Ed. Note: Cross-posted from the Department of Homeland Security blog

Today, President Obama signed an Executive Order entitled “Promoting Efficient Spending” as part of the administration-wide Campaign to Cut Waste. I am proud that one of our DHS colleagues, Celeste Steele, from the Management Directorate, was able to join the President as he highlighted the Administration’s efforts to more effectively and efficiently use taxpayer dollars, including through the DHS Efficiency Review, which Vice President Biden recently highlighted as a model effort for other agencies. 

Celeste, a DHS employee since 2004, with more than 30 years of federal experience, is committed to cutting costs and finding efficiencies in her day-to-day work.  “I try to find better ways of doing things every day. I am always looking for innovative value added solutions that will save taxpayer money. Efficiency and cutting costs is what drives me,” says Celeste. 

In response to the ThinkEfficiency Campaign, in which DHS employees provide suggestions on ways the Department can avoid costs, streamline processes, and improve customer service, Celeste proposed that rather than using multiple smaller contracts, DHS leverage the purchasing power of the entire Department for commonly used items such as intelligence services, fleet management, and aviation parts, which will save the Department tens of millions of dollars. Building on this idea, as part of the DHS-wide Efficiency Review, we now look to leverage the Department’s buying power on many other commonly-used items, such as office equipment and uniforms which will save the department more than $370 million over the next five years.

Through the Efficiency Review, other Department-wide efforts, and component initiatives, DHS has identified more than $1 billion in cost avoidances and implemented 36 efficiency initiatives across the agency. Behind each of these initiatives are the employees like Celeste from across DHS who propose efficiency ideas, implement them, and fundamentally change the way the federal government operates.

President Barack Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, right, talk with students while visiting a classroom at the Yeadon Regional Head Start Center in Yeadon, Pa., Nov. 8, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

We know that the first years of our children’s lives are critical. That’s when the most rapid development happens in their brains and when they pick up the social, emotional, and academic skills that will help them succeed.  When children get what they need during these early years, it can lay the foundation for success in school and through every stage of their lives.

President Obama and HHS’s announcement today of historic reforms to the Head Start program will help to ensure that all children in Head Start are attending top-notch programs that will help them reach their full potential. The Department of Health and Human Services will implement new rules that will – for the first time in the program’s history– require all Head Start grantees that fail to meet a new set of rigorous quality benchmarks to compete for continued federal funding.

Under the new rules, programs that fall short of quality benchmarks will have to compete. We will put out a notice to all early education providers in their communities: If you can do better, you’ll get the Head Start funding.  And after the initial round of reviews, Head Start providers will continue to be evaluated every five years to make sure they’re maintaining a high standard of performance.

The best Head Start programs do much more than teach kids their ABCs. They help children develop the self-control and critical thinking they need to become successful learners. They connect kids with essential health services like immunizations that they may otherwise go without. They get moms and dads engaged in their children’s education. They put kids on a path to opportunity.

This rule is a key part of the President’s broader agenda to strengthen Head Start. In the last two years, we’ve also improved training for Head Start providers, provided mentors for programs that want to improve, and created 20 Centers of Excellence that are models for the rest of the Head Start community. Combined with this new system of evaluation and competition, Head Start providers today have more tools and more incentives to improve than ever before in the program’s history.

In a world where the jobs follow the best trained workers, America’s capacity to lead the world will depend on our success in educating all of our children, including those most at risk for falling behind. The early years are critical to that success. This Administration will continue to work to make sure our children can grow up with the tools and experience they need to compete. 

Today’s Head Start children are tomorrow’s workforce.  Today we are taking a historic step toward making sure all children in Head Start get the top notch early education they need to succeed.

Today, the Affordable Care Act scored another win in court when the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the law is constitutional. In upholding the constitutionality of the law, Judge Laurence H. Silberman reaffirmed that Congress has the constitutional authority “to forge national solutions to national problems” like the need to provide affordable, quality health care to all Americans.

The ruling is yet another victory for the millions of Americans who are already benefitting from the law including the parents of children with preexisting conditions, women getting mammograms with no out-of-pocket cost, seniors saving hundreds of dollars on their prescription drugs, and one million young adults now newly insured through their parent’s plan.

The ruling also marks the third time a federal appeals court has ruled in favor of the law. Previously, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed opponents’ cases against the law.

The Administration has also asked the Supreme Court to hear these cases. We’re confident that, like today, we will prevail. Here’s why:

• The Affordable Care Act, through the individual responsibility requirement, will require everyone, if they can afford it, to carry some form of health insurance since everyone at some point in time participates in the health care system, and incurs costs that must be paid for. For the 83% of Americans who have coverage and who are already taking responsibility for their health care, their insurance premiums will decrease over time.  Only those who are able to pay for health insurance will be responsible for obtaining it and new tax credits and other provisions in the law will make health insurance affordable for middle class families. That’s why the Congressional Budget Office estimated that only 1 percent of all Americans would pay a penalty for not having health insurance in 2016. 
• Opponents of reform wrongly claim that Congress exceeded its authority in regulating when and how people pay for health care. Those who claim that the “individual responsibility” provision exceeds Congress’ power to regulate interstate commerce are simply wrong. People who make a decision to forego health insurance do not opt out of the health care market.  Their action is not felt by themselves alone.  Instead, when they become ill or injured and cannot pay their bills, their costs are shifted to others. Those costs – $43 billion in 2008 alone – are borne by doctors, hospitals, insured individuals, taxpayers and small businesses throughout the nation.
• Additionally, banning insurance companies from discriminating against people with preexisting conditions helps to ensure that every American who can afford it has insurance.  We don’t let people wait until after they’ve been in a car accident to apply for auto insurance and get reimbursed, and we don’t want to do that with health care.  If we’re going to outlaw discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, people should not be allowed to game the system and raise costs on everyone else.  

Stephanie Cutter is Assistant to the President and Deputy Senior Advisor

We've all heard tests of the Emergency Alert System. They occur all the time at the local level, but on Wednesday, at 2:00 ET, the federal government will conduct the first-ever nationwide evaluation of the system.

The test will last about 30 seconds and be broadcast on television and radio stations across the country. It will allow emergency personnel to assess and improve our alerting capabilities in the event of a crisis.  

Watch Craig Fugate -- the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency -- as he discusses the plan for Wednesday:

On Monday morning, the Census Bureau released findings that provide a more accurate look at the impact public policy has on poverty. These data demonstrate that policies supported and extended by the President to give a helping hand to those hit hardest by the recession – tax cuts for working families, assistance for basic food costs and school lunches, and help with housing – kept millions of Americans out of poverty last year. 

Additionally, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released a new report based on the Census Bureau’s new data which found that provisions passed as part of the Recovery Act directly lifted nearly 7 million Americans out of poverty in 2010 and reduced poverty for 32 million more. This is on top of 6 million people lifted out of poverty by these policies in 2009. And these numbers are conservative estimates that do not reflect the indirect benefits from the jobs created through these policies. 

In contrast to this approach, Republicans in Congress opposed all of these measures and passed a budget that would both cut back on many of these programs and also convert them into block grants, which would prevent them from automatically expanding in hard times. Had we followed that path, many more Americans would be in poverty today. 

White House Fellows Program Director Cindy Moelis, Dr. Anish Mahajan (WHF Class of 2009-2010) and Erica Jeffries (WHF Class of 2010-2011) will be answering your questions about the White House Fellow application process and the Fellowship experience in a live video chat on Thursday, November 10 at 12:00 p.m. EST.

The White House Fellows Program is America's most prestigious fellowship for leadership and public service. We're answering your questions about the program designed to provide exceptional men and women with first-hand experience working at the highest levels of the Federal Government. The President’s Commission on White House Fellowships is currently accepting applications for the 2012-2013 Class. The application deadline is Friday, January 13, 2012 at 5:59 p.m. (EST).

Right now, submit your questions:

• Ask your questions in advance on WhiteHouse.gov
• On Facebook
• On Twitter using the hashtag #WHFellows

Thursday, November 10 at 12:00 p.m. EST:

• Watch live on WhiteHouse.gov/live
• Ask questions through the White House Live app on Facebook
• Ask questions live with the hashtag #WHFellows

Visit WhiteHouse.gov/fellows to learn more about the program.

The overall unemployment rate ticked down last month and our economy has added more than 350,000 private sector jobs over the past three months. But, over 850,000 veterans were unemployed as of October and the jobless rate for post-9/11 veterans was 12.1 percent. Having served and defended our nation, it just doesn’t make sense that so many of these well-trained, highly skilled, motivated and disciplined veterans can’t find a job worthy of their incredible talents. As the President has said, "If you can save a life in Afghanistan, you can save a life in an ambulance. If you can oversee millions of dollars of assets in Iraq, you can help a business balance its books here at home."

Ensuring our nation’s veterans get the opportunities they have earned has been one of President Obama’s top priorities as Commander-in-Chief. Having already sent 600,000 veterans back to school on the Post-9/11 GI Bill and having hired over 120,000 veterans into the federal government, this Administration continues to take action to help create job opportunities for veterans.

Today at the White House, leading veterans service organizations joined President Obama to announce their support for the Returning Heroes and Wounded Warrior Tax Credits, two provisions in the American Jobs Act Congress is scheduled to consider this week. The Returning Heroes Tax Credit provides firms that hire unemployed veterans with a maximum credit of $5,600 per veteran, while the Wounded Warriors Tax Credit offers firms that hire veterans with service-connected disabilities a maximum credit of $9,600 per veteran.  

The President also announced a series of executive actions that will provide new resources for veterans to translate military experience to the private sector job market, give veterans additional career development support and better identify companies looking to hire veterans. These initiatives include:

Veteran Gold Card:Effective today, post-9/11 veterans will be able to visit dol.gov/vets/goldcard.html to download the Veteran Gold Card, which entitles them to enhanced services including six months of personalized case management, assessments and counseling, at the roughly 3,000 One-Stop Career Centers located across the country. This should help serve the more than 200,000 unemployed post-9/11 veterans. The President directed the Department of Labor to launch this initiative in his August 4, 2011 speech at the Navy Yard.

My Next Move for Veterans: The Department of Labor will launch My Next Move for Veterans (mynextmove.org/vets), a new online resource that allows veterans to enter their military occupation code and discover civilian occupations for which they are well qualified. The site will also include information about salaries, apprenticeships, and other related education and training programs.

Creating a Veterans Job Bank:Today, the Administration launched the Veterans Jobs Bank, at National Resource Directory (NRD.gov), an easy to use tool to help veterans find job postings from companies looking to hire them. It already searches over 500,000 job postings and continues to grow. Additionally, in a few easy steps, companies looking to hire veterans can make sure the job postings on their own websites are part of this Veterans Jobs Bank.

I still believe that all Americans can agree that veterans shouldn’t have to fight for a job once they’ve come home from the fight overseas. While this Administration has been fighting for veterans every day, this week we will commemorate and celebrate Veterans Day. In that spirit, I hope Congress can come together and do the right thing by our nation’s veterans. Together, these initiatives and the tax credits will lower veteran unemployment by increasing hiring, improving resources for veterans to translate their military skills for the civilian workforce, and providing veterans with new tools to aid their search for jobs.

Speaking from the University of Pittsburgh, Vice President Biden argues that this month’s jobs numbers demonstrate that Congress should pass the American Jobs Act to strengthen our economy and create jobs right away.

Transcript | Download mp4 | Download mp3

On November 3, I attended a moving kickoff event for the Holiday Mail for Heroes program run by the American Red Cross and Pitney Bowes. This program now in its fifth year encourages all of us to send a holiday card to a service member this season. Making a card is a simple act of kindness that means the world to our soldiers and their families.

In the Hall of the historic American Red Cross headquarters, I heard from several current and former members of the military who spoke poignantly about what it meant to receive a touch of home during the holiday season.  I was inspired to sign my own card and now want to make sure to let the American people know how they can participate in the program, too.

If you'd like to make a hero feel special this holiday season, please consider sending a card to

Holiday Mail For Heroes
P.O. Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456

All cards must be postmarked no later than Friday, December 9.

If you'd like to help us spread the word about this program, or to find tips for getting your friends, church members, scout troops, and family together to make and send cards together, the American Red Cross encourages you to visit their blog. Over the last four years, millions of cards have been sent to support our services members. By joining forces, our military will continue to get the support we all want them to feel this holiday season and throughout the year.

Brad Cooper is the Executive Director of Joining Forces