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8 Wednesday, February 4, 2009
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Senate Republicans Candidate for chief performance officer withdraws halt Democratic Amendment By Michael J. Sniffen and Liz Sidoti The Associated Press
By Andrew Taylor The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans yesterday blocked Democrats from adding $25 billion for highways, mass transit, and water projects to President Barack Obama’s economic recovery program. Already unhappy over the size of the measure, Republicans insisted additional infrastructure projects be paid for with cuts elsewhere in the bill. But the Democratic amendment garnered 58 votes, just shy of the supermajority needed under Senate budget rules, and many more efforts to increase the measure’s size are sure to follow. “We can’t add to the size of this bill,” said Sen. Jim Inhofe, ROkla. “The amount is just inconceivable to most people.” At issue was a plan by Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., to increase the highway funding in the bill to $40 billion, which reflected complaints from lawmakers in both parties that Obama’s plan doesn’t do enough to relieve a backlog of unfinished projects. The duo also wanted to increase mass transit programs by $5 billion boost and water projects by $7 billion. “Our highways are jammed. People go to work in gridlock,” Feinstein said yesterday. Just two Republicans supported the move, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Christopher Bond of Missouri. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Judd Gregg, R-N.H., named yesterday morning to become Commerce secretary, did not vote. Senate debate unfolded as Obama issued another call for swift action on the measure, urging lawmakers to act “with the same sense of urgency Americans feel every day.” Republicans, for their part, readied a plan to lower mortgage costs to try to jolt the housing market out of its slump. The $885 billion Senate economic plan faces assaults from both Democrats and Republicans during debate this week, as lawmakers in both parties aim to kill ideas that won’t jolt the economy right away. “The goal is to shape a package that is more targeted, that would be smaller in size and that would be truly focused on saving or creating jobs and turning the economy around,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. She said ideas like $870 million to combat bird flu should be dumped. Others, such as Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., have complained about items such as health research being in the bill. But Specter — a moderate whose vote is sought by Obama — is instead proposing to add $6.5 billion for the National Institutes of Health. Democrats already are under pressure from moderates in their own party to scale back spend-
“Our highways are jammed. People go to work in gridlock.” Dianne Feinstein | Senator ing in the $885 billion bill, and Obama met with party leaders at the White House late Monday to discuss strategy. “What we can’t do is let very modest differences get in the way” of swift enactment of the legislation, Obama said several hours earlier as new layoffs rippled through the economy and the Commerce Department reported an unexpectedly large sixth straight drop in personal spending. In the Capitol, Republicans said their goal was to change the bill, not to block it. “Nobody that I know of is trying to keep a package from passing,” said Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader. “We need to fix housing first,” he said. Republicans are expected to seek a vote on their proposals this week as part of the debate on the overall stimulus measure. Officials said the GOP was uniting behind a proposal designed to give banks an incentive to make loans at rates currently estimated at 4 percent to 4.5 percent. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were seized by the federal government in September, would be required to purchase the mortgages once banks have made them to consumers. Officials said loans to creditworthy borrowers on primary residences with a mortgage of up to $625,000 would qualify, including those seeking to refinance their current loans. Separately, Republican officials said they intended to press for a $15,000 tax credit for home buyers through the end of the year. Current law permits a $7,500 tax break and limits it to first-time home buyers. Nineteen Democratic and Republican governors, meanwhile, cited frozen credit markets and rising unemployment in urging lawmakers to resolve their differences and asking Obama to sign the bill as soon as it reaches his desk. The governors said the money it provides for public education, health care and rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure will create and preserve jobs while making a sound investment in the country’s long-term economic interests. “While we all believe in the importance of free markets, we believe that the markets today need stimulating,” the governors told Obama in a letter dated Monday. Among the signers are Democrats Deval Patrick of Massachusetts and Tim Kaine of Virginia, and Republicans Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and Charlie Crist of Florida.
WASHINGTON — Nancy Killefer withdrew her candidacy to be the first chief performance officer for the federal government yesterday, saying she didn’t want her bungling of payroll taxes on her household help to become a distraction for the Obama administration. Killefer was the second major nominee to withdraw. Within hours, former Sen. Tom Daschle also withdrew his nomination to be secretary of health and human services. In a brief letter to President Barack Obama, Killefer, the 55year-old executive with consulting giant McKinsey & Co., wrote that she had “come to realize in the current environment that my personal tax issue of D.C. unemployment tax could be used to create exactly the kind of distraction and delay” that must be avoided in responding to urgent economic problems. She offered no further details of her tax difficulties. In announcing his choice of Sen. Judd Gregg to be commerce secretary, Obama took no questions yesterday and left the White House lectern ignoring a
Obama advised to change military plan of action By Robert Burns and Pauline Jelinek The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A classified Pentagon report urges President Barack Obama to shift U.S. military strategy in Afghanistan, de-emphasizing democracy-building and concentrating more on targeting Taliban and al-Qaida sanctuaries inside Pakistan with the aid of Pakistani military forces. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has seen the report prepared by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, but it has not yet been presented to the White House, officials said yesterday. The recommendations are one element of a broad policy reassessment under way along with recommendations to be considered by the White House from the commander of the U.S. Central Command, Gen. David Petraeus, and other military leaders. A senior defense official said yesterday that it will likely take several weeks before the Obama administration rolls out its long-term strategy for Afghanistan. The Joint Chiefs’ plan reflects growing worries that the U.S. military was taking on more than it could handle in Afghanistan by pursuing the Bush administration’s broad goal of nurturing a thriving democratic government. Instead, the plan calls for a more narrowly focused effort to root out militant strongholds along the Pakistani border and inside the neighboring country, according to
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shouted question about why so many of his nominees have tax problems. But White House press secretary Robert Gibbs later insisted Killefer and Daschle decided on their own to withdraw. “I think they both recognized that you can’t set an example of responsibility but accept a different standard in who serves,” Gibbs told a White House briefing. When Killefer’s selection was announced by Obama on Jan. 7, The Associated Press disclosed that in 2005 the District of Columbia government had filed a $946.69 tax lien on her home for failure to pay unemployment compensation tax on household help. Since then, administration officials have refused to answer questions about the tax error, which she resolved five months after the lien was filed. It wasn’t clear whether the administration was aware of Killefer’s tax errors before Obama named her. Gibbs refused to say what administration knew about the problem or when. Gibbs maintained that Obama has confidence in the vetting system. But late on the day Killefer was first named, an LAWRENCE JACKSON | AP PHOTO administration official asked CANDIDATE: In this Jan. 7, 2009 file photo, then-President-elect Barack Obama looks on an AP reporter how the AP had as Nancy Killefer speaks at his transition into office in Washington. found the tax lien against her.
RON EDMONDS | AP PHOTO
NOMINEE: President Barack Obama announces his plans to nominate Sen. Judd Gregg for commerce secretary in the Grand Foyer at the White House.
J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE | AP PHOTO
MILITARY: Secretary of Defense Robert Gates prepares to testify about strains on the Pentagon’s budget.
officials who confirmed the essence of the report. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the plan publicly. The recommendations are broadly cast and provide limited detail, meant to help develop the overarching strategy for the AfghanistanPakistan region rather than propose a detailed military action plan. During a press conference yesterday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs noted ongoing reviews of Afghan policy, but did not say when they would be made public. Obama intends, he said, to “evaluate the current direction of our policy and make some corrections as he goes forward.” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman would not comment yesterday on the details of the Joint Chiefs’ report, but acknowledged that the U.S. relationship with Pakistan is a critical component for success in Afghanistan. “When you talk about
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Republican Sen. Judd Gregg nominee for commerce secretary By Liz Sidoti The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama nominated Republican Sen. Judd Gregg to be Commerce secretary yesterday, a bipartisan gesture that the Democratic president stressed was necessary with the economy in a virtual free fall. “Clearly, Judd and I don’t agree on every issue — most notably who should have won the election,” Obama said in the White House’s grand foyer with Gregg and Vice President Joe Biden at his side. “But we agree on the urgent need to get American businesses and families back on their feet ... And we know the only way to solve the great challenges of our time is to put aside stale ideology and petty partisanship, and embrace what works.” Gregg, in turn, praised Obama’s $800 billion-plus proposal to stabilize the economic slide and pull the country out of recession as an “extraordinarily bold, aggressive, effective and comprehensive plan.” “This is not a time for partisanship,” the New Hampshire senator said. “This is not a time when we should stand in our ideological corners and shout at each other. This is a time to govern and govern well.” If confirmed by the Senate, Gregg would take over a sprawling Commerce Department
tasked not just with job creation, but also with conducting the 2010 Census. The department includes the Patent and Trademark Office, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, whose duties include weather forecasting and climate research. Gregg would be the third Republican in Obama’s Cabinet, joining Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. The president initially had tapped Bill Richardson for the Commerce job, but the New Mexico governor withdrew his nomination amid a grand jury investigation into a state contract awarded to his political donors. After a monthlong search, Obama settled on the 61year-old Gregg, a former New Hampshire governor who previously served in the House. Gregg has been in the Senate since 1993 and currently serves as the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee. Gregg said in a conference call with reporters he will remain in the Senate until he is confirmed. Financial records show that in 2007, Gregg was worth between $3.1 million and $10.5 million, not out of line with others in the Senate. He owns stock in blue chip companies.
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