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Source: The Washington Post
Michelle Obama greets Department of Housing and Urban Development employees today during a visit to the department's headquarters. (Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)
First Lady Michelle Obama continued her tour of Federal agencies and departments today, stopping by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to thank staffers and remind them that their work is critical as Americans face housing troubles.
Today’s visit, coupled with a stop at the Department of Education earlier this week, was partly designed as a “listening tour,” a public thank you to the department's workforce and partly an effort to “rally the troops” as the Obama administration sets priorities. The order of her visits to federal offices is based on her schedule, not her policy priorities, aides stressed.
Both the physical set up and tone of today’s event resembled the hundreds of campaign appearances she made last year, to mostly welcoming crowds. Her remarks were mixed with serious comments and casual jokes.
Here are a few of the highlights:
-- “It’s of critical importance that we stem the tide of foreclosures and find a way to keep people in their homes,” she told several hundred HUD staffers at the department’s Washington headquarters.
-- “Homeownership, at least as I knew it growing up on the South Side of Chicago, has always been one of the building blocks for strong neighborhoods, for strong schools and for strong families. People who own their homes and take care of their homes, it leads to the well-being of the entire community. It’s critical.”
-- “The Department of Housing and Urban Development is going to play a critical role in implementing elements of the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Plan that will help our communities,” she later said.
-- “Barack and I always believed that investing in the community that you live in first and foremost you live in is critical. And for the people here at this agency, we are now your neighbors,” she said to cheers.
-- “Many of you have been here for decades, working hard on these issues,” she said to cheers from the mostly African American crowd. “I can get an Amen on that,” she joked with a smile. More HERE
