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Obama Freezes Top Salaries
2009年1月24日
President Barack Obama, on a busy first full day in office, announced a wage freeze for top White House staff, waded into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and signaled a sharp break from the government's handling of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
Mr. Obama's nominee for Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, told lawmakers that the administration was crafting a 'comprehensive plan' to address the financial crisis -- coupled with efforts to address long-term budget problems posed by Social Security and Medicare.
In other moves Wednesday, the Senate confirmed Hillary Clinton, Mr. Obama's choice for secretary of state. Mr. Geithner had a fairly smooth hearing before the Finance Committee and was expected to be confirmed by the panel Thursday. The new president was also in advanced talks to name former U.S. Senator George Mitchell as a special Middle East envoy, and an announcement was expected as soon as Thursday, according to officials familiar with the negotiations.
Later in the day, Mr. Obama met with his top national-security advisers to discuss a timetable for fulfilling one of his principal campaign promises: to withdraw combat troops from Iraq within 16 months.
On Capitol Hill, House Counsel Greg Craig briefed congressional leaders on three executive orders the president is expected to sign on Thursday, a House leadership aide said. Those orders will deal with closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay, new rules on torture, and the handling of detainees, said the aide.
Mr. Obama signed two executive orders and three presidential memoranda aimed at making government more transparent and tightening ethics rules. Those steps were designed to make good on some of the key themes of his campaign, and to show a break with a Bush administration that critics said was too secretive.
The new president also ordered that the salaries of senior staff earning more than $100,000 a year be frozen. The move would affect about a third of the 450 White House staff.
'During this period of economic emergency, families are tightening their belts, and so should Washington,' he told about 30 members of his senior staff, gathered in the executive office building next door to the White House. 'However long we are keepers of the public trust, we should never forget that we are here as public servants.'
Mr. Obama signed an executive order prohibiting executive-branch employees from accepting gifts from lobbyists and setting new rules on lobbying, both before and after their service in his administration. Under the new policy, no official may work on matters for which they served as lobbyists during the previous two years. And after leaving government, they may not lobby a slew of top officials in the administration -- as long as Mr. Obama is president.
Mr. Obama also ordered that the administration adopt new rules making it easier for the public to obtain information using the Freedom of Information Act. He issued an order making clear that only the president can assert executive privilege in keeping records secret after an administration ends.
On the foreign-relations front, Mr. Obama made good on his campaign pledge to engage on the Arab-Israeli dispute from 'day one,' breaking from his predecessor, who waited until late in his second term before jumping fully into the conflict.
Mr. Obama is sticking to the Bush administration's hard-line of not directly engaging the militant Palestinian group Hamas, raising questions among Arab diplomats about just how significantly U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East is set to shift.
On Wednesday, Mr. Obama called the leaders of Israel, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority to discuss the ongoing crisis in the Gaza Strip, according to the White House. By including Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, in his opening round, Mr. Obama is signaling a continuation of a Bush administration policy that has sought to strengthen the moderate leader over his rivals in Hamas, according to Mideast analysts.
Mr. Obama also met Wednesday with his national security team, including Gen. David Petraeus, who oversees the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Gen. Raymond Odierno, the top Iraq commander.
The session marked Mr. Obama's first attempt to find a workable middle ground between his campaign promise to speedily withdraw U.S. combat forces from Iraq and the military's preference for a slower and smaller drawdown.
奥巴马上任第一天 冻结高官薪水
美国总统奥巴马入主白宫后的首个工作日在繁忙中度过，他宣布了针对白宫高级官员的工资冻结令、精神饱满地投入解决巴以冲突的工作，在对待关塔那摩监狱囚犯的问题上也较政府之前的做法有明显转变。
奥巴马提名的财政部长盖纳对国会议员表示，政府正在制定解决金融危机的“全面计划”，同时也在努力解决社会保障计划和联邦医疗保险计划带来的长期预算问题。
Associated Press 奥巴马总统周三在艾森豪威尔办公楼发表讲话，
后面是副总统拜登
周三，参议院确认了对希拉里的国务卿任命。盖纳在金融委员会进行的听证相当顺利，预计他的任命将在周四的专门小组会上获得确认。奥巴马对前参议员米切尔担任美国驻中东特使的提名已进入最后商谈阶段，据了解谈判情况的人士透露，预计最早将于周四宣布任命。
周三晚些时候，奥巴马与高级国家安全顾问讨论了完成一项主要竞选承诺的时间表：16个月内从伊拉克撤出作战部队。
据一位众议院领导人助手说，在国会山，白宫法律顾问克雷格向国会领导人简要介绍了预计总统将在周四签署的其他三项政令。这位助手说，这些命令将涉及关闭关塔那摩监狱、有关对囚犯用刑的新规定以及如何处置在押人员的问题。
奥巴马签署了两项政令和三项旨在提高政府透明度、加强行为规范的总统备忘录。这些动作是为兑现他在竞选期间的某些主要承诺，并表明希望改变布什政府期间被批评人士认为行动太隐秘的做法。
新总统还下令，年薪超过10万美元的白宫高级官员将冻结工资。这一命令将涉及到白宫450名官员中三分之一的人。
奥巴马对聚集在白宫隔壁行政办公楼里的大约30名总统高级幕僚们说，在经济形势紧迫的这段时期，美国家庭都在勒紧腰带，所以华盛顿也应该这么做。只要我们是公共信托的监护人，我们就绝不能忘记我们是公众的仆人。
奥巴马签署了一项政令，禁止行政分支机构的雇员接受游说团体的礼物，并对游说活动制定了新规则，涉及他们在这届新政府供职之前及之后的游说活动。根据这项新制度，任何官员都不得参与他们在之前两年曾为之游说的相关事务的工作。在离开政府后，他们不得对政府中的一系列高级官员游说，只要奥巴马还是总统。
奥巴马还要求政府制定新规定，便于公众根据《信息自由法》获得信息。他颁布了一项法令，宣布只有总统才有特权要求档案在一届政府到期后仍可保密。
在外交关系方面，奥巴马兑现了他在竞选时作出的上任“第一天”就开始致力于解决阿-以冲突的承诺，一改其前任布什的做法。布什直到其第二个任期的后期才匆忙投入阿以冲突问题。
奥巴马坚持布什政府时期有关不直接与巴勒斯坦武装组织哈马斯进行接触的强硬立场，这让阿拉伯外交人士对于美国对中东的外交政策会有多大程度的转变产生了疑问。
据白宫透露，周三，奥巴马分别给以色列、埃及、约旦和巴勒斯坦权力机构的领导人打去电话，讨论眼下的加沙危机。奥巴马的首轮电话中将巴勒斯坦权力机构主席阿巴斯包括在内，中东问题分析人士认为，这表明，他将延续布什政府的政策，即寻求加强这位温和派领导人对抗哈马斯的实力。
奥巴马周三还与国家安全团队的人员见了面，其中包括监督阿富汗和伊拉克战争的彼得雷乌斯和美军驻伊最高司令官奥德耶诺。
这一安排是奥巴马首次尝试在其有关从伊拉克迅速撤军的竞选承诺与军方希望放慢撤军进程并缩小撤军规模的愿望之间寻找一个可行的中间地带。
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发表于 2016-8-12 16:31:09