I don't think there's much a government of 350 million people can actively do to help here. Any practical, on-the-ground effort is bound to drown in bureaucracy

I don't think there's much a government of 350 million people can actively do to help here. Any practical, on-the-ground effort is bound to drown in bureaucracy. But this is not, as I read between the lines, what is going on here: This is a PR/photo-op thing where the White House puts it's considerable PR clout behind CodeAcademy's meetup push - maybe there's some spare change to hire a couple of CA coordinators, but nothing significant.