By Jared A. Favole
WASHINGTON--President Barack Obama's jobs council is disbanding
Thursday, two years after the president tapped executives from
General Electric Co. (GE), American Express Co. (AXP) and Boeing
Co. (BA) to give him advice on what steps he can take to jump-start
the economy.
For a president who has had a shaky relationship with the
business community--and particularly Wall Street--the council gave
him some political cover from Republicans and business leaders who
criticized his administration for enacting onerous regulations on
industries key to reviving the economy. In recent months, however,
the council had become a political thorn as Republicans accused Mr.
Obama of ignoring it.
The group of business executives, labor leaders and
small-business owners last held a meeting on Jan. 17, 2012.
A White House official said the President's Council on Jobs and
Competitiveness, as it is formally called, was always supposed to
have a two-year charter. Its charter ended Thursday and isn't being
renewed, the official said. The official pointed as an example to
one of the president's other advisory councils, the President's
Economic Recovery Advisory Board, which also expired after its
two-year charter ended.
Republicans criticizing the president's handling of the economy
have pointed to the council as a place where he could have sought
more advice. "One thing the President could have done instead of
wasting so much time blaming others would have been to convene the
Jobs Council he created amidst so much fanfare," Senate Minority
Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said Thursday. "He hasn't done
that for more than a year. In fact, from what I understand, the
council is expected to disband today after having met only four
times since 2011."
The White House official said the administration acted on most
of the jobs council's recommendations, including retrofitting
government buildings for energy efficiency, taking steps to create
new construction jobs and making it easier for Americans to start
small businesses.
The group also called for expanding domestic oil and gas
drilling, removing regulatory barriers and revamping the tax code.
Mr. Obama has said he supports overhauling the individual and
business tax codes, though little progress has been made on
either.
Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R.,
Ohio), said the president was disinterested in learning lessons
from job creators. "Whether ignoring the group or rejecting its
recommendations, the president treated his Jobs Council as more of
a nuisance than a vehicle to spur job creation," Mr. Buck said.
The White House's outreach to the business community wasn't
limited to the jobs council or how to grow the economy. Mr. Obama
and his aides have met in recent months with executives to discuss
the nation's deficit, government spending and immigration.
Senior members of the Obama administration spoke Wednesday with
a dozen business executives from companies such as Motorola
Solutions Inc. (MSI), General Motors Co. (GM) and Deloitte LLP,
according to the White House official.
The official also said the White House will announce a new,
expanded effort to work with the business community and other
outside groups to, among other things, get advice on revamping the
tax code, expediting infrastructure projects and promoting
entrepreneurship.
-Write to Jared A. Favole at jared.favole@dowjones.com