Sunning and skiing for Obamas as the president and Congress take a vacation

The president is staying in Florida at the home of Jim Crane, who owns the golf club and also owns the Houston Astros baseball team.

In 2012, Mr. Crane donated $35,800 to the Obama campaign and $30,800 to the Democratic National Committee.

Fifteen years ago, a company owned by Mr. Crane, Eagle USA Airfreight, was criticized by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for its position on hiring blacks and women of child-bearing age.

The EEOC said that Mr. Crane’s company conducted a practice of paying “female and minority employees less than white men who do similar work; did not investigate employee complaints of sexual harassment; and destroyed evidence that the company was instructed to retain as part of the two-year EEOC investigation,” according to a Houston Chronicle article from 2000.

The EEOC found that Eagle failed to promote blacks, Hispanics and women.

The agency’s report cited an accusation that Mr. Crane told his managers not to hire blacks because “once you hire blacks, you can never fire them.”

Mr. Crane and his company fought the EEOC and similar accusations contained in a lawsuit brought by former employees.

Without admitting wrongdoing, he later settled the charges for $8.5 million.

Asked about the symbolism of the president vacationing with wealthy donors while pushing a middle-class agenda, White House deputy press secretary Joshua Earnest defended Mr. Obama’s holiday plans.

“The president of the United States is the president of the United States 24 hours a day, and will fulfill his responsibilities as president even while he’s getting some well-deserved down time with some friends this weekend,” Mr. Earnest said.

“I don’t think the American people will begrudge him that.”

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