UPDATE:Obama:Confident Congress Will Pass Econ Recovery Bill

President Barack Obama took the case for his economic recovery package to corporate America on Wednesday, telling a group of 13 corporate chieftains that he's confident the $825 billion legislation will make it through Congress.

"I'm confident we're going to get it passed," Obama told reporters at the start of his meeting with chief executives in the Roosevelt Room.

The House of Representatives is expected to vote on the bill later Wednesday. The bill is expected to pass. At issue, however, is the amount of support it will win from House Republicans, who have balked at the bill's size and complained it doesn't focus enough on tax relief.

Wednesday's meeting was part of Obama's effort to appeal to GOP critics and big business.

Attendees included Steve Appleton, CEO of Micron Technology Inc. (MU); David Barger, CEO of JetBlue Airways Corp. (JBLU); Greg Brown, co-CEO of Motorola Inc. (MOT); John Bryson, CEO of Edison International (EIX); David M. Cote, CEO of Honeywell International Inc. (HON); Debra Lee, CEO of BET Holdings Inc.; Anne Mulcahy, CEO of Xerox Corp. (XRX); Sam Palmisano, CEO of International Business Machines Corp. (IBM); Antonio Perez, CEO of Eastman Kodak Co. (EK); Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google Inc. (GOOG); Michael Splinter, CEO of Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT); Wendell Weeks, CEO of Corning Inc. (GLW); and Ron Williams, CEO of Aetna Inc. (AET).

"These are people who make things, who hire people. They are on the front lines in seeing the enormous problems in our economy right now," Obama said. "Their ideas and their concerns have helped to shape our recovery package, and I'm grateful that they're here today to talk about why it's so important that we act, and act swiftly, in order to get this economy back on track."

The president will reinforce his views on the economy in a speech Wednesday.

Ahead of Obama's meeting with CEOs, Applied Materials' Splinter said action on solar energy could create jobs and boost economic growth. Specifically, Splinter called for short-term refundability of the federal solar investment tax credit, the adoption of renewable and solar energy sources for federal properties, and enhancement of the renewable technology loan guarantee program, according to a company release.

-By Henry J. Pulizzi, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9256; [e-mail]

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