The White House Blog: The President

Photo Gallery: Behind the Scenes in February 2013

The White House Photo Office just released their latest behind-the-scenes photos, covering President Obama’s State of the Union Address, his visit to a pre-k classroom in Georgia, and around the White House.

Check out some of the best images below, and see the full set of 33 photos on our Flickr gallery.

To learn more:

• February 2013: Photo of the Day
• 2013 State of the Union Address
• Celebrating the Third Anniversary of “Let’s Move!”
• On Tour for the Third Anniversary of “Let’s Move!”

President Obama Meets with the Sultan of Brunei

Today, President Obama hosted His Majesty the Sultan of Brunei for a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office to affirm the relationship between our two countries that dates back more than 160 years.

The two leaders discussed their shared interest in a strong, peaceful, and prosperous Asia-Pacific region, and continued cooperation between our nations on a range of issues.

With Brunei set to host October’s ASEAN East Asia Summit meeting, President Obama said they would be working together on “everything from how we deal with issues of energy and climate change to how we expand commerce, potentially through the Trans-Pacific Partnership that has the opportunity of creating jobs and prosperity here in the United States but also throughout the region.”

Weekly Address: End the Sequester to Keep Growing the Economy

In his weekly address, President Obama says that businesses have created jobs every month for three years straight – nearly 6.4 million altogether, and have added 246,000 new jobs in February. We must keep this momentum going, and that’s why the President recently met with Republican leaders to discuss how we can replace the harmful, arbitrary budget cuts, called the “sequester,” with balanced deficit reduction. 

Transcript | Download mp4 | Download mp3

No One Should Have to Live in Fear of Violence

Ed. note: This article by Valerie Jarrett was first published on the Huffington Post. You can read it here. On Friday, March 8th at 3:45 p.m. ET, Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to the President and Chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls, will participate in a session of White House Office Hours to answers your questions about the Violence Against Women Act on Twitter. Ask questions now with #WHChat, and then follow the Q&A live.

Today, President Obama signed a bill that both strengthened and reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).  Thanks to this bipartisan agreement, thousands of women and men across the country who are victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking will be able to access resources they need in their communities to help heal from their trauma. In addition, thousands of law enforcement officers will be better equipped to stop violence before it starts, and respond to calls of help when they are needed.

President Obama and Vice President Biden have steadfastly supported reauthorization—it’s what’s right for our country. We thank Senators Patrick Leahy, Mike Crapo, and Patty Murray and Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer and Gwen Moore for guiding this legislation to passage.

For the past 18 years, since Vice President Biden initially wrote the Act in 1994, VAWA has helped to decrease the rates of domestic violence across the country. Three years ago, our federal interagency group on violence against women began meeting to consider gaps in our country’s response to this violence and make recommendations to Congress to fill those gaps. We are proud that many of these recommendations were included in the final bill. Now, we will be better equipped to recognize violence in its early stages, and help to reduce the number of domestic violence homicides.