The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
January 28, 2014
The State of the Union Fact Sheet: Opportunity for
All
The State of the Union Fact Sheet: Opportunity for All can be found HERE
and below.
Opportunity for All: Key
Executive Actions the President Will Take in 2014
The Presidentfs top priority remains ensuring middle class Americans feel
secure in their jobs, homes and budgets. To build real, lasting economic
security the President will work with Congress and act on his own to expand
opportunity for all so that every American can get ahead and have a shot at
creating a better life for their kids.
Middle Class Security & Opportunity at
Work
- Raising the Minimum Wage through Executive Order to $10.10 for
Federal Contract Workers. The President will also continue to urge
Congress to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 across the nation because no one
who works full-time should have to raise their family in poverty.
- Creating gmyRAh – A New Starter Savings Account to Help
Millions Save for Retirement. The President will take executive
action to create a simple, safe and affordable gstarterh retirement savings
account available through employers to help millions of Americans save for
retirement. This savings account would be offered through a familiar Roth IRA
account and, like savings bonds, would be backed by the U.S. government.
- Building a 21st Century Workplace for Americafs Working Families.
The President will host a summit on Working Families to highlight the
policies that will ensure Americafs global economic competitiveness by
supporting working families; showcase companies doing exemplary work in this
space; and highlight model laws and policies from cities and states across the
country in areas such as discrimination, flexibility and paid
leave.
Jobs & Economic Opportunity
- Launching Four New Manufacturing Institutes in 2014.
American manufacturers are adding jobs for the first time in over a
decade. To build on this progress, the President will launch four new
institutes through executive action this year. These institutes will build on
the four the President has already announced.
- Government-wide Review of Federal Training Programs to Help
Americans Get Skills in Demand for Good Jobs. The President is
directing the Vice President to conduct a full review of our federal
job-training system to make sure programs are higher performing and driven by
the needs of employers which are hiring so that they lead to well-paying jobs.
In the coming months, we will help community colleges build partnerships with
businesses so that as industriesf skills needs change community colleges can
quickly adapt.
- Partnering With Many of Americafs Leading CEOs to Help the
Long-Term Unemployed. Later this week, as part of an ongoing
effort that the Administration began several months ago, the President will
convene a group of CEOs and other leaders around supporting best practices for
hiring the long-term unemployed.
- Expanding Apprenticeships by Mobilizing Business, Community
Colleges and Labor. This year the President will mobilize business
leaders, community colleges, Mayors and Governors, and labor leaders to
increase the number of innovative apprenticeships in America.
- Increasing Fuel Efficiency for Trucks. The President will
propose new incentives for medium- and heavy-duty trucks that run on
alternative fuels like natural gas and the infrastructure needed to deploy
them, and the Administration will set new fuel efficiency standards for heavy
duty vehicles.
- Partnering with States, Cities and Tribes to Move to Energy
Efficiency and Cleaner Power. The President has directed his
Administration to work to cut carbon pollution through clean energy and energy
efficiency.
Schools & Education
Opportunity
- Connecting 20 Million Students in 15,000 Schools to the Best
Technology to Enrich K-12 Education. The FCC is making a major
down-payment on the Presidentfs ConnectED goal of connecting 99% of students
to next-generation broadband and wireless technology within five years. In the
coming weeks the President will announce new philanthropic partnerships –
including by companies like Apple, Microsoft, Sprint and Verizon.
- Redesigning High Schools to Teach the Real-World Skills That Kids
Need. This year, the Administration will announce the winners of a
$100 million competition supporting redesigned high schools that give high
school students access to real-world education and skills.
- Increasing College Opportunity and Graduation. Building
on the success of the President and First Ladyfs College Opportunity Summit,
in the coming months the President is asking colleges and universities,
nonprofits and businesses to work with him on ways to improve studentsf access
to and completion of higher education.
Middle Class Security &
Opportunity At Work
Making Progress Through Executive Action
- Raising the Minimum Wage to $10.10 for Those Working on New
Federal Contracts. A higher minimum wage can raise earnings and
reduce poverty. More businesses, from small businesses to large corporations
like Costco, see higher wages as the right way to boost productivity, reduce
turnover and increase profits. The President will issue an Executive
Order to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 for the individuals working on new
federal service contracts.
- Creating gmyRAh – A Safe, Easy-to-Use Starter Savings
Account to Help Millions of Middle Class Americans Save for Retirement.
Starting to save is just the first step towards a secure
retirement. Workers must have a place to invest their hard-earned savings
that provides an appropriate balance of risk and return, and many private
sector providers do not offer retirement savings options tailored to smaller
balance savers. Our retirement system should help these potential savers
and encourage them to begin building their retirement security. The President
is using his executive authority to create gmyRAh (my Retirement
Account) – a new simple, safe and affordable gstarterh retirement savings
account that will be available through employers and help millions of
Americans save for retirement. This savings account would be offered through a
familiar Roth IRA Account and, like savings bonds, would be backed by the U.S.
government.
- Building a 21st Century Workplace for Americafs Working
Families. In spring of 2014, the White House, the Department of Labor
(DOL) and the Center for American Progress (CAP), will host a Summit on
Working Families to set an agenda for a 21st century workplace to ensure
Americafs global economic competitiveness in the coming decades. The Summit
will make the business and economic cases for policies that support working
families; showcase companies doing exemplary work in this space; and highlight
model laws and policies from cities and states across the country in areas
such as discrimination, flexibility, and paid leave.
Continuing to Work With Congress
- Extending Emergency Unemployment Insurance for Americans Looking
for Work. At a time when we as a nation should be moving forward in
our efforts to help those who are long-term unemployed find new jobs, we
should never have taken a step backwards by abruptly cutting off their
unemployment insurance. The President urges members of both parties to come
together right now to at a minimum pass a bipartisan three-month extension
under consideration in the Senate. By temporarily extending emergency
unemployment insurance for three months, this bipartisan bill will provide
benefits for over 2 million Americans when they need it most, including the
1.6 million Americans who have already lost access to these benefits since the
program expired at the end of last year.
- Raising the Minimum Wage to $10.10. The President will
continue to call on Congress to pass the Harkin-Miller plan to raise the
Federal minimum wage for working Americans in stages to $10.10 and index it to
inflation thereafter, while also raising the minimum wage for tipped workers
for the first time in over 20 years. The President knows this is important for
workers and good for business.
- Rewarding Hard Work by Expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit
(EITC). President Obamafs Child Tax Credit and Earned Income
Tax Credit expansions benefit 15 million families each year, providing an
average tax cut of about $800. The President is now calling on Congress to
pass a significant increase in the EITC for workers without children,
including non-custodial parents. Currently, workers without children
qualify for a maximum credit of about $500, which phases out at very low
incomes. The President is proposing to encourage work and reduce poverty
by raising the maximum credit and making the EITC available to more low-wage
workers to provide a more meaningful work incentive.
- Removing Retirement Tax Breaks for the Wealthiest While Improving
Them for the Middle Class. About half of all American workers do not
have access to workplace retirement savings plan. Furthermore, our tax
incentives mostly benefit high-income individuals already well-positioned for
retirement, allowing them to reap tens of thousands of dollars more in tax
breaks than middle-class families. The Presidentfs budget will propose to
establish automatic enrollment in IRAs (or gauto-IRAsh) for employees without
access to a workplace savings plan, in keeping with a plan that he has
proposed in every budget since he took office. And, the President wants to
work with Congress to make sure that when we take steps to reform our tax code
that we also reform upside-down retirement tax incentives.
- Supporting Workplace Fairness for Women. The President
reiterated his call for Congress to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act that would
strengthen the Equal Pay Act and give women more tools to fight pay
discrimination. The Administration will also continue to work to ensure that
having a baby does not jeopardize a womanfs job, and that more hard
working Americans can have access to paid leave in order to take care of
family members and themselves. Because the President knows that when women
succeed, America succeeds.
- Workplace Equality for LGBT Workers. Today, federal law
prohibits employment discrimination based on race, sex, religion, and
disability. Itfs time to add sexual orientation and gender identity to that
list, so that no American worker can lose his or her job simply because of who
they are or who they love. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act would
provide strong federal protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender
workers. Last year, a bipartisan majority of the Senate passed ENDA, and
the President renews his call for the House to do the same.
Jobs & Economic
Opportunity
Making Progress Through Executive Action
- Launching Four New Manufacturing Innovation Institutes in 2014.
To support investment in our manufacturersf competitiveness and
accelerate innovation in manufacturing, the President will use his executive
authority to launch four new manufacturing innovation institutes this year, a
co-investment by the private sector and Federal agencies, led by the
Departments of Defense and Energy. These new institutes will build on the
success of the four that the President has already announced – including the
pilot institute in Youngstown, Ohio and the most recent institute launched in
Raleigh, N.C. By the end of 2014, the President will have made it to the
halfway point on his initial goal of 15 institutes, without Congress.
Leveraging the strengths of a particular region, institutes bring together
companies, universities and community colleges, and government to co-invest in
development of world-leading manufacturing technologies and capabilities that
U.S.-based manufacturers can apply in production.
- Government-wide Review of Federal Training Programs to Help
Americans Get Skills in Demand for Good Jobs. In the coming days, the
President will announce the details of a plan to conduct a program-by-program
review of federal training programs to be more focused on the skills needed in
high-demand sectors. The President has asked the Vice President to lead a full
review of Americafs job-training system to make sure our programs are helping
people with skills find the jobs that need those skills and, for those who
need to be trained, making sure our skills programs are higher performing and
better matched to the skill needs of employers looking to hire. In the coming
months, wefll help community colleges build partnerships with businesses so
that our training programs are meeting the needs of the businesses that will
be doing the hiring.
- Partnering With CEOs to Put the Long-Term Unemployed Back to Work.
The President is asking every business leader in America to help the
long-term unemployed get into jobs because we are stronger when America fields
a team at full strength. Later this week, as part of an ongoing effort that
began several months ago, the President will convene a group of CEOs and other
leaders who have committed to giving more of the long-term unemployed a fair
shot at a job and a new chance to support their families. This convening will
also highlight promising models to connect the long-term unemployed to
work.
- Expanding Apprenticeships by Mobilizing Business, Community
Colleges and Labor. On-the-job apprenticeship training programs
provide a robust path to middle income jobs in many countries. Other economies
that we are competing with, like Germany, have millions of apprenticeships
leading to skilled jobs, but today there are only about 420,000 registered
apprenticeships in the U.S. This year the President will mobilize leaders from
business, labor, community colleges and other training providers to boost the
number of apprenticeships in this country and expand these glearn and earnh
strategies to other cutting edge fields.
- Cutting Red Tape for Infrastructure Investment. In order
to accelerate economic growth, the President is taking action to improve the
efficiency of the Federal permitting process, cutting through red tape and
getting more timely decisions on Federal permits and reviews, while ensuring
that projects that are approved lead to better outcomes for our communities
and the environment. In August 2011 the President issued a Presidential
Memorandum to add more transparency, accountability, and certainty into the
permitting and review process. Since then, agencies have worked to expedite
the permitting and review of 52 major projects, and have already completed the
review of 32 projects including bridges, railways, ports and waterways, roads,
and renewable energy projects. Federal agencies have also completed a
comprehensive review to identify best practices, such as having multiple
agencies review a project at the same time instead of consecutively. In
the coming weeks, the President will publish a plan to institutionalize these
best practices.
- Increasing Fuel Efficiency for Trucks and Saving Families Money.
The President will propose new incentives for medium- and heavy-duty
trucks to run on natural gas or other alternative fuels and the infrastructure
needed to run them. This builds on efforts at the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) and Department of Transportation (DOT), as part of the Climate
Action Plan, to develop additional fuel economy standards for heavy-duty
vehicles, which will drive sustained fuel economy improvements for trucks and
buses and adoption of alternative fuels. Already, private sector investments
are building natural gas, biofuel, and other advanced fueling infrastructure
across the United States just as research is making these technologies more
economically and environmentally effective. The President is committed to
accelerating adoption of these advanced homegrown, alternative fuels that
benefit our planet, our economy, and our energy security.
- Partnering with States, Cities and Tribes to Move to Energy
Efficiency and Cleaner Power. As part of the Climate Action
Plan, the President directed his Administration to work with States to develop
clean energy and energy efficiency policies. Already, 10 States have
market-based systems to reduce carbon pollution; more than 35 States have
renewable energy targets that are a magnet for clean energy investment in
technologies like wind, solar, hydropower, coal with carbon capture and
storage, nuclear, and geothermal; and over 25 States have state-wide programs
to cut energy waste. Building on this progress, the Environmental
Protection Agency is working with states, utilities and others to develop new
carbon pollution standards for power plants. In addition, last month the
President announced a commitment of more than $1 billion in energy savings
performance contracts by nine States and several cities across the country –
another example of State and local governments deploying smart policies to
drive investment and create jobs as part of a clean energy economy.
- Promoting Safe and Responsible Production of Natural Gas.
Natural gas is helping to reduce carbon pollution, and the
Administration is taking steps to make production safer. The
Administration is developing new environmental standards for oil and gas
drilling on public lands and will continue to invest in research to ensure
safe and responsible natural gas production. Under the Presidentfs Climate
Action Plan, the Administration is also developing a multi-sector strategy to
reduce methane emissions.
- Setting New Energy Efficiency Standards. As part of the
Climate Action Plan, since August, the Department of Energy (DOE) has proposed
five energy conservation standards and finalized one standard for appliances
and equipment. These actions will cut consumersf electricity and gas
bills by hundreds of billions of dollars while reducing carbon pollution.
- Balancing Conservation and Development – Permitting Renewable
Energy Projects on Some Public Lands While Setting Aside Places Too Precious
to Develop. The President believes that we must encourage energy
development in the right ways and in the right places, but he also recognizes
that there are some places that are too special to develop. That is why the
President will use his authority to protect some of the places that Americans
love most, even as we continue to develop energy resources elsewhere.
And as we continue the transition to cleaner energy, the President has
directed the Department of the Interior (DOI) to continue to make progress
towards the Presidentfs goal of permitting 20,000 megawatts of renewable
energy projects on public lands by 2020, which if fully built, is enough
capacity to power more than 6 million homes. Since June 2013, DOI has approved
several large renewable energy projects, including a 500 megawatt wind project
in Arizona and a 40 megawatt geothermal energy project in California. In
addition, in July of 2013, DOI held its first-ever offshore wind lease sale
for areas off the shores of Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and, in the fall,
DOI held an additional offshore wind lease sale for an area off the shores of
Virginia and announced the next auction for an area off the shores of
Maryland.
- Taking Steps to Make our Communities More Resilient to the Effects
of Climate Change. In November 2013, President Obama signed an
executive order directing agencies to help American communities strengthen
their resilience to extreme weather and prepare for other climate-related
impacts. Under the EO, agencies are working to modernize Federal
programs to better support preparedness for climate change impacts. The
EO also established a State, Local and Tribal Leaders Task Force which is
composed of 26 elected officials from across the country, which will advise
the Administration on how the Federal Government can modernize programs and
provide tools to support local climate preparedness efforts.
- Opening New Markets for American Clean Energy Manufacturers.
Under the Climate Action Plan, the President directed his
Administration to negotiate an agreement that would eliminate tariffs on
environmental goods, including clean and renewable energy technologies.
Such an agreement would accelerate growth in the $955 billion market in annual
global trade in environmental goods, which currently face tariffs as high as
35% in some countries.
- Aggressive Reform and Expansion of SelectUSA to Create the
First-Ever Federal Effort to Bring Jobs from Around the World to the
U.S. The President has made bringing investment back to the U.S. a
core priority of the federal government. He is using his executive
authority to create the first ever whole-of-government effort to attract
investment through expansion and enhancement of SelectUSA. This effort has
meant a number of firsts: for the first time there will be a clear system for
advocacy for high-priority, job-creating investments, driven by the most
senior Administration officials all the way up to the President; for the first
time there will be a single point of contact for ready investors looking to
brings jobs and production to the U.S.; lastly, the Administration is engaging
in unprecedented coordinated support for states and localities to attract
investment.
Continuing to Work With Congress
- Continuing to Call for a Grand Bargain on Jobs to Pay for
Investments in Infrastructure by Reforming Business Taxes and Closing
Loopholes that Help Companies Ship Jobs Overseas. As the President
first proposed in Chattanooga in July 2013, he stands ready to work with
Congress on a grand bargain for middle-class jobs that pairs comprehensive
reform to simplify our business tax code with investments to rebuild Americafs
infrastructure that create more good construction jobs that our economy needs
right now. The temporary revenue generated from transitioning to a new tax
system could be used to finance these investments. In addition, the President
knows that America works best when we are calling upon the resources and
ingenuity of our vibrant private sector, and that's why he supports efforts to
attract and facilitate increased private investment to rebuild Americafs vital
infrastructure – including our highway, bridge, transit, rail, energy, and
water infrastructure.
- Fixing Our Broken Immigration System. We need to fix our
broken immigration system by continuing to strengthen our border security,
cracking down on employers who hire undocumented workers, and providing an
earned path to citizenship for immigrants who pay a fine and taxes, learn
English, pass a background check and go to the back of the line. Too many
employers game the system by hiring undocumented workers and there are 11
million people living in the shadows. Neither is good for the economy or the
country. Immigration reform will grow our economy by more than $1 trillion
over the next two decades, help create thousands of new jobs, raise
productivity, and unite families in a timely and humane manner. The Senate has
passed bipartisan legislation that is largely consistent with the
Presidentfs priorities. While there are multiple paths the House of
Representatives can take, the President stands willing to work with all
parties to make immigration reform a reality.
- Investing in Growth While Continuing to Strengthen Our Nationfs
Long Term Fiscal Position. Over the past four years the deficit has
been cut in half as a share of the economy, falling by 5.7% of GDP, the
largest four-year deficit reduction since the demobilization from World War
II. The long-run deficit outlook has also improved considerably due to slowing
the growth of Medicare while improving solvency and benefits in the Affordable
Care Act, a fairer tax code enacted in the 2012 fiscal cliff deal, and
discretionary spending which is on track to be the lowest as a share of the
economy since Dwight Eisenhower was President. The recent bipartisan Budget
agreement undoes some of last yearfs damaging cuts to priorities like
education and research, and clears the way for Washington to avoid setting
back our economy this year with manufactured fiscal crises. The
President wants to build on this progress with a growth and opportunity agenda
that includes a commitment to strengthening our long-term fiscal position.
This entails a commitment by the President to not only pay for all of his new,
ongoing initiatives but also to support additional deficit reduction in a
balanced manner from pro-growth tax reform that levels the playing field for
the middle class and further efforts to reform and strengthen entitlements.
This approach will accelerate growth and ensure that the debt is on a downward
path as a share of the economy over the next decade and the debt and deficit
are stabilized over the longer term.
- Transforming Communities Across the Country into Global Centers of
Advanced Manufacturing through a National Network of Manufacturing Institutes.
Building on the four institutes that the President has already
launched and the four more institutes that he will launch this year through
executive authority, the President is continuing to call on Congress to create
up to 45 manufacturing innovation institutes over 10 years, tripling that
number from the 15 institutes originally proposed in his 2012 and 2013 State
of the Union addresses. The President first set a goal for Congress to triple
the number of institutes supported in his July 2013 speech in Chattanooga.
Last summer, Senators Brown (D-OH) and Blunt (R-MO) and Congressmen Reed
(R-NY) and Kennedy (D-MA) launched bipartisan bills in both the Senate and
House that would move us closer to the Presidentfs vision for a national
network of manufacturing innovation led by the Department of Commerce. The
President will continue to work with Congress to make sure that we reach his
goal of 45 manufacturing institutes over 10 years.
- Supporting and Scaling Innovative Partnerships Between Community
Colleges and Other Public and Non-Profit Entities to Reorient Training Efforts
to be Job-Driven. The President wants to work with Congress to
increase funding to allow more workers of all ages to access training programs
that will provide the skills that lead to good jobs and careers, and are more
accountable for results.
- Leveling the Playing Field and Opening New Markets for
American-Made Products. Since the President took office, we have
achieved a record level of exports – more than $2 trillion per year in each of
the last three years. The growth in exports of Made-in-America goods and
services has accounted for one third of our GDP growth during the
recovery. About 9.8 million jobs are supported by exports, up 1.3 million
since 2009. Now, to further boost exports and support and expand well-paying
American jobs, the President is working toward a 12-nation Trans-Pacific
Partnership agreement and has launched talks toward a comprehensive agreement
with the European Union. To open these markets to our businesses and
make sure that new trade agreements create more well-paying American jobs and
protect American workers, the President wants to work with Congress to update
its guidance and role in trade and pass Trade Promotion Authority (TPA)
legislation with the support of a broad coalition of both parties in
Congress.
- Fully Funding SelectUSA to Increase by Five-Fold the Number of
People Who Wake Up Every Day With the Sole Focus of Bringing Jobs Home.
Building on the $7 million authorized in the recent budget deal, the
President will work with Congress to fully fund the SelectUSA initiative so
that we can increase by a factor of five the number of dedicated personnel
that wake up every day entirely focused on bringing jobs to the U.S. The
initiative will make sure that we have experts overseas and put in place the
investment specialists we need in headquarters to handle the increase in cases
already seen from the influx of demand for SelectUSA.
- Protecting American Innovation from Patent Trolls. Our
patent system is enshrined in our Constitution to encourage invention and to
reward Americans for their hard work and risk-taking; but in recent years,
that system has also seen an explosion of abusive patent litigation designed
not to reward innovation but to threaten companies based on questionable
claims. There are a growing number of companies, commonly called gpatent
trolls,h who employ these litigation tactics as a business model — abusing the
systemfs strong protections, costing the economy billions of dollars, and
undermining American innovation. In February, President Obama challenged
the Administration and Congress to take on this issue, and in June announced a
blueprint to protect companies from trollsf predatory tactics. In his
State of the Union address the President renewed his call for Congress to pass
patent legislation, which enjoys strong bipartisan support. In the coming
weeks, he will announce progress on Administration initiatives on patent
reform to simplify and strengthen our patent system for a 21st century economy
— helping companies focus on innovation, not litigation.
- Supporting Americafs Job Creators through a Small Business and
Entrepreneurship Agenda. Small businesses were disproportionately
impacted by the downturn, and despite improvements there are still significant
challenges for small businesses to get the capital and capabilities they need
to grow and hire. The President has previously worked with members of
both parties in Congress to pass three landmark pieces of small business
legislation – including the JOBS Act, the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, and
the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – and the President wants to work
with Congress on a small business package that will broaden capital access,
cut and simplify taxes for small businesses, and invest in intensive
entrepreneurship education.
- Creating Jobs through Shale Gas Development. The
President is calling on Congress to work with the Administration and State and
local governments to create Sustainable Shale Gas Growth Zones,
helping regions come together to make sure shale gas is developed in a safe,
responsible way that helps build diverse and resilient regional economies that
can withstand boom-and-bust cycles and can be leaders in building and
deploying clean energy technologies. Smart regional planning and federal
technical assistance to States and local communities can ensure we develop
shale gas the right way – and, at the same time, create stable communities
with well-paying jobs.
- Boosting Utilization of Natural Gas in Transportation and
Industry. In addition, the President announced specific ways to better
focus on leveraging natural gas in manufacturing, transportation, and power
generation – creating jobs, reducing costs, and reducing dependence on
foreign oil. The Administration will help States and localities
coordinate review of proposed private sector projects to invest in new
energy-intensive U.S. manufacturing plants relying on natural gas. The
Administration will also expand tax incentives to build fuel infrastructure
and to replace oil with U.S.-produced natural gas in trucks and other
transportation.
- Expanding Fuel Choices for American Drivers. While
the United States will continue to rely on responsibly produced oil and
natural gas, President Obama is committed to a long-term policy that allows us
to transition to cleaner energy sources.
- Establishing an Energy Security Trust Fund to Fund R&D for
Advanced Vehicle Technologies. In addition to urging Congress to repeal
the $4 billion in subsidies that taxpayers provide the oil industry each
year, the President has called on Congress to establish an Energy Security
Trust and enact reforms to promote diligent oil and gas development on
federal lands. The Energy Security Trust proposal has broad bipartisan
support, including retired admirals, generals and leading CEOs, and focuses
on shifting our cars and trucks off oil. This $2 billion investment in a
range of cost-effective technologies – like advanced vehicles that run on
electricity, homegrown biofuels, hydrogen, and domestically produced natural
gas – will be drawn from revenues generated from federal oil and gas
development. Establishing a dedicated source of funding will allow the
Energy Department to maintain targeted and sustained investments that are
catalytic and directly advance U.S. energy security.
- Supporting Investment in Advanced Vehicles and Infrastructure through
a New Tax Credit and an Extension of Tax Credits to Support Cellulosic
Biofuels. The President is announcing a new tax credit to catalyze
investment in the necessary infrastructure to support deployment of advanced
vehicles at critical mass. This proposal would be fuel neutral,
allowing the private sector to determine if biofuels, electrification,
natural gas, hydrogen, or other alternative fuels would be the best fit in
different communities. In addition, the President proposed
to extend the cellulosic biofuel producer credit that expired on December
31, 2013. Cellulosic biofuels have the potential to reduce petroleum
consumption and carbon pollution while boosting rural economic development.
Extending the existing tax credit would accelerate development of this
transformative transportation fuel.
Schools & Education
Opportunity
Making Progress Through Executive
Action
- Connecting 20 Million Students in 15,000 Schools to the Best
Technology to Enrich and Personalize K-12 Education. Technology
has the potential to transform education in America, allowing students to
learn more, to do so at their own pace, and to develop the knowledge and
skills employers demand. The President announced his ConnectED initiative in
June to make this opportunity real for all American students, starting with
his goal of connecting 99% of students to next-generation connectivity within
five years. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) answered the
Presidentfs call to action last August and announced efforts to modernize and
expand the E-Rate program, to bring it into the modern era, and more fully
meet the needs of schools and libraries as they connect high-speed broadband.
In his State of the Union address, the President announced that with the
support of the FCC, we will make a major down-payment on his goal, connecting
more than 15,000 schools and 20 million students over the next two years –
without adding a dime to the deficit. Companies like Apple, Microsoft, Sprint
and Verizon are answering the call, and in the coming weeks, the President
will highlight further details of new programs and partnerships that
accelerate his vision of technology-enriched classrooms across America.
- Redesigning High Schools to Teach the Real-World Skills That Kids
Need. Too few of Americafs students are meaningfully engaged by their
academic experience while in high school. Many high school graduates lack
exposure to learning that links their work in school to college and
careers—especially in the critically important fields of science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Moreover, many of Americafs international
competitors offer students a more rigorous and relevant education in their
middle and high school years. The President has called for a comprehensive
effort to rethink the high school experience, challenging schools to scale up
innovative models that will redesign and personalize teaching and learning for
students, so that they receive the rigorous and relevant education needed to
graduate and transition into postsecondary learning and adulthood. This
year, the Administration will take the first step toward that goal by
announcing the winners of a $100 million competition for Youth CareerConnect –
grants that will provide high school students with the industry-relevant
education and skills they need for a successful future – as part of its effort
to ensure that high schools prepare students for college and careers.
- Increasing College Opportunity and Graduation. A child
born into the bottom 20% of the income scale has a less than 1-in-20 shot of
making it to the top if they do not go to college. Earning a college
degree changes those odds to closer to 1-in-5. Thatfs why earlier this
year, the President and First Lady hosted a first-ever White House Call to
Action on College Opportunity with over 150 new commitments from colleges,
universities, businesses, philanthropists, and non-profits to improve college
access and success for low-income students. The President is calling for a
continued mobilization throughout 2014 to foster new commitments to action to
help more low-income students access and succeed in college, including from
additional colleges and universities, businesses, nonprofits and other
leaders.
- Making College More Affordable for American Families.
Higher education is the single most important investment students can make in
their own futures. At the same time, students are taking on increasing amounts
of debt to pay for it. Thatfs why since taking office, President Obama has
made historic investments in college affordability, increasing the maximum
Pell Grant award for working and middle class families by more than $900,
creating the American Opportunity Tax Credit, and enacting effective student
loan reforms eliminating bank subsidies and making college more affordable. In
August, President Obama outlined an ambitious new agenda, including the
development of a new system of college ratings to incentivize colleges to
focus on affordability and value and to help students and families make better
college choices. Because higher education leaders across the country are
already finding new ways to help students learn more at lower cost, the agenda
includes partnering with college and universities, entrepreneurs, researchers,
and thought leaders from the education and technology fields to help empower
students and families with the tools and resources to help them make informed
decisions about going to and paying for college and to support innovations and
technologies that can lead to breakthroughs on college cost and quality. This
year the President will continue pursing executive actions to spur the
development, validation, and scaling-up of these cutting-edge
innovations.
Continuing to Work With Congress
- Making High-Quality Preschool Available to Children All Across
America. To succeed in the 21st century, we must have the
most dynamic, educated workforce in the world; that education has to start
early in life. President Obama has laid out a bold vision to expand
access to high-quality pre-school to every four-year old in America and
improve access to voluntary home visiting programs and other services for our
youngest children. This year, the President worked with Congress to
enact a down-payment on this vision by reversing funding cuts to Head Start to
provide critical early education to our nationfs children, launching new Early
Head-Start Child Care Partnerships to expand access to high-quality infant and
toddler care for tens of thousands of additional children and expanding access
to high-quality public preschool programs through Race to the Top.
- Preparing Americafs Youth to Graduate Ready for College and
Careers, by Transforming our High Schools. In his 2013 State of the
Union address, the President laid out a new vision for Americafs high schools,
and he has proposed dedicating new resources at the Department of Education to
scale up models that personalize learning and focus on college and career
exploration for students, so that students graduate better equipped for the
demands of our high-tech economy.
Securing a Safe and Sound Housing
Finance System
- Ending Fannie and Freddie as We Know Them. The
President has made clear that it is time to turn the page on an era of
reckless lending and taxpayer bailouts, and build a new housing finance system
that will provide secure homeownership for responsible middle class families
and those striving to join them. The President is encouraged by the leadership
of Senate Banking Committee Chairman Johnson and Ranking Member Crapo in
seeking to forge bipartisan legislation. The President is also appreciative of
the bipartisan efforts of other members of the Senate, such as Senator Warner
and Senator Corker. As the President outlined in his housing address in August
2013, he stands ready to work with members of Congress in both parties to
enact legislation based on four core principles for reform that will (i) put
private capital at the center of the housing finance system, (ii) end Fannie
Mae and Freddie Macfs failed business model so taxpayers are never again on
the hook for bad loans and bailouts, (iii) ensure widespread access to safe
and responsible mortgages like the 30-year fixed rate mortgage, and (iv)
support affordability for creditworthy first-time buyers and access to
affordable rental housing for middle class families and those aspiring to join
their ranks.