V.P. BIDEN CALLS FOR "UNITED PROSPEROUS AND COHERENT UKRAINE" IN REMARKS BEFORE UKRAINIAN LEGISLATORS

THE WHITE HOUSE 

April 22, 2014

Remarks by Vice President Joe Biden at a Meeting with Ukrainian Legislators

Rada

Kyiv, Ukraine 

10:03 A.M. (Local)

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Thank you, Mr. Ambassador.  And I want to thank my colleagues for bringing me back home.  For 36 years I sat in our legislature, and I used to actually have this seat in our -- I was the chairman of our committee.  Thank you for making me feel relevant again, back in a legislative body.

I’m honored, and I mean this sincerely, I’m honored to be with you all, all members of the Rada representing the whole of Ukraine.

I signed the book in the hotel as I was leaving today.  The management asked me to sign their book, and I signed, “Ukraine united, Joe Biden.”  And as I look here, this is Ukraine united -- center, south, east, west.  And as someone who has held high public office in my country for now 40 years and just because I’ve been around, literally met every major leader in the world in the last 40 years, I don't -- I want you to know I do not underestimate the incredible pressure you all are under.  I do not underestimate the challenge that you all face.  And I do not underestimate the frustration you must feel when someone like me comes along and says this is a great opportunity for you.  (Laughter.)  As my mother would say, but for the honor, I’d just as soon as pass the opportunity.

But the truth of the matter is your fellow countrymen expect a whole lot of you right now.  Their expectations are high.  The demands on you are -- my guess is are fairly extreme.  And in addition to that, we have -- there is -- John Kennedy, President Kennedy wrote a book that became very famous called “Profiles in Courage,” and it listed those men and women in our country who had taken political positions that were overwhelmingly interest of the United States of America, but not in their personal interests.  That's a profile in courage.  I hope none of you have to appear in the first edition of the “Profiles in Courage in Ukraine,” but my expectation is some of you are going to have to make some really difficult, difficult personal decisions.

But you’re facing such unrest and uncertainty, and we can speak a little bit more about that today.  But I also think -- it’s easy for me to say -- there’s an expression in English, it says, an expert is anyone from out of town with a briefcase.  Well, I don't have a briefcase, and I’m not an expert.  But I have an opinion, and I speak for the President of the United States, and he shares the same opinion.  And that is that this is a second opportunity to make good on the original promise made by the Orange Revolution.  This is a genuine opportunity to get right what is always difficult to do the first time when coming out from under the oppression or control of another power.

You’re a month away from -- I would respectfully suggest, although I will be probably criticized by the press for saying it, what hopefully will be and may be the most important election in Ukrainian history, and that is that you have an opportunity, a chance to bring about an era of reform and democratic renewal that you all hoped for two, five, 10, 15 years ago to lay the groundwork for an even more united and more prosperous Ukraine.

In speaking with your acting President, I was referencing the personal bravery and heroism of Ukrainians is well known.  You are a strong, strong, strong people.  And I’m not being solicitous.  I mean it is real.  And you face very daunting problems and some might say humiliating threats that are taking place indirectly.  And -- but the opportunity to generate a united Ukraine, getting it right, is within your grasp.  And we want to be your partner, your friend in the project.  And we’re ready to assist.

I have an expression I use as I’ve gone around the world through my career is you never tell another man or woman what’s in their interest.  They know their interest better than you know their interest.  And so I want you to know that we are not suggesting we have the answers for you, but we’re merely suggesting that we stand ready to stand with you in every endeavor that you undertake to generate the united prosperous and coherent Ukraine you’re all fighting for.

And to the extent that we can be of small assistance in you holding a free election on May the 25th, we want to be part of that.  To the extent that we can help in stabilizing and strengthening Ukraine’s economy by helping you withstand the unfair economic pressure being thrust upon you, we stand ready to do that, and I say the American people stand ready -- not just Barack Obama and Joe Biden -- but the American people.

As you all know well we have a significant Ukrainian-American population.  We stand with you.  And it is not just a foreign policy judgment, it is a personal -- it’s an emotional commitment, as well, by millions of Americans.

And as you attempt to pursue energy security, there’s no reason why you cannot be energy secure.  I mean there isn’t.  It will take time.  It takes some difficult decisions, but it’s collectively within your power and the power of Europe and the United States.  And we stand ready to assist you in reaching that.  Imagine where you’d be today if you were able to tell Russia:  Keep your gas.  It would be a very different world you’d be facing today.  It’s within our power to alter that.  It will take some time, but it’s within our power.  Very difficult decisions, but within our power.

Also to be very blunt about it, and this is a delicate thing to say to a group of leaders in their house of parliament, but you have to fight the cancer of corruption that is endemic in your system right now.  It’s not just the United States.  You need a court system that not only you and your people, but the rest of the world assumes can actually adjudicate fairly disputes among people.  But you have a chance.  You have a chance.  The constitutional reforms that you are envisioning now are ones that some of you have fought for in various ways your entire career, a balance of power between the parliament and the President.  You’ve tried it two different ways.  I think you’ve figured it out for you -- not what we think -- what you think is the correct balance.

The decentralization and empowering of local communities -- we call that devolution of power back home -- local communities able to elect their own local officials, control their own budgets, elect their councils.  And as I said, maybe if you look around the world at every country that has in the last 30 years come out from under the yoke of another, the hardest thing to put in place is, as I find it around the world, is a court system, is a judicial system.  In a sense it maybe is the single most important thing that can occur in any country.  And it’s hard.  It’s really difficult.

But it’s totally within your power, and sometimes -- presumptuous of me to say this -- but sometimes it’s -- a crisis spawns the commitment, and the desire, the willingness to make some of these bold decisions.

So it is -- I don't want to exaggerate our role or exaggerate what we -- how strongly we feel, but the United States supports the rights, the freedoms and the fundamental dignity of the people of Ukraine, all the people of Ukraine.

And you may have different traditions.  It’s not quite the same, but we understand different traditions in our country -- not as deeply as you do, but we are the most heterogeneous democracy in the world.  We’re soon going to get the point where over 50 percent of the United States of America is made up of people of non-European stock; the majority of the American people are not of European origin in 2020.  We understand.  We have millions of Muslims.  We have hundreds -- but it’s not quite the same.  We’re not up against a border.  We’re not sitting against a border of another powerful nation.

And so -- but, we, in fact -- these different traditions, different languages, and sometimes different perspectives, but the one thing I’ve observed, even with what’s going on in the east, is that there is a much greater desire to call oneself a Ukrainian than to call oneself anything else.  And that’s a major, major, major unifying power, no matter how different the traditions are.

So I’m confident -- presumptuous of me to say this -- I’m confident that in your constitutional reforms, you will find a way to guarantee those traditions and at the same time strengthen Ukrainian unity.  And to the extent that the United States of America can be of assistance in that effort, we stand ready to do that.

I thank you -- and I mean this sincerely -- for the honor of being able to speak here in the Rada, or at least a committee room of the Rada.

END
10:15 A.M. (Local)

LADEE HITS THE MOON

Right:   An artist's concept of NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft seen orbiting near the surface of the moon.  Image Credit-NASA Ames-Dana Berry.

FROM:  NASA 

Ground controllers at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., have confirmed that NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft impacted the surface of the moon, as planned, between 9:30 and 10:22 p.m. PDT Thursday, April 17.

LADEE lacked fuel to maintain a long-term lunar orbit or continue science operations and was intentionally sent into the lunar surface. The spacecraft's orbit naturally decayed following the mission's final low-altitude science phase.
During impact, engineers believe the LADEE spacecraft, the size of a vending machine, broke apart, with most of the spacecraft’s material heating up several hundred degrees – or even vaporizing – at the surface. Any material that remained is likely buried in shallow craters.

"At the time of impact, LADEE was traveling at a speed of 3,600 miles per hour – about three times the speed of a high-powered rifle bullet," said Rick Elphic, LADEE project scientist at Ames. "There’s nothing gentle about impact at these speeds – it’s just a question of whether LADEE made a localized craterlet on a hillside or scattered debris across a flat area. It will be interesting to see what kind of feature LADEE has created."

In early April, the spacecraft was commanded to carry out maneuvers that would lower its closest approach to the lunar surface. The new orbit brought LADEE to altitudes below one mile (two kilometers) above the lunar surface. This is lower than most commercial airliners fly above Earth, enabling scientists to gather unprecedented science measurements.

On April 11, LADEE performed a final maneuver to ensure a trajectory that caused the spacecraft to impact the far side of the moon, which is not in view of Earth or near any previous lunar mission landings. LADEE also survived the total lunar eclipse on April 14 to 15. This demonstrated the spacecraft's ability to endure low temperatures and a drain on batteries as it, and the moon, passed through Earth's deep shadow.

In the coming months, mission controllers will determine the exact time and location of LADEE's impact and work with the agency’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) team to possibly capture an image of the impact site. Launched in June 2009, LRO provides data and detailed images of the lunar surface.

"It's bittersweet knowing we have received the final transmission from the LADEE spacecraft after spending years building it in-house at Ames, and then being in constant contact as it circled the moon for the last several months," said Butler Hine, LADEE project manager at Ames.

Launched in September 2013 from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, LADEE began orbiting the moon Oct. 6 and gathering science data Nov. 10. The spacecraft entered its science orbit around the moon's equator on Nov. 20, and in March 2014, LADEE extended its mission operations following a highly successful 100-day primary science phase.

LADEE also hosted NASA’s first dedicated system for two-way communication using laser instead of radio waves. The Lunar Laser Communication.

Demonstration (LLCD) made history using a pulsed laser beam to transmit data over the 239,000 miles from the moon to the Earth at a record-breaking download rate of 622 megabits-per-second (Mbps). In addition, an error-free data upload rate of 20 Mbps was transmitted from the primary ground station in New Mexico to the Laser Communications Space Terminal aboard LADEE.

LADEE gathered detailed information about the structure and composition of the thin lunar atmosphere. In addition, scientists hope to use the data to address a long-standing question: Was lunar dust, electrically charged by sunlight, responsible for the pre-sunrise glow seen above the lunar horizon during several Apollo missions?

"LADEE was a mission of firsts, achieving yet another first by successfully flying more than 100 orbits at extremely low altitudes," said Joan Salute, LADEE program executive, at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Although a risky decision, we're already seeing evidence that the risk was worth taking.”
A thorough understanding of the characteristics of our nearest celestial neighbor will help researchers understand other bodies in the solar system, such as large asteroids, Mercury and the moons of outer planets.

NASA also included the public in the final chapter of the LADEE story. A “Take the Plunge” contest provided an opportunity for the public to guess the date and time of the spacecraft’s impact via the internet. Thousands submitted predictions. NASA will provide winners a digital congratulatory certificate.

NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington funds the LADEE mission. Ames was responsible for spacecraft design, development, testing and mission operations, in addition to managing the overall mission. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., managed the science instruments, technology demonstration payload and science operations center, and provided mission support. Goddard also manages the LRO mission. Wallops was responsible for launch vehicle integration, launch services and operations. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., managed LADEE within the Lunar Quest Program Office.

U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL'S REMARKS ON POLICY AND DIPLOMACY

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT

U.S. Foreign Policy and Diplomacy

Remarks

Tom Kelly

Acting Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs

Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies

Fort DeRussy, Waikiki

April 17, 2014

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Aloha! I work in the Foreign Ministry of the United States, the U.S. State Department. I’ve been a diplomat my entire life, and so I’m usually dressed a lot more formally than I am today. If it were up to me, I’d always dress like this. For the past few years, I’ve overseen the State Department’s Bureau of Political Military Affairs. This bureau is the connective tissue between the Department of State and the Department of Defense. We work closely with the Department of Defense to make sure that the work that we do is complimentary and consistent with U.S. foreign policy goals.

I know that many of you are leaders in your own nations on issues affecting defense, security, and foreign policy. So I thought that I would spend some time this morning giving you an overview of how, in our own government, we have tried to bring two distinct parts of our government – diplomats and soldiers – together so that we better serve the foreign policy and security interests of the United States. As someone who grew up on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, I’d also like to put the recent U.S. “rebalance to Asia” in proper context, and discuss with you our current security priorities in the Asia-Pacific region.

Now I realize that it may strike some of you as odd that you have a diplomat rather than a soldier standing before you today to talk about U.S. security policy. But from the way we handle national security policy in the United States, it actually makes sense. For us, defense and foreign policy are two sides of the same coin. When the United States enters a military partnership with a foreign country, our bilateral relationship becomes more intimate and enduring. And we diplomats can help our military colleagues to handle the many challenges that confront them in foreign theaters of operation. As all of you know, it’s a complicated world out there.

At the forefront of the United States’ foreign policy is the notion that America helps itself by helping others. At his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Secretary of State John Kerry said that, “Global leadership is a strategic imperative for America, not a favor we do for other countries. It amplifies our voice and extends our reach….and it really matters to the daily lives of Americans.”

And in a world dominated by sovereign nation states, the United States can’t lead without looking at the question of security, which is the fundamental preoccupation of any nation. Security cooperation plays a central role in American foreign policy. As we in the US Government take on the challenges that this world presents, we look first and foremost to building the right kind of security partnerships to meet them.

The challenges we face today typically can’t be solved by just our military, or our economic engagement, and – while it pains me to say this as a State Department official – we can’t resolve everything just with our diplomatic efforts, either. No, addressing today’s challenges demands we utilize all of these elements of national power. Addressing the world’s toughest problems really does take a whole-of-government effort. So at our President’s behest, the Secretaries of State and Defense are working harder than ever before to improve our cooperation and coordination with the Defense Department and other agencies.
Building security partnerships starts at home. It requires our diplomacy and defense to be on the same page and it requires the Departments of State and Defense to coordinate and work more closely than ever before. And today I can tell you that the current level of cooperation between State and Defense is truly unprecedented. We are seeing more interaction, more coordinated engagements, more personnel exchanges than ever before.

One way we work with the Department of Defense is through personnel exchanges. We have more than 100 Foreign Service Officers working as Political Advisors, or Polads, in various areas within the Department of Defense. They work at, among other places, the Pentagon, Europe and, of course, in PACOM, the Pacific Command. In return, the Department of Defense has a large number of military personnel serving in various capacities at the Department of State. The guy who sits next to me at the State Department is a two-star Navy Admiral. The reason we trade personnel like this is that we understand the need to better understand each other so that we can work together more effectively, now and in the future. To achieve our objectives in today’s globalized world, we want diplomats to be able to think like soldiers, and soldiers to be able to think like diplomats.

When the United States – through our security cooperation efforts – enhances the military capabilities of our allies and partners, we inherently strengthen their ability to handle their own security. All countries benefit from a global environment that is stable and prosperous, and many could do more to take an active role in supporting it.

Building the capacity of our partners and allies reflects more than strategic reality, though. We are also acutely aware that because of the budgetary pressures that our government faces, the U.S. Government is looking for cost-effective ways to achieve its strategic objectives at home and abroad. In short, building partner capacity is a prudent investment which deepens our strategic ties and helps defend our interests in an era of diminishing resources.

One vital tool that I would like to talk a bit more about is our ability to deliver security assistance to allies and partners. These programs can be a critical tool to support states trying to build their security capacity. Security is often the foundation for economic growth, democratic governance, and the preservation of human rights. Therefore, by helping our partners to take on greater security responsibilities, our assistance helps empowers others to advance peace and stability, while at the same time reducing the likelihood of putting our military forces in harm’s way.

To our great fortune and benefit, countries want to partner with the United States. One indication of that is the tremendous growth of U.S. defense trade in recent years. In 2013, we saw $27.80 billion in for foreign military sales by American defense companies. A significant number of these potential sales in the region were with allies such as South Korea, Australia and Japan, but a large proportion was also with partners such as India. These sales strengthen our alliances and partnerships in the region—a top goal of the “rebalance” to the Asia-Pacific as well as the Department’s Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review and our Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs’ Joint Regional Strategy—but also bolster the U.S. economy.
To put that into perspective, 2012 was our largest year in history of foreign military sales to date by American defense companies, amounting to nearly $70 billion in calendar year 2012. The year before that, in 2011 we saw $32.1 billion in Foreign Military Sales, which broke previous record the year before, at $31.6 billion. We also completed the UK and Australia defense trade treaties, which will help our defense industry and make our partnerships with these two nations even closer. In 2013, we also processed more than 78,000 licenses for direct commercial sales with an average processing time of 21 days.

Washington Priorities

Building partnerships in the Asia-Pacific region takes up a lot of time and attention at the top of our government in Washington. For many of us, thinking about Asia and the Pacific is nothing new. The Pacific Ocean has always been a part of my life. For those of you who know the United States, I grew up in Manhattan Beach, a beach town in Southern California that is right next to Los Angeles. And our President was born right here on this island. He still comes back to Hawaii with his family every year. For people like us, and many millions of other Americans, the Pacific isn’t just a strategically important location or a good place to make money. It’s our home.

So it’s no surprise that the Asia-Pacific has been a priority for President Obama since he took office in 2009. The administration based this vision on America's stake in a prosperous and stable region. In this, President Obama’s second term, we continue to build on those commitments to modernize our alliances, strengthen regional institutions and respect for rule of law, and engage more effectively with emerging powers such as China. Our policy is not merely words: we are dedicating more diplomatic, public diplomacy and assistance resources to the region. And we are diversifying to put more of a focus on economic development, on energy, people-to-people exchanges, and education.

The Rebalance Towards Asia: Cooperative Opportunities

The Asia-Pacific is home to many of the world’s most heavily traveled trade and energy routes. $555 billion in U.S. exports to the region last year supported 2.8 million jobs in America. The security and prosperity of the United States are inextricably linked to the peaceful development of the Asia-Pacific. Peaceful development means economic partnership opportunities that can tie our societies closer together.

When I look at the history of the Asia-Pacific over the past sixty years, I see a period of extraordinary prosperity. Hundreds of millions of people have lifted themselves out of poverty, providing an example to the rest of the world. In just a few generations, the Asia-Pacific has fostered innovative economies that today are fueling global growth.

At the Asia Pacific Economic Conference in October, Secretary Kerry described how U.S. economic engagement is good for both the region and good for the United States. Within APEC and as part of our ongoing rebalance toward Asia, we worked to strengthen regional economic integration; promote energy cooperation, private sector investments, and education exchange; reduce barriers to trade and investment; improve connectivity; and support sustainable growth.

On the margins of APEC, Secretary Kerry joined Trans Pacific Partnership Leaders in announcing that the negotiations are on track to complete the historic agreement this year. With its high ambition and pioneering standards for new trade disciplines, the TPP will be a model for future trade agreements and a promising pathway to our APEC goal of building a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific.

The Secretary also spoke at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Kuala Lumpur, also in October, to more than 3,000 entrepreneurs, investors, academics, startup organizers, business people, and government officials from over 100 countries.

In short, the Asia-Pacific is a by-word for opportunity for investment and win-win partnerships.
But reaching the goal of universal prosperity also depends on security – in this case, maritime security. We know that you don’t get trade within Asia, and with Asia and the Americas, without open sea lanes. The way we see it, twenty-first century capitalism cannot function unless the sea lanes throughout Asia-Pacific remain secure. A Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific includes freedom of navigation.

In Asia as in the rest of the world, the key to effective security is effective security partnerships. We’re working to modernize our alliances and ensure that we can cooperate seamlessly with partners to respond to crises and contingencies. The potential problems are not limited to those caused by people. Mother Nature sometimes reminds us that she is in charge. Super Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines is a case in point. The U.S. played an important role in supporting the recovery. That crisis demonstrated that a credible U.S. security presence is very important. And that security presence in itself is essential for economic progress to occur.
The most recent example, I think, of our interest in the security of Asia is our joining the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia. This is better known as ReCAAP. We recently signed the accession agreement. I understand that the United States received a warm welcome at the meeting of the ReCAAP Information Sharing Center at the beginning of March. We look forward to a long and close relationship. ReCAAP, of course, is not the only multilateral program in which we participate. We also take part in the ASEAN Regional Forum or the East Asia Summit, Pacific Islands Forum, and APEC, as well as in the bilateral engagements on the margins of those multilateral meetings. When you look at U.S. participation in those meetings, you will see again and again evidence of how much the Obama Administration is committed to the Asia-Pacific as a strategic component of our foreign policy and economic agenda.

This island is also the home port of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. The United States Navy obviously has a huge role to play in the safety of the Asia-Pacific’s sea lanes. As the U.S. rebalances toward Asia, we will increase the percentage of our surface ships in the Pacific theater from about 50 to over 60. But it’s not just a quantitative shift; it’s also a qualitative one. The United States is moving its most technologically advanced platforms to the Pacific. For example, all the ships of the Zumwalt Guided Missile Destroyer Class will come to the Pacific. The first P-8s—an incredible improvement in Maritime Patrol Aircraft capabilities—will come to the Pacific first. Our Navy’s newest surface combatant, the Littoral Combat Ship, has already completed one deployment to the South China Sea. We’ll see another rotational deployment this summer. When we do field the Joint Strike Fighter, it will go first to the Pacific theater.

The challenges in the maritime domain remain complex and complicated. Our Chief of Naval Operations has spoken at length about partnerships and our Navy’s ability to contribute to the global challenge of maintaining freedom of navigation and overflight. These partnerships will enable all navies to take advantage of each other’s strengths and build a maritime community that enables all of us to sail the seas without intimidation or interference. Working together in partnerships, whether bilaterally or multilaterally, allows us to also respond more quickly to humanitarian and disaster assistance when needed.

The Rebalance as Continuity of U.S. Policy

The story of the rebalance is a story of continuity. The United States has been and will continue to be a Pacific Power. Our strategic rebalance to the Asia-Pacific recognizes the important role the region will play in the 21^st century and the fact that the region is critically important to U.S. security and economics. As a marker of how important we see continuing our support of Asia-Pacific, the Obama administration has begun a process which will increase foreign assistance to the Asia-Pacific region by seven percent.

You may have noticed that in the rebalance much of our effort seems to be aimed at South and Southeast Asia. One of the reasons for that is that we have always had a very strong presence, including the stationing of several thousand American soldiers and sailors, in Northeast Asian countries like the Republic of Korea and Japan. We seek to deepen our engagement with new partners and multilateral institutions in Southeast Asia, to find opportunities to work together to advance our shared interests.

And quickly, I want to address the issue of China. I know that there are some in Beijing who think our rebalance to the Asia-Pacific is part of a broader American effort to contain China. Let me be clear: that is not the case. On the contrary, the United States seeks to continue building a cooperative partnership with China. A positive and cooperative relationship with China is a key element of our rebalance strategy. We understand that China will play an important role in critical global challenges like fighting climate change, wildlife trafficking, and countering proliferation. We welcome that role: those problems won’t get fixed without China’s help. And we recognize that our two economies are deeply intertwined. We consistently seek to engage with China on all levels on a wide range of issues. We want to do more with China in many areas, including economic relations. National Security Advisor Susan Rice recently said that the United States welcomes China and any other nation interested in joining and sharing the benefits of the Trans-Pacific Partnership so long as they can commit to the high standards of the agreement.

The United States is committed to building healthy, stable, reliable, and continuous military-to-military relations with China. We maintain a robust schedule of military-to-military exchanges and dialogues in pursuit of that goal and to encourage China to exhibit greater transparency with respect to its military capabilities and intentions. In addition, U.S. military, diplomatic, and defense officials participate in a range of combined civilian-military dialogues with the Chinese in which we work to build mutual trust and understanding. I’ve participated personally in some of them, both in Washington and Beijing.

Farther Into Asia

South Asia, where I’ll travel in a few days, also merits some comment. I’ve travelled several times over the past few years to India. I think it’s fair to say that there is growing interest in both Washington and New Delhi in greater security cooperation. There is a significant degree of coincidence of strategic interests. During the Obama Administration, the United States carried out our first political-military dialogue with India in six years. And it was significant because we were able to help our Indian counterparts work through the challenges of our interagency process on national security issues. Indian officials told us that the dialogue is especially helpful in helping them to coordinate the same issues within their own government, as well as giving them a better idea of how to deal with our own large and admittedly complicated bureaucracy. The Indian military is also increasingly interested in buying equipment from the United States. Our foreign military sales to India have grown from virtually zero in 2008 to more than $9 billion. In comparison, we had only $363 million in military sales with India from 2002-2006.
I’m not going to India on this trip, but I will travel to Bangladesh, another important South Asian partner. I’ll visit the port city of Chittagong, where the Bangladeshi Navy will show me the Somudra Joy, formerly the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Jarvis, which enables the Bangladeshi Navy to promote maritime security. This transfer has achieved real results by contributing to a seventy percent reduction in piracy in the Bay of Bengal.

My conviction and my experience is that our ongoing rebalance strategy that dates back to 2009 is broad, is deep, and encompasses not just regional security, but also economic prosperity, and people-to-people ties. This is the subject of a very intense ongoing interagency collaboration within the U.S. Government, precisely because it is a strategic priority of the President, of the Administration, and of the nation.

This brings me back to the beginning of my speech, and what motivates U.S. leaders to invest significant resources to support U.S. leadership in the Asia-Pacific and around the globe. Citizens of this country are learning what you already know – that world events are closer to home than we may think, and can change rapidly. That means we need to be on our toes, adapting and evolving to enhance and sustain U.S. global leadership. This can be challenging, but we really need to remember that in this changing world it has been international partnerships that have brought about stability and prosperity, not only to the United States, but across the world.

By tackling the world’s toughest problems together, we can bring new perspectives and expanded capabilities to bear. And we can build partnerships to be proud of – within government, with civil society, and with nations around the world.

Thank you again for your personal contributions to that effort. And with that, I will be happy to take your questions.

FDA SCIENTIST WORKING TO CREATE DNA BAR-CODES TO IDENTIFY FISH SPECIES

FROM:  U.S. FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION 

Have you sometimes wondered if that "wild caught" salmon actually came from an aqua farm? Or if the "U.S. catfish" in the display case might have been born and raised in Vietnam?

Is that "red snapper" actually red snapper and worth the premium price?

Scientists at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are able to answer those questions through a project that creates DNA barcodes to identify individual fish species. The massive project is part of an effort aimed at solving the problem of species substitution.

Species substitution can result in cheap fish being labeled as pricy ones, but mislabeling can also threaten public health. For example, in 2007, a prohibited and highly toxic variety of puffer fish, also known as fugu or blowfish, was smuggled into the U.S. in boxes labeled as "headless monkfish." This deception resulted in illnesses in multiple states.

A series of cutting-edge tests must be conducted to create the barcodes, which look much like the lines of different thicknesses on Universal Product Code (UPC) labels used to identify and scan manufactured products. However, unlike the barcodes you see on packages in the supermarket, the barcodes that identify different fish species will not be attached to the fish.

Instead, once a fish species is identified through DNA testing and other high-tech techniques in FDA labs, the newly created barcode unique to that species is entered into a database, which could be thought of as a library or catalogue of commercial fish species.

When encountering a fish or fish product (fillets, fish sticks, sushi, etc.) whose species is unknown, inspectors with the equipment and know-how can create a barcode for that fish and compare it against FDA's database to seek a known match.

The agency has trained more than 20 FDA analysts around the country to use that procedure in many of its regional field laboratories and are now performing the analysis on a regular basis.

AG HOLDER: JUSTICE READIES FOR WAVE OF CLEMENCY APPLICATIONS FROM DRUG OFFENDERS

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Monday, April 21, 2014

Attorney General Holder: Justice Department Set to Expand Clemency Criteria, Will Prepare for Wave of Applications from Drug Offenders in Federal Prison
WASHINGTON—In an important step to reduce sentencing disparities for drug offenders in the federal prison system, Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday announced that the Justice Department will soon detail new, more expansive criteria that the department will use in considering when to recommend clemency applications for President Obama’s review.

In anticipation of the increase of eligible petitioners, the Justice Department is preparing to assign lawyers--with backgrounds in both prosecution and defense – to review the applications.

“The White House has indicated it wants to consider additional clemency applications, to restore a degree of justice, fairness and proportionality for deserving individuals who do not pose a threat to public safety,” said Attorney General Holder in a video message posted on the department’s website.  “The Justice Department is committed to recommending as many qualified applicants as possible for reduced sentences.”

Later this week, Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole is expected to announce more specific details about the expanded criteria the department will use and the logistical effort underway to ensure proper reviews of the anticipated wave of applications.

 The complete text of Attorney General Holder’s video message is below:

“In 2010, President Obama signed the Fair Sentencing Act, reducing unfair disparities in sentences imposed on people for offenses involving different forms of cocaine.

“But there are still too many people in federal prison who were sentenced under the old regime – and who, as a result, will have to spend far more time in prison than they would if sentenced today for exactly the same crime.

“This is simply not right.

“Legislation pending in Congress would help address these types of cases.  In the meantime, President Obama took a sensible step towards addressing this situation by granting commutations last December to eight men and women who had each served more than 15 years in prison for crack cocaine offenses.  For two of these individuals, it was the first conviction they’d ever received – yet, due to mandatory minimum guidelines that were considered severe at the time, and are profoundly out of date today – they and four others received life sentences.

“These stories illustrate the vital role that the clemency process can play in America’s justice system.

“The White House has indicated it wants to consider additional clemency applications, to restore a degree of justice, fairness, and proportionality for deserving individuals who do not pose a threat to public safety.  The Justice Department is committed to recommending as many qualified applicants as possible for reduced sentences.

“Later this week, the deputy attorney general will announce new criteria that the department will consider when recommending applications for the President’s review.  This new and improved approach will make the criteria for clemency recommendation more expansive.  This will allow the Department of Justice and the president to consider requests from a larger field of eligible individuals.

“Once these reforms go into effect, we expect to receive thousands of additional applications for clemency.  And we at the Department of Justice will meet this need by assigning potentially dozens of lawyers – with backgrounds in both prosecution and defense – to review applications and provide the rigorous scrutiny that all clemency applications require.

“As a society, we pay much too high a price whenever our system fails to deliver the just outcomes necessary to deter and punish crime, to keep us safe, and to ensure that those who have paid their debts have a chance to become productive citizens.

“Our expanded clemency application process will aid in this effort.  And it will advance the aims of our innovative new Smart on Crime initiative – to strengthen the criminal justice system, promote public safety and deliver on the promise of equal justice under

CDC SAYS FIVE MAJOR DIABETES-RELATED COMPLICATIONS HAVE DECLINED SUBSTANTIALLY

FROM:  CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION

CDC data show declines in some diabetes-related complications among US adults
Despite progress continued efforts needed to combat diabetes complications
Rates of five major diabetes-related complications have declined substantially in the last 20 years among U.S. adults with diabetes, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, published in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Rates of lower-limb amputation, end-stage kidney failure, heart attack, stroke, and deaths due to high blood sugar (hyperglycemia) all declined.  Cardiovascular complications and  deaths from high blood sugar decreased by more than 60 percent each, while the rates of both strokes and lower extremity amputations – including upper and lower legs, ankles, feet, and toes – declined by about half.  Rates for end stage kidney failure fell by about 30 percent.

“These findings show that we have come a long way in preventing complications and improving quality of life for people with diabetes,” said Edward Gregg, Ph.D., a senior epidemiologist in CDC’s Division of Diabetes Translation and lead author of the study. “While the declines in complications are good news, they are still high and will stay with us unless we can make substantial progress in preventing type 2 diabetes.”

Because the number of adults reporting diabetes during this time frame more than tripled – from 6.5 million to 20.7 million – these major diabetes complications continue to put a heavy burden on the U.S. health care system.  Nearly 26 million Americans have diabetes and an additional 79 million have prediabetes and are at risk of developing the disease.  Diabetes and its complications account for $176 billion in total medical costs each year.

CDC researchers used data from the National Health Interview Survey, National Hospital Discharge Survey, U.S. Renal Data System, and Vital Statistics, to examine trends in the occurrence of diabetes-related complications in the United States between 1990 and 2010.

Although all complications declined, the greatest declines in diabetes-related complications occurred for heart attack and stroke, particularly among people aged 75 years and older. The study authors attribute the declines in diabetes-related complications to increased availability of health care services, risk factor control, and increases in awareness of the potential complications of diabetes.

FDA APPROVES SUPERA PERIPHERAL STENT SYSTEM FOR ARTERY TREATMENT IN THE LEGS

FROM:  U.S. FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION 
Supera Peripheral Stent System – P120020

This is a brief overview of information related to FDA’s approval to market this product. See the links below to the Summary of Safety and Effectiveness Data (SSED) and product labeling for more complete information on this product, its indications for use, and the basis for FDA’s approval.

Product Name: Supera Peripheral Stent System
PMA Applicant: IDEV Technologies
Address: 253 Medical Center Blvd., Webster, TX 77598
Approval Date: March 28, 2014
Approval Letter: http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/cdrh_docs/pdf12/P120020a.pdf

What is it? The Supera Peripheral Stent System is used to re-open narrowed (stenotic) regions of the superficial femoral and proximal popliteal arteries which supply blood to the legs. It consists of two components, the stent and the delivery system. The stent is a small woven tube made of two metals (nickel and titanium). The stent is mounted within the delivery catheter; a long, thin, tube-like device used to deliver the stent into the artery.

How does it work?

A catheter with a deflated balloon at its tip is inserted into a blood vessel in the groin and advanced within the vessel to the narrowed section of the superficial femoral or proximal popliteal artery.

The balloon is inflated within the narrowed artery to open the artery by pushing the plaque against the artery wall (balloon angioplasty).

The angioplasty balloon and its catheter are removed. The Supera Peripheral Stent System is advanced through the same vessel and positioned within the expanded artery.

The stent is then released (deployed). The stent opens automatically over the blockage as it is released from the delivery system.

The stent placement increases blood flow to the legs by holding the artery wall open.

Once the stent is deployed, the stent delivery catheter is removed.

The stent remains permanently implanted in the superficial femoral or proximal popliteal artery and acts as a support for the newly opened section of the vessel.
When is it used? The Supera Peripheral Stent System is used to treat patients with narrowing of a superficial femoral or proximal popliteal arteries caused by atherosclerosis, the collection of fatty substances such as cholesterol that forms “plaque” along the lining of the arteries. This narrowing may limit blood flow to the legs, leading to pain when walking.

What will it accomplish? The inside lining of the artery will grow over the stent approximately 8 weeks after it is implanted. Once in place, the stent acts as a scaffold to:

Hold open the narrowed superficial femoral or proximal popliteal artery, and
Improve blood flow to the legs.

When should it not be used? Use of the Supera Peripheral Stent System is contraindicated in the following cases:

When a patient has a lesion that prevents complete inflation of an angioplasty balloon or proper placement of the stent or stent delivery system.

When a patient cannot receive specific blood thinning medications, such as aspirin or Coumadin, among others.

Additional information: The Summary of Safety and Effectiveness Data and labeling are available online.

GSA REAL ESTATE CONSOLIDATION ESTIMATED TO SAVE $70 MILLION

FROM:  GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION 

GSA to Shrink Real Estate Footprint and Cut Costs with $70 Million Consolidation Project

How we’ll do it

When it comes to government efficiency and sustainability, GSA is leading the way by reducing the federal government’s carbon and real estate footprints. In addition to its innovative Total Workplace program and ongoing property disposal efforts, GSA has identified 19 projects across the country where the agency will work with other federal agencies to consolidate their offices into a federally owned space. This consolidation effort will not only reduce costs by eliminating multiple leases, but also scale back the federal government’s energy and water consumption. GSA is also revolutionizing workplace efficiency by creating open work spaces which eliminate the traditional four-walled office and provide staff the flexibility to work wherever their team is located. This encourages creative collaboration and increased productivity with less square footage.

Why we do it

GSA is the country’s largest landlord, providing workspace for more than a million federal workers who work in both federally-owned and leased space, that makes up more than 9,000 properties or 377.9 million square feet of workspace. As dedicated stewards of the public trust and the environment, GSA is committed to assisting federal agencies in reducing their carbon footprint and employing cost-effective green building strategies.

This investment will save federal agencies $17 million in annual rent payments and reduce the federal footprint by 507,000 rentable square feet, plus reduce the government’s leasing costs by more than $38 million.
GSA Administrator Dan Tangherlini said:

“As public servants we have a responsibility to serve the American people as effectively and efficiently as possible. By consolidating these locations we are not just eliminating redundant rents and space, but also encouraging collaboration among  government workers by creating open workspace. We’re ushering in a new day for office space throughout the federal government.”

Consolidation project list

Project Name Amount Allocated (in $)
Jacob K. Javits Federal Building & 201 Varick Street – NYC 5,000,000
George H. Fallon Federal Building – Baltimore, MD 621,000
Norfolk Federal Building - Norfolk, VA 1,811,000
Peachtree Summit – Atlanta, GA 509,000
Schiller Park – Vernon Hills, IL 520,000
Austin Federal Courthouse – Austin, TX 14,416,000
Wallace F. Bennett Federal Office Building – Salt Lake City, UT 4,400,000
Evo A. DeConcini Courthouse – Tucson, AZ 3,804,000
300 North Los Angeles - Los Angeles, CA 5,000,000
Guarantee Savings Building – Fresno, CA 155,000
Chet Holifield Federal Building – Laguna Niguel, CA 674,000
Ronald Dellums – Oakland, CA 1,470,000
Edward J. Schwartz FB & CH – San Diego, CA (2 projects) 5,020,000
U.S. Trustees     2,733,000
Federal Protective Service     2,287,000
911 Federal Building – Portland, OR 2,148,000
Bank of America Fifth Ave & Jackson FB – Seattle, WA 1,143,000
Hubert H. Humphrey Building – Washington, DC 6,740,000
Mary E. Switzer Building, 330 C Street SW – Washington, DC 10,384,000
7980 Science Applications Court – Vienna, VA 3,569,000
Total $67,384,000

U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT CONTRACTS FOR APRIL 21, 2014

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT 
CONTRACTS

AIR FORCE

Mirador Enterprises Inc., El Paso, Texas, (FA4801-14-D-0002); Mesa Verde Enterprises Inc., Alamogordo, N.M. (FA4801-14-D-0003); R-Con Construction Inc., Las Cruces, N.M, (FA4801-14-D-0004); Dawn, Inc./McTech Corp., Joint Venture, Albuquerque, N.M. (FA4801-14-D-0005); and E-Corp, Albuquerque, N.M., (FA4801-14-D-0006), have been awarded a $75,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, multiple-award construction contract for a broad range of maintenance, repair, minor construction/alteration and renovation work on real property. Work will be performed at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., and federal real property within a 100 mile radius of Holloman AFB post office, excluding areas within the state of Texas. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition and 29 offers were received. Work is expected to be complete by April 21, 2015. Fiscal 2014 operations and maintenance and military construction funds may be used to fund each task order issued. 49 Contracting Squadron/LGCB, Holloman AFB, N.M., is the contracting activity.

NAVY

Adira Construction Inc.,* Chesapeake, Va. (N40085-13-D-5246); Contract and Purchasing Solutions Inc.,* Lake Park, Ga. (N40085-13-D-5247); Greenland Enterprises Inc.,* Hampton, Va. (N40085-13-D-5248); Locke-Lane Construction Inc.,* Stony Point, N.C. (N40085-13-D-5249); Patriot Construction LLC,* Dunkirk, Md. (N40085-13-D-5250); Turner Strategic Technologies LLC,* Norfolk, Va. (N40085-13-D-5251); and Sampson Contracting Inc.,* Barco, N.C. (N40085-14-D-7711), are each being awarded an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, multiple-award construction contract for general construction projects located at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, Marine Corps Air Station New River, Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, and other outlying facilities in North Carolina. The maximum dollar value including the base period and four option years for all six contracts combined is $50,000,000. The work to be performed provides for new construction, demolition, repair, total/partial interior/exterior alteration/renovation of buildings, systems and infrastructure, civil, structural, mechanical, electrical, communication systems, installation of new or extensions to existing high voltage electrical distribution systems, extensions to the existing high pressure steam distribution systems, extensions to the potable water distribution systems, extensions to the sanitary sewer systems, additional storm water control systems, painting, removal of asbestos materials and lead paint, and incidental related work. Patriot Construction LLC, is being awarded task order 0001 at $82,950 for the installation of sprinkler and fire alarm system building 1819 at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C. Work for this task order is expected to be completed by September 2014. All work on this contract will be performed in Jacksonville, Havelock, and other outlying facilities in North Carolina. The term of the contract is not to exceed 60 months, with an expected completion date of September 2018. Fiscal 2013 and 2014 operations and maintenance, Navy contract funds in the amount of $112,950 are obligated on this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was originally competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website, with 26 proposals received. This contract action is a re-award as a result of corrective action taken due to a Government Accountability Office protest. These seven contractors may compete for task orders under the terms and conditions of the awarded contract. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Mid-Atlantic, Norfolk, Va., is the contracting activity.

Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., St. Augustine, Fla., is being awarded a $31,135,442 firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost-reimbursement, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the depot maintenance services of 44 Navy and Marine Corps Reserve F-5N/F aircraft. The services will include depot level maintenance, aircraft inspections, repairs, overhauls, emergency repairs, modifications, engineering support, and procurement of structural components as required to sustain the F-5N/F aircraft. Work will be performed in St. Augustine, Fla. (96 percent); Springville, Utah (3 percent); and Emmen, Switzerland (1 percent), and is expected to be completed in March 2015. Fiscal 2014 operations and maintenance, Navy Reserve funds in the amount of $7,386,924 are being obligated at time of award, all of which will expire at the end of the fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to FAR 6.302-1. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity (N00019-14-D-0022).

Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Linthicum Heights, Md., is being awarded a $17,150,542 modification (P00126) to previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (M67854-07-C-2072) to incorporate a change order to provide for additional testing and test support during the Common Aviation Command and Control developmental test, and, weapons tactic instructor test events. This contract modification includes a government maximum liability in the amount of $15,000,000 for the bailing of the contractor’s engineering development model to support the government’s test events. Work will be performed in Camp Pendleton, Calif. (51 percent) Linthicum Heights, Md. (46 percent); Syracuse, N.Y. (3 percent); and work is expected to be completed June 30, 2014. Fiscal 2014 research and development funds in the amount of $17,150,542 will be obligated at the time of award, and will expire at the end of fiscal year 2015. The Marine Corps Systems Command, Quantico, Va., is the contracting activity.

ARMY

C.J. Mahan Construction Co., LLC, Grove City, Ohio, was awarded an $11,801,329 firm-fixed-price contract for the Olmsted Major Lock Rehabilitation, Olmsted, Ill. Fiscal 2014 other procurement funds in the amount of $11,801,329 were obligated at the time of the award. Estimated completion date is June 1, 2017. Bids were solicited via the Internet with two received. Work will be performed in Olmstead, Ill. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Louisville, Ky., is the contracting activity (W912QR-14-C-0020).

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

Omega Apparel,* Smithville, Tenn., has been awarded a maximum $7,499,520 modification (P00103) exercising the fourth option period on a one-year base contract (SPM1C1-10-D-1041) with four one-year option periods for men’s trousers. This is a firm-fixed-price contract. Location of performance is Tennessee with an April 24, 2015 performance completion date. Using military service is Army. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa.

*Small Business

PRESS BRIEFING ON V.P. BIDEN'S TRIP TO UKRAINE

FROM:  THE WHITE HOUSE 

Background Press Briefing on Vice President Biden's Trip to Ukraine

Aboard Air Force Two
En Route Kyiv, Ukraine

2:00 P.M. (Local)

MR. SPECTOR:  Just a reminder at the top this is on background as a senior administration official.  He will give some brief remarks at the top and walk through the schedule, and then he’ll take a few questions afterwards.  And again, senior administration official on background.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Thanks, everybody.  We’re about an hour and a half out of Kyiv, and I just wanted to lay out for you what the Vice President will be doing while he’s here, and then speak to some of the themes from the trip and then answer some of your questions.

When we arrive today, he’s got an opportunity to meet with our embassy team that has been pretty much working around the clock for the last few months, even long before February 21st; and then he will sit down with a CODEL led by Congressman Royce to have the chance to speak with them before they have their series of official meetings on Tuesday as well.  So he’ll get brought up to speed on developments on the ground today from our ambassador and our team, and then he’ll go into his meetings tomorrow.

He starts in the morning with a meeting with acting President Turchynov, and then he will do a meeting with Rada representatives from every corner of the country -- from the center, the west, the east, the south -- from multiple generations of Ukrainian politics; some familiar names and then some younger faces and voices.  And the key message of that meeting from him is one of national unity and a successful constitutional reform effort that takes into account the perspectives and aspirations of all Ukrainians. 

But in addition to sending that message, he’s also going to want to hear from them -- all of them -- about what they would like to see both in the immediate term, and then over the medium to long term.

He will then meet with Prime Minister Yatsenyuk where he’ll cover the full range of issues confronting Ukraine today.  And then he’ll finish with a meeting with a couple of dozen or more members of civil society from a variety of backgrounds who work on a variety of issues from democracy to anti-corruption, to youth issues, to cultural issues.  He’ll have an opportunity to address not just them but a broader segment of the Ukrainian public in public remarks there that will be open to the media before going behind closed doors to have conversations with the assembled group about the way they see things and what the United States can do to support them.

So that's the schedule.  In terms of what the Vice President is trying to accomplish, first and foremost, he wanted to come Kyiv to send a very clear message of the United States’ support for Ukraine’s democracy, unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity.  And he wanted to have the opportunity to speak to all Ukrainians from the center, from the west, from the east and from south.  He will call for urgent implementation of the agreement reached in Geneva last week, while also making clear as we have done for the last few days there will be mounting costs for Russia if they choose a destabilizing rather than constructive course in the days ahead.

He will speak to government leaders both the Prime Minister and the acting President, but also members of various factions in the Rada, as well as with civil society about how the United States can support constitutional reform, including the government’s decentralization proposals and how we can support their effort to bring about free and fair elections, international monitors supporting international standards on May 25th.  He will speak to officials about steps towards economic stabilization in Ukraine.  He’ll discuss forms of U.S. assistance, including the loan guarantee that was signed this past week, but also and especially the IMF agreement.  We hope that the final elements of that will come together imminently, and that the IMF board will be able to meet relatively soon to complete that process and begin dispersing the money.

He will speak about both the short- and long-term energy situation in Ukraine.  As he arrives, there will also be a team on the ground from the United States, a team of experts working on the reverse flow issue.  That team will be in Kyiv and then will travel also to Slovakia, Poland and Hungary to help address the issue of reversing the flow of natural gas to provide Ukraine with some measure of short-term supply of natural gas as they look to replenish their stores.

But also he’ll discuss with them medium- and long-term strategies to boost conventional gas production, and also to begin to take advantage of the unconventional gas reserves that are in Ukraine.

Then, of course, as you might anticipate from his meeting with civil society, he’s looking to lift up the voices of Ukraine civil society as they seek to ensure there isn’t a repeat of the past, that they look to a future with less corruption, less coercion, less division. 

And then finally let me just say I don't want to preempt him but he will be discussing various forms of assistance that the United States will be offering in some of these areas.  And we’ll have an opportunity to go through some of those forms of assistance and what’s behind them after he’s had the opportunity to consult with leaders there.  So I’ll look forward to coming back to briefing you in greater detail on that over the next 24 hours or so.

Q    Are you talking about --

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Yes.

Q    -- beyond economic assistance?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Well, there’s a package of economic and energy and governance assistance that he’ll be discussing.  And we, as you saw, just recently announced a latest tranche of security assistance, nonlethal security assistance.  And he’ll have the opportunity to speak with the government about what more is needed and what more we could provide in the period ahead.

Q    So there’s a package that includes economic, energy and discussion of further security assistance.  Is that right?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Well, the package I’m describing includes economic, energy and governance assistance.  On the question of security assistance, that's something we’ll be consulting with the Ukrainian leadership about.

Q    What kind of energy assistance can the U.S. provide broadly?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  We have a wide range of technical expertise and then forms of technical assistance in four areas.  The first is how to address this immediate reverse flow issue, and we already have a team on the ground to deal with that.  The second is technical assistance to help them be able to boost production in their conventional gas fields, where presently they aren’t getting the maximum of what they could be.  Third, technical assistance relating to a regulatory framework, and also the technology that would be required to extract unconventional gas resources; and Ukraine has meaningful reserves of unconventional gas according to the latest estimates.  And then finally various forms of technical assistance relating to energy efficiency, where experts have shown that the Ukraine could substantially lessen its energy dependence and deny any country the capacity to use energy as a political weapon through a combination of all those things, but in no small part through greater energy efficiency and use of its existing energy.

Q    The economic assistance, does that mean money?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I think the biggest piece of business beyond the $1 billion loan guarantee and bringing to closure the IMF and helping also to shepherd the European money will be teams that we can put on the ground to help ensure that that money is allocated in an effective way.  Technical assistance teams from the Treasury Department and elsewhere.  And when I say effective, I mean in keeping with what the IMF and Ukraine have agreed, but also in keeping with everyone’s desire to ensure that all parts of Ukraine benefit from this assistance -- the east and the south, as well as the center and the west.

Q    The violence that broke out on Sunday, in the context of the international agreement, there seemed to be a lot of finger-pointing between Russian and Ukrainian officials about what happened.  Do you have a sense of who is to blame and whether -- how that might affect that agreement?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  The situation regarding the incident outside of Slavyansk is still very murky.  What the Ukrainian government says is that it was a provocation by the pro-Russian forces manning roadblocks there, and that they have no evidence that there was any either Ukrainian security service involvement or involvement by people coming from Kyiv or elsewhere.  We have nothing to suggest that there was either, but we don't have 100 percent of the facts on that, and part of the reason for that, of course, is that it has been difficult for monitors to travel in and around Slavyansk because the pro-Russian separatists there with Russia standing behind them have not permitted the type of international observation that should be permitted.  And we think that the best way to ensure that those kinds of incidents don't happen again would be for the Russian government to follow through on its commitment to use every influence it has to get these pro-Russian separatists to lay down their arms, to de-occupy buildings, to take down roadblocks and to allow the political process to run its course.

Q    You’ve talked about cohesion, that that's part of the Vice President’s message through all of this.  You guys haven’t really talked to that up till now.  And so can you talk about what the thinking is behind that, and why he’s going to be going with that message at this particular time?  And kind of what the expectations are in terms of getting different factions on board? Is he planning on having some kind of specific takeaway?  Or is it more of a general discussion?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Let me start by staying obviously Ukraine’s future -- its political decisions, its economic decisions -- are up to Ukrainians.  And the United States wants to support its free choices in that regard, not to try to dictate any outcomes.

But his focus on unity comes from sort of three bases.  The first is that the Ukrainian government itself has placed an increasingly high premium on pressing for a sense of national unity and has conducted increasingly vigorous outreach to the east and the south, including just this past Friday, when Prime Minister Yatsenyuk spoke about decentralization proposals, spoke about cultural and linguistic traditions.  And the Vice President wants to support that.

Second, there are currently ongoing threats to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.  And the most effective response for Ukraine to that is for the whole country to pull together to push back on those threats and to say we want to take our country forward in a way free from violence, and at the ballot box rather than with arms.

And then third, Ukraine faces substantial urgent challenges right now on a number of different levels.  And only if every aspect of the country gets united behind a game plan to tackle those challenges will they be able to make progress.  That's true with respect to stabilizing the situation on the ground.  It’s true with respect to following through on constitutional reform and elections.  It’s true with stabilizing a very fragile economy.  And it’s true with dealing with an energy situation that remains precarious.  So for all of those reasons, the Vice President feels that the United States’ support for efforts to pull the country together are especially important at this time.

Q    We’re not going to hear at all from him today, right?  The Vice President.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  You’re not going to hear from him today.  You’ll hear from him multiple times tomorrow.

Q    Did the President task him with a specific message?  Or can you talk at all about kind of what President Obama said -- told the Vice President before he left and kind of whether he’s carrying a message from him, or what his goals are in that sense?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Most of what I’ve laid out here is the product of conversations between the President and the Vice President in the run-up to the trip in terms of the issues we’re emphasizing and what we’re trying to accomplish.  I don't want to get into their private conversations, but he will speak directly with the Prime Minister about the President’s perspective on this, and also about the President’s commitment to support the government and to support the broader effort at following through on these various lines of effort.

In terms of what this government has been doing or attempting to do on the economy, on the elections, on constitutional reform, on all the areas that we’ve been discussing, it’s been a very encouraging set of steps that they’ve been trying to take in the face of pretty enormous challenges.  And I think the President and the Vice President want to make sure that the Prime Minister understands that the United States wants to find every way that it can to support those efforts.

Q    -- been vigorous outreach from the Ukrainian government to the south and the east.  Can you give a few examples of the kind of outreach that you think has been very effective and other steps that the U.S. would like to continue to see progress on?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I think I said increasingly vigorous, and that's important because it’s been building over time.  And we want to continue to encourage that.  Obviously, the leadership in Kyiv has a lot to deal with, but this is as much at the top of the list as anything else.  And what I mean is both private conversations among leaders in Kyiv and those representing political interests in the south and the east.  I mean officials who have been appointed by this interim government who are out in the oblasts in the east trying to speak with people across the political spectrum there to figure out how we can design -- how they can design a decentralization process that really works.  I mean the Prime Minister himself addressing directly the concerns of some of the citizens in the east and south, including his comment -- or his pledge regarding the Russian language.

I’m referring also to the work of the constitutional commission, which is a balanced group that reflects significant representation from the south and the east, and is focused on these questions of decentralization and empowering local communities.

So at a variety of different levels you’re seeing more robust interchange within Ukraine, and that's all to the good.  We believe that that has to be sustained and deepened in the days ahead.

Q    We talked a little bit about some of the increase in violence that has been seen in Ukraine in the recent days.  This past weekend, the Ukrainian Prime Minister said that really the only person responsible for containing that is Putin.  Do you expect that we should hear some sort of direct message to President Putin from Vice President Biden during this trip, any sort of direct message -- either from the President or just from the administration in general?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Well, first of all, President Obama spoke with President Putin last week and was able to deliver the message in the most direct fashion possible -- person-to-person.  And what he told President Putin is the same thing that we’ve been saying publicly which is that really Russia has a choice to make here.  They can contribute to a de-escalation process as a responsible actor, which they have not been -- and going back to their illegal annexation/occupation of Crimea, have proven to be just the opposite of that; or they are going to face increasing costs.  And that's something that the President has been very clear about; the Vice President will continue to be clear about.  And we’ll continue to consult with our European partners about.

Q    Does the administration have any sort of updated timeline on that as to when you say these dire consequences, when we would see that?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Well, I didn't say what you just said.  But in terms of the timeframe, Geneva was decided Thursday.  The OSCE has been working over the weekend.  We haven’t seen the kind of progress that, of course, we would like.  We’d like to see every building vacated as soon as possible.  And we’ve seen certain activities that have been discouraging like the shooting at the roadblock outside of Slavyansk.  But I’m not going to put a precise timetable on it.  I will just say that this is not going to be an open-ended process.  This is going to be a situation where we take stock and determine in the relatively near term what our next step should be.

Q    What does that mean?  Because you guys were indicating as recently as Friday that it would be days.  So when you say --

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Nothing has changed since Friday. 

Q    Okay, so days would mean by the end of this week, right?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Like I said, I’m not going to put a precise timeframe on it, only to say that we’re heading into Monday here.  And what we said on Friday was that we would be looking at this in the coming days to determine whether there was progress or whether there wasn’t.  And that still stands.

Q    Could you just say how this trip came about?  Obviously the Vice President has a long history of diplomatic relations with Ukraine.  Was this something that was his initiative?  Did the President ask him to go because of those relationships?  Or how did that come?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  The reason I’m pausing here is it’s one of those -- it’s one of those conversations where it’s a little hard to say whether the President asked him or he said I want to go.  It grew out of a conversation that the two of them had, and both of them agreed that it was important for the U.S. to send a high-level signal of support for all of the lines of effort that this government is undertaking.

Obviously, the most pressing and acute right now is the security situation.  But these other lines of effort are also existential for Ukraine.  Its politics, its economics and its energy also matter acutely, and so they felt it was important to have somebody with deep ties to and a deep passion for the U.S.-Ukraine relationship to come and send that message both privately and publicly.  And there’s no better messenger for that than the Vice President.  So that's what brings us here, and we’ll make sure that over the next 24 hours we keep you guys up to date in terms of how those conversations are going and how a very fast moving situation is unfolding on the ground.

Obviously as we’ve been flying things have been happening in Ukraine.  It’s early afternoon now.  So we’ll make sure that we stay in touch here over the next 24-36 hours.

Q    What’s been happening -- is there anything significant that’s happened while we’ve been in the air?  I’m just sort of curious.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Nothing that I would come back here to announce.

Thanks, guys.

Q    Thank you very much.

END

LANL REPORTS ON SOLAR PANEL-WINDOW

FROM:  LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY 

Right:  This schematic shows how the quantum dots are embedded in the plastic matrix and capture sunlight to improve solar panel efficiency.


Shiny quantum dots brighten future of solar cells
Photovoltaic solar-panel windows could be next for your house

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., April 14, 2014—A house window that doubles as a solar panel could be on the horizon, thanks to recent quantum-dot work by Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers in collaboration with scientists from University of Milano-Bicocca (UNIMIB), Italy. Their project demonstrates that superior light-emitting properties of quantum dots can be applied in solar energy by helping more efficiently harvest sunlight.

“The key accomplishment is the demonstration of large-area luminescent solar concentrators that use a new generation of specially engineered quantum dots,” said lead researcher Victor Klimov of the Center for Advanced Solar Photophysics (CASP) at Los Alamos.

Quantum dots are ultra-small bits of semiconductor matter that can be synthesized with nearly atomic precision via modern methods of colloidal chemistry.  Their emission color can be tuned by simply varying their dimensions. Color tunability is combined with high emission efficiencies approaching 100 percent. These properties have recently become the basis of a new technology – quantum dot displays – employed, for example, in the newest generation of the Kindle Fire ™ e-reader.

Light-harvesting antennas

A luminescent solar concentrator (LSC) is a photon management device, representing a slab of transparent material that contains highly efficient emitters such as dye molecules or quantum dots. Sunlight absorbed in the slab is re-radiated at longer wavelengths and guided towards the slab edge equipped with a solar cell.

Klimov explained, “The LSC serves as a light-harvesting antenna which concentrates solar radiation collected from a large area onto a much smaller solar cell, and this increases its power output.”

“LSCs are especially attractive because in addition to gains in efficiency, they can enable new interesting concepts such as photovoltaic windows that can transform house facades into large-area energy generation units,” said Sergio Brovelli, who worked at Los Alamos until 2012 and is now a faculty member at UNIMIB.

Because of highly efficient, color-tunable emission and solution processability, quantum dots are attractive materials for use in inexpensive, large-area LSCs.   One challenge, however, is an overlap between emission and absorption bands in the dots, which leads to significant light losses due to the dots re-absorbing some of the light they produce.

“Giant” but still tiny, engineered dots

To overcome this problem the Los Alamos and UNIMIB researchers have developed LSCs based on quantum dots with artificially induced large separation between emission and absorption bands (called a large Stokes shift).

These “Stokes-shift” engineered quantum dots represent cadmium selenide/cadmium sulfide (CdSe/CdS) structures in which light absorption is dominated by an ultra-thick outer shell of CdS, while emission occurs from the inner core of a narrower-gap CdSe. The separation of light-absorption and light-emission functions between the two different parts of the nanostructure results in a large spectral shift of emission with respect to absorption, which greatly reduces losses to re-absorption.

To implement this concept, Los Alamos researchers created a series of thick-shell (so-called “giant”) CdSe/CdS quantum dots, which were incorporated by their Italian partners into large slabs (sized in tens of centimeters) of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA). While being large by quantum dot standards, the active particles are still tiny - only about hundred angstroms across. For comparison, a human hair is about 500,000 angstroms wide.

“A key to the success of this project was the use of a modified industrial method of cell-casting, we developed at UNIMIB Materials Science Department” said Francesco Meinardi, professor of Physics at UNIMIB.

Spectroscopic measurements indicated virtually no losses to re-absorption on distances of tens of centimeters. Further, tests using simulated solar radiation demonstrated high photon harvesting efficiencies of approximately 10% per absorbed photon achievable in nearly transparent samples, perfectly suited for utilization as photovoltaic windows.

Despite their high transparency, the fabricated structures showed significant enhancement of solar flux with the concentration factor of more than four. These exciting results indicate that “Stokes-shift-engineered” quantum dots represent a promising materials platform. It may enable the creation of solution processable large-area LSCs with independently tunable emission and absorption spectra.
Publication: A research paper, “Large-area luminescent solar concentrators based on ‘Stokes-shift-engineered’ nanocrystals in a mass-polymerized PMMA matrix,” is published online this week in Nature Photonics.

Funding: The Center for Advanced Solar Photophyscis (CASP) is an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the Office of Science of the US Department of Energy.

The work of the UNIMIB team was conducted within the UNIMIB Department of Materials Science and funded by Fondazione Cariplo (2012-0844) and the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013; grant agreement no. 324603).

OWNER TAX RETURN FRANCHISE AND HEALTH PROVIDER BUSINESS PLEADS GUILTY TO TAX, HEALTH CARE FRAUD, MONEY LAUNDERING

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Owner of Tax Return Preparation Franchise and Health Provider Business Pleads Guilty to Tax Fraud, Healthcare Fraud and Money Laundering

Claude Arthur Verbal II, formerly of Raleigh, N.C., and now of Miami, pleaded guilty to tax fraud, healthcare fraud and money laundering in two separate cases in federal court, announced Assistant Attorney General Kathryn Keneally of the Justice Department's Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Ripley Rand for the Middle District of North Carolina.  Verbal pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, one count of aiding and assisting the preparation of false tax returns, one count of healthcare fraud and one count of money laundering.  The plea was accepted late yesterday by U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles in Greensboro, N.C., and sentencing was set for Aug. 11, 2014.  Verbal faces up to 28 years in federal prison and $850,000 in fines, and has agreed to pay restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Medicaid.

The Tax Case

According to court documents, Verbal was the owner of Nothing But Taxes (NBT), a tax return preparation franchise with 10 branches throughout the state of North Carolina that operated from 2005 to at least 2012.  Verbal personally prepared false tax returns for clients of NBT and taught and encouraged his employees to do so as well.  Verbal and NBT employees frequently offered clients a dramatically larger tax refund if the clients agreed to make a cash payment to the person who prepared their return.  These cash payments were over and above the flat return preparation fee that NBT charged every client, whether or not their return was falsified.

According to court documents, from 2005 to 2007, Verbal personally prepared dozens of false tax returns on a computer at NBT’s location on Fayetteville Street in Durham, N.C.  One such return was a 2006 tax return for an NBT client that falsely reported the client had a Schedule C business and a dependent, which Verbal knowingly prepared and electronically filed with the IRS.  

According to court documents, the most common types of falsifications at NBT were false dependents, false Schedule C businesses, false tip income, false Earned Income Tax Credits (EITC) and false education credits.  Verbal himself falsified returns using these items and taught his managers and line employees how to do so as well.  Verbal and many of his employees facilitated the purchase and sale of false dependents at NBT by purchasing the names, dates of birth and social security numbers of individuals from the community for use as false dependents on other NBT clients’ tax returns.

According to court documents, in November 2010, one of Verbal’s employees informed a U.S. Probation Officer of the fraudulent practices at NBT’s location on Fayetteville Street.  The probation officer informed Verbal of this fraud and he falsely denied knowledge of it.  Afterward, Verbal took steps to keep the profitable Fayetteville Street location open and to continue operating as usual, but to also further distance himself from the fraudulent practices.  In order to do this, Verbal transferred the electronic filing privileges for that NBT branch to a nominee.  Verbal and others jointly persuaded, a relative of Verbal who allowed Verbal to use their name to apply for new electronic filing privileges for the Fayetteville Street location.  In exchange, Verbal and his wife paid the relative $10,000, and the relative had no role in operating NBT, no professional tax experience and no knowledge of the fraud that was occurring at NBT.

Later, in 2012, the IRS shut down electronic filing privileges at all 10 NBT branches due to persistent fraud.  Verbal re-applied for electronic filing privileges twice for all NBT locations, first in the name of the relative and, when that attempt failed, in the name of another relative who had no knowledge of NBT’s business.

Related Tax Cases

According to court documents, in a series of related cases in the Middle District of North Carolina, multiple other individuals employed by NBT – including branch managers, return preparers and client recruiters – have also pleaded guilty to charges involving federal tax fraud, fraud, and identity theft crimes.

According to court documents, in a related case, Rakecia Brame pleaded guilty to wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and aiding and assisting the preparation of false tax returns.  Brame, a former social worker with the Alamance County Department Social Services (DSS), admitted to selling the identities of DSS clients to NBT return preparers for use as false dependents on tax returns.

According to court documents, in another related case, Tasha Smith, a former NBT employee who later left and opened her own fraudulent tax return preparation businesses, pleaded guilty on April 8, 2014, to conspiracy to defraud the United States.

“The tax fraud committed by Claude Verbal and the other Nothing But Taxes defendants is an affront to honest, hard-working taxpayers,” said Assistant Attorney General Kathryn Keneally of the department’s Tax Division.  “The Justice Department will prosecute and seek just punishment against those who prepare fraudulent tax returns.”

“Today, Mr. Verbal admitted to owning a tax preparation business that blatantly ignored the tax laws by preparing false tax returns and misusing his electronic filing privileges,” said Chief of IRS-Criminal Investigation Richard Weber.  “Dishonest return preparers use a variety of methods to cheat the government, including falsifying information on the tax returns to generate larger refunds for their clients.  Criminal Investigation will continue to ensure that all tax practitioners, tax preparers and others who practice in the tax law profession adhere to professional standards and follow the law.”

The Healthcare Fraud Case

According to court documents, Verbal was the owner and operator of Infinite Wellness Concepts (IWC), a Medicaid behavioral health provider with locations in Burlington, Durham and Greensboro, N.C.  IWC was contracted to provide group therapy, intensive in-home services, enhanced mental health and substance abuse services.  Court documents state that Verbal acquired at least one million dollars in fraudulently obtained funds from the Medicaid program.  The fraudulent activities included:  
·          Changing diagnosis codes so that codes with higher reimbursement rates could be billed;
·          Falsely inflating the number of clients treated during group therapy;
·          Billing for services not rendered and submitting false treatment notes in support of the services not rendered using forged signatures from counselors and therapists,
·          Unqualified personnel conducting therapy; and
·          Creating fraudulent clinical assessments and creating clinical assessments prepared and signed by unqualified preparers.
According to court documents, Verbal used the proceeds of the tax and healthcare fraud schemes to make extensive purchases of luxury cars, homes and jewelry.  The money laundering charge to which Verbal pleaded guilty relates to the purchase of a $52,000 diamond ring with the proceeds of healthcare fraud.

In the course of the health care fraud investigation, law enforcement authorities seized $765, 917 from bank accounts controlled by Verbal, a 2011 Toyota Camry and four pieces of diamond jewelry, including a 7-carat diamond ring.  The United States initiated a civil forfeiture action alleging the properties constituted proceeds traceable to the health care fraud and on Sept. 19, 2013, Judge Eagles entered an order forfeiting the property to the government.

“Mr. Verbal’s fraudulent schemes victimized taxpayers in multiple ways, damaging Medicaid, the patients who rely on it, and the taxpayers who support it,” said U.S. Attorney Rand.  “Stopping these fraudulent activities is a priority of the Department of Justice, and we are committed both to bringing the fraudsters to justice and returning the ill-gotten gains to the victimized agencies.”

“The improper billing of the N.C. state community mental health program by unscrupulous providers will not be tolerated,” said Derrick Jackson, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General in Atlanta.  “This costs taxpayers millions of dollars each year and drains the Medicaid program of much needed resources.”

The tax case against Verbal was investigated by agents of IRS - Criminal Investigation, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Chut and Trial Attorney Jonathan Marx of the Tax Division.  The healthcare fraud case against Verbal was investigated by agents of the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations, the North Carolina Department of Justice’s Medicaid Investigations Division and IRS – Criminal Investigation, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Hamilton.