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Skriven 2005-09-08 23:33:00 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0509081) for Thu, 2005 Sep 8
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President Discusses Hurricane Katrina Emergency Disaster Relief
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
September 8, 2005

President Discusses Hurricane Katrina Emergency Disaster Relief
Room 350
Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building

President's Remarks
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˙˙˙˙˙Fact Sheet: President Bush Announces New Initiatives to Provide Relief
˙˙˙˙˙In Focus: Hurricane Relief

2:25 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: I want to thank the members of my Cabinet who have joined me
today. Today I'm going to take this opportunity to speak directly to our
citizens who have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

Many of you have been evacuated from the flooded and destroyed areas and
now find yourselves far from home -- without proper identification or even
a change of clothes. So today I'm announcing two important steps that we
are taking to provide you the help you need, steps that will cut through
the red tape so that we get that help into your hands as quickly and easily
as possible.

The first step is providing every household with $2,000 in emergency
disaster relief that can be used for immediate needs, such as food or
clothing or personal essentials. For those of you who are living in the
large centers, such as the Houston Astrodome, I know that you don't have
cars or transportation and cannot get yourselves to the centers to collect
these funds. I also know that some of you do not have access to a savings
or checking account, or ways to cash a check. FEMA and Red Cross teams are
either -- are working or soon will be working with your shelters to meet
your challenges and to get assistance into your hands as soon as possible.
By registering for the first $2,000, you will begin the process of
arranging for the delivery of other, longer-term assistance that will be
made available in the coming weeks for eligible households.

For those of you who are staying with family members or in a rented room or
a hotel or apartment, FEMA is also working to get these funds in your
hands. Here are two ways that you can register for this assistance. You can
call 1-800-621-FEMA, that's 1-800-621-FEMA; or if you have the capability
to use the Internet you can log on to www.fema.gov. A FEMA representative
will arrange for your assistance to be delivered by mail or deposited into
your bank account. If you have special needs, the FEMA representative can
help arrange to get the money to you in another way.

Now, we have 3,000 people who are working around the clock to take the
calls. We're in the process of training more, and that number will be
increasing dramatically. More than 400,000 families have already been
registered. We still have tens of thousands more people who need to be
processed, so I ask for your patience if you experience problems in trying
to contact FEMA.

To those of you in our faith-based and community groups who have opened up
your hearts and homes, I want to thank you for your service to our fellow
Americans. If you've not been in contact with a FEMA representative, please
do so to help the people in your shelters. And, again, you can call
1-800-621-FEMA. By calling a FEMA representative, you can assure that the
people you've taken in are registered and able to receive the emergency
assistance funds.

As we work to deliver this emergency relief, we're also working to ensure
that those of you who have received federal benefits administered by the
states of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana will continue to get those
benefits in the states where you're now staying.

So the second step we're taking today is designed to make it easier for you
to register and collect these benefits in any state in the country. We will
start by granting evacuee status for all of you who have lived in counties
that have been declared disaster areas. We know that many of you no longer
have the legal documents or the records to prove your eligibility for the
benefits you've been getting. We understand that. And so with this evacuee
status, you will be able to register for your benefits without many of the
traditional administrative requirements for verification and enrollment.

The special evacuee status applies to the full range of federal benefits
administered by the states. These programs include Medicaid; temporary
assistance for needy families; child care; mental health services and
substance abuse treatment; food stamps; housing; foster care; women,
infants and children nutrition; school lunch; unemployment compensation;
and job training.

The states that have opened up their doors should not be penalized for
coming to the aid of Americans in distress. And so I'm going to work with
the Congress to reimburse the states that are taking in evacuees from the
affected areas along the Gulf Coast.

I want to thank the governors and the leaders of the states that have taken
in so many of our fellow citizens. I want to thank you for your compassion.
And we understand that this is going to strain your budget, so the federal
government, as I just said, will operate under this principle: You should
not be penalized for showing compassion. State enrollment teams are already
set up in many shelters, and many have 1-800 numbers that people can call.
Any evacuee can contact the nearest state or local benefits office to get
the information about enrolling.

And those of you who are staying in a home or church that has access to the
Internet can find out how to receive these benefits by going to
www.govbenefits.gov. These are just some of the many steps we'll be taking
in what will be a long relief effort. We have much more work to do. But the
people who have been hurt by this storm know that -- need to know that the
government is going to be with you for the long haul.

In all the steps we take our goal is not to simply provide benefits, but to
make them easy and simple as possible to collect. The responsibility of
caring for hundreds of thousands of citizens who no longer have homes is
going to place many demands on our nation. We have many difficult days
ahead, especially as we recover those who did not survive the storm. I've
instructed all agencies to honor their memory by treating the dead with the
dignity and respect they deserve.

Throughout our history in times of testing, Americans have come together in
prayer to heal and ask for strength for the tasks ahead. So I've declared
Friday, September the 16th, as a National Day of Prayer and Remembrance. I
ask that we pray -- as Americans have always prayed in times of trial --
with confidence in His purpose, with hope for a brighter future, and with
the humility to ask God to keep us strong so that we can better serve our
brothers and sisters in need.

Thank you.

END 2:33 P.M. EDT

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