Welcome to the West Wing Week, your guide to everything that's happening at 1600 Pennsyvlania Avenue. This week, President Obama focused on securing our nation's clean energy future, making stops at facilities in Maryland and Pennsylvania. He also met with Congressional leadership, hoping to avoid a government shutdown in the face of budget disagreements. The President also kept his eye on foreign policy, discussing developments in the Middle East with Israeli President Shimon Peres, and hemispheric concerns with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.

This afternoon, President Obama met with President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia in the Oval Office at the White House.

In remarks following the meeting, President Obama discussed the U.S. interests in progress in Colombia and Latin America:

The United States has an enormous interest in the development of Latin America and an enormous interest in progress in Colombia. We have been a partner there as Colombia dealt with some very difficult times and has now blossomed into a strong democracy that is respectful of human rights and is moving forward vigorously to provide economic opportunity for all of its people.

President Santos I think is at the forefront of a progressive and thoughtful agenda within Colombia. He’s obviously initiating a whole range of reforms. Colombia is also a leader when it comes to security in the region, and we are glad that we’ve been able to partner with Colombia not only to deal with security situations inside Colombia, but now increasingly Colombia can be a role model for the rest of the region.

Leaders of the open government community met with President Obama last week to present him with an award for his leadership in making  government more transparent.  The inscription on the award reads: ‘To President Barack Obama For His Deep Commitment to a More Open and Transparent Government—Of, By, and For the People  from The Openness Community.

Group leaders representing a coalition of open government groups included Gary Bass, Founder and Executive Director of OMB Watch; Tom Blanton, Director of the National Security Archive; Danielle Brian, Executive Director of the Project on Government Oversight; Lucy Dalglish, Executive Director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press; and Patrice McDermott, Director of Open the Government. They praised the President’s efforts to reduce secrecy by reducing classification and over-classification, to create a more responsive FOIA process, and to enhance transparency through the Open Government directive and the White House visitors logs, as well as his support for whistleblower protections and the reporters’ privilege.

The meeting was more than a handshake, however. The President also engaged the group leaders in discussion. He listened to their concerns and priorities, and expressed his agreement with their fundamental commitment to open government, and with their observation that promoting transparency requires ongoing effort. He welcomed their continued support, assistance, and feedback.

Steve Croley is Special Assistant to the President for Justice and Regulatory Policy

Tonight, President Obama met with Speaker of the House John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in the Oval Office on the ongoing budget negotiations.

Afterwards the President delivered a statement in the briefing room:

Good evening, everybody.  I'm going to just have a few quick remarks. 

We just had a productive meeting with Speaker Boehner, as well as Majority Leader Reid.  We discussed the impasse that we're currently at with respect to the budget, and I thought the meetings were frank, they were constructive, and what they did was narrow the issues and clarify the issues that are still outstanding.

I remain confident that if we're serious about getting something done we should be able to complete a deal and get it passed and avert a shutdown.  But it’s going to require a sufficient sense of urgency from all parties involved.  It means that people have to recognize that a government shutdown has real consequences for real people.

There was a interview that was done tonight on one of the nightly news networks -- a man from Kentucky named J.T. Henderson.  He said he’s counting on his tax rebate because his family has been scraping by, and he might not get it if the government shuts down.  So J.T. said if he could speak directly to all of us in Washington he’d tell us that all of this political grandstanding has effects as it trickles down to normal, everyday Americans.

I could not have said it better myself.  A shutdown could have real effects on everyday Americans.  That means that small business owners who are counting on that loan to open their business, to make payroll, to expand, suddenly they can't do it. It means folks who are potentially processing a mortgage, they may not be able to get it.  It means that hundreds of thousands of workers across the country suddenly are without a paycheck.  Their families are counting on them being able to go to work and do a good job.

There are ramifications all across this economy.  And at a time when the economy is still coming out of an extraordinarily deep recession, it would be inexcusable, given the relatively narrow differences when it comes to numbers between the two parties, that we can't get this done.

So my expectation is that folks are going to work through the night.  In the morning I will check in with the respective staffs of the Speaker and the Majority Leader, as well as my team here.  If we haven't made progress, we're going to go back at it again.  And we're going to keep on pounding away at this thing because I'm absolutely convinced that we can get this done.

There’s no reason why we should not be able to complete a deal.  There’s no reason why we should have a government shutdown -- unless we've made a decision that politics is more important than folks like J.T. Henderson. 

That's not why we we're elected. That's not why we were sent here.  And I want to meet the expectations of the American people in terms of delivering for them.

All right?  Thank you very much, everybody.

 

Ed. note: This was originally posted on the Department of Transportation blog.

Since the Department of Transportation announced the availability of an additional $2.4 billion for high-speed rail projects last month, governors and members of Congress from both major parties have been clamoring for the opportunity to participate.

As of our Monday deadline, we received more than 90 applications from 24 states, the District of Columbia, and Amtrak.  The preliminary total of those requests is nearly $10 billion, more than four times what we have available. 

Why is demand for high-speed rail support so high?

Because elected officials have seen the immediate benefits of jobs where rail work has already begun.  They've seen these jobs in Maine--where the Downeaster extension to Brunswick is under construction--and they've seen them in Illinois--where 96 miles of track are now being laid for the Chicago-St. Louis high-speed corridor. 

Ed. Note: Cross-posted from the Department of Energy Blog. Today President Obama is travelling to the Philadelphia area to hold a town hall event with employees at Gamesa Technology Corporation, Inc. about building a 21st century clean energy economy to win the future. Watch the event live at WhiteHouse.gov/live starting at 2:10 p.m. EDT.

President Obama has made building a secure, prosperous energy future a top priority. Last week, he outlined a plan to strengthen energy security in a speech at Georgetown University. Then on Friday, he traveled to a UPS shipping facility in Landover, Maryland to announce a major milestone for the “National Clean Fleet Partnership”: Five of the largest domestic shipping companies have made commitments to reduce gasoline use in their fleets by incorporating electric vehicles, alternative fuels and fuel-saving measures into their daily operations.

And today, the President is holding a town hall meeting just outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the Gamesa Technology Corporation, a manufacturer of large-scale wind turbines, to further discuss our energy future. President Obama has proposed an ambitious, but achievable, goal of generating 80 percent of our electricity from clean energy sources by 2035. This includes sources like wind, produced in part by Gamesa turbines, as well as other renewables, natural gas, clean coal and nuclear power.

As the President outlined last week, securing our energy future will require our nation to increase our renewable energy portfolio, decrease our dependence on oil and implement energy efficiency measures in home and buildings all over the country. Over the next two weeks, we’ll be spotlighting five communities across the country that are helping make our country more secure – five communities that are “winning the future” today.

And naturally, first up today is Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Watch the video on energy efficiency in Philadelphia here.

Watch the President's full remarks here.

Speaking in the White House Briefing Room today after a meeting with Congressional Leaders of both parties, the President laid out his guiding principles for the negotiations on last year's budget and looking ahead:

From the outset, my goal has been to significantly cut our domestic spending but, at the same time, make sure we’re making key investments in things like education, infrastructure, innovation -- the things that are going to help us win the future.

He was blunt in saying that the American people expect Congress to get a deal done to avoid a government shut-down and that the consequences for our economy would be unacceptable.   He was also clear that he and Democrats in Congress “have more than met the Republicans halfway at this point” by agreeing to same dollar figure in cuts that Republican Leadership originally proposed:

Ed. note: This was originally posted on Work In Progress, the Department of Labor blog. Read another blog post on this topic on the Middle Class Task Force blog.

One year ago today, in West Virginia, 29 men died in the worst mine disaster in 40 years.

Wives lost husbands. Parents lost sons. Children lost fathers. Neighbors lost friends.  And a community lost a big part of its soul.

Since that day, I have been convinced that the best way to honor these men is to do everything in our power so that a tragedy like this never happens again.

The administration has taken many steps to make that goal a reality.  The Mine Safety and Health Administration (a part of the U.S. Department of Labor) has made available unprecedented resources to find out what exactly happened on April 5, 2010 and we are making sure that the U.S. Department of Justice can fully prosecute any wrongdoers.

Given that it's tax season (don't forget, Tax Day is on 4/18 this year), you might be thinking about the bipartisan tax cut compromise from December 2010 and wondering how it affects your household's bottom line.  That's why we've put together a Tax Cut Calculator and Tax Cut Checklist to help taxpayers better understand how you benefit from some of the more than 40 tax cuts signed into law by President Obama.

The brand new Tax Cut Calculator provides an easy to use tool that shows individuals and families how these tax cuts – some of which are hitting paychecks right now– will affect their taxes for 2011.  The Calculator shows the benefits of the Payroll Tax Cut, which is putting more money in the pockets of millions of workers across the country already. It also illustrates how families can benefit from three Recovery Act tax cuts that the President fought to extend – the American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC) and the expanded Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit.

Enough explanation, though! Take a moment to try the tax cut calculator for yourself.

We've put together a more comprehensive memo that covers important provisions of the bipartisan tax cut compromise the President signed into law last December and includes a checklist of benefits to keep in mind for those who still have yet to file their taxes this year: