*EPF501 07/19/2002
Transcript: White House Daily Briefing, July 19
(Afghanistan, DOD appropriationsl, Army Secretary White, Middle East, trade promotion authority, homeland security/Congress, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka) (2360)

White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer briefed reporters on Air Force One July 19 as they accompanied President Bush on a day trip to Fort Drum, New York.

Following is the White House transcript:

(begin transcript)

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Fort Drum, New York)
July 19, 2002

PRESS GAGGLE BY ARI FLEISCHER

Aboard Air Force One
En Route Fort Drum, New York

10:47 A.M. EDT

MR. FLEISCHER: The POTUS of the U.S. this morning had his usual intelligence briefing, followed by a meeting of the National Security Council. He taped his radio address. The radio address will focus on corporate governance, economic growth and restraining spending -- overarching message goes back to the State of the Union, which is economic security.

You'll be interested in tonight's -- released later -- the President will have some strong words to say about the timing of the corporate governance bill.

The President will then arrive at Ft. Drum, and let me go through the order of what he'll do while he's there. The President will have a demonstration at Ft. Drum, of four static displays, showcasing soldiers and equipment used by the 10th Mountain Division on recent overseas deployments, which includes the deployment to Afghanistan.

He will view a troop deployment via CH47 helicopter, and he will view a helicopter artillery gun raid. The press pool will be able to cover all of those. Following that, the President will participate in a video teleconference to Major General F.L. Buster Hagenbeck, and to the troops who are in Afghanistan. That will be a live video teleconference. One of the interesting things about the place where the President will be engaging in that teleconference is the Ft. Drum Army Community Services Building, Family Readiness Center. It is a modern support facility for spouses and families of deployed soldiers. In addition to providing free child care service, the Center is equipped with a state of the art video teleconferencing system that allows families to talk in privacy with their deployed loved ones abroad.

QUESTION: Before you go on, can you tell us where the soldiers are in Afghanistan? And are they 10th Mountain Division?

MR. FLEISCHER: All I have is forward deployed in Afghanistan. If we have a location we can give out, I'll give it out.

Q: The spelling of the Major General's name?

MR. FLEISCHER: The spelling of the Major General's name is Buster, B-u-s-t-e-r, Hagenbeck, H-a-g-e-n-b-e-c-k, Commanding General, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry).

And then in the President's remarks to the troops, the President will express the gratitude of the nation for their military service. He'll call on Congress to take action first on the Defense -- of the Defense appropriations bill. The House has already passed the DOD appropriation bill. It's an open question about whether the Senate will listen to the President and send Defense first, or whether they will try to hold it until some point later this fall.

The President hopes the Senate will do as the House did, and put the nation's defense first.

And that's the highlights of the President's day. Then he'll return to Camp David. Remind me, I'll take a couple questions, then remind me I want to give you a week ahead. And I also want to give you a little preview, just for your planning purposes, about summer in Crawford, or August in Crawford.

Q: Does the President still strongly support Army Secretary White?

MR. FLEISCHER: Yes, he does. The President supports Army Secretary White.

Q: What do you make of the reports today that Mr. Magaw was asked to leave, not asked to resign for health reasons -- that he was forced out because Mineta wanted him out?

MR. FLEISCHER: Exactly as I indicated, from the President's point of view yesterday. Just what I said yesterday. And you have the letter that Mr. Magaw sent to the President. And yesterday, on behalf of the President, the President wants to express his gratitude to a distinguished public servant who has had a very strong career in law enforcement, in helping the American people, and he made great improvements and strides in basically giving birth to a new agency.

Q: Is White on this trip? Is Secretary White on this trip?

MR. FLEISCHER: I don't know. I don't think so, Ron. I'm not sure I remember Secretaries of the military traveling with the President to previous bases.

Q: Yes, I have no reason to believe he would be. I was just curious if he was. Any new developments out of the meeting last night in the Middle East?

MR. FLEISCHER: No. You know, the foreign ministers I thought expressed it eloquently when they met the press yesterday. It was a very good meeting, a very positive meeting. And the President emphasized the responsibility of all parties in the region to live up to their commitments -- the Arab nations, the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Q: Any progress on the trade promotion authority following that meeting? Is that going anywhere?

MR. FLEISCHER: We'll see. It was an interesting meeting. It was also -- I'll put this on the record. It was the most beeper-violated meeting I have ever seen in the White House.

Q: Members of Congress?

Q: The what?

MR. FLEISCHER: The most beeper-violated meeting I have ever seen. It was almost like standing at the maitre d' stand at a restaurant waiting for your table.

Q: Who were the offenders? I mean, were they members of Congress?

Q: Yes, come one --

MR. FLEISCHER: How can you tell one beeper from the next? Who knows? Beepers, cell phones, you name it, if it was electronic, it went off.

Q: Apparently he should spend more time with us and less time with them. (Laughter.)

MR. FLEISCHER: It's true, the press corps is much better behaved.

Q: Did the President get angry or irritated or was he peaked by all these distractions?

Q: It's Dickens treatment is what we're talking about.

Q: Did he shoot any death rays?

MR. DICKENS: I'm not that -- Johndroe.

Q: It was the Johndroe treatment, you're right. (Laughter.)

MR. FLEISCHER: I think it had gotten to the point that it was so frequent it became humorous.

Q: Are you telling us we can leave our pagers and cell phones on today?

MR. FLEISCHER: The President is proud to hold up the press corps as his example of good behavior. Ever since Johndroe left, things have gotten better on the beeper front. (Laughter),.

Q: The supplemental, Ari, is that deal now done?

MR. FLEISCHER: We remain encouraged by what we've seen in the supplemental. I have to give the caveat we have not received anything in writing yet and so it's important, as always, to read the specific statutory language. So with that caveat. But the President is encouraged.

He asked Congress to hold the line on spending and Congress appears to have held the line on spending. Certainly the Senate wanted to spend much more money and in the figure they passed is in line with the House spending figure. It contains a contingency, as the President asked for. And the President is worried about deficits and the President wants to make certain that Congress holds the line. So this is a -- in many ways the President got what he asked for, but we have to read the language before -- can go further than that.

On your question about TPA. TPA is crucial and TPA remains to be seen if they can do it or not do it. There are many people who want to work hard to get it done. It's always a controversial issue and it remains to be seen whether Congress can get it done. The President views it as crucial legislation, not only for America's economy, but for our international relations. The Andean nations are looking to America hoping that ATPA gets passed. The world is looking to America hoping that TPA gets passed. It's now up to Congress, and the President hopes that Congress will fulfill this important part of economic security for our country.

Q: Can you give us the week ahead and Crawford-ahead?

Q: Can I ask about homeland security first? If, you know, what you think about the bill that came out of the House? Are you confident that the Senate will give you what you need on homeland security?

MR. FLEISCHER: Well, nothing has come out of the House yet. The Select Committee has a mark-up that began this morning, and so we'll evaluate what happens as they mark-up. But the President believes that the outcome will be very close to what he asked for, and that's because he knows that at the end of the day, Congress, like he, is focused on putting the nation first and protecting the American people from risks of terrorism. So we'll closely monitor passage of the legislation at each of its stages. And the President has been working closely with the leaders, and is encouraged by what he's heard so far.

Q: Ari, I see Senator Clinton is here on the plane. Are there any other members of the New York delegation?

MR. FLEISCHER: There are many members of the delegation.

Q: Schumer by any chance?

MR. FLEISCHER: Senator Clinton, Congressman Sweeney, Congressman Boehlert, Congressman Walsh, Congressman Reynolds. And I know Governor Pataki will be there on the ground.

All right. The week ahead, and then I'll give you a little Crawford. This afternoon the President will depart for Camp David where he will spend the remainder of the weekend. Monday morning, the President will travel to Argonne, Illinois, where he'll make remarks on homeland security. Tuesday afternoon, the President will make remarks at the launch of the Adoption PSA Campaign and also at adoption website, promotion of the campaign, in the East Room.

On Wednesday, the President will meet with the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka in the Oval Office. On Thursday, the President will travel to Greensboro, North Carolina, where he will make remarks on his health care agenda. Thursday afternoon, the President will attend a Dole For Senate dinner, before returning to Washington, D.C. Friday, the President will make remarks and sign a proclamation to commemorate the 12th anniversary of the Americans for Disability Act. ADA, Americans With Disabilities Act.

Q: What was Wednesday, Ari?

Q: Sri Lanka. Sorry.

MR. FLEISCHER: Wednesday is Sri Lanka. And remains Sri Lanka.

Q: Can you just give us, like, a line or two about the Monday stuff, the Argonne National Laboratories?

MR. FLEISCHER: The President will visit a national laboratory that's involved in the protection of the country. And he will talk about the need for Congress to complete its action on a strong homeland security bill that puts the needs of the country first.

Crawford, for planning purposes, just to fill you in --

Q: This means we can't use it, we can't publicize it?

MR. FLEISCHER: Okay, this is on the record, useable information. And also for -- the reason I'm doing this -- you can use this, but the reason I'm doing it is I want you to just have a -- be able to talk to your families and make some plans.

You can anticipate the President heading down to Crawford most likely August 6th, so toward the middle of the second week of August. He'll have his annual physical, head down to Crawford. And then Crawford is going to be much like the White House, interestingly. When we look at the schedule -- when you look at the schedule, you'll see that as he's been doing regularly, where he's now traveling about two days a week, the same pattern will hold in Crawford. So you can anticipate a lot of travel throughout the period.

And it'll be pretty consistent. You'll have about two to three, sometimes three days a week of travel. So Crawford being base, like the White House is the base, the President will travel two and sometimes three days a week. There will be a couple overnight swings. So each week in Crawford will be like that.

He'll come back right around Labor Day, the exact date is not yet clear. So when you make your plans to go down to Crawford, we'll try a little closer to it to let you know when the specific travel times will be. But there will be a lot of -- a lot of movement, a lot of travel.

Q: Is the President promising cool weather? (Laughter.)

MR. FLEISCHER: The President is looking forward to seeing who can become a member of the 100 degree club.

Q: Is it going to have a theme like last time, it was Home to the Heartland?

Q: Hot in the Heartland.

MR. FLEISCHER: If there is, we'll let you know.

Q: You're not willing to make one up on the spot, right here? (Laughter.)

MR. FLEISCHER: The theme will be the Yankees are in first place and the Rangers are not trip to the heartland. (Laughter.)

Q: Ouch.

MR. DICKENS: Former Press Secretary Ari Fleischer -- (laughter.)

MR. FLEISCHER: I can't believe McClellan said that. (Laughter.)

Q: Is it safe to say one of the themes will be let's raise some money for candidates and gear up for the fall campaign?

MR. FLEISCHER: Yes, I would not be surprised if there will be some fundraiser travel.

Q: In terms of the policy stuff, I think I was seeing something earlier in the week about focusing on the economy and --

MR. FLEISCHER: The trips and then several other things will -- there will be policy, obviously there will be policy focus and policy trips, following up on the three themes he laid out early in the year on international security, homeland security, economic security.

All right.

Q: Thank you, sir.

END 11:01 A.M. EDT

(end White House transcript)

(end transcript)

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