The Freedom Project, chaired by House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, claims the White House is blocking a link for the GOP response to Obama's first presidential Web address. The White House allows comments on YouTube-posted videos, but the video response option is disabled.
Weekly official party responses to presidential addresses have been a common radio practice for a decade, across Bill Clinton and George W. Bush's presidencies. At the time of original "fireside chats" by Franklin D. Roosevelt, dozens of critical radio speeches aired, including ones from Herbert Hoover, Father Coughlin and Huey Long, although none "official."
The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, signed by Obama, includes an amendment by Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, establishing a nonprofit capacity building program under the purview of the Corporation for National and Community Service.
The administration announced that it will allow Cuban Americans to travel to Cuba and transfer unlimited amounts of money to relatives in the island nation, ending a Bush policy that allowed trips just two weeks every three years.
Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the first bill to reach him as president. The new law establishes that wage discrimination cases filed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act are subject to a 180-day statute of limitations that refreshes with each paycheck.
The Homeland Security Department delivered its first quadrennial review to Congress. The report is modeled after the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review, which was delivered the same day.
The report addresses threats ranging from natural hazards to large-scale terrorist attacks and outlines the need to monitor "asymmetric tactics such as terrorism and cyber warfare" on a daily basis. Trends listed as threats to national security include financial instability, dependence on fossil fuels and rogue nations.
The next step is a thorough analysis of the department as suggested in the report, the results of which would help shape the fiscal 2012 budget.
Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act into law. It provides for regular increases in national service positions from 88,000 in fiscal 2010 up to 250,000 in fiscal 2017.
To go along with the passage of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, the White House expanded and relaunched Serve.gov. The site, which is managed by the Corporation for National and Community Service, allows visitors to search for volunteer opportunities and post their own service events to the site.
President Obama announced a 30,000-troop "surge" in Afghanistan, but also outlined a plan to begin withdrawing U.S. forces in July 2011.
Obama appointed Kimberly Teehee to be senior policy adviser for Native American affairs. Teehee has been a senior adviser to Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Mich., co-chair of the House Native American Caucus, since 1998.
Obama nominated Ben Bernanke to serve a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. Bernanke, a Republican, was first nominated by President George W. Bush in 2005.
