Obama taps Navy vice admiral as new NSA chief

In addition, the Department of Defense announced that Richard Ledgett has been appointed as the NSA deputy director. Ledgett currently serves as the agency’s chief operating officer. He replaces Chris Inglis, who retired in early January.

“Ahead of General Alexander’s retirement in March and following Chris Inglis’ recent departure, the president believes Admiral Rogers and Rick Ledgett are the right people to provide experienced and principled leadership for the NSA moving forward, including in implementing the reforms he announced on Jan. 17,” National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said.

Alexander is set to retire in the spring following a turbulent year after the NSA’s monitoring of phone and Internet records was exposed by former agency contractor Edward Snowden. However, Rogers’ appointment could hasten his exit.

Rogers, a cryptologist who has risen to the top of naval intelligence operations, also will serve as the commander of a new Pentagon unit that directs the country’s offensive cyber-operations.

He takes the helm after Obama responded to the worldwide outrage over the extent of U.S. spying with a mid-January speech in which he called for an end to the government’s control of phone data from hundreds of millions of Americans and directed the NSA to stop spying on the leaders of U.S. allies.

— Susan Crabtree, White House Correspondent

 

REID SAYS NO TO FAST-TRACK TRADE AUTHORITY

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wants to stop a push to give the White House authority to “fast track” trade deals, putting himself at odds with the Obama administration and many in his own party.

The Nevada Democrat’s stance also pours cold water on two pending major free trade deals with European Union and Asia-Pacific region countries the administration is eager to sign.

“I’m against fast track,” Reid bluntly told reporters at the Capitol. “I think everyone would be well advised just to not push this right now.”

At issue is a bipartisan Senate bill that would restore “trade promotion authority” to the White House, a move that allows Congress to approve — but not amend — trade deals the president negotiates with other countries.

Congress granted the authority to President George W. Bush in 2002, but it expired five years later and hasn’t been renewed since.

Presidents, as well as foreign countries, like fast-track authority because trade agreements aren’t subjected to last-minute changes by Congress, a process that can delay or kill the deals.

President Obama, during his State of the Union address, called for the restoration of the authority, saying it will “open new markets to new goods stamped ‘Made in the USA.'”

“China and Europe aren’t standing on the sidelines. Neither should we,” he said.

The White House is trying to defuse the brewing confrontation.

“Leader Reid has always been clear on his position on this particular issue,” White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters.

“We will not cede this important opportunity for American workers and businesses to our competitors,” Obama’s top spokesman added, trying to downplay the rift between Democrats.

Some liberals believe such trade deals are bad for American workers, particularly union members.

Republicans have pounced on Reid’s resistance, saying that Democrats are effectively blocking an area where the GOP could cooperate with the White House.

And analysts say the lack of a resolution could endanger new trade deals between the U.S. and European and Asian nations.

— Sean Lengell, Congressional Correspondent, and Brian Hughes, White House Correspondent

 

OBAMACARE FAVORABILITY PLUNGES AMONG UNINSURED

A new poll finds that Obamacare is becoming increasingly unpopular among the uninsured, the very group it was intended to benefit the most.

According to the January monthly tracking poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, just 24 percent of uninsured adults under 65 have a favorable view of the health care law, while 47 percent, or nearly double, have an unfavorable view. In April 2010, in the same survey taken weeks after Obama signed the health care legislation into law, 50 percent had a favorable view, compared with 27 percent who had an unfavorable view. On a net basis, that’s a 46-point drop.

The Affordable Care Act’s ratings have tumbled since the botched rollout of the program’s health exchanges in October. But in January, they took an especially substantial plunge among the uninsured, with favorability dropping 12 points.

Uninsured Americans who were expecting to get cheap coverage on the exchanges may have been surprised to learn that the plans being offered can be expensive, even after subsidies. And the cheaper plans come with high deductibles and fewer choices of doctors and hospitals. Additionally, those struggling to find affordable coverage will be subject to a penalty if they don’t buy a plan by March 31.

— Philip Klein, Senior Writer

 

WAXMAN WON’T SEEK RE-ELECTION

Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman, 74, a high-profile lawmaker and longtime advocate for clean air and health care initiatives, said he won’t seek a 21st term in office.

The Californian, who was first elected to Congress in 1974, said he wasn’t leaving out of frustration but rather because “it’s time for someone else to have the chance to make his or her mark.”

“I still feel youthful and energetic, but I recognize if I want to experience a life outside of Congress, I need to start soon,” said Waxman. “Public office is not the only way to serve, and I want to explore other avenues while I still can.”

Waxman is the seventh House Democrat to announce plans to retire at the end of the term in January 2015. Five other House Democrats are seeking higher office and also will vacate their posts next year. Nineteen House Republicans say they will leave office in January.

With his departure, House Democrats are losing one of their most vocal members on climate change. He also pushed for investigations into the tobacco industry and was instrumental in pushing through President Obama’s health care plan.

He served as chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee before leading the energy panel in 2009, a position he had to surrender two years later when Republicans took control of the House.

Rep. Darrell Issa, who took over the chairmanship from Waxman, called him an innovator who expanded the scope of congressional investigatory powers.

Issa praised Waxman for giving the panel new tools like the use of subpoenas for closed-door depositions as well as an expanded mandate.

“A number of issues he doggedly began to follow during his two years as chairman, such as the use of the White House Office of Political Affairs to advance partisan political agendas with taxpayer funds … and the problematic use of non-official email accounts for official government business remain on the committee’s agenda today. Even the committee’s name reflects a change made under Chairman Waxman’s time leading the panel,” Issa said. It was previously called the House Government Reform Committee.

— Sean Lengell, Congressional Correspondent, and Sean Higgins, Senior Writer

 

WHITE HOUSE: WAGE ORDER TO BENEFIT ‘COUPLE HUNDRED THOUSAND’ WORKERS

The White House said hundreds of thousands of people would benefit from a forthcoming executive order raising the minimum wage for new federal contract workers.

“Our best guess at this time is a couple hundred thousand will be covered” when it is fully implemented, White House press secretary Jay Carney predicted. “This is an estimate, however, because the decisions some contractors make will affect the number, and the data collected in this area is imprecise.”

Obama in his State of the Union address said that he was willing to work with lawmakers, but would press ahead using a “pen” and a “phone” when Capitol Hill failed to act.

One of those executive actions would raise the minimum wage for new federal contract workers to $10.10 an hour.

The president also is pushing Congress to pass legislation that would raise the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 for all workers, but that bill has stalled in the GOP-controlled House.

Business groups and conservatives say that raising the minimum wage could threaten job creation as the economy struggles to recover.

Obama has framed the issue as a centerpiece of his push to bolster the middle class and fight income inequality.

— Meghashyam Mali, Assistant Managing Editor

 

RICE TALKS NSA REFORM WITH BRAZIL’S FOREIGN MINISTER

National Security Adviser Susan Rice met with Brazilian Foreign Minister Luiz Alberto Figueiredo at the White House to discuss President Obama’s reforms to secret U.S. surveillance programs.

“During their meeting, Ambassador Rice outlined the results of the review of U.S. signals intelligence activities, and the reforms to be implemented as described by President Obama in his Jan. 17 speech,” a White House statement said.

The meeting came after leaks about the National Security Agency’s monitoring of phone and Internet communications — including those of world leaders — sparked international outrage.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff postponed plans for a state visit to the U.S. after disclosures from former government contractor Edward Snowden revealed the NSA spied on her.

In a September meeting, Rice told Brazilian officials that they had “legitimate questions” about the NSA’s actions.

Obama has defended the NSA’s practices, but in January announced a number of reforms to better balance national security and privacy interests.

Among Obama’s changes require the agency to seek a warrant from a secret court before accessing phone metadata and asking the Justice Department to consider ways to store that data outside of the government. Obama also placed new restrictions on NSA surveillance of foreign leaders.

— Meghashyam Mali, Assistant Managing Editor

 

PETITION ASKING OBAMA TO DEPORT JUSTIN BIEBER TOPS 100K SIGNATURES

A petition calling on the Obama administration to deport Canadian pop star Justin Bieber passed the 100,000-signature threshold needed to receive an official White House response.

The petition on the White House website calls for the government to “deport Justin Bieber and revoke his green card.”

“We the people of the United States feel that we are being wrongly represented in the world of pop culture. We would like to see the dangerous, reckless, destructive, and drug abusing, Justin Bieber deported and his green card revoked,” the petition reads.

“He is not only threatening the safety of our people but he is also a terrible influence on our nation’s youth. We the people would like to remove Justin Bieber from our society,” it adds.

Rival petitions, though, urge that the U.S. not deport the 19-year old singer, but have not attained 100,000 signatures.

Bieber was arrested in Miami Beach on charges of drunken driving, resisting arrest and driving with an expired license. Police in California are investigating claims that he egged a neighbor’s house. In Canada, he was charged with assault for reportedly hitting a limousine driver.

The White House responds to all petitions that reach the signature threshold, but there is no timeline for a response.

“Once the petition reaches the required threshold, it will be put in a queue to be reviewed by the White House,” says a notice on the petition website.

Last year, the White House responded to a petition urging the government to build a “Death Star,” an ode to the weaponized space station from the “Star Wars” movies.

The administration said that while it shared the public’s “desire for job creation and a strong national defense,” a Death Star “isn’t on the horizon.”

— Meghashyam Mali, Assistant Managing Editor

 

SHELL TO SKIP ARCTIC DRILLING AFTER COURT RULING

Royal Dutch Shell will abandon plans to drill in the Arctic this summer following a court ruling that put its plans in doubt.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the Interior Department erred in its environmental assessment underpinning the 2008 lease sale in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska’s northwest coast, undervaluing the amount of potential development. New Shell CEO Ben van Beurden said that made the legal landscape too questionable for this summer.

“This is a disappointing outcome, but the lack of a clear path forward means that I am not prepared to commit further resources for drilling in Alaska in 2014,” van Beurden said. “We will look to relevant agencies and the court to resolve their open legal issues as quickly as possible.”

The move is another blow to Shell’s Arctic ambitions. A series of mishaps in 2012 forced the company to skip the drilling season last year as well, and it scaled back its efforts for this summer in the blueprint it submitted with Interior.

The company has been counting on Arctic drilling to boost profits, which dropped 48 percent to $2.9 billion during the fourth quarter.

Green groups are cheering the news. They have been pressuring Shell and the Obama administration to eschew Arctic drilling altogether, saying the environment is too harsh and ecosystem too sensitive to do it properly.

— Zack Colman, Energy & Environment Writer

 

GDP GROWS AT 3.2 PERCENT IN FOURTH QUARTER

Economic growth for the fourth quarter clocked in at a healthy 3.2 percent on an annualized basis, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported in its initial estimate of gross domestic product.

While that number was down from the third quarter’s surprisingly strong 4.1 percent reading, it represents relatively strong growth throughout a period of political turmoil that included a prolonged government shutdown and a bruising confrontation over the debt ceiling.

Falling government spending, with slowed inventory spending — which does not predict future growth — accounted for the deceleration in GDP growth from the third quarter of 2013 to the fourth, according to the BEA. Consumer spending and exports, on the other hand, grew sharply.

“In short, fairly healthy growth, despite the government shutdown at the start of the quarter,” wrote High Frequency Economics’ Jim O’Sullivan in response to the report.

The rate of growth for the second half of 2013, at 3.7 percent, was the strongest in years.

For all of 2013, however, real GDP growth checked in at just 1.9 percent, slower than 2012’s 2.8 percent.

Slowing business investment and government spending were primarily to blame for overall growth trending down in 2013, the BEA reported.

The estimates will be updated and revised in late February.

Economic growth will hit between 2.8 and 3.2 percent in 2014, according to Federal Reserve officials’ projections.

The central bank said it would cut back its monthly bond purchases another $10 billion to $65 billion after strong economic growth and job gains in the second half of the year.

— Joseph Lawler, Economics Writer

 

OBAMA SPEECH GETS WORST TV RATINGS SINCE 2000

President Obama’s State of the Union address was watched by 33.3 million people, garnering its lowest ratings since 2000.

Just over one-fifth of American households, 20.7 percent, tuned in on 13 networks to watch Obama lay out his 2014 priorities to Congress, according to Nielsen.

It was the lowest figure since former President Bill Clinton’s final address to Congress in 2000, which logged 31.48 million viewers.

Obama’s ratings high came in 2009, when 52.37 million viewers watched him deliver his address to a joint session of Congress during his first year in office.

President George W. Bush’s least-watched State of the Union, delivered in 2008, had 37.52 million viewers.

Obama’s White House had called on the public to watch the address online, through an interactive display that provided statistics and additional talking points on his policies. Networks live-streamed the broadcast, but Nielsen’s ratings do not count online viewers.

According to NielsenSocialGuide, 8.8 million people saw at least one of the about 2.1 million tweets sent in the U.S. about Obama’s speech.

— Meghashyam Mali, Assistant Managing Editor

 

BIDEN HITS BACK AT GATES’ CRITICISM

Vice President Joe Biden hit back at criticism from former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates that he had been wrong on every major foreign policy debate for four decades.

In an interview on NBC’s “Today” show, Biden — who repeatedly misspoke, calling the former secretary “Bill Gates” — said that he was comfortable with his positions and would let history decide.

“Look, I like Bill Gates,” said Biden, calling his former colleague a “man of integrity.”

“Bill Gates and I, Bob Gates and I have disagreed on almost every major foreign policy since Vietnam. We had a different view in Vietnam, we had a different view on Bosnia, we had a different view on Iran-Contra, that’s one of the reasons I voted against him at the CIA, and we’ve had a different view on Afghanistan,” Biden continued.

“Bob Gates and I disagree on almost every major issue and I’m very comfortable with my position. I let the American public judge who’s been right or wrong, Bob Gates or me, and history will judge ultimately. But he’s a fine man,” Biden added.

In his memoir released earlier this year, Gates wrote that Biden “has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”

President Obama, though, rushed to Biden’s defense, saying he disagreed with the assessment and calling his No. 2 “one of the leading statesmen of our time.”

— Meghashyam Mali, Assistant Managing Editor

 

HILLARY CLINTON HAS NOT DRIVEN SINCE ’96

Hillary Clinton has not driven a car since her husband was in the White House — and it’s “one of the regrets I have about my public life,” she said.

“The last time I actually drove a car myself was 1996, and I remember it very well,” Clinton told a National Automobile Dealers Association audience in New Orleans. “Unfortunately, so does the Secret Service, which is why I haven’t driven since then.”

That means Clinton has not driven since her husband, former President Bill Clinton, was in his first term.

Hillary Clinton won’t need a driver’s license should she choose to run for president in 2016, as she is considering. But Republicans nevertheless joked about her remarks.

“Maybe she put in a tape of ‘The Macarena’ [which was on top of the charts] during her last time behind the wheel?” the Republican group America Rising posted on its Tumblr site, with video of Clinton giving her speech.

— Rebecca Berg, Political Correspondent

 

RADEL RESIGNS FOLLOWING COCAINE CONVICTION

Rep. Trey Radel, a Florida Republican who was recently convicted of possessing cocaine, resigned from Congress.

Radel, 37, took office as a freshman in January 2013. On Oct. 29, he was arrested in a Washington drug sting and charged with possessing cocaine, a misdemeanor offense.

He pleaded guilty to the charge in November and was sentenced to a year of probation and a $250 fine.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has shown a low tolerance for GOP members who get into trouble and he is known to privately encourage them to resign. Boehner did not publicly call on Radel to step down, but Republican leaders in Florida were more vocal and pushed for his resignation shortly after his arrest. Florida’s 19th Congressional District, which Radel represents, leans Republican, so it is unlikely his departure will give Democrats a chance to take over the seat in November.

— Susan Ferrechio, Chief Congressional Correspondent