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Skriven 2006-03-15 23:33:28 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (060315) for Wed, 2006 Mar 15
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Press Briefing by Scott McClellan
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 15, 2006

Press Briefing by Scott McClellan
James S. Brady Briefing Room


  þ President's schedule
  þ Medicare/prescription drug benefits
  þ White House staffing
  þ Port security
      þ Reference B
  þ Voting in Louisiana
  þ Language on secual discrimination in rules
  þ Middle East road map
  þ Immigration

12:44 P.M. EST

MR. MCCLELLAN: Good afternoon, everyone. The President had a good
discussion earlier today with the bicameral Republican leadership in
Congress. They talked about a number of important priorities that we're
continuing to focus on. They discussed the war on terrorism and the
importance of continuing to move forward on our plan for victory in Iraq.
They discussed the implementation of the Medicare prescription drug benefit
and other changes that we put in place for America's seniors, and the
importance of continuing to educate America's seniors about the important
benefits that are available and the substantial savings that they can
realize under the Medicare program on their prescription drug costs. As you
heard the President say, a typical senior is realizing 50 percent or more
savings on their prescription drug costs under this program.

They also touched on some other important issues, like energy and
continuing to move forward on reducing our dependence on foreign sources of
energy, and addressing the root causes of high energy prices. We took an
important step last year with the passage of the comprehensive energy plan
and the President has put forward a number of other initiatives to
encourage the use of new technology to expand alternative and renewable
sources of energy.

And then they talked about -- they touched on the budget, as well, and the
importance of moving forward on a responsible budget that funds our
priorities and exercises spending restraint elsewhere, so that we can rein
in spending elsewhere in the budget.

One update to the President's schedule; I mentioned earlier today that the
President was going to be meeting with a bipartisan group of senators on
his competitiveness initiative. That meeting has been postponed because of
budget votes that are going on in the Senate today. So we'll update you
when that meeting is rescheduled.

And with that, I'm glad to go to your questions. Go ahead, Caren.

Q There is a push in Congress to extend the deadline for enrolling for
Medicare. Where does the White House stand on that?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think people understand the importance of having
that deadline in place, to encourage as many seniors as possible to enroll
in the Medicare program, if they so choose. The changes we have put in
place have improved and modernized Medicare. Seniors now have access to
more choices and better benefits. The results are speaking very loudly; the
results are showing that costs are coming down substantially for seniors,
even from where they were projected to be reduced to. And now the typical
senior, as I mentioned, is realizing savings of 50 percent or even more on
their prescription drug cost, so they're saving half of what they --
they're paying half of what they did previously. And seniors' monthly
premiums, on average, are now projected to be $25 per month, versus $37 per
month, for the prescription drug benefit.

The taxpayers are also realizing savings, because of the competition that
we have put in place. The projection for 2006 is now -- it will be 20
percent less than it was previously projected to be for America's
taxpayers. And so we believe it's important that the program as it was put
in place, that we continue to move forward on that and make it successful
for America's seniors. For the vast majority of seniors it is working very
well. And the reason you have a deadline in there is to help encourage
people to sign up during that enrollment period. And so we're moving
forward in that direction.

Q Scott, at the risk of making you even more tired, I'm wondering --

MR. McCLELLAN: I'm not tired, Jim. You might be --

Q Well, after this question you may be. The calls from the current
senators, and even former senators, from what we understand, to change the
staffing, expand it, if not swap out, is there anything to it? Are any
staff changes at the White House imminent?

MR. McCLELLAN: Jim, let me speak very clearly to this. This is part of the
inside Washington babble that goes on in this town. It's part of the parlor
game. We are focused on the priorities that the American people care most
about and getting things done. We are focused on helping the President
advance his agenda, to make America safer and more prosperous. There are a
lot of important priorities we're working to advance, and we're working to
advance, and we're working to build upon a record of great accomplishment.
And that's where our focus is.

You know, in this room, that I never speculate about personnel matters, but
there has been a good bit of change in this administration over the course
of the last few years. But this President greatly appreciates the team that
he has in place and all that the team is doing to help him advance his
agenda. And I think the American people want us to keep our focus on their
priorities, and that's what we're going to do. If Washington wants to play
the parlor game, they can do that.

Q So I can take that as a no?

MR. McCLELLAN: I'm sorry?

Q I'll take that as a no, there are no staffing changes imminent?

MR. McCLELLAN: Jim, I just told you that I never publicly speculate about
personnel matters. People in this room who have covered this White House
know that very well.

Q That means there could be staff changes imminent, and we wouldn't know
about it.

MR. McCLELLAN: No, that means you're jumping into speculation.

Q No --

Q Could we talk about the President's meeting with the Republican --

MR. McCLELLAN: One CBS reporter at a time.

Q -- the meeting with the Republican lawmakers today --

MR. McCLELLAN: Has CBS got any more changes to announce? (Laughter.)

Q That doesn't mean that they aren't in the works.

MR. McCLELLAN: Not yet. Okay. (Laughter.) Nothing imminent, though? Okay,
fair enough.

Q In the meeting with Republican lawmakers, did any of them raise the type
of concerns that Senator Coleman raised yesterday?

MR. McCLELLAN: No. It was focused on the priorities that I outlined at the
beginning. And there is --

Q Did it come up?

MR. McCLELLAN: -- there is a very unified effort to continue moving forward
on important priorities, like winning in Iraq and implementing the Medicare
prescription drug benefit and making sure it's successful, and continuing
to move forward on a budget that builds upon the progress we've made to
fund priorities and rein in wasteful spending.

Q So some of these lawmakers would talk about these things like to
reporters or among others, but they don't to the President?

MR. McCLELLAN: I'm sorry, Terry. Let me back up and speak again. The
meeting -- you asked specifically about this meeting.

Q Yes, did anybody say anything to the President?

MR. McCLELLAN: And I said, no. No, of course, not.

Q Okay.

MR. McCLELLAN: But in terms of advice, we seek advice from a lot of people,
from a diverse group of people. We also get advice from a variety of
people.

Q How do you respond to the perception then -- there is kind of a
combination of things going on; recent polls have shown the President's
approval below 40 percent in a number of surveys. There are friends of the
White House who say that there might be a need for some new blood or some
additions, not necessarily removing people who are serving here now.

MR. McCLELLAN: That doesn't taken into account the fact that there has been
a good bit of change over the course of the last few years. Go and look at
the -- look at the Cabinet, look at the administration, look at the staff
here at the White House.

Q There is a perception that the President keeps a very tight circle and
that circle has --

MR. McCLELLAN: I think there's a perception out there on the part of the
American people that Washington tends to get caught up in a lot of this
parlor game and they tend to get caught up in all this babble,
process-oriented stuff. I think the American people want us to stay focused
on their priorities.

Just last week we renewed the Patriot Act, an important and vital tool in
our efforts to save lives and prevent attacks from happening. And we are
moving forward on efforts to pass a line-item veto act, which will give the
President the ability to line-item out wasteful spending or earmarks, as
they're called. We're moving forward on the initiatives that the President
outlined in his State of the Union, like the American Competitiveness
Initiative, to keep our economy the most innovative and competitive in the
world. We're moving forward on an advanced energy initiative that will
encourage the use of new technologies to diversify ourselves away from
dependence on oil. We are moving forward on health care initiatives like
the Medicare Modernization Act. This is one of the most dramatic
improvements in health care in some time, and our seniors are seeing
substantial benefits -- those that have already signed up. And we're
encouraging more to get enrolled because this will provide them with the
kind of health care that best fits their individual needs, and they'll
realize substantial savings on their prescription drugs.

We're moving forward on a budget to build upon what we have accomplished
over the last few years, to rein in spending, non-security spending, and to
address the rapid growth in entitlement programs.

Q Then why do you think even friends of the White House suggest that maybe
there's time for some changes --

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, we keep talking about friends or lawmakers, but I
don't hear a lot of names being mentioned.

Q Norm Coleman.

MR. McCLELLAN: There's one.

Q So --

MR. McCLELLAN: That's not a lot.

Go ahead.

Q Without giving you a huge list of those lawmakers who have been quoted in
the public press in the last several months suggesting that there's been
communication problems and perhaps the White House could use a little bit
of staffing help, are you accusing lawmakers on Capitol Hill of "babble"
and "parlor games" when they're voicing these concerns? Or are they --

MR. McCLELLAN: I can tell you we just came out of a meeting with a number
of lawmakers from both the Senate and the House, and the whole focus of
that meeting was on how we continue to move forward and implement our
shared agenda and our shared priorities for the American people.

Q Now, if we wanted to go over a list of those folks -- you mentioned
changes. Perhaps wrongly, perhaps rightly, a lot of the changes appeared to
many to have been departures from the White House in the past few months.
Can you comment at all about whether or not you're experiencing any staff
shortages?

MR. McCLELLAN: Carl, I never get into speculating about personnel matters.
I've never done that, and I'm not going to start doing that. If there are
vacancies to fill, then we move forward quickly to fill those vacancies.

Q Scott, as evidenced by some of the fallout from the ports deal, there are
some members of Congress, though, who are looking at the way the White
House has treated them and wishing things had been different. And you,
yourself, have said that, in fact, things could have been handled
differently. What is --

MR. McCLELLAN: That's a different issue. So let's make that point. That's a
separate issue from what we're talking about here.

Q But if some of these people that -- I know this is part of the parlor
game, but some of those discussions are about bringing in people who can
better deal with Congress, isn't that sort of connected then?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, let me point out a couple of things. The President has
surrounded himself with a very capable and experienced team that is fully
committed to helping him advance his agenda and get things done. This is a
team that focuses on advancing his agenda and achieving results for the
American people. We also learn from our experience. But it's a very
experienced team and it's important to always learn from experience, and we
do that, and we have done that over the course of our time in office.

Q So is there a sort of --

MR. McCLELLAN: But in terms of the ports issue, and let's talk about each
-- if you want to talk about each issue individually, I'm glad to do that,
because what we're doing is working with Congress to improve and update the
process when it comes to the Committee on Foreign Investment. The number
one priority and sole responsibility of that committee is to look at
national security issues and any impact foreign investments might have on
our nation's security.

And yesterday, our Secretary of Treasury outlined some very clear
principles for moving forward with Congress. We're engaged in ongoing
discussions about how we move forward on those reform efforts. And we're
moving forward to continue to build upon the many steps we've taken to
strengthen port security.

Now, we've taken a number of steps to push out the screening of containers
to where those containers are screened overseas, and where cargo manifests
are coming into us well before that ship reaches our shores. We've put in
place a Container Security Initiative. So there are a number of steps we've
taken. We've provided billions of dollars in resources to improve the
security around our ports.

Q So you're saying it's a matter of process with the ports deal, not
necessarily the White House's approach?

MR. McCLELLAN: I'm sorry?

Q So you're saying it's really a question of the process that was the
problem with the ports deal and the fallout that resulted, not necessarily
the White House's approach --

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think we've been through that issue, and talked
about the issues. Now, that was a congressionally mandated process that was
put in place. So what we're talking about doing is looking at ways that we
can update it in a post-September 11th world, because this was put in place
years ago. And we were following that congressionally mandated process, and
all the relevant agencies that are involved in national security and law
enforcement and homeland security are involved in that process.

Q There's nothing the White House could have done differently that would
have necessarily mitigated some --

MR. McCLELLAN: That's not what we said. In fact, we said very up front that
Congress should have been notified earlier in the process about this
particular transaction. That became clear to everyone. And so that's one of
the areas that we want to look at when we're talking about improving and
updating the process.

Q Scott, black federal lawmakers, along with black civil rights leaders,
are concerned that there is no plan to protect the right to vote in
Louisiana as it relates to the April 22nd elections there. They're saying
that as the President is talking about renewing voting rights, this is a
test case for voting rights because many of the displaced Katrina victims
from New Orleans will not have satellite polling stations outside of
Louisiana, and they have to contact the state to gain absentee ballots at
they are in transit themselves, not knowing where to live. Could you
respond to that?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, the President is strongly committed to protecting and
supporting the Voting Rights Act. He supports the Voting Rights Act very
strongly and wants to see it reauthorized. He has made it very clear that
he is committed to protecting people's voting rights. And in terms of this
particular issue, this is a matter that falls under the statute that
Congress passed, and under that statute, Congress designated the Department
of Justice to review these matters.

Now, my understanding is that the state of Louisiana submitted some
elections changes to the Department of Justice, and it's under review. The
Department of Justice, I think yesterday, spoke to the issue and said that
they're receiving good cooperation from the Secretary of State in
Louisiana.

Q So what do you say to the black federal lawmakers and Jesse Jackson and
Bruce Gordon, who are asking the President to basically usurp DOJ and just
delay these elections because --

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, some of the individuals you bring up are people the
President has talked about with the Voting Rights Act and expressed his
strong commitment to reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act and his strong
support for protecting and enforcing the act.

Q Scott, the administration has removed some language from the rules
allowing gays and lesbians to get national security clearances. The
language is that sexual orientation may not be used as a basis for, or a
disqualifying factor in determining a person's eligibility for a security
clearance. Why did they remove that language?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, the language that you're referring to is based on an
executive order that was put in place by the previous administration. And
that executive order is aimed at preventing discrimination based on sexual
orientation, and it has some very specific language in that executive
order. There's no change in our policy. The language that you're referring
to reflects what is in that executive order.

Q So why take it out if there's no change in policy?

MR. McCLELLAN: I don't think they took out language. I think that they
updated the language to reflect exactly what was spelled out in the
executive order. There's no change in the policy.

Q But they took this language out. This is gone. It doesn't say that
anymore.

MR. McCLELLAN: I don't know what language you're specifically referring to,
because I think the language is very similar to what it says in the
executive order and the policy remains the same.

Q The Dubai Ports World deal -- have you seen the announcement that the
company made today? Is this issue now over and done with?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I did see the announcement. I think that company, last
week, provided a way forward and really put this matter to rest. Now it's
important for the company to continue moving forward on what they committed
to doing, and we appreciate the step that they took. Like I said, our focus
now is on continuing to work with Congress to look at ways to reform the
process when it comes to reviewing these investments in the United States.

Q As you know, there were still some lawmakers who were expressing doubts.
Are those doubts now --

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think most lawmakers have -- many congressional
leaders have spoken out and said that this issue is now behind us. The
company has made a decision. We respect the decision that the company came
to. We think that it reflects the United Arab Emirates' strong commitment
to continuing a good relationship with the United States. And we want to
continue to build upon that relationship.

Go ahead, Sarah.

Q Thank you, I have two questions if I can --

MR. McCLELLAN: You can have two.

Q Okay. Does the Israeli raid on Palestinian prisons this week end all
immediate hope for peace between the Israel and the Palestinians? And what
can the President do to get the road map back on --

MR. McCLELLAN: I'm sorry -- you mentioned -- repeat the first part of your
question. I didn't catch it.

Q Does the Israeli raid on the Palestinian prison this week end all
immediate hope for peace between Israel and the Palestinians? What can the
President do to get the road map back on track?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, we are continuing to stay in contact with the parties
in the region. We continue to urge calm and restraint. That's what we'll
continue to do in the aftermath of yesterday. I think we expressed our
views yesterday about that particular situation and the repeated concerns
that we had expressed that the United States and the United Kingdom had
expressed to the Palestinian Authority about the safety and security of our
monitors there. So that issue was addressed yesterday. But the President is
strongly committed to the two-state vision that he outlined, of Palestine
and Israel living side-by-side in peace and security. And we want to
continue working with all those who are partners in peace to get there.

Now, Hamas has a decision that they need to make. They have a choice that
they face. They have an opportunity to try to be a partner in peace. And to
do that they have to answer the call of the Quartet, and the Quartet
spelled out what they need to do. They need to renounce violence and
terrorism, they need to recognize Israel's right to exist, and they need to
disarm. And it spelled out some other things that -- other steps that Hamas
needs to take. The President is looking for partners in peace that want to
work toward the two-state vision.

Q I have one more, please. Indications are that the recommendations of the
task force on Puerto Rico are going nowhere in the Congress this year.
There seems to be no strong support there for the two plebiscites to
determine Puerto Rico's status. Does the President plan to personally lobby
the Congress to conduct --

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think we spelled out our view in terms of wanting
the people of Puerto Rico to be the ones to decide their future. And we'll
continue to work with Congress on these issues.

Q Scott, on priorities -- he spoke about immigration with this group of
lawmakers? And what did the President --

MR. McCLELLAN: Today?

Q Yes.

MR. McCLELLAN: Yes, it did come up. They did talk about -- I think Senator
Frist was talking about some of the legislative time line in terms of
pushing forward on important priorities. And the President remains firmly
committed to comprehensive immigration reform. We've had a number of
discussions with congressional leaders. We believe that in order to fix
what is a broken system, you need to address all aspects. That means
continuing to build upon the steps we've taken to strengthen our borders.
It means improving our interior enforcement, and it means moving forward on
meeting an important economic and humanitarian need through a temporary
worker program.

Q And on the temporary worker program, what the President thinks of the new
idea of Senator Specter that instead of --

MR. McCLELLAN: I think there are a lot of ideas being expressed, and we
want to continue to work with all leaders at the Capitol who are committed
to moving forward on immigration reform. This is an important priority. We
have a broken system; it needs to be fixed and it needs to be addressed in
a comprehensive way. We have taken a number of steps when it comes to
beefing up the number of Border Patrol agents to using -- or deploying new
technologies along the border to prevent people from coming into this
country illegally, particularly those who are coming here for the wrong
reason. And we need to continue to move forward on those efforts. We need
to continue to move forward on a comprehensive approach that will address
all these issues.

Q But the President will be flexible to adopt other ideas to his temporary
work program, like ideas --

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, what we outlined were some very clear principles that
we believe ought to be part of a temporary worker program. And so I think
the President has spelled out what his views are and now we're in the
process of working with Congress to try to advance this important priority
for the American people.

Q Thank you.

MR. McCLELLAN: Thank you.

END 1:05 P.M. EST

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