Hi everybody, and Happy Fourth of July weekend. On Monday, Michelle, Malia, Sasha, and I will celebrate the Fourth like most of you - in the backyard. We'll hang out with family and friends, throw some burgers and dogs on the grill1, and watch the fireworks show.
Of course, we're fortunate enough to have the South Lawn as our backyard. So we're also going to fill it with hundreds of our troops, our veterans, and their families. Over the past seven and a half years, it's become one of my favorite traditions. We get to celebrate our freedoms while doing what we can to honor all those who serve and sacrifice to make that freedom possible.
And I know that honoring our service members, our veterans, and their families is something that so many Americans try to do every day, without fanfare2, or expectation of anything in return.
For the past five years, Michelle and Dr. Jill Biden have tried to follow the example of so many of those Americans with their Joining Forces initiative. They've rallied businesses to hire more than 1.2 million veterans and military spouses4, and helped reduce veteran homelessness. And just this week, Michelle and Jill announc
