The White House(WASHINGTON) -- In a Memorial Day themed weekly address, President Obama celebrates U.S. troops and paid tribute to those who died while serving in the military.

"They are heroes, each and every one.  They gave America the most precious thing they had – 'the last full measure of devotion.'  And because they did, we are who we are today – a free and prosperous nation, the greatest in the world," he said.
 
"Every time a threat has risen, Americans have risen to meet it.  And because of that courage – that willingness to fight, and even die – America endures," he said. "That is the purpose of Memorial Day.  To remember with gratitude the countless men and women who gave their lives."

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- It's almost as if Washington has seen this movie before: a bridge collapses, groups decry the nation's crumbling infrastructure and Congress does nothing.

Like the tragic Minneapolis, Minn. bridge collapse in 2007 that came before it, Thursday's Mount Vernon, Washington collapse is unlikely to spur Congress to pour hundreds of billions of dollars into fixing roads and bridges.

The political inertia in Washington around transportation funding and projects hasn't eased despite President Obama's nearly constant push for additional funding.

In February, Obama renewed his nearly annual call for $50 billion in additional transportation and infrastructure spending as part of his 2014 budget request. But Republicans said the proposal amounted to an unfunded wish list.

To be sure, Congress did pass a highway transportation funding bill last year, but infrastructure spending advocates say it's simply not enough. The bill allocated just enough money to keep transportation spending at status quo levels and it only funded projects for two years, as opposed to the usual five or six.

So how much is enough?

For roads and bridges alone, the Federal Highway Administration estimates that every year $190 billion would need to be infused into the system compared to the $103 billion currently being spent.

When you take into consideration all of the country's infrastructure, the American Society of Civil Engineers says that about $3.6 trillion is needed by 2020 to fix the country's mounting problems.

And Obama keeps pushing for more infrastructure spending, arguing that the jobs construction projects create are good for the economy and good for business.

"When you ask companies who brought jobs back to America in the last few years, they'll say, if we upgrade our infrastructure, we'll bring even more," Obama said earlier this year at a port in Miami, Florida. "So what are we waiting for?"

As the White House is eager to point out, infrastructure spending is one of the few things that the pro-business U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the labor union AFL-CIO can agree on.

What is Congress waiting for?

"Infrastructure has always been non-partisan," said Rob Puentes, Director of the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program. "The reason that it's contentious in Washington is because the morning prayers are contentious in Washington."

And Republicans, who are deeply enmeshed in a battle with Democrats over where to cut spending, aren't eager to authorize new projects, or worse yet, raise the 18 cents per gallon gasoline tax that is used to currently fund transportation projects.

States, Puentes said, have already taken matters into their own hands since Congress has proven that it won't do more. Puentes calls it a "silver lining."

"As everyone was looking for the federal government to respond, the states kind of did it themselves," Puentes said. "They are making progress. They are doing what they can with limited resources."

Perhaps in a nod to that shift from the federal government to state and local governments, Obama found a new Transportation Secretary for his second term in Charlotte, N.C. Mayor Anthony Foxx.

"The Federal Government has got to be responsive and has to understand what it's like when you're a mayor or a Governor or a county executive trying to get these projects up and running," Obama said when announcing Foxx's nomination. "Which also means that we have the potential of continuing to streamline our approvals and get rid of some difficulties in permitting that slow projects down, because we want to get people back to work and we want to get this country moving,"

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

John Moore/Getty Images(ANNAPOLIS, Md.) -- President Obama gave a nod to his newly articulated drone policy as he addressed the graduating class of the U.S. Naval Academy on Friday.

“We still face threats from al Qaeda affiliates and individuals caught up in its ideology,” Obama said, addressing the academy’s graduation ceremony in Annapolis, Md. “Will still need to conduct targeted strikes against terrorists before they kill our citizens.”

Obama laid out his drone policies in another speech Thursday seeking to explain why, how, and when the U.S. will decide to kill Americans living abroad.

Obama raised the issue on Friday as he addressed the graduates on new security challenges.

He also made what could be construed as a mention of the IRS scandal that has dogged his administration over the past two weeks. A major theme in his speech was failing public trust in government institutions, and the president mentioned “civil servants” and “misconduct.” It’s unclear whether that’s what Obama meant.

“Every day our civil servants do their jobs with professionalism, protecting our national security and delivering the services that so many Americans expect. But as we’ve seen again in recent days, it only takes the misconduct of a few to further erode the people’s trust in their government. And that’s unacceptable to me, and I know it’s unacceptable to you,” Obama said.

“And against this backdrop, what I said here four years ago remains true today. Our military remains the most trusted institution in America. When others have shirked their responsibilities, our armed forces have met every mission we’ve given them. When others have been distracted by petty arguments, our men and women in uniform come together as one American team,” Obama continued.

The president condemned sexual assaults in the military, a major topic of discussion on Capitol Hill after a Pentagon study earlier this month found reported incidents on the rise.

“Those who commit sexual assault are not only committing a crime, they threaten the trust and discipline that makes our military strong,” Obama said. “That’s why we have to be determined to stop these crimes because they’ve got no place in the greatest military on earth.”

He blasted the “foolish across-the-board budgets cuts known as the sequester, which is threatening our readiness” and pledged to fight for military funding.

The president shook hands and congratulated each of the 1,047 graduates -- 764 Navy ensigns, 264 Marine Corps 2nd lieutenants, and three Air Force 2nd lieutenants; 841 men and 206 women. He then donned an overcoat after his speech as rain drizzled over the crowd.

Unfortunately your browser does not support IFrames.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images(ANNAPOLIS, Md.) -- As a cold rain poured down on the commencement ceremony, President Obama addressed the graduating class of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., Friday and used the recent scandal of sexual assaults in the military as a call for the graduates to restore trust and honor in America’s institutions.

“We must acknowledge that even here, even in our military, we’ve seen how the misconduct of some can have effects that ripple far and wide,” Obama said at the Naval Academy commencement ceremony.  “In our digital age, a single image from the battlefield of troops falling short of their standards can go viral and endanger our forces and undermine our efforts to achieve security and peace.  Likewise, those who commit sexual assault are not only committing a crime, they threaten the trust and discipline that make our military strong.  That’s why we have to be determined to stop these crimes, because they’ve got no place in the greatest military on Earth.”

“Class of 2013, I say all this because you’re about to assume the burden of leadership.  As officers, you will be trusted with the most awesome of responsibilities -- the lives of the men and women under your command,” he said.

“When your service is complete, many of you will go on to help lead your communities, America’s companies.  You will lead this country.  And if we want to restore the trust that the American people deserve to have in their institutions, all of us have to do our part.  And those of us in leadership -- myself included -- have to constantly strive to remain worthy of the public trust. As you go forward in your careers, we need you to carry forth the values that you’ve learned at this institution, because our nation needs them now more than ever,” he continued.

Obama, who was speaking at his second Naval Academy commencement ceremony since becoming president, also touched on his drone policy, which he laid out in a speech Thursday.

“We still face threats from al Qaeda affiliates and from individuals caught up in its ideology.  Even as we move beyond deploying large ground armies abroad, we still need to conduct precise, targeted strikes against terrorists before they kill our citizens,” he said. “And even as we stay vigilant in the face of terrorism and stay true to our Constitution and our values, we need to stay ready for the full range of threats -- from nations seeking weapons of mass destruction to cyber criminals seeking to unleash weapons of mass destruction.”    

Dressed in their dress whites and dress blues, the graduates sat through a two and a half hour ceremony as a cold rain drenched them. Obama apologized for the poor weather, but noted “that Marines and folks in the Navy don't mind a little water.”

Wearing an overcoat, the president stood in the rain as he shook hands with each of the 1,047 graduates -- 764 Navy ensigns, 264 Marine Corps 2nd lieutenants, and three Air Force 2nd lieutenants; 841 men and 206 women.

Unfortunately your browser does not support IFrames.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Comstock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- The president may have forgotten to do something as he boarded Marine One Friday morning.

On his way to the U.S. Naval Academy graduation ceremony in Annapolis, Md., President Obama didn’t return the salute of the marine standing guard at the door of Marine One, as he climbed the steps to the helicopter cabin.

Obama soon ducked his head out, waved to the pilot, and jaunted back down the stairs to address the marine, shaking his hand. In the short video clip, one can’t hear the two men talking, so it’s unclear what exactly was said. A faint smile appeared to cross the marine’s face as the they exchanged brief words.

Obama jogged back up the steps, still not having saluted.

While this exchange may seem to be a military faux pas -- Obama typically salutes as he boards Marine One -- presidential salutes aren’t a fully closed matter. In a 2009 New York Times op-ed, Smithsonian magazine editor and former marine Carey Winfrey identified them as a recent phenomenon, one that evoked mixed feelings from him:

… Whenever I saw a president stepping off a helicopter and bringing hand to brow, my drill instructor’s unambiguous words came back to me with much of their original force.

Then there were the salutes themselves, which ranged from halfhearted to jaunty. None of them fulfilled the characteristically succinct prescription that Capt. Jack O’Donnell of the Marine Corps delivered, in 1963, to my platoon of freshly minted second lieutenants at basic school in Quantico, Va.: “Your salute,” he pronounced, “must be impeccable...

Presidents have long been saluted, but they began returning salutes relatively recently. Ronald Reagan was thought to be the first, in 1981.

Reagan, Winfrey wrote, consulted the Marine Corps commandant on whether saluting back was appropriate. Marines themselves are taught not to do so out of uniform, and Winfrey raised the obvious point: Presidents, in suits and ties, aren’t wearing uniforms. But as commanders in chief, they’re in charge, and according to the advice Reagan got, supersede the protocol.

So while Obama typically does salute, it’s not as if he’s required to.

Unfortunately your browser does not support IFrames.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- In what was one of the 2012 election cycle’s most important battleground states, “voter fraud does exist,” Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted acknowledged in a report on Thursday. “But it is not an epidemic.”

Husted, a Republican and the state’s chief elections official, said at a news conference and in an accompanying report that was based on a survey of all of Ohio’s 88 counties conducted in the wake of last November’s election, 625 possible voting irregularities were reported across the state and 135 of them have been sent to law enforcement for further investigation.

Of the 135 investigated instances of fraud in Ohio, a state where President Obama beat Mitt Romney by some 166,214 votes, 20 of them involved voters who cast ballots in both Ohio and another state and will be referred to the Ohio attorney general.

“Our effort to look into irregularities and root out voter fraud sends a strong message that no amount of fraud is acceptable,” Husted said in a statement. “If you cheat, you will be caught and held accountable.”

Other “irregularities” that surfaced in the post-election survey included double voting, standing in for another voter, and voting from an address from which an individual was not eligible, according to the secretary of state’s report.

Before Election Day in 2012, a federal judge blocked new voting laws proposed by Ohio Republican lawmakers that were aimed at reducing voter fraud by restricting early voting. Ohio requires voters to provide proof of identity at polling places such as a driver’s license, bank statement or utility bill.

No instances of voter suppression were reported. In Ohio, more than 5.6 million ballots were cast in the 2012 election.

The results of Ohio’s review come on the heels of President Obama’s appointment of members to his Presidential Commission on Election Administration earlier this week. The commission is tasked with identifying ways to solve the problem of long lines and inefficient polling locations during the 2012 election. Members of the commission include former top lawyers for both the Obama and Romney campaigns.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- Making sure that more Republican women run for office and that they get the support they need is the focus of “Right Women, Right Now,” a new initiative by the Republican State Leadership Committee to encourage and mentor GOP women considering a run for office.

Ed Gillespie, chairman of the RSLC, said the goal of the program, which was started last year but relaunched Thursday, was to grow the Republican Party and “foster up-and-coming diverse voices, and to get new women to the table from the state level."

“We believe one of the ways to grow our Republican Party is by creating a strong pipeline of diverse leaders to put some new voices and fresh faces on the escalator to higher office, and we believe the first step to that is some of these state offices,” he said.

Of course, that’s not all. With more female candidates, there might be less chance of some of the damaging incidents that hurt the Republican Party in 2012 by male candidates such as Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock, who made insensitive comments about rape and abortion.

Gillespie noted that “women candidates maybe have a better ear for how to talk about some of these issues and the right tone without compromising principles, for example, on the issue of life, but address them in a way that I think is more resonant with voters and less alienating of women.

“There have been times where how the issue was discussed had a negative impact on Republicans up and down the ballot, and I do believe that women candidates have demonstrated a greater ability to talk about the issue in a way that doesn’t alienate but is more persuasive and builds by attraction,” Gillespie said, answering a question raised during a conference call to relaunch “Right Women, Right Now” about how this initiative could possibly limit those kind of comments in the next election cycle.

The main backers of the initiative include Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, Tennessee Speaker of the House Beth Harwell and Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman.

Harwell said she “understands” the issue of abortion “is a very emotionally high-strung issue” and “it touches people’s personal lives directly,” but approaching the "issue with a great deal of kindness” is what “earns the respect of voters.”

“I will say that what I’ve found in the female candidates that are running for office…is that they hold firm to their own personal convictions because this is a value vote,” Harwell said.

Kleefisch had another view, saying the “war on women is alliteration and fits great on a masthead.”

“In reality, it is basically asking women to be transparent and one-dimensional and vote on a single issue, and I’ll tell you that women are a lot more complex than a single issue,” Kleefisch said. “We care about the war on unemployment and that’s the one that the women in this group are fighting, the war on poverty, the battle of making sure ends meet every day in this country."

"I think it’s kind of insulting to say that women care only about a single issue and care about that most as opposed to making sure that their families are healthy and happy,” she continued, “and that they can pay their bills.”

Bondi, the first female attorney general of Florida, said the campaign would “spend unprecedented resources to elect a record number of women to state level offices."

“We need to take upon ourselves to encourage other women to say yes to leadership and that’s not always an easy thing to do and you put yourself on the ballot and we know the challenges faced when you say yes to this commitment and it’s up to us to ensure that other women have the support and encouragement to do the same,” she said.

Kleefisch said the group was doing more than just encouraging more women to run at the state level and would actively mentor women and provide support to help with work and family-life balance, saying she knows that “sometimes you feel like your entire life is spent going back and forth between Lincoln Day dinners and carpool obligations, but that’s the life that many women who have chosen to step forward and serve in this way are looking at."

One thing the group will not be doing is getting involved in primaries, even if it is a Republican woman who’s running. “We don’t engage in primaries as a rule,” Gillespie said, when asked about the number of Republican women who ran in 2010  but were defeated in their primaries by Republican men.

“One of the things we try to do is to work with the state party chairs and legislative caucus leaders and coordinate with them and try to identify qualified and quality women candidates and get them into the process,” Gillespie said. “We don’t want to recruit for women to run for seats where they can’t get the nomination [and] can’t win [or] have a credible chance at winning a general election for that matter.”

Republicans are not the only ones working to get more women to run. Earlier this month, Emily’s List, known for backing female Democratic candidates who support abortion rights, launched its "Madam President” campaign to get an early start on electing a female president in 2016. It backed its first gubernatorial candidate of the 2014 election cycle Thursday, endorsing Rep. Allyson Schwartz of Pennsylvania.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

The White House(WASHINGTON) -- In a wide-ranging speech at the National Defense University, in Washington D.C., Thursday, President Obama launched a spirited defense of his administration's efforts to pursue terrorists overseas, even while he outlined a more limited path forward in the fight against terror.

"We are at war with an organization that right now would kill as many Americans as they could if we did not stop them first. So this is a just war -- a war waged proportionally, in last resort, and in self-defense," Obama said. "And yet as our fight enters a new phase, America's legitimate claim of self-defense cannot be the end of the discussion."

In the first major foreign policy speech of his second term, Obama addressed head-on some of his administration's most passionate critics from both the opposite end of the political spectrum and his own party.

"These are tough issues and the suggestion that we can gloss over them is wrong," Obama said when a protester repeatedly interrupted his hour-long remarks.

Obama said that on Thursday he signed a Presidential Policy Guidance that outlined not only his administration's guidelines for the use of force against terrorists but for more oversight and accountability for those actions.

He called on Congress to close Guantanamo Bay, and he encouraged the use of diplomatic power to address the ideology that produces terrorists domestic and abroad.

Yet in the speech, Obama insisted that his administration's strategies were proactive and effective, despite questions about the legality of some of the actions.

He spoke pointedly about intelligence gathered in Osama bin Laden's compound that proved that al Qaeda operatives knew that drone strikes were working.

Unfortunately your browser does not support IFrames.

"In the intelligence gathered at bin Laden's compound, we found that he wrote, 'We could lose the reserves to the enemy's air strikes. We cannot fight air strikes with explosives.' Other communications from al Qaeda operatives confirm this as well," Obama said. "Dozens of highly skilled al Qaeda commanders, trainers, bombmakers and operatives have been taken off the battlefield. Plots have been disrupted that would have targeted international aviation, U.S. transit systems, European cities and our troops in Afghanistan."

"Simply put, these strikes have saved lives," Obama said.

He also acknowledged that drone strikes have resulted in civilian deaths and, like in any conflict, may have had a negative impact on public perceptions of the U.S. abroad. But Obama said that the strikes, and the civilian casualties that they have resulted in, are preferable to the alternative.

"To do nothing in the face of terrorist networks would invite far more civilian casualties," Obama said. "Let us remember that the terrorists we are after target civilians, and the death toll from their acts of terrorism against Muslims dwarfs any estimate of civilian casualties from drone strikes."

Ahead of Obama's speech, Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday disclosed publicly for the first time that four American citizens had been killed in drone attacks.

The administration says that only one of these people, Anwar al-Awlaki, a senior al Qaeda official, was targeted. One of the other three was killed with al-Awlaki; another was al-Awlaki's son, killed in another strike.

Obama said that he does not believe the U.S. government can target and kill American citizens without due process, but that American citizenship cannot be used as a "shield."

"His citizenship should no more serve as a shield than a sniper shooting down on an innocent crowd should be protected from a SWAT team," Obama said. "That's who Anwar al-Awlaki was, he was continuously trying to kill people."

The revelations come at a time when the U.S. has already begun drawing down the number of drone attacks it carries out, which a senior administration official said Thursday is partially a result of a months-long process of refining the requirements for carrying out a strike.

Obama's liberal allies have also not forgotten his 2008 campaign promise to close Guantanamo Bay.

Obama said that he remains committed to closing the facility but he urged Congress to repeal its restrictions on transferring detainees away from the prison, and he called on lawmakers to close it.

"No person has ever escaped from one of our super-max or military prisons in the United States-- ever," Obama said. "Given my administration's relentless pursuit of al Qaeda's leadership, there is no justification beyond politics for Congress to prevent us from closing a facility that should never have been opened."

But, speaking with ABC News, Andrea Parsow, senior counterterrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch, said that by not moving immediately after taking office to close Guantanamo, Obama may have missed his window in 2008 when there was some bipartisan support for closing the prison.

"I think he was convinced by his advisers that doing so would be a politically risky move at the time. But by not acting, he opened up the space to make things like closing Guantanamo political," Parsow said.

With pressure to close the prison mounting, critics of the administration are unlikely to be satisfied by Thursday's speech.

For more than 100 days, prisoners at Guantanamo Bay have been on a hunger strike and some are now being fed through tubes, which has only further outraged opponents of the prison.

In the speech, Obama also addressed two scandals that have dogged the administration, particularly in the past several weeks: the attack on a U.S. consulate in Benghazi, and reports that the Justice Department seized phone records of several journalists in the course of investigating leaks of classified information.

Obama reiterated his pledge to implement the recommendations of the Accountability Review Board, which found "unacceptable failures" in Benghazi. And he also expressed concerns that the Justice Department's investigation of leaks may have gone too far.

"I am troubled by the possibility that leak investigations may chill the investigative journalism that holds government accountable," Obama said. "Journalists should not be at legal risk for doing their jobs. Our focus must be on those who break the law."

The speech featured a litany of items Obama would like added to Congress's agenda, from repealing the "authorization to use military force" (signed into law just after 9/11 and authorizing the use of the armed forces against those responsible for the attacks) to the closing of Guantanamo Bay.

"If you're going to get anything done in your second term it's really got to be in the first year, because the next year is an election year. That's what's really dictating it," said Larry Korb, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a former assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration.

Obama has also faced mounting pressure on both sides of the political aisle to explain the U.S.'s policy around drone attacks and when he believes the government is justified in targeting U.S. citizens.

In March, Republican Tea Party-backed Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) filibustered CIA Director John Brennan's confirmation hearing for 13 hours to protest the U.S. drone program.

And on Wednesday, the human rights group Amnesty International, released a new report blasting the administration's drone program for perpetrating executions in violation of international human rights law.

By laying out publicly his administration's policy for the future of the war on terror at the onset of his second term, Obama may be looking to solidify his presidential legacy.

"I think when it comes to the drone program and the future of the war against al Queda, he's thinking of what he wants to leave in place for the next president," Parsow said. "He's a young man; he's going to have a lot of years to look back on what he has wrought."

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio