EXECUTIVE WATCH

• On Wednesday, June 17, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee began the lengthy public drafting process of an overhaul of the nation’s health care system. President Obama’s administration supports these efforts and hopes for comprehensive health care legislation within his first year in office. However, on the same day, the Finance Committee’s drafting session of health care legislation was postponed until after the July Fourth recess.
• On Wednesday, June 17, Senator John Ensign of Nevada resigned his position as the fourth highest-ranking Republican leader after admiting an extra-marital affair with a former staffer. Ensign had been the chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, and had served as chairman of the 2008 Senate Republican campaign efforts.
• On Wednesday, June 17, following the Obama administration’s renewal of efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the European Union followed suit, promising $100 million in aid for persons displaced by the fighting in the Swat Valley at the first ever Europen Union – Pakistan summit meeting. Further, the European Union has plans to help Pakistan with its counter-terrorism, law enforcement and criminal justice efforts in the future.
• On Wednesday, June 17, President Obama disbanded the President’s Council on Bioethics, which had been created by former President Bush  in 2001. Obama will be creating a new panel that will focus on “practical policy options” rather than philosophical discussions.
• On Wednesday, June 17, President Obama signed an administrative memorandum granting domestic partnership rights to federal workers. These benefits allow access to long-term insurance benefits and sick leave. Many view this effort by Obama as an attempt to win back gay and lesbian voters who have largely been unhappy with his administration’s record on the issue, however the memorandum still was highly criticized for not going far enough as to grant surivivorship rights or healthcare.
• On Thursday, June 18, the Senate passed an emergency spending bill to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq through September 30^th. Having already passed the House, this bill will be presented to President Obama for his signature, despite controversy over a provision devoting funds to a “cash for clunkers” program to give vouchers to those who trade in their cars for more fuel-efficient models.
• On Thursday, June 18, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 against an inmate’s attempt to obtain a new post-conviction DNA test that might have proved his innocence.  The Obama administration, in suit with the Bush administration’s position, had lobbied against providing a constitutional right to such testing. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, emphasized the burden and doubt testing would cast on the criminal justice system.
• On Friday, June 19, House Democracts unveiled a wide-sweeping draft bill to overhaul the healthcare system, including provisions to require all Americans to obtain coverage, forcing employers to provide or aid in providing benefits and the creation of a public insurance program. Considered a starting point for discussion, there are no estimates of cost included.
• On Friday, June 19, President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, resigned from an all-women’s club called Belizean Grove, following controversy over its membership. Although insisting the organization does not practice “invidious discrimination,” Sotomayor wished to prevent it from becoming an issue during her confirmation hearings.
• On Friday, June 19, President Obama delivered a speech on fatherhood, emphasizing the importance of mentors and father figures for young children. Continuing a theme from previous speeches on the issue, Obama discussed responsibility and related personal stories of his own absent father.
• On Saturday, June 20, violence continued to erupt on the streets of Iran following disputed election results. Opposition leader Moussavi remained adament in demanding the election results to be annuled, and called for a general strike if he were to be arrested.
• On Saturday, June 20, President Medvedev of Russia stated that Russia was preparing a significant decrease in nuclear arms, as part of its negotiations with the United States over arms control, which will include a summit meeting between the two nations next month.
• On Monday, June 22, Iran’s Guardian Council admitted that the number of votes recorded in 50 cities exceeded, by three million, the number of eligible voters. Despite this inconsistency, the council continued to assert the validity of the results, amid ongoing protests.
• On Monday, June 22, President Obama signed landmark legislation into law, bringing tobacco products under federal control for the first time. This legislation is aimed at preventing under-age children from beginning to smoke, as President Obama emphasized that he was included in those numbers, and such a bill may have helped him at that age. The law will ban certain flavors of tobacco products and advertising of products at sporting and athletics events.
• On Tuesday, June 23, President Obama announced an envoy will be sent to Syria, marking a renewal of relations between the two countries after President’s Bush removal of diplomats four years ago. A person has not yet been chosen for the position.
• On Tuesday, June 23, Former Vice-President Richard Cheney revealed he has finished negotiations to publish a memoir covering his decades in government service, stretching back to the Nixon and Ford administrations.
• On Tuesday, June 23, the Obama administration scrapped previous plans to create a spy satellite program under the Department of Homeland Security, amid growing concerns of domestic spying. The program was intended to be used to aid local officials in domestic disaster relief efforts, border security and security for major events, such as the Super Bowl.

A New York Times graphic summarizing the changes proposed in the just-released Obama plan for reforming regulation of the financial sector, here, suggests both a possible regularization of the “czars” of which this administration seems quite fond, and a presidential position on the nature of independent regulatory commission independence that is both defensible and new.  The plan proposes creation of a Federal Services Oversight Council, under the aegis of Treasury, that would replace a current White House working group, and have significant coordinating authority in respect of several independent regulatory bodies – the SEC, the CFTC, a new, “independent” Consumer Financial Protection Agency, and the Federal Reserve (which would be given substantially expanded authority).  The Council would consist of (i) the Secretary of the Treasury, serving as Chairman; (ii) the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; (iii) the Director of the National Bank Supervisor; (iv) the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency; (v) the Chairman of the SEC; (vi) the Chairman of the CFTC; (vii) the Chairman of the FDIC; and (viii) the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).  It would have a permanent, “expert” staff at Treasury, and it would be empowered to gather information from any financial firm and to refer emerging risks to the attention of regulators with the authority to respond.

Super-agencies like this have some precedent in government – the “God-squad” of cabinet officers empowered to create exceptions to protections that would otherwise be mandated by the Endangered Species Act comes to mind – but have any included the IRCs?  The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has a strange relationship with the Department of Energy, and there is the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission’s relationship with the Department of Labor, but these are single line relationships, with the features for which independence is bestowed unaffected.  Here, three or perhaps four independent commissions (depending on the details of the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency) would be placed under the wing of the Department of the Treasury, with the clear implication that at least some information-gathering responsibility would be in the new Council, and policy and enforcement direction could flow from it.

A White House claim to coordinate and supervise the behavior of independent regulatory commissions on matters of significant national importance will seem strange to some, but is, in my judgment, both entailed by the Constitution’s commitment of executive authority to the President and wise. The right issues are not whether, but how this is done.  In a notable court of appeals case involving the Endangered Species Act creation, the Ninth Circuit rebuffed a presidential claim to command the behavior of a council composed entirely of at-will cabinet-level officers.  In that case, this was because its decision was committed to on-the-record procedures. Although that reason is unlikely to be available here, the new Council will be acting in a context in which the instinct to separate decision from politics has been nearly universal.  All over the world, regulators with
responsibility for monetary policy and financial regulation are, by one means or another, kept out of the direct control of politicians who might be motivated to use their actions for short-term political advantage.  It is a condition of market confidence.  So it seems important to assure that in creating this new mechanism for central coordination and direction of financial regulation, driven by the current crisis, the White House also creates procedures, transparency measures, and the like that will provide some assurance that raw politics will be kept at bay.

• On Wednesday, June 3, President Obama nominated Jim Leach as chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Jim Leach is a former Republican congressman, and represents a continuation of the Obama administration’s practice of appointing Republicans to administration positions.
• On Wednesday, June 3, Attorney General Eric Holder reversed a Bush administration order claiming immigrants did not have the constitutional right to effective legal representation during deportation hearings.  As the immigration are not part of the judicial branch, but rather the Justice department, the Attorney General holds the final authority. Although immigrants are not entitled to public representation, they can hire a private attorney.
• On Wednesday, June 3, Israeli administration officials claimed they had a ‘clear understanding’ with the Bush administration, allowing for continued Israeli building in the West Bank. The officials claim the Obama administration has failed to uphold these agreements. Palestinians have denounced new building within existing settlements, claiming it violates a cessation of expansion agreeement.
• On Thursday, June 4, President Obama delivered a landmark speech in Cairo, directed at Arab citizens and leadership. The address struck a conciliatory tone, calling for a ‘new beginning’ between the United States and the Arab world and urging democracy. The speech was intended to convey Obama’s understanding of Arab culture, emphasizing his own ancestory and quoting from the Qu’ran.
• On Thursday, June 4, President Obama named eight diplomatic appointments, including three to top fundraisers from his campaign. In total, nominations were announced for eight ambassadorships, to Canada, the Bahamas, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Guinea, Lithuania, and Haiti.
• On Friday, June 5, First Lady Michelle Obama named Susan Sher as her new chief of staff, replacing Jackie Norris. Sher is a long time Chicago friend of the First Lady, formerly her boss at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Norris will become a senior adviser for the Corporation for National and Community Service.
• On Friday, June 5, President Obama visited the Buchenwald concentration camp, laying a rose at a memorial. Obama spoke out against Holocaust denial, calling it a “denial of fact and truth that is baseless and ignorant and hateful.”
• On Friday, June 5, a draft of Senator Ted Kennedy’s health care legislation was circulated to the Senate. The plan calls for sweeping subsidization of premiums and promising access to ‘essential health care benefits.’  The Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, chaired by Kennedy, has scheduled a mark-up session for mid-June. However, due to health concerns, Kennedy will not be present for much of the debate around his health care proposals.
• On Friday, June 5, President Obama’s nominee to head intelligence operations for the Department of Homeland Security, Philip Mudd, withdrew from consideration. It had become clear that Mudd’s role in CIA interrogation operations would delay his confirmation
• On Saturday, June 6, President Obama signalled the beginning of his administration’s push for health care reform, calling Congress to begin dealing with the ever-present issue in his weekly radio address. Obama emphasized centering reform around lowering costs, improving coverage and eliminating waste.
• On Saturday, June 6, President Obama praised the ‘selflessness’ of those who lost their lives on the beaches of Normandy in the D-day invasion at a speech at the American Normandy Cemetary. Marking the 65^th anniversary of the invasion, Obama was joined by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
• On Sunday, June 7, Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu said he would outline his “principles for achieving peace and security” within the next week. This announcement signalling Netanyahu’s intention to engage in peace talks comes under rising pressure from the Obama administration. Netanyahu has largely resisted U.S. efforts over the peace process.
• On Monday, June 8, President Obama denounced the sentencing in North Korea of two American journalists to twelve years for entering the country. The United States said it would use “all possible channels” to obtain the safe release of the two imprisoned Americans.
• On Monday, June 8, an American-backed coalition triumphed over the Hezbollah-backed coalition in Lebanon in parliamentary elections, which some analysts attribute to Obama’s recent renewal of Arab-American relations. The American coalition won a total of 71 seats, while the Iranian and Syrian backed Hezbollah opposition won 57 seats.
• On Tuesday, June 9, the Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge against Chrysler’s sale of most of its assests to the European automaker, Fiat. Rather than hear the case on its merits, the Court declared that the challengers, several Indiana state funds and consumer groups, had failed to meet its burden to require the Court to intervene. On Monday, June 8, Justice Ginsburg issued a temporary order delaying the sale, but Tuesday’s decision cleared the way. The Court’s decision is considered a victory for the Obama administration who has lobbied for the reconstruction of the failing American automaker.
• On Tuesday, June 9, Defense Secretary Gates appeared before the Senate Appropriations Committee, giving hopeful testimony about the ongoing effort in Afghanistan.  Gates emphasized the possibility of cooperation between the Pakistani’s, Afghani’s and the United States as providing optimism.
• On Tuesday, June 9, Senate Democrats revealed that the hearings on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor would begin July 13, which was followed by angry reaction from Senate Republicans. Republicans have called for the hearings to be delayed until September, however, Democrats claim the current schedule should put the hearings concluding before the August recess. This decision is consistent with the Obama administration’s desire for an expedited hearing.
• On Tuesday, June 9, George Mitchell, Obama’s Middle East Envoy, met with Israeli leaders in Tel Aviv. Mitchell encouraged peace talks between the Israeli’s and Palestinians, but made little reference to the Administration’s calls for a halt to building Israeli settlements.