The White House

Office of the Vice President

For Immediate Release
May 06, 2010

Remarks by Vice President Biden to the European Parliament

Parliament Building, Brussels, Belgium

12:30 P.M. (local)

VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN:  Mr. President, thank you for that welcome.  It was a delight to have you in Washington and at the White House.  And it’s a great honor -- and I might add, a privilege -- to be able to address such an esteemed body.  I served in a parliament that only had 535 members total.  This is even a greater honor. 

When President Reagan -- I remember President Reagan’s speech here in 1985, and to quote an Irish poet, William Butler Yeats, speaking of his Ireland in a poem called “Easter Sunday, 1916” he said, “All has changed, changed utterly.  A terrible beauty has been born.”  Much has changed since 1985.  Much has changed, and a terrible beauty has been born. 

As you already know, ladies and gentlemen, not only am I pleased to be back here in Brussels for the second time as Vice President -- as you probably know, some American politicians and American journalists refer to Washington, DC as the “capital of the free world.”  But it seems to me that this great city, which boasts 1,000 years of history and which serves as the capital of Belgium, the home of the European Union, and the headquarters for NATO, this city has its own legitimate claim to that title.
 
As a lawmaker for more than 36 years in our Parliament, I feel particularly honored to address the European Parliament.  President Obama and I were the first running mates in the last 50 years in America to make it to the White House from our legislative bodies.  So we both come to our executive jobs with a deep appreciation for the work you do here in the bastion of European democracy.
 
Together with my former colleagues in the United States Congress, you and I represent more than 800 million people.  Stop and think about that for a moment:  two elected bodies that shape the laws for almost one-eighth of the planet’s population.  That’s truly remarkable.
 
And now under the Lisbon Treaty, you’ve taken on more powers and a broader responsibility that comes with that increased influence.  And we welcome it.  We welcome that, because we, the United States, need strong allies and alliances to help us tackle the problems of the 21st century, many of which are the same but so many are different than the last century. 

Let me state it as plainly as I can:  The Obama-Biden administration has no doubt about the need for and strongly supports a vibrant European Union.  We believe it’s absolutely essential to American prosperity and long-term security.  So have no doubt about that.
 
When I chaired the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee for all those years, I had the opportunity to meet many European lawmakers from the national legislative bodies, including some of you who are in this room today.  So I appreciate -- after all those years, I appreciate what a consequential step it has been to build the only multinational parliament in the world elected by universal suffrage.  So much has changed.
 
And I’m pleased that through the -- through the Transatlantic Legislators’ Dialogue, you are building a strong relationship with the United States Congress.  And I hope that the office you opened in Washington last month is going to enhance those ties.
 
Folks, 65 years ago this week, less than 200 kilometers south of here, Nazi leaders signed an unconditional surrender that brought an end to the Second World War in Europe. 

The next day, celebrations erupted in Times Square and Piccadilly Circus.  Cheering crowds danced along the Champs-Elysees and the town squares throughout the Allied world.  And here in Brussels, a thanksgiving service -- at a thanksgiving service, churchgoers sang the national anthems of Britain, Belgium, and the United States.
 
On that joyous day -- May 8, 1945 -- this continent lay in ruins, ravaged twice by total wars in less than 30 years.  At that moment, a peaceful and united Europe, a European Parliament, must have seemed like a fantasy to anyone alive.
 
     And yet, through the will of your fellow citizens and statesmen like Jean [sic] Henri Spaak, for whom this great hall is named, and Robert Schuman, and Jean Monnet, and the visions that gave birth to a Parliament and earned him the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Lyndon Johnson, here we are assembled in this hall.  Here you are.
 
What began as a simple pact among a half-a-dozen nations to create a common market for coal and steel grew into an economic and political powerhouse; a community dedicated to free thought, free movement, and free enterprise; a Europe that one historian has called, not so much a place but an idea.
 
And I’m here to reaffirm that President Obama and I believe in this idea, and in a better world and better Europe it has already helped to bring about; a Europe where all member states benefit by negotiating trade agreements and fighting environmental degradation with one unified voice; a Europe that bolsters the cultural and political values that my country shares with all of you; a Europe that is whole, a Europe that is free, and a Europe that is at peace.  (Applause.)
 
As President Obama said in Prague a little more than a year ago, a strong Europe makes a stronger partner for the United States, and we need strong partners.  That is why we will do everything we can to support this great endeavor of yours.  Because the past 65 years have shown that when Americans and Europeans devote their energies to common purpose, there is almost nothing we are unable to accomplish.
 
Together, through the Marshall Plan, we rebuilt Europe and made perhaps the greatest investment in human history.  Together, we built the most the world’s most enduring security alliance, NATO, and a military and political force that tied America and Europe together and brought us even closer in the ensuing decades. 

Together, we established the greatest commercial relationship in the world’s history, comprising about 40 percent of global trade and helping usher in an era of unprecedented prosperity and technological innovation.  And together, we have provided relief and hope to those suffering humanitarian catastrophes in more places than I can mention, from the Western Balkans, to the Congo, to our ongoing work in Haiti today.
 
To those skeptics who, in spite of all these accomplishments, continue to question the state of transatlantic relationships or my country’s attitude toward a united Europe, my answer is this:  Even if the United States and the nations all of you represent were not united by shared values and common heritage of many millions of our citizens, myself included, our global interests alone would inexorably bind us together.
 
The relationship between my country and Europe is today as strong, and as important, as all of us -- to all of us as it has ever been.  This century has unleashed new challenges no less dangerous than those that came before in the 20th century.  And together -- together we are taking them on one by one.  They are difficult.  There will be disagreement.  But we are taking them on jointly. 

Climate change, one of the greatest threats our planet faces, the United States and Europe are working to ensure that all countries, and especially the major economies, are contributing to a global solution.  We all look -- we all looked to and we did take a major step forward in Copenhagen.  Now we have to carry out those emission cuts, the financing, and the transparency called for in that accord.  And we must help the most vulnerable nations -- from the Arctic north to the Pacific islands -- that are the harbingers of this looming crisis. 

Across the troubled landscape of Afghanistan and Pakistan, we are working together to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al-Qaeda and the Taliban fighters and to train an Afghan army and police force, so that their government can eventually protect its own people and not be a threat to its neighbors. 
 
In order to build Afghanistan’s governing capacity, the United States, the European Union, and its member nations are deploying significant financial resources and civilian resources as well.
 
While sustaining these important missions has not always been popular, you all know as I do it is required.  As leaders, we have an obligation to make the case to our populations that it is necessary for our collective security.  Although believe me, as a politician who has stood for office for the last 38 years, I understand it is not easy.  I assure you, it is no more popular in my country than it is in any one of yours.

     That is also why the United States and Europe are standing side-by-side to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, a development that would endanger the citizens and menace its neighbors, including some of our closest allies.
 
Together -- together we embarked on an unprecedented path of engagement with the Iranian leaders.  (Applause.)  And, ladies and gentlemen, despite what some skeptics thought, the President meant what he said, that we will reach out our hand to any party that will unclench their fist.  At the outset of this administration, President Obama stated that we are prepared to deal with Iran on the basis of mutual interest and mutual respect.
 
With our allies, we’ve made clear to Iran’s leaders how they could begin to rebuild confidence within the international community, including by granting access to their previously undeclared enrichment facilities and exchanging low enriched uranium for fuel to power a research reactor.
 
But, as the world has now watched and seen, Iranian leaders spurned our collective good-faith efforts and continue to take actions that threaten regional stability.
 
Let me be state it flatly:  Iran’s nuclear program violates its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and risks sparking a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.  Wouldn’t it be ironic -- wouldn’t it be ironic as the Iron Curtain fell and the mutual threats of nuclear destruction diminished among the superpowers that a new arms race would emerge in some of the most unstable parts in the world.  That would be an irony that our children and our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren would not forgive us, in my view, for allowing it to come to pass. 

In addition, the Iranian leadership supports terrorist organizations and that support continues unabated.  And it continues unconscionably to persecute those of its citizens who peaceably take to the streets in a quest for justice, a betrayal of the duty of all governments in terms of what they owe their citizens.
 
Tehran faces a stark choice: abide by international rules and rejoin the community of responsible nations, which we hope for, or face further consequences and increasing isolation.
 
In the face of the threat Iran poses, we are committed to the security of our allies.  That is why we’ve deployed the phased, adaptive missile defense program to deter and defend against missile attacks on this continent -- on this continent.  (Applause.) 
 
And, ladies and gentlemen, we are also working together inside NATO to prepare for a range of future security threats, including energy security and cyber security.  And we continue to support close security cooperation between NATO and the EU.
 
Last year, the United States and Europe acted quickly and decisively when the world was reeling from a financial crisis more dire than any since the Great Depression.  And in doing so, collectively we helped prevent what people were predicting, the total collapse of the world economy.
 
And today, President Obama and I are closely following the economic and financial crisis in Greece and the European Union’s efforts to deal with it.  We welcome the support package that Europe is considering, in conjunction the International Monetary Fund.  And we will be supportive both directly and through the IMF of your efforts as you rescue Greece.
 
These examples and many others I could have mentioned show why Europe continues to be not just America’s largest trading partner, but our most important ally. 

Ladies and gentlemen, our predecessors came together more than six decades ago this week to begin building institutions designed to ensure that the 21st [sic] century’s darkest chapters would not be repeated in the remainder of that century or in the 21st century.  Those institutions -- this institution -- have been a great success.  But now we have to set our sights on the challenges of this new century, I referenced in the beginning.  “The world has changed, changed utterly.  A terrible beauty has been born.”

Perhaps the most complex threat we face today is that posed by -- to our own citizens by non-state actors and violent extremists, particularly if, God forbid, those violent extremists were able to get their hands on any weapons of mass destruction.
 
This scourge has no respect for borders, none.  No single nation, no matter how strong or how wealthy, how organized or how capable, can meet this threat alone.  It can only be successfully contained if we make common cause.  And that’s precisely what we must do.
 
The new powers granted to this Parliament in the Lisbon Treaty give you a greater role in that struggle and a greater imperative to govern responsibly.
 
The U.S. government and this Parliament have struggled over how best to protect citizens without yielding the foundational rights on which all of our societies are built.  I am absolutely confident that we must and can both protect our citizens and preserve our liberties.
 
Since taking office last year, President Obama and I have been guided by our Constitution’s -- and our Constitution’s imperative to seek a “more perfect union.”
 
Toward that end, one of our first official actions was to end the interrogation practices that produced few results and that we could not, in good conscience, continue.  (Applause.)
 
We ordered the closure of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, which had become a symbol of injustice and a rallying cry for terrorists.  And we appreciate -- (applause) -- and we appreciate the support, difficult it has been for you to take, so many of you have provided in that effort.
 
We did these things because like you, President Obama and I reject the false choice between safety and our ideals.  We believe that upholding our principles only makes us stronger and that compromising them then actually undermines our effort in the broader struggle against violent extremism.  For what is their purpose?  Their purpose is to change what we value, change how we conduct ourselves.
 
Eight days after the September 11th attack, I told a group of thousands of university students in my country that they cannot allow the tragedy of 9/11 to end our way of life, because that’s exactly what the terrorists sought.  I also told them that America cannot prevail in this new struggle by acting alone.  Those words have not only fit the tenor of that time, but I think they’ve proven to be true.  And they are no less true today.
 
I don’t need to tell this audience about Europe’s proud tradition of protecting citizens from government invasion of their privacy, a commitment grounded in respect for the inherent dignity of all people.  We call them inalienable rights.  We wrote them into our Constitution. 

And America’s commitment to privacy is also profound, as profound as yours.  Our Constitution’s Fourth Amendment protects individuals against unreasonable search and seizures by the state, which as one of our most famous jurists -- which one of our most famous jurists once dubbed, “the right to be let alone.”  The Supreme Court of the United States has made clear that privacy is a constitutionally protected and fundamental right.  And like the EU, the Supreme Court has characterized this right as a matter of personal “dignity.”
 
On a personal level, I have for 36 years of my career defended privacy rights in the United States Senate every year, as organizations that rate those most committed to civil liberties.  And every year, I -- and later President Obama -- were characterized as one of those four people picked.  The reason I bother to tell you this is not about me, but about the commitment of our administration to individual rights.  To change now would make a lie of everything I have said I stood for in my country for the past 37 years. 

When I led the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is responsible for confirming the President’s judicial nominees, as I said, I was consistently ranked among the staunchest advocates for civil liberties.  And I made it a priority to determine prospective judges’ views on privacy before deciding whether or not they could go on the court. 
 
But President Obama and I also believe that governments’ primary and most fundamental and most solemn duty is to protect its citizens, the citizens it serves, as well as the rights they hold.
 
President Obama has said that keeping our country safe is the first thing he thinks about when he wakes up in the morning and the last thing he thinks about before he goes to bed at night.  I suspect that is how every world leader looks at their role. 
 
Indeed, no less than privacy, physical safety is also an inalienable right -- physical safety is also an inalienable right.  And a government that abdicates its duty to ensure the safety of its citizens violates their rights no less than a government that silences dissidents or imprisons accused criminals without trial.
 
     And so, folks, even -- even as we gather here today, our enemies are employing every tool they can muster to conduct new and devastating attacks like the ones that struck New York, London, Madrid, and many other places around the globe.
 
To stop them, we must use every legitimate tool available -- law enforcement, military, intelligence, technology -- that’s consistent with our principles, our laws, and our values.  We’re fighting on many fronts, from the brave men and women serving abroad in our militaries to the patient and tireless law enforcement professionals investigating complex and suspicious financial networks. 

Just this week, our customs and border protection -- using passenger information data -- apprehended a suspect in the attempted bombing of New York’s Times Square, as he sought to flee the country.
 
It is vital that we maintain every capacity we have under the law to stop such attacks. 
 
And for that reason, we believe that the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program is essential to our security, as well as to yours -- presumptive of me to say.  It has provided critical leads to counterterrorism investigations on both sides of the Atlantic -- disrupting plots and ultimately saving lives.  It is built -- it has built-in redundancies that ensure personal information is respected and used only for counterterrorism purposes.  But I don’t blame you for questioning it. 
 
We understand your concerns.  As a consequence, we are working together to address them and I’m absolutely confident that we can succeed, to both use the tool and guarantee privacy.  It’s important that we do so, and it’s important that we do so as quickly as possible.
 
As a former United States Senator, I also know how hard it can be to make the hard choices required by global challenges, while staying true to local values.  All of you are going through that every time you vote in this Parliament, I suspect.
 
The longer we are without an agreement on the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program, the greater the risk of a terrorist attack that could have been prevented.  As leaders, we share a responsibility to do everything we can within the law to protect the 800 million people we collectively serve.
 
We have disagreed before.  We will surely disagree again.  But I’m equally convinced that the United States and Europe can meet the challenges of the 21st century, as we did in the 20th century if we talk and listen to one another, if we are honest with one another.  (Applause.)

Ladies and gentlemen, “courage,” Winston Churchill taught us, “is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”  While this afternoon I have done all of the speaking, be assured that I -- my government and my President -- that we are back in the business of listening -- listening to our allies.

Ladies and gentlemen, it was no accident that Europe was my first overseas destination as Vice President, and also the President’s.  It is no accident that we’ve already returned several times since then.  The United States needs Europe.  And, I respectfully submit, Europe needs the United States -- we need each other more now than we have ever.  (Applause.)
 
So I view this week’s anniversary as providing a welcome opportunity to reaffirm the bond our peoples forged long ago in the fires of adversity.  Now, as then, in the pursuit of ideals and in the search of partners, Europeans and Americans look to each other before they look to anyone else.
 
Now, as then, we are honored and grateful to be by your side in the struggles yet to come.  So, again, I’m here to state unequivocally, President Obama and Joe Biden strongly support a united, a free, an open Europe.  We strongly support what you are about here.  We wish you god speed.  And may God bless you all and may God protect all of our troops.  Thank you very, very much.  (Applause.)

END
12:58 P.M. (local)

The White House

Office of the Vice President

For Immediate Release
May 04, 2010

Statement by the President on Indonesia’s Announcement of its Intention to Ratify the CTBT

I welcome Indonesia's important announcement at the opening session of the 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference that they are “initiating the process of the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.”  The United States thanks President Yudhoyono and the Government of Indonesia for its responsible leadership in the global effort to reinforce the nuclear nonproliferation regime.  This is another signal that nations are joining a renewed effort to reinforce global non-proliferation, which advances the vision I outlined in Prague in 2009, and advances the security of the United States, Indonesia and the world.  Reinforcing the norm against nuclear testing will help prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and support our efforts to pursue the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.

The United States is committed to the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and to its early entry into force, and we will work with the United States Senate to help achieve advice and consent to this important international agreement.  The United States stands ready to work with all states and encourages them to ratify the treaty and to help bring it into force.

The White House

Office of the Vice President

For Immediate Release
May 04, 2010

Vice President Biden, HHS Secretary Sebelius Announce Selection of 15 Health IT Pilot Communities through Recovery Act Beacon Community Program

Awards to Help Communities Achieve Meaningful Health Care Improvements through Technology, Lay Foundation for Industry Expected to Support Tens of Thousands of Jobs

Washington, D.C. - Vice President Biden and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced the selection of 15 communities across the country to serve as pilot communities for eventual wide-scale use of health information technology through the Beacon Community program.  The $220 million in Recovery Act awards will not only help achieve meaningful and measurable improvements in health care quality, safety and efficiency in the selected communities, but also help lay the groundwork for an emerging health IT industry that is expected to support tens of thousands of jobs.

“These pioneering communities are going to lead the way in bringing smarter, lower-cost health care to all Americans through use of electronic health records.  Because of their early efforts, doctors across the country will one day be able to coordinate patient care with the stroke of a key or pull up life-saving health information instantly in an emergency – and for the residents of these communities, that future is about to become a reality,” said Vice President Biden.  “Thanks to the Recovery Act’s historic investment in health IT, we’re not only advancing the way health care is delivered in this country, we’re also building a whole new industry along with it – one that will shape our 21st Century economy for generations to come and employ tens of thousands of American workers.”

“The most important health care innovations are those that are designed and tested by providers and community leaders all across the country. Beacon Communities will offer insight into how health IT can make a real difference in the delivery of health care,” said Secretary Sebelius. “The Beacon Community Program will tap the best ideas across America and demonstrate the enormous benefit health IT will have to improving health and care within our communities.“

The selected Beacon Communities will use health IT resources within their community as a foundation for bringing doctors, hospitals, community health programs, federal programs and patients together to design new ways of improving quality and efficiency to benefit patients and taxpayers.  Each Beacon Community has elected specific and measurable improvement goals in each of three vital areas for health systems improvement: quality, cost-efficiency, and population health.  The goals vary according to the needs and priorities of each community. 

For example, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a community dealing with an epidemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes that has the highest rate of cardiovascular disease deaths in the nation, the award will help 1,600 physicians and other providers participate in a new community-wide health information system that will help them better monitor and improve care transitions as patients move from one care setting to another. The award is expected to help increase appropriate referrals for cancer screenings, increase access to care for patients with diabetes with telemedicine, and reduce preventable hospitalizations and emergency department visits by 10 percent for conditions that could be better handled in clinical settings, yielding a potential cost savings of $11M per year in the Tulsa area for taxpayers and patients.

Other communities will use their Beacon Community awards to provide better control of blood pressure for diabetic and hypertensive patients, improvements in care coordination and chronic disease management, reductions in preventable emergency department visits and re-hospitalizations, reductions in health disparities, better rates of immunization for children and adults, and better adherence to smoking cessation and appropriate cancer screening guidelines.  The Beacon projects are expected to initially create dozens of new jobs in each community paying an average of $70,000 per year for a total of 1,100 jobs up-front, while accelerating development of a nationwide health IT infrastructure that will eventually employ tens of thousands of Americans.

Additionally, Beacon Communities will be expected to access existing federal programs that are working to promote health information exchange at the community level.  Close coordination with the Regional Extension Center Program, State Health Information Exchange Program, and the National Health Information Technology Research Center (HITRC), will ensure lessons learned are shared for the benefit of all.  Over time, they will also work to leverage other existing federal programs and resources that are working to promote health information exchange at the community level, including the Department of Defense’s and the Department of Veterans Affairs’ development of a Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER) for all active duty, Guard and Reserve, retired military personnel, and eligible separated Veterans. 

“Communities will be expected to build on an existing infrastructure of interoperable health IT and standards-based information exchange to show the promise for health IT.  The Beacon Communities will offer evidence that widespread adoption of health IT and exchange of health information is both feasible and improves care delivery and health outcomes. The lessons learned through the program will be a roadmap for other communities to achieve meaningful use on a community-wide basis,” stated David Blumenthal, MD, MPP, national coordinator for health IT.”

The Beacon Community awards are part of an overall $100 billion federal government investment in science, innovation and technology the Administration is making through the Recovery Act to spur domestic job creation in emerging industries and create a long-term foundation for economic growth.  The program was significantly oversubscribed with over 130 applications submitted for the initial 15 awards.  Today’s awards are part of the $2 billion effort to achieve widespread meaningful use of health IT and provide for the use of an electronic health record (EHR) for each person in the United States by 2014.  An additional $30 million is currently available to fund additional Beacon Community cooperative agreement awards. An announcement to apply will be made in the near future.  

The 15 Beacon communities, their awards, and key strategies for success follow:

Beacon Community Awardee Funding Amount Beacon Community Goals for Population Health in Service Area
Community Services Council of Tulsa, Tulsa, Okla. $12,043,948 Leverage broad community partnerships with hospitals, providers, payers, and government agencies  to expand a community-wide care coordination system, which will increase appropriate referrals for cancer screenings, decrease unnecessary specialist visits and (with telemedicine) increase access to care for patients with diabetes
Delta Health Alliance, Inc., Stoneville, Miss. $14,666,156 Focus on achieving improvements for diabetic patients by electronically linking isolated systems and practices for care management, medication therapy management and patient education
Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, Brewer Maine $12,749,740 Expand community connectivity, including long-term care, primary care and specialist providers, to existing Health Information Exchange and promote the use of telemedicine and patient self-management in order to improve care for elderly patients and individuals needing long-term or home care
Geisinger Clinic, Danville, PA $16,069,110 Enhance care for patients with pulmonary disease and congestive heart failure by creating a community-wide medical home, promoting Health Information Exchange and extending Geisinger’s proven model for practice redesign  to independent healthcare organizations throughout region 
HealthInsight, Salt Lake City, Utah $15,790,181 Improve Diabetes management performance measures by increasing availability, accuracy and transparency of quality reporting, leverage Intermountain Healthcare’s strategies to reduce health systems costs throughout the region, and improve public health reporting
Indiana Health Information Exchange, INC., Indianapolis, Ind. $16,008,431 Expand the country’s largest Health Information Exchange to new community providers in order to improve cholesterol and blood sugar control for diabetic patients and reduce preventable re-admissions through telemonitoring of high risk chronic disease patients after hospital discharge
Inland Northwest Health Services, Spokane, Wash. $15,702,479 Focus on increasing preventive services for diabetic patients in rural areas by extending Health Information Exchange and establishing anchor institutions in close proximity to remote clinics that will promulgate successes in health IT supported care coordination
Louisiana Public Health Institute, New Orleans, La. $13,525,434 Reduce racial health disparities and improve control of diabetes and smoking cessation rates by linking technically isolated health systems, providers, and hospitals; and empower patients by increasing their access to Personal Health Records
Mayo Clinic Rochester, d/b/a Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minn. $12,284,770 Enhance patient management and, reduce costs associated with hospitalization and emergency services for patients with diabetes and childhood asthma and address reduce health disparities for underserved populations and rural communities
Rhode Island Quality Institute, Providence, R.I. $15,914,787 Improve the management of patients with diabetes through several health IT initiatives to support Rhode Island’s transition to the Patient Centered Medical Home model and adapt infrastructure proven to improve childhood immunizations in order to achieve improvements in adult immunization rates
Rocky Mountain Health Maintenance Organization, Grand Junction, Colo. $11,878,279 Enable robust collection of clinical data from health systems, providers, and hospitals in order to inform practice redesign to improve blood pressure control in patients with diabetes and hypertension, increase smoking cessation counseling, and reduce unnecessary emergency department utilization and hospital re-admissions
Southern Piedmont Community Care Plan, Inc., Concord, N.C. $15,907,622 Improve care coordination for patients with diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and asthma by engaging patients and providers in bidirectional data sharing through a Health Record Bank, empowering patients and family members to participate in self-management through patient portals, and expanding access to care managers to facilitate post-discharge planning
The Regents of the University of California, San Diego, San Diego, Calif. $15,275,115 Expand pre-hospital emergency field care and electronic information transmission to improve outcomes for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease, empower patients to engage in their own health management through web portal and cellular telephone technology, and improve continuity of care for veterans and military personnel through the Veterans Affairs/Department of Defense Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record initiative
University of Hawaii at Hilo, Hilo, Hawaii $16,091,390 Implement a region-wide Health Information Exchange and Patient Health Record solution and utilize secure, internet-based care coordination and tele-monitoring tools to increase access to specialty care for patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and obesity in this rural, health-professional shortage area  
Western New York Clinical Information Exchange, Inc., Buffalo, N.Y. $16,092,485 Utilize clinical decision support tools such as registries and point-of-care alerts and reminders and innovative telemedicine solutions to improve primary and specialty care for diabetic patients, decrease preventable emergency room visits, hospitalizations and re-admissions for patients with diabetes and congestive heart failure or pneumonia, and improve immunization rates among diabetic patients

More information about Beacon Communities can be found at:  http://Healthit.hhs.gov/Programs/Beacon.

For information about other HHS Recovery Act programs, see http://www.hhs.gov/recovery

The White House

Office of the Vice President

For Immediate Release
April 30, 2010

Statement by the Vice President on New Recovery Act Recipient Reports Posted on Recovery.Gov

Washington, DC – As mandated by statute, the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board today posted on Recovery.gov quarterly reports required from some recipients of Recovery Act funding.  The recipient reports provide more detailed information about a portion of Recovery Act activity during the first quarter of 2010.  The Vice President issued the following statement:

“The recipients reporting on this $62 billion portion of the Recovery Act – about 15 percent of Recovery spending and tax relief to-date - tell us they funded about 675,000 workers last quarter with those dollars alone, making it the largest quarterly direct job impact ever reported by recipients of Recovery Act funds.  These reports, which provide a snapshot of just a portion of the job impact in the first quarter of this year, are yet another indication that the Recovery Act is a driving force behind the continued economic growth we are seeing and remains on-track to support 3.5 million jobs overall by the end of 2010.”

“This is a partial survey of Recovery Act activity based on real-time information coming directly from the recipients themselves, so we know the information is not perfect or complete.  Work will continue on refining and improving the quality of the data in the weeks ahead.  But these reports provide the American people with an unprecedented look at how some Recovery Act dollars are being put to work in their neighborhoods and communities through reports directly from the recipients themselves – and we believe that when the final data is in for this quarter, it will show the highest recipient participation rate yet.  From the beginning, we committed to provide the public with a level of detail about the Recovery Act never before available with a government program - and with the posting of these reports today, we continue to deliver on that commitment.” 

The White House

Office of the Vice President

For Immediate Release
April 29, 2010

Vice President Biden Announces Recovery Act Funding for 37 Transformational Energy Research Projects

New ARPA-E projects in 17 states will accelerate innovation in clean energy technologies, increase America’s competitiveness and create jobs

Washington, DC – At a Recovery Act Cabinet Meeting today, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Energy Steven Chu will announce that the U.S. Department of Energy is awarding $106 million in funding for 37 ambitious research projects that could fundamentally change the way the country uses and produces energy.  Funded through DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), the $106 million is awarded to projects that could produce advanced biofuels more efficiently from renewable electricity instead of sunlight; design completely new types of batteries to make electric vehicles more affordable; and remove the carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants in a more cost-effective way.

“Thanks to the Recovery Act, dozens of cutting-edge research projects with the potential to dramatically transform how we use energy in this country will now be able to get underway,” said Vice President Biden.  “By investing in our top researchers, we’re not only continuing in the spirit of American innovation, but helping build a competitive American clean energy industry that will create secure jobs here at home for years to come.” 
 
“These projects show that the U.S. can lead the next Industrial Revolution in clean energy technologies, which will help create new jobs, spur innovation and economic growth while helping to cut carbon pollution dramatically,” said Secretary Chu.

The grants will go to projects in 17 states. Of the lead recipients, 24 percent are small businesses, 57 percent are educational institutions, 11 percent are national labs, and 8 percent are large corporations.  In supporting these teams, ARPA-E seeks to bring America's brightest scientists and innovators together from diverse fields to pioneer a secure and prosperous energy future for the nation.  The awards are part of an overall $100 billion investment the Recovery Act is making in creating jobs and driving economic growth through innovation, science and technology.

This second round of ARPA-E-funded research projects focuses on three critical areas:

1.“Electrofuels” - Biofuels from Electricity --- Today’s technologies for making biofuels all rely on photosynthesis – either indirectly by converting plants to fuels or directly by harnessing photosynthetic organisms such as algae.  This process is less than 1% efficient at converting sunlight to stored chemical energy. Instead, Electrofuels approaches will use organisms able to extract energy from other sources, such as solar-derived electricity or hydrogen or earth-abundant metal ions.  Theoretically, such an approach could be more than 10 times more efficient than current biomass approaches.

Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA) - Engineering a Bacterial Reverse Fuel Cell
This project would develop a bacterium to use electricity (which could come from renewable sources like solar or wind) to convert carbon dioxide into gasoline.  The bacterium would act like a reverse fuel cell: where fuel cells use a fuel to produce electricity, this bacterium would start with electricity and produce a fuel. Research projects like this one demonstrate the great potential of bringing experts from other fields like biology and medicine to address our energy challenges. This project was selected for a $4 million grant from ARPA-E.

2. Better Batteries - Batteries for Electrical Energy Storage in Transportation (“BEEST”) --- The critical barrier to wider deployment of electric vehicles is the high cost and low efficiency of today’s batteries.  This ARPA-E program seeks to develop a new generation of ultra-high energy density, low-cost battery technologies for long range plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles.  If successful, the technologies developed in this program will greatly improve U.S. energy security, spur economic growth, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

MIT (Cambridge, MA) - Semi-Solid Rechargeable Flow Battery
This concept represents a new type of battery that doesn’t exist today: a semi-solid flow battery that combines the best characteristics of rechargeable batteries and fuel cells.  It could enable batteries for electric vehicles that are much lighter and smaller - and cheaper - than today's batteries.  The cost difference is dramatic: this flow battery potentially could cost less than one-eighth of today's batteries, which could lead to widespread adoption of affordable electric vehicles.  This project was selected for a $5 million grant from ARPA-E.

3. Zero-Carbon Coal:  Innovative Materials & Processes for Advanced Carbon Capture Technologies (“IMPACCT”) --- Coal-fired power plants currently generate approximately 50% of the electricity in the United States. But they also produce significant carbon pollution, which could have serious consequences for climate change. This ARPA-E program aims to support revolutionary technologies to capture carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants using a range of approaches, including solvents, sorbents, catalysts, enzymes, membranes, and gas-liquid-solid phase changes.

GE Global Research Center (Niskayuna, NY) - CO2 Capture Process Using Phase-Changing Absorbents
A GE researcher came across an exciting discovery as part of an earlier Department of Energy-funded project: a certain liquid, when it reacts with carbon dioxide, turns into a solid powder. This could lead to a much less expensive way to capture carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants -- the carbon dioxide in the powder can be much more easily separated from the plant's flue gases than gaseous carbon dioxide can. This project was selected for a $3 million grant from ARPA-E.

This second, targeted ARPA-E solicitation was highly competitive. Over 540 initial concept papers were received in the three focus areas.  Of those, approximately 180 full applications were encouraged, and 37 final awardees were selected through a rigorous review process with input from multiple review panels composed of leading U.S. science and technology experts and ARPA-E’s program directors.  Evaluations were based on scientific and technical merit and the potential for high impact on our national energy and economic goals. 

View the project selections announced today.

The Recovery Act was signed into law on February 17, 2009 as the country faced the greatest economic crisis in a generation.  The Act was designed to create jobs and drive economic growth through a combination of tax relief for individuals and businesses, aid to hard-hit families and state and local governments and funding for science, technology and infrastructure projects across the country.  The Council of Economic Advisors estimates that the Recovery Act is responsible for approximately 2.5 million jobs so far.

The White House

Office of the Vice President

For Immediate Release
April 28, 2010

Readout of the Vice President's Meeting with the U.N. Secretary General's Special Representative for Iraq AD Melkert

The Vice President met today with the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Iraq, Ad Melkert.  They discussed the important role of the United Nations in Iraq and agreed on the need for fairness and transparency in the electoral process. In particular, they called for due process and respect for the votes cast by the Iraqi electorate. They supported the effort of Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) to conduct an orderly, transparent recount in Baghdad with requisite speed in keeping with the expectations of the people of Iraq. They agreed on the importance of observers in that process. They reiterated that it is for Iraqis to lead the electoral process without any outside interference.  They also discussed moving toward the certification and acceptance of election results and timely government formation. 

The White House

Office of the Vice President

For Immediate Release
April 23, 2010

Vice President Biden to Travel to Brussels and Madrid

The Vice President will travel to Brussels, Belgium, and Madrid, Spain, from May 5-8, 2010.  During the visit, the Vice President will deliver a major address to the European Parliament.  He will meet with leaders and representatives of the European Union institutions to discuss how the United States and the EU can improve cooperation on counter-terrorism and other areas of mutual concern. The Vice President will discuss trans-Atlantic security issues with NATO officials and meet with Belgian leaders.  In Madrid, the Vice President will meet with King Juan Carlos, President Zapatero, and other members of the Spanish government to discuss bilateral issues, the Spanish Presidency of the EU, and ongoing cooperation to address major global challenges.

Additional details about the Vice President’s trip will be released at a later date.

The White House

Office of the Vice President

For Immediate Release
April 21, 2010

Vicepresidente Biden da inicio a cinco días de actividades por el Día de la Tierra con anuncio sobre nuevo e importante programa para el consumo eficiente de energía

25 comunidades seleccionadas recibirán subvenciones de la Ley para la Recuperación a fin de intensificar remodelaciones (“Retrofit Ramp-Up”)
 
Washington, D.C. - El Vicepresidente Biden hoy dará inicio a cinco días de eventos del gobierno en torno al 40º aniversario del Día de la Tierra con el anuncio de la selección de 25 comunidades que recibirán más de $452 millones en fondos de la Ley para la Recuperación a fin de intensificar las remodelaciones (de tipo Retrofit Ramp-Up) de edificios para el consumo eficiente de energía. Con el programa Retrofit Ramp-Up del Departamento de Energía, comunidades, gobiernos, empresas privadas y organizaciones sin fines de lucro trabajarán juntas en programas precursores e innovadores de remodelaciones concentradas y extensas en vecindarios, pueblos, y a fin de cuentas, estados enteros. Estas alianzas apoyarán remodelaciones a gran escala y harán que la eficiencia energética esté al alcance de cientos de miles de propietarios de casas y empresas. Se tiene previsto que estos modelos creados por medio de este programa les ahorren a hogares de familia y empresas aproximadamente $100 millones anualmente en gastos por servicios públicos y a la vez aprovechen recursos en el sector privado, a fin de generar aproximadamente 30,000 empleos en todo el país durante los próximos tres años, según lo estimado por quienes recibirán los fondos.
 
"Durante cuarenta años, el Día de la Tierra se ha centrado en transformar la manera en que consumimos energía y reducir nuestra dependencia de hidrocarburos, pero este año, gracias a históricas inversiones en energía limpia con la Ley para la Recuperación, estamos en posición de alcanzar mayores logros que nunca en el desarrollo de una economía nacional basada en la energía limpia”, afirmó el Vicepresidente Biden. “Esta inversión en algunos de los más innovadores proyectos de consumo eficiente de energía en todo el país no sólo ayudarán a los propietarios de vivienda y empresas a hacer mejoras para reducir costos en remodelaciones, sino que también generará empleos aquí mismo en Estados Unidos".
 
“Este programa ayudará a superar las barreras de la incomodidad, falta de información y falta de financiamiento y hará que la eficiencia energética sea fácil y esté al alcance de todos”, afirmó el secretario de Energía Steven Chu. "Cuadra por cuadra, vecindario por vecindario, haremos que nuestras comunidades consuman energía más eficientemente y ayudaremos a las familias a ahorrar dinero. Al mismo tiempo, generaremos miles de empleos y le daremos solidez a nuestra economía".
 
Además de la inversión de $452 millones de la Ley para la Recuperación, los 25 proyectos anunciados hoy harán uso de aproximadamente $2,800 millones de otras fuentes durante los próximos 3 años para remodelar cientos de miles de viviendas y empresas en todo el país. En general, se solicitó financiamiento por una cantidad ocho veces mayor a los fondos del programa: las solicitudes recibidas ascendieron a más de $3,500 millones, pero sólo había $450 millones en fondos disponibles con la Ley para la Recuperación, lo que indica demanda significativa de inversión en proyectos para ahorrar energía y generar empleos como éstos en todo el país. 
 
Los beneficiarios emplearán modelos innovadores de financiamiento para hacer que estos ahorros estén disponibles, como por ejemplo otorgar préstamos con intereses bajos o sin intereses, que se pagan por medio de los impuestos a la propiedad y cuentas de servicios públicos. Al implementar estos proyectos, los beneficiarios harán realidad ahorros verificables de energía e incorporarán modelos de negocios sostenibles, a fin de asegurar que se siga remodelando edificios después de agotados los fondos de la Ley para la Recuperación. El departamento usará lo que se aprenda de estos programas piloto a fin de crear guías de prácticas óptimas para programas integrales de remodelaciones que otras comunidades en todo el país puedan adoptar e implementar.
 
Los proyectos de Retrofit Ramp-Up, que son parte de la inversión total de $80,000 millones en energía limpia y eficiencia energética de la Ley para la Recuperación, complementan el programa Recuperación por Remodelación (‘Recovery through Retrofit’) del gobierno del Presidente Obama, que sienta las bases para un sector autosuficiente y sólido de consumo residencial eficiente de energía. Las asignaciones son la porción competitiva del programa de Subvenciones en Bloque para la Eficiencia Energética y Conservación (Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant o EECBG) del departamento, que fue financiado por primera vez por la Ley para la Recuperación con el fin de ayudar a comunidades estatales, locales y tribales a hacer inversiones estratégicas para aumentar la eficiencia energética, reducir el consumo de energía y las emisiones de carbono.
 
El secretario Chu, el secretario del Interior Ken Salazar y Carol Browner, asesora presidencial de energía y cambio climático, se sumaron al Vicepresidente Biden hoy para el anuncio, que fue el primero de más de dos docenas de eventos y actividades por el Día de la Tierra a los que asistirán funcionarios del gobierno. Además del evento de hoy, el Presidente tendrá una recepción por el Día de la Tierra con líderes ambientales el jueves, 22 de abril, el Presidente transmitirá un mensaje de video como parte de los eventos en el National Mall el domingo, 25 de abril, y funcionarios del gobierno participarán en programas educativos con colegiales, visitarán proyectos de restauración de humedales y zonas costeras, y participarán en proyectos de servicio comunitario como parte del llamado a la acción del Presidente por el Día de la Tierra. Los eventos destacarán algunas de las maneras en que la Administración está trabajando para realizar mejoras ambientales, transformar la infraestructura de Estados Unidos para un consumo más eficiente de energía y desarrollar una economía basada en la economía limpia que sea la base de los empleos del futuro. Como parte de estos eventos, los funcionarios del gobierno también continuarán instando al Congreso a promulgar la ley HOME STAR y medidas legislativas integrales sobre energía y cambio climático. A continuación se encuentra una lista completa de las actividades del gobierno por el Día de la Tierra, y se puede encontrar más información sobre el llamado a la acción del Presidente por el Día de la Tierra en www.WhiteHouse.gov/EarthDay. 
 
Asignaciones del Programa Retrofit Ramp-Up
 
Las siguientes entidades gubernamentales y organizaciones sin fines de lucro han sido seleccionadas para recibir fondos de Retrofit Ramp-Up. Se planea iniciar estos proyectos en el otoño del 2010. Las cantidades finales de las asignaciones están sujetas a negociación:
 
Austin, Texas - $10 millones
Condado de Boulder, Colorado - $25 millones
Camden, Nueva Jersey - $5 millones
Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning - $25 millones
Greater Cincinnati Energy Alliance, Ohio - $17 millones
Greensboro, Carolina del Norte - $5 millones
Indianápolis, Indiana - $10 millones
Kansas City, Missouri - $20 millones
Condado de Los Angeles, California - $30 millones
Lowell, Massachusetts - $5 millones
Estado de Maine - $30 millones
Estado de Maryland - $20 millones
Estado de Michigan - $30 millones
Estado de Missouri - $5 millones
Omaha, Nebraska - $10 millones
Estado de New Hampshire - $10 millones
Nueva York  State Research and Development Authority - $40 millones
Filadelfia, Pensilvania - $25 millones
Phoenix, Arizona - $25 millones
Portland, Oregon - $20 millones
San Antonio, Texas - $10 millones
Seattle, Washington - $20 millones
Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance - $20 millones
Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, Ohio - $15 millones
Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corporation - $20 millones

Para mayor información sobre los proyectos seleccionados, pulse AQUI. Hay un mapa de los proyectos seleccionados AQUI.
 
Las remodelaciones en números
 
• Los edificios residenciales y comerciales consumen 40 por ciento de la energía y producen 40 por ciento de las emisiones de carbono en Estados Unidos. Aumentar la eficiencia de edificios es una de las maneras más fáciles, inmediatas y económicas de reducir las emisiones de carbono y ahorrar dinero en cuentas de energía, y a la vez, generar empleos nuevos.

• Las técnicas y tecnología existentes en las remodelaciones para consumo eficiente de energía pueden reducir el consumo hasta 40 por ciento por vivienda y disminuir hasta en 160 millones de toneladas métricas anualmente el total relacionado de emisiones con efecto de invernadero.

• Las remodelaciones residenciales y comerciales también tienen el potencial de reducir las cuentas de servicios eléctricos en $40,000 millones anualmente.

Eventos y actividades de funcionarios de la Administración con motivo de Earth Day

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar
Thursday, April 22 – Washington, DC
Secretary Salazar will make remarks on the National Mall for Take a Child to Work/40th Anniversary Earth Day/Buddy the Bison Hike sponsored by the National Park Service.  Five hundred local students will participate in the event.

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke
Wednesday, April 21 – Washington, DC
Secretary Locke will deliver keynote remarks at the Creating Climate Wealth Summit at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. He will address how energy reform can strengthen our security and spur economic growth.

Thursday, April 22 – Jersey City, NJ
Secretary Locke will speak in Jersey City, N.J., at the Lincoln Park restoration project that is turning a landfill into a healthy wetland. NOAA funded this habitat restoration project through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis
Thursday, April 22 – Online Webchat
On Thursday, Secretary Hilda Solis will host a webchat to discuss issues and opportunities related to Earth Day. Also on Thursday, the Department of Labor will issue a report detailing green job training opportunities made available over the past year, including $490 million in Recovery Act funding for green jobs training.

Friday, April 23 – Washington, DC
On Friday, a Job Corps ceremony will honor a winning Job Corps Center for their green construction project.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius
Thursday, April 22 – Chicago, IL
Secretary Sebelius will hold an Earth Day health event with Housing and Urban Development Deputy Secretary Ron Sims at a Chicago Public Housing Authority site. 

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan
Thursday, April 22 – Washington, DC
Secretary Donovan will deliver remarks at the Earth Day Network’s 40th Anniversary of Earth Day rally on the National Mall, in which he will highlight the President’s Earth Day Call to Action and HUD’s efforts to develop more sustainable, inclusive neighborhoods, while increasing green job and green housing opportunities for families across the country.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood
Thursday, April 22, Secretary LaHood – Chicago, IL
Secretary LaHood will attend an Earth Day event at Daley Plaza in Chicago.  The event includes a school climate video competition for participating school groups and will have alternative fuel vehicles on display. 

Energy Secretary Steven Chu
Thursday, April 22 - Washington, DC
Secretary Chu will speak at an Earth Day celebration for Department of Energy employees.

Friday, April 23 – Philadelphia, PA
Secretary Chu will hold a clean energy event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, focusing on the benefits of energy efficiency.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan
Thursday April 22 – Washington, DC
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will deliver remarks at a ceremony commemorating the 40th anniversary of Earth Day Thursday at the National Mall in Washington.  Secretary Duncan will discuss how education can play a role in developing a green economy.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson
Wednesday, April 21 – Pittsburgh, PA
Administrator Jackson will be in Pittsburgh for an Energy Star event with children from the Sarah Heinz House Boys and Girls Club. This is a club that provides children and teenagers with strong role models and a safe, fun place to go after school, on weekends, and during the summer.

Thursday, April 22nd - New York City
The Administrator will participate in an urban-focused community service project with Green For All at the Grant Houses Community Garden in Manhattan. Administrator Jackson will take a tour of the garden, deliver remarks to press, students and volunteers and participate in a planting activity with volunteers.  The Administrator will also be a guest on the David Letterman Show to talk about the 40th anniversary of Earth Day and the President’s clean energy and green jobs agenda.

Friday, April 23rd to Sunday, April 25th - Washington, DC
To commemorate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the EPA will be hosting a celebration event Saturday and Sunday, April 24-25, on the National Mall. The event will feature a variety of interactive, family friendly exhibits that highlight the work of the Agency and celebrate its 40th anniversary this year.  Administrator Jackson will appear on The National Mall on Friday to visit the Office of Research and Development’s P3 student participants and recognize winners. P3 is the next step beyond P2 – pollution prevention – and focuses on the three components of sustainability: people, prosperity, and the planet.

White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley
Sunday, April 25 – Washington, DC
Chair Sutley will deliver remarks at the Earth Day Network’s 40th Anniversary of Earth Day festivities on the National Mall.  She will focus on the Obama Administration’s environmental agenda, and how the transition to a clean energy economy can create millions of American jobs while reducing our dependence on foreign oil.

Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler
Thursday, April 22 – Washington, DC
The Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler will attend the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division’s (ENRD) Earth Day 2010 event on April 22 at Marvin Gaye Park where it has held its annual Earth Day service celebration since 2004.  In those five years, the Division has been able to help the park purchase over $7,500 worth of trees and landscaping materials as part of the park revitalization event.  ENRD has also devoted over 2,500 hours of employee time to planting trees, removing trash, laying sod, and gardening.

Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan and Agriculture Undersecretary for Rural Development Dallas Tonsager
Friday April 23 – Sussex County, DE
Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan will travel to Delaware on Friday to participate in a groundbreaking ceremony for a project that will modernize water quality and public sanitation services in Sussex County through the upgrading of the Inland Bays Wastewater Treatment Facility. 

Friday April 23 – Woodland Park, CO
Agriculture Undersecretary for Rural Development Dallas Tonsager will travel to Woodland Park, Colorado, where he will participate in an event marking the use of Recovery Act funds to improve drinking water quality in a subdivision. 

Commerce Department Senior Officials
Earth Day Week - Huntington Beach, CA; Cape Hatteras, NC; Seattle, WA; Muskegon Lake, MI; Grande Isle, LA; Maunalua Bay, HI; Jersey City, NJ; and Florida Keys, FL
April 17 through 23, the Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) leadership will hold events at American Recovery and Reinvestment Act coastal restoration projects in eight states. The events will highlight job creation in Huntington Beach, California; Cape Hatteras, North Carolina; Seattle, Washington; Muskegon Lake, Michigan; Grande Isle, Louisiana; Maunalua Bay, Hawaii; Jersey City, New Jersey; and Florida Keys, Florida.

Office of Science and Technology Policy Director John Holdren
Thursday April 22 – Berkley, California
OSTP Director John Holdren will be in Berkeley, Calif., where he will give a free, public, evening lecture on the topic of: “Science and Technology for Sustainable Well-Being: Priorities and Policies in the Obama Administration,” to be held in Sibley Auditorium in the Bechtel Engineering Center at the University of California, Berkeley.

Veterans Affairs Officials
Week-long
Hospital Directors and Regional Office Directors will lead Earth Day events at VA health facilities across the country including Martinsburg, WV; North Texas; Clarksburg, VA; Saginaw, MI; Battle Creek, MI; San Diego, CA; Spokane. WA; Fresno, CA Los Angeles, CA; Long Beach, CA; Reno, NV; Tucson, AZ, Boise, ID; Menlo Park, CA;, Palo Alto, CA and Ft. Harrison, MT.

Treasury Department Initiative
Earth Day Week
With Americans poised to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day this week, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced a broad new initiative to dramatically increase the number of electronic transactions that involve Treasury and millions of citizens and businesses, a move that is expected to save more than $400 million and 12 million pounds of paper in the first five years alone.  Treasury will also make an announcement about a change in the Department’s energy consumption that, when coupled with the move from paper to electronic transactions, will greatly reduce Treasury’s environmental impact.

NASA
Earth Day Week – Washington, DC
NASA is taking part in the celebration of Earth Day's fortieth anniversary on the National Mall in Washington beginning Saturday, April 17. The agency's involvement includes 9 consecutive days of activities and exhibits open to the public.  The 'NASA Village,' which contains three domed tents, will highlight the use of NASA science and technology to advance knowledge and awareness about our planet and sustain our environment.

###
 

The White House

Office of the Vice President

For Immediate Release
April 21, 2010

Remarks by the Vice President Announcing Recovery Act "Retrofit Ramp-Up" Awards on Eve of Earth Day

Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Washington, D.C.

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Secretary Salazar, Carol Browner is here, Secretary Ray Mabus, Ben Cardin -- I miss seeing you guys every day, Ben.  Dennis Cardoza, I’m told Emanuel Cleaver is here.  I see Marcy is here, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur.  Ed Markey, who has gained his congressional Ph.D. on this issue.  I don’t know anybody who knows more about it than he does.  And we also have the -- Mayor Michael Bell, the mayor of Toledo here, Mayor Phil Gordon, the Mayor of Phoenix, and Mayor Michael McGinn of Seattle.  And you’re all welcome.  And I’m sure there’s other very distinguished guests here as well that I have overlooked and I apologize.

Let me start off by saying, and I mean this sincerely, I was a senator a long time.  As a matter of fact, as I left the Senate, as Ben may remember, the Senate historian came in and said -- thinking that he was going to make me feel better -- he pointed out that only 17 senators in American history ever served as long as I did.  And I could feel my heart sinking into my stomach.  I said, “If my father were here, he’d define that as a misspent adulthood.”  (Laughter.) 

But all kidding aside, I have been around awhile.  I served a long time with Gaylord Nelson, who -- he and his wife, Carrie, were great friends.  They were real pioneers back in those early days when I got there, talked about the environment.

I was put on the Public Works Committee when I first got there.  And the first -- the first recommendation I made is we change the name, the Environment and Public Works Committee.  And Mayor Jennings Randolph, or Jennings as he liked to be called, told me that if I made that recommendation again, I was off the committee.  (Laughter.)  You think I’m joking, I’m not.  There’s a lot that’s changed, a lot that’s changed.

And I expected when I took this job I’d have some real opportunities to impact on the formation of policy.  But one of the things I didn’t expect, I didn’t expect to have the opportunity to work with such a tutor.  And I’m not being solicitous.  To have an opportunity to work with the Secretary of Energy on something that I cared a great deal about when I was a senator, to have a man of Secretary Chu’s caliber and his depth of his knowledge and his commitment has genuinely been sort of an ongoing tutorial for me.  And I want to publicly thank you, Mr. Secretary.  (Applause.)

And as that old joke goes, the Secretary has forgotten more about this subject than I’m ever going to know.  But I am as passionately committed to this transition he refers to as I think anyone, as is the President.  I hadn’t planned on doing what I’m about to do today, but today’s announcement by General Motors that it’s paid back -- it’s paid back its TARP loan in full -- in full is a huge accomplishment.

The President of the United States took a lot of heat for that effort, to keep that company alive while it was transitioning.  And I would just like to point out that I am proud to be associated with the guy who saw the necessity to do this.  And this has even exceeded our expectations.  We’ve worked hard to help turn around the nation’s auto industry and give the car companies a chance to be viable without government assistance.  And we helped GM -- we helped out GM so that they could retool, so that they could become a leader in the 21st century.

And we know that building energy-efficient cars with better gas mileage and cleaner emissions is going to be a big part of us being able to succeed, not only the auto industry, but also succeed in our quest for a better environment.  Today, GM paid back the loan in full five years ahead of schedule.  And now GM is in a better position to make them -- make what the market demands, energy-efficient vehicles for a cleaner world.  And that leads me to Earth Day, the reason why we’re here today.

I also want to point out -- I want to thank, by the way, Lisa Jackson, our EPA administrator.  She couldn’t be here today, but we all appreciate the tremendous work that she’s doing having once again -- we now have again an Environmental Protection Agency again.  (Applause.) 

And a happy almost Earth Day to all of you.  I say that because tomorrow is actually the day that officially marks the occasion.  But the truth is we’re here kicking off an entire earth week.  And I hope our administration has kicked off an entire earth administration.  Over the next few days, officials from across our administration will participate in more than a dozen events to celebrate Earth Day.  We’re getting everyone in the administration involved.  And today, the day before Earth Day, we kick off a week for an administration that for -- literally for every day it’s Earth Day for us.  Because this implicates every aspect of our country’s self-interest, from foreign policy to economic policy to environmental policy to health care policy.  This impacts on every aspect -- every aspect of what kind of country we’re going to leave our kids.

And 40 years ago, when Gaylord conceived and celebrated the first Earth Day, the world looked pretty different.  Some of us can remember the public health and environmental catastrophes that propelled Earth Day, the Earth Day movement in the first place, the Cuyahoga River literally catching on fire from all the oil and dumped trash that was in it.  Days of heavy smog in New York City so thick that people actually were dying from being unable to breathe the air.  The list goes on and on and on.  Our planet was sick.  It’s not healthy yet.  But our planet was sick and in need of desperate help.  It’s still in need of real help.       

Because of Gaylord Nelson, and millions of Americans like some of you that are here today who joined him, we begin to make things a little bit better.  Forty years later, the first Earth Day -- from the first Earth Day, the people of the first Earth Day celebration would look around and look out at all of you and they’d be very proud of what all of you have done.  They’d see recycling bins in your houses.  They’d see business spending money to make their facilities more energy efficient.  They’d see men and women heading to work to build and install wind turbines and solar panels and other components for the new energy future.  They’d see an administration building on his legacy, Gaylord’s legacy, protecting and restoring the Great Lakes, the Chesapeake Bay, the Gulf Coast; designating millions of acres of wilderness; saving 1.8 billion barrels of oil by reducing Greenhouse gases by raising fuel efficiency and emissions standards on cars and trucks, pulling us on the right track and by doubling the renewal energy that will be generated in this country.

Since the beginning of the environmental movement, we’ve been trying to transform the way we use energy and reduce our dependence on foreign oil and fossil fuels to tap into the vast, untapped, renewable energy sources and to use energy more efficiently.  The fact is we’ve been trying for 40 years, and we’ve made some progress.  But we’re now poised to make significantly greater strides, in our view, than ever because of the unprecedented investment in the Recovery Act and the leadership of the President and the Secretary of Energy. 

Even before we took office, the President and myself and our economic team planned to use parts of what we knew had to be -- we didn’t name it the Recovery Act then, but we knew we were going to have to have a Recovery Act.  There were significant parts of that Recovery Act to make investments that would create good jobs today, but while planting the seeds for great industries of tomorrow with clean energy being at the forefront and the heart of all of it.

The world already is transforming, as the Secretary said, to a new energy economy.  And the question is, are we going to lead it or are we going to continue to try to catch up?  We are going to be left behind.  We need to catch up.  With around $80 billion in clean energy investments, the Recovery Act is the largest single investment in clean energy in our history.  If you just took that piece out of the Recovery Act and passed it as a stand-alone bill, it’s the largest investment ever made in the history of the country in clean energy. 

But we’re not just doing this with government funds.  We’re using government to provide the seed money to grow private industries.  And some of the initiatives that you mayors have going with the private sector in your communities is a model for what we should be doing.  Twenty-three billion dollars in renewable energy generation and advanced energy manufacturing, which will likely leverage more than $43 billion in additional investment; $2.4 billion in battery technology, matched by another $2.4 billion in private capital to help build energy-efficient cars of the future.

In January of ’09, there were two advanced battery factories in America.  By 2015, there will be 30.  The smart grid, $3.4 billion in government investment led to $4.7 billion in private investment to help get us to a stronger, more efficient, more reliable energy grid; $2.3 billion, which is likely to leverage $5.4 billion in private capital to put us back on track to double our capacity to manufacture the components of a new, green economy in America from wind turbines to solar panels to create energy that’s renewable.  Renewable resources to batteries and smart grid systems to store that -- and transmit that energy, to technologies like advanced lighting that help conserve energy.

We’re going to start making that stuff here in America with American workers.  We’re going to be coming up to you guys in the House and the Senate and asking for 48C to be bumped up to $5 billion so we could be making this stuff in America. 

And today, we’re announcing another important Recovery Act program, the “Retrofit Ramp-Up.”  Now, I wonder what sometimes our constituents think when we come up with these names.  (Laughter.)  The “Retrofit Ramp-Up.”  We all in this room know what it is.  We may be the only ones who know exactly what it means.  (Laughter.)  But it’s a kind of a buzz word, retrofits.  But what we’re really talking about here is simple.  It’s about making our homes and our office buildings more efficient and more comfortable and more affordable, replacing windows and doors.  I have visited, along with some of the people in the front row, new window and door factories making incredibly -- incredibly energy-efficient windows and doors, which can save billions of dollars over time.  Putting in new air conditioning or heating units that are much more efficient.  Sealing up cracks and openings where air can leak into and out of your home.  That’s retrofitting -- small stuff, but big, big, big savings.

In fact, retrofitting existing homes has the potential to cut more than $21 billion a year annually in our energy cost.  There are more than 100 million homes in America.  In the last year, only 40,000 took advantage of the energy-saving retrofits.  It’s not that homeowners don’t want to lower their energy bills; it’s just that they found that the process was too difficult, from accessing energy audits to finding skilled retrofit workers to simply being able to afford it. 

Now, last fall the Middle Class Task Force, which the President asked me to chair, and the Council on Environmental Equality released a report that called the recovery retrofit -- explaining how we’re working to overcome the challenges that got in the way of homeowners taking advantage of this.  And these grants that we’re announcing today are grants to 25 communities nationwide, and are a major step in the direction of making this much easier to do, much more efficient, and much more likely to happen.

This program is all about developing innovative models that can be expanded throughout the country.  And there are a couple that are particularly important things about these grants that we should mention.  First, these grants are focused on encouraging entire neighborhoods, entire neighborhoods to take advantage of the retrofits all at the same time.  Right now, most retrofit work programs are on a house by house basis.  The construction crew may come into a neighborhood, upgrade one home one week, and then they have to come back to work in a neighborhood home a few weeks later, maybe the same neighborhood. 

Well, the Retrofit* Ramp-up* award winners are taking a different approach.  Now, that -- the same construction crew would upgrade all the homes on the same block at the same time.  That saves contractors time and money.  They can pass the savings on to their customers.  And it’s just a much more efficient way to operate.  And these communities aren’t just relying on these grants.  They’ll use this as seed money to leverage an additional $2.8 billion over the next three years.  That’s a total of five dollars for every dollar -- every dollar of grant money.  And they’re doing this by building partnerships between local governments, utility companies, financial institutions, and nonprofits.  Whole communities are coming together to get this going, and when we look around you’ll see it.  And you’ll see more and more of it as the months go on.          

I know there are some people from the Philadelphia mayor’s office that are here today.  This has been one of Mayor Nutter’s hobby horses.  Well, their city has a plan to work with private lenders to connect homeowners to easy access, affordable loans to pay for retrofit work.  The Mayor of Toledo, Mike Bell, is here.  Toledo’s program will provide career training, job placement, and mentoring for people actually going to be doing this work.  The Mayor of Phoenix, Phil Gordon, is here.  Just about -- just talk about partnerships, his city is partnering with Arizona State University Community Colleges, local utility companies, and five local banks to carry out a comprehensive retrofit program focusing on buildings surrounding Phoenix’s new light rail line. 

Investing in retrofits is a triple win.  It’s a win for consumers who save money on their energy bill.  It’s a win for the environment because we’re using less energy, which cuts down on harmful emissions from greenhouse gases.  And, finally, it’s a win for the American economy, because it creates green jobs, jobs that can’t be outsourced. 

Now, with so many worthy applications, not everyone got funds today.  But the Department of Energy is still working to find more opportunities to get cities to get involved in programs like this.  But it’s not just cities.  We also want to encourage millions of Americans across the country to retrofit their homes.  That’s why the President has made it a priority to pass legislation creating a new energy-efficient rebate program that we call “Homestar.”

And, by the way, I was home the last two weekends going to Home Depot both times, one, to buy a 30-inch hedge clipper, because my wife was very dissatisfied with our hedges.  (Laughter.)  You all think I’m kidding.  (Laughter.)  I am not kidding.  (Laughter.)  Anyway -- anyway, and the other one was to take my almost four-year-old grandson, Hunter, who said, “Pop, I don’t got a tape measurer.”  So he had to get a tape measurer.  He’s stolen four of mine.  He can’t find them.  But we went to get another tape measurer.  (Laughter.)  But all kidding aside, they asked about the program, the guys working the aisles, the women working the aisles, they asked about the program.

Under this program homeowners will be eligible for rebates worth up to $1,005 for simple home upgrades like replacing an old water heater, putting in those new windows that I talked about.  If you decide to do a comprehensive retrofit of your whole house, you’d be eligible for a rebate up to $3,000.  Homeowners won’t have to fill out forms, send it in the mail, and wait for the check to arrive.  They’ll get rebates up front from the hardware store or the contractor.

The Homestar rebate program is going to create tens of thousands of jobs in industries like construction, manufacturing, and I might add, sales.  These people, there are going to be people in Home Depot and -- I shouldn’t just be talking about Home Depot -- but, you know, a lot of other places.  (Laughter.)  Lowes, that's the other one in my neighborhood.  (Laughter.)

Anyway -- (laughter) -- they’re jobs, and people need jobs -- jobs in manufacturing, in all those areas where people have suffered very badly because of this recession.

At the same time, we’re going to reduce our energy consumption, and families are going to save hundreds of dollars on the utility bills.  And that makes a big difference.

You know, in the -- it’s a commonsense idea that has bipartisan support.  So we’re calling on Congress to get this bill on the President’s desk as soon as possible.  But of course to really get this right, to really free ourselves from the grip of foreign oil, to really preserve our planet for generations to come, we need a comprehensive energy climate bill.  That's something that Chairman Markey has been working on and my good friend, John Kerry, along with Lindsay Graham and others in the Senate side.  I am hopeful, I am hopeful.

We’re grateful to the House for passing the bill last year.  And I want to thank all the House members because that was not an easy vote at the time to take.  But you were dead right.  The bill was a good, solid bill.  You passed a bill and we continue working with both Democrats and Republicans to get it passed through the Senate.

You know, it’s a political cliché to say we’re trying to change the world.  But, you know, it’s most -- in it’s most literal sense, that's what we’re trying to begin to do here today.  We’ve got to change the world. 

Does anybody think we can lead the world in the 21st century with the energy policy we’ve had in the last century?  Does anybody think we can leave a planet to my grandchildren and their grandchildren that is sustainable without a fundamental change in the way we do business? 

But this is a case where, as the Secretary pointed out, not just for the United States but for the world, this can become a win-win situation.  You know, it used to be when the construction trades and the building trades would support us, when we’d say, “green” that meant, oh, god, the snail darter, we’re not going to have a building, we’re not going to build a dam, we’re not going to -- people are beginning to understand green means a cleaner economy, and green means jobs, green.  Green means economic advancement across the board.

You know, making the world itself better, the air we breathe, the water we drink, the mountains our children will climb, the lakes they’ll swim in, that's why Gaylord Nelson started Earth Day 40 years ago, and that's why you’re all here today. 

And I want to thank you all for helping us literally change the world.  So thank you all folks.  And may God bless you all and may God bless protect our troops.  Keep it up.  Thank you.  (Applause.)

END

The White House

Office of the Vice President

For Immediate Release
April 20, 2010

Vice President Biden Announces Strengthening of Title IX

Washington, D.C. - Today, Vice President Biden announced that the Administration has issued a ‘Dear Colleague’ letter that withdraws a 2005 interpretation of Title IX policy. Enacted in 1972, Title IX mandates that any educational institution receiving federal funding for programs and activities cannot discriminate on the basis of sex.  The 2005 policy issued compliance standards that were widely criticized for being inadequate and inconsistent with Title IX's nondiscrimination goals. Today’s announcement reverses this interpretation, and returns to a more thorough test for assessing compliance with Title IX.  Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Senior White House Advisor Valerie Jarrett, Chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls, joined the Vice President at George Washington University for this announcement.

“Making Title IX as strong as possible is a no-brainer,” said Vice President Biden. “What we’re doing here today will better ensure equal opportunity in athletics, and allow women to realize their potential - so this nation can realize its potential.”

“There is no doubt that Title IX has dramatically increased athletic, academic, and employment opportunities for women and girls, and educational institutions have made big strides in providing equal opportunities in sports,” said Secretary Duncan. “Yet discrimination continues to exist in college athletic programs--and we should be vigilant in enforcing the law and protecting this important civil right.”
 
For more than three decades, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has provided three options to determine whether athletic programs at colleges, universities and secondary schools provide equal opportunities for athletic participation. Under one of these three options, OCR policy evaluated multiple indicators to determine the athletic interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex at educational institutions. The new ‘Dear Colleague’ letter clarifies that OCR does not consider survey results alone to be sufficient evidence of a lack of student interest or ability in sports.
 
Today’s event at George Washington University also provided sports activities for youth.

“Title IX has helped women to compete at all levels in athletics, which today’s event showcased,” said Valerie Jarrett. “By working through the agencies, the White House Council on Women and Girls will continue to support laws such as Title IX that provide opportunities for young girls to get ahead in life.”

Today’s ‘Dear Colleague’ letter also provides recommendations for effective procedures for collecting, maintaining, and evaluating information on students’ interests and abilities, including technical assistance on the nondiscriminatory design and implementation of surveys as one indicator among others of student interests and abilities.
 
For more information about Title IX, or to review the ‘Dear Colleague’ letter, please visit:
http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/publications.html#TitleIX-Docs