NPR 2008-06-21

Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan told the House Judiciary Committee today that top White House officials deliberately 1 misled him about the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. NPR's Debbie Elliott reports.

McClellan testified that he was asked to exonerate 2 former presidential advisor 3 Karl Rove and Lewis Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice 4 President Dick Cheney. The spokesman later learned both men had leaked Plame’s identity to reporters. Florida Democrat 5 Robert Wexler asked McClellan about Cheney's role. " There is a lot of suspicion there, because there are questions that have never been answered despite the fact that we said at some point we would address these issues." "So, this suspicion leads you to believe that Vice President Cheney could have authorized 6 Mr. Libby's leak?" "I can't rule it out." But Texas Republican Lamar Smith said it was hard to take McClellan seriously. “There was spin in the White House Press Office. What White House has not had a communications operation that advocates for its policies?” Debbie Elliott, NPR News, the Capitol.

Without mentioning opponent Barack Obama by name, presumptive Republican presidential nominee 7 John McCain told an audience in Ottawa, Canada today, if elected, he won't retreat behind protectionist walls. McCain ticked off a host of ties between the US and Canada he said were important. "Canada and America are joined in other vital causes around the world: from the fight against nuclear proliferation to the fight against global warming; from the fight for justice in Haiti to the fight for democracy in Afghanistan. And I thank you for it." McCain remarked specifically about the controversial North American Free Trade Agreement. He told members of the Economic Club of Canada he will abide 8 by the agreement if elected.

Obama, for his part, took on rival McCain on another issue, that of opening up areas off the US coast to oil and gas drilling. At a campaign appearance in Jacksonville, Florida, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said he sees no reason to change the government's 27-year moratorium 9 on offshore 10 drilling, a move McCain supports. "The fact is Senator McCain's decision to team up with George Bush on offshore drilling violates the bipartisan consensus 11 that we’ve had for decades, that has protected Florida's pristine 12 coastline from drilling." McCain previously 13 had backed the moratorium. Though this week, he said he would support lifting the ban and giving states the option to decide whether to open the areas off their coast to exploration.

The Food & Drug Administration has reportedly sent inspectors 14 to Florida and Mexico to examine tomato farms as the government appears to be narrowing in on the source of a salmonella outbreak. The FDA, in a conference call with reporters, would not say where in Florida or Mexico the hunt is being centered. But investigators 15 said today they will be paying especially close attention to large packing houses. The outbreak has left more than 550 people ill in 32 states.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 221 points today to close at 11,842. The S&P lost 25 points. This is NPR.

The compromise war funding bill, now on its way to the Senate, includes a major concession 16 by the Bush administration: language to block a half dozen rules that would limit federal funding for the Medicaid Health Program. NPR's Julie Rovner has more.

The Medicaid language has drawn 17 a veto threat all year from Bush officials. They say the rules are needed to prevent states and healthcare providers from abusing the Medicaid Program, whose funding is shared between Washington and the states. But governors and advocates for the poor say the rules would end up hurting the low-income patients the program is supposed to help. The final compromise passed by the House Thursday night would block six of seven controversial regulations until next April 1st, leaving final decisions in the hands of the next president and Congress. Still in play, however, is a rule to limit funding for out-patient care and another set to take effect in August to limit funding for the State Children's Health Insurance Program, SCHIP. Julie Rovner, NPR News, Washington.

The International Monetary 18 Fund, in its latest forecast for the US economy, says it appears growth has flatlined and will likely show only slight improvement next year. The IMF also called on the interest rate setting arm of the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates on hold. In its annual forecast, the group said it expects the gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the US economy, to show no growth in the final quarter of this year compared with last year.

United Airlines is planning to resurrect a rule from the past: the idea of requiring minimum stayovers for nearly all of its domestic flights beginning in October. The second largest US airline made the announcement today, along with saying it is upping the price of its cheapest fares by as much as 90 dollars one way.