Congress pushes historic economic rescue package to the finish line. Senate expected to vote on Friday evening.

In a 246 to 183 vote largely along party lines, the House of Representatives on Friday passed a $787.2 billion economic recovery package that was drawn up, amended and negotiated in record time.

No Republicans voted for the bill, while seven Democrats voted against it. When the House voted on its own version of a stimulus bill a few weeks ago, no Republicans voted for that measure and 11 Democrats had also voted against it.

U.S. Senate passes stimulus plan
The bill passes 60-38, with three GOP votes in favor. The House voted 246-183 to approve it earlier today. Obama is expected to sign the bill soon.

The U.S. Senate approved $787 billion in spending and tax cuts to boost the ailing economy, sending the emergency stimulus legislation to President Barack Obama, who is expected to sign it into law.

Providing the first approval of a disputed $787-billion stimulus plan that President Obama is demanding from Congress in hopes of reviving a stalled economy, the House today voted 246 to 183, divided largely along party lines.

“This legislation can be summed up in one word: jobs,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said at the close of a House debate that showcased a continuing fissure between Democrats in control of the House and Republicans opposed to the massive government spending that is the core of the stimulus bill. “I never thought I’d see the day when we had an opportunity to do so much . . . so great . . . for the American people.”

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) complained: “The bill that was supposed to be about jobs, jobs, jobs has turned into a bill that is all about spending, spending, spending.”

In a House sharply divided by this fractious debate, only seven Democrats opposed the measure and no Republicans supported it.

With the president maintaining that more than 3 million jobs can be created or saved with the plan, the overwhelming majority of Republicans who oppose it complain that it places unrestrained spending, and debt, ahead of tax relief that could offer more help.

“The historic scope of this bill is matched by an unprecedented transparency . . . so the American people can see how each dollar is invested,” Pelosi said. “It is in sharp contrast to the do-nothing approach that some want us to take here.”

“When you look at some of the spending in this bill, it will do nothing about creating jobs,” Boehner said. “I hope this bill works, I really do, for the good of our country. But my concern is that the plan as outlined will not do what we want it to do.”

The Senate today was debating the same compromise hammered out between Senate and House Democratic leaders with the support of a few Senate Republicans, with leaders holding out hope for a vote tonight. Obama was expected to sign it quickly.

The measure, in somewhat larger form, had cleared the House in its first version without a single Republican vote. The Senate had approved its first take on the plan with the help of just three Republicans — yet still some Republicans were complaining that the package should not be painted with a bipartisan veneer.

“In the Senate, Republicans were consulted, that’s a very positive thing, but we were never invited to the negotiating table,” said Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa). “When Republicans offered ideas, they were generally rejected. There were few exceptions.”

“This bill was written by the speaker of the House,” said Rep. Harold Rogers (R-Ky.), accusing Pelosi of ramming “an ill-conceived, wrong-headed . . . spending spree” through the chamber without input from the GOP. “The principles of democracy are being compromised here, today, now. The American people deserve better. . . . Our founding fathers deserved better.”

The debate today did not pass without some rancor. A Republican accused leaders of inserting money for “a rat” in San Francisco — funding for an environmentally sensitive area — drawing an angered response from Rep. David R. Obey (D-Wis.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, who held the telephone-book-thick bill aloft and challenged the debater: “It’s not in there . . . show it to me . . . show it to me.”

“This country faces the greatest crisis we’ve seen, in terms of our economy, since the ’30s,” Obey told the House. The housing market has collapsed, the automotive industry is in trouble, and interest rates have been pushed as low as they can go, he said. “The only bullet left is fiscal policy, so what we are trying to do with this bill is save and create several million jobs.”

“Guess what — this bill isn’t perfect,” Obey said. “The worst thing people can do in this town is to believe their own baloney. . . . Supporters of this bill are inclined to overstate its possibilities — and opponents are inclined to trash it.”

The 1,071-page measure was posted on a congressional website Thursday night, allowing lawmakers just a few overnight hours to read it before debate on the House and Senate floors today.

“Not one member has read this,” Boehner said.

The stimulus plan, carrying a price tag of $787 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office, calls for $281 billion in tax cuts, $308 billion in spending funded by the appropriations committees and $198 billion in spending for programs such as unemployment assistance, Social Security benefits and added money for states to help with Medicaid for low-income and disabled Americans.

Republicans have fought for more tax relief and less spending, but, Boehner complained, “all the talk we’ve heard about bipartisanship . . . has gone down the drain.”

Obama to Unveil Plans to Stem Foreclosures Next Week

Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama will give more details on his proposals to deal with the housing crisis with a speech next week in Arizona, his spokesman said.

Obama expects to sign the $787 billion stimulus law on Feb. 16 or 17, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said, and then will make a two-day trip to Denver and Phoenix to talk about the next steps in his strategy to revive the U.S. economy.

The president will “outline a plan to stem home foreclosures” in an address on Feb. 18 in Arizona, Gibbs said at his regular briefing for reporters. He refused to give details.

Obama has said his advisers are working on a plan to address declining home prices and a rising tide of foreclosures. Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley have agreed to suspend foreclosures until next month and signaled a readiness to help the Obama administration craft a housing plan to modify mortgages for troubled borrowers.

Gibbs said the action by the three institutions is “consistent with” what the president believes should be part of the housing policy. In refusing to give more specifics of the administration plan, Gibbs warned against building up “an unreasonable series of expectation based on leaks” from officials who aren’t involved in discussions.

Foreclosures

U.S. foreclosures reached 274,399 in January, the 10th straight month in which more than a quarter-million filings were processed, RealtyTrac Inc., the Irvine, California-based provider of real estate data, said in a statement yesterday.

Obama will be laying out his plans in Arizona, which had the third-highest rate of foreclosures in January — one in 182 housing units — after Nevada and California.

Obama’s plan is intended “to ensure that the 10,000 Americans each day that have their homes foreclosed on and the millions more that are barely getting by are protected,” Gibbs said. The amount of aid likely will be in line with previous administration statements, he said.

Obama has pledged to commit money toward housing relief, using $50 billion to $100 billion from the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program enacted last year.

Loan Modifications

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said in a speech today in New York that the administration wants to accelerate loan modifications for distressed homeowners and change the bankruptcy system for foreclosures.

One proposal involves using government money to subsidize interest rate reductions for struggling borrowers, according to a person briefed on the discussions.

The House passed the stimulus legislation 246 to 183 as Gibbs was speaking. The Senate is set to follow with final passage this evening. Because of paperwork that needs to be done, the legislation likely will reach the president’s desk “no earlier than Monday,” Gibbs said.

Obama has said the stimulus is one part of his strategy for the economy, the others being action to stabilize the housing market and a strategy to shore up the financial industry.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner already has announced a plan to inject fresh government capital into some of the nation’s biggest financial institutions, establish a public-private partnership to buy as much as $1 trillion of banks’ bad assets and start a credit facility with the Federal Reserve of as much as $1 trillion to promote lending to consumers and businesses.

After his trips to Colorado and Arizona, Obama plans his first journey as president outside U.S. borders with a visit to Canada. Gibbs said the economy will be a major topic. In April, Obama will make stops in Europe around a North Atlantic Treaty Organization conference and a meeting of the Group of 20 industrialized and developing countries, Gibbs said.

President Barack Obama’s wife Michelle is the cover girl for the March edition of fashion magazine Vogue.

It is only the second time an American First Lady has taken the place of a model on a Vogue cover – the other was Hillary Clinton in 1998.

Mrs Obama, who was photographed wearing outfits she chose herself, says she is aware her wardrobe is under scrutiny.

“I’m not going to pretend that I don’t care about it. But I also have to be practical,” she told Vogue magazine.

Annie Leibovitz photographed Mrs Obama wearing a magenta silk dress designed by Jason Wu for the cover portrait.

It is the second time she has chosen to wear one of his creations for a high-profile public appearance. She wore a long white gown by Wu for the inauguration balls on 20 January.

Mrs Obama’s sense of style has proved influential.

On the day she dressed her family in clothes from J Crew for her husband’s inauguration, the company’s shares leapt 10%.

In the accompanying interview for Vogue, Mrs Obama also talks about her role as a social hostess.

“We want entertaining in the White House to feel like America, that we are reminded of all the many facets of our culture. The Latino community, the Asian-American community, the African-American community… hip-hop, spoken word – we want to bring the youth in, for them to hear their voices in this,” she said.

On her self-declared role as “mom-in-chief” she will try to take her daughters Malia and Sasha to school every morning, though she acknowledges this may not always be possible.

“I like to be a presence in my kids’ school. I want to know the teachers; I want to know the parents.”

Apart from Bess Truman, Vogue has photographed the wife of every American president since 1929 when President Herbert Hoover’s wife, Lou Henry Hoover, was featured.

On Obama’s first day in office, Republicans expressed resistance to the Democratic stimulus plan, reports the AP:

Facing Republican resistance to a massive economic stimulus plan, the Obama administration on Wednesday said $3 of every $4 in the package should be spent within 18 months to have maximum impact on jobs and taxpayers…

Indeed Republicans, who said they were receptive to Obama’s call for a “unity of purpose,” promptly tested the day-old administration. They criticized the Democratic plan and requested a meeting with the president to air their tax-cutting plans.

The New York Times reports that Obama is expected to sign executive orders closing the CIA’s network of secret prisons and the closing of Guantanamo on Thursday:

President Obama is expected to sign executive orders Thursday directing the Central Intelligence Agency to shut what remains of its network of secret prisons and ordering the closing of the Guantanamo detention camp within a year, government officials said…

And the orders would bring to an end a Central Intelligence Agency program that kept terrorism suspects in secret custody for months or years, a practice that has brought fierce criticism from foreign governments and human rights activists. They will also prohibit the C.I.A. from using coercive interrogation methods, requiring the agency to follow the same rules used by the military in interrogating terrorism suspects, government officials said.

In addition, the Obama administration declared their willingness to talk to Iran “without preconditions,” as reported by The Guardian.

The Obama foreign policy agenda that appeared on the White House website declared: “Barack Obama supports tough and direct diplomacy with Iran without preconditions.” The Bush administration made direct talks between the US and Iran conditional on Iranian suspension of its uranium enrichment programme. The only exception was some discussion in Baghdad on the future of Iraq.

The Obama initiative represents a distinct break from that policy, as part of a fundamental shift in diplomatic approach. The Obama agenda said the new administration would “talk to our foes and friends” and not set preconditions.

From AP: President Barack Obama’s first public act in office Wednesday was to institute new limits on lobbyists in his White House and to freeze the salaries of high-paid aides, in a nod to the country’s economic turmoil.

Announcing the moves while attending a ceremony in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building to swear in his staff, Obama said the steps “represent a clean break from business as usual.”

In addition to staff and ethics orders, President Obama’s schedule was filled with meetings about the war in Iraq, the recession, phone calls with world leaders among other initiatives. His administration also kept an eye on various cabinet nominations moving through the Senate, including Hillary Clinton’s recently confirmed position as Secretary of State.

More on Obamas’ First Day

In a first-day whirlwind, President Barack Obama showcased efforts to revive the economy on Wednesday, summoned top military officials to the White House to chart a new course in Iraq and eased into the daunting thicket of Middle East diplomacy.

“What an opportunity we have to change this country,” said the 47-year-old chief executive, who also issued new ethics rules for his administration, hosted a reception at the presidential mansion for 200 inauguration volunteers and guests selected by an Internet lottery and even took the oath of office again after it was flubbed Tuesday.

After dancing at inaugural balls with first lady Michelle Obama past midnight, Obama entered the Oval Office for the first time as president in early morning. He read a good luck note left behind by President George W. Bush, then began breaking cleanly with his predecessor’s policies.

Aides circulated a draft of an executive order that would close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, within a year and halt all war crimes trials in the meantime.

Closing the site “would further the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice,” read the draft prepared for the new president’s signature. A copy was obtained by The Associated Press, and an aide said privately that Obama would sign a formal order on Thursday.

Some of the 245 detainees currently held at Guantanamo would be released, while others would be transferred elsewhere and later put on trial under terms to be determined.

Obama’s Cabinet was moving closer to completion.

At the Capitol, the Senate confirmed Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state after a one-day delay forced by Republicans. The vote was 94-2, and spectators seated in the galleries erupted in applause when it was announced.

Treasury-designate Timothy Geithner emerged unscathed from his confirmation hearing, apologizing for having failed to pay $34,000 in taxes earlier in the decade.

To the evident anger of Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Republicans on the panel invoked long-standing rules to postpone a vote on Eric Holder’s appointment as attorney general.

Counting Clinton, seven Cabinet members have been confirmed so far, as have the two top officials at the Office of Management and Budget.

Obama’s schedule for the day included separate sessions on the economy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The new president has pledged to take bold steps to revive the economy, which is struggling through the worst recession since the Great Depression. Last week, he won approval to use $350 billion in leftover financial industry bailout funds.

He presided over the White House meeting on the economy as the House Appropriations Committee moved toward approval of $358 billion in new spending, part of the economic stimulus package making its way to his desk.

The new commander in chief held his first meeting in the Situation Room, where he, Vice President Joe Biden and senior military and foreign policy officials discussed war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama campaigned on a pledge to withdraw U.S. combat forces from Iraq within 16 months, and to beef up the commitment in Afghanistan. Obama asked the Pentagon to do whatever additional planning necessary to “execute a responsible military drawdown from Iraq.”

The new White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said Obama’s phone calls to leaders in the Middle East were meant to convey his “commitment to active engagement in pursuit of Arab-Israeli peace from the beginning of his term.”

Gibbs also that in conversations with Israeli, Palestinian, Egyptian and Jordanian leaders, the president emphasized he would work to consolidate the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Obama intends to name former Senate Majority leader George Mitchell as a special envoy to the region.

Not everything was new at the White House.

In the Oval Office, Obama worked at a desk built from the timbers of a British naval vessel, the HMS Resolute, and used off-and-on by presidents since the 1870s, including Bush. It also appeared that the carpet that Bush used in his second term, a yellow sunbeam design, was still in place.

If some of the furnishings remained in place, there was no doubt that the new president meant to fulfill his campaign promise of change.

“As of today, lobbyists will be subject to stricter limits than under any … other administration in history,” Obama told reporters as he signed the new rules. The restrictions included a ban on gifts by lobbyists to anyone serving in the administration.

He also imposed a pay freeze for about 100 White House aides who earn $100,000 or more. Its implementation was unclear, since none of them was on the payroll before Tuesday’s noontime inauguration.

On Tuesday, within hours of Obama’s inauguration, his administration froze last-minute Bush administration regulations before they could take effect.

Among them was an Interior Department proposal to remove gray wolves from Endangered Species protections in much of the northern Rocky Mountains, and a Labor Department recommendation that would allow companies that manage employee retirement plans to market investment products to plan participants.

On Wednesday night, Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath to Obama at the White House _ a rare do-over. The surprise moment came in response to Tuesday’s stumble, when Roberts got the words of the oath a little off, which prompted Obama to do so, too.

The White House reassured that Obama has still been president since noon on Inauguration Day. But Obama and Roberts went through the drill again out of what White House counsel Greg Craig called “an abundance of caution.”

Obama also dropped by a party for his staff at a packed DC Armory, telling his supporters that they deserve credit for his historic election victory, in part because they didn’t know any better. He said they simply didn’t know that a guy like him shouldn’t win, that their fundraising model wasn’t typical and that the odds were stacked against them.

Obama and his wife began their day at a prayer service that is traditional for the first business day of a new administration. They were joined in front-pew seats by Biden and his wife, Jill, as well as former President Bill Clinton and his wife, hours away from confirmation as the nation’s top diplomat.

“Grant to Barack Obama, president of the United States, and to all in authority your grace and good will. Bless them with your heavenly gifts, give them wisdom and strength to know and to do your will,” prayed the Rev. Andy Stanley, one of numerous clerics from several religions to speak.

Obama and his wife also played host and hostess for a select 200 at an open house.

“Enjoy yourself, roam around,” a smiling Obama told one guest.

“Don’t break anything.”