Jeff Zients Will Lead Reorganization of Federal Government | The White House

Jeff Zients Will Lead Reorganization of Federal Government | The White House

posted by Dan Pfeiffer

Dan Pfeiffer is the White House's Communications Director

"As the President said in the State of the Union address, winning the future will take doing what we can do now to prepare America to compete in the global economy for decades to come. 

That means out-educating, out-innovating, and out-building our competition; restoring fiscal responsibility to remove the burden of deficits and debt; and reforming our government so that it is more effective, efficient, and open to the American people. 

As the President put it, “We cannot win the future with a government of the past.”

The fact is that we live and do business in the information age, but the last major reorganization of the government happened in the middle of the last century. 

Over the past few decades, there has not been a business or large organization that has not rethought, retooled, and revamped how they did their job to respond to a growing, more competitive global economy and an ever-changing technology landscape. 

Yet too often, it seems that the federal government is stuck in the age of black-and-white television while we are competing in the age of the iPad.

For millions of Americans, this can lead to frustrating encounters trying to get the services you need and a waste of taxpayer dollars. 

For many businesses, it means that they may not have all the assistance they need to compete around the world. 

For instance, we have more than a dozen different agencies involved in exports. 

They all work with well with each other, but this is certainly not the optimal organization or allocation of resources if you were designing a system from scratch.

The US-President believes that we need to reform our government to make it better organized and better equipped to support American competitiveness. 

We want to ensure that we're aligning all of the resources we have into negotiating the best agreements, enforcing our trade rights, supporting our exporters and promoting their products.

That is why the President has asked Jeffrey Zients, our nation’s first Chief Performance Officer (CPO), to lead our reorganization effort. 

Our first focus will be looking at trade and exports to see how we can better reform these functions to give American companies a leg up in the global economy.

For the past two years as CPO and Deputy Director for Management of OMB, Jeff has led our Accountable Government Initiative (AGI), the President’s initiative to make government more efficient and effective, open and responsive. 

On his watch, we have cut government waste, bringing down the amount of improper payments on our way of reducing them by $50 billion by 2012; starting to get rid of unused federal buildings and property; overhauled how IT is purchased and used, saving billions; and deployed the latest technologies to make it easier of people to get the information and services they need from their government.

Jeff’s years of private sector experience means that he brings a unique perspective to his job as CPO and to this new assignment. 

Having been a CEO, management consultant, and entrepreneur, Jeff has a deep understanding of business strategy, process reengineering and operational management. 

In fact, Jeff spent the majority of his career leading two companies that help corporations around the world improve their performance by adopting best management practices. 

The US-President has also asked Lisa Brown to take on a new position and work with Jeff on this endeavor. 

Lisa is currently Assistant to the President and Staff Secretary and previously served as Co-Chair of the Agency Review Working Group for the Obama-Biden Transition Project. 

In these capacities and from her prior government service, she has developed a keen understanding of how the executive branch works. 

Lisa Brown also brings management and legal acumen, having run a national non-profit organization and been a partner at a DC law firm.

Jeff and Lisa will draw on the resources of OMB to launch and run this effort, and they will be reaching out to the business community, experts, those who run these programs, members of Congress, and a wide range of stakeholders and citizens to get their input about how government can be reformed to best work for them. I

know that we all look forward to working with Jeff and Lisa on this important effort and to helping to create a better organized and more effective federal government.

Dan Pfeiffer is the White House's Communications Director
 

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Remarks by US-President Obama and President Hu in a Roundtable with American and Chinese Business Leaders | The White House

Remarks by US-President Obama and President Hu in a Roundtable with American and Chinese Business Leaders | The White House

Room 430

Eisenhower Executive Office Building

12:36 P.M. EST

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, first of all, thanks to all of you for joining, both American and Chinese business leaders.

President Hu and I have had some excellent discussions, both last night in a smaller dinner and then this morning with our respective teams. But we very much believe that in order for the U.S.-China relationship to deepen and to grow, that it can’t just be a matter of government-to-government contacts.

And there has been no sector of our societies that have been stronger proponents of U.S.-China relations than the business sector. And so I’m very pleased that we have some of America’s top businesses here. Many of them have a longstanding relationship with China; have been selling American goods, promoting American services in China. And they, I think, can testify to the benefits that the United States obtains from strong relations with China.

We’ve got some Chinese business leaders here, who I know are already doing business in the United States, making investments in the United States, engaging in joint ventures in the United States, and helping grow the economy here in the United States. I know they’re interested in finding ways that they can expand their activities in the United States.

And so I think our goal here today was to make sure that we break out of the old stereotypes that somehow China is simply taking manufacturing jobs and taking advantage of low wages; the U.S. is importing cheap goods and thereby having cheaper products, but also putting strains on our employment base -- the relationship is much more complex than that, and it has much more potential than that.

China is one of the top markets for American exports. We’re now exporting more than $100 billion a year in goods and services to China, and that supports about half a million American jobs, from manufacturing to agriculture. And in fact, our exports to China are growing nearly twice as fast as our exports to the rest of the world.

Of course, here in the United States, we’ve got one of the most open economies in the world, and that makes us a top destination for Chinese exports, but also Chinese investment.

It is important, I think, to note that even with China’s enormous population, the United States still does more trade with Europe than it does with China. That, I think, gives an indication of the amount of progress that can be made if we are consulting with each other, if we are hearing specifically from businesses in terms of how we can ease some of the frictions that exist in our trading relationship.

And so my hope is that today, in the brief time that we have, we’ll be able to hear some concrete ideas about how we make sure that trade is fair, that there’s a level playing field; how can we protect intellectual property; how can we promote innovation; how can both of our governments remove barriers to trade and barriers to job creation.

And with China’s growing middle class, I believe that over the coming years, we can more than double our exports to China and create more jobs here in the United States. And I’m sure that Chinese business leaders see enormous opportunities here as well.

So with that, I’d like to just turn it over briefly to President Hu, and then maybe we can hear from some of the leaders around the table.

PRESIDENT HU: (As translated.) Business leaders, today it gives me a great pleasure to be here with President Obama and meet with you, business leaders.

All of you around this table and your companies are leading performers of the two countries. You have not only made positive contribution to the economic growth of your respective countries, but also to China-U.S. relations.

So I wish to offer you my sincere appreciation. All business leaders around this table have seized the opportunities presented by the deepening economic globalization. You have been working vigorously to expand market in each other’s countries. You have grown your business, but also promoted mutual beneficial cooperation between the two countries.

I will cite a set of statistics to show how far we have come.

In 1979, when we firmly established diplomatic ties, our two-way trade was less than $2.5 billion U.S. But the figure for last year was $380 billion U.S., which is more than 150-fold increase. Our mutual investment also started from virtually nothing to an accumulation of $70 billion U.S.

The trade and investment cooperation between our two countries have indeed brought real benefits to the people of our countries and important business communities -- opportunities for our business communities.

According to figures, our total trade has brought about $60 billion U.S. of benefits to U.S. consumers.

If we look ahead to the future, our trade cooperation enjoys a promising future. Here I have a message to all of you -- that is, China is speeding up this transformation of economic growth pattern and economic restructuring. We are focusing our efforts to boosting domestic demand, especially consumer spending.

In recent years, China’s domestic spending has been growing at a double-digit rate every year. In 2010, our domestic market has surpassed a scale of $2 trillion U.S. And here in the United States, you are also working all-out to stimulate your economy.

President Obama has launched a program to double your exports. Both in the dinner last night and in my meeting with President Obama just now, we discussed how to advance economic cooperation between our two countries across the board.

We agreed to strengthen our cooperation in the financial, economic, trade and the environment, science and technology, agriculture, infrastructure and many other fields.

So, indeed, there is a promising future for trade and investment cooperation between our two countries. I do hope that companies from both countries can seize the opportunities, take active options and achieve great things.

I also have a message to American entrepreneurs. That is, we welcome you as companies to China. China follows reform and opening up. We will, as always, try to provide a transparent, just, fair, highly efficient investment climate to U.S. companies and other foreign companies.

I also wish to tell you that all companies registered in China are given national treatment. In terms of innovation products, accreditation, government procurement, IPR protection, the Chinese government will give them equal treatment.

Here, I also have a message to Chinese entrepreneurs. That is, the Chinese government will, as it has always done, support you in making investments and doing business here in the United States. I hope that you can continue to be enterprising and creative, and at the same time, don’t forget to give back to the local communities.

I do believe that President Obama and the U.S. administration will provide a level playing field for Chinese companies to make investments here in the United States.

To conclude, I wish the companies you represent even greater growth in the new year. And I also expect that you can make even greater contribution to promoting trade and investment cooperation between our two countries.

And now I’m ready to listen to your views. Thank you.

END

12:46 P.M. EST

US-President Obama; "An Example of What Martin Luther King’s Birthday Should Be All About" | The White House

US-President Obama: "An Example of What Martin Luther King’s Birthday Should Be All About" | The White House

President Barack Obama helps paint pictures of fruit during a service project in the cafeteria of Stuart Hobson Middle School in Washington, D.C., January 17, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Posted by Jesse Lee on January 17, 2011 at 02:58 PM EST

Today the First Family honored Dr. Martin Luther King with a visit to Stuart Hobson Middle School, where they took part in a mentoring project organized by Greater DC Cares’ Mentoring Matters Initiative. The President said a few quick words:

THE PRESIDENT: This is just an outstanding program, an example of what Martin Luther King’s birthday should be all about. I want to thank all the mentees and mentors who are participating.

Dr. King obviously had a dream of justice and equality in our society, but he also had a dream of service, that you could be a drum major for service, that you could lead by giving back to our communities. And that's what this program is all about and that's what these participants are all about.

Michelle and I the girls are extraordinarily proud that each year on Martin Luther King’s birthday this is how we celebrate, is making sure that we're giving a little something back to the community. And I hope that all the projects that are taking place all across the country on this day are getting similar attention, because this is part of what America is all about. And after a painful week where so many of us were focused on tragedy, it’s good for us to remind ourselves what this country is all about. This kind of service project is what’s best in us and we're thrilled with everybody who is participating.

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Statement by US-President Obama on the death of Polish President Lech Kaczynski and those traveling with him

Statement by US-President Obama on the death of Polish President Lech Kaczynski and those traveling with him

The White House

The White House Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release April 10, 2010

Today, I called Polish Prime Minister Tusk to express Michelle's and my deepest condolences to the people of Poland on the tragic deaths this morning of President Lech Kaczynski, First Lady Maria Kaczynski, and all who were traveling with them to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Kaczynski family, the loved ones of those killed in this tragic plane crash, and the Polish nation.

Today’s loss is devastating to Poland, to the United States, and to the world. President Kaczynski was a distinguished statesman who played a key role in the Solidarity movement, and he was widely admired in the United States as a leader dedicated to advancing freedom and human dignity. With him were many of Poland’s most distinguished civilian and military leaders who have helped to shape Poland’s inspiring democratic transformation. We join all the people of Poland in mourning their passing.

Today, there are heavy hearts across America. The United States cherishes its deep and abiding bonds with the people of Poland. Those bonds are represented in the strength of our alliance, the friendships among our people, and the extraordinary contributions of Polish-Americans who have helped to shape our nation.

It is a testament to the strength of the Polish people that those who were lost were travelling to commemorate a devastating massacre of World War II as the leaders of a strong, vibrant, and free Poland. That strength will ensure that Poland emerges from the depths of this unthinkable tragedy, and that the legacy of the leaders who died today will be a light that continues to guide Poland – and the world – in the direction of human progress.