*EPF201 03/12/2002
Transcript: White House Press Briefing Aboard Air Force One, March 12
(President's schedule in Philadelphia, meetings at White House later with Russian Defense Minister and with President of Uzbekistan, Zinni/Middle East situation overnight, Iraq/missing pilot from Persian Gulf war, Homeland Security Director Ridge announces new color code system, John Bridgeland's USA Freedom Corps) (2440)

White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer briefed reporters on board Air Force One en route Philadelphia early in the day. He was assisted by John Bridgeland's Q&A with reporters on the USA Freedom Corps.

Following is the White House transcript:

(begin transcript)

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary

March 12, 2002

GAGGLE WITH
ARI FLEISCHER
AND JOHN BRIDGELAND, DIRECTOR OF USA FREEDOM CORPS

Aboard Air Force One
En Route Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

8:36 A.M. EST

MR. FLEISCHER: All right, let me clue you in on the President's activities today. First stop, Philadelphia, where the President will announce through the new USA Freedom Corps web site, a call to service, to urge more Americans to participate in serving their neighbors. The President will also announce that he's directed his Cabinet to report back to him within 30 days on ways the departments and agencies can contribute to service opportunities for all Americans.

The President will tour the People's Emergency Center, where volunteers are engaged to service to others in need, providing shelter, food, and social services to homeless women and families. The People's Emergency Center was founded in 1972. It's Pennsylvania's oldest and most comprehensive social service agency for homeless women, teenagers and their children.

The staff of volunteers work one on one with women and children to help rebuild their lives and increase opportunities. The services include emergency food and shelter, transitional housing, case management, parental -- parenting and life skills, child care, teen programs, welfare-to-work programs, and permanent housing opportunities.

Since it was founded, the People's Emergency Center has served nearly 6,000 homeless women and children. More than 90 percent of those who complete the program never return to homelessness.

Following that, the President will have a conversation on service at the Kimmel Center for Performing Arts, where the President will be joined by a group of people who participate in these programs and will be able to share their stories and their good works.

Upon return to the White House, the President will sign S1206, the reauthorization of the Appalachian Regional Development Act of 1965, which authorizes $446 million in funding to counties in the Appalachian region that have faced historically high levels of poverty and economic distress.

The President will later congratulate seven national collegiate athletic association and collegiate championship teams on their national titles in an event that, weather permitting, will be scheduled on the South Lawn from 3:30 p.m. to 4:15 p.m.

In addition, today the President is going to meet with the Defense Minister of Russia, as well as the President of Uzbekistan, both of which will be open to still photographers at the top; both of which meetings will be in the Oval Office.

I'm joined by none other than the Director of USA Freedom Corps, John Bridgeland. So if you have any questions about USA Freedom Corps, we have an expert aboard.

Q: Do we get a fact sheet with all this stuff in it?

MR. FLEISCHER: Is a fact sheet attached to that?

MR. BRIDGELAND: I've got that here also.

Q: Anything, real quick, on the violence overnight in the Middle East. It's gotten worse. With the approaching visit by Zinni, things haven't calmed down. They've gotten worse. What does the President think? Any specific instructions for Zinni?

MR. FLEISCHER: This is why General Zinni is going to the region, to try to find a way to help the parties achieve a breakthrough that leads to a diminution of the violence. It's taking a terrible toll on all parties, and General Zinni is being sent to help the parties find a way to stop it.

Q: In the meantime, is there anything for the President to do, by telephone either with the leaders in Israel or any other parties there, to get this kind of violence stopped?

MR. FLEISCHER: If the President makes any calls we'll let you know.

Q: Ari, have you been asked about this report about a U.S. pilot being held in Iraq for the last 10 years?

MR. FLEISCHER: Have I been asked about that?

Q: Have you spoken about it? I mean, have you all looked into it?

MR. FLEISCHER: Oh, different question. I was being literal. This is something that DOD has been involved in. A pilot is listed as MIA. It's a topic that comes up with regularity in conversations with Iraqi officials through our intrasection. And I would refer you to DOD for anything further about it.

Q: What does the President think? Does he think he's missing in action?

MR. FLEISCHER: He's listed as missing in action.

Q: He's listed as that. Does the President believe that he's --

MR. FLEISCHER: This is something that DOD looks at, DOD classifies the status of individuals.

Any questions for Mr. Bridgeland?

Q: What's the fundraiser tonight? Is that --

MR. FLEISCHER: I'm sorry, I should have told you about that. Thank you. The fundraiser tonight is for the Speaker's PAC. It will raise, I believe -- let me give you the accurate figure -- $400,000. It's called KOMPAC -- Keep Our Majority PAC.

Q: Governor Ridge today announced the five-color system. Why is the United States now at a yellow level, midway, when the President tells us that we have to be at maximum vigilance at this point?

MR. FLEISCHER: The President has always said we need to be vigilant, and this is the measure of vigilance. This is a new system designed in consultation with state and local officials, as well as federal authorities, in an effort to bring the most order and the most coordination to combatting terrorist threats. And this now kicks off a comment period for state and local governments to weigh in. It was developed with much impute from state and local governments, but the goal here is to find the best way to help the law enforcement community and state and local officials, first responders, assess what level of threat we're at so they can learn what type of action they need to take to protect the country and protect their regions.

So far, reaction has been good. Conversations that led up to it were very productive. And the President is pleased that Governor Ridge has taken this action today.

Q: Do you think the United States will ever go to a level of green for alert, or is this new era -- is there always going to be some heightened state of alert?

MR. FLEISCHER: -- from the President's point of view, it will be quite a while until the United States can get down to the lowest level. This is going to be an issue that the United States is going to wrestle with for quite some time, so long as there are terrorists who still have a desire to strike us. And time, technology, terror are not on our side. And it's important to be vigilant at home, to harden our assets at home, which is part of the ongoing reaction of September 11th.

You see it in the aviation community, you see it in infrastructure around the country of areas that may be vulnerable. But they're all beefing up, and you see it in what the President said yesterday, when he talked about we need to make certain a sanctuary is denied, because the best way to protect the homeland is not only to harden assets at home, it's to stop enemies from attacking us in the first place.

Q: John, can I switch to today's topic? The printed record of service -- I've seen you produce some actual spiral notebook journals -- how many of those were produced and at whose cost? How much cost? And how are they distributed?

MR. BRIDGELAND: First of all, Americans can download this journal off the web site in a PDF file. We have printed up 400 for this event, and through the Corporation for National and Community Service -- and a couple of other things to highlight -- the University of Maryland just released research showing that the predominate reason that young people volunteer is that they were asked to do so by someone. So we know that the call to service, in and of itself, is vitally important.

This will help -- it's not a federal mandate, it's a profound individual commitment that Americans make -- but this will help concertize that two-year commitment. And today he will highlight a variety of examples, whether it be military, AmeriCorps, student volunteers, people working in emergency response, that exemplify how Americans can meet this goal.

And I also encourage you to take a look at this book. It has a lot of inspiring quotes and information about how Americans can serve, and what some of the unmet needs are in the country today.

Q: -- were only produced for the event, they're not actually going to be available for volunteers?

MR. BRIDGELAND: Yes, they can call the 1-800 number, and will be available to volunteers. There's a small cost associated with them currently, but we're going to work over time to see if we can't make them free. It's just deferring the cost of production. I think it's $5. But people can download them off the web site for free right now -- USAfreedomcorps.gov.

Q: How much have you been able to move forward, given that you've gotten no money from Congress?

MR. BRIDGELAND: Well, actually, quite aggressively. We have 20,000 citizens from all 50 states and territories who have volunteered for Citizen Corps. We announced with General Ashcroft last week the intention to double the capacity of neighborhood watch, and had a simultaneous broadcast with the National Sheriffs Association and 300 communities around the country to help make that happen. So Americans are volunteering right now as part of neighborhood watch.

We're developing the Medical Reserve Corps, working with the Department of Health and Human Services. We're working with DOJ; we're working on the development of Operation Tips. Ari mentioned the importance of vigilance, and the threat advisory that will be issued today -- we're going to be having transportation workers, truckers, letter carriers, ship captains all working together through this network, where they can report suspicious activity that they see through a 1-800 hotline.

And also we have -- we're working to triple the capacity of community emergency response teams, and are working very aggressively to do that now.

Q: All that is able to go forward without any money from Congress?

MR. BRIDGELAND: Well, actually, it's interesting. The Citizen Corps councils -- a lot of this is an organizational challenge as much as it is a monetary challenge. We are requesting $230 million in Fiscal '03 for all these Citizen Corps initiatives. And we're working very hard with the Hill now to secure that funding.

Q: How many of those 20,000 citizens from all 50 states that have volunteered, how many of them have actually been matched with a volunteer opportunity and are on the job?

MR. BRIDGELAND: We actually are providing them information about, for example, neighborhood watch, is it up and running in your community, getting that information to them. And if it's not, encouraging them to work with local law enforcement to start one. Others have volunteered for the Medical Reserve Corps. We're working with the various medical associations so that we can get them appropriate training and deploy them in communities as communities get organized.

This is both important to have the leadership from the top down, but also to get the grass roots. We're working with mayors around the country. I've spoken to the National Governors Association, lieutenant governors, all the mayors, county commissioners. We're working very hard to get them organized at the grass roots, so that these Citizen Corps councils are in place and the programs that flow through them are able to provide opportunities to volunteers.

Q: So those 20,000 --

MR. BRIDGELAND: Citizen Corps alone. We've also seen 18,000 new applications since the State of the Union alone for the Peace Corps. And we also have had a 50-percent increase in applications from AmeriCorps, and a 525-percent increase, which is very dramatic, in Senior Corps programs.

Q: But when you say that a web site has been visited 6.5 million times since the State of the Union address -- but you've only got, out of all those people, 20,000 volunteers who are actually on the job now, matched with --

MR. BRIDGELAND: That's a lot. And we've only been in business 36 days, I believe it is, and we've got 20,000 Citizen Corps volunteers in that period of time; 18,000 new Peace Corps applications. The other thing that is significant here, we're getting all sorts of pledges from non-federal, non-profit organizations, corporations, non-profits, foundations, service organizations, wanting -- showing how they can meet the President's two-year call. Whether it's 4-H or CityYear -- I'm sorry, go ahead.

Q: And the difference is that those 6.5 million were expressions of interest or just checking out the site, but 20,000 are actually already on the job, doing work --

MR. BRIDGELAND: Yes, 20,000 have expressed interest in being on the job. Many of them are getting plugged into the communities and going on the job. But again, it's been 36 days. But again, don't forget the 18,000 additional Peace Corps, the 50-percent increase in AmeriCorps, and the 525-percent increase in Senior Corps programs. And those are just the federal service opportunities.

Q: How many of those 18,000 Peace Corps applications can expect to get slots, or are those new extra slots not created yet?

MR. BRIDGELAND: Good question. Currently, there are 7,000 positions. We've requested $42 million for fiscal year '02, which takes it to about 8,200 positions. The President wants to go all the way up to above 14,000 within five years. And because this is a rolling process, annually you fill these slots. And also, there's some attrition with respect to some people who apply may be -- you have to go through the medical and the different application process -- not everyone will be part of the Peace Corps program. But the whole goal here is to have the supply of slots meet this tremendous demand we're seeing from the public to serve abroad.

MR. FLEISCHER: We're going to have to wrap in just a minute. Thanks, everybody.

8:51 A.M. EST

(end White House transcript)

(end transcript)

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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