Tag Archives: United States Domestic Policy Council

In his weekly address, President Obama notes that while college education has never been more important, it has also never been more expensive — which is why he proposed major new reforms this week to make college more affordable for middle class families and those fighting to get into the middle class.

A Better Bargain for Students: President Obama hit the road on Thursday for a two-day bus tour in New York and Pennsylvania to share his plan to make college more affordable. The President stressed the importance of ensuring that higher education pays off for students and their families:

“Too many students are facing a choice that they should never have to make: Either they say no to college and pay the price for not getting a degree — and that’s a price that lasts a lifetime — or you do what it takes to go to college, but then you run the risk that you won’t be able to pay it off because you’ve got so much debt.”

President Obama also shared his own story about college loans in an email to White House subscribers. If you didn’t receive it, be sure to sign up for future updates.

Meet Sunny: The Obamas welcomed a new member of their family, a Portuguese water dog named Sunny! The new puppy is settling into the White House and is expected to take on many family projects, just like her big brother Bo.

Administration Officials Answer Your Education Questions: On Thursday, the White House hosted office hours with Deputy Communications Director Katie Beirne-Fallon and Deputy Director of Domestic Policy Council James Kvaal. You can check out many of questions asked on Storify.

On Friday, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan joined Sal Khan, the founder of Khan Academy, to discuss how we can innovate in American education.

“At a time when going to college has never been more important, unfortunately it has never been more expensive,” Duncan said. “And so we have to work together to drive down costs. We have to have much greater transparency and help young people and their families make better choices.”

Mental Health and the Affordable Care Act: On Wednesday, health leaders and mental health advocates came to the White House to talk about how health reform will help Americans gain access to mental health coverage if they need. Because of the Affordable Care Act, 71 million privately insured Americans have gained improved coverage for preventive services.

We the (Immigrant) Geeks: Friday’s edition of We the Geeks highlighted prominent immigrants who are breaking ground in their professional fields. In a Google+ Hangout moderated by Todd Park, U.S. Chief Technology Officer, and Doug Rand, Assistant Director of Entrepreneurship at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, participants discussed why immigration reform is necessary to keep bringing innovators to the United States.

Hosting the 1973 Super Bowl Champion Miami Dolphins: On Tuesday, the undefeated 1972-1973 Miami Dolphins visited the White House. President Obama congratulated the team for their legacy both on the field and in their communities.

“I know that some people may be asking why we’re doing this after all these years. And my answer is simple: I wanted to be the young guy up here for once,” President Obama joked about the team’s visit 40 years after they earned their Super Bowl rings.

One Year of Open Source Code for We The People: One year ago on Friday, the White House published its source code for We the People. To mark this anniversary, we updated readers about our new web development projects and how you can get involved.

Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Strategy: On Monday, the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force released its final report. The Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Strategy provides recommendations to rebuild and reinvigorate Sandy-impacted areas. Over the past six months, FEMA has provided $12 billion to individuals and communities in need.

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A deal reached

07/23/2013 Nativegrl77

The White House, Washington

Hi, everyone —

We’ve got some good news to share! Senators from both parties have come up with a plan to reduce the interest rates on student loans. Once it becomes law, rates on every single new college loan will come down before the start of the school year.

Because of this agreement, 11 million borrowers will save money, and we need help to make sure that everyone gets the details. The graphic below breaks down all the facts, and gives parents, undergrads, and grad students the information they need to know what they can expect in the years ahead.

Check it out, then share it to help spread the message.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/share/big-news-student-loans

Thanks!

Cecilia

Cecilia Muñoz Director, Domestic Policy Council The White House @Cecilia44

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A great way to save some money

06/21/2013 Nativegrl77

This week, we got some big news about the immigration reform bill. It’s a little wonky, but it’s so great that I couldn’t wait to share it with you.

The nonpartisan experts who estimate the financial impact of legislation for Congress concluded that because undocumented immigrants will start paying more in taxes for things like education and Social Security, the immigration proposal in the Senate will make the economy fairer for middle class families while cutting the U.S. deficit by almost $1,000,000,000,000 over the next two decades.

With every passing day, it’s becoming clear that we can’t afford not to act. Now we know exactly how much is at stake, and it’s the kind of news that can help to change the policy conversation in Washington.

So we’ve put together a graphic that explains exactly how this works, and we need your help to share it. If more people get the facts, it’ll be easier to build a nationwide, bipartisan consensus to get this done.

Take a look, then share this graphic with folks you know:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/share/1trillion

Thank you so much!

Cecilia

Cecilia Muñoz Director, Domestic Policy Council The White House

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We want this to be a conversation, so we made this video

06/17/2013 Nativegrl77 2 Comments

Hi, all —

In the past few weeks, people from all over the country have written in to the White House to share the stories of how their families came to America. Each one we read is a reminder that many of us share a similar experience. That’s certainly true for my own family — my parents came as newlyweds from Bolivia. These are narratives that Washington needs to hear as this town debates the right way to reform our broken immigration system.

At the White House, we’re no different from any other office anywhere else in America. As a team, we have a lot of stories that began outside the United States.

To help make this an actual dialogue about who we are as a country, we thought we’d share some of those stories with you.

That’s why we put together this video. Watch it, then pass it along to help get a conversation going in your community about your American immigration stories.

President Obama wants the result of this debate to be legislation that reflects who we are as a country — as much a nation of laws as we are a nation of immigrants. And he wants his White House to reflect who we are as a people — individuals from different circumstances united by a shared set of values and a common set of goals.

This issue is personal, as much for my colleagues here as for people anywhere else. And the thing I love about this video is that these folks help to make it clear why it’s important to fix this broken system. All of them are fulfilling huge dreams, and if others get the chance to have that same opportunity, we’ll all benefit as a nation.

And if more people understand that the motivation for this reform is about living up to our values as Americans, it will be easier to get this done.

So will you take a minute to watch?

http://www.whitehouse.gov/share/wh-immigration-stories

Thank you so much!

Cecilia

Cecilia Muñoz Director, Domestic Policy Council The White House

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Immigration : An American Story

05/09/2013 Nativegrl77

Cecilia Muñoz Director,

Domestic Policy Council

The White House

Hi, everyone —

This is the start of a national debate. Across the country, we’re having a serious discussion about how we can build a fair and effective immigration system that lives up to our heritage as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants.

And we need your help to make sure that genuine, personal perspectives are part of the conversation. The truth is, that if we go back far enough, nearly every American story begins somewhere else — so often with ancestors setting out in search of a different life, carving out a future for their children in this place that all of us now call home.

We want to make sure that idea isn’t far from the minds of policymakers here in Washington as we work to reach an agreement to reform immigration.

To kick things off, one of the President’s senior advisors sat down to share his story with you.

Watch David Simas tell his American story, then tell us yours.

When Americans from all over the country — each with different backgrounds, each from different circumstances — all speak out with the same voice, it’s powerful in a way that’s hard to ignore. We’ve seen it again and again, in debate after debate.

And this is the kind of issue where putting a face on the push for reform takes an abstract concept and makes it real. So share your American stories with us, and we’ll put them to use.

We’ll publish them on the White House website. We’ll share them on Facebook and Twitter. We’ll do everything we can to make sure they’re part of the debate around immigration reform.

Get started here:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/immigration/stories

Thanks, Cecilia

Cecilia Muñoz Director, Domestic Policy Council The White House