President Barack Obama talks with the media before signing an Executive Order directing the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to take action to help further prevent and reduce prescription drug shortages, protect consumers and prevent price gouging, in the Oval Office, Oct. 31, 2011. From left: pharmacy manager Bonnie Frawley from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Mass.; Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius; cancer patient Jay Cuetara from San Francisco, Calif.; and FDA Commissioner Peggy Hamburg. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Sometimes the most important component of a patient’s treatment is the type of medication they receive and the consistency at which they receive it. For some Americans, a change in their treatment regimen or a substitution of a medication can seriously threaten their ability to get better.

Between 2005 and 2010, the number of prescription drug shortages nearly tripled. While the FDA successfully prevented 137 drug shortages between January 1, 2010 and September 26, 2011, prescription drug shortages continue to threaten the health and safety of the American people. Today, too many people are waiting for their prescription to become available. Some are forced to switch from the medication they prefer, while others go without their medicine altogether. In some cases, drug shortages can even force people to stop a course of treatment before it finishes.

We cannot control the factors that cause these drug shortages. But we are committed to doing our part to counteract them. Which is why President Obama signed an Executive Order today that will lead to earlier FDA notification of any impending shortages for certain prescription drugs. Early notification can help prevent a shortage from becoming a crisis by allowing hospitals, doctors and manufacturers to take action to ensure medications remain available.

In addition, the President’s Executive Order will call on FDA to work with the Justice Department to examine whether “gray market” profiteers are responding to potential drug shortages either by hoarding medications or charging exorbitant prices. In recent months, we’ve heard reports of enormous markups such as a blood pressure medicine usually priced at $26 being sold for $1,200.  And under this Executive Order, the Justice Department will watch the market closely to make sure companies are not exploiting drug shortages to raise their profits at the expense of patients.

Watch the White House get a Halloween makeover here.

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama welcomed area students and the children of military families to the White House for the annual Halloween celebration and trick-or-treating on Saturday night.

The President and First Lady handed out cookies, White House M&M's and dried fruit mix to trick-or-treaters at the North Portico of the White House. Check out these videos for the behind the scenes preparations and watch the main event with the President, Mrs Obama and all the costumed kids.

Watch President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama hand out treats to area students and the children of military families here. 

The White House and the surrounding grounds were decorated in celebration of Halloween. As the trick-or-treaters made their way across the North Lawn to the North Portico they were entertained by the Marine Band playing Halloween music and spooked by in-costume actors from Washington-area theatres, brought together by theatreWashington.

Check out the White House Halloween recipes below.

The White House Sweet Dough Butter Cookie Recipe

1 lb Sugar                                                      1 tsp Vanilla
2 lbs Butter                                                    1 tsp Salt
3 Eggs                                                            3 lbs All Purpose Flour
                                                                       
Mix the butter and sugar till soft and well beaten. Then add eggs, vanilla, salt and half the flour. Beat on slow speed till mixed, then add the rest of the flour and mix until incorporated.

Push flat onto a cookie sheet and refrigerate overnight. Roll out to one quarter inch thick and cut out cookie shapes with cookie cutter.

Bake at 350F for 14 minutes and then allow to cool. 

Make Your Own Dried Fruit Mix

Dried Apples                                                             Dried Pineapple
Dried Apricots                                                           Dried Papayas
Dried Pears                                                              Dried Cherries
Dried Blueberries                                                    Banana Chips

Combine ingredients and serve.

Download the recipes and make these treats yourself. (pdf)

Our economy is struggling. Our infrastructure is failing. Millions of Americans are out of work, many of them for longer than six months.

That’s why President Obama introduced the American Jobs Act.

The proposal includes funds to retain and hire teachers and keep first responders on the job. It invests $50 billion in infrastructure projects to modernize our roads, railways, and airports, which will create hundreds of thousands of jobs. It offers tax breaks to small businesses to encourage hiring, and payroll tax cuts for 98 percent of businesses to put more money in everyone’s pockets. It will help connect unemployed workers with pathways back to work.

We’ve created an interactive state-by-state map to show how the American Jobs Act will affect your state, including how many teaching jobs it will create, how much money will be invested in infrastructure projects, and the number of unemployed workers who will be connected with jobs. Check it out and see why we can’t wait to pass the American Jobs Act.

Watch West Wing Week here. 

What happened this week on WhiteHouse.gov:

Helping Homeowners After Republicans in the Senate blocked the jobs bill yet again, President Obama hit the road with a new message,“We Can’t Wait.” The President decided to take executive action to create jobs and put money back in the pockets of Americans. While in Las Vegas, the President announced steps to make it easier for homeowners to refinance their mortgages, helping responsible borrowers with little or no equity in their homes take advantage of today’s low mortgage rates.

Modifying Student Loans On a snowy day in Colorado, President Obama announced a new effort that will help borrowers better manage their student loan debt. He said he will move forward with A “Pay As You Earn” program that will reduce monthly payments for more than 1.6 million people. Starting in 2014, borrowers will be able to reduce their monthly student loan payments from 15 percent to 10 percent of their discretionary income.

Hiring Veterans The Obama Administration challenged each of the 8,000 Community Health Centers around the country to hire one veteran, effectively opening up 8,000 jobs to our unemployed veterans. These health centers, which provide primary care services in typically underserved areas, are a major piece of President Obama’s historic health care reform law.

We The People On Wednesday, President Obama’s top education advisors issued the first response to a petition created through the online petition site, We The People. The response addressed the petition “Taking Action to Reduce the Burden of Student Loan Debt”. The Administration recognized the high cost of education and moved forward to reduce monthly loan payments formore than1.6 million people. The online tool that allows Americans to voice their opinions to the government has had around755,000 people use the platform to create or sign more than 12,400 petitions.  

Tonight Show The President flew to L.A. to appear on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The two talked about Libya, the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, and reality television -- including a show on C-SPAN called ‘Congress.’

In September 2009, the President announced that – for the first time in history – White House visitor records would be made available to the public on an ongoing basis.  Today, the White House releases visitor records that were generated in July 2011.  This release brings the total number of records made public by this White House to nearly 1.8 million records—all of which can be viewed in our Disclosures section

Ed. Note: For more information, check out Ethics.gov.

Yesterday morning, I visited a local grocery store as part of Fighting Poverty with Faith, an interfaith campaign co-sponsored by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Catholic Charities USA, and the National Council of Churches.

While I was there, I had the chance to speak about the Obama Administration’s commitment to fighting hunger through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. For many of the 45 million Americans who rely on SNAP each year, these benefits are an economic lifeline. They can be the difference between going hungry, and putting food on the table.

President Obama knows that many Americans were struggling to afford food before the economic crisis of 2008, and that the recession only made things worse. He believes that our government must follow what he has called, “a common creed.” I am my brother’s keeper. I am my sister’s keeper.

That is why, when President Obama took office, he enhanced and expanded the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The investments we made kept 3.9 million Americans, including 1.7 million children, above the poverty line in 2010. They prevented child hunger from rising, even as poverty and unemployment levels increased in the wake of the economic crisis.

Today, the President announced a new directive requiring all Federal research agencies to bolster efforts to transfer the results of  research from their lab to the marketplace.  These agencies will streamline their research partnership programs for small businesses, universities, and local communities.  They will also launch new programs designed to support regional innovation clusters, launch new public-private partnerships, and share Federal lab facilities with high-tech startups.  Each agency will be responsible for designing a five-year plan with tailored goals and metrics to measure progress.

The American Jobs Act is a big proposal that can be hard to visualize, so we wanted to put together a new tool to help show the impact.

Our new map breaks down specific ways the President's plan helps to create jobs and put money back in families' pockets, state by state.

If you wanted to see what a typical tax cut looks like for a family in Texas, it's right here: $1,460.

Teacher jobs in North Carolina? 13,400.

Money for roads and bridges in Colorado? $494.8 million.

Take the time to dig in and learn how the American Jobs Act would help your state and community -- and share the map with those you know.

President Barack Obama holds a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Petr Necas of the Czech Republic, in the Oval Office, Oct. 27, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama’s meeting with Prime Minster Petr Necas of the Czech Republic came in the wake of an announcement that European leaders reached an agreement to cut Greek debt and solve the Eurozone crisis.

Before his trip to the White House, Prime Minister Necas had been involved with those talks in Brussels.

In a statement, President Obama pledged to support our allies Europe:

We welcome the important decisions made last night by the European Union which lay a critical foundation for a comprehensive solution to the Eurozone crisis. We look forward to the full development and rapid implementation of their plan. We will continue to support the EU and our European allies in their efforts to address this crisis as we work together to sustain the global recovery and put our people back to work.

Speaking to reporters with the prime minister, President Obama reiterated those remarks.

"I think they made significant progress over the last week," he said. "The key now is just to make sure that it drives forward in an effective way.