diff --git a/rss.xml b/rss.xml index 8ee179c2..f93e55c0 100644 --- a/rss.xml +++ b/rss.xml @@ -8,11 +8,28 @@ The White House Briefing Room - Wed, 11 Dec 2024 17:08:55 -0500 + Wed, 11 Dec 2024 17:45:00 -0500 https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/ + + + Remarks by President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden at the First-Ever White House Conference on Women’s Health Research + + + https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2024/12/11/remarks-by-president-biden-and-first-lady-jill-biden-at-the-first-ever-white-house-conference-on-womens-health-research/ + + + Wed, 11 Dec 2024 17:45:00 -0500 + + + https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2024/12/11/remarks-by-president-biden-and-first-lady-jill-biden-at-the-first-ever-white-house-conference-on-womens-health-research/ + + + speeches-remarks + + Memorandum on the Delegation of Functions and Authorities Under Sections 1352 and 1353 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 @@ -506,22 +523,5 @@ presidential-actions </category> </item> - <item> - <title> - President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Amends Florida Major Disaster Declaration - - - https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2024/12/08/president-joseph-r-biden-jr-amends-florida-major-disaster-declaration/ - - - Sun, 08 Dec 2024 21:11:18 -0500 - - - https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2024/12/08/president-joseph-r-biden-jr-amends-florida-major-disaster-declaration/ - - - presidential-actions - - diff --git a/speeches-remarks/2024-12/2024-12-11-remarks-by-president-biden-and-first-lady-jill-biden-at-the-first-ever-white-house-conference-on-womens-health-research.md b/speeches-remarks/2024-12/2024-12-11-remarks-by-president-biden-and-first-lady-jill-biden-at-the-first-ever-white-house-conference-on-womens-health-research.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..b025ea4c --- /dev/null +++ b/speeches-remarks/2024-12/2024-12-11-remarks-by-president-biden-and-first-lady-jill-biden-at-the-first-ever-white-house-conference-on-womens-health-research.md @@ -0,0 +1,418 @@ +--- +date: '2024-12-11' +modified_time: 2024-12-11 17:30:13-05:00 +published_time: 2024-12-11 17:45:00-05:00 +source_url: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2024/12/11/remarks-by-president-biden-and-first-lady-jill-biden-at-the-first-ever-white-house-conference-on-womens-health-research/ +tags: speeches-remarks +title: "Remarks by President\_Biden and First Lady Jill\_Biden at the First-Ever White\_\ + House Conference on Women\u2019s Health\_Research" +--- + +East Room + +11:36 A.M. EST +  +THE FIRST LADY:  You’re so quiet.  It’s like a classroom.  (Laughter and +applause.)  +  +So, in the intermission, were you all, like, dancing and everything?  +(Laughter.)  Get a little movement.  You know, you’ve been sitting for a +while. +  +So, thank you for standing.  But, you know, I’m glad you get a little — +like you said, Robin, a little movement, right?  It’s — that’s what it’s +all about. +  +So — oh, please sit down.  Please.  (Laughter.)  If you feel all +stretched out by now. +  +So, before I begin, I just want to say I’m so glad that you got to come +here today because the White House is decorated.  (Applause.)  And the +theme this year is “Peace and Light.”  So, I hope that you all feel that +sense of, you know, peace and light and that, just for a moment, when +you leave here today, that you feel — I don’t know — a little — a sense +of joy, because I think we all need, like, this — you know, we all need +to feel joy now during this — this time of the season, during — just +during this time.  +  +So, anyway — (laughter) — okay.  Now I’ll start.  You’re all reading +into that.  (Laughter.)  +  +Anyway, for decades, for centuries even, at dinner tables and in waiting +rooms, in whispered conversations, you know, when we meet our friends +for coffee, women have been talking to each other about our health.  +Isn’t that true? +  +AUDIENCE:  Yes. +  +THE FIRST LADY:  So, today, we brought that conversation to the White +House.  (Applause.)  Today, we are saying to women everywhere: We hear +you, and we will get you the answers you need. +  +So, thank you for joining us for the White House Conference on Women’s +Health Research. +  +The United States has the best health research in the world, yet women’s +health is understudied and research is underfunded.  And so many of you +have said this.  And the United States economy loses $1.8 billion in +working time every year to menopause symptoms that upend women’s +lives. +  +And that’s what Maria Shriver and I talked about on that Saturday +afternoon in April last year.  So, Maria keeps this quote next to her +phone — you have a stationary phone?  (Laughter.)  +  +MS. SHRIVER:  (Inaudible.)  (Laughter.) +  +THE FIRST LADY:  — in her office, and it says, “Why go to the moon?”  +And your uncle, President Kennedy, asked, “We choose to go to the moon +in this decade and do the other things not because they are easy, +because they are hard.” +  +So, Maria, thank you for carrying on that mission, pushing for +breakthroughs that are never easy but possible.  Thank you.  +(Applause.)  +  +So, a little more than a year ago, President Biden launched — thank you, +Joe — (laughter) — the first-ever White House Initiative on Women’s +Health Research, building on the foundation of decades of work in +women’s health from many of you in this room. +  +And Carolyn made sure yesterday, as we were doing speech prep, that I +understood — she said, “Jill, you know, I know that we’re doing this +now, but there are some women” — like Carolyn — “who’s been doing this +research forever and ever and ever.”  And I just want you — to say we — +we recognize that.  So — (applause). +  +So, it — you heard from Carolyn, you know, our incredible — and our +incredible team here at the White House who’s ensured that +government-funded research, you know — and they will include women from +the beginning. +  +And that means designing studies and separating the data, which everyone +has said, and reporting findings to create treatments specifically for +women and for we- — men.  I mean, we’re not going to leave you guys +out.  (Laughter.) +  +And we’ve invested nearly $1 billion in this research on women’s +health.  (Applause.) +  +So, a- — over this past year, I’ve traveled around the country, and I +have met, honestly, some really incredible researchers.  And I’ve been +to universities and the New York Stock Exchange to bring people together +and create connections across industries.  +  +And the women of this country are paying attention.  Researchers and +business leaders are too.  +  +So, we brought all of you into this room to elevate all this +information: discoveries that will change how we treat menopause +symptoms — we’ve talked about this all this morning; research that uses +genetics to find the cause of extreme morning sickness.  And I heard +this a couple weeks ago, and I was particularly interested because my +own granddaughter was going through the same thing — because we’re going +to be great-grandparents.  (Applause.)  (Laughs.) +  +So, funders and founders who are seeing the market for women’s health +products triple, advocates who are making sure that women know that +solutions are at our fingertips if we just keep fighting for them. +  +Together, we’ve laid down a new line, a marker of our progress toward +closing the gaps in women’s health.  Everything that you’ve heard today +— and hasn’t it been, like, so informative and fascinating?  I mean, I +love these forums because I always learn something new.  I just — you +know, it’s just so inspiring.  Because this is our new normal.  +  +And today isn’t the finish line; it’s the starting point.  We — all of +us, we have built the momentum.  Now it’s up to us to make it +unstoppable. +  +It has been the honor of my life to serve as your first lady and to join +you in this work, but my work doesn’t stop in January when Joe and I +leave this house.  I will keep building alliances, like the ones that +brought us here today, and I will keep pushing for funding for +innovative research.  (Applause.)  (Laughs.) +  +So, join me.  Be the researcher who makes sure that each proposal you +work on considers women from the beginning.  Be the investor who +searches for the next breakthrough product of \[or\] treatment.  +Be the voice in every space, from boardrooms to classrooms to +laboratories, who asks, “What are we doing to advance women’s health?” +  +Let’s make a promise to all those women out there right now, sitting in +a parking lot somewhere, in a doc- — after a doctor’s appointment, +wondering why you’re not being heard — so, maybe feeling, you know, like +you’re all alone. +  +And — well, I’ll just have to stop here for one second.  I did hear +during that little intermission thing — like, we’re not putting our +doctors down — right? — so, some doc ba- — in the back said, “You know, +it sounds like you’re putting the docs down.”  We’re not putting the +docs down.  I don’t want you to feel that way.  That, you know — but I +think the docs are joining us and saying, “Hey, we want the answers.”  +So, I just want to make that 100 percent clear. +  +So, the White House, all of us here, we will keep fighting for you until +your worries turn into answers, your symptoms into solutions.  Until +women everywhere benefit from the lifesaving and world-changing research +that we know is possible.  +  +A new future can ring out from this conference, one that — one that +answers the call from women who have been waiting for too long.  Let +this be the moment that we push harder, the moment that people say +changed the world of women’s health forever.  +  +Thank you.  (Applause.)  (Laughs.)  Thank you.  Thank you.  +(Applause.)  +  +Thank you.  Thank you very much.  Please. +  +So, I’m so grateful to have a president who — (laughs) — who heard us — +(laughter) — and took action quickly.  So, without Joe, really, this +wouldn’t have been made possible.  And that’s the power of someone who +understands how to make things happen in government — because God knows, +Joe, you’ve been for — what? — 50 years.  (Laughter.)  (The president +makes the sign of the cross.)  +  +So, someone who has fundamentally shifted how our nat- — nation +approaches women’s health research. +  +So, please welcome my husband, your president and champion, I think, of +all of us.  So, my husband, Joe Biden.  Come on, Joe.  (Applause.) +  +THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  (Applause.)  +  +Thank God she said “yes” the fifth time I asked her to marry me.  +(Laughter.)  +  +Please have a seat.  +  +You know, I — as they used to say in the Senate, a point of personal +privilege: I — when — no man deserves one great love, let alone two.  +When I was introduced to Jill, my younger brother — my youngest brother +said, “You’ll love her; she hates politics.”  (Laughter.)  +  +Well, look, I — hello, everyone.  My name is Joe Biden; I’m Jill Biden’s +husband.  (Laughter.)  Let’s be honest, we wouldn’t be here today +without Jill.  +  +Across our administration and across Congress, across the country, the +work we’re doing on women’s health research is some of the most +important work this administration has ever done. +  +And I’ve always believed that our nation is at its best when we — when +we plumb the endless possibilities that exist for all our women and +girls.  And that includes their health. +  +Women on- — are half our population, to state the obvious.  But like +Jill said, for too long, they’ve been underrepresented when it comes to +health research.  And that’s real.  +  +You know, that’s why, over a year ago, we launched the first-ever White +House Initiative on Women’s Health Research.  And the goal was to +fundamentally change and improve how we approach and invest in women’s +health research — we weren’t doing enough of it — and to pioneer the +next generation of scientific research and discoveries that are going to +improve care for — women receive all across the country. +  +Because the fact is the health of our moms and grandmothers, sisters and +daughters, friends and colleagues affects not just women’s well-being +but the prosperity of the entire nation.  And that’s a fact.  We haven’t +gotten that through to the other team yet.  (Laughter.)  No — no, I mean +it, across the board.  Anyway, I won’t get into that.  (Laughter.) +  +But that’s why, in my State of the Union address this year, I called on +Congress to invest $12 billion in women’s health research to benefit +millions of lives — (applause) — and families and communities all across +America. +  +Folks, but my administration wasn’t going to wait for Congress to secure +the funding.  We looked for other ways to prioritize women’s health with +existing dollars that are already in the government and to get important +work started. +  +And I knew where to start: Rosa DeLauro.  (Applause.)  Rosa, stand up.  +I’m not joking.  As they say in souther- — you all think I’m kidding.  +I’m not kidding.  (Laughter.)  She’s incredible.  Every important thing +I’ve ever tried to get done that no one paid attention to, you were +there for me.  I mean it sincerely.  You’re the best, Rosa.  What you +did on Child Tax Credit — I mean, across the board.  +  +And, folks, women’s health is — is a — something that — that matters so, +so very much.  Along with members that are here today, you — she’s going +to keep this effort going to — when we leave.  When we leave — when Jill +and I leave. +  +AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Fight like hell.  (Laughter.) +  +THE PRESIDENT:  Well, we’re going to fight like hell.  And w- — I — I’m +the — we’re — we’re no longer going to be president and first lady, but +we’re not going away.  (Laughter.)  And so — (applause). +  +Along with members here, like Diane \[Diana\] and Lauren.  Where +— where is Diane \[Diana\]?  +  +REPRESENTATIVE DEGETTE:  Right here.  +  +THE PRESIDENT:  There you go.  Stand up, kiddo.  Let them see you.  +(Applause.) +  +And, Lauren, thank you.  +  +So, I’m so proud that, to date, we’ve secured $1 billion so far in +women’s health research from different government agencies. +  +You know, our new agency, ARPA-H, which is patterned after Advanced — +it’s called Advanced Research Projects and Agencies for Health — is +based on DARPA, which is the Defense Department program for Advanced +Research and Projects Agency.  That drove breakthroughs — the Defense +Department broke breakthroughs in everything from the Internet to GPS.  +It had a big budget for doing everything else, but it also had this +specific individual budget.  +  +And ARPA-H does for biomedicine what DARPA does for technology, driving +breakthroughs to prevent, detect, and treat diseases, including cancer, +Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and so much more.  We’re using their funding to +drive breakthroughs in women’s health in ovarian cancer and menopause, +in migraines, in high blood pressure for pregnant women. +  +The National Institute of Health is using their funding to break down +the silos — a lot of silos in government, a lot of silos across the — in +America — to make more progress and do it more quickly. +  +For example, we know that heart disease is the leading cause of death +for women.  But we don’t know — we don’t know enough about how menopause +may affect heart disease.  And that’s going to change now.  We’re going +to learn so much more. +  +And the Department of Defense is dedicating funds to research women’s +health issues like arthritis, cancer, chronic fatigue that affect women +in the military, but this research is going to benefit all women — all +women. +  +Our work doesn’t stop here. +  +Look, you know, the addition to — in addition to launching the Women’s +Health Research Initiative earlier this year, I signed an executive +order that — directing the most comprehensive set of executive actions +ever taken — ever taken in the history of this country to improve +women’s health issues. +  +And, look — (applause) — it ensures that women’s health is integrated +and prioritized all across the entire federal government — all research +projects and budget plans, across the entire government.  And it spurs +new research and innovation on a wide range of women’s health needs +throughout their lives.  And it does so much more — so much more. +  +Folks, there’s literally never been more comprehensive effort from the +federal government to spur innovation in women’s health research in our +entire history.  +  +And thank you, by the way, kiddo.  (Laughter and applause.)  I — no, I +mean it.  (Applause.)  I mean it. +  +If I can digress for a moment, I — I would — I have been the beneficiary +of a lot of the research that’s been done.  I had a — two cranial +aneurysms.  I had two nine-hour operations.  They took the top of my +head off twice; they couldn’t find a brain the first time.  +(Laughter.)  +  +But all — all kidding aside, I mean the research that’s going on across +the entire world.  I visited every single solitary major health center +in the world — in the world — seven of them.  And, you know, a lot of +wha- — what happens, even in not just women’s research, but, you know, +docs who are great, they walk by the mirror, and they see a Pulitzer +Pri- — a — a Nobel Prize about to be won and — rather than sharing the +data.  But that’s all changing.  That’s all changing.  +  +And this initiative lays the groundwork for discoveries and research for +generations to come.  Mark my words.  And the benefits we gain tomorrow +will happen because we made the decision to do something about them +today — today, now.  +  +And all of you in this room are leading the way, and that’s not +hyperbole.  You really are.  It’s a hell of a com- — combination of +people that make things change. +  +Let me close with this.  And my daughter, Ashley, sitting here, she runs +a — she works for women — she runs a women’s health shel- — women’s +health center — shelter in Philadelphia.  +  +And — and, you know, this holiday season is a time not for gratitude but +for reflection.  Gratitude is important, but we got to reflect on what’s +going on.  +  +And let me say to you that it’s been an honor of my life to serve as +your president the last four years.  But I’m — and I’m forever +grateful.  I really am.  (Applause.)  +  +But folks, it’s not a joke.  We’re blessed to live in America.  We’re +blessed to live in America.  I’ve been to over 140 countries.  I mean, +but for the grace of God, I could’ve been born a lot of other places.  +Literally the greatest country on Earth, that’s who we are.  But we got +to raise up even more than we are now. +  +I often say, America can be summed up in one word.  I was on the Tibetan +Plateau with Xi Jinping, and he said, “Can you define America for me?”  +And I — this is all on the record.  I said, “Yes, one word: +possibilities.”  +  +Think about it.  We’re the only nation in the world where people — they +think there’s arrogance in that.  But we’ve never failed to get things +done when we set our mind to it.  It’s all about possibilities.  +Anything is possible. +  +That’s what the Women’s Realth — Health Research Initiative is all +about: possibilities.  You know, and that’s what this conference is all +about.  That’s what you’re all about.  Researchers, innovators, +investors; businesses, advocates, elected officials; public, private, +and non-profit leaders unleashing the drive and discovery and the talent +and imagination that you have in this room — a spirit of innovation +inherent in who you guys are.  +  +I really mean it.  Think about it.  Turn and look at the people to your +left and right who you know are engaged in this.  It’s all about the +possibilities and belief we can do things, we can change things +fundamentally.    +  +I think inherent in the American con- — conscience is setting a bold +vision and taking concrete steps to make our dreams a reality, holding +on to one more thing that we can never lose: hope — hope, hope, hope.  +Because what we need — we need to raise the expectations of the American +people up.  We got to let them know we haven’t forgotten.  Whether it’s +a business or labor or whether it’s politics, whatever, we haven’t +forgotten.  +  +You — you guys go out there.  You take care of all of these folks.  +Guess what?  How many of them think that we just sort of forgotten?  Why +aren’t we focused? +  +Because of you and your fearless determination, you’re making real +progress.  You’re really making progress.  +  +There’s still so much more to do.  And we’re going to take all of us to +get it done.  I know it’s a battle.  But I know I have a hell of a lot +of — a hell of an army here.  (Laughter.)  +  +You know, when I look around at all of you here today — and I mean this +sincerely — I know it’s a battle we’re going to win.  We’re going to win +this battle.   +  +We just have to remember who in the hell we are.  We’re the United +States of America.  And there is nothing we’ve ever set our mind to +we’ve been unable to do when we’ve done it together.  It’s not beyond +our capacity, when we work together.  And that’s what you’re all doing: +working together.  +  +And so, I — and I want to close by thanking my wife for Ji- — I mean, +Jill, I tell you.  Like I said, when we got married, my brother said, +“Don’t worry; she doesn’t like politics.”  Well, I tell you what, you +stepped up, kid.  (Laughter.)  You’ve stepped up. +  +And in case you wonder, when she speaks, I listen.  (Laughter and +applause.) +  +Thank you all so very, very much.  Let’s get this done.    Thank you.  +(Applause.)  +  +11:57 A.M. EST