THE PRESIDENT:Hello, everybody! Thank you.Thank you, guys. (Applause.) Thank you so much.Thank you.
AUDIENCE MEMBER:We love you!
THE PRESIDENT:I love you back. Everybody have aseat, have a seat. Well, Stephanie, thank you for that wonderfulintroduction. Welcome to the White House. It isgreat to see so many familiar faces–people who I have not only worked with but who havebecome friends over the years. And I want to welcome all of our newly elected mayors, as well.Congratulations. (Applause.) The rest of you, keep hazing to the minimum. (Laughter.) If theytell you you've got to carry their stuff and all that, that's not true. So don't let them takeadvantage of you.
I'm not going to speak long at the outset, primarily because you already heard from Michelle,and I always suffer from the comparison. (Laughter.) I know that she spoke to you todayabout ending veterans' homelessness, which is an issue that we all care so deeply about. But Idid want to just make a few remarks at the top, and it echoes what Stephanie said in herintroduction.
When I took office, I made it a priority to build a strong partnership with mayors in this roomand all across the country. And thanks to all of you, America has made extraordinary progressover the past seven years.
Mayors can't wait for Congress. Mayors can't get stuck in partisan gridlock. We've gotRepublican mayors here and Democratic mayors, but frankly, if you're a mayor, nobody careswhat your party is, they care what you're getting done. You don't have time for a lot of blusterand baloney. (Laughter.) Your constituents expect results.
And that's why I think on so many issues – from fighting for working families to combattingclimate change, to expanding high-tech jobs, to increasing the minimum wage – we have beenable to work together to get a lot of things done. In fact, about 40 cities and counties havetaken action to raise the minimum wage. Forty have taken action on paid family leave and paidsick leave. Twenty cities and counties are competing in our Healthy Communities Challenge toget more uninsured folks signed up for health coverage. From Little Rock to San Diego, citiesare putting people to work retrofitting buildings so that they're more energy efficient. Earliertoday, my administration announced that we are going to award 13 cities, states andcounties $1 billion to help build more climate resilient communities. (Applause.)
And unlike, sometimes, government officials at other levels, mayors understand that theservices and the effectiveness of local government and government generally is something thatwe can't take for granted, that we have to work for and fight for and invest in every single day.
Some of you know I was in Detroit yesterday, but the day before that, I was meeting withMayor Weaver, newly elected, in Flint, Michigan, to talk about what has been an inexcusablesituation with respect to drinking water there. In last month's bipartisan budget agreement, wesecured additional funding to help cities like yours build water infrastructure. And we're goingto have that funding available to you by the end of next week, and that includes more than$80 million for the state of Michigan. Our children should not have to be worried about thewater that they're drinking in American cities. That's not something that we should accept. (Applause.)
All of you are facing some chronic challenges. They preceded your term in office and we don'texpect that we're going to solve all of them immediately, but the goal here is consistently tomake progress. One of those areas where we all have concerns is when it comes to violence onour streets and what happens to our young people. And here, again, we've been blessed withoutstanding partnerships with so many of you.
In places like Columbia, South Carolina, Mayor Steve Benjamin is implementingrecommendations from our Task Force on Community Policing. In Oak Creek, Mayor SteveScaffidi, after seeing a terrible tragedy of gun violence in his community, has been working toimplement steps that can reduce gun violence in his area. The U.S. Conference of Mayors,understanding the importance of a global economy and making sure that U.S. businesses arecreating U.S. jobs and that we're exporting, have been outstanding partners with us onpromoting the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is going to cut 18,000 taxes, tariffs, onAmerican-made goods and products. And that means that we're going to be able to sell moreto other people that are already selling to us. We want to make sure that we're out therewriting the rules of the road so that American businesses and American jobs are not left behindin one of the most dynamic, fastest-growing regions of the world. So many of you haveworked together with us on My Brother's Keeper, and recognizing that we are going to havestronger cities, stronger states, and a stronger country if we make sure that every youngperson, particularly so many of our young men, are steered away from crime and away fromprison and are getting the skills they need to live out productive lives.
So we've accomplished a lot together on behalf of the American people. I could not be prouderof the work that we've done together. There's a lot more that I want to get done this last year.I still am pushing hard and we have I think a real opportunity to get criminal justice reformdone this year. We have to work together to combat the scourge of opioids and heroin that isspreading through so many of our communities across the country. We still have a lot of workwe can do to improve our schools. We can work together to break down rules that stand in theway of building new housing and that keep families from moving to growing, dynamic cities.And as I said last week, we need to keep fighting for a political system that reflects our bestselves. And that, by the way, includes making it easier for people to vote – not harder. (Applause.)
So bottom line is all of you are doing outstanding work. You are in the trenches every singleday. You're not always getting a thank-you; instead, you're getting why didn't you get thatdone. (Laughter.) Or if you got it done, why didn't you get it done earlier. (Laughter.) And Iknow the pace is relentless for mayors because people expect to see you every single day, butjust in case you're feeling a little underappreciated – (laughter) – I hope that you understandhow heartfelt my words of thanks are. I think that we have seen our cities take leadership andwe have seen transformations of communities across this country. And when cities are strong,the states that they're in are strong. And when cities are strong, America is strong. You'rehelping to fuel that strength.
So thank you so much. (Applause.) I appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. (Applause.)THE PRESIDENT:Hello, everybody! Thank you.Thank you, guys. (Applause.) Thank you so much.Thank you.
AUDIENCE MEMBER:We love you!
THE PRESIDENT:I love you back. Everybody have aseat, have a seat.
Well, Stephanie, thank you for that wonderfulintroduction. Welcome to the White House. It isgreat to see so many familiar faces – people who I have not only worked with but who havebecome friends over the years. And I want to welcome all of our newly elected mayors, as well.Congratulations. (Applause.) The rest of you, keep hazing to the minimum. (Laughter.) If theytell you you've got to carry their stuff and all that, that's not true. So don't let them takeadvantage of you.
I'm not going to speak long at the outset, primarily because you already heard from Michelle,and I always suffer from the comparison. (Laughter.) I know that she spoke to you todayabout ending veterans' homelessness, which is an issue that we all care so deeply about. But Idid want to just make a few remarks at the top, and it echoes what Stephanie said in herintroduction.
When I took office, I made it a priority to build a strong partnership with mayors in this roomand all across the country. And thanks to all of you, America has made extraordinary progressover the past seven years.
Mayors can't wait for Congress. Mayors can't get stuck in partisan gridlock. We've gotRepublican mayors here and Democratic mayors, but frankly, if you're a mayor, nobody careswhat your party is, they care what you're getting done. You don't have time for a lot of blusterand baloney. (Laughter.) Your constituents expect results.
And that's why I think on so many issues – from fighting for working families to combattingclimate change, to expanding high-tech jobs, to increasing the minimum wage – we have beenable to work together to get a lot of things done. In fact, about 40 cities and counties havetaken action to raise the minimum wage. Forty have taken action on paid family leave and paidsick leave. Twenty cities and counties are competing in our Healthy Communities Challenge toget more uninsured folks signed up for health coverage. From Little Rock to San Diego, citiesare putting people to work retrofitting buildings so that they're more energy efficient. Earliertoday, my administration announced that we are going to award 13 cities, states andcounties $1 billion to help build more climate resilient communities. (Applause.)
And unlike, sometimes, government officials at other levels, mayors understand that theservices and the effectiveness of local government and government generally is something thatwe can't take for granted, that we have to work for and fight for and invest in every single day.
Some of you know I was in Detroit yesterday, but the day before that, I was meeting withMayor Weaver, newly elected, in Flint, Michigan, to talk about what has been an inexcusablesituation with respect to drinking water there. In last month's bipartisan budget agreement, wesecured additional funding to help cities like yours build water infrastructure. And we're goingto have that funding available to you by the end of next week, and that includes more than$80 million for the state of Michigan. Our children should not have to be worried about thewater that they're drinking in American cities. That's not something that we should accept. (Applause.)
All of you are facing some chronic challenges. They preceded your term in office and we don'texpect that we're going to solve all of them immediately, but the goal here is consistently tomake progress. One of those areas where we all have concerns is when it comes to violence onour streets and what happens to our young people. And here, again, we've been blessed withoutstanding partnerships with so many of you.
In places like Columbia, South Carolina, Mayor Steve Benjamin is implementingrecommendations from our Task Force on Community Policing. In Oak Creek, Mayor SteveScaffidi, after seeing a terrible tragedy of gun violence in his community, has been working toimplement steps that can reduce gun violence in his area. The U.S. Conference of Mayors,understanding the importance of a global economy and making sure that U.S. businesses arecreating U.S. jobs and that we're exporting, have been outstanding partners with us onpromoting the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is going to cut 18,000 taxes, tariffs, onAmerican-made goods and products. And that means that we're going to be able to sell moreto other people that are already selling to us. We want to make sure that we're out therewriting the rules of the road so that American businesses and American jobs are not left behindin one of the most dynamic, fastest-growing regions of the world. So many of you haveworked together with us on My Brother's Keeper, and recognizing that we are going to havestronger cities, stronger states, and a stronger country if we make sure that every youngperson, particularly so many of our young men, are steered away from crime and away fromprison and are getting the skills they need to live out productive lives.
So we've accomplished a lot together on behalf of the American people. I could not be prouderof the work that we've done together. There's a lot more that I want to get done this last year.I still am pushing hard and we have I think a real opportunity to get criminal justice reformdone this year. We have to work together to combat the scourge of opioids and heroin that isspreading through so many of our communities across the country. We still have a lot of workwe can do to improve our schools. We can work together to break down rules that stand in theway of building new housing and that keep families from moving to growing, dynamic cities.And as I said last week, we need to keep fighting for a political system that reflects our bestselves. And that, by the way, includes making it easier for people to vote – not harder. (Applause.)
So bottom line is all of you are doing outstanding work. You are in the trenches every singleday. You're not always getting a thank-you; instead, you're getting why didn't you get thatdone. (Laughter.) Or if you got it done, why didn't you get it done earlier. (Laughter.) And Iknow the pace is relentless for mayors because people expect to see you every single day, butjust in case you're feeling a little underappreciated – (laughter) – I hope that you understandhow heartfelt my words of thanks are. I think that we have seen our cities take leadership andwe have seen transformations of communities across this country. And when cities are strong,the states that they're in are strong. And when cities are strong, America is strong. You'rehelping to fuel that strength.
So thank you so much. (Applause.) I appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. (Applause.)
。