Author: csponn

Ed. note: The full text of the op-ed by Dr. Jill Biden is printed below. The piece is published today on The Huffington Post, and can be found here.

The year my son Beau was deployed to Iraq with the Delaware Army National Guard, my family learned how much simple acts of kindness could lift our spirits.  From the notice in the church bulletin to the neighbor who shoveled my daughter-in-law’s driveway during a snow storm, these gestures meant the world to us. 

This Memorial Day, I hope you will take a moment to offer your own gesture of thanks to our men and women serving abroad and at home, as well as their families, and reflect on the service men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

Over the past four years, First Lady Michelle Obama and I have had the privilege of meeting with military service members and their families all around the world. We’ve heard their concerns about school and career issues; we’ve shared their joy when service members returned from deployment, and we’ve tried to offer solace when they face difficult times.  These stories and experiences – and our desire to say ‘thank you’ – inspired us to start the Joining Forces initiative, a nationwide effort to rally all Americans to support our veterans and military families.

Joining Forces brings together public and private resources to help with the employment, education and wellness of our returning servicemen and women and their families. Through the Veterans Job Bank and Veterans Recruiting Services, we’re connecting unemployed veterans with job openings.  We’re working hard to encourage states to make it easier for military spouses – often teachers and nurses – to transfer their certifications across state lines.  And we’re proud to have so many private sector partners committed to increasing the number of veterans they hire.

From a big initiative to a small gesture, Memorial Day is the perfect time to offer a simple act of kindness to our veterans and military families.  You can send a message of thanks to our troops or a military family. Or pledge hours of service. Or even start your own volunteer project.  And afterwards, please share your story – we want to hear about it!

As the single largest consumer of energy in the United States, the Department of Defense (DOD) knows that improving efficiency and harnessing new energy technologies is imperative – not only to achieve significant cost savings, but to give our troops better energy options on the battlefield, at sea, in the air, and at home.

At DOD’s fixed installations alone – including, barracks, offices, and hospitals – energy bills come in around $4 billion each year. Given this large footprint as well as the importance of safe, secure, and affordable energy sources to mission readiness, the Department has made one of the largest commitments to clean energy in history, by developing a goal to deploy three gigawatts of renewable energy – including solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal – on Army, Navy, and Air Force installations by 2025 – enough to power 750,000 homes.

When it comes specifically to solar power, a new report today from the Solar Energy Industries Association underscores the progress that DOD is making towards its goals.

“Enlisting the Sun: Powering the U.S. Military with Solar Energy” highlights solar energy’s growing role in powering military installations and military homes across America. According to the report, as of early 2013, there are more than 130 megawatts (MW) of solar photovoltaic (PV) energy systems powering Navy, Army, and Air Force bases in at least 31 states and the District of Columbia. Combined, these installations provide enough clean energy to power more than 20,000 American homes.

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(Jeff Martin, National Women’s Law Center)

During his State of the Union address in February, President Obama called on Congress to expand access to high-quality preschool to every four-year old in America. As the President put it that day:

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.

Yesterday, I had the pleasure to meet with mothers, leaders, and tireless advocates that understand that the best investment we can make as a country is in our children’s future.

The coalition came to the White House to deliver 30,000 letters and art work thanking the President for his proposal to make high-quality preschool available for all children – and I used the opportunity to thank them for all their hard work, and to hear from them about the work they continue to do advocating for children.

They understand that for every dollar spent on high-quality early education, we save more than seven dollars in the long run by boosting kindergarten readiness, graduation rates, reducing teen pregnancy, and even reducing violent crime. They also understand that providing our children with the best start possible in life is not only a moral imperative, but an economic imperative that will benefit our communities and our nation far into the future.

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Every April, we recognize Sexual Assault Awareness Month. This year, with rape in the headlines nearly every day, we speak out with even greater urgency to honor survivors and prevent sexual violence.

We know the devastating the statistics: 1 in 5 women and 1 in 71 men have been raped in their lifetimes. That’s 18 million women in this country who have been raped, and more than 1 million rapes that occur every year. The vast majority of these assaults occur when the victims are under the age of 25, and those under the age of 18 are at the greatest risk. These numbers are real, but they don’t tell the whole story. They don’t tell of the broken trust when the attacker is a friend, a trusted colleague, or a family member.  They don’t tell of the suicidal feelings, the depression, or of the PTSD. And, they don’t tell of the courage survivors demonstrate when they work every day to put their lives back together.

Across the federal government, we are working to support survivors and to prevent sexual violence. Last year, the Department of Justice modernized the definition of rape used to collect our nation’s crime statistics. This year, the Department of Justice is working with law enforcement agencies to implement this change and develop new guidelines for investigating sexual assault cases. The Office on Violence Against Women is funding training that will help communities address their backlogs of rape kits and improve prosecution of sexual assault crimes. The Office of Victims of Crime is supporting the development of a telemedicine center that will help bring sexual assault forensic exams to victims in rural and isolated communities.

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A $6 million manufacturer, a five-person carbon capture start-up, and a 70-person medical device company. On Monday, the President met with the leaders of these small businesses and 100 more like them to discuss the economy and the President’s commitment to small business success.

Organized by the National Small Business Association (NSBA), the group at the White House flew in from over 20 states and represented a broad cross-section of industries. The typical small business owner in the room employed 50 people, generating around $10 million in annual revenue.

As Alan Krueger, the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, wrapped up his remarks on the state of the economy, the President stopped by for a surprise visit.

According to Todd McCracken, President and CEO of NSBA, the small business leaders were “delighted with the event and the President’s visit. He had a great deal of comfort with a broad range of issues that affect small businesses, from economic and tax issues to the specifics about things such as patent policy and small business innovation funds.”

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Ed. note: This post was first published on the official blog of healthcare.gov. You can see the original post here. 

Enacted three years ago, the health care law is making the insurance market work better for you by prohibiting some of the worst insurance industry practices that have kept affordable health coverage out of reach for millions of Americans.

As a former state insurance commissioner, I know that for too long, too many hard-working Americans paid the price for policies that handed free rein to health insurance companies. For more than a decade before the Affordable Care Act, premiums rose rapidly, straining the budgets of American families and businesses. And insurers often raised premiums without any explanation.

It wasn’t fair and it was costing you your hard-earned dollars, security, and peace of mind.

The Affordable Care Act is working to bring affordability and fairness to the marketplace by barring insurers from dropping your coverage when you get sick or placing a lifetime dollar limit on coverage. In 2014, it will prohibit discriminating against you or anyone with a pre-existing condition, such as high blood pressure, asthma, or cancer.

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A mother survives domestic abuse, but realizes she needs a civil protection order, as well as custody of her child, but she may not be able to afford legal representation.

Five years ago, a group of lawyers came together to support clients like her. They founded the DC Volunteers Lawyer Project (DCVLP) to recruit, train, and support attorneys to provide pro-bono services in three areas: (1) domestic violence, including with divorce, custody, child support, and immigration matters, (2) high-conflict child custody cases, and (3) assisting foster parents.

The DCVLP now has more than 700 volunteer lawyers who provide pro-bono services.

Yesterday, I had the privilege of visiting the DCVLP. I met with the remarkable founders and staff, listened to the story of a former client serving on the board, and heard about all the great work they are doing every single day here in Washington, DC.

White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett with the DC Volunteer Lawyers Project team.

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Education Secretary Arne Duncan takes part in “Taking Action: Creating Model Emergency Management Plans for Schools, Institutions of Higher Education, and Houses of Worship”, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building South Court Auditorium, Feb. 27, 2013. The meeting was held as part of the President’s plan to protect our children and communities by reducing gun violence. Answering questions were, from left: John McDonald, Executive Director of Security and Emergency Management, Jefferson County Public Schools; Marleen Wong, Associate Dean, University of Southern California School of Social Work; Secretary of Education Arne Duncan; Major Ian A. Moffett, Miami Police Department; Robert Fein, Forensic and National Security Psychologist; and Natalie Hammond, Teacher, Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Yesterday, over 100 leaders from across the country came to the White House to join Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano for a discussion about how to make our schools, institutions of higher education, and houses of worship safer through the creation of high-quality emergency management plans.

Secretary Duncan noted that, “Some tough lessons we’ve learned over time, some inspiring lessons as well, but if we can all learn from each other, learn together, and go back home to our communities, it makes me hopeful about where we can go despite the tremendous challenges we face.”

On January 16th, President Obama, through an executive action, directed the Departments of Education, Homeland Security, Justice, and Health and Human Services to work together to create model emergency management plans for these communities. Yesterday’s event helped inform the agencies’ work to implement that executive action. The President’s plan to reduce gun violence includes a total of 23 executive actions, as well as specific proposals that he has called on Congress to act on right away.

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Flying on the U.S. side of the U.S.-Mexico border and overlooking the Rio Grande River, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano tours the border in a U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Air and Marine helicopter over Clint, Texas, Feb. 5, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

Last week, I travelled to San Diego, CA and Clint and El Paso, TX where I saw firsthand the need for more modernized immigration laws that make it harder for criminals and transnational criminal organizations to operate, while encouraging immigrants to choose to pursue a pathway to legal immigration rather than breaking the law.

See a photo gallery of Secretary Napolitano's visit

Over the past four years, we have dedicated historic levels of personnel, technology, and resources to the Southwest border, and undertaken an unprecedented effort to transform our Nation's immigration enforcement systems into one that focuses on public safety, border security, and the integrity of the immigration system. We have matched our success at the border with smart, effective immigration enforcement, with a focus on identifying and removing criminal aliens and other public safety threats, recent border crossers, repeat violators, and employers who break the law. We have also increased funding to our state and local law enforcement partners to make sure they have the resources they need.

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When I first became Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, I made a list of my priorities for the Agency. Working for environmental justice was at the top of that list. Ensuring equal environmental protections for all Americans is the unfinished business of the environmental movement.

It’s a simple idea – that all Americans are entitled to clean air to breathe, safe water to drink and a healthy community to raise their families – but often, it is America’s low-income and minority communities that bear the brunt of our country’s pollution.

As a result, these communities are also hit harder by the many illnesses pollution is linked to – conditions like asthma, heart disease, cancer and strokes. Studies show that minority groups face a greater risk of having asthma, and once they have it, they are at a greater risk of needing emergency treatment. African-American children are hospitalized for asthma at twice the rate of white children, and asthma-related deaths among African-American children take place at a rate of four times that of non-Hispanic white children. Hispanic children — especially of Puerto Rican descent — also face higher rates of asthma.

Dirty air, polluted water and contaminated lands not only put families at higher risks of serious and potentially costly diseases – they also discourage new developments and new jobs. Poison in the ground often means poison in the economy. Limiting the economic possibilities of low-income and minority communities only makes it harder to break the cycle of poverty.

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The Nation increasingly relies on the Internet to run the systems that light our houses, provide gas for our cars, and ensure our water is safe to drink. Collectively, these diverse systems represent our cyber critical infrastructure. Linking our critical infrastructure to the Internet brings considerable benefits, but our daily reliance on this critical infrastructure means that we are vulnerable to disruptions in our ability to use it. Unfortunately, the threats against our cyber critical infrastructure are numerous, ranging from sophisticated nation states to common criminals.

The government’s senior-most civilian, military, and intelligence professionals all agree that inadequate cybersecurity within this critical infrastructure poses a grave threat to the security of the United States.  Most recently, we have seen an increased interest in targeting public and private critical infrastructure systems by actors who seek to threaten our national and economic security. Along with dissuading their actions, we must better protect the critical systems that support our way of life.

Because of the importance of our cyber critical infrastructure, and the seriousness of the threats, the President issued an Executive Order yesterday directing federal departments and agencies to use their existing authorities to provide better cybersecurity for the Nation. These efforts will by necessity involve increased collaboration with the private sector and a whole-of-government approach.

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For nearly three decades, extraordinary Americans who exemplify the themes and ideals laid out in the State of the Union Address have been invited to join the First Lady in her viewing box. From students to teachers and innovators, to entrepreneurs and those serving in our armed forces – use the interactive feature below to learn more about the remarkable individuals who will join First Lady Michelle Obama for the 2013 State of the Union Address.

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The First Lady's Box at the 2013 State of the Union

First Lady Michelle Obama

Michelle Obama is the First Lady of the United States. Continuing a longstanding tradition, extraordinary Americans who exemplify the themes and ideals laid out in the President’s State of the Union Address attend the event as guests of the First Lady.

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Dr. Jill Biden

Jill Biden is the wife of Vice President Biden. An educator and a proud Blue Star mom, Dr. Biden works to highlight the importance of community colleges, to raise awareness about the sacrifices made by military families, and to bring attention to women’s health issues.

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Valerie Jarrett

Valerie B. Jarrett is a Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama. She is also the Chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls and she oversees the Offices of Intergovernmental Affairs; Public Engagement; Urban Affairs; and Olympic, Paralympic, and Youth Sport.

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Sergeant Sheena Adams
Vista, California

A native of Kauai, Hawaii, Sergeant Adams joined the Marine Corps in 2003. Sergeant Adams was deployed to Helmand Province, Afghanistan as a member of the Female Engagement Team (FET) from September 2010 to April 2011. Sergeant Adams received her Combat Action Ribbon and Navy and Marine Corp Achievement Medal (second award) after successful completion of the deployment. In September 2011, Sergeant Adams returned to 1st Marine Expeditionary Force Advisor Training Cell, as Team Advisor/Liaison and lead FET instructor, where she re-engineered the Period of Instruction for future FETs.

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Alan Aleman
Las Vegas, Nevada

Alan Aleman was born in Mexico City, Mexico and attended high school in the U.S. Determined to get a good education, Aleman was one of the first to sign up when he heard the news that the Obama Administration was going to provide Deferred Action for undocumented youth like him to emerge from the shadows. When his application was approved, Aleman said, “I felt the fear vanish. I felt accepted.” Today, Aleman is in his second year at the College of Southern Nevada, studying to become a doctor and he hopes to join the Air Force.

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Jack Andraka
Crownsville, Maryland

Jack Andraka, 16, of North County High School, was awarded first place for his new method to detect pancreatic cancer at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair 2012. Motivated by the death of his uncle due to pancreatic cancer, Jack created a simple dipstick sensor based on diabetic test paper to test blood or urine to determine whether or not a patient has early-stage pancreatic cancer. His study resulted in over 90 percent accuracy and showed his patent-pending sensor to be 28 times faster, 28 times less expensive and over 100 times more sensitive than current tests.

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Susan Bumgarner
Norman, Oklahoma

Susan Bumgarner has been an early educator for more than twenty years in Oklahoma, which is a national leader in providing access to high quality preschool for all children. Bumgarner, who was educated at the University of Oklahoma, has written curriculum, trained Head Start teachers, taught infants and toddlers, and prepared parents through Early Birds readiness classes. In 1992 Bumgarner began teaching pre-kindergarten at what is now Wilson Arts Integration Elementary School. “My work is enthralling and my students are amazing, creative, intelligent people,” she said. “It is an honor to facilitate their playful transition into the formal world of learning.”

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Deb Carey
New Glarus, Wisconsin

For Deborah Carey and her husband Dan, a master brewer, New Glarus Brewing Company is a true family effort. In 1993, they sold their home and raised $40,000 in seed money, but still needed more funding, which came after investors heard the story Carey pitched to local newspapers. Today, New Glarus Brewing Company has grown to 50 full-time employees, and registered growth in profits of 123 percent from 2007 to 2009, becoming Wisconsin’s number one micro-brewery relative to sales volume.

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Sergeant Carlos Evans, USMC
Cameron, North Carolina

Sergeant Carlos Evans, born in Puerto Rico, was on his fourth overseas deployment when he sustained injuries in Afghanistan that resulted in the loss of both of his legs and his left hand. Sergeant Evans credits the support he has received from private organizations to the First Lady and Dr. Biden’s efforts in Joining Forces. In 2012, he received a custom home from Operation Coming Home and now resides in North Carolina with his wife and two young daughters.

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Tim Cook
Cupertino, California

Before being named CEO in August 2011, Tim Cook was Apple‘s Chief Operating Officer and was responsible for all of the company’s worldwide sales and operations. He also headed Apple’s Macintosh division and played a key role in the continued development of strategic reseller and supplier relationships, ensuring flexibility in response to an increasingly demanding marketplace. Cook earned an M.B.A. from Duke University, where he was a Fuqua Scholar, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Auburn University.

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Cleopatra Cowley-Pendleton and Nathaniel A. Pendleton Sr.
Chicago, Illinois

Cleopatra and Nathaniel’s daughter Hadiya Pendleton was murdered on January 29, 2013, when she was shot and killed in Harsh Park on Chicago’s South Side. Hadiya had participated in President Obama’s public inaugural celebration on January 21, 2013. She was an honor student and band majorette at King College Prep High School. First Lady Michelle Obama attended Hadiya’s memorial service on Saturday, February 6.

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Menchu de Luna Sanchez
Secaucus, New Jersey

When Hurricane Sandy cut the power at NYU Langone Medical Center, Menchu Sanchez, a Registered Nurse, devised a plan to transport twenty at-risk infants to intensive care units around the city, directing the staff to carry the babies down eight flights of stairs with cell phones lighting the way. Sanchez’s own home was flooding, but she thought only of the babies in her care. Sanchez immigrated to the United States from the Philippines in the 1980s and has worked as a nurse in New York for over 25 years. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and two children, both of whom are in college.

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Bobak Ferdowsi
Pasadena, California

Bobak Ferdowsi, aka NASA’s “Mohawk Guy,” is a member of the Mars Curiosity rover team at NASA and Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. After the Curiosity’s successful landing in August 2012, President Obama called to congratulate the team on their success, and singled out Ferdowsi for the unique haircut that captured the imagination of millions of people around the world. Ferdowsi is an Iranian-American and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) professional who, in addition to his work on the Mars mission, volunteers as a FIRST robotics mentor to get more boys and girls excited about STEM education.

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Bradley Henning
Louisville, Kentucky

His high school had one of the best machining programs in the state, and upon graduation Bradley Henning had taken enough vocational classes to get hired as a full-time apprentice with Atlas Machine and Supply in Louisville, Kentucky. Today, at 23, he is a card-carrying Journeyman Machinist at Atlas, and responsible for mentoring the next generation of apprentices. Henning is committed to a career in manufacturing and sees a bright future ahead. “This will be my lifelong career,” he said. “I come in every day with a smile on my face. I learn something new every day…I love that.”

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Tracey Hepner
Arlington, Virginia

Tracey Hepner is a co-founder of the Military Partners and Families Coalition (MPFC), which provides support, resources, education, and advocacy for LGBT military partners and their families. Hepner works full time for the Department of Homeland Security as a Master Behavior Detection Officer. She is married to the first openly gay or lesbian general officer in the military, Army Brigadier General Tammy Smith.

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Peter Hudson
Evergreen, Colorado

Dr. Peter Hudson, the co-founder and CEO of iTriage, is a physician and entrepreneur with more than 15 years of experience founding and growing healthcare-related businesses. His focus has been on creating efficiencies within the healthcare delivery system, and empowering healthcare consumers with technology. Using open government data, in 2009 Dr. Hudson launched his company focused on prompting citizens to actively engage in their own healthcare. His app enables smartphone users to locate nearby providers based on their symptoms, make appointments, store their personal health records, save medication refill reminders, and learn about thousands of medications, diseases and procedures.

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Governor John Kitzhaber (D-OR)

Governor John Kitzhaber has built on his experience as a former emergency room doctor to transform health care delivery in Oregon. Now in his third term, Governor Kitzhaber is working with the Obama administration to scale up innovative models that show how government can do more with less. These performance partnerships, which emphasize federal flexibility and local accountability, are key to building the infrastructure we‘ll need to unleash the 21st century economy and achieving improved health care outcomes and efficiencies and better results for our students.

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Mayor Marie Lopez Rogers
Avondale, Arizona

Marie Lopez Rogers served on the Avondale City Council for 14 years before being elected as the city’s first Latina Mayor in 2006. Growing up in migrant farm labor camps and picking cotton alongside her parents, Mayor Rogers never imagined that she would be guiding the transformation of the region. In Dec. 2012, she was named president of the National League of Cities, an organization dedicated to helping city leaders build better communities. She and her husband Ed have been married for 43 years and have three children and six grandchildren.

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Amanda E. McMillan
Jackson, Mississippi

For years Amanda McMillan worked as a secretary, doing many of the same duties as male salespeople but at lower pay. When she repeatedly asked for a promotion, McMillan was told sales was too dangerous for a woman, and that she would not be a good mother if she were on the road meeting customers. She sued the company for sex discrimination, and won. McMillan brought the suit because, “it was wrong. I could never look my girls in the face and then tell them they live in America and could be anything they wanted to be.” A mother of three, she lives in Jackson, MS.

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Lee Maxwell
Wilton, Iowa

In 2012, Lee Maxwell graduated from Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Maxwell gained twenty six separate certifications in everything from reading blueprints to driving forklifts, and today, he’s responsible for turning on the power for new wind turbines that are being built all around the country. Kirkwood started its wind technician training program three years ago in partnership with Iowa-based Clipper Windpower, combining an industry-based curriculum with donated equipment to give students the hands-on experience they need to succeed.

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Lieutenant Brian Murphy
Oak Creek, Wisconsin

Lieutenant Brian Murphy was the first police officer to arrive at the scene of the tragic Sikh temple shooting in Oak Creek, Wisconsin last August. Lt. Murphy confronted the shooter, and took fifteen bullets to his head, neck, and body before the rest of the police force arrived. Lt. Murphy has served as a police officer for over twenty years and previously served in the Marine Corps and the United National security force. He lives with his wife and children in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

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Lisa Richards
Arlington, Virginia

Lisa Richards was one of thousands of Americans who shared stories about what paying $2,200 more in taxes would mean for them. The single mom wrote, “It‘s 20 weeks of groceries, two years worth of gasoline, 1/3 of a new roof (which I need), six months of utilities.” With the passage of the middle class tax cuts at the beginning of the year,Richards and millions of Americans like her did not see did not see an income tax increase. Richards and her seven-year old daughter live in Arlington, Virginia.

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Katlin Roig
Greenwich, Connecticut

Kaitlin Roig has been a first grade teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School for six years. Passionate about education and working with children, Roig received her Master’s degree from the NEAG School of Education at the University of Connecticut, where she was a member of the Order of Omega Honor Society, the Historical Honor Society, and the NEAG honor society. Roig started a running club called Marathon Mondays for third and fourth grade students at Sandy Hook Elementary. She will be running the New York City Marathon this year.

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Abby Schanfield
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Prior to the passage of the Affordable Care Act, Abby Schanfield would have lost coverage upon turning 21 and would not have been able to obtain care due to her several pre-existing conditions. Schanfield was influenced by her experiences growing up with a chronic illness, and the privileges that come with being insured. A recent graduate of the University of Minnesota, Schanfield hopes to work in public policy, focusing on women’s and community health.

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Haile Thomas
Tuscon, Arizona

At 12, Haile Thomas is a Youth Advisory Board member with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation and the Co-Founder/Director of the HAPPY Organization, an Arizona nonprofit dedicated to improving the health and wellness of youth through education, outreach, and advocacy about proper nutrition and healthy lifestyle choices. Haile produces online cooking videos aimed at encouraging kids to get cooking, created the Healthy Girl Adventures Club to inspire girls to embrace healthy habits, and hosts an annual H.E.A.L. (healthy eating, active lifestyle) Festival in Tucson.

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Desiline Victor
Miami, Florida

Desiline Victor, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Haiti and retired farmworker, is 102 years old. On October 28, Victor inspired other early voters with her determination to cast her ballot, waiting three hours in vain, and then returning a second time. Mission accomplished, she emerged with an “I Voted” sticker as thousands of waiting voters erupted into applause. Known as “Granny” among the city’s Haitian community, Victor enjoys attending church services and cooking her own meals.

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Check out WhiteHouse.gov/sotu for an enhanced viewing experience of President Obama's State of the Union address and check out opportunities to engage online with White House officials and even President Obama himself.

Learn more about the State of the Union:

• Inside the process of making  a State of the Union Address
• Watch the enhanced version of the 2012 State of the Union Address
• Video: Go behind the scenes as the President prepared his 21012 State of the Union speech
• Photo Gallery: Scenes from the 2012 State of the Union