11 January 2002

Transcript of White House Press Briefing

White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer briefed reporters January 11 as they traveled with President Bush on Air Force One to Pennsylvania, where the President signed legislation to help clean up the nation's environment.

Following is the White House transcript:

Mr. Fleischer: The President is traveling to Conshohocken, to sign legislation to help clean up the environment by providing brownfield legislation to change liability provisions to provide more funding so that more brownfields or abandoned waste sites in urban areas can be cleaned up.

The place he's visiting, the Millennium Corporate Center, was the site of a steel foundry -- but after the foundry closed, the property sat in disrepair. And with a grant from EPA, Montgomery County began to turn things around. Private investment flowed, the site was cleaned up and redeveloped into the area that you're going to see in Pennsylvania today.

So this is another example of how by reforming some of the laws we can do more to help the environment. And the focus of this reform is on a series of liability changes to make it more easy for cleanup to take place.

Question: The EPA grant was during the Clinton administration years?

Mr. Fleischer: Unless it was earlier than that. It just depends on how long the cleanup took. Whitman is here, so we can ask her. And, as well, the President is announcing an increase in funding in next year's budget for brownfield cleanup initiative. Let me find that dollar amount. It will go from $98 million in '02 to $200 million, to help revitalize and clean up these abandoned sites. So a big expression of commitment to cleaning up the environment and helping our nation's urban areas.

Then the President will return to the White House at 12:10 p.m. And the President will meet with the Prime Minister of Poland at 2:35 p.m. in the Oval -- still photos at the top. And then the President will spend his weekend here in Washington.

Question: Spend his weekend --

Mr. Fleischer: Here in Washington.

Question: Anything on the agenda?

Mr. Fleischer: Over the weekend? Personal time, I don't have anything on it.

Question: Why is the President doing yet another bill signing away from the White House?

Mr. Fleischer: It's a way of showing how the things that take place in Washington touch real people's lives in their communities and at home. Not everything is Washington-based. It's important to show the country that when Congress and the President work together, communities can be changed, communities can be improved, the environment can be protected in the case of today's action.

Question: The President went to Ohio earlier this week and he's in Pennsylvania this week, both of those are pretty vital states in terms of national politics. Is he taking more bill signings to other key pivotal states, such as Michigan or California or Texas?

Mr. Fleischer: Is Massachusetts in that list? When the President went to Massachusetts --

Question: Massachusetts, well --

Mr. Fleischer: The President went to those states because the fact that the congressmen and senators from those states were the ones who helped make education reform possible. The President went there because he believes, as he said throughout the campaign, that a lot can be accomplished when the President is willing to share credit and not just take credit, share credit with the people in both parties who made things happen. And that's why he went to Ohio and that's why he also traveled with Congressman Miller.

Question: Why was this chosen?

Mr. Fleischer: This was chosen because of the site. It was a successful cleanup site and a reminder of what can happen again by focusing on ways to work together to protect the environment.

Question: Are there any members of Congress on board?

Mr. Fleischer: There are. Governor Whitman is on board and two congressmen are on board. Do you have their names?

Mr. Dickens: I'll get them.

Mr. Fleischer: We'll get that for you.

Question: Does he plan further trips to other states for bill signings?

Mr. Fleischer: On board is Congressman Paul Gillmor. I believe one other. I'll get you that information, we have more of it available.

Question: Thanks. And what senator did you say?

Mr. Fleischer: Administrator Whitman.

Question: Ari, on another matter, has the President phoned either Prime Minister Vaypayee or President Musharraf? And is he concerned about some of the statements that came out of India today, out of the region? There was particularly bellicose statements today.

Mr. Fleischer: When did you say he called them?

Question: Did he call them today? And is he concerned about the comments from -- I think it was India's Army Chief of Staff, one of the senior military officials today, saying that India is fully prepared for war, prepared to respond to a nuclear strike if it comes to that and some

Mr. Fleischer: Well, the President remains concerned about the region. As you know, Secretary Powell is traveling there at the President's direction. And the President continues to call on all the parties to recognize the importance of working to fight terrorism. India and Pakistan have a mutual enemy in terrorists, not in each other.

And Secretary Powell will be visiting the region as a sign of the importance the administration attaches to this. Concerns remain. President Musharraf is going to be giving a speech this weekend. This will be an important speech. The President looks forward to hearing it. And President Musharraf has made progress in cracking down on terrorists and extremists.

Question: Well, the Indian Home Minister was saying yesterday that, with all due respect to the President's overtures of encouraging President Musharraf to do more, India will wait to see actions. What did the President think of that --

Mr. Fleischer: President Musharraf has taken action, has arrested the leaders, cracked down, closed the offices of some of the terrorist organizations. And he will be giving an important address this weekend.

Question: But the point the Home Minister was making is that that has not yet met a threshold of trust for India. So what does the President --

Mr. Fleischer: The President believes that President Musharraf has made important progress in cracking down. It's important for more activity to be undertaken and the President is looking forward to listening to the speech.

Question: There's no concern, though, based over the past couple of days of statements?

Mr. Fleischer: Ongoing state of concern.

Question: Ari, is there any one point person who is going to serve as a clearing house for the administration on the congressional Enron investigations?

Mr. Fleischer: I'm not sure what you mean by that. You know, the White House always operates pretty collegially and whoever --

Question: I mean, is somebody coordinating the response -- you're going to be getting a lot of questions from a lot of different committees and --

Mr. Fleischer: Whoever would be most relevant. Some of it will be Office of Legislative Affairs, some of it will be the Counsel's Office, whatever is most relevant and direct to the questions.

Question: Office of Legislative Affairs or the Counsel's Office?

Mr. Fleischer: Whoever is most relevant to any of the questions.

Question: That's interesting. I mean --

Mr. Fleischer: The usual people. For example --

Question: The indication we got yesterday was that it would not be -- it would not go far enough for Mr. Gonzales to get involved.

Mr. Fleischer: I'm stating the obvious. You've seen Counsel Addington's response to letters that were received from Mr. Waxman. So, again, that's the Counsel's Office. That's the Vice President Counsel Office, in that case, because it was relevant to that inquiry. So whoever is most relevant to the inquiry, and that can be any number of people. That's why I say that, Wendell.

Question: Did the President make any calls to world leaders today?

Mr. Fleischer: I don't think so. I didn't get any briefing on it, so I don't believe he did.

Question: No calls on the Mideast?

Mr. Fleischer: I don't think so. I'll check, but I don't think so.

Question: On the Enron, is there concern that the White House and the administration is in kind of a no-win situation -- one, if you all, and Cabinet officers, if they had taken action, that could be interpreted as helping a corporate -- back a political sponsor; or, on the other hand, not doing enough at a time when people's savings are going down the drain?

Mr. Fleischer: The President's approach is that people need to be helped. And this needs to be fully investigated to determine if there was any criminal wrongdoing by Enron. And the administration has launched a criminal investigation at the Department of Justice. The Department of Labor has been looking into this since early December, in terms of wrongdoing by Enron, in an effort to protect people's pensions.

And the President is focused not only on a criminal probe, through his administration, but on policy changes, because there are lessons to be learned to protect pensioners and investors and employees in other companies who are going to retire. That's the President's focus. And if anybody else wants to focus on politics, that's their prerogative; but the President's focus is on getting to the bottom of this fully, thoroughly criminal investigation and a thorough policy review.

Question: Aside from the policy changes and the lessons in that, would he consider some kind of help for the Enron employees who were basically stuck, unable to sell their stock as their pensions dwindled?

Mr. Fleischer: You should take a look at a release put out by the Department of Labor in the first week of December, where they announced the investigation of Enron and the pensioners. The Department of Labor has a pension and welfare division that is responsible for that. This is the largest bankruptcy in America's history; but, obviously, our vibrant economy has had many bankruptcies -- bankruptcies are not uncommon affairs in a vibrant economy.

And there are other employees who worked at companies where the companies went bankrupt. The Department of Labor has provisions that are designed to protect workers from bankruptcies, dealing with the obligations and the credits of bankrupt organizations. So Department of Labor is on the case, doing its job.

Question: As the President's communicator, what do you make of all of the many newspaper headlines today that say this is going to dog him for the rest of the administration?

Mr. Fleischer: The headlines I saw today, as the front page of the USA Today, one of the widest read papers in America, said "Bush Launches Probe to Protect 401(k)s."

Question: Well, there were other headlines that say this is going to dog him for the rest of -- I mean, are you concerned about that?

Mr. Fleischer: This dog won't hunt. That's a reference to the politics of it.

Question: Ari, you may have answered this question already, but did the President ever hold any Enron stock, or is it among his personal stock holdings?

Mr. Fleischer: It's all publicly disclosed, so take a look. I don't know off the top of my head.

Question: Week ahead on the way home?

Mr. Fleischer: Week ahead I'm probably going to put out in writing later today. So, yes, you'll definitely get it.