{"id":21113,"date":"2016-07-04T16:32:16","date_gmt":"2016-07-04T23:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.46.6.243\/?p=21113"},"modified":"2016-07-04T16:33:23","modified_gmt":"2016-07-04T23:33:23","slug":"president-obamas-weekly-address-serving-our-military-families-this-fourth-of-july","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=21113","title":{"rendered":"President Obama&#8217;s Weekly Address : Serving our Military Families This Fourth of July"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;Hi everybody, and Happy Fourth of July weekend.  On Monday, Michelle, Malia, Sasha, and I will celebrate the Fourth like most of you \u2013 in the backyard.  We\u2019ll hang out with family and friends, throw some burgers and dogs on the grill, and watch the fireworks show.  Of course, we\u2019re fortunate enough to have the South Lawn as our backyard.  So we\u2019re also going to fill it with hundreds of our troops, our veterans, and their families.  Over the past seven and a half years, it\u2019s become one of my favorite traditions.  We get to celebrate our freedoms while doing what we can to honor all those who serve and sacrifice to make that freedom possible.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MgbolOCiKJU\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>And I know that honoring our service members, our veterans, and their families is something that so many Americans try to do every day, without fanfare, or expectation of anything in return.<\/p>\n<p>For the past five years, Michelle and Dr. Jill Biden have tried to follow the example of so many of those Americans with their Joining Forces initiative.  They\u2019ve rallied businesses to hire more than 1.2 million veterans and military spouses, and helped reduce veteran homelessness.  And just this week, Michelle and Jill announced a breakthrough on a concern they\u2019ve heard again and again from the military spouses they spend so much time with \u2013 and that\u2019s the issue of professional licensing. <\/p>\n<p>This is something that most Americans aren\u2019t familiar with.  But for military families, it\u2019s a big challenge.  Here\u2019s why.  Our troops are often transferred from base to base.  It\u2019s part of the job.  And because their families serve with them, that means their spouses move ten times more often than the rest of us.  Ten times more often.  That\u2019s tough on a career.  And more than one in three of these spouses works in a profession that requires a professional license or certification.  Nurses.  Childcare providers.  Accountants.  Social workers.  And lots of other jobs. <\/p>\n<p>And until recently, when these spouses were asked to move across state lines, they often needed to re-certify for a job they\u2019re already qualified for.  A nurse with years of experience might have to take entry-level classes, or pay a fee, or wait months for paperwork to be processed before he or she could get back to work on the job they love and that lets them support their families. <\/p>\n<p>It didn\u2019t make any sense.  So we changed it.  When Michelle and Jill took up this cause five years ago, only three states had taken action on military spouse licensing.  But they rallied governors and state legislatures to action.  And this week, we reached a milestone.  Today, all fifty states have acted to streamline many of these licensing issues.  This is a big step forward, but we\u2019re not done yet.  We\u2019re going to keep working with states to make licensing simpler for more jobs and reach more qualified workers.  But we can finally say to so many of our military families \u2013 when you move, you\u2019ll no longer be forced to put the career you love on hold just because you and your families have chosen to serve this country.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what this is about \u2013 serving our men and women in uniform as well as they have served us.  But you don\u2019t have to be a governor or a First Lady to make a difference.  So this holiday weekend, take a look at JoiningForces.gov to find out how you can serve the troops, veterans, and military families in your community.<\/p>\n<p>And to all our brave men and women in uniform \u2013 you represent the best of who we are as a nation.  On this day and every day, we thank you.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks everybody.  Have a great Fourth of July. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;Hi everybody, and Happy Fourth of July weekend. On Monday, Michelle, Malia, Sasha, and I will celebrate the Fourth like most of you \u2013 in the backyard. We\u2019ll hang out with family and friends, throw some burgers and dogs on the grill, and watch the fireworks show. Of course, we\u2019re fortunate enough to have [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Fullscreen-capture-742016-43045-PM.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}