AUSTIN, Tex. — President Obama arrives here Thursday hoping to put a spotlight on this city’s embrace of advanced manufacturing and on Republican efforts in Congress to block his economic agenda.
In a series of events that will kick off the latest version of his “Middle-Class Jobs and Opportunity Tour,” Mr. Obama will argue that federal investment of $1 billion in “manufacturing institutes” would help set off an industrial revival and create new jobs. Mr. Obama’s budget included the request, but Republicans have been cool to the idea.
As a result, Mr. Obama will announce on Thursday an executive order creating three such manufacturing hubs using $200 million from the budgets of five agencies: the Departments of Defense, Energy and Commerce, and the National Science Foundation and NASA. White House officials said the president would continue to push for Congress to finance the remaining hubs.
The president also will announce an executive order requiring that government data be made available to the public — and to entrepreneurs — in manageable formats that could be more easily used by researchers and businesses to jump-start new products and services.
“These steps are not a substitute for the bold Congressional action we need to create jobs and grow the economy, but they’ll make a difference,” a White House official said, speaking on background ahead of the president’s official announcement.
Republican officials quickly mocked Mr. Obama’s trip to Austin, describing it as a campaign-style stunt that would not substantially help the economy or put people back to work. “Obama’s Jobs Strategy: Pivot Back to he Economy Every So Often,” said a news release from the Republican National Committee.
In his State of the Union address this year, Mr. Obama laid out an economic agenda that included the call for a new emphasis on manufacturing along with more money for early childhood education, an increase in the minimum wage and greater investment in infrastructure.
While some Republicans have expressed support for pieces of that agenda, there is little indication that the bulk of it is headed toward passage anytime soon in a Congress that is increasingly frozen when it comes to fiscal issues.
But aides to the president believe that events like the ones in Austin, though likely in service to a lost cause, are necessary to keep pressure on Republicans and to show Americans that Mr. Obama is still pushing for his agenda.
The risk for Mr. Obama is that the events can come across as little more than costly excursions that do little to actually improve the economy. But aides are quick to point out that the president would likely be criticized if he announced an agenda in the State of the Union address and did not push for it.
And the president’s political advisers remember what happened during his first two years in office, when he rarely traveled around the country, staying in Washington to shepherd his health care legislation through Congress. His approval ratings and his mood sank, leading aides to believe that it is important that he travel the country frequently.
On Thursday, Mr. Obama will first deliver remarks at Manor New Tech High School near Austin, where students are focused on the science, technology, engineering and math skills that the president will say are a critical part of developing the work force of the future.
He will meet with some local residents and technology entrepreneurs, officials said. And then he will tour a facility at Applied Materials, a company based in Silicon Valley that manufactures the complex equipment needed to make silicon chips for computers, phones and other high-tech machines.
The manufacturing hubs Mr. Obama will announce on Thursday will be focused on three areas, officials said: “digital manufacturing and design innovation,” “lightweight and modern metals manufacturing,” and the “next-generation power electronics manufacturing.”
In a series of events that will kick off the latest version of his “Middle-Class Jobs and Opportunity Tour,” Mr. Obama will argue that federal investment of $1 billion in “manufacturing institutes” would help set off an industrial revival and create new jobs. Mr. Obama’s budget included the request, but Republicans have been cool to the idea.
As a result, Mr. Obama will announce on Thursday an executive order creating three such manufacturing hubs using $200 million from the budgets of five agencies: the Departments of Defense, Energy and Commerce, and the National Science Foundation and NASA. White House officials said the president would continue to push for Congress to finance the remaining hubs.
The president also will announce an executive order requiring that government data be made available to the public — and to entrepreneurs — in manageable formats that could be more easily used by researchers and businesses to jump-start new products and services.
“These steps are not a substitute for the bold Congressional action we need to create jobs and grow the economy, but they’ll make a difference,” a White House official said, speaking on background ahead of the president’s official announcement.
Republican officials quickly mocked Mr. Obama’s trip to Austin, describing it as a campaign-style stunt that would not substantially help the economy or put people back to work. “Obama’s Jobs Strategy: Pivot Back to he Economy Every So Often,” said a news release from the Republican National Committee.
In his State of the Union address this year, Mr. Obama laid out an economic agenda that included the call for a new emphasis on manufacturing along with more money for early childhood education, an increase in the minimum wage and greater investment in infrastructure.
While some Republicans have expressed support for pieces of that agenda, there is little indication that the bulk of it is headed toward passage anytime soon in a Congress that is increasingly frozen when it comes to fiscal issues.
But aides to the president believe that events like the ones in Austin, though likely in service to a lost cause, are necessary to keep pressure on Republicans and to show Americans that Mr. Obama is still pushing for his agenda.
The risk for Mr. Obama is that the events can come across as little more than costly excursions that do little to actually improve the economy. But aides are quick to point out that the president would likely be criticized if he announced an agenda in the State of the Union address and did not push for it.
And the president’s political advisers remember what happened during his first two years in office, when he rarely traveled around the country, staying in Washington to shepherd his health care legislation through Congress. His approval ratings and his mood sank, leading aides to believe that it is important that he travel the country frequently.
On Thursday, Mr. Obama will first deliver remarks at Manor New Tech High School near Austin, where students are focused on the science, technology, engineering and math skills that the president will say are a critical part of developing the work force of the future.
He will meet with some local residents and technology entrepreneurs, officials said. And then he will tour a facility at Applied Materials, a company based in Silicon Valley that manufactures the complex equipment needed to make silicon chips for computers, phones and other high-tech machines.
The manufacturing hubs Mr. Obama will announce on Thursday will be focused on three areas, officials said: “digital manufacturing and design innovation,” “lightweight and modern metals manufacturing,” and the “next-generation power electronics manufacturing.”