Time for Congress to Pass Commonsense Immigration Reform

President Obama discusses the bipartisan legislation in the United States Senate that would take important steps towards fixing our broken immigration system, while growing our economy and reducing the deficit.

Watch this week's Weekly Address.

Watch the West Wing Week here.

Indiana Fever: The 2012 WNBA champion Indiana Fever was in Washington, D.C., on Friday to visit the White House. President Obama congratulated the team on their winning season and thanked them for their service to communities across the country.

Father’s Day: President Obama celebrated an early Father’s Day last Friday with high school students from Chicago’s Becoming a Man program. During a lunch in the East Room of the White House, the President spoke of the importance of fatherhood and mentorship. President Obama met with students in the program, which is based in low-income public schools, earlier this year to reaffirm the importance of education.

Moving Toward Peace: After crossing the Atlantic Ocean Sunday night, President Obama spoke to the people of Northern Ireland from the Belfast waterfront on Monday, praising them for their efforts toward peace and encouraging them to continue to persist.

“From the start, no one was naïve enough to believe that peace would be anything but a long journey. Yeats once wrote ‘Peace comes dropping slow.’ But that doesn’t mean our efforts to forge a real and lasting peace should come dropping slow. This work is as urgent now as it has ever been, because there’s more to lose now than there has ever been.”

Trade Agreement: President Obama met with leaders from the European Union on Tuesday to discuss the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Together with U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, President Obama announced that the EU and the U.S. will begin negotiations on the trade agreement next month. The agreement will increase economic growth in the United States and the European Union.

“[T]he U.S.-EU relationship is the largest in the world. It makes up nearly half of global GDP. We trade about $1 trillion in goods and services each year. We invest nearly $4 trillion in each other’s economies. And all that supports around 13 million jobs on both sides of the Atlantic. And this potentially groundbreaking partnership would deepen those ties. It would increase exports, decrease barriers to trade and investment. As part of broader growth strategies in both our economies, it would support hundreds of thousands of jobs on both sides of the ocean.”

G-8 Summit: On Tuesday, President Obama joined leaders from all over the world in Lough Erne, Northern Ireland for this year’s G-8 Summit. During plenary sessions, the President and the other G-8 leaders discussed the global economy and President Obama announced increased humanitarian assistance for Syria. The President also held meetings with President Vladmir Putin of Russia, Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, President François Hollande of France, Prime Minister Enrico Letta of Italy and Prime Minister Ali Zeidan of Libya.

German Ties: The people of Berlin gathered on the east side of the Brandenburg Gate on Wednesday, almost 50 years after President Kennedy spoke to the Cold War-divided city, to hear President Obama speak about the strong bond between Germany and the United States.

In his speech, President Obama announced new measurements to reduce our deployed strategic nuclear weapons by up to one-third. He also praised the Germans for their progress since the fall of the Berlin Wall, he acknowledged that the struggle for freedom, security, and human dignity still persists.

“When Europe and America lead with our hopes instead of our fears, we do things that no other nations can do, no other nations will do. So we have to lift up our eyes today and consider the day of peace with justice that our generation wants for this world.”

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President Obama Speaks to the People of Berlin

Nearly 50 years to the day after President John F. Kennedy delivered his historic speech to a city divided by the Cold War, President Obama spoke to the people of Berlin about the deep and enduring bonds between the United States and Germany, and the values we share.

The Brandenburg Gate has long been a symbol of Germany’s progress, and the President spoke from its east side – something that would have been impossible if not for the collapse of the Berlin Wall.

Click here to watch the President's full speech and learn more about his trip to Germany.

Intellectual Property: A Key Driver of our Economy

Innovation and creativity have always been the foundation of our economy, and effective enforcement of intellectual property rights enables us to promote economic growth, ensure our global competitiveness, and protect the health and safety of our citizens. Today’s release of the Administration’s 2013 Joint Strategic Plan for Intellectual Property Enforcement provides a roadmap for our work over the next three years.

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White House Rural Council Growing Rural Economies, Creating Jobs

This week is National Small Business Week. The U.S. Small Business Administration, along with agencies across the Obama Administration, are hosting events in five cities.

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State and Local Officials in the South Speak Up to Fix the Broken Immigration System

Across the country, Democratic and Republican state and local officials are speaking out about the need for commonsense immigration reform. This week, we’ll share thoughts from governors, mayors, county executives, state legislators, attorneys general, treasurers and more about why they support immigration reform and how fixing the broken immigration system would impact their communities.

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All times are Eastern Standard Time (EST)

12:20 AM: The President and the First Family arrive Joint Base Andrews

12:40 AM: The President and the First Family arrive the White House

9:45 AM: The Vice President delivers remarks at Esperanza’s 2013 National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast

10:15 PM: The Vice President delivers remarks to the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Youth and Young Adults Awards Banquet LISTEN LIVE

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The Fight to Reduce Gun Violence Is Far From Over

A little more than six months after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, Vice President Biden said yesterday that he and President Obama have not given up the fight to reduce gun violence.

And although a minority of the Senate voted down common-sense legislation that would keep our kids and communities safer, President Obama has "moved forward on what was within his power, what executive actions he could take," the Vice President explained. "Today, I can report that he announced 23 executive actions; 21 of them have been completed or there has been major progress made toward the total completion and that we’re on track to finish the job."

Click here to learn more about how President Obama is fighting to reduce gun violence.

How Immigration Reform Will Shrink the Deficit

Yesterday, the independent Congressional Budget Office released its score of the Senate’s bipartisan immigration bill, providing even more evidence that commonsense immigration reform is good for the budget and good for economic growth. CBO estimates that fixing our broken immigration system will reduce federal deficits by about $200 billion over the next 10 years, and about $700 billion in the second decade.

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President Obama Discusses the National Security Agency on Charlie Rose

President Obama discussed a range of issues in his interview Monday night on PBS, but the National Security Agency was the topic for an extended part of the conversation.

"My job is both to protect the American people and to protect the American way of life, which includes our privacy," he said. "So every program that we engage in, what I've said is let's examine and make sure that we're making the right tradeoffs."

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Partnership for Sustainable Communities Marks 4th Anniversary with Web-Streaming Twitter Town Hall

June 16, 2013 marked the four-year anniversary of the Partnership for Sustainable Communities, a collaboration of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Since 2009, our three federal agencies have been working together to help communities build stronger regional economies, improve their housing and transportation options, and protect the environment.

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President Obama Discusses the National Security Agency

President Obama discussed a range of issues in his interview with Charlie Rose last night on PBS, but the National Security Agency was the topic for an extended part of the conversation.

"My job is both to protect the American people and to protect the American way of life, which includes our privacy," he said. "So every program that we engage in, what I've said is let's examine and make sure that we're making the right tradeoffs."

Click here to find out what else the President had to say about the NSA, Syria and more.

President Obama Speaks to the People of Northern Ireland

This morning, President Obama spoke to the people of Northern Ireland from the Belfast waterfront. It’s been 15 years since the people of Ireland approved the Good Friday Agreement, and President Obama called the achievement -- and the progress that followed it -- extraordinary

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A New Astronaut Class Begins Its Journey

The new astronaut class represents the full tapestry of our nation. They are African American, Native American, and, for the first time, representative of women equal to the population – 50%.

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50 Years of National Small Business Week

This year marks the 50th anniversary of National Small Business Week. Although things have certainly changed since President Kennedy signed the first Presidential Proclamation in 1963, one thing that hasn't changed is America’s entrepreneurial spirit and the important role that small business owners play in our economy and our communities.

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Celebrating Father's Day Weekend

President Obama discusses Father’s Day and notes that nothing substitutes for the love and support of the presence of a parent in a child’s life.

Watch this week's Weekly Address.

Obamacare in California: President Obama spent last Friday in California discussing how the Affordable Care Act is improving in the lives of people all across the country.

“States like California are setting up new, online marketplaces where, beginning on October 1st of this year, you can comparison shop an array of private health insurance plans side-by-side, just like you were going online to compare cars or airline tickets. And that means insurance companies will actually have to compete with each other for your business. And that means new choices.”

Equal Pay Act: Monday marked 50 years since President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law. The President spoke at an event to celebrate the anniversary, emphasizing the importance of the issue and acknowledging there’s still work to be done.

“The day that the bill was signed into law, women earned 59 cents for every dollar a man earned on average. Today, it’s about 77 cents. So it was 59 and now it’s 77 cents. It’s even less, by the way, if you’re an African American or a Latina. So I guess that’s progress, but does anybody here think that’s good enough?”

Jason Furman Nomination: President Obama announced his nomination to replace Alan Krueger as chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers Monday afternoon. Jason Furman, who currently serves in the Obama Administration as an Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and the Principal Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, is waiting for Congress to confirm his new role.

President Obama praised both Krueger and Furman, citing their hard work as a reason for America’s economic upturn.

Working with Peru: President Ollanta Humala of Peru visited the White House on Tuesday for a bilateral meeting with President Obama. The two leaders discussed ways our countries can continue to cooperate, including deepening education exchange programs, connecting small and medium-sized businesses to markets throughout the hemisphere, and combatting transnational drug networks.

Immigration Reform: Prior to the Senate opening debate on Tuesday, President Obama spoke with leaders from across the country to reaffirm his belief that bipartisan, commonsense immigration reform needs to be passed now.

The President shared stories from DREAMers and spoke of the positive impact that reform would have on America.

“It will build on what we’ve done and continue to strengthen our borders. It will make sure that businesses and workers are all playing by the same set of rules, and it includes tough penalties for those who don’t. It’s fair for middle-class families, by making sure that those who are brought into the system pay their fair share in taxes and for services. And it’s fair for those who try to immigrate legally by stopping those who try to skip the line. It’s the right thing to do.”

Pride Month: Leaders from the LGBT community gathered at the White House on Thursday to kick-off Pride month. President Obama spoke of the steps he and his Administration have taken to push LGBT rights forward, but admitted there is still work to be done.

“In 34 states, you can be fired just because of who you are or who you love. That’s wrong. We’ve got to change it. There’s a bipartisan bill moving forward in the Senate that would ban discrimination against all LGBT Americans in the workplace, now and forever. We need to get that passed. I want to sign that bill. We need to get it done now."

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