Obama administration

(PD) Photo: U.S. Senate
Barack Obama.

Barack Obama entered office as President of the United States of America on January 20, 2009, as the nation's 44th president and the first African American to be U.S. head of state. His Vice President is Joe Biden, and his Secretary of State is Hillary Clinton, Obama's main rival for the Democratic Party nomination in the 2008 presidential election. Obama approved the continuing service of Robert M. Gates, an independent previously a member of the Republican Bush administration, as Secretary of Defense.

First 100 days

Foreign policy

Obama began his presidential term of office with a focus on foreign policy, particularly the Guantanamo detention camp and the Middle East. In line with his previous pledge to close the camp, Obama had military trials at Guantanamo suspended. He also called Middle Eastern leaders to pursue Arab-Israeli peace. Obama appointed George Mitchell as a special envoy for the Middle East, with former United Nations Ambassador Richard Holbrooke becoming special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. On January 22, Obama signed an executive order authorizing the closure of the Guantanamo camp within a year. This act, said Obama was to avoid "a false choice between our safety and our ideals," and to "restore the standards of due process and the core constitutional values that have made this country great even in the midst of war, even in dealing with terrorism." A second order banned torture by all agencies, military and civilian, of the U.S. government, as part of human-source intelligence interrogation.

According to U.S. Marine Corps retired general James Jones, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, the role of the National Security Council and the Assistant will be strengthened. Jones told a reviewer that he would regain firm control of foreign policy information flow to the President, eliminating "back channel" advice from individual officials that he said was common in the George W. Bush Administration. He plans to expand the NSC scope beyond classical foreign policy, with new directorates for issues as cybersecurity, energy, climate change, nation-building and infrastructure. The work is to be coordinated with the functions of Jones' deputy, John O. Brennan, a CIA veteran presidential adviser for counterterrorism & homeland security including its responsibility for preparing for and responding to natural and terrorism-related domestic disasters. Brennan described his task as a "systems engineering challenge" to avoid overlap with the new NSC while ensuring that "homeland security matters, broadly defined, are going to get the attention they need from the White House."

"The whole concept of what constitutes the membership of the national security community -- which, historically has been, let's face it, the Defense Department, the NSC itself and a little bit of the State Department, to the exclusion perhaps of the Energy Department, Commerce Department and Treasury, all the law enforcement agencies, the Drug Enforcement Administration, all of those things -- especially in the moment we're currently in, has got to embrace a broader membership

According to Jones, the reorganization will go beyond the NSC, and reconcile inconsistent government agency jurisdictions: while the U.S. Department of State considers Afghanistan, Pakistan and India together as South Asia, the U.S. Department of Defense separates the two at the Pakistan-India border, with the Pakistan under the United States Central Command but India under the United States Pacific Command. Israel is part of the United States European Command, but the rest of the Middle East falls under Central Command; the State Department combines Israel and the Arab countries surrounding it in its Near East Bureau.

Family planning

The Obama administration also overturned a policy by former President Ronald Reagan on federal funds for international family planning clinics that offer abortions. The reversal was in line with the same decision by previous Democratic President Bill Clinton, though this "Mexico City policy" was reinstated by George W. Bush in 2001 as his first executive order. Obama also committed his administration to restoring U.S. contributions to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), an organization with which the Bush administration refused to co-operate, alleging that it funded enforced sterilization.

Science and the environment

The inauguration of Barack Obama was broadly welcomed by scientists, and the expectation that the administration would make good on its earlier promises to promote green issues and allow stem cell research proved well-founded. Obama's inaugural address contained reference to the need to address global warming and renewable energy supplies; a few days later, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave the go-ahead to a stem cell research program aimed at finding better ways to repair spinal injuries - research that had been on hold since 2006. Later that month, the administration released details of a job-creating "recovery and reinvestment plan" to create jobs in the renewables sector, increase energy efficiency and provide the means to deliver renewable energy to consumers. They also pledged to increase automobile efficiency and reverse the Bush administration's block on the state of California increasing limits on car emissions. Obama said, "The days of Washington dragging its heels are over. My administration will not deny facts, we will be guided by them. We cannot afford to pass the buck... onto the states." Soon after, the administration brought legislation to Congress providing for $15 billion of new federal funding for science, as part of a wider spending program. However, with the Democrats' 58-41 Senate majority two short of the 60 needed to pass budget legislation, a compromise had to be reached with the Republicans. Various programs were partially cut or eliminated altogether, including $3.5 billion trimmed from the $7 billion intended for energy-efficient buildings, $200 million of $800 million for the Environmental Protection Agency, $100 million of cuts to the original $427 million National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration funding, and the loss of $100 million set aside for science.

Nobel laureate Dr. Steven Chu, a physicist, was appointed Energy Secretary, heading up a $23-billion-plus budget. Other scientists filled various posts, including environmental scientist Dr. John Holdren, (Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Co-Chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology); environmental scientist and marine ecologist Dr. Jane Lubchenco (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Administrator); biologists Dr. Eric Lander and Dr. Harold Varmus (Co-Chairs, President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology).

Exceptions to lobbying rule

An early controversy was Obama's nomination of William J. Lynn III as Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates's deputy. Obama had previously promised that new members of his administration could not have worked as a lobbyist for the preceding two years; however, Lynn left defense contractor Raytheon in July 2008, so would need an exception made to the rule. A similar case surrounded William Corr, nominated as the Department of Health and Human Services's deputy secretary, who had recently lobbied as an anti-tobacco advocate, but would not be involved in tobacco issues within the Obama administration. The President's spokesman, Robert Gibbs, told the Associated Press that "Even the toughest rules require reasonable exceptions."

Nomination setbacks

Obama's choices for executive posts within his administration suffered some setbacks, with questions raised over tax and some nominees withdrawing. New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, who would probably have brought strong backing for the administration's environmental policies given his support of clean energy projects in his home state, withdrew as incoming Commerce Secretary before Obama took office due to an investigation into a company that had worked for his state. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geither disclosed that he had failed to pay $34,000 of taxes while working for the International Monetary Fund, but remained in his new post. By February, two other nominees had withdrawn, due to questions over their tax affairs: former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (Health and Human Services), and Nancy Killefer (Chief Performance Officer). Obama later said over the Daschle affair, "I think I screwed up." On February 12, Republican senator for New Hampshire, Judd Gregg, withdrew his nomination for Commerce Secretary over policy differences with the new administration, leading tio questions over the administration's vetting procedures. Gregg would have joined Ray LaHood, Obama's Transportation Secretary, as Republican members of the Obama administration.

Other issues

In 2009, Obama became one the few presidents to take the oath of office twice, Chief Justice John Roberts having made a mistake on inauguration day. The renewed oath has no implications for Obama's legitimacy as President, as the new term begins automatically following the previous president leaving office.

The administration made an early commitment to openness and transparency in its affairs, which may be the first step towards lifting some of the secrecy surrounding government information.