After tough week, Obama tries to change the subject to jobs

By Mark Felsenthal and Roberta Rampton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Friday will seek to turn the spotlight from controversies threatening to swamp his agenda to the economy by announcing he will cut in half the time it takes to get federal approval for large job-creating projects.

Obama travels to Baltimore, where he is due to say that he has signed a presidential memorandum streamlining the review and permitting of federal infrastructure projects.

In making the announcement while posing in front of heavy dredging equipment at Ellicott Dredges, Obama will have a chance to remind the public that he wants to spend $50 billion on repairing the nation's aging roads, bridges and ports.

Even as Obama insists he wants to cut red tape, the visit may draw attention to a pipeline project that has stalled in a protracted federal approval process since 2008 - the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline from the Canadian oil sands.

The pipeline has been championed by Republicans, who blame Obama for the delay, and pilloried by environmental groups who argue Obama's credibility on his vow to address climate change hinges on rejecting the project.

Peter Bowe, the president of Ellicott Dredges testified on Thursday at a House of Representatives small business committee hearing about how the delay has hurt his company, which provides equipment and labor in the oil sands.

"For us, it's all about jobs," Bowe said, urging speedy approval of the pipeline, which Obama delayed last year, saying it needed further review.

The State Department is continuing to study the project, and the administration is unlikely to make a decision until late this year or even early 2014.

'OUT OF THE BUNKER'

The president hopes his focus on jobs and education will change the subject from a trio of storms that have beleaguered his administration in recent days, and that some believe could overrun his second term agenda.

Obama's trip to Baltimore to talk about his agenda is a good idea and a productive change of scene for him, said Chris Lehane, a Democratic strategist who specialized in damage control for the Clinton White House.

"It gets you out of the bunker," Lehane said.

In Baltimore, Obama also will visit an elementary school where he will stump for his goal of providing pre-school for all American children, which he views as a vital stepping stone to a better-educated and trained U.S. work force.

Shining a light on issues of jobs and growth also lets Obama note positive economic developments such as the improving housing and labor markets and a fast-declining budget deficit - pocketbook issues that may have more resonance with the public than inside-Washington political battles.

In the past week, he has been forced to go on the defensive about his administration's handling of the attack on the U.S. facility in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups for special scrutiny, and the Justice Department's seizure of phone logs of reporters and editors of the Associated Press in connection with an investigation of leaks of classified information.

Congressional Republicans will seek to keep the focus on what they say are unanswered questions about all three controversies.

The House tax-writing committee was to turn up the pressure on Friday in a hearing with acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller, who Obama asked to resign this week.

Obama went into damage-control mode on Wednesday, firing the acting IRS commissioner and announcing support for legislation making it easier for reporters to protect their sources. He has called the IRS' actions inexcusable and pledged to find out who was responsible and hold them accountable.

On Thursday, the president and his staff stepped up efforts to get ahead of critics. Obama called for more spending on embassy security, while saying he had no apologies about efforts to investigate leaks of classified material.

He and his surrogates belittled the furor over Benghazi as nothing more than a politically motivated campaign orchestrated by congressional Republicans to discredit him.

(Reporting by Mark Felsenthal and Roberta Rampton; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Jackie Frank)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-shifts-focus-jobs-eases-building-permit-process-101033758.html

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