President Obama's Weekly Address 12/24/16: Merry Christmas from the President and the First Lady

In this week’s address, the President and the First Lady wished all Americans a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. They reflected on the honor of serving the American people as President and First Lady over the past eight years and the progress that has been made. The President and the First Lady recognized our troops and their families for their service, and they encouraged everyone to visit JoiningForces.gov to find out how to support service members, veterans, and military families in your community.

President Obama's Weekly Address 7/2/16: Serving our Military Families This Fourth of July

WASHINGTON, DC — In this week’s address, President Obama wished everyone a happy Fourth of July, and recognized our service members, veterans and their families for their service to our country. The President commended First Lady Michelle Obama and Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden on the most recent milestone of their Joining Forces initiative. This week, the First Lady and Dr. Biden announced that all fifty states have acted to streamline professional licensing for military spouses, who often move across state lines and need to re-certify for a job they are already qualified for. Although more work needs to be done, today, many military spouses no longer have to worry about putting their career on hold just because their loved ones have chosen to serve this country. That’s what this initiative is all about – serving our troops as well as they have served us. This holiday weekend, visit JoiningForces.gov to find out how you can serve service members, veterans and military families in your community.

President Obama's Weekly Address 5/24/14: Paying Tribute to our Fallen Heroes this Memorial Day

WASHINGTON, DC— In this week’s address, President Obama commemorated Memorial Day by honoring the brave men and women in uniform who have given their lives in service to our country. As we stand with our veterans and military families this weekend, the President underscored our commitment to uphold our nation’s sacred trust with our veterans and ensure they get the benefits and opportunities they deserve and have earned.

President Obama's Weekly Address 12/25/13: The President and First Lady Wish Everyone a Happy Holiday Season

WASHINGTON, DC—In this week’s address, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama wished everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. They also thanked our brave troops and their families for their service and sacrifice, and reminded everyone to visit JoiningForces.gov to find ways to give back to our military families this year. Both the President and First Lady said that during this holiday season, we should all come together to find ways to support our communities, continue caring for each other and keep working to be the best parents, children, friends, neighbors, and citizens we can be.

President Obama's Weekly Address 5/25/13: Giving Thanks to Our Fallen Heroes this Memorial Day

WASHINGTON, DC— In this week’s address, President Obama commemorated Memorial Day by paying tribute to the men and women in uniform who have given their lives in service to our country. The President said that America has always risen to meet and overcome its challenges because of their brave sacrifice, and asked all Americans to honor our fallen heroes and to stand with our veterans and military families as we come together this weekend.

President Obama's Weekly Address 4/27/13: Time to Replace the Sequester with a Balanced Approach to Deficit Reduction

WASHINGTON, DC— In this week’s address, President Obama said that because Republicans in Congress allowed a series of harmful, automatic budget cuts—called the sequester—to take effect, important programs like Head Start are now forced to reduce their services. After travelers were stuck for hours in airports and on planes this past week, members of Congress passed a temporary band-aid measure to stop the cuts that impact airlines — but they must do more to stop cuts to vital services for the American people. That’s why it’s time for a balanced approach to deficit reduction that makes smarter cuts and reforms in the tax code while creating jobs and strengthening the middle class.

President Obama's Weekly Address 12/22/12: The President and First Lady Extend a Holiday Greeting and Thank our Troops for their Service

WASHINGTON, DC—In this week’s address, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama wished everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, and thanked our brave troops and their families for their service. The President and First Lady asked the American people to visit JoiningForces.gov to find ways to honor and support our veterans and military families, and said that we must all come together, as we always do, to care for each other during this holiday season.

President Obama's Weekly Address 5/26/12: Honoring Our Fallen Heroes this Memorial Day

WASHINGTON, DC—In this week’s address, President Obama paid tribute to our men and women in uniform who have died in service to our country. The President also reaffirmed our nation’s dedication to serving our veterans as well as they have served us, and thanked our men and women in uniform for their unwavering commitment to the United States. As we come together on Memorial Day, we remind our military families and veterans that they are not alone, and give our thanks to those who made the ultimate sacrifice and helped make America the most prosperous and powerful nation on earth.

President Obama's Weekly Address 12/24/11 : The President and First Lady Thank our Troops for their Service as we Celebrate the Holiday Season

WASHINGTON— In this week’s address, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama came together to wish the American people a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, and thanked our troops, military families, and veterans for their service and sacrifice. President Obama and Michelle Obama encouraged everyone to visit JoiningForces.gov to find ways to give back to our brave men and women in uniform and their families during the holiday season as we work together in the spirit of service.

AP Raw Video: Christmas Comes to the White House

Published on Nov 30, 2011 by AssociatedPress

The White House gets decked out for Christmas, with a shiny decor reflecting the theme 'Shine, Give, Share.' Visitors are asked to give thanks to members of the military in forms like written notes

You can watch Michelle Obama's address to military families prior to the opening of the White House holiday decorations preview event ... Here

Senator Robert Menendez: Honoring our Veterans This Veterans Day

Dear Friend,

This Veterans Day, it is time to recommit ourselves to helping every military family across the Garden State.

We need to help businesses help veterans and their spouses build careers, make sure that our schools are doing all they can to help military kids, and all of us need to do what we can to help military families in our local communities.

But truly honoring our veterans means providing jobs. It means job training, and giving every job opportunity possible to unemployed veterans.

In New Jersey we have 453,498 veterans -- 12 percent of them are unemployed. That’s why I am proud to be a co-sponsor of the VOW to Hire Heroes Act that gives businesses a tax credit for hiring returning veterans, and more of a tax credit if they hire a wounded veteran.

As our troops begin coming home from Iraq, our duty to them is not just remembering their service, not just saying thank you on Veterans Day, it’s delivering on the promise of a grateful nation every day.

New Jersey’s hero-sons-and-daughters did not wait to sign up to serve this country, and they should not have to wait to get the benefits they have earned defending it. And they should not have to come home only to stand on the unemployment line after putting themselves on the line serving this nation.

That’s why the Veterans jobs bill encourages employers to hire veterans, ensures that disabled veterans who have exhausted their unemployment benefits get the training and rehabilitation they need, the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment benefits they need and job assistance tailored to today’s job market.

The bill provides a competitive grant program for nonprofits that provide mentoring and training programs for vets. It allows employers to be paid for providing on-the-job training to veterans and it would provide Work Opportunity Tax Credits for businesses that hire veterans -- and more for businesses that hire disabled vets.

We made a promise to veterans, and it’s a promise we must keep.

Happy Veterans Day to all.

May God bless our troops. And may God bless America.