WASHINGTON – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key Administration posts:

• Michael P. Botticelli – Deputy Director, Office of National Drug Control Policy
• Christy Romero – Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program

The President also announced his intent to appoint the following individual to a key Administration post:

• Alex Mehran – Member, Board of Directors of the Presidio Trust

President Obama said, “These dedicated and accomplished individuals will be valued additions to my administrations as we tackle the important challenges facing America.  I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead.”

President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key Administration posts:

Michael P. Botticelli, Nominee for Deputy Director, Office of National Drug Control Policy
Michael P. Botticelli is currently the Director of the Bureau of Substance Abuse Services in the Massachusetts Department of Health (MDPH).  Since joining MDPH in 1994, Mr. Botticelli has served as Chief of Staff of the MDPH Commissioner’s Office (2000-2003), Assistant Director for Policy and Planning within the HIV/AIDS Bureau (1996-2000), Contract Manager in the HIV/AIDS Bureau (1995-1996), and Alcoholism Program Coordinator within the Bureau of Substance Abuse Services (1994-1995).  He received a B.A. from Siena College and an M.Ed. from St. Lawrence University.

Christy Romero, Nominee for Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program
Christy Romero is the Deputy Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), a position she has held since February 2011.  Between 2009 and 2011, Ms. Romero served as the Chief of Staff of SIGTARP.  From July 2010 through September 2010, she served as the Acting Deputy SIGTARP and from March 2011 through Oct 2011 she served as Acting SIGTARP.  Ms. Romero came to SIGTARP from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) where, from December 2007 through August 2009, she served as counsel to SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro and Chairman Christopher Cox.  From 2003 through 2007, as an attorney in the Division of Enforcement, she investigated financial fraud, insider trading, and other violations of the securities laws.  Prior to joining the SEC, Ms. Romero was a litigator specializing in financial restructuring at the law firms of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld; Snell & Wilmer; and Jenner & Block.  She also clerked for the Honorable Robert C. Jones, United States Bankruptcy Judge for the District of Nevada and Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel.  Ms. Romero earned a B.S. in Business from Old Dominion University and a J.D. from Brigham Young University Law School.

President Obama also announced his intent to appoint the following individual to a key Administration post:

Alex Mehran, Appointee for Member, Board of Directors of the Presidio Trust
Alex Mehran is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Sunset Development Company, a real estate development, investment, construction and management company based in San Ramon, CA.  Mr. Mehran also serves as Chairman of the Contra Costa Economic Partnership, a Trustee of the San Francisco Ballet, and as a Member of the University of California, San Francisco Chancellor’s Associates.  In addition, he is a past Chairman and current Executive Committee Member of the Bay Area Council.  Mr. Mehran earned a B.A. from Harvard College with honors and received an LL.B. from Cambridge University, England, also with honors.

President Barack Obama delivers remarks on college affordability while speaking at the football practice field at the University of Michigan's Al Glick Field House in Ann Arbor, Mich., Jan. 27, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

In the State of the Union, President Obama made a point to talk about two critically important trends when it comes to education.

First, if you look at unemployment rates broken down by education level, you’ll notice something stark: Those without a college diploma are twice as likely to be without a job as those who earned a bachelor’s degree. For those who finished college or received more education still, the unemployment rate is just 4.1 percent—less than half the national average. And even among the employed, those who finished college make twice as much as those who failed to finish high school.

But even as a college degree has become more important than ever, the cost of that diploma has [begun to]skyrocketed. For the first time, Americans owe more on their student loans than they do on their credit cards. A senior in high school today has seen the cost of full-timeattendance at a public university nearly double in her lifetime.

This morning at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, the President outlined a Blueprint for making college more affordable.

Reforming student aid

The first step is reforming student aid. The federal government provides a lot of money to college campuses through a system that’s antiquated and in real need of an update. President Obama is proposing changing that system to help colleges focus on three principles:

1. Setting responsible tuition policy: offering relatively lower net tuition prices and/or restraining tuition growth;
2. Providing good value to students and families: offering quality education and training that prepares graduates to obtain employment and repay their loans; and
3. Serving low-income students: enrolling and graduating relatively higher numbers of Pell-eligible students.

Colleges that do the most to provide students with good long-term value will be rewarded with additional dollars to help students attend. Those that don't act responsibly in setting tuition will receive less in terms of federal aid.

Race to the Top for higher education

We’ve seen incredible results from President Obama’s Race to the Top program, which is aimed at spurring systemic reforms that improve primary schools. It’s already helped 19 states better educate 22 million students for less than one percent of total education spending.

Now the president is hoping to create a similar initiative for higher education.

The federal government would provide a $1 billion investment to entice state governments to revamp the structure of state financing for higher education, maintain adequate levels of funding for colleges and universities, and help kids graduate on time.

Establish a First in the World competition

President Obama also wants to create a First in the World competition that would invest $55 million in individual colleges and nonprofits that are working to establish or scale up new programs that boost productivity and enhance quality on campuses. Some schools are already doing embracing these kinds of innovations—redesigning courses to make better use of technology, for example. But First in the World would create incentives for institutions across the country to follow their example.

Better information for families

Right now, if you’re a high school senior, or the parent of a high school senior, sifting through all the information that’s out there about college costs and financial aid is a nearly-impossible task. President Obama wants to give families new tools to help them make informed decisions about higher education. He’s proposing three new efforts:

1. The President will create a College Scorecard for all degree-granting institutions to help students choose a college that offers the kind of education they hope to pursue at a price they can afford;
2.  The Obama administration will require colleges to put together a Financial Aid Shopping Sheet to make it easier for families to compare college financial aid packages.
3. The President is also proposing to begin collecting earnings and employment information for colleges and universities, so that students can have an even better sense of the life they’ll be able to build once they graduate.

Federal support for affordable education

President Obama has already more than doubled total amount of funding available for Pell Grants and is helping 600,000 veterans go back to school with the Post-9/11 GI Bill, but there are other roles that the federal government can assume when it comes to keeping college affordable.

In the State of the Union, the President called on Congress to keep interest rates low for 7.4 million young people who take advantage of student loans (If Congress doesn't act, the interest rates for Pell Grants will inrease from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent on July 1) , make the American Opportunity Tax Credit permanent, and double the number of work-study jobs over the next five years to better assist college students who are working their way through school.

Learn more

• Everything you need to know about the President's Blueprint for Manufacturing
• Everything you need to know about the President's Blueprint for American-Made Energy

Mandarin Oriental Hotel
Washington, D.C.

4:44 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Thank you, everybody.  Thank you.  Please, please have a seat.  It is wonderful to see all of you here this afternoon.  Some old friends and some new friends.

As you know, I’m not here tonight just as President, but also as an adopted member of the Crow Nation.  (Applause.)  If my adoptive parents were here, I know what they’d say:  Kids just grow up so fast.  (Laughter.)

When I made that visit to Montana, I said that my job wasn’t just to win an election.  It was to make sure that Washington started to focus on you.  And I took that commitment seriously.

My commitment is deeper than our unique nation-to-nation relationship.  It’s a commitment to making sure that we get that relationship right.  Native Americans have to be full partners in our economy.  Your children and your grandchildren have to have an equal shot at the American Dream.

And that’s why for three years in a row now, we’ve brought tribal leaders to Washington to develop an agenda that reflects your hopes and your aspirations and the needs of your tribes.  I’ve appointed Native Americans to senior positions in my administration and in my White House.  And many of you have had a chance to work with Kim Teehee, who does an extraordinary job coordinating our Native American affairs in the White House.  (Applause.)  And we’ve worked together to tackle some of the most difficult challenges facing Native American families.

And we should be proud of what we’ve done so far.  But it should also sharpen our resolve to do even more.

As long as Native Americans face unemployment rates that are far higher than the national average, we’ve got more work to do.  And I wake up every day focused on how do we restore America’s promise for all our people, including our first Americans.

So in my State of the Union address this week, I laid out my blueprint for an economy that’s built to last, an economy built on American manufacturing and American energy, skills for American workers and a return to American values of fair play and responsibility.  And that’s what we’re fighting for.

And I want you guys to be full partners in that fight because I believe that one day we’re going to be able to look back on these years and say this was a turning point in nation-to-nation relations; that this was turning point when the nations all across the country recognized that they were full partners, treated with dignity and respect and consultation; that this wasn’t just a side note on a White House agenda, but this was part and parcel of our broader agenda to make sure that everybody has opportunity.

And it’s also a moment when we build a strong middle class in Indian country.  It’s not simply a ward but is able to marshal the resources to create its own agenda and its own destiny and its own economic development and its own businesses.  That’s what we’re looking for.

We want new businesses and new opportunities to take root on the reservation.  We want to stop repeating the mistakes of the past and begin building a better future -- one that honors old traditions and also welcomes every single Native American into the American Dream.

We’ve done some great work together -- whether it’s making sure that Indian Health was permanently extended and that we were putting additional resources to make sure that we’re picking up the health of Native Americans all across the country.  Whether it’s an executive order that specifies our focus on education with all of your tribes, whether it’s making sure that we are working hard to allow the expansion of land in trust on behalf of nations to go further, we’ve made some significant progress.  But we’ve got a lot more to do.

And I’m going to need all of you to continue to consult with us, to continue to work with us, continue to partner with us.  I guarantee you that the work we’ve done over these first three years is not the end, it’s just the beginning.

And if you stick with me, I promise you guys I’m going to be sticking with you.  All right, God bless you.  Thank you.  Thank you.  (Applause.)

END
4:52 P.M. EST