| Abortion 3 | Jul 13, 2009 | Administration 6 | Aug 25, 2009 |
| Agriculture 8 | Oct 06, 2009 | Civil Rights 10 | Nov 09, 2009 |
| Criminal Justice 10 | Oct 19, 2009 | Defense 26 | Nov 20, 2009 |
| Diversity 1 | Jun 15, 2009 | Economy 7 | Jul 31, 2009 |
| Education 27 | Aug 16, 2009 | Energy/Environment 27 | Nov 17, 2009 |
| Ethics Reform 13 | Jul 28, 2009 | Foreign Policy 28 | Nov 10, 2009 |
| Government Spending 6 | Jun 23, 2009 | Health Care 12 | Nov 07, 2009 |
| Housing/Urban Policy 10 | Aug 26, 2009 | Infrastructure 6 | Oct 28, 2009 |
| Labor 14 | Mar 16, 2009 | Miscellaneous 2 | Jun 19, 2009 |
| Public Service 8 | Apr 21, 2009 | Science/Technology 5 | Aug 20, 2009 |
| Social Security/Medicare 3 | Oct 15, 2009 | Taxes 15 | Aug 19, 2009 |
| Veterans 14 | Oct 22, 2009 |
More than three months after Melissa Hathaway, the acting senior director for cybersecurity at the National Security Council, resigned, Obama still hasn't appointed a czar. Federal Times reports that the White House may be preparing to announce someone soon, perhaps around Thanksgiving.
President Obama admitted today that Guantanamo Bay prison will not close by his January 2010 deadline, and while he said he hoped to shutter it sometime next year, he declined to give a new deadline.
"People, I think understandably, are fearful after a lot of years where they were told that Guantanamo was critical to keep terrorists out," Obama said. Closing the prison is "also just technically hard," he added
President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao announced a joint Clean Energy Research Center, which would use at least $150 million over five years of both public and private funding -- split evenly between the two nations -- for research and development of clean energy technologies.
Research and development of clean coal technology, especially carbon capture and sequester (CCS), has been given priority in the new Clean Energy Research Center, a joint venture announced by President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao. The center will be supported by both public and private funding of at least $150 million over five years, evenly divided between the two nations.
The presidents also announced several joint projects between American and Chinese companies that are developing CCS technologies, including one between General Electric and Shenhua Corporation.
With climate change legislation in the Senate stalled and the House-passed Waxman-Markey bill not gaining a foothold in the upper chamber, the administration has conceded that a binding global treaty cannot be signed during the December U.N. climate negotiations in Copenhagen. At an Asia Pacific summit, President Obama endorsed the idea of forging a "political agreement" that would lay the groundwork for a legally binding treaty to be negotiated later in 2010.
Many experts say that the stalled U.S. climate change legislation has delayed international talks, since some of the world's other biggest polluters, namely the developing countries of China and India, are unwilling to commit to greenhouse gas emissions cuts without a firm reduction target put forth by the United States. For its part though, the U.S. is hesitant to name a specific target without first passing domestic climate change legislation and also without commitments from other countries.
Obama tapped Rajiv Shah, 36, to lead the U.S. Agency for International Development, taking a step toward filling a post that has lacked a permanent administrator for 10 months. The vacancy has drawn the ire of the aid community.
A team of liberal activists and Web sites -- including AMERICAblog and Daily Kos -- announced a kind of backward pledge drive in response to what it views as empty promises by President Obama to the gay community.
The groups are asking supporters to "pledge" they will not donate any money to the Democratic National Committee, Organizing for America or the Obama campaign until the president's campaign promises are fulfilled -- meaning he must sign the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and the Defense of Marriage Act.
"LGBT Americans, our families, and our friends kept our promise at the ballot box, we now expect President Obama to keep his in the White House," wrote bloggers at AMERICAblog.
The pledge drive -- also termed a "boycott" and a "pause" by media and bloggers -- is the latest uprising by Obama's gay supporters, who are growing outwardly dissatisfied with the rate of progress on issues important to them.
The House passed its health care reform bill, which encourages hospitals to adopt electronic health records.
The House passed its health care reform bill, which would establish a national health insurance exchange where consumers could compare plans and find the most affordable option. It also offers subsidies to middle- and low-income individuals and families to help them purchase insurance.
The House passed its health care reform bill, which would ban insurance companies from denying coverage or dropping patients due to health conditions.
