From each group that backed Obama, an agenda

(Compiler's note: Hmmmmm - food for thought.)

by Joe Garofoli

Nobody disagrees that passing an economic stimulus package is the top priority for the incoming Obama administration and the new Congress. Then what? Tighter emissions standards for cars? Easing the rules on organizing for labor unions? Universal health care? Ending the wars? Net neutrality?

The flipside of knitting together a winning coalition of techies, anti-war activists, women, labor unions, young voters and the like is: (a) everybody thinks they were most instrumental in sending Obama and more Democrats to Washington, and (b) they want Obama and the Democrats to make their policy wish lists reality - first. Or, at least, right after a stimulus bill is passed.

"But since Obama won by such a wide margin, no one group can claim credit for his victory," said Scott Lilly, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank.

Even before it addresses the stimulus package, Congress has to consider nine appropriations bills left from the last Congress, Lilly said. And, while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi anticipates having a stimulus bill ready for Obama to sign by the Feb. 16 Presidents Day holiday, Lilly, a former staff director for the House Appropriations Committee and a 30-year veteran of Capitol Hill, said "that sounds to me to be extremely ambitious."

After a stimulus package is approved, the legislative runway will get really crowded. Health care reform is near the top of many lists, but not all.

The problems facing the country are so severe that Obama is not going to be able to favor one group over another because they were major contributors to his election, Lilly said. "And there is probably an international situation that will take up a lot of the president's time and attention after the stimulus gets done."

Here's a look at some of the proposals, wish lists and demands that await the president-elect and the 111th Congress:

Anti-war activists

After spending almost eight years toting George W. Bush effigies through the streets, the anti-war movement is confident that Obama will address its issues. But even before Obama has taken the oath of office, he has already disappointed some.

"Obama has been missing in action on the massacre of people in Gaza," said Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the anti-war organization Code Pink. It makes little difference to her that Obama has avoided making broad policy statements before becoming president for fear of giving mixed signals to foreign governments. "It makes me tremendously worried about what he'll do when other situations like that come up. It took him until (last week) to say he was concerned, and he didn't even call for a cease-fire."

Code Pink has compiled a list of "President Obama's Promises to Keep" from his campaign statements. Among them:

-- End the war in Iraq.

-- Close the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay.

-- Reject the Military Commissions Act, which critics say violates the civil rights of people held as enemy combatants.

-- Bar the torture of prisoners of war and enemy combatants.

-- Work to eliminate nuclear weapons.

-- Abide by Senate-approved treaties.

Organized labor

Labor organizations spent more than $450 million to send Obama and other Democrats to Washington. The AFL-CIO alone has compiled a 64-page list entitled the "AFL-CIO Recommendations for the Obama Administration." Top priority - besides jobs in the stimulus package - is the Employee Free Choice Act. It would enable employees to form a union as soon as a majority signed cards saying they wanted one. The Service Employees International Union, the nation's largest labor union, will spend $10 million to support such legislation. Various employer groups are lining up against it.

But would Obama be risking too much political capital early in his term on a politically partisan issue that could galvanize - and revive - conservatives?

"The Obama transition team absolutely has not communicated that to us," said Thea Lee, policy director for the AFL-CIO.

Some of labor's other top wishes:

-- Health care reform.

-- Reverse staffing cuts that led to long Social Security claim backlogs.

-- Extend unemployment benefits.

-- Increase financing for food stamps.

-- Change Bush administration policies on government contract work, worker safety and training to be fairer to workers.

Women

The National Organization for Women has an 11-page "Feminist Action Agenda for 2009 and Beyond" for the incoming administration and Congress. "And that was our short list," NOW President Kim Gandy said. "After eight years of going backward with the Bush administration, we have a lot of issues that need to be addressed."

NOW already has a beef with Obama's stimulus package: It is too heavy on male-dominated infrastructure-rebuilding - i.e., construction jobs - Gandy said. She'd like to see more stimulus cash spread to what she described as "human infrastructure-rebuilding jobs" such as home health aides, teachers, teacher's aides and social workers.

Here are a few top items from NOW's agenda and Gandy:

-- Address the wage gap between men and women.

-- Stop abstinence-only birth control education funding in favor of programs that stress both abstinence and contraception.

-- Assure access to contraception.

-- Establish a Cabinet-level Office on Women that's analogous to the Office on Drug Control Policy.

Environmentalists

Environmental organizations were some of Obama's strongest backers, as many were upset by Bush administration positions on everything from climate change to land conservation to water policy. Shortly after the election, leading environmental organizations, including the Environmental Defense Fund and the Sierra Club, created a new group called Saveourenvironment.org and submitted a list of goals to the Obama transition team.

Among them:

-- Cut the nation's dependence on oil in half.

-- Move electricity generation to 100 percent from clean sources like wind and solar.

-- Create 5 million new clean-energy jobs.

-- Reduce global warming pollution by at least 80 percent.

In a speech on the economy last week, Obama called for "the creation of a clean-energy economy" that "will double the production of alternative energy in the next three years." Without being specific on the number of new jobs this would generate, he said, "We will put Americans to work in new jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced - jobs building solar panels and wind turbines, constructing fuel-efficient cars and buildings."

Techies

The Obama campaign had a special affinity with the online world, as it revolutionized the Internet as a fundraising and organizing tool in a presidential campaign. The Free Press Action Fund, a media reform organization, has outlined an expansion of the nation's broadband network - at a cost of $44 billion - and compiled a wish list that mirrors those of other online activists:

-- It wants Obama to back his long-stated support for the principles of net neutrality with a law that would "forbid discrimination on the Internet based on the source, destination or ownership of online content."

-- It wants the Obama administration to champion greater diversity in media ownership. Changes to current ownership rules could come after the administration appoints a new Federal Communications Commission chairman.

-- San Francisco's Electronic Frontier Foundation has been fighting how the Bush administration has used electronic surveillance of citizens. It would like to see that practice end.

In a speech last week on infrastructure investments, Obama proposed "expanding broadband lines across America, so that a small business in a rural town can connect and compete with their counterparts anywhere in the world."

Groups and their agendas

Several organizations are compiling wish lists and suggestions for the new administration and Congress.

-- Through Thursday, the social change digital hub Change.org of San Francisco is hosting online voting for its "Top 10 Ideas for America." When it presents the ideas on Friday, it hopes to form a national advocacy campaign for each idea with nonprofit organizations and create policy. For more information go to www.change.org/ideas.

-- In December, members of the liberal online hub MoveOn.org voted on their top priorities for the new administration. The top four: universal health care; economic recovery and job creation; building a green economy and ending the war in Iraq. For more information, go to

www.pol.move on.org/2009/agenda/results/results2.html.

-- For more information about Code Pink's "President Obama's Promises to Keep," go to www.code pinkaction.org/arti cle.php?id=4568.

-- For more information about the "AFL-CIO Recommendations for the Obama Administration," go to change.gov/open_

government/entry/afl_cio_turn_around_amer ica/.

-- For more information about the Free Press Action Fund's "Down Payment on Our Digital Future: Stimulus Policies for the 21st-Century Economy," go to www.freepress.net/files/DownPayment_Digital Future.pdf.

-- For more information about the environmental community's Obama wish list, go to www.saveourenvi ronment.org/.