STATE DEPARTMENT ANNOUNCES CHARLES RIVKIN IS TRAVELING TO ALGERIA AND TUNISIA

FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs Charles Rivkin Travels to Algeria and Tunisia
Media Note
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
March 1, 2015

Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs Charles H. Rivkin is travelling March 1-6 to Algiers and Tunis, where he will co-lead a business delegation with the National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce and the U.S.-Algeria Business Council. He will also attend the Partners for a New Beginning - North Africa Partnership for Economic Opportunity (PNB-NAPEO) Investment and Entrepreneurship Conference in Tunis.

In Algiers on March 1-3, Assistant Secretary Rivkin and Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Anne Patterson will meet with government officials to discuss opportunities to strengthen our bilateral commercial relationship.

In Tunis on March 4-6, he and other U.S. Government officials will meet with members of the new Tunisian government, with a focus on promoting economic growth, job creation, and increased U.S. investment.

SECRETARY KERRY MAKES REMARKS WITH HAITIAN PRIME MINISTER LAURENT LAMOTHE

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT

Remarks With Haitian Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe Before Their Meeting

Remarks

John Kerry

Secretary of State

Treaty Room

Washington, DC

October 9, 2014

SECRETARY KERRY: Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for joining us for a minute. I’m very happy to welcome the Prime Minister of Haiti Laurent Lamothe here to Washington. And in doing so I welcome a good friend, a good partner in the major efforts to meet the challenges of Haiti, which are significant because of the devastating earthquake and some of the needs to push for political reform. The government has worked hard and we have worked hard and the international community has worked hard to make a difference to the lives of the people of Haiti.

I have many Haitians who live in Massachusetts that I was proud to represent as a United States senator for many years, and so I would always hear very personal stories of the challenges in Haiti. And we have a deep interest in the United States in helping to continue down this road of both democracy and economic growth and development.

There is work to be done, and particularly, as we know, there is the challenge of completing the task of having local and legislative elections as soon as possible, being able to set the date and hold those elections to complete the task of Haiti’s transition. Unfortunately, that is being blocked now politically. I spoke with President Martelly just the other day about this, and we intend to try to work very closely to move forward. This resistance – the unwillingness to allow the people to be able to have this vote – really challenges the overall growth and development progress of the country. You need to have a fully functioning government. The president has been working very hard, the prime minister working very, very hard, to pull people together to make this happen.

So we’ll talk about that today and we have very, very high hopes that we can make progress with respect to that, because that will facilitate our ability to continue the progress and complete the task of helping the people of Haiti to have the day-to-day lives they deserve and want, and which we want for them.

So Mr. Prime Minister, welcome. Thank you.

PRIME MINISTER LAMOTHE: Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary.

I want to thank Secretary Kerry for having us today. It’s a great pleasure and honor to be here. It’s my second visit. I used to be foreign minister here – of Haiti, so I’m very, very happy to be able to discuss Haiti’s progress. We came a long way after a devastating earthquake that took away 250,000 lives, 500,000 people were wounded. The country had $14 billion in damages. And 50 percent of the population of Port-au-Prince was homeless. That’s the situation we found.

Today, 98 percent of that population has been relocated. The country is progressing very much, and that’s thanks very much to the U.S. support of Haiti’s growth, Haiti’s progress. We have a thriving industrial park in the northern part of Haiti.

Haiti has tremendous challenges ahead of it. We have the elections that we have to organize, and like the Secretary said, we’re working very hard to organize those elections as soon as possible. We have the energy security that we wanted to address, and the rule of law and security in general.

I want to take this opportunity to thank Secretary Kerry for the time, and also all the leadership that you’ve shown in the Ebola, I would say, mobilization of the world. And Haiti stands by your side in order to assist in any little way that we can in this effort that affects all of us.

Thank you.

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you, sir.

QUESTION: Mr. Prime – Mr. Prime Minister --

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

QUESTION: Mr. Prime Minister, so can you confirm that the elections won’t take place as scheduled on October 26th and that you will have to postpone them?

PRIME MINISTER LAMOTHE: All – everything is ready for the election to take place. We have the financing that’s in place. The electoral council is in place. We have the security plan that’s in place. We’re missing one thing, which is the electoral law, and the electoral law has to be voted by the senate. And at this moment, there is six senators who’ve been sitting on the law for the past 200 days, seven months. So we are working feverishly in a dialogue with different sectors to try to get them to vote that law in order for us to have elections as soon as possible. But if it was up to us, we would have it tomorrow.

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you. Thank you all very much.

UNDER SECRETARY NOVELLI MAKES REMARKS ON INTERNET GOVERNANCE

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 

Internet Governance Forum Opening Ceremony

Remarks

Catherine A. Novelli

Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment 

Istanbul, Turkey

September 2, 2014

Good afternoon. It is a great pleasure to be here today. I am grateful to our gracious Turkish hosts, the IGF Secretariat, and the Multistakeholder Advisory Group for organizing this year’s Internet Governance Forum.

For centuries, Istanbul connected continents, people and cultures through ancient networks of trading routes and cultural exchanges. This week, I am pleased that we are here to discuss the future of our newest “network of networks,” the Internet.

This year, the international community celebrates the 45th anniversary of the first Internet log-on and the 25th birthday of the Worldwide Web. In this short span of time, the Internet has proven to be a revolutionary force for economic growth, but also a fragile one that all of us must work to preserve.

Across the world, the Internet bridges the gap between talent and opportunity. For example, three Nigerian university students have already helped tens of thousands of Africans secure jobs by creating a job search website called “Jobberman.com.” As West Africa’s most popular online career resource, Jobberman connects talented individuals with job opportunities.

Today, the Internet’s economic benefits are increasingly shifting to the developing world. In fact, in Turkey, SMEs that use the web experienced revenue growth 22 percent higher than those that did not. Overall, the Internet economy contributes 5 to 9 percent to total economic growth in developed markets; and in developing markets, the Internet economy is growing at 15 to 25 percent per year.

The Internet’s enormous impact on economic growth makes it critical that we adopt policies and practices to ensure its future viability. We have a shared responsibility to be good stewards of the internet. I believe complacency is one of the biggest threats to the internet as we know it. I see three critical challenges ahead.

First is broadband access. As a community, our shared challenge is to promote global policies and practices that increase everyone’s access to broadband, particularly in the developing world.

Second is ensuring an open internet. We must strengthen the ability of citizens to access information on the Internet regardless of where they live so that people can freely obtain information and express their opinions.

Third is misuse of the internet, such as cyber-attacks, identity and Intellectual Property theft. We have many tools to address misuse, including technology. However, we must use these tools with precision, so that they address the misuse while preserving internet openness to the greatest degree possible.

Because of these formidable challenges, there are some that advocate for replacing the multi-stakeholder system with centralized intergovernmental regulation. Ideas range from governments imposing international taxes on the transmission of content; mandates on how information has to be routed or stored; and regulated pricing between networks.

This type of regulation would only result in a cumbersome and more expensive Internet that would not be capable of driving positive change in education, health care and the overall economy. Think about the consequences of taxing every Skype call, or regulating the types of information that flow across the Internet through multilateral governmental mandates. This could cripple the user experience and greatly diminish the Internet’s effectiveness as an engine of growth.

We must continue to demonstrate to the world that only the multi-stakeholder approach, that brings together government policy-makers, businesses, NGOs and Internet experts on an equal footing, can effectively overcome today’s challenges and preserve the Internet’s future.

The first step for the continued success of the IGF is to support its long-term sustainability beyond 2015. The United States strongly supports the continuation of the IGF, and I encourage all participants here to join us in supporting extension of the IGF’s mandate at the UN General Assembly this fall.

In conclusion, as I mentioned at the outset, I urge all stakeholders to work together to fulfill our shared responsibility to preserve the Internet’s future.

I am excited to engage with all of you to ensure that the Internet remains vibrant and continues to be a conduit to better the lives of people worldwide.

PRESIDENT OBAMA SIGNS FAIR PAY AND SAFE WORKPLACE EXECUTIVE ORDER

FROM:  THE WHITE HOUSE 

Remarks by the President at the Signing of Fair Pay and Safe Workplace Executive Order

South Court Auditorium

1:40 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, everybody, hello!  (Applause.)  Thank you so much.  Everybody, please have a seat.  Welcome to the White House. 

The executive order I’ll sign in a few minutes is one that’s good for workers, it's good for responsible employers, and it's good for the middle class.  That explains the folks who are standing up on stage with me, including Secretary of Labor Tom Perez, who’s done a great job on this.  (Applause.)  

Yesterday, we learned that the springtime was a strong time for economic growth.  Companies are investing.  Consumers are spending.  Our energy, our technology, our auto industries are all booming, with workers making and selling goods all around the world.  Our businesses have created nearly 10 million new jobs over the past 52 months, and the unemployment rate is at its lowest point since 2008.  401(k)s have recovered their value.  Home prices are rising.  Millions more families have the peace of mind that comes with having affordable, quality health care.

And because of the incredible hard work and resilience of the American people, we’ve recovered faster, we've come farther than any other advanced country since the onset of the Great Recession.  (Applause.)  Things are getting better.  Steadily, things are getting better.  But we all know there’s more work to do.  And the decisions we make now are going to have an impact on whether or not this economy works for everybody or just folks at the top; whether we've got a growing economy that fuels rising incomes and creates a thriving middle class and ladders into the middle class.

That’s what’s at stake -- making sure our economy works for every hardworking American, and if you work hard and you're responsible, you can get ahead.  That's what we want.  We want to make sure the young dad on the factory floor has a shot to make it into the corner suite -- or at least see his daughter make it there some day.

That’s why I ran for office.  That’s what has driven every policy that we've initiated this year and since the advent of my presidency.  Policies that create more jobs rebuilding America.  Policies to ease the student loan burden.  Policies to raise wages for workers, and make sure that women are being paid fairly on the job, and creating opportunities for paid leave for working families, and support for child care. 

These are all policies that have two things in common.  Number one, they’d all help working families.  And, frankly, number two, they’re being blocked or ignored by Republicans in Congress.  So I’ve said to my team, look, any time Congress wants to do work with me to help working families, I'm right there.  The door is always open.  More than that, I'll go to them; I'll wash their car -- (laughter) -- walk their dog.  (Laughter.)  I mean, I'm ready to work with them any time that they want to pursue policies that help working families.  But where they’re doing so little or nothing at all to help working families, then we've got to find ways, as an administration, to take action that's going to help. 

And so far this year, we’ve made sure that more women have the protection they need to fight for fair pay in the workplace  -- because I believe when women succeed, America succeeds.  (Applause.)  We’ve acted to give millions of Americans the chance to cap their student loan payments at 10 percent of their income. I don’t want young people to be so saddled with debt that they can't get started in life.  (Applause.) 

We’ve acted on our own to make sure federal contractors can’t discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity -- because you shouldn’t be fired because of who you love.  (Applause.)  If you’re doing the job, you should be treated fairly and judged on your own merits.  (Applause.)

We acted to require federal contractors to pay their workers a fair wage of $10.10 an hour.  (Applause.)  And we’ve gone out and we’ve worked with states and cities and business owners to join us on our $10.10 campaign, and more and more are joining us -- because folks agree that if you work full-time in this country, you shouldn’t be raising your family in poverty.  That’s a pretty simple principle that we all believe in.  (Applause.) 

So the American people are doing their job.  I’ve been traveling around the country meeting them.  They’re working hard. They’re meeting their responsibilities.  Here in the executive branch, we’re doing our job, trying to find ways in which we can help working families.  Think about how much further along we’d be if Congress would do its job. 

Instead, the big event last night -- it wasn’t the vote on the minimum wage.  (Laughter.)  It wasn’t a vote on immigration reform, strengthening the borders.  It wasn’t a vote on family leave.  What did they have a vote on?  (Laughter.)  They got together in the House of Representatives, the Republicans, and voted to sue me for taking the actions that we are doing to help families.  (Laughter.)

One of the main objections that’s the basis of this suit is us making a temporary modification to the health care law that they said needed to be modified.  (Laughter.)  So they criticized a provision; we modify it to make it easier for business to transition; and that’s the basis for their suit.  Now, you could say that, all right, this is a harmless political stunt -- except it wastes America’s time.  You guys are all paying for it as taxpayers.  It’s not very productive.  But it’s not going to stop me from doing what I think needs to be done in order to help families all across this country.  (Applause.)

So we’ve got too much work to do.  (Applause.)  And I said to Speaker Boehner, tell your caucus the best way to avoid me acting on my own is work with me to actually do something.  Then you don’t have to worry about it.  We’re not going to stop, and if they’re not going to lift a finger to help working Americans then I’m going to work twice as hard to help working Americans.  (Applause.)  They can join me if they want.  I hope they do.  But at least they should stop standing in the way of America’s success.   We’ve got too much to do. (Applause.)  

So, today, I’m taking another action, one that protects workers and taxpayers alike.  Every year, our government signs contracts with private companies for everything from fighter jets to flapjacks, computers to pencils.  And we expect our tax dollars to be spent wisely on these contracts; to get what we pay for on-time, on budget.  And when companies that receive federal contracts employ about 28 million Americans –- about one in five workers in America work for a company that has a federal contract -– we also expect that our tax dollars are being used to ensure that these jobs are good jobs. 

Our tax dollars shouldn’t go to companies that violate workplace laws.  (Applause.)  They shouldn’t go to companies that violate worker rights.  (Applause.)  If a company is going to receive taxpayer money, it should have safe workplaces.  (Applause.)  It should pay its workers the wages they’ve earned. It should provide the medical leave workers are entitled to.  It should not discriminate against workers.  (Applause.)

But one study found that more than one in four companies that have poor records on these areas also still get contracts from the federal government.  And another study found that the worst violators are also the ones who end up missing performance or cost or schedule targets –- or even overbilled the government, ripping off the taxpayers altogether -- which makes sense.  I mean, if you think about it, if you got a company that isn’t treating its workers with integrity, isn’t taking safety measures seriously, isn’t taking overtime laws seriously, then they're probably cutting corners in other areas, too.

  And I want to be clear, the vast majority of the companies that contract with our government, they play by the rules.  They live up to the right workplace standards.  But some don’t.  And I don't want those who don't to be getting a contract and getting a competitive advantage over the folks who are doing the right thing, right?  That's not fair.  (Applause.)

Because the ones that don't play by the rules, they're not just failing their workers, they’re failing all of us.  It’s a bad deal for taxpayers when we’ve got to pay for poor performance or sloppy work.  Responsible companies that follow the law are likelier to have workers and workplaces that provide a better return for our tax dollar.  They should not have to compete on an unfair playing field with companies that undercut them by breaking the law.  In a race to the bottom, nobody wins.  (Applause.)

So over the past few years, my administration has taken steps to make the contracting process smarter.  But many of the people who award contracts don’t always have the information that they need to make sure contracts go to responsible companies.  So the executive order I’m signing today is going to do a few things. 

Number one, it will hold corporations accountable by requiring potential contractors to disclose labor law violations from the past three years before they can receive a contract.  It’s going to crack down on the worst violators by giving agencies better tools to evaluate egregious or repeated offenses.
It will give workers better and clearer information on their paychecks, so they can be sure they’re getting paid what they’re owed.  It will give more workers who may have been sexually assaulted or had their civil rights violated their day in court. 
It will ease compliance burdens for business owners around the country by streamlining all types of reporting requirements across the federal government.  So this is a first step in a series of actions to make it easier for companies, including small businesses, to do business with the government.   So we’re going to protect responsible companies that play by the rules -- make it easier for them, try to reduce the paperwork, the burdens that they have.  They’ll basically check a box that says they don’t have these violations.  We want to make it easier for good corporate citizens to do business with us.  (Applause.) 

And, by the way, for companies that have violations, our emphasis is not going to be on punishments.  It is to give them a chance to follow good workplace practices and come into compliance with the law.  If you want to do business with the United States of America, you’ve got to respect our workers, you’ve got to respect our taxpayers. 

And we’ll spend a lot of time working with and listening to business owners, so we can implement this thoughtfully and make it manageable for everybody.  But the goal here is to make sure this action raises standards across the economy; encourages contractors to adopt better practices for all their employees, not just those working on federal contracts; give responsible businesses that play by the rules a fairer shot to compete for business; streamline the process; improve wages and working conditions for folks who work hard every single day to provide for their families and contribute to our country. 

And even though it is an executive action, I want to acknowledge and thank the members of Congress who support it and who always stand up for America’s workers.  And most of them are stuck at Capitol Hill, but I just want to mention their names anyway -- Tom Harkin; Rosa DeLauro; Keith Ellison is here; Raul Grijalva; Eleanor Holmes Norton.  They’ve all been working on these issues, so I want to thank those members of Congress.  (Applause.)

The executive order I sign today, like all the other actions I’ve taken, are not going to fix everything immediately.  If I had the power to raise the federal minimum wage on my own, or enact fair pay and paid leave for every worker on my own, or make college more affordable on my own, I would have done so already. If I could do all that, I would have gotten everything done in like my first two years.  (Laughter.)  Because these policies make sense.  But even though I can’t do all of it, that shouldn’t stop us from doing what we can.  That’s what these policies will do.

And I’m going to keep on trying, not just working with Democrats, but also reach out to Republicans to get things moving faster for the middle class.  We can do a lot more.  We need a Congress that’s willing to get things done.  We don’t have that right now.  In the meantime, I’m going to do whatever I can, wherever I can, whenever I can, to keep this country’s promise alive for more and more of the American people.

So, thank you all.  We’re going to just keep on at this thing, chipping away.  And I’m confident that when we look back, we’ll see that these kinds of executive actions build some of the momentum and give people the confidence and the hope that ultimately leads to broad-based changes that we need to make sure that this economy works for everybody.

Thank you so much.  I’m going to sign this executive order.  (Applause.)

END
2:00 P.M. EDT

SECRETARY KERRY'S REMARKS AT "OUR OCEANS CONFERENCE"

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 

Welcoming Remarks at Our Ocean Conference

Remarks

John Kerry

Secretary of State

Loy Henderson Conference Room

Washington, DC

June 16, 2014

---

Cathy, thank you very, very much. Welcome, everybody, distinguished guests all. We have many government leaders, many people, as Cathy mentioned, from foundations, from NGOs, from various interested entities. We are really delighted to have such an extraordinary expert concerned group come together to discuss this really critical issue. And I am personally very, very grateful to the leadership of our terrific Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment – it’s a big package, obviously – who has been working diligently to put this together. You can tell from the surroundings this will be interactive; there will be a lot of visual input to digest and a great deal of science to document what we are talking about here over the course of these next couple of days.

But I’m really grateful to my team here at the State Department that has worked overtime under Cathy’s leadership to help bring everybody together here today, and I thank you all for coming. I welcome you to the State Department, to the Loy Henderson Conference Room, particularly those of you who are representing countries from around the world, the private sector, civil society, academia, as well as many, many people joining us online via livestream through state.gov. And I hope many more people will join us over the course of the next two days.
As many of you know, convening a conference like this has been a priority of mine for some period of time. I really started thinking about this when I was still in the Senate and we wanted to try to pull it together. And then last year we did, and as you know, we had a political moment here in Washington – that’s polite diplomatic-ese – which prevented us from going forward at that time. But candidly, I think it’s worked for the better because it gave us more time to think about how to make this conference perhaps even more effective and how to maximize what we’re doing here.

A commitment to protecting the ocean, which we all share, has really been a priority of mine for a long time, as Cathy mentioned a moment ago, literally from the time I was growing up as a child in Massachusetts when I first dipped my toes into the mud off Woods Hole Oceanographic in that area of Buzzards Bay and the Cape and was introduced to clamming and to fishing and all of those great joys of the ocean. I have had this enormous love and respect for what the ocean means to us. I went into the Navy partly through that and I had the pleasure of crossing the Pacific both ways on a ship and passing through many different parts of the Pacific Ocean region. It’s sort of in my DNA. My mother’s family was involved way, way, way back in the early days of trade through the oceans. And indeed my father was a passionate sailor who, in his retirement, found a way to sail across the ocean several times.

So I learned very early on to appreciate this vast expanse of the ocean, so vast that three-quarters of our planet is really ocean. Someone might have called our planet Ocean, not Earth, if it was based on that, but obviously it is not. Stewardship of our ocean is not a one-person event; it’s a nation event, it’s a country event, it’s a universal requirement all across this planet. And I tried very hard when I was in the Senate as chairman of the Senate Oceans and Fisheries Subcommittee where we rewrote our Magnuson fishery laws on several different occasions, created the Stellwagen Bank Sanctuary, the Coastal Zone Management Act, enforcement, flood insurance, rethinking it – all these things that have to do with development and runoff and non-point source pollution and all of the things that concern us as we come here today.
And that is the concern that I bring to this effort as Secretary of State now. The reason for that is really very, very simple. And for anyone who questions why are we here when there are so many areas of conflict and so many issues of vital concern as there are – and regrettably, because of that, I will not be at every part of this conference because we have much to do with respect to Iraq and other emergencies that we face. But no one should mistake that the protection of our oceans is a vital international security issue. It’s a vital security issue involving the movement of people, the livelihood of people, the capacity of people to exist and live where they live today. The ocean today supports the livelihoods of up to 12 percent of the world’s population. But it is also essential to maintaining the environment in which we all live. It’s responsible for recycling things like water, carbon, nutrients throughout our planet, throughout the ecosystem – “system” is an important word – so that we have air to breathe, water to drink. And it is home to literally millions of species.

Protecting our ocean is also a great necessity for global food security, given that more than 3 billion people – 50 percent of the people on this planet – in every corner of the world depend on fish as a significant source of protein. The connection between a healthy ocean and life itself for every single person on Earth cannot be overstated. And we will hear from scientists who will talk about that relationship in the course of the next hours and days.

The fact is we as human beings share nothing so completely as the ocean that covers nearly three quarters of our planet. And I remember the first time I really grasped that notion. It was in the early 1970s when the first color pictures of Earth from space were released, the famous blue marble photographs. And when you look at those images, you don’t see borders or markers separating one nation from another. You just see big masses of green and sometimes brown surrounded by blue. For me, that image shaped the realization that what has become cliched and perhaps even taken for granted – not perhaps, is taken for granted – is the degree to which we all share one planet, one ocean.

And because we share nothing so completely as our ocean, each of us also shares the responsibility to protect it. And you can look at any scripture of any religion, any life philosophy, and you will draw from it that sense of responsibility. I think most people want their children and their grandchildren to benefit from a healthy ocean the same way that we’ve been privileged to. And they want to do their part to be able to ensure that that is the case.

But here’s the problem: When anybody looks out at the ocean – we’re all sort of guilty of it one time or another – when you stand on a beach and you look out at the tide rolling in, you feel somehow that the ocean is larger than life, that it’s an endless resource impossible to destroy. So most people underestimate the enormous damage that we as human beings are inflicting on our ocean every single day. When people order seafood from a restaurant, most of the time they don’t realize that a third of the world’s fish stocks are overexploited, too much money chasing too few fish, and nearly all the rest are being fished at or near their absolute maximum sustainable level on a level on planet that has 6 billion people and will rise to 9 over the next 30, 40, 50 years.

Most people aren’t aware of something called bycatch, where up to half or two thirds of the fish in a particular catch are not actually what the fisher was looking for and they’re simply thrown overboard. And when people go swimming or surfing along the coast, often they don’t realize that pollution has led to more than 500 dead zones in the ocean, areas where life simply cannot exist, and that together those dead zones add up to an area roughly the size of the state of Michigan here in the United States. When people walk through an aquarium and they see and learn about the marine world, they usually don’t realize that because of climate change, the basic chemistry of our ocean is changing faster than it has ever changed in the history of the planet. And if it continues much longer, a significant chunk of marine life may simply die out because it can no longer live, no longer survive in the ocean’s waters.

The bottom line is that most people don’t realize that if the entire world doesn’t come together to try to change course and protect the ocean from unsustainable fishing practices, unprecedented pollution, or the devastating effects of climate change, then we run the risk of fundamentally breaking entire ecosystems. And as you’ll hear throughout the course of this conference, that will translate into a serious consequence for the health and the economies and the future of all of us.

The good news is that at this point we know what we need to do to address the threats facing the ocean. It’s not a mystery. It’s not beyond our capacity. Everyone in this room is aware of the effective steps that people are taking already, both large and small around the world.
In Latin America, NGOs like Paso Pacifico are helping fishers to improve their sustainability by engaging those fishers both in monitoring their catches and in the process of selecting new marine-protected areas.

In Africa, local volunteers – volunteers – take it on themselves to collect the trash that floods from the streets to the beaches during the periods of intense rain. There’s an amazing group of volunteers in Guinea who call themselves “Les Sacs Bleus” after the blue trash bags that they use to collect the garbage, an incredible self-spontaneous combustion effort to be responsible.
In the Asia Pacific, half a dozen nations have come together with U.S. support to protect the Coral Triangle, a part of the ocean that has been called the Amazon of the seas because of its incredible biodiversity. The Coral Triangle Initiative has led to improved management of a marine area that’s almost the size of one of our states, North Dakota, and it has inspired more than 90 policies, regulations, laws, and agreements to protect the local coastal and marine resources. Here in the United States, we have taken very significant strides to end overfishing in U.S. fisheries. We’ve rebuilt a record number of fish stocks back from depleted levels, and at the same time promoted and increased the economic viability of our fisheries, trying hard to actually give meaning to the word “sustainable fisheries.”

These are just a few examples of a great deal of work that you’re all familiar with, that many of you have created that is taking place around the world. But so far, all of these efforts have only been applied on a relatively small scale and only applied in one region or another. If we want to honor – if we are going to be able to honor our shared responsibility to protect the ocean, the ad hoc approach we have today with each nation and community pursuing its own independent policy simply will not suffice. That is not how the ocean works. We’re not going to meet this challenge unless the community of nations comes together around a single, comprehensive, global ocean strategy. That is the only way that we can clean up our ocean today and make sure that it remains what it needs to be for generations to come. That is what this conference is all about.

Over the past few years, even over the past few months, there have been an encouraging number of reports, summits, meetings, even conventions convened to examine the various threats of our ocean and – are facing and potential ways to address those threats. And many of you here have been part of those meetings. I hope you have found them as valuable as we have. They’ve been instructive and they’re critical, but now is the time for us to build on this groundwork of these past years. Now is the time to build on the knowledge-base that we have created through these meetings, and that is why we have invited you here now, not just to have an important conversation, but to reach important conclusions, to try to put together a plan of action.

I want us to walk away from this conference with more than ideas. I want us to walk away from here with a plan, a plan that puts an end to overfishing through new rules based on the best available science. And may I add one of the things that Ted Stevens – Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska who teamed up with me on the Commerce Committee in the Senate – one of the things we always were fighting was getting more, better science so that we could convince fishermen and convince countries, governments of the imperative of making decisions.

Too often we hear, “Well, we don’t really see that,” or, “We don’t really feel that,” or I’d hear from captains of the boats, “When I go out and fish, I see plenty of stocks out there. There’s no reason to be restricted.” We need science, and globally we could put our heads together and our governments together and come up with both the budget and the capacity to be able to do what we need to be able to help convince people of the urgency of this.

We need a plan that requires fisheries to use gear and techniques that dramatically reduce the amount of fish and other species that are caught by accident and discarded; a plan that ends subsidies to fisheries, which only serves to promote overfishing; a plan that makes it near impossible for illegally-caught fish to actually come to the market anywhere, whether you’re in Boston or Beijing or Barcelona or Brasilia or any other city that doesn’t begin with a B. (Laughter.) Let’s develop a plan that protects more marine habitats, and we will have an announcement regarding that. I believe President Obama will make such an announcement.
Today, less than 2 percent of our ocean is considered a marine protected area, where there are some restrictions on human activity in order to prevent contaminating the ecosystem, less than 2 percent of the entire ocean. There isn’t anybody here who doesn’t believe we can’t do better than that. So let’s start by finding a way to perhaps bring that number up to 10 percent or more as soon as possible.
And let’s develop a plan that does more to reduce the flow of plastic and other debris from entering into the ocean. Everybody’s seen that massive array of garbage in the Pacific and elsewhere. We need a plan that helps cut down the nutrient pollution, that runs off of land and is miles from the shore, and that contributes to the dead zones that I mentioned earlier. I learned about that back when I was running for president out in Iowa and Minnesota and the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, and you learn about the flow of these nutrients that go down the Mississippi out into the gulf, and we have a great, big dead zone as a result.

We need to develop a plan that gives us a better understanding of the acidification effect that carbon pollution is having on our ocean, that we know that in the Antarctic, for instance, there was a regurgitation of carbon dioxide. Have we reached a saturation point? I don’t know. But I know that it’s a question that is critical to our capacity to deal with climate change and to maintain the oceans. We ought to be able to know where it’s happening, how quickly it’s happening so we can find the best way to slow it down. And we need to push harder, all of us, for a UN agreement to fight carbon pollution in the first place because the science proves that’s the only way we’ll have a chance of reducing the impact of climate change, which is one of the greatest threats facing not just our ocean, but our entire planet.

Finally we need to develop a plan that not only lays out the policies we need to protect our ocean, but that also considers how we are going to enforce those policies on a global scale. Because without enforcement, any plan we create will only take us so far. I think it was back in the ’90s, if I recall correctly, that Ted Stevens and I joined forces to take driftnet fishing to the United States. And we had become aware of literally tens of thousands of miles of monofilament netting that was dragged behind a boat that would literally strip-mine the ocean with vast proportions of the catch thrown away and clearly not sustainable.

So Senator Stevens and I managed to go to the UN. Ultimately it was banned by the UN. But guess what? There are still some rogue vessels using driftnets to strip-mine the ocean because they get more money, it’s faster, and there’s nobody out there to enforce out – no one out there to enforce it.

So we need to change this. That’s our charge here, all of us. Over the next two days, let’s put our heads together and work on a plan for how we can preserve fish stocks, manage coastlines, and protect ecosystems, a way for us to try to preserve fisheries, a way for us to come to a common understanding of our common interests and find a consensus that we could take to the UN – take this plan to the UN, take it to other international organizations. All of us begin talking the same language off the same page about the same objective, and if we make this a plan that all countries must follow by helping all of them to understand that no country can afford not to, whether you’re on the ocean or not on the ocean.

I know all of this sounds pretty ambitious. It’s meant to be. I know that some of you are probably thinking, “Well, what did I get myself into here?” But look around the room. Every one of you is here for a reason. We have government leaders from around the world at the highest levels, including three heads of state. We have experts from international organizations, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, others. We have private sector leaders who are committed to our oceans’ future, people like Chris Lischewski from Bumble Bee Foods. The best ocean scientists in the world are here. All of us can come together and each can help the other to ensure that every solution that we discuss is directly tied to the best science available.
Ask yourself: If this group can’t create a serious plan to protect the ocean for future generations, then who can and who will? We cannot afford to put this global challenge on hold for another day. It’s our ocean. It’s our responsibility. So I hope that over these next two days, we will maximize the time we are here. I am really delighted that you all came to be part of this. And I hope this will be a new beginning, a new effort to unify and to create a concerted pressure which is necessary to make a difference.

It’s now my pleasure to introduce one final speaker before we open the program up, and there’s going to be a great deal of information coming at you in short order. But President Anote Tong of Kiribati is one of the loudest voices, one of the clearest voices in the world in the call for global action to address climate change. And there’s a simple reason why he has a special interest. It is because climate change is already posing an existential threat to his country. But he’s also one of the world’s greatest advocates for the protection of the ocean well beyond the interests of his own country. Under his leadership, Kiribati has established one of the largest marine-protected areas in the world in the Phoenix Islands in the Pacific. It’s an honor to have him here to share his thoughts with us this morning.

Ladies and gentlemen, President Anote Tong. (Applause.)

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S STATEMENT ON LEGISLATION TO FIX IMMIGRATION SYSTEM

FROM:  THE WHITE HOUSE 

Statement by the President

One year ago, the Senate introduced comprehensive bipartisan legislation to fix our broken immigration system. Both sides worked together to pass that bill with a strong bipartisan vote. The Senate’s commonsense agreement would grow the economy by $1.4 trillion and shrink the deficit by nearly $850 billion over the next two decades, while providing a tough but fair pathway to earned citizenship to bring 11 million undocumented individuals out of the shadows, modernizing our legal immigration system, continuing to strengthen border security, and holding employers accountable.  Simply put, it would boost our economy, strengthen our security, and live up to our most closely-held values as a society.

Unfortunately, Republicans in the House of Representatives have repeatedly failed to take action, seemingly preferring the status quo of a broken immigration system over meaningful reform. Instead of advancing commonsense reform and working to fix our immigration system, House Republicans have voted in favor of extreme measures like a punitive amendment to strip protections from “Dreamers”. The majority of Americans are ahead of House Republicans on this crucial issue and there is broad support for reform, including among Democrats and Republicans, labor and business, and faith and law enforcement leaders. We have a chance to strengthen our country while upholding our traditions as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants, and I urge House Republicans to listen to the will of the American people and bring immigration reform to the House floor for a vote.

REMARKS BY PRESIDENT OBAMA AT SIGNING OF NEW FARM BILL

FROM:  THE WHITE HOUSE 
Remarks by the President at Signing of the Farm Bill -- MI
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan
FEBRUARY 7, 2014
2:16 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, Spartans!  (Applause.)  Go, Green!

AUDIENCE:  Go, White!

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you so much.  Everybody have a seat here.

It’s good to be at Michigan State.  Thank you, Ben, for that wonderful introduction.  Give Ben a big round of applause.  (Applause.)  He’s got his beautiful family right here.  How did dad do?  Was he pretty good?  Yes, there he is.  He did good?  I thought he did great.

It is good to be in East Lansing.  It’s good to be with all of you here today.  I’m here because I’ve heard about all the great things that you’re doing.  And I want to thank Mayor Triplett and President Simon for hosting us.

I am also here to do some scouting on my brackets.  (Laughter and applause.)  I just talked to Coach Izzo -- Spartans are looking pretty good.  I know things were a little wild for a while, had some injuries.  But the truth is that Coach Izzo, he always paces so that you peak right at the tournament.  (Applause.)  That’s a fact.  Then I got a chance to meet Mark Dantonio.  (Applause.)  So you’ve already got a Rose Bowl victory.  (Applause.)  You guys, you’re greedy.  (Laughter.)  You want to win everything.

But it’s wonderful to be here.  I love coming to Michigan.  Mainly I love coming to Michigan because of the people.  But I also love coming here because there are few places in the country that better symbolize what we’ve been through together over these last four, five years.

The American auto industry has always been the heartbeat of the Michigan economy and the heart of American manufacturing.  So when that heartbeat was flat-lining, we all pulled together, all of us -- autoworkers who punched in on the line, management who made tough decisions to restructure, elected officials like Gary Peters and Mark Schauer who believed that -- (applause) -- folks who believed that rescuing America’s most iconic industry was the right thing to do.

And today, thanks to your grit and your ingenuity and dogged determination, the American auto industry’s engines are roaring again and we are building the best cars in the world again.  And some plants are running three shifts around the clock -- something that nobody would have imagined just a few years ago.  (Applause.)

I just had lunch with Detroit’s new Mayor, Mike Duggan.  (Applause.)  He told me if there’s one thing that he wants everybody to know, it’s that Detroit is open for business.  And I have great confidence that he’s going to provide the leadership that we need.  (Applause.)  Really proud of him.  The point is we’ve all had to buckle down.  We’ve all had to work hard.  We’ve had to fight our way back these past five years.  And in a lot of ways, we are now better positioned for the 21st century than any other country on Earth.

This morning, we learned that our businesses in the private sector created more than 140,000 jobs last month, adding up to about 8.5 million new jobs over the past four years.  (Applause.)  Our unemployment rate is now the lowest it’s been since before I was first elected.  Companies across the country are saying they intend to hire even more folks in the months ahead.  And that’s why I believe this can be a breakthrough year for America.

And I’ve come here today to sign a bill that hopefully means folks in Washington feel the same way -- that instead of wasting time creating crises that impede the economy, we’re going to have a Congress that’s ready to spend some time creating new jobs and new opportunities, and positioning us for the future and making sure our young people can take advantage of that future.

And that’s important, because even though our economy has been growing for four years now, even though we’ve been adding jobs for four years now, what’s still true -- something that was true before the financial crisis, it’s still true today -- is that those at the very top of the economic pyramid are doing better than ever, but the average American’s wages, salaries, incomes haven’t risen in a very long time.  A lot of Americans are working harder and harder just to get by -- much less get ahead -- and that’s been true since long before the financial crisis and the Great Recession.

And so we’ve got to reverse those trends.  We’ve got to build an economy that works for everybody, not just a few.  We’ve got to restore the idea of opportunity for all people -- the idea that no matter who you are, what you look like, where you came from, how you started out, what your last name is, you can make it if you’re willing to work hard and take responsibility.  That’s the idea at the heart of this country. That’s what’s at stake right now.  That’s what we’ve got to work on.  (Applause.)

Now, the opportunity agenda I laid out in my State of the Union address is going to help us do that.  It’s an agenda built around four parts.  Number one:  More new jobs in American manufacturing, American energy, American innovation, American technology.  A lot of what you’re doing here at Michigan State helps to spur on that innovation in all sorts of areas that can then be commercialized into new industries and to create new jobs.

Number two:  Training folks with the skills to fill those jobs -- something this institution does very well.

Number three:  Guaranteeing access to a world-class education for every child, not just some.  That has to be a priority.  (Applause.)  That means before they even start school, we’re working on pre-K that’s high quality and gets our young people prepared, and then takes them all the way through college so that they can afford it, and beyond.

Number four:  Making sure our economy rewards honest work with wages you can live on, and savings you can retire on, and, yes, health insurance that is there for you when you need it.  (Applause.)

Now, some of this opportunity agenda that I put forward will require congressional action, it’s true.  But as I said at the State of the Union, America does not stand still; neither will I.  And that’s why, over the past two weeks, I’ve taken steps without legislation, without congressional action, to expand opportunity for more families.  We’ve created a new way for workers to start their own retirement savings.  We’ve helped to make sure all of our students have high-speed broadband and high-tech learning tools that they need for this new economy.

But I’ve also said I’m eager to work with Congress wherever I can -- because the truth of the matter is, is that America works better when we’re working together.  And Congress controls the purse strings at the federal level and a lot of the things that we need to do require congressional action.

And that is why I could not be prouder of our leaders who are here today.  Debbie in particular, I could not be prouder of your own Debbie Stabenow, who has done just extraordinary work.  (Applause.)  We all love Debbie for a lot of reasons.  She’s been a huge champion of American manufacturing but really shepherded through this farm bill, which was a very challenging piece of business.  She worked with Republican Senator Thad Cochran, who I think was very constructive in this process.  We had Representatives Frank Lucas, a Republican, working with Collin Peterson, a Democrat.  We had a terrific contribution from our own Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, who deserves a big round of applause.  (Applause.)

And so Congress passed a bipartisan farm bill that is going to make a big difference in communities all across this country.  And just so they don’t feel left out, I want to recognize one of your congressmen, who’s doing an outstanding job -- Dan Kildee.  (Applause.)  And somebody who was just a wonderful mentor to me when I was in the Senate and has been just a great public servant, not just for your state, but for the entire country -- Carl Levin.  (Applause.)  He’s always out there, especially when it comes to our men and women in uniform.  We’re very proud of him.  (Applause.)

     And while we’re at it, we got a couple of out-of-towners -- Pat Leahy from Vermont -- there are a lot of dairy farms up there, so he had something to do with it.  (Applause.)  Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota.  (Applause.)  All that cold air is blowing from Minnesota down into -- (laughter).

Now, despite its name, the farm bill is not just about helping farmers.  Secretary Vilsack calls it a jobs bill, an innovation bill, an infrastructure bill, a research bill, a conservation bill.  It’s like a Swiss Army knife.  (Laughter.)  It’s like Mike Trout -- for those of you who know baseball.  (Laughter.)  It’s somebody who’s got a lot of tools.  It multitasks.  It’s creating more good jobs, gives more Americans a shot at opportunity.  And there are two big ways in which it does so.

First, the farm bill lifts up our rural communities.  Over the past five years, thanks to the hard work and know-how of America’s farmers, the best in the world, we’ve had the strongest stretch of farm exports in our history.  And when I’m traveling around the world, I’m promoting American agriculture.  And as a consequence, we are selling more stuff to more people than ever before.  Supports about 1 million American jobs; what we grow here and that we sell is a huge boost to the entire economy, but particularly the rural economy.

Here at Michigan State, by the way, you are helping us to do even more.  So I just got a tour of a facility where you’re working with local businesses to produce renewable fuels.  You’re helping farmers grow crops that are healthier and more resistant to disease.  Some students are even raising their own piglets on an organic farm.  When I was in college, I lived in a pig sty -- (laughter) -- but I didn't work in one.  So I’m impressed by that.  (Laughter.)  That's no joke, by the way.  (Laughter and applause.)  Your hygiene improves as you get older.  (Laughter.)

So we’re seeing some big advances in American agriculture.  And today, by the way, I’m directing my administration to launch a new “Made in Rural America” initiative to help more rural businesses expand and hire and sell more products stamped “Made in the USA” to the rest of the world -- because we’ve got great products here that need to be sold and we can do even more to sell around the world.  (Applause.)

But even with all this progress, too many rural Americans are still struggling.  Right now, 85 percent of counties experience what’s called “persistent poverty.”  Those are in rural areas.  Before I was elected President, I represented Illinois, home of a couple of your Big Ten rivals, but also a big farming state.  And over the years, I’ve seen how hard it can be to be a farmer.  There are a lot of big producers who are doing really well, but there are even more small farms, family farms, where folks are just scratching out a living and increasingly vulnerable to difficulties in financing and all the inputs involved -- farmers sometimes having to work off the farm, they’ve got a couple of jobs outside the farm just to get health care, just to pay the bills, trying to keep it in the family, and it’s very hard for young farmers to get started.

And in these rural communities, a lot of young people talk about how jobs are so scarce, even before the recession hit, that they feel like they’ve got to leave in order to have opportunity.  They can't stay at home, they’ve got to leave.

So that's why this farm bill includes things like crop insurance, so that when a disaster like the record drought that we’re seeing across much of the West hits our farmers, they don’t lose everything they’ve worked so hard to build.  This bill helps rural communities by investing in hospitals and schools, affordable housing, broadband infrastructure -- all the things that help attract more businesses and make life easier for working families.

This bill supports businesses working to develop cutting-edge biofuels -- like some of the work that's being done here at Michigan State.  That has the potential to create jobs and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.  It boosts conservation efforts so that our children and grandchildren will be able to enjoy places like the Mississippi River Valley and Chesapeake Bay.

It supports local food by investing in things like farmers markets and organic agriculture -- which is making my wife very happy.  And when Michelle is happy, I don't know about everybody being happy, but I know I'm happy.  (Laughter and applause.)  And so it's giving smaller producers, local producers, folks like Ben, the opportunity to sell more of their products directly, without a bunch of processing and distributors and middlemen that make it harder for them to achieve.  And it means that people are going to have healthier diets, which is, in turn, going to reduce incidents of childhood obesity and keep us healthier, which saves us all money.

It does all this while reforming our agricultural programs, so this bill helps to clamp down on loopholes that allowed people to receive benefits year after year, whether they were planting crops or not.  And it saves taxpayers hard-earned dollars by making sure that we only support farmers when disaster strikes or prices drop.  It's not just automatic.

So that’s the first thing this farm bill does -- it helps rural communities grow; it gives farmers some certainty; it puts in place important reforms.

The second thing this farm bill does -- that is huge -- is help make sure America’s children don’t go hungry.  (Applause.)   And this is where Debbie’s work was really important.  One study shows that more than half of all Americans will experience poverty at some point during their adult lives.  Now, for most folks that's when you're young and you're eating ramen all the time.  But for a lot of families, a crisis hits, you lose your job, somebody gets sick, strains on your budget -- you have a strong work ethic, but it might take you six months, nine months, a year to find a job.  And in the meantime, you’ve got families to feed.

That’s why, for more than half a century, this country has helped Americans put food on the table when they hit a rough patch, or when they’re working hard but aren’t making enough money to feed their kids.  They’re not looking for a handout, these folks, they’re looking for a hand up -- (applause) -- a bridge to help get them through some tough times.  (Applause.)

And we sure don't believe that children should be punished when parents are having a tough time.  As a country, we’re stronger when we help hardworking Americans get back on their feet, make sure that children are getting the nutrition that they need so that they can learn what they need in order to be contributing members of our society.

That’s the idea behind what’s known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.  A large majority of SNAP recipients are children, or the elderly, or Americans with disabilities.  A lot of others are hardworking Americans who need just a little help feeding their families while they look for a job or they’re trying to find a better one.  And in 2012, the SNAP program kept nearly 5 million people -- including more than 2 million children -- out of poverty.  (Applause.)  Think about that -- 5 million people.

That’s why my position has always been that any farm bill I sign must include protections for vulnerable Americans, and thanks to the good work of Debbie and others, this bill does that.  (Applause.)  And by giving Americans more bang for their buck at places like farmers markets, we’re making it easier for working families to eat healthy foods and we're supporting farmers like Ben who make their living growing it.  So it’s creating new markets for produce farmers, and it means that people have a chance to directly buy from their farmers the kind of food that’s going to keep them healthy.

And the truth is a lot of folks go through tough times at some points in their lives.  That doesn’t mean they should go hungry.  Not in a country like America.  So investing in the communities that grow our food, helping hardworking Americans put that food on the table -- that’s what this farm bill does, all while reducing our deficits through smart reforms.

It doesn’t include everything that I’d like to see.  And I know leaders on both sides of the aisle feel the same way.  But it’s a good sign that Democrats and Republicans in Congress were able to come through with this bill, break the cycle of short-sighted, crisis-driven partisan decision-making, and actually get this stuff done.  (Applause.)  That's a good sign.

And that’s the way you should expect Washington to work.  That’s the way Washington should continue to work.  Because we’ve got more work to do.  We’ve got more work to do to potentially make sure that unemployment insurance is put in place for a lot of folks out there who need it.  (Applause.)  We’ve got more work to do to pass a minimum wage.  We’ve got more work to do to do immigration reform, which will help farmers like Ben.  (Applause.)

So let’s keep the momentum going here.  And in the weeks ahead, while Congress is deciding what’s next, I’m going to keep doing everything I can to strengthen the middle class, build ladders of opportunity in the middle class.  And I sure hope Congress will join me because I know that’s what you’re looking for out of your elected officials at every level.  (Applause.)

So thank you, everybody.  God bless you.  I’m now going to sign this farm bill.  (Applause.)

Hold on a second, I forgot to mention Marcia Fudge is here.  I wasn’t sure whether she came to the event.  I knew she flew in with me.  She does great work -- (applause) -- out of the great state of Ohio.

(The bill is signed.)  (Applause.)

END

DEPUTY SECRETARY OF LABOR'S BLOG ON LABOR RIGHTS DIALOGUE IN THE AMERICAS

FROM:  U.S. LABOR DEPARTMENT 
Labor Rights Dialogue in the Americas
by SETH HARRIS on NOVEMBER 26, 2013 

Just this month, at a meeting of the Organization of American States, Secretary of State John Kerry discussed the need to redefine the U.S. relationship with our hemispheric neighbors. This new era, Secretary Kerry said, will require us to make decisions together “as partners to advance the values and the interests that we share.” Two weeks ago, at the Inter-American Conference of Ministers of Labor (the labor component of the OAS) in Medellin, Colombia, I saw this new era of shared responsibility and values-based partnerships in action.
Labor ministers and deputy ministers from across the Americas and the Caribbean discussed some of our region’s most important labor issues – workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively, the relationship between economic growth and job creation, income inequality, social protections and social dialogue, youth unemployment, and others. A great deal of work remains to be done to ensure workers a fair share of our region’s prosperity and expanding trade.  Many countries need stronger labor inspectorates and more aggressive implementation of existing labor laws. Others need law reform to meet international labor standards.  I was heartened that workers’ rights and employment are leading issues for the countries that attended the IACML. Nonetheless, the United States must remain engaged and continue to lead if there is to be a leveling up of labor standards among our trading partners and neighbors.

The wave of joblessness caused by the Great Recession significantly increased risks for working families across this hemisphere. And the recovery from the recession has been uneven.  Unemployment remains unacceptably high in some regions and among certain populations, including younger workers, workers with disabilities, indigenous peoples, and racial minorities.  The United States has aggressively advocated for macroeconomic policies across the world that are principally focused on promoting job creation. But merely creating more jobs is not enough.  New jobs must be decent jobs that deliver a fair income, voice and security in the workplace, social protection, opportunities for social integration, and equality of opportunity. Stable, sustainable jobs like these will expand growth in local and national economies.  Jobs that shift unacceptable levels of risk onto workers will not.

Among the greatest threats to decent jobs in our region is precarious work. Precarious work denies millions of workers – domestic workers, migrant workers, part-time workers, temporary workers, other workers in the informal sector – workplace benefits, employment security, and legal protections. In the United States, we often speak of workers being paid “under the table,” including employees who are misclassified as “independent contractors” and, as a result, do not benefit from unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation, and minimum wage and overtime protections, among other things.  In other words, workers bear essentially all workplace risks, and employers assume none.

Our partners in the Americas and the Caribbean generally agree on the need for effective standards to protect workers and help move them from the informal sector to more stable employment. I emphasized in my remarks at the IACML that agreement is just the beginning. We must not allow a permanent – and growing – division of our workforces into one group of well-protected workers in the formal economy and a second, expanding group of workers who do not receive basic protections and benefits because they toil in an informal sector. I challenged our hemispheric partners to meet the conditions of the IACML Declaration relating to precarious work before our next meeting in two years.

During my remarks, I also highlighted the need for effective unemployment insurance systems as one form of social protection against recessions and narrower economic downturns. Unemployment insurance systems do not benefit only the workers who receive payments. Unemployed workers use their benefits to pay bills, buy groceries, and otherwise support their families. Certainly, these funds provide a measure of security for the millions of working families in the U.S. who receive them. And without them, some unemployed workers in the Americas and the Caribbean are forced into precarious work because they must find some way to support their families after losing a job. But unemployment benefits also ensure continued consumer spending where it would otherwise be absent at a time when national economies need it most. Seventy percent of the American economy is built on consumer spending, and the economies of many of our neighbors operate similarly. Unemployment insurance systems can act as automatic stabilizers during economic downturns. I urged our neighbors to work with us to establish unemployment insurance systems in their countries. I am delighted to report that Mexico is about to create its first national UI system, and we have had discussions with other countries in the region about following suit.

In addition to the formal conference, the IACML offered opportunities to engage in bilateral meetings with selected partners in the region. In 2011, President Obama and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos signed the Colombian Action Plan Related to Labor Rights associated with the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement. Ever since, the Labor Department’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs has been working closely with the Colombian government to implement the Action Plan. Recognizing some of the advances Colombia has made in the last two years, but also acknowledging that there is a great deal more work to be done, I had a frank conversation with Colombian Labor Minister Rafael Pardo regarding the steps required to satisfy the Action Plan. Minister Pardo and I also agreed to continue meeting into 2014 in order to continue implementation of the Action Plan commitments.

At the end of the same week, I also participated in an International Forum on Employment and Social Security Public Policy hosted by the Mexican Labor Minister Alfonso Navarrete in Mexico City. I spoke on a panel about the importance of innovation in the U.S. skills training system as a driver for growth, and a necessity in a modern, developed economy. Corporations increasingly look to the availability of skilled labor – or at least, an infrastructure that can produce a pipeline of skilled workers – when making decisions about where to site new factories and other facilities. Skills training, driven by regional business needs and available job openings, is a necessity. President Obama has made innovative programs to create and expand these pipelines a key element of his economic agenda. Programs like the Labor Department’s Trade Adjustment and Community College Career Training grants and Workforce Innovation Fund, with their emphasis on partnerships with employers to identify the skills their businesses demand, can and should be models of innovative approaches to workforce development throughout the Americas and the Caribbean. The recently announced CareerConnect grants program, a joint project of the Labor and Education Departments, similarly seeks to bring employers and high schools together to ensure that graduates are ready to compete in 21st-century labor markets. We expect it will create a host of models worth emulating.

These trips to Medellin, Colombia, and Mexico City, Mexico, are part of an expanding effort in the Labor Department to engage aggressively with our partners, particularly our trading partners, to elevate labor standards around the world. No one conference or meeting will achieve our result. We made important progress at the IACML and the Mexico City forum, but U.S. engagement must remain focused, constant and values-based. Secretary Perez and I are committed to maintaining that effort throughout President Obama’s second term.

Seth D. Harris is the U.S. deputy secretary of labor.

U.S. OFFICIAL'S REMARKS AT U.S.-RUSSIA INNOVATION WORKING GROUP EXECUTIVE SESSION

Map of Russia From CIA World Factbook

FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT

Remarks for the U.S. - Russia Innovation Working Group Executive Session
Remarks
Robert D. Hormats
Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment
Washington, DC
April 24, 2013
As Prepared

Thank you, Lorraine, for the kind introduction, and thank you and Oleg for coordinating the working group. I would also like to thank Microsoft – specifically Daniel Lewin and Dorothy Dwoskin – for hosting today’s meeting. I am very grateful to our Russian colleagues for their hard work and participation. And, of course, I would like to thank all of the working group members who attended and presented today.

Both the United States and Russia have a long and proud history of invention. We train some of the world’s best scientists and engineers. And we are home to some of the most innovative businesses. Bloomberg Business Week recently released a list of the 50 Most Innovative Countries. I was impressed—though not surprised—at how quickly Russia has advanced in the rankings. Russia has positioned itself to seize upon fast-growing global innovative sectors, such as aerospace and information and communications technology. We strongly supports Russia’s efforts to create a innovation economy because bringing new technologies to market is good not just for Russia, it is also beneficial to the U.S. economy and society as a whole.

This understanding is embedded in U.S.-Russia Innovation Working Group’s mission. Members of the U.S.-Russia Innovation Working Group have been working on an exciting array of initiatives to support commercialization. I will highlight three key areas of cooperation.

First, the working group has helped advance a series of regional partnerships. I am delighted that Deputy Governor Ivanov has joined today’s meeting to present on the cooperation plan between Nizhny Novgorod Oblast and the State of Maryland. Our goal is to spur future regional partnerships and, in particular, to broaden cooperation to include other regional clusters and other industries. The United States is home to a number of lesser-known, but equally impressive innovation clusters. There is a tremendous aerospace sector in Oklahoma, Florida, and Mississippi; Minnesota and Utah are home to a booming information technology sector; and Arizona is making strides in nanotechnology.

The Working Group should consider these clusters for future collaboration.

The second major area of discussion today was on the commercialization of innovative technologies. Working group members provided an update on their ongoing programs, including the American Councils’ Enhancing University Research and Entrepreneurial Capacity – or EURECA – program. This partnership between U.S. and Russian research universities is aimed at building the innovation ecosystem and expanding entrepreneurial and technology transfer capacities. In addition to the EURECA program update, CRDF Global and the National Business Incubators Association spoke about their efforts and ideas on promoting innovation in the United States and Russia.

Last, the working group has helped better delineate the government’s role in innovation. My good friend Alan Wolff—who is one of our foremost experts on comparative innovation policy—shared his thoughts on the U.S. experience and the role of our government. As I mentioned earlier, the United States is an innovation nation but, of course, we have learned hard lessons along the way.

So, there is a tremendous opportunity for others to benefit from our path. Tomorrow, many of you will visit the National Institutes of Health, where you will see firsthand an example of the government’s role in biotech innovation. You will also meet with officials from the Small Business Administration and learn about their "Small Business Innovation Research" program. This program helps small businesses by providing funds for the critical startup and development stages of technology commercialization. One of the most important things a government can do to promote innovation is to establish a legal and regulatory framework that is conducive to entrepreneurial thinking and bringing new ideas to market. You heard today recommendations by an expert group of U.S. and Russian lawyers for both of our governments. I have seen the policy recommendations and look forward to a read-out of the discussion during this session. I would like to thank all those who contributed to this report.

Now it is our turn.

The United States is—and will remain—and innovation economy. That’s why our government takes these recommendations seriously. The Russian government has also heeded the call to action. Russia has placed a very high priority on implementing policies that foster and facilitate innovation. The Bloomberg statistic I quoted earlier is testament to this fact. My colleague and co-chair of the U.S.-Russia Innovation Working Group, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation and Government Chief of Staff Vladislav Surkov will speak to the Russian perspective. Mr. Surkov has been a prominent voice for the promotion of innovation in Russia and a strong supporter of our bilateral innovation cooperation agenda. Vladislav Yuryevich it is a pleasure to have you here, and I now turn the microphone over to you.

Thank you.

U.S. ASSISTANCE TO YEMEN

FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Fact Sheet
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
March 7, 2013

The United States supports Yemen through a comprehensive strategy to promote the political, economic, and security sector reforms underpinning the Gulf Cooperation Council-brokered political transition initiative. Our focus is to enable the government to respond to the great needs and challenges facing the Yemeni people. We committed $356 million to Yemen in Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 – the largest amount of annual assistance ever provided by the U.S. government for Yemen. Our aid seeks both to address urgent needs and to facilitate Yemen’s long-term development, growth, and stability. Assisting Yemen’s transition remains a priority for the United States, and we will seek to continue providing significant support this year.

Political Transition

In coordination with the international community, including the United Nations, the United States plans to provide $10.4 million in technical and operational assistance to support the Yemeni-led National Dialogue process, slated to begin March 18. We plan to contribute $1.2 million to support constitutional reform and referendum projects. We also plan to provide $8.4 million in technical assistance to prepare for national elections in February 2014, including for reforms to Yemen’s voter registry. We are also supporting the efforts of Yemeni women to ensure their voices and perspectives contribute to Yemen’s transition.

Economic Growth and Development

The United States supports improvements in the livelihoods and economic opportunity for Yemeni citizens in line with the Yemeni-endorsed Mutual Accountability Framework (MAF). We are contributing to job creation and capacity-building of local communities through infrastructure rehabilitation, micro-finance and small enterprise support, and agriculture development. We are helping rebuild conflict-affected communities in the south. And we are supporting the improvement of Yemen’s healthcare system through programs that reduce maternal, newborn and child health mortality and morbidity, and by helping the Ministry of Public Health and Planning develop stronger maternal and child health commodity supply chains to better address treatment shortages in vulnerable communities.

Humanitarian Assistance

The United States contributed $119 million in humanitarian assistance last year to address Yemen’s pressing needs. Our aid serves to address the emergency needs of the most vulnerable populations, in coordination with the United Nation’s Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan.

Security

To sustain Yemen’s ongoing security sector reform and counterterrorism efforts throughout the transition period, the United States provided roughly $46 million in Department of State-funded security assistance to Yemen in FY 2012, as well as $112 million in Department of Defense-funded programs to train and equip the Yemeni security forces to conduct counterterrorism operations. We are also actively supporting Yemen’s security sector reorganization.