President Barack Obama delivers remarks to mark Veterans Day at Yongsan Garrison in Seoul, South Korea, November 11, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton)

Ed. note: Tune in to whitehouse.gov/live on Sunday, November 11 at 11:00 am EST to watch the President and First Lady pay tribute at Arlington National Cemetery. 

Sunday, November 11 will mark Veterans Day, a time show thanks to the men and women whose service and sacrifice have helped secure more than two centuries of American progress.

Since taking office, President Obama has remained committed to making sure our returning heroes share in the opportunities they have given so much to defend. On Veterans Days past, the President has that “while it is important and proper that we mark this day, it is far more important we spend all our days determined to keep the promises that we've made to all who answer this country's call.”

In 2009, the President spoke at the Memorial Amphitheater in Arlington National Cemetery about upholding that sacred trust with our veterans.  “Just as the contributions that our servicemen and women make to this nation don't end when they take off their uniform, neither do our obligations to them,” he said. “And when we fulfill those obligations, we aren't just keeping faith with our veterans; we are keeping faith with the ideals of service and sacrifice upon which this republic was founded." 

Welcome to the West Wing Week, your guide to everything that's happening at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. This week, the President urged Americans to contribute to the recovery efforts in the Northeast, met with governors, mayors, and other local officials, as well as his Homeland Security team to talk about the response to Sandy, and addressed the nation on election night.

Ed Note: This post was originally published on the official blog of FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

FEMA currently has more than 5,100 personnel working alongside our state and local partners. We are supporting disaster response and recovery operations throughout the areas impacted by Hurricane Sandy. We’re also standing ready to deploy additional resources if needed to respond to the Nor’easter that is forecasted to impact the region in the coming days. This new coastal storm is predicted to impact the region beginning after midnight Tuesday with impacts continuing Wednesday and into Thursday.

We have senior-level emergency management experts in operations, logistics, and recovery embedded, side-by-side with state and local emergency managers throughout New York and New Jersey to ensure clear lines of communication and immediately bring to bear the full resources of the federal government, as needed to respond to the Nor’easter or continue to the recovery efforts from Sandy.

FEMA personnel are on the ground (we call them community relations teams), going door to door, letting individuals know how to register with FEMA for financial assistance.  We have already had over 277,000 people apply for financial assistance, and over $250 million in approved.

At the requests of New York and New Jersey, FEMA is delivering commodities such as food, water, blankets, and generators to distribution points across the region impacted by Sandy, and as those commodities are distributed, we are pre-positioning additional resources and supplies to ensure they are in place if needed by our state and local partners to respond to the Nor’easter.   

President Barack Obama receives a briefing about the ongoing response to Hurricane Sandy, at FEMA headquarters in Washington, D.C., Nov. 3, 2012. Seated, from left, are: FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate; Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano; and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. November 3, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Following a briefing with FEMA leaders and Cabinet officers on Saturday in Washington DC, President Obama stressed the importance of making sure all those who have been impacted by Hurricane Sandy know that help is available for them, and asked all Americans to spread the word that anyone looking for assistance -- from housing to childcare, medicine and a whole range of support -- should call 800-621-FEMA.

The President reiterated that making sure making sure those who suffered loss get the resources they need to rebuild and recover is his number one priority, and outlined the steps being taken to restore normalcy in the region:

Number one, that it is critical for us to get power back on as quickly as possible. And just to give people an example of the kind of work we're doing -- the military, DOD, thanks to the work of Leon and others, have been able to get military transport facilities to move cherry-pickers and personnel from as far away as California to get that equipment into the area so we can start getting some of the power back on as quickly as possible. It is a painstaking process, but we're making progress.

 Number two, we're getting assets in to pump as much water out as possible.  Lower Manhattan obviously is a particularly acute example, but there are problems with flooding that are affecting substations throughout the region. That's going to continue to be a top priority.

 Number three, making sure that people's basic needs are taken care of.  As we start seeing the weather get a little bit colder, people can't be without power for long periods of time, without heat for long periods of time. And so what we're doing is starting to shift to identify where we can have temporary housing outside of shelters so people can get some sense of normalcy. They can have a hot meal; they can have the capacity to take care of their families as their homes are being dealt with.

 Number four, debris removal still important. Number five, making sure that the National Guard and other federal assets are in place to help with getting the transportation systems back up and running -- that's going to be critical.

Here's the week in review of the federal response to Hurricane Sandy:

Sunday: President Obama traveled to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) headquarters in Washington D.C. to meet with FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, FEMA Deputy Administrator Richard Serino, and the FEMA regional directors, to ensure federal resources were pre-positioned and plans were in place to support state and local response efforts.

Monday: The President convened a meeting in the White House Situation Room, and received updates from FEMA and the National Hurricane Center on the ongoing response to Hurricane Sandy. Following the briefing, the President urged residents in the path of Hurricane Sandy to follow the directions of their state and local officials.

Watch the President’s full remarks here.

While more work remains to be done, today’s employment report provides further evidence that the U.S. economy is continuing to heal from the wounds inflicted by the worst downturn since the Great Depression. It is critical that we continue the policies that are building an economy that works for the middle class as we dig our way out of the deep hole that was caused by the severe recession that began in December 2007. 

Most pressing, President Obama has proposed, and the Senate has passed, an extension of middle class tax cuts that would prevent the typical middle class family from facing a $2,200 tax increase at the beginning of next year. In addition, the President has proposed a plan that will enable responsible homeowners to refinance their mortgage and take advantage of today’s historically low interest rates. To create more jobs in particularly hard-hit sectors, President Obama continues to urge Congress to pass elements of the American Jobs Act, including further investment in infrastructure to rebuild our Nation’s ports, roads and highways, and assistance to State and local governments to prevent layoffs and to enable them to rehire hundreds of thousands of teachers.

Today’s report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that private sector businesses added 184,000 jobs last month, the biggest monthly gain in eight months. Total non-farm payroll employment rose by 171,000 jobs in October. Revisions to the previous two months added another 84,000 jobs.  The economy has now added private sector jobs for 32 straight months, and a total of 5.4 million jobs have been added during that period, taking account of the preliminary benchmark revision.