boston. PhillisWheatley, which was her slave name, thanks toher creative genius, became the first knownBlack poetess in the United States of America.

This was a ray of light in our common histo-ry, even in the dark hours of slavery. More thantwo centuries later, another trip has united us,and this time, as free citizens. And, Mr. Presi-dent, you wrote this in your bestseller,“Dreams From My Father.” It was in Spain, ina bus bound for Barcelona; you took a liking toone of my compatriots, Mr. Sellé Dieng. Ihope he is here in this room. Sellé—he’s here.

[Sellé Dieng shook hands with PresidentObama.]

President Sall. Thank you, Sellé.And, Mr. President, so in this book of yours,

you said that he told you about his wife he hadleft behind in Senegal and of his dream to earnenough money to bring her over. He offeredcoffee and water to you: a coincidental meet-ing, a shared history, a small gesture of kind-ness, you said. This spontaneous gesture of hu-man fraternity expresses the values unitingSenegalese and Americans, definite and strongvalues: faith in God, family and work, opennessto the other, and attachment to democracy andfreedom.

This is the reason why so many of my fellowcountrymen feel so comfortable in your coun-try and are successfully pursuing their Ameri-can Dream. In Harlem, we have “Little Sene-gal” when you go to the 16th Street. It’s wellknown to all our compatriots. We would like tothank the American people for their traditionof hospitality.

I would like to also commend the excellentquality of our bilateral relations. Our two coun-tries are cooperating for peace and a saferworld, rid of scourges of terrorism and cross-border crime. I commend your leadership,particularly in these times when the situationhere in the Sahel has become a global threatand deserves special attention. I hope our

countries can put together a joint strategy inresponse to this new challenge.

In the economic and social fields, we have arobust partnership with the commitment of thePeace Corps in Senegal for more than half acentury, USAID’s actions and the existence ofother aid instruments such as AGOA and theMillennium Challenge Account. Mr. Presi-dent, I cannot forget that during the preelec-tion turmoil, which our country went throughin 2011 and 2012, the United States of Ameri-ca maintained their trust in the maturity andresilience of the Senegalese people and relent-lessly supported our democratic tradition. Wegreatly appreciated this gesture of solidarity inbetween peoples with common values.

Today, as agreed to in Washington, I wouldlike to confirm our will to forge ahead withyou: forge ahead for the promotion of democ-racy and good governance in the spirit of ourcommitments stemming from the last G–8summit; forge ahead in opening new opportu-nities of partnership between our countries;forge ahead for the promotion of the youth; forthe growth and prosperity of our peoples in asafer world.


President Sall. Looking back to more than50 years of commitment and achievement be-tween our two countries, I am confident thateven greater opportunities are laying ahead.And I want to tell you and the great Americanpeople that we are more than willing to go for-ward in our renewed partnership. And we areready; yes, we are ready; and yes, we can.[Laughter]


President Sall. Mr. President, ladies andgentlemen, I’m happy to raise a toast to thehealth and well-being of our illustrious guests,President Barack Obama of the United Statesof America, the First Lady Michelle Obama, towhom I’d like to pay my respects; to the healthand well-being of their children and their

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delegation; and to the continuous prosperity ofthe friendly American people.

Long live the United States of America.Long live Senegal. Long live the friendship be-tween Senegal and the United States of Ameri-ca. Thank you, and God bless you.

[President Sall offered a toast.]

President Obama. President Sall, MadamFirst Lady, distinguished guests and friends:On behalf of myself and Michelle and our chil-dren, our entire delegation, we want to thankyou for the incredible hospitality that you’veshown us today. We have been deeply movedand are deeply appreciative of all the arrange-ments that you’ve made.

I am told that you have a tradition here ofsinging poets. Do not worry, I am not going tosing. [Laughter] But I would like to quote fromone of your greatest poets—one of the world’sgreatest poets—your first President, LéopoldSenghor.

The year after Senegal achieved indepen-dence, President Senghor came to the WhiteHouse and met with President Kennedy. Andduring his visit to the United States, PresidentSenghor said, “Senegal is a small country, but itis a republic which is inspired by the principlesof democracy.”

And here in Senegal, we’ve seen—I’ve seenpersonally—the principles of democracy atwork in this generation and, I believe, in futuregenerations. Mr. President, I salute you andyour administration for seeking what you havecalled a new mindset, a new consciousness,government that upholds the sanctity of thepublic good.

I’ve seen the principles of democracy inSenegal’s commitment to human dignity. Mi-

chelle and I will never forget today’s visit toGoree Island, where we looked out that doorof no return. The world owes so much to Sene-gal for preserving this piece of history, one ofthe world’s great heritage sites.

And as I said at Goree Island, it’s a reminderof the potential in humanity that we can showone another, but it also, I think, reminds us ofhow vigilant we have to be in upholding thedignity and rights of all people.

And finally, I’ve seen the principle of de-mocracy in the people of Senegal: the citizensthat I met with today who stood up for democ-racy; the young girls that Michelle met todaywho are busy shaping this Nation—just incred-ible young women—because Senegal recogniz-es the value of women’s leadership.

And I couldn’t be here today if I didn’t men-tion that today, back in the United States, isNBA draft day—[laughter]—and that there’sgoing to be a team that makes a wise decisionby drafting a favorite son of Senegal, GorguiDieng, who is an outstanding big man, andmaybe the Bulls will get him. So—[applause].

So, Mr. President, I want to propose a toastto our gracious hosts, to our two great nations,to the abiding friendship between our peoples.À votre santé. Salut. Thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 8:35 p.m. at thePresidential Palace. In his remarks, he referredto Gorgui Dieng, center, University of Louis-ville Cardinals men’s basketball team. Presi-dent Sall referred to Speaker of the ParliamentMoustapha Niasse and Prime Minister AbdoulMbaye of Senegal; Aminata Tall, Chairwoman,Economic, Social, and Environmental Councilof Senegal; and historian Charles Johnson.

Remarks Following a Tour of the Food Security Exposition in DakarJune 28, 2013

Well, as all of you saw, I just had a wonder-ful opportunity to visit this expo and meetsome remarkable men and women who arehelping us to meet an urgent challenge that af-fects nearly 900 million people around the

world: chronic hunger and the need for long-term food security.

Here in Africa, thanks to the economicprogress across the continent, incomes are ris-ing, poverty rates are declining, there’s a grow-

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ing middle class. At the same time, far toomany Africans still endure the daily injustice ofextreme poverty and hunger. And we’re heretoday because improvements in agriculture canmake an enormous difference. Here in Senegaland across Africa, most people are employed inagriculture. And we know that, compared toother sectors, growth in agriculture is far moreeffective in reducing poverty, including amongwomen.

Part of why this work is so important is be-cause, if you want broad-based economicgrowth in a country like Senegal, starting withthese small-scale farmers, putting more in-come into their pockets ensures that it’s notjust a few who are benefiting from develop-ment, but everybody is benefiting, and itmakes an enormous difference.

So that’s why when I took office, we took—at new ways that we could provide assistanceand partner with countries, and we decided tomake food security a priority. We helped mo-bilize the leading economies around the worldon this mission. So this was one of our top pri-orities at the G–8 meetings that I attendedvery early on in my Presidency. In the UnitedStates, we launched our new initiative calledFeed the Future, which works in partnershipwith 12 African countries. At the G–8 last year,we launched the New Alliance for Food Secu-rity and Nutrition. We kicked it off with Gha-na, Ethiopia, and Tanzania. It’s already grownby six more countries: Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria,Benin, Malawi, Mozambique, and BurkinaFaso. And I’m very pleased about the nextstep: Senegal will be joining next year.

And rather than the old models of simplydelivering food aid, the New Alliance takes aninnovative approach. African countries are inthe lead—identifying their priorities, devisingtheir own plans—because they know theircountries best. It also means that these pro-grams are far more likely to be sustainable.Companies large and small—from Africa, butalso from around the world—have pledged toinvest in these plans. And there are companieshere today making new commitments, bring-ing total investments in these efforts to $3.7billion. So what we’re doing is we’re taking the

private funds that are being leveraged andcombining those with the aid funds that are be-ing provided not just by the United States, butsome of our other partner countries, and as aconsequence, we’re getting a much biggerbang for the buck.

We know this works. Today we’re going tobe releasing a report that shows progress so farunder Feed the Future. We’ve already helped7 million small farmers harness new tech-niques. We’ve boosted the value of their goodsthat they sell by more than $100 million, andthat means higher incomes for farmers andmore opportunities for farmers. And you metsome of the farmers here today who are direct-ly benefiting from this program. Not only arethey able to improve their own situation, butnow they’re starting to hire people, and you’resuddenly starting to see growth in these ruralcommunities that makes all the difference for acountry like Senegal.

In a place like Ethiopia, we’ve been hearingabout farmers who are getting new loans,sometimes for small, mechanized products likethis that can make all the difference. Onefarmer said this salary changed his life becausehe was able now to send his child to school. Sothis is making a profound difference in thelives of farmers; it’s making a profound differ-ence in communities all across the continent.

And here at this expo, we’re seeing some ofthese new technologies that will unleash evenmore progress. That includes how farmershere in Senegal are using their cell phones toshare data so they get the best price when theybring their products to market.

We’ve set a goal of lifting 50 million peoplefrom poverty within a decade, which is ambi-tious, but achievable. And given the millions ofpeople that we’re already reaching and the en-thusiasm that we’ve seen today, I’m confidentwe’re on our way. So, as I said before, I thinkthis is a moral imperative. I believe that Africais rising and it wants to partner with us, not tobe dependent, but to be self-sufficient. Andwhat we’re seeing here today are businesspeo-ple, farmers, academics, researchers, scientists,all combining some of the best practices thathave been developed over the course now of

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decades and leveraging it into concrete im-provements in people’s lives.

And I want to just say thank you to Raj Shah,the head of USAID, because Raj is an exampleof the kind of incredible work that’s beingdone by our Government, helping to coordi-nate and facilitate this tremendous progress.And I want to thank all the farmers and re-searchers and workers who have been helpingto make this possible here in Senegal andthroughout this region.

So when people ask what’s happening totheir taxpayer dollars and foreign aid, I wantpeople to know this money is not being wasted.It’s helping feed families. It’s helping people tobecome more self-sufficient. And it’s creatingnew markets for U.S. companies and U.S.

goods. It’s a win-win situation. And I know thatmillet and maize and fertilizer doesn’t alwaysmake for sexy copy, but I very much hope thatall the press who were in attendance todaygenerate a story about this, because I think ifthe American people knew the kind of workthat was being done as a consequence of theirgenerosity and their efforts, I think they’d bereally proud.

So thank you very much, Raj, for the greatwork.

United States Agency for International De-velopment Administrator Rajiv J. Shah. Thankyou, Mr. President.

NOTE: The President spoke at 9:52 a.m. at theRadisson Blu Hotel, Dakar.

Remarks in an Exchange With Reporters Aboard Air Force One En Route toJohannesburg, South AfricaJune 28, 2013

U.S. Foreign Aid

The President. I just want to emphasize howimportant the work that we’re doing on agri-culture is, and I hope you got a sense fromthose folks who had set up their booths howmuch of a direct impact it can make in the livesof people in a really concrete way.

Obviously, we’ve got budget constraintsback home, which means that we’ve got tocome up with new and creative ways to pro-mote development and deliver aid, and thisFood for the Future program and our New Al-liance on Food Security is doing exactly that.Every dollar that we’re putting in, we’re get-ting a huge amount of private sector dollars.We’re focusing on how do people becomemore productive as opposed to simply givingthem food or giving them medicine.

What we announce later on this trip aroundPower—what we’re calling Power Africa—isgoing to be utilizing that same model. But whatyou’re really starting to see is people under-standing what works, working with small pro-ducers, leveraging—so, for example, you no-

tice we’re doing nutrition issues, but then alsousing it as an economic development tool.

And all that creates the kind of critical masswhere—in a country like Senegal or Tanzaniawhere maybe 70 percent of the people are in-volved in agriculture—you can see each one ofthose small farmers suddenly increasing theirincome by 20 percent, 30 percent, 50 percent.That then becomes the basis for a nascent mid-dle class in those countries; that in turn canhelp create local manufacturers, local consum-er goods. And eventually, these then becomeexport markets for the United States. So it’snot just a matter of alleviating hunger or re-ducing poverty, it’s creating the basis for theentire continent to get incorporated into worldmarkets in a way that ultimately will benefitnot just Africa, but also the United States.

So our foreign aid budget is around 1 per-cent of our total Federal budget. It’s chronical-ly the least popular part of our Federal budget.But if you look at the bang for the buck thatwe’re getting when it’s done right, when it’swell designed and when it’s scaled at the locallevel with input from local folks, it can reallymake a huge difference. And what we’ve de-

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signed, I think, is so effective that we’ve beenable to see other countries essentially put theirmoney into a similar model, and we’re alsothereby leveraging all of international assis-tance around this issue.

So it’s something I’m really proud about,and I know Raj Shah already had a chance tobrief with you guys, but you should get to knowhim during the course of this trip because Ithink he can really give you insight in terms ofhow much difference this is making.

President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Re-lief/U.S. Foreign Aid

Q. Can you talk about this—is this what yousee as your legacy for Africa: a kind of changedmodel? I mean, a lot of analysts back in Wash-ington are talking about how you’re not makingthe kind of grand programs that Bush andClinton did in Africa, and so I’m wondering ifyou can address that a little bit.

The President. First of all, if you look at aprogram like PEPFAR, President Bush de-serves enormous credit for that. It is really im-portant. And it saved lives of millions of peo-ple. But even on PEPFAR, for example, whatwe’re doing is transitioning so that it’s not just amatter of delivering antiviral drugs, it’s alsohow do we create a health infrastructure inthese countries that’s sustainable.

And I think everything we do is designed tomake sure that Africa is not viewed as a depen-dent, as a charity case, but is instead viewed asa partner; that instead of chronically receivingaid, it is starting to get involved in trade, get in-volved in production, and over time, is going tobe able to feed itself, house itself, and produceits own goods. And that’s what Africa wants.

Now, some of this is driven by necessity.Given the budget constraints, for us to try toget the kind of money that President Bush wasable to get out of the Republican House formassively scaled new foreign aid programs isvery difficult. We could do even more withmore resources. But if we’re working smarter,the amount of good that we can bring aboutover the next decade is tremendous.

International Relations of African Nations

Q. Mr. President, can you say—one of thecriticisms leveled at the United States is thatit’s fallen behind China in terms of the amountof attention that it gives to Africa. President Xihas made numerous visits; this is your first ex-tended visit. How does the United States com-pete with China in terms of showing its interestand in the reduced-budget world that we’reliving in?

The President. Well, first of all, I think it’s agood thing that China and India and Turkeyand some of these other countries—Brazil—are paying a lot of attention to Africa. This isnot a zero-sum game. This is not the cold war.You’ve got one global market, and if countriesthat are now entering into middle-income sta-tus see Africa as a big opportunity for them,that can potentially help Africa.

What we have going for us, though, is ourvalues, our approach to development; our ap-proach to democracy remains one that is great-ly preferable to a country like Senegal. In mydiscussions, a lot of people are pleased thatChina is involved in Africa.

On the other hand, they recognize that Chi-na’s primary interest is being able to obtain ac-cess for natural resources in Africa to feed themanufacturers in export-driven policies of theChinese economy. And oftentimes, that leavesAfrica as simply an exporter of raw goods, not alot of value added—as a consequence, not a lotof jobs created inside of Africa—and it doesnot become the basis for long-term develop-ment.

But we shouldn’t view the participation of acountry like China or Brazil in Africa as a badthing. It should be a signal to us, though, thatthere’s great opportunity there and that wecannot afford to be left on the sidelines be-cause we’re still stuck with old stereotypesabout what Africa’s future is going to be.

U.S. Investment in Africa

Q. What kind of commitments do you thinkU.S. companies are looking for from you onthis trip to be able to see Africa as a continentfor investment? And what kind of signal does

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the expo today—what should that be sendingto companies back home?

The President. One of the main things thatwe want American companies to see is that Af-rica is ready to do business and that there’shuge potential there. What African countrieshave to do—and this is a message I’m deliver-ing consistently—is ensure that there’s stabilityand good governance so that American compa-nies can reduce some of those risks that havenothing to do with business and have to dowith, will they be able to get their profits out?Will they have to pay a bribe? Will they have tofind ways to negotiate with bureaucracies end-lessly?

And that’s why our first message in Africa, inSenegal, revolved around issues of democracy,transparency, accountability. There is a hugeeconomic component to that. Those countrieswhere businesses can feel confident that therewill be peaceful transitions of power, that cor-ruption is prosecuted, where there’s rule oflaw, where there’s protection of private prop-erty, where the government is practical and notwildly ideological; that is what will attractAmerican businesses, because I think, when Italk to a lot of CEOs, they see the potentialthere, but what they don’t want to do is findthemselves 5 years out, suddenly, with a differ-ent government, suddenly, their money isstuck, their workers are being shaken down.That’s the kind of thing we want to make surethat we emphasize throughout this trip.

Former President Nelson R. Mandela of SouthAfrica

Q. Sir, looking forward to—your trip inSouth Africa comes at a time when obviously alot of people in the region are focused on theailing health of Nelson Mandela. I know youhave a relationship with him. Do you hope to

visit him? Do you think that your messagethere will change?

The President. I think the message will beconsistent because it draws on the lessons ofNelson Mandela’s own life, that if we focus onwhat Africa as a continent can do together andwhat these countries can do when they’re uni-fied—as opposed to when they’re divided bytribe or race or religion—then Africa’s rise willcontinue. And that’s one of the central lessonsof what Nelson Mandela accomplished not justas President, but in the struggle to overcomeapartheid and his years in prison.

We’ll see what the situation is when we land.I don’t need a photo op, and the last thing Iwant to do is to be in any way obtrusive at atime when the family is concerned about Nel-son Mandela’s condition. I’ve had the opportu-nity to meet with him. Michelle and the girlshad an opportunity to meet with him. Rightnow our main concern is with his well-being,his comfort, and with the family’s well-beingand comfort.

So when we get there, we’ll gauge the situa-tion, but I think the main message we’ll wantto deliver—if not directly to him, but to hisfamily—is simply our profound gratitude forhis leadership all these years and that thethoughts and prayers of the American peopleare with him and his family and his country. Ithink in that sense, the sentiment of Americansis universally shared around the world.

Q. Have you gotten an update on his condi-tion or talked to his family lately?

The President. We’ll find out more when weland.

NOTE: The President spoke at 11:22 a.m. Inhis remarks, he referred to former PresidentGeorge W. Bush. Audio was not available forverification of the content of these remarks.


Hi, everybody. A few days ago, I unveiled anew national plan to confront the growingthreat of a changing climate.

Decades of carefully reviewed science tellsus our planet is changing in ways that will haveprofound impacts on the world we leave our

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children. Already, we know that the 12 warm-est years in recorded history have all come inthe last 15 and that last year was the warmestin American history. And while we know nosingle weather event is caused solely by climatechange, we also know that in a world that’s get-ting warmer than it used to be, all weatherevents are affected by it: more extremedroughts, floods, wildfires, and hurricanes.

Those who already feel the effects of achanging climate don’t have time to deny it.They’re busy dealing with it. The firefighterswho brave longer wildfire seasons. The farmerswho see crops wilted one year and washedaway the next. Western families worried aboutwater that’s drying up.

The costs of these events can be measuredin lost lives and livelihoods, lost homes andbusinesses, and hundreds of billions of dollarsin emergency services and disaster relief. AndAmericans across the country are already pay-ing the price of inaction in higher food costs,insurance premiums, and the tab for rebuild-ing.

So the question’s not whether we need toact. The question is whether we will have thecourage to act before it’s too late.

The national Climate Action Plan I unveiledwill cut carbon pollution, protect our countryfrom the impacts of climate change, and leadthe world in a coordinated assault on a chang-ing climate.

To reduce carbon pollution, I’ve directedthe Environmental Protection Agency to workwith States and businesses to set new standardsthat put an end to the limitless dumping of car-bon pollution from our power plants. We’ll usemore clean energy and waste less energythroughout our economy.

To prepare Americans for the impact of cli-mate change we can’t stop, we’ll work withcommunities to build smarter, more resilientinfrastructure to protect our homes and busi-nesses and withstand more powerful storms.

And America will lead global efforts to com-bat the threat of a changing climate by encour-aging developing nations to transition to clean-

er sources of energy and by engaging our inter-national partners in this fight. For while wecompete for business, we also share a planet,and we must all shoulder the responsibility forits future together.

This is the fight America can and will lead inthe 21st century. But it will require all of us, ascitizens, to do our part. We will need scientiststo design new fuels and farmers to grow them.We’ll need engineers to devise new technolo-gies and businesses to make and sell them.We’ll need workers to man assembly lines thathum with high-tech, zero-carbon componentsand builders to hammer into place the founda-tions for a new clean energy age. We’ll need togive special care to people and communitiesunsettled by this transition. And those of us inpositions of responsibility will need to be lessconcerned with the judgment of special inter-ests and well-connected donors and more con-cerned with the judgment of our children.

If you agree with me, I need you to act. Ed-ucate your classmates and colleagues, yourfamily and friends. Speak up in your communi-ties. Remind everyone who represents you, atevery level of government, that there is no con-tradiction between a sound environment and astrong economy, and that sheltering futuregenerations against the ravages of climatechange is a prerequisite for your vote.

We will be judged—as a people, as a society,and as a country—on where we go from here.The plan I have put forward to reduce carbonpollution and protect our country from the ef-fects of climate change is the path we need totake. And if we remember what’s at stake—theworld we leave to our children—I’m convincedthat this is a challenge that we will meet.


NOTE: The address was recorded at approxi-mately 5:20 p.m. on June 25 in the RooseveltRoom at the White House for broadcast onJune 29. The transcript was made available bythe Office of the Press Secretary on June 28,but was embargoed for release until 6 a.m. onJune 29.

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The President’s News Conference With President Jacob Zuma of SouthAfrica in Pretoria, South AfricaJune 29, 2013

President Zuma. Good morning, ladies andgentlemen of the media, good friends also.[Laughter] Mr. President, let me welcomeyou, your family, and your delegation to SouthAfrica. This is your second visit to South Africaand your first as President of the United States.We are delighted to host you.

Let me also congratulate you on a reelectionas President of the United States. Our talkshave taken place against the background of theill health of our beloved former President Nel-son Mandela, the founding President of ourdemocracy, who is much loved by our peopleand the world. I know that he is your personalhero as well, Mr. President.

The two of you are also bound by history, asthe first Black Presidents of your respectivecountries. Thus, you both carry the dreams ofmillions of people in Africa and in the diasporawho were previously oppressed. We continueto pray for Madiba’s good health and well-be-ing.

As we prepare to celebrate 20 years of free-dom and democracy in April next year, we ex-tend our deepest gratitude to the antiapartheidmovement in the United States for solidarity.

Mr. President, as a student you also partici-pated actively in campaigns against apartheid,especially promoting dismantlement of—dis-mantlement and disinvestment from apartheidSouth Africa of the investments that had beenmade in the history by the United States.

We are pleased to be working with you to-day with a common goal of expanding trade re-lations between our two countries. We are inessence shifting from disinvestment to rein-vestment in the era of freedom and democra-cy.

Mr. President, you are visiting Africa at theright time. Africa is rising. It is the second fast-est growing region after Asia and has becomean attractive market for investment, thus theUnited States strategy towards sub-Saharan Af-rica that you launched last year is well timed totake advantage of this growing market.

We already see immense value in our strate-gic partnerships such as BRICs and IBSA andlook forward to strengthening the U.S.-Africapartnership. We are pleased with the growingbilateral trade and investment. There are 600U.S. companies in South Africa, which havecreated in excess of 150,000 jobs.

The U.S. is also a major export market forSouth African products. South Africa, in turn,is your biggest market in Africa, accounting formore than 7 billion U.S. dollars of exports.

We reaffirm the need for the extension ofthe African Growth and Opportunity Act,which expires in 2015. Our mutual trade hasreached the levels preceding the global reces-sion largely due to the act. Arising out of thisvisit, we would like to see increased investmentin the South African economy for mutual ben-efit. We have placed on the table bankableprojects, which range from infrastructure de-velopment to skills development for the youth,and also across a number of sectors, like infor-mation and communication technologies, agri-culture, and the green economy. We haveurged that underpinning these investmentsshould be the drive for regional integration, in-dustrialization, and localization of supply andmanufacture.

Mr. President, youth development is a keyfocus area for South Africa given that a third ofour population is under the age of 15. This is akey feature of our national development plan.Therefore, we welcome our cooperation in ed-ucation, especially the School Capacity and In-novation Programme, as well as investment inprimary education and teacher training. It is al-so our wish to extend cooperation on vocation-al training to develop our further educationand training colleges.

We acknowledged the ongoing cooperationin the area of defense under the auspices of theSouth Africa-U.S. Defense Committee and thetraining of the security services in crime fight-ing.

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We have lauded the successful health coop-eration under the U.S. President’s EmergencyPlan for AIDS Relief funding to address HIVand AIDS and other infectious diseases, whichhas contributed to the successes and increasein life expectancy.

On promoting the African agenda, we reaf-firm our common commitment to strengthen-ing democratic governance and advancing theprotection of human rights on the continent.We would like to cooperate with the U.S. inenhancing peace building and postconflict re-construction and development cooperation un-der the umbrella of the United Nations and theAfrican Union.

We are concerned about the mushroomingof rebel movements in some countries in thecontinent at a time when the AU is promotingadherence to its policy of zero tolerance forpeople who come to office through unconstitu-tional means. This is a threat to a hard-wonpeace in many countries in the continent.

Mr. President, we are encouraged by the re-laxation of sanctions on Zimbabwe by the U.S.Government, and urge further steps in this re-gard as it will strengthen the economy of Zim-babwe. We are hopeful that the African Union,with the support of the international communi-ty, will find solutions to the challenges we facein the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali,Niger, and Central African Republic and So-malia.

Solutions that are African-led will be able toyield results. The problems in the Sahel regionarise primarily from the manner in which theU.N. Security Council handled the Libyan sit-uation. There are lessons to be learned in theepisode. We have talked about this in ourmeeting.

Mr. President, South Africa remains con-cerned at the lack of progress in the MiddleEast peace process. We unequivocally supportthe Palestinian bid for statehood and believe inthe principle of a two-state solution. We havenoted your latest attempts to revive the stallednegotiations, and you have our support in thisregard.

At the same time, we are of the view that alasting peace in the Middle East would not be

possible without addressing the other ongoingconflicts in the region, which are a source ofmuch insecurity and instability. We are en-couraged by the positive steps you have taken,Mr. President, to relax longstanding restric-tions on Cuba. I further urge you, Mr. Presi-dent, in light of the economic and financialchallenges in the U.S. and in the euro zone toencourage our traditional supporters not toabandon their pledges to Africa.

Let me also add that the reform of the Unit-ed Nations Security Council is long overdueand remains a high priority to South Africa, theAfrican Continent, and the developing worldas a whole.

Finally, Mr. President, I wish to reiterateSouth Africa’s commitment to the relationshipwith the U.S.A. I’m happy that you will visitRobben Island during your visit, which washome to Madiba and many freedom fighters inour country for decades.

I wish you pleasant and productive stay inSouth Africa for the remainder of your visit.We are truly honored to host you, Mr. Presi-dent. And I thank you. I now invite you, Mr.President, to address the media. You have thefloor.

President Obama. Well thank you so much,Mr. President, for your generous words andyour kind welcome. It is wonderful to be backin South Africa. As you mentioned, I had thepleasure of visiting South Africa before when Iwas a U.S. Senator. Michelle and our daugh-ters were here just 2 years ago. And we’re nowthrilled to be back as a family. And I know thatthe press corps, by the way, is happy to be herebecause this is much more elegant than theWhite House press room. [Laughter] It’s a bigimprovement.

I have to begin, of course, by saying that ourthoughts and those of Americans and peopleall around the world are with Nelson Mandelaand his family and all of South Africans. Thestruggle here against apartheid, for freedom,Madiba’s moral courage, this country’s historictransition to a free and democratic nation hasbeen a personal inspiration to me. It has beenan inspiration to the world, and it continues tobe. In so many regions that are divided by

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conflict, sectarian disputes, religious or ethnicwars, to see what happened in South Africa—the power of principle and people standing upfor what’s right—I think continues to shine as abeacon.

And so the outpouring of love that we’veseen in recent days shows that the triumph ofNelson Mandela and this nation speaks tosomething very deep in the human spirit: theyearning for justice and dignity that transcendsboundaries of race and class and faith andcountry. That’s what Nelson Mandela repre-sents. That’s what South Africa, at its best, canrepresent to the world. And that’s what bringsme back here, on what will be a 2-day trip inwhich I have an opportunity to meet with awhole range of leaders here in South Africa.

The President and I have enjoyed our com-pany quite a bit in the G–20 and in variousmultilateral forums. Usually, unfortunately,when we’re meeting there is some crisis goingon around the world. We had a more leisurelyconversation today. And we both agreed thatthe state of bilateral relations between theUnited States and South Africa are extraordi-narily strong.

As one of the BRICs, South Africa’s growthreflects the new realities of a global economy.And we welcome that, we don’t simply recog-nize it. That’s one of the reasons why I institu-tionalized the G–20, because it reflects the re-ality of today’s world and today’s economy andthe need for this continent to be representedin any discussions about the direction of theworld economy.

So the United States views South Africa as acritical partner. And, Mr. President, I verymuch appreciate our personal friendship andpartnership. As you’ve noted, Africa is on therise and South Africa is always at the forefrontof trends in Africa. I see South Africa as criticalto one of my top priorities on this trip, and thatis to promote trade and investment that helpsunleash economic growth here in Africa andultimately will benefit the United States ofAmerica.

We export more products to South Africathan any other nation in sub-Saharan Africa.Hundreds of companies, as you noted, operate

here in South Africa. South African companiesare investing back in the United States, like Sa-sol, with plans for billions of dollars in invest-ment in U.S. energy and manufacturing, in-cluding my home State of Illinois. And as thelargest economy in the region, growth here candrive growth all across Africa. So I want ourcountries to be doing more business together.

And one of the things that I’ve said to ourpress corps during this trip is that, all too often,attention is only paid to Africa when there is acrisis. But in fact, 6 of the 10 largest economiesin the world—or 6 of the 10 fastest growingeconomies in the world are in Africa. There’senormous progress being made and enormouspotential to be made. But obviously, we have alot more work to do, and I think we can do itbetter together.

Today, almost all of South Africa’s exports tothe United States—98 percent—already enterour markets duty free. And I told PresidentZuma that I want to renew, but also improveand update the African Growth and Opportu-nity Act so we’re generating more trade andmore jobs. I’ve got to be able to show Ameri-can companies that are operating on a levelplaying field when they invest or are trying toexport into South Africa. So we’re going tomake sure that our trade negotiators have a se-rious conversation about how we get a win-winformula that delivers jobs and opportunity forpeople here in South Africa and also in theUnited States.

Our commitment to progress and humandignity extends to our shared efforts to combatHIV/AIDS. Since I took office, we’ve contin-ued the good work of PEPFAR, and we’vebuilt on it. So, here in South Africa, we’re de-livering antiretroviral treatments to 1.6 millionpeople, which along with our prevention ef-forts is helping to save millions of lives. And Iwant to commend South Africa for its out-standing leadership on this issue. Within a fewyears, South Africa will become the first coun-try in Africa to fully manage its HIV care andtreatment program, and the United States willincreasingly focus on prevention and strength-ening public health systems. So this is an exam-ple of how rather than a one-way street of aid

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to Africa, instead this is a partnership of equalsworking together to solve common challenges.And that’s what we need to see in all areas ofendeavor.

We’re working together to advance the dig-nity of all of our citizens. Since opportunitiesfor women and girls means greater prosperityfor everybody, I’m hopeful that we will be ableto welcome South Africa to our Equal FuturesPartnership, an effort internationally to makesure that every country is committed to devel-oping the possibilities and opportunities forwomen and for girls. Some people know thatmy mother was involved in international devel-opment. She taught me when I was veryyoung: You can measure how well a countrydoes by how well it treats its women. If it’s ed-ucating its women and giving them opportuni-ties, that country does well. When they do not,that country does not advance. And I believethat.

So I also want to commend your Parliamentfor passing a landmark law to combat the mod-ern slavery that is human trafficking, some-thing that is still a crisis around the world.

This afternoon I’ll be in Soweto to announcea major expansion of our initiative to invest inthe young Africans who will shape this country,and this continent, for decades to come. And,regionally, I want to thank South Africa for be-ing a leading voice in the African Union, frompromoting peace between Sudan and SouthSudan to encouraging economic cooperationacross the continent.

As the President mentioned, we discussedthe situation in Zimbabwe. And President Zu-ma has played an important role in the region’smediation efforts. We agreed that the harass-ment of citizens and groups needs to stop, andreforms need to move forward so the people ofZimbabwe can cast their votes in elections thatare fair and free and credible. We also dis-cussed the Congo, where I’ve assigned a newU.S. Envoy to the region, Russ Feingold, a for-mer Senator and chairman of the Africa com-mittee. He’s going to lead our efforts in sup-port of the framework for peace. And the Unit-ed States and South Africa agree that all na-tions should implement the commitments

under that framework quickly to bring thetragedy of the Congo to an end.

And finally, as President Zuma mentioned,we discussed a range of global challenges. Ourgovernments don’t agree on every issue; notwo countries do. But we’ve seen the progressthat we can make together: on nuclear security,on climate change. Given South Africa’s histo-ry and given what it represents to the world,and given the interests we share—as democra-cies that believe in constitutions, rule of law,and human rights and the dignities of all peo-ple—I believe that we can stand shoulder tosoldier—shoulder to shoulder for issues of se-curity and justice and human rights. And I be-lieve that when the United States and SouthAfrica stand together on an issue in multilater-al fora, it’s hard to resist. It’s hard to resist.

So, President Zuma, I want to thank you forwelcoming me here today. I want to thank youfor the work that we’ve done together. It is agreat joy for me to be visiting and spendingtime here in South Africa. I’ve had occasion tovisit Robben Island myself, but for me to beable to bring my daughters there and teachthem the history of that place and this countryand help them to understand not only howthose lessons apply to their own lives, but alsoto their responsibilities in the future as citizensof the world, that’s a great privilege and a greathonor.

So I thank you. And to all the people ofSouth Africa, there is enormous affection andadmiration for you in the United States, and Ihope that I adequately express that during myvisit.

Moderator. Thank you very much, Your Ex-cellencies. We will now take questions. [Inau-dible]—SABC.

International Relations of African Na-tions/United Nations Security Council Reform

Q. Warm greetings to both Presidents. I’llask the questions to both Presidents, maybestarting with President Obama. You have cometo Africa, to South Africa, of course, to boostand strengthen trade. So perhaps someone issaying, well, the United States is somehowthreatened because there are other players

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who are coming to Africa, especially China.China is not only coming here in word, but alsoin deed. So is perhaps President Obama notthreatened that the leading role that—[inaudi-ble]—played is in danger?

And the other quick question, PresidentObama: South Africa’s bid to U.N. SecurityCouncil, should it come, will the United Statessupport it? Is it at the U.N.?

To President Zuma, you, as the leadingvoice, as President Obama has indicated, onthe African Continent in trying to bring stabili-ty and peace, we have seen some pockets ofrebels, as you indicated, in Congo, in Mali, andelsewhere. So what sort of assistance, perhaps,have you asked from President Obama, Imean, as America is one of the advanced coun-tries that can help in many areas? Thank you.

President Obama. Well, first of all, I’m herein Africa because I think the United Statesneeds to engage in a continent full of promiseand possibility. I think it’s good for the UnitedStates, regardless of what others do. I actuallywelcome the attention that Africa is receivingfrom countries like China and Brazil and Indiaand Turkey because, number one, the more in-terest they show in Africa, the more tools wehave and mechanisms we have to further in-corporate Africa into the global economy,which has the potential of creating jobs andbusinesses and opportunity. So I don’t feelthreatened by it. I think it’s a good thing.

Now, I do think that it’s important for Afri-cans to make sure that these interactions aregood for Africa, because—let me just take theexample of natural resources. I think there’sbeen a long history of extracting resourcesfrom Africa. You take raw materials, you sendthem to someplace else where they get used,processed, sometimes sold back to Africa. Theprofits stay there, the jobs stay there, and notmuch stays in Africa. There’s a long history ofthat.

Well, the truth is, the United States, at thispoint, on issues of energy, for example, frankly,we don’t need energy from Africa. Because ofadvances that have been made, we’re seeing oilproduction and natural gas production, as well

as clean energy production, all growing at arapid rate in the United States.

So our primary interest when it comes toworking with Africa on energy issues has to dowith how do we power Africa so that it can bean effective market creating jobs and opportu-nity in Africa, but then we also then have some-body to trade with and sell iPods to and air-planes and all kinds of good stuff. [Laughter]

So when we look at what other countries aredoing in Africa, I think our only advice is makesure it’s a good deal for Africa. If somebodysays they want to come build something here,are they hiring African workers? Somebodysays that they want to help you develop yournatural resources, how much of the money isstaying in Africa? If they say that they’re veryinterested in a certain industry, is the manufac-turing and value added done in Africa? Arethey tolerating corruption that’s not benefitingthe people, but just benefiting a few at the topin their interactions with African countries?

Those are the questions Africa should beasking. And hopefully, one of the things thatwe can do is—in our interactions, as a countrythat doesn’t have a colonial history here, as acountry that has made large investments in de-velopment on issues like HIV/AIDS—hopeful-ly, we can garner some trust when people askus what are the kinds of development strate-gies that are going to be sustaining over thelong term.

But as I said, I want everybody playing inAfrica. The more, the merrier. I think that’sgood. And it gives Africans leverage, which Ithink is useful. But again, ask those questions;don’t just assume that folks come here andthey’re automatically benefiting Africans. Andthat includes that United States. Ask questionsin terms of what we do.

With respect to the United Nations, Presi-dent Zuma and I discussed the fact that just asI wanted to institutionalize the G–20 becauseit’s more reflective of the world, I think theUnited Nations structure, which was createdpost-World War II, is going to have to be up-dated. How we do that, in what fashion, iscomplicated. It’s difficult. And it involves allkinds of politics. I will say this—that an expan-

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sion of, let’s say, the Security Council in whichthe continent of Africa had no representationwould be odd. But how that moves forward issomething that I think will involve a lot of ne-gotiations and a lot of discussions.

And the one thing that I share with Presi-dent Zuma is, everybody wants a seat at the ta-ble, but when it comes time to step up andshow responsibility, sometimes, people want tobe free riders. They love sitting around the ta-ble deciding what to do, except when it comesto bearing the burdens, bearing the costs,sometimes sharing the blame for difficult deci-sions that have to be made, then suddenly:“Well, I’m neutral; I’m not aligned. Don’t askme to”—I’m not referring to South Africa par-ticularly, I’m just saying, countries generallylike the idea of being part of foras. But one ofthe things that the United States has done—and obviously, we’re not perfect—but our seatat the table comes by virtue of the fact that webear a lot of responsibility.

If there’s a crisis in the world, people ask us,“What are you doing about it?” They ask: “Whyhaven’t you intervened militarily? You’re let-ting people die.” And if we intervene militarily,they ask, “Why did you intervene militarily?”They ask us to foot the bill, and the expectationis, why aren’t you footing the bill? If there’spoverty or crisis or a humanitarian disaster, thenatural expectation immediately is, what’s theUnited States doing?

Now, we shoulder that burden gladly. Wethink that’s part of our responsibilities. Wehave been incredibly blessed. But the simplepoint I make—and I say this everywhere Igo—is with rights come responsibilities andburdens, and it’s not always comfortable, andyou can’t always make everybody happy. It’slike being President of a country. [Laughter]

President Zuma. [Laughter] Absolutely.Thank you. Well, thank you very much.

Firstly, the question of Africa and its historyand the developments globally, I think, shouldbe taken from what they are, without assump-tions. Today we are talking about the global-ized world. If the world is globalizing, whyshould there be a question about Africa, that

Africa must remain somewhere, when every-body is working together really?

I think since the end of the cold war, theworld is working together. There is no countrythat is isolated. China has a lot of relations withthe U.K., U.S.A. Africa as a region, why must itbe singled out for some views, so to speak? Idon’t think in my own understanding, much asthe question are understandable, but I thinkit’s being unfair to Africa. Why should Africabe told to whom it must have relations withand not this one and that one? I don’t thinkthat talks to our acceptance of globalization.We are globalizing, and Africa must be part ofglobalization. And you can’t say we are global-izing because we have relations with certain re-gions, not other regions; and if we have rela-tions with other regions, then we are ques-tioned. Nor do I think countries that come tointeract with Africa should be questioned: Whyare you doing it?

I think it is in the nature of globalizationthat, in fact, Africa is saying it can no longer bebypassed by events that change the world. Weare part of it. And that’s why we relate to thebigger countries, bigger economies. We wantthe relationship, as President Obama was say-ing, that benefits both. Because historically,the kind of relations we had with other regionswere one sided. All what the President was say-ing: that we want localization to be taken intoaccount, whoever is trying to make relationswith us, beneficiation of our resources so thatthey benefit us.

We ourselves, as another kind of area, wehave said we need to do trade among our-selves—intratrade in the continent of Africa—where we are putting our five economic re-gions together so that we work as a continenttogether. We are having massive program interms of the infrastructure to implement whatyou’re talking about, to create that necessaryplatform, so that whoever comes to invest wedon’t ask: Are you an American? Are you aChinese? No. We enter into the relationshipthat must benefit both. And I’m happy that theUnited States shares that view as well.

So that is how these interaction are inter-preted insofar as the African Continent is

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concerned. We have been growing to speakwith one voice, and we are now speaking inone voice as a continent. And that’s why welook at those who tried to put one country thisside and the other that side. That’s why eventhe relation that we have with other regions,we are trying to do them as a unit, as an entity,as a region, rather than as individual countries.So that’s what is happening.

So we don’t regard to those who come to usthat they are coming here because of otherreasons that we don’t know. We take themgenuinely that you’re establishing relations thatmust benefit us, who must also appreciate thehistory of the continent: where we come from,why we are lacking behind, what is that theycould do to help us in terms of the relation-ships that we have to move forward as well.

With regard to the issue of the United Na-tions Security Council, I again agree with thePresident that really this institution was donein the midforties, when many countries did notexist; they did not participate in drawing up therules and regulations. Things have changed.The world is different today. We can’t continuewith those kind of conditions. It does not re-flect the reality of what is happening today.And that’s why we believe each and every re-gion must be represented at all levels so thatwe can be part of decisionmaking in this inter-national important body.

So the process is important that it is lookedat, but also should be realistic, because again,once we say we need that, as the President wassaying, we don’t want people who are just go-ing to come and sit there and enjoy status;countries must be looked at or regions. Whyshould countries be members of this importantbody that take financial decision? Do they havea contribution to make? What is it that is goingto be used as a criteria for countries, individualcountries, let alone the regions, as to why thisparticular country must be a member?

Those are matters I think those who are inthe national—or the AU and national securitycouncil or—U.N. Security Council, rather,they must begin to discuss those matters. Whatis it that you are going to say are important cri-teria to say this country can come so that we

help the process? Because if big countries arenot talking about it, you then allow the processto stay there and people saying all sorts ofthings. Even the smallest countries, they havegot the right to say something. But they may beexpecting to be there, and they may have nocontribution to make. I’m not saying othercountries can’t; they can. But we are talkingabout an institution that take very decisive de-cisions about the life of this globe.

So I’m just saying, I would be happy if thismatter is pushed quicker so that final decisionsare taken.

On question regarding whether we dis-cussed what is the United States could do tohelp Africa in the processes that it is trying tohelp itself economically, security situation, etcetera, we discussed that, and we have agreed.And I’m very happy. Their agreement is veryclear that Africa has said we need the African-led kind of processes and that others shouldhelp support that process. And we are at onewith President Obama on that one, and it’s ab-solutely correct, so that we should be support-ed.

We are looking at very specific things. Oneof them is the issue, for an example, of this newtrend of rebels in the continent. We need to dosomething to stop it, because if it’s notstopped, it could be another huge chapter, likethe chapter of coups in Africa, and we want tonip it in the bud. And therefore, the last sum-mit of the AU took a decision and asked coun-tries to volunteer: Who could be part of astandby force to react immediately if there isan action, to deal with it? And we would wantbig countries like the United States to supportus in those kinds of actions. And I think we arein agreement with that one.

Thank you very much.Moderator. Thank you, Your Excellencies.

And now hand over to Jay.White House Press Secretary James F. “Jay”

Carney. From the Associated Press, Julie Pace.

Egypt/Kenya/Former President Nelson R. Man-dela of South Africa/Zimbabwe

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. I wanted tofirst see if you could comment on the situation

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in Egypt and the U.S. concern about proteststhere. And also, politics in Kenya appear tohave affected your ability to travel there de-spite your family ties. Can you reflect personal-ly on not being able to go to the country whereyour father was born? And what does a situa-tion in Kenya and in places like Zimbabwe sayabout the difficulties of fulfilling Nelson Man-dela’s vision for democracy on the continent?

And, President Zuma, a similar question foryou: Given your country’s high unemploymentand other social challenges, is the ANC in itscurrent form living up to Mandela’s legacy?

Thank you.President Obama. Well, on Egypt, obvious-

ly, we’re all looking at the situation there withconcern. The United States has supported de-mocracy in Egypt. It has been challenging giv-en that there is not a tradition of democracy inEgypt. And the Egyptian people have beenfinding their way.

Our most immediate concern with respectto protests this weekend have to do with ourEmbassies and consulates. And so we havebeen in direct contact with the Egyptian Gov-ernment, and we have done a whole range ofplanning to make sure that we’re doing every-thing we can to keep our Embassies and con-sulates protected and our diplomats and per-sonnel there safe.

But more broadly, what we’ve said publiclyand what we’ve said privately is that we sup-port peaceful process—or peaceful protestsand peaceful methods of bringing aboutchange in Egypt. I think every party has to de-nounce violence. We’d like to see the opposi-tion and President Mursi engaged in a moreconstructive conversation around how theymove their country forward, because nobody isbenefiting from the current stalemate that ex-ists there.

And we do not take sides in terms of whoshould be elected by the Egyptian people. Wedo take sides in terms of observing a processfor democracy and rule of law. And that all theplayers there engage in the necessary toughcompromises so that they can start focusing onthe things that probably matter most to the or-dinary Egyptian, which is jobs, energy costs,

food costs, housing, schooling for their kids,creating economic opportunity. And Egypt, Ithink, for the last year and a half, 2 years, hashad great difficulty focusing on those vital is-sues.

So again, top priority: Making sure that ourEmbassies and consulates are prepared for thiswave of protests. Number two, we are support-ive of freedom of speech and freedom of as-sembly inside of Egypt, but we would urge allparties to make sure that they’re not engagingin violence, and that police and military areshowing appropriate restraint. And numberthree: How do we make sure that we get thispolitical process back on track? And that’s adifficult and challenging situation. But Egypt isthe largest country in the Arab world, and Ithink the entire region is concerned that ifEgypt continues with this constant instability,that that has adverse effects more broadly.

Your second question: Kenya. There hadjust been an election in Kenya that thankfullydid not see the same kind of violence as theprevious election; a newly installed President,but let’s be honest, a situation in which thisnew Government was still working out issueswith the international community, in part dat-ing back to the previous election. And the tim-ing was not right for me as the President of theUnited States to be visiting Kenya when thoseissues are still being worked on and, hopefully,at some point resolved. And we believe thatKenya needs to abide by various internationalcommitments that it’s made.

Having said that, Kenya is one of our oldestpartners in the continent. We have outstandingbilateral relations. The people-to-people con-tacts between the United States and Kenya re-main extraordinarily strong. We work withthem on all sorts of issues: economic, security,youth exchanges, you name it. And that willcontinue.

And my personal ties to the people of Kenyaby definition are going to be strong and willstay strong. And I have been to Kenya multipletimes in the past, and I expect I will be to Ke-nya multiple times in the future and will con-tinue to be deeply concerned with the progressthat’s made in that country. And I think it has

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enormous potential. Kenya is like South Africa.This is a country blessed with incredible re-sources, incredible beauty, brilliant people.There have been times in the past where gov-ernment held back progress, and then some-times, ethnic conflict held back progress. Andobviously, prior to that, colonialism and racismsometimes held back progress.

But the future for Kenya, like the future ofthe continent, is potentially bright, and theUnited States wants to be a partner in that pro-cess.

Did you have a third question for me?Q. How the situation in Kenya and also in

places like Zimbabwe, will they speak to—[in-audible]?

President Obama. Well, absolutely. Look,Nelson Mandela showed what is possible, andthe people of South Africa have shown what’spossible when a priority is placed on constitu-tions and rule of law and respect for humandignity and that all people are treated equally,and that we rise above our parochial concerns.And what Nelson Mandela also stood for is therecognition that the well-being of a country ismore important than the interest of any oneperson.

One of the reasons that George Washingtonis our most admired President is because aftertwo terms, he said: Enough, I’m going back tobeing a citizen. And if you look at U.S. history,there was no rule at the time in the Constitu-tion; there were no term limits. And he was sopopular, he could have easily been President ofthe United States for life, but he said: I’m a cit-izen, I served my time, I engaged my service,and then it’s time for the next person, becausethat’s what a democracy is about.

And Nelson Mandela, similarly, I think wasable to recognize, despite how revered he was,that part of this transition process was to makesure that it was bigger than just one person—even one of the greatest people in history.What an incredible lesson that is. And so Ithink for the entire continent, for every lead-er—not just in Africa—for every leader aroundthe world to think about those principles, thatgovernance for the people has to be based onconstitutions and rules in which every person is

treated equally and nobody is above the law;and that we as leaders, we occupy these spacestemporarily, and we don’t get so deluded thatwe start thinking that the fate of our countriesdepends on how long we stay in office.

When you have that as a foundation, andthen you start building in transparency and ac-countability and good governance and deliver-ing services for people, then you’ve got a reci-pe for success. And the economy then startsbooming and the private sector starts being ef-fective. And so my hope would be that everycountry around the world, but certainly in Afri-ca, can benefit from those lessons.

If you look at Zimbabwe, it used to be one ofthe wealthiest countries on the continent. Andbad governance has led to an economic disas-ter. It’s now starting to come back. And thanksto the work of people like President Zuma,there’s an opportunity now to move into a newphase where perhaps Zimbabwe can finallyachieve all its promise. But that requires fairand free elections, and it requires those cur-rently in power in Zimbabwe to recognize thatthe interests of all people have to be servedthere.

President Zuma. Thank you. Well, with re-gard to the question directed to me—whetherthe ANC government is still in keeping withMandela’s beliefs—absolutely, yes. I know thatpeople at times forget that we have notchanged policy, we are pursuing policies thatwere crafted together with Mandela as westarted our democracy in 1994.

What we’ve been doing is to enhance thosepolicies, deepen them. And I believe if youlook at South Africa, and perhaps if you takethe continent of Africa, in 19 years we havemade such progress that no country in the con-tinent has ever made in the history of decoloni-zation. And I’ve had an opportunity, perhapsbecause of the job that I’ve been given, thatwhen Madiba was a pensioner sitting at hishome, I visited him very regularly, firstly to re-port to him as one of the leaders of the ANC,but also to check how he feels about the situa-tion. He has been expressing happiness, actual-ly commending what has been done in terms ofthis government that he started.

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So I have no doubt that what we’ve been do-ing is part of what Mandela would be doing ifhe was here. You know, when people at timeswe forget, they’ve been criticizing our econom-ic policies of mixed economy. It is actuallyMandela who led us into that policy: the mixedeconomy. And others say, look, Mandela wasfor nationalization of X, Y, Z. Mandela debatedthat issue in the circumstances and said this isthe route to take. So we are pursuing thedreams and policies that Mandela was part of,and we’ll continue to do so.

We’re happy. He is happy. In fact, some ofthe visits I made before his health changed, hewas saying, you know, when I go to sleep I willbe very happy, because I will know that I leftSouth Africa moving forward. So other peoplecould have other views, but Mandela has aclear view that we are together on these issues.He has never been afraid to debate issues,even if it was out of government, when he musthave felt something has not been done proper-ly.

So we are happy as government, as theANC, that we are moving in the footsteps offormer President Mandela.

Thank you very much.Press Secretary Carney. Ed Henry, Fox

News.

Afghanistan/Middle East/Africa/Immigration Re-form

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. President Zu-ma, thank you for being a great host. And Iwonder if you can give us any news overnight,any update on President Mandela’s health thatyou may know about. And I wonder if youcan—you mentioned the shared history ofPresident Obama and President Mandela, firstBlack President of each nation. What do youthink President Obama’s legacy in this conti-nent in future years will be?

And, President Obama, you mentioned—and I think the phrase was, “We occupy thesespaces temporarily.” You almost reached 6months in your second term. And on foreignpolicy, you heard about violence in Egypt, Tur-key, Syria, China, and Russia, kind of a compli-cated relationship right now. How do you pri-

oritize all of that? What are your top two orthree foreign policy goals in your final 3½years?

And on the home front, student loans, guncontrol, balance a budget deal have been elu-sive. Are you disappointed? But on immigra-tion reform, you’ve cleared one big hurdle inthe Senate. But Speaker Boehner is suggestinghe’s going to wait a while. Are you going topush him? What’s your next step? Do you pushhim to deal with this quickly, or are you goingto give him more time? Or do you push himquickly to stick to your summer deadline ofgetting it done by the end of the summer?

Thank you.President Obama. Mr. President, do you

want to——President Zuma. Thank you. Well, the posi-

tion of former President Mandela in terms ofhis health, he remains critical, but stable. Sonothing has changed so far. That’s where thesituation is. But we are hoping that it is goingto improve. And I think with all the prayersand good wishes that have been made certainlymust do something. As you have seen even inthe country and abroad, everyone is wishingMandela well, a speedy recovery. And the doc-tors who are attending to him are doing every-thing, and these are very excellent doctors whoare dealing with him. So we place our hopes aswell that they will do better. We hope that verysoon he will be out of hospital.

With regard to what do we think will be thelegacy of President Obama, I always avoid totalk about legacies of people who are stillthere, generally. [Laughter]

President Obama. Thank you. [Laughter]President Zuma. People always ask me: How

can I judge my legacy, really? It’s better judgedwhen a person has done the job. But I thinkwhat President Obama is doing right now, Ithink he’s focused on the continent. And hisapproach to—in terms of policy—to how heworks together with the continent in terms ofhelping the continent to move forward, as aleading country in the world and as a leadingdemocracy, he’s helped to help deepen and en-hance democracy in the continent. That, Ithink, will be an important one.

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As you know, the United States has beenlooked at as a country that could play a role ininfluencing the proper direction in the conti-nent of Africa. I think that would be a verygood legacy, that when we judge it—at theright time that we judge it, because at the mo-ment it is ongoing. But I think that ongoingprocess, the fact that he has come here and, Ithink, to South Africa, he has, for an example,made very objective observation about SouthAfrica. They are unbiased, uninfluenced byanything. He is making very clear. And he,therefore, precisely because of that, he’s clearwhat kind of relationship we should make withSouth Africa, with the continent. And that willcertainly leave the legacy, and I think it wouldbe a good legacy insofar as the continent of Af-rica.

Thank you.President Obama. Ed, when it comes to for-

eign policy, there are a whole range of issuesthat are top priorities. Some of them are proac-tive; some of them are in response to verytough situations. So first and foremost in mymind is, we still have a war going on in Afghan-istan, and I’ve still got young men and womenthere who are making enormous sacrifices, andfamilies back home who are waiting to seetheir loved ones again. And us managing thattransition properly, so that by the end of 2014our troops are out and we’ve got a stable situa-tion inside of Afghanistan, I think is going torequire continued focus and attention.

Keeping the American people safe contin-ues to be an area of focus and attention. And Ican’t deviate from that too much. I’ve got tomake sure that our team understands thosepriorities.

But there are also enormous opportunitiesinternationally, and so I’ll just make mention ofa couple. Number one is that despite the enor-mous turmoil in the Middle East—and we’regoing to have to continue to work on Syria,we’re obviously actively monitoring the situa-tion in Egypt, the situation in Libya is chal-lenging—I continue to believe that this periodthat we’re going through in the Middle Easthas the potential to move the Middle East overthe long term in a better direction, because the

past arrangements were not sustainable overthe long term.

Democracy is hard. It is messy. And in theMiddle East, there are obviously all kinds ofsectarian divisions that make it that much morechallenging and dangerous. But I continue tobelieve that we have to invest time, energy,and effort in helping to midwife a more repre-sentative and more responsive governing ar-rangement throughout that region. And if wedo that effectively, then the Middle East, Ithink, can be part of the world economy and inways that are more than just, how much oil arethey producing. And obviously, it would havean impact on the security of the entire world.And that includes, by the way, us continuing towork on peace between the Israelis and thePalestinians, which I think would change thedynamic in the region and certainly how muchleverage we have on some of these other is-sues.

It includes dealing with Iran and their nu-clear program. If we can get Iran, which nowhas a new President, to recognize the need fornegotiations and a diplomatic resolutionwhereby they have peaceful nuclear power likeSouth Africa does, without nuclear weapons,and can give the international community con-fidence on that; that would change the dynam-ic in the region again. So that continues to beimportant.

And then, there are going to be some multi-lateral issues. Africa: We’re here, and one ofthe things that I’ve said is, I want to see greatertrade, not just aid; African-led economicgrowth, as opposed to outsiders dictating to Af-rica how it can grow. But we have an importantrole to play. The food for the future and foodsecurity alliance that we highlighted when wewere in Senegal: You’ve got 7 million smallfarmers all across Africa who are now beingempowered to increase yields and productivity,to get their products to market, connect withInternet lines and wireless so that they can getfair prices that they can then reinvest in buyingtractors, which further increases yields, whichthen means you’re creating a middle class. Andnow shopkeepers have people who can buytheir goods, and slowly, Africa is growing. We

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now have nine countries across the continentwho are participating, and we’re already seeingenormous benefits and an increase of about$150 million in incomes and revenues for thosewho are participating. That’s the kind of thingthat America can do well.

And yes, we’re putting money into it, butwe’re also listening and working with Africansto partner with them in a more effective way.And we intend to do the same thing on power,something that we’ve been hearing all acrossthe region. The whole issue of intra-Africantrade—how can we help to build infrastructurethroughout the continent. We’ll partner withthe Chinese—the young man who was askingthat question earlier—we’ll be happy to workwith anybody around intra-Africa trade. Andthat’s an example of where we want to partnerwith Africa, we want to partner with otherswho want to help Africa, but we want to makesure that it’s done to benefit Africa.

And I think that as much as the security is-sues in my foreign policy take up a lot of mytime, I get a lot of—more pleasure from listen-ing to a small farmer say that she went from 1hectare to 16 hectares and has doubled her in-come. That’s a lot more satisfying, and that’sthe future.

And finally, on domestic policy, on immigra-tion reform, I was very pleased to see the Sen-ate pass it. I called Senators McCain and Gra-ham and Schumer and others who were in-volved to congratulate them for it. I think theyworked very hard. It’s not the perfect bill, butit’s consistent with the principles I laid out ofstrong border security, of reformed legal immi-gration system, and a pathway to citizenshipfor those who are currently in undocumentedstatus inside the United States.

Now the ball is in the House’s court. I’vecalled both speakers—Speaker Boehner andLeader Pelosi—and encouraged them to find apath to get this done. And the framework thatthe Senate has set up is a sound framework. Itdoesn’t reflect everything that I would like.Nobody is going to get a hundred percent ofwhat they want: not labor, not business, not theadvocates, not me. But the time is right.

And one thing I know about why the UnitedStates is admired around the world—and Ithink President Zuma would confirm this—people do recognize that America is a nation ofimmigrants; that, like South Africa, it is a mul-tiracial and multicultural nation. And thatmakes it stronger. Our diversity is a source ofstrength. So we need to get this right. We canbe a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants.

And I do urge the House to try to get thisdone before the August recess. There’s morethan enough time. This thing has been debatedamply, and they’ve got a bunch of weeks to getit done. And now is the time. All right?

Moderator. Thank you. Last one. [Inaudible]

South Africa/International Criminal Court

Q. Welcome, Mr. President, and thank youfor this opportunity. This is a question to bothof the Presidents here today. It’s the issue oftransitional justice in the International Crimi-nal Court. The United States is not a signatoryto the Rome Statute and yet appears to en-courage and push African leaders and Africancountries to essentially follow the rulings of theInternational Criminal Court. So the question,President Obama, is how legitimate do youview the international criminal justice system?And specifically to President Zuma, what canbe done to bring about more equity to the in-ternational criminal system or justice system?

But also, having met, how would you de-scribe the state of the relationship currentlybetween South Africa and the United States?Considering the fact that the United States isthe biggest economic power and South Africahas the largest economy here, can we expectany key initiative coming from both of thesecountries? Thank you.

President Zuma. Well, thank you very much.We certainly are saying we want to strengthenour relations as two countries. And I think, aswe said earlier, the very visit of PresidentObama talks to the issue we are raising—whatis that we can do. We are both saying we needto do more. And of course, and I think the—our private sector are very much aware of this.We are creating the enabling environment thatwe should grow as much as possible.

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Our ministers have been talking, and offi-cials, on specific issues on what is it that wethink needs to be done to go forward. We are,for an example, expecting the United Statescompanies to invest in what we have here asopportunities. For example, the massive infra-structure opportunities that are here withbankable kind of projects, those are the kind ofopportunities we believe the United Statescompanies will take advantage of. And that willtherefore deepen the economy.

On the issue of justice internationally, it’s avery serious matter as viewed by the Africancountries. As you know, there have been caseswhere Africa has felt we are being treated un-fairly, because we have entered into discus-sions as to how could we deal with justice, levelthe playing fields. Africa is, for example, in theprocess of trying to initiate an interaction withthe ICC to discuss specifically those kind of is-sues.

I’d imagine, in our relations with the UnitedStates, our legal people, in fact, should be giv-en an opportunity to discuss these matters atthat level as to how could we bring about equaljustice globally. Because it is important that weare seen in action to be treating matters, orpeople, that they’re equal before the law.There is a view in the continent that this is notdone. And it may be a subjective view, butthere is that view that therefore says countriesthat are in the leadership should have more in-teraction to address those matters, becausethey become very much important.

One of the issues that was asked, for an ex-ample, was the issue of Kenya—what is it thatmust happen there. How do you look at peoplewho are charged—in other words, who aresupposed to answer questions in court, who arenot yet convicted—how do they look like be-fore the law?

Now, we think that the saying is that you areinnocent until proven guilty, right? What is therole of the people who are not knowing thelaw, who are not sophisticated, who are givenan opportunity to vote and they exercise theirvote—which is within their rights—respectingtheir rights, and they produce a particular ver-dict? What do you say in terms of the law?

Those are the issues we believe need to belooked at, because there are specific circum-stances at some point. Because if we are able todiscuss those issues and agree, it’s not going tobe difficult to collaborate if there were people,for an example, who must appear before in acourt, because it would be moving from a par-ticular kind of understanding.

It is also important to remove the percep-tions that people could have about certainthings. If we don’t talk, we don’t engage, theperceptions then become an impediment—whether we could move forward in bringingabout equal justice, respect of the law globally,so to speak. I’m just saying, from my point ofview, the interaction and the deepening of re-lations is going to help to deal with those mat-ters—of course, with people who have exper-tise on those kind of matters. I don’t think theyare matters that cannot be resolved. They willbe resolved through engagement. Thank youvery much.

President Obama. Well, first of all, when itcomes to U.S.-South Africa relations, as I said,I think the bilateral relationship is very strong.What we’ve agreed to is, is that we have to do abetter job communicating on multinational is-sues to make sure that we anticipate potentialareas of tension, that we understand ourselvesclearly, that sometimes, it’s important for us tobe able to express to each other the way inwhich history shapes how we view some ofthese issues. And I think the more dialogue wehave on those issues, I think because we aredemocracies that stand for human rights andstand for certain principles, the truth is weshould be aligned internationally.

But the bilateral relationship is strong. I justwant to make sure it’s stronger. I think that onissues like HIV/AIDS, where we’re now transi-tioning, building capacity, South Africa is step-ping up and doing tremendous work. That’s aperfect model for how you can have an effec-tive partnership.

On trade and investment, we can do more.There’s more business to be done. And I’mconfident that we’re moving in the right track.I just want to accelerate it a little bit more,partly because, as Ed Henry pointed out, I only

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have 3½ years left. [Laughter] I want to try toget as much done as possible.

On the issue of international justice, it’s truethe United States is not a signatory, but we’vebeen very supportive of the InternationalCriminal Court. Obviously, it is a difficultthing. We don’t have a single world govern-ment. You don’t have a single world policeforce. And yet I think it was created, and theidea of international justice was created, forthose extraordinary circumstances in whichyou see a leader operating in ways that is socontrary to international norms and basic be-liefs that we have about the dignity of peoplethat the international community sees the needto speak and to render judgment. In part toprevent that kind of action from taking place inthe future, in part to put leaders on notice thatthey can’t simply act with impunity simply be-cause they control the biggest military or thebiggest faction inside their country. That doesnot give them license to do whatever theyplease. And I think that principle is importantto uphold.

I know that there’s been talk about, well,does the ICC pick on Africa? But truthfully,probably the most high-profile work that theICC has done actually had to do with the situa-tion in Serbia and the Balkans and Kosovo andBosnia. And so I’m confident that in fact theICC is not thinking simply regionally on theseissues.

I do share with President Zuma, however,the notion that if that’s a perception inside of

Africa, then it’s useful for the African Union—and as a disinterested organization in the sensethat it’s not just representing one country orone individual—to be able to have constructiveconversations with the ICC to see if some ofthose perceptions can be dissipated. I wouldcaution, though, that you wouldn’t want, in thename of African unity, to be trying to waterdown principles that then allow a Charles Tay-lor, let’s say, to engage in the kinds of actionsthat he did. That was brutal and inexcusable.And to the extent that the notion was that ac-tions like those of slaughtering people and un-leashing troops to rape and pillage with impu-nity that somehow you can get away with that,that’s not good for Africa. And the AfricanUnion should find a way, as President Zumaindicated, to allay some of these concerns, per-haps get a greater sense of consistency ortransparency or clarity in terms of how the ICCis operating. But don’t lose that basic sensethat we’re all accountable in some fashion tothe basic precepts that our countries respec-tively are founded on.


NOTE: The President’s news conference beganat 11:57 a.m. at the Union Building. In his re-marks, he referred to President Uhuru Kenyat-ta of Kenya; President-elect Hassan Rouhaniof Iran; Nimna Diayté, president, Saloum Fed-eration of Corn Producers; and former Presi-dent Charles Taylor of Liberia. He also re-ferred to S. 744.

Remarks and a Question-and-Answer Session at a Young African LeadersInitiative Town Hall Meeting in Johannesburg, South AfricaJune 29, 2013

Moderator Nkepile Mabuse. You guys are anamazing crowd. Good afternoon, and welcometo the University of Johannesburg’s Sowetocampus. My name is Nkepile Mabuse, and Iwill be the moderator this afternoon.

I really do hope that the strong significanceand symbolism of what is happening here inSoweto today does not escape you. There real-ly are no two occasions in recent time that have

had a more profound impact on the Africanpeople than when Nelson Mandela walked outof prison a free man in 1990 and, of course, theelection of Barack Obama in 2008.

Now, these two men are politicians, andtheir legacies will be judged by history. Butthere’s absolutely no doubt that these two de-velopments in history have had a profound im-pact on the African Continent. They have

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brought hope in Africa and also began the pro-cess of restoring pride and dignity in the Afri-can people.

Now, as I speak to you and as you all know,President Nelson Mandela is lying in hospital,critically ill. The euphoria that engulfed thiscontinent when President Obama was electedis fading, but in this room—look around you—is Africa’s brand new hope. These young peo-ple are doing amazing things in their commu-nities. They have already been identified asleaders and leaders who are committed to serv-ing others and not themselves.

Exactly 37 years ago this month, youngschool children here in Soweto braved apart-heid bullets, fighting for freedom. It’s no coin-cidence that a new generation of young peopleis here today. And like the ’76 generation, theyrefuse to conform, but are inspired to trans-form their world.

When President Obama launched theYoung African Leaders Initiative in 2010, hedescribed them as the Africa that is over-looked. Well, at this moment, the world cansee and hear you. President Obama will comehere, address you, and then engage you. Wewill take a question here in South Africa beforewe cross to Kenya, Uganda, and then Lagos,Nigeria. When the President selects you,please, be proud. Introduce yourselves, andask a short, sharp, smart question. [Laughter]

As a fellow African, I really want to thankyou from the bottom of my heart for keepinghope alive in Africa. Please join me in welcom-ing onstage the 44th President of the UnitedStates of America, Barack Obama.

The President. Hello, everybody! YeboMzansi! Oh, it is wonderful to be back in SouthAfrica. Everybody, have a seat, everybody havea seat. Relax. Yes, I’m excited too.

It is wonderful to be here with all these ex-traordinary young people: young people fromacross this magnificent country, but also fromall across the continent. And I want to give spe-cial thanks and special welcome to those whoare watching from Nigeria and Uganda andKenya, a country obviously very close to myheart.

When I travel around the world, this is oneof my favorite things to do, meeting and talkingwith young men and women like you. And ourformat today, this town hall, is a longstandingtradition in America, and I get asked all sorts ofthings. I remember one event, a person asked aquestion that’s often on a lot of people’s mindswhen I show up: Where’s Michelle? [Laugh-ter] Sometimes, people ask me, you seem tohave gotten so old since you were elected—[laughter]—what happened?

So this format can be a little humbling, but itenergizes me because it gives me a chance tohear from you directly what you’re thinking,what you care about, what your vision is. AndI’m making this trip to Africa because I believethis is a region on the move. Even as this conti-nent faces great challenges—and they aregreat, and we can’t paper over them or pretendthat those challenges don’t exist—even as toomany Africans still endure tremendous hard-ship and great injustice, there is, as the songsays, a “new Africa”: more prosperous, moreconfident, taking its place on the world stage.

And one of the reasons is because of yourgeneration. And it’s fitting that we’ve gatheredhere, in Jo’burg, in Soweto, because here welearned that history is in our hands. Not farfrom here, in Orlando West, two young mencame of age who would transform this nationand inspire the world: Nelson Mandela andDesmond Tutu. And President Mandela oncesaid that during all those years in that cell, itwas his home here in Soweto—that small red-brick house—that was what he called the “cen-ter point of my world.”

And obviously, he’s on our minds today, andwe join the people of the world in sending ourprayers to Madiba and his family, because hestill inspires us all.

Now, not far from here, on a June morning,young students gathered in peaceful protestfor the right to be taught in their own lan-guage, for the right to be treated like humanbeings. And after all the police bullets, afterthe smoke cleared, the world was shocked bythat image: protesters holding the body of ayoung boy, Hector Pieterson. And what a pow-erful tribute it is to Hector’s sacrifice and to all

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who struggled that we can gather here today ina free South Africa, at a university that servesall South Africans.

And I know the story of Soweto inspires youin your lives, but keep in mind, it inspired metoo. The uprising here helped open my mindto a broader world and to our responsibilitiesto choose between fairness and injustice, be-tween right and wrong. And as a Senator, dur-ing my first visit to South Africa, I was able togo to Hector Pieterson’s memorial and paytribute to an African boy who moved theworld. And humbled by the sacrifices of allwho have gone before us so that we can standhere as free men and women, I am honored toreturn to Soweto now as President of the Unit-ed States of America.

Now, tomorrow I’ll be down in Cape Townat the University of Cape Town, and I’ll speakabout the future that we can build together,Africans and Americans. And that’s whereRobert Kennedy delivered his eloquent ad-dress to another generation of young people.The challenges of our world, he said, demand“the qualities of youth; not a time in life, but astate of mind, a temper of the will, a quality ofthe imagination, a predominance of courageover timidity, of the appetite for adventureover the love of ease.” That’s what young peo-ple are. That’s the spirit of youth, and it’s stilltrue.

That’s why 3 years ago, I launched a new ef-fort to make sure we’re tapping those qualitiesof youth; the imagination, the courage, the“yes, we can” attitude of young Africans likeyou. It’s our Young African Leaders Initiative,and I kicked it off by welcoming young menand women from across Africa to the WhiteHouse, and we had a town hall similar to thisone. I think some of you were there, in fact.

And since then, we’ve helped empoweryoung people across this continent with newskills and entrepreneurship and leadership andnew partnerships in education and health andtechnology. Michelle came here to Soweto fora forum with some inspiring young women,and she’s here today in Jozi, meeting with stu-dents who—[laughter]—did I say that right?—

meeting with students who, like you, are goingto determine the future of your countries.

So today I’m proud to announce a signifi-cant expansion of this initiative. We’re launch-ing a new program that’s going to give thou-sands of promising young Africans like you theopportunity to come to the United States anddevelop your skills at some of our best collegesand universities.

It’s called the Washington Fellowship forYoung African Leaders, and I hope all of youapply because we’re joining with our topschools, public and private. We’ll focus on civicleadership and public administration and busi-ness and entrepreneurship, the skills you needto serve your communities and start and growbusinesses and run effective ministries. Andyou’ll interact with Americans from all walks oflife, because our citizens—especially ouryoung people—can learn from you too. You’llmeet with leaders in business and nonprofitsand government, including me. And I look for-ward to welcoming you at a summit that I’llhost in Washington, because I want to hear di-rectly from you: your hopes, your dreams, whatwe can achieve together.

And your time in America will be just thebeginning. When you come back home, newgrants will help you turn your ideas into newbusinesses and new nonprofits. And we’re go-ing to partner with American companies herein Africa to provide internships and mentoringand job opportunities to help you grow into thenext generation of business leaders. We’re go-ing to partner with your Governments and re-gional organizations here in Africa and founda-tions and civil society to amplify your voices asyou stand up for democracy and equality. Andwith the connections you make as a Washing-ton Fellow, you’ll have something else for therest of your life, and that is a network of Afri-cans and Americans ready to collaborate on thefuture that you want to build.

So this won’t be the most expensive programthat we have, but I actually believe this is goingto end up being one of the most important.And it’s important to me personally, becauseit’s a great way for me to show my faith andconfidence in all of you. I believe in you, and I

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intend to make this a lasting part of our en-gagement with Africa beyond my Presidency,for years to come.

We want to empower entrepreneurs likeFred Swaniker. Where’s Fred? He’s from Gha-na. Where is he? There he is. [Applause] SoFred has got a fan club over here. [Laughter]Fred helped to start a biotech company andnow uses his expertise to help other young Af-ricans develop their leadership skills so thatthey can come back and put those skills to useserving their communities, starting businesses,creating jobs. So thank you, Fred, for the greatwork that you’re doing.

We want to empower citizens like KhadijaPatel. Where’s Khadija? Khadija? So Khadija isa fearless journalist here in South Africa. She’sreported on Sudan and Mali and the Demo-cratic Republic of Congo. She’s exposed theroots of conflict; she’s challenged leaders as avoice for peace and justice. So we’re veryproud of the work that you do, Khadija. Thankyou.

We want to empower advocates like JacobJabari. Where’s Jacob? Right here. So here inSouth Africa, Jacob decided he was not goingto hide the fact that he was HIV-positive; heembraced it, he became a counselor. He helpsguide others, because he says the key to savinglives and slowing the spread of AIDS is an hon-est approach, and that takes great courage.Thank you, Jacob.

And we want to empower women like LeboBogapane. Lebo? Growing up, Lebo endureddomestic abuse and violence, which led tohomelessness and hunger. Over many years,she didn’t simply rebuild her own life; she builta crisis center here in South Africa that’shelped thousands of women and children es-cape abuse as well. What a great legacy. Thankyou, Lebo.

So building the future that you seek, realiz-ing the vision that you have, not just for yourown countries, but for the world, it will not beeasy. It will not be easy. But as you go forward,I want you to think of the man who’s in ourprayers today. Think about 27 years in prison.Think about the hardships and the strugglesand being away from family and friends.

Reflecting on his years in prison, NelsonMandela wrote that there were dark momentsthat tested his faith in humanity, but he re-fused to give up. And he said: “I am fundamen-tally an optimist. Whether that comes from na-ture or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being op-timistic is keeping one’s head pointed towardsthe Sun, one’s feet moving forward.”

So, in your lives, there will be time to testyour faith. But no matter how old you grow, Isay to all of you today, don’t lose those qualitiesof youth: your imagination, your optimism,your idealism. Because the future of this conti-nent is in your hands, and if you keep yourhead pointed towards the Sun and you keepyour feet moving forward, I promise you willhave no better friend and partner than theUnited States of America.

Thank you very much, everybody. Thankyou.

So now I get to do what I really want to do,which is to hear from you. So why don’t weopen it up for questions. And I understand thatwe’ve got somebody from South Africa hereperhaps.

Ms. Mabuse. Yes, the plan is to get some-body here in Soweto before we move across toother parts of the continent.

The President. Okay.Ms. Mabuse. The choice is yours, Mr. Presi-

dent.The President. Well, this is a good-looking

group. Let me—[laughter]—I’m going to callon this young lady right here. Introduce your-self.

African Growth and Opportunity Act

Q. Good afternoon, President Obama. Myname is Melissa. I’m an attorney, and I’m pas-sionate about telecoms in Africa. My questionis: The African Growth and Opportunities Act,the term expires in 2015, and I understandthere’s a bill which provides for an extension to2019. Do you think this bill will be passed?And if it isn’t passed, what do you think the im-pact will be on small states in Africa that arebenefiting, such as Lesotho and Togo?

The President. Well, it’s a great question. Bythe way, what kind of law are you practicing?

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Q. Oh, right now I actually do cross-borderAfrican work.

The President. Excellent.Q. [Inaudible]The President. Fantastic. Well, for those of

you who are not as familiar with it, the pro-gram we call AGOA is basically a trade ar-rangement that allows probably 95 percent ofgoods from Africa to come into the UnitedStates without tariffs, duty free. And as a con-sequence, it obviously gives African exports agreater advantage.

And the whole idea is that historically, if youlook at the relationship between Africa and therest of the global market, dating back to colo-nial days, the idea was somehow that raw mate-rials get sent somewhere else, they get pro-duced somewhere or refined somewhere else;sometimes, they’re sold back to Africa, but thejobs, the value, the profits are all someplaceelse.

And we graduated from those colonial timesto the idea of aid, which continues to be criti-cally important. There are parts of Africathat—where, right now people just need food,or right now people just need medicine, and itis the obligation of wealthier nations to helpdeliver that food or that medicine.

But everywhere I go in Africa, what’s veryclear is people want to break out of a depen-dency trap. The idea is not that Africa some-how should be the ward of some other country.What we need is an Africa that is building,manufacturing, creating value, inventing, andthen sending those products around the worldand receiving products in return in fair termsof trade. And if we do that, then there’s no rea-son why Africa cannot succeed.

So part of what I’m trying to highlight dur-ing this trip is the enormous opportunities foran Africa that is intimately integrated into theworld market. I want small and medium-sizedbusinesses and entrepreneurs and startupshere in Africa to see their potential not just inthe local market, but to be able to sell goodsand service all around the world and to bringthose profits back to Africa and reinvest in Af-rica and hire Africans.

And so, as part of that, we want to make surethat the United States is a critical trading part-ner. And by the way, we’re not doing it out ofcharity. We’re doing it because if Africa is do-ing well, then now we’ve got a market of peo-ple who want to buy more iPads and—[laugh-ter]—Boeing airplanes and all the good stuffthat we sell, right? And Africa, by the way, isthe youngest continent, which means that de-mographically, this is going to be a larger andlarger share of the world market.

So, specifically, in terms of AGOA, you’reright. The current AGOA structure expires in2015. It is my hope that we get it renewed.Now, what I mentioned to President Zuma to-day, and I said this at a press conference, isthat we will have to engage in some negotia-tions to find ways to both improve what we’recurrently doing, but also to reflect on the factthat South Africa is becoming more and moresuccessful, and that U.S. businesses—in orderfor me to get it through Congress in the UnitedStates, U.S. businesses have to feel as if they’regetting a level playing field relative to, for ex-ample, some of the European companies whoare able to operate here, because there’s a freetrade agreement between Europe and theUnited States.

But I’m confident that with good negotia-tions, that we should be able to get it done.The broader point I want to make, though, isthat the future is going to be in creating valuehere in Africa and making sure then thatSoutheast Asia and China and Turkey and allthese other places around the world, that ev-erybody is starting to see the benefits of globaltrade patterns. And Africa cannot just be asource of raw materials for somebody else. Ithas to be a source of the kinds of products andservices and imagination that is going to be thefuture of the 21st century. Thank you.

Ms. Mabuse. We have a young person in Ke-nya who has a question for you. Kenya, youready? There we go.

[At this point, live video of a group in Nairobi,Kenya, was displayed on the monitors.]

Kenyan Moderator. Thank you, South Afri-ca. You are watching us, broadcasted to you

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live from Nairobi here in Kenya’s capital. Andindeed I’m joined by eight young Kenyans whohave come in from five different counties with-in the country, quite excited. I think I speak forall of them when I say that, indeed, it’s an hon-or to be able to engage with you, Mr. Presi-dent, while directly during this program.

And I’ll just get right to it and give an oppor-tunity for one of the Kenyans who is with mehere in studio to be able to ask a question toyou, Mr. President. Margaret, you have thefloor now.

Kenya/Democracy in African Nations/Econom-ic Development in African Nations

Q. Thank you, Katherine. Jambo, BarackObama, President. We are honored to be withyou live today this afternoon from Nairobi, Ke-nya. Our question to you really is, given the re-cent shift of trade ties of Kenya to the East,how does this impact on American foreign pol-icy towards Kenya? And does the ICC indict-ment of our President and his Deputy preventthe U.S. from engaging with Kenya both politi-cally and economically? In addition, Mr. Presi-dent, many Kenyan youth would like to know,what are your thoughts and plans on youth em-powerment in the devolved structure of gover-nance to Kenya? Thank you.

Kenyan Moderator. Now, Mr. President, asyou prepare to respond to that question, I’msure you’re alive to the fact that there has beena lot of speculation in the Kenyan media andalso in the social media for your reasons for notvisiting Kenya on your second tour of Africa.Maybe if you recall, in an interview that youdid have with this channel, that is way back onthe 1st of June 2010, you did a promise thatduring your tenure as President of the UnitedStates of America, you will be touring Kenya.Well, will you still keep your word on that?[Laughter]

The President. Well, asante sana. It’s won-derful to see all of you. [Laughter] First of all,let me just say that I’m going to be Presidentfor another 3½ laughter]. One ofthe things that you learn as President is not on-ly do people want you to fulfill your promises,

but they want you to fulfill your promises yes-terday. [Laughter]

And part of the reason that I wasn’t able tovisit Kenya this time is I’ve been to Kenya mul-tiple times and there hadn’t been a sustainedvisit by me in West Africa; and then South Af-rica, given the importance of the work thatwe’re doing together; Tanzania is a country Ihadn’t visited before. So I was trying to spreadthe wealth a little bit in terms of my visit.

But what’s also true, I won’t deny, is thatKenya just had an election. I was very proud tosee the restraint in which the election washeld. We did not see a repeat of the violencethat we saw in the last election. But with a newadministration that’s also having to managesome of the international issues around theICC, I did not think it was the optimal time forme to visit. But as I said, I’m going to—I’ve got3½ years. So if in 3 years and 7 months, I’m notin Kenya, then you can fault me for not follow-ing through on my promise. [Laughter]

You raise the issue of whether our attitudestowards Kenya changed because of Kenya’sorientation towards trade and commerce withthe East. And this was asked of me before. It’sa general question that I get during this visit:people saying, well, China is here a lot, and isthis what’s motivating America to want to bemore involved? And I want to make two points.

First of all, our commitment to Africa isbased on our belief in Africa’s promise and Af-rica’s future, and we want to be part of that fu-ture. Second of all, I think everybody shouldbe involved in Africa. I want China, and I wantIndia, and I want Brazil, and I want Singa-pore—everybody, come on down—[laugh-ter]—to Africa because 6 of the 10 fastestgrowing economies in the world are right herein Africa.

You are seeing the—a shift inside of Africain which a commitment to democracy andtransparency is beginning to take hold. I justvisited Senegal, where President Sall has em-barked on a reform agenda, including, by theway, shortening his term from 7 years to 5years, and a belief that, for example, memberswho join the government need to disclose their

years, so—[

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assets—just basic measures that can help toroot out corruption.

And so when you start seeing these changes,everybody should be excited about wanting todo business here in Africa and doing businesswith Kenya. Now, what I said during a pressconference today I want to repeat, which is, Iwant to make sure that as countries come toAfrica, that it’s benefiting Africans. So if some-body is building a road here in Africa, makesure they’re hiring some Africans. If there’s go-ing to be manufacturing taking place of rawmaterials, locate some of those plants here inAfrica.

And so I do want to make sure that whoeveryou’re dealing with—and as you enter into gov-ernment and business—whoever you’re deal-ing with, making sure you’re getting a gooddeal that’s benefiting the people here and canhelp to spur on broad-based development. Andhopefully, that’s the kind of relationship thatyou’ll be able to develop with the United Statesof America. And that’s the kind of relationshipI want Kenya to have with every country onEarth.

We’re in a global economy with a global sup-ply chain, and I don’t want Africa to continual-ly just be at the bottom of the supply chain.You produce the raw materials, sold cheap, andthen all the way up the chain somebody else ismaking the money and creating the jobs andthe value.

So part of what your generation’s challengewill be is making sure that, first of all, you havea transparent, accountable, noncorrupt, opengovernment, because economic developmentis not going to happen in the absence of thatkind of certainty. That’s what businesses want.They don’t want to have to pay a bribe just toget phone lines installed in their business.They don’t want to have to hire somebody’scousin just to open a business. And we have tobe honest about it. In a lot of countries, that’sstill the case, and that discourages investment.

And then as you move into positions of pow-er, I want to make sure that you’re negotiatinga good deal with these other countries. Now,it’s got to be realistic. It’s got to be based onwhat assets do you bring to bear. And initially,

at least in some countries and in some regionsin parts of Africa, you’re looking at a certaintype of manufacturing or a certain type of in-dustry that may not be very capital intensive,for example, because there may not be asmuch capital initially to invest. So it may startat a smaller scale, but continually upgradingand improving the prospects for Africa, I think,will require that kind of tough, hardheaded ne-gotiations. But I want every country to be here.

Last point on Kenya—I already made thisfor all countries—yes, I want young people tobe involved in holding their governments ac-countable. Now, there is a lot of variety here inAfrica in terms of quality of governance. And Idon’t want to reinforce for the American pressthat are here this attitude that Africa is just onebig piece of land on the map. Right?

There’s a lot of variation. Some countriesare doing great work when it comes to ac-countability and democracy and an act of civilsociety and a free press and freedom of assem-bly. And some countries are not doing as well.But what’s exciting right now is, you’re startingto see more and more a norm, a standard, takehold in Africa. And young people, I think espe-cially, have high expectations about how gov-ernment should function, and it should func-tion for the public good, not for the benefit ofjust a few. And people should be able to speaktheir mind, and they should be able to organizewithout fear of retribution. And they should beable to cast a ballot without problem.

And South Africa, I think, has been a greatmodel. This is one of the greatest legacies ofNelson Mandela, is to show that through acommitment to the constitution and rule oflaw, and equal treatment for all people, that acountry can prosper despite a tragic history.And the same should be true in Kenya, whichis why I was heartened that the process of thelast election at least did not result in chaos.

And that should be true for every country.And President Zuma said something importanttoday at the press conference, and I’m going tosee what we can do to work with them. The Af-rican Union I think is trying to create sort of apeer review system so that it’s not just theUnited States coming in and lecturing some

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African country that’s not observing democra-cy, it’s fellow Africans who are saying, what areyou doing? Why are you suppressing your peo-ple? Why are you throwing political dissidentsin jail? Why are you blocking people’s ability toorganize new political parties?

And when peers are organizing in that fash-ion, then slowly, standards get raised and newnorms are established, and all of you can be atthe forefront of that. Thank you, Kenya.

Ms. Mabuse. We are going to stay in EastAfrica and take a question from Kampala,Uganda.

The President. Fantastic.

[Live video of a group in Kampala, Uganda,was displayed on the monitors.]

Ugandan Moderator. Hello from Kampalain Uganda, “the pearl of Africa,” as we areknown. I am Nancy Kacungira, a news present-er with NTV Uganda. And Uganda is a veryyouthful nation; more than half of our popula-tion is actually under the age of 15. I’m heretoday with a group of vibrant and dynamicyoung people. And as you can see, they arevery excited to be addressing President Obamatoday and asking him a question.

Now, I’ve had the chance to interact withthe young people here today, and they’re allgreat young leaders in their own right. Andthey all have different backgrounds and differ-ent experiences, but I’ve found that one of thethings they do have in common is their passion:their passion for a better Uganda and for a bet-ter Africa. Mr. President, one of them is nowgoing to ask you a question on behalf of therest of the group.

Entrepreneurship/Economic Development inAfrican Nations

Q. Hello, Mr. President. It’s an honor. Myname is Eirene Ikomon. My question comeson behalf of everyone seated here with me.Unfortunately, it’s also regarding trade. Mr.President, as young Ugandan leaders, we arelooking to the world for equal business part-ners and commitments and not necessarily aid.We are not looking for donors. And yet, Mr.

President, the policy you have just describedright now seems to emphasize help coming infrom the U.S., but emphasizing offering jobsand employment within the countries that theycome into. As young leaders, Mr. President, wewant to do the businesses at home and be theones to own our home markets. So how do you,Mr. President, plan on assisting us in reaffirm-ing the U.S. policy to achieve this vision?

The President. Well, with respect to U.S.policy, I think you mischaracterize it, becauseour policy is to see success here in Africa. Now,there’s no doubt that U.S. businesses also wantto sell into Africa, because as President of theUnited States, I want to create some jobs in Af-rica as well.

But my attitude is that the more successfulAfrican entrepreneurs are, then the morethey’re going to be purchasing and interestedin purchasing U.S. goods. And conversely,when the economy in the United States is do-ing strong, then we’re going to buy more fromAfrica, and everybody’s standards of living canrise. But as you heard me say earlier, I com-pletely agree with you that we want more in-vestment and value creation here in Africa.

Now, one thing we haven’t spoken about,which I think is critical, is intra-African trade.All too often, it’s easier to export, say, tea andcoffee from East Africa or flowers from EastAfrica to Europe than it is to export it some-place else in Africa.

And part of that is the legacy of colonialism,an orientation out of Africa rather than internalto Africa. Part of it is a lack of basic infrastruc-ture, so port facilities, trains, rail, roads. So oneof the things that we’re going to be very inter-ested in is working with the African Union aswell as various regional organizations to findways that we can start linking up markets in-side of Africa, because particularly for newbusinesses, if you’re starting a business here inSouth Africa, then the best chance you haveinitially for export might be closer to home,one of the surrounding countries.

If Uganda—if you have a business that youwant to get started, and initially, you’ve gottenyour product popular inside of Uganda, thenext step before you think about selling to the

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United States, you might say to yourself, let mestart selling some in Kenya, or let me start sell-ing in Tanzania or Rwanda. And so part ofwhat we have to do is to find additional ways inwhich Africans can also trade with each other.

The last point I will make—because it’s re-lated to trade and capacity-building—I justcame, as I said, from Senegal. And one of thethings that we were featuring was our Feed theFuture Program and a food security alliancethat we’re creating here in Africa. And we’vealready gotten nine countries to join, and Sen-egal just determined that it was going to join aswell. But we’ve already helped 7 million smallfarmers in Africa to pool their resources, ac-cess lower credit, link themselves together asone producer group so that they can marketand sell more effectively. And we’ve seen thosefarmers increase their yields and their sales by10, 20, 30, in some cases, 50 or 100 percent.

I met with a young woman farmer who hadstarted off with one hectare, now has 16. Shehas been able to achieve enough growth thatshe has now bought a tractor. She’s hired eightpeople. Now, that’s not what we ordinarilythink of as business or entrepreneurship, but ifyou think about the number of Africans whoare involved in agriculture and giving them thetools where suddenly, they’re getting betterprices for their crops, they’ve got access to amarketplace, they now are getting enoughcredit to be able to mechanize their operations,and now suddenly, they’re able to hire somepeople in their surrounding villages, you’ve justsuddenly seen a small business grow. And thenext step may be then they start doing somesmall food processing. And next thing youknow, now they’re suddenly supplying theseprocessed foods to a school. And next thing youknow, they’re supplying those processed foodsto the whole country.

And so not every business is going to be anInternet business, an app—[laughter]—Imean, I know that’s what young people are allabout—I’m just going to create an app. I’m thenext Facebook. That’s great, and I hope someof you do that. But when we think of develop-ment of Africa as a whole, especially if we’rethinking about broad-based development, then

part of what we have to recognize is that a hugenumber of people inside of Africa are still inthe agricultural sector, and the work that we’redoing is trying to create capacity for thosesmall farmers who are essentially small entre-preneurs to be successful, because if they’vegot more money in their pockets, now they canafford to buy your app.

So thank you very much for the question,Uganda. Appreciate it.

Ms. Mabuse. Mr. President, we’re movingover to West Africa now, and we’re going totake a question from Lagos, Nigeria.

[Live video of a group in Lagos, Nigeria, wasdisplayed on the monitors.]

Nigerian Moderator: Well, welcome, Mr.President, to Lagos, Nigeria, home to perhapsAfrica’s biggest youth population. I’m MaupeOgun for Channels Television here. And herewith me in the studio are a selection of some ofNigeria’s brightest and best, and I must tell you,Mr. President, they’re mostly women, so youbetter be careful around them. [Laughter] Andthey say they’re on the march, and they havetheir question ready. Over now to you, Aisha.

Education/Economic Development in AfricanNations/Terrorism

Q. Good afternoon, Mr. President. Myname is Aisha Myna, and I represent sevenother people here. In acknowledging our chal-lenges and our responsibility as the young lead-ers of Nigeria to accept our challenges andmake the difference, we would like to thankyou for your support to Nigeria and Africa as awhole. The largest resource in Nigeria is ourhuman capital, and we would like to ask a two-pronged question.

The first is, how can the United States deep-en its investment in deploying technology thatwill develop our vast human capital as well asthe education of her youth? My second ques-tion—it’s two-pronged, sorry, Mr. President—considering how long the war on terror hasbeen on for, would you say that we’re winningthe war on terror, seeing that there are new

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terrorist groups developing in Africa, one ofwhich is in Nigeria? Thank you.

The President. Well, those are both greatquestions. Thank you.

And before I answer the question, I justwant to be clear: I am surrounded by opinion-ated women in my house all day long—[laugh-ter]—so I’ve got good practice dealing withstrong women. You guys haven’t met Michelle,but you’ve probably seen her on TV. She’s notshy. [Laughter] And Malia and Sasha, they’rejust taking right up after her. So every night atdinner, I’m surrounded.

In terms of human capital and young peo-ple, I think there is no doubt that the most im-portant investment any country can make—notjust an African country—any country can makeis educating its youth and providing them theskills they need to compete in a highly techno-logical advanced world economy. Countriesthat do not do that well will not succeed.Countries that excel at training their youngpeople are going to succeed, because thesedays businesses can go anywhere. And one ofthe key criteria for any business is, where can Ifind outstanding workers? Where can I findoutstanding people to manage a plant or man-age my sales force? And if you have countrieswith high illiteracy rates or limited skills, you’regoing to have problems.

And I want to be clear that this is a problemin the United States, not just a problem in Afri-ca. One of the main things that I’m spending alot of time on is trying to push Congress to im-prove our early childhood education, becauseit turns out that children are most susceptibleto learning between the ages of 0 and 3. And soworking with parents, particularly mothers,around reading to their children, proper nutri-tion, stimulating activities. Then, when theyget to school, making sure that our schools areprepared and redesigned for today, because alot of the schools in the United States werefirst created during the agricultural era and ar-en’t always appropriate for what’s required to-day. And then on into what we call communitycolleges, which are 2-year colleges, or 4-yearcolleges and universities.

[A noise could be heard from offstage.]

Somebody should have told my helicopter toquiet down while I’m talking. [Laughter]

So across the board, we’re having to rethinkeducation and workforce training. And one ofthe things that we want to do is to partner witha country like Nigeria and identify ways thatwe can provide direct value added, whether it’sin helping to train teachers, helping to incorpo-rate technologies into the education process.

So, for example, one of the things that youhear across the continent is, because a lot ofAfricans still live in rural areas, it may be diffi-cult for them to access education and schoolingonce they get beyond a certain level. Well, arethere ways in which we can pipe in, essentially,a university into a rural community? And sud-denly, you’ve got the lecturer right there, with-out the same costs or obligation for a youngperson to take on when they go to travel faraway from home in order to study.

And so I think that there are some excellentideas that sometimes we’re doing country bycountry, depending on the country plan. Butthis is an area where I would love to get moreinput from young people in terms of what theythink would work. And so part of the Young Af-rican Leaders Initiative may be to elicit addi-tional ideas from those—particularly thosewho may be working in education and have asense of what are the barriers right now foryoung people in order to succeed.

Now, with respect to the so-called war onterror, there’s no doubt that we’ve made someprogress in dealing with some extremistgroups—for example, core Al Qaida and binLaden, that was based in the FATA area be-tween Pakistan and Afghanistan—that theyhave been greatly diminished. But what is alsotrue is that in some ways, the problem has me-tastasized. You have more regional terrorist or-ganizations, like a Boko Haram in Nigeria, es-pousing an extremist ideology, showing no re-gard for human life. And although they maynot have the same transnational capacity thatsome of the earlier organizations did, they’redoing great harm in Africa and in the MiddleEast and in South Asia.

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People always talk about the terrorist threatto the United States or the West, but the truthof the matter is, is that the number of peoplewho are killed by terrorist attacks in Africancountries or in Muslim countries or in SouthAsia far outstrips any deaths that are experi-enced by Westerners. It’s typically people rightthere where these organizations are based thatare most likely to be killed. When the KenyaEmbassy bombing happened, the overwhelm-ing majority of people who were killed wereKenyans, not Americans. And so this is not justa problem for us, this is a problem for every-body.

Now, the question is, how do we addressthis problem? It is my strong belief that terror-ism is more likely to emerge and take rootwhere countries are not delivering for theirpeople and where there are sources of conflictand underlying frustrations that have not beenadequately dealt with. The danger we haveright now, for example, in a place like Somaliais that it’s been two generations, maybe threesince there was a functioning government in-side of Somalia. Now we’ve started to see actu-ally some progress, in part because of interven-tion by African nations in Somalia to clear thespace, to create the space for governance.

But you look at what’s happening in Mali,for example, right now. Part of the problem is,is that you had a weak central government anddemocratic institutions that weren’t reachingout as far into the country as were necessary,and we’ve got to build those institutions. A lotof what we talked about in terms of responsive-ness and governance and democracy, thosethings become defense mechanisms againstterrorism. They’re the most important defenseagainst terrorism.

So I don’t start with the attitude of a militarysolution to these problems. I think the morethat we’re giving people opportunity, the morethat we’re giving people education, the morethat we’re helping resolve conflicts throughregular democratic processes, the less likelythey are to take root. Now, having said that,there are some extremist groups that will notcompromise or work through a democraticprocess, and we have to also be realistic about

that. And what we want to do is partner withAfrican countries to figure out how we canhelp.

But I promise, this notion somehow that wewant to somehow expand our military reach—Iwas elected to end a war. I’ve ended one. I’mnow in the process of ending another one. Ev-ery few weeks, I go and visit soldiers who areyour age, who have had their legs blown off inAfghanistan or worse. Every week, I’m writingletters to the families of fallen soldiers. Some-times, I go to Arlington National Cemetery,where our heroes are buried, and I hug thosefamilies, and I feel their sobs on my shoulder.

This idea somehow that we want to get moreinvolved militarily around the world is simplynot true. First of all, it costs a lot of money, andthe United States, just like every countryaround the world, has to think about its bud-get. And where we intervene, oftentimes, it’snot very effective, because unless you’ve got alocal population that is standing up against ter-rorism, we end up being viewed as interlopersand intruders.

So with—in the Africa context, what wewant to do is to build African capacity. Wewant the African Union and other regional or-ganizations to build up the capacity to send inpeacekeepers, to be able to nip terrorist cellsthat may be forming before they start and gainstrength. And we can provide advice and train-ing and in some cases equipment, but wewould love nothing more than for Africa col-lectively to say no to extremism, say no to ter-rorism, to say no to sectarianism—which, inthe case of Boko Haram, for example, is an ex-ample of essentially a religious rationale forthis kind of violence—and the United States tobe able to step back and worry about sellingiPads and planes. That’s what we would like todo.

But what we won’t do is just stand by if ourEmbassy is being attacked or our people are invulnerable situations. And we expect countriesto work with us to try to deal with some ofthese threats. And this is a global issue; it’s notjust one related to the United States. Okay. Allright.

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Ms. Mabuse. We have time to take one lastquestion from Soweto.

The President. If it’s a really short question,I’ll give a short answer, and we’ll get two in.[Laughter] Gentleman right here, yes, go ahead.Everybody has got—you’ve got to describe whyyou’re all wearing orange. [Laughter]

Education

Q. Okay. Firstly, my name is Hans Dinkel-man. I’m nervous. [Laughter] I’m a student atUJ. I’m an honor student, also studied educa-tion. You said education people should standup. [Laughter] My education is—oh, my ques-tion is we’ve got a lot of barriers in this country,and one of those barriers is the amount of stu-dents in our classes versus a single person. Andwhat I find difficult is, how does that one per-son stand up and control, in some cases—we’ve just come back from training—some cas-es 90 to 100 kids in one class? It’s difficultenough to carry 40 in my class. How do youcarry those 90—I find it very difficult—and tryto make an impact in their lives?

The President. Good. I think that’s a greatquestion. First of all, I think it’s wonderful thatyou’re going into education. Very proud of you.No job more important than educating ouryoung people. This is a challenge that we havein the United States as well, and that is the is-sue of class size.

Now, our problem typically is that our classsizes are around 35 or 33, and we’d like to seeif we can get it down in the twenties. If you’retalking about 90—[laughter]—that’s a wholeother level. Now, we’re—I’m assuming we’retalking about primary and secondary educa-tion, we’re not talking about universities, be-cause by the time you get to university it’s—you better be focused on your studies. It’s notthe job of the teacher to make you do yourwork and pay attention, because you’re now anadult. But when it comes to young people,studies do show that particularly for poorerchildren, the more one-on-one attention thatthey can get from their teachers, the more per-sonalized instruction they can get, the betterthey’re going to do.

So the first response is, if you can budget—if a government can budget smaller class sizes,that’s better. But not every country is going tohave the resources to do that. And one of thethings that we’re starting to see in the UnitedStates is, how can you effectively use, for exam-ple, teacher’s assistants in a class, who may notbe fully certified teachers but can break up,let’s say, a class of 90 into smaller groups. Thisis also where technology can also potentiallymake a difference, because it’s conceivablethat if you’ve got some sort of technology—acouple of laptops—that you can leverage oneteacher into multiple instruction.

The question you raise, though, makes mewant to suggest to my team when we leavehere that we start taking some of the best prac-tices and some of the things that we’re learningin the United States and seeing if there may besome application we can—might be able tostart some pilot programs here in South Africato see if we can make an impact there.

Good. All right. Last question? One more.All right. All these folks have been so patient inthe back, I don’t want them to feel neglected.So the—this gentleman right here, because heseems very eager. Right here. Yes, yes, youright there. [Laughter] Go ahead. The—butyou guys can—feel free to stand together if youwant, but—[laughter]—I’m only going to takea question from one of you. [Laughter] What’syour name?

Q. My name is Sydney Mukumu. I’m fromLimpopo. Thank you. President Obama, I metyou in 2006. I was working for the Embassy.

The President. Excellent.

Environment/Climate Change

Q. Yes. I’m very much worried about someof United States international—I mean foreignpolicy, especially on the environment. Presi-dent Obama, today I want you to tell theseyoung leaders about the foreign policy of theUnited States on the environment.

The President. On the environment?Q. Yes, because South Africa is facing the

same problem. Whatever is happening inAmerica, it’s affecting us. Please tell these—this is your children—tell us today—[laughter].

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The President. Yes.Q. Just like people who are protesting out-

side, there are people who are crying, and nowyou must address them here——

The President. Okay, let’s go.Q. ——and tell them outside what is hap-

pening. Make it clear, and then when you goback, you will have a safe trip. Thank you verymuch, President.

The President. I’m ready. I’m ready. I’mready. [Laughter] I’ll see if I can make it clear.U.S. environmental policy is something that Icare deeply about. As some of you know, Igrew up in Hawaii, one of the most beautifulplaces on Earth. And as a child, I was justtaught to treasure what the Earth gives us andto make sure that we leave it for the next gen-eration. And obviously, in a country like SouthAfrica, with incredible beauty and natural re-sources, that same mentality about conservingthe Earth and nurturing it to pass on to futuregenerations, I think, applies here just as muchas it does in the United States.

The biggest challenge we have environmen-tally—and it is an international challenge thatwe cannot solve alone—is the issue of climatechange. There are other issues: dirty water,dirty air. But the truth is, is that we’ve madeenormous progress over the last several years,over the last several decades in the UnitedStates. And if you come to the United States,environmental quality is pretty good. And in-ternationally, we’ve promoted policies aroundhow mercury is released into the environment,and how other poisons are released in the envi-ronment and how businesses have to be held tointernational standards in terms of workersafety. Those are areas where the UnitedStates have been at the forefront. We’ve beenat the front of the line, not the back of the linewhen it comes to those issues.

But the existential challenge that we facehas to do with a warming planet. And your gen-eration is the one that’s going to be the mostseverely affected. Now, the United States andother highly industrialized, developed coun-tries over the last 50, 100 years have beenpumping up carbon emissions into the atmo-sphere. And slowly, this has been building up

and it is warming the planet, and we may bereaching a tipping point in which if we do notsolve this problem soon, it will spin out of con-trol and change weather patterns in ways thatwe can’t anticipate, with drought, floods, muchmore severe natural disasters. And unfortu-nately, in those situations. it’s often poorercountries that are affected the most by thesechanging climate patterns.

So I just gave a speech this past week onwhat the United States is going to do on ournext phase of reducing our carbon emissions.The United States actually reduced our carbonemissions more than any other country since Icame into office. I just want to make that point.We doubled fuel efficiency standards on cars.We’re investing in clean energy like solar andwind. And we actually want to share that tech-nology, because we think that all countriesneed to benefit. And part of the opportunityfor Africa is to see if we can leapfrog some ofthe polluting practices of America or Europeand go straight to the clean energy strategiesthat will allow you to advance economicgrowth, but not corrupt the planet.

So we’ve made progress, but we haven’tdone enough. And what I did was to say I chal-lenge the United States. I said we’ve got to domore. We’re going to start regulating our pow-er plants more efficiently. We’re going to makesure that we redouble our efforts to reduce ourcarbon emissions, and we’re setting a goal tomeet the agreements that we had both in Co-penhagen and in Durban for advanced coun-tries that have a big carbon footprint.

But let me make one last point: The UnitedStates cannot do it by itself. And the biggestemitter of carbon right now is China. They stillhave a much lower carbon footprint per personthan the United States, but because they haveso many people, it’s going up rapidly. And Chi-nese leaders understand this. The same thingthat’s sending all the carbon into the atmo-sphere is also making it difficult to breathe inBeijing. So they recognize, they’ve got to comeup with a new development model. India is go-ing to have to come up with new developmentmodels—Africa.

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We’re going to all have to work together tofind ways in which collectively, we reduce car-bon, but we make sure that there’s some dif-ferentiation so that countries that are verywealthy are expected to do more and countriesthat are still developing, obviously, theyshouldn’t be resigned to poverty simply be-cause the West and Europe and America gotthere first. That wouldn’t be fair. But every-body is going to have to do something. Every-body is going to have to make some importantchoices here. And I expect that it’s going to beyour generation that helps lead this, because ifwe don’t, it’s going to be your generation thatsuffers the most.

Ultimately, if you think about all the youththat everybody has mentioned here in Africa, ifeverybody is raising living standards to thepoint where everybody has got a car and every-body has got air conditioning and everybodyhas got a big house, well, the planet will boilover, unless we find new ways of producing en-ergy. And tomorrow, or the next day, when Ivisit Tanzania, I’m actually going to be going toa power plant to focus on the need for electrifi-cation, but the need to do it in an environmen-tally sound way.

So let me just close by saying this has beenan unbelievable conversation. I had a lot offaith in all of you before I came here; now Ihave even more faith in you. You guys are allgoing to do great things. I’ll be retired by thetime you do them, and so I’ll just sit back andwatch—[laughter]—and I’ll be proud of you.But what I promise you is that the UnitedStates Government and the American peopleare going to want to be your partner for the du-ration of your careers. And I hope all of you,again, apply for the Young African Leaders Ini-tiative. We want to hear from you about howwe can work even more effectively with thisgreat continent, because we see a bright futureahead.

I hope you’ve enjoyed it. Thank you, every-body. God bless you. Thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 3:48 p.m. at theUniversity of Johannesburg, Soweto Campus.In his remarks, he referred to ArchbishopEmeritus Desmond M. Tutu of Cape Town,South Africa; and Nimna Diayté, president,Saloum Federation of Corn Producers. Thequestioner from Nairobi, Kenya, referred toPresident Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy Presi-dent William Ruto of Kenya.

Remarks at a State Dinner Hosted by President Jacob Zuma of South Africain Pretoria, South AfricaJune 29, 2013

President Obama. Well, good evening, ev-eryone. President Zuma, Madam Zuma, distin-guished guests: Thank you for your incrediblehospitality. When I was last here, as a Senator,my entourage was a little smaller. [Laughter]By that I mean no entourage. [Laughter] TheSpeaker just helpfully showed me a photo-graph of me and him from that first visit andpointed out that I had no gray hair in the pho-to—[laughter]—and that the years had takentheir toll.

I also want to thank President Zuma’s stafffor making my staff feel much better, becausethis is not the first time that a President hascome to the podium without notes—[laugh-ter]—that were supposed to be there. And

they are greatly relieved that that does not onlyhappen to them. [Laughter]

Traveling to South Africa the first time wasdifferent because part of the thing about nothaving an entourage is it meant I could go takewalks on the streets of Johannesburg andSoweto and Cape Town. And that’s how youtruly get to appreciate a country: the small in-teractions with shopkeepers or people who arewilling to give you some directions. And I’venever forgotten the beauty of this country, thewarmth of its people. And tonight I am re-minded of that again, and Michelle and I can’tthank you enough.

I will not speak long. I have spoken enoughtoday; I know Michelle heartily agrees.

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[Laughter] I will be giving another speech to-morrow about what this nation represents tome and about the future that I believe that wecan build together.

I’m told that there’s a word, a concept thathas come to define the way many South Afri-cans see themselves and each other. And I’mnot sure it translates easily into English. Butit’s the recognition that, here on Earth, we’rebound together in ways that are sometimes in-visible to the eye; that there’s a basic onenessto our humanity. It’s the belief that we can onlyachieve true excellence and our full potentialby sharing ourselves with each other, by caringfor those around us. I believe that you call itubuntu.

And we feel that spirit tonight. We feel it inthe lives of all those, including President Zu-ma, who endured the prisons and the beatingsto end an unjust system so that we might standhere today in a free South Africa. And to Presi-dent Zuma and to all of you who participatedin that struggle, the world will always remem-ber your sacrifice. It’s a sacrifice that resonatedin the United States in the same way that theU.S. civil rights movement helped to createbonds of solidarity with those in South Africawho were seeking their freedom.

We feel that spirit in the bonds between ourtwo peoples that I think are unique in humanhistory. I would not be here were it not forthose freedom fighters, and I certainly wouldnot be here if people weren’t willing to fightfor the principles that both our countries holddear.

Now, America’s founding principles—ourbelief that “all men are created equal”—whichwould find expression in your Freedom Char-ter, which declared that this nation “belongs toall who live in it, Black and White,” with allpeople “enjoying equal rights and opportuni-ties.” In time, the tables turned. Just as I be-lieve that many South Africans were inspiredby people like Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy,we drew inspiration from your struggle. Andyour success reminded us that all things werepossible, including the improbable idea that a

son of an African man might even become anAmerican President.

And we feel that spirit—ubuntu—tonightbecause, we must admit, our minds and ourhearts are not fully here because a piece of us,a piece of our heart is with a man and a familywho is not far away from here. Much has beensaid about Madiba today. More will be said inthe years to come. This evening I’d simply liketo close with the words that he turned to so of-ten himself, in that cell, the poem he read tothe others in their darkest moments to givethem strength:

Out of the night that covers me,Black as the Pit from pole to pole,I thank whatever gods may beFor my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstanceI have not winced nor cried aloud.Under the bludgeonings of chanceMy head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tearsLooms but the Horror of the shade,And yet the menace of the yearsFinds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,How charged with punishments the scroll,I am the master of my fate:I am the captain of my soul.

And so I propose a toast: To a man who hasalways been a master of his fate, who taught usthat we could be the master of ours; to a proudnation and South Africa’s unconquerable soul;and to President Zuma and Madam Zuma fortheir outstanding leadership in carrying on thegreat traditions of the South African struggle.Pula!

NOTE: The President spoke at approximately8:05 p.m. at the Union Building. In his re-marks, he referred to Thobeka S. Zuma-Madi-ba, wife of President Jacob Zuma of South Af-rica; and Speaker of the National AssemblyMax Sisulu of South Africa.

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Remarks Following a Roundtable Discussion at the Desmond Tutu HIVFoundation Youth Center in Cape Town, South AfricaJune 30, 2013

The President. It is a great pleasure to behere at the Desmond Tutu HIV FoundationYouth Center. It is appropriately named aftersomebody who has done heroic work, not onlyon behalf of peace and justice and the endingof apartheid, but also who, very early on, tookon the challenge of HIV/AIDS here in SouthAfrica and around the world. And so I’m soproud to be with my friend again and——

Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town Des-mond M. Tutu. Thank you.

The President. ——an unrelenting champi-on of justice and human dignity.

South Africa obviously has faced a heavyburden from HIV as well as other diseases, tu-berculosis, most recently. But the great news isthat South Africa is now leading the way in car-ing for its citizens, in paving the way for abrighter future for the South African peopleand their families, and I am very proud theUnited States has been such a terrific partneron this issue.

I was hearing stories from all these incredi-ble folks, some of whom are counselors andoutreach workers, some of whom have strug-gled with HIV/AIDS themselves. And thegreat news is that, in part because of leadershipfrom people like Archbishop Tutu, but also be-cause of the great work of nurses like SisterIris, or young people like Mbulelo, and won-derful counselors like Lindiwe, what we’veseen is a reduction of the stigma around testingon HIV/AIDS, greater education around pre-vention. And what we’ve seen is treatment thatallows people to manage HIV and live long andproductive lives.

And a lot of that has to do with the terrificwork of the South African people, but theUnited States has really done wonderful workthrough the PEPFAR program, started undermy predecessor, President Bush, and contin-ued through our administration. We’ve seenmore than $3.7 billion in supporting South Af-rica’s efforts to combat HIV and AIDS.

Together, we’re investing in building SouthAfrica’s capacity to manage a national responseto HIV/AIDS. South African Government isshowing leadership up and down the line, andthe Health Minister here has talked about allthe initiatives that are taking place. And thiscenter is a wonderful example of that transi-tion. It’s moving from receiving U.S. Govern-ment support through PEPFAR to now inde-pendent funding that continues to secure thehealth and success of Africa’s next generation.

And part of what makes this center so suc-cessful is it combines not just health advice andtesting and counseling, but it also provides ed-ucational opportunities, sports activities, recre-ational activities so that young people are ableto come here without the fear of stigma or po-tentially running into their parents; and gettinghonest, smart advice about what they need todo to keep themselves healthy and to ensurethat they are not infected by HIV/AIDS.

So because of the wonderful work that’s be-ing done on the ground, because of the part-nership between the United States and SouthAfrica—a model, by the way, that has been du-plicated across the continent—we have thepossibility of achieving an AIDS-free genera-tion, achieving an AIDS-free generation andmaking sure that everybody in our human fam-ily is able to enjoy their lives and raise familiesand succeed and maintain their health, here inAfrica and around the world.

So I just want to say thank you to all of youfor sharing your stories with me. I want to givea special thanks to Ambassador Eric Goosby,who doesn’t always get a lot of attention, buthas been an outstanding leader on behalf ofour global AIDS efforts. And if it weren’t forpeople like Eric, as well as the people aroundthis room, we’d be far, far behind, and a lotmore people would be suffering tragedy. Sothank you all.

And Archbishop Desmond Tutu needs tosay something, because his picture is over

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there. [Laughter] His name is on the project. Ithink it’s fair to say that——

Archbishop Tutu. Yes, I should have saidthis earlier but then I—anytime is okay. It is avery great honor to have—to welcome thePresident of the United States, even at such asomber time for us South Africans.

It is a special joy to welcome the Presidentto Africa, the continent of his forbearers, thecradle of humanity. I don’t have to competeagainst your beautiful Michelle doing pushupsin public. [Laughter]

Mr. President, when you became the firstBlack incumbent of the White House, youdon’t know what you did for our psyches. Mywife sat in front of the TV with tears runningdown her face as she watched the celebrationsin Chicago. You won. And we won. And you re-peated the feat when the odds were stackedagainst you. So welcome home, even if you’reabout to go. [Laughter]

Thank you and the American people. You’veheard everyone here thanking you so much forthe contribution that the PEPFAR fund hasmade in our struggle against TB, HIV, andAIDS and malaria, not just here, but in otherparts of Africa. Our center, as you have heard,is run by the HIV center of the universitywhere you are going just now. You have fundedus. You funded funding a center in the Univer-sity of Stellenbosch TB Center. And we havejust rejoiced to hear that the HIV infections ininfants has dropped by a whopping 63 percent,in very large measure due to the financial sup-port that we have received from yourselves. Sothank you.

As you have been here before—I mean Afri-ca—you have heard us speak of somethingcalled ubuntu, and we’ve said a person is a per-son to other persons. Your success is our suc-cess. Your failure, whether you like it or not, isour failure.

And so we want to assure you that we prayfor you to be a great success. We want you tobe known as having brought peace to theworld, especially to have brought an end to theanguish of all in the Middle East. We pray thatyou will be known as having brought peace inall of these places where there is strife. Youwill have brought peace and no need for aGuantanamo Bay detention center. You’ll havebrought peace, and we won’t be weeping as wedo for the anguish of our sisters and brothers inthe Middle East. We are bound to you. Youbelong to us. And your victory is our victory.

So thank you.The President. Thank you. Love you. Come

on, give me a hug. Thank you.

[At this point, the President hugged Archbish-op Tutu.]

The President. All the respect. Keep pray-ing. I’ll always need prayer. All right? Thankyou everybody.

NOTE: The President spoke at 5:05 p.m. In hisremarks, he referred to Lindiwe Mvandaba,HIV lay counselor, Desmond Tutu TB Centre-Etafeni; former President George W. Bush;and Minister of Health Pakishe Aaron Motso-aledi of South Africa. Archbishop Tutu re-ferred to his wife Nomalizo L. Tutu.

Remarks at the University of Cape Town in Cape TownJune 30, 2013

The President. Thank you. Please, please,everybody, have a seat. Hello, Cape Town!

Audience members. Hello!The President. Thobela. Molweni. Sani-

bona. Dumelang. Ndaa. Reperile.Audience members. Reperile!The President. See, I’ve been practicing.

How-zit? Did I leave anybody out? All

right, I didn’t want to leave anybody outhere.

I want to thank Vice Chancellor Max Price,who’s here, and—as well as Archbishop Njon-gonkulu. It’s wonderful to have them in atten-dance.

I am so happy to be here today. It is wonder-ful to see all of these outstanding young

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people. I just had the honor of going to Rob-ben Island with Michelle and our two daugh-ters this afternoon. And this was my secondtime; I’d had the chance to visit back in 2006.But there was something different about bring-ing my children. And Malia is now 15, Sasha is12, and seeing them stand within the walls thatonce surrounded Nelson Mandela, I knew thiswas an experience that they would never for-get. I knew that they now appreciated, a littlebit more, the sacrifices that Madiba and othershad made for freedom.

But what I also know is, is that becausethey’ve had a chance to visit South Africa for asecond time now, they also understand thatMandela’s spirit could never be imprisoned,because his legacy is here for all to see. It’s inthis auditorium: young people, Black, White,Indian, everything in between—[laughter]—living and learning together in a South Africathat is free and at peace.

Obviously, today Madiba’s health weighsheavily on our hearts. And like billions all overthe world, I—and the American people—havedrawn strength from the example of this ex-traordinary leader and the nation that hechanged. Nelson Mandela showed us that oneman’s courage can move the world. And hecalls on us to make choices that reflect not ourfears, but our hopes: in our own lives and inthe lives of our communities and our countries.And that’s what I want to speak to all of youabout today.

Some of you may be aware of this, but I ac-tually took my first step into political life be-cause of South Africa. This is true. I was thesame age as some of you, 19 years old, mywhole life ahead of me. I was going to schoolon a campus in California, not quite as prettyas this one, but similar. And I must confess, Iwas not always focused on my studies. [Laugh-ter] There were a lot of distractions. [Laugh-ter] And I enjoyed those distractions.

And as the son of an African father and aWhite American mother, the diversity ofAmerica was in my blood, but I had nevercared much for politics. I didn’t think it mat-tered to me. I didn’t think I could make a dif-ference. And like many young people, I

thought that cynicism—a certain ironic detach-ment—was a sign of wisdom and sophistica-tion.

But then, I learned what was happeninghere in South Africa. And two young men—ANC representatives—came to our collegeand spoke, and I spent time hearing their sto-ries. And I learned about the courage of thosewho waged the Defiance Campaign and thebrutality leveled against innocent men, wom-en, and children from Sharpseville to Soweto.And I studied the leadership of Luthuli and thewords of Biko and the example of Madiba, andI knew that while brave people were impris-oned just off these shores on Robben Island,my own Government in the United States wasnot standing on their side. And that’s why I gotinvolved in what was known as the divestmentmovement in the United States.

It was the first time I ever attached myself toa cause. It was the first time, also, that I evergave a speech. It was only 2 minutes long—[laughter]—and I was really just a warmup actat a rally that we were holding demanding thatour college divest from apartheid South Africa.So I got up on stage, I started making myspeech, and then, as a bit of political theater,some people came out with glasses that lookedlike security officers and they dragged me offthe stage. [Laughter] Fortunately, there are norecords of this speech. [Laughter] But I re-member struggling to express the anger andthe passion that I was feeling and to echo, insome small way, the moral clarity of freedomfighters an ocean away.

And I’ll be honest with you, when I wasdone, I did not think that I’d made any differ-ence; I was even a little embarrassed. And Ithought to myself, what’s a bunch of universitykids doing in California that is somehow goingto make a difference? It felt too distant fromwhat people were going through in places likeSoweto. But looking back, as I look at that 19-year-old young man, I’m more forgiving of thefact that the speech might not have been thatgreat, because I knew—I know now that some-thing inside me was stirring at the time, some-thing important. And that was the belief that Icould be part of something bigger than myself;

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that my own salvation was bound up with thoseof others.

That’s what Bobby Kennedy expressed, farbetter than I ever could, when he spoke here atthe University of Cape Town in 1966. He said,“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, oracts to improve the lot of others, or strikes outagainst injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple ofhope, and crossing each other from a milliondifferent centers of energy and daring, thoseripples build a current which can sweep downthe mightiest walls of oppression and resis-tance.”

Now, the world was very different on thatJune day in 1966 when Bobby Kennedy spokethose words: Mandela faced many more yearsas a prisoner; apartheid was entrenched in thisland. In the United States, the victories of thecivil rights movement were still uncertain. Infact, on the very day that Kennedy spoke here,the American civil rights leader James Mere-dith was shot in Mississippi, where he wasmarching to inspire Blacks to register to vote.

Those were difficult, troubled, trying times.The idea of hope might have seemed mis-placed. It would have seemed inconceivable topeople at that time that less than 50 years later,an African American President might addressan integrated audience at South Africa’s oldestuniversity and that this same university wouldhave conferred an honorary degree to a Presi-dent, Nelson Mandela. It would have seemedimpossible.

That’s the power that comes from acting onour ideals. That’s what Mandela understood.But it wasn’t just the giants of history whobrought about this change. Think of the manymillions of acts of conscience that were part ofthat effort. Think about how many voices wereraised against injustice over the years: in thiscountry, in the United States, around theworld. Think of how many times ordinary peo-ple pushed against those walls of oppressionand resistance and the violence and the indig-nities that they suffered, the quiet courage thatthey sustained. Think of how many ripples ofhope it took to build a wave that would eventu-ally come crashing down like a mighty stream.

So Mandela’s life, like Kennedy’s life, likeGandhi’s life, like the life of all those whofought to bring about a new South Africa or amore just America, they stand as a challenge tome, but more importantly, they stand as a chal-lenge to your generation, because they tell youthat your voice matters: Your ideals, your will-ingness to act on those ideals, your choices canmake a difference. And if there’s any countryin the world that shows the power of humanbeings to affect change, this is the one. You’veshown us how a prisoner can become a Presi-dent. You’ve shown us how bitter adversariescan reconcile. You’ve confronted crimes of ha-tred and intolerance with truth and love, andyou wrote into your Constitution the humanrights that sustain freedom.

And those are only the most publicized as-pects of South Africa’s transformation, becausealongside South Africa’s political struggle, oth-er battles have been waged as well to improvethe lives of those who, for far too long, havebeen denied economic opportunity and socialjustice.

During my last journey here in 2006, whatimpressed me so much was the good works ofpeople on the ground teaching children, caringfor the sick, bringing jobs to those in need. InKhayelitsha Township—I’m still working onsome of these—[laughter]—I met women whowere living with HIV. And this is at a time backin 2006, where there were still some challengesin terms of the policies around HIV and AIDShere in South Africa. But they were on theground, struggling to keep their families to-gether, helping each other, working on behalfof each other. In Soweto, I met people whowere striving to carry forward the legacy ofHector Pieterson. At the Rosa Parks Library inPretoria, I was struck by the energy of studentswho—they wanted to capture this moment ofpromise for South Africa.

And this is a moment of great promise.South Africa is one of the world’s economiccenters. Obviously, you can see it here in CapeTown. In the country that saw the first humanheart transplant, new breakthroughs are beingmade in the treatment of HIV/AIDS. I was justtalking to your vice chancellor. People come to

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this university from over 100 countries to studyand teach. In America, we see the reach ofyour culture, from Freshlyground’s concerts tothe—we’ve got the Nando’s just a couple ofblocks from the White House. [Laughter] Andthanks to the first World Cup ever held on thiscontinent, the world now knows the sound ofthe vuvuzela. I’m not sure that’s, like, thegreatest gift that South Africa ever gave.[Laughter] But it—[laughter]—but progresshas also rippled across the African Continent.From Senegal to Côte d’Ivoire to Malawi, de-mocracy has weathered strong challenges.

Many of the fastest growing economies inthe world are here in Africa, where there is ahistoric shift taking place from poverty to agrowing, nascent middle class. Fewer peopleare dying of preventable disease. More peoplehave access to health care. More farmers aregetting their products to market at fair prices.From microfinance projects in Kampala tostock traders in Lagos to cell phone entrepre-neurs in Nairobi, there is an energy here thatcan’t be denied: Africa rising.

We know this progress, though, rests on afragile foundation. We know that progress isuneven. Across Africa, the same institutionsthat should be the backbone of democracy canall too often be infected with the rot of corrup-tion. The same technology that enables recordprofits sometimes means widening a canyon ofinequality. The same interconnection thatbinds our fates makes all of Africa vulnerableto the undertow of conflict.

So there is no question that Africa is on themove, but it’s not moving fast enough for thechild still languishing in poverty in forgottentownships. It’s not moving fast enough for theprotester who is beaten in Harare or the wom-an who is raped in Eastern Congo. We’ve gotmore work to do, because these Africans mustnot be left behind.

And that’s where all of you come in, theyoung people of Africa. Just like previous gen-erations, you’ve got choices to make. You get todecide where the future lies. Think about it:Over 60 percent of Africans are under 35 yearsold, so demographics means young people aregoing to be determining the fate of this conti-

nent and this country. You’ve got time andnumbers on your side, and you’ll be makingdecisions long after politicians like me have leftthe scene.

And I can promise you this: The world willbe watching what decisions you make. Theworld will be watching what you do. Becauseone of the wonderful things that’s happeningis, where people used to only see suffering andconflict in Africa, suddenly, now they’re seeingopportunity: for resources, for investment, forpartnership, for influence. Governments andbusinesses from around the world are sizing upthe continent, and they’re making decisionsthemselves about where to invest their owntime and their own energy. And as I said yes-terday at a town hall meeting up in Johannes-burg, that’s a good thing. We want all coun-tries—China, India, Brazil, Turkey, Europe,America—we want everybody paying attentionto what’s going on here, because it speaks toyour progress.

And I’ve traveled to Africa on this trip be-cause my bet is on the young people who arethe heartbeat of Africa’s story. I’m betting onall of you. As President of the United States, Ibelieve that my own Nation will benefit enor-mously if you reach your full potential.

If prosperity is broadly shared here in Afri-ca, that middle class will be an enormous mar-ket for our goods. If strong democracies takeroot, that will enable our people and business-es to draw closer to yours. If peace prevailsover war, we will all be more secure. And if thedignity of the individual is upheld across Afri-ca, then I believe Americans will be more freeas well, because I believe that none of us arefully free when others in the human family re-main shackled by poverty or disease or oppres-sion.

Now, America has been involved in Africafor decades. But we are moving beyond thesimple provision of assistance, foreign aid, to anew model of partnership between Americaand Africa: a partnership of equals that focuseson your capacity to solve problems and yourcapacity to grow. Our efforts focus on three ar-eas that shape our lives: opportunity, democra-cy, and peace.

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So, first off, we want a partnership that em-powers Africans to access greater opportunityin their own lives, in their communities, andfor their countries.

As the largest economy on the continent,South Africa is part of a trend that extendsfrom south to north, east to west: More andmore African economies are poised to take off.And increased trade and investment from theUnited States has the potential to acceleratethese trends, creating new jobs and opportuni-ties on both sides of the Atlantic.

So I’m calling for America to up our gamewhen it comes to Africa. We’re bringing to-gether business leaders from America and Af-rica to deepen our engagement. We’re going tolaunch new trade missions and promote invest-ment from companies back home. We’ll launchan effort in Addis to renew the African Growthand Opportunity Act to break down barriers totrade, and tomorrow I’ll discuss a new TradeAfrica initiative to expand our ties across thecontinent, because we want to unleash thepower of entrepreneurship and markets to cre-ate opportunity here in Africa.

It was interesting, yesterday at the town hallmeeting, I had with a number of young people,first three questions had to do with trade, be-cause there was a recognition—these youngpeople said, I want to start a—I want to startsomething. I want to build something, andthen I want to sell something. Now, to suc-ceed, these efforts have to connect to some-thing bigger.

And for America, this isn’t just about num-bers on a balance sheet or the resources thatcan be taken out of the ground. We believethat societies and economies only advance asfar as individuals are free to carry them for-ward. And just as freedom cannot exist whenpeople are imprisoned for their political views,true opportunity cannot exist when people areimprisoned by sickness or hunger or darkness.

And so the question we’ve been asking our-selves is, what will it take to empower individu-al Africans?

For one thing, we believe that countrieshave to have the power to feed themselves, soinstead of shipping food to Africa, we’re now

helping millions of small farmers in Africamake use of new technologies and farm moreland. And through a new alliance of govern-ments and the private sector, we’re investingbillions of dollars in agriculture that growsmore crops, brings more food to market, givesfarmers better prices, and helps lift 50 millionpeople out of poverty in a decade. An end tofamine, a thriving African agricultural industry,that’s what opportunity looks like. That’s whatwe want to build with you.

We believe that countries have to have thepower to prevent illness and care for the sick.And our efforts to combat malaria and tropicalillness can lead to an achievable goal: endingchild and maternal deaths from preventabledisease. Already, our commitment to fightHIV/AIDS has saved millions and allows us toimagine what was once unthinkable: an AIDS-free generation. And while America will con-tinue to provide billions of dollars in support,we can’t make progress without African part-ners. So I’m proud that by the end of my Presi-dency, South Africa has determined it will bethe first African country to fully manage itsHIV care and treatment program. That’s anenormous achievement. Healthy mothers,healthy children, strong public health systems,that’s what opportunity looks like.

And we believe that nations must have thepower to connect their people to the promiseof the 21st century. Access to electricity is fun-damental to opportunity in this age. It’s thelight that children study by, the energy that al-lows an idea to be transformed into a real busi-ness. It’s the lifeline for families to meet theirmost basic needs. And it’s the connection that’sneeded to plug Africa into the grid of the glob-al economy. You’ve got to have power. And yettwo-thirds of the population in sub-SaharanAfrica lacks access to power, and the percent-age is much higher for those who don’t live inthe cities.

So today I am proud to announce a new ini-tiative. We’ve been dealing with agriculture,we’ve been dealing with health. Now we’re go-ing to talk about power: Power Africa, a newinitiative that will double access to power insub-Saharan Africa—double it. We’re going to

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start by investing $7 billion in U.S. Govern-ment resources. We’re going to partner withthe private sector, who themselves have com-mitted more than $9 billion in investment. Andin partnership with African nations, we’re go-ing to develop new sources of energy. We’llreach more households not just in cities, but invillages and on farms. We’ll expand access forthose who live currently off the power grid.And we’ll support clean energy to protect ourplanet and combat climate change. So a lightwhere currently there is darkness, the energyneeded to lift people out of poverty, that’s whatopportunity looks like.

So this is America’s vision: a partnershipwith Africa that unleashes growth and the po-tential of every citizen, not just a few at thevery top. And this is achievable. There’s noth-ing that I’ve outlined that cannot happen. Buthistory tells us that true progress is only possi-ble where governments exist to serve theirpeople and not the other way around.

If anyone wants to see the difference be-tween freedom and tyranny, let them comehere, to South Africa. Here, citizens bravedbullets and beatings to claim that most basicright: the ability to be free, to determine yourown fate, in your own land. And Madiba’s ex-ample extended far beyond that victory. Now, Imentioned yesterday at the town hall, likeAmerica’s first President, George Washington,he understood that democracy can only endurewhen it’s bigger than just one person. So hiswillingness to leave power was as profound ashis ability to claim power.

The good news is that this example is gettingattention across the continent. We see it in freeand fair elections from Ghana to Zambia. Wehear it in the voices of civil society. I was inSenegal and met with some civil societygroups, including a group called Y’en Marre,which meant “fed up”—[laughter]—thathelped to defend the will of the people afterelections in Senegal. We recognize it in placeslike Tanzania, where text messages connect cit-izens to their representatives. And westrengthen it when organizations stand up fordemocratic principles, like ECOWAS did inCôte d’Ivoire.

But this work is not complete. We all knowthat. Not in those countries where leaders en-rich themselves with impunity. Not in commu-nities where you can’t start a business or go toschool or get a house without paying a bribe tosomebody. These things have to change. Andthey have to change not just because such cor-ruption is immoral, but it’s also a matter of self-interest and economics. Governments that re-spect the rights of their citizens and abide bythe rule of law: do better, grow faster, drawmore investment than those who don’t. That’sjust a fact.

Just look at your neighbor Zimbabwe wherethe promise of liberation gave way to the cor-ruption of power and then the collapse of theeconomy. Now, after the leaders of this region,led by South Africa, brokered an end to whathas been a long-running crisis, Zimbabweanshave a new Constitution, the economy is be-ginning to recover. So there is an opportunityto move forward, but only if there is an elec-tion that is free and fair and peaceful, so thatZimbabweans can determine their future with-out fear of intimidation and retribution. Andafter elections, there must be respect for theuniversal rights upon which democracy de-pends.

These are things that America stands for,not perfectly, but that’s what we stand for,that’s what my administration stands for. Wedon’t tell people who their leaders should be,but we do stand up with those who support theprinciples that lead to a better life. And that’swhy we’re interested in investing not in strong-men, but in strong institutions: independentjudiciaries that can enforce the rule of law,honest police forces that can protect the peo-ple’s interests instead of their own, an opengovernment that can bring transparency andaccountability. And yes, that’s why we stand upfor civil society—for journalists and NGOs andcommunity organizers and activists—who givepeople a voice. That’s why we support societiesthat empower women, because no country willreach its potential unless it draws on the talentsof our wives and our mothers and our sistersand our daughters.

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Just to editorialize here for a second, be-cause my father’s home country of Kenya—like much of Africa—you see women doingwork and not getting respect. And I tell you,you can measure how well a country does byhow it treats its women. And all across this con-tinent, and all around the world, we’ve gotmore work to do on that front.

Audience member. [Inaudible]The President. We’ve got some sisters say-

ing, “Amen.” [Laughter]Now, I know that there are some in Africa

who hear me say these things, who see Ameri-ca’s support for these values, and say that’s in-trusive. Why are you meddling? I know thereare those who argue that ideas like democracyand transparency are somehow Western ex-ports. I disagree. Those in power who makethose arguments are usually trying to distractpeople from their own abuses. Sometimes,they are the same people who, behind closeddoors, are willing to sell out their own coun-try’s resource to foreign interests, just so longas they get a cut. [Laughter] I’m just telling thetruth.

Now, ultimately, I believe that Africansshould make up their own minds about whatserves African interests. We trust your judg-ment, the judgment of ordinary people. Webelieve that when you control your destiny, ifyou’ve got a handle on your governments, thengovernments will promote freedom and oppor-tunity, because that will serve you. And itshouldn’t just be America that stands up fordemocracy, it should be Africans as well. Sohere in South Africa, your democratic story hasinspired the world. And through the power ofyour example, and through your position in or-ganizations like SADC and the African Union,you can be a voice for the human progress thatyou’ve written into your own Constitution. Youshouldn’t assume that that’s unique to SouthAfrica. People have aspirations like that every-where.

And this brings me to the final area whereour partnership can empower people: the pur-suit and protection of peace in Africa. So longas parts of Africa continue to be ravaged by warand mayhem, opportunity and democracy can-

not take root. Across the continent, there areplaces where, too often, fear prevails. FromMali to Mogadishu, senseless terrorism all toooften perverts the meaning of Islam—one ofthe world’s great religions—and takes the livesof countless innocent Africans. From Congo toSudan, conflicts fester, robbing men and wom-en and children of the lives that they deserve.In too many countries, the actions of thugs andwarlords and drug cartels and human traffick-ers hold back the promise of Africa, enslavingothers for their own purposes.

Now, America cannot put a stop to thesetragedies alone, and you don’t expect us to.That’s a job for Africans. But we can help, andwe will help. I know there’s a lot of talk ofAmerica’s military presence in Africa. But ifyou look at what we’re actually doing, time andagain, we’re putting muscle behind African ef-forts. That’s what we’re doing in the Sahel,where the nations of West Africa have steppedforward to keep the peace as Mali now beginsto rebuild. That’s what we’re doing in CentralAfrica, where a coalition of countries is closingthe space where the Lord’s Resistance Armycan operate. That’s what we’re doing in Soma-lia, where an African Union force, AMISOM,is helping a new Government to stand on itsown two feet.

These efforts have to lead to lasting peace,not just words on a paper or promises that fadeaway. Peace between and within Sudan andSouth Sudan, so that these governments get onwith the work of investing in their deeply im-poverished peoples. Peace in the Congo, withnations keeping their commitments, so rightsare at last claimed by the people of this war-torn country and women and children no lon-ger live in fear.

Audience member. That’s my country—[laughter].

The President. Absolutely.Peace in Mali, where people will make their

voices heard in new elections this summer. Ineach of these cases, Africa must lead andAmerica will help. And America will make noapology for supporting African efforts to endconflict and stand up for human dignity.

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You know, this year marks the 50th anniver-sary of the OAU, now the African Union; anoccasion that is more historic because the AUis taking on these challenges. And I wantAmerica to take our engagement not just on se-curity issues, but on environmental issues andeconomic issues and social issues, educationalissues, I want to take that engagement to awhole new level. So I’m proud to announcethat next year, I’m going to invite heads of statefrom across sub-Saharan Africa to a summit inthe United States to help launch a new chapterin U.S.-African relations. And as I mentionedyesterday, I’m also going to hold a summit withthe next class of our Young African LeadersInitiative, because we want to engage leadersand tomorrow’s leaders in figuring out how wecan best work together.

So let me close by saying this: Governmentsmatter; political leadership matters. And I dohope that some of you here today decide to fol-low the path of public service. It can some-times be thankless, but I believe it is—can alsobe a noble life. But we also have to recognizethat the choices we make are not limited to thepolicies and programs of government. Peaceand prosperity in Africa and around the worldalso depends on the attitudes of people.

Too often, the source of tragedy, the sourceof conflict involves the choices ordinary peoplemake that divide us from one another: Blackfrom White, Christian from Muslim, tribe fromtribe. Africa contains a multitude of identities,but the nations and people of Africa will notfulfill their promise so long as some use theseidentities to justify subjugation, an excuse tosteal or kill or disenfranchise others.

And ultimately, that’s the most importantlesson that the world learned right here inSouth Africa. Mandela once wrote: “No one isborn hating another person because of the col-or of his skin, or his background, or his reli-gion. People must learn to hate, and if they canlearn to hate, they can be taught to love, forlove comes more naturally to the human heartthan its opposite.”

I believe that to be true. I believe that’s al-ways been true, from the dawn of the first manto the youth today, and all that came in be-tween here in Africa: kingdoms come andgone; the crucible of slavery and the emer-gence from colonialism; senseless war, but alsoiconic movements for social justice; squan-dered wealth, but also soaring promise.

Madiba’s words give us a compass in a sea ofchange, firm ground amidst swirling currents.We always have the opportunity to choose ourbetter history. We can always understand thatmost important decision: the decision we makewhen we find our common humanity in oneanother. That’s always available to us, thatchoice.

And I’ve seen that spirit in the welcomingsmiles of children on Goree Island and thechildren of Mombasa on Kenya’s Indian Oceancoast. That spirit exists in the mother in the Sa-hel who wants a life of dignity for her daugh-ters and in the South African student whobraves danger and distance just to get toschool. It can be heard in the songs that risefrom villages and city streets, and it can beheard in the confident voices of young peoplelike you.

It is that spirit—that innate longing for jus-tice and equality, for freedom and solidarity—that’s the spirit that can light the way forward.It’s in you. And as you guide Africa down thatlong and difficult road, I want you to know thatyou will always find the extended hand of afriend in the United States of America.

Thank you very much. God bless you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 6:14 p.m. In hisremarks, he referred to Max Price, vice chan-cellor, University of Cape Town; and formerArchbishop Winston Hugh NjongonkuluNdungane of Cape Town, South Africa. He al-so referred to the Economic Community ofWest African States (ECOWAS); and theSouthern African Development Community(SADC).

718

Appendix A—Digest of Other White House Announcements

The following list includes the President’s pub-lic schedule and other items of general interestannounced by the Office of the Press Secretaryand not included elsewhere in this book.

January 1The White House announced that the Presi-

dent will travel to Honolulu, HI, in the eve-ning.

In the evening, the President traveled toHonolulu, HI, arriving the following morning.

January 2In the morning, upon arrival at Joint Base

Pearl Harbor-Hickam, HI, the President trav-eled to Kailua, HI, where he had separate tele-phone conversations with Gov. Christopher J.Christie of New Jersey and Gov. Andrew M.Cuomo of New York to discuss Congressionalaction on the Hurricane Sandy supplementalrequest.

In the afternoon, the President signed H.R.8, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012.

During the day, the President had an intelli-gence briefing. He also signed H.R. 4310, theNational Defense Authorization Act for FiscalYear 2013.

January 3In the morning, the President had a tele-

phone conversation with House MajorityLeader Eric I. Cantor and House MinorityLeader Nancy Pelosi to extend his welcome toall Members of the 113th Congress.

In the afternoon, the President had a tele-phone conversation with Speaker of the Houseof Representatives John A. Boehner andHouse Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to con-gratulate them on being redesignated to leadtheir respective parties in the House.

During the day, the President had an intelli-gence briefing.

The President announced the designation ofthe following individuals as members of a Pres-idential delegation to attend the Inauguration

of John Dramani Mahama as President of Gha-na in Accra, Ghana, on January 7:

Daniel W. Yohannes (head of delegation); Gene A. Cretz; Johnnie Carson; and Donald G. Teitelbaum.

The President announced the renominationof Robert E. Bacharach to be a judge on theU.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit.

The President announced the renominationof Caitlin J. Halligan and Srikanth Srinivasan tobe judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for theDistrict of Columbia Circuit.

The President announced the renominationof William J. Kayatta, Jr., to be a judge on theU.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

The President announced the renominationof Jill A. Pryor to be a judge on the U.S. Courtof Appeals for the 11th Circuit.

The President announced the renominationof Patty Shwartz to be a judge on the U.S.Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

The President announced the renominationof Richard G. Taranto to be a judge on theU.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

The President announced the renominationof Elissa F. Cadish to be a judge on the U.S.District Court for the District of Nevada.

The President announced the renominationof Valerie E. Caproni and Analisa Torres to bejudges on the U.S. District Court for theSouthern District of New York.

The President announced the renominationof Sheri Polster Chappell to be a judge on theU.S. District Court for the Middle District ofFlorida.

The President announced the renominationof Pamela Ki Mai Chen to be a judge on theU.S. District Court for the Eastern District ofNew York.

The President announced the renominationof Brian J. Davis to be a judge on the U.S. Dis-trict Court for the Middle District of Florida.

719

Appendix A / Administration of Barack Obama, 2013

The President announced the renominationof Rachelle L. “Shelly” Deckert Dick to be ajudge on the U.S. District Court for the Mid-dle District of Louisiana.

The President announced the renominationof Jennifer A. Dorsey and Andrew P. Gordonto be judges on the U.S. District Court for theDistrict of Nevada.

The President announced the renominationof Katherine Polk Failla to be a judge on theU.S. District Court for the Southern District ofNew York.

The President announced the renominationof Kenneth J. Gonzales to be a judge on theU.S. District Court for the District of NewMexico.

The President announced the renominationof Ketanji Brown Jackson to be a judge on theU.S. District Court for the District of Colum-bia.

The President announced the renominationof Rosemary Márquez to be a judge on theU.S. District Court for the District of Arizona.

The President announced the renominationof Michael J. McShane to be a judge on theU.S. District Court for the District of Oregon.

The President announced the renominationof Raymond P. Moore to be a judge on theU.S. District Court for the District of Colora-do.

The President announced the renominationof Troy L. Nunley to be a judge on the U.S.District Court for the Eastern District of Cali-fornia.

The President announced the renominationof Beverly Reid O’Connell to be a judge on theU.S. District Court for the Central District ofCalifornia.

The President announced the renominationof William H. Orrick III to be a judge on theU.S. District Court for the Northern District ofCalifornia.

The President announced the renominationof Nitza I. Quiñones Alejandro, Luis F. Restre-po, and Jeffrey L. Schmehl to be judges on theU.S. District Court for the Eastern District ofPennsylvania.

The President announced the renominationof Nelson S. Román to be a judge on the U.S.

District Court for the Southern District ofNew York.

The President announced the renominationof William L. Thomas to be a judge on the U.S.District Court for the Southern District ofFlorida.

The President announced the renominationof Derrick K. Watson to be a judge on the U.S.District Court for the District of Hawaii.

The President announced the renominationof Mark A. Barnett and Claire R. Kelly to bejudges on the U.S. Court of InternationalTrade.

The President declared a major disaster inOhio and ordered Federal aid to supplementState and local recovery efforts in the area af-fected by severe storms and flooding due tothe remnants of Hurricane Sandy on October29 and 30, 2012.

January 4During the day, the President had an intelli-

gence briefing.The White House announced that the Presi-

dent will return to Washington, DC, on Janu-ary 5.

January 5During the day, the President had a tele-

phone conversation with former Sen. CharlesT. Hagel to discuss his nomination to be Secre-tary of Defense.

In the evening, the President, Mrs. Obama,and their daughters Malia and Sasha returnedto Washington, DC, arriving the followingmorning.

January 7In the morning, in the Oval Office, the Pres-

ident had an intelligence briefing.The White House announced that the Presi-

dent will welcome President Hamid Karzai ofAfghanistan to the White House on January 11.


ident had an intelligence briefing.In the afternoon, the President met with

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

720

Administration of Barack Obama, 2013 / Appendix A

Later, in the Oval Office, he met with Secre-tary of Defense Leon E. Panetta.

During the day, in the Oval Office, the Pres-ident met with his senior advisers.


ident and Vice President Joe Biden had an in-telligence briefing.

In the afternoon, in the Private DiningRoom, the President and Vice President Bidenhad lunch. Later, in the Family Theater, hehosted a screening of NBC’s “1600 Penn” pro-gram for castmembers and crew.



In the afternoon, the President had a tele-phone conversation with Head Coach NicholasL. Saban of the University of Alabama footballteam to congratulate him and his team on win-ning the BCS Championship.

During the day, in the Roosevelt Room, thePresident met with his senior advisers.

The President declared a major disaster inPennsylvania and ordered Federal aid to sup-plement Commonwealth and local recovery ef-forts in the area affected by Hurricane Sandyfrom October 26 through November 8, 2012.

January 11In the morning, in the Cabinet Room, the

President and Vice President Joe Biden had anexpanded bilateral meeting with President Ha-mid Karzai of Afghanistan. Then, in the OvalOffice, he had a restricted bilateral meetingwith President Karzai.

In the afternoon, in the Old Family DiningRoom, the President and Vice President Bidenhad lunch with President Karzai.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will award the Medal of Honor to S. Sgt.Clinton L. Romesha, USA, on February 11.



In the afternoon, in the Private DiningRoom, the President and Vice President Bidenhad lunch. Then, in the Oval Office, he andVice President Biden met with Secretary ofState Hillary Rodham Clinton. Later, in theOval Office, he participated in a credentialingceremony for newly appointed Ambassadors tothe U.S.: Ryszard Marian Schnepf of Poland,Kenichiro Sasae of Japan, Palan Mulonda ofZambia, Altangerel Bulgaa of Mongolia, KairatUmarov of Kazakhstan, Fernando AntonioPfannl Caballero of Paraguay, Aunese MakoiSimati of Tuvalu, Ahmed Sareer of Maldives,and Eduardo Medina Mora Icaza of Mexico.

During the day, in the Oval Office, the Pres-ident met with Minister of Interior Muham-mad bin Nayif bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud of Sau-di Arabia to discuss Saudi Arabia-U.S. rela-tions, congratulate him on his appointment asMinister of Interior, and convey his greetingsto King Abdallah bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud. Alsoduring the day, in the Cabinet Room, he andVice President Biden met to discuss proposalsto reduce gun violence.



In the afternoon, in the Private DiningRoom, the President and Vice President Bidenhad lunch.




ident and Vice President Joe Biden had an in-telligence briefing. Later, in the RooseveltRoom, he dropped by a meeting betweenDeputy National Security Adviser Denis R.McDonough and President Hassan SheikhMahamud of Somalia.

In the afternoon, the President visited theheadquarters of the Presidential InauguralCommittee to thank the staff for its hard work.

721


During the day, the President had a tele-phone conversation with Prime Minister DavidCameron of the United Kingdom to discussthe hostage situation in Algeria, the situation inMali, and United Kingdom-U.S. relations.


ident and Vice President Joe Biden had an in-telligence briefing. Later, he and Mrs. Obamahosted a “Benefactors’ Brunch” for supportersof the Obama 2012 reelection campaign.

In the afternoon, the President and Mrs.Obama hosted a reception for supporters ofthe reelection campaign.

January 20In the morning, the President and Vice

President Joe Biden traveled to Arlington, VA,where they participated in a wreath-laying cer-emony at Arlington National Cemetery. Then,he returned to Washington, DC.

Later in the morning, in the Blue Room, thePresident took the oath of office at the officialswearing-in ceremony. Mrs. Obama and theirdaughters Malia and Sasha attended the cere-mony, and the oath was administered by ChiefJustice of the United States John G. Roberts, Jr.

January 21In the morning, at St. John’s Episcopal

Church, the President, Mrs. Obama, and theirdaughters Malia and Sasha attended a churchservice with Vice President Joe Biden and hiswife Jill T. Biden. Then, they returned to theWhite House. Later, they traveled to the U.S.Capitol.

In the afternoon, the President, Mrs.Obama, Vice President Biden, and Mrs. Bidenattended the Inaugural Parade.

In the evening, at the Walter E. WashingtonConvention Center, the President, Mrs.Obama, Vice President Biden, and Mrs. Bidenattended the Inaugural Ball.

January 22In the morning, at the National Cathedral,

the President and Mrs. Obama attended a na-tional prayer service with Vice President JoeBiden and his wife Jill T. Biden.

During the day, in the Blue Room, the Pres-ident and Mrs. Obama greeted visitors duringan Inaugural open house.




During the day, in the Oval Office, the Pres-ident met with Secretary of the Treasury Tim-othy F. Geithner.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will welcome the 2012 National Basket-ball Association champion Miami Heat to theWhite House on January 28.



In the afternoon, in the Oval Office, thePresident met with Secretary of State HillaryRodham Clinton.

January 25In the morning, the President met with

leaders of the Congressional Hispanic Caucusto discuss immigration reform.

During the day, the President met with hissenior advisers. Also during the day, he had atelephone conversation with President Fran-çois Hollande of France to discuss the situa-tions in Mali, Algeria, Libya, and Syria.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will travel to Las Vegas, NV, on January 28.

The President announced his intention tonominate the following individuals to be mem-bers of the National Council on the Humani-ties:

Gerald L. Early;Patricia Nelson Limerick;Shelly C. Lowe;Daniel I. Okimoto; andKatherine H. Tachau.

722


The President announced his intention toappoint the following individuals as membersof the National Council on Disability:

Chester A. Finn; Jonathan F. Kuniholm; Jeff Rosen;Lynnae M. Ruttledge; andAlice Wong.

The President announced the appointmentof Denis R. McDonough as White HouseChief of Staff.

The President announced the appointmentof Robert L. Nabors II as Assistant to the Pres-ident and Deputy White House Chief of Stafffor Policy.

The President announced the appointmentof Antony J. Blinken as Assistant to the Presi-dent and Deputy National Security Adviser.

The President announced the appointmentof Danielle C. Gray as Assistant to the Presi-dent and Cabinet Secretary.

The President announced the appointmentof Katy A. Kale as Assistant to the President forManagement and Administration.

The President announced the appointmentof Lisa O. Monaco as Assistant to the Presidentfor Homeland Security and Counterterrorismand Deputy National Security Adviser.

The President announced the appointmentof Jennifer M. Palmieri as Assistant to thePresident and Communications Director.

The President announced the appointmentof H. Daniel Pfeiffer as Assistant to the Presi-dent and Senior Adviser.

The President announced the appointmentof Miguel E. Rodriguez as Assistant to thePresident and Director of Legislative Affairs.

The President announced the appointmentof David Simas as Assistant to the Presidentand Deputy Senior Adviser for Communica-tions and Strategy.


ident had a telephone conversation with PrimeMinister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to con-gratulate him on his party’s success in the re-

cent parliamentary election and to discuss Isra-el-U.S. relations. Then, also in the Oval Office,he and Vice President Joe Biden had an intelli-gence briefing.

In the afternoon, in the Private DiningRoom, the President and Vice President Bidenhad lunch. Later, in the Oval Office, he metwith of the Boys and Girls Club of AmericaYouth of the Year finalists.

The President announced the designation ofthe following individuals as members of a Pres-idential delegation to attend the opening cere-mony of the 10th Special Olympics WorldWinter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea,on January 29:

Thomas J. Vilsack (head of delegation);Sung Kim;Judith E. Heumann; andJulie Petty.


ident met with young people from the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Then, he traveled to LasVegas, NV.

In the evening, the President returned toWashington, DC.

The President declared a major disaster inArkansas and ordered Federal aid to supple-ment State and local recovery efforts in the ar-ea affected by a severe winter storm on De-cember 25 and 26, 2012.



In the afternoon, in the Private DiningRoom, the President and Secretary of StateHillary Rodham Clinton had lunch. Later, inthe Library, he participated in separate televi-sion interviews with Jose Diaz-Balart of Tele-mundo and Maria Elena Salinas of Univision.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will welcome President Giorgio Napolita-no of Italy to the White House on February 15.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will award the 2011 National Medal ofScience and the National Medal of Technology

723


and Innovation at the White House on Febru-ary 1.



The White House announced that the Presi-dent will travel to Minneapolis, MN, on Febru-ary 4.

The President announced the nomination ofJane Kelly to be a judge on the U.S. Court ofAppeals for the Eighth Circuit.

The President announced the nomination ofGregory Alan Phillips to be a judge on the U.S.Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

February 1In the morning, in the Oval Office, the Pres-

ident had an intelligence briefing.The President announced his intention to

nominate Janet L. LaBreck to be Commission-er of the Rehabilitation Services Administra-tion at the Department of Education.

The President announced his intention toappoint Jonathan Safran Foer as a member ofthe U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council.

The President announced his intention toappoint Robert Listenbee, Jr., as Administratorof the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delin-quency Prevention at the Department of Jus-tice.

The President announced his intention toappoint James H. Stock as a member of theCouncil of Economic Advisers.

February 4In the morning, the President traveled to

Minneapolis, MN, arriving in the afternoon.In the afternoon, at the Minneapolis Police

Department Special Operations Center, thePresident met with local leaders and law en-forcement officials to discuss ways of reducinggun violence. Later, he returned to Washing-ton, DC.


ident had an intelligence briefing. Then, in the

Roosevelt Room, he met with progressive andlabor leaders to discuss immigration reform.

In the afternoon, in the Roosevelt Room,the President met with business leaders to dis-cuss immigration reform and its effect on eco-nomic growth and the Federal deficit. Then, inthe Oval Office, he had a telephone conversa-tion with Head Coach John Harbaugh andGeneral Manager Ozzie Newsome, Jr., of theNational Football League’s Baltimore Ravensto congratulate them on their team’s victoryover the San Francisco 49ers in Super BowlXLVII. Later, also in the Oval Office, the Pres-ident met with Secretary of Defense Leon E.Panetta.

During the day, in the Oval Office, the Pres-ident met with Director of Speechwriting Jon-athan E. Favreau and Deputy Director ofSpeechwriting Cody S. Keenan to prepare forhis State of the Union Address.


Annapolis, MD, where, at the Westin Annapo-lis hotel, he participated in the Senate Demo-cratic Issues Conference.

In the afternoon, the President returned toWashington, DC.


Leesburg, VA.In the afternoon, he returned to Washing-

ton, DC. Later, in the Roosevelt Room, he metwith members of the Cabinet to discuss immi-gration reform. Later, in the Oval Office, thePresident met with Earvin “Magic” Johnson,Jr., to discuss HIV/AIDS treatment and pre-vention issues, especially in the African Ameri-can community.

The President announced the nomination ofRaymond T. Chen and Todd M. Hughes to bejudges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for theFederal Circuit.



724


In the afternoon, in the Private DiningRoom, the President and Vice President Bidenhad lunch. Then, the President traveled toJoint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, VA. Later,he returned to Washington, DC.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will welcome the recipients of the 2012Presidential Citizens Medal to the WhiteHouse on February 15.

February 10The White House announced that the Presi-

dent will travel to the Asheville, NC, area onFebruary 13, the Atlanta, GA, area on Febru-ary 14, and Chicago, IL, on February 15.

The President declared an emergency inConnecticut and ordered Federal aid to sup-plement State and local response efforts due tothe emergency conditions resulting from a se-vere winter storm beginning on February 8and continuing.


ident had an intelligence briefing.The White House announced further details

on the President’s travel to Arden, NC, on Feb-ruary 13, and Decatur, GA, on February 14.

The President announced his intention tonominate Karol V. Mason to be Assistant At-torney General for Justice Programs at the De-partment of Justice.

The President announced his intention toappoint Catherine A. Allen as a member of theBoard of Directors of the Valles Caldera Trust.



Also in the morning, the President had atelephone conversation with President LeeMyung-bak of South Korea to discuss NorthKorea’s nuclear test, affirm close cooperationin impeding North Korea’s nuclear and ballis-tic missile programs, and discuss South Korea-U.S. relations.


Arden, NC, where he toured a Linamar NorthCarolina manufacturing facility with GeneralManager Mark Treffinger, Operations Manag-er Thomas Grein, and Group Vice President ofLinamar Driveline Systems Group Global PhilMcCulloch.

In the afternoon, the President returned toWashington, DC. Later, he met with Sens.Richard J. Durbin, Charles E. Schumer, Rob-ert Menendez, and Michael F. Bennet to dis-cuss immigration reform. Vice President JoeBiden, Assistant to the President and Directorof the Domestic Policy Council Cecilia Muñoz,and Assistant to the President and Director ofLegislative Affairs Miguel E. Rodriguez alsoattended.

Later in the afternoon, the President had atelephone conversation with Prime MinisterShinzo Abe of Japan to discuss North Korea’srecent nuclear test, international diplomatic ef-forts toward a response, and Japan-U.S. rela-tions.

The White House announced further detailson the President’s travel to Chicago, IL, onFebruary 15.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will travel to the West Palm Beach, FL,area on February 15.

The President declared a major disaster inMississippi and ordered Federal aid to supple-ment State and local recovery efforts in the ar-ea affected by severe storms, tornadoes, andflooding beginning on February 10 and con-tinuing.


Decatur, GA.In the afternoon, the President toured Col-

lege Heights Early Childhood Learning Cen-ter, where he met with students and teachers.Later, he returned to Washington, DC.


ident had an intelligence briefing.In the afternoon, the President traveled to

Chicago, IL. Upon arrival, he traveled to Hyde

725


Park Academy High School, where he partici-pated in a roundtable discussion with studentsenrolled in a school-based antiviolence pro-gram. Later, he traveled to West Palm Beach,FL, arriving in the evening.

In the evening, the President traveled toPalm City, FL, where he remained overnightat the Floridian Yacht and Golf Club.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will welcome Prime Minister Shinzo Abeof Japan to the White House on February 22.

The White House announced that the annu-al Easter egg roll will take place on April 1.

The President announced the designation ofthe following individuals as members of a Pres-idential delegation to attend the Inaugurationof Park Geun-hye as President of South Koreain Seoul, South Korea, on February 25:

Thomas E. Donilon (head of delegation);Sung Kim; James D. Thurman; and Daniel R. Russel.

February 18In the afternoon, the President returned to

Washington, DC, arriving in the evening.


ident had an intelligence briefing.In the afternoon, the President had separate

telephone conversations with Sens. Lindsey O.Graham, John S. McCain III, and Marco A.Rubio to discussion immigration reform andthe Federal budget.



In the afternoon, in the Private DiningRoom, the President and Vice President Bidenhad lunch. Later, in the Diplomatic ReceptionRoom, he had separate interviews with televi-sion news anchors from the Boston, MA,Charleston, SC, Baltimore, MD, OklahomaCity, OK, Wichita, KS, San Antonio, TX, SanFrancisco, CA, and Honolulu, HI, media mar-kets. Later, in the Oval Office, he and Vice

President Biden met with Secretary of StateJohn F. Kerry.

The President announced the designation ofthe following individuals as members of a Pres-idential delegation to attend the Inaugurationof Ernest Bai Koroma as President of SierraLeonein Freetown, Sierra Leone, on February22: Carrie Hessler-Radelet (head of delega-tion); and Kathleen FitzGibbon.


ident had an intelligence briefing. Later, alsoin the Oval Office, he met with his senior ad-visers. Then, also in the Oval Office, he hadseparate interviews for the syndicated radioprograms of Alfred C. Sharpton, Jr., Joe Madi-son, and Yolanda Adams.


ident and Vice President Joe Biden had an in-telligence briefing. Later, at the Dwight D.Eisenhower Executive Office Building, theyattended a meeting of the Democratic Gover-nors Association.

In the afternoon, in the Cabinet Room, thePresident and Vice President Biden had lunchwith Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan.

The President declared a major disaster inLouisiana and ordered Federal aid to supple-ment State and local recovery efforts in the ar-ea affected by severe storms and flooding fromJanuary 8 through 17.

February 23The White House announced that the Presi-

dent will travel to Newport News, VA, on Feb-ruary 26.



In the afternoon, in the Indian Treaty Roomof the Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive OfficeBuilding, the President attended a farewell re-ception for U.S. Trade Representative RonaldKirk.

726



ident had a telephone conversation with Presi-dent Muhammad Mursi of Egypt to discussEgypt-U.S. relations; democracy efforts, eco-nomic concerns, and human rights issues inEgypt; the Arab-Israeli peace process; and Sec-retary of State John F. Kerry’s upcoming visit toEgypt. Then, also in the Office, he and VicePresident Joe Biden had an intelligence brief-ing. Later, he traveled to Newport News, VA.


The President announced his intention tonominate Jannette L. Dates and Bruce M. Ra-mer to be members of the Board of Directorsof the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The President announced his intention tonominate Stephen J. Hadley to be a member ofthe Board of Directors of the U.S. Institute ofPeace.

The President announced his intention tonominate Geoffrey R. Pyatt to be Ambassadorto Ukraine.

The President announced his intention toappoint Teresa Isabel Leger as a member ofthe Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.

The President announced his intention toappoint Stephen L. Mayo as a member of theNational Science Board at the National Sci-ence Foundation.


ident and Vice President Joe Biden had an in-telligence briefing. Then, also in the Oval Of-fice, he met with his senior advisers.



In the afternoon, in the Oval Office, thePresident and Vice President Biden attendedthe swearing-in ceremony for Secretary of theTreasury Jacob J. Lew. Then, in the PrivateDining Room, he and Vice President Bidenhad lunch.

Later in the afternoon, in the Oval Office,the President met with American Legion Na-tional Commander James E. Koutz.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will welcome the BCS National Champi-on University of Alabama Crimson Tide to theWhite House on March 6.

March 1In the morning, in the Oval Office, the Pres-

ident had a telephone conversation with Presi-dent Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of Russia todiscuss Russia-U.S. relations, the situation inSyria, the upcoming Group of Eight (G–8)summit in Northern Ireland in June, and Pres-ident Obama’s visit to St. Petersburg for theGroup of Twenty (G–20) meeting in Septem-ber. Later, also in the Oval Office, he and VicePresident Joe Biden met with Senate MajorityLeader Harry M. Reid, Senate Minority Lead-er A. Mitchell McConnell, Speaker of theHouse of Representatives John A. Boehner,and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi todiscuss pending mandatory Federal spendingcuts.

In the evening, the President and Mrs.Obama had dinner with former President Wil-liam J. Clinton and former Secretary of StateHillary Rodham Clinton.

The President declared a major disaster forthe Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and or-dered Federal aid to supplement tribal recov-ery efforts in the area affected by severestorms, flooding, landslides, and mudslidesfrom January 14 through 17.

March 2During the day, the President had separate

telephone conversations with Sens. Robert P.Corker, Jr., Robert J. Portman, and otherMembers of Congress to discuss tax reformlegislation and the Federal budget.


ident had an intelligence briefing.In the afternoon, in the Oval Office, the

President had separate telephone conversa-tions with Sen. Susan M. Collins and other

727


Members of Congress to discuss tax reformlegislation and the Federal budget.


ident and Vice President Joe Biden had an in-telligence briefing. Later, also in the Oval Of-fice, he met with his senior advisers.

In the afternoon, the President traveled toBethesda, MD, where, at Walter Reed Nation-al Military Medical Center, he met withwounded U.S. military personnel and theirfamilies, presented Purple Hearts to two ser-vicemembers, and participated in a promotionceremony for one servicemember. Then, hereturned to Washington, DC.

Later in the afternoon, in the Oval Office,the President and Vice President Biden metwith Secretary of Defense Charles T. Hagel.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will have a signing ceremony for the Vio-lence Against Women Reauthorization Act of2013 on March 7.

The President declared a major disaster forthe Navajo Nation and ordered Federal aid tosupplement tribal efforts in the area affectedby a severe freeze from December 15, 2012,through January 21, 2013.



In the afternoon, in the Private DiningRoom, the President and Vice President Bidenhad lunch. Later, in the Oval Office, they metwith Secretary of the Treasury Jacob J. Lew.

In the evening, at the Plume restaurant inthe Jefferson hotel, the President had dinnerwith a group of Republican Senators and dis-cussed tax reform legislation and the Federalbudget.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will welcome Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah ofBrunei to the White House on March 12.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will visit the U.S. Capitol next week,where he will meet separately with the Demo-cratic and Republican Caucuses of the House

of Representatives and Senate to discuss hislegislative agenda.


ident and Vice President Joe Biden had an in-telligence briefing. Later, in the RooseveltRoom, the President met with leaders of Jew-ish organizations to discuss his upcoming tripto Israel.

In the afternoon, in the Private DiningRoom, the President had lunch with Reps.Christopher Van Hollen, Jr., and Paul D. Ryanand discussed tax reform legislation and theFederal budget.

In the evening, the President met with busi-ness leaders and renewable energy experts todiscuss energy policy.


ident and Vice President Joe Biden had an in-telligence briefing. Then, also in the Oval Of-fice, he met with his senior advisers. Later, inthe Roosevelt Room, he met with religiousleaders to discuss immigration reform.

During the day, in the Roosevelt Room, thePresident and Vice President Biden attendedthe swearing-in ceremony for John O. Brennanas Director of Central Intelligence.


ident and Vice President Joe Biden had an in-telligence briefing. Then, also in the Oval Of-fice, he met with senior advisers.


The White House announced that the Presi-dent will award the Medal of Honor to Capt.Emil J. Kapaun, USA, on April 11.



In the afternoon, in the Blue Room, thePresident had lunch with Sultan HassanalBolkiah of Brunei. Then, at the U.S. Capitol,

728


he met with the Senate Democratic Caucus.Later, in the Oval Office, he and Vice Presi-dent Biden met with Secretary of DefenseCharles T. Hagel.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will welcome Prime Minister Enda Kennyof Ireland to the White House on March 19.

The President announced his intention toappoint Henry Claypool, Julian Harris, andCarol Raphael as members of the Commissionon Long-Term Care.

The President announced his intention toappoint Diana Shaw Clark and Greg A. Rosen-baum as members of the U.S. Holocaust Me-morial Council.


ident had an intelligence briefing.In the afternoon, at the U.S. Capitol, the

President met with the House RepublicanConference. Later, in the Oval Office he andVice President Joe Biden met with Secretary ofState John F. Kerry. Then, in the SituationRoom, he met with business leaders to discusscybersecurity issues.

Later in the afternoon, in the Dwight D.Eisenhower Executive Office Building, thePresident met with business leaders to discussimmigration reform and economic issues.Then, in the Oval Office, he and Vice Presi-dent Biden met with Secretary of the TreasuryJacob J. Lew.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will travel to the Argonne National Labo-ratory in Lemont, IL, on March 15.

The President announced his intention tonominate Deborah K. Jones to be Ambassadorto Libya.

The President announced his intention tonominate James Knight to be Ambassador toChad.

The President announced his intention toappoint Lesley L. Weiss as Chair and memberof the Commission for the Preservation ofAmerica’s Heritage Abroad.

March 14In the morning, the President had a tele-

phone conversation with President Xi Jinping

of China to congratulate him on his new posi-tion and discuss China-U.S. relations.

In the afternoon, at the U.S. Capitol, thePresident had separate meetings with the Sen-ate Republican Conference and the HouseDemocratic Caucus. Later, in the Oval Office,he had an intelligence briefing.

March 15In the morning, the President traveled to

Lemont, IL. Upon arrival, he toured the facili-ties of Argonne National Laboratory.


The President announced the designation ofthe following individuals as members of a Pres-idential delegation to attend the installation ofPope Francis in the Holy See (Vatican City) onMarch 19:

Joe Biden (head of delegation); Susana Martinez; Nancy Pelosi; and John J. DeGioia.


ident had an intelligence briefing, followed bya meeting with his senior advisers.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will welcome President Ernest Bai Koro-ma of Sierra Leone, President Macky Sall ofSenegal, President Joyce Banda of Malawi, andPrime Minister José Maria Pereira Neves ofCape Verde to the White House on March 28.


ident had an intelligence briefing. Later, in theRoosevelt Room, he met with First MinisterPeter Robinson and Deputy First Minister J.Martin P. McGuinness of Northern Ireland.

In the evening, the President traveled to TelAviv, Israel, arriving the following afternoon.

The President announced his intention tonominate Catherine M. Russell to be Ambassa-dor at Large for Global Women’s Issues at theDepartment of State.

The President announced the nomination ofPatricia E. Campbell-Smith and Elaine D.

729


Kaplan to be judges on the U.S. Court of Fed-eral Claims.

The President announced the nomination ofMichael K. O’Keefe and Robert D. Okun to bejudges on the Superior Court of the District ofColumbia.

The President declared a major disaster inNew Hampshire and ordered Federal aid tosupplement State and local recovery efforts inthe area struck by a severe winter storm andsnowstorm from February 8 through 10.

March 20In the afternoon, at Ben Gurion Airport in

Tel Aviv, Israel, the President toured an IronDome antimissile battery. Then, he traveled tothe King David Hotel in Jerusalem.

Later in the afternoon, the President trav-eled to the President’s Residence, where hesigned the guest book and participated in atree-planting ceremony and photographic op-portunity with President Shimon Peres of Isra-el. Then, he traveled to the Prime Minister’sResidence, where he signed the guest bookand was greeted by Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu of Israel.

In the evening, at the Prime Minister’s Resi-dence, the President and Prime Minister Ne-tanyahu had a working dinner. Later, he re-turned to the King David Hotel, where he re-mained overnight.


the Israel Museum, where he and Prime Min-ister Netanyahu viewed the Dead Sea Scrolls.Then, also at the museum, they toured an Is-raeli technology exposition, where the Presi-dent greeted U.S. Army veteran Theresa Han-nigan, who demonstrated an apparatus de-signed to aid spinal cord injuries. He also metwith Israeli high school students and alumni ofCisco Israel’s Digital Cities Project.

Later in the morning, the President traveledto Ramallah, West Bank, where, at the MuqataPresidential Compound, he participated in anarrival ceremony and photographic opportuni-ty with President Mahmoud Abbas of the Pal-estinian Authority. Then, also at the Presiden-tial Compound, he met with President Abbas.

In the afternoon, at the Muqata PresidentialCompound, the President had a working lunchwith President Abbas. Later, he traveled to Al-Bireh, West Bank, where, at the Youth Devel-opment Resource Center, he and Prime Minis-ter Salam Fayyad of the Palestinian Authoritytoured a robotics lab and watched a youthdance performance. Then, also at the ResourceCenter, he participated in a roundtable discus-sion with Palestinian youth. Later, he returnedto Jerusalem.

In the evening, the President traveled to theU.S. Consulate General, where he met withconsular and U.S. Embassy–Tel Aviv personnel.Then, he returned to the King David Hotel.

Later in the evening, the President traveledto the President’s Residence. Then, he re-turned to the King David Hotel, where he re-mained overnight.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will welcome the 2012 Stanley Cup cham-pion Los Angeles Kings and the 2012 MajorLeague Soccer champion Los Angeles Galaxyto the White House on March 26.

The President announced his intention tonominate Cynthia L. Attwood to be a memberof the Occupational Safety and Health ReviewCommission.

The President announced his intention tonominate Stuart F. Delery to be Assistant At-torney General for the Civil Division at theDepartment of Justice.

The President announced his intention tonominate Fred P. Hochberg to be President ofthe U.S. Export-Import Bank.

The President announced his intention tonominate Allison M. Macfarlane to be a Com-missioner of the Nuclear Regulatory Commis-sion, and upon appointment, to designate heras Chair.

The President announced his intention tonominate Patricia M. Wald to be a member ofthe Privacy and Civil Liberties OversightBoard.

The President declared a major disaster inConnecticut and ordered Federal aid to sup-plement State and local recovery efforts in thearea affected by a severe winter storm andsnowstorm from February 8 through 11.

730


March 22In the morning, the President traveled to Is-

rael’s national cemetery at Mount Herzl,where, accompanied by Prime Minister Benja-min Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres ofIsrael, he laid a wreath and stone at the graveof Theodor Herzl and signed the guest book.He also laid a wreath and stone at the grave offormer Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and metwith members of the Rabin family. Then, hetraveled to Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial,where he, Prime Minister Netanyahu, andPresident Peres toured the Hall of Names, theArt Museum, and the Children’s Memorial.He also laid a wreath in the Hall of Remem-brance and signed the guest book.

Later in the morning, the President re-turned to the King David Hotel, where he hadlunch with Prime Minister Netanyahu.

In the afternoon, the President traveled toBethlehem, West Bank, where he toured theChurch of the Nativity with President Mah-moud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority andmet with church leaders and local governmentofficials. He also visited the Church of SaintCatherine, where he greeted Palestinian chil-dren. Then, he traveled to Tel Aviv, Israel,where, at Ben Gurion Airport, he had a privatemeeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Later in the afternoon, the President trav-eled to Amman, Jordan, where, upon arrival, hetraveled to the Royal Al Hummar Offices, theheadquarters of King Abdullah II of Jordan.

In the evening, at the Al Hummar Offices,the President participated in an arrival cere-mony with King Abdullah II. Later, he traveledto Beit Al Urdun, where he and King Abdullahhad dinner.

The President declared a major disaster inRhode Island and ordered Federal aid to sup-plement State and local recovery efforts in thearea affected by a severe winter storm andsnowstorm on February 8 and 9.

March 23In the morning, at the Four Seasons Amman

Hotel, the President met with U.S. Embassystaff and their families. Later, he traveled toPetra, Jordan, where he toured the ancient ru-

ins and monuments with Professor SuleimanA.D. Al Farajat of the University of Jordan.

In the afternoon, the President traveled toAmman, Jordan, where, at Queen Alia Interna-tional Airport, he was greeted by King Abdul-lah II of Jordan. Then, he returned to Wash-ington, DC, arriving in the evening.



In the afternoon, in the Oval Office, thePresident participated in a signing ceremonyestablishing the Río Grande del Norte Nation-al Monument in New Mexico, the First StateNational Monument in Delaware, the HarrietTubman Underground Railroad NationalMonument in Maryland, the Charles YoungBuffalo Soldiers National Monument in Ohio,and the San Juan Islands National Monumentin Washington. Vice President Biden and Sec-retary of the Interior Kenneth L. Salazar alsoattended.

In the evening, in the Old Family DiningRoom, the President and Mrs. Obama hosted aSeder to mark the beginning of Passover.

The President declared a major disaster inMaine and ordered Federal aid to supplementState and local recovery efforts in the area af-fected by a severe winter storm, snowstorm,and flooding on February 8 and 9.



In the afternoon, in the Private DiningRoom, the President and Vice President Bidenhad lunch. Later, in the Oval Office, he metwith Secretary of Defense Charles T. Hagel.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will travel to Miami, FL, on March 29.

The President announced his intention toappoint Julia A. Pierson as Director of the U.S.Secret Service at the Department of Home-land Security.

731




In the afternoon, in the Blue Room, thePresident participated in separate television in-terviews with Lourdes Meluza of Univision andLori Montenegro of Telemundo. Later, in theOval Office, he and Vice President Biden par-ticipated in a swearing-in ceremony for Julia A.Pierson as Director of the U.S. Secret Serviceat the Department of Homeland Security.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will welcome Prime Minister Lee HsienLoong of Singapore to the White House onApril 2.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will travel to Mexico and Costa Rica fromMay 2 through 4.



In the afternoon, in the Oval Office, thePresident and Vice President Biden met withSecretary of State John F. Kerry. Then, also inthe Oval Office, they met with Secretary of theTreasury Jacob J. Lew.

During the day, in the Oval Office, the Pres-ident signed Executive Order 13639 establish-ing the Presidential Commission on ElectionAdministration.


Miami, FL, arriving in the afternoon. In the afternoon, at PortMiami, the Presi-

dent toured a tunnel infrastructure project.Later, he returned to Washington, DC.

March 30The White House announced that the Presi-

dent will travel to Denver, CO, on April 3.

March 31In the morning, the President, Mrs. Obama,

and their daughters Malia and Sasha attendedan Easter Sunday service at St. John’s Church.

April 1In the morning, in the Oval Office, the Pres-

ident had an intelligence briefing. Later, onthe South Lawn, he and Mrs. Obama partici-pated in the annual Easter egg roll. Later, inthe Oval Office, he met with Robbie Novak,who stars as “Kid President” in self-made You-Tube videos, and gave him a personal tour ofthe Oval Office.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will travel to Northern California on April3 and 4.

The President announced his intention tonominate Brian C. Deese to be Deputy Direc-tor of the Office of Management and Budget.

The President announced his intention toappoint the following individuals as membersof the National Commission on the Structureof the Air Force:

Janine Davidson; Dennis M. McCarthy; F. Whitten Peters; and Margaret C. Harrell.

The President announced his intention toappoint Hyman Bass, Carlos Castillo-Chavez,and Joseph S. Francisco as members of thePresident’s Committee on the National Medalof Science.



In the afternoon, in the Private DiningRoom, the President and Vice President JoeBiden had lunch. Later, in the Oval Office,they met with Secretary of Defense Charles T.Hagel. Then, in the Family Theater, he andMrs. Obama hosted a screening of the film“42” for members of Jackie Robinson’s family,castmembers, and crew.


ident had an intelligence briefing. Later hetraveled to Denver, CO, arriving in the after-noon.

732


In the afternoon, at the Denver Policy Acad-emy, the President met with local law enforce-ment officials and community leaders to dis-cuss gun control. Later, he traveled to SanFrancisco, CA.

In the evening, the President traveled to theIntercontinental San Francisco hotel, where heremained overnight.

April 4In the morning, the President traveled to

Atherton, CA.In the afternoon, the President returned to

Washington, DC, arriving in the evening.The White House announced that the Presi-

dent will award the Medal of Honor posthumous-ly to Capt. Emil J. Kapaun, USA, on April 11.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will welcome Crown Prince Mohammedbin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, DeputySupreme Commander of the United ArabEmirates Armed Forces, to the White Houseon April 16.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will travel to Hartford, CT, on April 8.

April 5In the morning, in the Blue Room, the Pres-

ident met with religious leaders. Later, in theOval Office, he and Vice President Joe Bidenhad an intelligence briefing.

In the afternoon, in the Oval Office, thePresident participated in a telephone interviewwith Cliff Kelley and Matt McGill of WVON inChicago, IL.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will welcome Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations to the WhiteHouse on April 11.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will award the 2012 Commander inChief’s Trophy to the U.S. Naval Academyfootball team at the White House on April 12.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will welcome Amir Hamad bin Khalifa AlThani of Qatar to the White House on April 23.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will welcome King Abdullah II of Jordanto the White House on April 26.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will welcome Prime Minister Recep Tayy-ip Erdogan of Turkey to the White House onMay 16.

April 7The White House announced that the Presi-

dent will travel to West Hartford, CT, on April 8.



President met with his senior advisers. Later,he traveled to West Hartford, CT, where, atthe University of Hartford, he met with thefamilies of victims killed in the shootings atSandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown,CT, on December 14, 2012.

In the evening, the President returned toWashington, DC, accompanied aboard AirForce One by family members of victims killedin the shootings at Sandy Hook ElementarySchool in Newtown.

The President declared a major disaster inOklahoma and ordered Federal aid to supple-ment State and local recovery efforts in the ar-ea affected by a severe winter storm and snow-storm from February 24 through 26.



In the afternoon, in the Oval Office, thePresident and Vice President Biden met withSecretary of Defense Charles T. Hagel.

During the day, the President had a tele-phone conversation with President HamidKarzai of Afghanistan to discuss the transitionof security operations to Afghan forces, prepa-rations for Afghanistan’s 2014 elections, Af-ghan-led peace and reconciliation efforts, andAfghanistan-U.S. relations.

The President announced his intention tonominate Mark G. Pearce to be a member ofthe National Labor Relations Board and, uponappointment, to designate him as Chairman.

The President announced his intention tonominate Harry I. Johnson III and Philip A.

733


Miscimarra to be members of the National La-bor Relations Board.

The President announced his intention toappoint Tammie Kahn, George Kerscher, andJacquelyn K. Sundstrand as members of theNational Museum and Library Services Board.

The President announced his intention toappoint Samuel N. Gordon and MaureenSchulman as members of the U.S. HolocaustMemorial Council.

The President announced his intention toappoint Melanie N. Roussell as Assistant Sec-retary for Public Affairs at the Department ofHousing and Urban Development.


ident and Vice President Joe Biden had an in-telligence briefing. Later, in the Oval Office,he met with his senior advisers.

In the afternoon, in the Private DiningRoom, the President and Vice President Bidenhad lunch. Later, in the Oval Office, they metwith Secretary of the Treasury Jacob J. Lew.

Also in the afternoon, the President had atelephone conversation with Head Coach Ge-no Auriemma of the University of Connecticutwomen’s basketball team to congratulate himon his team’s victory in the NCAA champion-ship game.

In the evening, in the Old Family DiningRoom, the President had dinner with Republi-can Senators.

During the day, the President had a tele-phone conversation with Head Coach Rick Pi-tino of the University of Louisville men’s bas-ketball team to congratulate him on his team’svictory in the NCAA championship game. Alsoduring the day, he met with Peter Maurer,president of the International Committee ofthe Red Cross, to discuss U.S. policies regard-ing the detention of alleged terrorists at NavalStation Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

April 11In the morning, in the Oval Office, the Presi-

dent and Vice President Joe Biden had an intel-ligence briefing. Later, in the Roosevelt Room,

he met with members of the Financial ServicesForum to discuss the national economy.

In the afternoon, in the Roosevelt Room,the President participated in a conference callwith local elected officials and business andcommunity leaders from around the Nation todiscuss youth employment opportunities.

During the day, in the Oval Office, the Pres-ident had a telephone conversation with familymembers of victims killed in the December 14,2012, shootings at Sandy Hook ElementarySchool in Newtown, CT, to discuss Senate ac-tion on gun control legislation.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will welcome the BCS National Champi-on University of Alabama football team to theWhite House on April 15.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will welcome 2012 NASCAR Sprint CupSeries champion Brad Keselowski to the WhiteHouse on April 16.

The President announced his intention tonominate Matthew C. Armstrong to be a mem-ber of the Broadcasting Board of Governors.

The President announced his intention tonominate Rick Lowe to be a member of theNational Council on the Arts.

The President announced his intention tonominate Tulinabo Salama Mushingi to beAmbassador to Burkina Faso.

The President announced his intention toappoint Eric P. Schwartz as a member of theU.S. Commission on International ReligiousFreedom.




ident and Vice President Joe Biden had an in-telligence briefing. Then, also in the Oval Of-fice, he met with his senior advisers. Later, inthe Library, he taped a television interviewwith Savannah Guthrie of NBC’s “Today” pro-gram for later broadcast.

734


In the afternoon, the President was notifiedof the explosions that occurred at the BostonMarathon in Boston, MA. Later, in the OvalOffice, he received a teleconference briefingfrom Federal Bureau of Investigation DirectorRobert S. Mueller III, Assistant to the Presi-dent for Homeland Security and Counterter-rorism Lisa O. Monaco, and White HouseChief of Staff Denis R. McDonough on the on-going investigation of the explosions. Then, hehad separate telephone conversations withGov. Deval L. Patrick of Massachusetts andMayor Thomas M. Menino of Boston, MA, toextend his condolences for the loss of life, ex-press his concern for those injured, and offerFederal assistance.

Later in the afternoon, in the Oval Office,the President participated in a credentialingceremony for newly appointed Ambassadors tothe U.S.: Maria Cecilia Nahon of Argentina,Cui Tiankai of China, Mohktar Chaouachi ofTunisia, Archil Gegeshidze of Georgia, and Ru-ben Ignacio Zamora Rivas of El Salvador. Lat-er, he received an update from Federal Bureauof Investigation Director Robert S. Mueller IIIand Secretary of Homeland Security Janet A.Napolitano on the explosions in Boston, MA.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will welcome President Park Geun-hye ofSouth Korea to the White House on May 7.

The President announced the designation ofthe following individuals as members of a Pres-idential delegation to attend the funeral of for-mer Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of theUnited Kingdom in London, United Kingdom,on April 17: George Shultz and James A. BakerIII (heads of delegation); Barbara Stephenson;and Louis Susman.

The President announced his intention tonominate Vernon S. Broderick to be a judge onthe U.S. District Court for the Southern Dis-trict of New York.

The President announced his intention tonominate Rachel E. Barkow, Charles R. Brey-er, and William H. Pryor, Jr., to be Commis-sioners on the U.S. Sentencing Commission.

The President announced his intention toappoint Thomas Murray as a member of theCultural Property Advisory Committee.

April 16In the morning, the President received a

briefing on the ricin-laced letters sent to theWhite House and the office of Sen. RogerWicker. Later, in the Oval Office, he and VicePresident Joe Biden met with Secretary ofHomeland Security Janet A. Napolitano, Dep-uty National Security Adviser Antony J. Blink-en, National Security Adviser to the Vice Presi-dent Jake Sullivan, Attorney General Eric H.Holder, Jr., Assistant to the President forHomeland Security and Counterterrorism LisaO. Monaco, White House Chief of Staff DenisR. McDonough, and Federal Bureau of Inves-tigation Director Robert S. Mueller III to dis-cuss the ongoing investigation into the April 15terrorist attack in Boston, MA. Then, also inthe Oval Office, he and Vice President Bidenhad an intelligence briefing.

In the afternoon, in the Private DiningRoom, the President had a working lunch withCrown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahy-an of Abu Dhabi, Deputy Supreme Command-er of the Armed Forces of the United ArabEmirates. Later, on the South Lawn, he wel-comed NASCAR Sprint Cup Series ChampionBrad Keselowski to congratulate him on hisvictory and thank him for NASCAR’s publicservice. Then, in the Oval Office, he met withSens. John S. McCain III and Charles E.Schumer to discuss immigration reform. Later,also in the Oval Office, he and Vice PresidentBiden met with Secretary of Defense CharlesT. Hagel.

In the evening, the President received anupdate on the ricin-laced letters sent to theWhite House and the office of Sen. RogerWicker.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will travel to Boston, MA, on April 18.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent’s planned visit to Lawrence, KS, on April19 had been canceled.

735


The President announced the designation ofthe following individuals as members of a Pres-idential delegation to attend a commemorationceremony for the 70th anniversary of the War-saw Ghetto Uprising in Warsaw, Poland, onApril 19:

Stephen D. Mull (head of delegation); Douglas A. Davidson; Lesley L. Weiss; Joseph D. Gutman; and Estelle W. Laughlin.


ident was briefed on the ongoing investigationinto the terrorist attack in Boston, MA. Later,he had an intelligence briefing followed by ameeting with his senior advisers. Also in themorning, he received an update on the ricin-laced letters sent to the White House and theoffice of Sen. Roger Wicker.

In the afternoon, in the Oval Office, thePresident and Vice President Joe Biden metwith Secretary of the Treasury Jacob J. Lew.Later, also in the Oval Office, he met with therecipients of the 2013 Goldman Environmen-tal Prize.

During the day, in the Roosevelt Room, thePresident and Vice President Biden met withthe families of victims killed in the shootings atSandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown,CT, on December 14, 2012.

In the evening, at the Jefferson hotel, thePresident had dinner with members of theSenate Democratic Caucus to discuss immi-gration reform, gun control, and the nationaleconomy.

The White House announced further detailson the President’s travel to Boston, MA, onApril 18.

The President announced his intention tonominate Avril D. Haines to be Legal Adviserat the Department of State.

The President announced his intention tonominate Andrea Levere to be a member ofthe Board of Directors of the National Con-sumer Cooperative Bank.

The President announced his intention toappoint Brian Kamoie as Assistant Administra-tor of the Federal Emergency ManagementAgency at the Department of Homeland Secu-rity.

The President announced his intention toappoint Jim W. Balsiger and Gary T. Smith asU.S. Commissioners of the U.S. Section of theNorth Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission.

The President declared an emergency inMassachusetts and ordered Federal aid to sup-plement Commonwealth and local responseefforts due to the emergency conditions result-ing from explosions in Boston on April 15 andcovering eligible activities through April 22.

April 18In the morning, the President received a

briefing on the investigation into the April 15terrorist attack in Boston, MA, from Assistantto the President for Homeland Security andCounterterrorism Lisa O. Monaco. Then, heand Mrs. Obama traveled to Boston, MA.

In the afternoon, at Massachusetts GeneralHospital, the President visited with survivorsof the bombings, their family members, andhospital staff. Later, he and Mrs. Obama re-turned to Washington, DC.

Later in the afternoon, in the East Room,the President hosted a reception for Greek In-dependence Day.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will host the White House Science Fairon April 22.


ident and Vice President Joe Biden had an in-telligence briefing. Then, also in the Oval Of-fice, he met with his senior advisers. Later, inthe Situation Room, he was briefed by his na-tional security team on the latest developmentsin the investigation into the April 15 terroristattack in Boston, MA, and the manhunt forsurviving bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaevin Watertown, MA.

In the afternoon, in the Oval Office, thePresident was briefed by his national securityteam on the latest developments in the investi-gation into the Boston terrorist attack. Then, he

736


had separate telephone conversations with Gov.Deval L. Patrick of Massachusetts and MayorThomas M. Menino of Boston, MA, to expresshis condolences for the death of MassachusettsInstitute of Technology Police Officer Sean A.Collier, who was fatally shot in pursuit ofbombing suspects Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Dzo-khar Tsarnaev on the evening of April 18.

In the evening, the President had a tele-phone conversation with President VladimirVladimirovich Putin of Russia to accept hiscondolences for the loss of life in the April 15terrorist attack in Boston and discuss Russia’ssupport and continued cooperation on coun-terterrorism and security matters.

The President declared a major disaster inMassachusetts and ordered Federal aid to sup-plement Commonwealth and local responseefforts in the area affected by a severe winterstorm, snowstorm, and flooding on February 8and 9.

The President declared an emergency inTexas and ordered Federal aid to supplementState and local response efforts due to theemergency conditions resulting from an explo-sion beginning on April 17 and continuing.

April 20In the morning, in the Situation Room, the

President met with Assistant to the Presidentfor Homeland Security and CounterterrorismLisa O. Monaco, National Security AdviserThomas E. Donilon, Attorney General Eric H.Holder, Federal Bureau of Investigation Di-rector Robert S. Mueller III, Secretary ofHomeland Security Janet A. Napolitano, Di-rector of National Intelligence James R. Clap-per, Jr., and Director of Central IntelligenceJohn O. Brennan to discuss the ongoing inves-tigation into the April 15 terrorist attack inBoston, MA. Vice President Joe Biden alsoparticipated via video conference.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will honor the 2013 National Teacher ofthe Year and finalists on April 23.



In the afternoon, in the East Garden andState Dining Room, the President viewed sci-ence fair projects at the White House ScienceFair. Later, in the Oval Office, he observed amoment of silence in honor of the victims ofthe April 15 terrorist attack in Boston, MA.Then, he had separate telephone conversationswith Federal Bureau of Investigation SpecialAgent in Charge Richard DesLauriers andBoston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davisto commend the professionalism, bravery, andcoordination of the Joint Terrorism Task Forc-es and the Boston Police Department.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent and Mrs. Obama will travel to Dallas, TX,on April 24.

The White House Announced that the Pres-ident and Mrs. Obama will travel to Waco, TX,on April 25.


ident and Vice President Joe Biden had an in-telligence briefing. Then, he met with his se-nior advisers.

In the evening, in the State Dining Room,the President had dinner with a bipartisangroup of women Senators.

The President announced his intention tonominate D. Michael Bennett to be a Gover-nor on the Board of Governors of the U.S.Postal Service.

The President announced his intention tonominate Roberto R. Herencia to be a mem-ber of the Board of Directors of the OverseasPrivate Investment Corporation.

The President announced his intention tonominate Yvette Roubideaux to be Director ofthe Indian Health Service at the Departmentof Health and Human Services.

The President declared a major disaster inNew York and ordered Federal aid to supple-ment State and local recovery efforts in the ar-ea affected by a severe winter storm and snow-storm on February 8 and 9.


ident had an intelligence briefing.

737


In the afternoon, the President and VicePresident Joe Biden met with Secretary of theTreasury Jacob J. Lew. Then, he and Mrs.Obama traveled to Dallas, TX, arriving in theevening.

In the evening, the President and Mrs.Obama traveled to the Omni Dallas Hotel,where they remained overnight.

April 25In the morning, the President and Mrs.

Obama traveled to the George W. Bush Presi-dential Center on the campus of SouthernMethodist University, where they toured thecenter, posed for a photograph with formerPresidents and First Ladies, and attended aluncheon.

In the afternoon, the President and Mrs.Obama traveled to Waco, TX, where, at BaylorUniveristy’s Ferrell Center, he met with fami-lies of the victims of the West Fertilizer Co.plant explosion.

In the evening, the President and Mrs.Obama returned to Washington, DC.

The President announced his intention tonominate Nanci E. Langley to be a Commis-sioner of the Postal Regulatory Commission.

The President announced his intention tonominate Howard A. Shelanski to be Adminis-trator of the Office of Information and Regula-tory Affairs at the Office of Management andBudget.

The President announced his intention tonominate William S. Jasien to be a member ofthe Federal Retirement Thrift InvestmentBoard.

The President announced his intention tonominate Brent F. Nelsen to be a member ofthe Board of Directors of the Corporation forPublic Broadcasting.

April 26In the afternoon, in the Roosevelt Room,

the President met with a group of U.S. busi-ness leaders to discuss expanding U.S. com-merce in Mexico and Central America.

The President declared a major disaster inKansas and ordered Federal aid to supplementState and local recovery efforts in the area af-

fected by a snowstorm from February 20through 23.

The President declared a major disaster inNorth Dakota and ordered Federal aid to sup-plement State and local response efforts due toemergency conditions resulting from floodingbeginning on April 22 and continuing.


ident had a telephone conversation with Presi-dent Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of Russia tooffer his condolences for the loss of life in theApril 26 fire at Psychiatric Hospital No. 14 inRamenskiy, continuing Russia-U.S. counter-terrorism and security cooperation, the up-coming 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, and thesituation in Syria. Then, also in the Oval Office,he and Vice President Joe Biden had an intelli-gence briefing.

In the afternoon, in the Roosevelt Room,the President and Vice President Biden metwith Latino leaders to discuss the President’supcoming travel to Mexico and Costa Rica.

During the day, in the Oval Office, the Pres-ident met with pediatric brain cancer patientJack Hoffman of Atkinson, NE, and signed afootball for him.

The President announced the designation ofthe following individuals as members of a Pres-idential delegation to attend the investiture ofKing Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands inAmsterdam, Netherlands, on April 30: Adm.James G. Stavridis, USN (head of delegation);and Fay Hartog-Levin.

April 30In the afternoon, in the Private Dining

Room, the President and Vice President JoeBiden had lunch. Later, in the Oval Office,they met with Secretary of Defense Charles T.Hagel.

The President announced his intention tonominate Colin S. Bruce to be a judge on theU.S. District Court for the Central District ofIllinois.

The President announced his intention tonominate Sara Lee Ellis and Andrea R. Woodto be judges on the U.S. District Court for theNorthern District of Illinois.

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May 1In the morning, in the Oval Office, the Pres-

ident and Vice President Joe Biden had an in-telligence briefing. Later, also in the Oval Of-fice, he met with senior advisers.

In the afternoon, in the Oval Office, thePresident and Vice President Biden met withSecretary of State John F. Kerry. Later, also inthe Oval Office, they met with Secretary of theTreasury Jacob J. Lew.

May 2In the morning, the President traveled to

Mexico City, Mexico, arriving in the afternoon.In the afternoon, in the Salon de Recepcio-

nes at the Palacio Nacional, he met with Presi-dent Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico. Later, atthe InterContinental Presidente Hotel, he metwith U.S. Embassy personnel.

In the evening, at Los Pinos, the official res-idence of the President of Mexico, the Presi-dent and President Peña Nieto had a workingdinner.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will travel to Columbus, OH, on May 5.

May 3In the morning, at the National Anthropolo-

gy Museum, the President met with Mexicanentrepreneurs.

In the afternoon, the President traveled toSan Jose, Costa Rica. Later, upon arrival in SanJose, he traveled to the InterContinental RealHotel, where he met with U.S. Embassy per-sonnel. Then, at the Casa Amarilla, the head-quarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ofCosta Rica, he met with President Laura Chin-chilla Miranda of Costa Rica.

Later in the afternoon, at the Casa Amarilla,the President and President Chinchilla partici-pated in a cultural event with Costa Ricanyouth.

In the evening, at the National Theater, thePresident participated in a group photo and aworking dinner with President Chinchilla andthe leaders of the Central American Integra-tion System.

The President declared a major disaster inMinnesota and ordered Federal aid to supple-ment State and local response efforts in the ar-

ea affected by a severe winter storm from April9 through 11.

May 4In the afternoon, the President returned to

Washington, DC, arriving in the evening.


Columbus, OH.In the afternoon, the President returned to

Washington, DC.

May 6In the afternoon, the President traveled to

Joint Base Andrews, MD, where he played golfwith Sens. Robert P. Corker, Jr., Saxby Cham-bliss, and Mark E. Udall. Later, he returned toWashington, DC.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will travel to the Austin, TX, area on May 9.

The President declared a major disaster inIowa and ordered Federal aid to supplementState and local recovery efforts in the area af-fected by a severe winter storm from April 9through 11.


ident and Vice President Joe Biden had an in-telligence briefing. Later, also in the Oval Of-fice, they met with President Park Geun-hye ofSouth Korea.

In the afternoon, in the Cabinet Room, thePresident and Vice President Biden had lunchwith President Park. Later, in the Oval Office,he met with his senior advisers. Then, also in theOval Office, he and Vice President Biden metwith Secretary of Defense Charles T. Hagel.

Later in the afternoon, at the St. RegisWashington, D.C. Hotel, the President attend-ed a Democratic National Committee fund-raiser.


ident had an intelligence briefing.In the afternoon, at the Department of En-

ergy, the President met with energy utility ex-ecutives and trade association leaders to

739


discuss lessons learned and actions taken sinceHurricane Sandy as well as joint preparationsfor the upcoming hurricane season. Later, inthe Oval Office, he and Vice President JoeBiden met with Secretary of the Treasury Ja-cob J. Lew.

Later in the afternoon, in the RooseveltRoom, the President met with leaders from theAsian American and Pacific Islanders commu-nity to discuss immigration reform, healthcare, and the national economy.

In the evening, at the Jefferson hotel, thePresident had dinner with House MinorityLeader Nancy Pelosi and Democratic leadersin the House of Representatives.

During the day, the President had a tele-phone conversation with Prime Minister Ben-jamin Netanyahu of Israel to discuss regionalsecurity and peace efforts in the Middle Eastand Israel-U.S. security cooperation.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will welcome Prime Minister David Cam-eron of the United Kingdom to the WhiteHouse on May 13.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will welcome President Sebastian PiñeraEchenique of Chile to the White House onJune 4.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will welcome President Ollanta Humalaof Peru to the White House on June 11.

The President announced his intention tonominate Joseph W. Nega and Michael B.Thornton to be judges on the U.S. Tax Court.

The President announced his intention tonominate Davita Vance-Cooks to be PublicPrinter of the United States at the Govern-ment Printing Office.

The President announced his intention toappoint Margaret W. Burcham as a Commis-sioner on the Mississippi River Commission.

The President announced his intention toappoint Leonard Forsman as a member of theAdvisory Council on Historic Preservation.


Austin, TX, arriving in the afternoon.

In the afternoon, the President traveled toManor, TX, where, at Manor New TechnologyHigh School, he toured classrooms, viewedtechnology and engineering projects, and visit-ed with students and staff. Then, he traveled toAustin, TX, where, at Stubb’s Bar-B-Q restau-rant, he had lunch with local residents TysonSimmons, Caroline Sweet, Joe Alonzo, and Ag-nes Wommack. Then, at Capital Factory, atechnology startup incubator and coworkingspace, he toured the facility with founder Josh-ua Baer and visited with resident entrepre-neurs.

Later in the afternoon, at Applied Materials,Inc., the President toured manufacturing facil-ities with Michael R. Splinter, chief executiveofficer, Rick G. Gesing, vice president of glob-al operations manufacturing, and Mary Humis-ton, senior vice president of global human re-sources, and visited with staff. Then, he re-turned to Washington, DC, arriving in the eve-ning.

During the day, the President had a tele-phone conversation with King Mohammed VIof Morocco to discuss Morocco-U.S. relations.

The President announced the nomination ofMadeline Hughes Haikala to be a judge on theU.S. District Court for the Northern District ofAlabama.

The President announced the nomination ofGregory H. Woods to be a judge on the U.S.District Court for the Southern District ofNew York.



dent will travel to New York City on May 13.The White House announced that the Presi-

dent and Mrs. Obama will travel to the UnitedKingdom and Germany from June 17 through19.

The President announced his intention tonominate Ryan C. Crocker to be a member ofthe Broadcasting Board of Governors.

The President declared a major disaster inSouth Dakota and ordered Federal aid to sup-plement State and local recovery efforts in the

740


area affected by a severe winter storm andsnowstorm from April 8 through 10.

The President declared a major disaster inIllinois and ordered Federal aid to supplementState and local recovery efforts in the area af-fected by severe storms, straight-line winds,and flooding from April 16 through May 5.

May 13In the afternoon, the President traveled to

New York City.During the day, the President had a tele-

phone conversation with Prime Minister NajibRazak of Malaysia to congratulate him on hisparty’s victory in the recent parliamentary elec-tions and discuss Malaysia-U.S. relations.


May 14In the morning, the President had a tele-

phone conversation with Nawaz Sharif, presi-dent of the Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz,to congratulate him on his party’s success inthe recent parliamentary elections and discussPakistan-U.S. relations. Then, in the Oval Of-fice, he and Vice President Joe Biden had anintelligence briefing.

In the afternoon, in the Oval Office, thePresident and Vice President Biden met withSecretary of Defense Charles T. Hagel.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will travel to Baltimore, MD, on May 17.



In the afternoon, in the Private DiningRoom, the President and Vice President Bidenhad lunch. Later, in the Oval Office, he metwith Sen. John S. McCain III to discuss immi-gration reform and other issues. Then, also inthe Oval Office, he met with Secretary of theTreasury Jacob J. Lew and other senior Trea-sury Department officials to discuss the situa-tion related to the Internal Revenue Service’sprocess for approving tax-exempt status.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will welcome President Thein Sein ofBurma to the White House on May 20.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will travel to Atlanta, GA, on May 19.

The President announced his intention tonominate Daniel R. Russel to be Assistant Sec-retary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs at theDepartment of State.

The President announced his intention tonominate Richard T. Metsger to be a memberof the National Credit Union AdministrationBoard.

The President announced his intention toappoint Michael G. Whitaker as Deputy Ad-ministrator of the Federal Aviation Adminis-tration.

The President announced his intention toappoint Alphonso Maldon, Jr., as a memberand Chairman of the Military Compensationand Retirement Modernization Commission.

The President announced his intention toappoint Mary C. Pete as a member of the Arc-tic Research Commission.

May 16In the afternoon, in the Cabinet Room, the

President and Vice President Joe Biden metwith Secretary of Defense Charles T. Hagel,Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, USA, Chairman,Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other Defense De-partment officials to discuss sexual assault inthe military. Then, in the Oval Office, thePresident met with his senior advisers.

In the evening, in the Red Room, the Presi-dent and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo-gan of Turkey had a working dinner.

The President announced his intention tonominate Jon M. Holladay to be Chief Finan-cial Officer at the Department of Agriculture.

The President announced his intention toappoint Natalie Wyeth Earnest as AssistantSecretary for Public Affairs at the Departmentof the Treasury.

The President announced his intention toappoint Gregory L. Parham as Assistant Secre-tary for Administration at the Department ofAgriculture.

741


The President announced his intention toappoint Gabrielle D. Giffords as a member ofthe J. William Fulbright Foreign ScholarshipBoard.

The President announced the nomination ofDebra M. Brown to be a judge on the U.S.District Court for the Northern District ofMississippi.

The President announced the nomination ofCarolyn B. McHugh to be a judge on the U.S.Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

The President announced the nomination ofPamela L. Reeves to be a judge on the U.S.District Court for the Eastern District of Ten-nessee.

The President announced the nomination ofElizabeth A. Wolford to be a judge on the U.S.District Court for the Western District of NewYork.

The President announced the appointmentof Daniel I. Werfel as Acting Commissioner ofthe Internal Revenue Service.


ident had an intelligence briefing. Then, hetraveled to Baltimore, MD, where, at MoraviaPark Elementary School, he participated in aliteracy lesson in the library with prekindergar-ten students.

In the afternoon, at Ellicott Dredges, LLC,the President toured the manufacturing facilitywith President and Chief Executive OfficerPeter A. Bowe, Executive Vice President andChief Operating Officer Martin E. Barnes, Jr.,and General Manager Robert E. Croom. Lat-er, at the Center for Urban Families, he partic-ipated in a roundtable discussion with currentand former students, employers, and trainersfrom the STRIVE Baltimore EmploymentTraining program. Then, he returned to Wash-ington, DC.

Later in the afternoon, the President metwith incoming acting Internal Revenue ServiceCommissioner Daniel I. Werfel.


Atlanta, GA.


May 20In the morning, the President had a tele-

phone conversation with President MichelSleiman of Lebanon to discuss the situation inSyria and commend President Sleiman’s lead-ership in overseeing the political transition inLebanon. He also had a telephone conversa-tion with Prime Minister Enrico Letta of Italyto congratulate him on his election victory anddiscuss the upcoming Group of Eight (G–8)nations summit in Northern Ireland, the situa-tion in Syria, and Italy-U.S. relations.

Later in the morning, in the Oval Office, thePresident and Vice President Joe Biden had anintelligence briefing. Later, also in the OvalOffice, he met with senior advisers.

In the evening, in the Oval office, the Presi-dent had separate telephone conversationswith Gov. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma, Rep.Thomas J. Cole, and Mayor Glenn Lewis ofMoore, OK, to express his concern for thoseaffected by the tornadoes and severe weatherin Oklahoma and to discuss Federal assistancefor recovery efforts.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will meet with President Xi Jinping ofChina at Sunnylands Estate in Rancho Mirage,CA, on June 7 and 8.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent and First Lady will travel to Senegal,South Africa, and Tanzania from June 26through July 3.

The President declared a major disaster inOklahoma and ordered Federal aid to supple-ment State and local recovery efforts in the ar-ea affected by severe storms and tornadoes be-ginning on May 18 and continuing.


ident was briefed by Assistant to the Presidentfor Homeland Security and CounterterrorismLisa O. Monaco, Secretary of Homeland Secu-rity Janet A. Napolitano, Federal EmergencyManagement Agency Deputy AdministratorRichard A. Serino, White House Chief of StaffDenis R. McDonough, White House Deputy

742


Chief of Staff Alyssa Mastromonaco, and othermembers of his homeland security team on theFederal Government’s ongoing response to thetornadoes and severe weather that struck Okla-homa on May 19 and 20.

Later in the morning, in the Oval Office, thePresident and Vice President Joe Biden had anintelligence briefing. Then, also in the Oval Of-fice, they met with young immigrants and thefamilies of undocumented immigrants to dis-cuss immigration reform.

In the afternoon, the President had separatetelephone conversations with Gov. Mary Fallinof Oklahoma and Mayor Glenn Lewis ofMoore, OK, to express his concern for thoseaffected by the tornadoes and severe weatherin Oklahoma and to discuss Federal assistancefor recovery efforts. Later, in the Oval Office,the President and Vice President Biden metwith Secretary of Defense Charles T. Hagel.

In the evening, the President had a tele-phone conversation with Sen. James M. Inhofeto express his concern for those affected by thetornadoes and severe weather in Oklahomaand to discuss Federal assistance for recoveryefforts.

The President announced his intention toappoint Robert F. Bauer and Benjamin L.Ginsberg as Cochairs of the Presidential Com-mission on Election Administration.

The President announced his intention toappoint the following individuals as membersof the Presidential Commission on ElectionAdministration:

Brian Britton; Joe Echevarria; Charles M. “Trey” Grayson III; Harvard “Larry” Lomax; Michele Coleman Mayes; Ann McGeehan; Tammy Patrick; and Christopher M. Thomas.


ident had an intelligence briefing.

In the afternoon, in the Oval office, thePresident met with Secretary of the TreasuryJacob J. Lew.

The President announced his intention tonominate Daniel M. Tangherlini to be Admin-istrator of the General Services Administra-tion.

The President made additional disaster as-sistance available to the Eastern Band of Cher-okee Indians by authorizing an increase inFederal funding for public assistance projectsundertaken as a result of severe storms, flood-ing, landslides, and mudslides from January 14through 17.


ident and Vice President Joe Biden had an in-telligence briefing. Later, also in the Oval Of-fice, he met with senior advisers.


The President announced his intention tonominate Katherine Archuleta to be Directorof the Office of Personnel Management.

The President announced his intention tonominate William I. Althen to be a member ofthe Federal Mine Safety and Health ReviewCommission.

The President announced his intention tonominate Ann Marie Buerkle to be a Commis-sioner of the Consumer Product Safety Com-mission.

The President announced his intention tonominate Michael S. Piwowar and Kara M.Stein to be Commissioners of the Securitiesand Exchange Commission.

The President announced his intention tonominate James F. Entwistle to be Ambassa-dor to Nigeria.

The President announced his intention tonominate Chai R. Feldblum to be a Commis-sioner of the Equal Employment OpportunityCommission.

The President announced his intention tonominate Douglas E. Lute to be U.S. Perma-nent Representative on the Council of theNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization.

743


The President announced his intention tonominate Victoria J. Nuland to be AssistantSecretary for European and Eurasian Affairs atthe Department of State.

The President announced his intention tonominate Daniel A. Sepulveda for the rank ofAmbassador during his tenure of service asDeputy Assistant Secretary for InternationalCommunications and Information Policy at theDepartment of State.

The President announced his intention tonominate Mark E. Schaefer to be AssistantSecretary for Oceans and Atmosphere at theDepartment of Commerce.

The President announced his intention tonominate John H. Thompson to be Director ofthe Census at the Department of Commerce.

The President announced his intention toappoint Calvin L. Holmes as a member of theCommunity Development Advisory Board.

The President announced his intention toappoint John C. Padalino as Administrator ofthe Rural Utilities Service at the Departmentof Agriculture.

The President announced his intention toappoint Clark W. Stevens as Assistant Secre-tary for Public Affairs at the Department ofHomeland Security.

The President announced the nomination ofLandya B. McCafferty to be a judge on theU.S. District Court for the District of NewHampshire.

The President announced the nomination ofBrian Morris and Susan P. Watters to be judg-es on the U.S. District Court for the District ofMontana.

The President announced the nomination ofZachary T. Fardon to be U.S. attorney for theNorthern District of Illinois.

The President made additional disaster as-sistance available to New York by authorizingan increase in Federal funding for public assis-tance projects undertaken as a result of Hurri-cane Sandy from October 27 through Novem-ber 8, 2012.


Annapolis, MD.


The White House announced that the Presi-dent will travel to Oklahoma City, OK, on May 26.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will travel to Asbury Park, NJ, on May 28.


Tinker Air Force Base, OK, where he met withservicemembers whose off-base homes wereaffected by severe storms on May 20. Then, hetraveled to Moore, OK.

In the afternoon, the President touredneighborhoods damaged by an F5 tornadowith Gov. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma, FederalEmergency Management Agency Administra-tor W. Craig Fugate, and local officials. Then,at Moore Fire Department Station No. 1, hemet with first responders, Federal and local of-ficials, and the families of Plaza Towers Ele-mentary students who died in the tornado.

Later in the afternoon, the President re-turned to Tinker Air Force Base, where hegreeted National Weather Service forecastersbefore boarding Air Force One. Then, he re-turned to Washington, DC, arriving in the eve-ning.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will travel to Chicago, IL, on May 29 and 30.

May 27In the morning, in the State Dining Room,

the President and Mrs. Obama hosted a break-fast in honor of Gold Star families. Later, theytraveled to Arlington, VA, where, at ArlingtonNational Cemetery, they participated in a Me-morial Day wreath-laying ceremony at theTomb of the Unknown Soldier.

In the afternoon, at Section 60 of ArlingtonNational Cemetery, the President and Mrs.Obama met with cemetery visitors. Then, theyreturned to Washington, DC.


Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, NJ. Uponarrival, he and Gov. Christopher J. Christie ofNew Jersey traveled to Point Pleasant Beach,NJ. While en route aboard Marine One, they

744


toured areas damaged by Hurricane Sandy inOctober 2012.

In the afternoon, at the Point PleasantBeach boardwalk, the President greeted sandsculptor Ed Jarrett and played an arcade game.Then, he traveled to Asbury Park, NJ, wherehe met with State and local officials.

Later, the President returned to Washing-ton, DC, where, upon arrival on the SouthLawn, he greeted students from Union BeachMemorial School in Union Beach, NJ, andLong Beach Island Grade School in Surf City,NJ. Then, in the Oval Office, he met with Sec-retary of Defense Charles T. Hagel.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will welcome Secretary General AndersFogh Rasmussen of the North Atlantic TreatyOrganization to the White House on May 31.



President met with his senior advisers. Later,he traveled to Chicago, IL.

In the evening, the President traveled to hisHyde Park-Kenwood residence, where they re-mained overnight.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent and Mrs. Obama will welcome PresidentDilma Rousseff of Brazil to the White Houseon October 23.

The President declared a major disaster inNorth Dakota and ordered Federal aid to sup-plement State and local response efforts in thearea affected by flooding from April 22through May 16.

May 30In the morning, the President returned to

Washington, DC, arriving in the afternoon.In the afternoon, in the Situation Room, the

President attended the annual hurricane pre-paredness briefing.



dent and Vice President Joe Biden will host the

National Conference on Mental Health at theWhite House on June 3.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will welcome the Super Bowl XLVIIchampion Baltimore Ravens to the WhiteHouse on June 5.

The President declared a major disaster inIowa and ordered Federal aid to supplementState and local response efforts in the area af-fected by severe storms, straight-line winds,and flooding from April 17 through 30.

June 3In the morning, in the Oval Office, the Pres-

ident and Vice President Joe Biden had an in-telligence briefing. Later, also in the Oval Of-fice, he met with his senior advisers.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will travel to Mooresville, NC, on June 6.



In the afternoon, in the Private DiningRoom, the President and Vice President Bidenhad lunch. Later, he traveled to Bethesda,MD, where, at Walter Reed National MilitaryMedical Center, he met with wounded U.S.military personnel and their families. Then, hereturned to Washington, DC.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will travel to San Jose, CA, on June 6.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will travel to Los Angeles, CA, on June 7.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will travel to Rancho Mirage, CA, to meetwith President Xi Jinping of China on June 7.

The President announced his intention toappoint Kenny Alameda as U.S. Commissioneron the Commission for the Conservation andManagement of Highly Migratory Fish Stocksin the Western and Central Pacific Ocean.

The President announced his intention toappoint Joye Frost as Director of the Office forVictims of Crime at the Department of Justice.

The President announced his intention toappoint Marlene Sallo as Staff Director of theU.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

745


The President announced his intention toappoint Robert Wolf as a member of the Presi-dent’s Export Council.

The President announced his intention toappoint Steve Bennett and Angel Ruiz asmembers of the President’s National SecurityTelecommunications Advisory Committee.


ident had an intelligence briefing. Later, alsoin the Oval Office, he met with Secretary ofthe Treasury Jacob J. Lew.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will travel to Berlin, Germany, on June19.

The President announced his intention tonominate Thomas C. Carper to be a Directoron the Board of Directors of the National Rail-road Passenger Corporation (AMTRAK).

The President announced his intention tonominate Avi Garbow to be General Counselof the Environmental Protection Agency.

The President announced his intention tonominate Howard A. Husock to be a memberof the Board of Directors of the Corporationfor Public Broadcasting.

June 6In the afternoon, the President traveled to

Mooresville, NC, where, upon arrival, hetoured Mooresville Middle School. Later, hetraveled to Palo Alto, CA, arriving in the eve-ning.

In the evening, the President traveled toPortola Valley, CA. Later, he traveled to SanJose, CA.

June 7In the morning, the President traveled to

Los Angeles, CA.In the afternoon, the President traveled to

Rancho Mirage, CA. Later, at the AnnenbergRetreat at Sunnylands in Rancho Mirage, heparticipated in a photographic opportunitywith President Xi Jinping of China.

In the evening, at the Annenberg Retreat atSunnylands, the President had a working din-ner with President Xi.

The President announced the nomination ofJeffrey A. Meyer to be a judge on the U.S. Dis-trict Court for the District of Connecticut.

The President announced the nomination ofTimothy L. Brooks to be a judge on the U.S.District Court for the Western District of Ar-kansas.

June 8In the morning, at the Annenberg Retreat at

Sunnylands, the President met with PresidentXi Jinping of China. Later, he participated in adeparture tea with President Xi and his wifePeng Liyuan.

June 9In the morning, the President returned to

Washington, DC, arriving in the afternoon.



In the afternoon, the President met with hissenior advisers. Then, in the Private DiningRoom, he and Vice President Biden had lunch.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will travel to Boston, MA, on June 12.

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will travel to Miami, FL, on June 12.

The President announced his intention tonominate Daniel B. Baer to be U.S. Represen-tative to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, with the rank of Ambas-sador, at the Department of State.

The President announced his intention tonominate Michael G. Carroll to be InspectorGeneral at the U.S. Agency for InternationalDevelopment.

The President announced his intention tonominate James Cole, Jr., to be General Coun-sel at the Department of Education.

The President announced his intention tonominate Keith M. Harper to be U.S. Repre-sentative to the United Nations Human RightsCouncil, with the rank of Ambassador, at theDepartment of State

The President announced his intention tonominate Catherine E. Lhamon to be Assistant

746


Secretary for Civil Rights at the Department ofEducation.

The President announced his intention tonominate Stephen W. Preston to be GeneralCounsel at the Department of Defense.

The President announced his intention tonominate Mark T. Nethery to be a member ofthe Board of Trustees of the Morris K. Udalland Stewart L. Udall Foundation.

The President announced his intention toappoint Anthony C. Funkhouser as a Commis-sioner for the Mississippi River Commission.

The President announced his intention toappoint Betsey Stevenson as a member of theCouncil of Economic Advisers.



In the afternoon, in the Oval Office, thePresident and Vice President Biden met withSecretary of Defense Charles T. Hagel. Later,in the Family Theater, he hosted a screening ofthe film “The Presidents’ Gatekeepers.”

The White House announced that the Presi-dent will welcome the WNBA Champion Indi-ana Fever to the White House on June 14.

June 12In the morning, the President traveled to

Boston, MA. Upon arrival, accompanied byRep. Edward J. Markey, he traveled to Char-lie’s Sandwich Shoppe, where he purchasedlunch and visited with patrons.

In the afternoon, the President traveled tothe Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center,where he met with family members of fallenMassachusetts Institute of Technology policeofficer Sean A. Collier, who was killed on April19 in pursuit of the suspected bombers in theApril 15 terrorist attack in Boston, MA. Later,he traveled to Miami, FL. Then, he traveled toMiami Beach, FL.


During the day, the President had a tele-phone conversation with Prime MinisterShinzo Abe of Japan to discuss North Korea’snuclear and ballistic missile programs, Presi-

dent Obama’s recent meetings with PresidentXi Jinping of China, peace and security effortsin the Asia-Pacific region, and the Trans-Pacif-ic Partnership negotiations.

The President announced his intention tonominate Stephanie Sanders Sullivan to beAmbassador to the Republic of the Congo.

The President announced his intention tonominate Joseph Y. Yun to be Ambassador toMalaysia.

The President announced his intention toappoint Avril D. Haines as Deputy Director ofthe Central Intelligence Agency.

The President announced his intention toappoint Michael J. Morell as a member of thePresident’s Intelligence Advisory Board.


ident and Vice President Joe Biden had an in-telligence briefing. Then, also in the Oval Of-fice, he met with Rep. John D. Dingell, Jr.

In the afternoon, in the Oval Office, thePresident and Vice President Biden met withfamilies of victims of the December 14, 2012,shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School inNewtown, CT. Later, also in the Oval Office,he met with Sens. Patrick J. Leahy, Charles E.Schumer, Richard J. Durbin, Robert Menen-dez, and Michael F. Bennet to discuss immi-gration reform legislation.

The President declared a major disaster inVermont and ordered Federal aid to supple-ment State and local recovery efforts in the ar-ea affected by severe storms and flooding fromMay 22 through 26.


ident had an intelligence briefing. Later, in theState Dining Room, the President hosted a Fa-ther’s Day luncheon with members of the Be-coming a Man program at Hyde Park AcademyHigh School in Chicago, IL.

In the afternoon, in the Situation Room, thePresident participated in a videoconferencewith Prime Minister David Cameron of theUnited Kingdom, President François Hollandeof France, Prime Minister Enrico Letta of Ita-ly, and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany

747


to discuss the upcoming Group of Eight (G–8)nations summit in Northern Ireland, the situa-tion in Syria, and democracy efforts in Libya.

During the day, the President had a tele-phone conversation with Gov. John W. Hick-enlooper of Colorado to discuss the recentwildfires in the Black Forest and Royal Gorgeareas, express his condolences for the loss oflife and extensive damage, and offer continuedFederal assistance to State and local responseefforts.

The President announced his intention tonominate Liliana Ayalde to be Ambassador toBrazil.

The President announced his intention tonominate James Costos to be Ambassador toSpain.

The President announced his intention tonominate John B. Emerson to be Ambassadorto Germany.

The President announced his intention tonominate Rufus Gifford to be Ambassador toDenmark.

The President announced his intention tonominate Kenneth F. Hackett to be Ambassa-dor to the Holy See.

The President announced his intention tonominate Patricia M. Haslach to be Ambassa-dor to Ethiopia.

The President declared a disaster under theCompact of Free Association between theGovernment of the United States of Americaand the Government of the Republic of theMarshall Islands, as amended, due to the ongo-ing severe drought in the northern half of thecountry.

June 16In the afternoon, in the Library, the Presi-

dent taped an interview with Charlie Rose ofPBS’s “Charlie Rose” program for later broad-cast.

In the evening, the President, Mrs. Obama,and their daughters Malia and Sasha traveledto Belfast, Northern Ireland, arriving the fol-lowing morning. While en route aboard AirForce One, he had a telephone conversationwith President Park Geun-hye of South Korea

to discuss regional security issues and the situ-ation on the Korean Peninsula.

June 17In the morning, upon arrival at Belfast In-

ternational Airport, the President, Mrs.Obama, and their daughters Malia and Sashatraveled to the Belfast Waterfront conventioncenter. Later, he traveled to Enniskillen,Northern Ireland, where, at the Lough ErneResort, he visited with staff members.

In the afternoon, at Enniskillen IntegratedPrimary School, the President and Prime Min-ister David Cameron of the United Kingdomvisited with teachers and students. Then, hereturned to the Lough Erne Resort, where hemet with Prime Minister Enrico Letta of Italy.Later, he participated in an official arrival cere-mony for leaders attending the Group of Eight(G–8) nations summit. Then, he participated inthe G–8 summit’s first plenary session.

In the evening, the President participated ina G–8 summit working dinner. He remainedovernight at the Lough Erne Resort.

June 18In the morning, the President attended the

second plenary session of the G–8 summit.Then, he participated in an official photographwith G–8 summit leaders. Later, he participat-ed in a separate photographic opportunity withPrime Minister Stephen J. Harper of Canada.Then, he attended the third G–8 summit ple-nary session.

In the afternoon, the President participatedin a photographic opportunity with Prime Min-ister David Cameron of the United Kingdomand Prime Minister Enda Kenny of Ireland.Then, he participated in a photographic oppor-tunity with President Enrique Peña Nieto ofMexico. Later, he had a working lunch with G–8 leaders followed by a meeting with PrimeMinister Cameron, Chancellor Angela Merkelof Germany, President François Hollande ofFrance, Prime Minister Enrico Letta of Italy,and Prime Minister Ali Zaydan of Libya. Then,he participated in the concluding plenary ses-sion of the G–8 summit.

Later in the afternoon, the President, Mrs.Obama, and their daughters Malia and Sasha

748


traveled to Berlin, Germany, arriving in theevening.

In the evening, the President, Mrs. Obama,and their daughters Malia and Sasha returnedto the Ritz-Carlton, Berlin hotel, where theyremained overnight.

The President declared a major disaster inMichigan and ordered Federal aid to supple-ment State and local recovery efforts in the ar-ea affected by flooding from April 16 throughMay 14.

June 19In the morning, at the Ritz-Carlton, Berlin

hotel, the President met with U.S. Embassypersonnel and their families. Then, he traveledto the Schloss Bellevue, the residence of Presi-dent Joachim Gauck of Germany, where hesigned the guest book, participated in an arriv-al ceremony with military honors, and met withPresident Gauck. Later, he traveled to theGerman Chancellery, where he met withChancellor Angela Merkel of Germany.

In the afternoon, at the German Chancel-lery, the President had a working lunch withChancellor Merkel. Then, he traveled to theLindencorso building, where he met withMayor Klaus Wowereit of Berlin and signedthe Golden Book of Berlin. Later, he met withPeer Steinbrueck, the Social Democratic Partycandidate for Chancellor in the upcoming elec-tions.

Later in the afternoon, the President re-turned to the Ritz-Carlton, Berlin hotel.

In the evening, the President and Mrs.Obama traveled to the Schloss Charlottenburg,where, in the Rotunda, they posed with Chan-cellor Merkel and her husband Joachim Sauerfor an official photograph. Later, he, Mrs.Obama, and their daughters Malia and Sashareturned to Washington, DC, arriving the fol-lowing morning.

June 20The President announced the nomination of

James Donato and Beth L. Freeman to bejudges on the U.S. District Court for theNorthern District of California.

The President announced the nomination ofJennifer P. May-Parker to be a judge on the

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District ofNorth Carolina.



In the afternoon, the President had a tele-phone conversation with Head Coach ErikSpoelstra of the National Basketball Associa-tion’s Miami Heat to congratulate him on histeam’s victory over the San Antonio Spurs inthe NBA Finals.

During the day, in the Situation Room, thePresident met with the Privacy and Civil Lib-erties Oversight Board.

The President announced his intention tonominate Lee E. Goodman and Ann MillerRavel to be Commissioners of the FederalElection Commission.

The President announced his intention tonominate Denise Campbell Bauer to be Am-bassador to Belgium.

The President announced his intention tonominate M. John Berry to be Ambassador toAustralia.

The President announced his intention tonominate Reuben E. Brigety II to be U.S.Representative to the African Union with therank of Ambassador.

The President announced his intention tonominate J. Walter Brewster, Jr., to be Ambas-sador to the Dominican Republic.

The President announced his intention tonominate Daniel A. Clune to be Ambassadorto Laos.

The President announced his intention tonominate Linda Thomas-Greenfield to be As-sistant Secretary for African Affairs at the De-partment of State.

The President announced his intention tonominate David Hale to be Ambassador toLebanon.

The President announced his intention tonominate Michael A. Hammer to be Ambassa-dor to Chile.

The President announced his intention tonominate Terence P. McCulley to be Ambas-sador to Côte d’Ivoire.

749


The President announced his intention tonominate Terrell McSweeny to be a Commis-sioner of the Federal Trade Commission.

The President announced his intention tonominate Brian A. Nichols to be Ambassadorto Peru.

The President announced his intention tonominate David D. Pearce to be Ambassadorto Greece.

The President announced his intention tonominate Lori Gilbert to be a member of theBoard of Directors of the Corporation for Pub-lic Broadcasting.

The President announced his intention tonominate Jon T. Rymer to be Inspector Gener-al at the Department of Defense.

The President announced the appointmentof Caroline M. Atkinson as Deputy Assistant tothe President and Deputy National SecurityAdviser for International and Economic Af-fairs.

June 22The White House announced that the Presi-

dent will deliver remarks on climate change atGeorgetown University on June 24.


ident had a telephone conversation with PrimeMinister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey todiscuss the situations in Syria and Turkey andjoint counterterrorism efforts. Then, also in theOval Office, he had an intelligence briefing,followed by a meeting with Secretary of theTreasury Jacob J. Lew.

In the afternoon, in the Oval Office, thePresident was briefed by Secretary of the Trea-sury Jacob J. Lew on Acting Internal RevenueService Commissioner Daniel I. Werfel’s re-port on the Internal Revenue Service’s processfor approving tax-exempt status.

During the day, in the Oval Office, the Pres-ident met with Deputy Chief of Staff for PolicyRobert L. Nabors II and Director of Legisla-tive Affairs Miguel E. Rodriguez.

June 25In the morning, in the Situation Room, the

President had a video teleconference with

President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan to dis-cuss the transition of operational lead to Af-ghan security forces, Afghan-led peace andreconciliation efforts, preparations for Afghan-istan’s 2014 elections, and Afghanistan-U.S. re-lations. Later, in the Oval Office, he and VicePresident Joe Biden had an intelligence brief-ing.

In the afternoon, in the Oval Office, thePresident met with his senior advisers. Then,in the Private Dining Room, he and Vice Presi-dent Biden had lunch. Later, in the Oval Of-fice, they met with congressional leaders.Then, also in the Oval Office, they met withSecretary of Defense Charles T. Hagel.

The President declared a major disaster inAlaska and ordered Federal aid to supplementState and local recovery efforts in the area affect-ed by flooding from May 17 through June 11.

The President declared a major disaster forthe Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and orderedFederal aid to supplement tribal recovery ef-forts in the area affected by severe storms andflooding from May 25 through June 1.

The President declared a major disaster inArkansas and ordered Federal aid to supple-ment State and local recovery efforts in the ar-ea affected by severe storms, tornadoes, andflooding from May 30 through June 3.

The President made additional disaster as-sistance available to New Jersey by authorizingan increase in Federal funding for public assis-tance projects undertaken as a result of Hurri-cane Sandy from October 26 through Novem-ber 8, 2012.

June 26In the morning, the President, Mrs. Obama,

and their daughters Malia and Sasha traveledto Dakar, Senegal, arriving in the evening.While en route aboard Air Force One, he had atelephone conversation with White HouseCounsel Kathryn H. Ruemmler to discuss theU.S. Supreme Court’s rulings on the Defenseof Marriage Act in United States v. Windsorand California’s Proposition 8 in Hollingsworthv. Perry. Then, he had a telephone conversa-tion with Edith Windsor, the plaintiff in UnitedStates v. Windsor, followed by a teleconfer-

750


ence call with Chad Griffin, president of theHuman Rights Campaign, and Kristin Perry,Sandra Stier, Paul Katami, and Jeffrey Zarillo,the plaintiffs in Hollingsworth v. Perry, to con-gratulate them on their victories in the cases.

In the evening, upon arrival in Dakar, Sene-gal, the President, Mrs. Obama, and theirdaughters Malia and Sasha traveled to theRadisson Blu Hotel, where they remainedovernight.

The President announced the designation ofthe following individuals as members of a Pres-idential delegation to attend the celebration ofthe accession of Croatia to the EuropeanUnion in Zagreb, Croatia, on June 30: KennethH. Merten (head of delegation); and Philip T.Reeker.

The President announced the nomination ofPedro A. Delgado Hernández to be a judge onthe U.S. District Court for the District of Puer-to Rico.

The President announced the nomination ofBruce H. Hendricks and Alison R. Lee to bejudges on the U.S. District Court for the Dis-trict of South Carolina.

June 27In the morning, the President and Mrs.

Obama traveled to the Presidential Palace inDakar, Senegal, where, upon arrival, he had arestricted bilateral meeting followed by an ex-panded bilateral meeting with PresidentMacky Sall of Senegal.

In the afternoon, the President, Mrs.Obama, and their daughters Malia and Sashatraveled to Goree Island, Senegal. They wereaccompanied by President Macky Sall of Sene-gal and his wife Marieme Faye Sall.

Later in the afternoon, the President, Mrs.Obama, and their daughters returned to theRadisson Blu Hotel in Dakar, where the Presi-dent met with U.S. Embassy personnel.

In the evening, the President had separatetelephone conversations with Sens. Lindsey O.Graham, John S. McCain III, Michael F. Ben-net, and Charles E. Schumer to congratulatethem on Senate passage of immigration reformlegislation. He also had separate telephone

conversations with Speaker of the House ofRepresentatives John A. Boehner and HouseMinority Leader Nancy Pelosi to discuss immi-gration reform.

The President announced his intention tonominate Krysta L. Harden to be Deputy Sec-retary of Agriculture.

The President announced his intention tonominate Alejandro N. Mayorkas to be DeputySecretary of Homeland Security.

The President announced his intention tonominate Ronald J. Binz to be a Commissionerof the Federal Energy Regulatory Commis-sion, and upon appointment, designate him asChair.

The President announced his intention tonominate Robert Bonnie to be Under Secre-tary for Natural Resources and Environment atthe Department of Agriculture.

The President announced his intention tonominate Ellen C. Herbst to be Chief Finan-cial Officer and Assistant Secretary for Admin-istration at the Department of Commerce.

The President announced his intention tonominate Katherine M. O’Regan to be Assis-tant Secretary for Policy Development and Re-search at the Department of Housing and Ur-ban Development.

The President announced his intention tonominate Susan J. Rabern to be Assistant Sec-retary of the Navy for Financial Managementand Comptroller at the Department of De-fense.

The President announced his intention tonominate Steve A. Linick to be Inspector Gen-eral at the Department of State.

The President announced his intention tonominate Patrick H. Gaspard to be Ambassa-dor to South Africa.

The President announced his intention tonominate James C. Swan to be Ambassador tothe Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The President announced his intention tonominate Kirk W.B. Wagar to be Ambassadorto Singapore.

The President announced his intention tonominate Alexa Lange Wesner to be Ambassa-dor to Austria.

751


The President announced the nomination ofKenneth A. Polite, Jr., to be U.S. attorney forthe Eastern District of Louisiana.


and their daughters Malia and Sasha traveledto Johannesburg, South Africa, arriving in theevening.

In the evening, upon arrival in Johannes-burg, the President traveled to the U.S. consul-ate, where he met with U.S. Embassy person-nel. Then, he traveled to the Radisson Blu Ho-tel Sandton, Johannesburg, in Johannesburg,where he remained overnight.

During the evening, at the Radisson BluHotel Sandton, Johannesburg, the Presidentmet with senior advisers and had a telephoneconversation with President Muhammad Mur-si of Egypt to discuss the situation in Egypt.

The President declared a major disaster inSouth Dakota and ordered Federal aid to sup-plement State and local recovery efforts in thearea affected by severe storms, tornado, andflooding from May 24 through 31.

June 29In the morning, the President and Mrs.

Obama traveled to Pretoria, South Africa,where, at the Union Buildings, they weregreeted in an official arrival ceremony by Pres-ident Jacob Zuma of South Africa and his wifeThobeka S. Madiba-Zuma. Later, also at theUnion Buildings, he met with his senior advis-ers.

In the afternoon, the President traveled toJohannesburg, South Africa. Later, at the Nel-

son Mandela Centre of Memory, he met withfamily members of former President Nelson R.Mandela of South Africa and signed a copy ofPresident Mandela’s book “ConversationsWith Myself.” Later, at the Radisson Blu HotelSandton, Johannesburg, he and Mrs. Obamahad a telephone conversation with formerPresident Mandela’s wife Graça Machel to dis-cuss former President Mandela’s health andexpress their support.

In the evening, at the Radisson Blu HotelSandton, Johannesburg, the President metwith Chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zumaof the African Union Commission. Then, hetraveled to Pretoria, South Africa. Later, heand Mrs. Obama returned to Johannesburg,South Africa.


and their daughters Malia and Sasha traveledto Cape Town, South Africa.

In the afternoon, the President, Mrs.Obama, and their daughters Malia and Sashatoured Robben Island, where former PresidentNelson R. Mandela of South Africa and otherpolitical prisoners were held during the apart-heid era. Then, they returned to Cape Town.

Later in the afternoon, at the Desmond Tu-tu HIV Foundation Youth Center, the Presi-dent and Archbishop Emeritus of Cape TownDesmond M. Tutu toured classrooms and metwith students.

In the evening, the President, Mrs. Obama,and their daughters Malia and Sasha traveledto the Table Bay hotel in Cape Town, wherethey remained overnight.

752

Appendix B—Nominations Submitted to the Senate

The following list does not include promotionsof members of the Uniformed Services, nomi-nations to the Service Academies, or nomina-tions of Foreign Service officers.

Submitted January 4

Robert E. Bacharach,of Oklahoma, to be U.S. Circuit Judge for theTenth Circuit, vice Robert Harlan Henry, re-signed.

Caitlin Joan Halligan,of New York, to be U.S. Circuit Judge for theDistrict of Columbia Circuit, vice John G.Roberts, Jr., elevated.

William J. Kayatta, Jr.,of Maine, to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the FirstCircuit, vice Kermit Lipez, retired.

Jill A. Pryor,of Georgia, to be U.S. Circuit Judge for theEleventh Circuit, vice Stanley F. Birch, Jr., re-tired.

Patty Shwartz,of New Jersey, to be U.S. Circuit Judge for theThird Circuit, vice Maryanne Trump Barry, re-tired.

Srikanth Srinivasan,of Virginia, to be U.S. Circuit Judge for theDistrict of Columbia Circuit, vice A. RaymondRandolph, retired.

Richard Gary Taranto,of Maryland, to be U.S. Circuit Judge for theFederal Circuit, vice Paul R. Michel, retired.

Elissa F. Cadish,of Nevada, to be U.S. District Judge for theDistrict of Nevada, vice Philip M. Pro, retired.

Valerie E. Caproni,of the District of Columbia, to be U.S. DistrictJudge for the Southern District of New York,vice Richard J. Holwell, resigned.

Sheri Polster Chappell,of Florida, to be U.S. District Judge for theMiddle District of Florida, vice Gregory A.Presnell, retired.

Pamela Ki Mai Chen,of New York, to be U.S. District Judge for theEastern District of New York, vice Raymond J.Dearie, retired.

Brian J. Davis,of Florida, to be U.S. District Judge for theMiddle District of Florida, vice Richard A.Lazzara, retired.

Shelly Deckert Dick,of Louisiana, to be U.S. District Judge for theMiddle District of Louisiana, vice Ralph E. Ty-son, deceased.

Jennifer A. Dorsey,of Nevada, to be U.S. District Judge for theDistrict of Nevada, vice Larry R. Hicks, re-tired.

Katherine Polk Failla,of New York, to be U.S. District Judge for theSouthern District of New York, vice DeniseCote, retired.

Kenneth John Gonzales,of New Mexico, to be U.S. District Judge forthe District of New Mexico, vice Bruce D.Black, retired.

Andrew Patrick Gordon,of Nevada, to be U.S. District Judge for theDistrict of Nevada, vice Kent J. Dawson, re-tired.

753

Appendix B / Administration of Barack Obama, 2013

Ketanji Brown Jackson,of Maryland, to be U.S. District Judge for theDistrict of Columbia, vice Henry Harold Ken-nedy, retired.

Rosemary Márquez,of Arizona, to be U.S. District Judge for theDistrict of Arizona, vice Frank R. Zapata, re-tired.

Michael J. McShane,of Oregon, to be U.S. District Judge for theDistrict of Oregon, vice Michael R. Hogan, re-tired.

Raymond P. Moore,of Colorado, to be U.S. District Judge for theDistrict of Colorado, vice Wiley Y. Daniel, re-tired.

Troy L. Nunley,of California, to be U.S. District Judge for theEastern District of California, vice Garland E.Burrell, Jr., retired.

Beverly Reid O’Connell, of California, to be U.S. District Judge for theCentral District of California, vice Valerie L.Baker, retired.

William H. Orrick, III,of the District of Columbia, to be U.S. DistrictJudge for the Northern District of California,vice Charles R. Breyer, retired.

Nitza I. Quiñones Alejandro,of Pennsylvania, to be U.S. District Judge forthe Eastern District of Pennsylvania, viceRichard Barclay Surrick, retired.

Luis Felipe Restrepo,of Pennsylvania, to be U.S. District Judge forthe Eastern District of Pennsylvania, vice AnitaB. Brody, retired.

Nelson Stephen Román,of New York, to be U.S. District Judge for theSouthern District of New York, vice RichardM. Berman, retired.

Jeffrey L. Schmehl,of Pennsylvania, to be U.S. District Judge forthe Eastern District of Pennsylvania, viceThomas M. Golden, deceased.

William L. Thomas,of Florida, to be U.S. District Judge for theSouthern District of Florida, vice AdalbertoJose Jordan, elevated.

Analisa Torres,of New York, to be U.S. District Judge for theSouthern District of New York, vice NaomiReice Buchwald, retired.

Derrick Kahala Watson,of Hawaii, to be U.S. District Judge for theDistrict of Hawaii, vice David A. Ezra, retired.

Mark A. Barnett,of Virginia, to be a Judge of the U.S. Court ofInternational Trade, vice Judith M. Barzilay,retired.

Claire R. Kelly,of New York, to be a Judge of the U.S. Court ofInternational Trade, vice Evan J. Wallach, ele-vated.

Submitted January 22

John Owen Brennan,of Virginia, to be Director of the Central Intel-ligence Agency, vice David H. Petraeus, re-signed.

Charles Timothy Hagel,of Nebraska, to be Secretary of Defense, viceLeon E. Panetta.

John Forbes Kerry,of Massachusetts, to be Secretary of State, viceHillary Rodham Clinton.

Jacob J. Lew,of New York, to be Secretary of the Treasury,vice Timothy F. Geithner.

754

Administration of Barack Obama, 2013 / Appendix B

Jacob L. Lew,of New York, to be U.S. Governor of the Euro-pean Bank for Reconstruction and Develop-ment; to be U.S. Governor of the InternationalMonetary Fund for a term of 5 years; U.S.Governor of the International Bank for Recon-struction and Development for a term of 5years; U.S. Governor of the Inter-AmericanDevelopment Bank for a term of 5 years, viceTimothy F. Geithner.

Sylvia M. Becker,of the District of Columbia, to be a member ofthe Foreign Claims Settlement Commission ofthe U.S. for the term expiring September 30,2013, vice Ralph E. Martinez, term expired.

Sylvia M. Becker,of the District of Columbia, to be a member ofthe Foreign Claims Settlement Commission ofthe U.S. for the term expiring September 30,2016 (reappointment).

Robert F. Cohen, Jr.,of West Virginia, to be a member of the Feder-al Mine Safety and Health Review Commis-sion for a term of 6 years expiring August 30,2018 (reappointment).

Richard J. Engler,of New Jersey, to be a member of the Chemi-cal Safety and Hazard Investigation Board for aterm of 5 years, vice William E. Wright, termexpired.

Alan F. Estevez,of the District of Columbia, to be a PrincipalDeputy Under Secretary of Defense, viceFrank Kendall III.

Christopher J. Meade,of New York, to be General Counsel for theDepartment of the Treasury, vice GeorgeWheeler Madison, resigned.

David Medine,of Maryland, to be Chairman and member ofthe Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight

Board for a term expiring January 29, 2018(new position).

Carol Waller Pope,of the District of Columbia, to be a member ofthe Federal Labor Relations Authority for aterm of 5 years expiring July 1, 2014 (reap-pointment).

William B. Schultz,of the District of Columbia, to be GeneralCounsel of the Department of Health and Hu-man Services, vice Daniel Meron.

Jeffrey Shell,of California, to be a member of the Broadcast-ing Board of Governors for a term expiring Au-gust 13, 2015, vice Walter Isaacson, term ex-pired.

Jeffrey Shell,of California, to be Chairman of the Broadcast-ing Board of Governors, vice Walter Isaacson,resigned.

Frederick Vollrath,of Virginia, to be an Assistant Secretary of De-fense (new position).

Derek Anthony West,of California, to be Associate Attorney Gener-al, vice Thomas John Perrelli, resigned.

Jenny R. Yang,of the District of Columbia, to be a member ofthe Equal Employment Opportunity Commis-sion for a term expiring July 1, 2017, vice Stu-art Ishimaru, resigned.


Nicholas Christopher Geale,of Virginia, to be a member of the NationalMediation Board for a term expiring July 1,2013, vice Elizabeth Dougherty, resigned.

Byron Todd Jones,of Minnesota, to be Director, Bureau of Alco-hol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (newposition).

755


Marietta S. Robinson,of Michigan, to be a Commissioner of the Con-sumer Product Safety Commission for a termof 7 years from October 27, 2010, vice ThomasHill Moore, term expired.


Gerald Lyn Early,of Missouri, to be a member of the NationalCouncil on the Humanities for a term expiringJanuary 26, 2018, vice Josiah Bunting, III, termexpired.

Patricia Nelson Limerick,of Colorado, to be a member of the NationalCouncil on the Humanities for a term expiringJanuary 26, 2018, vice Robert S. Martin, termexpired.

Shelly Colleen Lowe,of Arizona, to be a member of the NationalCouncil on the Humanities for a term expiringJanuary 26, 2018, vice Jane M. Doggett, termexpired.

Daniel Iwao Okimoto,of California, to be a member of the NationalCouncil on the Humanities for a term expiringJanuary 26, 2018, vice Mary Habeck, term ex-pired.

Katherine H. Tachau,of Iowa, to be a member of the National Coun-cil on the Humanities for a term expiring Janu-ary 26, 2018, vice Jay Winik, term expired.


Jane Kelly,of Iowa, to be U.S. Circuit Judge for theEighth Circuit, vice Michael J. Melloy, retir-ing.

Gregory Alan Phillips,of Wyoming, to be U.S. Circuit Judge for theTenth Circuit, vice Terrence L. O’Brien, retir-ing.

Submitted February 4

Eric K. Fanning,of the District of Columbia, to be Under Sec-retary of the Air Force, vice Erin C. Conaton,resigned.

Michael Wayne Hail,of Kentucky, to be a member of the Board ofTrustees of the Harry S Truman ScholarshipFoundation for a term expiring December 10,2017, vice Sharon Tucker, term expired.

F. Scott Kieff,of Illinois, to be a member of the United StatesInternational Trade Commission for the termexpiring June 16, 2020, vice Daniel Pearson,term expired.

Janet Lorraine LaBreck,of Massachusetts, to be Commissioner of theRehabilitation Services Administration, De-partment of Education, vice Lynnae M. Rutt-ledge, resigned.


Raymond T. Chen,of Maryland, to be U.S. Circuit Judge for theFederal Circuit, vice Richard Linn, retired.

Todd M. Hughes,of the District of Columbia, to be U.S. CircuitJudge for the Federal Circuit, vice William C.Bryson, retired.

Sarah Jewell,of Washington, to be Secretary of the Interior,vice Kenneth Lee Salazar.

Marilyn B. Tavenner,of Virginia, to be Administrator of the Centersfor Medicare and Medicaid Services, viceDonald M. Berwick, resigned.

Mary Jo White,of New York, to be a member of the Securitiesand Exchange Commission for the remainderof the term expiring June 5, 2014, vice Mary L.Schapiro, resigned.

756


Mary Jo White,of New York, to be a member of the Securitiesand Exchange Commission for a term expiringJune 5, 2019 (reappointment).


Sharon Block,of the District of Columbia, to be a member ofthe National Labor Relations Board for theterm of 5 years expiring December 16, 2014,vice Craig Becker.

Richard Cordray,of Ohio, to be Director, Bureau of ConsumerFinancial Protection for a term of 5 years (newposition).

Richard F. Griffin, Jr.,of the District of Columbia, to be a member ofthe National Labor Relations Board for theterm of 5 years expiring August 27, 2016, viceWilma B. Liebman, term expired.

Karol Virginia Mason,of Georgia, to be an Assistant Attorney Gener-al, vice Laurie O. Robinson, resigned.


Jannette L. Dates,of Maryland, to be a member of the Board ofDirectors of the Corporation for Public Broad-casting for a term expiring January 31, 2016,vice Ernest J. Wilson, III, term expired.

Stephen J. Hadley,of the District of Columbia, to be a member ofthe Board of Directors of the U.S. Institute ofPeace for a term of 4 years, vice Judy Van Rest,term expired.

Vincent G. Logan,of New York, to be Special Trustee, Office ofSpecial Trustee for American Indians, Depart-ment of the Interior, vice Ross Owen Swim-mer, resigned.

Geoffrey R. Pyatt,of California, a career member of the SeniorForeign Service, class of Minister-Counselor,to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipo-tentiary of the United States of America toUkraine.

Bruce M. Ramer,of California, to be a member of the Board ofDirectors of the Corporation for Public Broad-casting for a term expiring January 31, 2018(reappointment).

Submitted March 7

Sylvia Mathews Burwell,of West Virginia, to be Director of the Officeof Management and Budget, vice Jacob J. Lew,resigned.

Ernest W. Dubester,of Virginia, to be a member of the Federal La-bor Relations Authority for a term of 5 yearsexpiring July 29, 2017 (reappointment).

Timothy Hyungrock Haahs,of Pennsylvania, to be a member of the Boardof Directors of the National Institute of Build-ing Sciences for a term expiring September 7,2014, vice Morgan Edwards, term expired.

Regina McCarthy,of Massachusetts, to be Administrator of theEnvironmental Protection Agency, vice LisaPerez Jackson, resigned.

Ernest J. Moniz,of Massachusetts, to be Secretary of Energy,vice Steven Chu.

Submitted March 13

Deborah Kay Jones,of New Mexico, a career member of the SeniorForeign Service, class of Minister-Counselor,to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipo-tentiary of the United States of America toLibya.

757


James Knight,of Alabama, a career member of the SeniorForeign Service, class of Minister-Counselor,to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipo-tentiary of the United States of America to theRepublic of Chad.

Stephen Crawford,of Maryland, to be a Governor of the U.S.Postal Service for the remainder of the termexpiring December 8, 2015, vice Alan C. Kes-sler, resigned.

James J. Jones,of the District of Columbia, to be Assistant Ad-ministrator for Toxic Substances of the Envi-ronmental Protection Agency, vice Stephen Al-an Owens, resigned.

Kenneth J. Kopocis,of Virginia, to be an Assistant Administrator ofthe Environmental Protection Agency, vice Pe-ter Silva Silva, resigned.

Olga Viso,of Minnesota, to be a Member of the NationalCouncil on the Arts for a term expiring Sep-tember 3, 2018, vice William Francis Price, Jr.,term expired.

Withdrawn March 13

Elissa F. Cadish,of Nevada, to be U.S. District Judge for the Dis-trict of Nevada, vice Philip M. Pro, retired,which was sent to the Senate on January 4, 2013.

Submitted March 19

Patricia E. Campbell-Smith,of the District of Columbia, to be a Judge ofthe U.S. Court of Federal Claims for a term of15 years, vice Lawrence Baskir, retiring.

Elaine D. Kaplan,of the District of Columbia, to be a Judge ofthe U.S. Court of Federal Claims for a term of

15 years, vice Christine O.C. Miller, term ex-pired.

Michael Kenny O’Keefe,of the District of Columbia, to be an AssociateJudge of the Superior Court of the District ofColumbia for the term of 15 years, vice Joan Z.McAvoy, retired.

Robert D. Okun,of the District of Columbia, to be an AssociateJudge of the Superior Court of the District ofColumbia for the term of 15 years, vice LindaKay Davis, retired.

Thomas Edward Perez,of Maryland, to be Secretary of Labor, viceHilda L. Solis, resigned.

Catherine M. Russell,of the District of Columbia, to be Ambassadorat Large for Global Women’s Issues.

Submitted March 21

Cynthia L. Attwood,of Virginia, to be a member of the Occupation-al Safety and Health Review Commission for aterm expiring April 27, 2019 (reappointment).

Stuart F. Delery,of the District of Columbia, to be an AssistantAttorney General, vice Tony West.

Fred P. Hochberg,of New York, to be President of the Export-Import Bank of the U.S. for a term expiringJanuary 20, 2017 (reappointment).

Allison M. Macfarlane,of Maryland, to be a member of the NuclearRegulatory Commission for a term expiringJune 30, 2018 (reappointment).

Patricia M. Wald,of the District of Columbia, to be a member ofthe Privacy and Civil Liberties OversightBoard for a term expiring January 29, 2019 (re-appointment).

758


Marilyn A. Brown,of Georgia, to be a member of the Board of Di-rectors of the Tennessee Valley Authority for aterm expiring May 18, 2017 (reappointment).

Vicki Miles-LaGrange,of Oklahoma, to be a member of the Board ofTrustees of the Harry S. Truman ScholarshipFoundation for a term expiring December 10,2015, vice Roger L. Hunt, term expired.

Kevin A. Ohlson,of Virginia, to be a Judge of the U.S. Court ofAppeals for the Armed Forces for the term of15 years to expire on the date prescribed bylaw, vice Andrew S. Effron, term expired.

Ranee Ramaswamy,of Minnesota, to be a member of the NationalCouncil on the Arts for a term expiring Sep-tember 3, 2018, vice Miguel Campaneria, termexpired.

Constance B. Tobias,of Maryland, to be Chairman of the Board ofVeterans’ Appeals for a term of 6 years, viceJames Philip Terry, term expired.

Withdrawn March 22

Caitlin Joan Halligan,of New York, to be U.S. Circuit Judge for theDistrict of Columbia, vice John G. Roberts, Jr.,elevated, which was sent to the Senate on Jan-uary 4, 2013.

Submitted April 8

Brian C. Deese,of Massachusetts, to be Deputy Director of theOffice of Management and Budget, viceHeather A. Higginbottom, resigned.

Submitted April 9

Harry I. Johnson, III,of Virginia, to be a member of the National La-bor Relations Board for the term of 5 years ex-

piring August 27, 2015, vice Terence FrancisFlynn, resigned.

Philip Andrew Miscimarra,of Illinois, to be a member of the National La-bor Relations Board for the term of 5 years ex-piring December 16, 2017, vice Brian Hayes,term expired.

Mark Gaston Pearce,of New York, to be a member of the NationalLabor Relations Board for the term of 5 yearsexpiring August 27, 2018 (reappointment).

Submitted April 11

Matthew C. Armstrong,of Illinois, to be a member of the BroadcastingBoard of Governors for a term expiring August13, 2015, vice Dana M. Perino, resigned.

Rick Lowe,of Texas, to be a member of the NationalCouncil on the Arts for a term expiring Sep-tember 3, 2018, vice JoAnn Faletta, term ex-pired.

Tulinabo Salama Mushingi,of Virginia, a career member of the SeniorForeign Service, class of Counselor, to be Am-bassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary ofthe United States of America to Burkina Faso.

Harry R. Hoglander,of Massachusetts, to be a member of the Na-tional Mediation Board for a term expiring July1, 2014 (reappointment).

Dorothy Kosinski,of the District of Columbia, to be a member ofthe National Council on the Humanities for aterm expiring January 26, 2016, vice RicardoQuinones, term expired.

Linda A. Puchala,of Maryland, to be a member of the NationalMediation Board for a term expiring July 1,2015 (reappointment).

759


Submitted April 15

Rachel Elise Barkow,of New York, to be a member of the U.S. Sen-tencing Commission for a term expiring Octo-ber 31, 2017, vice Beryl A. Howell, term ex-pired.

Charles R. Breyer,of California, to be a member of the U.S. Sen-tencing Commission for a term expiring Octo-ber 31, 2015, vice Ruben Castillo, term ex-pired.

Vernon S. Broderick,of New York, to be U.S. District Judge for theSouthern District of New York, vice DeborahA. Batts, retired.

William H. Pryor Jr.,of Alabama, to be a member of the U.S. Sen-tencing Commission for a term expiring October31, 2017, vice William B. Carr, Jr., term expired.

Submitted April 18

Henry J. Aaron,of the District of Columbia, to be a member ofthe Social Security Advisory Board for a termexpiring September 30, 2014, vice Jeffrey Rob-ert Brown, term expired.

Henry J. Aaron,of the District of Columbia, to be a member ofthe Social Security Advisory Board for a termexpiring September 30, 2020 (reappointment).

Ben S. Bernanke,of New Jersey, to be U.S. Alternate Governorof the International Monetary Fund for a termof 5 years (reappointment).

Avril D. Haines,of New York, to be Legal Adviser of the De-partment of State, vice Harold Hongju Koh,resigned.

Andrea Levere,of Maryland, to be a member of the Board ofDirectors of the National Consumer Coopera-

tive Bank for a term of 3 years, vice NguyenVan Hanh, term expired.

Gloria Valencia-Weber,of New Mexico, to be a member of the Boardof Directors of the Legal Services Corporationfor a term expiring July 13, 2014 (reappoint-ment).

Submitted April 23

David Michael Bennett,of North Carolina, to be a Governor of the U.S.Postal Service for a term expiring December 8,2018, vice Thurgood Marshall, Jr., term ex-pired.

Roberto R. Herencia,of Illinois, to be a member of the Board of Di-rectors of the Overseas Private InvestmentCorporation for a term expiring December 17,2015 (reappointment).

Carlos Pascual,of the District of Columbia, to be an AssistantSecretary of State (Energy Resources), viceJohn Stern Wolf.

Yvette Roubideaux,of Maryland, to be Director of the Indian HealthService, Department of Health and Human Ser-vices, for the term of 4 years (reappointment).

Submitted April 25

William S. Jasien,of Virginia, to be a Member of the Federal Re-tirement Thrift Investment Board for a termexpiring October 11, 2015, vice Terrence A.Duffy, term expired.

Nanci E. Langley,of Hawaii, to be a Commissioner of the PostalRegulatory Commission for a term expiringNovember 22, 2018 (reappointment).

Brent Franklin Nelsen,of South Carolina, to be a member of theBoard of Directors of the Corporation for Pub-

760


lic Broadcasting for a term expiring January 31,2016, vice Gay Hart Gaines, term expired.

Howard A. Shelanski,of Pennsylvania, to be Administrator of the Of-fice of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Of-fice of Management and Budget, vice Cass R.Sunstein, resigned.

Submitted May 6

Colin Stirling Bruce,of Illinois, to be U.S. District Judge for theCentral District of Illinois, vice Michael P. Mc-Cuskey, retiring.

Sara Lee Ellis,of Illinois, to be U.S. District Judge for theNorthern District of Illinois, vice Joan B. Gott-schall, retired.

Andrea R. Wood,of Illinois, to be U.S. District Judge for theNorthern District of Illinois, vice William J.Hibbler, deceased.

Submitted May 7

Anthony Renard Foxx,of North Carolina, to be Secretary of Transpor-tation, vice Ray LaHood.

Michael Froman,of New York, to be U.S. Trade Representative,with the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary andPlenipotentiary, vice Ronald Kirk, resigned.

Melvin L. Watt,of North Carolina, to be Director of the Feder-al Housing Finance Agency for a term of 5years (new position).

Submitted May 9

Madeline Hughes Haikala,of Alabama, to be United States District Judgefor the Northern District of Alabama, vice IngePrytz Johnson, retired.

Gregory Howard Woods,of New York, to be United States DistrictJudge for the Southern District of New York,vice Barbara S. Jones, retired.

Mark D. Gearan,of New York, to be a Member of the Board ofDirectors of the Corporation for National andCommunity Service for a term expiring De-cember 1, 2015 (reappointment).

Rose Eilene Gottemoeller,of Virginia, to be Under Secretary of State forArms Control and International Security, viceEllen O. Tauscher, resigned.

Joseph W. Nega,of Illinois, to be a judge of the U.S. Tax Courtfor a term of 15 years, vice Thomas B. Wells,retired.

Penny Pritzker,of Illinois, to be Secretary of Commerce, viceJohn Edgar Bryson, resigned.

Michael B. Thornton,of Virginia, to be a judge of the U.S. Tax Courtfor a term of 15 years (reappointment).

Davita Vance-Cooks,of Virginia, to be Public Printer, vice William J.Boarman.

Thomas Edgar Wheeler,of the District of Columbia, to be a member ofthe Federal Communications Commission forthe remainder of the term expiring June 30,2013, vice Julius Genachowski.

Thomas Edgar Wheeler,of the District of Columbia, to be a member of theFederal Communications Commission for a termof 5 years from July 1, 2013 (reappointment).

Submitted May 13

Ryan Clark Crocker,of Washington, to be a member of the Broadcast-ing Board of Governors for a term expiring Au-gust 13, 2013, vice Victor H. Ashe, term expired.

761


Ryan Clark Crocker,of Washington, to be a member of the Broad-casting Board of Governors for a term expiringAugust 13, 2016 (reappointment).

Submitted May 16

Robert James Grey, Jr.,of Virginia, to be a member of the Board of Di-rectors of the Legal Services Corporation for aterm expiring July 13, 2014 (reappointment).

Richard T. Metsger,of Oregon, to be a member of the NationalCredit Union Administration Board for a termexpiring August 2, 2017, vice Gigi Hyland, re-signed.

Daniel R. Russel,of New York, to be an Assistant Secretary ofState (East Asian and Pacific Affairs), vice KurtM. Campbell, resigned.

Debra M. Brown,of Mississippi, to be U.S. District Judge for theNorthern District of Mississippi, vice W. AllenPepper, Jr., deceased.

Carolyn B. McHugh,of Utah, to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the TenthCircuit, vice Michael R. Murphy, retired.

Pamela L. Reeves,of Tennessee, to be U.S. District Judge for theEastern District of Tennessee, vice Thomas W.Phillips, retiring.

Elizabeth A. Wolford,of New York, to be U.S. District Judge for theWestern District of New York, vice Charles J.Siragusa, retired.

Submitted May 20

Jon M. Holladay,of Virginia, to be Chief Financial Officer, De-partment of Agriculture, vice Evan J. Segal.

Submitted May 23

William Ira Althen, of Virginia, to be a member of the FederalMine Safety and Health Review Commissionfor a term of 6 years expiring August 30, 2018,vice Michael F. Duffy, term expired.

Katherine Archuleta, of Colorado, to be Director of the Office ofPersonnel Management for a term of 4 years,vice John Berry, term expired.

Ann Marie Buerkle, of New York, to be a Commissioner of theConsumer Product Safety Commission for aterm of 7 years from October 27, 2011, viceAnne M. Northup, term expired.

James F. Entwistle, of Virginia, a career member of the SeniorForeign Service, class of Minister-Counselor,to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipo-tentiary of the United States of America to theFederal Republic of Nigeria.

Chai Rachel Feldblum, of the District of Columbia, to be a member ofthe Equal Employment Opportunity Commis-sion for a term expiring July 1, 2018 (reap-pointment).

Douglas Edward Lute, of Indiana, to be U.S. Permanent Representa-tive on the Council of the North Atlantic TreatyOrganization, with the rank and status of Am-bassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary.

Victoria Nuland, of Virginia, a career member of the SeniorForeign Service, class of Career Minister, to bean Assistant Secretary of State (European andEurasian Affairs), vice Philip H. Gordon, re-signed.

Michael Sean Piwowar, of Virginia, to be a member of the Securitiesand Exchange Commission for a term expiringJune 5, 2018, vice Troy A. Paredes, term expir-ing.

762


Mark E. Schaefer, of California, to be Assistant Secretary of Com-merce for Oceans and Atmosphere, vice LarryRobinson.

Daniel A. Sepulveda, of Florida, for the rank of Ambassador duringhis tenure of service as Deputy Assistant Sec-retary of State for International Communica-tions and Information Policy in the Bureau ofEconomic, Energy, and Business Affairs andU.S. Coordinator for International Communi-cations and Information Policy.

Lafe E. Solomon, of Maryland, to be General Counsel of the Na-tional Labor Relations Board for a term of 4years, vice Ronald E. Meisburg, resigned.

Kara Marlene Stein, of Maryland, to be a member of the Securitiesand Exchange Commission for a term expiringJune 5, 2017, vice Elisse Walter, term expired.

Daniel M. Tangherlini, of the District of Columbia, to be Administra-tor of General Services, vice Martha N. John-son, resigned.

John H. Thompson, of the District of Columbia, to be Director ofthe Census for the remainder of the term ex-piring December 31, 2016, vice Robert M.Groves, resigned.

Zachary Thomas Fardon,of Illinois, to be U.S. Attorney for the North-ern District of Illinois for the term of 4 years,vice Patrick J. Fitzgerald, term expired.

Landya B. McCafferty,of New Hampshire, to be U.S. District Judgefor the District of New Hampshire, vice StevenJ. McAuliffe, retired.

Brian Morris,of Montana, to be U.S. District Judge for theDistrict of Montana, vice Sam E. Haddon, re-tired.

Susan P. Watters,of Montana, to be U.S. District Judge for theDistrict of Montana, vice Richard F. Cebull,retired.

Submitted June 4

Patricia Ann Millett,of Virginia, to be U.S. Circuit Judge for theDistrict of Columbia Circuit, vice John G.Roberts, Jr., elevated.

Cornelia T.L. Pillard,of the District of Columbia, to be U.S. CircuitJudge for the District of Columbia Circuit, viceDouglas H. Ginsburg, retired.

Robert Leon Wilkins,of the District of Columbia, to be U.S. CircuitJudge for the District of Columbia Circuit, viceDavid Bryan Sentelle, retired.

Submitted June 7

Timothy L. Brooks,of Arkansas, to be U.S. District Judge for theWestern District of Arkansas, vice Jimm LarryHendren, retired.

Jeffrey Alker Meyer,of Connecticut, to be U.S. District Judge forthe District of Connecticut, vice Mark R.Kravitz, deceased.

Thomas C. Carper,of Illinois, to be a Director of the AmtrakBoard of Directors for a term of 5 years (reap-pointment).

Avi Garbow,of Virginia, to be an Assistant Administrator ofthe Environmental Protection Agency, viceColin Scott Cole Fulton, resigned.

Thomas Hicks,of Virginia, to be a member of the Election As-sistance Commission for a term expiring De-cember 12, 2013, vice Gracia M. Hillman,term expired.

763


Thomas Hicks,of Virginia, to be a member of the Election As-sistance Commission for a term expiring De-cember 12, 2017 (reappointment).

Howard Abel Husock,of New York, to be a member of the Board ofDirectors of the Corporation for Public Broad-casting for a term expiring January 31, 2018,vice Chris Boskin, term expired.

Laurie I. Mikva,of Illinois, to be a member of the Board of Di-rectors of the Legal Services Corporation for aterm expiring July 13, 2013 (reappointment).

Laurie I. Mikva,of Illinois, to be a member of the Board of Di-rectors of the Legal Services Corporation for aterm expiring July 13, 2016 (reappointment).

Myrna Perez,of Texas, to be a member of the Election Assis-tance Commission for a term expiring Decem-ber 12, 2015, vice Rosemary E. Rodriguez,term expired.

Submitted June 11

Daniel Brooks Baer,of Colorado, to be U.S. Representative to theOrganization for Security and Cooperation inEurope, with the rank of Ambassador.

Michael G. Carroll,of New York, to be Inspector General, U.S.Agency for International Development, viceDonald A. Gambatesa, resigned.

James Cole, Jr.,of New York, to be General Counsel, Depart-ment of Education, vice Charles P. Rose.

Jason Furman,of New York, to be member and Chairman ofthe Council of Economic Advisers, vice AlanB. Krueger.

Keith Michael Harper,of Maryland, for the rank of Ambassador dur-ing his tenure of service as U.S. Representativeto the U.N. Human Rights Council.

Catherine Elizabeth Lhamon,of California, to be Assistant Secretary for CivilRights, Department of Education, vice Russ-lynn Ali.

Stephen Woolman Preston,of the District of Columbia, to be GeneralCounsel of the Department of Defense, viceJeh Charles Johnson, resigned.

Submitted June 13

John Gerson Levi,of Illinois, to be a member of the Board of Di-rectors of the Legal Services Corporation for aterm expiring July 13, 2014 (reappointment).

Mark Thomas Nethery,of Kentucky, to be a member of the Board ofTrustees of the Morris K. Udall and Stewart L.Udall Foundation for a term expiring October6, 2018, vice Eric D. Eberhard, term expired.

Samantha Power,of Massachusetts, to be the Representative ofthe United States of America to the UnitedNations, with the rank and status of Ambassa-dor Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, and theRepresentative of the United States of Ameri-ca in the Security Council of the United Na-tions.

Samantha Power,of Massachusetts, to be Representative of theUnited States of America to the Sessions of theGeneral Assembly of the United Nations dur-ing her tenure of service as Representative ofthe United States of America to the UnitedNations.

Charles P. Rose,of Illinois, to be a member of the Board ofTrustees of the Morris K. Udall and Stewart L.Udall Foundation for a term expiring May 26,2019, vice Robert Boldrey, term expired.

764


Stephanie Sanders Sullivan,of New York, a career member of the SeniorForeign Service, class of Minister-Counselor,to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipo-tentiary of the United States of America to theRepublic of the Congo.

Joseph Y. Yun,of Oregon, a career member of the Senior For-eign Service, class of Minister-Counselor, to beAmbassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiaryof the United States of America to Malaysia.

Withdrawn June 13

Avril D. Haines,of New York, to be Legal Adviser of the De-partment of State, vice Harold Hongju Koh,resigned, which was sent to the Senate on April18, 2013.

Submitted June 17

Liliana Ayalde,of Maryland, a career member of the SeniorForeign Service, class of Career Minister, to beAmbassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiaryof the United States of America to the Federa-tive Republic of Brazil.

James Costos,of California, to be Ambassador Extraordinaryand Plenipotentiary of the United States ofAmerica to Spain.

John B. Emerson,of California, to be Ambassador Extraordinaryand Plenipotentiary of the United States ofAmerica to the Federal Republic of Germany.

John Rufus Gifford,of Massachusetts, to be Ambassador Extraordi-nary and Plenipotentiary of the United Statesof America to Denmark.

Kenneth Francis Hackett,of Maryland, to be Ambassador Extraordinaryand Plenipotentiary of the United States ofAmerica to the Holy See.

Patricia Marie Haslach,of Oregon, a career member of the Senior For-eign Service, class of Minister-Counselor, to beAmbassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiaryof the United States of America to the FederalDemocratic Republic of Ethiopia.

Submitted June 20

James Donato,of California, to be U.S. District Judge for theNorthern District of California, vice JamesWare, retired.

Beth Labson Freeman,of California, to be U.S. District Judge for theNorthern District of California, vice an addi-tional position in accordance with 28 U.S.C.133(b)(1).

Jennifer Prescod May-Parker,of North Carolina, to be U.S. District Judge forthe Eastern District of North Carolina, viceMalcolm J. Howard, retired.

Submitted June 21

James B. Comey, Jr.,of Connecticut, to be Director of the FederalBureau of Investigation for a term of 10 years,vice Robert S. Mueller, III, term expiring.

James C. Miller, III,of Virginia, to be a Governor of the U.S. PostalService for the term expiring December 8,2017 (reappointment).

Anne J. Udall,of Oregon, to be a member of the Board ofTrustees of the Morris K. Udall and Stewart L.Udall Foundation for a term expiring October6, 2016 (reappointment).

Submitted June 24

Denise Campbell Bauer,of California, to be Ambassador Extraordinaryand Plenipotentiary of the United States ofAmerica to Belgium.

765


Morrell John Berry,of Maryland, to be Ambassador Extraordinaryand Plenipotentiary of the United States ofAmerica to Australia.

James Walter Brewster, Jr.,of Illinois, to be Ambassador Extraordinaryand Plenipotentiary of the United States ofAmerica to the Dominican Republic.

Reuben Earl Brigety, II,of Florida, to be Representative of the UnitedStates of America to the African Union, withthe rank and status of Ambassador Extraordi-nary and Plenipotentiary.

Daniel A. Clune,of Maryland, a career member of the SeniorForeign Service, class of Minister-Counselor,to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipo-tentiary of the United States of America to theLao People’s Democratic Republic.

Lee E. Goodman,of Virginia, to be a member of the FederalElection Commission for a term expiring April30, 2015, vice Donald F. McGahn, term ex-pired.

David Hale,of New Jersey, a career member of the SeniorForeign Service, class of Minister-Counselor,to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipo-tentiary of the United States of America to theRepublic of Lebanon.

Michael A. Hammer,of the District of Columbia, a career memberof the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minis-ter-Counselor, to be Ambassador Extraordi-nary and Plenipotentiary of the United Statesof America to the Republic of Chile.

Terence Patrick McCulley,of Washington, a career member of the SeniorForeign Service, class of Minister-Counselor,to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipo-tentiary of the United States of America to theRepublic of Cote d’Ivoire.

Terrell McSweeny,of the District of Columbia, to be a FederalTrade Commissioner for the unexpired term of7 years from September 26, 2010, vice Jon D.Leibowitz, resigned.

Brian A. Nichols,of Rhode Island, a career member of the Se-nior Foreign Service, class of Minister-Coun-selor, to be Ambassador Extraordinary andPlenipotentiary of the United States of Ameri-ca to the Republic of Peru.

David D. Pearce,of Virginia, a career member of the SeniorForeign Service, class of Career Minister, to beAmbassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiaryof the United States of America to Greece.

Ann Miller Ravel,of California, to be a member of the FederalElection Commission for a term expiring April30, 2017, vice Cynthia L. Bauerly, resigned.

Jon T. Rymer,of Tennessee, to be Inspector General, De-partment of Defense, vice Gordon S. Heddell,resigned.

Loretta Cheryl Sutliff,of Nevada, to be a member of the Board of Di-rectors of the Corporation for Public Broad-casting for a term expiring January 31, 2018(reappointment).

Linda Thomas-Greenfield,of Louisiana, to be an Assistant Secretary ofState (African Affairs), vice Johnnie Carson.

Submitted June 26

Pedro A. Delgado Hernández,of Puerto Rico, to be U.S. District Judge forthe District of Puerto Rico, vice Daniel R.Dominguez, retired.

Bruce Howe Hendricks,of South Carolina, to be U.S. District Judge forthe District of South Carolina, vice MargaretB. Seymour, retired.

766


Alison Renee Lee,of South Carolina, to be U.S. District Judge forthe District of South Carolina, vice CameronM. Currie, retiring.

Submitted June 27

Kenneth Allen Polite, Jr.,of Louisiana, to be U.S. Attorney for the East-ern District of Louisiana for the term of 4years, vice James B. Letten, resigned.

James Costos,of California, to serve concurrently and with-out additional compensation as AmbassadorExtraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Unit-ed States of America to Andorra.

Ronald J. Binz,of Colorado, to be a member of the FederalEnergy Regulatory Commission for the termexpiring June 30, 2018, vice Jon Wellinghoff,term expiring.

Robert Bonnie,of Virginia, to be Under Secretary of Agricul-ture for Natural Resources and Environment,vice Harris D. Sherman, resigned.

Patrick Hubert Gaspard,of New York, to be Ambassador Extraordinaryand Plenipotentiary of the United States ofAmerica to the Republic of South Africa.

Krysta L. Harden,of Georgia, to be Deputy Secretary of Agricul-ture, vice Kathleen A. Merrigan, resigned.

Ellen C. Herbst,of Virginia, to be an Assistant Secretary ofCommerce, vice Scott Boyer Quehl, resigned.

Ellen C. Herbst,of Virginia, to be Chief Financial Officer, De-partment of Commerce, vice Scott Boyer Quehl,resigned.

Steve A. Linick,of Virginia, to be Inspector General, Depart-ment of State, vice Howard J. Krongard, re-signed.

Alejandro Nicholas Mayorkas,of the District of Columbia, to be Deputy Sec-retary of Homeland Security, vice Jane HollLute, resigned.

Katherine M. O’Regan,of New York, to be an Assistant Secretary ofHousing and Urban Development, vice Rapha-el William Bostic.

Susan J. Rabern,of Kansas, to be an Assistant Secretary of theNavy, vice Gladys Commons, resigned.

James C. Swan, of California, a career nember of the SeniorForeign Service, class of Minister-Counselor,to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipo-tentiary of the United States of America to theDemocratic Republic of the Congo.

Kirk W.B. Wagar,of Florida, to be Ambassador Extraordinaryand Plenipotentiary of the United States ofAmerica to the Republic of Singapore.

Alexa Lange Wesner,of Texas, to be Ambassador Extraordinary andPlenipotentiary of the United States of Ameri-ca to the Republic of Austria.

767

Appendix C—Checklist of White House Press Releases

The following list contains releases of the Officeof the Press Secretary that are neither printeditems nor covered by entries in the Digest ofOther White House Announcements.

Released January 1

Fact sheet: The Tax Agreement: A Victory forMiddle-Class Families and the Economy

Released January 2

Statement by the Press Secretary announcingthat the President signed H.R. 4310


Released January 4

Text: Statement by Council of Economic Ad-visers Chairman Alan B. Krueger on the em-ployment situation in December 2012

Released January 6


Released January 7

Transcript of a press briefing by Press Secre-tary James F. “Jay” Carney

Released January 8


Transcript of an on-the-record conference callby Deputy National Security Adviser for Stra-tegic Communications Benjamin J. Rhodesand Deputy Assistant to the President and Co-ordinator for South Asia Douglas E. Lute onthe upcoming visit of President Hamid Karzaiof Afghanistan to the White House

Released January 9


Released January 10

Statement by the Press Secretary announcingthat the President signed H.R. 1339, H.R.1845, H.R. 2338, H.R. 3263, H.R. 3641, H.R.3869, H.R. 3892, H.R. 4053, H.R. 4057, H.R.4073, H.R. 4389, H.R. 5859, H.R. 6014, H.R.6260, H.R. 6379, H.R. 6587, H.R. 6620, H.R.6671, S. 925, S. 3202, S. 3666, and S.J. Res. 49

Released January 14

Statement by the Press Secretary announcingthat the President signed H.R. 443, H.R. 1464,H.R. 2076, H.R. 4212, H.R. 4365, H.R. 4606,H.R. 6029, H.R. 6060, H.R. 6328, H.R. 6364,H.R. 6586, H.R. 6621, H.R. 6655, S.J. Res. 44,S. 3331, S. 3454, S. 3472, S. 3630, S. 3662, andS. 3677

Released January 15


Statement by the Press Secretary announcingthat the President signed S. 2318

Released January 16

Text: Now Is the Time: The President’s PlanTo Protect Our Children and Our Communi-ties by Reducing Gun Violence

Released January 17


Released January 18

Statement by the Press Secretary on HouseRepublican debt limit proposals

Released January 21

Advance text of the President’s Inaugural Ad-dress

Released January 22


769

Appendix C / Administration of Barack Obama, 2013

Released January 23


Released January 24

Transcript of a press gaggle by Press SecretaryJames F. “Jay” Carney

Released January 25


Released January 28


Released January 29



Fact sheet: Fixing Our Broken ImmigrationSystem So Everyone Plays by the Rules

Excerpts from the President’s remarks on im-migration reform

Released January 30


Text: Statement by Council of Economic Ad-visers Chairman Alan B. Krueger on the ad-vance estimate of GDP for the fourth quarterof 2012

Released January 31


Released February 1


Statement by the Press Secretary on the explo-sion in Mexico City

Text: Statement by Council of Economic Ad-visers Chairman Alan B. Krueger on the em-ployment situation in January

Released February 4



Released February 5


Text: Statement by Assistant to the Presidentfor Homeland Security and CounterterrorismJohn O. Brennan on Bulgaria’s announcementof Hizballah’s role in the 2012 Burgas terroristattack

Released February 6


Text: Readout of White House and Depart-ment of Homeland Security officials’ meetingswith law enforcement on comprehensive im-migration reform

Released February 7


Released February 8

Transcript of a press gaggle by Press SecretaryJames F. “Jay” Carney, Controller of the Officeof Management and Budget’s Office of Feder-al Financing Management Daniel I. Werfel,and National Economic Council PrincipalDeputy Director Jason L. Furman

Fact sheet: Examples of How the SequesterWould Impact Middle Class Families, Jobs,and Economic Security

Released February 11



Statement by the Press Secretary: ExecutiveOrder on Improving Critical InfrastructureCybersecurity

770

Administration of Barack Obama, 2013 / Appendix C

Fact sheet: Presidential Policy Directive onCritical Infrastructure Security and Resilience

Fact sheet: Afghanistan

Text: Guest List for the First Lady’s Box at theState of the Union Address

Text: The President’s Plan for a Strong MiddleClass and a Strong America

Excerpts of the President’s State of the UnionAddress

Advance text of the President’s State of theUnion Address


Transcript of a press gaggle by Press SecretaryJames F. “Jay” Carney and National EconomicCouncil Principal Deputy Director Jason L.Furman

Statement by the Press Secretary: The Presi-dent’s Plan To Make America a Magnet forJobs by Investing in Manufacturing

Fact sheet: The President’s Plan To MakeAmerica a Magnet for Jobs by Investing inManufacturing

Fact sheet: President Obama’s Plan for EarlyEducation for All Americans (embargoed untilFebruary 14)


Transcript of a press gaggle by Principal Depu-ty Press Secretary Joshua R. Earnest

Statement by the Press Secretary on congres-sional action on the Federal budget

Statement by the Press Secretary on the fili-buster of the nomination of Charles T. Hagelto be Secretary of Defense



Fact sheet: The President’s Plan To EnsureHard Work Leads to a Decent Living





Fact sheet: The President’s Plan To MakeAmerica a Magnet for Jobs by Investing in In-frastructure



Transcript of a conference call press briefingby Deputy National Security Adviser for Stra-tegic Communications Benjamin J. Rhodes,Deputy National Security Adviser for Interna-tional Economic Affairs Michael B. Froman,and National Security Council Senior Directorfor Asian Affairs Daniel R. Russel on the visitof Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan

Text: White House Blog Post: A Balanced PlanTo Avert the Sequester and Reduce the Deficit


Transcript of a press briefing by Press Secre-tary James F. “Jay” Carney and Secretary ofTransportation Raymond H. LaHood


Statement by the Press Secretary: WhiteHouse Releases New State-by-State Reportson the Impacts of the Sequester


Transcript of a press briefing by Press Secre-tary James F. “Jay” Carney and Secretary ofHomeland Security Janet A. Napolitano



Text: White House Policy for Countering Im-provised Explosive Devices


Transcript of a press briefing by Press Secre-tary James F. “Jay” Carney and Secretary ofEducation Arne Duncan

771




Released March 1

Statement by the Press Secretary: PresidentObama Grants Pardons

Released March 2

Statement by the Press Secretary: White HouseAnnounces New Coordinator for the MiddleEast, North Africa, and the Gulf Region

Released March 4


Released March 5


Statement by the Press Secretary: One-YearUpdate on the Implementation of the NationalStrategy for Global Supply Chain Security

Released March 7



Released March 8

Transcript of a press briefing by PrincipalDeputy Press Secretary Joshua R. Earnest

Statement by the Press Secretary on the 2007disappearance of retired Federal Bureau of In-vestigation agent Robert Levinson in Iran

Text: Statement by Council of Economic Ad-visers Chairman Alan B. Krueger on the em-ployment situation in February

Fact sheet: Implementation of Export ControlReform

Released March 11


Advance text of remarks by National SecurityAdviser Thomas E. Donilon at the Asia Societyin New York City

Released March 12


Statement by the Press Secretary on the HouseRepublican budget proposal

Released March 13



Statement by the Press Secretary on the Sen-ate Democratic budget proposal

Released March 14


Transcript of a teleconference press briefing byDeputy National Security Adviser for StrategicCommunications Benjamin J. Rhodes and U.S.Ambassador to Israel Daniel B. Shapiro

Released March 15


Fact sheet: President Obama’s Blueprint for aClean and Secure Energy Future

Text: White House Blog Post: A Preview of the2013 Economic Report of the President

Released March 16

Statement by the Press Secretary on the for-mation of Israel’s new government

Text: Statement by National Security CouncilSpokesperson Caitlin Hayden on the 25th an-niversary of the Halabja massacre in southernKurdistan

Released March 18


772


Released March 19


Statement by the Press Secretary: WhiteHouse Announces New Coordinator for De-fense Policy, Countering Weapons of MassDestruction, and Arms Control

Released March 20

Text: Statement by National Security CouncilSpokesperson Caitlin Hayden on the visit ofCuban human rights advocate Yoani Sanchezto the United States

Released March 21

Text: Statement by National Security CouncilSpokesperson Caitlin Hayden on passage ofthe U.N. Human Rights Council’s resolutionon Sri Lanka

Advance text of the President’s remarks at theJerusalem Convention Center in Jerusalem

Released March 22

Transcript of a press briefing by senior admin-istration officials on the telephone conversa-tion between Prime Minister Benjamin Netan-yahu of Israel and Prime Minister Recep Tayy-ip Erdogan of Turkey

Text: Statement by National Security CouncilSpokesperson Caitlin Hayden on the surrenderof Congolese warlord Bosco Ntaganda to theInternational Criminal Court

Released March 23

Statement by the Press Secretary on Senatepassage of Federal budget legislation

Released March 25


Statement by the Press Secretary: PresidentObama Designates Five New National Monu-ments

Released March 26



Released March 27


Released March 28


Released March 29


Fact sheet: The “Rebuild America Partner-ship”: The President’s Plan To Encourage Pri-vate Investment in America’s Infrastructure

Released March 30

Statement by the Press Secretary on the Presi-dential election in Kenya

Released April 1


Released April 2


Fact sheet: BRAIN Initiative

Released April 3


Excerpts of the President’s remarks on reduc-ing gun violence

Released April 4


Released April 5


Statement by the Press Secretary on the U.S.security sector assistance policy

Text: Statement by National Security CouncilSpokesperson Caitlin Hayden on the removal

773


of highly enriched uranium from the CzechRepublic

Text: Statement by Council of Economic Ad-visers Chairman Alan B. Krueger on the em-ployment situation in March

Fact sheet: U.S. Security Sector AssistancePolicy

Released April 8


Text: Statement by National Security CouncilSpokesperson Caitlin Hayden on PresidentViktor Yanukovych of Ukraine’s pardon of for-mer Minister of Internal Affairs Yuriy Lutsen-ko and former Minister of Environmental Pro-tection Heorhiy Fylypchuk

Excerpts from the President’s remarks on guncontrol

Released April 9


Statement by the Press Secretary: The ObamaAdministration’s Record on Human Traffick-ing Issues

Released April 10

Transcript of a press briefing by Press Secre-tary James F. “Jay” Carney, Acting Director ofthe Office of Management and Budget JeffreyD. Zients, National Economic Council Direc-tor Eugene B. Sperling, and Director of Do-mestic Policy Cecilia Muñoz

Text: Statement by National Security CouncilSpokesperson Caitlin Hayden on the earth-quake in Iran

Released April 11


Released April 12


Transcript of a weekly address by FrancineWheeler, mother of Ben Wheeler, who was

killed in the December 14, 2012, shootings atSandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown,Connecticut

Released April 15



Released April 17


Statement by the Press Secretary on the situa-tion in Venezuela

Text: Statement by National Security CouncilSpokesperson Caitlin Hayden on the meetingbetween National Security Adviser Thomas E.Donilon and Minister of Foreign Affairs Saudal-Faysal bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud of Saudi Ara-bia

Fact sheet: States Answer the First Lady’s CallTo Put America’s Heroes Back to Work

Released April 18


Released April 22


Released April 23


Released April 24


Advance text of remarks by National SecurityAdviser Thomas E. Donilon at Columbia Uni-versity’s Center on Global Energy Policy inNew York City

Released April 25

Transcript of a background conference call bya White House official on the situation in Syria

774


Released April 26


Text: Statement by Council of Economic Advis-ers Chairman Alan B. Krueger on the advanceestimate of GDP for the first quarter of 2013

Released April 28

Statement by the Press Secretary on the swear-ing-in of Prime Minister Enrico Letta of Italy

Released April 29


Fact sheet: Administration Partners With Indus-try To Get Service Members for High-DemandJobs

Released May 1


Statement by the Press Secretary announcing thatthe President signed H.R. 1246 and H.R. 1765

Released May 2


Text: Statement by Council of Economic Ad-visers Chairman Alan B. Krueger on the em-ployment situation in April

Fact sheet: U.S.-Mexico Partnership

Released May 3


Released May 4

Fact sheet: United States Support for CentralAmerican Citizen Security

Fact sheet: United States Support for Eco-nomic Growth and Development in CentralAmerica

Released May 5


Advance text of the President’s commence-ment address at the Ohio State University

Released May 6


Released May 7

Text: Op-ed by President Obama for the Mi-ami Herald: Improving Our Partnership WithLatin America (a Spanish language version wasalso released)

Released May 8

Transcript of a press briefing by Press Secre-tary James F. “Jay” Carney and Assistant to thePresident and Chief Technology Officer ToddPark

Statement by the Press Secretary on the elec-tions in Malaysia

Released May 9

Transcript of a press gaggle by Press SecretaryJames F. “Jay” Carney and Assistant to thePresident and Chief Technology Officer ToddPark

Statement by the Press Secretary: Obama Ad-ministration Releases Historic Open DataRules To Enhance Government Efficiency andFuel Economic Growth

Statement by the Press Secretary: Obama Ad-ministration Launches Competition for ThreeNew Manufacturing Innovation Institutes

Released May 10


Statement by the Press Secretary on the Na-tional Strategy for the Arctic Region

Released May 13


Released May 14


775


Released May 15


Statement by the Press Secretary: The Presi-dent and Vice President’s 2012 Financial Dis-closure Forms

Released May 16

Statement by the Press Secretary: PresidentObama Calls on Congress To Fully Fund Em-bassy Security

Text: Op-ed by President Obama for the Turk-ish daily Sabah: A Partnership That Delivers

Fact sheet: U.S.-Turkey Economic Partnership

Fact sheet: U.S.-Turkey Partnership

Released May 17

Statement by the Press Secretary: CreatingJobs Faster by Cutting Timelines in Half forMajor Infrastructure Projects


Released May 19

Advance text of the President’s commencementaddress at Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA

Released May 20


Statement by the Press Secretary: PresidentObama Announces Sally Ride as a Recipient ofthe Presidential Medal of Freedom

Released May 21


Released May 22


Released May 23

Transcript of a teleconference backgroundbriefing by senior administration officials onthe President’s remarks at National DefenseUniversity

Fact sheet: The President’s May 23 Speech onCounterterrorism

Fact sheet: U.S. Policy Standards and Proce-dures for the Use of Force in Counterterror-ism Operations Outside the United States andAreas of Active Hostilities

Advance text of the President’s Remarks at Na-tional Defense University

Released May 24


Released May 26


Released May 28


Statement by the Press Secretary: AlanKrueger, Chairman of the President’s Councilof Economic Advisers, To Return to PrincetonUniversity

Fact sheet: United States Support for Eco-nomic Growth and Development in the Carib-bean

Fact sheet: United States Support for the Ca-ribbean Basin Security Initiative

Released May 29


Statement by the Press Secretary: Readout onthe First-Ever White House Hispanic BusinessLeaders’ Forum

Released May 30


Released May 31


Text: White House Blog Post: Medicare Trust-ees: Medicare is Growing Stronger, With HelpFrom the Affordable Care Act

776


Fact sheet: President Obama Fights To KeepInterest Rates From Doubling

Released June 3


Statement by the Press Secretary on the Presi-dent’s approval of an Executive order regard-ing sanctions related to Iran

Statement by the Press Secretary announcingthat the President signed H.R. 258 and S. 982

Fact sheet: President Obama Applauds Com-mitments To Raise Awareness and IncreaseUnderstanding of Mental Health at WhiteHouse Conference

Released June 4


Transcript of a background conference call bysenior administration officials on the Presi-dent’s meetings with President Xi Jinping ofChina

Text: Statement by National Security CouncilSpokesperson Caitlin Hayden on Egyptiancourt verdicts against representatives of inter-national nongovernmental organizations

Fact sheet: White House Task Force on High-Tech Patent Issues: Legislative Priorities andExecutive Actions

Fact sheet: U.S.-Chile Economic Relations

Fact sheet: U.S.-Chile Partnership

Released June 5


Statement by the Press Secretary on the Presi-dential determination pursuant to section1245(d)(4)(B) and (C) of the National DefenseAuthorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012

Statement by the Press Secretary on the situa-tion in Qusayr, Syria

Released June 6

Transcript of a press gaggle by Principal Depu-ty Press Secretary Joshua R. Earnest and Sec-retary of Education Arne Duncan

Statement by the Press Secretary: PresidentObama Unveils ConnectED Initiative ToBring America’s Students Into Digital Age

Statement by the Press Secretary on Housepassage of an amendment to remove protec-tions for young undocumented immigrants

Released June 7


Text: Statement by Council of Economic Ad-visers Chairman Alan B. Krueger on the em-ployment situation in May

Released June 8

Transcript of a press briefing by National Se-curity Adviser Thomas E. Donilon

Statement by the Press Secretary: UnitedStates and China Agree To Work Together onPhase Down of HFCs

Released June 10


Text: Fifty Years After the Equal Pay Act: As-sessing the Past, Taking Stock of the Future

Released June 11


Fact sheet: U.S.-Peru Economic Relations

Released June 12


Advance text of remarks by Council of Eco-nomic Advisers Chairman Alan B. Krueger atthe Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museumin Cleveland, OH

777


Released June 13


Transcript of an on-the-record conference callby Deputy National Security Adviser for Stra-tegic Communications Benjamin J. Rhodes onSyria


Text: Statement by Deputy National SecurityAdviser for Strategic Communications BenjaminJ. Rhodes on Syria’s use of chemical weapons

Released June 14

Transcript of a press briefing by PrincipalDeputy Press Secretary Joshua R. Earnest,Deputy National Security Adviser for StrategicCommunications Benjamin J. Rhodes, and Se-nior Director for International Economic Is-sues Caroline Atkinson

Fact sheet: Administration Provides AnotherBoost to Wireless Broadband and Technologi-cal Innovation

Released June 15

Statement by the Press Secretary on the firstanniversary of the Deferred Action for Child-hood Arrivals process

Statement by the Press Secretary on the elec-tion in Iran

Released June 17

Transcript of a press briefing by Press Secre-tary James F. “Jay” Carney and Deputy Na-tional Security Adviser for Strategic Communi-cations Benjamin J. Rhodes

Fact sheet: U.S. Support for Northern IrelandPeace and Prosperity

Fact sheet: Transatlantic Trade and Invest-ment Partnership (T–TIP)

Fact sheet: U.S.-Russian Cooperation on In-formation and Communications TechnologySecurity

Fact sheet: United States and the Russian Fed-eration Sign New Bilateral Framework onThreat Reduction

Fact sheet: President Obama Increases Hu-manitarian Assistance to Syrians

Released June 18

Transcript of a press gaggle by Press SecretaryJames F. “Jay” Carney and Deputy NationalSecurity Adviser for Strategic CommunicationsBenjamin J. Rhodes

Transcript of a teleconference backgroundbriefing by senior administration officials onAfghanistan

Statement by the Press Secretary: UnitedStates G–8 Action Plan for Transparency ofCompany Ownership and Control

Statement by the Press Secretary on the Con-gressional Budget Office’s evaluation of immi-gration reform legislation

Fact sheet: The New Alliance for Food Securi-ty and Nutrition

Fact sheet: U.S. National Action Plan on Pre-venting the Misuse of Companies and LegalArrangements

Released June 19

Text: Statement by National Security CouncilSpokesperson Caitlin Hayden on al-Shabaab’sattack on the United Nations in Somalia

Fact sheet: Nuclear Weapons EmploymentStrategy of the United States

Released June 21


Transcript of a press briefing by Deputy Na-tional Security Adviser for Strategic Communi-cations Benjamin J. Rhodes, Senior Directorfor African Affairs Grant Harris, and SeniorDirector for Development and DemocracyGayle Smith on the President’s upcoming visitto Senegal, South Africa, and Tanzania

778


Released June 24


Statement by the Press Secretary on the reportreleased by Acting Commissioner of the Inter-nal Revenue Service Daniel I. Werfel

Released June 25


Fact sheet: President Obama’s Plan To CutCarbon Pollution

Text: The President’s Climate Action Plan

Released June 26

Transcript of a press briefing by Press Secre-tary James F. “Jay” Carney on the President’sstatement on the U.S. Supreme Court rulingon the Defense of Marriage Act


Released June 27

Transcript of a press briefing by Press Secre-tary James F. “Jay” Carney, Deputy NationalSecurity Adviser for Strategic CommunicationsBenjamin J. Rhodes, and U.S. Agency for In-

ternational Development Administrator RajivJ. Shah

Fact sheet: U.S. Support for StrengtheningDemocratic Institutions, Rule of Law, and Hu-man Rights in Sub-Saharan Africa

Released June 28


Fact sheet: Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa

Released June 29

Statement by the Press Secretary: PresidentObama Announces the Washington Fellowshipfor Young African Leaders

Fact sheet: The President’s Young AfricanLeaders Initiative

Released June 30


Fact sheet: Global Health Investments andPartnership in Africa

Fact sheet: Power Africa

779

Appendix D—Presidential Documents Published in the Federal Register

This appendix lists Presidential documents released by the Office of the Press Secretary and pub-lished in the Federal Register. The texts of the documents are printed in the Federal Register(F.R.) at the citations listed below. The documents are also printed in title 3 of the Code of Feder-al Regulations and in the Compilation of Presidential Documents.

PROCLAMATIONS

Proc. No.

Date 2013 Subject 78 F.R.

Page

8926 Jan. 16 Religious Freedom Day, 2013............................................ 42938927 Jan. 18 Martin Luther King, Jr., Federal Holiday, 2013................ 52498928 Jan. 21 National Day of Hope and Resolve, 2013.......................... 52518929 Jan. 31 American Heart Month, 2013............................................. 83458930 Jan. 31 National African American History Month, 2013.............. 83478931 Jan. 31 National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and

Prevention Month, 2013.................................................. 83498932 Feb. 1 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Rosa Parks.................... 89518933 Feb. 28 American Red Cross Month, 2013...................................... 144298934 Feb. 28 Irish-American Heritage Month, 2013............................... 144318935 Feb. 28 Women’s History Month, 2013........................................... 144338936 Feb. 28 Read Across America Day, 2013......................................... 144358937 Mar. 1 National Consumer Protection Week, 2013....................... 146278938 Mar. 1 10th Anniversary of the United States Department of

Homeland Security........................................................... 146298939 Mar. 1 100th Anniversary of the United States Department of

Labor................................................................................ 146318940 Mar. 15 National Poison Prevention Week, 2013 ...... .................... 170698941 Mar. 21 Education and Sharing Day, U.S.A., 2013......................... 184538942 Mar. 22 Greek Independence Day: A National Day of

Celebration of Greek and American Democracy, 2013 184558943 Mar. 25 Establishment of the Harriet Tubman–Underground

Railroad National Monument.......................................... 187638944 Mar. 25 Establishment of the First State National Monument....... 187698945 Mar. 25 Establishment of the Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers

National Monument......................................................... 187778946 Mar. 25 Establishment of the Rio Grande del Norte National

Monument ....................................................................... 187838947 Mar. 25 Establishment of the San Juan Islands National

Monument ....................................................................... 187898948 Mar. 29 National Cancer Control Month, 2013............................... 20213

.

781

Appendix D / Administration of Barack Obama, 2013

8949 Mar. 29 National Child Abuse Prevention Month, 2013................ 202158950 Mar. 29 National Donate Life Month, 2013.................................... 202178951 Mar. 29 National Financial Capability Month, 2013....................... 202198952 Mar. 29 National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention

Month, 2013...................................................................... 202218953 Mar. 29 Cesar Chavez Day, 2013..................................................... 202238954 Apr. 1 World Autism Awareness Day, 2013.................................. 204098955 Apr. 8 National Equal Pay Day, 2013............................................ 218138956 Apr. 8 National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day, 2013 218158957 Apr. 12 Pan American Day and Pan American Week, 2013........... 231038958 Apr. 16 Honoring the Victims of the Tragedy in Boston,

Massachusetts................................................................... 236698959 Apr. 19 National Crime Victims’ Rights Week 2013....................... 243198960 Apr. 19 National Volunteer Week, 2013.......................................... 243218961 Apr. 19 National Park Week, 2013................................................... 243238962 Apr. 19 Earth Day, 2013................................................................... 243258963 Apr. 24 Honoring the Victims of the Explosion in West, Texas..... 251798964 Apr. 26 Workers Memorial Day, 2013............................................. 255638965 Apr. 30 Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month,

2013.................................................................................. 262138966 Apr. 30 Jewish American Heritage Month, 2013............................ 262158967 Apr. 30 National Building Safety Month, 2013............................... 262178968 Apr. 30 National Foster Care Month, 2013..................................... 262198969 Apr. 30 National Mental Health Awareness Month, 2013.............. 262218970 Apr. 30 National Physical Fitness and Sports Month, 2013............ 262238971 Apr. 30 Older Americans Month, 2013............................................ 262258972 Apr. 30 Law Day, U.S.A., 2013........................................................ 262278973 Apr. 30 Loyalty Day, 2013................................................................ 262298974 May 1 National Day of Prayer, 2013.............................................. 264838975 May 3 National Charter Schools Week, 2013................................ 269978976 May 9 Military Spouse Appreciation Day, 2013............................ 284638977 May 10 National Defense Transportation Day and National

Transportation Week, 2013.............................................. 287098978 May 10 National Women’s Health Week, 2013.............................. 287118979 May 10 Peace Officers Memorial Day and Police Week, 2013...... 287138980 May 10 Mother’s Day, 2013............................................................. 287158981 May 17 National Safe Boating Week, 2013..................................... 307258982 May 17 Emergency Medical Services Week, 2013......................... 307278983 May 17 World Trade Week, 2013.................................................... 307298984 May 17 Armed Forces Day, 2013.................................................... 307318985 May 21 National Maritime Day, 2013............................................. 31811

PROCLAMATIONS (Continued)

Proc. No.


Page

782

Administration of Barack Obama, 2013 / Appendix D

8986 May 24 National Hurricane Preparedness Week, 2013.................. 325378987 May 24 Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day, 2013............................... 325398988 May 31 Great Outdoors Month, 2013.............................................. 339558989 May 31 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month,

2013.................................................................................. 339578990 May 31 National Caribbean-American Heritage Month, 2013...... 339598991 May 31 National Oceans Month, 2013............................................ 339618992 May 31 African-American Music Appreciation Month, 2013......... 342438993 June 7 Flag Day and National Flag Week, 2013............................ 351018994 June 14 National Small Business Week, 2013.................................. 374258995 June 14 World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, 2013......................... 374278996 June 14 Father’s Day, 2013............................................................... 374298997 June 27 To Modify Duty-Free Treatment Under the Generalized

System of Preferences and for Other Purposes.............. 39949

PROCLAMATIONS (Continued)

Proc. No.


Page

EXECUTIVE ORDERS

E.O. No.


Page

13636 Feb. 12 Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity.............. 1173913637 Mar. 8 Administration of Reformed Export Controls................... 1612913638 Mar. 15 Amendments to Executive Order 12777........................... 1758913639 Mar. 28 Establishment of the Presidential Commission on

Election Administration.................................................. 1997913640 Apr. 5 Continuance of Advisory Council...................................... 2121113641 Apr. 5 Adjustments of Certain Rates of Pay................................. 2150313642 May 9 Making Open and Machine Readable the New Default

for Government Information.......................................... 2811113643 May 15 2013 Amendments to the Manual for Courts-Martial,

United States.................................................................... 2955913644 May 21 Amendment to Executive Order 13639............................. 3181313645 June 3 Authorizing the Implementation of Certain Sanctions Set

Forth in the Iran Freedom and Counter-ProliferationAct of 2012 and Additional Sanctions With Respect toIran .................................................................................. 33945

13646 June 25 Establishing the President’s Advisory Council onFinancial Capability for Young Americans..................... 39159

13647 June 26 Establishing the White House Council on NativeAmerican Affairs.............................................................. 39539

783


OTHER PRESIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS

Doc No.


Page

Jan. 15 Memorandum: Delegation of Certain Functions UnderSection 6 of Public Law 112–150.................................... 5705

Jan. 16 Memorandum: Engaging in Public Health Research onthe Causes and Prevention of Gun Violence.................. 4295

Jan. 16 Memorandum: Improving Availability of RelevantExecutive Branch Records to the National InstantCriminal Background Check System.............................. 4297

Jan. 16 Memorandum: Tracing of Firearms in Connection WithCriminal Investigations.................................................... 4301

Jan. 17 Notice: Continuation of the National Emergency WithRespect to Terrorists Who Threaten To Disrupt theMiddle East Peace Process.............................................. 4303

Jan. 25 Memorandum: Rulemaking Concerning the Standardsfor Designating Positions in the Competitive Service asNational Security Sensitive and Related Matters........... 7253

2013–04 Jan. 29 Presidential Determination: Unexpected Urgent Refugeeand Migration Needs Relating to Syria........................... 9571

Jan. 30 Memorandum: Coordination of Policies and ProgramsTo Promote Gender Equality and Empower Womenand Girls Globally............................................................ 7989

Jan. 31 Memorandum: Delegation of a Reporting Authority........ 8351Jan. 31 Memorandum: Delegation of Authority To Suspend the

Provisions of Title III of the Cuban Liberty andDemocratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act of 1996.......... 9573

Feb. 1 Memorandum: Designation of Officers of the PensionBenefit Guaranty Corporation To Act as Director ofthe Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.................... 8953

Feb. 4 Notice: Continuation of the National Emergency WithRespect to the Situation in or in Relation to Côted’Ivoire ............................................................................

8955

2013–05 Feb. 8 Presidential Determination: Waiver of Restriction onProviding Funds to the Palestinian Authority................ 12587

2013–06 Feb. 11 Presidential Determination: Drawdown Under Section506(a)(1) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, asAmended, for Chad and France To Support TheirEfforts in Mali.................................................................. 12589

Feb. 13 Notice: Continuation of the National Emergency WithRespect to Libya.............................................................. 11549

Feb. 20 Memorandum: Delegation of Authority To Submit to theCongress Certain Certifications, Reports, andNotifications..................................................................... 13997

784

Administration of Barack Obama, 2013 / Appendix D

Feb. 22 Notice: Continuation of the National Emergency WithRespect to Cuba and of the Emergency AuthorityRelating to the Regulation of the Anchorage andMovement of Vessels....................................................... 13209

Mar. 1 Notice: Continuation of the National Emergency WithRespect to the Situation in Zimbabwe............................ 14427

Mar. 1 Order: Sequestration Order for Fiscal Year 2013Pursuant To Section 251A of the Balanced Budget andEmergency Deficit Control Act, as Amended................ 14633

Mar. 12 Notice: Continuation of the National Emergency WithRespect to Iran................................................................. 16397

Mar. 29 Memorandum: Delegation of Authority To AppointCommissioned Officers of the Ready Reserve Corps ofthe Public Health Service................................................ 20225

Apr. 4 Notice: Continuation of the National Emergency WithRespect to Somalia........................................................... 21013

Apr. 5 Memorandum: Federal Employee Pay Schedules andRates That Are Set by Administrative Discretion.......... 21213

Apr. 5 Memorandum: Delegation of Functions Under Sections404 and 406 of Public Law 112–208............................... 22763

2013–07 Apr. 8 Presidential Determination: Presidential Determinationon Eligibility of the Federal Republic of Somalia ToReceive Defense Articles and Defense Services Underthe Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as Amended, andthe Arms Export Control Act, as Amended.................... 22765

Apr. 10 Order: Sequestration Order for Fiscal Year 2014Pursuant to Section 251A of the Balanced Budget andEmergency Deficit Control Act, as Amended................ 22409

2013–08 Apr. 11 Presidential Determination: Drawdown Pursuant toSection 552(c)(2) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961of up to $10 Million in Commodities and ServicesFrom Any Agency of the United States Government tothe Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC) and the SyrianOpposition's Supreme Military Council (SMC).............

24317,55169

May 2 Notice: Continuation of the National Emergency WithRespect to Burma............................................................

26231,26999

May 7 Notice: Continuation of the National Emergency WithRespect to the Actions of the Government of Syria....... 27301

May 10 Memorandum: Advancing Pay Equality in the FederalGovernment and Learning From Successful Practices.. 28717

May 13 Notice: Continuation of the National Emergency WithRespect to Yemem........................................................... 28465

OTHER PRESIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS (Continued)

Doc No.


Page

785


May 17 Notice: Continuation of the National Emergency WithRespect to the Stabilization of Iraq................................. 30195

May 17 Memorandum: Modernizing Federal InfrastructureReview and Permitting Regulations, Policies, andProcedures ...................................................................... 30733

May 31 Memorandum: Delegation of Functions UnderSubsection 804(h)(2)(A) of the Foreign NarcoticsKingpin Designation Act................................................... 33943

June 3 Memorandum: Delegation of Certain Functions andAuthorities Under the Iran Freedom and Counter-Proliferation Act of 2012................................................. 35545

2013–09 June 4 Presidential Determination: Suspension of LimitationsUnder the Jerusalem Embassy Act................................. 35535

2013–10 June 5 Presidential Determination: Presidential DeterminationPursuant to Section 1245(d)(4)(B) and (C) of the NationalDefense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012................ 35537

June 7 Memorandum: Transforminig Our Nation’s ElectricGrid Through Improved Siting, Permitting, andReview............................................................................. 35539

June 13 Notice: Continuation of the National Emergency WithRespect to the Actions and Policies of CertainMembers of the Government of Belarus and OtherPersons To Undermine Belarus’s DemocraticProcesses or Institutions.................................................. 36081

June 14 Memorandum: Expanding America’s Leadership inWireless Innovation......................................................... 37431

June 17 Notice: Continuation of the National Emergency WithRespect to the Western Balkans..................................... 37099

June 19 Memorandum: Delegation of Reporting Functions Specifiedin Section 491 of Title 10, United States Code................... 37923

June 20 Notice: Continuation of the National Emergency WithRespect to the Disposition of Russian Highly EnrichedUranium .......................................................................... 37925

June 21 Notice: Continuation of the National Emergency WithRespect to North Korea................................................... 38193

June 25 Memorandum: Power Sector Carbon PollutionStandards......................................................................... 39535

OTHER PRESIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS (Continued)

Doc No.


Page

786

Subject Index

Academy of Sciences, National—342–344Aeronautics and Space Administration, National—316Afghanistan

2014 elections—733, 750Afghan military and security forces—12–13, 15–

17, 19, 21–22, 103, 136, 430, 480, 482, 513, 584,601–602, 628–629, 638, 733, 750

Civilian deaths—483–484Democracy efforts—18–20Detention facilities, transfer of responsibility to Af-

ghan forces—19, 487, 584Economic growth and development—19–20Elections—601Former regime—12–13, 17, 20–21, 94–95, 483,

583, 601, 628–629Governmental accountability and transparency,

strengthening efforts—20Insurgency and terrorist attacks—13International diplomatic efforts—13, 20International Security Assistance Force—19, 22,

136, 448, 584, 629NATO, role—304, 513, 584, 601, 628–629President—12, 19, 21, 601, 628–629, 720–721,

733, 750Reconciliation efforts—13, 18–20, 323, 601, 628–

629, 733, 750Relations with Pakistan—17, 430Relations with U.S.—12–13, 17, 19, 21, 136, 733, 750Security cooperation with U.S.—13, 15, 19, 21U.S. assistance—20–21U.S. military forces

Casualties—12, 21–22, 56, 93–95, 305, 499Deployment—4, 6–7, 12–13, 15–17, 19, 21–23,

50–51, 58, 88, 90, 93–95, 97, 103, 136, 140,149, 277, 305, 353, 359, 406, 430, 440, 448,454, 464, 480, 482–483, 492, 494, 499, 513,531, 573, 583, 631, 639, 692, 705

Women, status—18, 20Africa

See also Developing countries; specific countryAfrican Union

African Union Commission—752Governance and rule of law, strengthening ef-

forts—701Peacekeeping efforts—705, 717–718U.S. Representative—749

Agricultural production, improvement ef-forts—677–678, 692, 703, 714–715

Counterterrorism efforts, cooperation with U.S.—705

Africa—ContinuedDemocracy efforts—251, 661, 669–670, 680, 697,

700–702, 714–717Economic Community of West African States

(ECOWAS)—716Economic growth and development—252, 396,

669–670, 676–680, 686, 692, 696–703, 714–715Energy

Cooperation with U.S.—678, 686, 715Infrastructure, improvement efforts—715

Foreign investment and cooperation—679Government officials, corruption issues—701, 714,

716International assistance—699Judicial leaders, meeting with President Obama in

Dakar, Senegal—669–670Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons,

status—664Lord’s Resistance Army insurgent group—717Political unrest and violence—717Poverty—714Public health facilities and programs—679, 714–715Regional trade, promotion efforts—702Relations with China—700Relations with U.S.—669–670, 698, 714, 716, 718Security cooperation with U.S.—669, 717Student exchanges with U.S.—697Terrorism—252, 717Trade with Europe—699Trade with U.S.—662, 699, 702, 715U.S. assistance—669, 678–679, 717West Africa, drug trafficking and transit—252Women’s rights—698

Agriculture, Department ofAdministration, Assistant Secretary for—741Chief Financial Officer—741Deputy Secretary—751Natural Resources and Environment, Under Sec-

retary for—751Rural Utilities Service—744

Agriculture, severe drought, relief efforts—144AIDS. See HIV/AIDS; specific country or regionAir Force, Department of the, Under Secretary—578Air Force, National Commission on the Structure of

the—732Alabama, Governor—144Alaska, disaster assistance—750

A–1

Administration of Barack Obama, 2013

AlgeriaCounterterrorism efforts, cooperation with U.S.—43Terrorist attack on Tigantourine gas facility near In

Amenas—42, 136, 481, 722Al Qaida. See TerrorismAmerican. See other part of subjectAmerican Indians and Alaska Natives

Domestic violence—168Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians—727, 743Navajo Nation—728Standing Rock Sioux Tribe—750Tribal nations, relations with Federal Govern-

ment—39, 82, 293AmeriCorps—42Appropriations. See Budget, FederalArchives and Records Administration, National—328Arctic Research Commission—741Argentina, Ambassador to U.S.—735Arizona, 2011 shootings in Tucson—77, 287, 306, 309Arkansas, disaster assistance—723, 750Armed Forces, U.S.

See also Defense and national security; Defense,Department of; specific military branch

Commander in Chief ball—50“Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, repeal—4, 7, 57–58,

90, 268, 277, 327, 444, 509, 576Funding—92, 492, 495Joining Forces initiative—358–359Military families—50–51, 90, 158, 191–192, 201,

480, 744Servicemembers

Casualties—50, 58, 63, 201, 305, 480, 489, 492,495, 498–499, 628, 705

Deployment—492, 583Meetings with President—728, 745Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), treatment

efforts—201, 518Service and dedication—7, 22, 46, 50–51, 89–90,

93–95, 104, 195, 201, 243, 298–299, 305–306,330, 342, 358–359, 410, 456, 480, 492–493,495, 498–499, 660

Sexual assault—410–411, 456–458, 493Traumatic brain injuries, treatment ef-

forts—201, 343, 518Women servicemembers—56, 191, 456

ArmeniaArmenian Remembrance Day—325Nagorno-Karabakh conflict—626Relations with Azerbaijan—626Relations with Turkey—325Relations with U.S.—325

Arms and munitionsSee also specific countryChemical and biological weapons—336–337, 348–

349, 387, 453, 628, 633

Arms and munitions—ContinuedNuclear weapons and material

Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty—638Nonproliferation efforts—103, 240, 638, 725Security—103, 598Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with

Russia—5, 598, 638U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, reduction—103,

638Army, Department of the

Chief of Staff—93Corps of Engineers—501Secretary—93, 457

Arts“42,” White House screening—732“In Performance at the White House: Memphis

Soul”—288NBC’s “1600 Penn” program, White House

screening—721“The Presidents’ Gatekeepers,” White House

screening—747Arts, National Council on the—734Arts, National Endowment for the—502Asia

Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN)—178–179, 261, 475

East Asia Summit—178, 261, 475Relations with U.S.—261Security cooperation with U.S.—90, 179, 747South China Sea, territorial disputes—178Trade with U.S.—371

Attorney General. See Justice, Department ofAustralia, U.S. Ambassador—749Austria, U.S. Ambassador—751Aviation Administration, Federal—741Awards. See Decorations, medals, and awardsAzerbaijan

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict—626Relations with Armenia—626

Balkans, Western. See EuropeBangladesh, trade with U.S.—673Banks. See Business and industryBelarus

Democracy efforts—581Human rights issues—581U.S. national emergency, continuation—580

Belgium, U.S. Ambassador—749Boys and Girls Club of America, Youth of the Year fi-

nalists, meeting with President—723Brazil

President—745Relations with Africa—679U.S. Ambassador—748U.S. visa policy—175

A–2

Subject Index

Broadcasting Board of Governors—734, 740Brunei

Educational cooperation with U.S.—178Relations with U.S.—178–179Security cooperation with U.S.—179Sultan—178, 728

Budget, FederalSee also specific Federal agency or organizationAmendments—464Appropriations

Aeronautics and Space Administration, National—464Agriculture, Department of—464Defense, Department of—464Health and Human Services, Department of—464Housing and Urban Development, Department

of—464Interior, Department of the—464Justice, Department of—464State, Department of—464Trade Commission, Federal—464Transportation, Department of—464

Congressional spending restraint—23, 26Deficit and national debt—2, 5–6, 10–11, 22–24,

26–28, 30–32, 46, 57, 60, 75, 79, 87, 91–92, 97–98, 121, 132–135, 137–138, 140, 143, 146–148,151–157, 159–160, 162, 164–165, 171, 181–182,185, 195, 269, 275, 278, 282, 291, 325, 327, 338,351–352, 415, 421, 438, 443, 459, 465, 473, 480,515, 549, 649, 705, 724, 726

Entitlement spending, reform—23, 30, 75, 79, 91,98, 133–134, 152, 154–156, 158, 162, 165, 185, 291

Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, National Com-mission on—79, 98

Fiscal year 2013 budget—157, 553Fiscal year 2014 budget—282–283, 290, 338, 464Government programs, spending reductions—1–

2, 6, 10, 23, 27, 30–31, 75, 79–80, 87–88, 90–92,97–98, 133–135, 137, 140, 142–143, 145–148,151–158, 160–162, 164–165, 171–172, 184–185,260, 275, 282, 290–291, 325, 338, 344, 351–352,443, 459, 464, 472, 492, 727–728

Bulgaria, terrorist attack on Israeli tourists in Bur-gas—221

Burkina Faso, U.S. Ambassador—734Burma

Democracy efforts—376, 406, 475, 638Economic growth and development—475Human rights issues—475President—474, 741Relations with North Korea—376Relations with U.S.—376, 406, 474–475Trade with U.S.—475U.S. assistance—475U.S. national emergency, continuation—376U.S. sanctions—475

Business and industrySee also Commerce, international; Employment

and unemployment; specific State or companyAutomobile industry

Improvement—97, 184, 403, 415, 515Strengthening efforts—10

Business Council—151Business leaders, meeting with President—728,

734, 738Construction industry

Decline—254Strengthening efforts—256, 290, 346

Credit cards, regulations and consumer protec-tions—55, 60

Domestic investment, promotion efforts—103,118, 130, 380

Entrepreneurship, promotion efforts—367, 379,420–421, 740

Financial Services Forum, meeting with Presi-dent—734

Global competitiveness—6, 72, 75, 193, 254, 346–347, 367, 369

Government-developed technologies, commercialapplications—259

Home loan industry—55, 190, 361Intellectual property law, strengthening ef-

forts—552Manufacturing industry

Advanced manufacturing, promotion ef-forts—132, 290, 419, 461

Government and private sector, coordination ef-forts—99, 117–118, 419–420

Improvement—117, 549Strengthening efforts—99, 117–118, 282, 419, 459

Small businesses, promotion efforts—5, 95, 174,379, 569

Unemployed workers, incentives to hire—102, 130Wage discrimination—559–560Women-owned businesses—191

CabinetSee also specific Federal department or executive

branch agencyMeetings with President—165, 724

CaliforniaAnnenberg Retreat at Sunnylands in Rancho Mi-

rage—746Democratic Party events—266, 270, 276, 537, 540, 548President’s visits—266, 270, 274, 276, 537, 540,

542, 548, 551, 553, 732–733, 742, 745–746Proposition 8, court decision—159–160Shootings in Taft—36

CanadaBorder with U.S., infrastructure and security—395President—395

A–3


Canada—ContinuedPrime Minister—748Relations with Mexico—374Relations with U.S.—374Trade with U.S.—371, 395

Cape VerdeEconomic growth and development—251President—251Prime Minister—251, 729Relations with U.S.—252

Caribbean Nations, trade with U.S.—393Central African Republic, political unrest and vio-

lence—586Central America

See also specific countryCentral American Integration System—385, 394,

396–397, 399, 739Central American Regional Security Initiative—385Crime and narcotrafficking—385–386, 388, 392Democracy efforts—385Economic growth and development—386, 391,

396Education and job training, strengthening ef-

forts—392Energy

Alternative and renewable sources and technolo-gies—397–398

Cooperation with U.S.—397–398Free trade agreement with U.S.—385, 394Human rights issues—385Infrastructure, improvement efforts—391Law enforcement cooperation with U.S.—385, 388Regional trade, promotion efforts—391Relations with U.S.—357, 391, 394, 399, 438Trade with U.S.—393–395, 438, 738

Central Intelligence Agency—6, 169, 198, 728, 737, 747Chad

President—719U.S. Ambassador—729

Chamber of Commerce, U.S.—256Children and youth

See also EducationChildhood obesity, prevention efforts—529Fathers, influence—63, 469, 586–587Parenthood, social importance—129, 469, 587

ChileDemocracy efforts—527Economic growth and development—527Energy cooperation with U.S.—527President—527, 740Relations with U.S.—527Student exchanges with U.S—527U.S. Ambassador—749Visa policy, U.S.—527

ChinaAmbassador to U.S.—735Economic growth and development—557Energy cooperation with U.S.—656Human rights issues—552President—531, 541–542, 545, 551, 553, 656, 668–

669, 729, 742, 745–747Relations with Africa—679Relations with U.S.—179, 551–553, 557, 668, 729Trade with U.S.—473

Civil Engineers, American Society of—255Civil rights

Civil rights movement—84, 149–150, 219, 229–230, 709, 713

Firearm rights—25, 29, 37, 41, 77, 105, 307Freedom of religion—400, 660Freedom of speech—385, 454, 488, 639Freedom of the press—385, 454, 487Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons,

equality—47, 126, 159–160, 168, 268, 273, 327,357, 390, 509, 579–580, 659, 664, 750

MinoritiesAnti-Semitism—61, 229–231, 288Minority rights and ethnic tolerance—190, 273,

288, 475, 509, 670Privacy—547Racial equality—150, 658, 680, 709, 713Same-sex domestic partnerships, benefits—659–660Wage equality—47, 102, 189, 559–560Women’s rights and gender equality—57, 80, 102,

170, 191–192, 334, 399, 422Civil Rights, U.S. Commission on—745Climate change. See EnvironmentColombia, free trade agreement with U.S.—52, 174, 363Colorado

2012 shootings in Aurora—37–38, 78, 241, 262–264, 287, 309

Denver Police Academy in Denver—733Governor—262–263, 266, 748Law enforcement officials and community leaders,

meeting with President—733Lieutenant Governor—262President’s visit—262, 732Wildfires, damage and recovery efforts—748

Commerce, Department ofActing Secretary—174, 176, 193Assistant Secretaries

Administration—751Oceans and Atmosphere—744

Chief Financial Officer—751Deputy Secretary—193, 363, 414Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Nation-

al—744Secretary—362, 659U.S. Census Bureau—744

A–4

Subject Index

Commerce, internationalSee also specific country or regionAsia-Pacific, regional trade promotion ef-

forts—178–179, 380, 567, 569Environmental protection standards—174Free and fair trade—52, 124, 174, 363–364, 395,

398, 552, 603, 628, 640Generalized System of Preferences (GSP)—673Global financial markets

Stabilization efforts—595–596, 635Unrest—588

Group of Eight (G–8) nations—196, 198, 254, 430, 490,595, 601–603, 627–628, 632, 635, 677, 727, 742, 748

Group of Twenty (G–20) nations—378, 448, 684,686, 727

International regulatory cooperation, promotionefforts—395–398

Labor protection standards—174, 674North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)—374U.S. exports, expansion—10, 104, 174, 176, 178,

367, 372, 393, 405, 461, 738Commission. See other part of subjectCommunications

See also specific news organization, State, or countryBroadband technology—232, 361, 438, 534–537, 541Infrastructure, national, improvement efforts—107,

347, 541Internet neutrality—361News media, Presidential interviews—723, 726,

732–734, 748Communications Commission, Federal—231, 360Community Development Advisory Board—744Community Service, Corporation for National

and—42, 127, 316Congo, Democratic Republic of the

Political unrest and violence—685, 717U.S. Ambassador—751

Congo, Republic of the, U.S. Ambassador—747Congress

Bipartisanship—1, 5–7, 11, 25–27, 30–33, 62, 67,75–77, 79–80, 90–92, 96, 132–133, 135, 147, 149,151–153, 155, 161, 181, 183, 244, 275, 278, 286,292, 304, 307, 327–328, 338, 351–353, 444, 447,506, 509, 538, 542, 549–550, 557–558, 565, 577,648, 657, 673, 719, 737

Congressional Black Caucus—149Congressional Friends of Ireland—195Congressional Hispanic Caucus—722House of Representatives

House Democratic Caucus—86–87, 728–729House Republican Conference—728–729Majority leader—719Minority leader—1, 49, 86, 153, 267–272, 441,

444–445, 504, 506–510, 649, 693, 719, 740

Congress—ContinuedHouse of Representatives—Continued

Speaker—1–2, 24, 27, 30–31, 33, 49, 79, 97, 143,147, 149, 155–158, 160, 172, 195, 282, 291,330, 445, 693, 719, 727, 751

Members, meetings with President—725, 728,734–737, 740–741, 747, 750

SenateArmed Services Committee—169Judiciary Committee—57, 525Majority leader—1, 49, 149, 158, 673, 727Minority leader—1, 26, 30, 49, 149, 157–158,

160, 340, 727Presidential nominations, confirmation pro-

cess—57, 166, 232, 362, 490, 524–526Procedural rule changes—57Senate Democratic Caucus—728–729, 736Senate Republican Conference—728–729

Congressional Budget Office—647Connecticut

2012 shootings in Newtown—25, 29, 35–38, 41, 47,62, 76–78, 105, 126–128, 181, 241, 248, 250,262–264, 275, 283–284, 287, 306–308, 321, 373,733–734, 736, 747

Disaster assistance—725, 730Governor—283–284, 286Hurricane Sandy, damage and recovery efforts—3, 64President’s visit—283, 733University of Hartford in West Hartford—283, 733

Consumer Cooperative Bank, National—736Consumer Financial Protection Bureau—54, 60, 426, 572Consumer Product Safety Commission—743Corporation. See other part of subjectCosta Rica

Civil and human rights, promotion efforts—386Crime and narcotrafficking—385Democracy efforts—386Economic growth and development—385–386Energy, alternative and renewable sources and

technologies—385, 392, 397Environmental protection and conservation—385INCAE Business School in San Jose—394Organisation for Economic Cooperation and De-

velopment, membership bid—386President—381, 384, 391–392, 394, 397, 399, 739President Obama’s visit—381, 391, 394, 397, 399,

732, 738–739Relations with U.S.—384Security cooperation with U.S.—385Tourism and commercial travel links with U.S.—384Trade with U.S.—385, 394Trafficking in persons, efforts to combat—385U.S. Ambassador—389U.S. Embassy personnel, meeting with President

Obama—739

A–5


Côte d’IvoireDemocracy efforts—78Political unrest and violence—78President—78U.S. Ambassador—749U.S. national emergency, continuation—78

Credit Union Administration Board, National—741Crime. See Law enforcement and crimeCriminal Court, International—695, 700Croatia, European Union, accession—751Cuba

Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD)Act of 1996—39

Democracy efforts—39Guantanamo Bay, U.S. Naval Base

Closure of detention facilities—4, 353, 487–488,631, 639

Detention of alleged terrorists—353–354, 487,584, 734

U.S. national emergency, continuation—139Cultural Property Advisory Committee—735

DeathsChavez Frias, Hugo—166Cliburn, Harvey L. “Van,” Jr.—163Ebert, Roger J.—280Koch, Edward I.—74Lautenberg, Sen. Frank R.—519Thatcher, Margaret, former Prime Minister of the

United Kingdom—288Decorations, medals, and awards

Commander in Chief’s Trophy—491Goldman Environmental Prize—736Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular

Song—478–479Medal of Honor—12, 93, 293, 295, 721, 728, 733Presidential Citizens Medal—125, 128, 725Purple Heart—95, 126, 728Science, National Medal of—71–73, 723Teachers of the Year, National and State—320, 322Technology and Innovation, National Medal

of—71–73, 723Defense, Department of

See also Armed Forces, U.S.; Defense and nationalsecurity; specific military branch

Deputy Secretary—89Funding—3, 90, 146, 151, 158General Counsel—747Inspector General—750Joint Chiefs of Staff—50, 57, 89, 93, 456, 491, 498,

660, 741Secretary—6, 56, 89, 93, 149, 165, 172, 369, 410,

456, 498, 664, 721, 724, 728–729, 731–733, 735,738–739, 741, 743, 745, 747, 750

Secretary-designate—720

Defense, Department of—ContinuedSexual assault in the military, efforts to combat—741Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in

Bethesda, MD—63, 728, 745Defense and national security

See also Armed Forces, U.S.; Defense, Depart-ment of; Terrorism

Border security—66–67, 102, 244, 304, 356, 379,393–395, 558, 564–565, 647–648, 673

Classified national security information—486, 547,630, 668

Cybersecurity, strengthening efforts—7, 90, 104,106–112, 114, 181, 552, 554, 729

Electronic surveillance program—545, 547, 554,630, 668

Intelligence—7–8, 169, 483, 630, 644Missile defense—103Potential terrorist attacks, preparedness efforts—480

Defense of Marriage Act—659, 750Delaware

First State National Monument—731Governor—142

Democratic Governors Association—726Democratic Party

See also specific StateDemocratic Congressional Campaign Commit-

tee—86, 266, 270, 273, 441, 504, 506–507Democratic National Committee—52, 274, 276,

279, 325–326, 437–439, 471, 548, 574–576, 739Democratic Senatorial Campaign Commit-

tee—441, 471, 537, 540House Democratic Issues Conference—86Senate Democratic Issues Conference—724

Denmark, U.S. Ambassador—748Developing countries

See also specific country or regionDemocratic governance and rule of law—670–671Economic growth and development—639Food aid programs—677–679Food security, strengthening efforts—431, 662,

676–678, 692, 703Poverty—104

Development, U.S. Agency for International—252,678–679, 746

Disability, National Council on—723Disaster assistance

See also Natural disasters; specific State, country,or executive branch agency

Alaska—750Arkansas—723, 750Connecticut—725, 730Hurricane Sandy—719Illinois—741Iowa—739, 745Kansas—738

A–6

Subject Index

Disaster assistance—ContinuedLouisiana—726Maine—731Marshall Islands—748Massachusetts—736–737Michigan—749Minnesota—739Mississippi—725Navajo Nation—728New Hampshire—730New Jersey—501, 750New York—501, 737, 744North Dakota—738, 745Ohio—720Oklahoma—477, 479, 733, 742Pennsylvania—721Rhode Island—731South Dakota—740, 752Standing Rock Sioux Tribe—750Texas—737Vermont—747

Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, 2013—70Diseases

See also HIV/AIDSAIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Global Fund To

Fight—431Cancer research, prevention, and treatment—333, 345

District of ColumbiaBurrville Elementary School—41Democratic Party event—739Georgetown University—649Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial—131National Cathedral—722National Defense University at Fort McNair—479St. John’s Church—722, 732Walter E. Washington Convention Center—722

Dominican Republic, U.S. Ambassador—749Drug abuse and trafficking

See also specific country or regionAddiction treatment and reduction efforts—378,

385, 388Decriminalization and legalization—378Education and prevention efforts—378, 385Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act—515Foreign narcotics traffickers—385, 515Interdiction efforts—558, 567, 570

Economic Co-operation and Development, Organi-sation for—396

Economy, international. See Commerce, interna-tional

Economy, nationalSee also Budget, Federal; Employment and unem-

ployment; specific StateDeficit and national debt—292

Economy, national—ContinuedEconomic concerns—2, 6, 10, 24, 27–28, 30–31,

60, 75, 79, 92, 97, 116, 130, 137, 140–142, 145,151, 153–154, 158, 162, 272, 326–327, 343, 361,415, 420, 437, 459, 472, 493, 504, 508, 510, 515,533, 539, 562, 571, 576, 734

Financial regulations, strengthening efforts—10,45, 55–56, 60, 327, 361, 576, 634

Government bonds, creditworthiness—6, 24–28,30, 32–33

Household incomes, decline—459, 465Improvement—5, 10–11, 23, 75, 79–80, 87, 92,

96–97, 130, 141, 151, 156, 162, 170, 338, 359,403, 415, 421, 437, 442, 459, 465, 504, 508, 510,533, 537, 561, 575–576, 596, 635

Income inequality, increase—97Market volatility—24Poverty, efforts to combat—102, 130–132, 279, 291Strengthening efforts—1–2, 5–6, 10, 22–24, 28, 32,

45, 52, 65, 67, 73, 75, 79, 87, 97, 99, 101–102, 116,121, 123, 129–133, 135, 140–142, 145, 148, 152,161, 163–166, 170–171, 176, 181, 184–185, 188–190, 245, 254, 256, 258, 267, 271, 274, 277–278,282–283, 290–291, 325, 328, 338, 347, 351–352,362–363, 368, 393, 415–416, 418–419, 426, 438,443, 458, 462–465, 467, 474, 492, 503, 505, 509,511–512, 533, 538, 558, 561–562, 571–575, 578,634, 640, 647, 649, 659, 678, 724, 729, 736, 740

Travel and tourism, promotion efforts—175, 363Education

See also specific State2013 National and State Teachers of the Year—320Class size, reduction efforts—706Early childhood education programs—101, 121–

122, 129, 144, 155, 160, 162, 165, 272, 278, 282,290, 396, 398, 417, 460, 472, 505, 539, 704

Foreign exchange programs—72, 178, 367, 375,380, 567, 569

Global competitiveness—87, 101, 117, 121–123,129, 171, 290, 363, 369, 374, 380, 396, 398, 404,415–417, 419, 438, 443, 460, 462, 464, 505, 508,511, 534, 536, 571, 704

Government and private sector, coordination ef-forts—101, 123, 398

High school dropout prevention programs—129Low-income students—417, 550Parental involvement—534Postsecondary education

Affordability—1, 55, 60, 72, 101, 117, 123, 132, 152,268, 271, 277, 416, 418, 420, 510–512, 536, 576

Career training and continuing education—23,60, 101, 118, 129, 132, 142, 151, 170, 184, 189,254, 396, 420

Community colleges—72, 129, 363, 704Federal assistance—101, 123, 132, 512

A–7


Education—ContinuedPostsecondary education—Continued

Student loan programs, improvement ef-forts—511–512

School improvement and renovation—40, 62, 75,100, 143, 254, 256, 268, 398

School security, improvement efforts—76, 184,249, 264, 285

Science and math programs—72, 101, 123, 129,176, 317, 321–322, 345, 369, 399, 417, 419, 560

Standards and school accountability—24, 46, 101,130, 268, 271, 277, 439, 549

Teachers—72, 122–123, 129, 315–316, 320–322, 396,398, 415–417, 477, 533, 535, 537, 548, 706, 737

Technology and innovation, expansion efforts—73,398, 417, 535–537, 541, 548, 577, 704, 706

Vocational and technical education pro-grams—129, 132, 176, 417, 420

Education, Department ofCivil Rights, Assistant Secretary for—746General Counsel—746Race to the Top Fund—101Rehabilitation Services Administration—724Secretary—36, 62, 320, 322, 516, 533

EgyptDemocracy efforts—104, 207, 323, 485, 689, 727, 752Economic growth and development—323, 727Human rights issues—727President—689, 727, 752Relations with U.S.—727

Election Commission, Federal—749Elections

See also specific State or country2012 Presidential and congressional elections—5,

23, 28, 30–31, 44, 53–54, 86, 105, 7222014 congressional elections—507, 548, 573, 575Election Administration, Presidential Commission

on—105, 667, 732, 743Voter participation—105–106, 155, 402, 658, 667Voting Rights Act—658, 667

El Salvador, Ambassador to U.S.—735Emergency Management Agency, Federal. See

Homeland Security, Department ofEmployment and unemployment

See also Economy, national; specific StateGlobal competitiveness—394Job creation and growth—5, 10, 22–24, 28, 41, 57,

60, 65, 72, 75, 87, 97–99, 116–117, 121, 129–130,132–133, 140, 142–143, 151, 154, 160, 162, 164,170, 174, 178, 184–185, 188–190, 194, 254, 256,258–259, 268, 282–283, 290, 338, 346–347, 359,393–394, 404–405, 415–416, 419, 437–438, 442,459–462, 464–465, 509, 511, 515, 534, 549, 560,571, 595, 654

Job losses—117, 154, 162

Employment and unemployment—ContinuedJob training and assistance programs—10, 23, 189, 282Undocumented workers, reduction and prevention

efforts—66–67, 356, 370, 390, 393, 558, 564–565, 647

Unemployment insurance—1, 5Unemployment rate—137, 151, 170, 181, 415, 459,

465, 516Young adults, employment opportunities—734

EnergySee also Environment; specific State or countryAlternative and renewable sources and technologies

Promotion efforts—1, 5, 39, 46, 74, 82, 144, 163–164, 178, 186, 188–189, 260, 269, 278, 317,344, 367, 380, 389, 397, 458, 473, 539, 653–654, 656, 681, 707, 716, 728

U.S. production—99–100, 184, 186, 271, 277,397, 437, 442, 505, 573–574, 638, 651, 654

Biofuels and ethanol—189, 317, 345Carbon dioxide emissions, reduction—184, 188,

651, 653–654, 656–657, 681, 707Developing countries, energy sources—397, 656, 707Domestic sources—39, 71, 74, 81–82, 87, 97, 99–

100, 117, 132, 144, 163–164, 184, 186, 188–189,282, 290, 293, 403, 415, 438, 442–443, 472, 505,509, 515, 651, 653, 686

Energy efficiency and weatherization, homes andbuildings—100, 186, 275, 654

Foreign sources—24Fuel efficiency standards, strengthening ef-

forts—185–186, 188–189, 268, 271, 277, 317,505, 549, 573–574, 638, 651, 654, 707

Gasoline, oil, and natural gas costs—100, 185–186,188–189, 397

Greenhouse gas emissions, regulation—651–652,656, 681, 707

Hybrid and alternative fuel vehiclesBattery technology, U.S. production—186–187, 189Promotion efforts—186

Infrastructure and grid improvements—107, 255,268, 272, 347, 372, 397

National energy policy—186, 188–189, 275, 458, 651Nuclear energy, promotion and expansion ef-

forts—184, 188Oil and gas industry

Keystone XL Pipeline project—653Safety and environmental issues—653Subsidies, elimination—654

Renewable energy experts, meeting with Presi-dent—728

Energy, Department of, Secretary—71, 74, 163, 184, 458Energy Regulatory Commission, Federal—751Engineering, National Academy of—344England. See United Kingdom

A–8

Subject Index

EnvironmentSee also EnergyAir quality, improvement efforts—652Carbon emissions—99, 549, 651, 707Climate change—22, 46, 74, 82, 99, 163–164, 178,

182, 185, 269, 272, 278, 293, 327, 343, 380, 385,392, 404–405, 473, 509, 539, 549, 557, 569, 575,650–651, 653, 655–657, 681, 707

ConservationFishery stocks, management efforts—318–320Promotion efforts—39, 81

High Seas Fisheries Resources in the North PacificOcean, Convention on the Conservation andManagement of—318

High Seas Fishery Resources in the South PacificOcean, Convention on the Conservation andManagement of—319–320

Northwest Atlantic Fisheries, Convention on Fu-ture Multilateral Cooperation in the—319

Quality and improvement efforts—100, 163, 268,707–708

Western and Central Pacific Ocean, Commissionfor the Conservation and Management of HighlyMigratory Fish Stocks in the—745

Environmental Protection Agency—163, 657, 746Equal Employment Opportunity Commission—743Ethiopia, U.S. Ambassador—748Europe

See also specific countryEuropean Union

Common foreign and security policy—124Croatia, accession—751European Commission President—119, 592European Council President—119, 592Reform—436, 638Relations with U.S.—119Trade with U.S.—104, 174–175, 628Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partner-

ship—120, 430, 594, 602, 628Financial markets, stabilization efforts—175, 596, 635Relations with U.S.—119, 594, 628, 637Supreme Allied Commander, NATO—253Trade with U.S.—120Western Balkans, U.S. national emergency, contin-

uation—596–597Export-Import Bank, U.S.—461, 578, 730

FBI. See Justice, Department ofFederal. See other part of subjectFEMA. See Homeland Security, Department ofFlorida

Democratic Party events—574–575PortMiami in Miami—254–256, 732President’s visits—254, 574–575, 725–726, 731–

732, 746–747

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court—545–546Foreign policy, U.S.

See also specific country or regionCivil and human rights, promotion efforts—34,

192, 283, 386, 485, 532, 636–637, 640, 670–671,676, 695, 716–717

Democratization—638Diplomatic efforts, expansion—7, 443, 486, 492, 531Diplomatic security, strengthening efforts—349,

433–434, 449, 486, 586, 689Foreign aid funding—485, 678–679Foreign Ambassadors, credentialing ceremony—721,

735Humanitarian assistance programs—336, 485, 643Open government and transparency, promotion

efforts—252, 662, 670–671, 680Peace efforts, expansion—589–590, 592, 643Poverty, efforts to combat—104, 444, 677Trafficking in persons, efforts to combat—34, 153

FranceMali, role—139President—594, 601, 626, 722, 747–748Relations with U.S.—601–602Security cooperation with U.S.—22Somalia, French intelligence operative, rescue op-

eration—22

General Services Administration—743Georgia

DecaturCollege Heights Early Childhood Learning Cen-

ter—122, 725Decatur Community Recreation Center—121

Democratic Party event—471Governor—144Morehouse College in Atlanta—465–472, 474President’s visits—121, 465, 471–472, 725, 741–742

Georgia, Republic of, Ambassador to U.S.—735Germany

Afghanistan, German military forces, deployment—628Berlin

Brandenburg Gate—629, 635–636German Chancellery—749Lindencorso building—749Ritz Carlton, Berlin hotel—749Schloss Belevue—749Schloss Charlottenburg—749

Chancellor—594, 626, 635–637, 640, 747–749Defense relationship with U.S.—628, 632Elections—749President—627, 749President Obama’s visit—626, 635, 640, 740, 746, 749Relations with U.S.—627, 629, 642Social Democratic Party—749Trade with U.S.—628

A–9


Germany—ContinuedU.S. Ambassador—748U.S. Embassy personnel, meeting with President

Obama—749Government organization and employees

See also Budget, Federal; specific agency or orga-nization

Accountability and transparency, strengthening ef-forts—454, 493

Domestic violence in workforce, policies address-ing—457

Faith-based and community organizations, part-nerships—129

Federal infrastructure review and permitting,modernization efforts—461

Federal programs, improvement efforts—347Government data and information, access and for-

mat improvements—421Oklahoma storms and tornadoes, emergency leave

transfer program for Federal employees—523Recruitment and retention, strengthening ef-

forts—300Veterans, Federal employment opportunities—300,

359Governors Association, National—141–142Great Britain. See United KingdomGreece, U.S. Ambassador—750Gridiron Club and Foundation Washington, DC—171,

173Guantanamo Bay, U.S. Naval Base. See CubaGuatemala, President—394, 397Gulf of Mexico, Deepwater Horizon oil spill, envi-

ronmental effects and cleanup efforts—71, 82

Haiti, earthquake, damage and recovery efforts—58Hawaii, President’s visit—719Health and Human Services, Department of

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—40, 76Food and Drug Administration—372–373Head Start programs—132, 151, 396Indian Health Service—737National Institutes of Health—140, 258, 316Secretary—32, 36, 62, 372–373, 516, 519

Health and medical careSee also Diseases; HIV/AIDS; Science and tech-

nologyAbortion—52Affordability and costs—27, 75, 291, 462Bioethics. See Science and technologyContraception and family planning—333–335, 372Cost control reforms—79, 87, 98, 242, 424–425,

473, 543–545Employer-based health insurance coverage—425, 544Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993—80

Health and medical care—ContinuedHealth insurance exchanges—355–356, 424–425,

543–544Health insurance reforms—21, 46, 191, 242, 267,

271, 277, 327, 334, 354–355, 372, 422–426, 442,444, 462, 468, 518, 542, 549, 572, 574, 576, 672, 740

Insurance coverage and access to providers—422–423, 539, 543

Medicare and Medicaid—2, 26, 31, 75, 98, 142,147, 152, 155–156, 242, 282, 291, 423–424, 473

Mental health programs and services—62, 77, 249,285, 516–518

Obesity, prevention and reduction efforts—582Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—242,

423–426Preventive care and public health programs—334,

424, 543Research and development—23, 73, 259–260, 268,

271, 290, 316, 344, 518Seniors, prescription drug benefits—424Women’s health issues—333–334, 424Young adults, insurance coverage as dependents,

age limit extension—334, 423Heritage Abroad, Commission for the Preservation

of America’s—729Historic Preservation, Advisory Council on—740HIV/AIDS

See also specific country or regionDomestic prevention and treatment strategy—672International prevention and treatment ef-

forts—104, 662, 672, 684, 686, 694, 710, 715President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief

(PEPFAR)—252, 679, 684, 710Holidays and special observances

Armenian Remembrance Day—325Ash Wednesday—119Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage

Month—502–503Cinco de Mayo—404–405Easter—257–258, 280–281, 726, 732Family and Medical Leave Act, 20th anniversary—80Father’s Day—586–587, 747Greek Independence Day—736HIV Testing Day, National—672Holocaust Remembrance Day—288Holocaust Remembrance Day, International—61Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride

Month—578Lunar New Year—91Martin Luther King, Jr., Day—41Memorial Day—495, 498–500, 744Mother’s Day—422Nowruz—192–193, 240Orthodox Easter—399Passover—219, 245, 257, 731

A–10

Subject Index

Holidays and special observances—ContinuedPatriot’s Day—312St. Patrick’s Day—194, 196, 198–200Valentine’s Day—121, 124Women’s Day, International—170Women’s History Month—191World Press Freedom Day—385World Refugee Day—643

Holocaust Memorial Council, U.S.—724, 729, 734Holy See (Vatican City)

Pope—96, 180, 198, 729U.S. Ambassador—748

Homeland Security, Department ofSee also Defense and national security; TerrorismCitizenship and Immigration Services, U.S.—243Customs and Border Protection, U.S.—158Deputy Secretary—751Emergency Management Agency, Federal—9,

312, 477, 496–497, 501, 736, 742, 744Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary for—744Secretary—32, 36, 62, 65, 108, 243, 301–302, 477,

735, 737, 742Secret Service, U.S.—73–74, 248, 731–732

HousingFlood insurance, Federal assistance—9Foreclosure avoidance efforts—416Housing market

Improvement—97, 100, 151, 254, 271, 360, 415,426, 437, 442, 459, 465, 515

Strengthening efforts—439Low-income housing, access and improvement ef-

forts—361Mortgage refinancing programs—10, 100, 272, 360,

426–427, 459, 465, 516Housing and Urban Development, Department of

Policy Development and Research, Assistant Sec-retary for—751

Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary for—734Housing Finance Agency, Federal—360, 427Human Rights Campaign—751Hurricanes. See Disaster assistance; Natural disas-

ters; specific Federal agency or State

IllinoisArgonne National Laboratory in Lemont—184–

188, 729Chicago

Hyde Park Academy High School—127, 132,725, 747

WVON—733Democratic Party events—504, 507Disaster assistance—741Governor—128President’s visits—127, 184, 504, 507, 725, 729,

744–745

Immigration and naturalizationSee also Defense and national security; specific

country or regionAmerican “melting pot”—68, 124, 202, 243–244,

257, 309, 375, 378–379, 503, 563, 648Citizenship—67, 102, 243–245, 304, 356, 379, 393,

558, 564–565, 648, 673Deportation rates—66, 558Illegal immigration—66–67, 368, 370, 390, 393,

395, 558, 564–565, 648Reform—22, 24, 33, 47, 57, 60, 65–68, 72, 81, 88,

102, 132, 155, 162, 165, 171, 181–182, 190, 199,244, 268–269, 271–272, 275, 277, 304, 351, 356,367–368, 370, 375, 378–379, 385, 390–391, 393–395, 404, 406, 439, 443, 474, 478, 503, 516, 538,542, 550, 557–558, 563–566, 571, 575, 577, 647–649, 672, 693, 722, 724–726, 728–729, 735–736,740–741, 743, 747, 751

Visa policy, U.S.—66–67, 102, 175, 304, 527, 558India, relations with Africa—679Intelligence. See Defense and national security; spe-

cific Federal agencyIntelligence, Office of the Director of National—8, 350Intelligence Advisory Board, President’s—747Inter-American Development Bank—396, 398Interior, Department of the, Secretary—39, 65, 81,

166, 292, 731International. See other part of subjectInternational Development, U.S. Agency for—475Investigation, Federal Bureau of. See Justice, De-

partment ofIowa

Disaster assistance—739, 745Governor—654U.S. Senator, retirement—61

IranDiplomatic relations with U.S.—193Human rights issues—520International and U.S. sanctions—180, 193, 240,

519–521, 523International diplomatic efforts—193, 207, 222,

241, 431, 448Nuclear energy, civilian usage—193Nuclear weapons development—103, 136, 193,

204, 207, 209–210, 221–222, 240–241, 431, 448,598, 638, 692

President-elect—692Relations with Syria—436Relations with U.S.—193Supreme Leader—240U.S. national emergency, continuation—180

IraqCivilian casualties—483–484Relations with U.S.—201

A–11


Iraq—ContinuedU.S. and coalition forces, withdrawal—6, 23, 50,

58, 90, 201, 305, 353, 359U.S. national emergency, continuation—463War with U.S., 10th anniversary—201

IrelandAmbassador to U.S.—198Prime Minister—194–196, 198–200, 594, 729, 748Relations with Northern Ireland—194, 253–254,

589–591Relations with U.S.—194, 196, 198–199Trade with U.S.—194

Ireland, Northern. See United Kingdom, NorthernIreland

IsraelSee also Middle EastBen Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv—730–731Cisco Israel in Netanya—730Economic cooperation with U.S.—202Gaza, conflict—207, 214, 221Independence Day—303Jerusalem

International Convention Center—219Israel Museum—730King David Hotel—730–731Mount Herzl—731U.S. Embassy and consular staff, meeting with

President Obama—730Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial—230, 731

Parliamentary elections—723President—202–203, 216, 219, 226, 230, 245, 730–731President Obama’s visit—202–203, 205, 219, 226,

230, 728–731Presidential Medal of Distinction, presentation to

President Obama—228–230Prime Minister—202, 205, 215–219, 228, 230–

231, 234, 238, 245, 335, 723, 730–731, 740Relations with Arab States—222Relations with Turkey—231, 238Relations with U.S.—104, 202–204, 206, 210, 219–

220, 226, 230–231, 303, 723Rocket attacks in Sderot—214, 217Science and technology—225Security cooperation with U.S.—206–207, 209,

220–221, 730, 740Terrorist attack on Israeli tourists in Burgas, Bul-

garia—221Trade with U.S.—202, 225U.S. assistance—206–207West Bank settlements—216–218, 224

ItalyDefense relationship with U.S.—124Economic cooperation with U.S.—124Elections—124President—124, 315, 723

Italy—ContinuedPrime Minister—594, 742, 747–748Relations with U.S.—124, 315, 742Security cooperation with U.S.—124

JapanAfghanistan, role—136Ambassador to U.S.—721Counterterrorism efforts, cooperation with U.S.—136Defense relationship with U.S.—136Earthquake and tsunami, damage and recover ef-

forts—58Economy, strengthening efforts—596Prime Minister—136, 138, 725–726, 747Relations with U.S.—136, 725Trade with U.S.—136, 138Trans-Pacific Partnership, membership bid—138–139

JordanBus accident near Israeli border, Palestinian

deaths—214Democracy efforts—234Economic growth and development—234, 335King—232, 335, 731, 733Middle East peace process, role—235, 239Petra ruins and monuments—731Political reform efforts—335President Obama’s visit—232, 731Prime Minister—234Relations with U.S.—234–235, 335Security cooperation with U.S.—234–235Syria, role—235, 238U.S. assistance—234–235U.S. Embassy staff and families, meeting with

President Obama—731U.S. military detachment—646

JudiciaryFederal court nominations and confirmations—57,

166, 232, 490, 503, 524, 719–720, 724, 730, 735,738, 740, 742, 744, 746, 749, 751

Judicial branch, supplemental budget proposal forfiscal year 2013—553

Sentencing Commission, U.S.—735Supreme Court

Associate Justices—32, 525Chief Justice—45, 525–526, 722Roe v. Wade decision, 40th anniversary—52

Justice, Department ofAssistant Attorneys General

Civil Division—730Justice Programs—725

Attorney General—36, 62, 76, 159, 166, 199, 262,302, 339, 372, 452, 454, 487, 660, 735, 737

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explo-sives—37, 77

A–12

Subject Index

Justice, Department of—ContinuedBureau of Investigation, Federal—301–302, 313,

643, 735, 737Investigation into national security-related leaks—454Joint Terrorism Task Forces—737Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Of-

fice of—724Solicitor General, U.S.—159U.S. attorneys—744, 752Victims of Crime, Office for—745

J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board—742

KansasDisaster assistance—738Governor—143, 654President’s visit—735

Kazakhstan, Ambassador to U.S.—721Kenya

1998 U.S. Embassy bombing in Nairobi—705Democracy efforts—689, 700–701President—689Relations with U.S.—689

KosovoKFOR international security force—585NATO, role—514

Labor, Department ofDeputy Secretary—189, 414Secretary—10, 65, 189

Labor issuesMinimum wage—102, 116, 130, 132, 155, 162,

190, 268, 291, 560Unions

American Federation of Labor and Congress ofIndustrial Organizations (AFL–CIO)—256

Teachers, American Federation of—439Workplace safety, improvement efforts—10

Labor Relations Board, National—733–734Laos, U.S. Ambassador—749Latino leaders, meeting with President—738Law enforcement and crime

Domestic violence—96, 153, 167–169, 192Drug use and youth availability—427Federal Assault Weapons Ban—25, 29, 37–38, 41,

62, 77, 183, 242, 249, 285Fraternal Order of Police—445Gun control—22, 24–25, 29, 33, 36, 40–41, 62, 76–77,

105, 128, 155, 167, 182–183, 249–250, 263–264,285, 287, 292, 306–308, 373, 378, 429, 733–734, 736

Gun violence, prevention efforts—34, 36–38, 40–41,57, 60–62, 76–78, 88, 105, 128–131, 160, 162, 165,167, 171, 181–182, 241–242, 248–251, 262–266,268–269, 271–272, 275, 277, 284–287, 292, 306,308, 344, 404, 462, 504–505, 572, 579, 721, 724, 726

Law enforcement and crime—ContinuedIllegal arms trade, reduction efforts—29, 41, 77,

105, 167, 184, 242, 249, 285, 367, 369, 373, 378Illegal immigration, deportation of criminals—66,

558, 564Law enforcement officers, service and dedica-

tion—427–429, 445National Association of Police Organizations—427–429Sexual assault—96, 153, 168–169, 192, 410–411,

456–457, 493State and community law enforcement agencies,

Federal support—62, 105, 130, 428Trafficking in persons, efforts to combat—168Transnational criminal organizations—34

LebanonHizballah political-paramilitary organization—207,

221, 387, 436, 481, 602President—742U.S. Ambassador—749

Legislation, enactedAmerican Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012—719Department of State Rewards Program Update

and Technical Corrections Act of 2012—34National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year

2013—3, 719Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of

2013—166, 168–169Legislation, proposed

American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012—1, 5Bipartisan Student Loan Certainty Act of 2013—512Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Im-

migration Modernization Act—673, 693, 751Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, 2013—64Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of

2013—96, 153, 155, 160Liberia, refugees in the U.S., status—187Library of Congress, Gershwin Prize for Popular

Song—478Libya

2012 attack on U.S. mission in Benghazi—349,433–434, 449–450, 480–481, 486

Democracy efforts—485, 748Former regime—120International and U.S. sanctions—120International assistance—722NATO, role—304, 514Political unrest and violence—120, 481Prime Minister—514, 748Security cooperation with U.S.—103U.S. Ambassador—729U.S. national emergency, continuation—120

Long-Term Care, Commission on—729

A–13


LouisianaDisaster assistance—726Governor—172

Maine, disaster assistance—731Malaria. See DiseasesMalawi

Democracy efforts—251President—251, 729Relations with U.S.—252

MalaysiaParliamentary elections—741Prime Minister—741Relations with U.S.—741U.S. Ambassador—747

Maldives, Ambassador to U.S.—721Mali

Democracy efforts—717France, role—602French military intervention, U.S. assistance—103Political unrest and violence—139, 585, 602, 662,

717, 722U.S. assistance—482

Management and Budget, Office of—163–164, 292,325, 732, 738

Marshall Islands, Disaster assistance—748Maryland

BaltimoreCenter for Urban Families—742Ellicott Dredges, LLC—458, 460–462, 464, 742Moravia Park Elementary School—460, 742

Democratic Party events—724Governor—143, 190, 458–459, 462, 491Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National

Monument—731President’s visits—458, 491, 724, 728, 739, 741–

742, 744–745U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis—298, 491, 495, 733Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in

Bethesda—63, 728, 745Massachusetts

BostonCharlie’s Sandwich Shoppe—747Massachusetts General Hospital—736Mayor, retirement—253Terrorist attack—301–303, 305–306, 308–315,

326, 330, 341, 350–351, 358, 427, 430, 437,439, 441–442, 444–445, 480–481, 486, 489,571, 597, 599, 735–737, 747

Democratic Party event—570Disaster assistance—736–737Governor—302–303, 309–310, 312, 326, 437, 439,

442, 570, 735, 737President’s visits—309, 312, 570, 735–736, 746–747U.S. Senator, election—659

Medals. See Decorations, medals, and awardsMedicare and Medicaid. See Health and medical

careMedicine, Institute of—344Mental Health, National Conference on—516, 519, 745Mexico

Ambassador to U.S.—721Border with U.S., infrastructure and securi-

ty—366–367, 370, 374, 377–379, 395Carbon dioxide emissions, reduction efforts—380Counternarcotics efforts, cooperation with

U.S.—357, 367Crime and narcotrafficking—377–378Economic growth and development—367, 369,

377–379Education system, strengthening efforts—380Energy cooperation with U.S.—374Entrepreneurs, meeting with President Obama—739Human rights issues—377National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City—376,

739Political reform efforts—377–378President—356–357, 364, 374, 378–380, 395, 442,

739, 748President Obama’s visit—356, 364, 374, 376, 393,

732, 738–739Relations with Canada—374Relations with U.S.—357, 366–369, 374–378, 393,

404, 438Science and technology—377, 380Security cooperation with U.S.—367, 369Student exchanges with U.S.—375, 380Trade with U.S.—357, 362, 366, 371, 374, 379–

380, 393–395, 404, 438, 738U.S. Embassy personnel, meeting with President

Obama—739Michigan

Disaster assistance—749Governor—144U.S. Representative, longest serving Member of

Congress in U.S. history—553U.S. Senator, retirement—169

Middle EastSee also Palestinian Authority and Palestinians;

specific countryArab-Israeli conflict, peace process—40, 202, 204,

207, 210–212, 214–218, 222–225, 234, 238–240,296, 323, 335, 430, 440, 485, 629, 638, 692, 727, 740

Democracy efforts—104, 204, 223, 430, 602, 692Political unrest and violence—400, 692Terrorism—40Terrorists who threaten to disrupt the peace pro-

cess, U.S. national emergency, continuation—40Military Compensation and Retirement Moderniza-

tion Commission—741

A–14

Subject Index

Mine Safety and Health Review Commission, Feder-al—743

MinnesotaDisaster assistance—739Governor—76Minneapolis Police Department’s Special Opera-

tions Center in Minneapolis—75, 724President’s visit—75, 724

Mississippi, disaster assistance—725Mississippi River Commission—740, 747Mongolia

Ambassador to U.S.—721Election—673Political reform efforts—673President—673Relations with U.S.—673

Montana, U.S. Senator, retirement—324Morocco

King—740Relations with U.S.—740

Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall Foundation—747Museum and Library Services Board, National—734

NAFTA. See Commerce, internationalNational. See other part of subjectNational security. See Defense and national securityNATO. See North Atlantic Treaty OrganizationNatural disasters

See also Disaster assistance; specific State or countryColorado, wildfires—748Hurricane Sandy—3, 64, 82, 99, 105, 199, 326,

428, 492, 500–501, 650, 719–721, 740, 745, 750Hurricane season, 2013—745Midwest, floods—341Oklahoma, tornadoes—477–478, 495, 497, 523, 744Preparedness efforts—141, 501, 655, 681, 740

Navy, Department of theComptroller—751Financial Management, Assistant Secretary for—751Secretary—145, 491U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD—298, 491,

495, 733NBC

“1600 Penn” program—721“Today” program—734

Netherlands, theKing—360, 738Princess—360Queen—360Relations with U.S.—360

NevadaDel Sol High School in Las Vegas—65Hawthorne Army Depot explosion, U.S. service-

member deaths and injuries—195President’s visit—65, 722–723

New Hampshire, disaster assistance—730New Jersey

Disaster assistance—501, 750Governor—500–501, 719, 744Hurricane Sandy, damage and recovery efforts—3,

64, 500–501, 719, 745Long Beach Island Grade School in Surf City—745Point Pleasant Beach boardwalk at Point Pleasant

Beach—745President’s visit—500, 744Union Beach Memorial School in Union Beach—745U.S. Senator

Death—519Retirement—123

New Mexico, Río Grande del Norte National Monu-ment—731

New YorkDemocratic Party events—437, 439, 441Disaster assistance—501, 737, 744Governor—719Hurricane Sandy, damage and recovery efforts—3,

64, 105, 199, 719President’s visit—437, 439, 441, 740–741

Nicaragua, President—438Niger, U.S. military detachment—139, 585Nigeria

Boko Haram terrorist group—704–705U.S. Ambassador—743

North AfricaDemocracy efforts—223, 430Political unrest and violence—400

North American Leaders’ Summit—395North Atlantic Treaty Organization—12, 19, 124,

253, 448, 513–514, 584–585, 601, 638, 743, 745North Carolina

Linamar North Carolina manufacturing facility inArden—116–117, 725

Mooresville Middle School in Mooresville—533–535,746

President’s visits—116, 533, 725, 745–746North Dakota, disaster assistance—738, 745Northern Ireland. See United KingdomNorth Korea

International diplomatic efforts—96, 296, 406,413, 725

Nuclear weapons development—96, 103, 136, 296,406, 409–411, 413, 552, 598, 638, 647, 725, 747–748

Poverty and economic instability—96Relations with Burma—376Six-party talks—96, 410Supreme Commander—409–410U.N. Security Council resolutions, noncompli-

ance—96U.S. national emergency, continuation—647U.S. sanctions—71

A–15


North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission—736Nuclear energy. See Energy; specific countryNuclear Regulatory Commission—730Nuclear weapons. See Arms and munitions; specific

country

Occupational Safety and Health Review Commis-sion—730

Office. See other part of subjectOhio

Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monu-ment in Wilberforce—731

Disaster assistance—720Ohio State University in Columbus—400President’s visit—400, 739

OklahomaDisaster assistance—477, 733, 742Governor—142, 477, 496–497, 654, 742–744Plaza Towers Elementary in Moore—744President’s visit—744Tornadoes, damage and recovery efforts—477–

479, 489, 495–497, 502, 523, 742–744Olympic Games. See Sports; specific countryOpen Government Partnership—252, 570, 662Oregon

2012 shootings in Happy Valley—38Governor—143

Organizing for Action—180Overseas Private Investment Corporation—737

PakistanCounterterrorism efforts—17, 482Democracy efforts—429Elections—429Federally Administered Tribal Areas, suspected

terrorist safe havens—16, 704Parliamentary elections—741Relations with Afghanistan—17, 430Relations with U.S.—429, 482, 741

Palestinian Authority and PalestiniansSee also Middle EastEconomic growth and development—214, 216, 225Gaza

Conflict with Israel—221Humanitarian crisis—214

Hamas political-paramilitary organization—207,214, 221

President—207, 211, 213, 224, 234, 323, 335, 730–731Prime Minister—214, 224, 730Security forces, improvement efforts—210, 214, 224U.S. assistance—214West Bank

Church of Saint Catherine in Bethlehem—731Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem—731Israeli settlements—216–218, 224

Palestinian Authority and Palestinians—ContinuedWest Bank—Continued

Muqata Presidential Compound in Ramallah—730President Obama’s visit—213, 730–731Youth Development Resource Center in Al-Bi-

reh—730Panama

Free trade agreement with U.S.—52, 174, 363President—394, 397

Paraguay, Ambassador to U.S.—721PBS

“Carole King: The Library of Congress GershwinPrize for Popular Song: In Performance at theWhite House”—478

“Charlie Rose” program—748“In Performance at the White House: Memphis

Soul”—288Peace, U.S. Institute of—727Peace Corps, U.S.—385, 662Pennsylvania

Disaster assistance—721Hurricane Sandy, damage and recovery efforts—721

Personnel Management, Office of—300, 578, 743Peru

Carbon dioxide emissions, reduction—569Counternarcotics efforts, cooperation with U.S.—567,

570Economic growth and development—567, 569Free trade agreement with U.S.—568President—567–568, 740Relations with U.S.—567–568, 570Science and technology, cooperation with U.S.—569Security cooperation with U.S.—567, 570Student exchanges with U.S.—567, 569U.S. Ambassador—750

Planned Parenthood—333–334Poland

Ambassador to U.S.—721Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 70th anniversary com-

memoration—736Postal Regulatory Commission—738Postal Service, U.S.—737Prayer Breakfast, National—83, 85Presidency, U.S.

Inauguration—43–45, 48–53, 65, 84–85, 87, 721–722State of the Union Address—97, 116, 121, 124–125,

128, 130, 132, 134–135, 724President. See other part of subjectPrinting Office, Government—740Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board—730, 749Public Broadcasting, Corporation for—727, 738,

746, 750

A–16

Subject Index

QatarAfghan Taliban office in Doha—13, 20, 601, 628–

629Amir—323, 601, 658, 733Relations with U.S.—323, 658Security cooperation with U.S.—323

Railroad Passenger Corporation, National (AM-TRAK)—746

Red Cross, American—478, 497Red Cross, International Committee of the—734Religious Freedom, U.S. Commission on Interna-

tional—734Religious leaders, meeting with President—733Retirement Thrift Investment Board, Federal—738Rhode Island, disaster assistance—731Rifle Association, National—25, 307Roman Catholic Church. See Holy See (Vatican City)Russia

2014 Olympic Games in Sochi—738Counterterrorism efforts, cooperation with U.S.—351,

597, 599–600Economy, strengthening efforts—596Hospital fire in Ramenskiy—738Nuclear weapons and material, risk of prolifera-

tion—598, 643Nuclear weapons stockpile, reduction—103President—351, 436, 597–600, 626, 632–633, 668,

727, 737–738Prime Minister—599Relations with U.S.—598–601, 668, 727Security cooperation with U.S.—600–601, 737–738Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with

U.S., expansion—5, 598, 638Syria, role—436Terrorist attack in Makhachkala—599Trade with U.S.—598U.S. national emergency, continuation—643

RwandaDemocratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda

insurgent group—34Genocide, 19th anniversary—283

Saudi ArabiaKing—721Minister of Interior—721Relations with U.S.—721

Science, President’s Committee on the NationalMedal of—732

Science and technologySee also Health and medical careBioethics issues—259Global competitiveness—260, 344, 367, 415

Science and technology—ContinuedPatent approval process, improvement ef-

forts—542Public-private partnerships—259Research and development—2, 23, 72–73, 75, 99–

100, 132, 163, 185–187, 189, 258–260, 271, 275,278, 317–318, 343–345, 403–404, 421, 438, 505,538–539, 541, 574, 578

Robotics—321, 344Scientific integrity, strengthening efforts—345Women and minorities—81

Science and Technology, President’s Council of Ad-visers on—344

Science and Technology Policy, Office of—316, 342, 345Science Foundation, National—71, 81, 316, 727Sciences, National Academy of—342–343, 346Securities and Exchange Commission, U.S.—54, 60, 743Security Agency, National—554, 630, 668Security and Co-operation in Europe, Organization

for—746Senegal

Chief Justice—669–670Democracy efforts—251, 661, 671, 676Goree Island

Civil society leaders, meeting with PresidentObama—671

Maison des Esclaves—671President—251, 660, 670–671, 674, 700, 729, 751President Obama’s visit—660, 669–671, 674, 676,

742, 750Radisson Blu Hotel in Dakar—751Relations with U.S.—252, 661–662, 672, 676, 679U.S. assistance—662U.S. Embassy personnel, meeting with President

Obama—751Sierra Leone

Democracy efforts—251President—251–252, 726, 729Relations with U.S.—252

SingaporeDefense relationship with U.S.—261Free trade agreement with U.S.—261Prime Minister—261, 732Relations with U.S.—261U.S. Ambassador—751

Small Business Administration—95Social Security program—24, 98, 648Somalia

Al-Shabaab terrorist organization—22, 482, 584French hostage rescue operation, U.S. military

support—22Political unrest and violence—482President—721Security cooperation with U.S.—103, 584Terrorism—705

A–17


Somalia—ContinuedU.S. assistance—717U.S. national emergency, continuation—280

South AfricaCape Town

Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation Youth Cen-ter—710, 752

Table Bay hotel—752University of Cape Town—711, 713

Economic growth and development—684Former President—252HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment strate-

gy—698, 710, 713, 715Investment and business ventures in U.S.—684Johannesburg

Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory—752Radisson Blu Hotel Sandton, Johannes-

burg—752Minister of Health—710President—682, 699, 701, 708, 752President Obama’s visit—678, 682, 695, 708, 710–

711, 742, 752Relations with U.S.—684–685, 694, 709Robben Island—752Speaker of the National Assembly—708Trade with U.S.—684, 694U.S. Ambassador—710, 751U.S. Embassy personnel, meeting with President

Obama—752South America, trade with U.S.—393South Dakota

Disaster assistance—740, 752U.S. Senator, retirement—247

South KoreaAfghanistan, role—406Defense relationship with U.S.—405–406, 410–413,

725, 748Energy cooperation with U.S.—405Free trade agreement with U.S.—52, 174, 405, 412Korean war, 60th anniversary—293Nuclear energy—405President—405, 412, 725–726, 735, 739, 748Relations with U.S.—405–406, 411–413, 725Special Olympics World Winter Games in Py-

eongchang—723Student exchanges with U.S.—406

South Sudan, relations with Sudan—717Spain, U.S. Ambassador—748Sports

Auto racing—735Basketball—62, 248, 254, 357, 581, 676, 722, 734,

747, 749Football—298, 300, 471, 491, 528–530, 721, 724,

727, 733–734, 745Hockey—246, 730

Sports—ContinuedNASCAR—734NCAA championship teams—300, 721, 734Olympic Games—738Soccer—246, 567–568, 730Special Olympics—723

State, Department ofAmbassadors. See specific countryAssistant Secretaries

African Affairs—749East Asian and Pacific Affairs—741European and Eurasian Affairs—744

Benghazi, Libya, attack on U.S. mission, Account-ability Review Board—433–434, 449

Inspector General—751International Communications and Information

Policy, Deputy Assistant Secretary—744Legal Adviser—736Secretary—32, 70, 173, 191, 208, 215, 218, 236,

239, 430, 436, 440, 629, 659, 720–723, 726–727,729, 732, 739

Women’s Issues, Ambassador at Large for Global—729Sudan, relations with South Sudan—717Supreme Court. See JudiciarySyria

Democracy efforts—69, 208, 221, 236–238, 296,414, 602, 632–633

International and U.S. assistance—69, 208, 236–237, 296, 348, 387, 408, 430, 440, 449, 453, 633

International and U.S. sanctions—449, 453, 455International diplomatic efforts—69, 208, 348,

408, 431, 436, 598Political unrest and violence—69, 104, 207–209,

221, 235–237, 240, 296, 323, 336–337, 348–349,369, 387–388, 390, 406, 408, 414, 430, 436, 440,449, 453, 455, 481, 485, 598, 628, 632–633, 722,727, 738, 742, 748, 750

President—69, 207, 221, 235–238, 323, 336, 348–349, 369, 387, 390, 406, 408, 414, 430, 436, 440,449, 453, 455, 485, 602, 632–633

Relations with Iran—436Relations with U.S.—70U.S. national emergency, continuation—414

Tanzania, President Obama’s visit—742Taxation

American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012—5–6, 23Child tax credit—5Research and experimentation tax credit—1, 5Tax Code, reform—1–2, 5–6, 10, 23, 27, 30–31, 46,

75, 79–80, 87, 91–92, 97–98, 103, 118, 129, 132–135, 137, 143, 146–147, 152–156, 158, 162, 165,185, 282, 291, 338, 353, 396, 549, 727–728

A–18

Subject Index

Taxation—ContinuedTax cuts, budgetary effects—75, 98, 140Tax-exempt organizations, approval process—433,

445, 447–448, 451–452, 454, 741, 750Tax relief—1, 5, 30Tobacco tax—290, 396

Tax Court, U.S.—740Telemundo—723, 732Tennessee, Governor—143, 289Terrorism

See also Defense and national security; specificcountry or region

Al Qaida terrorist group—6, 8, 12–13, 15–17, 20–21,43, 89–90, 103, 169, 350, 353, 436, 440, 480–484,487–489, 492, 583–584, 601, 632, 639, 644, 704

Counterterrorism efforts—8, 103, 247, 350–351,482–488, 492, 494, 531, 583, 585, 599–600, 630–632, 639, 644, 704–705

Global threat—43, 103, 247, 350, 480–481, 483–484, 486–487, 489, 599–600, 705

Guantanamo Bay detaineesReview and disposition—488Transfer—4, 487–488

Lord’s Resistance Army insurgent group—717National Counterterrorism Center—433Ricin-laced letters sent to the White House and

Senate offices—735–736September 11, 2001, attacks—17, 103, 326, 354,

358, 480–481, 483, 489, 631, 644Terrorists

Detention policies and standards, reform—487Interrogation procedures—480Prosecution—487–488Torture of terrorism suspects, prohibition—480

TexasAustin

Applied Materials, Inc.—416, 418–419, 421, 740Capital Factory—420–422, 740Stubb’s B-B-Q restaurant—740

DallasGeorge W. Bush Presidential Center—326, 328, 738Southern Methodist University—738

Democratic Party event—325Disaster assistance—737Governor—314, 330Manor New Technology High School in Man-

or—414, 416–419, 422, 740President’s visits—325, 328, 330, 414–415, 418–

419, 737–740West Fertilizer Co. plant in West, explosion—312, 314,

326, 330–332, 341, 437, 439, 441–442, 444–445, 738Trade. See Business and industry; Commerce, inter-

nationalTrade agreements or negotiations. See Commerce,

international; specific country or region

Trade Commission, Federal—750Trade Representative, Office of the U.S.—52, 119,

640, 726Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)—104, 138–139,

174, 178, 367, 374, 380, 527, 567–568, 747Transportation

High-speed rail lines, development and expan-sion—144

Infrastructure, national, improvement efforts—22,70, 75, 100, 117, 132, 143, 155, 160, 162, 177,181, 254–256, 268, 271–272, 274, 282, 290, 346–347, 352, 379, 404, 438–439, 443, 461–462, 473,505, 516, 541, 672

Public-private partnerships—256Transportation, Department of

Aviation Administration, Federal—338, 352–353Secretary—70, 346, 672

Treasury, Department of theInternal Revenue Service—433, 445, 447, 451–

452, 454, 741–742, 750International Affairs, Under Secretary for—175Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary for—741Secretary—10, 151, 165, 173, 445, 447, 722, 727–

729, 732, 734, 736, 738–741, 743, 746, 750Secretary-designate—57Tax Administration, Treasury Inspector General

for—433, 445, 447, 452Tunisia

Ambassador to U.S.—735Democracy efforts—485

TurkeyCounterterrorism efforts, cooperation with U.S.—448Democracy efforts—449Economic growth and development—448Government accountability and transparency,

strengthening efforts—449Human rights issues—449Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) insurgent group—449Political reform efforts—750Prime Minister—231, 238, 448, 733, 741, 750Relations with Africa—679Relations with Armenia—325Relations with Israel—231, 238, 448Relations with U.S.—231, 448Security cooperation with U.S.—449, 453Terrorist attack in Reyhanli—448Trade with U.S.—448

Tuvalu, Ambassador to U.S.—721

UgandaLord’s Resistance Army insurgent group—34, 585U.S. military detachment—585

Ukraine, U.S. Ambassador—727

A–19


United Arab EmiratesAbu Dhabi, Crown Prince—304, 733, 735Armed Forces, Deputy Supreme Command-

er—304, 733, 735Relations with U.S.—304Security cooperation with U.S.—304Trade with U.S.—304

United KingdomAfghanistan, British military forces, deployment—430Former Prime Minister, death—288, 735Northern Ireland

Deputy First Minister—194–195, 198, 729Enniskillen Integrated Primary School in Enni-

skillen—748First Minister—194–195, 198, 587, 729Lough Erne Resort in Enniskillen—748Relations with Ireland—194, 253–254, 589–591Relations with U.S.—254Secretary of State—587

President Obama’s visit—587–588, 592, 597, 601,740, 748

Prime Minister—430, 490, 592, 722, 740, 747–748Relations with U.S.—288, 430, 435–436, 490, 722Security cooperation with U.S.—490Terrorist attacks—490Trade with U.S.—430

United NationsHuman Rights Council—746Millennium Development Goals—252Reform—296Refugees, U.N. High Commissioner for—643Secretary-General—296, 733Security Council—96, 687U.S. Permanent Representative—433–434, 530

Univision—723, 732U.S. See other part of subjectUSAID. See Development, U.S. Agency for International

Valles Caldera Trust—725Vatican. See Holy See (Vatican City)Venezuela

President—166Relations with U.S.—166

Vermont, disaster assistance—747Veterans

Access to health and medical care—105, 201American Legion—727Benefits—7, 22, 24, 90, 306, 358, 495Hiring incentives—190, 359Job training and education assistance—90, 105,

201, 358–359Service and dedication—123, 405Suicide rate—518Unemployment and underemployment—359Wounded Warrior Project Soldier Ride—305

Veterans Affairs, Department ofEducation and job training assistance—7Secretary—50, 305, 498, 516, 518

Vice President. See White House OfficeViolence Against Women Reauthorization Act of

2013—277Virginia

2007 shootings in Blacksburg—248, 250Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington—498,

722, 744Governor—147Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall—725Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News—145President’s visits—86, 89, 145, 498, 722, 724–726, 744

Voluntarism—41–42, 126, 199, 312, 401, 582

Washington, DC. See District of ColumbiaWashington, San Juan Islands National Monu-

ment—731Weapons of mass destruction. See Arms and muni-

tionsWestern Hemisphere

See also Central America; Commerce, internation-al; Developing countries

Connecting the Americas 2022—398Energy and Climate Partnership of the Ameri-

cas—569Regional trade, promotion efforts—396

West VirginiaGovernor—144U.S. Senator, retirement—21

White House Correspondents’ Association—172,338–339, 348

White House OfficeAssistants to the President—750

Cabinet Secretary—60, 723Chief of Staff—10–11, 57–59, 198, 723, 735, 742Chief of Staff, Deputy—742Communications and Strategy, Deputy Senior

Adviser—723Communications Director—723Counselor—58, 81Domestic Policy Council—725Homeland Security and Counterterrorism—8,

302, 477, 723, 735–737, 742International Economic Affairs, Deputy Nation-

al Security Adviser for—175, 750Legislative Affairs, Director—723, 725, 750Management and Administration—723National Security Adviser—198, 530, 737National Security Adviser, Deputy—58, 721,

723, 735Policy, Deputy Chief of Staff for—723Press Secretary—80, 172, 352, 452Senior Adviser—59, 559, 723

A–20

Subject Index

White House Office—ContinuedAssistants to the President—Continued

Speechwriting, Deputy Director—724Speechwriting, Director—173, 198, 724White House Counsel—664, 750

Drug Control Policy, Office of National—427Economic Advisers, Council of—561, 724, 747Economic Council, National—171Export Council, President’s—174, 178, 746Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships,

White House Office of—83National Security Adviser to the Vice President—735National Security Telecommunications Advisory

Committee, President’s—746Vice President—1, 24–25, 29, 34–37, 40, 43–45,

48–49, 61–62, 97, 102, 142, 165, 167–169, 173,198, 248–249, 358, 367, 457, 529, 551, 578, 580,599, 721–729, 731–743, 745–747, 750

Women and Girls, White House Council on—191,559–560

White House Science Fair—315, 345, 736–737Wisconsin, 2012 shootings in Oak Creek—38, 62,

106, 241, 287, 428World Trade Organization—598Wounded Warrior Project Soldier Ride—305Wyoming, Governor—143Yemen

Counterterrorism efforts, cooperation with U.S.—482Democracy efforts—441Political unrest and violence—482Security cooperation with U.S.—103, 584U.S. national emergency, continuation—441

Young African Leaders Initiative—695, 697, 704,708, 718

Zambia, Ambassador to U.S.—721Zimbabwe

Democracy efforts—161, 685, 690, 716U.S. national emergency, continuation—161

A–21

Name Index

Aaron, Henry J.—760Abarca, Mario—428Abbas, Mahmoud—207, 211, 213, 224, 234, 323,

335, 730–731Abdallah bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud, King—721Abdullah II, King—232, 335, 731, 733Abdulmutallab, Umar Farouk—354, 485, 489Abe, Shinzo—136, 138, 725–726, 747Aberly, Naomi—325Abrams, Robert B. “Abe”—50–51Abud, Manuel—543Adams, Gerry—589Adams, Yolanda—726Adelson, Sheldon G.—340Alameda, Kenny—745Aleman, Alan—68–69Alexander, Alex B.—419Alexander, Elizabeth—537Alexander, Lamar—49Al Farajat, Suleiman A.D.—731Alivisatos, A. Paul—185, 260Allen, Catherine A.—725Allen, John R.—15, 136Allex, Denis—22Alonzo, Joe—740Althen, William I.—743, 762Amos, James F.—50Anders, William A.—649Anderson, Frederick—469Andraka, Jack—316, 345Andrew, Anne Slaughter—389Archuleta, Katherine—743, 762Arena, Bruce—246Armstrong, Matthew C.—734, 759Arnold, Frances H.—73Asad, Bashar al- —69, 207–208, 221, 235–238, 323,

336, 348–349, 369, 387, 390, 406, 408, 414, 430–431, 436, 440, 449, 453, 455, 485, 602, 632–633

Atkins, Miles—533Atkinson, Caroline M.—750Attwood, Cynthia L.—730, 758Aung San Suu Kyi—104, 475Auriemma, Geno—734Austin, Jean-Philippe—574Averette, Candie—499Axelrod, David M.—339Ayalde, Liliana—748, 765

Bacharach, Robert E.—719, 753Bachmann, Michele M.—341

Badilla, Bryan—389Baer, Daniel B.—746, 764Baer, Joshua—740Baggott, Matt—589Baker, James A., III—735Balsiger, Jim W.—736Banda, Joyce—251, 729Ban Ki-moon—296, 733Bard, Allen J.—73Barkow, Rachel E.—735, 760Barnes, Martin E., Jr.—742Barnett, Mark A.—720, 754Barrett, Michael P.—50Barron, Laurie—320Barroso, José Manuel Durão—119, 592Baskett, Jim—121Bass, Hyman—732Bass, Karen R.—548–549Battier, Shane—63Baucus, Max S.—324Bauer, Denise Campbell—749, 765Bauer, Robert F.—105, 667, 743Beatrix, Princess—360Beatty, Joyce H.—400Becerra, Xavier—86Becker, Sylvia M.—755Bell, William—289Bellamy, Terry M.—116Benedict XVI, Pope—96, 180Benjamin, Medea—488–489Bennet, Michael F.—262, 356, 370, 441, 444, 471,

473–474, 478, 537–542, 565, 673, 725, 747, 751Bennett, D. Michael—737, 760Bennett, Steve—746Bennett, Tony—53Bentley, Robert J.—144Bernanke, Ben S.—760Berry, M. John—300, 578, 749, 766Biden, Jill T.—44, 49, 105, 192, 248, 358, 360, 531, 722Biden, Joseph R., Jr.—1, 24–25, 29, 34–37, 40, 43–

45, 48–49, 61–62, 97, 102, 142, 165, 167–169, 173,198, 248–249, 358, 367, 457, 529, 551, 578–580,599, 721–729, 731–743, 745–747, 750

Biel, Jessica C.—289Billington, James H.—478Binz, Ronald J.—751, 767Bishop, Sanford D.—465Blank, Arthur M.—471, 473Blank, Molly—471Blank, Rebecca M.—174, 176, 193, 363, 414

B–1


Blinken, Antony J.—723, 735Block, Sharon—757Bloomberg, Michael R.—158Blount, Joseph W.—575Blum, Samuel E.—72Blumenthal, Richard—285Boehner, John A.—1, 2, 24, 27, 30–31, 33, 49, 79, 97,

143, 147, 149, 155–158, 160, 172, 195, 198, 282,291, 330, 445, 693, 719, 727, 751

Bogapane, Lebogang—698Bolden, Charles F., Jr.—316Bonnie, Robert—751, 767Borman, Frank—649Bosh, Chris—63Bowe, Peter A.—458, 742Bowles, Erskine B.—79, 98, 134Brainard, Lael—175Brainerd, Michael E.—498Branstad, Terry E.—654Brazelton, T. Berry—125Breedlove, Philip M.—253Brennan, John O.—6, 169, 198, 728, 737, 754Brennan, Kathy Pokluda—8Brewster, J. Walter, Jr.—749, 766Breyer, Charles R.—735, 760Brigance, Orenthial J.—529Brigety, Reuben E., II—749, 766Brin, Sergey M.—65, 259Brits, Elrina—243Britton, Brian—743Broderick, Vernon S.—735, 760Brooks, Timothy L.—746, 763Brower, Jeff—119Brown, Alvin—177Brown, Debra M.—742, 762Brown, Dustin—246–247Brown, James N.—361Brown, Marilyn A.—759Brown, Terea—127Brownback, Samuel D.—143, 654Bruce, Colin S.—738, 761Buerkle, Ann Marie—743, 762Bugay, Virginia—502Bulgaa, Altangerel—721Burcham, Margaret W.—740Burke, Adam D.—126Burwell, Sylvia Mathews—163, 325, 757Bush, Barbara—328–329Bush, Barbara P.—329Bush, George H.W.—328–329, 526, 651, 657Bush, George W.—57, 67, 140, 166, 326, 328–331,

343, 402, 488, 524, 526, 546, 562, 679, 710, 738Bush, Laura—328–329, 331Bustos, Cheri—504

Cadish, Elissa F.—719, 753, 758Calderón Hinojosa, Felipe de Jesus—369, 378Callis, Ann—504, 506Calmes, Jackie—545–546Cameron, David—430, 490, 592, 722, 740, 747–748Cameron, Ian O.—532Cameron, Samantha G.—430Campbell, Edward—73Campbell, Krystle M.—310, 314Campbell-Smith, Patricia E.—729, 758Canfield, Natoma—425–426Canterbury, K. Charles, Jr.—445Cantor, Eric I.—719Cantwell, Maria—540–542Caproni, Valerie E.—719, 753Carlile, Brandi—267, 273Carney, Chris—305–306Carney, James F. “Jay”—80, 172, 352, 369, 372, 452,

629Carper, Thomas C.—746, 763Carroll, Michael G.—746, 764Carruthers, George—73Carson, Benjamin S.—83, 85Carson, Johnnie—719Carson, Jon—180, 182Carter, Ashton B.—89Carter, James E., Jr.—49, 328–329, 526, 531Carter, Rosalyn—328Carter, Shawn C. “Jay-Z”—339Castillo-Chavez, Carlos—732Castro, Julian—419Catchings, Tamika—191, 582Cellucci, A. Paul—657Chalmers, Mario—63Chambliss, Saxby—739Chandler, Raymond F.—50Chang Diaz, Franklin—389Chaouachi, Mohktar—735Chapman, Georgina—437Chappell, Sheri Polster—719, 753Charbonneau, Andrew J.—321Charbonneau, Darline M.—321Charbonneau, Jeffrey A.—320–322Charbonneau, Makayla M.—321Charbonneau, Marc E.—321Charbonneau, Monika M.—321Charbonneau, Ryan E.—321Chavez Frias, Hugo—166Chen, Pamela Ki Mai—719, 753Chen, Raymond T.—724, 756Chernin, Megan—548Chernin, Peter F.—548–549, 551Chin, Susan—320Chinchilla Miranda, Laura—381, 391–392, 394, 397,

399, 739

B–2

Name Index

Chisholm, Sallie W.—73Christensen, D. Wade—141Christie, Andrew—500Christie, Bridget—500Christie, Christopher J.—500–501, 719, 744Christie, Patrick—500Christie, Sarah—500Chu, Steven—71, 74, 163–164, 184Church, Jason—305Cicerone, Ralph J.—342Clapper, James R., Jr.—8, 350, 737Clark, Diana Shaw—729Clark, Robert E., III—491Claypool, Henry—729Cliburn, Harvey L. “Van,” Jr.—163Clinton, Hillary Rodham—32, 173, 191, 236, 328,

434, 720–723, 727Clinton, William J.—11, 49, 135, 163, 328–329, 458,

526, 562, 591, 727Clooney, George T.—182Clune, Daniel A.—749, 766Clyburn, James E.—86, 149Clyburn, Mignon L.—362Cohen, Richard F., Jr.—755Cole, James, Jr.—746, 764Cole, Thomas J.—167, 496, 742Coleman, Christopher B.—76Coleman, Michael B.—400Collier, Sean A.—313, 737Collins, Francis S.—258–259, 316Collins, Jason—357Collins, Marie—198Collins, Michael—198Collins, Susan M.—727Coly, Eloi—671Comey, Abby—645Comey, Brien—645Comey, Claire—645Comey, James B., Jr.—643, 765Comey, Katherine—645Comey, Maurene—645Comey, Patrice—645Comey, Peter—645Condo, Arturo—394–395, 397Condon, Kathryn A.—498Conyers, John J., Jr.—150Copeland, Mary Jo—125Cordray, Richard A.—54, 60, 757Corker, Robert P., Jr.—727, 739Corn, David—172Cornett, Mick—496Cornyn, John, III—330Costos, James—748, 765, 767Courtney, Joseph—285Cowan, William M. “Mo”—659

Crabtree, George—184Crapo, Michael D.—167Crawford, Stephen—758Cretz, Gene A.—719Crist, Charles J., Jr.—33Crocker, Ryan C.—740, 761–762Croom, Robert E.—458, 742Cropper, Steve—289Crowder, John—332Crowley, Joseph—86Crowley-Pendleton, Cleopatra—105, 128, 249–250Cruise, Tom—173Cruz, Alejandro Landin—379Cruz, John—503Cruz, R. Edward “Ted”—173, 340–341Cruz, Victor—316, 318Cui Tiankai—735Cullen, Christopher C.—499Cummings, Elijah E.—458Cummings, Ruth—458Cuomo, Andrew M.—719

Daschle, Thomas A.—11, 58Dates, Jannette L.—727, 757Davenport, Chester C.—470Davidson, Douglas A.—736Davidson, Janine—732D’Avino, Rachel—126Davis, Brian J.—719, 753Davis, Edward F.—737Day-Lewis, Daniel—341Dayton, Mark B.—76Deal, John N.—144Deasy, John E.—548Deese, Brian C.—732, 759DeGette, Diana L.—262DeGioia, John J.—649, 729De Gucht, Karel—119DeLauro, Rosa L.—285de la Valle, Julian—245Delery, Stuart F.—730, 758Delgado Hernández, Pedro A.—751, 766Dempsey, Martin E.—50, 89, 93, 456–458, 498, 660, 741DesLauriers, Richard—737Diayté, Nimna—693, 703Diaz-Balart, Jose—723Dick, Rachelle L. “Shelly” Deckert—720, 753Dieng, Gorgui—676DiFava, John—313Dingell, John D., Jr.—553, 747Dlamini-Zuma, Nkosazana—752Doggett, Lloyd A., II—415, 419Donato, James—749, 765Donilon, Sarah—531Donilon, Teddy—531

B–3


Donilon, Thomas E.—198, 530, 726, 737Donovan, Landon—246–247Dorman, Michael—125Dorsey, Jennifer A.—720, 753Douglas, Katie—582Douglas, Michael—339Dowd, Maureen B.—172, 339Dowe, Mike—293–294Drell, Sidney D.—73DuBester, Ernest W.—757DuBois, Joshua P.—83Duckworth, L. Tammy—503Dukakis, Michael S.—309Duncan, Arne—36, 62, 320, 322, 516, 533Duncan, Malcolm, Jr.—331Dunn, Lin—581–583Durant, Kevin—62Durbin, Richard J.—128, 184, 356, 474, 478, 504,

538, 565, 673, 725, 747Dyson, James—403

Early, Gerald L.—722, 756Ebert, Chaz—280Ebert, Roger—280Echevarria, Joe—559–560, 743Edmonds, Kenneth B. “Babyface”—479Edwards, Mark A.—533, 537, 540–541, 548Elbegdorj, Tsakhia—673Elebo, Kingsley—244Elliott, Kiona—345Ellis, Sara Lee—738, 761Ellison, Keith M.—76Emanuel, Rahm I.—127, 129–130, 504Emerson, John B.—748, 765Englebardt Lautenberg, Bonnie—124Engler, Richard J.—755Entwistle, James F.—743, 762Erdogan, Recep Tayyip—231, 238, 448, 733, 741, 750Estevez, Alan F.—755Esty, Elizabeth H.—285Faber, Sandra M.—72Failla, Katherine Polk—720, 753Fallin, Mary—141–142, 477, 496–497, 654, 742–744Fallon, James T., Jr.—267, 339Fanning, Eric K.—578, 756Fardon, Zachary T.—744, 763Favreau, Jonathan E.—173, 724Fayyad, Salam—214, 224, 730Feingold, Russell L.—685Feldblum, Chai R.—743, 762Fernandez, Katherine—389Finn, Chester A.—723FitzGibbon, Kathleen—726Fitzsimmons, Maureen—533Flacco, Joseph V.—528–529

Flake, Jeffrey L.—356, 370, 474, 478, 538, 550, 565, 673Flores, George—417Floyd, Eddie—289Foer, Jonathan Safran—724Forsman, Leonard—740Foster, G. William, III—184, 504Fox, Brad M., Jr.—446Fox, Kadence—446Fox, Lynsay—446Foxx, Anthony R.—346, 672, 761Foxx, Hillary—347Foxx, Laura—347Foxx, Mary—347Foxx, Samara—347Foxx, Zachary—347Francis, Pope—180, 198, 729Francisco, Joseph S.—732Franken, Alan S.—76, 172Franklin, Aretha—479Freeh, Louis J.—644Freeman, Beth L.—749, 765French, Brye—299Fritz, Grant—35, 36Froman, Michael B.—175–176, 362, 640, 662, 761Frost, Joye—745Fuga, Paula—503Fugate, W. Craig—477, 496, 501, 744Funkhouser, Anthony C.—747Furman, Henry—562Furman, Jason L.—561, 764Furman, Louisa—562

Gagliardi, John P.—58Garbow, Avi—746, 763Garcetti, Eric M.—548–549Garcia, Jose A., Jr.—254, 256Garcia, Joseph—262, 265Gaspard, Patrick H.—751, 767Gates, S. James, Jr.—72Gauck, Joachim—627, 749Gaynor, Judith—508Geale, Nicholas C.—755Gearan, Mark D.—761Gee, E. Gordon—400Gegeshidze, Archil—735Geithner, Carole Sonnenfeld—10–11Geithner, Timothy F.—10–1, 173, 722Genachowski, Julius M.—231, 361–362George, J. Russell—433, 445, 447, 452George-Redd, Pertula—244Gerber, Eve—562Germanotta, Stefani J.A. “Lady Gaga”—53–54Gesing, Rick G.—418, 740Getty, Ann—270Getty, Gordon—270

B–4

Name Index

Gifford, John R.—765Gifford, Rufus—748Giffords, Gabrielle D.—77, 105, 286–287, 306–307, 742Gilbert, Lori—750Gillibrand, Kirsten E.—177Gimenez, Carlos A.—254Ginsberg, Benjamin L.—105, 667, 743Ginsburg, Douglas H.—524Ginsburg, Ruth Bader—525Gira, Diane—579Godlewski, James—51Goffin, Gerry—479Goldman, John D.—276–277, 279Goldman, Marcia L.—276, 279Golomb, Solomon W.—73Gomez, Maria S.—125Gonzales, Kenneth J.—720, 753Gonzalez, Omar—246Goode, Teja—35Goodenough, John B.—73Goodman, Carolyn—65Goodman, Lee E.—749, 766Goosby, Eric—710Gordon, Andrew P.—720, 753Gordon, Samuel N.—734Gordon, Sylvia—591Goslins, Rachel—362Gottemoeller, Rose E.—761Graham, Lindsey O.—350, 356, 370, 474, 478, 538,

565, 673, 693, 726, 751Gray, Danielle C.—723Grayson, Charles M. “Trey”—743Green, Al—289Greene, Jimmy—284Greene, Trevor—320Greenert, Jonathan W.—50, 491Green-Jackson, Pamela—125Grein, Thomas—725Grey, Robert J., Jr.—762Griffin, Chad—751Griffin, Richard F., Jr.—757Grossman, David—224Grove, Andrew S.—66Guadarrama, Gabriela—417Guerra, Wayne—421Guthrie, Savannah—734Gutman, Joseph D.—736

Haahs, Timothy H.—757Hackett, Kenneth F.—748, 765Hadley, Stephen J.—727, 757Hagel, Charles T.—6, 90, 149, 165, 172, 369, 410,

456–458, 498, 664, 720, 728–729, 731–733, 735,738–739, 741, 743, 745, 747, 750, 754

Hagel, Lilibet Ziller—8

Hagel, Thomas—7Hager, Jenna Bush—329Hager, Margaret Laura “Mila”—329Haikala, Madeline Hughes—740, 761Hail, Michael W.—756Haines, Avril D.—736, 747, 760, 765Hale, David—749, 766Halligan, Caitlin J.—166, 232, 525, 719, 753, 759Halvorsen, Gail S.—636Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani—323, 601, 658, 733Hamilton, Lee H.—58Hammer, Michael A.—749, 766Hancock, Michael B.—262Hannigan, Theresa—730Harbaugh, James J.—529Harbaugh, John—528–530, 724Harden, Jahman B.—414Harden, Krysta L.—751, 767Harkin, Ruth R.—61Harkin, Thomas R.—61Harper, Benjamin C.—289Harper, Keith M.—746, 764Harper, Stephen J.—395, 748Harrell, Margaret C.—732Harris, Joan W.—508Harris, Julian—729Harris, Kamala D.—276, 339Harris, Seth D.—189, 414Harteau, Janeé—75Hartog-Levin, Fay—738Hasenfratz, Frank—116Haslach, Patricia M.—748, 765Haslam, William E.—143, 289Hassan Sheikh Mahamud—721Hassanal Bolkiah, Sultan—178, 728Hawthorne, M. Frederick—73Hayek, Richard—401Healy, Henry—588Heaney, Seamus—589Heising, Mark W.—274, 276Hendricks, Bruce H.—751, 766Hennie, Linda—445Henry, Edward M.—172, 338–339, 341Herbst, Ellen C.—751, 767Herencia, Roberto R.—737, 760Herron, Evelyn—361Hessler-Radelet, Carrie—726Heumann, Judith E.—723Hewson, Paul D. “Bono”—479Hickenlooper, John W.—262–263, 266, 748Hicks, Thomas—763, 764Hidalgo-McCabe, Rosemary—168Hill, Ezra—50Himes, James A.—285Hochberg, Fred P.—461, 578, 730, 758

B–5


Hochsprung, Dawn Lafferty—126Hockley, Ian—283Hockley, Nicole—283–284, 287Hoffman, Jack—738Hogan, Steven—262–263Hoglander, Harry R.—759Hogues, Homer—50Holder, Eric H., Jr.—36, 62, 76, 159, 166, 199, 262,

302, 339, 452, 454, 487, 660, 735, 737Holdren, John P.—316, 342, 345Holladay, Jon M.—741, 762Hollande, François—594, 601, 626, 722, 747–748Holmes, Calvin L.—744Holmes, James E.—37, 264Holt, Rush D., Jr.—344, 500Honda, Michael M.—267, 276Hood, Leroy—73Horsford, Steven A.—65Hoseini-Khamenei, Ayatollah Ali—240Howard, Juwan—63Hoyer, Steny H.—86, 458, 460–461, 504, 507–509Hoyt, Dick—311Hoyt, Rick—311Hubbard, R. Glenn—272Hudson, Peter—421Huerta, Dolores C.—191Huffman, Jared—267Hughes, Todd M.—724, 756Humala Tasso, Ollanta Moises—567–568, 740Hume, John—589Humiston, Mary—740Husock, Howard A.—746, 764

Iffrig, Bill—311Iger, Robert A.—175Inhofe, James M.—743Isaacs, Eric D.—184–185, 260Israel, Steven J.—86, 267, 270–271, 273, 441, 444,

504, 506–507

Jabari, Jacob—698Jackson, Alec—316Jackson, Evan—316Jackson, Janice Y.—126Jackson, Ketanji Brown—720, 754Jackson, Lisa P.—163, 164Jackson, Orlando—50Jackson, Vincent E. “Bo”—362James, LeBron—63–64Jaques-McMillin, Shelley—496Jarrell, Jim—116Jarrett, Ed—745Jarrett, Valerie B.—191, 559–560Jasien, William S.—738, 760Jewell, Sarah M.R. “Sally”—81, 292, 756

Jindal, Piyush “Bobby”—172Johnson, Barbara Brooks—247Johnson, Earvin “Magic,” Jr.—724Johnson, Edward—500Johnson, Harry I., III—733, 759Johnson, Henry C., Jr.—121, 465Johnson, James W.—168Johnson, Timothy P.—247Johnson, Tobe—466Jones, Barrett—300Jones, Booker T.—288–289Jones, B. Todd—37, 77, 755Jones, Deborah K.—729, 757Jones, Jacoby R.—528Jones, James J.—758Jordan, Michael—403Jordan, Michael J.—504Junier, John—389

Kagan, Elena—32Kahn, Tammie—734Kale, Karsh—503Kale, Katy A.—723Kamoie, Brian—736Kapaun, Emil J.—293, 728, 733Kapaun, Ray—295Kaplan, Elaine D.—578, 730, 758Karner, Mihael—515Karpf, Sean—305Karr, Payton—345Karzai, Hamid—12, 19, 21, 601, 628–629, 720–721,

733, 750Katami, Paul—751Kayatta, William J., Jr.—719, 753Keenan, Cody S.—198, 724Kelley, Cliff—733Kelley, Paul X.—186Kelly, Claire R.—720, 754Kelly, Jane—724, 756Kelly, Mark E.—77Kelly, Robin—504Kennedy, Patrick J.—518Kenny, Enda—194–196, 198–200, 594, 729, 748Kenny, Fionnuala—195, 198Kenyatta, Uhuru—689Keppel, Stephen—543Kerlikowske, R. Gil—427Kerry, John F.—70, 173, 208, 215, 218, 236, 239,

430, 436, 440, 573, 629, 659, 726–727, 729, 732,739, 754

Kerscher, George—734Keselowski, Brad—734–735Khosla, Neeru—540Khosla, Vinod—540–541Kidwell, Epiphany J.—418

B–6

Name Index

Kieff, F. Scott—756Kim Jong Un—409–410Kim, Sung—723, 726King, Carole—478King, Robert—525Kirichenko, Nikita—243Kirk, Ronald—52, 119, 326, 362–363, 726Kitzhaber, John A.—143Klobuchar, Amy J.—76, 172, 176, 540–542Knight, James—729, 758Knutson, Lynn Brinkworth—499Koch, Edward I.—74Koch, Rachel—560Kony, Joseph—34, 585Kopocis, Kenneth J.—758Korman, Edward—373Koroma, Ernest Bai—251–252, 726, 729Kosinski, Dorothy—759Koss, Robert K.—543Koutz, James E.—727Krieger, Mike—66Krueger, Alan B.—561Krueger, Benjamin—561Krueger, Lisa Simon—561Kubricki, Jon—317Kuniholm, Jonathan F.—723

LaBarre, Myrna L.—462–463LaBreck, Janet L.—724, 756LaHood, Kathy—346LaHood, Raymond H.—70, 346–348Lampert, Matthew H.—494Langer, Robert—73Langley, Nanci E.—738, 760Lanza, Adam P.—29LaPierre, Wayne—307Larson, John B.—285Lau, Meir—230Laughlin, Esetelle W.—736Lauper, Cyndi—289Lautenberg, Bonnie Englebardt—519Lautenberg, Frank R.—123, 519Lawrence, Clayton—50Leahy, Patrick J.—96, 153, 167, 390, 478, 525, 673, 747Leavitt, Michael P.—50Lebowitz, Laurence H.—325Ledbetter, Lilly—191Ledet, Joshua—289Lee, Alison R.—751, 767Lee Hsien Loong—261, 732Lee Myung-bak—725Lee, Peter V.—543Lee, Spike—470Leffingwell, Lee—419Leger, Teresa Isabel—727

Lehrman, Patience A.—125Leibowitz, Laurence H.—328Letta, Enrico—594, 742, 747–748Levere, Andrea—736, 760Levi, John G.—764Levia, Jason—428Levin, Barbara—170Levin, Carl M.—169Levin, Sander M.—504, 507, 509Lew, Jacob J.—10, 57, 59, 151, 164–165, 173, 445,

447, 727–729, 732, 734, 736, 738–741, 743, 746,750, 754–755

Lew, Ruth Schwartz—11Lewis, Glenn—477, 496–497, 742–743Lewis, John R.—465Lewis, Raymond A., Jr.—458, 529Lhamon, Catherine E.—746, 764Lieberman, Joseph I.—99Limbaugh, Rush—339, 438Limerick, Patricia Nelson—722, 756Linick, Steve A.—751, 767Linnington, Michael S.—498Listenbee, Robert, Jr.—724Liveris, Andrew N.—151–152Llodra, E. Patricia—283Logan, Vincent G.—757Lomax, Harvard “Larry”—743Loughner, Jared L.—77Love, Alvin—131Lovell, James A., Jr.—649–650, 658Lowe, Rick—734, 759Lowe, Shelly C.—722, 756Lozano, Monica K.—543Lu, Christopher P.—60Lu, Lingzi—310, 314Lute, Douglas E.—743, 762

Mabus, Raymond E., Jr.—145, 491Mabuse, Nkepile—695, 698–699, 702–703, 706Mace, Larry—93Mace, Vanessa—93Macfarlane, Allison M.—730, 758Machel, Graça—752Mack, Huey—446Madiba-Zuma, Thobeka S.—708–709, 752Madigan, Lisa—128Madison, Joe—726Mahama, John Dramani—719Maldon, Alphonso, Jr.—741Malloy, Dannel P.—283–284, 286Manchin, Joseph, III—292, 307, 373Mandela, Nelson R.—252, 665, 680, 683–684, 690,

696, 698, 701, 709, 712–713, 716, 718, 752Manford, Jeanne—126Mankiw, N. Gregory—562

B–7


Manning, Lauren—489Marcano, Ivan—428Markell, Carla—141Markell, Jack A.—141–142Markey, Edward J.—570, 659, 747Márquez, Rosemary—720, 754Marquez-Greene, Nelba—284Marrett, Cora B.—316Martell-DeMerchant, Laquitta—560Martinelli, Ricardo Berrocal—394, 397Martinez, Susana—729Mason, Karol V.—725, 757Mason, Susan—580Mason, Thom—185, 260Mastromonaco, Alyssa—743Matthews, Cleo—164Maurer, Peter—734Maxima, Queen—360Mayes, Michele Coleman—743Mayo, Stephen L.—727Mayorkas, Alejandro N.—243, 751, 767May-Parker, Jennifer P.—749, 765Mazur, Barry C.—73McCafferty, Landya B.—744, 763McCain, John S., III—99, 147, 172, 304, 356, 370,

474, 478, 488, 538, 550, 565, 657, 673, 693, 726,735, 741, 751

McCann, Colum—592McCarron, Raymond A. “A.J.,” Jr.—300McCarthy, Dennis M.—732McCarthy, Regina—163, 657, 757McCollum, Betty L.—76McCombs, Norman R.—73McConnell, A. Mitchell—1, 26, 30, 49, 149, 157–158,

160, 340, 727McCue Allan, Lucy—537McCue, Katie—537McCue, Lily—537McCue, Marci—537McCue, Mike—537McCulley, Terence P.—749, 766McCulloch, Phil—725McDonnell, Christopher—38, 250McDonnell, Lynn—38McDonnell, Robert F.—147McDonough, Addie—59McDonough, Denis R.—57, 198, 721, 723, 735, 742McDonough, Kari—59McDonough, Liam—59McDonough, Teddy—59McGeehan, Ann—743McGill, Matt—733McGriff, Mary—305McGuinness, J. Martin P.—194–195, 198, 587, 729McHugh, Carolyn B.—742, 762

McHugh, John M.—93, 457McIlroy, Rory—589McMahon, Mary—121–122McMillan, Amanda—191–192McMillin, Michael—496McNerney, W. James, Jr.—175–176McShane, Michael J.—720, 754McSweeny, Terrell—750, 766McTaggart, Duncan A.—458Mead, Matthew H.—143Meade, Christopher J.—755Medina, Emelyn—381Medine, David—755Medvedev, Dmitry Anatolyevich—599Meluza, Lourdes—732Menendez, Robert—356, 370, 474, 478, 538, 565,

673, 725, 747Menino, Angela Faletra—253Menino, Thomas M.—253, 302–303, 309, 312, 570–

571, 735, 737Merkel, Angela—594, 626, 635–637, 640, 747–749Merten, Kenneth H.—751Messina, James A.—180, 182Metcalf, Carol—422–423, 425Metcalf, Justin—423Metsger, Richard T.—741, 762Meyer, Caleb—317Meyer, Jeffrey A.—746, 763Meyer, Urban—400Mikulski, Barbara A.—458–459Mikva, Abner J.—277, 506, 550Mikva, Laurie I.—764Miles-LaGrange, Vicki—759Miller, D’Angelo—416Miller, Herbert A.—294–295Miller, James C., III—765Miller, Michael H.—298, 491–492Miller, Mike—63Miller, Steven T.—447, 451Miller, Trey—298Millett, Patricia A.—524, 763Millette, Erick—305Millich, Diane E.—168Mills, Karen G.—95Mills, William M. “Makata Taka Hela”—125Miolan-Forteza, Hilda—428Miscimarra, Philip A.—733, 759Mohammed VI, King—740Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan—304, 733, 735Monaco, Lisa O.—302, 477, 723, 735–737, 742Mondale, Walter F.—76Moniz, Ernest J.—163, 458, 757Montalvo, Ralph “Rafi”—299Montano, Janelle—516Montenegro, Lori—732

B–8

Name Index

Montes de Oca, Shasta—574Moore, Gwendolynne S.—153, 167Moore, Mal M.—300Moore, Raymond P.—720, 754Moore, Sam—289Mora Icaza, Eduardo Medina—721Morell, Mary Beth—7Morell, Michael J.—6, 9, 169, 747Morris, Brian—744Morris, Bruce—763Morris, Dick—341Motsoaledi, Pakishe Aaron—710Mueller, Ann—644–646Mueller, Robert S., III—301–302, 313, 643, 735, 737Muhammad bin Nayif bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud—721Mull, Stephen D.—736Mullen, Michael G.—433–434Mulonda, Palan—721Muñoz, Cecilia—725Muñoz, Henry R., III—276, 326, 439, 574, 576Murphy, Anne Marie—126, 321Murphy, Brian—106, 428Murphy, Christopher—285Murray, Thomas—735Mursi, Muhammad—689, 727, 752Mushingi, Tulinabo Salama—734, 759Muska, Tommy—314, 331Musselwhite, Charlie—289Mvandaba, Lindiwe—710

Nabors, Robert L., II—723, 750Nahon, Maria Cecilia—735Najib Razak—741Namath, Joseph W.—301Napolitano, Giorgio—124, 315, 723Napolitano, Janet A.—32, 36, 62, 65, 243, 301–302,

477, 735, 737, 742Natapoff, Samuel—439Navarro-González, Rafael—380Ndungane, Winston Hugh Njongonkulu—711Nee, Thomas J.—427Nega, Joseph W.—740, 761Nelsen, Brent F.—738, 760Nelson, Hannah—587Nelson, Madison—579Nelson, Valerie—579Netanyahu, Benjamin—202, 205, 215–219, 228,

230–231, 234, 238, 245, 335, 723, 730–731, 740Netanyahu, Sara—206, 228Nethery, Mark T.—747, 764Neves, José Maria Pereira—251, 729Newsome, Ozzie, Jr.—528, 530, 724Ng, Konrad—502Ng, Savita—502Ng, Suhaila—502

Nichols, Brian A.—750, 766Niumatalolo, Ken—298–299, 491Nix, Don—289Nolan, Richard M.—504Noorzai, Haji Khotwal—515Novak, Robbie—258, 732Nsour, Abdullah—234Nuland, Victoria J.—744, 762Nunley, Troy L.—720, 754

Obama, Malia—33, 83, 85, 124, 128, 184, 191–192,215, 219, 221, 223, 229, 239, 257, 260, 270, 274,279, 345, 376, 419, 422, 437–438, 469, 473, 503,511, 559, 587–588, 590, 636, 642, 661, 671, 680,683, 685, 704, 712, 720, 722, 732, 748–752

Obama, Michelle—21, 33, 42–44, 49, 51–54, 59, 61,74, 83, 89, 91, 93, 96, 105, 116, 119, 121–122, 124,128, 141, 145, 148, 163, 170, 180, 191–192, 196,201, 204, 244–245, 247–248, 257–258, 265, 280,286, 288, 293, 298, 301, 310, 324, 329, 339–340,358, 360–361, 376, 399–400, 422, 430, 442, 466,469, 471, 491, 494, 500, 502–503, 511–512, 517,519, 553, 561, 571, 577, 582, 587–588, 636, 642,644, 661, 671–672, 676, 680, 683, 696–697, 704,708, 712, 720, 722, 727, 731–732, 736, 738, 740,742, 744–745, 748–752

Obama, Natasha “Sasha”—33, 83, 85, 124, 128, 184,191–192, 215, 219, 221, 223, 229, 239, 257, 260,270, 274, 279, 345, 419, 437–438, 469, 473, 491,503, 511, 559, 582, 587–588, 590, 636, 642, 661,680, 683, 685, 704, 712, 720, 722, 732, 748–752

O’Brien, Conan C.—339O’Connell, Beverly Reid—720, 754Odierno, Raymond T.—50, 93, 339, 456Ohlson, Kevin A.—759O’Keefe, Michael K.—730, 758Okimoto, Daniel I.—722, 756Okrent, Alex S.—54Okun, Robert D.—730, 758Olajuwon, Hakeem Abdul—63Olsen, Matthew—433Olubunmi, Tolu—563–564, 566O’Malley, Cardinal Sean P.—309O’Malley, Martin J.—143, 190, 458–459, 462, 491Ó Muilleoir, Máirtín—587O’Neal, Shaquille—357Ordonez Galan, Ing Manuel—458O’Regan, Katherine M.—751, 767O’Reilly, Bill—339Orrick, William H., III—720, 754Ortega Saavedra, Daniel—438Ortega, Rodain—428Ouattara, Alassane Dramane—78Owens, Dana E. “Queen Latifah”—289

B–9


Padalino, John C.—744Padane, Aissatou—672Padilla, David—358Page, Larry—259Paisley, Ian R.K.—589Pallone, Frank, Jr.—500Palmieri, Jennifer M.—723Panetta, James—90Panetta, Leon E.—6, 9, 56, 89, 93, 410, 721, 724Panetta, Sylvia M.—6, 89–90Parham, Gregory L.—741Park Geun-hye—405, 412, 726, 735, 739, 748Pasco, James O., Jr.—445Pascual, Carlos—760Patel, Khadija—698Patrick, Deval L.—302–303, 309–310, 312, 326, 437,

439, 442, 570, 735, 737Patrick, Tammy—743Paul, Rand—341Paulson, Henry M., Jr.—10Paxton, John M.—491Payne, Donald M., Jr.—500Pearce, David D.—750, 766Pearce, Mark G.—733, 759Pelosi, Nancy—1, 49, 86, 89, 149, 153, 267–273, 441,

444–445, 504, 506–510, 649, 693, 719, 727, 729,740, 751

Peña Nieto, Enrique—356–357, 364, 371, 374, 378–380,395, 442, 739, 748

Pendleton, Hadiya Z.—105, 128, 131Pendleton, Nathaniel—105, 128Peng Liyuan—746Perciasepe, Robert—163Peres, Shimon—202–203, 216, 219, 226, 230, 245,

730–731Perez Molina, Otto Fernando—394, 397Perez, Myrna—764Perez, Thomas E.—189, 758Perlmutter, Edwin G.—262Pernambucano, Juninho—246Perry, J. Richard—314, 330Perry, Kristin—751Pete, Mary C.—741Peters, F. Whitten—732Peters, Mary—589Petters, C. Michael—145–146, 148Petty, Julie—723Peyman, Gholam A.—72Pfannl Caballero, Fernando Antonio—721Pfeiffer, H. Daniel—723Philips, Erin—582Phillips, Cherie Forslund—499Phillips, Francis G., III—499Phillips, Gregory A.—724, 756Pickering, Thomas R.—433–434

Pierce, Susan—496Pierson, Julia A.—248, 731–732Pill, Jeremy—446Pill, Ryan—446Pill, Steve—446Pillard, Cornelia T.L. “Nina”—524, 763Piñera Echenique, Sebastian—527, 740Pitino, Rick—734Piwowar, Michael S.—743, 762Plouffe, David A.—59Polite, Kenneth A., Jr.—752, 767Pope, Carol Waller—755Porcari, John—462Portman, Robert J.—727Power, Samantha—530, 764Power-Sunstein, Declan—532Power-Sunstein, Rian—532Prater, Dave—289Preckwinkle, Toni R.—128Preston, Stephen W.—747, 764Price, Max—711, 713Price, McKinley L.—145Primas, Lisandra—65Pritzker, Penny S.—362, 659, 761Pryor, Jill A.—719, 753Pryor, Mark L.—83Pryor, William H., Jr.—735, 760Puchala, Linda A.—759Putin, Vladimir Vladimirovich—351, 436, 597–600,

626, 632–633, 668, 727, 737–738Pyatt, Geoffrey R.—727, 757

Quick, Jonathan—246Quinn, Patrick J., III—128Quiñones Alejandro, Nitza I.—578, 720, 754

Rabern, Susan J.—751, 767Ramaswamy, Ranee—759Ramer, Bruce M.—727, 757Randolph, Dylan—414Raphael, Carol—729Rasmussen, Anders Fogh—513, 745Ravel, Ann Miller—749, 766Raven, Abbe—191Rawlings-Blake, Stephanie—458Ray, Owen G.—127Reaves, Brian K.—184Reed, Edward E., Jr.—529Reed, M. Kasim—65, 121, 465, 471, 474Reed, Sylvia—471Reeker, Philip T.—751Reeves, Pamela L.—742, 762Reid, Harry M.—1, 49, 149, 158, 673, 727Reid, Richard C.—489Rell, Jodi—657

B–10

Name Index

Restrepo, Luis F.—720, 754Reynolds, Keenan—298Rice, E. John, Jr.—532Rice, Susan E.—433–434, 530Rice-Cameron, Jake—532Rice-Cameron, Maris—532Richard, Denise—310Richard, Jane—310Richard, Martin—302, 310, 314Richards, Cecile—333–334Richie, Laurel—581Richmond, Cedric L.—465Rigby, Lee—490Rigell, E. Scott—145, 147Rivera, Angelica—366Roach, John—317Roberts, John G., Jr.—45, 525–526, 722Robinson, Caleb—316Robinson, Marian—478, 671Robinson, Marietta S.—756Robinson, Peter—194–195, 198, 587, 729Robinson, Rachel—273, 279Rockefeller, John D. “Jay”—21Rodgaard, Katerina—248, 250–251Rodriguez, Miguel E.—723, 725, 750Rogers, Marie Lopez—65Rogers, Martishia—93Roig, Kaitlin—321Román, Nelson S.—720, 754Romesha, Clinton L.—12, 93, 721Romesha, Colin—93, 95Romesha, Dessi—93Romesha, Gary—93Romesha, Gwen—93Romesha, Tamara—93Romney, W. Mitt—102, 105, 172, 272, 309, 657, 667Roper, Tui—41Rose, Charles P.—764Rose, Charlie—748Rose, Patricia A.—578Rosen, Jeff—723Rosenbaum, Greg A.—729Rosenfield, Arthur H.—73Ross, Antonio—127Roth, Julie—578Roubideaux, Yvette—737, 760Rouhani, Hassan—692Rouse, Peter M.—58, 81Rousseau, Lauren G.—126Rousseff, Dilma—745Roussell, Melanie N.—734Roy, James A.—50Rubio, Alexis—417Rubio, Marco A.—172, 341, 356, 370, 474, 478, 538,

550, 565, 673, 726

Ruemmler, Kathryn H.—664, 750Ruiz, Angel—746Ruiz, Carla—332Rush, Bobby L.—128, 184, 504Russel, Daniel R.—726, 741, 762Russell, Catherine M.—192, 531, 729, 758Rutherford, Donald L.—293Ruttledge, Lynnae M.—723Ryan, Paul D.—728Rybak, Raymond T.—76Rymer, Jon T.—750, 766

Saban, Nicholas L.—300–301, 721Sakho, Papa Oumar—669–670Salazar, Esperanza—82Salazar, Kenneth L.—39, 65, 68, 81–83, 166, 731Salinas, Maria Elena—723Sall, Macky—251, 660, 670–671, 674, 700, 729, 751Sall, Marieme Faye—676, 751Sallo, Marlene—745Saltzman, Bettylu K.—507–509Saltzman, Paul W.—508Sánchez, Diego N.—566Sanchez, Jessica—258, 502Sánchez, Luis—566Sanchez, Menchu de Luna—105Sanchez Arellano, Luis Fernando—515Sandico, Mel—52Sarbanes, John P.—459Sarbanes, Paul S.—459Sareer, Ahmed—721Sasae, Kenichiro—721Saucedo, Alejandra—566Sauer, Joachim—641, 749Scalia, Antonin—525Schaefer, Mark E.—744, 763Schakowsky, Janice D.—504, 507, 509Schlenker, Ann M.—184Schmehl, Jeffrey L.—720, 754Schnepf, Ryszard Marian—721Schulman, Maureen—734Schultz, William B.—755Schumer, Charles E.—48–49, 304, 356, 370, 441,

444, 474, 478, 538, 565, 673, 693, 725, 735, 747, 751Schwartz, Eric P.—734Schwartz, Norton A.—50Scott, Robert C.—145, 147Sebelius, Kathleen—32, 36, 62, 372–373, 516, 519Senghor, Augustin—671Sentelle, David B.—524Sepulveda, Daniel A.—744, 763Serino, Richard A.—742Sessions, Jefferson B., III—83Sessions, William H.—644Shah, Rajiv J.—678–679

B–11


Shahzad, Faisal—354, 489Shalev, Avner—230Shapiro, Lucy—73Sharif, Nawaz—741Sharon, Ariel—224Sharpton, Alfred C., Jr.—726Shelanski, Howard A.—738, 761Shell, Jeffrey—755Shelton, Leland S.—470, 472Sherlach, Mary—126Shigekawa, Joan—502Shima, Terry T.—125Shinseki, Eric K.—50, 305, 498, 516, 518Shipman, Matthew C.—496Shultz, George—735Shwartz, Patty—719, 753Silver, Nathaniel R.—172Simas, David—723Simati, Aunese Makoi—721Simmons, Tyson—740Simon, Herbert—581Simons, Elizabeth—274, 276Simpson, Alan K.—79, 98, 134Simpson, Amy D.—496Sisulu, Max—708Skowronski, Robert—50Slaughter, Chris—420Sleiman, Michel—742Smith, Frederick W.—186Smith, Gary T.—736Smith, Gordon H.—517Smith, J. Torrey—529Snelson, Bo—299Snowden, Edward J.—668–669Snyder, Bradley—494Snyder, Larry—281Snyder, Richard D.—144Soetoro-Ng, Maya—320, 502, 512Solis, Hilda L.—10, 65, 189Solomon, Lafe E.—763Sorkin, Aaron—339Soto, Genesis—389Soto, Victoria—126Sotomayor, Sonia M.—32Souza, Peter—267Spencer, Wendy—127, 316Sperling, Eugene B.—171–172Spiegel, Eric A.—100Spielberg, Steven—341Splinter, Michael R.—418, 421, 740Spoelstra, Erik—62–63, 749Springsteen, Bruce—500Srinivasan, Maya—503Srinivasan, Rangaswamy—73Srinivasan, Srikanth—490, 503, 525, 719, 753

Srinivasan, Vikram—503Stanton, Alexandra—439Stanton, Gregory J.—65Stapel, Sharon—168Staples, Mavis—289Starr, Kenneth W.—330Stavridis, James G.—253, 738Stein, Kara M.—743, 763Steinberg, Alycia—423, 425Steinberg, Avey—423Steinbrueck, Peer—749Stephenson, Barbara—735Stevens, Clark W.—744Stevens, Michael D.—50Stevenson, Betsey—747Steyer, Thomas—266–267, 269Stier, Sandra—751Stiglitz, Joseph E.—562Stillings, Jerry—496St. Laurent, Albert—446St. Laurent, Brenda—446St. Laurent, Chartelle—446St. Laurent, Larry—446St. Laurent, Lenny—446Stock, James H.—563, 724Stokes, Julia—35–36, 38Stoll, Jarret—246Sulak, Deborah—332Sullivan, Azza—574–575Sullivan, Jake—735Sullivan, Mark J.—74Sullivan, Stephanie Sanders—747, 765Sullivan, Thomas D.—574Sundstrand, Jacquelyn K.—734Sunstein, Cass R.—532Suresh, Subra—71, 81Susman, Louis—735Sutliff, Loretta C.—766Sutter, Darryl—246Swalwell, Eric—267Swan, James C.—751, 767Swaniker, Fred—698Swarbrick, John B., Jr.—300Swearengin, Ashley—65Sweet, Caroline—740Swift, Jane M.—309, 657Swift, Taylor—341

Tachau, Katherine H.—722, 756Tadele, Betsegaw—466, 472Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani—658Tan, Amy—503Tangherlini, Daniel M.—743, 763Tant, Allison—574, 576Taranto, Richard G.—719, 753

B–12

Name Index

Tavenner, Marilyn B.—756Taylor, Charles—695Taylor, James V.—479Taylor, Kathryn—266, 269Taylor, Stratton—116, 117Teitelbaum, Donald G.—719Thackeray, Michael—187Thatcher, Margaret—288, 735Thein Sein—474, 741Theophilos III—281Thomas, Christopher M.—743Thomas, William L.—720, 754Thomas-Greenfield, Linda—749, 766Thompson, John H.—744, 763Thompson, Kenneth D.—288–289Thornblad, Corey T.—250–251Thornton, Michael B.—740, 761Thurman, James D.—726Timberlake, Justin—289Titus, A. Constandina—65Tobias, Constance B.—759Todd, Chuck—173Tomblin, Earl R.—144Toomey, Patrick J.—292, 307, 373Torres, Analisa—719, 754Traubert, Donald P.—363Traubert, Rose P.—363Treffinger, Mark—725Treisman, Anne M.—73Trimble, W. David—589Tsarnaev, Dzhokhar—313, 350, 427, 489, 736–737, 747Tsarnaev, Tamerlan—313, 427, 737Tsarnaeva, Zubeidat—350Tulbert, Carrie—533, 535Turner, Jeff—415Tutu, Desmond M.—696, 710–711, 752Twito, Osher—221Tyler-Nyman, Mason—416

Udall, Anne J.—765Udall, Mark E.—739Umarov, Kairat—721

Valencia-Weber, Gloria—760Vance-Cooks, Davita—740, 761Vanderpuye, Charisma—417Van Hollen, Christopher, Jr.—728Van Rompuy, Herman—119, 592Verrilli, Donald B., Jr.—159Verveer, Melanne—191Victor, Desiline—106Vilcek, Jan T.—73Villaraigosa, Antonio R.—548–549

Villiers, Theresa—587Vilsack, Thomas J.—723Viso, Olga—758Vollrath, Frederick—755Volz, David—317, 345Volz, Pattye—317, 345Volz, Sara—317, 345

Wade, Abdoulaye—251Wade, Dwyane—63–64Wagar, Kirk W.B.—751, 767Wald, Patricia M.—730, 758Walter, Elisse B.—55Ward, Andrea—446Warren, Elizabeth—572–573Warsame, Ahmed Abdulkadir—482Washington, Tevyn—414Wasserman Schultz, Deborah—254, 256, 574, 576Watson, Derrick K.—720, 754Watt, Graham—361Watt, Melvin L.—116, 360, 427, 761Watters, Susan P.—744, 763Wayman, Nicole C.—418Webster, William H.—644Weingarten, Randi—439Weinstein, Dashiell—438Weinstein, Harvey—437Weiss, Lara—578Weiss, Lesley L.—729, 736Weiss-Wynne, Luna—578–579Weiss-Wynne, Zea—578–579Weld, William F.—309, 657Wenger, Brittany—345Wensing, Matthew—421Werfel, Daniel I.—452, 742, 750Wesner, Alexa Lange—751, 767West, Derek A.—755Westbrook, Russell—62Wetzel, Keegan—299Wheeler, Francine—284Wheeler, Thomas E.—360, 761Whitaker, Michael G.—741White, John W.—56White, Mary Jo—54, 60, 756–757White, Robert C.—262Wicker, Roger—735–736Wiemerslage, Brad—421Wiesel, Elie—230Wiggins, Jessica—571Wilkins, Robert L.—524, 763Willem-Alexander, King—360, 738Williams, Grant—50Williams, Pete—341

B–13


Wilson, Frederica S.—254, 256Wilson, John S., Jr.—465, 467Windsor, Edith—664, 750Winfrey, Oprah—340Winnefeld, James A. “Sandy,” Jr.—50, 660Woertz, Patricia A.—177Wofford, Harris L.—126Wolf, Robert—746Wolford, Elizabeth A.—742, 762Wommack, Agnes—740Wonder, Stevie—44Wong, Alice—723Wood, Andrea R.—738, 761Wood, David—51Woods, Gregory H.—740, 761Woodward, Bob—171–172Wowereit, Klaus—635, 749Wright, Jessica N.—288–289Wyeth Earnest, Natalie—741Wynne, James—73Wynne, Nora—578

Xi Jinping—531, 541–542, 545, 551, 553, 656, 668–669,729, 742, 745–747

Yang, Jenny R.—755Yang, Jerry—65Yohannes, Daniel W.—719Young, William G.—489Yun, Joseph Y.—747, 765

Zamora Rivas, Ruben Ignacio—735Zarillo, Jeffrey—751Zarych, Bridget—317Zaydan, Ali—514, 748Zeejah, Hinna—35Zeroing, Elias A.—140Zients, Jeffrey D.—164, 292Zipkes, Steven M.—414Zoern, Stacy—420Zuma, Jacob—682, 699, 701, 708, 752Zuzek, Jake—298

B–14

Document Categories List

Addresses and RemarksSee also Addresses to the Nation; Appointments

and Nominations; Bill Signings and Vetoes; In-terviews With the News Media; Meetings WithForeign Leaders and International Officials

2012 NCAA football champion University of Ala-bama Crimson Tide—300

2012 Women’s National Basketball AssociationChampion Indiana Fever—581

Applied Materials, Inc., in Austin, TX—418Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, IL—184Asbury Park, NJ—500Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage

Month reception—502Belfast, Northern Ireland, youth town hall meet-

ing—587Boston, MA, terrorist attack

First responders and volunteers—312Interfaith prayer service for victims—309Remarks—301–302Suspect Dzokhar Tsarnaev, arrest—313

Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany—635Burrville Elementary School, service event—41Business Council, dinner—151Cabinet meetings—165Cape Town, South Africa

Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation Youth Center,roundtable discussion—710

University of Cape Town—711“Carole King: The Library of Congress Gershwin

Prize for Popular Song: In Performance at theWhite House”—478

Central American Integration System leaders, din-ner in San Jose, Costa Rica—391

Commander in Chief ball—50Commander in Chief’s Trophy—298Congressional Friends of Ireland luncheon—195Costa Rica, INCAE Business School’s Central

American Forum on Sustainable Economic De-velopment, question-and-answer session in SanJose—394

Dakar, SenegalAfrican judicial leaders, meeting with President

Obama—669Food security exposition, tour—676

Decatur Community Recreation Center in Deca-tur, GA—121

Del Sol High School in Las Vegas, NV—65

Addresses and Remarks—ContinuedDemocratic Congressional Campaign Committee

fundraisersChicago, IL—504, 507New York City—441San Francisco, CA—266, 270

Democratic National Committee fundraisersAtherton, CA—274, 276Atlanta, GA—471Dallas, TX—325Miami Beach, FL—575Miami, FL—574New York City—437, 439, 441Santa Monica, CA—548

Democratic Senatorial Campaign CommitteefundraisersPalo Alto, CA—537Portola Valley, CA—540

Easter egg roll—258Easter prayer breakfast—280Ellicott Dredges, LLC, in Baltimore, MD—458Equal Pay Act, 50th anniversary—559Federal budget—79, 133, 290Federal student loan program—510Georgetown University—649George W. Bush Presidential Library, dedication

ceremony in Dallas, TX—328Goree Island, Senegal

Civil society leaders, meeting with PresidentObama—671

Maison des Esclaves, tour—671Gridiron Club dinner—171Gun control legislation, Senate action—306Gun violence—34, 248, 262Health care reform—422Health insurance reforms—542House Democratic Issues Conference in Lees-

burg, VA—86Hyde Park Academy High School in Chicago, IL—127Immigration reform

Remarks—563Roundtable discussion—648

InaugurationLuncheon—48Reception—43Staff ball—52

“In Performance at the White House: MemphisSoul”—288

Internal Revenue Service—447

C–1


Addresses and Remarks—ContinuedJerusalem

International Convention Center—219Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial—230

Joining Forces initiative, veterans employmentevent—358

Law enforcement officials, meeting with Presi-dent—61

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender PrideMonth, reception—578

Linamar Corp. facilities in Arden, NC—116Major League Soccer Champion Los Angeles Gal-

axy—246Manor New Technology High School in Manor,

TX—414Markey, Rep. Edward J., senatorial candidate,

fundraiser in Boston, MA—570Medal of Honor

Capt. Emil J. Kapaun, posthumous presenta-tion—293

S. Sgt. Clinton L. Romesha, presentation—93Memorial Day ceremony in Arlington, VA—498Mental Health, National Conference on—516Minneapolis Police Department’s Special Opera-

tions Center in Minneapolis, MN—75Moore, OK, tour of tornado damage—495Mooresville Middle School in Mooresville,

NC—533Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA, commence-

ment address—465National Academy of Sciences—342National and State Teachers of the Year—320National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City,

Mexico—376National Association of Police Organizations, cere-

mony honoring TOP COPS—427National Basketball Association Champion Miami

Heat—62National Defense University at Fort Lesley J. Mc-

Nair—479National Governors Association

Dinner—141Meeting—142

National Hockey League Champion Los AngelesKings—246

National Medal of Science and the National Medalof Technology and Innovation, presentation—71

National Peace Officers Memorial Service—445National Prayer Breakfast—83Naturalization ceremony for active duty service-

members and civilians—243Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News,

VA—145Nowruz, videotaped remarks—192

Addresses and Remarks—ContinuedOhio State University in Columbus, OH, com-

mencement address—400Oklahoma, tornadoes—477Organizing for Action, dinner—180Planned Parenthood national conference—333PortMiami in Miami, FL—254Presidential Citizens Medals—125President’s Export Council, meeting—174Rosa L. Parks, statue honoring, dedication ceremo-

ny—149Science and technology—258Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta, Armed

Forces farewell tribute at Joint Base Myer-Hen-derson Hall, VA—89

Sexual assault in the U.S. Armed Forces, meetingwith President—456

St. Patrick’s Day reception—198Super Bowl Champion Baltimore Ravens—528Syria, videotaped remarks—69Tax reform legislation, Congressional passage—1Tel Aviv, Israel, arrival ceremony—202University of Hartford in Hartford, CT—283U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD, com-

mencement address—491U.S. Secret Service Director Julia Pierson, swear-

ing-in ceremony—248Weekly addresses—5, 21, 40, 60, 75, 91, 132,

140, 161, 170, 188, 241, 257, 282, 314, 338,393, 426, 464, 494, 515, 557, 586, 647, 680

West Fertilizer Co. plant explosion in West, TXMemorial service at Baylor University in Waco,

TX—330Remarks—312

White House Correspondents’ Association din-ner—338

White House Science Fair—315Women’s History Month, reception—191Wounded Warrior Project Soldier Ride, opening

ceremony—305Young African Leaders Initiative, town hall meet-

ing and question-and-answer session in Johan-nesburg, South Africa—695

Addresses to the NationInaugural Address—45State of the Union—97

Appointments and NominationsSee also Digest, Nominations Submitted, and

Checklist at the end of this volumeCentral Intelligence Agency Director, nomination,

remarks—6Commerce Secretary, nomination, remarks—362

C–2


Appointments and Nominations—ContinuedConsumer Financial Protection Bureau Director,

renomination, remarks—54Council of Economic Advisers Chairman, nomina-

tion, remarks—561Defense Secretary, nomination, remarks—6Energy Secretary, nomination, remarks—163Environmental Protection Agency Administrator,

nomination, remarks—163Federal Bureau of Investigation Director, nomina-

tion, remarks—643Federal Communications Commission Chairman,

nomination, remarks—360Federal Housing Finance Agency Director, nomi-

nation, remarks—360Interior Secretary, nomination, remarks—81Joint Chiefs of Staff

Chairman, renomination, statement—660Vice Chairman, renomination, statement—660

Labor Secretary, nomination, remarks—189Management and Budget, Office of, Director,

nomination, remarks—163National Security Adviser, appointment, re-

marks—530NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, nom-

ination, statement—253Security and Exchange Commission Chair, nomi-

nation, remarks—54Transportation Secretary, nomination, re-

marks—346Treasury Secretary, nomination, remarks—10U.S. Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit

Judges, nomination, remarks—524Vacancy, withdrawal of nomination, state-

ment—232U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Na-

tions, nomination, remarks—530U.S. Trade Representative, nomination, re-

marks—362White House Chief of Staff, appointment, remarks—57

Bill Signings and VetoesDepartment of State Rewards Program Update

and Technical Corrections Act of 2012, signingstatement—34

National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year2013, signing statement—3

Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of2013, signing remarks—166, 728

Communications to CongressBangladesh, Generalized System of Preferences,

message on suspension of benefits—673Belarus, U.S. national emergency, message on con-

tinuation—580

Communications to Congress—ContinuedBudget amendments for fiscal year 2014, letter

transmitting—464Burma, U.S. national emergency, message on con-

tinuation—376Combat-equipped Armed Forces, U.S., deploy-

ment, letter—583Côte d’Ivoire, U.S. national emergency, message

on continuation—78Cuba

Anchorage and movement of vessels, U.S. na-tional emergency, letter on continuation—139

Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIBER-TAD) Act of 1996, review of title III, letter—39

Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, 2013, letter—70Global counterterrorism and overseas contingency

operations, letter designating funds—247High Seas Fisheries Resources in the North Pacific

Ocean, Convention on the Conservation and Man-agement of, message transmitting to Senate—318

High Seas Fishery Resources in the South PacificOcean, Convention on the Conservation and Man-agement of, message transmitting to Senate—319

IranAdditional U.S. sanctions, message on authoriza-

tion—519U.S. national emergency, message on continua-

tion—180Iraq, U.S. national emergency, message on contin-

uation—463Jordan, War Powers Resolution report, letter—646Judicial branch supplemental budget proposal, let-

ter transmitting—553Kingpin Act, letter transmitting designations—515Libya, U.S. national emergency, message on con-

tinuation—120Middle East, terrorists who threaten to disrupt the

peace process, U.S. national emergency, letteron continuation—40

Niger, U.S. Armed Forces personnel, letter on de-ployment—139

North KoreaSanctions waiver, letter transmitting report—71U.S. national emergency, letter on continua-

tion—647Northwest Atlantic Fisheries, Convention on Fu-

ture Multilateral Cooperation in the, messagetransmitting amendment to Senate—319

Russian Federation, U.S. national emergency withrespect to disposition of highly enriched uranium,message on continuation—643

C–3


Communications to Congress—ContinuedSomalia

U.S. military support for French hostage rescueoperation, letter reporting—22

U.S. national emergency, message on continua-tion—280

Syria, U.S. national emergency, message on contin-uation—414

Western Balkans, U.S. national emergency, mes-sage on continuation—601

Yemen, U.S. national emergency, letter on contin-uation—441

Zimbabwe, U.S. national emergency, message oncontinuation—161

Communications to Federal AgenciesLiberia, refugees in the U.S., deferred enforced

departure, memorandum—187National Flood Insurance Program, memorandum

approving funding request—9Oklahoma storms and tornadoes, emergency leave

transfer program for Federal employees, memo-randum—523

DirectivesCritical infrastructure security and resilience, im-

provement efforts—106

Interviews With the News MediaExchanges with reporters

Air Force One—678Rancho Mirage, CA—553San Jose, CA—542White House—136, 248, 251, 335, 648

InterviewsAfghanistan, President Karzai—733Al Sharpton—726Joe Madison—726NBC, “Today” program—734PBS, “Charlie Rose” program—748Telemundo—723, 732Univision—723, 732WVON in Chicago, IL—733Yolanda Adams—726

Joint news conferences—448Afghanistan, President Karzai—12Costa Rica, President Chinchilla—381Germany, Chancellor Merkel—626Israel, Prime Minister Netanyahu—205Jordan, King Abdullah II—232Palestinian Authority, President Abbas—213Senegal, President Sall—660South Africa, President Zuma—682South Korea, President Park—405United Kingdom, Prime Minister Cameron—430

Interviews With the News Media—ContinuedNews conferences

January 14—23March 1—154April 30—348

Joint StatementsAbu Dhabi, Crown Prince Mohammed—304Afghanistan, President Karzai—19European Union—119France, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict—626Group of Eight (G–8) nations

Gobal economy—595Leaders communique—603Lough Erne Declaration—602

Japan, Prime Minister Abe—138Mexico, President Peña Nieto—374Peru, President Humala—568Russia, President Putin

Confidence building, cooperation—600Counterterrorism efforts, cooperation—599Enhanced bilateral engagement—598Nagorno-Karabakh conflict—626

South Korea, President Park—412United Arab Emirates, Deputy Supreme Com-

mander of the Armed Forces Mohammed—304

Meetings With Foreign Leaders and InternationalOfficialsSee also Interviews With the News Media; Joint

StatementsAbu Dhabi, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed

Al Nahyan—735Afghanistan, President Karzai—721, 750Brunei, Sultan Hassanal—178, 728Burma, President Thein Sein—474Canada, Prime Minister Harper—748Cape Verde, Prime Minister Neves—251Chile, President Piñera—527China, President Xi—551, 553, 729, 746–747Costa Rica, President Chinchilla—739Egypt, President Mursi—727, 752European Commission, President Barroso—592European Council, President Van Rompuy—592France, President Hollande—601, 722, 747–748Germany

Chancellor Merkel—640, 747–749Mayor Wowereit of Berlin—749President Gauck—749Social Democratic Party candidate for Chancel-

lor Steinbrueck—749Ireland, Prime Minister Kenny—194, 748

C–4


Meetings With Foreign Leaders and InternationalOfficials—ContinuedIsrael

President Peres—203, 226, 730–731Prime Minister Netanyahu—723, 730–731, 740

ItalyPresident Napolitano—124Prime Minister Letta—742, 747–748

Japan, Prime Minister Abe—136, 725–726, 747Jordan, King Abdullah II—335, 731Lebanon, President Sleiman—742Libya, Prime Minister Zaydan—748Malawi, President Banda—251Malaysia, Prime Minister Najib—741Mexico, President Peña Nieto—364, 739, 748Morocco, King Mohammed VI—740North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Secretary

General Rasmussen—513Northern Ireland

Deputy First Minister McGuinness—729First Minister Robinson—729

Pakistan, Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz Presi-dent Sharif—741

Palestinian AuthorityPresident Abbas—730–731Prime Minister Fayyad—730

Peru, President Humala—567Qatar, Amir Hamad—323Russia, President Putin—597, 727, 737–738Saudi Arabia, Minister of Interior Muhammad bin

Nayif bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud—721Senegal, President Sall—251, 674, 751Sierra Leone, President Koroma—251Singapore, Prime Minister Lee—261Somalia, President Hassan—721South Africa

African Union Commission Chairwoman Dlami-ni-Zuma—752

Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town DesmondM. Tutu—752

President Zuma—708, 752South Korea

President Lee—725President Park—739, 748

Turkey, Prime Minister Erdogan—741, 750United Kingdom, Prime Minister Cameron—592,

722, 747–748United Nations, Secretary-General Ban—296

Resignations and RetirementsAllen, Gen. John R., retirement, statement—136Cabinet Secretary, resignation, statement—60Commerce Deputy Secretary, resignation, state-

ment—193

Resignations and Retirements—ContinuedCouncil of Economic Advisers Chairman, resigna-

tion, remarks—561Energy Secretary, resignation, statement—74Federal Bureau of Investigation Director, resigna-

tion, remarks—643Federal Communications Commission Chairman,

resignation, statement—231Interior Secretary, resignation, statement—39Labor Secretary, resignation, statement—10National Science Foundation Director, resigna-

tion, statement—81National Security Adviser, resignation, remarks—530Personnel Management, Office of, Director, resig-

nation, statement—300Small Business Administrator, resignation, state-

ment—95Transportation Secretary, resignation, statement—70U.S. Secret Service Director, resignation, state-

ment—74U.S. Trade Representative, resignation, statement—52

Statements by the PresidentSee also Appointments and Nominations; Bill Sign-

ings and Vetoes; Joint Statements; Resignationsand Retirements

Algeria, terrorist attack on Tigantourine gas facilitynear In Amenas—42

Armenian Remembrance Day—325Ash Wednesday—119Baucus, Sen. Max S., decision not to seek reelec-

tion—324Brennan, John O., Senate confirmation as Director

of Central Intelligence—169Burwell, Sylvia Mathews, Senate confirmation as

Director of the Office of Management and Bud-get—325

Cinco de Mayo—404Deaths

Chavez Frias, Hugo—166Cliburn, Harvey L. “Van,” Jr.—163Ebert, Roger J.—280Koch, Edward I.—74Lautenberg, Sen. Frank R.—519Thatcher, Margaret, former Prime Minister of

the United Kingdom—288Defense of Marriage Act, U.S. Supreme Court rul-

ing—659Dingell, Rep. John D., Jr., longest serving Member

of Congress in U.S. history—553Easter—257Family and Medical Leave Act, 20th anniversary—80Federal budget legislation, Senate action—153Foxx, Anthony R., Senate confirmation as Secre-

tary of Transportation—672

C–5


Statements by the President—ContinuedFroman, Michael B., Senate confirmation as U.S.

Trade Representative—640Good Friday agreement, 15th anniversary—253Gun control legislation, Senate action—183, 292Hagel, Charles T., Senate confirmation as Secre-

tary of Defense—149Halligan, Caitlin J., confirmation as judge for the

U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Colum-bia Circuit, Senate action to block—166

Harkin, Sen. Thomas R., decision not to seek re-election—61

Holocaust Remembrance Day—288Hurricane Sandy

Recovery efforts, funding—3Relief funding legislation, congressional pas-

sage—64Immigration reform legislation

Draft proposal—304Senate action—478Senate passage—672

Internal Revenue Service—445International Holocaust Remembrance Day—61International Women’s Day—170Iraq war, 10th anniversary—201Israeli Independence Day—303Israel-Turkey relations—231Jewel, Sarah M.R. “Sally,” Senate confirmation as

Secretary of the Interior—292Johnson, Sen. Timothy P., decision not to seek re-

election—247Kerry, John F., Senate confirmation as Secretary of

State—70King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, inves-

titure—360Lautenberg, Sen. Frank R., decision not to seek re-

election—123Levin, Sen. Carl M., decision not to seek reelec-

tion—169Lew, Jacob J., Senate confirmation as Secretary of

the Treasury—151Lunar New Year—91

Statements by the President—ContinuedMarkey, Edward J., election to U.S. Senate—659Menino, Thomas M., decision not to seek reelec-

tion as mayor of Boston, MA—253Mongolia, Presidential election—673Moniz, Ernest J., Senate confirmation as Secretary

of Energy—458Napolitano, Giorgio, reelection as President of Ita-

ly—315National HIV Testing Day—672North Korea situation—96Orthodox Easter—399Pakistan, elections—429Passover—245Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, third

anniversary of signing—242Pope Benedict XVI, resignation—96Pope Francis, election—180Pritzker, Penny S., Senate confirmation as Secre-

tary of Commerce—659Qatar, Amir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, acces-

sion—658Rockefeller, Sen. John D. “Jay,” retirement—21Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, 40th anni-

versary—52Rwandan genocide, 19th anniversary—283Senate, changes in procedural rules—57Srinivasan, Srikanth, Senate confirmation as judge

for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District ofColumbia Circuit—490

Tax reform legislation, Senate passage—1United Kingdom, attack on British servicemem-

ber—490U.S. Armed Forces, opening of combat units to

women—56Violence against women, House of Representa-

tives passage of legislation to prevent—153Violence against women, Senate passage of legisla-

tion to prevent—96Voting Rights Act, U.S. Supreme Court rul-

ing—658World Refugee Day—643

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Barack Obama - Govinfo.gov

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