TWO WEEKS before he is sworn in as president, Barack Obama has started talks with Democrats and Republicans in Congress about a massive economic recovery plan aimed at creating more than three million jobs and saving the United States from a depression.
Mr Obama went to Capitol Hill yesterday on his first day in Washington after a Christmas holiday in Hawaii, urging congressional leaders to support a $300 billion tax cut and other stimulus measures worth almost $500 billion.
"The reason we are here today is because the people's business cannot wait," Mr Obama said before a meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
"The speaker and her staff have been extraordinarily helpful in working with our team so we can shape an economic recovery plan and start putting people back to work," he said.
The president-elect believes that bold and swift action is needed if the US is to recover from its greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s and Democratic leaders in Congress hope to approve the stimulus package by the end of this month.
Mr Obama's visit to Capitol Hill came a day after New Mexico governor Bill Richardson withdrew as the incoming president's nominee for commerce secretary. A former energy secretary and ambassador to the UN under Bill Clinton, Mr Richardson faces an investigation over allegations that he influenced a state agency to give a lucrative contract to a California company that contributed more than $100,000 to his campaigns.
Mr Richardson insisted yesterday that he decided to withdraw of his own accord, adding that the decision was difficult but was "the right thing to do".
Mr Richardson has denied any wrongdoing and he yesterday expressed confidence that the investigation would clear his name.
"I have faith in the criminal justice process," he said.
Former Illinois attorney general Roland Burris plans to come to the Senate today to take up the seat vacated by Mr Obama, despite a Democratic leadership threat to refuse to seat him because the state governor Rod Blagojevich has been accused of trying to sell the seat to the highest bidder.
Mr Blagojevich has the sole right to appoint Mr Obama's successor and Mr Burris said yesterday that a criminal investigation of the governor's conduct did not invalidate his appointment.
"I don't have to separate myself from Rod Blagojevich. This is all politics and theatre, but I am the junior senator according to every law book in the nation," Mr Burris said as he prepared to leave Chicago for Washington.
Earlier the secretary of the Senate declined to formally accept Mr Burris's nomination certificate because it was not signed by Illinois secretary of state Jesse White. Mr White refused to sign the certificate last week because of the corruption allegations against the governor, but legal experts are divided over whether the secretary of state's signature is necessary.
The fate of another Senate seat could be decided in the courts after Minnesota Republican Norm Coleman said he would appeal a decision by the state supreme court that would award the seat to his Democratic challenger, former comedian Al Franken.
Mr Coleman was ahead after the count on election day but after a recount and numerous ballot challenges, Mr Franken emerged with a lead of 225 votes.
Last night Reuters quoted Democratic officials as saying that Mr Obama had chosen Leon Panetta, who was White House chief of staff for Bill Clinton, to lead the Central Intelligence Agency.
The choice of Mr Panetta for CIA director was one of the last major nominations pending for the incoming Obama administration. Outside of his stint in the White House, where he served between 1994 and 1997, Panetta has relatively little experience in national security matters.
He was a member of the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan commission that was charged with assessing a way to end the Iraq war. Its recommendations for a phased troop withdrawal were largely ignored by the Bush administration, which chose to increase the US military presence there instead. Before joining the Clinton administration, Panetta was a congressman between 1977 and 1993, where he focused on budget, nutrition and environmental issues. - (Additional reporting, Reuters)