By David Nitkin

A White House veto threat is complicating congressional efforts to stem a wave of foreclosures and help more homeowners get into mortgages they can afford.

As lawmakers move ahead on a plan to allow the Federal Housing Adminstration to grant higher loans and to make reforms to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Bush administration has raised major warnings about the effort. Congress is planning to move the legislation today, according to Congressional Quarterly.

In a Statement of Administrative Policy, the White House called the legislative effort "overly burdensome and prescriptive. It would force FHA and taxpayers to take on excessive risk, and jeopardize FHA's financial solvency."

The White House says it could support some reforms for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but said the House plan, being advanced by Rep. Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, goes too far.

The housing legislation was one of several topics discussed yesterday during a meeting between Bush and congressional Republicans.

The housing plan "bails out scam artists and speculators," House Republican Leader John Boehner said in a statement after the meeting.

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By David Nitkin

President Bush renewed his call for increased benefits for military families on Tuesday during a White House observance of Military Spouse Day.

"I sent up some legislation -- I certainly hope congress moves on it quickly -- that will make it easier to expand access to child care, create new authorities to appoint qualified spouses into civil service jobs, provide educational opportunities and job training for our military spouses, and finally, allow our troops to transfer their unused education benefits to spouses or children," Bush said during remarks on the South Lawn. "This legislation is moving. I hope to be able to sign it as quickly as possible. It is the absolute right thing to do."

Bush also promoted the package during his January State of the Union address.

At the morning ceremony, the president recognized six military spouses who are recipients of the President's Volunteer Service Award, including Ramona Vazquez of Baltimore. Vazquez is president of the Baltimore Area Coast Guard Spouses Association, and created and maintains a Web site for Coast Guard families coming to Baltimore. She also founded a service that provides free diapers, formula, clothes and toys to military and civilian families.

Other award recipients were Colleen Saffron of Fort Hood, Texas; Laprece James and Ellen Patton of California; Dawnle Scheetz of Sharon, Penn.; and Bob Davison of Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi.

by Matthew Hay Brown

President Bush has warned Democrats against adding domestic spending to the upcoming war spending bill. The Democrats aren't listening.

"All the while President Bush has invested in the battlefront, he has consistently ignored the home front," Rep. Andre Carson says today in the weekly Democratic radio address.

"American tax dollars are supporting the construction of new roads in Iraq while the potholes in my hometown of Indianapolis are only getting bigger," says the Indiana Democrat, who was elected in March to succeed his late grandmother, Rep. Julia Carson. "Our tax dollars are being used to train teachers to teach in Iraqi schools, while too many American children go without the education they need and deserve. While new hospitals and health clinics are being built in Iraq, the President proposed cutting Medicare for seniors and refuses to extend health insurance coverage to millions of children.

"If we took even a fraction of the billions of dollars we spend in Iraq and used them here at home, we could make real progress and help get our nation out of our economic slump."

President Bush has said the emergency supplemental bill to fund operations in Iraq and Afghanistan is not the place for the spending the Democrats contemplate. The Democratic address follows.

by Matthew Hay Brown

Congressional Democrats and the White House are headed for another showdown over war funding. But this time, the conflict is unlikely to be over the mission in Iraq.

With a Senate majority too narrow to overcome Republican opposition, and quieted by the success of the troop surge in tamping down violence, Democrats have backed away from efforts to force President Bush to wind the war down.

Instead, they're talking about loading up the next emergency supplemental bill with other spending. Congressional leaders are considering using the legislation, which could hit the House floor as early as next week, as a vehicle for funding another economic stimulus package, investing in infrastructure or boosting benefits for veterans.

Bush doesn't like that either.

"I made my position very clear to Congress and I will not accept a supplemental over $108 billion," he said this week. "We will work with Congress on these veterans' benefits.
I'm a firm believer that we ought to treat our veterans with respect. In the State of the Union I talked about the idea of transferring - a soldier being able to transfer educational benefits to a spouse or children. We've sent legislation to that effect up to Congress; we would like for them to move on it quickly. But the $108 billion is $108 billion."

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Wednesday that he didn't want to discuss what would be in the supplemental before final decisions had been made. But he didn't sound bound to Bush's figure.

"I reject the President's view that all this supplemental should be is for spending money overseas," the Maryland Democrat told reporters. "We believe Americans have needs. Whether it's still responding to Katrina years after we promised that we would do so, whether it's responding to people who are unemployed and having a tough time, whether it's responding to making sure that we have some emergencies met in this country as opposed to in Iraq or Afghanistan, we think Americans believe that that is a priority item for them. We share that view."

If past experience is any guide, Bush seems likely to get his way in the end. On previous war spending bills, the president and his congressional allies stared down Democratic efforts to change the mission in Iraq; in the end, Congress has always delivered the money Bush has sought.

by Matthew Hay Brown

Republicans have taken to calling the 50 percent increase in gasoline prices since Democrats took over last year the "Pelosi Premium." Democrats say Republicans are looking at the wrong time frame.

"When President Bush took office, gas prices were less than half of what they are today - and oil was less than one-third," Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey says in today's Democratic radio address. "Then, seven years ago, President Bush and Vice President Cheney secretly invited executives from the big oil and big energy companies to the White House to write our national energy policy. ...

"Now, they are hauling in record profits," Lautenberg says. "We are paying record prices. And their profits are coming out of our pockets."

Republicans have been hounding Pelosi to explain the "commonsense plan" to hold down gas prices that Democrats promised two years ago.

"Two years later, they appear to have no plan other than to increase taxes on energy companies and stand in the way of increased domestic production," Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said. "So what we want to know is, where is the 'commonsense plan' to lower gas prices? And what is taking them so long to unveil it? The American people are waiting--and paying more at the pump each day they wait."

In fact, Pelosi has spent a good part of the last week calling on Republicans to help pass legislation to crack down on price gouging, hold OPEC accountable for price fixing and end tax breaks for oil companies and invest the savings in renewable energy.

On Thursday, Pelosi urged Bush to halt deliveries to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. On Friday, Democrats called on the Federal Trade Commission to use the authority recently granted by Congress to investigate prices for possible market manipulation.

The larger problem is that for a price surge linked to market speculation, unrest in the Middle East, the week U.S. dollar and growing demand from China and India, there are no easy solutions. Lautenberg's address follows.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, April 25, 2008. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

by Matthew Hay Brown

With the Treasury set to send out the first of the tax rebate checks next week, congresisonal Democrats are talking about more relief for American families.

"The strain of the economic downturn on middle- and low-income families demands, in my view, consideration of a second stimulus package," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters today. "And we have begun some conversations with the administration and the Republicans on that."

But the proposals Democrats are pushing will be a more difficult sell than the so-called recovery rebate, which lawmakers passed quickly this year with bipartisan support. Republicans already have rejected Democratic proposals to expand children's health insurance, extend unemployment insurance and boost investment in infrastructure.

"It's obvious our economy is in a slowdown," President Bush said today. But the White House has been cool to a second stimulus package before the first package has a chance to work its economic magic.

by Matthew Hay Brown and David Nitkin

The White House is resisting bipartisan calls to halt new shipments to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve while gasoline prices at the pump continue to rise.

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain today in asking President Bush to stop adding 60,000 barrels of oil each day the giant undergound caverns in Texas and Louisiana where the government keeps the reserve - a move they say would help reduce demand.

"Today the SPR is nearly 97 percent full," Pelosi told reporters today. "Independent experts report that suspending deliveries to SPR could cut as much as five cents on the low-end to 24 cents off a gallon of gas and provide real savings for families. ...

"Suspending delivery to SPR will not only increase supply, but impact energy prices by sending a signal to the market to stop runaway speculation."

The White House disagrees.

"The Administration continues to fill the reserve at a modest rate," spokesman Scott Stanzel said. "We don't believe the fill rates have a meaningful impact on oil supplies, as this oil equates to less than one tenth of one percent of daily world consumption. We continue to fill the reserve to provide an added layer of protection to the American people in cases of severe supply disruption."

Pelosi cited precedent for the move.

"Ahead of the first Gulf War, the first President Bush withdrew oil from the SPR. Withdrew oil from the SPR," she said. "We're not asking for that. President Clinton suspended SPR deliveries in 1995 and even the current President Bush withdrew oil from SPR and sold it on the market following Hurricane Katrina."

(Rep. Pete Hoekstra., a Michigan Republican. AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke)

by Matthew Hay Brown

The senior Republican on the House Select Committee on Intelligence said that lawmakers felt "used" by the White House after finally getting briefed today on alleged North Korean nuclear assistance to Syria.

Rep. Pete Hoekstra warned of a "damaged" relationship that could hinder the administration's ability to get congressional approval for an agreement on the North Korea's nuclear program.

CIA Director Michael Hayden was to show video footage and photographs showing the heads of the North Korea's and Syria's nuclear programs together at a Syrian reactor, administration officials said before the closed-door session. Some have speculated that the administration's motive in sharing the information now -- it was leaked to newspapers yesterday -- is to scuttle the six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear program.

Hoekstra, the ranking member on House Intel, said he had been calling for a briefing for months. "I think many people believe that we were used today by the administration because - not because they felt they had to inform Congress because it was their legal obligation to do that, but because they had other agendas in mind," the Michigan Republican said.

"Remember, it is the legal responsibility of the administration to keep Congress fully and currently informed on the issues that the administration is dealing with," Hoekstra continued. "I think we have a question as to whether the administration actually moved forward in that direction."

Dana Perino, White House press secretary, said of Hoekstra's complaint: "Obviously we would be very disappointed that he feels that way...and hope he understands our tremendous respect for members of Congress.'' Yet, she acknolwedged, that "there are tensions that exist'' between the executive and legislative branches on many matters.

She said she hoped, but could not guarantee, that further explanation by the administration today would satisfy the chairman's questions.

by Mark Silva and updated

So much for homeland security.

At the hemispheric summit of U.S., Canadian and Mexican leaders in New Orleans this week, the White House says, some BlackBerries went missing.

"There was an incident in New Orleans at the leaders' summit... where an individual from the Mexican delegation, or a staff member, was involved in these Blackberries -- the disappearance of a couple of Blackberries,'' said Dana Perino, the BlackBerry-toting White House press secretary. "I don't know how many it was. The matter is under investigation by law enforcement officials and they haven't decided yet what exactly happened, but they're working on it.''

Perino's Berry was not among the purloined wireless cache. She wasn't sure if White House staffers had been hit, but certainly members of the U.S. delegation were.

"They were certainly U.S. delegation,'' Perino said.

Fox News is identifying the suspect as a Mexian press attaché, caught on camera by the Secret Service pocketing several BlackBerries left on tables by people entering a meeting room.The offical was "responsible for handling logistics and guiding the Mexican media around at the conference,'' Fox reports. "He took six or seven of the handheld devices from a table outside a special room in the hotel where the Mexican delegation was meeting with President Bush.''

by Matthew Hay Brown

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, under fire from House Republicans for failing to contain rising gas prices, is appealing to President Bush for help.

In a letter today, the California Democrat asks Bush to direct the Justice Department to investigate oil cartel price-fixing, authorize the Federal Trade Commission to pursue and punish "price gougers," end tax breaks for oil companies and invest the savings in renewable energy.

"Lastly, your administration must use the authority given to it by the Congress to end market manipulation," Pelosi writes. "We cannot wait to act in the face of these price increases."

The letters appears to be a response, of sorts, to a campaign by the House Republican Conference accusing Democrats of breaking a promise to contain gas prices. Yesterday, they were calling the increase at the pump since Democrats took control of Congress last year the "Pelosi Premium."

Democrats say Republicans are blocking their efforts to wean America of foreign oil. Pelosi's letter follows.

by Mark Silva

The big show in the Rose Garden this afternoon is Gordon Brown, the prime minister of Great Britain, joining President Bush in a brief press conference after a private meeting.

But Brown, successor to the prime minister who had become Bush's most important ally in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Tony Blair, is looking well beyond Bush at this point.

Before arriving at the Oval Office this afternoon, Brown, who arrived in the United States on Tuesday, will have met with each of the three major candidates for president -- of both parties.

Bush's close relationship with Blair did little good for the former prime minister's standing in his home country, so it's understandable that Brown might be interested in cementing ties with Bush's successor. Brown already has started drawing down British troops in Iraq.

Brown planned three 45-minute meetings each of the Democrats, Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain, at the British ambassador's residence.

"That's remarkable," Julianne Smith, director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Europe program, told the A.P. "Few foreign leaders could secure these kinds of meetings in the middle of a campaign. That speaks to how the candidates view relations with Britain."

In an interview with CBS News on Tuesday, Brown offered praise for all three prospective candidates. He specifically praised Clinton's plans for the economy. The British leader arrived in the U.S. on Tuesday with his wife, Sarah, for his second visit since replacing Blair last June.

On Wednesday, Brown attended a session of the United Nations before a meeting with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and a round of talks with investment executives on Wall Street. He is traveling somewhat in the shadow of Pope Benedict XVI, who arrived at the White House on Wednesday and will hold mass at the new National Stadium in Washington today.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report. Photo of Gordon Brown by Peter Byrne / Reuters)

by Mark Silva

President Bush, who has called on the nation’s leading industrial powers to join the U.S. in a commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions – short of the mutual cap on emissions that the Bush administration has refused to accept with the Kyoto Protocol – is playing his cards for the annual G-8 summit.

“Over the past seven years, my administration has taken a rational, balanced approach to these serious challenges,’’ Bush will maintain in an address on climate change today. “We believe we need to protect our environment. We believe we need to strengthen our energy security. We believe we need to grow our economy. And we believe the only way to achieve these goals is through continued advances in technology.

Critics claim that Bush’s goal of capping the growth in U.S. emissions by 2025 is weak and an ineffective approach to a more immediate crisis

“After squandering seven years, President Bush still refuses to respond to alarm bells. His strategy announced today is like trying to douse a 10-alarm fire with a garden hose—it is completely inadequate,’’ says Daniel Weiss, director of climate strategy at the Democratic-leaning Center for American Progress.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, said today: “The [resident’s plan to have America stand by while greenhouse gases reach dangerous levels and threaten America and the world is worse than doing nothing – it is the height of irresponsibility.’’

Friends of the Earth President Brent Blackwelder said this: "The idea that President Bush is serious about fighting global warming is laughable... This is the last whimper from an increasingly irrelevant president. Bush will be gone in a matter of months and our country will then finally have an opportunity to show the leadership the world has been calling for.”

by Mark Silva

After a stirring and soaring soprano rendition of The Lord’s Prayer by Kathleen Battle, President Bush welcomed Pope Benedict XVI on the sunny South Lawn of the White House this morning.

“Here in America, you’ll find a nation that welcomes the role of faith in the public square,’’ the president told the pontiff. “We believe in religious liberty. We also believe in a love for freedom… and that these constitute the foundation on which any free society must be built.

“In our nation, faith and reason coexist in harmony,’’ Bush said. “This is one of our nation’s greatest strengths… You will find an America of people whose hearts are open to your message of hope.

“We need your message that each human life is sacred… that each of us is loved, and each of us is necessary,’’ said Bush, with an allusion to one of the political issues on which the two agree – both staunch opponents of abortion, though they part ways on the execution of the death penalty for capital crimes.

“Americans believe that the measure of a free society is how we treat the weakest and most vulnerable among us,’’ Bush said. “Each day across the world the United States is working to alleviate diseaser, eradicate poverty.’’

Pope Bendict said: “I trust my presence will be a source of renewal and hope.’’

He will be meeting with not only the Catholic community, but also representatives of other communities, he said. “Americans find strength in a commitment of shared ideals.’’

by Mark Silva

With the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI at the White House tomorrow, the ceremonies on the South Lawn will include the singing of The Lord’s Prayer.

“I think we've struck the right balance, and that it's perfectly appropriate,'' said Dana Perino, the White House press secretary, asked today about religious overtones at a state event.

This is not only a head of state who is visiting, but also the leader of the Catholic Church, she notes. Even the president’s plans to greet the Pope on arrival at Andrews Air Force Base today are unusual for an arriving head of state. The president typically greets such visitors at the White House.

The two – who met last year at the Vatican -- will hold a private meeting at the White House, which acknowledges that there are points of disagreement between them.

Such as the war in Iraq. And the death penalty.

“I really don’t think the president plans to spend a lot of time talking about .. Iraq… with the Pope,’’ Perino said.

But, Perino notesd today: “There is much more agreement than there is disagreement.’’ And the president will underscore some of those areas during his public remarks in the welcoming of the pontiff: Addressing human rights as well as the sanctity of life.

by Mark Silva

"These are tough economic times,'' President Bush said today, on the eve of Tax Day.

"Our fellow citizens will be paying taxes during a time of economic uncertainty,'' Bush said at a meeting of his Cabinet in the White House.

"This administration anticipated these times,'' Bush maintains -- noting that more than tax returns will be in the mail this year. The government also will disburse more than $100 billion in tax rebates to more than 130 million households.

"We worked with Congress to pass a pro-growth package that incensed businesses to invest; a pro-growth package that will be sending some of your taxpayers' money back to you,'' Bush said in a public statement at the meeting. "That's going to be an important part of making sure this economy begins to recover in a way that will add confidence and hope.''

The White House doesn't have much confidence, however, in its ability to enact the Colombia Free Trade Agreement which has fallen hostage to the presidential camapign under way. Democratic leaders have derailed a timeframe for the agreement's passage.

"There's big disappointment around this table about the action the speaker took on the Colombia Free Trade Agreement,'' Bush said. "This free trade agreement is good for American workers and it's good for American consumers. And this free trade agreement is in our national interests. Yet that bill is dead unless the speaker schedules a definite vote.''

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) maintains that House leaders simply have placed the agreement on a time schedule that will enable proper debate rather than fast-track approval.

Bush also is calling on Congress to make his tax cuts permanent, for a longer-term guarantee of renewed economic prosperity.

To which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) responds today: “President Bush’s ideological approach to the economy simply has not and will not work. And his call for more tax breaks for multimillionaires and special interests demonstrates that he is completely out of touch with working Americans struggling to make ends meet.... Middle-class families are looking for real solutions – not the same economic ideas that got us into this mess in the first place.''

(Bush at Cabinet today. AP Photo by Gerald Herbert)

by Mark Silva

The White House is promising the Pope the Rose Garden.

The Bush administration is organizing a "unique'' Rose Garden ceremony as it finalizes plans for the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI next week. "There is great excitement throughout the staff regardless of one’s religious affiliation,” says White House Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin. “This is a very special day.”

Hagin, together with Anita Bride, the first lady's chief of staff, held a roundtable discussion with members of faith-based media to give an inside look at the White House preparations. “As a Catholic,'' McBride said, "this is an enormous honor for me and a privilege to work on some small aspect of this visit.''

The staff has prepared a ceremony that reflects the usual details reserved for heads of state, together with “very appropriate and warm additions.” McBride notes that nearly 10,000 people will attend the ceremony surrounding the pope's arrival on the South Lawn on Wednesday.

A number of Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts will be present during the ceremony, along with members of Catholic Charities and community volunteers. The Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps will don their Revolutionary regalia for a presentation during the ceremony and will honor the Holy Father with the 21 gun salute, a typical gesture for a visiting head of state.

“We wanted to focus on making it a warm welcome, not just a speech on the lawn.” said Hagin.

Following the Rose Garden ceremony, the President and the Holy Father will hold a private meeting in the White House, lasting perhaps 45 minutes. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone will also meet separately during the papal visit.

With thanks to Charlie Spiering of the National Catholic Register.

by Mark Silva

The White House is looking for national television coverage of President Bush’s statement on the war in Iraq this morning – barring any “Hollywood scandal’’ that gets in the way – and the president will deliver one of his spring commencement addresses today at a Kansas high school in a tornado-wracked town.

The president’s press secretary was asked if Bush’s statement at 11:30 am EDT in the Cross Hall of the White House announcing a pause this summer in troop withdrawals fis “an address to the nation.’’ (The president made such a televised national address last fall from the Oval Office, when he announced the start of a gradual drawdown of “surge’’ forces, calling it “a return on success.”)

The president is “giving a statement,’’ Press Secretary Dana Perino said. “I don’t know what your definition is of an address to the nation… We are not asking for network time… For those networks that want to cover it, great – barring any Hollywood scandal that pops up.’’

And the president, who delivers three commencement addresses each spring – including one at one of the U.S. service academies – will make one of those at a high school this year: Greensburg High School, in tornado-stricken Greensburg, Kansas. Bush plans to address the graduating Greensburg high schoolers on May 4.

The president will also salute the graduates of the U.S. Air Force Academy on May 28 and the graduates of Furman University in Greenville, S.C., on May 31.