Barack Obama

The Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety elected the Honorable Ellen O'Kane Tauscher as the independent chair of its Board of Directors. The coalition of North American apparel companies and retailers, industry associations, and non-governmental organizations has been established to improve worker safety at Bangladeshi garment factories. As chair, Tauscher will serve a three-year term.

Tauscher brings significant leadership experience as an international negotiator, diplomat and policymaker to the Alliance from her service as a seven-term member of Congress and at the U.S. Department of State.

Amid Washington's partisan gridlock, getting the Senate to vote on even the mundane job of public printer has been a tough slog. Now President Barack Obama is trying again, nominating Davita Vance-Cooks to lead the Government Printing Office.

The nomination of Bill Boarman as public printer bogged down late in 2011 for reasons that weren't clear. The printing office hasn't had a Senate-confirmed leader since 2010. Other agencies have gone through even longer periods with acting leaders, such as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which last had a confirmed administrator in 2006.

President Barack Obama urged Congress to postpone automatic spending cuts scheduled to begin March 1 to avoid "real and lasting impacts" on U.S. economic growth.

Obama said lawmakers should act on a smaller package of spending cuts and changes to the tax code that would increase revenue, such as limiting tax breaks, to replace part of the $1.2 trillion in across-the-board reductions.

"Deep, indiscriminate cuts" in federal spending "will cost us jobs and slow down our recovery," Obama said. "This doesn't have to happen."

The March 1 deadline marks another fiscal showdown between the administration and House Republicans.

President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans looked ahead today toward the next round of even bigger budget fights after reaching a hard-fought "fiscal cliff" deal that narrowly averted potentially devastating tax hikes and spending cuts.

The agreement, approved late on Tuesday by the Republican-led House of Representatives after a bitter political struggle, was a victory for Obama, who had won re-election on a promise to address budget woes in part by raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans.

But it set up political showdowns over the next two months on spending cuts and on raising the nation's limit on borrowing.

President Barack Obama says there will be no deal to avert the "fiscal cliff" unless Republicans drop their opposition to raising tax rates on the wealthiest Americans.

However, Obama is signaling flexibility on where the rates eventually wind up. Obama says he knows he won't get everything that he wants in negotiations with congressional Republicans. He made the comments Tuesday in an interview with Bloomberg News.

The president campaigned for re-election on a plan to raise the rates on the top 2 percent of income earners to 39.6 percent, which is where they were under former President Bill Clinton.

Macy’s, the second-largest U.S. department-store chain, is feeling the pressure to drop Donald Trump-branded apparel after the billionaire recently launched political attacks against President Barack Obama in the election campaign.

A petition, started by Angelo Carusone, has collected almost 500,000 names to date. Macy’s maintains its merchandise and marketing do not represent any political position; meanwhile, others are questioning the validity of Carusone’s petition.