Too often, real progress in Washington can be stymied by bureaucratic red tape, turf fights, or conflicts between federal and state authorities. Unfortunately, it has become a place where partisan deadlock and political games can threaten to crowd out substantive debate.

In times of crisis -- when people's livelihoods are...

As we continue to recover from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, it is clear that every American family has been touched in some way by the recession -- a recession sparked in many ways by the irresponsibility and recklessness on Wall Street over the last decade.

From...

With gas prices topping $4 a gallon families and businesses are facing a real burden. But we can take action to ensure the American people don't fall victim to volatile energy costs over the long term.

And with 40 percent of America's carbon emissions coming from our buildings, one...

Two years ago, President Obama asked us to form a Partnership for Sustainable Communities, an interagency effort led by the Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development and the Environmental Protection Agency. He challenged us to find ways to help build stronger, more economically resilient and competitive communities --...

The recent revelations about foreclosure processing -- that some banks may be repossessing the homes of families improperly -- has rightly outraged the American people. The notion that many of the very same institutions that helped cause this housing crisis may well be making it worse is not only frustrating...

This piece originally appeared in The White House Blog.

Five years ago, one of the most destructive natural disasters in our nation's history hit the Gulf Coast. When they hit the coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita took thousands of lives, displaced millions of residents,...

While the current housing crisis has underscored the broad impact housing has on people's lives, it has also taught us that we need to "reset" our national housing policy - to focus not only on homeownership, but to invest in quality rental housing as well. As such, I believe the...

For the first time in the history of civilization, more than half of the world's population lives in cities. Here in America, this trend has been underway for more than two centuries -- as people have moved closer to cities in search of the opportunities and amenities -- from housing,...

At the United Nations General Assembly this month, President Obama called on each of the world's countries to shoulder its share of responsibility for a "global response to global challenges." Few of these challenges are more daunting or imbued with possibility than the global demographic shift taking place in metropolitan...

Fifteen years ago, the media briefly focused on the nightmarish conditions in the large housing developments of an Anacostia neighborhood in Southeast Washington D.C. named Washington Highlands. Because of a federal program to demolish distressed public housing and rebuild mixed-income, mixed use housing in its place -- HOPE VI --...