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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
____________________________________
)
MUKHTAR YAHIA NAJI
)
AL WARAFI,
)
)
Petitioner,
)
)
v.
)
Civil Action No. 09-2368 (RCL)
)
BARACK H. OBAMA, et al.,
)
)
Respondents.
)
____________________________________)
MOTION TO GRANT PETITION FOR WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS
Under the Authorization for Use of Military Force, Pub. L. No. 107-40, § 2(a), 115 Stat.
224 (2002) (“AUMF”), the Government cannot detain a person captured during a conflict once
the conflict has ended. Mukhtar Al Warafi has been imprisoned at Guantanamo for more than 13
years, based solely on a claim that he was “part of the Taliban” in 2001 during the United States’
war in Afghanistan. President Obama has made it clear in authoritative statements, including in
his State of the Union Address of January 20, 2015, that the United States’ war in Afghanistan
and its combat mission in Afghanistan ended at the close of 2014. There is thus no legal basis
for Al Warafi’s continued detention and the Court should forthwith grant his petition for a writ of
habeas corpus.
BACKGROUND FACTS
1. Al Warafi
Al Warafi traveled to Afghanistan in August 2001 and, for a few months, worked there in
clinics and a hospital. Al Warafi v. Obama, 704 F. Supp. 2d 32, 35-37 (D.D.C. 2010). On
November 24, 2001, Al Warafi was captured by the Northern Alliance and was then transferred

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to the custody of the United States. Id. at 37. He was taken to Guantanamo Bay in 2002, where
he has been ever since. Id.
In 2004, Al Warafi filed a habeas corpus petition in this Court. The Government asserted
that Al Warafi’s detention was lawful under the AUMF because he had been “part of the
Taliban” while in Afghanistan. Al Warafi, 704 F. Supp. 2d at 37-38 & 37 n.1. The Government
stipulated that whether Al Warafi was “part of the Taliban” was the “sole issue” in the case. Id.
Al Warafi denied any affiliation with the Taliban. In the alternative, he argued that even if he
had been “part of the Taliban,” he qualified as protected medical personnel under the First
Geneva Convention. Id. at 35.
This Court denied Al Warafi’s petition, concluding that he was, more likely than not,
“part of the Taliban” when he was a medical worker in Afghanistan. Id at 44. This Court also
held that Guantanamo detainees could not invoke the protections of the First Geneva
Convention. Id. Al Warafi appealed. The D.C. Circuit agreed that Al Warafi “was more likely
than not a part of the Taliban,” but it remanded for a determination as to whether he qualified as
protected medical personnel under the First Geneva Convention and Army Regulation 190-8. Al
Warafi v. Obama, 409 Fed. App’x 360, 361 (D.C. Cir. Feb. 22, 2011). On remand, this Court
ruled that Al Warafi did not qualify because he did not possess a medical armlet or identification
card when captured. Al Warafi v. Obama, 821 F. Supp. 2d 47, 54-56 (D.D.C. 2011). The D.C.
Circuit affirmed this ruling, 716 F.3d 627 (2013), and denied Al Warafi’s petition for rehearing
en banc. The Supreme Court denied Al Warafi’s petition for a writ of certiorari. 134 S. Ct. 2134
(2014).

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2. President Obama’s Declarations Concerning the End of the United States’ War In
Afghanistan
On December 15, 2014, President Obama stated that “[t]his month, after more than 13
years, our combat mission in Afghanistan will be over,” and “[t]his month, America’s war in
Afghanistan will come to a responsible end.” Exhibit A, p. 2. Then, in the State of the Union
Address on January 20, 2015, the President stated, without any qualifications or conditions, that
“our combat mission in Afghanistan is over.” Exhibit B, p. 1.
These pronouncements had been foreshadowed during the preceding two years by
repeated presidential statements that the United States’ war in Afghanistan would be ended, and
its combat mission would be terminated, by the end of 2014. On February 12, 2013, President
Obama declared in the State of the Union Address that “[b]y the end of [2014], our war in
Afghanistan will be over.” Exhibit C, p. 5. On May 23, 2013, he stated that “[t]he Afghan war
is coming to an end.” Exhibit D, p. 7. On November 25, 2013, he stated that ‘[t]he war in
Afghanistan will end next year.” Exhibit E, p. 1. On December 20, 2013, he stated that, “[b]y
the end of next year, the war in Afghanistan will be over.” Exhibit F, p. 2. In the State of the
Union Address on January 28, 2014, he repeated that “we will complete our mission there
[Afghanistan] by the end of this year, and America’s longest war will finally be over.” Exhibit
G, p. 6. The President followed up with a prepared statement on May 27, 2014, that “this year,
we will bring America’s longest war to a responsible end,” that “this is the year we will conclude
our combat mission in Afghanistan,” and that “America’s combat mission [in Afghanistan] will
be over by the end of this year.” Exhibit H, p. 1. On December 28, 2014, the United States

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marked the end of the war in Afghanistan with a ceremony in Kabul. 1 Exhibit I. On that date,
President Obama released a statement that “the ceremony in Kabul marks a milestone for our
country” because “our combat mission in Afghanistan is ending, and the longest war in
American history is coming to a responsible conclusion.” Id.
ARGUMENT
The Government’s authority under the AUMF to detain prisoners terminates once the
conflict in which they were captured has come to an end. As Justice O’Connor stated in respect
to Guantanamo detainees, it “is a clearly established principle of the law of war that detention
may last no longer than active hostilities.” Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, 542 U.S. 507, 520 (2004)
(plurality opinion), citing the requirement of Article 118 of the Third Geneva Convention that
prisoners “shall be released and repatriated without delay after the cessation of active hostilities.”
6 U.S.T. 3316, 3406, T.I.A.S. No. 3364. 2 See also National Defense Authorization Act for
Fiscal Year 2012, Pub. L. No. 112-81, §§ 1021(a), (c)(1), 125 Stat. 1298 (2011) (stating that the
AUMF authorizes the United States Armed Forces “to detain covered persons . . . pending
disposition under the law of war,” which includes “[d]etention under the law of war without trial
until the end of the hostilities authorized by the [AUMF]”). As explained in Hamdi, detentions

1

After December 28, as explained by the President, the United States “will maintain a limited
military presence in Afghanistan to train, advise, and assist Afghan forces and to conduct
counterterrorism operations against the remnants of al Qaeda.” Exhibit I.

2

The Government has conceded that the AUMF is “informed by the laws of war,” which
include the Geneva Conventions. See, e.g., Brief of Respondents-Appellees at 24-25, Al Warafi
v. Obama, No. 11-5276 (D.C. Cir. Feb. 12, 2012).

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“are part of the exercise of ‘necessary and appropriate force’” under the AUMF so long as the
United States is “involved in active combat in Afghanistan.” 542 U.S. at 521. 3
The D.C. Circuit has likewise recognized in Guantanamo cases that prisoners not charged
with a crime must be released when combat ceases. “Detention under the AUMF may last for
the duration of hostilities,” but “military detention—unlike a criminal or military commission
sentence—comes to an end with the end of hostilities.” Ali v. Obama, 736 F.3d 542, 544, 552
(D.C. Cir. 2013), cert. denied, 135 S. Ct. 118 (2014). The Court noted that the “purpose of
military detention is to detain enemy combatants for the duration of hostilities so as to keep them
off the battlefield,” and that “military detention ends with the end of the war.” Id. at 545
(emphasis added). See also Awad v. Obama, 608 F.3d 1, 11 (D.C. Cir. 2010) (the authority to
detain an enemy combatant is dependent “upon the continuation of hostilities”); Hamdan v.
United States, 696 F.3d 1238, 1240 (D.C. Cir. 2012), overruled on other grounds by Al Bahlul v.
United States, 767 F.3d 1 (D.C. Cir. 2014) (“In war, when the United States captures or takes
custody of alien enemy combatants or their substantial supporters, it may detain them for the
duration of hostilities.”); Abdullah v. Obama, 753 F.3d 193, 199 (D.C. Cir. 2014) (“the AUMF
permits the President to detain enemy combatants ‘for the duration of the particular conflict in
which they were captured,’” quoting Hamdi, 542 U.S. at 518).
The D.C. Circuit has also stated that the “determination of when hostilities have ceased is
a political decision, and we defer to the Executive’s opinion on the matter, at least in the absence
of an authoritative congressional declaration purporting to terminate the war.” Al-Bihani v.
3

Army Regulation 190-8, § 3-13, similarly provides that prisoners “will be repatriated or
released at the cessation of hostilities as directed by OSD [Office of Secretary of Defense].”
This regulation is enforceable in habeas proceedings by Guantanamo detainees. Al Warafi v.
Obama, 716 F.3d at 629.

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Obama, 590 F.3d 866, 874 (D.C. Cir. 2010). “Whether an armed conflict has ended is a question
left exclusively to the political branches.” Al Maqaleh v. Hagel, 738 F.3d 312, 330 (D.C. Cir.
2013), cert. dismissed sub nom. Al-Maqaleh v. Hagel, 135 S. Ct. 782 (2014). Under these
precedents, a conflict is over when the President says it is over. 4
The Government has defended the legality of Al Warafi’s detention solely on the
allegation that he was “part of the Taliban” when he was in Afghanistan in 2001. Al Warafi, 704
F. Supp. 2d at 37 n.1. President Obama has stated, in unqualified terms, that the United States
war and its combat mission in Afghanistan have ended. Under D.C. Circuit precedent, this
declaration is a conclusive, unreviewable determination of the end of combat for purposes of
detaining prisoners captured in the war in Afghanistan against the Taliban. There is, therefore,
no legal basis for the continuing detention of Al Warafi.

4

A different question would be presented if a habeas petitioner claimed that the relevant conflict
had ended but the President disagreed. In such a case, petitioner submits that the President’s
position would not be conclusive or unreviewable in a habeas action.

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CONCLUSION
For the reasons stated above, the Court should grant Al Warafi’s petition for a writ of
habeas corpus.
Respectfully submitted,
/s/ Brian E. Foster
S. William Livingston
D.C. Bar No. 59055
Brian E. Foster
D.C. Bar. No. 988311
Emily Keatley
D.C. Bar No. 1004811
Covington & Burling LLP
One CityCenter
850 Tenth Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20001-4956
(202) 662-6000 (phone)
(202) 662-6291 (fax)
wlivingston@cov.com
bfoster@cov.com
ekeatley@cov.com
David H. Remes
D.C. Bar. No. 370372
APPEAL FOR JUSTICE
1106 Noyes Drive
Silver Spring, MD 20910
(202) 669-6508 (phone)
remesdh@gmail.com

February 26, 2015

Counsel for Petitioner
Mukhtar Yahia Naji Al Warafi

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Exhibit A

Remarks by the President to Military and Civilian Personnel at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst   The White House

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Home • Briefing Room • Speeches & Remarks

The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release

December 15, 2014

Remarks by the President to Military and Civilian
Personnel at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst
Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst
New Jersey
2:49 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Hello, McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst! (Applause.) Thank you, General Martin, for the introduction and
for your great leadership of the Air Force Expeditionary Center. I want to thank all the outstanding leaders for
coming to welcome me here today, including General Maggie Boor and Colonel James Hodges. I want to thank the
folks who are the backbone of our military -- give a big round of applause for your incredible senior NCOs.
(Applause.)
This is one of our nation’s premier joint military bases. Everybody is here. We’ve got Army. (Hoo-ah!) We've got
Navy. (Oo-rah!) We've got Air Force. (Hoo-ah!) We've got Marines. (Oo-rah!) And we've got some Coast Guard.
(Oo-rah!) (Laughter.) Who’s that one Coast Guard -- there you go, that was loud, right there. (Laughter.)
All of you come together as one great American team. And I know that we also have some spouses and families
here today. Your wives, your husbands, your partners, your sons, your daughters -- they serve, as well. They make
their own sacrifices -- especially when you’re deployed. So our military families are the heroes on the home front.
Give it up for our remarkable military families. (Applause.)
We've got some outstanding elected officials who support the mission of this facility each and every day. I want to
thank Governor Christie for joining us here today. (Applause.) We've got some outstanding members of Congress
who are here -- Bob Menendez, Cory Booker, Congressmen Jon Runyan, Congressman Donald Norcross, and
incoming Congressman Tom MacArthur. (Applause.) And they were already lobbying me about the base on the
way in, so they’re doing a good job. (Laughter.)
It is great to be back. I was here last year and visited with some of you on my way to the Jersey Shore. Christie
and I went down to Asbury Park, spent some time on the boardwalk. We played a little Frog Bog. Chris’s kids
taught me how to hit the hammer to get those little frogs into the buckets. It was hard. And then Christie beat me at
football toss, which really aggravated me. (Laughter.) And he bragged about it afterwards, which is okay, but I will
get a rematch at some point.
But we weren’t there just to have fun. We came because, after Hurricane Sandy, people across this state -including those of you here at this base -- you had to pick yourselves up, pull together, rebuild, show that here in
New Jersey, here in America, we are stronger than any storm. Like a friend of mine from New Jersey likes to say,
“Wherever this flag is flown, we take care of our own.” That's what we do here in New Jersey. That's what we do
all across America.
And this facility exemplifies that spirit. For nearly a century, our flag has flown right here. Millions of Americans
passed through the old Fort Dix. This was where they shipped out. This was where they were welcomed home.
One of them was Don Drysdale, Hall of Fame Dodgers pitcher. And he had the same thought as a lot of new
recruits at basic training: “What the hell am I doing here?” (Laughter.) Another recruit remembered, “I cleaned a lot

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of latrines with toothbrushes.”
Among those who were demobilized here was a soldier from Tennessee, serial number 53310761, a guy named
Sergeant Elvis Presley. He was all shook up. (Laughter.) His homecoming was a little different, though. Apparently
the King drove off in a limo. (Laughter.) Now, if it were up to me, I’d give all you all limos when you come home.
Because part of the message I’m here to deliver on behalf of the American people is very simple: It’s just to say
thank you. Thank you for your extraordinary service. I thank you as your President because you inspire me. And of
all the privileges I have in serving in this office, nothing comes close to the honor of serving as your Commander-in
Chief.
And I also thank you on behalf of more than 300 million Americans. We Americans may disagree and debate and
argue sometimes -- that is part of our democracy. It is messy sometimes. Sometimes it results in some gridlock in
Washington. But whether liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican, white, black, brown, rich, poor -- no
matter how we pray, no matter who we love, when it comes to our troops, when it comes to you and your families,
as Americans we stand united. We are proud of you. We support you. And we can never thank you enough.
(Applause.)
And that’s especially true now, during the holidays. We can gather with family and friends because you’re willing to
hug yours goodbye and step forward to serve. After a long day, we can come home because you’re willing to leave
your home and deploy. We get to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries and holidays, go to soccer games and go
to dance recitals because you’re willing to miss those in your family. We’re free and safe and secure over here
because you’re willing to serve over there.
That’s the noble spirit of your sacrifice. That’s the selfless character of our military. Those are the precious gifts
that you give America -- not just this time of year, but all year, every year. You never stop serving. You never stop
giving. You guys are like Santa in fatigues. (Laughter.) Although, I’ll bet one of those C-130s is a little more
efficient than Santa’s sleigh. (Applause.) I figured I’d get something out of our guys on that. (Laughter.)
I also wanted to be here, though, because after more than a decade of war, our nation is marking an important
milestone. Ever since our country was attacked that awful September morning, 9/11, our nation has been at war in
Afghanistan. Many people here have deployed there, or to Iraq, and you’ve deployed multiple times in some cases.
There are people here who’ve lost really good friends, patriots who made the ultimate sacrifice, including 54 fallen
heroes from this base, who we will honor forever.
For more than a year, Afghan forces have been in the lead to secure their country, and that means more of our
troops have been coming home, including right here to this joint base. So let me just say to all of you who’ve
returned from Afghanistan in recent weeks, on behalf of a grateful nation, I want to say welcome home. You’re
home for the holidays. And we’re glad to have you back.
Now, this month, in just two weeks, the transition that we’re making in Afghanistan will be complete. Afghans will
take full responsibility for their security. This month, after more than 13 years, our combat mission in Afghanistan
will be over. This month, America’s war in Afghanistan will come to a responsible end.
Now, that doesn't mean everything is great in Afghanistan. Afghanistan is still a very dangerous place. But I want
you, and every American who has served in Afghanistan, to be proud of what you’ve accomplished there. Because
your generation -- the 9/11 Generation -- has met every mission that's been given to you. You helped decimate the
core al Qaeda leadership and deliver justice to Osama bin Laden. He will not be attacking here anymore. You
helped to prevent terrorist attacks against this country. You helped push back the Taliban. You helped train Afghan
forces to take the lead. You helped make possible a historic election this year and the first democratic transfer of
power in Afghanistan’s history. Despite all their challenges, Afghans are now looking to the future. And that's all
because of you. That's makes us safer, and it gives them a chance for a better future.
Even as our combat mission ends, our commitment to Afghanistan endures. We’ll continue to have a limited
military presence there because we’ve got to keep training and equipping Afghan forces, and we’ve got to conduct
counterterrorism missions because there are still remnants of al Qaeda there. After all the sacrifices you've made,
we want to preserve the gains that you've made. We want a stable and secure Afghanistan. And we want to make
sure that country is never again used to launch attacks against the United States of America.
Now, this year is also a reminder that even as our combat mission ends in Afghanistan, there are still challenges to
our security around the globe. In times of crisis, people around the world look to one nation to lead, and that is the
United States of America. Even our critics, when they get into trouble they're calling us. And when the world calls
on America, we call on you -- our men and women in uniform -- because nobody can do what you do.
One news article said it best: When our forces train here, folks who live nearby might “feel the ground shake”

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because no other military in the world is as good as you, as ready as you, as capable as you, able to go as far,
able to go as fast as you do and perform your basic missions. Nobody. Nobody in history has been able to do what
you've done.
Which means we’re leading the global coalition against the brutal terrorist group ISIL in Iraq and Syria. And you are
doing your part, supporting the aerial refueling that keeps our aircraft in the skies and the airlift that moves our
people and equipment into place. Some folks from this base are there right now doing incredible work. And to
them, and to all our troops far from home and their families for the holidays, you are in our thoughts, our prayers,
and we can’t wait till you come home, too.
Just look at the difference that you and the rest of our military have made -- rescuing thousands of innocent Iraqi
men, women and children that were trapped up on a mountain in danger of slaughter. You saved them. Air
dropping food and water and medicine, saving countless lives. America led the way. That’s what we do.
Along with our coalition partners, we are hammering these terrorists, taking out their fighters, their commanders,
hundreds of vehicles and tanks, nearly 200 oil and gas facilities, the infrastructure that funds their terror. More
than a thousand fighting positions, checkpoints, buildings, barracks -- we’re taking them out. That's because of the
work that you do. We’re cutting their command and control and supply lines, and making it harder for them to
maneuver.
In Iraq, local forces have held the line in some places and pushed back ISIL in other places. In Syria, our airstrikes
are inflicting heavy losses on ISIL fighters and leaders. Because of you, we have blunted their momentum and we
have put them on the defensive. And these terrorists are learning the same thing that the leaders of al Qaeda have
learned the hard way: They may think that they can chalk up some quick victories, but our reach is long. We do not
give up. You threaten America, you will have no safe haven. We will find you. And like petty tyrants and terrorists
before you, the world is going to leave you behind and keep moving on without you, because we will get you.
That's thanks to you.
Now, this campaign in Iraq will take time. But make no mistake, our coalition isn’t just going to degrade this
barbaric terrorist organization, we’re going to destroy it. And because this isn’t just a military effort, we’re going to
keep working with those in the Middle East who believe in tolerance and opportunity and peace, because that's
what the region needs. These terrorists only know how to destroy. And we know how to do something bigger -how to build the security and peace and justice that we can build with others. But none of that would be possible
without you. That’s American leadership. That's the difference you make.
In the same way that we’re leading the fight against ISIL, we’re leading the global fight against Ebola in West
Africa. And you've been doing your part -- deploying to Liberia and Senegal, improving airfields, setting up the
logistics and command-and-control, building the infrastructure, manning that air bridge, airlifting food and
equipment and personnel. You have been out front.
And if you doubt the impact that you’re having, take a look at what’s going on there. With your help, we’ve built
new treatment centers. We're training more health care workers. We're delivering medicine and supplies. Other
countries are now willing to come in because you laid the foundation. And this is still a terrible epidemic, and the
world has to keep on stepping up, but in Liberia, where we focused our efforts, cases are starting to decline.
Ultimately, we will have saved thousands of lives because of you.
As one of our American commanders said, “Everywhere I go, Liberians are waving; hope is what we’re providing.”
Or as one West African put it, “We’ve always loved America and for them to come in and help at a time like this
reinforces that.” That’s the difference you’re making. There are people who are alive today because of what you
guys do. That’s American leadership.
So, stepping back for a moment, we’re at a turning point. When I took office, we had nearly 180,000 troops in Iraq
and Afghanistan. By the end of this month, we’ll have fewer than 15,000 in those two countries. We’ve now
brought home about 90 percent of our troops -- 90 percent. The time of deploying large ground forces with big
military footprints to engage in nation-building overseas, that's coming to an end.
And going forward, our military will be leaner. But as your Commander-in-Chief, I’m going to make sure we keep
you ready for the range of missions that we ask of you. We are going to keep you the best-trained, the best-led,
the best-equipped military in the history of the world because the world will still be calling.
And that’s why it was so important that folks in Congress -- Democrats and Republicans -- came together and
passed legislation that I’m going to sign to keep our government open and funded for the coming year. And that
includes military operations -- the support and commissaries that your families depend on, a pay raise for you,
health care for our wounded warriors and our veterans. (Applause.) You’ve always been there for us; we’ve got to
be there for you.

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And let me make one other point. At this time of transition, I know some of you will be returning to civilian life. I
was talking about this with the two generals that I rode over with. We want to make sure you can enjoy the
American Dream that you helped to defend. So we’ll keep helping you with the transition assistance and the
credentialing and the licensing to help find civilian jobs worthy of your incredible talents.
We’re going to keep funding the Post-9/11 GI Bill, and keep working with colleges and universities to help you and
your families realize your dream of a higher education. And as many of you know, Michelle -- the First Lady -- Vice
President’s wife, Jill Biden; everybody at Joining Forces, we’re all going to be saying to every company in America:
If you want somebody who’s going to get the job done, hire a military spouse. Hire a veteran. That’s the difference
you can make here at home. Because that’s also American leadership -- the jobs and the opportunity, and the
country that we can build together as one American team. (Applause.) You understand that. You’ve trained for it.
And when you get in the job, that’s what you deliver every single time.
So I want to leave you with a story of somebody who has a special understanding of the American spirit. I just met
them before I came out here, but before I came out, Yeoman Carrie Chavez and Staff Sergeant Ashley
Montgomery, they did the Pledge of Allegiance and sang our National Anthem -- and I had a chance to take a
picture with them out back. And I asked them where they’re from, and they’re from Jersey, of course. (Laughter.)
And, in fact, Ashley said that her dad had served at this facility 30 years earlier. So I asked her, had she ever left
the base -- (laughter) -- and she said, yes, she had been deployed at four other bases. But that’s one example of
American service -- a generation passing the baton to the next generation; entire families who have served our
country nobly, dating back in some cases over a century.
But then there’s another part of the American story. There’s another young man I met. His name is Nelson Rieu -and Nelson is here today. Wave, Nelson. There’s Nelson. (Applause.) Now, the reason I want to tell Nelson’s story
is because, unlike Ashley, Nelson wasn’t born here on base, he wasn’t born in Jersey. He was born in the
Republic of Congo. And when his country slipped into civil war, he and his mother became refugees. And that was
a terrible civil war -- over a million people died in that civil war. That was a hard life. When he was 20 years old, he
and his mom got some incredible news -- “the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” he says. He had the chance
to come to America.
So they land in Los Angeles, and Nelson said it was like being in a movie -- all these glistening buildings and
freeways. And they settled in Arizona. And Nelson barely spoke a word of English. So he took high school classes
-- English, American history; he earned his high school diploma. And then he signed up to serve a country that
wasn’t even yet fully his own. He raised his hand, took the oath, joined the United States Air Force. And then, this
past Fourth of July, he put on his uniform, he raised his hand again, and he took another oath to become a citizen
of the United States. “The Fourth of July,” he says, “is my new American birthday.”
And today, Airman First Class Nelson Rieu is an engineering apprentice here on base, helping to keep his fellow
airmen safe. And at 24 years old, he dreams of someday joining the Special Forces. And he says, “Freedom is the
reason why I am in this country and [why I] wanted to be part of those who sustain that freedom. It's a great feeling
to know you're the backbone of the greatest nation on Earth.”
So you think about that. You’ve got folks whose dads were born on -- or who were born on base and who served
going back generations. But then you’ve got new Americans with that same patriotism, that same sense of what
we’re about as Americans, that same creed that we can all pledge allegiance to, regardless of what we look like or
where we come from. We’re fighting on the same team for the same values and the same ideals.
So thank you for your patriotism, Nelson. (Applause.)
And that’s one of the things that makes America exceptional, and what makes our military the absolute best in the
world. It’s not just your training, or your equipment, or your technology -- although all that’s important. What makes
us special, what makes us the best is all of you. It’s your character and your willingness to say, “Send me.” Your
dedication to duty, and your courage, and your readiness to defend our values and our ideals of freedom and
liberty -- not just for us, but for people all around the world.
You are the backbone of the greatest nation on Earth -- and you always will be that. And for that, America is
eternally grateful, and I am incredibly proud to serve as your Commander-in-Chief.
So, happy holidays, everybody. (Applause.) God bless you. God bless your families. God bless our Armed Forces.
God bless the United States of America. Thank you. (Applause.)
END
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Home • Briefing Room • Speeches & Remarks

The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release

January 20, 2015

Remarks by the President in State of the Union Address  
January 20, 2015
U.S. Capitol
Washington, D.C.
9:10 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, my fellow Americans:
We are 15 years into this new century. Fifteen years that dawned with terror touching our shores; that unfolded with
a new generation fighting two long and costly wars; that saw a vicious recession spread across our nation and the
world. It has been, and still is, a hard time for many.
But tonight, we turn the page. Tonight, after a breakthrough year for America, our economy is growing and creating
jobs at the fastest pace since 1999. (Applause.) Our unemployment rate is now lower than it was before the
financial crisis. More of our kids are graduating than ever before. More of our people are insured than ever before.
(Applause.) And we are as free from the grip of foreign oil as we’ve been in almost 30 years. (Applause.)
Tonight, for the first time since 9/11, our combat mission in Afghanistan is over. (Applause.) Six years ago, nearly
180,000 American troops served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Today, fewer than 15,000 remain. And we salute the
courage and sacrifice of every man and woman in this 9/11 Generation who has served to keep us safe.
(Applause.) We are humbled and grateful for your service.
America, for all that we have endured; for all the grit and hard work required to come back; for all the tasks that lie
ahead, know this: The shadow of crisis has passed, and the State of the Union is strong. (Applause.)
At this moment -- with a growing economy, shrinking deficits, bustling industry, booming energy production -- we
have risen from recession freer to write our own future than any other nation on Earth. It’s now up to us to choose
who we want to be over the next 15 years and for decades to come.
Will we accept an economy where only a few of us do spectacularly well? Or will we commit ourselves to an
economy that generates rising incomes and chances for everyone who makes the effort? (Applause.)
Will we approach the world fearful and reactive, dragged into costly conflicts that strain our military and set back our
standing? Or will we lead wisely, using all elements of our power to defeat new threats and protect our planet?
Will we allow ourselves to be sorted into factions and turned against one another? Or will we recapture the sense
of common purpose that has always propelled America forward?
In two weeks, I will send this Congress a budget filled with ideas that are practical, not partisan. And in the months
ahead, I’ll crisscross the country making a case for those ideas. So tonight, I want to focus less on a checklist of
proposals, and focus more on the values at stake in the choices before us.
It begins with our economy. Seven years ago, Rebekah and Ben Erler of Minneapolis were newlyweds.
(Laughter.) She waited tables. He worked construction. Their first child, Jack, was on the way. They were young
and in love in America. And it doesn’t get much better than that. “If only we had known,” Rebekah wrote to me last
spring, “what was about to happen to the housing and construction market.”
As the crisis worsened, Ben’s business dried up, so he took what jobs he could find, even if they kept him on the
road for long stretches of time. Rebekah took out student loans and enrolled in community college, and retrained
for a new career. They sacrificed for each other. And slowly, it paid off. They bought their first home. They had a
second son, Henry. Rebekah got a better job and then a raise. Ben is back in construction -- and home for dinner
every night.
“It is amazing,” Rebekah wrote, “what you can bounce back from when you have to…we are a strong, tight-knit
family who has made it through some very, very hard times.” We are a strong, tight-knit family who has made it

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through some very, very hard times.
America, Rebekah and Ben’s story is our story. They represent the millions who have worked hard and scrimped,
and sacrificed and retooled. You are the reason that I ran for this office. You are the people I was thinking of six
years ago today, in the darkest months of the crisis, when I stood on the steps of this Capitol and promised we
would rebuild our economy on a new foundation. And it has been your resilience, your effort that has made it
possible for our country to emerge stronger.
We believed we could reverse the tide of outsourcing and draw new jobs to our shores. And over the past five
years, our businesses have created more than 11 million new jobs. (Applause.)
We believed we could reduce our dependence on foreign oil and protect our planet. And today, America is number
one in oil and gas. America is number one in wind power. Every three weeks, we bring online as much solar power
as we did in all of 2008. (Applause.) And thanks to lower gas prices and higher fuel standards, the typical family
this year should save about $750 at the pump. (Applause.)
We believed we could prepare our kids for a more competitive world. And today, our younger students have earned
the highest math and reading scores on record. Our high school graduation rate has hit an all-time high. More
Americans finish college than ever before. (Applause.)
We believed that sensible regulations could prevent another crisis, shield families from ruin, and encourage fair
competition. Today, we have new tools to stop taxpayer-funded bailouts, and a new consumer watchdog to protect
us from predatory lending and abusive credit card practices. And in the past year alone, about 10 million uninsured
Americans finally gained the security of health coverage. (Applause.)
At every step, we were told our goals were misguided or too ambitious; that we would crush jobs and explode
deficits. Instead, we’ve seen the fastest economic growth in over a decade, our deficits cut by two-thirds, a stock
market that has doubled, and health care inflation at its lowest rate in 50 years. (Applause.) This is good news,
people. (Laughter and applause.)
So the verdict is clear. Middle-class economics works. Expanding opportunity works. And these policies will
continue to work as long as politics don’t get in the way. We can’t slow down businesses or put our economy at risk
with government shutdowns or fiscal showdowns. We can’t put the security of families at risk by taking away their
health insurance, or unraveling the new rules on Wall Street, or refighting past battles on immigration when we’ve
got to fix a broken system. And if a bill comes to my desk that tries to do any of these things, I will veto it. It will
have earned my veto. (Applause.)
Today, thanks to a growing economy, the recovery is touching more and more lives. Wages are finally starting to
rise again. We know that more small business owners plan to raise their employees’ pay than at any time since
2007. But here’s the thing: Those of us here tonight, we need to set our sights higher than just making sure
government doesn’t screw things up; that government doesn’t halt the progress we’re making. We need to do more
than just do no harm. Tonight, together, let’s do more to restore the link between hard work and growing
opportunity for every American. (Applause.)
Because families like Rebekah’s still need our help. She and Ben are working as hard as ever, but they’ve had to
forego vacations and a new car so that they can pay off student loans and save for retirement. Friday night pizza,
that’s a big splurge. Basic childcare for Jack and Henry costs more than their mortgage, and almost as much as a
year at the University of Minnesota. Like millions of hardworking Americans, Rebekah isn’t asking for a handout,
but she is asking that we look for more ways to help families get ahead.
And in fact, at every moment of economic change throughout our history, this country has taken bold action to
adapt to new circumstances and to make sure everyone gets a fair shot. We set up worker protections, Social
Security, Medicare, Medicaid to protect ourselves from the harshest adversity. We gave our citizens schools and
colleges, infrastructure and the Internet -- tools they needed to go as far as their effort and their dreams will take
them.
That’s what middle-class economics is -- the idea that this country does best when everyone gets their fair shot,
everyone does their fair share, everyone plays by the same set of rules. (Applause.) We don’t just want everyone
to share in America’s success, we want everyone to contribute to our success. (Applause.)
So what does middle-class economics require in our time?
First, middle-class economics means helping working families feel more secure in a world of constant change. That
means helping folks afford childcare, college, health care, a home, retirement. And my budget will address each of
these issues, lowering the taxes of working families and putting thousands of dollars back into their pockets each
year. (Applause.)
Here’s one example. During World War II, when men like my grandfather went off to war, having women like my
grandmother in the workforce was a national security priority -- so this country provided universal childcare. In
today’s economy, when having both parents in the workforce is an economic necessity for many families, we need
affordable, high-quality childcare more than ever. (Applause.)
It’s not a nice-to-have -- it’s a must-have. So it’s time we stop treating childcare as a side issue, or as a women’s
issue, and treat it like the national economic priority that it is for all of us. (Applause.) And that’s why my plan will

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make quality childcare more available and more affordable for every middle-class and low-income family with young
children in America -- by creating more slots and a new tax cut of up to $3,000 per child, per year. (Applause.)
Here’s another example. Today, we are the only advanced country on Earth that doesn’t guarantee paid sick leave
or paid maternity leave to our workers. Forty-three million workers have no paid sick leave -- 43 million. Think
about that. And that forces too many parents to make the gut-wrenching choice between a paycheck and a sick kid
at home. So I’ll be taking new action to help states adopt paid leave laws of their own. And since paid sick leave
won where it was on the ballot last November, let’s put it to a vote right here in Washington. (Applause.) Send me
a bill that gives every worker in America the opportunity to earn seven days of paid sick leave. It’s the right thing to
do. It’s the right thing to do. (Applause.)
Of course, nothing helps families make ends meet like higher wages. That’s why this Congress still needs to pass a
law that makes sure a woman is paid the same as a man for doing the same work. (Applause.) It’s 2015.
(Laughter.) It’s time. We still need to make sure employees get the overtime they’ve earned. (Applause.) And to
everyone in this Congress who still refuses to raise the minimum wage, I say this: If you truly believe you could
work full-time and support a family on less than $15,000 a year, try it. If not, vote to give millions of the hardestworking people in America a raise. (Applause.)
Now, these ideas won’t make everybody rich, won’t relieve every hardship. That’s not the job of government. To
give working families a fair shot, we still need more employers to see beyond next quarter’s earnings and recognize
that investing in their workforce is in their company’s long-term interest. We still need laws that strengthen rather
than weaken unions, and give American workers a voice. (Applause.)
But you know, things like childcare and sick leave and equal pay; things like lower mortgage premiums and a higher
minimum wage -- these ideas will make a meaningful difference in the lives of millions of families. That’s a fact.
And that’s what all of us, Republicans and Democrats alike, were sent here to do.
Second, to make sure folks keep earning higher wages down the road, we have to do more to help Americans
upgrade their skills. (Applause.) America thrived in the 20th century because we made high school free, sent a
generation of GIs to college, trained the best workforce in the world. We were ahead of the curve. But other
countries caught on. And in a 21st century economy that rewards knowledge like never before, we need to up our
game. We need to do more.
By the end of this decade, two in three job openings will require some higher education -- two in three. And yet, we
still live in a country where too many bright, striving Americans are priced out of the education they need. It’s not
fair to them, and it’s sure not smart for our future. That’s why I’m sending this Congress a bold new plan to lower
the cost of community college -- to zero. (Applause.)
Keep in mind 40 percent of our college students choose community college. Some are young and starting out.
Some are older and looking for a better job. Some are veterans and single parents trying to transition back into the
job market. Whoever you are, this plan is your chance to graduate ready for the new economy without a load of
debt. Understand, you’ve got to earn it. You’ve got to keep your grades up and graduate on time.
Tennessee, a state with Republican leadership, and Chicago, a city with Democratic leadership, are showing that
free community college is possible. I want to spread that idea all across America, so that two years of college
becomes as free and universal in America as high school is today. (Applause.) Let’s stay ahead of the curve.
(Applause.) And I want to work with this Congress to make sure those already burdened with student loans can
reduce their monthly payments so that student debt doesn’t derail anyone’s dreams. (Applause.)
Thanks to Vice President Biden’s great work to update our job training system, we’re connecting community
colleges with local employers to train workers to fill high-paying jobs like coding, and nursing, and robotics. Tonight,
I’m also asking more businesses to follow the lead of companies like CVS and UPS, and offer more educational
benefits and paid apprenticeships -- opportunities that give workers the chance to earn higher-paying jobs even if
they don’t have a higher education.
And as a new generation of veterans comes home, we owe them every opportunity to live the American Dream they
helped defend. Already, we’ve made strides towards ensuring that every veteran has access to the highest quality
care. We’re slashing the backlog that had too many veterans waiting years to get the benefits they need. And
we’re making it easier for vets to translate their training and experience into civilian jobs. And Joining Forces, the
national campaign launched by Michelle and Jill Biden -- (applause) -- thank you, Michelle; thank you, Jill -- has
helped nearly 700,000 veterans and military spouses get a new job. (Applause.) So to every CEO in America, let
me repeat: If you want somebody who’s going to get the job done and done right, hire a veteran. (Applause.)
Finally, as we better train our workers, we need the new economy to keep churning out high-wage jobs for our
workers to fill. Since 2010, America has put more people back to work than Europe, Japan, and all advanced
economies combined. (Applause.)
Our manufacturers have added almost 800,000 new jobs. Some of our bedrock sectors, like our auto industry, are
booming. But there are also millions of Americans who work in jobs that didn’t even exist 10 or 20 years ago -- jobs
at companies like Google, and eBay, and Tesla.
So no one knows for certain which industries will generate the jobs of the future. But we do know we want them
here in America. We know that. (Applause.) And that’s why the third part of middle-class economics is all about
building the most competitive economy anywhere, the place where businesses want to locate and hire.

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Twenty-first century businesses need 21st century infrastructure -- modern ports, and stronger bridges, faster trains
and the fastest Internet. Democrats and Republicans used to agree on this. So let’s set our sights higher than a
single oil pipeline. Let’s pass a bipartisan infrastructure plan that could create more than 30 times as many jobs per
year, and make this country stronger for decades to come. (Applause.) Let’s do it. Let’s get it done. Let’s get it
done. (Applause.)
Twenty-first century businesses, including small businesses, need to sell more American products overseas.
Today, our businesses export more than ever, and exporters tend to pay their workers higher wages. But as we
speak, China wants to write the rules for the world’s fastest-growing region. That would put our workers and our
businesses at a disadvantage. Why would we let that happen? We should write those rules. We should level the
playing field. That’s why I’m asking both parties to give me trade promotion authority to protect American workers,
with strong new trade deals from Asia to Europe that aren’t just free, but are also fair. It’s the right thing to do.
(Applause.)
Look, I’m the first one to admit that past trade deals haven’t always lived up to the hype, and that’s why we’ve gone
after countries that break the rules at our expense. But 95 percent of the world’s customers live outside our
borders. We can’t close ourselves off from those opportunities. More than half of manufacturing executives have
said they’re actively looking to bring jobs back from China. So let’s give them one more reason to get it done.
Twenty-first century businesses will rely on American science and technology, research and development. I want
the country that eliminated polio and mapped the human genome to lead a new era of medicine -- one that delivers
the right treatment at the right time. (Applause.)
In some patients with cystic fibrosis, this approach has reversed a disease once thought unstoppable. So tonight,
I’m launching a new Precision Medicine Initiative to bring us closer to curing diseases like cancer and diabetes, and
to give all of us access to the personalized information we need to keep ourselves and our families healthier. We
can do this. (Applause.)
I intend to protect a free and open Internet, extend its reach to every classroom, and every community -- (applause)
-- 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.
I want Americans to win the race for the kinds of discoveries that unleash new jobs -- converting sunlight into liquid
fuel; creating revolutionary prosthetics, so that a veteran who gave his arms for his country can play catch with his
kids again. (Applause.) Pushing out into the solar system not just to visit, but to stay. Last month, we launched a
new spacecraft as part of a reenergized space program that will send American astronauts to Mars. And in two
months, to prepare us for those missions, Scott Kelly will begin a year-long stay in space. So good luck, Captain.
Make sure to Instagram it. We’re proud of you. (Applause.)
Now, the truth is, when it comes to issues like infrastructure and basic research, I know there’s bipartisan support in
this chamber. Members of both parties have told me so. Where we too often run onto the rocks is how to pay for
these investments. As Americans, we don’t mind paying our fair share of taxes as long as everybody else does,
too. But for far too long, lobbyists have rigged the tax code with loopholes that let some corporations pay nothing
while others pay full freight. They’ve riddled it with giveaways that the super-rich don’t need, while denying a break
to middle-class families who do.
This year, we have an opportunity to change that. Let’s close loopholes so we stop rewarding companies that keep
profits abroad, and reward those that invest here in America. (Applause.) Let’s use those savings to rebuild our
infrastructure and to make it more attractive for companies to bring jobs home. Let’s simplify the system and let a
small business owner file based on her actual bank statement, instead of the number of accountants she can
afford. (Applause.) And let’s close the loopholes that lead to inequality by allowing the top one percent to avoid
paying taxes on their accumulated wealth. We can use that money to help more families pay for childcare and send
their kids to college. We need a tax code that truly helps working Americans trying to get a leg up in the new
economy, and we can achieve that together. (Applause.) We can achieve it together.
Helping hardworking families make ends meet. Giving them the tools they need for good-paying jobs in this new
economy. Maintaining the conditions of growth and competitiveness. This is where America needs to go. I believe
it’s where the American people want to go. It will make our economy stronger a year from now, 15 years from now,
and deep into the century ahead.
Of course, if there’s one thing this new century has taught us, it’s that we cannot separate our work here at home
from challenges beyond our shores.
My first duty as Commander-in-Chief is to defend the United States of America. In doing so, the question is not
whether America leads in the world, but how. When we make rash decisions, reacting to the headlines instead of
using our heads; when the first response to a challenge is to send in our military -- then we risk getting drawn into
unnecessary conflicts, and neglect the broader strategy we need for a safer, more prosperous world. That’s what
our enemies want us to do.
I believe in a smarter kind of American leadership. We lead best when we combine military power with strong
diplomacy; when we leverage our power with coalition building; when we don’t let our fears blind us to the
opportunities that this new century presents. That’s exactly what we’re doing right now. And around the globe, it is
making a difference.

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First, we stand united with people around the world who have been targeted by terrorists -- from a school in
Pakistan to the streets of Paris. (Applause.) We will continue to hunt down terrorists and dismantle their networks,
and we reserve the right to act unilaterally, as we have done relentlessly since I took office to take out terrorists who
pose a direct threat to us and our allies. (Applause.)
At the same time, we’ve learned some costly lessons over the last 13 years. Instead of Americans patrolling the
valleys of Afghanistan, we’ve trained their security forces, who have now taken the lead, and we’ve honored our
troops’ sacrifice by supporting that country’s first democratic transition. Instead of sending large ground forces
overseas, we’re partnering with nations from South Asia to North Africa to deny safe haven to terrorists who
threaten America.
In Iraq and Syria, American leadership -- including our military power -- is stopping ISIL’s advance. Instead of
getting dragged into another ground war in the Middle East, we are leading a broad coalition, including Arab
nations, to degrade and ultimately destroy this terrorist group. (Applause.) We’re also supporting a moderate
opposition in Syria that can help us in this effort, and assisting people everywhere who stand up to the bankrupt
ideology of violent extremism.
Now, this effort will take time. It will require focus. But we will succeed. And tonight, I call on this Congress to
show the world that we are united in this mission by passing a resolution to authorize the use of force against ISIL.
We need that authority. (Applause.)
Second, we’re demonstrating the power of American strength and diplomacy. We’re upholding the principle that
bigger nations can’t bully the small -- by opposing Russian aggression, and supporting Ukraine’s democracy, and
reassuring our NATO allies. (Applause.)
Last year, as we were doing the hard work of imposing sanctions along with our allies, as we were reinforcing our
presence with frontline states, Mr. Putin’s aggression it was suggested was a masterful display of strategy and
strength. That's what I heard from some folks. Well, today, it is America that stands strong and united with our
allies, while Russia is isolated with its economy in tatters. That’s how America leads -- not with bluster, but with
persistent, steady resolve. (Applause.)
In Cuba, we are ending a policy that was long past its expiration date. (Applause.) When what you’re doing doesn’t
work for 50 years, it’s time to try something new. (Applause.) And our shift in Cuba policy has the potential to end
a legacy of mistrust in our hemisphere. It removes a phony excuse for restrictions in Cuba. It stands up for
democratic values, and extends the hand of friendship to the Cuban people. And this year, Congress should begin
the work of ending the embargo. (Applause.)
As His Holiness, Pope Francis, has said, diplomacy is the work of “small steps.” These small steps have added up
to new hope for the future in Cuba. And after years in prison, we are overjoyed that Alan Gross is back where he
belongs. Welcome home, Alan. We're glad you're here. (Applause.)
Our diplomacy is at work with respect to Iran, where, for the first time in a decade, we’ve halted the progress of its
nuclear program and reduced its stockpile of nuclear material. Between now and this spring, we have a chance to
negotiate a comprehensive agreement that prevents a nuclear-armed Iran, secures America and our allies -including Israel, while avoiding yet another Middle East conflict. There are no guarantees that negotiations will
succeed, and I keep all options on the table to prevent a nuclear Iran.
But new sanctions passed by this Congress, at this moment in time, will all but guarantee that diplomacy fails -alienating America from its allies; making it harder to maintain sanctions; and ensuring that Iran starts up its nuclear
program again. It doesn’t make sense. And that's why I will veto any new sanctions bill that threatens to undo this
progress. (Applause.) The American people expect us only to go to war as a last resort, and I intend to stay true to
that wisdom.
Third, we’re looking beyond the issues that have consumed us in the past to shape the coming century. No foreign
nation, no hacker, should be able to shut down our networks, steal our trade secrets, or invade the privacy of
American families, especially our kids. (Applause.) So we're making sure our government integrates intelligence to
combat cyber threats, just as we have done to combat terrorism.
And tonight, I urge this Congress to finally pass the legislation we need to better meet the evolving threat of cyber
attacks, combat identity theft, and protect our children’s information. That should be a bipartisan effort. (Applause.)
If we don’t act, we’ll leave our nation and our economy vulnerable. If we do, we can continue to protect the
technologies that have unleashed untold opportunities for people around the globe.
In West Africa, our troops, our scientists, our doctors, our nurses, our health care workers are rolling back Ebola -saving countless lives and stopping the spread of disease. (Applause.) I could not be prouder of them, and I thank
this Congress for your bipartisan support of their efforts. But the job is not yet done, and the world needs to use this
lesson to build a more effective global effort to prevent the spread of future pandemics, invest in smart
development, and eradicate extreme poverty.
In the Asia Pacific, we are modernizing alliances while making sure that other nations play by the rules -- in how
they trade, how they resolve maritime disputes, how they participate in meeting common international challenges
like nonproliferation and disaster relief. And no challenge -- no challenge -- poses a greater threat to future

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generations than climate change. (Applause.)
2014 was the planet’s warmest year on record. Now, one year doesn’t make a trend, but this does: 14 of the 15
warmest years on record have all fallen in the first 15 years of this century.
I’ve heard some folks try to dodge the evidence by saying they’re not scientists; that we don’t have enough
information to act. Well, I’m not a scientist, either. But you know what, I know a lot of really good scientists at
NASA, and at NOAA, and at our major universities. And the best scientists in the world are all telling us that our
activities are changing the climate, and if we don’t act forcefully, we’ll continue to see rising oceans, longer, hotter
heat waves, dangerous droughts and floods, and massive disruptions that can trigger greater migration and conflict
and hunger around the globe. The Pentagon says that climate change poses immediate risks to our national
security. We should act like it. (Applause.)
And that’s why, over the past six years, we’ve done more than ever to combat climate change, from the way we
produce energy to the way we use it. That’s why we’ve set aside more public lands and waters than any
administration in history. And that’s why I will not let this Congress endanger the health of our children by turning
back the clock on our efforts. I am determined to make sure that American leadership drives international action.
(Applause.)
In Beijing, we made a historic announcement: The United States will double the pace at which we cut carbon
pollution. And China committed, for the first time, to limiting their emissions. And because the world’s two largest
economies came together, other nations are now stepping up, and offering hope that this year the world will finally
reach an agreement to protect the one planet we’ve got.
And there’s one last pillar of our leadership, and that’s the example of our values.
As Americans, we respect human dignity, even when we’re threatened, which is why I have prohibited torture, and
worked to make sure our use of new technology like drones is properly constrained. (Applause.) It’s why we speak
out against the deplorable anti-Semitism that has resurfaced in certain parts of the world. (Applause.) It’s why we
continue to reject offensive stereotypes of Muslims, the vast majority of whom share our commitment to peace.
That’s why we defend free speech, and advocate for political prisoners, and condemn the persecution of women, or
religious minorities, or people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. We do these things not only because
they are the right thing to do, but because ultimately they will make us safer. (Applause.)
As Americans, we have a profound commitment to justice. So it makes no sense to spend $3 million per prisoner to
keep open a prison that the world condemns and terrorists use to recruit. (Applause.) Since I’ve been President,
we’ve worked responsibly to cut the population of Gitmo in half. Now it is time to finish the job. And I will not relent
in my determination to shut it down. It is not who we are. It’s time to close Gitmo. (Applause.)
As Americans, we cherish our civil liberties, and we need to uphold that commitment if we want maximum
cooperation from other countries and industry in our fight against terrorist networks. So while some have moved on
from the debates over our surveillance programs, I have not. As promised, our intelligence agencies have worked
hard, with the recommendations of privacy advocates, to increase transparency and build more safeguards against
potential abuse. And next month, we’ll issue a report on how we’re keeping our promise to keep our country safe
while strengthening privacy.
Looking to the future instead of the past. Making sure we match our power with diplomacy, and use force wisely.
Building coalitions to meet new challenges and opportunities. Leading -- always -- with the example of our values.
That’s what makes us exceptional. That’s what keeps us strong. That’s why we have to keep striving to hold
ourselves to the highest of standards -- our own.
You know, just over a decade ago, I gave a speech in Boston where I said there wasn’t a liberal America or a
conservative America; a black America or a white America -- but a United States of America. I said this because I
had seen it in my own life, in a nation that gave someone like me a chance; because I grew up in Hawaii, a melting
pot of races and customs; because I made Illinois my home -- a state of small towns, rich farmland, one of the
world’s great cities; a microcosm of the country where Democrats and Republicans and Independents, good people
of every ethnicity and every faith, share certain bedrock values.
Over the past six years, the pundits have pointed out more than once that my presidency hasn’t delivered on this
vision. How ironic, they say, that our politics seems more divided than ever. It’s held up as proof not just of my own
flaws -- of which there are many -- but also as proof that the vision itself is misguided, naïve, that there are too
many people in this town who actually benefit from partisanship and gridlock for us to ever do anything about it.
I know how tempting such cynicism may be. But I still think the cynics are wrong. I still believe that we are one
people. I still believe that together, we can do great things, even when the odds are long. (Applause.)
I believe this because over and over in my six years in office, I have seen America at its best. I’ve seen the hopeful
faces of young graduates from New York to California, and our newest officers at West Point, Annapolis, Colorado
Springs, New London. I’ve mourned with grieving families in Tucson and Newtown, in Boston, in West Texas, and
West Virginia. I’ve watched Americans beat back adversity from the Gulf Coast to the Great Plains, from Midwest
assembly lines to the Mid-Atlantic seaboard. I’ve seen something like gay marriage go from a wedge issue used to
drive us apart to a story of freedom across our country, a civil right now legal in states that seven in 10 Americans
call home. (Applause.)
So I know the good, and optimistic, and big-hearted generosity of the American people who every day live the idea

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that we are our brother’s keeper and our sister’s keeper. And I know they expect those of us who serve here to set
a better example.
So the question for those of us here tonight is how we, all of us, can better reflect America’s hopes. I’ve served in
Congress with many of you. I know many of you well. There are a lot of good people here, on both sides of the
aisle. And many of you have told me that this isn’t what you signed up for -- arguing past each other on cable
shows, the constant fundraising, always looking over your shoulder at how the base will react to every decision.
Imagine if we broke out of these tired old patterns. Imagine if we did something different. Understand, a better
politics isn’t one where Democrats abandon their agenda or Republicans simply embrace mine. A better politics is
one where we appeal to each other’s basic decency instead of our basest fears. A better politics is one where we
debate without demonizing each other; where we talk issues and values, and principles and facts, rather than
“gotcha” moments, or trivial gaffes, or fake controversies that have nothing to do with people’s daily lives.
(Applause.)
A politics -- a better politics is one where we spend less time drowning in dark money for ads that pull us into the
gutter, and spend more time lifting young people up with a sense of purpose and possibility, asking them to join in
the great mission of building America.
If we’re going to have arguments, let’s have arguments, but let’s make them debates worthy of this body and worthy
of this country. We still may not agree on a woman’s right to choose, but surely we can agree it’s a good thing that
teen pregnancies and abortions are nearing all-time lows, and that every woman should have access to the health
care that she needs. (Applause.)
Yes, passions still fly on immigration, but surely we can all see something of ourselves in the striving young student,
and agree that no one benefits when a hardworking mom is snatched from her child, and that it’s possible to shape
a law that upholds our tradition as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. I’ve talked to Republicans and
Democrats about that. That’s something that we can share.
We may go at it in campaign season, but surely we can agree that the right to vote is sacred; that it’s being denied
to too many -- (applause) -- and that on this 50th anniversary of the great march from Selma to Montgomery and the
passage of the Voting Rights Act, we can come together, Democrats and Republicans, to make voting easier for
every single American. (Applause.)
We may have different takes on the events of Ferguson and New York. But surely we can understand a father who
fears his son can’t walk home without being harassed. And surely we can understand the wife who won’t rest until
the police officer she married walks through the front door at the end of his shift. (Applause.) And surely we can
agree that it’s a good thing that for the first time in 40 years, the crime rate and the incarceration rate have come
down together, and use that as a starting point for Democrats and Republicans, community leaders and law
enforcement, to reform America’s criminal justice system so that it protects and serves all of us. (Applause.)
That’s a better politics. That’s how we start rebuilding trust. That’s how we move this country forward. That’s what
the American people want. And that’s what they deserve.
I have no more campaigns to run. (Applause.) My only agenda -- (laughter) -- I know because I won both of them.
(Applause.) My only agenda for the next two years is the same as the one I’ve had since the day I swore an oath
on the steps of this Capitol -- to do what I believe is best for America. If you share the broad vision I outlined
tonight, I ask you to join me in the work at hand. If you disagree with parts of it, I hope you’ll at least work with me
where you do agree. And I commit to every Republican here tonight that I will not only seek out your ideas, I will
seek to work with you to make this country stronger. (Applause.)
Because I want this chamber, I want this city to reflect the truth -- that for all our blind spots and shortcomings, we
are a people with the strength and generosity of spirit to bridge divides, to unite in common effort, to help our
neighbors, whether down the street or on the other side of the world.
I want our actions to tell every child in every neighborhood, your life matters, and we are committed to improving
your life chances as committed as we are to working on behalf of our own kids. (Applause.) I want future
generations to know that we are a people who see our differences as a great gift, that we’re a people who value the
dignity and worth of every citizen -- man and woman, young and old, black and white, Latino, Asian, immigrant,
Native American, gay, straight, Americans with mental illness or physical disability. Everybody matters. I want
them to grow up in a country that shows the world what we still know to be true: that we are still more than a
collection of red states and blue states; that we are the United States of America. (Applause.)
I want them to grow up in a country where a young mom can sit down and write a letter to her President with a story
that sums up these past six years: “It’s amazing what you can bounce back from when you have to…we are a
strong, tight-knit family who’s made it through some very, very hard times.”
My fellow Americans, we, too, are a strong, tight-knit family. We, too, have made it through some hard times.
Fifteen years into this new century, we have picked ourselves up, dusted ourselves off, and begun again the work
of remaking America. We have laid a new foundation. A brighter future is ours to write. Let’s begin this new
chapter together -- and let’s start the work right now. (Applause.)
Thank you. God bless you. God bless this country we love. Thank you. (Applause.)

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Home • Briefing Room • Speeches & Remarks

The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release

February 12, 2013

Remarks by the President in the State of the Union Address
 
U.S. Capitol
Washington, D.C. 
 
 
9:15 P.M. EST
 
THE PRESIDENT:  Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, fellow citizens:  
 
Fifty-one years ago, John F. Kennedy declared to this chamber that “the Constitution makes us not rivals for power
but partners for progress.”  (Applause.) “It is my task,” he said, “to report the State of the Union -- to improve it is
the task of us all.”  
 
Tonight, thanks to the grit and determination of the American people, there is much progress to report.  After a
decade of grinding war, our brave men and women in uniform are coming home.  (Applause.)  After years of
grueling recession, our businesses have created over six million new jobs.  We buy more American cars than we
have in five years, and less foreign oil than we have in 20.  (Applause.)  Our housing market is healing, our stock
market is rebounding, and consumers, patients, and homeowners enjoy stronger protections than ever before.
 (Applause.)  
 
So, together, we have cleared away the rubble of crisis, and we can say with renewed confidence that the State of
our Union is stronger.  (Applause.) 
 
But we gather here knowing that there are millions of Americans whose hard work and dedication have not yet
been rewarded.  Our economy is adding jobs -- but too many people still can’t find full-time employment.
 Corporate profits have skyrocketed to all-time highs -- but for more than a decade, wages and incomes have
barely budged.  
 
It is our generation’s task, then, to reignite the true engine of America’s economic growth -- a rising, thriving middle
class.  (Applause.)  
 
It is our unfinished task to restore the basic bargain that built this country -- the idea that if you work hard and meet
your responsibilities, you can get ahead, no matter where you come from, no matter what you look like, or who you
love.
 
It is our unfinished task to make sure that this government works on behalf of the many, and not just the few; that it
encourages free enterprise, rewards individual initiative, and opens the doors of opportunity to every child across
this great nation.  (Applause.) 
 
The American people don’t expect government to solve every problem.  They don’t expect those of us in this
chamber to agree on every issue.  But they do expect us to put the nation’s interests before party.  (Applause.)
 They do expect us to forge reasonable compromise where we can.  For they know that America moves forward
only when we do so together, and that the responsibility of improving this union remains the task of us all.
 
Our work must begin by making some basic decisions about our budget -- decisions that will have a huge impact
on the strength of our recovery.
 
Over the last few years, both parties have worked together to reduce the deficit by more than $2.5 trillion -- mostly

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through spending cuts, but also by raising tax rates on the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans.  As a result, we are
more than halfway towards the goal of $4 trillion in deficit reduction that economists say we need to stabilize our
finances.    
 
Now we need to finish the job.  And the question is, how? 
 
In 2011, Congress passed a law saying that if both parties couldn’t agree on a plan to reach our deficit goal, about
a trillion dollars’ worth of budget cuts would automatically go into effect this year.  These sudden, harsh, arbitrary
cuts would jeopardize our military readiness.  They’d devastate priorities like education, and energy, and medical
research.  They would certainly slow our recovery, and cost us hundreds of thousands of jobs.  That’s why
Democrats, Republicans, business leaders, and economists have already said that these cuts, known here in
Washington as the sequester, are a really bad idea.  
 
Now, some in Congress have proposed preventing only the defense cuts by making even bigger cuts to things like
education and job training, Medicare and Social Security benefits.  That idea is even worse.  (Applause.)  
 
Yes, the biggest driver of our long-term debt is the rising cost of health care for an aging population.  And those of
us who care deeply about programs like Medicare must embrace the need for modest reforms -- otherwise, our
retirement programs will crowd out the investments we need for our children, and jeopardize the promise of a
secure retirement for future generations.  
 
But we can’t ask senior citizens and working families to shoulder the entire burden of deficit reduction while asking
nothing more from the wealthiest and the most powerful.  (Applause.)  We won’t grow the middle class simply by
shifting the cost of health care or college onto families that are already struggling, or by forcing communities to lay
off more teachers and more cops and more firefighters.  Most Americans -- Democrats, Republicans, and
independents -- understand that we can’t just cut our way to prosperity.  They know that broad-based economic
growth requires a balanced approach to deficit reduction, with spending cuts and revenue, and with everybody
doing their fair share.  And that’s the approach I offer tonight.  
On Medicare, I’m prepared to enact reforms that will achieve the same amount of health care savings by the
beginning of the next decade as the reforms proposed by the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles commission.  (Applause.)
 
 
Already, the Affordable Care Act is helping to slow the growth of health care costs.  (Applause.)  And the reforms
I’m proposing go even further.  We’ll reduce taxpayer subsidies to prescription drug companies and ask more from
the wealthiest seniors.  (Applause.)  We’ll bring down costs by changing the way our government pays for
Medicare, because our medical bills shouldn’t be based on the number of tests ordered or days spent in the
hospital; they should be based on the quality of care that our seniors receive.  (Applause.)  And I am open to
additional reforms from both parties, so long as they don’t violate the guarantee of a secure retirement.  Our
government shouldn’t make promises we cannot keep -- but we must keep the promises we’ve already made.
 (Applause.) 
 
To hit the rest of our deficit reduction target, we should do what leaders in both parties have already suggested,
and save hundreds of billions of dollars by getting rid of tax loopholes and deductions for the well-off and the wellconnected.  After all, why would we choose to make deeper cuts to education and Medicare just to protect special
interest tax breaks?  How is that fair?  Why is it that deficit reduction is a big emergency justifying making cuts in
Social Security benefits but not closing some loopholes?  How does that promote growth?  (Applause.) 
 
Now is our best chance for bipartisan, comprehensive tax reform that encourages job creation and helps bring
down the deficit.  (Applause.)  We can get this done.  The American people deserve a tax code that helps small
businesses spend less time filling out complicated forms, and more time expanding and hiring -- a tax code that
ensures billionaires with high-powered accountants can’t work the system and pay a lower rate than their
hardworking secretaries; a tax code that lowers incentives to move jobs overseas, and lowers tax rates for
businesses and manufacturers that are creating jobs right here in the United States of America.  That’s what tax
reform can deliver.  That’s what we can do together.  (Applause.) 
 
I realize that tax reform and entitlement reform will not be easy.  The politics will be hard for both sides.  None of us
will get 100 percent of what we want.  But the alternative will cost us jobs, hurt our economy, visit hardship on
millions of hardworking Americans.  So let’s set party interests aside and work to pass a budget that replaces
reckless cuts with smart savings and wise investments in our future.  And let’s do it without the brinksmanship that
stresses consumers and scares off investors.  (Applause.)  The greatest nation on Earth cannot keep conducting
its business by drifting from one manufactured crisis to the next.  (Applause.)  We can't do it.  
 
Let’s agree right here, right now to keep the people’s government open, and pay our bills on time, and always
uphold the full faith and credit of the United States of America.  (Applause.)  The American people have worked too
hard, for too long, rebuilding from one crisis to see their elected officials cause another.  (Applause.)  
 
Now, most of us agree that a plan to reduce the deficit must be part of our agenda.  But let’s be clear, deficit
reduction alone is not an economic plan.  (Applause.)  A growing economy that creates good, middle-class jobs -that must be the North Star that guides our efforts.  (Applause.)  Every day, we should ask ourselves three
questions as a nation:  How do we attract more jobs to our shores?  How do we equip our people with the skills
they need to get those jobs?  And how do we make sure that hard work leads to a decent living? 
 
A year and a half ago, I put forward an American Jobs Act that independent economists said would create more
than 1 million new jobs.  And I thank the last Congress for passing some of that agenda.  I urge this Congress to
pass the rest.  (Applause.)  But tonight, I’ll lay out additional proposals that are fully paid for and fully consistent

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with the budget framework both parties agreed to just 18 months ago.  Let me repeat -- nothing I’m proposing
tonight should increase our deficit by a single dime.  It is not a bigger government we need, but a smarter
government that sets priorities and invests in broad-based growth.  (Applause.)  That's what we should be looking
for. 
 
Our first priority is making America a magnet for new jobs and manufacturing.  After shedding jobs for more than
10 years, our manufacturers have added about 500,000 jobs over the past three.  Caterpillar is bringing jobs back
from Japan.  Ford is bringing jobs back from Mexico.  And this year, Apple will start making Macs in America again.
 (Applause.)
 
There are things we can do, right now, to accelerate this trend.  Last year, we created our first manufacturing
innovation institute in Youngstown, Ohio.  A once-shuttered warehouse is now a state-of-the art lab where new
workers are mastering the 3D printing that has the potential to revolutionize the way we make almost everything.
 There’s no reason this can’t happen in other towns.  
 
So tonight, I’m announcing the launch of three more of these manufacturing hubs, where businesses will partner
with the Department of Defense and Energy to turn regions left behind by globalization into global centers of hightech jobs.  And I ask this Congress to help create a network of 15 of these hubs and guarantee that the next
revolution in manufacturing is made right here in America.  We can get that done.  (Applause.)
 
Now, if we want to make the best products, we also have to invest in the best ideas.  Every dollar we invested to
map the human genome returned $140 to our economy -- every dollar.  Today, our scientists are mapping the
human brain to unlock the answers to Alzheimer’s.  They’re developing drugs to regenerate damaged organs;
devising new material to make batteries 10 times more powerful.  Now is not the time to gut these job-creating
investments in science and innovation.  Now is the time to reach a level of research and development not seen
since the height of the Space Race.  We need to make those investments.  (Applause.)  
Today, no area holds more promise than our investments in American energy.  After years of talking about it, we’re
finally poised to control our own energy future.  We produce more oil at home than we have in 15 years.
 (Applause.)  We have doubled the distance our cars will go on a gallon of gas, and the amount of renewable
energy we generate from sources like wind and solar -- with tens of thousands of good American jobs to show for
it.  We produce more natural gas than ever before -- and nearly everyone’s energy bill is lower because of it.  And
over the last four years, our emissions of the dangerous carbon pollution that threatens our planet have actually
fallen.
 
But for the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat climate change.  (Applause.)  Now, it’s
true that no single event makes a trend.  But the fact is the 12 hottest years on record have all come in the last 15.
 Heat waves, droughts, wildfires, floods -- all are now more frequent and more intense.  We can choose to believe
that Superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever
seen were all just a freak coincidence.  Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science -and act before it’s too late.  (Applause.)
 
Now, the good news is we can make meaningful progress on this issue while driving strong economic growth.  I
urge this Congress to get together, pursue a bipartisan, market-based solution to climate change, like the one
John McCain and Joe Lieberman worked on together a few years ago.  But if Congress won’t act soon to protect
future generations, I will.  (Applause.)  I will direct my Cabinet to come up with executive actions we can take, now
and in the future, to reduce pollution, prepare our communities for the consequences of climate change, and
speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy.
 
Four years ago, other countries dominated the clean energy market and the jobs that came with it.  And we’ve
begun to change that.  Last year, wind energy added nearly half of all new power capacity in America.  So let’s
generate even more.  Solar energy gets cheaper by the year -- let’s drive down costs even further. As long as
countries like China keep going all in on clean energy, so must we.
 
Now, in the meantime, the natural gas boom has led to cleaner power and greater energy independence.  We
need to encourage that.  And that’s why my administration will keep cutting red tape and speeding up new oil and
gas permits.  (Applause.)  That’s got to be part of an all-of-the-above plan.  But I also want to work with this
Congress to encourage the research and technology that helps natural gas burn even cleaner and protects our air
and our water.
 
In fact, much of our new-found energy is drawn from lands and waters that we, the public, own together.  So
tonight, I propose we use some of our oil and gas revenues to fund an Energy Security Trust that will drive new
research and technology to shift our cars and trucks off oil for good.  If a nonpartisan coalition of CEOs and retired
generals and admirals can get behind this idea, then so can we.  Let’s take their advice and free our families and
businesses from the painful spikes in gas prices we’ve put up with for far too long.  
 
I’m also issuing a new goal for America:  Let’s cut in half the energy wasted by our homes and businesses over
the next 20 years.  (Applause.)  We'll work with the states to do it.  Those states with the best ideas to create jobs
and lower energy bills by constructing more efficient buildings will receive federal support to help make that
happen.
 
America’s energy sector is just one part of an aging infrastructure badly in need of repair.  Ask any CEO where
they’d rather locate and hire -- a country with deteriorating roads and bridges, or one with high-speed rail and
Internet; high-tech schools, self-healing power grids.  The CEO of Siemens America -- a company that brought
hundreds of new jobs to North Carolina -- said that if we upgrade our infrastructure, they’ll bring even more jobs.
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in your district.  I’ve seen all those ribbon-cuttings. (Laughter.)  
 
So tonight, I propose a “Fix-It-First” program to put people to work as soon as possible on our most urgent repairs,
like the nearly 70,000 structurally deficient bridges across the country. (Applause.)  And to make sure taxpayers
don’t shoulder the whole burden, I’m also proposing a Partnership to Rebuild America that attracts private capital
to upgrade what our businesses need most:  modern ports to move our goods, modern pipelines to withstand a
storm, modern schools worthy of our children.  (Applause.)  Let’s prove that there’s no better place to do business
than here in the United States of America, and let’s start right away.  We can get this done.
 
And part of our rebuilding effort must also involve our housing sector.  The good news is our housing market is
finally healing from the collapse of 2007.  Home prices are rising at the fastest pace in six years.  Home purchases
are up nearly 50 percent, and construction is expanding again.  
 
But even with mortgage rates near a 50-year low, too many families with solid credit who want to buy a home are
being rejected.  Too many families who never missed a payment and want to refinance are being told no.  That’s
holding our entire economy back.  We need to fix it.  
 
Right now, there’s a bill in this Congress that would give every responsible homeowner in America the chance to
save $3,000 a year by refinancing at today’s rates.  Democrats and Republicans have supported it before, so what
are we waiting for? Take a vote, and send me that bill.  (Applause.)  Why would we be against that?  (Applause.)
 Why would that be a partisan issue, helping folks refinance?  Right now, overlapping regulations keep responsible
young families from buying their first home.  What’s holding us back?  Let’s streamline the process, and help our
economy grow.
 
These initiatives in manufacturing, energy, infrastructure, housing -- all these things will help entrepreneurs and
small business owners expand and create new jobs.  But none of it will matter unless we also equip our citizens
with the skills and training to fill those jobs.  (Applause.)  
 
And that has to start at the earliest possible age.  Study after study shows that the sooner a child begins learning,
the better he or she does down the road.  But today, fewer than 3 in 10 four year-olds are enrolled in a high-quality
preschool program.  Most middle-class parents can’t afford a few hundred bucks a week for a private preschool.
 And for poor kids who need help the most, this lack of access to preschool education can shadow them for the
rest of their lives.  So tonight, I propose working with states to make high-quality preschool available to every
single child in America.  (Applause.)  That's something we should be able to do.  
 
Every dollar we invest in high-quality early childhood education can save more than seven dollars later on -- by
boosting graduation rates, reducing teen pregnancy, even reducing violent crime.  In states that make it a priority
to educate our youngest children, like Georgia or Oklahoma, studies show students grow up more likely to read
and do math at grade level, graduate high school, hold a job, form more stable families of their own.  We know this
works.  So let’s do what works and make sure none of our children start the race of life already behind. Let’s give
our kids that chance.  (Applause.) 
 
Let’s also make sure that a high school diploma puts our kids on a path to a good job.  Right now, countries like
Germany focus on graduating their high school students with the equivalent of a technical degree from one of our
community colleges.  So those German kids, they're ready for a job when they graduate high school.  They've been
trained for the jobs that are there.  Now at schools like P-Tech in Brooklyn, a collaboration between New York
Public Schools and City University of New York and IBM, students will graduate with a high school diploma and an
associate's degree in computers or engineering.  
We need to give every American student opportunities like this.  (Applause.)  
 
And four years ago, we started Race to the Top -- a competition that convinced almost every state to develop
smarter curricula and higher standards, all for about 1 percent of what we spend on education each year.  Tonight,
I’m announcing a new challenge to redesign America’s high schools so they better equip graduates for the
demands of a high-tech economy.  And we’ll reward schools that develop new partnerships with colleges and
employers, and create classes that focus on science, technology, engineering and math -- the skills today’s
employers are looking for to fill the jobs that are there right now and will be there in the future.
 
Now, even with better high schools, most young people will need some higher education.  It’s a simple fact the
more education you’ve got, the more likely you are to have a good job and work your way into the middle class.
 But today, skyrocketing costs price too many young people out of a higher education, or saddle them with
unsustainable debt.
 
Through tax credits, grants and better loans, we’ve made college more affordable for millions of students and
families over the last few years.  But taxpayers can’t keep on subsidizing higher and higher and higher costs for
higher education.  Colleges must do their part to keep costs down, and it’s our job to make sure that they do.
 (Applause.)
 
So tonight, I ask Congress to change the Higher Education Act so that affordability and value are included in
determining which colleges receive certain types of federal aid.  (Applause.) And tomorrow, my administration will
release a new “College Scorecard” that parents and students can use to compare schools based on a simple
criteria -- where you can get the most bang for your educational buck.   
 
Now, to grow our middle class, our citizens have to have access to the education and training that today’s jobs
require.  But we also have to make sure that America remains a place where everyone who’s willing to work -everybody who’s willing to work hard has the chance to get ahead.

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Our economy is stronger when we harness the talents and ingenuity of striving, hopeful immigrants.  (Applause.)
 And right now, leaders from the business, labor, law enforcement, faith communities -- they all agree that the time
has come to pass comprehensive immigration reform.  (Applause.)  Now is the time to do it.  Now is the time to get
it done.  Now is the time to get it done.  (Applause.) 
 
Real reform means strong border security, and we can build on the progress my administration has already made - putting more boots on the Southern border than at any time in our history and reducing illegal crossings to their
lowest levels in 40 years.  
 
Real reform means establishing a responsible pathway to earned citizenship -- a path that includes passing a
background check, paying taxes and a meaningful penalty, learning English, and going to the back of the line
behind the folks trying to come here legally.  (Applause.)  
 
And real reform means fixing the legal immigration system to cut waiting periods and attract the highly-skilled
entrepreneurs and engineers that will help create jobs and grow our economy.  (Applause.)   
 
In other words, we know what needs to be done.  And as we speak, bipartisan groups in both chambers are
working diligently to draft a bill, and I applaud their efforts.  So let’s get this done.  Send me a comprehensive
immigration reform bill in the next few months, and I will sign it right away.  And America will be better for it.
 (Applause.)  Let’s get it done.  Let’s get it done.  
 
But we can’t stop there.  We know our economy is stronger when our wives, our mothers, our daughters can live
their lives free from discrimination in the workplace, and free from the fear of domestic violence.  Today, the Senate
passed the Violence Against Women Act that Joe Biden originally wrote almost 20 years ago.  And I now urge the
House to do the same.  (Applause.)  Good job, Joe.  And I ask this Congress to declare that women should earn a
living equal to their efforts, and finally pass the Paycheck Fairness Act this year.  (Applause.) 
 
We know our economy is stronger when we reward an honest day’s work with honest wages.  But today, a fulltime worker making the minimum wage earns $14,500 a year.  Even with the tax relief we put in place, a family
with two kids that earns the minimum wage still lives below the poverty line.  That’s wrong.  That’s why, since the
last time this Congress raised the minimum wage, 19 states have chosen to bump theirs even higher.
 
Tonight, let’s declare that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in
poverty, and raise the federal minimum wage to $9.00 an hour.  (Applause.) We should be able to get that done.
 (Applause.)
 
This single step would raise the incomes of millions of working families.  It could mean the difference between
groceries or the food bank; rent or eviction; scraping by or finally getting ahead.  For businesses across the
country, it would mean customers with more money in their pockets.  And a whole lot of folks out there would
probably need less help from government.  In fact, working folks shouldn’t have to wait year after year for the
minimum wage to go up while CEO pay has never been higher.  So here’s an idea that Governor Romney and I
actually agreed on last year -- let’s tie the minimum wage to the cost of living, so that it finally becomes a wage you
can live on.  (Applause.)
 
Tonight, let’s also recognize that there are communities in this country where no matter how hard you work, it is
virtually impossible to get ahead.  Factory towns decimated from years of plants packing up.  Inescapable pockets
of poverty, urban and rural, where young adults are still fighting for their first job.  America is not a place where the
chance of birth or circumstance should decide our destiny.  And that’s why we need to build new ladders of
opportunity into the middle class for all who are willing to climb them.
 
Let’s offer incentives to companies that hire Americans who’ve got what it takes to fill that job opening, but have
been out of work so long that no one will give them a chance anymore. Let’s put people back to work rebuilding
vacant homes in run-down neighborhoods.  And this year, my administration will begin to partner with 20 of the
hardest-hit towns in America to get these communities back on their feet.  We’ll work with local leaders to target
resources at public safety, and education, and housing.  
 
We’ll give new tax credits to businesses that hire and invest.  And we’ll work to strengthen families by removing
the financial deterrents to marriage for low-income couples, and do more to encourage fatherhood -- because what
makes you a man isn’t the ability to conceive a child; it’s having the courage to raise one.  And we want to
encourage that.  We want to help that. (Applause.)
 
Stronger families.  Stronger communities.  A stronger America.  It is this kind of prosperity -- broad, shared, built on
a thriving middle class -- that has always been the source of our progress at home.  It’s also the foundation of our
power and influence throughout the world. 
 
Tonight, we stand united in saluting the troops and civilians who sacrifice every day to protect us.  Because of
them, we can say with confidence that America will complete its mission in Afghanistan and achieve our objective
of defeating the core of al Qaeda.  (Applause.)  
 
Already, we have brought home 33,000 of our brave servicemen and women.  This spring, our forces will move
into a support role, while Afghan security forces take the lead.  Tonight, I can announce that over the next year,
another 34,000 American troops will come home from Afghanistan.  This drawdown will continue and by the end of
next year, our war in Afghanistan will be over.  (Applause.)   
 

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Beyond 2014, America’s commitment to a unified and sovereign Afghanistan will endure, but the nature of our
commitment will change.  We're negotiating an agreement with the Afghan government that focuses on two
missions -- training and equipping Afghan forces so that the country does not again slip into chaos, and
counterterrorism efforts that allow us to pursue the remnants of al Qaeda and their affiliates. 
 
Today, the organization that attacked us on 9/11 is a shadow of its former self.  (Applause.)  It's true, different al
Qaeda affiliates and extremist groups have emerged -- from the Arabian Peninsula to Africa.  The threat these
groups pose is evolving.  But to meet this threat, we don’t need to send tens of thousands of our sons and
daughters abroad or occupy other nations.  Instead, we'll need to help countries like Yemen, and Libya, and
Somalia provide for their own security, and help allies who take the fight to terrorists, as we have in Mali.  And
where necessary, through a range of capabilities, we will continue to take direct action against those terrorists who
pose the gravest threat to Americans.  (Applause.)  
 
Now, as we do, we must enlist our values in the fight.  That's why my administration has worked tirelessly to forge
a durable legal and policy framework to guide our counterterrorism efforts.  Throughout, we have kept Congress
fully informed of our efforts.  I recognize that in our democracy, no one should just take my word for it that we’re
doing things the right way.  So in the months ahead, I will continue to engage Congress to ensure not only that our
targeting, detention and prosecution of terrorists remains consistent with our laws and system of checks and
balances, but that our efforts are even more transparent to the American people and to the world.  (Applause.) 
 
Of course, our challenges don’t end with al Qaeda.  America will continue to lead the effort to prevent the spread
of the world’s most dangerous weapons.  The regime in North Korea must know they will only achieve security and
prosperity by meeting their international obligations.  Provocations of the sort we saw last night will only further
isolate them, as we stand by our allies, strengthen our own missile defense and lead the world in taking firm action
in response to these threats.  
 
Likewise, the leaders of Iran must recognize that now is the time for a diplomatic solution, because a coalition
stands united in demanding that they meet their obligations, and we will do what is necessary to prevent them from
getting a nuclear weapon. (Applause.) 
 
At the same time, we’ll engage Russia to seek further reductions in our nuclear arsenals, and continue leading the
global effort to secure nuclear materials that could fall into the wrong hands -- because our ability to influence
others depends on our willingness to lead and meet our obligations.
 
America must also face the rapidly growing threat from cyber-attacks.  (Applause.)  Now, we know hackers steal
people’s identities and infiltrate private emails.  We know foreign countries and companies swipe our corporate
secrets.  Now our enemies are also seeking the ability to sabotage our power grid, our financial institutions, our air
traffic control systems.  We cannot look back years from now and wonder why we did nothing in the face of real
threats to our security and our economy.  
 
And that’s why, earlier today, I signed a new executive order that will strengthen our cyber defenses by increasing
information sharing, and developing standards to protect our national security, our jobs, and our privacy.
 (Applause.)
 
But now Congress must act as well, by passing legislation to give our government a greater capacity to secure our
networks and deter attacks.  This is something we should be able to get done on a bipartisan basis.  (Applause.) 
 
Now, even as we protect our people, we should remember that today’s world presents not just dangers, not just
threats, it presents opportunities.  To boost American exports, support American jobs and level the playing field in
the growing markets of Asia, we intend to complete negotiations on a Trans-Pacific Partnership.  And tonight, I’m
announcing that we will launch talks on a comprehensive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the
European Union -- because trade that is fair and free across the Atlantic supports millions of good-paying
American jobs.  (Applause.) 
 
We also know that progress in the most impoverished parts of our world enriches us all -- not only because it
creates new markets, more stable order in certain regions of the world, but also because it’s the right thing to do.
 In many places, people live on little more than a dollar a day.  So the United States will join with our allies to
eradicate such extreme poverty in the next two decades by connecting more people to the global economy; by
empowering women; by giving our young and brightest minds new opportunities to serve, and helping communities
to feed, and power, and educate themselves; by saving the world’s children from preventable deaths; and by
realizing the promise of an AIDS-free generation, which is within our reach.  (Applause.)   
 
You see, America must remain a beacon to all who seek freedom during this period of historic change.  I saw the
power of hope last year in Rangoon, in Burma, when Aung San Suu Kyi welcomed an American President into the
home where she had been imprisoned for years; when thousands of Burmese lined the streets, waving American
flags, including a man who said, “There is justice and law in the United States.  I want our country to be like that.”
 
In defense of freedom, we’ll remain the anchor of strong alliances from the Americas to Africa; from Europe to
Asia.  In the Middle East, we will stand with citizens as they demand their universal rights, and support stable
transitions to democracy.  (Applause.)  
 
We know the process will be messy, and we cannot presume to dictate the course of change in countries like
Egypt, but we can -- and will -- insist on respect for the fundamental rights of all people.  We’ll keep the pressure
on a Syrian regime that has murdered its own people, and support opposition leaders that respect the rights of
every Syrian.  And we will stand steadfast with Israel in pursuit of security and a lasting peace.  (Applause.)  

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These are the messages I'll deliver when I travel to the Middle East next month.  And all this work depends on the
courage and sacrifice of those who serve in dangerous places at great personal risk –- our diplomats, our
intelligence officers, and the men and women of the United States Armed Forces.  As long as I’m Commander-inChief, we will do whatever we must to protect those who serve their country abroad, and we will maintain the best
military the world has ever known.  (Applause.) 
 
We'll invest in new capabilities, even as we reduce waste and wartime spending.  We will ensure equal treatment
for all servicemembers, and equal benefits for their families -- gay and straight.  (Applause.)  We will draw upon the
courage and skills of our sisters and daughters and moms, because women have proven under fire that they are
ready for combat.  
 
We will keep faith with our veterans, investing in world-class care, including mental health care, for our wounded
warriors -- (applause) -- supporting our military families; giving our veterans the benefits and education and job
opportunities that they have earned.  And I want to thank my wife, Michelle, and Dr. Jill Biden for their continued
dedication to serving our military families as well as they have served us. Thank you, honey.  Thank you, Jill.
 (Applause.)  
 
Defending our freedom, though, is not just the job of our military alone.  We must all do our part to make sure our
God-given rights are protected here at home.  That includes one of the most fundamental right of a democracy:
 the right to vote.  (Applause.)  When any American, no matter where they live or what their party, are denied that
right because they can’t afford to wait for five or six or seven hours just to cast their ballot, we are betraying our
ideals.  (Applause.)  
 
So tonight, I’m announcing a nonpartisan commission to improve the voting experience in America.  And it
definitely needs improvement.  I’m asking two long-time experts in the field -- who, by the way, recently served as
the top attorneys for my campaign and for Governor Romney’s campaign -- to lead it.  We can fix this, and we will.
 The American people demand it, and so does our democracy.  (Applause.)
 
Of course, what I’ve said tonight matters little if we don’t come together to protect our most precious resource:  our
children.  It has been two months since Newtown.  I know this is not the first time this country has debated how to
reduce gun violence.  But this time is different.  Overwhelming majorities of Americans -- Americans who believe in
the Second Amendment -- have come together around common-sense reform, like background checks that will
make it harder for criminals to get their hands on a gun.  (Applause.)  Senators of both parties are working together
on tough new laws to prevent anyone from buying guns for resale to criminals.  Police chiefs are asking our help to
get weapons of war and massive ammunition magazines off our streets, because these police chiefs, they’re tired
of seeing their guys and gals being outgunned.  
 
Each of these proposals deserves a vote in Congress.  (Applause.)  Now, if you want to vote no, that’s your choice.
 But these proposals deserve a vote.  Because in the two months since Newtown, more than a thousand birthdays,
graduations, anniversaries have been stolen from our lives by a bullet from a gun -- more than a thousand. 
 
One of those we lost was a young girl named Hadiya Pendleton.  She was 15 years old.  She loved Fig Newtons
and lip gloss.  She was a majorette.  She was so good to her friends they all thought they were her best friend.
 Just three weeks ago, she was here, in Washington, with her classmates, performing for her country at my
inauguration.  And a week later, she was shot and killed in a Chicago park after school, just a mile away from my
house.
 
Hadiya’s parents, Nate and Cleo, are in this chamber tonight, along with more than two dozen Americans whose
lives have been torn apart by gun violence.  They deserve a vote.  They deserve a vote.  (Applause.)  Gabby
Giffords deserves a vote.  (Applause.)  The families of Newtown deserve a vote.  (Applause.) The families of
Aurora deserve a vote.  (Applause.)  The families of Oak Creek and Tucson and Blacksburg, and the countless
other communities ripped open by gun violence –- they deserve a simple vote.  (Applause.)  They deserve a simple
vote.  
 
Our actions will not prevent every senseless act of violence in this country.  In fact, no laws, no initiatives, no
administrative acts will perfectly solve all the challenges I’ve outlined tonight.  But we were never sent here to be
perfect.  We were sent here to make what difference we can, to secure this nation, expand opportunity, uphold our
ideals through the hard, often frustrating, but absolutely necessary work of self-government.
 
We were sent here to look out for our fellow Americans the same way they look out for one another, every single
day, usually without fanfare, all across this country.  We should follow their example.
 
We should follow the example of a New York City nurse named Menchu Sanchez.  When Hurricane Sandy
plunged her hospital into darkness, she wasn’t thinking about how her own home was faring. Her mind was on the
20 precious newborns in her care and the rescue plan she devised that kept them all safe. 
 
We should follow the example of a North Miami woman named Desiline Victor.  When Desiline arrived at her polling
place, she was told the wait to vote might be six hours.  And as time ticked by, her concern was not with her tired
body or aching feet, but whether folks like her would get to have their say.  And hour after hour, a throng of people
stayed in line to support her -- because Desiline is 102 years old.  (Applause.)  And they erupted in cheers when
she finally put on a sticker that read, “I voted.” (Applause.) 
 
We should follow the example of a police officer named Brian Murphy.  When a gunman opened fire on a Sikh
temple in Wisconsin and Brian was the first to arrive, he did not consider his own safety.  He fought back until help

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arrived and ordered his fellow officers to protect the safety of the Americans worshiping inside, even as he lay
bleeding from 12 bullet wounds.  And when asked how he did that, Brian said, “That’s just the way we’re made.” 
 
That’s just the way we’re made.  We may do different jobs and wear different uniforms, and hold different views
than the person beside us.  But as Americans, we all share the same proud title -- we are citizens.  It’s a word that
doesn’t just describe our nationality or legal status.  It describes the way we’re made.  It describes what we believe.
 It captures the enduring idea that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another and
to future generations, that our rights are wrapped up in the rights of others; and that well into our third century as a
nation, it remains the task of us all, as citizens of these United States, to be the authors of the next great chapter
of our American story.  
 
Thank you.  God bless you, and God bless these United States of America.  (Applause.) 
 
 
END
10:16 P.M. 

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Exhibit 

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Home • Briefing Room • Speeches & Remarks

The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release

May 23, 2013

Remarks by the President at the National Defense
University
National Defense University
Fort McNair
Washington, D.C. 
2:01 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT:  Good afternoon, everybody.  Please be seated. 
It is a great honor to return to the National Defense University.  Here, at Fort McNair, Americans have served in
uniform since 1791 -- standing guard in the earliest days of the Republic, and contemplating the future of warfare
here in the 21st century.
For over two centuries, the United States has been bound together by founding documents that defined who we
are as Americans, and served as our compass through every type of change.  Matters of war and peace are no
different.  Americans are deeply ambivalent about war, but having fought for our independence, we know a price
must be paid for freedom.  From the Civil War to our struggle against fascism, on through the long twilight struggle
of the Cold War, battlefields have changed and technology has evolved.  But our commitment to constitutional
principles has weathered every war, and every war has come to an end.
With the collapse of the Berlin Wall, a new dawn of democracy took hold abroad, and a decade of peace and
prosperity arrived here at home.  And for a moment, it seemed the 21st century would be a tranquil time.  And then,
on September 11, 2001, we were shaken out of complacency.  Thousands were taken from us, as clouds of fire
and metal and ash descended upon a sun-filled morning.  This was a different kind of war.  No armies came to our
shores, and our military was not the principal target.  Instead, a group of terrorists came to kill as many civilians as
they could.
And so our nation went to war.  We have now been at war for well over a decade.  I won’t review the full history. 
What is clear is that we quickly drove al Qaeda out of Afghanistan, but then shifted our focus and began a new
war in Iraq.  And this carried significant consequences for our fight against al Qaeda, our standing in the world, and
-- to this day -- our interests in a vital region.
Meanwhile, we strengthened our defenses -- hardening targets, tightening transportation security, giving law
enforcement new tools to prevent terror.  Most of these changes were sound.  Some caused inconvenience.  But
some, like expanded surveillance, raised difficult questions about the balance that we strike between our interests
in security and our values of privacy.  And in some cases, I believe we compromised our basic values -- by using
torture to interrogate our enemies, and detaining individuals in a way that ran counter to the rule of law.
So after I took office, we stepped up the war against al Qaeda but we also sought to change its course.  We
relentlessly targeted al Qaeda’s leadership.  We ended the war in Iraq, and brought nearly 150,000 troops home. 
We pursued a new strategy in Afghanistan, and increased our training of Afghan forces.  We unequivocally banned
torture, affirmed our commitment to civilian courts, worked to align our policies with the rule of law, and expanded
our consultations with Congress.

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Today, Osama bin Laden is dead, and so are most of his top lieutenants.  There have been no large-scale attacks
on the United States, and our homeland is more secure.  Fewer of our troops are in harm’s way, and over the next
19 months they will continue to come home.  Our alliances are strong, and so is our standing in the world.  In sum,
we are safer because of our efforts.
Now, make no mistake, our nation is still threatened by terrorists.  From Benghazi to Boston, we have been
tragically reminded of that truth.  But we have to recognize that the threat has shifted and evolved from the one
that came to our shores on 9/11.  With a decade of experience now to draw from, this is the moment to ask
ourselves hard questions -- about the nature of today’s threats and how we should confront them.
And these questions matter to every American. 
For over the last decade, our nation has spent well over a trillion dollars on war, helping to explode our deficits and
constraining our ability to nation-build here at home.  Our servicemembers and their families have sacrificed far
more on our behalf.  Nearly 7,000 Americans have made the ultimate sacrifice. Many more have left a part of
themselves on the battlefield, or brought the shadows of battle back home.  From our use of drones to the
detention of terrorist suspects, the decisions that we are making now will define the type of nation -- and world -that we leave to our children.  
So America is at a crossroads.  We must define the nature and scope of this struggle, or else it will define us.  We
have to be mindful of James Madison’s warning that “No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of
continual warfare.”  Neither I, nor any President, can promise the total defeat of terror.  We will never erase the evil
that lies in the hearts of some human beings, nor stamp out every danger to our open society.  But what we can do
-- what we must do -- is dismantle networks that pose a direct danger to us, and make it less likely for new groups
to gain a foothold, all the while maintaining the freedoms and ideals that we defend.  And to define that strategy,
we have to make decisions based not on fear, but on hard-earned wisdom.  That begins with understanding the
current threat that we face.
Today, the core of al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan is on the path to defeat.  Their remaining operatives
spend more time thinking about their own safety than plotting against us.  They did not direct the attacks in
Benghazi or Boston.  They’ve not carried out a successful attack on our homeland since 9/11.
Instead, what we’ve seen is the emergence of various al Qaeda affiliates.  From Yemen to Iraq, from Somalia to
North Africa, the threat today is more diffuse, with Al Qaeda’s affiliates in the Arabian Peninsula -- AQAP -- the
most active in plotting against our homeland.  And while none of AQAP’s efforts approach the scale of 9/11, they
have continued to plot acts of terror, like the attempt to blow up an airplane on Christmas Day in 2009.
Unrest in the Arab world has also allowed extremists to gain a foothold in countries like Libya and Syria.  But here,
too, there are differences from 9/11.  In some cases, we continue to confront state-sponsored networks like
Hezbollah that engage in acts of terror to achieve political goals.  Other of these groups are simply collections of
local militias or extremists interested in seizing territory.  And while we are vigilant for signs that these groups may
pose a transnational threat, most are focused on operating in the countries and regions where they are based. 
And that means we'll face more localized threats like what we saw in Benghazi, or the BP oil facility in Algeria, in
which local operatives -- perhaps in loose affiliation with regional networks -- launch periodic attacks against
Western diplomats, companies, and other soft targets, or resort to kidnapping and other criminal enterprises to
fund their operations.
And finally, we face a real threat from radicalized individuals here in the United States.  Whether it’s a shooter at a
Sikh Temple in Wisconsin, a plane flying into a building in Texas, or the extremists who killed 168 people at the
Federal Building in Oklahoma City, America has confronted many forms of violent extremism in our history. 
Deranged or alienated individuals -- often U.S. citizens or legal residents -- can do enormous damage, particularly
when inspired by larger notions of violent jihad.  And that pull towards extremism appears to have led to the
shooting at Fort Hood and the bombing of the Boston Marathon. 
So that’s the current threat -- lethal yet less capable al Qaeda affiliates; threats to diplomatic facilities and
businesses abroad; homegrown extremists.  This is the future of terrorism. We have to take these threats seriously,
and do all that we can to confront them.  But as we shape our response, we have to recognize that the scale of
this threat closely resembles the types of attacks we faced before 9/11. 
In the 1980s, we lost Americans to terrorism at our Embassy in Beirut; at our Marine Barracks in Lebanon; on a
cruise ship at sea; at a disco in Berlin; and on a Pan Am flight -- Flight 103  -- over Lockerbie.  In the 1990s, we
lost Americans to terrorism at the World Trade Center; at our military facilities in Saudi Arabia; and at our Embassy
in Kenya.  These attacks were all brutal; they were all deadly; and we learned that left unchecked, these threats
can grow.  But if dealt with smartly and proportionally, these threats need not rise to the level that we saw on the

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eve of 9/11.
Moreover, we have to recognize that these threats don’t arise in a vacuum.  Most, though not all, of the terrorism
we faced is fueled by a common ideology -- a belief by some extremists that Islam is in conflict with the United
States and the West, and that violence against Western targets, including civilians, is justified in pursuit of a larger
cause.  Of course, this ideology is based on a lie, for the United States is not at war with Islam.  And this ideology
is rejected by the vast majority of Muslims, who are the most frequent victims of terrorist attacks.
Nevertheless, this ideology persists, and in an age when ideas and images can travel the globe in an instant, our
response to terrorism can’t depend on military or law enforcement alone. We need all elements of national power
to win a battle of wills, a battle of ideas.  So what I want to discuss here today is the components of such a
comprehensive counterterrorism strategy. 
First, we must finish the work of defeating al Qaeda and its associated forces.
In Afghanistan, we will complete our transition to Afghan responsibility for that country’s security.  Our troops will
come home.  Our combat mission will come to an end.  And we will work with the Afghan government to train
security forces, and sustain a counterterrorism force, which ensures that al Qaeda can never again establish a
safe haven to launch attacks against us or our allies.
Beyond Afghanistan, we must define our effort not as a boundless “global war on terror,” but rather as a series of
persistent, targeted efforts to dismantle specific networks of violent extremists that threaten America.  In many
cases, this will involve partnerships with other countries.  Already, thousands of Pakistani soldiers have lost their
lives fighting extremists.  In Yemen, we are supporting security forces that have reclaimed territory from AQAP.  In
Somalia, we helped a coalition of African nations push al-Shabaab out of its strongholds.  In Mali, we’re providing
military aid to French-led intervention to push back al Qaeda in the Maghreb, and help the people of Mali reclaim
their future.
Much of our best counterterrorism cooperation results in the gathering and sharing of intelligence, the arrest and
prosecution of terrorists.  And that’s how a Somali terrorist apprehended off the coast of Yemen is now in a prison
in New York.  That’s how we worked with European allies to disrupt plots from Denmark to Germany to the United
Kingdom.  That’s how intelligence collected with Saudi Arabia helped us stop a cargo plane from being blown up
over the Atlantic.  These partnerships work.
But despite our strong preference for the detention and prosecution of terrorists, sometimes this approach is
foreclosed. Al Qaeda and its affiliates try to gain foothold in some of the most distant and unforgiving places on
Earth.  They take refuge in remote tribal regions.  They hide in caves and walled compounds.  They train in empty
deserts and rugged mountains.
In some of these places -- such as parts of Somalia and Yemen -- the state only has the most tenuous reach into
the territory.  In other cases, the state lacks the capacity or will to take action.  And it’s also not possible for
America to simply deploy a team of Special Forces to capture every terrorist.  Even when such an approach may
be possible, there are places where it would pose profound risks to our troops and local civilians -- where a terrorist
compound cannot be breached without triggering a firefight with surrounding tribal communities, for example, that
pose no threat to us; times when putting U.S. boots on the ground may trigger a major international crisis.
To put it another way, our operation in Pakistan against Osama bin Laden cannot be the norm.  The risks in that
case were immense.  The likelihood of capture, although that was our preference, was remote given the certainty
that our folks would confront resistance.  The fact that we did not find ourselves confronted with civilian casualties,
or embroiled in an extended firefight, was a testament to the meticulous planning and professionalism of our
Special Forces, but it also depended on some luck.  And it was supported by massive infrastructure in
Afghanistan. 
And even then, the cost to our relationship with Pakistan -- and the backlash among the Pakistani public over
encroachment on their territory -- was so severe that we are just now beginning to rebuild this important
partnership.
So it is in this context that the United States has taken lethal, targeted action against al Qaeda and its associated
forces, including with remotely piloted aircraft commonly referred to as drones. 
As was true in previous armed conflicts, this new technology raises profound questions -- about who is targeted,
and why; about civilian casualties, and the risk of creating new enemies; about the legality of such strikes under
U.S. and international law; about accountability and morality.  So let me address these questions. 
To begin with, our actions are effective.  Don’t take my word for it.  In the intelligence gathered at bin Laden’s

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compound, we found that he wrote, “We could lose the reserves to enemy’s air strikes.  We cannot fight air strikes
with explosives.”  Other communications from al Qaeda operatives confirm this as well.  Dozens of highly skilled al
Qaeda commanders, trainers, bomb makers and operatives have been taken off the battlefield.  Plots have been
disrupted that would have targeted international aviation, U.S. transit systems, European cities and our troops in
Afghanistan.  Simply put, these strikes have saved lives.
Moreover, America’s actions are legal.  We were attacked on 9/11.  Within a week, Congress overwhelmingly
authorized the use of force.  Under domestic law, and international law, the United States is at war with al Qaeda,
the Taliban, and their associated forces.  We are at war with an organization that right now would kill as many
Americans as they could if we did not stop them first.  So this is a just war -- a war waged proportionally, in last
resort, and in self-defense.
And yet, as our fight enters a new phase, America’s legitimate claim of self-defense cannot be the end of the
discussion.  To say a military tactic is legal, or even effective, is not to say it is wise or moral in every instance.  For
the same human progress that gives us the technology to strike half a world away also demands the discipline to
constrain that power -- or risk abusing it.  And that’s why, over the last four years, my administration has worked
vigorously to establish a framework that governs our use of force against terrorists –- insisting upon clear
guidelines, oversight and accountability that is now codified in Presidential Policy Guidance that I signed
yesterday.
In the Afghan war theater, we must -- and will -- continue to support our troops until the transition is complete at
the end of 2014.  And that means we will continue to take strikes against high value al Qaeda targets, but also
against forces that are massing to support attacks on coalition forces.  But by the end of 2014, we will no longer
have the same need for force protection, and the progress we’ve made against core al Qaeda will reduce the need
for unmanned strikes.
Beyond the Afghan theater, we only target al Qaeda and its associated forces.  And even then, the use of drones
is heavily constrained.  America does not take strikes when we have the ability to capture individual terrorists; our
preference is always to detain, interrogate, and prosecute.  America cannot take strikes wherever we choose; our
actions are bound by consultations with partners, and respect for state sovereignty. 
America does not take strikes to punish individuals; we act against terrorists who pose a continuing and imminent
threat to the American people, and when there are no other governments capable of effectively addressing the
threat.  And before any strike is taken, there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured -- the
highest standard we can set.
Now, this last point is critical, because much of the criticism about drone strikes -- both here at home and abroad -understandably centers on reports of civilian casualties.  There’s a wide gap between U.S. assessments of such
casualties and nongovernmental reports.  Nevertheless, it is a hard fact that U.S. strikes have resulted in civilian
casualties, a risk that exists in every war.  And for the families of those civilians, no words or legal construct can
justify their loss.  For me, and those in my chain of command, those deaths will haunt us as long as we live, just as
we are haunted by the civilian casualties that have occurred throughout conventional fighting in Afghanistan and
Iraq.
But as Commander-in-Chief, I must weigh these heartbreaking tragedies against the alternatives.  To do nothing in
the face of terrorist networks would invite far more civilian casualties -- not just in our cities at home and our
facilities abroad, but also in the very places like Sana’a and Kabul and Mogadishu where terrorists seek a foothold. 
Remember that the terrorists we are after target civilians, and the death toll from their acts of terrorism against
Muslims dwarfs any estimate of civilian casualties from drone strikes.  So doing nothing is not an option.
Where foreign governments cannot or will not effectively stop terrorism in their territory, the primary alternative to
targeted lethal action would be the use of conventional military options.  As I’ve already said, even small special
operations carry enormous risks.  Conventional airpower or missiles are far less precise than drones, and are likely
to cause more civilian casualties and more local outrage.  And invasions of these territories lead us to be viewed
as occupying armies, unleash a torrent of unintended consequences, are difficult to contain, result in large
numbers of civilian casualties and ultimately empower those who thrive on violent conflict. 
So it is false to assert that putting boots on the ground is less likely to result in civilian deaths or less likely to
create enemies in the Muslim world.  The results would be more U.S. deaths, more Black Hawks down, more
confrontations with local populations, and an inevitable mission creep in support of such raids that could easily
escalate into new wars.
Yes, the conflict with al Qaeda, like all armed conflict, invites tragedy.  But by narrowly targeting our action against
those who want to kill us and not the people they hide among, we are choosing the course of action least likely to
result in the loss of innocent life.

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Our efforts must be measured against the history of putting American troops in distant lands among hostile
populations.  In Vietnam, hundreds of thousands of civilians died in a war where the boundaries of battle were
blurred.  In Iraq and Afghanistan, despite the extraordinary courage and discipline of our troops, thousands of
civilians have been killed.  So neither conventional military action nor waiting for attacks to occur offers moral safe
harbor, and neither does a sole reliance on law enforcement in territories that have no functioning police or
security services -- and indeed, have no functioning law. 
Now, this is not to say that the risks are not real.  Any U.S. military action in foreign lands risks creating more
enemies and impacts public opinion overseas.  Moreover, our laws constrain the power of the President even
during wartime, and I have taken an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States.  The very precision of
drone strikes and the necessary secrecy often involved in such actions can end up shielding our government from
the public scrutiny that a troop deployment invites.  It can also lead a President and his team to view drone strikes
as a cure-all for terrorism.
And for this reason, I’ve insisted on strong oversight of all lethal action.  After I took office, my administration began
briefing all strikes outside of Iraq and Afghanistan to the appropriate committees of Congress.  Let me repeat that: 
Not only did Congress authorize the use of force, it is briefed on every strike that America takes.  Every strike. 
That includes the one instance when we targeted an American citizen -- Anwar Awlaki, the chief of external
operations for AQAP.
This week, I authorized the declassification of this action, and the deaths of three other Americans in drone strikes,
to facilitate transparency and debate on this issue and to dismiss some of the more outlandish claims that have
been made.  For the record, I do not believe it would be constitutional for the government to target and kill any U.S.
citizen -- with a drone, or with a shotgun -- without due process, nor should any President deploy armed drones
over U.S. soil.
But when a U.S. citizen goes abroad to wage war against America and is actively plotting to kill U.S. citizens, and
when neither the United States, nor our partners are in a position to capture him before he carries out a plot, his
citizenship should no more serve as a shield than a sniper shooting down on an innocent crowd should be
protected from a SWAT team.
That’s who Anwar Awlaki was -- he was continuously trying to kill people.  He helped oversee the 2010 plot to
detonate explosive devices on two U.S.-bound cargo planes.  He was involved in planning to blow up an airliner in
2009.  When Farouk Abdulmutallab -- the Christmas Day bomber -- went to Yemen in 2009, Awlaki hosted him,
approved his suicide operation, helped him tape a martyrdom video to be shown after the attack, and his last
instructions were to blow up the airplane when it was over American soil.  I would have detained and prosecuted
Awlaki if we captured him before he carried out a plot, but we couldn’t.  And as President, I would have been
derelict in my duty had I not authorized the strike that took him out.
Of course, the targeting of any American raises constitutional issues that are not present in other strikes -- which is
why my administration submitted information about Awlaki to the Department of Justice months before Awlaki was
killed, and briefed the Congress before this strike as well.  But the high threshold that we’ve set for taking lethal
action applies to all potential terrorist targets, regardless of whether or not they are American citizens.  This
threshold respects the inherent dignity of every human life.  Alongside the decision to put our men and women in
uniform in harm’s way, the decision to use force against individuals or groups -- even against a sworn enemy of
the United States -- is the hardest thing I do as President.  But these decisions must be made, given my
responsibility to protect the American people.
Going forward, I’ve asked my administration to review proposals to extend oversight of lethal actions outside of
warzones that go beyond our reporting to Congress.  Each option has virtues in theory, but poses difficulties in
practice.  For example, the establishment of a special court to evaluate and authorize lethal action has the benefit
of bringing a third branch of government into the process, but raises serious constitutional issues about
presidential and judicial authority. Another idea that’s been suggested -- the establishment of an independent
oversight board in the executive branch -- avoids those problems, but may introduce a layer of bureaucracy into
national security decision-making, without inspiring additional public confidence in the process.  But despite these
challenges, I look forward to actively engaging Congress to explore these and other options for increased
oversight.
I believe, however, that the use of force must be seen as part of a larger discussion we need to have about a
comprehensive counterterrorism strategy -- because for all the focus on the use of force, force alone cannot make
us safe.  We cannot use force everywhere that a radical ideology takes root; and in the absence of a strategy that
reduces the wellspring of extremism, a perpetual war -- through drones or Special Forces or troop deployments -will prove self-defeating, and alter our country in troubling ways.
So the next element of our strategy involves addressing the underlying grievances and conflicts that feed

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extremism -- from North Africa to South Asia.  As we’ve learned this past decade, this is a vast and complex
undertaking.  We must be humble in our expectation that we can quickly resolve deep-rooted problems like poverty
and sectarian hatred.  Moreover, no two countries are alike, and some will undergo chaotic change before things
get better.  But our security and our values demand that we make the effort.
This means patiently supporting transitions to democracy in places like Egypt and Tunisia and Libya -- because the
peaceful realization of individual aspirations will serve as a rebuke to violent extremists.  We must strengthen the
opposition in Syria, while isolating extremist elements -- because the end of a tyrant must not give way to the
tyranny of terrorism.  We are actively working to promote peace between Israelis and Palestinians -- because it is
right and because such a peace could help reshape attitudes in the region.  And we must help countries modernize
economies, upgrade education, and encourage entrepreneurship -- because American leadership has always been
elevated by our ability to connect with people’s hopes, and not simply their fears.
And success on all these fronts requires sustained engagement, but it will also require resources.  I know that
foreign aid is one of the least popular expenditures that there is.  That’s true for Democrats and Republicans -- I’ve
seen the polling -- even though it amounts to less than one percent of the federal budget.  In fact, a lot of folks
think it’s 25 percent, if you ask people on the streets.  Less than one percent -- still wildly unpopular.  But foreign
assistance cannot be viewed as charity.  It is fundamental to our national security.  And it’s fundamental to any
sensible long-term strategy to battle extremism. 
Moreover, foreign assistance is a tiny fraction of what we spend fighting wars that our assistance might ultimately
prevent. For what we spent in a month in Iraq at the height of the war, we could be training security forces in Libya,
maintaining peace agreements between Israel and its neighbors, feeding the hungry in Yemen, building schools in
Pakistan, and creating reservoirs of goodwill that marginalize extremists.  That has to be part of our strategy.
Moreover, America cannot carry out this work if we don’t have diplomats serving in some very dangerous places. 
Over the past decade, we have strengthened security at our embassies, and I am implementing every
recommendation of the Accountability Review Board, which found unacceptable failures in Benghazi.  I’ve called
on Congress to fully fund these efforts to bolster security and harden facilities, improve intelligence, and facilitate a
quicker response time from our military if a crisis emerges.
But even after we take these steps, some irreducible risks to our diplomats will remain.  This is the price of being
the world’s most powerful nation, particularly as a wave of change washes over the Arab World.  And in balancing
the trade4offs between security and active diplomacy, I firmly believe that any retreat from challenging regions will
only increase the dangers that we face in the long run.  And that's why we should be grateful to those diplomats
who are willing to serve. 
Targeted action against terrorists, effective partnerships, diplomatic engagement and assistance -- through such a
comprehensive strategy we can significantly reduce the chances of large-scale attacks on the homeland and
mitigate threats to Americans overseas.  But as we guard against dangers from abroad, we cannot neglect the
daunting challenge of terrorism from within our borders.
As I said earlier, this threat is not new.  But technology and the Internet increase its frequency and in some cases
its lethality.  Today, a person can consume hateful propaganda, commit themselves to a violent agenda, and learn
how to kill without leaving their home.  To address this threat, two years ago my administration did a
comprehensive review and engaged with law enforcement. 
And the best way to prevent violent extremism inspired by violent jihadists is to work with the Muslim American
community  -- which has consistently rejected terrorism -- to identify signs of radicalization and partner with law
enforcement when an individual is drifting towards violence.  And these partnerships can only work when we
recognize that Muslims are a fundamental part of the American family.  In fact, the success of American Muslims
and our determination to guard against any encroachments on their civil liberties is the ultimate rebuke to those
who say that we’re at war with Islam.
Thwarting homegrown plots presents particular challenges in part because of our proud commitment to civil
liberties for all who call America home.  That’s why, in the years to come, we will have to keep working hard to
strike the appropriate balance between our need for security and preserving those freedoms that make us who we
are.  That means reviewing the authorities of law enforcement, so we can intercept new types of communication,
but also build in privacy protections to prevent abuse.
That means that -- even after Boston -- we do not deport someone or throw somebody in prison in the absence of
evidence.  That means putting careful constraints on the tools the government uses to protect sensitive
information, such as the state secrets doctrine.  And that means finally having a strong Privacy and Civil Liberties
Board to review those issues where our counterterrorism efforts and our values may come into tension.

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The Justice Department’s investigation of national security leaks offers a recent example of the challenges
involved in striking the right balance between our security and our open society.  As Commander-in-Chief, I
believe we must keep information secret that protects our operations and our people in the field.  To do so, we
must enforce consequences for those who break the law and breach their commitment to protect classified
information.  But a free press is also essential for our democracy.  That’s who we are.  And I’m troubled by the
possibility that leak investigations may chill the investigative journalism that holds government accountable.
Journalists should not be at legal risk for doing their jobs.  Our focus must be on those who break the law.  And
that’s why I’ve called on Congress to pass a media shield law to guard against government overreach.  And I’ve
raised these issues with the Attorney General, who shares my concerns.  So he has agreed to review existing
Department of Justice guidelines governing investigations that involve reporters, and he’ll convene a group of
media organizations to hear their concerns as part of that review.  And I’ve directed the Attorney General to report
back to me by July 12th.
Now, all these issues remind us that the choices we make about war can impact -- in sometimes unintended ways
-- the openness and freedom on which our way of life depends.  And that is why I intend to engage Congress
about the existing Authorization to Use Military Force, or AUMF, to determine how we can continue to fight
terrorism without keeping America on a perpetual wartime footing.
The AUMF is now nearly 12 years old.  The Afghan war is coming to an end.  Core al Qaeda is a shell of its former
self.  Groups like AQAP must be dealt with, but in the years to come, not every collection of thugs that labels
themselves al Qaeda will pose a credible threat to the United States.  Unless we discipline our thinking, our
definitions, our actions, we may be drawn into more wars we don’t need to fight, or continue to grant Presidents
unbound powers more suited for traditional armed conflicts between nation states. 
So I look forward to engaging Congress and the American people in efforts to refine, and ultimately repeal, the
AUMF’s mandate.  And I will not sign laws designed to expand this mandate further.  Our systematic effort to
dismantle terrorist organizations must continue.  But this war, like all wars, must end.  That’s what history advises. 
That’s what our democracy demands.
And that brings me to my final topic:  the detention of terrorist suspects.  I’m going to repeat one more time:  As a
matter of policy, the preference of the United States is to capture terrorist suspects.  When we do detain a suspect,
we interrogate them.  And if the suspect can be prosecuted, we decide whether to try him in a civilian court or a
military commission.  
During the past decade, the vast majority of those detained by our military were captured on the battlefield.  In Iraq,
we turned over thousands of prisoners as we ended the war.  In Afghanistan, we have transitioned detention
facilities to the Afghans, as part of the process of restoring Afghan sovereignty. So we bring law of war detention to
an end, and we are committed to prosecuting terrorists wherever we can.
The glaring exception to this time-tested approach is the detention center at Guantanamo Bay.  The original
premise for opening GTMO -- that detainees would not be able to challenge their detention -- was found
unconstitutional five years ago.  In the meantime, GTMO has become a symbol around the world for an America
that flouts the rule of law.  Our allies won’t cooperate with us if they think a terrorist will end up at GTMO. 
During a time of budget cuts, we spend $150 million each year to imprison 166 people -- almost $1 million per
prisoner.  And the Department of Defense estimates that we must spend another $200 million to keep GTMO open
at a time when we’re cutting investments in education and research here at home, and when the Pentagon is
struggling with sequester and budget cuts.
As President, I have tried to close GTMO.  I transferred 67 detainees to other countries before Congress imposed
restrictions to effectively prevent us from either transferring detainees to other countries or imprisoning them here
in the United States. 
These restrictions make no sense.  After all, under President Bush, some 530 detainees were transferred from
GTMO with Congress’s support.  When I ran for President the first time, John McCain supported closing GTMO -this was a bipartisan issue.  No person has ever escaped one of our super-max or military prisons here in the
United States -- ever.  Our courts have convicted hundreds of people for terrorism or terrorism-related offenses,
including some folks who are more dangerous than most GTMO detainees.  They're in our prisons. 
And given my administration’s relentless pursuit of al Qaeda’s leadership, there is no justification beyond politics
for Congress to prevent us from closing a facility that should have never have been opened.  (Applause.)
AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Excuse me, President Obama -- 

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THE PRESIDENT:  So -- let me finish, ma'am.  So today, once again -AUDIENCE MEMBER:  There are 102 people on a hunger strike.  These are desperate people. 
THE PRESIDENT:  I'm about to address it, ma'am, but you've got to let me speak.  I'm about to address it.
AUDIENCE MEMBER:  You're our Commander-In-Chief -THE PRESIDENT:  Let me address it.
AUDIENCE MEMBER:  -- you an close Guantanamo Bay. 
THE PRESIDENT:  Why don’t you let me address it, ma'am.
AUDIENCE MEMBER:  There’s still prisoners -THE PRESIDENT:  Why don’t you sit down and I will tell you exactly what I'm going to do.
AUDIENCE MEMBER:  That includes 57 Yemenis.
THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you, ma'am.  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Ma'am, thank you.  You should let me finish my
sentence. 
Today, I once again call on Congress to lift the restrictions on detainee transfers from GTMO.  (Applause.) 
I have asked the Department of Defense to designate a site in the United States where we can hold military
commissions.  I’m appointing a new senior envoy at the State Department and Defense Department whose sole
responsibility will be to achieve the transfer of detainees to third countries. 
I am lifting the moratorium on detainee transfers to Yemen so we can review them on a case-by-case basis.  To
the greatest extent possible, we will transfer detainees who have been cleared to go to other countries. 
AUDIENCE MEMBER:  -- prisoners already.  Release them today.
THE PRESIDENT:  Where appropriate, we will bring terrorists to justice in our courts and our military justice
system.  And we will insist that judicial review be available for every detainee.
AUDIENCE MEMBER:  It needs to be -THE PRESIDENT:  Now, ma'am, let me finish.  Let me finish, ma'am.  Part of free speech is you being able to
speak, but also, you listening and me being able to speak.  (Applause.)
Now, even after we take these steps one issue will remain -- just how to deal with those GTMO detainees who we
know have participated in dangerous plots or attacks but who cannot be prosecuted, for example, because the
evidence against them has been compromised or is inadmissible in a court of law.  But once we commit to a
process of closing GTMO, I am confident that this legacy problem can be resolved, consistent with our
commitment to the rule of law. 
I know the politics are hard.  But history will cast a harsh judgment on this aspect of our fight against terrorism and
those of us who fail to end it.  Imagine a future -- 10 years from now or 20 years from now -- when the United
States of America is still holding people who have been charged with no crime on a piece of land that is not part of
our country.  Look at the current situation, where we are force-feeding detainees who are being held on a hunger
strike.  I'm willing to cut the young lady who interrupted me some slack because it's worth being passionate about. 
Is this who we are?  Is that something our Founders foresaw?  Is that the America we want to leave our children? 
Our sense of justice is stronger than that. 
We have prosecuted scores of terrorists in our courts.  That includes Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to
blow up an airplane over Detroit; and Faisal Shahzad, who put a car bomb in Times Square. It's in a court of law
that we will try Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is accused of bombing the Boston Marathon.  Richard Reid, the shoe
bomber, is, as we speak, serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison here in the United States.  In
sentencing Reid, Judge William Young told him, “The way we treat you…is the measure of our own liberties.”
AUDIENCE MEMBER:  How about Abdulmutallab -- locking up a 16-year-old -- is that the way we treat a 16-year
old?  (Inaudible) -- can you take the drones out of the hands of the CIA?  Can you stop the signature strikes killing

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people on the basis of suspicious activities?
THE PRESIDENT:  We’re addressing that, ma’am. 
AUDIENCE MEMBER:  -- thousands of Muslims that got killed -- will you compensate the innocent families -- that
will make us safer here at home.  I love my country.  I love (inaudible) -THE PRESIDENT:  I think that -- and I’m going off script, as you might expect here.  (Laughter and applause.)  The
voice of that woman is worth paying attention to.  (Applause.)  Obviously, I do not agree with much of what she
said, and obviously she wasn’t listening to me in much of what I said.  But these are tough issues, and the
suggestion that we can gloss over them is wrong.
When that judge sentenced Mr. Reid, the shoe bomber, he went on to point to the American flag that flew in the
courtroom.  “That flag,” he said, “will fly there long after this is all forgotten.  That flag still stands for freedom.”
So, America, we’ve faced down dangers far greater than al Qaeda.  By staying true to the values of our founding,
and by using our constitutional compass, we have overcome slavery and Civil War and fascism and communism. 
In just these last few years as President, I’ve watched the American people bounce back from painful recession,
mass shootings, natural disasters like the recent tornados that devastated Oklahoma.  These events were
heartbreaking; they shook our communities to the core.  But because of the resilience of the American people,
these events could not come close to breaking us.
I think of Lauren Manning, the 9/11 survivor who had severe burns over 80 percent of her body, who said, “That’s
my reality. I put a Band-Aid on it, literally, and I move on.”
I think of the New Yorkers who filled Times Square the day after an attempted car bomb as if nothing had
happened.
I think of the proud Pakistani parents who, after their daughter was invited to the White House, wrote to us, “We
have raised an American Muslim daughter to dream big and never give up because it does pay off.”
I think of all the wounded warriors rebuilding their lives, and helping other vets to find jobs.
I think of the runner planning to do the 2014 Boston Marathon, who said, “Next year, you’re going to have more
people than ever.  Determination is not something to be messed with.”
That’s who the American people are -- determined, and not to be messed with.  And now we need a strategy and a
politics that reflects this resilient spirit. 
Our victory against terrorism won’t be measured in a surrender ceremony at a battleship, or a statue being pulled
to the ground.  Victory will be measured in parents taking their kids to school; immigrants coming to our shores;
fans taking in a ballgame; a veteran starting a business; a bustling city street; a citizen shouting her concerns at a
President.   
The quiet determination; that strength of character and bond of fellowship; that refutation of fear -- that is both our
sword and our shield.  And long after the current messengers of hate have faded from the world’s memory,
alongside the brutal despots, and deranged madmen, and ruthless demagogues who litter history  -- the flag of the
United States will still wave from small-town cemeteries to national monuments, to distant outposts abroad.  And
that flag will still stand for freedom.
Thank you very, everybody.  God bless you.  May God bless the United States of America.  (Applause.)
3:00 P.M. EDT
 
 

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Exhibit 

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Home • Briefing Room • Speeches & Remarks

The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release

November 25, 2013

Remarks by the President on Immigration Reform -- San
Francisco, CA
Betty Ong Chinese Recreation Center
San Francisco, California
11:55 A.M. PST
THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, everybody!  (Applause.)  Well, hello, San Francisco!  (Applause.)  It is great to be back in
California.  It is great to be with all of you.  I love San Francisco.  (Applause.)  You got great food.  You got great
people, beautiful scenery -- no more super villains because Batkid cleaned up the streets.  (Applause.)  Love
Batkid.  (Laughter.)   
I want to start by thanking Geetha for the wonderful  introduction and the great work that she’s doing.  Give her a
big round of applause.  (Applause.)  I want to thank your Mayor, Ed Lee.  (Applause.)  Lieutenant Governor Gavin
Newsom.  (Applause.)  I want to recognize some wonderful members of Congress who are fighting every day for
the people of California -- Mike Honda -- (applause) -- Eric Swalwell, Judy Chu.  They are all doing great work
every single day.  (Applause.)
We have a special guest, Janet Napolitano, who is now overseeing the entire UC system and going to be doing a
great job.  (Applause.)  We miss her back in Washington, but she is going to be outstanding leading the University
of California.
Now, before I begin, I want to say a few words about the news from the weekend.  I'm here to talk about
immigration reform, but I'm also here in my capacity as Commander-in-Chief, and this weekend, together with our
allies and our partners, the United States reached an agreement with Iran -- (applause) -- on a first step towards
resolving our concerns over its nuclear program. 
Now, some of you may recall that when I first ran for President, I said it was time for a new era of American
leadership in the world -- one that turned the page on a decade of war, and began a new era of our engagement
with the world.  And as President and as Commander-in-Chief, I’ve done what I said.  We ended the war in Iraq;
we brought our troops home.  Osama bin Laden met justice; the war in Afghanistan will end next year. 
And as the strongest, most powerful nation on the face of the Earth, we’ve engaged in clear-eyed and principled
diplomacy  -- even with our adversaries -- in order to begin to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons and to place the
first real constraints in a decade on Iran’s nuclear program.  Because I firmly believe in what President Kennedy
once said:  He said, “Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate.”  I believe that.  And this
diplomacy, backed by the unprecedented sanctions we brought on Iran, has brought us the progress that was
achieved this weekend. 
For the first time in a decade, we’ve halted the progress on Iran’s nuclear program.  Key parts of the program will
be rolled back.  (Applause.)  International inspectors will have unprecedented access to Iran’s nuclear-related
facilities.  So this will help Iran from building a nuclear weapon.  And over the coming months, we’re going to
continue our diplomacy, with the goal of achieving a comprehensive solution that deals with the threat of Iran’s
nuclear program once and for all. 

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And if Iran seizes this opportunity and chooses to join the global community, then we can begin to chip away at the
mistrust that’s existed for many, many years between our two nations.
 
None of that is going to be easy.  Huge challenges remain.  But we cannot close the door on diplomacy.  And we
cannot rule out peaceful solutions to the world’s problems.  We cannot commit ourselves to an endless cycle of
conflict.  And tough talk and bluster may be the easy thing to do politically, but it’s not the right thing for our
security.  It is not the right thing for our security.  (Applause.) 
Now, this progress, and the potential it offers, reminds us of what is possible when the United States has the
courage to lead -- not just with the force of arms, but with the strength of our diplomacy and our commitment to
peace.  That’s what keeps us strong.  That’s what makes us a beacon to the world.  That’s how I’ll continue to lead
so long as I’m President of the United States.
And that spirit -- not just what we can criticize or tear down or be against, but what we can build together -- that’s
what brings me here today.  Because it’s long past time to fix our broken immigration system.  (Applause.)  We
need to make sure Washington finishes what so many Americans just like you started. We’ve got to finish the job.
And it’s fitting that we’re here in Chinatown, just a few miles away from Angel Island.  In the early 1900s, about
300,000 people -- maybe some of your ancestors -- passed through on their way to a new life in America.  And for
many, it represented the end of a long and arduous journey -- they’d finally arrived in a place where they believed
anything was possible.
And for some, it also represented the beginning of a new struggle against prejudice in a country that didn’t always
treat its immigrants fairly or afford them the same rights as everybody else.  Obviously, Asians faced this, but so
did the Irish; so did Italians; so did Jews; and many groups still do today.
That didn’t stop those brave men and women from coming.  They were drawn by a belief in the power of
opportunity; in a belief that says, maybe I never had a chance at a good education, but this is a place where my
daughter can go to college.  Maybe I started out washing dishes, but this is a place where my son can become
mayor of San Francisco.  (Applause.)  Maybe I have to make sacrifices today, but those sacrifices are worth it if it
means a better life for my family.
And that’s a family story that will be shared by millions of Americans around the table on Thursday.  It’s the story
that drew my great-great-great-great-grandfather from a small village in Ireland, and drew my father from a small
village in Kenya.  It’s the story that drew so many of your ancestors here -- that America is a place where you can
make it if you try.
And here’s something interesting:  Today, more than one in four residents born outside the United States came
here from Asian countries -- many through our family immigration system.  They’re doctors and business owners,
laborers, refugees.  This rec center’s namesake, Betty Ong, was a hero on 9/11.  (Applause.)  But she was also
the daughter of immigrants who grew up not far from here.  And we’re honored to have her family with us here
today.  (Applause.)
But too often when we talk about immigration, the debate focuses on our southern border.  The fact is we’re
blessed with immigrants from all over the world who’ve put down roots in every corner of this country.  Here in San
Francisco, 35 percent of business owners are immigrants -- and your economy is among the fastest growing in the
country.  That’s not an accident.  That’s the impact that our talented, hardworking immigrants can have.  That’s the
difference they can make.  They’re hungry and they’re striving and they’re working hard and they’re creating things
that weren’t there before. 
And that’s why it is long past time to reform an immigration system that right now doesn’t serve America as well as
it should. We could be doing so much more to unleash our potential if we just fix this aspect of our system. 
And I know out here in California that you watch the news and you share the country’s not very sunny view of
Washington these days.  For the last few months, you’ve seen a lot of headlines about gridlock and partisan
bickering, and too often one faction of one party in one house of Congress has chosen courses of action that
ended up harming our businesses, or our economy, or our workers.  Or they want to refight old political battles
rather than create jobs and grow the economy and strengthen the middle class, or take 40 more votes to
undermine or repeal the Affordable Care Act -- (laughter) -- instead of passing a single serious jobs bill, despite the
fact that Americans want us to focus on jobs and business and growth.  And, by the way, thousands of Californians
are signing up every day for new health care plans all across this state.  (Applause.)  
So even as we’re getting this darn website up to speed -- (laughter) -- and it's getting better -- states like California
are proving the law works.  People want the financial security of health insurance.

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AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Thanks to you!
THE PRESIDENT:  And even if you’re already insured, reach out to a friend or neighbor who’s not and help them
get covered.
But when it comes to immigration reform, we have to have the confidence to believe we can get this done.  And
we should get it done.  And, by the way, most Americans agree.  The only thing standing in our way right now is
the unwillingness of certain Republicans in Congress to catch up with the rest of the country. 
I met the other day with the CEOs of some of America's biggest companies.  And I'm positive not all of them voted
for me.  (Laughter.)  I'm pretty sure.  (Laughter.)  Maybe some of them, but definitely not all of them.  But the thing
they wanted to talk about, their top priority was the fact that we invite the brightest minds from around the world to
study here -- many of them enrolled in the University of California system -- and then we don't invite them to stay. 
We end up sending them home to create new jobs and start new businesses someplace else.  So we're training
our own competition, rather than invite those incredibly talented young people, like Geetha, to stay here and start
businesses and create jobs here. 
I hear from folks who’ve been separated from their families for years because of green card backlogs who
desperately want their loved ones to be able to join them here in America.  I hear from young DREAMers who are
Americans through and through in every way but on paper, and they just want a chance to study and serve and
contribute to the nation that they love.  (Applause.) 
I talk to business owners who play by the rules, but get frustrated because they end up being undercut by those
who exploit workers in a shadow economy -- aren't getting paid overtime, aren't required to meet the same
obligations.  And so those companies end up losing out on business.
Right now, I'm seeing brave advocates who have been fasting for two weeks in the shadow of the Capitol,
sacrificing themselves in an effort to get Congress to act.  And I want to say to Eliseo Medina, my friend from
SEIU, and the other fasters who are there as we speak, I want them to know we hear you.  We're with you.  The
whole country hears you. 
And there are plenty of leaders –- Democrat and Republican  –- who don’t think it’s fair that we’ve got 11 million
people in this country, including more than a million from Asia, with no real way to come forward and get on the
right side of the law.  It’s not smart.  It’s not fair.  It doesn’t make sense.  And we have kicked this particular can
down the road long enough.  Everybody knows it.
Now, the good news is we know what the solutions are.  There is bipartisan hope of getting it done.  This year, the
Senate passed an immigration reform bill by a wide, bipartisan majority, and it addresses the key issues that need
to be addressed.  It would strengthen our borders.  It would level the playing field by holding employers
accountable if they knowingly hire undocumented workers.  It would modernize our legal immigration system so
that we eliminate the backlog of family visas and make it easier to attract highly skilled entrepreneurs from beyond
our borders.  It would make sure that everybody plays by the same rules by providing a pathway to earned
citizenship for those who are living in the shadows –- a path that includes passing a background check, and
learning English, and paying taxes and a penalty, and getting in line behind everyone trying to come here the right
way. 
And each of these pieces would go a long way towards fixing our broken immigration system.  Each of them has
been supported by Democrats and Republicans in the past.  There’s no reason we can’t come together and get it
done.
And what's more, we know the immigration reform that we're proposing would boost our economy and shrink our
deficits.  Independent economists have said that if the Senate bill became law, over the next two decades, our
economy would grow by $1.4 trillion more, and it would reduce our deficits by $850 billion more. 
And you don’t have to be an economist to figure out that workers will be more productive if they’ve got their
families here with them, they're not worried about deportation, they're not living halfway around the world.  This
isn’t just the right thing to do -– it’s the smart thing to do.
Of course, just because something is smart, fair, good for the economy, and supported by business, labor, law
enforcement and faith leaders -- (laughter) -- Democratic and Republican governors, including the Governor of this
state –- just because all that is in place doesn’t mean we'll actually get it done, because this is Washington, after
all, that we’re talking about and everything is looked through a political prism.  And, look, let's be honest, some
folks automatically think, well, if Obama’s for it, then I've got to be against it even if I was, before that, I was for it.
But I want to remind everybody, to his great credit, my Republican predecessor, President Bush, was for reform. 

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He proposed reform like this almost a decade ago.  I was in the Senate.  I joined 23 Senate Republicans back then
supporting reform.  It's worth remembering that the Senate bill that just passed won more than a dozen Republican
votes this past summer.  And some of them even forget that I'm -- sometimes people forget I'm not running for
office again.  Michelle doesn’t forget.   (Laughter and applause.)  So you don’t have to worry about this somehow
being good for me.  This is good for the country.   It's the right thing to do for the American people. 
And I believe, ultimately -- not always in the short term -- but ultimately, good policy is good politics.  Look at the
polls right now, because the American people support immigration reform by a clear majority.  Everybody wins if
we get this done.  So there's no reason we shouldn’t get immigration reform done right now.  None.  If there is a
good reason I haven't heard it.
And, by the way, if there's a better plan out there than the one that Democrats and Republicans have already
advanced together, if there are additional ideas that would make it even better, I’m always willing to listen to new
ideas.  My door is always open.  But right now it’s up to Republicans in the House to decide if we can move
forward as a country on this bill.  If they don’t want to see it happen, they’ve got to explain why.
The good news is, just this past week Speaker Boehner said that he is “hopeful we can make progress” on
immigration reform. And that is good news.  I believe the Speaker is sincere.  I think he genuinely wants to get it
done.  And that’s something we should be thankful for this week.  And I think there are a number of other House
Republicans who also want to get this done.  Some of them are hesitant to do it in one big bill, like the Senate
did.  That’s okay.  They can -- it’s Thanksgiving; we can carve that bird into multiple pieces.  (Laughter.)  A
drumstick here -- (laughter) -- breast meat there.  But as long as all the pieces get done -- soon -- and we actually
deliver on the core values we’ve been talking about for so long, I think everybody is fine with it.  They're not worried
about the procedures.  They just want the result.
But it’s going to require some courage.  There are some members of the Republican caucus who think this is bad
politics for them back home.  And they're free to vote their conscience, but what I’ve said to the Speaker and
others is, don't let a minority of folks block something that the country desperately needs.  And we can’t leave this
problem for another generation to solve.  If we don’t tackle this now, then we’re undercutting our own future. 
So my message to Congress is rather than create problems, let’s prove Washington can get something done.  This
is something that has broad-based support.  We’ve been working on it for a decade now.  This reform comes as
close as we’ve gotten to something that will benefit everybody, now and for decades to come.  And it has the
potential to enrich this country in ways that we can’t even imagine.
And I’ll just give you one example to wrap up.  Andrew Ly is here today.  Where’s Andrew?  He’s around here
somewhere.  There he is.  Now, Andrew has got an amazing story.  Andrew grew up in Vietnam, and he and his
four brothers tried three times to flee to the United States.  Obviously, the country was going through all kinds of
difficulties.  So three times, they tried; three times, they failed.  On the fourth try, their boat –- filled with 140
refugees -- is that right, Andrew -– was attacked by pirates.
But the Lys and their family eventually made it to Malaysia, and then they eventually made it here to San
Francisco.  And they learned English, and they worked as handymen, and they worked as seamstresses.  And
eventually, Andrew and his brothers earned enough money to buy a small bakery.  And they started making
donuts, and they started selling them to Chinese restaurants.  And with a lot of hard work and a little luck, the
Sugar Bowl Bakery today is a $60 million business.  (Applause.) 
So these humble and striving immigrants from Vietnam now employ more than 300 Americans.  They’re supplying
pastries to Costco and Safeway, and almost every hotel and hospital in San Francisco.  And I don't know if
Andrew brought me any samples, but -- (laughter) -- they must be pretty good.  (Laughter.)   
And Andrew says, “We came here as boat people, so we don’t take things for granted.  We know this is the best
country in the world if you work hard.”  That’s what America is about.  This is the place where you can reach for
something better if you work hard.  This is the country our parents and our grandparents and waves of immigrants
before them built for us.  And it falls on each new generation to keep it that way.  The Statue of Liberty doesn’t
have its back to the world.  The Statue of Liberty faces the world and raises its light to the world. 
When Chinese immigrants came to this city in search of “Gold Mountain,” they weren’t looking just for physical
riches.  They were looking for freedom and opportunity.  They knew that what makes us American is not a question
of what we look like or what our names are -- because we look like the world.  You got a President named
Obama.  (Laughter and applause.)  What makes us American is our shared belief in certain enduring principles,
our allegiance to a set of ideals, to a creed, to the enduring promise of this country. 
And our shared responsibility is to leave this country more generous, more hopeful than we found it.  And if we
stay true to that history -- if we get immigration reform across the finish line -- and it is there just within our grasp, if

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we can just get folks in Washington to go ahead and do what needs to be done -- we’re going to grow our
economy; we’re going to make our country more secure; we’ll strengthen our families; and most importantly, we
will live -AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Mr. Obama -THE PRESIDENT:  -- most importantly, we will live up -AUDIENCE MEMBER:  -- my family has been separated for 19 months now -THE PRESIDENT:  -- most importantly, we will live up to our character as a nation.
AUDIENCE MEMBER:  I’ve not seen my family.  Our families are separated.  I need your help.  There are
thousands of people -THE PRESDIENT:  That’s exactly what we’re talking about.
AUDIENCE MEMBER:  -- are torn apart every single day. 
THE PRESIDENT:  That’s why we’re here.
AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Mr. President, please use your executive order to halt deportations for all 11.5
undocumented immigrants in this country right now. 
THE PRESIDENT:  What we’re trying -AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Do you agree
AUDIENCE:  Obama!  Obama!  Obama!
AUDIENCE MEMBER:  -- that we need to pass comprehensive immigration reform at the same time we -- you
have a power to stop deportation for all undocumented immigrants in this country. 
THE PRESIDENT:  Actually I don’t.  And that’s why we’re here.
AUDIENCE MEMBER:  So, please, I need your help. 
THE PRESIDENT:  Okay -- 
AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Stop deportations! 
AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Stop deportations! 
THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  All right. 
AUDIENCE MEMBERS:  Stop deportations!  Stop deportations!
THE PRESIDENT:  What I’d like to do -- no, no, don’t worry about it, guys.  Okay, let me finish. 
AUDIENCE MEMBERS:  Stop deportations!  Yes, we can!  Stop deportations!
THE PRESIDENT:  These guys don’t need to go.  Let me finish. No, no, no, he can stay there.  Hold on a second. 
(Applause.)  Hold on a second. 
So I respect the passion of these young people because they feel deeply about the concerns for their families. 
Now, what you need to know, when I’m speaking as President of the United States and I come to this community,
is that if, in fact, I could solve all these problems without passing laws in Congress, then I would do so. 
But we’re also a nation of laws.  That’s part of our tradition.  And so the easy way out is to try to yell and pretend
like I can do something by violating our laws.  And what I’m proposing is the harder path, which is to use our
democratic processes to achieve the same goal that you want to achieve.  But it won’t be as easy as just shouting. 
It requires us lobbying and getting it done.  (Applause.)
So for those of you who are committed to getting this done, I am going to march with you and fight with you every
step of the way to make sure that we are welcoming every striving, hardworking immigrant who sees America the

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same way we do -- as a country where no matter who you are or what you look like or where you come from, you
can make it if you try. 
And if you’re serious about making that happen, then I’m ready to work with you.  (Applause.)  But it is going to
require work.  It is not simply a matter of us just saying we’re going to violate the law.  That’s not our tradition.  The
great thing about this country is we have this wonderful process of democracy, and sometimes it is messy, and
sometimes it is hard, but ultimately, justice and truth win out.  That’s always been the case in this country; that’s
going to continue to be the case today.  (Applause.)
Thank you very much, everybody.  God bless you.  God bless America.  (Applause.)
END
12:24 P.M. PST

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Exhibit 

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Home • Briefing Room • Speeches & Remarks

The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release

December 20, 2013

Press Conference by the President
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
 
 
2:18 P.M. EST
 
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Good afternoon, everybody.  I know you are all eager to skip town and spend some time
with your families.  Not surprisingly, I am, too.  But you know what they say -- it’s the most wonderful press
conference of the year -- right now.  (Laughter.)  I am eager to take your questions, but first, I just want to say a few
words about our economy.
 
In 2013, our businesses created another 2 million jobs, adding up to more than 8 million in just over the past 45
months. This morning, we learned that over the summer, our economy grew at its strongest pace in nearly two
years.  The unemployment rate has steadily fallen to its lowest point in five years.  Our tax code is fairer, and our
fiscal situation is firmer, with deficits that are now less than half of what they were when I took office. 
For the first time in nearly two decades, we now produce more oil here at home than we buy from the rest of the
world, and our all-of-the-above strategy for new American energy means lower energy costs.  The Affordable Care
Act has helped keep health care costs growing at their slowest rate in 50 years.  Combined, that means bigger
paychecks for middle-class families and bigger savings for businesses looking to invest and hire here in America.
 
And for all the challenges we’ve had and all the challenges that we've been working on diligently in dealing with
both the ACA and the website these past couple months, more than half a million Americans have enrolled through
healthcare.gov in the first three weeks of December alone.  In California, for example, a state operating its own
marketplace, more than 15,000 Americans are enrolling every single day.  And in the federal website, tens of
thousands are enrolling every single day.  Since October 1st, more than one million Americans have selected new
health insurance plans through the federal and state marketplaces.  So, all told, millions of Americans, despite the
problems with the website, are now poised to be covered by quality, affordable health insurance come New Year’s
Day.  Now, this holiday season, there are mothers and fathers and entrepreneurs and workers who have
something new to celebrate -- the security of knowing that when the unexpected or misfortune strikes, hardship no
longer has to.
 
And you add that all up and what it means is we head into next year with an economy that’s stronger than it was
when we started the year.  More Americans are finding work and experiencing the pride of a paycheck.  Our
businesses are positioned for new growth and new jobs.  And I firmly believe that 2014 can be a breakthrough
year for America.  But as I outlined in detail earlier this month, we all know there’s a lot more that we're going to
have to do to restore opportunity and broad-based growth for every American.  And that’s going to require some
action.
 
It’s a good start that earlier this week, for the first time in years, both parties in both houses of Congress came
together to pass a budget.  That unwinds some of the damaging sequester cuts that created headwinds for our
economy.  It clears the path for businesses and for investments that we need to strengthen our middle class, like
education and scientific research.  And it means that the American people won’t be exposed to the threat of
another reckless shutdown every few months.  So that's a good thing.
 
It’s probably too early to declare an outbreak of bipartisanship.  But it’s also fair to say that we’re not condemned
to endless gridlock.  There are areas where we can work together. 
 
I believe that work should begin with something that Republicans in Congress should have done before leaving
town this week, and that's restoring the temporary insurance that helps folks make ends meet when they are

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looking for a job.  Because Congress didn’t act, more than one million of their constituents will lose a vital
economic lifeline at Christmastime, leaving a lot of job-seekers without any source of income at all. 
 
I think we’re a better country than that.  We don’t abandon each other when times are tough.  Keep in mind
unemployment insurance only goes to folks who are actively looking for work -- a mom who needs help feeding
her kids when she sends out her resumes, or a dad who needs help paying the rent while working part-time and
still earning the skills he needs for that new job. So when Congress comes back to work, their first order of
business should be making this right.  I know a bipartisan group is working on a three-month extension of this
insurance.  They should pass it, and I’ll sign it right away. 
 
Let me repeat:  I think 2014 needs to be a year of action.  We’ve got work to do to create more good jobs, to help
more Americans earn the skills and education they need to do those jobs and to make sure that those jobs offer
the wages and benefits that let families build a little bit of financial security.  We still have the task of finishing the
fix on our broken immigration system.  We’ve got to build on the progress we’ve painstakingly made over these last
five years with respect to our economy and offer the middle class and all those who are looking to join the middle
class a better opportunity, and that's going to be where I focus all of my efforts in the year ahead.
 
And let me conclude by saying just as we're strengthening our position here at home, we're also standing up for
our interests around the world.  This year, we’ve demonstrated that with clear-eyed, principled diplomacy, we can
pursue new paths to a world that’s more secure -- a future where Iran does not build a nuclear weapon; a future
where Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles are destroyed.  By the end of next year, the war in Afghanistan will be
over, just as we’ve ended our war in Iraq, and we’ll continue to bring our troops home.  And, as always, we will
remain vigilant to protect our homeland and our personnel overseas from terrorist attacks.
 
Of course, a lot of our men and women in uniform are still overseas, and a lot of them are still spending their
Christmas far away from their family and their friends, and in some cases, are still in harm’s way.  So I want to
close by saying to them and their families back home, we want to thank you.  Your country stands united in
supporting you and being grateful for your service and your sacrifice.  We will keep you in our thoughts and in our
prayers during this season of hope.
 
So, before I wish a Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night, I will take some questions.  Jay prepared a list
of who’s naughty and nice -- (laughter) -- so we'll see who made it.
 
Julie must be nice.  (Laughter.)  Julie Pace.
 
Q    Thank you, Mr. President.  Despite all of the data points that you cited in your opening statement, when you
look back at this year, very little of the domestic agenda that you outlined in your inaugural address and your State
of the Union have been achieved.  Health care rollout obviously had huge problems and your ratings from the
public are near historic lows for you.  When you take this altogether, has this been the worst year of your
presidency?
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  I’ve got to tell you, Julie, that’s not how I think about it.  I have now been in office five years - close to five years -- was running for President for two years before that, and for those of you who’ve covered me
during that time, we have had ups and we have had downs.  I think this room has probably recorded at least 15
near-death experiences.  And what I’ve been focused on each and every day is are we moving the ball in helping
the American people -- families -- have more opportunity, have a little more security to feel as if, if they work hard,
they can get ahead. 
 
And if I look at this past year, there are areas where there obviously have been some frustrations, where I wish
Congress had moved more aggressively.  Not passing background checks in the wake of Newtown is something
that I continue to believe was a mistake.  But then I also look at because of the debate that occurred, all the work
that’s been done at state levels to increase gun safety and to make sure that we don’t see tragedies like that
happen again.
 
     There’s a lot of focus on legislative activity at the congressional level, but even when Congress doesn’t move on
things they should move on, there are a whole bunch of things that we’re still doing.  So we don’t always get
attention for it, but the ConnectEd program that we announced where we’re going to be initiating wireless capacity
in every classroom in America will make a huge difference for kids all across this country, and for teachers. 
 
A manufacturing hub that we set up in Youngstown, something that I talked about during the State of the Union, is
going to create innovation and connect universities, manufacturers, job training to help create a renaissance -build on the renaissance that we’re seeing in manufacturing. 
 
     When it comes to energy, this year is going to be the first year in a very long time where we’re producing more
oil and natural gas here in this country than we’re importing.  That’s a big deal. 
 
So I understand the point that you’re getting at, Julie, which is that a lot of our legislative initiatives in Congress
have not moved forward as rapidly as I’d like.  I completely understand that, which means that I’m going to keep at
it.  And if you look at, for example, immigration reform, probably the biggest thing that I wanted to get done this
year, we saw progress.  It passed the Senate with a strong bipartisan vote.  There are indications in the House that
even though it did not get completed this year that there is a commitment on the part of the Speaker to try to move
forward legislation early next year.  And the fact that it didn’t hit the timeline that I’d prefer is obviously frustrating
but it’s not something that I end up brooding a lot about.
 
     Q    But, sir, it’s not just your legislative agenda.  When you look at polling and you talk to Americans, they seem

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to have lost confidence in you, trust in you.  Your credibility has taken a hit.  Obviously the health care law was a
big part of that.  So do you understand that the public has changed in some way their view of you over this year?
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  But, Julie, I guess what I’m saying is if you’re measuring this by polls, my polls have gone up
and down a lot through the course of my career.  I mean, if I was interested in polling, I wouldn't have run for
President.  I was polling at 70 percent when I was in the U.S. Senate.  I took this job to deliver for the American
people.  And I knew and will continue to know that there are going to be ups and downs on it.
 
     You're right, the health care website problems were a source of great frustration.  I think in the last press
conference I adequately discussed my frustrations on those.  On the other hand, since that time I now have a
couple million people, maybe more, who are going to have health care on January 1st.  And that is a big deal.
 That's why I ran for this office. 
 
And as long as I've got an opportunity every single day to make sure that in ways large and small I'm creating
greater opportunity for people -- more kids are able to go to school, get the education they need; more families are
able to stabilize their finances; the housing market is continuing to improve; people feel like their wages maybe are
inching up a little bit -- if those things are happening, I'll take it. 
 
     And I've said before, I've run my last political race.  So at this point, my goal every single day is just to make
sure that I can look back and say we're delivering something -- not everything, because this is a long haul.
 
     Mark Felsenthal.
 
     Q    Thank you, Mr. President.  One of the most significant events of this year was the revelation of the
surveillance by the National Security Agency.  As you review how to rein in the National Security Agency, a federal
judge said that, for example, the government had failed to cite a single instance in which analysis of the NSA's bulk
metadata actually stopped an imminent attack.  Are you able to identify any specific examples when it did so?  Are
you convinced that the collection of that data is useful to national security and should continue as it is?
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Let me talk more broadly, and then I'll talk specifically about the program you're referring to. 
 
As you know, the independent panel that I put together came back with a series of recommendations, 46 in total.  I
had an extensive meeting with them down in the Situation Room to review all the recommendations that they had
made.  I want to thank them publicly, because I think they did an excellent job and took my charge very seriously,
which is I told them I want you to look from top to bottom at what we're doing and evaluate whether or not the
current structures that we have and the current programs that we have are properly addressing both our continuing
need to keep ourselves secure and to prevent terrorist attacks, or proliferation of weapons of mass destruction or
other threats to the homeland, and are we also making sure that we're taking seriously rule of law and our
concerns about privacy and civil liberties.
 
     So what we're doing now is evaluating all the recommendations that have been made.  Over the next several
weeks, I'm going to assess based on conversations not just with the intelligence community but others in
government and outside of government how we might apply and incorporate their recommendations.  And I'm
going to make a pretty definitive statement about all of this in January where I'll be able to say, here are the
recommendations that we think make sense; here are ones that we think are promising but still need to be refined
further; here's how it relates to the work we're doing not just internally but also in partnership with other countries.
 And so I'm taking this very seriously because I think, as I've said before, this is a debate that needed to be had. 
 
One specific program, the 215 program, is the metadata, the bulk collection of phone numbers and exchanges that
have taken place that has probably gotten the most attention, at least with respect to domestic audiences.  And
what I've said in the past continues to be the case, which is that the NSA, in executing this program, believed,
based on experiences from 9/11, that it was important for us to be able to track if there was a phone number of a
known terrorist outside of the United States calling into the United States, where that call might have gone, and
that having that data in one place and retained for a certain period of time allowed them to be confident in
pursuing various investigations of terrorist threats.
 
And I think it's important to note that in all the reviews of this program that have been done, in fact, there have not
been actual instances where it's been alleged that the NSA in some ways acted inappropriately in the use of this
data.  But what is also clear is from the public debate, people are concerned about the prospect, the possibility of
abuse.  And I think that’s what the judge and the district court suggested.  And although his opinion obviously
differs from rulings on the FISA Court, we're taking those into account.
 
The question we're going to have to ask is can we accomplish the same goals that this program is intended to
accomplish in ways that give the public more confidence that, in fact, the NSA is doing what it's supposed to be
doing.  I have confidence in the fact that the NSA is not engaging in domestic surveillance or snooping around, but
I also recognize that as technologies change and people can start running algorithms and programs that map out
all the information that we're downloading on a daily basis into our telephones and our computers, that we may
have to refine this further to give people more confidence.  And I'm going to be working very hard on doing that.
 
And we've got to provide more confidence to the international community.  In some ways, what has been more
challenging is the fact that we do have a lot of laws and checks and balances and safeguards and audits when it
comes to making sure that the NSA and other intelligence agencies are not spying on Americans.  We’ve had less
legal constraint in terms of what we’re doing internationally.  But I think part of what’s been interesting about this
whole exercise is recognizing that in a virtual world, some of these boundaries don’t matter anymore, and just
because we can do something doesn’t mean we necessarily should.  And the values that we’ve got as Americans

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are ones that we have to be willing to apply beyond our borders I think perhaps more systematically than we’ve
done in the past.
 
     Okay?  Ed Henry.
 
     Q    Thank you, Mr. President.  I want to follow up on that because -- and merry Christmas, by the way.
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Merry Christmas to you.
 
     Q    When Edward Snowden first started leaking the information, you made a statement on June 7th in
California, and you claimed to the American people that you had already reformed many of these surveillance
programs.  You said you came into office -- “my team evaluated them, we scrubbed them thoroughly, we actually
expanded some of the oversight,” and you did expand some of it.  
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Yes.
 
     Q    You also said we may have to rebalance some, there may be changes.  But you concluded with, “You can
complain about Big Brother and how this is a potential program run amok.  But when you actually look at the
details, then I think we’ve struck the right balance.”  That was only six months ago.  Now this judge is saying no,
your own panel is saying no, even you’re saying no, we haven’t really struck the right balance perhaps, that
changes have to be made.  My question is:  Were you wrong then because you were not fully read in not just on
these programs but on other programs outside of the ones you just talked about, where we were potentially
listening in on the German leaders, the Brazilian leaders and others, that suggest there were abuses?  Number
one. 
 
     And number two, if you were fully read in on these programs, is it another example of what Julie was getting at
with this question of credibility with the American people, that just like on health care, “you like your plan, you can
keep it”?  On surveillance, you looked the American people in the eye six months ago and said, “We’ve got the
right balance,” and six months later you’re saying maybe not.
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Well, hold on a second, Ed.  I think it’s important to note that when it comes to the right
balance on surveillance, these are a series of judgment calls that we’re making every single day, because we’ve
got a whole bunch of folks whose job it is to make sure that the American people are protected.  And that’s a hard
job, because if something slips, then the question that’s coming from you the next day at a press conference is,
“Mr. President, why didn’t you catch that?  Why did the intelligence people allow that to slip?  Isn’t there a way that
we could have found out that in fact this terrorist attack took place?”
 
     Q    so why were you so -- why did you say we struck the right balance?
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  So the point is, Ed, not that my assessment of the 215 program has changed in terms of
technically how it works.  What is absolutely clear to me is that given the public debate that’s taken place and the
disclosures that have taken place over the last several months, that this is only going to work if the American
people have confidence and trust. 
 
     Now, part of the challenge is, is that because of the manner in which these disclosures took place, in dribs and
drabs, oftentimes shaded in a particular way, and because of some of the constraints that we’ve had in terms of
declassifying information and getting it out there, that that trust in how many safeguards exist and how these
programs are run has been diminished.  So what’s going to be important is to build that back up.  And I take that
into account in weighing how we structure these programs. 
 
     So let me just be very specific on the 215 program.  It is possible, for example, that some of the same
information that the intelligence community feels is required to keep people safe can be obtained by having the
private phone companies keep these records longer and to create some mechanism where they can be accessed
in an effective fashion. 
 
That might cost more.  There might need to be different checks on how those requests are made.  There may be
technological solutions that have to be found to do that.  And the question that we’re asking ourselves now is,
does that make sense not only because of the fact that there are concerns about potential abuse down the road
with the metadata that’s being kept by a government rather than private companies, but also does it make sense to
do it because people right now are concerned that maybe their phone calls are being listened to, even if they’re
not?  And we’ve got to factor that in.
 
     So my point is, is that the environment has changed in ways that I think require us to take that into account.  But
the analysis that I’ve been doing throughout has always been periodically looking at what we’re doing and asking
ourselves, are we doing this in the right way?  Are we making sure that we’re keeping the American people safe,
number one?  Are we also being true to our civil liberties and our privacy and our values?
 
     Q    I understand it’s a tough job, and, God forbid, there’s another terror attack, every one of us is going to be
second-guessing you, and that is extremely difficult to be in the Oval Office.
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  That’s okay.  I volunteered.
 
     Q    But as you said, you took that on. 
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Yes.

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     Q    You put it on your back.  And so my question is do you have any personal regrets?  You’re not addressing
the fact the public statements you’ve made to reassure the public -- your Director of National Intelligence, James
Clapper, months ago went up, got a question from a Democrat, not a Republican, about whether some of this was
going on, and he denied it.  Doesn’t that undermine the public trust?
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Ed, you're conflating, first of all, me and Mr. Clapper - 
     Q    He's the Director of National -- he's still on the job.
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  I understand.  But what I'm saying is this, that, yes, these are tough problems that I am glad
to have the privilege of tackling.  Your initial question was whether the statements that I made six months ago are
ones that I don't stand by.  And what I'm saying is, is that the statements I made then are entirely consistent with
the statements that I make now, which is that we believed that we had scrubbed these programs and struck an
appropriate balance, and there had not been evidence and there continues not to be evidence that the particular
program had been abused in how it was used, and that it was a useful tool, working with other tools that the
intelligence community has, to ensure that if we have a thread on a potential terrorist threat, that that can be
followed effectively.
 
     What I've also said, though, is that in light of the disclosures that have taken place, it is clear that whatever
benefits the configuration of this particular program may have may be outweighed by the concerns that people
have on its potential abuse.  And if that's the case, there may be another way of skinning the cat.
 
     So we just keep on going at this stuff and saying, can we do this better?  Can we do this more effectively?  I
think that the panel's recommendations are consistent with that.  So if you had a chance to read the overall
recommendations, what they were very clear about is we need this intelligence.  We can't unilaterally disarm.
 There are ways we can do it potentially that gives people greater assurance that there are checks and balances,
that there's sufficient oversight, sufficient transparency.  Programs like 215 could be redesigned in ways that give
you the same information when you need it without creating these potentials for abuse. 
 
And that's exactly what we should be doing, is to evaluate all these things in a very clear, specific way, and moving
forward on changes.  And that's what I intend to do.
 
     Q    So you have no regrets?  You have no regrets?
    
     THE PRESIDENT:  That's what I intend to do.
 
     Jon Karl. 
 
     Q    Thank you, Mr. President.  It's been a tough year.  You may not want to call it the worst year of your
presidency, but it's clearly been a tough year.  The polls have gone up and down, but they are at a low point right
now.  So what I'm asking you -- you've acknowledged the difficulties with the health care rollout.  But when you look
back and you look at the decisions that you have made and what you did, what you didn't do, for you personally,
what do you think has been your biggest mistake?
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  With respect to health care, specifically, or just generally?
 
     Q    The whole thing, back at this tough year.
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Well, there's no doubt that when it came to the health care rollout, even though I was
meeting every other week or every three weeks with folks and emphasizing how important it was that consumers
had a good experience, an easy experience in getting the information they need, and knowing what the choices
and options were for them to be able to get high-quality, affordable health care, the fact is it didn't happen in the
first month, the first six weeks, in a way that was at all acceptable.  And since I'm in charge, obviously we screwed
it up.
 
     Part of it, as I've said before, had to do with how IT procurement generally is done, and it almost predates this
year. Part of it, obviously, has to do with the fact that there were not clear enough lines of authority in terms of
who was in charge of the technology and cracking the whip on a whole bunch of contractors.  So there were a
whole bunch of things that we've been taking a look at, and I'm going to be making appropriate adjustments once
we get through this year and we've gotten through the initial surge of people who’ve been signing up.
 
     But having said all that, bottom line also is, is that we've got several million people who are going to have health
care that works.  And it's not that I don't engage in a lot of self-reflection here.  I promise you, I probably beat
myself up even worse than you or Ed Henry does on any given day.  But I've also got to wake up in the morning
and make sure that I do better the next day, and that we keep moving forward. 
 
     And when I look at the landscape for next year, what I say to myself is, we're poised to do really good things.
 The economy is stronger than it has been in a very long time.  Our next challenge then is to make sure that
everybody benefits from that, not just a few folks.  And there are still too many people who haven't seen a raise
and are still feeling financially insecure. 
     We can get immigration reform done.  We've got a concept that has bipartisan support.  Let's see if we can
break through the politics on this. 
 
     I think that, hopefully, folks have learned their lesson in terms of brinksmanship, coming out of the government

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shutdown.  There have been times where I thought about, were there other ways that I could have prevented those
three, four weeks that hampered the economy and hurt individual families who were not getting a paycheck during
that time -- absolutely.  But I also think that, in some ways, given the pattern that we had been going through with
House Republicans for a while, we might have needed just a little bit of a bracing sort of recognition that this is not
what the American people think is acceptable.  They want us to try to solve problems and be practical, even if we
can’t get everything done.
 
     So the end of the year is always a good time to reflect and see what can you do better next year.  That’s how I
intend to approach it.  I’m sure that I will have even better ideas after a couple days of sleep and sun. 
 
     Brianna.
 
     Q    Thank you, Mr. President.  On the debt ceiling, your Treasury Secretary has estimated that the U.S.
government will lose its ability to pay its bills come late February or early March.  House Budget Committee
Chairman Paul Ryan has said that “Republicans are going to decide what it is they can accomplish on this debt
limit fight” -- his words.  Will you negotiate with House Republicans on the debt ceiling?
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Oh, Brianna, you know the answer to this question.  No, we’re not going to negotiate for
Congress to pay bills that it has accrued. 
 
Here’s the good news -- I want to emphasize the positive as we enter into this holiday season.  I think
Congressman Ryan and Senator Murray did a good job in trying to narrow the differences and actually pass a
budget that I can sign.  It’s not everything that I would like, obviously.  It buys back part of these across-the-board
cuts, the so-called sequester, but not all of them.  So we’re still underfunding research; we’re still underfunding
education; we’re still underfunding transportation and other initiatives that would create jobs right now. 
 
But it was an honest conversation.  They operated in good faith.  And given how far apart the parties have been on
fiscal issues, they should take pride in what they did.  And I actually called them after they struck the deal and I
said congratulations, and I hope that creates a good pattern for next year, where we work on at least the things we
agree to, even if we agree to disagree on some of the other big-ticket items.
 
     I think immigration potentially falls in that category, where let’s -- here’s an area where we’ve got bipartisan
agreement.  There are a few differences here and there, but the truth of the matter is, is that the Senate bill has the
main components of comprehensive immigration reform that would boost our economy, give us an opportunity to
attract more investment and high-skilled workers who are doing great things in places like Silicon Valley and
around the country.  So let’s go ahead and get that done.
 
     Now, I can’t imagine that having seen this possible daylight breaking when it comes to cooperation in Congress
that folks are thinking actually about plunging us back into the kinds of brinksmanship and governance by crisis
that has done us so much harm over the last couple of years. 
 
To repeat:  The debt ceiling is raised simply to pay bills that we have already accrued.  It is not something that is a
negotiating tool.  It's not leverage.  It's the responsibility of Congress.  It's part of doing their job.  I expect them to
do their job.  Although I'm happy to talk to them about any of the issues that they actually want to get done.  So if
Congressman Ryan is interested in tax reform, let's go.  I've got some proposals on it.  If he's interested in any
issue out there, I'm willing to have a constructive conversation of the sort that we just had in resolving the budget
issues.  But I've got to assume folks aren't crazy enough to start that thing all over again.
 
Q    If I may just quickly, on a more personal note, what is your New Year's resolution?
 
THE PRESIDENT:  My New Year's resolution is to be nicer to the White House Press Corps.  (Laughter.)  You
know?  Absolutely.
 
Q    All right. 
 
THE PRESIDENT:  Major Garrett. 
 
Q    That's quite a lead-in, Mr. President, thank you.  Rick Leggett, who is the head of the NSA task force on
Edward Snowden, told "60 Minutes" that it was, "worth having a conversation about granting Edward Snowden
amnesty."  To what degree, sir, were you pleased that he floated this trial balloon?  And under what circumstances
would you consider either a plea agreement or amnesty for Edward Snowden?  And what do you say to
Americans, sir, who after possibly being alerted to Judge Leon's decision earlier this week, reading the panel
recommendations, do you believe Edward Snowden set in motion something that is proper and just in this country
about the scope of surveillance and should not be considered by this government a criminal?
 
THE PRESIDENT:  I've got to be careful here, Major, because Mr. Snowden is under indictment, he's been
charged with crimes. And that's the province of the Attorney General and, ultimately, a judge and a jury.  So I can't
weigh in specifically on this case at this point.  I'll make -- I'll try to see if I can get at the spirit of the question, even
if I can't talk about the specifics.
 
I've said before and I believe that this is an important conversation that we needed to have.  I've also said before
that the way in which these disclosures happened have been damaging to the United States and damaging to our
intelligence capabilities. And I think that there was a way for us to have this conversation without that damage. 
 
I'll give you just one specific example.  The fact of the matter is that the United States, for all our warts, is a country

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that abides by rule of law, that cares deeply about privacy, that cares about civil liberties, that cares about our
Constitution.  And as a consequence of these disclosures, we've got countries who actually do the things that Mr.
Snowden says he's worried about very explicitly -- engaging in surveillance of their own citizens, targeting political
dissidents, targeting and suppressing the press -- who somehow are able to sit on the sidelines and act as if it's the
United States that has problems when it comes to surveillance and intelligence operations.  And that’s a pretty
distorted view of what's going on out there.
 
So I think that as important and as necessary as this debate has been, it is also important to keep in mind that this
has done unnecessary damage to U.S. intelligence capabilities and U.S. diplomacy.  But I will leave it up to the
courts and the Attorney General to weigh in publicly on the specifics of Mr. Snowden's case.
 
Q    Sir, if I could follow up, Mr. Leggett is setting this in motion, at least raising this as a topic of conversation.  You,
sir, would I'm certain be consulted if there was ever going to be a conversation about amnesty or a plea bargain
with Edward Snowden.
 
THE PRESIDENT:  I think that’s true, Major, and I guess what I'm saying is there's a - 
Q    Would you rule it out forever that you would never consider it?
 
THE PRESIDENT:  What I'm saying is, is that there's a difference between Mr. Leggett saying something and the
President of the United States saying something.
 
Q    That’s why I'm trying to get at you.
 
THE PRESIDENT:  That’s exactly right.  (Laughter.) 
 
Chuck Todd.
 
Q    Thank you, Mr. President, and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  You talk about the issues with health
care and the website rollout, but there have been other issues -- the misinformation about people keeping their
policies, the extended deadlines, some postponements.  We have a new waiver that HHS announced last night.
 How do you expect Americans to have confidence and certainty in this law if you keep changing it?  This one
here, this new waiver last night, you could argue you might as well have just delayed the mandate.
 
THE PRESIDENT:  Well, no, that’s not true, because what we're talking about is a very specific population that
received cancellation notices from insurance companies.  The majority of them are either keeping their old plan
because the grandfather clause has been extended further, or they're finding a better deal in the marketplace with
better insurance for cheaper costs. 
But there may still be a subset -- a significantly smaller subset than some of the numbers that have been
advertised -- that are still looking for options, are still concerned about what they're going to be doing next year.
 And we just wanted to make sure that the hardship provision that was already existing in the law would also
potentially apply to somebody who had problems during this transition period.  So that’s the specifics of this latest
change. 
 
You're making a broader point that I think is fair and that is that in a big project like this, that what we are
constantly doing is looking, is this working the way it's supposed to, and if there are adjustments that can be made
to smooth out the transition, we should make them.  But they don’t go to the core of the law.
 
First of all, the core of the law is, is that for 85 percent of the population, all they've been getting is free preventive
care, better consumer protections, and ability to keep their kids on their insurance plan until they're 26, thousanddollar or five hundred-dollar discounts on prescription drugs for seniors on Medicare.  So 85 percent of the
population, whether they know it or not, over the last three years have benefited from a whole set of the provisions
of the law.  And, by the way, if it were to be repealed, you would be taking away all those benefits from folks who
already are enjoying them.
 
You had this sub-portion of the population, 15 percent, who either don’t have health insurance or are buying it on
the individual market.  And that’s still millions of people.  And what we’re doing is creating a marketplace where
they can buy insurance and we can provide them some tax credits to help them afford it. 
 
     The basic structure of that law is working despite all the problems -- despite the website problems, despite the
messaging problems.  Despite all that, it’s working.  And again, you don’t have to take my word for it.  We’ve got a
couple million people who are going to have health insurance just in the first three months, despite the fact that
probably the first month and a half was lost because of problems with the website and about as bad a bunch of
publicity as you could imagine.  And yet you’ve still got 2 million people who signed up, or more. 
 
     And so what that means then is that the demand is there and, as I said before, the product is good.  Now, in
putting something like this together, there are going to be all kinds of problems that crop up, some of which may
have been unanticipated.  And what we’ve been trying to do is just respond to them in a common-sense way.  And
we’re going to continue to try to do that.  But that doesn’t negate the fact that a year from now or two years from
now, when we look back, we’re going to be able to say that even more people have health insurance who didn’t
have it before. And that’s not a bad thing, that’s a good thing.  That is part of the reason why I pushed so hard to
get this law done in the first place. 
 
And I’ve said before this is a messy process, and I think sometimes when I say that people say, well, A, yes, it’s
real messy; and B, isn’t the fact that it’s been so messy some indication that there are more fundamental problems

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with the law? And I guess what I’d say to that, Chuck, is when you try to do something this big, affecting this many
people, it’s going to be hard.  And every instance -- whether it’s Social Security, Medicare, the prescription drug
plan under President Bush -- there hasn’t been an instance where you tried to really have an impact on the
American people’s lives and wellbeing, particularly in the health care arena, where you don’t end up having some
of these challenges.  The question is going to be ultimately, do we make good decisions trying to help as many
people as possible in as efficient a way as possible.  And I think that’s what we’re doing.
 
Q    But with 72 hours to go, you make this change where people are buying the junk -- frankly, a junk-type policy
that you weren’t -- you were trying to get people away from.
 
THE PRESIDENT:  Well, keep in mind, Chuck, first of all, that the majority of folks are going to have different
options.  This is essentially a additional net in case folks might have slipped through the cracks.  We don’t have
precision on those numbers, but we expect it’s going to be a relatively small number, because these are folks who
want insurance and the vast majority of them have good options.  And in a state like North Carolina, for example,
the overwhelming majority of them have just kept their own plans -- the ones that they had previously.
 
But we thought and continue to think that it makes sense that as we are transitioning to a system in which
insurance standards are higher, people don’t have unpleasant surprises because they thought they had insurance
until they hit a limit, and next thing you know they still owe $100,000 or $200,000 or $300,000 for a hospital visit -that as we transition to higher standards, better insurance, that we also address folks who get caught in that
transition and there are unintended consequences.
 
And I’ll be -- that was the original intent of the grandfather clause that was in the law.  Obviously, the problem was
it didn’t catch enough people.  And we learned from that, and we’re trying not to repeat those mistakes.
 
Q    So does the mandate need to be enforced?
 
THE PRESIDENT:  Absolutely.  Yes.
 
Let’s see, Phil Mattingly.
 
Q    Thank you, Mr. President.  What was the message you were trying to send with not only your decision not to
attend the Sochi Games, but also with the people you named to the delegation to represent the United States at
those games?
 
THE PRESIDENT:  Well, first of all, I haven’t attended Olympics in the past, and I suspect that me attending the
Olympics, particularly at a time when we’ve got all the other stuff that people have been talking about, is going to
be tough, although I would love to do it.  I’ll be going to a lot of Olympic Games post-presidency.  (Laughter.)  I
think the delegation speaks for itself.  You’ve got outstanding Americans, outstanding athletes, people who will
represent us extraordinarily well. 
 
And the fact that we’ve got folks like Billie Jean King or Brian Boitano, who themselves have been world-class
athletes that everybody acknowledges for their excellence but also for their character, who also happen to be
members of the LGBT community, you should take that for what it's worth -- that when it comes to the Olympics
and athletic performance, we don't make distinctions on the basis of sexual orientation.  We judge people on how
they perform, both on the court and off the court -- on the field and off the field.  And that's a value that I think is at
the heart of not just America, but American sports.
 
     I'm going to just roll down these last few, real quickly.  Ari Shapiro.  Last day at the White House.  He deserves
a question.  (Laughter.) 
 
     Q    Thank you very much, Mr. President.  Senator Max Baucus was widely seen as the best hope for a largescale deal to overhaul the tax code.  What does your decision to nominate him as ambassador to China say about
your hopes for major tax bill in your second term?
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  It says that Max Baucus is going to be an outstanding ambassador to China, and I'd like a
swift confirmation.  And my expectation and hope is, is that if both the Senate Democrats -- or if Democrats and
Republicans in the House and the Senate are serious about tax reform, then it's not going to depend on one guy,
it's going to depend on all of us working together.  And my office is ready, willing, and eager to engage both
parties and having a conversation about how we can simplify the tax code, make it fairer, make it work to create
more jobs and do right by middle-class Americans.
 
     Jackie Calmes.
 
     Q    Thank you, Mr. President.  And how do you say it in Hawaii?  Mele Kalikimaka?
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Mele Kalikimaka.  (Laughter.) 
 
     Q    Since we've been looking back at the year, I'd like to ask you what your reaction was to the nonpartisan
truth-telling group, PolitiFact, when it said that the lie of the year was your statement that if you like your health
care plan, you can keep it. 
 
     And related to the health care problems that we've seen over the past year, the fallout from that seems to be
making Democrats, particularly in the Senate, a little rambunctious and independent of you, which is evidenced
most clearly in the debate over the Iran sanctions.  It looks like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has expedited

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consideration of an Iran sanctions bill for January, even as your administration -- and you have been trying to get
them to lay off sanctions while your - 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Jackie, I've got to say, you're stringing a bunch of things along here.  Let's see if we can
hone in on a question.  I mean, I - 
     Q    Two questions.  That's a lot less than Ed Henry had.  (Laughter.) 
 
     Q    Oh!  I thought we were trying to get along for Christmas.  (Laughter.)   
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  How about I separate out the Iran question from the health care question?  On the health
care question, look, I think I've answered several times -- this is a new iteration of it -- but bottom line is that we are
going to continue to work every single day to make sure that implementation of the health care law and the
website and all elements of it, including the grandfather clause, work better every single day.  And as I've said in
previous press conferences, we're going to make mistakes, and we're going to have problems, but my intentions
have been clear throughout, which is, I just want to help as many people as possible feel secure and make sure
that they don't go broke when they get sick. And we're going to just keep on doing that.
 
     On Iran, there is the possibility of a resolution to a problem that has been a challenge for American national
security for over a decade now, and that is getting Iran to, in a verifiable fashion, not pursue a nuclear weapon.
 Already, even with the interim deal that we struck in Geneva, we had the first halt and, in some cases, some
rollback of Iran's nuclear capabilities -- the first time that we've seen that in almost a decade.  And we now have a
structure in which we can have a very serious conversation to see is it possible for Iran to get right with the
international community in a verifiable fashion to give us all confidence that any peaceful nuclear program that
they have is not going to be weaponized in a way that threatens us or allies in the region, including Israel.
 
     And as I've said before and I will repeat, it is very important for us to test whether that's possible, not because
it's guaranteed, but because the alternative is possibly us having to engage in some sort of conflict to resolve the
problem with all kinds of unintended consequences. 
 
Now, I've been very clear from the start, I mean what I say: It is my goal to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear
weapon. But I sure would rather do it diplomatically.  I’m keeping all options on the table, but if I can do it
diplomatically, that’s how we should do it.  And I would think that would be the preference of everybody up on
Capitol Hill because that sure is the preference of the American people. 
 
And we lose nothing during this negotiation period.   Precisely because there are verification provisions in place,
we will have more insight into Iran’s nuclear program over the next six months than we have previously.  We’ll
know if they are violating the terms of the agreement.  They’re not allowed to accelerate their stockpile of enriched
uranium -- in fact, they have to reduce their stockpile of highly enriched uranium. 
 
Ironically, if we did not have this six-month period in which we’re testing whether we can get a comprehensive
solution to this problem, they’d be advancing even further on their nuclear program.  And in light of all that, what
I’ve said to members of Congress -- Democrats and Republicans -- is there is no need for new sanctions
legislation.  Not yet. 
 
Now, if Iran comes back and says, we can’t give you assurances that we’re not going to weaponize, if they’re not
willing to address some of their capabilities that we know could end up resulting in them having breakout capacity,
it’s not going to be hard for us to turn the dials back, strengthen sanctions even further.  I’ll work with members of
Congress to put even more pressure on Iran.  But there’s no reason to do it right now. 
And so I’m not surprised that there’s been some talk from some members of Congress about new sanctions -- I
think the politics of trying to look tough on Iran are often good when you’re running for office or if you’re in office.
 But as President of the United States right now, who’s been responsible over the last four years, with the help of
Congress, in putting together a comprehensive sanctions regime that was specifically designed to put pressure on
them and bring them to the table to negotiate -- what I’m saying to them, what I’ve said to the international
community, and what I’ve said to the American people is let’s test it.  Now is the time to try to see if we can get this
thing done.  
 
And I’ve heard some logic that says, well, Mr. President, we’re supportive of the negotiations, but we think it’s
really useful to have this club hanging over Iran’s head.  Well, first of all, we still have the existing sanctions
already in place that are resulting in Iran losing billions of dollars every month in lost oil sales.  We already have
banking and financial sanctions that are still being applied even as the negotiations are taking place.  It's not as if
we're letting up on that.
 
     I've heard arguments, well, but this way we can be assured and the Iranians will know that if negotiations fail
even new and harsher sanctions will be put into place.  Listen, I don't think the Iranians have any doubt that
Congress would be more than happy to pass more sanctions legislation.  We can do that in a day, on a dime.  But
if we're serious about negotiations, we've got to create an atmosphere in which Iran is willing to move in ways that
are uncomfortable for them and contrary to their ideology and rhetoric and their instincts and their suspicions of
us.  And we don't help get them to a position where we can actually resolve this by engaging in this kind of action.  
 
     Okay, everybody, I think I'm going to take one more question.  Colleen McCain Nelson.  And that is it.
 
     Q    Thank you, Mr. President.
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  There you are.

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     Q    Some of your longtime advisors are leaving the White House and new folks are coming in.  Others are
taking on new roles in the West Wing.  As you reshape your team a bit, how does that change the dynamic here
and how does it impact what you think you can accomplish going forward?
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  I just had lunch with Pete Rouse, who is leaving me.  And that's tough.
 
     Q    He says so.
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  He says so right now at least.  I love that guy and that will be a significant loss, although
he'll still be in town and, hopefully, I'll be able to consult with him on an ongoing basis. 
 
I think the fact that John Podesta is coming in will be terrific.  He may deny it, but I've been trying to get him in here
for quite some time.  He ran my transition office.  I asked him when he was running the transition office if he would
be willing to join us, and at that time I think he was still feeling that he wanted to develop CAP and other
organizations.  But John is a great strategist, as good as anybody on domestic policy.  And I think he'll be a huge
boost to us and give us more bandwidth to deal with more issues.
 
I suspect that we may have additional announcements in the New Year.  There's a natural turnover that takes
place.  People get tired.  People get worn out.  Sometimes, you need fresh legs.
 
But what I can tell you is that the team I have now is tireless and shares my values, and believes the thing that I
think I've repeated probably four or five times in this press conference, which is we get this incredible privilege for a
pretty short period of time to do as much as we can for as many people as we can to help them live better lives.
 And that’s what drives them.  That’s the sacrifice they make being away from families and soccer games and
birthdays, and some of them will end up working over Christmas on issues like Iran.  And the fact that they make
those kinds of sacrifices I'm always grateful for. And if they then say to me after making those sacrifices for three,
four, five years, I need a break, then I completely understand. 
 
All right?  Have a great holiday, everybody.  Appreciate you. 
 
Q    Merry Christmas.
 
THE PRESIDENT:  Merry Christmas.  Happy New Year. 
    
 
                        END           3:20 P.M. EST

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Home • Briefing Room • Speeches & Remarks

The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release

January 28, 2014

President Barack Obama's State of the Union Address
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, my fellow Americans:
Today in America, a teacher spent extra time with a student who needed it, and did her part to lift America’s
graduation rate to its highest level in more than three decades.
An entrepreneur flipped on the lights in her tech startup, and did her part to add to the more than eight million new
jobs our businesses have created over the past four years.
An autoworker fine-tuned some of the best, most fuel-efficient cars in the world, and did his part to help America
wean itself off foreign oil.
A farmer prepared for the spring after the strongest five-year stretch of farm exports in our history. A rural doctor
gave a young child the first prescription to treat asthma that his mother could afford. A man took the bus home from
the graveyard shift, bone-tired but dreaming big dreams for his son. And in tight-knit communities across America,
fathers and mothers will tuck in their kids, put an arm around their spouse, remember fallen comrades, and give
thanks for being home from a war that, after twelve long years, is finally coming to an end.
Tonight, this chamber speaks with one voice to the people we represent: it is you, our citizens, who make the state
of our union strong.
Here are the results of your efforts: The lowest unemployment rate in over five years. A rebounding housing
market. A manufacturing sector that’s adding jobs for the first time since the 1990s. More oil produced at home
than we buy from the rest of the world – the first time that’s happened in nearly twenty years. Our deficits – cut by
more than half. And for the first time in over a decade, business leaders around the world have declared that China
is no longer the world’s number one place to invest; America is.
That’s why I believe this can be a breakthrough year for America. After five years of grit and determined effort, the
United States is better-positioned for the 21st century than any other nation on Earth.
The question for everyone in this chamber, running through every decision we make this year, is whether we are
going to help or hinder this progress. For several years now, this town has been consumed by a rancorous
argument over the proper size of the federal government. It’s an important debate – one that dates back to our very
founding. But when that debate prevents us from carrying out even the most basic functions of our democracy –
when our differences shut down government or threaten the full faith and credit of the United States – then we are
not doing right by the American people.
As President, I’m committed to making Washington work better, and rebuilding the trust of the people who sent us
here. I believe most of you are, too. Last month, thanks to the work of Democrats and Republicans, this Congress
finally produced a budget that undoes some of last year’s severe cuts to priorities like education. Nobody got
everything they wanted, and we can still do more to invest in this country’s future while bringing down our deficit in a
balanced way. But the budget compromise should leave us freer to focus on creating new jobs, not creating new
crises.
In the coming months, let’s see where else we can make progress together. Let’s make this a year of action.
That’s what most Americans want – for all of us in this chamber to focus on their lives, their hopes, their
aspirations. And what I believe unites the people of this nation, regardless of race or region or party, young or old,
rich or poor, is the simple, profound belief in opportunity for all – the notion that if you work hard and take
responsibility, you can get ahead.
Let’s face it: that belief has suffered some serious blows. Over more than three decades, even before the Great
Recession hit, massive shifts in technology and global competition had eliminated a lot of good, middle-class jobs,
and weakened the economic foundations that families depend on.

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Today, after four years of economic growth, corporate profits and stock prices have rarely been higher, and those at
the top have never done better. But average wages have barely budged. Inequality has deepened. Upward
mobility has stalled. The cold, hard fact is that even in the midst of recovery, too many Americans are working more
than ever just to get by – let alone get ahead. And too many still aren’t working at all.
Our job is to reverse these trends. It won’t happen right away, and we won’t agree on everything. But what I offer
tonight is a set of concrete, practical proposals to speed up growth, strengthen the middle class, and build new
ladders of opportunity into the middle class. Some require Congressional action, and I’m eager to work with all of
you. But America does not stand still – and neither will I. So wherever and whenever I can take steps without
legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that’s what I’m going to do.
As usual, our First Lady sets a good example. Michelle’s Let’s Move partnership with schools, businesses, and
local leaders has helped bring down childhood obesity rates for the first time in thirty years – an achievement that
will improve lives and reduce health care costs for decades to come. The Joining Forces alliance that Michelle and
Jill Biden launched has already encouraged employers to hire or train nearly 400,000 veterans and military
spouses. Taking a page from that playbook, the White House just organized a College Opportunity Summit where
already, 150 universities, businesses, and nonprofits have made concrete commitments to reduce inequality in
access to higher education – and help every hardworking kid go to college and succeed when they get to campus.
Across the country, we’re partnering with mayors, governors, and state legislatures on issues from homelessness to
marriage equality.
The point is, there are millions of Americans outside Washington who are tired of stale political arguments, and are
moving this country forward. They believe, and I believe, that here in America, our success should depend not on
accident of birth, but the strength of our work ethic and the scope of our dreams. That’s what drew our forebears
here. It’s how the daughter of a factory worker is CEO of America’s largest automaker; how the son of a barkeeper
is Speaker of the House; how the son of a single mom can be President of the greatest nation on Earth.
Opportunity is who we are. And the defining project of our generation is to restore that promise.
We know where to start: the best measure of opportunity is access to a good job. With the economy picking up
speed, companies say they intend to hire more people this year. And over half of big manufacturers say they’re
thinking of insourcing jobs from abroad.
So let’s make that decision easier for more companies. Both Democrats and Republicans have argued that our tax
code is riddled with wasteful, complicated loopholes that punish businesses investing here, and reward companies
that keep profits abroad. Let’s flip that equation. Let’s work together to close those loopholes, end those incentives
to ship jobs overseas, and lower tax rates for businesses that create jobs here at home.
Moreover, we can take the money we save with this transition to tax reform to create jobs rebuilding our roads,
upgrading our ports, unclogging our commutes – because in today’s global economy, first-class jobs gravitate to
first-class infrastructure. We’ll need Congress to protect more than three million jobs by finishing transportation and
waterways bills this summer. But I will act on my own to slash bureaucracy and streamline the permitting process
for key projects, so we can get more construction workers on the job as fast as possible.
We also have the chance, right now, to beat other countries in the race for the next wave of high-tech
manufacturing jobs. My administration has launched two hubs for high-tech manufacturing in Raleigh and
Youngstown, where we’ve connected businesses to research universities that can help America lead the world in
advanced technologies. Tonight, I’m announcing we’ll launch six more this year. Bipartisan bills in both houses
could double the number of these hubs and the jobs they create. So get those bills to my desk and put more
Americans back to work.
Let’s do more to help the entrepreneurs and small business owners who create most new jobs in America. Over
the past five years, my administration has made more loans to small business owners than any other. And when
ninety-eight percent of our exporters are small businesses, new trade partnerships with Europe and the Asia-Pacific
will help them create more jobs. We need to work together on tools like bipartisan trade promotion authority to
protect our workers, protect our environment, and open new markets to new goods stamped “Made in the USA.”
China and Europe aren’t standing on the sidelines. Neither should we.
We know that the nation that goes all-in on innovation today will own the global economy tomorrow. This is an
edge America cannot surrender. Federally-funded research helped lead to the ideas and inventions behind Google
and smartphones. That’s why Congress should undo the damage done by last year’s cuts to basic research so we
can unleash the next great American discovery – whether it’s vaccines that stay ahead of drug-resistant bacteria, or
paper-thin material that’s stronger than steel. And let’s pass a patent reform bill that allows our businesses to stay
focused on innovation, not costly, needless litigation.
Now, one of the biggest factors in bringing more jobs back is our commitment to American energy. The all-of-theabove energy strategy I announced a few years ago is working, and today, America is closer to energy
independence than we’ve been in decades.
One of the reasons why is natural gas – if extracted safely, it’s the bridge fuel that can power our economy with less
of the carbon pollution that causes climate change. Businesses plan to invest almost $100 billion in new factories
that use natural gas. I’ll cut red tape to help states get those factories built, and this Congress can help by putting
people to work building fueling stations that shift more cars and trucks from foreign oil to American natural gas. My

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administration will keep working with the industry to sustain production and job growth while strengthening
protection of our air, our water, and our communities. And while we’re at it, I’ll use my authority to protect more of
our pristine federal lands for future generations.
It’s not just oil and natural gas production that’s booming; we’re becoming a global leader in solar, too. Every four
minutes, another American home or business goes solar; every panel pounded into place by a worker whose job
can’t be outsourced. Let’s continue that progress with a smarter tax policy that stops giving $4 billion a year to
fossil fuel industries that don’t need it, so that we can invest more in fuels of the future that do.
And even as we’ve increased energy production, we’ve partnered with businesses, builders, and local communities
to reduce the energy we consume. When we rescued our automakers, for example, we worked with them to set
higher fuel efficiency standards for our cars. In the coming months, I’ll build on that success by setting new
standards for our trucks, so we can keep driving down oil imports and what we pay at the pump.
Taken together, our energy policy is creating jobs and leading to a cleaner, safer planet. Over the past eight years,
the United States has reduced our total carbon pollution more than any other nation on Earth. But we have to act
with more urgency – because a changing climate is already harming western communities struggling with drought,
and coastal cities dealing with floods. That’s why I directed my administration to work with states, utilities, and
others to set new standards on the amount of carbon pollution our power plants are allowed to dump into the air.
The shift to a cleaner energy economy won’t happen overnight, and it will require tough choices along the way. But
the debate is settled. Climate change is a fact. And when our children’s children look us in the eye and ask if we
did all we could to leave them a safer, more stable world, with new sources of energy, I want us to be able to say
yes, we did.
Finally, if we are serious about economic growth, it is time to heed the call of business leaders, labor leaders, faith
leaders, and law enforcement – and fix our broken immigration system. Republicans and Democrats in the Senate
have acted. I know that members of both parties in the House want to do the same. Independent economists say
immigration reform will grow our economy and shrink our deficits by almost $1 trillion in the next two decades. And
for good reason: when people come here to fulfill their dreams – to study, invent, and contribute to our culture –
they make our country a more attractive place for businesses to locate and create jobs for everyone. So let’s get
immigration reform done this year.
The ideas I’ve outlined so far can speed up growth and create more jobs. But in this rapidly-changing economy, we
have to make sure that every American has the skills to fill those jobs.
The good news is, we know how to do it. Two years ago, as the auto industry came roaring back, Andra Rush
opened up a manufacturing firm in Detroit. She knew that Ford needed parts for the best-selling truck in America,
and she knew how to make them. She just needed the workforce. So she dialed up what we call an American Job
Center – places where folks can walk in to get the help or training they need to find a new job, or better job. She
was flooded with new workers. And today, Detroit Manufacturing Systems has more than 700 employees.
What Andra and her employees experienced is how it should be for every employer – and every job seeker. So
tonight, I’ve asked Vice President Biden to lead an across-the-board reform of America’s training programs to make
sure they have one mission: train Americans with the skills employers need, and match them to good jobs that need
to be filled right now. That means more on-the-job training, and more apprenticeships that set a young worker on
an upward trajectory for life. It means connecting companies to community colleges that can help design training to
fill their specific needs. And if Congress wants to help, you can concentrate funding on proven programs that
connect more ready-to-work Americans with ready-to-be-filled jobs.
I’m also convinced we can help Americans return to the workforce faster by reforming unemployment insurance so
that it’s more effective in today’s economy. But first, this Congress needs to restore the unemployment insurance
you just let expire for 1.6 million people.
Let me tell you why.
Misty DeMars is a mother of two young boys. She’d been steadily employed since she was a teenager. She put
herself through college. She’d never collected unemployment benefits. In May, she and her husband used their life
savings to buy their first home. A week later, budget cuts claimed the job she loved. Last month, when their
unemployment insurance was cut off, she sat down and wrote me a letter – the kind I get every day. “We are the
face of the unemployment crisis,” she wrote. “I am not dependent on the government…Our country depends on
people like us who build careers, contribute to society…care about our neighbors…I am confident that in time I will
find a job…I will pay my taxes, and we will raise our children in their own home in the community we love. Please
give us this chance.”
Congress, give these hardworking, responsible Americans that chance. They need our help, but more important,
this country needs them in the game. That’s why I’ve been asking CEOs to give more long-term unemployed
workers a fair shot at that new job and new chance to support their families; this week, many will come to the White
House to make that commitment real. Tonight, I ask every business leader in America to join us and to do the
same – because we are stronger when America fields a full team.
Of course, it’s not enough to train today’s workforce. We also have to prepare tomorrow’s workforce, by
guaranteeing every child access to a world-class education.

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Estiven Rodriguez couldn’t speak a word of English when he moved to New York City at age nine. But last month,
thanks to the support of great teachers and an innovative tutoring program, he led a march of his classmates –
through a crowd of cheering parents and neighbors – from their high school to the post office, where they mailed off
their college applications. And this son of a factory worker just found out he’s going to college this fall.
Five years ago, we set out to change the odds for all our kids. We worked with lenders to reform student loans, and
today, more young people are earning college degrees than ever before. Race to the Top, with the help of
governors from both parties, has helped states raise expectations and performance. Teachers and principals in
schools from Tennessee to Washington, D.C. are making big strides in preparing students with skills for the new
economy – problem solving, critical thinking, science, technology, engineering, and math. Some of this change is
hard. It requires everything from more challenging curriculums and more demanding parents to better support for
teachers and new ways to measure how well our kids think, not how well they can fill in a bubble on a test. But it’s
worth it – and it’s working.
The problem is we’re still not reaching enough kids, and we’re not reaching them in time. That has to change.
Research shows that one of the best investments we can make in a child’s life is high-quality early education. Last
year, I asked this Congress to help states make high-quality pre-K available to every four year-old. As a parent as
well as a President, I repeat that request tonight. But in the meantime, thirty states have raised pre-k funding on
their own. They know we can’t wait. So just as we worked with states to reform our schools, this year, we’ll invest
in new partnerships with states and communities across the country in a race to the top for our youngest children.
And as Congress decides what it’s going to do, I’m going to pull together a coalition of elected officials, business
leaders, and philanthropists willing to help more kids access the high-quality pre-K they need.
Last year, I also pledged to connect 99 percent of our students to high-speed broadband over the next four years.
Tonight, I can announce that with the support of the FCC and companies like Apple, Microsoft, Sprint, and Verizon,
we’ve got a down payment to start connecting more than 15,000 schools and twenty million students over the next
two years, without adding a dime to the deficit.
We’re working to redesign high schools and partner them with colleges and employers that offer the real-world
education and hands-on training that can lead directly to a job and career. We’re shaking up our system of higher
education to give parents more information, and colleges more incentives to offer better value, so that no middleclass kid is priced out of a college education. We’re offering millions the opportunity to cap their monthly student
loan payments to ten percent of their income, and I want to work with Congress to see how we can help even more
Americans who feel trapped by student loan debt. And I’m reaching out to some of America’s leading foundations
and corporations on a new initiative to help more young men of color facing tough odds stay on track and reach
their full potential.
The bottom line is, Michelle and I want every child to have the same chance this country gave us. But we know our
opportunity agenda won’t be complete – and too many young people entering the workforce today will see the
American Dream as an empty promise – unless we do more to make sure our economy honors the dignity of work,
and hard work pays off for every single American.
Today, women make up about half our workforce. But they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. That is
wrong, and in 2014, it’s an embarrassment. A woman deserves equal pay for equal work. She deserves to have a
baby without sacrificing her job. A mother deserves a day off to care for a sick child or sick parent without running
into hardship – and you know what, a father does, too. It’s time to do away with workplace policies that belong in a
“Mad Men” episode. This year, let’s all come together – Congress, the White House, and businesses from Wall
Street to Main Street – to give every woman the opportunity she deserves. Because I firmly believe when women
succeed, America succeeds.
Now, women hold a majority of lower-wage jobs – but they’re not the only ones stifled by stagnant wages.
Americans understand that some people will earn more than others, and we don’t resent those who, by virtue of
their efforts, achieve incredible success. But Americans overwhelmingly agree that no one who works full time
should ever have to raise a family in poverty.
In the year since I asked this Congress to raise the minimum wage, five states have passed laws to raise theirs.
Many businesses have done it on their own. Nick Chute is here tonight with his boss, John Soranno. John’s an
owner of Punch Pizza in Minneapolis, and Nick helps make the dough. Only now he makes more of it: John just
gave his employees a raise, to ten bucks an hour – a decision that eased their financial stress and boosted their
morale.
Tonight, I ask more of America’s business leaders to follow John’s lead and do what you can to raise your
employees’ wages. To every mayor, governor, and state legislator in America, I say, you don’t have to wait for
Congress to act; Americans will support you if you take this on. And as a chief executive, I intend to lead by
example. Profitable corporations like Costco see higher wages as the smart way to boost productivity and reduce
turnover. We should too. In the coming weeks, I will issue an Executive Order requiring federal contractors to pay
their federally-funded employees a fair wage of at least $10.10 an hour – because if you cook our troops’ meals or
wash their dishes, you shouldn’t have to live in poverty.
Of course, to reach millions more, Congress needs to get on board. Today, the federal minimum wage is worth
about twenty percent less than it was when Ronald Reagan first stood here. Tom Harkin and George Miller have a
bill to fix that by lifting the minimum wage to $10.10. This will help families. It will give businesses customers with

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more money to spend. It doesn’t involve any new bureaucratic program. So join the rest of the country. Say yes.
Give America a raise.
There are other steps we can take to help families make ends meet, and few are more effective at reducing
inequality and helping families pull themselves up through hard work than the Earned Income Tax Credit. Right
now, it helps about half of all parents at some point. But I agree with Republicans like Senator Rubio that it doesn’t
do enough for single workers who don’t have kids. So let’s work together to strengthen the credit, reward work, and
help more Americans get ahead.
Let’s do more to help Americans save for retirement. Today, most workers don’t have a pension. A Social Security
check often isn’t enough on its own. And while the stock market has doubled over the last five years, that doesn’t
help folks who don’t have 401ks. That’s why, tomorrow, I will direct the Treasury to create a new way for working
Americans to start their own retirement savings: MyRA. It’s a new savings bond that encourages folks to build a
nest egg. MyRA guarantees a decent return with no risk of losing what you put in. And if this Congress wants to
help, work with me to fix an upside-down tax code that gives big tax breaks to help the wealthy save, but does little
to nothing for middle-class Americans. Offer every American access to an automatic IRA on the job, so they can
save at work just like everyone in this chamber can. And since the most important investment many families make
is their home, send me legislation that protects taxpayers from footing the bill for a housing crisis ever again, and
keeps the dream of homeownership alive for future generations of Americans.
One last point on financial security. For decades, few things exposed hard-working families to economic hardship
more than a broken health care system. And in case you haven’t heard, we’re in the process of fixing that.
A pre-existing condition used to mean that someone like Amanda Shelley, a physician assistant and single mom
from Arizona, couldn’t get health insurance. But on January 1st, she got covered. On January 3rd, she felt a sharp
pain. On January 6th, she had emergency surgery. Just one week earlier, Amanda said, that surgery would’ve
meant bankruptcy.
That’s what health insurance reform is all about – the peace of mind that if misfortune strikes, you don’t have to lose
everything.
Already, because of the Affordable Care Act, more than three million Americans under age 26 have gained
coverage under their parents’ plans.
More than nine million Americans have signed up for private health insurance or Medicaid coverage.
And here’s another number: zero. Because of this law, no American can ever again be dropped or denied
coverage for a preexisting condition like asthma, back pain, or cancer. No woman can ever be charged more just
because she’s a woman. And we did all this while adding years to Medicare’s finances, keeping Medicare
premiums flat, and lowering prescription costs for millions of seniors.
Now, I don’t expect to convince my Republican friends on the merits of this law. But I know that the American
people aren’t interested in refighting old battles. So again, if you have specific plans to cut costs, cover more
people, and increase choice – tell America what you’d do differently. Let’s see if the numbers add up. But let’s not
have another forty-something votes to repeal a law that’s already helping millions of Americans like Amanda. The
first forty were plenty. We got it. We all owe it to the American people to say what we’re for, not just what we’re
against.
And if you want to know the real impact this law is having, just talk to Governor Steve Beshear of Kentucky, who’s
here tonight. Kentucky’s not the most liberal part of the country, but he’s like a man possessed when it comes to
covering his commonwealth’s families. “They are our friends and neighbors,” he said. “They are people we shop
and go to church with…farmers out on the tractors…grocery clerks…they are people who go to work every morning
praying they don’t get sick. No one deserves to live that way.”
Steve’s right. That’s why, tonight, I ask every American who knows someone without health insurance to help them
get covered by March 31st. Moms, get on your kids to sign up. Kids, call your mom and walk her through the
application. It will give her some peace of mind – plus, she’ll appreciate hearing from you.
After all, that’s the spirit that has always moved this nation forward. It’s the spirit of citizenship – the recognition that
through hard work and responsibility, we can pursue our individual dreams, but still come together as one American
family to make sure the next generation can pursue its dreams as well.
Citizenship means standing up for everyone’s right to vote. Last year, part of the Voting Rights Act was weakened.
But conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats are working together to strengthen it; and the bipartisan
commission I appointed last year has offered reforms so that no one has to wait more than a half hour to vote. Let’s
support these efforts. It should be the power of our vote, not the size of our bank account, that drives our
democracy.
Citizenship means standing up for the lives that gun violence steals from us each day. I have seen the courage of
parents, students, pastors, and police officers all over this country who say “we are not afraid,” and I intend to keep
trying, with or without Congress, to help stop more tragedies from visiting innocent Americans in our movie theaters,
shopping malls, or schools like Sandy Hook.

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Citizenship demands a sense of common cause; participation in the hard work of self-government; an obligation to
serve to our communities. And I know this chamber agrees that few Americans give more to their country than our
diplomats and the men and women of the United States Armed Forces.
Tonight, because of the extraordinary troops and civilians who risk and lay down their lives to keep us free, the
United States is more secure. When I took office, nearly 180,000 Americans were serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Today, all our troops are out of Iraq. More than 60,000 of our troops have already come home from Afghanistan.
With Afghan forces now in the lead for their own security, our troops have moved to a support role. Together with
our allies, we will complete our mission there by the end of this year, and America’s longest war will finally be over.
After 2014, we will support a unified Afghanistan as it takes responsibility for its own future. If the Afghan
government signs a security agreement that we have negotiated, a small force of Americans could remain in
Afghanistan with NATO allies to carry out two narrow missions: training and assisting Afghan forces, and
counterterrorism operations to pursue any remnants of al Qaeda. For while our relationship with Afghanistan will
change, one thing will not: our resolve that terrorists do not launch attacks against our country.
The fact is, that danger remains. While we have put al Qaeda’s core leadership on a path to defeat, the threat has
evolved, as al Qaeda affiliates and other extremists take root in different parts of the world. In Yemen, Somalia,
Iraq, and Mali, we have to keep working with partners to disrupt and disable these networks. In Syria, we’ll support
the opposition that rejects the agenda of terrorist networks. Here at home, we’ll keep strengthening our defenses,
and combat new threats like cyberattacks. And as we reform our defense budget, we have to keep faith with our
men and women in uniform, and invest in the capabilities they need to succeed in future missions.
We have to remain vigilant. But I strongly believe our leadership and our security cannot depend on our military
alone. As Commander-in-Chief, I have used force when needed to protect the American people, and I will never
hesitate to do so as long as I hold this office. But I will not send our troops into harm’s way unless it’s truly
necessary; nor will I allow our sons and daughters to be mired in open-ended conflicts. We must fight the battles
that need to be fought, not those that terrorists prefer from us – large-scale deployments that drain our strength and
may ultimately feed extremism.
So, even as we aggressively pursue terrorist networks – through more targeted efforts and by building the capacity
of our foreign partners – America must move off a permanent war footing. That’s why I’ve imposed prudent limits
on the use of drones – for we will not be safer if people abroad believe we strike within their countries without
regard for the consequence. That’s why, working with this Congress, I will reform our surveillance programs –
because the vital work of our intelligence community depends on public confidence, here and abroad, that the
privacy of ordinary people is not being violated. And with the Afghan war ending, this needs to be the year
Congress lifts the remaining restrictions on detainee transfers and we close the prison at Guantanamo Bay –
because we counter terrorism not just through intelligence and military action, but by remaining true to our
Constitutional ideals, and setting an example for the rest of the world.
You see, in a world of complex threats, our security and leadership depends on all elements of our power –
including strong and principled diplomacy. American diplomacy has rallied more than fifty countries to prevent
nuclear materials from falling into the wrong hands, and allowed us to reduce our own reliance on Cold War
stockpiles. American diplomacy, backed by the threat of force, is why Syria’s chemical weapons are being
eliminated, and we will continue to work with the international community to usher in the future the Syrian people
deserve – a future free of dictatorship, terror and fear. As we speak, American diplomacy is supporting Israelis and
Palestinians as they engage in difficult but necessary talks to end the conflict there; to achieve dignity and an
independent state for Palestinians, and lasting peace and security for the State of Israel – a Jewish state that knows
America will always be at their side.
And it is American diplomacy, backed by pressure, that has halted the progress of Iran’s nuclear program – and
rolled parts of that program back – for the very first time in a decade. As we gather here tonight, Iran has begun to
eliminate its stockpile of higher levels of enriched uranium. It is not installing advanced centrifuges.
Unprecedented inspections help the world verify, every day, that Iran is not building a bomb. And with our allies
and partners, we’re engaged in negotiations to see if we can peacefully achieve a goal we all share: preventing Iran
from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
These negotiations will be difficult. They may not succeed. We are clear-eyed about Iran’s support for terrorist
organizations like Hezbollah, which threaten our allies; and the mistrust between our nations cannot be wished
away. But these negotiations do not rely on trust; any long-term deal we agree to must be based on verifiable
action that convinces us and the international community that Iran is not building a nuclear bomb. If John F.
Kennedy and Ronald Reagan could negotiate with the Soviet Union, then surely a strong and confident America
can negotiate with less powerful adversaries today.
The sanctions that we put in place helped make this opportunity possible. But let me be clear: if this Congress
sends me a new sanctions bill now that threatens to derail these talks, I will veto it. For the sake of our national
security, we must give diplomacy a chance to succeed. If Iran’s leaders do not seize this opportunity, then I will be
the first to call for more sanctions, and stand ready to exercise all options to make sure Iran does not build a nuclear
weapon. But if Iran’s leaders do seize the chance, then Iran could take an important step to rejoin the community of
nations, and we will have resolved one of the leading security challenges of our time without the risks of war.
Finally, let’s remember that our leadership is defined not just by our defense against threats, but by the enormous
opportunities to do good and promote understanding around the globe – to forge greater cooperation, to expand

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new markets, to free people from fear and want. And no one is better positioned to take advantage of those
opportunities than America.
Our alliance with Europe remains the strongest the world has ever known. From Tunisia to Burma, we’re
supporting those who are willing to do the hard work of building democracy. In Ukraine, we stand for the principle
that all people have the right to express themselves freely and peacefully, and have a say in their country’s future.
Across Africa, we’re bringing together businesses and governments to double access to electricity and help end
extreme poverty. In the Americas, we are building new ties of commerce, but we’re also expanding cultural and
educational exchanges among young people. And we will continue to focus on the Asia-Pacific, where we support
our allies, shape a future of greater security and prosperity, and extend a hand to those devastated by disaster – as
we did in the Philippines, when our Marines and civilians rushed to aid those battered by a typhoon, and were
greeted with words like, “We will never forget your kindness” and “God bless America!”
We do these things because they help promote our long-term security. And we do them because we believe in the
inherent dignity and equality of every human being, regardless of race or religion, creed or sexual orientation. And
next week, the world will see one expression of that commitment – when Team USA marches the red, white, and
blue into the Olympic Stadium – and brings home the gold.
My fellow Americans, no other country in the world does what we do. On every issue, the world turns to us, not
simply because of the size of our economy or our military might – but because of the ideals we stand for, and the
burdens we bear to advance them.
No one knows this better than those who serve in uniform. As this time of war draws to a close, a new generation
of heroes returns to civilian life. We’ll keep slashing that backlog so our veterans receive the benefits they’ve
earned, and our wounded warriors receive the health care – including the mental health care – that they need.
We’ll keep working to help all our veterans translate their skills and leadership into jobs here at home. And we all
continue to join forces to honor and support our remarkable military families.
Let me tell you about one of those families I’ve come to know.
I first met Cory Remsburg, a proud Army Ranger, at Omaha Beach on the 65th anniversary of D-Day. Along with
some of his fellow Rangers, he walked me through the program – a strong, impressive young man, with an easy
manner, sharp as a tack. We joked around, and took pictures, and I told him to stay in touch.
A few months later, on his tenth deployment, Cory was nearly killed by a massive roadside bomb in Afghanistan.
His comrades found him in a canal, face down, underwater, shrapnel in his brain.
For months, he lay in a coma. The next time I met him, in the hospital, he couldn’t speak; he could barely move.
Over the years, he’s endured dozens of surgeries and procedures, and hours of grueling rehab every day.
Even now, Cory is still blind in one eye. He still struggles on his left side. But slowly, steadily, with the support of
caregivers like his dad Craig, and the community around him, Cory has grown stronger. Day by day, he’s learned to
speak again and stand again and walk again – and he’s working toward the day when he can serve his country
again.
“My recovery has not been easy,” he says. “Nothing in life that’s worth anything is easy.”
Cory is here tonight. And like the Army he loves, like the America he serves, Sergeant First Class Cory Remsburg
never gives up, and he does not quit.
My fellow Americans, men and women like Cory remind us that America has never come easy. Our freedom, our
democracy, has never been easy. Sometimes we stumble; we make mistakes; we get frustrated or discouraged.
But for more than two hundred years, we have put those things aside and placed our collective shoulder to the
wheel of progress – to create and build and expand the possibilities of individual achievement; to free other nations
from tyranny and fear; to promote justice, and fairness, and equality under the law, so that the words set to paper
by our founders are made real for every citizen. The America we want for our kids – a rising America where honest
work is plentiful and communities are strong; where prosperity is widely shared and opportunity for all lets us go as
far as our dreams and toil will take us – none of it is easy. But if we work together; if we summon what is best in us,
with our feet planted firmly in today but our eyes cast towards tomorrow – I know it’s within our reach.
Believe it.
God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.

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Exhibit 

Statement by the President on Afghanistan   The White House

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Home • Briefing Room • Statements & Releases

The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release

May 27, 2014

Statement by the President on Afghanistan
Rose Garden
2:46 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT:  Good afternoon, everybody.  As you know, this weekend, I traveled to Afghanistan to thank our
men and women in uniform and our deployed civilians, on behalf of a grateful nation, for the extraordinary
sacrifices they make on behalf of our security.  I was also able to meet with our commanding General and
Ambassador to review the progress that we’ve made.  And today, I’d like to update the American people on the
way forward in Afghanistan and how, this year, we will bring America’s longest war to a responsible end.
The United States did not seek this fight.  We went into Afghanistan out of necessity, after our nation was attacked
by al Qaeda on September 11th, 2001.  We went to war against al Qaeda and its extremist allies with the strong
support of the American people and their representatives in Congress; with the international community and our
NATO allies; and with the Afghan people, who welcomed the opportunity of a life free from the dark tyranny of
extremism. 
We have now been in Afghanistan longer than many Americans expected.  But make no mistake -- thanks to the
skill and sacrifice of our troops, diplomats, and intelligence professionals, we have struck significant blows against  
al Qaeda’s leadership, we have eliminated Osama bin Laden, and we have prevented Afghanistan from being
used to launch attacks against our homeland.  We have also supported the Afghan people as they continue the
hard work of building a democracy.  We’ve extended more opportunities to their people, including women and
girls.  And we’ve helped train and equip their own security forces.
Now we’re finishing the job we started.  Over the last several years, we’ve worked to transition security
responsibilities to the Afghans.  One year ago, Afghan forces assumed the lead for combat operations.  Since then,
they’ve continued to grow in size and in strength, while making huge sacrifices for their country.  This transition
has allowed us to steadily draw down our own forces -- from a peak of 100,000 U.S. troops, to roughly 32,000
today.
2014, therefore, is a pivotal year.  Together with our allies and the Afghan government, we have agreed that this is
the year we will conclude our combat mission in Afghanistan. This is also a year of political transition in
Afghanistan.  Earlier this spring, Afghans turned out in the millions to vote in the first round of their presidential
election -- defying threats in order to determine their own destiny.  And in just over two weeks, they will vote for
their next President, and Afghanistan will see its first democratic transfer of power in history.
In the context of this progress, having consulted with Congress and my national security team, I’ve determined the
nature of the commitment that America is prepared to make beyond 2014.  Our objectives are clear:  Disrupting
threats posed by   al Qaeda; supporting Afghan security forces; and giving the Afghan people the opportunity to
succeed as they stand on their own.
Here’s how we will pursue those objectives.  First, America’s combat mission will be over by the end of this year.
Starting next year, Afghans will be fully responsible for securing their country.  American personnel will be in an
advisory role.  We will no longer patrol Afghan cities or towns, mountains or valleys.  That is a task for the Afghan

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people.
Second, I’ve made it clear that we’re open to cooperating with Afghans on two narrow missions after 2014: 
training Afghan forces and supporting counterterrorism operations against the remnants of al Qaeda. 
Today, I want to be clear about how the United States is prepared to advance those missions.  At the beginning of
2015, we will have approximately 98,000 U.S. -- let me start that over, just because I want to make sure we don’t
get this written wrong.  At the beginning of 2015, we will have approximately 9,800 U.S. servicemembers in
different parts of the country, together with our NATO allies and other partners. By the end of 2015, we will have
reduced that presence by roughly half, and we will have consolidated our troops in Kabul and on Bagram Airfield. 
One year later, by the end of 2016, our military will draw down to a normal embassy presence in Kabul, with a
security assistance component, just as we’ve done in Iraq.
Now, even as our troops come home, the international community will continue to support Afghans as they build
their country for years to come.  But our relationship will not be defined by war -- it will be shaped by our financial
and development assistance, as well as our diplomatic support.  Our commitment to Afghanistan is rooted in the
strategic partnership that we agreed to in 2012.  And this plan remains consistent with discussions we’ve had with
our NATO allies.  Just as our allies have been with us every step of the way in Afghanistan, we expect that our
allies will be with us going forward.
Third, we will only sustain this military presence after 2014 if the Afghan government signs the Bilateral Security
Agreement that our two governments have already negotiated.  This Agreement is essential to give our troops the
authorities they need to fulfill their mission, while respecting Afghan sovereignty.  The two final Afghan candidates
in the run-off election for President have each indicated that they would sign this agreement promptly after taking
office.  So I’m hopeful that we can get this done. 
The bottom line is, it’s time to turn the page on more than a decade in which so much of our foreign policy was
focused on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.  When I took office, we had nearly 180,000 troops in harm’s way.  By
the end of this year, we will have less than 10,000.  In addition to bringing our troops home, this new chapter in
American foreign policy will allow us to redirect some of the resources saved by ending these wars to respond
more nimbly to the changing threat of terrorism, while addressing a broader set of priorities around the globe.
I think Americans have learned that it’s harder to end wars than it is to begin them.  Yet this is how wars end in the
21st century -- not through signing ceremonies, but through decisive blows against our adversaries, transitions to
elected governments, security forces who take the lead and ultimately full responsibility.  We remain committed to a
sovereign, secure, stable, and unified Afghanistan.  And toward that end, we will continue to support Afghan-led
efforts to promote peace in their country through reconciliation.  We have to recognize that Afghanistan will not be
a perfect place, and it is not America’s responsibility to make it one.  The future of Afghanistan must be decided by
Afghans.  But what the United States can do -- what we will do -- is secure our interests and help give the Afghans
a chance, an opportunity to seek a long, overdue and hard-earned peace. 
America will always keep our commitments to friends and partners who step up, and we will never waver in our
determination to deny al Qaeda the safe haven that they had before 9/11.  That commitment is embodied by the
men and women in and out of uniform who serve in Afghanistan today and who have served in the past.  In their
eyes, I see the character that sustains American security and our leadership abroad.  These are mostly young
people who did not hesitate to volunteer in a time of war.  And as many of them begin to transition to civilian life,
we will keep the promise we make to them and to all veterans, and make sure they get the care and benefits that
they have earned and deserve.
This 9/11 Generation is part of an unbroken line of heroes who give up the comfort of the familiar to serve a half a
world away -- to protect their families and communities back home, and to give people they never thought they’d
meet the chance to live a better life.  It’s an extraordinary sacrifice for them and for their families.  But we shouldn’t
be surprised that they’re willing to make it.  That’s who we are as Americans.  That’s what we do.
Tomorrow, I will travel to West Point and speak to America’s newest class of military officers to discuss how
Afghanistan fits into our broader strategy going forward.  And I’m confident that if we carry out this approach, we
can not only responsibly end our war in Afghanistan and achieve the objectives that took us to war in the first
place, we’ll also be able to begin a new chapter in the story of American leadership around the world.
Thanks very much.
END
2:58 P.M. EDT

 Statement by the President on Afghanistan   The White House

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Exhibit I

Statement by the President on the End of the Combat Mission in Afghanistan   The White House

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Home • Briefing Room • Statements & Releases

The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release

December 28, 2014

Statement by the President on the End of the Combat
Mission in Afghanistan
Today's ceremony in Kabul marks a milestone for our country. For more than 13 years, ever since nearly 3,000
innocent lives were taken from us on 9/11, our nation has been at war in Afghanistan. Now, thanks to the
extraordinary sacrifices of our men and women in uniform, our combat mission in Afghanistan is ending, and the
longest war in American history is coming to a responsible conclusion.
On this day we give thanks to our troops and intelligence personnel who have been relentless against the terrorists
responsible for 9/11--devastating the core al Qaeda leadership, delivering justice to Osama bin Laden, disrupting
terrorist plots and saving countless American lives. We are safer, and our nation is more secure, because of their
service. At the same time, our courageous military and diplomatic personnel in Afghanistan--along with our NATO
allies and coalition partners--have helped the Afghan people reclaim their communities, take the lead for their own
security, hold historic elections and complete the first democratic transfer of power in their country's history.
We honor the profound sacrifices that have made this progress possible. We salute every American--military and
civilian, including our dedicated diplomats and development workers--who have served in Afghanistan, many on
multiple tours, just as their families have sacrificed at home. We pledge to give our many wounded warriors, with
wounds seen and unseen, the world-class care and treatment they have earned. Most of all, we remember the
more than 2,200 American patriots who made the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan, and we pledge to stand with
their Gold Star families who need the everlasting love and support of a grateful nation.
Afghanistan remains a dangerous place, and the Afghan people and their security forces continue to make
tremendous sacrifices in defense of their country. At the invitation of the Afghan government, and to preserve the
gains we have made together, the United States--along with our allies and partners--will maintain a limited military
presence in Afghanistan to train, advise and assist Afghan forces and to conduct counterterrorism operations
against the remnants of al Qaeda. Our personnel will continue to face risks, but this reflects the enduring
commitment of the United States to the Afghan people and to a united, secure and sovereign Afghanistan that is
never again used as a source of attacks against our nation.
These past 13 years have tested our nation and our military. But compared to the nearly 180,000 American troops
in Iraq and Afghanistan when I took office, we now have fewer than 15,000 in those countries. Some 90 percent of
our troops are home. Our military remains the finest in the world, and we will remain vigilant against terrorist
attacks and in defense of the freedoms and values we hold dear. And with growing prosperity here at home, we
enter a new year with new confidence, indebted to our fellow Americans in uniform who keep us safe and free.

 Case 1:09-cv-02368-RCL Document 80-10 Filed 02/26/15 Page 1 of 1

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
____________________________________
)
MUKHTAR YAHIA NAJI
)
AL WARAFI,
)
)
Petitioner,
)
)
v.
)
Civil Action No. 09-2368 (RCL)
)
BARACK H. OBAMA, et al.,
)
)
Respondents.
)
____________________________________)
[PROPOSED]
ORDER
Upon consideration of Petitioner Mukhtar Al Warafi’s Motion to Grant Petition for Writ
of Habeas Corpus, it is hereby ORDERED that the Motion is GRANTED.

SO ORDERED.

Date: _____________

___________________
Hon. Royce C. Lamberth
Senior Judge