President Barack Obama on Friday pressed Congress to pass a new set of small-business tax breaks and loan incentives he says will help spur job creation. 

The legislation, which is sitting in a House committee, could be taken up on the House floor next week. Similar legislation is expected to be taken up in the Senate soon. 

"I’m eager to sign this tax relief and additional lending into law," he said in remarks in the Rose Garden following a meeting with small-business owners. "That’s how we can continue to move our economy forward — to continue on the path from recession to recovery, and ultimately to prosperity."

Obama's comments come on the heels of a worse-than-expected May jobs report that showed private sector firms only hired 41,000 new workers over the course of the month. 

Republicans have blamed Democratic legislation, such as the stimulus package and the healthcare law, for stunted job growth. But Obama said those bills have kept the economy afloat and helped it to create jobs instead of lose them. 

"These and other steps are making a difference. Little more than a year ago, the economy was in freefall. Today, it’s growing again," he said. 

However, Obama cautioned that more needs to be done, such as the new small-business bill, before the economy is fully recovered. 

"But even though we are digging out from this recession, we still find ourselves in a pretty deep hole," he said. "As small-business owners like Prachee and Bobby and Steve will tell you: we may be recovering, but we are not recovered. We have to keep moving forward."

Cross-posted from the Briefing Room 

Three Republicans want to remove a provision that would increaase payroll taxes on smaller corporations.

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A new Harris Interactive poll shows strong support (69 percent) for stricter regulations on banks and financial-services firms.

The findings come as Congress looks to complete work on a financial regulation bill by the July 4 recess that is expected to increase regulations on banks and finance firms.

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House and Senate conferees will begin to debate four titles of the financial regulatory reform measure in their next meeting. 

House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.), conference chairman, and Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said Thursday night that conferees would meet again at 11 a.m. Tuesday to discuss several issues, including credit rating agencies. 

Other issues will include Title III, the merger of the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the thrift charter. A proposed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau would take over the responsibilities of those two agencies among others under the legislation. 

The conference is expected to stretch out over the next two weeks with the aim to have a finished product ready for President Barack Obama to sign by the July 4 recess. 

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner wavered Thursday on when he'll release a report on China’s currency policies.

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Democrats and Republicans launched into sharp attacks Thursday only minutes into conference negotiations.

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BP shareholders have filed a class-action lawsuit based on claims that the company misled investors prior to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The suit cites the company's history of safety lapses, cost cutting and workplace disasters.

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Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the conference on the Wall Street bill, said Thursday a controversial provision restricting debit card fees would likely remain in the final legislation.

The provision would clamp down on fees that merchants pay debit card issuers, such as banks and credit unions. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) was the main sponsor of the provision in the Senate, which passed the measure on a bipartisan 64-33 vote.

Banks and credit unions have aggressively lobbied against the provision, which has the strong support of merchant and retail interest groups.

"With that very strong vote in the Senate, I don't think the House would try to resist that. Like everything else, it's going to be subject to some further amendment. But in the reality of trying to get in the bill, when you have 64 senators voting for something like after all the controversy, it's unrealistic to think it will go away."

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said there was strong support for the provision but that there could be "some modification."

Falling stock prices aside, BP will pay for all costs associated with the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a White House official said Thursday. 

"We are there to ensure that BP is doing everything that is has to do as the responsible party in this disaster, whether that is paying for — as the law stipulates — paying for the response, paying for the environmental damages and the recovery, and paying the claims of those whose economic livelihood and well-being has been damaged by this spill," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters Thursday. 

BP's stock price has dropped about 50 percent since the April 20 oil spill. The oil giant says it has spent more than $1.4 billion for all costs associated with disaster.  

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) went a step further, suggesting that BP should do some thinking about spending money on its public relations campaign and paying its shareholder dividends, and that "it really should honor the commitment that it has to these small businesses." 

"They can either wait it out with BP, which they can ill afford to do, take out loans, which they can ill afford to do, or we must insist that BP honor its commitment, do what it is required to do by law," she said Thursday after a meeting at the White House.

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