The White House Blog: The Vice President

Famine in Somalia: The Lives We Can Save

This week, Dr. Jill Biden visited Kenya with Senator Bill Frist, USAID Administrator Raj Shah, Assistant Secretary of State Eric Schwartz, and Special Assistant to the President Gayle Smith to bring attention to the humanitarian crisis as thousands of Somalis flee famine and seek refuge in Kenya and Ethiopia. Courtney O’Donnell, Communications Director to Dr. Jill Biden, also traveled with Dr. Biden and visited the world's largest refugee camp. The camp was originally built for 90,000 people, but now has more than 420,000 Somalis who have traveled there seeking aid. Upon her return, Courtney shared her experience with More.com:

In the weeks prior to our trip, Dr. Biden had seen the news reports and the images from the region and wanted to find a way to help. So the goal of our trip was a simple one - to try to bring attention to this famine and the need for aid, and to tell the stories of the people we met. As Communications Director, my role is to find ways to make more people aware of this need and get the message across to as many people as possible.

While our government and others around the world have acted to support the region, there is an urgent need for individuals to act. The pace of the famine is relentless, and without additional assistance, hundreds of thousands of children could die of starvation and disease in the coming months.

Already more than 29,000 children under the age of five have died in the past three months in the region. In an interview with More.com, Courtney reflected on how the trip impacted her as a mother:

Cut Waste and SAVE

Watch the video announcing the third annual SAVE Award here.

Today, we launched the third annual SAVE Award (Securing Americans Value and Efficiency) – a contest for federal employees to submit ideas about how to cut waste, save taxpayer dollars, and make government more effective and efficient. 

Over the past two years, OMB has received more than 56,000 cost-cutting ideas through the SAVE Award from federal employees from across the country. The ideas range from stopping the overnight, express delivery of empty containers to allowing people to make appointments with their Social Security office online and ending the printing and shipping to employees across the country of thousands of Federal Register volumes that could be read online.

These ideas have made a difference. The President’s last two budgets each included approximately 20 SAVE Award ideas.  Already, those submissions are saving hundreds of millions of dollars, rooting out redundancy and waste, and giving the American people a more accountable government. 

Wasting taxpayer dollars is unacceptable at anytime, but particularly when we face huge budget deficits.  That’s why this year’s SAVE Award is a critical part of the recently launched Campaign to Cut Waste – an Administration-wide initiative to hunt down and eliminate wasted tax dollars in every agency and department across the federal government. 

The idea behind the SAVE Award is the belief that federal employees on the front lines know better than anyone where there is waste to cut and how to make government more effective and efficient.  If you’re a federal employee, please take a minute and send us your idea. You will help your government, your fellow citizens, and if you win, will get to present your idea directly to the President. 

Make no mistake: these ideas alone aren’t going to close the deficit of fix our fiscal situation, but they are critical to making sure that the American people can trust their government to treat every tax dollar with the same care and attention they do.

So, if you’re a member of the federal workforce, please send us your idea, and for everyone else, stay tuned as we will ask your help in picking the winner.

As Vice President Biden wrote in an Op-Ed today, “This effort involves more than just eliminating fraud and waste; it means instilling a new culture of efficiency, of responsiveness, of accountability. We're changing the way government does business. We're working to give the American people the government they expect - and deserve.”

Kenneth Baer is Senior Advisor and Associate Director for Communications and Strategic Planning at the White House Office of Management and Budget.

“Apps Against Abuse” Challenge to Help Address Sexual Assault and Dating Violence

Today, we are taking a new approach in our effort to address dating violence and sexual assault. 

Working  together with my colleagues in the Office of the Vice President and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, we launched the “Apps Against Abuse” technology challenge – a national competition to develop an innovative software application, or “app,” that provides young adults with tools to help prevent sexual assault and dating violence. I had a chance to discuss the challenge, along with other ways agencies can attack this problem, during a meeting hosted by Vice President Biden at the White House earlier today.

Having spent years volunteering with victims of domestic violence, I’ve seen firsthand how vulnerable some women are in their own homes and their communities as a result of violence and abuse. Young women face the highest rates of dating violence and sexual assault. Nineteen percent (nearly 1 in 5) of women report experiencing sexual assault while in college. And while a majority of college students say that it is important to intervene, many often say they don’t know how. Moreover, over half – sixty percent – of college students who have been in an abusive relationship say no one helped them.

Through the “Apps Against Abuse” challenge, developers will be charged with creating an easy-to-use application that provides a targeted way for young women to designate trusted friends, allies, or emergency contacts and provide a means for checking-in with these individuals in real-time, particularly in at-risk situations. The winning application will also provide quick access to resources and information on sexual assault and teen dating violence, as well as where to go for help.

Happy 4th from @VP

Watch out @whitehouse… Vice President Biden’s office is now on Twitter.

Today, the Office of the Vice President launched an official Twitter account – @VP – with a call from Vice President Biden and Dr. Jill Biden asking all Americans to remember our troops and military families on Independence Day.

VP&Dr. B hope you take time to think about our troops & military families this Independence Day, Happy July 4th from OVP! @JoiningForces

@VP is the latest addition to the growing White House community on Twitter and comes as the White House prepares for its first ever Twitter Town Hall with President Obama this Wednesday, July 6^th at 2:00 EDT.

Through @VP, Vice President Biden’s staff will keep followers up to speed on all things happening in the Office of the Vice President (OVP) – from the West Wing, to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and the Office of Dr. Jill Biden, to the Naval Observatory. @VP will be on the road with the Vice President across the country and around the world, providing updates on the latest news and announcements coming out of OVP, as well as a behind the scenes look at Veep-life.

We hope you’ll connect with the Vice President’s office today by following us @VP, as well as tune in to hear the President discuss jobs and the economy with @whitehouse followers at the White House Twitter Town Hall.