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Update from the WH Council on Women and Girls

04/04/2015 Nativegrl77

Dear friends,

We hope this message finds you well.

It has been an exciting week here at the White House Council on Women and Girls! This week, Valerie Jarrett, Chair of the Council on Women and Girls and Senior Advisor to the President, announced the Administration’s #LeadOnLeave Tour — a nationwide project that will shine a spotlight on the issue of paid family leave and paid sick days, among other issues that impact families across America. Read on for how to follow this tour across the nation!

Continuing the focus on working families, President Obama gave his weekly address on protecting working families’ paychecks. In addition, the Air Force announced new initiatives to promote diversity and inclusivity, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality announced the start of open nominations for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Program.

Additionally, this week marks the fifth anniversary of West Wing Week, the White House’s weekly video guide to all that’s happening at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Check out the fifth anniversary edition here.

Read on for opportunities to engage, and don’t forget to follow Valerie Jarrett on Twitter at @vj44. You can also email us at cwg@who.eop.gov.

We look forward to continuing the conversation!

Best regards,

The White House Council on Women and Girls

Latest News and Administration Highlights

#LeadOnLeave: Empowering Working Families Across America
Building on President Obama’s State of the Union announcements supporting greater workplace flexibility for families, the White House and the Labor Department will travel to states across the country to meet with employers, workers, state and local officials, and others to highlight best practices and discuss how paid leave and other flexible workplace policies can help support families and businesses.

Watch Labor Secretary Tom Perez’s announcement and remarks on #LeadOnLeave here:

How can you follow the #LeadOnLeave nationwide tour?

Valerie Jarrett, Secretary Perez, and other Administration officials will be live-blogging throughout the tour to share updates from the Secretary’s meetings with local businesses, workers, and community leaders. The Secretary made his first stop this week in Seattle, where he met with small businesses and advocates to talk about the importance of paid family leave and paid sick days.

Follow Secretary Perez’s blog on the White House website!

Weekly Address: Protecting Working Americans’ Paychecks
In this week’s address, the President highlighted the progress made protecting American consumers since he signed Wall Street reform into law five years ago, including an important new step taken by the independent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau earlier this week toward preventing abuses in payday lending.

The President emphasized his commitment to fighting to advance middle-class economics and ensure everybody who works hard can get ahead, while opposing attempts by Republicans both to weaken the CFPB and give large tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans at the expense of the middle class.

Watch the President’s Weekly Address here:

U.S. Air Force Diversity and Inclusiveness Initiatives
The Secretary of the Air Force, the Honorable Deborah Lee James, released her statements this week from the March 4 “Women and Leadership in National Security” conference. Her new initiatives are aimed, in part, at creating path to leadership and higher ranks within the Air Force Officer Corps for women. She also added the first steps for launching the Air Force Career Path Tool (CPT), a web-based mentoring solution to encourage more diversity within the ranks. These new initiatives are crucial to promoting inclusivity within the Air Force and are paving the way to equality and diversity throughout the entire U.S. military.

2015 Solicitation for Nominations for Members of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force
In agency news, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is welcoming nominations for new Task Force members. The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force is charged with enhancing the quality, appropriateness, and effectiveness of health care services and access to such services under Title IX of the Public Health Service Act.

To review the nomination process and nominate an individual for consideration, please see the nomination form here. Nominations must be received by May 15, 2015 to be considered for appointment with an anticipated start date of January 2016.

Stay Connected

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A Deal with Iran

04/04/2015 Nativegrl77

By CAP Action War Room

United States And Other World Powers Reach Historic Understanding With Iran

After extending the self-imposed deadline by two days, President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry yesterday announced that the United States and five other allies and partners has reached an agreement with Iran on the framework for a deal over its nuclear program. The issue has been at the center of several recent controversies, including Speaker Boehner’s decision to break longstanding protocol by inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress weeks before Israel’s elections, and the the choice by 47 GOP Senators to put partisanship over patriotism by writing a letter to Iran undermining the sensitive negotiations. Despite these actions, the decision reached yesterday represents an historic achievement for American diplomacy that makes the world safer by cutting off every pathway that Iran could take to develop a nuclear weapon.

Key details are set to be finalized over the coming months, but the outline of the agreement includes the following points:

The deal includes the most robust and intrusive inspections and transparency regime ever negotiated for any nuclear program in history. International inspectors will have unprecedented access not only to Iranian nuclear facilities, but to the entire supply chain that supports Iran’s nuclear program.
This will be a long-term deal that addresses each path to a potential Iranian nuclear bomb. There are strict limits on Iran’s nuclear program for a decade, and additional restrictions on building new facilities or stockpiling materials will last for 15 years. And as a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran will never be permitted to develop a nuclear weapon.
In return for Iran’s actions, the international community has agreed to provide Iran with relief from certain sanctions. But this relief will be phased in only as Iran takes meaningful states to adhere to the deal. Any violations mean sanctions will return as they were before.

This agreement has received wide praise, including from some unlikely sources. After hearing about the tentative deal, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly offered his opinion that “you give it a shot” because “you don’t want a war with Iran.”

Meanwhile, rather than trying to undercut any negotiations, Republicans in Congress should recognize that the legislative branch has an important role to play as the enforcer of the agreement. Congress should establish a mechanism to ensure that Iranian backsliding on a deal would snap sanctions back in place, as legislation from Senators Barbary Boxer (D-CA) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) would do. What Congress should not do is act as a cynical spoiler, impeding any chance for a meaningful deal to score political points.

BOTTOM LINE: This historic agreement of a framework over Iran’s nuclear program, agreed to not just by the United States but also other major world powers like Russia and China, deserves a chance. Any attempt to derail it is is not just a political attack: it is an intentional attempt to disrupt international diplomacy, exacerbate conflict with Iran, and weaken America’s standing in the international community.

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2016 Projections

03/30/2015 Nativegrl77

By CAP Action War Room

The Changing Face of America’s Electorate Has Big Political Implications for 2016

One of several reasons Democrats did not have a successful 2014 was the predictably low turnout among some of the party’s key constituencies. But, as we wrote, 2016 is a whole different ballgame. Now a new Center for American Progress analysis takes a big step in quantifying just how different it could be — and how much of a headwind the GOP faces to retake the White House.

The study, by policy analyst Patrick Oakford, runs a number of simulations of the 2016 elections incorporating the projected racial and ethnic demographic changes in America. As voters of color make up an increasing share of the electorate, it becomes increasingly difficult for Republicans to win key swing states and in turn the Electoral College. In fact, the study finds that even if racial and ethnic groups vote in 2016 how they voted in 2004 when Bush won reelection, Republicans would still lose key states like Ohio.

Here is a brief overview of the simulations and their findings. Check out the full issue brief for more details.

Simulation #1: Racial and ethnic groups turn out to vote at 2012 levels and vote for Republicans and Democrats at 2012 levels.

This scenario means that nothing changes between the 2012 and 2016 elections except for demographic shifts. In this case, the only change is that Democrats would win North Carolina.

Simulation #2: Racial and ethnic groups turn out at 2012 levels, but vote at 2004 levels.

This scenario helps Republicans — four in ten Hispanic voters went for George W. Bush in 2004, while just 27 percent voted for Mitt Romney in 2012. It addresses the argument that voting patters among minority groups might change when Barack Obama is not on the ticket. But, with the demographic changes, Democrats still come out on top in the Electoral College. Ohio, which went for Bush in 2004, would turn blue again.

Simulations #3: Racial and ethnic groups turn out at 2012 levels. Whites vote at 2012 levels, while racial minorities vote at 2004 levels.

This final scenario attempts to stack the deck in favor of Republicans. That’s because they got a stronger white vote in 2012 than in 2004, but a stronger Hispanic vote in 2004 than in 2012. And yet, they come up short in this simulations as well.

BOTTOM LINE: New projections of the 2016 electorate show that Republicans can’t just hope for a return to pre-Obama voting patterns to win the presidency. They need to do even better. But instead of trying to actually represent the changing electorate by tackling the important challenges that matter to these groups, like passing immigration reform, House Republicans are gearing up to defund the president’s recent common-sense executive actions on immigration, rolling back important protections and splitting families and communities in the process.

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Mark Ruffalo with Earthjustice

03/29/2015 Nativegrl77

Five years ago, millions of barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico during the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The Gulf still hasn’t fully recovered from the spill, yet now the Department of the Interior is proposing to open even more of our coastal waters to offshore drilling. This shortsighted and irresponsible policy would put our coastal ecosystems and communities at even greater risk.

Earthjustice is partnering with groups across the country to demand action now to keep more drill rigs out of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. And we need your help.

Join me in telling the Obama administration to stop new leasing in the Atlantic and the Arctic oceans.

New offshore drilling and leasing in those areas would open fragile and priceless coastal ecosystems to damage from pollution and spills, pose immeasurable risk to economies and communities up and down the Atlantic seaboard, and accelerate global climate disruption.

An oil spill in any body of water causes irreparable damage. It’s just not worth it. If we’re going to successfully turn the tide on climate change, we must move away from all fossil fuels—whether it’s fracking, tar sands, mountaintop removal, or offshore drilling—and focus our efforts on increasing renewable energy.

Now is the time to tell the Department of the Interior that drill rigs have no place in the Atlantic and Arctic oceans.

Sincerely,