What Government Did Today

1:50 P.M. EST THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you so much, all of you, for joining us today.  And I want to thank Julie, Barbara, Roland, Stephen, Renee, and Christopher, standing behind me — physicians, physicians assistants, and nurses who understand how important it is for us to make much needed changes in our health care system

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Remarks by the President on Health Care Reform

Please find below a letter from President Obama to Congressional leaders on moving forward with health insurance reform legislation.

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Letter to Congressional Leaders on Health Insurance Reform

TO THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE Dear Madam Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:) Consistent with section 1241 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 (Public Law 111-84), I am providing a classified report prepared by my Administration on U.S.

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Letter from the President to Congress on U.S. Engagement with Iran

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, President Barack Obama highlighted steps his Administration will take to combat the dropout crisis and invest in strategies to ensure students graduate prepared for college and careers.  President Obama challenged states to identify high schools with graduation rates below 60% and discussed the Administration’s investments  to help them turn those schools around.   The Obama Administration has committed $3.5 billion to fund transformational changes in America’s persistently low-performing schools.  Additionally, the President’s FY 2011 budget includes $900 million to support School Turnaround Grants.  President Obama also emphasized the importance of investing in dropout prevention and recovery strategies to help make learning more engaging and relevant for students, and announced new efforts to invest $100 million in a College Pathways program to promote a college readiness culture in high schools, through programs that allow students to earn a high school diploma and college credit at the same time. “This is a problem we can’t afford to accept or ignore,” President Obama said.  “The stakes are too high – for our children, for our economy, for our country.

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President Obama Announces Steps to Reduce Dropout Rate and Prepare Students for College and Careers

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, in order to advance the development of the Nation’s full human potential and to advance equal opportunity in higher education, strengthen the capacity of historically black colleges and universities to provide the highest quality education, increase opportunities for these institutions to participate in and benefit from Federal programs, and ensure that our Nation has the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by the year 2020, it is hereby ordered as follows:  Section 1.  Policy.  Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have made historic and ongoing contributions to the general welfare and prosperity of our country.  Established by visionary leaders, America’s HBCUs, for over 150 years, have produced many of the Nation’s leaders in business, government, academia, and the military and have provided generations of American men and women with hope and educational opportunity.  The Nation’s 105 HBCUs are located in 20 States, the District of Columbia, and the U.S.

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Promoting Excellence, Innovation, and Sustainability at Historically Black Colleges and Universities

4:54 P.M. EST THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you, everybody.  Please have a seat.  (Applause.)  Thank you very much.  Well, it is wonderful to be here.  And thank you for the outstanding introduction by Mr. Smart.  And I was complimenting him on his bowtie — (laughter)  — as well as the excellent scholarship that he’s showing.  I want to thank all the student leaders from HBCUs and some of the fantastic men and women that I’ve named to serve on my HBCU advisory board.  So thank you, all of you, for what you are contributing to this important cause

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Remarks by the President on Signing Executive Order on Historically Black Colleges and Universities

February 25, 2010 SENATOR McCONNELL:  Mr. President, Dr.

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Remarks by the President in Discussion of Insurance Coverage at Bipartisan Meeting on Health Care Reform

10:53 A.M. EST THE PRESIDENT:  Well, thank you very much, Harry.  Everybody went a little over time, which is not surprising with a room full of elected officials.  I wanted to give people a little bit of a wide berth starting off, but we’re going to need to be more disciplined moving forward if we’re going to be able to cover every item.  And I’ll try to set the example here. I just want to address very quickly, Lamar, the issue of process that you raised at the beginning and then we’ll move on and start talking about the specifics.  As I listened to your description of the House/Senate bill, as well as the proposal that I put on our Web site, obviously there were some disagreements about how you would characterize the legislation.  On the other hand, when I listened to some of the steps that you thought Republicans would be open to, I thought, well, a bunch of these things are things that we’d like to do, and in fact are in the legislative proposals.

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Discussion on Cost Containment at Bipartisan Meeting on Health Care Reform

“I applaud the House of Representatives for passing the Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act on a strong bipartisan vote today. This bill will help ensure that insurers abide by common-sense rules that prevent bid-rigging, price-fixing, and other practices that drive up health care costs for the American people. Repealing the antitrust exemption for health insurers is an important step toward achieving reform that gives families and business owners greater control over their health care.

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Statement by the President on House Passage of the Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act

*Press Secretary Gibbs was referring to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1874. 12:31 P.M

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Briefing by White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, 2/22/10