The President has made clear that addressing the prescription opioid and heroin epidemic is a priority for his Administration, and has proposed to invest $1.1 billion in new funding to make sure that every American with an opioid use disorder who seeks treatment can get the help needed.

Congress has been voting on various pieces of legislation related to the opioid epidemic, but so far has not provided the resources needed to make treatment available to everyone who wants it.

Yesterday, a majority of Senators—both Republicans and Democrats--voted in favor of developing a final bill that provides enough money for prevention, treatment, and recovery to address the opioid epidemic (You can see how Senators voted HERE).  A few members of Congress will be negotiating the final legislation in the coming days (Those “conferees” are listed HERE). But they are not bound by the Senate vote to provide funding, and they haven’t agreed on the actual amount of funding to provide.

The President has said he wants to sign legislation that includes $1.1 billion in new funding to help Americans who want treatment get it wherever they live. This map shows how much new funding for treatment each State could potentially qualify for if Congress passes what the President has requested: 

Recovery from opioid and other substance use disorders is possible, and many Americans are able to recover because they get the treatment and care they need. But too many still do not get treatment and care. That’s why the President continues to call on Congress to provide the resources to ensure that every American who wants treatment can get it and start the road to recovery. 

We've made big strides in the fight against Malaria - saving millions of lives. That's American leadership at work. pic.twitter.com/jVdeE4Qktw

If you’ve ever swatted away a mosquito on a muggy summer night, then you know how annoying these winged pests can be. But in many parts of the world, mosquitos are not just irritating—they’re deadly. Malaria, which is transmitted by mosquitos, took the lives of 438,000 people worldwide last year. More than 3 billion people remain at risk of contracting this horrific disease, which is especially dangerous for pregnant mothers and young people.  As President Obama put it last September, “Many children are just one mosquito bite away from death. And that is a moral outrage.”

That’s why the President’s recently-submitted budget requests an additional $200 million for the President’s Malaria Initiative—a bipartisan effort begun by President George W.  Bush to reduce the burden of malaria in Africa and Southeast Asia. Under the PMI, the United States government—including USAID, the CDC, the Department of Defense, and the Peace Corps—has worked with partner countries, donors, and multilateral organizations across the globe to make real progress against malaria.   

This brings the total funding the White House has requested for this initiative to $874 million next fiscal year—a 30 percent increase from this year, and more than doubling PMI’s budget at the beginning of the Administration. And, with these additional resources, we will be able to take bold new steps to combat this ancient nemesis.

• First, we’re adding PMI programs in three new countries—Sierra Leone, Cote D’Ivoire, and Cameroon—and expanding our existing program in Burkina Faso nationwide. That means nearly 70 million more at-risk people will have access to insecticide-treated nets, anti-malarial drugs, and other interventions. Our work will now cover roughly 332 million people—92 percent of those at risk—from Senegal to Cameroon.
• Second, the United States—in partnership with host governments, NGOs, and other partners—is launching an effort to eliminate malaria in two countries: Zambia and Cambodia. Zambia suffered from high rates of malaria, so if we can eliminate malaria there, we can eliminate it anywhere. And, because Cambodia is the geographic epicenter of emerging malaria strains that are becoming resistant to anti-malarial drugs, ridding Cambodia of malaria would reduce the threat of drug-resistant malaria elsewhere.
• Third, we’re going to provide nearly 14 million bed nets and ensure that over 27 million people in sub-Saharan Africa can sleep safely at night. Because simply sleeping under a low-cost, insecticide-treated bed net is the most effective malaria intervention we have. In fact, the World Health Organization estimates that nearly 70 percent of the malaria cases averted in the past decade and a half were thanks to bed nets.
• Finally, working with both public and private sector researchers, we’re going to accelerate the research, development, and evaluation of new tools to combat malaria. We want to spur the development of a range of technologies, from better diagnostic equipment to greater control over malaria-ridden mosquitos to critical vaccines and medicines. Our goal is to help spark the next big discovery—because it could save lives.

From our ongoing efforts to combat the Zika virus (which is also transmitted by mosquitos), to joining our African partners in defeating Ebola, to fighting HIV/AIDS, promoting global health and global health security has been a cornerstone of President Obama’s foreign policy.  And—in partnership with other governments, donors, multilateral organizations, and the broader public health community—we’ve come closer than ever to banishing the scourge of malaria from the planet. Since 2000, we’ve halved the number of children killed by malaria and saved more than 6 million lives. Over 100 countries are now malaria-free, with another 57 cutting their incidence of malaria by at least three quarters. More kids can go to school. More parents can go to work. More people can say, as one Malian mother did, “I came to the community health worker because my son had a fever, and I’m thankful we were able to get medicine.” 

But we can’t take our eye off the ball. In just the past minute, more than 400 people contracted malaria. Many of these are children—beautiful young people who will never become the next Nelson Mandela or Graça Machel. As our USAID Administrator, Gayle Smith, has said, “The battle against malaria is also a battle against complacency."

We’ve beaten malaria before—stamping it out across the United States and the Western world—and we can do it again. Today’s announcement is a big step towards defeating a small but deadly foe. We hope you’ll join us in this fight. Working together, we can help make malaria history.  

Along with other key provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Medicaid expansion is part of the reason why, for the first time ever, more than 90 percent of Americans are insured and have the financial security and peace of mind that comes from being able to access quality, affordable health care when you need it. The ACA provides the opportunity and resources for states to extend coverage to all non-elderly adults with income below 133 percent of the Federal poverty level (currently $32,253 for a family of four). By the end of 2015, 30 states and the District of Columbia had expanded their Medicaid programs. And so far this year, Governors in South Dakota, Virginia, and Wyoming are including this option in their budget submissions.

Just this week, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards took swift action to give hundreds of thousands more low-income Louisianans access to Medicaid coverage starting on July 1, 2016. This additional coverage will result in an estimated 22,000 more people receiving all needed care each year, 230 fewer deaths a year, and 27,400 fewer people having trouble paying their bills because of medical expenses. It will also have significant economic benefits for the state, including an estimated $200 million reduction in uncompensated care costs.

Expanding Medicaid in Louisiana will have national significance as well. With Louisiana becoming the 31st state, plus the District of Columbia, to expand Medicaid, more than 50 percent of those estimated to gain coverage from Medicaid expansion live in states that have done so – 4.4 million people.

As this progress shows, state officials across the nation know that Medicaid expansion is a great deal for their states – a win for both the health of their residents and the vibrancy of their economies. In fact, a recent study comparing two states that expanded Medicaid to one that did not found that the expansion states saw an increase in residents with chronic conditions getting regular medical care, and a decrease in residents skipping medications because of cost or having trouble paying medical bills. In the 19 states that have yet to expand Medicaid, more than 4 million people could gain coverage, states could realize major savings in other parts of their budgets, and over $4 billion in uncompensated care costs could be avoided. And with expansion comes sustained Federal support: the Federal government covers 100 percent of the costs of newly eligible individuals’ coverage through calendar year 2016, phasing down to 90 percent in 2020 and beyond.

To help finish the job and seize these benefits in the years ahead, President Obama is proposing an extra incentive to states that have not yet expanded their Medicaid programs. Specifically, his Fiscal Year 2017 Budget will include a legislative proposal to provide any state that takes up the Medicaid option the same three years of full Federal support and gradual phase down that those states that expanded in 2014 received, no matter when the state takes up the option. This common-sense proposal makes the expansion as good a deal for states that expand now as it is for the states that have already done so. It is further evidence of the Administration’s willingness to work with states to build on recent progress in improving health coverage and making Medicaid affordable to states and taxpayers alike. We hope Congress will act to provide this extra incentive to states that haven’t yet expanded, encouraging them not to miss out on the benefits other states are already enjoying.

Our progress on Medicaid expansion is real and meaningful, and more work needs to be done for those who fall into the expansion gap. Medicaid expansion is working for Americans across this nation, but the job isn't over so long as families and workers in 19 states can't access affordable health insurance. State officials in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming should expand Medicaid as soon as possible to help their citizens and their economies.

This agreement builds on the one we secured in October to lift sequestration and allow for critical investments in areas that grow our economy, such as in education, basic research and job training, while also providing certainty and resources to our men and women in uniform. And, it’s free of ideological provisions that that would have undermined efforts to reduce carbon pollution and protect our Nation’s water supply, rolled back new rules for Wall Street that protect consumers and savers, limited women’s access to quality, affordable health care, and blocked protections for workers. 

And because it funds our government through the end of the fiscal year, the agreement gives our military and every agency in the Federal government the fiscal certainty they need to defend our nation and serve the American people.

Here are ten key areas the agreement positively impacts:

Early Learning. The agreement provides a six percent increase to Head Start, including a nearly $300 million investment to begin converting part-day, part-year Head Start programs to high-quality full school-day and year programs, which research shows promotes better outcomes for children.  It protects Preschool Development Grants, preserving funding for communities seeking to create or expand high-quality preschool opportunities for low- and moderate-income children.

Healthcare. The agreement continues support for the Affordable Care Act, preventing attempts to turn back progress by taking away health coverage from millions of Americans. It also preserves Title X funding for programs that provide needed access to preventative and reproductive health services for five million low-income women each year, despite efforts to eliminate it.

Research and Development.   The National Institutes of Health (NIH) will be able to continue research on vital scientific projects and fund new research grants that continue progress on the prevention of debilitating chronic conditions and diseases that affect millions of Americans.  The agreement includes specific increases for Alzheimer’s disease research, brain research, antibiotic research, and the Precision Medicine Initiative and funds thousands of new National Science Foundation (NSF) research grants.  This funding for critical scientific research supports the work of thousands of scientists and students and will help maintain the nation’s leadership in innovation.  The agreement also makes the Research and Experimentation tax credit permanent, bringing certainty to companies investing in innovation.

Safety and Security.  The budget agreement provides funding to support ongoing operations in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and around the world.  In addition, the agreement allows the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) to significantly expand its cyber investigative capabilities and better use intelligence community information technology and sharing tools to combat cyber threats. In addition, new resources for the Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the budget deal allow us to invest in the diplomatic and strategic partnerships needed to work with the global community to counter groups like ISIL.

Protecting the Environment. Critical to continuing the momentum of the historic climate agreement in Paris, the agreement protects EPA funding, providing the support needed to effectively implement the Clean Power Plan, a historic step in reducing carbon pollution. It also secures the biggest investment in the deployment of renewable energy in our nation’s history, specifically for solar and wind energy – extending tax credits for five years and bringing much-needed certainty to the industry.

Supporting Working Families. The deal permanently extends Recovery Act expansions of the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit that were scheduled to expire after 2017, which will provide a tax cut of about $900 on average for 16 million working families a year. If the expansions had been allowed to expire, more than 16 million people – including 8 million children – would have fallen into, or deeper into, poverty in 2018.

College Affordability. The agreement makes permanent the American Opportunity Tax Credit, providing a tax cut of up to $10,000 over four years for nearly 10 million families paying for college.

Job Training. The agreement invests $90 million to expand apprenticeships, creating more opportunities for hard-working Americans to acquire the skills they need to succeed in good jobs that are available now.

Infrastructure. The agreement secures $500 million in new TIGER grants to repair existing infrastructure, connect people to new jobs and opportunities, and contribute to our nation’s economic growth. 

Disrupting Business As Usual. The agreement puts a real expiration date on dozens of business tax breaks that have been extended repeatedly for years without much scrutiny.  Most importantly, it phases out bonus depreciation, which was intended to be a temporary incentive, saving over $200 billion over the next decade relative to its indefinite continuation.  

We’ve seen the alternative. In 2005, days after Hurricane Katrina, officials from the U.S. Department of Transportation gathered in Biloxi, Mississippi to assess damage to the US-90 bridge, where surge and waves had knocked the bridge decks off their foundation like a set of dominoes. Looking just to their right, the officials saw something else: ruins of the previous US-90 bridge, demolished by Hurricane Camille just 36 years prior. The bridge had been rebuilt at the same elevation as the one destroyed in 1969.

That experience, and many more like it, have informed how the Obama Administration prepares for and responds to natural disasters. Recovery can’t just be focused on short-term needs, but on long-term risk and vulnerabilities, which continue to rise as a result of climate change.  That’s why the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force required that all Sandy-related rebuilding projects funded by the Federal Government meet a single uniform flood risk reduction standard informed by the best science and best practices.
 

To ensure communities are better prepared for the impacts of climate change today and tomorrow, we continue to ensure that we are making decisions based on the latest science and data, we are responding to community-driven priorities, we are doing all that we can to serve vulnerable communities, and we are collaborating with partners to maximize impact. 

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Federal agencies incorporated the best available science and data, including sea level rise projections and climate resilience, into project planning and design. Building upon the immediate recovery efforts following Hurricane Sandy and to ensure that we are better prepared before disaster strikes, we announced this year the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard. A key deliverable of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan and the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Strategy, the national Standard directs agencies to account for the latest scientific projections and adopt stricter siting, design, and construction standards for all Federally-funded projects.

Over the course of the past six years, this Administration also has been steadily creating programs in partnership with the communities they intend to serve.  For instance, as a part of the Hurricane Sandy Task Force’s Rebuilding Strategy, we brought a wide range of stakeholders—from State and local elected officials to non-profit organizations to science and policy experts and other community organizations—to the table to ensure their efforts were coordinated, that particular attention was paid to already disadvantaged and struggling communities, and that they were helping each other as they helped themselves.  Working with these communities, the Administration has removed barriers to investments in resiliency, modernized Federal grant and loan programs to support local efforts, and developed effective, actionable information and tools. 

And today, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is releasing a Community Resilience Planning Guide for Buildings and Infrastructure Systems, which provides a practical six-step process for communities to develop long-term resilience goals based on their individual social and economic needs, particular hazard risks, buildings and infrastructure systems, and the community’s operations and available resources.

Recognizing that low-income and underserved communities are often less equipped to prepare for and respond to the impacts of climate change, the Obama Administration has made equity a priority. From the Resilience AmeriCorps pilot, which provides much-needed capacity for vulnerable communities to address climate-resilience planning and implementation, to coordinated interagency assistance to high-need communities through smart growth strategies, the Administration is committed to ensuring that communities develop forward-looking strategies and partnerships for building climate resilience.

We also know that we can’t do it alone, so we’re working hand-in-hand with nonprofit and philanthropic partners to advance shared priorities. In 2013, for example, we created Rebuild by Design to improve the physical, ecological, and economic resilience of coastal areas. The competition has produced regional, cross-disciplinary collaborations between state and local governments, design teams, regional nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, and the public. In the Bronx, for example, the Hunts Point Project will build off recommendations from a Rebuild By Design proposal to invest in resiliency measures around the Hunts Point Food Distribution Center, which serves as the food supply for over 22 million people.

Since Hurricane Sandy made landfall, the national dialogue about recovery and resilience has shifted. The Obama Administration has led the Federal government in integrating resilience into the fabric of how we build, rebuild, plan, and prepare for the impacts of climate change.

However, the stakes continue to grow.  The National Climate Assessment shows that the changing climate is creating drastically different conditions across the United States; deeper droughts, deadlier wildfires, and more powerful storms are putting our communities at risk. Current projections estimate that unabated climate change would cost the global economy over four percent of global GDP each year by 2100. With the costs of climate change adding up, the failure to invest in climate solutions and climate preparedness is fiscally unwise.

Through lessons learned from storms like Hurricane Sandy, we can take on the hard choices necessary to make our communities more resilient in the face of these mounting risks. We simply can’t afford to rebuild the US-90 bridge in Biloxi at the same elevation time after time.   We have an obligation to protect the planet for the next generation, and it starts by ensuring our communities are more resilient to the emerging challenges of climate change. 

Our ability to lead an effective global response—one that turned the tide of the epidemic—was ultimately a matter of resources.

And the fact is that right now, the House and Senate Republican budgets shortchange our country on the resources we need to effectively prepare for, respond to, and recover from future public health emergencies.

It’s yet another example of the mindless cuts forced by sequestration. And, it could mean a less-effective response to an outbreak on the scale of last year's Ebola outbreak — but also to a host of other potential disasters, such as an anthrax attack.

So as you hear a lot of talk in the news about a potential government shutdown, make sure you understand exactly what's at stake in the broader budget debate.

Here's exactly what the current Republican budget proposals would mean to our nation's (and our global) public health, and our ability to respond effectively to disasters:

• They fail to meet the President’s FY 2016 Budget request for $110 million to respond to an urgent or emergency need that could cause severe consequences. Why does that matter? Because it's the funding that HHS needs to respond quickly to an infectious disease outbreak -- such as influenza or another public health crisis.
• They would underfund our ability to procure safe and effective medical countermeasures to protect Americans against potential chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear attacks through the BioShield program.
• The Senate appropriations bill provides insufficient funding for maternal and child health programs at USAID, including $35 million less than the President's Budget request for the U.S. contribution to Gavi, the Vaccine Initiative -- a necessary investment that provides children around the world with access to life-saving vaccines.
• The House appropriations bill cuts the Contributions and International Organizations account by $67 million and provides no funding for the International Organizations and Programs account. These accounts support critical collective efforts by international organizations to combat violent extremism, limit the spread of nuclear and chemical weapons, reach agreement to impose sanctions on rogue states and actors, promote children's health, and promote and protect human rights.

As we look back at the government's aggressive response to the Ebola outbreak, and commend those who helped spearhead it, we can see that it's also irresponsible to shortchange the profoundly important work of responding to public health emergencies.

     
Tomorrow, Members of Congress return to work and face a pretty sizeable piece of business -- enactment of a budget for the fiscal year that starts October 1. Unfortunately, the Republican budget plans launch a double-pronged attack on the workers we are celebrating today.  
    
The Republican appropriations bills are stacked with ideological provisions known as “riders” that are unrelated to spending levels and  weaken basic protections for workers, the backbone of our economy. These riders undermine worker safety, the ability of workers to save for retirement, and workers’ ability to have a meaningful, unionized voice in their workplaces. On top of that, the bills cut funding for key agencies that are charged with enforcing these and other worker protections -- including basic requirements that workers be paid what they earn and work in a safe environment. And they also underfund programs that help workers obtain the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in today’s economy.

In other words, the Republican budget plan would weaken worker protections, weaken enforcement of those weakened protections, and deny training to workers who want to build skills and a career. That’s just one reason the President has said that the Republican budget plans are unacceptable.

Here are eight key ways Republican budget plans would hurt working Americans:

1. They’d weaken the Department of Labor’s ability to protect wages for more than 135 million workers, costing workers an estimated $70-$80 million in back wages.

The Senate bill cuts $67 million from the Wage and Hour Division, the part of the Department of Labor that enforces wage protections like the minimum wage, overtime pay, and the right for workers to be paid what they have earned. That’s a 24 percent cut compared to the President’s Budget. The House bill cuts the Division by $62 million, or 22 percent, below the President’s Budget. These bills would weaken the Division’s ability to protect wages in more than 7.3 million establishments for over 135 million workers, including the ability to recover back wages for workers.  
 

2. They’d cut funding for workplace inspections and enforcement of standards that prevent illness, injury, and fatalities on the job.

The House would cut funding for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) by $57 million – or 10 percent – compared to the President’s Budget. The Senate cuts OSHA funding more deeply, by $68 million, or 11 percent. This means fewer inspections of dangerous workplaces, a slower response to fatalities and serious injuries, and diminished protections for workers who report unsafe and unscrupulous behavior.
    
The cuts in the Wage and Hour Division and OSHA are part of a larger cut to the Department of Labor’s worker protection efforts under the Republican budget plans.  The Senate cuts $260 million from these worker protection agencies in total, while the House cuts about $200 million.
 

3. The House would reverse an existing policy that lets independent experts accompany workplace safety inspectors.

This would deny OSHA and workers the help of industrial hygienists and safety engineers who provide expertise, and translators and worker advocates who help ensure that workers have a voice in identifying and understanding hazards in their workplace. These third-party experts would not be allowed to participate without a vote being organized among workers first – a requirement that would unnecessarily delay the identification and abatement of hazards that put workers at risk of harm.

4. The Senate would effectively block, by endless delay, a rule to protect workers from carcinogenic silica dust. OSHA needs to update a decades-old rule limiting workers’ exposure to this known lung carcinogen.

But the Senate rider would delay improving protections for workers until unnecessary, additional studies are completed. 
    

5. They’d make it harder to prevent unlawful treatment of workers who take action to improve their working conditions.

The House and Senate bills slash funding for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) by 28 percent and 11 percent, respectively, below the President’s Budget. At this level of funding, the Board would be forced to reduce its staffing level by up to one-third, severely hindering its ability to investigate and litigate unfair labor practices and conduct secret ballot elections, as required by law, around the nation.

6. They’d use multiple riders to further disempower the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Both the House and Senate bills include numerous riders that would block common-sense rules to level the playing field for workers who want to vote on whether or not to form a union, and interfere with the Board’s adjudicatory functions by prohibiting it from considering cases regarding joint-employer standards or the appropriate size of a bargaining unit.

7. They’d block protections for workers saving for retirement.

The Department of Labor’s “Conflict of Interest” rule would protect those saving for retirement from being steered into investments that are in their advisors' financial interest but not theirs. The Council of Economic Advisers has estimated that conflicted advice leads to annual losses of about $17 billion for IRA investors.

8. They’d underfund employment and training programs that employers need to build a skilled workforce and workers rely on to prepare for 21st-century jobs, depriving at least 2 million workers of job training and employment services.

The Senate and House bills fail to support the bipartisan Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), which last year passed the Senate in a 97-3 vote, and other key employment services. The Senate funds employment and training programs at $650 million less than the President’s Budget level, while the House bill reduces the funding level by nearly $500 million. Under the Republican bills, at least two million fewer workers would receive job training and employment services, as compared to the President’s Budget. The Republican bills also deny funding for the Administration's proposed Apprenticeship Grants, depriving American workers of the chance to participate in this proven learn-and-earn model, which offers a clear gateway to the middle class. The Senate bill in particular also slashes funding for targeted grants to help workers whose jobs are lost as a result of mass layoffs and natural disasters, providing only $74 million for program year 2016 – $167 million (69 percent) less than the President’s Budget.

The President takes a very different approach. 

The President’s Budget would reverse sequestration, continue to cut the deficit, and invest in areas that are critical to our economy. 
     
It’s a budget that makes significant new investments in employment services, job training, and apprenticeship programs and provides sufficient funding to support strong enforcement of our nation’s labor laws. It’s a budget that builds on -- rather than tears down -- efforts to strengthen protections for America’s workers in today’s economy. The President supports ensuring that retirement investment advisors are free from conflicts of interest that shade their recommendations to workers trying to save for retirement. He believes we should protect workers from carcinogenic dust. And he supports American workers’ right to choose whether to organize into unions in a timely and efficient manner. (Learn more about the President’s proposed budget here.)
     
The bottom line is this: Worker protections and job training are critical for workers, families and our economy. The Republican budget plans seek to underfund and undermine these key priorities. 

Any Republican members of Congress purporting to support American workers today ought to turn to the real work of helping them out tomorrow.

You might call us the nerve center where goals become initiatives, and initiatives become programs at work on the ground in local communities and states across the country.

With that in mind, let’s go back to basics for a second and focus on something we can all agree on:

Any plans that we want to make for improving communities across the country need to be hatched in partnership with those communities -- by the people who live in them, work in them, and stand to benefit from them.

This week marks ten years since the neighborhoods of New Orleans were left devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Since then, community partnerships with the federal government have helped revitalize those communities. They’ve made sure the city’s vital health clinic system stays funded and delivering high quality services. They’ve laid the groundwork to open the Loyola Avenue-Union Passenger Terminal Streetcar Line in the city’s business district. They’ve brought the number of homeless veterans in New Orleans to a functional zero by December of 2014 – more than a year ahead of the proposed goal. (Hear straight from a New Orleanian about the role open data played in the city's transformation.)

There are projects like these at work across the country, whether you realized it or not.

Over the course of the past six years, this Administration has been steadily creating programs in partnership with the communities they intend to serve – from southeastern Kentucky to Fresno to Detroit.

While there are a lot of things we have been up to from addressing climate change to poverty alleviation, we are taking a new approach -- one that relies on communities developing plans that best fit their needs rather than the laundry list of programs the government has. It’s pretty simple. First, we partner with communities by seeking out their plans or vision. Second, we take a one-government approach that crosses agency and program silos to support communities in implementing their plans for improvement. Finally we focus on what works, using data to measure success and monitor progress.

We wanted to give the American public a sense of exactly what that looks like – and give you the opportunity to take a look at what’s at work in your area. So today, we released a snapshot view of the Obama administration’s community-based initiatives. It combines datasets from initiatives across more than 15 Federal agencies – and we’re adding datasets and features as we continue building it.

Take a look – see what’s at work in your area.

Then, share how you’ve seen these programs at work in your community. If you’ve got a photo, share that with us, too.

From the start, this map has been built in the open, and source code is available on GitHub. We want to know what you think, and how we can improve it – so share your thoughts with us here.

Today, the White House is releasing a report that explains how this critical program works, who it helps, and its importance for working families.

How the Program Works

SSDI is an insurance program that workers pay for while they are working. If a worker can no longer maintain substantial employment due to a severe disability, SSDI replaces a portion of lost income. Beneficiaries earn coverage under the Social Security system by working and paying into the system.

Most individuals receiving SSDI earned middle-class wages before becoming disabled, and beneficiaries paid into Social Security for an average of 22 years before becoming eligible for SSDI. To receive SSDI benefits, workers must have a significant and recent work history, in addition to a serious disability that prevents them from performing substantial work for a sustained period of time. These benefits are modest but they help families pay bills and put food on the table.

Who the Program Helps

Today, more than 150 million Americans are covered by the SSDI program, which means they would receive benefits if they became severely disabled and could not work and earn a living. As with Social Security retirement benefits, SSDI is available to Americans who have a significant work history and have paid a portion of their paychecks into the program. In total, 11 million Americans receive SSDI benefits, including 9 million worker-beneficiaries and 2 million dependent children and spouses of worker-beneficiaries. About one million military veterans receive SSDI. Most SSDI worker-beneficiaries worked most or all of their adult lives before becoming disabled and half of SSDI beneficiaries attended college. Disability insurance protects workers in all sectors of the economy, with large shares of SSDI beneficiaries coming from the service, manufacturing, and retail sectors.

Benefits are Modest but Critical

Disability benefits are modest — only about one-third of what beneficiaries earned before their disability. In their highest-earning five years prior to receiving SSDI, beneficiaries earned about $42,000 on average, expressed in 2014 wage levels. By comparison, SSDI benefits average $13,980 per year.

While modest, these benefits make a meaningful difference for people with disabilities who are no longer able to work. Overall, SSDI comprises more than half (58 percent) of SSDI beneficiaries’ family income.  SSDI benefits keep 3 million Americans out of poverty and reduce the depth of poverty for another 1.9 million people.

Growth in Disability Beneficiaries Has Slowed

As the population and labor force have grown and aged, so too has the number of Americans who are covered by and receive disability insurance. While the SSDI program has grown over the past 35 years, this growth has slowed significantly and is projected to remain steady. Most of this growth is due to well-documented demographic changes, including a growing and aging population and increases in women's labor force participation. As more women joined the labor force and paid into Social Security, more women achieve insured status and are protected if they become disabled. 

Congressional Action Needed to Avert Deep Benefit Cuts

SSDI beneficiaries could face a deep and abrupt 19 percent reduction in their disability insurance benefits in 2016 if lawmakers fail to act to address the long-foreseen shortfall in the program’s finances. The shortfall was caused by a long-foreseen increase in the number of beneficiaries as population growth, the aging of the population, and increases in women's labor force participation raised the number of workers who contribute to and qualify for the program. The Social Security Trust Fund overall currently has enough money to provide full benefits to both DI beneficiaries and retirees for almost the next two decades, but funding across the two programs is out of balance.

The President has proposed a simple solution that policymakers have taken many times in the past on a bipartisan basis: rebalance the Social Security program in a way that ensures workers with disabilities, retirees, and survivors receive the full amount of earned and expected benefits while policymakers develop longer-term policies to strengthen the Social Security program as a whole.  The Administration looks forward to working with Congress to ensure that workers with disabilities and their families receive the full benefits they have earned and need.

Shaun Donovan is the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Jeff Zients is the Director of the National Economic Council and Assistant to the President for Economic Policy.

Immigration is sacred to our nation because our country has long been a beacon of hope and opportunity for people from around the world.  Today, 41.3 million foreign-born residents live in the United States.

Perhaps more profoundly – with the exception of Native Americans – we are all descendants of people who came from someplace else.  Regardless of when we arrived or where we came from, Americans remain bound together by fidelity to a set of ideas that we all are created equal, and that anyone can succeed if they work hard, regardless of the circumstances of their birth. 

I recently had the special privilege of being the first to congratulate a group of newly minted American citizens at a naturalization ceremony on Ellis Island.  Each new citizen started his or her own journey in eight different countries. But, one of the new citizen’s journey made this particular ceremony fill a special place in my heart: my father.

Photo credit: United States Citizenship and Immigration Services

My father, Michael Donovan, came to this country like so many others.

Armed with a passion for technology and recognizing that America was the best place in the world to get an education, he immigrated to the United States from Peru in pursuit of the American Dream. Once here, he completed a graduate degree in electrical engineering and worked hard to support himself and his family. Today, he is the loving father of five children, a successful businessman, an active member of the local community, and—as of just a few weeks ago—a proud U.S. citizen.

My father immigrated to the United States in 1963. After 52 years, his American Dream has come true. There are millions of similar personal stories shared by friends and families of new American citizens.  But if the moral case for immigration alone is not enough, the economic case is powerful as well.  In November of last year, President Obama said, “For more than 200 years, our tradition of welcoming immigrants from around the world has given us a tremendous advantage over other nations. It’s kept us youthful, dynamic, and entrepreneurial. It has shaped our character as a people with limitless possibilities — people not trapped by our past, but able to remake ourselves as we choose.”

Photo credit: United States Citizenship and Immigration Services

While 13 percent of the overall population is foreign-born, immigrants start 28 percent of our new businesses. Over the next 20 years, immigrants and their children will account for 85 percent of the net growth in our workforce. Comprehensive immigration reform would reduce our budget deficits by almost a trillion dollars over the next 20 years and strengthen Social Security.

For these moral and economic reasons, President Obama has championed comprehensive immigration reform that would keep this nation true to the words inscribed on the base of the lady of liberty guarding New York Harbor.

Even though the immigration debate in Congress has stalled, the Administration continues to identify and establish common-sense solutions that move forward President Obama’s vision of building welcoming American communities that integrate immigrants and refugees.  As recently as April, the White House Task Force on New Americans outlined a robust strategy that will advance our global competitiveness and that identifies ways to ensure our nation's diverse people are fully contributing to their communities, and welcomed into them. And this month, we are celebrating Immigrant Heritage Month. In his weekly address, President Obama called on Americans to share their story at www.whitehouse/NewAmericans.

I salute everyone who is helping to make the journey to citizenship possible.  From President Obama to the public servants at the National Park Service and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to the friends and families who have supported a loved ones’ journey—everyone is integral to ensuring the American Dream remains possible. As I have personally witnessed through my father’s journey, when given the opportunity and the necessary support, immigrants can realize all that is exceptional about this country. They are the mothers and fathers, shopkeepers and bakers, employees and entrepreneurs who help form the backbone of our communities and our country, and they are as American as each and every one of us.  

The President’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) has also released an updated report on the economic impact of the President’s executive actions, which are now estimated to boost the nation’s GDP by as much as $250 billion over ten years, due in part to increases in the size of the American workforce and to increased innovation from high-skill workers. These actions will also increase the productivity and wages of all American workers, not just immigrants, as evidenced by a large body of academic work cited in the CEA report.

By finalizing this rule, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is taking an important step forward in executing the President’s immigration executive actions and locking in these economic benefits. The changes included in this rule will—for the first time—allow employment authorization for the spouses of certain high-skill workers who are here on H-1B visas, as long as those workers have begun the process of applying for a green card. This rule change, which was recommended in a “We the People” petition to the White House, will empower these spouses to put their own education and skills to work for the country that they and their families now call home.

DHS estimates that in the first year, there may be nearly 180,000 spouses eligible to apply for employment authorization under this rule, with as many as 55,000 eligible annually in following years. These women and men are Americans-in-waiting, whose families are often stuck for years in lengthy green card backlogs as a result of our broken immigration system. Allowing them to put their skills to use will reduce the strain on their families during that waiting time, and will yield significant benefits for our economy as well.

It’s no secret that immigrants make outsized contributions to American entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic growth. Immigrants have started up one of every four small businesses and high-tech companies across the country, and represent 26 percent of all U.S.-based Nobel laureates over the past 50 years. That’s why in the months ahead, the President’s executive actions will do even more to improve the immigration system for high-skilled workers, graduates, and entrepreneurs, such as:

• Unlocking the talents of more highly-skilled Americans-in-waiting by providing a portable employment authorization for those workers stuck in the green card backlog, allowing them to accept promotions, change positions or employers, or start new companies.
• Expanding immigration options for foreign entrepreneurs who meet certain criteria for creating jobs, attracting investment, and generating revenue in the U.S., to ensure that our system encourages the world’s most promising and talented entrepreneurs to innovate and hire here in America.
• Strengthening and extending on-the-job training for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) graduates from U.S. universities, so we welcome the best and brightest rather than sending them home to compete against us.

Of course, only Congress can finish the job of fixing our broken immigration system. President Obama will continue to work with Congress to pass a comprehensive, bipartisan bill that will capture the full economic benefits of immigration reform.

Shaun Donovan is Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Jeffrey Zients is Director of the National Economic Council and Assistant to the President for Economic Policy.

Learn more:

• Press Release: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on work authorization for spouses of certain H-1B visa holders
• Fact Sheet: The President’s Immigration Accountability Executive Actions
• Report: The Economic Effects of Administrative Action on Immigration

The new initiative expands programs within the President’s FY 2015 Budget, and builds on them by adding more resources to help integrate the federal government with state and local LEAs to build and sustain trust between communities and those who serve and protect these communities.

The funding would support the following activities:

• Body Worn Camera Partnership Program -- The Administration proposes a new Body Worn Camera Partnership Program that would provide a 50 percent match to states and localities that purchase body worn cameras and requisite storage. An investment of $15 million in the first year could support up to 10,000 body worn cameras and storage. Overall, the $75 million investment over three years could help purchase 50,000 body worn cameras and storage.
• Smart Policing Initiative -- The Administration would provide $55 million over three years to support the Smart Policing Initiative that could serve five communities in the first year, and at least 20 communities over three years. Smart Policing is based on the researcher-practitioner relationship and funded as a set-aside program within DOJ’s Byrne-JAG grant program. This funding would support the creation of a Body Worn Camera (BWCs) Problem Solving Demonstration Program to build knowledge on the use of BWCs as a key component of comprehensive, community-based problem-solving strategies.
• Building Community Trust and Justice Program -- This program would provide $55 million in grants and technical assistance over three years to state, local, and tribal courts and juvenile justice agencies to support innovative efforts to improve perceptions of fairness in the criminal and juvenile justice systems and build community trust in these institutions. Over three years, this program could reach at least 20 sites.
• Collaborative Reform Initiative (CRI) -- The Administration proposes to expand this initiative, currently underway in St. Louis County, with $55 million over three years to serve up to 55 communities. CRI is a voluntary form of technical assistance where organizational deficiencies are identified and changes that would benefit the law enforcement agency and community are recommended by experts.
• Task Force/Police Commission -- The Administration proposes $2 million to support the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) to lead a task force that will build on the extensive research currently being conducted by COPS and will examine, among other issues, how to promote effective crime reduction while building public trust. The task force will be directed to prepare a report and recommendations within 90 days of its creation.
• Additional Oversight/Training -- The Administration would provide $21 million over three years for additional oversight and training as a result of both the above mentioned programs and the recommendations from the White House Report on Federal Support for Local Law Enforcement Acquisition. 

We are asking Congress to accommodate this request in Fiscal Year 2015 and look forward to working with them on future budget requests to support this effort.

Shaun Donovan is the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

This week marks the 8th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Although a number of years have passed since that devastating storm hit the Gulf Coast, none of us will ever forget the tragic events that unfolded in its aftermath and the incredible pain inflicted on the region.

That is why President Obama has made improving the way the federal government prepares for, responds to, and recovers from natural disasters a priority for his Administration.

Shortly after he took office, the President tasked the Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and me with rethinking the federal approach to disaster recovery. This work resulted in the creation of the National Disaster Recovery Framework (NDRF), which was first fully deployed following Hurricane Sandy.

The NDRF allowed us to quickly organize a massive and coordinated federal, state and local response to Hurricane Sandy – we had over 17,000 federal responders on the ground within seven days of the storm making landfall.

However, the President recognized that the response to Sandy also required an additional level of cabinet-level coordination so he created the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, which I’ve had the honor to chair. Last week, the Task Force released a Rebuilding Strategy that marks the next step in improving how we approach natural disasters – this time with a focus on building stronger communities in an era of climate change.

Hurricane Sandy again showed families how our changing climate is already impacting lives and putting communities at risk. But it’s not just families affected by Sandy and Katrina who have felt these changes.

The 12 warmest years in recorded history have all come in the last 15 years. During my time as Secretary for Housing and Urban Development, I have walked the streets of too many devastated communities and looked in the eyes of families whose lives have come crashing down around them under nature’s wrath.

The President’s Climate Action Plan outlines responsible steps to address carbon pollution but also focuses on preparing communities for the impacts of climate change, which are already being felt – whether it’s more intense storms like Sandy or floods and heat waves that are driving up food prices.

Our Rebuilding Strategy will help communities adapt to these emerging threats by investing to strengthen our roads, bridges, and shorelines so we can better protect people’s homes, businesses, and way of life from severe weather.

Not only will this Rebuilding Strategy put people to work building stronger infrastructure, but recent studies have also shown that for every dollar we invest in protecting our communities, we’ll save $4 down the road by preventing future damage.

We know that success will not be defined by building things back the way they were. Success means rebuilding in a way that makes our communities more economically sustainable and better able to withstand future storms.

We cannot prevent all future storms but we have a moral obligation to our kids and grandkids to act now to help address the effects of climate change and protect our communities.

From New Orleans to Cedar Rapids to Tuscaloosa to Minot – I have walked the streets and looked in the eyes of families whose lives have come crashing down around them under nature’s wrath.

But nothing prepared me to come back home to New York City last October and look in the eyes of my friend who lost his daughter to Hurricane Sandy.  Nothing prepared me to see neighborhoods—many of which had served as the backdrop of my childhood—completely unrecognizable.

This was all due to the devastating storm that hit our shores in the fall with a power and a fury unlike anything most of us had ever seen before. Entire neighborhoods were flooded. Families and small business owners lost everything in a single night. Infrastructure was torn apart.  In short, it was one of the most painful chapters in the region’s history and the Obama administration has been committed to helping communities turn the page.

We have worked closely with State and Local governments up and down the East Coast to help prepare for and respond to the storm.  Within a week of Sandy making landfall we had 17,000 federal responders on the ground, helping displaced families find shelter and getting communities back on their feet.

In addition, the scope of the damage made clear that more assistance was needed, which is why the President fought for, and Congress ultimately passed, a supplemental funding bill providing tens of billions of dollars to help rebuild impacted communities.

The President also knew that we needed to do two key things: cut red tape to get assistance where it was needed as quickly as possible, and coordinate the efforts of all of the Federal agencies to support local communities as they rebuilt in a way that made them more resilient.

That’s why he created the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, which I have the honor to chair.

For the past six months we have worked closely with our Federal partners to find ways to get funding and other assistance where it’s needed more effectively and efficiently. To date, the Administration has provided assistance to nearly 255,000 people and thousands of businesses. FEMA alone has provided $12 billion in funding to individuals and communities.

Additional funding from the supplemental funding bill continues to flow into the region.

And, today, I’m proud to release the Hurricane Sandy Task Force’s Rebuilding Strategy– which will help guide the investment of these funds and, in the bigger picture, assist communities across the nation in preparing for the increasing risks caused by extreme weather.

The President has been clear – most recently in his Climate Action Plan – that we have an obligation to protect the planet for the next generation, just as our parents and grandparents handed us a better planet. He has outlined a plan to cut carbon pollution that harms our health and our planet – and that is contributing to greater risks of asthma attacks and more severe floods and heat waves that drive up food prices.

He has also been clear that, as we take responsible steps to cut carbon pollution, we must prepare communities across the country for the impacts of climate change, many of which are already being felt.

The Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force’s Rebuilding Strategy lays out a series of recommendations that will help the Sandy-impacted region rebuild in a way that will prepare them for these impacts – and that will serve as models for communities across the country.

For highlights from the Rebuilding Strategy, click here.

To read the entire Rebuilding Strategy, click here.

President Barack Obama delivers remarks on housing and home ownership at Desert Vista High School in Phoenix, Ariz., Aug. 6, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Today, I joined President Obama in visiting Phoenix, where he laid out his vision for a housing system that promotes the American dream of homeownership. 

For years, owning a home was a symbol of responsibility and a source of security for millions of middle-class families across the country. But the financial crisis in 2008 put that all at risk, and by the time President Obama took office, the housing market was in free fall. Home values were plummeting and foreclosures were at record highs.

This Administration immediately took a number of steps to heal the market that helped millions of Americans stay in their homes, save money on their mortgages and turn their communities around.

Today, the market is coming back. Thanks to reforms of the financial system that cracked down on the most reckless practices that led to the housing crisis, responsible Americans can feel more confident and secure when they borrow money to purchase their own home. 

President Barack Obama and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan tour Erickson Construction, a housing construction company, in Chandler, Ariz., Aug. 6, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

But, as President Obama made clear today, there is more work to do. It’s time to turn the page on an era of housing bubbles and taxpayer bailouts, and build a new housing finance system that will provide secure homeownership for responsible middle class families.

We see this as critically important, not only because housing and home ownership are one of the bedrock cornerstones of the middle class – but also because it is so connected to the other ones.  How do most families pay for their kids to go to college, to start small businesses, to save for retirement? It's through the savings in their homes.  If we can't protect American families from this kind of crisis again, if we can't build safe, stable investment in housing and home ownership, we also cut out the rungs in the ladder to opportunity for so many families in other areas as well. 

First, there are steps we can take right now that could help immediately strengthen the housing market and make sure that no homeowners or communities are left behind by the housing recovery. This includes helping more responsible homeowners save money by refinancing their mortgages, cutting red tape so responsible families can get a mortgage, helping hard-hit communities rebuild, and preserving access to affordable rental housing

Second, President Obama put forward a plan to reform the housing finance system, centered on four core principles:

• Put private capital at the center of the housing finance system.
• End Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s failed business model so taxpayers are never again on the hook for bad loans and bailouts.
• Ensure widespread access to safe and responsible mortgages like the 30-year fixed rate mortgage in good and bad economic times.
• Support affordability and access to homeownership for creditworthy first-time buyers and access to affordable rental housing for middle class families and those aspiring to be. 

Third, because buying a home is one of the most important decisions middle-class families make, there is more we can do to make sure that process is safe, sustainable and easy to understand. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has already taken a number of steps to this end, and President Obama is calling on the CFPB to finish a simplified mortgage disclosure form, which highlights the key facts any potential homeowner should know before they take out a mortgage in three pages or less.

Finally, Congress must move quickly to confirm Mel Watt, President Obama’s pick for Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to transition toward a safe and sound future housing finance system.  

By taking these and other steps outlined in the President’s plan, we can finally put an end to the practices that got our country into this mess. As a result, we will grow our economy and give the middle class – and all those working hard to get there – a better bargain for generations to come. 

Shaun Donovan is the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

For More Information:

• Read the President's full remarks
• Infographic: President Obama's plan to promote homeownership
• Ask President Obama your questions on housing
• Learn more about President Obama's vision for a better bargain for the middle class

When I spoke with the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans this morning, I had a chance to talk about one of the top priorities for President Obama and myself: Ending homelessness among veterans. One out of every six men and women in our shelters has worn our country’s uniform, and that is a national disgrace. It is also the reason HUD put together a strategic plan to end homelessness among veterans by 2015. Not reduce it, not redefine it, but end it.

New York Times columnist David Brooks recently visited HUD and sat in on one of our regular meetings designed to monitor the progress we’re making toward that goal. Even though Brooks is a conservative columnist covering a Democratic administration, he came away impressed. That’s because ending veterans’ homelessness is one of those issues that has nothing to do with ideology, or whether you have a “D” or an “R” after you name. Making sure the heroes who answered the call to service are treated with the dignity they deserve when they return is absolutely central to upholding our nation’s values.

With that mission in mind, HUD has dedicated itself to collaboration across governmental agencies, focusing on finding out what works. The first step was knowing the scope of our problem: How many veterans are homeless and where are they? President Obama and I both know the importance of good data. That’s why, in the effort to end homelessness among veterans, the department is using a program called HUDStat to monitor the effectiveness and efficiency of our services to veterans.

This effort isn’t about spin or scoring political points. It’s about knowing where the need for support is greatest and the best ways to deliver that help. So far, we have seen that HUD’s efforts to eliminate homelessness among servicemen and women have been incredibly successful, with the collaboration between HUD and Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing helping more than 21,000 veterans.

I know fiscal discipline is important in this budget climate. And we also know investing in efforts to end homelessness save taxpayers money by making sure America’s most vulnerable are not sent through the revolving doors of emergency rooms, shelters and jails. The data backs it up. That is why HUD has not cut funding to end homelessness, and instead increased the support going to those programs in 2011, including a request for 10,000 more vouchers specifically for homeless veterans.

When I spoke with the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, I was talking about an issue that goes beyond politics. No matter what side of the aisle our lawmakers fall on, we know what the brave men and women who wear our uniform deserve when they return to the nation they defended. They deserve stability. They deserve a place to call home. Anything less is unacceptable.

Everyone knows we must do more to help veterans and eliminate homelessness among the selfless Americans who defend us abroad. That is why HUD is dedicated to addressing this crisis. We have seen how effective these programs can be, and will continue to work until homelessness is no longer a problem for our nation’s veterans.

• Increasing the Energy Efficiency of American Homes and Saving Families Money. Passed as part of President Obama’s Recovery Act, the Green Retrofit Program along with other HUD programs will create thousands of green jobs, reduce energy costs,  and improve resident health,  as workers retrofit older multi-family apartment developments with  energy efficient and green technologies. Thus far, HUD has “greened” 245,000 homes with a range of energy improvements – and another 35,000 have received deep green retrofits that will save up to 40 percent in energy costs.
• Protecting Children From Lead Paint and Other Home Health Hazards. There can be no more important task than protecting our children from health and safety hazards found in their own homes.  Despite banning lead-based paint for residential use over three decades ago, many American homes still have significant lead-based paint hazards.  But thanks to the Recovery Act and HUD’s ongoing lead programs, we’ve been able to produce over 16,700 housing units free from lead paint and other health hazards in the last year alone.
• Supporting Local Efforts to Fight Climate Change by Building More Sustainable, Green Economies and Communities. Research demonstrates that homes are responsible for 20 percent of America’s carbon emissions – and the long distances  many families have to drive to get to work and schools contributes to our dangerous dependence on oil.  That’s why HUD joined with EPA and the Department of Transportation in an unprecedented partnership to reduce our carbon footprint at the same time we connect where we live to where we work.  With those partners, HUD recently awarded nearly $170 million in planning grants to ensure that metropolitan regions and rural communities across the country have more housing and transportation choices, can create more livable, walkable neighborhoods that promote energy independence, and will be more economically competitive. 
• Strengthening the Ability of Americans to Make Home Energy Improvements of Their Choice.  Americans currently spend $200 billion every year in home energy bills, and for too many families, making energy improvements to their homes does not make economic sense.  That’s why, as part of the Administration’s Recovery through Retrofit initiative, I  joined with Vice President Biden in November to announce PowerSaver,  a new FHA mortgage insurance product  to enable homeowners to make cost effective, energy saving improvements to their homes.  Under the  PowerSaver pilot,  homeowners will be able to borrow up to $25,000 for terms as long as 20 years to make proven, cost-saving home energy improvements , based on a list of measures developed by FHA and the Department of Energy.  The program will kick off later this year.
• Recycling Brownfield Sites to Provide Safe, Affordable Housing for Families. Too often, communities that would like to revitalize their neighborhoods and develop quality affordable housing for families have been hampered by federal red tape.  That’s why HUD made changes to the Federal Housing Administration’s procedures to make developing affordable housing easier on brownfield sites provided they meet EPA cleanup requirements  – changes that could directly impact the revitalization efforts of communities.  Without sacrificing the health of the residents, by employing state-of-the-art environmental protection technologies and techniques, we can “recycle” land in our communities and use it to develop safe, affordable multifamily housing.

I was particularly proud to announce $7.4 million in awards to help Historically Black Colleges and Universities address community development needs in surrounding neighborhoods.  These remarkable institutions are often neighborhood anchors and so these funds will help them to stabilize areas hard hit by the foreclosure crisis, provide down-payment assistance to underserved communities, remove lead paint from affordable housing, and support so many other local activities essential to building safe, healthy neighborhoods. 

Perhaps the most exciting news I shared was new data, hot off the presses, about how HUD’s Recovery Act dollars are really making an impact on the ground in Congressional Black Caucus districts.
HUD has invested some $13.6 billion in communities across the country through President Obama’s Recovery Act that CBC members helped pass – to green our nation’s homes and revive stalled affordable housing projects while stabilizing neighborhoods devastated by foreclosures and preventing homelessness. 

In tandem with our Recovery team, HUD’s Office of Policy Development and Research recently did groundbreaking analysis on the impact this funding is making in neighborhoods. Here are a few highlights of what our recipients reported:

• Nearly 180,000 homes have been renovated in communities of color. 
   
• Sixty percent of HUD’s Recovery funds went to urban cores where the foreclosure crisis has hit particularly hard.
   
• Areas of concentrated poverty—those neighborhoods with the poorest families, most troubled schools and least economic opportunity—received nearly twenty times the funding per capita more than low poverty areas.
   
• Fully half of HUD’s Recovery funds went to places where the median income was less than $30,000, with recipients reporting nearly 200,000 home renovations.  These investments offer an extra bang for the buck because many of these renovations include energy efficiency improvements that lower the overall cost of utility bills for residents in affordable housing supported by HUD. 

Most exciting of all, we’ve tracked this data down to the census tract.  Imagine if you were able to make a donation to the Red Cross for relief efforts in, for instance, post-Katrina New Orleans, and then you can find out what neighborhood received those funds, down to the cross-street.  That’s the level of transparency we aspire to in the Obama Administration.

With information we will be posting on our website shortly, you will be able to see how many homes have been renovated and newly constructed by cross sections of data (such as poverty level, income, or percentage minority) to see how much different types of neighborhoods are benefiting from Recovery Act programs – so that you can see how the Recovery Act is impacting your community, your family, and your children’s future.

These kinds of innovations remind us long after the last Recovery Act dollar is spent, its legacy won’t only be the homes it has rehabbed and jobs it created, but just as importantly, the new platform it’s creating for the transparent and public accounting of taxpayer dollars. Given the toll our economic crisis took on minority communities, we know we won’t solve all our problems overnight.  But as I see every day at HUD, when we commit to investing in the communities that need it most and changing the way we do business, we can strengthen our economy today.  And we can build the new foundation for growth and opportunity our country needs in the decades to come.

Shaun Donovan is the United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

That’s why the Administration is announcing today another $1 billion to help communities struggling with foreclosures.  Already, HUD has provided $6 billion in two rounds of Neighborhood Stabilization Program funding.  These funds help communities buy and redevelop foreclosed and abandoned homes and residential properties – putting Americans back to work, creating more affordable rental housing and helping the neighborhoods that need it most. 

Today, the $4 billion first round of Neighborhood Stabilization funding is in communities, buying up and renovating homes, and creating jobs.  The $2 billion included as part of President Obama’s Recovery Act is making a difference as well.  This second round of funding differed from the first in that it was competitively awarded – to encourage innovative local partnerships, reward the best ideas for tackling the housing crisis and grow local economies in impactful ways.

You only need look at a city like Minneapolis to understand the impact Neighborhood Stabilization is having. With $5.6 million of Neighborhood Stabilization funds, Minneapolis was able to leverage an additional $30 million in resources from the Twin Cities Community Land Bank and the partnership of for-profit developers.  Already, they’ve bought up nearly 250 properties in targeted neighborhoods, which they are rehabilitating to green standards and selling to responsible homeowners through a local down payment program.

Now, in the most heavily foreclosure impacted neighborhoods in North Minneapolis, home prices are gaining and local experts believe private market recovery is underway. It was that success that led the Administration to award the city another $20 million in the second round of NSP.

And more help is on the way to communities across the country.  The additional $1 billion we announced today was included as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform legislation ,

Building on the first two rounds, we expect the Neighborhood Stabilization Program will impact nearly 100,000 properties in the nation’s hardest-hit markets.  Because this makes up 20 percent of vacant and abandoned homes over the last 18 months in NSP-targeted areas, addressing these properties will have ripple effects that could have a profound impact on our local, regional and national housing markets alike.

Still, the Obama Administration believes government can’t solve this problem alone.  As Minneapolis showed, stabilizing neighborhoods requires private investment and other partners to step up. 

Last week, I announced an important Neighborhood Stabilization innovation that helps make that possible called “First Look.” A historic partnership with the National Community Stabilization Trust and the nation’s leading financial institutions, First Look will gives every grantee an exclusive 12-14 day window to evaluate and bid on properties before others can do so.  First Look will cut the time it takes to sell these properties in half, which is particularly important given that vacant and abandoned homes are more than three times as destructive to home prices as homes that have only begun the foreclosure process.  It will also give grantees access to state of the art mapping and management tools, so they know what properties are available and who owns them. 

Communities struggling with foreclosures and budget cuts rarely have the time or funds to establish individual relationships with financial institutions and negotiate the best price one house at a time.  With the potent combination of Neighborhood Stabilization funds and First Look, they’ll have the resources and partners they need to buy target foreclosed homes strategically – and act quickly.

Obviously, these remain difficult times for every American.  Neighborhood Stabilization is only one tool in our toolbox. And it won’t help every block wracked by foreclosures. 

But with game-changing, market-oriented and cost-effective strategies like these—that bring more stakeholders to the table with a greater sense of shared responsibility—President Obama and I believe we can tackle tough challenges like foreclosures and blight.  We can put Americans back to work.  And we can help our communities recover. 

Shaun Donovan is Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

 A half-decade later, Gulf Coast residents are still trying to pick up the pieces.  Since taking office in January 2009, the Obama Administration has been working hard to ensure residents are given the tools they need to recover from the hurricanes and rebuild their lives and communities.  As a result, $2.43 billion in public assistance funds for recovery that had been stalled for years has been obligated since the beginning of the Administration, with President Obama’s Recovery Act providing billions more.

But the Obama Administration is committed to doing things differently in the Gulf – in two fundamental ways.  First, we believe that government should stand with the residents of the Gulf Coast, not in their way.  That means cutting through the red tape.

Secondly, we are not only helping the Gulf Coast recover from disaster – but working to revitalize the region and build it back better and stronger. 

Since becoming HUD Secretary, I have had the privilege and experience of visiting the Gulf Coast region five times to see the challenges and progress for myself.  From my first visit with Secretary Napolitano where we announced millions of dollars in funding to stimulate long term recovery, to volunteering with the St. Bernard Project to help rebuild the homes of two elderly families, it has been extremely important to see the progress we are making and the work that still lies ahead firsthand. 

As I prepare to make my sixth trip this week on the 5th Anniversary of the storm, I wanted to share with you some of HUD’s accomplishments so far:

• HUD’s work in the Obama Administration began with the Disaster Housing Assistance Program (DHAP).  Shortly after President Obama’s inauguration, I discovered that thousands of families who received assistance through DHAP would see that assistance come to an end without having found permanent housing.  Together with our partners in the Administration, we extended this assistance for an additional six months -- allowing displaced families more time to transition to self-sufficiency.  By partnering with nearly 350 public housing agencies across the country, we were able to provide temporary housing to over 30,000 families displaced from their homes by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.  Today every DHAP family is accounted for – having already made the transition to permanent housing or well on their way to doing so. 
• HUD has also been able to assist displaced Gulf Coast residents through the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP) under President Obama’s Recovery Act.  Under this program, states and communities received grants to help prevent homelessness and provide rapid re-housing assistance to those who are already homeless.  Louisiana has received $13.5 billion in funding under HPRP, and Mississippi has received $13.3 billion. 
• We have also helped stabilize Gulf Coast communities suffering from foreclosures and abandonment.  As part of the 2008 Housing and Economic Recovery Act, Mississippi received nearly $46.3 million under the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), while Louisiana received $39 million, with an additional $29.7 million competitively awarded to the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority consortium. Indeed, with HUD strongly encouraging local non-profit organizations to help the city target their funds more effectively through technical assistance, Mayor Landrieu has made tremendous progress helping New Orleans cut through the red tape and ensure these funds are helping the neighborhoods that need it most. 
• We are also working to rebuild a stronger and more ethical housing authority in New Orleans.  I recently appointed a new leadership team to the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO), led by David Gilmore.  Bringing 40 years of public housing experience, Mr. Gilmore and his team are working to develop new affordable housing in New Orleans, fostering closer relationships with social service providers and expediting assistance to lower income families.  At the same time, he is working to ensure that public housing is not only a place for families to find safe, affordable housing but also provides opportunities for those who live there – helping more than 800 New Orleans residents find work.  

These accomplishments are just the beginning for a Gulf Coast region still struggling to regain its footing.  But as long as we continue to cut through the red tape, listen to the voices of people on the ground and get help to families and neighborhoods that need it most, I have no doubt we will continue to produce results and help the families of the Gulf Coast move from recovery to revitalization.

Shaun Donovan is Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development

Read more from the Hurricane Katrina: 5 Years of Remembering & Rebuilding series.

The 100 affordable housing developments receiving HUD funding include over 8,000 homes, and HUD anticipates that the awards will allow tenants will save over $250 each on utility bills annually.

Just a few weeks ago, I joined Congresswoman Holmes-Norton and Mayor Adrian Fenty at the groundbreaking of one of these developments right here in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, DC. Over $2 million in Recovery Act Green Retrofit Program funding will help residents of the Gibson Plaza Apartments cut their utility costs more than 20 percent -- at the same time creating 75 good-paying green jobs that can never be sent offshore.

Overall, the Green Retrofit Program provides $250 million nationally to reduce energy costs, cut water consumption, and improve indoor air quality. Under the Obama Administration, HUD understands that in these difficult economic times families look for ways to save money on everyday costs, and the Green Retrofit Program is just one example of the many ways in which the Recovery Act is helping Americans save money on energy.

The Green Retrofit Program is also an example of HUD’s ongoing commitment to creating jobs while simultaneously building sustainable homes and communities. As our nation continues to recover from the economic crisis, the program is designed to create thousands of quality green jobs as workers retrofit older federally assisted multi-family apartment developments with the next generation of energy efficient technologies.

Initiatives like the Green Retrofit Program illustrate how the Recovery Act continues to work to benefit the families and communities hardest hit by the economic crisis by generating jobs for Americans, improving housing and neighborhoods and building a path toward sustainability, energy efficiency, and long-term economic prosperity.

Shaun Donovan is Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development

Before an audience of green affordable housing developers at the Communities of the Institute for Professional and Executive Development (IPED) annual conference, I highlighted four ways HUD is using the lessons of the Recovery Act to make this possible—first, by upgrading and retrofitting 230,000 units of HUD’s affordable housing stock to high green standards by the end of this summer; second, by providing new tools to property owners that demonstrate which green improvements they can make and the savings they can generate; third, by using the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to catalyze new forms of green retrofit financing for single- and multi-family housing; and fourth, by forging interagency partnerships across government to weatherize homes and help clusters of communities work together to reduce the combined cost of housing and transportation.  

A day earlier, at the groundbreaking for the green retrofit of the Gibson Plaza Apartments in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, DC, I saw for myself how these kinds of Recovery Act investments are helping green our homes, improve our quality of life, and create jobs. Over $2 million in Recovery Act funding  will help residents of this 40 year old neighborhood anchor cut their utility costs more than 20 percent -- at the same time  creating75 good-paying green jobs that can never be sent offshore.

Gibson Plaza reminds us that at the same time the Recovery Act is making homes healthier and more energy efficient, it is preparing the new generation of professionals--from mechanics and plumbers, to architects, energy auditors, and factory workers building solar panels and wind turbines--we need to design, install, and maintain the first wave of green technologies. It’s changing the way we do business and it’s laying the foundation for the clean energy economy America needs to compete and prosper in the 21st century.

Secretary Donovan and Washington D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty at the Gibson Plaza Apartments in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, DC.

Shaun Donovan is the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
 

For all the implications of “sprawl”—from job loss, economic decline and segregation, to obesity, asthma rates, to climate change and our dangerous dependence on foreign oil—all of them share by one fundamental problem: the mismatch between where we live and where we work. Whatever else we do to address these problems, America must find a way to connect housing to jobs.

 And Americans are demanding it.  Today, the average household spends more than half of its budget on housing and transportation.  They have become American families’ two single biggest expenses.

During the housing boom, real estate agents suggested to families that couldn’t afford to live near job centers that they could find a more affordable home by living farther away.  Lenders bought into the “Drive to Qualify” myth as well – giving easy credit to homebuyers without accounting for how much it might cost families to live in these areas or the risk they could pose to the market.

And then, an odd thing happened when these families moved in – they found themselves driving dozens of miles to work, to school, to the movies, to the grocery store, spending hours in traffic and spending nearly as much to fill their gas tank as they were to pay their mortgage...and in some places, more.  In addition to adding to families’ budgets and time, it is also contributing to increased carbon emissions and pollution.  

In all, in the last century, transportation costs as a share of household expenditures have increased by a thousand percent.

In February, HUD launched our new Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities – allowing us to work directly with communities to support innovative planning and practice at the local level and helping to coordinate our investments with other agencies at the federal level.

In particular, HUD formed a Sustainability Partnership with the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency.  When it comes to housing, environmental and transportation policy, the Federal government must speak with one voice. This is an example of how we’re changing the way we do business across the Administration – working not at cross purposes in our silos, but together, in common purpose
 
Of course, as critical as regional planning is, the hard work of implementing plans happens at the local level.

That’s why our $40 million Sustainable Communities Challenge Planning Grant program is targeted to cities and towns.  I announced this program earlier this week in conjunction with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in a joint grant program that includes up to $35 million for its “TIGER II” planning grant program. 

Where the Transportation program will fund planning activities that relate directly to a future transportation capital investment, HUD’s program will fund land-use related planning activities and affordable housing strategies that will be linked to that investment. This funding will make it possible for communities to hire staff with the expertise needed to remove barriers communities face to sustainable development. 

The goal of each of these efforts—at the regional level, at the community level and at the neighborhood level—is the same: to advance our shared priorities and values as Americans for the decades to come.

Priorities like jobs for the 21st century – located closer to where we live, so businesses spend less money moving goods and services and people can spend less time commuting and more time with family.

Values like healthier, more inclusive communities – with neighborhoods where kids can play outside and breathe clean air. 

Communities where opportunities for people of all ages, incomes, races and ethnicities are never determined by their zip code.

These are the kinds of communities we all want our children to grow up in. 

If, in this new century, we grow our communities and our economies out of this fundamental principle, then I have no doubt our America and our children’s America will be a strong, prosperous America infused with the same sense of purpose, opportunity and resolve that have always defined us.  

Shaun Donovan is the Secrecretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development

Through HUD’s Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities we are working with the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency to create those sustainable communities.  Guided by six “Livability Principles,” our Interagency Partnership is working to break down silos that traditionally exist in the federal government and help local communities across the country improve access to affordable housing, more transportation options, and lower transportation costs, while protecting our environment.  It will help communities build more livable, walkable, environmentally sustainable regions by connecting housing to jobs, fostering and encouraging local innovation, and by building a clean energy economy.

Today, I had the opportunity to travel to the great state of Colorado, which has been leading the effort on all things “green” and sustainable.  The City of Denver has started building more than 100 miles of new light rail, commuter rail, and bus rapid transit lanes, linking the 32 communities surrounding the city.  And it doesn’t stop there.

Along with representatives from the Denver Housing Authority, Mayor John Hickenlooper, Congressman Ed Perlmutter, and I toured Benedict Park Place (BPP).  Located near Denver’s central business district in Downtown Denver, BPP is a 15-acre sustainable mixed-income, mixed-used redevelopment project.  Within walking distance to a Transit Oriented Development (TOD)-light rail line, bus stop, bike share station, grocery store, parks, charter school and downtown job center, BPP is a model for the type of  sustainable communities that we are developing across the country.  It has 580 mixed-income units with over 100 homeownership units planned with a total cost of approximately $130 million.  The last phase, which broke ground this spring, will deliver 89 mixed-income rental units (30 public housing, 32 Low Income Housing Tax Credits and 27 market rate units) currently scoring as LEED Platinum under the LEED for Homes Pilot Program.  It will contain various renewable energy components, including a 42 bore wells geothermal system and a 100kw Solar Photovoltaic System that will reduce the building’s operating costs by over 50% on an annual basis and save as much as $43,000 in HUD utility subsidies a year.  And thanks to $5.6 million in HUD Recovery Act funding, the Denver Housing Authority was able to create quality construction jobs for 50 workers as a result of this project, some of whom I was able to meet during my tour today. 

Representative Ed Perlmutter, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan, and Denvery Mayor John Hickenlooper at Benedict Park Place housing development in Denver, Colorado. May 14, 2010.

Not only is it important for our big cities and urban communities to have access to sustainable development resources, but for our small towns and rural communities as well.  They face unique challenges when it comes to accessing health care, grocery stores, and adult education opportunities, among other things.  As I mentioned in testimony before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development last week, as part of our new Sustainable Communities Planning Grant Program, we are creating a separate, special funding category specifically for small towns and rural places. The program will include a funding set-aside for communities and towns with a population of less than 200,000 people, as well as for those with a population between 200,000 and 500,000.  This will ensure that small towns and rural places are not overlooked in this competition.

While in Colorado, I also traveled about an hour north of Denver to the City of Greely (population 95,000).  In Greely, I participated in a panel discussion with Congresswoman Betsy Markey, Governor Bill Ritter, and Greely Mayor Tom Norton where we focused on developing more sustainable, walkable, energy efficient housing and communities in America’s small and rural towns. 

Whether it’s our rural communities and small towns or our big cities and urban communities, President Obama and I are committed to ensuring that we tie the quality and location of housing to broader opportunities.  This includes access to good jobs, quality schools and safe streets.  This also means helping communities that face common problems start sharing solutions and becoming partners to create sustainable development.

Shaun Donovan is the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.