Obama is supporting a bill in Congress that would triple the amount of non-military aid to Pakistan to $1.5 billion a year. The State Department, meanwhile, intends to establish "benchmarks" for progress on security, despite a Pakistani warning that attaching strings to the aid will not engender much goodwill in Islamabad. Obama has said that Pakistan should focus more on tracking down al-Qaida extremists in its border region with Afghanistan.
The expanded EITC remains intact in the final stimulus bill.
The Environmental Protection Agency solicited public comment on enforcement priorities for fiscal 2011 to 2013, a list that includes CAFOs.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is confident that the drawdown of 65,000 troops will begin in March after scheduled elections.
Facing immense pressure from congressional Democrats, the White House backed off its promise to drug companies to exclude negotiations for lower drug costs from health care reform. Democrats were upset that the White House's deal appeared to restrict them from negotiating lower costs, but the White House assured them it did not.
