Obama to change priorities of every federal agency once he takes over administration

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Obama to change priorities of every federal agency once he takes over administration

By The Associated Press
11:22 AM CST, November 5, 2008

President-elect Barack Obama has vowed to reverse or sharply modify many of the Bush administration's policies. Based on his campaign promises, these are key areas where changes are expected.

DEFENSE

Obama's promise to get U.S. troops out of Iraq in the first 16 months of his presidency helped launch his candidacy. He says he will shift forces and resources to Afghanistan.

But, overall, the Pentagon under Obama may not look much different than it does today. When and how he extricates troops from Iraq may depend on the security pact that U.S. officials negotiate with Iraqi lawmakers.

Obama has called for a responsible and phased withdrawal to bring the bulk of the troops out by mid-2010. The proposed security pact being pressed by Iraqis would have all U.S. forces out of the cities by next summer, and out of the country by the end of 2011.

For Afghanistan, Obama has said he would add about 7,000 troops to the U.S. force of 31,000. Pentagon officials are poised to more than double that increase — saying they need 15,000 to 20,000 more troops in Afghanistan.

Obama wants to increase the size of the Army, Marine Corps and special operations forces, efforts already under way. He has called for greater emphasis on counterinsurgency missions — a move the military recognized as critical in the early years of the Iraq war, and began to implement.

—Lolita C. Baldor

STATE

Obama will inherit foreign policy challenges involving Iran, North Korea, Russia, China, the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan. He has said he would place a premium on diplomacy over the use of force to solve disputes, and he pledged to maintain a robust diplomatic corps and foreign aid programs.

However, the current financial crisis could curtail some overseas development programs the Bush administration has championed, and there could be a shift in the department's emphasis.

Obama's stated willingness to talk with leaders like those in Iran, Syria and North Korea, may result in increased diplomatic activity in areas where the Bush administration initially resisted engagement, including dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The new president will find a diplomatic corps that has often been frustrated by its lack of influence over the past eight years, notably during Bush's first term when the Colin Powell-led State Department's words of caution on the Iraq war were ignored.

—Matthew Lee

JUSTICE

The Justice Department will re-examine all surveillance, interrogation and detainee policies to see if any should be overturned or changed. Obama has said he wants to close the detention facility at U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, meaning he must decide whether terror suspects held there now should face military or civilian trials if they are moved to U.S. jails.

Obama advisers say he may review the department's newly approved guidelines that could let the FBI investigate Americans in national security cases without evidence of a crime, based in part on their ethnicity or religion. He wants to create a senior position — likely from the FBI or Homeland Security Department — to coordinate all domestic intelligence gathering.

He has called for hiring 50,000 new police officers nationwide. The administration is likely to urge Congress to pass the Matthew Shepard Act, which expands federal hate crime laws to include protections for people targeted because of their gender, sexual orientation or disabilities — and then require vigorous Justice Department enforcement.

Obama says he wants to eliminate any disparity between sentencing guidelines for people convicted of crack cocaine crimes and those for powder cocaine. Penalties for crack cocaine offenses are much harsher, and the vast majority of those convicted are black.

—Lara Jakes Jordan

HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Obama wants the government to help millions of lower-income people buy health insurance through greater use of government subsidies, an approach the Bush administration has opposed.

The State Children's Health Insurance Program expires soon, and many analysts see its reauthorization as a way for Obama to secure an easy and early victory on health care.

For adults, Obama would establish a new public insurance program as part of a National Health Issuance Exchange, which would include private insurance plans. Millions of Americans would get some federal help in paying their premiums.

The Bush administration encouraged people to leave traditional Medicare by subsidizing private insurers offering "Medicare Advantage" plans. Obama has said he would reduce payments to these Medicare insurers by about $150 billion over 10 years.

—Kevin Freking

ENERGY

The Energy Department is likely to shift its focus dramatically toward development of alternative energy, increasing support for research into cellulosic ethanol, wind turbines, solar technology and more fuel-efficient cars. The department is likely to press for tougher efficiency standards for appliances and buildings.

Obama has said he wants to spend $15 billion a year to spur alternative energy and more efficient use of energy. Economic and budgetary problems, however, may make those spending levels difficult.

Obama has said he does not oppose nuclear power, but has reservations about building dozens of new reactors because of concerns about radioactive waste. Obama has said he believes Yucca Mountain in Nevada — where Bush wants to bury reactor waste — is not the right place to keep it for millions of years. It's not certain whether Obama will withdraw the Yucca Mountain license application, now before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The Energy Department may more closely scrutinize loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors. Obama's Energy Department is likely to continue along its current path on most nuclear weapons programs and related waste cleanup efforts, which account for most of the department's budget.

—Joe Hebert

TREASURY

Obama's most immediate economic problem will be dealing with the nation's financial crisis and deciding how to implement the $700 billion rescue program Congress passed last month. He is expected to move quickly to get a team in place to work with outgoing Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

Obama has proposed a 90-day moratorium on home foreclosures by companies getting assistance from the bailout bill. He also said he wants tighter restrictions on executive pay at institutions receiving the federal aid.

Obama supports a second stimulus bill to boost the economy. He would spend more on government infrastructure projects to create jobs, and he would give more aid to states that are having to cut services.

Obama wants to temporarily suspend rules that impose tax penalties on early withdrawals from 401(k) retirement plans to allow cash-strapped families to tap these funds.

—Martin Crutsinger

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

Obama has promised to listen to the EPA's scientific experts and "reverse the Bush administration's attempt to chip away at our nation's clean air and water standards."

On global warming, he has said he will overturn a Bush decision forbidding California from setting limits on greenhouse gases from vehicle tailpipes. He wants to reduce the amount of carbon in gasoline by 10 percent by 2020.

Unlike Bush, Obama might try to regulate global warming gases under existing law, although he has made clear that his priority is pushing Congress to draft a new law to limit how much of those gases can be released.

—Dina Cappiello

INTERIOR

Obama has said he will thwart attempts by the Bush administration to discount the advice of the department's wildlife biologists when deciding if power plants, dams and other projects will harm endangered species.

He has vowed to invest to "repair the damage done to our national parks by inadequate funding" and protect the nation's forests.

Obama says he will acquire and conserve new parks, and uphold the 58.5 million acres of national forestland that former President Clinton set aside in 2001 as roadless areas. The Bush administration has tried to overturn the rule.

—Dina Cappiello

TRANSPORTATION

Obama has consistently called for spending more on the nation's crumbling highways, bridges and tunnels. Besides transportation spending in a proposed stimulus bill, Obama has endorsed a $60 billion National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank.

The current $286 billion highway bill expires in 2009. It's unclear how Obama and the Congress will fund a new bill now that federal gas taxes are falling short of program obligations.

Another top priority will be passage of a bill reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration and moving forward on modernizing the nation's air traffic system, which relies on World War II-era technology. Relations between air traffic controllers and the FAA have are likely to be much more harmonious in an Obama administration.

The outlook for Amtrak could also brighten. Obama has pledged support for Amtrak and called for developing high-speed rail networks across the country to conserve energy and boost the economy. Amtrak has an important ally in vice president-elect Joe Biden, one of the railroad's most enthusiastic supporters in the Senate.

—Joan Lowy

EDUCATION

Obama has pledged to overhaul President Bush's No Child Left Behind education law. He says it emphasizes annual test scores in reading and math too heavily at the expense of subjects such as music and art and is too punitive toward struggling schools.

Yet it's unclear how much of the law Obama would undo. His advisers include supporters as well as opponents of the law, and Obama's campaign said he would not dump the testing requirements at the heart of No Child Left Behind.

Obama supports universal pre-kindergarten. He would help students pay for college with $4,000 tax credits in exchange for community service. However, paying for such efforts, estimated to cost $19 billion, may prove difficult.

Obama has also said he likes the controversial idea of tying teachers' pay raises to student performance, but only if teachers negotiate the arrangement and it's not based solely on test scores.

—Libby Quaid

AGRICULTURE

Obama has cultivated the support of many farm groups, and he stood behind a massive, $290 billion farm bill enacted earlier this year over President Bush's veto. He supports traditional farm subsidies, weather-related disaster assistance for farmers and subsidies for corn ethanol.

However, Obama favors lowering the maximum amount of subsidies an individual farmer can receive, something Congress has resisted.

"We'll close loopholes that let agribusiness break the rules and we'll put more fruits and vegetables in our schools and fight hunger," Obama said in South Dakota in May.

Some of his positions on trade may be less popular with farmers. He has been cool to some free trade agreements and wants to revisit some aspects of NAFTA, which has been a boon for agricultural exports to Canada and Mexico.

—Mary Clare Jalonick

LABOR

Organized labor will renew its bid to enact the Employee Free Choice Act. Under the EFCA — which passed the House but failed in the Senate — unions could increase their membership by having employees sign cards, instead of going through secret-ballot elections to organize workplaces.

Under Obama, the National Labor Relations Board may try to reverse several decisions, including those that let companies classify workers as supervisors and thus exempt them from union coverage; require companies to post instructions on how to get rid of newly formed unions; and prohibit union organizers from using company e-mail systems.

Obama's Labor Department also can be expected to push for increased power for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Mine Safety and Health Administration, including more job-site inspections and increased penalties for safety violations.

—Jesse Holland

HOMELAND SECURITY

Obama has said he would add more personnel, infrastructure and technology to the border regions and crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants, which is what the Bush administration is currently doing. Obama also said he would bring the 12 million people who are currently in the country "out of the shadows," fine them, make them pay taxes and get them to the back of the line to become U.S. citizens.

Obama must decide whether to remove the Federal Emergency Management Agency from the Homeland Security Department and restore it as an independent agency. One of his top advisers, James Lee Witt, favors such a move, but other administration priorities may come first.

—Eileen Sullivan

INTELLIGENCE:

Obama wants an overhaul of the human side of spying, and wants to give fixed terms to the national intelligence director's office to buffer it from sudden changes in partisan leadership. He has expressed concerns with the size and scope of the office, created four years ago to oversee and knit together the nation's 16 intelligence agencies. The office has grown dramatically since then.

Top officials have asked that intelligence structures— the offices and roles now laid out in laws, after multiple post-9/11 reforms — remain stable.

—Pamela Hess

VETERANS AFFAIRS

Obama wants to expand VA health care for veterans. Congress voted in 1996 to do that, but the agency has exercised its authority to suspend enrollments as needed. Obama has said that led to 1 million veterans being turned away, and he has promised to reverse the policy.

He also said he would improve screening and treatment for mental health conditions and traumatic brain injury; expand the number of housing vouchers and start a program to help veterans at risk of being homeless; add more rural veterans centers; create an electronic system to transfer medical records from the military; and improve preventative health options.

—Kimberly Hefling

NASA

Obama is a space fan, and a troubled NASA is counting on that.

NASA doesn't have enough money to do all it has planned and is facing key decisions about its embryonic return-to-the-moon program, new rocketship and about-to-retire space shuttle program. The current NASA plan would have the space shuttle end in 2010 and astronauts not ready to fly in a new moon rocket until 2015. In the five years in between, America would have to rely on the Russians to take astronauts to the mostly U.S.-funded international space station.

NASA's robotic Mars program is in disarray, and its Earth-observing program has been downsized.

The Obama campaign said it supports a "robust" program of robotic probes and space-based telescopes and satellites. It also emphasized education and NASA's role in climate change research.

—Seth Borenstein