In his final State of the Union address, President Obama hit a range of topics, from climate change, curing cancer, reforming criminal sentencing, campaign finance reform, and Cuba. The President made a pointed appeal for congressional cooperation this year on only a handful of legislative matters. None were the sort of bold new proposals that would have been destined for “dead on arrival” pronouncements from Congressional Republicans even if he were not a Democrat in the final year of his run.
On the education front, the Administration will continue to push for two of his major unfinished education priorities, giving every college student two years of free community college and providing the nation’s youngsters with universal pre-K. The President promoted hands-on computer science classes and noted that plans for the year ahead include “helping students learn to write computer code.”
One new policy push the President announced was an ambitious national effort to cure cancer, a moon shot-like goal, to be led by Vice President Joe Biden, which could rely heavily on new research. The White House is already developing a detailed road map for accelerating research, compressing 10 years’ worth of work into five, using the National Institutes of Health and private partnerships. One goal is not just to accelerate research, but get treatments to patients. The move comes after the House has passed HR 6, the 21st Century Cures Act last year as well as Vice President Biden’s own recent loss of his from cancer.
The full text of the address is here.