The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
July 29, 2014

White House Announces New Executive Secretary / Chief of Staff for the National Security Council Staff

Today, National Security Adviser Susan E. Rice announced that Suzy George will be named Deputy Assistant to the President, Executive Secretary of the National Security Council and Chief of Staff of the National Security Council staff.  Ms. George will succeed Brian McKeon, who will soon depart the White House to become the Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy at the Department of Defense.

Ambassador Rice said, “Suzy George brings a wealth of foreign policy, government and management experience to this position, through her long service at the Department of State and as a principal with the Albright Stonebridge Group.  Her service at the highest levels of the State Department, where she engaged with senior leaders across the U.S. government and with foreign partners, gives me great confidence in her ability to lead the National Security Council staff.”

Ms. George has served as a principal at the Albright Stonebridge Group LLC, an international strategic consulting firm, and previously with The Albright Group LLC, since 2001.  From 1997-2001, Ms. George served as the Deputy Chief of Staff in the Department of State, overseeing the management and coordination of travel and meetings, as a liaison to the White House and other Cabinet departments, and working across the Department on a range of foreign policy initiatives for Secretary Madeleine  Albright. 

Ms. George has a BA from Mount Holyoke College, and a JD from the George Washington University Law School.

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
July 29, 2014

Background Conference Call on Ukraine

Via Telephone

3:58 P.M. EDT

MS. LUCAS MAGNUSON:  Hi, good afternoon, everyone.  Thanks for your patience.  Welcome to the call to explain the sanctions that we just rolled out -- that the President just spoke to.  This call will be on background.  All information will be attributable to senior administration officials.
 

With that, I will turn it over to senior administration official number one. 
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Great.  Thanks, everybody, for getting on the call.  I’ll just make a few comments to give an overview, and then hand it over to my colleagues to go into more details about what both the United States and Europe did today.
 

First of all, you have seen since the shoot-down of MH17 the United States make very clear that we believe there needs to be greater costs imposed on Russia for its actions.  That includes the shoot-down of MH17 from Russian-backed separatist-controlled areas, and it also includes the continued efforts by Russia to arm and support the separatists who are inside of Ukraine.
 

And we have put out a substantial amount of information in the last several days.  We believe that military equipment -- including artillery, armored vehicles and air defense equipment -- recently departed from the deployment area west of Rostov, and we’re concerned that this would continue the flow of support to the separatists. 
We have seen Russia continue to accumulate a significant amount of equipment at a deployment site in southwest Russia that includes tanks of a type that are no longer used by the Russian military, as well as armored vehicles, multiple rocket launchers, artillery, and air defense systems.  We saw additional towed artillery departed this site this week, and we are concerned that it will be transferred to separatist fighters.
 

I’d also note that after recapturing several Ukrainian cities last weekend, Ukrainian officials discovered caches of weapons that they assert came from Russia, and that includes MANPADS, mines, grenades, MREs, vehicles, and a pontoon bridge. 

And we’ve also seen a buildup of Russian forces near the Ukrainian border.
 

So all of that is in addition to the flow of heavy weapons and support that we’ve seen from Russia into Ukraine over the last several weeks, and it has not abated since the tragic shoot-down of MH17.
 

The President has focused, since the beginning of this crisis, on coordinating with a broad, international coalition, specifically with our European allies in particular.  And since the shoot-down of MH17, he has spoken many times to

European leaders, including several conversations with Prime Minister Rutte of the Netherlands, given the Dutch lead in the investigation, and most recently yesterday doing a videoconference call with his counterparts from Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy.
 

And we have very much encouraged the Europeans to take additional steps to impose sanctions in key sectors of the Russian economy.  And today, the Europeans followed through on that commitment.  And this is entirely consistent with the conversations that the President had with European leaders in Brussels at the G7, at the EU.  We have been working this issue for several weeks, if not months now, and today we see the coordinated action that is a result of that leadership by the President.
 

Let me just say a few things.  My colleagues will get into the additional sanctions imposed by the Treasury Department and the Commerce Department.  I do just want to note that today’s actions include steps by a range of U.S. agencies.  So, for instance, USDA is suspending all bilateral export credit and development finance for Russia.  OPIC has suspended consideration of any new financing and insurance transactions in Russia.  And as a result of the sanctions imposed today, the Export-Import Bank is imposing a hold on all new transactions for exports to Russia.  So these are very broad actions across the U.S. government.
 

But with that, I’ll turn it over to my colleague from Treasury. 
 

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Thank you.  And let me just give a quick overview of the actions we’ve taken today, and of course we’ll be available for questions should people want to go into more detail. 
These actions today of course build on a series of actions that we’ve rolled out over the last month to respond to the provocations from Russia.  We have targeted leaders who have been responsible for the Russian intervention.  We’ve targeted cronies or oligarchs.  We’ve targeted separatist leaders and groups, and others responsible for the violence and instability.  And we’ve also taken a number of steps that target sectors of the Russian economy and go after key firms within those sectors.  You’re seeing more of that today.
 

Today, we have expanded the list of financial institutions that are sanctioned under Executive Order 13662 to include three additional major Russian state-owned banks.  These are VTB Bank, Bank of Moscow, and Russian Agricultural Bank.  As with our actions two weeks ago, we are prohibiting U.S. persons from dealing in any new equity from these banks or of these banks, and issuing or handling any new debt of longer than 90-day maturity. 
 

As a practical matter, this will close those banks off from the U.S. as sources of medium- or long-term financing.  And I would note that these three, as well as the two banks that we designated under this measure two weeks ago, hold a very extensive amount of U.S. dollar-denominated debt. 
 

Second, we designated today a Russian defense technology firm under Executive Order 13661.  The name is United Shipbuilding Corporation.  It’s been designated for operating in the Russian arms and defense sector, and it expands on the list of eight firms that we designated just two weeks ago.  As a result of this action, any assets that it holds or tries to move through the U.S. financial system will be blocked, and any transactions with U.S. persons are prohibited.
 

I want to stress the significance of the steps we’ve taken today, and you’ll shortly hear about additional actions from my colleague at the Commerce Department.  Executive Order 13662 authorized Secretary Lew to identify sectors of the Russian economy and then to select specific targets for action.  This is a broad, powerful and flexible tool.  We’ve used it today in that way, and we have made very clear that we can and will continue to increase pressure if Russia does not change course.
 

We’ve already seen substantial impact on the Russian economy from the actions we’ve taken to date.  And we’ve seen the Russian ruble depreciating nearly 8 percent just since the beginning of the year, despite heavy intervention by the Russian Central Bank.  The Russian Central Bank has spent over $30 billion this year in an effort to stabilize the ruble and, as you can hear, quite unsuccessfully. 
 

Third, the IMF expects as much as a $100 billion of capital flight from Russia this year.  And we’ve seen Standard & Poor’s downgrade Russia’s sovereign credit rating to BBB-, one notch above junk status. 
Those four indicators that I just cited are before the actions that we announced today and the actions that the EU is preparing to announce. 
 

With that, I want to turn it over to my colleague from the Commerce Department.
 

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Thank you.  So the Commerce Department has announced two actions today.  First, in line with the Treasury announcement on the action on United Shipbuilding Corporation, we are adding them to our entity list. 
 

We already have eight Russian defense enterprises that have been sanctioned by Treasury on our entity list.  To remind everyone the consequence of a foreign party being on the Commerce entity list, is it imposes an export license requirement for all items in the U.S. economy going to that entity regardless of their significance and regardless of whether they’re exported directly from the United States or re-exported from a foreign country.  It also includes the re-export of foreign-made end items if they include U.S. content that’s over 25 percent of the value of that foreign-made item.  So it’s really the trade equivalent -- or a complement to the Treasury’s financial sanctions in that respect.
 

I’d also remind everyone that we had previously announced defense-related export licensing policy.  We are not approving any licenses for military items to any end-user in Russia or dual-use items to any military end-user in Russia or end use.
The other piece of our announcement today is that we are going to impose export license requirements on a universe of technologies if they’re to be exported or re-exported to Russian deepwater, Arctic offshore, or shale oil production activities. 

And these are designed not to impact Russian current production but to impact their ability to produce in more technologically challenging future projects.  And we’ll have a regulation that will be published in the Federal Register in the next few days that will impose this export license requirement for energy-related technologies in, as I said, deepwater, Arctic offshore, and shale projects.
 

And so those are the Commerce actions that are being announced today.  From that, I guess I turn it over to my colleague from the State Department.
 

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  The European Union today announced a series of measures of its own, including some strong sanctions.  I’d commend you the statement by Herman Van Rompuy, the President of the European Council, that came out a few hours ago.
 

The European Union sanctions are the result of obviously the work of all 28 members and the commission, but follow a period of many weeks of close consultations between the United States, the European Union, a number of member states, and other governments as part of the President’s instructions that we coordinate our sanctions and the international reaction to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
 

So the European Union steps are strong.  They are significant.  They represent a new step for Europe, and one which we and the Europeans have taken together.  Those steps include financial sanctions -- that is, the Europeans have limited access to European capital markets for Russian-state banks.  That is their equivalent to some of the steps that we have taken both on July 16th and today.  The Europeans have imposed an embargo on trade and arms with Russia, which is forward-looking.
 

You heard my colleague mention that we have a similar restriction on arms exports to Russia in place.  They have established an export ban for dual-use goods for military end-users, which is something also similar to what we have.  And finally, the European Union has curtailed Russian access to sensitive technology by restricting the export of such technologies in the field of the oil sector.  Again, that is very similar to what we have done.
In the world of sanctions, which is a complicated world -- made more so by the differences between our legal systems -- this represents a high degree of coordination, and one which we think helps advance our common policy of sending a message to Russia about its behavior in Ukraine.
 

So we welcome the European Union statement today.  We’re glad we’ve worked with them.  We think that the cooperation has had the right impact, both on Russia and around the world in that it shows our determination to respond to what the Russians have been doing in Ukraine.
 

Q    Hi, guys.  Thanks for doing the call.  Appreciate it.  I wonder if you could elaborate on the last part, the impact of these energy, technology sanctions, and particularly on the cooperation between Russian firms and ExxonMobil, BP, other Western firms.  What kind of impact will this have on the kind of projects that they’ve been doing?  Or is this strictly a more theoretical thing in terms of teaser things they might want to do down the road?
 

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  The intention of the oil technology licensing restrictions is not to affect current oil production or Russian sales right now, but it does have and will have a cumulative impact on development of future fields, particularly the exotic fields -- Arctic, deep sea, and shale.   And the impact of these restrictions will grow over time. 
I think my colleague from Commerce can talk about more specific impacts of projects.
 

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Yes, the thing to keep in mind on this is, in these three areas -- the deepwater, the Arctic offshore, and the shale -- the Russians are generally just at the beginning stages of trying to develop that kind of exploration and production.  So certainly, to the extent they're looking to get commodities, software, technology for those forward-looking projects, this will have a significant impact, with the U.S. and the Europeans having very similar restrictive policies for those items.
 

Q    Similar to Peter’s question, can you give us a sense of what portion of the energy industry -- it sounds like you’ve covered that -- and what portion of the financial industry are going to be affected by this?  When you mentioned these few banks, does this affect 25 percent of their financial sector, or 10 percent?  Just some sense of the portion.  Or is this just nibbling at the very edges?
 

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  So let me talk to the financial side.  With the three banks we’ve designated today, all of which are in the top six of Russia’s overall banks, we’ve hit 30 percent of the Russian banking sector in terms of assets.  And all of this has of course been focused on the state-owned side.  We have not been targeting private Russian banks.
 

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  If you combine the three banks we've designated today and the two banks which the United States designated on July 16th, I believe that we have hit five of the six largest state-owned banks in Russia.
 

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I'd just add to that that what you’re also seeing is there’s a direct impact that comes from the target of our sanctions, but then there’s a broader impact on the investment climate in Russia.  Essentially, Russia is not a very good bet right now for international investors.  And that broader chilling impact has effects related to capital flight, which has been substantial this year; with respect to growth rates, which have been revised down.  So you have the immediate impact from the sanctions, but then when people see the collective movement of the United States and Europe into these key sectors, including the financial sector, that also shapes the environment for the Russian economy generally.
 

Q    The story was somewhat similar about the banks as to targeting the largest state banks.  Can we get a sense, though, what percentage of the consumers are affected by the state banks?  I know Bank of Moscow clearly has a fairly large consumer reach, but are you making an effort not to touch the average Russian, or do you want the average Russian to feel some of this pain to pressure the government?
 

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  You’ve seen the actions that we've taken here are very carefully constructed.  These are not prohibitions that would attach to a Russian account holder moving money and dollars, or moving money abroad.  These prohibitions are targeting the banks themselves and their long-term stability. 
 

So it's not a blocking.  What it is, is a prohibition on them obtaining medium- or long-term debt financing, or issuing any new equity.  And between the action that we took and the EU took -- that we've taken and that the EU has taken -- basically they’re out of business in the longer-term debt market, because all of that is supplied in the euro and the dollar.  And the banks we’ve named today, just to give you a sense:  VTB Bank currently holds $21 billion in foreign debt -- 80 percent of that is in dollars; Russian Agricultural Bank, 90 percent is in dollars; and for Bank of Moscow, 100 percent of their current debt is denominated in dollars.
 

So you’re talking about a real vulnerability, especially when the EU and U.S. act in concert as we’ve done today. 
 

Q    Just a basic question.  What exactly do we want the Russians to do, to see these things scaled back?  I mean, what’s our -- specifically at this point, what are we demanding?  And if they continue on their current course, is there another round in the offing or is this really the big one?
 

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  First of all, when we were at the G7 meeting, and in subsequent conversations that the Europeans have had with President Putin, we’ve been very clear about what are the conditions that need to be met by Russia.  Number one, they needed to recognize the Poroshenko government as the legitimately elected government of Ukraine.  Number two, they needed to stop the provision of arms and materiel across the border into Ukraine.  They needed to stop their buildup of military forces along that border.  And they needed to use their significant influence on the separatists to bring them into a political dialogue with the government in Kyiv.
 

And President Poroshenko put forward a peace plan, along with Chancellor Merkel and President Hollande’s support, that made clear that the Ukrainian government was prepared to abide by a cease-fire and engage in discussions with the separatists in eastern Ukraine about decentralization; that Russia could be a part of that dialogue as well.  But we saw both the separatists and Russia fail to live up to those terms. 
 

So there still is an off-ramp available to Russia and to President Putin.  And the basic elements of that off-ramp have been very clear for the last several weeks:  Stopping the flow of weapons and support to the separatists; pressing them to come to the table in peaceful dialogue; de-escalating the Russian buildup along the border; and engaging in a political settlement inside of Ukraine with the government of Kyiv that addresses the interests of all of the people of Ukraine.  And that continues to be available to Russia, and we will continue to hold that door open.  So that’s the first question. 
 

On the second question, these are the very powerful sectoral sanctions that you’ve heard us describe for a number of months now.  We always have additional targets that we could add to these sanctions; however, I think today’s step is a very substantial move by the United States and Europe together, and we will certainly want the impact of these sanctions to sink in and to test Russia’s willingness and capacity to take the path of de-escalation.
 

So again, we always have additional sanctions available to us, but I think this is the very significant step that you’ve heard us describe as the United States and Europe moving into sectoral sanctions together.  We, of course, have moved into sectors with our last round of sanctions, and now the Europeans have joined us there.  And again, I think this will send a powerful message about Russia’s behavior in supporting these separatists, and a powerful message to the people of Ukraine that the international community is supporting their sovereignty and territorial integrity.
 

Q    Hi.  You just actually answered the question I had about whether or not you were talking about -- there was some kind of talk of an off-ramp with Putin, but I think you just answered it. 
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Thanks.  We’ll take -- got time for like two more questions.
 

Q    Thanks.  At the outset, you described the military buildup along the border and inside Russia in a way that obviously raises the question of whether expanded military action may be ahead.  So I want to ask whether there are any non-economic sanctions, measures that the U.S. and/or its allies are taking to deal with the possibility of military escalation in eastern Ukraine.
 

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Sure.  Let me just say a couple of things here. 
 

First of all, this is continuing a pattern that we’ve seen of Russian buildup along its border of arms and heavy weapons and materiel flowing across the border, and frankly, even Russian leadership among the separatists.  As we’ve pointed out, a number of the separatist leaders are actually Russians, not simply ethnic Russians, but Russian citizens with Russian addresses.  And we pointed out earlier in the week the artillery that we’ve seen fired across the border, as well.  So this has been a disturbing pattern of Russian support for the separatists.
The economic cost of the sanctions we believe are the most significant tool that we have to shape Russian decision-making, and so that's why we focused our efforts with Europe on what we can do to impose a cost on Russia and to isolate it internationally.
 

But we also have other elements of our policy that are focused on support for the Ukrainian government, and that includes very significant economic assistance as Ukraine reforms and stabilizes its economy.  That includes support to the Ukrainian military, and we have ramped up our non-lethal support in areas like night-vision goggles, body armor, communications equipment.  And we regularly discuss with the Ukrainians what their needs are in that respect, again, not with the intent of seeking to overnight bring the Ukrainian military into parity with the Russian military -- that's not going to happen -- but rather with the intent of filling some immediate needs for the Ukrainians while also having a longer-term conversation with them about how we can help train and equip their security forces in a way that helps them modernize and professionalize over time.
 

So again, I think our immediate focus is on sending a message to Russia about the cost of its actions.  And the fact of the matter is Russia finds itself today more isolated than at any time since the end of the Cold War, suffering the economic impacts of these sanctions, the political and diplomatic isolation that comes with its decision-making in Ukraine.  And that to us is the most powerful incentive we have to try to shape their calculus.
 

I’d also add the Europeans moved in a very strong fashion today, but this is hardly just the United States and Europe.  Canada has been very strong in imposing sanctions on Russia.  Japan has joined us through the G7 and has imposed some of their own sanctions.  The Australians have been very outspoken since the shoot-down of MH17.  So increasingly, this is a global chorus of voices that are speaking in opposition to what Russia is doing to its Ukraine policy.
 

Q    Hey, guys, just a quick question on the big three banks, including VTB.  I know you’ve talked a little bit about the effect on consumers, but does it mean at all that credit cards could stop working tomorrow for Russians?  Or are they affected at all, especially Visa, MasterCard and American Express, that kind of thing?
 

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I think your question goes to impacts we saw earlier when we designated -- froze the assets of and prohibited all transactions with Rossiya Bank, which is a bank controlled by and owned by Russian cronies that we had designated.  The actions we've taken with respect to these five major state-owned banks is not asset-blocking and it would not prohibit the provision of credit card services.  It goes to their ability to obtain medium- and short-term debt financing prospectively from the U.S. and from Europe.
 

MS. LUCAS MAGNUSON:  All right. Thanks, everyone, for joining.  That concludes the call.  Just as a reminder, all this information is on background attributable to senior administration officials.  And have a nice day.  Thank you. 

END  
4:28 P.M. EDT

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
July 29, 2014

Presidential Nomination Sent to the Senate

NOMINATION SENT TO THE SENATE:

David Nathan Saperstein, of the District of Columbia, to be Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, vice Suzan D. Johnson Cook.

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
July 29, 2014

Statement by the President on the Confirmation of Bob McDonald as the Secretary of Veterans Affairs

I applaud the overwhelming, bipartisan confirmation of Bob McDonald as our next Secretary of Veterans Affairs.  As a veteran himself and a proud member of a military family, Bob is deeply committed to serving our veterans and their families.  And as an executive with decades of private-sector experience, he is uniquely equipped to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, and to help change the way the VA does business.  As a country, we have a solemn duty to serve our veterans as well as they have served us.  I know Bob will help us honor that commitment and make sure every veteran gets the care they deserve, the benefits they’ve earned, and the chance to pursue the American Dream they’ve risked so much to protect.  

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
July 29, 2014

Message to Congress -- Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to Lebanon

TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES:

Section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)) provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless, within 90 days prior to the anniversary date of its declaration, the President publishes in the Federal Register and transmits to the Congress a notice stating that the emergency is to continue in effect beyond the anniversary date.  In accordance with this provision, I have sent to the Federal Register for publication the enclosed notice stating that the national emergency with respect to Lebanon that was declared in Executive Order 13441 of August 1, 2007, is to continue in effect beyond August 1, 2014.

Certain ongoing activities, such as continuing arms transfers to Hizballah, which include increasingly sophisticated weapons systems, undermine Lebanese sovereignty, contribute to political and economic instability in the region, and continue to constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.  For this reason, I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13441 with respect to Lebanon.

BARACK OBAMA

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
July 29, 2014

Notice to Congress -- Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to Lebanon

NOTICE

- - - - - - -

CONTINUATION OF THE NATIONAL EMERGENCY WITH RESPECT TO LEBANON

On August 1, 2007, by Executive Order 13441, the President declared a national emergency with respect to Lebanon pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701-1706) to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States constituted by the actions of certain persons to undermine Lebanon's legitimate and democratically elected government or democratic institutions; to contribute to the deliberate breakdown in the rule of law in Lebanon, including through politically motivated violence and intimidation; to reassert

Syrian control or contribute to Syrian interference in Lebanon; or to infringe upon or undermine Lebanese sovereignty.  Such actions contribute to political and economic instability in that country and the region.

Certain ongoing activities, such as continuing arms transfers to Hizballah that include increasingly sophisticated weapons systems, serve to undermine Lebanese sovereignty, contribute to political and economic instability in Lebanon, and continue to constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. 

For this reason, the national emergency declared on August 1, 2007, and the measures adopted on that date to deal with that emergency, must continue in effect beyond August 1, 2014.  In accordance with section 202(d) of the National

Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency with respect to Lebanon declared in Executive Order 13441.

This notice shall be published in the Federal Register and transmitted to the Congress.

BARACK OBAMA

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
July 29, 2014

FACT SHEET: Empowering America’s Agricultural Sector and Strengthening Food Resilience through the President’s Climate Data Initiative

“My administration will work with tech innovators and launch new challenges under our Climate Data Initiative, focused initially on rising sea levels and their impact on the coasts, but ultimately focused on how all these changes in weather patterns are going to have an impact up and down the United States…and how do we start preparing for that.” – President Obama, remarks on the California Drought, February 14, 2014.

In March 2014, the Obama Administration unveiled the Climate Data Initiative—a key deliverable of the President’s Climate Action Plan to cut carbon pollution in America, prepare communities for the impacts of climate change, and lead international efforts to address this global challenge. The Climate Data Initiative leverages the Federal Government’s vast and open data resources to stimulate the kinds of innovation and entrepreneurship that can empower America’s communities and businesses to take action against climate change and prepare for the future.

Today, building on the Climate Data Initiative’s initial focus on coastal resilience, the Obama Administration is unveiling the Initiative’s “Food Resilience” theme, aimed at empowering America’s agricultural sector and strengthening the resilience of the global food system in a changing climate.

The National Climate Assessment, released in May, 2014, confirms that climate disruptions to agriculture have been increasing, are projected to become more severe over this century, and that climate-change effects on agriculture will have consequences for food security, both nationally and globally, through changes in crop yields and food prices, as well as effects on food processing, storage, transportation, and retailing. 

That’s why the Obama Administration is working to connect farmers, food distributors, and agricultural businesses with the data, tools, and information they need to understand how climate change impacts—such as more intense heat waves, heavier downpours, and severe droughts and wildfires out west—are affecting their operations today and steps they can take to both prepare for and help fight climate change.

To continue momentum under the Climate Data Initiative, the Obama Administration is today renewing the President’s call to America’s private-sector innovators to leverage open government data and other resources to build tools that will make the U.S. and global food systems more resilient against the impacts of climate change. In response to this call, today’s launch includes a number of commitments by Federal agencies and private-sector collaborators to combat climate change and support food resilience through data-driven innovation.

Administration Commitments: 

  • Convening Agriculture and Technology Leaders at the White House. Today, Senior Obama Administration officials are meeting at the White House with representatives of leading food, agriculture and technology businesses to discuss ways these companies are leveraging open government data, related information tools, and other innovations to improve the resilience of the U.S. and global food system and reduce the contributions of food production to climate change.
  • New Features on climate.data.gov. The Obama Administration is today unveiling an expanded climate.data.gov to include new pages and features that make data about the risks of climate change to food production, supply, nutrition, and security more open and accessible to innovators, entrepreneurs, and researchers. Through a collaboration between the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and other Federal agency partners, hundreds of datasets, web services, and tools on these topics and more are being made accessible through climate.data.gov, including data from the Census of Agriculture, current and historical data on production, supply, and distribution of agricultural products, and data on climate-change-related risks such as storms, pests, and drought. The Administration is also expanding climate.data.gov to include datasets from climate models, projecting potential future climate impacts.
  • Hosting Agriculture-Innovation Workshops. The Obama Administration will host and participate in a series of innovation workshops focused on data-driven innovation at the nexus of climate-change and agriculture, including:
    • On July 30, USDA will host two innovation workshops in Washington, DC, one with young and beginning farmers and another with food distributors, to spur the development of creative information-technology tools that can help farmers and those in the food supply chain to prepare for climate-change impacts.
    • On August 1, USDA and NYU’s Governance Lab (GovLab) will host an Open Data event in Washington, DC, focused on food resilience and climate change, as well as preparedness for food emergencies. The event will encourage dialogue between government agencies and the businesses and organizations that use their data, in support of the goals of the Climate Data Initiative.
    • On August 5, concurrent with the US-Africa Leaders’ Summit in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Government, IBM, and partners of the Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition Initiative will host a data-innovation event focused on developing technological innovations based on open data that can help address global food security and nutrition in Africa.

Private-Sector Commitments:

  • Principles for Responsible Investment. The United-Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) has formed an investor group made up of Rockefeller & Co. and five European-based institutional investors (PGGM, Aberdeen Asset Management, Hermes, MN, and Nordea) to address the risks from climate change to companies with agricultural supply chains – including in the food, beverage, and apparel sectors. Using data from the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) Water Risk Filter mapping tool and Pricewaterhouse Coopers’ (PwC) ESCHER model, the investor group will engage approximately 50 major companies in constructive dialogue to increase resilience to water risks and foster more informed investment decision-making. PRI and the investor group are launching an Investor Guidance Document and issuing a call to action to support the effort to PRI’s 1260 global signatories representing more than $45 trillion USD in assets.
  • Microsoft. In support of the President’s Climate Data Initiative’s, Microsoft and USDA will co-host a series of workshops, webinars, and an app-athon aimed at demonstrating the value of open-data and data-driven tools to boost climate preparedness and resilience in the agricultural sector. Microsoft and USDA will also jointly launch a climate-change-focused Innovation Challenge to inspire the development of new tools and services that harness data available via data.gov, as well as an initial collection of USDA datasets that will be made available through Microsoft’s Azure Marketplace. Microsoft Research will issue a special request for proposals focused on food resilience and climate change and grant 12 months of free cloud-computing resources to 20 awardees whose proposals are submitted by Sept. 15, 2014 through the Azure for Research program.
  • Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy. Through the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, the U.S. dairy industry is today committing to advance a series of science-based efforts, including additional research to understand and optimize dairy’s role in a resilient, efficient, and sustainable food system, as well as testing and piloting four new Farm Smart modules—energy, feed, nutrient, and herd management—by the end of 2014.  Farm Smart is a data-driven online tool that helps dairy farmers assess their farm’s environmental footprint; explore the potential environmental value and cost-effectiveness of on-farm innovations; and communicate progress.
  • The U.S. Water Partnership. Recognizing that open data can help inform actions to meet the growing water crisis in regions at home and abroad, the U.S. Water Partnership (USWP) will deploy a web-based portal called “H2InfO” during World Water Week on September 2, 2014, to increase access to high quality US-based water- and drought- information resources. In addition, the U.S. Water Partnership will develop a virtual community of practice to share data, experiences, lessons, and best practices and will convene an in-person technical dialogue for community members and other key public and private stakeholders to create a two-way exchange of expertise on drought preparedness and water resilience.
  • IBM. IBM is announcing an expansion of its philanthropic World Community Grid program, which enables members of the public to donate their computer or mobile device's unused computing power to scientists. The expansion will provide scientists studying climate change topics including staple food crops and water management with free access to dedicated virtual supercomputing resources and a platform to engage the public on their research. Each researcher will have access to up to 100,000 years of computing time, a value of $60m in today's costs. IBM is inviting researchers to submit project proposals and members of the public to donate their unused computing power to these efforts at worldcommunitygrid.org. 
  • GoodCompanyVentures. During the summer of 2015, GoodCompanyVentures will launch Climate Ventures 2.0, a project to source, accelerate, and deploy entrepreneurial solutions to climate-change preparedness in collaboration with the Wharton Social Impact Initiative, the Impact Hub, and the MIT Climate CoLab.  Over a nine-month period, Climate Ventures 2.0 will provide mentoring, design consulting, and access to capital for 10 high-potential teams working on ongoing climate data innovation challenges, such as those issued by NASA and MIT.  Climate Ventures 2.0 will focus on innovations that leverage scientific and government data to enhance climate change preparedness in areas such as food security, agriculture, flood, and drought.  
  • The Coca-Cola Company. To help reduce the company’s environmental footprint across its value chain, the Coca-Cola Company is committing to rapidly expand the application of the Field-to-Market program and its data-driven tool to quantify water use, fertilizer use, energy use, greenhouse emissions and more. By the end of 2014, Coca-Cola will launch major initiatives with two of its four leading suppliers to implement this commitment. By the end of 2015, Coca-Cola will aim to engage farmers representing 250,000 acres, and by 2020, up to 1 million acres—equating to roughly 50% of the company’s global corn supply.
  • World Wildlife Fund. In support of the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF’s) collaboration with the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), WWF is combining detailed agricultural, water, and economic data from its Water Risk Filter to help the PRI’s 1000+ signatories better assess and manage water risks in the agro-commodity supply chains of portfolio companies. WWF will work with leading technology partners to make public and leverage detailed datasets that include more than 15,000 agricultural-crop/water-basin combinations in order to empower industry, financiers, and policy-makers as they work to strengthen global water stewardship, food security, and climate resilience.
  • The Agricultural Model Intercomparison & Improvement Program and the Center for Integrated Modeling of Sustainable Agriculture and Nutrition Security. The Agricultural Model Intercomparison & Improvement Program (AgMIP) and the Center for Integrated Modeling of Sustainable Agriculture and Nutrition Security (CIMSANS), in partnership with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), are announcing a new public-private partnership on open data and open-source code modeling to enhance the climate-resilience of food systems. The new partnership will secure the resources and expertise necessary to evaluate seven novel nutrition and sustainability metrics of global food systems, including all of the world’s important staple and non-staple foods, through the year 2050.
  • Amazon Web Services. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is today launching the Amazon Climate Research Grant program and a call for proposals designed to drive innovative climate-change research with a focus on computational analysis. In early September 2014, AWS will award grants of free access to supercomputing resources through Amazon EC2 Spot Instances. By providing grants totaling 50 million core hours, AWS is enabling researchers to accelerate research that can result in an improved understanding of the scope and effects of climate change, and analyses that could suggest potential mitigating actions. Early results of the program will publish in November 2014. Expanding upon AWS’s participation in the Open NASA Earth eXchange (NEX), this program will also accelerate the development of open climate data and software resources. Details can be found here.
  • National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center at the University of Maryland. The National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) at the University of Maryland is committing to fund 25 early-career scholars to address critical, actionable research questions on the resilience of food systems to climate change. Advanced Ph.D. students and scholars fewer than two years post-Ph.D. with relevant interests will be invited to apply through an open call. Successful candidates will participate in workshops in which SESYNC and USDA computational experts guide participants in a highly interactive and dynamic process of data discovery, analysis, and visualization, and will be invited to submit proposals for interdisciplinary team projects. SESYNC will fund up to six teams as well as a postdoctoral fellow with expertise in food systems research to undertake and help coordinate research for the program.
  • PepsiCo. PepsiCo is announcing the installation of a 1.7 megawatt solar photovoltaic system designed to supply 3.3 million kilowatt hours of renewable energy for the company’s Gatorade manufacturing operations in Tolleson, Arizona.  Over the 25 year life of the project, this initiative will prevent the release of approximately 50,000 tons of carbon and other greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. PepsiCo will use data from this solar project to help inform future solar installations and projects as the company works to meet its goal of achieving an absolute reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. 
  • Esri. Esri will work with USDA, GEOGLAM, CGIAR and others to expose and unlock authoritative data as live data feeds across dimensions of agricultural production, risk and trade.  In the fall of 2014, Esri will host an Executive White Boarding session to target the development of common information products (maps, apps and templates) needed to address specific needs in the domain of climate, society, and agriculture.  
  • Michigan Agri-Business Association. In August 2014, the Michigan Agri-Business Association will launch a publicly-available web-based mapping tool for use by the state’s agriculture sector. This platform will incorporate Federal, state, and local data that could prove useful to farmers, rural businesses, conservationists and economic development professionals. Resulting maps will aggregate soil, water, meteorological and infrastructure GIS data that can be compared and visualized to meet the needs of a particular project. It is anticipated that this tool will be particularly useful for planning future agricultural activities in response to climate change in Michigan.
  • Sustainable Development Solutions Network and Columbia University Earth Institute. The Sustainable Development Solutions Network is announcing a new initiative on Healthy and Sustainable Diets that will include efforts to build datasets that enable the analysis of food and nutrition security achievements across landscape-level scenarios and rural livelihoods. The Center on Globalization and Sustainable Development (CGSD) in Columbia’s Earth Institute, as a partner in the Agriculture and Food Systems group of the Network, is committing to provide this initiative with tools, research, and policy support to address these challenges in a global context.
  • SWIIM System. SWIIM System, Ltd. will develop an application using USDA Quickstats data that will allow users to easily view trends in water use by irrigated agriculture as climate changes occur and as water transfers from agricultural to municipal and industrial (M&I) uses take place. This new application will allow users to explore the consequences of future climate- and water-use scenarios to water available for crop production, and will educate the user on effects of water transfer and climate change on irrigated agriculture on a localized basis. The application will be made available on the SWIIM client page and its parent website. Development is expected to commence in August 2014 and completed within approximately six months.
  • Nestle. Nestlé will review and expand the scope of its public commitments on climate change leadership (detailed in the Nestlé in Society report), setting greenhouse-gas reduction targets that are based upon science and incorporating both absolute-carbon and carbon-intensity aspects. Nestlé will also incorporate climate change provisions into its responsible sourcing & traceability program, will engage in further water stewardship programs, and will extend education and training within its Farmer Connect initiative regarding good farming practices and water stewardship. Nestlé’s nutritional profiling tool (which can be used to link nutritional value calculations to calculations of environmental impact) and related data will be made available outside Nestlé through the publication of algorithms for nutritional assessments in peer reviewed scientific journals, the sharing of data on Life Cycle Inventories, and other mechanisms. 
  • Rock and Wrap it Up. Rock and Wrap It Up! (RWU) is launching an updated Whole Earth Calculator, a simple mobile app that resides on a mobile-friendly website and can be used on both mobile and laptop/desktop devices. Using EPA datasets and based on information from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and USDA, the Whole Earth Calculator converts the total pounds of paper products and plastics that are diverted from landfills into the amount of carbon dioxide that is not produced as a result – and then sends this information to social media (Twitter).  The tool can also be used to convert total pounds of donated food into meal equivalents and total CO2-averted equivalents.
  • Monsanto. Monsanto is announcing that it will donate a multi-site/multi-year maize breeding trial dataset to open data portals maintained by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the Agricultural Model Intercomparison & Improvement Project (AgMIP). Opening these data will it make it possible for public- and private-sector scientists to improve models being used to understand how climate and water-availability changes will impact crop productivity and therefore food security. Monsanto is also partnering with a number of external scientists in the AgMIP community to improve one of the leading publicly available crop-growth simulation models (AgMaize).
  • HabitatSeven and Quandl: HabitatSeven is announcing a partnership with the data platform Quandl to combine Federal climate-impact data with private-sector commodity and supply-chain data. Through this partnership, visualization tools will be developed for private-sector decision makers, investors, and commodity traders to incorporate climate risks and opportunities into commodity prices and resilience strategies.
  • The Climate Corporation: The Climate Corporation has launched a free online and mobile service called Climate Basic that provides farmers with hyper-local weather information to help them identify the impact of recent and current weather conditions on their fields. To enable the development of additional data science driven tools and services to help farmers increase production to meet increasing global demand, the company helped found the Open Ag Data Alliance (OADA), an open source software project to ensure farmers have full data access across different agriculture technology platforms. The Climate Corporation is today committing resources to support OADA's work, as well as code development to enable farmers to fully leverage their data. 
  • Center for Robust Decision Making on Climate and Energy Policy at the University of Chicago. The Center for Robust Decision Making on Climate and Energy Policy (RDCEP), a research center at the Computation Institute of the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory, is announcing several new tools to expand access to the data and methods used by experts to understand climate change and its impacts. The RDCEP climate emulator, enables users to work in their own web browser with output data from state-of-the-art climate models that typically require powerful supercomputers. ATLAS, which will launch this fall, will enable users to explore climate impact data on global food security and land use. Additional web tools make up RDCEP’s FACE-IT platform, which will be adapted later this year for use by researchers in seven countries, including China, Nigeria, and India, to model and understand local climate risks and vulnerabilities in food supply, agriculture, and economics. Preliminary versions of these applications will be unveiled at the African Food Systems in the Information Age forum in Ibadan, Nigeria, on August 28-30, 2014.
  • Kellogg Company and University of Minnesota. The Global Landscapes Initiative at the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment is committing to openly share data and maps that illustrate how climate change affects risks to major crops within the food system. In conjunction with this commitment, Kellogg Company is committing to use these agricultural data and climate-related maps to foster geographically relevant implementation in its global sourcing. Kellogg Company, the Global Landscape Initiative, and other partners will use climate data, research, and assessments to guide education and actions that help create efficient, adaptable, and sustainable supply chains, as well as identify information gaps and needs to improve the resilience of the agricultural sector to climate change.
  • American Red Cross and Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre: To better help communities in East and Southern Africa prepare for climate and weather related events, the American Red Cross and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre are committing to scale up the distribution and use of their participatory games to communicate risk information. This scale-up will bring Climate Centre game designers, trainers, and facilitators to more places served by American Red Cross in the developing world. It will focus initially on a river basin in East or Southern Africa and will help to ensure that communities are better prepared to respond to flood warnings. This experience will be documented and made publicly available on the Climate Centre website and the Global Disaster Preparedness Center website. 
  • Mars, Incorporated: Mars, Incorporated, will continue to make major investments in science, including in areas such as food safety and plant science, to create resilience across its agricultural supply chains, improve safety, quality, resource management, and yields. Mars, Inc. will also continue to invest in renewable energy resources. For example, the company has recently invested in a 200 megawatt wind farm in Lamesa, Texas that will provide energy equal to the needs of its North America offices and factories.
  • Walmart. Walmart is committing to the ongoing use of data to help set priorities for future actions to reduce greenhouse gases, including meeting the company’s 2020 goal of driving the production or procurement of 7 billion kWh of renewable energy globally every year and reducing the kWh/sq. ft. energy intensity required to power Walmart’s buildings globally by 20 percent compared to 2010 levels. Walmart will use data-driven tools such as the Sustainability Index to measure, track, and identify hot spots in its overall supply chain and provide buyers with transparency into the key impacts, such as greenhouse gas emissions, of the products they source. In addition, Walmart recently announced a partnership with eight of the largest food companies to help ensure that tomorrow’s food supply is more sustainable, including by bringing an additional eight million acres of farmland into sustainability agriculture programs.
  • UN Global Pulse: In May 2014, United Nations Global Pulse hosted its first Big Data Climate Challenge, calling for cutting-edge examples of how scientists, researchers, and citizens are using big data and analytics to address social, economic and environmental challenges. Submissions were received from 40 countries, representing over 20 disciplines, including agriculture. UN Global Pulse will fly winners of the Challenge to the upcoming Climate Summit on September 24th in New York City and their work will be showcased prominently in front of media, decision-makers and civil society. In addition, Global Pulse will work with partners to summarize the results of the Big Data Climate Challenge in a report that maps the intersection of big data and climate change to build global understanding of how big data can reveal critical insights for strengthening resilience, including in the agriculture sector. 

Climate Data in Action:

In addition to the food- and agriculture-focused commitments launching today, a host of new and ongoing efforts continue to broadly advance the President’s Climate Data Initiative, including:

  • iSeeChange and Berkeley Atmospheric C02 Observation Network collaboration: The public media platform iSeeChange and the Berkeley Atmospheric CO2 Observation Network (BEACO2N) are launching a new collaborative project to develop a pilot citizen-science story-corps to help monitor carbon emissions in the San Francisco Bay area and Oakland. Combining BEACO2N’s network of carbon sensors, most mounted atop local schools and museums in the Bay Area, and iSeeChange’s digital platform and public media partners, the collaboration will create an information network to monitor local carbon emissions, produce stories that effectively match data and local impacts over time, and more. The partnership will kick off its work at the AAAS Citizen Science Workshop scheduled for February 2014.
  • UCLA Luskin Center and EDF: The UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) are releasing the newest version of the Los Angeles Solar and Efficiency Report (LASER)—a data-driven mapping tool designed to help communities identify opportunities to invest in projects that will save households money, create clean energy jobs and strengthen climate resilience. The tool illustrates existing pollution and climate change impacts at a community level, and illustrates “hot spots” ripe for rooftop solar investment and energy efficiency building potential at the parcel level.
  • Trust for Public Land: The Trust for Public Land will commit new organizational resources through the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology to help America's cities lessen their vulnerability to climate-related heat events. Specifically, over the next two years the Trust for Public Land will help fill national gaps in heat-risk spatial data and modeling for cities, expand its Urban Heat Risk Explorer App to new cities, and develop a heat risk reduction GIS toolkit to help cities strategically target green infrastructure for heat resilience.    

For more information about steps the Obama Administration is taking to act on climate change, please visit www.whitehouse.gov/climate-change.

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
July 29, 2014

White House Report: The Cost of Delaying Action to Stem Climate Change

With our country already experiencing the effects of climate change, the President has taken action to cut carbon pollution by moving to cleaner sources of energy and improving the energy efficiency of our cars, trucks and buildings. But further steps are urgently needed to ensure that we leave our children a planet that’s not polluted or damaged.

The White House today released a new report from the Council of Economic Advisers that examines the economic consequences of delaying action to stem climate change. The report finds that delaying policy actions by a decade increases total mitigation costs by approximately 40 percent, and failing to take any action would risk substantial economic damage. These findings emphasize the need for policy action today.

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
July 29, 2014

Remarks by National Security Advisor Susan E. Rice to the National Jewish Leaders Assembly

National Press Club
Washington, DC
Monday, July 28, 2014
As Delivered

Good afternoon everyone.  Thank you so much Bob for that incredibly generous introduction.  I also want to thank my friend Malcolm and express my personal gratitude for this invitation.  And it’s good to be back at the Conference of Presidents and seeing so many friends and familiar faces.  Many of you have come from Jewish communities across this country in a strong show of support for Israel. 

These are indeed difficult days. Today, together, all of us who care about the State of Israel are again confronted with the challenges of a dangerous and imperfect world: Of sirens and shelters.  Young people called yet again to war. (Audience interruption). Of a land where, in the haunting phrase of Yitzhak Rabin, “parents bury their children.” 

Today is the first day of Av, the month when Jews commemorate the destruction of the First and Second Temples.  It’s a reminder that the Jewish people have endured much worse than rockets and survived much stronger enemies than Hamas.  You have been tested by tragedy and time, by history and hatred.  But each time, am yisrael chai: the people of Israel live. 

This is a time of worry for all who care about Israel.  But, here’s one thing you never have to worry about: America’s support for the State of Israel.   As President Obama declared before the Israeli people in Jerusalem:  “so long as there is a United States of America … you are not alone.” 

That’s why, from the moment that terrorist rockets began to rain down on Israel, this Administration, from President Obama on down, has made it clear:  Israel has the same, unequivocal right to self-defense as every other nation.  No nation can accept terrorists tunneling into its territory or rockets crashing down on its people. 

President Obama has been equally clear about who has been responsible for the violence.  Hamas fired the rockets.  Hamas deliberately targeted Israeli citizens, particularly civilians. Hamas refused an early plan for a ceasefire.  Hamas, in a time of glaring human need, instead of investing in the future of Gaza’s children, built tunnels to kidnap and kill Israelis.  So Hamas initiated this conflict. And, Hamas has dragged it on. 

But, America and Israel are also united by a shared belief we each strive to honor:  that every person is created equal and “b’tzelem elokim”—in the image of God. 

I know we all share deep concern about the suffering and deaths of innocent people that arise from a conflict like this one – in Gaza as well as in Israel.  The people of Gaza, many of whom disapprove of Hamas and suffer under its misrule, are trapped in the crossfire. The loss of children has been particularily heartbreaking.

As President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu discussed yesterday, the United States supports an immediate, unconditional humanitarian ceasefire.  That humanitarian ceasefire should lead to a permanent cessation of hostilities based on the November 2012 ceasefire agreement.  For the sake of innocents on both sides, the rockets must stop.  We need to bring the violence and civilian casualties to an end, and we are concerned that continued fighting could further destabilize the West Bank.  We need to protect Israel’s security and help it reach an arrangement where it will not be attacked again in another year or two. We also believe that any process to resolve the crisis in Gaza in a lasting and meaningful way must result in the disarmament of terrorist groups.  So we will work closely with Israel, regional partners, and the international community to achieve this goal once a sustainable ceasefire is agreed.

Let me also take a moment to acknowledge, as Ambassador Dermer did, the extraordinary efforts of Secretary Kerry.  I must tell you: we’ve been dismayed by some press reports in Israel mischaracterizing his efforts last week to achieve a ceasefire.  We know these misleading reports in turn raise concerns here at home in America.

The reality is that John Kerry on behalf of the United States has been working every step of the way with Israel, in support of our shared interests.  Both in public and in private, we have strongly supported Israel’s right to defend itself against rockets and tunnel attacks, and we’ve engaged together in sensitive negotiations.  We will continue to do so.  And, we’ll continue to set the record straight when anyone distorts the facts. 

As we pursue diplomacy, we are grateful that the amazing Iron Dome anti-rocket system – researched and funded jointly by Israel and America – stands watch over Israel’s cities. 

During my most recent visit to Israel in May, I saw first-hand the technology at Palmachim Air Force Base.  I met the young Israelis who operate the system—dedicated men and women now working around the clock.   In recent weeks, on average, over 100 rockets a day have been fired at Israel.  Iron Dome has literally meant the difference between life and death.  And I’m deeply proud that President Obama helped make it possible.   And, I’m proud that – with his enthusiastic support—the United States will more than double our investment in Iron Dome.  The President also instructed the Secretary of Defense to inform Congress last week that we support an additional $225 million to accelerate the production of Iron Dome components in Israel this year and maintain Israel’s stockpile of interceptor missiles. Now, Congress has a critical opportunity this week to fund the President’s supplemental request, so that Israel can remain secure.

Iron Dome makes it clear yet again: America has Israel’s back.  We have always had a truly special relationship—ever since President Truman made America the first nation in the world to recognize the State of Israel in May 1948, just 11 minutes after David Ben-Gurion declared Israel’s independence.  The seeds of friendship planted that day have grown into a mighty oak– strong, sturdy, and enduring. 

Our governments have never been in closer touch, including through the delegation of senior officials from the Departments of State, Treasury, and Defense, and the CIA that I led to Israel, on behalf of the President, in May.  We are in constant contact, constant consultation, constant cooperation.  And by the way, that’s why I was late getting here—I was on the phone in the basement with my Israeli counterpart.  So it is constant, it is daily and it is highly constructive.   

Our commitment to protect Israel’s qualitative military edge remains absolute. Just ask Israel’s generals. Our security assistance to Israel is at a record high. 

The relationship is even stronger between our peoples.  Just last week, 30,000 Israelis came to the funeral of Max Steinberg, a young man from Los Angeles who joined the Israel Defense Forces and was killed in Gaza.  Another 20,000 came to pay respects to Sean Carmeli, from Texas. 

Israel is not alone—not in war, not in peace. 

And because America staunchly supports Israel’s future as a Jewish, democratic state, we’ll also continue doing what we can to bring about a just, comprehensive, and secure peace between Israelis and Palestinians –two states for two peoples, living side by side in peace and security.  We are committed to strengthening Israel’s security in achieving this goal –and cementing Israel’s rightful place among the community nations.

Which brings me to my next point.  We don’t just fight for Israel’s security.  We also fight for Israel’s legitimacy. 

As President Obama said in Jerusalem, “those who adhere to the ideology of rejecting Israel’s right to exist, they might as well reject the earth beneath them or the sky above, because Israel is not going anywhere.” 

No country is immune to criticism – nor should it be.   But when that criticism takes the form of singling out just one country unfairly, bitterly, and relentlessly—over and over and over—that’s just wrong, and we all know it. 

I saw this firsthand during my years at the United Nations, where America always has Israel’s back when its basic right of self-defense is challenged. Believe me, I remember all too well the fight against the deeply flawed Goldstone Report. So, last week, when the United Nations Human Rights Council again passed a one-sided resolution calling for a commission of inquiry that will have no positive impact and should never have been created– the United States stood with Israel and said “no.”   We were the lone vote in the Human Rights Council.   Even our closest friends on the Council abstained.  It was 29-1.  But the “1”, as usual, was America.  That’s what we mean when we say “you are not alone.” 

We take that stand on principle. It’s important not just for Israel, but for the credibility of the United Nations itself.  The UN does exceptional, lifesaving things around the world: empowering women and girls, keeping the peace in far-flung conflict zones, providing humanitarian aid whether in Gaza, Syria, or Congo and around the world.  The world needs the United Nations.  So when countries single out Israel for unfair treatment at the UN, it isn’t just a problem for Israel.  It’s a problem for all of us. 

And, today, we also see anti-Semitism flaring up around the world, including in Europe.  The pretext is the passions coming out of the current conflict, but we all know it has its roots in something ancient and ugly—and we should not shy away from calling it by its name.

It’s one thing to use the right of free expression to criticize particular policies of a particular government.  No nation is immune from criticism, fair and otherwise, including our own—take it from me as a former UN ambassador. But an anti-Jewish riot is not a policy critique. It’s not free expression when a protest turns into a mob that attacks a synagogue and a kosher grocery store. It’s one thing when the message is “end the fighting,” but when the message is “Death to the Jews,” it’s an outrage.   And it’s dangerous when the mayor of a major city takes to Twitter to invoke Hitler and incite hostility against the Israeli Embassy, which he called “the despicable murderers’ consulate.”  That’s just hate, and it’s got to stop. As the late Tom Lantos used to say, “the veneer of civilization is paper thin.  We are its guardians, and we can never rest.”  

And so when leaders in Tehran talk openly about ending the State of Israel, that’s just one more reason why America is determined to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.  

Under President Obama’s leadership, we have marshaled unprecedented economic and diplomatic pressure on Iran. We have brought Iran to the negotiating table and signed a Joint Plan of Action that halted Iran’s progress on its nuclear program—and rolled it back in key respects for the first time in nearly a decade.   This interim agreement has given us the time and space to try to negotiate a comprehensive solution.  To date, we have made meaningful progress on some key issues, although we remain far apart on several others.  As a result, we decided – along with the European Union, Germany and the other permanent members of the Security Council – to extend the agreement until November 24th. 

Our goal remains clear: a comprehensive, verifiable deal that can assure the world that Iran will not obtain a nuclear weapon and that will offer confidence that Iran’s nuclear program is exclusively peaceful.  But let me be blunt about two things—maybe I should say two other things. First, we will not accept a bad deal under any circumstances—even if that means no deal. And second, we will do what we must to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.  

All this is rooted in a very special friendship between the United States and Israel, stretching back from before Israel’s birth to today. And, for me, it’s rooted in powerful personal experience.  I will never forget my very first visit to Israel.  I was just 14, and I went with my younger brother and my beloved late father, who was then on the Board of Directors of Trans World Airlines.  On that trip, we bowed our heads at Yad Vashem, floated in the Dead Sea, walked the lanes of the Old City, climbed Masada, and picked fruit at a kibbutz. I learned by heart the words of the Sh’ma. 

And here’s something that has always stayed with me: to go on that first trip, I was privileged to take one of the very first flights from Cairo to Tel Aviv, just after Israel and Egypt had signed the Camp David Accords. That peace seemed impossible for so long—but it wasn’t. That peace, enduring to this day, reminds us that human conflict and human problems can be resolved by human courage.  You know that.  It’s why you’re here today, and it’s why I came too. 

My friends, these are difficult days. But as Israel’s former president, my friend Shimon Peres, likes to say: “There are no hopeless situations, just hopeless people.” We all know a few of them.  So let us remember, especially in troubled times, that despair is a sin, and service is a duty. America doesn’t lose hope. The Jewish people don’t lose hope. And the State of Israel doesn’t lose hope. That’s why Israel’s national anthem is “Hatikvah”— the hope. And that’s why, in this imperfect and dangerous world, we ask together for God’s blessing and help.  We pray for security and for peace — but we know that it’s not enough just to pray for it. We’ve got to work for it—together, united, and determined. Because, as President Kennedy once said, “here on Earth, God’s work must truly be our own.”  And that is what we strive to do together every day. Thank you.

The White House

Office of the Vice President

For Immediate Release
July 28, 2014

Readout of the Vice President's Call with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk

Vice President Joe Biden spoke today with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk about Ukraine’s economic reforms, the situation in the east, the investigation into the MH-17 tragedy, and U.S. bilateral assistance to Ukraine. Prime Minister Yatsenyuk underscored Ukraine’s commitment to advancing economic reforms in keeping with its IMF agreement. The two leaders discussed Russia’s continued support for the separatists in eastern Ukraine following the shootdown of MH-17, and the humanitarian tragedies in those communities that have fallen victim to separatist violence and looting. The Prime Minister and the Vice President discussed the reconstruction needs in eastern Ukraine, and the Vice President shared U.S. plans to provide almost $7 million in assistance to respond to immediate needs in the newly liberated areas in the east, which includes $1 million in new support. This includes contributions to the International Committee of the Red Cross and the UNHCR to support efforts to restore access to potable water and provide medical treatment, as well as funding to support small infrastructure and rebuilding projects in these communities.