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(AP) Responding to critics, President Barack Obama promised Friday to work with Congress on "appropriate reforms" for domestic surveillance programs that were thrust into the public eye by leaker Edward Snowden, saying he understands why Americans are skeptical about the collection of telephone and Internet information.
"It's not enough for me to have confidence in these programs," the president declared at a White House news conference shortly before a scheduled departure on a weeklong vacation. " The American people have to have confidence in them as well." The president announced a series of changes in a program begun cheap north face jackets for women under the antiterror Patriot Act that was passed in the wake of the terror attacks of Sept, 11, 2001.
As for Snowden, recently granted temporary asylum by Russia, Obama said he is not a patriot, as some have suggested, and challenged him to return to the United States to face espionage charges.
And on Russia, he said that given recent differences over Syria, human rights and Snowden, it is "probably appropriate for us to take a pause, reassess where it is that Russia is going . and recalibrate the relationship."
The hourlong news conference ranged over numerous issues, although the where to get north face jackets cheap president became especially animated when the questions turned to Republicans in Congress. He said they would risk the wrath of the public if they vote to shut down the government this fall in an attempt to cut off funding for his signature health care program.
He said that while he was receptive to House Republicans proposing an alternative immigration bill, his preference was for a vote on a Senatepassed measure that combines border security with a chance at citizenship for millions of immigrants living in the country illegally. House.
Nor did he mince his words about the United States' deteriorating relationship with Russia. He said President Vladimir Putin's recent decision to grant asylum to Snowden was merely the latest in a series of differences between the two countries, including a response to the Syrian civil war and to human rights issues.
"I've encouraged Mr. Putin to look forward rather than backward," Obama said, evoking memories of relations between the United States and the former Soviet Union.
The president, who just this week canceled a planned summit meeting with Putin, added, "It is probably appropriate for us to take a pause, reassess where it is that Russia is going, what our foreign interests are and calibrate the relationship."
Obama also said he has a range of candidates he is considering to become chairman of the Federal Reserve, a nomination he likened in importance to selecting a Supreme Court justice. Among the contenders are former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and Janet Yellen, the vice chair of the Fed, he said, adding that whoever replaces Ben Bernanke must focus his attention on keeping inflation in check and helping strengthen the recovery from the worst recession in decades.
While saying he won't pick a Fed chairman until the fall, he expressed irritation at critics of Summers, including some Democrats in Congress, whom Obama said were engaging in "a standard Washington exercise that I don't like" of launching preemptive attacks before an appointment has been made.
The president and his family were departing the White House later in the day for a weeklong vacation at Martha's Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts.
It was Obama's first fullblown White House news conference since April, and both his opening statement about surveillance programs and the questions that followed underscored the constantly shifting mix of issues in the nation's summertime capital.
Chief among them was the topic of surveillance, a subject the administration has struggled with since Snowden's leaks triggered a vigorous public debate about the proper balance between government intelligencegathering programs designed to combat terrorism and individual liberties enshrined in the Constitution.
In his remarks, the president gave no indication he was prepared to change the core of one of the most controversial programs, an effort to collect and store identifying information about virtually all the phone calls made in the United States.
Obama said the NSA would hire a privacy officer and that intelligence agencies would build a website explaining their mission.
As Obama spoke, the Justice Department released what Obama called "the legal rationale" for the surveillance. The document appeared to be primarily a recitation of what the administration has previously told Congress.