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Distinguished Toastmaster
BUSINESS & BRANDING COACH . LIFE & LEADERSHIP STRATEGIST MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER SERVING ENTREPRENEURS & MAIN STREET |
Message to the Senate
UN Convention on Transparency in Treaty-Based Investor-State Arbitration
UN Convention on Transparency in Treaty-Based Investor-State Arbitration
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release December 9, 2016
TO THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES:
With a view to receiving the advice and consent of the
Senate to ratification, subject to certain reservations, I
transmit herewith the United Nations Convention on Transparency
in Treaty-Based Investor-State Arbitration (Convention), done at
New York on December 10, 2014. The report of the Secretary of
State, which includes an overview of the Convention, is enclosed
for the information of the Senate.
The Convention requires the application of the modern
transparency measures contained in the United Nations Commission
on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Transparency Rules
to certain investor-state arbitrations occurring under
international investment agreements concluded before April 2014,
including under the investment chapters of U.S. free trade
agreements and U.S. bilateral investment treaties. These
transparency measures include publication of various key
documents from the arbitration proceeding, opening of hearings
to the public, and permitting non-disputing parties and other
interested third persons to make submissions to the tribunal.
As the UNCITRAL Transparency Rules by their terms automatically
apply to arbitrations commenced under international investment
agreements concluded on or after April 1, 2014, and that use
the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules (unless the parties to such
agreements agree otherwise), there is no need for the Convention
to apply to international investment agreements concluded after
that date.
Transparency in investor-state arbitration is vital,
given that governmental measures of interest to the broader
public can be the subject matter of the proceedings. The
United States has long been a leader in promoting transparency
in investor-state arbitration, and the 11 most recently
concluded U.S. international investment agreements that
contain investor-state arbitration already provide for modern
transparency measures similar to those made applicable by the
Convention. However, 41 older U.S. international investment
agreements lack all or some of the transparency measures.
Should the United States become a party, the Convention would
require the transparency measures to apply to arbitrations under
U.S. international investment agreements concluded before
April 2014, to the extent that other parties to those agreements
also join the Convention and to the extent the United States
and such other parties do not take reservations regarding
such arbitrations. The Convention would also require the
transparency measures to apply in investor-state arbitrations
under those agreements when the United States is the respondent
and the claimants consent to their application, even if the
claimants are not from a party to the Convention.
The United States was a central participant in the
negotiation of the Convention in the UNCITRAL. Ratification by
the United States can be expected to encourage other countries
to become parties to the Convention. The Convention would not
require any implementing legislation.
2
I recommend, therefore, that the Senate give early and
favorable consideration to the Convention and give its advice
and consent to ratification by the United States, subject to
certain reservations.
BARACK OBAMA
THE WHITE HOUSE,
December 9, 2016.
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release December 9, 2016
TO THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES:
With a view to receiving the advice and consent of the
Senate to ratification, subject to certain reservations, I
transmit herewith the United Nations Convention on Transparency
in Treaty-Based Investor-State Arbitration (Convention), done at
New York on December 10, 2014. The report of the Secretary of
State, which includes an overview of the Convention, is enclosed
for the information of the Senate.
The Convention requires the application of the modern
transparency measures contained in the United Nations Commission
on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Transparency Rules
to certain investor-state arbitrations occurring under
international investment agreements concluded before April 2014,
including under the investment chapters of U.S. free trade
agreements and U.S. bilateral investment treaties. These
transparency measures include publication of various key
documents from the arbitration proceeding, opening of hearings
to the public, and permitting non-disputing parties and other
interested third persons to make submissions to the tribunal.
As the UNCITRAL Transparency Rules by their terms automatically
apply to arbitrations commenced under international investment
agreements concluded on or after April 1, 2014, and that use
the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules (unless the parties to such
agreements agree otherwise), there is no need for the Convention
to apply to international investment agreements concluded after
that date.
Transparency in investor-state arbitration is vital,
given that governmental measures of interest to the broader
public can be the subject matter of the proceedings. The
United States has long been a leader in promoting transparency
in investor-state arbitration, and the 11 most recently
concluded U.S. international investment agreements that
contain investor-state arbitration already provide for modern
transparency measures similar to those made applicable by the
Convention. However, 41 older U.S. international investment
agreements lack all or some of the transparency measures.
Should the United States become a party, the Convention would
require the transparency measures to apply to arbitrations under
U.S. international investment agreements concluded before
April 2014, to the extent that other parties to those agreements
also join the Convention and to the extent the United States
and such other parties do not take reservations regarding
such arbitrations. The Convention would also require the
transparency measures to apply in investor-state arbitrations
under those agreements when the United States is the respondent
and the claimants consent to their application, even if the
claimants are not from a party to the Convention.
The United States was a central participant in the
negotiation of the Convention in the UNCITRAL. Ratification by
the United States can be expected to encourage other countries
to become parties to the Convention. The Convention would not
require any implementing legislation.
2
I recommend, therefore, that the Senate give early and
favorable consideration to the Convention and give its advice
and consent to ratification by the United States, subject to
certain reservations.
BARACK OBAMA
THE WHITE HOUSE,
December 9, 2016.
Ensuring America Leads the World Into the Next Frontier
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
EMBARGOED UNTIL 6:00AM EDT, SATURDAY, October 15, 2016
WEEKLY ADDRESS: Ensuring America Leads the World Into the Next Frontier
WASHINGTON, DC — In this week’s address, President Obama highlighted the White House Frontiers Conference, where many of America’s leading innovators came together to discuss how we can empower people through science, technology, and innovation to lead our communities, our country, and our world in the future. The President said the advances we’ve made as a nation demonstrate how investing in science and technology can help develop new jobs and industries, and new discoveries that improve lives – and that innovation is in our nation’s DNA. And that’s why the President made the largest single investment in basic research in history; modernized the government’s approach to innovation for the 21st Century; and spurred a clean energy revolution, among many other accomplishments in science and technology. That’s what the President’s leadership has been about – ensuring America is the nation that leads the world into the next frontier. Click here to learn more about the President’s accomplishments in science, technology, and innovation – and click here to learn more about the White House Frontiers Conference.
The audio of the address and video of the address will be available online at www.whitehouse.gov at 6:00AM EDT, October 15, 2016.
Remarks of President Barack Obama as Delivered
Weekly Address
The White House
October 15, 2016
Hi everybody. On Thursday, I traveled to Pittsburgh for the White House Frontiers Conference, where some of America's leading minds came together to talk about how we can empower our people through science to lead our communities, our country, and our world into tomorrow.
Plus, we had some fun. I had a chance to fly a space flight simulator where I docked a capsule on the International Space Station. I met a young man who'd been paralyzed for more than a decade - but thanks to breakthrough brain implants, today, he can not only move a prosthetic arm, but actually feel with the fingers.
It's awe-inspiring stuff. And it shows how investing in science and technology spurs our country towards new jobs and new industries; new discoveries that improve and save lives. That's always been our country's story, from a Founding Father with an idea to fly a kite in a thunderstorm, to the women who solved the equations to take us into space, to the engineers who brought us the internet. Innovation is in our DNA. And today, we need it more than ever to solve the challenges we face. Only through science can we cure diseases, and save the only planet we've got, and ensure that America keeps its competitive advantages as the world's most innovative economy.
That's why it's so backward when some folks choose to stick their heads in the sand about basic scientific facts. It's not just that they're saying that climate change a hoax or trotting out a snowball on the Senate floor. It's that they're also doing everything they can to gut funding for research and development, the kinds of investments that brought us breakthroughs like GPS, and MRIs, and put Siri on our smartphones.
That's not who we are. Remember, sixty years ago, when the Russians beat us into space, we didn't deny Sputnik was up there. We didn't haggle over the facts or shrink our R&D budget. No, we built a space program almost overnight and beat them to the moon. And then we kept going, becoming the first country to take an up-close look at every planet in the solar system, too. That's who we are.
And that's why, in my first inaugural address, I vowed to return science to its rightful place. It's why in our first few months, we made the largest single investment in basic research in our history. And it's why, over the last eight years, we've modernized the government's approach to innovation for the 21st Century. We've jumpstarted a clean energy revolution and unleashed the potential of precision medicine. We've partnered with the private sector and academia, and launched moonshots for cancer, brain research, and solar energy. We've harnessed big data to foster social innovation and invested in STEM education and computer science so that every young person - no matter where they come from or what they look like - can reach their potential and help us win the future.
That's what this is about - making sure that America is the nation that leads the world into the next frontier. And that's why I've been so committed to science and innovation - because I'll always believe that with the right investments, and the brilliance and ingenuity of the American people, there's nothing we cannot do.
Thanks everybody. Have a great weekend.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
EMBARGOED UNTIL 6:00AM EDT, SATURDAY, October 15, 2016
WEEKLY ADDRESS: Ensuring America Leads the World Into the Next Frontier
WASHINGTON, DC — In this week’s address, President Obama highlighted the White House Frontiers Conference, where many of America’s leading innovators came together to discuss how we can empower people through science, technology, and innovation to lead our communities, our country, and our world in the future. The President said the advances we’ve made as a nation demonstrate how investing in science and technology can help develop new jobs and industries, and new discoveries that improve lives – and that innovation is in our nation’s DNA. And that’s why the President made the largest single investment in basic research in history; modernized the government’s approach to innovation for the 21st Century; and spurred a clean energy revolution, among many other accomplishments in science and technology. That’s what the President’s leadership has been about – ensuring America is the nation that leads the world into the next frontier. Click here to learn more about the President’s accomplishments in science, technology, and innovation – and click here to learn more about the White House Frontiers Conference.
The audio of the address and video of the address will be available online at www.whitehouse.gov at 6:00AM EDT, October 15, 2016.
Remarks of President Barack Obama as Delivered
Weekly Address
The White House
October 15, 2016
Hi everybody. On Thursday, I traveled to Pittsburgh for the White House Frontiers Conference, where some of America's leading minds came together to talk about how we can empower our people through science to lead our communities, our country, and our world into tomorrow.
Plus, we had some fun. I had a chance to fly a space flight simulator where I docked a capsule on the International Space Station. I met a young man who'd been paralyzed for more than a decade - but thanks to breakthrough brain implants, today, he can not only move a prosthetic arm, but actually feel with the fingers.
It's awe-inspiring stuff. And it shows how investing in science and technology spurs our country towards new jobs and new industries; new discoveries that improve and save lives. That's always been our country's story, from a Founding Father with an idea to fly a kite in a thunderstorm, to the women who solved the equations to take us into space, to the engineers who brought us the internet. Innovation is in our DNA. And today, we need it more than ever to solve the challenges we face. Only through science can we cure diseases, and save the only planet we've got, and ensure that America keeps its competitive advantages as the world's most innovative economy.
That's why it's so backward when some folks choose to stick their heads in the sand about basic scientific facts. It's not just that they're saying that climate change a hoax or trotting out a snowball on the Senate floor. It's that they're also doing everything they can to gut funding for research and development, the kinds of investments that brought us breakthroughs like GPS, and MRIs, and put Siri on our smartphones.
That's not who we are. Remember, sixty years ago, when the Russians beat us into space, we didn't deny Sputnik was up there. We didn't haggle over the facts or shrink our R&D budget. No, we built a space program almost overnight and beat them to the moon. And then we kept going, becoming the first country to take an up-close look at every planet in the solar system, too. That's who we are.
And that's why, in my first inaugural address, I vowed to return science to its rightful place. It's why in our first few months, we made the largest single investment in basic research in our history. And it's why, over the last eight years, we've modernized the government's approach to innovation for the 21st Century. We've jumpstarted a clean energy revolution and unleashed the potential of precision medicine. We've partnered with the private sector and academia, and launched moonshots for cancer, brain research, and solar energy. We've harnessed big data to foster social innovation and invested in STEM education and computer science so that every young person - no matter where they come from or what they look like - can reach their potential and help us win the future.
That's what this is about - making sure that America is the nation that leads the world into the next frontier. And that's why I've been so committed to science and innovation - because I'll always believe that with the right investments, and the brilliance and ingenuity of the American people, there's nothing we cannot do.
Thanks everybody. Have a great weekend.
Remarks by the President in Opening Remarks and Panel Discussion at White House Frontiers Conference
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release October 13, 2016
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
IN OPENING REMARKS AND PANEL DISCUSSION
AT WHITE HOUSE FRONTIERS CONFERENCE
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
3:21 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, everybody. Thank you. (Applause.) Well, thank you, Alexis, for that introduction. I love that story -- she bumped into me on the elevator. What she didn’t mention, by the way, is that she started on her pre-med degree when she was 16, bumping into me on the elevator. She was already well on her way. So, to the rest of you -- good luck. (Laughter.) Hope you already have tenure -- because Alexis is coming. (Laughter.)
I’m only going to speak briefly today because we have an amazing panel and I want to learn from the people who are in attendance here today. But I want to start by recognizing Mayor Peduto of Pittsburgh, who has been an extraordinary innovator and city leader. And give -- yes. (Applause.) Congressman Doyle, who fully supports our innovation agenda -- and we need strong allies in Congress -- so give Mike Doyle a big round of applause, please. (Applause.)
We also have people from across our agencies -- Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx -- (applause) -- NIH Director Francis Collins -- (applause) -- National Science Foundation Director France Cordova. (Applause.) And I want to thank two extraordinary leaders who once served in my administration and did extraordinary work -- Presidents Suresh of Carnegie Mellon -- (applause) -- and Chancellor Gallagher of Pitt. (Applause.) Part of sort of the Obama alumni mafia here. (Laughter.) As well as all the faculty and students and staff here at CMU and Pitt for allowing us to turn your campuses into a science fiction movie for the day. (Laughter.)
Earlier today, I got a chance to see some pretty cool stuff. A space capsule designed by the private sector to carry humans out of our atmosphere. Small, unmanned quadcopters that can search disaster areas and survey hard-to-reach places on bridges that might need repairs. I also successfully docked a capsule on the International Space Station. It was a simulation, but trust me -- I stuck the landing. (Laughter.)
But here’s the thing about Pittsburgh -- this kind of stuff is really nothing new. Most folks have probably heard about how this city is testing out a fleet of self-driving cars. But Pittsburgh has been revitalizing itself through technology for a very long time. There is a reason that U.S. Steel Tower is now also the corporate home of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center -- because the Steel City is now home to groundbreaking medical research and world-class universities. It’s the birthplace of some of the most advanced artificial intelligence and robotics systems the world has ever seen. And you are investing in your young people with after-school STEM programs, and maker faires, and “Girls of Steel” robotics teams. (Applause.) That’s how this city came back after an iconic industry fell on tougher times -- doubling down on science, doubling down on tech, doubling down on innovation -- all of which can create amazing new jobs and opportunities.
And stories like that are not just happening here in Pittsburgh, or in Silicon Valley. They’re happening in Chattanooga and in Charleston and in Cincinnati -- cities where we’re seeing science and technology spur new jobs and new industries; new discoveries that are improving our lives and, in many cases, saving lives.
And that's consistent with this nation, who we are -- a nation born from an idea that became the world’s laboratory. There aren't a lot of countries where one of your Founding Fathers has an idea to fly a kite in a thunderstorm and helps to fundamentally change how we think about electricity. A place where the women who solved the equations to take us into space, even though they weren’t always acknowledged. A nation whose engineers brought us the Internet. Innovation is in our DNA. Science has always been central to our progress, and it's playing a leading role in overcoming so many of our greatest challenges.
That's as true today as it's ever been. Only with science can we make a shift to cleaner sources of energy and take steps to save the only planet we have. Only with science do we have the chance to cure cancer, or Parkinson’s, or other diseases that steal our loved ones from us way too soon. Only through science will we have the capacity to reengineer our cities as populations grow, to be smarter and more productive, to lead humanity farther out into the final frontiers of space -- not just to visit, but to stay -- and ensure that America keeps its competitive advantage as the world’s most innovative economy.
And I was doing some pictures before I came out here with some folks, and they said, thank you so much for what you've done for science. And I confessed, I am a science geek. I'm a nerd. (Laughter and applause.) And I don’t make any apologies for it. I don’t make any apologies for it. It's cool stuff. And it is that thing that sets us apart; that ability to imagine and hypothesize, and then test and figure stuff out, and tinker and make things and make them better, and then break them down and rework them.
And that’s why I get so riled up when I hear people willfully ignore facts -- (laughter) -- or stick their heads in the sand about basic scientific consensus. It's not just that that position leads to that policy; it's also that it undermines the very thing that has always made America the engine for innovation around the world. It’s not just that they’re saying climate change is a hoax, or taking a snowball on the Senate floor to prove that the planet is not getting warmer. It’s that they’re doing everything they can to gut funding for research and development, failing to make the kinds of investments that brought us breakthroughs like GPS and MRIs and put Siri on our smartphones, and stonewalling even military plans that don’t adhere to ideology.
That’s not who we are. We don’t listen to science just when it fits our ideologies, or when it produces the results that we want. That's the path to ruin. Sixty years ago, when the Russians beat us into space, we didn’t deny that Sputnik was up there. (Laughter.) That wouldn’t have worked. (Applause.) No. We acknowledged the facts, and then we built a space program almost overnight, and then beat them to the moon. And then we kept on going, becoming the first country to take an up-close look at every planet in the solar system. That's who we are. That's where facts will get you. That's where science will get you.
And that’s why, in my first inaugural address, I vowed to return science to its rightful place. And, by the way, I want to make clear, this idea that facts and reason and science are somehow inimical to faith and feelings and human values and passion -- I reject that. For us to use our brains doesn’t mean that we lose our heart. It means that we can harness what's in our heart to actually get things done.
And that's why in the first few months of my administration, we made the single largest investment in basic research in our history -- because innovation is not a luxury that we do away with when we’re tightening our belts. It's precisely at those moments, when we've got real challenges, when we double down on new solutions that can lead to new jobs and new industries and a stronger economy.
So over these last eight years, we’ve worked to recruit the best and brightest tech talent into the administration. We've partnered with academia and the private sector. We've empowered citizen scientists to take on some of our biggest challenges. We’ve reimagined our federal approach to science through incentive prizes and 21st century moonshots for cancer, and brain research, and solar energy. We’ve turbo-charged the clean energy revolution. We built the architecture to unleash the potential of precision medicine, dropped enough new broadband infrastructure to circle the globe four times; applied data and evidence to social policy to find out what works -- scale up when it works, stop funding things that don't, thereby fostering a new era of social innovation.
We’ve helped once-dark factories start humming again, putting folks to work manufacturing wind turbine blades longer than the wingspan of a 747. And we realized that we can’t look to the future if we’re also not going to lift up the generation that’s going to occupy that future. So we started the White House Science Fair to teach our kids to send a message that the winner of the Super Bowl isn’t the only one that deserves a celebration in the East Room. (Applause.) We hooked up more of our classrooms and communities to the high-speed Internet that will help our kids compete. We’re pushing to bring computer science to every student. We’re on track to prepare 100,000 STEM teachers in a decade.
And as a running thread throughout this, we are working to help all of our children understand that they, too, have a place in science and tech -- not just boys in hoodies, but girls on Native American reservations, kids whose parents can’t afford personal tutors. We want Jamal and Maria sitting right next to Jimmy and Johnny -- because we don't want them overlooked for a job of the future.
America is about Thomas Edison and the Wright Brothers -- but we’re also the place you can grow up to be a Grace Hopper, or George Washington Carver, or a Katherine Johnson, or an Ida B. Wells. We’re the nation that just had six of our scientists and researchers win Nobel Prizes -- and every one of them was an immigrant. (Applause.)
So part of science, part of reason, part of facts is recognizing that to get to where we need to go we need to lift everybody up, because we're going to be a better team if we got the whole team. We don't want somebody with a brilliant idea not in the room because they're a woman. We don't want some budding genius unavailable to cure cancer or come up with a new energy source because they were languishing in a sub-standard school as a child.
So that’s what I’ve been focused on. Alexis has done some things. I’ve done some things, too. (Laughter.) But, look, I only get two terms -- which is fine -- (laughter) -- because the presidency is a relay race. We run our leg, then we hand off the baton. And that’s why this conference isn’t just about where we’ve been, it’s about where we’re going. We’re looking to tomorrow. We're trying to institutionalize the work that we've been doing over these last eight years. But we also want to make sure that these partnerships continue to thrive well beyond my administration. The future is yours to create. It’s all of ours.
And we’ve got a tremendous group here from all across America -- from the sciences, from industry, from academia. All of you in your own fields are transformative. You're transforming the way we treat diseases, and building smarter and more efficient, and more inclusive communities. You’re unlocking the data that make our criminal justice system smarter and fairer. You’re harnessing the power of artificial intelligence
-- big data robotics, automation -– for the good of all of us. You’re breaking new ground on clean energy and giving us our best hope of staving off the worst consequences of climate change. And you’re taking us on that final frontier, firing up the boosters for humanity’s journey to Mars.
So, today, I am proud to build on your work. We've announced federal and private commitments totaling more than $300 million to throw into the pot -- investing in smarter cities; expanding our Precision Medicine Initiative; spurring the development in small satellite technology. We’re supporting researchers working to better understand our brains -– how we think and learn and remember.
And, in fact, it’s in that area where I’d like to close -- brain research. Before I came onstage, about half an hour ago, I had the chance to meet an extraordinary young man named Nathan Copeland. And back in 2004, Nathan was a freshman in college, studying advanced sciences, interested in nanotechnology. And he was in a car accident that left him paralyzed. For years, Nathan could not move his arms, couldn’t move his legs -- needed help with day-to-day tasks.
But one day, he was contacted by a research team at Pitt, and they asked if he wanted to be involved in an experimental trial supported by DARPA, the same agency that gave us the Internet, and night-vision goggles, and so much more. And since he was a scientist himself, Nathan readily agreed. So they implanted four microelectrode arrays into his brain, each about the size of half a button. And those implants connect neurons in his brain with a robotic arm, so that today, he can move that arm the same way you and I do -- just by thinking about it. But that’s just the beginning. Nathan is also the first person in human history who can feel with his prosthetic fingers.
Think about this. He hasn’t been able to use his arms or legs for over a decade, but now he can once again feel the touch of another person. So we shook hands. He had a strong grip, but he had kind of toned it down. (Laughter.) And then we gave each other a fist bump.
And researchers will tell you there’s a long way to go -- he still can’t feel with his thumb or experience hot and cold, but he can feel pressure with precision. That’s what science does. That’s what American innovation can do. And imagine the breakthroughs that are around the corner. Imagine what’s possible for Nathan if we keep on pushing the boundaries. And that’s what this Frontiers Conference is all about, pushing the bounds of what is possible.
And that’s why I’ve been so committed to science and innovation -- not just so that we can restore someone’s sense of touch, but so we can revitalize communities; revitalize economies; reignite our shared sense of possibility and optimism. Because here in America, with the right investments, with the unbelievable brilliance and ingenuity of young people like Alexis and Nathan, there is nothing we cannot do. So let’s keep it going. Let’s get to work.
With that, I think it’s time to start our panel. Thank you, everybody. Thank you.
* * * * *
DR. GAWANDE: If I were to tie together -- you know, it sounds incredibly disparate -- but the story that is coming out from everything you're saying -- I'm going to take what you said, Riccardo, about the last century, one step farther. The last century was the century of the molecule. We were trying to -- the power of reductionism -- boil it down to the most small possible part -- the atom, the gene, the neuron. Give me the drug, the device, the super-specialist. And that provided enormous good.
But in this century, what they're all describing is now we're trying to figure out how do they all fit together. How do the neurons fit together to create the kinds of behaviors that you're to solve in mental illness. How do they fit -- the genes network can fit together in epigenetics to account for the health and disease of the future that we all may face. And Zoe is describing a super-highway of information and science that is plugging into the patient through a bike path called the doctor's office.
And trying to make a system that can actually bring it all together really is a completely different kind of science from the last century. It's surrounding these problems. People come from incredibly different perspectives now. You're all of them in one. We normally might bring a psychiatrist and an engineer and a neuroscientist together. But it really isn’t the age of the hero scientist anymore.
And so I want to ask you: What do we have to reinvent about the way we do science to make all of this possible, genuinely, scientifically, with real innovation?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, I want to thank the panelists, especially Zoe, because of the story you're telling. Although, Kaf, it sounds like you were also inspired in part because of very personal experiences. At the end of the day, they're people who want to enhance their lives. And so being able to bring it down from 40,000 feet down to what you’re experiencing while you’re waiting on the phone to help somebody you love so deeply I think is a good reminder of why we do this.
As you say, Atul, what we’ve been calling this Precision Medicine Initiative is really how we stitch together systems that can maximize the potential of the research that a Kaf or a Riccardo are doing, and end up with Zoe’s husband getting better treatment. And a couple of things that we’ve tried to do that I think are helping.
Number one is to make sure that the data that is being generated by genomic sequencing, as its price comes down, is better integrated and better shared, which is going to require us rethinking research models.
In the past, what’s happened is, is that if a researcher wants to look into cancer, they get some samples from an arrangement, maybe, with a teaching university close by, and their plugging away, somewhat in isolation. And what we now have is the opportunity to -- as we discover, particularly, that what we used to think of as cancer might turn out to be 20 different types of cancer -- we’re now in a position where we can actually generate a huge database, and as a consequence, not only identify some of the specific features of that cancer, not only identify what kinds of genetic variants might make you more predisposed to that cancer, but we’re also breaking down those silos in such a way where we can accelerate research. Not everybody has to have one small sample. Now, potentially, we’ve got a million people who are contributing to a database that somebody like a Kaf or a Riccardo can work on.
And what that allows us to do in developing cures is, over time, as Riccardo said, to identify, first of all, do you have a predisposition towards a particular disease, and can we intervene more quickly before you develop it. Second, can we develop better cures, interventions, as Kaf said. But third, are we also in a position to get this information to patients sooner to empower them so that they can be in charge of their own health. Because part of our goal here is to shift from what is really a disease-care system to actual health care system.
So that’s one big chunk of the initiative. And just to be more specific, part of what we’re doing with the Precision Medicine Initiative is to get a bunch of collaborators to start digitalizing, pooling, and sharing their data. Within the VA, we’ve got half a million folks who have signed up and are contributing their genetic samples.
We now have more and more institutions that are coming together. And as a consequence, our hope is, is that if you are a cancer researcher in any particular cancer, you’re going to have a big data set that you can start working off of. And, by the way, we’re being very intentional about making sure that we’re reaching out to communities that sometimes are forgotten -- whether it’s African American communities, women -- so that we can really pinpoint what works for who.
Just one last thing I want to say, though, because it goes to what Zoe said about systems. Even as we’re doing all this cool stuff to come up with greater cures, what we’re also having to do is try to figure out what are the incentives -- the perverse incentives that are set up in the health care system that prevent it from reaching a patient earlier. So I’ll just give two quick examples.
The first is what you were talking about in terms of your individual patient data. We’re trying to promote the notion, number one, that this data belongs to you, the patient, as opposed to the institution that is treating you -- because once you understand that it's yours and you have agency in this process, it means that as you're looking for different treatment options, as you're consulting with different doctors, you're able to be a more effective advocate without having to constantly fill our paperwork and so forth. So that's important.
And one of the things that we've discovered is, is that even the software where your individual patient is stored -- because it's a commercial enterprise oftentimes -- it's not interoperable, it's not sharable in easy form. And so we've actually been trying to get some of the major providers to start working together so that it makes it easier for somebody like Zoe, if she's moving from system to system to system.
The second this is -- and, Atul, you've written about this
-- to the extent that we are reimbursing doctors and hospitals and other providers based on outcomes rather than discrete services that are being provided, we can start incentivizing the kind of holistic system thinking in health care -- rather than you come in, you get a test, then you got to go to another place to do this, and then you got to go to another thing to do that, and then maybe the surgeon hasn’t spoken to the primary care physician and you don’t have the outpatient coordination that would make sure that you're not coming back into the hospital.
And one of the things that we've been trying to do with the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, that hasn’t gotten as much attention as just providing people insurance is to make sure that we're pushing, we're nudging the system more and more to do that.
So, that was a long answer, but it's a big topic. The good news is, is that I think we've identified the pathways where we can start making real progress.
DR. GAWANDE: I want to live in your world. I want to live in the world where --
THE PRESIDENT: I'm only going to be here for four more months. (Laughter.) Three and a half.
DR. GAWANDE: -- in a world where I get to own -- I have my genomic information, I have my medical records, I have --everything about me belongs to me, and it's easy to access, and I can bring it to the doctors that I need to get it to.
The second level -- you know, you announced an initiative today, the All of Us Research Initiative, where you would be able to, A, get that data and then share it with researchers so that they can learn more from you -- trusting that that data is safe. I worked in the Clinton administration, and I got notified that my background records, my clearance records were hacked, right? If you can hack all of my background records now, suppose you can hack my genetic information, all of my electronic records, my mental health information and more. And being able to trust -- so we're in this world where having system science only works if it's transparent and information is widely available. And yet, we're in deep fear about what happens with information and making it widely available.
I'd love to hear what you have to think about that. And I'm going to jump to Riccardo and think in the variety of the world that you've been in, how do we trust that this research is in the right hands?
THE PRESIDENT: I'll be very quick on this. This is going to be an ongoing problem that we have across disciplines. It's not just in health care. As Riccardo said, our lives become digitalized. It means that how we provide security for that information -- whether it's financial, health, you name it -- is going to be challenging.
Now, the good news is that we are making real progress in understanding the architecture that we have to build across sectors, private and public, in order to make this work. In fact, our outstanding president of Pitt has been working with our cybersecurity committee to really crack some of these problems. And we've put some guidelines for the private sector and providers to assure best practices on cybersecurity. But it is going to be something that will be increasingly challenging.
Here's the only thing I would say, though. The opportunities to hack your information will be just as great or greater in a poorly integrated, broken-down health care system as it will be in a highly integrated, effective health care system. (Applause.) So I think it’s important for us not to overstate the dangers of -- the very real dangers of cybersecurity and ensuring the privacy of our health records. We don’t want to so overstate it that that ends up becoming a significant impediment to us making the system work better.
DR. GAWANDE: Are there technological solutions, Riccardo, to this problem of privacy?
MR. SABATINI: So we started to -- one of the questions we started about a year ago is exactly can we identify someone from his own genome. So we started to build a class of algorithm to predict and extract information from your genes -- some common traits -- your height, your eye color, your skin color, the structure of your face. Every single model has its own limitations, sometimes for the lack of data, sometimes because the data is not only in your genes.
But what we learned is that using them collectively, we can go a long way to really identify a person from his genome. So this is something that we have to face, is a digital asset is one of the most complicated ways to be handled. We want to publish it, we want to share it, but it’s still something -- there is some concern about identity and security.
We worked across the board to find different solutions, let’s say, the old system will have to work to find what is the right way. We are proposing -- and we started to work on a platform called OpenSearch. It is a way where we decided to share the thousands of genomes in a very secure way with the community a month ago. We launched it, it’s called OpenSearch -- Search.hli. -- you get inside there, and you can have this Google feeling of shuffling thousands and thousands of genomes, million of records, and hundreds of databases in a very secure way.
Now, this is one of the efforts to try to match security and open access and sharing of information. The one thing I guess we still have to learn is both how every single person feels about tracking or not. So we always talk about sharing our own information, but do we own our own information? How many of you have your genomes sequences? How many of us have sequenced their genome? Can you raise your hands, for example? How many of you have your genomes sequenced? So a very fraction -- typically it’s 2, 3 percent of the audiences when I speak.
So we need to remove a fear, and allow people to engage more in their own health and in their own data. There are technologies to keep them safe and to keep them secure. The one thing that is very important is overcoming this barrier of knowing yourself, which I think is the most -- is the hardest hurdle to scale up the databases.
Security -- there are the best people working on it across the board, both in the scientific domain and governmental domain. But this should not be a limitation to access your own information and feel comfortable to own your own information and feel comfortable to share it with a governmental infrastructure, and with companies that implement the security right.
DR. GAWANDE: At the center of this I think is a question about optimism and pessimism about whether we can solve these problems. And I think I would like to ask a question of all of you about our values, the scientific values of a scientific orientation. And behind that orientation is a fundamental belief -- we have an allegiance to the idea that the way you discover -- the way you explain nature, the way you describe the world, the way you intervene in the world is through factual observation and through testing. And there’s a certain sense of -- it’s an orientation, it’s a way of being that we’re describing. It’s an openness, it’s an inquisitiveness, it’s curiosity. It’s a willingness to acknowledge good arguments and recognize ones that are bad and that haven’t tested out.
And that orientation feels like, at times -- on the one hand, it’s been the most powerful, collective enterprise in human history, the scientific community. And at other times it feels embattled. And I wonder, why does it seem under fire when we’re -- you mentioned, President Obama, that in certain areas like climate change, or around nutrition, or around other parts of medical care, we have enormously fraught debates. And it feels at this moment almost like we’re not just debating what it means to be a scientist, but what it means to be a citizen.
What do you take away, Kaf and Zoe, about where we are, and why are we under fire, and how do we get past this?
DR. DZIRASA: I think, in a lot of ways, science, the outcome changes perspective, right. So when science is useful, we don’t have people arguing about whether polio vaccines are great or not, right. And so I think there are a lot of areas in medicine where we face this challenge. I actually think debate is very healthy for science. I think contentious debate can actually be very helpful for science, in the same way our country was set up in way that healthy, constructive debate can be extremely useful.
I think what we want to do, especially as neuroscientists, I think we’re at a place where we need to draw as many people in as possible and have healthy, constructive debates about how we get the outcomes we want.
I’ll give you an example. I talked to two scientists recently. One was last weekend -- Steve McCarrol (ph) at Harvard -- and he’d recently come up with a technique where he could sequence the genes of every cell in the brain. And so when you think about the challenge of something like genetics, you’ve got three billion base pairs in the human genome. In the brain, we’ve got about a 150 billion cells, half of those which carry electricity, and the electricity is changing every millisecond. So the problem is enormously scaled. The Brain Initiative allows us to come up with these tools where now, if you can understand what each individual cell type is, you can now start to have these debates about how to understand what they mean.
I’ll give you another example. I sat with another investigator, Lauren Frank (ph), and he’s now using the Brain Initiative to record many, many channels in the brain, simultaneously, from an animal, where he’s studying how memory works. This, of course, could one day be useful for something like Alzheimer’s. And he says now, that he’s able -- within 24 hours, he’s pulling in about 20 terra-bytes of data. So I’m not that old, I remember when I was in high school, my hard drive had 100 megabytes of data.
So we’re at a place now where we’re going to have to bring in other disciplines to know how to handle that data. I sat with a high school kid last night, Gabe, and it was pretty clear to me that the people who were going to solve this challenge of the brain are probably in like seventh or eighth grade right now. And so how do we create an ecosystem where all those different perspectives can come in. The utility is, when all those different perspectives come in, there has to be contentious debate. But I think the solutions that will come out of it are what will move people’s perspective on the usefulness of science.
DR. GAWANDE: Zoe, what do you think about the constructive debate you hear, how we get to the more constructive debate, and enough optimism that we want to actually put funding into the kind of work that Kaf is talking about.
DR. KEATING: Well, I think just making it broader. I was really inspired this morning by a lot of the speakers on the health track, and one of them was Steven Keating -- who’s not related to me at all -- and I was really struck how -- he was a PhD student and he was doing 3D printing. And he wanted to study his brain tumor, because he had a brain tumor. But in order to study his tumor, he had to become a medical student in order to get some of the tumor so he could study it.
And that seemed really -- like, wow, that’s limiting. Think of all these amazing people we have in our country who are doing things, and increasingly people are doing things outside of institutions. And I feel like that’s where solutions are going to come from. I think that we should also look at Silicon Valley. I was thinking about patients and how the whole patient issue I was having is kind of like a user-experience problem that somebody might tackle at a software start-up, and maybe we should approach these things from different perspectives that way.
And I think that’s part of this trust -- you were talking about trust in data -- that somehow expanding, bringing in voices, figuring out how people can contribute data, how we can all just be more involved will be a way towards making trust. The same thing is true with government.
THE PRESIDENT: No, absolutely. I’ll just pick up on a couple of themes. Any scientific revolution is, by definition, contesting the status quo. And we’re going through a period in which our knowledge is expanding very quickly. It is going to have a wide range of ramifications and you’ve got a whole bunch of legacy systems that are going to be affected. So if self-driving cars are pervasive, a huge percentage of the American population makes its living, and oftentimes a pretty good living, driving. And so, understandably, people are going to be concerned about what does this mean. We’ve heard of the controversies around Uber versus those who have taxi medallions, but it’s actually driverless Uber that is going to be even more challenging.
The same is true in the health care field. One of the things that you discover is this Rube Goldberg contraption that grew up over the last 50 years or 60 years, in terms of our health care system, is there’s all kinds of economics that are embedded in every aspect of it. So it’s not surprising, then, that when we passed the Affordable Care Act, that there are going to be people who push back not just because they really want to make it work and they’ve got some legitimate, factual critiques of it, but because people’s pocketbooks may be threatened.
And, Zoe, you just used one example, which was the enormous controversy we had when we said that we should phase out certain types of insurance that, on their face, look really cheap, until you have a tumor and it turns out that they don’t cover you. And that very low-cost insurance, sort of the equivalent of the bare-bones insurance you have to get for driving but when you get in an accident it turns out doesn’t do anything to fix your car -- but obviously much more is at stake here.
We still have debates today where people will say, you know, people aren’t having the choices that they used to have. Well, the choices, in some cases, that they used to have were choices to get insurance that weren’t going to cover them during a catastrophe.
So I think that the way I would like to see us operate -- and we’re not there at the moment, and it will never be perfect
-- is, yes, significant debate, contentious debate, but where we are still operating on the same basic platform, basic rules about how do we determine what’s true and what’s not. And one of the ironies I think of the Internet has been the degree to which it’s bringing us unprecedented knowledge, but everything on the Internet looks like it might be true. And so in this political season, we’ve seen just -- you just say stuff. (Laughter.) And so everything suddenly becomes contested. That I do not think is good for our democracy, and it’s certainly not good for science or progress or government or fixing systems. We’ve got to be able to agree on certain baseline facts. (Applause.)
If you want to argue with me about how to deal with climate change, that’s a legitimate argument. Some people might argue it’s unrealistic to think that we’re going to be able to fix this so we should just start adapting to the oceans being six feet higher. You might want to suggest to me that it’s got to be a market-based solution, and it’s all going to come through innovation; regulation is not going to help; we need a huge -- I’m happy to have those arguments. But what you can’t do is argue with me that we’ve had over the last 10, 15 years, each year is the hottest year ever, or that the glaciers are melting and Greenland is melting. You can’t argue with me about that because I can see it, and we’re recording it.
And in the same way around health, I think any good scientist or doctor would not presume to suggest that the sum total of our knowledge is all contained in our current medical schools, and there may be holistic medicines or alternative medicines that are remarkable, but we also should be able to test them. And you can’t just assert that this works and more conventional therapies don’t work and not be subject to that kind of testing regimen.
So that’s where I think we have to move our conversation generally if we’re going to have the kind of debate that Kaf talked about.
MR. GAWANDE: So how do we move our conversation in that way, right? There was a time when scientists were arguing about climate change, and reasonably so.
THE PRESIDENT: Right.
MR. GAWANDE: So how do we set up frameworks where we say, this is our time period where we’re going to collect facts, and at the end of the day we will accept the consensus of fact? How do we do that in our current political enterprise?
THE PRESIDENT: If I had the perfect answer to that, then I’d run for President. (Laughter.) Look, this takes us a little bit far afield, but I do think that it’s relevant to the scientific community, it’s relevant to our democracy, citizenship. We’re going to have to rebuild, within this Wild, Wild West of information flow, some sort of curating function that people agree to.
I use the analogy in politics -- it used to be there were three television stations and Walter Cronkite is on there and not everybody agreed, and there were always outliers who thought that it was all propaganda, and we didn’t really land on the Moon, and Elvis is still alive, and so forth. (Laughter.) But, generally, that was in the papers that you bought at the supermarket right as you were checking out. And generally, people trusted a basic body of information.
It wasn’t always as democratic as it should have been. And Zoe is exactly right that -- for example, on something like climate change, we’ve actually been doing some interesting initiatives where we’re essentially deputizing citizens with hand-held technologies to start recording information that then gets pooled -- they’re becoming scientists without getting the PhD. And we can do that in a lot of other fields as well.
But there has to be, I think, some sort of way in which we can sort through information that passes some basic truthiness tests and those that we have to discard because they just don’t have any basis in anything that’s actually happening in the world.
And that’s hard to do, but I think it’s going to be necessary, it’s going to be possible. I think the answer is obviously not censorship, but it’s creating places where people can say, this is reliable and I’m still able to argue about -- safely -- about facts and what we should do about it while still -- not just making stuff up.
DR. GAWANDE: Focusing on the idea of places where the scientific orientation can be -- the ethos can be protected is really important. Science is always probable knowledge. It's never nailed down. But we're at CMU, we're at University of Pittsburgh, because they are places that hold those values of scientific orientation. There are places that live like that online, in patient communities. There are places that professional societies are making happen.
It's crucial, though, that it also happen in government and it also happen in the private sector. And I guess my final question would be, for any and all of us, what’s the most important thing we can make sure that we do to keep that scientific orientation, that optimism, and that striving for the big opportunity going? That we can keep these values as part of the places where we are, whether they’re in the virtual world or in our institutions. And maybe, I’ll let you have the last word, so I’ll start on that end, if that’s okay, Zoe.
DR. KEATING: Well, I really feel like it’s just this huge opportunity and this way for -- if people feel like they can contribute, that then they will trust things. They will trust institutions, they will trust government if they feel that they have a voice. And it’s our job to figure out how can we make this thing the President was talking about -- how can we make the system that allows people to contribute, but it’s somehow vetted so that all that knowledge can be shared, because we need all hands on deck.
DR. GAWANDE: And a chance for people to participate in the science itself.
DR. KEATING: Yes, a chance for people to participate. And that’s beyond health care, that’s across the board. And I feel like that’s a huge challenge for our time. Right now, just how can we do that so that we can really -- because we need everybody’s help in everything that's coming for us.
DR. GAWANDE: Riccardo.
DR. SABATINI: The one thing that -- the fight is a little bit unfair because magic has all the answers -- things that you find around. There’s always strong answers. There is the cure of cancer, but it’s closed in a closet somewhere. Science cannot state those strong answers, because it’s a constantly evolving field, and it wouldn’t be a fair.
But we have a cool story that sometimes we don’t say enough. When we describe how the brain works, when we describe the majesty of what it means watching inside your genes and how the proteins flow, and the molecules, and when I explain these stories and I make them human, and I explain cases -- stories of patients and people that access their health and they really got incredible advancements on that. When we nail the story right, then we engage the young people, the vast majority of the population.
We tend to fight these bogus messages. But on one side it means we are failing. We are failing to tell the amazing advancements that we are doing in the right stories, beating fake stories with great realities. And this is a challenge that we have to do. And I’m engaging as much as possible, explaining the excitement that there is in the time in history when we have access to things that we were never even dreaming 15 years ago.
This is the story that we have to tell outside these doors. You are some of the smartest people in this country. You have to be advocates of how amazing things we’re doing, without giving strong solutions and fake results, but telling that there are the best people chasing this dream and we’re going to crack it. It is our duty, making people feel confident that this is the right story to follow.
DR. DZIRASA: I’m honored that you chose to sit on this panel, because I think health is the real truth-teller and the real equalizer. When you think about this country by 2050, we’ll be spending about a trillion dollars a year on Alzheimer’s. If, Lord willing, we get over 85, half of us will have Alzheimer’s. One out of every 48 boys in this country are born with autism now. And so it’s the real truth-teller. It is the real common enemy that all of us, as Americans, as scientists, as educators have.
The reason I’m optimistic is because I fundamentally believe there is a seven-year-old sitting in a classroom somewhere that will take all of these investments and all of this work that we’ve made and transform things for my family. The challenge for me is that I would love to see an America in which, whether that seven-year-old is sitting in a school in Detroit or Baltimore or Gentry High School in the Mississippi Delta, that they will also have the opportunity for their ideas to bubble up and be nurtured. Because, at the end of the day, the solution to that common enemy that we all face might be sitting in that classroom right now. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I’m going to steal some ideas from what my other panelists have already said.
First of all, Zoe’s point about opening up systems so that people understand them and don’t just feel like cogs in that system, but rather, have agency in that system I think is critically important.
So what we’ve been trying to do across the board -- and we’re not even close to being there yet -- is to use technology as a way to do exactly what you are talking about. Whether it’s releasing big data -- and the easiest example, I think, for the general public to think about is all the apps that now give us the weather over our phones, and those are all generated from inside government, but what used to be closed data now we let out there. Well, it turns out that we’ve got huge data sets on all kinds of stuff. And the more we’re opening that up and allowing businesses, individuals, to work with that information I think the more they feel empowered. And that makes a huge difference.
The second thing that I want to emphasize is the most important curator to be able to sort through what’s true and false and sustain those scientific values you talk about is the human brain, and making sure that our kids are getting that ability to analyze and do that sorting early. And so part of the reason why we’ve been emphasizing STEM education is not because we don’t value the humanities -- and I was a political science and English major, and I probably learned more reading novels than textbooks -- but what it does do is, it helps everyone as citizens, even if you don’t become a doctor or a scientist or a physicist, it helps you evaluate information in a way that allows you to make good decisions in your own life but also allows you to participate in the country as a whole.
And so we want everybody -- we’re putting a special emphasis on girls, young people of color, who so often are underrepresented in the STEM fields. We want to make sure they feel a confidence about so much of the technology and information, revolutions and science that is transforming their lives all around them. And we want them to be creators of science, not just consumers or if. So I think that’s very important.
The final thing I’ll say is that government will never run the way Silicon Valley runs because, by definition, democracy is messy. This is a big, diverse country with a lot of interests and a lot of disparate points of view. And part of government’s job, by the way, is dealing with problems that nobody else wants to deal with.
So sometimes I talk to CEOs, they come in and they start telling me about leadership, and here’s how we do things. And I say, well, if all I was doing was making a widget or producing an app, and I didn’t have to worry about whether poor people could afford the widget, or I didn’t have to worry about whether the app had some unintended consequences -- setting aside my Syria and Yemen portfolio -- then I think those suggestions are terrific. (Laughter and applause.) That's not, by the way, to say that there aren't huge efficiencies and improvements that have to be made.
But the reason I say this is sometimes we get, I think, in the scientific community, the tech community, the entrepreneurial community, the sense of we just have to blow up the system, or create this parallel society and culture because government is inherently wrecked. No, it's not inherently wrecked; it's just government has to care for, for example, veterans who come home. That's not on your balance sheet, that's on our collective balance sheet, because we have a sacred duty to take care of those veterans. And that's hard and it's messy, and we're building up legacy systems that we can't just blow up.
We've been pushing very hard in the area of medicine to have the FDA reimagine how it does regulations in the genetic space so that it's different from how they might deal with a mechanical prosthetic. But I don't want to just blow up the FDA because part of government’s job is to make sure that snake oil and stuff that could hurt you isn't out there on the market being advertised on a daily basis.
So there are going to be some inherent balances that have to be taken, and there are equities that are complicated in government. And I guess the reason I'm saying this is I don't want this audience of people who are accustomed to things happening faster and smoother in their narrow fields to somehow get discouraged and say, I'm just not going to deal with government. Because, at the end of the day, if you're not willing to do what Kaf said earlier, which is just get in the arena and wrestle with this stuff, and argue with people who may not agree with you, and tolerate sometimes not perfect outcomes but better outcomes, then the space to continue scientific progress isn't going to be there.
And what gives me confidence is that I've met a lot of people as President of the United States, and the American people fundamentally are good, they’re decent, and they’re smart, and they just don't have time to follow everything. The more we empower them, the more we bring them in and include them, I have no doubt that we're going to be able to make enormous strides. And the audience here I think is representative of the amazing possibilities that we confront.
DR. GAWANDE: Well, let’s thank the panel. (Applause.) And I'd also like to thank the President for having the Frontiers Conference. I think you set an expectation which can apply to any President in the future of any party that you can be a President for science and health and that we can live up to those values. So, thank you. (Applause.)
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release October 13, 2016
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
IN OPENING REMARKS AND PANEL DISCUSSION
AT WHITE HOUSE FRONTIERS CONFERENCE
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
3:21 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, everybody. Thank you. (Applause.) Well, thank you, Alexis, for that introduction. I love that story -- she bumped into me on the elevator. What she didn’t mention, by the way, is that she started on her pre-med degree when she was 16, bumping into me on the elevator. She was already well on her way. So, to the rest of you -- good luck. (Laughter.) Hope you already have tenure -- because Alexis is coming. (Laughter.)
I’m only going to speak briefly today because we have an amazing panel and I want to learn from the people who are in attendance here today. But I want to start by recognizing Mayor Peduto of Pittsburgh, who has been an extraordinary innovator and city leader. And give -- yes. (Applause.) Congressman Doyle, who fully supports our innovation agenda -- and we need strong allies in Congress -- so give Mike Doyle a big round of applause, please. (Applause.)
We also have people from across our agencies -- Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx -- (applause) -- NIH Director Francis Collins -- (applause) -- National Science Foundation Director France Cordova. (Applause.) And I want to thank two extraordinary leaders who once served in my administration and did extraordinary work -- Presidents Suresh of Carnegie Mellon -- (applause) -- and Chancellor Gallagher of Pitt. (Applause.) Part of sort of the Obama alumni mafia here. (Laughter.) As well as all the faculty and students and staff here at CMU and Pitt for allowing us to turn your campuses into a science fiction movie for the day. (Laughter.)
Earlier today, I got a chance to see some pretty cool stuff. A space capsule designed by the private sector to carry humans out of our atmosphere. Small, unmanned quadcopters that can search disaster areas and survey hard-to-reach places on bridges that might need repairs. I also successfully docked a capsule on the International Space Station. It was a simulation, but trust me -- I stuck the landing. (Laughter.)
But here’s the thing about Pittsburgh -- this kind of stuff is really nothing new. Most folks have probably heard about how this city is testing out a fleet of self-driving cars. But Pittsburgh has been revitalizing itself through technology for a very long time. There is a reason that U.S. Steel Tower is now also the corporate home of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center -- because the Steel City is now home to groundbreaking medical research and world-class universities. It’s the birthplace of some of the most advanced artificial intelligence and robotics systems the world has ever seen. And you are investing in your young people with after-school STEM programs, and maker faires, and “Girls of Steel” robotics teams. (Applause.) That’s how this city came back after an iconic industry fell on tougher times -- doubling down on science, doubling down on tech, doubling down on innovation -- all of which can create amazing new jobs and opportunities.
And stories like that are not just happening here in Pittsburgh, or in Silicon Valley. They’re happening in Chattanooga and in Charleston and in Cincinnati -- cities where we’re seeing science and technology spur new jobs and new industries; new discoveries that are improving our lives and, in many cases, saving lives.
And that's consistent with this nation, who we are -- a nation born from an idea that became the world’s laboratory. There aren't a lot of countries where one of your Founding Fathers has an idea to fly a kite in a thunderstorm and helps to fundamentally change how we think about electricity. A place where the women who solved the equations to take us into space, even though they weren’t always acknowledged. A nation whose engineers brought us the Internet. Innovation is in our DNA. Science has always been central to our progress, and it's playing a leading role in overcoming so many of our greatest challenges.
That's as true today as it's ever been. Only with science can we make a shift to cleaner sources of energy and take steps to save the only planet we have. Only with science do we have the chance to cure cancer, or Parkinson’s, or other diseases that steal our loved ones from us way too soon. Only through science will we have the capacity to reengineer our cities as populations grow, to be smarter and more productive, to lead humanity farther out into the final frontiers of space -- not just to visit, but to stay -- and ensure that America keeps its competitive advantage as the world’s most innovative economy.
And I was doing some pictures before I came out here with some folks, and they said, thank you so much for what you've done for science. And I confessed, I am a science geek. I'm a nerd. (Laughter and applause.) And I don’t make any apologies for it. I don’t make any apologies for it. It's cool stuff. And it is that thing that sets us apart; that ability to imagine and hypothesize, and then test and figure stuff out, and tinker and make things and make them better, and then break them down and rework them.
And that’s why I get so riled up when I hear people willfully ignore facts -- (laughter) -- or stick their heads in the sand about basic scientific consensus. It's not just that that position leads to that policy; it's also that it undermines the very thing that has always made America the engine for innovation around the world. It’s not just that they’re saying climate change is a hoax, or taking a snowball on the Senate floor to prove that the planet is not getting warmer. It’s that they’re doing everything they can to gut funding for research and development, failing to make the kinds of investments that brought us breakthroughs like GPS and MRIs and put Siri on our smartphones, and stonewalling even military plans that don’t adhere to ideology.
That’s not who we are. We don’t listen to science just when it fits our ideologies, or when it produces the results that we want. That's the path to ruin. Sixty years ago, when the Russians beat us into space, we didn’t deny that Sputnik was up there. (Laughter.) That wouldn’t have worked. (Applause.) No. We acknowledged the facts, and then we built a space program almost overnight, and then beat them to the moon. And then we kept on going, becoming the first country to take an up-close look at every planet in the solar system. That's who we are. That's where facts will get you. That's where science will get you.
And that’s why, in my first inaugural address, I vowed to return science to its rightful place. And, by the way, I want to make clear, this idea that facts and reason and science are somehow inimical to faith and feelings and human values and passion -- I reject that. For us to use our brains doesn’t mean that we lose our heart. It means that we can harness what's in our heart to actually get things done.
And that's why in the first few months of my administration, we made the single largest investment in basic research in our history -- because innovation is not a luxury that we do away with when we’re tightening our belts. It's precisely at those moments, when we've got real challenges, when we double down on new solutions that can lead to new jobs and new industries and a stronger economy.
So over these last eight years, we’ve worked to recruit the best and brightest tech talent into the administration. We've partnered with academia and the private sector. We've empowered citizen scientists to take on some of our biggest challenges. We’ve reimagined our federal approach to science through incentive prizes and 21st century moonshots for cancer, and brain research, and solar energy. We’ve turbo-charged the clean energy revolution. We built the architecture to unleash the potential of precision medicine, dropped enough new broadband infrastructure to circle the globe four times; applied data and evidence to social policy to find out what works -- scale up when it works, stop funding things that don't, thereby fostering a new era of social innovation.
We’ve helped once-dark factories start humming again, putting folks to work manufacturing wind turbine blades longer than the wingspan of a 747. And we realized that we can’t look to the future if we’re also not going to lift up the generation that’s going to occupy that future. So we started the White House Science Fair to teach our kids to send a message that the winner of the Super Bowl isn’t the only one that deserves a celebration in the East Room. (Applause.) We hooked up more of our classrooms and communities to the high-speed Internet that will help our kids compete. We’re pushing to bring computer science to every student. We’re on track to prepare 100,000 STEM teachers in a decade.
And as a running thread throughout this, we are working to help all of our children understand that they, too, have a place in science and tech -- not just boys in hoodies, but girls on Native American reservations, kids whose parents can’t afford personal tutors. We want Jamal and Maria sitting right next to Jimmy and Johnny -- because we don't want them overlooked for a job of the future.
America is about Thomas Edison and the Wright Brothers -- but we’re also the place you can grow up to be a Grace Hopper, or George Washington Carver, or a Katherine Johnson, or an Ida B. Wells. We’re the nation that just had six of our scientists and researchers win Nobel Prizes -- and every one of them was an immigrant. (Applause.)
So part of science, part of reason, part of facts is recognizing that to get to where we need to go we need to lift everybody up, because we're going to be a better team if we got the whole team. We don't want somebody with a brilliant idea not in the room because they're a woman. We don't want some budding genius unavailable to cure cancer or come up with a new energy source because they were languishing in a sub-standard school as a child.
So that’s what I’ve been focused on. Alexis has done some things. I’ve done some things, too. (Laughter.) But, look, I only get two terms -- which is fine -- (laughter) -- because the presidency is a relay race. We run our leg, then we hand off the baton. And that’s why this conference isn’t just about where we’ve been, it’s about where we’re going. We’re looking to tomorrow. We're trying to institutionalize the work that we've been doing over these last eight years. But we also want to make sure that these partnerships continue to thrive well beyond my administration. The future is yours to create. It’s all of ours.
And we’ve got a tremendous group here from all across America -- from the sciences, from industry, from academia. All of you in your own fields are transformative. You're transforming the way we treat diseases, and building smarter and more efficient, and more inclusive communities. You’re unlocking the data that make our criminal justice system smarter and fairer. You’re harnessing the power of artificial intelligence
-- big data robotics, automation -– for the good of all of us. You’re breaking new ground on clean energy and giving us our best hope of staving off the worst consequences of climate change. And you’re taking us on that final frontier, firing up the boosters for humanity’s journey to Mars.
So, today, I am proud to build on your work. We've announced federal and private commitments totaling more than $300 million to throw into the pot -- investing in smarter cities; expanding our Precision Medicine Initiative; spurring the development in small satellite technology. We’re supporting researchers working to better understand our brains -– how we think and learn and remember.
And, in fact, it’s in that area where I’d like to close -- brain research. Before I came onstage, about half an hour ago, I had the chance to meet an extraordinary young man named Nathan Copeland. And back in 2004, Nathan was a freshman in college, studying advanced sciences, interested in nanotechnology. And he was in a car accident that left him paralyzed. For years, Nathan could not move his arms, couldn’t move his legs -- needed help with day-to-day tasks.
But one day, he was contacted by a research team at Pitt, and they asked if he wanted to be involved in an experimental trial supported by DARPA, the same agency that gave us the Internet, and night-vision goggles, and so much more. And since he was a scientist himself, Nathan readily agreed. So they implanted four microelectrode arrays into his brain, each about the size of half a button. And those implants connect neurons in his brain with a robotic arm, so that today, he can move that arm the same way you and I do -- just by thinking about it. But that’s just the beginning. Nathan is also the first person in human history who can feel with his prosthetic fingers.
Think about this. He hasn’t been able to use his arms or legs for over a decade, but now he can once again feel the touch of another person. So we shook hands. He had a strong grip, but he had kind of toned it down. (Laughter.) And then we gave each other a fist bump.
And researchers will tell you there’s a long way to go -- he still can’t feel with his thumb or experience hot and cold, but he can feel pressure with precision. That’s what science does. That’s what American innovation can do. And imagine the breakthroughs that are around the corner. Imagine what’s possible for Nathan if we keep on pushing the boundaries. And that’s what this Frontiers Conference is all about, pushing the bounds of what is possible.
And that’s why I’ve been so committed to science and innovation -- not just so that we can restore someone’s sense of touch, but so we can revitalize communities; revitalize economies; reignite our shared sense of possibility and optimism. Because here in America, with the right investments, with the unbelievable brilliance and ingenuity of young people like Alexis and Nathan, there is nothing we cannot do. So let’s keep it going. Let’s get to work.
With that, I think it’s time to start our panel. Thank you, everybody. Thank you.
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DR. GAWANDE: If I were to tie together -- you know, it sounds incredibly disparate -- but the story that is coming out from everything you're saying -- I'm going to take what you said, Riccardo, about the last century, one step farther. The last century was the century of the molecule. We were trying to -- the power of reductionism -- boil it down to the most small possible part -- the atom, the gene, the neuron. Give me the drug, the device, the super-specialist. And that provided enormous good.
But in this century, what they're all describing is now we're trying to figure out how do they all fit together. How do the neurons fit together to create the kinds of behaviors that you're to solve in mental illness. How do they fit -- the genes network can fit together in epigenetics to account for the health and disease of the future that we all may face. And Zoe is describing a super-highway of information and science that is plugging into the patient through a bike path called the doctor's office.
And trying to make a system that can actually bring it all together really is a completely different kind of science from the last century. It's surrounding these problems. People come from incredibly different perspectives now. You're all of them in one. We normally might bring a psychiatrist and an engineer and a neuroscientist together. But it really isn’t the age of the hero scientist anymore.
And so I want to ask you: What do we have to reinvent about the way we do science to make all of this possible, genuinely, scientifically, with real innovation?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, I want to thank the panelists, especially Zoe, because of the story you're telling. Although, Kaf, it sounds like you were also inspired in part because of very personal experiences. At the end of the day, they're people who want to enhance their lives. And so being able to bring it down from 40,000 feet down to what you’re experiencing while you’re waiting on the phone to help somebody you love so deeply I think is a good reminder of why we do this.
As you say, Atul, what we’ve been calling this Precision Medicine Initiative is really how we stitch together systems that can maximize the potential of the research that a Kaf or a Riccardo are doing, and end up with Zoe’s husband getting better treatment. And a couple of things that we’ve tried to do that I think are helping.
Number one is to make sure that the data that is being generated by genomic sequencing, as its price comes down, is better integrated and better shared, which is going to require us rethinking research models.
In the past, what’s happened is, is that if a researcher wants to look into cancer, they get some samples from an arrangement, maybe, with a teaching university close by, and their plugging away, somewhat in isolation. And what we now have is the opportunity to -- as we discover, particularly, that what we used to think of as cancer might turn out to be 20 different types of cancer -- we’re now in a position where we can actually generate a huge database, and as a consequence, not only identify some of the specific features of that cancer, not only identify what kinds of genetic variants might make you more predisposed to that cancer, but we’re also breaking down those silos in such a way where we can accelerate research. Not everybody has to have one small sample. Now, potentially, we’ve got a million people who are contributing to a database that somebody like a Kaf or a Riccardo can work on.
And what that allows us to do in developing cures is, over time, as Riccardo said, to identify, first of all, do you have a predisposition towards a particular disease, and can we intervene more quickly before you develop it. Second, can we develop better cures, interventions, as Kaf said. But third, are we also in a position to get this information to patients sooner to empower them so that they can be in charge of their own health. Because part of our goal here is to shift from what is really a disease-care system to actual health care system.
So that’s one big chunk of the initiative. And just to be more specific, part of what we’re doing with the Precision Medicine Initiative is to get a bunch of collaborators to start digitalizing, pooling, and sharing their data. Within the VA, we’ve got half a million folks who have signed up and are contributing their genetic samples.
We now have more and more institutions that are coming together. And as a consequence, our hope is, is that if you are a cancer researcher in any particular cancer, you’re going to have a big data set that you can start working off of. And, by the way, we’re being very intentional about making sure that we’re reaching out to communities that sometimes are forgotten -- whether it’s African American communities, women -- so that we can really pinpoint what works for who.
Just one last thing I want to say, though, because it goes to what Zoe said about systems. Even as we’re doing all this cool stuff to come up with greater cures, what we’re also having to do is try to figure out what are the incentives -- the perverse incentives that are set up in the health care system that prevent it from reaching a patient earlier. So I’ll just give two quick examples.
The first is what you were talking about in terms of your individual patient data. We’re trying to promote the notion, number one, that this data belongs to you, the patient, as opposed to the institution that is treating you -- because once you understand that it's yours and you have agency in this process, it means that as you're looking for different treatment options, as you're consulting with different doctors, you're able to be a more effective advocate without having to constantly fill our paperwork and so forth. So that's important.
And one of the things that we've discovered is, is that even the software where your individual patient is stored -- because it's a commercial enterprise oftentimes -- it's not interoperable, it's not sharable in easy form. And so we've actually been trying to get some of the major providers to start working together so that it makes it easier for somebody like Zoe, if she's moving from system to system to system.
The second this is -- and, Atul, you've written about this
-- to the extent that we are reimbursing doctors and hospitals and other providers based on outcomes rather than discrete services that are being provided, we can start incentivizing the kind of holistic system thinking in health care -- rather than you come in, you get a test, then you got to go to another place to do this, and then you got to go to another thing to do that, and then maybe the surgeon hasn’t spoken to the primary care physician and you don’t have the outpatient coordination that would make sure that you're not coming back into the hospital.
And one of the things that we've been trying to do with the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, that hasn’t gotten as much attention as just providing people insurance is to make sure that we're pushing, we're nudging the system more and more to do that.
So, that was a long answer, but it's a big topic. The good news is, is that I think we've identified the pathways where we can start making real progress.
DR. GAWANDE: I want to live in your world. I want to live in the world where --
THE PRESIDENT: I'm only going to be here for four more months. (Laughter.) Three and a half.
DR. GAWANDE: -- in a world where I get to own -- I have my genomic information, I have my medical records, I have --everything about me belongs to me, and it's easy to access, and I can bring it to the doctors that I need to get it to.
The second level -- you know, you announced an initiative today, the All of Us Research Initiative, where you would be able to, A, get that data and then share it with researchers so that they can learn more from you -- trusting that that data is safe. I worked in the Clinton administration, and I got notified that my background records, my clearance records were hacked, right? If you can hack all of my background records now, suppose you can hack my genetic information, all of my electronic records, my mental health information and more. And being able to trust -- so we're in this world where having system science only works if it's transparent and information is widely available. And yet, we're in deep fear about what happens with information and making it widely available.
I'd love to hear what you have to think about that. And I'm going to jump to Riccardo and think in the variety of the world that you've been in, how do we trust that this research is in the right hands?
THE PRESIDENT: I'll be very quick on this. This is going to be an ongoing problem that we have across disciplines. It's not just in health care. As Riccardo said, our lives become digitalized. It means that how we provide security for that information -- whether it's financial, health, you name it -- is going to be challenging.
Now, the good news is that we are making real progress in understanding the architecture that we have to build across sectors, private and public, in order to make this work. In fact, our outstanding president of Pitt has been working with our cybersecurity committee to really crack some of these problems. And we've put some guidelines for the private sector and providers to assure best practices on cybersecurity. But it is going to be something that will be increasingly challenging.
Here's the only thing I would say, though. The opportunities to hack your information will be just as great or greater in a poorly integrated, broken-down health care system as it will be in a highly integrated, effective health care system. (Applause.) So I think it’s important for us not to overstate the dangers of -- the very real dangers of cybersecurity and ensuring the privacy of our health records. We don’t want to so overstate it that that ends up becoming a significant impediment to us making the system work better.
DR. GAWANDE: Are there technological solutions, Riccardo, to this problem of privacy?
MR. SABATINI: So we started to -- one of the questions we started about a year ago is exactly can we identify someone from his own genome. So we started to build a class of algorithm to predict and extract information from your genes -- some common traits -- your height, your eye color, your skin color, the structure of your face. Every single model has its own limitations, sometimes for the lack of data, sometimes because the data is not only in your genes.
But what we learned is that using them collectively, we can go a long way to really identify a person from his genome. So this is something that we have to face, is a digital asset is one of the most complicated ways to be handled. We want to publish it, we want to share it, but it’s still something -- there is some concern about identity and security.
We worked across the board to find different solutions, let’s say, the old system will have to work to find what is the right way. We are proposing -- and we started to work on a platform called OpenSearch. It is a way where we decided to share the thousands of genomes in a very secure way with the community a month ago. We launched it, it’s called OpenSearch -- Search.hli. -- you get inside there, and you can have this Google feeling of shuffling thousands and thousands of genomes, million of records, and hundreds of databases in a very secure way.
Now, this is one of the efforts to try to match security and open access and sharing of information. The one thing I guess we still have to learn is both how every single person feels about tracking or not. So we always talk about sharing our own information, but do we own our own information? How many of you have your genomes sequences? How many of us have sequenced their genome? Can you raise your hands, for example? How many of you have your genomes sequenced? So a very fraction -- typically it’s 2, 3 percent of the audiences when I speak.
So we need to remove a fear, and allow people to engage more in their own health and in their own data. There are technologies to keep them safe and to keep them secure. The one thing that is very important is overcoming this barrier of knowing yourself, which I think is the most -- is the hardest hurdle to scale up the databases.
Security -- there are the best people working on it across the board, both in the scientific domain and governmental domain. But this should not be a limitation to access your own information and feel comfortable to own your own information and feel comfortable to share it with a governmental infrastructure, and with companies that implement the security right.
DR. GAWANDE: At the center of this I think is a question about optimism and pessimism about whether we can solve these problems. And I think I would like to ask a question of all of you about our values, the scientific values of a scientific orientation. And behind that orientation is a fundamental belief -- we have an allegiance to the idea that the way you discover -- the way you explain nature, the way you describe the world, the way you intervene in the world is through factual observation and through testing. And there’s a certain sense of -- it’s an orientation, it’s a way of being that we’re describing. It’s an openness, it’s an inquisitiveness, it’s curiosity. It’s a willingness to acknowledge good arguments and recognize ones that are bad and that haven’t tested out.
And that orientation feels like, at times -- on the one hand, it’s been the most powerful, collective enterprise in human history, the scientific community. And at other times it feels embattled. And I wonder, why does it seem under fire when we’re -- you mentioned, President Obama, that in certain areas like climate change, or around nutrition, or around other parts of medical care, we have enormously fraught debates. And it feels at this moment almost like we’re not just debating what it means to be a scientist, but what it means to be a citizen.
What do you take away, Kaf and Zoe, about where we are, and why are we under fire, and how do we get past this?
DR. DZIRASA: I think, in a lot of ways, science, the outcome changes perspective, right. So when science is useful, we don’t have people arguing about whether polio vaccines are great or not, right. And so I think there are a lot of areas in medicine where we face this challenge. I actually think debate is very healthy for science. I think contentious debate can actually be very helpful for science, in the same way our country was set up in way that healthy, constructive debate can be extremely useful.
I think what we want to do, especially as neuroscientists, I think we’re at a place where we need to draw as many people in as possible and have healthy, constructive debates about how we get the outcomes we want.
I’ll give you an example. I talked to two scientists recently. One was last weekend -- Steve McCarrol (ph) at Harvard -- and he’d recently come up with a technique where he could sequence the genes of every cell in the brain. And so when you think about the challenge of something like genetics, you’ve got three billion base pairs in the human genome. In the brain, we’ve got about a 150 billion cells, half of those which carry electricity, and the electricity is changing every millisecond. So the problem is enormously scaled. The Brain Initiative allows us to come up with these tools where now, if you can understand what each individual cell type is, you can now start to have these debates about how to understand what they mean.
I’ll give you another example. I sat with another investigator, Lauren Frank (ph), and he’s now using the Brain Initiative to record many, many channels in the brain, simultaneously, from an animal, where he’s studying how memory works. This, of course, could one day be useful for something like Alzheimer’s. And he says now, that he’s able -- within 24 hours, he’s pulling in about 20 terra-bytes of data. So I’m not that old, I remember when I was in high school, my hard drive had 100 megabytes of data.
So we’re at a place now where we’re going to have to bring in other disciplines to know how to handle that data. I sat with a high school kid last night, Gabe, and it was pretty clear to me that the people who were going to solve this challenge of the brain are probably in like seventh or eighth grade right now. And so how do we create an ecosystem where all those different perspectives can come in. The utility is, when all those different perspectives come in, there has to be contentious debate. But I think the solutions that will come out of it are what will move people’s perspective on the usefulness of science.
DR. GAWANDE: Zoe, what do you think about the constructive debate you hear, how we get to the more constructive debate, and enough optimism that we want to actually put funding into the kind of work that Kaf is talking about.
DR. KEATING: Well, I think just making it broader. I was really inspired this morning by a lot of the speakers on the health track, and one of them was Steven Keating -- who’s not related to me at all -- and I was really struck how -- he was a PhD student and he was doing 3D printing. And he wanted to study his brain tumor, because he had a brain tumor. But in order to study his tumor, he had to become a medical student in order to get some of the tumor so he could study it.
And that seemed really -- like, wow, that’s limiting. Think of all these amazing people we have in our country who are doing things, and increasingly people are doing things outside of institutions. And I feel like that’s where solutions are going to come from. I think that we should also look at Silicon Valley. I was thinking about patients and how the whole patient issue I was having is kind of like a user-experience problem that somebody might tackle at a software start-up, and maybe we should approach these things from different perspectives that way.
And I think that’s part of this trust -- you were talking about trust in data -- that somehow expanding, bringing in voices, figuring out how people can contribute data, how we can all just be more involved will be a way towards making trust. The same thing is true with government.
THE PRESIDENT: No, absolutely. I’ll just pick up on a couple of themes. Any scientific revolution is, by definition, contesting the status quo. And we’re going through a period in which our knowledge is expanding very quickly. It is going to have a wide range of ramifications and you’ve got a whole bunch of legacy systems that are going to be affected. So if self-driving cars are pervasive, a huge percentage of the American population makes its living, and oftentimes a pretty good living, driving. And so, understandably, people are going to be concerned about what does this mean. We’ve heard of the controversies around Uber versus those who have taxi medallions, but it’s actually driverless Uber that is going to be even more challenging.
The same is true in the health care field. One of the things that you discover is this Rube Goldberg contraption that grew up over the last 50 years or 60 years, in terms of our health care system, is there’s all kinds of economics that are embedded in every aspect of it. So it’s not surprising, then, that when we passed the Affordable Care Act, that there are going to be people who push back not just because they really want to make it work and they’ve got some legitimate, factual critiques of it, but because people’s pocketbooks may be threatened.
And, Zoe, you just used one example, which was the enormous controversy we had when we said that we should phase out certain types of insurance that, on their face, look really cheap, until you have a tumor and it turns out that they don’t cover you. And that very low-cost insurance, sort of the equivalent of the bare-bones insurance you have to get for driving but when you get in an accident it turns out doesn’t do anything to fix your car -- but obviously much more is at stake here.
We still have debates today where people will say, you know, people aren’t having the choices that they used to have. Well, the choices, in some cases, that they used to have were choices to get insurance that weren’t going to cover them during a catastrophe.
So I think that the way I would like to see us operate -- and we’re not there at the moment, and it will never be perfect
-- is, yes, significant debate, contentious debate, but where we are still operating on the same basic platform, basic rules about how do we determine what’s true and what’s not. And one of the ironies I think of the Internet has been the degree to which it’s bringing us unprecedented knowledge, but everything on the Internet looks like it might be true. And so in this political season, we’ve seen just -- you just say stuff. (Laughter.) And so everything suddenly becomes contested. That I do not think is good for our democracy, and it’s certainly not good for science or progress or government or fixing systems. We’ve got to be able to agree on certain baseline facts. (Applause.)
If you want to argue with me about how to deal with climate change, that’s a legitimate argument. Some people might argue it’s unrealistic to think that we’re going to be able to fix this so we should just start adapting to the oceans being six feet higher. You might want to suggest to me that it’s got to be a market-based solution, and it’s all going to come through innovation; regulation is not going to help; we need a huge -- I’m happy to have those arguments. But what you can’t do is argue with me that we’ve had over the last 10, 15 years, each year is the hottest year ever, or that the glaciers are melting and Greenland is melting. You can’t argue with me about that because I can see it, and we’re recording it.
And in the same way around health, I think any good scientist or doctor would not presume to suggest that the sum total of our knowledge is all contained in our current medical schools, and there may be holistic medicines or alternative medicines that are remarkable, but we also should be able to test them. And you can’t just assert that this works and more conventional therapies don’t work and not be subject to that kind of testing regimen.
So that’s where I think we have to move our conversation generally if we’re going to have the kind of debate that Kaf talked about.
MR. GAWANDE: So how do we move our conversation in that way, right? There was a time when scientists were arguing about climate change, and reasonably so.
THE PRESIDENT: Right.
MR. GAWANDE: So how do we set up frameworks where we say, this is our time period where we’re going to collect facts, and at the end of the day we will accept the consensus of fact? How do we do that in our current political enterprise?
THE PRESIDENT: If I had the perfect answer to that, then I’d run for President. (Laughter.) Look, this takes us a little bit far afield, but I do think that it’s relevant to the scientific community, it’s relevant to our democracy, citizenship. We’re going to have to rebuild, within this Wild, Wild West of information flow, some sort of curating function that people agree to.
I use the analogy in politics -- it used to be there were three television stations and Walter Cronkite is on there and not everybody agreed, and there were always outliers who thought that it was all propaganda, and we didn’t really land on the Moon, and Elvis is still alive, and so forth. (Laughter.) But, generally, that was in the papers that you bought at the supermarket right as you were checking out. And generally, people trusted a basic body of information.
It wasn’t always as democratic as it should have been. And Zoe is exactly right that -- for example, on something like climate change, we’ve actually been doing some interesting initiatives where we’re essentially deputizing citizens with hand-held technologies to start recording information that then gets pooled -- they’re becoming scientists without getting the PhD. And we can do that in a lot of other fields as well.
But there has to be, I think, some sort of way in which we can sort through information that passes some basic truthiness tests and those that we have to discard because they just don’t have any basis in anything that’s actually happening in the world.
And that’s hard to do, but I think it’s going to be necessary, it’s going to be possible. I think the answer is obviously not censorship, but it’s creating places where people can say, this is reliable and I’m still able to argue about -- safely -- about facts and what we should do about it while still -- not just making stuff up.
DR. GAWANDE: Focusing on the idea of places where the scientific orientation can be -- the ethos can be protected is really important. Science is always probable knowledge. It's never nailed down. But we're at CMU, we're at University of Pittsburgh, because they are places that hold those values of scientific orientation. There are places that live like that online, in patient communities. There are places that professional societies are making happen.
It's crucial, though, that it also happen in government and it also happen in the private sector. And I guess my final question would be, for any and all of us, what’s the most important thing we can make sure that we do to keep that scientific orientation, that optimism, and that striving for the big opportunity going? That we can keep these values as part of the places where we are, whether they’re in the virtual world or in our institutions. And maybe, I’ll let you have the last word, so I’ll start on that end, if that’s okay, Zoe.
DR. KEATING: Well, I really feel like it’s just this huge opportunity and this way for -- if people feel like they can contribute, that then they will trust things. They will trust institutions, they will trust government if they feel that they have a voice. And it’s our job to figure out how can we make this thing the President was talking about -- how can we make the system that allows people to contribute, but it’s somehow vetted so that all that knowledge can be shared, because we need all hands on deck.
DR. GAWANDE: And a chance for people to participate in the science itself.
DR. KEATING: Yes, a chance for people to participate. And that’s beyond health care, that’s across the board. And I feel like that’s a huge challenge for our time. Right now, just how can we do that so that we can really -- because we need everybody’s help in everything that's coming for us.
DR. GAWANDE: Riccardo.
DR. SABATINI: The one thing that -- the fight is a little bit unfair because magic has all the answers -- things that you find around. There’s always strong answers. There is the cure of cancer, but it’s closed in a closet somewhere. Science cannot state those strong answers, because it’s a constantly evolving field, and it wouldn’t be a fair.
But we have a cool story that sometimes we don’t say enough. When we describe how the brain works, when we describe the majesty of what it means watching inside your genes and how the proteins flow, and the molecules, and when I explain these stories and I make them human, and I explain cases -- stories of patients and people that access their health and they really got incredible advancements on that. When we nail the story right, then we engage the young people, the vast majority of the population.
We tend to fight these bogus messages. But on one side it means we are failing. We are failing to tell the amazing advancements that we are doing in the right stories, beating fake stories with great realities. And this is a challenge that we have to do. And I’m engaging as much as possible, explaining the excitement that there is in the time in history when we have access to things that we were never even dreaming 15 years ago.
This is the story that we have to tell outside these doors. You are some of the smartest people in this country. You have to be advocates of how amazing things we’re doing, without giving strong solutions and fake results, but telling that there are the best people chasing this dream and we’re going to crack it. It is our duty, making people feel confident that this is the right story to follow.
DR. DZIRASA: I’m honored that you chose to sit on this panel, because I think health is the real truth-teller and the real equalizer. When you think about this country by 2050, we’ll be spending about a trillion dollars a year on Alzheimer’s. If, Lord willing, we get over 85, half of us will have Alzheimer’s. One out of every 48 boys in this country are born with autism now. And so it’s the real truth-teller. It is the real common enemy that all of us, as Americans, as scientists, as educators have.
The reason I’m optimistic is because I fundamentally believe there is a seven-year-old sitting in a classroom somewhere that will take all of these investments and all of this work that we’ve made and transform things for my family. The challenge for me is that I would love to see an America in which, whether that seven-year-old is sitting in a school in Detroit or Baltimore or Gentry High School in the Mississippi Delta, that they will also have the opportunity for their ideas to bubble up and be nurtured. Because, at the end of the day, the solution to that common enemy that we all face might be sitting in that classroom right now. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I’m going to steal some ideas from what my other panelists have already said.
First of all, Zoe’s point about opening up systems so that people understand them and don’t just feel like cogs in that system, but rather, have agency in that system I think is critically important.
So what we’ve been trying to do across the board -- and we’re not even close to being there yet -- is to use technology as a way to do exactly what you are talking about. Whether it’s releasing big data -- and the easiest example, I think, for the general public to think about is all the apps that now give us the weather over our phones, and those are all generated from inside government, but what used to be closed data now we let out there. Well, it turns out that we’ve got huge data sets on all kinds of stuff. And the more we’re opening that up and allowing businesses, individuals, to work with that information I think the more they feel empowered. And that makes a huge difference.
The second thing that I want to emphasize is the most important curator to be able to sort through what’s true and false and sustain those scientific values you talk about is the human brain, and making sure that our kids are getting that ability to analyze and do that sorting early. And so part of the reason why we’ve been emphasizing STEM education is not because we don’t value the humanities -- and I was a political science and English major, and I probably learned more reading novels than textbooks -- but what it does do is, it helps everyone as citizens, even if you don’t become a doctor or a scientist or a physicist, it helps you evaluate information in a way that allows you to make good decisions in your own life but also allows you to participate in the country as a whole.
And so we want everybody -- we’re putting a special emphasis on girls, young people of color, who so often are underrepresented in the STEM fields. We want to make sure they feel a confidence about so much of the technology and information, revolutions and science that is transforming their lives all around them. And we want them to be creators of science, not just consumers or if. So I think that’s very important.
The final thing I’ll say is that government will never run the way Silicon Valley runs because, by definition, democracy is messy. This is a big, diverse country with a lot of interests and a lot of disparate points of view. And part of government’s job, by the way, is dealing with problems that nobody else wants to deal with.
So sometimes I talk to CEOs, they come in and they start telling me about leadership, and here’s how we do things. And I say, well, if all I was doing was making a widget or producing an app, and I didn’t have to worry about whether poor people could afford the widget, or I didn’t have to worry about whether the app had some unintended consequences -- setting aside my Syria and Yemen portfolio -- then I think those suggestions are terrific. (Laughter and applause.) That's not, by the way, to say that there aren't huge efficiencies and improvements that have to be made.
But the reason I say this is sometimes we get, I think, in the scientific community, the tech community, the entrepreneurial community, the sense of we just have to blow up the system, or create this parallel society and culture because government is inherently wrecked. No, it's not inherently wrecked; it's just government has to care for, for example, veterans who come home. That's not on your balance sheet, that's on our collective balance sheet, because we have a sacred duty to take care of those veterans. And that's hard and it's messy, and we're building up legacy systems that we can't just blow up.
We've been pushing very hard in the area of medicine to have the FDA reimagine how it does regulations in the genetic space so that it's different from how they might deal with a mechanical prosthetic. But I don't want to just blow up the FDA because part of government’s job is to make sure that snake oil and stuff that could hurt you isn't out there on the market being advertised on a daily basis.
So there are going to be some inherent balances that have to be taken, and there are equities that are complicated in government. And I guess the reason I'm saying this is I don't want this audience of people who are accustomed to things happening faster and smoother in their narrow fields to somehow get discouraged and say, I'm just not going to deal with government. Because, at the end of the day, if you're not willing to do what Kaf said earlier, which is just get in the arena and wrestle with this stuff, and argue with people who may not agree with you, and tolerate sometimes not perfect outcomes but better outcomes, then the space to continue scientific progress isn't going to be there.
And what gives me confidence is that I've met a lot of people as President of the United States, and the American people fundamentally are good, they’re decent, and they’re smart, and they just don't have time to follow everything. The more we empower them, the more we bring them in and include them, I have no doubt that we're going to be able to make enormous strides. And the audience here I think is representative of the amazing possibilities that we confront.
DR. GAWANDE: Well, let’s thank the panel. (Applause.) And I'd also like to thank the President for having the Frontiers Conference. I think you set an expectation which can apply to any President in the future of any party that you can be a President for science and health and that we can live up to those values. So, thank you. (Applause.)
Executive Order -- Coordinating Efforts to Prepare the Nation for Space Weather Events
WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release October 13, 2016
EXECUTIVE ORDER
- - - - - - -
COORDINATING EFFORTS TO PREPARE
THE NATION FOR SPACE WEATHER EVENTS
By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and
to prepare the Nation for space weather events, it is hereby
ordered as follows:
Section 1. Policy. Space weather events, in the form
of solar flares, solar energetic particles, and geomagnetic
disturbances, occur regularly, some with measurable effects on
critical infrastructure systems and technologies, such as the
Global Positioning System (GPS), satellite operations and
communication, aviation, and the electrical power grid. Extreme
space weather events -- those that could significantly degrade
critical infrastructure -- could disable large portions of the
electrical power grid, resulting in cascading failures that
would affect key services such as water supply, healthcare,
and transportation. Space weather has the potential to
simultaneously affect and disrupt health and safety across
entire continents. Successfully preparing for space weather
events is an all-of-nation endeavor that requires partnerships
across governments, emergency managers, academia, the media, the
insurance industry, non-profits, and the private sector.
It is the policy of the United States to prepare for space
weather events to minimize the extent of economic loss and human
hardship. The Federal Government must have (1) the capability
to predict and detect a space weather event, (2) the plans and
programs necessary to alert the public and private sectors
to enable mitigating actions for an impending space weather
event, (3) the protection and mitigation plans, protocols, and
standards required to reduce risks to critical infrastructure
prior to and during a credible threat, and (4) the ability to
respond to and recover from the effects of space weather.
Executive departments and agencies (agencies) must coordinate
their efforts to prepare for the effects of space weather
events.
Sec. 2. Objectives. This order defines agency roles and
responsibilities and directs agencies to take specific actions
to prepare the Nation for the hazardous effects of space
weather. These activities are to be implemented in conjunction
with those identified in the 2015 National Space Weather Action
Plan (Action Plan) and any subsequent updates. Implementing
this order and the Action Plan will require the Federal
Government to work across agencies and to develop, as
appropriate, enhanced and innovative partnerships with State,
tribal, and local governments; academia; non-profits; the
private sector; and international partners. These efforts
will enhance national preparedness and speed the creation of
a space-weather-ready Nation.
2
Sec. 3. Coordination. (a) The Director of the Office
of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), in consultation
with the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and
Counterterrorism and the Director of the Office of Management
and Budget (OMB), shall coordinate the development and
implementation of Federal Government activities to prepare
the Nation for space weather events, including the activities
established in section 5 of this order and the recommendations
of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC),
established by Executive Order 12881 of November 23, 1993
(Establishment of the National Science and Technology Council).
(b) To ensure accountability for and coordination of
research, development, and implementation of activities
identified in this order and in the Action Plan, the NSTC shall
establish a Space Weather Operations, Research, and Mitigation
Subcommittee (Subcommittee). The Subcommittee member agencies
shall conduct activities to advance the implementation of this
order, to achieve the goals identified in the 2015 National
Space Weather Strategy and any subsequent updates, and to
coordinate and monitor the implementation of the activities
specified in the Action Plan and provide subsequent updates.
Sec. 4. Roles and Responsibilities. To the extent
permitted by law, the agencies below shall adopt the following
roles and responsibilities, which are key to ensuring enhanced
space weather forecasting, situational awareness, space weather
preparedness, and continuous Federal Government operations
during and after space weather events.
(a) The Secretary of Defense shall ensure the timely
provision of operational space weather observations, analyses,
forecasts, and other products to support the mission of the
Department of Defense and coalition partners, including the
provision of alerts and warnings for space weather phenomena
that may affect weapons systems, military operations, or the
defense of the United States.
(b) The Secretary of the Interior shall support the
research, development, deployment, and operation of capabilities
that enhance the understanding of variations of the Earth's
magnetic field associated with solar-terrestrial interactions.
(c) The Secretary of Commerce shall:
(i) provide timely and accurate operational space
weather forecasts, watches, warnings, alerts, and
real-time space weather monitoring for the government,
civilian, and commercial sectors, exclusive of the
responsibilities of the Secretary of Defense; and
(ii) ensure the continuous improvement of operational
space weather services, utilizing partnerships, as
appropriate, with the research community, including
academia and the private sector, and relevant agencies
to develop, validate, test, and transition space
weather observation platforms and models from research
to operations and from operations to research.
(d) The Secretary of Energy shall facilitate the
protection and restoration of the reliability of the electrical
power grid during a presidentially declared grid security
3
emergency associated with a geomagnetic disturbance pursuant
to 16 U.S.C. 824o-1.
(e) The Secretary of Homeland Security shall:
(i) ensure the timely redistribution of space
weather alerts and warnings that support national
preparedness, continuity of government, and continuity
of operations; and
(ii) coordinate response and recovery from the
effects of space weather events on critical
infrastructure and the broader community.
(f) The Administrator of the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA) shall:
(i) implement and support a national research
program to understand the Sun and its interactions
with Earth and the solar system to advance space
weather modeling and prediction capabilities
applicable to space weather forecasting;
(ii) develop and operate space-weather-related
research missions, instrument capabilities, and
models; and
(iii) support the transition of space weather models
and technology from research to operations and from
operations to research.
(g) The Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF)
shall support fundamental research linked to societal needs for
space weather information through investments and partnerships,
as appropriate.
(h) The Secretary of State, in consultation with the heads
of relevant agencies, shall carry out diplomatic and public
diplomacy efforts to strengthen global capacity to respond to
space weather events.
(i) The Secretaries of Defense, the Interior, Commerce,
Transportation, Energy, and Homeland Security, along with the
Administrator of NASA and the Director of NSF, shall work
together, consistent with their ongoing activities, to develop
models, observation systems, technologies, and approaches that
inform and enhance national preparedness for the effects of
space weather events, including how space weather events may
affect critical infrastructure and change the threat landscape
with respect to other hazards.
(j) The heads of all agencies that support National
Essential Functions, defined by Presidential Policy Directive 40
(PPD-40) of July 15, 2016 (National Continuity Policy), shall
ensure that space weather events are adequately addressed in
their all-hazards preparedness planning, including mitigation,
response, and recovery, as directed by PPD-8 of March 30, 2011
(National Preparedness).
(k) NSTC member agencies shall coordinate through the
NSTC to establish roles and responsibilities beyond those
identified in section 4 of this order to enhance space weather
preparedness, consistent with each agency's legal authority.
4
Sec. 5. Implementation. (a) Within 120 days of the date
of this order, the Secretary of Energy, in consultation with the
Secretary of Homeland Security, shall develop a plan to test
and evaluate available devices that mitigate the effects of
geomagnetic disturbances on the electrical power grid through
the development of a pilot program that deploys such devices,
in situ, in the electrical power grid. After the development
of the plan, the Secretary shall implement the plan in
collaboration with industry. In taking action pursuant to this
subsection, the Secretaries of Energy and Homeland Security
shall consult with the Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission.
(b) Within 120 days of the date of this order, the heads
of the sector-specific agencies that oversee the lifeline
critical infrastructure functions as defined by the National
Infrastructure Protection Plan of 2013 -- including
communications, energy, transportation, and water and wastewater
systems -- as well as the Nuclear Reactors, Materials, and Waste
Sector, shall assess their executive and statutory authority,
and limits of that authority, to direct, suspend, or control
critical infrastructure operations, functions, and services
before, during, and after a space weather event. The heads of
each sector-specific agency shall provide a summary of these
assessments to the Subcommittee.
(c) Within 90 days of receipt of the assessments ordered
in section 5(b) of this order, the Subcommittee shall provide a
report on the findings of these assessments with recommendations
to the Director of OSTP, the Assistant to the President for
Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, and the Director of OMB.
The assessments may be used to inform the development and
implementation of policy establishing authorities and
responsibilities for agencies in response to a space weather
event.
(d) Within 60 days of the date of this order, the
Secretaries of Defense and Commerce, the Administrator of NASA,
and the Director of NSF, in collaboration with other agencies
as appropriate, shall identify mechanisms for advancing space
weather observations, models, and predictions, and for
sustaining and transitioning appropriate capabilities from
research to operations and operations to research, collaborating
with industry and academia to the extent possible.
(e) Within 120 days of the date of this order, the
Secretaries of Defense and Commerce shall make historical data
from the GPS constellation and other U.S. Government satellites
publicly available, in accordance with Executive Order 13642 of
May 9, 2013 (Making Open and Machine Readable the New Default
for Government Information), to enhance model validation and
improvements in space weather forecasting and situational
awareness.
(f) Within 120 days of the date of this order, the
Secretary of Homeland Security, through the Administrator of the
Federal Emergency Management Agency and in coordination with
relevant agencies, shall lead the development of a coordinated
Federal operating concept and associated checklist to coordinate
Federal assets and activities to respond to notification of,
and protect against, impending space weather events. Within
180 days of the publication of the operating concept and
checklist, agencies shall develop operational plans documenting
5
their procedures and responsibilities to prepare for, protect
against, and mitigate the effects of impending space weather
events, in support of the Federal operating concept and
compatible with the National Preparedness System described
in PPD-8.
Sec. 6. Stakeholder Engagement. The agencies identified
in this order shall seek public-private and international
collaborations to enhance observation networks, conduct
research, develop prediction models and mitigation approaches,
enhance community resilience and preparedness, and supply the
services necessary to protect life and property and promote
economic prosperity, as consistent with law.
Sec. 7. Definitions. As used in this order:
(a) "Prepare" and "preparedness" have the same meaning
they have in PPD-8. They refer to the actions taken to plan,
organize, equip, train, and exercise to build and sustain the
capabilities necessary to prevent, protect against, mitigate the
effects of, respond to, and recover from those threats that pose
the greatest risk to the security of the Nation. This includes
the prediction and notification of space weather events.
(b) "Space weather" means variations in the space
environment between the Sun and Earth (and throughout the
solar system) that can affect technologies in space and on
Earth. The primary types of space weather events are solar
flares, solar energetic particles, and geomagnetic disturbances.
(c) "Solar flare" means a brief eruption of intense energy
on or near the Sun's surface that is typically associated with
sunspots.
(d) "Solar energetic particles" means ions and electrons
ejected from the Sun that are typically associated with solar
eruptions.
(e) "Geomagnetic disturbance" means a temporary
disturbance of Earth's magnetic field resulting from solar
activity.
(f) "Critical infrastructure" has the meaning
provided in section 1016(e) of the USA Patriot Act of 2001
(42 U.S.C. 5195c(e)), namely systems and assets, whether
physical or virtual, so vital to the United States that the
incapacity or destruction of such systems and assets would have
a debilitating impact on security, national economic security,
national public health or safety, or any combination of those
matters.
(g) "Sector-Specific Agency" means the agencies designated
under PPD-21 of February 12, 2013 (Critical Infrastructure
Security and Resilience), or any successor directive, to
be responsible for providing institutional knowledge and
specialized expertise as well as leading, facilitating, or
supporting the security and resilience programs and associated
activities of its designated critical infrastructure sector in
the all-hazards environment.
Sec. 8. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order
shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
6
(i) the authority granted by law to an agency, or
the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of OMB relating to
budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with
applicable law and subject to the availability of
appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create
any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at
law or in equity by any party against the United States, its
departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or
agents, or any other person.
BARACK OBAMA
THE WHITE HOUSE,
October 13, 2016.
WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release October 13, 2016
EXECUTIVE ORDER
- - - - - - -
COORDINATING EFFORTS TO PREPARE
THE NATION FOR SPACE WEATHER EVENTS
By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and
to prepare the Nation for space weather events, it is hereby
ordered as follows:
Section 1. Policy. Space weather events, in the form
of solar flares, solar energetic particles, and geomagnetic
disturbances, occur regularly, some with measurable effects on
critical infrastructure systems and technologies, such as the
Global Positioning System (GPS), satellite operations and
communication, aviation, and the electrical power grid. Extreme
space weather events -- those that could significantly degrade
critical infrastructure -- could disable large portions of the
electrical power grid, resulting in cascading failures that
would affect key services such as water supply, healthcare,
and transportation. Space weather has the potential to
simultaneously affect and disrupt health and safety across
entire continents. Successfully preparing for space weather
events is an all-of-nation endeavor that requires partnerships
across governments, emergency managers, academia, the media, the
insurance industry, non-profits, and the private sector.
It is the policy of the United States to prepare for space
weather events to minimize the extent of economic loss and human
hardship. The Federal Government must have (1) the capability
to predict and detect a space weather event, (2) the plans and
programs necessary to alert the public and private sectors
to enable mitigating actions for an impending space weather
event, (3) the protection and mitigation plans, protocols, and
standards required to reduce risks to critical infrastructure
prior to and during a credible threat, and (4) the ability to
respond to and recover from the effects of space weather.
Executive departments and agencies (agencies) must coordinate
their efforts to prepare for the effects of space weather
events.
Sec. 2. Objectives. This order defines agency roles and
responsibilities and directs agencies to take specific actions
to prepare the Nation for the hazardous effects of space
weather. These activities are to be implemented in conjunction
with those identified in the 2015 National Space Weather Action
Plan (Action Plan) and any subsequent updates. Implementing
this order and the Action Plan will require the Federal
Government to work across agencies and to develop, as
appropriate, enhanced and innovative partnerships with State,
tribal, and local governments; academia; non-profits; the
private sector; and international partners. These efforts
will enhance national preparedness and speed the creation of
a space-weather-ready Nation.
2
Sec. 3. Coordination. (a) The Director of the Office
of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), in consultation
with the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and
Counterterrorism and the Director of the Office of Management
and Budget (OMB), shall coordinate the development and
implementation of Federal Government activities to prepare
the Nation for space weather events, including the activities
established in section 5 of this order and the recommendations
of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC),
established by Executive Order 12881 of November 23, 1993
(Establishment of the National Science and Technology Council).
(b) To ensure accountability for and coordination of
research, development, and implementation of activities
identified in this order and in the Action Plan, the NSTC shall
establish a Space Weather Operations, Research, and Mitigation
Subcommittee (Subcommittee). The Subcommittee member agencies
shall conduct activities to advance the implementation of this
order, to achieve the goals identified in the 2015 National
Space Weather Strategy and any subsequent updates, and to
coordinate and monitor the implementation of the activities
specified in the Action Plan and provide subsequent updates.
Sec. 4. Roles and Responsibilities. To the extent
permitted by law, the agencies below shall adopt the following
roles and responsibilities, which are key to ensuring enhanced
space weather forecasting, situational awareness, space weather
preparedness, and continuous Federal Government operations
during and after space weather events.
(a) The Secretary of Defense shall ensure the timely
provision of operational space weather observations, analyses,
forecasts, and other products to support the mission of the
Department of Defense and coalition partners, including the
provision of alerts and warnings for space weather phenomena
that may affect weapons systems, military operations, or the
defense of the United States.
(b) The Secretary of the Interior shall support the
research, development, deployment, and operation of capabilities
that enhance the understanding of variations of the Earth's
magnetic field associated with solar-terrestrial interactions.
(c) The Secretary of Commerce shall:
(i) provide timely and accurate operational space
weather forecasts, watches, warnings, alerts, and
real-time space weather monitoring for the government,
civilian, and commercial sectors, exclusive of the
responsibilities of the Secretary of Defense; and
(ii) ensure the continuous improvement of operational
space weather services, utilizing partnerships, as
appropriate, with the research community, including
academia and the private sector, and relevant agencies
to develop, validate, test, and transition space
weather observation platforms and models from research
to operations and from operations to research.
(d) The Secretary of Energy shall facilitate the
protection and restoration of the reliability of the electrical
power grid during a presidentially declared grid security
3
emergency associated with a geomagnetic disturbance pursuant
to 16 U.S.C. 824o-1.
(e) The Secretary of Homeland Security shall:
(i) ensure the timely redistribution of space
weather alerts and warnings that support national
preparedness, continuity of government, and continuity
of operations; and
(ii) coordinate response and recovery from the
effects of space weather events on critical
infrastructure and the broader community.
(f) The Administrator of the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA) shall:
(i) implement and support a national research
program to understand the Sun and its interactions
with Earth and the solar system to advance space
weather modeling and prediction capabilities
applicable to space weather forecasting;
(ii) develop and operate space-weather-related
research missions, instrument capabilities, and
models; and
(iii) support the transition of space weather models
and technology from research to operations and from
operations to research.
(g) The Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF)
shall support fundamental research linked to societal needs for
space weather information through investments and partnerships,
as appropriate.
(h) The Secretary of State, in consultation with the heads
of relevant agencies, shall carry out diplomatic and public
diplomacy efforts to strengthen global capacity to respond to
space weather events.
(i) The Secretaries of Defense, the Interior, Commerce,
Transportation, Energy, and Homeland Security, along with the
Administrator of NASA and the Director of NSF, shall work
together, consistent with their ongoing activities, to develop
models, observation systems, technologies, and approaches that
inform and enhance national preparedness for the effects of
space weather events, including how space weather events may
affect critical infrastructure and change the threat landscape
with respect to other hazards.
(j) The heads of all agencies that support National
Essential Functions, defined by Presidential Policy Directive 40
(PPD-40) of July 15, 2016 (National Continuity Policy), shall
ensure that space weather events are adequately addressed in
their all-hazards preparedness planning, including mitigation,
response, and recovery, as directed by PPD-8 of March 30, 2011
(National Preparedness).
(k) NSTC member agencies shall coordinate through the
NSTC to establish roles and responsibilities beyond those
identified in section 4 of this order to enhance space weather
preparedness, consistent with each agency's legal authority.
4
Sec. 5. Implementation. (a) Within 120 days of the date
of this order, the Secretary of Energy, in consultation with the
Secretary of Homeland Security, shall develop a plan to test
and evaluate available devices that mitigate the effects of
geomagnetic disturbances on the electrical power grid through
the development of a pilot program that deploys such devices,
in situ, in the electrical power grid. After the development
of the plan, the Secretary shall implement the plan in
collaboration with industry. In taking action pursuant to this
subsection, the Secretaries of Energy and Homeland Security
shall consult with the Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission.
(b) Within 120 days of the date of this order, the heads
of the sector-specific agencies that oversee the lifeline
critical infrastructure functions as defined by the National
Infrastructure Protection Plan of 2013 -- including
communications, energy, transportation, and water and wastewater
systems -- as well as the Nuclear Reactors, Materials, and Waste
Sector, shall assess their executive and statutory authority,
and limits of that authority, to direct, suspend, or control
critical infrastructure operations, functions, and services
before, during, and after a space weather event. The heads of
each sector-specific agency shall provide a summary of these
assessments to the Subcommittee.
(c) Within 90 days of receipt of the assessments ordered
in section 5(b) of this order, the Subcommittee shall provide a
report on the findings of these assessments with recommendations
to the Director of OSTP, the Assistant to the President for
Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, and the Director of OMB.
The assessments may be used to inform the development and
implementation of policy establishing authorities and
responsibilities for agencies in response to a space weather
event.
(d) Within 60 days of the date of this order, the
Secretaries of Defense and Commerce, the Administrator of NASA,
and the Director of NSF, in collaboration with other agencies
as appropriate, shall identify mechanisms for advancing space
weather observations, models, and predictions, and for
sustaining and transitioning appropriate capabilities from
research to operations and operations to research, collaborating
with industry and academia to the extent possible.
(e) Within 120 days of the date of this order, the
Secretaries of Defense and Commerce shall make historical data
from the GPS constellation and other U.S. Government satellites
publicly available, in accordance with Executive Order 13642 of
May 9, 2013 (Making Open and Machine Readable the New Default
for Government Information), to enhance model validation and
improvements in space weather forecasting and situational
awareness.
(f) Within 120 days of the date of this order, the
Secretary of Homeland Security, through the Administrator of the
Federal Emergency Management Agency and in coordination with
relevant agencies, shall lead the development of a coordinated
Federal operating concept and associated checklist to coordinate
Federal assets and activities to respond to notification of,
and protect against, impending space weather events. Within
180 days of the publication of the operating concept and
checklist, agencies shall develop operational plans documenting
5
their procedures and responsibilities to prepare for, protect
against, and mitigate the effects of impending space weather
events, in support of the Federal operating concept and
compatible with the National Preparedness System described
in PPD-8.
Sec. 6. Stakeholder Engagement. The agencies identified
in this order shall seek public-private and international
collaborations to enhance observation networks, conduct
research, develop prediction models and mitigation approaches,
enhance community resilience and preparedness, and supply the
services necessary to protect life and property and promote
economic prosperity, as consistent with law.
Sec. 7. Definitions. As used in this order:
(a) "Prepare" and "preparedness" have the same meaning
they have in PPD-8. They refer to the actions taken to plan,
organize, equip, train, and exercise to build and sustain the
capabilities necessary to prevent, protect against, mitigate the
effects of, respond to, and recover from those threats that pose
the greatest risk to the security of the Nation. This includes
the prediction and notification of space weather events.
(b) "Space weather" means variations in the space
environment between the Sun and Earth (and throughout the
solar system) that can affect technologies in space and on
Earth. The primary types of space weather events are solar
flares, solar energetic particles, and geomagnetic disturbances.
(c) "Solar flare" means a brief eruption of intense energy
on or near the Sun's surface that is typically associated with
sunspots.
(d) "Solar energetic particles" means ions and electrons
ejected from the Sun that are typically associated with solar
eruptions.
(e) "Geomagnetic disturbance" means a temporary
disturbance of Earth's magnetic field resulting from solar
activity.
(f) "Critical infrastructure" has the meaning
provided in section 1016(e) of the USA Patriot Act of 2001
(42 U.S.C. 5195c(e)), namely systems and assets, whether
physical or virtual, so vital to the United States that the
incapacity or destruction of such systems and assets would have
a debilitating impact on security, national economic security,
national public health or safety, or any combination of those
matters.
(g) "Sector-Specific Agency" means the agencies designated
under PPD-21 of February 12, 2013 (Critical Infrastructure
Security and Resilience), or any successor directive, to
be responsible for providing institutional knowledge and
specialized expertise as well as leading, facilitating, or
supporting the security and resilience programs and associated
activities of its designated critical infrastructure sector in
the all-hazards environment.
Sec. 8. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order
shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
6
(i) the authority granted by law to an agency, or
the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of OMB relating to
budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with
applicable law and subject to the availability of
appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create
any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at
law or in equity by any party against the United States, its
departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or
agents, or any other person.
BARACK OBAMA
THE WHITE HOUSE,
October 13, 2016.
Harnessing the Possibilities of Science, Technology, and Innovation
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 13, 2016
FACT SHEET: Harnessing the Possibilities of Science, Technology, and Innovation
President Obama Hosts Frontiers Conference,
Focusing on the Potential of Science, Technology, and Innovation to Drive
Prosperity and Address Challenges in Personal, Local, National, Global, and Interplanetary Frontiers for the Next 50 Years and Beyond
Under President Obama’s leadership, America continues to be the world’s most innovative country, with the greatest potential to develop the industries of the future and harness science and technology to help address important challenges.
President Obama has relentlessly focused on building U.S. talent and capacity in science and technology; making the long-term investments that will continue to power American innovation; and setting ambitious goals that inspire and harness the ingenuity and creativity of the American people.
Today, President Obama is hosting a day-long White House Frontiers Conference in Pittsburgh to encourage Americans to imagine our Nation and the world in 50 years and beyond, and to explore America’s potential to broaden participation and advance towards the frontiers that will make the world healthier, more prosperous, more equitable, and more secure.
The conference, co-hosted by the White House, the University of Pittsburgh, and Carnegie Mellon University, brings together researchers, business leaders, technologists, philanthropists, local innovators, and students who are the change-makers of tomorrow on these five frontiers. Conference attendees will participate in a national conversation about keeping America and Americans on the cutting edge of innovation in the decades to come, and share work already in progress. In addition, the President will further explore the five themes of the conference in the November issue of WIRED, which will be guest-edited by the President on the theme of “Frontiers.”
The Administration is opening the conference with more than $300 million in announcements that exemplify the critical roles that Federal investments, innovative policymaking, and multi-sector collaboration play in seeding prosperity:
· $70 million in new National Institutes of Health (NIH) investments to help researchers better understand the brain and, ultimately, uncover the mysteries that hold the key to future scientific breakthroughs in areas such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, depression, and traumatic brain injury.
· $16 million and four new partners within the Precision Medicine Initiative national research study, doubling the number of regional medical health care organizations that will enroll individuals into the large scale health study and push the boundaries of medical care and research innovation.
· $165 million in public and private funds to support cities in using technology and data to tackle critical quality-of-life challenges, such as traffic congestion.
· Harnessing the power of data to improve the U.S. criminal justice system, announcing that the Police Data Initiative and the Data-Driven Justice Initiative have each grown to over 100 communities nationwide.
· Releasing a White House report on preparing for the future of artificial intelligence (AI), outlining the issues that society will have to grapple with to unlock the possibilities of AI.
· New steps to develop technology—such as deep-space habitats—to help meet the President’s goal of sending a human mission to Mars by the 2030s.
· $50 million in Federal funds to fuel a revolution in small-satellite technology that could provide capabilities such as ubiquitous high-speed Internet connectivity and continuously updated imagery of the Earth.
· A new space-weather Executive Order to coordinate efforts to prepare the Nation for space-weather events.
White House Frontiers Conference
The White House Frontiers Conference is the first of its kind—a day-long gathering hosted by President Obama to discuss and collaborate on the opportunities and challenges we as a Nation face over the next half-century and beyond.
The conference includes the participation of more than 700 innovators from across academia, industry, government, and civil society, who will discuss five frontiers of innovation:
Additional themes cut across the conference’s programming, including:
· The importance of cross-sector and multi-disciplinary collaboration for solving difficult challenges;
· Education innovation to develop skills for Americans at all levels;
· Job creation across these sectors; and
· Equity, to ensure all Americans have access to these innovations and benefit from advances in these frontiers.
Participants will have the opportunity to engage in in-depth conversations, view technology demonstrations, hear lighting talks, share work already in progress, and learn from a diverse array of perspectives. In addition to those attending in person, components of the conference will be livestreamed, and there will be digital opportunities for the public to participate in this critical conversation. Learn more about the conference, including the agenda and speakers, here.
Announcements Being Made to Open the Conference
Personal Frontiers
Science, technology, and innovation funded by the Federal Government have made major contributions to helping Americans live longer, healthier lives. We have vaccines to protect us from devastating diseases like cervical cancer, flu, and meningitis. We have developed an artificial retina and have achieved promising initial results on brain control of robotic prosthetic arms.
Just as the seeds for these breakthroughs were planted decades ago, President Obama’s visionary investments in biomedical research, medicine, health, and the life sciences have set the stage for the cures, treatments, and innovations of the future. Today, the Administration is announcing forward momentum in two critical biomedical initiatives:
· Revolutionizing our understanding of the brain, with $70 million in new investments by NIH in FY 2016. In 2013, President Obama launched the BRAIN Initiative—Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies—to “accelerate the development and application of new technologies that will enable researchers to produce dynamic pictures of the brain that show how individual brain cells and complex neural circuits interact at the speed of thought.” Today’s announcement of over 100 new awards brings the NIH investment in the BRAIN Initiative to just over $150 million in fiscal year 2016 and represents a doubling of the total number of awards made by NIH under the initiative. Moving forward, NIH is also announcing more than two dozen new funding opportunities planned for fiscal year 2017 activities, including proposals to produce a complete census of cells in the mouse brain along with the data infrastructure to make that information readily available to the research community. Since its launch in April 2013, the President’s BRAIN Initiative has catalyzed $1.5 billion in public and private funds, with more than 125 academic papers published tied to the effort and active research programs in five Federal agencies: the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the NIH, the National Science Foundation, Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, and the Food and Drug Administration.
· Building partnerships to enable precision medicine for all. In his 2015 State of the Union address, President Obama announced the launch of the Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI), to accelerate a new era of medicine that delivers the right treatment at the right time to the right individual based on the complex and unknown interactions between one’s genes, environment, and lifestyle. As part of this effort—newly named the All of Us Research Program—NIH is building one of the largest, most diverse research studies in history with healthcare organizations, technology partners, community collaborators, and participants. Today, the NIH is announcing four additional partners to double the number of regional medical healthcare organizations that will enroll individuals across the United States into this national study of health. With up to $16 million of additional awards, these new partners will bring research expertise, increased geographic reach (bringing in communities from Pennsylvania, New England, Minnesota, Michigan, Texas, and California), and new methods of engaging hard-to-reach communities to the table. They will help to build a rich, secure database and set of tools that empower thousands of researchers—from citizen scientists to academics—to use this unprecedented repository of electronic health record, medication, survey, biospecimen, genomic, imaging, and wearable data to accelerate breakthroughs that will only be possible with a diverse population of volunteers.
Local Frontiers
With nearly two-thirds of Americans living in urban settings, many of our complex challenges—from building transportation that fuels equitable growth, to improved community-police relationships—will require cities of all sizes to be laboratories for innovation. The rapid pace of social innovation and technological change—from the rise of data science, machine learning, human-centered approaches, artificial intelligence, the sharing economy, citizen science, social networks, and ubiquitous sensor networks to autonomous vehicles—holds significant promise for addressing core local challenges, not only in urban areas, but also in communities throughout the country. In fact, further advances in connectivity and network innovations hold promise for ensuring small towns, tribal communities, and rural areas benefit from technological advances and also serve as laboratories for innovation. Today, to harness these opportunities, the Administration is announcing:
· More than $165 million in public and private funds leveraged by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to deploy smart city technologies in communities across the country, including Pittsburgh. Last September, the White House launched the Smart Cities Initiative to make it easier for cities, Federal agencies, universities, and the private sector to work together to harness new technologies that can help make our cities more inhabitable, cleaner, and more equitable. As part of that effort, today, DOT is building on its successful Smart City Challenge by announcing nearly $65 million through two new grant programs, and leveraging over $100 million in matching funds for advanced transportation technologies. Pittsburgh (PA), San Francisco (CA), Houston (TX), Denver (CO), Los Angeles (CA), Buffalo (NY), and Marysville (OH) are receiving funds targeted at relieving congestion and improving safety of urban transportation networks. For example, Pittsburgh will receive nearly $11 million to execute elements of the vision it developed in its Smart City Challenge application, including deployment of smart traffic signal technology—proven to reduce congestion at street lights by up to 40 percent—along major travel corridors. Denver will also receive approximately $6 million to implement components of the vision developed in its Smart City Challenge application, helping to alleviate the congestion caused by a daily influx of 200,000 commuters each workday through connected vehicles. DOT is also announcing nearly $8 million in new grants for urban and rural communities to experiment with integrating new on-demand mobility services—including smartphone-enabled car sharing, demand-responsive buses, paratransit, and bike-sharing—into existing transit systems. For example, TriMet, which serves Portland, Oregon, will receive funds to integrate shared-use mobility options into its existing trip planning app, allowing users to plan efficient trips even without nearby transit access.
· Initiatives to enable data-driven policing and criminal justice systems have both grown to over 100 communities. Last year, the Administration launched the Police Data Initiative (PDI) to use data transparency to strengthen police-community relations, by fostering a culture of engagement and accountability. To date, 127 participating law enforcement agencies, serving more than 44 million people, have collectively released over 170 data sets that focus on areas such as traffic and pedestrian stops, use of force, and community engagement. To help establish and disseminate best practices, the Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) will support this initial cohort through its expanded Collaborative Reform efforts, which bring resources to focus on institutionalizing recommendations from the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing. In addition, earlier this year, to break cycles of incarceration, the Administration launched the Data-Driven Justice Initiative (DDJ) with a bipartisan coalition of city, county, and State governments committed to using data-driven strategies to divert low-level offenders with mental illness out of the criminal justice system and to change approaches to pre-trial incarceration so that low-risk offenders no longer stay in jail simply because they cannot afford a bond. As of today, DDJ has grown to 119 participating jurisdictions covering over 90 million Americans. These jurisdictions are actively implementing data exchanges to identify high utilizers of services and sharing best practices for diversions and coordination with community-based services. Further, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will collaborate with DDJ to launch up-to three pilot projects in DDJ-affiliated communities. With the goal of reducing unnecessary criminal justice involvement for Veterans, the pilot projects will build and refine a robust model for collaboration between local VA health centers, law-enforcement, behavioral health, and treatment services. The Department of Housing and Urban Development will also provide targeted support to help DDJ communities link data across criminal justice, health, and homelessness systems, so that these systems can better identify and serve those most in need, and help avoid emergency room visits, jails, and shelter stays in the first place. Learn more about these announcements here.
National Frontiers
In the popular press, the technology sector, the research community, and society as a whole, there is growing interest in artificial intelligence (AI) and the potential of computers capable of intelligent behavior. After years of steady but slow progress on making computers “smarter” at everyday tasks, a series of breakthroughs in recent years in the research community and industry have spurred momentum and investment in the development of this field and brought us to the precipice of transformative change.
Though today’s AI is confined to narrow, specific tasks, the rate of recent progress will have broad implications for fields ranging from health care to image- and voice-recognition. AI could deliver transformative solutions in health diagnostics, personalized learning, economic inclusion, bias mitigation, and autonomous transportation. But like any emerging technology, AI also carries risk and presents complex policy challenges along several dimensions, from jobs and the economy to safety and regulatory questions. That is why the Administration is today releasing:
· A First-Ever White House Report on the Future of Artificial Intelligence. Earlier this year, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy launched a broad consultation process, co-hosting five public workshops, including participation from academia, industry, and non-profits on topics in AI to spur public dialogue on artificial intelligence and machine learning and identify challenges and opportunities related to this emerging technology. With input from those cross-sector conversations, as well as the expertise of Federal agencies, the National Science and Technology Council is releasing a public report, Preparing for the Future of Artificial Intelligence, which surveys the state of AI, its many applications, and the questions AI raises for society and public policy. The report also makes recommendations for further action and sets out a roadmap for how the Federal Government and the country should approach AI in the coming years.
· A companion strategic plan for research and development in AI. A new National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan being released today by the National Information Technology Research and Development program lays out a framework for Federally-funded research and development in AI.
Global Frontiers
Under the determined leadership of President Obama, the United States has been one of the nations leading the world over the past 8 years in taking substantial steps to address the challenge of climate change. In addition to leading efforts on the world stage, such as the historic Paris Climate Agreement, the Administration has pursued climate strategies in science, technology, and innovation that have set the stage for further breakthroughs. The United States, 20 other countries, and the European Union are part of Mission Innovation, a global initiative to accelerate clean energy innovation. Participating countries are seeking to double their public funding of clean-energy research and development over the next 5 years, to nearly $30 billion per year by 2021. In the weeks ahead, the Administration will publish a new framework for U.S. participation in Mission Innovation, advancing a portfolio of technology options, including new game-changing possibilities, which hold the potential to reduce emissions, while simultaneously building on the growth of the new energy economy. In addition, to help unleash the next wave of clean energy breakthroughs, the Administration launched the Clean Energy Investment Initiative with foundations, institutional investors, and other long-term investors, announcing more than $4 billion in commitments to finance clean energy innovations and climate change solutions.
In addition, the Administration launched a number of efforts to advance climate data, information, tools, and services, including the Climate Data Initiative, U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, Climate Services for Resilient Development, and Partnership for Resilience and Preparedness. These efforts aim to better connect innovators, community leaders, and companies to climate science to support their planning. Over 1,000 climate data sets and hundreds of tools have been made available through these resources. The Administration also developed a Climate Education and Literacy Initiative to ensure that students and citizens understand climate change and are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and training to seek and implement solutions.
The pace and magnitude of climate change requires an all-hands-on-deck approach at the frontier of global innovation. At the White House Frontiers Conference, participants will discuss the possibilities that the next stages of this work can hold—advancing clean-energy innovation, providing communities with the climate-impacts information they need, and integrating climate science into education to foster a next-generation workforce who can design a climate-smart future.
Interplanetary Frontiers
At the beginning of his Administration, President Obama set out a new vision for space exploration, harking back to the spirit of possibility and exploration that defined the space race of the 1960s, while building upon and advancing 21st century technologies and capabilities. In 2010, the Administration restructured the U.S. civil space program to look forward to bold new goals, not backwards to old ones; to collaborate with, rather than compete with, American entrepreneurs; and to broaden participation and take advantage of new technologies being created at NASA and in America’s laboratories.
As President Obama noted earlier this week, these policies have fostered a burgeoning commercial space sector that is creating new jobs in places such as California, Colorado, Florida, Texas, and Washington, as the space economy attracts record amounts of venture capital. Working with NASA, American companies have developed new spacecraft that are cost-effectively delivering cargo to the International Space Station and will start ferrying astronauts there by the end of next year.
In 2011, the Administration created a new organization within NASA—a Space Technology Mission Directorate—charged with developing new technologies that would enhance capabilities and reduce costs for both the U.S. space industry and NASA’s missions, including critical technologies needed to achieve the President’s goal of a human mission to Mars in the 2030s. These technologies range from better life-support systems to efficient solar-powered electric propulsion systems. Much of this work is being performed in cooperation with companies and universities across the Nation.
And now, the Administration has started collaborating with industry to build the space modules or “habitats” in which U.S. astronauts will live and travel to Mars and other deep-space destinations. By doing so, humanity will begin to move beyond the constraints of Earth, out into the depths of deep space—the “proving ground” that will ultimately guide us to Mars and beyond. And in the coming years, the work NASA will do—in collaboration with private and international partners—to develop these deep-space habitats will in turn help reduce the barriers to private companies that hope to build their own space stations in Earth orbit or beyond.
This fall, NASA will also start the process of providing companies with a potential opportunity to add their own modules and other capabilities to the International Space Station. As NASA shifts the focus of its human exploration program to deep space, America’s businesses will take a larger role in supporting space activities in Earth’s orbit.
To further build on this momentum, the Administration is announcing:
· Over $50 million in new Federal investments and steps that will harness the small-satellite revolution. Entrepreneurs are taking advantage of recent advances in electronics and information technology to dramatically reduce the time and cost of designing, building, testing, and launching constellations of satellites. In the coming weeks, Federal agencies will announce investments and new steps they will take to advance the state of the art in small-satellite technology and increase the adoption of “smallsats” for commercial, scientific, and national security needs. Advancing smallsat technology and adoption could, for example, allow companies to provide ubiquitous high-speed Internet connectivity and offer continuously updated imagery of the Earth. As part of this initiative, NASA will invest $30 million to support public-private partnership opportunities that allow for Earth Science observations to be provided by constellations of commercial small spacecraft. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has just entered into a $20 million data purchase agreement with smallsat startup Planet to buy imagery from its constellation of earth-orbiting spacecraft.
· A new Executive Order to coordinate efforts to prepare the Nation for space-weather events. Building on the National Space Weather Strategy and National Action Plan released last October, today the President will sign an Executive Order that will help minimize the harm that space-weather events can cause across our Nation. The new Executive Order will minimize economic loss and save lives by enhancing national security, identifying successful mitigation technologies, and ordering the creation of nationwide response and recovery plans and procedures. Further, the Executive Order will enhance the scientific and technical capabilities of the United States, including improved prediction of space-weather events and their effects on infrastructure systems and services. By this action, the Federal Government will lead by example and help motivate State and local governments, and other nations, to create communities that are more resilient to the hazards of space weather.
A Sustained Focus by President Obama on Science, Technology, and Innovation
Since day one of his Administration, President Obama has taken a long-term view, prioritizing the investments, innovative policy actions, and cross-sector collaboration critical to fueling America’s long-term prosperity. In April 2009, he outlined an ambitious agenda to reinvigorate the American scientific and technological enterprise in a speech at the annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences.
In the nearly 8 years since, the full scope of the President’s science, technology, and innovation agenda has been sweeping, and is already setting the stage for new industries and continued innovation in the years ahead. For example:
· This Administration has launched a network of nine manufacturing institutes, which are helping American manufactures lead the world in innovation.
· Compared to 2008, wind power has tripled in production and solar power has increased 30-fold.
· The Administration launched major new science initiatives to advance health care through precision medicine, understanding the brain, accelerating progress in treating and preventing cancer, and combating antibiotic resistance.
· Over the last 3 years, an additional 20 million U.S. school kids have become connected to high-speed Internet, and the number of schools lacking high-speed connectivity has been cut in half.
· The Administration has taken steps to support the safe integration of unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace and the safe introduction of self-driving cars onto the Nation’s roads.
· U.S. companies that got their start supporting U.S. Government space missions have increased their share of the global commercial launch market from zero in 2011 to 36 percent in 2015.
· 100,000 engineers are graduating yearly from American universities for the first time ever, we are on track to prepare 100,000 STEM teachers by 2021, and the President set a bold vision to give every child an opportunity to learn computer science.
· In December 2015, Congress responded to the President’s call (dating to 2009) and made the research and experimentation (R&E) tax credit permanent.
· Federal agencies have made more than 180,000 Federal datasets and collections available to students, entrepreneurs, and the public.
Read more examples of President Obama’s leadership in science, technology, and innovation.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 13, 2016
FACT SHEET: Harnessing the Possibilities of Science, Technology, and Innovation
President Obama Hosts Frontiers Conference,
Focusing on the Potential of Science, Technology, and Innovation to Drive
Prosperity and Address Challenges in Personal, Local, National, Global, and Interplanetary Frontiers for the Next 50 Years and Beyond
Under President Obama’s leadership, America continues to be the world’s most innovative country, with the greatest potential to develop the industries of the future and harness science and technology to help address important challenges.
President Obama has relentlessly focused on building U.S. talent and capacity in science and technology; making the long-term investments that will continue to power American innovation; and setting ambitious goals that inspire and harness the ingenuity and creativity of the American people.
Today, President Obama is hosting a day-long White House Frontiers Conference in Pittsburgh to encourage Americans to imagine our Nation and the world in 50 years and beyond, and to explore America’s potential to broaden participation and advance towards the frontiers that will make the world healthier, more prosperous, more equitable, and more secure.
The conference, co-hosted by the White House, the University of Pittsburgh, and Carnegie Mellon University, brings together researchers, business leaders, technologists, philanthropists, local innovators, and students who are the change-makers of tomorrow on these five frontiers. Conference attendees will participate in a national conversation about keeping America and Americans on the cutting edge of innovation in the decades to come, and share work already in progress. In addition, the President will further explore the five themes of the conference in the November issue of WIRED, which will be guest-edited by the President on the theme of “Frontiers.”
The Administration is opening the conference with more than $300 million in announcements that exemplify the critical roles that Federal investments, innovative policymaking, and multi-sector collaboration play in seeding prosperity:
· $70 million in new National Institutes of Health (NIH) investments to help researchers better understand the brain and, ultimately, uncover the mysteries that hold the key to future scientific breakthroughs in areas such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, depression, and traumatic brain injury.
· $16 million and four new partners within the Precision Medicine Initiative national research study, doubling the number of regional medical health care organizations that will enroll individuals into the large scale health study and push the boundaries of medical care and research innovation.
· $165 million in public and private funds to support cities in using technology and data to tackle critical quality-of-life challenges, such as traffic congestion.
· Harnessing the power of data to improve the U.S. criminal justice system, announcing that the Police Data Initiative and the Data-Driven Justice Initiative have each grown to over 100 communities nationwide.
· Releasing a White House report on preparing for the future of artificial intelligence (AI), outlining the issues that society will have to grapple with to unlock the possibilities of AI.
· New steps to develop technology—such as deep-space habitats—to help meet the President’s goal of sending a human mission to Mars by the 2030s.
· $50 million in Federal funds to fuel a revolution in small-satellite technology that could provide capabilities such as ubiquitous high-speed Internet connectivity and continuously updated imagery of the Earth.
· A new space-weather Executive Order to coordinate efforts to prepare the Nation for space-weather events.
White House Frontiers Conference
The White House Frontiers Conference is the first of its kind—a day-long gathering hosted by President Obama to discuss and collaborate on the opportunities and challenges we as a Nation face over the next half-century and beyond.
The conference includes the participation of more than 700 innovators from across academia, industry, government, and civil society, who will discuss five frontiers of innovation:
- Personal frontiers in health care innovation and precision medicine;
- Local frontiers in building smart, inclusive communities, including through investments in open data and the Internet of things;
- National frontiers in harnessing the potential of artificial intelligence, including data science, machine learning, automation, and robotics to engage and benefit all Americans;
- Global frontiers in accelerating the clean energy revolution and developing advanced climate information, tools, services, and collaborations; and
- Interplanetary frontiers in space exploration, including our journey to Mars.
Additional themes cut across the conference’s programming, including:
· The importance of cross-sector and multi-disciplinary collaboration for solving difficult challenges;
· Education innovation to develop skills for Americans at all levels;
· Job creation across these sectors; and
· Equity, to ensure all Americans have access to these innovations and benefit from advances in these frontiers.
Participants will have the opportunity to engage in in-depth conversations, view technology demonstrations, hear lighting talks, share work already in progress, and learn from a diverse array of perspectives. In addition to those attending in person, components of the conference will be livestreamed, and there will be digital opportunities for the public to participate in this critical conversation. Learn more about the conference, including the agenda and speakers, here.
Announcements Being Made to Open the Conference
Personal Frontiers
Science, technology, and innovation funded by the Federal Government have made major contributions to helping Americans live longer, healthier lives. We have vaccines to protect us from devastating diseases like cervical cancer, flu, and meningitis. We have developed an artificial retina and have achieved promising initial results on brain control of robotic prosthetic arms.
Just as the seeds for these breakthroughs were planted decades ago, President Obama’s visionary investments in biomedical research, medicine, health, and the life sciences have set the stage for the cures, treatments, and innovations of the future. Today, the Administration is announcing forward momentum in two critical biomedical initiatives:
· Revolutionizing our understanding of the brain, with $70 million in new investments by NIH in FY 2016. In 2013, President Obama launched the BRAIN Initiative—Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies—to “accelerate the development and application of new technologies that will enable researchers to produce dynamic pictures of the brain that show how individual brain cells and complex neural circuits interact at the speed of thought.” Today’s announcement of over 100 new awards brings the NIH investment in the BRAIN Initiative to just over $150 million in fiscal year 2016 and represents a doubling of the total number of awards made by NIH under the initiative. Moving forward, NIH is also announcing more than two dozen new funding opportunities planned for fiscal year 2017 activities, including proposals to produce a complete census of cells in the mouse brain along with the data infrastructure to make that information readily available to the research community. Since its launch in April 2013, the President’s BRAIN Initiative has catalyzed $1.5 billion in public and private funds, with more than 125 academic papers published tied to the effort and active research programs in five Federal agencies: the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the NIH, the National Science Foundation, Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, and the Food and Drug Administration.
· Building partnerships to enable precision medicine for all. In his 2015 State of the Union address, President Obama announced the launch of the Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI), to accelerate a new era of medicine that delivers the right treatment at the right time to the right individual based on the complex and unknown interactions between one’s genes, environment, and lifestyle. As part of this effort—newly named the All of Us Research Program—NIH is building one of the largest, most diverse research studies in history with healthcare organizations, technology partners, community collaborators, and participants. Today, the NIH is announcing four additional partners to double the number of regional medical healthcare organizations that will enroll individuals across the United States into this national study of health. With up to $16 million of additional awards, these new partners will bring research expertise, increased geographic reach (bringing in communities from Pennsylvania, New England, Minnesota, Michigan, Texas, and California), and new methods of engaging hard-to-reach communities to the table. They will help to build a rich, secure database and set of tools that empower thousands of researchers—from citizen scientists to academics—to use this unprecedented repository of electronic health record, medication, survey, biospecimen, genomic, imaging, and wearable data to accelerate breakthroughs that will only be possible with a diverse population of volunteers.
Local Frontiers
With nearly two-thirds of Americans living in urban settings, many of our complex challenges—from building transportation that fuels equitable growth, to improved community-police relationships—will require cities of all sizes to be laboratories for innovation. The rapid pace of social innovation and technological change—from the rise of data science, machine learning, human-centered approaches, artificial intelligence, the sharing economy, citizen science, social networks, and ubiquitous sensor networks to autonomous vehicles—holds significant promise for addressing core local challenges, not only in urban areas, but also in communities throughout the country. In fact, further advances in connectivity and network innovations hold promise for ensuring small towns, tribal communities, and rural areas benefit from technological advances and also serve as laboratories for innovation. Today, to harness these opportunities, the Administration is announcing:
· More than $165 million in public and private funds leveraged by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to deploy smart city technologies in communities across the country, including Pittsburgh. Last September, the White House launched the Smart Cities Initiative to make it easier for cities, Federal agencies, universities, and the private sector to work together to harness new technologies that can help make our cities more inhabitable, cleaner, and more equitable. As part of that effort, today, DOT is building on its successful Smart City Challenge by announcing nearly $65 million through two new grant programs, and leveraging over $100 million in matching funds for advanced transportation technologies. Pittsburgh (PA), San Francisco (CA), Houston (TX), Denver (CO), Los Angeles (CA), Buffalo (NY), and Marysville (OH) are receiving funds targeted at relieving congestion and improving safety of urban transportation networks. For example, Pittsburgh will receive nearly $11 million to execute elements of the vision it developed in its Smart City Challenge application, including deployment of smart traffic signal technology—proven to reduce congestion at street lights by up to 40 percent—along major travel corridors. Denver will also receive approximately $6 million to implement components of the vision developed in its Smart City Challenge application, helping to alleviate the congestion caused by a daily influx of 200,000 commuters each workday through connected vehicles. DOT is also announcing nearly $8 million in new grants for urban and rural communities to experiment with integrating new on-demand mobility services—including smartphone-enabled car sharing, demand-responsive buses, paratransit, and bike-sharing—into existing transit systems. For example, TriMet, which serves Portland, Oregon, will receive funds to integrate shared-use mobility options into its existing trip planning app, allowing users to plan efficient trips even without nearby transit access.
· Initiatives to enable data-driven policing and criminal justice systems have both grown to over 100 communities. Last year, the Administration launched the Police Data Initiative (PDI) to use data transparency to strengthen police-community relations, by fostering a culture of engagement and accountability. To date, 127 participating law enforcement agencies, serving more than 44 million people, have collectively released over 170 data sets that focus on areas such as traffic and pedestrian stops, use of force, and community engagement. To help establish and disseminate best practices, the Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) will support this initial cohort through its expanded Collaborative Reform efforts, which bring resources to focus on institutionalizing recommendations from the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing. In addition, earlier this year, to break cycles of incarceration, the Administration launched the Data-Driven Justice Initiative (DDJ) with a bipartisan coalition of city, county, and State governments committed to using data-driven strategies to divert low-level offenders with mental illness out of the criminal justice system and to change approaches to pre-trial incarceration so that low-risk offenders no longer stay in jail simply because they cannot afford a bond. As of today, DDJ has grown to 119 participating jurisdictions covering over 90 million Americans. These jurisdictions are actively implementing data exchanges to identify high utilizers of services and sharing best practices for diversions and coordination with community-based services. Further, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will collaborate with DDJ to launch up-to three pilot projects in DDJ-affiliated communities. With the goal of reducing unnecessary criminal justice involvement for Veterans, the pilot projects will build and refine a robust model for collaboration between local VA health centers, law-enforcement, behavioral health, and treatment services. The Department of Housing and Urban Development will also provide targeted support to help DDJ communities link data across criminal justice, health, and homelessness systems, so that these systems can better identify and serve those most in need, and help avoid emergency room visits, jails, and shelter stays in the first place. Learn more about these announcements here.
National Frontiers
In the popular press, the technology sector, the research community, and society as a whole, there is growing interest in artificial intelligence (AI) and the potential of computers capable of intelligent behavior. After years of steady but slow progress on making computers “smarter” at everyday tasks, a series of breakthroughs in recent years in the research community and industry have spurred momentum and investment in the development of this field and brought us to the precipice of transformative change.
Though today’s AI is confined to narrow, specific tasks, the rate of recent progress will have broad implications for fields ranging from health care to image- and voice-recognition. AI could deliver transformative solutions in health diagnostics, personalized learning, economic inclusion, bias mitigation, and autonomous transportation. But like any emerging technology, AI also carries risk and presents complex policy challenges along several dimensions, from jobs and the economy to safety and regulatory questions. That is why the Administration is today releasing:
· A First-Ever White House Report on the Future of Artificial Intelligence. Earlier this year, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy launched a broad consultation process, co-hosting five public workshops, including participation from academia, industry, and non-profits on topics in AI to spur public dialogue on artificial intelligence and machine learning and identify challenges and opportunities related to this emerging technology. With input from those cross-sector conversations, as well as the expertise of Federal agencies, the National Science and Technology Council is releasing a public report, Preparing for the Future of Artificial Intelligence, which surveys the state of AI, its many applications, and the questions AI raises for society and public policy. The report also makes recommendations for further action and sets out a roadmap for how the Federal Government and the country should approach AI in the coming years.
· A companion strategic plan for research and development in AI. A new National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan being released today by the National Information Technology Research and Development program lays out a framework for Federally-funded research and development in AI.
Global Frontiers
Under the determined leadership of President Obama, the United States has been one of the nations leading the world over the past 8 years in taking substantial steps to address the challenge of climate change. In addition to leading efforts on the world stage, such as the historic Paris Climate Agreement, the Administration has pursued climate strategies in science, technology, and innovation that have set the stage for further breakthroughs. The United States, 20 other countries, and the European Union are part of Mission Innovation, a global initiative to accelerate clean energy innovation. Participating countries are seeking to double their public funding of clean-energy research and development over the next 5 years, to nearly $30 billion per year by 2021. In the weeks ahead, the Administration will publish a new framework for U.S. participation in Mission Innovation, advancing a portfolio of technology options, including new game-changing possibilities, which hold the potential to reduce emissions, while simultaneously building on the growth of the new energy economy. In addition, to help unleash the next wave of clean energy breakthroughs, the Administration launched the Clean Energy Investment Initiative with foundations, institutional investors, and other long-term investors, announcing more than $4 billion in commitments to finance clean energy innovations and climate change solutions.
In addition, the Administration launched a number of efforts to advance climate data, information, tools, and services, including the Climate Data Initiative, U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, Climate Services for Resilient Development, and Partnership for Resilience and Preparedness. These efforts aim to better connect innovators, community leaders, and companies to climate science to support their planning. Over 1,000 climate data sets and hundreds of tools have been made available through these resources. The Administration also developed a Climate Education and Literacy Initiative to ensure that students and citizens understand climate change and are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and training to seek and implement solutions.
The pace and magnitude of climate change requires an all-hands-on-deck approach at the frontier of global innovation. At the White House Frontiers Conference, participants will discuss the possibilities that the next stages of this work can hold—advancing clean-energy innovation, providing communities with the climate-impacts information they need, and integrating climate science into education to foster a next-generation workforce who can design a climate-smart future.
Interplanetary Frontiers
At the beginning of his Administration, President Obama set out a new vision for space exploration, harking back to the spirit of possibility and exploration that defined the space race of the 1960s, while building upon and advancing 21st century technologies and capabilities. In 2010, the Administration restructured the U.S. civil space program to look forward to bold new goals, not backwards to old ones; to collaborate with, rather than compete with, American entrepreneurs; and to broaden participation and take advantage of new technologies being created at NASA and in America’s laboratories.
As President Obama noted earlier this week, these policies have fostered a burgeoning commercial space sector that is creating new jobs in places such as California, Colorado, Florida, Texas, and Washington, as the space economy attracts record amounts of venture capital. Working with NASA, American companies have developed new spacecraft that are cost-effectively delivering cargo to the International Space Station and will start ferrying astronauts there by the end of next year.
In 2011, the Administration created a new organization within NASA—a Space Technology Mission Directorate—charged with developing new technologies that would enhance capabilities and reduce costs for both the U.S. space industry and NASA’s missions, including critical technologies needed to achieve the President’s goal of a human mission to Mars in the 2030s. These technologies range from better life-support systems to efficient solar-powered electric propulsion systems. Much of this work is being performed in cooperation with companies and universities across the Nation.
And now, the Administration has started collaborating with industry to build the space modules or “habitats” in which U.S. astronauts will live and travel to Mars and other deep-space destinations. By doing so, humanity will begin to move beyond the constraints of Earth, out into the depths of deep space—the “proving ground” that will ultimately guide us to Mars and beyond. And in the coming years, the work NASA will do—in collaboration with private and international partners—to develop these deep-space habitats will in turn help reduce the barriers to private companies that hope to build their own space stations in Earth orbit or beyond.
This fall, NASA will also start the process of providing companies with a potential opportunity to add their own modules and other capabilities to the International Space Station. As NASA shifts the focus of its human exploration program to deep space, America’s businesses will take a larger role in supporting space activities in Earth’s orbit.
To further build on this momentum, the Administration is announcing:
· Over $50 million in new Federal investments and steps that will harness the small-satellite revolution. Entrepreneurs are taking advantage of recent advances in electronics and information technology to dramatically reduce the time and cost of designing, building, testing, and launching constellations of satellites. In the coming weeks, Federal agencies will announce investments and new steps they will take to advance the state of the art in small-satellite technology and increase the adoption of “smallsats” for commercial, scientific, and national security needs. Advancing smallsat technology and adoption could, for example, allow companies to provide ubiquitous high-speed Internet connectivity and offer continuously updated imagery of the Earth. As part of this initiative, NASA will invest $30 million to support public-private partnership opportunities that allow for Earth Science observations to be provided by constellations of commercial small spacecraft. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has just entered into a $20 million data purchase agreement with smallsat startup Planet to buy imagery from its constellation of earth-orbiting spacecraft.
· A new Executive Order to coordinate efforts to prepare the Nation for space-weather events. Building on the National Space Weather Strategy and National Action Plan released last October, today the President will sign an Executive Order that will help minimize the harm that space-weather events can cause across our Nation. The new Executive Order will minimize economic loss and save lives by enhancing national security, identifying successful mitigation technologies, and ordering the creation of nationwide response and recovery plans and procedures. Further, the Executive Order will enhance the scientific and technical capabilities of the United States, including improved prediction of space-weather events and their effects on infrastructure systems and services. By this action, the Federal Government will lead by example and help motivate State and local governments, and other nations, to create communities that are more resilient to the hazards of space weather.
A Sustained Focus by President Obama on Science, Technology, and Innovation
Since day one of his Administration, President Obama has taken a long-term view, prioritizing the investments, innovative policy actions, and cross-sector collaboration critical to fueling America’s long-term prosperity. In April 2009, he outlined an ambitious agenda to reinvigorate the American scientific and technological enterprise in a speech at the annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences.
In the nearly 8 years since, the full scope of the President’s science, technology, and innovation agenda has been sweeping, and is already setting the stage for new industries and continued innovation in the years ahead. For example:
· This Administration has launched a network of nine manufacturing institutes, which are helping American manufactures lead the world in innovation.
· Compared to 2008, wind power has tripled in production and solar power has increased 30-fold.
· The Administration launched major new science initiatives to advance health care through precision medicine, understanding the brain, accelerating progress in treating and preventing cancer, and combating antibiotic resistance.
· Over the last 3 years, an additional 20 million U.S. school kids have become connected to high-speed Internet, and the number of schools lacking high-speed connectivity has been cut in half.
· The Administration has taken steps to support the safe integration of unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace and the safe introduction of self-driving cars onto the Nation’s roads.
· U.S. companies that got their start supporting U.S. Government space missions have increased their share of the global commercial launch market from zero in 2011 to 36 percent in 2015.
· 100,000 engineers are graduating yearly from American universities for the first time ever, we are on track to prepare 100,000 STEM teachers by 2021, and the President set a bold vision to give every child an opportunity to learn computer science.
· In December 2015, Congress responded to the President’s call (dating to 2009) and made the research and experimentation (R&E) tax credit permanent.
· Federal agencies have made more than 180,000 Federal datasets and collections available to students, entrepreneurs, and the public.
Read more examples of President Obama’s leadership in science, technology, and innovation.
FACT SHEET: The Opportunity Project – Unleashing the power of open data to build stronger ladders of opportunity for all Americans
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 6, 2016
FACT SHEET: The Opportunity Project – Unleashing the power of open data to build stronger ladders of opportunity for all Americans
“The reason I'm here really is to recruit all of you…how can we start coming up with new platforms, new ideas, new approaches across disciplines and across skill sets to solve some of the big problems that we're facing today?”
– President Barack Obama at SXSW, March 11, 2016
Today the White House is announcing the expansion of the Opportunity Project and the launch of twenty-nine new digital tools built by companies and non-profit organizations to increase access to opportunity in communities across the country.
Although the poverty rate declined more rapidly in 2015 than in nearly fifty years, too many communities still do not have access to the resources and opportunities that residents need to thrive. The unprecedented combination of open data and technological talent that has emerged in recent years can play a critical role in closing that gap, as technologists partner with community leaders to expand access to opportunity in ways that were not previously possible.
The President launched the Opportunity Project in March 2016 to catalyze the creation of new digital tools that use federal and local data to empower communities with information about critical resources, such as affordable housing, quality schools, and jobs. By providing easy access to curated federal and local datasets at opportunity.census.gov, and facilitating collaboration between technologists, issue experts, and community leaders, the Opportunity Project is transforming government data into digital tools that create more just and equitable communities and help people solve problems in their everyday lives.
Since its inception, the Opportunity Project has yielded dozens of new digital tools that help meet needs in communities like finding affordable housing near jobs and transportation, advocating for broader access to opportunity in neighborhoods, and making data-driven investments to increase economic mobility.
Through the Opportunity Project, technologists, local governments, and community groups across the country are answering the President’s call to harness 21st century technology and innovation to expand access to opportunity for all Americans.
Key components of today’s announcements include:
More Details on Today’s Announcements
Administration actions to expand the Opportunity Project
· The Department of Commerce will lead the Opportunity Project and create a lasting platform for technologists to collaborate with government and local communities using federal open data. The Department of Commerce will work with federal agencies to curate data sets and articulate core national priorities that would benefit from tech sector engagement, and to encourage the development of digital tools that expand opportunity for all Americans.
· The Census Bureau released major updates to opportunity.census.gov, making it even easier for software developers, universities, and community partners to access the Opportunity Project data and existing tools, build new tools, and collaborate with others through a community of practice.
· In coming weeks, the Department of Education will release new open APIs for its Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) and My Brother’s Keeper Key Statistical Indicators on Boys and Young Men of Color data sets. This data will include information – disaggregated by race, income, and gender – on access to education resources, exclusionary school discipline, violence in the home, and difficulties in accessing affordable housing.
· The Department of Labor and the University of Chicago’s Center for Data Science and Social Good released a new OpenSkills API to facilitate the development of tools for policymakers, jobseekers, and employers to better understand the needs of 21st century workforce. The OpenSkills API combines jobs, skills, training and wage data from federal agencies such as the Office of Personnel Management’s USAJobs and DOL’s ONET with data from Careerbuilder, ADP Payroll Service, and other private sector companies to provide a more complete and current understanding of the skills required for every job in America.
· After leading separate challenges as part of the Opportunity Project, the Department of Labor and the Department of Education will co-lead a challenge to help our nation's most vulnerable workers strengthen their professional networks. Together, the participants who build tools will use the newly released OpenSkills API, mentioned above, and the Department of ED's CRDC API and publicly available DOL enforcement data to develop innovative tools to share workers' rights, educational opportunities, and professional opportunities.
· The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) extends its commitments to open climate information by sharing the data, maps, and code behind NOAA’s Climate Resilience Toolkit through the Opportunity Project to promote the development of additional innovative applications to help meet the nation's climate challenges.
· The Social and Behavioral Sciences Team (SBST) will work with federal agencies and tech teams from current and future companies and non-profits participating in the Opportunity Project to apply findings from the social and behavioral sciences and embed methods for rigorously testing what works.
New tools built by companies and non-profits to expand access to opportunity
Today, the White House is highlighting the release of twenty-nine new digital tools using federal open data to address core national priorities. The tools below were built during an eight week software development sprint by non-profits, companies, and students to help families, community leaders, and local officials expand access to jobs, schools, affordable housing, and other resources that are needed to thrive.
The Department of Education identified a national priority to help students, schools, and community leaders navigate information about educational equity and opportunity. The following teams built tools to address this challenge:
· Data Society and Kitamba worked together to build the “Philadelphia School Community Resource Mapper” to help school leaders find and develop community partnerships, and to help non-profit service providers identify regions where their services can have the greatest impact. They brought together data from the Census Bureau, HHS, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
· GreatSchools and Education Cities’ “Opportunity Dashboard” uses college readiness data from the Department of Education’s CRDC to measure gaps in access to educational opportunities across student groups to help parents, educators, and advocates fight for equity and improvement.
· LiveStories built a comparison tool, “LiveStories IQ,” and customizable data briefs using school-level CRDC data to help local school districts and education foundations inform parents and the electorate about the need for more funding to help ensure equal educational access for all.
The Department of Transportation identified a national priority to improve transit access and safety in disadvantaged communities. The following teams built tools for community leaders to address this challenge:
· Create.io’s tool provides dynamic location-based visualizations of hazardous traffic corridors for citizens and community decision-makers, using traffic accident and fatality data from DOT.
· mySidewalk’s tool provides answers to everyday community questions about traffic fatalities, cost of commuting, mobility for those in poverty, and access to employment by combining datasets from Census, HUD, DOT, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
· Split’s “Zip Code Commuter Map” displays the volume of commuter flows between zip codes and highlights locations that lack access to transit, using Census data.
The Office of the Surgeon General identified a national priority to promote emotional well-being in communities, and the Department of Veterans Affairs articulated an additional priority to support mental health and suicide prevention. The following teams built tools for individuals, clinicians, researchers and advocates to address these challenges:
· Fitbit’s tool helps policymakers understand the relationship between average activity and widespread health challenges in every state. It combines aggregated and anonymous activity data from over 10 million Fitbit users with data from the CDC on diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.
· Open Medicine Institute, together with Crisis Text Line, created “TextHelp”, a tool that uses de-identified VA Health System mental health data to assess suicide and other risks in patients and guide them through crisis to supportive resources.
· mySidewalk’s tool provides answers to everyday community questions regarding food access, housing overcrowding, and economic security by combining datasets from Census, HUD, EPA, and USDA.
· University of Oregon’s “Effortless Assessment of Risk States (E.A.R.S.)” tool generates risk-state information using data from smartphones on everyday behavior and location-based federal data on nearby hazards and resources such as VA facilities, in order to power precise, life-saving interventions for people in mental health crises.
The Department of Labor identified a national priority to connect people experiencing unemployment with jobs and apprenticeships. The following teams built tools for job-seekers and employers to address this challenge:
· HackerNest’s “Opportunity.HackerNest.com” uses the data from DOL's OpenSkills API and the Office Personnel Management’s USA JOB’s API to help users identify and navigate potential careers in federal government.
· LinkedIn’s “Training Finder” uses DOL data to surface education options that lead to in-demand careers for job seekers.
· Pairin’s “JobSeeker” uses DOL’s new OpenSkills API to match individuals to the jobs in their area that provide the greatest opportunity for personal and professional success based on their skills and experiences.
· Ushahidi’s “Job Postings” combines crowd-sourced job postings and DOL data, to allow organizations to easily share job opportunities and job-seekers to receive timely SMS and email alerts of jobs in their areas.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development identified a national priority to promote housing affordability and access in low-income communities. The following teams built tools for families, service providers, and community leaders to address this challenge:
· Mapbox’s “Neighborhood Opportunity” helps families searching for homes using a HUD housing choice voucher assess neighborhood amenities and housing affordability using HUD Fair Market Rent data and OpenStreetMap.
· Measure of America’s “Visualizing Youth Disconnection” identifies areas of need for policymakers and youth services organizations by using HUD data to visualize the relationship between residential segregation and youth disconnection.
· Loveland’s “FindHome” uses HUD data to help low-income families navigate affordable housing options, combining transit access, walkability, and school information in a single feed of available properties.
· Airbnb’s “Opportunity Calculator” uses HUD rental data to help families and individuals identify opportunities to cover housing costs by renting an extra room in their home.
The United States Department of Agriculture identified a national priority to help rural communities attract new investment and promote economic growth. The following team built a tool to address this need:
· Ovela’s “FindYour.Town” improves rural economic resiliency and simplifies the process of identifying funding opportunities with virtual storytelling of our rural American communities and by providing live spatial and funding data from USDA, Census, DOT, and HUD.
The Opportunity Project aims to make it easier for members of the public to use government data to solve challenges in their everyday lives. The following teams are addressing this need:
· data.world’s “Enhanced Opportunity Project Data Workspace” organizes data from 11 federal agencies and 12 cities, improving the discoverability of the Opportunity Project data, and eases collaboration for educators, civic technologists, hackathon organizers, as well as citizens interested in using the data now and in the future.
· ESRI’s “Opportunity Enabler Tool” uses a series of opportunity indices from HUD along with other federal, state, and local data, to help make every user’s search for key resources easier, in particular for survivors of domestic violence, LGBT youth experiencing homelessness, and Americans returning to their communities after incarceration.
· Exygy, a user-centered software design agency, worked with Opportunity Project participants to use human-centered design techniques to build and release products that solve core user needs.
· Wolfram Research’s “Wolfram Data Repository” incorporates datasets from multiple agencies (including BLS, Census, HUD, HHS, and USDA) to help Wolfram Language researchers and developers rapidly prototype and deploy tools that improve access to opportunity.
The following tools were built by students responding to the national priorities identified by the six federal agencies:
Additional commitments from the tech sector and universities to expand the reach and impact of the Opportunity Project
· SkillSmart will use DOL’s OpenSkills API to work with cities, states, and universities to create a skills classification and data tagging algorithm to improve skills data usability.
· Bayes Impact will use DOL’s OpenSkills API to design concepts for a digital career counselor to empower jobseekers by giving them a personalized assessment and recommending viable strategies they can explore to improve their situation.
· Coursera will launch a competitive process to award financial support for top universities to create courses that use the Opportunity Project federal and local open data to solve pressing challenges using data science and computer science.
· IDEO will advise future non-profits and companies that participate in the Opportunity Project on human-centered design, collaboration, and data use.
· The Iron Yard coding school will build on the existing incorporation of Opportunity Project data into their courses and roll out a formal Opportunity Project API, handbook, and data curriculum.
· The NYU Wagner School of Public Service will interview previous Opportunity Project participants from the tech sector and community groups to capture user feedback, lessons learned, and stories of impact.
· The Maryland Institute College of Art is offering a course in which students are using the Opportunity Project to evaluate data, tech, and design and identify areas for them to improve access to opportunity in Baltimore.
· The University of California, Davis will integrate Opportunity Project data into its existing data science initiatives and courses, coordinate calls for interdisciplinary subject matter experts, and engage networks of diverse social equity-oriented partners to participate in the Opportunity Project.
Previous Opportunity Project participants continue to increase access to opportunity in communities around the country
Highlights of the progress and impact of the digital tools released in March 2016:
Highlights of progress on commitments made in March 2016 to develop new tools, offer additional sources of data, and deepen community engagement through the use of the data:
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 6, 2016
FACT SHEET: The Opportunity Project – Unleashing the power of open data to build stronger ladders of opportunity for all Americans
“The reason I'm here really is to recruit all of you…how can we start coming up with new platforms, new ideas, new approaches across disciplines and across skill sets to solve some of the big problems that we're facing today?”
– President Barack Obama at SXSW, March 11, 2016
Today the White House is announcing the expansion of the Opportunity Project and the launch of twenty-nine new digital tools built by companies and non-profit organizations to increase access to opportunity in communities across the country.
Although the poverty rate declined more rapidly in 2015 than in nearly fifty years, too many communities still do not have access to the resources and opportunities that residents need to thrive. The unprecedented combination of open data and technological talent that has emerged in recent years can play a critical role in closing that gap, as technologists partner with community leaders to expand access to opportunity in ways that were not previously possible.
The President launched the Opportunity Project in March 2016 to catalyze the creation of new digital tools that use federal and local data to empower communities with information about critical resources, such as affordable housing, quality schools, and jobs. By providing easy access to curated federal and local datasets at opportunity.census.gov, and facilitating collaboration between technologists, issue experts, and community leaders, the Opportunity Project is transforming government data into digital tools that create more just and equitable communities and help people solve problems in their everyday lives.
Since its inception, the Opportunity Project has yielded dozens of new digital tools that help meet needs in communities like finding affordable housing near jobs and transportation, advocating for broader access to opportunity in neighborhoods, and making data-driven investments to increase economic mobility.
Through the Opportunity Project, technologists, local governments, and community groups across the country are answering the President’s call to harness 21st century technology and innovation to expand access to opportunity for all Americans.
Key components of today’s announcements include:
- Twenty-nine new digital tools built by non-profits, companies, and students, use federal and local data to address a set of national priorities identified by six federal agencies, specifically the Departments of Labor, Transportation, Education, Housing and Urban Development, and Agriculture, and the Office of the Surgeon General with support from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Organizations including Great Schools, MapBox, Airbnb, the University of Oregon, and FitBit collaborated with community members to accelerate progress toward these priorities. They created digital tools that help unemployed Americans build skills and find jobs, increase transit accessibility in low-income communities, help families navigate information on the quality of schools, and tackle other pressing challenges.
- The Department of Commerce announces its commitment to lead the Opportunity Project moving forward and create a lasting platform for technologists to collaborate with government and local communities using federal open data.
- New and easier ways to access high-value Federal data on civil rights and course access through the Department of Education’s new Civil Rights Data Collection Application Program Interfaces (APIs), and combined jobs, skills, training and wage data through the Department of Labor’s new OpenSkills API.
- New commitments from federal government, non-profits, tech companies, coding boot camps, and academic institutions to use the Opportunity Project data and create or use digital tools to build stronger ladders of opportunity nationwide, such as the Department of Labor and Department of Education’s commitment to co-lead a new Opportunity Project challenge, new funding from Coursera for universities to develop courses that use the Opportunity Project data in their curriculum, and more.
- A call to action from the White House for members of the public to develop new tools, offer additional sources of data, and invent new ways of using open data to make our communities more prosperous, equitable, and just. We want to hear what new steps you are taking or programs you are implementing in your community.
More Details on Today’s Announcements
Administration actions to expand the Opportunity Project
· The Department of Commerce will lead the Opportunity Project and create a lasting platform for technologists to collaborate with government and local communities using federal open data. The Department of Commerce will work with federal agencies to curate data sets and articulate core national priorities that would benefit from tech sector engagement, and to encourage the development of digital tools that expand opportunity for all Americans.
· The Census Bureau released major updates to opportunity.census.gov, making it even easier for software developers, universities, and community partners to access the Opportunity Project data and existing tools, build new tools, and collaborate with others through a community of practice.
· In coming weeks, the Department of Education will release new open APIs for its Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) and My Brother’s Keeper Key Statistical Indicators on Boys and Young Men of Color data sets. This data will include information – disaggregated by race, income, and gender – on access to education resources, exclusionary school discipline, violence in the home, and difficulties in accessing affordable housing.
· The Department of Labor and the University of Chicago’s Center for Data Science and Social Good released a new OpenSkills API to facilitate the development of tools for policymakers, jobseekers, and employers to better understand the needs of 21st century workforce. The OpenSkills API combines jobs, skills, training and wage data from federal agencies such as the Office of Personnel Management’s USAJobs and DOL’s ONET with data from Careerbuilder, ADP Payroll Service, and other private sector companies to provide a more complete and current understanding of the skills required for every job in America.
· After leading separate challenges as part of the Opportunity Project, the Department of Labor and the Department of Education will co-lead a challenge to help our nation's most vulnerable workers strengthen their professional networks. Together, the participants who build tools will use the newly released OpenSkills API, mentioned above, and the Department of ED's CRDC API and publicly available DOL enforcement data to develop innovative tools to share workers' rights, educational opportunities, and professional opportunities.
· The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) extends its commitments to open climate information by sharing the data, maps, and code behind NOAA’s Climate Resilience Toolkit through the Opportunity Project to promote the development of additional innovative applications to help meet the nation's climate challenges.
· The Social and Behavioral Sciences Team (SBST) will work with federal agencies and tech teams from current and future companies and non-profits participating in the Opportunity Project to apply findings from the social and behavioral sciences and embed methods for rigorously testing what works.
New tools built by companies and non-profits to expand access to opportunity
Today, the White House is highlighting the release of twenty-nine new digital tools using federal open data to address core national priorities. The tools below were built during an eight week software development sprint by non-profits, companies, and students to help families, community leaders, and local officials expand access to jobs, schools, affordable housing, and other resources that are needed to thrive.
The Department of Education identified a national priority to help students, schools, and community leaders navigate information about educational equity and opportunity. The following teams built tools to address this challenge:
· Data Society and Kitamba worked together to build the “Philadelphia School Community Resource Mapper” to help school leaders find and develop community partnerships, and to help non-profit service providers identify regions where their services can have the greatest impact. They brought together data from the Census Bureau, HHS, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
· GreatSchools and Education Cities’ “Opportunity Dashboard” uses college readiness data from the Department of Education’s CRDC to measure gaps in access to educational opportunities across student groups to help parents, educators, and advocates fight for equity and improvement.
· LiveStories built a comparison tool, “LiveStories IQ,” and customizable data briefs using school-level CRDC data to help local school districts and education foundations inform parents and the electorate about the need for more funding to help ensure equal educational access for all.
The Department of Transportation identified a national priority to improve transit access and safety in disadvantaged communities. The following teams built tools for community leaders to address this challenge:
· Create.io’s tool provides dynamic location-based visualizations of hazardous traffic corridors for citizens and community decision-makers, using traffic accident and fatality data from DOT.
· mySidewalk’s tool provides answers to everyday community questions about traffic fatalities, cost of commuting, mobility for those in poverty, and access to employment by combining datasets from Census, HUD, DOT, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
· Split’s “Zip Code Commuter Map” displays the volume of commuter flows between zip codes and highlights locations that lack access to transit, using Census data.
The Office of the Surgeon General identified a national priority to promote emotional well-being in communities, and the Department of Veterans Affairs articulated an additional priority to support mental health and suicide prevention. The following teams built tools for individuals, clinicians, researchers and advocates to address these challenges:
· Fitbit’s tool helps policymakers understand the relationship between average activity and widespread health challenges in every state. It combines aggregated and anonymous activity data from over 10 million Fitbit users with data from the CDC on diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.
· Open Medicine Institute, together with Crisis Text Line, created “TextHelp”, a tool that uses de-identified VA Health System mental health data to assess suicide and other risks in patients and guide them through crisis to supportive resources.
· mySidewalk’s tool provides answers to everyday community questions regarding food access, housing overcrowding, and economic security by combining datasets from Census, HUD, EPA, and USDA.
· University of Oregon’s “Effortless Assessment of Risk States (E.A.R.S.)” tool generates risk-state information using data from smartphones on everyday behavior and location-based federal data on nearby hazards and resources such as VA facilities, in order to power precise, life-saving interventions for people in mental health crises.
The Department of Labor identified a national priority to connect people experiencing unemployment with jobs and apprenticeships. The following teams built tools for job-seekers and employers to address this challenge:
· HackerNest’s “Opportunity.HackerNest.com” uses the data from DOL's OpenSkills API and the Office Personnel Management’s USA JOB’s API to help users identify and navigate potential careers in federal government.
· LinkedIn’s “Training Finder” uses DOL data to surface education options that lead to in-demand careers for job seekers.
· Pairin’s “JobSeeker” uses DOL’s new OpenSkills API to match individuals to the jobs in their area that provide the greatest opportunity for personal and professional success based on their skills and experiences.
· Ushahidi’s “Job Postings” combines crowd-sourced job postings and DOL data, to allow organizations to easily share job opportunities and job-seekers to receive timely SMS and email alerts of jobs in their areas.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development identified a national priority to promote housing affordability and access in low-income communities. The following teams built tools for families, service providers, and community leaders to address this challenge:
· Mapbox’s “Neighborhood Opportunity” helps families searching for homes using a HUD housing choice voucher assess neighborhood amenities and housing affordability using HUD Fair Market Rent data and OpenStreetMap.
· Measure of America’s “Visualizing Youth Disconnection” identifies areas of need for policymakers and youth services organizations by using HUD data to visualize the relationship between residential segregation and youth disconnection.
· Loveland’s “FindHome” uses HUD data to help low-income families navigate affordable housing options, combining transit access, walkability, and school information in a single feed of available properties.
· Airbnb’s “Opportunity Calculator” uses HUD rental data to help families and individuals identify opportunities to cover housing costs by renting an extra room in their home.
The United States Department of Agriculture identified a national priority to help rural communities attract new investment and promote economic growth. The following team built a tool to address this need:
· Ovela’s “FindYour.Town” improves rural economic resiliency and simplifies the process of identifying funding opportunities with virtual storytelling of our rural American communities and by providing live spatial and funding data from USDA, Census, DOT, and HUD.
The Opportunity Project aims to make it easier for members of the public to use government data to solve challenges in their everyday lives. The following teams are addressing this need:
· data.world’s “Enhanced Opportunity Project Data Workspace” organizes data from 11 federal agencies and 12 cities, improving the discoverability of the Opportunity Project data, and eases collaboration for educators, civic technologists, hackathon organizers, as well as citizens interested in using the data now and in the future.
· ESRI’s “Opportunity Enabler Tool” uses a series of opportunity indices from HUD along with other federal, state, and local data, to help make every user’s search for key resources easier, in particular for survivors of domestic violence, LGBT youth experiencing homelessness, and Americans returning to their communities after incarceration.
· Exygy, a user-centered software design agency, worked with Opportunity Project participants to use human-centered design techniques to build and release products that solve core user needs.
· Wolfram Research’s “Wolfram Data Repository” incorporates datasets from multiple agencies (including BLS, Census, HUD, HHS, and USDA) to help Wolfram Language researchers and developers rapidly prototype and deploy tools that improve access to opportunity.
The following tools were built by students responding to the national priorities identified by the six federal agencies:
- Twenty-seven students in the Flatiron School’s NYC iOS Developer program participated in the Opportunity Project and built the seven new apps listed below. Many of these students received scholarships through a partnership with the NYC Tech Talent Pipeline, a program under President Obama’s TechHire initiative that gives low-income New Yorkers skills to launch careers in tech.
- CareerSpark uses DOL data to guide high school students through career exploration, helping them discover possible trajectories and make an informed educational plan.
- Community Radar uses HUD data to help users compare locations based on education, income, transportation, and diversity to find information on neighborhoods and take practical steps to move there.
- FarmSquare allows users to find nearby farmers markets and their products and nutrition information, and to set up grocery lists.
- FeedNYC employs geolocation tools and HUD data to locate nearby food pantries and soup kitchens.
- Greenway NYC promotes healthy, active living by providing users nearby locations of parks, gardens, and farmer’s markets.
- Safety NYC gives information about what crimes have occurred nearby and includes features to keep users safe, like the ability to quickly dial 911.
- Walkmore generates walking paths for users and highlights points of interest along the routes. The app encourages users to take longer walks and live active lifestyles.
Additional commitments from the tech sector and universities to expand the reach and impact of the Opportunity Project
· SkillSmart will use DOL’s OpenSkills API to work with cities, states, and universities to create a skills classification and data tagging algorithm to improve skills data usability.
· Bayes Impact will use DOL’s OpenSkills API to design concepts for a digital career counselor to empower jobseekers by giving them a personalized assessment and recommending viable strategies they can explore to improve their situation.
· Coursera will launch a competitive process to award financial support for top universities to create courses that use the Opportunity Project federal and local open data to solve pressing challenges using data science and computer science.
· IDEO will advise future non-profits and companies that participate in the Opportunity Project on human-centered design, collaboration, and data use.
· The Iron Yard coding school will build on the existing incorporation of Opportunity Project data into their courses and roll out a formal Opportunity Project API, handbook, and data curriculum.
· The NYU Wagner School of Public Service will interview previous Opportunity Project participants from the tech sector and community groups to capture user feedback, lessons learned, and stories of impact.
· The Maryland Institute College of Art is offering a course in which students are using the Opportunity Project to evaluate data, tech, and design and identify areas for them to improve access to opportunity in Baltimore.
· The University of California, Davis will integrate Opportunity Project data into its existing data science initiatives and courses, coordinate calls for interdisciplinary subject matter experts, and engage networks of diverse social equity-oriented partners to participate in the Opportunity Project.
Previous Opportunity Project participants continue to increase access to opportunity in communities around the country
Highlights of the progress and impact of the digital tools released in March 2016:
- Esri incorporated the Opportunity Project’s data into their ArcGIS platform and also developed a new application harnessing the data.
- Measure of America’s “Data2go.NYC,” a tool that provides up-to-date information on neighborhood assets, has reached tens of thousands of users, including policymakers, social service delivery organizations, and advocates working to reduce poverty and inequality in the city. For example:
- A Councilmember is using Data2Go.NYC to focus on his district’s greatest challenges.
- City health agencies and organizations used the tool to decide on language translations and dissemination of vital health information
- Libraries have used the tool to identify areas with the greatest need for wifi hotspots.
- PolicyLink added new datasets to its “National Equity Atlas” to help communities and policymakers understand economic inclusion and access to opportunity. PolicyLink’s partners were able to use these datasets to identify opportunities for improving Atlanta’s economy.
- Redfin’s “Opportunity Score,” is a tool that uses Opportunity Project data to show users jobs they can access from affordable homes within 30 minutes or less without a car and helps real estate agents and developers identify communities with demand for new housing within reach of employment centers It is now available in over 350 cities across the country. In partnership with MIT, Redfin also used Opportunity Score in new research on the relationship between job accessibility, housing costs, and economic mobility.
- Socrata developed a tool that allows users to access geographic opportunity data programmatically or via API. Tens of thousands of users have accessed the Open Data Network since Socrata included Opportunity Project data.
Highlights of progress on commitments made in March 2016 to develop new tools, offer additional sources of data, and deepen community engagement through the use of the data:
- Code for America launched an Opportunity Project challenge as part of the National Day of Civic Hacking, a nationwide day of action when software developers, federal and local governments, designers, non-profits, and residents collaborate on challenges posed by federal agencies and local governments. For example, in Austin, 250 people used the Opportunity Project’s data to build an app, “impactmap.us”, for corporate giving campaigns to make smarter, local giving decisions based on actual needs and real data.
- The Los Angeles Promise Zone partnered on #Hack4Equality, a seven-week hackathon to combat issues in the LGBTQ community through technology development. Nearly 300 developers used open data from the Opportunity Project to build innovative applications that would tackle LGBTQ homelessness and inequality. The grand prize winner was “LooBot,” an SMS chatbot that seeks to connect those without wifi access to gender-neutral restrooms and locate charging outlets. The runner-up was “Kristening.me,” a website that simplifies transgender identity change documentation.
- The National Data Science Organizers (NDSO), a group of connected data science non-profits, meetups, and schools, partnered with the non-profit LRNG to build an online civic-tech course for youth 13-24 years of age. This course was built using Opportunity Project data to teach civic technology and data skills, while helping youth both learn about and serve the needs of their local communities with government data.
- Neighborland partnered with Bay Area Rapid Transit to demonstrate the capabilities of their platform for transportation advocacy organizations. Partners can now visualize open data from DOT, HUD, and Census Bureau through an integration with mySidewalk at no additional cost.
- The Participatory Budgeting Project (PBP) empowered community members in Long Beach, New York City, Greensboro and Seattle to directly decide how to spend local budget funds by connecting community decision-makers with Opportunity Project data. PBP is developing a new online hub for participatory budgeting data, drawing on Opportunity Project data, to help community members find and understand information about their neighborhoods.
- RISE(3) (Research in Social, Economic and Environmental Equity) at Boston College School of Social Work launched a research study using Opportunity Project data. RISE(3) completed an analysis of access to, use of, and time required by various forms of transportation, and how they intersect with race, place and income. RISE(3) has also begun a second analysis using federal data to examine access to and cost of childcare based on race and income.
ICYMI: White House Frontiers: Robots, Space Exploration, and the Future of American Innovation
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 7, 2016
ICYMI: White House Frontiers: Robots, Space Exploration, and the Future of American Innovation
WASHINGTON, DC – The Office of Science and Technology Policy posted the following White House blog on the White House Frontiers Conference, a national convening that the White House is co-hosting with the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University to explore the future of innovation here and around the world. You can view the blog HERE.
President Obama will travel to Pittsburgh, PA, on October 13 to host the White House Frontiers Conference, bringing together the Nation’s top innovators to discuss how new frontiers in science and technology will help improve lives and shape the future. Today, we’re excited to announce more details about the event, which will include voices from five frontiers of innovation—personal, local, national, global, and interplanetary. From developing personalized treatments for diseases like Alzheimer’s or cancer, to harnessing the power of artificial intelligence to improve lives, to sending humans to Mars, the conference will explore innovations that hold the potential to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges and keep America on the cutting edge.
The White House is co-hosting the Frontiers Conference with the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). The event will include topics inspired by the November issue of WIRED, where guest-editor President Obama will explore the theme of “Frontiers” that will shape the coming decades.
The President sits for a 3D portrait being produced by the Smithsonian Institution. There were so many cameras and strobe lights flashing but the end result was kind of cool. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
President Obama to Participate in a Conversation on the Future of Medicine and Health Care Innovation
As part of the Personal Frontiers dialogue, President Obama will join a conversation with Atul Gawande and innovators in medicine and health care to discuss future health breakthroughs, such as those being driven by the Administration’s BRAIN and Precision Medicine Initiatives.
The conference’s plenary session will also include a talk by Tim O’Reilly, one of the leading voices in how the online world will continue to evolve; a live podcast with Roman Mars, the host of 99% Invisible, and Raj Chetty, whose work on economic mobility is changing how we think about inequality in America; remarks from Charles Orgbon III who will bring a student’s voice to the imperative of addressing our climate challenges; and a discussion on increasing access to space with panelists including NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman, Erika Wagner from BlueOrigin, and Anousheh Ansari, the first female private space explorer.
The Five Frontiers of Innovation
Personal Frontiers will give participants a window into the next breakthroughs in health care innovation and precision medicine. Speakers will include:
· Dean Kamen, Founder, DEKA Research and Development
· Freda Lewis-Hall, Chief Medical Officer and EVP, Pfizer
· James Park, CEO, Fitbit
· Other speakers will include: University of California, San Francisco; University of Pittsburgh; FasterCures; OpenAPS; Columbia University; MIT Media Lab; and the National Institutes of Health
Local Frontiers will explore how we can leverage technology, data, and community engagement to build smarter and more inclusive communities, including through innovative new approaches to transportation challenges, criminal justice reform, leveraging local data, and innovative education. Speakers will include:
· Anthony Foxx, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation
· Mayor William Peduto, City of Pittsburgh, and Mayor Ed Lee, City of San Francisco
· Robin Chase, Co-Founder and former CEO, Zipcar
· Other speakers will include: Streetwyze; BitSource; University of Chicago; City of Knoxville Police Department; and the Massachussets Department of Public Health
National Frontiers will explore how companies and leading thinkers are working to responsibly harness the potential of artificial intelligence, including data science, machine learning, automation, and robotics to engage and benefit all Americans. Speakers will include:
· Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf
· Denis McDonough, White House Chief of Staff
· Fei-Fei Li, Computer Science Professor, Stanford University
· Other speakers will include: University of Illinois, Chicago; Johns Hopkins University; Microsoft; Google; Facebook; IBM; Uber; Texas A&M; DARPA; University of Pittsburgh; CMU; University of California, Berkeley; University of Washington; and MIT
Global Frontiers will discuss strategies to combat the global threat of climate change by accelerating the clean energy revolution and developing advanced climate information, tools, services, and collaborations. Speakers will include:
· Astro Teller, Director and Captain of Moonshots, X
· Representative Mike Doyle (PA-14)
· Brooke Runnette, Executive Vice President, Chief Program and Impact Officer, National Geographic Society
· Other speakers will include: Opus12; University of California, Berkeley; Energy Excelerator; Esri; Amazon Web Services; MIT; CMU; Louisiana State University; and Prairie A&M University
Interplanetary Frontiers will reach out to the “final frontier” and the next stage of space exploration, including the journey to Mars. Speakers will include:
· Dr. Ellen Stofan, Chief Scientist, NASA
· Rod Roddenberry, Jr., CEO of Roddenberry Entertainment and Founder of the Roddenberry Foundation
· George Whitesides, CEO, Virgin Galactic
· Other speakers will include: Moon Express; Space Systems Loral; The Tauri Group; Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Adler Planetarium; Vanderbilt University; Planet, Made in Space; Astrobotic/CMU; and University of Colorado
In the coming days, we will announce additional speakers and information about the event. Check out www.frontiersconference.org in the days ahead for more details on the above participants and updates, and tune in there to watch sessions live on October 13.
In continued celebration of exploration and new frontiers, the Allegheny Observatory at the University of Pittsburgh will also host the White House Frontiers Conference Astronomy Night to close out the conference. Featuring telescopes for stargazing, tours of the historic observatory, and astronomers, the event will bring together conference participants and students to celebrate science, innovation, and the spirit of discovery.
Have a question for one of our speakers? We want to hear from you. Tweet your questions using #WHFrontiers.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 7, 2016
ICYMI: White House Frontiers: Robots, Space Exploration, and the Future of American Innovation
WASHINGTON, DC – The Office of Science and Technology Policy posted the following White House blog on the White House Frontiers Conference, a national convening that the White House is co-hosting with the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University to explore the future of innovation here and around the world. You can view the blog HERE.
President Obama will travel to Pittsburgh, PA, on October 13 to host the White House Frontiers Conference, bringing together the Nation’s top innovators to discuss how new frontiers in science and technology will help improve lives and shape the future. Today, we’re excited to announce more details about the event, which will include voices from five frontiers of innovation—personal, local, national, global, and interplanetary. From developing personalized treatments for diseases like Alzheimer’s or cancer, to harnessing the power of artificial intelligence to improve lives, to sending humans to Mars, the conference will explore innovations that hold the potential to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges and keep America on the cutting edge.
The White House is co-hosting the Frontiers Conference with the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). The event will include topics inspired by the November issue of WIRED, where guest-editor President Obama will explore the theme of “Frontiers” that will shape the coming decades.
The President sits for a 3D portrait being produced by the Smithsonian Institution. There were so many cameras and strobe lights flashing but the end result was kind of cool. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
President Obama to Participate in a Conversation on the Future of Medicine and Health Care Innovation
As part of the Personal Frontiers dialogue, President Obama will join a conversation with Atul Gawande and innovators in medicine and health care to discuss future health breakthroughs, such as those being driven by the Administration’s BRAIN and Precision Medicine Initiatives.
The conference’s plenary session will also include a talk by Tim O’Reilly, one of the leading voices in how the online world will continue to evolve; a live podcast with Roman Mars, the host of 99% Invisible, and Raj Chetty, whose work on economic mobility is changing how we think about inequality in America; remarks from Charles Orgbon III who will bring a student’s voice to the imperative of addressing our climate challenges; and a discussion on increasing access to space with panelists including NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman, Erika Wagner from BlueOrigin, and Anousheh Ansari, the first female private space explorer.
The Five Frontiers of Innovation
Personal Frontiers will give participants a window into the next breakthroughs in health care innovation and precision medicine. Speakers will include:
· Dean Kamen, Founder, DEKA Research and Development
· Freda Lewis-Hall, Chief Medical Officer and EVP, Pfizer
· James Park, CEO, Fitbit
· Other speakers will include: University of California, San Francisco; University of Pittsburgh; FasterCures; OpenAPS; Columbia University; MIT Media Lab; and the National Institutes of Health
Local Frontiers will explore how we can leverage technology, data, and community engagement to build smarter and more inclusive communities, including through innovative new approaches to transportation challenges, criminal justice reform, leveraging local data, and innovative education. Speakers will include:
· Anthony Foxx, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation
· Mayor William Peduto, City of Pittsburgh, and Mayor Ed Lee, City of San Francisco
· Robin Chase, Co-Founder and former CEO, Zipcar
· Other speakers will include: Streetwyze; BitSource; University of Chicago; City of Knoxville Police Department; and the Massachussets Department of Public Health
National Frontiers will explore how companies and leading thinkers are working to responsibly harness the potential of artificial intelligence, including data science, machine learning, automation, and robotics to engage and benefit all Americans. Speakers will include:
· Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf
· Denis McDonough, White House Chief of Staff
· Fei-Fei Li, Computer Science Professor, Stanford University
· Other speakers will include: University of Illinois, Chicago; Johns Hopkins University; Microsoft; Google; Facebook; IBM; Uber; Texas A&M; DARPA; University of Pittsburgh; CMU; University of California, Berkeley; University of Washington; and MIT
Global Frontiers will discuss strategies to combat the global threat of climate change by accelerating the clean energy revolution and developing advanced climate information, tools, services, and collaborations. Speakers will include:
· Astro Teller, Director and Captain of Moonshots, X
· Representative Mike Doyle (PA-14)
· Brooke Runnette, Executive Vice President, Chief Program and Impact Officer, National Geographic Society
· Other speakers will include: Opus12; University of California, Berkeley; Energy Excelerator; Esri; Amazon Web Services; MIT; CMU; Louisiana State University; and Prairie A&M University
Interplanetary Frontiers will reach out to the “final frontier” and the next stage of space exploration, including the journey to Mars. Speakers will include:
· Dr. Ellen Stofan, Chief Scientist, NASA
· Rod Roddenberry, Jr., CEO of Roddenberry Entertainment and Founder of the Roddenberry Foundation
· George Whitesides, CEO, Virgin Galactic
· Other speakers will include: Moon Express; Space Systems Loral; The Tauri Group; Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Adler Planetarium; Vanderbilt University; Planet, Made in Space; Astrobotic/CMU; and University of Colorado
In the coming days, we will announce additional speakers and information about the event. Check out www.frontiersconference.org in the days ahead for more details on the above participants and updates, and tune in there to watch sessions live on October 13.
In continued celebration of exploration and new frontiers, the Allegheny Observatory at the University of Pittsburgh will also host the White House Frontiers Conference Astronomy Night to close out the conference. Featuring telescopes for stargazing, tours of the historic observatory, and astronomers, the event will bring together conference participants and students to celebrate science, innovation, and the spirit of discovery.
Have a question for one of our speakers? We want to hear from you. Tweet your questions using #WHFrontiers.
Remarks by the President in South by South Lawn Panel Discussion on Climate Change
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release October 3, 2016
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
IN SOUTH BY SOUTH LAWN PANEL DISCUSSION
ON CLIMATE CHANGE
WITH LEONARDO DICAPRIO AND KATHARINE HAYHOE
South Lawn
7:10 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. (Applause.)
MR. DICAPRIO: I want to thank you all for coming here this evening. I want to particularly thank our President for his extraordinary environmental leadership. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
MR. DICAPRIO: Most recently, in protecting our oceans.
Katharine, thank you for the great work you do on climate change and in helping improve preparedness of communities to deal with the impacts of climate change. (Applause.)
And thank all of you for showing up here this evening.
Tonight I am pleased to present the U.S. premier of my new documentary, “Before the Flood.” This was a three-year endeavor on the part of myself and my director, Fisher Stevens. Together we traveled from China to India, to Greenland to the Arctic, Indonesia to Micronesia, to Miami to learn more about the effects of climate change on our planet and highlight the message from the scientific community and leaders worldwide on the urgency of the issue.
This film was developed to show the devastating impacts that climate change is having on our planet, and more importantly, what can be done. Our intention for the film was to be released before this upcoming election. It was after experiencing firsthand the devastating impacts of climate change worldwide, we, like many of you here today, realize that urgent action must be taken.
This moment is more important than ever where some power leaders who not only believe in climate change but are willing to do something about it. The scientific consensus is in, and the argument is now over. If you do not believe in climate change, you do not believe in facts or in science -- (applause) -- or empirical truths, and therefore, in my humble opinion, should not be allowed to hold public office. (Applause.)
So, with that, I'm so very honored and pleased to be joined onstage with one of those leaders -- a President who has done more to create solutions for the climate change crisis than any other in history -- President Barack Obama. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
Q Along with leading climate scientist, Katharine Hayhoe, for this conversation about how we can make real progress on this issue.
So, with that, let us begin with the first question. President Obama, you're nearing the end of your second term as President. You’ve had an opportunity to reflect on the issues facing our country and our planet. How do you grade the global response to the climate change movement thus far?
THE PRESIDENT: We get an incomplete. But the good news is we can still pass the course if we make some good decisions now.
So, first of all, I just want to thank everybody who’s been here -- all day, some of you. (Applause.) Everybody who’s been involved in South by South Lawn. It looked really fun. (Laughter.) I was not allowed to have fun today. I had to work -- although I did take some time -- you guys may have noticed -- to take a picture with one of the Lego men. (Laughter.)
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Happy anniversary, Mr. President!
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. It is my anniversary today. (Applause.) We celebrated it yesterday -- 24 years FLOTUS has put up with me. (Laughter.)
I want to thank Leo for the terrific job he’s done in producing the film, along with Fisher. All of you will have a chance to see it at its premier tonight. And I think after watching it, it will give you a much better sense of the stakes involved and why it's so important for all of us to be engaged.
And I want to thank Katharine from Texas Tech.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Wooo --
THE PRESIDENT: There you go, we got a couple Texas Tech folks in here. But because Katharine, in addition of being an outstanding climate scientist, is a person of deep faith and she has really done some amazing stuff to reach out to some unconventional audiences to start fostering a broader coalition around this issue.
To your question, Leo, we are very proud of the work that we've been able to do over the last eight years here in the United States -- doubling fuel efficiency standards on cars; really ramping up our investment in clean energy so that we doubled the production of clean energy since I came into office. We have increased wind power threefold. We've increased the production of solar power thirtyfold. We have, as a consequence, slowed our emissions and reduced the pace at which we are emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere faster than any other advanced nation.
And that's the good news. The other big piece of good news was the Paris agreement, which we were finally able to get done. (Applause.) And for those of you who are not as familiar with it, essentially what the Paris agreement did was, for the first time, mobilize 200 nations around the world to sign up, agree to specific steps they are going to take in order to begin to bend the curve and start reducing carbon emissions.
Now, not every country is doing the exact same thing because not every country produces the same amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, per capita. So the expectation is, is that a country like the United States is going to do more than a small, underdeveloped country that doesn’t have the same scale of emissions.
But the good news about the Paris agreement was it committed everybody to do something. And although if you add it up, all the commitments that were made by all 200 nations, it would still not be sufficient to deal with the pace of warming that we're seeing in the atmosphere. What it does do is set up for the first time the architecture, the mechanism whereby we can consistently start turning up the dials and reducing the amount of carbon pollution that we're putting into the atmosphere.
And one last piece of good news about that is that I anticipate that this agreement will actually go into force in the next few weeks. India, just this past week, signed on. And we're going to get a few more nations signing on. (Applause.) And so, officially, this agreement will be into force much faster than I think many of us anticipated when we first organized it.
Last two points, little tidbits of good news. This week we'll begin negotiations on an aviation agreement, an international aviation agreement, where all airlines and major carriers around the world begin to figure out how they can reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that they’re emitting, which can make a big difference. And over the next couple weeks, we're also going to be negotiating around something called hydrofluorocarbons -- or HFCs -- which are other sources of greenhouse gases that, if we are able to reduce them, can have a big impact, as well.
So even with the Paris agreement done, we're still pushing forward hard in every area that we can to keep making progress. But, having said all that -- and this is where you’ll need to hear from Katharine because in the nicest way possible she’s going to scare the heck out of you as a precursor to the film.
What we're seeing is that climate change is happening even faster than the predictions would have told us five years ago or 10 years ago. What we're seeing is changes in climate patterns that are on the more pessimistic end of what was possible -- the ranges that had been discerned or anticipated by our scientists -- which means we're really in a race against time.
And part of what I'm hoping everybody here comes away from is hope that we can actually do something about it, but also a sense of urgency that this is not going to be something that we can just kind of mosey along about and put up with climate denial or obstructionist politics for very long if, in fact, we want to leave for the next generation beautiful days like today. (Applause.)
MR. DICAPRIO: With that, Katharine, all the environmental crises we face have a huge toll on humanity -- on poverty, security, public health, and disaster preparedness. The interconnected nature of our planet means that no country or community is going to be immune to any of these threats. What are the most urgent threats to our modern day civilization? And where do you feel the solutions lie?
MS. HAYHOE: Well, how many hours do we have again? (Laughter.) It's true, when we think of global issues, we think of poverty; we think of hunger; we think of disease; we think of people dying today from preventable causes that no one should be dying from in 2016.
And when we're confronted with these situations head on -- and I, myself, spent a number of years as a child growing up in South America, so I know what this looks like -- we think to ourselves, climate change, it's important, but we can deal with it later. We can no longer afford to deal with it later. Because if we want to fix poverty, if we want to fix hunger, if we want to fix inequality, if we want to fix disease and water scarcity, we are pouring all of our money, all of our effort, all of our hope and prayers into a bucket, and the bucket has a hole in the bottom. And that hole is climate change. And it is getting bigger and bigger.
To fix the global issues that we all care about, including environmental issues, including humanitarian issues, we can no longer leave climate change out of the picture because we will not be able to fix them without it.
MR. DICAPRIO: Mr. President, in “Before the Flood,” we see examples of the environmental impacts of corporate greed -- corporate greed from the oil and gas industry. For example, it's happening right now in Standing Rock. But some companies are starting to realize that addressing the climate change issue can actually spur economic activity. How do you get more companies to start moving in this direction, to take fundamental action into their business decision?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, companies respond to incentives. And the question then becomes, can we harness the power and the creativity in the marketplace to come up with innovation and solutions?
And, look, the economics of energy are extremely complicated. But let me just simplify it as much as possible. Dirty fuel is cheap -- because we've been doing it a long time, so we know how to burn coal to produce electricity. We know how to burn oil, and we know how to burn gas. And if it weren’t for pollution, the natural inclination of everybody would be to say let’s go with the cheap stuff.
And particularly when it comes to poor countries -- you take an example like India, where hundreds of millions of people still don't have electricity on a regular basis, and they would like to have the standards of living that, if not immediately as high as ours, at least would mean that they’re not engaging in backbreaking work just to feed themselves, or keep warm -- it's completely understandable that their priority is to create electricity for their people.
And if we're going to be able to solve this problem, we are going to have to come up with new sources of energy that are clean and cheap. Now, that's going to involve research; it's going to involve investment in R&D. And there are going to be startups and innovators -- and there are some in this audience who are doing all kinds of amazing things. But it takes time to ramp up these new energy sources. And we're in a battle against time.
The best way we can spur that kind of innovation is to either create regulations that say, figure it out, and if you don't figure it out then you're going to pay a penalty, or to create something like a carbon tax, which is an economic incentive for businesses -- (applause) -- to do this.
Now, I'll be honest with you. In the current environment in Congress, and certainly internationally, the likelihood of an immediate carbon tax is a ways away. But if you look at what we're doing just with power plants, a major source of greenhouse gases, we put forward something called the Clean Power Plan --clean power rule -- as a centerpiece of our climate change strategy. And we did this under existing authorities under the Environmental Protection Act.
And what we're saying to states is, you can figure out the energy mix, but you’ve got to figure out how to reduce your carbon emissions, and you need to work with your utilities and you need to work with your companies, and come up with innovative solutions. And we're not going to dictate to you exactly how do you do it, but if you don't start reducing them you're going to have problems. And we'll come up with a plan for you.
So the good news is that in the past, where we create an incentive for companies, it turns out that we're more creative, we're more innovative, we typically solve the problem cheaper, faster than we expected, and we create jobs in the process.
And if you doubt that, I'll just give you two quick examples -- because this is probably a pretty young audience, and I know this is going to seem like ancient history, but when I arrived in college in Los Angeles in 1979, I still remember the sunsets were spectacular. I mean, they were just these amazing colors. It was like I'd never seen them before -- because I was coming from Hawaii. And I started asking people, why are the sunsets here so spectacular? They said, well, that's all smog, man. It's creating this psychedelic stuff that normally is not seen in nature -- (laughter) -- because the light is getting filtered in all kinds of weird ways.
You couldn't run for more than 10, 15 minutes on an alert day without really choking up -- the same way you still do in Beijing. Well, L.A. is not pristine today, but we have substantially reduced smog in Los Angeles because of things like the catalytic converter and really rigorous standards. (Applause.)
The same is true with something called acid rain. In the Northeast, there was a time where -- Doc, make sure I'm getting this right -- it's Sulphur dioxide, right?
MS. HAYHOE: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Which was being generated from industrial plants, was going up into the atmosphere and then coming down in rain. It was killing forests all throughout the Northeast. And through the Clean Air Act, they essentially set up the equivalent of a cap and trade system. They said, companies, you figure out how to reduce your carbon dioxide emissions; we won't tell you exactly how to do it, but we're going to give you a powerful incentive -- we'll penalize you if you don't do it. You can capture some of the gains if you do do it.
Most of you don't hear anything about acid rain anymore, even though it was huge news 25, 30 years ago, because we fixed it.
And the last example I'll use is the ozone. It used to be that one of the things we were really scared about was the ozone layer was vanishing. And when I was growing up I wasn’t sure exactly what the ozone layer was, but I didn’t like the idea that there was a big hole that was developing in the atmosphere. (Laughter.) It just didn’t sound good. And it turned out that one of the main contributors to this was everybody was using deodorant with aerosol. And so everybody starting getting speed strips, or whatever. (Laughter.)
And it wasn’t that big of an inconvenience. Deodorant companies still made money. But something that I was amazed by -- and it gives you a sense of nature’s resilience when we do the right thing -- we just have gotten reports over the last couple of months that that hole in the ozone layer is beginning to close, which is amazing. (Applause.)
And all it took was people not using aerosol deodorant.
MS. HAYHOE: A few more things. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: There were a couple other things. I'm exaggerating. (Laughter.) Well, but essentially, we regulated the kinds of pollutants that were creating this hole without impeding our economic development. Nobody misses what we -- because companies were innovated enough to come up with substitutes that worked just fine.
And that's the basic strategy that we've got to employ here. We've got to give incentives to companies -- startups, existing companies. And we're going to have to do that initially, country by country. But America has got to lead the way because not only do we have the highest carbon footprint, per capita, but also because we happen to be the most innovative, dynamic business and entrepreneurial sector in the world. And if we create incentives for ourselves, we will help to fix this problem internationally. I'm absolutely confident of the matter.
MR. DICAPRIO: Back to something you mentioned earlier, Mr. President, which I'd like both of you to talk a little bit about -- the United States, as you said, has been the largest contributor to global emission in history. And as you said, as well, we need to set the example for the rest of the world to follow. Throughout my journey, most of the scientific community truly believes that the silver bullet to combat this issue is a carbon tax.
Now, a carbon tax, as complex as it is to implement, I would imagine, is something that needs to come from the people. It needs to come from the will of the people, which means there needs to be more awareness about this issue. Do you think that I will get to see a carbon tax in the next decade? Will we get to see this in our lifetime? Because most scientists specifically point to the idea that that's going to be the game-changer.
MS. HAYHOE: I think he knows the likelihood of that more than I do, but I do know that one of my absolute favorite organizations is Citizens Climate Lobby, and they are founded on the premise of a simple carbon tax -- nothing fancy; no difficult regulations; no three feet of code. It's putting a price on carbon to allow the market to then figure out what’s the cheapest way to get our energy.
MR. DICAPRIO: Can you explain to our audience what a carbon tax would mean?
MS. HAYHOE: Sure. In very basic terms, when you burn carbon it has harmful impacts on us, on our health, on our water, on our economy, on our agriculture, even on our national security. By putting a fee on that carbon, it makes certain types of energy more expensive and it makes other types of energy less expensive.
And the way I like it -- there’s many different flavors -- the kind I like is where that extra revenue is returned to us through our taxes and also used to incentivize technological development.
MR. DICAPRIO: Or it could be given to education, for example.
MS. HAYHOE: Yes.
MR. DICAPRIO: Bravo. (Laughter and applause.)
Katharine, you live in Texas.
MS. HAYHOE: I do. (Applause.) So do people over there.
MR. DICAPRIO: They’ve experienced unprecedented drought and floods in the past five years, and they’re also a major energy producer. AS you travel the state, what are the biggest misperceptions you hear from climate skeptics who often say these changes are the result of the cyclical nature of our planet’s temperature patterns? And how do you change their minds?
MS. HAYHOE: Any of us who pays attention to the weather, we know that we have cold and hot; we have dry and we have wet. And everybody who’s ever been to Texas knows that it looks more like this. Yes. So you might say, well, then, why does it matter if our weather is incredibly variable anyway? It matters because in a warmer planet, it’s taking that natural pattern of variability that brings drought and flood, heat and cold and it was stretching it.
So our heavy rainfalls are getting more extreme, because in a warmer atmosphere, the oceans are warmer and so more water evaporates. So the water is just sitting out there waiting for a storm to come through, pick it up and dump it on us -- just as happened here in recent days, as it happened in Baton Rouge a little while ago.
And if you read the reports of the meteorologists and the weather people talking about these heavy downpours you’re experiencing, you’ll see this phrase they repeat again and again -- the warm oceans -- and again, this year is a 99 percent chance of being again the warmest year on record after last year and the year before -- the warm oceans are providing a nearly infinite source of moisture for these storms. But at the same time, when we're in a dry period, as we get all the time in Texas, and it's hotter than average, then all of the moisture in our soil and our reservoirs evaporates quickly, leaving us dryer for longer periods of time.
So, yes, we know natural cycles are real. But we know that climate change is stretching that natural pattern, impacting us and our economy.
Here’s the cool thing about Texas, though. What do you think when you think of Texas?
THE PRESIDENT: Wind power.
MS. HAYHOE: Wind power -- yes.
THE PRESIDENT: I cheated.
MS. HAYHOE: He cheated. He knows the answer. (Laughter.) Texas knows energy. And here’s the cool thing about Texas. Did you know that already Texas is getting 10 percent of its electricity from wind? On a windy night, we get 50 percent of our energy from wind.
Every time I go south from where I live there are a new crop of wind turbines going up. And a couple years ago, I spent an afternoon on a farm down in Manisha, Texas, with a very conservative farmer, wasn’t too sure about this scientist showing up, but I was from Texas Tech. And after about an hour we figured out that I knew somebody who went to his church, and vice versa. So we were good. And I got the nerve to ask him, well, I notice that your neighbor has wind turbines all the way up to the edge of your land, and you don't have any wind turbines. You have a couple of oil wells. Is there any reason you don't have wind turbines?
And I expected something along the lines of, oh, those are for those sissy tree-huggers, or something. And he said, yes, there is a reason. And I said, well, may I ask what it is? And he said, I've been on the list for two years. I've been waiting for my wind turbine. I said, well, why do you want one. He said, because the check arrives in the mail.
In Texas, we have entire towns going 100 percent renewable because it is the cheapest way for them to get their energy. We have Fort Hood, which is the biggest military installation in the U.S., signing a new electricity contract for wind and solar because they can save the American taxpayer $165 million by going green. (Applause.)
Green is no longer just a color of money -- or the color of trees, I should say. Green is also increasingly in Texas, around the U.S., and even in China, becoming the color of money, as well. Wind and solar are the way of the future. And we're seeing it happen -- as a scientist, though, I have to say my only concern is we're not seeing it happen fast enough.
MR. DICAPRIO: Mr. President, this has been an unusual election year, to say the least. (Laughter.) And Gallup regularly polls Americans with an open-ended question about the issues that matter most to them. And the environment consistently polls low on that list, around 2 percent. As you know, climate change is a long-term problem. It requires long-term solutions. How can we all do a better job of engaging the public, especially those who are skeptical, in a meaningful and productive debate about the urgency of these issues and inspire them to be a part of the solution now?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, climate change is almost perversely designed to be really hard to solve politically because it is a problem that creeps up on you. There’s no single hurricane or tornado or drought or forest fire that you can directly attribute to climate change. What you know is, is that as the planet gets warmer the likelihood of what used to be, say, a hundred-year flood, that's supposed to happen only every hundred years, suddenly starts happening every five years, or every two years.
And so the odds just increase of extreme weather patterns. But people, they don't see it as directly correlated. And the political system in every country is not well-designed to do something tough now to solve a problem that people are really going to feel the impacts of in the future. The natural inclination of political systems is to push that stuff off as long as possible.
So if we are going to solve this problem, then we're going to need some remarkable innovation. Katharine is exactly right that solar and wind is becoming a job generator and an economic development engine. But what’s also true is we're going to need some real innovation in things like, for example, battery storage. How do we keep wind and solar stored without too much leakage so that when the wind is not blowing or the sun is not shining, we still have regular energy power. We're still going to need some really big technological breakthroughs.
But with the technology that we have right now, my goal has been to build that bridge to this clean energy future. To make sure that over the next 20 years, using existing technologies, we do everything we can even as we're creating the even more innovative technology, so that by the time those technologies are ready we haven't already created an irreversible problem.
And that's going to require mobilization. It is going to require us all doing a better job of educating ourselves, our friends, our neighbors, our coworkers, and ultimately expressing that in the polls. And in order to do that, I think it is important for those of us who care deeply about this -- and Katharine is a wonderful example of the right way to do it -- to not be dismissive of people’s concerns when it comes to what will this mean for me and my family. Right?
So if you're a working-class family, and dad has to drive 50 miles to get to his job, and he can't afford to buy a Tesla or a Prius, and the most important thing to him economically to make sure he can pay the bills at the end of the month is the price of gas, and when gas prices are low that means an extra 100 bucks in his pocket, or 200 bucks in his pocket, and that may make the difference about whether or not he can buy enough food for his kids -- if you just start lecturing him about climate change and what’s going to happen to the planet 50 years from now, it's just not going to register.
So part of what we have to do I think is to engage, talk about the science, talk about the concrete effects of climate change. We have to make it visual and we have to make it vivid in ways that people can understand. But then we also have to recognize that this transition is not going to happen overnight, and you're not starting from scratch. People are locked into existing ways of doing business.
Look, part of the reason we have such a big carbon footprint is our entire society is built around interstate highway systems and cars. And you can't, overnight, suddenly just start having everybody taking high-speed trains because we don't have any high-speed trains to take. And we have to build them. And we should start building them. But in the meantime, people have to get to work.
So I think having an understanding that we're not going to complete this transition overnight, that there are going to be some compromises along the way, that that's frustrating because the science tells us we don't have time to compromise; on the other hand, if we actually want to get something done, then we got to take people’s immediate, current views into account. That's how we're going to move the ball forward.
And I'll just give you one example. And generally -- this is a pretty sympathetic crowd, but some folks will push back on this. When you think about coal, we significantly reduced the amount of power that we're generating from coal. And it's going to continue to go down. Well, number one, coalminers feel like they’ve been battered, and they often blame me and my tree-hugger friends for having created real economic problems in places like West Virginia, or parts of Kentucky, or parts of my home state of southern Illinois.
Interestingly enough, one of the reasons why we've seen a significant reduction of coal usage in the United States is not because of our regulations. It's been because natural gas got really cheap as a consequence of fracking. Now, there are a lot of environmentalists who absolutely object to fracking because their attitude is sometimes it's done really sloppy and releases methane that is even a worse greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. It leaks into people’s water supplies and aquafers, and when done improperly can really harm a lot of people. And their attitude is we got to leave that stuff in the ground if we're going to solve climate change.
And I get all that. On the other hand, the fact that we're transitioning from coal to natural gas means less greenhouse gases. Same thing with nuclear power. People don't like nuclear power because they have visions of Chernobyl or Three Mile Island, what are we doing with the storage of the waste. Nuclear power generally evokes a lot of stuff in our imaginations. But nuclear power doesn’t emit greenhouse gases.
So we've got to make some decisions. If we're going to get India or China to actually sign on to reducing carbon emissions, then we're going to have to have a conversation with them about nuclear power, and help them with technologies that ensure safety and we can figure out how to store it until we invite the perfect energy source -- crystals or whatever, and Scotty is there beaming us up -- (laughter.) But until then, we've got to live in the real world.
So I say all that not because I don't recognize the urgency of the problem. It is because we're going to have to straddle between the world as it is and the world as we want it to be, and build that bridge. And what I always tell my staff, and what I told our negotiators during the Paris agreement is better is good. Better is not always enough; better is not always ideal, and in the case of climate change, better is not going to save the planet. But if we get enough better, each year we're doing something that's making more progress, moving us forward, increasing clean energy, then that's ultimately how we end up solving this problem.
And that's when we can start creating political coalitions that will listen to us, because we're actually recognizing that some people have some real concerns about what this transition is going to do to them, to their pocketbook, and we've got to make sure that they feel like they’re being heard in this whole process. (Applause.)
MS. HAYHOE: Absolutely. I couldn't agree more, first of all. And second of all, I think that this really underscores one of the biggest lessons that I, as a scientist, have learned. So, so often we feel like facts and information are what’s going to make people care.
And so many times, I have somebody come into me and say, Katharine, if you could just talk to my mother, if you could just talk to my brother-in-law, if you could just talk to our city councilperson and give them the facts -- it's real, it's us, it's bad, we have to fix it -- that will change their minds. The biggest thing I've learned is that facts are not enough. In fact, the more literate we are about science, the more polarized we are about climate change.
The most important thing to do is not to pile up scientific reports until they reach a tottering pile of about eight feet, where they’ll tip over and crush somebody. The most important thing to do is to connect this issue to what’s already in our hearts. Because one of the most insidious myths I feel like we've bought into is that I have to be a certain type of person to care about climate change. And if I am not that person, then I don't care about it because I care about these other things. But the reality is, is that if we're a human living on this planet -- which most of us are -- as long as we haven't signed up for the trip to Mars -- I don't want to know if anybody has. I think you're crazy. (Laughter.)
MR. DICAPRIO: I did --
MS. HAYHOE: Oh, you did? Oh, I'm sorry, I take that back. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: I think you’ll acknowledge he’s crazy. (Laughter.)
MS. HAYHOE: All right, we'll go with that. (Laughter.) So if we're a human living on this planet, this is the only planet we have. It's our home. If we're a parent, we would do anything for our children’s sake. If we're a businessperson, we care about the economy. We care about the community that we live in. We care about our house. We care about the fact that we want to have clean air to breathe; we want to have enough water to drink; we want to have a safe and secure environment in which to live.
The single most important thing I feel like I've learned is that we already have all the values we need to care about climate change in our hearts, no matter who we are and what part of the spectrum we come from. We just have to figure out how to connect those values to the issue of climate. (Applause.)
MR. DICAPRIO: Katharine, well put. Yes. Does our planet -- and this is one of the questions I posed to many scientists while doing the film -- does our planet have the ability to regenerate if we do the right things? Or has there been enough lasting damage that can never be undone? Have we put enough carbon into the atmosphere that we're going to feel the repercussions of climate change for decades to come? And a second question to that -- do you see any cutting-edge technology besides solar and wind, any bright spots on the horizon that suggest we can rapidly change this course? For example, fusion.
MS. HAYHOE: Yes. So just like smoking, we know that if you’ve already smoked for a certain amount of time there’s some damage that has been done. When is the best time to stop smoking? Today? If not today, tomorrow? If not then, the next day? But we know that the longer we've been doing it the greater the repercussions.
So, in the case of climate change, if we could flip a magic switch and turn off all our carbon emissions today, we would still see the impact of the Industrial Revolution on our planet for well over 5,000 years. That's how long we would see it.
But, on the other hand, there’s still plenty of time to avoid the worst of the impacts. If we act now. Every year that goes by without serious action is one more year of smoking, essentially, that increases our risk of lung cancer, so to speak. Except we're not talking about our own lungs, we're talking about the planet.
So there is an urgency to it. But there’s also hope, because by acting we can change the future. The future really is in our hands, because for the first time in the history of the human race on this planet, we are the ones in the driver’s seat of climate. It is both frightening as well as an opportunity that we cannot afford to lose.
So, technologies. You’ve already gone through great ones. There are so many amazing ones. Like in West Texas were some smart guys who had an idea. They saw oil wells. What if we used wind energy to pump water down those oil wells under high pressure so that when it wasn’t windy we could let that water back up to turn the turbines and make electricity. That's a pretty cool idea.
I would love to live in a house where the shingles are solar panels, where the walls are painted with solar paint, where I had one -- power walls in the garage storing the energy overnight, and I plug in my electric car when I get home. We would all like to live in a world where our bike paths and even our highways are made out of solar panels, where everything that we do is constantly being renewed, and we know that we have a source of energy that is never going to run out on us and that does not pollute our air.
I was amazed -- and this is a scientist speaking here -- I was amazed to learn that here in the United States, on average, every year, 200,000 people die from air pollution from burning fossil fuels. It's over 5 million around the world -- 200,000 people. Imagine if those 200,000 people were dying from a different cause. Imagine some of the causes we're told about today whenever you turn on the news -- things that we should be afraid of. Air pollution, simple air pollution alone gives us all the reason in the world we need to shift towards clean energy. Add on climate change, add on the fact that, as the President mentioned a while ago, developing countries need energy. There’s a billion people living in energy poverty today, with no access to energy.
But if you add up all the fossil fuel resources in Southeast Asia and Africa, they have less than 10 percent of the world’s fossil fuels. So the answer for the billion people living in energy poverty is not to do it the same way we did 300 years ago. I mean, that's honestly a very colonialistic attitude to say, no, you have to go back to the 1700s and do it that way. It's like saying you have to go through the party telephone, and then you can get your own telephone, and then you can get a cellphone in another 150 years. That's not the way the world works.
We are leapfrogging over the old technology, and the answer is we can do it because it's taking us to a better and a more secure place. (Applause.)
MR. DICAPRIO: I got the opportunity to sit with the head of NASA, and you’ll see a lot of this in the film, but he basically projected the next 20 to 30 years. And he started talking about specifically the United States and the possibility of another Dust Bowl coming up. I asked about my home state of California and the wildfires and the droughts that are occurring there. And he said you can expect to continue that.
Do you agree that -- we're going to feel some of the repercussions of climate change in the form of rising sea levels, more intense hurricanes, and we're going to see droughts and wildfires like that start to occur in the future. What do you think the future is going to look like for us if we do not take immediate action? Do you think we'll be able to sustain the projected levels of what’s going to happen to our planet for the next 20 years? Or do you think that if we don't take immediate action things are going to get exponentially worse?
MS. HAYHOE: So nine times out of ten, the way climate change affects us is not through some strange thing that we've never seen before. It's not like a biblical plague of locusts arriving. It's through taking what you just referred to -- it's taking the ways that we're already vulnerable to climate and weather today.
How is D.C. vulnerable? Heatwaves, flooding, snowstorms. How is Texas vulnerable? Droughts, dust bowls, flooding. When we look at all the ways we're already vulnerable, and nine times out of ten, that is exactly how climate change is going to impact us -- by changing the risks of these events. And that's what you already talked about. It isn't a single event where we can point out, we can say, okay, that event was definitely climate change, but that event was 100 percent natural.
It's more like climate change is taking the natural weather dice -- and there’s always a chance of rolling a double six, an event that has a huge impact on us, economically. And climate change is sneaking in when we're not looking and it's taking another one of those numbers and replacing it with a six, and then another number and replacing it with a six. So the chances of rolling that double six are increasing the further we go down this road.
THE PRESIDENT: One thing I'd say, Leo, and I think Katharine alluded to this -- another analogy to think about is we're heading towards a cliff at 90 miles an hour. And if we hit the brakes, we don't come to an immediate stop without spinning out of control. And so what we have to do is we have to tap the brakes. And if we tap the brakes now, then we don't go over the cliff.
So when you think about climate change, there’s a big difference between the oceans rising three feet or the oceans rising 10 feet. Three feet is going to be expensive and inconvenient and disruptive. And we already see that -- if you live in Miami right now -- and I think, in fact, in your film you reference this -- there are sunny days where, at noon, suddenly there’s two feet of water in the middle of the streets. And the reason is because as the oceans and the tides rise, Miami is on pretty porous rock, so it's not even sufficient to build like a wall because it's coming up through the ground.
And it's going to be really expensive for Miami with three feet of water -- or three feet of higher ocean. But it's probably manageable. Once you start getting to 10 feet, then you don't have South Florida. There will still be Florida, but it will be the Florida that will look like maybe a million years ago. And that's a lot of property value. South Beach and Coral Gables and there are a lot of really nice spots. (Laughter.)
My hometown of Hawaii, Honolulu -- Honolulu will still be there, but three feet just means you're moving houses a little bit back from the beach. Ten feet means the beach doesn’t exist.
And so the ramifications of whether we work on this now, steadily and make progress, or we don't could mean the difference between huge disruptions versus adaptations that are expensive and inconvenient, but that don't fundamentally change the shape of our society or put us into potential conflict.
I'm using examples here in the United States. Poor countries are obviously much more vulnerable. If you see a change in monsoon patterns in the Indian subcontinent where you’ve got potentially a billion people who are dependent on a certain pattern of rains, the Himalayas getting a certain amount of snowpack, et cetera, and those folks’ margin of error is so thin that you might end up seeing migrations of hundreds of millions of people, which invariably will create significant conflict.
There’s already some really interesting work -- not definitive, but powerful -- showing that the droughts that happened in Syria contributed to the unrest and the Syrian civil war. Well, if you start magnifying that across a lot of states, a lot of nation states that already contain a lot of poor people who are just right at the margins of survival, this becomes a national security issue.
And that's why, even as we have members of Congress who scoff at climate change at the same time as they are saluting and wearing flag pins and extolling their patriotism, they’re not paying attention to our Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Pentagon who are saying that this is one of the most significant national security threats that we face over the next 50 years.
ll of which is to say that as hard as it is for us to start acting now to solve a problem that has not fully manifested itself yet, this is going to be a really important test for humanity and our political system. And it's a test that requires everybody to do better. It requires me to do better, as somebody who’s got a voice. It requires Katharine and scientist to communicate more effectively. Everybody should take a lesson from Katharine on how to explain this stuff in ways that people understand. (Applause.)
it requires us reaching out to the faith community in ways that Katharine has done a really good job of, because there are a lot of evangelicals who are actually generally on the conservative side of the spectrum that care deeply about this planet that God made. It requires us to reach out to sportsmen and hunters and fishermen who may not agree at all on Second Amendment issues, but they sure like and understand the notion that they’ve got a forest where they can go out and -- although they probably don't want to be mauled by a grizzly bear -- (laughter) -- that looks a little severe. (Laughter.)
So all of us I think are going to have to do better than we're doing in elevating this issue. And as I said before, better is good. We can start with existing technologies. I'll just use one last example on this.
If we just had the energy efficiency of Japan, which is an island nation that doesn’t have a lot of fossil fuels, and so, historically, in their development path have been much more conscious about energy efficiency, we could reduce our energy consumption by 20 percent without changing our standard of living. Simple stuff like when you leave a room the light automatically goes off instead of it still be on.
A lot of companies are doing some smart work because it affects their bottom line. Our ability to measure in houses sort of smartly how much energy we're using and minimizing waste of energy and heat can make a huge difference. Folks in Texas -- air conditioning is a great invention, but nothing gets me more frustrated than seeing somebody and it's 100 degrees outside and they’re wearing a sweater indoors because the air conditioning is turned up too high. But we do that everywhere -- partly because of building design. You can't open the windows, and so, as a consequence, you can't use natural temperature regulators.
There’s a bunch of stuff that seems kind of simple and stupid, but would make a big dent. All those things have to start getting factored in. But we've got to change our politics. And as Leo said, it's got to come from the bottom up. Until on a bipartisan basis, politicians feel that their failure to address this will cost them their seats, potentially, or will threaten their careers, then they’re going to continue to operate in ways that I think are really unproductive. (Applause.)
MS. HAYHOE: I began to study climate science over 20 years ago, and I have lived through the period where climate change has become one of the most politicized issues in the entire United States to where the number-one predictor of what our opinions are about climate change is nothing more than where we fall on the political spectrum.
The reality is, as my husband says, who is an evangelical pastor, a thermometer is not Democrat or Republican. It does not give us different numbers depending on how we vote. The science is what it is. If we say gravity isn't real, and we step off a cliff, we're going down anyway. But the solutions are political. Do we go with a cap and trade? Do we go with a carbon tax? Do we go with technological incentivizes? What do we do about other countries? How do we build states and businesses and communities? These are political and they should be debated up and down the halls. But what should not be debated is the fact that we are all human, we share this amazing home that we live in, and it is in all of our best interests to make sure that we leave it a better place for our children. (Applause.)
MR. DICAPRIO: This is my last question. President Obama, you use the Antiquities Act to preserve more acres of land and sea than any President since Teddy Roosevelt. (Applause.) I was going to say, let’s give him a round of applause, but they did that automatically. (Applause.) The great Teddy Roosevelt. How important is it to have a President who not only believes in the science of climate change, but one who understands that we must conserve these natural resources to create conditions that are conducive to a sustainable life for future generations?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, this goes to the point Katharine made about values. And I mentioned I grew up in Hawaii. Those of you who have been there, it’s a really pretty place. And the native Hawaiian traditions are so woven with nature and the sea and outdoors, and so that seeps into you when you grow up there.
But I tell you, I don’t know any place in the country where there isn’t someplace that evokes the same kind of sense of place and beauty. It may be a desert landscape. It may be a forest somewhere. It may be a mountain. And as my girls start getting older, I start thinking about grandkids -- not soon. (Laughter.) But it’s natural you start thinking about sort of the next stages of your life and the idea that my grandkids wouldn’t see something I had seen, that -- you can be a conservative Republican in Alabama, but you’ve got a memory of your dad taking you out hunting, and you being quiet and still, and you want to do that same thing with your kid. And it may be different than me taking my grandkid bodysurfing at Sandy Beach, but there’s the same feeling of wanting to pass that on. Of feeling deeply about it and caring deeply about it.
And I think one of the ways for us to tackle the climate change issue is also to lift up the power and the values that are embodied in conservation. It’s kind of a twofer. When we went out to Midway Islands, which is already a historic site because in part this was the turning point of World War II. There are people who revere this site because of its history in World War II, and the incredible courage and bravery of people who were outnumbered but ultimately were able to turn back a Japanese fleet that was on its way to Hawaii.
But we were up there, and this is water that’s just untouched. And you’re seeing monk seals diving in and swimming next to you, and turtles that are climbing up on the beach just to sun themselves, and it used to be there were 60,000 birds and now there are 3 million birds on this island -- bunch of species that were about to go extinct. It all came back just in the span of one generation because of conservation. Well, not only is that creating incredible beauty, but it also means now that you have this huge preserve of ocean that is not contributing to climate change.
And so I think these two things go hand in hand. In the same way that the issue of air pollution and disease is, in some ways, a way to get at the climate change issue if people aren’t directly concerned about climate change. In China, frankly, part of the reason that people are -- that the government there was willing to work with us, they’re number-one priority is political stability. And what they started noticing was the number one Twitter feed in China was the air quality monitor that was put out each morning by the U.S. embassy. It was the single thing that more Chinese looked at than anything because people couldn’t breathe in Beijing.
And smog is not the same as carbon dioxide, but it is generated by the same energy pattern usages. So if that’s where people are at right now and they want to be sure their kids are healthy, then let’s go after that. If they’re interested in conservation as a way to start thinking about climate change, let’s go after that. There are so many entry points into this issue and we’ve got to use all of them in order to convince people that this is something worth caring about.
But at the end of the day, the one thing I’m absolutely convinced about is, everybody cares about their kids, their grandkids, and the kind of world we pass on to them. And if we can speak to them about our responsibilities to the next generation, and we can give people realistic ways to deal with this so that they don’t feel like they’ve got to sacrifice this generation to do it, they have to put hardship on their kids now in order to save their grandkids -- then I tend to be a cautious optimist about our ability to make change. But events like this obviously make a big difference and really help. (Applause.)
MR. DICAPRIO: Mr. President, Katharine, thank you so much for your time. I’m truly honored to premier this film here on the White House lawn. Like I said, this was a three-year endeavor. I learned so much and I’m going to let the film speak for itself as far as everything that I experienced on this journey.
Thank you so much for your time. Let’s give them a round of applause. Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, everybody. Appreciate you. Thank you. (Applause.)
MR. DICAPRIO: Thank you all for showing up.
THE PRESIDENT: Have fun, everybody.
MR. DICAPRIO: Enjoy the film
Background on the White House South by South Lawn Event
Earlier this year, President Obama traveled to South by Southwest® for a conversation on civic engagement. In Austin, he called on creative thinkers and entrepreneurs from across the country to help tackle our toughest challenges. Tomorrow, October 3, we're celebrating that spirit of innovation at South by South Lawn, a White House festival of ideas, art, and action, hosted in coordination with the American Film Institute (AFI), the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH), the National Park Foundation, and South by Southwest®.
At SXSL, the White House will call on every American to roll up their sleeves and discover their own way to make a positive difference in our country. And it's an opportunity to celebrate the inspiring work so many Americans have already accomplished. The festival will be streamed live on WhiteHouse.gov, Facebook.com/WhiteHouse, and sxsw.com/live.
Below please find an email from the President that will go out tomorrow morning and a full SXSL schedule.
Email from President Obama:
Whenever I hear people make gloomy claims about how America is on the downswing, They're either out to promote themselves, or talking about some alternate reality. Think about it -- if you had to choose any time in the course of human history to be alive, you'd choose this one. Right here, right now, right in America.
New technologies and new innovations are transforming the way we live, opening up incredible opportunities to create, to discover, and to do what we never thought possible.
At the same time, we have to navigate these changes in a smart way. They also can be disruptive, even scary -- and sometimes, they leave folks behind.
Our task is to come together and build a future that's more inclusive, tolerant, and full of opportunity for everybody. And I've never been more optimistic that we will.
As President, I've spent the last eight years finding the best people to help us meet that challenge. People who reject cynicism. People who turn change into a force for good. People who believe that, no matter who we are, where we come from, who we love, or what God we pray to, we -- the people -- can create a world that's worthy of our brightest hopes.
So today, I'm inviting a bunch of these folks to my backyard for South by South Lawn.
Much like the festival I dropped by in Austin earlier this year, SXSL is, at its heart, a call to action. The folks out on the lawn today are artists, creators, entrepreneurs, and innovators who will share how they've used their unique skills to engage their communities in making the change they want to see -- whether it's curing cancer, fighting poverty, empowering women, and so much more.
We'll welcome people like Jukay Hsu, an Iraq War veteran with a Bronze Star for his service to our country who uses technology to build a path out of poverty for people in Queens. Or Oscar Menjivar, who is pushing schools in Los Angeles to bring technology into the classroom so kids can get a head start on coding. Or Dr. Nina Tandon, the founder of the world’s first company growing living human bones to help with reconstruction and recovery.
Those are just a few of the incredible people you'll see out at South by South Lawn all day today. And believe me -- it's a sight to see.
We've got an art installation made entirely of sticky notes where people share how they will make a positive impact where they live. We've got a virtual reality exhibit where people can experience what it's like to live in solitary confinement and learn firsthand why it should be banned from our prisons.
We'll discuss questions that will define the coming decades: How do we harness technology to solve our most stubborn problems? How will we sustainably feed ourselves in the near future? How do we foster innovation in the heart of our cities? How do we, as citizens, engage to bring about lasting change?
And I'll join a conversation with Dr. Katherine Hayhoe, a climate scientist, and Leonardo DiCaprio, a longtime ally in the fight against climate change, to explore how we can move forward in our efforts to protect the one planet we've got. Leo is also debuting his documentary film on climate change tonight.
Given his day job, I'm betting it's pretty good.
So join us today on the South Lawn to see how you can lend a hand in building a world we want to live in.
That's our responsibility as citizens. That doesn't mean this has be your full-time job. It doesn't mean you have to run for office or launch a start-up. But it does mean that whatever field you're in, whatever skill you have, whatever passion you're pursuing, you can find a way to engage, to participate, and to make a difference.
See you on the lawn,
President Obama
Full Schedule:
9:45 AM Hard Things are Hard: A Conversation with James Turrell and David Adjaye (Newseum)
11:30 AM Musical performances in the White House, including Gallant and Black Alley
12:30 PM DJ Bev Bond (Innovation Stage)
1:45 PM The Dap-Kings (Innovation Stage)
2:45 PM Feeding the Future Panel (Innovation Stage)
Fixing Real Problems Panel (Discussion Stage)
4:00 PM LA: A Case Study in Innovation Panel (Innovation Stage)
How We Make Change (Discussion Stage)
5:15 PM White House Student Film Festival (Innovation Stage and Film Screen)
6:15 PM The Lumineers (Innovation Stage)
7:00 PM President Obama in Conversation with Leonardo DiCaprio and Dr. Katharine Hayhoe (Innovation Stage)
7:45 PM Domestic premiere of climate documentary film Before the Flood (Film Screen)
Earlier this year, President Obama traveled to South by Southwest® for a conversation on civic engagement. In Austin, he called on creative thinkers and entrepreneurs from across the country to help tackle our toughest challenges. Tomorrow, October 3, we're celebrating that spirit of innovation at South by South Lawn, a White House festival of ideas, art, and action, hosted in coordination with the American Film Institute (AFI), the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH), the National Park Foundation, and South by Southwest®.
At SXSL, the White House will call on every American to roll up their sleeves and discover their own way to make a positive difference in our country. And it's an opportunity to celebrate the inspiring work so many Americans have already accomplished. The festival will be streamed live on WhiteHouse.gov, Facebook.com/WhiteHouse, and sxsw.com/live.
Below please find an email from the President that will go out tomorrow morning and a full SXSL schedule.
Email from President Obama:
Whenever I hear people make gloomy claims about how America is on the downswing, They're either out to promote themselves, or talking about some alternate reality. Think about it -- if you had to choose any time in the course of human history to be alive, you'd choose this one. Right here, right now, right in America.
New technologies and new innovations are transforming the way we live, opening up incredible opportunities to create, to discover, and to do what we never thought possible.
At the same time, we have to navigate these changes in a smart way. They also can be disruptive, even scary -- and sometimes, they leave folks behind.
Our task is to come together and build a future that's more inclusive, tolerant, and full of opportunity for everybody. And I've never been more optimistic that we will.
As President, I've spent the last eight years finding the best people to help us meet that challenge. People who reject cynicism. People who turn change into a force for good. People who believe that, no matter who we are, where we come from, who we love, or what God we pray to, we -- the people -- can create a world that's worthy of our brightest hopes.
So today, I'm inviting a bunch of these folks to my backyard for South by South Lawn.
Much like the festival I dropped by in Austin earlier this year, SXSL is, at its heart, a call to action. The folks out on the lawn today are artists, creators, entrepreneurs, and innovators who will share how they've used their unique skills to engage their communities in making the change they want to see -- whether it's curing cancer, fighting poverty, empowering women, and so much more.
We'll welcome people like Jukay Hsu, an Iraq War veteran with a Bronze Star for his service to our country who uses technology to build a path out of poverty for people in Queens. Or Oscar Menjivar, who is pushing schools in Los Angeles to bring technology into the classroom so kids can get a head start on coding. Or Dr. Nina Tandon, the founder of the world’s first company growing living human bones to help with reconstruction and recovery.
Those are just a few of the incredible people you'll see out at South by South Lawn all day today. And believe me -- it's a sight to see.
We've got an art installation made entirely of sticky notes where people share how they will make a positive impact where they live. We've got a virtual reality exhibit where people can experience what it's like to live in solitary confinement and learn firsthand why it should be banned from our prisons.
We'll discuss questions that will define the coming decades: How do we harness technology to solve our most stubborn problems? How will we sustainably feed ourselves in the near future? How do we foster innovation in the heart of our cities? How do we, as citizens, engage to bring about lasting change?
And I'll join a conversation with Dr. Katherine Hayhoe, a climate scientist, and Leonardo DiCaprio, a longtime ally in the fight against climate change, to explore how we can move forward in our efforts to protect the one planet we've got. Leo is also debuting his documentary film on climate change tonight.
Given his day job, I'm betting it's pretty good.
So join us today on the South Lawn to see how you can lend a hand in building a world we want to live in.
That's our responsibility as citizens. That doesn't mean this has be your full-time job. It doesn't mean you have to run for office or launch a start-up. But it does mean that whatever field you're in, whatever skill you have, whatever passion you're pursuing, you can find a way to engage, to participate, and to make a difference.
See you on the lawn,
President Obama
Full Schedule:
9:45 AM Hard Things are Hard: A Conversation with James Turrell and David Adjaye (Newseum)
11:30 AM Musical performances in the White House, including Gallant and Black Alley
12:30 PM DJ Bev Bond (Innovation Stage)
1:45 PM The Dap-Kings (Innovation Stage)
2:45 PM Feeding the Future Panel (Innovation Stage)
Fixing Real Problems Panel (Discussion Stage)
4:00 PM LA: A Case Study in Innovation Panel (Innovation Stage)
How We Make Change (Discussion Stage)
5:15 PM White House Student Film Festival (Innovation Stage and Film Screen)
6:15 PM The Lumineers (Innovation Stage)
7:00 PM President Obama in Conversation with Leonardo DiCaprio and Dr. Katharine Hayhoe (Innovation Stage)
7:45 PM Domestic premiere of climate documentary film Before the Flood (Film Screen)
Joint Statement: 2016 United States-India Cyber Dialogue
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 29, 2016
Joint Statement: 2016 United States-India Cyber Dialogue
The Governments of the United States and India held the Fifth U.S.-India Cyber Dialogue in New Delhi on September 28, 2016.
The U.S.-India Cyber Dialogue reflects our nations’ broad engagement and long-standing cooperation on important bilateral and global issues. The Cyber Dialogue is a forum for implementing the Framework for the India–U.S. Cyber Relationship, in particular exchanging and discussing international cyber policies, comparing national cyber strategies, enhancing our efforts to combat cybercrime, and fostering capacity building and R&D, thus promoting cybersecurity and the digital economy.
The U.S.-India Cyber Dialogue is deepening bilateral cooperation on a wide range of cyber issues and strengthening the U.S.-India strategic partnership by:
The whole-of-government Cyber Dialogue, fifth in the series, was led by the U.S. National Security Council Senior Director for Cyber Policy Samir Jain and by Shri Santosh Jha, Joint Secretary for Policy Planning and Global Cyber Issues, Ministry of External Affairs. The Department of State Coordinator for Cyber Issues Christopher Painter and the National Security Council Secretariat Joint Secretary Shri Abhimanyu Ghosh co-hosted the Dialogue. The U.S. government interagency delegation included representatives from the Departments of State, Homeland Security, and Commerce, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Indian government was represented by Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Ministry of Communication, Ministry of Home Affairs, Computer Emergency Response Team, National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre, Central Bureau of Investigation and Defence Research & Development Organisation.
The two countries decided to hold the next round of the Cyber Dialogue in Washington in 2017.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 29, 2016
Joint Statement: 2016 United States-India Cyber Dialogue
The Governments of the United States and India held the Fifth U.S.-India Cyber Dialogue in New Delhi on September 28, 2016.
The U.S.-India Cyber Dialogue reflects our nations’ broad engagement and long-standing cooperation on important bilateral and global issues. The Cyber Dialogue is a forum for implementing the Framework for the India–U.S. Cyber Relationship, in particular exchanging and discussing international cyber policies, comparing national cyber strategies, enhancing our efforts to combat cybercrime, and fostering capacity building and R&D, thus promoting cybersecurity and the digital economy.
The U.S.-India Cyber Dialogue is deepening bilateral cooperation on a wide range of cyber issues and strengthening the U.S.-India strategic partnership by:
- Exchanging information on cyber threats and issues of mutual concern, and discussing possible cooperative measures;
- Promoting bilateral cooperation on law enforcement and cybercrime issues;
- Creating a mechanism for cooperation, including setting up appropriate sub-groups;
- Affirming common objectives in international cyber fora, especially the application of international law to state behavior in cyberspace, the affirmation of norms of responsible state behavior, and the development of practical confidence-building measures;
- Confirming support for the preservation of openness and interoperability, enhanced by the multi-stakeholder system of Internet governance; and,
- Coordinating cyber capacity-building efforts, including testing and standards with respect to cybersecurity.
The whole-of-government Cyber Dialogue, fifth in the series, was led by the U.S. National Security Council Senior Director for Cyber Policy Samir Jain and by Shri Santosh Jha, Joint Secretary for Policy Planning and Global Cyber Issues, Ministry of External Affairs. The Department of State Coordinator for Cyber Issues Christopher Painter and the National Security Council Secretariat Joint Secretary Shri Abhimanyu Ghosh co-hosted the Dialogue. The U.S. government interagency delegation included representatives from the Departments of State, Homeland Security, and Commerce, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Indian government was represented by Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Ministry of Communication, Ministry of Home Affairs, Computer Emergency Response Team, National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre, Central Bureau of Investigation and Defence Research & Development Organisation.
The two countries decided to hold the next round of the Cyber Dialogue in Washington in 2017.
FACT SHEET: Launch of the “Lock Down Your Login” Public Awareness Campaign
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 28, 2016
FACT SHEET: Launch of the “Lock Down Your Login” Public Awareness Campaign
A new campaign that empowers Americans to better secure their online lives
Since the beginning of his Administration, the President has made it clear that cybersecurity is one of the most important challenges we face as a Nation. In February of this year, the President issued his Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP). The CNAP directed the Federal Government to take new action now while fostering the conditions required for long-term improvements in our approach to cybersecurity across the Federal Government, the private sector, and our personal lives.
One critical component of the CNAP is the goal of empowering Americans to better secure their online accounts by moving beyond just usernames and passwords and adding an extra layer of security. To accomplish this goal, the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), together with non-profit membership organizations and private sector companies, today launched the “Lock Down Your Login” campaign.
Launching “Lock Down Your Login”
The NCSA’s “Lock Down Your Login” is a public-private campaign designed to enable every American to better secure their online accounts through the use of strong authentication. Strong authentication, such as the use of a fingerprint or the confirmation of a one-time code, for your online accounts could have prevented as many as 62 percent of successful data breaches last year.
Many Americans are concerned about online security. But we all have work to do to improve the security of our online accounts. 72 percent of Americans believe their accounts are secure with only a username and password. Unfortunately, this simple method for protecting ourselves online is not as effective as it once was. But there is some good news. A confluence of emerging technologies, under the banner of strong authentication, is making it easier for everyone to better secure their online accounts.
“Lock Down Your Login” aims to close this gap by focusing on simple and widely available solutions that can and should be adopted by every American online. That’s why industry, government, and like-minded organizations that understand the importance of cybersecurity awareness and education are coming together through this harmonized campaign to make the case to consumers directly.
“Lock Down Your Login” builds upon years of the STOP. THINK. CONNECT.TM campaign’s public-private partnerships to help more Americans stay safe online through public awareness. This new campaign is timed with the launch of National Cyber Security Awareness Month in October. During October, the National Cyber Security Alliance and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, co-founders and co-leaders of the month, call on all Americans and businesses to share the responsibility and take steps to be safer and more secure online.
“Lock Down Your Login” Partners
In order to launch this public-private partnership, the NCSA has engaged a broad range of “Lock Down Your Login” partners, including technology companies, banks, non-profits, and civil society. “Lock Down Your Login” partners will support the campaign in a number a ways including but not limited to:
· Collaborating closely with the National Cyber Security Alliance to promote the “Lock Down Your Login” messaging and content by using the brand and logo with their own. This includes utilizing media space online and on television as well as other platforms to spread the word about “Lock Down Your Login.”
· Encouraging customers to use strong authentication technology. By making new technologies available and generating awareness of those currently offered, partners will empower their customers to better secure their accounts.
· Creating original content for their audience and promoting it through their own platforms and spokespeople. “Lock Down Your Login” encourages campaign partners generate awareness and inspire action by creating their own content designed to reach their specific target audience.
Examples of commitments announced by companies today in support of the “Lock Down Your Login” campaign include:
· Facebook is conducting a broadcast and radio media tour to share security tools and advice to keep accounts safe, including strong authentication and password advice. People using Facebook will see promotional videos for tools like Security Checkup, which encourages unique passwords and the use of login alerts to receive a notification when a new computer or phone attempts to access your account. A blog post series on Facebooks’ Security Page will highlight the “Lock Down Your Login” campaign and share other security features, including login approvals, which is Facebook’s two-factor authentication feature involving a code generated from the Facebook app or sent via text message.
· The FIDO Alliance, the Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) and the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) will jointly host a "Future of Authentication Policy Day" to highlight the importance of strong authentication, explore the evolution of the authentication market, and discuss its impact on the policy and regulatory landscape. This event will take place on October 27th, in recognition of National Cyber Security Awareness Month.
· Google will help promote the goals of the “Lock Down Your Login” campaign through a blog post, social media, and a home page promotion in October that will urge users to take an account “Security Checkup” which includes managing any two-step verification protections users have set up. This is in addition to Google’s existing security investments, including ongoing Safe Browsing protection, which shields desktops and Android users from malware, phishing, and unwanted software on the web.
· Intel is committed to working with the National Cyber Security Alliance and its partners to bring easy and actionable digital security education to consumers through engaging content. Intel will support the call for stronger authentication by reaching users on social media and motivating them to take action by making digital security understandable and user-friendly. In product offerings that support this initiative, True Key™ by Intel Security is a multifactor password manager. It secures passwords, ensures only users can access them with unique factors like their face and fingerprint, and logs users in across the web.
· Mastercard continues to be committed to developing consumer solutions that eliminate static passwords, utilize biometrics and make payments both safe and simple. As part of its efforts, Mastercard, with its partner BMO-Harris Bank in the United States, will announce the upcoming commercial launch of the Mastercard Identity Check Mobile solution for BMO Harris Bank's commercial cards. Mastercard Identity Check Mobile allows a user to authenticate a digital payment transaction with his or her fingerprint or selfie.
· SANS Institute is offering organizations access to an interactive National Cybersecurity Awareness Month Planning Kit, which will include everything organizations need to promote cybersecurity during the month of October. The kit includes resources, materials and templates for every day of the month, including an entire day dedicated just to the Lock Down Your Login campaign.
· Square will continue to implement simple and easy-to-use multi-factor authentication (MFA) tools for all of the businesses that they serve. For user log-in, they have provided customers with the option to enable an MFA feature that sends a text with a verification code. Square will encourage users to enable this tool through a variety of channels with clear instructions on how to do so. Their MFA solution also enables the business to require a second layer of verification for sensitive account actions like changing a linked bank account or password.
· USAA is committing to make it easier for its members to secure their accounts using multi-factor authentication. They support a variety of authentication methods including touch, voice, face, text and token. White these methods have been available to all members since 2011, USAA will now automatically enroll new members in multi-factor authentication. This is part of a multi-year commitment to strengthen account security.
NSCA’s full list of partners on the “Lock Down Your Login” partners are: CompTIA, Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of America, Council of Better Business Bureaus, Decoded, ESET North America, Facebook, Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI), FIDO Alliance, Financial Services Roundtable, Google, Intercede, Intel Corp., Javelin Strategy & Research, Logical Operations – Get IT Certified, MasterCard, mcgarrybowen, Mozilla, Multi-State Information Sharing Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) National Program Office (NPO), NXP Semiconductor, PayPal, Salesforce, SANS Institute, Square, TeleSign, TrueKeyTM by Intel Security, Twitter Inc., Visa Inc., Wells Fargo & Company, and Yubico.
Campaign Development
Led by the NSCA and in coordination with the Administration, the campaign was developed through an active collaboration of partners and consumer research to identify a message that would resonate with Americans and encourage them to take actions to secure their accounts.
Working together since this past spring, partners have provided input and guidance about the best ways to communicate the value of adding stronger authentication to online accounts. Several messages and logos were tested through surveys. Americans responded the most positively to the “Lock Down Your Login” messaging as it is easy to understand, encourages adoption of stronger account security and motivates internet users to take action to prevent identity theft and secure their digital lives.
For more information about how to lock down your login or to become a campaign partner visit https://www.lockdownyourlogin.com
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 28, 2016
FACT SHEET: Launch of the “Lock Down Your Login” Public Awareness Campaign
A new campaign that empowers Americans to better secure their online lives
Since the beginning of his Administration, the President has made it clear that cybersecurity is one of the most important challenges we face as a Nation. In February of this year, the President issued his Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP). The CNAP directed the Federal Government to take new action now while fostering the conditions required for long-term improvements in our approach to cybersecurity across the Federal Government, the private sector, and our personal lives.
One critical component of the CNAP is the goal of empowering Americans to better secure their online accounts by moving beyond just usernames and passwords and adding an extra layer of security. To accomplish this goal, the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), together with non-profit membership organizations and private sector companies, today launched the “Lock Down Your Login” campaign.
Launching “Lock Down Your Login”
The NCSA’s “Lock Down Your Login” is a public-private campaign designed to enable every American to better secure their online accounts through the use of strong authentication. Strong authentication, such as the use of a fingerprint or the confirmation of a one-time code, for your online accounts could have prevented as many as 62 percent of successful data breaches last year.
Many Americans are concerned about online security. But we all have work to do to improve the security of our online accounts. 72 percent of Americans believe their accounts are secure with only a username and password. Unfortunately, this simple method for protecting ourselves online is not as effective as it once was. But there is some good news. A confluence of emerging technologies, under the banner of strong authentication, is making it easier for everyone to better secure their online accounts.
“Lock Down Your Login” aims to close this gap by focusing on simple and widely available solutions that can and should be adopted by every American online. That’s why industry, government, and like-minded organizations that understand the importance of cybersecurity awareness and education are coming together through this harmonized campaign to make the case to consumers directly.
“Lock Down Your Login” builds upon years of the STOP. THINK. CONNECT.TM campaign’s public-private partnerships to help more Americans stay safe online through public awareness. This new campaign is timed with the launch of National Cyber Security Awareness Month in October. During October, the National Cyber Security Alliance and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, co-founders and co-leaders of the month, call on all Americans and businesses to share the responsibility and take steps to be safer and more secure online.
“Lock Down Your Login” Partners
In order to launch this public-private partnership, the NCSA has engaged a broad range of “Lock Down Your Login” partners, including technology companies, banks, non-profits, and civil society. “Lock Down Your Login” partners will support the campaign in a number a ways including but not limited to:
· Collaborating closely with the National Cyber Security Alliance to promote the “Lock Down Your Login” messaging and content by using the brand and logo with their own. This includes utilizing media space online and on television as well as other platforms to spread the word about “Lock Down Your Login.”
· Encouraging customers to use strong authentication technology. By making new technologies available and generating awareness of those currently offered, partners will empower their customers to better secure their accounts.
· Creating original content for their audience and promoting it through their own platforms and spokespeople. “Lock Down Your Login” encourages campaign partners generate awareness and inspire action by creating their own content designed to reach their specific target audience.
Examples of commitments announced by companies today in support of the “Lock Down Your Login” campaign include:
· Facebook is conducting a broadcast and radio media tour to share security tools and advice to keep accounts safe, including strong authentication and password advice. People using Facebook will see promotional videos for tools like Security Checkup, which encourages unique passwords and the use of login alerts to receive a notification when a new computer or phone attempts to access your account. A blog post series on Facebooks’ Security Page will highlight the “Lock Down Your Login” campaign and share other security features, including login approvals, which is Facebook’s two-factor authentication feature involving a code generated from the Facebook app or sent via text message.
· The FIDO Alliance, the Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) and the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) will jointly host a "Future of Authentication Policy Day" to highlight the importance of strong authentication, explore the evolution of the authentication market, and discuss its impact on the policy and regulatory landscape. This event will take place on October 27th, in recognition of National Cyber Security Awareness Month.
· Google will help promote the goals of the “Lock Down Your Login” campaign through a blog post, social media, and a home page promotion in October that will urge users to take an account “Security Checkup” which includes managing any two-step verification protections users have set up. This is in addition to Google’s existing security investments, including ongoing Safe Browsing protection, which shields desktops and Android users from malware, phishing, and unwanted software on the web.
· Intel is committed to working with the National Cyber Security Alliance and its partners to bring easy and actionable digital security education to consumers through engaging content. Intel will support the call for stronger authentication by reaching users on social media and motivating them to take action by making digital security understandable and user-friendly. In product offerings that support this initiative, True Key™ by Intel Security is a multifactor password manager. It secures passwords, ensures only users can access them with unique factors like their face and fingerprint, and logs users in across the web.
· Mastercard continues to be committed to developing consumer solutions that eliminate static passwords, utilize biometrics and make payments both safe and simple. As part of its efforts, Mastercard, with its partner BMO-Harris Bank in the United States, will announce the upcoming commercial launch of the Mastercard Identity Check Mobile solution for BMO Harris Bank's commercial cards. Mastercard Identity Check Mobile allows a user to authenticate a digital payment transaction with his or her fingerprint or selfie.
· SANS Institute is offering organizations access to an interactive National Cybersecurity Awareness Month Planning Kit, which will include everything organizations need to promote cybersecurity during the month of October. The kit includes resources, materials and templates for every day of the month, including an entire day dedicated just to the Lock Down Your Login campaign.
· Square will continue to implement simple and easy-to-use multi-factor authentication (MFA) tools for all of the businesses that they serve. For user log-in, they have provided customers with the option to enable an MFA feature that sends a text with a verification code. Square will encourage users to enable this tool through a variety of channels with clear instructions on how to do so. Their MFA solution also enables the business to require a second layer of verification for sensitive account actions like changing a linked bank account or password.
· USAA is committing to make it easier for its members to secure their accounts using multi-factor authentication. They support a variety of authentication methods including touch, voice, face, text and token. White these methods have been available to all members since 2011, USAA will now automatically enroll new members in multi-factor authentication. This is part of a multi-year commitment to strengthen account security.
NSCA’s full list of partners on the “Lock Down Your Login” partners are: CompTIA, Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of America, Council of Better Business Bureaus, Decoded, ESET North America, Facebook, Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI), FIDO Alliance, Financial Services Roundtable, Google, Intercede, Intel Corp., Javelin Strategy & Research, Logical Operations – Get IT Certified, MasterCard, mcgarrybowen, Mozilla, Multi-State Information Sharing Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) National Program Office (NPO), NXP Semiconductor, PayPal, Salesforce, SANS Institute, Square, TeleSign, TrueKeyTM by Intel Security, Twitter Inc., Visa Inc., Wells Fargo & Company, and Yubico.
Campaign Development
Led by the NSCA and in coordination with the Administration, the campaign was developed through an active collaboration of partners and consumer research to identify a message that would resonate with Americans and encourage them to take actions to secure their accounts.
Working together since this past spring, partners have provided input and guidance about the best ways to communicate the value of adding stronger authentication to online accounts. Several messages and logos were tested through surveys. Americans responded the most positively to the “Lock Down Your Login” messaging as it is easy to understand, encourages adoption of stronger account security and motivates internet users to take action to prevent identity theft and secure their digital lives.
For more information about how to lock down your login or to become a campaign partner visit https://www.lockdownyourlogin.com
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 28, 2016
FACT SHEET: Launch of the “Lock Down Your Login” Public Awareness Campaign
A new campaign that empowers Americans to better secure their online lives
Since the beginning of his Administration, the President has made it clear that cybersecurity is one of the most important challenges we face as a Nation. In February of this year, the President issued his Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP). The CNAP directed the Federal Government to take new action now while fostering the conditions required for long-term improvements in our approach to cybersecurity across the Federal Government, the private sector, and our personal lives.
One critical component of the CNAP is the goal of empowering Americans to better secure their online accounts by moving beyond just usernames and passwords and adding an extra layer of security. To accomplish this goal, the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), together with non-profit membership organizations and private sector companies, today launched the “Lock Down Your Login” campaign.
Launching “Lock Down Your Login”
The NCSA’s “Lock Down Your Login” is a public-private campaign designed to enable every American to better secure their online accounts through the use of strong authentication. Strong authentication, such as the use of a fingerprint or the confirmation of a one-time code, for your online accounts could have prevented as many as 62 percent of successful data breaches last year.
Many Americans are concerned about online security. But we all have work to do to improve the security of our online accounts. 72 percent of Americans believe their accounts are secure with only a username and password. Unfortunately, this simple method for protecting ourselves online is not as effective as it once was. But there is some good news. A confluence of emerging technologies, under the banner of strong authentication, is making it easier for everyone to better secure their online accounts.
“Lock Down Your Login” aims to close this gap by focusing on simple and widely available solutions that can and should be adopted by every American online. That’s why industry, government, and like-minded organizations that understand the importance of cybersecurity awareness and education are coming together through this harmonized campaign to make the case to consumers directly.
“Lock Down Your Login” builds upon years of the STOP. THINK. CONNECT.TM campaign’s public-private partnerships to help more Americans stay safe online through public awareness. This new campaign is timed with the launch of National Cyber Security Awareness Month in October. During October, the National Cyber Security Alliance and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, co-founders and co-leaders of the month, call on all Americans and businesses to share the responsibility and take steps to be safer and more secure online.
“Lock Down Your Login” Partners
In order to launch this public-private partnership, the NCSA has engaged a broad range of “Lock Down Your Login” partners, including technology companies, banks, non-profits, and civil society. “Lock Down Your Login” partners will support the campaign in a number a ways including but not limited to:
· Collaborating closely with the National Cyber Security Alliance to promote the “Lock Down Your Login” messaging and content by using the brand and logo with their own. This includes utilizing media space online and on television as well as other platforms to spread the word about “Lock Down Your Login.”
· Encouraging customers to use strong authentication technology. By making new technologies available and generating awareness of those currently offered, partners will empower their customers to better secure their accounts.
· Creating original content for their audience and promoting it through their own platforms and spokespeople. “Lock Down Your Login” encourages campaign partners generate awareness and inspire action by creating their own content designed to reach their specific target audience.
Examples of commitments announced by companies today in support of the “Lock Down Your Login” campaign include:
· Facebook is conducting a broadcast and radio media tour to share security tools and advice to keep accounts safe, including strong authentication and password advice. People using Facebook will see promotional videos for tools like Security Checkup, which encourages unique passwords and the use of login alerts to receive a notification when a new computer or phone attempts to access your account. A blog post series on Facebooks’ Security Page will highlight the “Lock Down Your Login” campaign and share other security features, including login approvals, which is Facebook’s two-factor authentication feature involving a code generated from the Facebook app or sent via text message.
· The FIDO Alliance, the Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) and the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) will jointly host a "Future of Authentication Policy Day" to highlight the importance of strong authentication, explore the evolution of the authentication market, and discuss its impact on the policy and regulatory landscape. This event will take place on October 27th, in recognition of National Cyber Security Awareness Month.
· Google will help promote the goals of the “Lock Down Your Login” campaign through a blog post, social media, and a home page promotion in October that will urge users to take an account “Security Checkup” which includes managing any two-step verification protections users have set up. This is in addition to Google’s existing security investments, including ongoing Safe Browsing protection, which shields desktops and Android users from malware, phishing, and unwanted software on the web.
· Intel is committed to working with the National Cyber Security Alliance and its partners to bring easy and actionable digital security education to consumers through engaging content. Intel will support the call for stronger authentication by reaching users on social media and motivating them to take action by making digital security understandable and user-friendly. In product offerings that support this initiative, True Key™ by Intel Security is a multifactor password manager. It secures passwords, ensures only users can access them with unique factors like their face and fingerprint, and logs users in across the web.
· Mastercard continues to be committed to developing consumer solutions that eliminate static passwords, utilize biometrics and make payments both safe and simple. As part of its efforts, Mastercard, with its partner BMO-Harris Bank in the United States, will announce the upcoming commercial launch of the Mastercard Identity Check Mobile solution for BMO Harris Bank's commercial cards. Mastercard Identity Check Mobile allows a user to authenticate a digital payment transaction with his or her fingerprint or selfie.
· SANS Institute is offering organizations access to an interactive National Cybersecurity Awareness Month Planning Kit, which will include everything organizations need to promote cybersecurity during the month of October. The kit includes resources, materials and templates for every day of the month, including an entire day dedicated just to the Lock Down Your Login campaign.
· Square will continue to implement simple and easy-to-use multi-factor authentication (MFA) tools for all of the businesses that they serve. For user log-in, they have provided customers with the option to enable an MFA feature that sends a text with a verification code. Square will encourage users to enable this tool through a variety of channels with clear instructions on how to do so. Their MFA solution also enables the business to require a second layer of verification for sensitive account actions like changing a linked bank account or password.
· USAA is committing to make it easier for its members to secure their accounts using multi-factor authentication. They support a variety of authentication methods including touch, voice, face, text and token. White these methods have been available to all members since 2011, USAA will now automatically enroll new members in multi-factor authentication. This is part of a multi-year commitment to strengthen account security.
NSCA’s full list of partners on the “Lock Down Your Login” partners are: CompTIA, Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of America, Council of Better Business Bureaus, Decoded, ESET North America, Facebook, Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI), FIDO Alliance, Financial Services Roundtable, Google, Intercede, Intel Corp., Javelin Strategy & Research, Logical Operations – Get IT Certified, MasterCard, mcgarrybowen, Mozilla, Multi-State Information Sharing Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) National Program Office (NPO), NXP Semiconductor, PayPal, Salesforce, SANS Institute, Square, TeleSign, TrueKeyTM by Intel Security, Twitter Inc., Visa Inc., Wells Fargo & Company, and Yubico.
Campaign Development
Led by the NSCA and in coordination with the Administration, the campaign was developed through an active collaboration of partners and consumer research to identify a message that would resonate with Americans and encourage them to take actions to secure their accounts.
Working together since this past spring, partners have provided input and guidance about the best ways to communicate the value of adding stronger authentication to online accounts. Several messages and logos were tested through surveys. Americans responded the most positively to the “Lock Down Your Login” messaging as it is easy to understand, encourages adoption of stronger account security and motivates internet users to take action to prevent identity theft and secure their digital lives.
For more information about how to lock down your login or to become a campaign partner visit https://www.lockdownyourlogin.com
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 28, 2016
FACT SHEET: Launch of the “Lock Down Your Login” Public Awareness Campaign
A new campaign that empowers Americans to better secure their online lives
Since the beginning of his Administration, the President has made it clear that cybersecurity is one of the most important challenges we face as a Nation. In February of this year, the President issued his Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP). The CNAP directed the Federal Government to take new action now while fostering the conditions required for long-term improvements in our approach to cybersecurity across the Federal Government, the private sector, and our personal lives.
One critical component of the CNAP is the goal of empowering Americans to better secure their online accounts by moving beyond just usernames and passwords and adding an extra layer of security. To accomplish this goal, the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), together with non-profit membership organizations and private sector companies, today launched the “Lock Down Your Login” campaign.
Launching “Lock Down Your Login”
The NCSA’s “Lock Down Your Login” is a public-private campaign designed to enable every American to better secure their online accounts through the use of strong authentication. Strong authentication, such as the use of a fingerprint or the confirmation of a one-time code, for your online accounts could have prevented as many as 62 percent of successful data breaches last year.
Many Americans are concerned about online security. But we all have work to do to improve the security of our online accounts. 72 percent of Americans believe their accounts are secure with only a username and password. Unfortunately, this simple method for protecting ourselves online is not as effective as it once was. But there is some good news. A confluence of emerging technologies, under the banner of strong authentication, is making it easier for everyone to better secure their online accounts.
“Lock Down Your Login” aims to close this gap by focusing on simple and widely available solutions that can and should be adopted by every American online. That’s why industry, government, and like-minded organizations that understand the importance of cybersecurity awareness and education are coming together through this harmonized campaign to make the case to consumers directly.
“Lock Down Your Login” builds upon years of the STOP. THINK. CONNECT.TM campaign’s public-private partnerships to help more Americans stay safe online through public awareness. This new campaign is timed with the launch of National Cyber Security Awareness Month in October. During October, the National Cyber Security Alliance and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, co-founders and co-leaders of the month, call on all Americans and businesses to share the responsibility and take steps to be safer and more secure online.
“Lock Down Your Login” Partners
In order to launch this public-private partnership, the NCSA has engaged a broad range of “Lock Down Your Login” partners, including technology companies, banks, non-profits, and civil society. “Lock Down Your Login” partners will support the campaign in a number a ways including but not limited to:
· Collaborating closely with the National Cyber Security Alliance to promote the “Lock Down Your Login” messaging and content by using the brand and logo with their own. This includes utilizing media space online and on television as well as other platforms to spread the word about “Lock Down Your Login.”
· Encouraging customers to use strong authentication technology. By making new technologies available and generating awareness of those currently offered, partners will empower their customers to better secure their accounts.
· Creating original content for their audience and promoting it through their own platforms and spokespeople. “Lock Down Your Login” encourages campaign partners generate awareness and inspire action by creating their own content designed to reach their specific target audience.
Examples of commitments announced by companies today in support of the “Lock Down Your Login” campaign include:
· Facebook is conducting a broadcast and radio media tour to share security tools and advice to keep accounts safe, including strong authentication and password advice. People using Facebook will see promotional videos for tools like Security Checkup, which encourages unique passwords and the use of login alerts to receive a notification when a new computer or phone attempts to access your account. A blog post series on Facebooks’ Security Page will highlight the “Lock Down Your Login” campaign and share other security features, including login approvals, which is Facebook’s two-factor authentication feature involving a code generated from the Facebook app or sent via text message.
· The FIDO Alliance, the Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) and the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) will jointly host a "Future of Authentication Policy Day" to highlight the importance of strong authentication, explore the evolution of the authentication market, and discuss its impact on the policy and regulatory landscape. This event will take place on October 27th, in recognition of National Cyber Security Awareness Month.
· Google will help promote the goals of the “Lock Down Your Login” campaign through a blog post, social media, and a home page promotion in October that will urge users to take an account “Security Checkup” which includes managing any two-step verification protections users have set up. This is in addition to Google’s existing security investments, including ongoing Safe Browsing protection, which shields desktops and Android users from malware, phishing, and unwanted software on the web.
· Intel is committed to working with the National Cyber Security Alliance and its partners to bring easy and actionable digital security education to consumers through engaging content. Intel will support the call for stronger authentication by reaching users on social media and motivating them to take action by making digital security understandable and user-friendly. In product offerings that support this initiative, True Key™ by Intel Security is a multifactor password manager. It secures passwords, ensures only users can access them with unique factors like their face and fingerprint, and logs users in across the web.
· Mastercard continues to be committed to developing consumer solutions that eliminate static passwords, utilize biometrics and make payments both safe and simple. As part of its efforts, Mastercard, with its partner BMO-Harris Bank in the United States, will announce the upcoming commercial launch of the Mastercard Identity Check Mobile solution for BMO Harris Bank's commercial cards. Mastercard Identity Check Mobile allows a user to authenticate a digital payment transaction with his or her fingerprint or selfie.
· SANS Institute is offering organizations access to an interactive National Cybersecurity Awareness Month Planning Kit, which will include everything organizations need to promote cybersecurity during the month of October. The kit includes resources, materials and templates for every day of the month, including an entire day dedicated just to the Lock Down Your Login campaign.
· Square will continue to implement simple and easy-to-use multi-factor authentication (MFA) tools for all of the businesses that they serve. For user log-in, they have provided customers with the option to enable an MFA feature that sends a text with a verification code. Square will encourage users to enable this tool through a variety of channels with clear instructions on how to do so. Their MFA solution also enables the business to require a second layer of verification for sensitive account actions like changing a linked bank account or password.
· USAA is committing to make it easier for its members to secure their accounts using multi-factor authentication. They support a variety of authentication methods including touch, voice, face, text and token. White these methods have been available to all members since 2011, USAA will now automatically enroll new members in multi-factor authentication. This is part of a multi-year commitment to strengthen account security.
NSCA’s full list of partners on the “Lock Down Your Login” partners are: CompTIA, Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of America, Council of Better Business Bureaus, Decoded, ESET North America, Facebook, Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI), FIDO Alliance, Financial Services Roundtable, Google, Intercede, Intel Corp., Javelin Strategy & Research, Logical Operations – Get IT Certified, MasterCard, mcgarrybowen, Mozilla, Multi-State Information Sharing Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) National Program Office (NPO), NXP Semiconductor, PayPal, Salesforce, SANS Institute, Square, TeleSign, TrueKeyTM by Intel Security, Twitter Inc., Visa Inc., Wells Fargo & Company, and Yubico.
Campaign Development
Led by the NSCA and in coordination with the Administration, the campaign was developed through an active collaboration of partners and consumer research to identify a message that would resonate with Americans and encourage them to take actions to secure their accounts.
Working together since this past spring, partners have provided input and guidance about the best ways to communicate the value of adding stronger authentication to online accounts. Several messages and logos were tested through surveys. Americans responded the most positively to the “Lock Down Your Login” messaging as it is easy to understand, encourages adoption of stronger account security and motivates internet users to take action to prevent identity theft and secure their digital lives.
For more information about how to lock down your login or to become a campaign partner visit https://www.lockdownyourlogin.com
TFACT SHEET: Announcing Over $80 million in New Federal Investment and a Doubling of Participating Communities in the White House Smart Cities Initiative
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 26, 2016
FACT SHEET: Announcing Over $80 million in New Federal Investment and a Doubling of Participating Communities in the White House Smart Cities Initiative
“If we can reconceive of our government so that the interactions and the interplay between private sector, nonprofits, and government are opened up, and we use technology, data, social media in order to join forces around problems, then there’s no problem that we face in this country that is not soluble.” – President Barack Obama
With nearly two-thirds of Americans living in urban settings, many of our fundamental challenges—from climate change to equitable growth to improved health—will require our cities to be laboratories for innovation. The rapid pace of technological change, from the rise of data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and ubiquitous sensor networks to autonomous vehicles, holds significant promise for addressing core local challenges.
That’s why last September the White House launched the Smart Cities Initiative to make it easier for cities, Federal agencies, universities, and the private sector to work together to research, develop, deploy, and testbed new technologies that can help make our cities more inhabitable, cleaner, and more equitable.
Today, to kick off Smart Cities Week, the Administration is expanding this initiative, with over $80 million in new Federal investments and a doubling of the number of participating cities and communities, exceeding 70 in total. These new investments and collaborations will help cities of all sizes, including in the following key areas:
· Climate: The Administration is announcing nearly $15 million in new funding and two new coalitions to help cities and communities tackle energy and climate challenges. For example, one Department of Energy (DOE) campaign has already signed up 1,800 buildings representing 49 million square feet with data analytics tools that could reduce their energy footprint by 8 percent or more, on average.
· Transportation: The Administration is announcing more than $15 million in new grants and planned funding to evolve the future of urban transportation, including National Science Foundation (NSF) funding for researchers in Chattanooga to test, for the first time, how an entire urban network of connected and autonomous vehicles can automatically cooperate to improve travel efficiency and operate safely during severe weather events.
· Public safety: The Administration is announcing more than $10 million in new grants and planned funding for public safety, resilience, and disaster response. For example, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is funding the development of low-cost flood sensor-based tools in flood-prone areas of Texas, where predictive analytics will give first responders and local officials new capability to issue alerts and warnings, and the ability to respond more rapidly to save lives when a flood strikes.
· Transforming city services: MetroLab Network is launching a new effort to help cities adopt promising innovations in social programs, like a collaboration between three counties surrounding Seattle and the University of Washington to use predictive analytics to identify precisely when city services succeed in helping homeless individuals transition into permanent housing, offering the promise of a future of personalized intervention.
Background
The White House Smart Cities Initiative represents an example of how the Administration has worked over the past seven and a half years to develop a smarter, more collaborative approach to working with local communities—putting citizens, community groups, and local leaders at the center of its efforts. The Administration’s approach involves working together with communities to identify local needs and priorities, develop and build upon evidence-based and data-driven solutions, and strategically invest Federal funding and technical assistance.
The Smart Cities Initiative is informed by and builds on the work of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), including its Technology and the Future of Cities report. In the report, PCAST identified several actions that the Federal Government can take to help cities leverage technology, and which the initiative is already beginning to implement.
The initiative has supported a number of breakthrough activities in the last year. Two such examples are:
· Smart City Challenge: In June, the Department of Transportation (DOT) selected Columbus, Ohio to receive $40 million to prototype the future of urban transportation, out of 78 cities that accepted its Smart City Challenge. The city’s plan, which will also leverage over $100 million in private resources, involves piloting new technologies, from connected vehicle technology that improves traffic flow and safety to data-driven efforts to improve public transportation access and health care outcomes to electric self-driving shuttles that will create new transportation options for underserved neighborhoods.
· Fitness Tracker for Cities: With funding from NSF and Argonne National Laboratory, the City of Chicago and the University of Chicago last month began installing a “fitness tracker for the city”—500 outdoor sensor boxes called the “Array of Things” that will allow the city and public to instantly obtain block-by-block data on air quality, noise levels, and traffic. This real-time open data will help researchers and city officials reduce air pollution, improve traffic safety, and more. For example, a team is already working to build a mobile application that will alert asthma sufferers about poor air quality based on real-time measurements taken on their city block.
In addition to the initiative, the Administration has also taken several complementary steps that support local innovation, including the newly-announced Advanced Wireless Research Initiative, through which NSF is working with the private sector to invest nearly $100 million to develop four city-scale testing platforms for wireless technologies, including 5G and beyond. Additionally, the Administration’s Opportunity Project is spurring the creation of private sector digital tools based on Federal open data that help communities find information about resources needed to thrive, such as affordable housing, quality schools, and jobs. The Police Data Initiative and Data-Driven Justice Initiative are helping local authorities use data to improve community policing and divert low-level offenders out of the criminal justice system, respectively.
The upcoming White House Frontiers Conference, held in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, October 13, will further advance the initiative by bringing together some of the world’s leading innovators to discuss how investing in science and technology frontiers—including smart and inclusive local communities—can help improve lives and keep America on the cutting edge of innovation.
Key Steps by the Administration Being Announced Today
NSF is announcing over $60 million in new smart cities-related grants in FY16 and planned new investments in FY17. NSF is bringing together academic researchers from an array of disciplines with community stakeholders to unlock transformational progress on important community challenges. Examples of this work include an effort by researchers in Chattanooga to test an entire urban network of automatically cooperating connected and autonomous vehicles; and a flood-warning pilot project in several Maryland cities that integrates sensor data and social media posts in a novel way to potentially save lives by providing advance notice of flash floods, which kill more people in the United States each year than tornadoes, hurricanes, or lightning. The investments include:
· $24.5 million in planned investment in FY17 and $8.5 million in new awards under the Smart & Connected Communities program. The planned investment significantly expands NSF’s research focus in this area and builds on a number of high-risk, high-reward Early Concept Grants for Exploratory Research awards supporting integrative research that enhances understanding and design of our future cities and communities.
· $10 million in new awards to develop and scale next-generation Internet applications and technologies through the US Ignite program, supporting access to the gigabit-enabled networks and services that bring data and analytics to decision-makers in real time.
· $7 million in new Partnerships for Innovation: Building Innovation Capacity projects that involve academic-industry collaborations to translate breakthrough discoveries into emerging technologies related to smart communities, ranging from smart buildings to sensor networks that improve transportation efficiency.
· $4 million in new Cyber-Physical Systems awards focused on Smart & Connected Communities. Collectively, these awards help establish the technological foundation for smart cities and the Internet of Things, which enables connection of physical devices at enormous scale to the digital world through sensors and other IT infrastructure.
· $2 million in new “Spokes” that extend the Big Data Regional Innovation Hubs and $1.4 million in new Big Data research, which will use data science to improve the smart electric grid, keep bridges safer, grow better crops through the use of drone technology, and allow students to conduct citizen science on air pollution.
· $1.5 million in new Smart and Connected Health research awards with a focus on Smart & Connected Communities. The awards being announced today will support the development of next-generation health care solutions that leverage sensor technology, information and machine learning technology, decision support systems, and more.
· $1 million for researchers to participate in the 2016 NIST Global City Teams Challenge, supporting high-risk, high-reward research on the effective integration of digital and physical systems to meet real-world community challenges.
· $1 million in new research and capacity-building awards supporting lifelong learning that will be critical to cities and communities of the future.
DOE is announcing new coalitions to build cleaner, smarter communities, and more than $15 million in new and planned funding to support smart, energy-efficient urban transportation systems and to unlock distributed clean energy sources.
· DOE is announcing the launch of the Better Communities Alliance (BCA), a new DOE-led network of cities and counties with the goal of creating cleaner, smarter, and more prosperous communities for all Americans. Through the BCA, which is part of the Better Buildings Initiative, DOE is creating a one-stop shop for cities and counties to plug into DOE resources and AmeriCorps resources from the Corporation for National and Community Service to support them in tackling energy and climate challenges. DOE will gather key stakeholders to promote knowledge exchange and collaboration, while streamlining access to community-focused DOE resources and funding through coordinated assistance across programs and a common digital portal. Initial member communities and affiliate organizations include:
§ Anchorage, Alaska
§ Atlanta, Georgia
§ Boston, Massachusetts
§ Boulder, Colorado
§ Broward County, Florida
§ Chattanooga, Tennessee
§ Chicago, Illinois
§ Chula Vista, California
§ Des Moines, Iowa
§ Dubuque, Iowa
§ Fort Worth, Texas
§ Huntington Beach, California
§ Kansas City, Missouri
§ King County, Washington
§ Knoxville, Tennessee
§ Los Angeles County, California
§ Miami-Dade County, Florida
§ Milwaukee, Wisconsin
§ New York, New York
§ Newark, New Jersey
§ Orlando, Florida
§ Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
§ Phoenix, Arizona
§ Portland, Oregon
§ Richmond, Virginia
§ Roanoke, Virginia
§ Rochester, New York
§ Salt Lake City, Utah
§ San Francisco, California
§ Seattle, Washington
§ Sonoma County, California
§ West Palm Beach, Florida
§ Will County, Illinois
§ Alliance to Save Energy
§ American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy
§ Arup
§ C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group
§ Cityzenith
§ Emerald Cities Collaborative
§ Energy Foundation
§ Global Cool Cities Alliance
§ Governing Institute
§ Hatch
§ ICLEI USA - Local Governments for Sustainability
§ Institute for Market Transformation
§ Institute for Sustainable Communities
§ International City/County Management Association
§ Kresge Foundation
§ National Association of Counties
§ National Association of State Energy Officials
§ National League of Cities
§ Natural Resources Defense Council
§ Philips Lighting
§ Smart Cities Council
§ Solar Foundation
§ STAR Communities
§ Surdna Foundation
§ U.S. Green Building Council
§ Urban Sustainability Directors Network
· DOE is launching a new Better Buildings Accelerator to assist local governments in developing “Zero Energy Districts” within their communities. Through the Accelerator—which will help participants overcome deployment barriers by providing a framework for collaboration among participants as well as technical assistance—DOE will work with city leaders, district developers, planners, owners, and additional key stakeholders to develop the business case and energy master planning documents needed to replicate Zero Energy Districts, which aggregate buildings’ renewable energy sources so that the combined on-site renewable energy offsets the combined building energy usage from the buildings in the district.
· DOE’s Better Buildings Initiative is launching a Smart Energy Analytics Campaign with an inaugural group of members committing to using smart building energy management technologies to unlock energy savings. Eighteen inaugural members representing 1,800 buildings and 49 million square feet have signed up to adopt data analytics tools—known as Energy Management and Information Systems (EMIS)—that could reduce their energy footprint by 8 percent or more, on average. Some of the campaign participants and their plans include:
o The Wendy’s Company is piloting software to move all 300 of their company-owned restaurants onto EMIS analytics.
o Macy’s will leverage its experience using fault detection and diagnostics across their portfolio of over 700 stores to share best practices.
o University of California, San Francisco will expand its innovative program of “Connected Commissioning” to use fault detection and diagnostics based on a consistent flow of building data analytics to help commission major building renovations and ensure they operate efficiently from the start.
o Rhode Island Office of Energy is starting a multi-year EMIS project with 18-buildings that will leverage lessons learned through the Campaign to help streamline the rollout of EMIS to a large portion of their portfolio.
The following organizations will also provide technical assistance to the campaign partners: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Building Owners Management Association, International Facility Managers Association, Commonwealth Edison, California Commissioning Collaborative, and the Building Commissioning Association.
· DOE is announcing $10 million in current and planned investment to expand the DOE SMART Mobility consortium to support the emergence of smart, energy-efficient urban transportation systems and establish a “Technologist in Cities” pilot. In collaboration with the DOT Smart City Challenge, and with an initial focus on Columbus, Ohio, and Detroit, Michigan, DOE’s “Technologist in Cities” pilot will pair national laboratory technologists with city leaders to help cities address critical mobility needs with new capacity, tools, and technologies that significantly improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. The DOE Systems and Modeling for Accelerated Research in Transportation Mobility consortium leverages the unique capabilities of DOE National Laboratories to examine the nexus of energy and mobility for future transportation systems, including through connected and automated vehicles, urban and decision sciences, multi-modal transport, and integrated vehicle-fueling infrastructure systems.
· DOE’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability is announcing approximately $7 million in funding to support the development of sensors and modeling that allow communities to more effectively integrate distributed clean energy sources into their power grids. Currently, integration of distributed clean energy sources—and the emissions, reliability and resilience benefits they provide—is a challenge for electric grids originally designed solely for distribution of electricity, not local generation. Funding will support research and development at utilities and technology providers to harness new sensor data and improved modeling to allow for integration of these resources with greater efficiency and reliability, while aiming to deliver new benefits, such as improved grid resilience against outages in emergency situations.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is continuing to expand the smart cities movement and support technical progress in the Internet of Things.
· NIST and its collaborators are announcing a new international coalition dedicated to developing an Internet of Things-Enabled Smart City Framework, with an initial release planned for next summer. Through an open, technical working group studying real-world smart city applications and architectures, the coalition will identify pivotal points of interoperability, where emerging alignment on standards can enable landscape of diverse but interoperable smart city solutions. Coalition members include the American National Standards Institute, the U.S. Green Building Council, the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning, the Italian Energy and Innovation Agency, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, and the FIWARE Foundation.
· NIST’s Global City Teams Challenge is establishing multi-team super-clusters to take on grand challenges too big for any single city team to tackle. Examples include multi-city resilience to large-scale natural disasters, intelligent transportation systems that work in any city, and regional air quality improvements through coordinated local action. This initiative brings together groups of communities formed around lead cities—Portland, Oregon; Atlanta, Georgia; Newport News, Virginia; Columbus, Ohio; Bellevue, Washington; Kansas City, Kansas; and Kansas City, Missouri—to work with NIST and its collaborators, including DOT, DHS Science and Technology Directorate, NSF, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the International Trade Administration, the Economic Development Administration, IBM, AT&T, CH2M, Verizon, Qualcomm Intelligent Solutions, Intel, US Ignite, and Urban-X, to develop ‘blueprints’ for shared solutions that will be collaboratively implemented in multiple cities and communities.
· NIST is announcing $350,000 in four new grants enabling 11 cities and communities to work together on innovative smart city solutions. The Replicable Smart City Technologies grants to teams of communities led by Newport News, Virginia; Bellevue, Washington; Montgomery County, Maryland; and Portland, Oregon focus on the development and deployment of interoperable technologies to address important public concerns regarding air pollution, flood prediction, rapid emergency response, and improved citizen services through interoperable smart city solutions that can be implemented by communities of all types and sizes.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) within the Department of Commerce is releasing a new toolkit to help communities leverage private-sector resources and expertise to advance smart cities. A core challenge that communities face when implementing smart city solutions is limited expertise and resources needed to develop and deploy new large-scale technology projects. Successful public-private partnerships can be a cost-effective way to ensure the fastest delivery of improved services to local residents. To assist local communities, NTIA is releasing a toolkit for local officials and citizen groups to use as a guide for building productive public-private partnerships that will enable smart cities to flourish. Using Partnerships to Power a Smart City: A Toolkit for Local Communities identifies factors to consider when developing a partnership—including what to look for in a partner, assessing partner contributions, and how to structure the most fruitful partnership agreements.
The DHS Science and Technology Directorate is announcing an investment of $3.5 million for development of low-cost sensor technologies through its Flood Apex Program. The program is applying Internet of Things-based approaches to facilitate evacuations, flood monitoring, and resilience of critical infrastructure. For example, through a collaboration with the Lower Colorado River Authority, FEMA, and the National Weather Service in flood-prone areas of Texas, the program will share real-time data to give first responders and local officials the ability to respond more rapidly when a flood strikes and make the right preventive investments in flood protection to help save lives and protect infrastructure.
The Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Program is announcing a Federal Smart Cities and Communities Task Force. Recognizing the need for collaboration across agencies given the cross-cutting nature of community challenges like resilience, the task force is charged with developing a draft strategy for interagency cooperation on smart cities. It will also create a resource guide to Federal smart city programs, helping stakeholders discover the broad array of Federal funding opportunities and other resources. The draft strategy will be available for comment this fall, and the resource guide will be online in November.
New Steps Being Taken by Communities, Universities, Industry, and Others in Response to the Administration’s Call to Action
Four additional companies are joining the Administration’s NSF-led Advanced Wireless Research Initiative, collectively committing over $8 million in in-kind contributions to help support the design, deployment, and operation of four city-scale advanced wireless testing platforms. The companies joining the effort are announcing the following new steps:
· Anritsu will contribute microwave components, spectrum analysis tools, and equipment to support testing, measurement, and service assurance.
· Crown Castle will support the testing platforms by providing network deployment and tower siting advice and space on wireless towers.
· Ericsson will provide resources in the form of researchers, systems and technology expertise, software-defined networking and radio network engineering support, with a focus on spectrum flexibility, spectrum sharing, security, IoT, and advanced radio technologies.
· FiberTower will contribute mmWave spectrum services in support of selected geographic regions.
MetroLab Network, with new support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, will launch a Lab focused on the intersection of big data and human services. The Big Data and Human Services Lab will bring together stakeholders from the Network’s membership—local government policymakers and university researchers—as well as industry, policy experts, and non-profits to connect disparate policy and research efforts that harness data-driven approaches to transform human services. This effort will support coordination across communities, develop new tools and infrastructure, and help replicate what works, such as the collaboration between University of Washington and Seattle to use predictive analytics to identify precisely when city services succeed in helping homeless individuals transition into permanent housing, offering the promise of a future of personalized intervention. In addition, in the year since its launch, MetroLab has added the following new members, including four that are joining today:
· Los Angeles, with California State University, Los Angeles (joining today)
· Greater Miami (Miami-Dade County, City of Miami, City of Miami Beach), with University of Miami, Florida International University, and Miami Dade College (joining today)
· San Francisco, with University of California, Berkeley (joining today)
· University of Pittsburgh, joining an existing collaboration between Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University (joining today)
· Arlington County, with Virginia Tech-National Capital Region
· Austin, with University of Texas at Austin
· Baltimore, with John Hopkins University and University of Baltimore
· Boulder and Denver, with University of Colorado-Boulder
· Burlington, with University of Vermont
· Charlotte, with University of North Carolina at Charlotte
· Columbus, with Ohio State University
· Jacksonville, with University of Florida and University of North Florida
· Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri, with University of Missouri-Kansas City and University of Kansas
· Newark, with New Jersey Institute of Technology
· Orlando, with University of Central Florida
· Santa Fe, with Santa Fe Institute
· Schenectady, with University at Albany, State University of New York
· Columbia University, joining an existing collaboration between New York City and New York University
The Smart Cities Council will award challenge grants to help five American cities apply smart technologies to improve urban livability, workability, and sustainability. For each of the five winning cities, the Council will deliver a tailored one-day readiness bootcamp, where experts from the Council, its members, and its advisors will assist each city in building or enhancing its smart city roadmap based on what works. In addition to the readiness bootcamp, the following Council members will contribute the following to each winning city:
· Ameresco will provide consulting to help optimize smart street lighting.
· AT&T will provide up to 25 AT&T Internet of Things Starter Kits.
· CH2M and Qualcomm will collaborate to host a one-day follow-on workshop to develop and deploy a smart cities ecosystem.
· Computing Technology Industry Association will provide free training, software, and access to its technology educational materials.
· Dow Building and Construction will provide consultation on optimizing building design as part of a smart cities ecosystem.
· IDC will assess each city’s progress through a comprehensive Smart City Maturity Benchmark.
· Sensus will provide a citywide hosted communications network free of charge for one year.
· Telit will provide each city free access to its Telit IoT platform.
· TM Forum will help cities assess progress through its Smart City Maturity and Benchmark Model.
· Transdev will provide up to three days of technical assistance to investigate new and more efficient urban mobility options.
More than twenty cities, along with the newly formed Council of Global City Chief Information Officers, are launching a new initiative focused on ensuring responsible and equitable deployment of smart city technologies. The effort, led by the City of New York, has three primary goals: (1) provide a common framework to help governments develop and expand policies and procedures related to the Internet of Things; (2) ensure openness and transparency regarding the use of public space or assets for smart city technologies; and (3) advance the public dialogue about how government, the private sector and academia can collaborate to ensure these technologies are used in a way that maximizes public benefit. The following twenty-one cities have committed to a common set of guiding principles that emphasize privacy, security, sustainability, resilience, equity and efficiency in their use of these technologies:
· Atlanta, Georgia
· Austin, Texas
· Boston, Massachusetts
· Cambridge, Massachusetts
· Charlotte, North Carolina
· Chicago, Illinois
· Dallas, Texas
· Greenville, South Carolina
· Kansas City, Missouri
· Los Angeles, California
· New York, New York
· Palo Alto, California
· Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
· Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
· Portland, Oregon
· San Antonio, Texas
· San Diego, California
· San Francisco, California
· Seattle, Washington
· Spokane, Washington
· Washington, District of Columbia
US Ignite is announcing the addition of four cities joining the network of Smart Gigabit Communities. The Smart Gigabit Communities Program was announced by NSF with the launch of the Smart Cities Initiative last September. The four cities each committing to developing six gigabit applications that serve community needs are:
· Adelaide, Australia (also the first city outside the United States to join)
· Albuquerque, New Mexico
· Salisbury, North Carolina
· Washington, District of Columbia
1776 is launching the Urban Innovation Council, a coalition of cities, startups, and corporate stakeholders dedicated to overcoming challenges to building smarter cities through entrepreneurship. The council will tackle a range of enablers for startup innovation, including development of model urban regulations that enable rather than stymie innovation, and practical research that informs decisions made by entrepreneurs and city leaders. Initial members include:
· Arlington County, Virginia
· Dubai, United Arab Emirates
· Montgomery County, Maryland
· Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
· Global Automakers
· Microsoft
· Radiator Labs
· SeamlessDocs
· TransitScreen
· Uber
· Vornado
Additional efforts being announced include:
· The Center for Technology in Government at the University at Albany, State University of New York is creating smart city guidebooks for small and medium-sized cities. Mayors of such cities face a wide range of financial, organizational, policy, and political challenges that can slow the pace of innovation. The guidebooks will focus on key considerations for technology adoption in the small and medium-sized city context, with a focus on critical implementation steps.
· The City of New York is launching a new digital platform to help local governments navigate the smart city marketplace. Developed through a public-private partnership, marketplace.nyc includes information about a growing list of more than 100 companies—including new and emerging firms—and their relevant products and services. The platform helps local government employees identify innovative technologies within their respective focus areas while also encouraging interagency coordination by offering a repository of information on past or existing city pilots and contracts. The resource is designed to enable both replication and data sharing across cities.
· City Digital, a Chicago-based consortium, is announcing results from its first pilot launched in September 2015 as part of the Smart Cities Initiative, including new technology components to create a novel digital underground infrastructure mapping platform. The pilot team has now successfully engineered the platform’s components, which will allow cities and utilities to move through construction and development processes in less than half the current time.
· Dallas Innovation Alliance and Envision Charlotte are announcing “For Cities, By Cities,” a new collaboration that will bring cities together from around the globe over the next two years to workshop steps to become smarter, more sustainable, and efficient. Convening in Dallas, Texas in 2017 and Charlotte, North Carolina in 2018, the conferences will feature city officials sharing their perspective with peers about lessons learned regarding what works, what to avoid, how to get started, and how to define success.
· Dallas will be launching the Dallas Innovation District in the West End neighborhood in downtown Dallas, focused on bringing together civic, corporate, and startup innovation efforts through a single district-level testbed. This collaboration will bring together the Dallas Innovation Alliance's Smart Cities Living Lab, the Dallas Entrepreneur Center’s efforts to seed new startups, and new innovation initiatives from corporations in the technology, banking and healthcare sectors.
· Mapbox is announcing the launch of the Mapbox Cities Lab, offering municipalities free access to Mapbox tools and support, and providing three cities with in-depth mentorship to help tackle their most pressing issues, from traffic safety to neighborhood health. Mapbox will work with each participating city to gather data on its particular challenges, and then collaborate to create insightful and actionable data-driven maps incorporating open data and real-time traffic data from Mapbox.
· Microsoft is announcing new smart cities-related resources to help communities across the country leverage technology for public safety and transportation. Microsoft and Genetec are providing 10 U.S. cities with Project Green Light starter kits to enable local businesses to connect surveillance cameras to the cloud and local law enforcement. Working with Cubic, Microsoft also is offering a cloud-based surface transport management solution pilot to five U.S. cities to help them increase efficiency and safety.
· Orange Silicon Valley will launch a workshop this fall on business-to-business data sharing for public and private benefit, with a particular focus on smart cities and the Internet of Things. The workshop will bring together private sector actors with other stakeholders to examine models for private sector data sharing across businesses and sectors, related challenges and opportunities, and new models for generating social value from private sector data.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 26, 2016
FACT SHEET: Announcing Over $80 million in New Federal Investment and a Doubling of Participating Communities in the White House Smart Cities Initiative
“If we can reconceive of our government so that the interactions and the interplay between private sector, nonprofits, and government are opened up, and we use technology, data, social media in order to join forces around problems, then there’s no problem that we face in this country that is not soluble.” – President Barack Obama
With nearly two-thirds of Americans living in urban settings, many of our fundamental challenges—from climate change to equitable growth to improved health—will require our cities to be laboratories for innovation. The rapid pace of technological change, from the rise of data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and ubiquitous sensor networks to autonomous vehicles, holds significant promise for addressing core local challenges.
That’s why last September the White House launched the Smart Cities Initiative to make it easier for cities, Federal agencies, universities, and the private sector to work together to research, develop, deploy, and testbed new technologies that can help make our cities more inhabitable, cleaner, and more equitable.
Today, to kick off Smart Cities Week, the Administration is expanding this initiative, with over $80 million in new Federal investments and a doubling of the number of participating cities and communities, exceeding 70 in total. These new investments and collaborations will help cities of all sizes, including in the following key areas:
· Climate: The Administration is announcing nearly $15 million in new funding and two new coalitions to help cities and communities tackle energy and climate challenges. For example, one Department of Energy (DOE) campaign has already signed up 1,800 buildings representing 49 million square feet with data analytics tools that could reduce their energy footprint by 8 percent or more, on average.
· Transportation: The Administration is announcing more than $15 million in new grants and planned funding to evolve the future of urban transportation, including National Science Foundation (NSF) funding for researchers in Chattanooga to test, for the first time, how an entire urban network of connected and autonomous vehicles can automatically cooperate to improve travel efficiency and operate safely during severe weather events.
· Public safety: The Administration is announcing more than $10 million in new grants and planned funding for public safety, resilience, and disaster response. For example, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is funding the development of low-cost flood sensor-based tools in flood-prone areas of Texas, where predictive analytics will give first responders and local officials new capability to issue alerts and warnings, and the ability to respond more rapidly to save lives when a flood strikes.
· Transforming city services: MetroLab Network is launching a new effort to help cities adopt promising innovations in social programs, like a collaboration between three counties surrounding Seattle and the University of Washington to use predictive analytics to identify precisely when city services succeed in helping homeless individuals transition into permanent housing, offering the promise of a future of personalized intervention.
Background
The White House Smart Cities Initiative represents an example of how the Administration has worked over the past seven and a half years to develop a smarter, more collaborative approach to working with local communities—putting citizens, community groups, and local leaders at the center of its efforts. The Administration’s approach involves working together with communities to identify local needs and priorities, develop and build upon evidence-based and data-driven solutions, and strategically invest Federal funding and technical assistance.
The Smart Cities Initiative is informed by and builds on the work of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), including its Technology and the Future of Cities report. In the report, PCAST identified several actions that the Federal Government can take to help cities leverage technology, and which the initiative is already beginning to implement.
The initiative has supported a number of breakthrough activities in the last year. Two such examples are:
· Smart City Challenge: In June, the Department of Transportation (DOT) selected Columbus, Ohio to receive $40 million to prototype the future of urban transportation, out of 78 cities that accepted its Smart City Challenge. The city’s plan, which will also leverage over $100 million in private resources, involves piloting new technologies, from connected vehicle technology that improves traffic flow and safety to data-driven efforts to improve public transportation access and health care outcomes to electric self-driving shuttles that will create new transportation options for underserved neighborhoods.
· Fitness Tracker for Cities: With funding from NSF and Argonne National Laboratory, the City of Chicago and the University of Chicago last month began installing a “fitness tracker for the city”—500 outdoor sensor boxes called the “Array of Things” that will allow the city and public to instantly obtain block-by-block data on air quality, noise levels, and traffic. This real-time open data will help researchers and city officials reduce air pollution, improve traffic safety, and more. For example, a team is already working to build a mobile application that will alert asthma sufferers about poor air quality based on real-time measurements taken on their city block.
In addition to the initiative, the Administration has also taken several complementary steps that support local innovation, including the newly-announced Advanced Wireless Research Initiative, through which NSF is working with the private sector to invest nearly $100 million to develop four city-scale testing platforms for wireless technologies, including 5G and beyond. Additionally, the Administration’s Opportunity Project is spurring the creation of private sector digital tools based on Federal open data that help communities find information about resources needed to thrive, such as affordable housing, quality schools, and jobs. The Police Data Initiative and Data-Driven Justice Initiative are helping local authorities use data to improve community policing and divert low-level offenders out of the criminal justice system, respectively.
The upcoming White House Frontiers Conference, held in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, October 13, will further advance the initiative by bringing together some of the world’s leading innovators to discuss how investing in science and technology frontiers—including smart and inclusive local communities—can help improve lives and keep America on the cutting edge of innovation.
Key Steps by the Administration Being Announced Today
NSF is announcing over $60 million in new smart cities-related grants in FY16 and planned new investments in FY17. NSF is bringing together academic researchers from an array of disciplines with community stakeholders to unlock transformational progress on important community challenges. Examples of this work include an effort by researchers in Chattanooga to test an entire urban network of automatically cooperating connected and autonomous vehicles; and a flood-warning pilot project in several Maryland cities that integrates sensor data and social media posts in a novel way to potentially save lives by providing advance notice of flash floods, which kill more people in the United States each year than tornadoes, hurricanes, or lightning. The investments include:
· $24.5 million in planned investment in FY17 and $8.5 million in new awards under the Smart & Connected Communities program. The planned investment significantly expands NSF’s research focus in this area and builds on a number of high-risk, high-reward Early Concept Grants for Exploratory Research awards supporting integrative research that enhances understanding and design of our future cities and communities.
· $10 million in new awards to develop and scale next-generation Internet applications and technologies through the US Ignite program, supporting access to the gigabit-enabled networks and services that bring data and analytics to decision-makers in real time.
· $7 million in new Partnerships for Innovation: Building Innovation Capacity projects that involve academic-industry collaborations to translate breakthrough discoveries into emerging technologies related to smart communities, ranging from smart buildings to sensor networks that improve transportation efficiency.
· $4 million in new Cyber-Physical Systems awards focused on Smart & Connected Communities. Collectively, these awards help establish the technological foundation for smart cities and the Internet of Things, which enables connection of physical devices at enormous scale to the digital world through sensors and other IT infrastructure.
· $2 million in new “Spokes” that extend the Big Data Regional Innovation Hubs and $1.4 million in new Big Data research, which will use data science to improve the smart electric grid, keep bridges safer, grow better crops through the use of drone technology, and allow students to conduct citizen science on air pollution.
· $1.5 million in new Smart and Connected Health research awards with a focus on Smart & Connected Communities. The awards being announced today will support the development of next-generation health care solutions that leverage sensor technology, information and machine learning technology, decision support systems, and more.
· $1 million for researchers to participate in the 2016 NIST Global City Teams Challenge, supporting high-risk, high-reward research on the effective integration of digital and physical systems to meet real-world community challenges.
· $1 million in new research and capacity-building awards supporting lifelong learning that will be critical to cities and communities of the future.
DOE is announcing new coalitions to build cleaner, smarter communities, and more than $15 million in new and planned funding to support smart, energy-efficient urban transportation systems and to unlock distributed clean energy sources.
· DOE is announcing the launch of the Better Communities Alliance (BCA), a new DOE-led network of cities and counties with the goal of creating cleaner, smarter, and more prosperous communities for all Americans. Through the BCA, which is part of the Better Buildings Initiative, DOE is creating a one-stop shop for cities and counties to plug into DOE resources and AmeriCorps resources from the Corporation for National and Community Service to support them in tackling energy and climate challenges. DOE will gather key stakeholders to promote knowledge exchange and collaboration, while streamlining access to community-focused DOE resources and funding through coordinated assistance across programs and a common digital portal. Initial member communities and affiliate organizations include:
§ Anchorage, Alaska
§ Atlanta, Georgia
§ Boston, Massachusetts
§ Boulder, Colorado
§ Broward County, Florida
§ Chattanooga, Tennessee
§ Chicago, Illinois
§ Chula Vista, California
§ Des Moines, Iowa
§ Dubuque, Iowa
§ Fort Worth, Texas
§ Huntington Beach, California
§ Kansas City, Missouri
§ King County, Washington
§ Knoxville, Tennessee
§ Los Angeles County, California
§ Miami-Dade County, Florida
§ Milwaukee, Wisconsin
§ New York, New York
§ Newark, New Jersey
§ Orlando, Florida
§ Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
§ Phoenix, Arizona
§ Portland, Oregon
§ Richmond, Virginia
§ Roanoke, Virginia
§ Rochester, New York
§ Salt Lake City, Utah
§ San Francisco, California
§ Seattle, Washington
§ Sonoma County, California
§ West Palm Beach, Florida
§ Will County, Illinois
§ Alliance to Save Energy
§ American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy
§ Arup
§ C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group
§ Cityzenith
§ Emerald Cities Collaborative
§ Energy Foundation
§ Global Cool Cities Alliance
§ Governing Institute
§ Hatch
§ ICLEI USA - Local Governments for Sustainability
§ Institute for Market Transformation
§ Institute for Sustainable Communities
§ International City/County Management Association
§ Kresge Foundation
§ National Association of Counties
§ National Association of State Energy Officials
§ National League of Cities
§ Natural Resources Defense Council
§ Philips Lighting
§ Smart Cities Council
§ Solar Foundation
§ STAR Communities
§ Surdna Foundation
§ U.S. Green Building Council
§ Urban Sustainability Directors Network
· DOE is launching a new Better Buildings Accelerator to assist local governments in developing “Zero Energy Districts” within their communities. Through the Accelerator—which will help participants overcome deployment barriers by providing a framework for collaboration among participants as well as technical assistance—DOE will work with city leaders, district developers, planners, owners, and additional key stakeholders to develop the business case and energy master planning documents needed to replicate Zero Energy Districts, which aggregate buildings’ renewable energy sources so that the combined on-site renewable energy offsets the combined building energy usage from the buildings in the district.
· DOE’s Better Buildings Initiative is launching a Smart Energy Analytics Campaign with an inaugural group of members committing to using smart building energy management technologies to unlock energy savings. Eighteen inaugural members representing 1,800 buildings and 49 million square feet have signed up to adopt data analytics tools—known as Energy Management and Information Systems (EMIS)—that could reduce their energy footprint by 8 percent or more, on average. Some of the campaign participants and their plans include:
o The Wendy’s Company is piloting software to move all 300 of their company-owned restaurants onto EMIS analytics.
o Macy’s will leverage its experience using fault detection and diagnostics across their portfolio of over 700 stores to share best practices.
o University of California, San Francisco will expand its innovative program of “Connected Commissioning” to use fault detection and diagnostics based on a consistent flow of building data analytics to help commission major building renovations and ensure they operate efficiently from the start.
o Rhode Island Office of Energy is starting a multi-year EMIS project with 18-buildings that will leverage lessons learned through the Campaign to help streamline the rollout of EMIS to a large portion of their portfolio.
The following organizations will also provide technical assistance to the campaign partners: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Building Owners Management Association, International Facility Managers Association, Commonwealth Edison, California Commissioning Collaborative, and the Building Commissioning Association.
· DOE is announcing $10 million in current and planned investment to expand the DOE SMART Mobility consortium to support the emergence of smart, energy-efficient urban transportation systems and establish a “Technologist in Cities” pilot. In collaboration with the DOT Smart City Challenge, and with an initial focus on Columbus, Ohio, and Detroit, Michigan, DOE’s “Technologist in Cities” pilot will pair national laboratory technologists with city leaders to help cities address critical mobility needs with new capacity, tools, and technologies that significantly improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. The DOE Systems and Modeling for Accelerated Research in Transportation Mobility consortium leverages the unique capabilities of DOE National Laboratories to examine the nexus of energy and mobility for future transportation systems, including through connected and automated vehicles, urban and decision sciences, multi-modal transport, and integrated vehicle-fueling infrastructure systems.
· DOE’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability is announcing approximately $7 million in funding to support the development of sensors and modeling that allow communities to more effectively integrate distributed clean energy sources into their power grids. Currently, integration of distributed clean energy sources—and the emissions, reliability and resilience benefits they provide—is a challenge for electric grids originally designed solely for distribution of electricity, not local generation. Funding will support research and development at utilities and technology providers to harness new sensor data and improved modeling to allow for integration of these resources with greater efficiency and reliability, while aiming to deliver new benefits, such as improved grid resilience against outages in emergency situations.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is continuing to expand the smart cities movement and support technical progress in the Internet of Things.
· NIST and its collaborators are announcing a new international coalition dedicated to developing an Internet of Things-Enabled Smart City Framework, with an initial release planned for next summer. Through an open, technical working group studying real-world smart city applications and architectures, the coalition will identify pivotal points of interoperability, where emerging alignment on standards can enable landscape of diverse but interoperable smart city solutions. Coalition members include the American National Standards Institute, the U.S. Green Building Council, the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning, the Italian Energy and Innovation Agency, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, and the FIWARE Foundation.
· NIST’s Global City Teams Challenge is establishing multi-team super-clusters to take on grand challenges too big for any single city team to tackle. Examples include multi-city resilience to large-scale natural disasters, intelligent transportation systems that work in any city, and regional air quality improvements through coordinated local action. This initiative brings together groups of communities formed around lead cities—Portland, Oregon; Atlanta, Georgia; Newport News, Virginia; Columbus, Ohio; Bellevue, Washington; Kansas City, Kansas; and Kansas City, Missouri—to work with NIST and its collaborators, including DOT, DHS Science and Technology Directorate, NSF, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the International Trade Administration, the Economic Development Administration, IBM, AT&T, CH2M, Verizon, Qualcomm Intelligent Solutions, Intel, US Ignite, and Urban-X, to develop ‘blueprints’ for shared solutions that will be collaboratively implemented in multiple cities and communities.
· NIST is announcing $350,000 in four new grants enabling 11 cities and communities to work together on innovative smart city solutions. The Replicable Smart City Technologies grants to teams of communities led by Newport News, Virginia; Bellevue, Washington; Montgomery County, Maryland; and Portland, Oregon focus on the development and deployment of interoperable technologies to address important public concerns regarding air pollution, flood prediction, rapid emergency response, and improved citizen services through interoperable smart city solutions that can be implemented by communities of all types and sizes.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) within the Department of Commerce is releasing a new toolkit to help communities leverage private-sector resources and expertise to advance smart cities. A core challenge that communities face when implementing smart city solutions is limited expertise and resources needed to develop and deploy new large-scale technology projects. Successful public-private partnerships can be a cost-effective way to ensure the fastest delivery of improved services to local residents. To assist local communities, NTIA is releasing a toolkit for local officials and citizen groups to use as a guide for building productive public-private partnerships that will enable smart cities to flourish. Using Partnerships to Power a Smart City: A Toolkit for Local Communities identifies factors to consider when developing a partnership—including what to look for in a partner, assessing partner contributions, and how to structure the most fruitful partnership agreements.
The DHS Science and Technology Directorate is announcing an investment of $3.5 million for development of low-cost sensor technologies through its Flood Apex Program. The program is applying Internet of Things-based approaches to facilitate evacuations, flood monitoring, and resilience of critical infrastructure. For example, through a collaboration with the Lower Colorado River Authority, FEMA, and the National Weather Service in flood-prone areas of Texas, the program will share real-time data to give first responders and local officials the ability to respond more rapidly when a flood strikes and make the right preventive investments in flood protection to help save lives and protect infrastructure.
The Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Program is announcing a Federal Smart Cities and Communities Task Force. Recognizing the need for collaboration across agencies given the cross-cutting nature of community challenges like resilience, the task force is charged with developing a draft strategy for interagency cooperation on smart cities. It will also create a resource guide to Federal smart city programs, helping stakeholders discover the broad array of Federal funding opportunities and other resources. The draft strategy will be available for comment this fall, and the resource guide will be online in November.
New Steps Being Taken by Communities, Universities, Industry, and Others in Response to the Administration’s Call to Action
Four additional companies are joining the Administration’s NSF-led Advanced Wireless Research Initiative, collectively committing over $8 million in in-kind contributions to help support the design, deployment, and operation of four city-scale advanced wireless testing platforms. The companies joining the effort are announcing the following new steps:
· Anritsu will contribute microwave components, spectrum analysis tools, and equipment to support testing, measurement, and service assurance.
· Crown Castle will support the testing platforms by providing network deployment and tower siting advice and space on wireless towers.
· Ericsson will provide resources in the form of researchers, systems and technology expertise, software-defined networking and radio network engineering support, with a focus on spectrum flexibility, spectrum sharing, security, IoT, and advanced radio technologies.
· FiberTower will contribute mmWave spectrum services in support of selected geographic regions.
MetroLab Network, with new support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, will launch a Lab focused on the intersection of big data and human services. The Big Data and Human Services Lab will bring together stakeholders from the Network’s membership—local government policymakers and university researchers—as well as industry, policy experts, and non-profits to connect disparate policy and research efforts that harness data-driven approaches to transform human services. This effort will support coordination across communities, develop new tools and infrastructure, and help replicate what works, such as the collaboration between University of Washington and Seattle to use predictive analytics to identify precisely when city services succeed in helping homeless individuals transition into permanent housing, offering the promise of a future of personalized intervention. In addition, in the year since its launch, MetroLab has added the following new members, including four that are joining today:
· Los Angeles, with California State University, Los Angeles (joining today)
· Greater Miami (Miami-Dade County, City of Miami, City of Miami Beach), with University of Miami, Florida International University, and Miami Dade College (joining today)
· San Francisco, with University of California, Berkeley (joining today)
· University of Pittsburgh, joining an existing collaboration between Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University (joining today)
· Arlington County, with Virginia Tech-National Capital Region
· Austin, with University of Texas at Austin
· Baltimore, with John Hopkins University and University of Baltimore
· Boulder and Denver, with University of Colorado-Boulder
· Burlington, with University of Vermont
· Charlotte, with University of North Carolina at Charlotte
· Columbus, with Ohio State University
· Jacksonville, with University of Florida and University of North Florida
· Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri, with University of Missouri-Kansas City and University of Kansas
· Newark, with New Jersey Institute of Technology
· Orlando, with University of Central Florida
· Santa Fe, with Santa Fe Institute
· Schenectady, with University at Albany, State University of New York
· Columbia University, joining an existing collaboration between New York City and New York University
The Smart Cities Council will award challenge grants to help five American cities apply smart technologies to improve urban livability, workability, and sustainability. For each of the five winning cities, the Council will deliver a tailored one-day readiness bootcamp, where experts from the Council, its members, and its advisors will assist each city in building or enhancing its smart city roadmap based on what works. In addition to the readiness bootcamp, the following Council members will contribute the following to each winning city:
· Ameresco will provide consulting to help optimize smart street lighting.
· AT&T will provide up to 25 AT&T Internet of Things Starter Kits.
· CH2M and Qualcomm will collaborate to host a one-day follow-on workshop to develop and deploy a smart cities ecosystem.
· Computing Technology Industry Association will provide free training, software, and access to its technology educational materials.
· Dow Building and Construction will provide consultation on optimizing building design as part of a smart cities ecosystem.
· IDC will assess each city’s progress through a comprehensive Smart City Maturity Benchmark.
· Sensus will provide a citywide hosted communications network free of charge for one year.
· Telit will provide each city free access to its Telit IoT platform.
· TM Forum will help cities assess progress through its Smart City Maturity and Benchmark Model.
· Transdev will provide up to three days of technical assistance to investigate new and more efficient urban mobility options.
More than twenty cities, along with the newly formed Council of Global City Chief Information Officers, are launching a new initiative focused on ensuring responsible and equitable deployment of smart city technologies. The effort, led by the City of New York, has three primary goals: (1) provide a common framework to help governments develop and expand policies and procedures related to the Internet of Things; (2) ensure openness and transparency regarding the use of public space or assets for smart city technologies; and (3) advance the public dialogue about how government, the private sector and academia can collaborate to ensure these technologies are used in a way that maximizes public benefit. The following twenty-one cities have committed to a common set of guiding principles that emphasize privacy, security, sustainability, resilience, equity and efficiency in their use of these technologies:
· Atlanta, Georgia
· Austin, Texas
· Boston, Massachusetts
· Cambridge, Massachusetts
· Charlotte, North Carolina
· Chicago, Illinois
· Dallas, Texas
· Greenville, South Carolina
· Kansas City, Missouri
· Los Angeles, California
· New York, New York
· Palo Alto, California
· Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
· Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
· Portland, Oregon
· San Antonio, Texas
· San Diego, California
· San Francisco, California
· Seattle, Washington
· Spokane, Washington
· Washington, District of Columbia
US Ignite is announcing the addition of four cities joining the network of Smart Gigabit Communities. The Smart Gigabit Communities Program was announced by NSF with the launch of the Smart Cities Initiative last September. The four cities each committing to developing six gigabit applications that serve community needs are:
· Adelaide, Australia (also the first city outside the United States to join)
· Albuquerque, New Mexico
· Salisbury, North Carolina
· Washington, District of Columbia
1776 is launching the Urban Innovation Council, a coalition of cities, startups, and corporate stakeholders dedicated to overcoming challenges to building smarter cities through entrepreneurship. The council will tackle a range of enablers for startup innovation, including development of model urban regulations that enable rather than stymie innovation, and practical research that informs decisions made by entrepreneurs and city leaders. Initial members include:
· Arlington County, Virginia
· Dubai, United Arab Emirates
· Montgomery County, Maryland
· Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
· Global Automakers
· Microsoft
· Radiator Labs
· SeamlessDocs
· TransitScreen
· Uber
· Vornado
Additional efforts being announced include:
· The Center for Technology in Government at the University at Albany, State University of New York is creating smart city guidebooks for small and medium-sized cities. Mayors of such cities face a wide range of financial, organizational, policy, and political challenges that can slow the pace of innovation. The guidebooks will focus on key considerations for technology adoption in the small and medium-sized city context, with a focus on critical implementation steps.
· The City of New York is launching a new digital platform to help local governments navigate the smart city marketplace. Developed through a public-private partnership, marketplace.nyc includes information about a growing list of more than 100 companies—including new and emerging firms—and their relevant products and services. The platform helps local government employees identify innovative technologies within their respective focus areas while also encouraging interagency coordination by offering a repository of information on past or existing city pilots and contracts. The resource is designed to enable both replication and data sharing across cities.
· City Digital, a Chicago-based consortium, is announcing results from its first pilot launched in September 2015 as part of the Smart Cities Initiative, including new technology components to create a novel digital underground infrastructure mapping platform. The pilot team has now successfully engineered the platform’s components, which will allow cities and utilities to move through construction and development processes in less than half the current time.
· Dallas Innovation Alliance and Envision Charlotte are announcing “For Cities, By Cities,” a new collaboration that will bring cities together from around the globe over the next two years to workshop steps to become smarter, more sustainable, and efficient. Convening in Dallas, Texas in 2017 and Charlotte, North Carolina in 2018, the conferences will feature city officials sharing their perspective with peers about lessons learned regarding what works, what to avoid, how to get started, and how to define success.
· Dallas will be launching the Dallas Innovation District in the West End neighborhood in downtown Dallas, focused on bringing together civic, corporate, and startup innovation efforts through a single district-level testbed. This collaboration will bring together the Dallas Innovation Alliance's Smart Cities Living Lab, the Dallas Entrepreneur Center’s efforts to seed new startups, and new innovation initiatives from corporations in the technology, banking and healthcare sectors.
· Mapbox is announcing the launch of the Mapbox Cities Lab, offering municipalities free access to Mapbox tools and support, and providing three cities with in-depth mentorship to help tackle their most pressing issues, from traffic safety to neighborhood health. Mapbox will work with each participating city to gather data on its particular challenges, and then collaborate to create insightful and actionable data-driven maps incorporating open data and real-time traffic data from Mapbox.
· Microsoft is announcing new smart cities-related resources to help communities across the country leverage technology for public safety and transportation. Microsoft and Genetec are providing 10 U.S. cities with Project Green Light starter kits to enable local businesses to connect surveillance cameras to the cloud and local law enforcement. Working with Cubic, Microsoft also is offering a cloud-based surface transport management solution pilot to five U.S. cities to help them increase efficiency and safety.
· Orange Silicon Valley will launch a workshop this fall on business-to-business data sharing for public and private benefit, with a particular focus on smart cities and the Internet of Things. The workshop will bring together private sector actors with other stakeholders to examine models for private sector data sharing across businesses and sectors, related challenges and opportunities, and new models for generating social value from private sector data.
President Obama Honors Outstanding Mathematics and Science Teachers
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 22, 2016
President Obama Honors Outstanding Mathematics and Science Teachers
WASHINGTON, DC -- President Obama today named 213 mathematics and science teachers as recipients of the prestigious Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. These awardees represent all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Territories, and the Department of Defense Education Activity schools. The educators will receive their awards at a ceremony in Washington, DC on September 8.
The Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching is awarded to outstanding K-12 science and mathematics teachers from across the country. The winners are selected by a panel of distinguished scientists, mathematicians, and educators following an initial selection process at the state level. Each nomination year of the award alternates between teachers in the kindergarten through 6th grade level, and those teaching 7th through 12th grades. The cohort of awardees named today represent two nomination years, one of teachers in kindergarten through 6th grade classrooms and the other in 7th through 12th grade classrooms.
Winners of this Presidential honor receive a $10,000 award from the National Science Foundation to be used at their discretion, and are invited to Washington, DC, for an awards ceremony, as well educational and celebratory events, and visits with members of the Administration.
"The recipients of this award are integral to ensuring our students are equipped with critical thinking and problem-solving skills that are vital to our Nation’s success,” President Obama said. “As the United States continues to lead the way in the innovation that is shaping our future, these excellent teachers are preparing students from all corners of the country with the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics skills that help keep us on the cutting-edge.”
President Obama and his Administration have taken significant steps to strengthen education in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields in order to fully harness the promise our Nation’s students. The President’s Educate to Innovate campaign, launched in November 2009, has resulted in more than $1 billion in private investment for improving K-12 STEM education. Additionally, in 2011, the President set an ambitious goal to put 100,000 additional excellent STEM teachers in America’s classrooms by 2021. Thanks to the work of more than 280 organizations, 30,000 new STEM teachers have already been trained, and resources are in place to train an additional 70,000 STEM teachers by 2021. In parallel, the President has called for increasing the proficiency of America’s existing STEM teachers with a Master Teacher Corps initiative, which would identify the most effective K-12 STEM teachers and support them in a program to propagate their best practices with their peers. You can read more about the President’s commitment to science, technology, and innovation HERE.
The recipients of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching are listed below, by nomination cohort and then by state.
To learn more about these extraordinary teachers, please visit: https://recognition.paemst.org
Grades K-6 Award Cohort
Alabama
Kimberly Bowen, Rainbow Elementary School, Mathematics
Julie Neidhardt, Dawes Intermediate School, Science
Alaska
Joey Jigliotti, Alpenglow Elementary School, Science
MaryLee Tung, Sand Lake Elementary School, Mathematics
Arizona
Tabetha Finchum, Centennial Elementary School, Mathematics
Janice Mak, Fireside Elementary School, Science
Arkansas
Ashley Kasnicka, Harvey Jones Elementary School, Mathematics
Cassie Kautzer, Monitor Elementary School, Science
California
Andrew Kotko, Mather Heights Elementary School, Mathematics
Erica Rood, CHIME Charter School, Science
Colorado
Dawn Bauer, Carson Elementary School, Science
Carolyn Jordan, Normandy Elementary School, Mathematics
Connecticut
Liesl Fressola, Sandy Hook Elementary School, Science
Nicole Gilson, Peck Place School, Mathematics
Delaware
Kristin Gray, Richard A. Shields Elementary School, Mathematics
Kimberly Simmons, W. Reily Brown Elementary School, Science
District of Columbia
Kristina Kellogg, Watkins Elementary School, Mathematics
Michael Mangiaracina, Brent Elementary School, Science
DoDEA
Bridget Lester, Ft. Rucker Primary School, Science
Rebecca Sterrett, Ramstein Elementary School, Mathematics
Florida
Janet Acerra, Forest Lakes Elementary School, Science
Angela Phillips, Chets Creek Elementary School, Mathematics
Georgia
Amanda Cavin, Unity Grove Elementary School, Mathematics
Steven King, Whit Davis Elementary School, Science
Hawaii
Eliza Akana Yoshida, Pu'u Kukui Elementary School, Mathematics
Stan Mesina, August Ahrens Elementary School, Science
Idaho
Giselle Isbell, Anser Charter School, Mathematics
Linda Truxel, Barbara Morgan Elementary School, Science
Illinois
Catherine Ditto, Burley Elementary School, Mathematics
James O'Malley, Thomas A. Edison Elementary School, Science
Indiana
Martin Briggs, Crichfield Elementary School, Mathematics
Kristen Poindexter, Spring Mill Elementary School, Science
Iowa
Ann Johnson, Sageville Elementary School, Mathematics
Joshua Steenhoek, Jefferson Intermediate School, Science
Kansas
Michelle Kelly, Basehor Elementary School, Mathematics
Brandi Leggett, Prairie Ridge Elementary School, Science
Kentucky
Vivian Bowles, Kit Carson Elementary School, Science
Gina Kimery, Farmer Elementary School, Mathematics
Louisiana
Mary Legoria, Westdale Heights Academic Magnet School, Science
Kristen Mason, L. W. Ruppel Academy for Advanced Studies, Mathematics
Maine
Lauree Gott, Veazie Community School, Science
Laura Stevens, Dora L. Small Elementary School, Mathematics
Maryland
Hilarie Hall, The Woods Academy, Science
Jennifer Kiederer Lawrence, Warren Elementary School, Mathematics
Massachusetts
John Heffernan, Anne T. Dunphy School, Science
Karen Schweitzer, Anne T. Dunphy School, Mathematics
Michigan
Gary Koppelman, Blissfield Elementary School, Science
Francie Robertson, Pine Tree Elementary, Mathematics
Minnesota
Frances Stang, O. H. Anderson Elementary School, Science
Carissa Tobin, Nellie Stone Johnson Community School, Mathematics
Mississippi
Karin Bowen, Brandon Middle School, Mathematics
Vicki Moorehead, St. Anthony Catholic School, Science
Missouri
Nancy McClintock, Center for Creative Learning, Science
Katherine Schack, Lakeview Elementary School, Mathematics
Montana
Kara Nelson, Meadowlark Elementary School, Mathematics
Colleen Windell, Lolo Middle School, Science
Nebraska
Amy Falcone, Hillside Elementary School, Mathematics
Kyla Hall, Kloefkorn Elementary School, Mathematics
Nevada
Arvella Jergesen, Fernley Intermediate School, Mathematics
Kathleen Schaeffer, Bob Miller Middle School, Mathematics
New Hampshire
Rebecca Cummings, Pelham Elementary School, Science
Ann Gaffney, Londonderry Middle School, Mathematics
New Jersey
Julia Ogden, Woodcliff Middle School, Science
Coshetty Vargas, Washington Park School, Mathematics
New Mexico
Cynthia Colomb, Hermosa Middle School, Science
Bernadine Cotton, Tombaugh Elementary School, Mathematics
New York
Eliza Chung, The School at Columbia University, Mathematics
Lisbeth Uribe, The School at Columbia University, Science
North Carolina
Justin Osterstrom, Martin Gifted and Talented Magnet Middle School, Science
Kayonna Pitchford, Stoney Point Elementary School, Mathematics
North Dakota
Loni Miller, Saxvik Elementary School, Science
Angela Stoa-Lipp, Kennedy Elementary School, Mathematics
Ohio
Marcy Burns, Main Street Intermediate School, Science
Susan Dankworth, Thomas E. Hook Elementary School, Mathematics
Oklahoma
Rebekah Hammack, Stillwater Middle School, Science
Moriah Widener, Jenks West Intermediate School, Mathematics
Oregon
Maureen Murphy-Foelkl, Chapman Hill Elementary School, Science
Sarah Luvaas, Redland Elementary School, Mathematics
Pennsylvania
Karen Bungo, Horace Mann Elementary School, Mathematics
Geoffrey Selling, Germantown Friends School, Science
Puerto Rico
Esther Alvarez-Meléndez, Academia San Ignacio de Loyola, Science
Carmen Olmo, Saint John's School, Mathematics
Rhode Island
Barbara Pellegrino, Harold F. Scott Elementary School, Mathematics
Debra Turchetti-Ramm, Sarah Dyer Barnes Elementary School, Science
South Carolina
Tammy Joiner, Little Mountain Elementary School, Mathematics
Rebecca Strong, Thomas C. Cario Middle School, Science
South Dakota
Roby Johnson, Holgate Middle School, Science
Crystal McMachen, East Middle School, Mathematics
Tennessee
Theresa Feliu, John Adams Elementary School, Mathematics
Nicole Resmondo, Gresham Middle School, Science
Texas
Erika Hassay, Live Oak Elementary School, Mathematics
Celena Miller, Cesar Chavez Elementary School, Science
U.S. Territories
Fina Leon Guerrero, Manuel Ulloa Lujan Elementary School, Mathematics
Richard Carlos Velasco, FBLG Middle School, Mathematics
Utah
Jalyn Kelley, Wilson Elementary School, Mathematics
Britnie Powell, Salt Lake Center for Science Education, Science
Vermont
Laura Botte Fretz, Edmunds Middle School, Mathematics
Lisa Marks, Ludlow Elementary School, Science
Virginia
Barbara-Ann Adcock, Pocahontas Elementary School, Science
Eric Imbrescia, Peak View Elementary School, Mathematics
Washington
Meredith Gannon, Sacajawea Elementary School, Science
Deborah Halperin, Laurelhurst Elementary School, Mathematics
West Virginia
Cynthia Evarts, Orchard View Intermediate School, Mathematics
Nancy Holdsworth, New Manchester Elementary School, Science
Wisconsin
Lori Baryenbruch, River Valley Elementary Spring Green, Science
Tina Parker, Sam Davey Elementary School, Mathematics
Wyoming
Gayla Hammer, Lander Middle School, Science
Nancy Windholz, Saratoga Elementary School, Mathematics
Grades 7-12 Award Cohort
Alabama
Ryan Reardon, Jefferson County International Baccalaureate School, Science
Joel White, Brooks High School, Mathematics
Alaska
Christopher Benshoof, Lathrop High School, Mathematics
Catherine Walker, Romig Middle School, Science
Arizona
Marizza Bailey, BASIS Scottsdale, Mathematics
Michael McKelvy, Basha High School, Science
Arkansas
Daniel Moix, Bryant High School, Mathematics
Diedre Young, Ridgway Christian High School, Science
California
Maria McClain, Deer Valley High School, Mathematics
Michael Towne, Citrus Hill High School, Science
Colorado
Lisa Bejarano, Aspen Valley High School, Mathematics
Jessica Noffsinger, STEM Magnet Lab School, Science
Connecticut
Richard Broggini, Smith Middle School, Science
Elizabeth Capasso, Jettie S. Tisdale School, Mathematics
Delaware
Robin Corrozi, Cape Henlopen High School, Mathematics
John Scali, MOT Charter High School, Science
District of Columbia
Shira Printup, McKinley Technology High School, Mathematics
Melanie Wiscount, McKinley Technology Education Campus, Science
DoDEA
Michal Turner, Vicenza Middle School, Mathematics
Florida
Tracy Smith, Bak Middle School of the Arts, Science
Kelly Zunkiewicz, Dr. Earl J. Lennard High School, Mathematics
Georgia
Marc Pedersen, Paulding County High School, Science
Cindy Apley Rose, Couch Middle School, Mathematics
Hawaii
Alicia Nakamitsu, Aiea High School, Mathematics
Bryan Silver, Kalani High School, Science
Idaho
Jason George, Vision Charter School, Science
Micah Lauer, Heritage Middle School, Science
Illinois
Michael Fumagalli, East Leyden High School, Science
Lisa Nicks, Thornton Township High School, Mathematics
Indiana
Hugh Ross, Guerin Catholic High School, Science
Michael Spock, Columbus North High School, Mathematics
Iowa
Lynnetta Bleeker, Parkview Middle School, Science
Richard Brooks, Johnston High School, Mathematics
Kansas
Trissa McCabe, Reno Valley Middle School, Mathematics
Denise Scribner, Eisenhower High School, Science
Kentucky
Carly Baldwin, Boyd County High School, Science
Christine Bickett, North Bullitt High School, Mathematics
Louisiana
Linda Messina, Saint Joseph's Academy, Science
Donna Patten, West Monroe High School, Mathematics
Maine
Marielle Edgecomb, Peninsula School, Mathematics
Cary James, Bangor High School, Science
Maryland
Elizabeth Lazaro, Buck Lodge Middle School, Science
Elizabeth Megonigal, Huntingtown High School, Science
Massachusetts
Neil Plotnick, Everett High School, Mathematics
Keith Wright, The Springfield Renaissance School, Science
Michigan
Brian Langley, Novi High School, Science
Wendy Osterman, Sashabaw Middle School, Mathematics
Minnesota
Morgan Fierst, South High, Mathematics
Lisa Houdek, Central Senior High School, Science
Mississippi
Marshall Hobbs, Jackson Preparatory School, Science
Lauren Zarandona, Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science, Mathematics
Missouri
Carol Robertson, Fulton High School, Science
Deanna Wasman, David H. Hickman High School, Mathematics
Montana
Jessica Anderson, Powell County High School, Science
Kerry Gruizenga, Skyview High School, Mathematics
Nebraska
Nicole Miller, Lakeview Jr-Sr High School, Science
Gregory Sand, Central High School, Mathematics
New Hampshire
Robin Ellwood, Rye Junior High School, Science
Patrick Kaplo, Windham High School, Science
New Jersey
Victoria Gorman, Medford Memorial Middle School, Science
Amy Mosser, Seneca High School, Mathematics
New Mexico
Kathleen Boerigter, Los Alamos High School, Science
Kevin Gant, Nex+Gen Academy, Science
New York
Daniel Mattoon, Niskayuna High School, Mathematics
Amanda Zullo, Saranac Lake High School, Science
North Carolina
Lauren Baucom, Forest Hills High School, Mathematics
Karen Newman, Durham Academy, Science
North Dakota
Jonathan Fugleberg, May-Port CG High School, Mathematics
Michelle Strand, West Fargo High School, Science
Ohio
Amy Roediger, Mentor High School, Science
Beth Vavzincak, Normandy High School, Mathematics
Oklahoma
Teri Kimble, Hydro-Eakly Middle School/High School, Science
Jamie Rentzel, Norman High School, Mathematics
Oregon
Katharine Dean, Centennial High School, Science
Brian Hanna, Newport High School, Mathematics
Pennsylvania
Elizabeth Allen, Saucon Valley High School, Mathematics
Jaunine Fouché, Milton Hershey School, Science
Puerto Rico
Nelson Franqui Flores, Saint John's School, Mathematics
Keyla Soto Hidalgo, University High School, Science
Rhode Island
Anthony Borgueta, Barrington Middle School, Science
Kristen Jahnz, Cumberland High School, Mathematics
South Carolina
Gail Vawter, Springfield Middle School, Science
Jennifer Wise, Hand Middle School, Mathematics
South Dakota
Jennifer Fowler, South Middle School, Science
Bjorg Remmers-Seymour, East Middle School, Mathematics
Tennessee
Laura Darnall, Goodpasture Christian School, Science
Mary Vaughan, Oak Ridge High School, Mathematics
Texas
Patty Hill, Kealing Middle School, Mathematics
Cara Johnson, Allen High School, Science
U.S. Territories
Thora Henry Letang, Bertha C. Boschulte Middle School, Science
Dora Borja Miura, Saipan Southern High School, Mathematics
Utah
Magdalene Huddleston, Sand Ridge Junior High, Science
Vicki Lyons, Lone Peak High School, Mathematics
Vermont
Katherine McCann, U-32 Middle High School, Mathematics
Mary Louise McLaughlin, Barre Town Middle and Elementary School, Science
Virginia
Kelle Lyn Scott, Robinson Secondary School, Mathematics
Camilla Walck, Princess Anne High School, Science
Washington
Scott Cooley, University High School, Mathematics
Jeffery Wehr, Odessa High School, Science
West Virginia
Maureen Miller, Hurricane Middle School, Science
Sarah Snyder, Fairmont Senior High School, Mathematics
Wisconsin
Juan Botella, Monona Grove High School, Science
John Hayes, Northland Pines High School, Mathematics
Wyoming
Lesley Urasky, Rawlins High School, Science
Patricia Urasky, East High School, Mathematics
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 22, 2016
President Obama Honors Outstanding Mathematics and Science Teachers
WASHINGTON, DC -- President Obama today named 213 mathematics and science teachers as recipients of the prestigious Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. These awardees represent all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Territories, and the Department of Defense Education Activity schools. The educators will receive their awards at a ceremony in Washington, DC on September 8.
The Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching is awarded to outstanding K-12 science and mathematics teachers from across the country. The winners are selected by a panel of distinguished scientists, mathematicians, and educators following an initial selection process at the state level. Each nomination year of the award alternates between teachers in the kindergarten through 6th grade level, and those teaching 7th through 12th grades. The cohort of awardees named today represent two nomination years, one of teachers in kindergarten through 6th grade classrooms and the other in 7th through 12th grade classrooms.
Winners of this Presidential honor receive a $10,000 award from the National Science Foundation to be used at their discretion, and are invited to Washington, DC, for an awards ceremony, as well educational and celebratory events, and visits with members of the Administration.
"The recipients of this award are integral to ensuring our students are equipped with critical thinking and problem-solving skills that are vital to our Nation’s success,” President Obama said. “As the United States continues to lead the way in the innovation that is shaping our future, these excellent teachers are preparing students from all corners of the country with the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics skills that help keep us on the cutting-edge.”
President Obama and his Administration have taken significant steps to strengthen education in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields in order to fully harness the promise our Nation’s students. The President’s Educate to Innovate campaign, launched in November 2009, has resulted in more than $1 billion in private investment for improving K-12 STEM education. Additionally, in 2011, the President set an ambitious goal to put 100,000 additional excellent STEM teachers in America’s classrooms by 2021. Thanks to the work of more than 280 organizations, 30,000 new STEM teachers have already been trained, and resources are in place to train an additional 70,000 STEM teachers by 2021. In parallel, the President has called for increasing the proficiency of America’s existing STEM teachers with a Master Teacher Corps initiative, which would identify the most effective K-12 STEM teachers and support them in a program to propagate their best practices with their peers. You can read more about the President’s commitment to science, technology, and innovation HERE.
The recipients of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching are listed below, by nomination cohort and then by state.
To learn more about these extraordinary teachers, please visit: https://recognition.paemst.org
Grades K-6 Award Cohort
Alabama
Kimberly Bowen, Rainbow Elementary School, Mathematics
Julie Neidhardt, Dawes Intermediate School, Science
Alaska
Joey Jigliotti, Alpenglow Elementary School, Science
MaryLee Tung, Sand Lake Elementary School, Mathematics
Arizona
Tabetha Finchum, Centennial Elementary School, Mathematics
Janice Mak, Fireside Elementary School, Science
Arkansas
Ashley Kasnicka, Harvey Jones Elementary School, Mathematics
Cassie Kautzer, Monitor Elementary School, Science
California
Andrew Kotko, Mather Heights Elementary School, Mathematics
Erica Rood, CHIME Charter School, Science
Colorado
Dawn Bauer, Carson Elementary School, Science
Carolyn Jordan, Normandy Elementary School, Mathematics
Connecticut
Liesl Fressola, Sandy Hook Elementary School, Science
Nicole Gilson, Peck Place School, Mathematics
Delaware
Kristin Gray, Richard A. Shields Elementary School, Mathematics
Kimberly Simmons, W. Reily Brown Elementary School, Science
District of Columbia
Kristina Kellogg, Watkins Elementary School, Mathematics
Michael Mangiaracina, Brent Elementary School, Science
DoDEA
Bridget Lester, Ft. Rucker Primary School, Science
Rebecca Sterrett, Ramstein Elementary School, Mathematics
Florida
Janet Acerra, Forest Lakes Elementary School, Science
Angela Phillips, Chets Creek Elementary School, Mathematics
Georgia
Amanda Cavin, Unity Grove Elementary School, Mathematics
Steven King, Whit Davis Elementary School, Science
Hawaii
Eliza Akana Yoshida, Pu'u Kukui Elementary School, Mathematics
Stan Mesina, August Ahrens Elementary School, Science
Idaho
Giselle Isbell, Anser Charter School, Mathematics
Linda Truxel, Barbara Morgan Elementary School, Science
Illinois
Catherine Ditto, Burley Elementary School, Mathematics
James O'Malley, Thomas A. Edison Elementary School, Science
Indiana
Martin Briggs, Crichfield Elementary School, Mathematics
Kristen Poindexter, Spring Mill Elementary School, Science
Iowa
Ann Johnson, Sageville Elementary School, Mathematics
Joshua Steenhoek, Jefferson Intermediate School, Science
Kansas
Michelle Kelly, Basehor Elementary School, Mathematics
Brandi Leggett, Prairie Ridge Elementary School, Science
Kentucky
Vivian Bowles, Kit Carson Elementary School, Science
Gina Kimery, Farmer Elementary School, Mathematics
Louisiana
Mary Legoria, Westdale Heights Academic Magnet School, Science
Kristen Mason, L. W. Ruppel Academy for Advanced Studies, Mathematics
Maine
Lauree Gott, Veazie Community School, Science
Laura Stevens, Dora L. Small Elementary School, Mathematics
Maryland
Hilarie Hall, The Woods Academy, Science
Jennifer Kiederer Lawrence, Warren Elementary School, Mathematics
Massachusetts
John Heffernan, Anne T. Dunphy School, Science
Karen Schweitzer, Anne T. Dunphy School, Mathematics
Michigan
Gary Koppelman, Blissfield Elementary School, Science
Francie Robertson, Pine Tree Elementary, Mathematics
Minnesota
Frances Stang, O. H. Anderson Elementary School, Science
Carissa Tobin, Nellie Stone Johnson Community School, Mathematics
Mississippi
Karin Bowen, Brandon Middle School, Mathematics
Vicki Moorehead, St. Anthony Catholic School, Science
Missouri
Nancy McClintock, Center for Creative Learning, Science
Katherine Schack, Lakeview Elementary School, Mathematics
Montana
Kara Nelson, Meadowlark Elementary School, Mathematics
Colleen Windell, Lolo Middle School, Science
Nebraska
Amy Falcone, Hillside Elementary School, Mathematics
Kyla Hall, Kloefkorn Elementary School, Mathematics
Nevada
Arvella Jergesen, Fernley Intermediate School, Mathematics
Kathleen Schaeffer, Bob Miller Middle School, Mathematics
New Hampshire
Rebecca Cummings, Pelham Elementary School, Science
Ann Gaffney, Londonderry Middle School, Mathematics
New Jersey
Julia Ogden, Woodcliff Middle School, Science
Coshetty Vargas, Washington Park School, Mathematics
New Mexico
Cynthia Colomb, Hermosa Middle School, Science
Bernadine Cotton, Tombaugh Elementary School, Mathematics
New York
Eliza Chung, The School at Columbia University, Mathematics
Lisbeth Uribe, The School at Columbia University, Science
North Carolina
Justin Osterstrom, Martin Gifted and Talented Magnet Middle School, Science
Kayonna Pitchford, Stoney Point Elementary School, Mathematics
North Dakota
Loni Miller, Saxvik Elementary School, Science
Angela Stoa-Lipp, Kennedy Elementary School, Mathematics
Ohio
Marcy Burns, Main Street Intermediate School, Science
Susan Dankworth, Thomas E. Hook Elementary School, Mathematics
Oklahoma
Rebekah Hammack, Stillwater Middle School, Science
Moriah Widener, Jenks West Intermediate School, Mathematics
Oregon
Maureen Murphy-Foelkl, Chapman Hill Elementary School, Science
Sarah Luvaas, Redland Elementary School, Mathematics
Pennsylvania
Karen Bungo, Horace Mann Elementary School, Mathematics
Geoffrey Selling, Germantown Friends School, Science
Puerto Rico
Esther Alvarez-Meléndez, Academia San Ignacio de Loyola, Science
Carmen Olmo, Saint John's School, Mathematics
Rhode Island
Barbara Pellegrino, Harold F. Scott Elementary School, Mathematics
Debra Turchetti-Ramm, Sarah Dyer Barnes Elementary School, Science
South Carolina
Tammy Joiner, Little Mountain Elementary School, Mathematics
Rebecca Strong, Thomas C. Cario Middle School, Science
South Dakota
Roby Johnson, Holgate Middle School, Science
Crystal McMachen, East Middle School, Mathematics
Tennessee
Theresa Feliu, John Adams Elementary School, Mathematics
Nicole Resmondo, Gresham Middle School, Science
Texas
Erika Hassay, Live Oak Elementary School, Mathematics
Celena Miller, Cesar Chavez Elementary School, Science
U.S. Territories
Fina Leon Guerrero, Manuel Ulloa Lujan Elementary School, Mathematics
Richard Carlos Velasco, FBLG Middle School, Mathematics
Utah
Jalyn Kelley, Wilson Elementary School, Mathematics
Britnie Powell, Salt Lake Center for Science Education, Science
Vermont
Laura Botte Fretz, Edmunds Middle School, Mathematics
Lisa Marks, Ludlow Elementary School, Science
Virginia
Barbara-Ann Adcock, Pocahontas Elementary School, Science
Eric Imbrescia, Peak View Elementary School, Mathematics
Washington
Meredith Gannon, Sacajawea Elementary School, Science
Deborah Halperin, Laurelhurst Elementary School, Mathematics
West Virginia
Cynthia Evarts, Orchard View Intermediate School, Mathematics
Nancy Holdsworth, New Manchester Elementary School, Science
Wisconsin
Lori Baryenbruch, River Valley Elementary Spring Green, Science
Tina Parker, Sam Davey Elementary School, Mathematics
Wyoming
Gayla Hammer, Lander Middle School, Science
Nancy Windholz, Saratoga Elementary School, Mathematics
Grades 7-12 Award Cohort
Alabama
Ryan Reardon, Jefferson County International Baccalaureate School, Science
Joel White, Brooks High School, Mathematics
Alaska
Christopher Benshoof, Lathrop High School, Mathematics
Catherine Walker, Romig Middle School, Science
Arizona
Marizza Bailey, BASIS Scottsdale, Mathematics
Michael McKelvy, Basha High School, Science
Arkansas
Daniel Moix, Bryant High School, Mathematics
Diedre Young, Ridgway Christian High School, Science
California
Maria McClain, Deer Valley High School, Mathematics
Michael Towne, Citrus Hill High School, Science
Colorado
Lisa Bejarano, Aspen Valley High School, Mathematics
Jessica Noffsinger, STEM Magnet Lab School, Science
Connecticut
Richard Broggini, Smith Middle School, Science
Elizabeth Capasso, Jettie S. Tisdale School, Mathematics
Delaware
Robin Corrozi, Cape Henlopen High School, Mathematics
John Scali, MOT Charter High School, Science
District of Columbia
Shira Printup, McKinley Technology High School, Mathematics
Melanie Wiscount, McKinley Technology Education Campus, Science
DoDEA
Michal Turner, Vicenza Middle School, Mathematics
Florida
Tracy Smith, Bak Middle School of the Arts, Science
Kelly Zunkiewicz, Dr. Earl J. Lennard High School, Mathematics
Georgia
Marc Pedersen, Paulding County High School, Science
Cindy Apley Rose, Couch Middle School, Mathematics
Hawaii
Alicia Nakamitsu, Aiea High School, Mathematics
Bryan Silver, Kalani High School, Science
Idaho
Jason George, Vision Charter School, Science
Micah Lauer, Heritage Middle School, Science
Illinois
Michael Fumagalli, East Leyden High School, Science
Lisa Nicks, Thornton Township High School, Mathematics
Indiana
Hugh Ross, Guerin Catholic High School, Science
Michael Spock, Columbus North High School, Mathematics
Iowa
Lynnetta Bleeker, Parkview Middle School, Science
Richard Brooks, Johnston High School, Mathematics
Kansas
Trissa McCabe, Reno Valley Middle School, Mathematics
Denise Scribner, Eisenhower High School, Science
Kentucky
Carly Baldwin, Boyd County High School, Science
Christine Bickett, North Bullitt High School, Mathematics
Louisiana
Linda Messina, Saint Joseph's Academy, Science
Donna Patten, West Monroe High School, Mathematics
Maine
Marielle Edgecomb, Peninsula School, Mathematics
Cary James, Bangor High School, Science
Maryland
Elizabeth Lazaro, Buck Lodge Middle School, Science
Elizabeth Megonigal, Huntingtown High School, Science
Massachusetts
Neil Plotnick, Everett High School, Mathematics
Keith Wright, The Springfield Renaissance School, Science
Michigan
Brian Langley, Novi High School, Science
Wendy Osterman, Sashabaw Middle School, Mathematics
Minnesota
Morgan Fierst, South High, Mathematics
Lisa Houdek, Central Senior High School, Science
Mississippi
Marshall Hobbs, Jackson Preparatory School, Science
Lauren Zarandona, Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science, Mathematics
Missouri
Carol Robertson, Fulton High School, Science
Deanna Wasman, David H. Hickman High School, Mathematics
Montana
Jessica Anderson, Powell County High School, Science
Kerry Gruizenga, Skyview High School, Mathematics
Nebraska
Nicole Miller, Lakeview Jr-Sr High School, Science
Gregory Sand, Central High School, Mathematics
New Hampshire
Robin Ellwood, Rye Junior High School, Science
Patrick Kaplo, Windham High School, Science
New Jersey
Victoria Gorman, Medford Memorial Middle School, Science
Amy Mosser, Seneca High School, Mathematics
New Mexico
Kathleen Boerigter, Los Alamos High School, Science
Kevin Gant, Nex+Gen Academy, Science
New York
Daniel Mattoon, Niskayuna High School, Mathematics
Amanda Zullo, Saranac Lake High School, Science
North Carolina
Lauren Baucom, Forest Hills High School, Mathematics
Karen Newman, Durham Academy, Science
North Dakota
Jonathan Fugleberg, May-Port CG High School, Mathematics
Michelle Strand, West Fargo High School, Science
Ohio
Amy Roediger, Mentor High School, Science
Beth Vavzincak, Normandy High School, Mathematics
Oklahoma
Teri Kimble, Hydro-Eakly Middle School/High School, Science
Jamie Rentzel, Norman High School, Mathematics
Oregon
Katharine Dean, Centennial High School, Science
Brian Hanna, Newport High School, Mathematics
Pennsylvania
Elizabeth Allen, Saucon Valley High School, Mathematics
Jaunine Fouché, Milton Hershey School, Science
Puerto Rico
Nelson Franqui Flores, Saint John's School, Mathematics
Keyla Soto Hidalgo, University High School, Science
Rhode Island
Anthony Borgueta, Barrington Middle School, Science
Kristen Jahnz, Cumberland High School, Mathematics
South Carolina
Gail Vawter, Springfield Middle School, Science
Jennifer Wise, Hand Middle School, Mathematics
South Dakota
Jennifer Fowler, South Middle School, Science
Bjorg Remmers-Seymour, East Middle School, Mathematics
Tennessee
Laura Darnall, Goodpasture Christian School, Science
Mary Vaughan, Oak Ridge High School, Mathematics
Texas
Patty Hill, Kealing Middle School, Mathematics
Cara Johnson, Allen High School, Science
U.S. Territories
Thora Henry Letang, Bertha C. Boschulte Middle School, Science
Dora Borja Miura, Saipan Southern High School, Mathematics
Utah
Magdalene Huddleston, Sand Ridge Junior High, Science
Vicki Lyons, Lone Peak High School, Mathematics
Vermont
Katherine McCann, U-32 Middle High School, Mathematics
Mary Louise McLaughlin, Barre Town Middle and Elementary School, Science
Virginia
Kelle Lyn Scott, Robinson Secondary School, Mathematics
Camilla Walck, Princess Anne High School, Science
Washington
Scott Cooley, University High School, Mathematics
Jeffery Wehr, Odessa High School, Science
West Virginia
Maureen Miller, Hurricane Middle School, Science
Sarah Snyder, Fairmont Senior High School, Mathematics
Wisconsin
Juan Botella, Monona Grove High School, Science
John Hayes, Northland Pines High School, Mathematics
Wyoming
Lesley Urasky, Rawlins High School, Science
Patricia Urasky, East High School, Mathematics
Protecting the Progress We’ve Made with Wall Street Reform
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
EMBARGOED UNTIL 6:00AM EDT, SATURDAY, July 23, 2016
WEEKLY ADDRESS: Protecting the Progress We’ve Made with Wall Street Reform
WASHINGTON, DC — In this week's address, Senator Elizabeth Warren joined President Obama to discuss how far we've come since the financial crisis, when the recklessness of Wall Street caused millions of Americans to lose their jobs, homes, and savings. Senator Warren underscored the importance of the Wall Street reforms the President signed into law, which included the strongest consumer protections in generations. In addition to making the financial system safer and more resilient, these reforms also established the first-ever Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which holds banks, credit card companies, mortgage lenders, and others accountable, and protects consumers from abuses and deceptive practices. This past Thursday, July 21, marked six years since the President signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act into law and the five year anniversary of the creation of the CFPB. Thanks to these reforms, the President reiterated the economy is stronger and more durable today than it was before the crisis. That's why President Obama is going to keep fighting to protect the progress we've made reforming Wall Street from attacks, because hard-working Americans who play by the rules should expect Wall Street to play by the rules, too.
The audio of the address and video of the address will be available online at www.whitehouse.gov at 6:00AM EDT, July 23, 2016.
Remarks of President Barack Obama and Senator Elizabeth Warren as Prepared for Delivery
Weekly Address
The White House
July 23, 2016
POTUS: Hi, everybody. I’m here with Senator Elizabeth Warren, one of our strongest advocates for families and consumers like you. Today, we want to talk about some of the actions we’ve taken to protect everything you’ve worked so hard to build.
Eight years ago, after some big banks made irresponsible and risky bets with your money, we almost slipped into another Great Depression. While the recklessness started on Wall Street, it didn’t take long before it led to real pain for folks on Main Street. It would cost millions of our fellow Americans their jobs, homes, and savings.
WARREN: The financial crisis wasn’t an unstoppable act of nature. The whole thing could have been avoided, but we didn’t have the rules in place to stop Wall Street from taking enormous risks that threatened the economy. We didn’t have strong protections to keep consumers from being cheated by tricks and traps on financial contracts.
POTUS: So when I took office in the darkest days of the crisis, I promised you we wouldn’t just recover from crisis – we’d rebuild our economy on a new foundation to make sure a crisis like that never happens again.
WARREN: President Obama delivered. He signed into law the toughest Wall Street reforms and strongest consumer protections in generations. Trust me – I’m a pretty tough grader. These new rules are making our financial system more transparent, getting rid of a lot of fine print, and making sure that if a bank screws up, you have someone to call so you don’t get stuck with the bill.
POTUS: These reforms have already made our financial system safer and more resilient. And part of passing those strong consumer protections meant establishing the first-ever Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, based on an idea that Senator Warren came up with before the crisis even began.
WARREN: Every day, the good people at that independent agency crack down on dishonest and deceptive practices like the ones that helped cause the crash. The proof is in the more than 27 million consumers who in just five years have gotten refunds and other relief from credit card companies, payday lenders, debt collectors, and others that tried to rip them off.
POTUS: Before the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, you didn’t have a strong ally to turn to if your bank took advantage of you, or you were being harassed or charged inappropriate fees. Now you do.
WARREN: The Bureau is also there to help you make better-informed decisions. Before you take out a mortgage, or a loan for college or a new car, check out the agency’s website – CFPB.gov. It can help you sift through the confusing but important details.
POTUS: Republicans and big banks who opposed these commonsense rules claimed they’d hurt the economy. But we’ve seen what happened to the economy when we didn’t have these rules. And despite their claims, our economy is stronger today than it was before the crisis. Since we dug out from the worst of it, our businesses have added almost 15 million new jobs. Corporate profits are up, lending to businesses is up, and the stock market has hit an all-time high. So the idea this was bad for business just doesn’t hold water. Now our task should be making sure we build on those gains, and make sure they’re felt by everybody.
WARREN: But every year, like clockwork, big banks and their Republican allies in Congress try to roll back these protections and undermine the consumer watchdog, whose only job is to look out for you. Their nominee for President promises to dismantle all of it. They may have forgotten about the crisis, but working families sure haven’t. We haven’t either. And that’s why we’re not going to let them give Wall Street the ability to threaten our economy all over again.
POTUS: Whether you’re a Democrat, a Republican, or an independent, if you’re a hardworking American who plays by the rules, you should expect Wall Street to play by the rules, too. That’s what we’re fighting for.
WARREN: It’s about basic fairness for everyone.
POTUS: And it’s about responsibility from everyone. Thanks to leaders like Senator Warren, our country, our economy, and our families are better off. Let’s keep it that way. Thanks for being here, Senator Warren.
WARREN: Thanks for having me, Mr. President.
POTUS: Have a great weekend, everybody.
Office of the Press Secretary
EMBARGOED UNTIL 6:00AM EDT, SATURDAY, July 23, 2016
WEEKLY ADDRESS: Protecting the Progress We’ve Made with Wall Street Reform
WASHINGTON, DC — In this week's address, Senator Elizabeth Warren joined President Obama to discuss how far we've come since the financial crisis, when the recklessness of Wall Street caused millions of Americans to lose their jobs, homes, and savings. Senator Warren underscored the importance of the Wall Street reforms the President signed into law, which included the strongest consumer protections in generations. In addition to making the financial system safer and more resilient, these reforms also established the first-ever Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which holds banks, credit card companies, mortgage lenders, and others accountable, and protects consumers from abuses and deceptive practices. This past Thursday, July 21, marked six years since the President signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act into law and the five year anniversary of the creation of the CFPB. Thanks to these reforms, the President reiterated the economy is stronger and more durable today than it was before the crisis. That's why President Obama is going to keep fighting to protect the progress we've made reforming Wall Street from attacks, because hard-working Americans who play by the rules should expect Wall Street to play by the rules, too.
The audio of the address and video of the address will be available online at www.whitehouse.gov at 6:00AM EDT, July 23, 2016.
Remarks of President Barack Obama and Senator Elizabeth Warren as Prepared for Delivery
Weekly Address
The White House
July 23, 2016
POTUS: Hi, everybody. I’m here with Senator Elizabeth Warren, one of our strongest advocates for families and consumers like you. Today, we want to talk about some of the actions we’ve taken to protect everything you’ve worked so hard to build.
Eight years ago, after some big banks made irresponsible and risky bets with your money, we almost slipped into another Great Depression. While the recklessness started on Wall Street, it didn’t take long before it led to real pain for folks on Main Street. It would cost millions of our fellow Americans their jobs, homes, and savings.
WARREN: The financial crisis wasn’t an unstoppable act of nature. The whole thing could have been avoided, but we didn’t have the rules in place to stop Wall Street from taking enormous risks that threatened the economy. We didn’t have strong protections to keep consumers from being cheated by tricks and traps on financial contracts.
POTUS: So when I took office in the darkest days of the crisis, I promised you we wouldn’t just recover from crisis – we’d rebuild our economy on a new foundation to make sure a crisis like that never happens again.
WARREN: President Obama delivered. He signed into law the toughest Wall Street reforms and strongest consumer protections in generations. Trust me – I’m a pretty tough grader. These new rules are making our financial system more transparent, getting rid of a lot of fine print, and making sure that if a bank screws up, you have someone to call so you don’t get stuck with the bill.
POTUS: These reforms have already made our financial system safer and more resilient. And part of passing those strong consumer protections meant establishing the first-ever Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, based on an idea that Senator Warren came up with before the crisis even began.
WARREN: Every day, the good people at that independent agency crack down on dishonest and deceptive practices like the ones that helped cause the crash. The proof is in the more than 27 million consumers who in just five years have gotten refunds and other relief from credit card companies, payday lenders, debt collectors, and others that tried to rip them off.
POTUS: Before the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, you didn’t have a strong ally to turn to if your bank took advantage of you, or you were being harassed or charged inappropriate fees. Now you do.
WARREN: The Bureau is also there to help you make better-informed decisions. Before you take out a mortgage, or a loan for college or a new car, check out the agency’s website – CFPB.gov. It can help you sift through the confusing but important details.
POTUS: Republicans and big banks who opposed these commonsense rules claimed they’d hurt the economy. But we’ve seen what happened to the economy when we didn’t have these rules. And despite their claims, our economy is stronger today than it was before the crisis. Since we dug out from the worst of it, our businesses have added almost 15 million new jobs. Corporate profits are up, lending to businesses is up, and the stock market has hit an all-time high. So the idea this was bad for business just doesn’t hold water. Now our task should be making sure we build on those gains, and make sure they’re felt by everybody.
WARREN: But every year, like clockwork, big banks and their Republican allies in Congress try to roll back these protections and undermine the consumer watchdog, whose only job is to look out for you. Their nominee for President promises to dismantle all of it. They may have forgotten about the crisis, but working families sure haven’t. We haven’t either. And that’s why we’re not going to let them give Wall Street the ability to threaten our economy all over again.
POTUS: Whether you’re a Democrat, a Republican, or an independent, if you’re a hardworking American who plays by the rules, you should expect Wall Street to play by the rules, too. That’s what we’re fighting for.
WARREN: It’s about basic fairness for everyone.
POTUS: And it’s about responsibility from everyone. Thanks to leaders like Senator Warren, our country, our economy, and our families are better off. Let’s keep it that way. Thanks for being here, Senator Warren.
WARREN: Thanks for having me, Mr. President.
POTUS: Have a great weekend, everybody.
Annex for Presidential Policy Directive -- United States Cyber Incident Coordination
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release July 26, 2016
ANNEX TO PRESIDENTIAL POLICY DIRECTIVE/PPD-41
SUBJECT: Federal Government Coordination Architecture for
Significant Cyber Incidents
This annex to PPD-41, United States Cyber Incident Coordination
Policy, provides further details concerning the Federal
Government coordination architecture for significant cyber
incidents and prescribes certain implementation tasks.
II. Coordination Architecture
A. National Policy Coordination
The Cyber Response Group (CRG) shall be chaired by the Special
Assistant to the President and Cybersecurity Coordinator
(Chair), or an equivalent successor, and shall convene on a
regular basis and as needed at the request of the Assistant to
the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism and
Deputy National Security Advisor. Federal departments and
agencies, including relevant cyber centers, shall be invited to
participate in the CRG, as appropriate, based on their
respective roles, responsibilities, and expertise or in the
circumstances of a given incident or grouping of incidents. CRG
participants shall generally include senior representatives from
the Departments of State, the Treasury, Defense (DOD), Justice
(DOJ), Commerce, Energy, Homeland Security (DHS) and its
National Protection and Programs Directorate, and the
United States Secret Service, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Office
of the Director of National Intelligence, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task
Force, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the National
Security Agency. The Federal Communications Commission shall be
invited to participate should the Chair assess that its
inclusion is warranted by the circumstances and to the extent
2
the Commission determines such participation is consistent with
its statutory authority and legal obligations.
i. Coordinate the development and implementation of the
ii. Receive regular updates from the Federal cybersecurity
iii. Resolve issues elevated to it by subordinate bodies as
iv. Collaborate with the Counterterrorism Security Group
v. Identify and consider options for responding to
vi. Consider the policy implications for public messaging
Federal Government’s policies, strategies, and
procedures for responding to significant cyber
incidents;
centers and agencies on significant cyber incidents
and measures being taken to resolve or respond to
those incidents;
may be established, such as a Cyber Unified
Coordination Group (UCG);
and Domestic Resilience Group when a cross-
disciplinary response to a significant cyber incident
is required;
significant cyber incidents, and make recommendations
to the Deputies Committee, where higher-level guidance
is required, in accordance with PPD-1 on Organization
of the National Security Council System of
February 13, 2009, or any successor; and
in response to significant cyber incidents, and
coordinate a communications strategy, as necessary,
regarding a significant cyber incident.
B. National Operational Coordination
To promote unity of effort in response to a significant cyber
incident, a Cyber UCG shall:
i. Coordinate the cyber incident response in a manner
ii. Ensure all appropriate Federal agencies, including
iii. Coordinate the development and execution of response
consistent with the principles described in
section III of this directive;
sector-specific agencies (SSAs), are incorporated into
the incident response;
and recovery tasks, priorities, and planning efforts,
including international and cross-sector outreach,
3
iv. Facilitate the rapid and appropriate sharing of
v. Coordinate consistent, accurate, and appropriate
vi. For incidents that include cyber and physical effects,
necessary to respond appropriately to the incident and
to speed recovery;
information and intelligence among Cyber UCG
participants on the incident response and recovery
activities;
communications regarding the incident to affected
parties and stakeholders, including the public as
appropriate; and
form a combined UCG with the lead Federal agency or
with any UCG established to manage the physical
effects of the incident under the National Response
Framework developed pursuant to PPD-8 on National
Preparedness.
SSAs shall be members of the UCG for significant cyber incidents
that affect or are likely to affect their respective sectors.
As set forth in Presidential Policy Directive 21, the SSAs for
critical infrastructure sectors are as follows: DHS (Chemical,
Commercial Facilities, Communications, Critical Manufacturing,
Dams, Emergency Services, Government Facilities, Information
Technology, Nuclear Reactors, Materials, and Waste, and
Transportation Systems); DOD (Defense Industrial Base);
Department of Energy (Energy); Department of the Treasury
(Financial Services); Department of Agriculture (Food and
Agriculture); Department of Health and Human Services
(Healthcare and Public Health, and Food and Agriculture);
General Services Administration (Government Facilities);
Department of Transportation (Transportation Systems); and the
Environmental Protection Agency (Water and Wastewater Systems).
A Cyber UCG shall operate in a manner that is consistent with
the need to protect intelligence and law enforcement sources,
methods, operations, and investigations, the privacy of
individuals, and sensitive private sector information.
A Cyber UCG shall dissolve when enhanced coordination procedures
for threat and asset response are no longer required or the
authorities, capabilities, or resources of more than one Federal
agency are no longer required to manage the remaining facets of
the Federal response to an incident.
4
III. Federal Government Response to Incidents Affecting Federal
Nothing in this directive alters an agency’s obligations to
comply with the requirements of the Federal Information Security
Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA) or Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) guidelines related to responding to an “incident,”
“breach,” or “major incident” as defined in that statute and OMB
guidance. Federal agencies shall follow OMB guidance to
determine whether an incident is considered a “major incident”
pursuant to FISMA. If the cyber incident meets the threshold
for a “major incident,” it is also a “significant cyber
incident” for purposes of this directive and shall be managed in
accordance with this directive.
A. Civilian Federal Networks
The Director of OMB oversees Federal agency information security
policies and practices. The Secretary of Homeland Security, in
consultation with the Director of OMB, administers the
implementation of Federal agency information security policies
and practices and operates the Federal information security
incident center. The National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST) develops standards and guidelines for Federal
information systems that are mandatory for Federal agencies to
Federal agencies shall respond to significant cyber incidents in
accordance with this directive and applicable policies and
procedures, including the reporting of incidents to DHS as
required by the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team Federal
incident notification guidelines.
Where the effects of a significant cyber incident are limited to
the operational activities of an individual Federal agency, that
affected agency shall maintain primary authority over the
affected assets and be responsible for managing the restoration
services and related networks, systems, and applications and
making the decision to restart an affected system. DHS and
other Federal agencies shall provide support as appropriate.
Where a significant cyber incident has an impact on multiple
Federal agencies or on the integrity, confidentiality, or
availability of services to the public, the decision to restart
an affected system rests with the owning Federal agency, but
OMB and the Federal lead agencies for threat and asset response
shall provide a consolidated, timely written recommendation,
5
with appropriate caveats and conditions, to help inform that
owning agency’s decision.
B. DOD Information Network
The Secretary of Defense shall be responsible for managing the
threat and asset response to cyber incidents affecting the
Department of Defense Information Network, including restoration
activities, with support from other Federal agencies as
C. Intelligence Community Networks
The Director of National Intelligence shall be responsible for
managing the threat and asset response for the integrated
defense of the Intelligence Community (IC) information
environment through the Intelligence Community Security
Coordination Center, in conjunction with IC mission partners and
with support from other Federal agencies, as appropriate.
IV. Implementation and Assessment
Federal agencies shall take the following actions to implement
Within 90 days of the date of this directive, the National
Security Council (NSC) staff shall update the CRG charter to
account for and support the policy set forth herein, which shall
be submitted to the President through the Assistant to the
President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism.
B. Enhanced Coordination Procedures
Each Federal agency that regularly participates in the CRG,
including SSAs, shall ensure that it has the standing capacity
to execute its role in cyber incident response. To prepare for
situations in which the demands of a significant cyber incident
exceed its standing capacity, each such agency shall, within
90 days of the date of this directive, establish enhanced
coordination procedures that, when activated, bring dedicated
leadership, supporting personnel, facilities (physical and
communications), and internal processes enabling it to manage a
significant cyber incident under demands that would exceed its
capacity to coordinate under normal operating conditions.
6
Within 90 days of the date of this directive, the SSAs shall
develop or update sector-specific procedures, as needed and in
consultation with the sector(s), for enhanced coordination to
support response to a significant cyber incident, consistent
with this directive.
Enhanced coordination procedures shall identify the appropriate
pathways for communicating with other Federal agencies during a
significant cyber incident, including the relevant agency
points-of-contact, and for notifying the CRG that enhanced
coordination procedures were activated or initiated; highlight
internal communications and decisionmaking processes that are
consistent with effective incident coordination; and outline
processes for maintaining these procedures.
In addition, each Federal agency’s enhanced coordination
procedures shall identify the agency’s processes and existing
capabilities to coordinate cyber incident response activities in
a manner consistent with this directive. The procedures shall
identify a trained senior executive to oversee that agency’s
participation in a Cyber UCG. SSAs shall have a trained senior
executive for each of the sectors for which it is the designated
SSA under Presidential Policy Directive 21.
Within 120 days of the date of this directive, the SSAs shall
coordinate with critical infrastructure owners and operators to
synchronize sector-specific planning consistent with this
Within 150 days of the date of this directive, the Federal
Emergency Management Agency shall make necessary updates to its
existing Unified Coordination training to incorporate the tenets
Within 150 days of the date of this directive, Federal agencies
shall update cyber incident coordination training to incorporate
the tenets of this directive.
Federal agencies shall identify and maintain a cadre of
personnel qualified and trained in the National Incident
Management System and Unified Coordination to manage and respond
to a significant cyber incident. These personnel will provide
necessary expertise to support tasking and decisionmaking by a
7
Within 180 days of the date of this directive, Federal agencies
shall incorporate the tenets of this policy in cyber incident
response exercises. This will include exercises conducted as
part of the National Exercise Program. Exercises shall be
conducted at a frequency necessary to ensure Federal agencies
are prepared to execute the plans and procedures called for
under this directive. When appropriate, exercises shall
consider the effectiveness of the end-to-end information sharing
E. Cyber UCG Post-Incident Review
Upon dissolution of each Cyber UCG, the Chair of the CRG shall
direct a review of a Cyber UCG’s response to a significant cyber
incident at issue and the preparation of a report based on that
review to be provided to the CRG within 30 days. Federal
agencies shall modify any plans or procedures for which they are
responsible under this directive as appropriate or necessary in
light of that report.
F. National Cyber Incident Response Plan
Within 180 days of the date of this directive, DHS and DOJ, in
coordination with the SSAs, shall submit a concept of operations
for the Cyber UCG to the President, through the Assistant to the
President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism and the
Director of OMB, that is consistent with the principles,
policies, and coordination architecture set forth in this
directive. This concept of operations shall further develop how
the Cyber UCG and field elements of the Federal coordination
architecture will work in practice for significant cyber
incidents, including mechanisms for coordinating with Federal
agencies managing the physical effects of an incident that has
both cyber and physical elements and for integration of private
sector entities in response activities when appropriate. The
Secretary of Homeland Security shall, as appropriate,
incorporate or reference this concept of operations in the Cyber
Incident Annex required by section 205 of the Cybersecurity Act
Within 180 days of the date of this directive, the Secretary of
Homeland Security, in coordination with the Attorney General,
the Secretary of Defense, and the SSAs, shall submit a national
cyber incident response plan to address cybersecurity risks to
critical infrastructure to the President, through the Assistant
8
to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism and
the Director of OMB, that is consistent with the principles,
policies, and coordination architecture set forth in this
directive. The Secretary of Homeland Security shall ensure that
the plan satisfies section 7 of the National Cybersecurity
Protection Act of 2014. This plan shall be developed in
consultation with SLTT governments, sector coordinating
councils, information sharing and analysis organizations, owners
and operators of critical infrastructure, and other appropriate
entities and individuals. The plan shall take into account how
these stakeholders will coordinate with Federal agencies to
mitigate, respond to, and recover from cyber incidents affecting
critical infrastructure.
# # #
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release July 26, 2016
ANNEX TO PRESIDENTIAL POLICY DIRECTIVE/PPD-41
SUBJECT: Federal Government Coordination Architecture for
Significant Cyber Incidents
This annex to PPD-41, United States Cyber Incident Coordination
Policy, provides further details concerning the Federal
Government coordination architecture for significant cyber
incidents and prescribes certain implementation tasks.
II. Coordination Architecture
A. National Policy Coordination
The Cyber Response Group (CRG) shall be chaired by the Special
Assistant to the President and Cybersecurity Coordinator
(Chair), or an equivalent successor, and shall convene on a
regular basis and as needed at the request of the Assistant to
the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism and
Deputy National Security Advisor. Federal departments and
agencies, including relevant cyber centers, shall be invited to
participate in the CRG, as appropriate, based on their
respective roles, responsibilities, and expertise or in the
circumstances of a given incident or grouping of incidents. CRG
participants shall generally include senior representatives from
the Departments of State, the Treasury, Defense (DOD), Justice
(DOJ), Commerce, Energy, Homeland Security (DHS) and its
National Protection and Programs Directorate, and the
United States Secret Service, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Office
of the Director of National Intelligence, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task
Force, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the National
Security Agency. The Federal Communications Commission shall be
invited to participate should the Chair assess that its
inclusion is warranted by the circumstances and to the extent
2
the Commission determines such participation is consistent with
its statutory authority and legal obligations.
i. Coordinate the development and implementation of the
ii. Receive regular updates from the Federal cybersecurity
iii. Resolve issues elevated to it by subordinate bodies as
iv. Collaborate with the Counterterrorism Security Group
v. Identify and consider options for responding to
vi. Consider the policy implications for public messaging
Federal Government’s policies, strategies, and
procedures for responding to significant cyber
incidents;
centers and agencies on significant cyber incidents
and measures being taken to resolve or respond to
those incidents;
may be established, such as a Cyber Unified
Coordination Group (UCG);
and Domestic Resilience Group when a cross-
disciplinary response to a significant cyber incident
is required;
significant cyber incidents, and make recommendations
to the Deputies Committee, where higher-level guidance
is required, in accordance with PPD-1 on Organization
of the National Security Council System of
February 13, 2009, or any successor; and
in response to significant cyber incidents, and
coordinate a communications strategy, as necessary,
regarding a significant cyber incident.
B. National Operational Coordination
To promote unity of effort in response to a significant cyber
incident, a Cyber UCG shall:
i. Coordinate the cyber incident response in a manner
ii. Ensure all appropriate Federal agencies, including
iii. Coordinate the development and execution of response
consistent with the principles described in
section III of this directive;
sector-specific agencies (SSAs), are incorporated into
the incident response;
and recovery tasks, priorities, and planning efforts,
including international and cross-sector outreach,
3
iv. Facilitate the rapid and appropriate sharing of
v. Coordinate consistent, accurate, and appropriate
vi. For incidents that include cyber and physical effects,
necessary to respond appropriately to the incident and
to speed recovery;
information and intelligence among Cyber UCG
participants on the incident response and recovery
activities;
communications regarding the incident to affected
parties and stakeholders, including the public as
appropriate; and
form a combined UCG with the lead Federal agency or
with any UCG established to manage the physical
effects of the incident under the National Response
Framework developed pursuant to PPD-8 on National
Preparedness.
SSAs shall be members of the UCG for significant cyber incidents
that affect or are likely to affect their respective sectors.
As set forth in Presidential Policy Directive 21, the SSAs for
critical infrastructure sectors are as follows: DHS (Chemical,
Commercial Facilities, Communications, Critical Manufacturing,
Dams, Emergency Services, Government Facilities, Information
Technology, Nuclear Reactors, Materials, and Waste, and
Transportation Systems); DOD (Defense Industrial Base);
Department of Energy (Energy); Department of the Treasury
(Financial Services); Department of Agriculture (Food and
Agriculture); Department of Health and Human Services
(Healthcare and Public Health, and Food and Agriculture);
General Services Administration (Government Facilities);
Department of Transportation (Transportation Systems); and the
Environmental Protection Agency (Water and Wastewater Systems).
A Cyber UCG shall operate in a manner that is consistent with
the need to protect intelligence and law enforcement sources,
methods, operations, and investigations, the privacy of
individuals, and sensitive private sector information.
A Cyber UCG shall dissolve when enhanced coordination procedures
for threat and asset response are no longer required or the
authorities, capabilities, or resources of more than one Federal
agency are no longer required to manage the remaining facets of
the Federal response to an incident.
4
III. Federal Government Response to Incidents Affecting Federal
Nothing in this directive alters an agency’s obligations to
comply with the requirements of the Federal Information Security
Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA) or Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) guidelines related to responding to an “incident,”
“breach,” or “major incident” as defined in that statute and OMB
guidance. Federal agencies shall follow OMB guidance to
determine whether an incident is considered a “major incident”
pursuant to FISMA. If the cyber incident meets the threshold
for a “major incident,” it is also a “significant cyber
incident” for purposes of this directive and shall be managed in
accordance with this directive.
A. Civilian Federal Networks
The Director of OMB oversees Federal agency information security
policies and practices. The Secretary of Homeland Security, in
consultation with the Director of OMB, administers the
implementation of Federal agency information security policies
and practices and operates the Federal information security
incident center. The National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST) develops standards and guidelines for Federal
information systems that are mandatory for Federal agencies to
Federal agencies shall respond to significant cyber incidents in
accordance with this directive and applicable policies and
procedures, including the reporting of incidents to DHS as
required by the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team Federal
incident notification guidelines.
Where the effects of a significant cyber incident are limited to
the operational activities of an individual Federal agency, that
affected agency shall maintain primary authority over the
affected assets and be responsible for managing the restoration
services and related networks, systems, and applications and
making the decision to restart an affected system. DHS and
other Federal agencies shall provide support as appropriate.
Where a significant cyber incident has an impact on multiple
Federal agencies or on the integrity, confidentiality, or
availability of services to the public, the decision to restart
an affected system rests with the owning Federal agency, but
OMB and the Federal lead agencies for threat and asset response
shall provide a consolidated, timely written recommendation,
5
with appropriate caveats and conditions, to help inform that
owning agency’s decision.
B. DOD Information Network
The Secretary of Defense shall be responsible for managing the
threat and asset response to cyber incidents affecting the
Department of Defense Information Network, including restoration
activities, with support from other Federal agencies as
C. Intelligence Community Networks
The Director of National Intelligence shall be responsible for
managing the threat and asset response for the integrated
defense of the Intelligence Community (IC) information
environment through the Intelligence Community Security
Coordination Center, in conjunction with IC mission partners and
with support from other Federal agencies, as appropriate.
IV. Implementation and Assessment
Federal agencies shall take the following actions to implement
Within 90 days of the date of this directive, the National
Security Council (NSC) staff shall update the CRG charter to
account for and support the policy set forth herein, which shall
be submitted to the President through the Assistant to the
President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism.
B. Enhanced Coordination Procedures
Each Federal agency that regularly participates in the CRG,
including SSAs, shall ensure that it has the standing capacity
to execute its role in cyber incident response. To prepare for
situations in which the demands of a significant cyber incident
exceed its standing capacity, each such agency shall, within
90 days of the date of this directive, establish enhanced
coordination procedures that, when activated, bring dedicated
leadership, supporting personnel, facilities (physical and
communications), and internal processes enabling it to manage a
significant cyber incident under demands that would exceed its
capacity to coordinate under normal operating conditions.
6
Within 90 days of the date of this directive, the SSAs shall
develop or update sector-specific procedures, as needed and in
consultation with the sector(s), for enhanced coordination to
support response to a significant cyber incident, consistent
with this directive.
Enhanced coordination procedures shall identify the appropriate
pathways for communicating with other Federal agencies during a
significant cyber incident, including the relevant agency
points-of-contact, and for notifying the CRG that enhanced
coordination procedures were activated or initiated; highlight
internal communications and decisionmaking processes that are
consistent with effective incident coordination; and outline
processes for maintaining these procedures.
In addition, each Federal agency’s enhanced coordination
procedures shall identify the agency’s processes and existing
capabilities to coordinate cyber incident response activities in
a manner consistent with this directive. The procedures shall
identify a trained senior executive to oversee that agency’s
participation in a Cyber UCG. SSAs shall have a trained senior
executive for each of the sectors for which it is the designated
SSA under Presidential Policy Directive 21.
Within 120 days of the date of this directive, the SSAs shall
coordinate with critical infrastructure owners and operators to
synchronize sector-specific planning consistent with this
Within 150 days of the date of this directive, the Federal
Emergency Management Agency shall make necessary updates to its
existing Unified Coordination training to incorporate the tenets
Within 150 days of the date of this directive, Federal agencies
shall update cyber incident coordination training to incorporate
the tenets of this directive.
Federal agencies shall identify and maintain a cadre of
personnel qualified and trained in the National Incident
Management System and Unified Coordination to manage and respond
to a significant cyber incident. These personnel will provide
necessary expertise to support tasking and decisionmaking by a
7
Within 180 days of the date of this directive, Federal agencies
shall incorporate the tenets of this policy in cyber incident
response exercises. This will include exercises conducted as
part of the National Exercise Program. Exercises shall be
conducted at a frequency necessary to ensure Federal agencies
are prepared to execute the plans and procedures called for
under this directive. When appropriate, exercises shall
consider the effectiveness of the end-to-end information sharing
E. Cyber UCG Post-Incident Review
Upon dissolution of each Cyber UCG, the Chair of the CRG shall
direct a review of a Cyber UCG’s response to a significant cyber
incident at issue and the preparation of a report based on that
review to be provided to the CRG within 30 days. Federal
agencies shall modify any plans or procedures for which they are
responsible under this directive as appropriate or necessary in
light of that report.
F. National Cyber Incident Response Plan
Within 180 days of the date of this directive, DHS and DOJ, in
coordination with the SSAs, shall submit a concept of operations
for the Cyber UCG to the President, through the Assistant to the
President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism and the
Director of OMB, that is consistent with the principles,
policies, and coordination architecture set forth in this
directive. This concept of operations shall further develop how
the Cyber UCG and field elements of the Federal coordination
architecture will work in practice for significant cyber
incidents, including mechanisms for coordinating with Federal
agencies managing the physical effects of an incident that has
both cyber and physical elements and for integration of private
sector entities in response activities when appropriate. The
Secretary of Homeland Security shall, as appropriate,
incorporate or reference this concept of operations in the Cyber
Incident Annex required by section 205 of the Cybersecurity Act
Within 180 days of the date of this directive, the Secretary of
Homeland Security, in coordination with the Attorney General,
the Secretary of Defense, and the SSAs, shall submit a national
cyber incident response plan to address cybersecurity risks to
critical infrastructure to the President, through the Assistant
8
to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism and
the Director of OMB, that is consistent with the principles,
policies, and coordination architecture set forth in this
directive. The Secretary of Homeland Security shall ensure that
the plan satisfies section 7 of the National Cybersecurity
Protection Act of 2014. This plan shall be developed in
consultation with SLTT governments, sector coordinating
councils, information sharing and analysis organizations, owners
and operators of critical infrastructure, and other appropriate
entities and individuals. The plan shall take into account how
these stakeholders will coordinate with Federal agencies to
mitigate, respond to, and recover from cyber incidents affecting
critical infrastructure.
# # #
FACT SHEET: Administration Announces an Advanced Wireless Research Initiative, Building on President’s Legacy of Forward-Leaning Broadband Policy
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 15, 2016
FACT SHEET: Administration Announces an Advanced Wireless Research Initiative, Building on President’s Legacy of Forward-Leaning Broadband Policy
“Twenty-first century businesses need 21st century infrastructure—modern ports, and stronger bridges, faster trains and the fastest Internet…I intend to protect a free and open Internet, extend its reach to every classroom, and every community, and help folks build the fastest networks so that the next generation of digital innovators and entrepreneurs have the platform to keep reshaping our world.”
– President Obama, 2015 State of the Union
Under President Obama, we have seen technological breakthroughs and strategic investments that have propelled the United States to the forefront of wireless broadband—with world-leading 4G/LTE coverage for more than 98 percent of U.S. citizens. Today, the Obama Administration is announcing new steps to maintain U.S. leadership and win the next generation of mobile technology with the launch of a $400 million Advanced Wireless Research Initiative led by the National Science Foundation (NSF). This new program will enable the deployment and use of four city-scale testing platforms for advanced wireless research over the next decade and builds upon the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Spectrum Frontiers vote yesterday.
That vote made the United States the first country in the world to make vast quantities of high-frequency millimeter wave spectrum available for both licensed and unlicensed use. This spectrum, in combination with other spectrum already available, promises to enable faster speeds, quicker response times (“lower latency”), and increased capacity in future wireless networks. The United States leads the world in 4G deployment in significant part because of its spectrum-first, flexible-use strategy, and the Administration expects the United States to continue to spearhead future wireless innovations because of the FCC’s actions yesterday.
The Advanced Wireless Research Initiative announced today will also build on President Obama’s seven-and-a-half-year track record of accomplishment in wireless and wireline broadband policy, and on the nearly $150 billion in 4G LTE investment by wireless operators since 2010. It includes an $85 million investment in advanced wireless testing platforms by a public-private effort, including NSF and more than 20 technology companies and associations; plans by NSF to invest an additional $350 million over the next 7 years in academic research that can utilize these testing platforms; and complementary efforts by other Federal agencies. These platforms, and the fundamental research supported on them, will allow academics, entrepreneurs, and the wireless industry to test and develop advanced wireless technology ideas, some of which may translate into key future innovations for 5G and beyond.
Collectively, these spectrum policy and research efforts will accelerate the deployment of a new generation of wireless networks that are up to 100 times faster than today. These super-fast, ultra-low latency, high-capacity networks will enable breakthrough applications for consumers, smart cities, and the Internet of Things that cannot even be imagined today. Possible advances in the next decade could bring:
· Mobile phones and tablets that can download full length HD movies in less than 5 seconds, 100 times faster than 4G (6 minutes) and 25,000 times faster than 3G (26 hours).
· First responders and emergency room doctors who get live, real-time video and sensor data from police vehicles, ambulances, and drones, along with patient vitals and medical records—all before the patient arrives at the hospital door.
· Semi- or fully-autonomous vehicles that can communicate with the outside world and with each other to improve travel efficiency and safety.
· Factories equipped with always-connected smart manufacturing equipment that self-diagnose and repair themselves before they break.
· Gigabit-speed wireless broadband available in businesses, public transportation stations, stadiums, campuses, schools, malls, parks, and other public spaces.
· Virtual reality training environments and simulators that allow entry-level workers to develop and demonstrate skills in high-demand fields like solar energy installation—anytime, from anywhere.
MORE THAN SEVEN YEARS OF INNOVATIVE WIRELESS POLICY
President Obama has prioritized wireless and wireline broadband since his first day in office. Through forward-thinking spectrum policy initiatives, targeted Federal spending, and aggressive private investment, the United States has become a world leader in wireless, with more than 98 percent of Americans having access to fast 4G/LTE mobile broadband at speeds up to ten times faster than 8 years ago. This progress is about more than just faster download speeds: Internet access provides substantial economic benefits across the U.S. economy, including for job-seekers and workers, as highlighted by a recent report from the President’s Council of Economic Advisers.
One of President Obama’s first actions was to sign the Recovery Act to help the nation recover from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The Act funded nearly $5 billion in broadband investments, including support for more than 114,000 miles of broadband infrastructure, especially in under-served areas, to connect anchor institutions and wireless towers. The Administration also supported targeted tax incentives to provide wireless companies with the incentives and certainty they needed to invest tens of billions in infrastructure and services. And President Obama challenged Federal agencies to streamline permitting for broadband and wireless infrastructure deployment, and supported “Dig Once” policies for fiber-optic backhaul along America’s roads and highways.
President Obama also committed the Administration to making available 500 MHz of Federal and nonfederal spectrum by 2020 for mobile and fixed wireless broadband use. Through concerted effort from nearly two dozen Federal agencies, the Federal Government has made available half of that amount already, including raising more than $40 billion for American taxpayers through the FCC’s Advanced Wireless Services 3 (AWS-3) auction last year. The FCC’s ongoing incentive auction promises to make available up to 126 MHz of additional prime spectrum.
Recognizing the increasing complexity of the wireless world, the Administration has also made sharing a central part of its wireless policies, reflecting the recommendations of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Commercial companies and Federal agencies are collaborating to explore innovative new ways to free up valuable airwaves. Sharing was a key to the unprecedented success of the AWS-3 auction, and underpins the first-of-its-kind three-tier access system established for the 3.5 GHz band. The Federal Government has also taken bold steps to increase the availability of unlicensed spectrum by opening up white spaces between television channels and is exploring the possibility of expanding access to the 5 GHz band that currently supports advanced Wi-Fi services.
APPLYING THE SUCCESSFUL LESSONS OF 4G TO THE WIRELESS CHALLENGES OF TODAY AND TOMORROW
During the last seven and a half years, wireless use has exploded, underpinning significant U.S. economic growth and productivity. More than 350 million smartphones, connected tablets, and wearable devices are in use across the United States, more than double the number from a decade ago. Wireless networks carry more than 100,000 times the traffic they were supporting in 2008. Millions of Americans rely daily on products and services provided by new wireless companies and applications that could only be dreamed of a decade ago. The President remarked 6 years ago that “[t]he world has gone wireless and we cannot be left behind.” And indeed, the United States has surged ahead, with U.S. competitive advantage in connectivity forming a foundation for rapid growth in the global information and innovation economy.
Much of the credit for this growth is due to America’s innovators, entrepreneurs, path-breaking wireless network companies, private-sector investors, and the unparalleled productivity of America’s workers. In addition, America’s success in 4G is also a story of a clear policy strategy that favored making spectrum available early and establishing flexible-use rules to enable innovators and entrepreneurs to define the future of wireless technologies and applications. By avoiding a rigid, top-down, standards-setting process and technology roadmap, the American spectrum strategy enabled a flourishing of technologies and ideas, and an open competition that allowed successful technologies to win in the marketplace of ideas.
Also contributing to the American success story in wireless is another clear policy strategy—sustained Federal investments in fundamental academic research that leads to technology breakthroughs that drive growth in the American economy. Time and time again, Federally-funded researchers have contributed to breakthroughs that have helped to harness airwaves once considered low value—including the high-frequency bands that the FCC just opened up. In addition, NSF, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and other Federally-funded academic research into new channel access, antenna, modulation, and other technologies has made important contributions to the 3G and 4G revolutions, the broad deployment of Wi-Fi, millimeter wave (mmWave) technologies, and new dynamic spectrum-sharing arrangements.
Today, the importance of ultra-high-speed, high-bandwidth, low-latency wireless connectivity is only increasing. The burgeoning Internet of Things will add significantly to wireless needs, with 50 billion connected devices anticipated globally by 2020. Devices are also expected to continue to consume ever-greater amounts of data—traffic in North America is expected to grow at a 42 percent compounded annual growth rate between 2015 and 2020.
To meet these demands, the United States must build on the successful strategies it used to become a leader in 4G, starting with spectrum. The FCC took a critical step yesterday in this regard with its Spectrum Frontiers ruling. The rules adopted yesterday open up vast amounts of spectrum for new uses and offer additional spectrum flexibility, while preserving a path forward for continued and expanding Federal and satellite deployments. The FCC also proposed opening up even more spectrum in the future, to ensure that the United States remains a leader in wireless technology.
Today’s announcements to invest in cutting-edge fundamental wireless research will leverage the Commission’s efforts to make spectrum available for flexible use.
INVESTING MORE THAN $400 MILLION IN ADVANCED WIRELESS RESEARCH
NSF today is committing $50 million over the next 5 years, as part of a total $85 million investment by NSF and private-sector entities, to design and build four city-scale advanced wireless testing platforms, beginning in FY 2017. As a part of this investment, NSF also announces a $5 million solicitation for a project office to manage the design, development, deployment, and operations of the testing platforms, in collaboration with NSF and industry entities.
Each platform will deploy a network of software-defined radio antennas city-wide, essentially mimicking the existing cellular network, allowing academic researchers, entrepreneurs, and wireless companies to test, prove, and refine their technologies and software algorithms in a real-world setting. These platforms will allow researchers to conduct at-scale experiments of laboratory-or-campus-based proofs-of-concept, and will also allow four American cities, chosen based on open competition, to establish themselves as global destinations for wireless research and development.
NSF is also announcing plans to invest $350 million over the next 7 years in fundamental research on advanced wireless technology projects that can utilize NSF’s share of time on these platforms. This will allow a broad base of NSF-funded experiments on potential breakthrough technologies to be taken from proof-of-concept to real-world testing at scale, here in the United States.
COMPLEMENTARY FEDERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS TODAY
In addition to these testing platforms and research investments, the Administration is also announcing additional coordinated efforts and investments across Federal agencies to help accelerate the growth and development of advanced wireless technology.
· In addition to its support for the testing platforms and fundamental research, the NSF is also announcing:
o Two prize challenges to enhance wireless broadband connectivity. The first challenge will focus on providing rapid, large-scale wireless connectivity to restore critical communication services in the aftermath of a disaster. The second will seek innovative solutions to provide low-cost, seamless connectivity in urban areas, leveraging fiber optics in overhead light poles.
o A $6 million jointly-funded solicitation with Intel Labs on information-centric wireless edge networks, with the goal of developing the ability to process very large quantities of information with response times of less than one millisecond.
o A $4.7 million joint NSF- and Academy of Finland-funded solicitation to support joint U.S.-Finland research projects on novel frameworks, architectures, protocols, methodologies, and tools for the design and analysis of robust and highly dependable wireless communication systems and networks, especially as they support and enable the Internet of Things.
o Federal funding of a Millimeter Wave Research Coordination Network to foster biannual meetings of international researchers to identify emerging challenges, share cutting-edge research, and form collaborations around millimeter-wave broadband wireless networks.
o A large-scale networking platforms “Communities of Practice” workshop designed to gather international expertise on best practices that can successfully guide the advanced wireless research testing platforms being announced today.
o Follow-on NSF workshop on ultra-low latency networks, with the goal to identify research challenges and pathways that need to be solved in order to support ultra-low response times across networks.
Find more information here to learn more about these NSF announcements.
· DARPA is announcing its plans to demonstrate the viability of the technologies being developed for its latest Grand Challenge, the Spectrum Collaboration Challenge (SC2), within the testing platforms being announced today. The SC2 competitors are reimagining spectrum access strategies and developing a new wireless paradigm of collaborative, local, real-time decision-making where radio networks will autonomously collaborate and reason about how to share the RF spectrum. Advanced wireless test platforms like those being announced today are key to ensuring that advanced technologies, like those that will be created under SC2, are able to move rapidly from concept to adoption. Learn More.
· Today, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is announcing:
o The creation of a multi-disciplinary working group—the Future Generation Communications Roadmap—focused on identifying key gaps and R&D opportunities related to future-generation communications systems and standards. Learn More.
o A coordinated channel measurement, verification, and comparison campaign within indoor environments by the NIST-supported 5G mmWave Channel Model Alliance. The Alliance will discuss the preliminary results of this study at the First International Workshop on 5G Millimeter Wave Channel Models scheduled for December 4, 2016 at IEEE’s GLOBECOM conference. Learn More.
· Finally, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announces the following actions by its Institute for Telecommunications Sciences (ITS) that build on its spectrum test bed and other measurement programs:
o This fall, ITS will be sponsoring undergraduate and graduate student wireless spectrum research that will utilize the spectrum test bed that ITS is developing in collaboration with the University of Colorado-Boulder (CU-Boulder) to span the Federal and university campuses. The spectrum test bed will facilitate research to explore campus-scale wireless networking, spectrum sharing, and mobile applications, and enable collaborations between ITS, CU-Boulder, and the City of Boulder.
o Along with the Center for Advanced Communications, ITS will be demonstrating its Measured Spectrum Occupancy Database (MSOD) project at the August 1-3 International Symposium on Advanced Radio Technologies in Colorado. MSOD has been successfully tested and used to record spectrum utilization 24 hours a day, seven days a week, over a period of several years, using data from multiple sensor installations. Additional networked sensor sites are being installed this fall, and spectrum analysis capabilities are being added.
o ITS will be expanding its Urban and Indoor Radio Frequency (RF) Propagation Measurement campaign that advances urban and indoor propagation research by making advances in measuring and characterizing radio frequency propagation characteristics in both urban and indoor environments to include four more cities to provide additional data to improve the accuracy of RF propagation models in urban terrain.
o ITS will begin utilizing its expertise in electromagnetic compatibility research this fall to perform electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) analyses and conduct empirical tests of potential device-to-device interference in a mobile network operating within an independent fixed network infrastructure. Lab tests and simulations will be performed initially, followed by experimental validation of results in the field.
PRIVATE-SECTOR ANNOUNCEMENTS
Reflecting the importance of these research testing platforms to the development of wireless technology, more than twenty private-sector companies and associations in the U.S. wireless industry have cumulatively pledged more than $35 million in cash and in-kind support to the design, development, deployment, and ongoing operations of these testing platforms. In addition to financial support, these entities will be providing design support; technical networking expertise; networking hardware, including next-generation radio antennas, software-defined networking switches and routers, cloud computing, servers, and experimental handsets and devices; software; and wireless network testing and measurement equipment.
These companies are announcing today the following contributions to the testing platforms:
· AT&T will provide on-site mobile connectivity in the cities selected as testing grounds for advanced wireless platform research.
· Carlson Wireless Technologies will contribute equipment, technology, and expertise in TV white spaces and dynamic spectrum sharing, allowing researchers to examine a variety of use cases including residential broadband and the Internet of Things.
· CommScope, in support of the testing platforms, will contribute connectivity solutions such as antennas, RF cabling, cabinets, small cells, and fiber optics.
· HTC will support the testing platforms by providing technical expertise, mobile devices, IoT sensors and virtual reality systems.
· Intel will contribute its portable 5G mobile trial platform and server equipment to the testing platforms, to assist in research on mmWave, multi-antenna array, steerable beamforming, novel radio interface techniques, and anchor-booster architecture.
· InterDigital will contribute financial support to the testing platforms and access to tools focused on areas like spectrum and bandwidth management, heterogeneous networks and backhaul.
· Juniper Networks will contribute software, systems, and expertise to help with the design and architecture of multiple research platforms to advance orchestration and authentication of massively-scalable, massively-distributed IoT networks, as well as new approaches to secure these networks.
· Keysight Technologies will support the testing platforms with a range of current and next-generation cellular and WLAN hardware and software products and with wireless experts to deliver consulting and testing assistance.
· National Instruments will provide equipment from its software defined radio platform to support next-generation wireless communications research in areas like mmWave and Massive MIMO.
· Nokia, together with Nokia Bell Labs, will provide financial contributions, research collaborations, governance, and product platform support, and will focus on software-defined radios, the Internet of Things, remote sensing, mmWave, security, new use cases and applications, and dynamic spectrum sharing.
· Oracle will provide core network controls, analytics, and network orchestration to researchers and help them understand the impact of subscriber behaviors, enhance orchestration, and bolster security.
· Qualcomm will contribute financial support as well as engineering equipment and guidance to help enable the testing platforms to explore new and innovative communication systems.
· Samsung will contribute research design and engineering expertise to the testing platforms, with a particular emphasis on technologies for future wireless networks in the 28GHz and other millimeter wave bands, as well as continued enablement for the Internet of Things.
· Shared Spectrum is contributing to the testing platforms technical expertise in dynamic spectrum sharing to support the design and architecture of research platforms.
· Sprint will support research and development to further the progress of advanced technologies slated for 5G and beyond. Sprint will provide technical expertise on network design, use cases, and architecture requirements for core and radio access networks and the devices that will access them.
· T-Mobile USA, Inc. will provide technical expertise to the testing platforms, including staff engineering assistance or advice in the design and deployment of the testing platforms.
· Verizon will contribute technical expertise to the testing platforms, such as staff engineering assistance in the design and deployment of the testing platforms, and in fixed and mobile systems, indoor and outdoor environments, and residential and commercial buildings.
· Viavi Solutions will provide test, measurement, assurance, and optimization solutions for lab and field trials for network and services to enable next-generation technologies for the always-connected society and Internet of Things.
These associations are announcing today the following contributions to the testing platforms:
· The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) will provide technical assistance and staff time on the design and deployment of the testing platforms. ATIS will also support the testing platforms by identifying potential opportunities for research to be conducted on the platforms.
· CTIA will contribute engineering and technical assistance to help align industry R&D and university research to be conducted on the testing platforms with next-generation wireless networks, devices, and applications.
· The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), will provide technical and engineering expertise in wireless network deployment, Internet of Things, interoperability, and software-defined networking. TIA will also assist with expanding industry awareness of the testing platforms.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 15, 2016
FACT SHEET: Administration Announces an Advanced Wireless Research Initiative, Building on President’s Legacy of Forward-Leaning Broadband Policy
“Twenty-first century businesses need 21st century infrastructure—modern ports, and stronger bridges, faster trains and the fastest Internet…I intend to protect a free and open Internet, extend its reach to every classroom, and every community, and help folks build the fastest networks so that the next generation of digital innovators and entrepreneurs have the platform to keep reshaping our world.”
– President Obama, 2015 State of the Union
Under President Obama, we have seen technological breakthroughs and strategic investments that have propelled the United States to the forefront of wireless broadband—with world-leading 4G/LTE coverage for more than 98 percent of U.S. citizens. Today, the Obama Administration is announcing new steps to maintain U.S. leadership and win the next generation of mobile technology with the launch of a $400 million Advanced Wireless Research Initiative led by the National Science Foundation (NSF). This new program will enable the deployment and use of four city-scale testing platforms for advanced wireless research over the next decade and builds upon the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Spectrum Frontiers vote yesterday.
That vote made the United States the first country in the world to make vast quantities of high-frequency millimeter wave spectrum available for both licensed and unlicensed use. This spectrum, in combination with other spectrum already available, promises to enable faster speeds, quicker response times (“lower latency”), and increased capacity in future wireless networks. The United States leads the world in 4G deployment in significant part because of its spectrum-first, flexible-use strategy, and the Administration expects the United States to continue to spearhead future wireless innovations because of the FCC’s actions yesterday.
The Advanced Wireless Research Initiative announced today will also build on President Obama’s seven-and-a-half-year track record of accomplishment in wireless and wireline broadband policy, and on the nearly $150 billion in 4G LTE investment by wireless operators since 2010. It includes an $85 million investment in advanced wireless testing platforms by a public-private effort, including NSF and more than 20 technology companies and associations; plans by NSF to invest an additional $350 million over the next 7 years in academic research that can utilize these testing platforms; and complementary efforts by other Federal agencies. These platforms, and the fundamental research supported on them, will allow academics, entrepreneurs, and the wireless industry to test and develop advanced wireless technology ideas, some of which may translate into key future innovations for 5G and beyond.
Collectively, these spectrum policy and research efforts will accelerate the deployment of a new generation of wireless networks that are up to 100 times faster than today. These super-fast, ultra-low latency, high-capacity networks will enable breakthrough applications for consumers, smart cities, and the Internet of Things that cannot even be imagined today. Possible advances in the next decade could bring:
· Mobile phones and tablets that can download full length HD movies in less than 5 seconds, 100 times faster than 4G (6 minutes) and 25,000 times faster than 3G (26 hours).
· First responders and emergency room doctors who get live, real-time video and sensor data from police vehicles, ambulances, and drones, along with patient vitals and medical records—all before the patient arrives at the hospital door.
· Semi- or fully-autonomous vehicles that can communicate with the outside world and with each other to improve travel efficiency and safety.
· Factories equipped with always-connected smart manufacturing equipment that self-diagnose and repair themselves before they break.
· Gigabit-speed wireless broadband available in businesses, public transportation stations, stadiums, campuses, schools, malls, parks, and other public spaces.
· Virtual reality training environments and simulators that allow entry-level workers to develop and demonstrate skills in high-demand fields like solar energy installation—anytime, from anywhere.
MORE THAN SEVEN YEARS OF INNOVATIVE WIRELESS POLICY
President Obama has prioritized wireless and wireline broadband since his first day in office. Through forward-thinking spectrum policy initiatives, targeted Federal spending, and aggressive private investment, the United States has become a world leader in wireless, with more than 98 percent of Americans having access to fast 4G/LTE mobile broadband at speeds up to ten times faster than 8 years ago. This progress is about more than just faster download speeds: Internet access provides substantial economic benefits across the U.S. economy, including for job-seekers and workers, as highlighted by a recent report from the President’s Council of Economic Advisers.
One of President Obama’s first actions was to sign the Recovery Act to help the nation recover from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The Act funded nearly $5 billion in broadband investments, including support for more than 114,000 miles of broadband infrastructure, especially in under-served areas, to connect anchor institutions and wireless towers. The Administration also supported targeted tax incentives to provide wireless companies with the incentives and certainty they needed to invest tens of billions in infrastructure and services. And President Obama challenged Federal agencies to streamline permitting for broadband and wireless infrastructure deployment, and supported “Dig Once” policies for fiber-optic backhaul along America’s roads and highways.
President Obama also committed the Administration to making available 500 MHz of Federal and nonfederal spectrum by 2020 for mobile and fixed wireless broadband use. Through concerted effort from nearly two dozen Federal agencies, the Federal Government has made available half of that amount already, including raising more than $40 billion for American taxpayers through the FCC’s Advanced Wireless Services 3 (AWS-3) auction last year. The FCC’s ongoing incentive auction promises to make available up to 126 MHz of additional prime spectrum.
Recognizing the increasing complexity of the wireless world, the Administration has also made sharing a central part of its wireless policies, reflecting the recommendations of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Commercial companies and Federal agencies are collaborating to explore innovative new ways to free up valuable airwaves. Sharing was a key to the unprecedented success of the AWS-3 auction, and underpins the first-of-its-kind three-tier access system established for the 3.5 GHz band. The Federal Government has also taken bold steps to increase the availability of unlicensed spectrum by opening up white spaces between television channels and is exploring the possibility of expanding access to the 5 GHz band that currently supports advanced Wi-Fi services.
APPLYING THE SUCCESSFUL LESSONS OF 4G TO THE WIRELESS CHALLENGES OF TODAY AND TOMORROW
During the last seven and a half years, wireless use has exploded, underpinning significant U.S. economic growth and productivity. More than 350 million smartphones, connected tablets, and wearable devices are in use across the United States, more than double the number from a decade ago. Wireless networks carry more than 100,000 times the traffic they were supporting in 2008. Millions of Americans rely daily on products and services provided by new wireless companies and applications that could only be dreamed of a decade ago. The President remarked 6 years ago that “[t]he world has gone wireless and we cannot be left behind.” And indeed, the United States has surged ahead, with U.S. competitive advantage in connectivity forming a foundation for rapid growth in the global information and innovation economy.
Much of the credit for this growth is due to America’s innovators, entrepreneurs, path-breaking wireless network companies, private-sector investors, and the unparalleled productivity of America’s workers. In addition, America’s success in 4G is also a story of a clear policy strategy that favored making spectrum available early and establishing flexible-use rules to enable innovators and entrepreneurs to define the future of wireless technologies and applications. By avoiding a rigid, top-down, standards-setting process and technology roadmap, the American spectrum strategy enabled a flourishing of technologies and ideas, and an open competition that allowed successful technologies to win in the marketplace of ideas.
Also contributing to the American success story in wireless is another clear policy strategy—sustained Federal investments in fundamental academic research that leads to technology breakthroughs that drive growth in the American economy. Time and time again, Federally-funded researchers have contributed to breakthroughs that have helped to harness airwaves once considered low value—including the high-frequency bands that the FCC just opened up. In addition, NSF, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and other Federally-funded academic research into new channel access, antenna, modulation, and other technologies has made important contributions to the 3G and 4G revolutions, the broad deployment of Wi-Fi, millimeter wave (mmWave) technologies, and new dynamic spectrum-sharing arrangements.
Today, the importance of ultra-high-speed, high-bandwidth, low-latency wireless connectivity is only increasing. The burgeoning Internet of Things will add significantly to wireless needs, with 50 billion connected devices anticipated globally by 2020. Devices are also expected to continue to consume ever-greater amounts of data—traffic in North America is expected to grow at a 42 percent compounded annual growth rate between 2015 and 2020.
To meet these demands, the United States must build on the successful strategies it used to become a leader in 4G, starting with spectrum. The FCC took a critical step yesterday in this regard with its Spectrum Frontiers ruling. The rules adopted yesterday open up vast amounts of spectrum for new uses and offer additional spectrum flexibility, while preserving a path forward for continued and expanding Federal and satellite deployments. The FCC also proposed opening up even more spectrum in the future, to ensure that the United States remains a leader in wireless technology.
Today’s announcements to invest in cutting-edge fundamental wireless research will leverage the Commission’s efforts to make spectrum available for flexible use.
INVESTING MORE THAN $400 MILLION IN ADVANCED WIRELESS RESEARCH
NSF today is committing $50 million over the next 5 years, as part of a total $85 million investment by NSF and private-sector entities, to design and build four city-scale advanced wireless testing platforms, beginning in FY 2017. As a part of this investment, NSF also announces a $5 million solicitation for a project office to manage the design, development, deployment, and operations of the testing platforms, in collaboration with NSF and industry entities.
Each platform will deploy a network of software-defined radio antennas city-wide, essentially mimicking the existing cellular network, allowing academic researchers, entrepreneurs, and wireless companies to test, prove, and refine their technologies and software algorithms in a real-world setting. These platforms will allow researchers to conduct at-scale experiments of laboratory-or-campus-based proofs-of-concept, and will also allow four American cities, chosen based on open competition, to establish themselves as global destinations for wireless research and development.
NSF is also announcing plans to invest $350 million over the next 7 years in fundamental research on advanced wireless technology projects that can utilize NSF’s share of time on these platforms. This will allow a broad base of NSF-funded experiments on potential breakthrough technologies to be taken from proof-of-concept to real-world testing at scale, here in the United States.
COMPLEMENTARY FEDERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS TODAY
In addition to these testing platforms and research investments, the Administration is also announcing additional coordinated efforts and investments across Federal agencies to help accelerate the growth and development of advanced wireless technology.
· In addition to its support for the testing platforms and fundamental research, the NSF is also announcing:
o Two prize challenges to enhance wireless broadband connectivity. The first challenge will focus on providing rapid, large-scale wireless connectivity to restore critical communication services in the aftermath of a disaster. The second will seek innovative solutions to provide low-cost, seamless connectivity in urban areas, leveraging fiber optics in overhead light poles.
o A $6 million jointly-funded solicitation with Intel Labs on information-centric wireless edge networks, with the goal of developing the ability to process very large quantities of information with response times of less than one millisecond.
o A $4.7 million joint NSF- and Academy of Finland-funded solicitation to support joint U.S.-Finland research projects on novel frameworks, architectures, protocols, methodologies, and tools for the design and analysis of robust and highly dependable wireless communication systems and networks, especially as they support and enable the Internet of Things.
o Federal funding of a Millimeter Wave Research Coordination Network to foster biannual meetings of international researchers to identify emerging challenges, share cutting-edge research, and form collaborations around millimeter-wave broadband wireless networks.
o A large-scale networking platforms “Communities of Practice” workshop designed to gather international expertise on best practices that can successfully guide the advanced wireless research testing platforms being announced today.
o Follow-on NSF workshop on ultra-low latency networks, with the goal to identify research challenges and pathways that need to be solved in order to support ultra-low response times across networks.
Find more information here to learn more about these NSF announcements.
· DARPA is announcing its plans to demonstrate the viability of the technologies being developed for its latest Grand Challenge, the Spectrum Collaboration Challenge (SC2), within the testing platforms being announced today. The SC2 competitors are reimagining spectrum access strategies and developing a new wireless paradigm of collaborative, local, real-time decision-making where radio networks will autonomously collaborate and reason about how to share the RF spectrum. Advanced wireless test platforms like those being announced today are key to ensuring that advanced technologies, like those that will be created under SC2, are able to move rapidly from concept to adoption. Learn More.
· Today, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is announcing:
o The creation of a multi-disciplinary working group—the Future Generation Communications Roadmap—focused on identifying key gaps and R&D opportunities related to future-generation communications systems and standards. Learn More.
o A coordinated channel measurement, verification, and comparison campaign within indoor environments by the NIST-supported 5G mmWave Channel Model Alliance. The Alliance will discuss the preliminary results of this study at the First International Workshop on 5G Millimeter Wave Channel Models scheduled for December 4, 2016 at IEEE’s GLOBECOM conference. Learn More.
· Finally, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announces the following actions by its Institute for Telecommunications Sciences (ITS) that build on its spectrum test bed and other measurement programs:
o This fall, ITS will be sponsoring undergraduate and graduate student wireless spectrum research that will utilize the spectrum test bed that ITS is developing in collaboration with the University of Colorado-Boulder (CU-Boulder) to span the Federal and university campuses. The spectrum test bed will facilitate research to explore campus-scale wireless networking, spectrum sharing, and mobile applications, and enable collaborations between ITS, CU-Boulder, and the City of Boulder.
o Along with the Center for Advanced Communications, ITS will be demonstrating its Measured Spectrum Occupancy Database (MSOD) project at the August 1-3 International Symposium on Advanced Radio Technologies in Colorado. MSOD has been successfully tested and used to record spectrum utilization 24 hours a day, seven days a week, over a period of several years, using data from multiple sensor installations. Additional networked sensor sites are being installed this fall, and spectrum analysis capabilities are being added.
o ITS will be expanding its Urban and Indoor Radio Frequency (RF) Propagation Measurement campaign that advances urban and indoor propagation research by making advances in measuring and characterizing radio frequency propagation characteristics in both urban and indoor environments to include four more cities to provide additional data to improve the accuracy of RF propagation models in urban terrain.
o ITS will begin utilizing its expertise in electromagnetic compatibility research this fall to perform electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) analyses and conduct empirical tests of potential device-to-device interference in a mobile network operating within an independent fixed network infrastructure. Lab tests and simulations will be performed initially, followed by experimental validation of results in the field.
PRIVATE-SECTOR ANNOUNCEMENTS
Reflecting the importance of these research testing platforms to the development of wireless technology, more than twenty private-sector companies and associations in the U.S. wireless industry have cumulatively pledged more than $35 million in cash and in-kind support to the design, development, deployment, and ongoing operations of these testing platforms. In addition to financial support, these entities will be providing design support; technical networking expertise; networking hardware, including next-generation radio antennas, software-defined networking switches and routers, cloud computing, servers, and experimental handsets and devices; software; and wireless network testing and measurement equipment.
These companies are announcing today the following contributions to the testing platforms:
· AT&T will provide on-site mobile connectivity in the cities selected as testing grounds for advanced wireless platform research.
· Carlson Wireless Technologies will contribute equipment, technology, and expertise in TV white spaces and dynamic spectrum sharing, allowing researchers to examine a variety of use cases including residential broadband and the Internet of Things.
· CommScope, in support of the testing platforms, will contribute connectivity solutions such as antennas, RF cabling, cabinets, small cells, and fiber optics.
· HTC will support the testing platforms by providing technical expertise, mobile devices, IoT sensors and virtual reality systems.
· Intel will contribute its portable 5G mobile trial platform and server equipment to the testing platforms, to assist in research on mmWave, multi-antenna array, steerable beamforming, novel radio interface techniques, and anchor-booster architecture.
· InterDigital will contribute financial support to the testing platforms and access to tools focused on areas like spectrum and bandwidth management, heterogeneous networks and backhaul.
· Juniper Networks will contribute software, systems, and expertise to help with the design and architecture of multiple research platforms to advance orchestration and authentication of massively-scalable, massively-distributed IoT networks, as well as new approaches to secure these networks.
· Keysight Technologies will support the testing platforms with a range of current and next-generation cellular and WLAN hardware and software products and with wireless experts to deliver consulting and testing assistance.
· National Instruments will provide equipment from its software defined radio platform to support next-generation wireless communications research in areas like mmWave and Massive MIMO.
· Nokia, together with Nokia Bell Labs, will provide financial contributions, research collaborations, governance, and product platform support, and will focus on software-defined radios, the Internet of Things, remote sensing, mmWave, security, new use cases and applications, and dynamic spectrum sharing.
· Oracle will provide core network controls, analytics, and network orchestration to researchers and help them understand the impact of subscriber behaviors, enhance orchestration, and bolster security.
· Qualcomm will contribute financial support as well as engineering equipment and guidance to help enable the testing platforms to explore new and innovative communication systems.
· Samsung will contribute research design and engineering expertise to the testing platforms, with a particular emphasis on technologies for future wireless networks in the 28GHz and other millimeter wave bands, as well as continued enablement for the Internet of Things.
· Shared Spectrum is contributing to the testing platforms technical expertise in dynamic spectrum sharing to support the design and architecture of research platforms.
· Sprint will support research and development to further the progress of advanced technologies slated for 5G and beyond. Sprint will provide technical expertise on network design, use cases, and architecture requirements for core and radio access networks and the devices that will access them.
· T-Mobile USA, Inc. will provide technical expertise to the testing platforms, including staff engineering assistance or advice in the design and deployment of the testing platforms.
· Verizon will contribute technical expertise to the testing platforms, such as staff engineering assistance in the design and deployment of the testing platforms, and in fixed and mobile systems, indoor and outdoor environments, and residential and commercial buildings.
· Viavi Solutions will provide test, measurement, assurance, and optimization solutions for lab and field trials for network and services to enable next-generation technologies for the always-connected society and Internet of Things.
These associations are announcing today the following contributions to the testing platforms:
· The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) will provide technical assistance and staff time on the design and deployment of the testing platforms. ATIS will also support the testing platforms by identifying potential opportunities for research to be conducted on the platforms.
· CTIA will contribute engineering and technical assistance to help align industry R&D and university research to be conducted on the testing platforms with next-generation wireless networks, devices, and applications.
· The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), will provide technical and engineering expertise in wireless network deployment, Internet of Things, interoperability, and software-defined networking. TIA will also assist with expanding industry awareness of the testing platforms.
OFFICIAL RELEASE: Statement of Administration Policy on H.R. 4361 - Federal Information Systems Safeguards Act of 2016
https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/legislative/sap/114/saphr4361r_20160705.pdf
EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20503
July 5, 2016
(House Rules)
STATEMENT OF ADMINISTRATION POLICY
H.R. 4361 - Federal Information Systems Safeguards Act of 2016
(Rep. Palmer, R-AL, and one cosponsor)
The Administration is strongly committed to upholding the highest accountability standards for Federal agencies and the Federal workforce, including strict standards to ensure that employees act in the best interests of the American people, and we appreciate the Congress' attention to government reform and oversight efforts. However, certain sections of this legislation would weaken the rights of Federal employees, and be impractical and administratively burdensome to implement. They would also have harmful unintended consequences, while failing to address the issues they are designed to solve and while raising serious constitutional concerns. Because of this, the Administration strongly opposes H.R. 4361 as considered by the Rules Committee.
The Administration believes that the approach to accountability in certain provisions of the legislation is misguided. For example, H.R. 4361 would require expedited removal procedures for agency senior executives that would raise significant constitutional concerns under the Appointments Clause and the Due Process Clause. These procedures impose a time-constricted case review and appeal process that would permit administrative judges who are not appointed in a constitutionally appropriate manner to render removal decisions, would make those decisions final if the administrative judges fail to act within 21 days, and would deny any review of the decisions of the administrative judges by the Merit Systems Protection Board. These procedures are substantially the same as those in section 707 of the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014, which the Department of Justice notified the Congress in May of this year could not be defended against constitutional challenge. These provisions would significantly alter and diminish important rights and protections that are available to the vast majority of other employees across the government and that are essential to safeguarding employees' rights. Moreover, these provisions would hamper the Federal government's efforts to attract and retain top talent committed to serving in the Senior Executive Service.
The requirements for mandatory senior executive reassignment would be problematic to implement as written, and duplicative of existing efforts. Under a December 2015 Executive Order, "Strengthening the Senior Executive Service," agencies are already required to develop and implement a senior executive rotation plan. The Executive Order provides a more productive approach that considers the agencies' talent and succession management plans, as well as the executive’s individual development plan.
The bill would require the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to report on the use of union official time across the Executive Branch on matters not currently covered in existing OPM reporting. The additional requirements are subjective and virtually impossible to measure. These additional, burdensome requirements would have to be manually gathered for approximately 2,000 local bargaining units across the Executive Branch, making it challenging, if not impossible, to meet the statutory deadlines established by the bill.
In addition to objectionable personnel policy provisions, this bill would set policy that would undermine existing government-wide cybersecurity and records management policies. Amending individual agency records management practices is unnecessary and would set a problematic precedent, as the Federal Records Act already provides clear, transparent, and effective requirements for managing Federal records.
Finally, the "Midnight Rule" provisions in this bill would infringe on the powers of the President to faithfully execute the laws in the final months of the term. They would arbitrarily prohibit the issuance of key rules and thus prevent the implementation of laws passed by the Congress through otherwise lawful, well-justified, and beneficial regulations, and would also subject the rulemaking process to additional, unnecessary judicial review provisions.
If the President were presented with H.R. 4361, his senior advisors would recommend he veto the bill.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/legislative/sap/114/saphr4361r_20160705.pdf
EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20503
July 5, 2016
(House Rules)
STATEMENT OF ADMINISTRATION POLICY
H.R. 4361 - Federal Information Systems Safeguards Act of 2016
(Rep. Palmer, R-AL, and one cosponsor)
The Administration is strongly committed to upholding the highest accountability standards for Federal agencies and the Federal workforce, including strict standards to ensure that employees act in the best interests of the American people, and we appreciate the Congress' attention to government reform and oversight efforts. However, certain sections of this legislation would weaken the rights of Federal employees, and be impractical and administratively burdensome to implement. They would also have harmful unintended consequences, while failing to address the issues they are designed to solve and while raising serious constitutional concerns. Because of this, the Administration strongly opposes H.R. 4361 as considered by the Rules Committee.
The Administration believes that the approach to accountability in certain provisions of the legislation is misguided. For example, H.R. 4361 would require expedited removal procedures for agency senior executives that would raise significant constitutional concerns under the Appointments Clause and the Due Process Clause. These procedures impose a time-constricted case review and appeal process that would permit administrative judges who are not appointed in a constitutionally appropriate manner to render removal decisions, would make those decisions final if the administrative judges fail to act within 21 days, and would deny any review of the decisions of the administrative judges by the Merit Systems Protection Board. These procedures are substantially the same as those in section 707 of the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014, which the Department of Justice notified the Congress in May of this year could not be defended against constitutional challenge. These provisions would significantly alter and diminish important rights and protections that are available to the vast majority of other employees across the government and that are essential to safeguarding employees' rights. Moreover, these provisions would hamper the Federal government's efforts to attract and retain top talent committed to serving in the Senior Executive Service.
The requirements for mandatory senior executive reassignment would be problematic to implement as written, and duplicative of existing efforts. Under a December 2015 Executive Order, "Strengthening the Senior Executive Service," agencies are already required to develop and implement a senior executive rotation plan. The Executive Order provides a more productive approach that considers the agencies' talent and succession management plans, as well as the executive’s individual development plan.
The bill would require the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to report on the use of union official time across the Executive Branch on matters not currently covered in existing OPM reporting. The additional requirements are subjective and virtually impossible to measure. These additional, burdensome requirements would have to be manually gathered for approximately 2,000 local bargaining units across the Executive Branch, making it challenging, if not impossible, to meet the statutory deadlines established by the bill.
In addition to objectionable personnel policy provisions, this bill would set policy that would undermine existing government-wide cybersecurity and records management policies. Amending individual agency records management practices is unnecessary and would set a problematic precedent, as the Federal Records Act already provides clear, transparent, and effective requirements for managing Federal records.
Finally, the "Midnight Rule" provisions in this bill would infringe on the powers of the President to faithfully execute the laws in the final months of the term. They would arbitrarily prohibit the issuance of key rules and thus prevent the implementation of laws passed by the Congress through otherwise lawful, well-justified, and beneficial regulations, and would also subject the rulemaking process to additional, unnecessary judicial review provisions.
If the President were presented with H.R. 4361, his senior advisors would recommend he veto the bill.
FACT SHEET: Expanding the Tech Economies of Communities across the Country
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
EMBARDOED UNTIL 3:00PM EDT ON MONDAY, JUNE 27, 2016
FACT SHEET: Expanding the Tech Economies of Communities across the Country
Obama Administration announces winners of $150 million in TechHire Partnership grants, including $126 million for at-risk and disadvantaged young Americans
Today, Vice President Biden and Department of Labor Secretary Perez announced the release of $150 million in Department of Labor grants for 39 partnerships across the country. With these funds, awardees will launch innovative training and placement models to develop tech talent, as a way to keep and create jobs in local economies. In addition to federal funding, grantees are leveraging nearly $50 million in philanthropic, private and other funding to contribute to their own local partnerships.
A Large and Growing Opportunity for Local Economies
Having a pipeline of tech talent can be an important factor in bringing new jobs to local economies, facilitating business growth, and lifting more local residents into the middle class. These grants will enable more communities to expand their own local tech sectors.
· Tech jobs are a pathway to the middle class. Tech jobs pay one and a half times the average wage of a private-sector job. Studies have shown that these opportunities are also accessible to those without college degrees-- men and women with non-degree certificates in computer or information services earned more than 65 percent of men and women, respectively, with more traditional Associate degrees.[1]
· There is a large and growing unmet demand for tech workers. Today, there are over 600,000 open IT jobs across all sectors—more than two-thirds in fields outside the tech sector, such as manufacturing, financial services and healthcare. Across the country, employers are struggling to find skilled talent for these positions. A study from CEB found that in 10 major metropolitan areas (including New York, Atlanta, Seattle, and Houston), there are only five skilled job seekers available for every eight open IT jobs. Compared to 2010, it now takes employers five additional weeks to fill the average vacancy—at a cost to employers of $8.6 million per 1,000 vacancies.
· New innovations in training and hiring can help meet the tech job demand. Nearly 40 percent of tech jobs do not require a four-year degree. In recent years, there has been a proliferation of fast-track tech training programs like “coding bootcamps” that prepare people with little technical know-how for tech jobs, often in just a few months. A recent survey from Course Report found that bootcamp graduates saw salary gains of 38 percent (or about $18,000) after completing their programs. At the same time, employers in cities like Albuquerque have been adopting new “skills-based” hiring approaches that enable job seekers to demonstrate their skills to get hired even if they lack traditional qualifications like computer science degrees.
· Tech talent can be an important driver of local economic development. Companies report that one of the main factors in deciding where to locate is the availability of skilled talent. Moreover, research from economist Enrico Moretti shows that for each job in the average high-tech firm, five new jobs are indirectly created in local economies.
In response to this opportunity, in March 2015, President Obama launched TechHire, a bold multi-sector effort and call to action for cities, states, and rural areas to work with employers to design and implement new approaches like coding bootcamps to train workers for well-paying tech jobs often in just a few months.
Since then, 50 communities with nearly 1,000 employer partners have begun working together to find new ways to recruit and place applicants based on their skills and to create more fast-track tech training opportunities. These range from programs in New York City that connect low-income young people to tech training and internships to a program in rural Eastern Kentucky that teaches former coalminers to code.
The federal government is doing its part to support communities in this work with a specific focus on making sure that access to these innovations is widely shared, supporting best practice sharing amongst communities, and encouraging engagement of the key stakeholders that fuel a TechHire community -- including employers, innovative training providers and local workforce development leadership. As stakeholders help engage more employers and connect more local communities to these opportunities, the TechHire network will continue to grow.
More details on today’s announcements
Today, the Department of Labor is awarding 39 grants—totaling $150 million—for programs in 25 states and Washington, DC to support innovative ways to get workers on the fastest paths to well-paying information technology and high-growth jobs in in-demand sectors like healthcare, advanced manufacturing, and financial services. Of these grants, $126 million will specifically target strategies designed to best support young Americans, ages 17 to 29.
All of the partnerships funded today engage in the following practices:
1) Expand access to accelerated learning options that provide a quick path to good jobs, such as “bootcamp”-style programs, online options, and competency-based programs.
2) Use data and innovative hiring practices to expand openness to non-traditional hiring by working with employers to build robust data on where they have the greatest needs, identify what skills they are looking for, and build willingness to hire from both nontraditional and traditional training programs.
3) Offer specialized training strategies, supportive services, and other participant-focused services that assist targeted populations to overcome barriers, including networking and job search, active job development, transportation, mentoring, and financial counseling.
4) Emphasize inclusion by leveraging the high demand for tech jobs and new training and hiring approaches to improve access to tech jobs for all citizens, including out-of-school and out-of-work young Americans, people with disabilities, people learning English as a second language, and people with criminal records.
$126 Million in Grants to Create Pathways to Careers for At-Risk and Out-of-School, Out-of-Work Young Americans
Examples of selected communities and programs include:
· Atlanta, GA. ATL TechHire: Fostering an IT Workforce Ecosystem to Inspire Atlanta’s Under-Represented IT Workforce to Pursue IT Careers ($4 million)
ATL TechHire will train the City of Atlanta’s youth and young adults with barriers to employment and other unemployed and underemployed for open jobs in tech. Led by the Atlanta Workforce Development Agency, in partnership with Iron Yard and TechSquare Labs, ATL TechHire has developed customizable training tracks to serve differing needs. Participants will be enrolled in TechSquare Labs’ innovative Culture Fit and Career Readiness programs, as well as fast-track training with one of the Iron Yard’s coding bootcamps, to train participants for jobs in front- and back-end engineering, mobile engineering, data science, and design; or with the Atlanta Technical College for degrees that lead to in-demand IT jobs.
· Albuquerque, NM. New Mexico Tech Connections (NMTC): Expanding Career Pipeline to IT for Youth and Disadvantaged Workers ($4 million)
Workforce Connection of Central New Mexico (WCCNM) will use grant funds to expand its NMTC consortium in order to build a career pipeline into IT for around 338 young adults and other workers with barriers to training and employment. Serving the city of Albuquerque, as well as Bernalillo, Sandoval, Torrance and Valencia counties, NMTC consists of training and education partner, College of New Mexico, along with six area employers and promises to address gaps in conventional training for H-1B jobs.
· Miami, FL. ACCEL in Tech: Bringing Customized Training in IT, Healthcare and Financial Services to Those with Barriers to Employment ($3.5 million)
Acquiring Credential and Creating Experiential Learning (ACCEL) in Technology will leverage the size and resources of Miami Dade College, along with the expertise of partners including CareerSource South Florida Mount Sinai Medical Center, AHIMA Foundation, and the McKinsey Social Initiative, who will provide guidance on advisory boards, curriculum development, employee mentors, opportunities for paid work experiences, and commitments to hire participants. This program will develop customizable training for the individual. Through this initiative, over 400 young adults with barriers to employment will gain access to training in IT, healthcare, and financial services.
· New York, NY. TechIMPACT Program: Training and Placing Youth at Large Tech Companies and Startups ($3.9 million)
LaGuardia Community College will partner with General Assembly, Udacity, Software Guild and others to offer accelerated tech training to young adults in web development, java, and computer network support. Given that young people often struggle to connect to their first job, TechIMPACT is teaming up with partners to make sure that graduates have connections to internships and job placements when they graduate. IBM, Walmart, and other employer partners are committing to interview and hire qualified candidates, and Uncubed will place graduates with a network of high-growth startup companies.
· New York; Washington, DC; and Maryland. Pathways to Tech Careers: Providing Multi-Tiered Training Model to Improve Skills of Young, Low-Wage, and Veteran Workers ($5 million)
Jobs for the Future, Inc.’s program will establish and expand accelerated training programs that prepare youth and young adults with barriers to employment for high-wage, high-demand careers in IT in New York City Washington, D.C., Prince George’s County, Anne Arundel County and Howard County, MD. PTC will have three tracks including a bootcamp-style, immersive web development training, a data analytics training for incumbent workers to upskill to better jobs, and a short-term IT security program for veterans. PTC will build on the national presence of JFF, General Assembly, and Per Scholas to demonstrate multiple strategies to move individuals from entry-level jobs into the middle-class with tech training.
· Seattle, WA. TechHire Seattle-King County: Implementing LaunchCode’s Successful Apprenticeship Model ($3.8 million)
Seattle Central College will work with the LaunchCode Foundation, EnergySavvy, Unloop, Floodgate, Ada Developer Academy and other partners to connect young Americans to jobs in database administration and development, mobile product development, network design and administration, programming, web design, and web development training. To increase opportunities for employers to find high-quality, diverse, entry-level talent, and for students to learn on the job, LaunchCode will connect students at no cost to the student with companies that will offer mentorship and training through a paid apprenticeship program, with the option for employers to hire the student at the end of the 3-6 month apprenticeship. Launchcode has successfully launched and grown this model in 4 U.S. cities, achieving 90 percent placement rates and more than doubling salaries of participants. Seattle is leveraging $4.4 million in philanthropic and private contributions to support this initiative.
$24 Million in Grants to Connect People with Criminal Records, People with Limited English Proficiency and People with Disabilities to In-Demand Jobs
Examples of selected communities and programs include:
· Indianapolis, IN. GOAL! Program: Expanding Language and Technical Skills for LEP Individuals ($3.2 million)
Led by the Labor Institute for Training (LIFT), in partnership with Jobs for the Future and Indiana Adult Education, Growing Opportunities in America for Latinos! (GOAL!) will enhance and expand services throughout the state of Indiana. The program will enhance and expand English language and advanced manufacturing technical skills for 400 residents with limited English proficiency. Incumbent workers will also have access to upskill opportunities through the Industrial Manufacturing Technician (IMT) registered apprenticeship, leveraging the American Apprenticeship Initiative grant awarded by the Department of Labor to Jobs for the Future.
· Kern, Inyo, and Mono Counties, CA. Next Step Program: Offering Skills Training to Individuals with High-Function Autism Spectrum Disorders ($4 million)
The Exceptional Family Center, the Kern County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Bakersfield Adult School will collaborate with local employers and partners to train local individuals with high-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders for open jobs. Geared towards those with documented barriers to training and employment, the Next Step Job Training and Employment Partnership (Next Step) will offer courses at UCLA Extension and Bakersfield Adult School in computer skills, vocational education, and medical coding. The partnership will also offer a bootcamp training on soft skills to improve employability and job performance—including effective communication, workplace behavior, and independent living.
$36 Million of Total Grants will Support Workers in Rural Communities in Retooling and Retraining for New Jobs
Of the $150 million in grants, $36 million have been awarded to programs that will specifically target rural communities that are serving young people and other disadvantaged populations described in the sections above.
Examples of selected communities and programs include:
· Midlands Region of SC. Midlands TechHire: Offering Numerous Boot Camps, Scholarships and Internships in Networking and Programming ($4 million)
Midlands Technical College will offer scholarships to 400 individuals for five accelerated learning boot camps that will train students for networking and programming occupations, such as computer technicians and web development, in six to eight weeks. Along with the wide range of technical training programs offered, Midlands TechHire will provide exam preparation for certifications, as well as classes and workshops in soft skills and job readiness. Graduates of these accelerated training programs will qualify for sponsorship of exam fees and paid three-month internships in IT occupations. With assistance from 24 grant partners, Midlands TechHire will be able to provide a comprehensive assessment of barriers and customized support services for each student.
· West Virginia. WVTTI: Transforming Local Economy by Training and Upgrading Young Adults for New Tech jobs in Software and Engineering ($4 million)
With its West Virginia Technology Transformation Initiative (WVTTI), Bridge Valley Community and Technical College is helping transform this once coal-dependent regional economy into a technology-based one. WVTTI is specifically focused on helping the young adult population find jobs as software developers, mechanical engineers, and machinists, among other opportunities. By leveraging this grant and facilitating relationships among local training providers, workforce organizations, and employers such as the Appalachian Power Company, the WVTTI will expand efforts to help young West Virginians upgrade their skills and gain the credentials needed to obtain middle- and high-skill jobs.
More details on all winners can be found here.
A list of winners and grant amounts is below.
Applicant Location
Lead Applicant
Award
Albuquerque, NM
Workforce Connection of Central New Mexico
$4
million
Atlanta, GA
Atlanta Technical College
$3.7
million
Atlanta, GA
Atlanta Workforce Development Agency (AWDA)
$4
million
Bakersfield, CA
Exceptional Family Center
$4
million
Brunswick, ME
Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc. (CCWI)
$4
million
Cerritos, CA
UAW-Labor Employment and Training Corporation
$3.9
million
Colton, CA
Citadel Community Development Corporation
$4
million
Columbia, SC
Midlands Technical College (MTC)
$4
million
Daytona Beach, FL
Daytona State College
$3.7
million
Eau Claire, WI
Chippewa Valley Technical College (CVTC)
$5
million
Everett, WA
Everett Community College and the Center of Excellence for Aerospace and Advanced Manufacturing
$3.9
million
Gardner, MA
Mount Wachusett Community College
$4
million
Indianapolis, IN
Labor Institute for Training, Inc. (LIFT)
$3.2
million
Indianapolis, IN
Ivy Tech Community College
$2.6
million
Kansas City, MO
Full Employment Council
$5
million
Kenansville, NC
James Sprunt Community College
$4
million
Knoxville, TN
Pellissippi State Community College (PSCC)
$3.8
million
Linn, Missouri
State Tech College Missouri (STC)
$2.8
million
Los Angeles, CA
Youth Policy Institute
$4
million
Miami, FL
Miami Dade College
$3.6
million
Milwaukee, WI
Employ Milwaukee, Inc.
$4
million
Milwaukee, WI
United Migrant Opportunity Services, Inc. (UMOS)
$4
million
New York, NY
LaGuardia Community College
$4
million
North Texas
North Central Texas College
$4
million
Oregon City, OR
Clackamas Community College
$3.5
million
Pewaukee, WI
Waukesha Ozaukee Washington Workforce Development Board
$4
million
Polk County, FL
Polk State College
$2.1
million
Portland, OR
Worksystems, Inc.
$4
million
Raleigh, NC
Wake Technological Community College
$4
million
Rockville, MD
Goodwill Industries International, Inc.
$4
million
Rockville, MD
Montgomery College
$4
million
Seattle, WA
Seattle Central College
$3.8
million
Selden, NY
Suffolk County Community College
$2.9
million
Tampa, FL
Tampa Bay Workforce Alliance, Inc.
$3.8
million
Washington, DC*
Jobs for the Future, Inc.
$5
million
Waterbury, CT
The Northwest Regional Workforce Investment Board (NRWIB
$4
million
Westchester, NY
Westchester-Putnam (NY) Local Workforce Development Board (WPWDB)
$4
million
West Virginia
BridgeValley Community and Technical College
$4
million
Youngstown, OH
Flying HIGH, Inc.
$4
million
TOTAL
$150.3
million
* Jobs for the Future, Inc. is located in Boston, MA. This grant will serve New York City; Washington, DC; Prince George’s County, MD; Anne Arundel County, MD; and Howard County, MD.
Building on Progress: President Obama’s Job-Driven Training Agenda
The TechHire Partnership grants build on progress already underway. Since the President and Vice President released their Job-Driven Training review in July 2014, Federal agencies have taken actions to make programs serving approximately 20 million Americans every year more employer-driven. And over the past 7 years, we have taken a number of steps to support the American workforce and prepare it for the 21st century, including:
Training Americans for jobs of the future. Through TechHire and Computer Science for All, the Administration is connecting Americans with the tech skills that employers are increasingly seeking, across many industries and roles.
· Launching Computer Science for All. This year, the President unveiled his plan to give all K-12 students across the country the chance to learn computer science (CS) in school. This initiative builds on a growing movement led by parents, teachers, districts, states, and the private sector to expand CS education. To jumpstart this effort, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) have pledged to invest more than $135 million to support and train CS teachers across the country over the next five years. In addition, in his budget, the President has called for $4 billion in funding for states, and $100 million directly for districts, to train teachers, expand access to high-quality instructional materials, and build effective regional partnerships. Since its launch, nine states have taken action to expand access to CS education, the private sector has made more $250 million in philanthropic commitments, and more than 25 Governors have called on Congress to increase K-12 CS funding.
Making sure all Americans have a fair shot. The President has taken steps to expand and improve efforts to connect workers who have been displaced by economic change to the workforce system and into good jobs. Building on models of what works, these efforts have helped not only those affected by trade and globalization, but also by the aftermath of the Great Recession, by long-term changes in the energy industry, by the rapid rate of technological change and the adoption of new methods, and in communities that suffer from economic isolation and decline.
· Securing a six-year extension and expansion of Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) in June 2015, which provides vital job training, income support and other benefits to American workers displaced by the forces of globalization. The number of estimated workers currently eligible for benefits and services is over 100,000, which is almost double the number of workers eligible for TAA benefits and services in all of fiscal year 2015 under the older program.
· Helping the long-term unemployed get back to work and stay in the labor force, including through a $170M Ready to Work grant that supports partnerships with businesses to create a best practices for hiring the long-term unemployed. In addition, DOL is providing robust reemployment services and eligibility assessments through $200 million in grants to all 50 states and territories to help prevent long-term unemployment and connect jobseekers to the labor market. Through FY 2016, an estimated 1.3 million unemployed workers will be served.
· Launching the Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization (POWER) Initiative, a Department of Commerce led effort bringing together 10 federal agencies to assist communities negatively impacted by changes in the coal industry and power sector with coordinated federal economic and workforce development resources that help communities diversify their economies and provide reemployment services and job training.
· Strengthening relationships with businesses to recruit and hire veterans. The Veterans' Employment and Training Service (VETS) within DOL established an employer outreach team that encourages employment commitments from national and regional employers seeking to hire veterans. VETS expanded the outreach team to connect with over 600 employers ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies.
Scaling Up What Works. The Administration has implemented a job-driven checklist that reorients job training grants to align with the elements that matter most to getting Americans into better jobs.
· Implementing the job-driven training checklist that reorients competitive job training grants to align with best practices based on elements that matter most to getting Americans into better jobs. To date, agencies have awarded over 15 competitive job-training grant programs that total more than $1.5 billion.
· Signing the bipartisan Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), the first reform of federal job training programs in nearly 20 years that reaches approximately 20 million Americans annually. WIOA improves business engagement, accountability, access, and alignment across training programs.
Doubling Down on Proven Strategies. The Administration is using evidence-based practices to direct limited Federal resources into results-driven models. For example, a recent study found participants in Registered Apprenticeship programs earned $300,000 more over their lifetimes than a comparison group.
· Expanding Registered Apprenticeship programs through $265 million in targeted investments. Since the President’s 2014 State of the Union call to action, the United States has added more than 81,000 new Registered Apprenticeship opportunities, the nation’s largest increase in nearly a decade.
· Investing in training for dislocated workers that follows employer needs in key sectors. DOL has awarded nearly $300 million in Sector Partnerships and Job-Driven Training grants focusing on training dislocated workers. Sector partnerships are consistently cited as one of the most effective strategies to better align education with employer needs and have been shown through randomized evaluations to lead to higher rates of employment and earnings.
· Investing $2 billion in the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training grant program that has created 2,300 in-demand education and training programs at community colleges in all 50 states. To date, nearly 300,000 participants have enrolled in these programs, earning 160,000 credentials.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
EMBARDOED UNTIL 3:00PM EDT ON MONDAY, JUNE 27, 2016
FACT SHEET: Expanding the Tech Economies of Communities across the Country
Obama Administration announces winners of $150 million in TechHire Partnership grants, including $126 million for at-risk and disadvantaged young Americans
Today, Vice President Biden and Department of Labor Secretary Perez announced the release of $150 million in Department of Labor grants for 39 partnerships across the country. With these funds, awardees will launch innovative training and placement models to develop tech talent, as a way to keep and create jobs in local economies. In addition to federal funding, grantees are leveraging nearly $50 million in philanthropic, private and other funding to contribute to their own local partnerships.
A Large and Growing Opportunity for Local Economies
Having a pipeline of tech talent can be an important factor in bringing new jobs to local economies, facilitating business growth, and lifting more local residents into the middle class. These grants will enable more communities to expand their own local tech sectors.
· Tech jobs are a pathway to the middle class. Tech jobs pay one and a half times the average wage of a private-sector job. Studies have shown that these opportunities are also accessible to those without college degrees-- men and women with non-degree certificates in computer or information services earned more than 65 percent of men and women, respectively, with more traditional Associate degrees.[1]
· There is a large and growing unmet demand for tech workers. Today, there are over 600,000 open IT jobs across all sectors—more than two-thirds in fields outside the tech sector, such as manufacturing, financial services and healthcare. Across the country, employers are struggling to find skilled talent for these positions. A study from CEB found that in 10 major metropolitan areas (including New York, Atlanta, Seattle, and Houston), there are only five skilled job seekers available for every eight open IT jobs. Compared to 2010, it now takes employers five additional weeks to fill the average vacancy—at a cost to employers of $8.6 million per 1,000 vacancies.
· New innovations in training and hiring can help meet the tech job demand. Nearly 40 percent of tech jobs do not require a four-year degree. In recent years, there has been a proliferation of fast-track tech training programs like “coding bootcamps” that prepare people with little technical know-how for tech jobs, often in just a few months. A recent survey from Course Report found that bootcamp graduates saw salary gains of 38 percent (or about $18,000) after completing their programs. At the same time, employers in cities like Albuquerque have been adopting new “skills-based” hiring approaches that enable job seekers to demonstrate their skills to get hired even if they lack traditional qualifications like computer science degrees.
· Tech talent can be an important driver of local economic development. Companies report that one of the main factors in deciding where to locate is the availability of skilled talent. Moreover, research from economist Enrico Moretti shows that for each job in the average high-tech firm, five new jobs are indirectly created in local economies.
In response to this opportunity, in March 2015, President Obama launched TechHire, a bold multi-sector effort and call to action for cities, states, and rural areas to work with employers to design and implement new approaches like coding bootcamps to train workers for well-paying tech jobs often in just a few months.
Since then, 50 communities with nearly 1,000 employer partners have begun working together to find new ways to recruit and place applicants based on their skills and to create more fast-track tech training opportunities. These range from programs in New York City that connect low-income young people to tech training and internships to a program in rural Eastern Kentucky that teaches former coalminers to code.
The federal government is doing its part to support communities in this work with a specific focus on making sure that access to these innovations is widely shared, supporting best practice sharing amongst communities, and encouraging engagement of the key stakeholders that fuel a TechHire community -- including employers, innovative training providers and local workforce development leadership. As stakeholders help engage more employers and connect more local communities to these opportunities, the TechHire network will continue to grow.
More details on today’s announcements
Today, the Department of Labor is awarding 39 grants—totaling $150 million—for programs in 25 states and Washington, DC to support innovative ways to get workers on the fastest paths to well-paying information technology and high-growth jobs in in-demand sectors like healthcare, advanced manufacturing, and financial services. Of these grants, $126 million will specifically target strategies designed to best support young Americans, ages 17 to 29.
All of the partnerships funded today engage in the following practices:
1) Expand access to accelerated learning options that provide a quick path to good jobs, such as “bootcamp”-style programs, online options, and competency-based programs.
2) Use data and innovative hiring practices to expand openness to non-traditional hiring by working with employers to build robust data on where they have the greatest needs, identify what skills they are looking for, and build willingness to hire from both nontraditional and traditional training programs.
3) Offer specialized training strategies, supportive services, and other participant-focused services that assist targeted populations to overcome barriers, including networking and job search, active job development, transportation, mentoring, and financial counseling.
4) Emphasize inclusion by leveraging the high demand for tech jobs and new training and hiring approaches to improve access to tech jobs for all citizens, including out-of-school and out-of-work young Americans, people with disabilities, people learning English as a second language, and people with criminal records.
$126 Million in Grants to Create Pathways to Careers for At-Risk and Out-of-School, Out-of-Work Young Americans
Examples of selected communities and programs include:
· Atlanta, GA. ATL TechHire: Fostering an IT Workforce Ecosystem to Inspire Atlanta’s Under-Represented IT Workforce to Pursue IT Careers ($4 million)
ATL TechHire will train the City of Atlanta’s youth and young adults with barriers to employment and other unemployed and underemployed for open jobs in tech. Led by the Atlanta Workforce Development Agency, in partnership with Iron Yard and TechSquare Labs, ATL TechHire has developed customizable training tracks to serve differing needs. Participants will be enrolled in TechSquare Labs’ innovative Culture Fit and Career Readiness programs, as well as fast-track training with one of the Iron Yard’s coding bootcamps, to train participants for jobs in front- and back-end engineering, mobile engineering, data science, and design; or with the Atlanta Technical College for degrees that lead to in-demand IT jobs.
· Albuquerque, NM. New Mexico Tech Connections (NMTC): Expanding Career Pipeline to IT for Youth and Disadvantaged Workers ($4 million)
Workforce Connection of Central New Mexico (WCCNM) will use grant funds to expand its NMTC consortium in order to build a career pipeline into IT for around 338 young adults and other workers with barriers to training and employment. Serving the city of Albuquerque, as well as Bernalillo, Sandoval, Torrance and Valencia counties, NMTC consists of training and education partner, College of New Mexico, along with six area employers and promises to address gaps in conventional training for H-1B jobs.
· Miami, FL. ACCEL in Tech: Bringing Customized Training in IT, Healthcare and Financial Services to Those with Barriers to Employment ($3.5 million)
Acquiring Credential and Creating Experiential Learning (ACCEL) in Technology will leverage the size and resources of Miami Dade College, along with the expertise of partners including CareerSource South Florida Mount Sinai Medical Center, AHIMA Foundation, and the McKinsey Social Initiative, who will provide guidance on advisory boards, curriculum development, employee mentors, opportunities for paid work experiences, and commitments to hire participants. This program will develop customizable training for the individual. Through this initiative, over 400 young adults with barriers to employment will gain access to training in IT, healthcare, and financial services.
· New York, NY. TechIMPACT Program: Training and Placing Youth at Large Tech Companies and Startups ($3.9 million)
LaGuardia Community College will partner with General Assembly, Udacity, Software Guild and others to offer accelerated tech training to young adults in web development, java, and computer network support. Given that young people often struggle to connect to their first job, TechIMPACT is teaming up with partners to make sure that graduates have connections to internships and job placements when they graduate. IBM, Walmart, and other employer partners are committing to interview and hire qualified candidates, and Uncubed will place graduates with a network of high-growth startup companies.
· New York; Washington, DC; and Maryland. Pathways to Tech Careers: Providing Multi-Tiered Training Model to Improve Skills of Young, Low-Wage, and Veteran Workers ($5 million)
Jobs for the Future, Inc.’s program will establish and expand accelerated training programs that prepare youth and young adults with barriers to employment for high-wage, high-demand careers in IT in New York City Washington, D.C., Prince George’s County, Anne Arundel County and Howard County, MD. PTC will have three tracks including a bootcamp-style, immersive web development training, a data analytics training for incumbent workers to upskill to better jobs, and a short-term IT security program for veterans. PTC will build on the national presence of JFF, General Assembly, and Per Scholas to demonstrate multiple strategies to move individuals from entry-level jobs into the middle-class with tech training.
· Seattle, WA. TechHire Seattle-King County: Implementing LaunchCode’s Successful Apprenticeship Model ($3.8 million)
Seattle Central College will work with the LaunchCode Foundation, EnergySavvy, Unloop, Floodgate, Ada Developer Academy and other partners to connect young Americans to jobs in database administration and development, mobile product development, network design and administration, programming, web design, and web development training. To increase opportunities for employers to find high-quality, diverse, entry-level talent, and for students to learn on the job, LaunchCode will connect students at no cost to the student with companies that will offer mentorship and training through a paid apprenticeship program, with the option for employers to hire the student at the end of the 3-6 month apprenticeship. Launchcode has successfully launched and grown this model in 4 U.S. cities, achieving 90 percent placement rates and more than doubling salaries of participants. Seattle is leveraging $4.4 million in philanthropic and private contributions to support this initiative.
$24 Million in Grants to Connect People with Criminal Records, People with Limited English Proficiency and People with Disabilities to In-Demand Jobs
Examples of selected communities and programs include:
· Indianapolis, IN. GOAL! Program: Expanding Language and Technical Skills for LEP Individuals ($3.2 million)
Led by the Labor Institute for Training (LIFT), in partnership with Jobs for the Future and Indiana Adult Education, Growing Opportunities in America for Latinos! (GOAL!) will enhance and expand services throughout the state of Indiana. The program will enhance and expand English language and advanced manufacturing technical skills for 400 residents with limited English proficiency. Incumbent workers will also have access to upskill opportunities through the Industrial Manufacturing Technician (IMT) registered apprenticeship, leveraging the American Apprenticeship Initiative grant awarded by the Department of Labor to Jobs for the Future.
· Kern, Inyo, and Mono Counties, CA. Next Step Program: Offering Skills Training to Individuals with High-Function Autism Spectrum Disorders ($4 million)
The Exceptional Family Center, the Kern County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Bakersfield Adult School will collaborate with local employers and partners to train local individuals with high-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders for open jobs. Geared towards those with documented barriers to training and employment, the Next Step Job Training and Employment Partnership (Next Step) will offer courses at UCLA Extension and Bakersfield Adult School in computer skills, vocational education, and medical coding. The partnership will also offer a bootcamp training on soft skills to improve employability and job performance—including effective communication, workplace behavior, and independent living.
$36 Million of Total Grants will Support Workers in Rural Communities in Retooling and Retraining for New Jobs
Of the $150 million in grants, $36 million have been awarded to programs that will specifically target rural communities that are serving young people and other disadvantaged populations described in the sections above.
Examples of selected communities and programs include:
· Midlands Region of SC. Midlands TechHire: Offering Numerous Boot Camps, Scholarships and Internships in Networking and Programming ($4 million)
Midlands Technical College will offer scholarships to 400 individuals for five accelerated learning boot camps that will train students for networking and programming occupations, such as computer technicians and web development, in six to eight weeks. Along with the wide range of technical training programs offered, Midlands TechHire will provide exam preparation for certifications, as well as classes and workshops in soft skills and job readiness. Graduates of these accelerated training programs will qualify for sponsorship of exam fees and paid three-month internships in IT occupations. With assistance from 24 grant partners, Midlands TechHire will be able to provide a comprehensive assessment of barriers and customized support services for each student.
· West Virginia. WVTTI: Transforming Local Economy by Training and Upgrading Young Adults for New Tech jobs in Software and Engineering ($4 million)
With its West Virginia Technology Transformation Initiative (WVTTI), Bridge Valley Community and Technical College is helping transform this once coal-dependent regional economy into a technology-based one. WVTTI is specifically focused on helping the young adult population find jobs as software developers, mechanical engineers, and machinists, among other opportunities. By leveraging this grant and facilitating relationships among local training providers, workforce organizations, and employers such as the Appalachian Power Company, the WVTTI will expand efforts to help young West Virginians upgrade their skills and gain the credentials needed to obtain middle- and high-skill jobs.
More details on all winners can be found here.
A list of winners and grant amounts is below.
Applicant Location
Lead Applicant
Award
Albuquerque, NM
Workforce Connection of Central New Mexico
$4
million
Atlanta, GA
Atlanta Technical College
$3.7
million
Atlanta, GA
Atlanta Workforce Development Agency (AWDA)
$4
million
Bakersfield, CA
Exceptional Family Center
$4
million
Brunswick, ME
Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc. (CCWI)
$4
million
Cerritos, CA
UAW-Labor Employment and Training Corporation
$3.9
million
Colton, CA
Citadel Community Development Corporation
$4
million
Columbia, SC
Midlands Technical College (MTC)
$4
million
Daytona Beach, FL
Daytona State College
$3.7
million
Eau Claire, WI
Chippewa Valley Technical College (CVTC)
$5
million
Everett, WA
Everett Community College and the Center of Excellence for Aerospace and Advanced Manufacturing
$3.9
million
Gardner, MA
Mount Wachusett Community College
$4
million
Indianapolis, IN
Labor Institute for Training, Inc. (LIFT)
$3.2
million
Indianapolis, IN
Ivy Tech Community College
$2.6
million
Kansas City, MO
Full Employment Council
$5
million
Kenansville, NC
James Sprunt Community College
$4
million
Knoxville, TN
Pellissippi State Community College (PSCC)
$3.8
million
Linn, Missouri
State Tech College Missouri (STC)
$2.8
million
Los Angeles, CA
Youth Policy Institute
$4
million
Miami, FL
Miami Dade College
$3.6
million
Milwaukee, WI
Employ Milwaukee, Inc.
$4
million
Milwaukee, WI
United Migrant Opportunity Services, Inc. (UMOS)
$4
million
New York, NY
LaGuardia Community College
$4
million
North Texas
North Central Texas College
$4
million
Oregon City, OR
Clackamas Community College
$3.5
million
Pewaukee, WI
Waukesha Ozaukee Washington Workforce Development Board
$4
million
Polk County, FL
Polk State College
$2.1
million
Portland, OR
Worksystems, Inc.
$4
million
Raleigh, NC
Wake Technological Community College
$4
million
Rockville, MD
Goodwill Industries International, Inc.
$4
million
Rockville, MD
Montgomery College
$4
million
Seattle, WA
Seattle Central College
$3.8
million
Selden, NY
Suffolk County Community College
$2.9
million
Tampa, FL
Tampa Bay Workforce Alliance, Inc.
$3.8
million
Washington, DC*
Jobs for the Future, Inc.
$5
million
Waterbury, CT
The Northwest Regional Workforce Investment Board (NRWIB
$4
million
Westchester, NY
Westchester-Putnam (NY) Local Workforce Development Board (WPWDB)
$4
million
West Virginia
BridgeValley Community and Technical College
$4
million
Youngstown, OH
Flying HIGH, Inc.
$4
million
TOTAL
$150.3
million
* Jobs for the Future, Inc. is located in Boston, MA. This grant will serve New York City; Washington, DC; Prince George’s County, MD; Anne Arundel County, MD; and Howard County, MD.
Building on Progress: President Obama’s Job-Driven Training Agenda
The TechHire Partnership grants build on progress already underway. Since the President and Vice President released their Job-Driven Training review in July 2014, Federal agencies have taken actions to make programs serving approximately 20 million Americans every year more employer-driven. And over the past 7 years, we have taken a number of steps to support the American workforce and prepare it for the 21st century, including:
Training Americans for jobs of the future. Through TechHire and Computer Science for All, the Administration is connecting Americans with the tech skills that employers are increasingly seeking, across many industries and roles.
· Launching Computer Science for All. This year, the President unveiled his plan to give all K-12 students across the country the chance to learn computer science (CS) in school. This initiative builds on a growing movement led by parents, teachers, districts, states, and the private sector to expand CS education. To jumpstart this effort, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) have pledged to invest more than $135 million to support and train CS teachers across the country over the next five years. In addition, in his budget, the President has called for $4 billion in funding for states, and $100 million directly for districts, to train teachers, expand access to high-quality instructional materials, and build effective regional partnerships. Since its launch, nine states have taken action to expand access to CS education, the private sector has made more $250 million in philanthropic commitments, and more than 25 Governors have called on Congress to increase K-12 CS funding.
Making sure all Americans have a fair shot. The President has taken steps to expand and improve efforts to connect workers who have been displaced by economic change to the workforce system and into good jobs. Building on models of what works, these efforts have helped not only those affected by trade and globalization, but also by the aftermath of the Great Recession, by long-term changes in the energy industry, by the rapid rate of technological change and the adoption of new methods, and in communities that suffer from economic isolation and decline.
· Securing a six-year extension and expansion of Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) in June 2015, which provides vital job training, income support and other benefits to American workers displaced by the forces of globalization. The number of estimated workers currently eligible for benefits and services is over 100,000, which is almost double the number of workers eligible for TAA benefits and services in all of fiscal year 2015 under the older program.
· Helping the long-term unemployed get back to work and stay in the labor force, including through a $170M Ready to Work grant that supports partnerships with businesses to create a best practices for hiring the long-term unemployed. In addition, DOL is providing robust reemployment services and eligibility assessments through $200 million in grants to all 50 states and territories to help prevent long-term unemployment and connect jobseekers to the labor market. Through FY 2016, an estimated 1.3 million unemployed workers will be served.
· Launching the Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization (POWER) Initiative, a Department of Commerce led effort bringing together 10 federal agencies to assist communities negatively impacted by changes in the coal industry and power sector with coordinated federal economic and workforce development resources that help communities diversify their economies and provide reemployment services and job training.
· Strengthening relationships with businesses to recruit and hire veterans. The Veterans' Employment and Training Service (VETS) within DOL established an employer outreach team that encourages employment commitments from national and regional employers seeking to hire veterans. VETS expanded the outreach team to connect with over 600 employers ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies.
Scaling Up What Works. The Administration has implemented a job-driven checklist that reorients job training grants to align with the elements that matter most to getting Americans into better jobs.
· Implementing the job-driven training checklist that reorients competitive job training grants to align with best practices based on elements that matter most to getting Americans into better jobs. To date, agencies have awarded over 15 competitive job-training grant programs that total more than $1.5 billion.
· Signing the bipartisan Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), the first reform of federal job training programs in nearly 20 years that reaches approximately 20 million Americans annually. WIOA improves business engagement, accountability, access, and alignment across training programs.
Doubling Down on Proven Strategies. The Administration is using evidence-based practices to direct limited Federal resources into results-driven models. For example, a recent study found participants in Registered Apprenticeship programs earned $300,000 more over their lifetimes than a comparison group.
· Expanding Registered Apprenticeship programs through $265 million in targeted investments. Since the President’s 2014 State of the Union call to action, the United States has added more than 81,000 new Registered Apprenticeship opportunities, the nation’s largest increase in nearly a decade.
· Investing in training for dislocated workers that follows employer needs in key sectors. DOL has awarded nearly $300 million in Sector Partnerships and Job-Driven Training grants focusing on training dislocated workers. Sector partnerships are consistently cited as one of the most effective strategies to better align education with employer needs and have been shown through randomized evaluations to lead to higher rates of employment and earnings.
· Investing $2 billion in the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training grant program that has created 2,300 in-demand education and training programs at community colleges in all 50 states. To date, nearly 300,000 participants have enrolled in these programs, earning 160,000 credentials.
Remarks by the President at Bill Signings of the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 and PROMESA
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release June 30, 2016
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT BILL SIGNINGS OF THE FOIA IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2016
AND PROMESA
Oval Office
4:36 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Well, even in the midst of political season, every once in a while, Congress moves forward on something that is really significant and important. And I want to make sure that the American public are aware of what I'm going to be signing here today.
The first piece of legislation relates to the Freedom of Information Act. As all of you know, the Freedom of Information Act is one of the key ways in which citizens are able to find out what exactly is going on in government. And the good news is, is that over the course of my presidency, we have processed more FOIA requests -- Freedom of Information requests -- than ever before. And we have worked to make it easier and more transparent, putting more and more stuff online.
But having said all that, we're actually getting many more requests for FOIA than ever before. And so we've had to figure out ways that we can reform this to make it easier, faster, cheaper for people to get the information that they want.
Fortunately, Congress -- on a bipartisan basis -- has provided the tools -- legislation -- to codify some of the reforms we've already made and to expand more of these reforms so that government is more responsive. And I am very proud of all the work we've done to try to make government more open and responsive, but I know that people haven't always been satisfied with the speed with which they're getting responses and requests. Hopefully this is going to help and be an important initiative for us to continue on the reform path.
So I'm going to sign that right now.
(Bill is signed.)
The second piece of legislation relates to the crisis that we're seeing in Puerto Rico. We've got millions of our fellow citizens in Puerto Rico who have been suffering under one of the worst financial crises, fiscal crises in memory. And at the consequence of the inability for them to restructure their debt, you've seen hospitals unable to operate, ambulances shutting down, basic services shutting down, and government workers not being paid. It has brought enormous hardship to Puerto Rico.
Through some amazing work by our Treasury Department, our legislative staff, and a bipartisan effort in both the House and the Senate, we finally have legislation that at least is going to give Puerto Rico the capacity, the opportunity to get out from under this lingering uncertainty with respect to their debt, and start stabilizing government services and to start growing again.
It's not, in and of itself, going to be sufficient to solve all the problems that Puerto Rico faces, but it is an important first step on the path of creating more stability, better services, and greater prosperity over the long term for the people of Puerto Rico.
So I want to thank all four leaders in Congress for the hard work in getting this to my desk. And I want to let the people of Puerto Rico know that although there's still some tough work that we're going to have to do to dig Puerto Rico out of the hole that it's in, this indicates how committed my administration is to making sure that they get the help they need. And it's not going to stop here -- we've got to keep on working to figure out how we promote the long-term growth and sustainability that's so desperately needed down there. But the people of Puerto Rico need to know that they're not forgotten; that they're part of the American family, and our Congress's responsiveness to this issue -- even though this is not a perfect bill -- at least moves us in the right direction.
(Bill is signed.)
Okay, thank you very much, everybody.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release June 30, 2016
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT BILL SIGNINGS OF THE FOIA IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2016
AND PROMESA
Oval Office
4:36 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Well, even in the midst of political season, every once in a while, Congress moves forward on something that is really significant and important. And I want to make sure that the American public are aware of what I'm going to be signing here today.
The first piece of legislation relates to the Freedom of Information Act. As all of you know, the Freedom of Information Act is one of the key ways in which citizens are able to find out what exactly is going on in government. And the good news is, is that over the course of my presidency, we have processed more FOIA requests -- Freedom of Information requests -- than ever before. And we have worked to make it easier and more transparent, putting more and more stuff online.
But having said all that, we're actually getting many more requests for FOIA than ever before. And so we've had to figure out ways that we can reform this to make it easier, faster, cheaper for people to get the information that they want.
Fortunately, Congress -- on a bipartisan basis -- has provided the tools -- legislation -- to codify some of the reforms we've already made and to expand more of these reforms so that government is more responsive. And I am very proud of all the work we've done to try to make government more open and responsive, but I know that people haven't always been satisfied with the speed with which they're getting responses and requests. Hopefully this is going to help and be an important initiative for us to continue on the reform path.
So I'm going to sign that right now.
(Bill is signed.)
The second piece of legislation relates to the crisis that we're seeing in Puerto Rico. We've got millions of our fellow citizens in Puerto Rico who have been suffering under one of the worst financial crises, fiscal crises in memory. And at the consequence of the inability for them to restructure their debt, you've seen hospitals unable to operate, ambulances shutting down, basic services shutting down, and government workers not being paid. It has brought enormous hardship to Puerto Rico.
Through some amazing work by our Treasury Department, our legislative staff, and a bipartisan effort in both the House and the Senate, we finally have legislation that at least is going to give Puerto Rico the capacity, the opportunity to get out from under this lingering uncertainty with respect to their debt, and start stabilizing government services and to start growing again.
It's not, in and of itself, going to be sufficient to solve all the problems that Puerto Rico faces, but it is an important first step on the path of creating more stability, better services, and greater prosperity over the long term for the people of Puerto Rico.
So I want to thank all four leaders in Congress for the hard work in getting this to my desk. And I want to let the people of Puerto Rico know that although there's still some tough work that we're going to have to do to dig Puerto Rico out of the hole that it's in, this indicates how committed my administration is to making sure that they get the help they need. And it's not going to stop here -- we've got to keep on working to figure out how we promote the long-term growth and sustainability that's so desperately needed down there. But the people of Puerto Rico need to know that they're not forgotten; that they're part of the American family, and our Congress's responsiveness to this issue -- even though this is not a perfect bill -- at least moves us in the right direction.
(Bill is signed.)
Okay, thank you very much, everybody.
Remarks by the President at Global Entrepreneurship Summit and Conversation with Mark Zuckerberg and Entrepreneurs
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release June 24, 2016
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP SUMMIT
AND CONVERSATION WITH MARK ZUCKERBERG AND ENTREPRENEURS
Stanford University
Stanford, California
10:55 A.M. PDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you! (Applause.) Hello, everybody. Thank you so much. Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Everybody have a seat. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. Well, this is a good-looking group. Thank you. (Applause.)
Well, first of all, let me thank President Hennessy for the introduction, and the entire Stanford family for letting us take over the campus for a few days. As some of you know, John is stepping down after 16 years as president of Stanford. Fortunately for me, I cannot do that, to just stick around longer than my term limit. John, I’m sure there are some people who want you to stick around longer, but I’m confident that you’re going to do extraordinary things. And we could not be prouder of John Hennessey and Stanford, and all the great work that they have done. So please give him a big round of applause. (Applause.)
Now, it’s summer break. Just so you all of you know, Stanford is not always this quiet. This school is unique. Folks ride on bicycles everywhere. (Laughter.) And athletes are also computer engineers. This is the place that made “nerd” cool. (Applause.) So we are thrilled to be here.
I know that I am not the first speaker that you’ve heard from. But many of you have traveled here from a long ways. We’ve got more than 170 countries from every region of the world represented. Some of you, this is the first time you are visiting our country. So let me just say, on behalf of the American people, not only welcome to our Global Entrepreneurship Summit, but welcome to the United States of America. We are glad to have you. (Applause.)
I am not going to give a long speech, because what I really want to do is have a conversation with some outstanding young people who are part of our panel and we’re going to introduce in a moment. But I do want to begin by offering some opening thoughts about the time in which we gather here today. And I’m going to start with the British people’s decision to leave the European Union, the vote that took place yesterday.
Just a few hours ago, I spoke with Prime Minister David Cameron. David has been an outstanding friend and partner on the global stage. And based on our conversation, I'm confident that the UK is committed to an orderly transition out of the EU. We agreed that our economic and financial teams will remain in close contact as we stay focused on ensuring economic growth and financial stability. I then spoke to Chancellor Merkel of Germany, and we agreed that the United States and our European allies will work closely together in the weeks and months ahead.
I do think that yesterday's vote speaks to the ongoing changes and challenges that are raised by globalization. But while the UK’s relationship with the EU will change, one thing that will not change is the special relationship that exists between our two nations. That will endure. The EU will remain one of our indispensable partners. Our NATO alliance will remain a cornerstone of global security. And in a few weeks we’ll be meeting in Warsaw for the NATO Summit. And our shared values -- including our commitment to democracy and pluralism, and opportunity for all people in a globalized world -- that will continue to unite all of us. And that is the work that brings us here today.
The world has shrunk. It is interconnected. All of you represent that interconnection. Many of you are catalyzing it and accelerating it. It promises to bring extraordinary benefits. But it also has challenges. And it also evokes concerns and fears. And so part of why this Global Entrepreneurship Summit has been so close to my heart, something that I’ve been so committed to, because I believe all of you represent all the upside of an interconnected world, all the optimism and the hope and the opportunity that that interconnected world represents.
But it’s also important in these discussions to find ways in which we are expanding and broadening the benefits of that interconnection to more and more people. And that’s what’s so many of you are doing.
We’re gathered here at Stanford, in the heart of Silicon Valley, which is one of the great hubs of innovation and entrepreneurship not just for America, but for the world. This is a place that celebrates our ability as human beings to discover and learn and to build, to question, to reimagine, to create new ways to connect and work with each other.
It’s where two guys in a garage, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, launched a global company. Where student projects became Yahoo! and Google -- those were really good student projects. (Laughter.) My student projects weren’t as good. (Laughter.) It’s where entrepreneurs like so many of you get an idea, and you build a team and you work to turn it into reality, and you launch products and companies and entire industries that transform the world. That’s the power of entrepreneurship. And it’s never been more important.
In today’s world, where our economies have undergone dramatic shifts, where business don’t stop at borders, where technology and automation have transformed virtually every industry and changed how people organize and work, entrepreneurship remains the engine of growth. That ability to turn an idea into reality -- a new venture, a small business -- that creates good-paying jobs; that puts rising economies on the path to prosperity, and empowers people to come together and tackle our most pressing global problems, from climate change to poverty.
When people can start their own businesses, it helps individuals and families succeed. It can make whole communities more prosperous and more secure. It offers a positive path for young people seeking the chance to make something of themselves, and can empower people who have previously been locked out of the existing social order -- women and minorities, others who aren't part of the “old boys” network -- give them a chance to contribute and to lead. And it can create a culture where innovation and creativity are valued -- where we don't just look at the way things have always been, but rather we say, how could things be? Why not? Let’s make something new.
This spirit speaks to something deep inside of all of us -- no matter who we are, what we look like, where we come from. You look out across this auditorium -- you're all of different backgrounds and cultures, and races and religions. Some of you are from teeming cities; others are working I small rural villages. But you have that same spark, that same creative energy to come up with innovative solutions to old challenges.
And entrepreneurship is what gives people like you a chance to fulfill your own dreams and create something bigger than yourselves.
We live in a time when more than half the world is under the age of 30. That means we got to make sure that all of our young people around the world have the tools they need to start new ventures, and to create the jobs of the 21st century, and to help lift up entire populations. And so many of you are already doing this. As I travel around the world, one of the extraordinary things that I have the opportunity to do is to meet young people in every region and to see the problem-solving and the energy and optimism that they’re bringing to everything from how to generate electricity in environmentally sound ways in remote places that are off the grid right now, to how do you employ women in remote areas who all too often have been locked out of opportunity. You just see enormous creativity waiting to be tapped.
And part of our job, part of this summit’s job is to make sure that we're putting more tools, more resources into the hands of these folks who are changing the world, and making sure that all of you know each other so you can share best practices and ideas, and spread the word.
Now, I know the daily reality is not always as romantic as all this. It turns out that starting your own business is not easy. You have to have access to capital. You have to meet the right people. You have to have mentors who can guide you as you get your idea off the ground. And that can be especially difficult for women and young people and minorities, and others who haven’t always had access to the same networks and opportunities. You deserve the same chance to succeed as everybody else. We’ve got to make sure that everybody has a fair shot to reach their potential -- we can’t leave more than half the team on the bench.
That’s why we’ve invested so much time and effort to make sure that America is helping to empower entrepreneurs like you. We held our first summit back in 2010. Since then, we’ve brought entrepreneurs like you together in Turkey, and the Emirates, and Malaysia, Morocco, Kenya. And all told, we’ve helped more than 17,000 entrepreneurs and innovators connect with each other, access capital, find mentors, and start new ventures -- 17,000. (Applause.)
I think of the Tanzanian startup that helps farmers reduce their harvest losses. Or the company in Nepal that’s helping to improve charity health care. There are 11 Cubans who are here today -- the first Cubans to join us at one of these summits. (Applause.) Hola! Mucho gusto. (Applause.) They’re ready to help create new opportunities for the Cuban people. Where are they? (Applause.) There they are.
I want to thank Antonio Gracias -- a leader in private equity and one of our Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship -- because his support was critical in bringing these young Cuban entrepreneurs here. So that's deserving of a hand. (Applause.)
I’m also pleased to announce that we have a new group of business leaders signing on as entrepreneurship ambassadors. This is something that we started as part of the summit, and they have put their time, energy, effort, and in some cases, their money behind entrepreneurs around the world. So of our new ambassadors -- Sara Blakely, CEO of Spanx. (Applause.) Jane Wurwand, CEO of Dermalogica. (Applause.) Steven Jurvetson, partner at Draper Fisher Jurvetson. (Applause.) And Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe. (Applause.)
Now, supporting entrepreneurs isn’t just something we do around the world. It’s also a key part of how we create jobs and fuel innovation here in the United States. And it’s why we’re working with communities to streamline the process for launching a company -- “Startup in a Day.” It’s why we’re expanding Innovation Corps -- our program to equip more scientists and engineers with entrepreneurial skills. And it’s why, at this summit, dozens of top tech companies, from giants to startups, are committing to make their technology workforces look like America, including by publishing data on diversity each year and developing the tech talent of people from all backgrounds. We're very happy for the commitments that they’ve made, so give them a big round of applause for that. (Applause.)
Here at this summit, we’re also building on our progress with new commitments from government and businesses and philanthropists. So at last year's Paris climate talks, for example, Bill Gates and other top global investors committed to partnering with governments to invest in cutting-edge clean energy solutions. Today, we’re launching an initiative to connect some of these global investors and others with clean energy entrepreneurs from developing countries.
We’re also announcing the Young Transatlantic Innovation Leaders Initiative, which will bring 200 of Europe’s innovators to the U.S. each year to develop their skills. (Applause.) And we’ve got organizations like Endeavor, which supports entrepreneurs, starting a $100 million fund to invest in companies across Latin America, and the Middle East, in Africa, and Southeast Asia. (Applause.) Investment firms like Capria Ventures, which will help fund international startups. So these are just a handful of the commitments -- and I suspect, new ventures -- that are going to come out of this year’s summit.
So all of you budding entrepreneurs, don't be shy while you're here. Talk to the experts here. Make your pitch. Network with potential investors. Find that mentor who might help you navigate through a tough patch. Connect with your fellow innovators. Because ultimately the world needs your creativity, and your energy, and your vision. You are going to be what helps this process of global integration work in a way that is good for everyone and not just some.
Now, I’ve spoken about this before. I believe we are better off in a world in which we are trading and networking and communicating and sharing ideas. But that also means that cultures are colliding and sometimes is disruptive, and people get worried. You're the bridge, you're the glue -- particularly the young people who are here -- who can help lead towards a more peaceful and more prosperous future that provides opportunity for everybody.
And because this is about more than just this one event, or for that matter, this one President, we’re going to make sure that the United States continues to help developing the next generation of entrepreneurs. We are very proud to announce that next year’s Global Entrepreneurship Summit will be hosted in India. (Applause.) Got the Indian contingent in the house. I’ll try to stop by if I’m invited. (Laughter.)
But the point is, I believe in you, and America believes in you. And we believe that you have the talent and the skills and the ambition not just to pursue your dreams, but to realize them; that you can lift up not just your own families, but communities and countries, and create opportunity and prosperity and hope for decades to come. That's the promise that we see in all of you.
And that is the promise that we see in our outstanding panelists that you're going to hear from. Mai Medhat, of Egypt, who is a software engineer, who started a company called Eventtus, which is a one-stop online shop for people who organize events. (Applause.)
We see it in Jean Bosco Nzeyimana, of Rwanda, who is the founder and CEO of Habona Limited, a company that uses biomass and waste to develop eco-friendly fuels that are used in rural Africa. (Applause.)
Mariana Costa Checa, of Peru. Mariana is the founder of Laboratoria, which gives young women from low-income backgrounds the education and tools they need to work in the digital sector. (Applause.)
And if that lineup is not enough, you also see it in a guy that you may have heard of who has done pretty well for himself, the founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. (Applause.)
They’re the real experts. Let’s welcome them to the stage, and we’ll start having a conversation with them. Thank you. (Applause.)
This is a good-looking group. And I could not wear a T-shirt like Mark -- (laughter) -- for at least another six months, but I will take off my jacket so that I don't look too formal. (Applause.)
MR. ZUCKERBERG: Soon.
THE PRESIDENT: Soon. It’s going to happen soon.
So, yes, sit down, everybody. Relax. (Laughter.) So these are some extraordinary entrepreneurs. Some are just getting started, some seem to be moving along pretty well. But I thought this was wonderfully representative because it’s from different regions of the world, it’s companies that are at different stages.
And maybe we can just start by having everybody introduce themselves, describe a little bit about what they're doing. And then we can sort of have a discussion about what’s been easy, what’s been hard, how can government policy like the U.S. government policy help in advancing some of these issues. How can other countries’ governments -- because we have 20 representatives from other governments participating in this summit -- how should they think about encouraging entrepreneurship. And then, most importantly, how can other businesses and venture capital, et cetera, think about some of these international opportunities
So, Mai, why don't we start with you? And tell us -- I was hearing some of the great work you're doing. Tell us more about it.
MS. MEDHAT: Thank you. It’s so great to be here. (Laughter and applause.) I’m software engineer. I have an engineering background. One day I heard that the first Startup Weekend is happening in Cairo. And I was not invited, but I went anyway with my friend. I went with my friend. She was invited, and she turned out to be my co-founder. And we were there just to learn about startups, meet mentors and other entrepreneurs.
And it was very hard to network and meet people during the event. We felt like there was a gap between the organizers and attendees. And then a week after, we attended (inaudible) Cairo, and we had the same experience. We felt there should be a better way for organizers to organize events and for the attendees to experience events.
Everyone is there for networking, connecting people, and sharing experience. So we did our research, and we were very passionate about the idea. We felt like we can do something in the event space. So we quit our jobs and we started working on this full-time before even having the Eventtus. And now we have a full engagement and networking platform for events. It’s a very interactive app with 86 percent engagement in most of our events. So we are helping people getting together during events. And now we have a great team, two offices -- in Cairo and Dubai. And we are working with most of events in our region.
When I look back on the journey, it wasn’t easy at all. It was very challenging. It was very exciting, as well. But it was full of ups and downs. And we started before even the first accelerator in Egypt was started. We had few mentors back then. But now we have a number of amazing startups, a number of mentors and support organizations who are working together. So I can see the ecosystem has grown very well, but we still have a lot to do.
THE PRESIDENT: That's great. Thank you. (Applause.)
Jean Bosco.
MR. NZEYIMANA: Thank you. It’s an honor to be here.
So when I was growing up in the rural villages in Rwanda, I used to spend countless hours in the forest collecting firewood for my parents and fetching water. And that was not just me, but dozens of other children in Africa are facing the same challenges. They are involved in laborious activities to help their parents just to have a meal, instead of going to school.
So as I was growing up, I kept thinking about something that I can do to help these families have access to other alternative fuels that they can use to replace charcoal that they have been using for many years. So I came up with an idea of a (inaudible) approach, whereby we collect (inaudible) and then we turn them into affordable and environmentally friendly products in form of briquettes and biogas that people can then use. And that is like a green cooking fuel, which can improve health and sanitation in homes.
As we started, it has been two years, and I have employed more than 25 people, giving them permanent jobs. And we are trying to expand to other areas of the country so that we can continue to improve sanitation, as well as providing these kind of alternative fuels, which can improve health and mitigate climate change in the country and Africa in general. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Excellent.
Mariana.
MS. COSTA CHECA: It’s an honor to be here. I’m still trying to get over the fact that you just introduced me. (Laughter.) I’m so happy.
So I did Laboratoria. We are a social enterprise. And I started it in Peru two years ago. We are now in Peru and Chile and Mexico. And what we tried to do is to go out and find talent where nobody else is looking for it. So we tried to identify young women who haven’t been able to access quality education or job opportunities because of economic limitations, and train them to become the most awesome developers they can be, and connect them with employment opportunities in the tech sector.
Something that I realize is that when our students join our program, most of them are completely unaware of their potential and they come thinking that it’s going to be really hard to break this vicious cycle of low-skill employment, underpaid employment, or just domestic work. But they soon start learning to code, and it’s just such a powerful skill set. A few weeks into the program, they start building their first websites, their first apps, their games, and showing them to the world. And it’s so empowering. And six months after joining, they're ready to go out and join the workforce.
So we have students who get three job offers from the coolest companies in town. They go out -- they get to decide where they want to go and work. They triple their income, so they significantly improve their economic circumstances. They start supporting their families. And I think most importantly, they start realizing that anything is possible if they work hard enough for it, no? And we have students that have gone from working at a corner shop in a slum to working at the IDB in Washington as developers, a few blocks from the White House. So really, they are an example that anything is possible, no?
And they're changing not only their lives, but they're changing their communities, their cities. And I think they are transforming the tech sector in Latin America. They are bringing the diversity and the talent that the sector needs to really become a leading force in our economy. And I’m pretty sure that as we continue to grow and reach thousands of women in the region, they are going to change our countries for the better, and making sure that we can actually base our growth on the most important thing that we have, and that's our young talent.
THE PRESIDENT: That's great. (Applause.) Now, when we were talking backstage, I had been reading about this, and I said, 60 percent of the women who have gone through this program now were employed. And I was corrected -- it’s now 70 percent. I had old data. (Laughter.) But I think it’s important to point out your success rate has been quite extraordinary already. So it’s wonderful.
MS. COSTA CHECA: Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Mark, there was a time when you were sort of in their shoes. But now obviously Facebook’s success has been extraordinary. But I’m sure that you still can connect with the stories that are told here, and some of the stories out there. How is Facebook thinking about its own role in creating this platform for entrepreneurship around the world? I know that's something that you've been thinking a lot about.
MR. ZUCKERBERG: Well, it’s really inspiring to be here with so many great entrepreneurs and to hear about all the work that you're doing, and it’s an honor. So thanks for having me.
To me, entrepreneurship is about creating change, not just creating companies. And the most effective entrepreneurs who I’ve met care deeply about some mission and some change that they're trying to create. And often they don't even start because they're trying to create a company.
And that's how I think about my connection to all of us here, is when I was getting started, I cared deeply about giving everyone a voice and giving the people the tools to share everything that they cared about, and bringing a community together. And it started small in one university. And I didn't think it was going to be company at the time. As a matter of fact, I was pretty convinced that at some point someone would build something like this for the world, but I thought that that would be some other company that already had thousands of engineers and was used to building stuff for hundreds of millions of people around the world.
And what ended up happening was that no one built it, so we just kind of kept on going. (Laughter.) People said at each step along the way, what you're doing, all right, maybe college students like it, but no one else is going to like it and there’s not going to be any money in doing this. So you only really do it if you care, if you're passionate about doing it.
And then it started growing, and people said it would be fad and it would never be a good business. But you keep going because you care, not because you’re trying to create a business.
And then there’s the shift to mobile where people thought that it wouldn’t be a sustainable business. And through each of these things, the entrepreneurs who I think build things that last for a long time keep going because they care fundamentally about the change that they're trying to create in the world. And they're not in it just to build a company.
And I carry that with me today. So today we live in a world with more than 7 billion people, but more than 4 billion of us are not on the Internet. And we talk about having an equal opportunity to be able to create a change in the world, and I think that's a really hard thing to do if you don't have access to some of the basic infrastructure and technical tools that are necessary to build these kinds of technical products.
So I kind of think about what we're doing today very similarly to how I thought about where we were at the beginning. I get people all the time who come to me and say, all right, well, you're investing billions of dollars in trying to put Internet connectivity in places where we don't get paid for it. It’s not something that we’ll make any money from for a very long period of time, if it works out. But it’s this deep belief that you're trying to make a change. You're trying to connect people in the world. And I really do believe that if you do something good and if you help people out, then eventually some portion of that good will come back to you.
And you may not know upfront what it’s going to be, but that's just been the guiding principle for me in the work that we’ve done. And I hope that some of the work that we do can play a role in empowering you and so many more entrepreneurs to build the next great companies. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Excellent.
So for the three budding entrepreneurs, you've already had some success and positive feedback. But I know that this is still hard sometimes and frustrating. And let’s go back to the earlier question that I asked: What do you find to be some of the biggest hurdles for your success? And are there policies that either your governments could be pursuing, or that the United States, in conjunction with your governments, could be pursuing that would really make this process, if not easy, then at least a little bit smoother? And are there questions or concerns that you have in terms of how more established businesses like Facebook, how they might be able to interact with startups like yours?
So we’ll go in reverse order this time. Why don't we start with you?
MS. COSTA CHICA: Yes, so I think there’s been many challenges along the way. In our case, we try to disrupt many preconceptions I think. So at the beginning, many people were like how are you going to train people in months and get them a job? How are you going to get young women who went to a public high school that's not very good to actually become competitive in the labor market?
And I think, luckily, we've overcome those, and we've proved that they are incredibly talented, that you can learn in months instead of years. And most of the companies that hire our developers actually rehire. So they realize that they're great, and they're as competitive as anyone else who comes from a different background. So I think that's been very, very encouraging on our way.
And the little secret that I have I think being a social entrepreneur is that motivation is everything, you know? And when there are bad times, and where we are not making the end of the month to pay all our people, and when we're facing all these challenges, I usually just go into a classroom. Like let me go into a classroom myself, to the girls who study with us. And they are the main force behind not only myself, but all my team -- my partners and all my team because they are fighting so hard to making it happen. They are traveling -- sometimes commuting four hours a day to come and go back. They have on top of their studies a lot of domestic responsibilities, and they're proving that it can be done. So that's always a reality check to say, you know I have everything I need to keep going at this. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Good.
Jean Bosco.
MR. NZEYIMANA: Great, I think one of the most -- biggest challenges that I have faced was because I started this company very young. At that time I was 19 years old, and in my culture it is believed that those great initiatives are started by old people and those things which have been difficult for other people cannot be possible for young people.
So I try to disrupt that status quo, and I created this company. Because during that period no one was even trusting me so that they can be my employee, so I had to be my own marketer. I had to be the technical boss. I had to be everything in the company so that I can build that kind of first impression so that I can impress a few people to come to me and help me run this cause.
And the other challenge that we were facing is that a lot of financial institutions didn't even know what we were talking about because these are the kind of renewable energy that we wanted to bring to Rwanda. And you would find a lot of folks working in banks asking you, what are you trying to do? Because they don't even understand what you are doing. It was like very difficult for them to analyze and calculate the risk that might be involved in the activities that we're trying to do.
But because I trusted in my solution and this kind of thing that I wanted to do to my community, I kept pushing, applying for different competitions. And luckily I won the United States Africa Development Foundation grant to start this initiative.
And when I started, people started to see how you can take advantage in ways that you already have to produce some products which can then go back in communities and be solutions which can improve lives of many people. And then from there, people started coming.
But the lesson that I learned from that very basic experience is that no matter what you are trying to do, it is necessary is that you are having the kind of motive in your mind that you want to help your society move forward. So the policies and the other partners take hold as we come along the way to help you run the initiative. But that will happen once you start. If you don't start, no one will come and join you. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Good. So we've heard -- well, that's interesting, and part of what the two of you have described is first of all, each country has its own culture and there are going to be sometimes some cultural barriers -- whether it’s attitudes about women and what they can do, whether it’s attitudes about young people and how seriously they take a young person. Mark had to deal with that a little bit. But here obviously in the United States, and particularly in Silicon Valley, I think that's begun to change.
But there’s also just basic issues like financing and having access to capital, particularly when it’s a new idea and it doesn't fit the existing models that the banks or other financial institutions may have.
Mai, do those kinds of challenges resonate in your experience? And how did you navigate through those?
MS. MEDHAT: Yes, I think all the entrepreneurs, like everywhere in the world, we share the same challenges. I think I did almost every single mistake that you read about in every startup-related book. (Laughter.) I learned everything the hard way. So, yes, it’s a learning process.
Funding was one of the challenges, of course. The other one was the legal system and the legal structure, especially in Egypt. It’s not startup-friendly. So you have to do all of the work-arounds, and you have to be persistent to get over that, building a team, as well, like I’m a woman. And I started -- I was young.
THE PRESIDENT: You're still young, I think.
MS. MEDHAT: Yes. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: I think you qualify as young.
MS. MEDHAT: So, yes, I had almost the same challenges. I’d say that the only thing that keeps us going is believing in our idea, believing that we can do something, we can add value to people’s life. And this is the only thing that keeps me -- wake every day in the morning and go to work.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, all of you are expressing what Mark said, which is it starts with a passion. If you start off just saying I want to make money, but there’s no clear mission behind it, then when you start hitting some of these barriers, sometimes it’s very hard to push through them.
With respect to some of the barriers that you're talking about, the U.S. -- in connection to the Entrepreneurship Summit, what we've been trying to do is take best practices and learn lessons about what’s working and what’s not. And so in the grants that we're providing, or the training that we're providing, what these summits have been really useful in doing is hearing directly from entrepreneurs and say this program doesn't work as well as it could; this one works really well.
What we're also trying to do, though, is encourage governments to listen and hear from entrepreneurs to build a different kind of culture.
So the point you made, Mai, about how hard is it to get a business started -- how much paperwork do you have to fill out? What kinds of fees do you have to pay? How much bureaucracy do you have to sort through?
That's something that here in the United States, we've had to deal with ourselves. And what we've tried to do is to both simplify processes, but also use technology in ways that means you don't have to travel across town in Cairo to go to an office, and the person you need to see isn’t there, and then you have to travel back and reschedule the next day. And the traffic is terrible, and it’s driving you crazy. If you can go on the net and do a lot of that work ahead of time that can make a huge difference in accelerating the process that you're doing.
And so I’m very glad that we have 20 countries represented here, because part of what we're doing is getting commitments from those other countries to say, we're going to learn from each other and figure how we can streamline these efforts so that we're making life a little bit easier for young people like you.
MS. MEDHAT: Yes, actually when we started, we didn't know where to start from. Like we couldn’t find any information online, for example, on how to get the company registered in Egypt. We didn't know any startup lawyers or anyone who can register the company for us. So we had to go ourselves and ask for help from other people.
THE PRESIDENT: Right.
MS. MEDHAT: And we couldn’t find any information. It took us so much time, effort, and money.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, even here in the United States where it’s much easier to do business, we still have 16 agencies that are in charge of doing business. We've tried to streamline them into one. It requires congressional action. (Laughter and applause.) So at least what we've tried to do is consolidate the websites so that it’s easier to get the information, even though you still have to deal potentially with 16 different agencies for different needs.
So there are specific things that the government can do to be more entrepreneur-friendly. How can companies like Facebook or Google or some of the venture funds that are represented here, how should they think about finding good ideas? What sorts of mentorship or training would you find most helpful? Obviously having experienced entrepreneurs or people who have seen startups in the past maybe can help you avoid a few of the lessons. And part of the goal of the summit here is to build these networks so that that kind of mentorship is available.
But, Mark, I know that Facebook is already doing some of these issues. Tell us about some of the things that you're excited about. And then maybe we hear from them about other working opportunities that they’ve been looking for.
MR. ZUCKERBERG: Sure. Well, we have a developer program all over the world, where we go around -- and it's called FbStart. And we give entrepreneurs free access to tools and some of them -- a lot of the tools that people can use are free from Facebook and other places. But in order to help get started with businesses, we give to different companies tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of Facebook tools to get started.
But it's also important to help people learn how to use the tools, so we do these entrepreneurship workshops around the world for those people who are starting to create technical companies, but also for small businesses, which are I think an important part -- maybe less the focus of this summit -- but that's a huge part of what we try to do around the world, and help people get on the Internet and connect with people that they’re trying to sell their products to. And we have more than 50 million small business pages that are on Facebook, and a large number of them use it as their primary presence for communicating with people and attracting new customers. So that's a pretty good basic tool that's out there.
The biggest thing that I'm personally focused on is connectivity, though. I mean, I think for you guys -- and we talked about this a little bit backstage -- I think you're mostly in places that have reasonable connectivity. I mean, you were talking about how sometimes when you go home it's not so good, but in general, I think for a whole other big population, wave of folks, this really is a blocking factor. If you grew up and you never used a computer or you’ve never had access to the Internet, it's often hard to even imagine what you're missing out on.
And this is a local problem, but I think we need to do a better job of empowering folks in different countries to be able to spread connectivity. This isn't something that the U.S. or some American company can come in and do. In the places where it's worked it's been in partnership with local companies and local entrepreneurs and local governments.
And that's also something that I'd love you guys’ advice on how you think we could be doing a better job of spreading connectivity to enable not just you guys, but other entrepreneurs who haven't even had the opportunities that you’ve had to build things as well.
THE PRESIDENT: Tell us what’s happening in terms of productivity, and how does that connect with creating the supply for these wonderful young women that you're training? Obviously things are growing, but speak to Mark’s point about how you see things unfolding both in Peru and Latin America over these several years.
MS. COSTA CHECA: We'll, first of all, Facebook is such an amazing tool for us because we are finding women who have had limited access to the digital world as a whole, but no matter where you go, Facebook is there. I think young people today view their digital lives through Facebook. So everything about our program, even though we don't have email and they have a limited use of the Internet, they have a Facebook account.
THE PRESIDENT: And Mark is very happy to hear this. (Laughter.)
MS. COSTA CHECA: Yes. It is a great connection because it's a starting point, you know. And we usually find at our events where we do a (inaudible) about our program and encourage young women to apply, we talk a lot about Facebook because this is a way out and we know what’s behind it. And that's I see as a very important thread in our communication. So, thank you. It helps a lot.
And in terms of connectivity, I think Latin America is moving forward, but there are still many important challenges. And as we were discussing before, there are very few companies in the market and we bring some challenges. And we also have many, many Latin Americans are very centralized in the capital city or in the major cities where usually connectivity is not a problem. But as you get further away, it becomes a challenge. So I think it should definitely be a priority for our government.
In the case of Peru, I think the government is realizing that this is important. And I have to say that we've been really lucky -- we’ve had support from the government because they realize that they not only need to expand access to digital services, but they also need to start bringing in more people to create digital products. We have a talent gap, and if we want to evolve and have more digital services, who’s going to build them? So that’s been really lucky on our side.
And just one final point, I think it’s crucial for interpreters to work hand in hand with big companies and with government. I think that we entrepreneurs have the amazing advantage of being able to take huge, sometimes irresponsible, risks. We can just go out and try new things all the time. And this is something that, as you become larger and if you’re a government, it’s way harder, no?
So I think we have a role to play there, in building new things, in creating new things. And I think when it comes to scaling up those things, these partnerships are essential to enable us to take what we build and created and tested and tried to a larger scale.
THE PRESIDENT: I think that’s a great point. So, for example, the kind of training you’re doing, even with our entire education infrastructure here, we still have that same gap. We initiated something through our administration called TechHire, where we’re going into communities and cities where people can’t imagine that they could somehow be part of the tech industry. And what we’re finding is, is that through months of training -- in some cases through a community college, in some cases companies who are joining with us -- it turns out that you can train people very effectively. And as we prove concept, now we have the opportunity to scale up throughout the job training programs that already exist in the U.S. government.
So I think you’re making a terrific point, that in the same way that your individual companies are taking risks, proving concept, and then trying to scale up in the private sector, part of what governments need to be doing is when they see something that is working -- a tool, an app, a mechanism that saves time, makes something more convenient, makes a product more accessible to people, then we have to be prepared to change how we do business and potentially scale up as well.
So you’re right that it’s hard sometimes for governments to take massive risks, but what governments can do is to partner with entrepreneurs, start small, work out the kinks, and then be able to back the process of scaling up in that way.
Jean Bosco, any additional thoughts in terms of how not only Mark but all the VCs out here can help you out? (Laughter.) Make your pitch, man. (Applause.) Tell them how they can pull out their checkbook and --
MR. NZAYEEMANA: I think Facebook is doing a great job in terms of improving connectivities. And when you look at the situation in my country, we are really trying, but we still have a long way to go because connectivity is only available in cities. And although you can find it in villages, but it’s not really fast so that you can't use it on some activities like watching videos or sending heavy files to other people.
So we are still having a challenge in terms of connectivity and rapid Internet. But what we’re trying to do as small businesses is looking at the tools that big companies like Facebook offers so that you can benefit from them, like using messengers to exchange messages with potential customers. And you know, we use (inaudible) to see how we can disseminate messages.
Because in my country, a lot of people don’t know this kind of waste-management teams that want to bring -- and you see that in many places people don’t sort waste for themselves, they just throw waste everywhere. But we are using this kind of technology to teach people that they have to sort waste from organic to non-organic, because this is beneficial in this way and this is harmful in this way.
So we are trying to use these kinds of tools to disseminate such image. And the challenge that we are still facing is the fact that when are still small, of course, you are like -- so that you can attract attention from many people to come and join. But depending on these kind of spotlight exposure, support that you are getting from different people, we are trying to benefit from these kind of initiatives to send the messages and bring attention of many people to what we're doing.
Q Good.
Mai.
MS. MEDHAT: Yes, I don't know where to start exactly. In Egypt, Facebook -- we started a revolution out of Facebook. (Applause.) Facebook was the only way we communicated during the revolution. And after that -- I believe you have the numbers, but Facebook Basics has grown tremendously since then. And it’s a basic tool now. Like now everyone in Egypt, they have Facebook. And we were just talking about the Facebook Basics. And it was blocked in Egypt, so I think there is a lot to do.
And also back to the connectivity thing, I’m praying now -- I’m not sure if my team and my family are watching this or not because they can't livestream. (Laughter.) I hope they are not seeing the --
THE PRESIDENT: The buffering.
MS. MEDHAT: -- the loading. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: That's so irritating. I know. (Laughter and applause.) I hear you. If it makes you feel any better, it happens to me, too. (Laughter.) I thought I’d have the best gear, but I’m just sitting there waiting, waiting. (Laughter.)
MS. MEDHAT: Yes, it affects the business, as well. Now I moved to Dubai, and I have to manage the team in Cairo. And it’s very hard to communicate -- it’s very hard to do a Skype call with the team or something like that. So we have to work around it. We have to pay a lot of money. Actually, I have been trying to get another line in the office for like four months now, and we still didn't get another line.
THE PRESIDENT: That's in Dubai?
MS. MEDHAT: That's in Egypt, in Cairo. No, Dubai is --
THE PRESIDENT: Is better?
MS. MEDHAT: It’s even -- yes, it’s much better. (Laughter.) Yes, they're doing a good job in Dubai, yes.
THE PRESIDENT: I mean some of this is -- you raise a couple important points. First of all, the huge opportunity here is for countries to leapfrog existing infrastructure. And obviously we see this in Africa, in India, places where mobile banking and payment systems have accelerated even more rapidly than they have here -- farmers using information to access prices to markets so that they're selling their goods at a decent price.
So there is an infrastructure and connectivity function that governments can play. You're raising another question -- an issue, though, which is a sensitive topic in some countries, which is openness. It is hard to foster and encourage an entrepreneurial culture if it’s closed and if information flows are blocked. And what we are seeing around the world oftentimes is governments wanting the benefits of entrepreneurship and connectivity, but thinking that top-down control is also compatible with that. And it’s not.
People remark on my 2008 campaign and how we were really early adapters of so much technology. It wasn’t because I knew what I was doing. It’s because a bunch of 20-year-olds came to me and said, hey, there’s this new thing called Myspace. (Laughter.)
MR. ZUCKERBERG: Ouch. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: That was just a little dig. (Laughter.)
But the point is that they had all this stuff that I had never heard of. And if I had tried to maintain control and said, no, no, no, we're going with pamphlets because I’m used to pamphlets, and I can control what’s in the pamphlet, then I might not be sitting here.
Well, the same is true for governments as a whole. There is a cultural shift that is sometimes difficult that says we are empowering individuals. And we are open to ideas. We are willing to admit new information that maybe contradicts our old preconceptions. We're willing to test those new ideas. And if they don't work, we're going to try something else.
That's the connection between connectivity and the Internet and science. And part of what has created all this, part of what Stanford is all about is our capacity to say, we don't know; to say that all the received wisdom might not be right. And we're willing to test it. And that is threatening sometimes. It’s threatening to governments. It’s threatening to cultures. But that is the essence of discovery and innovation.
And so one of the things that we've been trying to do and just encourage through the State Department is to gently -- and sometimes bluntly -- talk to governments about their need to maintain an openness and a confidence in their own people.
What makes it harder, admittedly, is the fact that the openness and the power of connectivity also can empower some bad people. So us wrestling with how do we counter the sort of violent extremism that can end up poisoning the mind and resulting in what we saw happening in Orlando -- that's a constant balance that we're trying to weigh. But what I worry about is people using that as an excuse then to try to block things off and control the flow of information. And that's a question that I think young people are attuned to, and they're going to have to pay attention to and all of us are going to have to fight for in the years to come.
Well, this has been an extraordinary conversation. How are we doing on time? We're all done? But I’m having so much fun. (Laughter.) Give our panelists a big round of applause. Congratulations for the great work you're doing. (Applause.)
Thank you, everybody. (Applause.)
END 12:00 P.M. PDT
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release June 24, 2016
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP SUMMIT
AND CONVERSATION WITH MARK ZUCKERBERG AND ENTREPRENEURS
Stanford University
Stanford, California
10:55 A.M. PDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you! (Applause.) Hello, everybody. Thank you so much. Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Everybody have a seat. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. Well, this is a good-looking group. Thank you. (Applause.)
Well, first of all, let me thank President Hennessy for the introduction, and the entire Stanford family for letting us take over the campus for a few days. As some of you know, John is stepping down after 16 years as president of Stanford. Fortunately for me, I cannot do that, to just stick around longer than my term limit. John, I’m sure there are some people who want you to stick around longer, but I’m confident that you’re going to do extraordinary things. And we could not be prouder of John Hennessey and Stanford, and all the great work that they have done. So please give him a big round of applause. (Applause.)
Now, it’s summer break. Just so you all of you know, Stanford is not always this quiet. This school is unique. Folks ride on bicycles everywhere. (Laughter.) And athletes are also computer engineers. This is the place that made “nerd” cool. (Applause.) So we are thrilled to be here.
I know that I am not the first speaker that you’ve heard from. But many of you have traveled here from a long ways. We’ve got more than 170 countries from every region of the world represented. Some of you, this is the first time you are visiting our country. So let me just say, on behalf of the American people, not only welcome to our Global Entrepreneurship Summit, but welcome to the United States of America. We are glad to have you. (Applause.)
I am not going to give a long speech, because what I really want to do is have a conversation with some outstanding young people who are part of our panel and we’re going to introduce in a moment. But I do want to begin by offering some opening thoughts about the time in which we gather here today. And I’m going to start with the British people’s decision to leave the European Union, the vote that took place yesterday.
Just a few hours ago, I spoke with Prime Minister David Cameron. David has been an outstanding friend and partner on the global stage. And based on our conversation, I'm confident that the UK is committed to an orderly transition out of the EU. We agreed that our economic and financial teams will remain in close contact as we stay focused on ensuring economic growth and financial stability. I then spoke to Chancellor Merkel of Germany, and we agreed that the United States and our European allies will work closely together in the weeks and months ahead.
I do think that yesterday's vote speaks to the ongoing changes and challenges that are raised by globalization. But while the UK’s relationship with the EU will change, one thing that will not change is the special relationship that exists between our two nations. That will endure. The EU will remain one of our indispensable partners. Our NATO alliance will remain a cornerstone of global security. And in a few weeks we’ll be meeting in Warsaw for the NATO Summit. And our shared values -- including our commitment to democracy and pluralism, and opportunity for all people in a globalized world -- that will continue to unite all of us. And that is the work that brings us here today.
The world has shrunk. It is interconnected. All of you represent that interconnection. Many of you are catalyzing it and accelerating it. It promises to bring extraordinary benefits. But it also has challenges. And it also evokes concerns and fears. And so part of why this Global Entrepreneurship Summit has been so close to my heart, something that I’ve been so committed to, because I believe all of you represent all the upside of an interconnected world, all the optimism and the hope and the opportunity that that interconnected world represents.
But it’s also important in these discussions to find ways in which we are expanding and broadening the benefits of that interconnection to more and more people. And that’s what’s so many of you are doing.
We’re gathered here at Stanford, in the heart of Silicon Valley, which is one of the great hubs of innovation and entrepreneurship not just for America, but for the world. This is a place that celebrates our ability as human beings to discover and learn and to build, to question, to reimagine, to create new ways to connect and work with each other.
It’s where two guys in a garage, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, launched a global company. Where student projects became Yahoo! and Google -- those were really good student projects. (Laughter.) My student projects weren’t as good. (Laughter.) It’s where entrepreneurs like so many of you get an idea, and you build a team and you work to turn it into reality, and you launch products and companies and entire industries that transform the world. That’s the power of entrepreneurship. And it’s never been more important.
In today’s world, where our economies have undergone dramatic shifts, where business don’t stop at borders, where technology and automation have transformed virtually every industry and changed how people organize and work, entrepreneurship remains the engine of growth. That ability to turn an idea into reality -- a new venture, a small business -- that creates good-paying jobs; that puts rising economies on the path to prosperity, and empowers people to come together and tackle our most pressing global problems, from climate change to poverty.
When people can start their own businesses, it helps individuals and families succeed. It can make whole communities more prosperous and more secure. It offers a positive path for young people seeking the chance to make something of themselves, and can empower people who have previously been locked out of the existing social order -- women and minorities, others who aren't part of the “old boys” network -- give them a chance to contribute and to lead. And it can create a culture where innovation and creativity are valued -- where we don't just look at the way things have always been, but rather we say, how could things be? Why not? Let’s make something new.
This spirit speaks to something deep inside of all of us -- no matter who we are, what we look like, where we come from. You look out across this auditorium -- you're all of different backgrounds and cultures, and races and religions. Some of you are from teeming cities; others are working I small rural villages. But you have that same spark, that same creative energy to come up with innovative solutions to old challenges.
And entrepreneurship is what gives people like you a chance to fulfill your own dreams and create something bigger than yourselves.
We live in a time when more than half the world is under the age of 30. That means we got to make sure that all of our young people around the world have the tools they need to start new ventures, and to create the jobs of the 21st century, and to help lift up entire populations. And so many of you are already doing this. As I travel around the world, one of the extraordinary things that I have the opportunity to do is to meet young people in every region and to see the problem-solving and the energy and optimism that they’re bringing to everything from how to generate electricity in environmentally sound ways in remote places that are off the grid right now, to how do you employ women in remote areas who all too often have been locked out of opportunity. You just see enormous creativity waiting to be tapped.
And part of our job, part of this summit’s job is to make sure that we're putting more tools, more resources into the hands of these folks who are changing the world, and making sure that all of you know each other so you can share best practices and ideas, and spread the word.
Now, I know the daily reality is not always as romantic as all this. It turns out that starting your own business is not easy. You have to have access to capital. You have to meet the right people. You have to have mentors who can guide you as you get your idea off the ground. And that can be especially difficult for women and young people and minorities, and others who haven’t always had access to the same networks and opportunities. You deserve the same chance to succeed as everybody else. We’ve got to make sure that everybody has a fair shot to reach their potential -- we can’t leave more than half the team on the bench.
That’s why we’ve invested so much time and effort to make sure that America is helping to empower entrepreneurs like you. We held our first summit back in 2010. Since then, we’ve brought entrepreneurs like you together in Turkey, and the Emirates, and Malaysia, Morocco, Kenya. And all told, we’ve helped more than 17,000 entrepreneurs and innovators connect with each other, access capital, find mentors, and start new ventures -- 17,000. (Applause.)
I think of the Tanzanian startup that helps farmers reduce their harvest losses. Or the company in Nepal that’s helping to improve charity health care. There are 11 Cubans who are here today -- the first Cubans to join us at one of these summits. (Applause.) Hola! Mucho gusto. (Applause.) They’re ready to help create new opportunities for the Cuban people. Where are they? (Applause.) There they are.
I want to thank Antonio Gracias -- a leader in private equity and one of our Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship -- because his support was critical in bringing these young Cuban entrepreneurs here. So that's deserving of a hand. (Applause.)
I’m also pleased to announce that we have a new group of business leaders signing on as entrepreneurship ambassadors. This is something that we started as part of the summit, and they have put their time, energy, effort, and in some cases, their money behind entrepreneurs around the world. So of our new ambassadors -- Sara Blakely, CEO of Spanx. (Applause.) Jane Wurwand, CEO of Dermalogica. (Applause.) Steven Jurvetson, partner at Draper Fisher Jurvetson. (Applause.) And Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe. (Applause.)
Now, supporting entrepreneurs isn’t just something we do around the world. It’s also a key part of how we create jobs and fuel innovation here in the United States. And it’s why we’re working with communities to streamline the process for launching a company -- “Startup in a Day.” It’s why we’re expanding Innovation Corps -- our program to equip more scientists and engineers with entrepreneurial skills. And it’s why, at this summit, dozens of top tech companies, from giants to startups, are committing to make their technology workforces look like America, including by publishing data on diversity each year and developing the tech talent of people from all backgrounds. We're very happy for the commitments that they’ve made, so give them a big round of applause for that. (Applause.)
Here at this summit, we’re also building on our progress with new commitments from government and businesses and philanthropists. So at last year's Paris climate talks, for example, Bill Gates and other top global investors committed to partnering with governments to invest in cutting-edge clean energy solutions. Today, we’re launching an initiative to connect some of these global investors and others with clean energy entrepreneurs from developing countries.
We’re also announcing the Young Transatlantic Innovation Leaders Initiative, which will bring 200 of Europe’s innovators to the U.S. each year to develop their skills. (Applause.) And we’ve got organizations like Endeavor, which supports entrepreneurs, starting a $100 million fund to invest in companies across Latin America, and the Middle East, in Africa, and Southeast Asia. (Applause.) Investment firms like Capria Ventures, which will help fund international startups. So these are just a handful of the commitments -- and I suspect, new ventures -- that are going to come out of this year’s summit.
So all of you budding entrepreneurs, don't be shy while you're here. Talk to the experts here. Make your pitch. Network with potential investors. Find that mentor who might help you navigate through a tough patch. Connect with your fellow innovators. Because ultimately the world needs your creativity, and your energy, and your vision. You are going to be what helps this process of global integration work in a way that is good for everyone and not just some.
Now, I’ve spoken about this before. I believe we are better off in a world in which we are trading and networking and communicating and sharing ideas. But that also means that cultures are colliding and sometimes is disruptive, and people get worried. You're the bridge, you're the glue -- particularly the young people who are here -- who can help lead towards a more peaceful and more prosperous future that provides opportunity for everybody.
And because this is about more than just this one event, or for that matter, this one President, we’re going to make sure that the United States continues to help developing the next generation of entrepreneurs. We are very proud to announce that next year’s Global Entrepreneurship Summit will be hosted in India. (Applause.) Got the Indian contingent in the house. I’ll try to stop by if I’m invited. (Laughter.)
But the point is, I believe in you, and America believes in you. And we believe that you have the talent and the skills and the ambition not just to pursue your dreams, but to realize them; that you can lift up not just your own families, but communities and countries, and create opportunity and prosperity and hope for decades to come. That's the promise that we see in all of you.
And that is the promise that we see in our outstanding panelists that you're going to hear from. Mai Medhat, of Egypt, who is a software engineer, who started a company called Eventtus, which is a one-stop online shop for people who organize events. (Applause.)
We see it in Jean Bosco Nzeyimana, of Rwanda, who is the founder and CEO of Habona Limited, a company that uses biomass and waste to develop eco-friendly fuels that are used in rural Africa. (Applause.)
Mariana Costa Checa, of Peru. Mariana is the founder of Laboratoria, which gives young women from low-income backgrounds the education and tools they need to work in the digital sector. (Applause.)
And if that lineup is not enough, you also see it in a guy that you may have heard of who has done pretty well for himself, the founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. (Applause.)
They’re the real experts. Let’s welcome them to the stage, and we’ll start having a conversation with them. Thank you. (Applause.)
This is a good-looking group. And I could not wear a T-shirt like Mark -- (laughter) -- for at least another six months, but I will take off my jacket so that I don't look too formal. (Applause.)
MR. ZUCKERBERG: Soon.
THE PRESIDENT: Soon. It’s going to happen soon.
So, yes, sit down, everybody. Relax. (Laughter.) So these are some extraordinary entrepreneurs. Some are just getting started, some seem to be moving along pretty well. But I thought this was wonderfully representative because it’s from different regions of the world, it’s companies that are at different stages.
And maybe we can just start by having everybody introduce themselves, describe a little bit about what they're doing. And then we can sort of have a discussion about what’s been easy, what’s been hard, how can government policy like the U.S. government policy help in advancing some of these issues. How can other countries’ governments -- because we have 20 representatives from other governments participating in this summit -- how should they think about encouraging entrepreneurship. And then, most importantly, how can other businesses and venture capital, et cetera, think about some of these international opportunities
So, Mai, why don't we start with you? And tell us -- I was hearing some of the great work you're doing. Tell us more about it.
MS. MEDHAT: Thank you. It’s so great to be here. (Laughter and applause.) I’m software engineer. I have an engineering background. One day I heard that the first Startup Weekend is happening in Cairo. And I was not invited, but I went anyway with my friend. I went with my friend. She was invited, and she turned out to be my co-founder. And we were there just to learn about startups, meet mentors and other entrepreneurs.
And it was very hard to network and meet people during the event. We felt like there was a gap between the organizers and attendees. And then a week after, we attended (inaudible) Cairo, and we had the same experience. We felt there should be a better way for organizers to organize events and for the attendees to experience events.
Everyone is there for networking, connecting people, and sharing experience. So we did our research, and we were very passionate about the idea. We felt like we can do something in the event space. So we quit our jobs and we started working on this full-time before even having the Eventtus. And now we have a full engagement and networking platform for events. It’s a very interactive app with 86 percent engagement in most of our events. So we are helping people getting together during events. And now we have a great team, two offices -- in Cairo and Dubai. And we are working with most of events in our region.
When I look back on the journey, it wasn’t easy at all. It was very challenging. It was very exciting, as well. But it was full of ups and downs. And we started before even the first accelerator in Egypt was started. We had few mentors back then. But now we have a number of amazing startups, a number of mentors and support organizations who are working together. So I can see the ecosystem has grown very well, but we still have a lot to do.
THE PRESIDENT: That's great. Thank you. (Applause.)
Jean Bosco.
MR. NZEYIMANA: Thank you. It’s an honor to be here.
So when I was growing up in the rural villages in Rwanda, I used to spend countless hours in the forest collecting firewood for my parents and fetching water. And that was not just me, but dozens of other children in Africa are facing the same challenges. They are involved in laborious activities to help their parents just to have a meal, instead of going to school.
So as I was growing up, I kept thinking about something that I can do to help these families have access to other alternative fuels that they can use to replace charcoal that they have been using for many years. So I came up with an idea of a (inaudible) approach, whereby we collect (inaudible) and then we turn them into affordable and environmentally friendly products in form of briquettes and biogas that people can then use. And that is like a green cooking fuel, which can improve health and sanitation in homes.
As we started, it has been two years, and I have employed more than 25 people, giving them permanent jobs. And we are trying to expand to other areas of the country so that we can continue to improve sanitation, as well as providing these kind of alternative fuels, which can improve health and mitigate climate change in the country and Africa in general. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Excellent.
Mariana.
MS. COSTA CHECA: It’s an honor to be here. I’m still trying to get over the fact that you just introduced me. (Laughter.) I’m so happy.
So I did Laboratoria. We are a social enterprise. And I started it in Peru two years ago. We are now in Peru and Chile and Mexico. And what we tried to do is to go out and find talent where nobody else is looking for it. So we tried to identify young women who haven’t been able to access quality education or job opportunities because of economic limitations, and train them to become the most awesome developers they can be, and connect them with employment opportunities in the tech sector.
Something that I realize is that when our students join our program, most of them are completely unaware of their potential and they come thinking that it’s going to be really hard to break this vicious cycle of low-skill employment, underpaid employment, or just domestic work. But they soon start learning to code, and it’s just such a powerful skill set. A few weeks into the program, they start building their first websites, their first apps, their games, and showing them to the world. And it’s so empowering. And six months after joining, they're ready to go out and join the workforce.
So we have students who get three job offers from the coolest companies in town. They go out -- they get to decide where they want to go and work. They triple their income, so they significantly improve their economic circumstances. They start supporting their families. And I think most importantly, they start realizing that anything is possible if they work hard enough for it, no? And we have students that have gone from working at a corner shop in a slum to working at the IDB in Washington as developers, a few blocks from the White House. So really, they are an example that anything is possible, no?
And they're changing not only their lives, but they're changing their communities, their cities. And I think they are transforming the tech sector in Latin America. They are bringing the diversity and the talent that the sector needs to really become a leading force in our economy. And I’m pretty sure that as we continue to grow and reach thousands of women in the region, they are going to change our countries for the better, and making sure that we can actually base our growth on the most important thing that we have, and that's our young talent.
THE PRESIDENT: That's great. (Applause.) Now, when we were talking backstage, I had been reading about this, and I said, 60 percent of the women who have gone through this program now were employed. And I was corrected -- it’s now 70 percent. I had old data. (Laughter.) But I think it’s important to point out your success rate has been quite extraordinary already. So it’s wonderful.
MS. COSTA CHECA: Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Mark, there was a time when you were sort of in their shoes. But now obviously Facebook’s success has been extraordinary. But I’m sure that you still can connect with the stories that are told here, and some of the stories out there. How is Facebook thinking about its own role in creating this platform for entrepreneurship around the world? I know that's something that you've been thinking a lot about.
MR. ZUCKERBERG: Well, it’s really inspiring to be here with so many great entrepreneurs and to hear about all the work that you're doing, and it’s an honor. So thanks for having me.
To me, entrepreneurship is about creating change, not just creating companies. And the most effective entrepreneurs who I’ve met care deeply about some mission and some change that they're trying to create. And often they don't even start because they're trying to create a company.
And that's how I think about my connection to all of us here, is when I was getting started, I cared deeply about giving everyone a voice and giving the people the tools to share everything that they cared about, and bringing a community together. And it started small in one university. And I didn't think it was going to be company at the time. As a matter of fact, I was pretty convinced that at some point someone would build something like this for the world, but I thought that that would be some other company that already had thousands of engineers and was used to building stuff for hundreds of millions of people around the world.
And what ended up happening was that no one built it, so we just kind of kept on going. (Laughter.) People said at each step along the way, what you're doing, all right, maybe college students like it, but no one else is going to like it and there’s not going to be any money in doing this. So you only really do it if you care, if you're passionate about doing it.
And then it started growing, and people said it would be fad and it would never be a good business. But you keep going because you care, not because you’re trying to create a business.
And then there’s the shift to mobile where people thought that it wouldn’t be a sustainable business. And through each of these things, the entrepreneurs who I think build things that last for a long time keep going because they care fundamentally about the change that they're trying to create in the world. And they're not in it just to build a company.
And I carry that with me today. So today we live in a world with more than 7 billion people, but more than 4 billion of us are not on the Internet. And we talk about having an equal opportunity to be able to create a change in the world, and I think that's a really hard thing to do if you don't have access to some of the basic infrastructure and technical tools that are necessary to build these kinds of technical products.
So I kind of think about what we're doing today very similarly to how I thought about where we were at the beginning. I get people all the time who come to me and say, all right, well, you're investing billions of dollars in trying to put Internet connectivity in places where we don't get paid for it. It’s not something that we’ll make any money from for a very long period of time, if it works out. But it’s this deep belief that you're trying to make a change. You're trying to connect people in the world. And I really do believe that if you do something good and if you help people out, then eventually some portion of that good will come back to you.
And you may not know upfront what it’s going to be, but that's just been the guiding principle for me in the work that we’ve done. And I hope that some of the work that we do can play a role in empowering you and so many more entrepreneurs to build the next great companies. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Excellent.
So for the three budding entrepreneurs, you've already had some success and positive feedback. But I know that this is still hard sometimes and frustrating. And let’s go back to the earlier question that I asked: What do you find to be some of the biggest hurdles for your success? And are there policies that either your governments could be pursuing, or that the United States, in conjunction with your governments, could be pursuing that would really make this process, if not easy, then at least a little bit smoother? And are there questions or concerns that you have in terms of how more established businesses like Facebook, how they might be able to interact with startups like yours?
So we’ll go in reverse order this time. Why don't we start with you?
MS. COSTA CHICA: Yes, so I think there’s been many challenges along the way. In our case, we try to disrupt many preconceptions I think. So at the beginning, many people were like how are you going to train people in months and get them a job? How are you going to get young women who went to a public high school that's not very good to actually become competitive in the labor market?
And I think, luckily, we've overcome those, and we've proved that they are incredibly talented, that you can learn in months instead of years. And most of the companies that hire our developers actually rehire. So they realize that they're great, and they're as competitive as anyone else who comes from a different background. So I think that's been very, very encouraging on our way.
And the little secret that I have I think being a social entrepreneur is that motivation is everything, you know? And when there are bad times, and where we are not making the end of the month to pay all our people, and when we're facing all these challenges, I usually just go into a classroom. Like let me go into a classroom myself, to the girls who study with us. And they are the main force behind not only myself, but all my team -- my partners and all my team because they are fighting so hard to making it happen. They are traveling -- sometimes commuting four hours a day to come and go back. They have on top of their studies a lot of domestic responsibilities, and they're proving that it can be done. So that's always a reality check to say, you know I have everything I need to keep going at this. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Good.
Jean Bosco.
MR. NZEYIMANA: Great, I think one of the most -- biggest challenges that I have faced was because I started this company very young. At that time I was 19 years old, and in my culture it is believed that those great initiatives are started by old people and those things which have been difficult for other people cannot be possible for young people.
So I try to disrupt that status quo, and I created this company. Because during that period no one was even trusting me so that they can be my employee, so I had to be my own marketer. I had to be the technical boss. I had to be everything in the company so that I can build that kind of first impression so that I can impress a few people to come to me and help me run this cause.
And the other challenge that we were facing is that a lot of financial institutions didn't even know what we were talking about because these are the kind of renewable energy that we wanted to bring to Rwanda. And you would find a lot of folks working in banks asking you, what are you trying to do? Because they don't even understand what you are doing. It was like very difficult for them to analyze and calculate the risk that might be involved in the activities that we're trying to do.
But because I trusted in my solution and this kind of thing that I wanted to do to my community, I kept pushing, applying for different competitions. And luckily I won the United States Africa Development Foundation grant to start this initiative.
And when I started, people started to see how you can take advantage in ways that you already have to produce some products which can then go back in communities and be solutions which can improve lives of many people. And then from there, people started coming.
But the lesson that I learned from that very basic experience is that no matter what you are trying to do, it is necessary is that you are having the kind of motive in your mind that you want to help your society move forward. So the policies and the other partners take hold as we come along the way to help you run the initiative. But that will happen once you start. If you don't start, no one will come and join you. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Good. So we've heard -- well, that's interesting, and part of what the two of you have described is first of all, each country has its own culture and there are going to be sometimes some cultural barriers -- whether it’s attitudes about women and what they can do, whether it’s attitudes about young people and how seriously they take a young person. Mark had to deal with that a little bit. But here obviously in the United States, and particularly in Silicon Valley, I think that's begun to change.
But there’s also just basic issues like financing and having access to capital, particularly when it’s a new idea and it doesn't fit the existing models that the banks or other financial institutions may have.
Mai, do those kinds of challenges resonate in your experience? And how did you navigate through those?
MS. MEDHAT: Yes, I think all the entrepreneurs, like everywhere in the world, we share the same challenges. I think I did almost every single mistake that you read about in every startup-related book. (Laughter.) I learned everything the hard way. So, yes, it’s a learning process.
Funding was one of the challenges, of course. The other one was the legal system and the legal structure, especially in Egypt. It’s not startup-friendly. So you have to do all of the work-arounds, and you have to be persistent to get over that, building a team, as well, like I’m a woman. And I started -- I was young.
THE PRESIDENT: You're still young, I think.
MS. MEDHAT: Yes. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: I think you qualify as young.
MS. MEDHAT: So, yes, I had almost the same challenges. I’d say that the only thing that keeps us going is believing in our idea, believing that we can do something, we can add value to people’s life. And this is the only thing that keeps me -- wake every day in the morning and go to work.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, all of you are expressing what Mark said, which is it starts with a passion. If you start off just saying I want to make money, but there’s no clear mission behind it, then when you start hitting some of these barriers, sometimes it’s very hard to push through them.
With respect to some of the barriers that you're talking about, the U.S. -- in connection to the Entrepreneurship Summit, what we've been trying to do is take best practices and learn lessons about what’s working and what’s not. And so in the grants that we're providing, or the training that we're providing, what these summits have been really useful in doing is hearing directly from entrepreneurs and say this program doesn't work as well as it could; this one works really well.
What we're also trying to do, though, is encourage governments to listen and hear from entrepreneurs to build a different kind of culture.
So the point you made, Mai, about how hard is it to get a business started -- how much paperwork do you have to fill out? What kinds of fees do you have to pay? How much bureaucracy do you have to sort through?
That's something that here in the United States, we've had to deal with ourselves. And what we've tried to do is to both simplify processes, but also use technology in ways that means you don't have to travel across town in Cairo to go to an office, and the person you need to see isn’t there, and then you have to travel back and reschedule the next day. And the traffic is terrible, and it’s driving you crazy. If you can go on the net and do a lot of that work ahead of time that can make a huge difference in accelerating the process that you're doing.
And so I’m very glad that we have 20 countries represented here, because part of what we're doing is getting commitments from those other countries to say, we're going to learn from each other and figure how we can streamline these efforts so that we're making life a little bit easier for young people like you.
MS. MEDHAT: Yes, actually when we started, we didn't know where to start from. Like we couldn’t find any information online, for example, on how to get the company registered in Egypt. We didn't know any startup lawyers or anyone who can register the company for us. So we had to go ourselves and ask for help from other people.
THE PRESIDENT: Right.
MS. MEDHAT: And we couldn’t find any information. It took us so much time, effort, and money.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, even here in the United States where it’s much easier to do business, we still have 16 agencies that are in charge of doing business. We've tried to streamline them into one. It requires congressional action. (Laughter and applause.) So at least what we've tried to do is consolidate the websites so that it’s easier to get the information, even though you still have to deal potentially with 16 different agencies for different needs.
So there are specific things that the government can do to be more entrepreneur-friendly. How can companies like Facebook or Google or some of the venture funds that are represented here, how should they think about finding good ideas? What sorts of mentorship or training would you find most helpful? Obviously having experienced entrepreneurs or people who have seen startups in the past maybe can help you avoid a few of the lessons. And part of the goal of the summit here is to build these networks so that that kind of mentorship is available.
But, Mark, I know that Facebook is already doing some of these issues. Tell us about some of the things that you're excited about. And then maybe we hear from them about other working opportunities that they’ve been looking for.
MR. ZUCKERBERG: Sure. Well, we have a developer program all over the world, where we go around -- and it's called FbStart. And we give entrepreneurs free access to tools and some of them -- a lot of the tools that people can use are free from Facebook and other places. But in order to help get started with businesses, we give to different companies tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of Facebook tools to get started.
But it's also important to help people learn how to use the tools, so we do these entrepreneurship workshops around the world for those people who are starting to create technical companies, but also for small businesses, which are I think an important part -- maybe less the focus of this summit -- but that's a huge part of what we try to do around the world, and help people get on the Internet and connect with people that they’re trying to sell their products to. And we have more than 50 million small business pages that are on Facebook, and a large number of them use it as their primary presence for communicating with people and attracting new customers. So that's a pretty good basic tool that's out there.
The biggest thing that I'm personally focused on is connectivity, though. I mean, I think for you guys -- and we talked about this a little bit backstage -- I think you're mostly in places that have reasonable connectivity. I mean, you were talking about how sometimes when you go home it's not so good, but in general, I think for a whole other big population, wave of folks, this really is a blocking factor. If you grew up and you never used a computer or you’ve never had access to the Internet, it's often hard to even imagine what you're missing out on.
And this is a local problem, but I think we need to do a better job of empowering folks in different countries to be able to spread connectivity. This isn't something that the U.S. or some American company can come in and do. In the places where it's worked it's been in partnership with local companies and local entrepreneurs and local governments.
And that's also something that I'd love you guys’ advice on how you think we could be doing a better job of spreading connectivity to enable not just you guys, but other entrepreneurs who haven't even had the opportunities that you’ve had to build things as well.
THE PRESIDENT: Tell us what’s happening in terms of productivity, and how does that connect with creating the supply for these wonderful young women that you're training? Obviously things are growing, but speak to Mark’s point about how you see things unfolding both in Peru and Latin America over these several years.
MS. COSTA CHECA: We'll, first of all, Facebook is such an amazing tool for us because we are finding women who have had limited access to the digital world as a whole, but no matter where you go, Facebook is there. I think young people today view their digital lives through Facebook. So everything about our program, even though we don't have email and they have a limited use of the Internet, they have a Facebook account.
THE PRESIDENT: And Mark is very happy to hear this. (Laughter.)
MS. COSTA CHECA: Yes. It is a great connection because it's a starting point, you know. And we usually find at our events where we do a (inaudible) about our program and encourage young women to apply, we talk a lot about Facebook because this is a way out and we know what’s behind it. And that's I see as a very important thread in our communication. So, thank you. It helps a lot.
And in terms of connectivity, I think Latin America is moving forward, but there are still many important challenges. And as we were discussing before, there are very few companies in the market and we bring some challenges. And we also have many, many Latin Americans are very centralized in the capital city or in the major cities where usually connectivity is not a problem. But as you get further away, it becomes a challenge. So I think it should definitely be a priority for our government.
In the case of Peru, I think the government is realizing that this is important. And I have to say that we've been really lucky -- we’ve had support from the government because they realize that they not only need to expand access to digital services, but they also need to start bringing in more people to create digital products. We have a talent gap, and if we want to evolve and have more digital services, who’s going to build them? So that’s been really lucky on our side.
And just one final point, I think it’s crucial for interpreters to work hand in hand with big companies and with government. I think that we entrepreneurs have the amazing advantage of being able to take huge, sometimes irresponsible, risks. We can just go out and try new things all the time. And this is something that, as you become larger and if you’re a government, it’s way harder, no?
So I think we have a role to play there, in building new things, in creating new things. And I think when it comes to scaling up those things, these partnerships are essential to enable us to take what we build and created and tested and tried to a larger scale.
THE PRESIDENT: I think that’s a great point. So, for example, the kind of training you’re doing, even with our entire education infrastructure here, we still have that same gap. We initiated something through our administration called TechHire, where we’re going into communities and cities where people can’t imagine that they could somehow be part of the tech industry. And what we’re finding is, is that through months of training -- in some cases through a community college, in some cases companies who are joining with us -- it turns out that you can train people very effectively. And as we prove concept, now we have the opportunity to scale up throughout the job training programs that already exist in the U.S. government.
So I think you’re making a terrific point, that in the same way that your individual companies are taking risks, proving concept, and then trying to scale up in the private sector, part of what governments need to be doing is when they see something that is working -- a tool, an app, a mechanism that saves time, makes something more convenient, makes a product more accessible to people, then we have to be prepared to change how we do business and potentially scale up as well.
So you’re right that it’s hard sometimes for governments to take massive risks, but what governments can do is to partner with entrepreneurs, start small, work out the kinks, and then be able to back the process of scaling up in that way.
Jean Bosco, any additional thoughts in terms of how not only Mark but all the VCs out here can help you out? (Laughter.) Make your pitch, man. (Applause.) Tell them how they can pull out their checkbook and --
MR. NZAYEEMANA: I think Facebook is doing a great job in terms of improving connectivities. And when you look at the situation in my country, we are really trying, but we still have a long way to go because connectivity is only available in cities. And although you can find it in villages, but it’s not really fast so that you can't use it on some activities like watching videos or sending heavy files to other people.
So we are still having a challenge in terms of connectivity and rapid Internet. But what we’re trying to do as small businesses is looking at the tools that big companies like Facebook offers so that you can benefit from them, like using messengers to exchange messages with potential customers. And you know, we use (inaudible) to see how we can disseminate messages.
Because in my country, a lot of people don’t know this kind of waste-management teams that want to bring -- and you see that in many places people don’t sort waste for themselves, they just throw waste everywhere. But we are using this kind of technology to teach people that they have to sort waste from organic to non-organic, because this is beneficial in this way and this is harmful in this way.
So we are trying to use these kinds of tools to disseminate such image. And the challenge that we are still facing is the fact that when are still small, of course, you are like -- so that you can attract attention from many people to come and join. But depending on these kind of spotlight exposure, support that you are getting from different people, we are trying to benefit from these kind of initiatives to send the messages and bring attention of many people to what we're doing.
Q Good.
Mai.
MS. MEDHAT: Yes, I don't know where to start exactly. In Egypt, Facebook -- we started a revolution out of Facebook. (Applause.) Facebook was the only way we communicated during the revolution. And after that -- I believe you have the numbers, but Facebook Basics has grown tremendously since then. And it’s a basic tool now. Like now everyone in Egypt, they have Facebook. And we were just talking about the Facebook Basics. And it was blocked in Egypt, so I think there is a lot to do.
And also back to the connectivity thing, I’m praying now -- I’m not sure if my team and my family are watching this or not because they can't livestream. (Laughter.) I hope they are not seeing the --
THE PRESIDENT: The buffering.
MS. MEDHAT: -- the loading. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: That's so irritating. I know. (Laughter and applause.) I hear you. If it makes you feel any better, it happens to me, too. (Laughter.) I thought I’d have the best gear, but I’m just sitting there waiting, waiting. (Laughter.)
MS. MEDHAT: Yes, it affects the business, as well. Now I moved to Dubai, and I have to manage the team in Cairo. And it’s very hard to communicate -- it’s very hard to do a Skype call with the team or something like that. So we have to work around it. We have to pay a lot of money. Actually, I have been trying to get another line in the office for like four months now, and we still didn't get another line.
THE PRESIDENT: That's in Dubai?
MS. MEDHAT: That's in Egypt, in Cairo. No, Dubai is --
THE PRESIDENT: Is better?
MS. MEDHAT: It’s even -- yes, it’s much better. (Laughter.) Yes, they're doing a good job in Dubai, yes.
THE PRESIDENT: I mean some of this is -- you raise a couple important points. First of all, the huge opportunity here is for countries to leapfrog existing infrastructure. And obviously we see this in Africa, in India, places where mobile banking and payment systems have accelerated even more rapidly than they have here -- farmers using information to access prices to markets so that they're selling their goods at a decent price.
So there is an infrastructure and connectivity function that governments can play. You're raising another question -- an issue, though, which is a sensitive topic in some countries, which is openness. It is hard to foster and encourage an entrepreneurial culture if it’s closed and if information flows are blocked. And what we are seeing around the world oftentimes is governments wanting the benefits of entrepreneurship and connectivity, but thinking that top-down control is also compatible with that. And it’s not.
People remark on my 2008 campaign and how we were really early adapters of so much technology. It wasn’t because I knew what I was doing. It’s because a bunch of 20-year-olds came to me and said, hey, there’s this new thing called Myspace. (Laughter.)
MR. ZUCKERBERG: Ouch. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: That was just a little dig. (Laughter.)
But the point is that they had all this stuff that I had never heard of. And if I had tried to maintain control and said, no, no, no, we're going with pamphlets because I’m used to pamphlets, and I can control what’s in the pamphlet, then I might not be sitting here.
Well, the same is true for governments as a whole. There is a cultural shift that is sometimes difficult that says we are empowering individuals. And we are open to ideas. We are willing to admit new information that maybe contradicts our old preconceptions. We're willing to test those new ideas. And if they don't work, we're going to try something else.
That's the connection between connectivity and the Internet and science. And part of what has created all this, part of what Stanford is all about is our capacity to say, we don't know; to say that all the received wisdom might not be right. And we're willing to test it. And that is threatening sometimes. It’s threatening to governments. It’s threatening to cultures. But that is the essence of discovery and innovation.
And so one of the things that we've been trying to do and just encourage through the State Department is to gently -- and sometimes bluntly -- talk to governments about their need to maintain an openness and a confidence in their own people.
What makes it harder, admittedly, is the fact that the openness and the power of connectivity also can empower some bad people. So us wrestling with how do we counter the sort of violent extremism that can end up poisoning the mind and resulting in what we saw happening in Orlando -- that's a constant balance that we're trying to weigh. But what I worry about is people using that as an excuse then to try to block things off and control the flow of information. And that's a question that I think young people are attuned to, and they're going to have to pay attention to and all of us are going to have to fight for in the years to come.
Well, this has been an extraordinary conversation. How are we doing on time? We're all done? But I’m having so much fun. (Laughter.) Give our panelists a big round of applause. Congratulations for the great work you're doing. (Applause.)
Thank you, everybody. (Applause.)
END 12:00 P.M. PDT
FACT SHEET: Global Entrepreneurship Summit
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 24, 2016
FACT SHEET: Global Entrepreneurship Summit
President Obama today will take part in the 7th annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) at Stanford University in Silicon Valley, California, which will feature new commitments to promote entrepreneurship as a driver for economic growth, social inclusion, and secure communities. Following his historic 2009 Cairo speech, President Obama elevated innovation and entrepreneurship in the U.S. engagement agenda and hosted the first GES at the White House in 2010. The United States has made significant strides in supporting entrepreneurship around the world by developing innovative ecosystems; advocating for stronger business climates through rule of law and transparent business conduct; catalyzing capital; building networks of innovators; promoting entrepreneurship for women, youth, and marginalized communities; and partnering with the private sector to expand impact.
With the eyes of the world on Silicon Valley, today the Obama Administration is announcing new commitments to advance entrepreneurship around the world. These announcements build on a week where the Administration has highlighted a powerful record of progress in fueling American innovation over the last seven and a half years and announcing major new steps we are taking to build on those efforts—including supporting advanced manufacturing and making, laying the groundwork for smart and connected cities, supporting next-generation technologies, and promoting inclusive entrepreneurship and innovation here at home.
GES 2016 has brought the best entrepreneurs and investors from 170 countries to the birthplace of modern innovation, highlighting that the dynamic enterprises driving new solutions can be found in every corner of the world. The summit convenes approximately 1,200 outstanding entrepreneurs and investors from across the world for dynamic, outcome-oriented sessions; mentoring; and opportunities to showcase their work. The summit showcases how investors and entrepreneurs from around the world are embracing the culture of entrepreneurship far beyond Silicon Valley.
GES has become a preeminent annual gathering that provides emerging entrepreneurs with exceptional networking, insight, and investment opportunities. During Indian Prime Minister Modi’s visit to the White House on June 7, President Obama and Prime Minister Modi were pleased to announce India as the host of the 2017 Global Entrepreneurship Summit, becoming the seventh country to host the event.
The President signed an Executive Order to institutionalize key entrepreneurship programs of his Administration in recognition of the fact that entrepreneurship is a hallmark of American leadership in the world. The President also will speak to U.S. government commitments and highlight private sector announcements that will provide entrepreneurs across the globe new opportunities for capital and mentorship, build their networks, and gain skills that will help their companies grow and thrive. The President will place a special emphasis on supporting youth, women, and minority entrepreneurs as drivers of innovation and investment in their home communities.
U.S. Government Commitment to Global Entrepreneurship
The U.S. Government is committing significant new resources to advance entrepreneurship around the world:
· President Obama signed an Executive Order institutionalizing programs that support entrepreneurship around the world, including the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship, the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, and the Global Connect Initiative.
· USAID’s Power Africa initiative launched the Scaling Off Grid Energy Grand Challenge for Development that will invest $36m in promising enterprises, innovative technologies, and partnerships with local stakeholders to scale up clean energy solutions to reach millions of households that live beyond the reach of the electricity grid. This effort will bring together entrepreneurs, investors, philanthropists, and governments to support the growth of innovative ventures that are making off-grid solutions affordable for rural families and catalyze private investment to help these enterprises reach new markets.
· President Obama will announce the launch of an effort to encourage greater investments in small-scale clean energy entrepreneurs from developing countries. The Administration will identify and highlight entrepreneurs working to provide affordable, reliable, and significantly scalable on-grid or off-grid energy solutions that meet the renewable energy and energy efficiency needs of individuals, enterprises, and communities in the developing world, and in particular in sub-Saharan Africa. Entrepreneurs will be identified and highlighted from the large cadre of energy innovators, researchers and partner institutions in the developing world that have worked with U.S. Government entities, including USAID, the Departments of Defense and Energy, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency.
· The Administration will facilitate opportunities for leading clean energy investors to evaluate and consider providing seed funding and similar investments to these entrepreneurs. Building in part on the work and vision of the Breakthrough Energy Coalition (BEC), launched in Paris last year, a number of BEC members and other leading international investors have agreed to support this effort by working with the US Government to develop a process to consider potential investments. These investors include Aliko Dangote, Bill Gates, Paul G. Allen (Vulcan Capital), Strive Maisiyiwa, Matt Rogers and Swati Mylavarapu, Nat Simons and Laura Baxter-Simons (Prelude Ventures), Dipender Saluja (Capricorn Investment Group), Tom Steyer, and Mark Zuckerberg. The first round of the Administration's work on this initiative will be completed by November 1.
· The U.S. Department of State and Kiva, the world's largest crowdfunding platform for loans, have joined forces to launch the Women's Entrepreneurship Fund, which aims to help crowdfund loans to one million women entrepreneurs over the next five years. The Fund has a special focus on women entrepreneurs in the growth phases, offering loans greater than the average microfinance loan. To date, an estimated $500,000 has been pledged with commitments from corporations and foundations.
· USAID announced its Feed the Future Call for Cool Storage Solutions. Through a competitive call for innovations, USAID will provide up to $2.5 million in funding and mentoring to entrepreneurs to help them adapt, pilot and scale their proven cool storage solutions to prevent food loss and waste in countries where the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future initiative focuses efforts. This call will expand the impact of USAID’s investment by catalyzing private investment that strengthens food chains between farms and markets.
· President Obama will speak to the Young Transatlantic Innovation Leaders Initiative (YTILI) to develop entrepreneurial skills and enhance economic opportunities for young professionals across Europe. To counter the challenges of inclusion and integration facing European youth, YTILI will support European entrepreneurs by offering training and exchanges, and building a European-Transatlantic network. YTILI will bring 200 Fellows to the United States in 2017. This is the fourth regional program within the U.S. Government’s Young Leaders Initiatives.
· To connect America’s top technologists and innovators with entrepreneurs in Africa, USAID and 500 Startups announced they will bring the Geeks on a Plane tour to Sub-Sahara Africa for the first time in March 2017. The 11-day trip to Accra, Lagos, Cape Town and Johannesburg will engage with African entrepreneurs and innovators and explore partnership and investment opportunities. The trip will culminate with the 2017 Global Entrepreneur Congress in Johannesburg.
· The State Department's International Visitor Leadership Program will host an exchange program for government technology leaders and their private-sector partners from more than a dozen countries this fall. Participants will take part in a design sprint developed in partnership with the U.S. Digital Service, the Presidential Innovation Fellows, and 18F. After traveling to cities around the U.S., including San Francisco, to look at how governments at the city, state, and federal level are partnering with the tech sector, they will return home and drive digital transformation within their governments to better tackle policy challenges and deliver improved services to citizens.
· The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office at the Department of Commerce launched its online Global Entrepreneurship Portal to provide U.S. innovators and business the knowledge, tools, and guards necessary to protect their technologies, and navigate intellectual property regimes in foreign countries, as they scale their businesses across borders and markets. The Global Entrepreneurship Portal will arm innovators – from solo inventors to Fortune 500 companies -- with tools to facilitate exports and empower global expansions.
· U.S. development and financing agencies have surpassed the $1 billion mark over the past year in financing and investment for global ICT and connectivity projects, bringing Internet access to millions around the world. These efforts represent the Administration’s commitment to closing the digital divide and bring an additional 1.5 billion people online by 2020 through the Global Connect Initiative [https://share.america.gov/globalconnect/].
Private Sector Impact
At GES 2016, private sector companies around the world announced initiatives that support to the next generation of entrepreneurs through capital mentorship and training, ecosystem support, and research:
Capital Commitments
· CalPERS—California announced that they will open up an $11 billion global solicitation for new emerging manager investment strategies. This will identify early funds that include international investments in global entrepreneurs with strong potential for success; accessing unique investment opportunities that may otherwise be overlooked; and cultivating the next generation of external portfolio management talent.
· Endeavor, an organization that supports entrepreneurs around the world, launched a $100 million co-investment fund -- Endeavor Catalyst II -- to invest in high-growth companies across Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Endeavor Catalyst II is a commitment by Endeavor and private sector leaders to support projects across the globe over the next four years. To date the fund has $30 million in pre-commitments.
· Capria Ventures, the first global business accelerator for impact fund managers, announced the launch of the Capria Emerging Managers Fund, a $100M venture fund that will invest in fund managers who have compelling investment programs targeting entrepreneurs in emerging economies across Africa, Central and South America, and South and Southeast Asia. Capria has also selected its next cohort of fund managers who will come to a multi-week acceleration program later this year.
· The Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation announced the launch of a new fund totaling $65 million to find, fund and support 100 early stage, high impact social enterprises that are tackling some of the world’s most challenging problems in our world, including access to healthcare, education, poverty alleviation, opportunity equality, social justice, and the environment.
· The SDG Philanthropy Platform [sdgfunders.org], an initiative of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, UNDP, and the Foundation Center, announced an initiative launching in India later this year that focuses on women’s empowerment through entrepreneurship, mobilizing at least $500,000 in financial contributions within the next six months. The Platform will engage philanthropy more deeply on the Sustainable Development Goals by partnering with governments, the United Nations, philanthropy, civil society, and business.
· NOW Ventures (NOW) is a new venture capital platform that will invest in, enable and amplify early stage startups that deliver positive social benefits alongside competitive financial returns. NOW launched the first ever use of AngelList to support impactful and mission-driven founders through a dedicated syndicate. NOW will mobilize early stage funding, with the first phase targeting forty investments of $200,000 each. Each founder will receive mentoring and be featured on AngelList.
· Obvious Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in entrepreneurs who are passionate about solving the systemic challenges of our time, awarded a GES delegate a $50,000 #worldpositive prize to a business that every dollar of profit made aligns with a mission driven purpose.
Mentorship and Training Commitments
· 1776, in partnership with Dell, launched Union to empower entrepreneurs around the world by connecting the global startup economy. Accessible through the Startup Federation -- a worldwide network of startup campuses and mega-hubs -- or virtually for entrepreneurs in remote areas, Union will provide entrepreneurs anywhere in the world the ability to reach the people, resources and education they need to take their ideas from seed to scale. Union is available via a mobile app and web tool, enabling entrepreneurs at all stages of growth to tap into the resources they need to scale and succeed no matter what city or country they live in.
· The World Bank launched the Women for Resilience Initiative to strengthen the entrepreneurial capabilities of women entrepreneurs from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in the resilience value chain by providing them with funding and business support services. The program connects and trains women from across MENA and creates a vibrant community of leaders of tomorrow who will positively impact the region and the world.
· Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship (PAGE) Antonio Gracias launched ADELANTE, an international exchange program for Cuban entrepreneurs. This program provides emerging Cuban entrepreneurs with an opportunity to visit the U.S., meet and exchange ideas with U.S. entrepreneurs, network with business leaders, and receive relevant training. By building connections between entrepreneurs in Cuba and the United States, Adelante seeks to foster a closer relationship between the people of the two countries.
· The KIND Foundation, in partnership with Venture for America, announced that it will host its first Entrepreneur Summit. The convening, which will take place during National Entrepreneurship Month, aims to support aspiring and early stage entrepreneurs in building businesses that are not only economically sustainable but also socially impactful.
· Affinis Labs announced Rising Margins, a series of hackathons and training sessions to support entrepreneurship and job creation for socioeconomically disadvantaged communities around the world. The initiative seeks to broaden economic inclusivity by empowering communities as grassroots drivers -- not simply beneficiaries -- of economic growth.
Ecosystem Support Initiatives
· IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, announced the “Startup Catalyst” initiative that will invest in accelerators and seed funds to support innovation ecosystems in emerging economies. Startup Catalyst aims to support and invest in seed funding mechanisms around the world to help build innovation ecosystems that support entrepreneurship and create jobs in developing countries. The first three Startup Catalyst initiative investments include Flat6Labs, a Cairo-based accelerator supporting technology startups throughout Egypt; CRE, a Sub-Saharan focused seed fund investing in visionary entrepreneurs; and 500 Mexico City, an accelerator working to spur the growth of technology startups across Latin America.
Research Initiatives
· RippleWorks released the "The Human Capital Crisis: How Social Enterprises Can Find the Talent to Scale" report. Through analysis of 628 entrepreneurs around the world and interviews with more than 40 organizations, the report found that human capital, not funding, is the biggest challenge as companies grow. This study provides new insights and actionable recommendations for how social entrepreneurs and impact investors can scale their businesses and their impact, and underscores the need for seasoned entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley and beyond to become more actively engaged in supporting the development of social enterprises.
· Silicon Valley Bank released their StartupOutlook 2016 survey that focused on women achieving leadership positions and women leadership programs in companies in the United States, United Kingdom, and China. The report showed that 46 percent of U.S. technology and life science companies had no women in executive positions, and 66 percent had no women on their boards of directors.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 24, 2016
FACT SHEET: Global Entrepreneurship Summit
President Obama today will take part in the 7th annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) at Stanford University in Silicon Valley, California, which will feature new commitments to promote entrepreneurship as a driver for economic growth, social inclusion, and secure communities. Following his historic 2009 Cairo speech, President Obama elevated innovation and entrepreneurship in the U.S. engagement agenda and hosted the first GES at the White House in 2010. The United States has made significant strides in supporting entrepreneurship around the world by developing innovative ecosystems; advocating for stronger business climates through rule of law and transparent business conduct; catalyzing capital; building networks of innovators; promoting entrepreneurship for women, youth, and marginalized communities; and partnering with the private sector to expand impact.
With the eyes of the world on Silicon Valley, today the Obama Administration is announcing new commitments to advance entrepreneurship around the world. These announcements build on a week where the Administration has highlighted a powerful record of progress in fueling American innovation over the last seven and a half years and announcing major new steps we are taking to build on those efforts—including supporting advanced manufacturing and making, laying the groundwork for smart and connected cities, supporting next-generation technologies, and promoting inclusive entrepreneurship and innovation here at home.
GES 2016 has brought the best entrepreneurs and investors from 170 countries to the birthplace of modern innovation, highlighting that the dynamic enterprises driving new solutions can be found in every corner of the world. The summit convenes approximately 1,200 outstanding entrepreneurs and investors from across the world for dynamic, outcome-oriented sessions; mentoring; and opportunities to showcase their work. The summit showcases how investors and entrepreneurs from around the world are embracing the culture of entrepreneurship far beyond Silicon Valley.
GES has become a preeminent annual gathering that provides emerging entrepreneurs with exceptional networking, insight, and investment opportunities. During Indian Prime Minister Modi’s visit to the White House on June 7, President Obama and Prime Minister Modi were pleased to announce India as the host of the 2017 Global Entrepreneurship Summit, becoming the seventh country to host the event.
The President signed an Executive Order to institutionalize key entrepreneurship programs of his Administration in recognition of the fact that entrepreneurship is a hallmark of American leadership in the world. The President also will speak to U.S. government commitments and highlight private sector announcements that will provide entrepreneurs across the globe new opportunities for capital and mentorship, build their networks, and gain skills that will help their companies grow and thrive. The President will place a special emphasis on supporting youth, women, and minority entrepreneurs as drivers of innovation and investment in their home communities.
U.S. Government Commitment to Global Entrepreneurship
The U.S. Government is committing significant new resources to advance entrepreneurship around the world:
· President Obama signed an Executive Order institutionalizing programs that support entrepreneurship around the world, including the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship, the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, and the Global Connect Initiative.
· USAID’s Power Africa initiative launched the Scaling Off Grid Energy Grand Challenge for Development that will invest $36m in promising enterprises, innovative technologies, and partnerships with local stakeholders to scale up clean energy solutions to reach millions of households that live beyond the reach of the electricity grid. This effort will bring together entrepreneurs, investors, philanthropists, and governments to support the growth of innovative ventures that are making off-grid solutions affordable for rural families and catalyze private investment to help these enterprises reach new markets.
· President Obama will announce the launch of an effort to encourage greater investments in small-scale clean energy entrepreneurs from developing countries. The Administration will identify and highlight entrepreneurs working to provide affordable, reliable, and significantly scalable on-grid or off-grid energy solutions that meet the renewable energy and energy efficiency needs of individuals, enterprises, and communities in the developing world, and in particular in sub-Saharan Africa. Entrepreneurs will be identified and highlighted from the large cadre of energy innovators, researchers and partner institutions in the developing world that have worked with U.S. Government entities, including USAID, the Departments of Defense and Energy, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency.
· The Administration will facilitate opportunities for leading clean energy investors to evaluate and consider providing seed funding and similar investments to these entrepreneurs. Building in part on the work and vision of the Breakthrough Energy Coalition (BEC), launched in Paris last year, a number of BEC members and other leading international investors have agreed to support this effort by working with the US Government to develop a process to consider potential investments. These investors include Aliko Dangote, Bill Gates, Paul G. Allen (Vulcan Capital), Strive Maisiyiwa, Matt Rogers and Swati Mylavarapu, Nat Simons and Laura Baxter-Simons (Prelude Ventures), Dipender Saluja (Capricorn Investment Group), Tom Steyer, and Mark Zuckerberg. The first round of the Administration's work on this initiative will be completed by November 1.
· The U.S. Department of State and Kiva, the world's largest crowdfunding platform for loans, have joined forces to launch the Women's Entrepreneurship Fund, which aims to help crowdfund loans to one million women entrepreneurs over the next five years. The Fund has a special focus on women entrepreneurs in the growth phases, offering loans greater than the average microfinance loan. To date, an estimated $500,000 has been pledged with commitments from corporations and foundations.
· USAID announced its Feed the Future Call for Cool Storage Solutions. Through a competitive call for innovations, USAID will provide up to $2.5 million in funding and mentoring to entrepreneurs to help them adapt, pilot and scale their proven cool storage solutions to prevent food loss and waste in countries where the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future initiative focuses efforts. This call will expand the impact of USAID’s investment by catalyzing private investment that strengthens food chains between farms and markets.
· President Obama will speak to the Young Transatlantic Innovation Leaders Initiative (YTILI) to develop entrepreneurial skills and enhance economic opportunities for young professionals across Europe. To counter the challenges of inclusion and integration facing European youth, YTILI will support European entrepreneurs by offering training and exchanges, and building a European-Transatlantic network. YTILI will bring 200 Fellows to the United States in 2017. This is the fourth regional program within the U.S. Government’s Young Leaders Initiatives.
· To connect America’s top technologists and innovators with entrepreneurs in Africa, USAID and 500 Startups announced they will bring the Geeks on a Plane tour to Sub-Sahara Africa for the first time in March 2017. The 11-day trip to Accra, Lagos, Cape Town and Johannesburg will engage with African entrepreneurs and innovators and explore partnership and investment opportunities. The trip will culminate with the 2017 Global Entrepreneur Congress in Johannesburg.
· The State Department's International Visitor Leadership Program will host an exchange program for government technology leaders and their private-sector partners from more than a dozen countries this fall. Participants will take part in a design sprint developed in partnership with the U.S. Digital Service, the Presidential Innovation Fellows, and 18F. After traveling to cities around the U.S., including San Francisco, to look at how governments at the city, state, and federal level are partnering with the tech sector, they will return home and drive digital transformation within their governments to better tackle policy challenges and deliver improved services to citizens.
· The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office at the Department of Commerce launched its online Global Entrepreneurship Portal to provide U.S. innovators and business the knowledge, tools, and guards necessary to protect their technologies, and navigate intellectual property regimes in foreign countries, as they scale their businesses across borders and markets. The Global Entrepreneurship Portal will arm innovators – from solo inventors to Fortune 500 companies -- with tools to facilitate exports and empower global expansions.
· U.S. development and financing agencies have surpassed the $1 billion mark over the past year in financing and investment for global ICT and connectivity projects, bringing Internet access to millions around the world. These efforts represent the Administration’s commitment to closing the digital divide and bring an additional 1.5 billion people online by 2020 through the Global Connect Initiative [https://share.america.gov/globalconnect/].
Private Sector Impact
At GES 2016, private sector companies around the world announced initiatives that support to the next generation of entrepreneurs through capital mentorship and training, ecosystem support, and research:
Capital Commitments
· CalPERS—California announced that they will open up an $11 billion global solicitation for new emerging manager investment strategies. This will identify early funds that include international investments in global entrepreneurs with strong potential for success; accessing unique investment opportunities that may otherwise be overlooked; and cultivating the next generation of external portfolio management talent.
· Endeavor, an organization that supports entrepreneurs around the world, launched a $100 million co-investment fund -- Endeavor Catalyst II -- to invest in high-growth companies across Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Endeavor Catalyst II is a commitment by Endeavor and private sector leaders to support projects across the globe over the next four years. To date the fund has $30 million in pre-commitments.
· Capria Ventures, the first global business accelerator for impact fund managers, announced the launch of the Capria Emerging Managers Fund, a $100M venture fund that will invest in fund managers who have compelling investment programs targeting entrepreneurs in emerging economies across Africa, Central and South America, and South and Southeast Asia. Capria has also selected its next cohort of fund managers who will come to a multi-week acceleration program later this year.
· The Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation announced the launch of a new fund totaling $65 million to find, fund and support 100 early stage, high impact social enterprises that are tackling some of the world’s most challenging problems in our world, including access to healthcare, education, poverty alleviation, opportunity equality, social justice, and the environment.
· The SDG Philanthropy Platform [sdgfunders.org], an initiative of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, UNDP, and the Foundation Center, announced an initiative launching in India later this year that focuses on women’s empowerment through entrepreneurship, mobilizing at least $500,000 in financial contributions within the next six months. The Platform will engage philanthropy more deeply on the Sustainable Development Goals by partnering with governments, the United Nations, philanthropy, civil society, and business.
· NOW Ventures (NOW) is a new venture capital platform that will invest in, enable and amplify early stage startups that deliver positive social benefits alongside competitive financial returns. NOW launched the first ever use of AngelList to support impactful and mission-driven founders through a dedicated syndicate. NOW will mobilize early stage funding, with the first phase targeting forty investments of $200,000 each. Each founder will receive mentoring and be featured on AngelList.
· Obvious Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in entrepreneurs who are passionate about solving the systemic challenges of our time, awarded a GES delegate a $50,000 #worldpositive prize to a business that every dollar of profit made aligns with a mission driven purpose.
Mentorship and Training Commitments
· 1776, in partnership with Dell, launched Union to empower entrepreneurs around the world by connecting the global startup economy. Accessible through the Startup Federation -- a worldwide network of startup campuses and mega-hubs -- or virtually for entrepreneurs in remote areas, Union will provide entrepreneurs anywhere in the world the ability to reach the people, resources and education they need to take their ideas from seed to scale. Union is available via a mobile app and web tool, enabling entrepreneurs at all stages of growth to tap into the resources they need to scale and succeed no matter what city or country they live in.
· The World Bank launched the Women for Resilience Initiative to strengthen the entrepreneurial capabilities of women entrepreneurs from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in the resilience value chain by providing them with funding and business support services. The program connects and trains women from across MENA and creates a vibrant community of leaders of tomorrow who will positively impact the region and the world.
· Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship (PAGE) Antonio Gracias launched ADELANTE, an international exchange program for Cuban entrepreneurs. This program provides emerging Cuban entrepreneurs with an opportunity to visit the U.S., meet and exchange ideas with U.S. entrepreneurs, network with business leaders, and receive relevant training. By building connections between entrepreneurs in Cuba and the United States, Adelante seeks to foster a closer relationship between the people of the two countries.
· The KIND Foundation, in partnership with Venture for America, announced that it will host its first Entrepreneur Summit. The convening, which will take place during National Entrepreneurship Month, aims to support aspiring and early stage entrepreneurs in building businesses that are not only economically sustainable but also socially impactful.
· Affinis Labs announced Rising Margins, a series of hackathons and training sessions to support entrepreneurship and job creation for socioeconomically disadvantaged communities around the world. The initiative seeks to broaden economic inclusivity by empowering communities as grassroots drivers -- not simply beneficiaries -- of economic growth.
Ecosystem Support Initiatives
· IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, announced the “Startup Catalyst” initiative that will invest in accelerators and seed funds to support innovation ecosystems in emerging economies. Startup Catalyst aims to support and invest in seed funding mechanisms around the world to help build innovation ecosystems that support entrepreneurship and create jobs in developing countries. The first three Startup Catalyst initiative investments include Flat6Labs, a Cairo-based accelerator supporting technology startups throughout Egypt; CRE, a Sub-Saharan focused seed fund investing in visionary entrepreneurs; and 500 Mexico City, an accelerator working to spur the growth of technology startups across Latin America.
Research Initiatives
· RippleWorks released the "The Human Capital Crisis: How Social Enterprises Can Find the Talent to Scale" report. Through analysis of 628 entrepreneurs around the world and interviews with more than 40 organizations, the report found that human capital, not funding, is the biggest challenge as companies grow. This study provides new insights and actionable recommendations for how social entrepreneurs and impact investors can scale their businesses and their impact, and underscores the need for seasoned entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley and beyond to become more actively engaged in supporting the development of social enterprises.
· Silicon Valley Bank released their StartupOutlook 2016 survey that focused on women achieving leadership positions and women leadership programs in companies in the United States, United Kingdom, and China. The report showed that 46 percent of U.S. technology and life science companies had no women in executive positions, and 66 percent had no women on their boards of directors.
Obama Administration Announces Columbus, OH Winner of the $40 Million Smart City Challenge to Pioneer the Future of Transportation
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 23, 2016
FACT SHEET: Obama Administration Announces Columbus, OH Winner of the $40 Million Smart City Challenge to Pioneer the Future of Transportation
Columbus, OH is the winner out of 78 cities that accepted the challenge, will receive up to $40 million from the Department of Transportation to prototype the future of transportation s as part of the Obama Administration’s efforts to accelerate game-changing technologies from self-driving cars to smart traffic lights to vehicle to vehicle communications.
Throughout this week, the Obama Administration will be highlighting America’s capacity for creativity and invention and how our innovative progress over the last seven and a half years has helped continue to make our economy the strongest and most durable in the world. As part of this effort, today, the Administration is announcing that Columbus, OH is the winner of the Smart City Challenge.
In December 2015, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx issued an unprecedented challenge to U.S. cities. He called for cities to come up with a plan to reshape their transportation systems as part of a fully-integrated city that harnesses the power and potential of technology, data and creativity to reimagine how people and goods move. Through the Smart City Challenge, the Department committed up to $40 million, and private partners committed over $20 million to help make this Smart City vision a reality. Today, at an event in Columbus with Mayor Andrew Ginther and local community leaders, Secretary Foxx announced that Columbus, OH has been selected as the winner of the Smart City Challenge.
Revolutionary new transportation technologies and the smart use of data have the potential to save lives; give us back hours lost in traffic; reduce harmful carbon emissions; and provide greater dignity, mobility, and access to opportunity for millions of our fellow Americans. The Obama Administration is committed to accelerating these technologies and will be taking action this summer to facilitate the safe, efficient, commercial deployment of self-driving cars and vehicle to vehicle communication. In addition, the White House Smart Cities Initiative is investing over $160 million to grow the pipeline of technologies available to help cities solve pressing urban challenges.
The Smart City Challenge called on cities to do more than merely introduce new technologies onto city streets. Rather, the Challenge called on mayors to boldly envision new solutions that change the very face of transportation in our cities by closing the gap between rich and poor; capturing the needs of both old and young; and through smart design, bridging the digital divide so that the future of transportation meets the needs of all city residents, not just those who are technology savvy.
78 cities, including nearly every mid-sized city in America, answered the call by creating blueprints for the future of transportation today on their city streets. The seven finalist cities - Austin, Columbus, Denver, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Portland, and San Francisco –have proposed first-of-a-kind use of these new technologies to solve the real-world challenges facing cities today, from self-driving shuttles that could cut in half the commute from underserved neighborhoods to centers of jobs and opportunity to the use of smart sensors to accelerate freight delivery while improving safety. Over 150 diverse industry and non-profit partners have pledged more than $500 million in resources, technology solutions, and support to help carry out these Smart City plans.
At its core, the Challenge is designed to advance progress in cities across the country – not just a single winning city. Already, the seven finalists have taken great strides in planning for adoption of new technologies and gaining commitments from a broad range of new private sector partners to help execute these visions. The Department and its federal partners are committed to helping all cities that applied to the Smart City Challenge identify resources to carry out their plans. Already, the Department has provided technical assistance to all 78 cities to help them identify and apply for approximately $6 billion in federal funding that cities could use for these innovative transportation projects. Interested cities should go here to learn more about resources available to help implement their Smart City plans.
THE WINNER OF THE SMART CITY CHALLENGE
Today, Columbus, OH has been selected to receive up to $40 million from the Department of Transportation to carry out its Smart City Plan. Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan, Inc. will provide an additional $10 million to Columbus, OH. And a range of national industry partners will provide the winning city with technology to help implement its plan, including NXP® Semiconductors, Amazon Web Services, Mobileye, Autodesk, Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs, AT&T, and DC Solar.
Columbus has a holistic vision for how technology can help all of its residents move better and access opportunity. Working with industry and philanthropic partners, the city has leveraged the Smart City Challenge to raise an additional $100 million in non-Federal resources to carry out its plan.
In its Smart City plan, Columbus will leverage a new central connected traffic signal and integrated transportation data system to address specific transportation challenges faced in four districts across the city. To address these challenges, the city will:
· Use transportation data analytics and improved first-mile-last-mile connections to public transportation – such as street-side mobility kiosks, a new bus-rapid transit system, and smart lighting to increase safety for pedestrians - to improve health care access in a neighborhood that currently has an infant mortality rate four times that of the national average, allowing Columbus to provide improved transportation options to those most in need of prenatal care and enable more Columbus residents to celebrate their first birthdays.
· Deploy fully electric self-driving shuttles on three fixed routes to connect a new bus rapid transit center to a retail district, connecting more residents to jobs and helping fuel the district’s growth.
· Equip city fleet, transit vehicles, and many intersections with connected vehicle technology to optimize traffic flow and demonstrate safety applications.
· Test connected vehicle technology in their freight district, including automated truck platooning and traffic signal management. The city will also work with freight operators to communicate parking availability both in the city and in the surrounding multi-state region.
· Address climate change by expanding their investment in electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, providing assistance to fleet operators to encourage EV adoption, creating customer education programs such as ride-and-drive events with local dealers, and create an EV cooperative buying program.
· Create an integrated payment system for residents to access transportation solutions throughout the city, regardless of whether they have a credit card or rely on cash, and offer a trip planning smart app to help residents plan their trips across many different modes and public and private operators.
SEVEN SMART CITIES
The seven finalist cities rose to the Smart City Challenge in an extraordinary way, proposing first of a kind technology deployments and imaging novel solutions to the persistent challenges that plague our transportation system today. And the seven finalist cities have dared big – proposing to create new first of a kind corridors for autonomous vehicles to move city residents, to electrify city fleets, and to collectively equip over thirteen thousand buses, taxis, and cars with vehicle to vehicle communication.
The Department of Transportation and its federal partners, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Energy, and the National Institute for Standards and Technology, have formed the Smart City Challenge Collaborative, a commitment to working with these seven finalist cities to identify potential federal, state, local, and private resources to help carry out their Smart City plans. In addition, Vulcan, Inc. has announced a new commitment to provide additional funding to support the climate and electrification efforts of all seven cities.
The following highlights just a few examples of the revolutionary visions the seven Smart City finalists proposed. You can read each finalist city’s full application and a summary of technology trends across all 78 cities that applied here.
· Austin, TX: The fastest growing city in the nation with over 100 new residents a day, Austin faces unique challenges with growing congestion and increasing commutes. To target the challenges facing its commuters, Austin has proposed to remake the traditional “park-and-ride” into a “one-stop shop” with even more mobility options including public transit buses, trains, car share, bike share, automated vehicles, and connected vehicles, to be strategically situated near community health centers, the community college, housing developments, and the airport.
· Denver, CO: Situated at the crossroads of three nationally important freight highways, Denver is applying its pioneering spirit to accelerate freight while improving safety. With partners like FedEx, Peloton, and UPS, Denver is equipping trucks with vehicle to vehicle communication technology to optimize routing and traffic signals and to experiment with connected, autonomous truck platooning, accelerating freight while reducing the impact on low-income neighborhoods that bear the brunt of this traffic flow today.
· Kansas City, MO: Kansas City proposed to revitalize a historically black and underserved community by installing ubiquitous public Wi-Fi along sidewalks and on new electric, connected public buses, including on self-driving shuttles connecting underserved areas with the existing streetcar route. Each bus stop will have large-screen state-of-the-art kiosks to help residents access transportation information and will be equipped with voice-activated wayfinding technology to help the visual impaired navigate the city’s streets.
· Pittsburgh, PA: Pittsburgh is proposing to cut in half the time it takes workers from Hazelwood, a historically underserved community, to reach the city’s urban jobs core by partnering with Carnegie Mellon, a pioneer of self-driving technology, to construct a thirty minute loop for autonomous shuttles. Throughout the city, Pittsburgh will also deploy state-of-the-art traffic signal technology – proven to reduce congestion at street lights by up to forty percent - to significantly reduce travel and idle time for all residents.
· Portland, OR: Portland proposed to launch the nation’s first bulk-buy program for used EVs to put affordable EVs in the hands of low-income drivers in demonstration corridors and promote electric car sharing and electric bike sharing in low-income communities. At the same time, Portland is partnering on autonomous vehicle demonstrations from campus shuttles and airport buses to self-driving taxis and tractor trailers. Portland is also developing a smart housing app with real transparency about the true cost of an apartment, including both rent and transportation costs.
· San Francisco, CA: San Francisco has set a goal of eliminating one out of every ten single occupant car trips by shifting travelers onto carpooling and public transit. To increase uptake of innovative carpooling and ridesharing models, San Francisco envisions a system of new carpooling HOV lanes and reserved curbside pickup areas. In addition, San Francisco has proposed using self-driving cars to shuttle passengers for the first and last mile onto public transit. The city, long a leader in innovation, has also proposed sharing its learnings with a tech transfer network of 50 cities and 25,000 transportation professionals.
INDUSTRY COMMITMENTS TO THE SMART CITY CHALLENGE
Over 150 industry and non-profit partners stepped up to the challenge alongside the cities, pledging more than $500 million in resources and technology solutions. In addition to the resources pledged by companies and partners to individual cities, the Department of Transportation has announced private sector partnerships to outfit the winning city with new transportation technology solutions:
Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Inc.: Vulcan will provide an additional $10 million to the winning city to demonstrate “what’s possible” by transforming a city’s transportation system into one that is electrified and low-carbon, in addition to showcasing new ideas and bold innovations.
Mobileye: Mobileye will equip the every city bus in the winning city with their advanced collision warning and pedestrian detection technology to help bus drivers avoid traffic collisions and protect road users including bicyclists, pedestrians, and motorcyclists.
Autodesk: Autodesk will provide access to and training on its advanced virtual design and modeling platform that uses 3-D visualizations and real-world data to help the winning city plan the significant engineering and infrastructure projects needed to carry out its plan.
NXP: NXP will provide the contest’s winning city with vehicle-to-vehicle wireless communication modules that allow cars to securely exchange data, such as hazard warnings, over distances of more than a mile to prevent accidents and improve traffic flow.
Amazon Web Services: Amazon Web Services will provide solution architecture, best practices on managing the tremendous quantities of data produced in a Smart City, and $1 million of credits to use its cloud-based data services to warehouse this data.
Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs: Sidewalk Labs will partner with the finalist cities on a first-of-a-kind transportation analytics platform using data from billions of miles of trips and citizen interactive input. Sidewalk Labs will install over 100 kiosks equipped with this mobility platform in four neighborhoods, roughly 25 blocks, of the winning city.
DC Solar: DC Solar Solutions will offer the winning city $1.5 million worth of electric vehicle chargers and mobile solar generators. In addition, DC Solar will assist all seven finalist cities in building strategies for electric vehicle charging infrastructure to encourage and facilitate the adoption of electric vehicles by individuals, businesses and municipalities.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 23, 2016
FACT SHEET: Obama Administration Announces Columbus, OH Winner of the $40 Million Smart City Challenge to Pioneer the Future of Transportation
Columbus, OH is the winner out of 78 cities that accepted the challenge, will receive up to $40 million from the Department of Transportation to prototype the future of transportation s as part of the Obama Administration’s efforts to accelerate game-changing technologies from self-driving cars to smart traffic lights to vehicle to vehicle communications.
Throughout this week, the Obama Administration will be highlighting America’s capacity for creativity and invention and how our innovative progress over the last seven and a half years has helped continue to make our economy the strongest and most durable in the world. As part of this effort, today, the Administration is announcing that Columbus, OH is the winner of the Smart City Challenge.
In December 2015, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx issued an unprecedented challenge to U.S. cities. He called for cities to come up with a plan to reshape their transportation systems as part of a fully-integrated city that harnesses the power and potential of technology, data and creativity to reimagine how people and goods move. Through the Smart City Challenge, the Department committed up to $40 million, and private partners committed over $20 million to help make this Smart City vision a reality. Today, at an event in Columbus with Mayor Andrew Ginther and local community leaders, Secretary Foxx announced that Columbus, OH has been selected as the winner of the Smart City Challenge.
Revolutionary new transportation technologies and the smart use of data have the potential to save lives; give us back hours lost in traffic; reduce harmful carbon emissions; and provide greater dignity, mobility, and access to opportunity for millions of our fellow Americans. The Obama Administration is committed to accelerating these technologies and will be taking action this summer to facilitate the safe, efficient, commercial deployment of self-driving cars and vehicle to vehicle communication. In addition, the White House Smart Cities Initiative is investing over $160 million to grow the pipeline of technologies available to help cities solve pressing urban challenges.
The Smart City Challenge called on cities to do more than merely introduce new technologies onto city streets. Rather, the Challenge called on mayors to boldly envision new solutions that change the very face of transportation in our cities by closing the gap between rich and poor; capturing the needs of both old and young; and through smart design, bridging the digital divide so that the future of transportation meets the needs of all city residents, not just those who are technology savvy.
78 cities, including nearly every mid-sized city in America, answered the call by creating blueprints for the future of transportation today on their city streets. The seven finalist cities - Austin, Columbus, Denver, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Portland, and San Francisco –have proposed first-of-a-kind use of these new technologies to solve the real-world challenges facing cities today, from self-driving shuttles that could cut in half the commute from underserved neighborhoods to centers of jobs and opportunity to the use of smart sensors to accelerate freight delivery while improving safety. Over 150 diverse industry and non-profit partners have pledged more than $500 million in resources, technology solutions, and support to help carry out these Smart City plans.
At its core, the Challenge is designed to advance progress in cities across the country – not just a single winning city. Already, the seven finalists have taken great strides in planning for adoption of new technologies and gaining commitments from a broad range of new private sector partners to help execute these visions. The Department and its federal partners are committed to helping all cities that applied to the Smart City Challenge identify resources to carry out their plans. Already, the Department has provided technical assistance to all 78 cities to help them identify and apply for approximately $6 billion in federal funding that cities could use for these innovative transportation projects. Interested cities should go here to learn more about resources available to help implement their Smart City plans.
THE WINNER OF THE SMART CITY CHALLENGE
Today, Columbus, OH has been selected to receive up to $40 million from the Department of Transportation to carry out its Smart City Plan. Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan, Inc. will provide an additional $10 million to Columbus, OH. And a range of national industry partners will provide the winning city with technology to help implement its plan, including NXP® Semiconductors, Amazon Web Services, Mobileye, Autodesk, Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs, AT&T, and DC Solar.
Columbus has a holistic vision for how technology can help all of its residents move better and access opportunity. Working with industry and philanthropic partners, the city has leveraged the Smart City Challenge to raise an additional $100 million in non-Federal resources to carry out its plan.
In its Smart City plan, Columbus will leverage a new central connected traffic signal and integrated transportation data system to address specific transportation challenges faced in four districts across the city. To address these challenges, the city will:
· Use transportation data analytics and improved first-mile-last-mile connections to public transportation – such as street-side mobility kiosks, a new bus-rapid transit system, and smart lighting to increase safety for pedestrians - to improve health care access in a neighborhood that currently has an infant mortality rate four times that of the national average, allowing Columbus to provide improved transportation options to those most in need of prenatal care and enable more Columbus residents to celebrate their first birthdays.
· Deploy fully electric self-driving shuttles on three fixed routes to connect a new bus rapid transit center to a retail district, connecting more residents to jobs and helping fuel the district’s growth.
· Equip city fleet, transit vehicles, and many intersections with connected vehicle technology to optimize traffic flow and demonstrate safety applications.
· Test connected vehicle technology in their freight district, including automated truck platooning and traffic signal management. The city will also work with freight operators to communicate parking availability both in the city and in the surrounding multi-state region.
· Address climate change by expanding their investment in electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, providing assistance to fleet operators to encourage EV adoption, creating customer education programs such as ride-and-drive events with local dealers, and create an EV cooperative buying program.
· Create an integrated payment system for residents to access transportation solutions throughout the city, regardless of whether they have a credit card or rely on cash, and offer a trip planning smart app to help residents plan their trips across many different modes and public and private operators.
SEVEN SMART CITIES
The seven finalist cities rose to the Smart City Challenge in an extraordinary way, proposing first of a kind technology deployments and imaging novel solutions to the persistent challenges that plague our transportation system today. And the seven finalist cities have dared big – proposing to create new first of a kind corridors for autonomous vehicles to move city residents, to electrify city fleets, and to collectively equip over thirteen thousand buses, taxis, and cars with vehicle to vehicle communication.
The Department of Transportation and its federal partners, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Energy, and the National Institute for Standards and Technology, have formed the Smart City Challenge Collaborative, a commitment to working with these seven finalist cities to identify potential federal, state, local, and private resources to help carry out their Smart City plans. In addition, Vulcan, Inc. has announced a new commitment to provide additional funding to support the climate and electrification efforts of all seven cities.
The following highlights just a few examples of the revolutionary visions the seven Smart City finalists proposed. You can read each finalist city’s full application and a summary of technology trends across all 78 cities that applied here.
· Austin, TX: The fastest growing city in the nation with over 100 new residents a day, Austin faces unique challenges with growing congestion and increasing commutes. To target the challenges facing its commuters, Austin has proposed to remake the traditional “park-and-ride” into a “one-stop shop” with even more mobility options including public transit buses, trains, car share, bike share, automated vehicles, and connected vehicles, to be strategically situated near community health centers, the community college, housing developments, and the airport.
· Denver, CO: Situated at the crossroads of three nationally important freight highways, Denver is applying its pioneering spirit to accelerate freight while improving safety. With partners like FedEx, Peloton, and UPS, Denver is equipping trucks with vehicle to vehicle communication technology to optimize routing and traffic signals and to experiment with connected, autonomous truck platooning, accelerating freight while reducing the impact on low-income neighborhoods that bear the brunt of this traffic flow today.
· Kansas City, MO: Kansas City proposed to revitalize a historically black and underserved community by installing ubiquitous public Wi-Fi along sidewalks and on new electric, connected public buses, including on self-driving shuttles connecting underserved areas with the existing streetcar route. Each bus stop will have large-screen state-of-the-art kiosks to help residents access transportation information and will be equipped with voice-activated wayfinding technology to help the visual impaired navigate the city’s streets.
· Pittsburgh, PA: Pittsburgh is proposing to cut in half the time it takes workers from Hazelwood, a historically underserved community, to reach the city’s urban jobs core by partnering with Carnegie Mellon, a pioneer of self-driving technology, to construct a thirty minute loop for autonomous shuttles. Throughout the city, Pittsburgh will also deploy state-of-the-art traffic signal technology – proven to reduce congestion at street lights by up to forty percent - to significantly reduce travel and idle time for all residents.
· Portland, OR: Portland proposed to launch the nation’s first bulk-buy program for used EVs to put affordable EVs in the hands of low-income drivers in demonstration corridors and promote electric car sharing and electric bike sharing in low-income communities. At the same time, Portland is partnering on autonomous vehicle demonstrations from campus shuttles and airport buses to self-driving taxis and tractor trailers. Portland is also developing a smart housing app with real transparency about the true cost of an apartment, including both rent and transportation costs.
· San Francisco, CA: San Francisco has set a goal of eliminating one out of every ten single occupant car trips by shifting travelers onto carpooling and public transit. To increase uptake of innovative carpooling and ridesharing models, San Francisco envisions a system of new carpooling HOV lanes and reserved curbside pickup areas. In addition, San Francisco has proposed using self-driving cars to shuttle passengers for the first and last mile onto public transit. The city, long a leader in innovation, has also proposed sharing its learnings with a tech transfer network of 50 cities and 25,000 transportation professionals.
INDUSTRY COMMITMENTS TO THE SMART CITY CHALLENGE
Over 150 industry and non-profit partners stepped up to the challenge alongside the cities, pledging more than $500 million in resources and technology solutions. In addition to the resources pledged by companies and partners to individual cities, the Department of Transportation has announced private sector partnerships to outfit the winning city with new transportation technology solutions:
Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Inc.: Vulcan will provide an additional $10 million to the winning city to demonstrate “what’s possible” by transforming a city’s transportation system into one that is electrified and low-carbon, in addition to showcasing new ideas and bold innovations.
Mobileye: Mobileye will equip the every city bus in the winning city with their advanced collision warning and pedestrian detection technology to help bus drivers avoid traffic collisions and protect road users including bicyclists, pedestrians, and motorcyclists.
Autodesk: Autodesk will provide access to and training on its advanced virtual design and modeling platform that uses 3-D visualizations and real-world data to help the winning city plan the significant engineering and infrastructure projects needed to carry out its plan.
NXP: NXP will provide the contest’s winning city with vehicle-to-vehicle wireless communication modules that allow cars to securely exchange data, such as hazard warnings, over distances of more than a mile to prevent accidents and improve traffic flow.
Amazon Web Services: Amazon Web Services will provide solution architecture, best practices on managing the tremendous quantities of data produced in a Smart City, and $1 million of credits to use its cloud-based data services to warehouse this data.
Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs: Sidewalk Labs will partner with the finalist cities on a first-of-a-kind transportation analytics platform using data from billions of miles of trips and citizen interactive input. Sidewalk Labs will install over 100 kiosks equipped with this mobility platform in four neighborhoods, roughly 25 blocks, of the winning city.
DC Solar: DC Solar Solutions will offer the winning city $1.5 million worth of electric vehicle chargers and mobile solar generators. In addition, DC Solar will assist all seven finalist cities in building strategies for electric vehicle charging infrastructure to encourage and facilitate the adoption of electric vehicles by individuals, businesses and municipalities.
White House to Host Press Call to Announce Winner of Smart City Challenge
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR PLANNING PURPOSES
June 23, 2016
White House to Host Press Call to Announce Winner of Smart City Challenge
WASHINGTON, DC - On Thursday, June 23, 2016 the White House will hold an on-the-record press call to announce the winning city of the Smart City Challenge. The winner, out of 78 cities that accepted the challenge, will receive up to $40 million from the Department of Transportation to prototype the future of transportation as part of the Obama Administration’s efforts to accelerate game-changing technologies from self-driving cars to smart traffic lights to vehicle-to-vehicle communications.
WHO: Jeff Zients, Director of the National Economic Council
Secretary Anthony Foxx, Department of Transportation
Mayor Andrew Ginther, Columbus, Ohio
Barbara Bennett, President and Chief Operating Officer of Vulcan, Inc.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR PLANNING PURPOSES
June 23, 2016
White House to Host Press Call to Announce Winner of Smart City Challenge
WASHINGTON, DC - On Thursday, June 23, 2016 the White House will hold an on-the-record press call to announce the winning city of the Smart City Challenge. The winner, out of 78 cities that accepted the challenge, will receive up to $40 million from the Department of Transportation to prototype the future of transportation as part of the Obama Administration’s efforts to accelerate game-changing technologies from self-driving cars to smart traffic lights to vehicle-to-vehicle communications.
WHO: Jeff Zients, Director of the National Economic Council
Secretary Anthony Foxx, Department of Transportation
Mayor Andrew Ginther, Columbus, Ohio
Barbara Bennett, President and Chief Operating Officer of Vulcan, Inc.
FACT SHEET: As the Global Entrepreneurship Summit Begins in Silicon Valley, New Announcements to Support Inclusive Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Home
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 22, 2016
FACT SHEET: As the Global Entrepreneurship Summit Begins in Silicon Valley, New Announcements to Support Inclusive Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Home
On Friday, President Obama will speak at the 7th annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES), bringing together over 700 entrepreneurs from every corner of the globe—and from all across America. Entrepreneurship is a fundamental American value, and it is also a force that has the ability to unlock opportunity for people globally. GES is a reflection of the U.S. Government’s commitment to utilizing entrepreneurship as a foundational tool to build more economically prosperous, secure, and globally connected communities around the world.
With the eyes of the world on Silicon Valley, today the Obama Administration is announcing new commitments to advance inclusive entrepreneurship and innovation here at home. These announcements build on a week where the Administration has highlighted a powerful record of progress in fueling American innovation over the last seven and a half years and announcing new steps to build on those efforts—including supporting advanced manufacturing and making, publishing a new rule to enable non-recreational use of unmanned aircraft, and supporting next-generation technologies.
Today’s announcements include:
· Major expansion of the Small Business Administration’s Startup in a Day initiative to nearly 100 U.S. cities and communities. This effort helps streamline licensing, permitting, and other requirements needed to start a business in their community, with the goal of enabling entrepreneurs to apply for everything necessary to begin within 24 hours.
· Three Federal agencies will adopt new expansions of the National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps (I-Corps) entrepreneurship-training program. Over 800 teams have completed the curriculum, from 192 universities in 44 states, resulting in the creation of over 320 companies.
· Over 30 companies are joining a new, industry-led Tech Inclusion Pledge. As part of the pledge, companies are committing to take concrete action to make the technology workforce at each of their companies more representative of the American people.
Background
America’s spirit of innovation is a major reason why the U.S. economy is the strongest and most durable in the world, and it has inspired admiration from across the globe for generations. Since the beginning of his Administration, President Obama has worked to strengthen our innovation advantage—through investments and reforms to drive technological and scientific breakthroughs that will power our economy and further enhance America’s leadership in the industries of the future.
Today’s announcements build on the first-ever White House Demo Day, held in August 2015, which focused on inclusive entrepreneurship and welcomed startup founders from diverse walks of life to demonstrate their innovations at the White House. Also, in response to the Administration’s efforts to inspire a diverse generation of innovators, the #SeeHer initiative to improve equal representation of women and girls in media was announced at last week’s White House United State of Women Summit.
While America’s entrepreneurial economy is the envy of the world, there is still much work to do to ensure that the United States is tapping the full entrepreneurial potential of Americans, so that individuals from all walks of life have a straight shot at success.
For example, just three percent of America’s venture capital-backed startups are led by women, and only around one percent are led by African-Americans. Female entrepreneurs start companies with 50 percent less capital than male entrepreneurs, and only about four percent of U.S.-based venture capital investors are women. Capital for innovative startups is predominantly available in only a handful of large cities, making high-growth business creation a challenge in other locations.
A new independent report released today by Intel Corporation and Dalberg Global Development Advisors quantifies the economic impact of improving diversity in the tech sector, estimating that an additional $470 to $570 billion in new value for the U.S. technology industry could be generated through full representation of ethic and gender diversity.
Details on the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Summit
Following his historic 2009 Cairo speech, President Obama elevated innovation and entrepreneurship in the U.S. global engagement agenda and hosted the first GES at the White House in 2010. Over the past 6 years, the United States has been a leader in catalyzing entrepreneurship globally by developing innovative ecosystems; advocating for stronger business climates through rule of law and transparent business conduct; promoting entrepreneurship for all, including women, youth, and marginalized communities; and mobilizing the private sector to expand impact.
GES 2016 brings together entrepreneurs and investors from across the world for dynamic, outcome-oriented sessions; mentoring; and opportunities to showcase their work. GES has become a preeminent annual gathering that provides emerging entrepreneurs with exceptional networking, insight, and investment opportunities. This year’s GES, held in the heart of Silicon Valley, also includes diverse entrepreneurs from every corner of America.
New Steps Being Announced by the Administration Today
Today, the White House is announcing steps by the Administration to advance inclusive entrepreneurship and to make the innovation economy more accessible to all Americans. These actions build on prior efforts to expand the technology-talent pipeline, cut red tape, and accelerate research discoveries from the lab to the marketplace. New actions include:
· The Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service is announcing that later this year, it will provide up to $10 million in Conservation Innovation Grants to stimulate the development and adoption of innovative approaches and technologies for conservation on agricultural lands. The funding announcement will request proposals, including projects by innovative entrepreneurs, focusing on data analytics for conservation, precision conservation, and pay-for-success models to stimulate conservation adoption.
· The Department of Energy (DOE) is announcing nearly $16 million in funding to help DOE’s National Laboratories and the private sector move promising energy technologies to the marketplace. This first Department-wide round of Technology Commercialization Fund selections will support 12 national labs partnering with 52 private-sector partners, including startups all across the country, from Alaska to Florida.
· The Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program, first launched in 2011 by the National Science Foundation (NSF), provides entrepreneurship training for teams of scientists and engineers, through an intensive curriculum focused on discovering a truly demand-driven path from their lab work to a marketable product. Over 800 teams have completed the curriculum, from 192 universities in 44 states, resulting in the creation of over 320 companies that have collectively raised more than $83 million in follow-on funding. Building on the 10 existing I-Corps partnerships between NSF and other Federal agencies, new expansions announced today include:
o The National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is piloting the SPeeding Research-tested INTerventions (SPRINT) program to offer the “Lean Startup” entrepreneurial curriculum to NCI-funded scientists with active research grants that are focused on tools to advance cancer prevention and control.
o The National Security Agency (NSA) is working to embed the I-Corps curriculum within the National Cryptologic School, and will also participate in Stanford University’s Hacking for Defense (H4D) pilot program.
o The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will provide I-Corps entrepreneurship training for the first time next year to NASA-funded small businesses through its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs.
o NSF will pilot a “Phase 0 SBIR” I-Corps program this year for non-academic teams to help them determine the commercial readiness of their technology concept. Next year, NSF will expand a “Phase 1 SBIR” I-Corps program for NSF-funded small businesses. To advance inclusive entrepreneurship, NSF will provide supplementary funding to its I-Corps partner colleges and universities to increase engagement of underrepresented populations in high-tech entrepreneurship and commercialization.
· The Small Business Administration (SBA) is working to remove barriers to entrepreneurship across the country. This includes:
o Expanding the Startup in a Day Initiative. The President announced Startup in a Day in June 2015, when he made a public call to action for cities and Native American communities throughout the country to reduce red tape and make it easier for entrepreneurs to get started. At the time of the announcement, 11 mayors took a public pledge to develop online tools that let entrepreneurs discover and apply—in less than a day—for local, State, and Federal requirements needed to start a business. As of today, nearly 100 mayors have taken this pledge, which has the potential to positively affect more than 35 million Americans.
o Best-in-Class Entrepreneurship Education for All. To make the latest evidence-based entrepreneurship training available to America’s “Main Street” entrepreneurs and small businesses at scale, the SBA is announcing the development of a new, state-of-the-art online training curriculum with a goal of training 1 million small business owners by 2020. The comprehensive new set of massive open online courses (MOOCs) will bring a curriculum developed by leading academics and practitioners to this audience, coupled with built-in student evaluation to ensure students actually gain critical knowledge and skills. The courses will be made available later this year.
o Empowering A Next Generation of Business Leaders. SBA will join with Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT) to provide a diverse group of Fellows, including African American, Latino, and Native American college students and young professionals, with a professional playbook, one-on-one coaching, and door-opening relationships that will accelerate their career trajectories and provide the skills, tools, and networks to maximize their career potential while learning about entrepreneurship and personal finance. SBA will make available its resources to help Fellows interested in entrepreneurship. By 2020, MLT commits to develop an additional 3,000 Fellows prepared to navigate business careers.
New Commitments to Tap America’s Full Entrepreneurial Potential and Promote Diversity in the Technology Sector
Today, companies, universities, non-profits, and other organizations are announcing new actions to foster inclusive entrepreneurship and enhance diversity throughout the Nation’s innovation economy.
· Over 30 Companies Announce a New Tech Inclusion Pledge. Last summer President Obama hosted the first-ever White House Demo Day, where several companies made individual commitments to advance inclusive entrepreneurship and diversify their workforces. Today, as the eyes of the world are on Silicon Valley for the President’s Global Entrepreneurship Summit, senior leadership at over 30 companies of all sizes are making a commitment to fuel American innovation and economic growth by increasing the diversity of their technology workforce. Companies participating in this industry-led pledge include:
o 500px
o Airbnb
o Arimo
o Box
o BrightBytes
o Clarifai
o Color Genomics
o DataSift
o Distil Networks
o Drillinginfo
o ezCater
o Gainsight
o GitHub
o GoDaddy
o Illuminate Education
o Intel
o Intrinsic
o Lyft
o Medium
o Moz
o Nootrobox
o Pinterest
o Return Path
o SAP
o SkyTap
o Spotify
o TeamSnap
o Turnitin
o UnifyID
o Unitrends
o VMWare
o ZestFinance
o Zynga
These inaugural signatories are resolving to take action to make the technology workforce at each of their companies fully representative of the American people, as soon as possible. To view the full Tech Inclusion Pledge, click HERE.
To facilitate additional pledge commitments and help companies meet those commitments, the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) and CODE2040 are today launching a website with free research-based implementation resources.
In the coming months, the White House will work to bring companies together to discuss long-term strategies for building a more inclusive tech workforce and expanding the number of companies making concrete progress over time, including by fostering a community of practice driven by research-based measures.
Many additional companies, nonprofits, universities, and others around the country are announcing new actions to promote inclusive entrepreneurship, in response to the President’s call to action:
· 500 Startups is announcing a $25 million dollar microfund to invest in over 200 startups led by black and Latino tech entrepreneurs, providing the access to capital, networks, and expertise to grow their businesses.
· BUILD is expanding its Youth Entrepreneurship Program to the Nation’s largest school districts—New York City and Los Angeles—doubling the number of students it serves. BUILD, the Redwood City, California-based experiential-learning program for high school students in under-resourced communities, uses entrepreneurship to engage students and give them the 21st century skills needed to succeed in college and career.
· CalSTRS, an educator-only pension fund is expanding its diversity initiative beyond the boardroom and will engage portfolio companies about building diverse pipelines of their most valuable resource, their human capital. This new initiative will focus on financial and technology companies to improve the diversity of their workforce. The goal is to increase the pipeline of diverse executives that can eventually feed into the candidate selection of corporate boards.
· The Case Foundation is launching a 2-year, $1 million commitment to advancing inclusive entrepreneurship. By increasing access to social and financial capital for diverse entrepreneurs, the Foundation seeks to increase the number of women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs of color who are building and scaling successful businesses. To kick off this work, the Foundation is partnering with JumpStart, Inc., to launch a $10 million seed capital Focus Fund for diverse entrepreneurs, which will invest in technology companies that are female- or minority-owned or led with a focus on the African-American and Latino communities.
· Engineering deans from 170 universities are committing to building a more-representative student talent pipeline. Building on the commitments made at White House Demo Day in 2015, today, engineering deans from around the country representing more than 50 percent of all U.S. engineering schools (both undergraduate and graduate institutions) signed a letter pledging actions that promise to increase diversity among engineering students. These actions include developing concrete diversity plans for their engineering programs, with input from national organizations such as the National Society of Black Engineers, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, and the Society of Women Engineers.
· Ten companies are forming a new network to partner with startups. Today the Global Accelerator Network (GAN) is launching a corporate Partner Network, in order to develop and share best practices among corporations working to foster the formation and scale-up of new companies across the country and the world. The initial Partner Network members include companies such as IBM, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Neustar, Hubspot, Keen.io, and SendgridPartner Network members will work together to develop a shared understanding of the needs of entrepreneurs, small businesses, and startup ecosystems, and develop a set of best practices among corporations interested in working with startups to help them grow.
· The Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF), a state-wide pension plan investing $34 billion on behalf of nearly 3,000 employers and 278,000 plan participants, is directly committing $220 million to minority- and female-owned private markets managers, representing about 58 percent of total private markets commitments. IMRF will allocate an additional $500 million to minority managers over the next 2 years.
· The “Rise of the Rest” tour will visit cities in the Southwest, Mountain West, and Northwest this fall. This fifth bus tour will showcase startups and growing entrepreneurial communities across the United States. Joined by partners Google for Entrepreneurs, Salesforce for Startups, Engine, Startup Grind, Tech.co, and Village Capital, the Rise of the Rest bus, which has been through 19 cities in the past 2 years, will visit hotbeds of entrepreneurial activity across the country. Each stop will feature elected officials, business leaders, community builders, and entrepreneurs from the local ecosystem and conclude with a $100,000 pitch competition.
· The Toigo Foundation, with new support from W.K. Kellogg Foundation, is committing to reach and support minority MBA candidates ready to become entrepreneurs in the finance sector. Toigo will provide these students with a network of contacts, one-on-one career guidance, leadership training, and a merit award. Toigo will also provide these students a mechanism for learning and exchange, as well as a platform to apply for funding to support critical startup costs.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 22, 2016
FACT SHEET: As the Global Entrepreneurship Summit Begins in Silicon Valley, New Announcements to Support Inclusive Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Home
On Friday, President Obama will speak at the 7th annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES), bringing together over 700 entrepreneurs from every corner of the globe—and from all across America. Entrepreneurship is a fundamental American value, and it is also a force that has the ability to unlock opportunity for people globally. GES is a reflection of the U.S. Government’s commitment to utilizing entrepreneurship as a foundational tool to build more economically prosperous, secure, and globally connected communities around the world.
With the eyes of the world on Silicon Valley, today the Obama Administration is announcing new commitments to advance inclusive entrepreneurship and innovation here at home. These announcements build on a week where the Administration has highlighted a powerful record of progress in fueling American innovation over the last seven and a half years and announcing new steps to build on those efforts—including supporting advanced manufacturing and making, publishing a new rule to enable non-recreational use of unmanned aircraft, and supporting next-generation technologies.
Today’s announcements include:
· Major expansion of the Small Business Administration’s Startup in a Day initiative to nearly 100 U.S. cities and communities. This effort helps streamline licensing, permitting, and other requirements needed to start a business in their community, with the goal of enabling entrepreneurs to apply for everything necessary to begin within 24 hours.
· Three Federal agencies will adopt new expansions of the National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps (I-Corps) entrepreneurship-training program. Over 800 teams have completed the curriculum, from 192 universities in 44 states, resulting in the creation of over 320 companies.
· Over 30 companies are joining a new, industry-led Tech Inclusion Pledge. As part of the pledge, companies are committing to take concrete action to make the technology workforce at each of their companies more representative of the American people.
Background
America’s spirit of innovation is a major reason why the U.S. economy is the strongest and most durable in the world, and it has inspired admiration from across the globe for generations. Since the beginning of his Administration, President Obama has worked to strengthen our innovation advantage—through investments and reforms to drive technological and scientific breakthroughs that will power our economy and further enhance America’s leadership in the industries of the future.
Today’s announcements build on the first-ever White House Demo Day, held in August 2015, which focused on inclusive entrepreneurship and welcomed startup founders from diverse walks of life to demonstrate their innovations at the White House. Also, in response to the Administration’s efforts to inspire a diverse generation of innovators, the #SeeHer initiative to improve equal representation of women and girls in media was announced at last week’s White House United State of Women Summit.
While America’s entrepreneurial economy is the envy of the world, there is still much work to do to ensure that the United States is tapping the full entrepreneurial potential of Americans, so that individuals from all walks of life have a straight shot at success.
For example, just three percent of America’s venture capital-backed startups are led by women, and only around one percent are led by African-Americans. Female entrepreneurs start companies with 50 percent less capital than male entrepreneurs, and only about four percent of U.S.-based venture capital investors are women. Capital for innovative startups is predominantly available in only a handful of large cities, making high-growth business creation a challenge in other locations.
A new independent report released today by Intel Corporation and Dalberg Global Development Advisors quantifies the economic impact of improving diversity in the tech sector, estimating that an additional $470 to $570 billion in new value for the U.S. technology industry could be generated through full representation of ethic and gender diversity.
Details on the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Summit
Following his historic 2009 Cairo speech, President Obama elevated innovation and entrepreneurship in the U.S. global engagement agenda and hosted the first GES at the White House in 2010. Over the past 6 years, the United States has been a leader in catalyzing entrepreneurship globally by developing innovative ecosystems; advocating for stronger business climates through rule of law and transparent business conduct; promoting entrepreneurship for all, including women, youth, and marginalized communities; and mobilizing the private sector to expand impact.
GES 2016 brings together entrepreneurs and investors from across the world for dynamic, outcome-oriented sessions; mentoring; and opportunities to showcase their work. GES has become a preeminent annual gathering that provides emerging entrepreneurs with exceptional networking, insight, and investment opportunities. This year’s GES, held in the heart of Silicon Valley, also includes diverse entrepreneurs from every corner of America.
New Steps Being Announced by the Administration Today
Today, the White House is announcing steps by the Administration to advance inclusive entrepreneurship and to make the innovation economy more accessible to all Americans. These actions build on prior efforts to expand the technology-talent pipeline, cut red tape, and accelerate research discoveries from the lab to the marketplace. New actions include:
· The Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service is announcing that later this year, it will provide up to $10 million in Conservation Innovation Grants to stimulate the development and adoption of innovative approaches and technologies for conservation on agricultural lands. The funding announcement will request proposals, including projects by innovative entrepreneurs, focusing on data analytics for conservation, precision conservation, and pay-for-success models to stimulate conservation adoption.
· The Department of Energy (DOE) is announcing nearly $16 million in funding to help DOE’s National Laboratories and the private sector move promising energy technologies to the marketplace. This first Department-wide round of Technology Commercialization Fund selections will support 12 national labs partnering with 52 private-sector partners, including startups all across the country, from Alaska to Florida.
· The Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program, first launched in 2011 by the National Science Foundation (NSF), provides entrepreneurship training for teams of scientists and engineers, through an intensive curriculum focused on discovering a truly demand-driven path from their lab work to a marketable product. Over 800 teams have completed the curriculum, from 192 universities in 44 states, resulting in the creation of over 320 companies that have collectively raised more than $83 million in follow-on funding. Building on the 10 existing I-Corps partnerships between NSF and other Federal agencies, new expansions announced today include:
o The National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is piloting the SPeeding Research-tested INTerventions (SPRINT) program to offer the “Lean Startup” entrepreneurial curriculum to NCI-funded scientists with active research grants that are focused on tools to advance cancer prevention and control.
o The National Security Agency (NSA) is working to embed the I-Corps curriculum within the National Cryptologic School, and will also participate in Stanford University’s Hacking for Defense (H4D) pilot program.
o The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will provide I-Corps entrepreneurship training for the first time next year to NASA-funded small businesses through its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs.
o NSF will pilot a “Phase 0 SBIR” I-Corps program this year for non-academic teams to help them determine the commercial readiness of their technology concept. Next year, NSF will expand a “Phase 1 SBIR” I-Corps program for NSF-funded small businesses. To advance inclusive entrepreneurship, NSF will provide supplementary funding to its I-Corps partner colleges and universities to increase engagement of underrepresented populations in high-tech entrepreneurship and commercialization.
· The Small Business Administration (SBA) is working to remove barriers to entrepreneurship across the country. This includes:
o Expanding the Startup in a Day Initiative. The President announced Startup in a Day in June 2015, when he made a public call to action for cities and Native American communities throughout the country to reduce red tape and make it easier for entrepreneurs to get started. At the time of the announcement, 11 mayors took a public pledge to develop online tools that let entrepreneurs discover and apply—in less than a day—for local, State, and Federal requirements needed to start a business. As of today, nearly 100 mayors have taken this pledge, which has the potential to positively affect more than 35 million Americans.
o Best-in-Class Entrepreneurship Education for All. To make the latest evidence-based entrepreneurship training available to America’s “Main Street” entrepreneurs and small businesses at scale, the SBA is announcing the development of a new, state-of-the-art online training curriculum with a goal of training 1 million small business owners by 2020. The comprehensive new set of massive open online courses (MOOCs) will bring a curriculum developed by leading academics and practitioners to this audience, coupled with built-in student evaluation to ensure students actually gain critical knowledge and skills. The courses will be made available later this year.
o Empowering A Next Generation of Business Leaders. SBA will join with Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT) to provide a diverse group of Fellows, including African American, Latino, and Native American college students and young professionals, with a professional playbook, one-on-one coaching, and door-opening relationships that will accelerate their career trajectories and provide the skills, tools, and networks to maximize their career potential while learning about entrepreneurship and personal finance. SBA will make available its resources to help Fellows interested in entrepreneurship. By 2020, MLT commits to develop an additional 3,000 Fellows prepared to navigate business careers.
New Commitments to Tap America’s Full Entrepreneurial Potential and Promote Diversity in the Technology Sector
Today, companies, universities, non-profits, and other organizations are announcing new actions to foster inclusive entrepreneurship and enhance diversity throughout the Nation’s innovation economy.
· Over 30 Companies Announce a New Tech Inclusion Pledge. Last summer President Obama hosted the first-ever White House Demo Day, where several companies made individual commitments to advance inclusive entrepreneurship and diversify their workforces. Today, as the eyes of the world are on Silicon Valley for the President’s Global Entrepreneurship Summit, senior leadership at over 30 companies of all sizes are making a commitment to fuel American innovation and economic growth by increasing the diversity of their technology workforce. Companies participating in this industry-led pledge include:
o 500px
o Airbnb
o Arimo
o Box
o BrightBytes
o Clarifai
o Color Genomics
o DataSift
o Distil Networks
o Drillinginfo
o ezCater
o Gainsight
o GitHub
o GoDaddy
o Illuminate Education
o Intel
o Intrinsic
o Lyft
o Medium
o Moz
o Nootrobox
o Pinterest
o Return Path
o SAP
o SkyTap
o Spotify
o TeamSnap
o Turnitin
o UnifyID
o Unitrends
o VMWare
o ZestFinance
o Zynga
These inaugural signatories are resolving to take action to make the technology workforce at each of their companies fully representative of the American people, as soon as possible. To view the full Tech Inclusion Pledge, click HERE.
To facilitate additional pledge commitments and help companies meet those commitments, the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) and CODE2040 are today launching a website with free research-based implementation resources.
In the coming months, the White House will work to bring companies together to discuss long-term strategies for building a more inclusive tech workforce and expanding the number of companies making concrete progress over time, including by fostering a community of practice driven by research-based measures.
Many additional companies, nonprofits, universities, and others around the country are announcing new actions to promote inclusive entrepreneurship, in response to the President’s call to action:
· 500 Startups is announcing a $25 million dollar microfund to invest in over 200 startups led by black and Latino tech entrepreneurs, providing the access to capital, networks, and expertise to grow their businesses.
· BUILD is expanding its Youth Entrepreneurship Program to the Nation’s largest school districts—New York City and Los Angeles—doubling the number of students it serves. BUILD, the Redwood City, California-based experiential-learning program for high school students in under-resourced communities, uses entrepreneurship to engage students and give them the 21st century skills needed to succeed in college and career.
· CalSTRS, an educator-only pension fund is expanding its diversity initiative beyond the boardroom and will engage portfolio companies about building diverse pipelines of their most valuable resource, their human capital. This new initiative will focus on financial and technology companies to improve the diversity of their workforce. The goal is to increase the pipeline of diverse executives that can eventually feed into the candidate selection of corporate boards.
· The Case Foundation is launching a 2-year, $1 million commitment to advancing inclusive entrepreneurship. By increasing access to social and financial capital for diverse entrepreneurs, the Foundation seeks to increase the number of women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs of color who are building and scaling successful businesses. To kick off this work, the Foundation is partnering with JumpStart, Inc., to launch a $10 million seed capital Focus Fund for diverse entrepreneurs, which will invest in technology companies that are female- or minority-owned or led with a focus on the African-American and Latino communities.
· Engineering deans from 170 universities are committing to building a more-representative student talent pipeline. Building on the commitments made at White House Demo Day in 2015, today, engineering deans from around the country representing more than 50 percent of all U.S. engineering schools (both undergraduate and graduate institutions) signed a letter pledging actions that promise to increase diversity among engineering students. These actions include developing concrete diversity plans for their engineering programs, with input from national organizations such as the National Society of Black Engineers, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, and the Society of Women Engineers.
· Ten companies are forming a new network to partner with startups. Today the Global Accelerator Network (GAN) is launching a corporate Partner Network, in order to develop and share best practices among corporations working to foster the formation and scale-up of new companies across the country and the world. The initial Partner Network members include companies such as IBM, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Neustar, Hubspot, Keen.io, and SendgridPartner Network members will work together to develop a shared understanding of the needs of entrepreneurs, small businesses, and startup ecosystems, and develop a set of best practices among corporations interested in working with startups to help them grow.
· The Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF), a state-wide pension plan investing $34 billion on behalf of nearly 3,000 employers and 278,000 plan participants, is directly committing $220 million to minority- and female-owned private markets managers, representing about 58 percent of total private markets commitments. IMRF will allocate an additional $500 million to minority managers over the next 2 years.
· The “Rise of the Rest” tour will visit cities in the Southwest, Mountain West, and Northwest this fall. This fifth bus tour will showcase startups and growing entrepreneurial communities across the United States. Joined by partners Google for Entrepreneurs, Salesforce for Startups, Engine, Startup Grind, Tech.co, and Village Capital, the Rise of the Rest bus, which has been through 19 cities in the past 2 years, will visit hotbeds of entrepreneurial activity across the country. Each stop will feature elected officials, business leaders, community builders, and entrepreneurs from the local ecosystem and conclude with a $100,000 pitch competition.
· The Toigo Foundation, with new support from W.K. Kellogg Foundation, is committing to reach and support minority MBA candidates ready to become entrepreneurs in the finance sector. Toigo will provide these students with a network of contacts, one-on-one career guidance, leadership training, and a merit award. Toigo will also provide these students a mechanism for learning and exchange, as well as a platform to apply for funding to support critical startup costs.
FACT SHEET: President Obama Announces Winner of New Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute and New Manufacturing Hub Competitions
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 20, 2016
FACT SHEET: President Obama Announces Winner of New Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute and New Manufacturing Hub Competitions
The Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute, headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, brings over $140 million in public-private investment from leading universities and manufacturers to develop smart sensors for use in advanced manufacturing.
Throughout this week, the Obama Administration will be highlighting America’s capacity for creativity and invention and how our innovative progress over the last seven and a half years has helped continue to make our economy the strongest and most durable in the world. As part of this effort, today, at the third-annual SelectUSA Summit in Washington, DC, before an audience of business leaders, economic development officials, and investors from around the world, President Obama will announce that the Smart Manufacturing Leadership Coalition (SMLC) will lead the new Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute, in partnership with the Department of Energy. The winning coalition, headquartered in Los Angeles, California brings together a consortium of nearly 200 partners from across academia, industry, and non-profits—hailing from more than thirty states—to spur advances in smart sensors and digital process controls that can radically improve the efficiency of U.S. advanced manufacturing.
The Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute is the ninth manufacturing hub awarded by the Obama Administration. Today, the President also announced the launch of five new manufacturing hub competitions, which will invest nearly $800 million in combined federal and non-federal resources to support transformative manufacturing technologies from collaborative robotics to biofabrication of cells and tissues, to revolutionizing the ways materials can be reused and recycled. With the new competitions underway, the Administration is on track to meet the President’s goal of a National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI) of 15 institutes underway across the country before the end of his Administration.
After a decade of decline from 2000 to 2010, the U.S. manufacturing sector has added over 800,000 jobs since February 2010 and remains more competitive for jobs and investment today compared to recent decades. And just last month, a new survey of CEOs from around the world declared the United States the most attractive country for investment for the fourth year in a row.
Announcing New Manufacturing Innovation Institute Award and Competitions
The Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute being announced today, the ninth institute government-wide awarded to-date, will focus on innovations like smart sensors that can dramatically reduce energy expenses in advanced manufacturing, making our manufacturing sector strong today and positioning the United States to lead the manufacturing of tomorrow, helping sustain the resurgence of U.S. manufacturing currently underway. The Smart Manufacturing Leadership Coalition will bring together nearly 200 partners to launch the Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute, focused on accelerating the development and adoption of advanced sensors, data analytics, and controls in manufacturing, while reducing the cost of these technologies by half and radically improving the efficiency of U.S. advanced manufacturing.
In addition, the newly announced manufacturing innovation institute topics now under competition include:
· Robotics in Manufacturing Environments Manufacturing Innovation Institute. In collaboration with the Department of Defense, the newest manufacturing institute will focus on building U.S. leadership in smart collaborative robotics, where advanced robots work alongside humans seamlessly, safely, and intuitively to do the heavy lifting on an assembly line or handle with precision, intricate or dangerous tasks. People collaborating with robots has the potential to change a broad swath of manufacturing sectors, from defense and space to automotive and health, enabling the reliable and efficient production of high-quality, customized products.
· Advanced Tissue Biofabrication Manufacturing Innovation Institute. In collaboration with the Department of Defense, the Institute will pioneer next-generation manufacturing techniques for repairing and replacing cells and tissues, which may one day lead to the ability to manufacture new skin for soldiers scarred from combat or to produce life-saving organs for the too many Americans stuck on transplant waiting lists today. The Institute will focus on solving the cross-cutting manufacturing challenges that stand in the way of producing new synthetic tissues and organs – such as improving the availability, reproducibility, accessibility, and standardization of manufacturing materials, technologies, and processes to create tissue and organ products. We expect collaborations across multiple disciplines; from 3D bio-printing, cell science, and process design, automated pharmaceutical screening methods to the supply chain expertise needed to rapidly produce and transport these live-saving materials.
· Modular Chemical Process Intensification (MCPI) Institute. In collaboration with the Department of Energy, the Institute will fundamentally redesign the process used for manufacturing chemicals, refining fuels, and producing other high-value products by combining many complex processing stages into one simple and streamlined step. Process intensification breakthroughs can dramatically shrink the footprint of equipment needed on a crowded factory floor or eliminate waste by using the raw input materials more efficiently. For example, by simplifying and shrinking the process, this approach could enable natural gas refining directly at the wellhead, saving up to half of the energy lost in the ethanol cracking process today. In the chemical industry alone, these technologies could save more than $9 billion annually in process costs.
· Reducing Embodied Energy and Decreasing Emissions (REMADE) in Materials Manufacturing Institute. In collaboration with the Department of Energy, the Institute will focus on reducing the total lifetime use of energy in manufactured materials by developing new cradle-to-cradle technologies for the reuse, recycling, and remanufacturing of manmade materials. U.S. manufacturing consumes nearly a third of the nation’s total energy use annually, with much of that energy embodied in the physical products made in manufacturing. New technologies to better repurpose these materials could save U.S. manufacturers and the nation up to 1.6 quadrillion BTU of energy annually, equivalent to 280 million barrels of oil, or a month’s worth of that nation’s oil imports.
· Industry-proposed Institutes Competition. Leveraging authorities from legislation passed with broad bipartisan support in Congress, the Department of Commerce has launched the first “open topic” institute competition. This competition is open to any topic proposed by industry not already addressed by a manufacturing innovation institute. At least one institute will be awarded using FY2016 funds, and one or more will be awarded subject to the availability of additional funds. The open topic competition design allows industry to propose technology areas seen as critical by leading manufacturers to the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing.
Headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, the Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute will also launch five regional manufacturing centers across the United States each focused on local technology transfer and workforce development. UCLA will lead the California regional center, in partnership with the city of Los Angeles harnessing the ability to tap the largest manufacturing base in the United States. Texas A&M University will lead the Gulf Coast center—a region anchored in the chemical, oil and gas sectors—and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) will lead the Northeast center, where glass, ceramic and microelectronic manufacturing has a strong presence. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will lead a hub in the Northwest and NC State will spearhead a regional hub for the Southeast.
To ensure that all American businesses, regardless of their size or potential resource limitations, have the opportunity to benefit from the institute’s progress, the Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute will use an open-source digital platform and technology marketplace to integrate advanced sensors, controls, platforms, and modeling technologies into commercial smart manufacturing systems. The institute will also provide the manufacturing communities with easy and affordable access to real-time analytic tools, infrastructure, and industrial applications.
Through the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation, the new Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute will partner with three existing manufacturing innovation institutes to pioneer technologies at the intersection of their unique capabilities. For example, the Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute will partner with IACMI to demonstrate the value of using advanced sensors in the production of carbon fiber and with PowerAmerica to showcase the energy savings of using advanced sensors in the production of new wide bandgap semiconductor circuit boards.
Industry Partners: Aerospace Corporation; Alcoa; Analog Devices; ANSYS; ArcellorMittal; Autodesk; BASF Corporation; Bonneville Power Administration; Corning; Emerson Process Management; ExxonMobil; General Mills; Global Foundries; Google; KUKA Systems North America; Microsoft; Northrop Grumman; OSIsoft; Pfizer; Praxair; Rockwell Automation; Saint-Gobain; Southern California Edison; United States Steel Corporation; United Technologies Research Center; Medium: A&E Engineering Inc.; LanzaTech; Materia; SEVA; TowerJazz; Small: Able Industrial Products Inc.; Accurate Dial & Nameplate; Advanced Polymer Monitoring Technologies; Apex; APS Technology; Baja Designs; Banks Integration; Bonanza Associates; Citrine Informatics; EnerG2; Eon Reality; GMS Industrial Supply; Goodyear Rubber; Greenway Energy; HannahMax Baking; Industrial Automation Consulting; Infologic, Inc.; Information Systems Associates; Loman CSI-Consortium/Resource; Makai Ocean engineering; Martin Control Systems; Nila; Nimbis Services; One Cycle Control; Process Systems Enterprise Inc.; RES Group; Satelles: Savigent Software; Space Micro; Summertree Interiors Newport Cottages; SyncFab; ThinkIQ; Viewpoint Systems; VIMANA System Insights; Vinatech Engineering Inc.; VRCO; and many more small and medium-sized manufacturers.
Local and State Organizations: California Chamber of Commerce; City of Los Angeles; Energy Trust of Oregon ; Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce; LAnSync, National Association of State Energy Officials; Oregon Department of Energy; PortTech LA; State Energy Conservation Office; State of California; State of Connecticut; State of Louisiana Board of Regents; State of Washington; Texas Workforce Commission Manufacturing Enterprise Program (MEP): California Manufacturing Technology Consulting (CMTC), North Carolina MEP , Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station; Investing in Manufacturing Community Partnerships (IMCP): Advanced Manufacturing Partnership for Southern California (AMP SoCal); Pacific Northwest Manufacturing Partnership ; Puget Sound Regional Council.
Academic Partners and Research Institutes: Community Colleges: (Brazosport, California Community Colleges (113), Chaffey; Irvine Valley; Lee, Long Beach City) California Institute for Telecommunications; Cal State U (Long Beach; Poly Pomona, Northridge); California Community Colleges Centers for Applied Competitive Technologies; Clemson U.; Georgia Institute of Technology; Idaho National Laboratory; Jet Propulsion National Laboratory; Lamar U.; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Louisiana State U.; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Michigan Tech Rail Transportation Program; Michigan Technological U.; Missouri U. of Science & Technology; Montana Gallatin College; Montana State U.; MontanaTech; National Energy Technology National Laboratory; National Renewable Energy Laboratoroy; North Carolina State U.; Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Oregon State U.; Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Pennsylvania State U.; Purdue U.; Purdue U. Calumet; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Rochester Institute of Technology; Rutgers School of Engineering; San Diego Supercomputing Center; Savannah River National Laboratory; Texas A&M University; Tulane U; SUNY Buffalo; U. of California (Berkeley, Irvine, Los Angeles); U. of Connecticut; Louisville; Massachusetts; Southern California; Tennessee Knoxville ; University of Texas (Austin; Rio Grande Valley); U. of Virginia; Virginia Tech; U. of Washington Clean Energy Institute; Washington State U.; West Virginia U.
Independent Associations and Scientific Societies: American Foundry Society; Alliance to Save Energy; American Council for An Energy Efficient Economy; American Iron & Steel Institute; American Society of Quality; Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology; Council on Competitiveness; EWI; Gas Tech Institute; Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Associations; North American Die Casting Association; North American Process Technology Alliance; National Center for Manufacturing Sciences; Oregon BEST; SME; Southwest Research Institute; Steel Founders Society of America; Northwest Food Processors Association.
Early Successes from the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation
From the very first manufacturing institute pioneering novel 3D printing technologies in Youngstown, OH, to the most recently awarded institute pushing the boundaries of advanced fiber and textile technologies in Cambridge, MA, each of the now nine institutes is part of a growing innovation network dedicated to securing the U.S. technological leadership required to win the next generation of advanced manufacturing.
The institutes, each led by manufacturing experts renowned in their field, have attracted nearly 1,000 companies, universities, and non-profits as members of the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation. The Federal government’s commitment of over $600 million to the nine awarded institutes has been matched by over $1.2 billion in non-Federal resources from across industry, academia, and state governments. Already these institutes are having an impact – from helping Rochester, NY attract over $1.4 billion and 800 manufacturing jobs through new photonics companies to pioneering the first FDA approved 3D-printed medical device.
Already, these investments are generating wins for U.S. manufacturing:
· To help anchor production of new semiconductor technologies in the United States and accelerate the commercialization of advanced power electronics, in March, the Power America Manufacturing Innovation Institute successfully partnered with X-FAB in Lubbock, TX, to upgrade a $100 million dollar foundry to produce cost-competitive, next-generation semiconductors, enabling new business opportunities to sustain hundreds of jobs.
· Using next-generation metals manufacturing techniques, Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow (LIFT), the Detroit institute focused on lightweight metals, has successfully reduced the weight of core metal parts found in cars and trucks by 40 percent, improving fuel efficiency and saving consumers dollars at the pump. In addition, LIFT has introduced curriculum in 22 states to train workers on the use of lightweight metals. This summer, 38 companies will host students in paid manufacturing internship in partnership with LIFT.
· America Makes has attracted hundreds of millions of dollars in new manufacturing investment to its region, including helping to attract GE’s new $32 million global 3D printing hub and spurring Alcoa to invest $60 million in its New Kensington, PA facilities, both of which will benefit from proximity to America Makes and its expertise in 3D printing with metal powders.
· In addition, America Makes, with Deloitte and other partners, has created a free online course on the fundamentals of 3D printing for businesses. Over the last year, over 14,000 business leaders have taken this course to learn what 3D printing can do for their businesses.
To learn more about the open competitions for these next manufacturing innovation institutes, please visit Manufacturing.gov. The established manufacturing innovation institutes are:
· America Makes, the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute (Youngstown, OH)
· Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (Chicago, IL)
· Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow (Detroit, MI)
· Power America (Raleigh, NC)
· Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (Knoxville, TN)
· American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics (Rochester, NY)
· Next Flex, the Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Innovation Institute (San Jose, CA)
· Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (Cambridge, MA)
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 20, 2016
FACT SHEET: President Obama Announces Winner of New Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute and New Manufacturing Hub Competitions
The Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute, headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, brings over $140 million in public-private investment from leading universities and manufacturers to develop smart sensors for use in advanced manufacturing.
Throughout this week, the Obama Administration will be highlighting America’s capacity for creativity and invention and how our innovative progress over the last seven and a half years has helped continue to make our economy the strongest and most durable in the world. As part of this effort, today, at the third-annual SelectUSA Summit in Washington, DC, before an audience of business leaders, economic development officials, and investors from around the world, President Obama will announce that the Smart Manufacturing Leadership Coalition (SMLC) will lead the new Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute, in partnership with the Department of Energy. The winning coalition, headquartered in Los Angeles, California brings together a consortium of nearly 200 partners from across academia, industry, and non-profits—hailing from more than thirty states—to spur advances in smart sensors and digital process controls that can radically improve the efficiency of U.S. advanced manufacturing.
The Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute is the ninth manufacturing hub awarded by the Obama Administration. Today, the President also announced the launch of five new manufacturing hub competitions, which will invest nearly $800 million in combined federal and non-federal resources to support transformative manufacturing technologies from collaborative robotics to biofabrication of cells and tissues, to revolutionizing the ways materials can be reused and recycled. With the new competitions underway, the Administration is on track to meet the President’s goal of a National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI) of 15 institutes underway across the country before the end of his Administration.
After a decade of decline from 2000 to 2010, the U.S. manufacturing sector has added over 800,000 jobs since February 2010 and remains more competitive for jobs and investment today compared to recent decades. And just last month, a new survey of CEOs from around the world declared the United States the most attractive country for investment for the fourth year in a row.
Announcing New Manufacturing Innovation Institute Award and Competitions
The Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute being announced today, the ninth institute government-wide awarded to-date, will focus on innovations like smart sensors that can dramatically reduce energy expenses in advanced manufacturing, making our manufacturing sector strong today and positioning the United States to lead the manufacturing of tomorrow, helping sustain the resurgence of U.S. manufacturing currently underway. The Smart Manufacturing Leadership Coalition will bring together nearly 200 partners to launch the Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute, focused on accelerating the development and adoption of advanced sensors, data analytics, and controls in manufacturing, while reducing the cost of these technologies by half and radically improving the efficiency of U.S. advanced manufacturing.
In addition, the newly announced manufacturing innovation institute topics now under competition include:
· Robotics in Manufacturing Environments Manufacturing Innovation Institute. In collaboration with the Department of Defense, the newest manufacturing institute will focus on building U.S. leadership in smart collaborative robotics, where advanced robots work alongside humans seamlessly, safely, and intuitively to do the heavy lifting on an assembly line or handle with precision, intricate or dangerous tasks. People collaborating with robots has the potential to change a broad swath of manufacturing sectors, from defense and space to automotive and health, enabling the reliable and efficient production of high-quality, customized products.
· Advanced Tissue Biofabrication Manufacturing Innovation Institute. In collaboration with the Department of Defense, the Institute will pioneer next-generation manufacturing techniques for repairing and replacing cells and tissues, which may one day lead to the ability to manufacture new skin for soldiers scarred from combat or to produce life-saving organs for the too many Americans stuck on transplant waiting lists today. The Institute will focus on solving the cross-cutting manufacturing challenges that stand in the way of producing new synthetic tissues and organs – such as improving the availability, reproducibility, accessibility, and standardization of manufacturing materials, technologies, and processes to create tissue and organ products. We expect collaborations across multiple disciplines; from 3D bio-printing, cell science, and process design, automated pharmaceutical screening methods to the supply chain expertise needed to rapidly produce and transport these live-saving materials.
· Modular Chemical Process Intensification (MCPI) Institute. In collaboration with the Department of Energy, the Institute will fundamentally redesign the process used for manufacturing chemicals, refining fuels, and producing other high-value products by combining many complex processing stages into one simple and streamlined step. Process intensification breakthroughs can dramatically shrink the footprint of equipment needed on a crowded factory floor or eliminate waste by using the raw input materials more efficiently. For example, by simplifying and shrinking the process, this approach could enable natural gas refining directly at the wellhead, saving up to half of the energy lost in the ethanol cracking process today. In the chemical industry alone, these technologies could save more than $9 billion annually in process costs.
· Reducing Embodied Energy and Decreasing Emissions (REMADE) in Materials Manufacturing Institute. In collaboration with the Department of Energy, the Institute will focus on reducing the total lifetime use of energy in manufactured materials by developing new cradle-to-cradle technologies for the reuse, recycling, and remanufacturing of manmade materials. U.S. manufacturing consumes nearly a third of the nation’s total energy use annually, with much of that energy embodied in the physical products made in manufacturing. New technologies to better repurpose these materials could save U.S. manufacturers and the nation up to 1.6 quadrillion BTU of energy annually, equivalent to 280 million barrels of oil, or a month’s worth of that nation’s oil imports.
· Industry-proposed Institutes Competition. Leveraging authorities from legislation passed with broad bipartisan support in Congress, the Department of Commerce has launched the first “open topic” institute competition. This competition is open to any topic proposed by industry not already addressed by a manufacturing innovation institute. At least one institute will be awarded using FY2016 funds, and one or more will be awarded subject to the availability of additional funds. The open topic competition design allows industry to propose technology areas seen as critical by leading manufacturers to the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing.
Headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, the Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute will also launch five regional manufacturing centers across the United States each focused on local technology transfer and workforce development. UCLA will lead the California regional center, in partnership with the city of Los Angeles harnessing the ability to tap the largest manufacturing base in the United States. Texas A&M University will lead the Gulf Coast center—a region anchored in the chemical, oil and gas sectors—and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) will lead the Northeast center, where glass, ceramic and microelectronic manufacturing has a strong presence. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will lead a hub in the Northwest and NC State will spearhead a regional hub for the Southeast.
To ensure that all American businesses, regardless of their size or potential resource limitations, have the opportunity to benefit from the institute’s progress, the Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute will use an open-source digital platform and technology marketplace to integrate advanced sensors, controls, platforms, and modeling technologies into commercial smart manufacturing systems. The institute will also provide the manufacturing communities with easy and affordable access to real-time analytic tools, infrastructure, and industrial applications.
Through the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation, the new Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute will partner with three existing manufacturing innovation institutes to pioneer technologies at the intersection of their unique capabilities. For example, the Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute will partner with IACMI to demonstrate the value of using advanced sensors in the production of carbon fiber and with PowerAmerica to showcase the energy savings of using advanced sensors in the production of new wide bandgap semiconductor circuit boards.
Industry Partners: Aerospace Corporation; Alcoa; Analog Devices; ANSYS; ArcellorMittal; Autodesk; BASF Corporation; Bonneville Power Administration; Corning; Emerson Process Management; ExxonMobil; General Mills; Global Foundries; Google; KUKA Systems North America; Microsoft; Northrop Grumman; OSIsoft; Pfizer; Praxair; Rockwell Automation; Saint-Gobain; Southern California Edison; United States Steel Corporation; United Technologies Research Center; Medium: A&E Engineering Inc.; LanzaTech; Materia; SEVA; TowerJazz; Small: Able Industrial Products Inc.; Accurate Dial & Nameplate; Advanced Polymer Monitoring Technologies; Apex; APS Technology; Baja Designs; Banks Integration; Bonanza Associates; Citrine Informatics; EnerG2; Eon Reality; GMS Industrial Supply; Goodyear Rubber; Greenway Energy; HannahMax Baking; Industrial Automation Consulting; Infologic, Inc.; Information Systems Associates; Loman CSI-Consortium/Resource; Makai Ocean engineering; Martin Control Systems; Nila; Nimbis Services; One Cycle Control; Process Systems Enterprise Inc.; RES Group; Satelles: Savigent Software; Space Micro; Summertree Interiors Newport Cottages; SyncFab; ThinkIQ; Viewpoint Systems; VIMANA System Insights; Vinatech Engineering Inc.; VRCO; and many more small and medium-sized manufacturers.
Local and State Organizations: California Chamber of Commerce; City of Los Angeles; Energy Trust of Oregon ; Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce; LAnSync, National Association of State Energy Officials; Oregon Department of Energy; PortTech LA; State Energy Conservation Office; State of California; State of Connecticut; State of Louisiana Board of Regents; State of Washington; Texas Workforce Commission Manufacturing Enterprise Program (MEP): California Manufacturing Technology Consulting (CMTC), North Carolina MEP , Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station; Investing in Manufacturing Community Partnerships (IMCP): Advanced Manufacturing Partnership for Southern California (AMP SoCal); Pacific Northwest Manufacturing Partnership ; Puget Sound Regional Council.
Academic Partners and Research Institutes: Community Colleges: (Brazosport, California Community Colleges (113), Chaffey; Irvine Valley; Lee, Long Beach City) California Institute for Telecommunications; Cal State U (Long Beach; Poly Pomona, Northridge); California Community Colleges Centers for Applied Competitive Technologies; Clemson U.; Georgia Institute of Technology; Idaho National Laboratory; Jet Propulsion National Laboratory; Lamar U.; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Louisiana State U.; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Michigan Tech Rail Transportation Program; Michigan Technological U.; Missouri U. of Science & Technology; Montana Gallatin College; Montana State U.; MontanaTech; National Energy Technology National Laboratory; National Renewable Energy Laboratoroy; North Carolina State U.; Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Oregon State U.; Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Pennsylvania State U.; Purdue U.; Purdue U. Calumet; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Rochester Institute of Technology; Rutgers School of Engineering; San Diego Supercomputing Center; Savannah River National Laboratory; Texas A&M University; Tulane U; SUNY Buffalo; U. of California (Berkeley, Irvine, Los Angeles); U. of Connecticut; Louisville; Massachusetts; Southern California; Tennessee Knoxville ; University of Texas (Austin; Rio Grande Valley); U. of Virginia; Virginia Tech; U. of Washington Clean Energy Institute; Washington State U.; West Virginia U.
Independent Associations and Scientific Societies: American Foundry Society; Alliance to Save Energy; American Council for An Energy Efficient Economy; American Iron & Steel Institute; American Society of Quality; Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology; Council on Competitiveness; EWI; Gas Tech Institute; Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Associations; North American Die Casting Association; North American Process Technology Alliance; National Center for Manufacturing Sciences; Oregon BEST; SME; Southwest Research Institute; Steel Founders Society of America; Northwest Food Processors Association.
Early Successes from the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation
From the very first manufacturing institute pioneering novel 3D printing technologies in Youngstown, OH, to the most recently awarded institute pushing the boundaries of advanced fiber and textile technologies in Cambridge, MA, each of the now nine institutes is part of a growing innovation network dedicated to securing the U.S. technological leadership required to win the next generation of advanced manufacturing.
The institutes, each led by manufacturing experts renowned in their field, have attracted nearly 1,000 companies, universities, and non-profits as members of the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation. The Federal government’s commitment of over $600 million to the nine awarded institutes has been matched by over $1.2 billion in non-Federal resources from across industry, academia, and state governments. Already these institutes are having an impact – from helping Rochester, NY attract over $1.4 billion and 800 manufacturing jobs through new photonics companies to pioneering the first FDA approved 3D-printed medical device.
Already, these investments are generating wins for U.S. manufacturing:
· To help anchor production of new semiconductor technologies in the United States and accelerate the commercialization of advanced power electronics, in March, the Power America Manufacturing Innovation Institute successfully partnered with X-FAB in Lubbock, TX, to upgrade a $100 million dollar foundry to produce cost-competitive, next-generation semiconductors, enabling new business opportunities to sustain hundreds of jobs.
· Using next-generation metals manufacturing techniques, Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow (LIFT), the Detroit institute focused on lightweight metals, has successfully reduced the weight of core metal parts found in cars and trucks by 40 percent, improving fuel efficiency and saving consumers dollars at the pump. In addition, LIFT has introduced curriculum in 22 states to train workers on the use of lightweight metals. This summer, 38 companies will host students in paid manufacturing internship in partnership with LIFT.
· America Makes has attracted hundreds of millions of dollars in new manufacturing investment to its region, including helping to attract GE’s new $32 million global 3D printing hub and spurring Alcoa to invest $60 million in its New Kensington, PA facilities, both of which will benefit from proximity to America Makes and its expertise in 3D printing with metal powders.
· In addition, America Makes, with Deloitte and other partners, has created a free online course on the fundamentals of 3D printing for businesses. Over the last year, over 14,000 business leaders have taken this course to learn what 3D printing can do for their businesses.
To learn more about the open competitions for these next manufacturing innovation institutes, please visit Manufacturing.gov. The established manufacturing innovation institutes are:
· America Makes, the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute (Youngstown, OH)
· Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (Chicago, IL)
· Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow (Detroit, MI)
· Power America (Raleigh, NC)
· Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (Knoxville, TN)
· American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics (Rochester, NY)
· Next Flex, the Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Innovation Institute (San Jose, CA)
· Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (Cambridge, MA)
FACT SHEET: At White House Science Fair, President Obama Calls on this Generation of Students to Tackle the Grand Challenges of Our Time
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 13, 2016
FACT SHEET: At White House Science Fair, President Obama Calls on this Generation of Students to Tackle the Grand Challenges of Our Time
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Obama will host the sixth and final White House Science Fair of his Administration and celebrate the student competitors and winners from a broad range of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) competitions. The event will be the largest White House Science Fair to date, with more than 130 students from more than 30 states, as well as student alumni from each of the prior five White House Science Fairs.
Highlighting the powerful stories of ingenuity, social activism, teamwork, and civic engagement evident in the projects, President Obama will call on this generation of students—those in elementary, middle, and high schools today—to actively participate in solving the toughest challenges facing our world, from combating climate change to setting foot on Mars.
President Obama established the tradition of the White House Science Fair at the start of his Administration to personally celebrate our Nation’s top young scientists and innovators. The President created the Science Fair with a simple credo: “If you win the NCAA championship, you come to the White House. Well, if you're a young person and you produce the best experiment or design, the best hardware or software, you ought to be recognized for that achievement, too.”
The President will also highlight the growing community of education, business, and nonprofit leaders who have responded to his State of the Union call to give every child the opportunity to learn computer science (CS), as well as his overall “Educate to Innovate” campaign to ensure all students have the tools to be innovators and problem-solvers. Today’s announcements include:
· New Department of Education guidance to states, school districts, and other education organizations on the many ways they can use existing Federal funds to advance Pre-K–12 STEM and CS learning.
· A $200 million investment by Oracle to support CS education for an additional 125,000 students in the United States.
· More than 500 K-12 schools committing to expand access to CS, with support from Code.org.
· Commitments to expand STEM learning for more of our youngest learners, from family engagement to innovative use of media.
· A new online matching platform, supported by US2020, to help more STEM professionals who want to volunteer and mentor.
Today’s STEM announcements also mark progress on the President’s My Brother’s Keeper Initiative and the efforts of the Council on Women and Girls to build ladders of opportunity for all young people, including populations underrepresented in STEM; incorporate STEM into the Administration’s push to expand high-quality early-childhood education; and advance the Climate Education and Literacy Initiative to help connect all American students and citizens with the best-available, science-based information about climate change. Full details on all of today’s announcements can be found here.
The White House Science Fair is part of a week of Administration activities celebrating science and technology, featuring the President’s participation as a guest presenter throughout this week on the Science Channel’s nightly science news segment. In addition, the White House Science Fair will be immediately followed by the USA Science & Engineering Festival, the nation's largest celebration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, with more than 350,000 students and adults expected to engage in more than 3,000 hands-on activities over 3 days. More than 70 Federal agencies will participate in the Festival.
A Generational Call to Action
Students today have the potential to be one of America’s greatest generations. Though each generation of Americans brings with them new ideas and energy, today, because of unprecedented access to cutting-edge physical and digital tools, online and in-person communities, and information about the grand challenges we face, American students are even better equipped to harness their passions towards developing solutions that confront our toughest challenges.
They can be the Mars generation, the explorers who first step foot on another planet. Their skills, perseverance, and collaboration can help seed new technologies and solutions to tackle the climate crisis. They can collaborate to harness rapid advances in information technology and nanotechnology to understand the human brain, forge new solutions to cancer, and embrace the American spirit of discovery, invention, and entrepreneurship.
As the President highlighted in this year’s State of the Union Address, everyone in the United States can harness technology to help solve our toughest challenges. The 2016 White House Science Fair shines a spotlight on the contributions that the Nation’s students are making now, and the potential they have to help make our country and our world a better place.
The more than 130 students at the 2016 White House Science Fair will represent more than 40 different STEM competitions and organizations. Approximately 40 student teams will have the opportunity to exhibit their projects at the White House, and the President will personally view some of these projects. Additional information on the projects, students, and competitions being recognized at the Fair can be found here.
A Sustained Record of Accomplishment
This White House Science Fair is only the most recent example of President Obama’s sustained and historic focus on giving every child the opportunity to excel at STEM education. In the past 7 years:
· The Administration has secured more than $1 billion in private investment for improving STEM education as part of the President’s Educate to Innovate campaign.
· Our Nation is more than halfway towards achieving the goal the President set in 2011 of preparing 100,000 new math and science teachers by 2021.
· Compared to when President Obama took office, 25,000 more engineers are graduating each year from American universities.
· STEM education has been incorporated into the priorities of the Department of Education (ED)—as illustrated by the Administration’s signature Race to the Top competition—and into the bipartisan Every Student Succeeds Act that the President signed last year.
· This White House has announced more than 350 commitments from college and university leadership and others to provide pathways for students underrepresented in STEM to attain degrees.
· President Obama has started traditions such as the White House Science Fair to honor young people using STEM to improve their communities and the world.
And in his final budget announced in February, the President sustains this impressive track record with an investment of $3 billion for STEM-education programs, as well as a historic $4 billion proposal in support of CS education for all students.
New Steps Being Announced by the Administration Today
Federal agencies are announcing new steps to empower local communities with the tools, people, and support they need to expand their STEM efforts. These include:
· Federal guidance on advancing STEM education. Today, the Department of Education (ED) Office of STEM is releasing a Dear Colleague Letter providing guidance for states, school districts, and other education organizations on how they can use Federal funds to support innovative STEM-education strategies and ensure equitable STEM-education opportunities and outcomes for all students in the 2016-17 school year. In particular, this guidance outlines how Federal money can be used to support high-quality, hands-on active STEM learning.
· The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), along with the STEM Funders Network and the Afterschool Alliance, are collaborating to support vibrant STEM ecosystems in as many as 14 communities, where local schools, out-of-school programs, business, higher education, museums and local institutions will work together to expand STEM learning opportunities for local students. To support the effort, CNCS will place up to 28 AmeriCorps VISTA members, who will be full-time staff on the ground. In addition, CNCS is expanding STEM AmeriCorps VISTA through a new partnership with the New York Academy of Sciences that will place more than 10 AmeriCorps VISTA members over the next 2 years in afterschool STEM-mentoring programs, which will serve students who reside in 60 of the poorest neighborhoods in New York City, NY, and Newark, NJ.
· The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), in collaboration with the YMCA of the USA, will help 10 new host cities around the country expand Thingamajig, a program developed by the YMCA of Metropolitan DC. These cities will create programs, seminars, and tools that assist students in connecting STEM education with real-world problem solving skills. This partnership builds on the last 2 years of expansion across YMCA of the USA, which reaches over 100,000 youth—with a focus on low-income and underrepresented youth—in 48 states and Washington, D.C. Additionally, this year, USPTO will expand its collaboration with the JAMTECH program to more sites across the country. JAMTECH is a hands-on educational experience that gives students with little or no exposure to computer programming the opportunity to build and program their own video games over the course of a day—teaching the principles of game design, coding, and programming in a way that allows students to expand their competencies in areas such as math, physics, analysis, logic, and strategy.
· Over 200 Federally supported citizen-science projects for students and adults are now accessible from a single place--CitizenScience.gov. The General Services Administration (GSA) is collaborating with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (WWICS), a Trust Instrumentality of the U.S. Government, to launch CitizenScience.gov, a new central hub for citizen science and crowdsourcing initiatives in the public sector. CitizenScience.gov will provide information, resources, and tools for government personnel, students, and adults who are actively engaged in or looking to participate in citizen science and crowdsourcing projects. The development of this catalogue follows the September 2015 memorandum to Federal departments and agencies issued by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).
· ED, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and Too Small to Fail (TSTF) are releasing a series of tip sheets entitled “Let’s Talk, Read and Sing about STEM!” These tip sheets provide concrete resources and recommendations for families, caregivers, and educators of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers on easy ways to incorporate STEM concepts and vocabulary into everyday routines, and suggestions for activities to engage young children in STEM learning. These new resources build on an existing suite of materials co-created by ED, HHS, and TSTF focused on early brain and language development.
· The National Science Foundation (NSF) will celebrate a Day of Active Learning. A robust foundation of evidence shows that while active engagement enhances learning for students of all demographics, it has an especially beneficial effect on women and underrepresented students, likely due to a greater sense of belonging that can be achieved in active classrooms. Today, NSF is announcing that it will hold an Active Learning Day later this year, with the goal of empowering and encouraging educators nationwide to use active learning in their classrooms.
Private-Sector Commitments in Response to the President’s Call to Action
Today, more than 100 different organizations are announcing new commitments, showcasing the strong response to the President’s State of the Union call to give every child the opportunity to learn CS, as well as his overall “Educate to Innovate” campaign to ensure all students have the tools to be innovators and problem-solvers. These announcements include:
· New partnerships to train teachers and help more than 500 K-12 schools expand access to CS. Code.org has established partnerships with seven local organizations to deliver professional-learning programs aimed at preparing up to 550 new high-school and middle-school CS teachers over the next 2 years. In addition, Code.org will help support more than 500 K-12 schools expand their CS offerings. This includes:
o Nine school districts surrounding Chicago have grouped together to begin offering AP CS Principles in 21 high schools.
o Dallas Independent School District will be offering beginning CS courses districtwide for the first time in the majority of their high schools and all of their middle schools in the 2016-17 school year.
o Georgia’s Department of Education and Governor’s Office of Student Achievement committed to expand AP CS Principles to 60 high schools and integrate CS into preexisting courses at 60 middle schools across the state.
o Mississippi’s Department of Education will host 6 summer workshops this year to prepare approximately 170 new CS teachers in grades K-5.
o Northeast Florida School Districts, representing Clay, Duval, Nassau, and St. Johns Counties, have combined efforts to spread opportunities for CS instruction to over 200,000 students served collectively by their 330 schools.
o In Washington State, Educational Service Districts 123, 171, and 112 (serving 82 school districts) have partnered with Code.org to bring CS professional-learning opportunities for elementary- and middle-school teachers as well as for middle-and high-school counselors and administrators.
· A $200 million investment from Oracle over the next 18 months in direct and in-kind funds to support CS education in the United States. The investment will allow an additional 125,000 K-12 students to learn CS through the free Oracle Academy program. Oracle is also expanding access to emerging CS fields for interested teachers and students, through opportunities such as their free Big Data Science Boot Camps. To complement its direct CS offerings, Oracle will invest more than $3 million in nonprofit organizations focused on inspiring young girls and engaging other underrepresented students in pursuing STEM and CS degrees.
· A new online matching platform, created by US2020, to connect more STEM professionals to volunteer opportunities, setting an initial goal to serve 20,000 students this year. The new platform will enable any nonprofit organization or classroom teacher to connect easily with a STEM professional. In 2016, US2020 will use the platform as a central hub to engage more than 1,000 corporations and civic organizations and serve more than 20,000 students with a focus on girls, traditionally underrepresented minority students, and children from low-income families.
· Commitments to expand STEM learning for young learners nationwide. In response to the Administration’s broader push to expand early-childhood education, private-sector organizations are stepping up and making new commitments to build statewide early STEM programs, equip every Head Start center across the country with STEM tools, and engage families with new media and cultural options. A full list of new commitments will be released as a part of a White House event on early learning and STEM later this month. These include:
o 100Kin10 is awarding $1.7 million to partners in New York State and has leveraged additional support from Motorola Solutions to develop ways to increase the reach and quality of engineering and CS teaching in Pre-K–12 schools.
o Common Sense Education will produce a set of early STEM-education resources and tools, covering themes like Coding for Early Readers. These resources have the potential to reach more than 300,000 teachers in 100,000 schools, and 65 million households across the country.
o The Heising-Simons Foundation will partner with The Fred Rogers Company to support the production of 25 episodes of “Odd Squad,” a math-focused television show airing on PBS Kids, create games and an app, and hold free week-long summer math camps in 14 U.S. cities serving more than 400 children.
o The Hispanic Information and Telecommunications Network (HITN) will donate 10,000 STEM-focused Spanish/English Family Kits to informal learning settings (libraries and museums), community-based organizations, and national organizations—including home visitation programs—that serve low-income families in order to help expand young children’s access to STEM at home.
o Learning Point Alaska, Inc. is partnering with multiple Alaska Native organizations to deliver informal, technology-based STEM programming to elementary-school students and build capacity for local teachers in Native Villages throughout Alaska.
o The Museum of Science, Boston is launching a 3-year initiative to create a research-based Pre-K-Kindergarten engineering curriculum, which will build on the museum’s Engineering is Elementary curriculum, for schools to use to teach children ages 3-5.
o The National Head Start Association and Lakeshore Learning will set a goal to reach the one million children who are enrolled in Head Start programs with their “Recycle Your Way to STEAM” program.
o Sesame Workshop, the creators of Sesame Street, will develop “Make Believe with Math,” a research-based Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) for educators, which, along with other training resources, will be made freely available online.
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 13, 2016
FACT SHEET: At White House Science Fair, President Obama Calls on this Generation of Students to Tackle the Grand Challenges of Our Time
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Obama will host the sixth and final White House Science Fair of his Administration and celebrate the student competitors and winners from a broad range of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) competitions. The event will be the largest White House Science Fair to date, with more than 130 students from more than 30 states, as well as student alumni from each of the prior five White House Science Fairs.
Highlighting the powerful stories of ingenuity, social activism, teamwork, and civic engagement evident in the projects, President Obama will call on this generation of students—those in elementary, middle, and high schools today—to actively participate in solving the toughest challenges facing our world, from combating climate change to setting foot on Mars.
President Obama established the tradition of the White House Science Fair at the start of his Administration to personally celebrate our Nation’s top young scientists and innovators. The President created the Science Fair with a simple credo: “If you win the NCAA championship, you come to the White House. Well, if you're a young person and you produce the best experiment or design, the best hardware or software, you ought to be recognized for that achievement, too.”
The President will also highlight the growing community of education, business, and nonprofit leaders who have responded to his State of the Union call to give every child the opportunity to learn computer science (CS), as well as his overall “Educate to Innovate” campaign to ensure all students have the tools to be innovators and problem-solvers. Today’s announcements include:
· New Department of Education guidance to states, school districts, and other education organizations on the many ways they can use existing Federal funds to advance Pre-K–12 STEM and CS learning.
· A $200 million investment by Oracle to support CS education for an additional 125,000 students in the United States.
· More than 500 K-12 schools committing to expand access to CS, with support from Code.org.
· Commitments to expand STEM learning for more of our youngest learners, from family engagement to innovative use of media.
· A new online matching platform, supported by US2020, to help more STEM professionals who want to volunteer and mentor.
Today’s STEM announcements also mark progress on the President’s My Brother’s Keeper Initiative and the efforts of the Council on Women and Girls to build ladders of opportunity for all young people, including populations underrepresented in STEM; incorporate STEM into the Administration’s push to expand high-quality early-childhood education; and advance the Climate Education and Literacy Initiative to help connect all American students and citizens with the best-available, science-based information about climate change. Full details on all of today’s announcements can be found here.
The White House Science Fair is part of a week of Administration activities celebrating science and technology, featuring the President’s participation as a guest presenter throughout this week on the Science Channel’s nightly science news segment. In addition, the White House Science Fair will be immediately followed by the USA Science & Engineering Festival, the nation's largest celebration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, with more than 350,000 students and adults expected to engage in more than 3,000 hands-on activities over 3 days. More than 70 Federal agencies will participate in the Festival.
A Generational Call to Action
Students today have the potential to be one of America’s greatest generations. Though each generation of Americans brings with them new ideas and energy, today, because of unprecedented access to cutting-edge physical and digital tools, online and in-person communities, and information about the grand challenges we face, American students are even better equipped to harness their passions towards developing solutions that confront our toughest challenges.
They can be the Mars generation, the explorers who first step foot on another planet. Their skills, perseverance, and collaboration can help seed new technologies and solutions to tackle the climate crisis. They can collaborate to harness rapid advances in information technology and nanotechnology to understand the human brain, forge new solutions to cancer, and embrace the American spirit of discovery, invention, and entrepreneurship.
As the President highlighted in this year’s State of the Union Address, everyone in the United States can harness technology to help solve our toughest challenges. The 2016 White House Science Fair shines a spotlight on the contributions that the Nation’s students are making now, and the potential they have to help make our country and our world a better place.
The more than 130 students at the 2016 White House Science Fair will represent more than 40 different STEM competitions and organizations. Approximately 40 student teams will have the opportunity to exhibit their projects at the White House, and the President will personally view some of these projects. Additional information on the projects, students, and competitions being recognized at the Fair can be found here.
A Sustained Record of Accomplishment
This White House Science Fair is only the most recent example of President Obama’s sustained and historic focus on giving every child the opportunity to excel at STEM education. In the past 7 years:
· The Administration has secured more than $1 billion in private investment for improving STEM education as part of the President’s Educate to Innovate campaign.
· Our Nation is more than halfway towards achieving the goal the President set in 2011 of preparing 100,000 new math and science teachers by 2021.
· Compared to when President Obama took office, 25,000 more engineers are graduating each year from American universities.
· STEM education has been incorporated into the priorities of the Department of Education (ED)—as illustrated by the Administration’s signature Race to the Top competition—and into the bipartisan Every Student Succeeds Act that the President signed last year.
· This White House has announced more than 350 commitments from college and university leadership and others to provide pathways for students underrepresented in STEM to attain degrees.
· President Obama has started traditions such as the White House Science Fair to honor young people using STEM to improve their communities and the world.
And in his final budget announced in February, the President sustains this impressive track record with an investment of $3 billion for STEM-education programs, as well as a historic $4 billion proposal in support of CS education for all students.
New Steps Being Announced by the Administration Today
Federal agencies are announcing new steps to empower local communities with the tools, people, and support they need to expand their STEM efforts. These include:
· Federal guidance on advancing STEM education. Today, the Department of Education (ED) Office of STEM is releasing a Dear Colleague Letter providing guidance for states, school districts, and other education organizations on how they can use Federal funds to support innovative STEM-education strategies and ensure equitable STEM-education opportunities and outcomes for all students in the 2016-17 school year. In particular, this guidance outlines how Federal money can be used to support high-quality, hands-on active STEM learning.
· The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), along with the STEM Funders Network and the Afterschool Alliance, are collaborating to support vibrant STEM ecosystems in as many as 14 communities, where local schools, out-of-school programs, business, higher education, museums and local institutions will work together to expand STEM learning opportunities for local students. To support the effort, CNCS will place up to 28 AmeriCorps VISTA members, who will be full-time staff on the ground. In addition, CNCS is expanding STEM AmeriCorps VISTA through a new partnership with the New York Academy of Sciences that will place more than 10 AmeriCorps VISTA members over the next 2 years in afterschool STEM-mentoring programs, which will serve students who reside in 60 of the poorest neighborhoods in New York City, NY, and Newark, NJ.
· The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), in collaboration with the YMCA of the USA, will help 10 new host cities around the country expand Thingamajig, a program developed by the YMCA of Metropolitan DC. These cities will create programs, seminars, and tools that assist students in connecting STEM education with real-world problem solving skills. This partnership builds on the last 2 years of expansion across YMCA of the USA, which reaches over 100,000 youth—with a focus on low-income and underrepresented youth—in 48 states and Washington, D.C. Additionally, this year, USPTO will expand its collaboration with the JAMTECH program to more sites across the country. JAMTECH is a hands-on educational experience that gives students with little or no exposure to computer programming the opportunity to build and program their own video games over the course of a day—teaching the principles of game design, coding, and programming in a way that allows students to expand their competencies in areas such as math, physics, analysis, logic, and strategy.
· Over 200 Federally supported citizen-science projects for students and adults are now accessible from a single place--CitizenScience.gov. The General Services Administration (GSA) is collaborating with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (WWICS), a Trust Instrumentality of the U.S. Government, to launch CitizenScience.gov, a new central hub for citizen science and crowdsourcing initiatives in the public sector. CitizenScience.gov will provide information, resources, and tools for government personnel, students, and adults who are actively engaged in or looking to participate in citizen science and crowdsourcing projects. The development of this catalogue follows the September 2015 memorandum to Federal departments and agencies issued by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).
· ED, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and Too Small to Fail (TSTF) are releasing a series of tip sheets entitled “Let’s Talk, Read and Sing about STEM!” These tip sheets provide concrete resources and recommendations for families, caregivers, and educators of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers on easy ways to incorporate STEM concepts and vocabulary into everyday routines, and suggestions for activities to engage young children in STEM learning. These new resources build on an existing suite of materials co-created by ED, HHS, and TSTF focused on early brain and language development.
· The National Science Foundation (NSF) will celebrate a Day of Active Learning. A robust foundation of evidence shows that while active engagement enhances learning for students of all demographics, it has an especially beneficial effect on women and underrepresented students, likely due to a greater sense of belonging that can be achieved in active classrooms. Today, NSF is announcing that it will hold an Active Learning Day later this year, with the goal of empowering and encouraging educators nationwide to use active learning in their classrooms.
Private-Sector Commitments in Response to the President’s Call to Action
Today, more than 100 different organizations are announcing new commitments, showcasing the strong response to the President’s State of the Union call to give every child the opportunity to learn CS, as well as his overall “Educate to Innovate” campaign to ensure all students have the tools to be innovators and problem-solvers. These announcements include:
· New partnerships to train teachers and help more than 500 K-12 schools expand access to CS. Code.org has established partnerships with seven local organizations to deliver professional-learning programs aimed at preparing up to 550 new high-school and middle-school CS teachers over the next 2 years. In addition, Code.org will help support more than 500 K-12 schools expand their CS offerings. This includes:
o Nine school districts surrounding Chicago have grouped together to begin offering AP CS Principles in 21 high schools.
o Dallas Independent School District will be offering beginning CS courses districtwide for the first time in the majority of their high schools and all of their middle schools in the 2016-17 school year.
o Georgia’s Department of Education and Governor’s Office of Student Achievement committed to expand AP CS Principles to 60 high schools and integrate CS into preexisting courses at 60 middle schools across the state.
o Mississippi’s Department of Education will host 6 summer workshops this year to prepare approximately 170 new CS teachers in grades K-5.
o Northeast Florida School Districts, representing Clay, Duval, Nassau, and St. Johns Counties, have combined efforts to spread opportunities for CS instruction to over 200,000 students served collectively by their 330 schools.
o In Washington State, Educational Service Districts 123, 171, and 112 (serving 82 school districts) have partnered with Code.org to bring CS professional-learning opportunities for elementary- and middle-school teachers as well as for middle-and high-school counselors and administrators.
· A $200 million investment from Oracle over the next 18 months in direct and in-kind funds to support CS education in the United States. The investment will allow an additional 125,000 K-12 students to learn CS through the free Oracle Academy program. Oracle is also expanding access to emerging CS fields for interested teachers and students, through opportunities such as their free Big Data Science Boot Camps. To complement its direct CS offerings, Oracle will invest more than $3 million in nonprofit organizations focused on inspiring young girls and engaging other underrepresented students in pursuing STEM and CS degrees.
· A new online matching platform, created by US2020, to connect more STEM professionals to volunteer opportunities, setting an initial goal to serve 20,000 students this year. The new platform will enable any nonprofit organization or classroom teacher to connect easily with a STEM professional. In 2016, US2020 will use the platform as a central hub to engage more than 1,000 corporations and civic organizations and serve more than 20,000 students with a focus on girls, traditionally underrepresented minority students, and children from low-income families.
· Commitments to expand STEM learning for young learners nationwide. In response to the Administration’s broader push to expand early-childhood education, private-sector organizations are stepping up and making new commitments to build statewide early STEM programs, equip every Head Start center across the country with STEM tools, and engage families with new media and cultural options. A full list of new commitments will be released as a part of a White House event on early learning and STEM later this month. These include:
o 100Kin10 is awarding $1.7 million to partners in New York State and has leveraged additional support from Motorola Solutions to develop ways to increase the reach and quality of engineering and CS teaching in Pre-K–12 schools.
o Common Sense Education will produce a set of early STEM-education resources and tools, covering themes like Coding for Early Readers. These resources have the potential to reach more than 300,000 teachers in 100,000 schools, and 65 million households across the country.
o The Heising-Simons Foundation will partner with The Fred Rogers Company to support the production of 25 episodes of “Odd Squad,” a math-focused television show airing on PBS Kids, create games and an app, and hold free week-long summer math camps in 14 U.S. cities serving more than 400 children.
o The Hispanic Information and Telecommunications Network (HITN) will donate 10,000 STEM-focused Spanish/English Family Kits to informal learning settings (libraries and museums), community-based organizations, and national organizations—including home visitation programs—that serve low-income families in order to help expand young children’s access to STEM at home.
o Learning Point Alaska, Inc. is partnering with multiple Alaska Native organizations to deliver informal, technology-based STEM programming to elementary-school students and build capacity for local teachers in Native Villages throughout Alaska.
o The Museum of Science, Boston is launching a 3-year initiative to create a research-based Pre-K-Kindergarten engineering curriculum, which will build on the museum’s Engineering is Elementary curriculum, for schools to use to teach children ages 3-5.
o The National Head Start Association and Lakeshore Learning will set a goal to reach the one million children who are enrolled in Head Start programs with their “Recycle Your Way to STEAM” program.
o Sesame Workshop, the creators of Sesame Street, will develop “Make Believe with Math,” a research-based Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) for educators, which, along with other training resources, will be made freely available online.
Remarks by the President at the White House Science Fair
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release April 13, 2016
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT THE WHITE HOUSE SCIENCE FAIR
East Room
3:04 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Hello, hello, hello! Hey! (Applause.) Good to see you. All right, everybody, have a seat, have a seat.
Well, hello, everybody. Welcome to the White House. There are a lot of good things about being President. I get a chance to travel all across the country and meet people and see all the amazing things that are being done; being Commander-in-Chief of the greatest military the world has ever known and seeing the incredible service of our men and women in uniform -- Air Force One is very cool. (Laughter.) I don’t have to take off my shoes before I get on an airplane. (Laughter.)
But some of the best moments that I’ve had as President have involved science and our annual Science Fair. I mean, I have shot a marshmallow out of a cannon directly under Lincoln’s portrait. I’ve learned about prototypes from six-year-old Girl Scouts who built a page-turning machine out of Legos for people who might be disabled -- there they are. (Laughter.) Good to see you guys. I should add, by the way, that I took a picture with them with one of their tiaras on, which I think is still floating around the Internet. (Laughter.)
Most importantly, I’ve just been able to see the unbelievable ingenuity and passion and curiosity and brain power of America’s next generation, and all the cool things that they do. I’ve also, by the way, had a chance to see an alarming number of robots. (Laughter.) None have caused me any harm up until now. They’ve startled me a little bit. I understand today that we have a live chicken here, which I’m sure the White House staff is thrilled about. (Laughter.)
But this is fun. More importantly, it speaks to what makes America the greatest country on Earth.
I want to publicly thank some of the people who helped make today possible –- also because I want you to know who to blame if something explodes. (Laughter.) We’ve got some members of Congress in the house who have been highly supportive of all our science and basic research efforts. We’ve got my science advisor, John Holdren, who is here. Give John a big round of applause. (Applause.) We have my Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith in the house. (Applause.)
We have some guests who are really helping to lift up the importance of science, like -- this is not a typical combination -- supermodel and super coder Karlie Kloss is here. (Applause.) We’ve got actress and science enthusiast Yara Shahidi. There she is. Good to see you. (Applause.) We’ve got XKCD comic creator Randall Munroe is here. Give him a big round of applause. (Applause.) We’re joined by some of the past participants of our Science Fairs, including Elana Simon, who studied her own cancer and started coming up with some cures. I remember meeting you last year. How is Harvard going?
MS. SIMON: Good.
THE PRESIDENT: So far, so good? She was a senior last year, just started. (Applause.)
So this is an eclectic and diverse bunch. But what they all share is this love of science and love of technology, and a belief that our youngest innovators can change the world.
And there’s nothing that makes me more hopeful about the future than seeing young people like the ones who are here -- and they come from all over the country, they come in all shapes and sizes. All of you are showing the rest of us that it’s never too early in life to make a difference. You teach us about the power of reason and logic, and trying things and figuring out whether they work, and if they don’t, learning from that and trying something new. And you remind us that, together, through science, we can tackle some of the biggest challenges that we face.
Whether you’re fighting cancer or combatting climate change, feeding the world, writing code that leads to social change, you are sharing in this essential spirit of discovery that America is built on.
John Holdren helpfully reminded me that today happens to be the 273rd birthday of Thomas Jefferson. And Thomas Jefferson was obviously a pretty good writer; the Declaration of Independence turned out pretty well. (Laughter.) He was a great political thinker and a great President. But he was also a scientist. And that was true of most of our Founders -- they were children of the enlightenment. They had come of age when all the old dogmas were being challenged. And they had this incredible faith, this belief in the human mind, and our ability to figure stuff out.
And whether it was Benjamin Franklin or Thomas Jefferson, or all the others who were involved in the founding of our country, one of the essential elements that is embedded in our Constitution and the design of this democracy is this belief that the power of the human brain when applied to the world around us can do amazing, remarkable things.
And it also requires, as we're seeing from these outstanding teams, not just constant inquiry, but also strong teamwork and dogged perseverance. And by following the trail of your curiosity wherever it takes you, you are continually adding to this body of knowledge that helps make us a more secure, more prosperous, and more hopeful society. Science has always been the hallmark of American progress. It’s the key to our economic success. I can’t think of a more exciting time for American science than right now, because we are busy reigniting that spirit of innovation to meet so many challenges.
Just give you a couple examples. We’re on the cusp of a new era of medicine that accounts for people’s individual genes. And I’ve been doing a lot of work with Francis Collins, the head of NIH, around how we take the human genome that we've mapped, in part thanks to the good work of Francis and others, so that we are able to not just cure diseases generally, but figure out what exactly do you in your particular body need in order to keep it running well.
We’re harnessing technology to develop cleaner sources of energy, and save our planet in the process. We’re unraveling the mysteries of the human brain, unlocking secrets of the universe. In fact, just last month, Commander Scott Kelly returned from an almost a year-long stay on the International Space Station. Some of you may have read about that. He conducted countless experiments, and he also served as an experiment himself. His identical twin brother, Mark, who is an astronaut, as well -- Mark stayed home during this entire time that Scott was up in the air, and that meant that NASA could study the two of them side by side to gain insights into how a long-term occupation in space changes your body and your operating systems.
It turned out, initially, it makes you two inches taller. (Laughter.) But I saw Mark just two weekends ago; apparently, you shrink back really quickly. (Laughter.) It makes your head bigger too. (Laughter.) But I don't know how big.
America has also got a selfie-taking rover that’s Instagramming from Mars. The International Space Station just got its first inflatable habitat for astronauts. SpaceX, on the commercial, private venture side of space, just landed a returning rocket on a drone ship in the middle of the ocean. And that's opening up the possibility of reusing our rockets instead of just throwing them away once they have launched.
So the progress we’re seeing across the board is extraordinary, and it’s just the beginning. The rest is going to be up to you, the next generation. Somewhere in your generation, maybe in this room, are pioneers who are going to be the first to set their foot on Mars -- the first humans, anyway. I don't know about other life forms. (Laughter.)
And I know what you’re capable of because I just had a chance to see some of the exhibits, and we had some of the press pool follow. If you were not blown away from some of the young people that we just had a chance to meet, then you had too big of a lunch and you were falling asleep, because if you were paying attention it was unbelievable.
We’ve got Maya Varma, who is a senior from San Jose, California. Where is Maya? Yay, there’s Maya. Maya is using a low-cost microcontroller, software freely available on the Internet, and a smartphone, and she designed a tool that allows people with asthma and other lung diseases to diagnose and monitor their own symptoms. So her goal was to use smartphone technology to make diagnostic tests for all kinds of diseases a lot cheaper. “My aspiration is not only to create the next big thing in my field one day,” Maya says, “but also to make it accessible to more than a privileged few in the world.” So give Maya a big round of applause. (Applause.)
I do have to say -- this is just an aside -- the only problem with the Science Fair is it makes me feel a little inadequate. (Laughter.) Because I think back to my high school, and, first of all, I didn't have a field. Maya talked about her “field.” I don't know exactly what my field of study was at that time, but it wasn’t that. (Laughter.)
We also have nine-year-old Jacob Leggette from Baltimore. Where is Jacob? There you go, in the bowtie. (Applause.) So Jacob loved programming ever since the age of two, when he nearly wiped clean his grandma’s computer -- (laughter) -- which I’m sure she was thrilled with. But don’t worry, Jacob fixed it. Last summer, this young maker wrote to a company that manufactures 3D printers, asked them if he could have one of the 3D printers in exchange for feedback on whether their printers are kid-friendly. So clearly he’s a good negotiator and business person. (Laughter.) And today, Jacob is churning out toys and games for himself and his little sister, and he dreams one day of making artificial organs for people.
I should add, by the way, Jacob, John, had a very good idea, which is that we should have -- in addition to our PCAST, which is my science advisory group, all these scientists and leaders in various fields, we should have a kid’s advisory group that starts explaining to us what’s interesting to them and what’s working, and could help us shape advances in STEM education. Anyway, that was Jacob’s idea. So way to go, Jacob. We're going to follow up on that. Give Jacob a round of applause. (Applause.)
We have 16-year-old Anarudh Ganesan. Where is Anarudh? There he is, right there. (Applause.) So when Anarudh was little, his grandparents walked him 10 miles to a remote clinic in his native India for vaccinations, only to find out that the vaccines had spoiled in the heat. Though he eventually got the shots that he needed, he thought, well, this is a problem, and wanted to prevent other children from facing the same risk. So he developed what he calls the VAXXWAGON, and it’s a refrigerator on wheels that transports vaccines to remote destinations. That's the kind of innovation and compassion that we're seeing from so many of these young people. So give Anarudh a big round of applause. (Applause.)
And we have Olivia Hallisey, a high school senior from Greenwich, Connecticut. Where is Olivia? There she is. Hi, Olivia. Now, think about this -- so Olivia swept the Google Science Fair. She read about the Ebola epidemic in the news. She decides, I want to make a faster, less-expensive test for the disease, as opposed to a lot of adults who were just thinking, how do I avoid getting Ebola? (Laughter.) She decides, well, I’m going to fix this. So she wants a faster, less-expensive test. An old test cost $1,000, took up to 12 hours to conduct. Using silk as a base instead, Olivia made the test cost $5, without requiring refrigeration, with results that are available in under 30 minutes. What were you doing in high school? (Laughter.) Give Olivia a big round of applause. (Applause.)
So this is just a small sample of the incredible talent that is on display at this science fair. And we couldn’t be prouder. To all the students, to all the young people, we could not be prouder of you. I want to thank the parents and the teachers and mentors who stood behind these young people, encouraged them to pursue their dreams. I asked all the young people who I had a chance to meet, how did you get interested in this? And there were a couple whose parents were in the sciences, but for the majority of them, there was a teacher, a mentor, a program, something that just got them hooked. And it’s a reminder that science is not something that is out of reach, it’s not just for the few, it’s for the many, as long as it’s something that we're weaving into our curriculum and it’s something that we're valuing as a society.
And so I hope that every company and every college and every community and every parent and every teacher joins us in encouraging this next generation of students to actively engage and pursue science and push the boundaries of what’s possible. We’ve got to give all of our young people the tools that they need to explore and discover, and to dig their hands in stuff, and experiment, and invent, and uncover something new, and try things, and see hypotheses or experiments fail, and then learn how to extract some knowledge from things that didn't work as well as things that worked. That's another theme that came out of a lot of the conversations I had with young people.
And that’s why we’re building on our efforts to bring hands-on computer science learning, for example, to all students. As I’ve said before, in the new economy, computer science isn’t optional, it’s a basic skill, along with the three Rs. So we’re issuing new guidance to school districts for how they can better support computer science education. Oracle will invest in getting 125,000 more students into computer science classes. Give Oracle a big round of applause for that. We appreciate that. (Applause.)
We’ve got more than 500 schools that are committing to expand access to computer science. And this is just a sample of the things that we've been putting together over the last several years to try to expand opportunity for the kind of brilliant work that's being done by these students. And we’re seeing entire states take action. For example, last month, Rhode Island got on a path to bring computer science to every school within two years.
So we’re going to build on this progress. We want to make sure every single one of our students –- no matter where they’re from, what income their parents bring in, regardless of their backgrounds -- we want to make sure that they’ve got access to hands-on science, technology, engineering, and math education that’s going to set them up for success and keep our nation competitive in the 21st century.
That includes, by the way, working through some of the structural biases that exist in science. Some of them -- a lot of them are unconscious. But the fact is, is that we've got to get more of our young women and minorities into science and technology, engineering and math, and computer science. I’ve been really pleased to see the number of young women who have gotten more and more involved in our science fairs over the course of these last several years.
And as I said to a group that I had a chance to meet with outside, we're not going to succeed if we got half the team on the bench, especially when it’s the smarter half of the team. (Laughter.) Our diversity is a strength. And we've got to leverage all of our talent in order to make ourselves as creative and solve as many problems as we can be.
And one of the things I find so inspiring about these young thinkers and makers is that they look at all these seemingly intractable problems as something that we can solve. There is a confidence when you are pursuing science. They don't consider age a barrier. They don't think, well, that's just the way things are. They're not afraid to try things and ask tough questions. And above all, what we’ve seen today is that they feel an obligation to use their gifts to do something not just for themselves but for other people as well.
Olivia said after she was working on this Ebola diagnostic tool, “My generation has been raised with an awareness that we're part of a global community. It’s everybody’s responsibility to take a proactive approach and think of solutions.” She is right. I want you to call up Congress and tell them your thinking on that. (Laughter.) That was just a joke. (Laughter.) Maybe not. (Laughter.) But it’s all up to us to work together with our youngest talent leading the way.
A century ago, Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves. This year, a team of scientists finally proved him right. This was very cool, by the way. I don't know -- those of you guys who had a chance to read about this -- the way they measured it was the building got a little longer. The building that -- from which they were measuring this gravitational wave grew, like, a little bit. (Laughter.) And then it kind of shrank back, which is really weird and really interesting. (Laughter.)
And that’s the thing about science -- you don’t always cross the finish line yourself. You may have a hypothesis, a theory, and then people build off of it, and it’s like you’re running a race and you’re passing a baton. Everything that we’re working with today is based on some young person like you 10 years ago, 50 years ago, 100 or 300 years ago, who were asking themselves the same question. And while even Einstein didn’t see all the fruits of his labor, because he went as far as his curiosity and hard work would take him, generations of scientists continue to build on his progress.
So that’s what we’re going to need from all of you. We are counting on all of you to help build a brighter future, and for you to use your talents to help your communities and your country and the world. We will be with you every step of the way. And I will be keenly following your progress so that when you invent some cancer cure or find some new source of cheap, clean energy, I will take some of the credit. (Laughter.) I’ll say, if it hadn’t been for the White House Science Fair, who knows what might have happened -- even though it won’t really be my credit to take. So I’m just teasing, guys.
Thank you very much, everybody. Proud of you. Good job. (Applause.)
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release April 13, 2016
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT THE WHITE HOUSE SCIENCE FAIR
East Room
3:04 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Hello, hello, hello! Hey! (Applause.) Good to see you. All right, everybody, have a seat, have a seat.
Well, hello, everybody. Welcome to the White House. There are a lot of good things about being President. I get a chance to travel all across the country and meet people and see all the amazing things that are being done; being Commander-in-Chief of the greatest military the world has ever known and seeing the incredible service of our men and women in uniform -- Air Force One is very cool. (Laughter.) I don’t have to take off my shoes before I get on an airplane. (Laughter.)
But some of the best moments that I’ve had as President have involved science and our annual Science Fair. I mean, I have shot a marshmallow out of a cannon directly under Lincoln’s portrait. I’ve learned about prototypes from six-year-old Girl Scouts who built a page-turning machine out of Legos for people who might be disabled -- there they are. (Laughter.) Good to see you guys. I should add, by the way, that I took a picture with them with one of their tiaras on, which I think is still floating around the Internet. (Laughter.)
Most importantly, I’ve just been able to see the unbelievable ingenuity and passion and curiosity and brain power of America’s next generation, and all the cool things that they do. I’ve also, by the way, had a chance to see an alarming number of robots. (Laughter.) None have caused me any harm up until now. They’ve startled me a little bit. I understand today that we have a live chicken here, which I’m sure the White House staff is thrilled about. (Laughter.)
But this is fun. More importantly, it speaks to what makes America the greatest country on Earth.
I want to publicly thank some of the people who helped make today possible –- also because I want you to know who to blame if something explodes. (Laughter.) We’ve got some members of Congress in the house who have been highly supportive of all our science and basic research efforts. We’ve got my science advisor, John Holdren, who is here. Give John a big round of applause. (Applause.) We have my Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith in the house. (Applause.)
We have some guests who are really helping to lift up the importance of science, like -- this is not a typical combination -- supermodel and super coder Karlie Kloss is here. (Applause.) We’ve got actress and science enthusiast Yara Shahidi. There she is. Good to see you. (Applause.) We’ve got XKCD comic creator Randall Munroe is here. Give him a big round of applause. (Applause.) We’re joined by some of the past participants of our Science Fairs, including Elana Simon, who studied her own cancer and started coming up with some cures. I remember meeting you last year. How is Harvard going?
MS. SIMON: Good.
THE PRESIDENT: So far, so good? She was a senior last year, just started. (Applause.)
So this is an eclectic and diverse bunch. But what they all share is this love of science and love of technology, and a belief that our youngest innovators can change the world.
And there’s nothing that makes me more hopeful about the future than seeing young people like the ones who are here -- and they come from all over the country, they come in all shapes and sizes. All of you are showing the rest of us that it’s never too early in life to make a difference. You teach us about the power of reason and logic, and trying things and figuring out whether they work, and if they don’t, learning from that and trying something new. And you remind us that, together, through science, we can tackle some of the biggest challenges that we face.
Whether you’re fighting cancer or combatting climate change, feeding the world, writing code that leads to social change, you are sharing in this essential spirit of discovery that America is built on.
John Holdren helpfully reminded me that today happens to be the 273rd birthday of Thomas Jefferson. And Thomas Jefferson was obviously a pretty good writer; the Declaration of Independence turned out pretty well. (Laughter.) He was a great political thinker and a great President. But he was also a scientist. And that was true of most of our Founders -- they were children of the enlightenment. They had come of age when all the old dogmas were being challenged. And they had this incredible faith, this belief in the human mind, and our ability to figure stuff out.
And whether it was Benjamin Franklin or Thomas Jefferson, or all the others who were involved in the founding of our country, one of the essential elements that is embedded in our Constitution and the design of this democracy is this belief that the power of the human brain when applied to the world around us can do amazing, remarkable things.
And it also requires, as we're seeing from these outstanding teams, not just constant inquiry, but also strong teamwork and dogged perseverance. And by following the trail of your curiosity wherever it takes you, you are continually adding to this body of knowledge that helps make us a more secure, more prosperous, and more hopeful society. Science has always been the hallmark of American progress. It’s the key to our economic success. I can’t think of a more exciting time for American science than right now, because we are busy reigniting that spirit of innovation to meet so many challenges.
Just give you a couple examples. We’re on the cusp of a new era of medicine that accounts for people’s individual genes. And I’ve been doing a lot of work with Francis Collins, the head of NIH, around how we take the human genome that we've mapped, in part thanks to the good work of Francis and others, so that we are able to not just cure diseases generally, but figure out what exactly do you in your particular body need in order to keep it running well.
We’re harnessing technology to develop cleaner sources of energy, and save our planet in the process. We’re unraveling the mysteries of the human brain, unlocking secrets of the universe. In fact, just last month, Commander Scott Kelly returned from an almost a year-long stay on the International Space Station. Some of you may have read about that. He conducted countless experiments, and he also served as an experiment himself. His identical twin brother, Mark, who is an astronaut, as well -- Mark stayed home during this entire time that Scott was up in the air, and that meant that NASA could study the two of them side by side to gain insights into how a long-term occupation in space changes your body and your operating systems.
It turned out, initially, it makes you two inches taller. (Laughter.) But I saw Mark just two weekends ago; apparently, you shrink back really quickly. (Laughter.) It makes your head bigger too. (Laughter.) But I don't know how big.
America has also got a selfie-taking rover that’s Instagramming from Mars. The International Space Station just got its first inflatable habitat for astronauts. SpaceX, on the commercial, private venture side of space, just landed a returning rocket on a drone ship in the middle of the ocean. And that's opening up the possibility of reusing our rockets instead of just throwing them away once they have launched.
So the progress we’re seeing across the board is extraordinary, and it’s just the beginning. The rest is going to be up to you, the next generation. Somewhere in your generation, maybe in this room, are pioneers who are going to be the first to set their foot on Mars -- the first humans, anyway. I don't know about other life forms. (Laughter.)
And I know what you’re capable of because I just had a chance to see some of the exhibits, and we had some of the press pool follow. If you were not blown away from some of the young people that we just had a chance to meet, then you had too big of a lunch and you were falling asleep, because if you were paying attention it was unbelievable.
We’ve got Maya Varma, who is a senior from San Jose, California. Where is Maya? Yay, there’s Maya. Maya is using a low-cost microcontroller, software freely available on the Internet, and a smartphone, and she designed a tool that allows people with asthma and other lung diseases to diagnose and monitor their own symptoms. So her goal was to use smartphone technology to make diagnostic tests for all kinds of diseases a lot cheaper. “My aspiration is not only to create the next big thing in my field one day,” Maya says, “but also to make it accessible to more than a privileged few in the world.” So give Maya a big round of applause. (Applause.)
I do have to say -- this is just an aside -- the only problem with the Science Fair is it makes me feel a little inadequate. (Laughter.) Because I think back to my high school, and, first of all, I didn't have a field. Maya talked about her “field.” I don't know exactly what my field of study was at that time, but it wasn’t that. (Laughter.)
We also have nine-year-old Jacob Leggette from Baltimore. Where is Jacob? There you go, in the bowtie. (Applause.) So Jacob loved programming ever since the age of two, when he nearly wiped clean his grandma’s computer -- (laughter) -- which I’m sure she was thrilled with. But don’t worry, Jacob fixed it. Last summer, this young maker wrote to a company that manufactures 3D printers, asked them if he could have one of the 3D printers in exchange for feedback on whether their printers are kid-friendly. So clearly he’s a good negotiator and business person. (Laughter.) And today, Jacob is churning out toys and games for himself and his little sister, and he dreams one day of making artificial organs for people.
I should add, by the way, Jacob, John, had a very good idea, which is that we should have -- in addition to our PCAST, which is my science advisory group, all these scientists and leaders in various fields, we should have a kid’s advisory group that starts explaining to us what’s interesting to them and what’s working, and could help us shape advances in STEM education. Anyway, that was Jacob’s idea. So way to go, Jacob. We're going to follow up on that. Give Jacob a round of applause. (Applause.)
We have 16-year-old Anarudh Ganesan. Where is Anarudh? There he is, right there. (Applause.) So when Anarudh was little, his grandparents walked him 10 miles to a remote clinic in his native India for vaccinations, only to find out that the vaccines had spoiled in the heat. Though he eventually got the shots that he needed, he thought, well, this is a problem, and wanted to prevent other children from facing the same risk. So he developed what he calls the VAXXWAGON, and it’s a refrigerator on wheels that transports vaccines to remote destinations. That's the kind of innovation and compassion that we're seeing from so many of these young people. So give Anarudh a big round of applause. (Applause.)
And we have Olivia Hallisey, a high school senior from Greenwich, Connecticut. Where is Olivia? There she is. Hi, Olivia. Now, think about this -- so Olivia swept the Google Science Fair. She read about the Ebola epidemic in the news. She decides, I want to make a faster, less-expensive test for the disease, as opposed to a lot of adults who were just thinking, how do I avoid getting Ebola? (Laughter.) She decides, well, I’m going to fix this. So she wants a faster, less-expensive test. An old test cost $1,000, took up to 12 hours to conduct. Using silk as a base instead, Olivia made the test cost $5, without requiring refrigeration, with results that are available in under 30 minutes. What were you doing in high school? (Laughter.) Give Olivia a big round of applause. (Applause.)
So this is just a small sample of the incredible talent that is on display at this science fair. And we couldn’t be prouder. To all the students, to all the young people, we could not be prouder of you. I want to thank the parents and the teachers and mentors who stood behind these young people, encouraged them to pursue their dreams. I asked all the young people who I had a chance to meet, how did you get interested in this? And there were a couple whose parents were in the sciences, but for the majority of them, there was a teacher, a mentor, a program, something that just got them hooked. And it’s a reminder that science is not something that is out of reach, it’s not just for the few, it’s for the many, as long as it’s something that we're weaving into our curriculum and it’s something that we're valuing as a society.
And so I hope that every company and every college and every community and every parent and every teacher joins us in encouraging this next generation of students to actively engage and pursue science and push the boundaries of what’s possible. We’ve got to give all of our young people the tools that they need to explore and discover, and to dig their hands in stuff, and experiment, and invent, and uncover something new, and try things, and see hypotheses or experiments fail, and then learn how to extract some knowledge from things that didn't work as well as things that worked. That's another theme that came out of a lot of the conversations I had with young people.
And that’s why we’re building on our efforts to bring hands-on computer science learning, for example, to all students. As I’ve said before, in the new economy, computer science isn’t optional, it’s a basic skill, along with the three Rs. So we’re issuing new guidance to school districts for how they can better support computer science education. Oracle will invest in getting 125,000 more students into computer science classes. Give Oracle a big round of applause for that. We appreciate that. (Applause.)
We’ve got more than 500 schools that are committing to expand access to computer science. And this is just a sample of the things that we've been putting together over the last several years to try to expand opportunity for the kind of brilliant work that's being done by these students. And we’re seeing entire states take action. For example, last month, Rhode Island got on a path to bring computer science to every school within two years.
So we’re going to build on this progress. We want to make sure every single one of our students –- no matter where they’re from, what income their parents bring in, regardless of their backgrounds -- we want to make sure that they’ve got access to hands-on science, technology, engineering, and math education that’s going to set them up for success and keep our nation competitive in the 21st century.
That includes, by the way, working through some of the structural biases that exist in science. Some of them -- a lot of them are unconscious. But the fact is, is that we've got to get more of our young women and minorities into science and technology, engineering and math, and computer science. I’ve been really pleased to see the number of young women who have gotten more and more involved in our science fairs over the course of these last several years.
And as I said to a group that I had a chance to meet with outside, we're not going to succeed if we got half the team on the bench, especially when it’s the smarter half of the team. (Laughter.) Our diversity is a strength. And we've got to leverage all of our talent in order to make ourselves as creative and solve as many problems as we can be.
And one of the things I find so inspiring about these young thinkers and makers is that they look at all these seemingly intractable problems as something that we can solve. There is a confidence when you are pursuing science. They don't consider age a barrier. They don't think, well, that's just the way things are. They're not afraid to try things and ask tough questions. And above all, what we’ve seen today is that they feel an obligation to use their gifts to do something not just for themselves but for other people as well.
Olivia said after she was working on this Ebola diagnostic tool, “My generation has been raised with an awareness that we're part of a global community. It’s everybody’s responsibility to take a proactive approach and think of solutions.” She is right. I want you to call up Congress and tell them your thinking on that. (Laughter.) That was just a joke. (Laughter.) Maybe not. (Laughter.) But it’s all up to us to work together with our youngest talent leading the way.
A century ago, Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves. This year, a team of scientists finally proved him right. This was very cool, by the way. I don't know -- those of you guys who had a chance to read about this -- the way they measured it was the building got a little longer. The building that -- from which they were measuring this gravitational wave grew, like, a little bit. (Laughter.) And then it kind of shrank back, which is really weird and really interesting. (Laughter.)
And that’s the thing about science -- you don’t always cross the finish line yourself. You may have a hypothesis, a theory, and then people build off of it, and it’s like you’re running a race and you’re passing a baton. Everything that we’re working with today is based on some young person like you 10 years ago, 50 years ago, 100 or 300 years ago, who were asking themselves the same question. And while even Einstein didn’t see all the fruits of his labor, because he went as far as his curiosity and hard work would take him, generations of scientists continue to build on his progress.
So that’s what we’re going to need from all of you. We are counting on all of you to help build a brighter future, and for you to use your talents to help your communities and your country and the world. We will be with you every step of the way. And I will be keenly following your progress so that when you invent some cancer cure or find some new source of cheap, clean energy, I will take some of the credit. (Laughter.) I’ll say, if it hadn’t been for the White House Science Fair, who knows what might have happened -- even though it won’t really be my credit to take. So I’m just teasing, guys.
Thank you very much, everybody. Proud of you. Good job. (Applause.)
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Remarks by the President on Commutations of Prison Sentences (c) Carrie Devorah :
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Remarks by the President on Commutations of Prison Sentences (c) Carrie Devorah :
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release March 30, 2016
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
ON COMMUTATIONS OF PRISON SENTENCES
**Please see below for a correction, marked with an asterisk.
1:32 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Well, this has been an extraordinary lunch that I've had a chance to have here with some extraordinary people. As all of you know, it has been one of my top priorities for us to bring about a more sensible, more effective approach to our criminal justice system, particularly when it comes to drug crimes. And part of that has been to try to make sure that we have, on the front end, sensible sentencing, rehabilitation, education and training in prison to prepare people so that they're not going back to the old mistakes that they made before.
Part of it has been to really reinvigorate our commutations and pardons process, because it is my strong belief that by exercising these presidential powers, I have the chance to show people what a second chance can look like, that I can highlight the individuals who are getting these second chances and doing extraordinary things with their lives.
And this is just a small sample of individuals whose sentences were commuted, a couple by me, a couple by President Bush, a couple by President Clinton. They're all at different stages of this new chapter in their lives, but the stories are extraordinary. You've got individuals sitting around this table who are now attorneys themselves, and raising children, and about to get married. You've got folks who are inspirational speakers and working with those who are reentering society after having done their time, and helping people make adjustments.
To my left right here, just a good example -- Phillip Emmert, who lives in Iowa City. Phillip, who served in our United States Army, was arrested and convicted of distributing methamphetamines, received a 27-year sentence. His wife, while he was in prison, had an accident that paralyzed her, had a small child at home. But Phil had the strength to do everything he could to get trained to learn a whole bunch of systems, and ended up specializing in heating and air conditioning systems. He was commuted by President Bush, was able to find a job with the VA; today, is gainfully employed. His boss loves him. He's doing great work. Is, at the same time, caring for his wife, who's still disabled. Has been a terrific father. Is part of a Bible study group and a leader in the community. And this is an example of what we mean when we talk about second chances. And I could tell you just as compelling stories about everybody sitting at this table.
So I wanted to have lunch with them in part so that I could hear their stories and be able to relay them to the American people to make sure that folks are understood not just as a number, but these are individuals with families and children and parents who love them, and have made mistakes but take responsibility for them.
I also wanted to have this lunch to learn how can we improve the process of making sure that people, after they've served their time, can reintegrate in the society effectively. And I got some very interesting ideas about some of the barriers that we continue to put in place that make it harder for people to readjust, and make it more likely that they get back in trouble. And we want to clear away as many of those barriers as possible.
I will tell you that listening to their stories also reminded me of how out of proportion and counterproductive so much of our sentencing when it comes to our drug laws are, both at the federal level and the state level. And I am very grateful for the bipartisan conversations that have been taking place in Congress.
I am still hopeful that we can get criminal justice reform done. It does not make sense for a non-violent drug offender to be getting 20 years, 30 years, in some cases life in prison. That's not serving anybody. That's not serving taxpayers. It's not serving public safety. And it's damaging families. And I'm very grateful that Speaker Ryan and others have expressed an interest in starting to call these bills and seeing if we can get them moving before this Congress adjourns.
I am going to continue to emphasize the importance of pardons and commutations going forward. Today, we commuted 61 additional individuals who are deserving and who I believe will be looking at the people sitting here at this table as models and inspiration for what is possible in their lives. That will mean that, at this point, I will have commuted *268[248] sentences, which is more than the previous six Presidents combined.
But we're not done, and we're going to keep on working on this until I leave. It's something that I'm going to keep on working on even after I leave the presidency, because -- some of you know we had an Easter Prayer Breakfast with ministers, pastors from all around the country of all denominations in which we read Scripture and were reminded of Jesus's teachings. And at the heart of my faith, and what I believe is at the heart of the American ideal is, is that we're all imperfect. We all make mistakes. We have to own those mistakes. We have to take responsibility and learn from those mistakes. But we as a society have to make sure that people who do take responsibility and own and learn from those mistakes are able to continue to be part of the American family. It's the right thing to do. It's the smart thing to do.
And I just appreciate the testimony of all the people here at this table, because it gave me a great lift. It made me feel inspired. And I'm really, really proud of them.
All right? Thank you.
Q Mr. President, what message would you have for employers who --
THE PRESIDENT: No, no, no I want to take this one.
Q What message would you have for employers who perhaps would like to give people like the folks you're meeting with today a second chance?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, many of the people sitting at this table described with incredible gratitude the employers who did give them that chance. And what I think employers will find is that if they are willing to look past mistakes that often were made when these individuals were 20, 21, 23, and now they are older and more mature, you'll end up getting really hard, really loyal workers.
And I've heard that repeatedly from employers, that if they are willing to take a chance on somebody, they will be rewarded by somebody who is grateful and will go above and beyond the call of duty. But unfortunately, we have a lot of barriers in a lot of companies. This is part of the reason why, at the federal level, we have instituted a banning of the box. Because so often, that prevents somebody from even meeting a felon, because all they see is there's a record there, and don't have a chance to hear somebody's story and get a measure of the man or the woman and their ability to do the job.
I am very supportive of us generally eliminating that as a screening function. I think employers are going to have to continue to recognize that there are some particular issues surrounding persons who are ex-offenders that may have to be accommodated. They may have to meet with their probation officer occasionally and so forth.
But uniformly, when I've talked to employers who take a chance -- and that includes, by the way, this establishment, which is one of the reasons that we decided to have lunch here, Busboys and Poets -- burger was excellent. (Laughter.) But what is also true is, is that they've given a number of ex-offenders a chance and do not screen using that box to find out at the front end whether somebody should get an interview or now.
What they'll find is they will get somebody who is driven and understands how precious it is just to have a chance to be useful and to do good work. And the kindness that employers show I think will be returned many fold. So I hope that that's a practice among private sector employers and public sector employers that begins to spread.
Thank you very much, everybody.
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release March 30, 2016
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
ON COMMUTATIONS OF PRISON SENTENCES
**Please see below for a correction, marked with an asterisk.
1:32 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Well, this has been an extraordinary lunch that I've had a chance to have here with some extraordinary people. As all of you know, it has been one of my top priorities for us to bring about a more sensible, more effective approach to our criminal justice system, particularly when it comes to drug crimes. And part of that has been to try to make sure that we have, on the front end, sensible sentencing, rehabilitation, education and training in prison to prepare people so that they're not going back to the old mistakes that they made before.
Part of it has been to really reinvigorate our commutations and pardons process, because it is my strong belief that by exercising these presidential powers, I have the chance to show people what a second chance can look like, that I can highlight the individuals who are getting these second chances and doing extraordinary things with their lives.
And this is just a small sample of individuals whose sentences were commuted, a couple by me, a couple by President Bush, a couple by President Clinton. They're all at different stages of this new chapter in their lives, but the stories are extraordinary. You've got individuals sitting around this table who are now attorneys themselves, and raising children, and about to get married. You've got folks who are inspirational speakers and working with those who are reentering society after having done their time, and helping people make adjustments.
To my left right here, just a good example -- Phillip Emmert, who lives in Iowa City. Phillip, who served in our United States Army, was arrested and convicted of distributing methamphetamines, received a 27-year sentence. His wife, while he was in prison, had an accident that paralyzed her, had a small child at home. But Phil had the strength to do everything he could to get trained to learn a whole bunch of systems, and ended up specializing in heating and air conditioning systems. He was commuted by President Bush, was able to find a job with the VA; today, is gainfully employed. His boss loves him. He's doing great work. Is, at the same time, caring for his wife, who's still disabled. Has been a terrific father. Is part of a Bible study group and a leader in the community. And this is an example of what we mean when we talk about second chances. And I could tell you just as compelling stories about everybody sitting at this table.
So I wanted to have lunch with them in part so that I could hear their stories and be able to relay them to the American people to make sure that folks are understood not just as a number, but these are individuals with families and children and parents who love them, and have made mistakes but take responsibility for them.
I also wanted to have this lunch to learn how can we improve the process of making sure that people, after they've served their time, can reintegrate in the society effectively. And I got some very interesting ideas about some of the barriers that we continue to put in place that make it harder for people to readjust, and make it more likely that they get back in trouble. And we want to clear away as many of those barriers as possible.
I will tell you that listening to their stories also reminded me of how out of proportion and counterproductive so much of our sentencing when it comes to our drug laws are, both at the federal level and the state level. And I am very grateful for the bipartisan conversations that have been taking place in Congress.
I am still hopeful that we can get criminal justice reform done. It does not make sense for a non-violent drug offender to be getting 20 years, 30 years, in some cases life in prison. That's not serving anybody. That's not serving taxpayers. It's not serving public safety. And it's damaging families. And I'm very grateful that Speaker Ryan and others have expressed an interest in starting to call these bills and seeing if we can get them moving before this Congress adjourns.
I am going to continue to emphasize the importance of pardons and commutations going forward. Today, we commuted 61 additional individuals who are deserving and who I believe will be looking at the people sitting here at this table as models and inspiration for what is possible in their lives. That will mean that, at this point, I will have commuted *268[248] sentences, which is more than the previous six Presidents combined.
But we're not done, and we're going to keep on working on this until I leave. It's something that I'm going to keep on working on even after I leave the presidency, because -- some of you know we had an Easter Prayer Breakfast with ministers, pastors from all around the country of all denominations in which we read Scripture and were reminded of Jesus's teachings. And at the heart of my faith, and what I believe is at the heart of the American ideal is, is that we're all imperfect. We all make mistakes. We have to own those mistakes. We have to take responsibility and learn from those mistakes. But we as a society have to make sure that people who do take responsibility and own and learn from those mistakes are able to continue to be part of the American family. It's the right thing to do. It's the smart thing to do.
And I just appreciate the testimony of all the people here at this table, because it gave me a great lift. It made me feel inspired. And I'm really, really proud of them.
All right? Thank you.
Q Mr. President, what message would you have for employers who --
THE PRESIDENT: No, no, no I want to take this one.
Q What message would you have for employers who perhaps would like to give people like the folks you're meeting with today a second chance?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, many of the people sitting at this table described with incredible gratitude the employers who did give them that chance. And what I think employers will find is that if they are willing to look past mistakes that often were made when these individuals were 20, 21, 23, and now they are older and more mature, you'll end up getting really hard, really loyal workers.
And I've heard that repeatedly from employers, that if they are willing to take a chance on somebody, they will be rewarded by somebody who is grateful and will go above and beyond the call of duty. But unfortunately, we have a lot of barriers in a lot of companies. This is part of the reason why, at the federal level, we have instituted a banning of the box. Because so often, that prevents somebody from even meeting a felon, because all they see is there's a record there, and don't have a chance to hear somebody's story and get a measure of the man or the woman and their ability to do the job.
I am very supportive of us generally eliminating that as a screening function. I think employers are going to have to continue to recognize that there are some particular issues surrounding persons who are ex-offenders that may have to be accommodated. They may have to meet with their probation officer occasionally and so forth.
But uniformly, when I've talked to employers who take a chance -- and that includes, by the way, this establishment, which is one of the reasons that we decided to have lunch here, Busboys and Poets -- burger was excellent. (Laughter.) But what is also true is, is that they've given a number of ex-offenders a chance and do not screen using that box to find out at the front end whether somebody should get an interview or now.
What they'll find is they will get somebody who is driven and understands how precious it is just to have a chance to be useful and to do good work. And the kindness that employers show I think will be returned many fold. So I hope that that's a practice among private sector employers and public sector employers that begins to spread.
Thank you very much, everybody.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 30, 2016
President Obama Grants Commutations
WASHINGTON, D.C. – On March 30, 2016, President Barack Obama granted commutation of sentence to 61 individuals.
The President granted commutations of sentence to the following 61 individuals:
· Henry Claude Agnew – Miami, FL
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base; Southern District of Florida
Sentence: 262 months' imprisonment; five years' supervised release (November 24, 2003)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· David Lang Akana – Pahala, HI
Offense: Conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine; attempt to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine; attempt to possess with intent to distribute cocaine; possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine; District of Hawaii
Sentence: 240 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (February 15, 2006)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Robert Anthony Anderson – Louisville, KY
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine; attempt to possess with intent to distribute cocaine, aiding and abetting; Western District of Kentucky
Sentence: Life imprisonment (August 8, 1994)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on March 30, 2017.
· Marvin Bailey – Hollywood, FL
Offense: Conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine and cocaine base; aiding the travel in interstate commerce to promote the distribution of cocaine; possession with intent to distribute cocaine; Southern District of West Virginia
Sentence: Life imprisonment; $25,000 fine (June 19, 1997)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on March 30, 2017, and unpaid balance of the $25,000 fine remitted.
· Bernard Beard – Compton, CA
Offense: Conspiracy to distribute cocaine, cocaine base, heroin, and phencyclidine (PCP); felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition; Central District of California
Sentence: 240 months' imprisonment; five years' supervised release (May 22, 2009)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Reginald Wendell Boyd, Jr. – Greensboro, NC
Offense: Conspiracy to distribute cocaine hydrochloride; carry a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime; Middle District of North Carolina
Sentence: 180 months' imprisonment; eight years' supervised release (October 31, 2005)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Carmel Bretous – Miami, FL
Offense: Conspiracy to import at least five kilograms of cocaine; importation of five kilograms of cocaine; conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute five kilograms of cocaine; possession with intent to distribute five kilograms of cocaine; Southern District of Florida
Sentence: 235 months' imprisonment; five years' supervised release (November 6, 2001)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Terry Brown – St. Louis, MO
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and phencyclidine (PCP); Eastern District of Missouri
Sentence: 240 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (July 7, 2005)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Willie Chevell Cameron – Panama City Beach, FL
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana, a mixture and substance containing cocaine, more than 50 grams of methamphetamine (actual) and more than 50 grams of a mixture and substance containing methamphetamine; Northern District of Florida
Sentence: Life imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (June 14, 2006)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Nathan Carter – Memphis, TN
Offense: 1. Possession of 121 grams cocaine with intent to distribute; possession of
65.8 grams cocaine base with intent to distribute; Western District of Tennessee
2. Supervised release violation (attempted possession with intent to distribute cocaine); Western District of Tennessee
Sentence: 1. Life imprisonment; 10 years’ supervised release (April 30, 1999)
2. 30 months' imprisonment; 18 months' supervised release; $10,000 fine (May 5, 1999)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence for both offenses commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Lewis Clay – College Park, GA
Offense: Possession with intent to distribute and the distribution of at least 50 grams of crack cocaine; possession of cocaine; Northern District of Georgia
Sentence: Life imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (May 1, 2003)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Manuel Colon – Springfield, MA
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine, cocaine base, and heroin; possession with intent to distribute cocaine; District of Massachusetts
Sentence: 240 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (January 25, 2007)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Alvin Cordell – Cincinnati, OH
Offense: Conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana; attempt to possess with intent to distribute cocaine base (crack); Southern District of Ohio
Sentence: Life imprisonment; $50,000 fine (May 5, 1997)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on March 30, 2017, and unpaid balance of the $50,000 fine remitted
· Kevin County – New Orleans, LA
Offense: 1. Distributing more than 100 grams of heroin; distributing less than 100
grams of heroin (two counts); Eastern District of Louisiana
2. Conspiracy to distribute cocaine base and cocaine hydrochloride, distribution of cocaine base, distribution of cocaine hydrochloride, use of a communication facility in furtherance of a drug crime; Eastern District of Louisiana
Sentence: 1. 151 months' imprisonment; six years’ supervised release (December 18, 2002)
2. 240 months' imprisonment (concurrent); 10 years' supervised release (March 26, 2003)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Nabar Moneek Criam – Brooklyn, NY
Offense: Possessed with intent to distribute crack; possessed firearms during trafficking crime; Middle District of North Carolina
Sentence: 180 months' imprisonment; five years' supervised release (March 30, 2007)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Amos Embress Cyrus – Hemingway, SC
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distribution of cocaine base; supervised release violation (Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and possession with intent to distribute cocaine); District of South Carolina
Sentence: 300 months' imprisonment; five years' supervised release (June 21, 1996)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Roy Lee Debose – Shreveport, LA
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine hydrochloride; conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base; Western District of Louisiana
Sentence: 240 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (September 18, 2000)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Dexter Lanoyd Dickens – Panama City, FL
Offense: Conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of a mixture or substance containing cocaine; distribution of a mixture or substance containing cocaine within 1,000 feet of a school (four counts); principal to distribution and possession with intent to distribute a mixture or substance containing cocaine; distribution and possession with intent to distribute a mixture or substance containing cocaine; possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of a mixture or substance containing cocaine; Northern District of Florida
Sentence: Life imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (December 17, 2004)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Andre Ester – Houston, TX
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine base; aiding and abetting the possession with intent to distribute cocaine base; Southern District of Texas
Sentence: 300 months' imprisonment; five years' supervised release (October 25, 2002)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Christopher Tim Florence – Chapel Hill, NC
Offense: Possessed with intent to distribute cocaine base (crack); Middle District of North Carolina
Sentence: 268 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (August 9, 2005)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Ian Kavanaugh Gavin – Eight Mile, AL
Offense: Possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine; using/carrying a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense; Southern District of Alabama
Sentence: 180 months' imprisonment; eight years' supervised release (March 8, 2007)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016, and supervised release term commuted to four years of supervised release.
· Isadore Gennings – Cincinnati, OH
Offense: Conspiracy to distribute cocaine; interstate travel in aid of racketeering enterprises; possession with intent to distribute in excess of five kilograms of cocaine; Southern District of Ohio
Sentence: 240 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (March 14, 2002)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016, and supervised release term commuted to five years of supervised release.
· Lamont Durville Glass – Knoxville, TN
Offense: Possession with intent to distribute cocaine base; felon in possession of a firearm; Eastern District of Tennessee
Sentence: 262 months' imprisonment; eight years' supervised release (January 9, 1998)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Vander Keith Gore – Little River, SC
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base, five kilograms or more of cocaine, 50 kilograms or more of marijuana, and less than 100 grams of heroin; District of South Carolina
Sentence: 240 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (October 30, 2002)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· George Michael Gray – Springfield, OR
Offense: Conspiracy to manufacture, possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine; manufacture of methamphetamine; possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine; possession of firearm in connection with drug trafficking offense; District of Oregon
Sentence: Life imprisonment; five years' supervised release (July 3, 1995)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Curtis Greer – Rosenberg, TX
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of a mixture and substance containing a detectable amount of cocaine base; possession with intent to distribute five grams or more of a mixture and substance containing a detectable amount of cocaine base (two counts); Southern District of Texas
Sentence: Life imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release; $5,000 fine (August 21, 2003)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016, and unpaid balance of the $5,000 fine remitted.
· Jerome Harris, Jr. – Mobile, AL
Offense: Possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine; possession with intent to distribute cocaine; use/carry/possess a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime; Southern District of Alabama
Sentence: 300 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (November 7, 2006)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Vernon Harris – Philadelphia, PA
Offense: Possession with intent to distribute; possession of firearm by convicted felon; Eastern District of Pennsylvania
Sentence: Life imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (October 25, 1996)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Kenneth G. Harvey – Los Angeles, CA
Offense: Possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base; Western District of Missouri
Sentence: Life imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release; $10,000 fine (April 5, 1991)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Andrew Lee Holzendorf – South Bay, FL
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine base; Northern District of Florida
Sentence: Life imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (November 14, 1996)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Tommy Howard – Cincinnati, OH
Offense: Use of a firearm during the commission of a drug trafficking offense; Southern District of Ohio
Sentence: 292 months' imprisonment; five years' supervised release; $1,000 fine (January 8, 2004)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Kenneth Isaacs – Little Rock, AR
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute hydromorphone; Eastern District of Arkansas
Sentence: 180 months' imprisonment; three years' supervised release (May 6, 2004)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Robert Lee Lane – Bradenton, FL
Offense: Possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base; Middle District of Florida
Sentence: Life imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (May 3, 1990)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Angela LaPlatney – Casper, WY
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, and to distribute methamphetamine; concealing a person from arrest; District of Wyoming
Sentence: 240 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release; $1,000 fine (February 17, 2005)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Anthony Lee Lewis – Tampa, FL
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and crack cocaine; distribution of crack cocaine; possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine; convicted felon in possession of a firearm; possession with intent to distribute cocaine; Middle District of Florida
Sentence: Life imprisonment (September 16, 1994)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on March 30, 2017.
· Herbert Lewis, Jr. – Okmulgee, OK
Offense: Possession with intent to distribute cocaine (two counts); Eastern District of Oklahoma
Sentence: 240 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release; $2,500 fine (March 7, 2003)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016, and unpaid balance of the $2,500 fine remitted.
· Byron Lamont McDade – Bowie, MD
Offense: Conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, aiding and abetting; District of Columbia
Sentence: 324 months' imprisonment; five years' supervised release (May 29, 2002)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· John E. Milton, III – Baton Rouge, LA
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute and distribution of cocaine and cocaine base; Middle District of Louisiana
Sentence: 600 months' imprisonment; five years' supervised release; $250,000 fine (April 3, 1997)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016, and unpaid balance of the $250,000 fine remitted.
· Gregory Morgan – Jonesboro, GA
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine base; Northern District of Georgia
Sentence: 225 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (March 11, 2003)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Michael W. Morris – Fort Worth , TX
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute "crack" cocaine base; Southern District of Indiana
Sentence: 240 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (December 24, 2003)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016, and supervised release term commuted to five years of supervised release.
· Larry Nokes – Quincy, IL
Offense: Conspiracy to distribute controlled substances; possession of a controlled substance; Central District of Illinois
Sentence: Life imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (December 10, 2007)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Wayne Parker – Miami, FL
Offense: Conspiracy to distribute cocaine and cocaine base; Northern District of Florida
Sentence: 420 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release; $1,500 fine (November 23, 1999); amended to 360 months' imprisonment; six years’ supervised release; $1,500 fine (March 8, 2001)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Exdonovan Peak – Brooklyn, NY
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine; Southern District of Mississippi
Sentence: 365 months' imprisonment; five years' supervised release; $12,000 fine (February 13, 1997)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016, and unpaid balance of the $12,000 fine remitted.
· Carol Denise Richardson – Texas City, TX
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base; possession with intent to distribute five grams or more of cocaine base (incorrectly described in the judgment as cocaine); possession with intent to distribute five grams or more of cocaine base; Southern District of Texas
Sentence: Life imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (June 16, 2006)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Jose Ramon Rivera – Chicago, IL
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute heroin; distribution of heroin (two counts); Northern District of Illinois
Sentence: 360 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (November 10, 1993)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Ismael Rosa – Chicago, IL
Offense: Conspiracy to distribute multiple kilograms of cocaine (four counts); use of communication facility in commission of drug offense (two counts); Northern District of Illinois
Sentence: Life imprisonment (August 8, 1995)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on March 30, 2017.
· Melissa Ross – Daytona Beach, FL
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine hydrochloride and 50 grams or more of cocaine base; Middle District of Florida
Sentence: 292 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release; $4,000 fine (June 11, 2002); amended to 240 months' imprisonment (January 17, 2009)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016, and unpaid balance of the $4,000 fine remitted.
· Jeffrey Sapp – Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute crack cocaine; possess with intent to distribute crack cocaine; Southern District of Florida
Sentence: 240 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (January 24, 2003)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Robin Evette Shoulders – Louisville, KY
Offense: Possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base; possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine; Western District of Kentucky
Sentence: 240 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (December 16, 2002)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on September 26, 2016.
· Eric Smith – Memphis, TN
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine base; unlawfully maintaining a residence for the purpose of distributing and using cocaine base; Western District of Tennessee
Sentence: 360 months' imprisonment; five years' supervised release (April 24, 1995)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Ernest Spiller – East St. Louis, IL
Offense: Distribution of crack cocaine (two counts); maintaining a crack house; possession of a firearm in further of a drug trafficking crime; felon in possession of a firearm; Southern District of Illinois
Sentence: 352 months' imprisonment; three years' supervised release; $1,000 fine (August 3, 2000)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Tairone Traniel Stanford – Buna, TX
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a Schedule II controlled substance - cocaine base; possession with intent to distribute a Schedule II controlled substance - cocaine base; Eastern District of Texas
Sentence: Life imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (April 22, 1999)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Alohondra Rey Staton – Greenville, NC
Offense: Possession with the intent to distribute cocaine base (crack); Eastern District of North Carolina
Sentence: 360 months' imprisonment; five years' supervised release (August 21, 2001)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Corey R. Thomas – St. Louis, MO
Offense: Possession with the intent to distribute more than 50 grams of cocaine base ("crack"); Eastern District of Missouri
Sentence: Life imprisonment; five years' supervised release (June 9, 2004)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Damion L. Tripp – Poplar Bluff, MO
Offense: Possession with intent to distribute a substance containing 50 grams or more of cocaine base; possession with intent to distribute a substance containing a detectable amount of marijuana; Eastern District of Missouri
Sentence: 240 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (April 28, 2008)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Dwayne Twane Walker – Charlottesville, VA
Offense: Conspiracy to distribute cocaine base; Western District of Virginia
Sentence: Life imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release; $500 fine (May 27, 1997)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Jesse Webster – Chicago, IL
Offense: Conspiracy; attempting to possess with intent to distribute cocaine (incorrectly listed on the judgment as conspiracy); filing false income tax return (two counts); Northern District of Illinois
Sentence: Life imprisonment; five years' supervised release; $25,000 fine (March 21, 1996)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on September 26, 2016, and balance of the $25,000 fine remitted.
· Shermaine Donnell Whitley – Charleston, SC
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distribution of cocaine and cocaine base (“crack”); District of South Carolina
Sentence: 240 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (May 1, 2003)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Sammy Lee Woods – Aurora, CO
Offense: Conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 50 or more grams of cocaine base, aiding and abetting; use of a communications facility to possess with intent to distribute cocaine base, aiding and abetting; possession with intent to distribute 1.062 grams of cocaine base, aiding and abetting; District of Colorado
Sentence: 240 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (April 21, 2004)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Christopher Michael Wright – Elmira, OR
Offense: Conspiracy to manufacture and distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine; District of Oregon
Sentence: 216 months' imprisonment; five years' supervised release; $5,000 restitution (May 31, 2006)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Michael A. Yandal – Murray, KY
Offense: Possession with the intent to distribute approximately 50 grams or more of a mixture or substance containing cocaine base; possession with the intent to distribute marijuana; possession of a firearm in the furtherance of a drug trafficking crime; Western District of Kentucky
Sentence: 195 months' imprisonment; five years' supervised release (April 24, 2007); amended to 180 months' imprisonment (December 11, 2007)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 30, 2016
President Obama Grants Commutations
WASHINGTON, D.C. – On March 30, 2016, President Barack Obama granted commutation of sentence to 61 individuals.
The President granted commutations of sentence to the following 61 individuals:
· Henry Claude Agnew – Miami, FL
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base; Southern District of Florida
Sentence: 262 months' imprisonment; five years' supervised release (November 24, 2003)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· David Lang Akana – Pahala, HI
Offense: Conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine; attempt to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine; attempt to possess with intent to distribute cocaine; possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine; District of Hawaii
Sentence: 240 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (February 15, 2006)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Robert Anthony Anderson – Louisville, KY
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine; attempt to possess with intent to distribute cocaine, aiding and abetting; Western District of Kentucky
Sentence: Life imprisonment (August 8, 1994)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on March 30, 2017.
· Marvin Bailey – Hollywood, FL
Offense: Conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine and cocaine base; aiding the travel in interstate commerce to promote the distribution of cocaine; possession with intent to distribute cocaine; Southern District of West Virginia
Sentence: Life imprisonment; $25,000 fine (June 19, 1997)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on March 30, 2017, and unpaid balance of the $25,000 fine remitted.
· Bernard Beard – Compton, CA
Offense: Conspiracy to distribute cocaine, cocaine base, heroin, and phencyclidine (PCP); felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition; Central District of California
Sentence: 240 months' imprisonment; five years' supervised release (May 22, 2009)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Reginald Wendell Boyd, Jr. – Greensboro, NC
Offense: Conspiracy to distribute cocaine hydrochloride; carry a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime; Middle District of North Carolina
Sentence: 180 months' imprisonment; eight years' supervised release (October 31, 2005)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Carmel Bretous – Miami, FL
Offense: Conspiracy to import at least five kilograms of cocaine; importation of five kilograms of cocaine; conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute five kilograms of cocaine; possession with intent to distribute five kilograms of cocaine; Southern District of Florida
Sentence: 235 months' imprisonment; five years' supervised release (November 6, 2001)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Terry Brown – St. Louis, MO
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and phencyclidine (PCP); Eastern District of Missouri
Sentence: 240 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (July 7, 2005)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Willie Chevell Cameron – Panama City Beach, FL
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana, a mixture and substance containing cocaine, more than 50 grams of methamphetamine (actual) and more than 50 grams of a mixture and substance containing methamphetamine; Northern District of Florida
Sentence: Life imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (June 14, 2006)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Nathan Carter – Memphis, TN
Offense: 1. Possession of 121 grams cocaine with intent to distribute; possession of
65.8 grams cocaine base with intent to distribute; Western District of Tennessee
2. Supervised release violation (attempted possession with intent to distribute cocaine); Western District of Tennessee
Sentence: 1. Life imprisonment; 10 years’ supervised release (April 30, 1999)
2. 30 months' imprisonment; 18 months' supervised release; $10,000 fine (May 5, 1999)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence for both offenses commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Lewis Clay – College Park, GA
Offense: Possession with intent to distribute and the distribution of at least 50 grams of crack cocaine; possession of cocaine; Northern District of Georgia
Sentence: Life imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (May 1, 2003)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Manuel Colon – Springfield, MA
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine, cocaine base, and heroin; possession with intent to distribute cocaine; District of Massachusetts
Sentence: 240 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (January 25, 2007)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Alvin Cordell – Cincinnati, OH
Offense: Conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana; attempt to possess with intent to distribute cocaine base (crack); Southern District of Ohio
Sentence: Life imprisonment; $50,000 fine (May 5, 1997)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on March 30, 2017, and unpaid balance of the $50,000 fine remitted
· Kevin County – New Orleans, LA
Offense: 1. Distributing more than 100 grams of heroin; distributing less than 100
grams of heroin (two counts); Eastern District of Louisiana
2. Conspiracy to distribute cocaine base and cocaine hydrochloride, distribution of cocaine base, distribution of cocaine hydrochloride, use of a communication facility in furtherance of a drug crime; Eastern District of Louisiana
Sentence: 1. 151 months' imprisonment; six years’ supervised release (December 18, 2002)
2. 240 months' imprisonment (concurrent); 10 years' supervised release (March 26, 2003)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Nabar Moneek Criam – Brooklyn, NY
Offense: Possessed with intent to distribute crack; possessed firearms during trafficking crime; Middle District of North Carolina
Sentence: 180 months' imprisonment; five years' supervised release (March 30, 2007)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Amos Embress Cyrus – Hemingway, SC
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distribution of cocaine base; supervised release violation (Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and possession with intent to distribute cocaine); District of South Carolina
Sentence: 300 months' imprisonment; five years' supervised release (June 21, 1996)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Roy Lee Debose – Shreveport, LA
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine hydrochloride; conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base; Western District of Louisiana
Sentence: 240 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (September 18, 2000)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Dexter Lanoyd Dickens – Panama City, FL
Offense: Conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of a mixture or substance containing cocaine; distribution of a mixture or substance containing cocaine within 1,000 feet of a school (four counts); principal to distribution and possession with intent to distribute a mixture or substance containing cocaine; distribution and possession with intent to distribute a mixture or substance containing cocaine; possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of a mixture or substance containing cocaine; Northern District of Florida
Sentence: Life imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (December 17, 2004)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Andre Ester – Houston, TX
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine base; aiding and abetting the possession with intent to distribute cocaine base; Southern District of Texas
Sentence: 300 months' imprisonment; five years' supervised release (October 25, 2002)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Christopher Tim Florence – Chapel Hill, NC
Offense: Possessed with intent to distribute cocaine base (crack); Middle District of North Carolina
Sentence: 268 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (August 9, 2005)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Ian Kavanaugh Gavin – Eight Mile, AL
Offense: Possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine; using/carrying a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense; Southern District of Alabama
Sentence: 180 months' imprisonment; eight years' supervised release (March 8, 2007)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016, and supervised release term commuted to four years of supervised release.
· Isadore Gennings – Cincinnati, OH
Offense: Conspiracy to distribute cocaine; interstate travel in aid of racketeering enterprises; possession with intent to distribute in excess of five kilograms of cocaine; Southern District of Ohio
Sentence: 240 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (March 14, 2002)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016, and supervised release term commuted to five years of supervised release.
· Lamont Durville Glass – Knoxville, TN
Offense: Possession with intent to distribute cocaine base; felon in possession of a firearm; Eastern District of Tennessee
Sentence: 262 months' imprisonment; eight years' supervised release (January 9, 1998)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Vander Keith Gore – Little River, SC
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base, five kilograms or more of cocaine, 50 kilograms or more of marijuana, and less than 100 grams of heroin; District of South Carolina
Sentence: 240 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (October 30, 2002)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· George Michael Gray – Springfield, OR
Offense: Conspiracy to manufacture, possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine; manufacture of methamphetamine; possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine; possession of firearm in connection with drug trafficking offense; District of Oregon
Sentence: Life imprisonment; five years' supervised release (July 3, 1995)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Curtis Greer – Rosenberg, TX
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of a mixture and substance containing a detectable amount of cocaine base; possession with intent to distribute five grams or more of a mixture and substance containing a detectable amount of cocaine base (two counts); Southern District of Texas
Sentence: Life imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release; $5,000 fine (August 21, 2003)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016, and unpaid balance of the $5,000 fine remitted.
· Jerome Harris, Jr. – Mobile, AL
Offense: Possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine; possession with intent to distribute cocaine; use/carry/possess a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime; Southern District of Alabama
Sentence: 300 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (November 7, 2006)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Vernon Harris – Philadelphia, PA
Offense: Possession with intent to distribute; possession of firearm by convicted felon; Eastern District of Pennsylvania
Sentence: Life imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (October 25, 1996)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Kenneth G. Harvey – Los Angeles, CA
Offense: Possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base; Western District of Missouri
Sentence: Life imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release; $10,000 fine (April 5, 1991)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Andrew Lee Holzendorf – South Bay, FL
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine base; Northern District of Florida
Sentence: Life imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (November 14, 1996)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Tommy Howard – Cincinnati, OH
Offense: Use of a firearm during the commission of a drug trafficking offense; Southern District of Ohio
Sentence: 292 months' imprisonment; five years' supervised release; $1,000 fine (January 8, 2004)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Kenneth Isaacs – Little Rock, AR
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute hydromorphone; Eastern District of Arkansas
Sentence: 180 months' imprisonment; three years' supervised release (May 6, 2004)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Robert Lee Lane – Bradenton, FL
Offense: Possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base; Middle District of Florida
Sentence: Life imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (May 3, 1990)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Angela LaPlatney – Casper, WY
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, and to distribute methamphetamine; concealing a person from arrest; District of Wyoming
Sentence: 240 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release; $1,000 fine (February 17, 2005)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Anthony Lee Lewis – Tampa, FL
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and crack cocaine; distribution of crack cocaine; possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine; convicted felon in possession of a firearm; possession with intent to distribute cocaine; Middle District of Florida
Sentence: Life imprisonment (September 16, 1994)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on March 30, 2017.
· Herbert Lewis, Jr. – Okmulgee, OK
Offense: Possession with intent to distribute cocaine (two counts); Eastern District of Oklahoma
Sentence: 240 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release; $2,500 fine (March 7, 2003)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016, and unpaid balance of the $2,500 fine remitted.
· Byron Lamont McDade – Bowie, MD
Offense: Conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, aiding and abetting; District of Columbia
Sentence: 324 months' imprisonment; five years' supervised release (May 29, 2002)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· John E. Milton, III – Baton Rouge, LA
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute and distribution of cocaine and cocaine base; Middle District of Louisiana
Sentence: 600 months' imprisonment; five years' supervised release; $250,000 fine (April 3, 1997)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016, and unpaid balance of the $250,000 fine remitted.
· Gregory Morgan – Jonesboro, GA
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine base; Northern District of Georgia
Sentence: 225 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (March 11, 2003)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Michael W. Morris – Fort Worth , TX
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute "crack" cocaine base; Southern District of Indiana
Sentence: 240 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (December 24, 2003)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016, and supervised release term commuted to five years of supervised release.
· Larry Nokes – Quincy, IL
Offense: Conspiracy to distribute controlled substances; possession of a controlled substance; Central District of Illinois
Sentence: Life imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (December 10, 2007)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Wayne Parker – Miami, FL
Offense: Conspiracy to distribute cocaine and cocaine base; Northern District of Florida
Sentence: 420 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release; $1,500 fine (November 23, 1999); amended to 360 months' imprisonment; six years’ supervised release; $1,500 fine (March 8, 2001)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Exdonovan Peak – Brooklyn, NY
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine; Southern District of Mississippi
Sentence: 365 months' imprisonment; five years' supervised release; $12,000 fine (February 13, 1997)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016, and unpaid balance of the $12,000 fine remitted.
· Carol Denise Richardson – Texas City, TX
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base; possession with intent to distribute five grams or more of cocaine base (incorrectly described in the judgment as cocaine); possession with intent to distribute five grams or more of cocaine base; Southern District of Texas
Sentence: Life imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (June 16, 2006)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Jose Ramon Rivera – Chicago, IL
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute heroin; distribution of heroin (two counts); Northern District of Illinois
Sentence: 360 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (November 10, 1993)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Ismael Rosa – Chicago, IL
Offense: Conspiracy to distribute multiple kilograms of cocaine (four counts); use of communication facility in commission of drug offense (two counts); Northern District of Illinois
Sentence: Life imprisonment (August 8, 1995)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on March 30, 2017.
· Melissa Ross – Daytona Beach, FL
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine hydrochloride and 50 grams or more of cocaine base; Middle District of Florida
Sentence: 292 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release; $4,000 fine (June 11, 2002); amended to 240 months' imprisonment (January 17, 2009)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016, and unpaid balance of the $4,000 fine remitted.
· Jeffrey Sapp – Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute crack cocaine; possess with intent to distribute crack cocaine; Southern District of Florida
Sentence: 240 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (January 24, 2003)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Robin Evette Shoulders – Louisville, KY
Offense: Possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base; possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine; Western District of Kentucky
Sentence: 240 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (December 16, 2002)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on September 26, 2016.
· Eric Smith – Memphis, TN
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine base; unlawfully maintaining a residence for the purpose of distributing and using cocaine base; Western District of Tennessee
Sentence: 360 months' imprisonment; five years' supervised release (April 24, 1995)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Ernest Spiller – East St. Louis, IL
Offense: Distribution of crack cocaine (two counts); maintaining a crack house; possession of a firearm in further of a drug trafficking crime; felon in possession of a firearm; Southern District of Illinois
Sentence: 352 months' imprisonment; three years' supervised release; $1,000 fine (August 3, 2000)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Tairone Traniel Stanford – Buna, TX
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a Schedule II controlled substance - cocaine base; possession with intent to distribute a Schedule II controlled substance - cocaine base; Eastern District of Texas
Sentence: Life imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (April 22, 1999)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Alohondra Rey Staton – Greenville, NC
Offense: Possession with the intent to distribute cocaine base (crack); Eastern District of North Carolina
Sentence: 360 months' imprisonment; five years' supervised release (August 21, 2001)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Corey R. Thomas – St. Louis, MO
Offense: Possession with the intent to distribute more than 50 grams of cocaine base ("crack"); Eastern District of Missouri
Sentence: Life imprisonment; five years' supervised release (June 9, 2004)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Damion L. Tripp – Poplar Bluff, MO
Offense: Possession with intent to distribute a substance containing 50 grams or more of cocaine base; possession with intent to distribute a substance containing a detectable amount of marijuana; Eastern District of Missouri
Sentence: 240 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (April 28, 2008)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Dwayne Twane Walker – Charlottesville, VA
Offense: Conspiracy to distribute cocaine base; Western District of Virginia
Sentence: Life imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release; $500 fine (May 27, 1997)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Jesse Webster – Chicago, IL
Offense: Conspiracy; attempting to possess with intent to distribute cocaine (incorrectly listed on the judgment as conspiracy); filing false income tax return (two counts); Northern District of Illinois
Sentence: Life imprisonment; five years' supervised release; $25,000 fine (March 21, 1996)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on September 26, 2016, and balance of the $25,000 fine remitted.
· Shermaine Donnell Whitley – Charleston, SC
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distribution of cocaine and cocaine base (“crack”); District of South Carolina
Sentence: 240 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (May 1, 2003)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Sammy Lee Woods – Aurora, CO
Offense: Conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 50 or more grams of cocaine base, aiding and abetting; use of a communications facility to possess with intent to distribute cocaine base, aiding and abetting; possession with intent to distribute 1.062 grams of cocaine base, aiding and abetting; District of Colorado
Sentence: 240 months' imprisonment; 10 years' supervised release (April 21, 2004)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Christopher Michael Wright – Elmira, OR
Offense: Conspiracy to manufacture and distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine; District of Oregon
Sentence: 216 months' imprisonment; five years' supervised release; $5,000 restitution (May 31, 2006)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
· Michael A. Yandal – Murray, KY
Offense: Possession with the intent to distribute approximately 50 grams or more of a mixture or substance containing cocaine base; possession with the intent to distribute marijuana; possession of a firearm in the furtherance of a drug trafficking crime; Western District of Kentucky
Sentence: 195 months' imprisonment; five years' supervised release (April 24, 2007); amended to 180 months' imprisonment (December 11, 2007)
Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on July 28, 2016.
President Obama Announces ConnectALL Initiative
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 9, 2016
FACT SHEET: President Obama Announces ConnectALL Initiative
Delivering on the Promise of Broadband & Access to Technology for All Americans
Connectivity is a path to greater opportunity. In today’s world, broadband and fluency with technology fuel economic growth, provide access to the world’s knowledge, promote skill development, and build stronger and more connected communities.
During President Obama’s seven years in office, we’ve seen unprecedented gains in wiring our nation for the future, including a tripling of the average home Internet speed, covering 98 percent of Americans with fast 4G/LTE mobile broadband, and doubling the number of schools connected to high-speed Internet. As a result, we’ve seen a technology sector that spans coast to coast, the creation of millions of high-paying jobs, and a revolution in the way students learn in the classroom.
To further our efforts, and to ensure that low-income Americans can seize the opportunities of the digital age, President Obama is unveiling ConnectALL, an initiative to help Americans from across the country, at every income level, get online and have the tools to take full advantage of the Internet. Today, the Administration is submitting its recommendation that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reform a $1.5 billion per year Reagan-era phone subsidy program to turn it into a 21st Century national broadband subsidy to help low-income Americans get online. Alongside this FCC filing, the Administration is releasing a new study on the economic importance of broadband and calling for nonprofits, businesses, technology experts, and Government to join a national effort to reach the ConnectALL goal of connecting 20 million more Americans to broadband by 2020.
BUILDING ON SEVEN YEARS OF BROADBAND GROWTH
Today’s announcement rounds out seven years of progress expanding broadband, combining smart policy with unprecedented investment to deliver faster connectivity to more Americans in their homes, through their mobile devices, and where they learn and work. As a result, tens of millions more Americans are online now than when the President took office; his ConnectED Initiative has given over 20 million more K-12 students access to broadband in their classrooms and libraries; and 28 communities have come together under the banner of ConnectHome to ensure kids living in public housing have a reliable way to get online and do their homework.
ENSURING LOW-INCOME AMERICANS AREN’T LEFT BEHIND
Even with the significant progress we’ve made, more work remains to help all Americans access the economic benefits of broadband, especially low-income households. Families earning under $25,000 a year are about half as likely to have the Internet at home as families that are the most well-off. A new Issue Brief released today by the Council of Economic Advisers outlines how being offline is more than inconvenient; it creates specific economic costs, especially for job-seekers unable to access online job search tools. Today, because of a digital divide, low-income Americans have a harder time accessing these tools, and unemployed workers without home Internet access take a longer time to find employment. Given these costs, we cannot be satisfied if broadband is out of reach for anyone in America, and today, President Obama is acting to make that a part of the past.
So today, the President is launching ConnectALL to ensure more Americans have the broadband they need to get a job, engage their community, and deliver opportunity to their children by:
· Increasing the affordability of broadband for low-income Americans. Today, the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), on behalf of the Administration, is filing comments in support of the FCC’s effort to reform its Lifeline program to address the way people communicate in the 21st century. When Lifeline was first created under President Reagan, it was designed to provide low-income Americans with financial assistance to purchase affordable phone service, so the most vulnerable Americans were connected to the rest of the country. In 2005, President George W. Bush expanded the program to include mobile phones. Now in 2016, when we use the Internet to communicate more than ever, it is time to modernize Lifeline and make sure that all Americans can access the broadband services they need. The Lifeline reforms the Administration is recommending today would give the 12 million households currently using the subsidy for phone service immediate help paying their monthly broadband bill. And it has the potential to benefit tens of millions more. The modernization we are outlining:
o Encourages consumer choice. The subsidy should be flexible enough to let low-income Americans choose the service plans that best fit their families’ needs — whether voice, data plans, or in-home broadband. We are recommending a direct and portable benefit that consumers can use to make their own choices about what services they need and who they get those services from.
o Coordinates Enrollment with other Government Programs. Those eligible for Lifeline are oftentimes eligible for other government assistance. Coordination will increase the efficacy and functionality of the program’s administration while also letting those who need it most know about the resources available to them. The proposed reforms would allow Americans to obtain education about or simultaneously enroll themselves in the revamped Lifeline program when they enroll in another state-administered public assistance program, such as Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Tribally-Administered Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TTANF).
· Initiating a national service effort to deliver digital literacy skills. To increase access to digital literacy training, the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), the Federal agency that engages millions of Americans in service and in developing community solutions, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), which is the primary source of Federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 35,000 museums, are collaborating on a Digital Literacy Pilot Project. AmeriCorps VISTA members will support libraries, museums and associated community organizations located in tribal and rural communities. The goal is to build capacity and increase digital literacy efforts, complementing the Administration’s work to increase broadband adoption among low-income households.
o Additionally, Make School, a two-year college alternative that teaches advanced coding and product development, is announcing the creation of a new tool that will teach the basic, but vital, skills needed to get people online and experiencing the benefits that the Internet has to offer.
· Increasing access to affordable devices. In order to promote the reuse of equipment no longer needed by the federal government, the General Services Administration (GSA) will lead an inter-agency effort to re-engineer the Computers for Learning program to expand access to devices for more organizations that help provide digital literacy and training for low-income Americans. Computers for Learning allows schools and nonprofit organizations to take advantage of unneeded federal computer equipment. In 2014, 38 Federal Agencies donated thousands of devices, and the program’s reforms are designed to significantly increase these numbers.
· Announcing the development of a tool to support broadband planning. To empower more communities with strategies to support and accelerate local broadband planning efforts, NTIA’s BroadbandUSA program is launching the Community Connectivity Initiative, which will create a comprehensive online assessment tool to help community leaders identify critical broadband needs and connect them with expertise, tools, and resources for overcoming the challenges to expanded broadband deployment and adoption.
o The American Library Association; Blandin Foundation; ConnectME Authority; EveryoneOn; ICMA, The International City/County Management Association; National Association of Counties; National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors; National Digital Inclusion Alliance; National League of Cities; New America’s Open Technology Institute; Next Century Cities, NetworkMe, NTCA-The Rural Broadband Association; Schools, Health, and Libraries Broadband Coalition (SHELB); and US Ignite have come on board to collaborate with NTIA to design and develop the tool.
o In addition, initial communities who will support the development of the tool include Ammon, ID; Arvada, CO; Baltimore, MD; Bettendorf, IA; Boston, MA; Charlotte, NC; Greenbelt, MD ; Hopewell, VA.; Hot Springs, AK.; Hurst, TX; Kansas City, MO.; Kenmore, WA; Lenexa, KS.; Oak Harbor, WA; Putnam, CT; SeaTac, WA; Red Wing, MN; Sammamish, WA; and Seattle, WA.
o The Community Connectivity Initiative will build on NTIA’s extensive work with communities across the country, supporting broadband planning, infrastructure deployment, public computer centers, and a wide range of community applications.
· Bringing together private sector companies helping to deliver affordable connectivity. Companies are also lending their support for low-income families in their service areas. Today, Cox Communications is announcing it will host more than 200 events across the nation for low-income K-12 families, automatically qualifying attendees for their low-cost broadband option. Later this year, the company will partner with Univision to promote internet adoption through live programming, public service announcements and community events in such markets as Phoenix, Las Vegas, and San Diego.
· Marshaling philanthropic support for digital inclusion. To increase access to resources to support digital inclusion efforts under way in communities across the country, later this year the Administration will convene leaders in the philanthropic, non-profit, and private sectors to a summit focused on building on our progress to date and delivering on ConnectALL’s vision of connecting 20 million more Americans to broadband by 2020.
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 9, 2016
FACT SHEET: President Obama Announces ConnectALL Initiative
Delivering on the Promise of Broadband & Access to Technology for All Americans
Connectivity is a path to greater opportunity. In today’s world, broadband and fluency with technology fuel economic growth, provide access to the world’s knowledge, promote skill development, and build stronger and more connected communities.
During President Obama’s seven years in office, we’ve seen unprecedented gains in wiring our nation for the future, including a tripling of the average home Internet speed, covering 98 percent of Americans with fast 4G/LTE mobile broadband, and doubling the number of schools connected to high-speed Internet. As a result, we’ve seen a technology sector that spans coast to coast, the creation of millions of high-paying jobs, and a revolution in the way students learn in the classroom.
To further our efforts, and to ensure that low-income Americans can seize the opportunities of the digital age, President Obama is unveiling ConnectALL, an initiative to help Americans from across the country, at every income level, get online and have the tools to take full advantage of the Internet. Today, the Administration is submitting its recommendation that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reform a $1.5 billion per year Reagan-era phone subsidy program to turn it into a 21st Century national broadband subsidy to help low-income Americans get online. Alongside this FCC filing, the Administration is releasing a new study on the economic importance of broadband and calling for nonprofits, businesses, technology experts, and Government to join a national effort to reach the ConnectALL goal of connecting 20 million more Americans to broadband by 2020.
BUILDING ON SEVEN YEARS OF BROADBAND GROWTH
Today’s announcement rounds out seven years of progress expanding broadband, combining smart policy with unprecedented investment to deliver faster connectivity to more Americans in their homes, through their mobile devices, and where they learn and work. As a result, tens of millions more Americans are online now than when the President took office; his ConnectED Initiative has given over 20 million more K-12 students access to broadband in their classrooms and libraries; and 28 communities have come together under the banner of ConnectHome to ensure kids living in public housing have a reliable way to get online and do their homework.
ENSURING LOW-INCOME AMERICANS AREN’T LEFT BEHIND
Even with the significant progress we’ve made, more work remains to help all Americans access the economic benefits of broadband, especially low-income households. Families earning under $25,000 a year are about half as likely to have the Internet at home as families that are the most well-off. A new Issue Brief released today by the Council of Economic Advisers outlines how being offline is more than inconvenient; it creates specific economic costs, especially for job-seekers unable to access online job search tools. Today, because of a digital divide, low-income Americans have a harder time accessing these tools, and unemployed workers without home Internet access take a longer time to find employment. Given these costs, we cannot be satisfied if broadband is out of reach for anyone in America, and today, President Obama is acting to make that a part of the past.
So today, the President is launching ConnectALL to ensure more Americans have the broadband they need to get a job, engage their community, and deliver opportunity to their children by:
· Increasing the affordability of broadband for low-income Americans. Today, the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), on behalf of the Administration, is filing comments in support of the FCC’s effort to reform its Lifeline program to address the way people communicate in the 21st century. When Lifeline was first created under President Reagan, it was designed to provide low-income Americans with financial assistance to purchase affordable phone service, so the most vulnerable Americans were connected to the rest of the country. In 2005, President George W. Bush expanded the program to include mobile phones. Now in 2016, when we use the Internet to communicate more than ever, it is time to modernize Lifeline and make sure that all Americans can access the broadband services they need. The Lifeline reforms the Administration is recommending today would give the 12 million households currently using the subsidy for phone service immediate help paying their monthly broadband bill. And it has the potential to benefit tens of millions more. The modernization we are outlining:
o Encourages consumer choice. The subsidy should be flexible enough to let low-income Americans choose the service plans that best fit their families’ needs — whether voice, data plans, or in-home broadband. We are recommending a direct and portable benefit that consumers can use to make their own choices about what services they need and who they get those services from.
o Coordinates Enrollment with other Government Programs. Those eligible for Lifeline are oftentimes eligible for other government assistance. Coordination will increase the efficacy and functionality of the program’s administration while also letting those who need it most know about the resources available to them. The proposed reforms would allow Americans to obtain education about or simultaneously enroll themselves in the revamped Lifeline program when they enroll in another state-administered public assistance program, such as Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Tribally-Administered Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TTANF).
· Initiating a national service effort to deliver digital literacy skills. To increase access to digital literacy training, the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), the Federal agency that engages millions of Americans in service and in developing community solutions, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), which is the primary source of Federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 35,000 museums, are collaborating on a Digital Literacy Pilot Project. AmeriCorps VISTA members will support libraries, museums and associated community organizations located in tribal and rural communities. The goal is to build capacity and increase digital literacy efforts, complementing the Administration’s work to increase broadband adoption among low-income households.
o Additionally, Make School, a two-year college alternative that teaches advanced coding and product development, is announcing the creation of a new tool that will teach the basic, but vital, skills needed to get people online and experiencing the benefits that the Internet has to offer.
· Increasing access to affordable devices. In order to promote the reuse of equipment no longer needed by the federal government, the General Services Administration (GSA) will lead an inter-agency effort to re-engineer the Computers for Learning program to expand access to devices for more organizations that help provide digital literacy and training for low-income Americans. Computers for Learning allows schools and nonprofit organizations to take advantage of unneeded federal computer equipment. In 2014, 38 Federal Agencies donated thousands of devices, and the program’s reforms are designed to significantly increase these numbers.
· Announcing the development of a tool to support broadband planning. To empower more communities with strategies to support and accelerate local broadband planning efforts, NTIA’s BroadbandUSA program is launching the Community Connectivity Initiative, which will create a comprehensive online assessment tool to help community leaders identify critical broadband needs and connect them with expertise, tools, and resources for overcoming the challenges to expanded broadband deployment and adoption.
o The American Library Association; Blandin Foundation; ConnectME Authority; EveryoneOn; ICMA, The International City/County Management Association; National Association of Counties; National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors; National Digital Inclusion Alliance; National League of Cities; New America’s Open Technology Institute; Next Century Cities, NetworkMe, NTCA-The Rural Broadband Association; Schools, Health, and Libraries Broadband Coalition (SHELB); and US Ignite have come on board to collaborate with NTIA to design and develop the tool.
o In addition, initial communities who will support the development of the tool include Ammon, ID; Arvada, CO; Baltimore, MD; Bettendorf, IA; Boston, MA; Charlotte, NC; Greenbelt, MD ; Hopewell, VA.; Hot Springs, AK.; Hurst, TX; Kansas City, MO.; Kenmore, WA; Lenexa, KS.; Oak Harbor, WA; Putnam, CT; SeaTac, WA; Red Wing, MN; Sammamish, WA; and Seattle, WA.
o The Community Connectivity Initiative will build on NTIA’s extensive work with communities across the country, supporting broadband planning, infrastructure deployment, public computer centers, and a wide range of community applications.
· Bringing together private sector companies helping to deliver affordable connectivity. Companies are also lending their support for low-income families in their service areas. Today, Cox Communications is announcing it will host more than 200 events across the nation for low-income K-12 families, automatically qualifying attendees for their low-cost broadband option. Later this year, the company will partner with Univision to promote internet adoption through live programming, public service announcements and community events in such markets as Phoenix, Las Vegas, and San Diego.
· Marshaling philanthropic support for digital inclusion. To increase access to resources to support digital inclusion efforts under way in communities across the country, later this year the Administration will convene leaders in the philanthropic, non-profit, and private sectors to a summit focused on building on our progress to date and delivering on ConnectALL’s vision of connecting 20 million more Americans to broadband by 2020.
_______________________________________________________________________________
The White House Launches “The Opportunity Project,” Utilizing Open Data to Build Stronger Ladders of Opportunity for All
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The White House Launches “The Opportunity Project,” Utilizing Open Data to Build Stronger Ladders of Opportunity for All
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 7, 2016
FACT SHEET: The White House Launches “The Opportunity Project,” Utilizing Open Data to Build Stronger Ladders of Opportunity for All
In the lead up to the President's historic visit to SxSW, today the Administration is announcing the launch of “The Opportunity Project,” a new open data effort to improve economic mobility for all Americans. As the President said in his State of the Union address, we must harness 21st century technology and innovation to expand access to opportunity and tackle our greatest challenges.
The Opportunity Project will put data and tools in the hands of civic leaders, community organizations, and families to help them navigate information about critical resources such as access to jobs, housing, transportation, schools, and other neighborhood amenities. This project is about unleashing the power of data to help our children and our children’s children access the resources they need to thrive. Today, the Administration is releasing a unique package of Federal and local datasets in an easy-to-use format and accelerating a new way for the federal government to collaborate with local leaders, technologists, and community members to use data and technology to tackle inequities and strengthen their communities.
Key components of this announcement include:
· The launch of “The Opportunity Project” and Opportunity.Census.gov to provide easy access to the new package of Opportunity Project data, a combination of Federal and local data, on key assets that determine access to opportunity at the neighborhood level. This data can now be used by technologists, community groups, and local governments in order to help families find affordable housing, help businesses identify services they need, and help policymakers see inequities in their communities and make investments to expand fair housing and increase economic mobility.
· The release of a dozen new private sector and non-profit digital tools that were built in collaboration with eight cities and using the Opportunity Project data to help families, local leaders, advocates, and the media navigate information about access to jobs, housing, transportation, schools, neighborhood amenities, and other critical resources. Participating cities include Baltimore, Detroit, Kansas City, MO, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., as well as organizations and companies such as Redfin, Zillow, GreatSchools, PolicyLink and Streetwyze.
· More than thirty additional non-profits, community organizations, coding boot camps, academic institutions, and local governments have already committed to use the Opportunity Project data to build stronger ladders of opportunity in communities across the country.
· The Administration is issuing a Call to Action to the public to develop new tools, offer additional sources of data, deepen community engagement through the use of the data, and other actions. We want to hear about what new steps you are taking or programs you are implementing to address these topics.
This project represents an important continuation of how the Federal government is working with communities and technologists to enhance the power of open data by making it more accessible to a wide variety of users across the country, and by facilitating collaborations between software developers and community members to build digital tools that make it easier for communities and families to solve their greatest challenges.
New Administration Announcements
· Launching Opportunity.Census.gov. This new platform provides easy access to the Opportunity Project digital tools, and for software developers and community partners to access the data, build new tools, and connects with others through a community of practice, facilitated by the U.S. Census Bureau, in collaboration with the Presidential Innovation Fellows. The Administration launched this website to help ensure that an increasing number of users continue to collaborate with each other and take advantage of the Opportunity Project data. This interactive site invites software developers, data users, community leaders, and local governments to learn, connect and build as part of a larger community of practice. In addition, to support the long-term creation of applications and civic engagement, the Census Bureau created a new Opportunity Module for CitySDK, a software development kit that makes it easier to build products with open data from federal and local government. Both opportunity.census.gov and the CitySDK are open-source and available on Github.
· Release new, comprehensive and updated data on geographic access to opportunity. For the first time, the public, including software developers, local leaders, and community groups, can access a curated list of datasets compiled for the Opportunity Project. The data informs a new mapping tool created by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as a resource for communities to make more informed, data-driven investments that expand access to opportunity and reduce segregation, fulfilling long-standing obligations under the Fair Housing Act. The data also includes: publically available data generated primarily by the American Community Survey from the US Census Bureau, the authoritative data source on our nation's population and economy; open data from the Departments of Health and Human Services, Education, Commerce, and Agriculture; and local datasets from eight cities, with information on community assets such as playgrounds, grocery stores, and health clinics. Cities include Baltimore; Detroit, Kansas City, MO, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.
· Federal agencies will continue to engage with external developers, non-profits and community members to facilitate access to Federal and local data made available through the Opportunity Project, allowing for the development of additional tools specifically for particular populations and issue-areas. These may include LGBT youth experiencing homelessness, returning citizens experiencing re-entry challenges, unemployed and under-employed Americans searching for jobs, military veterans, people with disabilities, and rural communities.
· The U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Rural Development will enable youth to design digital tools that support rural community development. They will engage high school students in articulating the types of community assets that would attract them to remain and invest in their rural communities, and provide the results as youth-generated content for opportunity.census.gov to help other technologists partner with them to design digital tools. They will do this through a series of Opportunity Project focus groups on access to opportunity in rural areas at the Stronger Economies Together conference in September.
Private Sector Commitments
· Redfin released “Opportunity Score,” a tool that shows users jobs they can get to from any home or apartment, without a car, in 30 minutes or less.
· PolicyMap released a new tool to help individuals and families looking to rent or buy a home in Philadelphia find neighborhoods with the characteristics and amenities most important to them.
· Azavea released “transitanalyst.com,” a new tool that shows transit accessibility to community assets such as day care, health care centers, Head Start locations, healthy grocery stores, playgrounds, and recreation centers.
· Zillow released “Invest in the Future,” a new tool that identifies areas of a city with access to opportunity that also have the potential for affordable housing development.
· diversity.data.kids.org released the “How Affordable is Opportunity? Tool” that reveals racial and ethnic inequities in the “cost” of neighborhood opportunity for children, through narrative story maps and interactive mapping and data tools for use by policymakers, advocacy organizations, and the media.
· Community Commons released “Location Opportunity Footprint Tool,” a new tool that shows the intersection of job proximity, school proficiency, and location affordability indices to create a customizable opportunity footprint for local advocates, non-profits, and all those seeking investment to strengthen their neighborhoods and communities.
· Measure of America released “Data2Go.nyc,” a tool that provides up-to-date information on neighborhood assets and challenges required to craft effective solutions.
· GreatSchools released the “Opportunity Badge” that identifies high-performing schools given the cost of living in the neighborhood and shows how schools provide access to opportunity, broken down by race and ethnicity, to help all parents make the best decisions possible for their children.
· PolicyLink’s National Equity Atlas released a tool that illustrates access to healthy, opportunity-rich neighborhoods by race/ethnicity for the 100 largest cities, 150 largest metropolitan regions, all 50 states, and nationwide for community advocates and policymakers.
· Streetwyze will release a new feature on its mobile app in select cities that uses the power of local knowledge to highlight “experiences” happening beneath the regulatory radar—the new feature allows residents to “ground-truth” the Opportunity Project data, create real time feedback, and improve the validity, reliability, and accuracy of data at the street level.
· Esri incorporated opportunity data into their ArcGIS platform, Community Analyst and Business Analyst tools, which hosts 700,000 user sessions monthly, making opportunity data easily found and used by future planners and software developers.
· Socrata will now allow for data comparisons between cities, counties and metro areas by including Opportunity Project data in its nationwide Open Data Network, normalizing it, and optimizing it for search engines so the data is easy to discover. Opportunity Project data scan now be incorporated into all Socrata domains.
The following organizations are committed to leveraging the Opportunity Project by developing new tools, offering additional sources of data, deepening community engagement through the use of the data, and other actions.
Commitments to Enhance Existing Digital Tools
· The True Colors Fund will help LGBT youth experiencing homelessness find the resources and opportunities they need to thrive by incorporating Opportunity Project data into its True Connect app, which is being developed later this year. The True Colors Fund will also release its data on safe and inclusive services under an open source license so that future teams can include LGBT-friendly resources in their digital tools.
· The National Association of Counties (NACo) will increase county government access to information that can help families, businesses and counties officials expand access to opportunity by incorporating Opportunity Project data into the open access County Explorer tool. NACO represents all of America’s 3,069 county governments – roughly 70 percent of which are considered rural.
Commitments to Increase the Impact of Tech-Training Programs
· Seven coding bootcamps will incorporate Opportunity Project data in their curricula and/or as part of special prize challenges. Students will be encouraged to use the data in their final projects in order to build apps and other tools that are civic-minded and relevant to the needs of their communities. Bootcamps include the Telegraph Academy, General Assembly, Operation Spark, The Iron Yard, Sabio.la, Metis, and Flatiron School.
· General Assembly will hold a multi-city, cross-functional hackathon in conjunction with National Civic Hacking Day in June that leverages the Open Opportunity Data. The hackathon will be open to graduates from all of GA's immersive programs, including web development, Android development, user experience, data science, and product management, as well as other members of the wider GA community. Participants will collaborate, using the Opportunity Project data, to create applications and resources to make their communities stronger.
· #YesWeCode will work with 100 tech equity focused community-based organizations across the nation to integrate Opportunity Project data into their tech skill training curriculum. They are also committed to developing a community of practice amongst 20 - 50 community college partners around curriculum integration of Opportunity Project data during their National Convening of Community Colleges in the fall of 2016.
· The National Consortium of Data Science and Technology Meetup Organizers will coordinate a multi-city mentorship and internship program that will use Opportunity Project data and a new Civic Tech “playlist” to help youth both learn about and serve the needs of their local communities with technology. LRNG will partner with the University of Chicago and the National Science Foundation's South Big Data Hub to create the Civic Tech playlist and digital badges to connect young people across the U.S. to skills like data science.
· The Mobile Dev Corps class at Flatiron School will work with Opportunity Project data to build mobile applications that address their communities' questions and challenges. Mobile Dev Corps is a scholarship-based training-program and a partnership between Flatiron School and the City of New York's NYC Tech Talent Pipeline.
Commitments to Deepen Community Engagement
· The Participatory Budgeting Project will enable communities to make better budget decisions by incorporating Opportunity Project data and tools into participatory budgeting processes across the country so that neighborhood participants can have easier access to meaningful community data.
· The City of Boston will empower young proposal developers in Youth Lead the Change, the first youth-led participatory budgeting process in the country, using data tools created through the Opportunity Project. This process will allow young people to vote on how $1 Million of Boston's capital budget will be spent. The data will help participants to access information about community spaces to evaluate neighborhood projects and assess community need.
· Neighborland, a community engagement software platform, created a page where neighborhood residents’ ideas for improving opportunity will be uploaded and publicly accessible. This project site will be live for 3 months from today’s launch to the National Day of Civic Hacking, and the data on resident ideas will be open to developers.
· Code for America will challenge the civic tech community to improve access to economic opportunity by using their skills to conduct user research and create civic tech apps using the Opportunity Project data as part of the National Day of Civic Hacking in June.
· The City of New Orleans will host a Design Jam with ex-offenders, technologists, community advocates and 2-1-1 social services data stewards in April 2016 to identify requirements for digital tools needed to support re-entry, including technical, usability, and data concerns.
Commitments to Incorporate Additional Datasets
· Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, New York, and San Francisco will support advocacy for better opportunity in neighborhoods for people with disabilities by identifying and open high-value data sets.
· CharityLogic will help communities paint a more complete picture of opportunity that includes nonprofit resources such as food pantries, job training, and mentoring programs by adding a data export module to its iCarol software. 2-1-1 social service information & referral hotlines for more than a dozen states will then be able to export their social services data into an open, machine-readable format compliant with the Human Services Data Specification that software developers can build upon. “VIA LINK,” the 2-1-1 provider in New Orleans, will export its data for a pilot to build re-entry resources.
Additional Private Sector Commitments
· Esri and Socrata will reduce barriers for software developers and data scientists as they build nationwide digital tools on local data, by collaborating on research and development to normalize information models across disparate local government data sets.
· The Center for Government Excellence, supported by the Bloomberg Philanthropies What Works Cities partnership and the 21st Century Cities Initiative at Johns Hopkins University, will facilitate collaboration between the Opportunity Project and any of their 25 cities that would like to add their data to the platform and benefit from utilizing the existing data and tools. They are currently working with more than two dozen local governments to build capacity for decision making that is rooted in evidence, transparent accountability, and community engagement.
· RISE (Research and Innovations in Social, Economic and Environmental Equity) at Boston College School of Social Work will launch a research study using Opportunity Project data called "The Social Context of Opportunity." Researchers will investigate how race, income, and places affect access to opportunity. This collaborative project will produce scientific and publicly-accessible reports about how opportunities are tied to different social dimensions of people’s lives.
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 7, 2016
FACT SHEET: The White House Launches “The Opportunity Project,” Utilizing Open Data to Build Stronger Ladders of Opportunity for All
In the lead up to the President's historic visit to SxSW, today the Administration is announcing the launch of “The Opportunity Project,” a new open data effort to improve economic mobility for all Americans. As the President said in his State of the Union address, we must harness 21st century technology and innovation to expand access to opportunity and tackle our greatest challenges.
The Opportunity Project will put data and tools in the hands of civic leaders, community organizations, and families to help them navigate information about critical resources such as access to jobs, housing, transportation, schools, and other neighborhood amenities. This project is about unleashing the power of data to help our children and our children’s children access the resources they need to thrive. Today, the Administration is releasing a unique package of Federal and local datasets in an easy-to-use format and accelerating a new way for the federal government to collaborate with local leaders, technologists, and community members to use data and technology to tackle inequities and strengthen their communities.
Key components of this announcement include:
· The launch of “The Opportunity Project” and Opportunity.Census.gov to provide easy access to the new package of Opportunity Project data, a combination of Federal and local data, on key assets that determine access to opportunity at the neighborhood level. This data can now be used by technologists, community groups, and local governments in order to help families find affordable housing, help businesses identify services they need, and help policymakers see inequities in their communities and make investments to expand fair housing and increase economic mobility.
· The release of a dozen new private sector and non-profit digital tools that were built in collaboration with eight cities and using the Opportunity Project data to help families, local leaders, advocates, and the media navigate information about access to jobs, housing, transportation, schools, neighborhood amenities, and other critical resources. Participating cities include Baltimore, Detroit, Kansas City, MO, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., as well as organizations and companies such as Redfin, Zillow, GreatSchools, PolicyLink and Streetwyze.
· More than thirty additional non-profits, community organizations, coding boot camps, academic institutions, and local governments have already committed to use the Opportunity Project data to build stronger ladders of opportunity in communities across the country.
· The Administration is issuing a Call to Action to the public to develop new tools, offer additional sources of data, deepen community engagement through the use of the data, and other actions. We want to hear about what new steps you are taking or programs you are implementing to address these topics.
This project represents an important continuation of how the Federal government is working with communities and technologists to enhance the power of open data by making it more accessible to a wide variety of users across the country, and by facilitating collaborations between software developers and community members to build digital tools that make it easier for communities and families to solve their greatest challenges.
New Administration Announcements
· Launching Opportunity.Census.gov. This new platform provides easy access to the Opportunity Project digital tools, and for software developers and community partners to access the data, build new tools, and connects with others through a community of practice, facilitated by the U.S. Census Bureau, in collaboration with the Presidential Innovation Fellows. The Administration launched this website to help ensure that an increasing number of users continue to collaborate with each other and take advantage of the Opportunity Project data. This interactive site invites software developers, data users, community leaders, and local governments to learn, connect and build as part of a larger community of practice. In addition, to support the long-term creation of applications and civic engagement, the Census Bureau created a new Opportunity Module for CitySDK, a software development kit that makes it easier to build products with open data from federal and local government. Both opportunity.census.gov and the CitySDK are open-source and available on Github.
· Release new, comprehensive and updated data on geographic access to opportunity. For the first time, the public, including software developers, local leaders, and community groups, can access a curated list of datasets compiled for the Opportunity Project. The data informs a new mapping tool created by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as a resource for communities to make more informed, data-driven investments that expand access to opportunity and reduce segregation, fulfilling long-standing obligations under the Fair Housing Act. The data also includes: publically available data generated primarily by the American Community Survey from the US Census Bureau, the authoritative data source on our nation's population and economy; open data from the Departments of Health and Human Services, Education, Commerce, and Agriculture; and local datasets from eight cities, with information on community assets such as playgrounds, grocery stores, and health clinics. Cities include Baltimore; Detroit, Kansas City, MO, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.
· Federal agencies will continue to engage with external developers, non-profits and community members to facilitate access to Federal and local data made available through the Opportunity Project, allowing for the development of additional tools specifically for particular populations and issue-areas. These may include LGBT youth experiencing homelessness, returning citizens experiencing re-entry challenges, unemployed and under-employed Americans searching for jobs, military veterans, people with disabilities, and rural communities.
· The U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Rural Development will enable youth to design digital tools that support rural community development. They will engage high school students in articulating the types of community assets that would attract them to remain and invest in their rural communities, and provide the results as youth-generated content for opportunity.census.gov to help other technologists partner with them to design digital tools. They will do this through a series of Opportunity Project focus groups on access to opportunity in rural areas at the Stronger Economies Together conference in September.
Private Sector Commitments
· Redfin released “Opportunity Score,” a tool that shows users jobs they can get to from any home or apartment, without a car, in 30 minutes or less.
· PolicyMap released a new tool to help individuals and families looking to rent or buy a home in Philadelphia find neighborhoods with the characteristics and amenities most important to them.
· Azavea released “transitanalyst.com,” a new tool that shows transit accessibility to community assets such as day care, health care centers, Head Start locations, healthy grocery stores, playgrounds, and recreation centers.
· Zillow released “Invest in the Future,” a new tool that identifies areas of a city with access to opportunity that also have the potential for affordable housing development.
· diversity.data.kids.org released the “How Affordable is Opportunity? Tool” that reveals racial and ethnic inequities in the “cost” of neighborhood opportunity for children, through narrative story maps and interactive mapping and data tools for use by policymakers, advocacy organizations, and the media.
· Community Commons released “Location Opportunity Footprint Tool,” a new tool that shows the intersection of job proximity, school proficiency, and location affordability indices to create a customizable opportunity footprint for local advocates, non-profits, and all those seeking investment to strengthen their neighborhoods and communities.
· Measure of America released “Data2Go.nyc,” a tool that provides up-to-date information on neighborhood assets and challenges required to craft effective solutions.
· GreatSchools released the “Opportunity Badge” that identifies high-performing schools given the cost of living in the neighborhood and shows how schools provide access to opportunity, broken down by race and ethnicity, to help all parents make the best decisions possible for their children.
· PolicyLink’s National Equity Atlas released a tool that illustrates access to healthy, opportunity-rich neighborhoods by race/ethnicity for the 100 largest cities, 150 largest metropolitan regions, all 50 states, and nationwide for community advocates and policymakers.
· Streetwyze will release a new feature on its mobile app in select cities that uses the power of local knowledge to highlight “experiences” happening beneath the regulatory radar—the new feature allows residents to “ground-truth” the Opportunity Project data, create real time feedback, and improve the validity, reliability, and accuracy of data at the street level.
· Esri incorporated opportunity data into their ArcGIS platform, Community Analyst and Business Analyst tools, which hosts 700,000 user sessions monthly, making opportunity data easily found and used by future planners and software developers.
· Socrata will now allow for data comparisons between cities, counties and metro areas by including Opportunity Project data in its nationwide Open Data Network, normalizing it, and optimizing it for search engines so the data is easy to discover. Opportunity Project data scan now be incorporated into all Socrata domains.
The following organizations are committed to leveraging the Opportunity Project by developing new tools, offering additional sources of data, deepening community engagement through the use of the data, and other actions.
Commitments to Enhance Existing Digital Tools
· The True Colors Fund will help LGBT youth experiencing homelessness find the resources and opportunities they need to thrive by incorporating Opportunity Project data into its True Connect app, which is being developed later this year. The True Colors Fund will also release its data on safe and inclusive services under an open source license so that future teams can include LGBT-friendly resources in their digital tools.
· The National Association of Counties (NACo) will increase county government access to information that can help families, businesses and counties officials expand access to opportunity by incorporating Opportunity Project data into the open access County Explorer tool. NACO represents all of America’s 3,069 county governments – roughly 70 percent of which are considered rural.
Commitments to Increase the Impact of Tech-Training Programs
· Seven coding bootcamps will incorporate Opportunity Project data in their curricula and/or as part of special prize challenges. Students will be encouraged to use the data in their final projects in order to build apps and other tools that are civic-minded and relevant to the needs of their communities. Bootcamps include the Telegraph Academy, General Assembly, Operation Spark, The Iron Yard, Sabio.la, Metis, and Flatiron School.
· General Assembly will hold a multi-city, cross-functional hackathon in conjunction with National Civic Hacking Day in June that leverages the Open Opportunity Data. The hackathon will be open to graduates from all of GA's immersive programs, including web development, Android development, user experience, data science, and product management, as well as other members of the wider GA community. Participants will collaborate, using the Opportunity Project data, to create applications and resources to make their communities stronger.
· #YesWeCode will work with 100 tech equity focused community-based organizations across the nation to integrate Opportunity Project data into their tech skill training curriculum. They are also committed to developing a community of practice amongst 20 - 50 community college partners around curriculum integration of Opportunity Project data during their National Convening of Community Colleges in the fall of 2016.
· The National Consortium of Data Science and Technology Meetup Organizers will coordinate a multi-city mentorship and internship program that will use Opportunity Project data and a new Civic Tech “playlist” to help youth both learn about and serve the needs of their local communities with technology. LRNG will partner with the University of Chicago and the National Science Foundation's South Big Data Hub to create the Civic Tech playlist and digital badges to connect young people across the U.S. to skills like data science.
· The Mobile Dev Corps class at Flatiron School will work with Opportunity Project data to build mobile applications that address their communities' questions and challenges. Mobile Dev Corps is a scholarship-based training-program and a partnership between Flatiron School and the City of New York's NYC Tech Talent Pipeline.
Commitments to Deepen Community Engagement
· The Participatory Budgeting Project will enable communities to make better budget decisions by incorporating Opportunity Project data and tools into participatory budgeting processes across the country so that neighborhood participants can have easier access to meaningful community data.
· The City of Boston will empower young proposal developers in Youth Lead the Change, the first youth-led participatory budgeting process in the country, using data tools created through the Opportunity Project. This process will allow young people to vote on how $1 Million of Boston's capital budget will be spent. The data will help participants to access information about community spaces to evaluate neighborhood projects and assess community need.
· Neighborland, a community engagement software platform, created a page where neighborhood residents’ ideas for improving opportunity will be uploaded and publicly accessible. This project site will be live for 3 months from today’s launch to the National Day of Civic Hacking, and the data on resident ideas will be open to developers.
· Code for America will challenge the civic tech community to improve access to economic opportunity by using their skills to conduct user research and create civic tech apps using the Opportunity Project data as part of the National Day of Civic Hacking in June.
· The City of New Orleans will host a Design Jam with ex-offenders, technologists, community advocates and 2-1-1 social services data stewards in April 2016 to identify requirements for digital tools needed to support re-entry, including technical, usability, and data concerns.
Commitments to Incorporate Additional Datasets
· Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, New York, and San Francisco will support advocacy for better opportunity in neighborhoods for people with disabilities by identifying and open high-value data sets.
· CharityLogic will help communities paint a more complete picture of opportunity that includes nonprofit resources such as food pantries, job training, and mentoring programs by adding a data export module to its iCarol software. 2-1-1 social service information & referral hotlines for more than a dozen states will then be able to export their social services data into an open, machine-readable format compliant with the Human Services Data Specification that software developers can build upon. “VIA LINK,” the 2-1-1 provider in New Orleans, will export its data for a pilot to build re-entry resources.
Additional Private Sector Commitments
· Esri and Socrata will reduce barriers for software developers and data scientists as they build nationwide digital tools on local data, by collaborating on research and development to normalize information models across disparate local government data sets.
· The Center for Government Excellence, supported by the Bloomberg Philanthropies What Works Cities partnership and the 21st Century Cities Initiative at Johns Hopkins University, will facilitate collaboration between the Opportunity Project and any of their 25 cities that would like to add their data to the platform and benefit from utilizing the existing data and tools. They are currently working with more than two dozen local governments to build capacity for decision making that is rooted in evidence, transparent accountability, and community engagement.
· RISE (Research and Innovations in Social, Economic and Environmental Equity) at Boston College School of Social Work will launch a research study using Opportunity Project data called "The Social Context of Opportunity." Researchers will investigate how race, income, and places affect access to opportunity. This collaborative project will produce scientific and publicly-accessible reports about how opportunities are tied to different social dimensions of people’s lives.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Remarks by the President in Meeting with Financial Regulators
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release March 7, 2016
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
IN MEETING WITH FINANCIAL REGULATORS
Roosevelt Room
**Please see below for a correction, marked with an asterisk.
12:08 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: I just has an opportunity to meet with our independent financial regulators to discuss the progress that we’ve made on our economy since the financial crisis. This is something that I’ve done on a regular basis. It’s worth remembering that it was eight years ago this month that Bear Stearns collapsed. And that was a key moment in an economic spiral that eventually cost millions of Americans home values, pensions, jobs, savings. It was devastating.
And it is a useful reminder of what happens when you have lax regulation on Wall Street -- eventually, it migrates to Main Street. And so irresponsible, risky bets with inadequate safeguards and that reward executives who take those risks greatly can cause enormous damage to our economy overall.
As we worked to recover from this crisis, we’ve also worked to prevent this crisis from happening again. And Wall Street reform -- Dodd-Frank -- the laws that we passed have worked. I want to emphasize this because it is popular in the media, in political discourse -- both on the left and the right -- to suggest that the crisis happened and nothing changed. That is not true. Let me repeat that. In fact, we went at financial regulation very hard to guard against another era of “too big to fail” and some of the systemic disruptions that occurred because of lax regulation. It has helped us crack down on irresponsible behavior. We have seen banks that now have much greater capital -- as much as $700 billion worth of additional capital, additional cushion inside of our financial system.
We have put in place requirements so that if you have a financial institution that is on the brink of collapse, we can engage in an orderly unwinding of that institution without having taxpayers forced to come in and bail it out. We have made sure that the monitoring and the reporting by these institutions is much more stringent than it used to be. We are moving in the derivatives sector a huge amount of oversight and regulation. And now you have clearinghouses that account for the vast majority of trades taking place so that we know if and when somebody is doing something that they shouldn’t be doing, if they’re over-leveraged in ways that could pose larger dangers to the financial system.
We created a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that has been very effective in cracking down on some of the dishonest predatory practices that financial institutions were engaging in and that, in part, led to the crisis in 2007 and 2008.
So I want to dispel the notion that exists both on the left and on the right that somehow, after the crisis, nothing happened. In fact, if you look at the speech that I gave at Cooper Union in 2008 addressing this issue, we are, by the end of this year, likely to have achieved all the goals that we set out in terms of firming up the financial system and making it much more secure and making sure that some of the excesses, recklessness, and dangers that took place can’t occur in the future.
The second thing that I want to correct for the record is the notion that somehow this would hurt business and the economy. In fact, the opposite has happened. Our businesses have created jobs every single month since this law was signed. Over the past six years, it created more than 15 14* million new jobs in all.
And because of Wall Street reform, our financial system is safer and stronger than it was before the crisis. It is much better equipped to withstand any systemic blows that may occur not just within our borders, but in the international financial system generally. So we did not just rebuild this, we rebuilt it better and we rebuilt it stronger.
Now, that doesn’t mean that there’s not still work to
do. One of the things that we discussed was the fact that there is a shadow banking system -- a set of institutions that under current law aren’t always regulated in the same way that banks are regulated -- hedge funds, asset managers, et cetera. And one of our projects is to make sure that we are covering some of those potential gaps. We may need at some point help from Congress to do that. But in the meantime, the joint committee of these agencies has been working very effectively to try to monitor some of those areas that are outside the traditional banking system.
We still have work to do to complete regulations related to executive compensation to make sure that individuals who are working in these financial institutions are less incentivized to take big, reckless risks that could end up harming our financial sector overall.
And we also spent a lot of time talking about cybersecurity, an area where there’s going to be increasing vulnerability. And as part of my Cybersecurity National Action Plan, we have already seen these independent regulators working together with Treasury and with the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies to start tightening up our financial sector and to identify those areas where we might be weak and might be vulnerable.
So there’s going to continue to be a lot of work to do. The financial system operates very quickly. It is innovative. There is a lot of technology involved. And so the task for regulators is challenging because it’s a moving target; it doesn’t stay static.
But these institutions have worked really hard, and overall, undoubtedly have made our financial system much better. So when you read articles, whether on the left or the right, that suggest somehow nothing happened and everybody just went back to the same go-go years that they were engaging in before, those are factually incorrect. They’re not true. And the reason I want to emphasize that is because when there’s a perception that nothing happened, that that feeds cynicism that actually weakens our ability then to make further progress in regulating this sector.
A lot of work has been done by a lot of really smart, dedicated people to try to make this system work better. And we’ve made vast improvements, and we now have to build on that.
The last point I would make -- if there is a significant challenge in terms of regulating Wall Street and regulating our financial sector, it is primarily coming from certain members of Congress who are consistently pressuring independent regulators to back off; who want to strip away the authorities that were granted under Dodd-Frank; who tried to weaken those regulations, tried to water them down; or tried to starve these regulators of the resources and the budgets that they need to hire enough personnel to track everything that’s taking place in the financial sector.
So whether you are a Democrat or a Republican or a Tea Party member or a socialist, if you are concerned about making sure that Wall Street is doing the right thing, check to make sure that your member of Congress is not trying to cut the budgets of these various agencies, starve them of the resources that they need, or roll back some of the authorities that were created during Dodd-Frank.
That should be the target of your concern and your wrath. Because unless we have strong, independent agencies like this that can provide the oversight that’s necessary, it is absolutely true that these financial institutions with enormous resources and mountains of lawyers and accountants and analysts will run circles around the government and will end up engaging once again in the kinds of disruptive behavior that caused so much damage to so many people in the first place. So that’s where everybody should be focused.
And let’s make sure that as you reporters are doing your work in this area, shine a spotlight on who is it that’s trying to weaken Wall Street reform and regulations and who’s trying to strengthen them; who’s trying to strip out budgets and who’s trying to add additional resources to make sure that we’re doing the job. And the American people should take some comfort from the fact that the people around this table, at least, have been working really hard, and they’ve actually made some really significant progress.
We got more work to do. And there are a whole set of issues that fall outside the issues of this regulatory body in terms of making sure that folks on Wall Street are also paying their taxes and that the tax structure is fair. And that gets into a whole other set of arguments that I may make at another press event.
All right? Thank you very much, everybody.
Q Any comments for the camera on Nancy Reagan?
THE PRESIDENT: I had the opportunity to meet Mrs. Reagan once. Obviously, she was already advanced in age, but could not have been more gracious and more charming to myself and Michelle when we first came into office. I think it’s been well documented the extraordinary love that she had for her husband and the extraordinary comfort and strength that she provided him during really hard times. As somebody who has been lucky enough to have an extraordinary partner in my life as well, I know how much she meant not just to President Reagan but to the country as a whole. He was lucky to have her -- and I’m sure he’d be the first to acknowledge that. So she will be missed.
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release March 7, 2016
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
IN MEETING WITH FINANCIAL REGULATORS
Roosevelt Room
**Please see below for a correction, marked with an asterisk.
12:08 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: I just has an opportunity to meet with our independent financial regulators to discuss the progress that we’ve made on our economy since the financial crisis. This is something that I’ve done on a regular basis. It’s worth remembering that it was eight years ago this month that Bear Stearns collapsed. And that was a key moment in an economic spiral that eventually cost millions of Americans home values, pensions, jobs, savings. It was devastating.
And it is a useful reminder of what happens when you have lax regulation on Wall Street -- eventually, it migrates to Main Street. And so irresponsible, risky bets with inadequate safeguards and that reward executives who take those risks greatly can cause enormous damage to our economy overall.
As we worked to recover from this crisis, we’ve also worked to prevent this crisis from happening again. And Wall Street reform -- Dodd-Frank -- the laws that we passed have worked. I want to emphasize this because it is popular in the media, in political discourse -- both on the left and the right -- to suggest that the crisis happened and nothing changed. That is not true. Let me repeat that. In fact, we went at financial regulation very hard to guard against another era of “too big to fail” and some of the systemic disruptions that occurred because of lax regulation. It has helped us crack down on irresponsible behavior. We have seen banks that now have much greater capital -- as much as $700 billion worth of additional capital, additional cushion inside of our financial system.
We have put in place requirements so that if you have a financial institution that is on the brink of collapse, we can engage in an orderly unwinding of that institution without having taxpayers forced to come in and bail it out. We have made sure that the monitoring and the reporting by these institutions is much more stringent than it used to be. We are moving in the derivatives sector a huge amount of oversight and regulation. And now you have clearinghouses that account for the vast majority of trades taking place so that we know if and when somebody is doing something that they shouldn’t be doing, if they’re over-leveraged in ways that could pose larger dangers to the financial system.
We created a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that has been very effective in cracking down on some of the dishonest predatory practices that financial institutions were engaging in and that, in part, led to the crisis in 2007 and 2008.
So I want to dispel the notion that exists both on the left and on the right that somehow, after the crisis, nothing happened. In fact, if you look at the speech that I gave at Cooper Union in 2008 addressing this issue, we are, by the end of this year, likely to have achieved all the goals that we set out in terms of firming up the financial system and making it much more secure and making sure that some of the excesses, recklessness, and dangers that took place can’t occur in the future.
The second thing that I want to correct for the record is the notion that somehow this would hurt business and the economy. In fact, the opposite has happened. Our businesses have created jobs every single month since this law was signed. Over the past six years, it created more than 15 14* million new jobs in all.
And because of Wall Street reform, our financial system is safer and stronger than it was before the crisis. It is much better equipped to withstand any systemic blows that may occur not just within our borders, but in the international financial system generally. So we did not just rebuild this, we rebuilt it better and we rebuilt it stronger.
Now, that doesn’t mean that there’s not still work to
do. One of the things that we discussed was the fact that there is a shadow banking system -- a set of institutions that under current law aren’t always regulated in the same way that banks are regulated -- hedge funds, asset managers, et cetera. And one of our projects is to make sure that we are covering some of those potential gaps. We may need at some point help from Congress to do that. But in the meantime, the joint committee of these agencies has been working very effectively to try to monitor some of those areas that are outside the traditional banking system.
We still have work to do to complete regulations related to executive compensation to make sure that individuals who are working in these financial institutions are less incentivized to take big, reckless risks that could end up harming our financial sector overall.
And we also spent a lot of time talking about cybersecurity, an area where there’s going to be increasing vulnerability. And as part of my Cybersecurity National Action Plan, we have already seen these independent regulators working together with Treasury and with the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies to start tightening up our financial sector and to identify those areas where we might be weak and might be vulnerable.
So there’s going to continue to be a lot of work to do. The financial system operates very quickly. It is innovative. There is a lot of technology involved. And so the task for regulators is challenging because it’s a moving target; it doesn’t stay static.
But these institutions have worked really hard, and overall, undoubtedly have made our financial system much better. So when you read articles, whether on the left or the right, that suggest somehow nothing happened and everybody just went back to the same go-go years that they were engaging in before, those are factually incorrect. They’re not true. And the reason I want to emphasize that is because when there’s a perception that nothing happened, that that feeds cynicism that actually weakens our ability then to make further progress in regulating this sector.
A lot of work has been done by a lot of really smart, dedicated people to try to make this system work better. And we’ve made vast improvements, and we now have to build on that.
The last point I would make -- if there is a significant challenge in terms of regulating Wall Street and regulating our financial sector, it is primarily coming from certain members of Congress who are consistently pressuring independent regulators to back off; who want to strip away the authorities that were granted under Dodd-Frank; who tried to weaken those regulations, tried to water them down; or tried to starve these regulators of the resources and the budgets that they need to hire enough personnel to track everything that’s taking place in the financial sector.
So whether you are a Democrat or a Republican or a Tea Party member or a socialist, if you are concerned about making sure that Wall Street is doing the right thing, check to make sure that your member of Congress is not trying to cut the budgets of these various agencies, starve them of the resources that they need, or roll back some of the authorities that were created during Dodd-Frank.
That should be the target of your concern and your wrath. Because unless we have strong, independent agencies like this that can provide the oversight that’s necessary, it is absolutely true that these financial institutions with enormous resources and mountains of lawyers and accountants and analysts will run circles around the government and will end up engaging once again in the kinds of disruptive behavior that caused so much damage to so many people in the first place. So that’s where everybody should be focused.
And let’s make sure that as you reporters are doing your work in this area, shine a spotlight on who is it that’s trying to weaken Wall Street reform and regulations and who’s trying to strengthen them; who’s trying to strip out budgets and who’s trying to add additional resources to make sure that we’re doing the job. And the American people should take some comfort from the fact that the people around this table, at least, have been working really hard, and they’ve actually made some really significant progress.
We got more work to do. And there are a whole set of issues that fall outside the issues of this regulatory body in terms of making sure that folks on Wall Street are also paying their taxes and that the tax structure is fair. And that gets into a whole other set of arguments that I may make at another press event.
All right? Thank you very much, everybody.
Q Any comments for the camera on Nancy Reagan?
THE PRESIDENT: I had the opportunity to meet Mrs. Reagan once. Obviously, she was already advanced in age, but could not have been more gracious and more charming to myself and Michelle when we first came into office. I think it’s been well documented the extraordinary love that she had for her husband and the extraordinary comfort and strength that she provided him during really hard times. As somebody who has been lucky enough to have an extraordinary partner in my life as well, I know how much she meant not just to President Reagan but to the country as a whole. He was lucky to have her -- and I’m sure he’d be the first to acknowledge that. So she will be missed.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
White House Announces Doubling of TechHire Communities, and New Steps to Give More Students and Workers Tech Skills to Fuel the Next Generation of American Innovation
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
White House Announces Doubling of TechHire Communities, and New Steps to Give More Students and Workers Tech Skills to Fuel the Next Generation of American Innovation
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FACT SHEET: White House Announces Doubling of TechHire Communities, and New Steps to Give More Students and Workers Tech Skills to Fuel the Next Generation of American Innovation
This Friday, the President is traveling to Austin, Texas to visit South by Southwest—a gathering of our most creative thinkers, coders, makers, and entrepreneurs from across the country—because he recognizes the importance of technology in America’s position as the global leader in innovation. Today, as part of the lead-up to that visit and on the one-year anniversary of the launch of the TechHire initiative, the Administration is announcing new steps to further develop the tech skills of our workforce—driving the ingenuity and creativity that will fuel innovation and the American economy.
Developing the tech skills of our workforce is important for our economic future and is a critical need for employers today. Over half a million of today’s open jobs are in technology fields like software development and cybersecurity—many of which did not even exist a decade ago. The average salary in a job that requires technology skills is 50 percent more than the average private sector job. Over the past seven years, the President has taken steps to ensure that we are drawing on people from all backgrounds including young adults who are disconnected from school and work, Americans who are long-term unemployed, and workers who are retraining for new jobs to prepare for the tech jobs of the future. Today’s announcements build on that progress:
· Expansion of TechHire to 50 Communities. A year ago today, the President launched TechHire as 21 communities working with over 300 employers announced actions to empower Americans with the skills they need. These communities are piloting programs to train workers—often in just a few months—through nontraditional approaches like “coding bootcamps.” Today, we are announcing that we have reached the goal set by the President to double the number of TechHire communities from 21 to more than 40 with the addition of 15 new communities working with 200 employers joining the effort.
· Strengthening and Extending On-the-Job Training for International STEM Graduates of U.S. Universities. To strengthen educational experiences of international students studying science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in the United States, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published its final rule, expanding and extending use of the existing Optional Practical Training (OPT) program for STEM graduates, and requiring stronger ties between STEM OPT students and universities after graduation to enhance the students’ educational experience.
· Progress on the President’s Nation of Makers Initiative. In 2014, President Obama launched the National Makers Initiative to give more people access to new technologies to design and build just about anything. Today, the U.S. Department of Education is launching the Career Technical Education (CTE) Makeover Challenge to encourage the creation of more makerspaces in American high schools. The White House is also announcing the dates for the 2016 National Week of Making as June 17 – 23.
· Advancing Career and Technical Education. In addition, Acting Secretary of Education John King will call on Congress to reauthorize the Carl D. Perkins Career & Technical Education Act, emphasizing the Administration’s ongoing commitment to ensure that we are incentivizing high-quality programs, encouraging innovation, and aligning CTE programs with postsecondary and career opportunities.
More Details on Today’s Announcements
Expansion of TechHire to 50 Communities, Including 15 New Communities Joining the Effort Today
Last June, at the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the President called on mayors, councilmembers, and other local leaders to team up with employers, training providers, and workforce and economic development leaders to double the number of TechHire communities from 21 to more than 40. Over the past year, more communities have continued to sign on.
Today, the Administration announced that we have exceeded the goal set by the President with the addition of 15 new communities — for a total of 50 communities and over 600 employer partners working together to expand access to tech jobs.
Building on the promising work already underway in their communities, they have all committed to three actions:
· Using data and innovative hiring practices to expand openness to non-traditional hiring: Communities are working with employers to provide data on what skills are most needed, to increase hiring of graduates from both nontraditional and traditional training programs, and to review—and upgrade—recruiting and hiring practices to enable non-traditional hiring.
· Expanding models for training that prepare students in months, not years: Communities are recruiting, incubating, and expanding accelerated tech learning programs – such as coding bootcamps and innovative online training – which enable interested, unexperienced students to rapidly gain tech skills.
· Active local leadership to connect people to jobs with hiring on-ramp programs: Communities are building local strategies to connect people to jobs by investing in and working with organizations who can vouch for those who have the skills to do the job, but who may lack the typical profile of education and experience.
Details on the 15 new TechHire communities being announced today, new private sector commitments, and progress updates can be found at the end of this document.
15 New TechHire Communities Announced Today
Atlanta, GA
Austin, TX
Burlington, VT
Riverside, CA
Flint, MI
State of Hawaii
Indianapolis, IN
Jackson, MS
Milwaukee, WI
Raleigh, NC
Jackson, TN
Seattle, WA
Tallahassee, FL
Commonwealth of Virginia
Miami, FL
Strengthening and Extending On-the-Job Training for International STEM Graduates of U.S. Universities.
Our universities train some of the world’s most talented international students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), but our broken immigration system compels many of them to take their skills back to their home countries. We should welcome students from across the globe not only to study here, but also to contribute to the country’s research and development through training opportunities. That’s why President Obama continues to urge Congress to act on commonsense immigration reform.
To strengthen educational experiences of today’s international students studying in STEM fields at U.S. universities, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued a final rule to expand and extend the use of the existing Optional Practical Training (OPT) program for STEM graduates. The STEM OPT program gives international students who pursued undergraduate and graduate degrees in the U.S. the chance to supplement their classroom education with practical skills training to support a successful career transition. As a result of this final rule:
· Beginning May 10th, certain international students earning STEM degrees from accredited U.S. universities can stay in the United States for an additional 24 months post-graduation to participate in on-the-job training within the STEM field. The new rule requires international students and employers to develop individualized training plans that enhance students’ educational experience with practical training. (All international students remain eligible for an initial 12 months of OPT, regardless of degree field.)
· To better protect international students and U.S. workers, the rule includes safeguards to prevent student exploitation and protect the job security of U.S. workers.
· Ultimately, the final rule lengthens STEM OPT from 17 months to 24 months, allows for two lifetime STEM OPT extensions instead of one, and provides eligibility for non-STEM graduates (e.g., MBAs) to participate in STEM OPT based on a prior STEM degree obtained in the past 10 years at an accredited college or university.
· DHS estimates that about 34,000 individuals are participating in this program at present, and that the total number of affected students will expand in the coming years. To read the final rule, click here.
New Commitments in Support of the President’s Nation of Makers Initiative & Advancing Career & Technical Education
In June 2014, President Obama hosted the first-ever Maker Faire and launched the Nation of Makers initiative, an all-hands-on-deck call to give many more students, entrepreneurs, and Americans of all backgrounds access to a new class of technologies—such as 3D printers, laser cutters, and desktop machine tools—that are enabling more Americans to design, build, and manufacture just about anything.
In recent years, the rise of the maker movement and growing community of self-identified “makers” is a huge opportunity for the United States. The rapid deployment of advanced tools like 3D printers, CNC machining, and tools for digital design—and their precipitous drop in price—is empowering tinkerers, entrepreneurs, and companies to transform an idea from a drawing on the back of a napkin to a working prototype faster than ever before.
These new tools can also help recreate “shop class” for the 21st century, giving students the types of hands-on STEM learning experiences that spark interest in science and technology careers and broader 21st century skills. It is also promoting a “maker mindset”—dispositions and skills such as curiosity, collaborative problem-solving, and self-efficacy—with mentors and educators also inspiring the next generation to invent, tinker, and learn vital skills in STEM education.
Over the past two years, the Administration has worked with hundreds of K-12 schools, universities, cities, libraries, museums, and local employers to ensure that the maker movement is able to support and reach students and adults of all backgrounds.
Building on that success, today the Administration is announcing new federal steps and private commitments to reach even more students and adults in the coming year:
· The U.S. Department of Education (ED) is launching the Career and Technical Education (CTE) Makeover Challenge to encourage the creation of more makerspaces in American high schools. The new challenge will invite high schools to innovatively create more “makerspaces” where students have the tools, space, and mentors to design, build, and innovate. With a prize pool of $200,000 that will be divided equally among as many as 10 prize recipients, the challenge calls upon eligible high schools to design models of “makerspaces.” These can be facilities such as classrooms, libraries, or mobile spaces equipped with the appropriate tools and CTE-trained educators. The winners will be showcased to the broader CTE community as potential models for replication, particularly in schools that serve high proportions of low-income students. In collaboration with the Department of Education, and complementary to the CTE Makeover Challenge, Digital Promise and Maker Ed are launching the Maker Promise, a pledge for K-12 school leaders to support their students by dedicating a space for making, designating a champion for making, and displaying the results of making. Participating schools will have access to a suite of resources that enable them to empower students to be makers of things, not just consumers of things.
· Urging Congress to Reauthorize the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act: Today, the Acting Secretary of Education John King will reaffirm the Administration’s commitment to reauthorize and reform the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, which provides middle schools, high schools, and higher education institutions more than $1.1 billion per year to support career and technical education (CTE). Since 2012, the Administration has supported a reauthorized Carl D. Perkins Career & Technical Education Act that would ensure that all CTE programs become viable and rigorous pathways to postsecondary education and career success. The Administration’s reauthorization proposal would increase the alignment between CTE and labor market needs; strengthen collaboration among secondary and postsecondary programs, business, and industry; create a better system of accountability; and provide competitive funding toward evidence-based programs to promote innovation and reform in CTE.
· The White House, along with federal agencies and the broader community, will celebrate a Week of Making this June 17-23: In line with the anniversary of the first-ever White House Maker Faire, the White House will participate in a National Week of Making this June 17-23, 2016. The week will coincide with the National Maker Faire here in Washington, D.C. on June 18-19, featuring makers from across the country and will include participation of the Department of Education, National Science Foundation, U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S. Small Business Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Endowment of the Arts, Institute of Museum and Library Services, National Institute of Standards and Technology, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Corporation for National and Community Service, and the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Additional agency activities include the Department of Energy featured at the Bay Area Maker Faire with the “Make: ENERGY – From Discovery to Innovation” pavilion highlighting science and technology innovations at the National Laboratories, and the U.S. Navy expanding its current maker program to multiple regional centers through creation of mobile Fab Lab trailers.
Additional Background on Today’s TechHire announcements. More details on TechHire can be found here and those interested in making a commitment to the initiative can find information here.
Details on 15 New TechHire Communities Announced Today
· Atlanta, GA. In 2016, the City of Atlanta’s Workforce Development Agency, The Iron Yard, and TechSquare labs will train 100 individuals who will be guaranteed interviews with Atlanta TechHire employer partners—a number that Atlanta will increase to 400 by 2020.
· Austin, TX. Microsoft, Google Fiber, Google, and IBM are advising or working with the City of Austin to provide opportunities for up to 220 graduates from accelerated training programs for veterans and low-income residents at Austin Community College, Texas State University, and Zenith Education Group to interview for paid internships or similar offerings at program completion.
· Burlington, VT. The City of Burlington and BTV Ignite are partnering with educational institutions and employers to train and employ 75 tech workers in 2016 and 400 through 2020. Employers, workforce intermediaries, and training partners include Vermont HITEC, UVM, UVM Medical Center, and VT Technology Alliance.
· Flint, MI. SIPI will partner with the Flint & Genesee Chamber of Commerce to train 400 individuals by 2020 for employment opportunities, including sipIT, the Disability Network, and the Michigan Employer Resource Network Team. In partnership with Mott Community College, partners will train people through a range of programs to place Flint residents in life-changing, in-demand tech jobs.
· State of Hawaii. The High Technology Development Corporation will lead a statewide employer coalition aiming to hire 175 job-seekers from non-traditional pathways in the next year and 400 job-seekers by the end of 2018. The program will provide accelerated training to all the islands of Hawaii, including rural areas.
· Indianapolis, IN. EmployIndy—Marion County’s workforce development board—Eleven Fifty Academy, and TechPoint will bring together local employers to facilitate the training and hiring of 186 technical workers from accelerated and other training programs in 2016, and 560 workers through 2018.
· Jackson, MS. The City of Jackson is convening employers from the Greater Jackson Chamber Partnership of Mississippi with Hinds Community College, Jackson State University, and other training providers to train 250 candidates in 2016 and 1,000 candidates by 2020 with the skills they need for open tech jobs.
· Jackson, TN. West Tennessee’s regional innovation center, theCO, is partnering with employers to expand its Code Catalyst Program, training and placing 100 individuals into paid internships, apprenticeships, and jobs in 2016 and up to 350 by 2020 in Jackson, TN.
· Miami, FL. CareerSource South Florida and LaunchCode will lead efforts to train and place 1,190 people into tech jobs by 2017 and up to 2,415 by 2020. More than 140 companies will interview qualified candidates from Miami TechHire’s training partners including MasterCard, Carnival Cruise Lines, Geographic Solutions, Office Depot, and Oracle.
· Milwaukee, WI. Employ Milwaukee and the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee’s Milwaukee TechForce Training Center will lead Milwaukee’s efforts to train and place 150 individuals in tech jobs by 2017 and train and place 600 individuals into tech jobs by 2020. Local employers are committed to providing employment opportunities to Milwaukee TechHire graduates.
· Raleigh, NC. In partnership with NC State University, Wake Technical Community College, and other local training providers, Raleigh is expanding training in programs from technical maintenance and cyber defense to Java coding, and working with employers to place 50 nontraditionally-trained workers into jobs within the first year and 350 TechHire graduates into jobs by 2020.
· Riverside, CA. The SmartRiverside TechHire Community will facilitate recruitment and training of 4,000 technical workers in five years, including 500 in 2016. Parkview Hospital, Riverside University Medical Center, Riverside Public Utilities, Zodiac Aerospace, Paulson Manufacturing, Xerox, and Bourns, Inc. will hire or provide paid internships for 500 employees from nontraditional, technical pathways in 2016.
· Seattle, WA. In partnership with local tech employers and training providers such as Seattle Colleges, Ada Developers Academy, Substantial, and EnergySavvy, Seattle will train and place 350 people in tech jobs in 2016 and up to 2,000 people by 2020 to fill jobs in the growing local tech industry.
· Tallahassee, FL. The City of Tallahassee, in collaboration with TalTech Alliance and local training providers and employers, aims to train and place 175 individuals into tech jobs in 2016 and over 455 by 2020. Tallahassee Community College is working with employers to develop programs to meet skill demands.
· Commonwealth of Virginia. Virginia will work with community colleges and workforce centers to train 1200 TechHire participants in 2016. The regional technology councils and the Virginia Chamber create a network of over 25,000 businesses that will help place 10,600 TechHire graduates in tech jobs by 2020.
New Commitments from Private Sector to Support Expanded Access to Technology Training for Under-Served Populations.
· AARP Foundation will train and place unemployed, low-income older workers in jobs in tech fields starting in San Antonio, Dallas, Denver, and St. Louis. Individuals will receive intensive preparation and coaching leading to certifications relevant to these fields as well as placement assistance upon completion of their certification.
· The National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE) and the California Community College’s Doing What MATTERS for Jobs and Economy initiative commits to provide New World of Work 21st Century Employability Skills training to 20 TechHire communities including access to coaching and materials to implement and strengthen workplace learning programs.
· Opportunity@Work unveiled today a new version of its TechHire.org website to provide additional resources to TechHire communities and partners. Opportunity@Work is an independent civic enterprise launched by New America in March 2015. The new website will connect TechHire graduates to jobs, share data on open IT positions, and allow TechHire communities to share progress and best practices.
· HackerRank, a platform that creates opportunities for programmers based on coding skills, will host a free online 24 hour TechHire Hackathon for bootcamp students and companies in all 50 TechHire communities. This hackathon will give student coders the chance to prove their skills and connect with employers.
· JPMorgan Chase. On March 8, JPMorgan Chase released a first-of-its-kind report to classify and offer information about the types of technology job training programs that exist, what employer needs these programs fill, and lessons from the tech-training field overall. The report is a comprehensive look at programs designed to teach information and communications technology skills, from apprenticeships to online courses to boot camps. The report, released by the firm’s foundation, reveals that the rapidly growing and quickly evolving tech training field faces unique obstacles and opportunities for developing the skilled and diverse workforce required to meet a growing need in our economy.
· Zenith Education Group, one of the nation’s largest non-profit providers of career education, will partner with the Flatiron School to launch a bootcamp at Everest Institute in Austin, Texas—a newly announced TechHire community. Thanks to a grant of nearly $500,000 from ECMC Foundation and the support of the ECMC InnovationLab, Zenith expects to graduate more than 200 students in the next three years into in-demand jobs with average annual salaries of about $75,000.
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PRESIDENT OBAMA SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDER ON COMMISSION ON ENHANCING NATIONAL CYBERSECURITY :
________________________________________________________________________________
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release February 9, 2016
EXECUTIVE ORDER
- - - - - - -
COMMISSION ON ENHANCING NATIONAL CYBERSECURITY
By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and
in order to enhance cybersecurity awareness and protections at
all levels of Government, business, and society, to protect
privacy, to ensure public safety and economic and national
security, and to empower Americans to take better control of
their digital security, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Establishment. There is established within the
Department of Commerce the Commission on Enhancing National
Cybersecurity (Commission).
Sec. 2. Membership. (a) The Commission shall be composed
of not more than 12 members appointed by the President. The
members of the Commission may include those with knowledge about
or experience in cybersecurity, the digital economy, national
security and law enforcement, corporate governance, risk
management, information technology (IT), privacy, identity
management, Internet governance and standards, government
administration, digital and social media, communications, or any
other area determined by the President to be of value to the
Commission. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, the
Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, the Majority
Leader of the Senate, and the Minority Leader of the Senate are
each invited to recommend one individual for membership on the
Commission. No federally registered lobbyist or person
presently otherwise employed by the Federal Government may serve
on the Commission.
(b) The President shall designate one member of the
Commission to serve as the Chair and one member of the
Commission to serve as the Vice Chair.
Sec. 3. Mission and Work. The Commission will make
detailed recommendations to strengthen cybersecurity in both the
public and private sectors while protecting privacy, ensuring
public safety and economic and national security, fostering
discovery and development of new technical solutions, and
bolstering partnerships between Federal, State, and local
government and the private sector in the development, promotion,
and use of cybersecurity technologies, policies, and best
practices. The Commission's recommendations should address
actions that can be taken over the next decade to accomplish
these goals.
(a) In developing its recommendations, the Commission
shall identify and study actions necessary to further improve
cybersecurity awareness, risk management, and adoption of best
practices throughout the private sector and at all levels of
government. These areas of study may include methods to
influence the way individuals and organizations perceive and use
technology and approach cybersecurity as consumers and providers
in the digital economy; demonstrate the nature and severity of
cybersecurity threats, the importance of mitigation, and
potential ways to manage and reduce the economic impacts of
cyber risk; improve access to the knowledge needed to make
informed cyber risk management decisions related to privacy,
economic impact, and business continuity; and develop
partnerships with industry, civil society, and international
stakeholders. At a minimum, the Commission shall develop
recommendations regarding:
(i) how best to bolster the protection of systems
and data, including how to advance identity
management, authentication, and cybersecurity of
online identities, in light of technological
developments and other trends;
(ii) ensuring that cybersecurity is a core element
of the technologies associated with the Internet of
Things and cloud computing, and that the policy and
legal foundation for cybersecurity in the context of
the Internet of Things is stable and adaptable;
(iii) further investments in research and development
initiatives that can enhance cybersecurity;
(iv) increasing the quality, quantity, and level of
expertise of the cybersecurity workforce in the
Federal Government and private sector, including
through education and training;
(v) improving broad-based education of commonsense
cybersecurity practices for the general public; and
(vi) any other issues that the President, through
the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary), requests the
Commission to consider.
(b) In developing its recommendations, the Commission
shall also identify and study advances in technology,
management, and IT service delivery that should be developed,
widely adopted, or further tested throughout the private sector
and at all levels of government, and in particular in the
Federal Government and by critical infrastructure owners and
operators. These areas of study may include cybersecurity
technologies and other advances that are responsive to the
rapidly evolving digital economy, and approaches to accelerating
the introduction and use of emerging methods designed to enhance
early detection, mitigation, and management of cyber risk in the
security and privacy, and business and governance sectors. At a
minimum, the Commission shall develop recommendations
regarding:
(i) governance, procurement, and management
processes for Federal civilian IT systems,
applications, services, and infrastructure, including
the following:
(A) a framework for identifying which IT
services should be developed internally or shared
across agencies, and for specific investment
priorities for all such IT services;
(B) a framework to ensure that as Federal
civilian agencies procure, modernize, or upgrade
their IT systems, cybersecurity is incorporated
into the process;
(C) a governance model for managing
cybersecurity risk, enhancing resilience, and
ensuring appropriate incident response and
recovery in the operations of, and delivery of
goods and services by, the Federal Government;
and
(D) strategies to overcome barriers that make it
difficult for the Federal Government to adopt and
keep pace with industry best practices;
(ii) effective private sector and government
approaches to critical infrastructure protection in
light of current and projected trends in cybersecurity
threats and the connected nature of the United States
economy;
(iii) steps State and local governments can take to
enhance cybersecurity, and how the Federal Government
can best support such steps; and
(iv) any other issues that the President, through
the Secretary, requests the Commission to consider.
(c) To accomplish its mission, the Commission shall:
(i) reference and, as appropriate, build on
successful existing cybersecurity policies,
public-private partnerships, and other initiatives;
(ii) consult with cybersecurity, national security
and law enforcement, privacy, management, technology,
and digital economy experts in the public and private
sectors;
(iii) seek input from those who have experienced
significant cybersecurity incidents to understand
lessons learned from these experiences, including
identifying any barriers to awareness, risk
management, and investment;
(iv) review reported information from the Office of
Management and Budget regarding Federal information
and information systems, including legacy systems, in
order to assess critical Federal civilian IT
infrastructures, governance, and management processes;
(v) review the impact of technological trends and
market forces on existing cybersecurity policies and
practices; and
(vi) examine other issues related to the
Commission's mission that the Chair and Vice Chair
agree are necessary and appropriate to the
Commission's work.
(d) Where appropriate, the Commission may conduct original
research, commission studies, and hold hearings to further
examine particular issues.
(e) The Commission shall be advisory in nature and shall
submit a final report to the President by December 1, 2016.
This report shall be published on a public website along with
any appropriate response from the President within 45 days after
it is provided to the President.
Sec. 4. Administration. (a) The Commission shall hold
periodic meetings in public forums in an open and transparent
environment.
(b) In carrying out its mission, the Commission shall be
informed by, and shall strive to avoid duplicating, the efforts
of other governmental entities.
(c) The Commission shall have a staff, headed by an
Executive Director, which shall provide support for the
functions of the Commission. The Secretary shall appoint the
Executive Director, who shall be a full-time Federal employee,
and the Commission's staff. The Executive Director may also
serve as the Designated Federal Officer in accordance with the
Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended, 5 U.S.C. App.
(FACA, the "Act").
(d) The Executive Director, in consultation with the Chair
and Vice Chair, shall have the authority to create subcommittees
as necessary to support the Commission's work and to examine
particular areas of importance. These subcommittees must report
their work to the Commission to inform its final
recommendations.
(e) The Secretary will work with the heads of executive
departments and agencies, to the extent permitted by law and
consistent with their ongoing activities, to provide the
Commission such information and cooperation as it may require
for purposes of carrying out its mission.
Sec. 5. Termination. The Commission shall terminate
within 15 days after it presents its final report to the
President, unless extended by the President.
Sec. 6. General Provisions. (a) To the extent permitted
by law, and subject to the availability of appropriations, the
Secretary shall direct the Director of the National Institute of
Standards and Technology to provide the Commission with such
expertise, services, funds, facilities, staff, equipment, and
other support services as may be necessary to carry out its
mission.
(b) Insofar as FACA may apply to the Commission, any
functions of the President under that Act, except for those in
section 6 and section 14 of that Act, shall be performed by the
Secretary.
(c) Members of the Commission shall serve without any
compensation for their work on the Commission, but shall be
allowed travel expenses, including per diem in lieu of
subsistence, to the extent permitted by law for persons serving
intermittently in the Government service (5 U.S.C. 5701-5707).
(d) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or
otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to a department,
agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of
Management and Budget relating to budgetary,
administrative, or legislative proposals.
(e) This order is not intended to, and does not, create
any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at
law or in equity by any party against the United States, its
departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or
agents, or any other person.
THE WHITE HOUSE,
February 9, 2016.
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release February 9, 2016
EXECUTIVE ORDER
- - - - - - -
COMMISSION ON ENHANCING NATIONAL CYBERSECURITY
By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and
in order to enhance cybersecurity awareness and protections at
all levels of Government, business, and society, to protect
privacy, to ensure public safety and economic and national
security, and to empower Americans to take better control of
their digital security, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Establishment. There is established within the
Department of Commerce the Commission on Enhancing National
Cybersecurity (Commission).
Sec. 2. Membership. (a) The Commission shall be composed
of not more than 12 members appointed by the President. The
members of the Commission may include those with knowledge about
or experience in cybersecurity, the digital economy, national
security and law enforcement, corporate governance, risk
management, information technology (IT), privacy, identity
management, Internet governance and standards, government
administration, digital and social media, communications, or any
other area determined by the President to be of value to the
Commission. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, the
Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, the Majority
Leader of the Senate, and the Minority Leader of the Senate are
each invited to recommend one individual for membership on the
Commission. No federally registered lobbyist or person
presently otherwise employed by the Federal Government may serve
on the Commission.
(b) The President shall designate one member of the
Commission to serve as the Chair and one member of the
Commission to serve as the Vice Chair.
Sec. 3. Mission and Work. The Commission will make
detailed recommendations to strengthen cybersecurity in both the
public and private sectors while protecting privacy, ensuring
public safety and economic and national security, fostering
discovery and development of new technical solutions, and
bolstering partnerships between Federal, State, and local
government and the private sector in the development, promotion,
and use of cybersecurity technologies, policies, and best
practices. The Commission's recommendations should address
actions that can be taken over the next decade to accomplish
these goals.
(a) In developing its recommendations, the Commission
shall identify and study actions necessary to further improve
cybersecurity awareness, risk management, and adoption of best
practices throughout the private sector and at all levels of
government. These areas of study may include methods to
influence the way individuals and organizations perceive and use
technology and approach cybersecurity as consumers and providers
in the digital economy; demonstrate the nature and severity of
cybersecurity threats, the importance of mitigation, and
potential ways to manage and reduce the economic impacts of
cyber risk; improve access to the knowledge needed to make
informed cyber risk management decisions related to privacy,
economic impact, and business continuity; and develop
partnerships with industry, civil society, and international
stakeholders. At a minimum, the Commission shall develop
recommendations regarding:
(i) how best to bolster the protection of systems
and data, including how to advance identity
management, authentication, and cybersecurity of
online identities, in light of technological
developments and other trends;
(ii) ensuring that cybersecurity is a core element
of the technologies associated with the Internet of
Things and cloud computing, and that the policy and
legal foundation for cybersecurity in the context of
the Internet of Things is stable and adaptable;
(iii) further investments in research and development
initiatives that can enhance cybersecurity;
(iv) increasing the quality, quantity, and level of
expertise of the cybersecurity workforce in the
Federal Government and private sector, including
through education and training;
(v) improving broad-based education of commonsense
cybersecurity practices for the general public; and
(vi) any other issues that the President, through
the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary), requests the
Commission to consider.
(b) In developing its recommendations, the Commission
shall also identify and study advances in technology,
management, and IT service delivery that should be developed,
widely adopted, or further tested throughout the private sector
and at all levels of government, and in particular in the
Federal Government and by critical infrastructure owners and
operators. These areas of study may include cybersecurity
technologies and other advances that are responsive to the
rapidly evolving digital economy, and approaches to accelerating
the introduction and use of emerging methods designed to enhance
early detection, mitigation, and management of cyber risk in the
security and privacy, and business and governance sectors. At a
minimum, the Commission shall develop recommendations
regarding:
(i) governance, procurement, and management
processes for Federal civilian IT systems,
applications, services, and infrastructure, including
the following:
(A) a framework for identifying which IT
services should be developed internally or shared
across agencies, and for specific investment
priorities for all such IT services;
(B) a framework to ensure that as Federal
civilian agencies procure, modernize, or upgrade
their IT systems, cybersecurity is incorporated
into the process;
(C) a governance model for managing
cybersecurity risk, enhancing resilience, and
ensuring appropriate incident response and
recovery in the operations of, and delivery of
goods and services by, the Federal Government;
and
(D) strategies to overcome barriers that make it
difficult for the Federal Government to adopt and
keep pace with industry best practices;
(ii) effective private sector and government
approaches to critical infrastructure protection in
light of current and projected trends in cybersecurity
threats and the connected nature of the United States
economy;
(iii) steps State and local governments can take to
enhance cybersecurity, and how the Federal Government
can best support such steps; and
(iv) any other issues that the President, through
the Secretary, requests the Commission to consider.
(c) To accomplish its mission, the Commission shall:
(i) reference and, as appropriate, build on
successful existing cybersecurity policies,
public-private partnerships, and other initiatives;
(ii) consult with cybersecurity, national security
and law enforcement, privacy, management, technology,
and digital economy experts in the public and private
sectors;
(iii) seek input from those who have experienced
significant cybersecurity incidents to understand
lessons learned from these experiences, including
identifying any barriers to awareness, risk
management, and investment;
(iv) review reported information from the Office of
Management and Budget regarding Federal information
and information systems, including legacy systems, in
order to assess critical Federal civilian IT
infrastructures, governance, and management processes;
(v) review the impact of technological trends and
market forces on existing cybersecurity policies and
practices; and
(vi) examine other issues related to the
Commission's mission that the Chair and Vice Chair
agree are necessary and appropriate to the
Commission's work.
(d) Where appropriate, the Commission may conduct original
research, commission studies, and hold hearings to further
examine particular issues.
(e) The Commission shall be advisory in nature and shall
submit a final report to the President by December 1, 2016.
This report shall be published on a public website along with
any appropriate response from the President within 45 days after
it is provided to the President.
Sec. 4. Administration. (a) The Commission shall hold
periodic meetings in public forums in an open and transparent
environment.
(b) In carrying out its mission, the Commission shall be
informed by, and shall strive to avoid duplicating, the efforts
of other governmental entities.
(c) The Commission shall have a staff, headed by an
Executive Director, which shall provide support for the
functions of the Commission. The Secretary shall appoint the
Executive Director, who shall be a full-time Federal employee,
and the Commission's staff. The Executive Director may also
serve as the Designated Federal Officer in accordance with the
Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended, 5 U.S.C. App.
(FACA, the "Act").
(d) The Executive Director, in consultation with the Chair
and Vice Chair, shall have the authority to create subcommittees
as necessary to support the Commission's work and to examine
particular areas of importance. These subcommittees must report
their work to the Commission to inform its final
recommendations.
(e) The Secretary will work with the heads of executive
departments and agencies, to the extent permitted by law and
consistent with their ongoing activities, to provide the
Commission such information and cooperation as it may require
for purposes of carrying out its mission.
Sec. 5. Termination. The Commission shall terminate
within 15 days after it presents its final report to the
President, unless extended by the President.
Sec. 6. General Provisions. (a) To the extent permitted
by law, and subject to the availability of appropriations, the
Secretary shall direct the Director of the National Institute of
Standards and Technology to provide the Commission with such
expertise, services, funds, facilities, staff, equipment, and
other support services as may be necessary to carry out its
mission.
(b) Insofar as FACA may apply to the Commission, any
functions of the President under that Act, except for those in
section 6 and section 14 of that Act, shall be performed by the
Secretary.
(c) Members of the Commission shall serve without any
compensation for their work on the Commission, but shall be
allowed travel expenses, including per diem in lieu of
subsistence, to the extent permitted by law for persons serving
intermittently in the Government service (5 U.S.C. 5701-5707).
(d) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or
otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to a department,
agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of
Management and Budget relating to budgetary,
administrative, or legislative proposals.
(e) This order is not intended to, and does not, create
any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at
law or in equity by any party against the United States, its
departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or
agents, or any other person.
THE WHITE HOUSE,
February 9, 2016.
________________________________________________________________________________
Remarks by the President on New Cybersecurity Initiatives :
________________________________________________________________________________
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release February 9, 2016
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
ON NEW CYBERSECURITY INITIATIVES
Roosevelt Room
**Please see below for a correction, marked with an asterisk.
12:19 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: We’ve made a lot of progress over the past seven years on our economy. Unemployment is down. Deficits are down. Gas prices are down. Job creation, wages, the rate of Americans with health coverage are all up.
So as I said at the State of the Union, America is as strongly positioned as any country on Earth to take advantage of the opportunities of the 21st century. But what we’re aware of is we all have a lot of work to do, not only to try to maintain momentum, but to go at some of the structural issues and problems that may be impeding people from making progress, getting opportunity, and living the kind of lives for themselves and their children that we all want for every American.
The budget that we’re releasing today reflects my priorities and the priorities that I believe will help advance security and prosperity in America for many years to come. These are proposals reflected in the budget that work for us and not against us. It adheres to last year’s bipartisan budget agreement. It drives down the deficit. It includes smart savings on health care, immigration, tax reform.
My budget also invests in opportunity and security for all Americans through education and training, new ideas for retirement savings and unemployment insurance, and it invest in innovation -- harnessing technology to tackle challenges like climate change through clean energy and transportation, as well as the initiative that Vice President Joe Biden is leading to make sure that we’re going after cancer in an aggressive way. And it strengthens our national security by increasing defense spending and advancing our global leadership through diplomacy and through development.
More and more, keeping America safe is not just a matter of more tanks, more aircraft carriers; not just a matter of bolstering our security on the ground. It also requires us to bolster our security online. As we’ve seen in the past few years and just in the past few days, cyber threats pose a danger not only to our national security but also our financial security and the privacy of millions of Americans.
So I’ve joined with leaders from across my administration to, over the last several months, plan on how we are going to go after this in a more aggressive way. And today, we’re rolling out a new Cybersecurity National Action Plan, or CNAP, to address short-term and long-term challenges when it comes to cybersecurity.
My budget includes more than $19 billion for cybersecurity, which is up by more than one-third. And with this plan, we intend to modernize federal IT by replacing and retiring outdated systems that are vulnerable to attack.
And I just want to say as an aside here -- one of the biggest gaps between the public sector and the private sector is in our IT space, and it makes everybody’s information vulnerable. Our Social Security system still runs on a Cobalt COBOL * platform that dates back to the ‘60s. Our IRS systems are archaic, as with a whole host of other agencies that are consistently collecting data on every American. If we’re going to really secure those in a serious way, then we need to upgrade them. And that is something that we should all be able to agree on. This is not an ideological issue. It doesn’t matter whether there’s a Democratic President or a Republican President. If you’ve got broken, old systems -- computers, mainframes, software that doesn’t work anymore -- then you can keep on putting a bunch of patches on it, but it’s not going to make it safe.
We have 400 people in the Social Security Administration whose sole job is to continually deal with this ancient software because it’s consistently breaking down or insecure. We have software in the federal government now where the software operator does not exist anymore, and yet we're expected to provide the kinds of service, security, and privacy to Americans based on these leaky systems. So that's going to have to change.
We're also going to reform the way the government manages and responds to cyber threats. We’ll invest in cybersecurity education. We're going to build on the work that we’ve already done to recruit the best talent in America in IT and in cybersecurity. And we're also going to create the first-ever Federal Chief Information Security Officer who can oversee these activities across agencies and across the federal government, as well as make sure that the federal government is interacting more effectively with the private sector, which obviously contains a huge amount of vital and critical infrastructure, and has to be protected.
We're going to work throughout this process to make sure that security also means privacy. So with the help of companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Visa, we're going to empower Americans to be able to help themselves and make sure that they are safe online with an extra layer of security, like a fingerprint or a code sent to your cellphone.
And finally, I’m going to establish a new high-level commission on cybersecurity to help us gather the best ideas from outside of government to focus on long-term solutions. Some of these issues are ones that we can solve relatively quickly. But in area where technology is constantly evolving, we’ve got to make sure that we're setting up a long-term plan anticipating where IT is going and anticipating where the cybersecurity threats are going to be. So we're going to work with Congress to appoint a broad, bipartisan group of top business, strategic, and technical thinkers. And I look forward to receiving their report by the end of this year to help guide not just my administration, but future administrations in how to think about this problem.
Government does not obviously have all the answers when it comes to this area. In fact, because of the explosion of the Internet, and its utilization by almost every person on the planet now, we're going to have to play some catch-up. But this CNAP, or this action plan that we’ve put forward is a critical and vital start. It builds on the fine work that's been done and the hard lessons that have been learned by many agencies over the course of the last several years, some of the best practices that we’ve been able to establish. It builds on the U.S. digital team of top Silicon Valley engineers that we’ve been able to recruit to work in various agencies where they’ve got some problems that have cropped up.
But if we are able to execute this in an effective way, and if Congress provides us the budgetary support to make this happen -- and they should; I spoke to the Speaker directly about this and indicated the degree to which this is an important bipartisan effort that we should all be concerned about -- if we do this right, then not only are we going to be able to make government safer and securer, the data that's collected safer and securer, but we're also going to be able to help individual families and businesses to protect those things that are most important to them and to realize their full potential in a digital age.
So I want to thank all the agencies who are represented here. The last point I’ll make is, is that I’m going to be holding their feet to the fire to make sure that they execute on this in a timely fashion.
All right? Thank you, everybody.
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release February 9, 2016
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
ON NEW CYBERSECURITY INITIATIVES
Roosevelt Room
**Please see below for a correction, marked with an asterisk.
12:19 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: We’ve made a lot of progress over the past seven years on our economy. Unemployment is down. Deficits are down. Gas prices are down. Job creation, wages, the rate of Americans with health coverage are all up.
So as I said at the State of the Union, America is as strongly positioned as any country on Earth to take advantage of the opportunities of the 21st century. But what we’re aware of is we all have a lot of work to do, not only to try to maintain momentum, but to go at some of the structural issues and problems that may be impeding people from making progress, getting opportunity, and living the kind of lives for themselves and their children that we all want for every American.
The budget that we’re releasing today reflects my priorities and the priorities that I believe will help advance security and prosperity in America for many years to come. These are proposals reflected in the budget that work for us and not against us. It adheres to last year’s bipartisan budget agreement. It drives down the deficit. It includes smart savings on health care, immigration, tax reform.
My budget also invests in opportunity and security for all Americans through education and training, new ideas for retirement savings and unemployment insurance, and it invest in innovation -- harnessing technology to tackle challenges like climate change through clean energy and transportation, as well as the initiative that Vice President Joe Biden is leading to make sure that we’re going after cancer in an aggressive way. And it strengthens our national security by increasing defense spending and advancing our global leadership through diplomacy and through development.
More and more, keeping America safe is not just a matter of more tanks, more aircraft carriers; not just a matter of bolstering our security on the ground. It also requires us to bolster our security online. As we’ve seen in the past few years and just in the past few days, cyber threats pose a danger not only to our national security but also our financial security and the privacy of millions of Americans.
So I’ve joined with leaders from across my administration to, over the last several months, plan on how we are going to go after this in a more aggressive way. And today, we’re rolling out a new Cybersecurity National Action Plan, or CNAP, to address short-term and long-term challenges when it comes to cybersecurity.
My budget includes more than $19 billion for cybersecurity, which is up by more than one-third. And with this plan, we intend to modernize federal IT by replacing and retiring outdated systems that are vulnerable to attack.
And I just want to say as an aside here -- one of the biggest gaps between the public sector and the private sector is in our IT space, and it makes everybody’s information vulnerable. Our Social Security system still runs on a Cobalt COBOL * platform that dates back to the ‘60s. Our IRS systems are archaic, as with a whole host of other agencies that are consistently collecting data on every American. If we’re going to really secure those in a serious way, then we need to upgrade them. And that is something that we should all be able to agree on. This is not an ideological issue. It doesn’t matter whether there’s a Democratic President or a Republican President. If you’ve got broken, old systems -- computers, mainframes, software that doesn’t work anymore -- then you can keep on putting a bunch of patches on it, but it’s not going to make it safe.
We have 400 people in the Social Security Administration whose sole job is to continually deal with this ancient software because it’s consistently breaking down or insecure. We have software in the federal government now where the software operator does not exist anymore, and yet we're expected to provide the kinds of service, security, and privacy to Americans based on these leaky systems. So that's going to have to change.
We're also going to reform the way the government manages and responds to cyber threats. We’ll invest in cybersecurity education. We're going to build on the work that we’ve already done to recruit the best talent in America in IT and in cybersecurity. And we're also going to create the first-ever Federal Chief Information Security Officer who can oversee these activities across agencies and across the federal government, as well as make sure that the federal government is interacting more effectively with the private sector, which obviously contains a huge amount of vital and critical infrastructure, and has to be protected.
We're going to work throughout this process to make sure that security also means privacy. So with the help of companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Visa, we're going to empower Americans to be able to help themselves and make sure that they are safe online with an extra layer of security, like a fingerprint or a code sent to your cellphone.
And finally, I’m going to establish a new high-level commission on cybersecurity to help us gather the best ideas from outside of government to focus on long-term solutions. Some of these issues are ones that we can solve relatively quickly. But in area where technology is constantly evolving, we’ve got to make sure that we're setting up a long-term plan anticipating where IT is going and anticipating where the cybersecurity threats are going to be. So we're going to work with Congress to appoint a broad, bipartisan group of top business, strategic, and technical thinkers. And I look forward to receiving their report by the end of this year to help guide not just my administration, but future administrations in how to think about this problem.
Government does not obviously have all the answers when it comes to this area. In fact, because of the explosion of the Internet, and its utilization by almost every person on the planet now, we're going to have to play some catch-up. But this CNAP, or this action plan that we’ve put forward is a critical and vital start. It builds on the fine work that's been done and the hard lessons that have been learned by many agencies over the course of the last several years, some of the best practices that we’ve been able to establish. It builds on the U.S. digital team of top Silicon Valley engineers that we’ve been able to recruit to work in various agencies where they’ve got some problems that have cropped up.
But if we are able to execute this in an effective way, and if Congress provides us the budgetary support to make this happen -- and they should; I spoke to the Speaker directly about this and indicated the degree to which this is an important bipartisan effort that we should all be concerned about -- if we do this right, then not only are we going to be able to make government safer and securer, the data that's collected safer and securer, but we're also going to be able to help individual families and businesses to protect those things that are most important to them and to realize their full potential in a digital age.
So I want to thank all the agencies who are represented here. The last point I’ll make is, is that I’m going to be holding their feet to the fire to make sure that they execute on this in a timely fashion.
All right? Thank you, everybody.
________________________________________________________________________________
THE WHITE HOUSE 2016:
PRESIDENT OBAMA SIGNS ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FEDERAL PRIVACY COUNCIL 2 . 9 . 2016:
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release February 9, 2016
EXECUTIVE ORDER ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FEDERAL PRIVACY COUNCIL
By the authority vested in me as President by thebConstitution and the laws of the United States of America, it isbhereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Policy. The mission of the United States
Government is to serve its people. In order to accomplish its mission, the Government lawfully collects, maintains, and uses large amounts of information about people in a wide range of contexts. Protecting privacy in the collection and handling of this information is fundamental to the successful accomplishment of the Government's mission. The proper functioning of] Government requires the public's trust, and to maintain that trust the Government must strive to uphold the highest standards for collecting, maintaining, and using personal data. Privacy has been at the heart of our democracy from its inception, and
we need it now more than ever.
Executive departments and agencies (agencies) already take seriously their mission to protect privacy and have been working diligently to advance that mission through existing interagency mechanisms. Today's challenges, however, require that we find even more effective and innovative ways to improve the Government's efforts. Our efforts to meet these new challenges and preserve our core value of privacy, while delivering better and more effective Government services for the
American people, demand leadership and enhanced coordination and collaboration among a diverse group of stakeholders and experts.
Therefore, it shall be the policy of the United States Government that agencies shall establish an interagency support structure that: builds on existing interagency efforts to protect privacy and provides expertise and assistance to agencies; expands the skill and career development opportunities of agency privacy professionals; improves the management of agency privacy programs by identifying and sharing lessons learned and best practices; and promotes collaboration between and among agency privacy professionals to reduce unnecessary duplication of efforts and to ensure the effective, efficient, and consistent implementation of privacy policy Government-wide.
Sec. 2. Policy on Senior Agency Officials for Privacy. Within 120 days of the date of this order, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (Director) shall
issue a revised policy on the role and designation of the Senior Agency Officials for Privacy. The policy shall provide guidance on the Senior Agency Official for Privacy's responsibilities at their agencies, required level of expertise, adequate level of resources, and other matters as determined by the Director.
Agencies shall implement the requirements of the policy within a reasonable time frame as prescribed by the Director and consistent with applicable law.
Sec. 3. Responsibilities of Agency Heads. The head of each agency, consistent with guidance to be issued by the Director as required in section 2 of this order, shall designate or re-designate a Senior Agency Official for Privacy with the experience and skills necessary to manage an agency-wide privacy program. In addition, the head of each agency, to the extent permitted by law and consistent with ongoing activities, shall work with the Federal Privacy Council, established in section 4 of this order.
Sec. 4. The Federal Privacy Council.
(a) Establishment. There is hereby established the Federal Privacy Council (Privacy Council) as the principal interagency forum to improve the Government privacy practices of agencies and entities acting on their behalf. The establishment of the Privacy Council will help Senior Agency Officials for Privacy at agencies better coordinate and collaborate, educate the Federal workforce, and exchange best practices. The activities of the Privacy Council will reinforce the essential work that agency privacy officials undertake every day to protect privacy.
(b) Membership. The Chair of the Privacy Council shall be the Deputy Director for Management of the Office of Management and Budget. The Chair may designate a Vice Chair, establish working groups, and assign responsibilities for operations of the Privacy Council as he or she deems necessary. In addition to the Chair, the Privacy Council shall be composed of thenSenior Agency Officials for Privacy at the following agencies:
(i) Department of State;
(ii) Department of the Treasury;
(iii) Department of Defense;
(iv) Department of Justice;
(v) Department of the Interior;
(vi) Department of Agriculture;
(vii) Department of Commerce;
(viii) Department of Labor;
(ix) Department of Health and Human Services;
(x) Department of Homeland Security;
(xi) Department of Housing and Urban Development;
(xii) Department of Transportation;
3
(xiii) Department of Energy;
(xiv) Department of Education;
(xv) Department of Veterans Affairs;
(xvi) Environmental Protection Agency;
(xvii) Office of the Director of National
Intelligence;
(xviii) Small Business Administration;
(xix) National Aeronautics and Space
Administration;
(xx) Agency for International Development;
(xxi) General Services Administration;
(xxii) National Science Foundation;
(xxiii) Office of Personnel Management; and
(xxiv) National Archives and Records Administration.
The Privacy Council may also include other officials from agencies and offices, as the Chair may designate, and the Chair may invite the participation of officials from such independent agencies as he or she deems appropriate.
(c) Functions. The Privacy Council shall:
(i) develop recommendations for the Office of Management and Budget on Federal Government privacy policies and requirements;
(ii) coordinate and share ideas, best practices, and approaches for protecting privacy and implementing appropriate privacy safeguards;
(iii) assess and recommend how best to address the hiring, training, and professional development needs of the Federal Government with respect to privacy
matters; and
(iv) perform other privacy-related functions,nconsistent with law, as designated by the Chair.
(d) Coordination.
(i) The Chair and the Privacy Council shall coordinate with the Federal Chief Information Officers Council (CIO Council) to promote consistency and
efficiency across the executive branch when addressing privacy and information security issues. In addition, the Chairs of the Privacy Council and the CIO Council
shall coordinate to ensure that the work of the two councils is complementary and not duplicative.
(ii) The Chair and the Privacy Council should coordinate, as appropriate, with such other interagency councils and councils and offices within the Executive Office of the President, as appropriate including the President's Management Council, the Chief Financial Officers Council, the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency, the National Science and Technology Council, the National Economic Council, the Domestic Policy Council, the National Security Council staff, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Interagency Council on Statistical Policy, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council, and the Small Agency Council.
Sec. 5. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to a department, agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(c) Independent agencies are encouraged to comply with the requirements of this order.
(d) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
BARACK OBAMA
THE WHITE HOUSE,
February 9, 2016.
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release February 9, 2016
EXECUTIVE ORDER ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FEDERAL PRIVACY COUNCIL
By the authority vested in me as President by thebConstitution and the laws of the United States of America, it isbhereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Policy. The mission of the United States
Government is to serve its people. In order to accomplish its mission, the Government lawfully collects, maintains, and uses large amounts of information about people in a wide range of contexts. Protecting privacy in the collection and handling of this information is fundamental to the successful accomplishment of the Government's mission. The proper functioning of] Government requires the public's trust, and to maintain that trust the Government must strive to uphold the highest standards for collecting, maintaining, and using personal data. Privacy has been at the heart of our democracy from its inception, and
we need it now more than ever.
Executive departments and agencies (agencies) already take seriously their mission to protect privacy and have been working diligently to advance that mission through existing interagency mechanisms. Today's challenges, however, require that we find even more effective and innovative ways to improve the Government's efforts. Our efforts to meet these new challenges and preserve our core value of privacy, while delivering better and more effective Government services for the
American people, demand leadership and enhanced coordination and collaboration among a diverse group of stakeholders and experts.
Therefore, it shall be the policy of the United States Government that agencies shall establish an interagency support structure that: builds on existing interagency efforts to protect privacy and provides expertise and assistance to agencies; expands the skill and career development opportunities of agency privacy professionals; improves the management of agency privacy programs by identifying and sharing lessons learned and best practices; and promotes collaboration between and among agency privacy professionals to reduce unnecessary duplication of efforts and to ensure the effective, efficient, and consistent implementation of privacy policy Government-wide.
Sec. 2. Policy on Senior Agency Officials for Privacy. Within 120 days of the date of this order, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (Director) shall
issue a revised policy on the role and designation of the Senior Agency Officials for Privacy. The policy shall provide guidance on the Senior Agency Official for Privacy's responsibilities at their agencies, required level of expertise, adequate level of resources, and other matters as determined by the Director.
Agencies shall implement the requirements of the policy within a reasonable time frame as prescribed by the Director and consistent with applicable law.
Sec. 3. Responsibilities of Agency Heads. The head of each agency, consistent with guidance to be issued by the Director as required in section 2 of this order, shall designate or re-designate a Senior Agency Official for Privacy with the experience and skills necessary to manage an agency-wide privacy program. In addition, the head of each agency, to the extent permitted by law and consistent with ongoing activities, shall work with the Federal Privacy Council, established in section 4 of this order.
Sec. 4. The Federal Privacy Council.
(a) Establishment. There is hereby established the Federal Privacy Council (Privacy Council) as the principal interagency forum to improve the Government privacy practices of agencies and entities acting on their behalf. The establishment of the Privacy Council will help Senior Agency Officials for Privacy at agencies better coordinate and collaborate, educate the Federal workforce, and exchange best practices. The activities of the Privacy Council will reinforce the essential work that agency privacy officials undertake every day to protect privacy.
(b) Membership. The Chair of the Privacy Council shall be the Deputy Director for Management of the Office of Management and Budget. The Chair may designate a Vice Chair, establish working groups, and assign responsibilities for operations of the Privacy Council as he or she deems necessary. In addition to the Chair, the Privacy Council shall be composed of thenSenior Agency Officials for Privacy at the following agencies:
(i) Department of State;
(ii) Department of the Treasury;
(iii) Department of Defense;
(iv) Department of Justice;
(v) Department of the Interior;
(vi) Department of Agriculture;
(vii) Department of Commerce;
(viii) Department of Labor;
(ix) Department of Health and Human Services;
(x) Department of Homeland Security;
(xi) Department of Housing and Urban Development;
(xii) Department of Transportation;
3
(xiii) Department of Energy;
(xiv) Department of Education;
(xv) Department of Veterans Affairs;
(xvi) Environmental Protection Agency;
(xvii) Office of the Director of National
Intelligence;
(xviii) Small Business Administration;
(xix) National Aeronautics and Space
Administration;
(xx) Agency for International Development;
(xxi) General Services Administration;
(xxii) National Science Foundation;
(xxiii) Office of Personnel Management; and
(xxiv) National Archives and Records Administration.
The Privacy Council may also include other officials from agencies and offices, as the Chair may designate, and the Chair may invite the participation of officials from such independent agencies as he or she deems appropriate.
(c) Functions. The Privacy Council shall:
(i) develop recommendations for the Office of Management and Budget on Federal Government privacy policies and requirements;
(ii) coordinate and share ideas, best practices, and approaches for protecting privacy and implementing appropriate privacy safeguards;
(iii) assess and recommend how best to address the hiring, training, and professional development needs of the Federal Government with respect to privacy
matters; and
(iv) perform other privacy-related functions,nconsistent with law, as designated by the Chair.
(d) Coordination.
(i) The Chair and the Privacy Council shall coordinate with the Federal Chief Information Officers Council (CIO Council) to promote consistency and
efficiency across the executive branch when addressing privacy and information security issues. In addition, the Chairs of the Privacy Council and the CIO Council
shall coordinate to ensure that the work of the two councils is complementary and not duplicative.
(ii) The Chair and the Privacy Council should coordinate, as appropriate, with such other interagency councils and councils and offices within the Executive Office of the President, as appropriate including the President's Management Council, the Chief Financial Officers Council, the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency, the National Science and Technology Council, the National Economic Council, the Domestic Policy Council, the National Security Council staff, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Interagency Council on Statistical Policy, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council, and the Small Agency Council.
Sec. 5. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to a department, agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(c) Independent agencies are encouraged to comply with the requirements of this order.
(d) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
BARACK OBAMA
THE WHITE HOUSE,
February 9, 2016.