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Skriven 2006-03-08 23:33:06 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0603081) for Wed, 2006 Mar 8
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President and Mrs. Bush Discuss Gulf Coast Rebuilding in New Orleans
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 8, 2006

President and Mrs. Bush Discuss Gulf Coast Rebuilding in New Orleans
Industrial Levee Canal
New Orleans, Louisiana


˙˙˙˙˙In Focus: Hurricane Recovery

10:33 A.M. CST

THE PRESIDENT: I want to thank you all for coming. I want to thank Colonel
Setliff for the tour that he just gave the Governor and the Mayor and
myself, along with Laura and part of our party. I want to thank Colonel
Wagenaar for the aerial tour. We just flew over affected parts of Orleans
Parish and Jefferson Parish and St. Bernard Parish, and getting a view of
the progress that is being made.

I particularly want to thank my friend, Don Powell, for his hard work in
coordinating federal efforts with the Governor and the Mayor. Governor
Blanco and Mayor Nagin have been by my side when I've come down here, and I
really appreciate them being a part of the recovery efforts. I want to
thank Walter Isaacson and David Voelker, the members of the Louisiana
Recovery Authority. They were on Air Force One today to make sure I fully
understood -- understand the strategies that the local folks are putting in
place to help the good people of this part of the world recover from the
devastating storm.

You know, we just came from a neighborhood where people are fixing to --
are in the process of cleaning up debris. We went there because the Mayor
and the Governor thought it was important for me to see firsthand the
devastation of the storm in certain neighborhoods and the progress that is
being made for cleaning up the debris. There's still a lot of work to be
done, no question about it. And obviously, as the plan gets laid out and as
the housing plan I'm fixing to discuss comes to fruition, people will feel
more comfortable in granting the local authorities the right to remove
debris from their homes to be cleaned up.

But I want to share a story about a fellow, Romalice Harris (phonetic), I
met. He was there -- was part of the construction crew. I asked him, I
said, where were you during the storm? He said he felt like he could ride
it out. He heard the evacuation orders, but thought it would be all right
to ride out the storm. He lived on the third floor of an apartment complex.
And he described to me and the Governor and the Mayor what it was like to
see the water start to rise up to the second floor of the building. He and
his three children and his wife and another relative were finally rescued
by a boat.

I said, what happened to you? He said, "Well, I went to Salt Lake City,
Utah." In other words, his is an example of what happened to the good folks
in this part of the world. He watched the rising waters, and then he just
had to abandon the part of the world he loves.

From there the federal government helped fly him to Chicago, where he had
some relatives -- or a relative. He now has come back to work in the city
he loves, New Orleans, with the hopes of rebuilding his life. His wife and
children are still in Chicago; they're going to school there. But as he
told us, he says he looks forward to bringing them home, bringing them back
to Louisiana, to have his children educated right here. And I'm convinced
he'll succeed. And our job at all levels of government is to provide the
confidence and the help necessary so that people like Romalice Harris come
home.

I appreciate the determination by the folks down here to rebuild. I fully
understand, and I hope your country understands, the pain and agony that
the people of New Orleans and Louisiana and the parishes surrounding New
Orleans went through. But I think people would be impressed by the desire
of the people in this part of the country to pick up and move on and
rebuild. And that's why I'm so pleased that the Governor and the Mayor have
joined me, so we can discuss the importance of implementing a strategy that
will help this part of the world rise again.

The first part of the strategy is to make sure these levees are strong, and
we fully understand that if the people don't have confidence in the levee
system, they're not going to want to come back. People aren't going to want
to spend money or invest. I just got a briefing from the Army Corps of
Engineers that said we're on schedule to repair the damage by the June 1st
deadline. They're identifying and correcting design and construction
deficiencies so, as we go into the start of the hurricane season, the
levees will be equal or better than what they were before Katrina.

The Corps is identifying areas that weren't damaged, but that need
additional attention. Over here you can see one of the -- one of the walls
that are being built. I mean, there's a lot of concrete and a lot of steel
being put in the ground to protect the levee system. By September of next
year, additional improvements will be completed, bringing the entire levee
system up to the full authorized design height, making it better and
stronger than before.

Congress heard our message about improving the levees, but they
short-changed the process by about $1.5 billion. And so, in order to help
fulfill our promise on the levees, Congress needs to restore the $1.5
billion, to make this a real commitment, to inspire the good folks down
here that they'll have a levee system that will encourage development and
reconstruction.

As I mentioned, we went by the Ninth Ward to see the debris removal that
was taking place. The vast majority of debris on public property has been
removed. About 80 percent of the debris not related to demolition has been
cleared. Most of the remaining debris is on private property, in yards or
inside houses that need to be gutted or demolished. To get the debris, the
residents need to give permission, in most cases, to the local authorities.
And so they need to get back to their houses, so they can decide what to
keep and what to remove.

The problem is, obviously, many homeowners are still displaced. And that's
why we're working at all levels of government to encourage evacuees to
inspect their properties and to salvage what they can and to make decisions
about the future.

Of course, the decision-making for the individual homeowners is going to be
made easier when Congress funds the $4.2 billion that I asked them to fund
for the state of Louisiana for housing purposes. Now, this $4.2 billion is
in conjunction with $6.2 billion of CDBG money for housing grants. The $4.2
billion request was done in a coordinated effort with state and local
authorities.

The reason I thought this number made sense is because the number fits into
a well-thought-out plan that has been put together by the local folks. The
housing plan has been coordinated by state authorities with local
authorities, as well as with HUD authorities. In other words, we've all
been working together to figure out how to come up with a housing plan that
will restore the confidence of the people of this important part of our
country. And in order to make sure that housing plan meets its goals,
Congress should make sure that the $4.2 billion I requested goes to the
state of Louisiana.

I'm also confident that this plan is solid right now, it's
well-thought-out, and when it's submitted to HUD, because there's been
close coordination, it should be approved on a timely basis.

And so, again, I want to thank you all for inviting me to come back. I've
always had a soft spot in my heart for Louisiana. Some of you might recall
I grew up across the line, over there in Texas, and really enjoyed my stay
here when I came. I was pleased to see that the Mardi Gras parades went
well, Mr. Mayor. As the Mayor and the Governor described to me, it was as
much of a homecoming as anything else. A lot of folks came back, came home.
And that's what we want. We want people coming home. And the federal
government will do our part, in conjunction with our state and local
partners.

I ask for God's blessings on the people of this part of the world, and
thank the hardworking folks here for working around the clock to get this
part of the country up and running again. Thank you. (Applause.)

Now, Laura is traveling with me. She's got a very important announcement
she'd like to make, as well.

MRS. BUSH: Thanks a lot. I want to talk about schools just briefly, and
particularly about school libraries. In July 2001, I founded a foundation,
the Laura Bush Foundation for America's Libraries. The foundation is a
private organization that provides grants to school libraries to expand
their book collections. Over the last four years, the foundation has
awarded 428 grants totaling more than $2 million in 49 states.

In September of last year, the leadership group -- the leadership council
of the Laura Bush Foundation met for what was going to be our very last
meeting. We had raised the money we wanted to raise for the foundation and
we were going to disperse our leadership council. And instead, everyone
unanimously wanted to continue to work to raise a specific amount of money
for Gulf Coast libraries.

We've established a special fund to help the schools in the Gulf Coast
region. The Gulf Coast School Library Recovery Initiative is the name of
it. The initiative will help Gulf Coast schools that were damaged by the
hurricanes rebuild their book and material collections. And the task is
very large. According to the U.S. Department of Education, 1,121 public and
private schools in the Gulf Coast region were damaged or destroyed.

The basic initial cost of building a book collection for an elementary
school library is $50,000. And the cost for a secondary school library is
at least $100,000. So the Laura Bush Foundation website, which everyone can
go to -- laurabushfoundation.org -- has a simple application that schools
can use to apply for funds. Again, the website is laurabushfoundation.org.

The foundation already uses a competitive grant process to distribute
annual grants, and will use the same process for the Gulf Coast funds. Some
schools should receive awards by late April or early May. Additional grants
will be distributed throughout the year as more schools are rebuilt and
ready to stock their libraries.

The Laura Bush Foundation will continue to provide its annual grants to
schools throughout the United States. And you can find the details about
those grants on the website. But these special grants for the Gulf Coast
rebuilding are for schools that were damaged or destroyed by the hurricanes
and want to rebuild their library collections.

We all know that schools are at the center of every child's life, and the
routine of going to school gives children a sense of comfort that's more
important than ever for boys and girls who've endured trauma. The sooner
children are back in their own school, the happier and healthier they'll
be.

So I want to thank everyone who is working hard to help the Gulf Coast
recover. I urge all the Gulf Coast schools that are rebuilding to go to the
laurabushfoundation.org website and apply for a grant for your school
library.

Thanks everybody. (Applause.)

END 10:46 A.M. CST

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