The US President-elect Barack Obama [Images] is planning to use his executive powers to reverse Bush administration policies on stem cell research and domestic drilling for oil and natural gas, a media report said on Sunday.
    
Newsweek quoted John Podesta, Obama's transition chief, as saying that the President-elect was reviewing Bush's executive orders on those issues and others as he works to undo policies enacted during the eight years of Republican rule.

Podesta said that Obama can use such orders to move quickly on his own. "There's a lot that the president can do using his executive authority without waiting for congressional action, and I think we'll see the president do that," Podesta said. "I think that he feels like he has a real mandate for change. We need to get off the course that the Bush administration has set."
    
Podesta was also quoted as saying that Obama is working to build a diverse Cabinet. That includes reaching out to Republicans, and independents who were part of the broad coalition that supported Obama during his race to White House. Defence Secretary Robert Gates has been mentioned as a possible holdover.
    
"He's not even a Republican," Senate majority leader Harry Reid of Nevada said. "Why wouldn't we want to keep him? He's never been a registered Republican."
    
Obama, Newsweek noted, was elected on a promise of change, but the nature of the job makes it difficult for Presidents to do much that has an immediate impact on the lives of average people. Congress plans to take up a second economic aid plan before year's end,  an effort Obama supports. But it could be months or longer before taxpayers see the effect, the news magazine said.

Obama could use his executive powers to at least signal that Washington is changing, Newsweek said.
    
"Obama's advantage of course is he'll have the House and the Senate working with him, and that makes it easier," Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, told the news magazine. "But even then, having an immediate impact is very difficult to do because the machinery of government doesn't move that quickly."
    
Presidents long have used executive orders to impose policy and set priorities. One of Bush's first acts was to reinstate full abortion restrictions on US overseas aid. The restrictions were first ordered by President Reagan and President George Bush [Images] senior followed suit. President Clinton lifted them soon after he occupied the Oval Office and it wouldn't be surprising if Obama did the same.
    
Executive orders "have the power of law and they can cover just about anything," Tobias said.
    
Bush used his executive powers to limit federal spending on embryonic stem cell research, a position championed by opponents of abortion rights who argue that destroying embryos is akin to killing a fetus.
    
Obama has supported the research in an effort to find cures for diseases like Alzheimer's. Many moderate Republicans also support the research, giving it the stamp of bipartisanship, the report noted.
    
On drilling, the federal Bureau of Land Management is opening about 360,000 acres of public land in Utah to oil and gas drilling. Bush administration officials argue that the drilling will not harm sensitive areas as opposed by the environmentalists.
    
They want to have oil and gas drilling in some of the most sensitive, fragile lands in Utah," Podesta was quoted as saying. "I think that's a mistake."

Two top House Republicans told the magazine that there is a willingness to try to work with Obama to get things done. But they expect their party leaders to serve as a check against the power held by Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress.
    
"It's going to be a cheerful opposition," said Republican Mike Pence. "We're going to carry those timeless principles of limited government, a strong defence, traditional values, to the American people."
    
Pence is expected to take over the No 3 leadership post among House Republicans. In other transition matters, the President-elect's new chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, would not say whether Obama would return to the Senate for votes during the post-election session this month. Obama's presence would be extraordinary, given his position as president-elect, especially if Congress takes up a much-anticipated economic stimulus plan, Newsweek said.
    
"I think that the basic approach has been he's going to be here in Chicago, setting up his economic, not only his economic team, but the policies he wants to outline for the country as soon as he gets sworn in, so we hit the ground running," Emanuel told the magazine.