Tom Daschle couldn't have received a much warmer welcome from his former Senate colleagues than he got three weeks ago when the prospective Health and Human Services secretary underwent his first confirmation hearing.
RADAR: Clinton's first trip abroad to Asia?
ABC News' Jennifer Duck reports: Speculation is rising and reports are making the rounds about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's first trip abroad. A Seoul Foreign Ministry Official has been quoted in numerous reports saying Clinton will depart for Asia...
Michelle Obama's federal thank-you tour
by Mark Silva
First Lady Michelle Obama, launching a thank-your tour at the Department of Education - the first of many federal agencies which she promises to visit in coming weeks and months - promised today that her husband's administration will place education at the "forefront."
The Obamas have a good friend there: Arne Duncan, former superintendent of the Chicago public schools, whom President Obama has made education secretary
"I am a product of your work,'' Obama told employs at an agency which once became a target of politicians vowing to cut the federal bureaucracy. "I wouldn't be here if it weren't for the public schools that nurtured me and helped me along.''
Of course, Princeton and Harvard Law School didn't hurt either -- though, as she would have it today, it was the public schools of the South Side of Chicago that got her there.
The first lady also did a little campaigning for her husband's economic stimulus plan -- touting progress for 10,000 public schools that stand to benefit from it. She spoke to about 350 people, and worked a rope line in something of a campaign-like event.
"I am committed, as well as my husband, to ensuring that more kids like us and kids around this country, regardless of their race, their income, their status, their -- the property values in their neighborhoods, get... access to an outstanding education,'' she said.
The first lady, making her first appearance at a federal agency since the inauguration of her husband, promised to spend several weeks or months going from agency to agency - "visiting agencies throughout this administration to do just something simple, and that's to say thank you; thank you before we even begin the work, because so many of you have been here struggling and pushing for decades.
"Barack and I want to say thank you for what you've done and thank you for what you will continue to do....
"The Department of Education is going to be at the forefront of many of the things that we have to do in this administration. And we're going to need that energy in these times of economic challenge...
"We're going to be making investments.... With these investments, we're going to create good jobs, as we renovate and modernize more than 10,000 schools... and improve the learning environment for about five million children across this country.
"We'll be able to increase Pell grants and make college more
affordable for seven million students, and give nearly four million students tax credits for tuition... And with these investments that we hope to make through this stimulus package, we'll be able to prevent teacher layoffs -- and education cuts in hard-hit states...
"We'll be able to preserve early childhood education programs,'' she said. "And we can expand opportunities in low-income districts for all students, and particularly for students with disabilities....
"There's a lot of work to do, and we're going to need you,'' she said. "Sometimes I don't ask for much other than a little prayer and hard work, and then a little more prayer, and then a little more hard work....
"We have to remember that the children of this country are counting on all of us. They're looking to us for direction. They're looking to us for that ray of hope.''
Should FEMA Remain Part Of Homeland Security?
FEMA was absorbed into the Deparment of Homeland Security in 2003, but there's debate in Washington about whether it should regain its independent status. It's one of 22 agencies in Homeland Security, and some emergency officials say that's one reason that getting federal disaster aid can be difficult.
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